__________________________________________________________________ Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891 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 __________________________________________________________________ Jehovah-shammah--a Glorious Name for the New Year (No. 2182) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 4, 1891, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord Is There [or in the Hebrew, 'Jehovah-Shammah.']" Ezekiel 48:35 THESE words may be used as a test as well as a text. They may serve for examination as well as consolation and, at the beginning of a year, they may fulfill this useful double purpose. In any case they are full of marrow and fatness to those whose spiritual taste is purified. It is esteemed by the Prophet to be the highest blessing that could come upon a city that its name should be, "JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH, The Lord Is There." Even Jerusalem, in its best estate, would have this for its crowning blessing--nothing could exceed this. Do we reckon the Presence of the Lord to be the greatest of blessings? If in any gathering, even of the humblest people, the Lord God is known to be present in a peculiarly gracious manner, should we make a point of being there? Very much depends upon our answer to these queries. Doubtless many would be greatly pleased if there were no God at all, for in their hearts they say, "No God." God is not to them a father, a friend, a trust, a treasure. If they were to speak from their hearts and could hope for a satisfactory answer, they would ask, "Where can I flee from His Presence?" If a spot could be found where there would be no God, what a fine building speculation might be made there! Millions would emigrate to "No God's Land," and would feel at ease as soon as they trod its godless shore! There they could do just as they liked, without fear of future reckoning. Now, Friend, if you would escape from the Presence of God, your state is clearly revealed by that fact. There can be no Heaven for you, for Heaven is where the Lord's Presence is fullness of joy. If you could be happy to be far off from God, I must tell you what your fate will be. You are now going away from God in your heart and desire and, at last, the great Judge of All will say to you, "Depart, you cursed"--and you will then be driven from the Presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. I know that there is a company who can truly say that they feel only happy when they are conscious that God is with them. The place where they meet with the Lord is very dear and precious to them because of His unveilings. The memory of holy convocations is sweet because the Lord was among them. They would not care to go where God is not. If there were a place forsaken of God, however happy and full of merriment men might think it, they would not be found among its guests. Where we cannot enjoy God's company, we will not go. Our motto is--"With God, anywhere. Without God, nowhere." In Him we live, and move, and have our being and, therefore, it would be death to us to be apart from God! Without God we should be without hope. Ah, my dear Friend, whatever your difficulties, trials and sorrows, all is well with you if God is your delight and His Presence your joy! But, however high your temporal enjoyments may rise, it is all wrong with you if you can rest away from the God of Grace. The child must be in a sad state of heart when he does not care to have his father's approving smile. Things must be terribly wrong with any creature when it can be content to walk contrary to its Creator. Nothing but the corruption of the heart could permit any man to be at ease away from God. Will you permit these thoughts to saturate you for a little time? I have spoken them with the desire that each one of us may ask himself, "Is the Presence of God my delight?" If so, I am His, and He will be with me. On the contrary, "Is the Presence of God a matter of indifference, or even of dread?" Then my condition is one of guilt, disease and danger. May the Lord, in His infinite mercy, set me right! This much may stand as a preface, but it must not be treated as most prefaces are, namely, left unread, or glanced over and forgotten. I pray you, carry it with you all along. I. Now kindly notice that, according to our text, THE PRESENCE OF GOD IS THE GLORY OF THE MOST GLORIOUS PLACE. The Prophet Ezekiel has been telling us many remarkable things which I shall not attempt to explain to you--and my chief reason for not doing so is the fact that I do not understand them, myself. Even if I could open up every dark saying, now is not the time to go into an explanation of all the sublime mysteries which were seen by the eagle eye of Ezekiel, for I seek present, practical edification--and this we can gain in an easier way. It is clear from the text that when God shall bless His ancient people and restore them to their land--and the Temple shall be rebuilt and all the glory of the latter days shall arrive--this will still be the peculiar glory of it all, that, "the Lord is there." The Prophet works up a climax and closes his Book of prophecy with these glorious words, "the Lord is there." What a glorious state this world was in at the very first, in the age of Paradise, for the Lord was there! Our glorious Creator, having taken the first days of the week to make the world and fit it up for man, did not bring forward His dear child until the house was built and furnished and supplied for his use and happiness! He did not put him in the Garden to dress it till the roses were blooming and the fruits were ripe! When the table was furnished, He introduced the guest by saying, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." The Lord put man, not in an unreclaimed plot of soil where he must hunger till he could produce a harvest--but into an Eden of delights where he was at home with creatures of every sort to attend him! He had not to water dry lands, nor need he thirst, himself, for four rivers flowed through his royal domain, rippling over sands of gold. I might say much of that fair garden of innocence and bliss, but the best thing I could say would be the Lord was there! "The Lord God walked in the Garden in the cool of the day" and communed with man--and man, being innocent, held high converse with his condescending Maker! The top stone of the bliss of Paradise was this all-comprehending privilege--"the Lord is there." Alas, that has vanished. Withered are the bowers of Eden--the trail of the serpent is over all landscapes, however fair. Yet days of mercy came and God's saints, in divers places, found choice spots where they could converse with Heaven. In the first days, our gracious God spoke with His chosen ones in their daily walk, as Enoch; or under the oak, as Abraham; or by the brook, as Jacob; or before the bush, as Moses; or near the city wall, as Joshua. Wherever it might be, the place became to them the gate of Heaven, for the Lord was there! Amid a torrent of sin and sorrow, you may cross the stream of time upon the steppingstones of the places marked, "JEVOHAH-SHAMMAH." The Lord's delights were with the sons of men and to them, nothing brought such bliss as to find that the Lord still would be mindful of man and visit him. In the days when God had called out unto Himself a chosen nation, He revealed Himself at Sinai, when the mountain was altogether on a smoke and even Moses said, "I do exceedingly fear and quake." Well might he feel a holy awe, for the Lord was there! I will not dwell upon the Glory of the tabernacle that was pitched in the wilderness, with its costly furniture and its instructive rites, for, after all, the Glory of the tabernacle was that the Lord was there! A bright light shone between the wings of the cherubim and so the Psalmist, in later days spoke unto the Lord saying, "You that dwells between the cherubim shine forth." Above the sacred tent was the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day--an emblem of the constant Presence of God, for all through the wilderness His glorious marching was in the center of the armies of His Israel. The desert sand glowed with the blaze of the present Deity! No spot on earth was so like to Heaven's high courts as that wilderness the Lord, Himself, led His people like a flock. Holy was Horeb, for the Lord was there! Then were the days of Israel's espousals, for the Most High tabernacled among her tribes and made them "a people near unto Him." In Canaan, itself, the days of sorrow came when the nation went after other gods and the Lord became a stranger in the land. When He returned, and delivered His people by the Judges, then the nations knew that Israel could not be trampled on, for the Lord was there. This was the Glory of David's reign. Then the Lord made bare His arm and the enemies of His chosen were driven like snow from the bleak sides of Salmon when the rough blast carries it away. This was the shout of the joyful people, "The Lord of Hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge!" Never were the hills of Judah more fruitful, nor the vales of Sharon more peaceful, nor the homes of Israel more restful, nor the sons of Zion more valiant than when to the harp of David the song was raised, "They have seen Your goings, O God; even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. This is the hill which God desires to dwell in; yes, the Lord shall dwell in it forever." You remember how, in later ages, when Solomon was crowned and his reign of peace had been inaugurated, he built for God a Temple adorned with gold and precious stones, and all manner of cunning, work of the artificer? But it was not that glittering roof, it was not those massive pillars of brass in the forefront, it was not the hecatombs of bullocks whose blood was poured forth at the altar which were the glory of the Temple on Mount Zion. Beautiful for situation, it was the joy of the whole earth, but its Glory lay in this--"God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early." The excellence of the Temple was seen when, on the opening day, the Lord revealed Himself and the cloud filled the House of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud--for the "Glory of the Lord had filled the House of the Lord." Little remains for man to do when in, very deed, the Lord dwells in the midst of His saints. Apart from priests and ceremonies, that place is sacred wherein the Lord Most High has His abode. Say of any place, "Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord Is There," and be it tent or temple, you have spoken glorious things of it! I almost tremble while I remind you of the truest Temple of God--the body of our Lord. The nearest approach of Godhead to our manhood was when there was found, wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger, that Child who was born, that Son who was given, whose name was called, "Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." As for you, O Bethlehem, favored above all the towns of earth, out of you He came, who is Immanuel, God With Us! Verily, Your name is Jehovah-Shammah! All along, through 30 years and more of holy labor, ending in a shameful death, God was, in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. In the gloom of Gethsemane, among those somber olives, when Jesus bowed and in His prayer sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground, He was "seen of angels" as the Son of God bearing human sin! Speak of Gethsemane and we tell you God was there! Before Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas and on the Cross--the Lord was there! Though, in a sense, there was the hiding of God, and Jesus cried, "Why have You forsaken Me?" yet in the deepest sense Jehovah was there, bruising the great Sacrifice. The thick darkness made a veil for the Lord of Glory and behind it, He that made all things bowed His head and said, "It is finished." God was in Christ Jesus on the Cross, and we, beholding Him, feel that we have seen the Father. O Calvary, we say of you, "The Lord is there." Here I might fitly close, for we can mount no higher, but yet we could not afford to leave out those other dwellings of the Invisible Spirit who still, by His Presence, makes holy places even in this unholy world! We have to remind you that God is the Glory of the most glorious living thing that has been on the face of the earth since our Lord was here. And what is that? I answer, Jesus is gone--the Prophets are gone and we have no Temple, no human priest, no material Holy of Holies-- "Jesus, wherever Your people meet, There they behold Your Mercy Seat! Wherever they seek You, You are found, And everyplace is hallowed ground." And yet there is a special place where God dwells among men and that is in His Church. He has but one--one Church, chosen by eternal election, redeemed by precious blood, called out by the Holy Spirit and quickened into newness of life--this, as a whole, is the dwelling place of the Covenant God! Because God is in this Church, therefore the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her. "The Lord is there" might be said of the Church in all ages. I have seen the crypts and underground chapels of the catacombs. And it made me feel that they were glorious places when I remembered that the Lord God was there, by His Spirit, with His suffering people--when holy hymn and Psalm and solemn prayer went up from the very heart of the earth from men who were hunted to the death by their foes--the Lord was there! In those dreary excavations, unvisited by sunlight and wholesome air, God was as He was not in the palaces of kings and is not in the cathedrals of priests! In this land of ours, when a few people met together, here and there, to hear the Gospel and to worship, they made cottages, caves and hollows in the woods to be "holiness unto the Lord." Yes, and when crowds met beneath your Gospel oaks, or gathered together by the hillside to listen to the pure Word of Grace, the Lord was there and souls were saved and sanctified! When the Puritans solemnly conversed together of the things of God and held their little conventicles for fear of their adversaries--God was there! On Scotland's bleak moors and mosses, when the Covenanters gathered in the darkness and the storm for fear of Claverhouse and his dragoons-- God was there! Those who wrote in those days tell us that they never knew such seasons in days of peace as they enjoyed among the hills, amid the heather, or by the brook--for Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord was there! And so onward, to this very day, wherever the chosen of God lift up holy hands and worship Him, whether it is in cathedral or in barn, beneath the blue sky or beneath a thatched roof--anywhere and everywhere when the heart is right and the soul adores the living Lord, this is the special Glory of the place--"Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord Is There!" Flying forward, as with a dove's wing, to the future that is drawing near, we think of the Truth of God that there is to be a millennial age--a time of glory, peace, joy, truth and righteousness. But what is to be the Glory of it? Why this, "Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord Is There!" The Lord Jesus Christ will come and begin His personal reign on earth among His ancients. In like manner, as He went up into Heaven, and the disciples saw Him, so will He descend a second time, to be seen here among men. And His glorious Presence shall fashion the golden age, the thousand years of peace! Then shall the nations shout, "The Lord Is Come!" What hallelujahs will then rise to Heaven! Welcome, welcome, Son of God! How will all His faithful ones rejoice with unspeakable joy and sing and sing again, for now the day of their reward has come and they shall shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father! In all the Glory of the latter days everything is wrapped up in this one phrase, "the Lord is there."-- "Oh, come, You Day-Spring, come and cheer Our spirits by Your advent here! Disperse the gloomy clouds of night And death's dark shadows put to flight! Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel Shall come to you, O Israel!" Up yonder, where many of our beloved ones have already gone--up yonder, within that gate of pearl where eyes cannot, as yet, see, what is it that makes Heaven with all its supreme delights? Not harps of angels, nor blaze of seraphim! Just this one fact, "the Lord is there." What must it be to be with God? O soul that loves Him, what will your fullness of pleasure be when you shall dwell with Him for whom your soul is hungering and thirsting! What joy to be "forever with the Lord!" This perfect bliss may be ours this very day! We little know how near we are to our glorification with our Lord. The veil is very thin that parts the sanctified from the glorified-- "One gentle sigh, the soul awakes-- We scarcely can say, 'he's gone,' Before the ransomed spirit takes Its mansion near the Throne." The joy and glory of those Divine mansions is that "the Lord is there." Heaven's loftiest peak shines forever in this clear light--The Lord God and the Lamb are the Light thereof--"the Lord is there." Enough of this. I have proved my point, that the Glory of the most glorious place is that "the Lord is there." II. Suffer me for a few minutes to speak to you upon another point--THE PRESENCE OF GOD IS THE BEST PRIVILEGE OF HIS CHURCH. It is her glory that "the Lord is there." Note this, and mark it well. Brothers and Sisters, we as a Church have grown to great numbers and we are not deficient, either, in gifts or in Graces, or in work for our Lord. But let me solemnly remind you always that our chief, our only strength, must always lie in this--"the Lord is there." If the Lord should depart from us, as He has gone from churches which are now apostate, what an abyss opens before us! If He should take His Holy Spirit from us, even as the Glory departed from the Temple at Jerusalem, then our ruin would become a thing to mention with dread, a case to be quoted for a warning to future generations! O Lord, our God, take not Your flight! Abide with us, we pray You! Our only hope lies in Your making the place of Your feet glorious among us! If the Lord is among us, the consequences will be, first, the conservation of true doctrine. The true God is not with a lie--He will not give His Countenance to falsehood. Those who preach other than according to His Word, abide not under His blessing and are in great danger of His curse. If any man speaks another gospel (which is not another, but there are some that trouble us), God is not with him--and any transient prosperity which he may enjoy will be blown away as the chaff. God is with those who faithfully speak His Truth, hold it devoutly, believe it firmly and live upon it as their daily bread. May it always be said of this Church, "the Lord is there," and, therefore, they are sound in the faith, reverent towards Holy Scripture and zealous for the honor of Christ! Trust-deeds and confessions of faith are useful in their way, even as laws are useful to society, but as laws cannot secure obedience to themselves, so articles of belief cannot create faith, or secure honesty. And to men without conscience, they are not worth the paper they are written upon. No subscription to articles can keep out the unscrupulous! Wolves leap into the fold however carefully you watch the door. The fact is, the most of people say, "Yes, that doctrine is in the creed and is not to be denied, but you need not preach it. Put it on the shelf as an ornament and let us hear no more about it." Truth must be written on the heart as well as in the book! If the Lord is among His people, they will cling to the eternal Truths of God and love the doctrine of the Cross, not by force of law, but because Divine Truth is the life of their souls. Where God is present, the preservation of purity will be found. The Church is nothing if it is not holy. It is worse--it is a den of thieves! Setting the seal of its pestilent example upon evil living, it becomes the servant of Satan and the destroyer of souls. Who is to keep the Church pure? None but God, Himself. If the Lord is there, holiness will abound and fruits of the Spirit will be seen on all sides. But if the Lord is once withdrawn, then flesh and blood will rule and gender towards corruption, after its own manner--and the church will become a synagogue of formalists. Pray, my Brothers and Sisters, continually, that the Lord may dwell in our Zion, to maintain us in all holy obedience and purity of life! Where God is, there is the constant renewal of vitality. A dead church is a reeking Golgotha, a breeding place of evils, a home of devils. The tombs may be newly whitewashed, but they are none the less open sepulchers, haunts of unclean spirits. A Church all alive is a little Heaven, the resort of angels, the Temple of the Holy Spirit. In some of our churches everybody seems to be a little colder than everybody else. The members are holy icicles! A general frost has paralyzed everybody and though some are colder than others, yet all are below zero! There are no flowing rills of refreshment. Everything is bound hard and fast with the frost of indifference. Oh, that the Lord would send forth His wind and melt the glaciers! Oh, that the Spirit of God would chase winter out of every heart and every church! No human power can keep a church from the frostbite which numbs and kills. Unless the Lord is there, growth, life, warmth are all impossible. You that make mention of the Lord, keep not silent and give Him no rest, but cry day and night to Him, "O Lord, abide with us! Go forth with our armies! Make us to be the living children of the living God!" When the Lord is there, next, there is continuing power. With God there is power in the ministry, power in prayer, power in all holy work. We may do a vast deal of work and yet nothing may come of it, but, on the other hand, we may only be able to do comparatively little and yet great results may flow from it, for results depend not on the quantity of the machinery, but on the Presence of the Lord! Do you not all know persons who are not peculiarly gifted and yet are eminently useful? You do not remark anything about them that is specially noticeable and yet their whole career enlists attention by its power. Their words are effective, for there is character behind them. A consistent life gives force to a plain testimony. It is not so much what is said as who says it! And that is not all--God, Himself, is at the back of the man who is living for Him. He causes him to speak in His name so that none of his words fall to the ground. Is it not said of the godly, "His leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper"? This is so with every Church where the Lord abides. His Presence makes it a power with its children and adherents, a power with the neighborhood and a power with the age. Its example, its testimony, its effort is effective! God uses it and, therefore, it answers its end. The power is with God--but the Church is the instrument by which that power exercises itself. He uses a living people for the display of living power and He gives to them, both life and power, more and more abundantly. As we desire power with which to labor for God, we must pray that the God of Power will remain in our midst. Furthermore, whenever it can be said of an assembly, "the Lord is there," unity will be created and fostered. Show me a church that quarrels, a church that is split up into cliques, a church that is divided with personal ambitions, contrary doctrines and opposing schemes--and I am sure that the Lord is not there. Where there are envying, jealousies, suspicions, backbiting and dislikes, I know that the Holy Dove, who hates confusion, has taken His flight. God is Love and He will only dwell where love reigns. He is the God of Peace and will not endure strife. The children of God should be knit together. It would be a shameful sight, indeed, should children of His family fall out and chide and fight. Saints who dwell with God love each other "with a pure heart, fervently." Some professors act as if they hated each other! I may not say, "with a pure heart," but I will say, "fervently." Where God is present, the Church is edified in love and grows up, like a building fitly framed together, to be a holy Temple in the Lord. Oh, for more of this unity! Where the Lord is, there is sure to be happiness. What meetings we have when the Lord is here! It is a Prayer Meeting, but when you have said that, you have not fully described it, for it is far more. It was an unusual meeting for prayer, for, God being there, every prayer was spoken into His ear and all the desires and petitions of the saints were prompted by His Holy Spirit! Why, the very room was lit up with the Glory of the Lord! And whether we were in Heaven or not, we could hardly tell! What happy times we have in preaching the Word of the Lord when God's own Presence is realized! His paths drop fatness. What joyous seasons we have frequently enjoyed at the Communion Table! The provision is but bread and wine, but when, by faith, we perceive the real and spiritual Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the breaking of the bread we eat His flesh, and in the fruit of the vine we drink His blood! When we have gathered in the Lord's Presence we have sung-- "No beams of cedar or of fir Can with Your courts on earth compare! And here we wait, until Your love Raises us to nobler seats above." At the Master's Table I have often been so blessed that I would not have exchanged places with Gabriel! The Lord was there--what more could I desire? Joy, delight, rapture, ecstasy--what word shall I use?--all these have waited around the Table of Fellowship, as musicians at a king's banquet. If God is there, our Heaven is there! III. I shall now close by noticing, in the third place, that since this Presence of God is the Glory of the most glorious place and the choice privilege of the most privileged, it is our exceeding joy. THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD IS OUR DELIGHT IN EVERY PLACE. We will think of our own dear homes. What a delightful family we belong to if it can be said of our house, "Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord Is There"! Has it a thatched roof and a stone floor? What does it matter? The father of the family lives near to God and his wife rejoices to be his fellow-helper in prayer, while the children grow up to honest toil and honorable service. Assuredly that cottage home is dear to God and becomes a place where angels come and go! Because God is there, every window looks towards the Celestial City. It is a comfort that we need not go across the road to morning prayer, or step out every evening to worship, for we are priests, ourselves, and have a family altar at home where the incense burns both morning and night. We talk not of matins and vespers, but we glory that "the Lord is there" when we bow the knee as a household! What is more delightful than to gather round the family hearth to hear the Scriptures read and listen to the senior, as he talks to the younger ones, of what God has done for him and what the Lord is waiting to give to all who trust Him? Free from all formality, family prayer makes a house a temple, a family a church and every day a holy day! Truly, I may say of families of this kind, wherever they dwell, that it is "none other but the House of God, and it is the very gate of Heaven," for, "the Lord is there." Friend, is God in your house? If it has no family prayer, it has no roof to it. There is no true joy in domestic life unless the Lord is there. All else is fiction! God alone is true delight. I charge you, if your homes are not such that God could come to them, set your houses in order and say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Will you dare to dwell where God could not lodge with you? May all men say of your home, "The Lord is there!" Here is a Christian who lives alone, altogether apart from family life. All his dear ones are dead, or far away. In his lone chamber, when he bows his knee in secret prayer, or whenever he takes his walk abroad to meditate, if he is, indeed, a true lover of the Lord Jesus, "the Lord is there." Wherever the Believer's lot is cast, if he lives in fellowship with Christ, he may say of his quiet room, or of the garden walk, or even of the stable or the loft, "Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord Is There." Many a humble attic is a right royal residence, for, "the Lord is there." Better Paul's inner dungeon at Philippi, with his feet fast in the stocks--and the Presence of the Lord--than the most grand apartment of Caesar's palace and an unknown god! The Lord is very gracious to His lonely ones. They can say, "And yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me." In a hospital, or in a workhouse--what does it matter if Jehovah is at your side to cheer you? Some of us can bear witness that we have had the nearest approaches of God to our souls in times of intolerable pain and even in seasons of intense depression of spirit as to earthly things. "I was brought low, and the Lord helped me," said David. And we can say the same. The Lord has said, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you," as much as to say, "If I am not with you anywhere else, I will be with you then." In the furnace, one like unto the Son of God was seen. If Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego never had that glorious fourth Person in their company before, they had Him when they were cast into the midst of the glowing coals! Jehovah-Shammah makes a seven-times-heated furnace a pleasant arbor! We may say of the refining fire, of the threshing floor and of the oil-press, "God has been there!" In the time of trouble He has been a very present help. One might almost say, "Send me back to my prison," as one did say who lost God's Presence after he had gained his liberty! One might well cry, "Ah, let me have back my pain if I may again overflow with the joy of the Lord's Presence." Dear Friends, I thank God that you and I know what it is to enjoy the Presence of God in a great many different ways. When two or three of the people of God meet together and talk to one another about the things of God, the Lord is never away. You remember that blessed text, "They that feared the Lord spoke often, one to another." They had holy talks about heavenly things. It was such sweet conversation that the Lord, Himself, turned eaves-dropper and listened and heard. What He heard pleased Him so well that He, then and there, made a note of it. Yes, and wrote it down and ordered that "a book of remembrance" should be preserved "for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." Was not this sure evidence of His most gracious Presence? John Bunyan knew that God was there when he went about tinkering and came to Bedford--and there were three godly women sitting in the sun, at work--and as they worked they talked so sweetly that the tinker stood and listened and was drawn to better things! By such means he became a Believer and a preacher--and the writer of the "Pilgrim's Progress"--which has so refreshed us all. The Lord was there and, therefore, he dreamed a heavenly dream in Bedford jail. Wherever His people meet, the Lord is graciously near. "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Yes, but when Christian people go forth to work--when you come to your Sunday school, or go out with your bundle of tracts, to hand them out in your district, or when you join a little band and stand on the street corner, yonder, and lift up your voice in the name of Jesus--you may expect, if you go with prayer and faith, that it shall be written, "Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord Is There." It is only a young man standing up in a cottage to speak and he has not much to say, yet there are penitential tears and broken hearts--it is so, for God is there! It is only a humble woman speaking to a few persons of her own class and yet angels are rejoicing over a repenting sinner--yes, because God is there! It is only a little room in one of our back streets and the city missionary has come in. There are a dozen or two of the neighbors called together and he is talking of Jesus and His love--oh, but if the Lord is there, do not tell me that the missionary is not in the Apostolic succession--he need not claim it, he is, himself, an Apostle of God to those poor people! He needs no gorgeous vestments, nor the swell of an organ, nor even the thunders of the multitude as they raise the solemn hymn! The few so simple and so poor have God with them and it is enough! Wherever you are seeking to do good, in prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit, it shall be said "the Lord is there." And now, from this time forth, Beloved, you that fear God and think upon His name, wherever you go, let it be said, "Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord Is There." I often feel sorry when the Sabbath is nearly over and so do many of you. I know you wake on Monday morning and take those shutters down, again, or go off to that workshop where you suffer so much ridicule, or return to the ordinary grind of daily labor and mix up with so many of the ungodly--and you do it mournfully. Now, pray that you may keep up the Sabbath tone all week! Make every place, wherever you go, to be the House of God. A dear Brother of ours went to a shop where he worked with four ungodly men--and his Lord went with him. It was not long before we had the privilege of baptizing that friend's master and all his shop mates, for the Lord was there! The other day there came a fresh man to work who could not bear to hear a word upon religion, but our Brother was the means of his conversion, too, and the new man is coming among us, warm with his first love! Our Brother made up his mind that he was not going to be conquered by any scoffers, but, on the contrary, he was determined to conquer them for Christ! He will not yield to the influences of sin, but he resolves, in the name of the Lord, that evil influences shall yield to the power of the Truth of God and to the attractions of the Cross. Write across your workshop, "The Lord is here." If you cannot do it literally, do it spiritually, "Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord Is There." Do not be found anywhere where you could not say that the Lord was there! If you are called into the world in the pursuit of your daily vocation, cry unto the Lord, "If Your Spirit goes not with me, carry me not up hence." Determine that you will have the Spirit of God with you and, if it is in busy Cheapside, or in the lonesome country while you are hoeing the turnips or attending to a flock of sheep--in any field, any street, or any room--it shall be said that God is there! Take Jesus with you when you go and, when you come home, may His Spirit still be with you! God grant that it may be so! The Holy Spirit can work you to this! What shall I say to those who do not know the Lord and do not care for Him? O Friend, the day will come in which Jesus Christ will say to you, "I never knew you: depart from Me, you workers of iniquity." Do not let Him say that, but, tonight, commence an acquaintance with Him. May His Holy Spirit help you to do so! I am sure the Lord Jesus Christ could not say to me, "I never knew you." It is impossible, because I could reply to Him, "Never knew me, Lord? Why, I have been to You with so many burdens. I have run to You with so many troubles that I am sure You know me as one knows a beggar whom he has relieved many times a day-- 'Do You ask me who I am? Ah, my Lord! You know my name.' You remember me, for in my despair I cried to You and You did relieve me of my burden! You know me, for in my sorrow, my broken heart found no comfort but in You! You have known me all these years in which I have had to cry to You for something to preach about, and for help while preaching. You know how I have had to come to You and confess my failures, and mourn my shortcomings, and lament my sins, and trust in Your blood for cleansing." My Lord cannot say that He does not know me, for He has known my soul in adversity. Blessed be His name, I know Him and lean all my weight upon Him! They that know Him shall be with Him and He will receive them unto Himself forever--and this shall be their Glory--"Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord Is There." With Him shall they dwell, world without end! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Isaiah45:8-25. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"--774, 847, 806. LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON: DEAR FRIENDS--In this, the beginning of another year, I find myself in Mentone gradually recovering health after a period of pain and weakness. To begin Volume 37 of weekly sermons has fallen to the lot of no other man. I am grateful for the peculiar privilege and all the more so because all the previous 36 volumes continue to be purchased and read, and preached. I beg each friendly reader to breathe a prayer for the preacher and for these hundreds of sermons, that the Lord may use both the living voice and the printed page to His own Glory and to the salvation of men. Man's thoughts change, but the Word of the Lord endures forever--and this is the Word which in these sermons is preached to men. May the Holy Spirit acknowledge the testimony! Wishing to all my readers A HAPPY NEW YEAR, I am their servant for Christ's sake, C. H. SPURGEON. __________________________________________________________________ A Gracious Dismissal (No. 2183) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 11, 1891, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And He said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Luke 7:50. THE main part of my subject will be--that gracious dismissal, "Go in peace." To her who had been so lately blessed, the word, "Go," sounded mournfully, for she would gladly have remained through life with her pardoning Lord, but the added words, "in peace," turned the wormwood into honey--there was now peace for her who had been so long hunted and harried by her sins! Rising from the feet she had washed with tears, she went forth to keep her future footsteps such as those of a believing and, therefore, saved woman ought to be. We like a motto to begin the year with and it has been useful to some spirits to choose a motto with which to enter on a new course of life. We climb the hill of enterprise, or dare the wave of trial with an inspiring word upon our lips. To certain young men, a word has come in life's early morning, wet with the dew of Heaven--and that word of their dawn of day has stayed with them. The echoes of that life-evoking word have followed them long after it was spoken. Amid strange scenes it has come to them like a voice from the unseen. It has whispered to them within the curtains of their dying bed--it has murmured consolation amid Jordan's swelling waves. That first word of joy and peace from Jesus with which they began the new life came to them, again, just as they were melting away into the invisible land. And so they began the service of the Redeemer--and so He declared that their work was finished. Perhaps that love-note will be their welcome at the very gates of Heaven! Our Lord, in the instance before us, sent a penitent away from the chill atmosphere of self-righteous quibbling and thus relieved her of a controversy for which she was not fitted. But I see more than that in this benediction. It looks to me as if our Divine Master, when He found this poor sinner so full of love to Him that she washed His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, having by a parable explained to the Pharisee the reason for the greatness of her love, then said to her, "Go in peace,"--meaning that word not only to be cheering for the necessary purpose of the moment, but to go with her and to attend her all the rest of her life, until, when she came into the dark valley, she should fear no evil, for she would still hear that sweet voice saying, "Go in peace." What music to have heard! What music still to hear! Now, I would to God that the word which I shall speak at this time might be honored of the Lord to serve that sacred purpose to some here present. May it be a life-word to certain of you! May it be to others of us who have long known the Savior a revival of our rest--and may we get such a draught of peace from Jesus that we may never thirst again! The lips of our Divine Lord are a wellspring of delight! Each word is a chalice brimmed with sweetness. Imbibing this, we shall go our way, even to our journey's end, after the manner of the hymn which we sang just now-- "Calm in the hour of buoyant health, Calm in my hour of pain; Calm in my poverty or wealth, Calm in my loss or gain. Calm me, my God, and keep me calm, Softly resting on Your breast, Soothe me with holy hymn and Psalm, And bid my spirit rest." Oh, that our life may be as a sea of glass! May the sacred circle of our fellowship be within the golden line of the peace of God! You who did bid us come to You and rest, now bid us, "go in peace." I am going to say a little in my opening upon a delightful assurance which constituted the reason why the woman went in peace--"Your faith has saved you;" or, as in the 48th verse, "Your sins are forgiven you." Upon the strength of the assurance that she was saved, she might safely go in peace! When we have talked a little upon that subject, we will then come to a considerate precept--the Savior directed her, in the moment of trial, to, "go in peace." There was an assurance for her comfort and a precept for her guidance. I. First, then, consider A DELIGHTFUL ASSURANCE. The ground upon which the penitent woman might go in peace was that she had been saved. The Savior assured her--"Your faith has saved you." She was not saved by any other way than we are saved, but she received the common salvation by like precious faith. The way of salvation to her was faith in Christ--that is the same way for us, but she had what some of you, no doubt, would greatly like to have--she had an assurance that she was saved from the Lord's own mouth! I think I hear some saying, "I should go in peace, I am sure, if the Lord Jesus would but appear to me and speak, and say with His own lips, "Your faith has saved you." It is natural that you should think so. It must have been rapture to receive a benediction from the mouth of our King, our Savior! Yet, dear Friends, we must not hang our confidence upon a mere circumstance. For a mere circumstance it is, whether Christ shall literally stand before you in the flesh and say, "Your faith has saved you," or whether He shall say it to you by the Infallible record of His own Word. It does not make much difference as to my faith in what my father says to me, whether I meet the venerable man in the morning in my garden and there hear his voice, or whether I get a letter by post in his handwriting, and he says to me upon that paper just what he would have said if I had met him face to face. I do not require him to always come up the hill to my house to tell me everything that he has to say--I should think myself an idiot if I did! If I were to say, "My dear Father, you have assured me of your love by letter, but somehow, I cannot credit it unless you come and look me in the face and take my hand and assure me of your good will." Surely, he would say to me, "My dear Son, what ails you? You must be out of your mind. I never knew you to be so childish before! My handwriting has always been enough. I can hardly think you mean it when you say that you cannot credit me unless I stand manifest before your eyes--and with your ears you hear me speak." Now, what I would not do to my earthly father, I certainly would not do to my heavenly Savior! I am perfectly satisfied to believe what He writes to me and if it is so written in His Book, it seems to me to be quite as true and sure as if He had actually come from Heaven and had talked with me, or had appeared to me in the visions of the night. Is not this the reasoning of commonsense? Do you not at once agree with me? "Well," you say, "we go with you there, dear Sir, but, then, He spoke that word to her personally. We would never have any more doubts, but would go in peace if He said that word of assurance to us. You see, it is not merely that Jesus, Himself, spoke and said, 'Your faith has made you whole,' but He looked that way! He turned towards her and she knew that He referred to her. There was no mistaking to whom the assurance was given! There were other people in the room, but He did not say it to Simon. He did not say it to Peter. He did not say it to James and John. She knew by the look of Him that He meant it for her and for her, alone, for she was the only person to go and, consequently, the only one to 'go in peace.' Our Lord put it in the singular number and said, 'Your faith has saved you.' I want it to come home just so to me." Yes, but I think that this is a little unreasonable, is it not? Because if my father (to carry on my figure) were to speak to me, and to my brothers, and to my sisters, and were to say, "Dear children, I have loving thoughts concerning you, and I have laid up in store for your needs," I do not think that I should say to him, by-and-by, "Now, Father, do you know that I did not believe you, or derive any pleasure from what you said because you spoke to others beside myself? I did not think your statement of love could be true because you included my brothers and my sisters. You did not use the singular, but you put it in the plural--and you spoke to all my brothers and sisters, as well as to myself--and, therefore, I felt that I could not take any comfort out of your tender assurances." I should be a most unreasonable kind of person if I were to talk in that way--and my father would begin to think that his son was qualifying for a lunatic asylum! If he did not attribute it to unkindness of heart, he certainly would ascribe it to stupidity of head! Why, surely, surely, if my father says the same to each one of his children as he says to me, his words are all the more likely to be true, instead of being less worthy of belief and, therefore, I derive comfort from his promises of love being put in the plural rather than in the sin- gular. Surely it should not be less easy to believe that God would deal graciously with me in company with thousands of others than that He should pursue a solitary plan with me as the lone object of His love. Is it not so? "Ah, yes!" says one, "but you have not hit on it yet. I want to know that I am one that is in that plural! And I want to know that I really am one of those to whom Jesus speaks in His Word." My anxious Friend, you may know it--and you may know it most certainly. It is written, "He that believes on Him has everlasting life." It need never be a question whether you believe in Him or not. If you trust Him, that is the gist of the matter. You can readily ascertain whether you do really trust Him, or do not trust Him. If you do trust Him, you are His, and every promise of His Covenant is made to you! You have faith, and when the Lord lays it down as a general statement that faith saves--the statement is applicable to all the world, in every place and in all time--until the present age shall end--and men shall have passed into the fixed state of retribution where no Gospel of faith is preached. "Your faith has saved you." If you have faith at all--if you believe that Jesus is the Christ--you are born of God! If you can say to the Lord Jesus-- "Allmy trust on You is stayed All my help from You I bring," that is faith and Jesus testifies, "Your faith has saved you." Now, because the Infallible Witness says this of all who have faith, I do not think you ought to doubt it. It is true you do not hear His voice because He says it rather by the written Word than by word of mouth, but surely this does not affect your faith. We believe a true man whether he writes or speaks--indeed, if there is any choice, we prefer that which he has deliberately put on paper, for this remains when the sound of the voice is clean gone. It is most profitable for us that we should read our Lord's declaration over and over again--and put it in all sorts of shapes--and see how it always remains faithful and true. It is more assuring to you to find it in the volume of the Book than it would be if the Savior met you tonight, and said to you, "Your sins are forgiven you. Your faith has saved you." The record excels the voice. "No," you say, "I cannot see that." Well now, Peter was with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration and nothing could shake Peter's conviction that he had been there in the midst of that heavenly Glory--and yet, for all that, Peter says, concerning the Inspired Word, "We have a more sure Word of testimony"! He felt that even the memory of that vision, which he had assuredly seen, did not always yield to him so much assurance as did the abidingly Inspired Word of God! You ought to feel the same. If I were conscious tonight that, at some period of my life, I had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken to me, the very spot of ground on which it occurred would be exceedingly dear and sacred to my spirit. But I am certain that when I grew depressed--when darkness rushed over my soul, as it sometimes does, I would be sure to say to myself--"You never saw anything of the kind! It was a delusion, a figment of your imagination, a delirium and nothing more." But, Beloved, when I get to this Book and see before me the sacred lines, I know that I am not deluded! There it stands, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I am sure about that and I am sure that I believe and, therefore, I am sure that I am saved! I like to put my finger right down on the passage and then say, "Lord, I know You cannot lie. I have never had a question about this being Your Book. Whatever other doubts have plagued me, this has not. You have so spoken it home to my soul that I am as assured that this is Your Book as I am assured of my own existence. And, therefore, You have done better for the removal of my doubts and for the assurance of my soul's eternal salvation, by putting Your promise in your Book than if You had, Yourself, personally appeared to me and spoken with Your own voice." my Hearer, the written Word is most sure! If you believe, you are saved, as surely as you are alive. If you believe, Heaven and earth may pass away, but the Word of the Lord shall stand fast for you. "He that believes in Him has everlasting life." He has eternal life in present possession! Our Lord has put it thus--"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." "He that with his heart believes and with his mouth makes confession of Him shall be saved." There are no, "ifs," or, "buts," about these Words of promise. Salvation is put as a present thing and as an abiding thing, but in every case as a certain thing! And why should we be worried and worn about the matter? It is so and let us take the comfort of the fact. We must either throw away this Book by beginning to talk about "degrees of inspiration" and all that foul rubbish, or else we are logically bound to be sure of our hope and to rejoice in it! 1 guarantee you, O my Hearer, that as long as you stand fast by the belief that this is a sure Word of testimony, you will know that you are saved! If this Book is true, every Believer in Jesus is as safe as Jesus, Himself. To say, "I believe, but I am afraid I am not saved," is to say, but in a roundabout way, that you do not believe at all! For, if you believe, then you believe that God speaks the Truth--and this is the testimony--"God has given us eternal life, and that life is in His Son." This is the testimony of the great Father and the testimony of the eternal Spirit! And we must not dare to doubt it. You may doubt whether you believe or not, but given that you do really and unfeignedly put your trust in the Lord Jesus, then, as effect follows cause, it is certain that the cause of faith will be followed by its sure effect--salvation! "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Do not worry any longer--go in peace! Have done with questioning! End all debate-- go in peace. Go about your business, for the work of salvation is done! You are a saved soul--go and rejoice in finished salvation and ask no more questions. "Why do you cry you unto Me?" said God to Moses, "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." Why do you question and doubt any longer? Go forward to enjoy what God has prepared for you! And as you are saved and justified in Christ, now seek sanctification and all the other blessings of the Covenant of Grace which lie before you in Christ Jesus your Lord! The promise is sure--be sure that it is so--and in perfect rest of soul enjoy the good which God provides you! I think I have thus brought out as clearly as I can that delightful assurance which is the ground of the command, "Go in peace." II. We come, secondly, to listen to A CONSIDERATE PRECEPT. Our Lord, with wise tenderness, dismissed the beloved object of His pardoning love and bade her, "Go in peace." May the Holy Spirit bless this to us! This precept divides itself into two parts. There is, first, "Go." And then there is, "Go in peace." There is "go." Now, in, "go," there are two things--to go from and to go to. Where was she to go from? First, she was to go from these quibblers. Simon and the Pharisees are as full of objections as a swarm of bees is full of stings. They say in their hearts, one to another, "Who is this that also forgives sins?" They have even dared to question the Character of the Perfect One and have hinted a suspicion of His purity for allowing such a woman to come so near Him and to wash His feet with her tears. Therefore the Savior says to her, "Go." This was not a happy place for a childlike love to linger in. Her soul would have been among lions. Jesus seems to say, "Do not stay to be tormented by these quibblers. Your faith has saved you--go. You have gained a great blessing--go home with it. Let these people argue with each other. You have a rich prize--take it out of the reach of these pirates." Oftentimes I believe that the child of God would find it to be his greatest wisdom, whenever he is in company that begins to assail his Lord, or to denounce his faith, just to go about his business and let the scoffers have their scoffing to themselves. Some of us have thought it our miserable duty to read certain books that have been brought out against the Truth of God, that we might be able to answer them--but it is a perilous calling. The Lord have mercy upon us when we have to go down into these sewers--for the process is not healthy! "Oh," says a man, "but you must prove all things!" Yes, so I will. But if one should set a joint of meat on his table and it smelt rather high, I would cut a slice, but if I put one bit of it in my mouth and found it far gone, I would not feel it necessary to eat the whole round of beef to test its sweetness! Some people seem to think that they must read a bad book through--and they must go and hear a bad preacher often before they can be sure of his quality. Why, you can judge many teachings in five minutes! You say to yourself, "No, Sir, no, no, no! This is good meat--for dogs! Let them have it, but it is not good meat for me and I do not intend to poison myself with it." The Savior does not tell the woman, "Stop, now, and hear what Simon has got to say. Dear good woman, you have been washing My feet with tears and here is a highly intelligent gentleman, a Pharisee, who has a very learned speech to deliver--give him a fair hearing. You have to prove all things--therefore stay and hear him. And here are more gentlemen who object to My pardoning your sins. And their objections are fetched from deep veins of thought. Listen to them and then I will answer their questions and quiet your mind." No, the Savior says, "Go in peace. You have peace--do not stay till you lose it. You have your comfort and joy-- refuse to be robbed of them." Why, if you were in a room and you saw a certain number of gentlemen of a suspicious character--and you had your watch with you--you would not feel it necessary to stay and see whether they were able to extract your watch from you, but you would say to yourself, "No, I am best out of this company." We are safest out of the society of those whose great objective it is to rob us of our faith. "Your faith has saved you. Go home. Leave them. Go in peace." I think that He meant, besides going away from the men, "Go away from the publicity into which you have unwillingly stepped." If our Savior had been like some excellent people of the present day, He would have said, "Stand before all these men and tell your experience. I shall require you to be at half-a-dozen meetings this week and you must speak at every one of them." A splendid woman, was she not, who washed the Savior's feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head? She might have exhibited her eyes and her hair--and told their gracious story. Who can tell but several would have been impressed by the narrative? The Savior said to the woman--so excitable, for she was all that, as well as grate-ful--"Your faith has saved you; go in peace." As much as to say, "There are certain of your own sex that you can speak to. You will find some poor fallen woman to whom you can quietly tell of My pardoning Grace. But yours is a case in which the very beauty of your character will lie in the quietude of your future life. 'Your faith has saved you.' That is enough for you. You have come upon the stage of action by that splendid act of your love, but do not acquire the habit of winning publicity. Do not aspire to display yourself in a bold and heroic attitude, but go in peace." He almost seems to say, "Subside now into your family. Take your place with the rest of your sisters. Adorn, by your future purity, My doctrine, and let all men see what a change has been worked in you, for, perhaps that very weakness of yours which made you what you were as a sinner, may put you in danger, even as a saint. Therefore I do not ask you to tarry here and join My disciples, or follow Me publicly through the streets. But your faith has saved you; go in peace." I think that the Master taught a great deal of wisdom here, which some of those who are leaders in the Church of God would do well to copy. Yes, I think that I shall go a little further and say that I think the Savior, then and there, dismissed her from that high ministry which, for once in her life, she had carried out. She washed His feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. It was the action of a love which had risen to a passion. It was an action such as shall be told for a memory of her everywhere--and we may well imitate her penitence and her heroic courage, as well as her love to Christ. But, at the same time, we cannot always be doing heroic actions. Life is mainly made up of common deeds. It would not be possible to be always washing feet with tears, nor to be always unbraiding tresses to use them as a towel. The difficulty with some people is that they are always wanting to practice the sublime. Alas, they often fail by just one step and become ridiculous! They are always straining after effect and, hearing of what has been done once, by one choice person, they must do it themselves and they must keep on doing it! O my Sister, there may come a time when you will have to speak for Christ and speak openly before many, but tomorrow you had better go home and see to the children and make home happy for your husband. You will glorify Christ by darning stockings and mending the socks of the little ones, quite as surely as by washing His feet with tears. You make a great mistake if you have not a piety which will take you into domestic life--which will help you to make the common drudgery of life a Divine service. We need men who can serve God with the axe and plane, or behind a counter, or by driving a quill. These are the men we need--but there are many that crave to vault at once into a conspicuous place and perform an astounding deed! Having done it once, they become unsettled all the rest of their lives and do not seem as if they ever could take to plainly keeping the Ten Commandments and walking in the steps of Jesus. I wish that those who must flash and blaze would hear the Lord Jesus say to them, "Go in peace." I mean any of you who really did distinguish yourselves on one occasion and deserved much praise from your Christian friends. I fear lest you should pine for unusual and even undesirable forms of service and become useless in the ordinary course of life. Now, do not be spoiled for life by having been allowed in one unusual deed, but hear the Master say, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace. Serve Me in the daily avocations of life and bring glory to My name at home. Go from the strain of publicity to the gentler pressures of family duty." Do you not think that He even meant that she was now to cease from that singular fellowship with Him that she had enjoyed? She had been very close to Him, but she was, perhaps, never to be quite so near to Him again. In spirit she should be, but certainly not physically. It happens that those who take to the contemplative life--and there is no life higher than that--are apt to think that they must forget the practical life. But it must not be so. We must do that which the Master bids us do as well as sit at His feet! I am tempted to tell a story which most of you must know concerning the famous man of God, who, in his cell, thought he saw the Lord Jesus and, under that persuasion, he worshipped with rapt delight. But just then the bell at the convent gate rang and it was his turn to stand at the door and deal out bread to the hungry. There was a little battle in his mind as to which he should do--tarry with his Lord, or go to hand out bread to the poor mendicants. At last, he felt that he must do his duty even at the cost of the highest spiritual bliss. He went and distributed the bread and when he came back, to his great delight, the vision was still there and a voice said to him, "If you had stayed, I would have gone; but as you have gone, I have therefore stayed to commune with you." The path of duty must be followed and no spiritual enjoyment can excuse us from it! Never offer one duty to God stained with the blood of another! Balance your duties and let not one press out another. "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Do not think that you need to be all day long at your Bible, or all the evening at your prayers. There is a time for everything. Let every holy work have its place, that your life may be a fair mosaic of brilliant colors, all set according to the Divine pattern, to make up a perfect character. "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace and do the next thing, and the next, without weariness." That leads me to speak of what she was to go to. It seems to me that the Savior said, "Now go home. You have been a fallen woman--home is the place for you. Go home to your mother and father, or other relatives. Seek a home. Be domesticated. Attend to your own work. Whatever your place is, go to it. Leaving daily duty was the source of your temptation--return to walks of usefulness and habits of order--and this will be your safety. You will be less likely to be led away if you have work to occupy head, heart and hands." Did He not mean, "Go now to your ordinary life-trial"? Do you think yourself a very peculiar person--a sort of saint that has to float in the air, or live upon roses? Do not fancy such a thing! I have heard of the Chinese, that they sell shoes with which you can walk on the clouds. And I believe that some people must have bought a pair of those remarkable articles, for their lives are spent in cloudland, walking as in a dream, upon high stilts of fond imaginations! Do not think great things of yourself. You are but a common man or woman. Do such duty as your fellow Christians do and do not think yourself a superior person. The worst people in the world to work with are superior people. Those are of no importance who think they are of great importance. Poor creature! It is not the Grace of God which turns your brain, but your own silly conceit. Go forth to your further service-- "Go in peace. There are some to whom you can tell of My love. Oh, how you will tell it! You that have washed My feet with your tears, go and shower those tears over fallen ones like yourself. Go, use those eyes, that you may look My love right into their hearts as you are speaking to them. Go all your life in peace and do for Me all that I shall put in your way to do for Me." That is what I think our Lord meant. Brothers and Sisters, do not think of sitting here to enjoy yourselves, but go off and glorify your Redeemer's name. Go! But then here is the point of it--He said, "Go in peace." O my Brothers and Sisters, I desire that all of us who love the Lord may go all the rest of our life journey in peace. May pardoning love put us at peace concerning all our sins! O pardoned one, you love much, for you have had much forgiven--let your thoughts all run to love--and none to fear. Fret not about the past--the dark, dishonorable past. The hand that was pierced has blotted it all out! The great Lord has frankly forgiven you all your debt. Let not that disturb you any longer. Go in peace! What a rest it is to be rid of the burden of sin and to know of a certainty, from the teaching of God's Word, that your sins are forgiven you! This is peace which passes all understanding. Our Lord meant, next, "Go in peace" in reference to all the criticisms of all these people who have looked at you. Do not mind them. Do not trouble about them. What have they to do with you? It is enough for a servant if his master accepts him--he need not mind what others have to say about his service. Your faith has saved you. Forget all the unkind things they have said and do not trouble your heart about the cruel speeches they may yet make. Go in peace and be under no alarm as to upbraiding tongues. And then I think He meant, "Go in peace about what you have done." I know the mood of a word like that. I have preached the Gospel. I have thrown my whole soul into it and after it is all over I have felt bound to chide myself that I did not do much better as to style, or spirit, or length, or some other matter. Oh, but if the Master accepts it, one may go in peace about it! This woman had done a very extraordinary thing in washing Christ's feet with tears, and wiping them with the hairs of her head. And when she got away, she might have said to herself, "I wonder why I was so bold? Was I not immodestly conspicuous? How could I have done it? How must I have looked when I was bathing His feet? For me, too--such a sinner as I am--for me to have done it to the Blessed and Holy One! I fear He must have felt vexed at my rudeness!" Have you not sometimes done a brave thing for Christ and then, afterwards, felt just like that. "I was a bold minx," you say, "after all, to push myself so forward." The good young man, who has just preached for the first time, says, "Well, I got through it this time, but I will never attempt it again, for I am sure that I am not fit for such holy work." So the Master says to this woman, "Go in peace. I have accepted you and your loving service. Do not be troubled about what you have done. It is all sweet to Me and has a rich perfume of your great love. Never fret about what you have done. You have done the right thing. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace." I want us to have just that kind of peace--peace about what we have done for our Lord, even as we have peace about forgiven sin and peace about human criticisms. "Go in peace." Oh, to possess, from this time forth, a holy quiet! We are so apt to grow fretful. I know some good Brothers and Sisters who have a swollen vein of suspicion about them that bleeds every now and then, and pains them greatly, and alarms other people. I know some Sisters--they are very good, but unreasonably fearful. They say that they are "nervous." Perhaps that is the fact and so I will say no more. But, oh, that we could get them cured of this disease of the nerves! I would they could be quieted! I admire the members of the Society of Friends for this virtue beyond almost any other which they exhibit--they seem to be so steady, self-contained and equable. They are a little slow, perhaps, but then they are very sure, firm, steadfast and calm. We are, some of us, too much in a hurry to go fast. If we were a little slower, we would be quicker. If we left our affairs more entirely with God, our peace might be like a river. Yes, I would to God, dear Friends, that we might feel a constant joy. Why not? Nothing ought to trouble us, for we know that all things work together for good. If we live by faith, nothing can trouble us, for between here and Heaven we shall keep company with You, You Blessed One! And if the way You take is rough, the fact of Your being with us shall make it smooth for us. We will travel merrily with this as our march music--"Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Still, to come back to where I began, I dare say that the good woman thought that she would like to speak a word for the Lord. When they said that He could not forgive sin, would not she have liked to say, "But He did forgive my sin and He changed my nature! How dare you speak thus"? But the Savior said, "Go." She was not called to contend. Thank God every child of God is not called to fight with the adversary--those of us who are men of war from our youth up take no pleasure in strife! We wish that, like this holy woman, we could be exempt from this warfare. She might well rejoice in her escape from the sacred conscription. Many a cuff and blow she thus avoided and, as her Captain sent her off the field, she might go home right happily. She might have lost the blessed frame of mind in which she then was--and this would have been a real injury to her. She was sweetly wrapped up in love and there her Lord would have her abide. He seems to say, "You are too precious to be battered and bruised in battle. Go--go in peace. Dear Soul, you are so full of love to Me that I do not want you to be worried with fighting, contending and arguing. Go in peace." She would have done no good, I dare say, if she had ventured into a fray for which she was so unfitted. If she had spoken, she would have said something which the cruel Pharisees would have turned into a jest. So He said to her, "Go in peace." Why should her feebleness give them an occasion for unholy triumph? All true hearts are not fit for fight. Besides, she had her Lord to be her Advocate, and there was no need for her to speak. Therefore He said, "I can manage them without your presence. Go in peace." When we may believingly leave a difficulty with our Lord, it is faith's duty to go home quietly. No doubt, by going in peace, she would be doing greater service than she would by using her tongue upon these ungodly men. A quiet, happy life is often the noblest witness that we can bear for Christ. Therefore I say to everyone who loves the Lord, there are times when He will say to us, "Do not enter into any of this conflict, turmoil and muddle. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace." The last word I have to say is this. There are many poor souls who talk about coming to Christ who are not yet saved. They are always hearing about faith and thinking of it--and yet they never do, in very truth, believe. Now, do not hear nor debate any more about faith, but believe. Trust Jesus Christ and think no more about your own trusting. Think about it as a thing done--not as a thing to be done! God help you now to believe in Jesus--and so pass over the bridge of belief to the golden shore of Jesus, Himself! Well, but I notice some say that they believe, but it is not believing, because if it were believing, they would "go in peace." A person comes to the bank with a check. He believes it to be honestly his and the signature to be correct. He puts it down on the counter and the clerk puts out the money. But look! The man does not take it. He stands and loafs about. The clerk looks at him, and wonders what he is doing. At last, when the person has been there long enough to wear the good man's patience out, the clerk says, "Did you bring that check to have the money?" "Yes, I handed it in." "Well, then, why do you not take the money and go about your business?" If he is a sensible man, he delays no longer--no, he would not have delayed so long. He takes the money and departs in peace. Now, dear Soul, if you have a promise from God--"He that believes is not condemned," or, "He that believes has everlasting life"--do you believe? Then take the blessing and go about your business! Do not keep on saying, "Perhaps it is so," and, "Perhaps it is not so." Do you believe that God speaks the Truth? If so, then take the promised blessing and enjoy it, for you are a saved man! "But I have been going to a place of worship for years and I have been believing in a sort of a way, but I have never dared to say that I was saved." Then you are acting the part of an unbeliever! If you do not know that you are saved, how dare you go to sleep tonight? How can a man dare to eat his meals and go about his business, and yet say, "I do not know whether I am saved or not"? You may know it and you ought to know it. If you believe, you are saved! If you doubt that fact, you are rather an unbeliever than a Believer. Take up your money and go home. "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Trust Jesus! Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. The Lord help you truly to believe, for Jesus' sake! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Romans 8:15-39. __________________________________________________________________ A Private Enquiry (No. 2184) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 18, 1891, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 9, 1890. "What is the thing that the Lord has said unto you?" 1 Samuel 3:17. THE Lord would not speak directly to Eli, although he was the High Priest. In ordinary circumstances it would have been so, but Eli had grieved the Lord, and thus had lost his honorable standing. God had not cast him off, but He viewed him with such displeasure that He would only speak to him through another person--even as great kings, if they are offended with their courtiers--send them messages by other hands. The Lord sent, first, a man of God to warn Eli of what would be the sure result of his lack of firmness with his sons. And when He gave him a second warning, it was sent through one who was a little underling in his family. O you saints who live upon familiar terms with the Lord, take heed of sin, lest you lose your close communion, your favored fellowship and stand in a second place! God will speak to you, but it will be in warning and in a roundabout way--not face to face, with His lips to your ear, as He has been known to do while you have pleased Him. God will not cast you off, but He may set you aside for a time. You may still hear His message through others, but He will be silent to you, personally. You may have to live in the frigid zone of doubt and anxiety, instead of sunning yourselves in the full blaze of Divine Love. It was so with Eli--he had forborne to rebuke sin in his own house--and had brought the anger of God upon himself! And, therefore, he had no comfortable union and no honor with Jehovah, but must be schooled by a child. Further, when God had sent a man of God to Eli and the message did not awaken him to a sense of his sin in overindulgence of his sons and toleration of evil in those under him, the Lord sends him a threatening word by a child, for God has many messengers. The sending of the child, Samuel, to bear the terrible tidings to the aged priest was a sweet but stern rebuke of Eli. The child is awake, while the old man is locked in the slumber which comes of a seared conscience. Experience must now be admonished by childhood and wisdom by simplicity! Gray hairs, in this case, yield not a crown of glory to the erring ruler, but he must bow his head in sorrow at a rebuke brought to him by a lowly boy. The child is evidently more trusted by God than the venerable priest! It was the beginning of the Divine chastisement that his honor should pass away and an aged priest should stand reproved by a youthful Prophet. There was much mercy in it, yet we clearly see the Lord stripping His servant of his decorations and setting him in a lower place--making the Urim and the Thummim which he wore upon his breast to be of secondary power for showing the future, while the Spirit rested more fully on a holy boy. He, whose talk was still that of childhood, becomes a mouth for God, while the venerable ruler of his people has nothing to say but to submit to his inevitable punishment! Eli was a man of God and, notwithstanding his great chastisement and his mournful death, I doubt not that he died in the Lord. But he brought dishonor on his own name and he was condemned to know that his holy office would not be continued in his line--that none of his descendants should live to old age. He had not duly honored the Lord and, therefore, he heard the sentence pronounced on him and on his race. "They that honor Me, I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." He had spared the rod of rebuke and, therefore, the axe ofjudgment fell on his house, "because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." O Brothers and Sisters, let us beware of sin--of allowing sin in those under our charge--lest the Lord lay us low and send an affliction upon us, which shall cleave to our race forever! We will now use Eli's question, by which he extracted from Samuel the message of God, and we will view it in three lights. First, as put to Samuel. Secondly, as coming from Eli. And, thirdly, as capable of being turned upon ourselves. We will ask it of ourselves, as another might ask it. And we will answer it to our own hearts, so that we may, by a rehearsal, become ready to give an answer to him that shall ask us in days to come. Come, my heart, answer to yourself, "What is the thing that the Lord has said to you?" May the Holy Spirit help you by bringing all things to your remembrance, whatever He has said to you! I. First, let us view this question as addressed TO SAMUEL. The first remark which we shall make upon it is that God does speak to men. Otherwise this would be a senseless ques-tion--"What is the thing that the Lord has said unto you?" God does communicate with mortals. He is not shut up all alone by Himself in sublime solitude. He has not placed His creatures at an immeasurable distance, with an impassable abyss between their littleness and His own grandeur. It is not true that He cannot hear their cries, nor respond to them in tones of love. In ways suitable to their feeble nature, the Lord has spoken to men. He has done so in the Inspired volume of His sacred Word. Every line in this priceless volume was dictated by the Spirit and is a message from God to men. This Book is to be read as the record of Jehovah's voice. It is the phonograph of our Father's speech in days gone by. What He has spoken aforetime by His voice, He continues to speak to us by His written Word. He spoke through Prophets and Seers, Evangelists and Apostles--and here we have it--even all that is of abiding significance to us upon whom the ends of the world are come. God, in a renewed manner, speaks to us by His Word when His Spirit applies it to us individually. We never truly hear the voice of God in Scripture until the Truth of God is spoken home to each heart and conscience by the Holy Spirit. Revelation must be revealed to each one, otherwise it soon comes to be a veiling of the Truth, rather than a discovering of the Lord's mind. The Revelation is clear enough in itself, but we have not the opened eyes till Divine Grace bestows it. If we have not the Spirit of God, the letter may actually become a veil to hide the spirit of Truth. This, indeed, it should not be, neither is it according to its natural intent and tendency--but our depravity makes it so, turning even the Light of God, itself, into a thing which blinds. Do you know what it is to have a text leap out of the Scriptures upon you and carry you away? This special energy and flash of Truth is always memorable. How often have the waves of this sea of Truth been phosphorescent before my eyes--a sea of glass mingled with fire--of which the spray has dashed over me and set my soul on fire! As surely as the Lord spoke these words to Moses, or to David, or to Isaiah, or to John, or to Paul, so surely does He speak them to our souls by His Spirit. Do you understand what I say? Moreover, our God has ways of communicating His mind to His children by those of His servants who speak in His name. He directs the thoughts of His ministers and suggests their words so that they speak to the cases of those who are led to hear the Word of God. By our own thoughts, also, the Lord communes with us. If we will be still before Him, He will prepare our hearts and in silence we shall hear His voice. It would be a strange thing if God could not and did not communicate with His own children. And it is still more strange and sad that, though He does speak, His people are slow of heart and dull of hearing. Our God also speaks to us in Providence. In choice favors we hear His soft and tender tones. In chastisement and rebukes we hear the sterner notes. But every sound is full of love. The Lord has ways of taking His children apart and speaking to them upon their beds. In the wilderness He speaks to the heart. He can talk with us in Nature. Have you not heard Him in the thunder? In the roaring of the sea? Yes, we hear Him, not only in the dash of Niagara, but in the ripple of the brook and the smiling of a primrose on its bank! The Lord is never voiceless except to the earless soul. He speaks-- let us hear. Here we make a further remark--God regards not age in His speaking, but He condescends to speak with young children. Samuel was the Lord's in his long clothes and served the Lord while a boy--and the Lord did not disdain to come to his little cot at night and call him by his name. We often talk as if it could not be possible that the Lord should speak with boys and girls and yet, my Brothers and Sisters, there is not much more of a stoop in God's talking with a child than in His speaking to a man! Indeed, the man has more of sin and thus he is often farther off from God than the child. If the children here present are, by God's Grace, made willing to hear God's voice--if they are obedient to the Lord and have open hearts and attentive minds towards His Word--the great God will not pass them by! The Lord stoops to the lowli- ness of a child and smiles at its simplicity. If young people are prayerful, thoughtful, reverent, believing and obedient, the fact that, like Samuel, they are small in stature and young in years, shall be no detriment to them! The Lord will speak and call them by their names. My observation leads me to believe that many children have heard more of God than persons who are grown up. They may not find willing ears to hear what the Lord has said to them, but if they did, they could tell us marvelous things. Some of us remember how, in our own childhood, the Lord dealt wonderfully with us and there were "prophecies which went before" concerning us, whose meaning we can now read, though at the time we did not understand them. I think that young Samuel was one of the fittest persons in the world for the Lord to choose as His messenger. And so far from its being unusual for young ears to hear the voice from Heaven, I think they are the best prepared to do so. Four times the Lord said, "Samuel, Samuel," and the child responded and said at last, when he knew who it was that called him, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears." Anyone here who can say from his heart, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears," will not be long without a word from the Invisible! Oh, that our ears may be opened to heavenly tidings--may be wakened, morning by morning, by the voice of the Lord! May we often hear it as the morning song and the evening hymn! May the Lord also hear our voices in prayer and praise and meditation till our lives shall be a holy dialog between our souls and our God, never dying down into silence, but lasting on until we behold Him face to face! Our next observation is that when we do hear the voice of God we should be deeply impressed by it. Young Samuel gave evidence that he deeply felt the responsibility of having heard the voice of God. We read that, "Samuel lay till morn-ing"--he did not go to sleep, but he did not leave his bed. He laid still and thought. After hearing that terrible word which made his heart heavy and caused his ears to tingle, like a wise child, he lay still and pondered it in his soul. He did not rush in upon Eli, for the news was hard to tell. Neither did he seek out another confidant. He had been called to be the Lord's Prophet. He was conscious of his commission and he became sober beyond his years. "He lay till morning." What thoughts passed through his mind on his bed! He had been a child when he went to rest last night and now he had suddenly become a man with a dread secret entrusted to him! A pressing anxiety was on him as to how he should speak to Eli--and a battle raged within his heart between a fear of grieving the good old man by the message--and the greater fear of grieving God by keeping any of it back. He remained still upon his bed, quietly meditating and turning over what he had heard, and thinking of what he should do. I would to God that, after every sermon, all my hearers, young and old, had a quarter of an hour alone! A night of wakeful thought over it would be still better. I am sure that what is needed with our religious reading is time for private thought. We put into the mill more than it grinds! Some people imagine that if they read so many chapters of the Bible every day, it will be much to their profit--but it is not so if the reading is a mere mechanical exercise. It will be far better to read a tenth as much and weigh it--and let it take possession of brain and heart. A little food cooked is better for dinner than a great joint raw. A man who wants to see a country must not hurry through it by express train, but he must stop in the towns and villages and see what is to be seen. He will know more about the land and its people if he walks the highways, climbs the mountains, stays in the homes and visits the workshops, than if he does so many miles in the day and hurries through picture galleries as if death were pursuing him. Don't hurry through Scripture, but pause for the Lord to speak to you. Oh, for more meditation! Samuel, "lay till morning." Wise child that! With such work before him for his head and his heart, he did well to lie quiet, take a breath and collect his strength. Next, the heavenly voice made such an impression on his mind that he feared to tell it to Eli. The message was so dreadful to him that he dreaded to repeat it to him whom it most concerned. When you and I know God's Word and hear God's voice in it, it will often strike us with a solemn awe which will quite overpower us. Jacob, when he saw the ladder and the angels, did not say in the morning, "How delightful was the vision! How happy was my dream!" That would have been like the language of shallow, superficial minds. But he said, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven." I know that God's Revelation of Himself to us is calculated to fill us with intense joy, but it is even more likely to cast us down upon our faces, prostrate before His Divine Majesty, in solemn awe of the Lord of Hosts. Remember how John put it. "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead." He was the best beloved of the Lord and yet, at the sight of our glorious Well-Beloved, he had no life left in him, but he swooned at His feet! Marvel not that "the child Samuel feared"--and especially feared to tell Eli the vision. I say that when you and I hear the voice of the Lord our God, it will create in us deep emotions of fear, of joy and of holy reverence--and we shall know of a surety that it is no little thing to hear the Word of the Most High. We shall tremble at His Word, yet we shall rejoice to hear it! I would say, next, that we should store up in our memories whatever God says to us. These are not things which we can safely allow to slip. What is written in this Book should be transferred to our memories. It is a good thing to learn passages of Scripture by heart, even as classical scholars treasure up the words of their favorite authors. It is a good thing to have texts of Scripture used from day to day to sweeten the breath and then laid by in the heart to perfume the character. A mind well stored with Biblical lore will be a great cheer to us, should we live, like Eli, till our eyes are dim and we cannot see to read. The Bible in the memory is better than the Bible in the bookcase. All that this child heard from the Lord, he kept in his memory, so that, when the time came, he could produce it, "every whit." And in later days could write it down in this, his history. Oh, that you and I were able to produce "every whit" of what God has spoken to us! Alas, too often the Word has come and it has gone--and it has left small trace behind. We have heard and we have forgotten. God grant that, after this, whenever we hear what God, the Lord, shall speak, we may mark, learn and inwardly digest the same! And then it will not depart from us, but will remain for our growth, strength and building up. One more remark. Looking at the text in its light toward Samuel, we learn that we should be able to tell what we hear from God. We find Eli saying to Samuel, "What is the thing that the Lord has said unto you?" If God has spoken to us, somebody or other will need to know and will have a right to be informed. It may be that many whom we esteem will wish to know what God has spoken to us--so we must be prepared--even though it is with a measure of fear and trembling, to tell them the solemn tidings. What is whispered in our ears in the closet we may have to speak on the housetops. Samuel did this very solemnly, with a deep sense of its weight. Children are generally eager to tell a story, but they do not always consider what effect its repetition may produce. They are not able to keep a secret, but feel a pleasure in communicating what they know. But this child was now raised up by the Spirit of prophecy and became tender and thoughtful. And as it would cause Eli great anguish, he was very slow to speak. He did not open his mouth on the matter till he was commanded by Eli, and then he did it as a sacred duty. Young Christians should speak much of their Lord and His Gospel. God forbid that I should hinder them! But it will be well for them to speak, not because it is pleasant, but because they must. We must tell out the Divine Word because there is a woe upon us if we withhold it. We must not be flippant, but solemnly, under constraint. Much zeal is very natural, but very worthless, because its source is not Divine. That zeal which is kindled and sustained by a heavenly power which makes us feel that we must speak or the very stones would cry out against us--this zeal, I say, is of an effectual kind--and the more of it the better! If I only feel that I may, or may not, tell what I think I have heard from the Lord, the probability is that I had better be silent. The true prophetic Word is as fire in the bones--it must come out--and yet when it is spoken it is with lips which a live altar-coal has blistered. Samuel did his work very carefully and completely. We read, "and Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him." He said nothing more and nothing less than God had spoken. You know how difficult it is to repeat a story correctly. You may try it at your own table, with all the good people around it. Whisper a story into the ear of the next person to you and let it be repeated in the same fashion from one to another and, by the time it comes round the small circle, it will be quite a fresh affair! Additions and subtractions are weeds which are hard to keep out of the garden of conversation! Alas, this holds good even of the Word of the Lord--how many add to it or take from it! But the child Samuel repeated his story correctly because the fear of the Lord was upon him. When you do tell the Gospel, tell it correctly, for it is wonderfully easy to make another gospel of it--and the tendency to do so is very powerful in these days. How many are proclaiming a mutilated gospel and are not telling "every whit!" Some part of Revelation they think too high, or too dry or too orthodox, or too something or other--and so their overweening conceit induces them to leave it out. Oh, do not so, I pray you! Samuel is to be commended that, when he had to tell Eli what God had spoken, he left out nothing. Tell out the Gospel, you ministers of Christ! Give Christ His due! Give fair proportion to each Truth of God. Do not magnify one doctrine to the exclusion of another, but endeavor to paint the portrait of Revelation with every feature in its place and in due proportion to the rest. It is great wisdom to be able to repeat fully and faithfully what God has spoken to us. May the Holy Spirit aid us herein! It was a very painful duty which the holy child was called upon to perform. Samuel loved his foster father and for him to mention the tremendous doom pronounced upon Eli's house must have caused him great grief of spirit. But he bravely repeated the dread words of the Most High. There are certain Truths in God's Word which we tremble to think upon. Do you dream that we have any pleasure in the doctrine of eternal punishment? We speak of the wrath to come and the everlasting punishment which God apportions to the impenitent with fear and trembling, but we speak of it because we cannot escape from the conviction that it is taught in the Word of God! As Samuel was compelled to tell Eli of the unalterable curse that God had pronounced upon his household, so must God's faithful servants, in the discharge of their duty, speak of the doom of the wicked and never flinch from warning them. O my Hearers, "he that believes not shall be damned," is as true as, "he that believes and is baptized shall be saved." We must speak all the Gospel or else the blood of souls will stain our skirts at the Last Great Day. However painful a duty it may be, it is none the less binding upon us! But then, in Samuel's case, it was an obvious duty. It must have been clear to the young Prophet that he must tell Eli what so much concerned him. This conclusion would be reached without much reasoning. If God had spoken to Samuel, it could only be that he might tell Eli. My Hearer, if the Lord has told you anything about eternal things, He has revealed it that you may pass it on. The Truth of God is no man's private property, to be kept under lock and key, as a secret hoard for personal enrichment. Whatever you know about Christ, tell it! Whatever you know about salvation and Sovereign Grace, tell it! It is revealed to you that you may bear it aloft like a flaming torch for the enlightening of others! God will not speak again to the man who does not spread His Truth. Samuel perceived his duty clearly. And, dear Friends, to communicate the message of God was a very weighty duty to the child Samuel. Read what Eli said to him. "I pray you, hide it not from me: God do so to you, and more, also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said unto you." My Brother in the Gospel, what if you and I should keep back some painful part of God's message and God should do so to us, and more, also? I cannot bear to be lost and yet I shall be lost if I decline to warn others of their danger and of the doom of unbelief! I cannot bear to be cast away forever from the Presence of God, yet this woe will be unto me if I preach not the Gospel and do not declare the whole counsel of God! The result of unbelief and sin in others will fall on us if we do not warn them! O Sirs, if we are unfaithful, God will deal with us at the Day of Judgment as He will deal with the wicked--this is an awful outlook for us! May we never dare to tone down the more severe parts of the Gospel and flatter men in their sins, for if we do this, God will mete out to us a portion with the condemned! If we have sown pillows for their armholes and rocked their cradles by our smooth speech, their eternal ruin shall lie at our door! How shall we bear it when God shall "do so to us, and more, also," because we kept back His message from the sons of men who so much needed it? Let us resolve that come what will, we will keep back nothing of the Truth of God which the Lord has entrusted to us. A false witness for God, a liar to men's souls--what sentence can be greater than his deserts? Is it possible for us to be too earnest here? I have said enough upon the text in its first light. I pray for practical result from it. The Lord does speak to men and it behooves them to hear with reverence--and make known His Word with solemn fidelity and earnestness. II. Let us now view the question as it comes FROM ELI. I understand from Eli's question, first, that we should willingly learn, even from a child. "What? Shall I, a man of 70 or 80, learn from a child?" asks one. Yes, unless you are more foolish than Eli, you may do so. Eli, with all his faults, was willing to hear what God might speak, even if he heard it from the lips of the child, Samuel. How unwise people are when they will not hear a man, but make up their mind that he knows nothing! Some would not hear the most precious Truth of God from the lips of a man whom they despise. Certain of the friars in Luther's day confessed that much of what Luther said was very true and a reformation was certainly very much needed, but then, they would not have it from such a fellow as Luther--a renegade monk who spoke so rudely! Erasmus could be endured, but Luther made such a noise about it! Teaching is often judged, not by its own value, but by the prejudices which people may happen to have concerning the source from which it comes. "I do not like him," says one. Well, what does it matter whether you like him or not? What does he say? If a thing is true, never mind who says it. Believe it! If a babe could be put into the pulpit and it lisped out the precious Gospel of Christ, its lisping would be more worth hearing than all the eloquence of men of years and name whose objective might be to overthrow men's faith. Let the Truth of God come from where it may, welcome it! If God has spoken, though it be but to a boy in knickerbockers, be ready to ask him, "What is the thing that the Lord has said to you?" Next, learn from Eli that we should be willing to know the very worst of our case. Let me repeat that word--we should be willing to know the very worst of our case. I have used this expression in my own prayers many a time--"Lord, let me know the worst of my case." I suggest it as a very excellent petition. Surely, we do not wish to be left in a fool's paradise, pleased with the idea that we are rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing--when all the while we are naked, poor and miserable. We desire to be informed as to our condition. We would know even the frightful truth, the humbling truth, what some would even call the degrading truth--if, indeed, it is truth. We wish to be degraded, if to know the truth would make us feel degraded. Better in the abyss of a truth than on the summit of a lie! We wish to be, in our own sight, what we are in the sight of God. We would not be shams, hypocrites, veneered pretenders, but we would be good men and true. Dear Friend, for this reason do not be angry with the minister if, when you go to hear him on the Lord's Day, his text is not a promise, or a sweet bit of doctrine, but a warning and an exhortation, or even a condemnation. Bare your back to the whip and take your share of the lashes. If the Lord's servant has nothing to give but what comes from the bitter box, do not make faces over it. If he is the Lord's steward and deals out God's Truth, quarrel not with him, lest you be found contending with your Maker! Take the portion, or I might say the potion--it may be the very thing you need. If God has sent you a bitter potion, it will be better for you than the sweetest dainties a smooth-tongued flatterer could prepare. Cry to God to search you and to make you to know your true condition as before His face. Next, we should desire to hear the whole of God's Word. We should say to our minister, "I pray you hide it not from me. What is the thing that the Lord has said to you?" Oh, that our Hearers would desire this at our hands! Ask us, yes, plead with us to tell you all that we know of the Truth of God--and when you have heard all that we know of the Truth--search the Scriptures and find out more, that you may be well instructed in the things which make for your peace. Be like Eli--afraid to have anything kept from you--and anxious to have full information. Like Eli, we should demand faithfulness. We should say to the teacher, to the friend who is dealing with our soul, "I pray you hide it not from me; but be faithful to me." You do not go to a surgeon that he may falsely assure you that you have no wound. And I hope you do not come here that I may give you unsafe comfort and make you feel content in sin. No, Beloved, if you come aright, you say, "I go to hear the Word of God as I go to a physician, that I may have my case truthfully described and honestly treated by one who takes his Master's medicines out of his Master's treasures." Hear not that which makes you contented with self, but that which leads you to seek higher and better things. Let those who are foolish desire to be lulled into the deadly slumber of delusion, but for yourselves, seek after the Truth of God, the whole Truth of God and nothing but the Truth of God--and love that which humbles you and draws you nearer to your Lord! Dear Hearers, pray for us who are preachers of the Gospel, that we may be made faithful and kept so! You know the prevailing currents of these times are toward flesh-pleasing teaching. Men aspire to be clever and, to that end, they must appear to be bold thinkers, highly cultured and far removed from the old worn-out notions of orthodoxy. Many are the floral displays in sermons! Sheaves of corn are too plain and rustic. This is the age of bouquets and wreaths of rare flowers. Paul must give way to Browning and David to Tennyson. Brothers, there are enough in the novelty business without us--we have something better to do! We have to give an account unto our God of what we do and say. And if we have been murderers of souls, it will be no excuse that we flourished the dagger well, or that, when we gave them poison, we mixed the draught cleverly and presented it with poetical phrases. Pray for us that we may be clear of the blood of all men. Keep us right by saying to us, "What is the thing the Lord has said to you? I pray you, hide it not from me!" III. And now, we conclude by considering the question TO AND FROM OURSELVES. I want to put a series of questions very briefly and with great solemnity. Have we ever asked the Lord to speak to us? Yes, yes, my Sister, I know you have! And you, my Brother, you have done still more, for God has already spoken to you. But here, on Thursday evenings, are many unconverted people and I am much rejoiced that you care to come on a week-night to such a place as this. I do not attribute your presence, in every case, to the highest motive, for you come to hear a preacher of whom you have heard much talk. And at another time you will go to hear some noted orator in another place. Did you ever say to yourself, "I will hear what God the Lord will speak"? This would be a far better objective than listening to human rhetoric. Have you shut yourself up in your room, or have you gone into the woods, or climbed a hilltop, or sat down by the sea and said, "Speak to me, Lord! If there are voices out of the eternal and the unseen, here am I to hear them. In mercy speak to me"? My dear Hearer, are you God's creature and have you never heard the voice of your Creator? Do you think yourself God's child and do you live by the month together and never hear your Father's voice? This is pitiable--alas, it is blameworthy! I press the question home. Have you ever asked the Lord to speak to you? Next, have we all regarded what God has spoken? When we were young, on a Sabbath we heard a word from the pulpit which seemed to go right through us--and then and there we wished that we could go home to our chamber to pray. And when we got home, we shut our door and we cried out in our anxiety because all was not right between God and our souls. But what came of it? The tears we shed--were they the tokens of coming conversion? Is it not sadly true that Monday found us at our old tricks? We had forgotten what manner of men we were! Was it not so? Is it so still with some of you? Has God spoken and spoken, and spoken, and spoken, again, and do you still act like the adder that will not hear, though the charmer charms most wisely? Are you as the ass and as the mule which have no understanding and need bit and bridle before you will obey your Master? The Lord have mercy upon you if it is so! If you have been brutish and obstinate, may Divine Grace subdue you. A further question is this--Have we shaped our lives by what God has said? I know many people who read their Bibles and know what the Scripture means, but they never practice what God says to them. Among the rest, they neglect that great Gospel promise--"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." They have neither believed nor been baptized. They are bid to do this and that as Believers--and, avowing themselves to be Believers, they yet refuse to their Lord the obedience which He claims! O my Hearers, to know the Word of God and not to put it into practice is to make rods for your own backs, for he that knew his Master's will and did it not was beaten with many stripes. The more you know, the more stripes will come upon you if you have only knowledge and not obedience! Does not this truthful word come home to some who are sitting here at this time? It ought to do so! God grant that it may lead the "hearers only" to become "doers of the word"! Next, Brothers and Sisters, have we told what we know? That is a practical point. I speak to quite a number of Christian men and women who would have to confess, "No. I am like Samuel, so far that I fear to tell Eli the vision." You were going to speak to the person who sat in the pew with you the other Sunday and you almost got a word out, but it died on your lips. For idle words you will have to give an account. You meant to pray with your child, Mother, but you have not done it yet. What if she dies before you have done so? Good Friend, you meant to speak to the man at the next bench in your workshop. Ah, you have meant to do it so many times! I had a friend, a dear friend, who is now, I trust, in Heaven, and there was a man who used to take orders from him for goods and bring them to him when finished. He was a good and punctual workman, but not a Christian. Well, my friend intended--ah, he intended for years--to have a quiet conversation with that workman about his soul. One day the goods came in, but a woman brought them. She said, "I am So-and-So's wife. He finished these goods, but he is dead." My friend said that the words were like a bullet to his heart, for he had so often thought of the man and often said to himself, "I must and will speak to him the next time he calls." But somehow, when he came into the shop, business was brisk and he looked over the goods and paid for them as quickly as he could--and never began a conversation! Now the man was beyond the reach of warning or instruction. Do not let it be so with any person with whom you come in contact! Do as Samuel did--tell the whole of it if they ask you to tell them--or even if they do not ask you to tell them! Those who do not ask you are probably those who have the most need of your efforts! I believe there is an art in private conversation. Certain of our dear friends are always telling out the Gospel on all sides and they seem to do it with much ease. I speak of my Lord, also, to individuals, but I must confess that it does not come so easy to me to speak to an individual as to preach to thousands. We must school ourselves to it. That art of buttonholing and coming into close contact with individuals is one that we must cultivate--and we must not be satisfied until we become expert in it--for it is one of the chief ways in which men are saved. Lastly, there is one question which I would like to ask and I have done. Do our children ever rebuke us? Perhaps we have no children--they are all grown up, but possibly we have grandchildren. This Samuel was to Eli like a grandchild. His sons were grown up and had left him. But here was this little one brought into the Temple to minister there and the old man came to be rebuked by this little child! I have known some--perhaps they are even now present--who are godless fathers, drunken fathers, but their grandchildren are members of the Church and good, gracious, amiable, lovely, useful children, too! Grandfathers, are you going down to Hell while your grandchildren are going to Heaven? I charge you by the living God, before whose bar you must surely stand, look at your little ones and hear their prayers and hear their hymns--could you bear to be everlastingly separated from them? And, Fathers, this should come home closely to you. You know that girl of yours--how you love her--and well you may! Your heart is bound up in your little daughter. She is everything a child can be to a father--but she often weeps because she tries to get you to hear the Gospel and you will not come. Sunday to you is not what it is to her and that grieves her. You were making a rabbit hutch last Sunday, were you not? And your child said, "Father, do come to the House of God," but you would not come, and you pained your child. Will you bear in mind a solemn Truth of God? If your daughter goes to the right and you go to the left, you are probably parting forever. It is not possible that the way of sin should end where the way of righteousness will end! Do not choose eternal separation from your dear ones who love the Lord. Think these things over because, on a Sabbath, when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, some of you have to go away and leave a wife or a dear child behind to commune at the sacred feast. Many thoughts are stirred at that dividing time. I wish that such searching of heart might arise tonight in downright earnest. There will be weeping--there will be weeping, at the Judgement Seat of Christ! And if children now rebuke their Christless friends, what will be the thunder of that rebuke when they shall be caught up to the Throne of the highest and their ungodly relatives are cast out forever into the pit prepared for the wicked? God bless you all richly, for Jesus' sake! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--1 Samuel2:27-36. __________________________________________________________________ Our Manifesto (No. 2185) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 25, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT AN ASSEMBLY OF MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL. DELIVERED ON FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 25, 1890. "But I make known to you, Brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man." Galatians 1:11. To me it is a pitiful sight to see Paul defending himself as an Apostle and, doing this, not against the gainsaying world, but against cold-hearted members of the Church! They said that he was not truly an Apostle, for he had not seen the Lord. And they uttered a great many other things derogatory to him. To maintain his claim to the Apostleship, he was driven to commence his Epistles with, "Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ," though his work was a self-evident proof of his call. If, after God has blessed us to the conversion of many, some of these should raise a question as to our call to the ministry, we may count it a fiery trial--but we shall not conclude that a strange thing has happened to us. There is much more room to question our call to the ministry than to cast a doubt upon Paul's Apostleship! This indignity, if it is put upon us, we can, by His Grace, cheerfully bear for our Master's sake. We need not wonder, dear Brothers, if our ministry should be the subject of attack, because this has been the lot of those who have gone before us--and we should lack one great seal of our acceptance with God if we did not receive the unconscious homage of enmity which is always paid to the faithful by the ungodly world! When the devil is not troubled by us, he does not trouble us. If his kingdom is not shaken, he will not care about us or our work, but will let us enjoy inglorious ease. Be comforted by the experience of the Apostle of the Gentiles--he is peculiarly our Apostle--and we may regard his experience as a type of what we may expect while we labor among the Gentiles of our own day. The treatment which has been given to eminent men while they have lived has been prophetic of the treatment of their reputations after death. This evil world is unchangeable in antagonism to true principles, whether their advocates are dead or living. They said, more than 1,800 years ago--"Paul, what of him?" They still say so. It is not unusual to hear dubious persons profess to differ from the Apostle and they even dare to say, "There, I do not agree with Paul." I remember the first time that I heard this expression. I looked at the individual with astonishment. I was amazed that such a pigmy as he should say this of the great Apostle! Altogether apart from Paul's Inspiration, it seemed like a cheese-mite differing from a cherub, or a handful of chaff discussing the verdict of the fire! The individual was so utterly beneath observation that I could not but marvel that his conceit should have been so outspokenly shameless. Notwithstanding this objection, even when supported by learned critics, we still agree with the Inspired servant of God. It is our firm conviction that to differ from Paul's Epistles is to differ from the Holy Spirit--and to differ from the Lord Jesus Christ, whose mind Paul has fully expressed! It is remarkable that Paul's writings should be so assailed! But this warns us that when we have gone to our reward, our names will not be free from aspersion, nor our teaching from opposition. The noblest of the departed are still slandered. Be not careful as to human judgment of yourself in death or in life, for what does it matter? Your real character, no man can injure but yourself, and if you are enabled to keep your garments clean, all else is not worth a thought. To come more closely to our text. We do not claim to be able to use Paul's words exactly in the full sense which he could throw into them, but there is a sense in which, I trust, we can each one say, "I make known to you, Brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man." We may not only say this, but we ought to be able to say it with thorough truthfulness. The form of expression goes as far as Paul was known to go towards an oath when he says, "I make known to you, brethren." He means, I assure you most certainly--I would have you to be certain of it--"that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man." On this point he would have all the brethren know past all doubt. From the context we are sure that he meant, first of all, that his Gospel was not received by him from men. His reception of it, in his own mind, was not after men. And next, he meant, that the Gospel itself was not invented by men. If I can hammer out these two statements, we will then draw practical conclusions from them. I. First, TO US THE GOSPEL IS NOT AFTER MEN AS TO THE MODE BY WHICH WE HAVE RECEIVED IT. In a certain sense we received it from men as to the outward part of the reception, for we were called by the Grace of God through parental influence, or through a Sunday school teacher, or by the ministry of the Word, or by the reading of a godly book, or by other agency. But in Paul's case, none of these things were used! He was distinctly called by the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, speaking to him from Heaven and revealing Himself in His own light. It was necessary that Paul should not be indebted to Peter, or James, or John--even in the way in which many of us are indebted to instrumentality--so that he might truly say, "I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ." Yet we also can say this in another sense. We, also, have received the Gospel in a way beyond the power of man to convey it to us--men brought it to our ears, but the Lord, Himself, applied it to our heart. The best of the saints could not have brought it home to our hearts, so as to regenerate, convert and sanctify us by it. There was a distinct act of God, the Holy Spirit, by which the instrumentality was made effectual and the truth was rendered operative upon our souls. So I note that not one among us has received the Gospel by birthright. We may be the children of holy parents, but we are not, therefore, the children of God. To us it is clear that, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," and nothing more. Only, "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Yet we hear of persons whose children do not need conversion. They are spoken of as being free from natural corruption and born children of God--having a Divine Grace within which only needs to be developed. I am sorry to say that my father did not find me such a child. He found out early in my life that I was born in sin, shaped in iniquity and that folly was bound up in my heart! Friends and teachers soon perceived in me a natural depravity and, assuredly, I have found it in myself! The sad discovery needed no minute research, for the effect of the evil stared me in the face in my character. This tradition as to our being born with a holy nature is gaining foothold in the professing church, though contrary to Scripture--and even to the confessions of faith which are still avowedly maintained! Certain preachers hardly dare formulate it as a doctrine, but it is, with them, a kind of chaotic belief that there may be productions of the flesh which are very superior and will serve well enough without the new birth of the Spirit. This tacit belief will lead up to birthright membership and that is fatal to any Christian community, wherever it comes to be the rule! Without conversion, in certain fellowships, young people may drift into the church as a matter of course, but the church becomes only a part of the world--with the Christian name affixed to it! May we never, in our Churches, sink into that condition! That religion which is a mere family appendage is of little worth! The true seed are "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." We have not received our faith by tradition from our parents--and yet, some of us, if true faith could be so received, would certainly have thus received it, for if we are not Hebrews of the Hebrews, but, according to our family tree, we are Puritans of the Puritans, descended throughout many generations of Believers. Of this we make small account before God, though we are not ashamed of it before men. We have no father in our spiritual life but the Lord, Himself, and we have not received that life, or the Gospel, by any carnal parentage, but of the Lord alone! Brothers, we have not received the Gospel, nor do we now receive it, because of the teaching of any man, or set of men. Do you receive anything because Calvin taught it? If so, you had need look to your foundations. Do you believe a doctrine because John Wesley preached it? If so, you have reason to mind what you are doing. God's way, by which we are to receive the Truth of God, is to receive it by the Holy Spirit! It is helpful to me to know what such-and-such a minister believed. The judgment of a holy, godly, clear-sighted, gifted Divine is not to be despised--it deserves to have due weight with us. He is as likely to be right as we are and we should differ from a Grace-taught man with some hesitancy. But it is a very different thing to say, "I believe it on this good man's authority." In our raw state as young Christians, it may not be injurious to receive the Truth of God from pastors and parents, and so on, but if we are to become men in Christ Jesus, and teachers of others, we must quit the childish habit of depend- ence on others and search for ourselves! We may now leave the egg and get rid of the pieces of shell as quickly as may be. It is our duty to search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so--and more--it is our wisdom to cry for Grace to appropriate each Truth and let it dwell in our inmost nature. It is time that we should be able to say, "This Truth of God is now as personally my own as if I had never heard it from lips of man! I receive it because it has been written on my own heart by the Lord, Himself. Its coming to me is not after men." There is an opinion current in certain circles that you must not receive anything unless it is taught you of men--the word, "men," being swallowed up and hidden away, but being there, after all, under the term--"the church." The church is set up as the great authority! If she has sanctioned it, you dare not question it! If she decrees, it is yours to obey! But this is to receive a gospel "after man" with a vengeance. And the process involved is a strange one. You must trace a dogma as coming through a continuous visible church and this will lead you through the Cloaca Maxima of old Rome. Though the Truth of God is manifestly clear and pure and proves itself to be the Water of Life to you, yet you must not accept it--you must take yourself to the mudded stream which can be traced through the foul channel of a continuous church, which for ages has apostatized! My dear Brethren, a doctrine's being believed by what may, in courtesy, be called "the church," is no voucher for it! The most of us would almost regard it as being a question to be raised whether teaching can be true which has been vouched for by those great worldly corporations which have usurped the name of churches of Christ. Several sects claim Apostolic succession and if any possess it, the Baptists are the most likely, since they practice the ordinances as they were delivered. But we do not even care to trace our pedigree through the long line of martyrs and of men abhorred by ecclesiastics. If we could do this without a break, the result would be of no value in our eyes, for the rag of "Apostolic succession" is not worth warehouse-room! Those who contend for the fiction may monopolize it if they will. We do not receive the Revelation of God because it has been received by a succession of fathers, monks, abbots and bishops! We are right glad when we perceive that certain of them saw the Truth of God and taught it--but that fact does not make it the Truth of God to us. We would, each one, say, "I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man." We never think of quoting the community of men called "the church" as the ultimate authority with conscience. "We have not so learned Christ." Furthermore, I hope I shall speak for all of you here when I say that we have received the Truth of God personally by the revelation of it to our own souls by the Spirit of the Lord. Albeit that in so large a company as this I fear there may be a Judas, and the, "Lord, is it I?" may well be passed round with holy self-suspicion, yet we can all say, unless fearfully deceived, that we have received the Truth of God which we preach by the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit. Let us turn to our diaries, though the dates are now far away in the long-ago. We remember when the Light of God broke in and revealed our lost estate and thus began the groundwork of our teaching. Ah, Friends, the darker doctrines which make up the foil of the priceless jewels of the Gospel--do you not remember when you received them with power? That I was guilty, I believed, for I was so taught--but then and there I knew in my soul that it was so! Oh, how I knew it! Guilty before God, "condemned already," and lying under the present curse of a broken Law, I was sorely dismayed. I had heard the Law of God preached and I had trembled as I heard it, but now I felt an inward conviction of personal guilt of the most piercing character. I saw myself a sinner--and what a sight is that! Fearfulness took hold upon me and shame and dread. Then I saw how true was the doctrine of the sinfulness of sin--and what a punishment it must involve. That doctrine I no longer received of men! The precious doctrine of peace through the precious blood of Jesus we also know by inward personal teaching. We used to hear and sing of the great Sacrifice and of the love of Him who bore our sins in His own body on the tree. But now we stood at the foot of the Cross--for ourselves we beheld that dear face and gazed into the eyes so full of pity--and saw the hands and feet that were fastened to the wood for our sakes. Oh, when we saw the Lord Jesus, as our Surety, smarting for our offense, then we received the Truths of Redemption and Atonement in a way that was "not after man"! Yes, those gracious men who have gone to Heaven did preach the Gospel to us fully and earnestly--and they labored to make known Christ to us! But to reveal the Son of God in us was beyond their power! They could as easily have created a world as have made these Truths of God vital to us! We say, therefore, each one from his inmost soul, "I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man," so far as the way by which we have come to know and feel it within our own souls! Since our first days we have experienced a gradual opening up of the Gospel to our understanding, but in all that process, our real progress has been of God--not of men. Brethren, you read commentators--that is to say, if your own comments are worth hearing you read the books of godly men--that is to say, if you, yourselves, ever say anything worth reading, yet your spiritual learning, if it is true and real, is of the Lord's imparting. Do we learn anything, in the most emphatic sense of learning, unless we are taught of the Lord? Is it not essential that God the Spirit should lay home the Truth of God which has been spoken to you, even by the ablest instructor? You have continued to be students ever since you left College, but your Tutor has been the Holy Spirit. By no other method can our spirits learn the Truth of God but by the teaching of the Spirit of God. We can receive the shell and the outer form of theology, but the real Word of the Lord, itself, comes by the Holy Spirit who leads us into all Truth. How sweetly the Spirit has taught us in meditation! Have you not often been surprised and overcome with delight as Holy Scripture has opened up as if the gates of the Golden City had been set back for you to enter? I am sure that you did not, then, gather your knowledge from men, because it was all fresh to you as you sat alone with no book before you but the Bible and yourself receptive, scarcely thinking out matters, but drinking them in as the Lord brought them to you! A few minutes' silent openness of soul before the Lord has brought us in more treasure of Truth than hours of learned research! The Truth of God is something like those stalactite caverns and grottoes of which we have heard, which you must enter and see for yourself if you would really know their wonders. If you should venture there without light or guide, you would run great risks, but with blazing torch and an instructed leader, your entrance is full of interest. Look! Your guide has taken you through a narrow winding passage where you have to creep, or go on bended knees! At last he has brought you out into a magnificent hall and when the torches are held aloft, the far-off roof sparkles and flashes back the light as from countless jewels of every hue! You now behold Nature's architecture and cathedrals are, therefore, toys to you. As you stand in that vast pillared and jeweled palace, you feel how much you owe to your guide and to his flaming torch. Thus the Holy Spirit leads us into all Truth and sheds the Light of God on the eternal and the mysterious! This He does in certain cases very personally. Then He fills us with complete forgetfulness of all our immediate surroundings and we commune only with the Truth of God. I can well understand how philosophers, while working out an absorbing problem, have seemed lost and oblivious to all the world besides. Have you never felt a holy absorption in the Truth while the Spirit has filled you with its glorious vision? It has been so with many of the saints while taught of God. They are not likely to give up to popular clamor what they have thus received! How often has the Lord taught His servants His own Truth in the school of tribulation! We speak well of meditation--it is as silver--but tribulation is as much fine gold! Tribulation not only works patience, but patience brings experience and, in experience, there is a deep and intimate knowledge of the things of God which comes by no other means. Do you know what it is to be in such pain that you could not bear one more turn of the screw? And have you, then, in faintness fallen back upon your pillow and felt that even then you could not be more happy unless you were caught up to the third Heaven? Then has it been verified to some of us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. While lying in passive peace, it may be you have seen a Scripture come forth like a star between the clouds of a tempest, and it has shone with such luster as only the Lord God could have given to it. Depression of spirit and torture of body have been forgotten while the bright promise has made your soul full of light! There is a place in the far-back desert which you can never forget. There grows a bush. A very unpromising object is a bush--but it is sacred to you--for there the Lord revealed Himself to you and the bush burned with fire, but was not consumed. You will never unlearn the lesson of the burning bush! Do we know any Truth of God till the Holy Spirit burns it into us--and engraves it on our soul as with an iron pen and with the point of a diamond? There are ways of learning for which we are very grateful, but the surest way of learning Divine Truth is by having the Word of God engrafted so as to take living hold upon the soul! Then we do not only believe it--we give our life to it--it lives in us and, at the same time, we live upon it! Such Truth throbs in every pulse, for it lives in us and colors our being. The devil insinuates questions, but we are not accountable for what he pleases to do, and we care the less, because he now whispers into a deaf ear. When once the soul, itself, has received the Truth of God, and it has come to permeate the entire being, we are not accessible to those doubts which before pierced us like poisoned arrows! I may add, concerning many of the Truths of God and the whole Gospel system, that we have learned the Truth, thereof, in the field of sacrifice and service with our Lord, so that to us it is not after man. If you do not believe in human depravity, accept a pastorate in this wicked London and if you are true to your commission, you will doubt no more! If you do not believe in the necessity of the Holy Spirit to regenerate, take charge over a cultured and polished congregation that will hear all your rhetoric, and will remain as worldly and as frivolous as it was before! If you do not believe in the power of the atoning blood, never go and see Believers die, for you will find that they trust in nothing else! A dying Christ is the last resort of the Believer-- " When every earthly prop gives way He, then, is all my strength and stay" If you do not believe in the election of Grace, live where multitudes of men come under your notice and persons most unlikely are called out from among them in surprising ways--and it will grow upon you! Here comes one who says, "I have neither father, mother, brother, sister, nor friend who ever enters a place of worship." "How came you to believe?" "I heard a word in the street, Sir, quite by accident, that brought me to tremble before God." Here is the election of Grace! Here comes another, dark in mind, troubled in soul and she is a member of a family--all of them members of your Church--all happy and rejoicing in the Lord. And yet this poor creature cannot lay hold upon Christ by faith. To your great joy, you set before her Christ in all His fullness of Grace and she becomes the brightest of the whole circle, for they never knew the darkness as she did, and they can never rejoice in the Light of God as she delights in it! To find a greatly-loving saint you must find one who has had much forgiven. The woman that was a sinner is the only one that will wash Christ's feet. There is raw material in a Publican which you seldom find in a Pharisee. A Pharisee may polish up into an ordinary Christian, but somehow there is a charming touch about the pardoned sinner which is lacking in the other. There is an election of Grace and you cannot help noticing, as you go about, how certain Believers enter into the inner circle, while others linger in the outer courts. The Lord is Sovereign in His gifts and does as He wills--and we are called to bow before His scepter within the Church as well as at its portal. The longer I live, the more sure I am that salvation is all of Grace and that the Lord gives that Grace according to His own will and purpose. Once more, some of us have received the Gospel because of the wonderful unction that has gone with it at times to our souls. I hope that none of us will ever fall into the snare of following the guidance of impressions made upon us by texts which happen to come prominently before our minds. You have judgements and you must not lay them aside to be guided by impressions. But for all that and at the back of all that, there is not a man here that has led an eventful, useful life but must confess that certain of those acts of his life, upon which his whole history has hinged, are connected with influences upon his mind which were produced, as he believes, by supernatural agency! A passage of Holy Writ, which we have read a hundred times before, took us captive and became the master of every thought. We steered by it as men trust the pole-star and we found that our voyage was made easy thereby. Certain texts are, to our memory, sweet as wafers made with honey, for we know what they once did for us and the recollection is refreshing. We have been revived from a fainting fit, nerved for a desperate effort, or fired for a sacrifice by a Scripture which became no longer a word in a book, but the very voice of God to our soul--even that voice of the Lord which is full of majesty! Have you not noticed how a turn of a word in a text has made it seem all the more fitted for you? It looked a very small point, but it was essential to its effect, just as a small notch in a key may be the exact form which makes it fit the lock. How much may hang on what seems, to the unspiritual, to be nothing more than a slight verbal distinction, or an unimportant turn of expression! A thought of primary importance may turn upon the singular of plural of a word. If it is the Greek word, itself, the importance cannot be overestimated, but in an English word, in the translation, there may be well-near equal force according as the Word is true to the original. The many, who can only read our marvelous English Bible, come to prize its words because the Lord has blessed them to their souls. A simple Welsh friend believed that our Lord must have been a Welshman, because, he said, he always speaks to me in Welsh. To me it has often seemed as if the Well-Beloved of my soul had been born in my native village, had gone to my school and had passed through all my personal experiences, for He knows me better than I know myself. Although I know He was of Bethlehem and Judea, yet He seems like one of London, or of Surrey. No, more--I see in Him more than manhood could have made Him--I discern in Him a Nature more than that of man, for He enters the inmost recesses of my soul, He reads me like an open page, He comforts me as one brought up with me, He dives into my deepest griefs and attends me in my highest joys! I have secrets in my heart which only He knows. Would God His secret were with me as mine is with Him up to the measure of my capacity! It is because of that wonderful power which the Lord Jesus has over us through His sacred Word that we receive that Word from Him and receive it as not of man. What is unction, my Brothers? I fear that no one can help me by a definition. Who can define it? But yet we know where it is and we certainly feel where it is not. When that unction perfumes the Word of God, it is its own interpreter, it is its own apologist, it is it own confirmation and proof to the regenerate mind. Then the Word of God deals with us as no word of man ever did or could! We have not received it, therefore, of men. Constantly receiving the Divine Word as we do, it comes to us with an energy always fresh and forcible. It comes to us, especially, with a sanctifying power which is the very best proof of its coming from the thrice-holy God. Philosophers' words may teach us what holiness is, but God's Word makes us holy! We hear our Brethren exhort us to aspire to high degrees of Grace, but God's Word lifts us up to them! The Word is not merely an instrument of good, but the Holy Spirit makes it an active energy within the soul to purge the heart from sin so that it can be said, "You are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you." When thus cleansed, you know that the Word is true. You are sure of it and you no longer need, even, the most powerful book of evidences. You have the witness in yourself, the evidence of things not seen, the seal of eternal verity. I have taken all this time upon how we receive the Gospel and, therefore, I must be brief upon a further point. II. TO US THE TRUTH ITSELF IS NOT AFTER MEN. I desire to assert this plainly. If any man thinks that the Gospel is only one of many religions, let him candidly compare the Scripture of God with other pretended revelations. Have you ever done so? I have made it a College exercise with our Brothers. I have said--We will read a chapter of the Koran. This is the Muslim's holy book. A man must have a strange mind who should mistake that rubbish for the utterances of Inspiration! If he is at all familiar with the Old and New Testaments, when he hears an extract from the Koran, he feels that he has met with a foreign author--the God who gave us the Pentateuch could have had no hand in many portions of the Koran! One of the most modern pretenders to inspiration is the Book of Mormon. I could not blame you should you laugh outright while I read aloud a page from that conglomeration. Perhaps you are familiar with the apocryphal New Testament books. It would be an insult to the judgement of the least in the Kingdom of Heaven to suppose that he could mistake the language of these forgeries for the language of the Holy Spirit! I have had several pretended revelations submitted to me by their several authors, for we have more of the prophetic clan about than most people know of, but not one of them has ever left on my mind the slightest suspicion of his sharing the Inspiration of John, or Paul. There is no mistaking the Inspired Books if you have any spiritual discernment! Once let the Divine Light dawn in the soul and you perceive a coloring and a fashion in the product of Inspiration which are not possible to mere men. Would one who doubts this write us a fifth Gospel? Would anyone among our poets attempt to write a new Psalm which could be mistaken for a Psalm of David? I do not see why he could not, but I am sure he cannot. You can give us new psalmody, for it is an instinct of the Christian life to sing the praises of God, but you cannot match the glory of Divinely-inspired songs. Therefore we receive the Scripture and, consequently, the Gospel as not after man. You say, perhaps, "You are comparing books and forgetting that your theme is the Gospel." But this is only in appearance. I do not care to waste your time by asking you to compare the gospels of men. There is not another gospel that I know of that is worth the comparison for a single minute. Oh, but, they say, there is a gospel that is much wider than yours. Yes, I know that it is much wider than mine, but to what does it lead? They say that what is nicknamed Calvinism has a very narrow door. There is a word in Scripture about a strait gate and a narrow way and, therefore, I am not alarmed by the accusation. But then there are rich pastures when you enter within and this renders it worth while to enter in by the strait gate! Certain other systems have very wide doors--but they lead you into small privileges--and those of a precarious tenure. I hear certain invitations which might run as follows--"Come you disconsolate! But if you come, you will still be disconsolate, for there will be no eternal life made sure to you and you must preserve your own souls, or perish after all." But I shall not enter into any comparisons, for they are odious in this case. The Gospel, our Gospel, is beyond the strain and reach of human thought. When men have exercised themselves to the very highest in original conceptions, they have never yet thought out the true Gospel. If it is such a commonplace thing as the critics would have us believe, why did it not arise in the minds of the Egyptians or Chinese? Great minds often run in the same grooves--why did not other great minds run in the same grooves as those of Moses, or Isaiah, or Paul? I think it is a fair thing to say that if it is such a commonplace form of teaching, it might have arisen among the Persians or Hindus, or, surely, we might have found something like it among the great teachers of Greece! Did any of these think out the doctrine of free and Sovereign Grace? Did they guess at the Incarnation and Sacrifice of the Son of God? No, even with the aid of our Inspired Book, no Muslim, to my knowledge, has taught a system of Grace in which God is glorified as to His justice, His love and His sovereignty. That sect has grasped a certain sort of predestination which it has defaced into blind faith, but even with that to help them, and the unity of the Godhead as a powerful light to aid them, they have never thought out a plan of salvation so just to God and so pacifying to the troubled conscience as the method of redemption by the substitution of our Lord Jesus! I will give you another proof, which, to my mind, is conclusive that our Gospel is not after men, and it is this--that it is immutable and nothing that man produces can be so called. If man makes a gospel--and he is very fond of doing it, like children making toys--what does he do? He is very pleased with it for a few moments and then he pulls it to pieces and makes it up in another way--and this continually! The religions of modern thought are as changeable as the mists on the mountains! Look how often science has altered its very basis! Science is notorious for being most scientific in destruction of all the science that has gone before it! I have sometimes indulged myself, in leisure moments, in reading ancient natural history--and nothing can be more comic. Yet this is by no means an abstruse science. In 20 years' time, some of us may probably find great amusement in the serious scientific teaching of the present hour, even as we do now in the systems of the last century. It may happen that in a little time the doctrine of evolution will be the standing jest of schoolboys. The same is true of the modern divinity which bows its knee in blind idolatry of so-called science. Now, we say, and do so with all our heart, that the Gospel which we preached 40 years ago, we will still preach in 40 years' time if we are alive. [Less than two years later, Brother Spurgeon began eternity in the Presence of his Master--EO.] And, what is more, that the Gospel which was taught of our Lord and His Apostles is the only Gospel now on the face of the earth! Ecclesiastics have altered the Gospel and if it had not been of God, it would have been stifled by falsehood long ago. But because the Lord has made it, it abides forever! Everything human is, before long, moon-struck, so that it shifts with every phase of the lunar orb. But the Word of the Lord is not after men, for it is the same yesterday, today and forever. It cannot be after men, again, because it is so opposed to human pride. Other systems flatter men, but this speaks the Truth of God. Hear the dreamers of today cry up the dignity of human nature! How sublime is man! But point me to a single syllable in which the Word of God sets itself to the extolling of man. On the contrary, it lays him in the very dust and reveals his condemnation! Where is boasting, then? It is excluded--the door is shut in its face. The self-glorification of human nature is foreign to Scripture which has for its grand object the Glory of God! God is everything in the Gospel which I preach and I believe that He is All in All in your ministry, also. There is a gospel in which the work and the glory are divided between God and man--and salvation is not altogether of Grace--but in our Gospel, salvation is of the Lord! Man never could nor would have invented and devised a Gospel which would lay him low and secure to the Lord God all the honor and praise. This seems to me to be clear beyond all question and, therefore, our Gospel is not after men. Again, it is not after men, because it does not give sin any quarter. I have heard that an Englishman has professed himself a Muslim because he is charmed by the polygamy which the Arabian Prophet allows his followers. No doubt the prospect of four wives would win converts who would not be attracted by spiritual considerations. If you preach a gospel which makes allowances for human nature and treats sin as if it were a mistake rather than a crime, you will find willing hearers. If you can provide absolution at small cost and can ease conscience by a little self-denial, it will not be amazing if your religion becomes fashionable. But our Gospel declares that the wages of sin is death and that we can only have eternal life as the gift of God--and that this gift always brings with it sorrow for sin, a hatred towards it and an avoidance of it! Our Gospel tells a man that he must be born again and that without the new birth he will be eternally lost, while with it he will obtain everlasting salvation! Our Gospel offers no excuse or cloak for sin, but utterly condemns it. It presents no pardon except through the great Atonement and it will give that man no security who tries to harbor any sin in his bosom. Christ died for sin--and we must die to sin, or die eternally. If we preach the Gospel faithfully, we must preach the Law of God. You cannot fully preach salvation by Christ without setting Sinai at the back of the picture and Calvary in the front! Men must be made to feel the evil of sin before they will prize the great Sacrifice which is the head and front of our Gospel. This is not to the taste of this or any other age and, therefore, I am sure man did not invent it. We know that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is not of men because our Gospel is so suitable for the poor and illiterate. The poor, according to the usual fashion of men, are overlooked. Parliament has enclosed all the commons so that a poor man cannot keep a goose! I doubt not that, if it were likely to be effectual, we should soon hear of a bill for distributing freeholds of the stars among certain sky-lords! It is evident that a fine property in the celestial regions is, at the present time, unregistered in any of our courts. Well, they may sooner enclose and assign the sun, moon and stars than the Gospel of our Lord Jesus! This is the poor man's common. "The poor have the Gospel preached to them." Yet there are not a few, nowadays, who despise a Gospel which the common people can hear and understand! And we may be sure that a plain Gospel never came from them, for their taste does not lie in that direction. They want something abstruse, or, as they say, thoughtful. Do we not hear this sort of remark, "We are an intellectual people and need a cultured ministry. Those evangelistic preachers are all very well for popular assemblies, but we have always been select and require that preaching which is abreast of the times"? Yes, yes, and their man will be one who will not preach the Gospel unless it is in a clouded manner, for if he does declare the Gospel of Jesus, the poor will be sure to intrude themselves and shock my lords and ladies! Brothers, our Gospel does not know anything about high and low, rich and poor, black and white, cultured and uncultured! If it makes any difference, it prefers the poor and down-trodden. The great Founder of it says, "I thank You, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them unto babes." We praise God that He has chosen the base things and things that are despised! I hear it boasted of a man's ministry, although it gradually diminishes the congregation, that it is doing a great work among thoughtful young men. I confess that I am not a believer in the existence of these thoughtful young men--those who mistake themselves for such I have generally found to be more conceited than thoughtful. Young men are all very well and so are young women, and old women, also, but I am sent to preach the Gospel to every creature and I cannot limit myself to thoughtful young men! I make known to you that the Gospel which I have preached is not after men, for it knows nothing of selection and exclusiveness, but it values the soul of a sweep or a dustman at the same price as that of the Lord Mayor, or her Majesty! Lastly, we are sure that the Gospel we have preached is not after men, because men do not take to it. It is opposed, even to this day. If anything is hated bitterly, it is the out-and-out Gospel of the Grace of God, especially if that hateful word, Sovereignty is mentioned with it! Dare to say, "He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion," and furious critics will revile you without stint! The modern religionist not only hates the doctrine of Sovereign Grace, but he raves and rages at the mention of it! He would sooner hear you blaspheme than preach Election by the Father, Atonement by the Son, or Regeneration by the Spirit. If you want to see a man worked up till the Satanic is clearly uppermost, let some of the new divines hear you preach a Free-Grace sermon! A gospel which is after men will be welcomed by men--but it needs a Divine operation upon the heart and mind to make a man willing to receive into his utmost soul this distasteful Gospel of the Grace of God! My dear Brothers, do not try to make it tasteful to carnal minds! Hide not the offense of the Cross lest you make it of no effect. The angles and corners of the Gospel are its strength--to pare them off is to deprive it of power! Toning down is not the increase of strength, but the death of it. Why, even among the sects, you must have noticed that their distinguishing points are the horns of their power--and when these are practically omitted, the sect is effete. Learn, then, that if you take Christ out of Christianity, Christianity is dead! If you remove Grace out of the Gospel, the Gospel is gone! If the people do not like the Doctrines of Grace, give them all the more of them! Whenever its enemies rail at a certain kind of gun, a wise military power will provide more of such artillery. A great general, going in before his king, stumbled over his own sword. "I see, said the king, your sword in is the way." The warrior answered, "Your Majesty's enemies have often felt the same." That our Gospel offends the King's enemies is no regret to us! Dear Friends, if it is so that we have not received the Gospel from man, but from God, let us continue to receive the Truth of God by the Divinely-appointed channel of faith. Are you sure that you always will, to the fullest, understand the Truth of God? With most of us, the understanding is like a narrow rear gate to the city of Mansoul, and the great things of God cannot be so cut down as to be brought in by that entrance. The door is not wide enough! But our city has a great gate called faith, through which even the infinite and eternal may be admitted. Give over the hopeless effort of dragging into the mind by efforts of reason, that which can so readily dwell in you by the Holy Spirit through faith! We that speak against rationalism are, ourselves, apt to reason too much--and there is nothing so unreasonable as to hope to receive the things of God by reasoning them out! Let us believe them upon the Divine testimony--and when they try us and even when they seem to grate upon the sensibilities of humanity--let us receive them, none the less, for all that. We are not to be judges of what God's Truth ought to be--we are to accept it as the Lord reveals it. Next, let us, each one, expect opposition if he receives the Truth from the Lord, and especially opposition from one person who is both near and dear to him--namely, himself. There is a certain old man who is yet alive and he is no lover of the Truth of God, but, on the contrary, he is a partisan of falsehood. I heard a gracious policeman say that when he stood in Trafalgar Square and fellows of the baser sort kicked him and the other police, he felt a bone of the old man stirring within him. Ah, we have felt that bone, too often! The carnal nature opposes the Truth of God, for it is not reconciled to God, neither, indeed, can be! Let us pray the Lord to conquer our pride, that His Truth may dominate us, despite our evil hearts! As to the outside world opposing, we are not at all alarmed by that fact, for it is exactly what we were taught to expect. We are now unmoved by opposition. The captain of a ship minds not if a little spray breaks over him. Remember that if you did not receive the Truth except through the power of the Spirit of God, you cannot expect others to do so. They will not believe your report unless the arm of the Lord is revealed to them. But then, if faith is the Holy Spirit's work, we need not fear that men can destroy it. Those who attempt to change our belief may well be a little dubious as to their success in the task they have undertaken. If faith is a Divine work within our souls, we may defy all sophistries, flatteries, temptations and threats. We shall be divinely obstinate--those who would pervert us will have to give us up! Possibly they will call us bigots, or hard-shells, or even idiots--but this, too, also signifies little if our names are written in Heaven! Let us also conclude from our subject that if these things come to us from God, we can safely rest our all upon them. If they came to us of men, they would probably fail us in a crisis. Did you ever trust men and not rue the day before the sun was down? Did you ever rely on an arm of flesh without discovering that the best of men are men at the best? But if these things come of God, they are eternal and all sufficient! We can both live and die upon the everlasting Gospel! Let us deal more and more with God and with Him, only. If we have obtained Light from Him, there is more of blessing to be had. Let us go to that same Teacher, that we may learn more of the deep things of God. Let us bravely believe in the success of the Gospel which we have received. We believe in it--let us believe for it. We will not despair though the whole visible Church should apostatize! When invaders had surrounded Rome and all the country lay at their mercy, a piece of land was to be sold and a Roman bought it at a fair value. The enemy was there, but he would not be dislodged. The enemy might destroy the Roman State. Let him try it! Be you of the same mind! The God of Jacob is our Refuge and none can stand against His eternal power and Godhead. The everlasting Gospel is our banner and, with Jehovah to maintain it, our standard never shall be lowered! In the power of the Holy Spirit, the Truth of God is invincible! Come on, you hosts of Hell and armies of the aliens! Let craft and criticism, rationalism and priestcraft do their best! The Word of the Lord endures forever--even that Word which, by the Gospel, is preached unto men! PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--2 Corinthians 4 __________________________________________________________________ Our Expectation (No. 2186) DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "He shall see His seed." Isaiah 53:10. THE first thought suggested by this text is that Jesus is still alive, for to see anything is the act of a living person. Our Lord Jesus died. We know that He died. We are glad that there is overwhelming evidence that, not in appearance, but in fact, He died. His side was pierced. He was given up by the Roman authorities for burial--the imperial authorities were sure of His death. The soldier had made assurance doubly sure by piercing His side. His disciples buried Him. They would not have left Him in the cave if they had felt any doubt about His death. They went in the morning after the Sabbath to embalm Him. They were all persuaded that He had really died. Blessed be the dying Christ! Here our living hopes take their foundation. If He had not died, we must have died forever. The more assured we are of His death, the more assured we feel of the life of all who are in Him! But, my Brothers and Sisters, He is not dead. Some years ago, someone, wishing to mock our holy faith, brought out a handbill which was plastered everywhere--"Can you trust in a dead man?" Our answer would have been, "No. Nobody can trust in a man who is dead." But it was known by those who printed the bill that they were misrepresenting our faith. Jesus is no longer dead! He rose again the third day. We have sure and Infallible proofs of it. It is an historical fact, better proved than almost any other which is commonly received as historical, that He did really rise again from the grave. He arose no more to die. He has gone out of the land of tears and death. He has gone into the region of immortality. He sits at the right hand of God, even the Father, and He reigns there forever. We love Him that died, but we rejoice that He who died is not dead, but always lives to make intercession for us! Dear children of God, do not be afraid that Christ's work will break down because He is dead. He lives to carry it on. That which He purchased for us by His death, He lives to secure for us by His life. Do not let your faith be a sort of dead faith dealing with a dead man--let it be instinct with life, with warm blood in its veins. Go to your own Christ, your living Christ--make Him your familiar Friend, the Acquaintance of your solitude, the Companion of your pilgrimage. Do not think that there is a great gulf between you, a living man, and Him. The shades of death do not divide you from Him. He lives, He feels, He sympathizes, He looks on, He is ready to help, He will help you even now. You have come in to the place where prayer is known to be made, burdened and troubled and you seek relief. Let the thought that your Lord is a living Friend ease you of your burden. He is still ready to be your strong Helper and to do for you what He did for needy ones in the days of His sojourn here below. I want even you, who do not know Him, to remember that He lives, that you may seek Him tonight--that before another sun shall rise you may find Him and, finding Him, may, yourselves, be found and saved. Do not try to live without the living, loving Friend of sinners! Seek His healing hand, then beg for His company. Get it. Keep it and you shall find that it makes life below like Heaven above! When you live with the living Christ, you will live, indeed! In Him is the Light of God and the Light of God is the life of men! And now to the text itself, with brevity. I have to observe upon it, first, that Christ's death produced a posterity. "When you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed." Evidently the death of Christ was fruitful of a seed for Him. Secondly, that posterity remains. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not look, today, on emptiness--He is not bereaved of His household, but He still sees His seed. And, thirdly and lastly, that posterity is under His immediate eyes at all times, for, "He shall see His seed." I. Well, first of all, THE DEATH OF CHRIST HAS PRODUCED A POSTERITY. We do not read, here, that the Lord Christ has followers. That would be true, but the text prefers to say He has a seed. We read, just now, that the Lord Jesus has disciples. That would be distinctly true, but the text does not so read. It says, "He shall see His seed." Why His seed? Why, because everyone who is a true follower or disciple of Christ has been born by a new birth from Him into the position of disciple. There is no knowing Christ except through the new birth. We are naturally sold under sin and we cannot discern the spiritual and real Christ until we have a spirit created within us by the new birth, of which He said, "You must be born again." This is the gate of entrance into discipleship! None can be written in the roll of followers of Christ unless they are also written in the register of the family of God--"this and that man was born there." Other men can get disciples for themselves by the means that are usual for such ends, but all the disciples of Christ are produced by miracle. They are all discipled by being newly-created! Jesus, as He looks upon them all, can say, "Behold, I make all things new." They all come into the world, of which He is King, by being born into it. There is no other way into the first world but by birth--and there is no other way into the second world, wherein dwells righteousness, but by birth-- and that birth is strictly connected with the pangs of the Savior's passion, "when you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed." See, then, the reason why we have here the remarkable expression--"His seed." Learn from this that all who truly follow Christ and are saved by Him, have His life in them. The parent's life is in the child. From the parent that life has been received. It is Christ's life that is in every true Believer--"For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you, also, appear with Him in glory." We have our natural life and this makes us men--we have our spiritual life and this makes us Christians. We take life from our parents--this links us with the first Adam. We have taken life from Christ--this joins us to the second Adam. Do not mistake me, that same life which abides in Christ, at the right hand of God, is that everlasting life which He has bestowed upon all those who put their trust in Him. That water springing up into everlasting life He gave us. He made it to be in us a well of water springing up. The first drops of that living spring, the whole outcome of the spring, and the spring itself, came from Him! Let me put it to you, Beloved Hearers. Do you know anything about this new birth? Do you know anything about this Divine Life? There are multitudes of religious people, very religious people--but they are as dead as doornails! Multitudes of religious persons are like waxworks, well-proportioned and you might mistake them, by candlelight, for life. But in the Light of God you would soon discover that there is a mighty difference, for the best that human skill can do is a poor imitation of real life. You, dear Hearer, dressed in the garments of family religion and adorned with the jewels of moral virtue, may be nothing beyond "a child of nature finely dressed, but not the living child." God's living children may not seem to be quite so handsome, nor so charmingly arrayed as you are and, in their own esteem, they may not be worthy to consort with you, but there is a solemn difference between the living child and the dead child, however you may try to conceal it! Righteous men know themselves to be sinners--sinners believe themselves to be righteous men. There is more Truth of God in the fear of the first than there can be in the faith of the second, for the faith of the second is founded on lies. Beloved, we become, I say again, the followers of Christ by being made partakers of His life--and unless His life is in us, we may say what we will about Christ and profess what we like about following Him--but we are not in the secret! We are out of the spiritual world altogether--that world of which He is the Head, the Creator, the Lord. You see why the word, "seed," is used? We come to Him by birth--we are partakers of His life. Furthermore, Believers in our Lord are said to be His seed because they are like He. I wish that I could say this with less need to qualify it, but the man who really believes in Jesus and in whom the diving life is strong and powerful, is like Jesus and especially like Jesus in this--that, as the Christ consecrated Himself wholly to God's service and Glory, so has the Believer done. And as the Christ founded His successes on being dead and buried, surrendering honor, comfort and life, itself, for His work, so should the true Believer be willing to give up anything and everything, that He may achieve His life-purpose and bring glory to God. "As He is, so are we in this world"--that is, we are bent upon the glory of God, filled with love to men and anxious for their salvation--that God may be glorified thereby. You know best, Brothers and Sisters, whether this is true of you. But if we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of His. If we are not like Christ, it is not possible that we are His seed, for the seed is like the parent. Surely, children are like their father--not all to the same degree--but still, there is the evidence of their sonship in their likeness to him from whom they came. Our Lord's true people are like He, or they could not be styled, "His seed." Alas, the old nature blots and blurs the resemblance! The stamp of the first Adam is not altogether removed, but it ought to grow fainter and fainter while the lines of the Divine portrait should grow stronger and clearer. Is this the experience of our life in Christ? I pray that it may be so. It should cause us great searching of heart if there is not in us an increasing likeness to our Lord. There is also this to be said for those who are called His seed--that they seek the same ends and expect to receive the same reward. We are towards Christ, His seed, and thus we are heirs to all that He has--heirs to His business on earth, heirs to His estate in Heaven. We are to be witnesses to the Truth as Jesus was--and to go about doing good as He did-- and to seek and save the lost after His example. This we must inherit, as a son follows his father's business. All that Christ has, belongs to His seed. As a man hands down to his posterity, his possessions, Christ Jesus has made over to His people all that He is and all that He has--and all that He ever will be, that they may be with Him, behold His Glory--and shine with Him as the stars forever and ever! We are His seed in this respect--that He has taken us into His family and given us the family patrimony--and made us partakers of all things in Himself. Now, Beloved, this is all through His death. We are made His seed through His death. Why principally through His death? Why, because it was by reason of His death for us that the Father could come and deal with us, and the Spirit could breathe upon us and new-create us! There was no dealing with us by a just God until the atoning Sacrifice had rolled away the stone that blocked the way, namely, the necessity that sin should be punished. Christ, having died for us, we came into another relation to justice and it became possible for us to be regenerated and brought into the household of God. Beloved, I think that you know, in your own experience, that it was His death that really operated most upon you in the matter of your conversion. I hear a great talk about the example of Christ having great effect upon ungodly men, but I do not believe it and certainly have never seen it! It has great effect upon men when they are born again and are saved from the wrath to come--and are full of gratitude on this account--but before that happens, we have known men admire the conduct of Christ and even write books about the beauty of His Character, while, at the same time, they have denied His Godhead! Thus they have rejected Him in His essential Character and there has been no effect produced upon their conduct by their cold admiration of His life. But when a man comes to see that He is pardoned and saved through the death of Jesus, He is moved to gratitude and then to love. "We love Him because He first loved us." That love which He displayed in His death has touched the mainspring of our being and moved us with a passion to which we were strangers before. And, because of this, we hate the sins that once were sweet. And we turn with all our hearts to the obedience that once was so unpleasant. There is more effect in faith in the blood of Christ to change the human character than in every other consideration. The Cross once seen, sin is crucified! The passion of the Master once apprehended as being endured for us, we then feel that we are not our own, but are bought with a price. This perception of redeeming love, in the death of our Lord Jesus, makes all the difference-- this prepares us for a higher and a better life than we have ever known before. It is His death that does it! And now, Beloved, if by His death we have become His seed, (and I think I speak at this time to many who can truly say they hope that it is so with them), then let us consider the fact for a minute. We are His seed. They speak of the seed royal. What shall I say of the seed of Christ? Believer, you may be a poor person living in an obscure lane, but you are of the imperial house! You are ignorant and unlettered, it may be, and your name will never shine in the roll of science, but He who is the Divine Wisdom acknowledges you as one of His seed! It may be that you are sick--even now your head is aching, your heart is faint--you feel that, by-and-by, you will die. Ah, well, but you are of His seed who died and rose and is gone into Glory! You are of the seed of Him "who only has immortality." You may put away your crowns, you kings and emperors--earth, yellow earth, hammered and decorated with other sparkling bits of soil--you may put them all away, as altogether outdone in value! We have crowns infinitely more precious and we belong to a royal house tran-scendently more glorious than any of yours! But then it follows, if we are thus of a seed, that we ought to be united and love each other more and more. Christian people, you ought to have a clannish feeling! "Oh," says one, "you mean that the Baptists ought to get together!" I do not mean anything of the kind! I mean that the seed of Christ should be of one heart and we ought to recognize that wherever the life and love of Jesus are to be found, there our love goes out! It is very delightful, at Christmas time, or perhaps at some other time in the year, for all the family to meet. And though your name may be, "Smith," or, "Brown," yet you feel there is some importance in your name when all your clan have met together. It may be a name that is very common, or very obscure, but, somehow, you feel quite great on that day when all the members of the family have joined to keep united holiday. Your love to one another gathers warmth as the glowing coals are drawn together. So may it be in your heart towards all those that belong to Christ! You are of the blood royal of Heaven! You are neither a Guelph nor a Hohenzollern, but you are a Christian! And that is a greater name than all! He has a seed--even He whom, unseen, we, this night, adore. My inmost soul glories in the Head of my clan--in Him of the pierced hands and the nailed feet--who wears for His princely star the lance mark in His side! Oh, how blessedly bright is He! How transcendently glorious are the nail prints! We adore Him in the infinite majesty of His unutterable love! We are of His seed and so we are near akin to Him. Do not think that I am too familiar. I go not beyond the limit which this Word of God allows me, no, I have scarcely come up to the edge of it! We are truly of the seed of Jesus, even as the Jews are of the seed of Israel--not born after the flesh, for He had none born to Him in that way--but born after the Spirit, wherein His seed is as the stars of Heaven! We rejoice with exultation as we read the text, "He shall see His seed." Thus much on our first point. II. Now, my second point is THAT POSTERITY OF HIS REMAINS. Our Lord always has a seed. That seems to me to be clear from the indefiniteness of the text. It does not say that He shall see His seed for so long and then no longer, but it stands as a prophecy fulfilled, always fulfilling and always to be fulfilled--"He shall see His seed." Christ will always have a seed to see. His Church, then, will never die out while the world stands and, throughout eternity, that seed must still exist in the endless state, for world without end our Lord Jesus shall see His seed! I notice that the word is in the plural--"He shall see His seeds," as though some were truly His seed and yet, for a time, at least, differed from the rest. Our Lord said of those not yet converted, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring." And again, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." Christ will see generation after generation of those redeemed by His blood who shall be born into His family and shall call Him blessed! Instead of the fathers, shall be the children, whom He will make princes in all the earth! The Septuagint reads it, "He shall see a long-lived seed." Though I do not think that the version is correct, still, it shows that it was thought and believed that the Messiah would have a perpetual seed. Certainly it is so. Beloved, if it had been possible to destroy the Church of God on earth, it would have been destroyed long ago! The malice of Hell has done all that it could do to destroy the seed of Christ--the seed that sprang from His death. Standing in the Coliseum at Rome, I could not, as I looked around on the ruins of that vast house of sin, but praise God that the Church of God existed, though the Coliseum is in ruins! Anyone standing there, when the thousands upon thousands gloated their eyes with the sufferings of Christians, would have said, "Christianity will die out, but the Coliseum, so firmly built will stand to the end of time!" But lo, the Coliseum is a ruin and the Church of God more firm, more strong, more glorious than ever! Only read the story of the persecutions under Nero and under Diocletian, in the olden times, and you will wonder that Christianity survived the cruel blows. Every form of torture which devils could invent was inflicted upon Christian men and women! Not here and there, but everywhere, they were hunted down and persecuted. It makes one tremble with horror as he reads of women tossed on the horns of bulls, or set in red-hot iron chairs--and men smeared with honey to be stung to death by wasps, or dragged at the heels of wild horses, or exposed to savage beasts in the amphitheatre. But I will say no more about it. The gallant vessel of the Church plowed the red waves of a crimson sea, her prow scarlet with gore, but the ship itself was the better for its washing and sailed all the more gallantly because of boisterous winds. As to our own country, read the story of persecutions here. You will have enough if you only read Foxe's "Book of Martyrs." I wish that every house had in it a large-typed copy of the "Book of Martyrs." Well do I recollect, as a child, how many hours, how many days, I spent looking at the pictures in an old-fashioned "Book of Martyrs," and wondering how the men of God suffered, as they did, so bravely. I remember how I used to turn to that boy of Brentford, who was first beaten with rods and afterwards tied to the stake, to cheerfully burn for Christ's sake. I am reminded, by the effect which it had upon my mind, of what was said of a certain ancient Church in this city of London, which was greatly persecuted. Many, many years ago, a number of persons were noticed to be going towards Smithfield, early one morning, and somebody said, "Where are you going?" "We are going to Smithfield." "What for?" "To see our pastor burnt." "Well, but what, in the name of goodness, do you want to see him burnt for? What can be the good of it?" They answered, "We go to see him burn that we may learn the way." Oh, but that was grand! "To learn the way!" Then the rank and file of the followers of Jesus learned the way to suffer and die as the leaders of the Church set the example! Yet the Church in England was not destroyed by persecution, but it became more mighty than ever because of the opposition of its foes! Since then there have been laborious attempts to destroy the Church of Christ by error. One hundred years ago or so, throughout the most of our Dissenting Churches, a sort of Unitarianism was triumphant. The essential doctrines of the Gospel were omitted, the pith of it was taken away, the marrow was torn out of its bones. The Church of England was asleep, too, and everywhere it seemed as if there was a kind of orthodox heterodoxy that did not believe anything in particular, and did not hold that there was a doctrine worth anybody's living for or dying for--but that all religious teaching should be like a nose of wax--that you might shape whichever way you liked. It looked as if the living Church of God would be extinguished altogether. But it was not so, for God did but stamp His foot and, from all parts of the country, men like Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitefield came to the front--and hundreds of others, mighty men of valor-- proclaimed the Gospel with unusual power! And away went the bats and the owls back to their proper dwelling place! The same mischievous experiment is being tried now, and there will be the same result, for the living Christ is still to the front. The King is not off the ground, yet! The battle will be won by His armies. Jehovah has declared His decree, "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion." Our Lord shall yet see His seed on the conquering hand. Worldliness has gone a long way to destroy the Church of God. I judge it to be the worst cankerworm that assails us. Persons come into the Church with a profession which they never carry out. Have we not all around us persons who say that they are Christians and are not, but lie? And many who, we hope, are Christians, are but very poverty-stricken specimens of the race, with little love, little zeal, (indeed, they are afraid to be too zealous), little searching of the Word, little prayer, little consecration, little communion with God. They are enough to kill all hope of better things. The Lord have mercy upon His poor Church when she comes to be neither cold nor hot, so that He is ready to spue her out of His mouth! Yet, the lukewarm can still be heated! The cause is not dead! "He shall see His seed." Take it as a standing miracle that there are any godly people on the face of the earth, for there would not be one were it not for the exertion of miraculous power! Christianity is not a natural growth--it is constantly a Divine creation. Christian life needs to daily have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Church must perpetually receive fresh light and life from above, or else it would die--but still stands the promise, "He shall see His seed." While sun and moon endure, there shall be a people who follow the Lamb! And even though they are so few that Elijah might say, "I, only I, am left, and they seek my life to take it away," God will reserve to Himself thousands that have not bowed the knee to Baal! III. And now I am to wind up with this third thought--THIS POSTERITY IS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMMEDIATE EYES OF CHRIST. "He shall see His seed." Oh, I like this, "He shall see His seed"! He sees them when they are first born anew. I keep looking out from this pulpit for that small portion of them that may be born in this place--and there are many watchful Brothers and Sisters here who try to speak to all that come into the place in whom there are movings of the Spirit. If there is an anxious soul, they seek to find him out. We cannot see them all, but HE shall see His seed! Sometimes it is a question whether they are His seed or not--a very great question with themselves, but none with Him--He sees His seed! Some are seeking--they have hardly found. They are longing--they have scarcely realized the way of faith. Ah, well, He sees your first desires, your humble breathings, your lowly hopes, your trembling approaches. He sees you! There is not a child of His, born in any out-of-the-way place, but what He perceives him at once! He observes The first living cry, the first living tear. "He shall see His seed." What a mercy to have such a Watcher! We poor earthly pastors are of small use, but this great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, with eyes that never miss a single new-born lamb of Grace--what a mercy to have such a Shepherd to look after the whole flock! "He shall see His seed." Yes, and ever afterward, wherever His seed may wander, He still sees them. Some of you, perhaps, have lived long in England, but you are contemplating going far away--to Australia or America. You wonder whether you will meet with any friend who will help you spiritually. Do not fear. "He shall see His seed." "Rivers unknown to song are not unknown to God." And if you should have to dwell quite alone in the bush, and have no Christian acquaintance, still go directly to the Son of God, for, "He shall see His seed." The eyes of Christ are never off from the eye of faith. If you look to Him, you may rest well assured that He looks to you! The beauty of it is that this look of Christ, whereby He sees His seed, is one of intense delight. I cannot preach upon that most precious topic, but I wish you to think it over--it is a Divine pleasure to the Lord Jesus to look at you--it is promised Him as a reward for His death! Mother, you know, yourself, what a pleasure it has been for you to look at your daughter and watch her grow up. You would not like to tell her all you have thought of her--you have looked at her with intense delight. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ looks at you in just the same way! Love is blind, they say. Jesus is not blind and He sees in His people much more than they ever will see in themselves! He sees their hopes, their desires, their aspirations. And He often takes the will for the deed and marks that for a beauty which now may be half-developed and, therefore, not all we could wish it to be. It is, at present, the caricature of a virtue--but it is well meant and will come right. And the Lord sees it as it will be--and He rejoices in it! Oh, what blessed eyes those are of His that can spy out beauties which only He can see! Since He has created them and put them there, himself, He sees them! "He shall see His seed." He suffered so much for our redemption that He must love us. We cost Him so much that He must delight in us-- "The Son with joy looks down and sees The purchase of His agonies." "He shall see His seed." Brothers and Sisters, our Savior will always behold His redeemed ones! He will see all His seed to the last. When they come to the river which divides them from the celestial country, "He shall see His seed." It may possibly be gloomy with some of you, but it is not often dark at death-time. Many of the Lord's children have a fine candle to go to bed with. Even if they go to bed in the dark, they fall asleep the sooner. But in either case, their Lord will see them if they cannot see Him. When you can see nothing and the brain begins to reel--and thought and memory flee--He sees His seed! But what a seed He will have to see in the morning! I am not yet an old man, as some suppose from the many years of my ministry, but I am often looking forward to that blessed morning when all the sacred seed shall meet around the Throne of God. I believe the Christ will come in to see all His beloved purchased ones and He will search to see whether we are all there. Then shall the sheep pass again under the hand of Him that counts them--and He will count them, for He knows whom He bought with His blood--and He will see that they are there in full tale. I think that I hear the reading of the register, the muster roll. Will you be there to answer to your name? Dear Friends, all the Lord's seed will be there--all that were born into His house with a new birth. They shall answer, "Yes, yes, yes, we are here! We are here!" Oh, but the joy we shall have in being there--the delight in beholding His face! Yet, if all our joys are put together, they will not equal the joy that He will have when He finds them all there for whom He shed His blood--all whom the Father gave Him--all who gave themselves to Him--all who were born as His seed--not one lost! "Of all whom You have given Me, I have lost none." Oh, the joy, the delight, of our Well-Beloved in that day! Then shall He see His seed! And I believe that it will be a part of His Heaven for Him to look upon His redeemed. He is the Bridegroom, they make up the bride--and the bridegroom's joy is not in seeing his bride for once on the wedding day, but he takes delight in her as long as they both live! A true husband and a true spouse are always lovers--they are always linked together by strong ties of affection. And it is so with that model Husband, the Lord Christ and His perfect Church above. He loves His people no less and He could not love them any more than when He died for them, and so, forever, "He shall see His seed." Thus have I talked with you in a very poor and feeble way, as far as my speech is concerned. But the doctrine is not feeble, the Gospel is not poor! O you that are the seed of Christ, go out and magnify Him by your lives! Be worthy of your high calling. Show the nobility of your pedigree by the magnanimity of your lives! And you that are not among His seed, look where you are! What can you do? All that you can do will bring you no further--you must be born again--and this is the work of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God works the new birth in His own way, but He works according to the Gospel. What is the Gospel? "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." I give you the Gospel without mutilating it, just as I get it in the Gospel by Mark, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Obey the precept and the promise is yours! God help you to believe in the Lord Jesus and so to have eternal life! The moment you believe in Jesus Christ you are born again. May He, by His Holy Spirit, seal the message with His blessing to everyone in this house, for His own name's sake! Amen. PORTION OFSCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--John12:20-45. __________________________________________________________________ Jesus--"All Blessing and All Blessed" (No. 2187) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1891, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed." Psalm 72:17. THERE are many famous names in human history, but many of them are connected with deeds which have brought no blessing upon mankind. To bless and to be blessed is the noblest sort of fame and yet how few have thought it worth the seeking! Full many a name in the roll of fame has been written there with a finger dipped in blood. It would seem as if men loved those most who have killed the most of them! They call those greatest who have been the greatest cutthroats! They make their greatest illuminations over massacres of their fellows, calling them victories. To be set aloft upon a column, or represented by a public statue, or to have poets ringing out your name, it seems necessary to grasp the sword and to hack and slay your fellow men! Is it not too sadly true that when men have been cursed by one of their leaders, they, from then on call him great? O misery, that wholesale murder should be the shortest method of becoming illustrious! There is one name that will last when all others shall have died out--and that name is connected with blessing--and only with blessing. Jesus Christ came into the world on purpose to bless men. Men, as a race, find in Him a blessing wide as the world. While He was here, He blessed and cursed not. All around Him, both by speech, act, glance and thought, He was an Incarnate blessing. All that came to Him, unless they willfully rejected Him, obtained blessings at His hands. The home of His infancy, the friends of His youth, the comrades of His manhood, He blessed unsparingly! He labored to bless men. To bless men, He parted with everything and became poor. To bless men, at last He died. Those outstretched hands upon the Cross are spread wide in benediction--and they are fastened there as if they would remain outstretched till the whole world is blessed! Our Lord's resurrection from the dead brings blessings to mankind. He has won for us redemption from the grave and eternal life. He waited on earth, a while, until He ascended, blessing men as He went up. His last attitude below the skies was that of pronouncing a blessing upon His disciples. He is gone into Glory, but He has not ceased to bless our race. The Holy Spirit came among us soon after the Ascension, because Jesus had received gifts for men--yes, also for the rebellious. The wonderful blessings which are comprised in the work, Person and offices of the Holy Spirit--all these come to us through Jesus Christ, the ever-blessed and ever-blessing One! He still loves to bless. Standing at the helm of all affairs, He guides the tiller of Providence with a view to the blessing of His chosen. He still spends His time in making intercession for transgressors, that the blessing of God may rest upon them, while His Spirit, who is His Vicegerent here below, is always occupied with blessing the sons of men. Our Lord Jesus will soon come a second time and in that glorious hour, though His left hand must deal out justice, His right hand will lavish blessing! His chief end and bent in His coming will be that He may largely bless those loving hearts that watch for His appearing. Christ is all blessing. When you have written down His name, you have pointed to the Fountain from which all blessings flow--you have named that Sun of Righteousness to whose beams we owe every good and perfect gift! From the beginning, throughout all eternity, the Lord Jesus blesses men-- "Over every foe victorious, He on His Throne shall rest! From age to age more glorious All blessing and all blessed. The tide of time shall never His covenantremove, His name shall stand forever, That name to us is--Love." I purpose, at this time, if the Lord shall help me, to speak very simply about the fullness of blessing which comes from our Master and Lord. First saying, dear Friends, that we ourselves are living proofs of the statement that men shall be blessed in Him. Then, desiring to say, in the second place, that we have seen it to be true, also, in others. And, thirdly, expressing our conviction that it shall be true, on the largest scale, with the nations--"All nations shall be blessed in Him," and, therefore, they shall call Him blessed. I. First, then, WE OURSELVES ARE LIVING WITNESSES THAT MEN ARE BLESSED IN CHRIST. You and I do not pretend to be great sages, famous philosophers, or learned divines. We feel when a pin pricks us, or when a dog bites us. We have sense enough to know when a thing tastes well or bad. We know chalk from cheese, as the proverb has it. We know something about our own needs and we also know when we get those needs supplied. We have not mastered the extraordinary, but in the commonplace we feel at home. A man is none the worse witness in court because he does not know all the technical terms used in science. A judge is never better pleased than when he sees, in the witness box, some plain, blunt, honest fellow who will blunder out the truth. We will speak the Truth of God at this time, so far as we know it, whether we offend or please. Every man is to speak as he finds and we will speak concerning Jesus Christ as we have found Him. I will try, if I can, to be spokesman for all present who are believers in Christ. And I ask a patient hearing. We bear witness that we have been blessed in Him. How much, how deeply, how long and in how many ways we have been blessed in Him, I will not undertake to say, but this I will say most emphatically--for many of you now present, whose lives and histories I know almost as I know my own, we have in verity, beyond all question, been blessed in Jesus to the highest degree and of this we are sure! We believe and faith grasps the first blessing--that we have received a great blessing in Christ by the removal of a curse which otherwise must have rested upon us. That curse did overshadow us, once, 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." We could not keep the Law. We did not keep it. We gave up all hope of keeping it. Therefore, the dark thundercloud of that tremendous sentence hung over us and we heard the voice of justice speaking out of it, like a volley of the dread artillery of God in the day of tempest! The thunder of the curse rolled heavily over our heads and hearts. How some of us cowered down and trembled! We can never forget the horror of our soul under the near apprehension of Divine wrath! To be cursed of God meant all woes in one. Some of us were brought very low, indeed, by the frown of a guilty conscience. We gave up, even, the dream of hope. We thought ourselves effectually, finally and everlastingly condemned and so, indeed, we should have found it, had there not been a Divine Interposer! But now that curse is taken from us and we do not dread its return, for He was made a curse for us, of whose name we are speaking now--even He "who knew no sin, but was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." No curse now remains--only blessing abides! Hallelujah! If our Lord had done nothing else for us but the rolling away of the curse, He would have blessed us infinitely--and we would have blessed Him forever. If He had accomplished nothing but the bearing away of our sin into the wilderness--as the scapegoat of old bore away the iniquity of Israel--He would have done enough to set our tongues forever praising Him. He has lifted from the world the weight of the eternal curse and, therefore, let all the bells of our cities ring out His honor and all the voices of the villages sing forth His praise! O you stars of light, shine to His Glory, for He is blessed beyond all earthly measure! The negative being removed, we have had a positive actual experience of blessing, for God has blessed us in Christ Jesus and we know that none are more blessed than we are. We are not at all, now, the men that we used to be as to our inward feelings. Some years ago, under the apprehension of Divine wrath, we were so unhappy and troubled that we could find no rest. But now we are blessed in Christ so greatly that we are at perfect peace and our soul has dropped its anchor in the haven of content! Our joy is usually as great as formerly our sorrow used to be. We feared our sorrow would kill us--we sometimes think, now, that our joy is more likely to do so, for it becomes so intense that at times we can scarcely bear it, much less speak of it! As we could get no rest before, so now, by faith, we feel as if we never lost that rest, for we are so quiet of heart, so calm, so settled, that we sing, "My heart is fixed, O God; my heart is fixed!" Not because temporal circumstances are quite as we would wish them, but because we have learned to leave off wishing, we are now more than satisfied! Getting God's blessing upon everything, we have learned to be content and something more--we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We used to fret, before we knew Him, but His love has ended that. We thought we could do things better than God could and we did not like His way of managing--but He has taught us to be like children, pleased with whatever our Father provides--and, therefore, we joyfully declare, "My soul is even as a weaned child! I have nothing to wish for. I need nothing but what my Father pleases to give me." Having God's sweet love, we would not give a snap of the finger for all that princes call their treasure, or all that great men reckon to be their honor. Unto us who believe, Christ is precious--both treasure and honor in one! In fact, Christ is ALL! It is a delightful calm of mind which the Believer enjoys when He dwells in Christ. Humble faith puts the soul into the guardian hand of the Redeemer and leaves it there in the restfulness of entire trust. Grace baptizes us into blessedness. It plunges us into that sea of everlasting rest in which we hope, forever, to bathe our weary souls. Yes, blessed be His name, the Lord Jesus has made life worth living! It is no longer, "something better not to be." We must speak well of the condition into which He has introduced us since we have known His name. "Well, Jack, old fellow," said one who met a man who had lately joined the Church, "I hear you have given up all your pleasures." "No, no," said Jack, "the fact lies the other way. I have just found all my pleasures and I have only given up my follies." Every Christian man and women can confirm that way of putting it! We who have believed in Jesus have lost no real pleasures, but we have gained immensely in that direction. If anything sinful was once a pleasure to us, it is not so now--when we discovered it to be evil, it ceased to be pleasure--and we thrust it away without regret! We have lost nothing by conversion that was worth the keeping, but what we gained by coming to Christ has been an inconceivable recompense to us. Is it not so, Brothers and Sisters? Are we not blessed in Christ? Now, there are some of us who, if we were asked to tell what blessings we have received from Christ, would scarcely know where to begin--and when we had once begun--we would never leave off unless it were from sheer lack of time or strength. Brethren, certain of us owe all that we have to the influence of the Lord Jesus. From our birth and childhood we were indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of us now present had the great happiness to spring from godly parents-- before we knew the meaning of language, that softly sweet name of Jesus Christ was sung in our ears! The kindness that we received in our earliest days was, very much of it, due to, "Gentle Jesus," of whom our mothers taught us to sing! He found for us the first swaddling bands of love and watched over our first sleep. Ah, those poor children of the back streets--children who are trained in infamy and blasphemy--how sad their start in life! But some of us had great advantages which were granted us of Sovereign Grace by His dear pierced hands! We bless the Lord who saved our parents and, through saving them, sent to our trembling infancy a mine and a mint of blessing. In our opening childhood we began to understand for ourselves the loving influence of an affectionate and anxious mother. And then golden showers of Divine Grace fell on us from the love of Jesus. We remember, some of us, those hours on the Sabbath, when Mother would talk with us of heavenly things--with tears in her eyes persuading her boy to give his heart to Jesus, early, and not to let his first days be spent in sin. We remember a wise and prudent father, whose example and instruction all went the same way. The comforts of our home--and they were many--we owed them all to Jesus, for His love made our parents what they were and created a holy, happy atmosphere around us! He might have left our father to frequent the drunkard's haunt and might have suffered our mother to be what many mothers are--unworthy of the name--and then our childhood would have been utter wretchedness and our home the nursery of vice. Education in crime might have been ours--we might have been tutored for the gallows. Since that, we have had to shift for ourselves and have left the parental roof, but I, for one, have been casting my thoughts back, to see if I could remember any good thing that I have which I do not owe to the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not know that I have anything that I cannot distinctly trace to Him and His influence! I have many Christian friends-- most valuable friends, I find them--but my association with them commenced in the House of God and the friendship between us has been cemented by common service yielded to our blessed Master! Many of you would hardly have had a friend in the world if it had not been that Jesus introduced you to His disciples--and they have been the best friends you have ever had, or ever will have! You used to know certain fine fellows who called themselves your friends and as long as you had a shilling to bless yourself with, they stuck to you to have sixpence of it. You know the style of their friendship and you must now have serious doubts as to its value. Well, they left you when you became Christians and their departure has been a very gainful loss to you! When they cleared out, altogether, you found that their removal was for your good, if not for their own. But those friends you have made in Christ have been really helpful to you. They have deeply sympathized with you and, as far as they could, they have helped you. Many have been carried through sharp trials by the help of Christian hands. But, whatever you may have to say on the point, I am personally a debtor, over head and ears, to my Savior. What is there--I repeat the question--that I do not owe to Jesus? I am again and again thinking, and thinking, and thinking--but if anything which I call my own is worth having, I must trace it to Him. And are you not, dear Friends, many of you, compelled to say the same? Among the best things you have are your Sabbaths--but they are His days--His resurrection days. Your Bible, too, is a priceless treasure, but that is His Testament--His legacy of love! The Mercy Seat is a storehouse of wealth--but He is that Mercy Seat, and His own blood is sprinkled on it! You have nothing, dear Friend, that you do not owe to Jesus, the Fountain of salvation. You are blessed in Him! I might single out another class of persons, who, from quite another point of view, would be compelled to say that they, also, have been blessed in Christ. They started in another way and were upon a road which led to death, but they have been rescued. Some of you started life in the midst of an entirely worldly family. There was kindness--parental kindness, in the home, but it was unwise. Abundance of temporal enjoyment was always supplied, but there was a very scanty recognition of anything like religion and, indeed, no knowledge whatever of personal piety. It is little wonder that young persons who are trained in a godless manner and allowed to do very much as they like, should plunge into this sin, and into that. That some young men are saved is a special miracle, for their circumstances make their ruin almost inevitable. I am addressing some of my Christian Brothers and Sisters who remember what liberty to sin was and how they availed themselves of it. They took large license to destroy themselves under the pretence of seeing the world. They were never content except when they were gratifying their passions and obeying the commands of the devil. In their salvation they have been blessed, indeed! But you, also, who have gone to no great extent in open sin, you, also, have been signally blessed in Christ by gracious and unmistakable conversion. In receiving the Lord Jesus into your soul, what a change has been made! From what a bondage have you been rescued! Into what a new life have you been brought! What new scenes now open up before you! What new hopes, what new joys, what new prospects are all your own! Do I speak to some who plunged into the very grossest sin and yet can say, "But we are washed, but we are sanctified"? Blessed be our dear Master's name for Grace to such individuals! Such, indeed, are blessed in Him. I know that I am addressing those who had, in their earliest days, the very worst example--who have been brought into the House of God from the place where Satan's seat is--who cannot, after years of godliness, get out of their memory the recollection of the bad, depraved old times of their youth. In your salvation Jesus has worked a blessed deed. You could drink as others drank. You could fall into sins of uncleanness as others did. Let us say very little about these open evils. I do not like to hear men talk about their old sins as if they were adven-tures--they are a shame and a sorrow to all right-minded persons. We humbly hint at them to the praise of the Glory of His Grace, for great Grace it was in the case of some of us. Oh, but the day in which you first knew that dear name! When you first felt repentance melting your hard heart! When you first felt hope springing up in your formerly insensible spirit--then you began to see that there was something nobler and better to live for than merely to gratify sensual passions. Then you began to see that you were an immortal spirit and not meant to fatten like the swine, but were created to be a brother of the angels and to be akin to God, Himself--that was a happy day--a day written in Heaven and made bright with the light of seven days! When Jesus changed your nature, forgave your sins and made you to be like Himself, you were, indeed, blessed in Him! I want you now, to look back again. I ought not to tire you, even if my talk should seem dull and commonplace, because to remember what God has given and to be grateful concerning it, ought to be a sweet pastime to each one of us. It is not only a duty, but a recreation to be grateful! I do not know any emotion which can give greater joy than that of thankfulness to the Most High. Dear Friends, the Lord has greatly blessed us in the name of Jesus in times of very special trouble. I may not be able to describe your personal trial, but I will take one as a specimen. Depression of spirits comes upon the man. He scarcely knows how or why, but his soul melts because of heaviness. There is, at the back of his sadness, probably some real trial--this he is very apt to magnify and make more of than needs be--and also to expect a dark and terrible calamity to come which will not come. But yet the foreboding is as real a trial as if the catastrophe had actually occurred. The poor despondent creature cannot endure himself and almost grows weary of life. Like the king of Israel, who had all that heart could wish--gardens, palaces, singing men and women--who had all the appurtenances, both of folly and of wisdom, to make him happy, yet he cries, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!" Nothing will cheer this child of grief--he is downcast and desolate. If you have ever gone through that experience, it has been a very great delight to you when you have got alone and thought of your Lord Jesus, whose everlasting love cannot cease towards you, whose fullness of Grace cannot be exhausted, whose power and faithfulness will always stand you in good stead. If, by a sort of desperate resolve, you have cast yourself upon Him, to sink or swim, to find everything in Him, or else to have nothing, you have risen up altogether a new man! You have felt, "I can face the adversary. I can meet the trial, for Jesus is mine!" Despair of spirit has fled when you have leaned hard on the Cross-Bearer. I have been one of the cave dwellers and the dark has shut me in, but Jesus has been my Heaven below. I may have a degree of heaviness about me, but still, I trust in the Lord, and I am not afraid, for the name of Jesus has caused me to be strong! Yes, men shall be "blessed in Him" by the strength which He gives in the hour of need. You remember the loss of that dear little child. How blessed you were in Jesus when He came and solaced you! You remember your father's death, or the loss of your husband, or the death of the dearest earthly friend. Yes, then in such times you knew how precious Christ could be and how blessed you were in Him! Some of you have passed through the desert of poverty. You have frequently been very hard pressed, but still, though you cannot tell how, you have had just enough. You are yet alive though death seemed certain. You have been "blessed in Him," and so you have survived every storm. Some of you have had little enough of earthly comfort and yet you have not been unhappy. I have sometimes admired a dog for his economical use of comforts. When it has been a long, rainy day and the sun has just peeped out and there has been a gleam of sunlight on the floor--I have seen him get up and wag his tail--and shift his quarters so as to lie down where the bit of sunshine was! It is a fine thing to have just that state of mind--never to go sullenly into the shadow, but always cheerfully to accept the square yard of sunshine and make the most of it! There is something, after all, to be thankful for--something for which to praise the name of God. And if the Lord Jesus Christ had taught us nothing else but that--the practice of lying down wherever there is a trace of sunshine and, better still, of always finding sunshine in His dear name--I am sure we are bound to say that we have been "blessed in Him." Well, every year will teach us more and more fully how blessed we are in Jesus, and there will come a day--the last of our earthly days--when we shall know on a higher scale how blessed we are in Him! One of the most pleasant scenes that I ever see is the dying bed of a fine old Christian. I saw one but a few days ago, who, since I was at his bedside, has entered into rest. It was very pleasant to talk with him about what the Lord had done. He was ready to speak well of the dear name. There was much self-depreciation, but much more honoring of Christ by testimony concerning support given in the hour of affliction and succor in the time of need. Brothers and Sisters, you think it will be hard to die? You may not find it so. One, when he was dying, said, "Is this dying? Why, it is worthwhile going through all the troubles of life, even for death's own sake, if it is like this, for I have such heavenly enjoyment as I never could have imagined." Some of God's saints are very needlessly anxious about dying. I knew one to whom it was always a burden. He went to bed one night and he never woke up--thus answering his own fears, for he did not even know when he passed away, but died in his sleep! He was gone, gone, gone to Heaven without a pang! When you see how Believers pass away to be with their Lord in Glory, you have a commentary upon the words of my text--"Men shall be blessed in Him." But do you see them? Their spirits have ascended unto God, their Father. How full of bliss they are! Disembodied they are, but they are not destroyed. Their poor earthly frames are still in the grave, yet their liberated spirits are supremely blessed, for they are, "forever with the Lord" and they are blessed in Him. Wait you but a very little while and the trumpet shall ring out from the angel's mouth, "Awake, you dead, and come to judgement!" And then shall men be blessed in Him, if they are, indeed, "in Him." When the righteous, restored to their bodies, shall, in their perfect manhood, behold Him face to face and dwell with Him, world without end, "men shall be blessed in Him." I do not feel satisfied with the style of my speech at this time, but we who speak the Word are by no means masters of ourselves. I cannot rise to the height of this great argument and I do not think that, if I were to try a hundred times, I could ever satisfy myself when speaking upon this most Divine theme. My Lord is the most blessed Master that ever a ser- vant had and He has blessed me personally so unspeakably that, if I were to bear my witness with the tongues of orators and angels by the space of a century, yet must I cease from the task and humbly confess--"I have not told you the half-- nor can I tell you even the tenth of how good my Well-Beloved is to me." I suspect that you are, most of you, of my mind and say, "Neither can we." I sometimes tell you the story of what happened to me when I declared, in a sermon, that in the Heaven of the grateful, I would sing the loudest of them all, because I owed more to the Grace of God than anybody else. I meant it not out of any sense of superiority, but rather of inferiority. One good old soul, when I came down the pulpit stairs, remarked to me, "You have made a great mistake in your sermon." I answered, "No doubt I made a dozen." "No, but," she said, "the great mistake was this--you said that you owed more to God than anybody else, but you do not owe anything like so much as I do. I have had more Grace from Him than you have. I have been a bigger sinner than you ever were. I shall sing the loudest!" "Well, well," I thought, "I will not quarrel with her; it shall make me the more glad to find myself outdone." I found that all the Christians were much of the same mind. Brothers and Sisters, we will have it out when we get up yonder. But you shall praise God, indeed, if you praise Him more than I will--and you must be double debtors to my Lord if you owe Him more than I do! If you are more unworthy and more undeserving than I am, you must, indeed, be unworthy and undeserving! And if His rich, free, Sovereign Grace has exhibited itself more fully in you than it has in unworthy me, it has, indeed, overflowed all its banks! We will leave the loving contest for the present, but when all the birds of Paradise reach their nests above, there shall be a competition of adoring praise--and all of us will do our best to bless the name of the Lord! II. Our second head was to be a practical one--we can only give a few minutes to it. WE HAVE SEEN OTHER MEN BLESSED IN CHRIST. Our observation confirms our experience. If this were the proper time, I could narrate many instances--which I could also confirm by producing the individuals--in which men have been remarkably blessed in Christ. What social changes we have seen in those who have believed in Him! They have not been the same persons--in many respects they are new. I have known persons at whose houses I have visited--well, you could not have believed that the man who lodged in the house, where he was first found, could ever have risen to occupy a room in a house at all like that in which he came to reside! The room in which I conversed with him was a palace, compared to the dog-hole in which he once existed. There was a change in his dwelling. There was a change in his wife. You would hardly know the woman--she is so different from the wretched slut and slave who called him, "husband," with a sigh and a sneer! She is here, now, sitting with him, and they are as happy as angels! I shall not point them out, but they are as good as any of you. We have known the case in which, from rags--absolute rags--the coming of Christ into the soul has lifted a man into competence, respectability and position. Godliness has a gain about it--an honest, worthy gain for the life which now is. It teaches men habits of thrift, prudence and temperance--and delivers them from the thralldom of drunkenness and other vices--by which the major part of poverty is occasioned. It is worth mentioning even such blessings as these, as the poor little children know. They used to run away when Father came in, for they were afraid of him, but now, instead of that, they are watching for the time when his work is done, to go toddling down the street to meet dear Father, for the luxury of being brought home in his arms! Our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed some men and some women at such a rate that the devil, himself, would not have the impudence to say it was not a blessing! Liar as Satan is, he could not deny that godliness has brought sunshine where there was none--the blessing has been too distinct and manifest for any to deny it! What a moral change have we seen in some! They could not speak without an oath, but the habit of profane swearing ended in a minute and they have never been tempted to it since! Rash, bad-tempered men, who would break up the furniture of the house in their passion, have become as gentle as lambs! Such furies usually become quiet, peaceable and long-suffering--Divine Grace has a marvelous influence upon the temper! Men of hot passions that used to give a word and a blow--but generally the blow, first--now watch themselves and guard against their infirmity! They take a little time to think before they let fly a hard word or give a sharp look. The change that we have seen in some men has been as complete as that which could have been worked by that fabled mill, into which the legend says that they put old men, turned the handle and ground them young again! Truly a far greater renovation is worked in mind and heart where Jesus comes. Men are "blessed in Him"! Then, as to mental blessing. What have we seen? This have I seen--here is one case out of many. A young man who had fallen into sin, came to me in deep despair of mind. He was so desponding that his very face bore witness to his misery. He wore the aspect of one who could not live much longer as he then was. I had tried to set the Gospel clearly before him on the previous Sabbath, but he told me that he could not grasp it, for that by his sin he had reduced his mind to such a state that he felt himself to be little better than an idiot. He was not speaking nonsense, either, for there are vices which destroy the intellect. I told him that Jesus Christ could save idiots--that even if his mind was, in measure, impaired as the result of sin, yet there was quite enough mind left to be made glad with a sense of pardon, seeing there was more than enough to make him heavy with a sense of guilt. I cheered that Brother as best I could, but I could effect nothing by my own efforts. Soon the Lord Jesus Christ came to him--and he is now a happy, earnest, joyful Christian! Not long ago he sent an offering of thanksgiving to God for having lifted him up from the deeps into which he had fallen. I hope there is a long life of real usefulness before him. We cannot mention one tenth of what we personally know! Eternity will open a great book of record. I call upon the spirits of the just made perfect to witness what the Grace of God did for them! I call upon parents, here, to tell the pleasing story of the conversion of their sons and daughters! And I call upon those who watch for their fellow men to say whether they have not met with many cases in which men have been blessed in Jesus by being snatched from between the jaws of madness, itself, by the sweet, calming influence of the always dear and blessed name of our Redeemer! Yes, indeed, and of a truth, men are and shall be blessed in Him! The practical point is, Brothers and Sisters, since we need to do good, let us preach up our Lord Jesus Christ as the Sovereign balm for every sinner's wound! If you want to be philanthropists, be Christians! If you would bless your fellow men with the best of all blessings, convey to them the knowledge of Jesus Christ! Do not believe that there is anything you can do for your children which will be more effectual than teaching them about Jesus! Do not think that anything in the workshop can soften the vulgarities, silence the blasphemies and end the profanities of your fellow workmen, like setting Jesus Christ before them! When the Moravian missionaries first went to Greenland, they tried to tell the Greenlanders about the existence of a God--they spent some months in such preliminary subjects before they came to the Gospel--but they never gained the attention of the people. Discourses upon such necessary subjects as the Godhead, the immortality of the soul and the like, were flavorless to the Greenlanders. It happened, one day, that one of the missionaries, translating the Gospel according to John, read out these words-- "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "What is that?" said the Greenlanders. "What is that? We never heard the likes of that. Why have you not told us that before?" Nothing had been done till the missionaries came to the Gospel, itself! Then they reached the Greenlander's heart--awakened his dormant intellect and led him to Jesus! Oh, let us keep on with the subject of Christ Crucified! Whatever there is not in our shop window, let us always have Christ as the chief article of our heavenly commerce. Whatever there may lack of Grace and beauty in our speech, and our outward appearance, may there be no lack of Jesus Christ set forth among the sons of men, for, "men shall be blessed in Him" and not without Him! Great schemes of socialism have been tried and found lacking--let us look to regeneration by the Son of God--and we shall not look in vain. Nothing has come of newfangled preaching from the first day till now--but never has the old faith of Jesus failed! Men have been blessed in Jesus and they shall be blessed in Him as long as the race shall exist. III. Lastly, this whole matter is to extend till THE ENTIRE WORLD SHALL BE BLESSED IN CHRIST. Even at this moment the whole world is the better for Christ. But where He is best known and loved, there is He the greatest blessing. What snatched many an island of the southern sea from barbarism and cannibalism? What, but Jesus Christ preached among them? Men have been blessed in Him in Europe, America, Asia and everywhere. Africa and other lands, still plunged in barbarism, shall receive light from no other source but that from which our fathers received it centuries ago--from the great Sun of Righteousness. Men shall be blessed in Christ because where He comes, oppression cannot live. You may tell me that the governor of such an empire is a despot. Oh, yes, but despots cannot long flourish where there is an open Bible! Tyrannies may last a generation or two, but all the world knows that their time is short. They will go down--they must go down where Christ is lifted up! That Inspired Book is a testimony for human liberty, louder than all others. It is a declaration of the rights of men under King Jesus--despotism must fall before it, sooner or later. We, in this country, owe our liberties, beyond everything, to the Christianity which is the outflow of a present Christ among us. Slavery? What a plague it was upon the fair hands of our sister nation across the Atlantic! The spot is washed away and it was true religion which forced the washing! There would have been no freeing of the slaves from fetters if it had not been for the Christianity which, after long silence, at last spoke out! And when it spoke, it was as when a lion roars. The Christianity of England is always pleading for the slave, for the aborigine, for the down-trodden. Leave our politicians alone and we shall soon have all the infamies alive again! Slavery would be tolerated, if not encouraged, if there were not Christian souls upon the watch. What saves us from war at this moment? What influence is it that is always contrary to war and always cries for peace? Why, it is the Christian element among us which counts anything better than bloodshed! Let the Christian element spread and it will be a power to bless mankind! It shall, in proportion as it spreads, put down evil and foster good. Already many a monopoly has been ended and many a liberty has been gained. Much religious intolerance has been subdued by the power of Jesus Christ over His people and I do pray, dear Friends, that we may live to see all nations more manifestly affected by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May every nation be ruled by just and righteous laws! May every nation be willing to submit exterior disputes to the arbitration of justice! It will be so one day. The nations shall be friends and all men shall feel that they are members of one great family. "Do unto others as you would that they should do to you," is the sum of the moral teaching of our Divine Lord--and if that is followed, it will bring about a halcyon era, the likes of which the world has never seen! If His Spirit will come and renew men's hearts--and teach them to love and to obey the Lord their God--then shall all nations call the Redeemer, blessed and, from every corner of the whole earth, the song shall go up, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever!" Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psalm 72. __________________________________________________________________ Entangled in the Land (No. 2188) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1891 DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 21, 1890. "For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in." Exodus 14:3. ISRAEL was clean escaped from Egypt. Not a hoof of their cattle was left behind, nor foot of child or aged man remained in the house of bondage. But though they were gone, they were not forgotten by the tyrant who had enslaved them. They had been a very useful body of workers, for they had built treasure cities and storehouses for Pharaoh. Compelled to work without wages, they cost the tyrant nothing but the expenditure of the lash. His exactions of forced labor had grown intolerable to the people, but the buildings erected had been a joy to the lord of Egypt. When they were quite gone, Pharaoh woke up to a sense of his loss and his attendants felt the same. So they cried, "Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?" Then they resolved to drive them back, again, and they thought it easy to do so, for they said, "They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in." They knew that the Israelites had no spirit for war and they felt sure that they had only to overtake them and hurry them back like a drove of cattle. They had found them such submissive servants that they expected to fit their fetters on them, again, and rivet them forever. Perhaps their God had shot His last arrow and Egypt might capture His people, again, without fear of plagues. Thus men thought--but the Lord thought otherwise. Do not I speak to some at this hour who, during the last few months, have, by the power of the Lord's gracious hand, escaped out of the bondage of sin? You have got clean away from your old master. With a high hand and an outstretched arm has God brought you forth into liberty! You remember the sprinkling of the blood and the eating of the Paschal Lamb--and you are now on your way to Canaan. But your former master and his friends have not forgotten you. You were once a valuable servant to Satan and he will not willingly lose you. Some of you whom God has saved by Grace could drink for Satan, lie for him, swear for him, lead others into evil ways and you could do other things, cheerfully, which I need not mention, which he always desires to have done in his kingdom. You were a trained servant and knew your master's way so as to answer his purpose better than most. Servants of Satan usually serve him greedily and you were very eager. Nothing is too hot or too heavy for men who are thoroughly enthusiastic for evil. Sins that should be thought degrading are followed by men under the notion of pleasure and gaiety. "A short life and a merry one," is too often the cry of persons who are preferring death to life. The devil has the knack of making his bondsmen boast of their freedom and they follow with eagerness that which is to their own loss and ruin. Poor slaves! Their slavery has blinded their minds. Thanks be unto God, certain of you have lately fled from your former bondage! But the point I am to speak of is this--the great tyrant has not forgotten you and he designs in his heart your capture and re-enslavement. He and his are continually looking for opportunities by which they may bring you back into the thralldom of evil, fasten the manacles of habit upon your hands and fit the fetters of despair upon your feet. By the Grace of God I hope that the Prince of Evil and his helpers will be disappointed, but they will leave no stone unturned to effect their purposes. One of their hopes of driving you back is the belief that you are entangled by your circumstances and surroundings. They conceive that you have got into serious difficulty through your conversion and that you cannot find your way out of your perplexity. Now the enemy says, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil." The Pharaoh of the infernal regions thinks to drive the fugitives back, again, like a flock of sheep and, notwithstanding all that God has done for them, he hopes, again, to bring them under his yoke. If Jehovah has brought you out, His work will never be undone, but the enemy's hope lies in his belief that you are hopelessly entangled by your present environment. I speak, just now, mainly to new converts, and I trust I may encourage them. Satan has less hope of getting back those who have escaped from his tyranny for many years. If he can trip them up or worry them, even now, he will take a delight in doing it, but he begins to see that the older pilgrims are really the Lord's and cannot fall into his hands. Of those who have only lately escaped from his power, he has greater hope, for they have not yet proven, by the test of experience, that the work within them is Divine. He hopes that possibly theirs is only temporary reformation and, if so, he can soon make them slip back into the mire of sin from which he hopes they have only half escaped. I am going to speak to the raw recruits, "from Egypt lately come," hoping that, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, they may be cheered in pressing forward and may feel that they can never go back to their old sins. The early period of Christian faith, like the infancy of life, is crowded with dangers. Literally, new-born life is so precarious that it is a wonder that any infant survives! Infant spiritual life is so full of weaknesses and diseases that none would survive were it not for Almighty Grace. Hence the need of the special precept, "Feed my lambs." It is our bounden duty to look well after beginners in the ways of God. The moral mortality in our Churches is mainly among the new converts. If they survive the first years of temptation, as a rule they continue with us. Our Church Roll shows that the leakage is through the unseasoned timbers-- "When they have conquered early fears, And vanquished youthful wrong, Grace will preserve their following years, And make their virtues strong." If we leave them without help and comfort in their beginnings, we cannot tell how much they will sin and suffer. With the view of helping them, I shall speak, first, upon one of our early dangers and, secondly, upon our security against that danger. I. ONE OF OUR EARLY DANGERS is this--we may become entangled in the land--the wilderness may shut us in. That entanglement takes a great many shapes. I will only hint at a few of them. Dealing with old friends is a frequent one. The man is a new creature in Christ Jesus and since his friends find that he is so, they trouble him. His foes are they of his own household! How is the youth to make an open confession of Christ before his infidel father? Possibly the convert is a wife. How is she to be a Christian if she is married to an ungodly husband? Our earthly loves have great power over us and it is right that they should--but herein comes a hindrance to spiritual life. Satan says to himself, "Ah, he cannot break away from my kingdom, for his brother, his wife, or his betrothed will keep him in my service!" It may not only be one member of the family, but several may combine to draw back the half-escaped one. It may be that parents, brothers, sisters, friends of all sorts will unite in their efforts to jeer the young Christian out of his faith and lead him off from the road of uprightness. We hear much of the Salvation Army, but, alas, there is an Army of Damnation, too! Very zealous and crafty are these followers of the Evil One. Cruel mockings, accusations of hypocrisy, slanders and unkindnesses are not spared, to turn the young Christian from the right way. Because of household opposition, Satan says, "He is entangled in the land." The adversary thinks that you have not the courage to stand up against your relatives and you will not dare to confess your Lord before your wife, or your father. We shall now see whether the Lord has brought you out, or whether you are running off on a mere whim of your own--the devil will not be slow to apply the test! In some cases the entanglement is not so much that of the family as of society. I have personally known one or two friends moving in high circles who have said to me, "As soon as I am known to be a Christian, my friends will cut my acquaintance. I do not know what I shall do when I have to visit at certain houses. Assuredly I shall have to run the gauntlet." It has been a quiet pleasure to me when I have found that they have been banished from such "society" altogether, for it could never have been of any spiritual advantage to them and it might have proved a snare. Their loss was a real gain. But, oh, how many are afraid of Sir John and of Lady Mary, or of some wealthy neighbor! These fine folks may be nothing very great, after all, but, still, weak hearts are all too apt to dread the loss of their patronage and are ready enough to make a great cross of being frowned out of their society. In other circles the same difficulties occur. The workshop has its trials as well as the drawing room. "Ah," says Satan, "the man came out and confessed himself a Christian the other night, but I know where he works and there is not a man in the place who will sympathize with him! He will be entangled in the land." It happens that one begins in the morning with a joke. A second comes on with an oath. A third follows suit with a sharp and bitter observation. All day long they give the new convert such handfuls of mud as they can find--and the hope of the Evil One is that thus he will be forced back into his old ways. The same thing happens on the farm, or on board ship, or in the barracks--old companions want to have our society and are not pleased with the silent rebuke which is implied in our separating from them. You know more about this than I do, but I wonder not at Satan saying, "They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in." Why, some of you can scarcely descend the steps of this Tabernacle, convinced of sin and awakened to seek eternal salvation, before an old friend meets you and, by his careless salutation, he makes you forget the emotion which just before was so manifest! Or if you get over the first attack, you are so warmly assailed indoors that you are greatly inclined to give in. Alas for the many who are speedily entangled in the nets of human associates and never gain the liberty of Christ! The demands of business, of position, of self-interest, of custom--these all hold men as birds are caught with bird-lime, or as the needle is held by a powerful magnet--and so they are prepared to listen to evil entreaties and return to the country from which they came out. To some, the entanglements come from having to deal with new matters. All things have become new and among the rest, even their ordinary business wears a different aspect. It used to be conducted in such and such a way, but now, on examination, the man says, "I am a Christian. I cannot do as I have done and yet, how can I alter it?" It is a very simple matter to fall into those ways of trade which are questionable--but it is not quite so easy to quit them and to gain a livelihood. When you alter one custom of trade, another matter hangs upon it, and needs a change. And it is not easy to bring partners, clerks and workpeople out of old ways into new. They are very apt to be sticklers for former methods. Moreover, there are people in the trade who think you more nice than wise and will even refuse to do business with you if you are so particular. It is no small thing for the convert to set himself right with the world in his changed mode of dealing, yet this has got to be done and done with decision, too, or there is no escaping from evil! At such a time the struggler feels--"I am entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut me in"--and the enemy of souls is of the same opinion. Now is his opportunity, but if you escape him, now, he will never again have such an advantage over you. At the same time, our young Brother may be alarmed about the other side of his new associations--namely, joining the Church. It seems an ordeal to young beginners to come to see the pastor about uniting with the Lord's people. I am sure they need not be at all terrified of me, for no one will more heartily welcome any sincere seeker after Jesus! All that I shall ask is a simple confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ--and if that is given, even with fear and trembling--I shall be well content. Yet, to the timid beginner, it seems very solemn to be spoken to by the Elders of the Church. Mr. Bunyan puts lions in front of the Palace Beautiful, by which palace he means the Church. I have been told by a facetious person that Mr. Bunyan meant by these lions the Deacons and Elders! Well, I can only say that I find them brave as lions, but even if they were terrible as those monarchs of the forests, there is no just cause for fearing them, for Mr. Bunyan adds, "The lions are chained." If any of you are afraid of our Deacons and Elders, you are so without reason, for the lions are chained by the intense love they bear both to their Lord and to all pilgrims to Zion. A guard is set before the door of the Church for a necessary purpose, for we would have none enter who are self-deceived--but none of the Brothers in office among us will harm anyone who desires to serve the Lord and dwell with His people. If you have been troubled about your admission to the Church, I hope that fear will come to an end by your pushing forward and being enrolled in our ranks. Get right in your position, both towards the world and the Church, and let not the Evil One say with regard to either of these matters, "They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in." We have known others bewildered with doctrinal difficulties. When a man's soul is renewed, he begins to think, and he desires to understand many things which, before, were indifferent to him. He meets with that most plain and precious Truth of God that, "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," and he is well satisfied with that declaration. Still, as he grows, he seeks more knowledge and longs to understand the deep things of God. Possibly, as a young beginner he goes beyond his depth. He perceives the Doctrine of Election in the Bible and he asks, "What is this?" It may be he is greatly puzzled with this doctrine, for though it is rich with comfort for those who, by reason of years, have had their senses exercised, yet it is a hard nut for babes in Grace. It is simple enough when seen from one side of it, but from another it is a bottomless mystery. We have seen minds quite bewildered where, to us, all things have seemed plain. I have known people stumble over hard texts. "What does this text mean? What does that passage mean? What does this other Scripture mean?" You would be astonished if you knew how many people are disturbed in mind, lie awake at nights and are likely to lose their faith in Christ over Scriptures which are as cheering as can be when once they are understood! These people need that some man should guide them, for, like the Ethiopian nobleman, they will not otherwise understand what they read. In former periods, many lost themselves in meditations upon free will, predestination, Irresistible Grace and so forth. It was a pity that they dwelt so much upon the decrees of the Father and so little upon the work of the Lord Jesus! They got their heads muddled by things too high for them. People are more frivolous now, as a rule, and this evil is rare. Still, there are to be found, here and there, thoughtful persons not yet fully instructed in the faith who are puzzled and confused as the Infinite Glory of revealed Truth opens up before their astonished gaze! They will know, hereafter, but for the present they are sorely troubled and perplexed--and their cruel enemy rejoices that, "They are entangled in the land." Nothing contributes more to this than the divisions in the Christian Church. One preacher cries up one thing and another quite the contrary, till young converts cry, "Who are we to believe?" And they stand as if they had come to crossroads and do not know which way to take. I am sorry it should be so, but there is a promise to the family of faith, "All your children shall be taught of the Lord." You shall not lose your way if you will accept the Word of God as a little child. Be of good courage, for it is written--"He shall guide you continually." Far worse is the case of those who are entangled through strange discoveries. They came in among professed Believers and they supposed that all Christians were perfect, (which, by the way, is a mere supposition), and now they have met with a certain loud professor who has acted very dishonorably and unkindly towards them! And they cry out with astonishment, "How is this?" We who know by experience and observation that Judas may be looked for among common dis-ciples--since he appeared among the chosen 12--are not so staggered when we see a hypocrite! We expect to see black sheep even in the choicest flock--but the new convert is sorely grieved and stumbled when he finds out the melancholy fact that all men are not what they seem. Great mischief is worked among young Christians by hypocritical or inconsistent professors. God grant that none of us may be of that kind, for the blood of souls will lie at the door of such persons! It may be that, in his earliest days, the young convert finds out with surprise that his own heart is brimming over with sin. He thought that he was so changed that no sin remained in him and no temptation from without could move him. He hoped that he was so sure of the Truth of God that he would never doubt. But now he has to cry, "Lord, help my unbelief," for he can hardly decide whether he believes or not! He has discovered another law in his members warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity. He finds that when he would do good, evil is present with him--and this inward conflict between the flesh and the spirit comes upon him as a terrible surprise. "Why am I like this?" he cries. "Can I be a child of God and have such dreadful thoughts? Could I feel so wretched if I were, indeed, a possessor of Grace?" When young beginners get into this rough road, they are taken by surprise and know not what to do. Then is it that the adversary of their souls hopes that, "They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in." Akin to this are their amazements at painful experiences. It may be the Lord withholds the light of His Countenance from them and then they walk in darkness and see no light. If they were always to enjoy calm and comfort, they would, with self-complacency, boast, "My mountain stands firm! I shall never be moved!" But the Lord hides Himself from them to slay their pride. If they were always at ease, they would fall into living by feeling, instead of walking by faith. Therefore the Lord tries them, leads them by a desert path, clouds their sky and burdens their backs. Then they enquire, "How is this?" Some of us know that when God shuts us up in the dark, He loves us as dearly as when He pours sunlight upon us, but beginners in the Divine Life do not know this--and they are terribly put to it since they judge God's heart by His hands. "Can I be a child of God, and yet be so afflicted? And why is my light so dim?" These frames and feelings, which come of our being frail, foolish and feeble-minded, are a great perplexity--and when we cannot make them out, the adversary cries, "They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in." What if, at the back of all this, we should be assailed with special trials? Suppose it should be true that ever since you have been a Christian, you have not prospered in worldly concerns as you did before? It will seem strange. When you were a man of the world and were an enemy of God, you had plenty of money and a host of friends--but now that you have become a Christian, your means and your friends are gradually melting away. It may be the case. I have known such an instance. Yet it is not hard to explain this in several ways. The Lord would not have us follow Him for the sake of what we get from Him. He would have us men, against whom even Satan could not say, "Have You not set a hedge about him and all that he has?" Our Lord desires followers who will cling to Him at all risks, for no other reason but their value of Himself and His Truth. He would have servants who, having counted the cost, would lose estate and repute, yes, and life, itself, sooner than turn aside from the way of their Lord! Perhaps you are being educated to this point of faithfulness. Do not, therefore, doubt because of your exercises and tribulations. but take these things joyfully! The path to Heaven lies by the dens of the leopards and the haunts of the young lions. Dream not that God has forsaken you! Leave it to the devil to say, "They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in." Possibly, once more, some may be much beset on the road to Heaven by mental difficulties. I do not often say much about these things because there are plenty of preachers who, by mentioning difficulties, are really spreading them. Certain clever gentlemen of the cloth may think it their duty to sow doubts among their hearers, but I have no such ambition. They may imagine that they are answering the questions which they suggest, but it seems to me that they are merely advertising them to many of those who were previously unaware of them. This is an age when men assail the Inspiration of the Bible, the atoning Sacrifice and the Election of Grace. I need not enlarge. Everything is now attacked. There is no part of the Bible which some critic would not take away from us. It may be, young Friend, that you cannot answer all the objections which you hear. Do not wonder if you cannot! You would be wiser than Solomon if you could reply to all objections that quibblers may invent! A friend came to me with a great difficulty, supposing that I could answer it off-hand; but I replied, "He who fashioned this piece of criticism took time in the making of it and you must allow me the same time to demolish it. I will do my best with it, but remember, if you find a thousand difficulties which I cannot meet, that fact will not prove that they cannot be met, for I do not profess to be Omniscient, nor do I assert that faith is a Grace which has no difficulties to surmount." If there were a thousand more objections which could not, at this present time, be answered, they might confuse our feeble minds, but they would not shake the eternal Truth of God, itself! God's Word is sure, be the difficulties what they may! Know what you know and believe what you believe--and get a firm grip of undoubted Truths of God--and though, when you are worried with the doubts and hypotheses of philosophers and the like, Satan will say, "They are entangled in the land," let him see that your worry is soon ended by a childlike faith in the living God! Real faith will find a way out of perplexity, or will make one! True faith will sooner set aside the conclusions of human reason than the declarations of God. In fact, faith teaches reason to be reasonable by setting before it the highest of all reasons, namely, the Testimony of God! God send us such a childlike faith and then we shall not be "entangled in the land"! II. I have thus shown you what our danger is. Now, secondly, let us think of OUR SECURITY UNDER THIS TRIAL. My text is, "Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in." Upon this I make the first observation, that this is not true. It is only what Pharaoh said. And so when Satan says, "They are entangled in the land," it is not true! It is only one of the sayings of the Father of Lies. "They say"--says one. Well, what do they say? Let them say it--their saying it will not make it true. A troubled one comes to me and complains of a certain charge which has been made. And he adds, as the sharp edge of it all, "Sir, it is not true." Well, then, do not fret about it! One cries out, "They are taking away my character and I feel it keenly because what they say is cruelly false." Friend, do not feel it at all! You ought to feel it only if what they say is true. Now, what Pharaoh said was not true and his speech did not cause the children of Israel to be really entangled in the land. Pharaoh's tongue speaks his wish--but his wish will not be realized. Our adversaries say that our cause is defeated. Is it? "Ah," they say, "we have shut him up. The man cannot answer us! We have crushed his faith and argued his confidence to death." Have you? By the grace of God we stand fast in the once-delivered faith, after all your sophistries and boasts! You say that we are entangled, but we are not. "Show us," they say, "the way in which you will get out of the wilderness." No, that we cannot do, but, if you will wait a while, the Lord will show you--by leading us graciously through the divided sea--and, it may be, by also drowning you therein, as He did the Egyptians when the waters overwhelmed them! Israel could not guess her way, but Israel could wait till God revealed it. Newly-emancipated one, you are shut in with doubts and difficulties suggested by carnal reason, but, I pray you, believe your God! By the blood of the Cross, I entreat you, believe the Lord Jesus! By the eternal judgment and the Great White Throne, believe your God. "Let God be true but every man a liar." Wait till He shall clear your way, through the very heart of the sea if need be--a way which will conduct you in safety to the other shore, where, with timbrel and with song, you shall proclaim His victory! My next observation is this--though Pharaoh said, "They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in," yet they had a Guide. Look at the surroundings of my text and you will see that they were guided by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, so that they had no need to be in any perplexity as to their road. We, too, have a Guide. In Providence we are not left without a Leader and in spiritual things we are not left without the Spirit of God who shall lead us into all Truth. Young traveler, you are not turned out alone into a wild wilderness to find a path--the Good Shepherd goes before you! Follow Him as the sheep follow their shepherd. He never led His flock in the wrong direction yet! Do what He bids you and you are safe. Do as He did when He was here below--His example is your safe direction. Believe Him and obey Him. Keep to the narrow path. Hold fast your integrity and never let go of your faith. You have a heavenly Guide. You are not left alone and, therefore, you cannot be entangled in the land--the wilderness has not shut you in! Remember, next, that the Lord had appointed a way for these people. There was not only a Guide, but a way. But where was that way? Mountains blocked them on either side. They could not turn back, for Pharaoh shut up that route. Where should they go? The reedy Red Sea rolled across their front. Listen! Their way is across the bottom of that sea and up from its depths to the other shore! A strange path! "It is no way at all," cries unbelief. Have you never read, concerning God, "Your way is in the sea, and Your path in the great waters, and Your footsteps are not known"? Tried Believer, the Lord will make a way for you where no foot has ever been! That which, like a sea, threatens to drown you, shall be a highway for your escape! I once had a friend, an upright gracious man, a gentleman whom God had prospered. He had, when engaged in a bank, acted uprightly in a matter in which his superiors judged him to be foolishly scrupulous and, therefore, dismissed him. He could not do wrong and so he was left with a wife and family, without a job and, as everybody told him, irretrievably ruined because of his "foolish conscientiousness." He was for years the head of that very bank. In a singular way, the Lord made his discharge the means of his advancement so that he rose, step by step, to be the master where he had been the rejected servant! And this, humanly speaking, would not have come about had it not been for the incident mentioned. Have faith that God can turn the evil into good and that which threatens to annihilate you will be the means of your enlargement! Look well to your integrity and the Lord will look to your prosperity! The way of faith is not a common turnpike road which every careless traveler may traverse without care or study. It is a mysterious way which no fowl knows and the lion's whelp has not trodden. Those who inherit the special glories of Heaven must encounter the special perils of the deep and of the desert--and in their amazing journey they shall behold the glorious arm of the Lord working wonders for them! Note well that the Lord would not only find them a way, but, at the same time, overthrow their enemies. You have come up out of Egypt, O young Believer, but the taskmasters are at your heels! There may come a decisive moment, after which they shall never pursue you again. These who seek your soul are to be destroyed, so that there shall not be one of them left. I believe that many a young convert hates sin and hates all evil habits, but these evils keep dogging his footsteps and seem as if they would master him--and then there comes a time of great struggle and tremendous battling without and within--on that one desperate field he fights the matter out. His adversaries are drowned in that Red Sea! His old sins and his old habits lose forever their former power. The Red Sea rolled between Israel and Egypt and whatever else might trouble the pilgrim host, they were never, throughout the whole 40 years, molested by Pharaoh, or any of the Egyptians. It is a grand thing when a man gets clean away from the world and is reckoned as dead to it. He has burnt his boats and has landed on the shore from which he never can go back, again, but must fight out the battle against sin even to the end. When a man is sworn into the army of Christ for eternity and the world has cast him out, there is nothing for him but to go right ahead. Everything that he has is now staked on the Cross of Christ. Happy man to have come to such a pass--to be once and for all crucified to the world, and the world crucified to him! The Egyptians of sin which had so fiercely pursued him are drowned and the rest of the Egyptians of evil have given him up--and he may go on his way to the promised land in peace so far as his old taskmasters are concerned. Remember, also, dear Friends, that when these people were thought to be hopelessly entangled, they were about to see the Lord perform for them a work which would be most helpful to their ultimate conquest of Canaan, for when Pharaoh and his chariots were drowned in the sea, Palestine heard of it and all the natives there began to tremble. Thus sang Moses in his famous song, "Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of Your arm they shall be as still as a stone. The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold of the inhabitants of Palestine." That day in which a convert has to fight out the battle, once and for all with himself, shall give him strength for all future conflict and smooth his pathway into the land that flows with milk and honey! You must not think, young Christian, because you are saved from guilt, that everything is done and the warfare ended! There is a life-long conflict for you before you obtain possession of your inheritance and, it may be that, if now, when you are in special trouble, you are found faithful, all the rest of the road will be cleared from similar troubles. Now shall the Egyptians be drowned in the sea! Some of us can remember the time when we had to stand still and seriously ask, "Can I now be true to the Lord and His Law? I am advised the other way by a very prudent friend. Can I reject this advice? I can see the worldly advantage that I should gain through acting in a crooked course. Can I forego that advantage? I can see that I shall have to suffer if I am conscientious. Can I take up my cross?" When, after hours of anguish and prayer, you have come out of every entanglement pure and free, from that time forth the Lord may lift up the light of His Countenance upon you, and your victory over all other adversaries will be easy. Will not this comfort some of you who have just come to the Red Sea? The place of test and trial shall be the place of the ending of the foe! Why had the Lord led the people so far if He would not still help them? Do I hear someone say, "I fear that I shall never get out of my difficulties"? Yet you believe that the Lord has brought you out from the dominion of Satan? Tell me, has God brought you so far to let you perish? He has broken off the yoke of sin. He has given you a hope in Christ and you are a changed man. Do you think that He would do all this for you and then leave you? Come, my Brother, has the Lord brought you out of Egypt, by the precious blood of the Lamb, that you should die in the wilderness? Do you believe that Jesus has redeemed you to let you be lost, after all? I would speak personally to any elderly Christians here who begin to think that they shall one day fall by the hand of the enemy. How old are you? "Sixty." Sixty? How long do you expect to live? Answer: ten years. Then if God has taken care of you for 60 years, can you not trust Him for the odd ten? "Well," says one, "I am eighty." Eighty? How long do you reckon to remain on earth Are you going to doubt for the few years that are yet to come? Have you trusted your God for 80 long years? Do not doubt Him now, I pray you! Do not please the devil by distrusting your faithful God! As surely as Jehovah begins, He will finish! It shall never be said of any work of God, "He began to build and was not able to finish." If He has set you on the way to the eternal inheritance, He will surely bring you into it! God is never defeated or turned aside. "He shall not fail nor be discouraged." Comfort one another, therefore, with such words as these. Lastly, the Lord must bring Israel out of all entanglement, for how else could He be glorified? Suppose that the Israelites had been left to perish when Pharaoh said they were shut in? What then? What would the Lord have done for His great name? Would not the Egyptians have exulted over Israel's God? A Scotch minister tells the story of an aged saint who, on her dying bed, said that her Savior would never leave her to perish. "But suppose that He did not keep His promise and you were to be lost?" She answered, "He would be a greater loser than I." When asked what she meant, she answered, "It is true that I would lose my soul, but God would lose His honor and His Glory if He were not true." Brothers and Sisters, if we have trusted in God, and have come out of the Egypt of the world through His Grace, and have left all its sins behind us--if we were left to die in the wilderness--the Lord Jesus Christ would lose His Glory as a Savior, the Divine Father would lose His name for immutable faithfulness and the Holy Spirit would lose His honor for perseverance in completing every work which He undertakes! The Lord God of Israel will never stain His Glory-- therefore be confident that He who brought you out of Egypt will bring you into Canaan! How I delight in that verse which we sang just now-- "My name from the palms of His hands eternity will not erase; Impressed on His heart it remains in marks of indelible Grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is given; More happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in Heaven." "Ah" murmurs one, "I don't believe that!" Then I am sorry for you, for, "according to your faith be it unto you." "I believe," says one, "that men may fall away and perish." It will be an evil thing for you if it should be to you according to your faith! If you have Grace enough to grasp the whole range of blessing which the Covenant of God offers you, then the whole shall be yours by a covenant of salt. He that thinks he can be off and on with God--saved today and lost tomorrow, and then saved again--has a comfortless creed to defend and a world of absurdities to meet! You are born again! Suppose that you could lose the new life which comes by the new birth? What then? I have heard of people being born again, but could they be born again, and again, and again? According to the notion of some, certain persons are born again, and again, and again, and again, and again I do not know how many times! There is nothing in Scripture to warrant such a strange idea. If you, my Friend, will come and cast yourself on Christ and take Him to be your Savior, once and for all, He will save you right now with an everlasting salvation! He says, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Jesus, Himself, has said it, "I give unto My sheep, eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." Believe for this with heroic faith! Believe for eternal salvation in Jesus Christ, who is able to work in you a livelong escape from sin! According to your faith, so shall it be. Oh, no! The devil may say that we are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut us in! But we shall get out of the labyrinth right enough. Is it not written, "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under Grace"? We shall yet sing unto the Lord who has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown our sins and our fears into the sea. So be it! Hallelujah! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Exodus 13:21,22; 14. __________________________________________________________________ A Call To Prayer and Testimony (No. 2189) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 8, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: you that make mention of the Lord, keep not silent, and give Him no rest, till He establishes, and till he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth." Isaiah 62:6, 7. IN the opening verses of this chapter our Lord declares that He will not rest till His purpose of Grace is accomplished. "For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest." His soul is set upon the perfection of His Church. There is never a moment when the heart of Christ ceases to beat high with desire for the salvation of His redeemed. From the dreadful work of making Atonement, He stayed not His hand, but set His face like a flint towards it, till He could say, "It is finished." And now, the work of the gathering of His chosen He carries on with quenchless zeal, never staying His Divine intercession, never withholding His hands from wielding that "All Power" which is given Him in Heaven and in earth. Mark well, Beloved, how He would have His people to be in tune with Himself! He will have no rest till salvation work is done! And He would not have us rest, but He would have us stirred with passionate desire and fired with holy zeal for the accomplishment of the Divine plan of Grace. Till He holds His peace, He will not allow us to be silent! You that have the Revised Version will be struck with the more literal and forcible rendering of our text--"You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take you no rest, and give Him no rest, till He establishes, and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth." A restless Savior calls upon His people to be restless and to make the Lord, Himself, restless--to give Him no rest till His chosen city is in full splendor, His chosen Church complete and glorious. Ah, when the three unite, the Son, the people whom He has redeemed and the Lord who works all things, then shall the golden age have come! Learn from this fact a valuable lesson, that Christ's determination to perform a work, His decree that it shall be so, is no argument for our idleness, but is the best plea and encouragement for our endeavors. "If it is to be," cries one, "I need not do anything." No, Friend, you argue slothfully! On the contrary, the earnest heart will reason itself into immediate and confident action. If it were not to be, to what purpose my zeal? Even if I do not know whether it is to be or not to be, if I think it desirable, I will labor for it with anxiety! But if I am assured that the Lord has appointed it, I labor with might and main, feeling a holy confidence in doing the work of the Lord! Since He wills it, we will it--and so it shall be. Predestination, when rightly understood, never leads to sloth--it has frequently, in human history, been of tremendous force for the production of the most daring and determined action--and it shall be so again. "Deus vult," God wills it, is a grand cry to produce a crusade! God wills it, therefore it shall be. Like thunderbolts flung from an almighty hand, Believers crash through every difficulty under the irrepressible impulse of fulfilling a Divine purpose. Oh, that our meditations at this time may bring us all to this resolve, that we will not rest, and we will give God no rest, till His decree is fulfilled and till He has established and made Jerusalem a praise in the earth! I. In my text I see three things which I will mention one by one. The first is RESPONSIBLE OFFICE--"I have set watchmen upon your walls." "You that make mention of the Lord, keep not silent," or, as your margin and the Revised Version have it, "You that are the Lord's remembrancers." Here are three responsible offices--watchmen set upon the walls, speakers who never hold their peace and remembrancers who cease not to plead with their Lord. May the Holy Spirit help us while we think of the Lord's people as watchmen! In times of war every fortified city had upon its walls certain watchmen, so placed as to see eye to eye--that is to say, the eye of one sentinel reached to the eye of another and so they encompassed the city round about. Whoever passed that way by day or night, they challenged him! And if he turned out to be a foe, they gave an alarm and straightway men-at-arms came forth from the guard rooms and the city was protected against surprise. God's people and especially the stronger, the more instructed and the most experienced of them, should, for Christ's sake, act as watchmen upon the walls. Observe what manner of watchmen we ought to be. It is written, "I have set watchmen." We are under Divine command! In the old Roman days, when a sentry was placed in his position by his centurion, he never thought of quitting his post. Rocks might roam, but not the sentinels of the empire! There was found in Pompeii, among the ashes, a sentry, standing in his place with his javelin in his hand--he had not flinched amid the deadly shower which fell from the volcano and buried the city. His centurion, in the name of the emperor, had set him there, and there he stood! How steadfast and immovable ought these to be, whom the Lord, Himself, has set in their place in connection with His Church! It is Jehovah who says, "I have set watchmen upon your walls." By a Divine arrangement and by a sacred command, saints are set in their positions and they must stand fast and, having done all, must still stand, for they have received their charge from the King, Himself. These watchmen guarded the city of cities, "your walls, O Jerusalem." The legionary who guarded old Rome felt that if he did not fight for his native city, he would be base, indeed. If we are set to guard the Church of God, what shall I say to him who sleeps at his post, or proves a traitor? If you do not throw your whole strength into the guarding of such a cause as this, what will awaken you? Know you not that the Church is purchased by the blood of Christ? That it is God's peculiar heritage? "The Lord's portion is His people." O shepherds, watch well the sheep that cost your Lord so dearly! "Feed the flock of God which He has purchased with His own blood." If we do not guard the Truth of God, once and for all delivered to the saints, we are something worse than traitors! No word has yet been invented which can set forth the perfidy of the man who betrays the cause of Christ and of the Gospel! He is the murderer of souls. God has set us to guard His own city, and we must not slumber. Let the other cities go, if go they must, but as for you, Salem, City of Peace and City of God, if I forget you, let my right hand forget her cunning! If I count you not beyond my chief joy, let me be in sorrow forever! See, Brethren, your responsible office--watchmen of God's setting--watchmen on the walls of God's own city! The service is seen to be responsible to the utmost degree when we see that it demands constant care. The Lord says of these watchmen, "they shall never hold their peace day nor night." We are not set to keep the Church of God by day only, but amid the dews or frosts of the darkest night we are to maintain our watch! Christians are to be sentries who will not retreat into the barracks because of the cold, nor quit the rampart because of the heat. At night, watchmen are most required. We are to be instant in season, giving the password at each particular time when the watch reports itself, and thus never holding our peace day nor night. We are to be instant out of season--for at such times the enemy is most likely to come. God's watchmen are not taken on by the hour, to watch by turns, but they are bound to be, throughout life, watchers for souls! We are never off duty! We take a day and a night shift. Our rest is in the Lord's service. Our recreation is in change of occupation. Ours is a life service and a constant service. Believers raise no discussion with their Lord as to how many hours of the day they shall spend for Him. Our hours are these--"They shall never hold their peace day nor night." St. Augustine desired to be always found aut precantem, aut predicantem--that is, either praying or preaching--either speaking to God for men in prayer, or speaking for God to men in His ministry. Ministers of Christ, especially, should give themselves, not to the serving of tables, but to the ministry of the Word and to prayer. For us to give ourselves to getting up entertainments, to become competitors with theatres and music halls, is a great degradation of our holy office! If I heard of a minister becoming a chimney-sweep to earn his living, I would honor him in both his callings, but for God's watchmen to become the world's showmen is a miserable business! God keep all of us who are ministers of Christ from entangling ourselves with the things of this life! The proverb says, "Stick to your last, cobbler." And I would say--"Stick to your pulpit, minister! Keep to your one work and you will find quite enough for all the strength you have, and even more." Oh, for preachers who "shall never hold their peace"! You Christian people, you, also, must fulfill your watch. You, also, are called to ceaseless service. A policeman wears an armlet to show that he is on duty--and all Believers should feel that such a badge is worn upon their very heart day and night. "The love of Christ constrains us," not now and then, but always! Our service of the Lord's cause comes not once a week, on Sundays, but so often as we have opportunity! These must always watch, who would be watchmen for souls, watchmen for God, watchers against error and sin, watchers for the coming of the Lord. "I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night." But, in the next place, we are to be spokesmen, for we are never to hold our peace, but make mention of the Lord. Believers are to speak for God to the people. If you have the ability and the commission, speak to the great congregation. You have both ability and commission, each one of you, to speak to those round about you. Be always ready to speak a word in season. Keep a shot in the locker--never run short of a good word for those whom God's Providence puts in your way. If there is nobody near to whom you can speak for God, then in your solitude speak to God for your fellow men. What a blessed thing to be so familiar with God that you have His ear for your friends and neighbors! Plead with Him for the erring, the unbelieving, the profane. Never hold your peace towards God, for in this case, speech is more than golden. By prayer you unlock the treasuries of Heaven--keep the golden key in constant motion. Never cease to pray, since intercession is benediction. If the world is asleep, if the Church is asleep, hold not your peace by night and, should the Church become active and the world be a little awakened, redouble your prayer till the world is won! You spokesmen for God and spokesmen to God, never hold your peace day or night! Sick saints are especially set to take the night watches. While the most of us are blessed with refreshing slumber, these find that sleep forsakes their eyes. They hear the clock's unwearied tick and listen to the slow striking of the hours. Now let them lift their hearts heavenward on behalf of the Lord's cause and Kingdom. Maybe God arouses them to this end-- that they may keep the nights safe by their prayers--chasing away evil spirits and keeping the incense burning upon the altar of acceptable intercession! The Lord girdles the globe with intercessions by his daily and nightly watchers. As our Queen's morning drum beats round the globe, so does ceaseless prayer cast a belt of golden Grace around the earth. O you that are the Lord's remembrancers, never suffer the flame of prayer to die down! Arise, even in this night season of the Church, and trim your lamps! Lift up your voices for your God and with your God. Let no dumb spirit possess you. As speakers heavenward and earthward, never hold your peace day or night! A third office is brought before us in the marginal reading and in the new version--"You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take no rest." This is an amazing expression--"The Lord's remembrancers." I find the same word elsewhere translated, "recorder"--and truly we are to be the Lord's recorders and keep in memory His great goodness. A high office is that of Remembrancer to the King of kings! Every Christian holds this eminent position. Oriental kings maintained an officer whose business it was to remind the king of the promises which he had made before. He said this to that courtier, that to the other, but His Majesty had plenty of other things to think of and, therefore, every now and then, his Remembrancer would say, "Please, Your Majesty, you promised to do this and that. May it please you to perform your word." Now the Lord has appointed His praying people to be His remembrancers. I should never have dared to use such an expression had I not found it in the Inspired Word, itself. The Lord says, in Isaiah 43:26, "Put Me in remembrance." The Lord cannot forget, but in condescension to our forgetfulness, He bids us act as if He could do so, and put Him in remembrance! By calling the promise to the Lord's remembrance, we are, ourselves, made to be the better acquainted with it. I find that a Remembrancer was also appointed in our English courts to remind the officers of their duty to their sov-ereign--and this is also a part of our work to remind the world that there is a God--and that He claims obedience from His creatures. Brothers and Sisters, fulfill your office! If you would be good remembrancers towards God, you must know the promises of which you remind Him. You must be acquainted with your Bibles so as to fill your mouths with arguments and order your petitions aright. You must come to the great King and say, "Lord, do as You have said. Fulfill this Word unto Your servant whereon You have caused me to hope." If we pray without a promise, we have no reason to expect an answer. God will do what He has promised to do--he may do somewhat more, but we have no right to expect it. The best praying in the world is pleading the promises! I wish we all practiced this sort of prayer. It is wise to bring before the Lord His own Words and plead His Divine veracity--"You have said it. You are true, therefore fulfill Your Word!" It is your business, as the Lord's remembrancers, to be well acquainted with these sacred Words of Grace which you are to bring to remembrance. If you do not remember them, yourself, how can you bring them to the Lord's memory? Your office of remembrancer is to be carried on incessantly. "You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take you no rest and give Him no rest." I fear that very many of God's promises are seldom used. They are like the locksmith's bunch of keys. Why are they so rusty? Because they are not in constant use. They have not been turned in the lock day by day, or they would be bright enough. Are there not exceedingly great and precious promises which, to some of you, are a dead letter? Promises lie hidden away in God's most Holy Word which you have never used! Perhaps you do not even know that they are there. One came to me, not long ago, and said, "I was surprised to find these words in the Bible." To him I answered, "Your remark makes me fear that you have not searched your Bible as you should have done." We ought to know the length and breadth of the estate which the Lord has given us. Oh, that we would incessantly use the promises in prayer! One said, with a smile, the other day, "It is a fine thing to have a checkbook, to get what money you please by signing your name!" I did not stop to explain to him the limits of that power, but I noted that he looked like one who, if he had owned such a checkbook as he spoke of, would have written down larger amounts than the most of us could compass! Still, his folly was not equal on the one side to the stupidity of these who err in the other direction, for they have a checkbook and yet never use it! The treasury of Heaven lies open to faith and yet we fret and worry about our little daily cares. We have but to plead a promise of God, to put Him in remembrance, and He will supply all our needs! Why, then, do we pine in need? Fools that we are, to be anxious and poverty-stricken with the possibilities of infinite riches close at hand! Who among us is there that comes up to the text, "You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take you no rest and give Him no rest"? Thus much upon the office--may the Holy Spirit lead all Believers to undertake and carry on this sacred work! Ministers, Deacons and Elders of Churches are specially called to this. You older and more advanced Christians should lead the way in this holy employment and, as I have already shown you, the sick must take their turn. Every Christian should aspire to take his place in the cordon and in some way watch on the behalf of Zion. But especially should we be constant, instant and fervent in pleading the precious promises of our Lord. These were not given to be forgotten, but to be pleaded and then to be fulfilled. It is written, "For this will I be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." It is the rule of God's Kingdom that we must bring to His remembrance the promise which we would have fulfilled in our own experience! Therefore, "You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take you no rest." II. My second head is a REMARKABLE CAUTION--"You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take you no rest." I quote the best translation. Take no rest from prayer. Be always praying. If not always in the act of prayer, be always in the spirit of prayer. "Pray without ceasing." Not only reason, but wrestle with God in prayer. Sometimes pray without words and, sometimes, with them. Pray alone, but often pray with Brothers and Sisters. There is special prevalence in the prayer of two or three. "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven." Gather in the greater congregations for prayer. "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is," as, I regret to say, the manner of many Churches has come to be in these days. The moderns despise the meeting for prayer and in this, they condemn themselves, by acknowledging that they attach little value to their own prayers! Possibly their consciousness of having lost all power with God in prayer is thus betraying itself. Where the Prayer Meeting is despised, there may be cleverness in the preacher, but there will be no unction for the hearer. O my Brothers and Sisters, I beseech you, both as individuals and as a Church, do not restrain prayer! "Watch and pray"--that precept is a condensation of our text. Never rest from prayer because you are weary of it. Whenever prayer becomes distasteful, it should be a loud call to pray all the more. No man has such need to pray as the man who does not care to pray. When you can pray and long to pray--why, then, you will pray! But when you cannot pray and do not wish to pray--why, then, you must pray, or evil will come of it! He is on the brink of ruin who forgets the Mercy Seat. When the heart is apathetic towards prayer, the whole man is sickening from a grievous disease. How can we be weary of prayer? It is essential to life! When a man grows weary of breathing, surely he is near to dying! When a man grows weary of praying, surely we ought to pray anxiously for him, for he is in an evil case. Never rest from prayer because you have prayed enough. When has a man prayed enough? The greatest pleaders with God in prayer are the hungriest after more of it. The more a man gets from God, the more he desires from God. Those who have but little, ask but little--but to him that has shall be given--and he shall have abundance. Does anyone say, "I have long been prayerful and watchful, and I shall now take things more easily"? Yes. I saw a good man taking it easy the other day--he was riding upon a bicycle with both feet off the pedals--and with the brake in full force. I did not blame the cyclist, but one thing was quite clear--he was going down the hill. He would not have had his feet on the rests in that fashion if he had been upon the upgrade. Brother, whenever you begin to put your legs up and have no more work to do, you are going down hill and there is no doubt about it! The way to Heaven is up hill, and every inch of the way will need effort--for the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence. Grace does not exempt us from activity, but works it in us. If you know the power of the weapon called, "all-prayer," never put it into its sheath, but continually call upon the Lord, and in this matter, "take no rest." Do not fall into the habit ofpraying as a matter of routine. "You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take you no rest." I have heard of soldiers sleeping while on the march and I have known some good people sleep while praying, till I have thought that their prayers were a kind of pious snore. They go on with the old phrases without considering what they mean by them. They are like crickets, whose notes are forever the same. "I sleep," says the spouse, "but my heart wakes." But these might more truly say, "I do not sleep, and yet my heart is not awake." Many prayers are like a grocer's or a draper's account--"Ditto, ditto, ditto." The petitions are as "per usual." It is dreary work when we have the shell of prayer before us, but have no oyster in it. The Brother's lips are here in prayer, but his soul has gone home to his shop, or to his farm. The sails of his mill go round as the wind blows, but he is not grinding anything--there is no grist in the mill, no intelligent, loving desire. Let us get out of the ruts of phrases and set petitions! Mere routine religion is hateful and yet how easily we all fall into it! Let us not rest on our oars and hope to make progress by the impetus already gained. All progress made heavenward by the natural drift of the current is seeming and not real. All worship which is mechanical is, so far, dead! God is a Spirit and we can only worship Him acceptably in spirit and in truth--if the spirit is gone, the very truth of the worship is gone--and it becomes an offense rather than a sweet-smelling savor. Brethren, take no rest, so as to pray by fits and starts. Look at what has been done in many Churches--they plan to have a grand time--and possibly they succeed. Everybody comes up to the Prayer Meetings and all appear to be in earnest about the conversion of souls. There is great excitement and probably much good is done. But after that there is a reaction, a stupor of indifference. As in nature, after high hills, deep valleys--so is it with some religious communities. We say of a man, in the proverb, "He is as sound asleep as a church." Yes, very good. Nothing sleeps so soundly as a church and, especially after a time of excitement. Men who are at one time lively beyond measure, are apt at another time to sleep beyond waking! After a high wind there may come a lull, wherein everything drops, and stagnation reigns supreme. The Lord save us from spasmodic religion! "You that make mention of the Lord, take you no rest." Always keep in a high state of revival, or if that is a state which cannot be maintained, suspect that it is a condition unhealthy and undesirable. If there is a kind of celestial delirium here and there--and I am afraid that such is a correct description of it--avoid it! The wild fury of the flesh, in which everything is done by noise, and men are saved by bluster, is not of God! An excitement which cannot be kept up, since the spirit of man would be exhausted by it, is questionable. An excitement which is lawless and ungovernable, since the Spirit of God is not ruling it, is to be dreaded. Fanaticism is a tornado of the flesh and not the health-giving breath of the Holy Spirit. It is well to be as you would always wish to be. That pace is best which can, by Divine Grace, be maintained from year to year. Enoch walked with God--he could not have run with Him, but he was always enabled to keep in step with God--and God's pace is always the right one. Oh, for a gracious energy which does not flag, but goes from strength to strength! "You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take you no rest." Above all, let us never rest out of despair. The feeling does come over us, sometimes--"What is the use of our labor? So little comes of it. What is the use of protesting for the Truth of God? The Churches will not hear you. You only earn ill-will, and are ridiculed as an old fogy. What is the use of being earnest about winning souls? Men are indifferent. The present engrosses thought--social questions are pressing. Everybody pines for sensationalism or amusement. What profit is there in keeping to the old way?" That spirit creeps over the child of God like the cold of the Arctic regions, numbing him and tending to send him into the sleep of despair. The evidence of this evil power is found in the tendency to restrain prayer before God. From this may our God rescue us! Come, my Brothers and Sisters, I do not know who among you is going to sleep, but I would like to shake the man who is so benumbed, and wake him up. And I hope that, in your turn, when you see me benumbed, you will shake me, also, and wake me up to diligence in prayer! Let us awake this morning and begin again! We must not, will not, yield to slumber! There is small cause for fear and no cause for despair. Our cause defeated? Not a bit of it! All will yet come right. God waits, but He waits that He may be gracious unto us. His time to favor Zion will come and the good old cause will win the victory! "The work of the Lord is in a greater hand than ours. He will not fail nor be discouraged." "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint"--and when they feel that they are fainting--they should resolve to pray with double earnestness--and faintness will yield to joy. Only one more observation--avoid setting any time limits to God in your prayers. He says, "You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take you no rest." A wife said that she would pray for her husband for 10 years and if he was not converted, then, she would conclude that there would be no use in further pleading. To that good wife I would say, "You are right in praying 10 years, but you must not limit the Holy One of Israel! Who are you to put your finger down on the almanac and say, 'God shall answer me on such a day, or I will pray no more'? Plead for your husband as long as he lives." "Well," says one, "I have been praying a long time for a favor, but I am now inclined to cease pleading for it." If you have a question about the rightness of the prayer, do not persevere in a mistake. Solve as quickly as possible the question as to the correctness of the request, for if you waver on that point, your prayer will be of that wavering kind which meets no acceptance with the Lord! If you are asking what you know the Lord has promised and what is certainly for His Glory, you may pray with confidence--and you may even spend the last breath in your body in praying for it! Give the Lord no rest and take no rest, yourself, but incessantly, perpetually, continually plead with God till He answers you out of His holy place. III. And so I come, in the last place, to dwell upon the third matter, which is very amazing. The charge to take no rest was notable, but here is A STILL MORE REMARKABLE CHARGE--Give Him no rest." What a word is this! I speak with solemn awe! When the Lord condescends so greatly, we must be doubly reverent. Give God no rest? I am amazed at such a command! Come, gracious Spirit and teach me how to speak! I see then, first, very clearly, that importunity is here commanded. "Give Him no rest" is our Lord's own command to us concerning the great God. I do not suppose any of you ever advised a beggar to be importunate with you. Did you ever say, "Whenever you see me go over this crossing, ask me for a penny. If I do not give you one, run after me, or call after me all the way down the street. If that does not succeed, lay hold upon me and do not let me go until I help you. Beg without ceasing." Did any of you ever invite applicants to call often and make large requests of you? Oh, no! Importunity is a common enough thing when men are seeking earthly gifts, but it is so sadly rare in heavenly concerns, that the Lord has to exhort us to be importunate with Him! He does, in effect, say, "Press Me! Urge Me! Lay hold on My strength! Wrestle with Me, as when a man seeks to give another a fall that he may prevail with him." All this, and much more, is included in the expression, "Give Him no rest." Importunity is commanded! Importunity is influential with God. How vividly the Savior sets this forth in His parables! The poor widow seeks justice of an unrighteous judge. She had a good case and she appeared in court begging for justice, where she might expect it. She cried, "My Lord, hear my suit!" She meets with no response--the harsh magistrate declares that he cannot attend to her. The court is occupied with other cases. At the first pause the widow is heard crying, "My Lord, there is now an interval! Will you hear me?" She is sternly refused. Another day she appears, and another, and another--her case is urgent, and she is in terrible earnest to be heard. She is put out of the court, over and over. Then the order is given that she shall be kept out. But she gets in, somehow, and her voice, so touching and piercing, is heard in season and out of season, seeking to be delivered from her adversary. Just as the court is closing she cries, "My Lord!" and is answered, "Have not I told you many times before that I cannot attend to you?" "But, my Lord!" He turns on his heels and is gone to his home. The next morning, when he comes forth from his gate, there is the widow. She cries, "My Lord!" With a curse he spurns her. He goes down to the court and he takes his seat. You see "His Excellency" on the bench with his officers around him--a very great personage is he! The first thing he hears is, "My Lord, I pray you, avenge me of my adversary!" "That woman again! Let her be removed. Go on with the next case." All day long, whenever there is a pause, or when His Lordship rises to retire, there is the same bitter wail, "O my Lord, hear me, I pray you!" The widow haunts him! He dreams about the sad-faced woman with the uplifted finger, and the cry, "Hear me, my Lord! Hear me!" The next morning it is no dream. He is at breakfast when the servant says, "A person begs to see you, Sir. She has been at the door very often and she will not go away." "What is she like?" "Well, it is a woman dressed in mourning--no doubt a widow." "Drive her away! She is a common nuisance!" He goes to the court and there is the woman--and she begins again. Then the judge says to 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." The Lord puts that woman's importunity before us as a model and as an encouragement! "And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him?" Pray like that widow. Do not take, "No," for an answer! Study that other picture. A man has a friend who arrives at his door in the dead of night. The friend has been walking a long, long way and is worn out. When he gets to the door, he says, "I am glad I have got here at last. I lost my way in the burning heat of the sun and it has taken me many hours to find the track and reach your door. Give me, I pray you, a morsel of bread, for I am near to die of hunger." "I have not a morsel in the house. I have nothing to set before you. Come in and try to sleep, for food I have none." "Alas, I could not sleep, I am so faint with hunger. I pray you, find me food, or I shall perish." The compassionate householder resolves to go down the street to a friend and beg from him, three cakes. He knocks at the door, but he has no answer. He knocks, and knocks, and calls aloud to his neighbor. The answer comes from the top of the roof that the man is in bed and cannot rise at that unearthly hour to search for bread. The householder is not to be put off, for his friend is dying of hunger. And so he knocks and shouts, and ceases not. The man in bed on the roof tries to sleep, but the noise is too great, and the children are being frightened and asking what is the matter. He hears the pleadings of his friend and again reminds him that the request is unreasonable at such an hour. But this does not end the matter. Knock! Knock! Knock! Call! Call! Call! "I will not go down!" vows the man in bed. "I will not go away!" says the man below! He keeps up an incessant shout and clatter. Again you hear knock! Knock! Knock! The man has turned on the other side and tried to go to sleep, but he cannot manage it--that knocking is too vigorous. Although he will not help him because he is his friend, "yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needs." Pray after this manner and you shall prevail! Oh, for Grace to knock till God's door is opened! You may have what you will if you understand the art of importunity! "Give Him no rest!" Importunity would not have been commanded had it not been right for us and prevalent with God! How safely may we commend what the Lord commands! God is to be moved by the importunate prayers of His people. He will hear! He must hear, if we will pray with persistent faith! Importunity on our part is the sign of coming action on God's part. Sometimes the Lord seems, according to Old Testament figure, to put His right hand into His bosom. We cry to Him, "O Lord, how long?" But His right hand is still in His bosom. Error prevails, sin triumphs, God's people are despised--but His right hand is still in His bosom. Take no rest from prayer and give Him no rest! Before long He will pluck His right hand out of His bosom and He will roll up His sleeve and you will see what His bare arm can do! He will work as soon as He sees that His time is come and that will be when we are in earnest and give Him no rest! Sometimes God's work goes on so well that we have much cause for gratitude and yet we feel that the pace might be greatly quickened. A sermon that could save a hundred could as readily save a thousand if God blessed it to that extent. The same Truth of God which sways one mind could sway a million minds if applied by the Great Spirit. There is no reason why the sowing of the Lord's Word should not bring forth a hundred-fold instead of twenty-fold. We may not dream that the Spirit of the Lord is straitened! When God is with us, all things are possible. When the Lord fires His saints with zeal, His own work never lags behind. God is never behind the desires of His people--in fact, their longings are prophecies of His giving. When we cry day and night, God will work day and night. When saints groan and sigh for revival, it is because the revival is already come and has begun within their souls! When the whole company of the faithful shall glow together with passionate desire and importunate prayer, we may know that our redemption draws near! Importunate prayer is the sign of a growing work. The sighs and cries of the Church are growing pains. Prayer is the thermometer of Divine Grace. The Lord has committed His Divine Force, in a large degree, to the custody of His people. Unbelief shuts up that Force--as it is written, "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." Faith, on the other hand, sets the sacred Force free, for, "all things are possible to him that believes." When saints are all alive and instant in prayer, it is the index and token that the Lord will open the windows of Heaven and pour them out such a blessing that they shall not have room enough to receive it! I have done when I have urged you, my well-beloved Friends, to take this text as a lesson to be practiced. This first sermon on my return ought to be the keynote of this year's service of God. Have you a mind for great Grace and grand enterprises? Or do you prefer to slacken? I hope you will not hesitate, or choose the meaner part. Does the Lord put it into the heart of one and another to feel an agony concerning the unconverted? Do some of you feel a deep concern for the souls of others? Does this happen to you that teach in the Sunday school, or who go out to the lodging houses? Is this state of mind prevailing among the officers of the Church? Is this the condition of a large proportion of private members? Then a grand future lies before us! If God gives all of us to travail for souls, we shall see greater things than these! Brothers and Sisters, we hold the Truth of God! If we had wickedly departed from the way of the Lord, all the praying in the world would have brought us no spiritual progress! But holding fast the everlasting Gospel, what is now needed is the fire from Heaven to fall upon our altar and consume the sacrifice! Oh, for the Holy Spirit! Oh, for the working of God, Himself, in our midst! I exhort you who fear the Lord and are His appointed remembrancers, to be much in prayer and in testimony. Pray and preach! Keep not silent! Tell out the simple Gospel! The more you tell of pardon bought with blood, the better. I saw my dear Brother, Archibald Brown, this week, and he told me of a poor fellow in East London who had been visited by a soul-winning Brother. He had been a wild and wicked man. He was ill and the visitor talked long with him. It seemed to make no impression, till one day he explained Substitution to him and the man asked pointedly, "If I believe in Jesus, do you tell me that He took all my sins upon Himself?" "Yes, he bore all your sins in His own body on the tree." "Well, well," the man cried, "if He took them, I have not got them." "No," said the other, "that is the glorious Truth of God. The Lord suffered for your sins." "Then I shall not have to suffer for them?" "No," said the visitor. "Your sin is put away." "Never heard that before," said the rough man. "That is the most wonderful thing I ever heard. I believe it! Blessed be God, I believe it and I am saved!" Soon after his son came in--another fellow of the Bill Sykes [Fictitious character in Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist."--eod] order and the visitor began exhorting him. The older man cried out, "Give him that little bit! That will do it!" Just so, "that little bit will do it." The visitor told the story of Jesus dying in the sinner's place and the little bit did the work! Our chief business should be to cry, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." We must bid men look to Jesus and live! Keep not silent! Publish this salvation far and wide! Preach the Cross and plead the blood! Preach and pray for Jesus! He is All in All. Keep His Sacrifice to the front and God will bless His own Word! Oh, that He may now grant us a glorious period of genuine Grace-work! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Bit and Bridle--How To Escape Them (No. 2190) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 15, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I will guide you with My eyes. Beyou not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near to you." Psalm 32:8,9. THE joy of full forgiveness is described in the first two verses of this Psalm--"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile." Oh, the blessedness of sitting at Jesus' feet, a sinner washed in His blood! Outside of Heaven there is no greater joy--and even there they sing of blood-washed robes! After a man is pardoned, anxiety is awakened as to how he shall be kept from sin in the future. The burnt child dreads the fire and, although his burns have all been healed, he dreads the fire none the less, but all the more. These who have been scorched by sin tremble at even a distant approach to the flame. You will always know whether you are delivered from the guilt of sin by answering this question--Am I delivered from the love of sin? He who lost his way yesterday feels his need of a guide today and tomorrow. How can the pardoned one endure the thought of sinning, again, against the Lord? David's great anxiety on this score is met by the gracious answer of the Lord--"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go." Another thing is noteworthy--David was now rid of guile as well as guilt. Orientals pride themselves on their cunning and David, by nature, had a considerable share of craft about him. But he now drives it from his spirit--he will not, from now on, tolerate himself in deceit. When he had thrown away this false wisdom, this carnal prudence, he felt that he must look elsewhere for guidance. If he is no longer to plot and plan with the cunning which he had shown in the matter of Uriah, he will need other direction--and he looks up for it. See how our gracious God comes in with the promise of guidance. "The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way." "The Lord preserves the simple." The upright, who can no longer trust their own deceitful hearts, shall find the Lord an all-sufficient Guide. Happy is it for them that He has spoken such a word as this--"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go." One other observation. We find David, in this Psalm, reaching to a high state of joy on account of his being forgiven. He exclaims, in the seventh verse, "You shall compass me about with songs of deliverance." A very proper state of mind to be in! It is meet that the pardoned sinner should leap for joy. But, at the same time, the wisdom of God comes in, not to check the joy, but to render it more deep, more sure--and to prevent its coming to an untimely end. David is in ecstasies of delight, but he is to be reminded that he is not yet in Heaven, and that he is compassed about with other things besides songs. The voice of God commends his joy, but also reminds him that there lies before him a future full of perils and a life strewn with temptations. He is, from then on, to be a disciple as well as a singer! He needs to be instructed and taught in the way, for he is still a pilgrim and not yet at his journey's end. Sound the timbrel, if you will, and shout for joy and sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! But remember that on the other side of the Red Sea there is a wilderness and you will require much Divine Grace to traverse it--such Grace as only the Shepherd of Israel can give you. You will be wise to address yourselves to your journey and resolve to follow Him whose eyes discern the way, and whose hands can help you in it. A pilgrim's life is not all feasting. He has something else to do besides praising God upon the high-sounding cymbals. We must sit at Jesus' feet, as well as look to His Cross. We are to bear His yoke and learn of Him, that we may find rest for our souls. This may stand as an introduction, for now I need to conduct you further into this grave business of the saved man. You are pardoned, my Friend, you know you are, and you feel the joy of that knowledge. God grant that your joy may abound yet more and more! Sitting in your seat this morning, you are saying, "Oh, the heaped-up blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered!" Yes, but you are not yet in Heaven! Something more is needed--not to secure the love of God, not to complete the work of Sovereign Grace--but to educate you for the skies, to make you meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light! About that matter we are going to talk as the Holy Spirit shall enable us. That I may set before you, to the fullest, the teaching of the text, I would have you note, first, a privilege to be sought--Divine instruction, practical teaching and tender guidance. Secondly, a character to be avoided--"Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding." This will bring us to consider, thirdly, an infliction to be escaped--"Whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle." If you do not wish to be bitted and bridled, be readily obedient to the direction of your Lord! We will come to a close by reflecting that there is a freedom to be attained. You may be free from bit and bridle and guided by the eyes of God. You may find your way to Heaven without the need of these rough chastisements which compel obedience. Oh, for the help of the great Teacher in this matter! I. First, here is A PRIVILEGE TO BE SOUGHT. I will proceed at once to set it forth from the words before us. This guidance is very full in its nature. Three words are used to describe it--"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I will guide you with My eyes." The first word is, "I will instruct you"--a promise more full of meaning than would appear upon its surface. God is prepared to give you an inward understanding of spiritual things, for His instruction is intensely effectual upon the mind. The Lord is prepared to teach you in His Truths--to make you wise in heavenly matters. Though saved, you are, as yet, a mere child, and unfamiliar with great Truths of God. You know but little of Divine things--you know little of yourself, little of your danger, little of holiness and little of God--but the Lord promises, here, to take you for His pupil and to be, Himself, your Instructor! He instructs so effectually as really to build up the mind and, therefore, the Psalmist says, "Through Your precepts I get understanding." Other instructors can awaken that measure of understanding which is already ours, but God gives understanding to the simple. A good understanding is one of the gifts of His Grace and blessed are they who receive it! The second word is, "I will teach you." And this teaching is most practical, for the promise is--"I will teach you in the way which you shall go." God adds the precept to the doctrine and instructs us in both. Eminently precious is that practical teaching by which you are made to know what to do and how to do it. Theoretical teaching is of small importance compared with this practical learning. The Lord will teach us the art and mystery of holiness. He will apprentice us to the Lord Jesus as the Master of Righteousness--he will make us journeymen, one of these days, and turn us into fullblown "workmen that need not to be ashamed." Our great Teacher sends forth fine workmen, whose good works are seen of men and cause them to glorify the Father in Heaven. The promise of the Lord, in the third word of the verse, goes even further than doctrinal and practical instruction, for we read, "I will guide you with My eyes." Herein is fellowship as well as instruction, for the guide goes with the traveler, and thus will God, in the process of our instruction, give us fellowship with Himself. Blessed are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes--they have both the privilege of holy walk and heavenly company. It is our high privilege that, while our Shepherd goes before us, He calls us by name and we follow closely in His footsteps, as His well-beloved sheep. We are not only to be told the way and led into the way, but to be accompanied in it by our Teacher and Friend. The education which the Lord provides is complete in all its branches--mind, life and heart are all under the Divine tuition! This is no pauper school, or merely preparatory seminary--the text describes a high school of holiness, a grammar school of Grace, a University of holiness! In this place of sacred instruction, you may take high degrees, if you will, and also become teachers of others! He who forgave you provides everything for you that you can need to make you a disciple, indeed, a learner who in the ages to come shall make known to angels and principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God! Who would not be a scholar in such a University as this? Note, next, that this teaching is Divine in its source. See how it runs--"I will instruct you." How delightful! "I will instruct you: I will guide you with My eyes." The Lord will not put us in a low class, where some half-instructed usher or pupil-teacher shall look after us. No, we shall, all of us, be taught by the Lord Jesus, Himself, and His Holy Spirit! It is written, "I will instruct you: I will guide you." Our Lord may instruct us by men who are taught of Himself, but, after all, the best of His servants cannot teach us anything profitably except the Lord, Himself, teaches by them and through them! He alone teaches us to profit. What a wonderful condescension it is that the Lord should become a Teacher! Sunday school teachers, adore the Head of your sacred college, even God Himself! "I will teach you, I will instruct you." They are well taught that are taught of God and this privilege is common to all the family of love, for the Scripture says, "All your children shall be taught of the Lord." It is not said that a portion of them shall be left to be trained by angels or archangels, but they shall all be taught of the Lord! Jehovah, Himself, will be the Instructor of every soul that comes to Him through Jesus Christ! Observe how wonderfully personal is this promised guidance. While the address in the ninth verse is in the plural, "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule," the promise is in the singular to each individual--"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go; I will guide you with My eyes." Wonder of wonders, the Infinite focuses Himself upon the insignificant! We who are less than the motes in the sunbeam, are, nevertheless, individually considered by Him who fills all in all, who is greater than all that He fills! "I will instruct you." Yes, Jehovah will condescend to instruct that Believer who is feeblest of all the company. Rejoice, my Brothers and Sisters, that though your understanding is a commonplace one, and though your position is very obscure, yet the Lord does not say, "I will send you to a preparatory school kept by some inferior teacher." But He does say, "I will instruct you." God instructs each Believer as truly as if He were His only child. It is delightful to reflect that while Christ's death has a sufficient efficacy in it to save a believing world, yet if His design had been to save only me, He would have to have offered the same Sacrifice as He has done. His death would have been necessary to prove that "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." So, while our Lord's teaching would suffice to instruct myriads of men who are willing to learn, yet does He condescend to bring all His teaching to bear upon each single person--"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go." I note with comfort, in the text, what the French call tu-toi-age. Speaking to one another very familiarly, they say, "you" and, "you." How sweetly is this seen in this passage--"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will guide you with My eyes"! Hear you not the great Father talking to His dear child? Yes, I hear Him speaking to you and to me! Blessed be His name for such familiar love! Let us profit by its promise even to the fullest. Furthermore, this teaching is delightfully tender--"I will guide you with My eyes." That is to say, if you are willing to be so directed, the Lord will guide you, not by the rough means of bit and bridle, muzzle and cord, but with His eyes--a way which implies understanding on your part and love on His part. It is a recognition of confidence in us when He promises, thus, to guide us. The mistress at the head of the table gives a nod to Sarah. She knows what it means and the will of the lady is done at once. The master has not to enter into details with old John, who has been with him for so many years. John knows his wishes and a wink or a look will speak volumes! Well-trained children of God have their faces toward Him and soon perceive His mind--and this secures their prompt obedience. They see much in little and they make great account of every Word of the Lord. When we are what we ought to be, the guidance of the Lord is not sent us in thunder, but in a still small voice! And His instruction comes, not in tempests and hailstones, but in sunbeams and dewdrops. Some saints can be effectually led with a thread of hair. Cords of love and bands of a man are at once the most tender and the strongest bonds for a sanctified soul. "I will guide you with My eyes" is a charming promise, but it is of no use to the blind, the stubborn, the careless, or the self-willed. What a pity that any should debar themselves from so choice a privilege! See, dear Friends, you that have been lately pardoned, and you, of older years, who have long been forgiven, see what guidance there is for you all the way from your starting point to the gate of pearl at the end of the road! I say this because I mean to wind up this point with the remark--This teaching is constant. "I will instruct you and teach you; I will guide you." He that has begun to guide will not suddenly desert! He that has commenced to teach you will never dismiss you from His class! He that has, in a measure, instructed you and given you an understanding, will continue to teach you until He has perfected you in the knowledge of Himself and conformed you to the image of His Son! I feel most happy to think that such a privilege is promised and provided. I have heard of some who dream that, once forgiven, they may live as they wish--but to such I would say, "You know nothing about the matter. You are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity." The man who believes in Jesus for salvation, believes in Him so as to be set free from his sins--and his great anxiety is to be saved from all iniquity and to be led in the ways of righteousness to the glory of God! Here is comfort for you that are really seeking a holy life--God has made provision for your being led in it! He who has made you His child will put you in school and teach you until you shall know the Lord Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life! You shall soon know your Father's name and Character and sing unto His praise among the bright intelligences that surround His Throne! II. I now ask your attention while I show you A CHARACTER TO BE AVOIDED. We are told that since the Lord is ready to instruct us, we are not to be stubborn and wayward. It is ours to be docile and obedient. "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near to you." We are not to imitate creatures of which we are the superiors. Man is made to have dominion over the horse, the mule and the whole animal creation--let him not seek his models among his servants. I have sometimes heard speeches which have looked in that unwise direction. One said, in my hearing, as an excuse for a passionate speech, "I could not help it. If you tread on a worm it will turn." Is a worm to be the example for a saint? By a worm in that case, I suppose, is meant a serpent--and are you to follow serpents in their malice and venom? I have heard the same thing turned the other way-- and it has been made to appear as if an animal might be all the worse for copying a man. The driver of an omnibus was using his whip pretty freely upon one of his horses, and a gentleman sitting on the box-seat observed, "You never strike the horse on this side." "Bless you!" said the driver, "if I were to touch that mare, when I went near her in the stable at night, she would kick me like a Christian!" What a remarkable simile, was it not? "Like a Christian!" Is that so, that Christians kick? That Christians are found taking revenge? Here is a matter about which we would urgently cry, "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule." Never render evil for evil, railing for railing, for that is to copy the beasts of the field! Let us look upward to the highest for our model and never go down to the beasts of the field for models. We must mind that we do not imitate creatures to whom we are so near akin. The mule has a touch of the ass in it and I fear it is not the only creature of which this may be said. Is not man, as unredeemed, likened to the ass in the types of the Mosaic Law? Ah, Brothers and Sisters, we are likened in Scripture to many strange beasts, and not without reason! St. Augustine and other ancient writers discuss, at length, the likeness which exists between men and mules. I am not going to follow them in their observations, but would simply say with Dr. Donne, "They have gone far in these illusions and applications. And they might have gone as far further as it had pleased them--they have sea-room enough that will compare a beast and a sinner together--and they shall find many times, in the way, the beast the better man." I am afraid that it is so. David himself says, "So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before You"--and yet he was so good a man that he could add, "Nevertheless I am continually with You." A large part of us is animal and its tendency is to drag down that part which is more than angelic. How abject and yet how august is man! Brother to the worm and yet akin to Deity! Immortal and yet a child of dust! Be not the prey of your lower natures--as children of God, yield not yourselves to that which it is your duty to subdue! Have the horse and mule in subjection--keep under your body--do not bear the burden of the animal but make the animal your burden-bearer. "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule," but rise superior to flesh and blood. May the Spirit of the Lord help your infirmities in this matter! I believe the Psalmist here alludes to the horse and mule as creatures naturally wild and needing to be broken and trained. We are by nature as the wild ass that inhales the wind of the wilderness--"he scorns the multitude of the city, neither regards he the crying of the driver." These wild creatures we can make nothing of till we break them in--be not like they--useless, untrained, unbroken. Yet this is how we begin life naturally and spiritually. It is good to get broken in early in life--"it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." It is an ill thing for a man to have no restraint in youth and no trouble in manhood. When men and women follow out their own sweet wills, the end is seven-fold bitterness. A mind uncorrected is a vine unpruned, which yields no fruit, but trails along the ground and rots as it trails. It is a grand thing to learn the meaning of the word, "obey." It is ill with these who remain unsubdued. They are of little worth to themselves or to others. The Holy Spirit would not have any of the Lord's people to be of that wild, untamable character, for which there is neither use nor hope. Furthermore, we are not to imitate creatures devoid of reason. "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding." He especially lays stress on this--that they are without understanding. What does he mean by that? Horses and mules have been so trained that they have needed neither bit nor bridle and have performed marvelous feats at a word. It is possible for these animals to be brought to so high a training that they obey the word of command without the use of force. They come to have an understanding of their owner's intent and act as if they really entered into their master's designs. With the horses and mules of our streets--and of David's day--this is not the case. These display little understanding and we are not to be like they. You are a reasoning man--act reasonably! You have understanding--do not act under mere impulse, blind willfulness, or ignorant folly. Here is the point, Brothers and Sisters--what we need is to come to an understanding with God and to stay in that condition. The horse does not understand his driver's wishes, except as he intimates them through the bit and bridle. When he is to turn, when he is to quicken his pace and when he is to stand still, he must be told through the rein, for, apart from the bit in his mouth, he has no understanding of the man's mind. That thought which works in the mind of his driver is not working in the mule's mind and, therefore, he has to feel a pull at his mouth to make him know his master's desire. We need to come to an understanding with God. "Be you not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." Be sensitive to the Spirit of God! So dwell in God that He shall dwell in you and His indwelling shall cause you to feel at once what it is that He would have you to do. May your will be so in accord with the Lord's will that you will only what He wills! This is the highest form of understanding that I know of--may we never rest till we have it. "Give me understanding and I shall keep Your Law." You know how we say, "I should like to come to some understanding with that man," for you feel that without it your relations are unsatisfactory. When two friends really understand each other's purpose and enter into each other's design, then they act as if they were one. Be you so near to God in heart that you can be guided with His eyes because you understand the mind of your heavenly Father and are in full sympathy with Him! But the Psalmist also adds, concerning the horse and the mule, that having no understanding, they are creatures with much self-will and waywardness. "Their mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near to you." If you look at the Revised Version, you will find it is, "else they will not come near to you." And Calvin has it, "lest they kick at you." This is a very obscure passage as to the words, but it is not at all doubtful as to its sense, for the point is that the animal will not do what it should do, but it will obstinately do what it ought not to do--until it gets the bit in its mouth to compel it to do its master's will. So is it with ourselves, but so it should not be! At one time we find men rashly rushing near to God--they have no reverence, no holy trembling and awe. Some appear to be as familiar with God as if He were one of them. Thus the Lord complains in the Psalm, "You thought that I was altogether such an one as yourself." Such vain people need a bit, lest they come near to God. They need to hear the voice which cries, "Draw not near here: put off your shoes from off your feet." Oh, for more holy reverence! Others will not come near to God at all and need a bit because they run off from the Lord into infidelity, blasphemy, or open vice. These endeavor to carry out their own wild wills, throwing up their heels as they please, and prancing over hill and plain with a defiant contempt of rule and order. We know that kind of people--let us not in any measure grow like they. There are horses and mules that will kick, bite, and do grievous harm to these round about them unless they are restrained with straps and harness. I am afraid I know some kicking saints as well as kicking sinners and I am more afraid of these kicking professors than of the outwardly wicked. I would sooner be bitten by a wolf than by a sheep, that is to say, I could more readily bear injury from an ungodly man than from a professed Believer. A kick from a Christian causes very serious wounding to a gracious heart. "It was not an enemy: then I could have borne it." Remember the question and answer--"What are these wounds in your hands? Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." These are wounds, indeed, which our Lord receives from a traitorous disciple. "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they kick at you." Kick not at the will of your Lord! Kick not at the doctrines of His Word. Kick not at the precepts of His house. Kick not at His servants. Kick not at His Providences. Kick not at His Cross. Surely, I need not further urge you to avoid this unlovely character. None of you would wish to be as the horse, or as the mule. III. I will now dwell for a few minutes upon AN INFLICTION TO BE ESCAPED. If you mean to be like the horse or the mule, you may readily be so, but you will have to pay the penalty. If the Lord means to save you, He will use a bit and a bridle upon you, if you render them necessary by your willfulness. If you will be guided by His eyes, there will be no need for such stern work--but if you are stubborn, He will not spare you. I may say of this bit and bridle, that such trappings are a curb upon freedom. A man would not endure to go about wearing a bit and a bridle, yet many a child of God is in that condition spiritually because he is not subdued to the will of the Lord. Because he is not tender of conscience, because he is frequently disobedient, because he does not carry out his Lord's will, he has to suffer severe discipline and labor under serious disadvantage. If the man were willingly obedient to the Divine will, things would go more happily with him. The bit is not applied unless it is found necessary, but it will be applied if necessary. My text says, "Whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle. Mark that, "must." That must arises out of the nature of the creature dealt with. Some men, if they are to go to Heaven, must be poor on the road, or must be sick, or must be defeated, or must be misunder-stood--not because there is any real necessity, apart from their obstinate, cross-grained nature--but because they, themselves, render it necessary. God is resolved to save them and, therefore, he will drive them to salvation with bit and bridle rather than leave them free to rush downward to Hell through the indulgence of their own passions and ambitions! Dear Friends, what a wretched descent is this from being guided by God's eyes! In the first case we have an intelligent servant so in accord with his Lord that a look suffices to set him running in the way of obedience. And in the second case we have an avowedly Christian man so out of accord with God that he has to be treated like a mule which will only yield under compulsion and only obey as it is made to smart! I do not know, dear Brothers and Sisters, if this description applies to any of you, but if it does, kindly take it home--and if I seem to be personal to you--well, I intend to be personal and, therefore, I dare not apologize. I am afraid that many of us ought to make it more personal to ourselves than we are likely to do. There is a hair of the mule's tail in every one of us! "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule," or you shall have your mouth held in with bit and bridle. That is always a very unpleasant matter. It is not comfortable, even to a mule, to wear bit and bridle, and it certainly must be very unpleasant to a man. I have known Brothers and Sisters whom God could not use in the conversion of many souls, for they could not bear prosperity. The Lord did bless the preacher, once, and he grew so great in his own esteem that he was not bearable to these around him. For the man's own sake the good Lord saw that it was not safe to let him be useful. Here is a man who formerly succeeded in business, but he grew so worldly, so purse-proud, so forgetful of God, that it was necessary to take his wealth away from him! And it has been done--and now he is devout and lowly. Another man, when he is in health and strength, is so full of levity and carelessness that he plays the fool. And, in order to keep him right, it is necessary to let him have a sluggish liver, or an aching head, or a sick home, or something else which may sober him. My Friend, if God means to get you to Heaven, He will lead you there gently if you will freely go. But if you are obstinate and hard, He will thrust the bit between your jaws and drive you there. The less willfulness the less harness, but if need be, you shall wear all the paraphernalia of an unquiet horse, for the great Trainer will have the upper hand of you and thus He will save you! The Lord would be glad for you to go without these disagreeable things, but if you will have them, you shall have them. I know a person who is always grumbling and I do not wonder that he always seems to have cause for it. It is like the child that I heard crying and its mother said to it, "Hold your tongue! If you cry for nothing, I will soon give you something to cry for." Many a child of God has found something to cry for as the result of wanton murmuring. Some Hearers even go to the House of God and complain that the preacher says this, and does not say that, and omits the other. Before long the Lord removes the preacher they complained of and they have nobody to feed their souls--and then they begin to wish they had the old preacher back again! Well, well, if you make rods for your backs, God will use them upon you! It is His custom not to let anything lie idle in His House. So, if you are busy making a rod, He will be busy in putting it to its proper use. But all this is unnatural to the child of God. Your children do not go about your house with bits in their mouths and bridles on their heads. God would not have his own regenerated ones going up and down in the world all bitted and bri-dled--but it shall be so sooner than they shall be lost! Disobedience is ruin--from that He must deliver His people. If we take delight in holiness, we shall not need rough usage. Here is the sweet alternative--"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I will guide you with My eyes." This is God's way! Oh that it may be our way! May the good Spirit lead us into it! Do not drive your Savior to be stern with you. Do not choose the way of hardness--the brutish way, the mulish way. "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding," for then you will become sad, gloomy, dull, stupid and full of disquietude. It is essential that your iniquities should be subdued and they shall be. He will save you--save you from rebellion, save you from self-seeking and self-will. He will bend you to His holy will. And if it cannot come to pass anyway else--then the bit and the bridle shall conquer you! O Souls, submit yourselves to God. Vex not His Holy Spirit by hardness of heart. IV. Now I close by noticing A FREEDOM TO BE ATTAINED. There are children of God who wear no bit or bri-dle--the Lord has loosed their bonds. To them, obedience is delight--they keep His commands with their whole heart. The Son has made them free and they are free, indeed! They are free, first, because they are in touch with God. God's will is their will. They answer to the Lord as the echo to the voice. Happy is he who can say, "Whatever You desire, O my Lord, I would desire it because You desire it." Then is it safe for the Lord to leave the man free from compulsion. It is written, "Delight yourself also in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart." This large liberty can only be promised to these whose desires are in accordance with their heavenly delight. When the desires run towards God with delight, they shall surely be granted. When you and God have come to a good, clear understanding with each other, so that you yield to Him in all things. Then He will hear your prayers and give you the blessing which makes rich and adds no sorrow. When you rejoice in Christ Jesus, in whom the Father is well pleased, then will the Lord be pleased with you! When you cry to Him in the day of trouble, coming to the Mercy Seat, where He delights to dwell, then He will meet with you and lift up the light of His Countenance upon you. You shall be free, next, because you are tutored. The Lord cannot trust our wild nature--He gives freedom where He gives His Spirit--"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." How does our Lord put it?--"Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls." He gives rest through His blood. He makes you find rest through learning of Him and bearing His yoke. It is only a horse that has been long taught and trained by great skill that can be trusted to go through a performance without bit or bridle. I sometimes hope there will come a day when these who drive horses will not need to carry whips, because the noble animals have been so trained by kindness as to answer to a word. I fear that time is a long way off but I have greater hope of you, beloved Brothers and Sisters, that you will be so trained that no constraint but that of the love of Christ will be needed to be put upon you. The Law was not made for a righteous man. I hope we shall not need Church discipline, or Providential discipline, because we have been trained to joyful, watchful, exact obedience. Oh, that it were so! Teach me, O Lord! Teach me Your way. Show me what You would have me to do. Make me to know the perfect love which casts out fear. When we are thus instructed, the Lord will leave us by His sweet Grace to be encompassed about by mercy and to be guided by His eyes. We shall be free, again, because always trusting. Look at the 10th verse--"He that trusts in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." Faith gives life and more faith gives light and liberty. When we completely trust in God, we shall do His will completely. When we raise no questions with God--when our reliance upon Him is without reserve; when we know by faith that His will and way for us are perfect--then we shall run in the way of His Commandments because He has enlarged our steps. When we have received life more abundantly through a growing faith, it will be safe for our Lord to take away all bits and bridles--but not till then. When, through Grace, faith has triumphantly mastered our whole being, we shall be victorious over the law of sin and death which dwells in our members and tends to unrighteousness. And then shall the yoke be taken away and the burden be removed. Blessed freedom this! Especially free because tender. "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule"--these are thick of skin, tough of mouth-- and so they are mastered by hard means. If we become as tender as the apple of an eye, God will guide us with His eyes. If we avoid even the appearance of evil and shun every false way with delicate sensitiveness of mind, we shall hear little about bits and bridles and the many other sorrows which shall be to the wicked. Ah, dear Brothers and Sisters, what a difference there is between one man and another even in the same Church, holding the same faith! One Christian man needs repeated and urgent warnings, while another is distressed with half a word of admonition! It is hard to stir one to generosity, or to any exertion in the Lord's cause, while another is earnest at once. Love works more in some than fear can produce in others. We have to use strong arguments and sharp cuts of the whip with certain sluggish minds, while others are all sensitiveness and take to themselves censures which were never meant for them. Oh for a tender heart! May the heart of stone be taken away and a heart of flesh be granted! May we be to the Lord's will as sensitive as the mercury to air and heat! The wave is flowing and a cork upon the water is carried wherever the current moves. That same wave merely ripples at the side of a man-of-war--it does not stir in the least degree. Saintly souls feel the ripples of the Holy Spirit, while self-sufficient professors know nothing of anything less than a tornado! Crave as a choice gift the renewal of a right spirit within you and that right spirit will be eminently tender and pliant to the will of the Lord. My Brothers and Sisters, my longing is that you and I may stand with our faces towards the Lord, watching for the faintest indications of the Divine will. May we be humble, teachable and mild! May our soul be even as a weaned child! All this will lead to high joy. See how the Psalm ends, "Shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart"! When the bit is taken from the mouth, the tongue will show forth the praises of the Lord! When the bridle is gone, the mouth is free to sing to the Most High! If the heart is well adjusted, there will be music in the life. When we follow the Lord's guidance with alacrity, peace shall be our companion--and joy shall hover over us like a guardian angel! This world will be the vestibule of Heaven when we begin, even now, to rehearse that perfect obedience which is the essential condition of bliss. Beloved, all this the Holy Spirit must work in our hearts, or it will never be there. Cry to Him for it in the name of Jesus, and the Lord will give you an answer of peace! PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psalm 32. __________________________________________________________________ Believing On Jesus--and Its Counterfeits (No. 2191) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 22, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "As He spoke these words, many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which had believed Him, If you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples, indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:30-32. Our Lord, on this occasion, was surrounded by quibblers. We must not be astonished if the like should happen to us when declaring the Gospel. Our Lord went on preaching, all the same, and He did not conceal objectionable Truth because of opposition--say, rather, that He set it forth with greater boldness and decision when surrounded by His enemies! The more they opposed, the more He testified. The Lord Jesus also told the contradicting sinners that the day would come when quibblers would be convicted. Observe how He put it--"When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself." Quibblers may have a fine time of it just now, but they will, one day, be convicted either to their conversion or their confusion! Let us hope that many will see the Truth before they die--early enough to seek and find a Savior. But many in our Lord's day who discovered it after His uplifting on the Cross and His uplifting from the grave, came by their knowledge sadly late, for in the meantime they had crucified the Lord of Glory. Ah, how much of sin comes out of delayed faith! A far greater number of these Jews were convicted in their minds altogether too late, for when they were driven to feel, by the attendant circumstances of His Crucifixion and Resurrection, that He really was the Son of God, they still persevered in rebellion and sank into obstinate rejection of His claims. On such His blood rested to their eternal condemnation. Quibblers, you may riot for a little season, but your time is short! The hour will come when you shall behold and wonder--and perish. I pray that there may come an end to your unbelief by your being convicted in this life and led to repentance. But if it is not so, you will certainly be ashamed and confounded in the day when the Lord shall come in His Glory and you shall, in vain, beseech the mountains to fall upon you and hide you from His face! Quibblers ought to be convinced even now--the Savior implies this when He adds, "He that sent Me is with Me: the Father has not left Me alone; for I always do those things that please Him." The Character of Jesus should have convinced the Jews of His mission. His evident obedience to God and the equally evident witness of God to Him, would have led them to see His Messiahship if they had not been blinded by prejudice and pride. Any candid man at the present day, studying the life of Christ and observing His unique Character, should be convinced that He is the Son of God--and should come to believe in Him. But, Beloved, though the Savior was thus surrounded with objectors and had so much to endure from their ignorance and their malice, yet His controversies with them were not without hopeful effects, for our text informs us, "As He spoke these words, many believed on Him." Albeit we may be surrounded with general and virulent opposition, yet there will be fruit from the preaching of the Truth of God. The Word of the Lord shall not return unto Him void--it shall prosper in the thing whereto God has sent it. We may hope that not only a few, but many will accept the sacred testimony, since we see that, even in the midst of an exceedingly hot dispute, it happened that, "As He spoke these words, many believed on Him." I. These Believers were not all of one kind and upon that fact I shall enlarge in this beginning of my sermon. Let that stand as our first observation upon the text--OUR LORD HAD DIFFERENT KINDS OF BELIEVERS AROUND HIM. There were evidently two sorts of Believers who may be set forth to you by the differing expressions used in the Revised Version. We read in verse thirty, "Many believed on Him." And then in the 31st verse we read of "those Jews which had believed Him." Mark the distinction between, "believed on Him" and, "had believed Him." It is a singular expression, also, "Those Jews which had believed Him." They were still Jews as to their traditional belief and connection-- Jews first of all--whatever they might be in connection with their Judaism. The omission of the word, "on," or, "in," is a happy one, because it is exactly accurate, and it helps to bring out an important distinction while it also accounts for what seems so strange, that those who had believed Him should, almost immediately after, charge Him with being a Samaritan and having a devil, and should even take up stones to stone Him! There were two sorts of Believers and on these I will speak a while. The first, "believed on Him.''" These are the right kind. What is it to believe on Christ? It means not only to accept what He says as true and to believe that He is the Messiah and the Son of God, but trustfully to rest in Him. To believe on Him is to take Him as the ground of our hope, as our Savior, upon whom we depend for salvation. When we believe in Him or on Him, we accept Him as God sets Him forth--and we make use of Him by trusting on Him to do for us what God has appointed Him to do. This trusting on Jesus is saving faith! "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." To believe Him may be a very different thing from believing on Him. Such belief may fall far short of saving faith. To believe on Him means heartily to give yourself up to Him and to follow Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life to you. Rejecting all rival confidences, the heart leans all its weight on Jesus and leaves all its burdens with Him. Believing in Him, we repose all our concerns, for time and for eternity, in His hands. To believe on Him is also to believe implicitly. We believe all that He may yet say. We accept not only what He says which we can fully understand, but that which as yet is dark to us. We so believe in Him that we go with Him in all His teachings, be they what they may. We not only go as far as He has revealed Himself to us, but we are prepared to go as much farther as He pleases. What He says is the Truth of God to us, on the sole evidence that He says it! We believe in Jesus, not because we judge that what He says can be endorsed by our understanding (though that is, indeed, the case), but because He says it! Our Lord's Word is reason enough for us. The ipse dixit of the Son of God suffices us, even if all men deny His assertions. He has said it and He is the Truth of God, itself. We believe on Him--Son of God and Son of Man, living, dying, risen again, ascended into the heavens--we trust Him. He is our Infallible Prophet and our Omniscient Teacher. We rest ourselves wholly on Him! That is saving faith. Oh, that it may be said of this congregation, "Many believed on Him"! But there is another kind of faith which was produced by the Savior's testimony. It had much of hope in it and yet it never came to anything. There is a temporary faith which believes Jesus, in a sense, and after its own way of understanding Him, or rather of misunderstanding Him. This faith believes about Him; believes that He was undoubtedly sent of God; that He was a great Prophet; that what He says is, to a high degree, reasonable and right and so forth. This faith believes what He has just now said, but it is not prepared to believe on Him so as to accept everything that He may say at another time. This faith believes everything that commands itself to its own judgement--it does not, in fact, believe in Jesus, but believes in itself--and in Him only so far as He agrees with its own opinions. This faith is not prepared to obey Christ and accept Him as its Master and Lord. This was the kind of faith these Jews possessed--it was a faith which was so crowded up with a mass of favorite prejudices that before long it was smothered by them! They might accept Jesus as the Messiah, but then He must be the kind of Messiah they had always pictured in their own minds--a leader who would defeat the Romans, who would deliver Palestine from the foreign yoke, rebuild the Temple and glorify the Jewish race. They half hoped that He might turn out to be a great leader for their own purposes, but they did not believe in Him as He revealed Himself as the Light of the world, as the Son of God and as One with the Father. A great deal of disbelief and misbelief is current at the present day. We are encouraged by certain persons to include in our churches all that have any sort of belief and, indeed, the line is to be more inclusive, still, for those who have no belief at all are to find an open door! The Church of Christ is to be a menagerie of creatures of every kind. I fear if they come into this Noah's ark, wild beasts, they will also go out wild beasts. Only those who enter by the door of regeneration and spiritual faith will, in very deed, be within the Kingdom of the Lord! If they have received Christ, we may receive them into His Church, but not else. It is true, the people of temporary faith will creep into the visible Church, but they do so on their own responsibility. Nor need we think that some strange thing has happened to us as a Church when the baser sort are found among us, for one such entered into that college of Apostles--a man who, doubtless, believed the words of Jesus, and thought Him to be the Messiah. I mean Judas, who, with a traitor's hand, sold his Master. His intellect had been convinced, but his heart had never been renewed. He even dared to use his profession of religion and the position which it brought him, as a means of unhallowed gain. Another notable believer of this sort was Simon Magus, who believed because he saw the signs and wonders worked by the Apostles. But as he, also, sought to make gain of godliness, he remained in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity--and never became "a disciple, indeed." There is a greater one than all these, even the devils. We read that "the devils believe and tremble." They hold the faith and feel something of the power of it, for they tremble which is more than modern critics do! Devils know that Jesus is the Christ of God, for they have, upon occasion, confessed it, and have borne witness to the Gospel in the open streets, crying after the preachers of the Word. And yet, with all their knowledge, and with much of a sort of faith, and with an apprehension which leads to trembling, they still remain devils and make no advance towards God. Ah, my Hearers! Beware of that faith which is a mere intellectual movement, which does not control the heart and the life. To come to faith through a cold argument and to feel no spiritual life is but a poor business. You need a faith that leads you to an entire reliance upon the Person of Jesus, to the giving up of everything to Him, to the reception of Him as your Savior and King, your All in All. You have not believed unto eternal life unless you have so believed on Him that you make Him the foundation and cornerstone of your hope! You must believe in Him as taking away sin! God has set Him forth to be the Propitiation for sin and you must believe on Him in that capacity! This will suffice upon our first head--and this very naturally leads us to the second remark. II. OUR LORD TAKES NOTICE EVEN OF THE LOWEST SORT OF FAITH. When He saw that these people believed Him in a measure and were willing to accept His testimony so far as they comprehended it, He looked upon them hopefully and spoke to them. Out of a weak and imperfect faith, something better may arise. Saving faith, in its secret beginnings, may be contained in this common and doubtful faith. It is written, "When the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?" Certainly He can find it if anyone can! He has a very quick eye for faith. He deals with little faith as we used to do with a spark in the tinder, in the days of our boyhood. When we had struck a spark and it fell into the tinder--though it was a very tiny one--we watched it eagerly, we blew upon it softly and we were zealous to increase it, so that we might kindle our match thereby. When our Lord Jesus sees a tiny spark of faith in a man's heart, though it is quite insufficient, of itself, for salvation, yet He regards it with hope and watches over it, if, haply, this little faith may grow to something more. It is the way of our compassionate Lord not to quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed. If any of you have only a little faith, now, and that marred by ignorance and prejudice, it may be like a connecting thread between you and Jesus--and the thread may thicken to a cable. Your partial and feeble faith as yet only takes hold upon a part of the Revelation of God, but I am glad that it takes hold on anything which is from above! I would not roughly break that single holdfast which now links you to the Truth of God--and yet I would not have you trust to it as though it would stand the stress of tempest. Oh, that your faith may be increased till you trustfully commit yourself to Jesus and believe in Him unto eternal life! Our Lord addressed Himself especially to these questionable Believers. He turned from His assured disciples to look after those who were more in danger. Their character was a curious combination--full of peril--"Jews who believed Him." You that are familiar with the New Testament Scriptures will think the phrase more suggestive than it, at first sight, appears. It reminds me of those of you who believe the Gospel and still remain worldly, impenitent, prayerless. You fear the Lord and serve other gods! You are not infidels in name, but you are atheists in life! To you there is urgent need that I speak. The Master turned round and spoke to those who were Believers and yet not Believers--holding with Jesus--and yet really opposed to Him. Oh, you that halt between two opinions, my Lord looks on you with a pitying hopefulness and He speaks especially to you at this time! May you have Divine Grace to hear and obey His Word! It is clear that He encourages them, but He does not flatter them. He says, "if." A great, "if," hovered over them like a threatening cloud. Wisely does our Lord commence His word to them with, "if." "If you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples, indeed." Continuance is the sure test of the genuine Believer. Our Lord does not say, "Go your way, you are not My disciples." He, in effect, says, "I stand in doubt of you. The proof of your discipleship will be your persevering in your faith." If we say that we believe in Jesus, we must prove it by abiding in believing and by still further be- lieving! The Word of Jesus must be the object of our faith--into that Word we must enter--and in that Word we must continue. Beginning to believe is nothing unless we continue to believe! Our Lord showed His interest in the weaker sort of Believers by helping them on in the safe way, urging them to continue in His Word. "You believe," He seems to say, "continue to believe! Believe more. Believe all that I say. You have entered into My Word--dive deeper into it and abide in it. Let My Word surround you--dwell in it--continue in it." Good advice this! And it is the advice I would give in my Master's name to any here who are feeling after Christ and His Gospel. As far as you have already come in faith, keep fast hold and seek for more! You are on the right track in believing Jesus--a track which will lead to the King's Highway if fairly followed. Any kind of faith is better than that deadly doubt which is cried up so much nowadays! By faith comes salvation, but by doubt comes the opposite! Your feeble and imperfect believing has in it much of hopefulness, but it must be continued, or we shall be disappointed. Your home and refuge must be the Word of the Lord Jesus and in that refuge you must abide! Believe what Jesus says in His New Testament of Love. Whatever you find that He reveals by Himself or by His Apostles, receive it without question! Hold fast His Word and let it hold you fast. First, believe Him, believe Him to be true, believe Him to be sent of God for your salvation--and then put yourself into His hands. When you have committed yourself to Him, continue to do so. Do not run away from your faith because of ridicule. Mind that you so believe in Jesus as to practice what He commands--you cannot continue in His Word unless you learn to obey it. The text of faith is obedience. What He bids you, do it. Let your life be affected by the Truth He teaches. Let your whole mind, thought, desire, speech, bearing and conversation be colored and savored by your full faith in Jesus! Enter into His Word as a man into a stream and live there as a fish in the water! "Continue in My word." Get into Christ's Word as a sinking sailor would get into a lifeboat and, once there, keep inside the boat--do not throw yourself out into the stormy waves through despair--but continue in the place of hope. This is Christ's gracious counsel to those in whom there seems to be some hopeful sign. My Hearers, we never preach the saving power of temporary, unpractical, unsanctifying faith! If a man says, "I believe in Christ and, therefore, I shall be saved, his faith will have to be tested by his life. If, sometime after, he has no faith in Christ, that faith which he claimed to have is proven to be good for nothing! The faith of God's elect is an abiding faith! It is precious faith and, like precious metal, it survives the fire! "Now abides faith, hope, charity, these three." Thus true faith is classed among the abiding things--it is undying, unquenchable. If you truly believe in Jesus, it is for life! Saving faith is a life-long act. It is the relinquishment of all trust in self, once and for all, and the trusting in Jesus forever. He is and always shall be our only confidence. That is the faith which saves. But the temporary faith which comes and goes, is worth nothing. The shout of, "I believe it," too often ends when the excitement is over. To sing, "I do believe, I will believe," is well enough--but unless that believing appertains to daily life and changes the inner nature--and abides even till death--it has not saved the man. The measure of faith of which we have been speaking may turn out to be the beginning of saving faith, but it may, on the other hand, turn out to be a mere deception soon to be dispelled--a morning cloud which disappears--an early dew exhaled by the sun. I think I have said enough upon my second point. Let it encourage you, that our Lord takes notice, even of the lowest kind of faith. But let it also warn you, when you see that He receives it with an, "if," and goes on carefully to exhort and warn, lest the hopeful thing should die and its promise should be unfulfilled. III. But, next, OUR LORD SETS BEFORE THESE PEOPLE INDUCEMENTS TO CONTINUE IN HIS WORD. "Jesus therefore said to those Jews which had believed Him, If you abide in My Word, then are you truly My disciples, indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Observe three inducements, each one of them great--and when placed together exceedingly attractive. The first was certified discipleship--"Then are you My disciples, indeed." That is to say, if they persevered in obeying His Word, they would be disciples, not in name only, but in truth. It is a small thing to be called Christians, but it is a great matter to truly be Christians. Further, they would not be merely superficial learners, but deeply taught and inwardly instructed disciples of Jesus. They would really and truly know what Jesus taught and would receive it into their inmost souls--they would be not untrained beginners in the school of Christ, but pupils of the sixth form, "disciples, indeed." Dear Friends, it is a great thing to be no longer a probationer, but a disciple, indeed! There is more in the expression than I can readily set forth in words. A certain person says he is a disciple of Christ, but you would never know it if he did not tell you! You might live with him for years without hearing an expression or remarking an action which is distinctly Christian--this is NOT to be a disciple, indeed! Another man loves his Lord and treasures His Words. He puts his disci-pleship of Christ before everything--and you cannot live with him a single day without perceiving a savor of Christ in his words and action. You say of him, "That man is, indeed, a Christian!" In such a case, religion is not exhibited by way of pride, as with the Pharisees of old, but it is seen because it is there and must shine forth. Faith throbs in the man's pulse! It looks out from his eyes. It tunes his voice and lights up his countenance! It rules his house and controls his business. The man lives for Jesus and if it were necessary, he would die for Him. How we prize a thoroughbred Believer! Your mongrel is a poor animal. Blessed is he who makes his Master's service his pleasure! His Lord's Law is his delight! His Savior's Glory the absorbing occupation of his time. He is a disciple, indeed! To be a disciple, indeed, creates within the mind a blissful assurance. Some are always asking themselves, "Am I truly a disciple?" It is not amazing that they ask the question, for it is a great question. But he that continues in Christ's Word in loving obedience soon ceases to ask that question--he has the witness in himself, or, better still, as some read it, he has the witness in Christ. He knows that he is Christ's disciple, for he continually follows his Master. He not only believes, but he knows that he believes! He has continued in the Word so long that he has no doubt about his being in it. How can he doubt, when he is, from hour to hour, feeding on the Word in which he lives like a mite feasting upon the cheese in which he dwells? He is a disciple, indeed, for his deeds are those of a disciple. Oh, you that believe my Master at times and up to a certain point, you must go on to believe Him more constantly, more thoroughly, more absolutely! May you cheerfully stake your souls upon your Lord's veracity! O my Friend, if you would find Jesus to be your Savior, surrender yourself to His wisdom, yield your whole being to His power! So shall you become a disciple, indeed, and be able to claim all the love, care, comfort and honor which such a Lord puts on His faithful disciples! May you bring forth much fruit-- so shall you be His disciples--and to you shall be the double portion which belongs to those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. The next blessing which our Lord set before Believers was that of sacred knowledge. Observe, "You shall know the truth"--not a truth, but the truth--the saving, purifying, glorifying Truth of God! Keep on believing and Jesus will teach you that great Truth which is above all other truth--essential, quickening, cleansing, Divine! You shall know the Truth of God! You may be charged with dogmatism, but you will not flinch from the assurance that you know the Truth! You no longer guess at Truth, nor hit on a sliding scale of probabilities, but you know it assuredly! You will grow familiar with it! The Truth of God will be to you a well-known friend! You will discriminate so as to know the Truth when you see it and detect it, at once, from the deceptive falsehood. You will know the Truth and you will not be led away by the flattering voice of error. You will have the touchstone with you and will not be deceived by base metals. You will so know the Truth of God as to be influenced by it, actuated by it, filled by it, strengthened by it, comforted by it and, by its power, you will, yourself, be made true! Surely this is a good reason for abiding in Christ's Words! The third benefit was spiritual liberty--"The truth shall make you free." Our Savior further on explains that He means free from sin. He that lives in sin is the slave of sin. Sincere belief in the Word of Christ leads to emancipation from the tyrannical power of the evil which dwells in our members and from the dominating power of the sin which rules in the customs of the world. "The truth shall make you free." You shall be free from your own prejudices, prides and lusts. You shall be free from the fear of man. If you have sunk so low as almost to ask of the great ones permission to breathe, you shall break that irksome fetter! The Truth of God known within your spirit shall make a free man of you! Up to now you have been the bondsman of self. You have enquired, "What will this thing profit me?" And thus the desire of self-aggrandizement has ruled everything! But when Jesus is your Lord, you shall be free from this sordid motive! "The truth shall make you free." This is a noble saying! Oh, the liberty that comes into the soul through believing on Jesus, who is the Truth! It makes life to be life, indeed, when this freedom is enjoyed! In laying hold on the Truth of God as it is in Jesus, the soul lays hold on the charter of her liberties and she enters on her citizenship in Heaven! Dear Brothers and Sisters, I hope many here enjoy these three privileges. Disciples, indeed, you believe anything that is taught to you in God's Word, be it what it may. The Truth of God has so entered into you that you now know it and are sure. And this believed-Truth has made you so free that you defy the fetters which men would cast around you! Your Lord has caused you to believe in Him and you have now found the element wherein your soul may abide in life, light and liberty. Thus our Lord dealt with those in whom He saw some hopeful signs--He set choice blessings before them to induce them to proceed further. IV. But now, fourthly, OUR LORD THUS TESTED THEM BY THE MOST EFFECTUAL MEANS. The test was very sharp in its action and sudden in its results. He said to them, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And what follows? "They answered Him"--answered Him rather than believed Him! How did they answer? Did they say, "Yes, Lord, we believe. Teach us Your Truth and make us free"? No, no. They cried, "We are Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man--why do You say, You shall be made free"? These supposed Believers stumbled at the Lord's Word--stumbled at a privilege. Jesus said, "The truth shall make you free," and that offended them! To make freedom a stumbling block is folly! On another occasion our Lord spoke to His disciples concerning eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And then we read, "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." The privilege of feeding upon His Sacrifice, which binds many of us to Him with bands of love, drove others away from Him with cords of hate! Sad fact this! But it is so in many ways. I believe that God chose His people from before the foundation of the world, I rejoice in the glorious Doctrine of Election! But a great many refuse to believe because of this heavenly privilege. The privileges of the Gospel are the stumbling blocks of legalists! It is too large a Gospel for narrow souls, for, it is too glorious a Gospel for groveling intellects. Men refuse the gift of God because it is so excellent. If we would cut it down till there was nothing left but a more cheese-paring of Grace, I suppose they would accept it. But the very Glory of the Gospel which should fascinate and attract them, repels and disheartens them! The reason why these Jews became so angry with our Lord was that He touched their pride. "Make us free, indeed!" they cried. "We always were free! We were never slaves. We enjoy the largest rights through our father Abraham. We have never come under the dominion of any false prophet or idol god. Make us free, indeed! How can You say this?" Thus the wild thinker claims that he is free and needs no liberty from Christ. The sinner who is in bondage to his passions says that he leads a free and easy life and scorns the idea of being set at liberty, as if he were a slave! The more a slave a man is to his own conceit or his own lusts, the more he talks about his freedom! We would not know that he was free if he did not call himself so. Unbelief calls itself, "Honest doubt," and not without cause, for we would not have known it to be honest if it had not labeled itself so. When a man puts up in his shop window, "No cheating practiced here," I should trade next door. "He protests too much." Your free love, free thought, free life and so forth, are the empty mockery of freedom! Oh, that men knew their state--and then freedom would be prized! For lack of self-knowledge, the blessings of the Gospel prove an offense when they should have hearty welcome. The prejudices of the Jews which believed Him were wounded. Oh, how often do we find men who will hear the Gospel just so far, and no farther! They have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They have not entered into His Word so as to be prepared to believe all that He teaches and, consequently, when some doctrine is heard which grates upon their feelings, or jars on their judgments, or conflicts with their original conceptions, straightway they grow angry with their Savior! After all, it would seem, from the criticisms which you offer, that you know better than the Son of God! Your judgment would seem to be clearer than His, for you sit in judgment upon His Word! What is Christ to you? Why, He comes before you like the prisoner who stood before Pilate. You question Him, as the Roman Governor did when he asked, "What is truth?" You believe what you choose to believe and disbelieve what you choose to disbelieve! In such a case, who is the greater, the disciple or his Master? Surely you presume too much when you act as judge of Him who is to be the Judge of all the earth! You are no disciple of His! You can never know the Truth and the Truth can never make you free, indeed! No blessing can come to you since you put yourself out of its way. You may talk about believing, but you have not believed, and you cannot be saved by Jesus until you yield your judgment to His Infallibility, your heart to His Rule, your every faculty to His Grace. Welcome Him as undisputed Lord of your bosom and crown Him Lord of All within your soul--such loyal faith He claims and this He must have--or you will fall short of His salvation. These people soon showed their true character, for very soon afterwards they said, "Now we know that you have a devil"--and they took up stones to cast at Him! Oh, that we may be delivered from having a faith which will end in open rejection of the Lord! V. I close with a fifth point--OUR LORD DESERVES OF US THE HIGHEST FORM OF FAITH--yes, the highest degree of faith which is possible! Would you mind looking in your Bibles into the next chapter, which fitly follows the present one? It contains the story of the man blind from his birth, to whom the Savior gave sight. Let me read a description of the kind of faith which I desire for you all. "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, Do you believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? And Jesus said to him, You have both seen Him and it is He that talks with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him." That is the faith which saves--the faith which learns of Jesus from Jesus--hears and believes, and takes Jesus to be its God! The faith which bows at the feet of Jesus and worships Him as Divine is the faith which saves! Men will not do this till their eyes have been opened. While they say, "We see," their sin remains and their blindness, too. Only he who can say, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see," will worship Jesus with all his heart. The gracious Lord has come and touched my sightless eyes and given me heavenly sight and, therefore, I trust Him! I, that could see nothing at all, have seen Him! I, that had no idea of what light was, for I was born blind, I have seen the light through Him and I both believe and adore! Oh, for a worshipping faith--faith on its knees in the Presence of the Son of God! Faith beholding Jesus with the eyes which He has opened! "Alas," says one, "I wish I had that faith." Listen, then, that you may find it. Faith comes by hearing. When I meet with converted persons, I like them to tell me what text was blessed to them, for then my mind runs on that text. I have sometimes asked a convert, "What part of the sermon was it that God blessed to you? Because I would like to repeat that passage more than once or twice. I would like to "tell it o'er and o'er again." Perhaps the Lord would bless it to another, and another. Think, then, what part of our Lord's sermon was it that brought faith to those many who believed on Him? I think it was the 28th and 29th verses. In verse 28 the Lord spoke of His death and all that went with it, and all that came out of it--"When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am He." How did they lift Him up? They lifted Him up on the Cross--it alludes to His Crucifixion. But they did not know that in another sense they lifted Him up--it was through His death that there was a possibility of His Resurrection! And when He rose again and ascended up on high, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Church--and He entered into Heaven to make intercession for us--and all this was emphatically a lifting up! The Cross and its surroundings remain, to this day, the great arguments for our holy faith. The things that should lead men to believe on Jesus Christ are found at His Cross. He was the Son of God, but He died the death of the Cross for love of men. Being dead and buried, His Father raised Him from the dead and thus gave evidence of His mission and of His acceptance with God. There is no question about His Resurrection--it is proved beyond all doubt that Jesus rose again from the dead on the third day. His disciples saw Him for the space of 40 days and ate and drank with Him--and then they beheld Him go up into Heaven till a cloud received Him out of their sight. They waited at Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit came upon them in cloven tongues, the Divine testimony to His ascended power! By the preaching of His Word in the power of the Holy Spirit, the nations were made to hear concerning Jesus, the Savior, and bowed before His Cross. Now, the more you think of this unique occurrence--this fact which could not have been a piece of imagination, this fact which was attested by honest men, who bled and died for it--the more you think of this, I say, the more you will feel faith stealing over your spirit! Christ on the Cross is thought to be hard to believe in, but it is not so, for the more you know of a Crucified Christ, the more easy will faith become! Christ raised to the Crown by His Cross is the great breeder of faith! Christ rising from the dead is a marvel, yet it is the keystone of the arch of faith. Believe it! Christ gone into Glory--the Son of God bearing His Manhood into the highest place of supreme sovereignty and pleading there for guilty men--think much of this Truth of God and you will find faith come to you, for "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Especially is faith begotten and nourished by that part of God's Word which treats of the Cross and the Crown--the double lifting up of Jesus! Also, once more, and I have done--you will find faith much helped by looking to the life of Jesus set forth in the Gospels. Read the verse, "He that sent Me is with Me: the Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." What a perfect life is that of Jesus! Could it have been invented? He who could have sketched it from his imagination must, himself, have been perfect. But, then, no perfect man could have been guilty of a forgery. Jesus was obedient to the Father in all things and yet He put no force upon Himself in so doing--it was natural to Him to be holy. It was His meat and His drink to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work. And the God of Heaven, by His miracles, was with Him and bore witness to Him. There is no superfluous miracle recorded in the Gospels--they are all necessary evidence, such as was called for in that court wherein the Perfection, the Messiahship, the Deity of our Lord were tried. If you read His whole life through till you come to His death, and even study that death in which the Father hid His face from Him as to the enjoyment of His smile, you can see that God was always with His Son Jesus, working out His Divine purposes by Him and bearing witness to Him. God is in accord with Jesus, that is clear. He is with Him even now! Nobody can doubt that there are such things as conversions, for they are common phenomena in every living Church of God. And conversions are God's testimony to the Word of Jesus and the proofs that the Father and the Holy Spirit are working with the Son. Think of this, and then yield to the Son of God, since God bears witness of Him to you! Come along with you, you that have had other notions. Come and take Jesus to be your Light and Life! You that have had other confidences, leave them all and believe on Him, for He is worthy of your utmost confidence. You that have been hesitating, believe in Jesus once and for all! You that have been procrastinating, come this very day and listen to that voice which shall at once set you free! Oh, that you would now trust Jesus, my Lord and my God! May the good Spirit help you, now, to believe on the Crucified One and may this be another of those occasions concerning which it shall be written in the Book of Record, "Many believed on Him"! God grant it, for our Lord Jesus' sake! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--John 8:12-59. __________________________________________________________________ The Joyous Return (No. 2192) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 1, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "O Israel, return unto the Lordyour God; for you have fallen by your iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Ashur shall not save us, we willnotride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods: for in You the fatherless find mercy." Hosea 14:1-3. We are in the last chapter of the book of the Prophet Hosea. Throughout the book there has been thunder-- sometimes a low rumbling, as of a distant tempest--sometimes peal on peal, as of a storm immediately overhead. And now the tempest has gathered all its force. Here it culminates. You expect the bolt of Heaven to destroy. Lo, instead thereof, a silver shower of mercy! The gentle drops come down plenteously and you hear them fall upon the tender herb like soft and low music. God does not say, "O Israel, depart accursed!" But instead thereof, in dulcet tones He cries, "O Israel, return unto the Lord your God." In the midst of wrath He remembers mercy-- "When God's right arm is bared for war, And thunders clothe His cloudy car," even then He stays His uplifted hand, reins in the steeds of vengeance, and holds communion with Grace--"for His mercy endures forever," and, "judgment is His strange work." To use another figure--the whole book of Hosea is like a great trial wherein witnesses have appeared against the accused and the arguments and excuses of the guilty have been answered and baffled. All has been heard for them and much, very much, against them--and the convicted stand at the bar to hear their sentence. Behold the Judge, instead of putting on the black cap to pronounce doom of death, stretches out His hands to the condemned and, in tones of pity, cries, "O Israel, return"! This is a wonderful chapter to be at the end of such a book. I had never expected, from such a prickly shrub, to gather so fair a flower, so sweet a fruit! But so it is--where sin abounded, Grace does much more abound! No chapter in the Bible can be more rich in mercy than this last of Hosea and yet no chapter in the Bible might, in the natural order of things, have been more terrible in judgement! Where we looked for the blackness of darkness, behold a noontide of light! While I am preaching from such a text, I feel the need of special help from the Holy Spirit. I lift up my heart for it. Will you not, my Brothers and Sisters, pray for me, that my Hearers may not only hear my voice, but may perceive the inward voice of God speaking to their hearts? The Lord Himself is the speaker of the text--it is Jehovah who says, "O Israel, return." May many of you hear the voice of God and in that voice perceive an over-powering Omnipotence which shall turn your thoughts and souls into the right way, making you willing in the day of His power! I ask you to consider, first, the call to come to God--"O Israel, return unto the Lord your God." And, secondly, the argument for coming--"For you have fallen by your iniquity." Thirdly, we shall dwell upon the help in coming which the Lord gives to those who are willing to obey. He says, "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." In conclusion, we shall pray to see in many the coming by this help. May my unconverted Hearers return unto the Lord, and know the power of His restoring Grace! I. First, notice THE CALL TO COME--"O Israel, return unto the Lord your God." Oh, that the call may be made effectual this day! It is a very instructive call, for it tells the sinner exactly what he has to do. Return--that is, reverse your course! The course you have taken is the opposite of that which you ought to have taken. Therefore, come back. You have gone from God--come back to God! You have been prayerless--begin to pray! You have been hardened--yield to the Word. You have been full of quibbling--believe even as a little child! Bring forth fruits meet for repentance and not the fruits of obstinate persistence in evil. To many there could be no better direction in spiritual morals than this word, "Return." Do what you have not done--leave undone what you have been doing! Reverse the original. Take the other track! "Return!" is but a single word, but that word is full of meaning. There is to be a change, a total change, a coming back to God. The word is also instructive because it says, Return unto the Lord." Do not only look to God, but return to Him. Arise and go to your Father. Do not think about it, but do it! Do not return part of the way to this and to that good custom and salutary habit, but come right back to the Lord and rest not till you feel that you are in His arms. It is of no use for the prodigal to say, "I will arise," unless he adds, "and go to my father." It is of no use his quitting one far-off country for another! But it must be said of him, "And he arose and came to his father." The best direction we can give to many a sinner is--Reverse your course of life and let your reversed course of life lead you to God, Himself. How surely will he need the abounding Grace of God for such a work as this! Virgil's lines are true-- "The gates of Hell are open night and day. Smooth the descent and easy is the way. But to return and seek the upper skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies." The call is very practical. It does not ask for sentiment, but for action--"O Israel, return unto the Lord your God." Do not, as I have said before, merely think of it, but resolutely and thoughtfully return! Do not speculate about when you will do it--let it be done now! Procrastinate no longer--quit halting and hesitating, once and for all. Cease to count the loss or the gain of it, but take the decisive step--"O Israel, return." I cannot help reminding you that this instructive and practical exhortation is also a very pathetic call. The "O," with which it commences is not used as an oratorical embellishment. Loving entreaty breathes in it. He who speaks is in earnest and pleads with all His heart. It is God, Himself, who says, "O Israel, return unto the Lord your God." It is not a chill command--cold and sharp, like the sword of the Lord in the day of doom. But, albeit, it has all the force of a command--it is a warm and tender entreaty from the lips of Love--"O Israel, return." In that, "O," I seem to hear at once the weeping of the Lord Jesus, the sounding of the heart of the great Father and the grieving of the Holy Spirit, "O Israel, return" is a sorrowful, tender, gentle, wooing voice which I beseech you to regard. Possibly some of you may have had to plead with one of your own children who has been very willful and has threatened to do that which would have been exceedingly injurious to him. You have said, "Oh, do not so, my Son! Oh, do not so, my Daughter!" And you have thrown your soul into your pleading. Even thus does God, with sacred pathos, with love welling up from the depth of His heart, plead with every sinner before me! And He words the pleading thus--"O Israel, return unto the Lord your God." I would remind you, also, that, pathetic as it is, it is a Divine call. "O Israel, return!" Who says it? The Prophet? Yes, but more than the Prophet--He who pleads is the Prophet's God. The first motion towards reconciliation is never from the sinner, but always from God. The sinner does not cry, "O Lord, my God, permit me to return"--no, but the Lord, Himself, who watches the wandering one and sees him falling to his ruin, cries out, in the freeness of His Grace, "O Israel, return!" What matters it to the Lord though a man should even plunge down to Hell? The Lord will be glorious, though the rebel perishes! The Lord has no need of men. Yet the Lord thinks much of wandering men and longs for their return. Out of the freeness and riches of His love, He calls them to Himself. He swears by His own life that He wills not the death of the sinner, but that he turn to Him and live. Because of His spontaneous love and pity, He cries, plaintively, "O Israel, return unto the Lord your God." Listen, then, my Hearers! If it were my call, you might refuse it with small blame--but it is God's call--shall your Maker call in vain? Will you add to all your sin, the turning of your back upon the God of Love? Shall Jehovah cry in pity to your souls and cry in vain? God grant it be not so! Here from this text, which, once written, remains, there sounds out of the eternal deep of boundless mercy this cry of Divine Grace--"O Israel, return unto the Lord your God!" And so I will say no more about this call except that it is evidently a very gracious one. He puts it so, "Return unto the Lord your God." If you, O Sinner, will return to the Lord, He will be your God! He will enter into covenant with you. He will give Himself over to you to be yours. Henceforth you shall have a property in Jehovah and all the wealth of His infinite Nature shall be yours. You shall be able to say, "This God is our God forever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death." That man has made a great speech who has truly said, "God is mine." There is more in calling God our God than if we could hold the title-deeds of both the Indies, or claim possession of the stars! God, in the infinity of His Grace, declares, "I will be their God." I cannot preach as I would. Who can compass such a theme as this? Oh, that you were wise, that you knew what was good for you! Then would you answer to this call. O Sinner, how I wish that you were delivered from your madness! Then you would no longer turn your back upon your own blessedness, nor would you any longer reject the Lord your God to your own confusion. Your present course will lead you down to utter and entire destruction --therefore, pause, I pray you! No, I say more! Do not stay where you are, but return, return at once! See you not what a welcome God will give you? He says not, "Return unto your Judge," but, "Return unto your God." It is not written, "Return like an escaped prisoner to your jailer, return to the whip and to the stocks," but, "Return unto the Lord your God." This God shall be your exceeding joy! Albeit I cannot put my soul into such words as I could wish, I am sure that men who are wise and prudent will think upon these things and will be led to seek after the Lord, from whom all blessings flow. I remember how, when I perceived the freeness and preciousness of the Gospel, I ran towards it, being drawn that way by a strong desire for that which promised such great things to me! May many a man and woman out of the present company say, "I will answer to the Divine entreaty. Jehovah bids me return and return I will"! II. Secondly, I beg you to notice THE ARGUMENT FOR COMING. "Return unto the Lord your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity." What a wonderful argument is this! You are in an evil plight through sin, therefore return to the Lord your God. "But," says one, "I was afraid I might not come because I had fallen." See how your fear is anticipated? The case is reversed and your having fallen is made by the Lord into an argument why you should return to Him! "I am broken-down," says one. "I have fallen so badly that I shall never be worth a penny for any good work." Yet the Lord cries, "Return, for you have fallen." I hear one moaning, "I am broken to pieces by sin--I am like an old pot that has fallen on the stones. I am useless." For that very reason the Lord of Mercy bids you return! "Return unto the Lord your God; for you have fallen." What ingenuity of mercy there is in the heart of God! See, He takes away the reason for despair and makes an argument for hope out of it! Because you are thus fallen, you have need to return--and God considers your need, not your merit! Because you are fallen, God's pity invites you to return. Use the word, "fallen," literally. If you are a fallen man, return! If you are a fallen woman--return! Why is it that the word, "fallen," has a force in reference to woman which it has not in regard to man? Surely a fallen man is as sad a sight as a fallen woman! But whether male or female, here is the argument for your returning to God--"You have fallen; therefore return." I pray you, yield to so gracious a plea! Dear Friends, the argument is also this--the cause of your evil plight is sin. "You have fallen by your iniquity." Sin is the root of the mischief. Do not say, "I was fated to be so." "You have fallen by your iniquity." It is true that you have fallen in Adam, but you have also fallen by your own actual sin, and you have enough to do to confess your own act and deed. Your own willful omissions and commissions have ruined you! You are wounded, but your own hand has given the injurious stab. "You have fallen by your iniquity"--blame no one or nothing else! That you are an unbeliever is your own fault--you will not come to Christ that you might have life. The way you follow is the way of your own choice--in which you follow the imaginations and devices of your own heart. All the misery of your present estate is due to yourself. "O Israel, you have destroyed yourself! Feel that it is so and confess it before God, taking to yourself shame and confusion of face. The only remedy for your evil case is to come back to God. If you have fallen by your iniquity, you must be set free from this iniquity--but you cannot free yourself. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" You have lain in the lye of evil till you are dyed ingrain with the scarlet of iniquity--and the color cannot be taken out except by a miracle of Divine Grace! Only God can take away the spots from the leopard, and the blackness from the Ethiopian, and the crimson from the deep-dyed wool! The Lord and only the Lord can work these marvels. Therefore you are called upon to "return unto the Lord your God," for your only hope of restoration lies in God, Himself! Your guilt should not make you hesitate, for the Lord knows all about it, and His invitation shows that He does so. He says, "Return; for you have fallen." O my Hearer, have you tried to hide that fall? Are you sitting here and trying to forget your ruin? The Lord does not forget it and does not wish you to forget it! He sets it before your mind and bids you come to Him as a fallen person. The Lord Jesus Christ receives sinners as sinners. He does not want them to change their character and then come, but they are to come to Him for a change! Come simply as sinners--not as awakened sinners, or sensible sinners, or sinners with some other good qualification. As sinners come to Him who has come to save sinners! The Lord Jesus gave Himself for our sins--He never gave Himself for our righteousness and, therefore, He would have us come to Him in all our defilement. Come in your evil habits, your guilt, your condemnation, your spiritual death and your corruption! Come just as you are. He delights in mercy--leave space for mercy to work. "Return," He says, "for you have fallen by your iniquity." If you are in the worst case that any mortal was in, you have the best possible Helper to whom you are to return. If you go to Gilead for balm for your wound, you would turn that way in vain, for to the question, "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?" the answer is, of course, there is neither balm nor physician there, or else the hurt of the daughter of My people would long ago have been healed. You have gone enough to Gilead, now go to God! Human sources of help must fail you and for that very reason we would persuade you to turn to God. There is no physician in Gilead, therefore, come along with you to Him whose touch is better than balm, who is, Himself, the health of souls. The very hem of His garment overflows with power, so that a touch will heal you! Jesus has but to cast an eye on the most guilty and forlorn, and they live. Yes, if they do but cast an eye on Him, they receive eternal life! A legion of devils will flee at His word. Oh, what a blessing it is that there is such a mighty Savior! If anybody here perishes, it is not because the Savior is not able to save him. If any man here shall die in his sin, it can only be accounted for by the Savior's declaration, "If you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins." "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." How intensely do I pray that you may return to God, urged by these reasons, namely, that you are helplessly, hopelessly lost--and Christ is a mighty Savior--on whom your help is laid! I would that for this reason you would come to Him, even this very day! He will receive you even now, for He has said it--"He that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." III. Now let us see how our gracious God meets us and provides for us THE HELP IN COMING. The Lord helps our ignorance and our fear. He gives us direction as to what to bring. Read the second verse. "Ah!" says the sinner, "I do not know what to take with me in approaching the Most High. I have no bullocks, no lambs, no incense. In my hand there is no price of money or merit." The answer is, "Take with you words." Your heart is right; you are longing for salvation; you need not say, "How shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?" "Take with you words"--you have plenty of them. The heart must be there, first, and then nothing more is asked than, "words." Cheap enough is this offering! Leaves of the forest are not so easy to come at. This is simple enough--He that has a tongue can bring words! O man and woman, whatever else you cannot bring, you can bring words, for, indeed, you have multiplied words to sin! The Lord helping you to return, you need not hesitate for need of an offering, since He says, "Take with you words." This is but another version of our grand hymn-- "Nothing in my hand 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, Jesus, or I die!" And then, the Lord helps the coming sinner by a direction as to where to turn. "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord." "I need to see the minister," says one. Turn to the Lord! "I desire to converse with a man of God." Turn to the Lord! We read in the book of Job, "To which of the saints will you turn?" My answer would be--Sinner, turn to the sinner's Friend and leave the saints alone! If you would be saved, turn not to Peter, nor James, nor John--but turn to Him whom all these call, "Master and Lord!" "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord." Have you been in the habit of turning to a man who is called a priest? I pray you, do so no longer, for there is now but one sin-atoning Priest, and He is the Lord Jesus! Have you turned to ceremonies? Do you look for rest in sacraments? You look that way in vain, for they are not the way of salvation! Turn, rather, to the Lord as He is revealed in the Lord Jesus! Take with you words and turn to the Lord, Himself. Against Him you have sinned--to Him make confession. You need that His anger should be turned away. Seek, then, a free forgiveness from Him! It is His love that you need--go to Him for it and He will receive you graciously--and love you freely! A further help is this. The Lord helps us to return to Him by giving a direction how to pray. A minister said to me last Thursday evening what I have often felt to be true--"We had need make coming to Christ very plain, for many people are so ignorant that they almost need to have the words of confession and faith put into their mouths. They need somebody to kneel down, side by side with them, and utter the very words that they should speak unto the Lord." There is much more truth in this statement than inexperienced persons may think. So here the Lord does, as it were, put the words into the sinner's mouth. "Take with you words, and say unto Him." He says the words, that the sinner may make them His own, and say them after Him! In this condescending style He teaches the returning sinner how to pray. What a gracious God He is! Suppose a case. A great king has been grievously offended by a rebellious subject, but in kindness of heart he wills to be reconciled. He invites the rebel to sue for pardon. He replies, "O King, I would gladly be forgiven, but how can I properly approach your offended majesty? I am anxious to present such a petition as you can accept, but I know not how to draw it up." Suppose this great king were to say, "I will draw up the petition for you"? What confidence the supplicant would feel in presenting the petition! He brings to the king his own words! He prays the prayer he is bid to pray! By the very fact of drawing up the petition, the monarch pledged himself to grant it! O my Hearer, the Lord puts it into your mouth to say this morning, "Take away all iniquity." May you find it in your heart to pray in that fashion! That prayer is best which is offered in God's own way and is of God's own prompting! May you present such a prayer at once! Here I find two sentences of petition. The first is--"Take away all iniquity." Follow me and try to pray this prayer, "O You that takes away the sin of the world, take away all my iniquity. It is great, but pardon it, I pray You, for You did bear our sins in Your own body on the tree. By Your precious blood, wash away all my iniquity! Let me know that You have carried my transgression away, even as the scapegoat carried the sins of Israel into the wilderness of forgetfulness. Take away all iniquity by an act of pardon, I beseech You. Take it away, also, in another sense--Lord, take it out of my heart; take it out of my life." Dear Seekers, I pray you, do not look on one sin and say, "Lord, spare it!" Do not wish to have one sin left, but cry, "Take it away! Take it away! Take away all iniquity. However sweet, or fascinating, or deeply seated, Lord, take away all iniquity. If I have been given to the intoxicating cup, take it away! If I have been the slave of greed, take it away! If I have been subject to passion, or pride, or lustfulness, take it away! Whatever is my besetting sin, 'take away all iniquity'!" Do you wish to have one fair sin spared? It will be your ruin! Hew in pieces that Agag sin that comes so delicately. Let your cry be, "Take it away!" The taking away of it may cost you a right hand or a right eye, but still, shrink not, but cry, "Take away all iniquity." Have done with it all. It will be of no use to give up one poison. If you take another poison, it will kill you. All sin must go, or else all hope is gone! Return to God, but it must be with a prayer which shows that you and your sins have fallen out, never to be reconciled. The next petition is, "Receive us graciously." Confess that a kind reception of you by God must be of Grace alone. Nothing but Divine Grace can open a door for our returning. Sinners cannot be received of the Lord on any other terms but those of mercy. We would not ask to be dealt with according to our merits, but we thank the Lord that He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As to our sins, we cannot answer Him one of a thousand. The Lord must receive us graciously or reject us righteously. Are we not glad that sinners can be received in the name of Grace and find a welcome in the tender mercy of our God? Offer, then, this petition, "Receive us graciously." I am not merely content to talk to you about these gracious words--I want every soul here to use them in personal prayer. Oh, that the Lord would touch all lips, by His Grace, and lead them to say from the heart--"Lord, receive me. I return to You. Take away all iniquity and take me to Yourself! Receive me as a subject of Your Kingdom. Receive me, by Your Grace, into Your home of love. Receive me into the family of Your redeemed on earth and then receive me into Your mansion in Heaven. 'Receive us graciously.'" These are two sweet petitions and they are fitly framed together. May the Holy Spirit constrain every heart to present them! May these be the words which every one of you shall take with him in returning to the Lord! One sentence of promise follows these two of petition--"So will we render the calves of our lips." What are the "calves of our lips"? They are sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving! Yonder are the calves of the stall which men bring in sacrifice--they are struck down and they die at the altar. God does not ask us for bullocks which have horns and hoofs! He takes no pleasure in the blood of calves, or of goats. He desires a broken heart, true faith and humble love--these live at the altar. "Whoso offers praise, glorifies God." Let us bring Him our best thoughts, our best expressions, our best testimonies, our heartiest praises! These are not calves of our stalls, but, "calves of our lips." Let our gratitude be a living sacrifice and our conduct a constant testimony to the goodness of God. I think we can say, this morning--at least, I can--"Lord, if You will spare me, I will speak for You." I must do so during the rest of my life, or else I shall have to change my ways and habits. I was thinking, as I came along this morning, that it is somewhere about 40 years since I first opened my mouth to preach for Christ and I can still say what I have often said-- "Ever since by faith I saw the stream His flowing wounds supply, Redeeming lo ve has been my theme, And shall be till I dee." Is there not some young man here who will begin at once to take up this service for the next 40 years? I wonder what young man it is that I may lay hands upon for Jesus? And some Christian woman--no, she is not a Christian, yet, but I call her such, for she is going to be--I am only anticipating a little--will she not now become a Christian and straightaway render unto the Lord Jesus the calves of her lips, by bearing her testimony to her family and among her acquaintances? Who will consecrate himself, this day, unto the Lord? While you cry to God for mercy as to the past, resolve that if you are saved, you will confess His name and so offer Him the calves of your lips! The Lord claims your hearts, first, and your lips next! You must confess Christ before men! Salvation is promised to a confessed faith--always remember that-- "He that with his heart believes, and with his mouth makes confession of Him shall be saved." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Faith should be confessed in God's own way, by Baptism, and to that faith the promise is specially given. Though I doubt not that some may be saved who do not make an open avowal of their faith, yet the promise runs as I have quoted it and I would not have you willfully forget the command implied in it. "He that confesses Me before men, him will I confess before My Father who is in Heaven"--so says the Lord Jesus. It is no more than His due, that we should take up our cross and follow Him. It is but a small thing, that if we trust in His name, we should bear His name! So you see, the Lord puts into our mouths, this morning, this resolve, that we will praise Him. "So will we render the calves of our lips." Now come three sentences of renunciation--"Ashur shall not save us. We will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods." First, the natural, legal trust, so much esteemed among men, must go. Israel always used to fall back upon Assyria. If Egypt threatened the people, or if any other nation oppressed them, they sent a present to the King of Assyria to come and deliver them. But now they cry, "Ashur shall not save us!" The popular trust of the world is in self-righteousness in its various forms. You were going to be saved by your own repentance, reformation and future well-doing--but of this you must say--"Ashur shall not save us." Are you trusting in sacraments? Give up so vain a confidence! They are not meant to save, but to instruct those who are already saved! Are you trusting in your hereditary godliness, your birthright religion? Away with so poor a foundation! Are you trusting in your prayers, your giving to the poor, your attendance on sermons, your honesty, your good nature? Set these on one side, and cry, "Ashur shall not save us!" All confidences must go except Jesus Christ, whom God has laid in Zion for a foundation stone. On Him must we build and on no other, for, "Ashur shall not save us." But, next, they gave up all carnal confidence of their own--"neither will we ride upon horses." The kings of Israel were forbidden to multiply horses because they were not used in commerce, but only for military purposes, and Jehovah would not have His people rely upon these creatures. Egypt might glory in horse and chariot, but Israel must not do so. Hence we find pious Hezekiah keeping this Law so strictly that Rabshakeh reviled him by offering to send 2,000 horses if he could set riders upon them. When we come to God, we must quit all trust in ourselves of every sort--in our tears, our prayers, our moral life, our excellent instincts--or anything else. "Some trust in horses and some in chariots, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." It may be you have fine horses of morality and religiousness; you have many virtues upon which you think you might fairly depend--give up these trusts! Have you been lately trotting out your horses before your own family and saying to your wife, "I am not like many men. I never drink too much, neither do I treat my household unkindly"? Put away these horses! You cannot come to God riding in pride. Say, "We will not ride upon horses." Put away every confidence in yourself, in whatever fashion it appears. One more stroke of renunciation remains. Down must go the gods of our former estate. He that would come to the true God must have done with the false gods! If we have been living for any objectives but the Glory of God, we must do away with those objectives. If we have been paying religious reverence to anything but God, Himself, we must do away with it. "Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods." It seems strange that men should ever have said such a thing, but since they have said it, they must say it no more. God help everyone here to now make a complete renunciation of everything which usurps the place of God! Whether it is an object of trust, reverence, desire, fear, or love, we must cast it down and worship only God. He says to us, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." In the work of salvation, the work of our hands is out of court! Only God must be glorified. The words close with one sentence of faith. My time fails me, and I cannot dwell upon it at length. "In You the fatherless find mercy." Dear orphan boys below me, here is a word for you! Remember it and love God because it is true-- "In You the fatherless find mercy." God is the Father of the fatherless! Now, if God receives the fatherless, who have none to take care of them, and He becomes their God, we may be encouraged to come to Him, even in the most forlorn condition. Does God keep open house for those who have no home? Then I will go to Him! Does God take up those whom father and mother have forsaken? Then will I put my trust in Him! I saw on a board this morning words announcing that an asylum was to be built on a plot of ground for a class of persons who are described in three terrible words-- HELPLESS, HOMELESS, HOPELESS. These are the kind of people that God receives--to them He gives His mercy! Are you helpless? He will help you! Are you homeless? He will house you! Are you hopeless? He is the Hope of those who have no other confidence. Come, then, to Him at once! IV. This last word should induce sinners to return to God and then we shall see before our eyes THE COMING BY THIS HELP. You that are great, good, full and inwardly strong, you will not return to God. You that are nothing and less than nothing--you that are fallen in your own sight, you that cannot help yourselves--you are likely to come! I pray that you may come at once. I have set before you an open door that no man can shut--will you not enter? Come to my Lord this day! Come, now, and say, "Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously." May God help us to be doing this rather than talking and hearing about it! Let us come to God, for He will help us to come. You see He helps us by giving us words, but as He never helps men to be hypocrites, He will also help us to feel the words! He who gives us words to speak, will give us Divine Grace to speak them sincerely. Are not these words the true desires of your hearts? On your knees, when you get home, pour them out before God. In your pews while you are here, present these petitions in silence. Say, "Take away all iniquity, receive me graciously: so will I render the calves of my lips." The Lord's help will suffice, not only to teach us the manner of praying, but to give us the desire, the faith, the love, the resolve which make up this prayer! Let your coming to the Lord be decisive and actual. You have meant it for years and yet nothing has been done. Some of you have been hearing me preach, now, for a quarter of a century! Think of that! I met, the other day, with one who heard me at New Park Street--and, at last, by our Master's Grace, he has come out to confess his Lord after more than 30 years! Slow work this! Better late than never! Come, my Friends, are you going to stick in the mud forever? Will you lie outside the wicket-gate throughout another year? God grant you may cry right now, "Take away all iniquity: receive us graciously!" Oh, that this might be the universal cry of all my audience at this hour! The text is not written as for one, but for many. "Take with you words." The first verse is in the singular and speaks of, "you." But the second is in the plural and speaks of, "us." It is not, "Take away all iniquity; receive me graciously"--but--"receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Ashur shall not save us." Come along with you, then, the whole company of you who desire salvation! I call upon you who are sitting in this first gallery all around me! I call upon the dense mass in the area below! I call upon you who sit in the upper gallery! Oh, that we might all join in one common return unto the Lord! Let us call this day, "The day of the joyous return." "Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He has torn, and He will heal us; He has smitten, and He will bind us up." Who says, "No"? What? Will you choose your own destruction and persevere in the way of sin? I hope you will all say, "Yes," and that the Holy Spirit will lead you to carry out the resolve. The special call is to the fallen--"Return; for you have fallen." Come, you fallen ones, come and welcome! It is to the wandering, for to such is the command appropriate, which says, "Return."-- "Return, O wanderer, to your home! Your Father calls for you. No longer now an exile roam In guilt and misery-- Return! Return!" The call is to the forlorn and destitute-- "In You the fatherless find mercy." You that are fallen, far off, fatherless and forlorn, come at once to God in Jesus Christ! Come now! Come! Come! Come! See how the Lord meets you! Read the fourth verse--I could almost kiss the lines as I gaze on them--"I will heal their backsliding." Come, sick one, here is healing for you. "I will love them freely." Come, unlovely one, here is love for you! "My anger is turned away from him"--though you have felt His wrath burning in your souls, it is gone forever! "I will be as the dew unto Israel"-- before this service is quite over, some drops of dew shall have fallen upon your parched spirits and shall sparkle in your bosoms like diamonds glittering in the sun! These later verses speak as if the gracious work were done. They describe a scene most bright, full of color and rich with perfume--as an accomplished fact! The chapter begins with an exhortation, but it runs into description, as if the people really had come and God had met them and had blessed them exceedingly! Lord, make it so at this very moment! May it not be merely that I have preached and that these people have listened most encouragingly, but may men be really saved through Your Grace! The Lord's people have been praying all the while, "God bless Your servant"--and now I shall look for fruit from this first of March! The Lord grant that this March may come in like a lamb to many of you! May the lion go out of you! May a heavenly wind spring up and blow across this city and bring soul-healing with it! In this hope, I bid you again, "Come to Jesus." Jesus says, "If any man thirsts, let him come to Me, and drink." "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is thirsty, come. And whoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely." The Lord gather you all into the arms of His Grace, for His Son's sake! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Hosea 13 and 14. __________________________________________________________________ A Poor Man's Cry--and What Came Of It (No. 2193) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, MARCH 8, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." Psalm 34:6 ON the morning of last Lord's-Day [Sermon #2192, The JoyousReturri] we labored to bring sinners to their God and the Lord graciously made the Word effectual. We gave voice to the invitation to return and we entreated men to take with them words and turn to the Lord. God's people found it a happy time. It is a very amazing fact, but an undoubted one, that the simple Gospel which saves sinners also feeds saints! Saints are never better pleased than when they hear those first Truths of God which instruct sinners in the way to God. The Lord be thanked that it is so! On this occasion I want to speak of what happens to those who do return to God--because many have newly been brought through mighty Grace. Some of them I have seen and I have rejoiced over them with exceedingly great joy. They tell me that they did distinctly lay hold on eternal life last Sunday--and they are clear about what it means. They came out of darkness into His marvelous Light! They knew it and could not resist the impulse to tell at once those with whom they sat in the pews--that God had brought them up out of the horrible pit--and had set their feet upon the Rock of Salvation! For this joyful reason I think we will go a step further and talk of the happiness of those who have come back to their Father, have confessed sin, have accepted the great Sacrifice and have found peace with God. It is my heart's desire that those sheep who have come into the fold may be the means of inducing others to enter. You know how one sheep leads another and, perhaps, when some come to Christ, many others will follow. When one of our professional beggars knocks at a door and gets well received, he is very apt to send another. I have heard that vagrants make certain marks near the door by way of telling others of the confraternity which are good houses to call at. If you want many beggars at your house, feed one and another of them well, and birds of the same feather will flock to you! Perhaps while I am telling how Christ has received poor needy ones, others may pluck up courage and say, "We will go, also." If they try it, they may be sure of receiving the same generous welcome as others have done, for our Lord keeps open house for coming sinners! He has distinctly said, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." That does not refer merely to those who have come, but to those who are coming--and to you, dear Hearers, who will come at this hour! Jesus bids every hungry and thirsty soul come to Him at once and be satisfied from His fullness. Our text tells how they have sped who have cried to God. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." I. The first lesson we shall learn, this morning, is upon THE NATURE AND THE EXCELLENCE OF PRAYER-- This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him."-- "Prayer is appointed to convey The blessings God ordains to give." He gives us prayer as a basket and then He pours the blessings of His Grace into it! We shall learn from the text much about prayer. Evidently it is a dealing with the Lord. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." He cried to the Lord that the Lord might hear him. His prayer was not intended for men, nor was it mainly meant to be a relief to his own mind--it was intended for the ear of God and it went where it was intended to go! The arrow of desire was shot towards Heaven. It reached the mark it was designed to reach. This poor man cried to the Lord and the Lord is the right Person to whom to appeal in prayer. I am afraid that many public prayers are a performance to please the congregation. And when they are mixed with music, it is hoped that they will influence men of taste. Even private prayer is not always directed to God as it should be. I have heard ignorant people, sometimes, use the expression, "The minister came and prayed to me." That is a great mistake! We do not pray to you--we pray to God. We pray for you, but not to you. Yet I am afraid that the blunder reveals a mournfully dark state of mind as to what prayer is and does. I fear that many prayers are meant for the ears of men, or have no meaning at all beyond being regarded as a sort of incantation which may mysteriously benefit the utterer of them. Believe me, to repeat good words is a small matter--to go over the best composed forms of devotion will be useless, except the heart rises into real dealings with God! You must speak with God and plead with Him. I often question those who come to join the Church in this fashion-- "You say there is a great difference in you: is there a difference in your prayers?" I very frequently get such an answer as this, "Yes, Sir, I now pray to God. I hope that He hears me. I know that He is near and I speak to Him, whereas before I did not seem to care whether God was there or not. I said my prayers by rote and it did not seem like speaking to anybody." Prayer is dealing with God. The best prayer is that which comes to closest grips with the God of Mercy. Prayer is to ask of God, as a child asks of its father, or as a friend makes request to his friend. O my Hearer, you have forgotten God! You have lived without speaking to Him--this has been the case for years. Is not this a wrong state of things? You are now in need--come and spread your case before your God--ask Him to help you. You need to be saved! Beg Him to save you. Let your prayer reach from your heart to the Throne of God, otherwise, however long it may be, it will not reach far enough to bless you. From this Psalm we learn that prayer takes various shapes. Notice, in the fourth verse, David writes, "I sought the Lord and He heard me." Seeking is prayer. When you cannot get to God, when you feel as if you had lost sight of Him and could not find Him, your seeking is prayer. "I sought the Lord and He heard me"--He heard me seeking Him-- heard me feeling after Him in the dark. He heard me running up and down if haply I might find Him. To search after the Lord is prayer such as God hears. If your prayer is no better than a seeking after one you cannot as yet find, the Lord will hear it. In the next verse David puts it, "They looked unto Him." Then a looking unto God is a prayer! Often the very best prayer is a look towards God--a look which says, "Lord, I believe You. I trust You. Be pleased to show Yourself to me." If there is "life in a look," then there is the breath of life in a look and prayer is that breath! If you cannot find words, it is often a very blessed thing to sit still and look towards the hills from where our help comes. I sometimes feel that I cannot express my desires and, at other seasons, I do not know my desires, except that I long for God--in such a case I sit still and look up. "In the morning will I direct my prayer unto You, and will look up." A look is a choice prayer--if it is the look of tearful eyes towards a bleeding Savior! We might describe prayer in many other ways, as, for instance, in this one--"O taste and see that the Lord is good," which you meet with in verse eight. Tasting is a high kind of prayer, for it ventures to take what it asks for. When we come boldly to the Throne of Grace, we have a taste of Divine Grace in the act of coming! That is a very acceptable prayer which boldly ventures to believe that it has the petition which it has asked of God. Believe that God has heard you and you are heard! Take the good your God provides you--take it to yourself boldly and fear not! Come boldly to the Throne of the heavenly Grace, that you may find and receive. Lay hold upon the blessing which you need so much and it will be neither robbery nor presumption. But frequently, according to our text, prayer is best described as a cry. What does this mean? "This poor man cried." This poor man did not make a grand oration--he took to crying! He was short--it was only a cry. In great pain a man will cry out. He cannot help it, even if he could. A cry is short, but it is not sweet. It is intense and painful, and it cannot be silenced. We cry because we must cry. This poor man cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner." That is not a long prayer, but it prays a great deal of meaning into a few words. That was a short cry, "Lord, save, or I perish!" And that other, "Lord, help me." "Save, Lord," is a notable cry. And so is, "Lord remember me." Many prevailing prayers are like cries because they are brief, sharp and uncontrollable. A cry is not only brief, but bitter. A cry is a sorrowful thing-- it is the language of pain. It would be hard for me to stand here and imitate a cry. No, a cry is not artificial, but a natural production--it is not from the lips, but from the soul, that a man cries. A cry, attended with a flood of tears, a bitter wail, a deep-fetched sigh--these are prayers that enter into the ears of the Host High. O Penitent, the more you sorrow in your prayer, the more wings your prayer has towards God! A cry is a brief thing and a bitter thing. A cry has in it much meaning and no music. You cannot set a cry to music. The sound grates on the ears. It rasps the heart. It startles and it grieves the minds of those who hear it. Cries are not for musicians, but for mourners. Can you expound a child's cry? It is pain felt, a desire for relief naturally expressed, a longing forcing itself into sound! It is a plea, a prayer, a complaint, a demand. It cannot wait, it brooks no delay, it never puts off its request till tomorrow. A cry seems to say, "Help me now! I cannot bear it any longer. Come, O come, to my relief!" When a man cries, he never thinks of the pitch of his voice, but he cries out as he can, out of the depths of his soul. Oh, for more of such praying! A cry is a simple thing. The first thing a new-born child does is cry--and he usually does plenty of it for years after! You do not need to teach children to cry! Theirs is the cry of Nature in distress. I never heard of a class at a Board School to teach babes to cry. All children can cry--even those who are without their reasoning faculties can cry. Yes, even the beast and the bird can cry. If prayer is a cry, it is clear that it is one of the simplest acts of the mind. O my Hearer, whatever you need, pray for it in the way which your awakened heart suggests to you! God loves natural expressions when we come before Him. Not that which is fine, but that which is on fire, he loves. Not that which is dressed up, but that which leaps out of the soul just as it is born in the heart, He delights to receive! This poor man did not do anything grand--but from his soul he cried. A cry is as sincere as it is simple. Prayer is not the mimicry of a cry, but the real thing. You need not ask a man or woman, when crying, "Do you mean it?" Could they cry, otherwise? A true cry is the product of a real pain and the expression of a real need--and, therefore, it is a real thing. Dear Souls, if you do not know how to pray, cry! Cry because you cannot pray! Cry because you are lost by nature and by practice and will soon be lost forever unless Grace prevents. Cry with a strong desire to be saved from sin and to be washed in the precious blood of Jesus! Pour out your hearts like water before the Lord. Just as a man takes a pitcher and turns it upside down, pouring all the water out, so turn your hearts upside down and let them flow out until the last dreg has run away! "You people, pour out your heart before Him." Such an outpouring of heart will be a cry and a prayer. But now note, further, concerning the nature and excellence of prayer, that prayer is heard in Heaven. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." He was all alone, so that nobody else heard him--but the Lord heard him! Yes, the Lord, even Jehovah of Hosts, the All-Glorious, bowed His ear to him! In God's ears the songs of angels are continually resounding. Yes, He hears all the voices of all the creatures He has made! Yet He stooped from His eternal Glory and gave attention to the poor man's cry! Never imaging that a praying heart ever pleads to a deaf God, or that God is so far removed from men that He takes no note of their desires. God does hear prayer--He does grant the desires and requests of lowly men! I do not think that we shall ever pray in downright earnest unless we believe that God hears. I have been told that prayer is an excellent devotional exercise, highly satisfying and useful, but that there its result ends, for we cannot imagine that the Infinite Mind can be moved by the cries of men. Do not believe so gross a lie, or you will soon cease to pray! No man will pray for the mere love of the act, when he has arrived at the opinion that there is no good in it so far as God is concerned! Brothers and Sisters, amidst all the innumerable goings forth of Divine Power, the Lord never ceases to listen to the cries of those who seek His face! It is always true--"The righteous cry and the Lord hears." Wonderful fact this! Truly marvelous! It might surpass our faith if it were not written in His Word and experienced in our lives. Many of us know that the Lord has heard us. Doubt about this matter has long been buried under a pyramid of evidence. We have often come from the Throne of Grace as sure that God had heard us as we were sure that we had prayed! In fact, our doubts all lie around our own praying and do not touch our assurance that God hears true prayer. The abounding answers to our supplications have been proofs positive that prayer climbs above the region of earth and time--and touches God and His infinity. Yes, it is still the case that the Lord listens to the voice of a man! It is still Jehovah's special title--the God That Hears Prayer! The Lord will hear your prayer, my Hearer, even if you cannot put it into words--He has an ear for thoughts, sighs and longings! A wordless prayer is not silent to Him. God reads the intents of the heart and cares more for these than for the syllables of the lips. This poor man could not speak--his heart was so full that he could only cry--but Jehovah heard him! Once more, prayer has this excellence--that it wins answers from God. "The Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." God does put forth power in answer to prayer. I know the difficulties which are started concerning this. There is a fixed purpose, from which God does not depart. But this is by no means inconsistent with the prevalence of prayer, for the God who decrees to give us blessings has also decreed that we shall ask for them! The prayer and the Providence are, alike, appointed by the predestination of God! Our praying is the shadow of God's giving. When He is about to bestow a blessing, He first of all works in us earnest prayer for it. God moves us to pray--we pray. God hears and answers--this is the process of Divine Grace. The Lord does, in very deed, answer prayer! I read yesterday certain notes taken by an interviewer who called on me some years ago. He reports that he said to me, "Then you have not modified your views in any way as to the efficacy of prayer?" In his description he says--"Mr. Spurgeon laughed and replied, Only in my faith growing far stronger and firmer than ever. It is not a matter of faith with me, but of knowledge and everyday experience. I am constantly witnessing the most unmistakable instances of answers to prayer. My whole life is made up of them. To me they are so familiar as to cease to excite my surprise, but to many they would seem marvelous, no doubt. Why, I could no more doubt the efficacy of prayer than I could disbelieve in the law of gravitation! The one is as much a fact as the other, constantly verified every day of my life." The interviewer reported me correctly and I would repeat the testimony! I could speak with even deeper confidence today. More than 40 years I have tried my Master's promises at the Mercy Seat and I have never yet met with a repulse from Him. In the name of Jesus I have asked and received, save only when I have asked amiss. It is true I have had to wait because my time was ill-judged and God's time was far better--but delays are not denials! Never has the Lord said to me, or to any of the seed of Jacob, "Seek you My face" in vain. If I were put into the witness box and knew that I should be cross-examined by the keenest of lawyers, I should not hesitate to bear my testimony, that by many Infallible proofs the Lord has proven to me that He hears prayer! But, my Hearers, if you need evidence on this point, try it yourselves! Remember, the Lord has said, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me." Here is a fair test. Make an honest experiment concerning it. I have no doubt that at this moment I could call upon hundreds in this congregation who would not refuse to stand up and say that the Lord hears prayer. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." I might call on many a man and woman here who could solemnly declare that they cried--and the Lord heard them. Are you at this service, Hannah? You were here the other morning with a sorrowful spirit and now I see by your countenance that the Lord has smiled upon you and your soul is magnifying His name! Prayer has done this for you. Is it not so? God answers the supplications of His believing people and of this we are witnesses! Thus have I set the matter before you and I would remind you of the words of the Lord Jesus, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for everyone that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened." Thus have we been instructed by our text as to the nature and excellence of prayer. II. Let us move on and note, secondly, that our text leads us to think upon THE RICHNESS AND FREENESS OF DIVINE GRACE. Great Grace is revealed in this statement--"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." You will see the richness and the freeness of Grace when you consider the character of the man who prayed--"this poor man cried." Who was he? He was a poor man. How terribly poor I cannot tell you. There are plenty of poor men about. If you advertised for a poor man in London, you might soon find more than you could count in 12 months--the supply is unlimited, although the distinction is by no means highly coveted. No man chooses to be poor. David, on the occasion which suggested this Psalm, was so poor that he had to beg bread of the Lord's priests and though he was a soldier, he had to borrow a sword from their treasury. He had no house, no home, no calling, no income, no country, no safety for his life. He was poor, indeed, who wrote these words--"This poor man cried." Why should men imagine that poverty is an injury to prayer? Will the Lord care about the age of your coat? What is it to Him that you have a shallow pocket and a scanty cupboard? "This poor man cried." Does God hear poor men? Yes, that He does, the poorest of the poor, the poor in spirit! He hears those who are so poor that even hope has dropped out of their box--and that is the last thing to go. This poor man was also a troubled man, for the text speaks of "all his troubles"--a great, "all," I guarantee you. He did not know what to do. He could not see his way in his blizzard of trials. He was surrounded with difficulties, as with an iron net, and he could not hope for a deliverer. He was a troubled man and because he was a troubled man, he cried. People wondered what he cried about, but they would not have done so had they known his inward griefs. His old companions thought he had gone out of his mind--they said religion had turned his brain and they stayed out of his way. This poor man cried and no man noticed him because he was so poor and so wretched--but "the Lord heard him." He does not turn away from the doleful and the desolate--He takes delight in coming to them and binding up their wounds! This poor man was a mournful man--a man altogether broken down, a man who could not hold his head up--he blushed and was ashamed, both before God and man. All he did, when alone, was to cry. And if one watched him closely in company, the tears might be seen forcing their way from his heart through his eyes and down his cheeks This poor man cried, for he was so feeble, so faint, so forlorn, that he could not do otherwise--but "the Lord heard him." The Lord so heard him as to make that poor man rich in Divine Grace! I feel sure, also, that "this poor man" was a strange fellow. What did he want with crying when others were laughing? It is not a pleasant nor a usual sight to see strong men weep. Some men weep because they are very tender-hearted, but many others do so, I am persuaded, because they have been given to drink. This man was given to inward crying--he cried day and night unto the Lord because of a secret wound which never ceased to bleed. People could not make him out and they came to despise him, or, at least, to be shy of him--but "the Lord heard him." He was also a changed man. Why, he used to come in of an evening and was a thoroughly jolly companion! But now he looks as miserable as an owl and nobody desires his company, he is such a kill-joy. "Poor miserable creature!" people say. Even his wife sighs and says, "What has become of my poor dear husband?" He was a poor man and as sad and singular as he was poor. He sought out secret places and there he sighed and cried before the Lord. But yet he was a hopeful man. There must have been some hope in him, though he could not perceive it, for people do not cry for help unless they have some hope that they will be heard. Despair is dumb--where there is a cry of prayer there is a crumb of hope! A cry is a signal of distress and people will not hoist a rag on a pole unless they have a little hope that a passing vessel may spy it out and come to their rescue. There is not only hope for a man, but hope in a man as long as he can pray. Yes, as long as he can cry. If you do but long, look, seek and sigh after God, you are one of those poor men whom I have tried to describe--and good will come to you. I can see that poor man now. I used to know him, for he was born in my native town and he went to the school where I was a scholar. He was hardly a man, but only a youth. And then I used to sleep with him, or rather to lie awake at nights with him and hear him groan. He prayed in my hearing many a time--and very poor praying it was, but he meant what he said. I have been with him in the fields and he used to tell me that he was such a vile creature that he feared that he must be cast into Hell forever! He was afraid that he was not one of the chosen and redeemed people of God, and that he would never be able to believe in Jesus. I knew him when he gave himself up for lost. I know him now. I see him whenever I look in the mirror and I must say on his behalf this morning--"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." Oh, the freeness and the richness of Grace, that God should hear nobodies! That God should look upon those who are less than the least of all saints--and the very chief of sinners! If you desire to further see the richness and freeness of Divine Grace, by the help of the Holy Spirit, I beg you to remember the Character of the God to whom this poor man cried. He who prayed was poor and his prayer was poor, but he did not pray to a poor God! This poor man was powerless, but he did not cry to a feeble God. This poor man was empty, but he went to God's fullness. He was unworthy, but he appealed to God's mercy. Our God delights in mercy! He waits to be gracious! He takes pleasure in blessing the weary sons of men! This poor man cried to that Savior who is able to save to the uttermost! O my Friend, never mind how poor you are--you are not crying to your own poor self. Remember, you have not to draw water out of your own emptiness--you may come to God, who is the Fountain of Grace. Your merit is poverty, itself, but the mercies of God are unsearchable riches! The power by which you are to be saved lies not in your own spirit, but in the Holy Spirit! Therefore cry with great hope and believe that God is as great in His Grace as in His power and wisdom! While we are thinking of the freeness and richness of this Grace in the text, I would have you notice the character of the blessing. "The Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." He gave him salvation from the whole of his troubles. His sins were his great troubles--the Lord saved him out of them all--through the atoning Sacrifice! The effects of sin were another set of grievous troubles to him--the Lord saved him out of them all by the renewal of the Holy Spirit. He had fallen into a perilous position by his own fault--and troubles came upon him thick and heavy--but in answer to prayer, the Lord made a way of escape for him, out of them all, and led him into peace. He had troubles without and within, troubles in the family and in the world, and he felt ready to perish because of them--but the Lord delivered him out of them all. Note that word, "all"--it is large and comprehensive. If you will kindly look at the Psalm, you will see the range of this delightful deliverance. We read in verse four--"He delivered me from all my fears." Sometimes our fears are more painful than our troubles. We suffer more in dreading troubles than in enduring them, but prayer banishes such fears. We see that all shame was removed in the same way--"They looked unto Him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed." Happy men, for the shame of their sin is gone! Their shame and their fears went when their prayers were heard. They were no longer distressed about the past and no longer under apprehension of wrath in the future--"He saved them out of all their fears." If you will look further on you will find that the Lord saved them out of all their needs (v 9)--"There is no need to them that fear Him." "They that wait upon the Lord shall not need any good thing." Oh, to be saved from the pinch of dire necessity within the soul--saved from all fear, all shame, all trouble and then from all need! This is a grand salvation! But this is not all, for this poor man was saved from all dangers (v 20)--"He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken." He saved him out of all real peril. And, lastly, He saved him from all apprehension of desertion--"None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate." The salvation that God gives in answer to prayer is a perfect one! And He gives it freely, gives it in answer to a poor man's cry, without money or merit. How complete is God's deliverance! Did you ever notice how perfect was the answer which God gave to the prayer of Moses when he cried to God for Pharaoh in the day of the plagues? When the locusts covered the land, Moses prayed and we read, "There remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt" (Exo 10:19). So was it with the frogs and even with the flies--"He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one." Pharaoh could not have found a specimen of locust, or fly in all Egypt! So you may be devoured with troubles as the land by locusts and they may be croaking in your ears like the frogs in the bedchambers of Egypt--but when the Lord bids them, "Go," they will depart from you and you will be in quiet. He who puts away as a cloud your iniquities and as a thick cloud your sins, will soon drive away your troubles like a swarm of buzzing flies! "The Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." Is not this Free Grace? Is not this rich mercy? And, once more, think that this all came through a cry. A cry is all that the poor man brought. He did not go through a long performance. He did not perform a laborious set of ceremonies--"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." What can be simpler? Oh, you think you need a priest, do you?--a priest on whom a bishop has laid his hands? Or do you dream that you must go to a holy place, a pile of stones put together in architectural form? Possibly you even dream that you must pine all through Lent and not expect joy till you reach Easter! What folly is all this! You have but to cry and the Lord will hear you! There is but one Priest--even the Lord Jesus! There is but one Holy Place-- His glorious Person. There is but one holy time and that is today! When the Spirit of God works a cry in the heart of the poor man, that cry climbs up to Heaven by the way of Jacob's ladder--and at the same instant, mercy comes down by the same ladder! Our Lord Jesus Christ is that Ladder which joins earth and Heaven together, so that our prayers go up to Heaven and God's mercy comes down to us on earth! Oh, that men would be content with the blessedly simple apparatus of Divine Grace--"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles"! III. I must be brief on my last head, but it is a very important one. Consider THE NEED AND THE USEFULNESS OF PERSONAL TESTIMONY. It is David who says, "This poor man cried." You see he tells the story--he writes it down in a book for us to read. He weaves it into a Psalm for us to sing. Testimony is a weighty thing for the persuasion and winning of men, but it must be of the right kind. It should be personal, concerning things which you yourself know--"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." Never mind if you should be charged with being egotistical. That is a blessed egoism which dares to stand out and bear bold witness for God in its own person! "This poor man cried." Not somebody over the water--"and the Lord heard him"--not a man down the next street. The more definite and specific your testimony, the better and the more convincing. One of our evangelists writes me that when he was praying with an inquirer and trying to lead him to Jesus, he was much helped by a working man coming in and kneeling down by their side and saying, "Lord, save this poor soul, even as you saved me at two o'clock this morning!" Afterwards the evangelist asked him how he came to use such an expression. "Well," said the man, "I was saved then. Just as the clock struck two, I found the Savior, and I always like to tell when a thing happens." Somehow or other, that "two o'clock in the morning" helped the inquirer mightily--it put such a reality into the transaction, he thought, "This man knows that he was saved at two o'clock in the morning. Why should I not be saved, now, at eight o'clock in the evening?" I do not say that we can all tell the date of our conversion--many of us cannot. But if we can throw in such details, let us do so, for they help to make our testimony striking. Our witness should be an assured one. We must believe and, therefore, speak. Do not say, "I hope that I prayed. And I--I--trust that the Lord heard me." Say, "I prayed, and the Lord heard me." If you begin to stutter when you are giving your evidence for the Lord Jesus, worldlings will not believe you. Are you sure? If you are not sure yourself, you cannot assure others. The accent of conviction is indispensable if you would convince. Be sure that you have cried and be sure that God has heard you--and then bear testimony to what you have tried and proved. Give your testimony cheerfully. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." Do not say it as if it were a line from "the agony column," but write it as a verse of a Psalm--of such a Psalm as this, which begins with, "I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth." Your testimony must have for its sole aim the glory of God. Do not wish to show yourself off as an interesting person, a man of vast experience. We cannot allow the Grace of God to be buried in ungrateful silence. When He made the world, the angels sang for joy! And when He saves a soul, we will not be indifferent. Let us call together our friends and our neighbors and charge them to rejoice with us, for our Lord has found us, though we were lost! Remember how the father, when the prodigal came back, said to his household, "Let us eat and be merry." So, dear Friends, be glad at heart that the Lord has saved you--and tell others of what He has done, saying, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." Testimonies to facts have weight with men. Those who live to win souls have learned from experience that facts are grand things to use in their holy service. When you are teaching people doctrines, they will often be inattentive and unmoved. But when you come to facts, they listen and feel their force. I sat not long ago with one whom I would gladly win for my Lord. I told him certain facts with regard to the Lord's hearing prayer for the College and the Orphanage and other parts of my work for the Lord. I marked the deep interest which these facts produced. He believed me to be a man of integrity and he could not resist the conclusion that the Lord is a prayer-hearing God! To yourself and to others, one fact is better than a dozen inferences! Even the hardest of the Gradgrind can only say, "What I need is facts." Test prayer for yourself and then boldly state the results--and you will have power with men. Personal experience is far more convincing than observation--tell facts which you have, yourself, experienced! "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." Such testimony will have most weight with the same sort of men as yourselves. When a poor man tells what the Lord did for him, he wins the attention and gains the belief of other poor men. When any event happens to a person like myself, I become interested in it. The poor man says, "I see he is a poor man like myself and if God hears him, why should he not hear me?" Does not your brother's salvation cheer you and make you feel that you will cry to the Lord, too? How wonderfully God has heard prayer from men in singular positions! He heard Jacob when his angry brother Esau was close upon him with armed men! At Jabbok the Lord heard him by night and he met his brother the next morning with a smiling face. Israel in Egypt was in sore bondage, but the Lord heard his people's cry and sent Moses--and divided the Red Sea, and brought forth His chosen. The Lord heard Samson when he was ready to die of thirst. He heard the men of Reuben who cried to God in the battle against the Hagarites--"and He was entreated of them, because they put their trust in Him." He heard Hezekiah and Isaiah when Rabshakeh wrote his blasphemous and slanderous letter. We read that, "for this cause they prayed and cried to Heaven. And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of Assyria." David prayed in the cave, and Elijah on Carmel, and Jeremiah in prison--and the Lord heard them! There was once a man in the belly of a fish miraculously kept alive. The great fish felt ill with such a thing as a living man within him and, therefore, it dived deep down till the prisoner felt himself to be at the bottom of the mountains! Then, to get vegetable medicine, the fish rushed among the sea meadows and Jonah cried, "The weeds were wrapped about my head!" He was in a strange, dark, horrible place and he says of it, "Out of the belly of Hell cried I." Was his cry of any use? Yes! We read, "Out of the belly of Hell cried I, and You heard my voice. My prayer came in unto You, into Your holy Temple." Wherever you may be and in whatever trial you may be involved, the Lord will hear your cry and come to your help. If any soul here is, like Jonah, in the very belly of Hell in feeling and apprehension, yet, his cry will prevail with Heaven and he shall know that "salvation is of the Lord." A poor man's cry will sound through the telephone of Christ's mediation, in the ear of God--and He will respond to it. Now, this witness, dear Friends, while it is very strong to those who are like ourselves, will be increased in force as one and another shall join us. One person says, "I cried to the Lord, and he heard me." "But," says an objector, "that is a special case." Up rises a second witness and says, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." "Well, that is only two and two instances may not prove a rule." Then, up rises a third, a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh--and in each case it is the same story--"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." Surely he must be hardened in unbelief who refuses to believe so many witnesses! I remember the story of a lawyer, a skeptic who attended a meeting where the subject was similar to our theme of this morning. He heard about a dozen tell what the Lord had done for them and he said, as he sat there, "If I had a case in court, I would like to have these good people for witnesses. I know them all, they are my neighbors. They are simple-minded people, straightforward and honest, and I know I could carry any case if I had them on my side." Then he very candidly argued that what they all agreed upon was true. He believed them in other matters and he could not doubt them in this, which was to them the most important of all. He tried religion for himself and the Lord heard him--and very soon he was at the meeting, adding his witness to theirs! If I were to put the question at this moment to my present audience, what would be the result? Our friend, Mr. Stott, said, just now, in prayer, that we were a very promiscuous company this dark morning. I agree with him. Still I will try it. You that have had answers to prayer say, "Fes." (The response came like a thunderclap)! I am sure there are none of us who have ever tried the power of prayer who would have to say, "No." If I were to put the contrary, there would be no answer. All who are accustomed to pray will vote with the ayes. Go home, then, with the words of our text in your hearts and on your tongues--"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." Glory be to God! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psalm 34. __________________________________________________________________ Between the Two Appearings (No. 2194) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 15, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Hebrews 9:26-28. The two great links between earth and Heaven are the two advents of our Lord, or, rather, He is the great bond of union, by these two appearings. When the world had revolted and God had been defied by His own creatures, a great gulf was opened between God and man. The First Coming of Christ was like a bridge which crossed the chasm and made a way of access from God to man--and then, from man to God. Our Lord's Second Advent will make that bridge far broader, until Heaven shall come down to earth and, ultimately, earth shall go up to Heaven. At these two points a sinful world is drawn into closest contact with a gracious God. Jesus herein is seen as opening the door which none can shut, by means of which the Lord is beheld as truly Emmanuel, "God with us." Here, too, is the place for us to build a grand suspension bridge by which, through faith, we, ourselves, may cross from this side to the other of the stormy river of time. The Cross, at whose feet we stand, is the massive column which supports the structure on this side. And, as we look forward to the Glory, the Second Advent of our Lord is the solid support on the other side of the deep gulf of time. By faith we first look to Jesus and then for Jesus--and herein is the life of our spirits. We dwell between these two boundaries--Christ on the Cross of shame and Christ on the Throne of Glory--these are our Dan and Beersheba and all between is holy ground! As for our Lord's First Coming, there lies our rest--the once-offered Sacrifice has put away our sin and made our peace with God. As for His Second Coming, there lies our hope, our joy, for we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is. The glories of His sacred Royalty shall be repeated in all the saints, for He has made us unto our God kings and priests--and we shall reign with Him forever and ever. At His First Advent we adore Him with gratitude rejoicing in "God with us," as making Himself to be our near kinsman. We gather with grateful boldness around the Infant in the manger and behold our God! But in the Second Advent we are struck with a solemn reverence, a trembling awe. We are not less grateful, but we are more prostrate as we bow before the Majesty of the triumphant Christ! Jesus in His Glory is an overpowering vision! John, the Beloved Apostle, writes, "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead." We could have kissed His feet till He left us on Olivet, but at the sight of the returning Lord, when Heaven and earth shall flee away, we bow in lowliest adoration! His first appearing has given us that life and holy confidence with which we press forward to His glorious appearing, which is the crown of all. I want, at this time, to bring before you those two appearings of our Lord. The text says, "He has appeared." And again, "He shall appear." The 26th verse speaks of His unique manifestation already accomplished. The 28th verse promises the glorious second outshining, as it promises, "He shall appear." Between these two lights--"He has appeared" and, "He shall appear"--we shall sail safely if the Holy Spirit will direct our way. My first head is this, once, and no second. And my other division of discourse will make a kind of paradox, but not a contradiction--yet a second. I. Our first theme is, ONCE, AND NO SECOND. Now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself." This He has done, once, and He will never repeat it. Let us dwell on the subject in detail. Our Lord Jesus Christ has once appeared and though He will appear again, it will not be for the same purpose. On His first appearing, fix your thoughts, for the like of it will never be seen again. In the bosom of the Father He lay concealed as God. As the Second Person of the Divine Trinity in Unity He could not be seen, for "no man has seen God at any time." It is true that, "without Him was not anything made that was made," and thus His hand was seen in His works but, as to Himself, He was still hidden--revealed in type and prophecy--but yet, in fact, concealed. Jesus was not manifest to the sons of men until one midnight an angel hastened from the skies and bade the shepherds know that unto them was born in Bethlehem a Savior, that is Christ the Lord! Then the rest of the angelic host, discovering that one of their number had gone before them on so wonderful an errand, were swift to overtake him and, in one mass of glittering glory, they filled the midnight skies with heavenly harmony as they sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Well might they sing, for the Son of God now appeared! In the manger He might be seen with the eyes and looked upon, and handled--for there the Word was made flesh--and God was Incarnate! He whom the ages could not contain, the Glorious One who dwelt with the Father, forever unseen, now appeared within the bounds of time and space--and humble shepherds saw Him and adored! By Gentiles He was seen, for wise men from the East beheld and worshipped Him whose star had led them. As He grew up, the children of Nazareth beheld Him as a Child, obedient to His parents and, by-and-by, He was made manifest to men by the witness of John and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him at His Baptism. God bore Him witness as He went up and down the hills of Palestine preaching the Kingdom and proclaiming salvation to the sons of men. Men saw Him, for He spoke among them openly, and walked in their midst. His was not the seclusion of dignity, but the manifestation of sympathy! "He went about doing good." He was seen of angels, for they came and ministered to Him--and He was seen of devils, for they trembled at His word. He dwelt among us and we beheld His Glory--He was the Revelation of God to men, so that He could say, "He that has seen Me has seen the Father." He was made still more manifest by His death, for in His Crucifixion He was lifted up from the earth that all might behold Him. He was exalted upon the Cross, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness on purpose, that whoever looked to it might live. Then and there He opened those four conspicuous founts of cleansing blood which were made to flow by the nails. See how it flows from hands and feet! There, too, He laid bare His side and set His heart open for dying men and forthwith there flowed forth blood and water! Thus we may look into His inmost heart. High on the Cross the Savior hung, without veil or curtain to conceal Him. "Once in the end of the world has He appeared." I know of no appearance that could have been more complete, more unreserved. He moved in the midst of crowds, He spoke to men and women one by one. He was on the mountain and by the sea. He was in the desert and by the river. He was both in house and in Temple. He was accessible everywhere. In the fullest sense, "once in the end of the world has He appeared." Oh, the glory of this gracious epiphany! This is the greatest event in history--the invisible God has appeared in human form! The text tells us very precisely that in this First Coming of our Lord He appeared to put away sin. Notice that fact. By His coming and Sacrifice, He accomplished many things, but His first end and object was "to put away sin." You know what the modern babblers say--they declare that He appeared to reveal to us the goodness and love of God. This is true, but it is only the fringe of the whole Truth of God. The fact is that He revealed God's love in the provision of a Sacrifice to put away sin. Then, they say that He appeared to exhibit perfect manhood and to let us see what our nature ought to be. This, also, is a truth, but it is only part of the sacred design. He appeared, they say, to manifest self-sacrifice and to set us an example of love to others. By His self-denial He trampled on the selfish passions of man. We deny none of these things and yet we are indignant at the way in which the less is made to hide the greater. To put the secondary ends into the place of the grand objective is to turn the Truth of God into a lie! It is easy to distort truth by exaggerating one portion of it and diminishing another--just as the drawing of the most beautiful face may soon be made a caricature rather than a portrait by neglect of proportion. You must observe proportion if you would take a truthful view of things and, in reference to the appearing of our Lord, His first and chief purpose is, "to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The great objective of our Lord's coming here was not to live, but to die! He has appeared, not so much to subdue sin by His teaching, as to put it away by the Sacrifice of Himself. The master purpose which dominated all that our Lord did was not to manifest goodness, nor to perfect an example, but to put away sin by Sacrifice! That which the moderns would thrust into the background, our Lord placed in the forefront! He came to take away our sins, even as the scapegoat typically carried away the sin of Israel into the wilderness that the people might be clean before the living God. The Lord Jesus has come here as a Priest to remove sin from His people--"You know that He was manifested to take away our sins." Do not let us think of Jesus without remembering the design of His coming! I pray you, Brothers and Sisters, know not Christ without His Cross as some pretend to know Him. We preach Christ--so do a great many more--but, "we preach Christ Crucified." And so do not many more. We preach concerning our Lord, His Cross, His blood, His death. And upon the blood of His Cross we lay great stress, extolling much, "the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." We know no past appearing of God in human flesh except that appearing which ended with a Sacrifice to put away sin! For this our Savior came, even to save sinners by putting away their sin. We will not deny, nor conceal, nor depreciate His master purpose, lest we be found guilty of trampling upon His blood and treating it as an unholy thing. The putting away of sin was a God-like purpose and it is a wellspring of hope to us, that for this reason Jesus appeared among men. Let us go a step further with our text-- only once does the Lord appear for the purpose of putting away sin. He came once to do it and He has done it so well that there is no need for Him to offer any further sacrifice! "This Man, after that He had offered one Sacrifice for sins forever, sat down." He will never appear a second time for the putting away of sin. It was His purpose, once, but He has so fulfilled it that it will never be His purpose again. The High Priest, as you know, came every year with blood for the putting away of sin. He has slain the victim this year, but next year he must come in the same manner--and the next, and the next, and the next--because the sacrifice had not really removed the guilt. But our Lord has come once for this Divine purpose and He has so achieved that purpose that He could truly cry, "It is finished," for the work is done once and for all. He has so perfectly put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself that He will never need to offer a second sacrifice! That our Lord should ever come a second time as He came the first time is inconceivable by those who love Him! He will come a second time, but in a very different style, and for a very different purpose--not as a Sacrifice for sins--but as King and Judge. And here learn yet further, that only once is sin put away. Jesus died to finish transgression and make an end of sin. Our Lord made Atonement for sin when He died, the Just for the unjust--He made peace for us when the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. When the Lord had laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, Divine wrath fell upon Him on account of our sins until He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Then sin was put away. And there, but never anywhere else, was full Atonement presented and iniquity was blotted out! There is no other place of expiation for sin but the place of our Lord's Sacrifice of Himself. Believing in Him that died on the Cross, our sins are put away--but without faith in Him there is no remission of sin. Beyond our Lord's, other sacrifice there is none--other sacrifice there will never be. If any of you, here, are entertaining some "larger hope," I would say to you--hope what you please, but remember, that hope without the Truth of God at the bottom of it is an anchor without a holdfast. A groundless hope is a mere delusion! Wish what you will, but wishes without promises from God to back them are vain imaginings. Why should you imagine or wish for another method of salvation? Rest assured that the Lord God thinks so highly of the one Sacrifice for sin, that for you to desire another is evil in His sight! If you reject the one Sacrifice of the Son of God, there remains no hope for you--nor ought there to be. Our Lord's way of putting away sin is so just to God, so honoring to the Law of God and so safe for you, that if you reject it, your blood must be on your own head. By once offering up Himself to God, our Lord has done what myriads of years of repentance and suffering could never have done. Blessed be the name of the Lord, the sin of the world--which kept God from dealing with men at all--was put away by our Lord's death! John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." God has been able to deal with the world of sinners in a way of Grace because Jesus died. I thank our Lord even more because the actual sins of His own chosen--even of all those who believe on Him in every age--have been put away. These sins were laid on Him and, in Him, God visited man for them. "He His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree"--and so put them away forever--and they are cast into the depths of the sea. The putting away of my guilt as a Believer was really, effectually, and eternally accomplished by the death of our great Substitute upon the bloody tree! This is the ground of our everlasting consolation and good hope through Divine Grace. Jesus did it alone. He did not only seem to do it, but He actually achieved the putting away of sin! He blotted out the handwriting that was against us. He finished transgression and made an end of sin--and brought in everlasting righteousness when, once and for all, He died upon the Cross. Beloved, there is a further note here--observe that only once has He made a Sacrifice of Himself. "Now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The very best way to describe the death of our Lord is to call it, "the Sacrifice of Himself." It may be well rightly to divide the Sacrifice, as the priest cut up the bullock or the ram. You may speak of our Lord's bodily sufferings, His mental griefs and His spiritual anguish, but, for the most part, we are not able to go far in this detailed appreciation of the wondrous Sacrifice. We are such poor folk in spiritual things, that instead of bringing a bullock which could be anatomized and its vital organs all laid bare, we are content to bring a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons--and these were not carefully divided asunder, but burned upon the altar! The most of us have to take our Lord Jesus Christ as a whole, since, from lack of understanding, we cannot go into detail. What did He offer to God? He made a sacrifice of Himself. Truly He sacrificed His crown, His rest, His honor, His reputation and His life--but the essence of the Sacrifice was Himself--He, Himself, took our iniquity and bore our sorrows. "He His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." Your sacrifice, O Christ, is not to be measured unless we could compute the infinity of Your Godhead. It was not only Your labor, Your pain, Your shame, Your death--Your Sacrifice was Yourself--what more could even You offer? There, on the altar, the Son of God did place Himself, and there He bled and died that He might be the Victim of punitive justice, the Substitute for guilty men! There was He unto God a sweet-smelling savor because He vindicated the Law and made it possible for the Lawgiver to be justly merciful. This, according to our text, was done once, and only once, and it never will be repeated, so that the whole business of our Lord's appearing to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself, is confined to one appearing and one offering. I want that word, "ONE," to ring in your ears. "By one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified." I would have the adverb, "once," go through every ear, and abide in every heart. "By His own blood He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Peter says, "Christ also has once suffered for sins." Once it is, and not more often. To suppose the contrary would be, first, to break away from the analogy of human things. Read the 27th verse--"As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." A man dies once and after that everything is fixed and settled--and He answers for His doings at the judgment. One life, one death--then everything is weighed and the result declared--"after this the judgment." So Christ comes and dies once. And after this, for Him, also, the result of what He has done, namely, the salvation of those who look for Him! He dies once and then reaps the fixed result according to the analogy of the human race, of which He became a member and Representative. Men come not back here to die twice--men die once and then the matter is decided--and there comes the judgment. So Christ dies. He does not come back here to die again, but He receives the result of His death--that is, the salvation of His own people. "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." "You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood." The Christ is so completely Man that He follows the analogies of manhood as the Apostle, here, observes, and we must not break away from them. To suppose a second death for our Lord would be to forget what He came to do. The punishment of sin was, "In the day that you eat, thereof, you shall surely die." One death was the sentence. It is true that we have to speak of that one death as divided into the first and the second death, but it is judicially one sentence of death which is pronounced on man. When Christ comes, therefore, He bears the one sentence of death. He laid down His life for us. The penalty due to sin was death--"In the day that you eat, thereof, you shall surely die." Christ, therefore, must die, and die He did--"By the Grace of God He tasted death for every man." But it was not said, "You shall die twice." No, and Christ does not die twice. "Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more--death has no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God." He has borne the full sentence which was pronounced on sin and thus He has put away the sin which involved us under the penalty. To suppose that our Lord should be made a Sacrifice, again, is a supposition full of horror. When you study deeply the death of your Lord, unless your heart is like an adamant stone, you must be bowed down with grief. The visage of Him who was Heaven's Glory was more marred than that of any man, and His form more than the sons of men. He whose brow was from the beginning surrounded with majesty, had His forehead and temples torn with a coronet of thorns! Those blessed cheeks that are as beds of spices were distained with spit from the lips of menials. His face, which is the joy of Heaven, was buffeted and bruised by mockers. His blessed shoulders, which bear up the world, they scourged with knotted whips until the blood ran down in crimson rivers as the plowers made deep furrows. How could they treat Him so? Was it possible that my Beloved should be scorned and slandered, spit upon and condemned as a felon? Did they lay the shameful Cross upon His blessed back and lead Him through the streets amid the ribald mob? He who knew no sin was numbered with the transgressors! Found guilty of nothing save excess of love to man, He was led away to be crucified. They hurried Him off to die at the common place of the gallows. The rough soldiers nailed Him to the Cross and lifted up the rough tree for all to gaze upon. I wonder the angels stood it! It seems extraordinary that they could look on while men were taking their Lord and Master and driving bolts through His hands and feet and lifting His sacred body upon the cruel tree! But they did stand it and the Christ hung on the tree of doom in a burning heat, through the fierce sun and the inflammation of His wounds and inward fever. He was so parched that His tongue was dried up like a potsherd and was made to cleave to the roof of His mouth. There He hung amid derision, His bones all dislocated and His very flesh dissolved with faintness as though it were turning back to its native dust. Meanwhile His soul was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death," and the Father's face, which has sustained thousands of martyrs, was turned away from Him until He cried, "Lama Sabachthani!" And is there heart so brutal as to suggest a repetition of this Divine agony? Repeat this!? Repeat this? O Sirs, we rise at once, as one man, in mutiny against an idea so revolting! One Calvary is glorious, for it has accomplished the grand deed of our re-demption--but two Calvarys would mean double shame and no glory! Shall the Son of God, after all that He has done, come down on earth to be, a second time, "despised and rejected of men"? Shall He, a second time, be dragged through mire and blood? It must not, cannot be! God forbid! He has trod the winepress once and for all. No more shall He stain His garments with His own blood! To suppose a repetition of the Sacrifice is to cast suspicion upon the work and efficacy of the great offering of Himself. Was not that Sacrifice infinite in value? It must have been, for it was the Sacrifice of God, Himself! Why, then, present it again? Unless the first was altogether or measurably a failure, why repeat it? The repetition of the Cross would destroy the Cross! O Man, you have taken away from the death of the Lord all its virtue if you would dream of His dying yet again! As to that invention of the Church of Rome--the continual offering of the unbloody sacrifice of the "Mass"-- it is a dead thing, for, the "blood is the life thereof," and it is as gross an insult to the one great Sacrifice as could well have been devised by His worst enemies. He has forever put away the sin of His people by His one offering, and now there remains no more sacrifice for sin! My Brothers and Sisters, the idea that our Lord Jesus did not effectually perform the work of taking away sin removes the foundation of our faith! If by one offering He did not put away sin, shall it be repeated? Suppose, for a moment, that He died twice--why not three times? Why not four times? Why not 50 times? Why not forever the rehearsal of Calvary, forever the doleful cry, forever the tomb of Joseph and the dead body wrapped in linen? And yet, even after a thousand repetitions, how could we know that we were saved? How could we be sure that the Sacrifice sufficed and that sin was really put away? If the one offering of Himself did not satisfy justice, what would or could do it? Then are we without hope and, of all men, most miserable, for a golden dream of the putting away of sin has come to us and, lo, it has melted away. Once yonder tree! Once yonder tomb! Once the broken seal and the frightened watch--on that ONE Sacrifice and Justification we securely rest--and we need no repetition of the work. It was enough, for Jesus said, "It is finished!" It was enough, for God has raised Him from the dead! I do not need, I hope, to linger here to warn you that it is of no use to expect that God will put away sin in any other way than that which at so great a cost He has provided. If sin could have been removed in any other way than by the death of His dear Son, Jesus would not have died. If there had been within the range of supposition any method of pardon except by the Sacrifice of Himself, depend upon it, Jesus would never have bowed His head to death. The great Father would never have inflicted death upon the Perfect One if it had been possible that the cup should pass from Him. He could never have inflicted upon His Beloved a superfluous pain. His death was necessary, but, blessed be God, having been once endured, it has, once and for all, put away sin and, therefore, it will never be endured again. II. We come, now, to look at the rest of the text. Once, and no second AND YET A SECOND. "He shall appear a second time." Yes, Christ Jesus shall appear a second time, but not a second time for the same purpose as before. He will appear. The appearing will be of the most open character. He will not be visible in some quiet place where two or three are met, but He will appear as the lightning is seen in the heavens. At His first appearing He was truly seen--wherever He went, He could be looked at and gazed upon--and touched and handled. He will appear quite as plainly, by-and-by, among the sons of men. The observation of Him will be far more general than at His First Advent, for, "every eye shall see Him." Every eye did not see Him here when He came the first time, for He did not travel out of Palestine, save only when, as an Infant all unknown, He was carried down into Egypt. But when He comes a second time, all the nations of the world shall behold Him! They that are dead shall rise to see Him, both saints and sinners--and they that are alive and remain when He shall come shall be absorbed in this greatest of spectacles. Then Balaam shall find it true, "I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not near." Though they cry, "Hide us from the face of Him that sits on the Throne," they shall cry in vain, for before His Judgement Seat they must all appear! His second appearing will be without sin. That is to say, He will bring no sin-offering with Him and will not, Himself, be a Sacrifice for sin. What need that it should be so? We have seen that He once offered Himself without spot to God and, therefore, when He comes a second time, His relation to human guilt will finally cease. He will then have nothing further to do with that sin which was laid upon Him. Our sin, which He took to Himself by imputation, He has borne and discharged. Not only is the sinner free, but the sinner's Surety is also free, for He has paid our debt to the utmost farthing. Jesus is no longer under obligation on our account. When He comes a second time, He will have no connection of any sort with the sin which once He bore. He will come, moreover, without those sicknesses and infirmities which arise out of sin. At His First Advent, He came in suffering flesh and He came to hunger and to thirst, to be without a place where to lay His head. He came to have His heart broken with reproach and His soul grieved with the hardness of men's hearts. He was compassed with infirmity. He came unto His God with strong crying and tears. He agonized even unto bloody sweat and so He journeyed on with all the insignia of sin hanging about Him. But when He comes a second time it will be without the weakness, pain, poverty and shame which accompany sin! There will then be no marred visage nor bleeding brow! He will have re-assumed His ancient Glory. It will be His glorious appearing! When our Lord comes to the fullest in His Glory, there will remain no sin upon His people. He will present His bride unto Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The day of His appearing will be the manifestation of a perfect body as well as a perfect Head. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun when their Lord's Countenance is as the sun shining in his strength. As He will be "without sin," so will they be "without sin." Oh, what a glorious appearing is this! A true appearing and yet the very opposite of the first! Then the text adds--"He shall appear without sin unto salvation." What does that mean? It means that He will then display the perfect salvation of all those who put their trust in Him! He will come to celebrate the great victory of mercy over sin. At His coming He will set His foot upon the dragon's head and bruise Satan under our feet. He will come to have all His enemies put under His feet. Today we fight and He fights in us. We groan and He groans in us, for the dread conflict is raging. When He comes again, the battle will be ended--He shall divide the spoil of vanquished evil and celebrate the victory of righteousness! But the Resurrection is the salvation principally intended here. Alas, what evil sin has done! How many of our best beloved lie rotting beneath the clay! The worms are feeding on those whose voices were the music of our lives! The scythe of death has cut them down like grass--they lie together in rows in yonder cemetery. Who slew all these? The sting of death is sin! But when our Lord comes, who is the Resurrection and the Life--from beds of dust and silent clay our dead men shall rise--they shall leap up into immortality! "Your brother shall rise again." Your children shall come again from the land of their captivity. Not a bone, nor a piece of a bone of a saint shall be left as a trophy in the hand of the enemy! When our Lord brought forth Peter from the prison, He did not let him leave his old shoes behind him, but the angel said, "Gird yourself, and bind on your sandals, and follow me." And when the Lord Jesus shall come and open wide the door of the sepulcher, He will bid us come forth in the entirety of our nature and leave nothing behind. Salvation shall mean to us the perfection of our manhood in the likeness of our Lord! No aching hands and weary brows, then, but we shall be raised in power! Our vile body shall be changed and made like His glorious body! Though sown in corruption, our body shall be raised in incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality! What a glorious prospect lies before us in connection with the day of His appearing a second time unto salvation! Now notice that this appearing and this salvation will chiefly belong to those who look for Him. Will you bear with me patiently a minute or two here? I wonder how many there are in the Tabernacle who are looking for Him? The text says, "Unto them that look for Him shall He appear a second time without sin unto salvation." Beloved, I will put the question again--How many here are looking for our Lord's Second Coming? I am afraid if conscience has her perfect work, many will have to say, "I am afraid I am not among the number." I will tell you what it is to look for that Second Appearing. It is to love the Lord Jesus, to love Him so that you long for Him as a bride longs for her husband. Why are His chariots so long in coming? Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Strong love hates separation--it pines for union. It cries, "Come, Lord! Come, Lord!" Longing follows on the heels of loving. To look for His coming is to prepare for Him. If I were asked to visit you tomorrow evening, I am sure you would make some preparations for my call--even for one so commonplace as myself. You would prepare because you would welcome me. If you expected the Queen to call, how excited you would be! What preparation good housewives would make for a royal visitor! When we expect our Lord to come, we shall be concerned to have everything ready for Him. I sometimes see the great gates open in front of the larger houses in the suburbs--and it means that they are expecting company. Keep the great gates of your soul always open, expecting your Lord to come! It is idle to talk about looking for His coming if we never set our house in order and never put ourselves in readiness for His reception. Looking for Him means that you stand in a waiting attitude, as a servant who expects his master to soon be at the door. Do not say, "The Lord will not yet come and, therefore, I shall make my plans irrespective of Him for the next 20 or 30 years." You may not be here in the next 20 or 30 minutes, or, if you are, your Lord may be also here! He comes! He is on the road! He started long ago and He sent on a herald before Him to cry, "Behold, I come quickly." He has been coming quickly over the mountains of division ever since--and He will be here soon. If you look for His appearing, you will be found in an attitude of one who waits and watches, that when his Lord comes he may meet Him with joy. Christ is coming, I must not sin. Christ is coming, I must not be rooted to the world. Are you thus expecting Him? I am afraid I shall only be speaking the truth if I say that very few Christians are, in the highest sense, waiting for the appearing of the Lord. My friend, Mr. Govett, in his commentary on my text, reminds us of the story of Moses, when God told him to take 70 men up the hill with him. We read of these honored men, that, "they saw God, and did eat and drink." What a privilege! They were all the Lord's guests! As Moses went up to God into the thick darkness, he said to them, "Tarry you here until we come again unto you." Moses was gone for 40 days--how many of the 70 waited for him? I do not know when they began to slip down from the hill, or whether they went, one by one, or in groups. but when Moses returned, not a soul of them was left, save Joshua, whom Moses had taken up with him to still higher ground. The 70 had gone down among the people and probably spread that unbelief among them which led to the making of the golden calf. None can do so much mischief as those who have been with God, but cannot wait for the glorious appearing! You tell me Moses was gone a long time--well-near six weeks! Yes, and that is why many cannot wait for the Lord, now, because the delay is so long--it is nearly 1,900 years since He went away. True, 4,000 years rolled away before He came the first time, but 2,000 quite wear out the watchers for His Second Coming. Men cannot wait and, therefore, go down to the world and help to fashion its idols. Only here and there do we see a Joshua who will abide in his place till his leader appears. As to watching, this is rarer than waiting. The fact is, even the better sort of Believers who wait for His coming, as all the 10 virgins did, nevertheless do not watch. Even the best sort of the waiters slumbered and slept. You are waiting, but you are sleeping! This is a mournful business. A man who is asleep cannot be said to look and yet it is, "unto them that look for Him" that the Lord comes with salvation. We must be wide-awake to look! We ought to go up to the watch-tower every morning and look toward the rising sun to see whether He is coming. Surely our last act at night should be to look out for His star and say, "Is He coming?" It ought to be a daily disappointment when our Lord does not come-- instead of being, as I fear it is, a kind of foregone conclusion that He will not come just yet. How pleased we are if some daring fellow will tell us when He will come, for then we can get ready near the time and need not perpetually watch! We would not go to a gypsy in a red cloak and let her tell our fortune--but we will let a man in a black coat tell us the fortune of our Lord. What folly! Of that day and of that hour knows no man, nor even the angels of God! This time of the Advent is a secret and purposely so, that we may always be on tiptoe of expectation, always looking out--because our Lord is surely coming, but we are not sure when He comes. "And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Many professing Christians forget Christ's Second Coming altogether. Others drop a smile when we speak about it, as though it belonged only to fanatics and dreamers. But you, Beloved, I trust are not of that kind! As you really believe in the First Coming and the one great Sacrifice, so really believe in the Second Coming without a sin-offering unto the climax of your salvation! Standing between the Cross and the crown, between the cloud that received Him out of our sight, and the clouds with which He will come with ten thousands of His saints to judge the quick and the dead, let us live as men who are not of this world, strangers in this age which darkly lies between two bright appearings, happy beings saved by an accomplished mystery, and soon to be glorified by another mystery which is hastening on! Let us, like her in the Revelation, have the moon under our feet, keeping all sublunary things in their proper place. May we even now be made to sit together with Christ in the heav-enlies! Now all this must be strange talk to some of you. I wish it would alarm those of you who once made a profession of true religion, but have gone back to the world's lies. How will you face Him, you Backsliders, in that day when He shall appear and all else shall vanish in the blaze of His light, as stars when the sun shines out? What will you do when your treachery shall be made clear to your consciences by His appearing? What will you do, who have sold your Master and given up your Lord, who was and is your only hope for the putting away of your sins? Oh, I pray you, as you love yourselves, go to Him as He appears in His First Coming and then, washed in His blood, go forward to meet Him in His Second Coming for salvation. God bless you and, by His Son and Spirit, make you ready for that great day which comes on apace! PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Hebrews9:24-28; 10:1-18; Matthew 25:1-13. __________________________________________________________________ The Obedience of Faith (No. 2195) A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 21, 1890, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he went." Hebrews 11:8. THE part of the text to which I shall call your attention lies in these words, "By faith Abraham obeyed.''" Obedience--what a blessing it would be if we were all trained to it by the Holy Spirit! How fully should we be restored if we were perfect in it! If all the world would obey the Lord, what a Heaven on earth there would be! Perfect obedience to God would mean love among men, justice to all classes and peace in every land! Our will brings envy, malice, war--but the Lord's will would bring us love, joy, rest, bliss. Obedience--let us pray for it for ourselves and others!-- "Is there a heart that will not bend To Your Divine control? Descend, O Sovereign Love, descend, And melt that stubborn soul." Surely, though we have had to mourn our disobedience with many tears and sighs, we now find joy in yielding ourselves as servants of the Lord--our deepest desire is to do the Lord's will in all things. Oh, for obedience! It has been supposed by many ill-instructed people that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is opposed to the teaching of good works, or obedience. There is no truth in the supposition! We preach the obedience of faith. Faith is the fountain, the foundation and the fosterer of obedience! Men will not obey God till they believe Him. We preach faith in order that men may be brought to obedience. To disbelieve is to disobey! One of the first signs of practical obedience is found in the obedience of the mind, the understanding and the heart--and this is expressed in believing the teaching of Christ, trusting to His work and resting in His salvation. Faith is the morning star of obedience. If we would work the work of God, we must believe on Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Brothers and Sisters, we do not give a secondary place to obedience, as some suppose. We look upon the obedience of the heart to the will of God as salvation! The attainment of perfect obedience would mean perfect salvation. We regard sanctification, or obedience, as the great design for which the Savior died. He shed His blood that He might cleanse us from dead works and purify unto Himself a people zealous for good works. It is for this that we were chosen-- we are "elect unto holiness." We know nothing of election to continue in sin! It is for this that we have been called--we are "called to be saints." Obedience is the grand objective of the work of Divine Grace in the hearts of those who are chosen and called--they are to become obedient children--conformed to the image of the Elder Brother, with whom the Father is well pleased. The obedience that comes of faith is of a noble sort. The obedience of a slave ranks a little higher than the obedience of a well-trained horse or dog, for it is tuned to the crack of the whip. Obedience which is not cheerfully rendered is not the obedience of the heart and, consequently, is of little worth before God. If the man obeys because he has no opportunity of doing otherwise and if, were he free, he would at once become a rebel--there is nothing in his obedience. The obedience of faith springs from a principle within and not from compulsion without. It is sustained by the mind's soberest reasoning and the heart's warmest passion. The man reasons with himself that he ought to obey his Redeemer, his Father, his God and, at the same time, the love of Christ constrains him to do so, and thus, what argument suggests affection, performs! A sense of great obligation, an apprehension of the fitness of obedience and spiritual renewal of heart work an obedience which becomes essential to the sanctified soul. Therefore, it is not relaxed in the time of temptation, nor destroyed in the hour of losses and sufferings. Life has no trial which can turn the gracious soul from its passion for obedience! Death, itself, does but enable it to render an obedience which shall be as blissful as it will be complete. Yes, this is a chief ingredient of Heaven--that we shall see the face of our Lord and serve Him day and night in His Temple. Meanwhile, the more fully we obey at this present, the nearer we shall be to His Temple gate. May the Holy Spirit work in us, so that, by faith--like Abraham--we may obey! I preach to you, at this time, obedience--absolute obedience to the Lord God! But I preach the obedience of a child, not the obedience of a slave; the obedience of love, not of terror; the obedience of faith, not of dread. I shall urge you, as God shall help me, in order that you may come to this obedience, that you should seek after stronger faith--"For by faith Abraham obeyed." In every case where the father of the faithful obeyed, it was the result of his faith--and in every case in which you and I shall render true obedience--it will be the product of our faith. Obedience, such as God can accept, never comes out of a heart which thinks God a liar, but is worked in us by the Spirit of the Lord, through our believing in the Truth, Love and Grace of our God in Christ Jesus. If any of you are now disobedient, or have been so, the road to a better state of things is trust in God. You cannot hope to render obedience by the mere forging of conduct into a certain groove, or by a personal, unaided effort of the resolution. There is a Free-Grace road to obedience and that is receiving, by faith, the Lord Jesus who is the Gift of God and is made of God unto us, sanctification. We accept the Lord Jesus by faith and He teaches us obedience and creates it in us. The more of faith in Him you have, the more of obedience to Him will you manifest. I was about to say that that obedience naturally flows out of faith--and I would not have spoken amiss--for as a man believes so is he--and, in proportion to the strength and purity of his faith in God, as He is revealed in Christ Jesus, will be the holy obedience of his life. That our meditation may be profitable, we will first think a little of the kind offaith which produces obedience. And then, secondly, we will treat of the kind of obedience which faith produces. And then we will advance another step and consider the kind of life which comes out of this faith and obedience. I will be as brief as I can upon each point. Let us look up to the Holy Spirit for His gracious illumination. I. First, consider THE KIND OF FAITH WHICH PRODUCES OBEDIENCE. It is, manifestly, faith in God as having the right to command our obedience. Beloved in the Lord, you know that He is Sovereign and that His will is law. You feel that God, your Maker, your Preserver, your Redeemer and your Father should have your unswerving service. We unite, also, in confessing that we are not our own, we are bought with a price. The Lord our God has a right to us which we would not wish to question. He has a greater claim upon our ardent service than He has upon the services of angels, for, while they were created as we have been, yet they have never been redeemed by precious blood! Our glorious Incarnate God has an unquestioned right to every breath we breathe, to every thought we think, to every moment of our lives and to every capacity of our being! We believe in Jehovah as rightful Lawgiver and, as most fitly, our Ruler. This loyalty of our mind is based on faith and is a chief prompter to obedience. Always cultivate this feeling. The Lord is our Father, but He is, "our Father which are in Heaven." He draws near to us in condescension, but it is condescension and we must not presume to think of Him as though He were such a one as ourselves. There is a holy familiarity with God which cannot be too much enjoyed, but there is a flippant familiarity with God which cannot be too much abhorred! The Lord is King. His will is not to be questioned. His every Word is Law. Let us never question His Sovereign right to decree what He pleases and to fulfill the decree--to command what He pleases and to punish every shortcoming. Because we have faith in God as Lord of All, we gladly pay Him our homage and desire in all things to say, "Your will be done in earth, as it is done in Heaven." Next, we must have faith in the rightness of all that God says or does. I hope, Beloved, you do not think of God's Sovereignty as tyranny or imagine that He ever could or would will anything but that which is right. Neither will we admit into our minds a suspicion of the incorrectness of the Word of God in any matter whatever, as though the Lord, Himself, could err. We will not have it that God, in His Holy Book, makes mistakes about matters of history, or of science, any more than He does upon the great Truths of salvation! If the Lord is God, He must be Infallible! And if He can be described as in error in the little respects of human history and science, He cannot be trusted in the greater matters! My Brothers and Sisters, Jehovah never errs in deed, or in Word--and when you find His Law written either in the Ten Commandments, or anywhere else, you believe that there is not a precept too many, or too few. Whatever may be the precepts of the Law, or of the Gospel, they are, altogether, pure and holy. The Words of the Lord are like fine gold-- pure, precious, and weighty--not one of them may be neglected! We hear people talk about, "minor points," and so on, but we must not consider any Word of our God as a minor thing, if by that expression is implied that it is of small importance. We must accept every single Word of precept, or prohibition, or instruction as being what it ought to be--and neither to be diminished nor increased. We should not reason about a command of God as though it might be set aside or amended. He bids--we obey. May we enter into that true spirit of obedience which is the unshaken belief that the Lord is right! Nothing short of this is the obedience of the inner man--the obedience which the Lord desires. Furthermore, we must have faith in the Lord's call upon us to obey. Abraham went out from his father's house because he felt that whatever God said to others, He had spoken to him, and said, "Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house." Whatever the Lord may have said to the Chaldeans, or to other families in Ur, Abraham was not so much concerned with that as with the special word of command which the Lord had sent to his own soul. Oh, that we were, most of all, earnest to render personal obedience! It is very easy to offer unto God a sort of "other people's obedience"--to fancy that we are serving God when we are finding fault with our neighbors and lamenting that they are not so godly as they ought to be! Truly, we cannot help seeing their shortcomings, but we should do well to be less observant of them than we are. Let us turn our magnifying glasses upon ourselves. It is not so much our business to be weeding other people's gardens as to keep our own vineyard. To the Lord each one should cry, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" We, who are His chosen, redeemed from among men, called out from the rest of mankind, ought to feel that if no other ears hear the Divine call, our ears must hear it and, if no other heart obeys, our soul rejoices to do so. We are bound with cords to the horns of the Altar! The strongest ties of gratitude hold us to the service of Jesus--we must be obedient in life to Him who, for our sakes, was obedient unto death. Our service to our Lord is freedom--we will to yield to His will! To delight Him is our delight! It is a blessed thing when the inmost nature yearns to obey God; when obedience grows into a habit and becomes the very element in which the spirit breathes. Surely it should be so with every one of the blood-washed children of the Host High--and their lives will prove that it is so. Others are bound to obey, but we should attend most to our own personal obligation and set our own houses in order. Our obedience should begin at home--it will find its hands full enough there. Obedience arises out of a faith which is to us the paramount principle of action. The kind of faith which produces obedience is lord of the understanding, a royal faith. The true Believer believes in God beyond all his belief in anything else and everything else. He can say, "Let God be true, but every man a liar." His faith in God has become to him the crown of all his believing, the most assured of all his confidences. As gold is to the inferior metals, such is our trust in God to all our other trusts. To the genuine Believer, the eternal is as much above the temporal as the heavens are above the earth. The Infinite rolls, like Noah's flood, over the tops of the hills of the present and the finite. To the Believer, let a Truth of God be tinctured with the Glory of God and he values it. But if God and eternity are not there, he will leave these trifles to those who choose them. You must have a paramount faith in God, or else the will of God will not be a paramount rule to you. Only a reigning faith will make us subject to its power, so as to be in all things obedient to the Lord. The chief thought in life with the true Believer is, "How can I obey God?" His great anxiety is to do the will of God, or acceptably to suffer that will. And if he can obey, he will make no terms with God and stand upon no reservations. He will pray, "Refine me from the dross of rebellion and let the furnace be as fierce as You will." His choice is neither wealth, nor ease, nor honor, but that he may glorify God in his body and his spirit, which are the Lord's. Obedience has become as much his rule as self-will is the rule of others. His cry unto the Lord is, "By Your command I stay or go. Your will is my will. Your pleasure is my pleasure. Your Law is my love." God grant us a supreme, over-mastering faith, for this is the kind of faith which we must have if we are to lead obedient lives! We must have faith in God's right to rule, faith in the rightness of His commands, faith in our personal obligation to obey and faith that the command must be the paramount authority of our being. With this faith of God's elect, we shall realize the object of our election--namely, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Dear Friend, have you this kind of faith? I will withdraw the question as directed to you--and I will ask it of myself--Have I that faith which leads me to obey my God? Obedience, if it is of the kind we are speaking of, is faith in action--faith walking with God, or, shall I say, walking before the Lord in the land of the living? If we have a faith which is greedy in hearing, severe in judging and rapid in self-congratulation, but not inclined to obedience, we have the faith of hypocrites. If our faith enables us to set ourselves up as patterns of sound doctrine--and qualifies us to crack the heads of all who differ from us--and yet lacks the fruit of obedience, it will leave us among the "dogs" who are "without." The faith that makes us obey is the only faith which marks the children of God. It is better to have the faith that obeys than the faith which moves mountains. I would sooner have the faith which obeys than the faith which heaps the altar of God with sacrifices and perfumes His courts with incense. I would rather obey God than rule an empire, for, after all, the loftiest sovereignty a soul can inherit is to have dominion over self by rendering believing obedience to the Most High. Thus much upon faith. "By faith Abraham obeyed." And only by faith can you and I obey. II. Let us consider, secondly, THE KIND OF OBEDIENCE WHICH FAITH PRODUCES. This I shall illustrate from the whole of the verse. Genuine faith in God creates a prompt obedience. "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed." There was an immediate response to the command. Delayed obedience is disobedience! I wish some Christians, who put off duty, would remember this. Continued delay of duty is a continuous sin. If I do not obey the Divine Command, I sin--and every moment that I continue in that condition--I repeat the sin. This is a serious matter. If a certain act is my duty at this hour and I leave it undone, I have sinned. But it will be equally incumbent upon me during the next hour--and if I still refuse, I disobey again--and so on till I do obey. Neglect of a standing command must grow very grievous if it is persisted in for years. In proportion as the conscience becomes callous upon the subject, the guilt becomes the more provoking to the Lord! To refuse to do right is a great evil, but to continue in that refusal till conscience grows numb upon the matter is far worse. I remember a person coming to be baptized, who said that he had been a Believer in the Lord Jesus for 40 years and that he had always seen the ordinance to be Scriptural. I felt grieved that he had so long been disobedient to a known duty and I proposed to him that he should be baptized at once. It was in a village and he said that there were no conveniences. I offered to go with him to the brook and baptize him, but he said, "No, he that believes shall not make haste." Here was one who had willfully disobeyed his Lord--for as many years as the Israelites in the wilderness, upon a matter so easy of performance and yet, after confessing his fault, he was not willing to amend it, but perverted a passage of Scripture to excuse him in further delay! David says, "I made haste and delayed not to keep Your Commandments." I give this case as a typical illustration--there are a hundred spiritual, moral, domestic, business and religious duties which men put off in the same manner--as if they thought that any time would do for God and He must take His turn with the rest. What would you say to your boy if you bade him go upon an errand and he answered you, "I will go tomorrow"? Surely you would "morrow" him in a style which would abide upon his memory! Your tone would be sharp and you would bid him go at once. If he, then, promised to run in an hour's time, would you call that obedience? It would be impudence! Obedience is for the present tense--it must be prompt, or it is nothing. Obedience respects the time of the command as much as any other part of it. To hesitate is to be disloyal. To stop and consider whether you will obey or not is rebellion in the germ! If you believe in the living God unto eternal life, you will be quick to do your Lord's bidding, even as a maid hearkens to her mistress. You will not be as the horse, which needs whip and spur--your love will do more for you than compulsion could do for slaves. You will have wings to your heels to hasten you along the way of obedience. "Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Next, obedience should be exact. Even Abraham's obedience failed somewhat in this, at first, for he started at once from Ur of the Chaldees, but he only went as far as Haran, and there he stayed till his father died. And then the precept came to him again and he set off for the land which the Lord had promised to show him. If any of you have only half obeyed, I pray that you may take heed of this--and do all that the Lord commands--carefully endeavoring to keep back no part of the revenue of obedience. Yet the error of the great Patriarch was soon corrected, for we read that, "Abraham, when he was called to go out... went out." I have only omitted intermediate words which do not alter the sense--and that is exactly how we should obey. That which the Lord commands we should do--just that, and not another thing of our own devising. How very curiously people try to give God something else instead of what He asks for! The Lord says, "My son, give Me your heart," and they give Him ceremonies! He asks obedience of them and they give Him will-worship. He asks for faith, love and justice--and they offer 10,000 rivers of oil and the fat of fed beasts. They will give all except the one thing which He will be pleased with! "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." If the Lord has given you true faith in Himself, you will be anxious not so much to do a notable thing as to do exactly what God would have you to do. Mind your jots and tittles with the Lord's precepts. Attention to little things is a fine feature in obedience--it lies much more as to its essence in the little things than in the great ones. Few dare rush into great crimes and yet they will indulge in secret rebellion, for their heart is not right with God. Hence so many mar what they call obedience by forgetting that they serve a heart-searching, rein-trying God who observes thoughts and motives. He would have us obey Him with the heart and that will lead us not merely to regard a few pleasing commands, but to have respect unto all His will. Oh, for a tender conscience which will not willfully neglect, nor presumptuously transgress! And next, mark well that Abraham rendered practical obedience. When the Lord commanded Abraham to quit his father's house, he did not say that he would think it over. He did not discuss it pro and con in an essay. He did not ask his father, Terah, and his neighbors to consider it, but, as he was called to go out, he went out. Alas, dear Friends, we have so much talk and so little obedience! The religion of mere brain and jaw does not amount to much. We need the religion of hands and feet! I remember a place in Yorkshire, years ago, where a good man said to me, "We have a real good minister." I said, "I am glad to hear it." "Yes," he said, "he is a fellow that preaches with his feet." Well, now, that is a capital thing if a preacher preaches with his feet, by walking with God, and with his hands by working for God. He does well who glorifies God by where he goes and by what he does--he will excel 50 others who only preach religion with their tongues. You, dear Hearers, are not good hearers so long as you are only hearers--but when the heart is affected by the ears and the hands follows the heart, then your faith is proven! That kind of obedience which comes of faith in God is real obedience, since it shows itself by its works. Next, faith produces a far-seeing obedience. Note this. "Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance." How great a company would obey God if they were paid for it on the spot! They have "respect unto the recompense of the reward," but they must have it in the palm of their hand. With them--"A bird in hand is better far than two which in the bushes are." They are told that there is Heaven to be had and they answer that if Heaven were to be had here, as an immediate freehold, they might look after it, but they cannot afford to wait. To inherit a country after this life is over is too like a fairy tale for their practical minds! Many there are who enquire, "Will religion pay? Is there anything to be made out of it? Shall I have to shut up my shop on Sundays? Must I alter my mode of dealing, and curtail my profits?" When they have totaled up the cost and have taken all things into consideration, they come to the conclusion that obedience to God is a luxury which they can dispense with--at least until near the end of life! Those who practice the obedience of faith look for the reward hereafter and set the greatest store by it. To their faith, alone, the profit is exceedingly great. To take up the cross will be to carry a burden, but it will also be to find rest. They know the words, "No cross, no crown," and they recognize the Truth of God that if there is no obedience here, there will be no reward hereafter! This needs a faith that has eyes which can see afar off--across the black torrent of death--and within the veil which parts us from the unseen. A man will not obey God unless he has learned to endure "as seeing Him who is invisible." Yet, remember that the obedience which comes of true faith is often bound to be altogether unreckoning and implicit, for it is written, "He went out, not knowing where he went." God bade Abraham journey and he moved his camp at once. Into the unknown land he made his way. Through fertile regions, or across a wilderness--among friends, or through the midst of foes, he pursued his journey--he did not know where his way would take him, but he knew that the Lord had bid him go. Even bad men will obey God when they think fit--but good men will obey when they know not what to think of it. It is not ours to judge the Lord's command, but to follow it. I am weary with hearing men say, "Yes, we know that such a course would be right, but then the consequences might be painful--good men would be grieved, the cause would be weakened--and we ourselves should get into a world of trouble and put our hands into a hornet's nest." There is not much need to preach caution nowadays--those who would run any risk for the Truth of God's sake are few enough. Consciences, tender about the Lord's honor, have not been produced for the last few years in any great number. Prudent consideration of consequences is superabundant, but the spirit which obeys--and dares all things for Christ's sake--where is it? The Abrahams of today will not go out from their kindred! They will put up with anything sooner than risk their livelihoods! If they do go out, they must know where they are going and how much is to be picked up in the new country. I am not pronouncing any judgment upon their conduct, I am merely pointing out the fact. Our Puritan forefathers thought little of property or liberty when these stood in the way of conscience--they defied exile and danger sooner than give up a grain of the Truth of God! But their descendants prefer peace and worldly amusements--and pride themselves on "culture" rather than on heroic faith. The modern Believer must have no mysteries, but must have everything planed down to a scientific standard. Abraham "went out, not knowing where he went," but the moderns must have every information with regard to the way--and then they will not go! If they obey at all, it is because their own superior judgments incline that way, but to go forth, not knowing where they go, and to go at all hazards, is not to their minds at all. They are so highly "cultured" that they prefer to be original and map out their own way. Brothers and Sisters, having once discerned the voice of God, obey without question! If you have to stand alone and nobody will befriend you, stand alone and God will befriend you! If you should get the evil words of those you value most, bear it. What, after all, are evil words, or good words, as compared with the keeping of a clear conscience by walking in the way of the Lord? The line of the Truth of God is narrow as a razor's edge--and he needs to wear the golden sandals of the peace of God who shall keep to such a line! Through Divine Grace may we, like Abraham, walk with our hand in the hand of the Lord, even where we cannot see our way! The obedience which faith produces must be continuous. Having commenced the separated life, Abraham continued to dwell in tents and sojourn in the land which was far from the place of his birth. His whole life may be thus summed up-- "By faith Abraham obeyed." He believed and, therefore, walked before the Lord in a perfect way. He even offered up his son, Isaac. "Abraham's mistake," was it? Alas for those who dare to talk in that fashion! "By faith he obeyed," and to the end of his life he was never an original speculator, or inventor of ways for self-will, but a submissive servant of that great Lord who deigned to call him, "Friend." May it be said of everyone here that by faith he obeyed! Do not cultivate doubt or you will soon cultivate disobedience. Set this up as your standard and, from now on, be this the epitome of your life-- "By faith he obeyed." III. Just a moment or two upon the third point. Let us consider THE SORT OF LIFE WHICH WILL COME OF THIS FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. It will be, in the first place, life without that great risk which otherwise holds us in peril. A man runs a great risk when he steers himself. Rocks or no rocks, the peril lies in the helmsman. The Believer is no longer the helmsman of his own vessel--he has taken a Pilot on board. To believe in God and to do His bidding is a great escape from the hazards of personal weakness and folly. If we do as God commands and do not seem to succeed, it is no fault of ours. Failure, itself, would be success so long as we did not fail to obey! If we passed through life unrecognized, or were only acknowledged by a sneer from the worldly-wise--and if this were regarded as a failure--it could be borne with joy so long as we knew that we had kept our faith towards God and our obedience to Him! Providence is God's business, obedience is ours. What comes out of our life's course must remain with the Lord--to obey is our sole concern. What harvest will come of our sowing, we must leave with the Lord of the Harvest, but we, ourselves, must look to the basket and the seed--and scatter our handfuls in the furrows without fail. We can win, "Well done, good and faithful servant"--to be a successful servant is not in our power, and we shall not be held responsible for it. Our greatest risk is over when we obey. God makes faith and obedience the way of safety. In the next place, we shall enjoy a life free from its heaviest cares. If we were in the midst of the forest with Stanley, in the center of Africa, our pressing care would be to find our way out. But when we have nothing to do but to obey, our road is mapped out for us! Jesus says, "Follow Me," and this makes our way plain and lifts from our shoulders a load of cares. To choose our course by policy is a way of thorns--to obey is as the King's Highway. Policy has to tack about, to return upon its own courses and, often, to miss the port after all. But faith, like a steam vessel, steers straight for the harbor's mouth and leaves a bright track of obedience behind her as she forges ahead. When our only care is to obey, a thousand other cares take their flight. If we sin in order to succeed, we have sown the seeds of care and sorrow--and the reaping will be a grievous one. If we will forsake the path and try shortcuts, we shall have to do a deal of wading through mire and slough--we shall bespatter ourselves from head to foot--we shall be wearied to find our way and all because we could not trust God and obey His bidding. Obedience may appear difficult and it may bring with it sacrifice, but, after all, it is the nearest and the best road. Her ways are, in the long run, ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. He who, through the Holy Spirit, is always believingly obedient, has chosen the good part. He it is who can sing-- "I have no cares, O blessed Lord, For all my cares are Thine. I live in triumph, too, for You Have made Your triumphs mine." Or, to change the verse, he is like Bunyan's shepherd boy in the Valley of Humiliation, for that lowland is part of the great Plain of Obedience! And he can also sing-- "He that is down, need fear no fall, He that is low, no pride. He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his Guide." Although he may not reach the heights of ambition, nor stand upon the giddy crags of presumption, yet he shall know superior joys. He has hit upon the happiest mode of living under Heaven--a mode of life akin to the perfect life above! He shall dwell in God's house and be still praising Him. The way of obedience is a life of the highest honor. Obedience is the glory of a human life--the glory which our Lord has given to His chosen, even His own Glory. "He learned obedience." He never struck out an original course, but He always did the things which pleased the Father. Be this our glory! By faith we yield our intelligence to the highest Intel-ligence--we are led, guided, directed--and we follow where our Lord has gone. To us who believe, He is honor. To a soldier it is the greatest honor to have accomplished his sovereign's command. He does not debase his manhood who subjects it to honorable command. No, he is even exalted by obeying in the day of danger. It is no dishonor to have it said-- "Theirs not to reason why; Theirs but to dare and die." The bravest and the most honored of men are those who implicitly obey the command of the King of Kings. Among His children, they are best who best know their Father's mind and yield to it the happiest obedience. Should we have any other ambition, within the walls of our Father's house, than to be perfectly obedient children before Him and implicitly trustful towards Him? And, Brothers and Sisters, this is a kind of life which will bring communion with God. God often hides His face behind the clouds of dust which His children make by their self-will. If we transgress against Him, we shall soon be in trouble. But a holy walk--the walk described by my text as faith working obedience--is Heaven beneath the stars! God comes down to walk with men who obey. If they walk with Him, He walks with them. The Lord can only have fellowship with His servants as they obey. Obedience is Heaven in us and it is the preface of our being in Heaven! Obedient faith is the way to eternal life--no, it is eternal life revealing itself! The obedience of faith creates a form of life which may be safely copied. As parents, we wish so to live that our children may copy us to their lasting profit. Teachers should aspire to be what they would have their classes to be. If you go to school to the obedience of faith, you will be good teachers. Children usually exaggerate their models, but there will be no fear of their going too far in faith, or in obedience to the Lord! I like to hear a man say, when his father has gone, "My dear father was a man that feared God. And I would gladly follow him. When I was a boy, I thought him rather stiff and Puritanical, but now I see he had a good reason for it all. I feel much the same, myself, and, with God's help, would do nothing of which God would not approve." The bringing up of families is a very great matter. This is too much neglected, nowadays, and yet it is the most profitable of all holy service and the hope of the future. Great men, in the best sense, are bred in holy households. Godfearing example at home is the most fruitful of religious agencies. I knew a little humble Dissenting Chapel of the strictest sect of our religion. There was no culture in the ministry, but the people were strong Believers. Five or six families, attending that despised ministry, learned to believe what they believed and to live upon it. It was by no means a liberal creed which they received, but what they held operated on their lives. Five or six families came out of that place and became substantial in wealth and generous in liberality. These all sprang from plain, humble men, who knew their Bibles and believed the Doctrines of Grace. They learned to fear God and to trust in Him--and to rest in the old faith--and even in worldly things they prospered. Their descendants of the third generation are not, all of them, of their way of thinking, but they have risen through God's blessing on their grandfathers. These men were fed on substantial meat and they became sturdy old fellows, able to cope with the world and fight their way. I would to God that we had more men today who would maintain the Truth of God at all hazards. Alas, the rubbery backbone is common among Dissenters--and they take to politics, the new philosophy and, therefore, we are losing the force of our testimony--and are, I fear, decreasing in numbers, too. The Lord give us back those whose examples can be safely copied in all things, even though they are decried as being "rigid" or "too precise!" We serve a jealous God and a holy Savior--therefore let us mind that we do not grieve His Spirit and cause Him to withdraw from us. Lastly, faith working obedience is a kind of life which needs great Grace. Every careless professor will not live in this fashion. It will need watchfulness, prayer and nearness to God to maintain the faith which obeys in everything. Beloved, "He gives more Grace." The Lord will enable us to add to our faith all the virtues. Whenever you fail in any respect in your lives, do not sit down and question the goodness of God and the power of the Holy Spirit--that is not the way to increase the stream of obedience, but to diminish the source of it. Believe more, instead of less. Try, by God's Grace, to believe more in the pardon of sin, more in the renovation by the Holy Spirit, more in the Everlasting Covenant, more in the Love that had no beginning and will never, never cease. Your hope does not lie in rushing into the darkness of doubt, but in repentantly returning into the still clearer light of a steadier faith. May you be helped to do so and may we, all of us, and the whole multitude of the Lord's redeemed, by faith go on to obey our Lord in all things! I leave this word with you. Remember, "By faith Abraham obeyed." Have faith in God and then obey, obey, obey, and keep on obeying until the Lord shall call you Home! Obey on earth and then you will have learned to obey in Heaven. Obedience is the rehearsal of eternal bliss! Practice by obedience now the song which you will sing forever in glory. God grant His Grace to us! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psalm 109:33-40. __________________________________________________________________ Hosanna! (No. 2196) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 22, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest" Matthew 2:19. AFTER the miracle of the raising of Lazarus, a great fame went abroad concerning our Lord. He still rested at Bethany and the people came up to the feast in great number--an easy walk from Jerusalem to Bethany--to see Jesus and to see Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead. These people, on a certain day, formed a company and marched with Jesus towards Jerusalem. On the way our Lord sent two of His disciples to fetch a donkey and its colt--and upon this last He rode into the city. Another crowd, coming out of Jerusalem, met the company attending upon Jesus and, forming one great procession, the whole multitude marched into the city escorting the Lord Jesus in humble state and paying Him honor as King in Zion. Upon no stately warhorse, but riding upon a colt, the foal of a donkey, the meek and lowly King entered the city of David attended by vast and enthusiastic crowds who strewed the fronds of palms, the branches of trees and their own garments in the way along which He rode. Our Lord thus received a right royal and popular reception to the metropolis of His nation. This was a strange event, so very different from anything else that happened to our Savior, that one wonders at it with great wonderment. That it is to be viewed as an important event is clear, since every one of the four Evangelists takes pains to record it (see Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19 and John 12). Even of certain of the greater events of our Lord's life the Holy Spirit has not preserved us four accounts, but since He has done so in this case, He thereby calls us to give the more earnest heed to it. Herein is a mine of teaching--let us dig into it. Assuredly, this honor paid to our Lord was passing strange--a gleam of sunlight in a day of clouds, a glimpse of summer in a long and dreary winter! He that was, as a rule, "despised and rejected of men," was, for the moment, surrounded with the acclaim of the crowd. All men saluted Him that day with their Hosannas--and the whole city was moved. It was a gala day for the disciples and a sort of coronation day for their Lord. Why was the scene permitted? What was its meaning? The marvel is that nothing like it had occurred before, for our Lord had healed many sick folk and these and their friends must have felt favorably towards Him. He had fed thousands at a time with the bread of this life and hosts had been cheered and comforted by His teaching. The common people heard Him gladly and were ready to gather around Him. Among an excitable people it was a wonder that they had not long ago taken Him by force and made Him king. No one had yet appeared so like the Messiah of their Prophets--no one had so well deserved the people's gratitude. If they had, from the first, accepted Him as their monarch, and if they had watched every opportunity of doing Him homage, nobody would have been surprised. The marvel is that the popular enthusiasm had been repressed so long. It was the Lord Himself who had suppressed the popular enthusiasm. With great skill He had succeeded in bridling a dangerous fanaticism. He "did not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets"--and with such a cry, and such a voice as He had--the marvel was that He preserved quiet and kept the nation from revolt. Had He withdrawn His hand, the people would have been eager to assail their foreign rulers. Had this been the errand on which He came, He might at any moment have been saluted as, "the King of the Jews." He, with a masterly art, repressed everything that would have made Him a popular hero. He uttered unpalatable Truth, or He stole away from the scene of His miracles, or He kept Himself in obscure villages--and thus He eluded their honors. When He had fed the multitudes, He took ship and went to the other side of the lake that they might not follow Him. Many men live for ambitious ends, but our Lord lived to escape the honors of men. The proud hunt after praise, but our Lord fled from preferment, hid Himself from fame and shunned the throne which by descent belonged to Him. He often bade those whom He healed go home and tell no man what He had done, for the dense throngs that gathered about Him rendered it difficult for Him to move on His mission of mercy. "He went about doing good," and did not wait in any place to reap the laurels which His miracles had earned Him. No wonder that, at last, the people felt forced to surround Him with their praises! The pent-up fires of gratitude at last had vent! The covered flames of admiration leaped up, at last, and cast a brilliant light over the old city! Men's hearts had been somewhat worse than diabolical if they had not felt a grateful enthusiasm for so grand a benefactor. No one before had ever so greatly blessed Judea--thousands of voices felt it joy to cry, "Hosanna," before such a One! It came at last, you see--I have read you the story in John and in Matthew. They saluted Him with their shouts of loyal welcome. But there was little in the acclamation when it did come. There was great shouting for the while, abundant strewing of branches and lining of the road with garments--but there was little else. Remember what happened less than a week afterwards? If not the same individuals, yet people of the same city cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." The Hosannas may be very loud, but they will not be long. "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord" sounds very sweet, but how much more vehement will be the cry, "Let Him be crucified"? Everything which comes to Jesus and His cause by popular acclamation requires to be duly weighed--and when weighed it will be found wanting. "Vox populi, vox Dei," they used to say, but the saying is false--the voice of the people may seem to be the voice of God when they shout, "Hosanna in the highest"--but whose voice is it when they yell out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him"? "Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie." So little value did our Lord place on popular applause that He repressed it! And when it did burst forth, so little did it elevate His spirit that we find Him in the midst of it, gazing upon the city with tears in His eyes. While others were glad, He was weeping for the woes which His prophetic eye foresaw! The throng was carried away by the present moment and the enthusiasm of the hour, but His heart was anticipating that dreadful day when they would find His blood upon them and upon their children--and the Romans would utterly destroy their city and quench the light of Zion in rivers of blood! It may be well that an enthusiastic admiration of religion should be professed by the multitude, but it is no more stable than smoke! It may seem good that the Christian minister should be popular, but popularity is lighter than vanity! Once the Savior rides in state as a King, but soon He walks down those very streets bearing His Cross like a criminal! How soon is the public voice purchased for evil! What dependence can be placed on the clamor of the streets? We, however, have the story placed before us four times by the Evangelists and, therefore, let us now give it our attentive consideration. May the good Spirit impart instruction to us by this strange stir and singular scene! May some Divine impulse come to us out of this riding of our lowly King into Jerusalem! First, I shall ask you to think of Christ triumphant in Jerusalem. Secondly, I shall bid you see herein Christ glorified in His Church. And then, thirdly, we will think of Christ entering into the heart. Under these three divisions we may arrange our thoughts and, God helping us, we may meditate to profit. I. First, I ask you to view CHRIST TRIUMPHANT IN JERUSALEM. Why this procession? Why these shouts of homage? Our Lord always had a reason, and an excellent one, for all that He arranged or permitted. What die He mean by this? How shall we interpret the scene? I think it was, first, that He might most openly declare Himself. He had frequently avowed His mission in plain speech. He had told them who He was and why He came, but they would not hear, so that they dared to say to Him, "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." He had plainly told them times without number. Now He will assure them still more positively of His Kingdom by openly riding into the city of Jerusalem in state. Now shall they see that He claims to be the Messiah, sent of God, of whom the Prophet said, "Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes." Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings shall His fame be proclaimed--multitudes of people shall acknowledge with loud voices that, "He comes in the name of the Lord"--until the envious Pharisees shall be driven to ask, "Do you hear what these say?" You will remember that our Lord rode into Jerusalem as a King, but He was also brought there as the Lamb of God's Passover, whose blood must save the people. It was not meet that the Lamb of God should go to the altar without observation. It was not fit that He who takes away the sin of the world should be led to the Temple unobserved. The day was near when He was to be offered up and all eyes were called to look on Him and know who and what He was. Therefore He permitted this great gathering and this honorable attention to Himself that He might say to Israel, by deeds as well as by words, "I am He that should come. I am He who of old had said, Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your will, O My God." Thus He, beyond all question, manifested Himself to the people. When they crucified Him, the rulers knew what He professed to be. Albeit many of them were in ignorance as to the truthfulness of His claims, yet they knew right well that they were crucifying One who professed to be the Lord of Glory--One who was acknowledged to be the Son of David--One who had publicly avowed Himself to be King in Zion. I think this was one reason for the joyous entry into the city of God. Next, it was our Lord's public claiming of authority over Israel. He was the Son of David and, therefore, He was, by natural right, the King of the Jews. If He had taken possession of His own, He would have been sitting on the throne of the chosen dynasty of David by right of birth. He was, moreover, as the Messiah and Christ, the King of His people, Israel. Concerning Him it had been said by the Prophet, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you: He is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey." Our Lord Jesus literally came to Zion in this manner. As King, He rode to His capital and entered His palace. In His priestly royalty, the Son of God went to His Father's House, to the Temple of sacrifice and sovereignty. Among the tribes of Israel He is seen to be "One chosen out of the people," whom the Lord had given to be a Leader and Commander for the people. Although they might afterwards choose Barabbas and cry that they had no king but Caesar, yet Jesus was their King, as Pilate reminded them, when he said, "Shall I crucify your king?"--and as His Cross declared, when it bore the legal inscription, "This is Jesus the King of the Jews." Before His trial and His condemnation, He had put in a public claim to the rights and prerogatives of Zion's King, whom God has set upon His holy hill. Would to God all my Hearers fully recognized our Lord's Kingdom and yielded to His sway! Oh, that you would bow before Him and put your trust in Him! Part of His intent in riding through Jerusalem was that we, also, who dwell in the isles of the sea might know Him and reverence Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let each one cry in His inmost soul-- "Great King of Grace, my heart subdue, I would be led in triumph, too. A willing captive to my Lord, To sing the victories of His Word." Possibly our Savior intended, also, by this singular procession, to let His enemies know His real strength among the people. If He could gather so great a crowd of adherents without any summons or prearrangement, surely the whole population must have been, to a large degree, in His favor. If such an enthusiastic reception was spontaneously given Him, how many would have gathered if a plan had been arranged? Had He agreed to lead them against the Romans, thousands of fanatics would have followed His banner! If He had designed to make Himself a king and had permitted His servants to fight, the old fierce courage of the Jewish race would have burned like a flame of fire and His enemies would have fled before Him. He came not with war in His heart, but He would let the foeman see the hilt of the sword which He might have drawn from its sheath--He would let scribe and Pharisee bite their lips while they said, "Perceive you how you prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after Him." If the Savior had willed to use the baser methods that men, nowadays, would freely employ, by asking the world's alliance, He might have made Himself a King at once. Had He blended politics with religion and yielded something to general prejudice, He might at once have set up a worldly kingdom! But no, He knew no selfish ambition--His kingdom was not of this world! He came not that He might be honored, here, but that He might be put to shame for our redemption! The diadem to which He aspired was a crown of thorns--yet He lets His adversaries see that He was not lowly because He was weak, nor gentle because He was feeble! They might, if they would, have seen by that day in Jerusalem, the greatness of the self-denial which abstained from earthly honors. Nor have I exhausted the Savior's reasons. We are told by the Evangelist that He did this that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet. I have just now quoted the text from Zechariah 9:9--our Lord was always careful and earnest to fulfill each Prophecy of Holy Scripture. He held the Inspired Word in high esteem and was careful of each letter of it. You never hear a word from Him derogatory of the Inspiration, authority, accuracy, or Infallibility of the Law and the Prophets! He fulfils the Word of the Lord even to its jots and tittles. He directed His life by that old chart in which the way of the Messiah was laid down long before He came to earth! Oh, for the same reverence of Scripture among preachers nowadays! God forbid that we should be lowering men's ideas of Inspiration, as some are fond of doing. May we value every Word which came from the Lord in old time! May we willingly change the course of our thought and teaching rather than neglect a single Word of Inspiration! When we see what the will of the Lord is, let us follow it implicitly. Obedience to the rule of Scripture was the way of the Head--it should also be the way of the members. If the King, Himself, is careful in His walk towards the Word of God, surely we ought to be! I also think that as our Lord thus looked back and fulfilled Scripture, He was looking forward to give us a prophetic type of the future. Beloved, our Lord will not always be rejected. There are days of triumph for Him. "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner." This is the age of iron, but there comes a golden age of love and light. We look for His appearing and His reign--His reign of peace and joy! There will come a day when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. He shall sit upon the Throne of His father, David, and of His Kingdom there shall be no end. The Lord shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah! Has not Jehovah said to Him, "Ask of Me, and I shall give You the heathen for Your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession"? Yes, there will come a day when He that was the reproach of men shall be the Glory of His people! Kings shall bow down before Him. All generations shall call Him blessed. When I see that joyful procession going up the hill to Zion and mark how they that went before, joined with those who followed after, while the King Himself rode in the center, I seem to see a rehearsal of the long succession of the faithful in all ages. The Prophets have gone before Him--listen to their loud Hosannas! We come behind Him, even we upon whom the ends of the earth have come, and we have our glad Hosannas, too! Here Patriarchs join with Apostles, Prophets are one with martyrs, and priests keep rank with pastors and deacons--all with one voice lifting up the same note, "Hosanna! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord." We see, then, in the simple state of our Lord in the streets of Jerusalem, a vision of the long glories which await Him in the New Jerusalem where He shall sit upon His Throne-- and His enemies shall be made His footstool! One thing more I cannot help mentioning. Surely our Lord allowed the populace a vent for their enthusiasm with the desire to delight His friends. Do you not think that the sympathetic Jesus thought it worth while to give His little band of followers what our forefathers would have called, "a gaudy day"--a high day--a holiday? These had been with Him in His humiliation and He would give them a taste of His Glory. They had seen Him despised and rejected of men--and He relieved the monotony of His humiliation with a glimpse of His Glory. For once they should be allowed to cast their garments under His feet and strew fragrant branches on His path. For once their zeal should have license to climb the trees and break down the boughs to strew His pathway. Nothing on that day filled their ears but the praises of their beloved Lord and honored Master! They would soon enough have sorrow when they would see Him seized in the garden and taken away bound to Caiaphas and Pilate to be condemned to die. He would give them a breathing space, an interval of pleasure wherein their spirits should no longer drag on earth, but rise on wings, into a lofty joy! Our Lord loves His people to be glad. He kept His tears to Himself as He wept over Jerusalem, but the gladness He scattered all around, so that even the boys and girls in the streets of Jerusalem made the Temple courts to ring with their merry feet and gladsome songs. Hear how they clap their hands with delight! "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!" You hear it everywhere and the Lord smiles as He sees the joy which pours in floods around Him. The Lord loves to cast into our cup, some drops of Heaven's own honey until the bitterness of grief is sweetened and His followers are made happy by their joy in Himself. "Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King." I wish I could express myself in tones more clear and musical, but though bodily weakness compels me to be measured in my utterance, my soul does magnify the Lord and my spirit does rejoice in God my Savior. May the Lord Himself cast into your hearts the burning coals of joyful love to Him-- and so may your souls take fire and blaze aloft with vehement flames of delight! May this day be to your spirits a day of palms and Psalms, of prayers and praises, of Hallelujahs and Hosannas! Let us sing all day, as we sung in our opening hymn-- "Hosanna to the anointed King, To David's holy Son! Help us, O Lord! Descend and bring Salvation from Your Throne. Blest be the Lord who comes to men With messages of Grace! Who comes in God, His Father's name, To save our sinful race. Hosanna in the highest strains The Church on earth can raise; The highest heavens, in which He reigns, Shall give Him nobler praise!" II. Secondly, my text is, to my mind, a parable of CHRIST GLORIFIED IN HIS CHURCH. There are choice days when the shout of a King is heard in our assemblies. We have not yet fallen to a dull monotony of barrenness--we have hills like those of Carmel. The low water mark of lukewarmness is covered deep beneath flood tides of holy exultation. I am going to speak about these hallowed seasons. I think that such days come to the Church of God after special miracles of Grace have been worked. Lazarus is raised from the dead and when the people see the greatness of the Prophet of Nazareth, they begin to commend and extol Him--and this leads on to holy excitement! If the Lord will be pleased to work remarkable conversions among us, we shall have grand times! If special instances of His gracious power are seen by us, we will bear our palms of victory before Him and many hearts will enquire, "Who is this?" Our hearts shall rejoice as with the joy of harvest when we see the Lord saving great sinners! Yes, we will shout as victors who divide the spoil! Do you not think that when Saul of Tarsus was converted and the Churches had rest, that they also had great exultation in their King? Everywhere it must have been spoken of that fierce Pharisee who had become a bold preacher of the faith which once he sought to destroy! What joy there is in saintly hearts when ringleaders in sin become champions for the Truth of God! Oh that our God would work such transformations in this city! Pray, my Brothers and Sisters, that the Lord would do the same for us--and for all His Churches just now. Oh, for displays of His power to quicken the dead! Oh, for Lazarus to be raised and to live among us as a wonder of Divine Grace whom neighbors would come to see! O Lord, give us this signal of delight! Let us see Your arm made bare in the eyes of all the people! Next, it was a time of testimony, for those who had been present and had seen Lazarus raised from the dead, bore witness. One stepped forward and said, "With these eyes I saw Lazarus come forth from the tomb of rock." "As for me," said another, "I saw him buried and I helped to carry him to the grave. But I saw him come back to the house alive." "Yes," said a third, "I rolled away the stone and as I stood watching for the result, I saw the dead man come forth alive--and I helped to loosen his grave clothes." All these bore witness to what they had seen. You cannot tell what a joyful effect it produces and what enthusiasm is stirred when one after another bears personal witness. Lord, open men's mouths! Lord, make the quiet ones to tell forth Your praise! Your silent tongues deprive us of our joy. Your cowardly reticence robs Christ of His Glory and the Church of its increase. If God has done anything for you, or you have seen Him do anything for others, bear testimony to it! It is the Lord's due and your duty, that you should speak to the glory of Christ Jesus. When great wonders have been done and those who saw them are willing to bear their testimony, then we may look for red-letter days wherein gladness and praise shall be in the ascendant. It was a good sign, too, of joy to come, that the enemies were now raging worse than ever. They sought to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. If the devil never roars, the Church will never sing! God is not doing much if the devil is not awake and busy. Depend upon it, that a working Christ makes a raging devil! When you hear ill reports, cruel speeches, threats, taunts and the like, believe that the Lord is among His people and is working gloriously. We look upon the "many adversaries" as one of the tokens that a great door and effectual is set before us. When we hear thunder, we look for rain. Wrath in the lowest Hell is a prognostic of Hosanna in the highest Heaven! It is also a cheering sign when there is a general eagerness among the people concerning our Lord. When the disciples gather around their Master and are prompt to do His bidding, then good times are come. When all agree, it is also well. When they that go before, and they that follow after are all of the same mind, then is it a day of joy. When gray heads grow young and young heads grow wise, it is a token for good. When the aged lift up their eyes to Heaven and say, "God, even our own God, shall bless us," things look well. When our matrons and our sires grow hopefully confident and say, "The Lord has blessed us in days gone by and He is going to bless us yet again," then the weather glass points to "Set fair." When the younger sort, that follow after, who have been converted but lately, burn with a holy zeal and cry, "We will give the Lord no rest until He blesses us," then the sun of the Church is shining high up in the sky. When we are all ready, each man, each woman, ready to take our share in the harvesting, then will the sheaves be garnered! It is cheering when the congregation shares the excitement with the Church and its ministers--and the prospect of a Divine blessing is before the mind of all who seek better things. Surely, the time to favor Zion, yes, the set time has come, when her King is longed for and every heart beats high with love for Him! The case is clear when all this is attended with an abounding generosity. It is well when disciples are not only willing to fetch another man's colt, but are willing to lay their own garments on it--when they will not only gather palm fronds to strew the path, but will take off their own coats to carpet the way of the King! When everybody does something, or gives something, or, at any rate, joins in the hearty Hosannas, then is the King come into our midst! Our King is not where hearts are miserly and souls are selfish, but one token of His Presence is that His people offer willingly unto the Lord. At such times Believers feel that they are not their own, but are bought with a price--and things which once looked like sacrifices too great to be expected of them are cheerfully presented as sacrifices of joy. Beloved, we must not forget that it is a token of God's having come to His Church and of His having given her a joyful day when the children share in it. Luther was greatly encouraged when he found that the children met together for prayer. He said, "God will hear them. The devil himself cannot defeat us now that the children begin to pray." It is very beautiful to read Mr. Whitefield's remarks about his sermons at Moorfields and elsewhere in London, when mud and stones were cast at him and yet a group of children always surrounded his pulpit. And though some of them were hurt, yet he noticed how bravely they stood by him through the service. He thought it a token for good that children drank in his words. When God moves the children to earnestness, He will soon move their fathers and mothers! When boys and girls meet to praise God, do not despise their little meetings, nor say, "It is only a parcel of children." The children are, in God's esteem, the most precious portion of the race! He sets high store by His little ones and He has set a special curse upon those who offend one of the little ones that believe in Him. Jesus, Master, come, we pray You! Come in Your lowly pomp, in all Your gentleness and Grace, and then will the children of these modern days sing loud Hosannas to Your name, like those in Your Temple of old. I want you to notice in our text that our Savior was received with the shout of Hosanna! The best interpretation I can give is--"Save, oh, save! Save, oh, save!" Different nations have different ways of expressing their good will to their monarchs. A Roman would have shouted, "Io triumphe!" We sing, "God save our gracious Queen." The Persians said, "O King, live forever." The Jews cried, "Hosanna!" "Save," or, "God save the King!" The French have their "Vivas," by which they mean, "Long live the man." Hosanna is tantamount to all these. It is a shout of homage, welcome and loyalty. It wishes wealth, health and honor to the king. In the Saxon we say, "Hurrah." In Hebrew, "Hosanna." That mighty shout startled all the streets of the old city--"Hosanna, Hosanna, the King is come! Save Him, O Lord! Save us through Him! Long live the King!" While it was a shout of homage, it was also a prayer to the King. "Save, Lord; save us, O King! O King, born to conquer and to save, deliver us!" It was, moreover, a prayer for Him--"God save the King, God bless and prosper His Majesty. "Prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be praised." We never cease to pray, "Your Kingdom come; Your will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven." Let us then cry, Hosanna, making it at once a loyal shout! A prayer to our King and a prayer for Him. All these things appear in the benediction which follows, "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest." Would it be amiss if we were to indulge in a hearty shout for our King? May we never grow enthusiastic? May we never overleap the bounds of prim propriety? Shall we never cry Hallelujah! Shall no Hosannas burst from our lips? Surely, if our King will come into the midst of His Church, again, and end these black days of doubt, we must and will shout, or else the very stones will cry out! Yes, O Lord Jesus, You shall have our Vivas: we will shout, "Long live the King!"-- "All hail the po wer of Jesus 'name! Let angels prostrate fall." Nor will we cease to pray to You! Some of you that have not yet been saved by Him will, I trust, say, "Save me, Lord! O Jesus, save me!" You will not disturb but delight the present meeting if you will in your hearts cry, "Lord, save me!" Remember the cry of two blind beggars on this very journey of our Lord--and how He opened their eyes when they cried, "Son of David, have mercy on us!" Will we not also put up prayer for our Lord this morning? Will not each one in his pew now breathe a petition to God, saying, "Father, glorify Your Son"? You have said that the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands--make it so. O Jehovah, You are well pleased with Jesus; show Your good pleasure towards Him by giving Him to conquer ten thousand times ten thousand hearts! Let a nation be born in a day. May He reign forever and ever! Hosanna! Hosanna! III. I have only a little time for my third point, and yet it is of great importance--CHRIST RECEIVED IN THE HEART. His triumphant ride into Jerusalem was a type of His entering the renewed heart. I pray that you who have never received Him may listen and may, by the listening, be led to pray for His coming into your heart. On that day, when Christ came up from Bethany, the city gates were wide open. We read nothing about them because they were not in the way--there were no shut gates to Him. He rode into Jerusalem without let or hindrance. Are your gates wide open this morning? If not, I would say, "Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be you lift up, you everlasting doors: and the King of Glory shall come in." He is willing to abide in your hearts and go no more out forever--be sure that your gates are set wide before Him! May the Holy Spirit open your hearts! Do not tolerate the thought of shutting out your Lord. Never! Open wide the portals of your soul. Yes, go forth by willing obedience and say, "Come in, my Lord! Come in!" He was cheerfully received as King. Our Lord did not come to subdue the citizens at the point of the sword. He did not come with force of arms to coerce the city. You must receive Jesus willingly, or not at all. He comes to reign, but He comes in the gentleness of love. He rides on no high-mettled charger. He lays His hand on no sharp sword which clatters at His side. About Him are no men-at-arms. Behind Him come no heavy guns, dragged along the trembling streets. Jesus was willingly received--everyone exultingly welcomed Him. Will you so receive Jesus? Has He made you willing in the day of His power? You may well salute Him and welcome Him to your heart and your home, for you have never before received so blessed a guest! Open wide the gates and entreat Him to come in, for He will bring Heaven with Him. He never uses force. He conquers only by love. The Holy Spirit works upon the will of man, but He still leaves it a will, so that we freely choose our Lord and delight in Him as our King! Remember, Beloved, the coming of Christ is with gentleness and love. Riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey, is a very different thing from riding the fiery warhorse. I like not men who seem as if they were converted, to hate everybody else. It is not Christ who has come unto you if you have grown prouder, harder, more passionate than ever. No, the Christ who enters to save is, Himself, so meek and lowly of heart that those who take His yoke upon them learn of Him--and they become meek and lowly, too. Admit the lowly Christ and be of one mind with Him. He will kill your bad temper, conquer your malice and cast out your pride! Come and be the willing subject of a King who rides forth in lowliest guise. His entrance caused great joy. No man's heart was made heavy that day. The face of the King frowned on none. Other kings have found it necessary to force their way through crowds of rebels to their capital and wade through slaughter to a throne--but none was found to hurt or devour in all the holy mountain when Jesus came to Zion! Women have been ravished, men have been murdered--even babes have been massacred when monarchs have entered cities--but when our King comes, boughs and palm fronds, shouts and songs are the setting of a very different scene! Instead of shrieks and groans, we hear the ringing music of children with their glad Hosannas! Oh, will you not admit the Lord Jesus? Who will refuse an entrance to One who brings with Him joy and peace?-- "He shall come down like showers Upon the fruitful earth! Love, joy, and hope, like flowers, Spring in His path to birth!" When He comes, men feel a burning enthusiasm for Him. It should not be necessary that I should plead for His admission. Surely you should run down the hill to meet Him and then come back, following after Him with glad Hosannas! Lord Jesus, we cannot be cold in Your Presence! Our souls burn as with coals of juniper when we remember You! But I must tell you one thing which I am sure will not dampen your ardor if you are in a right state. If Jesus comes into your souls He will come as a Reformer. He will make your heart a Temple and out of it He will drive the buyers and the sellers--and all else that would pollute the soul. With His scourge of small cords, He will whip out many a naughty thing from the heart which He makes His Temple. Yes, let the thieves go! If your heart has been made a den of thieves by evil desires, should not these be chased out without mercy? So let it be. Welcome, You great Refiner! Gladly would we lose our dross. I feel so glad to have to add that when He comes into your heart He will heal you. Did I not note it to you when we were reading the 14th verse--"The blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple; and He healed them." Dear Heart, if Jesus comes to you, all that is blind and lame about you shall be healed! That was a singular healing, was it not? Many of that select company came on crutches and some with legs doubled up, or malformed. Blind men were there, with useless eyeballs or empty sockets where eyes should have been. Into this limping, groping circle came the King of Glory and He did not repel them, but He healed them! Admit the Lord into your heart and the limping of your unbelief will be exchanged for the leaps of faith! Then shall you see those things to which your heart has long been blind. Let Him in! Let Him in! Believe on Him! Trust Him and let Him into your heart--and you shall find Him the Physician of your soul. Last of all, you that have not yet received Him, we want you to join with the rest of us in honoring Him and glorifying Him as He comes into your heart. "Oh!" says one, "if He will only come into my heart, I will, indeed, praise Him." Have your hosannas ready! Receive the Lord Jesus Christ with all honors. Mention His name with rejoicing! Have your hurrah ready to welcome the King, the Conqueror, as He enters your soul. Be jubilant! Be enthusiastic! Rejoice that such a One as He should come to dwell with such a one as you--and bring such blessing with Him. Praise Him! Praise Him! Extol Him in the highest heavens! Then pray to Him. "Save, Lord! Save, oh, save!" Then pray for others to Him in the same words, "Hosanna; save, Lord, save!" And when you have done with Hosannas and prayers, conclude, as the Psalmist did, in that famous 118th Psalm, when he cried, "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." Ask God of His love, today, to bind you to Christ, THE Altar, with one of those wreaths of love and ribbons of triumphant Grace which you now throw at His feet. Oh, for a twisted garland of mercies, the roses of gladness and the lilies of delight to bind our heart to Christ forever! These cords of love may seem weak, but in very deed they hold us faster than chains of steel. Nothing holds a man like the silken cord of gratitude! When you know how Jesus loves you--when you see how He died for you--then you are drawn to love Him in return and are held to serve Him in life, in death and to eternity! Thus do we celebrate our Lord's triumphant entrance into the City of Mansoul, and we feel that we could prolong the celebration throughout the whole of our lives-- "Yes, we will praise You, dearest Lord, Our souls are all on flame, Hosanna round the spacious earth To Your adored name." __________________________________________________________________ Christ's Resurrection and Our Newness Of Life (No. 2197) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 29, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Therefore we are buried with Him through baptism into death: that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4. I have preached before upon the whole verse, so that this morning I shall take the liberty to dwell chiefly upon the latter part of it--"Just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." The idea that the Grace of God should lead us to licentiousness is utterly loathsome to every Christian. We cannot endure it. The notion that the Doctrines of Grace give license to sin comes from the devil--and we deny it with a detestation more deep than words can express! "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" On our first entrance upon a Christian profession, we are met by the ordinance of Baptism which teaches the necessity of purification. Baptism is, in its very form, a washing, and its teaching requires cleansing of the most thorough kind. It is a burial, in which the man is viewed as dead with Christ to sin, and is regarded as rising again as a new man. Baptism sets forth, as in a picture, the union of the Believer with the Lord Jesus in His baptism of suffering and in His death, burial and Resurrection. By submitting to that sacred ordinance, we declare that we believe ourselves to be dead with Him because of His endurance of the death penalty--and dead to the world and to the dominion of sin by His Spirit. At the same time, we also profess our faith in our Lord's Resurrection and that we, ourselves, are raised up in union with Him and have come forth through faith into newness of life. It is a very impressive and vivid symbol, but it is without meaning unless we rise to purity of life. The basis of this confession lies in the union of every Believer with Christ Jesus. We are dead with Him because we are one with Him. We are risen with Him because we are one with Him. Every Believer is, in the purpose of Divine Grace, identified with Jesus. He was given to the Lord Jesus from before the foundation of the world and placed under His Covenant Headship. The Lord Jesus suffered for the Believer as his Substitute and virtually each saved one died in Christ, who represented Him. The Believer rose in Christ by virtue of the eternal union which exists between the saint and his Savior. Therefore the Believer continues to live, for the Lord has said, "Because I live, you shall live also." Our destiny is identified with that of our Covenant Head. His life is the model of our experience--He makes us to be conformed to His image, now, and we shall be like He when we shall see Him as He is. O my Hearer, if you are not in Christ, you have nothing! Out of Christ you are in the wilderness--with Him you are in a paradise! In Christ, Believers possess all the treasures of wisdom, knowledge, Grace, power and love. All things are yours, if you are Christ's. From our union to Christ follows our sanctification--we cannot follow after sin, for Christ does not follow after it. He died unto sin, once, and we are henceforth dead to it. He is risen by the Glory of the Father and we are risen with Him into righteousness, acceptance andjoy! I. Follow me in the text, taking as your first thought the fact that THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD WAS ATTENDED WITH GLORY--He was "raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father." Christ's Resurrection is linked with the fullness of eternal Glory. In itself it was a great marvel. Our Lord was assuredly dead--the Roman guards at the Cross took care that no condemned person escaped the death penalty. In our Lord's case, His heart was pierced with a spear to make sure that no life remained in Him. Joseph begged for His body and, by the loving hands of those who were sure that He was dead, He was wrapped in spices and fine linen--and laid in the rocky tomb. There lay our Lord, in the grave, with a stone rolled at the cave's mouth and a seal set upon it by those in authority, whose envy made them take double precautions. As when a prince lies slumbering in his pavilion he is watched by a guard, so was our Lord's sepulcher watched by a guard of Roman soldiers, so that no man might steal His body. There He lay in the heart of the earth for a portion of three days and nights. He was really dead and in the grave. He wore all the marks of decease--a napkin was bound about His head, and the linen clothes rapped His limbs. On the morning of the third day it was truly said, "The Lord has risen, indeed," for He actually, literally and in very fact awoke to life, unbound the napkin and laid it by itself, leisurely folded His grave clothes and, when the angel had rolled away the stone from the mouth of the sepulcher, the First-Begotten from the dead came forth in a material body to live among His disciples for forty days! During the time of His sojourn, His Resurrection was established by many Infallible proofs--He was seen, heard, touched and handled. One of His disciples put his finger into the print of the nails and thrust his hand into His side. He possessed a real body, for He ate a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb before them all. It was Jesus of Nazareth and, none other than He, who met His disciples at Galilee! On this firm basis of fact we build our holy faith, but, certain as it is, it is none the less a marvel. All Glory be to Him "that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant." The Resurrection of our Lord is glorious in contrast with His humiliation. It has in it sufficient Glory to redeem His passion from the shame which gathered about it. We read in Matthew 20:18, 19, how He was to be betrayed, condemned to death, delivered to the Gentiles, mocked, scourged and crucified. But we note that all the gloom of that dread tragedy is removed by the few words with which our Lord ended the story--"And the third day He shall rise again." The blaze of Resurrection lights up the whole length of the Valley of the Shadow of Death! His death wears no dishonor on its brow, for His rising again has set a diadem thereon! We celebrate Gethsemane and Calvary--and find no bitterness in all their grief--because death is swallowed up in the victory of Resurrection! The whole earthly life of Jesus, with its poverty, its slander, its sorrow, its scourging, its spitting, its crucifixion, is raised above all trace of dishonor by His glorious Resurrection! His resurrection is glorious in its effects. He was "delivered for our offenses," but, "He was raised again for our justification." In death He discharged our debt. In Resurrection He exhibited the receipt of all our liabilities! He was Surety for us and, therefore, He smarted and went down to the prison of the grave. But by death He discharged His Suretyship and was set free! Our Lord has risen and, therefore, we shall rise in the day of His appearing. The Breaker leads the way and behind the mighty champion the whole company of His redeemed pass through the portals of the tomb in the power of His Resurrection. The stone is rolled away for them as well as for Him. They cannot be held by the bonds of death, for He could not be detained a captive. What a glory there is in our Lord's Resurrection, when we further remember that He always lives to make intercession for us and, therefore, He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him! The fullness of salvation comes to us because He has risen from the dead and is now making intercession for the transgressors! O Brothers and Sisters, the Resurrection of Jesus is bright as the sun with glory! Faith in it thrills our hearts. Well might each line of our hymn end with a Hallelujah! When we say, one to another, "The Lord is risen, indeed," we feel like singing all the time, for now our faith is not vain, we are not in our sins and those who have fallen asleep have not perished! Our Lord's Resurrection was glorious as to its cause, for it was a display of the Glory of the Father. For "glory" you may read, "power," if you please, for it was a great work of power to raise Jesus from the dead. But it was more than a miracle of power, for all the attributes of God united their Glory in the Resurrection of Christ. God's Love came there and opened those closed eyes. His delight bejeweled those deadly wounds. His Wisdom set in motion that pierced heart. Divine Justice claimed His loosing from the grave and Mercy smiled as she lit up His face with an immortal smile! Then and there did Jehovah make all His Glory to pass before us and He proclaimed the name of the Lord. If you ask where God's Glory is most seen, I will not point to creation, nor to Providence, but to the raising of Jesus from the dead! It is true that in the silence of the tomb there were no spectators, but God Himself was there. After the deed was done, there were many who beheld His Glory and when at the close of His sojourn, below, He ascended beyond the clouds, all Heaven came forth to meet Him and to behold the conqueror of Death and Hell! In His Resurrection the Glory of God was laid bare. The veil which concealed the sacred Presence was torn from top to bottom and the Glory of the Lord was seen in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead! That Resurrection is glorious because of its sequel in reference to our Lord. Of this I have already spoken in measure. Only let me remind you that He rose to die no more. Once has He suffered, but it is once and for all! His victory is final. Like Samson, the fierce lion of Death roared upon Him in the vineyard. The monster had, up to then, overcome everyone whom he assailed, but this time he met his match! Our greater Samson rent him as though he were a kid and though our Deliverer fell in the act of victory, He rose from the death struggle with fullness of life! Behold, He comes to us, today, bearing handfuls of honey on which He bids us feed. He has taken it from the carcass of the lion which He slew. Now is death a store of sweets rather than a cup of gall! To the child of God death furnishes a couch of rest and is no longer a dark and noisome prison cell. Death is the refining pot for this poor flesh and blood--the body is sown in corruption, but it is raised in incorruption and immortality! We shall with these eyes behold our Lord when He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth! O glorious Resurrection, which has turned our poison into medicine! O miracle of Love, which has made death to be the gate of life! When you were singing the Easter hymn just now, it seemed to me as if we filled the whole earth with silver bells. And when you came to the last verse, you were so fully getting into the music of the Truth of God, that I had half a mind to cry, "Let us begin again!" In the rising of Jesus, death itself is shut up in prison, and ten thousand Hallelujahs come flying down from Heaven to teach us how to sing-- " Vain the watch, the stone, the seal! Christ has burst the gates of Hell. Death in vain forbids Him rise, Christ has opened Paradise.' II. Let me introduce you to our second point, which is this--THE PARALLEL IN OUR EXPERIENCE IS ALSO FULL OF GLORY. When the time of love had fully come, we also rose as to our spirits, that, "like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Partakers of His death, we are also partakers of His Resurrection! This body of ours will have its share in that blessing of adoption in due time. As yet, it remains subject to pain, weakness and death, for it is as the Apostle puts it, "If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." The spirit has its resurrection even now, but we are "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." At the Second Coming of the Lord, the dead shall be raised incorruptible and the living shall be changed. We have the first-fruits of the Spirit, inasmuch as we are spiritually risen from the dead--and the rest will follow in due course. It is a blessed thing that we should be made alive in Christ. As many of you as have believed in the Lord Jesus have been raised from among the dead. You were once without faith and without feeling. You had no sense of sin. You had no desire after holiness. You had no confidence in Christ. You had no love for the Father, but, "you has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." You live now even as Jesus lived when He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the Resurrection from the dead." Why should the Lord of Life have raised you from your death? Multitudes around you are still dead! You could not have made yourselves alive, for it is clear that the dead cannot rise by their own power. You were like the dry bones of Ezekiel's valley, without even the form or the moisture of life! You were more difficult to quicken than your Savior's body, for, "He saw no corruption," but you were corrupt of heart. Ah, how much you saw of corruption! In you has Jehovah repeated the miracle which He performed on His beloved Son! Remember that quickening is a necessary part of the process of sanctification. Sanctification, in its operation upon our character, consists of three things. First, we die to sin. A wondrous death! By this Jesus strikes at the heart of evil. The death of Christ makes us die to sin. After this comes burial. We are buried with Christ and of this burial, Baptism is the type and token. Covered up to be forgotten, we are to sin as a dead shepherd to his flock. As the sheep pass over the dead shepherd's grave, or even feed thereon, yet he regards them not--so our old sins and habits come about us, but we, as dead men, know them no more. We are buried to them! To complete our actual sanctification we receive heavenly quickening. "If we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." Yes, we do live in Him and by Him, for, "He that believes in Him has everlasting life." I trust you know what this means. Have you been thus dead, thus bur- ied with Christ? Are you now thus quickened in the likeness of His Resurrection? This is your joyful privilege if you are, indeed, Believers in Christ and joined unto the Lord in one spirit. Being thus quickened you are partakers of a new life. You are not like Lazarus, who, when he was raised from the dead, had the same life restored to him. True, you have that same life about you. Alas, that you should have it! For it will be your burden and plague. But your true life has come to you by your being born again from above. "This is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life." The Holy Spirit has worked in us a higher life than Nature possessed. "We know that whoever is born of God sins not, but he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that Wicked One touches him not." We have received "a living and incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever." In this there is a striking display of the Glory of God. As in the Resurrection of Christ we see all the glorious attributes of God, so is there in every Believer's spiritual quickening a manifestation of the Divine Presence. I know not how much there is of God in the regeneration of each new-born soul, but I do know this, that God likens it to a new creation and to the Resurrection and, therefore, we may be sure that it is one of the highest displays of Divine Power. We talk of conversion, but how lightly do we estimate the full meaning of it! Know you not that regeneration is one of the greatest miracles that God Himself can perform? To be begotten again unto a lively hope is a mass of wonders! We who before lay under spiritual death, have become possessors of a heavenly life--who can fully comprehend this? This is a miracle, indeed, and we ourselves are the subjects of it! Surely we do not think highly enough of the notable deed which has been worked upon our impotent selves. Lazarus raised from the dead was the object of wonder to everybody. The Jews came to Bethany, not to see only Jesus, but to see Lazarus, who was raised from the dead. What must Lazarus have thought of being thus brought back from the land of darkness to visit, again, the haunts of men? Lazarus must have felt himself a strange and singular man--even his sisters, Mary and Martha, could not understand his experience. Christian, you have felt what you can never tell--you have received what you can never explain--you possess a secret something which can never be set forth in words! God help you to show it by your life! In this parallel of our history with the story of Christ, in our being spiritually raised from the dead, we have a preeminent security for future perfection. "He that has worked us for the same thing is God, who also has given us the earnest of the Spirit." If He raised us up when we were dead in sin, will He not keep us alive, now, that we live unto Him? If He called us out of our graves when we were under the bondage of death, will He not preserve us, now, by the life of Him that dies no more? If the life of God has really been infused into us, who shall destroy it? Has not our Master said, "I give unto My sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand"? He would not have given us this life unless He had intended to bring it to perfection! As surely as you live by the Father, you live as Jesus does, beyond the range of further death! "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the Law, but under Grace." Do you tremblingly ask me, "May I not go back unto sin?" Listen to this! It is written in the Covenant, "I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me." The life which is in you springs up unto eternal life. You shall surely behold His face whose life is already within your breast. What a blessed thing is this! I cannot declare to you the measureless Glory of God which I perceive in this quickening of souls unto God and yet, that which I perceive is the bare fringe of the Glory. He might have left us to our corruptions and then, at last, He would have said, "Bury My dead out of My sight. Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." But instead thereof, in His free love, He has come in the Person of His dear Son and died for us that we might die in Him and He has quickened His Son that we should live in Him! Soon He will say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Wondrous Grace! "He that sits on the Throne says, Behold, I make all things new." And never is He to our hearts more truly on the Throne of God than in this new creation of which we are this day the happy subjects-- "Raised from the dead, we live anew; And, justified by Grace, We shall appear in Glory, too, And see our Father's face. If I gave you only those two things to dwell upon, you might, by God's blessing, find a good Sabbath's meal in them. God sanctify this teaching to all our hearts! III. But now I want your special attention while I notice, in the third place, that THE LIFE THEN GIVEN IS EMPHATICALLY NEW. Read our text--"Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father"--I expected that we should then read, "even so we also should be raised by the Glory of the Father." But it is not so. Paul sometimes takes great leaps of thought. It is in his mind that we are raised together with Christ, but his thought has gone further, even to the activity which comes of life--and we read, "that we also should walk in newness of life." As much as to say, "I need not tell you that you have been quickened as Christ was, but since you have been made alive, you must show it by your walk and conduct." But he reminds us that this life has much newness about it. "Newness of life"--what does it mean? It means this. When we are born again and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ--which things take place at the same time--we receive a life which we never before possessed. We begin to feel, to think and to act as we never did before. The new life is something foreign to our fallen nature--an exotic, a plant of another clime. The carnal mind knows nothing of spiritual things! The man who is not born again cannot understand what the new birth means! Spiritual things are spiritually discerned and the carnal man is all confused in reference to them. In your quickening you received a light which had never before shone in your bosom--a life that came not from men, neither by men. It is not a development of something which was hidden in our constitution. It is not the evolution of a principle which really exists, only it is hampered and hindered. No! It is not written, "You has He fostered, who had the germs of dormant life," but, "You has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." You had no life, you had nothing out of which life could come! Fostered you might have been, but all the fostering possible would only have developed your corrupt nature and caused the evil within to grow at a greater rate! No seeds of eternal life lie buried in the dunghill of fallen nature! Eternal life is the gift of God! This novel life is new in its principles. The old life, at its very best, only said, "I must do right that I may win a reward." Wage-earning is the principle of the old legal life when it tries to be obedient. Now you are moved by gratitude and not by a mercenary motive. I hear you sing-- "Loved of my God, for Him again With love intense I burn: Chosen of Him ere time began, I choose Him in return." You now serve, not as a hired servant, but as a loving child. Grace reigns! The love of Christ constrains you. It is your joy to obey out of love and not from slavish fear. This life is swayed by new motives. You now live to please God--before you lived to please yourself, or to please your neighbors. Once you lived for what you could get for yourself--you lived for the passing pleasures of a fleeting life, but now you have launched upon eternal seas. Eternity holds your treasures! Eternity excites your efforts and elevates your desires. You live as seeing Him who is invisible and your conduct is controlled, not by the judgment of fallible men, but by the rule of the heart-searching God! Your new life has new objectives. You aim higher, yes, you aim at the highest of all, for you live for the Glory of God and seek that your light may so shine "that men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." The will of God has now become your law. You count yourself only happy as you may fulfill His purposes, honor His name and extend His Kingdom. Your inner life has made you conscious of new emotions. You feel now as you were not known to feel. Your fears are new, your hopes are new, your sorrows are new and your joys are new. If you were to meet your old self you would not wish to strike up an acquaintance with him, but would rather walk on the other side of the street! When I meet my former self I always quarrel with him, and he with me. I grieve to confess that I find another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and seeking to bring me back into captivity. Behold, all things are new to us! One said to me, when I asked her what kind of change she had undergone--"Either the world is quite altered, or else I am." Yes, Friends, the light is changed because our eyes are opened to it! We feel the very opposite of what we felt by nature. Now are we cheered by new hopes--we have a hope of immortality--a hope so glorious that it causes us to purify ourselves in preparation for its realization! We wait for the glorious appearing of our Lord! We look for new heavens and a new earth. We have a lively hope which defies death. Now have we new possessions. We used to wonder what the Christian meant when he spoke of "possessing all things." We now know! God has made us "rich in faith" and He has given us greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. When the Lord lifts up His Countenance upon us, we no longer cry for corn and wine and oil. Though flocks die, crops fail, our estate is entailed--our bread shall be given us and our waters shall be sure. Instead of groaning that life is not worth having, we bless God for our being, because of our well-being in Christ. Behold the desert now rejoices and blossoms as the rose! Where we heard only the hooting of the owl and the cry of the dragon, we hear music as of a song which has just begun, which is every moment swelling and increasing--and shall soon burst into a thunder of hallelujahs which shall never end! We are now happy creatures. Once we were doleful enough, save when we were in our cups and inflamed with a delirious mirth, but now we have peace like a river and a secret joy which no man takes from us. We drink of a well which none can dry up--we have bread to eat that the world knows not of. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and this, even to ourselves, is so vast a joy that it overwhelms us! When we are nearest to God and are absorbed in Him, we cannot comprehend our own delight. We have come into a new world altogether--a world far more grand than that which Nature reveals. I often compare myself to a chick which before was imprisoned in the dark, narrow and uncomfortable prison of its natural shell. In that condition I neither knew myself, nor anything that was about me, but was in chaos, as one unborn. Do I not remember when the shell was broken and I came out into the open? Then, like a young bird, I was weak and strange, and full of wonderment at the life into which I had come. How strange was it to my soul to have the Godhead consciously perceived and Christ and His redemption blessedly enjoyed! That young life begins to feel its wings and try them a little. It also moves with trembling footsteps, essaying a new walk. It sees things it never dreamed of when shut up in the darkness. The new-born soul beholds "new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness." That text has come true to some of us--"You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." It is a wonderful thing, this new life! I beg to press home the inquiry, Do you know it? Do you enjoy it? Do not boast that you are being educated. Educate the old life as you will, it will remain natural and cannot become spiritual. You have been, you say, religious from your childhood. Be it so, but even to you I must say, "You must be born again." There must be a passing from death unto life. Does all I am talking about seem to be a confused maze? So far it will do you good to know that you do not understand the things of God. To know that you are a stranger to the inward life may be a blessing to you. It may be that a prayer will spring up in your heart, "Lord, implant in me this life." The Lord and Giver of Life is willing to bestow it. It is to be had through Jesus, for, to "as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." May you be born this very day into this newness of life! IV. I must close, though the subject is sweetly absorbing, and one would like to go further into it. Our fourth point is this--THE WALK WHICH COMES OUT OF THIS LIFE IS NEW. You were dead, but you have been raised from among the dead and now you walk in "newness of life." The new life that God gives us is exceedingly active. I have never read that we are to lie down and sleep in the newness of life. It is true I have met with persons who professed to have been saved and, therefore, they took matters easily and made themselves religiously comfortable in idleness. I greatly question whether you have new life if you do not walk! God's children are not of a sluggish race. There is vigor and fervency about them. They cannot sleep, as do others. The new life is akin to the life of angels--and angels do not spend the day in slumber or sloth. I never heard of sluggish angels! They are as flames of fire. The new life in a Christian is quick, energetic, forceful. The new life produces a holy walk as soon as it is created. If you have been born unto God, you have cast off your lethargy and are ready to run the race set before you. You may happen to occasionally be dull and sleepy through disease, but you will not choose this. When in spiritual health, you will glow with Divine ardor and burn with holy fervency, delighting yourself in serving the Lord. This activity of life induces progress. If we are really quickened, we are to walk in newness of life--that is to say, we shall move on. We are not to take the goose-step in newness of life, but to march on, going from strength to strength. We are not at the end yet--we must advance. All that we have already attained is to lead on to the beyond. It is true we have the new life in us, but we have not yet obtained everything--we must climb higher and go further. The new life grows. This walk is to be in newness of life. We are not to act or grow in the energy of the old life, but in newness of life. The conduct of a Christian is in newness of life and, therefore, others cannot understand him because he acts so differently from themselves. But, alas, all professors are not of this sort! I see a Christian man coming back one evening from a place of questionable amusement. Did he go there in newness of life? The old man used to go in that direction. When a man is doubtfully honest and has made a bargain which will not bear the light--is that done in newness of life? When an employer grinds down the workman to the last farthing--is that done in the newness of life? Surely, you will see what I am aiming at. Brethren, have done with the things of the flesh! Put off the old man. If Christ has quickened you, walk in newness of life. Say to the old man, "Down with you, Sir! I have done with walking in your way." Let the new man come to the front and follow his guidance. Say in your soul, "O life of God within me, be supreme. Take the upper hand and let every thought be captive to your power." Let us not live in oldness of spiritual death, but in newness of spiritual life! What a change is worked by the perception and possession of better things! Dr. Chalmers, in his Exposition of Romans, pictures a man engaged with full and earnest ambition on some humble walk of retail merchandise. He cares about petty things and makes great account of his little stock-taking. His hopes and fears range within his circumscribed trading--he aspires to nothing more than to reach a few shillings a week to retire upon. But a splendid property is willed to him, or he is introduced into a sublime walk of high and honorable adventure. From then on, everything is made new! The man's cares, hopes, habits, tastes and desires are all new. His expenditure alters. His valuation of money alters. His fear about the state of the stock disappears! His joy in the prospect of a small competency is no more before his eyes. He has risen to a different level altogether. New conditions have silently changed all things. The whole man is built on a bigger scale--his house, his table, his garments, his company and his speech are all of another sort! In the same way, the Lord, by all that He has done for us, and in us, has changed everything! No point is unaffected. Newness of life affects our manhood from head to foot. The Lord has made us rich in Himself, by the gift of Jesus, and by the work of His Spirit--and He would not have us grieving and fretting about the little matters which once were so exceedingly great to us. "After all these things do the Gentiles seek." Let us have higher cares and more Divine aspirations! Let us seek to live the life of Heaven on earth! We are called unto righteousness--let us not follow after mammon! We are new creatures--may the Lord renew us day by day! Let us quit the old, for the time we have spent in it may well suffice. Our soul now aspires to a nobler destiny. The Christian life should be one of joyful vivacity. We cannot always be what we would like to be, especially if we have a sluggish liver or an aching head, but I would now speak of our normal condition. The Christian man or woman, living in newness of life, should find life fresh about him. Our inner man is renewed day by day. A healthy Christian is one of the liveliest creatures on earth. When he is at work, you may hear him sing. He cannot help it! Do not blame him for a little noise. Let him sing and laugh till he cries. Sometimes he cannot help it--he will burst if his soul may not have vent. When he begins to talk about his Lord, his eyes flash fire. Some people hint that he is out of his mind--but those who know best assure us that he was never before so sane as now. Of course, the world thinks religion is such poor stuff that nobody could grow excited about it. To my mind, cold religion is the nastiest dish ever brought to the table! True godliness is served up hot. Newness of life means a soul aglow with love to God and, therefore, earnest, zealous, happy. Let the believing man have space for his larger life, space for his grander joy. No, do not gag him--let him sing his new song! If any man out of Heaven has a right to be happy, it is the man who lives in newness of life! Come, Beloved, I want you to go home today with the resolve that the newness of life shall be more apparent in your walk. Do not live the old life over again. Why should you? What good would come of it? Come, my Soul, if Christ has raised you from the dead, do not live after the fashion of the dark grave which you have left. I am not so enamored of the sepulcher as to return to it! Walk after the fashion of the new life and it will conduct you to God from where it came. Live a God-like life--let the Divine in you sit on the throne and tread the animal beneath its feet. "It is easier said than done," cries one. That depends upon the life within. Life is full of power. I have seen an iron bar bent by the growth of a tree. Have you never heard of great paving-stones being lifted by fungi which had pushed up beneath them? Life is a mighty thing, especially the Divine Life! If you choose to contract your souls by a sort of spiritual tight-lacing, or if you choose to bend yourselves down in a sorrow which never looks up, you may hinder your life and its walk--but give your life full scope and what a walk you may have! Yield yourselves fully to God and you shall see what you shall see! There is a happiness to be enjoyed by truly whole-hearted Believers which some, even of God's own children, would think to be impossible! Let me finish with a picture which will show you what I mean by whole-heartedness. I have seen boys bathing in a river in the morning. One of them has just dipped his toes in the water and he cries out, as he shivers, "Oh, it's so cold!" Another has gone in up to his ankles and he also declares that it is fearfully chilly. But look! Another runs to the bank and dives in! He rises all in a glow. All his blood is circulating and he cries, "Delicious! What a beautiful morning! I am all in a glow. The water is splendid!" That is the boy for enjoying a bath! You Christian people who are paddling about in the shallows of religion and just dipping your toes in it--you stand shivering in the cold air of the world which you are afraid to leave! Oh, that you would plunge into the River of Life! How it would brace you! What tone it would give you! Dive in, young man! Dive in! Be a Christian, out and out! Serve the Lord with your whole being! Give yourself wholly to Him who bought you with His blood. Plunge into the sacred Flood, by Grace, and you will exclaim-- "Oh, this is life! Oh, this is joy! My God, to find You so! Your face to see, Your voice to hear, And all Your love to know." May we thus walk in newness of life! Amen. PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORESERMON--Matthew 28; Romans 6:1-14. __________________________________________________________________ The Census of Israel (No. 2198) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 5, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar, the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. But among these there was not a man ofthem whom Moses and Aaron, the Priest, numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lordhadsaid of them, They shallsurely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun." Numbers 16:66. WE have come to another census, an important stopping place in the march of a nation's history. This carries our thoughts back to the ancient Bible story connected with the chosen people of God. A census was taken of the tribes of Israel in the wilderness two years after they had left Egypt. It only numbered males who were over twenty--the men capable of active service in war. By thus taking a census of His people, the Lord showed that He valued each one of them. They were registered by their families and by their names, thus were they personally enrolled in the family book of the living God and He thus, in effect, said to each one of them, "I have called you by your name; you are Mine." By the registration of each man by name, he felt that he was not lost in the crowd, but was, by person and pedigree, acknowledged as one of those to whom the Lord had promised the land which flowed with milk and honey. There was good reason for taking the number of the people just as the nation was forming, so that in the wilderness they might be arranged, marshaled and disciplined for the conflict which lay before them. When commanded of God, because He saw that great ends would be served thereby--and when associated with redemption--a census was by no means a wrong or a dangerous national arrangement. David ordered the people to be numbered, but because his motive and his method were wrong, it brought a pestilence on the land but, in itself, the taking of a census was a wise and useful thing. Thirty-eight years had passed away since the first numbering at Sinai and the people had come to the borders of the Promised Land, for they were in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. The time had come for another census. The wisdom which commanded the counting of Israel at the beginning of the wilderness journey also determined to count them at the end of it. This would show that He did not value them less than in former years. It would afford proof that His word of judgment had been fulfilled to them and, moreover, it would marshal them for the grand enterprise of conquering the land of Canaan! They were to go forth in their armies to fight giant races and armies versed in war. They were to dislodge nations from their ancient strongholds and, with the sword, destroy guilty aboriginal races which God had condemned to destruction. And for this, their military strength needed numbering and ordering. Here was good reason for the census, which now, for the second or third time, was carefully carried out. Our text is from the Book of Numbers and the book well answers to its title, for it continually deals with numbers and numberings. The numbering on this occasion was not of the women and children or the infirm, for the order ran thus, "Take you the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, throughout their fathers' house, all that are able to go to war in Israel." If the numbers of our Churches were taken in this fashion, would they not sadly shrink? We have many sick among us that need to be carried about, nursed and doctored. Half the strength of the Church goes in ambulance service towards the weak and wounded. Another diminution of power is occasioned by the vast numbers of undeveloped Believers, to whom the Apostle would have said, "When for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again what are the first principles of the oracles of God: and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." They should have become men, but they remain babes in Grace! They are sadly slow in reaching the fullness of the stature of men in Christ Jesus. How many are quite unable to bear arms against the foe, for they need to be, themselves, guarded from the enemy! To revise the Church rolls so as to leave none but vigorous soldiers on the muster roll would make us break our hearts over our statistics. May the Lord send us, for this evil, health and cure! When the second census was taken, it was found that the people were nearly of the same number as at the first. Had it not been for the punishment so justly inflicted upon them, they must have largely increased. But now they had somewhat diminished. They were a rapidly increasing people when they were in Egypt--the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied! The family of Jacob increased at a marvelous rate from the time of the going down into Egypt to the time of leaving that land. This was changed during the 40 years of the wilderness, for the whole of the grown men who came out of bondage were judged unfit to enter into the Promised Land because of unbelief. And these, dying away rapidly, the people scarcely maintained their number. It is of God to multiply a nation, or a Church. We may not expect any advance in our numbers if we grieve the Spirit of God and if, by our unbelief, we drive Him to declare that we shall not prosper. Israel's growth ceased for 40 years--may it never be so with us as a Church! We would say with Joab, "Now the Lord your God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold." May the righteous seed multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, till their number shall be as countless as the sands of the shore, or as the stars of the sky! Concerning the second census of Israel, I would speak with you, since this is the morning of the day on which our British census is to be taken. May we gather lessons of wisdom from the theme! I. First, observe with interest and with a design to be profited--THE NOTABLE CHANGE WORKED AMONG THE PEOPLE BY DEATH. "But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron, the priest, numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai." They answered to their names, 600,000 and more of them--and there they stood in their ranks, full of vigorous life. About 40 years had passed away and if these same names had been read out, not a man save Caleb and Joshua could have answered to the roll call. The entire mass of the nation had been changed! The old ones were all gone. All that stood in their places by the Jordan were men who were under age at the first census, or who were not even born at that time. "Not a man of them" remained, says the text. And it repeats the statement--"There was not left a man of them." Such changes strike us as most memorable. They must not be passed over without remark. In the course of 40 years, my Brothers and Sisters, what changes take place in every community, in every Church, in every family! A friend showed me, last Thursday, a photograph of myself in the midst of my first deacons. It was taken scarcely 38 years ago and yet, of the entire group, only I survive! Those associates of the youthful preacher have all gone to their reward. We have likenesses of other groups of Church officers of a later date, in which I am placed in the center, and I am there still, but nearly all of those who once surrounded me have gone Home. Those who were our leaders in our days of struggle--and who saw the hand of God with us in those first years--are growing few in number. We have not yet completed the 40 years, but when we have done so, the words of our text will be almost literally applicable to our case as a Church. The going and the coming, the adding and the taking away have changed the texture of this fabric and no thread will soon be left. Surely the Lord would have us notice this, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. A costly operation, involving so many sorrows, is not to be passed over without thought. Beloved, we, too, are passing away! The pastor and his present helpers must, themselves, be summoned Home in due course. The march of the generations is not a procession passing before our eyes, while we sit, like spectators, at the window, but we are in the procession ourselves, and we, too, are passing down the streets of time and shall disappear in our turn. We, too, shall sleep with our fathers, unless the Lord shall come speedily. I hear a clarion blast sounding out from the graves which lie behind us--"Be you also ready!" From the last closed sepulcher there comes the prophetic warning, "Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live." This change was universal throughout the whole camp. There was a change even in the enumerators. The Sinai census had been taken by Moses and Aaron and now Moses remains just long enough to take his leading place, but his brother, Aaron, is not there. The High Priest of God has gone up to Mount Hor, has been stripped of his garments, has been buried and mourned by all Israel--and now Eleazar, his son, stands before the Lord in his father's place. It was so among the other priests and Levites and elders of the people. There was change everywhere--among the poorest dwellers in that canvas city and among the princes who dwelt beneath the standards of the tribes, all had changed. "There was not left a man of them." Thus is it among ourselves--no offices can be permanently held by the same men--"They are not suffered to continue by reason of death." No position, however lofty or lowly, can retain its old possessor. It is not only the cedars that fall, but the fir trees feel the axe. "There is no discharge in that war." That same scythe which cuts down the towering flower among the grass also sweeps down whole regiments of green blades. See how they lie together in long rows, to wither in a common decay! Throughout the whole body, this change is gradually taking place. No man can climb the rock of immortality and sit there, amid the seething sea, and say to Death, "Your waves cannot reach me here!" Though vigorous in health, though sound in constitution, though guarded by all the armor of the science of health, you, too, must fall by the arrows of the insatiable archer. "It is appointed unto men once to die." The change is inevitable. Man that is born of woman must be of few days. If it had not been for the great sin of Israel at Kadesh, many of the people might have lived to the second census and beyond it. But even then, if by reason of strength their lives had been lengthened, yet would they soon have died out in the ordinary course of nature. If 40 years had not been appointed as the end of that generation, yet without that appointment they would all have passed away in another 20 or 30 years. As Moses said in his wilderness Psalm, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." We must soon quit our tents for the last battle. When the conscript number shall be drawn, we may escape this year and next, but the lot will fall upon us in due time. There is no leaping from the net of mortality wherein, like a shoal of fish, we are all enclosed. Unless our Lord shall soon appear, we shall each one find a grave, for, as the wise man says, "All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." "We must necessarily die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again." Therefore we wisely bow before the stern decree and yield ourselves to death. But let us not forget that all this change was still under the Divine control. Though the people must pass away, yet still, the Lord's hand would be in each death and its surroundings. If not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father's knowledge, we may rest assured that no man dies without the will of God--no man is carried to his long Home unless the Lord has said, "Return, you children of men."-- "What can preserve my life, or what destroy? An angel's arm can't snatch me from the grave-- Legions of angels can't confine me there." To create and to destroy are sole prerogatives of the King of Kings! Till He speaks the word, we live not, or, living, we die not. Walking in the midst of 10,000 stricken with the plague, we are safe till God appoints our removal. Concerning those that are asleep, we know that they have not died without the will of our Father. Concerning our time, also, we know that we shall not be the toys of chance, or the victims of fate. A wise and loving God fixes the date and place of our decease, for, "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Stern though the work may be, His great and tender heart rules the ravages of death! Let us, therefore, be comforted concerning the great changes which death is working. Here is no cause for tears, as though we were left in a monster's power and bereft of a Father's care. The Lord is still ruling and nothing happens save as He appoints. Moreover, the change was beneficial. It was well that the first generation should die in the wilderness. The people who had been accustomed to servitude in Egypt had acquired the vices of slaves--and when they came out of the house of bondage they were fearful, fickle--the creatures of appetite and the victims of panic, selfishness and discontent. They had all the vices of subject races and were, alike, destitute of manliness and self-control. They were soon cowed by fear and baffled by difficulty. They were easily persuaded and as easily dissuaded. They were a people of whom nothing could be made. Even the Divine tuition in which Moses and Aaron were engaged and in which miracles, and types, and laws were employed, could not teach them anything so that they really knew it. To make a nation which could preserve the worship of the one God in the world, the generation which came out of Egypt must die out. The taint of slavery and idolatry must be lessened if it could not be quite removed. It was desirable that there should be a people trained in a better school, with a nobler spirit, fit to take possession of the promised land. The change was working rightly--the Divine purpose was being fulfilled. Maybe we do not think thus of the changes which are taking place in the communities to which we belong. We scarcely think that better men are coming on--we even fear that the coming race is weaker than the present, but then, we are not fair judges, for we are prejudiced in favor of our own generation! I do not doubt that God means well to His own Church and that the accomplishment of His eternal purposes requires that men should come and go and thus the face of society should be changed. It is well that the age of man is not so protracted as in the days of Methuselah. A teacher influential for error dies and is forgotten. A sinner pestilential for vice passes away and the air grows pure. Imagine a gambler with 500 years of craft to guide him, or a libertine reeking with 600 years of debauchery! Surely the present narrowed limits of human life are all too wide for the depraved! We need not wish for giants of iniquity such as centuries of life would produce. The incoming of new blood into the social frame is good in a thousand ways--it is well that we should make room for others who may better serve our Master. God grant they may! Our prayer is, "Let Your work appear unto Your servants and Your Glory unto their children." We are content to take the work if our sons may behold the glory! We are glad to move off that they may rise on stepping stones of our ended lives to nobler things! One other remark I cannot help making and that is that these changes are most instructive. If we are now serving God, let us do so with intense earnestness, since only for a little while shall we have the opportunity to do so among men. "Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave where you go." Live while you live! At the same time, lay plans for influencing the rising generation. Lay yourself out to work while it is called today. If anything should be done, it were well that it were done quickly. If we wish the Truth of God to conquer and the Gospel to prevail, let us fight the Lord's battles now! And if we would see Truth prevail after we are gone, let us seek out faithful young men who will teach others that the testimony for the Lord God of Israel dies not out of the land. We must soon quit the field. Let each man set his house in order, for he must soon leave it to be gazed upon by strangers' eyes. Let us see that our lifework is rounded off and well-finished, so that in the survey of it by our successors they may say of us, "He being dead yet speaks." As we must soon be gone from among the living, let us bless them while we may. Arise, you saints, and bestir yourselves, for the day is far spent and the shadows of evening are falling! I pray that we may learn well this first lesson of our text. O Spirit of Life, teach us life even by the doings of death! II. Secondly, we have here before us THE PERPETUITY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. There was a change in the constituent elements of the Israelite nation, but the nation was still there. Not one man was there who was counted 38 years before, save Caleb and Joshua, and yet the nation was the same! Do you ask for Israel? There it is. Balaam can see the people from the top of the hill and they are the same people whom Pharaoh pursued to the Red Sea. The nation is living, though a nation has died. It is the same chosen seed of Abraham with whom Jehovah is in covenant. God has a Church in the world and He will have a Church in the world till time shall be no more! The gates of Hell and the jaws of death shall not prevail against the Church, though each one of its members must depart out of this world in his turn. Mark well that "the Church in the wilderness" lives on. There are the same 12 tribes, the same standards heading the tribes, the same tabernacle in the midst of the host and the same priesthood celebrating sacred service with solemn pomp. Everything has changed and yet nothing has changed. God has built His holy habitation upon foundations which can never be removed! Although the men who bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord wear other names, yet they fulfill the same office. The music of the sanctuary rises and falls, but the strain goes on. The hallelujah never ceases, nor is there a pause in the perpetual chorus, "His mercy endures forever." The gaps were filled up by appointed successors. As one warrior died, another man stepped into his place, even as one wave dying on the shore is pursued by another. The men were not all swept away at once, but by perceptible degrees. Now and then there came an awful and sudden destruction, as when Korah, Dathan and Abiram went down alive into the pit, but, as a rule, the people dropped off gradually, as ripe fruit falls from the trees--and they were succeeded by others as the fading leaves of autumn have the buds of spring just beneath them. In the Church of God one dies in the order of Nature, but another is born into the Kingdom by the power of Divine Grace. We miss some useful Christian woman and we lament her, but before many days another Sister is prepared of the Lord to serve in her place. Baptism for the dead never ceases among us. An honored Brother falls asleep and we carry him to the grave and, possibly, we fear no other can do his work and fill the vacancy he leaves. Perhaps no one can do the same work, but yet, in some other way or form, the work is done! The vines are trimmed, the sheep are fed and the lambs are cherished. Not one dead man lies in the way to stop the march of the army, as did the corpse of Amasa, which lay dead in the road in David's day. The chosen host still marches on! Even as the stars in their courses, we still move on. God buries His workmen, but His work lives. In Israel's case the gap were filled by their own sons. As these men passed away, their children took their places. I commend to you, my Brothers and Sisters, this fact as your encouragement in prayer for your children. Oh, that the Lord would pour His Spirit upon our seed and His blessing upon our offspring! Oh, that every saint here may be succeeded by his own descendants! This is the Lord's frequent way of keeping alive the gracious succession. Abraham is gone, but Isaac still kindles the altar fire. In a blind old age Isaac is gathered to his fathers, but Jacob worships "the Fear of his father Isaac." Jacob gathers up his feet in bed, but Judah and Joseph, and the rest of them, continue as salt in the earth. Oh, that it may be so in all our families! May we never lack a man to stand before the Lord God of Israel to testify for Him! Among all the honors that God can put upon our households I think this is the greatest, that we should have in our families a succession of saints! It is no small privilege to look back and to remember our ancestors who feared the Lord--may we also look forward with hope that if this dispensation lasts, there may still be some of our name, bearing our blood in their veins, who shall be called by Sovereign Grace into the service we have loved so well! Search beyond the congregation for new converts, but do not forget to look within your own doors for the largest accessions to the Church! Hope that your sons and daughters after the flesh may be born into "the one family in Heaven and earth," which bears the name of Jesus! Pray that your children may be God's children--and may your prayer come up with acceptance into the ears of the Lord our God whose mercy is on children's children of them that fear Him and keep His Covenant! All the offices of "the Church in the wilderness" were filled with fitting men. Behold Aaron, in his robes of glory and beauty! What a man is he to be the High Priest! With what grace and dignity he presides! He dies--will not the priesthood fail? No, my Brothers and Sisters, yonder is Eleazar, who occupies his father's place most worthily! Moses also passes away. There is none like Moses. He is King in Jeshurun, without peer or rival! The Jews have a tradition that when he was called to go up to the top of Nebo to die, the people followed him up the hill, the women beating on their breasts and bitterly wailing, while the strong men bowed themselves with grief and cried, "The father of the nation is to be taken away! Alas, what shall we do?" He was bid to leave the people on the mountain side and he went up, alone, to the place where Jehovah kissed away his soul--and so he passed into his rest. Truly it was a great loss, but the Lord found a man to follow Moses. Joshua was not equal to Moses in many things and yet, for the work he had to do, he was a much more fit man than Moses. The times were red with war and Joshua was more able than Moses to fight the Canaanites and conquer the land. Joshua was the man for the sword, as Moses had been the man of the Book. And God will fill every office in His Church, not as you and I might wish, but as His infinite wisdom determines. Therefore let us be of good courage and fear no lack. At this second numbering, the people stood ready for greater work than they had ever done before. The first numbering found them fit for the wilderness--the second numbering found them ready for the capture of the goodly land and Lebanon. God had been preparing them, by 40 years of marching, for their new enterprise and for development into a nation. May it please the Lord to make His Church ready for the coming of her Lord and for the salvation of nations! If brighter days are dawning, the Church will be prepared as a bride for her husband--and if tribulation is to come to try all the earth, she shall be strengthened as a martyr for the burning! The Lord keeps her lest any hurt her--He will keep her night and day. It was Israel's joy that God's love was not withdrawn from the nation. The Lord still acknowledged the tribes as His people. His Glory was still above the Mercy Seat and His fiery, cloudy pillar still guided their marching or fixed their stopping. Still the manna dropped from Heaven and still they drank of the water from the smitten Rock. Thus the Lord still has a Church and it is always the same Church, loved of her lord, indwelt by His Spirit and dedicated to His praise. Let us take courage--the Church is not destroyed! Many changes take place and many sorrows are involved therein, but the Church of God is as always as alive as her Immortal Head, who has declared, "Because I live, you shall live also." Her stars are still the hope of the world's night and her angels are the heralds of the eternal morning! She follows the bleeding Lamb who is the Doctrine of her teaching, the Model of her acting, the Glory of her hope! III. Thirdly, let me bring before your minds THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF THE WORD OF GOD. This we perceive in the last verse. "For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun." Note how unchangeable are the threats of the Lord. "Among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron, the Priest, numbered. For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness." Take note of this, you that think God's Word can fail--you know not what you dream! His Words of righteous wrath are not lost--they kill as with a two-edged sword. The verse says, "There was not left a man of them." Whom the Lord had condemned to die, nothing could keep alive. Therefore, do not imagine, O you that obey not the Lord, that you shall go unpunished! The unbelievers were many, yet not one escaped. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished." The rebels were a terribly large majority, but the crowds in the broad way make it none the safer. God has no respect for multitudes--"The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God." Here they outnumbered the faithful more than 10,000 times and yet the justice of God did not spare one of them! "There was not left a man of them." How can any of you hope to escape? "Your hands shall find out all your enemies." The proudest sinner shall be laid low--the thunders of Jehovah shall smite down each individual transgressor--and no one shall go away free in the day of God's wrath! It was a long time before all the sinners died, but the long-suffering of God had its limit and, in the end, every rebel died in the wilderness. They lived on, some of them, for all the 40 years, but they could not pass the boundary. Perhaps they said, "Ah, this ban from God will never take effect on us." Yet, before the years were up, the survivors of the doomed race had to share the common fate. Not a man of those whom Moses and Aaron numbered at Sinai could pass the line of fire which closed in the 40 years. God waits, waits in infinite mercy, but the punishment of the wicked is none the less sure. "Their foot shall slide in due time." The Lord has bent His bow and made it ready, and when their hour is come, they shall find that He is not slack concerning His Word. Do not, I pray you, doubt the terrible certainty of Divine threats because they are long in taking effect. Say not, "Where is the promise of His coming?" He will come--and when He comes it shall be "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Some of the unbelieving generation were, no doubt, full of vigor, and they said, "We are as strong as old Caleb and quite as likely as he to cross the Jordan. Our eyes are as clear as those of Moses and we shall outlive the 40 years appointed us." But death chilled the coals of juniper and quenched their vehement flame. The stalwart man of war laid down his weapons, vanquished by the unconquerable foe of men. "There was not left a man of them." How like a knell those words sound in my ears! The mighty in the day of battle were no longer mighty when their hour had come! "They could not enter in because of unbelief." "Their carcasses fell in the wilderness." All their days were passed away in the wrath of God. Beware, you that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. It is vain for you to indulge a hope, "larger" or smaller, if you die in your sin! The Justice of the Most High is not to be escaped! In that Last Great Day, when the Throne shall be set, and every man shall give an account for the things done in his body, whether they are good or whether they are evil, the strict Judge will, by no means, clear the guilty, but they shall be driven away in His wrath to the place where their worm dies not and their fire is not quenched! Oh that you would flee to Christ for refuge! Look to His Cross, I pray you, that you may be saved! As the Lord fulfilled His threats, so did He cause His promises to come to pass. Caleb lived on and so did Joshua. They were often in danger. Did not the rebels take up stones to stone them? They were often near to death--Joshua was commander-in-chief of the army and Caleb was a man of war from his youth up. They endured the common risks of soldiers, but nothing could kill them, for God had promised that they should enter the land! They believed God and honored Him by their conduct and, therefore, He kept them until the hour came to go in unto the land to possess it. There were only two of them, but God did not, therefore, overlook them. He keeps covenant with individuals as well as with nations! They were not men who kept themselves out of harm's way, neither were they timorous and, therefore, afraid to advance their opinions. No doubt they came in for a special share of envy and malice, but their reward with God was sure. If you believe in Jesus, though you should be the only one of your family, yet you shall be saved! Though you know none of your kin fear the Lord, yet the God of Israel will not forget the lone one who is separated from his brethren. Though the faithful should become so few that all the saints together should only make a handful, yet it is written, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." God's Word stands! "The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away: but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the Word by which the Gospel is preached unto you." Jehovah's threats and promises are of equal force. "Has He said, and shall He not do it?" There shall be no change, even, to a jot or tittle in this wondrous Book! God forbid that we should begin to doubt it, for if we once begin, where shall we end? With this striking confirmation before us, we be- lieve that the Word of the Lord must stand. Let us be as the man whom the Lord blesses, because, says He, "he trembles at My Word." IV. Our last point is this--learn from my text THE ABIDING NECESSITY OF FAITH. Those people came out of Egypt with Moses and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea when they came forth into the wilderness. One would have hoped that they all would march to Canaan, but it was not so. The first census is taken. Their names are on the roll. But, sad to say, at the next numbering all those names have vanished! What a difference between the church roll at Sinai and the Book of Life by Jordan! If you profess to be the people of God, we count you among His children--you are written among the living in Zion. But what an awful thing it would be if your name should not be written in the Lamb's Book of Life at the last! What if you should lie on the threshing floor in the great heap before the winnowing, but should be gone with the chaff as soon as the Lord has come, "whose fan is in His hand"? Oh, that none of us may provoke the Lord to swear in His wrath that we shall not enter into His rest! Learn, first, that no man is, was, or ever shall be saved without faith. "He that believes not shall be damned" is our Lord's solemn declaration. It is written, "He that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." This is as true today as when it was first spoken. Learn, next, that no privilege can supply the lack of faith. We read that they heard, as you do. But some, "when they had heard, did provoke." Their provocation lay mainly in their unbelief. No hearing, no, not hearing the Apostles, themselves, could save you without faith! "The Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Hearing may minister to condemnation if the Truth of God is not believed! These people went a certain way with Moses towards the Lord's promised rest. They did come out of Egypt. They were numbered with Jehovah's people in the numbering at Sinai. They were separated from all the world in the quietude of the wilderness. But we read there was in them "an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." In heart they went back to Egypt! It is not enough to begin well--"he that endures to the end shall be saved"--and no other! They had ceremonies in abundance, but they were not saved by them. They had the morning and the evening lambs. They were circumcised. They ate the Passover. They kept the Day of Atonement. But all these things together did not save them from dying in the desert, shut out of Canaan by unbelief. "They could not enter in because of unbelief." Nothing can make up for the absence of faith. They had nothing to do all the day long in the wilderness but to learn the lessons of God. They had time for thought and they had the best of teachers to instruct them--and the best of textbooks in the ceremonial Law--and yet their knowledge did not preserve them from leaving their carcasses in the desert! They had plenty of time for meditation and contemplation. They had no care about temporals, for their bread was given them and their waters were sure. And yet, because of absence offaith, they did not learn that elementary Truth of God which would have ministered to them an entrance into rest. But none perished who had faith--no, not one! All those who believed God and held fast to Him, were made inheritors of the land. Caleb and Joshua--these two saw the land and took their places in it. If you believe, whatever your name may be, you shall be saved, for, "he that believes and is baptized shall be saved." It is written, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Caleb and Joshua, by faith, entered into the land promised to the fathers and you, my Hearer, can only enter in by faith! Have faith in God and you have all things! But without faith it is impossible to please God. Mark this--while it was faith alone which saved them, faith gave these men notable characters. We read of, "My servant, Caleb." He that believes God becomes a servant of God and counts it all joy to obey his Lord! Faith is the mother of obedience. The Lord said that Caleb "had another spirit with him"--faith puts quite another spirit into a man--it is not a murmuring or a mutinous spirit. It is not an ungrateful or distrustful spirit. Neither is it a haughty, willful, rebellious spirit. But it is a spirit of love, of hope, of confidence in God. The faithful man is of another spirit from that of the world, for the Holy Spirit abides in him! Such a man chooses the way of God, so that the Lord says, "He has followed Me fully." This was well--it is wise not to run before God, nor to run away from God, but to follow Him step by step. It is wise not to follow man, but to wholly follow the Lord! It is commendable to follow Him fully with undivided, unwavering, unquestioning, untiring steps! The Lord will see that His servant, Caleb, enters into His rest--there is rest for good servants. As Caleb followed the Lord fully, it was meet that he should enter in where his Lord abides. Men of faith are not idle men, but servants--they are not wicked men, but they follow the Lord. They are not half-hearted men--they follow Him fully. It is not their holiness that saves them, but their faith--nevertheless, where there is no holiness, there is no fruit of faith and no evidence of salvation. As for Joshua, he was like Caleb. He was a brave and truthful man, a true servant of God. And though we have his life given somewhat at length, yet we discover no flaw in his character. It is almost a rare thing in the Word of God to find a life written at any length without a record of infirmity and sin, for the biographies of Scripture are truthful and they mention men's faults as well as their virtues. As there is no recorded fault in Joshua's career, we gather that he was of a noble character. "The Lord said unto Moses, Take you Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand upon him." So that the faith which took these two men into Canaan was in them the creator of a noble character. Now, what do you say, Beloved Friends? Do you believe God? Do you believe His Word? Or are you of a captious and dubious spirit? Do you believe like children? Is God your Father and, therefore, is His Word your Father's Word which you cannot think of questioning? Will you follow the Lamb wherever He goes, against giants or Canaanites? Will you believe God, whatever may give Him the lie? If so, you shall dwell in the land that flows with milk and honey--and you shall have your portion when the Lord appears! But if you do not truly believe, whatever profession you may make, your carcasses must fall in the wilderness! Woe is me that I have to deliver such a prophecy! Greater woe to you if it should be fulfilled in you! Believe the Lord and you shall prosper. This day, as you are preparing for the census of the nation, think of the time when God shall make up His last account of natives in His holy city. Will you be numbered with His people, or will your names be left out at the reading of the muster roll? God give us a place among His redeemed--and to His name shall be Glory forever and ever! Amen. PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-- Numbers1:1-5:44-46; 14:1-10,20-35; 26:1-4; 6-65. __________________________________________________________________ Israel's Hope--Or, The Center of the Target (No. 2199) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 19, 1891, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." Psalm 130:7. When he penned this Psalm, the writer, David, was in deep distress, if not of circumstances, yet of conscience. He constantly mentions iniquities and begs forgiveness. He felt like a shipwrecked mariner, carried overboard into the raging sea. Thus he reviews the situation--"Out of the depths have I cried unto You, O Lord." Yet he lived to tell the tale of deliverance! His prayer from among the waves was a memory worth preserving and he preserves it. The mercy of God to him he weaves into a song for us--and in this our text is found. Two things the rescued sufferer tells us. First, that, as God delivered him from the power of sin, so He will deliver all His praying, wrestling, believing people. That is the last verse of the Psalm--"He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." The argument is--He delivered me. What am I more than others? The gracious Lord who saved me will save all those who call upon Him in truth. He delivered me, though laden with iniquities, and His pardoning mercy is unfailing and, therefore, He can and will rescue others from their uttermost distresses. This is a good line of reasoning, for the Lord's ways are constant and He will do for all Believers what He has done for one of them. The other thing which the Psalmist sets before us is this--we are wise if we apply to God, alone, for help. He says, "I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait. My soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning." He incidentally tells us that it is vain to wait upon man and put our trust in any human support, for the way of deliverance only lies in reliance upon God, immediately and alone. We are not to depend upon outward means, but upon the God who lends efficacy to all means. Why is it that we need to be told of this? Why is faith in God so rare? To go first to the Lord is to save time! Straightforward always makes the best runner and to go straight to God is not only our duty, but it will be our happiest course. The Psalm encourages us to this by the assurance that the Lord can and will help all that seek Him--and it urges us to let that seeking be distinctly and directly turned to the Most High, to Him alone and to none other. To join another ground of confidence with the Lord is a sort of practical idolatry which is to the wounding of faith. May we learn well the lesson of this Psalm! When we meet with a man who has been in special trouble and he has escaped from it, we are anxious to know how it came to pass in order that if we are cast into similar trial, we also may resort to the same door of hope. You meet with a man that has long been sorely afflicted--to find him full of joy at his relief is a pleasure and a personal comfort! You heard him lamenting for years and now you hear him rejoicing--and this excites your wonder and your hope! It is as though a cripple saw another lame man leaping and running. He very naturally enquires, "How is this?" The other day you saw a blind man begging in the street--and now he has eyes bright as that which sparkle on the face of a gazelle--and you cry in astonishment--"Tell me who was the oculist that operated on your eyes, for I may be in the same case and I would be glad to know where to go." Here, then, we have a gate of knowledge opened before us. The Psalmist found salvation and deliverance in going directly to God and trusting in Him! Let us follow his example and in all times of distress, caused by our own iniquity, or by anything else, let us repair to the Throne of Grace, for the Most High will also deal with us even as He dealt with His servant of old, to whose cries, out of the depths, He lent an attentive ear. This Psalm is called "De Profundis"-- its teaching is not only profound but practical. Let me freely speak with you as concerning the great salvation which, as fallen creatures, we all need. In that matter our only resort must be to God, alone, for, "salvation is of the Lord." God has been pleased, in these last days, to reveal Himself in a glorious manner, suitable to our salvation. He was always to be seen in creation by those whose sight was not darkened by moral evil and, doubtless, angelic eyes always beheld Jehovah in all the works of His hands. He was to be seen under the old Law in types and shadows and, believing men and women were enabled, by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, to behold the Lord in His Temple. But in these last days, the Lord has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has made heir of all things, and in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. There is the Father most clearly to be seen--and now, if we read that Israel is to hope in the Lord and if we see that the way of salvation lies in relying upon "the Lord"--we must read between the lines and understand that the glorious Lord must always be the object of faith according as He, at this time, reveals Himself. It is written, "They that know Your name will put their trust in You." That is to say, they trust, as they know how He reveals Himself. At this moment the manifestation of God stands thus--His dear Son has descended from the highest heavens and taken upon Himself our human nature, so that He is God and Man in one sacred and mysterious Person! In that complex form, the Word made flesh dwelt among men on earth some 30 years and more. And then He took upon Himself the weight of human sin and bore it upon His shoulders up to the Cross. He was arrested by the hand of Divine Justice and treated by Justice as if He had been a sinner, though sinner He could never be. He was numbered with the transgressors and given over to wicked men, who, in their willful malice, scourged Him, spit upon Him, crowned Him with thorns and condemned Him to a felon's death. He died, not for any iniquity of His own, but for the transgression of His people was He smitten. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Yes, "He was made a curse for us" and even more--"He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." "He died, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." If, then, we would trust God for our personal salvation, we must confide in Him as He manifests Himself for that purpose. And as we perceive that God sets forth Christ to be the Propitiation for our sin, we must accept that ordained way of putting away our sin. This is the way in which, "with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." And thus it is that, "He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." We trust in the Lord God as He reveals Himself in the Person of His Son Christ Jesus who has displayed in His own self the Love and the Justice of God--and has shown how these were equally glorified by the way of redemption through the substitution and sacrifice of One who is the Fellow of the Highest, and yet next-of-kin to man! Our Lord has buried our sin in His sepulcher and has gone up into Heaven to plead, there, with God, for transgressors and, at the same time, to prepare a place for as many as believe in Him and so are saved by His plenteous redemption! Understand, then, that if we read in the text, "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption," we now, today, in the light of the Gospel, read it thus--"Let the seeking sinner, who would be redeemed from all his iniquities, trust in God as He is seen in and through Jesus Christ, for there forgiveness is freely given through plenteous redemption, and sin is no longer marked or imputed to the Believer, because the sacrifice of Jesus has blotted it out and removed it forever." This is the introduction of our discourse. May the Holy Spirit now grant His anointing both to preacher and hearers! I. The chief point to which I desire you to give earnest heed is this--in obtaining Gospel blessings, THE FIRST EXERCISES OF FAITH MUST BE TOWARDS GOD IN CHRIST JESUS and not towards the blessings, themselves. "Let Israel hope in the Lord." We do not read, "Let Israel hope for mercy." But we read, "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy." Neither does it say, Let Israel hope for plenteous redemption." But it is worded thus, "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is plenteous redemption." To me this has the look of a very encouraging Truth of God--the sinner is not to hasten with his first thoughts to the mercy that he needs, nor even to the promise of God to which he may look--but he is to go to the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, as the Lord of Mercy and Fountain of Redemption! The first exercise of our faith is to deal immediately with the Lord God as He meets us in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here let me say that this is the most natural order which faith can follow. Look first to the Giver and then to the gift! Look for the Helper and then for the help! Do not be saying, "I long to be forgiven. I labor to believe that I am forgiven. I desire to be saved. I want to know that I am saved." This is looking for the fruit, when you have need, first, to find the tree! Your first business, as a seeker of pardon and salvation, is to believe in Jesus Christ, that is, to trust yourself with the Divine Savior. The natural order is believe in the Promiser and then you will believe the promise! You never say to yourself, "I should like to be able to take that man's word. I will sit down and try to make my mind confident of the truth of what he says." This would be a foolish and futile method of procedure. You follow a much more reasonable course--you enquire about the individual's character and standing--you find out who he is, what he is and what he has done. And thus you gather arguments for confidence and faith. You cannot help believing the promise when once you believe in the promiser. If you find a merchant to be an eminently upright and substantial man, you do not hesitate to take his checks. In fact, you would be glad to have your wallet full of them! Faith prizes the promises of her faithful God, and calls them precious. Apply this rule and deal with heavenly things in due order. You seek pardon. Do not look continually at this priceless mercy at first, but look to the pardoning God! You will soon believe in forgiveness if you cause the first exercise of your faith to refer to the Forgiver, even Christ Jesus, Himself. When you have believed in Him, as able to say, "Your sins are forgiven you," then you will believe in sins being forgiven! This is the natural order of things. So, also, if you desire to believe for salvation and to be assured that you have it, or may have it at once, the simple course--the natural course--is to believe in the Savior! To be healed, you believe first in the Healer. When you have believed in the Savior, then you will believe in the salvation. If you know that Jesus can save you; if you desire to be saved, you will trust Him to save you. You will be readily able to believe that you can be saved when you trust in Jesus as able to save to the uttermost. Poor trembling Heart, do not look at the blessing and say, "Alas, it is too great!" Look at the Savior Himself! Is anything too great for Him to give who gave His heart's blood to redeem? Do not say, "My heart is so hard it cannot be changed." Look at the Savior--is anything impossible to Him to whom the Father has committed all power? Is He not mighty to save? Fix your eyes, first and foremost, upon Him who is both God and Man and has, therefore, power and sympathy, majesty and mercy, Omnipotence and brotherliness. I pray you, do not consider so much the greatness of the effect as the unlimited power of the Cause. I may doubt my washing, but not when I believe in the cleansing virtue of the precious blood! It may be difficult to believe in my salvation, but not to believe in my Savior! It may be hard to hope for Heaven, but the text sets me an easier task--"Let Israel hope in the Lord." When I open my window God-wards and look towards the Lord Jesus, I see glorious things in the light of the rising sun, even things which I could not have seen if I had not first turned towards the light. "In the beginning God"--this, according to the first chapter of Genesis, is the natural order of all Divine work--do not attempt to alter it. To this I would add, this is the necessary order. It must be so--the Savior first and then the salvation. Suppose, for a moment, that it were possible for you to obtain pardon without Christ--what good would it do you? I would remind you that no blessing is a Covenant blessing, or a blessing at all, except as it is connected with Christ Jesus and so with the Lord God. No comfort is worth having if Jesus does not comfort us! No forgiveness is worth the words which utter it if Jesus does not forgive. There is no coming to the Father except by Christ. If, therefore, I imagine that I have come to the Father without Christ, it is clear that I have not come! If I fancy that I have saving blessings apart from the appointed Savior, I am a deceived man! Beloved, do not seek after mercy, pardon, holiness, Heaven--except through Christ Jesus our Lord--for you will be seeking counterfeits, shadows, delusions. Begin at the Cross! See how Jesus puts it--"Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He does not first say, "Take My yoke upon you," but first, "Come unto Me." He first gives us rest and then, afterwards, we find it. But we begin with coming to Him. First Christ and then His yoke. First Christ and then rest. Do not ask for rest, first, and then say, "I will come to Christ afterwards." This is an impossible order! Do not even say, "I must get a broken heart and then come to Christ." No, come to Christ FOR a broken heart! I preach a Savior to you, tonight, who wants nothing of you, but who is ready to begin with you at the beginning, just where you are, in all your unworthiness and ill desert--in all your depravity and vileness! He is ready to take you up from the mire of the pit wherein you lie and to look on you with love in all the pollution with which you are disgraced! Come, then, and begin with Jesus! It is the necessary order of your coming--first to Christ and then to His yoke and to His peace. Let your faith exercise itself, not so much on what you ought to be, or on what you hope to be, as on what Christ is and on His ability to make you all that your heart pines after. Hear the good word of my text and give good heed to it. Note well the permission of heavenly love--"Let Israel hope in the Lord." Observe, also, that, as it is the natural order and the necessary order, so it is evidently the easiest order. Sometimes it seems, to a burdened heart, to be more than difficult to believe in the pardon of innumerable sins--it appears impossible. Guilty One, do not try to believe in pardon in the abstract, but believe in Jesus the Sacrifice and Savior, who has once and for all appeared to put away sin. Believe in the Divine Substitute and then you will believe that the forgiveness of your sins is a thing provided for by Him. Do not even say, "I can never be sanctified. Such a wretched sinner as I am could never be made into a saint." Do not try to believe in sanctification, but rely upon the boundless power of Jesus to "make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight." For all parts of salvation, hope in the Lord and look to His hands for the working thereof. Forget yourself, now, and only think of Him who works all things according to the good pleasure of His will. Cease looking for the water and look for the Well! You will more readily see the Savior than see salvation, for He is lifted up, even He who is God, and beside Him there is none else. You will more easily fix your eyes on Jesus than upon justification, sanctification, or any other separate blessing. When the work seems hard, look to His hands--"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" You may fix your eyes upon a Covenant promise till it dazzles you, but if you see Jesus, the sight will strengthen your eyes and you will see the promise in Him--and perceive it to be, yes and amen, to the Glory of God. It is easier to believe in a personal Christ than in impersonal promises. That poor woman who was sick, in Jesus Christ's day, might have said to herself, "It is impossible that I should be healed," but then she thought not so much of the healing as of the Healer-- and when she saw Jesus walking about among the crowds, healing all manner of diseases--and when she believed that God was in Him, why, then she inferred that He could heal her disease! And so she came up behind Him and touched the hem of His garment. She sought Him and so sought healing! Stay in this line--let not the devil take you from it--that the first object of your faith should be the Lord Jesus, for by Him, as the Ladder which God has set up, you can climb to the highest place of privilege and lay hold upon the choicest gift of Divine Grace! This is the way to God, Himself, and the only way which our human feet can tread. Consider well who Christ was and what He has done--and then you will conclude that He can save even you! By looking to Him, you will be saved and what is easier than to look? To hope in God is a far more simple matter than to search for signs and evidences in yourself, or to labor to force yourself up into certain states of mind. Answer the question, "Will He save me?" by looking to see what kind of a Savior Jesus is--and when you perceive the Glory of His Person, the perfection of His obedience and the merit of His blood--you will be convinced that you may safely trust in Him according to His command, for He commands you to believe! Jesus declares, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." Let us come at once, for it is the nearest and best road to peace! To come, first of all, to God in Christ Jesus is the wisest course. You are too bewildered to know which blessing to seek, therefore seek Jesus, Himself, and He will be unto you wisdom! It is easier to come to the Cross than to the separate blessings which come of it. Take the straight road which lies plainly before your face. In faintness and trembling of heart we dare not appropriate a mercy--our palsied hands cannot grasp a favor and, therefore, it is our wisdom to fall at Jesus' feet and let Him give us what seems good to Him. Through our ignorance, we know not what to ask for--and through our doubt we are afraid to ask--therefore, let us leave all with our Lord. We need the wine and oil, but we are sorely wounded and shall do well to lie still and let Him pour them in. When the Good Samaritan is come, all is come. Let us, therefore, neither cry for wine nor oil, but for HIM--we know His name! The wisdom of the prayer is seen in its completeness. At first, sinners, conscious of their ill desert, cry to be saved from Hell and this is the most of their prayer. But suppose the Lord should give them this and not change their natures--would they be one whit the better? If there were no fires of Tophet, so long as a man has sin within him, he creates his own Hell! In seeking the Lord Jesus, a man finds escape from punishment and much more. No man knows enough to be able to ask for an all-round salvation--he will only seek this or that which seems to him most pressingly necessary. We are too ignorant, too much the creatures of feeling, too partial, too childish to make a catalog of what we need. But we can ask for Jesus, and He is all in one! How excellent is that hymn of ours with the refrain-- "Give me Christ, or else I die!" We have asked all when we have asked for the Savior anointed of the Lord. When our hope is in God through the Mediator whom He has appointed, we hope in Him in a way which renders our hope sure and steadfast--and this is the highest wisdom. In laying hold upon Jesus you have obtained not only something, but everything. In looking first to Jesus, you have sought for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and you know the promise that all other things shall be added. If you need strength, comfort, guidance, fruitfulness and anything else that makes up eternal salvation, behold, you have it in your Lord! Nothing that is needed for a soul between this present state of trial and the perfection of Heaven is omitted from Christ--"you are complete in Him." If, therefore, you make Him the first object of your faith, and lay hold upon Him, rather than upon any or all blessings, you are delivered from anxiety as to whether your ignorant prayers have comprehended all you need--and this is be a wise course to follow. It is, therefore, the most profitable course for needy souls like ourselves. By grasping our Lord and hoping in Him, we fill our hands, not with brass or silver, but with gold of Ophir. Let others hope where they may, but let Israel, the Prince, hope in the Lord from whom he has already won such royal favors. I see at times, in the newspaper, "Principals only will be dealt with," and in our heavenly business we had better keep to this rule. Go not to the servants--make all your applications to the Master--and in your dealings with Him seek not so much His gifts as Himself, for the Giver is always greater than what He gives! The bottle of water which Hagar carried for Ishmael is a poor thing compared with that well of God beside which Isaac abode. Fruit from a choice tree is well, but apples of gold in baskets of silver are not to be despised. But, if one can have the tree planted in his own garden, he is far richer. Our Lord is the apple tree among the trees of the forest and, to possess HIM, is to have the best of the best, yes, all things that can be desired! Covenant blessings are streams, but our Lord Jesus is the Wellhead. Believe for the infinite, immutable, inexhaustible "deep which lies under," and you may sink as many wells as you please. I believe that in every case wherein the soul finds peace, this is the actual order. We may go about after pardon, renewal and holiness, but we find no rest unto our souls while hunting for these. As a matter of fact, we look unto HIM and are lightened--and not by any other means. If, by aiming even at repentance, we are taken off from the Lord--we are taken off the right road. It is possible even to look to faith in such a manner as to forget the Object of faith! It is not my hand, but what my hand grasps that saves me when I lay hold on Christ! It is not my eye, but what my eyes see which saves me when I look to Jesus! In very deed no heart can find salvation in that which comes forth from itself--its hope lies only in the Lord, alone, to whom it must trust for everything. Beware of trusting to an anchor which lies on your own deck, or to a confidence which depends in the least degree on yourself. "Let Israel hope in the Lord." Now the Lord is not self, nor will He be joined with self! The Lord is beyond and outside of all that the creation can find within, or hope to produce from itself. Mercy and redemption are with the Lord, not with self. Why, then, should we look where, in the very nature of things, those are not and cannot be? Why not look to the Lord, in whom, alone, all heavenly treasures abide? This, then, is my message to every man or woman who desires salvation, "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." Do not begin by hoping in mercy and redemption, for these are not to be found apart from the Lord--but go at once to that Divine Person with whom there is mercy and plenteous redemption--then both of those will be granted to you. I wish I knew how to put this so plainly that every bewildered and cast-down spirit would catch my meaning and accept its counsel. I would also have preachers learn a lesson from the point I have been driving at. Let them not so much preach sinners to Christ as preach Christ to sinners. I am persuaded that a full and clear declaration of what Jesus is, as to His Person, offices, Character, work and authority would do more to produce faith than all our exhortations. "Whoever believes in Him has everlasting life"--but how shall they believe unless they hear of Him? The very best topic for the immediate conversion of men is Christ Crucified--the doctrine that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. I know one that came in here full of evil, living an unchaste life--and the text was, "He that believes in Him has everlasting life." There would not seem to be anything about the sermon to convict of sin but the charming mercy of God won that heart, and that heart, being won by love, learned at once to hate evil and to serve the Lord Jesus in all that is pure, lovely and of good report! There sat in this very house, not long ago, side by side with one who is still in the service of Satan, a woman who had not attended the House of God for years. Nothing was heard but the simple proclamation of the Grace of God in Christ Jesus to the guilty--and she was shot down by the side of her companion--the thought of the amazing mercy and infinite love of God, in giving His Son to die, touched her heart and she began to weep. Immediately her companion upbraided her, but she answered, "I have found mercy." That was enough for her--she made no other excuse for her emotion. I pray that the same effects may follow this sermon. I bid you hope in the Lord! Look not to abstract mercy! Look not to any feelings or resolves in yourselves! Look not, even, to the hearing of the Word of God, or to promises, alone, but look to Jesus, who still lives, and who is in the midst of His people at this time, waiting to receive all who are willing to come to Him! While I tell you this, I am praying the Holy Spirit to bless the Word to your souls, so that, at once, without delay, you may look only to the Lord and may trust in Him and be saved! You are allowed to do so, for the text says, "Let Israel hope in the Lord." If the Scripture permits, who shall forbid? II. Another form of the same Truth of God now invites our attention--ALL EXERCISES OF FAITH IN REFERENCE TO OTHER THINGS MUST BE IN CONNECTION WITH THE LORD. I began with our first exercise of faith, but I would not end there. As the stars called, "the Pointers," always point to the polestar, so must our faith always look to God in Christ Jesus. Having begun with Jesus, our faith must not look elsewhere. Let Israel always hope in the Lord, for with Him is what she still requires. What do you need tonight, dear Friend? Ask, and you shall receive--but ask only of the Lord! Knock, but knock at the same door! Plead, but when you are pleading, still plead the name of Jesus! Whenever you are expecting a heavenly favor, expect it from the Father through His dear Son, by the Holy Spirit! Whenever you are longing, long for nothing more than there is in Christ! And whenever you obtain a mercy, remember that you have received it only because you have, by faith, received Jesus, and so have become a child of God. Whenever you rejoice in a mercy, take care that you do not so much glory in it as in the Lord from whom it came. Hope in the Lord and never have any hope in yourself, for that would be a fruitless, groundless, rootless, sapless hope! You are still to find mercy and plenteous redemption in the Lord alone. I am afraid that sometimes we seek mercies apart from God the Giver, or apart from Christ, the channel of their bestowal--and this is always ill of us. Avoid such dangerous error! I read in the papers, frequently, allusions to "Providence." I know what I mean by Providence, but I do not know what the newspapers mean by it. I fear it is only a convenient phrase, a conventional expression which is not to be too carefully examined. They do not mean a living, foreseeing, providing, working Personality--that would be too much like religion! They admit a certain something, "a power which makes for righteousness," a nonentity called, "Providence." I have too often heard Christian people talk about thanking Providence. What is that? Do you mean, "thank God"? If so, say it boldly! It is God that provides. God arranges, God overrules, God works out His gracious designs! Again, how often do we hear of, "Nature" doing this and, "Nature" being that and, "Nature" producing the other! What do you mean? An infidel, some time ago, was speaking in the open air and he orated very eloquently about the elevating influences of Nature and what a blessing it was to study Nature. A friend in the crowd said to him, "That is very pretty, but would you have the goodness to tell me what Nature is, which does all this?" The orator answered tartly, "Every fool knows what Nature is." "Well," said the questioner, "then it will be easy to tell us." "Nature," said the speaker, "Well, Nature is Nature." Just so. That is where it ended. And so it is with very many people when they talk about Providence or Nature. Let us not speak without knowing what we mean, or without declaring our meaning. We do not erect an altar and inscribe it TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. We know the Lord and are known of Him and, therefore, we should speak of Him as our hope, our trust, our joy! We know no Providence apart from Jehovah-Jireh, the God who foresees and provides! To us there is no fickle chance, but the Lord reigns. Equally to us is there no blind, inexorable fate, but the Most High decrees and works out His wise and sovereign will! Therefore do not let God's Israel talk as if they hoped in luck or fate, but let them, "hope in the Lord," and acknowledge their reliance upon a personal God who is always working for them--"for with Him is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." Now, dear Brothers and Sisters, do you need mercy? In your prayers for pardoning mercy, quote the Savior's Sacrifice. Do you need sparing mercy? Mention Him whom God did not spare in the great atoning day. Do you need restoring mercy? Plead Him whom God brought again from the dead! Do you need to behold the light of Jehovah's Countenance? Plead Him who said, "Why have You forsaken Me?" In hoping for mercy, set the eyes of your hope upon the Lord Jesus and let no mercy be hoped for by you apart from Him! Remember what happened to Uzziah. He was a man of God and a king--but when he had grown very great, he thought that he would act as priest for himself. He went into the sanctuary of the Lord and burned incense on his own account--without the Lord's appointed priest--and he was struck with leprosy! And not only was he thrust out of the Temple, but he, himself, hurried to get out! I tremble for those in whom I see any sign of going before God in right of their own character. I fear that among God's own professing people there are some who are so conscious of their own knowledge and growth, that they pray without Christ, praise without Christ, and talk of being no longer in need of confessing sin! They dare to act without humbly depending upon the Presence of the great High Priest--and then they fall into sin and thus they are struck with leprosy and, perhaps, to their dying day they can never enter into such fellowship with God as once they knew. I would do nothing without Jesus! I would not even wish to repent except my eyes were upon the Cross. I would not hope to think a holy thought except as my soul still gazed upon Jesus my All. Away, away with every idea of mercy except it is mercy received through Jesus, for He, alone, is full of Grace and of His fullness must we receive! I would bind you, Brothers and Sisters, if I could, to the Cross as your one hope! I pray the Lord bind me forever to the Cross--the wounds my only fountains of hope, the blood and water my only cleansing! Go, you who have a righteousness of your own, and hope elsewhere! The only hope of my soul is the bleeding, dying, buried, risen, coming Savior! "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy," and with Him, alone! All the exercises of faith about mercy must always be tethered to the Cross. Mercy flows through Christ alone. So is it with "plenteous redemption." What a grand utterance that is--"plenteous redemption!" I would like to dwell upon it. Is there not rare music in the sound? It means plenteous forgiveness for plenteous sin, through a price paid, a ransom given. Only in Christ can you find this! "With Him is plenteous redemption." Do not dream of finding redemption in ordinances, in prayers, in tears, or in anything but the life and death and Person of the Son of God! "With Him is plenteous redemption." He has paid a great price and, therefore, a great debt is blotted out! Great offenses are forgiven, but only through the precious blood of our adorable Redeemer. "Plenteous redemption." Why, that means deliverance from the bondage of many lusts, freedom from the thralldom of strong passions, a ransom of captives from fierce taskmasters! My God, I long to be so delivered and redeemed! And there is with You all Grace, power and provision for plenteous deliverance by redemption--but this is found in Christ alone. I charge you, my Hearers, do not look for escape from the slavery of sin apart from the redemption of Christ! Do not expect to overcome the smallest sin except by the blood of the Lamb! There is nothing, I believe, more deceiving than the notion of the unregenerate heart that it is seeking after holiness--though it is destitute of the power of the Holy Spirit and takes no thought of the merit of Jesus Christ. We need much grace and plenteous redemption in fact--but all of all that we receive must come to us from the Lord, by Jesus Christ the Mediator! "Plenteous redemption" includes in its range of meaning great growth in Divine Grace, abounding usefulness, high spirituality and perfect preparedness for Heaven. For all these we must hope in the Lord, for they are with Him. Never think to have redemption in the least or in the highest degree apart from your hope in the Lord--your trusting in Christ Jesus. The pith and marrow of what I have said is this--hope distinctly in the Lord. There are many stars, but let one, alone, of all the train be the Object of your believing eye. Lay the foundation of your hope in the Lord! Go on building up your comfort in the Lord Jesus and in Him bring forth the top stone. Begin with Christ and end with Christ! As Christ grows more to you, take care that self grows less and less. If your Christianity puffs you up, it is not Christ's Christianity. I spoke just now of King Uzziah, let me refer to him once more. Read in the Second of Chronicles, chapter 26, at the 15th verse--"He was marvelously helped, till he was strong." When he became strong, he went off the lines and we read, "When he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction." Mind that. God will always help us while we are weak. When we are strong--what shall I say? Then are we weak and have need to fear, for we are already being lifted up, or we should not count ourselves strong--poor, puny creatures that we are! God will always bless us as long as we confess our dependence upon His blessing. He will always fill us as long as we are empty! He will always feed us as long as we are hungry. He will be your All in All so long as you are nothing. But the moment you boast in yourself, and say, "I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing," you will be left to learn that you are naked, poor and miserable! Woe was the day in which dust and ashes set up somebody! Nebuchadnezzar is proud and soon finds a rapid descent from the throne to eating grass like cattle! Worms, in the Presence of the Lord, do all they may do when they hope--they do all they can do when they hope in Him! They have nothing but sin and He has mercy upon them. They are slaves to evil, but He has plenteous redemption with which to set them free. The poorest, weakest, saddest among us may hope in the Lord, for He can do all things! Therefore, let us end our meeting with each one of us hoping in the Lord--and let us continue in our faith in "the God of hope"--till we receive the Heaven we hope for through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. PORTIONS OFSCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psalm 130, John 3. __________________________________________________________________ The Covenant Promise of the Spirit (No. 2200) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 10, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And I will put My Spirit within you." Ezekiel 36:27. No preface is needed and the largeness of our subject forbids our wasting time in beating about the bush. I shall try to do two things this morning--first, I would commend the text. And, secondly, I would, in some measure, expound the text. I. First, as for THE COMMENDATION OF THE TEXT, the tongues of men and of angels might fail. To call it a golden sentence would be much too commonplace--to liken it to a pearl of great price would be too poor a comparison! We cannot feel, much less speak, too much in praise of that great God who has put this clause into the Covenant of His Grace. In that Covenant, every sentence is more precious than Heaven and earth--and this line is not the least among His choice words of promise--"I will put My Spirit within you." I would begin by saying that it is a gracious Word. It was spoken to a graceless people, to a people who had followed "their own way" and refused the way of God--a people who had already provoked something more than ordinary anger in the Judge of all the earth, for He, Himself, said (v 18), "I poured My fury upon them." These people, even under chastisement, caused the holy name of God to be profaned among the heathen wherever they went! They had been highly favored, but they abused their privileges and behaved worse than those who never knew the Lord. They sinned wantonly, willfully, wickedly, proudly and presumptuously and, by this, they greatly provoked the Lord. Yet to them He made such a promise as this--"I will put My Spirit within you." Surely, where sin abounded Divine Grace did much more abound! Clearly this is a Word of Grace, for the Law says nothing of this kind. Turn to the Law of Moses and see if there is any Word of God spoken therein concerning the putting of the Spirit within men to cause them to walk in God's statutes. The Law proclaims the statutes, but only the Gospel promises the Spirit by which the statutes will be obeyed. The Law commands and makes us know what God requires of us, but the Gospel goes further and inclines us to obey the will of the Lord and enables us, practically, to walk in His ways. Under the dominion of Grace the Lord works in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure! So great a gift as this could never come to any man by merit. A man might so act as to deserve a reward of a certain kind, in measure suited to his commendable action, but the Holy Spirit can never be the wage of human service--the idea verges upon blasphemy! Can any man deserve that Christ should die for him? Who would dream of such a thing? Can any man deserve that the Holy Spirit should dwell in him and work holiness in him? The greatness of the blessing lifts it high above the range of merit and we see that if the Holy Spirit is bestowed, it must be by an act of Divine Grace--Grace infinite in bounty, exceeding all that we could have imagined. "Sovereign Grace over sin abounding" is here seen in clearest light. "I will put My Spirit within you" is a promise which drops with Graces as the honeycomb with honey! Listen to the Divine music which pours from this Word of Love. I hear the soft melody of Grace, Grace, Grace and nothing else but Grace. Glory be to God, who gives to sinners the indwelling of His Spirit! Note, next, that it is a Divine Word-- "I will put My Spirit within you." Who but the Lord could speak after this fashion? Can one man put the Spirit of God within another? Could all the Church combined breathe the Spirit of God into a single sinner's heart? To put any good thing into the deceitful heart of man is a great achievement, but to put the Spirit of God into the heart, truly, this is the finger of God! No, here I may say, the Lord has made bare His arm and displayed the fullness of His mighty power! To put the Spirit of God into our nature is a work peculiar to the Godhead and to do this within the nature of a free agent, such as man, is marvelous! Who but Jehovah, the God of Israel, can speak after this royal style and, beyond all dispute, declare, "I will put My Spirit within you"? Men must always surround their resolves with conditions and uncertainties, but since Omnipotence is at the back of every promise of God, He speaks like a king, yes, in a style which is only fit for the eternal God! He purposes and promises and He as surely performs. Sure, then, is this sacred saying, "I will put My Spirit within you." Sure, because Divine! O Sinner, if we poor creatures had the saving of you, we should break down in the attempt, but, behold, the Lord, Himself, comes on the scene and the work is done! All difficulties are removed by this one sentence, "I will put My Spirit within you." We have worked with our spirit, we have wept over you and we have entreated you--but we have failed. Lo, there comes One into the matter who will not fail, with whom nothing is impossible! And He begins His work by saying, "I will put My Spirit within you." The Word is of Grace and of God--regard it, then, as a pledge from the God of Grace. To me there is much charm in further thought that this is an individual and personal Word of God. The Lord means, "I will put My Spirit within you." That is to say, within you, as individuals. "I will put My Spirit within you" one by one. This must be so, since connection requires it. We read in verse 26, "A new heart also will I give you." Now, a new heart can only be given to one person. Each man needs a heart of his own and each man must have a new heart for himself. "And a new spirit will I put within you." Within each one this must be done. "And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh"--these are all personal, individual operations of Divine Grace! God deals with men one by one in solemn matters of eternity, sin and salvation. We are born one by one and we die one by one--even so we must be born again one by one--and each one, for himself, must receive Spirit of God. Without this, a man has nothing! He cannot be caused to walk in God's statutes except by infusion of Grace into him as an individual. I think I see among my hearers one man, or woman, who feels himself, or herself, to be all alone in the world and, therefore, hopeless. You can believe that God will do great things for a nation, but how shall solitary be thought of? You are an odd person, one that could not be written down in any list--a peculiar sinner with constitutional tendencies all your own. Thus says God, "I will put My Spirit within you"--within your heart--even yours! My dear Hearers, you who have long been seeking salvation, but have not known the power of the Spirit--this is what you need! You have been striving in energy of flesh, but you have not understood where your true strength lies. God says to you, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord." And again, "I will put My Spirit within you." Oh, that this Word might be spoken of the Lord to that young man who is ready to despair! To that sorrowful woman who has been looking into herself for power to pray and believe! You are without strength or hope in and of yourself, but this meets your case in all points. "I will put My Spirit within you"--within you as an individual! Enquire of the Lord for it! Lift up your heart in prayer to God and ask Him to pour upon you the Spirit of Grace and of supplications. Plead with the Lord, saying, "Let Your good Spirit lead me. Even me!" Cry, "Pass me not, my gracious Father; but in me fulfill this wondrous Word of yours, 'I will put My Spirit within you.'" Note, next, that this is a separating word. I do not know whether you will see this readily, but it must be so--this Word of God separates a man from his fellows. Men by nature are of another spirit from that of God and are under subjection to that evil spirit, the Prince of the power of the air. When the Lord comes to gather out His own, fetching out from among the heathen, He effects separation by doing according to this Word, "I will put My Spirit within you." This done, the individual becomes a new man. Those who have the Spirit are not of the world, nor like the world--and soon have to come out from among the ungodly and to be separate--for difference of nature creates conflict. God's Spirit will not dwell with the evil spirit--you cannot have fellowship with Christ and with Belial--with the Kingdom of Heaven and with this world. I wish that the people of God would again wake up to the Truth of God that to gather out a people from among men is the great purpose of the present dispensation. It is still true, as James said at the Jerusalem Council, "Simeon has declared how God at first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name." We are not to remain clinging to the old wreck with expectation that we shall pump water out of her and get her safe into port. No, the cry is very different--"Take to the lifeboat! Take to the lifeboat!" You are to quit the wreck and then you are to carry away from the sinking mass, that which God will save. You must be separate from the old wreck, lest it suck you down to sure destruc- tion! Your only hope of doing good to the world is by yourselves being, "not of the world," even as Christ was not of the world. For you to go down to the world's level will neither be good for it nor for you. That which happened in the days of Noah will be repeated, for when the sons of God entered into alliance with the daughters of men--and there was a league between the two races--the Lord could not endure the evil mixture, but drew up the sluices of the lower deep and swept the earth with a destroying flood. Surely, in that last day of destruction, when the world is overwhelmed with fire, it will be because the Church of God shall have degenerated and the distinctions between the righteous and the wicked shall have been broken down. The Spirit of God, wherever He comes, does speedily make and reveal the difference between Israel and Egypt--and in proportion as His active energy is felt, there will be an ever-widening gulf between those who are led of the Spirit and those who are under the dominion of the flesh. The possession of the Spirit will make you, my Hearer, quite another sort of man from what you are now, and then you will be actuated by motives which the world will not appreciate, for the world knows us not because it knew Him not. Then you will act, speak, think and feel in such a way that this evil world will misunderstand and condemn you. Since the carnal mind knows not the things that are of God--for those things are spiritually discerned--it will not approve your objectives and designs. Do not expect it to be your friend. The Spirit which makes you to be of the seed of the woman is not the spirit of the world! The seed of the serpent will hiss at you and bruise your heel. Your Master said, "Because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hates you." This is a separating Word of God, this. Has it separated you? Has the Holy Spirit called you alone and blessed you? Do you differ from your old companions? Have you a life they do not understand? If not, may God in mercy put into you that most heavenly deposit, of which He speaks in our text--"I will put My Spirit within you"! But now notice, that it is a very uniting Word. It separates from the world, but it joins to God. Note how it runs-- "I will put My Spirit within you." It is not merely a spirit, or the spirit, but My Spirit. Now when God's own Spirit comes to reside within our mortal bodies, how near akin we are to the Most High! "Know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit?" Does not this make a man sublime? Have you never stood in awe of your own selves, O you Believers? Have you regarded enough even this poor body as being sanctified and dedicated, and elevated into a sacred condition, by being set apart to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit? Thus are we brought into the closest union with God that we can well conceive of. Thus is the Lord our Light and our life, while our spirit is subordinated to the Divine Spirit. "I will put My Spirit within you"--then God Himself dwells in you! The Spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead is in you! With Christ in God your life is hid and the Spirit seals you, anoints you and abides in you. By the Spirit we have access to the Father! By the Spirit we perceive our adoption and learn to cry, "Abba, Father." By the Spirit we are made partakers of the Divine Nature and have communion with the thrice holy Lord! I cannot help adding here that it is a very condescending Word--"I will put My Spirit within you." Is it really so, that the Spirit of God who displays the power and energetic force of God, by whom God's Word is carried into effect-- that the Spirit who of old moved upon the face of the waters and brought order and life from chaos and death--can it be so that He will deign to sojourn in men? God in our nature is a very wonderful conception! God in the Babe at Bethlehem, God in the Carpenter of Nazareth, God in the "Man of Sorrows," God in the Crucified, God in Him who was buried in the tomb--this is all marvelous! The Incarnation is an infinite mystery of love--but we believe it. Yet, if it were possible to compare one illimitable wonder with another, I should say that God's dwelling in His people--and that repeated ten thousand times over--is more marvelous! That the Holy Spirit should dwell in millions of redeemed men and women is a miracle not surpassed by that of our Lord's espousal of human nature, for our Lord's body was perfectly pure and the Godhead, while it dwells with His holy Manhood, does at least dwell with a perfect and sinless Nature. But the Holy Spirit bows Himself to dwell in sinful men! To dwell in men who, after their conversion, still find the flesh warring against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh--men who are not perfect, though they strive to be so--men who have to lament their shortcomings and even to confess with shame a measure of unbelief! "I will put My Spirit within you" means the abiding of the Holy Spirit in our imperfect nature. Wonder of wonders! Yet is it as surely a fact as it is a wonder. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the Spirit of God, for, "if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, He is none of His." You could not bear the suspicion that you are not His and, therefore, as surely as you are Christ's, you have His Spirit abiding in you! The Savior has gone away on purpose that the Comforter might be given to dwell in you--and He does dwell in you. Is it not so? If it is so, admire this condescending God, and worship and praise His name! Sweetly submit to His rule in all things. Grieve not the Spirit of God. Watch carefully that nothing comes within you that may defile the Temple of God. Let the faintest monition of the Holy Spirit be law to you. It was a holy mystery that the Presence of the Lord was specially within the veil of the Tabernacle and that the Lord God spoke by Urim and Thummim to His people. It is an equally sacred marvel that now the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirits and abides within our nature and speaks to us whatever He hears of the Father. By Divine impressions which the opened ear can apprehend and the tender heart can receive, He speaks to us. God grant us to know His still small voice so as to listen to it with reverent humility and loving joy--then shall we know the meaning of these words, "I will put My Spirit within you." Nor have I yet done with commending my text, for I must not fail to remind you that it is a very spiritual Word. "I will put My Spirit within you" has nothing to do with our wearing a peculiar garb--that would be a matter of little worth. It has nothing to do with affectations of speech--those might readily become a deceptive peculiarity. Our text has nothing to do with outward rites and ceremonies, but goes much further and deeper. It is an instructive symbol when the Lord teaches us our death with Christ by burial in Baptism--it is to our great profit that He ordains bread and wine to be tokens of our communion in the body and blood of His dear Son--but these are only outward things and if they are unattended with the Holy Spirit they fail of their design. There is something infinitely greater in this promise--"I will put My Spirit within you." I cannot give you the whole force of the Hebrew, as to the words, "within you," unless I paraphrase them a little, and read, "I will put My Spirit in the midst of you." The sacred deposit is put deep down in our life's secret place. God puts His Spirit not upon the surface of the man, but into the center of his being. The promise means--"I will put My Spirit in your heart, in the very soul of you." This is an intensely spiritual matter, without admixture of anything material and visible. It is spiritual, you see, because it is the Spirit that is given--and He is given internally within our spirit. It is true the Spirit operates upon the external life, but it is through the secret and internal life, and of that inward operation our text speaks. This is what we so greatly require. Do you know what it is to attend a service and hear God's Truth faithfully preached and yet you are forced to say, "Somehow or other it did not enter into me; I did not feel the unction and taste the savor of it"? "I will put My Spirit within you," is what you need. Do you not read your Bibles and even pray--and do not both devotional exercises become too much eternal acts? "I will put My Spirit within you" meets this evil! The good Spirit fires your heart. He penetrates your mind. He saturates your soul. He touches the secret and vital springs of your existence. Blessed Word of God! I love my text. I love it better than I can speak of it! Observe once more that this Word is a very effectual one. "I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments and do them." The Spirit is operative--first upon the inner life in causing you to love the Law of the Lord--and then it moves you openly to keep His statutes concerning Himself and His judgments between you and your fellow men. Obedience, if a man should be flogged to it, would be of little worth. But obedience springing out of a life within--this is a priceless breastplate of jewels. If you have a lantern, you cannot make it shine by polishing the outside glass, you must put a candle in it--and this is what God does--He puts the light of the Spirit within us and then our light shines! He puts His Spirit so deep down into the heart that the whole nature feels it! It works upward, like a spring from the bottom of a well. It is, moreover, so deeply implanted that there is no removing it. If it were in the memory, you might forget it. If it were in the intellect, you might err in it. But, "within you," it touches the whole man and has dominion over you without fear of failure. When the very kernel of your nature is quickened into holiness, practical godliness is effectually secured. Blessed is He who knows by experience our Lord's Words--"The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." If I should fail in expounding the text, I hope I have so fully commended it to you that you will turn it over and meditate upon it yourselves--and so get a home-born exposition of it! The key of the text is within its own self, for if the Lord gives you the Spirit, you will then understand His Words--"I will put My Spirit within you." II. But now I must work upon THE EXPOSITION OF THE TEXT. I trust the Holy Spirit will aid me. Let me show you how the good Spirit manifests the fact that He dwells in men. I have to be very brief on a theme that might require a great length of time and can only mention a part of His ways and workings. One of the first effects of the Spirit of God being put within us is quickening. We are dead by nature to all heavenly and spiritual things, but when the Spirit of God comes, then we begin to live. The man visited of the Spirit begins to feel--the terrors of God make him tremble, the love of Christ makes him weep. He begins to fear and he begins to hope--a great deal of the first and a very little of the second, it may be. He learns spiritually to sorrow. He is grieved that he has sinned and that he cannot cease from sinning. He begins to desire that which once he despised--he especially desires to find the way of pardon and reconciliation with God. Ah, dear Hearers! I cannot make you feel, I cannot make you sorrow for sin, I cannot make you desire eternal life--but it is all done as soon as this is fulfilled by the Lord, "I will put My Spirit within you." The quickening Spirit brings life to the dead in trespasses and sins! This life of the Spirit shows itself by causing the man to pray. The cry is the distinctive mark of the living child. He begins to cry in broken accents, "God be merciful to me." At the same time that he pleads, he feels the soft tug of repentance. He has a new mind towards sin and he grieves that he should have grieved his God. With this comes faith, perhaps feeble and trembling--only a touch of the hem of the Savior's robe--but still Jesus is his only hope and his sole trust. To Him he looks for pardon and salvation. He dares to believe that Christ can save even him. Then has life come into the soul when trust in Jesus springs up in the heart! Remember, dear Friends, that as the Holy Spirit gives quickening at the first, so He must revive and strengthen it. Whenever you become dull and faint, cry for the Holy Spirit. Whenever you cannot feel in devotion as you wish to feel and are unable to rise to any heights of communion with God, plead my text in faith and beg the Lord to do as He has said, namely, "I will put My Spirit within you." Go to God with this Covenant clause, even if you have to confess, "Lord, I am like a log. I am a helpless lump of weakness. Unless You come and quicken me I cannot live to You." Plead importunately the promise, "I will put My Spirit within you." All the life of the flesh will gender corruption. All the energy that comes of mere excitement will die down into the black ashes of disappointment. Only the Holy Spirit is the life of the regenerated heart! Have you the Spirit? And if you have Him within you, have you only a small measure of His life, and do you wish for more? Then go where you went at first! There is only one river of the Water of Life--draw from its floods. You will be lively enough, bright enough, strong enough and happy enough when the Holy Spirit is mighty within your soul! When the Holy Spirit enters, after quickening he gives enlightening. We cannot make men see the Truth of God-- they are blind--but when the Lord puts His Spirit within them, their eyes are opened. At first they may see rather hazily, but still they see. As the light increases and the eye is strengthened, they see more and more clearly. What a mercy it is to see Christ, to look unto Him and so to be lightened! By the Spirit, souls see things in their reality--they see the actual truth of them and perceive that they are facts. The Spirit of God illuminates every Believer so that he sees still more marvelous things out of God's Law--but this never happens unless the Spirit opens his eyes. The Apostle speaks of being brought "out of darkness into His marvelous light" and it is a marvelous light, indeed, to come to the blind and dead! Marvelous because it reveals the Truth of God with clearness. It reveals marvelous things in a marvelous way! If hills and mountains, if rocks and stones were suddenly to be full of eyes, it would be a strange thing in the earth, but not more marvelous than for you and for me by the illumination of the Holy Spirit to see spiritual things! When you cannot make people see the Truth of God, do not grow angry with them, but cry, "Lord, put Your Spirit within them!" When you get into a puzzle over the Word of the Lord, do not give up in despair, but believingly cry, "Lord, put Your Spirit within me!" Here lies the only true light of the soul. Depend upon it, all that you see by any light except the Spirit of God, you do not see spiritually. If you only see intellectually, or rationally, you do not see to salvation. Unless intellect and reason have received the heavenly Light of God, you may see, and yet not see--even as Israel of old. Indeed, your boasted clear sight may aggravate your ruin, like that of the Pharisees, of whom our Lord said, "But now you say, 'We see,' therefore your sin remains." O Lord, grant us the Spirit within, for our soul's illumination! The Spirit also works conviction. Conviction is more forcible than illumination. It is the setting of a Truth before the eye of the soul, so as to make it powerful upon the conscience. I speak to many here who know what conviction means. Still, I will explain it from my own experience. I knew what sin meant by my reading, but yet I never knew sin in its hei-nousness and horror till I found myself bitten by it as by a fiery serpent, and felt its poison boiling in my veins! When the Holy Spirit made sin to appear sin, then was I overwhelmed with the sight and I would gladly have fled from myself to escape the intolerable vision. A naked sin stripped of all excuse and set in the light of the Truth of God is a worse sight than to see the devil himself! When I saw sin as an offense against a just and holy God, committed by such a proud and yet insignificant creature as myself, then was I alarmed. Sirs, did you ever see and feel yourselves to be sinners? "Oh, yes," you say, "we are sinners." O Sirs, do you mean it? Do you know what it means? Many of you are no more sinners in your own estimation than you are Hottentots. The beggar who exhibits a sham sore knows not disease--if he did, he would have enough of it without pretences. To kneel down and say, "Lord, have mercy upon us miserable sinners," and then to get up and feel yourself a very decent sort of person, worthy of commendation, is to mock Almighty God! It is by no means a common thing to get hold of a real sinner, one who is truly so in his own esteem. But it is as pleasant as it is rare, for you can bring to the real sinner the real Savior, and Jesus will welcome him! I do not wonder that Hart said-- "A sinner is a saved thing, The Holy Spirit has made him so." The point of contact between a sinner and Christ is sin. The Lord Jesus gave Himself for our sins. He never gave Himself for our righteousnesses. He comes to heal the sick and the point He looks to is our sickness. When a physician is called in, he has no patience with things apart from his calling. "Tut, tut!" he cries, "I do not care about your furniture, nor the number of your cows, nor what income tax you pay, nor what politics you admire! I have come to see a sick man about his disease and if you will not let me deal with it I will be gone." When a sinner's corruptions are loathsome to himself. When his guilt is foul in his own nostrils. When he fears the death that will come of it, then it is that he is really convicted by the Holy Spirit--and no one ever knows sin as his own personal ruin till the Holy Spirit shows it to him! Conviction as to the Lord Jesus comes in the same way. We do not know Christ as our Savior till the Holy Spirit is put within us. Our Lord says--"He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you." And you never see the things of the Lord Jesus till the Holy Spirit shows them to you. To know Jesus Christ as your Savior, as one who died for you in particular, is a knowledge which only the Holy Spirit imparts! To apprehend present salvation as your own, personally, comes by your being convinced of it by the Spirit. Oh, to be convinced of righteousness and convinced of acceptance in the Beloved! This conviction comes only of Him that has called you, even of Him of whom the Lord says, "I will put My Spirit within you." Furthermore, the Holy Spirit comes into us for purification. "I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them." When the Spirit comes, He infuses a new life, and that new life is a fountain of holiness! The new nature cannot sin because it is born of God and, "it is a living and incorruptible seed." This life produces good fruit and only good fruit. The Holy Spirit is the life of holiness. At the same time, the coming of the Holy Spirit into the soul gives a mortal stab to the power of sin. The old man is not absolutely dead, but it is crucified with Christ. It is under sentence and before the eyes of the Law it is dead, but as a man nailed to a cross may linger long, yet he cannot live, so the power of evil dies hard, but die it must! Sin is an executed criminal--those nails which fasten it to the Cross will hold it fast till no breath remains in it. God the Holy Spirit gives the power of sin its death wound. The old nature struggles in its dying agonies, but it is doomed and die it must. But you will never overcome sin by your own power, nor by any energy short of that of the Holy Spirit. Resolves may bind it, as Samson was bound with cords, but sin will snap the cords asunder. The Holy Spirit lays the axe at the root of sin and fall it must. The Holy Spirit within a man is "the Spirit of Judgment, the Spirit of Burning." Do you know Him in that character? As the Spirit of Judgment, the Holy Spirit pronounces sentence on sin and it goes out with the brand of Cain upon it. He does more--He delivers sin over to burning. He executes the death penalty on that which He has judged. How many of our sins have we had to burn alive! And it has cost us no small pain to do it. Sin must be got out of us by fire, if no gentler means will serve--and the Spirit of God is a consuming fire. Truly, "our God is a consuming fire." They paraphrase it, "God out of Christ is a consuming fire," but that is not Scripture--it is, "our God," our Covenant God, who is a consuming fire to refine us from sin! Has not the Lord said, "I will purely purge away all your dross, and take away all your tin"? This is what the Spirit does and it is, by no means, easy work for the flesh, which would spare many a flattering sin if it could. The Holy Spirit bedews the soul with purity till He saturates it. Oh, to have a heart saturated with holy influences till it shall be as Gideon's fleece, which held so much dew that Gideon could wring out a bowl full from it! Oh, that our whole nature were filled with the Spirit of God--that we were sanctified wholly, body, soul, and spirit! Sanctification is the result of the Holy Spirit being put within us. Next, the Holy Spirit acts in the heart as the Spirit of preservation. Where He dwells, men do not go back to perdition. He works in them a watchfulness against temptation day by day. He works in them to wrestle against sin. Rather than sin, a Believer would die 10,000 deaths. He works union to Christ in Believers, which is the source and guarantee of acceptable fruitfulness. He creates in the saints those holy things which glorify God, and bless the sons of men. All true fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. Every true prayer must be "praying in the Holy Spirit." He helps our infirmities in prayer. Even the hearing of the Word of the Lord is of the Spirit, for John says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and heard behind me a great voice." Everything that comes of the man, or is kept alive in the man, is first infused and then sustained and perfected of the Spirit. "It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing." We never go an inch towards Heaven in any other power than that of the Holy Spirit. We do not even stand fast and remain steadfast except as we are upheld by the Holy Spirit. The vineyard which the Lord has planted, He also preserves, as it is written, "I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Did I hear that young man say, "I should like to become a Christian, but I fear I should not hold out"? How am I to be preserved? A very proper inquiry for, "He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved." Temporary Christians are not Christians! Only the Believer who continues to believe will enter Heaven. How, then, can we hold on in such a world as this? Here is the answer. "I will put My Spirit within you." When a city has been captured in war, those who formerly possessed it seek to win it back again, but the king who captured it sends a garrison to live within the walls. And he says to the captain, "Take care of this city that I have conquered and let not the enemy take it again." So the Holy Spirit is the garrison of God within our redeemed humanity and He will keep us to the end. "May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." For preservation, then, we look to the Holy Spirit. Lest I weary you, I will be very brief upon the next point. The Holy Spirit within us is for guidance. The Holy Spirit is given to lead us into all the Truth of God. Truth is like a vast grotto and the Holy Spirit brings torches and shows us all the splendor of the ceiling. And since the passages seem intricate, He knows the way, and He leads us into the deep things of God. He opens up to us one Truth after another by His light and by His guidance, and thus we are "taught of the Lord." He is also our practical Guide to Heaven, helping and directing us on the upward journey. I wish Christian people oftener inquired of the Holy Spirit as to guidance in their daily life. Know you not that the Spirit of God dwells in you? You need not always be running to this friend and to that to get direction--wait upon the Lord in silence--sit still in quiet before the oracle of God. Use the judgment God has given you, but when that suffices not, resort to Him whom Mr. Bunyan calls, "the Lord High Secretary," who lives within, who is infinitely wise, and who can guide you by making you to "hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk you in it." The Holy Spirit will guide you in life. He will guide you in death and He will guide you to Glory. He will guard you from modern error and from ancient error, too. He will guide you in a way that you know not--and through the darkness He will lead you in a way you have not seen--these things will He do for you and not forsake you. Oh, this precious text! I seem to have before me a great cabinet full of rich and rare jewels. May God the Holy Spirit, Himself, come and hand these out to you and may you be adorned with them all the days of your life! Last of all, "I will put My Spirit within you," that is, by way of consolation, for His choice name is, "The Comforter." Our God would not have His children unhappy and, therefore, He Himself, in the third Person of the blessed Trinity, has undertaken the office of Comforter. Why does your face wear such mournful colors? God can comfort you! You that are under the burden of sin, it is true no man can help you into peace, but the Holy Spirit can! O God, to every seeker here who has failed to find rest, grant Your Holy Spirit! Put Your Spirit within him and he will rest in Jesus! And you dear people of God who are worried, remember that worry and the Holy Spirit are very contradictory one to another! "I will put My Spirit within you" means that you shall become gentle, peaceful, resigned and acquiescent in the Divine will. Then you will have faith in God that all is well! That text with which I began my prayer this morning was brought home to my heart this week. Our dearly beloved friend, Adolph Saphir, passed away last Saturday and his wife died three or four days before him. When my dear Brother, Dr. Sinclair Patteson, went to see him, the beloved Saphir said to him, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." Nobody would have quoted that passage but Saphir, the Bible student, the lover of the Word, the lover of the God of Israel. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." His dear wife is gone and he, himself is ill, but, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." This is a deep well of overflowing comfort, if you understand it well. God's Providence is light as well as His promise--and the Holy Spirit makes us know this. God's Word and will and way are all light to His people and in Him is no darkness at all for them. God Himself is purely and only light. What if there is darkness in me? There is no darkness in Him and His Spirit causes me to fly to Him! What if there is darkness in my family? There is no darkness in my Covenant God and His Spirit makes me rest in Him! What if there is darkness in my body by reason of my failing strength? There is no failing in Him and there is no darkness in Him--His Spirit assures me of this! David says--"God my exceeding joy"--and such He is to us. "Yes, my own God is He!" Can you say, "My God, my God"? Do you need anything more? Can you conceive of anything beyond your God? Omnipotent to work all forever! Infinite to give! Faithful to remember! He is all that is good! Light only--"in Him is no darkness at all." I have all light, yes, all things, when I have my God! The Holy Spirit makes us apprehend this when He is put within us. Holy Comforter, abide with us, for then we enjoy the Light of Heaven! Then are we always peaceful and even joyful, for we walk in the unclouded Light of God. In Him our happiness sometimes rises into great waves of delight, as if it leaped up to Glory. The Lord make this text your own--"I will put My Spirit within you." Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Ezekiel 3616-38. __________________________________________________________________ The Sword of the Spirit (No. 2201) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 19, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." Ephesians 6:17. To be a Christian is to be a warrior. The good soldier of Jesus Christ must not expect to find ease in this world--it is a battlefield! Neither must he reckon upon the friendship of the world, for that would be enmity against God. His occupation is war. As he puts on, piece by piece, the panoply provided for him, he may wisely say to himself, "This warns me of danger; this prepares me for warfare; this prophesies opposition." Difficulties meet us even in standing our ground, for the Apostle, two or three times, bids us--"Stand." In the rush of the fight, men are apt to be carried off their legs. If they can keep their footing, they will be victorious, but if they are borne down by the rush of their adversaries, everything is lost. You are to put on the heavenly armor in order that you may stand. And you will need it to maintain the position in which your Captain has placed you. If even to stand requires all this care, judge you what the warfare must be! The Apostle also speaks of withstanding as well as standing. We are not merely to defend, but also to attack. It is not enough that you are not conquered, you have to conquer and, therefore, we find that we are to take, not only a helmet to protect the head, but also a sword with which to annoy the foe. Ours, therefore, is a stern conflict, standing and withstanding--and we shall need all the armor from the Divine magazine, all the strength from the mighty God of Jacob! It is clear from our text that our defense and our conquest must be obtained by sheer fighting. Many try compromise, but if you are a true Christian, you can never do this business well. The language of deceit fits not a holy tongue. The adversary is the father of lies and those that are with him understand the art of equivocation, but saints abhor it. If we discuss terms of peace and attempt to gain something by policy, we have entered upon a course from which we shall return in disgrace. We have no order from our Captain to patch up a truce and get as good terms as we can. We are not sent out to offer concessions! It is said that if we yield a little, perhaps the world will yield a little, also, and good may come of it. If we are not too strict and narrow, perhaps sin will kindly consent to be more decent. Our association with it will prevent its being so barefaced and atrocious. If we are not narrow-minded, our broad doctrine will go down with the world and those on the other side will not be so greedy of error as they now are. No such thing! Assuredly this is not the order which our Captain has issued. When peace is to be made, He will make it, Himself, or He will tell us how to behave to that end. But at present our orders are very different. Neither may we hope to gain by being neutral, or granting an occasional truce. We are not to cease from conflict and try to be as agreeable as we can with our Lord's foes, frequenting their assemblies and tasting their dainties. No such orders are written here. You are to grasp your weapon and go forth to fight. Neither may you so much as dream of winning the battle by accident. No man was ever holy by a happy chance. Infinite damage may be done by carelessness, but no man ever won life's battle by it. To let things go on as they please is to let them bear us down to Hell. We have no orders to be quiet and take matters easily. No, we are to always pray and constantly watch. The one note that rings out from the text is this--TAKE THE SWORD! TAKE THE SWORD! No longer is it talk and debate! No longer is it parley and compromise! The word of thunder is--Take the sword. The Captain's voice is clear as a trumpet--Take the sword! No Christian here will have been obedient to our text unless with clear, sharp and decisive firmness, courage and resolve, he takes the sword! We must go to Heaven with sword in hand, all the way. "TAKE THE SWORD." On this command I would enlarge. May the Holy Spirit help me! It is noteworthy that there is only one weapon of offense provided, although there are several pieces of armor. The Roman soldier usually carried a spear as well as a sword. We have seen frequent representations of the legionary standing guard as sentry and he almost always stands with a spear in his right hand, while his sword hangs at his side. But Paul, for excellent reasons, concentrates our offensive weapon in one, because it answers for all. We are to use the sword and that only. Therefore, if you are going to this fight, see well to your only weapon. If you are to have no other, take care that you have this always in your hand. Let the Captain's voice ring in your ear, "Take the sword! Take the sword!" and so go forth to the field. Notice, first, the sword you are to take is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. That is our first head and the second is equally upon the surface of the text--This sword is to be ours. We are ordered to take the sword of the Spirit and so make it our own sword. I. First, the Word of God which is to be our one weapon is of noble origin, for IT IS "THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT." It has the properties of a sword, and those were given it by the Spirit of God. Here we note that the Holy Spirit has a sword. He is quiet as the dew, tender as the anointing oil, soft as the zephyr of eventide and peaceful as a dove. And yet, under another aspect, He wields a deadly weapon. He is the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning and He bears not the sword in vain. Of Him it may be said, "The Lord is a man of war: Jehovah is His name." The Word of God in the hand of the Spirit wounds very terribly and makes the heart of man to bleed. Do you not remember, some of you, when you used to be gashed with this sword Sunday after Sunday? Were you not cut to the heart by it, so as to be angry with it? You almost made up your mind to turn away from hearing the Gospel again. That sword pursued you and pierced you in the secrets of your soul--and made you bleed in a thousand places. At last you were "pricked in the heart," which is a far better thing than being, "cut to the heart"--and then execution was done, indeed! That wound was deadly and none but He that killed could make you alive! Do you remember how, after this, your sins were slain, one after the other? Their necks were laid on the block and the Spirit acted as an executioner with His sword. After that, blessed be God, your fears, doubts, despair and unbelief were also hacked to pieces by this same sword. The Word gave you life! But it was, at the first, a great killer. Your soul was like a battlefield after a great fight, under the first operations of the Divine Spirit, whose sword returns not empty from the conflict. Beloved, the Spirit of God has war with the Amalek of evil and error from generation to generation. He will spare none of the evils which now pollute the nations. His sword will never be quiet till all these Canaanites are destroyed. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ not only by what He reveals, but also by what He overturns. The strife may be weary, but it will be carried on from age to age, till the Lord Jesus shall appear, for the Spirit of God shall always espouse the cause of love against hate, of the Truth of God against error, of holiness against sin, of Christ against Satan! He will win the day and those who are with Him shall, in His might, be more than conquerors. The Holy Spirit has proclaimed war and wields a two-edged sword. The Holy Spirit wields no sword but the Word of God. This wonderful Book, which contains the utterances of God's mouth, is the one weapon which the Holy Spirit elects to use for His war-like purposes. It is a spiritual weapon and so is suitable to the Holy Spirit. The weapons of His warfare are not carnal--He never uses either persecution or patronage, force or bribery, glitter of grandeur, or terror of power. He works upon men by the Word, which is suitable to His own spiritual Nature and to the spiritual work which is to be accomplished. While it is spiritual, this weapon is "mighty through God." A cut from the Word of God will cleave a man's spirit from head to foot, so sharp is this sword! Though by long practice in sin a man may have coated himself as with impenetrable mail, yet the Word of the Lord will divide the northern iron and the steel. The Holy Spirit can make a man feel the Divine power of the sacred Word in the very center of his being! For battling with the spirits of man, or with spirits of an infernal kind, there is no weapon so keen, so piercing, so able to divide between the joints and marrow, so penetrating as to the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Word, in the Spirit's hand, gives no superficial wound, but cuts into the man's heart, and so wounds him that there is no healing save by supernatural power! The wounded conscience will bleed; its pains will be upon it day and night; and though it seeks out a thousand medicines, no salve but one can cure a gash which this terrible sword has made. This weapon is two-edged--indeed, it is all edge--and whichever way it strikes, it wounds and kills. There is no such a thing as the flat of the sword of the Spirit--it has a razor edge every way. Beware how you handle it, you critics! It may wound even you. It will cut you to your destruction, one of these days, unless you are converted. He that uses the Word in the Lord's battles may use it upon carnal hopes and then strike back upon unbelieving fears. He may smite with one edge, the love of sin, and then with the other, the pride of self-righteousness. It is a conquering weapon in all ways, this wondrous sword of the Spirit of God! The Word, we say, is the only sword which the Spirit uses. I know the Holy Spirit uses gracious sermons, but it is only in proportion as they have the Word of God in them. I know the Holy Spirit uses religious books, but only so far as they are the Word of God told out in other languages. Conviction, conversion and consolation are still worked, but only by the Word of God. Learn, then, the wisdom of using the Word of God for holy purposes. The Spirit has abundant ability to speak of His own self, apart from the written Word. The Holy Spirit is God and, therefore, He is the greatest spirit in the universe. All wisdom dwells in Him. He thought out the laws which govern Nature and direct Providence. The Holy Spirit is the great Teacher of human spirits--He taught Bezaleel and the artificers in the wilderness how to make the fine linen and the gold and carved work for the Tabernacle. All arts and sciences are perfectly known to Him and infinitely more than men can ever discover. Yet He will not use these things in this holy controversy. In the quarrel of His Covenant, He uses neither philosophy, nor science, nor rhetoric. In contending against the powers of darkness, "The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God." "It is written" is His masterstroke! Words which God has spoken by holy men of old and has caused to be recorded on the sacred page--these are the battle-axe and weapons of war of His Spirit! This Book contains the Word of God and is the Word of God--and this it is which the Holy Spirit judges to be so effectual a weapon against evil that He uses this, and only this, as His sword in the great conflict with the powers of darkness. The Word is the sword of the Spirit because it is of His own making. He will not use a weapon of human workmanship, lest the sword boast itself against the hand that wields it. The Holy Spirit revealed the mind of God to the minds of holy men. He spoke the Word into their hearts and thus He made them think as He would have them think and to write what He willed them to write--so that what they spoke and wrote was spoken and written as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Blessed be the Holy Spirit for deigning to use so many writers and yet, Himself, to remain the veritable Author of this collection of holy Books! We are grateful for Moses, for David, for Isaiah, for Paul, for Peter, for John, but most of all for that superintending Editor, that innermost Author of the whole sacred Volume--even the Holy Spirit! A warrior may well be careful as to the make of His sword. If a man had made his own sword, had tempered the metal, had, himself, passed the blade through many fires, and worked it to perfection--then, if he were a skillful workman, he would feel confidence in his sword. When work is done, nowadays, it is, as a rule, badly done. Work done by contract is usually done poorly in some part or another. But when a man does a work for himself, he is likely to do it thoroughly, and produce an article which he can depend upon. The Holy Spirit has made this Book, Himself--every portion of it bears His initial and impress--and thus He has a sword worthy of His own hands, a true Jerusalem blade of heavenly fabric. He delights to use a weapon so Divinely made and He does use it right gloriously! The Word of God is also the sword of the Spirit because He puts the edge upon it. It is because He is in it that it is so keen and cutting. I believe in the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, not only in the day when it was written, but onward, and even to this day. It is still Inspired. The Holy Spirit still breathes through the chosen Words. I told you the sword was all edge, but I would add that the Holy Spirit makes it so. It would have no edge at all if it were not for His Presence within it and His perpetual working by it. How many people read their Bibles and yet derive no more benefit from it than if they had read an old almanac! In fact, they would more easily keep awake over an ancient Bradshaw than over a chapter of Scripture. The ministers of the Gospel may preach God's Word in all sincerity and purity and yet, if the Spirit of God is not present, we might as well have preached mere moral essays, for no good can come of our testimony. The Holy Spirit rides in the chariot of Scripture and not in the wagon of modern thought. Scripture is that Ark of the Covenant which contains the golden pot of manna and also bears above it the Divine Light of God's shining. The Spirit of God works in, by, through and with the Word--and if we keep to that Word, we may rest assured that the Holy Spirit will stay with us and make our testimony to be a thing of power. Let us pray the blessed Spirit to put an edge on our preaching, lest we say much and accomplish little! Hear us in this thing, O blessed One! It is "the sword of the Spirit" because He alone can instruct us in the use of it. You think, young man, that you can pick up your Bible and go and preach from it at once, properly and successfully? You have made a presumptuous mistake! A sword is a weapon which may do hurt to the man who flourishes with it in mere wanton pride. No one can handle the sword of the Spirit aright save the chosen man whom God has ordained from before the foundation of the world and trained in feats of arms. By this, the elect of God are known--that they love the Word of God and they have a reverence for it--and discern between it and the words of man. Notice the lambs in the field, just now, and there may be a thousand ewes and lambs, but every lamb can find its own mother. So does a true-born child of God know where to go for the milk which is to nourish his soul. The sheep of Christ know the Shepherd's voice in the Word and they will not follow a stranger, for they know not the voice of strangers. God's own people have discernment to discover and relish God's own Word. They will not be misled by the cunning craftiness of human devices! Saints know the Scriptures by inward instinct. The holy life, which God has infused into Believers by His Spirit, loves the Scriptures, and learns how to use them for holy purposes. Young soldier, you must go to the training ground of the Holy Spirit to be made a proficient swordsman. You will go in vain to the metaphysician or to the logician, for neither of these know how to handle a spiritual weapon. In other arts they may be masters, but in the sacred use of Divine theology, they are mere fools! In the things of the Word we are dunces till we enter the school of the Holy Spirit. He must take of the things of Christ and show them to us. He must teach us how to grip this sword by faith and how to hold it by watchfulness, so as to parry the adversary's thrust and carry the war into the foeman's territory. He is well taught, who can swing this great two-handed sword to and fro and mow a lane through the midst of his opponents, and come out a conqueror at the end. It may take a long time to learn this art, but we have a right skillful Teacher. Those of us who have been in this warfare 30 or 40 years, feel that we have not yet reached the full use of this sword! No, I, for one, know that I need to be taught daily how to use this mysterious weapon which is capable of so much more than I have yet supposed. It is the sword of the Spirit, adapted for the use of an Almighty arm and, therefore, equal to the doing of far more than we think. Holy Spirit, teach us now feats of arms by this, Your sword! But, chiefly, it is the sword of the Spirit, because He is the great Master in the use of it. Oh, that He would come and show us, this morning, how He can thrust and cleave with it! In this house of prayer we have often seen Him at His work. Here the slain of the Lord have been many. We have seen this sword take off the head of many a Goliath doubt and slay a horde of cares and unbeliefs! We have seen the Spirit pile up heaps on heaps of the slain when the Word of conviction has gone forth--and men have seen sin to be sin--and fallen down as dead before the Lord and His Law. We also know what the use of the sword by the Spirit of God means, for within our own being He has left marks of His prowess. He has killed our doubts and fears and left no more mistrusts to worry us. There was a man of God who was frequently subject to doubts, even doubts upon the fundamentals of religion. He hated this state of mind, but still, he could not get rid of the habit of evil questioning. In answer to prayer, the Spirit came and convinced him of the pride of his intellect and of the wickedness of setting up his judgment against the Word of the Lord--and from that day forward he was never the subject of another fit of unbelief! He saw things clearly in the Light of the Holy Spirit and that is to see them, indeed! The great giant of doubt is sorely wounded by the sword of the Spirit--yes, he is slain outright--for the Spirit works in the Believer such a conviction of the Truth of God that assurance banishes suspicion! When the Holy Spirit deals with the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life, these also lie at His feet, trophies to the power of His mighty weapon, even the Word of God! The Holy Spirit is glorious in the use of this sword. He finds that this weapon suits His hand and He seeks no other! Let us use it, also, and be glad to do so. Though it is the sword of the Spirit, yet our feeble hand may grasp it. Yes, and find in the grasping, that somewhat of the Divine power comes unto our arm! Dear Brothers and Sisters, is it not a very high honor put upon you, as soldiers of the Cross, that you should be allowed, no, commanded to take the sword of the Spirit? The raw recruit is not trusted with the general's sword, but here you are, armed with the weapon of God, the Holy Spirit, and called upon to bear that sacred sword which is so gloriously wielded by the Lord God, Himself! This we are to bear, and no other. Does the timid heart enquire, "How, my Master, shall I meet my adversaries"? "Here," says the Holy Spirit, "take this! This is My own sword. I have done great marvels with it. Take it and nothing shall stand against you." When you remember the potency of this sword. When the Spirit tests it upon yourself, you may take it with confidence, and use it in your holy war with full assurance. That Word of God which could convert you, can convert anybody! If it could kill your despair, it can remove another man's despon- dency. If it has conquered your pride and self-will, it can subdue the same in your children and your neighbors. Having done what it has certainly done for you, you may have a full persuasion that, before its power, no case is hopeless. Therefore, see to it that you use, from this day forth, no other weapon than the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. II. This fairly lands me in the second portion of my discourse. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, but IT IS ALSO TO BE OUR SWORD. Here I must begin again and go over much of the same ground. We shall need a sword. Our warfare is not child's play--we mean business. We have to deal with fierce foes who are only to be met with keen weapons. Buffets will not suffice in this contest--we must come to sword-cuts. You may be of a very quiet spirit, but your adversaries are not! If you attempt to play at Christian warfare, they will not. To meet the powers of darkness is no sham battle. They mean mischief. Nothing but your eternal damnation will satisfy the fiendish hearts of Satan and his crew. You must take not so much a flag to unfurl, or a drum to beat, as a sword to use and an especially sharp sword, too. In this combat you will have to use a sword such as even evil spirits can feel, capable of dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. If you are to live through this fight and come off victorious, no form of conflict will suffice less sharp and cutting than sword-work. Depend upon it that in this struggle you will be forced to come to close quarters. The foe aims at your heart and pushes home. A spear will not do, nor bow and arrow--the enemy is too near for anything but hand-to-hand fighting. Brothers and Sisters, our foes are not only of our house, but of our heart! I find an enemy within which is always near and I cannot get away from him. I find that my antagonist will get his hand on my throat if he can. If our foes were far away and we could reach them with artillery which would kill at six or seven miles' distance, we might lead a pretty easy life. But no, they are here! At our doors! Yes, within us--nearer than hands and feet. Now for the short sword! The claymore of Holy Scripture, to stab and cut, near and now. No sling and stone will avail us here, but we must take the sword. You have to slay your foe, or your foe will slay you! It is with us Christians as it was with the Highlanders in battle, when their leader called out to them, "Lads, there they are! If you dinna kill them they will kill you." There is no room for peace--it is war to the knife, not only now, but to life's end! The use of the sword is necessary for attack. I have reminded you several times already that it will not suffice for the Christian to guard against sin and ward off temptation from himself--he has to attack the powers of evil. In our case, the best method of defense is an attack. I have heard of one who would bring an action in law to gain his ends, for he thought this better than being the defendant. That may be matter of question, but in war it is often safer to attack than defend. Carry the warfare into the enemy's territory. Be trying to win from the adversary and he will not win so much from you. Do not merely be sober, yourselves, but attack drunkenness. Do not be content with being free from superstition, yourself, but expose it wherever it appears! Do not merely be devout when you feel obliged to be so, but pray for the growth of the kingdom--pray always! Do not merely say, "I will keep Satan out of my family by bringing up my children aright," but go to the Sunday school and teach other children, and so carry the war over the border! God forbid that we should ever go to war as a nation! But if we were at war with some nation on the Continent, I would certainly say, "Let the Continentals have the battles on their own ground--we do not want a campaign over here." It is wise to keep the war in the enemy's own regions. If we had fought the devil more in the world, he might never have been able to invade the Church so terribly as he has done. Attack with the sword, for it is your calling, and thus will you best defend yourself. We need the sword for real fighting. Do you think that you can dream yourselves into Heaven? Or ride there in the chariot of ease? Or fly on the wings of brass music? You make a great mistake if you so imagine. A real war is raging! Your opponents are in deadly earnest and you must take your sword! And, further, we need this sword, this sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We say with David, "There is none like that; give it to me." It has worked such wonders that we prefer it to all others. No other will match the enemy's weapon. If we fight the devil with human reason, the first time our wooden sword comes in contact with a Satanic temptation it will be cut in pieces! If you do not wield a true Jerusalem blade, you are in grave peril--your weapon will break off at the hilt--and where will you be? Standing defenseless, with nothing but the handle of a broken sword in your hand, you will be the object of your adversary's ridicule! You must have this sword, for no other will penetrate the foe, and no other will last out the battle. After 20 years, what has become of the pious resolutions of your youth? What is the staying power of your consecration made in the hour of enthusiasm? Alas, how little trust can be placed in it! What would become of us after 30 years of fighting if we had not the Word of God to rely upon? The Word of the Lord endures forever, but nothing else does. We may do well in early days, but we shall fail in old age if we have not eternal Truths of God to fall back upon. I can commend this sword to you all, my Brothers and Sisters, although you are so varied in character. This sword suits every hand. Youth or age may, alike, use this weapon. These dear girls from the Orphanage and yonder lads from the Bible class, may fight the battle of their youth with the Word of God, for Holy Scripture may impress and guide our freshest life. You that have grown gray. You that have passed 70 or 80, you will value the Bible more than ever and you will find that this sword is the best for veteran warriors. Young men and young women, here is a sword suited for all of you, and well does it become the hand of the feeblest and the gentlest! The Holy Spirit has, in the sacred Word, prepared an implement of warfare suited for great minds and small, for the cultured and the uneducated. A wonderful sword this is, which, in the hands of faith, reveals an adaptation marvelous to the last degree! Whatever others may say, it is sufficient for us that this is the regulation sword. A soldier is not left to choose his own equipment. He must carry such arms as his sovereign appoints. This is the regulation sword in Christ's army. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is what you are bid to take and, if you, in willfulness, resolve to exchange it for another, you commit an act of rebellion and you make the change at your own risk and peril! Come, then, let us each take the Word of God and carry it nearer our hearts than ever, for such is the Word of command, "Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." Now, see what we are told to do. We need a sword. We need this sword. We are to take this sword. Note that we are not told that we may lay it down--the demand to take the sword is continuous and there is no hint of its being suspended. There is a time, of course, when the soldier of Her Majesty may remove his sword from his side and take off his regimentals, but there is never such a time with a Christian! One might have thought, from what we have seen of late, that orders had come from headquarters that the soldiers were to lay down the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and take to lighter weapons. Entertainments, amusements, farces, and sing-songs are now used to do what the Gospel has failed to achieve! Is it not sadly so? Well, if any will try these silly toys, I can only say that they have no command from their Lord to warrant them in their proceedings. Take all these things and see what they will do, but you make the trial at your own risk, and on your own heads the result of failure will fall. The standing orders are to take the sword of the Spirit and no new regulation has ever been issued by the great Captain of salvation. From the days of Paul till now, the Word stands, "Take the sword of the Spirit." All other things will surely fail and, therefore, the one sole abiding command is, "Take the sword of the Spirit." We are not told to hang up this sword for exhibition. Certain people have a handsomely-bound Bible to lie upon the table of the best room--and a fine ornament it is! A Family Bible is a treasure! But I pray you, do not let your love of the Bible end there. With a soldier in war, a sword is not meant to be hung up in the tent, nor even to be flourished in the air, but it is issued to be used. Nor are we to push this sword into a sheath, as many do who take the Bible and add so much of criticism, or of their own opinion to it, that its edge is not felt! Many men use their low opinion of Inspiration as a scabbard into which they push the Bible down. Their vast knowledge makes a beautiful scabbard and they push down the sword, saying, "Keep still, there! O sword of the Lord, rest and be quiet!" After we have preached our heart out, and men have felt the power of it, they make a desperate effort to imprison the Word in their unbelieving theory, or in their worldliness. They hold down the Word all the week with a firm hand, for fear its edge or point should wound them. It is the scabbard of culture, or philosophy, or of progress--and in this they shut up the living Word of God as in a coffin! We are not to bury the Word under other matters, but we are to take it as a sword, which means, as I understand it, first, believe it. Believe every portion of it. Believe it with a true and real faith, not with a mere creedal faith which says, "This is the orthodox thing." Believe it as a matter of fact for every day, affecting your life. Believe it! And when you have believed it, then study it. Oh, for a closer study of the Word of God! Are there not some of you who have never even heard or read all that the Lord has said? Are there not passages of the Bible which have never been read by you? It is a melancholy fact that there would be even a line of the sacred Scriptures which has never once come under your eyes. Read the Bible right through, from beginning to end. Begin tomorrow--no, begin today--and go steadily through the whole of the sacred Book, with prayer and meditation. Never let it be suspected by you that God has recorded Truths in His Word which you have never even once read. Study the Word and work out its meaning. Go deep into the spirit of Inspiration. He gets most gold who digs the deepest in this mine. They used to say of certain mines in Cornwall that the deeper you went the richer was the ore. Assuredly is it so with the mines of Inspired Scripture. The deeper you go under the Spirit's guidance, the larger is the reward for your toil. Take the sword with the grip of sincere faith. Hold it fast by a fuller knowledge. And then exercise yourself daily in its use. The sword is to be taken for earnest fight. You will not be long before occasion arises in such a world as this. You will have to parry with it, to pierce with it, to cut with it and to kill with it. "Where shall I begin?" says one. Begin at home and, for many a day, you will have your hands full! When you have slain all the rebels at home and long before that, you may take a turn at those around you in the world, and in the professing church. Inside your own heart you will find a band of bandits which should be exterminated. There will always be need to keep the sword going within your own territory. End this civil war before you go into foreign parts. When the war within the city of Mansoul has been victoriously carried through, besiege the heart of your friend, your child, your neighbor. Behold, the world lies in the Wicked One! Errors abound and colossal systems of falsehood still stand aloft. Men are still dragged down by the arch-deceiver. Surely, we feel our swords flying out of their sheaths when we think of the millions who are being ruined by sin and error! Oh, for a mighty onslaught upon the powers of darkness! Once more, we are to take this sword with a purpose. We are to use it that we may be able to stand and to withstand. If you want to stand, draw the sword and smite your doubts. How fiercely unbelief assails! Here comes a doubt as to your election. Pierce it through with the Word. Soon comes a doubt as to the precious blood. Cleave it from head to foot with the assurance of the Word that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin! Here comes another doubt and yet another. As quick as arm can move, drive texts of Scripture through every new fallacy, every new denial of the Truth of God and spit the whole of them upon the rapier of the Word! It will be for your good to kill these doubts outright. Do not play with them, but fight them in real earnest! You will find, also, that temptations will come in hordes. Meet them with the precepts of sacred Writ and slay even the desire of evil by the Spirit's application of the Holy Word! The washing of water by the Word is a glorious cleanser. Discouragements will arise like mists of the morning. Oh, that God's Word may shine them away with the beams of the promises! Your afflictions multiply and you will never be able to overcome impatience and distrust except by the Infallible Word of God. You can bear trial and bear it patiently, if you use this weapon to kill anxiety. You will "stand fast in the evil day" and, having done all, you will still stand, if this sword is in your hand. You have not only to stand fast, yourselves, but you have to win souls for Christ! Do not try to conquer sin in others, or capture a heart for Jesus except with the sword of the Spirit. How the devil laughs when we try to make converts apart from Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit! He laughs, I say, for he derides our folly. What can you do, you children, playing with your little wooden swords--what can you do against men covered from head to foot with the steel mail of the habit of sin? Sunday school teachers, teach your children more and more the pure Word of God! And preachers, do not try to be original, but be content to take of the things of Christ and show them to the people, for that is what the Holy Spirit, Himself does--and you will be wise to use His method and His sword. No sinner around you will be saved except by the knowledge of the great Truths contained in the Word of God. No man will ever be brought to repentance, to faith and to life in Christ, apart from the constant application of the Truth through the Spirit. I hear great shouting, great noises everywhere, about great things that are going to be done--let us see them! The whole world is going to be embraced within the Church, so they say. I fear the world will not be much the better for inclusion in such a church! Big boasters should heed the word of the wise man, "Let not him that girds on his harness boast himself as he that takes it off." If the champion goes forth with any other sword than the Word of God, he had better not boast at all, for he will come back with his sword broken, his shield cast away, and himself grimy with dishonor. Defeat awaits that man who forsakes the Word of the Lord! I have done when I have asked you to remember that the text is in the present tense--Take unto you the sword of the Spirit even now. What varieties of people there are here this morning! Believers have come here in all sorts of perils. Let them each one take the sword of the Spirit and they will overcome every foe! Here, too, are seekers who wish to be Christians, but they cannot compass it. What is the matter this morning? "Oh," says one, "I have been in the habit of sinning, and the habit is very strong upon me." Fight with sinful habits with the Word of God, as the sword of the Spirit--so only will you conquer your evil self. Find a text of Scripture that will cleave your sin down to the backbone, or stab it to the heart. "Alas, Satan tempts me horribly," cries one, "I have been lately assailed in many ways." Have you? You are not the first. Our Divine Lord in the wilderness was tempted of the devil. He might have fought Satan with a thousand weapons, but He chose to defeat him with only one. He said, "It is written. It is written. It is written." He pricked the foeman so sorely with this sharp point that the arch-adversary thought to try the same sword--and he also began to say, "It is written." But he cut himself with this sword, for he did not quote the passages correctly, nor give the whole of them--and the Master soon found the way to knock aside his sword and wound him still more. Follow your Lord's example. "Oh, but," says one," I am so low in spirits." Very well. Fight lowness of spirits with the Word of God. "The doctor recommended me," says one, "to take a little spirits to raise my spirits." Those doctors are always having this sin laid to their charge. I am not so sure that they are not often maligned. You like the dose and that is why you take it! Try the Word of God for lowness of spirits and you will have found a sure remedy. I find, if I can lay a promise under my tongue, like a sweet lozenge, and keep it in my mouth or mind all the day long, I am happy enough. If I cannot find a Scripture to comfort me, then my inward troubles are multiplied. Fight despondency and despair with the sword of the Spirit. I cannot tell what your particular difficulty may be at this moment, but I give you this direction for all holy warfare--"Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." You must overcome every enemy, but this weapon is all you need! If you, my Hearer, would overcome sin and conquer unbelief, take such a word as this, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." And as you look you shall be saved--and doubt shall die--and sin be slain! God grant you His Spirit's aid, for Christ's sake! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Ephesians 6. __________________________________________________________________ "Lo, I Come"--Exposition (No. 2202) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING. APRIL 26, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, My ears ha ve You opened: burnt offering and sin offering have You not required. Then said I, Lo, I have come--in the volume of the Book it is written of Me--I delight to do Your will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My heart." Psalm 40:6-8. Explained to us by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 10:5-7-- "Therefore when He came into the world, He said, Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, Lo, I come--in the volume of the Book it is written of Me--To do your will, O God." WE have, in the use made of the passage by the inspired Apostle, sufficient authority for applying the quotation from the 40th Psalm to our Divine Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With such a commentary, we are sure of our way and our whereabouts. We might have been perplexed as to its meaning had it not have been for this, although I think, even without the guidance of the New Testament passage, those who are familiar with Holy Writ would have felt that the words could not be fulfilled in David, but must belong to a greater than he, even to the Divine Messiah, who, in the fullness of time, would come into the world. We rejoice that the Lord Jesus, Himself, here speaks of Himself. Who but He can declare His own generation? Here He is both the subject of the Words and the Speaker. The Word is from Himself and of Himself and so we have double reason for devout attention. He tells us what He said long ago. He declares, "Then I said, Lo, I come." Because He has come to us, we gladly come to Him, and now we reverently wait upon Him to hear what our Lord shall speak, for, doubtless, He will speak peace to us, and will cause us to learn, through His Spirit, the meaning of His Words. O Savior, say to each of our hearts, "Lo, I come"! I. Without further preface, I call upon you to notice, first, THE SWEEPING AWAY OF THE SHADOW. "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. . .burnt offering and sin offering have You not required." When the Son of God is born into the world, there is an end of all types by which He was formerly prefigured. The symbols end when the Truth, itself, is made fully manifest. The sacrifices of the Law had their times and place, their teaching and their influence. Blessed were those in Israel whose spiritual minds saw beneath the outward sign and discerned the inward Truth of God! To them the sacrifices of the holy place were a standing means of fellowship with God. Day after day they saw the Great Propitiation as they beheld the morning and the evening lamb--so often as they looked upon a sacrifice, they beheld the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world! In the Paschal supper they were instructed, by the slaying of the unblemished victim, the roasting with fire, the sprinkling of the blood upon the door outside and the feasting upon the sacrifice within. Spiritual men could have found in the rites and ceremonies of the old Law a very library of Gospel literature! But, alas, the people were carnal, sensual and unbelieving and, therefore, they often forgot, even, to celebrate the appointed sacrifices. The Passover, itself, ceased for long periods and when the festivals were maintained, there was no life or reality in them. After they had been chastened for their neglect and made to wander in exile because of the wandering of their hearts after their idols, they were restored from captivity and were led to keep the Ceremonial Law, but they did it as a heartless, meaningless formality--and thus missed all spiritual benefit--with the unlighted candle in their hand they blindly groped in the dark. They slew the sacrifices and presented their peace offerings, but the soul had gone out of the service and, at last, their God grew weary of their formal worship and said, "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me." We read, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? says the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts?" When once the life is gone out of the best symbolism, the Lord abhors the carcass and even a Divinely-ordained ritual becomes a species of idolatry! When the heart is gone out of the externals of worship, they are as shells without the kernel. Habitations without living tenants soon become desolations--and so do forms and ceremonies without their spiritual meaning. Toward the time of our Lord's coming, the outward worship of Judaism became more and more dead--it was time that it was buried. It had decayed and waxed old and was ready to vanish away--and vanish away it did--for our Lord set aside the first, or old, that He might establish the second, or new. The stars were no longer seen with their twinkling, for the sun had risen! The removal of these things was wholesale. We have four sorts of sacrifice mentioned here, but I need not go into details. Sacrifices in which blood was shed were abolished when the Son of God offered Himself without spot unto God. Bloodless offerings, such as fine flour, wine, oil, sweet cane bought with money and precious incense--which were tokens of gratitude and consecration--these, also, were no longer laid upon the altar. Both sacrifice and offering were not desired. And burnt offerings, which signified the delight of God in the great Sacrifice, were ended by the Lord's actual acceptance of that Sacrifice, itself! Even the sin offering, which was burned outside the camp as a thing accursed, ceased altogether. It represented sin laid upon the victim and the victim's being made a curse on that account. It might have seemed always useful as a reminder, for they were always sinning and always needing a sin offering, but even this was not required. Nothing of the old Ceremonial Law was spared. Now we have no Ark of the Covenant, with its Shekinah light between the wings of the cherubim. Now we have no bronze laver, no table of showbread, no bronze altar and no sacred veil--the Holy of Holies, itself, is gone! Tabernacle and Temple are both removed. "Neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, shall men worship the Father." But the time is come when "they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." A clean sweep has been made of all the ancient rites, from circumcision up to the garment with its fringe of blue. These were for the childhood of the Church, the pictures of her first schoolbooks! But we are no longer minors and we have Divine Grace given us to read with opened eyes that everlasting classic of "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Now has the brightness of the former dispensation been quite eclipsed by the Glory which excels. As these outward things vanish, they go away with God's mark of non-esteem upon them--they are such things as He did not desire. "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire." The Lord God had no desire for matters so trivial and unsatisfactory. They were good for the people, to instruct them--if they had been willing to learn--but they fulfilled no desire of the heart of God. He says, "Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" By the Prophet Micah, He asks, "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil." These furnish no delight for the Great Spirit and give no pleasure to the thrice holy Jehovah! The formal worshipper supposed that his offerings were, in and of themselves, pleasing to God and, therefore, brought his "burnt offerings, with calves of a year old." So far as they believingly understood the meaning of a sacrifice and presented it in faith, their offerings were acceptable, but in themselves considered, these were far from being what the Lord desired. He that fills Heaven and earth says, "I will not reprove you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, to have been continually before Me. I will take no bullock out of your house, nor he-goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you: for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof." The spiritual, the infinite, the almighty Jehovah could not desire merely outward ritual, however it might appear glorious to men! The sweetest music is not for His ears, nor the most splendid roses of priests for His eyes. He desired something infinitely more precious than these--and He puts them away with this note of dissatisfaction. And more, these sacrifices passed away with the mark upon them that they were not what God required. "Burnt offering and sin offering have You not required." What did God require of man? Obedience. He said by Samuel, "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams." He says in another place, "He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" The requirement of the Law was love to God and love to men. This has always been God's great requirement. He seeks spiritual worship, obedient thought, holy living, grateful praise, devout prayer--these are the requirements of the Creator and Benefactor of men. Ritualistic matters were so far required as they might minister to the good of the people and, while they stood, they could not neglect them without loss. But they were not the grand requirement of a just and holy God and, therefore, men might fulfill these without stint or omission, and yet God would not have of them what He required. "Yes," He asks, "who has required this at your hand, to tread My courts?" To see His Law magnified, His justice vindicated, His sovereignty acknowledged and His holiness imitated, is more to His mind! Absolute conformity to the standard of moral and spiritual rectitude which He has set up is His demand--and He can be content with nothing less. These things are not found in sacrifice and offering, neither do they always go therewith and, therefore, the outward sacrifice was not what God required. They were so to be put away as never to be followed by the same kind of things. Shadows are not replaced by other shadows! The ceremonials of Aaron are not to be followed by another set of carnal ordinances! There are some who seem to think that they are to be so. Instead of Aaron, whom God ordained, we have a so-called priesthood among us at this day, claiming an Apostolic succession, which is impossible if they are priests, since no Apostle was a priest! Instead of rites which God has ordained, we have rites of man's invention! The blessed ordinances of our Lord Jesus Christ, such as Baptism and the Lord's Supper, have been prostituted from their instructive and memorial intent into a kind of witchcraft, so that by what is called, "baptism," children are said to be born again and made members of Christ and children of God! While in the second, or what they call, "Holy Communion," the sacrifice of Christ is profanely said to be repeated or continued, even in the unbloody sacrifice of the "mass." Ah, Friends! Our Lord did not put away that grand, magnificent system of Mosaic rites to introduce the masquerade in which Rome delights, which certain Anglicans would set up among us! No, no! We have done with the symbolic system and have now but the two outward ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, which are meant only for Believers who know what it is to be buried with Christ and to feed on Him. You have no right to bring in your own forms and ceremonies and place them in the Church of Christ. Beyond what God has ordained, we may not dare to go--and even in those things we may not rest as though there were anything in them of their own operation apart from their sacred teaching! These are instructive to you if you have a mind to be instructed--and if you know the Truths of God which they set forth. But do not imagine that men have come under another kind of ceremonialism, another system of ritual and rubric, for it is not so. The rites appropriate to priests are abolished with the Aaronic priesthood and can never be restored-- "He takes away the first, that He may establish the second." When He comes into the world, these carnal ordinances must go out of the world! Sacrifice and offering, burnt offering and sin offering and all other patterns of heavenly things are swept away when the heavenly things, themselves, appear! II. Thus much upon the shadows being swept away. And now, secondly, let us view THE REVELATION OF THE SUBSTANCE. We find the Son of God, Himself, appearing. We read here and we hear Him say--"My ears have you opened." The Lord Himself comes, even He who is all that these things foreshadowed! When He comes, He has a prepared ear. The margin has it, "My ears have you digged." Our ears often need digging, for they are blocked up by sin. The passage to the heart seems to be sealed in the case of fallen man. But when the Savior came, His ears were not as ours, but were attentive to the Divine voice. He says, "He wakens My ears to hear as they that are taught. The Lord God has opened My ears, and I was not rebellious." Our Lord was quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord. He knew what the will of the Lord was and He could say, "I do always the thing that pleases Him." As Man, He had a Divine instinct of holiness which made Him to know and love the Father's will--and caused Him always to translate that will into His own life. You see He came with opened ears and some think that we have here an allusion to the boring of the ear in the case of the servant who had a right to liberty, but refused to quit his servitude because he loved his master and wished to remain with him forever. It is not certain that there is any such reference, but it is certain that our Lord was bound forever to the service which He had undertaken for His Father--and that He would not go back from it. He pledged Himself to redeem us and He set His face like a flint to do it. He loved His Father and He loved His chosen so much that He vowed to execute the Father's work, even to what I might call, "the bitter end," if I did not know that it was a sweet and blessed end to Him. His ears were prepared for His service! But our Lord came also with a prepared body. Therefore the Apostle Paul, when He quoted this passage, probably taking the words from the Septuagint translation, writes, "A body have You prepared Me." You will wonder how, in one passage, it should speak of the ears and the next should speak of the body, and yet there is small difference in the sense. We do not think of an ear without a body--that would be a sorry business. The reading in the Hebrews is involved in the text as it stands in the Psalm. If the ear is there, a body is there--you cannot even dream of an ear hearing if separate from the rest of the body! The Apostle gives us the sense of the text rather than the words and, at the same time, dealing as He was with Jews by whom the Septuagint was prized, He quoted from the version which they would be sure to ac-knowledge--and very properly and wisely so--because that version was perfectly accurate as to the meaning of the Hebrew. Regardless, he was inspired to read it--"A body have You prepared Me." There was fashioned by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the blessed Virgin, a body fit to embody the Son of God. Worked mysteriously, by means into which we must not inquire--for what God has veiled must remain covered--that body was suited to set forth the great mystery, "God manifest in the flesh." The whole body of Christ was prepared for Him and for His great work. To begin with, it was a sinless body, without taint of original sin, otherwise God could not have dwelt in it. It was a body made highly vital and sensitive, probably far beyond what ours are, for sin has a blunting and hardening effect even upon flesh, and His flesh, though it was in the "likeness of sinful flesh," was not sinful flesh, but flesh which yielded prompt obedience to His spirit, even as His whole human Nature was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. His body was capable of great endurance, so as to know the griefs and agonies and unspeakable sorrows of a delicate, holy and tender kind which it was necessary for Him to bear. "A body have You prepared Me." In the fullness of time He came into that body, which was admirably adapted to enshrine the Godhead. Wondrous mystery, that the Infant of Bethlehem should be linked with the Infinite! And that the weary Man by the shores of Galilee should be very God of very God, revealed in a body prepared for Him! "A body have You prepared Me"--He had prepared ears and a prepared body. He who assumed that body was existent before that body was prepared. He says, "A body have You prepared Me. Lo, I come." He from old eternity dwelt with God--the Word was in the beginning with God--and the Word was God. We could not, any one of us, have said that a body was prepared for us and, therefore, we would come to it, for we had had no existence before our bodies were fashioned! From everlasting to everlasting our Lord is God and He comes out of eternity into time--the Father bringing Him into the world. He was before all worlds and was before He came into the world to dwell in His prepared body! Beloved, the human Nature of Christ was taken on Him in order that He might be able to do for us that which God desired and required. God desired to see an obedient man, a man who would keep His Law to the fullest--and He sees Him in Christ. God desired to see One who would vindicate the eternal justice and show that sin is no trifle. And, behold, our Lord, the eternal Son of God, entering into that prepared body, was ready to do all this mighty work by rendering to the Law a full recompense for our dishonor of it! An absolutely perfect righteousness He renders unto God--as the second Adam, He presents it for all whom He represents. He bows His head, a victim beneath Jehovah's sword, that the Truth, justice and honor of God might suffer no detriment. His body was prepared to this end. Incarnation is a means to Atonement. Only a man could vindicate the Law and, therefore, the Son of God became a Man. This is a wonderful Being, this God in our nature. "Emmanuel" is a glorious word! Surely, for the Incarnation and the Atonement, the world was made from the first! Was this the reason why the morning stars sang together when they saw the cornerstone of the world, because they had an inkling that here, God would be manifest as nowhere else, and the Creator would be wedded to the creature? That God might be manifested in the Christ, it may even be that sin was permitted. Assuredly, there could have been no Sacrifice on Calvary if there had not, first of all, been sin in Eden. The whole scheme--the whole of God's decrees and acts-- worked up to an atoning Savior! Of the pyramid of creation and of Providence, Christ is the apex--He is the flower of all that God has made! His Divine Nature in strange union with humanity constitutes a peerless Person, such as never was before, and can never be again! God in our nature, one Being, and yet wearing two Natures, is altogether unique. He says, "A body have You prepared Me. Lo, I come." Think of this--it is a Truth of God more fit for meditation than for sermonizing. The Lord give us to know it well by faith! III. But now, thirdly, I call your attention to THE DECLARATION OF THE CHRIST made in the text--"Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. Then said I, Lo, I come." Observe when He says this. It is in the time of failure. All the sacrifices had failed. The candle flickered and was dying out. And then the great Light of God arose, even the Eternal Light and, like a trumpet, the words rung out, "Lo, I come." All this has been of no avail; now I come. It is in the time of failure that Christ always appears. The last of man is the first of God and when we have come to the end of all our power and hope, then the Eternal Power and Godhead appears with its, "Lo, I come." When our Lord comes, it is with the view of filling up the vacuum which had now been sorrowfully seen. God does not desire these things. God does not require these things, but He does desire and He does require something better, and lo, the Christ has come to bring that something! That awful gap which was seen in human hope when Moses had passed away and the Aaronic priesthood and all the ordinances of it were gone, Christ was born to fill! It looked as if the light of ages had been quenched, and God's glorious revelation had been forever withdrawn. And then, in the dark hour, Jesus cries, "Lo, I come!" He fills the blank abyss! He gives to man in reality what he had lost in the shadow! When He appears, it is as the personal Lord. Lay the stress upon the pronoun, "Lo, I come." The infinite Ego appears. "Lo, I come." No mere man could talk thus, and be sane! No servant or Prophet of God would ever say, "Lo, I come." Saintly men talk not so. God's Prophets and Apostles have a modest sense of their true position--they never magnify themselves, though they magnify their office. It is for God to say, "Lo, I come." He who says it takes the body prepared for Him and comes in His own proper personality as the I AM. "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He comes forth from the ivory palaces to inhabit the tents of manhood! He takes upon Himself the body prepared for Him of the Lord God and He stands forth in His matchless personality ready to do the will of God! "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." Everything is stored up in His blessed Person and we are complete in Him. Observe the joyful avowal that He makes--"Lo, I come." This is no dirge--I think I hear a silver trumpet ring out-- "Lo, I come." Here is a joyful alacrity and intense eagerness! The coming of the Savior was to Him a thing of exceeding willingness. "For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross, despising the shame." He comes with a word calling attention to it, for He is not ashamed to be made partaker of our flesh. "Lo," He says, "I come. Behold, behold, I come." This is no clandestine union. He bids Heaven behold Him come into our Nature! Earth is bid to gaze upon it. O you sinners, listen to this inviting, "Lo!" Others have cried to you, "Lo, here!" And, "Lo, there." But Jesus looks on you and cries, "Lo, I come." Look here--turn all your thoughts this way and behold your God in your Nature ready to save you! Verily, the Incarnate God is a subject meet for the loftiest thoughts of sages and for the lowliest thoughts of children. Blessed are the children of Grace who can sit at the feet of the Incarnate God and look up, forgetting all the wisdom of the Greeks and all the sign-seeking of the Jews in the satisfaction which they find in Jesus! I think, too, I hear in this declaration of the coming One, a note of finality. He takes away the sacrifice from Aaron's altar, but He says, "Lo, I come." There is the end of it. "Lo, I come." Is there anything after this? Can anything supersede this--"Lo, I come"? "Lo, I come" has been the perpetual music of the ages! Read it, "Lo, I am come"--for it is in the present tense and how sweet the sound! Christ is come and joy with Him! Read it, as well, in the future, if you will, "Lo, I come," for He comes "the second time without sin unto salvation"--here is our chief hope! "Lo, I come." He, Himself, is the last Word of God. "In the beginning was the Word" and so He was God's first Word. But He is the end as well as the beginning--God's last Word to man--Christ is God's ultimatum! Look for no new Revelation--"Lo, I am come," shines on forever. Do not ask, "Are You He that should come, or do we look for another?" He has come! Look for no other! Behold, He came to give what God desires, what God requires--what more would you have? Let Him be all your salvation and all your desire. Let Him be "the desire of all nations." He is the fulfillment of all the requirements of the human race as well as the full amount of what God requires. IV. Next, I beg you to note THE REFERENCE TO PRECEDING WRITINGS. He says, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me." If I preached from the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, I might fairly declare that in the whole volume of Holy Scripture much is written of our Lord and prescribed for Him as Messiah. The pages of Inspiration are fragrant with the name of Jesus. He is the top line of the entire volume and in the Greek Word I see a half allusion to this. He is the headline of contents to every chapter of Scripture. He is, of all Scripture, the Sum. "In the begin- ning was the Word." Everything speaks of Him. The Pentateuch and the books of the Prophets, the Psalms, and the Gospels and the Epistles all speak of Him. "In the volume of the Book it is written of Me." Preaching as I am from the Psalms, I cannot take so long a range. I must look back and find what was written in David's day and certainly within the Pentateuch. And where do I find it written concerning His coming? The Pentateuch drips with prophecies of Christ as a honeycomb overflowing with its honey. Chiefly is He to be found in the head and front of the book--as early as the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve had sinned and we were lost--behold, He is spoken of in the volume of the Book in these terms. "The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." So, early was it written that the Redeemer would be born in our nature to vanquish our foe. But I confess I do not feel shut out from another interpretation. I conceive that our Lord, here, refers to another Book, the Book of the Divine purposes, the volume of the Eternal Covenant. There was a time before all time, when there was no day but the Ancient of Days--when all that existed was the Lord, who is All in All--then the sacred Three entered into Covenant, in mutual agreement, for a sublime end. Man sinning, the Son of God shall be the Surety. Christ shall bear the result of man's offense. He shall vindicate the Law of God and make Jehovah's name more glorious than ever it has been! The Second Person of the Divine Unity was pledged to come and take up the nature of men, and so become the First-Born among many Brothers and Sisters to lift up a fallen race, and to save a number that no man can number, elect of God the Father, and given to the Son to be His heritage, His portion, His bride. Then did the Well-Beloved strike hands with the Eternal God and enter into Covenant engagements on our behalf-- "In the volume of the Book it is written." That sealed Book, upon whose secrets no angel's eyes have looked, a Book written by the finger of God long before He wrote the Book of the Law upon tables of stone! That Book of God may be spoken of in the Psalm, "And in Your Book all My members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." Our Lord came to carry out all His suretyship engagements--His work is the exact fulfillment of His engagements recorded in the Everlasting Covenant, "ordered in all things and sure." He acts out every mysterious line and syllable, even to the fullest. Then He said, "A body have You prepared Me. Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me." It is always a pleasing study to see our Lord, both in the written Word, and in the Everlasting Covenant of Grace. V. I must close with the fifth point, THE DELIGHT OF HIM THAT COMES. He said, "Lo, I come." As I have already told you, there is wonderful delight in that exclamation--"Lo, I come." But lest we should mistake our Lord, He adds, "I delight to do Your will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My heart." There can be no denial of His joy in His service! Note well that He came in compete subservience to His Father, God. "I delight to do"--what? "Your will." His own will was absorbed in the Divine will! His pleasure it was to say, "Not as I will, but as You will." It was His meat and His drink to do the will of Him that sent Him and to finish His work. Though He was Lord and God, He became a lowly servant for our sakes! Though high as the highest, He stooped low as the lowest! The King of Kings was the Servant of Servants, that He might save His people! He took upon Him the form of a Servant, girded Himself and stood obediently at His Father's call. He had a prospective delight as to His work. Before He came, He delighted in the thought of His Incarnation. The Supreme Wisdom says, "My delights were with the sons of men." Happy in His Father's courts, He yet looked forward to an access of happiness in becoming Man. "Can that be?" asks one. Could the Son of God be happier than He was? As God, He was infinitely blessed, but He knew nothing by experience of the life of man--and into that sphere He desired to enter. To the Godhead there can be no enlargement, for it is infinite, but still, there can be an addition--our Lord was to add the nature of man to that of God! He would live as Man, suffer as Man, and triumph as Man--and yet remain God! And to this He looked forward with a strange delight, inexplicable except upon the knowledge of the great love He bore to us. He had given His heart so entirely to His dear bride, whom He saw in the glass of predestination, that for her He would endure all things-- "Yes, says the Lord, for her I'll go Through all the depths of care and woe, And on the Cross will even dare The bitter pangs of death to bear." It was wondrous love! Our Lord's love surpasses all language and even thought. I am talking prodigies and miracles at every word I utter. It was delightful to our Lord to come here! "What did He delight in?" asks one. Evidently He delighted in God's Law. "Your Law is within My heart." He resolved that the beauties of the Law of the Lord should be displayed by being embodied in His own life and that its claims should be vindicated by His own death. To achieve this, He delighted to come and keep it and honor it by an obedience both active and passive. He also delighted in God's will and that is somewhat more, for law is the expression of will and this may be altered. But the will of the great King never changes. Our Lord delighted to carry out all the purposes and desires of the Most High God. He so delighted in the will of God that He came to do it and to bear it, "by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." He delighted also in God. He took an intense delight in glorifying the Father. He came to reveal the Father and make Him to be beloved of men. He did all things to please God. Moreover, He took a delight in us and here, though the object of His love is less, the love, itself, is heightened by the conspicuous condescension. The Lord Jesus took a deep delight in His people, whose names were written on His heart and engraved on the palms of His hands. His heart was fixed on their redemption and, therefore, He would present Himself as a Sacrifice on their behalf. The people whom the Father gave Him from before the foundation of the world lay on His very soul--for them He had a baptism to be baptized with, and He was straitened till it was accomplished. He gave Himself no rest till He had left both joy and rest to ransom His own. May I go a step further and say that He had an actual delight in His coming among men? "I delight to do Your will, O My God"--not merely to think of doing it. When our Lord was here, He was the most blessed of men! Are you amazed? Do you remind me that He was "a Man of Sorrows"? I grant you that none was more afflicted, but I still stand to it, that within Him dwelt a joy of the highest order. To Him it was joy to be in sorrow--and honor to be put to shame. Do you think that lightens our estimate of His self-denial and disinterestedness? No, it adds weight to it! Some people fancy that there is no credit in doing a thing unless you are miserable in doing it. No, Brothers and Sisters, that is the very reverse! Obedience which is unwillingly offered and causes no joy in the soul is not acceptable. We must serve God with our heart, or we do not serve Him. Obedience rendered without delight in rendering it is only half obedience! You shall say what you will about the greatness of my Lord's agonies. You shall never go too far in your estimate of His unfathomable grief, but going with you to the fullest in it all, I shall still take liberty to say that He had within Himself a fountain of joy which enabled Him to endure the Cross and even to despise the shame! Blessed among men was He, even when He was made a curse for us! With delight He gave Himself for us and made a cheerful surrender of Himself, that He might be the Ransom for many. The text is express upon that fact. And all this because our Lord came with such intense heartiness. He says, "Yes, Your Law is within My heart." Our Lord is most thorough in all that He does. His work is never slovenly, nor in a half-hearted way. He does not even sit on the well and talk to a poor woman, but what His heart is there. He does not go into a fisherman's hut, but what His heart is there and He heals the sick one. He does not sit down to supper with His followers, but what His heart is there and He reveals His love. I wish we were always at home when the Lord calls for us! Sometimes we are all abroad and our heart is away from the service of our Father--but He loved the Lord with all His heart, mind and strength. For us He gave His whole being, rejoicing to redeem us! He was always intense. Whether He preached or practiced, Jesus was all there and always there. Hence His delight, for what a man does with his heart he delights to do. These two sentences are melodious ofjoy to my ears! "I delight to do Your will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My heart." Hear this one other word. It is all done now. Jesus has fulfilled the Father's will in the salvation in the midst of His ransomed ones. And shall I tell you, need I tell you, what must be the delight, the heavenly Joy of our Lord, now that the work is finished? He is now the focus, the center, the source of bliss! What must be His own delight? We often say of the angels that they rejoice over one sinner that repents. I doubt not that they do, but the Bible does not say so. The Bible says, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents." What does it mean, "the presence of the angels"? Why, that the angels see the joy of Christ when sinners repent! Hear them say to one another, "Behold the Father's face! How He rejoices! Gaze on the Countenance of the Son! What a Heaven of delight shines in those eyes of His! Jesus wept for these sinners, but now He rejoices over them! How resplendent are the nail-prints today, for the re- deemed of the Lord's death are believing and repenting! That blessed Countenance which is always as a sun, shines in the fullness of its strength now that He sees of the travail of His soul." He who suffered feels a joy unsearchable-- "The first-born sons of light Desire in vain its depths to see: They cannot read the mystery-- The length, the breadth, the height." Oh, the joy of triumphant love! The joy of the Crucified, whose prepared body is the body of His Glory as once it was the body of His humiliation! In that Manhood He still rejoices and delights to do the will of the Father. My time has fled and yet I am expected to say something about missions. What shall I say? My Brothers, Sisters--all of you--do you know anything about the Truths of God I have spoken? Then go and tell the heathen that the Lord is come! Here is a message worth the telling! Mary Magdalene and the other Marys hasten to tell the disciples that the Lord had risen--will you not go and tell them that He has come down to save? "Lo, I come," He says. Will you not take up His Words and go to the people who have never heard of Him and say, "Lo, He has come"? Tell the Ethiopians, the Chinese, the Hindus and all the islands of the sea, that God has come here to save men and has taken a prepared body, that He might give to God all He required and all that He desired, that sinful men might be accepted in the Beloved, with whom God the Father is well pleased! Go, and take to the heathen this sacred Book. "In the volume of the Book it is written of Him." Do not begin to doubt the Book, yourself. Why should you send missionaries to teach them about a Book in which you do not, yourself, believe? Tell the nations that, "In the volume of the Book it is written of Him." Believe this Book and spread it! Help Bible Societies and all such efforts. And aid Missionary Societies which carry the Book and proclaim the Savior! The men of the Book of God are the men of God such as the world needs. Bid such men go and open the Book of God and teach the nations its blessed news! Go, dear Friends, and assure the heathen that there is happiness in obedience to God. So the Savior found it. He delighted in God's will, even to the death! And they will also know delight, as in their measures they bow before the authority of the Word and the will of the one living and true God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. Jehovah, the I AM, must be worshipped, for beside Him there is none else. Give glory unto God, whom our Lord Jesus has come to glorify. Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psalm 40. __________________________________________________________________ "Lo, I Come"--Application (No. 2203) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, MAY 3, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Then said I, Lo, I come." Psalm 40:7. To my great sorrow, last Sunday night I was unable to preach. I had prepared a sermon upon this text with much hope of its usefulness, for I intended it to be a supplement to the morning sermon [Sermon #2202, "Lo, I Come"-- Exposition"] which was a doctrinal exposition. The evening sermon was intended to be practical and to commend the whole subject to the attention of enquiring sinners. I came here feeling quite fit to preach, but an overpowering nervousness oppressed me and I lost all self-control--and left the pulpit in anguish. I come here this morning with the same subject. I have been turning it over and wondering why it was so. Perhaps this sermon was not to be preached on that occasion because God would teach the preacher more of his on feebleness and cast him more fully upon the Divine Strength. That has certainly been the effect upon my own heart. Perhaps, also, there are some here, this morning, who were not here last Lord's-Day evening, whom God intends to bless by the sermon. The people were not here, perhaps, for whom the eternal decree of God had designed the message and they may be here now. You that are new to this place should consider the strange circumstance--which never happened to me before in the 40 years of my ministry--and you may be led to enquire whether my bow was then unstrung that the arrow might find its ordained target in your heart! The two sermons will now go forth together from the press and, perhaps, going together, they may prove to be like two hands of love with which to embrace lost souls and draw them to the Savior, who herein says, "Lo, I come." God grant it may be so! The times when our Lord says, "Lo, I come," have all a family likeness. There are certain crystals which assume a regular shape and, if you break them, each fragment will show the same conformation. If you were to dash them to shivers, every particle of the crystal would still be of the same form. Now, the goings forth of Christ which were of old, His coming at Calvary and that great Advent when He shall come a second time to judge the earth in righteousness--all these have a likeness, the one to the other. But there is a coming of what I may call a lesser sort, when Jesus cries, "Lo, I come," to each individual sinner and brings a revelation of pardon and salvation--and this has about it much which is similar to the great ones. My one desire this morning is to set forth the Lord Jesus as saying to you, as once He did to me, "Lo, I come." He still cries to the weak, destitute, forlorn, hopeless sinner, "Lo, I come." I shall talk about that coming and hope that you will experience it, now, and thus be able to follow me in what I say. I speak mainly to the unconverted, but while I do so, I shall hope to be refreshing the grateful memories of those already saved--but this will all depend upon the working of the Spirit of God. To Him, then, lift up your hearts in prayer. I. I will commence with this observation--THE LORD CHRIST HAS TIMES OF HIS FIRST COMINGS TO MEN--"Then said I, Lo, I come." What are these times? Maybe some here present have reached this season and this very day is the time of blessing when the text shall be fulfilled--"Then said I, Lo, I come." Go with me to the first record in the volume of the Book, when it was said that He should come. You will find it in the early chapters of Genesis. Jesus said, "Lo, I come," when man's probation was a failure. Man in the Garden of Eden had every advantage for obedience and life. He had a perfect nature, created without bias towards evil and he was surrounded with every inducement to continue loyal to his Maker. He was placed under no burdensome law. The precept was simple and plain--"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." Only one tree was reserved--all the rest were given up to be freely enjoyed. In a very short time--some think it was on the first day, but that we do not know--our mother Eve ate of the fruit and father Adam followed her, and thus human probation ended in total failure. They were weighed in the balances and found wanting--"Adam, being in honor, continued not." At that point we read in the volume of the Book that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Then our Redeemer said, "Lo, I come." Listen to me, my Friend--you, also, have had your probation, as you have thought it to be. You left your father's roof with every hope. Your mother judged you to be of a most amiable character and your friends expected to see in you one whose life would honor the family. You thought so yourself. Your probation has reversed that hope--you have turned out far different then you should have and, looking back upon the whole of your life to this moment, you ought to be ashamed! It has been a terrible breaking down for you and for all who know you--and you are sitting in this place feeling, "Yes, it is so. The tests have proven me to be as a broken reed. I am under condemnation by reason of my transgressions against God." How rejoiced I am to tell you that, at such a time when you are conscious that you are a dead failure, Jesus says, "Lo, I come!" If you had not been a failure, you would not have needed Him and He never comes as a superfluity. But now, in your complete breakdown, you must have Him or perish--and in infinite pity he cries, "Lo, I come!" Is not this good news for you? Believe it and live! That also was a time when man's clever dealings with the devil had turned out a great failure. The serpent came and said, "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." How craftily he put it! How cunningly he insinuated that God was jealous of what man might become and was keeping him back from a nobler destiny! He even dared to say, "You shall not surely die," thus giving the Lord the lie direct! He seemed to say--"His threat is a mere bugbear, a thing to scare you from a great advance in knowledge and position! You shall not surely die." Eve, in her supposed wisdom, was not able to cope with the serpent's subtlety. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." The devil had played his cards so well that man was left bankrupt of virtue, bankrupt of happiness, bankrupt of hope! Then, in the volume of the Book, it was written, "I said, Lo, I come." Yes, in the exact hour when hellish falsehood had robbed man of everything! No man has yet dealt with the devil without being a loser. The arch-deceiver promises very fairly, but he lies from beginning to end. I know he promised you pleasure unbounded and liberty unrestrained. Now the pleasure is burnt out and the ashes of that which once blazed and crackled are terrible to look upon! As for liberty, where is it? You have become the bond-slave of sin. You were to enjoy life and lo, you are plunged in death! It may be there are in this house persons who bear in their bodies the marks, not of the Lord Jesus, but of the devil's temptations. He has made you to sin so that your bones are filled with the sins of your youth--and you know it. He needs a long spoon who eats out of the same dish as the devil and your spoon has not been long enough! Sin has overreached and betrayed you. And you stand trembling before God as the result of having listened to the falsehoods of Hell and having rejected the commands of Heaven Supposing such a person to be present--and I feel sure he is--I pray that he may hear my text as from the Lord Jesus, Himself. "Then said I, Lo, I come." The devil has trod you down, but Jesus comes to raise you up! Your paradise is lost, but by Him it is to be restored! Jesus has come to give repentance and remission of sins. That crafty head which deceived you--the Lord Jesus has broken--He came for this purpose. If you had not been betrayed, you would not have needed a Deliverer, but your misery has made room for His mercy. Not while Adam is perfect in Paradise is there any news of the Seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head. But after the serpent has done his deceitful work and has ruined the race, then we hear that ancient Gospel of God and see the only hope of fallen man! Here is good cheer for you who look with shame upon your foolish yielding to Satan's deceits! You are caught as silly birds in a snare! You have been as foolish as the fish of the sea which are taken in a net, but when you are captives, Christ comes to be your Liberator and God commends His love towards you in that while you are yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly! Further than this, when we find the first promise of our Lord's coming, "in the volume of the Book," we find that man's covering was a failure. The guilty pair had gathered the leaves of the fig tree and had made themselves aprons, for they knew that they were naked. This was the first fruit of that boasted Tree of Knowledge and it is the principal one to this day! Their scant coverlet contented them for a little while, but when the voice of the Lord God was heard in the Gar- den, they confessed that their aprons were good for nothing, for Adam acknowledged that he was afraid because he was naked and, therefore, he had hidden himself in the thick groves of the Garden. It is easy to make a covering which pleases us for a season, but self-righteousness, presumption, pretended infidelity and fancied natural excellence--all those things are like green fig leaves which shrivel up before long, lose their freshness--and are rather an exposure than a covering. It may be that my hearer has found his imaginary virtues failing him. It was when our first parents knew that they were naked that the Savior said, "Lo, I come." My downcast Hearer, if you are no longer in your own esteem, as good as you used to be. If you can no longer hide the fact that you have broken God's Law and deserve His wrath. If you no longer believe the devil's lie that you shall suffer no penalty, but may even be the better for sin, then our Lord, the Savior, says to you, "Lo, I come." To you, O naked Sinner, shivering in your own shame, blushing scarlet with conviction-- to you He comes! When you have nothing left of your own, He comes to be your robe of righteousness wherein you may stand accepted with God! That first news of the coming Champion came at a time when all man's pleas were failures. Adam had thrown the blame on Eve--"The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Eve had also thrown the blame on the serpent, but the Lord God had silenced all such excuses and driven them from their refuges. He had made them feel their guilt and had pronounced upon them the inevitable sentence--and then it was that He spoke of the "Seed of the woman." Here was man's first and last--and best hope! So too, my Friend, when you dare no longer plead your innocence, nor mention extenuations and excuses, then Jesus comes in! If conscience oppresses you so sorely that you cannot escape from it. If it is so that all you can say is "Guilty! Willfully Guilty," then Jesus comes! If you neither blame your surroundings, nor your companions, nor the Providence of God, nor your physical weakness, nor anything else, but just take all the blame to yourself because you cannot help doing so--then Jesus comes in! Verily you have sinned against God, against your parents, against your fellow men, against the Light of God, against knowledge, against conscience and against the Holy Spirit! No wonder, therefore, that you stand speechless, unable to offer any plea by way of self-justification! It is in that moment of shame and confusion that the Savior says, "Lo, I come," for such as you are He is an Advocate! When a sinner cannot plead for himself, Christ pleads for him! When his excuses have come to an end, then will the Lord put away his sin through His own great Sacrifice. Is not this a precious Gospel Word? When our Lord did actually arrive, fulfilling the text by being born of a woman, it was when man's religion had proven a failure. Sacrifices and offerings had ceased to be of any value--God had put them away as a weariness to Him. The scribes and the Pharisees, with all their phylacteries and wide-bordered garments, were a mere sham. There seemed to be no true religion left upon the earth. Then said Christ, "Lo, I come!" There was never a darker 30 years than when Herod slew the innocents and the chief priests and scribes pursued the Son of God and, at last, nailed Him to the tree. It was then that Jesus came to us to redeem us by His death! Do I speak to any man here whose religion has broken down? You have observed a host of rites and ceremonies--you were christened in your infancy, you were duly confirmed, you have taken what you call, "the blessed sacrament." Or it may be you have always sat in the most plain of Meeting Houses and listened to the most orthodox of preachers--and you have been among the most religious of religious people--but now, at last, the Spirit of God has shown you that all these performances and attendances are worthless cobwebs which avail you nothing! You now see that-- "Not all the outward forms on earth, Nor rites that God has given, Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth, Can raise a soul to Heaven." You are just now driven to despair because the palace of your imaginary excellence has vanished like the baseless fabric of a vision. If I had told you that your religiousness was of no value, you would have been very angry with me and, perhaps, you would have said, "That is a bigoted remark and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for making it!" But now the Spirit of God has told you the same and you feel its force--He is great at convincing of sin! When the Spirit of Truth comes to deal with the religiousness of the flesh, He withers it in a moment! All religion which is not spiritual is worthless. All religion which is not the supernatural product of the Holy Spirit is a fiction. One breath from the Spirit of God withers all the beauty of our pride and destroys the comeliness of our conceit and then, when our own religion is dashed to shivers, the Lord Jesus comes in, saying, "Lo, I come." He delights to come in His glorious Personality when the Pharisee can no longer say, "God, I thank You that I am not as other men" and when the once bold fisherman is cry- ing, "Lord, save, or I perish." If you feel that you need something infinitely better than Churchianity, or Dissenterism, or Methodism--in fact, that you need Christ, Himself, to be formed in you--then to you, even to you, Jesus says, "Lo, I come." When man is at his worst, Christ is seen at His best. The Lord walks to us on the sea in the middle watch of the night. He draws near to those souls which draw near to death. When you part with self, you meet with Christ. When no shred of hope remains, then Jesus says, "Lo, I come." Once more. The Lord Jesus is to come a second time and when will He come? He will come when man's hope is a failure. He will come when iniquity abounds and the love of many has waxed cold. He will come when dreams of a golden age shall be turned into the dread reality of abounding evil. Do not dream that the world will go on improving and improv-ing--and that the improvement will naturally culminate in the millennium. No such thing! It may grow better for a while--better under certain aspects--but, afterwards, the power of the better element will ebb out like the sea, even though each wave should look like an advance. That day shall not come except there is a falling away first. Even the wise virgins will sleep and the men of the world will be, as in the days of Noah, eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage. And then, all of a sudden, the Lord will come as a thief in the night! The deluge of fire will find men as unprepared as did the deluge of water! He will come taking vengeance on His adversaries. When things wax worse and worse we see the tokens of His speedy coming. He will shortly appear, for the sky is darkening. When every hope will seem blotted out and nothing but grim ages of anarchy and ungodliness are to be expected, then our Deliverer will come! When the count of bricks was doubled in Egypt, Moses came. And when the world attains to its utmost unbelief and iniquity, Jesus will come. So at this moment my Hearer may be saying, "I cannot be worse than I am; if I am not actually already in Hell, yet I feel a fire within which tortures my soul! The sword of vengeance hangs over my head suspended by a single hair! I tremble to live and I fear to die. Lost! Lost! Lost! I am past hope!" This is the time for my text--"Then said I, Lo, I come." He who is able to save to the uttermost appears to the soul when every other hope disappears. In your deep distress, I see a token for good! You are now reduced to spiritual death and now, I trust, the Eternal Life will visit you! Now all this I put before you in simple language, believing what I say, and trusting that if I describe your case, you will know that I mean it for you. I have heard of a preacher who was so fearful lest he should be thought personal, that he said to his congregation, "Lest any of you should think that what I have said was meant for you, I would observe that the sermon I am preaching was prepared for a congregation in Massachusetts." I can plead nothing of the sort! I refer to you, my Hearer, in the most pointed manner! I will attend to Massachusetts, if ever the Lord sends me there, but just now, I mean YOU. Oh, that you may have Grace to take home these thoughts to yourselves, for if you do, they will, by the Spirit's power, bring the light of hope into your souls! II. Secondly, I would remark that CHRIST COMES TO SINNERS IN THE GLORY OF HIS PERSON--"Then said I, Lo, I come." Note that glorious, I! Have you not seen people engaged in urgent work who did not understand their business? Apprentices and other unskilled people are muddling time away. They are making bad, worse, and running great risk. Perhaps a great calamity will occur if the work is not done well and quickly. A first-rate worker is sent for. See, the man has come who understands the business. He cries, "Let me come! Stand out of my way! You are on the wrong tack--let me do it myself!" You have not blamed him for egotism, for the thing needed to be done and he could do it--and the others could not. Everybody recognized the master workman and gave place to him. The announcement of his coming was the end of the muddle and the signal of hope! Even so, Jesus comes to you sinners and His Presence is your salvation! He says, "Lo, I come." What does He mean? He means, the setting of all else on one side. There is the priest--he has not helped you much. He may go, for Jesus says, "Lo, I come." There are your own efforts and doings. There are your feelings and thoughts. There are your ceremonies and austerities. There are your prayers and tears. There are your hearings and readings--all these must be laid aside as grounds of confidence--and Jesus, alone, must be your trust. He can do for you what none of these can. You are trying to work yourself up to repentance and faith, but you cannot succeed. Let Him come and He will bring every good thing with Him. It is glorious to see our Lord throwing down all our bowing walls and tottering fences and to hear Him cry, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation." Everything else vanishes before His perfect salvation! Before Him there is a setting aside of self. You have been your own confidence. What you could feel, or do, or think, or resolve, had become the ground of your confidence, but now Jesus puts self down and He is, Himself, exalted. By working yourself to death, you cannot effect our own salvation. Lo, Jesus comes to save you! You cannot weave yourself a garment. Lo, He comes to clothe you from head to foot with His own seamless robe of righteousness! He annihilates self that He may fill all things. Here is a glorious setting of Himself at our side and in our place. Mr. Moody tells a story which I would gladly hope may be true, for one would like to hear something good about a Czar of Russia, and especially about our once enemy, the Emperor Nicholas. The story concerns a soldier in the barracks who was much distressed by his heavy debts. He was in despair, for he owed a great deal of money and could not tell where to get it. He took a piece of paper and made a list of his debts and underneath the list he wrote, "Who will pay these debts?" He then lay down on his bunk and fell asleep, with the paper before him. The Emperor of Russia passed by and, taking up the paper, read it, and being in a gracious mood, signed at the bottom, "Nicholas." Was not that a splendid answer to the question? When the soldier woke up and read it, he could scarcely believe his own eyes. "Who will pay these debts?" was the despairing question. "Nicholas," was the all-sufficient answer! So are we answered! Who will bear our sins? The grand reply is, "JESUS." He puts His own name to our liabilities and, in effect, that He may meet them, He says, "Lo, I come." Your debt of sin is discharged when you believe in Christ Jesus. "Without shedding of blood is no remission," but the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanses us from all sin! You are not now to bear your own sins. Behold the Scapegoat, who carries them away into the wilderness! Yes, Jesus says, "Lo, I come!" He takes our sins upon Himself. He bears their penalty and we go free! Blessed words--"Lo, I come"--I come to take your weight of sin, your burden of punishment! I come to be made a curse for you, that you may be made the righteousness of God in Me. Sinner, stand out of the way and let Jesus appear for you and fill your place! He sets you on one side and then He sets Himself where you have been! Jesus is now the one Pillar on which to lean, the one Foundation on which to build, the one and only Rest for our weary souls! He sets Himself where we can see Him, for He cries, "Lo, I come." That is to say, "See Me come." He comes openly, that we may see Him clearly. How I wish the Lord would reveal Himself at this moment to each one of those who are weary of earth, of self, of sin and, possibly, even weary of life, itself! Oh, if you could but see Jesus standing in your place, you would have faith to stand in His place and so become, "accepted in the Beloved"! O Lord, hear my prayer, and cause poor hearts to see You descending from the skies, to uplift sinners from the dark abyss! Holy Spirit, touch that young man's eyes with heavenly salve, that he may see where salvation lies. Deal with that poor woman's dim eyes, also, that she may perceive the Lord Christ and find peace in Him. Jesus cries, "Lo, I come! Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth"-- "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 sa ved-- Unto Him who was nailed to the tree." Should you even lie in all the despair and desolation which I described, I would persuade you to believe in Jesus! Trust Him and you shall find Him all that you need! Our lord sets Himself to be permanently our All in All. When He came on earth, He did not leave His work till He had finished it. Even when He rose to Glory, He continued His service for His chosen, living to intercede for them. Jesus was a Savior 1,900 years ago and He is still a Savior--and He will be a Savior until all the chosen race shall have been gathered Home. He tells us, "I said, Lo, I come," but He does not say, "I said, I will go away, and quit the work." Our Lord's ear is bored and He goes out no more from the service of salvation. It is not written of any penitent souls, "You shall seek Me, but shall not find Me." But it is written, "If you seek Him, He will be found of you." O my Hearer, you are now in the place where the Gospel is preached to you--yes, to you, for we are sent to preach the Gospel to every creature! And though you should be the worst, most benighted and most guilty of all the creatures out of Hell, yet you are a creature, and we preach Christ to you! O poor Heart, may the Lord Jesus say to you "Lo, I come!" for He comes to stay--to stay until He has worked salvation in you as He has worked out salvation for you. He will not leave a Believer till He has presented him spotless before the Throne of God with exceeding joy. I wish I could make all this most clear and plain. You are altogether ruined by your own fault and you cannot undo the evil. You have done all you can and it has come to nothing. You are steeped in sin up to your throat--yes, the filth has gone over your head--you are as one drowned in black waters. Despairing one, cast not your eyes around to seek for a friend, for you will look in vain to men! No arm can rescue you, save one, and that is the arm of Jesus who now cries, "Lo, I come!" Set everything else on one side and trust yourself with the Savior, Christ the Lord! III. Oh, that many may be comforted while I dwell on the third head! CHRIST IN HIS COMING IS HIS OWN INTRODUCTION. Here our Lord is His own herald, "Lo, I come." He does not wait for an eloquent preacher to act as master of ceremonies for Him--He introduces Himself. Therefore even I, the simplest talker on earth, may prove quite sufficient for my Lord's purpose if He will graciously condescend to bless these plain words of mine. It is not I that say that Jesus comes, but in the text our Lord, Himself, declares, "Then said I, Lo, I come." You need not do anything to draw Christ's attention to you--it is Christ who draws your attention to Himself! Do you see this? You are the blind bat and He is all eyes towards you and bids you look on Him. I hear you cry, "Lord, remember me," and I hear Him answer, "Soul, remember Me." He bids you look on Him when you beseech Him to look on you! He comes when quite unsought, or sought for in a wrong way. To many men and women, Christ has come though they had not even desired Him. Yes, He has come even to those who hated Him. Saul of Tarsus was on His way to worry the saints at Damascus, but Jesus said, "Lo, I come"--and when He looked out of Heaven, He turned Saul, the persecutor, into Paul, the Apostle! The promise is fulfilled, "I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me." Herein is the glorious sovereignty of His love fully exercised and Grace reigning supreme. "Lo, I come," is the announcement of majestic Grace which waits not for man, neither tarries for the sons of men. Our Lord Jesus is the way to Himself. Did you ever notice that? He Himself comes to us and so He is the way by which we meet Him. He is our rest and the way to our rest. He says, "I am the way." You want to know how to get to Christ? You have not to get to Christ, for He has come to you! It is well for you to come to Christ, but that is only possible because Christ has come to you! Jesus is near you--near you now. Backslider, He comes to you! Wandering Soul, roving to the very brink of perdition, the good Shepherd cries, "Lo, I come." He is the way to Himself! Remember, also, that He is the blessing which He brings. Jesus not only gives life and resurrection, but He says, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." Christ is Salvation and everything necessary to salvation is in Him. If He comes, all good comes with Him, or rather, in Him. An enquirer once said to a minister, "The next step for me is to get a deeper conviction of sin." The minister said, "No such thing, my Friend--the next step is to trust in Jesus, for He says, Come unto Me." To come to Jesus, or rather to receive Jesus who has come to us, is the one essential step into eternal salvation. Though our Lord says, "Come unto Me," He has preceded it with this other word, "Lo, I come." Poor cripple, if you cannot come to Jesus, ask Him to come to you and He will! Here you lie and you have been for years in this case--you have no man to put you into the pool and it would do you no good if he did--but Jesus can make you whole and He is here! You cannot stir hand or foot because of spiritual paralysis, but your case is not hopeless. Listen to my Lord in the text, "Then said I, Lo, I come." He has no paralysis! He can come, leaping over the mountains of division! I know my Lord came to me, or I should never have come to Him--why should He not come to you? I came to Him because He came to me-- "He drew me, and I followed on, Charmed to confess the voice Divine." Why should He not draw you, also? Is He not doing so? Yield to the pressure of His love! "Then said I, Lo, I come." You see our Lord is His own spokesman. He says to me, "Go and tell those people about My coming"--and I gladly do so--but you will forget my words and refuse to accept the Coming One. Your consciences will be unawakened, your hearts unmoved--I fear it will be so. But if this text is fulfilled concerning our Lord this day--"Then said I, Lo, I come"--you will hear HIM! If He speaks, He is, Himself, the Almighty Word, and His voice will reach your hearts and accomplish His purpose! Dear Christian people, join with me in this prayer--Lord, speak to Your chosen ones that lie here in their death-like despair, far off from You, and say to each one of them, "Lo, I come." O downcast Soul, this is your morning--this is the set time to favor you--this day is salvation come to your house and to your heart! Make haste and come down from the tree of your frivolity or your self-righteousness! Receive the Lord Jesus, for today He must abide in your house and in your heart--the hour for the imperial "must" of the eternal purpose has arrived! God grant it may be so! May this be an hour of which Jesus shall declare--"Then said I, Lo, I come!" IV. Our next point is this--CHRIST, TO CHEER US, REVEALS HIS REASONS FOR COMING. Only a few words on this. Note the rest of the verse--"Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me." When we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly because it was the due time according to Covenant purposes. Christ comes to a guilty sinner just as He once came to a manger and a stable, because so it was appointed. There is nothing for Him to get, but everything for Him to give. He comes because so it is written in the volume of the Divine Decrees-- "Thus the eternal counsel ran-- Almighty Grace, arrest that man!" Therefore in love the Savior appears to the sinner and, by Divine Grace, arrests him in his mad career. It is His Father's will. Christ's coming to save a soul is with His Father's full consent and aid. The Father wills that you who believe in Him, lost though you are, should now be saved--and Jesus comes to do the will of the Father. He comes because His heart is set on you. He loves you and so He hastens to your rescue. Your salvation is His delight. Though your soul is sunk in a sea of need and you are in despair because of that need, Jesus loves you, and comes to meet your case. The best of all is that Jesus loves you. One asked an old man of 90, "Do you love Jesus?" and the old man answered with a smile, "I do, indeed. But I can tell you something better than that." His friend asked, "Something better than loving Jesus! What is that?" The old disciple replied, "He loves me." O Soul, I wish you could see this fact which is, indeed, better than your love to Jesus, namely, His love to you! Because He loved His redeemed from before the foundation of the world, therefore, in due time, He says, "Lo, I come." The fact is, you have need and He has love--and so He comes. There is no hope for you unless He comes and that is why He comes! If you had a penny of your own, He would not give you His purse. If you had a rag of your own, He would not give you His robe. If you had a breath of your own, He would not give you His life! But now that you are naked, poor, miserable, lost and dead, Jesus reveals Himself and you read concerning Him, "Then said I, Lo, I come." He gives you His reasons--reasons not in yourself, but all in His Grace. There is no good in you--there is no reason in you why the Lord should save you--but because of His free, spontaneous, rich, sovereign, almighty Grace, He leaps out of Heaven, He descends to earth, He plunges into the grave to pluck His Beloved from destruction! V. Here is my last word--CHRIST'S COMING IS THE BEST PLEA FOR OUR RECEIVING HIM--and receiving Him now! O Sirs, remember you have not to raise the question whether He will come or not. He is come! You have not to say, How can I come to Him? He comes to you! You need a Mediator between your soul and God, but you do not need any mediator between yourself and Jesus, for He says, "Lo, I come." To you in all your filthiness, in all your condemnation, in all your hopelessness, He comes! Wait not for anybody to introduce you to Him, or Him to you--He has introduced Himself and here is His card--"Then said I, Lo, I come." No pleas are needed to persuade Him to come to you, for He says, "Lo, I come." Though you cannot think of a single argument why He should appear to you in mercy, He does so! It is written, "I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, You are My people; and they shall say, You are my God." O Words of wondrous Grace! Our gracious Lord does not wait for our entreaties; but of His own accord He says, "Lo, I come." Without asking you and without your asking Him, He puts in an appearance in the sovereignty of His Grace. No search is needed to find the Lord, for He comes in manifested Grace and calls upon us to see Him. "I have long been searching for Christ" murmurs one. What? Seeking for the sun at noonday? Jesus is not lost! It is you that are lost and He is searching for you! He says, "Lo, I come"--it is you that will not come. Still one declares that he has been seeking the Lord Jesus for many a day. This is sadly strange, for Jesus is near. "Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven? or, Who shall descend into the deep? The Word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart, that if you will 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." If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved! Searching after Christ? No, verily He says, "Lo, I come." Moreover, no waiting is needed and no preparation is to be made by you. Why do you wait? HE does not wait, but cries, "Lo, I come!" "I will get ready for Christ," you say, but it is too late to talk so, when He cries, "Lo, I am come." Receive Him! If you are, in yourself, sadly unready, yet He, Himself, will make everything ready for Himself. Only open wide the door and let Him in. Do you say, "But I am ashamed"? Be ashamed! He bids you be ashamed and be con- founded, while He declares, "I do not this for your sakes." Yet be not so ashamed as to commit another shameful deed by shutting the door in your Redeemer's face! Shut not out your own mercy! A pastor in Edinburgh, in going round his district, knocked at the door of a poor woman for whom he had brought some needed help, but he received no answer. When next he met her, he said to her, "I called on Tuesday at your house." She asked, "At what time?" "About eleven o'clock. I knocked, and you did not answer. I was disappointed, for I called to give you help." "Ah, Sir!" she said, "I am very sorry. I thought it was the man coming for the rent and I could not pay it and, therefore, I did not dare to go to the door." Many a troubled soul thinks that Jesus is One who comes to ask of us what we cannot give, but, indeed, He comes to give us all things. His errand is not to condemn, but to forgive. Miss not the charity of God through unbelief! Run to the door and say to your loving Redeemer, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, but as You have come to me, I welcome You with all my heart." No assistance is needed by Christ on your part. He does not come with half a salvation and look to you to complete it. He does not come to bring you a robe, half woven, which you are to finish. How could you finish it? Could the best saint in the world add anything to Christ's righteousness? No good man would even dream of adding his home-spun to that raiment which is of worked gold! What? Are you to make up the deficient ransom price? Is it deficient? Would you bring your clods of mud into the royal treasury and lay them down, side by side with sapphires? Would you help Christ? Go, yoke a mouse with an elephant! Go harness a fly side by side with an archangel! But dream not of yoking yourself with Christ. He says, "Lo, I come," and I trust you will reply, "My Lord, if You are come, all is come, and I am complete in You"-- "You, O Christ are all I need, More than all in You I find." Receive Him--receive Him at once! Dear children of God and sinners that have begun to feel after Him, say with one accord, "Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus." If He says, "Lo, I come," and the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and he that hears says, Come, and he that is thirsty comes, and whoever will is bidden to come and take the Water of Life freely--then let us join the chorus of comes, and come to Christ ourselves! "Behold, the Bridegroom comes; go you out to meet Him!" You who most of all need Him, be among the first and most glad, as you hear Him say, "Lo, I come!" All that I have said will be good for nothing as to saving results unless the Holy Spirit shall apply it with power to your hearts. Join with me in prayer that many may see Jesus, just now, and may at once behold and accept the present salvation which is in Him. __________________________________________________________________ Sin--Its Springhead, Stream and Sea (No. 2204) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 10, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Our fathers understood not Your wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Your mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea." Psalm 106:7. OUR fathers! From them we derive our nature. We inherit our fathers' propensities, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh. As is the nature, such is the conduct. Hence the Psalmist writes in verse 6, "We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly." If we must mention our fathers' faults, it is not to screen ourselves, for we have to confess that our life's story is no brighter than theirs. It is not because the fathers have eaten sour grapes that the children's teeth are set on edge, for we, ourselves, have greedily devoured those evil clusters--"We have sinned with our fathers." "As in water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to man." When we read of the sins of others, we ought to be humbled and warned, for, "all we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way." We have no space wherein to set up a monument to our own glory. As we cannot boast in our pedigree, for we are the children of sinners, so we cannot exalt ourselves because of our personal excellence, for there is none that does good, no not one. We come before God and confess our iniquities as a race and as individuals. And we cry unto Him, in the words of the 47th verse, "Save us, O Lord our God." It may help us to escape out of the meshes of our natural depravity if we look back and see the causes of our fathers' sins. To confess our personal sin will tend to keep us humble and, in view of the Lord's mercy, which has spared and pardoned us, a sense of our guilt will make us grateful. The less we think of ourselves, the more we shall think of Him whose "mercy endures forever." And if we see where our fathers' sins began and how they grew, and what they came to, we may hope that the Spirit of God will help us to turn from the beginnings of evil and forsake the fountainheads of our iniquities. This will tend to repentance and holiness. May we be so worked upon by the Spirit of God that we shall not be as our earthly fathers, but become like our heavenly Father, who says to us, "Be you followers of God, as dear children." We are not to take our fathers after the flesh for our example wherein they have gone astray, but our Father who is in Heaven we are to imitate by the power of His Grace. Great things, whether good or evil, begin with little things. The river that rolls its mighty volume to the sea was once a tiny brook. No, it started as a springhead, where the child stooped down to drink and, with a single drink, seemed as if he would exhaust the supply! The rivulet ripples itself into a river. Sin is a stream of this sort. It starts with a thought. It increases to a resolve, a word, an act. It gathers force and becomes habit and daring rebellion! Follow me, therefore, first, when I notice, that lack of understanding lies at the fountainhead of sin--"Our fathers understood not Your wonders in Egypt." Out of this lack of understanding comes the greater offense of ungrateful for-getfulness. Failure of memory follows upon a lack of understanding--"They remembered not the multitude of Your mercies." This readily leads on to the sad consummation of rebellion. Provocation follows upon forgetfulness. Inward faults display themselves in outward offenses--"They provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea." I. Let us begin at the beginning. LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF GOD'S WONDERS IS THE SOURCE OF SIN. The wonders that God worked in Egypt were exceedingly great and instructive. The 10 plagues were memorable masterstrokes of God's judgment upon the proud and notable displays of His favor to the oppressed. How Egypt staggered beneath the blows of Jehovah! Those tremendous judgments came one after another with righteous deliberation and yet with terrible rapidity! Pharaoh and his proud nobles were wounded and humbled--the leviathan of Egypt was broken in pieces as one that is slain. Surely they for whom all these plagues were worked ought to have considered them and ought to have spied out the plain lessons which they taught! But they failed to do so, for they were dull of understanding. Albeit, God had come out of His secret places and had made bare His arm for them, yet, "our fathers understood not Your wonders in Egypt." We see this to be the case when we read the story, for, at first, when God began to work for them, they were so taken up with the present that they complained of Moses, for the cruel retort of Pharaoh! He had gone in unto the proud monarch and had urged the demand of Jehovah--and the tyrant had replied, "You hinder the people from their works; get you unto your burdens." He increased their toil by refusing to give the people straw to make bricks--and so their bondage was made bitter to the last degree--and they groaned as they saw "that they were in evil case." They are not blamed for groaning, but it was very blameworthy that they should say to Moses and Aaron, "The Lord look upon you and judge; because you have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hands to slay us." It was mean to blame their friends for the cruel fault of their enemy. How wretchedly have we also complained when God, in His gracious dealings with us, has caused us an inward grief! He began to show us our sin--a very necessary thing, but we kicked against it and said, "Is this the Grace of God? Oh, that we were rid of these convictions!" Thus the Lord took away our self-confidence, but we were full of unbelief and we thought some great evil had happened to us, whereas it was the way of God's wisdom and love to make sin as much a bondage to us as Egypt was to Israel! How else would we feel our need of redemption and be willing to come forth free by the blood of the Lamb? If the Lord does but lay His little finger upon us, we complain! And, instead of seeing love in our affliction, we cry out as if the Lord dealt harshly with us. His mercy designs to teach us some great lesson for our eternal benefit, but we murmur and ask, "Is this the love of God to His chosen?" Our fathers understood not His wonders in Egypt and, oftentimes, this is our case--we judge by the feelings of the present and forget the eternal future! We cannot understand our burdens and our soul-humbling. We stand bewildered and amazed. Though the point is plain enough to faith, unbelief does not hear the rod, nor Him that has appointed it-- and we are taken up with our present smart. Our selfish desire for immediate comfort prevents our understanding the great plans of Divine Grace. Further on we find Israel broken down by utter hopelessness. Moses spoke to them again, but we read, "They hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage." They had been so brutally crushed by the Egyptians that they had lost all heart. Slavery had killed all the manhood of their race--they were abject, timorous and crouching bondsmen. The last ounce that breaks the camel's back was laid on them by Pharaoh--and they could no more listen to words of hope. Moses said he had come to deliver them. He told them they should be brought out with a high hand and an outstretched arm. But they could not think it possible--they shook their heads and turned a deaf ear to what they regarded as vain words. Hope had fled. They understood not that God could, by any possible means, deliver them from the gigantic power which held them down. Alas, this also has been the case with us! And perhaps is the case with some here at this moment. You are so sad and so depressed that you cannot believe in salvation. Your presumptuous hopes lie dead in heaps round about you and you cannot believe that you will ever be saved. "Oh!" you say, "there may be mercy for someone else, but there is no mercy for me! God can forgive the chief of sinners, but He will never forgive me." Though we tell you of Free Grace and dying love--and of pardon for sins of deepest dye, a pardon bought with Jesus' blood--you turn a deaf ear to us because your spirit is wounded and faint. You understand not God's wonders for and in you. You cannot think that, indeed, and of a truth, the Lord Jesus loved you and gave Himself for you. You dare not hope that He has ordained you unto eternal life, that He will put His Spirit within you! You cannot believe that He will give you power to become children of God and joint-heirs with Christ! Your very sorrow for sin has made you incapable of understanding God's wonders of Divine Grace. This is a painful state of mind. You see, dear Friends, these people, though they saw God's plagues on the Egyptians, which were mercies to Israel, yet they did not enter into their teachings. One would have thought that every Israelite would have said, when the thick darkness was over all the land, even "darkness that might be felt," "surely Jehovah is a great and mighty God!" When there was a storm of thunder and hail over all Egypt, the likes of which had never been known before, would it not have been natural for them to cry, "Who is like unto You, O Jehovah? We, Your people, bow before Your majesty!" The right-minded Israelite would have prostrated himself before the supreme power of God and would have never, henceforth, doubted the Lord's ability to redeem His chosen nation. Should not Israel have also learned the royal sovereignty of the Lord God? What armies obeyed the call of that great King! At His word the river brought forth frogs abundantly. He spoke and there came divers sorts of flies and lice in all their borders. "He spoke, and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number, and did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground." Jehovah's camp is very great. The waters were turned into blood and the dust into creeping things--the heavens were set on fire--and the habitations of men were darkened. He who did all these marvelous things is King over all the earth. "He smote all the first-born in Egypt, the chief of their strength." Even the first-born of Pharaoh, that sits on the throne, was made to die. Surely Jehovah is King of Kings! Would you not have thought that His people would have felt the force of His Divine dominion and would have bowed before His supreme will throughout the rest of their lives? Awed by His power and Glory, we might have expected to find in Israel a loyal people! But no, they neither seemed to tremble before the power, nor to bow before the sovereignty of Jehovah. They murmured against Him and declared that He could not deliver them--and complained that they had been brought out of Egypt to die by the hand of Pharaoh at the Red Sea! Beyond all question, they ought to have recognized Jehovah's love to them. By so much as the plagues were terrible to Egypt they were gracious to His people! Though the Israelites were a race of down-trodden slaves, the Lord loved them. He moved Heaven and earth to liberate them! He not only made the very dust of Egypt alive for them, but He sent swift angels out of Heaven to avenge the wrongs of His chosen. The orbs of Heaven and the creatures of earth--all were brought to bear upon God's great purpose of Grace towards Israel. Truly said the Lord, "I gave Egypt for Your ransom: Ethiopia and Seba for You." It was love, wondrous love to Israel, which made the Lord to show His signs in Egypt, His wonders in the land of Ham! Why did they not become lovingly obedient in return for such favors? Why were they hard of heart, stiff of neck and unwilling to be led of the Lord their God? Alas, they understood not what the Lord was doing for them! To you, Beloved, it may be that the same fault can be laid. God has done great wonders for Believers, but, it may be, we have not yet learned His power so as to trust His might nor His sovereignty, so as to submit to His will nor His love, so as to rejoice in His faithfulness. Alas, we have but little understanding! No, worse, we have none at all except as the Lord, the Holy Spirit, teaches us to profit and instructs us, as children are instructed. The tribes of Israel did not see in all this, the claim which the Lord had upon them. As a people, they belonged to Him who had made them a nation. Because of what He had done for them, the Lord took up a peculiar position to them which He would have them acknowledge. Remember how, in the 20th chapter of Exodus, before the Lord proclaims His Ten Commandments, He says--"I am the Lord your God, which have brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage"? By this, Jehovah separated them to be His people and He declared Himself to be their God. During the plagues, He marked His special love to His own, for when the Lord sent a thick darkness over all the land, we read, "But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." When the cattle of Egypt died, Pharaoh sent and found, upon inquiry, that "there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead." When the first-born of Egypt fell dead beneath the angel's sword, the sprinkled blood of the Passover lamb secured to all Israel protection from the midnight slaughter--and men were made to know that God did put a difference between His chosen and the men of Egypt! Yet, the favored people did not understand it--the Truth of God was conspicuous enough, but they did not perceive it as they ought to have done. Neither did they practically show that they were the Lord's people and that only He was their God. The same slowness to take up our true position, we may see and mourn in ourselves. After all the Lord's wonders of Grace towards us, we do not exalt Him as our God, nor serve Him as His people, as we ought to do. Lord, have mercy upon us! The people did not see that their God, by all His wonders, was pledging Himself to them. After having done so much for them, He would not leave them. Could He have brought them out of Egypt to kill them at the Red Sea? They even dared to say that this was their suspicion! Oh, the slanders of unbelief! But if they had understood His wonders, they would have seen that He who had done such great things for them had bound Himself to perfect His purpose and to bring them into the land which He had promised to their fathers. "Ah," you say, "they were very stupid." I do not defend them--but what about yourselves? Have we not been mistrustful? Have we not said in our hearts, "He will yet fail us, and our faith will be disappointed"? Alas, great God, we blush and are ashamed! But, listen-- "Determined to save, He watched o'er my path When, Satan's blind slave, I sported with death. And can He have taught me to trust in His name, And thus far have brought me to put me to shame?" Will the Lord lose all that He has worked in us and for us? Is He like the foolish one who began to build and was not able to finish? Does the Eternal revoke His resolves? Does the Almighty turn from His purposes? Is it not said, "The Strength of Israel will not lie; for He is not a man, that He should lie, nor the son of man, that He should repent"? O Believer, learn this lesson well and trust in your unchanging God! And thus shall you understand His wonders in Egypt. The fact is, dear Friends, these people had no deeply spiritual work upon their hearts. "They understood not His wonders in Egypt" because their hearts were hardened by their association with a proud, worldly, idolatrous and yet cultured nation--and they had turned aside from the spiritual faith of their fathers. Wonders were worked and they saw them, and were amazed, but they did not see beneath the surface, nor perceive the Lord's meaning in them. Beloved, I pray to God for you who are newly called out from the world, that the first working of Divine Grace in your souls may be deep, true, clear and lasting. I would have you not only know, but understand. Depend upon it, a man's later character is very much shaped by the mode of his conversion. Why do some turn back altogether? It is because their change of heart was not that thorough radical conversion which involves the creation of a new nature! They felt certain superficial impressions which they mistook for the new birth and they made a hasty profession which they could not, afterwards, maintain. They were not thoroughly saved from the dominion of sin, or they would have held on to the end. Many professing Christians of whom we have a good hope that they will prove to be sincere, never had any deep conviction of sin, nor any overwhelming sense of their need of Jesus. Therefore they have seen little of our Lord in His glorious offices and all-sufficient Sacrifice--and have gained no thorough understanding of His Truth. They are like slovenly farmers who have plowed their fields after a fashion, but they have not gone deep--and the land will never yield more than half a crop! We have all around us too much surface work. Numbers of conversions are true as far as they go, but they go a very little way. I am afraid for you if you have only a flimsy experience, a skin-deep conviction, a blind man's apprehension of the heavenly Light of God. No wonder if very soon you forgot and afterwards rebel! Let us pray God that both in ourselves and in those whom we bring to Christ, the work of Grace may be deep and thorough--and may our faith in Jesus be sustained by a clear understanding of the Gospel and of our Lord's dealings with us! The Truth of God, itself, and our experience of it, may be likened to food--it is not the food we swallow which benefits us, but that which we digest! If undigested food lies in our inward parts and unassimilated, it will brood disease rather than promote health. So Truth which is not understood and thus taken up into the soul, cannot "feed" us in the true spiritual sense of that word. You see, Brothers and Sisters, there was a flaw in the Israelites at the beginning--"They understood not Your wonders in Egypt." When an iron girder suddenly snaps, they tell us that there was a flaw in the original casting. It was quite imperceptible at the first and, therefore, the girder passed all the tests of the engineer--and it was not until years of wear and tear that it gave way. Here was a manifest flaw in the casting as to the people of Israel--"They understood not Your wonders in Egypt." Had they well understood the Truth at the very first, they would not and could not have forgotten it--and they would not have been so little influenced by it in their conduct towards God. So much upon the first point. We have had before us a subject which should produce great thought and devout anxiety. II. FAILURE OF MEMORY FOLLOWS UPON LACK OF UNDERSTANDING. Children forget what they learn unless they understand it. They may pass the School Board standards and yet, in a few years, they may know very little. The capacity for forgetting in some children is amazing. Many, even among grownups, have splendid memories for forgetting! Alas, it is the case with certain of the Lord's people. That which we do not understand we readily forget. When a child thoroughly understands his lesson, it will be fixed in his memory, but if he has merely learned the words and has not entered into their senses, do you wonder that his lesson slips away? So was it with Israel in Egypt and at the Red Sea. Those sentences follow each other in true logical order--"They understood not Your wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Your mercies." Mercies should be remembered. It is a great wrong to God when we bury His mercies in the grave of unthankfulness. Especially is this the case with distinguishing mercies, wherein the Lord makes us to differ from others. Light, when the rest of the land is in darkness! Life, when others are smitten with the sword of death! Liberty from an iron bondage! O Christians, these are not things to be forgotten! Abundantly utter the memory of distinguishing mercies! Discriminating Grace deserves unceasing memorials of praise! Mercies multiplied should never be forgotten. If they are new every morning, our memory of them should be always fresh. Read the story of the 10 plagues and see how the Lord heaped up His mercies upon Israel with both His hands. Even if they had forgotten one wonder, they ought to have remembered others! "Forgot not all His benefits." Alas, some men, though their memories are refreshed with renewed loving kindnesses, yet prove by their discontent and mistrust that they do not remember the Lord's goodness. A grievous thing is this, when God sends mercy, and mercy, and mercy, and mercy, and mercy, and mercy--heaps of mercies, loads of mercies, hills of mercies, mountains of mercies, worlds of mercies--and yet men forget! His mercies are more than the stars, more than the drops of dew, more than the sands on the seashore and yet we do not remember! This is a mournful and inexcusable fault! "They remembered not the multitude of Your mercies." That is to say, they did not permanently remember these blessings. They remembered the Lord's wonders a little and then they sang--but when the song was over, their memories failed. They remembered God's mercies while they marched for the first few days as free men who had no daily task of brick-making to fulfill--but when they found that Pharaoh pursued them, they forgot all the Lord's mighty acts! When they tasted the waters of Marah and found them bitter, "they murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?" They forgot God's wonders whenever they were in straits. They limited The Holy One of Israel by their unbelief! "They soon forget His works; they waited not for His counsel; but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert." Our remembrance of the Lord's wonders of love should abide with us all our days. May the Lord give us a permanent recollection of His great goodness, both in Providence and in Grace! Hutton, Bishop of Durham, was, one day riding over the bleak northern hills. He stopped and, giving his horse to his servant, he went aside from the road to kneel down on a certain spot. He always did so when he reached that place, for in the day of his wealth and honor, he had not forgotten that when he was a poor boy he had crossed those wild hills, without shoes and stockings, and had turned a cow out of her place that he might warm his feet with what little heat remained in the place where the creature had lain. He had become bishop of a rich see and a man of renown, but he never passed that spot without kneeling down and praising God. May we have faithful memories for the goodness of our faithful God! The Israelites had memories out of which the mercies of God soon faded. The Lord save us from being like they and cause us to bless His name for what He did for us 50 years ago! Some of us would not have been among His people, today, if it had not been for the Lord's favors in our early youth--therefore let us praise Him for old mercies as well as for new ones. But Israel did not remember God's mercies powerfully. If they remembered these things, yet the remembrance did not enable them to bear up under present discouragements. The Egyptians pursued them and when they heard the cracking of the whips and the neighing of the horses, they cried out unto the Lord--they whined out--"It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness!" Had they forgotten Jehovah, who had glorified Himself over Egypt and had crippled all her power? Their memory of Jehovah's wonders had not influence enough over them to keep up their courage! Oh, for such a powerful memory of God's mercies that we may never distrust Him! They did not remember practically. Their lives were not affected thereby. True gratitude shows itself in acts and deeds. A gentleman had been the means of making a position for a tradesman, but, by a misfortune, he came to be, himself, in need of immediate help to tide over a season of great pressure. He called at the house of the person he had so successfully helped and found the wife at home. He told her the case and she answered at once, "My husband will be ready to lend you his name to the full amount required. He will hasten to you the moment you need him, and be glad to do so." A prudent neighbor, afterwards, said, "But you may have to pay away all you have in the world." "Yes," said the grateful wife, "we do not mind that--he was the making of us and if we have to lose everything for his sake, we shall do it very cheerfully-- for we shall only be back to where we were when he first helped us." That is a form of gratitude which is rare enough in this world, though I have seen it here and there. Beloved, if the Lord were to take away all that we have, we should only be back where we were at the beginning! We have nothing but what we have received from Him! He takes nothing from us but what He first gave us--let us bless a taking as well as a giving God. Oh, for this practical gratitude towards the Lord, that we may in all things either do His will cheerfully, or suffer it patiently! If we remember the multitude of His mercies practically, we shall be ready to surrender honor, ease, health, estate, yes, life, itself, for Him who gave Himself for us! Oh, to remember God's mercies practically in everyday life, in thought and word and deed! In fact, the Lord's mercies ought to be remembered progressively. We should think more and more of His exceeding kindness. A Christian man's life should be like another Bible, another Book of Chronicles. When we come to read through our personal life story, we should say, "Neither the 9th chapter of Nehemiah, nor the 106th Psalm can exceed my experience. The Lord has dealt well with His servant, according to His Word. If some of us had opportunity to write our lives in full--which we could hardly venture to do because there are private passages between our souls and our God which no human eye may read--how fully could we now testify to the faithful love of our Covenant God! On our parts, sin and weakness and fickleness have been conspicuous in our career. But on the Lord's part, Grace and Truth, and faithfulness and love shine forth as the sun! Beloved, we must not let go of the memory of the Lord's matchless kindness, but we must remember it more and more! The older we are, the more must we trust in Him who has not suffered one of His promises to fail! III. I need a little time for the third head, which is this--GRIEVOUS PROVOCATION FOLLOWED THEIR FORGETFULNESS OF GOD. Lack of understanding begat forgetfulness and forgetfulness brought forth rebellion. Let me read the last part of the text--"They provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea." Why does the Psalmist dwell upon the place and say, "at the sea, even at the Red Sea"? Why was it worse to provoke the Lord there than elsewhere? It evidently was so, for the Inspired Scripture mentions the spot twice to put an emphasis upon it. Why was this? The offense, itself, was grievous anywhere. They doubted God when they heard that Pharaoh pursued them and they said, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have You taken us away to die in the wilderness?" This imputation of cruelty to their faithful God provoked His sacred heart. The Lord is full of pity and His name is Love and, therefore, He is not easily provoked. But He declares that He was provoked by this display of their mistrust. They provoked Him--they called Him forth, as it were, to battle! They vexed Him and stirred Him up to contend with them. O Brothers and Sisters, after so much love as God has shown us, we must not fall to provoking Him! Let us far rather spend our lives in extolling Him! To provoke Him at any time is a wanton wickedness--unjust, ungenerous, diabolical. It is no common sin which thus provokes the long-suffering Lord. Many a sin God has endured patiently, but in this case He is provoked to anger! This is an offense which touches the apple of His eye and causes His jealousy to burn like coals of fire. O children of God, how can you provoke your Father to wrath? The Lord have mercy upon us! We must bow low at His feet with sorrowful repentance. Let us shun this fault in the future. But why did their transgression at the sea so greatly anger the Lord? Was it because it came at the outset of their existence as a nation? They had not gone many days' journey out of Egypt before they rebelled. They had not yet eaten up the bread they carried in their kneading troughs and they had scarcely met their first difficulty--and yet they hastened to provoke their God! How could they rebel so soon? They had scarcely reached the Red Sea before they began provoking the Lord with their dishonorable suspicions. O young Christian, if you provoke the Lord as soon as you are converted, your conduct will be black, indeed! Only a day or two ago you sang His praises and shouted, "Hallelujah! The blood of the Lamb has saved me." Will you so speedily distrust the Lord and provoke Him "at the sea, even at the Red Sea"? What? Stumble in the first few steps? God grant it may not be so! If you feel that you have already thus provoked the Lord, confess the wrong and ask pardon through the precious blood. To begin to doubt almost as soon as you begin to believe is a wretched business. What? Have you come out of Egypt and have you brought its bondage with you? You have been saved by the sprinkled blood and you have fed upon the Paschal lamb--and can you so soon utter words dishonoring to your delivering Lord? To doubt in the presence of a mercy is to doubt, indeed! To doubt the power of the blood of Christ when you have newly been saved, to doubt the power of the Holy Spirit to keep you to the end when you have just been renewed--why, this is aggravated guilt! It is sadly common, but it is none the less grievous to the heart of God. He marks it down and there stands the record--"They provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea." This is a poor beginning of a march to Canaan. Now this Red Sea was the place of their consecration. Here they were "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Here it was that they said, "He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him." As they stood by that Red Sea which had swallowed up all their enemies, they sang the praises of God and proposed to do great things in His honor! What wonderful obedience they meant to render! And yet they provoked Him then and there! What? Will you come up from the waters of your Baptism and go home and provoke God by unholy conversation and ungovernable temper? Can any of you go from the Communion Table into sin? I heard of one who went from the Table of the Lord across the street into the public-house. This is too gross! Such conduct grieves holy men and much more, the Holy God. To go from prayer to robbery, from reading the Word to fellowship with ungodly men--this must be terribly provoking to the thrice holy Jehovah! It is as though it were written again, "They provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea." It is a high crime and misdemeanor to sin in the presence of a great mercy. There is the sea. They have just marched through it and they have reached Marah, where the waters are brackish. If they now distrust and complain, close on the heels of their great deliverance, it will be a crime, indeed! O men, what are you doing? There is the Red Sea which God divided and yet you think He cannot give you water to drink! O fools and slow of heart, thus to doubt the Almighty! Doubt in the presence of a mercy! Doubt while so great a favor is before your eyes! This is evil, indeed! I find the Hebrew has been read by some, "They provoked Him in the sea, even in the Red Sea"--while they were passing through the deep they were rebelling! You will hardly believe it! What? When the waters stood upright as in an heap and were a wall on either side of them--and they walked through the depths of the sea and found good footing where sea monsters once had whelped and stabled--were they then provoking Him? Yes, they carried their sinful hearts with them even into the heart of the sea! Beloved, do not bear hard upon these Israelites, bear hard upon yourselves and hate the sin which dares intrude within the sacred enclosures of your joy in the Cross and dares to tempt you even when the five wounds of Jesus are shining on your soul like stars of God! Hate the sins which follow you to the Table of the Lord! Hate the wandering mind which taints the sacred bread and wine and defiles you when the instructive symbols are yet in your mouths! Abhor the sin which dogs your heels and follows you even to your knees--and hinders you in drawing near to God in prayer. Oh, the accursed sin which even on Tabor's top makes us fall asleep or talk foolishly! Lord, have mercy upon us and forgive the sins of our holy places and let it not stand against us in your Book that, "They provoked You at the sea, even at the Red Sea." It was called the Sea of Weeds and truly many were the weeds which grew, not only in the water, but in the hearts of those who stood on its shore! 1 must give one or two touches to complete the picture. This provocation of God was all the worse because they had only just done singing. What a song it was! Handel, with all the majesty of his half-Inspired music, can hardly set forth that wondrous song of Israel at the sea. "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." That was a noble anthem, but murmuring was a miserable sequel to it. "The Lord shall reign forever and ever," was a glorious hallelujah, but before its echoes had ceased to stir the heart of the lone hills, the same tongues were heard to complain against the Lord! "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation," died away into mutterings of unbelief! Do you wonder that God was provoked? Have you ever acted so? Did you ever rise high in rapture and praise the Lord upon the high-sounding cymbals--and then find yourself groveling on the ground within an hour? Have you felt so jubilant that you could have snatched Gabriel's silver trumpet from his mouth that you might blow it with all your might? And have you before long been looking for a mouse hole in which to hide your miserable head by reason of your unbelief? What fools we are! "Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity." When we know most, we are ignorant. When we swell to our greatest, we are big nothings! When God makes much of us, we think least of ourselves. How greatly do we prize and praise the precious blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all sin! This evil happened near the time of their strong faith. You remember how they sang, "Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling, shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of Your arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Your people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which You have purchased. You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O lord, which You have made for You to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established." They felt quite sure of conquering the land and chasing out the foe. They were so strong in faith that they thought they should never again mistrust the Lord, whose right hand was so glorious in power! The exultant women who followed Miriam never suspected that they could doubt the Lord, whose right hand had dashed the enemy in pieces. One of them would probably have said, "As for our enemies, the depths have covered them, there is not one of them left. I shall never fear again. I have attained full assurance and perfection and I shall never again mistrust the Lord." Yet these were the people who speedily murmured for lack of bread until the Lord heard them and was grieved! I dare say the men of the Red Sea said, each one, "My mountain stands firm, I shall never be moved"--and yet in how brief an hour were they challenging the faithfulness of Jehovah--and questioning His power to give them bread in the wilderness! Lord, what is man? We distrust Providence, we suspect Grace and we question the Lord, Himself--and all this after the Lord had made our assurance doubly sure! We are sad creatures and yet the Lord does not cast us away, for it is written, "Nevertheless He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known." Two things more and I have done. Admire the patient faithfulness of our God. Jehovah, though provoked, still loves His people. Admire His love to ourselves and especially that He should entertain such constancy of affection towards such wayward, fickle, unreliable souls as we are! Next, believe God so as to cease to grieve Him. Do not start aside at the next little puddle you see in the road--it is not an ocean. Do not whine that you will be devoured the next time you see a cat in the garden-- after all, it is not a lion. Do not groan, "I cannot pass this dread abyss," for it is only a little ditch which you can leap by faith. God helping you, rest not till you become "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." Doubt God when He gives you cause to do so, but not till then! If God had left those Israelites, once, they might have had some excuse for distrusting Him, but He had never done so. If He had ever failed in His judgments, they might have had some excuse for unbelief, but when He threatened their enemies with plagues, those plagues never failed to come! Was there a single weak point in what God had done for them? They had no ground, whatever, for their unbelief! O Brothers and Sisters, let us never distrust our God until He gives us ground for doing so--and that will never be! O Blessed Holy Spirit, strengthen the faith of Your people this day, and may that faith create in us perfect obedience to the will of the Lord, so that henceforth we may magnify His holy name and walk with Him until we see His face unveiled above! The Lord sanctify us unto Himself, for Jesus' sake! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psalm 106. __________________________________________________________________ "My Times Are In Your Hand" (No. 2205) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 17, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "My times are in Your hand." Psalm 31:15. DAVID was sad--his life was spent with grief and his years with sighing. His sorrow had wasted his strength and even his bones were consumed within him. Cruel enemies pursued him with malicious craft, even seeking his life. At such a time he used the best resource of grief, for he says in verse 14, "But I trusted in You, O Lord." He had no other refuge but that which he found in faith in the Lord, his God. If enemies slandered him, he did not render railing for railing. If they devised to take away his life, he did not meet violence with violence, but he calmly trusted in the Lord. They ran here and there, using all kinds of nets and traps to make the man of God their victim, but he met all their inventions with the one simple defense of trust in God. Many are the fiery darts of the Wicked One, but our shield is one. The shield of faith not only quenches fiery darts, but it breaks arrows of steel. Though the javelins of the foe were dipped in the venom of Hell, yet our one shield of faith would hold us harmless, casting them off from us! Thus David had the grand resource of faith in the hour of danger. Note well that he uttered a glorious claim, the greatest claim that man has ever made--"I said, You are my God." He that can say, "This kingdom is mine," makes a royal claim! He that can say, "This mountain of silver is mine," makes a wealthy claim. But he that can say to the Lord, "You are my God," has said more than all monarchs and millionaires can reach! If this God is your God by His gift of Himself to you, what more can you have? If Jehovah has been made your own by an act of appropriating faith, what more can be conceived of? You have not the world, but you have the Maker of the world--and that is far more! There is no measuring the greatness of his treasure who has God to be his All in All! Having thus taken to the best resource by trusting in Jehovah and having made the grandest claim possible by saying, "You are my God," the Psalmist now stays himself upon a grand old doctrine, one of the most wonderful that was ever revealed to men. He sings, "My times are in Your hand." This to him was a most cheering fact--he had no fear as to his circumstances, since all things were in the Divine hands. He was not shut up unto the hands of the enemy, but his feet stood in a large room, for he was in a space large enough for the ocean, seeing the Lord had placed him in the hollow of His hand! To be entirely at the disposal of God is life and liberty for us. The great Truth of God is this--all that concerns the Believer is in the hands of the Almighty God. "My times"-- these change and shift--but they change only in accordance with unchanging love and they shift only according to the purpose of One with whom is no variableness nor shadow of a turning! "My times," that is to say, my ups and my downs, my health and my sickness, my poverty and my wealth--all those are in the hands of the Lord who arranges and appoints according to His holy will, the length of my days and the darkness of my nights! Storms and calms vary the seasons at the Divine appointment. Whether times are reviving or depressing remains with Him who is Lord both of time and of eternity--and we are glad it is so! We assent to the statement, "My times are in Your hand," as to their result. Whatever is to come out of our life is in our heavenly Father's hands. He guards the vine of life and He also protects the clusters which shall be produced thereby. If life is as a field, the field is under the hand of the great Husbandman and the harvest of that field is also with Him! The ultimate results of His works of Grace upon us and of His education of us in this life are in the highest hands! We are not in our own hands, nor in the hands of earthly teachers, but we are under the skillful operation of hands which make nothing in vain! The close of life is not decided by the sharp knife of the fates, but by the hands of Love. We shall not die before our time, neither shall we be forgotten and left upon the stage too long! Not only are we, ourselves, in the hand of the Lord, but all that surrounds us. Our times make up a kind of atmosphere of existence--and all this is under Divine arrangement. We dwell within the palm of God's hand. We are absolutely at His disposal and all our circumstances are arranged by Him in all their details. We are comforted to have it so. How came the Psalmist's times to be thus in God's hands? I should answer, first, that they were there in the order of nature, according to the eternal purpose and decree of God. All things are ordained of God and are settled by Him, according to His wise and holy predestination. Whatever happens here happens not by chance, but according to the counsel of the Most High! The acts and deeds of men below, though left wholly to their own wills, are the counterpart of that which is written in the purpose of Heaven. The open acts of Providence, here below, tally exactly with that which is written in the secret Book which no eye of man or angel as yet has scanned. This eternal purpose superintended our birth. "In your Book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." In your Book, every footstep of every creature is recorded before the creature is made! God has mapped out the pathway of every man who traverses the plains of life. Some may doubt this, but all agree that God foresees all things--and how can they be certainly foreseen unless they are certain to be?. It is no mean comfort to a man of God that he feels that, by Divine arrangement and sacred predestination, his times are in the hands of God! But David's times were in God's hand in another sense, namely, that he had, by faith, committed them all to God. Observe carefully the 5th verse--"Into Your hand I commit my spirit: You have redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth." In life we use the words which our Lord so patiently used in death--we hand over our spirits to the hands of God. If our lives were not appointed of Heaven, we would wish they were. If there were no overruling Providence, we would crave for one. We would merge our own wills in the will of the great God and cry, "Not as we will, but as You will." It would be a hideous thought to us if any one point of our life story were left to chance, or to the frivolities of our own fancy. But with joyful hope we fall back upon the eternal foresight and the Infallible Wisdom of God and cry, "You shall choose our inheritance for us." We would beg Him to take our times into His hands, even if they were not there. Moreover, Beloved Brothers and Sisters, our times are in the Lord's hands because we are one with Christ Jesus. "We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones." Everything that concerns Christ touches the great Father's heart. He thinks more of Jesus than of all the world! Therefore it follows that when we become one with Jesus, we become conspicuous objects of the Father's care! He takes us in hand for the sake of His dear Son! He that loves the Head, loves all the members of the mystical body! We cannot conceive of the dear Redeemer as ever being out of the Father's mind-- neither can any of us who are in Christ be away from the Father's active, loving care--our times are always in His hands. All His eternal purposes work towards the glorifying of the Son and quite as surely they work together for the good of those who are in His Son. The purposes which concern our Lord and ourselves are so intertwisted as never to be separated! To have our times in God's hands must mean not only that they are at God's disposal, but that they are arranged by the highest wisdom. God's hand never errs and if our times are in His hand, those times are ordered rightly. We need not puzzle our brains to understand the dispensations of Providence--a much easier and wiser course is open to us, namely--to believe the hands of the Lord work all things for the best. Sit still, O child, at your great Father's feet, and let Him do as seems Him good! When you cannot comprehend Him, know that a babe cannot understand the wisdom of its parent. Your Father comprehends all things, though you do not--let His wisdom be enough for you! Everything in the hand of God is where it may be left without anxiety and it is where it will be carried through to a prosperous issue. Things prosper which are in His hands. "My times are in Your hand," is an assurance that none can disturb, or pervert, or poison. In that hand we rest as securely as rests a babe upon its mother's breast. Where could our interests be so well secured as in the eternal hands? What a blessing it is to see, by the eye of faith, all things that concern you grasped in the hands of God! What peace as to every matter which could cause anxiety flows into the soul when we see all our hopes built upon so stable a foundation and preserved by such supreme power! "My times are in your hand!" Before I go into this subject, to show the sweetness of this confidence, I pray every Christian here to read the text and take it in the singular, and not as we sang it just now-- "Our times are in Your hand, Whatever they may be, Pleasing or painful, dark or bright, As best may seem to Thee." We find it in the Psalm, "My times are in Your hand." This does not exclude the whole body of the saints enjoying this safety together, but, after all, the Truth of God is sweetest when each man tastes the flavor of it for himself. Come, let each man take to himself this Doctrine of the Supreme Appointment of God and believe that it stands true as to his own case, "My times are in Your hand." The wings of the cherubim cover me. The Lord Jesus loved me and gave Himself for me--and my times are in those hands which were nailed to the Cross for my redemption! What will be the effect of such a faith, if it is clear, personal and enduring? This shall be our subject at this season. May the Holy Spirit help us! I. A clear conviction that our times are in the hand of God WILL CREATE WITHIN US A SENSE OF THE NEARNESS OF GOD. If the hand of God is laid upon all our surroundings, God, Himself, is near us. Our Puritan fathers walked with God the more readily because they believed in God as arranging everythingin their daily business and domestic life. They saw Him in the history of the nation and in all the events which transpired. The tendency of this age is to get further and further from God. Men will scarcely tolerate a Creator, now, but everything must be evolved. To get God one stage further back is the ambition of modern philosophy, whereas, if we were wise--we would labor to clear out all obstacles and leave a clear channel for drawing near to God--and for God to draw near to us. When we see that in His hands are all our ways, we feel that God is real and near. "My times are in Your hand." Then there is nothing left to chance. Events happen not to man by a fortune which has no order or purpose in it. "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." Chance is a heathenish idea which the teaching of the Word has cast down, even as the Ark threw down Dagon and broke him in pieces. Blessed is that man who has done with chance, who never speaks of luck, but believes that from the least, even to the greatest, all things are ordained of the Lord. We dare not leave out the least event! The creeping of an aphid upon a rosebud is as surely arranged by the decree of Providence as the march of a pestilence through a nation. Believe this, for if the least is omitted from the supreme government, so may the next be, and the next, till nothing is left in the Divine hands. There is no place for chance, since God fills all things. "My times are in Your hand" is an assurance which also puts an end to the grim idea of an iron fate compelling all things. Have you the notion that fate grinds on like an enormous wheel, ruthlessly crushing everything that lies in its way, not pausing for pity, nor turning aside for mercy? Remember, if you liken Providence to a wheel, it must be a wheel which is full of eyes! Its every revolution is in wisdom and goodness! God's eyes leave nothing blind in Providence, but fill all things with sight. God works all things according to His purpose, but then He Himself works them. There is all the difference between the lone machinery of fixed fate and the Presence of a gracious, loving Spirit ruling all things. Things happen as He plans them, but He Himself is there to make them happen, to moderate, guide and secure results! Our great joy is not, "My times are in the wheel of destiny," but, "My times are in Your hand." With a living, loving God to superintend all things, we feel ourselves at home, resting near our Father's heart. "My times are in Your hand." Does not this reveal the condescension of the Lord? He has all Heaven to worship Him and all worlds to govern, and yet, "my times"--the times of such an inconsiderable and unworthy person as I am-- are in His hands! Now, what is man that it should be so? Wonder of wonders, that God should not only think of me, but should make my concerns His concerns and take my matters into His hands! He has the stars in His hands and yet He puts us there. He deigns to take in hand the passing interests of obscure men and lowly women! Beloved, God is near His people with all His attributes, His wisdom, His power, His faithfulness, His immutability and these are, under oath, to work for the good of those who put their trust in Him. "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Yes, God considers our times and thinks them over, with His heart and soul planning to do us good. That august mind, out of which all things spring, bows itself to us and those eternal wings, which cover the universe, also brood over us and our household, and our daily needs and woes! Our God sits not still as a listless spectator of our griefs, suffering us to be drifted like waifs upon the waters of circumstance, but is busily occupying Himself at all times for the defense and perfecting of His children. He leads us that He may bring us home to the place where His flock shall rest forever. What a bliss this is! Our times, in all their needs and aspects, are in God's hands and, therefore, God is always caring for us! How near it brings God to us and us to God! Child of God, go not tomorrow into the field, lamenting that God is not there! He will bless your going out. Come not home to your chamber, crying, "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!" He will bless your coming in! Go not to your bed, dreaming that you are left an orphan--neither wake up in the morning with a sense of loneliness upon you--you are not alone, for the Father is with you! Will you not feel how good it is that God should come so close to you and handle your bread and your water, and bless your bed and your board? Are you not happy to be allowed to come so close to God, as to say, "My times are in Your hand"? There is a great deal in this first point as to the nearness of the Lord--and if you will turn it over--you will see more and more that a conviction that our times are in God's hand tends to create a happy and holy sense of the nearness of God to us. II. THIS TRUTH IS A COMPLETE ANSWER TO MANY A TEMPTATION. You know how craftily Satan will urge a temptation. He says, "Now you have a large family and your chief duty is to provide for them. Your position brings with it many needs. Here is a plan of making money--others follow it. It may not be quite straight, but you must not be particular in such a world as this, for nobody else is." How will you meet this? Can you say to Satan, "It is not my business to provide for myself or for my family--my times are in God's hand and His name is Jehovah-Jireh--The Lord Will Provide. And I will not do a questionable thing, though it would fill my house with silver and gold from the cellar to the chimney pot. I shall not meddle with my Lord's business. It is His to provide for me--it is mine to walk uprightly and obey His Word"? This is a noble answer to the arch-enemy! But supposing he says, "Well, but you are already in difficulties and you cannot extricate yourself if you are too precise. A poor man cannot afford to have a conscience--it is an expensive luxury in these days. Give your conscience a holiday and you can soon get out of your trouble." Let your reply be, "O Prince of Darkness, it is no business of mine to extricate myself! My times are in God's hand. I have taken my case to Him and He will work for me in this matter better than I can do for myself! He does not wish me to do a wrong thing, that I may do for myself what He has promised to do for me." We are not called upon to eke out God's wisdom with a bit of our own wickedness. God forbid! Do the right, even if the heavens should fall. The Lord who has taken your business into His hands will bear you through. "Well," says one, "we may use a little discreet policy in religious matters and keep the peace by wise compromise. We may accomplish our end all the sooner by going a little roundabout. If you can just let the Truth of God wait for a little until the fine weather comes, and the silver slippers are in season, then she will be saved a good deal of annoyance!" Brothers and Sisters, it is not for us to pick and plan times in this fashion. God's cause is in God's hands and God would not have us help His cause by a compromising hand being laid on His Ark. Remember what the hand of Uzzah brought on him, though he meant well. Let us continue steadfast in the integrity of our walk and we shall find our times are in God's hand--and that they are well ordered and need no hasty and unholy interposition on our part. Brethren, is it not a delightful thing for us to know that though we are on a stormy voyage, the Lord, Himself, is at the helm? The course we do not know, nor even our present latitude and longitude. But the Pilot knows all about us and also about the sea. It will be our wisdom not to interfere with our Captain's orders. They put up a notice on the steamboats, "Do not speak to the man at the wheel." We are very apt, in our unbelief, to dispute with Him to whom the steering of our vessel is entrusted. We shall not confuse Him, thank God, but we often confound and confuse ourselves by our idle complaining against the living Lord! No, when you are tempted to presume, or to act in a despairing haste, or to hide your principles, or to do something which is not defensible in order that you may arrange your times more comfortably, answer with a decided "No," and say, "My times are in God's hand"--and there, by His Grace, I will leave them!" When the devil comes with His subtle questions and insinuations, refer Him to your Lord, in whose hands your times are placed. When you have a lawsuit, the opposite side will likely come and talk with you, to see if they can get something out of you. It will be your wisdom to reply, "If you have anything to say, say it to my solicitor." If the devil comes to you and you get into an argument with him, he will beat you, for he is a very ancient lawyer and he has been at the business for so many ages that you cannot match him. Send him to your Advocate! Refer him to the Wonderful, the Counselor! Always shelter beneath this fact, "My times are in His hand. I have left the whole business to Another and I cannot dishonor Him by meddling." Satan knows the Christ too well to go to Him--he knows the taste of His broadsword, of, "It is written." He will not contest with Jesus if we leave Him to plead the causes of our soul! III. In the third place, THIS CONVICTION IS A SUFFICIENT SUPPORT AGAINST THE FEAR OF MEN. We may say to ourselves, when our enemies bear very hard upon us, "I am not in their hands. My times are in Your hand." Here are gentlemen judging and condemning us with great rapidity. They say, "He has made a great mistake. He is an old bigot. He has snuffed himself out." This is easier said than done. The candle still shines. They say of you, "He is foolish and headstrong and, on religious matters, he is as obstinate as a mule! But he will come to grief." You have not come to grief, yet, in the way they predict, and they had better not prophesy till they know! The godly are not in the hands of those who mock them! The wicked may gnash their teeth at Believers, but they cannot destroy them! Here is their comfort--they have committed their spirit to the hands of God--and He will sacredly preserve the precious deposit. Fear not the judgments of men! Appeal to a higher court. Take the case to the King's Bench. Go to God, Himself, with the matter, and He will bring forth your judgment as the light and your righteousness as the noonday. Do the malicious resolve to crush you? They will use to the utmost their little power, but there is a higher power which will hold them back. Rejoicingly say, "My times are in Your hand." Do they treat you with contempt? Do they sneer at you? What does that matter? Your honor comes not from men! Their contempt is the highest complimentthe wicked can pay you. Alas, many professors place their times in the hands of the world! If they prosper and grow rich, they see an opportunity of social advantage and they quit their humbler friends to join a more respectable sect. How many are lost to fidelity because their prosperous times are not in God's hands, but in their own? Some, on the other hand, when they are in adversity, get away from the Lord. The excuse is, "I cannot go to the House of God any more, for my clothes are not so respectable as they used to be." Is your poverty to take you out of your Lord's hands? Never let it be so! But say, "My times are in Your hand." Cleave to the Lord in losses as well as in gains and so let allyour times be with Him. How often we meet with people who are staggered by slander! It is impossible to stop malicious tongues. They wound and even slay the characters of the godly. The tried one cries, "I cannot bear it! I shall give all up." Why? Why yield to mere talk? Even these cruel tongues are in God's hands! Can you not brave their attacks? They cannot utter a single whisper more than God permits! Go on your way, O righteous man, and let false tongues pour forth their poison as they will. "Every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn." If my times are in God's hands, no man can do me harm unless God permits it. Though my soul is among lions, yet no lion can bite me while Jehovah's angel is my guard! This feeling, that our interests are safe in the highest keeping, breeds an independent spirit. It prevents our cringing before the great and our flattering the strong. At the same time, it removes all tendency to envy, so that you do not wish for the prosperity of the wicked, nor fret yourself because of evildoers. When one knows that his times are in God's hands, he would not change places with a king! No, nor even with an angel! IV. A full belief in the statement of our text is A CURE FOR PRESENT WORRY. O Lord, if my times are in Your hands, I have cast my care on You, and I trust and am not afraid! Why is it, my Sister--for this habit of worrying abounds among the gracious sisterhood--why do you vex yourself about a matter which is in the hands of God? If He has undertaken for you, what cause have you for anxiety? And you, my Brother--for there are plenty of men who are nervous and fretful--why do you want to interfere with the Lord's business? If the case is in His hands, what need can there be for you to be prying and crying? You were worrying this morning and fretting last night--and you are distressed, now, and will be worse tomorrow morning. May I ask you a question? Did you ever get any good by fretting? When there was not rain enough for your farm, did you ever fret a shower down? When there was too much rain, or you thought so, did you ever worry the clouds away? Tell me, did you ever make a sixpence by worrying? It is a very unprofitable business! Do you answer, "What, then, are we to do in troublous times?" Why, go to Him into whose hand you have committed yourself and your times! Consult with Infinite Wisdom by prayer. Console yourself with Infinite Love by fellowship with God. Tell the Lord what you feel and what you fear. Ten minutes' praying is better than a year's murmuring! He that waits upon God and casts his burden upon Him may lead a royal life--indeed, he will be far happier than a king! To leave our times with God is to live as free from care as the birds upon the bough. If we fret, we shall not glorify God, and we shall not constrain others to see what true religion can do for us in the hour of tribulation. Fret and worry put it out of our power to act wisely. But if we can leave everything with God because everything really is in His hands, we shall be peaceful and our action will be deliberate. And for that very reason it will be more likely to be wise. He that rolls his burden upon the Lord will be strong to do or to suffer--and his days shall be as the days of Heaven upon the earth. I admire the serenity of Abraham. He never seems to be in a fluster, but he moves grandly, like a prince among men. He is much more than the equal of the greatest man he meets--we can hardly see Lot with a microscope when we have once seen Abraham! Why was that? Because he believed in God and staggered not. Half the joy of life lies in expectation. Our children get greater pleasure out of expecting a holiday than they do out of the day, itself. It is much the same with ourselves. If we believe that all our times are in God's hands, we shall be expecting great things from our heavenly Father. When we get into a difficulty we shall say, "I am now going to see the wonders of God and to learn, again, how surely He delivers them that trust in Him!" I thank God I have learned at times to glory in necessities, as opening a window into Heaven for me, out of which the Lord would abundantly pour forth His supplies. It has been to me so unspeakable a delight to see how the Lord has supplied my needs for the Orphanage, the College and other works, that I have half wished to be in straits, that I might see how the Lord would appear for me! I remember, some time ago, when, year after year, all the money came in for the various enterprises, I began to look back with regret upon those grand days when the Lord permitted the brook Cherith to dry up and called off the ravens, with their bread and meat, and then found some other way of supplying the orphans' needs! In those days, the Lord used to come to me, as it were, walking on the tops of the mountains, stepping from peak to peak and, by marvelous deeds, supplying all my needs, according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus! Do you know, I almost wished that the Lord would stop the streams and then let me see how He can fetch water out of the Rock! He did so, not very long ago. Funds ran very low and then I cried to Him and He heard me out of His holy hill. How glad was I to hear the footsteps of the ever-present Lord, answering to His child's prayer and letting him know that his times were still in his Father's hands! Surely it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man! It is a joy worth worlds to be driven where none but the Lord can help you--and then to see His mighty hand pulling you out of the net! The joy lies mainly in the fact that you are sure it is the Lord and sure that He is near you. This blessed realization of the Lord's interposition causes us to glory in tribulation! Is not that a cure for worry, a blessed cure for anxiety? V. Fifthly, a firm conviction of this truth is A QUIETUS AS TO FUTURE DREAD. "My times are in Your hand." Do you wish to know what is going to happen to you in a short time? Would you look between the folded leaves of the future? You can buy a penny newspaper which will tell you the fate of nations this very year. But you may be well-near sure that nothing will happen which is thus predicted--and thus it may be of little use to you! Be content with the prophecies of Scripture, but follow not every interpreter of them. Many people would pay great sums to have the future made known to them. If they were wise, they would rather desire to have it concealed! Do not want to know--such knowledge would answer no useful purpose. The future is intended to be a sealed book. The present is all we need to have before us. Do your day's work in its day and leave tomorrow with your God. If there were ways of reading the future, it would be wise to decline to use them. The knowledge would create responsibility, arouse fear and diminish present enjoyment--why seek after it? Famish idle curiosity and give your strength to believing obedience! Of this you may be quite sure, that there is nothing in the book of the future which should cause distrust to a Believer! Your times are in God's hands--and this secures them. The very word, "times," supposes change for you. But as there are no changes with God, all is well. Things will happen which you cannot foresee, but your Lord has foreseen all and provided for all! Nothing can occur without His Divine allowance and He will not permit that which would be for your real or permanent injury. "I should like to know," says one, "whether I shall die soon." Have no desire in that direction--your time will come when it should. The best way to live above all fear of death is to die every morning before you leave your bedroom. The Apostle Paul said, "I die daily." When you have got into the holy habit of daily dying, it will come easy to you to die for the last time! It is greatly wise to be familiar with our last hours. As you take off your garments at night, rehearse the solemn scene when you shall lay aside your robe of flesh. When you put on your garments in the morning, anticipate the being clothed upon with your house which is from Heaven in the day of Resurrection. To be fearful of death is often the height of folly. A great Prophet once ran away many miles to escape from death by an imperious queen. He was one of the bravest of the brave and yet He hurried into solitude to escape a woman's threat! When he had finished his weary walk, he sat down and actually prayed, "Let me die." It was a singular thing to do, to run for his life, and then to cry, "Let me die." That man never did die, for we speak of Elijah who rode to Heaven in a chariot of fire! God does not answer all His people's prayers, for He has better things for them than they ask. Do not tremble about what may never happen. Even we may never die, for it is written, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." Some of us may be alive and remain at the coming of the Lord. Who knows? Behold, He comes quickly! At any rate, do not let us worry about death, for it is in His hands. VI. Again, a full conviction that our times are in His hands will be A REASON FOR CONSECRATED SERVICE. If God has undertaken my business for me, then I may most fitly undertake such business for Him as He may appoint. Queen Elizabeth wished one of the leading merchants of London to go to Holland to watch her interests there. The honest man told Her Majesty that he would obey her commands, but he begged her to remember that it would involve the ruin of his own trade, for him to be absent. To this the Queen replied, "If you will see to my business, I will see to your business." With such a royal promise he might willingly let his own business go, for a queen should have it in her power to do more for a subject than he can do for himself. The Lord, in effect, says to the Believer, "I will take your affairs in hand and see them through for you." Will you not at once feel that now it is your joy, your delight, to live to glorify your gracious Lord? To be set free to serve the Lord is the highest freedom! How beautiful it is to read in the book of Isaiah, "And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers"! Outsiders shall do the drudgery for you and set you free for higher service! Read on and see--"But you shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God." Faith sets us free from the wear and tear of carking care that we may give ourselves up wholly to the service of the Lord our God! Faith causes us to live exempt from fret, to serve only the blessed God. Set free from the burden of earthly things by God's kind care of us, we present our bodies as living sacrifices unto the Lord our God. He has not made us slaves and drudges, but priests and kings unto God! I am sure, dear Friends, if we get this Truth of God fully saturating our souls, that our times are in God's hand, it will make life a grander thing than it has ever seemed to be. Do you believe that God's hand is working with you and for you? Then are you lifted above the dumb-driven cattle that surround you, for the God of Heaven thinks of you and puts His hand to your affairs. This connection with the Divine puts heart into a man and rises him to high endeavor and great belief. We feel we are immortal till our work is done! We feel that God is with us and that we are bound to be victorious through the blood of Jesus! We shall not be defeated in the campaign of life, for the Lord of Hosts is with us and we shall tread down our enemies! God will strengthen us, for our times are in His hands and, therefore, we will serve Him with all our heart and with all our soul, being fully convinced that, "our labor is not in vain in the Lord." VII. Lastly, if our times are in God's hands, here is A GRAND ARGUMENT FOR FUTURE BLESSEDNESS. He that takes care of our times will take care of our eternity. He that has brought us so far and worked so graciously for us will see us safely over the rest of the road. I marvel at some of you older folks, when you begin to doubt. You will say, "Look at yourself." Well, so I do, and I am heartily ashamed that ever a grain of mistrust should get into the eye of my faith. I would weep it out and keep it out for the future. Still, some of you are older than I am, for you are 70 or 80 years of age. How much longer do you expect to travel in this wilderness? Do you think you have you another 10 years? God has been gracious to you for 70 years and will you fret about the last 10, which, indeed, may never come? That will never do! God has delivered some of you out of such great trials that your present ones are mere fleabites. Sir Francis Drake, after he had sailed around the world, came up the Thames. And when he had passed Gravesend there came a storm which threatened the ship. The brave commander said, "What? Go around the world safely and then get drowned in a ditch? Never!" So we ought to say! God has upheld us in great tribulations and we are not going to be cast down about trials which are common to men! A man of energy, if he takes a work in hand, will push it through and the Lord our God never undertakes what he will not complete. "My times are in Your hand" and, therefore, the end will be glorious! My Lord, if my times were in my own hands, they would prove a failure, but since they are in Your hands, You will not fail, nor shall I! The hands of God ensures success all along the line. In that day when we shall see the tapestry which records our lives, we shall see all the scenes therein with wondering eyes. We shall see what wisdom, what love, what tenderness, what care was lavished upon them! When once a matter is in God's hands, it is never neglected or forgotten, but it is carried out to the end. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. I have not been able to preach on this text as I hoped to do, for I am full of pain and have a heavy headache. But, thank God, I have no heartache with such a glorious Truth of God before me! Sweet to my soul are these words--"My times are in Your hand." Take the golden sentence home with you! Keep this Truth in your mind. Let it lie on your tongue like a wafer made with honey. Let it dissolve until your whole nature is sweetened by it. Yes, dear old lady, you that have come out of the workhouse this morning to hear this sermon, say to yourself, "My times are in Your hand." Yes, you, dear Friend, who cannot find employment and have been walking your shoes off your feet in the vain endeavor to seek one--you, also, may say, "My times are in Your hand." Yes, my dear Sister, pining away with consumption, this may be your song--"My times are in Your hand." Yes, young man, you that have just started in business and have met with a crushing loss, it will be for your benefit, after all! Therefore say, "My times are in Your hand." This little sentence, to my mind, swells into a hymn--it buds and blossoms into a Psalm! Few are the words, but mighty is the sense, and full of rest. Now, remember, it is not everybody that can find honey in this hive. O Sinners, you are in the hands of an angry God and this is terrible! The God against whom you continually sin and whom you provoke by refusing His Grace, has absolute power over you! Beware, you that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces! You have provoked, offended and grieved Him, but there is yet hope, for His mercy endures forever. Though you have vexed His Holy Spirit, yet return unto Him and He will have mercy upon you and abundantly pardon you! It is certain that you are in His hands and that you cannot escape from Him. If you should climb to Heaven, or dive to Hell, you would not be out of His reach! No strength of yours can resist Him, no speed can outrun Him. Yield yourselves to God and then this great power of God, which now surrounds you, shall become your comfort! At present it ought to be your terror. The eyes of God are fixed upon you. The hands of God are against you and if you are unsaved, one touch of that hand will mean death and everlasting destruction! That hand which the Believer devoutly kisses, is the hand which you may well dread. Oh, that you would flee to Christ Jesus and find shelter from wrath beneath the crimson canopy of His precious blood! Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psaalm 31. __________________________________________________________________ "Am I A Sea, Or A Whale?" (No. 2206) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, MAY 31, 1891, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON BEHALF OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN SAILORS' SOCIETY, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 7, 1891. "Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?" Job 7:12. JOB was in great pain when he thus bitterly complained. These moans came from him when his skin was broken and had become loathsome and he sat upon a dunghill and scraped himself with a potsherd. We are amazed at his patience, but we are not amazed at his impatience! He had fits of complaining and failed in that very patience for which he was noted. Where God's saints are most glorious, there you will find their spots. The weaknesses of the saints lie near their strength. Elijah is the bravest of the brave and flees from Jezebel. Moses is the meekest of the meek and speaks in passion. Job is the most patient of men and cries, "I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul." As part of his bitter complaint, he asks, "Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?" He seemed to be watched and whipped--and then watched again. It seemed to him that God concentrated all His strength upon him in afflicting him. He was beaten black and blue and, whereas, other culprits had 40 stripes save one, he had 50 stripes save none! He was spared no suffering and, he cries at last, "I am watched, and checked, as if I were a great sea needing always to be held in bounds or a terrible sea monster needing always a hook in its jaws. Lord, why do You harass me thus? I am such a poor, insignificant thing, that it seems out of Your usual way to be so rough upon one so feeble. The raging ocean, or the mighty leviathan may need such watching, but why do You spend it on me? Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?" I shall not moor myself to Job's sense of the words, but I shall spread my sail for a voyage further out to sea. This sort of talk may have been used by many a man who is now within hail of my voice--may have been used by sailors now before me. Let me point out the channel along which I shall steer in my discourse. We shall begin by saying that some men seem to be narrowly watched by God. They think that the Lord's eyes are as much fixed on them as though they were great as a sea, or huge as a whale. My second point will be that they do not like this watching. They complain about it and wish they could get rid of it. Therefore they argue with God against it. Our third head is that their argument is a bad one. They think they are very harshly treated, but the fact is that all they complain of is in love. See, my messmates, the way I shall try to steer, but if the heavenly wind blows me out of my course, don't be surprised if I tack about and go, nobody knows where! I. I have, first, to say that SOME MEN SEEM TO BE ESPECIALLY TRACKED AND WATCHED BY GOD. We hear of persons being "shadowed" by the police--and certain people feel as if they were shadowed by God--they are mysteriously tracked by the great Spirit and they know and feel it. Wherever they go, an eye is upon them and they cannot hide from it. They are like prisoners under arrest--they can never go out of reach of the law. They cannot get away from God, do what they may! There are men who have been in this condition for years and they know what I mean. All men are really surrounded by God. He is not far from everyone of us. "In Him we live, move and have our being." "Where shall we flee from Your Presence?" To the heights above, or to the depths beneath? To oceans frozen into ice, or seas where the sun shines with burning heat? In vain we rise or dive to escape from God. "You, God, see me," is as true in the watches of the night as in the blaze of day. God is with us and we are always beneath His eyes. Yet there are certain people to whom this is more clear than it is to others. Some are singularly aware of the Presence of God. Certain of us never were without a sense of God. As children, we could not go to sleep till we said, "Our Father which are in Heaven." As youths, we trembled if we heard God's holy name blasphemed. As men, engaged in the cares of life, we have seen the Lord's goodness, all along. We delight to see Him in every flower that blooms and to hear His voice in every wind that blows. It has made us happy to see God in His works. "The fool has said in his heart, No God," but this folly we never cared for. We knew that God was good even when we felt we had offended Him. He has taught us from our youth and manifested Himself to us. Softly has the whisper fallen on our ear, "God is near you. God is with you. God has an ear to hear you. God has a heart to love you. God has a hand to help you." I have known those who, even when they have sinned and gone against their consciences, have never at any time quite lost a sense of the nearness of God even though its only fruit was fear--a fear which has torment! With others, God's watch is seen in a different way. They feel that they are watched by God because their conscience never ceases to rebuke them. The voice of conscience is not pitched to the same key in all men, neither is it equally loud in all people. Conscience can be made like a muzzled dog and then it cannot bite the thief of sin. Conscience can grow like a man with a cold who has lost his voice. But it is not so with all men, even after years of sin. Some have a naturally tender conscience and, while living in sin, they are never easy. They make merry all the day, for, "they count it one of the wisest things to drive dull care away"--but dull care, like the chickens, comes home to roost at night! The sailor in company is jolly, but if he has to keep a lone watch beneath the silent stars, his heart begins to beat and his conscience begins to call him to account for the follies of the day. He starts in his sleep--he dreams over his past sin and the judgment to come-- for conscience will wake even when the rest of the man sleeps. "You were wrong," says conscience, and his voice is very solemn. Even great sin in certain men has not prevented Conscience speaking out honestly to them. Again and again the inward monitor cries, "You were wrong and you will suffer for it." We read that, "David's heart smote him"--the heart deals us an ugly knock. When the blow is within us, it tells. I am addressing some who, though they do not feel pleased about it, yet must know that there is a something within that will not let them sin cheaply. God has a bit in their mouths and a bridle upon their jaws--and every now and then He gives a tug at it and pulls them right up. They are not at home in sin! They have not yet got their sea legs upon the ocean of vice. They sing the songs of the devil with a quake and a shake which shows that the music does not suit them! Thus God has set a watch upon them--they carry a detective in their bosoms. In some this watching has gone farther, for they are under solemn conviction of sin. They are convinced of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come. God's custom-house officer has boarded them and their smuggling is found out. I remember when I was in that state, myself--a criminal who dared not deny his guilt, but dreaded punishment. I would not go back to that condition for a hundred worlds! There was no rest for me then. I was only a youth, but boyish sports lost their relish for me because I knew that I was a sinner and that God must punish sin. I awoke in the morning and my first act for many a day was to read a chapter of the Bible, or a page of some awakening book which kept my conscience still awake. The Holy Spirit put me in irons and there I lay both day and night! My bed was, at times, a very weary place for me, because the eyes of God's anger seemed to be always watching me. I knew I had offended God and I had not yet found out the way of reconciliation by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, it may be that I speak to some here who have been to the ends of the earth and they have said, "Well, when we get away where the Sabbath bell is never heard, we shall get rid of these fears and take our swing in sin." They sailed off and as soon as they reached port, they hurried to a place of vicious amusement--where no one knew them. But the dog of fear howled at their heels and merriment seemed mockery to them. On the lone ocean the very stars pierced their hearts with their rays. At length their messmates began to notice it and call them Old Sobersides. "Jack, what ails you?" was the frequent question, and well it might be, for Jack was very heavy and it is hard to be merry with a broken heart! In some such fashion as this the man feels that God has set a watch upon him and that he has become like a sea which never rests, or a whale which roams the waste of water and knows no home. God watched him and though he would gladly have run the blockade, he could not find an hour in which his vessel was left alone. Certain men are not only plagued by conscience and dogged by fear, but the Providence of God seems to have gone out against them. Just when the man had resolved to have a bout of drinking, he fell sick of a fever and had to go to the hospital. He was going to a dance, but he became so weak that he had not a leg to stand upon. He was forced to toss to and fro on bed--to quite another tune from that which pleases the ballroom! He had yellow fever and was long in pulling round. God watched him and put the skid on him just as he meant to have a breakneck run downhill! The man gets better and he says to himself, "I will have a good time, now." But then he is out of berth and perhaps he cannot get a ship for months--and he is brought down to poverty. "Dear me!" he says, "everything goes against me. I am a marked man!" And so he is. Just when he thinks that he is going to have a fair wind, a tempest comes on and drives him out of his course, and he sees rocks ahead. After a while he thinks, "Now I am all right. Jack is himself, again, and piping times have come." A storm hurries up; the ship goes down and he loses all but the clothes he has on his back. He is in a wretched plight--a shipwrecked mariner far from home. God seems to pursue him even as He did Jonah! He carries with him misfortune for others and he might well cry, "Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?" Nothing prospers. His tacklings are loosed. He cannot well strengthen his mast; his ship leaks; his sails are torn; his yards are snapped and he cannot understand it. Other people seem to get on, though they are worse than he is. Time was when he used to be lucky, too--but now he has parted company with success and carries the black flag of distress. He is driven to and fro by contrary winds. He makes no headway. He is a miserable man and would wish that the whole thing would go to the bottom, only he dreads a place which has no bottom, from which there is no escape, if once you sink into it. The Providence of God runs hard against him and thus he sees himself to be a watched man. Yes, and God also watches over many in the way of admonition. Wherever they go, holy warnings follow them. They cannot escape from those who would be friends to their souls. They seem to be surrounded with a ring of prayers and sermons and holy talks. The boy said, "If I could get away from my mother, I should be free! I have been tied long enough to her apron strings. I am old enough to do as I like. If I can get away from my father's chidings and prayers, I shall have a fine time of it." So the boy ran away and went to sea--and when he got on board, a good old sailor tackled him--and talked to him about his soul! And then another pleaded with him. The boy said to himself, "Why, I have got out of the frying pan into the fire! I came here to be out of the way of religion and here it is!" I have known a sailor to go from port to port, and wherever he has landed there has been some gracious man or woman waiting to lead him to Christ. May it be often so! May the Bethel flag be found flying in all waters, till every runaway says, "Why, I am watched wherever I go!" May it be as it was with our dear friends, Fullerton and Smith, on board the steamboat! Mr. Fullerton spoke to a rough man and asked him if he was saved. And the man was angry, cross, vexed and went to the other side of the vessel. There he complained to Mr. Smith, "That man over there asked me if I was saved; he is a fool!" "Very likely," said Smith, "but then, you see, he is a fool for Christ. I think it is better to be a fool for Jesus than to be wise for the devil." He began to plead with the sailor, when the man cried out, "There is a regular gang of them! I cannot go anywhere but they are on to me." It has been made hot for some of you by the British and Foreign Sailors' Society which has placed missionaries in so many ports. "There's a gang of them," and wherever you go, you stumble on an earnest Christian man who will not let you alone. If I could stir up Christian people here, I would make it hard for sinners, so that wherever they went they would find a hand outstretched to stop them from going to destruction! Oh, that each one might be met with tears and entreaties, that thus each one might be snatched from the waves of fire and landed on the rock of salvation! Some here present have had to dodge a great deal to keep out of the way of Gospel shots. Their track has been followed by mercy and they have been pursued by swift cruisers of Grace. They have been like fish taken in a net--surrounded on all sides-- and neither able to pass through the meshes, nor to break the net, nor to leap out of it! Oh, that the net of Christ's love may so entangle you all, that you may be His forever! That is our first point--there are some men who seem especially watched of God. II. Secondly, we notice that THEY ARE VERY APT TO DISLIKE THIS WATCHING. Job is not pleased with it. He asks, "Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?" These people, to whom God pays such attention, are foolish enough to murmur that they are so hedged in and they are vexed to be made to feel that God has His eyes upon them. Do you know what they would like? They want liberty to sin! They would like to be let loose and to be allowed to do just as their wild wills would suggest to them. They would cast off every restraint and have their fling of what the world calls "pleasure." They would climb from sin to sin, hand over hand. They would like to empty all the cups on the devil's sideboard and be as merry as the worst of men when they are taking it free and easy. That is why they would send their consciences to sleep, drown their fears and escape from chastening Providences and warning admonitions. They would like to live where no Christian would ever worry them again with wearisome exhortation! They demand liberty--liberty to put their hands into the fire! Liberty to ruin themselves! Liberty to leap into Hell before their time! Liberty! What destruction has been worked in your name! Free thinking! Free living! Free loving and all that! What misuse of terms! What a libel upon the name of freedom, to use the word, "free," in connection with the slavery of sin! Yet, I am speaking to some who say, "That is just what I want! I want to cut myself clear of all this hamper which blocks me up from having my own way." Ah me! This is the cry of a man who is bent on soul-suicide! They also wish that they could be as hard of heart as many others are. Some men can drink any quantity and yet do not seem as if they were greatly affected by it. And many a young sailor has wished that he could pour down his grog without a wink, after the style of the old toper. He meets with a foul-mouthed being who can swear till all is blue, while he himself has only dropped an oath or two, and then felt wretched. The young man begins to wish that he was as tough as old Jack, and as much a daredevil as he. The hardened profligate is foolishly envied and looked upon as a man of "pluck." But is it true bravery to ruin one's soul? Is it manly to be wicked? Is it a great gain to have a seared conscience? We don't envy the blind because they cannot see danger, nor the deaf because they cannot hear an alarm--why envy the hardened old sinner because he has become spiritually blind and deaf? There are monsters, both on land and on sea, whose very breath is pestilent and whose talk is enough to choke up a town with vice. And yet certain young men, whom God will not allow to descend into such rottenness, are almost angry that they are restrained! A tender conscience is a great possession, but these simple ones know not its value. They wish that they could have a heart as hard as the nether millstone. Ah, poor souls! You know not what you wish, for you have no idea how deep is the curse that lies in a callous conscience! When God gave Pharaoh up to hardness of heart, it was a tremendous punishment for his pride and cruelty and, short of Hell, there is no judgment that God can inflict like letting a man have his own way! "Let him alone," says God, "he is joined to idols." And if the Lord says that, there is only one other word more dreadful--and that is the final sentence--"Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." O you beginners in vice who cannot yet stifle the cries of your suffering consciences, I pray that you may see your folly and no longer do violence to your own mercy! Men do not like this being surrounded by God--this wearing the bit and kicking strap--because they would drop God from their thoughts. If tomorrow we could hear, by telegram from Heaven, that God was dead, what crowds would buy the newspaper! It would be the greatest relief in the world to many a godless wretch if he could feel sure that there was no God! To some of us this news would be death--we would have lost our Father, our Comforter, our Savior, our All! Alas, many wish that there were no God, and if they cannot persuade themselves that there is none--and it is very hard for a sailor to do that--yet they try to forget Him. If God is out of mind, He is as good as out of the world to the careless sinner. When God comes with inward fears and awakens conscience--and sends cross Providences, so that the man feels pulled up and made to pause--then he knows that there is a God, for he feels a Power which works against his sin from which he cannot get away. He longs to be clear of this secret force, but it wraps him about on every side. He does not read his Bible and yet Scripture rises in his memory! It is long since he bent his knee in prayer--he has almost forgotten what his mother said to him when she lay dying--but still he feels that there is a God and, somehow, that belief sounds a trumpet blast through his soul, summoning him to his last account. Come to judgment! Come to judgment! Come to judgment! The call rings in his ears and he cannot get away from the terrible sound! Then it is that he cries "Why am I thus? Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?" Once more, there are some who do not like to be shadowed in this way because they want to have their will with others. Shall I speak a sharp word, like a two-edged sword? There are men--and seamen to be found among them--who are not satisfied with being ruined, themselves, but they thirst to ruin others! They lay traps for precious souls and they are vexed that their victims should escape them. They are angry because certain poor women are not altogether in their power. Woe unto the men who lead women astray! I have heard of sailors who, in every port they enter, try to ruin others. I charge you to remember that you will have to face these ruined ones at the Day of Judgement! You sailed away and they never knew where you went, but the Lord knew. It may be, when you lie in Hell, eyes will find you out and a voice will cry aloud, "Are you here? You are the man that led me to Perdition!" You will have to keep everlasting company with those whom you dragged down to Hell--and these will, forever, curse you to your face. I say there are men who would like to have full license to commit wantonness and they are grieved that they are hindered in their carnival of sin! May God grant that you may be stopped altogether and, instead of lusting to pollute others, may you have a desire to save them! May God grant that the channel of evil may be blocked for you and may you be piloted into the waters of repentance and faith! This is why some kick against God. I fear these people will be much vexed with me for speaking so plainly, but you must not think that it will alarm me should you be angry. I am rather glad when fellows get angry with my preaching. "Oh," I say to myself, "those fish feel the hook in their jaws and so they struggle to escape." Of course a fish does not like the hook which lays hold of him! But these angry hearers will come again. You people with whom the sermon goes in at one ear and out at the other, you get no good, whatever--but a man who fires up with wrath and says, "How dare that fellow speak thus to me?" is sure to listen again--and it is very likely that God will bless him. But whether it offends you or pleases you--I repeat my warning--I charge you, do not drag others down to Hell with you! If you must go there yourselves, seek not to destroy those around you! Do not teach boys to drink and to swear. Neither tempt frail women to commit uncleanness with you. God help you to shake off all vice, for I know that vile habits are often the reason why men kick against the restraint of God's loving hand. III. And now I have got to the very heart of my text. The third part is this--that THIS ARGUMENT AGAINST THE LORD'S DEALINGS IS A VERY BAD ONE. Job says, "Am I a sea, or whale, that You set a watch over me?" Listen! To argue from our insignificance is poor pleading, for the little things are just those against which there is most need to watch! If you were a sea, or a whale, God might leave you alone, but as you are a feeble and sinful creature who can do more hurt than a sea, or a whale, you need constant watching! In life, men fall by very little things. One does not need to watch against his dog one half as much as against a horsefly, or a mosquito, for these will sting you when you least expect it. The little things need most watching, therefore it is poor reasoning when we complain that God watches us as if we were a sea, or a whale. After all, there is not a man here who is not much like a sea, or a sea monster in this respect, that he needs a watch to be set over him. A man's heart is as changeable and as deceitful as the sea. Today it is calm as a sea of glass, unruffled by a breath of air. Oh, trust not yourself upon it, for before tomorrow's sun is up, your nature may be rolling in tremendous billows of passion! You cannot trust the sea, but it is more worthy of confidence than your heart! Here you are, tonight, and oh, how good you look as you sit and listen and then stand up and sing! Ah, my men! I should not like to hear you if you take to blaspheming your Maker, as many do! When you are down in the forecastle with a little band of praying men, how very good you feel! Let us see you when you are on shore and there is plenty of grog about. It is easy to have a calm sea when there is no wind, but how different is the ocean when a gale is blowing! We are all very well when far away from temptation, but how are we when the devil's servants are around us? Then, I fear, that too often good resolutions prove to be-- "False as the smooth, deceitful sea, And empty as the whistling wind." It may be that I speak to one who has undergone a dreadful change. Once you led others in the way of righteousness, but now you draw them into evil. Once you sailed under the Bethel flag, but now the old Pirate of the infernal lake is your captain. You have gone back to your old ways and have again become the slave of the world, the flesh and the devil. Your religious profession had no foundation. Ah me, you need not say, "Am I a sea, or a whale?" for seas and sea monsters are more to be trusted than you are! The sea is immeasurable and, as for you, your sinfulness is unsearchable. Your capacity is almost without measure--your mind reaches far and touches all things. Man's mind can rise in rebellion against the God of the whole earth, till, like the raging waves of the sea, it threatens to put out the lights of Heaven! When man is in a rebellious state he will rage in his thoughts as though he would wash away the shores of Heaven and beat like the surf upon the iron rocks of Hell. A man is an awful mystery of iniquity when left to himself. You cannot fathom his pride, nor measure his daring. Deep down in his mind there are innumerable creeping things, both small and great beasts--for all manner of evils and sins multiply in the heart like fishes in the sea! Do not ask, "Am I a sea, or a sea-monster, that You set a watch over me?" for the Lord may answer, "You are more capacious for evil than a sea and more wild than a sea monster." I shall now go further and show that, by reason of our evil nature, we have become like the sea. This is true in several ways, for, first, the sea is restless and so is our nature. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." You need not go far to find hearts always agitated, always seeking rest and finding none. They know not Christ and, until they do know Him, they cannot rest. They are always seeking a something--they know not what. They run first in one direction and then in another, but they never follow the right thing. When they are thoughtful, no good comes of their thoughts. Their waters cast up--what? Pearls and corals? No--"mire and dirt." I do not need to explain those words. If any of you have to keep company with these restless beings, you know how foul-mouthed they can be. They cast up worse things than mire and dirt when they are stirred up. Oh, say not, "Am I a sea, or a whale?" Think of yourself as being as restless as a whale when the harpoon is in him--as restless as the sea when a storm is moving its lowest depths. Let us say, next, that the sea can be furious and terrible--and so can ungodly men. When a man is in a fury, what a wild beast he can be! A landsman looks on the sea when it has put on its best behavior and he says, "I should not mind going on a voyage. It must be splendid to steam over such a sea! I feel I shall make a splendid sailor." Let him look at that same ocean, by-and-by. Where is the sea of glass, now? Where are the gentle waves which seemed afraid to ripple too far upon the sand? The sea roars and rages and raves. The Atlantic in a storm is terrible, but have you ever seen a tempest in a man's nature? It is an awful sight and one which causes gracious eyes to weep! What a miserable object is a man with the drink in him! He was as decent a fellow as one could talk with, but now that the drink has mastered him, the devil has come on board and you will do well to give him a wide berth. The same is true of passion. Concerning angry men our advice would be, "Put not to sea in a storm, neither argue with a man in a passion." You do not know what he will do, and he does not know, himself! Such a man will be grieved enough when he sobers down, but meanwhile, while the storm is on, he cares for nothing. His eyes flash lightning, his face is black as tempest, his mouth foams and his tongue rages. In his case, "The sea roars and the fullness thereof." When you feel the Lord's restraint, you need not ask, "Am I a sea, or a whale?" for your own heart may answer, "You can be more furious than the sea itself." Think, again, how unsatisfied is the sea. It draws down and swallows up stretches of land and thousands of tons of cliff, but it is not filled up. "All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full." Huge Spanish galleons went to the bottom, with thousands of gold and silver pieces on board--but the sea was never the richer. When, on some dreadful night, our coasts are strewn with wrecks and hundreds of lives are lost, the devouring deep is never the more satisfied. The sea is a hungry monster which could swallow a navy and then open its mouth for more! Are not many men made of the same craving sort? If you gave them half a world, they would cry for the other half, and if they had the whole round globe, they would weep for the stars! Man's mind never rests in sweet content till God, Himself, satisfies it with Himself. O man, without true religion it is your fate to go hungry and thirsty forever, or, like the sea, yeasting and foaming after you know not what! Human nature is like the sea for mischief. How destructive is the ocean and how unfeeling! It makes widows and orphans by the thousands--and then smiles as if it had done nothing! Terrible havoc it can work when once its power is let loose! Do not talk of the destructiveness of the sea--let the reckless sinner think of the destructiveness of his own life! You that are living in sin and vice, what wrecks you have caused! How many who set out on the voyage of life and bade fair to make a splendid passage, have gone upon the rocks through you! A foul word, a loose song, a filthy act and a frivolous craft has become a wreck! Conscience can fill in the details. Ah me, one cannot say to God, "Am I a sea, or a sea monster?" or He might well reply, "No shark has devoured so many as the drunkard in his cups, the swearer in his presumption and the unclean in his lust!" Ah me, I could weep to think how much of mischief any one of you who are unconverted may yet do! The Lord deliver you from being left derelict, to cause wreck to others! We must not forget that we are less obedient to God than the sea is. Nothing keeps back the sea from many a shore but a belt of sand--and though it rages in storm and tempest, the sea goes back in due time and leaves the sand for children to play upon. It knows its bounds and keeps them. When the time comes for the tide to rise, the obedient waters march upon the shore in unbroken ranks and fill up every creek. They do not linger behind their time. When the moment comes to stay where they are, they rest at flood. Then comes the instant to begin the ebb and, no matter how boisterous the waves may be, they fall back at God's bidding. What, after all, is more orderly than the great sea? Would to God we were like it in this! How readily this great creature yields! A little wind springs up and its waves answer at once to the breath of Heaven. When the sun crosses the line, the equinoctial gales know their season, while at all times the great currents cease not the flow which God has appointed them. The sea is obedient to the Lord and so was that great fish of which we read just now--"The Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." As for us, we refuse to obey! And when left to ourselves, what law can restrain us? Is there anything in Heaven or earth which a proud sinner will not venture to attempt? God blocks up the road to Hell with hedge, ditch and chain--but we break them all! He digs a trench across our way and we leap over it. He piles a mountain in the road and as if our feet were like hinds' feet, we leap upon the high places of presumption! A man will go against wind and tide in his determination to be lost! O Sea! O Sea! You are but a child with your father compared to the wicked and rebellious heart of man! It is a bad argument, then. We need to be looked after. We need to be watched. We need to be kept in check even more than a sea or a whale! We need the restraining Providence and constraining Grace of God to keep us from deadly sin. IV. Last of all, I would remark that ALL THEY COMPLAINED OF WAS SENT IN LOVE. They said, "Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?" but if they had known the truth, they would have blessed God with all their hearts for having watched over them as He has done. First, God's restraint of some of us has kept us from self-ruin. If the Lord had not held us in, we might have been in prison! We might have been in the grave! We might have been in Hell! Who knows what would have become of us? An old Scotchman said to Mr. Rowland Hill what, I am quite sure, would have been as true of me. He looked into Mr. Hill's face so keenly and so often that at last good Rowland asked him, "Why are you looking at my face so much?" "I was thinking," said the Scotchman, "that if you had not been converted by the Grace of God, you would have been a terrible sinner." And, surely, this would have been my case. Nothing half-and-half would have contented me. I would have gone to the end of my tether. Is not the same true of some of you? How many times has the Lord laid His own hand on us to stay us from a fatal step! If we were checked in our youth and brought, then and there, to Jesus, it was a gracious deed on God's part. If we have been hindered during a sinful manhood and have, at length, been made to bow before the will of the Lord, this, also, is great Grace. Left to ourselves, we would have chosen our own destruction! Do you not think that God's taking you apart and giving you a tender conscience--and admonishing you so often--proves His great love to you! Surely someone has prayed for you! There is a mother here tonight. I hope she will not mind my telling you what she did last Tuesday when I was sitting in my vestry. She brought me a little brown paper parcel with £50 in it and she gave it for the British and Foreign Sailors' Society. She has a son whom she has not heard of for years. He went to sea and she cannot find him, or get any tidings of his whereabouts. But she hopes that a missionary of this Society may meet him in some strange place and bring him to the Savior. She prays that it may be so and, therefore, she brings her self-sacrificing offering--a great sum, I am sure, for her-- that she may help to support the good Society which, she hopes, may be a blessing to her boy. There are other sailors to whom God's love is seen in their being followed up by a mother's pleading. Ah, Friend, the Lord would not have checked you so if He had not intended to bless you! That broken leg of yours is to keep you from running too far into sin. That yellow fever was sent to cool the fever of your sin. Your missing that ship caused you to miss shipwreck and death. These mishaps were all tokens of love to you. The Lord would not let you perish! He resolves to save you. You are one of His chosen. Christ bought you with His blood and He means to have you for His own. If you will not come to Him with a gentle breeze, He will fetch you by a storm! Yield to the pressure of His love. If you will be as the horse and the mule which have no understanding, He will break you in and manage you with bit and bridle--but it would be far better if you would be ruled by love. I think I see tokens of electing love upon you in those very things which you have kicked against. The Lord is working to bring you to Himself, and to Himself you must come. The prodigal son was driven home by stress of weather. If his father had had the doing of it, he could not have worked the matter better! His hungry belly and his pig-feeding fetched him home. The unkindness of the citizens of the far country helped to hurry him back to his father. Hardship, need and pain are meant to bring you back--and God has used them to that end! And the day will come when you will say, "I bless God for the rough wave which washed me on shore. I bless God for the stormy Providence which drowned my comfort, but saved my soul." Once more and I have done. God will not always deal roughly with you. Perhaps tonight He will say His last sharp word. Will you yield to softer means? They say that oil poured on troubled waters will make them smooth--God the Holy Spirit can send to your troubled soul a lifelong calm! The winds and waves on the Galilean sea all went to sleep in an instant. How? Why, when Jesus came walking on the water, He said to the warring elements, "Be still." The waves crouched like whipped dogs at His feet, though they had, just before, roared like lions! He said to the winds, "Hush!" and they breathed as softly as the lips of a babe! Jesus is here at this hour. He that died on Calvary looks down on us-- believe on Him! He lifts His pierced hands and cries, "Look unto Me, and be you saved!" Will you not look to Him? Oh, that His Grace may lead you at once to say, "He is All in All to me!" Here is a soul-saving text for you--"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Accept the Savior and though you are as a sea, or as a whale, you shall no longer complain of the Lord's watching you, but you shall rejoice in perfect liberty! He is free who loves to serve his God! He makes it his delight that he is watched of the Lord. The Lord bless sailors! May we all meet in the Fair Havens! May the flag of your Society bless every sea because God blesses its missionaries! I wish for it the utmost prosperity and I judge it to be worthy of the most generous aid of all Christians. In all respects it is exactly to my mind. The Lord send prosperity to it! Amen. PORTION OFSCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Jonah 2. __________________________________________________________________ Redemption Through Blood--The Gracious Forgiveness Of Sins (No. 2207) A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, JUNE 7, 1891, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace." Ephesians 1:7. READ the chapter and carefully note how the Apostle goes to the back of everything and commences with those primeval blessings which were ours before time began. He dwells on the Divine love of old and the predestination which came out of it--and all that blessed purpose of making us holy and without blame before Him in love, which was comprehended in the Covenant of Grace. It does us good to get back to these antiquities--to these eternal things. You shake off something of the dust of time, as you no longer walk down its restless ages, but traverse the glorious eternity where centuries seem no more than fallen leaves by the way. Thousands of years are less than a drop of a bucket compared with the lifetime of the Almighty! How sublime a thing to climb, in contemplation, to the everlasting God and the eternal council chamber--and to see the heart of love beating towards the chosen people before all time--and the infinite mind of God devising and purposing their good! This is an exceedingly great refreshment and the wonder is that so few Believers dare to ascend this sublime hill of the Lord, there to commune with Him who Was and Is, and is to come! After the Apostle had briefly touched upon that subject, he then began to speak of present blessings--matters of actual experience--and he commenced by saying, "In whom we have redemption." The Grace of the eternal past is a matter of faith, but here is something which is within our grasp and enjoyment. The other we believe, but this we actually and literally receive. "We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." And here let me say what a charming thing it is to deal with experimental divinity--not with theories, but with matters of fact--great facts which are dear to you because they have been worked in you, and you have not been merely a delighted spectator of them, but you have been the subject and object of them! "In whom we have redemption." Whether others have it or not, we have "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." We do not hope for it, but we have it. We do not merely think so, but we know that we have it. We are redeemed! We are free from bondage! We are forgiven and are no longer under condemnation! At this time, as God shall help me, I shall dwell upon the forgiveness of sins. We have not time to plunge into the deeps of the eternal purpose, nor even to dive into the full Doctrine of Redemption, but, as the swallow with his wing touches the brook and then is up and away, so must it be with my thoughts at this time--a mere touch of the river of the Water of Life will be a blessing to myself and, as I cast a little spray over you, I hope it will refresh you, also. May the Holy Spirit help our meditation! I. The first observation, taken distinctly from the text, is this--THAT THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS A GRAND BLESSING. The Apostle has mentioned it, if you notice, among the great things of God--His electing love, His adoption of us by Jesus Christ, His acceptance of us in the Beloved. Side by side with these colossal mercies, he puts this one, that we have "the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace." This is a blessing of no mean stature, for it marches with the giants of Election and Adoption. Let it stand prominently out before us at this time. What is this "forgiveness of sins"? Too often, in popular talk, it is supposed that the chief and main thought of the forgiven sinner is that he has escaped from Hell. Salvation means much more than this and what it further means is too much kept in the background, but yet I will begin with rescue from punishment, for if sin is pardoned, the penalty is extinguished. It would not be possible for God to forgive and yet to punish. That would be a forgiveness quite unworthy of God. It would, indeed, be no forgiveness at all! We are certain that the everlasting punishment of sin declared in Scrip- ture will never happen to the man who is forgiven. When transgression is removed, the soul stands clear at the bar of God, and there can be no further penalty. "I absolve you," says the great Judge--and that carries with it weight, so that a man that is forgiven is cleared of the punishment which he must otherwise have borne. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Yet Divine favor restored is a still brighter result of forgiveness to many. Speaking from my own experience, while I was under conviction of sin I had less apprehension of the punishment of sin than I had of sin, itself. I do not know that I very frequently trembled at the thought of Hell--I did so whenever it came before my mind. But when I was in the hands of the Holy Spirit, as a Spirit of bondage convincing me of sin, my great trouble was that God was angry with me-- properly and rightly so. I mourned that I had offended my Maker, that I had grieved the living God, that I had sinned against His righteous will and that I could not rejoice in His favor, nor sun myself in His smile. I felt that it was right on the part of the holy God to be displeased with me. I believe that the great joy of forgiveness, to the Believer, is that God has taken away His anger from him. That sweet hymn, which we often sing, is a paraphrase of a passage in Isaiah-- "I will praise You every day, Now Your anger's turned away; Comfortable thoughts arise From the bleeding Sacrifice." "Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away and You comforted me." Forgiveness means this among men. A person has grieved and wronged me. I feel hurt in my mind about it. When I forgive him, I no longer feel grieved or angry with him--I think of him as before--and we are on good terms. If my forgiveness is genuine--and in God's case it is emphatically so--then there is no resentment left. The offense is as though it had never been committed. I say to the person who did me wrong, "I take a sponge and I wipe it all off the slate. Give me your hand, let us stand as we stood before." The pardon of sin by God is after such a fashion. He blots out the sin as the Oriental erases with his pencil the record made upon his waxen tablet so that no trace of it remains. He smiles where otherwise he must have frowned. He gives complacent love where otherwise there must have been indignation and wrath. Do you not think that this is the sweetest way of looking at the forgiveness of sin? If you are, at this time, under legal work, feeling the tortures of a guilty conscience, you will appreciate such a pardon very highly. In the case of the poor penitent prodigal, it was the kiss of his father's lips, it was his restoration to his father's heart, it was the cheering words of his father's love that constituted to him the sweetest fragrance of the rose of forgiveness. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ has come, that we poor guilty ones may be restored to the favor of God and walk consciously in the light of His Countenance because sin is removed! This pardon of sin, being of this full and sweet character, involving both the reversal of the penalty of sin and the ending of the distance that intervened between us and God, brings with it the removal of much distress and sorrow from the heart! I do not think that there can be any grief outside of Hell that is more terrible to bear than the wounds of conscience. We read that, "David's heart smote him" and, believe me, the heart can smite as with an iron mace and smite where the bruise is intensely felt. Give me into the power of a roaring lion, but never let me come under the power of an awakened, guilty conscience! Yes, shut me up in a dark dungeon, among all manner of loathsome creatures--snakes and reptiles of all kinds--but, oh, give me not over to my own thoughts when I am consciously guilty before God! This, surely, is the worm that dies not and the fire that is not quenched! I do not speak, now, what I have merely heard of, though, if you will read Mr. Bunyan's, "Grace Abounding," you will find a striking account of it there. I speak of what I have felt in my own soul. No pains of body can rival, for a moment, the agonized feeling of the heart when the hot irons of conviction burn their way through the soul. When God sets up the conscience and makes it a target for His arrows, they drink up the life blood of our spirit till we cry out and wonder how such anguish can come to a creature so insignificant. Our soul seems too small a cup to contain such an ocean of misery--too narrow a field for so cruel a battle. It is not the Lord that is the author of the misery, but He is giving us up, for a while, that we may be filled with our own ways and learn the bitterness of our own sin. When the Lord comes to us with a forgiving word, these sorrows are gone like the mists of the morning when the sun arises. We still grieve to think that we have sinned, but that gnawing remorse, that vulture eating up the liver, is smitten with death and the man breathes hopefully again. Though the penitence remains, the torment is removed from me, when God has forgiven me. Let me say, here, that full forgiveness of sin, consciously enjoyed, will not only lift an enormous weight from off the soul, but it will breathe into the heart a great joy. When you know that sin is forgiven, you cannot be sad as before. The thought of perfect pardon, if it does but fill the spirit, will thrust out gloom and remove apathy. It will make the lame man leap as a hart--he may still be lame, but he will leap as if he were not! And the tongue of the dumb, even though untrained to speech, shall be made to sing concerning Free Grace and dying love. When the thoughts are concentrated upon the enjoyment of complete forgiveness, full reception into the Divine favor and the blotting out of sin, then is the heart lifted into the suburbs of Heaven! My dear Hearers, do you know what I am talking about? Some of you do, blessed be the name of the Lord, but I am afraid that some of you do not--and you never will know the sweetness of mercy until you have first tasted the bitterness of sin! You will never know how Divine Grace can heal until you have felt how sin can wound. There is no clothing you till you are stripped. There is no making you alive till you are killed. There is no filling you till you are empty. The Lord fills the hungry with good things, but the rich He sends away empty. God Himself will never comfort you till you are driven to self-despair--and if you have already come to that, it is a great privilege to me to be allowed to tell you that the fact of forgiveness of sin is not only a doctrine of the creed, but it is a promise of God's Word! "I believe in the forgiveness of sins"--this is no mere formula, but a realized fact with me. Removal of the penalty, removal of God's offense against us, the clearing away of all the turbid waters within the heart and the creation of joy and peace through perfect reconciliation to God--this is a summary account of the forgiveness of sin. It is a vast and rich blessing! II. And now, secondly, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS BOUND UP WITH REDEMPTION BY BLOOD. Take the text, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Redemption and forgiveness are so put together as to look as if they were the same thing. Assuredly they are so interlaced and intertwisted that there is no having the one without the other. Do you ask--"How is it that there should always need to be redemption by blood in order to the forgiveness of sin?" I call your attention to the expression, "Redemption through His blood." Observe, it is not redemption through His power, it is through His blood. It is not redemption through His love, it is through His blood. This is insisted upon emphatically, since, in order to the forgiveness of sins, it is redemption through His blood, as you have it over and over again in Scripture. "Without shedding of blood is no remission." But they say--they say--that Substitution is not just! One said, the other day, that to lay sin upon Christ and to treat Him as guilty--and let Him die for the unjust--was not just! Yet the objector went on to say that God forgave men freely without any atonement at all! Of this wise critic I would ask--Is that just? Is it just to pass by breaches of the law without a penalty? Why any law at all? And why should men care whether they keep it or break it? It was stated by this critic that God, out of His boundless love, treated the guilty man as if he were innocent. I would ask--if that is right, where is the wrong of God's treating us as innocent because of the righteousness of Christ? I venture to affirm that pardon is needless, if not impossible, upon the theory that the man, though guilty, is treated as if he were not guilty. If all are treated alike, whether guilty or not guilty, why should anyone desire pardon? It were easy to answer quibblers, but they really are not worth the answering! It is to me always sufficient if I find a Truth of God taught in Scripture--I ask no more. If I do not understand it, I am not particularly anxious to understand it! If it is in the Scriptures, I believe it. I like those grand, rocky Truths of the Bible which I cannot break with the hammer of my understanding, for on these I lay the foundations of my soul's confidence! Redemption by blood is here linked with forgiveness of sins and, in many other Scriptures we find it plainly stated. It is so. Let that stand for a sufficient answer to all objectors. And it is so, if we come to think of it, because this reflects great honor upon God. They say, "Let God simply forgive the sin and have done with it." But where, then, is His justice? "Shall not the Judge of the earth do right?" He threatened sin with punishment. If He does not execute His threats, what then? Can we be sure that He will fulfill His promises? If He breaks His Word one way, might He not break it another? If the Lord should not execute the penalty which He has threatened for sin, would it not look as if He made a mistake in threatening a penalty at all? Would it not seem as if He had been too severe, at first, and then had to catch Himself up and revise His own judgment afterwards? And shall that be? Might it not be supposed that, after all, God made much ado about nothing and that He was really jesting with men when He threatened them with fearful punishment on account of sin? Shall God say, "Yes," and, "No"? Shall He speak and not speak? This is according to the folly of man! Sometimes it may even be wisdom in a fallible man to reverse his word and retract his declaration, but with God this cannot be! It is necessary for the vindication of His own justice, His wisdom and His holiness, that He shall not forego one of His threats any more than one of His promises! And, since it is just that sin should be punished and that, though the sinner should, in wondrous mercy be permitted to go free, it is wise and just that Another should step in--God Himself should step in--and bear for the sinner what is due to the justice of the Most High. The Substitution of our Lord in our place is the central Doctrine of the Gospel and it greatly glorifies the name of God. Besides that, Beloved, that sin should not be pardoned without an Atonement is for the welfare of the universe. This world is but a speck compared with the universe of God. We cannot even imaging the multitudes of beings over which the great Lawgiver has rule. And if it could be whispered anywhere in that universe that, on this planet, God tampered with law, set aside justice, or did anything, in fact, to save His own chosen, so that He threw His own threats behind His back and disregarded His own solemn ordinance--why, this report would strike at the foundations of the Eternal Throne! Is God unjust in any case? Then how can He judge the universe? What creatures, then, would fear God, when they knew that He could play fast and loose with justice? It were a calamity even greater than Hell, itself, that sin should go unpunished! The very reins of moral order would be snatched from the hand of the great Charioteer--and I know not what of mischief would happen! Evil would then have mounted to the high Throne of God and would have become supreme throughout His domains. It is for the welfare of the universe, throughout the ages, that in the forgiveness of sins there should be redemption by blood. Let lovers of anarchy cavil at it, but let good men accept the Sacrifice of the Son of God with joy as the great establishment of law and justice. Moreover, this also is arranged for our comfort and as assurance of heart. I declare before you all that if I had been anywhere assured, when I was under conviction of sin, that God could forgive me outright without any atonement, it would have yielded no sort of satisfaction to me, for my conscience was sitting in judgment upon myself and I felt that if I were on the Throne of God, I must condemn myself to Hell. Even if I could have derived a temporary comfort from the notion of forgiveness apart from atonement, the question would afterwards have come up--how is this just? If God does not punish me, He ought to do so--how can He do otherwise? He must be just, or He is not God! It must be that such sin as mine should bring punishment upon itself. Never, until I understood the great Truth of God of the substitutionary death of Christ, could my conscience get a moment's peace! If an atonement was not necessary for God, it certainly was necessary for me--and it seems to me necessary to every conscience that is fairly instructed as to the absolute certainty that sin involves deserved sorrow--and that every transgression and every iniquity must have its just recompense of reward. It was necessary for the perpetual peace of every enlightened conscience that the glorious Atonement should have been provided. Besides that, the Lord meant to save us in a safe way for the promotion of our future reverence for the Law. Now, if sin had been blotted out so readily and nothing more said of it, what effect would that have had on us in the future? I think that everyone who has felt the burden of sin, has stood at the foot of the Cross, heard the cries of the great Sacrifice and read God's wrath against sin written in crimson lines upon the blessed and perfect Person of the innocent Savior--every such person feels that sin is an awful thing! You cannot trifle with transgression after a vision of Gethsemane. You cannot laugh at it and talk about the littleness of its demerit, if you have once stood on Golgotha and heard the cry, "Eli, Eli, lame Sabachthani?" The death of the Son of God upon the Cross is the grandest of all moral lessons because it is a lesson that affects the very soul of the man and changes his whole idea of sin. The Cross straightens him from the desperate twist which sin gave him at the first. The cure of the first Adam's fall is the second Adam's death--the second Adam's Grace, which comes to us through His great Sacrifice! We love sin till we see that it killed our best Friend--and then we loathe it forevermore. I say, again, that if the great Father forgave you and said, "There is nothing in it. Go your way, it is all over," you would have lacked that grand source of sanctified life which now you find in the wounds of Him who has made sin detestable to you--and has made perfect obedience, even unto death--the subject of your soul's admiration. Now you long to be unto the great Father, in your measure, what your great Redeemer was to Him when He magnified the Law and made it honorable. This is no mean benefit. O Beloved Friends, I do bless the Lord, at this time, for the forgiveness of sins through redemption by blood! There is something worth preaching in this Truth of God. You can live on it--you can die on it. I am constantly--almost every week--at the deathbeds of our members here--we are so large a Church that one or two, every week, are going Home. When we begin to talk about the precious blood of Jesus--the blood of the Everlasting Covenant, you should see the brightness of dying eyes! I mark the quiet of the departing spirit and, as my dear Friends grip my hand, their testimony is unvaryingly, "Jesus is the Rock of our confidence and all is well." Lord Jesus, hold Your Cross before my closing eyes! O blessed Redeemer, what will a man do in death who has not Your death to be the death of his sin? How can a man live who has never seen You lay down Your life in His place, "the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God"? Whatever others may say, let us repeat our text with solemn assurance, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." III. But now, thirdly--and the text is very clear upon this, as upon the other two points--THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN IS STILL A MATTER OF GRACE--AND OF RICH GRACE. "We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace." 1 admit that the forgiveness of sins, on God's part, is a matter ofjustice, now that the redemption by blood has been completed. The man believes. The man confesses his sin. And it is written, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." The Sacrifice is so great that it justly puts away the sin and it is righteously forgiven. But observe this--the act of God in forgiving is not one atom the less gracious, because, in His infinite wisdom, He has so contrived that it is unquestionably just. If any make this assertion, they will be called upon to prove it--and they can prove it. Pardon is the more gracious to us that it does not come to us in an unrighteous way. We see God's great prudence and wisdom in planning the method by which He may "be just, and the Justifier of him that believes." Those thoughts and plans on God's part are all tokens of great love to us. Beloved, it is only by Divine Grace that we are justified, yet that this Grace is exercised in a way of justice causes the Grace to be not less, but even manifestly more gracious! The death of Christ, the redemption by blood, instead of veiling the Grace of God, only manifests it. Put the thing before your own minds. Suppose that somebody has offended you and you say, "Think no more of it. It is all forgiven"? Very well. That is kind of you and commendable. It shows the graciousness of your character. But suppose, on the other hand, you were in office as a judge and felt compelled to say, "I am willing to forgive you, but your offense has resulted in such great mischiefs and all these things have to be cleared away. I will tell you what I will do. I will clear them away myself. I will bear the result of your sin in order that my pardon may be seen to be most sure and full. I will pay the debt in which you have involved yourself. I will go to the prison to which you ought to go as the consequence of what you have done. I will suffer the effect of your wrongdoing instead of condemning you to suffer it"? Well, now, the forgiveness that costs you so much would manifest your graciousness much more than that which costs you nothing beyond a kind will and a tender heart! Oh, if it is so, that God, the Divine Ruler, the Judge of all the earth, says to guilty man, "I will pardon you, but it is imperative that My Law be carried out. And this cannot be done except by the death of My dear Son, who is One with Me, who is very God of very God, who Himself wills to stand in your place and vindicate My justice by suffering the penalty due to you"--then I say that the Grace of God is a thousandfold more clearly shown than by the free forgiveness which "modern thought" pleads for! Pardon which has cost God more than it cost Him to make all worlds--which has cost Him more than to manage all the empires of His Provi-dence--which has cost Him His Only-Begotten Son and has cost that Only-Begotten Son a life of sorrow and a death of unutterable and immeasurable anguish--I say that this pardon is pre-eminently gracious! Love is more displayed in this, infinitely more, than by a mere word and a wave of the hand which would dismiss the sinner without any attempt at an atoning sacrifice. Besides, Beloved, let this always be remembered, that it is in the application of redemption and the personal pardon of any sinner, through the blood of Jesus, that the Grace of God is best seen by that sinner. To each one, that pardon through the Lord Jesus comes, not only according to Grace, but "according to the riches of His Grace." I can understand that God should forgive you, all of you. I could hear it with full belief and it would not astonish me. But that He should pardon me--that I should have the forgiveness of sins and redemption by blood--that truly astonishes me! And I believe that any person, under a sense of sin, sees more of the Grace of God in His own salvation than in the salvation of anybody else. He may be quite conscious that he has never been a thief, or a drunk, or a murderer and yet, when he comes to look at it, he may see reasons why the pardon of sin in his case should be more remarkable than even in the case of a drunk, or a thief, or a murderer! There may be elements in his own case which may make him seem to have sinned even more grievously than open transgressors because he transgressed against greater light, with less temptation and with a direr presumption of rebellion against the Most High. That Jesus died is unutterable Grace--but that He loved me and gave Himself for me--this is overwhelming Grace and makes the heir of Heaven say with emphasis, "Blessed be God that, in Jesus, I have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace!" Do you not feel at this time, you that have been pardoned, that nothing but the riches of God's Grace could ever have pardoned you? No scanty Grace could have provided an atonement equal to your iniquities! Poverty of Grace would have left you ruined by your debt of sin! Riches of Grace were needed and riches of Grace were forthcoming in redemption by blood and in the full, perfect, irreversible forgiveness which God gave you in the day when you believed on Jesus Christ your Savior! Oh, that the Holy Spirit would help you to sing of the Grace of God today and every day! IV. Thus far have I brought you, then, in three remarks. Kindly follow me in the fourth one, upon which I will not be long. Fourthly, THIS FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS ENJOYED BY US NOW. "In whom we have"--we have-- "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace." I remember the astonishment with which I felt as I sat in a ministers' meeting and heard one who professed to be a preacher of the Gospel, assert that he did not think that any of us could be sure that he was forgiven. I ventured at once to say that I was sure--and I was pleased, but by no means surprised, to find that others dared to say the same. I hope I have hundreds before me who enjoy the same assurance! Brothers and Sisters, if there is no consciousness of the forgiveness of sins possible, how can there be any rest for the conscience? Yet Jesus says, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What rest is possible to the condemned? Can you go to bed tonight with your sins unforgiven? Some of you may have the foolhardi-ness to do that, but I would not dare to do it! Look where you are. Within a moment you may be dead. Within that moment you will be in Hell, past all hope. In a single instant you may be eternally lost--can you endure the thought? Our breath has but to stop, or the heart to cease beating and instantly life is over! How can you be at peace while sin is unfor-given? Unless sin had made men mad, they would never rest till they were cleared from their sins. There cannot be any true rest without a consciousness of forgiveness. Yet that rest is promised--therefore the present enjoyment of an assurance of forgiveness must be possible! And, next, where could there ever be that great love in the hearts of men and women which we read of in Scripture? She that washed the Savior's feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head--would she have done so if she had not known that she was forgiven? She loved much because she had had much forgiven her! And the stimulus, the zeal, the fervor that spurs on a man in his service and suffering for the Lord Jesus must arise out of the consciousness that the Lord has done great things for him--and the conclusion that, therefore, he must do great things for his Lord. Surely, you have robbed Christianity of its highest moral force if you have denied the possibility of knowing that you are pardoned! Moreover, where is there any testimony of the power of Grace? We that come and preach to you would be liars if we, ourselves, have never tasted and handled pardoning Grace. We do, at any rate, but preach to you a second-hand Gospel, which we have never tested and proved for ourselves. If I did not know, in my very soul, that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin, how could I dare to face you with the Gospel message? I have not impudence enough to tell you of what is, or is not the Truth of God, about which I am uncertain myself! God grant me Grace to break stones, or sweep chimneys sooner than come and tell you a cunningly-devised fable, or a tale about which I have no assured certainty, derived from personal knowledge! Could I say to you, "I dare say there is bread, but I myself am hungry and I have never eaten a mouthful of the provision which I offer you"? Think of my saying to one perishing of thirst, "There is Living Water flowing from the Rock, but personally I am thirsty." You might say to me at once, "Then go home to your house and next time you appear, be sure of the truth of what you tell us. If you do not believe it, how should we believe it?" Beloved, there are thousands, there are still tens of thousands on earth who know that the Son of God has power on earth to forgive sins! And there are myriads in Heaven who passed to their happiness confident that they had been forgiven--and they sang on earth the same song that they sing in Heaven, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! They know it, they have no doubt about it! Many of us know it here and rejoice therein at this moment. Dear Friend, what would you give to have this assurance? You may have it--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." "Whoever believes in Him is justified from all sin." "He that believes in Him has everlasting life." Oh, that God's Grace may lead you to cast away all other confidences and to lay your guilty spirit down at Jesus' feet! Then shall you go your way rejoicing that you, also, with us, can say, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." V. Fifthly--and this is only a brief head, but it is a point that must not be left out--THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS BINDS US TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Let us read the text again. "In whom we have redemption through His blood." We have nothing apart from Jesus! Every blessing of the Covenant binds us to Christ. Covenant gifts are so many golden chains to fasten the soul of the Believer to his Lord. Our wealth of mercy is all in Christ. There is nothing good outside of Christ. When are we pardoned, Brothers and Sisters? When have we forgiveness? Why, when we are in Him, "in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." O son of Adam, living without Jesus, hear and take warning! So long as you are out of Christ, you must bear your own burden till it crushes you to the dust! But as soon as you have touched the hem of His garment there is a link of connection--and if you can rise from that to holding Him by the feet--the union is closer! And if you can, from that, become like Simeon, who took Him up in his arms, then may you cry, "My eyes have seen Your salvation!" When you have Christ to the fullest, you have Grace to the fullest! It is as you are in Christ--in connection and communion with Christ--that you receive the pardon of sin, for all the pardon is in Him. Do you see that? "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." The forgiveness is not so much in His office and in His work, as in Himself. When you get Christ, you have redemption, for He is Redemption. When you get Christ, you have forgiveness of sins, for He is the Propitiation for our sins. He has put the sin away by the Sacrifice of Himself. Get Christ and you have the proof, the evidence, the sum, the substance of perfect pardon. If you accept the Beloved, you are "accepted in the Beloved." When you are in Him, then you are forgiven, but your forgiveness is only in Him. In Him you have redemption--out of Him you are in bondage. Beloved, every day, as we go afresh to God for a sense of pardon, let us know that we can never get it unless we come viewing Jesus. I notice that some Believers, when they get rather dull and cold, begin the work of self-examination. This may appear very proper, but it is dreary work. I do not believe, dear Friends, if you are very poor, that you will ever get rich by looking through all your empty cupboards. If it is very cold and you have no coals in the cellar, you will not become warm by going into the cellar and seeing that there is nothing below but an empty coal hole. No, no--if our Graces are to be revived we must begin with a renewed consciousness of pardon through the precious blood--and the only way to get that sense of pardon is to go to the Cross, again, even as we went at first! I sometimes wonder that you do not get tired of my preaching because I do nothing but hammer away on this one nail. I have driven it in up to the head and I have gone round to the other side to clinch it--but I still keep at it. With me it is, year after year, "None but Jesus! None but Jesus!" Oh, you great saints, if you have outgrown the need of a sinner's trust in the Lord Jesus, you have outgrown your sins! But you have also outgrown your Grace and your saintship has ruined you! He that has the mind of Christ within him must still come to his Lord, just as he came at the first. I frankly confess that still I cry to my Lord Jesus-- "Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Your Cross I cling." Still, to this day, I have no redemption in myself, but only in Jesus! I am not an inch forwarder as to the ground of my trust. Is it not so with you? Do we not still say of Jesus--"In whom we have redemption through His blood"? To this day we find no reason for forgiveness in ourselves. The precious blood is still our one plea! Lost and condemned are we apart from the one offering of our Great High Priest. But cleansed and justified are we in Him-- "Oh, how sweet to view the flowing Of His sin-atoning blood! With Divine assurance knowing, He has made my peace with God." You know the story of the poor bricklayer who fell from a scaffold, and when they took him up, he was so much injured that they fetched a minister to him, who, stooping over him, said, "My dear Man, you have a very short time to live. I entreat you to make your peace with God." To the surprise of the minister, the man opened his eyes and said, "Make my peace with God, Sir? It was made for me nearly 1,900 years ago, upon the Cross of Calvary, by Him that loved me and gave Himself for me." Oh, the joy which this creates in the heart! Yes, it is in Jesus that the peace is made-- effectually made, made for me, made for you, made for all Believers! In Jesus is perfect redemption! In Jesus pardon is provided, proclaimed, presented and sealed upon the conscience! Go and live on Jesus; live with Jesus; live in Jesus; never go away from Jesus and may He be dearer to you every day of your lives! Blessed be His adorable name! Amen, and Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Ephesians 1. __________________________________________________________________ The Statute of David for the Sharing of the Spoil (No. 2208) A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 7, 1891, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them. Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart. Then said David, You shall not do so, my Brethren, with that which the Lord has given us, who has preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hands. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goes down to the battle so shall his part be that tarries by the stuff: they shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day." 1 Samuel 30:21-26. THOSE who associate themselves with a leader must share his fortunes. Six hundred men had left their abodes in Judea. Unable to endure the tyranny of Saul, they had linked themselves with David and made him to be a captain over them. They were, some of them, the best of men, and some of them were the worst--in this, resembling our congregations. Some of them were choice spirits whom David would have sought, but others were undesirable persons from whom he might gladly have been free. However, be they who they may, they must rise or fall with their leader and commander. If he had the city Ziklag given to him, they had a house and a home in it. And if Ziklag was burned with fire, their houses did not escape. When David stood amid the smoking ruins, a penniless and a wifeless man, they stood in the same condition. This rule holds good with all of us who have joined ourselves to Christ and His cause--we must be partakers with Him. I hope we are prepared to stand to this rule today. If there is ridicule and reproach for the Gospel of Christ, let us be willing to be ridiculed and reproached for His sake. Let us gladly share with Him in His humiliation and never dream of shrinking. This involves a great privilege, since they that are with Him in His humiliation shall be with Him in His Glory. If we share His rebuke in the midst of an evil generation, we shall also sit upon His Throne and share His Glory in the day of His appearing. Brothers and Sisters, I hope the most of us can say we are in for it--to sink or swim with Jesus. In life or death, where He is, there will we, His servants, be. We joyfully accept both the Cross and the Crown which go with our Lord Jesus Christ--we are eager to bear our full share of the blame, that we may partake in His joy. It frequently happens that when a great disaster occurs to a band of men, a mutiny follows. However little it may be the leader's fault, the defeated cast the blame of the defeat upon him. If the fight is won, "it was a soldiers' battle"-- every man at arms claims his share of praise. But if the battle is lost, blame the commander! It was entirely his fault--if he had been a better general, he might have won the day. This is how people talk--fairness is out of the question. So in the great disaster at Ziklag, when the town was burned with fire, and wives and children were carried away captive-- then we read that they spoke of stoning David. Why David? Why David more than anybody else, it is hard to see, for he was not there, nor any one of them. They felt so vexed, that it would be a relief to stone somebody--and why not David? Brethren, it sometimes happens, even to the servants of Christ, that when they fall into persecution and loss for Christ's sake, the tempter whispers to them to throw up their profession. "Since you have been a Christian, you have had nothing but trouble. It seems as if the dogs of Hell were snapping at your heels more than ever since you took upon you the name of Christ. Therefore, throw it up and leave the ways of godliness." Vile suggestion! Mutiny against the Lord Jesus? Dare you do so? Some of us cannot do so, for when He asks us, "Will you, also, go away?" we can only answer, "Lord, to whom should we go? You have the Words of eternal life." No other leader is worth following! We must follow the Son of David. Mutiny against Him is out of the question-- "Through floods or flames, if Jesus leads, We'll follow where He goes." When a dog follows a man, we may discover whether the man is his master by seeing what happens when they come to a turn in the road. If the creature keeps close to its master at all turnings, it belongs to him. Every now and then you and I come to turns in the road and many of us are ready, through Divine Grace, to prove our loyalty by following Jesus even when the way is hardest. Though the tears stand in His eyes and in ours. Though we weep together till we have no more power to weep, we will cling to Him, when the many turn aside, and witness that He has the Living Word and none upon earth beside. God grant us Grace to be faithful unto death! If we thus follow our Leader and bear His reproach, the end and issue will be glorious victory. It was a piteous sight to see David leaving 200 men behind him and marching with his much diminished forces after an enemy who had gone, he scarcely knew where, who might be 10 times stronger than his little band, and might slay those who pursued them. It was a melancholy spectacle for those left behind to see their leader a broken man, worn and weary like themselves, hastening after the cruel Amalekite. How very different was the scene when he came back to the brook Besor more than a conqueror! Do you not hear the song of them that make merry? A host of men in the front are driving vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep--and singing as they march, "This is David's spoil!" Then you see armed men with David in the midst of them, all laden with spoil, and you hear them singing yet another song! Those that bring up the rear are shouting exultingly, "David recovered all! David recovered all!" They, the worn-out ones that stayed at the brook Besor, hear the mingled song and join first in the one shout, and then in the other, singing, "This is David's spoil! David recovered all!" Yes, we have no doubt about the result of our warfare. He that is faithful to Christ shall be glorified with Him. That He will divide the spoil with the strong is never a matter of question. "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands." The old Truth of God by which we stand shall never be blotted out-- "Engraved as in eternal brass The mighty promise shines! Nor shall the powers of darkness erase Those everlasting lines." We are certain as we live that the exiled Truth shall celebrate its joyful return. The faith once for all delivered to the saints may be downtrodden for a season--but rejoice not over us, O our adversaries--though we fall, we shall rise again! Therefore we patiently hope, quietly wait and calmly believe. We drink of the brook Besor by the way and lift up our heads. This morning I want to utter God-given words of comfort to those who are faint and weary in the Lord's army. May the Divine Comforter make them so! I. I shall begin by saying, first, that FAINT ONES OCCUR EVEN IN THE ARMY OF OUR KING. Among the very elect of David's army--heroes who were men of war from their youth up--there were hands that hung down and feeble knees that needed to be confirmed. There are such in Christ's army at most seasons. We have among us soldiers whose faith is real and whose love is burning and yet, for all that, just now their strength is weakened in the way and they are so depressed in spirit, that they are obliged to stay behind with the baggage. Possibly some of these weary ones had grown faint because they had been a good deal perplexed. David had so wrongfully entangled himself with the Philistine king, that he felt bound to go with Achish to fight against Israel. I dare say these men said to themselves, "How will this end? Will David really lead us to battle against Saul? When he could have killed him in the cave, he would not, but declared that he would not lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed! Will he now take us to fight against the anointed of God? This David, who was so great an enemy of Philistia and slew their champion, will he war on their behalf?" They were perplexed with their leader's movements. I do not know whether you agree with me, but I find that half-an-hour's perplexity takes more out of a man than a month's labor. When you cannot see your bearings and know not what to do, it is most trying. When, to be true to God, it seems that you must break faith with man--and when, to fulfill your unhappy covenant with evil would make you false to your Christian profession, things are perplexing! If you do not walk carefully, you can easily get into a snarl. If Christians walk in a straight line, it is comparatively easy going, for it is easy to find your way along a straight road. But when good men take to the new cut, that by-path across the meadow, then they often get into ditches that are not on the map and fall into thickets and sloughs that they never reckoned upon. Then is the time for heart-sickness to come on. These warriors may very well have been perplexed and, perhaps, they feared that God was against them--and that now their cause would be put to shame. And when they came to Ziklag and found it burned with fire, the perplexity of their minds added intense bitterness to their sorrow and they felt bowed into the dust. They did not pretend to be faint, but they were really so, for the mind can soon act upon the body and the body fails sadly when the spirits are worried with questions and fears. This is one reason why certain of our Lord's loyal-hearted ones are on the sick list and must stay in the barracks for a while. Perhaps, also, the pace was killing to these men. They made forced marches for three days from the city of Achish to Ziklag. These men could do a good day's march with anybody, but they could not foot it at the double quick march all day long. There are a great many Christians of that sort--good, staying men who can keep on under ordinary pressure, doing daily duty well and resisting ordinary temptations bravely. But at a push they fare badly--who among us does not? To us there may come multiplied labors and we faint because our strength is small. Worst of all, their grief came in just then. Their wives were gone. Although, as it turned out, they were neither killed nor otherwise harmed, yet they could not know this--and they feared the worse. For a man to know that his wife is in the hands of robbers and that he may never see her again is no small trouble. Their sons and daughters were also gone-- no prattlers climbed their father's knee, no gentle daughters came forth to bid them, "Welcome home." Their homes were still burning, their goods were consumed and they lifted up their voices and wept--is it at all amazing that some of them were faint after performing that doleful miserere? Where would you be if you went home this morning and found your home burned and your family gone, you knew not where? I know many Christians who get very faint under extraordinary troubles. They should not, but they do. We have reason to thank God that no temptation has happened to us but such as is common to men and yet, it may not seem so. But we may feel as if we were especially tried, like Job. Messenger after messenger has brought us evil tidings and our hearts are not fixed on the Lord as they ought to be. To those who are faint through grief I speak just now. You may be this and yet you may be a true follower of the Lamb--and as God has promised to bring you out of your troubles, He will surely keep His word. Remember, He has never promised that you shall have no sorrows, but that He will deliver you out of them all. Ask yon saints in Heaven! Ask those to step out of the shining ranks who came there without trial. Will one of the leaders of the shining host give the word of command that he shall step forward who has washed his robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, but who never knew what affliction meant while here below? No one stirs in all that white-robed host! Not one comes forward? Must we wait here forever without response? Look! Instead of anyone stirring from their ranks, I hear a voice that says, "These are they which came out of great tribulation." All of them have known not only tribulation, but great tribulation! One promise of the New Testament is surely fulfilled before our eyes-- "In the world you shall have tribulation." When trouble came so pressingly on David's men, they felt their weakness and needed to stop at the bank of the brook. Perhaps, also, the force of the torrent was too much for them. As I have told you, in all probability the brook Besor was only a hollow place which, in ordinary times, was almost dry. But in a season of great rain it filled suddenly with a rushing muddy stream, against which only strong men could stand. These men might have kept on upon dry land, but the current was too fierce for them and they feared that it would carry them off their feet and drown them. Therefore, David gave them leave to stay there and guard the stuff. Many there are of our Lord's servants who stop short of certain onerous service--they are not called to do what their stronger comrades undertake with joy. They can do something, but they fail to do more--they can also bear certain trials, but they are unable to bear more--they faint because they have not yet come to fullness of growth in Divine Grace. Their hearts are right in the sight of God, but they are not in condition to surmount some peculiar difficulty. You must not overdrive them, for they are the feeble of the flock. Many are too faint for necessary controversy. I have found a great many of that sort about lately--the Truth of God is very important, but they love peace. It is quite necessary that certain of us should stand up for the faith once delivered to the saints, but they are not up to the mark for it. They cannot bear to differ from their fellows and they hold their tongues rather than contend for the Truth of God. There are true hearts that, nevertheless, cannot defend the Gospel! They wish well to the champions, but they seek the rear rank for themselves. And some cannot advance any further with regard to knowledge--they know the fundamentals and feel as if they could master nothing more. It is a great blessing that they know the Gospel and feel that it will save them, but the glorious mysteries of the Everlasting Covenant, of the Sovereignty of God, of His eternal love and distinguishing Grace, they cannot compass--these are a brook Besor which, as yet, they cannot swim. It would do them a world of good if they could venture in but, still, they are not to be tempted into these blessed deeps. To hear of these things rather wearies them than instructs them. They have not strength enough of mind for the deep things of God. I would have every Christian wish to know all that he can know of the revealed Truths of God. Somebody whispers that the secret things belong not to us. You may be sure you will never know them if they are secret, but all that is revealed you ought to know, for these things belong to you and to your children! Take care you know what the Holy Spirit teaches. Do not give way to a fainthearted ignorance, lest you be great losers thereby. That which is fit food for babes should not be enough for young men and fathers--we should eat strong meat--and leave milk to the little ones. Yet these fainting ones were, after all, in David's army. Their names were in their Captain's Register as much as the names of the strong. And they did not desert the colors. They had the same captain as the stoutest-hearted men in the whole regiment. They could call David, "Master," and, "Lord," as truly as the most lion-like