How important it is that we should hear God, that we should have an attentive ear to his Word; and that it should, through our ears, reach our souls, and become to us, consciously, the living Word of the living God! The great gate of commerce between heaven and the town of Mansoul, is Ear-Gate. We can see but little of the things of the kingdom; but we can hear much concerning them.

We are told, not only to “hearken” to God, but to “hearken diligently.” You cannot have too much hearing of the right kind of truth, nor too much of the right kind of hearing. Some people like few sermons, and those very short; but, when a soul is hungry after God and eternal life, it puts another meaning on this exhortation, “Hearken diligently.” It cannot hear too much; it cannot hear too often; it cannot hear too intensely. Faith comes by hearing; and hence, Satan tries to block up that gateway of mercy. If he can persuade men not to hear, then he can keep them out of the way of grace; but the exhortation of our text sets wide open this door of salvation, at which the Lord himself stands and cries, “Hearken diligently unto me.”

You, dear friends, love to hear the Word of the Lord; therefore, I need not dwell upon that exhortation; but I do pray that no one may hear in vain. “Take heed what ye hear,” and “take heed how ye hear.” Do not be content merely to open Ear-Gate; but rest not satisfied until the King himself comes riding through that gate right up to the very citadel of the town of Mansoul, and takes possession of the castle of your heart.

With this brief introduction, we will come to the consideration of our main text, which follows upon the exhortation. We are to “hearken diligently” to this message from the Lord’s lips, “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Here are four things; first, the food; next, the feeding; then, the welcome; and lastly, the delight.

I ask about this food, first, How is it presented to us? It is presented to us freely. The invitation is, “Come and eat.” There was a word about buying; but, as I said in the reading, that was soon covered up with, “Buy without money and without price.” Others are trying to get salvation by their own efforts. The rich man spends his money; the poor man spends his labour; but both of these ways come from self, and they mean self-salvation-every man his own saviour. This is not the method to which you are called; you are, indeed, put off that way. “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?” You are called simply to hear, that your souls may live; and, having heard, you are bidden freely to partake of that which is good, and that which is rich, which God has provided. We need still to say that the grace of God is free. No merit is asked, nothing to fit you for its reception, nothing as a compensation to God for the gift of it. Grace is free as the air you breathe. Eternal salvation comes without a penny of cost to every hungry, needy, bankrupt soul that is willing to receive it.

Further, while it is thus presented freely as to any labour with which to procure it, it is also presented freely as to its quality, its highest quality. You are not permitted to drink freely of water, and then to purchase wine. You are not invited to come and eat freely that which is good, and then to spend your labour for that which is fat. No, the richest dainties of God’s house are as free as the bread he gives to hungry souls. You think that you will be highly favoured if you are allowed to partake of the crumbs that fall under the table, and so indeed you will be; but the daintiest morsels on the table are as free to you as those crumbs. Sanctification is as much a gift of God as justification; and the highest perfection in heaven is as much the gift of grace as the first cry of, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” It is all graciously given; and you are invited to come, not only to the waters, but to drink wine and milk, to eat that which is good, and to delight yourselves in fatness.

This royal bounty is freely given; and freely given to the most undeserving. The only limitation is no limitation at all: “Ho, every one that thirsteth!” All of you who are dissatisfied, or discontented, who have not obtained what you wanted; who are longing for something, you hardly know what it is you do long for; you who have a thirst insatiable but yet indescribable, who came here to-night saying, “I wish I had it; others that I know have it; I hardly know what it is that they have; but oh, that I might have it!”-you will find out what it is when you have received it. You hardly know yet what the taste of wine and milk may be. You hardly know yet what the fat things full of marrow, that are part of Christ’s great gospel feast, can possibly be. You shall know them by-and-by; but, be you who you may, come and welcome; sinner, come. If thou hast nothing, Christ is everything. Though thou art unworthy, he is infinitely worthy; and so he presents to thee food to-night on the freest possible terms; or, indeed, without any terms or conditions at all, for he puts it thus, “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”

I ask, next, What is this food? I answer, first, it is the Word of God. The soul can never feed to the satisfying of the understanding, the conscience, the heart, except upon divinely-revealed truth. Thou must know what God would have thee know. Therefore attend, and hearken diligently, that the God-breathed truth may become nutriment to thy spirit.

Better still, the food is the Incarnate Word of God; for Christ Jesus, the Son of man, the Son of God, is the Word. If men feed on him, they shall find that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed. Remember his own words, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” This is God’s Bread given to you, his Only-begotten Son, clothed in human flesh, living and dying for the sons of men. Happy are they who feed on this heavenly manna.

What is this bread? Well, it is the grace of God. As you read this chapter through, you find that the Lord refers first to his Word, and bids you hear it. Next, he speaks of his Son, whom he has given to be a witness to his people. Further on, he magnifies his grace, and speaks of wonderful changes which that grace works in those to whom it is given. Oh, how satisfying is the grace of God! “He giveth more grace.” We live upon grace; it is our daily bread, grace for every trial, grace for every duty, grace for every sin, and grace for every grace. “Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” This is the food for you. Thirsty with sin, thy sin is quenched with grace. May God grant us grace to feed upon grace, to live upon his Word, and to feast upon his Son!

I ask yet another question, What is the nature of this food? It is good; it is good, in every sense of the word “good.” It is satisfying. It is pure; no harm can ever come by eating it. This heavenly food is good, and good for you, good for you to-night, good for you at any time, good for you living, good for you dying. All other foods that men seek after are unsubstantial; they can surfeit, but they cannot satisfy; they can cloy, but they cannot content; but the food that has come down from heaven, if a man does but take it into himself, shall be the best food he ever ate.

Moreover, this food is described here as being fatness: “Let thy soul delight itself in fatness.” Within the Word of God, there are certain choicer truths; in Christ, there are certain choicer joys; in grace, there are certain choicer experiences than men at first realize. It is not merely bread and food, but it is marrow and fatness. There are “tit-bits” for the Lord’s children. “Let your soul delight itself in fatness.” “In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” I hope that, before we have done to-night, we shall have introduced some poor soul to the fatness, the choice, special parts of God’s most holy Word. It is not lean meat that God gives you, not scrapings from a bone; but he feeds us royally, he gives us of the best he has, and plenty of it. “He daily loadeth us with benefits.” He gives us meat to eat of which even angels do not know.

“Never did angels taste above,

Redeeming grace, and dying love.”

These things are our soul’s daily nourishment.

But now, secondly, here is feeding. One of the most important words in our text is that little word eat: “Eat ye: eat ye.”

Food is of no use until it is eaten; and here, often, is the crucial question with seeking souls. “I see that Christ is the Bread of life that I want; but how am I to eat him?” Well, now, really, you ought not to need any instruction on this point. We take a great many orphans into the Orphanage, and some of them are very ignorant, and we have to teach them a great many things; but we have no class for teaching them to eat. They all know how to do that, and to do it pretty heartily, too. If men were hungry, they would know how to eat, if they had the bread. It is because men are not really hungry on account of sin that they come and ask us, “What do you mean by this eating?” Yet it may be that some are sincere in asking the question, so I will answer it.

To eat is, first, to believe. To “eat” a truth, you must believe it to be true. To “eat” Christ, you must believe him to be the Christ of God. To “eat” the grace of God, you must believe it to be “the grace of God, which bringeth salvation.”

“Artful doubts and reasonings be

Nailed with Jesus to the tree.”

I will gladly lend you a nail or two, and the use of a hammer as well, for I like not these doubts. They are in the air like midges; they fly about everywhere, and certain brethren endeavour to multiply the pests. But, oh, that you, poor sinner, would have done with doubts, and simply believe! Believe what is certainly true, for God cannot lie, and what he reveals is infallibly sure. Believe it.

Well, after you have done that, to eat is chiefly to appropriate. A man takes a piece of bread into his hand; but he has not eaten it till he has put it into his mouth, and swallowed it, and it has gone down into the secret parts of his very self, and has become his very own. When a thing is eaten and digested, it cannot be restored.

You may take away my house; you may take away my money; but you cannot take away from me yesterday’s dinner. You must take Christ in the same way that you eat your food; that is, appropriate him. Say, “He is mine; I take him to be wholly mine. This Christ, this grace, this pardon, this salvation, I believe it; and I now trust in it, rest in it, appropriate it, and take it to be my own.” “Suppose that I should make a mistake in taking it,” says one. Nobody ever did. If thou canst take it, God has given it to thee. If thou hast grace to grasp Christ, though thou thinkest thyself a thief in doing so, there is no roguery in it. What God sets before thee, take, and ask no questions. Oh, what a blessed thing it is when a soul is enabled to feed upon the Word of God, to feed upon the Christ of God, to feed upon the grace of God! You cannot do wrong in so doing. It is written, “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” This is to eat,-to appropriate.

But after you have eaten, you know, the full process of eating includes digestion. How do I digest the Word of God? I know what it is to read, and mark, and learn it; but how do I inwardly digest it? When thou dost meditate upon it. Oh, what a blessed work is that of sacred meditation, turning the truth over and over and over in the mind, throwing it into the winepress of memory, and treading it out with the feet of thought, till the ruby juice flows out, and thou dost drink thereof, and art satisfied! Meditate upon the Word; think much of what God has done for thee. Think over his thoughts; turn over his words; and thus thy soul will grow strong.

Feeding also means trusting yourself wholly to Christ. The man who eats his breakfast, goes about his business trusting to the strength which that morning’s meal will give him; and when noontide comes, and he feels faint, he eats again, without a doubt that what he eats will nourish him; and he goes back to his work, and uses muscle and sinew, trusting his food to supply him with power. It is just the same with Christ. Take him, and believe that he will help thee to go about thy business, to bear thy trouble, to meet thine adversary, to serve without weariness, and to run without fainting. This is to eat that which is good; it is to take freely into thine own self Christ, his grace, his Word, and to live thereon, that thou mayest grow thereby.

I should like to make this plain to all of you; but I cannot make it any plainer than this. You have Christ before you; take him. “Oh, but I am not fit,” says one. A man who is very hungry might say that he is not “fit” for dinner; but, if he is a sensible man, he just falls to and eats. So let it be with you; whatever your unfitness may be, you are welcomed by the invitations of this chapter. Come along with you; enter the banquet-hall at once, and feed to the full.

My third head is welcome. What does the Lord say? “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”

Do you see, here is, first, no stint? “Eat, eat, eat, eat, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” It is not said, “Here is a pair of scales; here is a plate; here is a knife. The law allows so many ounces of meat to you, just so much, and you must not have half-an-ounce over.” Nothing of the kind. You are just taken to the table, and the exhortation is, “Eat to your heart’s content. Let your soul delight itself in fatness.” There is no stint.

As there is no stint, so there is no reserve. It is not said, “Now you may eat those two things; but you must not touch that nice fat morsel over there; that is for Joseph; that is for the particular favourite, not for you.” No, poor soul, when God invites you to his table, you may have anything there is on the table. No matter though it be eternal life, though it be communion with Christ, though it be immutable love, thou mayest eat it. Take it, take it; for thou art not called here to sit, as they used to have it, “below the salt”, among the inferior folk; you are called to sit at the table like any of the princes, and the great King himself says, “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”

So, too, there is no end to the feast. “Eat; keep on eating. Delight yourself in fatness; keep on delighting yourself in fatness. You will never use it all up.” I read of a country once, though I hardly believed the description of it; for it was said that the grass grew faster than the cows could eat it. Well, there is a country that I know of, where the grass grows faster than the sheep can eat it. You may eat all you will out of the divine Word; but you will find that there is more left than you have taken; and it seems as if there were more after you had taken it, as if the grass grew deeper as you fed more ravenously upon it. You will find it so. God puts no reserve as to time. In the morning, feed on his Word; at noontide, drink to strengthen thy life out of the Sacred Scriptures; and at night, feed thy heart, yet again, upon thy evening portion.

I want to talk to you a little about this feeding, and especially in reference to the fatness of divine truth. There are some of God’s people who do not live upon the richer meats of his Word. Poor souls, some of them never get a taste of them. Perhaps they attend a ministry where the richer meat is never brought out. The “clods and stickings” of the gospel they will get; but not the prime joints, not the best parts of the gospel. Well, well, if that is all that their ministers have to give them, it is well that they should give them that; but if any man has learned by experience to feed upon the deep things of God, and the meat that sustains the soul, let him not fail to put it in due season upon the children’s table. Why, some of you dare not make a good meal on the doctrine of election! If you did, you would find it to contain “fat things full of marrow.” The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, the doctrine of the immutable love of God, the doctrine of the union of the believer with Christ, the doctrine of the eternal purpose that can never fail-why, I have seen many a child of God sniff at these things! Well, well, well, we must not find fault with them. Babes, of course, do not like meat. Poor creatures, they have not teeth enough yet to bite meat, and we must give them milk. Only let not the babes kick at us who can eat meat. We must eat the strong meat, for it is the very food of our souls.

Different foods are for different growths of grace; but it is a pity that the children of God should habitually neglect the richer joints of the gospel. There are some of them who measure themselves by others. I do believe that some of God’s people are afraid of being too holy, which fear need never haunt them much. Some of them are afraid of being too happy, because they know a dear soul, who is a kind of weather-glass to them, and she is not very often happy, and so they are afraid that they must not be. How many a person has set up Mr. Little-Faith to be his model, or Mr. Ready-to-Halt, with his crutches, to be a kind of pattern to him! Now, Ready-to-Halt was a very sensible man; he would not advise other people to use crutches. They were good for him; but he wished that he had never wanted them. So is it with a mournful child of God, there are some of the best who are of a sorrowful spirit; but I would not recommend you to be like them. If that man on the other side of the table dares not eat the marrow and fatness, that is no reason why you should not have your share if you can enjoy it.

There are some people (I will not judge them), who always want to know, when they come to God’s feast, how little food will be sufficient, what is the minimum upon which a person could live. Dear, dear, I never tried that plan; and I do not recommend you to go to-night, and consult a doctor to know what is the smallest amount of food upon which a man could live. There are, I fear, a good many of you working out that problem with regard to your souls. You say, “Well, now, do you not think that one sermon on Sunday is quite enough?” Then, there is the prayer-meeting, and you say, “It is only a prayer-meeting; we shall not go to that.” So you go from Sunday to Sunday, sometimes, you one-sermon-a-week people, and you say, “I feel unhappy; I have many doubts and fears.” I should think you have. If you had only one meal a week, you would feel a little hollow here and there; and if you only get one spiritual meal a week, it is no wonder that you are weakly. The text says, “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” It does not put to you that strange proposition of trying how little spiritual food you can live upon.

There are others, who are very sincere, who always ask how much they may take. May I take a promise? Poor soul that I am, may I dare to call Jesus mine? Why, I am the very lowest of the people of God, may I dare to think about everlasting love? When you go to a feast, the question is not what you are, but what the host is; and, if he has spread the table, and invited you, make no “bones” about it, as men say, but eat what he sets before you. Ah, dear hearts! if we had not more than we deserved, we should not even be alive in the land of mercy. Everything that God gives is of grace, not of merit, not of desert; therefore, unworthy though thou be, take it.

“Oh! but,” says one, “I am afraid of being presumptuous.” Oh, yes, I know! There are a great many who are afraid of presumption, and they make a mistake about what presumption is. I think I told you, one day, of two little boys, to whom their mother said, “Now, John and Thomas, I shall take you out next Monday for a day’s holiday.” Well, it was Thursday or Friday, and one of them began to talk about it with all his might: “I am going out for a holiday next Monday; I know I am; I am going out for a holiday next Monday.” His little brother was “afraid to presume”; so he said that he thought, perhaps, he might go out for a holiday next Monday, but he was afraid to presume. The other little fellow, when he got up on Saturday morning, said, “Mother, is it Monday yet?” and he was as happy as a lark with the idea that the Monday must come very soon. Now, which of the two was presumptuous? I do not think that the boy who believed his mother’s promise was presumptuous; I think that he was a good, humble, believing child; but I think that the other boy, who argued, “Well, you see, mother cannot afford to take us out; perhaps it will be wet; and mother, perhaps, will not keep her word; she will forget it.” I say, he was presumptuous, and did not deserve to go at all. You who doubt are vastly more presumptuous than you would be if you would simply believe.

Let me encourage you, dear friends, to put in practice my text, “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Feed your souls on precious truth. Do not say, “Oh, that is high doctrine!” My dear friend, you have no business to call doctrine high or low. If it is in God’s Word, believe it, and live upon it. “Oh, but those are deep things!” Some people even say that they are “Calvinistic.” Never mind if they are; they will not hurt you. I am of the mind of the old lady who said, when she heard a certain preacher, “I like to hear that kind of minister, he is a high Calvary preacher.” That was a good mistake to make; I would like to be a “high Calvary preacher”; and preach up Jesus Christ and him crucified with all my might. Do not be afraid to feed on anything that Christ is, or did, or promised. Fall to with a glorious appetite, “and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” If there are any high enjoyments, raptures, ecstasies, delights, if you lose yourself in heaven begun below, if you can feel the Lord very near you, well, be ready to dance for joy. “Let your soul delight itself in fatness.”

But as to holy exercises, such as prayer, and prayer continued, prayer strong and mighty, and such as praise, too, that is akin to the music of heaven, do not hold back from them. Go in for them with all your might. “Let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Oh, our poor starveling services, our weak, impotent drawings near to God! May we be delivered from them, and may we get into the marrow and fatness of real communion with the Most High!

Above all, do not neglect to feed on what you have not yet received, but what is yours in the hand of Christ. On the glory yet to be revealed, on the glories of the Second Advent, especially, often dwell; and let your hearts take fire as you think of them, and let your spirit grow strong with an intense delight, because he is coming. He is coming quickly; and who knows when he may appear? Live upon the promise of his coming, and rejoice therein. “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”

Now, my time has gone, and therefore I will not preach upon the fourth head, which was to have been delight; but I will just say these few words on this part of my theme.

There is no peril in holy joy, in delighting yourself in God’s “Word, and delighting yourself in Christ. You may be as happy as ever you can be, and there will be no danger in it: for “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” The joy of the Lord is your safety; the joy of the Lord will be your restoration, if you have wandered away from him.

There will be no idleness, or selfishness, produced by this fat feeding. The more you feed on God’s Word, the more you will work for the good of others. You will not say, “I am saved, and therefore I will let others perish.” Oh, no! You will have an intense, burning desire to bring others in to feed upon “free grace and dying love.” There are none who love the souls of men so much as those who love their Lord much. When they have themselves had much forgiven, and they know it, they go and seek their fellow-sinners, and try to bring them to the Saviour’s feet.

Dear friends, may you get such meals upon the rich things of the Word of God that you may come to a sacred contentment, till you shall not say, like Esau, “I have enough,” but shall say, like Jacob, “I have all things”! May you be unable to wish for anything more! May you be so complete in Christ, so fully supplied in him, that you can say, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want”!

May you also attain to a sense of holy security; not of carnal security, for that is dangerous; that is ruinous; but holy security, so that you can say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” “Of what persuasion are you?” said one man to another. “Of what persuasion am I? I am of this persuasion, that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.” This is a blessed persuasion. May you have it, and keep it all your days!

Then, next, may you come into a state of perfect rest! “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” “We that have believed do enter into rest.” “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” But there is a rest which they enjoy even now; may you get it!

May you also come into a state of complete resignation to the will of God! If we sang with our hearts that beautiful hymn (Number 691) just now, we are able to leave everything with God, and let him do what he likes with us. May you just feel that your will is what God’s will would have it to be, and that God’s will shall be your will! Then you will let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Lastly, may you be filled with a happy expectancy! May you be able to say with our poet,-

“My heart is with him on his throne,

And ill can brook delay;

Each moment listening for the voice,

‘Rise up, and come away.’ ”

Oh, to live in the suburbs of heaven, to get into the vestibule of God’s great palace, and to stop there, and hear the singing of the seraphim inside the walls! There is such a thing as feeling, on the Hill Beulah, the breezes from the distant Celestial City. When the wind sets the right way, you may often smell the spices of the glory-land where Emmanuel is King, and his beloved lie in his bosom for ever. I pray that you may all have this. Do not say, “We cannot.” Do not fear that you cannot, but rather listen to the text, and carry it out, “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”

Oh, that some poor soul would get his first mouthful of Christ to-night! Take him. I have seen a hungry child sent by his mother to the baker’s. There is a little piece of bread put in as a “makeweight”, and the poor child eats it on the way home. I give you leave to do that to-night. Carry the truth away with you, and keep it; but eat a bit as you go home. Lay hold on Christ to-night, now, before you leave the Tabernacle. May his grace enable you to do it; and then sit down, and eat, and eat, and eat for ever of this precious, inexhaustible provision of God’s infinite love; and to him shall be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ISAIAH 55

To-night we shall read that precious chapter of gospel invitation, the fifty-fifth of Isaiah, which, I hope, you all know by heart.

Verse 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth,

God would have the attention of sinners; he calls for it. Are not sinners eager for God? Oh, no! It is God who is eager for sinners; and so he calleth “Ho!” Men pass by with their ears full of the world’s tumult; and God calleth, again and again, “Ho! Ho!” Be you rich or poor, learned or illiterate, if you are in need, and specially if you feel your need, “Ho, every one that thirsteth.”

1. Come ye to the waters,

There are only in one place waters that can quench your thirst; and God calls you that way: “Come ye to the waters.”

1. And he that hath no money;

Water is a thing that is sold, not given away, in the East; and he that needs it, must buy it. But he who buys of God, has nothing to pay: “He that hath no money.”

1. Come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

See how God’s good things grow as we look at them. The first invitation was, “Come ye to the waters;” the next was, “Eat;” but this one speaks of “wine and milk.” Our first idea of the gospel is very simple, it is water for our thirst. Soon we find that it is food for our hunger. Presently we discover it to be wine for our delight, and milk for our perpetual sustenance. There is everything in Christ; and you want him. Come and have him. There is no other preparation needed but that you feel your need of him.

“This he gives you;

’Tis his Spirit’s rising beam.”

What a cheering verse this is to begin with!

2. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?

If you spend your money for that which is not bread, you are likely to be disappointed. “Oh, but,” you say, “I have made many an effort.” Yes, I know you have; but, if you labour for “that which satisfieth not”, I do not wonder that you are not satisfied. Let your past defeats drive you to your God. If you have failed hitherto, so much the more reason why you should listen to the Lord’s message. He says to you,-

2. Hearken diligently unto me,

Salvation comes through the ear, more than through the eye. Hearken; hearken; hearken diligently, with both your ears, with all your heart, hearken unto your God.

2. And eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

If we will hear, and will believe, we shall be satisfied; we shall be delighted; we shall be overjoyed. The Lord can take our thirst away, and give instead a delight in fatness.

3. Incline your ear,

Hold it near the mouth of the gracious Speaker. Be willing to hear what God has to say. Take out that wool of prejudice that has prevented you from hearkening to God’s voice: “Incline your ear.”

3. And come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

“When thus you live, I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I am not the God of the dead, but of the living; and when once, through hearing the divine Word, you have come to life, I will be your God.”

4. Behold, I have given him

One greater than David, even the Beloved of the Lord, the Only-begotten, the Messiah Prince, the King of kings, even Jesus.

4. For a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

God did not give us an angel to lead us, but he gave us his Son; and he did not merely give us his Son to be an example, but to die for us, to bleed to death on our behalf, to be our Substitute, dying in our place and stead. “I have given him.” This is the greatest wonder that ever was. “God so loved the world that he gave his Only-begotten Son;” not, “God so loved the saintly; God so loved the earnest; God so loved the moral;” but “the world”, the common-place, sinful world; he so loved those who lay dead in trespasses and sins “that he gave his Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And the Father, in giving his Son, gives him a promise:-

5. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

So, brethren, the gospel must succeed. Christ must have whole nations to come to him; they must come; they shall come; for God has glorified his Son, and he glorifies him in this among other ways, in bringing nations to his feet. The gospel is no experiment; there is not a question as to its success. There may be dark days just now, and our hearts may sink as we look around; but the Father will keep his promise to the Son, and that encourages us to look up in the darkest hour. This fact, which is more than a promise, will never be altered, “He hath glorified thee.”

6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Oh, may the Holy Spirit make every word I read to be effectual with you! God himself speaks to you to-night, out of a Book which not only was inspired, but is inspired; and he says to-night, freshly from his own lip to you that have not rest of heart, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.” He may be found; therefore seek him. “Call ye upon him while he is near.” He is near; therefore call upon him.

7. Let the wicked forsake his way,

Do not let him wait till he has finished this thing, or done the other, or till he has so much to bring in his hand. Let him run away from his old master, and from his old way, and from his old self at once. May God help him so to do!

7. And the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God,

Whom we love, and in whom we trust, and who has pardoned us: “to our God.”

7. For he will abundantly pardon.

The marginal reading is, “He will multiply to pardon.” He will pardon, and pardon, and pardon, and pardon, and pardon, and pardon, ad infinitum. Enormous as the sin may be, God’s pardon shall suffice to put it all away. Is this message too hard for you to believe? Oh, broken heart! does this divine truth seem to you to be too good to be true? Oh, trembling one! does it seem impossible that the righteous God can cast all your sins behind his back, and drown them in the depths of the sea? Listen still to our Lord’s gracious words:-

9-11. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

God’s Word is not ineffectual. If thou wilt hear it, it will bless thee. When God sends snow and rain, they go not back again. The earth receives them; they sink into her pores; they refresh her secret life. Receive thou, O black heart, the Word of God, as the earth receives the snow! O thou dry heart, receive thou the Word as the dry ground receives the shower. It shall not go back again; it shall sink into thine inmost soul; it shall save thee. God can save thee. Believe it; receive his Word into thy heart, and it shall save thee. Mark who you are, who are spoken to in the first and second verses, you who are thirsty, you who have no money, you who have laboured, and are disappointed with the fruit of your toil.

12. For ye shall go out with joy,

You poor people who are invited to come to the waters, you who have nothing of your own, “Ye shall go out with joy.”

12. And be led forth with peace:

To some places you can “go” by yourselves; to others you must be “led”; but in either case you shall have “joy” and “peace.”

12. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing,

They do not look like singing, do they? They look as if their only music would be the howling of the wild winds about their brow, or the roaring of the wild beasts along their sides; but for you, for you, ye thirsty ones, they shall break forth into singing.

12. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Trees seem to have little sympathy with weary hearts; but when weary hearts find peace with God in Christ, as I trust some will to-night, then even the trees of the field seem to be in harmony with man, and they clap their hands in jubilant exultation.

13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name,

Yes, it shall make God’s name great when you are converted; for you will talk about what the Lord has done for your soul, and that will bring God fame: “It shall be to the Lord for a name.”

13. For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

O ye that thirst, O ye hungry, O ye unsatisfied, may the reading of this Word be blessed to you to-night! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-708, 732, 691.

joy hindering faith

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, October 23rd, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, May 25th, 1890.

“And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.”-Luke 24:41-45.

The disciples were gathered together with the doors of the house fast closed, for they were afraid of the Jewish mob. Suddenly he came, he who was chief in their thoughts, the Christ whom they had seen dead upon the cross, whom some of them had helped to bury. There he stood before them, and “they were terrified and affrighted.” As on a former occasion, on the Sea of Galilee, so now they said, “It is a spirit,” and they cried out for fear. The Saviour did his best to disabuse their minds of their mistake. He said to them, “Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.” He went as far as he well could go to prove that he was a real man, composed of real flesh and bones.

Then they believed, for it was perfectly clear that he had risen from the dead, and was in their midst. They had hardly begun to believe that their Lord was really with them, before it seemed too good to be true. A wave of joy came rolling up, and then appeared to be sucked back again, and they seemed to be sucked back by it. They believed not for joy; they were astounded; they were full of wonder. They did believe, else they would have had no joy; but the very joy swallowed up the thing of which it was born, and they did not believe because of the excess of joy. This is an experience which has been very common; and I merely take this text to-night that I may deal with some persons who have found Christ, and are saved, but who are now troubled because it seems too good to be true.

First, then, to-night, I shall speak, if I have strength to do so, upon the difficulty under which they laboured: “They yet believed not for joy.” Secondly, I shall speak upon the manner in which our Lord helped them to get over the difficulty. He first ate a piece of fish and a portion of a honeycomb in their presence, and then opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.

First, then, the difficulty under which they laboured. “They believed not for joy.”

This is not the only instance in which joy has seemed to stop the flow of faith. It has occurred on other occasions. You have an early instance of it in the Book of Genesis. Will you kindly turn to Genesis 45:25, 26? Jacob had lost his beloved Joseph; he believed him to be dead; he had been shown a bloody coat which he knew was his son’s; but now the brothers come back from Egypt with news that Joseph is yet alive, and is governor over all the land of Egypt. “And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for he believed them not.” It was too good to be true, and his heart sank within him. “You must be deceiving me,” he said. He knew that his sons had been liars before; indeed, if this report was true, they had been liars before, and now he cannot believe their news, it is too much for him, and the old man swoons away. So have I met with many who had been told that Christ had saved them, and they believed it; and after believing it, it seemed as if it was presumption to believe any such thing, and they were thrown back into doubt and despondency again.

Job was once in a similar condition, for he says in his Book, the ninth chapter, and the sixteenth verse, “If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.” He had such a fear of God, he saw so much of his own unworthiness, and of God’s greatness, that he says that, if he had prayed, and God had heard him, he could not have believed it to be true. This is a more spiritual case than that of Jacob; but it makes a very good parallel instance as to the fact that joy itself may cause unbelief.

The same idea comes up in Psalm 126. You remember the words, “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” They seemed to say, “We could not believe it. We thought it was all imagination, a freak of fancy, the high play of spirits in dreamland; surely it cannot be true.”

If you want another case, you have that of Peter as recorded in the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. When Peter had been brought out of prison, the angel led him into the street, and he found that he was free; but he “wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.” He could not believe that every barrier to his escape had been removed, and that he was really out of prison. There is a young woman mentioned in the same chapter, who was very much of the same mind as Peter. Read the thirteenth and fourteenth verses: “And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate.” Why did she not let him in? Ah! she was too glad to do that. As the woman at the well left her waterpot when she found Christ, so did Rhoda leave Peter standing outside the door; she was too glad to let him in. A hungry man, when he at last finds bread, may be too glad to eat. A thirsty man may come to the fountain, and for a moment be too glad to stoop down and drink of its cooling stream. Men and women are strange paradoxes. We are made up of paradoxes; we are the most curious creatures in all the world. We believe and get glad, and then we disbelieve because we are glad, for we think that it cannot be true joy, or true faith. I do not understand you, my brethren, because I do not understand myself; and I do not believe that you understand yourselves. The mercy is that you do not need to understand yourselves; you are in the hands of a great Physician who knows all about you, and who will prescribe for you where you cannot even tell what is the matter with yourself.

I have given you these instances out of the Scriptures; but such cases are common enough in our experience. Here is one who has heard preached the doctrine of immediate salvation by faith; he understands that-

“The moment a sinner believes,

And trusts in his crucified God,

His pardon at once he receives,

Redemption in full through his blood.”

He has believed, and he has received redemption in full; and now he says to himself, “Can it be really true? What! all my sins forgiven? Am I whiter than snow? That great sin of mine, that seemed to turn all my being to crimson and scarlet, is that washed out?” It seems too good to be true; and the man’s doubts come thick upon him by reason of the very greatness of the pardon which he has grasped.

Suppose, further, that it is whispered in his ear, “You are redeemed from among men by a special redemption, for Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it; the Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep; and you are a part of his Church, you are one of his sheep; and therefore specially and peculiarly redeemed out of mankind.” As he turns it over, he believes in a general redemption for all sinners; but he cannot believe in this special, peculiar, effective substitution; and he says to himself, “It is too wonderful to be mine. For me to have a special part in what Christ did, how can that be?” You first rejoice because you believe it, and then you begin to doubt it because you rejoice. Perhaps it is whispered in your ear still further, “You were chosen from before the foundation of the world, you are espoused to Christ, married unto him in an everlasting wedlock, you are a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones; and because he lives, you shall live also; you shall be with him where he is, and shall behold his glory.” You feel so full of delight that you can hardly bear yourself; but you have scarcely begun to be delighted before the whisper comes, “It is too good to be true; it must be all a mistake;” and so you believe not for joy.

Suppose that you should sometimes have those high enjoyments, those love-feasts, those banquets in the hall of love with Christ; suppose that you should come to lean your head, with holy John, upon his bosom, and not only know his love, but be caught up, as it were, into the third heaven of immediate fellowship with him. Now, you feel as if you could die for very joy, until there comes this cold, shivering doubt, “You are altogether mistaken; you are a mere fanatic; you are an enthusiast; for God could not have admitted a man, such as you are, into such close fellowship.” Often have I met with persons troubled in this manner; and it is to them that I speak.

Now, let me ask, what is the occasion of this difficulty? Why do we get these doubts about the great mercy of God? I answer, first, because of a deep sense of unworthiness. If any man here could see himself as he is, and then could see the fulness of God’s love to him, I believe that it would make every individual hair of his head stand upright with astonishment; and, next to that, it would carry him right away with a ravishment of adoring wonder. “Such a wretch, such a beast, such an almost devil as I was, and yet loved of God!” It would startle him. Hear how David puts it, “So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand.” The sense of our own desert makes it seem too good to be true that we should really be saved.

Next, the habitude of fear in which some of us were found, creates this difficulty. We were accustomed to think of our sin despairingly. Month after month, some of us could see no hope; nay, not a ray of light; so that, when the light did come, it was too much for our poor eyes. Have you never gone suddenly into the light, and found yourself less able to see than you were when you were in the dark?

“When God reveal’d his gracious name

And changed my mournful state,

My rapture seem’d a pleasing dream,

The grace appear’d so great,”

because of the mournful state in which I had been before.

Then, perhaps, most of all it seems hard to believe because of the intensity of our former anxiety. These disciples had been intensely thoughtful about Christ, and anxious about him, and that was why they could not in a moment believe that he was really risen from the dead. And when a man has been thinking long about his soul, when he has felt his sin like lead, when he has looked into the awful burnings of infinite justice, when he has heard, as it were, the sentence, “Depart, ye cursed,” ringing in his ears, do you wonder that he wants to be quite sure that he is really forgiven? He cannot take that for granted. He looks, and looks, and looks, and looks again; and he cannot rest till he is certain that his sin is all blotted out, and that he is “accepted in the Beloved.” Hence, even the very delightfulness of the idea of being justified by faith in Christ causes a doubt to enter the heart.

Further, I do not wonder that the doubt comes in when you think of the simplicity of the way of salvation. Look! I have been for years trying to save myself; I have gone to Abana and Pharpar, and washed, and washed, and washed, and I am still a leper; and then, one day, I do but believe, I do but go and wash in Jordan, and at once my leprosy is gone. I should think that, if the woman, whose issue of blood was staunched when she touched the hem of Christ’s garment, felt in her body that she was healed of that plague, she must also a moment after have had the fear, “But surely it will come back again; I cannot have been cured in so simple a way. I have been to all the doctors, and have spent all my money, and I only grew worse. Am I really healed?” So, when a sinner sees himself saved by nothing but believing, by simply trusting Christ, do you wonder that an early thought with him is, “This must be too good to be true, to be saved so simply”?

Add to this the immediateness of divine grace, and you understand where the difficulty arises. If it took a month to save a man, if it took seven years to put sin away, I could understand that by degrees we should come to believe in the process, though I do not know but what we might very likely get fresh doubts out of that process; but to be saved in a moment, to pass from death to life in less than the twinkling of an eye, all sin forgiven more quickly than a watch can tick; this is the work of salvation, the giving of the new birth, the passing of the act of indemnity and oblivion, and this takes no time whatever.

“’Tis done! the great transaction’s done;

I am my Lord’s, and he is mine.”

And then the saved soul turns round, and says, “Can it be true that I am really saved; I who just now was in the very depths of despair?”

Now, I am only going to deal with this difficulty in the following few words, to show you that it has no solid basis. Thou sayest, “Can this be true?” because it is so good. My answer is-You want something good, do you not? You want something greatly good. Could anything save you but a great act of grace? Tell me. Are you not of Richard Baxter’s mind when he prayed, “Lord, give me great mercy, or no mercy; for little mercy will not serve my turn”? If anybody says, “It is too good to be true,” say, “It is no better than I want. I want perfect pardon; I want complete renewal; I want to be made a child of God; I want to be saved.” It is not too good to be true; for it is not too good to be what you want.

Do you not think, also, that great things belong to God? Do you expect God to be little in his mercy, little in his gifts, little in his grace? You make a great mistake if you do; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than man’s ways. The greatness of the goodness which you receive should be to you a letter of commendation. If it were little, it might come from man. If it be too great to come from man, that proves that it comes from God. Let the greatness rather reassure you than cause you to doubt. When a doubt arises from the simple way of salvation, let me put this to you-What other way would save you? I know that I shall never get to heaven by any way but the way of faith; I have not even a fragment of confidence in anything that I have ever done, or ever designed to do.

“I’m a poor sinner, and nothing at all,

But Jesus Christ is my all in all.”

O my dear hearer, you may surely be content with a way that suits you, the way of believing! “It is very easy,” you say. It is not too easy for you; you could not go a harder way. To faint away into the arms of Christ, and throw your whole weight upon him, let it not seem too simple for you, for this is all that you can do; ay, and more than you ever will do unless the grace of God leads you to do it. Do not, therefore, doubt the way because it is so simple. What other way could you have?

Once more, do not say that the gift of God’s grace is too good to be true, for those of us who live in the daily enjoyment of it are by nature no better than you, and yet it has come to us. Why should it not come to you? I never saw the man yet whom I would have put behind myself in the matter of salvation. If I had had to guess which man in this congregation would not be saved, I should not have guessed any man but myself. I stood in the rear rank; not that I had openly sinned worse than others, but there were certain elements of character that caused me to despair; yet I was fetched in by God’s grace, and why should not you also be brought in? “Ah!” say you, “I am a very odd person.” So am I; you are not odder than I am. “Oh!” says one, “but I am such a strange body.” So am I; I am a lot out of all the catalogues. Whosoever you are, be you who you may, come along to Christ; he cannot cast you away, for he has said, “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” Come to Christ, dear friend, and he will not cast you out. This truth is not too good to be true; if I have not found it too good to be true, you will not find it too good to be true. Lay hold of it, and believe it.

Thus I have tried to set before you the difficulty that the disciples were in when they believed not for joy.

Now, in the second place, I shall only be able to speak briefly upon the manner in which our Lord helped them to get over the difficulty.

Of course, their main point was that they could not believe that Jesus was risen from the dead; it seemed too good to be true.

The Lord helped them out, first, by a fuller view of what he could do. They had handled him; they had seen and felt that he was real substantial materialism, composed of flesh and blood, which spirits have not. He takes a piece of fish, and eats it; he takes a piece of honeycomb, dripping with honey, and eats it; and, as I think, he gave them a part of the same food. If they were not satisfied with looking at him, and handling him, they should have a further evidence that he was in the body; for he could eat and drink like any other individual.

Now, I pray the Lord to give to any here, who say, “It is too good to be true,” a clearer view of himself. If you will think more of him who brings you this great salvation, you will not be less astonished, but you will be less doubtful. Think of who he was, God, in the bosom of the Father; and the Father, in giving him, gave himself. It is no trifling salvation, depend upon it, that God comes to work out. If it had been a small salvation, he might have sent Gabriel, and said to him, “Go and save those sinners”; but as God himself comes to do the work, you may depend upon it that it is a great salvation.

And when our Lord came here, he not only lived and laboured, but he suffered. He was “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He was mocked, spit upon, scourged, crucified. He died. He who only hath immortality, died. Does that cross over yonder mean a little salvation? Do the groans of Christ mean little gifts for men? Do those gory shoulders, ploughed by the lash, mean trifles for trifling sinners? Do the five wounds, and the cruel scorn, and the great passion, all mean a small salvation for sinners? Oh! no, beloved, they mean great salvation for giant sinners, the sons of Anak, a great salvation for the biggest sinners that ever lived. Think of the cross of Calvary, and Christ on it, and you will never say that the great salvation he wrought out is too good to be true.

But he is alive again, and he has gone up yonder, through the shining ranks of cherubim and seraphim, to the throne of God. And what is he doing? Pleading for sinners, making intercession for the transgressors. Is that a little thing for which the Christ prays? He might have made one of his saints to be the intercessor if it had been some trifling thing; but it is a great, priceless, infinite boon for which Christ prays before the Father.

Listen, once more. Christ has joined the glory of his name with the work of salvation. He cares more to be a Saviour than to be a King. His highest glory comes from his rescuing men from going down into the pit. Creation glorifies God. The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy when the world was made; but God did not think that was a work to rejoice over; he merely said that it was good. He could have made fifty more worlds, ay, fifty million worlds, if he had pleased. But when Jesus saves men by laying down his life for his chosen, it is written, “He will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” Think of Jehovah, the Triune God, bursting into song! He sings; for all his glory is wrapped up in the salvation of men. Is it then a trifle? No. I rejoice in the greatness of salvation; and believe in it the more because it is so great, and so worthy of the glory of God. I hope that neither you nor I will fall into the difficulty of the disciples when they believed not for joy.

But now our Saviour did another thing. After thus manifesting himself, he began to open up to them the Scriptures. Ah! that is what we all want for the removal of our doubts. The least read Book in the world, in proportion to its circulation, is the Bible. I believe that “Jack the Giant Killer” is more read than the Bible in proportion to the number of persons who have the books. It is sad that it should be so. There is the daily paper, and there is the weekly religious paper, as it is called, and these two together put on the table hide away the Bible. We need to read our Bibles more; we must read our Bibles more. If we do, what shall we read there?

Well, we shall read of a great fall that took place in the Garden of Eden. You know, they tell us now that, when Adam fell, he broke his little finger, and it was done up, and he recovered; but that is not what the Bible says. He broke his neck, and a great deal more than his neck. Oh, what a fall was there, my brethren! Then you and I and all of us fell down. It was a fall which dislocated man altogether. Well, now, for a great fall you must have a great salvation. Therefore do not be astonished when you read of a great salvation. It is involved in the meaning of the great disaster of the fall.

Then, the fall brought on great depravity. Although they make it out now that man, through the fall, has only suffered very slightly, just a little toothache, or something of that sort, yet the Scripture does not tell us so. His whole head is sick, and his whole heart faint, and from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head he is nothing but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Now you must have a great salvation to meet this great depravity. There must be a great work of grace to turn this ship right-about, to lay a mighty hand upon the helm, and reverse its course.

Next, beloved, if you read the Bible carefully, you will find that there is such a thing as great sin. Ah! you do not need to read your Bible for that. Reading your own heart, by the light of the Bible, and remembering that every evil thought as well as every evil word, ay, and every evil imagination, is sin before God, you will see what a mass of sin one single human being is defiled with. You want a great salvation because of great sin.

Further, if you read your Bibles, you will find that there is a great hell. Everything in the Bible is according to scale. When men talk of a little hell, it is because they think they have only a little sin, and believe in a little Saviour; it is all little together. But when you get a great sense of sin, you want a great Saviour, and feel that, if you do not have him, you will fall into a great destruction, and suffer a great punishment at the hands of the great God. As you would escape a great hell, believe in a great salvation, and henceforth never be staggered because it is great.

And then there is a great heaven. Oh, what a heaven! Have any of us any idea of what it will be like? We sit and meditate upon it, and we sing about it, and we sometimes half think that we are there; but we are not by a very long way. When we once get inside the gates, we shall say, with the Queen of Sheba, “The half was not told me.”

“Then shall I see, and hear, and know

All I desired or wish’d below;

And every power find sweet employ

In that eternal world of joy.”

To get you there, you must have a great salvation. Therefore, do not begin to say, “It is too good to be true.” Come, now, surely you are not going to be a fool, and have the world, and give up your hope of going to heaven. I am often wonderstruck at the way in which God, in his infinite love, makes some men go the way that they never thought of going. There are persons in this house to-night, with whom I have conversed lately, children of ungodly parents, brought up in the midst of worldly amusements. Suddenly, softness fell upon their hearts, and they began to think; the things that they loved they began to loathe; they could not tell why; they sought the house of prayer; they learnt the way of salvation, and laid hold on Christ. When they go home to-night, there is not one of the family that will welcome them; and they themselves strove hard to get away when God began to work upon their heart; but the harpooner in this pulpit, by God’s grace, sent a harpoon in so deep that, whales as they were, they could never get it out. They dived deep into the sea of greater sin; but that harpoon held them. The next time that they came up to breathe, they got another harpoon, and they were at last wounded to such an extent that they had to yield; and now they are yielding, with the full concurrence of their will, to the Lord who has mastered them, and led them captive, and now leads them in triumph. Glory be to God for this! You have to go to heaven, my friend, anyhow; you are bound for glory, and you must go there. There is a tug, just in front of you, that will draw you there; and you shall not be lost on the way. Wherefore, if such be your grand destiny, do not wonder that, on the voyage, you have great things from God almost too great, at times, to be believed.

I have done when I have said one thing more. If even joy sometimes hinders our believing, do not let us think much about joy, or much about sorrow. The man who always thinks about being comfortable is generally the most uncomfortable being in the world; and the man who is always thinking about being happy goes the right way to work to be always unhappy. If we are to be saved by our feelings, we shall get saved and lost every other day, for we are just like the weather-glass. They said to me yesterday, “The glass is going back.” Very likely it was; but it does not rain for all that. Then another day they say, “The glass is going up,” and then I find it generally does rain; so I give up the glasses, and begin to wonder whether there is any truth in them at all. Sometimes my feelings say to me, “You are no child of God,” and then I begin to pray, and so I know that my feelings have deceived me. Another time they say to me, “Oh, you are a child of God, that is certain!” and then I get as proud as Lucifer, and that a child of God should never be. What is the good of looking to your feelings at all? Walk by faith. Believe the gospel. Cling to God’s promises. If they fail you, all is lost; but they cannot fail you. Rest in the finished work of Christ, and as for joys and sorrows,-

“Let them come, and let them go,

Fickle as the winds that blow.”

You need place no reliance upon them. Hold on to this, “Christ died for the ungodly.” “He that believeth in him is justified from all things.” “He that believeth in him is not condemned.” Hold you to that, and then come what will, sink or swim, all will be well with your souls.

The Lord bring us all to that blessed condition, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

LUKE 24:13-48

Verses 13-15. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

When two saints are talking together, Jesus is very likely to come and make the third one in the company. Talk of him, and you will soon talk with him. I would that believers more often spoke the one to the other about the things of God. It has been said that, in the olden time, God’s people spake often one to another; and now we have altered that, and God’s people speak often one against another. It is an alteration; but it certainly is not an improvement. May we get together again, and, like these two disciples, talk of all the things that happened in Jerusalem eighteen centuries ago! If we have less of reasoning than they had, let us have more of communion.

16. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.

Christ was there; but they did not perceive him. Our eyes may be very easily shut so that we do not see Christ even when he is close to us; we see a thousand things; but we miss the Master.

17. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

Christian people, why are you sad? It should not be so. And when you talk, why do you increase each other’s sadness? Is that wisdom? Surely, the Master might say to some here present, “Why are ye sad?” I hope that he will enable you to shake off the sadness, and to rejoice in him.

18-20. And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.

These were sad things to talk about. They thought that they had lost all when they had lost Christ; and yet there is no theme in all the world that is more full of joy than talk about the crucified Christ. This is strange, is it not? If we look beneath the surface, we shall see that the darkest deed that was ever perpetrated has turned out to be the greatest blessing to mankind; and that the cruellest crime ever committed by mortal man has been made the channel of the divinest benediction of God.

21-23. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.

How innocently they tell the story! How they convict themselves of stark unbelief! And the Master hears it all patiently and quietly. What a strange sensation it must have been for him to hear them talking about him in this singular way when, all the while, they did not know who the “stranger” was to whom they were speaking! Have you ever thought of what the Saviour must think of many things that we say? We think them wise; but they must be very foolish to the eye of his infinite wisdom, and very shallow to him who sees everything to the bottom.

24, 25. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

He loved them tenderly, but he rebuked them strongly, I had almost said sternly: “O fools, and slow of heart! “I am afraid that is our name: “fools.” I am afraid that it may be said of us that we are “slow of heart to believe.” We want so many proofs. We very readily disbelieve, but we very slowly believe. If you had a piano in your house, and you left it for months; and when you came back, you found it all in beautiful tune, you would be sure that somebody must have been there to put it in tune; but if, on the other hand, you left it to itself, and it got out of tune, you would say that such a condition was only what was to be expected. So it is natural for us to get out of tune. Sometimes we ring out glad music on the high sounding cymbals, and we lift up the loud hallelujahs of exultant joy; but soon we are down again in the deeps, and strike a minor key. Grace alone can raise us; nature, alas! sinks if left to itself.

26, 27. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

The best Book, with the best Teacher, descanting upon the best of subjects. Everywhere this Book speaks about Christ; and when Christ explains it, he only brings himself more clearly before our minds.

28. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went:

They were sorry to be nearing their destination. They would have liked to walk to the ends of the earth in such company, and listening to such conversation.

28. And he made as though he would have gone further.

Christ intended to go further unless the two disciples constrained him to tarry with them.

29. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.

That is our prayer to the Lord Jesus to-night, “Abide with us, dear Master; we had thy blessed company this morning; and now the sun is almost down, abide with us!” Let each one of us pray the prayer that we often sing, for, morning, noon, and night, this is a suitable supplication:-

“Abide with me from morn till eve,

For without thee I cannot live;

Abide with me when night is nigh,

For without thee I dare not die.”

29-31. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him;

In the breaking of bread Christ is often known. It is a wonderful emblem. Even if this breaking of bread were not the observance of the Lord’s Supper, it was something very like it. Christ’s blessing and breaking of bread anywhere are the true token of himself.

31-33. And he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem,

It was getting late; but it is never too late to tell of Christ’s appearing, and never too early. Such a secret ought not to be kept an hour, and therefore “they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem.”

33-36. And found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them,

You see that, while they were talking about Christ, he came, and stood in their midst. Speak of your Master, and he will appear. Oh, happy people! who have but to talk of Jesus, and lo! he comes to them.

37-40. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

They knew those signs, the marks of his crucifixion. They ought to have been convinced at once that it was even he.

41. And while they yet believed not for joy,

Does joy stop faith? Beloved, anything stops faith if we will let it. Faith is a divine miracle. Wherever it exists, God creates it, and God sustains it; but without God, anything can hinder it: “while they yet believed not for joy,”-

41. And wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

That is, “anything eatable.”

42. And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish,

Which, as fishermen, they were pretty sure always to have.

42. And of an honeycomb.

As a second course, to complete the meal.

43. And he took it, and did eat before them.

Some of the old versions add, “and gave the rest to them,” which I think is very likely to have been the case. It would be all the more convincing to them if he really ate before them, and then that they also partook of the same food of which he had taken part.

44, 45. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

Good Master, do the same with us to-night!

46, 47. And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

This gospel message was to be proclaimed among all nations, “beginning at Jerusalem”, but not ending there. It has been preached to us; let us see to it that we pass it on to those who have never heard it yet.

48. And ye are witnesses of these things.

We also are called to be “witnesses of these things.” May the Lord make us to be faithful and true witnesses, for his name’s sake! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-103 (Vers. III.), 126, 576.

god’s handwriting upon david

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, October 30th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, August 7th, 1890.

“All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.”-1 Chronicles 28:19.

The temple was not to be built according to the designs of David, or Solomon, or any other man. It was to be built according to a pattern which God himself had formed. In the things of God, we are not left to follow our own judgments and devices; but we are to look to the law and to the testimony for our instructions. To God’s Word we must always come for our orders. What God has commanded, is binding upon us in his Church; what he has not commanded, we may safely leave undone.

You will notice that David here says that he received the designs and the details of the temple from God, who wrote them, not on tables of stone, but on his servant’s heart by his own hand. Now, it was very necessary that everything should be arranged and planned for the temple, and that it should be built according to a pattern; for it was to be a type, an eminent type of Christ, and also a type of his Church, which is a temple for God’s own indwelling. Now, no man knew what God meant to teach by that temple; and, consequently, if the building had been left to human judgment, it would not have been a true type; for who can make a type if he knows not what it is to typify? God alone knew what he intended to teach by this building, so the temple, that it might convey divine teaching, must be arranged according to divine command.

Moreover, the temple was for God’s own dwelling. Should not the Most High have a house after his own mind? If he was to be the Tenant, should it not be built to suit him? And who knows what God requires in a habitation but God himself? the best that can be built is too poor for him. Stephen said, “Solomon built him an house. Howbeit, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Yet, if even in type it was to be the dwelling-place of God, it must be built according to God’s own requirements.

Besides, the temple was to be the throne of the great King; and if the very principle on which that throne was built was the will-worship of man’s own judgment, there would have been a violation of the great principle of obedience at the fountain-head. I take it that, in the Church of God, I have no right to decree anything, nor John Wesley, nor John Calvin, nor any greater than they. God is alone supreme. Christ is the one Head of his Church; and we must, in all that we do in the building of his Church, consult with him, or else we act upon lawless principles, and cast off the authority of the Church’s true King and Head, and we come under some other law. This would be, at the very centre of our holy service, setting an example of lawlessness and rebellion against God. That must never be; his temple must be built according to a pattern of his own drawing; and his Church and all holy work must be carried on according to his direction if we are to expect a blessing.

The point to which I call your attention is this, that God gave the directions to David by impressing them upon his mind, upon his heart, by his own hand. He did not so much draw a plan, and hand it to David, and say to him, “Build the temple according to that design,” but he made him think carefully and prayerfully over the whole matter. Perhaps, in the visions of the night, and often, as he turned the subject over in his thoughts by day, God’s Spirit came, and revealed to David what he needed to know as to how this house was to be built: “All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.”

I shall, to-night, first, call your attention to the singular instructions given to David; then, coming home to ourselves, I shall speak upon the spiritual tuition of the saints in the truth of God, which is very similar to this instruction given to David; and, before I close, I shall have a word or two to say as to the duty of the transmission of what we have received. If God has taught us, we are bound to do what David did, commit the same to faithful men, that, before we go hence, we may have started others in work for the Lord, and not ourselves retire leaving God’s work undone.

First, then, dear friends, I call your attention to the singular instructions given to David.

David received his instructions by the writing of God upon his heart with God’s own hand. Note this, David did not receive them by consultation with others. David did not send to Hiram, king of Tyre, to ask his judgment; nor did he call in a Bezaleel, or some other skilful man, to give him advice. God himself taught him. This reminds me of what Paul said, “I consulted not with flesh and blood.” “The gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Depend upon it, if you learn anything aright, you will have to learn it of God; and, although consultation with others may often be very serviceable upon some points, yet you must not take them into consultation on the question whether you shall believe God’s Word or not. That is to have supreme authority; and, albeit there are some who are deeply taught in the things of God, who may at times be helpful to you, you must not defer to what they say so as to miss the instructions that the Lord himself gives you. No man’s voice is to be sovereign to you; but only the voice of God the Holy Spirit, speaking out of this Book, which contains all things that you need for life and godliness. May God the Holy Ghost give you grace to fetch all your instructions from it! David did not consult with others about building the temple; and we are not to obtain our creed by consultation with other men, but to go to God himself, and to pray him to write it upon our heart with his own hand.

Observe, also, that David did not slavishly follow the former model. In the wilderness, Israel had a tent covered with skins as the meeting-place between Jehovah and the people. It was a simple structure, easily moved; but now the tabernacle was to be swallowed up in the temple; and, albeit that the general shape of the temple reminds you strongly of the tabernacle, yet David had a fresh revelation, and fresh guidance in what he had done. I like to see a man keep to the old things; but even in doing so he may make a mistake, for there may be old things that can be supplanted by newer and better things. Keep your eye lifted up to God, with whom nothing is old, and nothing is new. “Wait at his footstool; submit your heart, like a tablet, for him to write upon it all his instructions; and then do as he hath said.

According to the context, God gave to David instructions about the details of the work. I commend the reading of this chapter to you; it may at first seem to have little in it; but the more you study it, the more will it teach you. Among other things, God revealed to David “the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat.” God will teach you, if you will wait upon him, the details of your work, the details of his gospel, the detailed explanation of your experience. “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” As one said to me, the other day, and I thought very wisely, “God directs his servants’steps, and also his servants’stops when they are not able to take any steps, but feel bound to stand still.” God directs them in not acting as well as in acting. You may go to him for detailed guidance, and especially in the matter of his service. If you would know what is his mind, yield yourself to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and consult this Book, for it will tell you everything about the porches, and the houses, and the treasuries, and the upper chambers, and the inner parlours, and the place of the mercy-seat, and everything else that you need to know.

Further, the directions given were extremely minute. You noticed, in our reading, that there was gold by weight for the lampstands, and for the lamps which stood upon them. Now, no man, unless he had made a candelabrum or lampstand of the kind before, could tell how much gold it would take; the most skilful tradesman here, though himself a dealer in such things, would not readily know exactly the weight of gold required; but if the one who needs the knowledge has never made such things, if he has been a king used to the sword, how can he know how much silver is wanted for a candlestick, how much gold is needed for a seven-branched lampstand, and how much for the lamps to stand thereon? It is a wonderful instance of what inspiration can do, how the Spirit of God could teach his servant David all the little ins and outs of this wonderful making of the vessels for the house of the Lord, even down to the basons: “for the golden basons he gave gold by weight for every bason; and likewise silver by weight for every bason of silver.” All was arranged exactly. If we will follow the Word of God closely, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we shall find that it enters into the details of our private life, into the details of our church life, into the details of our troubles, our wants, and our joys. God will direct you in everything if you are willing to be directed. “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle;” but be willing to be directed by God; and you shall not be without direction even in the smallest matter.

And, yet again, the innermost things were laid bare to David. Nobody saw the cherubim; I speak broadly, for once in a year the high priest went into the holy place, but then he scarcely saw the cherubim, for, with the smoke of the incense which went up around him before the mercy-seat, everything in that place must have become dim. They were almost unseen objects; yet David had seen them in his mind’s eye. He had had a representation of them written on his heart by the hand of God, for so we read; “and gold for the pattern of the chariot of the cherubims, that spread out their wings, and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord.” There was a pattern of this printed on the understanding and heart of David. Oh! yes; the Lord will let you see everything that can be seen; there is no stint in his revelation to the man who is willing to see. There are unspeakable words; yet Paul heard them, though he could never tell them; it was not lawful for him to utter them. There are secrets of the Lord, but they are “with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.” There are things that are within the veil so far as most men are concerned; but to the man who is in Christ, the veil is rent, and the veil which was on his own heart and mind has been taken away by the Spirit of God, and he can see the things of God, and rejoice therein, even as David did.

Now, we are told in the text, and I must come back to the very words of it, “The Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me.” David not only knew the details; but he understood them. He had a clear insight into what God meant by the instructions given. Now, dear friends, the hardest thing in the world is to give a man understanding. It is our duty, in our preaching and teaching, to make things very clear to the understanding; but if people have not any understanding, we cannot give it to them; but God can. When the understanding itself is darkened, and ceases to be an understanding, God can so renew it that it shall be all clear and bright, and it shall be able to comprehend the things of God. “The Lord made me understand.” Oh, what a privilege! Not merely, “made me hear”, but “made me understand.” And how did the Lord do it? “In writing,” says David, “by his hand upon me.” The writing was written on David’s own mind; he had not to go upstairs to fetch it; he had not to say, “I cannot always carry it about with me;” but he. did always carry it about with him wherever he went; for God had written upon David himself.

And it was written there by the hand of God. Now, I am coming to my chief point. “The Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me.” God writes his law in the Bible; but we do not understand it; God writes it on our heart, and then we do understand it. There it lies in the letter, and we may be dull of understanding, and not comprehend it; but if it comes here in the spirit of it, our heart is no longer dull, but being quickened of God, it receives the things of the Spirit of God. The carnal mind cannot know spiritual things; but God gives us a spiritual mind, and then we begin to understand spiritual things. “The Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me.” “We learn much from the gifts of God’s hand; but not so much as from the hand itself. Sometimes God lays his hand upon his child very heavily. You can forget his gifts; but you cannot forget the pressure of that hand. At times, he will press his hand upon us till he seems to crush us to the very heart, till we stagger, and anguish breaks our spirit. There is no writing like that which God writes with a steel pen right into the soul; and sometimes he makes very heavy down-strokes, and very sharp, cutting up-strokes, when he writes upon the fleshy tablets of the heart his mind and will, as he wrote upon the heart of David all the details about the building of the temple at Jerusalem.

That brings me, then, to my second point, which is this, the spiritual tuition of the saints in the truth of God.

I remark, first, that God still writes upon the heart of men. He prefers fleshy tablets and his own Spirit to any paper and ink. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” God makes a new heart to write upon; and when he has made a new heart, then he takes his pen, and writes there the law of his house. Have you ever had God’s Word written on your hearts? I know that some of you have; but I am afraid that some of you have not, because I know how easy it is to hear a sermon, and to read the Bible, and say, “Oh, that is wonderful!” and then to go out into the world, and act clean contrary to what you heard from the preacher, or found written in the Word of God.

Now, let me show you a little in detail how God writes the great truths of his Word on our hearts. We come to this blessed Book, and we find that man is fallen, that man is ruined by sin. Did you ever feel that it was so with you? You remember a time when you knew that you were fallen, when you could see your heart to be corrupt, and felt yourself to be lost, ruined, and undone. Ah! then the Lord made you understand in writing by his hand upon you. This Book tells us that, without Christ, we can do nothing; we are dead; we are without strength. Did you never find it so? Why, when you began to seek the Lord, some of you, you found that your boasted strength had all evaporated! You could not feel aright, nor think aright, nor act aright; and, though you tried hard, yet you were like Samson when his hair was shorn, you were too feeble to accomplish any good thing. Then you learned a doctrine in this way. I may have preached it to your ears; but God laid it on your heart. You knew that it was so; for the Lord had taught it to you by his Spirit; and nobody can ever beat it out of you now. Then there came a time when you read in the Scriptures that Christ is the Saviour of his people, and that whosoever looks to him shall live. You believed that to be true as you heard it preached, and read it in the Book, and you did look; you looked to Christ, you gazed upon him as he hung upon the accursed tree for you. Now, tell me, did you not, when you looked, find immediate and glorious salvation? Did not the burden roll from your shoulders? Did not the disease depart from your heart? Can you not say to-night,-

“Happy day, happy day,

When Jesus washed my sins away”?

And then the doctrine of the atoning sacrifice, the doctrine that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin, that also you were made to understand in writing by the hand of the Lord upon you; and no power on earth or in hell can take that doctrine from you. Since then, you have learned other doctrines, possibly the five points of Calvinism, or the fifty points of any other system; but you never learned them from merely reading them in the Scriptures, you never really knew them till the pen of God began to move up and down upon your inward nature, and your heart received the impression the Lord intended to convey to it. It may be that there are more truths to be written on your heart yet; but we shall not know them all until we get home to our Father’s house. Meanwhile, let us keep on reading more of God’s Word, and making more of its truths our own; but, depend upon it, this is the main thing, to get by real personal experience what we perceive to be written by the revelation of God. “The Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me.” The Lord make it to be so with every minister of Christ here, and every Sunday-school teacher, and every Christian worker of every kind! May we know what is written in the Book by what is written on our heart!

Now I believe that the Lord does this with regard to our great Pattern: “even all the works of this pattern.” We have one great Pattern whom we are all to imitate. You know who it is to whom we sing very often,-

“Be thou my Pattern; make me bear

More of thy gracious image here!”

May the Lord himself write upon us according to that glorious Pattern! Who but the Holy Spirit can work in us the humility of Christ, the courage of Christ, the self-denial of Christ, and full obedience to the Father’s will such as he rendered? Who can give us all this but the Christ to whom we sing,-

“Cold mountains, and the midnight air

Witness’d the fervour of thy prayer;

The desert thy temptation knew,

Thy conflict and thy victory, too”?

Let none of us think that we cannot be like Christ. Let nobody say, “The Pattern is too difficult for us to copy.” No, no, my brother; let us weep our eyes out that we fall so short of it, and let us strive after it according to his striving, who worketh in us mightily, and never be content till we are indeed like him. What did the Psalmist say? “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” We shall never be satisfied till then; therefore let us sit in the light of Christ till he is photographed upon us, and we go forth as living portraits of the divine Pattern.

I want, for a minute or so, to show you how the Lord can reveal to you, his servants who love and fear him, everything you need to know about the great work of salvation. In the Word of God we have a model of salvation; and you who want to teach others had better conform all your teaching to this model. The Lord can teach you and will teach you all things that you need to know about his Church and the temple of his salvation. Read the eleventh verse of this chapter again: “Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch.” O you young men, who are going to be ministers, mind that you get a good clear view of the pattern of the porch! Tell the sinner to come to Christ just as he is; do not begin setting up some fine porch of feelings or preparations. Set up the pattern of the porch, the wicket gate, with the light shining through it, and these words written over it, “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Preach a full Christ to empty sinners, and tell them that all the fitness he requires of them is that they should feel their need of him, and tell them that he gives them even that; they are not to look within themselves for it. If they do not feel their need, they must come to him to get the feeling of their need, for from the very beginning it is all of grace, and all of Christ. So, my brethren, get a clear view of “the pattern of the porch.”

“And of the houses thereof,” the places where the priests and Levites dwelt. Get a clear view of the houses that Christ gives his people to dwell in; how they dwell in him, how they abide in him, and go no more out for ever. I cannot enlarge on this; but you can think it out for yourselves, and explain it to your hearers and scholars. Think of those mansions of present joy and future bliss which they shall have who come in by the true and living way, even by Christ Jesus, who is the one way of entrance into the temple of salvation.

“And of the treasuries thereof.” Notice that when you preach Christ, pray to have written upon your heart, as well as in this Book, something about the treasuries of God’s house. Oh, the infinite riches of the covenant of grace! Oh, the all-sufficiency of Christ Jesus, our Lord! Oh, the fulness of power that is to be found in the Holy Ghost! Oh, the heaps of blessedness which are stored away for believers in the person of their divine Lord and Master! Get in your own heart a good clear view of the treasuries of the temple of salvation, and then go and preach about them to others.

And what next? “And of the upper chambers thereof.” Have you ever been in those upper chambers, where you get a view of the glory yet to be revealed? Then you have been near to heaven, and near to your God. Perhaps you have not attained to that height yet. If not, may the Lord write on your heart the plan of the upper chambers!

“And of the inner parlours thereof.” I thought, as I read this over, and tried to look deeply into it, that I did know a little about the inner parlours thereof. Oh, there are sweet fellowships, there are communings which nobody knows but the man who has dwelt where Jesus is, and who continues to abide in him! He shall ask what he will, and it shall be given him; and he shall continually joy in God through Jesus Christ. Get a good view of the inner parlours thereof. May the pattern of them be written on your own heart, and then go and tell others about them.

And here is one thing more: “And of the place of the mercy seat.” You often sing,-

“There is a place where Jesus sheds

The oil of gladness o’er our heads!

A place, than all beside more sweet,

It is the blood-stain’d mercy-seat.”

May you have written on your heart the pattern “of the place of the mercy seat!” It was inside the veil, you know, above the ark of the covenant, and under the wings of the cherubim, the place where God met with Moses and Aaron, and shone forth in the light of the Shekinah, making glad their willing eyes. God grant that you may know by daily experience the power of prayer, at the place of the mercy seat! Then go and tell poor sinners about it, and tell poor saints about it, too, according as the Spirit of God has written it with his own hand upon your heart.

But now the time has almost gone, so I must briefly finish with my third point, that is, the duty of the transmission to others of anything that God writes on your hearts. Tell others what God has told you. Our Lord said to his disciples, “What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house tops.” He says the same to us. “To whom shall I go?” say you. Well, take David as your example.

First, David told Solomon all about it. “Ah!” you say, “My boy is no Solomon.” That is all the more reason why you should teach him. Perhaps David might have been excused from teaching Solomon, as he was already so wise; but the fact that he did instruct him teaches us that the wisest child needs to be taught the things of God. If your boy is not a Solomon, you will need to teach him twice over, or many times, if need be. Teach him nineteen times over; and, if necessary, teach him twenty times over. If anybody asks, “Why do you teach him twenty times?” say that it is because you found that nineteen times did not bring him salvation, and you meant to keep on till he was saved. Tell Solomon about it. Say to him, “My son, come here, and listen to what your father has tasted and handled of the good Word of the Lord. Hear what your father has experienced of divine grace.”

Well, perhaps you say, “Yes, I will talk to my boys about the Saviour; shall I speak to anyone else?” Next, dear friend, talk about Christ to chosen companions. I count it a high privilege if I can get a little personal conversation with a choice young man, one who has great ability, and one whom we have reason to believe God has called to do a great work for him. David knew that God had chosen Solomon to build the temple, and therefore he was very particular to give him the details that he had received from the Lord. Perhaps a Christian woman here says, “You would not have me talk to a young minister, would you?” Well, my dear sister, you know what we read about Priscilla and her husband Aquila. They were not very great people, they were simply tent-makers, but they talked to Apollos in such a way that he was for the rest of his life indebted to that humble man and woman. Some of those whom God has used, and will yet use still more, will tell you that they owe a great deal to humble people who have talked to them about Christ. The godly women, who sat spinning and darning stockings in the sunshine at Bedford, talked with one another about the things of God, and John Bunyan stopped and listened to what they said, and he profited all the rest of his days by their holy talk. If you have the opportunity, and come across any choice young minds, be sure to tell them what God has told you about his great plan of salvation.

Then, lastly, David gathered all the people together, and told them about the temple. In the next chapter, we read, “Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.” They soon began to give the gold, and the silver, and the brass, and the wood, and the precious stones for the temple. See that you tell out to all you can what God has told you. I am afraid that some here have not yet found out their life-work. We get into the habit of wanting so much “talent” in preachers. May “talent” be thrown into the bottomless pit! It has done more hurt to the Church of God than it ever did good. If plain Christian men would begin to talk about Christ wherever they have opportunity, it would usher in a golden age. Perhaps there has come in here a troubled sinner wanting to find a Saviour. Try to speak to him. “Oh!” you say, “he might be offended.” So he might; but that would not kill you. Tell him about Jesus Christ, and if he gets to heaven through what you tell him, he will forgive you for not having given him a handsome card with your name on it to introduce yourself. If you get a soul to heaven, the rudeness of an impromptu address will never occur to that soul. God help us to be up and doing, telling out what he has written in our hearts, and unto his name shall be the praise!

Perhaps you have never had anything written on your heart, my dear hearer. Then, lay your heart before the Lord to-night with this simple prayer, “Lord, write on it!” And if he writes on it that one word “Jesus”, it will be all that you can want. God bless you, every one, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

1 CHRONICLES 28

Verse 1. And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king, and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty men, and with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem.

David, in his old age, and soon to die, summoned a great representative assembly of the notables of his kingdom.

2. Then David the king stood up upon his feet,

He was ill, and obliged to keep his bed; but he left his couch for this solemn occasion. He did not even remain seated, although extremely weak; but he stood up upon his feet.

2. And said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people:

Those who read carefully will notice the sweetness of David’s style now that he is about to die. It was after the great sin of his life, and after he and his subjects had suffered because of his numbering the people, that he calls the men before him “my brethren.” He had sometimes spoken of them as his servants; but now he adopts a very humble style, and putting himself on a level with them, he says to them, “Hear me, my brethren, and my people.”

2, 3. As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building: but God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood.

Admire the frankness of David in telling the people what God had said to him. There is no other biography in the world like the Bible, for it tells the faults and follies of those whose history it records. David was a man after God’s own heart; yet, as he had been used as a sword, for the defence of God’s people, and the destruction of their enemies, he could not be permitted to build the temple. He frankly tells the people all that God had said; it would not reflect any honour upon himself, but it was true, and therefore he kept nothing back. One falls in love with David for the frankness of his utterance. When a king, and an aged man, and just about to die, he tells the people all this story.

4. Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for he hath chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he liked me to make me king over all Israel:

He delights to dwell upon the election of God. It was not by the right of primogeniture that he was chosen king; it was by the will and good pleasure of God. Judah was one of the younger tribes, and yet it was made the royal tribe. In Judah, the house of Jesse was of no great importance; yet God chose it as the royal family; and in the household of Jesse, David was the youngest, yet the Lord “liked” him, and chose him to be king over all Israel.

5. And of all my sons, (for the Lord hath given me many sons,) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.

David seems to harp upon this sweet string of the divine choice. I wonder that so many good people are afraid of this blessed doctrine. They fight shy of it; they seem to run away at the very sound of the word “election.” Yet is it the very joy of saints. God hath chosen them, and ordained them to be his servants.

6-8. And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. Moreover I will establish his kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do my commandments and my judgments, as at this day. Now therefore in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever.

Thus he talked with the great number of the nobility and chief men of his kingdom who were gathered round him.

9. And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father,

God is very dear to us; but perhaps under no aspect is he more tenderly near us than as the God of our father: “My son, know thou the God of thy father.”

9. And serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

What a covenant this was under which Solomon stood! Alas! he was not as true to God as he should have been; and though we hope he was not cast away for ever, yet under his rule Israel began to decay, and he pierced himself through with many sorrows in his latter days.

10. Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.

It is fine to hear this old man, in his weakness, stirring up the young man. We generally expect to see the youths full of zeal, and the old men somewhat slow; but grace can turn the tables against nature. Here the old man, feeble as to his body, is vigorous as to his spirit.

11. Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat,

He had it all ready in his mind; and before he died, he passed over the plans of that wonderful piece of architecture to his son Solomon.

12, 13. And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things: also for the courses of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord.

Everything was laid down, catalogued, and arranged so that Solomon had only to follow the plans given to him by his father, and all would be right. Think of the love of David to his God. Though he might not build the temple, he would draw the plans for it; and though he might not live to see it completed, yet he would, in his own mind, arrange all the courses of the priests and the Levites, and every detail, even to the placing of the vessels of service in the courts of the Lord’s house.

14, 15. He gave of gold by weight for things of gold, for all instruments of all manner of service; silver also for all instruments of silver by weight, for all instruments of every kind of service: even the weight for the candlesticks of gold,

Or, the candelabra.

15. And for their lamps of gold, by weight for every candlestick, and for the lamps thereof: and for the candlesticks of silver by weight, both for the candlestick, and also for the lamps thereof, according to the use of every candlestick.

They were not for the burning of candles, but for oil lamps. There was a lampstand, with seven lamps upon the stand; and there were ten of these in the temple. There was only one in the tabernacle; but there were ten in the temple. David arranged everything. Those seven-branched golden candlesticks stood like pastors of the church; and the little silver candlesticks were carried about like evangelists, who go from place to place that the whole house of God may be served with light. Everything was by weight. God knows what he would have in his house, and he measures out to each one according to his need.

16, 17. And by weight he gave gold for the tables of shewbread, for every table; and likewise silver for the tables of silver: also pure gold for the flesh-hooks, and the bowls, and the cups: and for the golden basons he gave gold by weight for every bason; and likewise silver by weight for every bason of silver:

I like to think of David planning all these little things, first receiving instruction from God, then waiting upon God for further direction, and thinking not only about the great golden candelabra, but about the silver candlesticks, and the flesh-hooks, and the bowls, and the cups, and the basons. They who love God love everything that has to do with him; they have a holy concern even for the smaller matters pertaining to the house of the Lord.

18-20. And for the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the pattern of the chariot of the cherubims, that spread out their wings, and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this, said Daivid, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern. And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it:

Do not talk about it; do not sit down, and dream over the plans, and think how admirable they are, and then roll them up; but, “Be strong and of good courage, and do it.”

20. Fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee;

What a pretty touch that is! “The Lord God, even my God, will be with thee.”

20. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.

Therefore, be of good courage, you that are working for God, for he will not fail you, nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.

21. And, behold, the courses of the priests and the Levites, even they shall be with thee for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every willing skilful man, for any manner of service:

God always finds men for his work. We sometimes see a lot of cowards run away, and we say to ourselves, “What will happen now?” Why, God will find better men than they are! And when there seems to be a paucity of really valiant men in Israel, God has them in training; and that awkward squad out there will yet become a band of brave men for the service of the house of God.

21. Also the princes and all the people will be wholly at thy commandment.

Thus the grand old man finished up his life by starting another to carry on the work which he was obliged to leave.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-328, 455, 488.

our lord in the valley of humiliation

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 6th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, june 5th, 1890.

“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”-Philippians 2:8.

Paul wishes to unite the saints in Philippi, in the holy bands of love. To do this, he takes them to the cross. Beloved, there is a cure for every spiritual disease in the cross. There is food for every spiritual virtue in the Saviour. We never go to him too often. He is never a dry well, or a vine from which every cluster has been taken. We do not think enough of him. We are poor because we do not go to the gold country which lieth round the cross. We are often sad because we do not see the bright light that shines from the constellation of the cross. The beams from that constellation would give us instantaneous joy and rest, if we perceived them. If any lover of the souls of men would do for them the best possible service, he would constantly take them near to Christ. Paul is always doing so; and he is doing it here.

The apostle knew that, to create concord, you need first to beget lowliness of mind. Men do not quarrel when their ambitions have come to an end. When each one is willing to be least, when everyone desires to place his fellows higher than himself, there is an end to party spirit; schisms and divisions are all passed away. Now, in order to create lowliness of mind, Paul, under the teaching of the Spirit of God, spoke about the lowliness of Christ. He would have us go down, and so he takes us to see our Master going down. He leads us to those steep stairs down which the Lord of glory took his lowly way, and he bids us stop while, in the words of our text, he points us to the lowly Christ: “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Before Paul thus wrote, he had indicated, in a word or two, the height from which Jesus originally came. He says of him, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” You and I can have no idea of how high an honour it is to be equal with God. How can we, therefore, measure the descent of Christ, when our highest thoughts cannot comprehend the height from which he came? The depth to which he descended is immeasurably below any point we have ever reached; and the height from which he came is inconceivably above our loftiest thought. Do not, however, forget the glory that Jesus laid aside for a while. Remember that he is very God of very God, and that he dwelt in the highest heaven with his Father; but yet, though he was thus infinitely rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich.

The apostle, having mentioned what Jesus was, by another stroke of his pen reveals him in our human nature. He says concerning him that, “He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” A great marvel is that Incarnation, that the eternal God should take into union with himself our human nature, and should be born at Bethlehem, and live at Nazareth, and die at Calvary on our behalf.

But our text does not speak so much of the humiliation of Christ in becoming man, as of his humiliation after he took upon himself our nature. “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.” He never seems to stop in his descent until he comes to the lowest point, obedience unto death, and that death the most shameful of all, “even the death of the cross.” Said I not rightly, that, as you cannot reach the height from which he came, you cannot fathom the depth to which he descended? Here, in the immeasurable distance between the heaven of his glory and the shame of his death, is room for your gratitude. You may rise on wings of joy, you may dive into depths of self-denial; but in neither case will you reach the experience of your divine Lord, who thus, for you, came from heaven to earth, that he might take you up from earth to heaven.

Now, if strength be given me for the exercise, I want to guide you, first, while we consider the facts of our Lord’s humiliation; and, secondly, when we have considered them, I want you practically to learn from them some useful lessons.

First of all, consider the facts of our Lord’s humiliation.

Paul speaks first of the point from which he still descends: “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.” My gracious Lord, thou hast come far enough already; dost thou not stop where thou art? In the form of God, thou wast; in the form of man, thou art. That is an unspeakable stoop. Wilt thou still humble thyself? Yes, says the text, “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.” Yet, surely one would have thought that he was low enough. He was the Creator, and we see him here on earth as a creature; the Creator, who made heaven and earth, without whom was not anything made that was made, and yet he lieth in the virgin’s womb; he is born; and he is cradled where the hornèd oxen feed. The Creator is also a creature. The Son of God is the Son of man. Strange combination! Could condescension go farther than for the Infinite to be joined to the infant, and the Omnipotent to the feebleness of a new-born babe?

Yet, this is not all. If the Lord of life and glory must needs be married to a creature, and the High and Mighty One must take upon himself the form of a created being, yet why does he assume the form of man? There were other creatures, brighter than the stars, noble spiritual beings, seraphim and cherubim, sons of the morning, presence-angels of the eternal throne; why did he not take their nature? If he must be in union with a creature, why not be joined to the angels? But, “He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” A man is but a worm, a creature of many infirmities. On his brow death has written with his terrible finger. He is corruptible, and he must die. Will the Christ take that nature upon him, that he, too, must suffer and die? It was even so; but when he had come so far, we feel as if we must almost put ourselves in the way to stop him from going farther. Is not this stoop low enough? The text says that it was not, for, “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,” even then.

What will not Christ do for us who have been given to him by his Father? There is no measure to his love; you cannot comprehend his grace. Oh, how we ought to love him, and serve him! The lower he stoops to save us, the higher we ought to lift him in our adoring reverence. Blessed be his name, he stoops, and stoops, and stoops, and, when he reaches our level, and becomes man, he still stoops, and stoops, and stoops lower and deeper yet: “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.”

Now let us notice, next, the way in which he descended after he became a man: “He humbled himself.” We must assume that he has stooped as low as our humanity; but his humanity might have been, when born, cradled daintily. He might have been among those who are born in marble halls, and clothed in purple and fine linen; but he chose not so. If it had pleased him, he might have been born a man, and not have been a child; he might have leaped over the period of gradual development from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood; but he did not so. When you see him at home at Nazareth, the apprenticed son, obedient to his parents, doing the little errands of the house, like any other child, you say, as our text says, “He humbled himself.” There he dwelt in poverty with his parents, beginning his life as a workman’s boy, and, I suppose, running out to play with youthful companions. All this is very wonderful. The apocryphal gospels represent him as having done strange things while yet a child; but the true Gospels tell us very little of his early days. He veiled his Godhead behind his childhood. When he went up to Jerusalem, and listened to the doctors of the law, though he astonished them by his questions and answers, yet he went home with his parents, and was subject to them, for, “He humbled himself.” He was by no means pushing and forward, like a petted and precocious child. He held himself in, for he determined that, being found in fashion as a man, he would humble himself.

He grew up, and the time of his appearing unto men arrived; but I cannot pass over the thirty years of his silence without feeling that here was a marvellous instance of how he humbled himself. I know young men who think that two or three years’ education is far too long for them. They want to be preaching at once; running away, as I sometimes tell them, like chickens with the shell on their heads. They want to go forth to fight before they have buckled on their armour. But it was not so with Christ; thirty long years passed over his head, and still there was no Sermon on the Mount. When he did show himself to the world, see how he humbled himself. He did not knock at the door of the high priests, or seek out the eminent Rabbis and the learned scribes; but he took for his companions fishermen from the lake, infinitely his inferiors, even if we regarded him merely as a man. He was full of manly freshness and vigour of mind; and they were scarcely able to follow him, even though he moderated his footsteps out of pity for their weakness. He preferred to associate with lowly men, for he humbled himself.

When he went out to speak, his style was not such as aimed at the gathering of the élite together; he did not address a few specially cultured folk. “Then drew near unto him all the scribes and Pharisees for to hear him.” Am I quoting correctly? Nay, nay: “Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.” They made an audience with which he was at home; and when they gathered about him, and when little children stood to listen to him, then he poured out the fulness of his heart; for he humbled himself. Ah, dear friends, this was not the deepest humiliation of the Lord Jesus! He allowed the devil to tempt him. I have often wondered how his pure and holy mind, how his right royal nature could bear conflict with the prince of darkness, the foul fiend, full of lies. Christ allowed Satan to put him to the test, and spotless purity had to bear the nearness of infamous villainy. Jesus conquered; for the prince of this world came, and found nothing in him; but he humbled himself when, in the wilderness, on the pinnacle of the temple, and on the exceeding high mountain, he allowed the devil thrice to assail him.

Personally, in his body, he suffered weakness, hunger, thirst. In his mind, he suffered rebuke, contumely, falsehood. He was constantly the Man of sorrows. You know that, when the head of the apostate church is called “the man of sin”, it is because it is always sinning; and when Christ is called “the Man of sorrows”, it is because he was always sorrowing. How wonderful it is that he should humble himself so as to be afflicted with the common sorrows of our humanity; yet it was even so! “Being found in fashion as a man,” he consented even to be belied, to be called a drunken man and a wine-bibber, to have his miracles ascribed to the help of Beelzebub, to hear men say, “He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?”

“He humbled himself.” In his own heart there were, frequently, great struggles; and those struggles drove him to prayer. He even lost consciousness of God’s presence, so that he cried in sore anguish, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” All this was because still he humbled himself. I do not know how to speak to you upon this great subject; I give you words; but I pray the Holy Spirit to supply you with right thoughts about this great mystery. I have already said that it was condescension enough for Christ to be found in fashion as a man; but after that, he still continued to descend the stairway of condescending love by humbling himself yet more and more.

But notice, now, the rule of his descent; it is worth noticing: “He humbled himself, and became obedient.” I have known persons try to humble themselves by will-worship. I have stood in the cell of a monk, when he has been out of it, and I have seen the whip with which he flagellated himself every night before he went to bed. I thought that it was quite possible that the man deserved all he suffered, and so I shed no tears over it. That was his way of humbling himself, by administering a certain number of lashes. I have known persons practise voluntary humility. They have talked in very humble language, and have decried themselves in words, though they have been as proud as Lucifer all the while. Our Lord’s way of humbling himself was by obedience. He invented no method of making himself ridiculous; he put upon himself no singular garb, which would attract attention to his poverty; he simply obeyed his Father; and, mark you, there is no humility like obedience: “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” To obey is better than to wear a special dress, or to clip your words in some peculiar form of supposed humility. Obedience is the best humility, laying yourself at the feet of Jesus, and making your will active only when you know what it is God’s will for you to do. This is to be truly humble.

In what way, then, did the Lord Jesus Christ in his life obey? I answer,-there was always about him the spirit of obedience to his Father. He could say, “Lo, I come: in the Volume of the Book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” He was always, while here, subservient to his Father’s great purpose in sending him to earth; he came to do the will of him that sent him, and to finish his work. He learned what that will was partly from Holy Scripture. You constantly find him acting in a certain way “that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” He shaped his life upon the prophecies that had been given concerning him. Thus he did the will of the Father.

Also, there was within him the Spirit of God, who led and guided him, so that he could say, “I do always those things that please the Father.” Then, he waited upon God continually in prayer. Though infinitely better able to do without prayer than we are, yet he prayed much more than we do. With less need than we have, he had a greater delight in prayer than we have; and thus he learned the will of God as man, and did it, without once omitting, or once transgressing in a single point.

He did the will of God also, obediently, by following out what he knew to be the Father’s great design in sending him. He was sent to save, and he went about saving, seeking and saving that which was lost. Oh, dear friends, when we get into unison with God, when we wish what he wishes, when we live for the great object that fills God’s heart, when we lay aside our wishes and whims, and even our lawful desires, that we may do only the will of God, and live only for his glory, then we shall be truly humbling ourselves!

Thus, I have shown you that Jesus did descend after he became man; and I have pointed out to you the way and the rule of his descending. Now, let us look, with awe and reverence, at the abyss into which he descended. Where did he arrive, at length, in that dreadful descent? What was the bottom of the abyss? It was death: “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Our Lord died willingly. You and I, unless the Lord should come quickly, will die, whether we are willing or not: “It is appointed unto men once to die.” He needed not to die, yet he was willing to surrender his life. He said, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” He died willingly; but, at the same time, he did not die by his own hand; he did not take his own life as a suicide; he died obediently. He waited till his hour had come, when he was able to say, “It is finished,” then he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. He humbled himself, so as willingly to die.

He proved the obedience of his death, also, by the meekness of it, as Isaiah said, “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” He never spoke a bitter word to priest or scribe, Jewish governor or Roman soldier. When the women wept and bewailed, he said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” He was all gentleness; he had not a hard word even for his murderers. He gave himself up to be the Sin-bearer, without murmuring at his Father’s will, or at the cruelty of his adversaries. How patient he was! If he says, “I thirst,” it is not the petulant cry of a sick man in his fever; there is a royal dignity about Christ’s utterance of the words. Even the “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,” with the unutterable gall and bitterness it contains, has not even a trace of impatience mingled with it. Oh, what a death Christ’s was! He was obedient in it, obedient not only till he came to die, but obedient in that last dread act. His obedient life embraced the hour of his departure.

But, as if death were not sufficiently humbling, the apostle adds, “even the death of the cross.” That was the worst kind of death. It was a violent death. Jesus fell not asleep gently, as good men often do, whose end is peace. No, he died by murderous hands. Jews and Gentiles combined, and with cruel hands took him, and crucified and slew him. It was, also, an extremely painful death of lingering agony. Those parts of the body in which the nerves were most numerous, were pierced with rough iron nails. The weight of the body was made to hang upon the tenderest part of the frame. No doubt the nails tore their cruel way through his flesh while he was hanging on the tree. A cut in the hand has often resulted in lockjaw and death; yet Christ’s hands were nailed to the cross. He died in pain most exquisite of body and of soul. It was, also, a death most shameful. Thieves were crucified with him; his adversaries stood and mocked him. The death of the cross was one reserved for slaves and the basest of felons; no Roman citizen could be put to death in such a way as that, hung up between earth and heaven, as if neither would have him, rejected of men and despised of God. It was, also, a penal death. He died, not like a hero in battle, nor as one who perishes while rescuing his fellow-men from fire or flood; he died as a criminal. Upon the cross of Calvary he was hung up. It was an accursed death, too. God himself had called it so: “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” He was made a curse for us. His death was penal in the highest sense. He “bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”

I have not the mental, nor the physical, nor the spiritual strength to speak to you aright on such a wondrous topic as that of our Lord in the Valley of Humiliation. There have been times with me when I have only wanted a child’s finger to point me to the Christ, and I have found enough in a sight of him without any words of man. I hope that it is so with you to-night. I invite you to sit down, and watch your Lord, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. All this he did that he might complete his own humiliation, he humbled himself even to this lowest point of all, “unto death, even the death of the cross.”

If you have this picture clearly before your eyes, I want you, in the second place, to practically learn some lessons from our Lord’s humiliation.

The first is, learn to have firmness of faith in the atoning sacrifice. If my Lord could stoop to become man; and if, when he had come as low as that, he went still lower, and lower, and lower, until he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, I feel that there must be a potency about that death which is all that I can require. Jesus by dying has vindicated law and justice. Look, brethren, if God can punish sin upon his own dear Son, it means far more than the sending of us to hell. Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin; but his blood was shed, so there is remission. His wounds let out his life blood; one great gash opened the way to his heart; before that, his whole body had become a mass of dripping gore, when, in the garden, his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. My Lord, when I study thy sacrifice, I see how God can be “just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Faith is born at the cross of Christ. We not only bring faith to the cross, but we find it there. I cannot think of my God bearing all this grief in a human body, even to the death on the cross, and then doubt. Why, doubt becomes harder than faith when the cross is visible! When Christ is set forth evidently crucified among us, each one of us should cry, “Lord, I believe, for thy death has killed my unbelief.”

The next lesson I would have you learn from Christ’s humiliation is this, cultivate a great hatred of sin. Sin killed Christ; let Christ kill sin. Sin made him go down, down, down; then pull sin down, let it have no throne in your heart. If it will live in your heart, make it live in holes and corners, and never rest till it is utterly driven out. Seek to put your foot upon its neck, and utterly kill it. Christ was crucified; let your lusts be crucified: and let every wrong desire be nailed up, with Christ, upon the felon’s tree. If, with Paul, you can say, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world;” with him you will also be able to exclaim, “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Christ’s branded slave is the Lord’s freeman.

Learn another lesson, and that is, obedience. Beloved, if Christ humbled himself, and became obedient, how obedient ought you and I to be! We ought to stop at nothing when we once know that it is the Lord’s will. I marvel that you and I should ever raise a question or ask a moment’s delay in our obedience to Christ. If it be the Lord’s will, let it be done, and done at once. Should it rend some fond connection, should it cause a flood of tears, let it be done. He humbled himself, and became obedient. Would obedience humble me? Would it lower me in man’s esteem? Would it make me the subject of ridicule? Would it bring contempt upon my honourable name? Should I be elbowed out of the society wherein I have been admired, if I were obedient to Christ? Lord, this is a question not worth the asking! I take up thy cross right joyfully, asking grace to be perfectly obedient, by the power of thy Spirit.

Learn next, another lesson, and that is, self-denial. Did Christ humble himself? Come, brothers and sisters, let us practise the same holy art. Have I not heard of some saying, “I have been insulted; I am not treated with proper respect. I go in and out, and I am not noticed. I have done eminent service, and there is not a paragraph in the newspaper about me.” Oh, dear friend, your Master humbled himself, and it seems to me that you are trying to exalt yourself! Truly, you are on the wrong track. If Christ went down, down, down, it ill becomes us to be always seeking to go up, up, up. Wait till God exalts you, which he will do in his own good time. Meanwhile, it behoves you, while you are here, to humble yourself. If you are already in a humble position, should you not be contented with it; for he humbled himself? If you are now in a place where you are not noticed, where there is little thought of you, be quite satisfied with it. Jesus came just where you are; you may well stop where you are; where God has put you. Jesus had to bring himself down, and to make an effort to come down to where you are. Is not the Valley of Humiliation one of the sweetest spots in all the world? Does not the great geographer of the heavenly country, John Bunyan, tell us that the Valley of Humiliation is as fruitful a place as any the crow flies over, and that our Lord formerly had his country house there, and that he loved to walk those meadows, for he found the air was pleasant? Stop there, brother. “I should like to be known.” says one. “I should like to have my name before the public.” Well, if you ever had that lot, if you felt as I do, you would pray to be unknown, and to let your name drop out of notice; for there is no pleasure in it. The only happy way seems to me, if God would only let us choose, is to be known to nobody, but just to glide through this world as pilgrims and strangers, to the land where our true kindred dwell, and to be known there as having been followers of the Lord.

I think that we should also learn from our Lord’s humiliation to have contempt for human glory. Suppose they come to you, and say, “We will crown you king!” you may well say, “Will you? All the crown you had for my Master was a crown of thorns; I will not accept a diadem from you.” “We will praise you.” “What, will you praise me, you who spat in his dear face? I want none of your praises.” It is a greater honour to a Christian man to be maligned than to be applauded. Ay, I do not care where it comes from, I will say this; if he be slandered and abused for Christ’s sake, no odes in his honour, no articles in his praise, can do him one-tenth the honour. This is to be a true knight of the cross, to have been wounded in the fray, to have come back adorned with scars for his dear sake. O despised one, look upon human glory as a thing that is tarnished, no longer golden; but corroded, because it came not to your Lord.

And, O beloved, I think, when we have meditated on this story of Christ’s humbling himself, we ought to feel our love to our Lord growing very vehement! We do not half love him as we ought. When I read the sentences of Bernard, half Romanist, but altogether saint, I feel as if I had not begun to love my Lord; and when I turn over Rutherford’s letters, and see the glow of his heart toward his divine Master, I could smite on my breast to think that I have such a heart of stone where there ought to be a heart of flesh. If you hear George Herbert sing his quaint, strange poetry, suffused with love for his dear Lord, you may well think that you are a tyro in the school of love. Ay, and if you ever drink in the spirit of McCheyne, you may go home, and hide your head, and say, “I am not worthy to sing,-

“ ‘Jesu, lover of my soul,’

for I do not return his love as I ought to do.” Come, seek his wounds, and let your hearts be wounded. Come, look to his heart that poured out blood and water, and give your heart up to him. Put your whole being now among the sweet spices of his all-sufficient merit, set all on fire with burning affection, and let the fragrance of it go up like incense before the Lord.

Lastly, let us be inflamed with a strong desire to honour Christ. If he humbled himself, let us honour him. Every time that he seems to put away the crown, let us put it on his head. Every time we hear him slandered,-and men continue to slander him still,-let us speak up for him right manfully.

“Ye that are men, now serve him,

Against unnumbered foes;

Your courage rise with danger,

And strength to strength oppose.”

Do you not grow indignant, sometimes, when you see how Christ’s professed Church is treating him, and his truth? They are shutting him out still, till his head is wet with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night. Proclaim him King in the face of his false friends. Proclaim him, and say that his Word is infallibly true, and that his precious blood alone can cleanse from sin. Stand out the braver because so many Judases seem to have leaped up from the bottomless pit to betray Christ again. Be you firm and stead-fast, like granite walls, in the day when others turn their backs, and fly, like cravens.

The Lord help you to honour him who humbled himself, who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross! May he accept these humble words of mine, and bless them to his people, and make them to be the means of leading some poor sinner to come and trust in him! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PHILIPPIANS 2:1-18

Verses 1, 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Paul did not mean to doubt that there is “any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any bowels and mercies,” for no one knew better than he did how those blessings abound to them that are in Christ Jesus. He put it by way of argument. If there be consolation in Christ, since there is consolation in Christ, since there is comfort of love, since there is fellowship of the Spirit, be one in Christ; be not divided; love one another: “be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory;

“Nothing”: never give to exceed other givers. Never preach that you may be a better preacher than anybody else; never work in the Sunday-school with the idea of being thought a very successful teacher. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.”

3. But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

There is some point in which your friend excels you. Notice that rather than the point in which you excel him. Try to give him the higher seat; seek yourself to take the lowest room.

4. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Have a large heart, so that, though you care for yourself in spiritual things, and desire your own soul-prosperity, you may have the same desire for every other Christian man or woman.

5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

What an example we have set before us in the Lord Jesus Christ! We are to have the mind of Christ; and that in the most Christly way, for here we have Christ set out to the life:-

6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

For he was equal with God.

7. But made himself of no reputation,

Emptied himself of all his honour, of all his glory, of all his majesty, and of all the reverence paid to him by the holy spirits around the throne.

7, 8. And took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,

He had not descended low enough yet, though he had come down all the way from the Godhead to our manhood: “he humbled himself.”

8, 9. And became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,

He stooped, who can tell how low? He was raised, who shall tell how high? “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.”

9. And given him a name which is above every name;

He threw away his name; he emptied himself of his reputation. How high is his reputation now! How glorious is the name that God hath given him as the reward of his redemptive work!

10, 11. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Now is he higher than the highest. Now every one must confess his divinity. With shame and terror, his adversaries shall bow before him; with delight and humble adoration, his friends shall own him Lord of all: “that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” See how the greatest glory of Christ is the glory of the Father. He never desired any other glory but that. The highest honour you can ever have, O child of God, is to bring honour to your Father who is in heaven. Do you not think so? I know you do.

12. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Get out of self. Work out your salvation from pride, from vainglory, from disputations and strife.

13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

You may very well work out what God works in. If he does not work it in, you will never work it out; but while he works within your spirit both to will and to do, you may safely go on to will and to do; for your willing and your doing will produce lowliness of spirit, and unity of heart with your brethren.

14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

Do not say, “You give me too much to do; you always give me the hard work; you put me in the obscure corner.” No, no; “do all things without murmurings.” And do not begin fighting over a holy work; for, if you do, you spoil it in the very beginning, and how can you then hope for a blessing upon it? “Do all things without murmurings and disputings.”

15. That ye may be blameless and harmless,

None finding fault with you, and you not finding fault with others; neither harming nor harmed: “blameless and harmless.”

15. The sons of God, without rebuke,

So that men cannot rebuke you, and will have to invent a lie before they can do it; and even then the falsehood is too palpable to have any force in it: “without rebuke.”

15. In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

You cannot straighten them; but you can shine. They could destroy you if they could; but all you have to do is to shine. If Christian men would give more attention to their shining, and pay less attention to the crooked and perverse generation, much more would come of it. But now we are advised to “keep abreast of the times”, and to “catch the spirit of the age.” If I could ever catch that spirit, I would hurl it into the bottomless abyss; for it is a spirit that is antagonistic to Christ in all respects. We are just to keep clear of all that, and “shine as lights in the world.”

16. Holding forth the word of life;

You are to hold forth the Word of life as men hold forth a torch. Your shining is largely to consist in holding forth the Word of life.

16. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

God’s ministers cannot bear the thought of having laboured in vain; and yet if some of us were to die, what would remain of all we have done? I charge you, brethren, to think of what your life-work has been hitherto. Will it remain? Will it abide? Will it stand the test of your own departure? Ah, if you have any fear about it, you may well go to God in prayer, and cry, “Establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it.” Paul cared much about God’s work; but he did not trouble about himself.

17. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

If he might be poured forth as a drink-offering on their behalf, or offered up as a whole burnt-offering in the service of the Saviour, he would be glad. He could not bear to have lived in vain; but to spend his life for the glory of his Lord, would be ever a joy to him.

18. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.

To live and to die for Jesus Christ, with the blessing of the Father resting upon us, is a matter for us to joy in unitedly and continually. God help us so to do!

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-284, 294, 819.

david’s prayer in the cave

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 13th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, May 18th, 1890.

“Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave.”-Title of Psalm 142.

“A Prayer when he was in the cave.” David did pray when he was in the cave. If he had prayed half as much when he was in the palace as he did when he was in the cave, it would have been better for him. But, alas! when he was king, we find him rising from his bed in the evening, and looking from the roof of the house, and falling into temptation. If he had been looking up to heaven, if his heart had been in communion with God, he might never have committed that great crime which has so deeply stained his whole character.

“A prayer when he was in the cave.” God will hear prayer on the land, and on the sea, and even under the sea. I remember a brother, when in prayer, making use of that last expression. Somebody who was at the prayer-meeting was rather astonished at it, and asked, “How would God hear prayer under the sea?” On enquiry, we found out that the man who uttered those words was a diver, and often went down to the bottom of the sea after wrecks; and he said that he had held communion with God while he had been at work in the depths of the ocean. Our God is not the God of the hills only; but of the valleys also; he is God of both sea and land. He heard Jonah when the disobedient prophet was at the bottoms of the mountains, and the earth with her bars seemed to be about him for ever. Wherever you work, you can pray. Wherever you lie sick, you can pray. There is no place to which you can be banished where God is not near, and there is no time of day or night when his throne is inaccessible.

“A prayer when he was in the cave.” The caves have heard the best prayers. Some birds sing best in cages. I have heard that some of God’s people shine brightest in the dark. There is many an heir of heaven who never prays so well as when he is driven by necessity to pray. Some shall sing aloud upon their beds of sickness, whose voices were hardly heard when they were well; and some shall sing God’s high praises in the fire, who did not praise him as they should before the trial came. In the furnace of affliction the saints are often seen at their best. If any of you to-night are in dark and gloomy positions, if your souls are bowed down within you, may this become a special time for peculiarly prevalent communion and intercession, and may the prayer of the cave be the very best of your prayers!

I shall, to-night, use David’s prayer in the cave to represent the prayers of godly men in trouble; but, first, I will talk of it as a picture of the condition of a soul under a deep sense of sin. This Psalm of the cave has a great likeness to the character of a man under a sense of sin. I shall then use it to represent the condition of a persecuted believer; and, thirdly, I shall speak of it as revealing the condition of a believer who is being prepared for greater honour and wider service than he has ever attained before.

First, let me try and use this Psalm as a picture of the condition of a soul under a deep sense of sin.

A little while ago, you were out in the open field of the world, sinning with a high hand, plucking the flowers which grow in those poisoned vales, and enjoying their deadly perfume. You were as happy as your sinful heart could be; for you were giddy, and careless, and thoughtless; but it has pleased God to arrest you. You have been apprehended by Christ, and you have been put in prison, and now your feet are fast in the stocks. To-night, you feel like one who has come out of the bright sunshine and balmy air into a dark, noisome cavern, where you can see but little, where there is no comfort, and where there appears to you to be no hope of escape.

Well, now, according to the Psalm before us, which is meant for you as well as for David, your first business should be to appeal unto God. I know your doubts; I know your fears of God; I know how frightened you are at the very mention of his name; but I charge you, if you would come out of your present gloom, go to God at once. See, the Psalm begins, “I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.” Get home, and cry to God with your voice; but if you have no place where you can use your voice, cry to God in silence; but do cry to him. Look God-ward; if you look any other way, all is darkness. Look God-ward; there, and there only, is hope. “But I have sinned against God,” say you. But God is ready to pardon; he has provided a great atonement, through which he can justly forgive the greatest offences. Look God-ward, and begin to pray. I have known men, who have hardly believed in God, do this; but they have had some faint desire to do so, and they have cried; it has been a poor prayer, and yet God has heard it. I have known some cry to God in very despair. When they hardly believed that there could be any use in it, still it was that or nothing; and they knew that it could not hurt them to pray, and so they took to their knees, and they cried. It is wonderful what poor prayers God will hear, and answer, too; prayers that have no legs to run with, and no hands to grasp with, and very little heart; but still, God has heard them, and he has accepted them. Get to your knees, you who feel yourselves guilty; get to your knees, if your hearts are sighing on account of sin. If the dark gloom of your iniquities is gathering about you, cry to God; and he will hear you.

The next thing to do is, make a full confession. David says, “I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.” The human heart longs to express itself; an unuttered grief will lie and smoulder in the soul, till its black smoke puts out the very eyes of the spirit. It is not a bad thing sometimes to speak to some Christian friend about the anguish of your heart. I would not encourage you to put that in the first place; far from it; but still it may be helpful to some. But, anyhow, make a full confession unto the Lord. Tell him how you have sinned; tell him how you have tried to save yourself, and broken down; tell him what a wretch you are, how changeable, how fickle, how proud, how wanton, how your ambition carries you away like an unbridled steed. Tell him all your faults, as far as you can remember them; do not attempt to hide anything from God; you cannot do so, for he knows all; therefore, hesitate not to tell him everything, the darkest secret, the sin you would not wish even to whisper to the evening’s gale. Tell it all; tell it all. Confession to God is good for the soul. “Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy.” I do press upon any of you who are now in the gloomy cave, that you seek a secret and quiet place, and, alone with God, pour out your heart before him. David says, “I shewed before him my trouble.” Do not think that the use of pious words can be of any avail; it is not merely words that you have to utter, you have to lay all your trouble before God. As a child tells its mother its griefs, tell the Lord all your griefs, your complaints, your miseries, your fears. Tell them all out, and great relief will come to your spirit. So, first, appeal to God. Secondly, make confession to him.

Thirdly, acknowledge to God that there is no hope for you but in his mercy. Put it as David did, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me.” There is but one hope for you; acknowledge that. Perhaps you have been trying to be saved by your good works. They are altogether worthless when you heap them together. Possibly you expect to be saved by your religiousness. Half of it is hypocrisy; and how can a man hope to be saved by his hypocrisy? Do you hope to be saved by your feelings? What are your feelings? As changeable as the weather; a puff of wind will change all your fine feelings into murmuring and rebellion against God. Oh, friend, you cannot keep the law of God! That is the only other way to heaven. The perfect keeping of God’s commandments would save you if you had never committed a sin; but, having sinned, even that will not save you now, for future obedience will not wipe out past disobedience. Here, in Christ Jesus, whom God sets forth as a propitiation for sin, is the only hope for you; lay hold on it. In the cave of your doubts and fears, with the clinging damp of your despair about you, chilled and numbed by the dread of the wrath to come, yet venture to make God in Christ your sole confidence, and you shall yet have perfect peace.

Then, further, if you are still in the cave of doubt and sin, venture to plead with God to set you free. You cannot present a better prayer than this one of David in the cave, “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name.” You are in prison to-night, and you cannot get out of it by yourself. You may get a hold of those bars, and try to shake them to and fro, but they are fast in their sockets; they will not break in your hands. You may meditate, and think, and invent, and excogitate; but you cannot open that great iron gate; but there is a hand that can break gates of brass, and there is a power that can cut in sunder bars of iron. O man in the iron cage, there is a hand that can crumble up thy cage, and set thee free! Thou needest not be a prisoner; thou needest not be shut up; thou mayest walk at large through Jesus Christ the Saviour. Only trust him, and believingly pray that prayer to-night, “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name,” and he will set you free. Ah, sinners do praise God’s name when they get out of prison! I recollect how, when I was set free, I felt like singing all the time, and I could quite well use the language of Dr. Watts,-

“Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing

My great Redeemer’s praise!”

My old friend, Dr. Alexander Fletcher, seems to rise before me now, for I remember hearing him say to the children that, when men came out of prison, they did praise him who had set them free. He said that he was going down the Old Bailey one day, and he saw a boy standing on his head, turning Catherine wheels, dancing hornpipes, and jumping about in all manner of ways, and he said to him, “What are you at? You seem to be tremendously happy;” and the boy replied, “Ah, old gentleman, if you had been locked up six months, and had just got out, you would be happy, too!” I have no doubt that is very true. When a soul gets out of a far worse prison than there ever was at Newgate, then he must praise “free grace and dying love”, and “ring those charming bells,” again, and again, and again, and make his whole life musical with the praise of the emancipating Christ.

Now, that is my advice to you who are in the cave through soul-trouble. May God bless it to you! You need not notice anything else that I am going to say to-night. If you are under a sense of sin, heed well what I have been saying; and let other people have the rest of the sermon that belongs more especially to them.

I pass on to my second point. This Psalm may well help to set forth the condition of a persecuted believer.

A persecuted believer! Are there any such nowadays? Ah, dear friends, there are many such! When a man becomes a Christian, he straightway becomes different from the rest of his fellows. When I lived in a street, I was standing one day at the window, meditating what my sermon should be, and I could not find a text, when, all of a sudden, I saw a flight of birds. There was a canary, which had escaped from its cage, and was flying over the slates of the opposite houses, and it was being chased by some twenty sparrows, and other rough birds. Then I thought of that text, “My heritage is unto me as a speckled bird; the birds round about are against her.” Why, they seemed to say to one another, “Here is a yellow fellow; we have not seen the like of him in London; he has no business here; let us pull off his bright coat, let us kill him, or make him as dark and dull as ourselves.” That is just what men of the world try to do with Christians. Here is a godly man who works in a factory, or a Christian girl who is occupied in book-folding, or some other work where there is a large number employed; such persons will have a sad tale to tell of how they have been hunted about, ridiculed, and scoffed at by ungodly companions. Now you are in the cave.

It may be that you are in the condition described here; you hardly know what to do. You are as David was when he wrote the third verse, “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me.” The persecutors have so turned against you, and it is so new a thing to you as a young believer, that you are quite perplexed, and hard put to it to know what you should do. They are so severe, they are so ferocious, they are so incessant, and they find out your tender points, and they know how to touch you just on the raw places; that you really do not know what to do. You are like a lamb in the midst of wolves; you know not which way to turn. Well, then, say to the Lord, as David did, “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.” God knows exactly where you are, and what you have to bear. Have confidence that, when you know not what to do, he can and will direct your way if you trust him.

In addition to that, it may be that you are greatly tempted. David said, “They privily laid a snare for me.” It is often so with young men in a warehouse, or with a number of clerks in an establishment. They find that a young fellow has become a Christian, and they try to trip him up. If they can, they will get up some scheme by which they can make him appear to have been guilty, even if he has not. Ah, you will want much wisdom! I pray God that you may never yield to temptation; but may hold your ground by divine grace. Young Christian soldiers often have a very rough time of it in the barracks; but I hope that they will prove themselves true soldiers, and not yield an inch to those who would lead them astray.

It will be very painful if, in addition to that, your friends turn against you. David said, “There was no man that would know me.” Is it so with you? Are your father and mother against you? Is your wife or your husband against you? Do your brothers and sisters call you “a canting hypocrite”? Do they call you a “Methodist”, or a “Presbyterian”, not themselves knowing the meaning of the words? Do they point the finger of scorn at you when you get home? And often, when you go from the Lord’s table, where you have been so happy, do you have to hear an oath the first thing when you enter the door? I know that it is so with many of you. The Church of Christ in London is like Lot in Sodom. In this particular neighbourhood, especially, it is hard for Christian people to live at all. You cannot walk down the streets anywhere without having your ears assailed with filthy language; and your children cannot be permitted to run these streets because of the abominable impurity that is on every hand round about us. Things are growing worse with us, instead of better; they who look for brighter times must be looking with their eyes shut. There is grave occasion for Christians to pray for young people who are converted in such a city as this, for their worst enemies are often those of their own household. “I should not mind so much,” says one, “if I had a Christian friend to fly to. I spoke to one the other day, and he did not seem to interest himself in me at all.” I will tell you what hurts a young convert. Here is one just saved; he has really, lovingly, given his heart to Christ, and the principal or manager where he works is a Christian man. He finds himself ridiculed, and he ventures to say a word to this Christian man. He snuffs him out in a moment, he has no sympathy with him. Well, there is another old professing Christian working near at the same bench; and the young convert begins to tell him a little about his trouble, and he is very grumpy and cross. I have noticed some Christian people who appear to be shut up in themselves, and they do not seem to notice the troubles of beginners in the divine life. Let it not be so among you. My dear brothers and sisters, cultivate great love to those who, having come into the army of Christ, are much beset by adversaries. They are in the cave. Do not disown them; they are trying to do their best; stand side by side with them. Say, “I, too, am a Christian. If you are honouring that young man with your ridicule, let me have my portion of it. If you are pouring contempt upon him, give me a share of it, for I also believe as he believes.” Will you do that? Some of you will, I am sure. Will you stand by the man of God who vindicates the Lord’s revealed truth? Some of you will; but there are plenty of fellows who want to keep a whole skin on their body, and if they can sneak away out of any fight for the right, they are glad to get home and go to bed, and there slumber till the battle is over. God help us to have more of the lion in us, and not so much of the cur! God grant us grace to stand by those who are out and out for God, and for his Christ, that we may be remembered with them in the day of his appearing!

It may be that the worst point about you is that you feel very feeble. You say, “I should not mind the persecution if I felt strong; but I am so feeble.” Well, now, always distinguish between feeling strong and being strong. The man who feels strong is weak; the man who feels weak is the man who is strong. Paul said, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” David prays, “Deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.” Just hide yourself away in the strength of God; pray much; take God for your refuge and your portion; have faith in him; and you will be stronger than your adversaries. They may seem to pull you over; but you will soon be up again. They may set before you puzzles that you cannot solve; they may come up with their scientific knowledge; and you may be at a discount: but never mind that; the God who has led you into the cave will turn the tables for you one of these days. Only hold on, and hold out, even to the end. I am rather glad that there should be some trouble in being a Christian, for it has become such a very general thing now to profess to be one. If I am right, it is going to be a very much less common thing than it is now for a man to say, “I am a Christian.” There will come times when there will be sharp lines drawn. Some of us will help to draw them if we can, when men shall not wear the Christian garb, and bear the Christian name, and then act like worldlings, and love the amusements and the follies of worldlings. It is time that there was a division in the house of the Lord, and that the “ayes” went into one lobby, and the “noes” into the other lobby. We have too long been mixed together; and I for one say, may the day soon come when every Christian will have to run the gauntlet! It will be a good thing for genuine believers. It will just blow some of the chaff away from the wheat. We shall have all the purer gold when the fire gets hot, and the crucible is put into it, for then the dross will be separated from the precious metal. Be of good courage, my brother, if thou art now in the cave, the Lord will bring thee out of it in his own good time!

Now, to close, I want to speak a little about the condition of a believer who is being prepared for greater honour and wider service.

Is it not a curious thing that, whenever God means to make a man great, he always breaks him in pieces first? There was a man whom the Lord meant to make into a prince. How did he do it? Why, he met him one night, and wrestled with him! You always hear about Jacob’s wrestling. Well, I dare say he did; but it was not Jacob who was the principal wrestler: “There wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” God touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, and put it out of joint, before he called him “Israel”; that is, “a prince of God.” The wrestling was to take all his strength out of him; and when his strength was gone, then God called him a prince. Now, David was to be king over all Israel. What was the way to Jerusalem for David? What was the way to the throne? Well, it was round by the cave of Adullam. He must go there, and be an outlaw, and an outcast, for that was the way by which he would be made king. Have none of you ever noticed, in your own lives, that whenever God is going to give you an enlargement, and bring you out to a larger sphere of service, or a higher platform of spiritual life, you always get thrown down? That is his usual way of working; he makes you hungry before he feeds you; he strips you before he robes you; he makes nothing of you before he makes something of you. This was the way with David. He is to be king in Jerusalem; but he must go to the throne by the way of the cave. Now, are any of you here going to heaven, or going to a more heavenly state of sanctification, or going to a greater sphere of usefulness? Do not wonder if you go by the way of the cave. Why is that?

It is, first, because, if God would make you greatly useful, he must teach you how to pray. The man who is a great preacher, and yet cannot pray, will come to a bad end. A woman who cannot pray, and yet is noted for the conducting of Bible-classes, has already come to a bad end. If you can be great without prayer, your greatness will be your ruin. If God means to bless you greatly, he will make you pray greatly, as he does David who says in this part of his preparation for coming to his throne, “I cried unto the Lord with my voice: with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.”

Next, the man whom God would greatly honour must always believe in God when he is at his wits’ end. “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.” Are you never at your wits’ end? Then God has not sent you to do business in great waters; for, if he has, you will reel to and fro, and be at your wits’ end, in a great storm, before long. Oh, it is easy to trust when you can trust yourself; but when you cannot trust yourself, when you are dead beat, when your spirit sinks below zero in the chill of utter despair, then is the time to trust in God. If that is your case, you have the marks of a man who can lead God’s people, and be a comforter of others.

Next, in order to greater usefulness, many a man of God must be taught to stand quite alone. “I looked on my right hand, and behold, but there was no man that would know me.” If you want men to help you, you may make a very decent follower; but if you want no man, and can stand alone, God being your Helper, you shall be helped to be a leader. Oh, it was a grand thing when Luther stepped out from the ranks of Rome. There were many good men round him, who said, “Be quiet, Martin. You will get burnt if you do not hold your tongue. Let us keep where we are, in the Church of Rome, even if we have to swallow down great lumps of dirt. We can believe the gospel, and still remain where we are.” But Luther knew that he must defy Anti-Christ, and declare the pure gospel of the blessed God; and he must stand alone for the truth, even if there were as many devils against him as there were tiles on the housetops at Worms. That is the kind of man whom God blesses. I would to God that many a young man here might have the courage to feel, in his particular position, “I can stand alone, if need be. I am glad to have my master and my fellow-workmen with me; but if nobody will go to heaven with me, I will say farewell to them, and go to heaven alone through the grace of God’s dear Son.”

Once more, the man whom God will bless must be the man who delights in God alone. David says, “I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” Oh, to have God as our refuge, and to make God our portion! “You will lose your situation; you will lose your income; you will lose the approbation of your fellow-men.” “Ah!” says the believer, “but I shall not lose my portion, for God is my portion. He is situation, and income, and everything to me; and I will hold by him, come what may.” If thou hast learnt to “delight thyself in the Lord, he will give thee the desires of thine heart.” Now thou art come into such a state that God can use thee, and make much of thee; but until thou dost make much of God, he never will make much of thee. God deliver us from having our portion in this life, for, if we have, we are not among his people at all!

He whom God would use must be taught sympathy with God’s poor people. Hence we get these words of David, in the sixth verse, “I am brought very low.” Mr. Greatheart, though he must be strong to kill Giant Grim, and any others of the giants that infest the pilgrim path, must be a man who has gone that road himself, if he is to be a leader of others. If the Lord means to bless you, my brother, and to make you very useful in his church, depend upon it he will try you. Half, perhaps nine-tenths, of the trials of God’s ministers are not sent to them on their own account; but they are sent for the good of other people. Many a child of God, who goes very smoothly to heaven, does very little for others; but another of the Lord’s children, who has all the ins and outs and changes of an experienced believer’s life has them only that he may be the better fitted to help others; to sit down and weep with them that weep, or to stand up and rejoice with them that rejoice. So then you, dear brethren, who have got into the cave, and you, my sisters, who have deep spiritual exercises, I want to comfort you by showing you that this is God’s way of making something of you. He is digging you out; you are like an old ditch, you cannot hold any more, and God is digging you out to make more room for more grace. That spade will cut sharply, and dig up sod after sod, and throw it on one side. The very thing you would like to keep shall be cast away, and you shall be hollowed out, and dug out, that the word of Elisha may be fulfilled, “Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water.” You are to be tried, my friend, that God may be glorified in you.

Lastly, if God means to use you, you must get to be full of praise. Listen to what David says, “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.” May God give to my brothers and sisters here, who are just about being tried for their good, and afflicted for their promotion, grace to begin to praise him! It is the singers that go before; they that can praise best shall be fit to lead others in the work. Do not set me to follow a gloomy leader. Oh, no, dear sirs, we cannot work to the tune of “The Dead March in Saul”! Our soldiers would never have won Waterloo if that had been the music for the day of battle. No, no; give us a Jubilate: “Sing unto the Lord who hath triumphed gloriously; praise his great name again and again.” Then draw the sword, and strike home. If thou art of a cheerful spirit, glad in the Lord, and joyous after all thy trials and afflictions, and if thou dost but rejoice the more because thou hast been brought so low, then God is making something of thee, and he will yet use thee to lead his people to greater works of grace.

I have just talked to three kinds of people to-night. May God grant each of you grace to take what belongs to you! But if you see any of the first sort before you go out of the building, any who are in the cave of gloom under a sense of sin, if you want to go to the communion, but feel that you ought to stop and comfort them, mind that you do the latter. Put yourself second. There is a wonderful work to be done in those lobbies, and in those pews, after a service. There are some dear brethren and sisters who are always doing it; they call themselves my “dogs”; for they go and pick up the birds that I have wounded. I wish that they might be able to pick up many to-night. Oh, that some of you might always be on the alert to watch a face, and see whether there is any emotion there! Just paddle your own canoe alongside that little ship, and see whether you cannot get into communication with the poor troubled one on board, and say a word to cheer a sad heart. Always be doing this; for if you are in prison yourself, the way out of it is to help another out. God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. When we begin to look after others, and seek to help others, God will bless us. So may it be, for his name’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 57

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.

This is one of the “Destroy not” Psalms; for that is the meaning of the title, Al-taschith, which is used here, and in Psalms 58, 59, and 75.

Michtam of David. David’s golden Psalm, “when he fled from Saul in the cave.” In this Psalm we see the calmness of David’s heart when he was in great peril. He was a man of peace; and to be hunted cruelly, as he was by Saul, greatly pained him. Yet, with all the sensitiveness of his nature, he did not fall into unbelief; for his sensitiveness was balanced by his confidence in his God. You will see how, greatly as he was afflicted, he was greatly strengthened.

Verse 1. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me:

He pleads twice; for his was an urgent case. He would have the Lord help him at once; for, perhaps, if the Lord’s mercy came not to him at once, it would be too late; so he cried, “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me.”

1. For my soul trusteth in thee:

This is the feather on the arrow of prayer that guides it straight to the heart of God. This is the condition attached to the promise, “According to your faith be it unto thee.” If you can truly plead that your soul is trusting in God, you may be assured that he will not deny you his mercy.

1. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

What a sweet realization there is here of the power of God to protect him! Just as the little chick hides beneath the mother’s wing, and knows no fear, so says David, “in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge.” There was no refuge to be seen; but David does not ask to see; an unseen God is all that faith wants. If it be only a shadow, yet the shadow of Jehovah’s wings is substantial enough for our confidence: “In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.” They will be overpast; the worst calamity will not last for ever. We shall think differently of these rough times by-and-by; we ought not to give up in despair, and cast away our confidence while we are in the thick of the fight. Until the calamities are overpast, it should be our joy to run under God’s protecting wings, and hide ourselves securely there.

2. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.

Faith is never dumb; true faith is a crying faith. If thou hast a confidence in God of such a kind that thou dost not noed to pray, get rid of it; for it is of no use to thee; it is a false confidence, it is presumption. Only a crying faith will be a prevailing faith. “I will cry unto God most high:” the very height and sublimity of God is an attraction to faith; for though he is so high, he can and will stoop. Though God is so high, he can lift me up above the storm; for he is above it himself, and he can set me above it, too. “I will cry unto God most high;” and David sweetly adds, “unto God that performeth for me.” The translators have inserted the words, “all things”, and very properly, too; but David leaves, as it were, a gap, so that we may fill in anything that we please. Thus do we-

“Sing the sweet promise of his grace,

And the performing God.”

He is not one who gives us promises, and then puts us off without the thing promised; but he fulfils the promises he has made, he is the Faithful Promiser: “God that performeth for me.”

3. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.

If he cannot find any means upon earth for saving David, he will send from heaven to do it; but he will save him. God is sure to find an ark for his Noahs if the floods should cover the whole earth; and when they cannot be preserved any longer on the earth, he will catch them away to himself in heaven; but he will surely take care of his own: “He shall send from heaven, and save me.” If there were only one of his people in danger, he would rend the heavens in order to save him: “He shall send from heaven and save me,” not only from the danger to my life, but from danger to my character: “from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.” Often, the enemies of the righteous are so fierce and cruel that they would, like some huge python, swallow up the godly man, devour him, make an end of him, make one meal of him, if they could; but God will not allow them to do so. He will send from heaven, and deliver us from the reproach of them that would swallow us up.

3. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

The Psalmist had only prayed for mercy; twice he had said, “Be merciful unto me.” But God always answers us more largely than we ask in our prayers; he does exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think. So his truth comes with his mercy, as a double guard to protect his people: “God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.”

4. My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

Yet, notice that David says, “I lie” there, that is the emphatic word; and the force of that word conveys this idea, “I recline there; I feel at ease, notwithstanding the danger of my position; I recline, and rest, even among them that are set on fire.” Oh, the calm confidence of the faith that forgets the adversary when once she has hidden herself under the shadow of Jehovah’s wings! The description given of ungodly persecutors is very strong: “whose teeth are spears and arrows.” Their mouth seems to contain a deadly armoury; they have no molars to grind their food, they are all canine teeth, cruel, cutting. You must know some such critical spirits, that seem to be all teeth, and whose every tooth is a spear or an arrow. But their tongue is worse than their teeth, for it is not only a sword, but “a sharp sword”, a sharpened sword. Oh, how tongues will cut and wound! You may heal the cut of a sword; but who shall heal the cut of a deadly, cruel, malicious, slanderous tongue? Yet for all that, David was not dismayed, but he said, “I lie down among such men, my soul is among lions.” Like Daniel among the lions, so does this man of God take his night’s rest, as calmly as though he were sleeping in his own bed at home.

5. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

David so rises above his present circumstances that he begins to praise his God. O beloved, there is no condition in which God ought to be robbed of a song! What if I am sick? Yet my Lord must have my music, even if the harp-strings are not well tuned. What if I am poor? Yet why should I be poor towards him, and deny him my need of praise? What if I am busy? Yet I must still find time for praising him. How sweetly David seeks to exalt and glorify his God, “Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thv glory be above all the earth.”

6. They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves.

They hunted him as they spread a snare for a bird, or as they sought to entrap a wild beast by digging a pit, and covering it over that he might stumble into it. David scarcely has time to tell us of their devices before he discovers that their plans have come to nought: “they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves.” You may go calmly on, my persecuted friend, for those who seek to do the righteous hurt, will only hurt themselves; their bows shall be broken, their arrows shall fall back into their own bosoms. Only be thou still, and let the wicked alone; let God fight for thee, and do thou hold thy peace.

7. My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

That is enough for me, I will not stop my singing for all my adversaries. Let them howl like lions, I will sing on. Let them dig their pits, I will sing on. I find this my best employment, to keep on praising my God.

“All that remains for me

Is but to love and sing,

And wait until the angels come

To bear me to the King.”

8. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.

My tongue, the glory of my frame, be not thou silent! Bestir thyself! “I myself will awake early,” or, “I will awake the dawning.” I will call the sun up to be shining; I will bid him wake to shine to the honour of my Lord. With the earliest birds I will make one more singer in the great concert-hall of God. I will not want more rest, or a longer time to myself to consider all my troubles, I will give my best time, the first hour of the day, to the praise of my God.

9. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.

I will make the Gentiles hear it. They that know not the Lord shall be astonished when they hear me praising him, and they shall ask, “Who is this God of whom this man makes so much?”

10, 11. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

God give us that same calm praiseful frame of mind that David possessed if we are called to endure such trials as fell to his lot!

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-138, 73 (Part II.), 30.

christ’s one sacrifice for sin

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 20th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, June 29th, 1890.

“Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”-Hebrews 9:26.

I need not read the text again, for I shall not go far away from it; but again and again shall we come back to these precious words about our Lord’s one great sacrifice for sin.

What Christ meant to do on the cross, he actually did. I always take that for granted. He did not die in vain; he did not leave any part of his work undone. Whatever was his intent, by the laying down of his life, he accomplished it; for, if not, dear friends, he would come here again. If any of his work were left undone, he would return to the earth that he might finish it, for he never did leave a work incomplete, and he never will. Christ effected the redemption of his people by one stroke; coming here, and living, and dying. He put away sin; he did not merely try to do it, but he actually accomplished the stupendous work for which he left his glory-throne above.

He did not die to make men salvable; he died to save them. He did not die that their sin might be put away by some effort of their own; but he died to put it away. “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” There was one death, one sacrifice, one atonement, and all the work of man’s redemption was for ever accomplished; so that we can sing,-

“Love’s redeeming work is done;

Fought the fight, the battle won.”

If the mission on which Christ came to this earth had not been fulfilled, I say again, he would have returned to complete the work that he had begun.

That would have meant that he should often have been offered since the foundation of the world, an idea which we cannot hold for a single moment. For Christ to die twice, would be contrary to all analogy. He is the second Adam. He, therefore, is like unto men. Read the words of Paul in the verse following our text, “It is appointed unto men once to die” (not twice), “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.” For him, who is the true Adam, to die twice, would be contrary to the analogy of things.

It would be also most repugnant to all holy feeling. For Christ once to die a shameful death upon the cross on Calvary, has made an indelible mark upon our heart, as though it had been burned with a hot iron. I have sometimes half said to myself, “God forbid that his dear Son should ever have died!” The price seemed too great even for our redemption. Should he die, the Holy One and the Just, the glorious, and blessed Son of God? The answer to that question is, that he has died. Thank God, he can never die again! It were horrible to us to think that it should be possible that he should ever be called upon to bear our sins a second time.

It would be traitorous to his person, it would be dishonourable to his gospel, to suppose that his sacrifice is still incomplete, and that he might be called upon to die again because his first death had not satisfied the claims of divine justice. The simple suggestion, even for the sake of argument, is almost blasphemous. Christ either paid the ransom-price for his people, or he did not. If he did, it is paid; if he did not, will he come again, think you? That can never be. Toplady knew that truth when he taught the saints to sing to their Lord,-

“Complete atonement thou hast made,

And to the utmost farthing paid

Whate’er thy people owed:

Nor can his wrath on me take place,

If shelter’d in thy righteousness,

And sprinkled with thy blood.”

The idea that Christ’s one sacrifice for sin is not sufficient to accomplish his purpose, is also opposed to revelation. We are told that, “Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” The sinner for whom Christ died is free because of his Substitute’s death; and the Substitute himself is free, for he has discharged every liability, and given to God the full satisfaction that divine justice required.

“He bore on the tree the sentence for me,

And now both the Surety and sinner are free.”

Take a good look at Calvary; get the cross distinctly photographed upon your eyeballs; behold the five wounds and the bloody sweat. The whole gospel was hung on the cross. It was all there; the battle and the victory, the price and the purchase, the doom and the deliverance, the cross and the crown. See again, in the death of Christ on the cross, a clear idea of what he meant to do, and of what he actually did when he laid down his life for us; and be you glad that once, and only once, this great deed had to be done. Nothing more is wanted, Christ has put away the sin of those for whom the covenant was made, according to the word that we read just now, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” “Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”

That will stand as a preface. Now I want, with great earnestness,-I fear with much weakness, but still with great earnestness,-to set before you, beloved friends, a summary of the way in which Christ has saved his people. It matters not how feebly the truth is put to you; if you do but lay hold of it, and firmly grasp it by faith, your souls are saved. I shall have to speak to you briefly upon five things; first, the gigantic evil: “sin.” Secondly, the glorious Remover of it: “He.” Thirdly, the memorable event: “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared.” Fourthly, the special sacrifice: “the sacrifice of himself.” Fifthly, and lastly, the grand achievement: “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

First, notice, in considering what our text says that Christ has done, the gigantic evil. “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin.”

“Sin.” It is a very little word, but it contains an awful abyss of meaning. “Sin” is transgression against God, rebellion against the King of kings; violation of the law of right; commission of all manner of wrong. Sin is in every one of us; we have all committed it, we have all been defiled with it. Christ came “to put away sin.” You see, the evil is put in one word, as if wrong-doing was made into one lump, all heaped together, and called, not “sins”, but “sin.” Can you catch the idea? All the sinfulness, all the omissions, all the commissions, and all the tendencies to rebel that ever were in the world, are all piled together, hill upon hill, mountain upon mountain, and then called by this one name, “sin.”

Now, sin is that which makes man obnoxious to God. Man, as a creature, God loves. Man, as a sinner, God cannot love. Sin is loathsome to God; he is so pure that he cannot bear impurity, so just that the thought of injustice is abhorrent to him. He cannot look upon iniquity without hating it; it is contrary to his divine nature. His anger burns like coals of juniper against sin. This it is that makes sin so dreadful to us, because, in consequence of it, we have become obnoxious to God.

And sin, dear friends, also involves man in punishment. Inasmuch as we have committed sin, we are exposed to the just and righteous wrath of God. Wherever there is sin, there must be penalty. Laws made without the sanction of reward and punishment are inoperative. God will never suffer his righteous law to be broken with impunity. His word still declares, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Where there is sin, there must be punishment; and although the doctrine is not preached as often as it ought to be, yet every man’s conscience knows that there is a dreadful hell, there is a worm that dieth not, there is a fire that never can be quenched, and all these are reserved for unforgiven sinners. This makes sin so terrible an evil. Unless God vacates the throne of the universe, sin must be visited with punishment, and banished from his presence.

Yet again, dear friends, sin effectually shuts the door of hope on men. The guilty cannot dwell with God while they are guilty. They must be cleansed from sin before they can walk with him in white. Into heaven there entereth nothing that defileth; and if you and I are not pardoned, we must be separated from God for ever. Nothing we can do, while sin remains upon us, can bring us reconciliation with God. Sin must be put away first. It lies across the road to heaven, and blocks up the door by which we come to God; and, unless it be removed, we are lost, lost, lost, and lost for ever.

Do you all know, in your consciences and hearts, what sin means? I remember that, when I learned that dread lesson, I felt that I was the most unhappy youth in all Her Majesty’s dominions. Sin went to bed with me, and scared me with visions. Sin rose with me, and made the most glorious landscape dark and gloomy. I had a terrible sound of judgment to come ever ringing in my ears. I knew that I was guilty; I did not need for God to condemn me, I condemned myself; I sat in judgment upon my own heart, and I condemned myself to hell. Sin! If you really feel it, no burning-irons in the hand of the most cruel inquisitor would ever pain you as sin does. Speak of diseases, and there are some that cause intense agony, but there is no disease that pains like sin on the conscience. Sin on the conscience! It is a prison, a rack, a cross whereon all joy hangs crucified, and bleeding to death.

That is the first thing in my text, the gigantic evil. In proportion as you feel the evil of sin, you will rejoice to hear that Christ came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. That is my next point.

In the second place, having spoken of the gigantic evil that needed to be removed, let me now speak of the glorious Remover of it. Who was it that undertook to remove this mountain of guilt? “Once in the end of the world hath He appeared.” Who is this that has appeared to put away sin?

I will not delay for a moment, but tell you at once that he that appeared was very God of very God. He against whom sin had been committed, he who will judge the quick and the dead; he it was who appeared to put away sin. Is there not great comfort in this fact? It is the Son of God who has undertaken this more than Herculean labour. He appeared, sinner, to save you; God appeared, to put away sin. Lost one, to find you, the great Shepherd has appeared; your case is not hopeless, for he has appeared. Had anybody else than God undertaken the task of putting away sin, it could never have been accomplished; but it can be accomplished now, for He who appeared is one with whom nothing is impossible. Listen to that, and be comforted.

Who is it that appeared? It is He, the commissioned of the Father. Christ did not come as an amateur Saviour, trying an experiment on his own account; he came as the chosen Mediator, ordained of God for this tremendous task. The Saviour that I preach to you is no invention of my own brain. He is no great one who, of his own accord alone, stepped into the gap without orders from heaven. No; but he appeared whom the Father chose for the work, and sent, commissioned to perform it. His very name, Christ, tells of his anointing for this service.

“Thus saith God of his Anointed;

He shall let my people go;

’Tis the work for him appointed,

’Tis the work that he shall do;

And my city

He shall found, and build it too.”

“He appeared,” he who was pledged in covenant to do it; for, of old, before the world was, he became the Surety of the covenant on behalf of his people. He undertook to redeem them. His Father gave him a people to be his own, and he declared that he would do the Father’s will, and perfect those whom the Father had given him. “He appeared.” Ah, dear friends, if the brightest angel had appeared to save us, we might have trembled lest he should be unequal to the task; but when he comes whom God has sent, whom God has qualified, and who is himself God, he came upon an errand which he is able to accomplish. Think of that, and be comforted.

But now, in the third place, we come to the memorable event mentioned in our text. We are told that, in order that he might save us, Christ appeared: “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared.” He could not sit in heaven, and do this great work. With all reverence to the blessed Son of God, we can truly say that he could not have saved us if he had kept his throne, and not left the courts of glory; but he appeared. I have not to tell you, at this time, that he will appear, although that also is true, for “unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation,” but he has appeared.

He appeared, first, as a babe at Bethlehem, swaddled like any other child. This babe is “the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace;” and he has “appeared” on earth in human form. Made in fashion as a man, he has taken upon himself our nature, the Infinite is linked with the infant, the Eternal with the puling child. He, on whom all worlds are hanging, hangs upon a woman’s breast. He must do that, or he cannot put away sin.

Thirty years rolled on; and he had toiled, in obscurity, as a carpenter at Nazareth. The Baptist comes, and proclaims the advent of the Redeemer, and he is there to the moment. Into the waters of Jordan he descends, and John with him; the servant baptizes his Lord; and, as he rises from the water-floods, the heavens are opened, the dove descends, it rests upon him, and God proclaims him to be his Son, in whom he is well pleased. Thus Christ, anointed at Jordan, appeared to inaugurate his public ministry, and, by his baptism, to begin working a robe of righteousness which is for ever to adorn us, poor naked sinners. “In the end of the world he appeared;” his manifestation commenced at Bethlehem, and was continued at Jordan.

Three more years rolled by, years of toil and suffering; and now the great debt was to be paid, the bill was presented; would he be there to meet it? The charge was laid; would he be there to answer to it? Where should he be but among those olives in Gethsemane, surrendering himself? The night is chill, the moon is shining; and he is there in prayer. But what prayer! Never did the earth hear such groans and cries. He is there wrestling; but what wrestling! He sweats, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. The sinner is called for, and the sinner’s Substitute has put in an appearance on his behalf in the lonely garden of Gethsemane, so rightly named, the olive-press. In a garden man’s first sin was committed; in a garden man’s Substitute was arrested.

But now comes the darkest hour of all. Christ appeared on Calvary, atoning for sin. The sun is veiled as though unable to look upon such a scene of sorrow. Hear the dread artillery of heaven; the Father thunders forth his wrath against sin. Behold the flames of fire, the forked lightnings of God’s anger against all iniquity. Who is to bear them? In whose breast shall they be quenched? He comes. On yonder tree he presents himself; he hides not his face from shame and spitting; and, at last, upon the cross, he hides not himself from divine desertion. Hear his piteous cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Then was fulfilled the prophecy given by the mouth of Zechariah, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.” That sword is sheathed in Christ’s heart.

“Jehovah bade his sword awake,

O Christ, it woke ’gainst thee;

Thy blood the flaming blade must slake,

Thy heart its sheath must be!

All for my sake, my peace to make:

Now sleeps that sword for me.”

Yes, Christ appeared; he was visibly crucified among men; and observed by the gloating eyes of cruel men of hate, he appeared in that dread day of judgment and of vengeance. So it was, and only so, that he was able to put away sin.

We have come thus far, and the path has been strewn with wonders; but only he who knows the meaning of the word “sin” will see any wonder in it. If sin has made the earth tremble under your feet, if sin has scorched you like the blast of a furnace, if sin has burned into your very soul, and killed all your joy, you will hear with delight that God appeared here as man, for this purpose, to put away sin.

Now, we must go a step farther, and consider the special sacrifice which Christ offered. He who appeared put away sin by a sacrifice, and that sacrifice was himself: “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

There was never any way of putting away sin except by sacrifice. The Bible never tells us of any other way; human thought or tradition has never discovered any other way. Find a people with a religion, and you are sure to find a people with a sacrifice. It is very strange; but, wherever our missionaries go, if they find God at all thought of, they find sacrifices being offered. It must be so; for man has this law written upon his very conscience.

Christ must bring a sacrifice; but observe what it was; he offered himself. “He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” his whole self. Christ did not give to us merely a part of himself; he gave himself. Let me say those sweet words again, “He loved me, and gave himself for me.” His blood? Yes. His hands, his feet, his side? Yes. His body, his soul? Yes; but you need not say all that; “He gave himself.” “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” Whatever Christ was in himself, he gave that; he offered himself as a sacrifice for sin. What a wonderful sacrifice! Ten thousand bullocks, myriads of sheep, enough to cover all the pastures of the earth, what would their blood avail? But God, God incarnate, Immanuel, God with us, offers himself. What condescension, what love, what infinite pity, that he should sacrifice himself for his enemies, for those who had broken his holy law!

Christ offered himself alone. He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; not by the sacrifice of his Church, not by the sacrifice of martyrs, not by the offering of wafers and consecrated wine; but by the sacrifice of himself alone. You must not add anything to Christ’s sacrifice. Christ does not put away sin through your tears, and your grief, and your merit, and your almsgiving. No, he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; nothing else. You must take nothing from Christ’s sacrifice, and you must add nothing to it.

That sacrifice, too, if I read the Greek aright, was a slain sacrifice, a bloody sacrifice. Christ gave his life. It is written, “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” He shed his blood. “The blood is the life thereof,” is true of Christ’s sacrifice; for without blood-shedding it would have been of no avail. He poured out his soul unto death. In instituting that dear memorial feast, which you are bidden to observe in remembrance of him, he said, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” The putting away of sin was accomplished by Christ dying in the room, and place, and stead of guilty men. Christ says, “I will take the punishment of sin.” He takes it; he bears it on the cross. Sinful man, hear this! Take that fact to be true, and rest your whole soul on it, and you are saved. Christ died for believers. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you believe in Christ, that is, if you trust him; if you trust him now, if you trust him altogether, if you trust him alone, and say, “There I am resting, believing that Christ died for me,” you are saved; for Christ has put away your sin; you shall not die. How can a man die when his sin is put away by Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice?

“If sin be pardon’d, I’m secure;

Death hath no sting beside;

The law gives sin its damning power;

But Christ, my Ransom, died.”

Christ’s appearing, then, was that he might, as a High Priest, present a sacrifice; he presented himself to the death on the cross; he died, and by that dying he has put away sin.

That brings me to my closing point, the grand achievement. Christ appeared “to put away sin.” What can that mean?

It means, first, that Christ has put away sin as to its exclusion of men from God. Man, by his sin, had made this world so obnoxious to Jehovah that God could not deal with its inhabitants apart from Christ’s sacrifice. He is infinitely merciful, but he is also infinitely just; and the world had become so putrid a thing that he declared that he repented that he had made man upon the earth. Now this whole world of ours must have gone down into eternal ruin had not Christ come. John the Baptist cried, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” the whole bulk of it. It was there and then removed at one stroke, so that God could deal with man, could send an embassage of peace to this poor guilty world, and could come upon gospel terms of free grace and pardon to deal with a guilty race. That was done. You may all thank God for that.

But there is more wanted than that. When God comes to deal with men, we find, next, that Christ has for every believer taken away sin as to its punishment. I mean what I say. God cannot punish twice for the same offence; and to lay sin upon Christ, and then to demand its penalty of those for whom he stood as Substitute, would be to demand compensation twice and punishment twice for one offence; but this can never be.

“Payment God cannot twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,

And then again at mine.”

That were a gross injustice; and the Judge of all the earth must do right. Behold, then, this fact. If thou believest in Christ Jesus, he bore the punishment of thy sin. In that short space upon the tree, the infinity of his nature enabled him to render to God’s justice a vindication which is better than if all for whom he died had gone to hell. Had all been lost, God’s justice would not have been vindicated so well as when his own dear Son-

“Bore, that we might never bear,

His Father’s righteous ire.”

He has made the law more honourable by his death at its hands than it could have been if all the race of men had been condemned eternally. Oh, soul, if thou believest in Jesus, the chastisement of thy peace was upon him, and with his stripes thou art healed! “He was made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” And was he cursed for me, and shall I be cursed, too? That would not be consistent with divine equity. The true believer may plead the justice as well as the mercy of God in the matter of his absolution. If Christ died, then all who were in Christ died with him; and when he rose, they all rose with him; and when God accepted him by raising him from the dead, he accepted all who were in him. Glory be to his holy name!

Further, Christ put away sin, as to its condemning power. You have felt the condemning power of sin; I have supposed you have done so. If so, listen. “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Thou art a sinner, but thy sin is not imputed to thee, but to him who stood as thy Sponsor, thy Paymaster, thy Surety. Thy sins were numbered on the Scapegoat’s head of old, even on Christ, the divinely-ordained Substitute for all his people. As David wrote, “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile!” Thy sin doth not condemn thee; for Christ has been condemned in thy stead. “Neither do I condemn thee,” saith the Lord; “Go in peace.”

Yet once more, sin is put away now as to its reigning power; for, if sin be pardoned through the atoning blood, we come to love Christ; and loving Christ, away goes every sin. The man for whom Christ died, who knows it, who knows that Christ put away sin, must love Christ; and loving Christ, he must hate sin, for to love sin and to love Christ at the same time, would be impossible. If he bore my guilt, then I am not my own; for I am bought with a price, even with his most precious blood. He that suffered in my stead shall now my Master be. I lie at his dear feet, and bless his name.

“Oh, how sweet to view the flowing

Of his sin-atoning blood,

With divine assurance knowing

He has made my peace with God!”

When you get as far as that, then you love Christ, and serve him. I have told you before of the bricklayer who fell off a scaffold, and was taken up so injured that it was seen that he must soon die. A good clergyman, bending over him, said, “My dear man, you had better make your peace with God.” The poor fellow opened his eyes, and said, “Make my peace with God, sir? Why, that was done for me more than eighteen hundred years ago by him who took my sin, and suffered in my stead.” Thank God for that! I hope that many of you could say the same; you would not then talk about making your peace with God, or about doing something to reconcile you to God. The very thought of adding anything to Christ’s finished work, is blasphemy. Believe that he has done all that is required, and rest in it, and be happy all your days.

With this remark I finish. Sin is put away as to its very existence. Where has sin gone to when a man believes in Christ? Micah says, “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea,” where they will never be fished up again. The devil himself may fish to all eternity, but he will never fish them up again. God has cast the sins of believers into the depths of the sea. Where have they gone? “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” How far is the east from the west? Will you go and measure it on the globe? Fly up to the heavens, and see how far you can go east, and how far you can go west. Is there any bound to space? So far has God removed our transgressions from us.

A more wonderful expression is this, “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” Where is that? Where is God’s back? Is there any place behind his back? He is everywhere present, and everywhere seen. It must be nowhere at all, then; and our sins are thrown into the nowhere. He that believes in Christ may know of a surety that his iniquities have gone into the nowhere. Listen once more: “In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.” Thus is sin annihilated for all who trust the Saviour. Listen to Daniel’s description of the work of Messiah the Prince, “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins.” If he has made an end of them, there is an end of them. O my heart, sing hallelujah! Let every beat of my pulse be a hallelujah unto him who has put away my sin! Poor sinner, if you are black as the devil with sin, crimson to the very core with iniquity, yet wash in the fountain filled with the blood of the Lamb, and you shall be whiter than snow; for the Lord Jesus, by the sacrifice of himself, hath for ever put away the sin of all who trust him.

Dear hearers, have you laid hold of this great truth? Then I do not care to what sect you belong; and I do not care what your standing in life is; and I do not care what your opinion in politics may be. Has Christ put away your sin? If he has, be as happy as the days are long in summertime; and be as bright as the garden is gay in June. Sing like angels; you have more to sing about than angels have; for never did they taste redeeming grace and dying love. They were never lost, and therefore never found; never enslaved, and therefore never redeemed. God in human flesh has died for you. God loved you so that he would be nailed to a tree for you. You have sinned; but you are to-day as if you had never sinned. “He that is washed is clean every whit.” “And ye are washed.” Oh, I say again, let your heart beat hallelujah! Let your pulse seem to say, “Bless, bless, bless, bless, bless the Lord!”

“Oh!” says one, in a mournful and sorrowful tone, “I am afraid it is not so with me.” Well, then, do not go to sleep to-night till it is. If thou believest in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is so. “Well, I hope that it is so,” says one. Away with your hoping! What is the good of that? There are many people that go hoping, hoping, hopping, hopping. Get out of that hoping and hopping; and walk steadily on this sure ground: Christ died for all who believe in him, effectually died, not died according to that theory which teaches that he died no more for Peter than he did for Judas, and died for those who are already in hell as much as he died for those who will be in heaven. The universal theory of the atonement has precious little comfort in it; albeit that Christ’s death was universal in the removal of the hindrance to God’s dealing on terms of mercy with the world, yet he laid down his life for his sheep. He loved his Church, and gave himself for it. He hath redeemed us from among men, out of men. He hath taken us to be his own by the purchase of his blood; we are redeemed, washed, saved. If this is your case, go home, and be glad; let nobody beat you in holy merriment. There is a passage at the end of the parable of the prodigal that I like very much, “and they began to be merry.” The parable does not tell us when they left off being merry; but I suppose they are merry still. I know that, ever since my Father put the ring on my finger, and shoes on my feet, and gave me the kiss of love, and I knew that I was forgiven, I have been merry, and I mean to be merry still, till my merriment is lost in the merriment above, where they keep perpetual holiday, and sing to the praise of the Redeemer, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” To him be honour, and glory, and blessing, for ever and ever! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

HEBREWS 9:24-28; and 10:1-18

Chapter 9, verse 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,

Christ has not entered into any earthly temple or tabernacle.

24-26. Which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once-

And only once-

26. In the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

The Levitical priests continually repeated their sacrifice, for it was not effectual when offered only once; but our great High Priest has once for all presented a sacrifice which has made a full atonement for all his people’s sins, and there is therefore no need for it to be repeated.

27. And as it is appointed unto men once to die,

Notice how the apostle continues to introduce that important little key-word “once.”

27, 28. But after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered-

Only once-

28. To bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

May we be amongst the privileged company that look for him!

Chapter 10, verse 1. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

A man could go to the Levitical sacrifices twenty years running, and yet be no forwarder. He must go again and again as long as he lived. They were only figures and shadows and types; the real sacrifice is Christ.

2. For then-

If they had been effectual,-

2. Would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

Once forgiven, the sin would not have come back again. If the sacrifice had really cleansed the conscience of the offerer, he would not have had cause to present it again.

3-5. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh-

He who is the essence of it all, “When he cometh,”-

5-7. Into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

Types were no longer needed when the great Antitype had come. Christ was no longer pre-figured, for he was there in person. He put away the old shadows of the blood of bulls and goats when he brought his own real sacrifice, the true atonement for sin.

8, 9. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

The old law is gone, the first sacrifice is no longer presented, for the second is come, the real offering of Christ the Lamb of God.

10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Once, and only once. How Paul loves to recall this fact!

11, 12. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man,-

Note these glorious words, “This Man,”-

12, 13. After he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

He would not have sat down if his work had not been done. He would not have ceased from his priestly service of presenting sacrifice if his one offering had not been sufficient. This Man’s offering once, once, once, has done all that God demanded, and all that man required.

14. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

This glorious message is for you, beloved, if you believe in Christ. By his one sacrifice he has done all that you need; he has perfected you for ever.

15-17. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Treasure up these golden words: “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

18. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

The offering for sin is in order that sin may be put away; and if it be put away, so that God himself will remember it no more, what more is wanted? What more could be desired? Wherefore, let us rest in the one great finished work of Christ, and be perfectly happy. Sin is gone, wrath is over, for those for whom Christ died; they are perfected for ever through his one great sacrifice.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-395, 280, 289.

“clear shining after rain”

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 27th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, July 20th, 1890.

“As the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.”-2 Samuel 23:4.

What a blessing it is to the country if, at certain seasons, we have a time of clear shining after the rain! Under some circumstances, nothing but sunshine will save the crops that are ready to be reaped; and there will be great loss to the farming interest, and, indeed, to us all, unless we have the sunshine when it is needed. We must never neglect to pray to the Lord who alone can give, to the natural world, clear shining after rain.

Our text, however, has a higher meaning than this. These words occur in David’s description of a fit, true, and wise ruler. All rulers have not been fit to rule; indeed, in David’s day, and in most Oriental countries at the present time, the King, the Sultan, the Emperor, the Shah, all rule for themselves. Their one great business is to extort all the taxes they can from the people, and to give them as little as possible in return. To fleece the sheep, is the great business of an Oriental shepherd; to feed them, does not seem to enter into his mind. But David says that, where rulers were wise, just, and upright, their country flourished. A good ruler, especially in the East, where he had everything in his own hand when he came to the throne, was like “a morning without clouds”; and the people round him grew like the grass in times when, after heavy showers of rain, the sun looks forth with cheerful rays, and warms the earth into verdure. We may be thankful, dear friends, that we do not know what despotic rule means; for, good as it may occasionally happen to be, it may also be intolerably bad. Let other lands have what masters they will, but let us be free, and our own masters still, as we still are, thanks to the gracious providence of God that has smiled upon us.

The beautiful simile, by which David sets forth the rule of a good king, I will first take out of its connection, and look at it for other purposes; and then I will put it back into its connection, and use it as David used it, only in a higher sense. The beautiful picture that he draws is produced by a combination, first, rain, and then, clear shining after rain; and the most flourishing condition of spirituality is produced by the same two causes; it comes as the result of a combination of rain and sunshine. We shall never rise to the highest spiritual state by having all rain and no sunshine. Although we may prefer it, we shall never attain to the fullest fruit-bearing by having all sunshine, and no rain. God puts the one over against the other, the dark day of cloud and tempest against the bright day of sunshine and calm; and when the two influences work together in the soul, as they do in the natural world, they produce the greatest degree of fertility, and the best condition of heart and life.

I intend to use the text in four ways; and first, I shall show you how the “clear shining after rain” is manifested in the heart of the convert. In the second place, shall point out to you how this “clear shining after rain” often produces the best condition of things in the soul of the believer. Thirdly, I shall prove to you that our text makes a very happy combination in the ministry of the Word; and, in closing, I shall speak to you about the “clear shining after rain” in the ages to come.

I shall begin by showing you how the “clear shining after rain” is manifested in the heart of the convert.

When a man is truly converted, do you know how it is manifested? All conversions are not alike; there is a very great difference between them. Some are very definite; you can tell to a minute when the man is converted. Others are very indistinct; there is a long previous preparatory process, and you cannot say exactly when the man turned to God. If you get up to-morrow morning, and do not look at the Almanack, but look toward the east, and take a pencil and try to mark down exactly when the sun rises, I think it is highly probable that you will not manage the task correctly. On an extremely clear and bright morning, you might tell, to a second, when the rim of the sun appeared above the horizon; but we do not often have clear, bright mornings nowadays. We have not seen the sun much lately; and, probably, you would find that he was up before you had made the pencil mark, and most likely you would learn that he was up before you had discovered when he rose. So it is often in the workings of divine grace. Some men have the light of God; but they cannot tell when the light first came to them. Let none of you imagine that you are not converted because you do not know the hour when it occurred; otherwise, you would be as foolish as I should be if I said to some old lady, “How old are you?” “Well, I am somewhere about eighty.” “But when was your birthday? Do you not remember your birthday?” “No, sir, I do not.” Suppose I were to tell her she was not alive because she did not know her birthday, I should be very foolish; and if you say to yourself, “Soul, you were never born again because you do not know when the event happened,” you will be very foolish, too. If you can say, “One thing I know, whereas I was blind, but now I see,” be satisfied and grateful, even though you cannot tell when the great miracle was wrought. Conversions, then, are not all alike.

Yet, as a usual rule, the work of grace begins in the heart with a time of gloom. Clouds gather; there is a general dampness round about; the soul seems saturated with doubt, fear, dread. There is something coming, but the soul knows not what; it feels that it is very sinful, and deserves whatever punishment God may send. Perhaps some of you are passing through that stage of experience just now. You get sadder and yet more sad every day; and yet you do not quite know why. You used to go to the theatre, and you enjoyed it; but you went the other night, and it seemed very dreary to you, as indeed it is. You went off to some gay company, where you used to be very merry; but you seemed quite out of spirits, you could not join in their merriment, you were glad to get home. Something ails you; something ails you. Yes, the clouds are gathering over your head. That is how grace usually begins to work in the soul that God means to save and bless.

After the clouds, in the next place, the rain falls. The real work of the Spirit of God often follows upon an inward depression of spirit. Now you begin really to repent of sin; now are you sorry for the past; now you begin to sigh and cry for Christ. You wish you knew him; you wish you loved him. Tears begin to drop; or if they do not actually fall from your eyes, yet there are inward weepings, and your soul is getting moist now with deep contrition, hatred of sin, dread of God’s anger, the fear of the wrath to come, and a wish to lay hold on eternal life. Now the rains, the blessed rains, have come, and softened your heart. If we were to water all the fields in summer-time, when the sun is shining with a scorching heat, it would be of very little use indeed. An Irish friend of mine once said, that he had carefully noticed that it did not rain when the sun was shining; but that, whenever it rained, there were always some clouds to keep the sunshine off. There is a great truth in what my friend said. Rain becomes doubly precious to the earth when all the surroundings are suitable for its reception. All the atmosphere becomes damp; whereas, if rain could fall when all is dry and warm, mischief might come of it. Well, now, God’s Holy Spirit loves to come and work in man a congenial atmosphere, a holy tenderness, a devout heartbreaking; then with the clouds he brings a heavenly rain.

What comes after the rain? Then, the sun shines: “clear shining after rain.” I am describing the conversion of a man to God, not in a cast-iron style; for, as I have already told you, experiences differ. But, as a rule, after the softening, saturating influences of the Holy Spirit have come to the man, then the clouds go, the rain ceases, and there comes clear shining. The sun shines out. The man perceives that he is a sinner, but that Christ has come to save him. He sees his own blackness; but he believes that Christ can make him whiter than the snow. He mourns his own rebellions; but he rejoices that he is made a reconciled child, and admitted into the sacred family. Now look at him; his face is full of brightness; he looks as if he would like to dance, he feels so happy. His sins are washed away, he has believed in Jesus, he has rested, in Christ’s finished work, and now he is as merry as the birds in May. His cheerful exclamation is, “I feel like singing all the time,” for he is enjoying the clear shining after the rain. I should like to encourage any here to-night who are going through the rain time. Believe me, it will not last for ever; you shall yet say, “Lo, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come.” It will come all the sooner to you if you at once come to Christ. Look to him as lifted up on the cross for you; and you are now saved. God grant that you may do so at once!

Well, now, what happens after this? We have come as far as the clear shining after rain; what follows this? Why, then everything grows. The grass is sure to grow when we have mist and heat together; and when a soul, having felt its need of Christ, at last beholds the light of his countenance, then it begins to grow. I love to see young converts with all the freshness of their new-born faith; they have not borrowed their language from other people. I like to see them with their zeal; they are not quite so prudent as some of us older people are. You will find that they are doing this, and doing that, and doing the other good thing, and the prudent people tell them not to do too much. My dear young friend, do not listen to them! There is many an old saint who has been spokesman for the devil when he has tried to hold a young Christian back from doing more for Christ. I had a number of kind friends when I began labouring for the Lord, and especially when I began to preach; and these kind friends provided me with an unlimited quantity of blankets, and very wet blankets they were, too. They were afraid that I should get too hot in my Master’s service, so they were always ready with wet blankets to damp my ardour. I do think that, sometimes, when Satan wants to repress the zeal of young converts, he finds more efficient servants among good people than he does among bad ones. Brethren, let the young converts grow; they will not grow too fast. Let them serve God zealously; they will not do too much for him. Let them burn with vehement zeal; there are plenty in the world who will try to cool it down. God grant that our young friends may be able to resist that chilling influence, and still may be full of earnest might and spiritual strength in the service of their Saviour!

That, then, is the usual method of the progress of a convert; clouds, rain, clear shining, and then growth. We pray that we may see this process perfected in very many.

But now, secondly, I am going to use the text in another way. This “clear shining after rain” often produces the very best condition of things in the soul of the believer.

You will see this state of things manifested in trial followed by deliverance. Were you ever nearer to God, my dear tried friend, than after a very heavy affliction, when God appeared for you, and brought you out of it? I can only speak for myself; but I must say this, in times of prosperity I have not always felt so much the nearness of God as in moments of great sorrow and tribulation, when I have sobbed myself to sleep upon the breast of my dear Lord; and when I have awaked, and have found that he has done for me what my helplessness could not do, and has set me free from my foes, and made me to rejoice in his name, then have I seen him; then have I known him, when he has delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. See, then, dear souls, you who love the Lord, you may expect to have trials, and you may expect to have deliverances, too, for your very best state of growth comes of the two together; rain, and then the clear shining after the rain; trial followed by deliverance.

Next, this experience is realized in humiliation of self followed by joy in the Lord. It is a very healthy thing for a man to be made to know himself; and if he is made to know himself, he will have no cause for boasting. There is not a corner in our nature in which we may sit down, and say, “I have something which is good within me which I have myself wrought out.” If there be anything good in us, it is the gift of God alone. The Lord often takes us down into our own natural hearts; and there conducts us from chamber to chamber, that we may see our own filthiness and vileness. I suppose that nobody here knows quite how bad he is by nature. If we could know it fully, our reason might reel. We might never be able to hope again, if we fully knew all the depravity of our hearts. Now, for a man to have plenty of rain to make him feel how evil he is, and then to have coupled with that a full conviction of the greatness and blessedness of Christ, and of his own interest in Christ; to see sin, and then to see the one great Sacrifice for sin; to see our death, and then to see Christ our life; this is the very best condition for any of us to be in. I would not have you glory in Christ, I do not think you can rightly glory in Christ, unless you also sorrow because of your own distance from him, and your own natural depravity. It is for our good to have this twofold experience. We might get presumptuous if we were allowed always to enjoy the clear shining; we might think that there was no reason to watch, no further cause to carry the shield of faith, or to wield the sword of the Spirit. To preserve us from this evil, we often get taken down a notch or two. We are made to see our necessity, that we may value, all the more, the riches of God in Christ Jesus. Put those two together, deep self-humiliation and highly prizing our precious Christ, and you have a condition of things in which a child of God can grow.

Next, I think there is another happy combination of rain and clear shining, namely, tenderness mixed with assurance. I like to meet with that man, whom Mr. Bunyan speaks of in his “Pilgrim’s Progress”, who was, above many, tender of sin. He was not afraid of lions; but he was dreadfully afraid of sins. He was not afraid of Vanity Fair; it had no charms for him; but he had some doubts about his interest in the celestial country. I love to see a child of God who, like Mr. Fearing, is very tender of sin. I know some who hardly dare put one foot before the other, for fear they should do wrong. I do not like this tenderness to become morbid; for then it causes unnecessary grief; but yet holy tenderness is a very beautiful characteristic of a child of God when it has mingled with it the clear shining of a full assurance that enables the man to say, “I know whom I have believed; I know I am God’s child; I know that none shall pluck me from his hand.”

“More blessed, but not more secure,

Are the glorified spirits in heaven.”

These two things, tenderness and assurance, operating together, will produce a high state of spiritual fertility. It is a dreadful thing to see the full assurance of some men! I heard of one man, in a public-house, saying, as he drank I do not know how many glasses of beer, “I may take what I like, for I am a child of God.” O wretched blasphemer! What worse blasphemy could there be than such talk as thine? He who is a true child of God says to himself, “I do not ask how far I may go without crossing the line of safety; but I do ask that I may be kept from temptation and sin; and if there are some things that I might do, if they expose me to temptation, or expose others to it, I will have nothing to do with them.” Give me, then, a man of tender heart, who, at the same time, mixes full assurance with his tenderness. He is the man who will bring forth fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Once again, our text suggests to us the blending of experience and knowledge. Read the Westminster Assembly’s Confession of Faith; by all manner of means get a clear view of the doctrines of grace, so that you can state them to others, and know why you hold them firmly yourself; but, remember, if you do not experience them in your own heart, if you do not know the power of them in your own life, you know nothing at all about them. Dry doctrine, without the damping of the Spirit of God, may only make fuel for your eternal destruction. When a man accommodates his religion up in the garret of his head, and never takes it down into the parlour of his heart, that man’s religion is vain. We must experience the power of the gospel in our own souls if it is to be of real service to us.

“True religion’s more than notion,

Something must be known and felt.”

It is very nice to talk about Christ; but do you trust him as your Saviour? It may be very easy to speak about the new birth; but have you felt it? When you get these two things together, first the rain of gracious experience, and then the clear shining of intellectual knowledge of Scripture, then will you bring forth fruit unto God.

I must not linger longer over this very interesting point of the clear shining after rain as illustrated in the soul of the believer.

But now, in the third place, I think, dear friends, our text makes a very happy combination in the ministry of the Word.

You know that, nowadays, people will listen to anybody, provided that he is a clever preacher. I am often astonished at congregations that had a grand old man for preacher, who always preached them good sound doctrine, and I thought their church was a very tower of orthodoxy; but when he dies, they pick on somebody who preaches no one knows what; but, then, he does it cleverly, and so they have him, to their eternal disgrace, and to the injury of the Church of God.

What is a good sermon? Well, I am very much of the opinion of old King George the Third, in his latter days. The old man knew the truth, and loved it; and when he used to hear his fine court chaplains, he would often go out of the chapel, and say, “It will not do; nothing to feed a soul on.” Old George had not too much brains; but all the things he did know, he clung to. Another time, as he went out of the chapel, he would say, “That will do; that will do; a soul can feed on that.” That was his way of judging a sermon: “Can a soul feed on it?” And if a soul could not feed on it, it did not suit George the Third. I hope that it will not suit you either, unless it stands this test, Can a soul feed on it? You may have the best china dinner-service, and the silver plate, and the damask table-cloth; but if, on the table, there is nothing but dry bones, I should not recommend you to go there to dinner. We want something to eat both for our bodies and our souls if they are to be kept healthy.

He who would have a fruitful ministry must have clear shining after the rain, by which I mean, first, law, and then, gospel. We must preach plainly against sin. In our ministry there must be rain, we must have the clouds and darkness, and divine justice bearing heavily upon the sinner’s conscience. Then comes in Christ crucified, full atonement, simple faith, and clear shining of comfort to the believing sinner. But there must be the rain first. He who preaches all sweetness and all love, and has nothing to do with warning men of the consequences of sin, may be thought to be very loving; but, in truth, he is altogether unfaithful to the souls of men. I do not suppose that any of you women can sew without needles. Yet your object is not simply to get the needle into the stuff, is it? No; you want to get in a bit of cotton, or thread, or silk. Well, now, try whether you can sew with a piece of silk alone. You cannot do so. You must put in the needle first, must you not? And he who would do any work for God, must have a sharp needle, as he deals plainly with the sin of man, and he must then draw after it the silken thread of the gospel of Christ. There must be rain first, and clear shining afterwards.

But, dear friends, when we come to deal with you, we have to tell you that what we want to see in you is, first, repentance, and then zeal: rain, and then clear shining. I am always sorry if my ministry produces men and women who, on a sudden, seem to become Christians directly, without any sense of sin, without any softening, without any fear of divine wrath, for I am afraid that those clear shinings without any rain will parch the ground, and make it dry, but never cause it to bring forth true fruit unto God. In our ministry, dear friends, it must not be so; and here I speak to my fellow-Christians as well as to myself. Your ministry may be in the Sunday-school, or in street-preaching, or sick-visiting, but all true ministry must have rain about it as well as sunshine.

If your service is to be successful, bringing glory to God, there must be in it, first, prayer, and then, blessing. You must go forth with prayer, you must go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and afterwards there will come the clear shining, when you return rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you. God will bless and prosper your work if you go to it in the spirit of your Saviour; but there must be deep anxiety in your soul, and great longings and anguish before God, if you expect to have the Lord’s blessing resting upon your efforts to serve him.

I think my text also means grace softening, and then shining. I wish that the Lord would visit all his Church with a heavy shower of rain; I mean, by way of softening the Church, making the Church loving in spirit, and anxious for souls. Then what would happen? The Lord would soon visit it with clear shining, and we should see conversions as numerous as the blades of grass which spring up in the fields. Oh, come, come, divine dew, and rest on this assembly now, and on this church all the days of the week! Then shine, O Sun of righteousness, with glorious warmth and power, and we shall soon see a plentiful harvest, to the praise and glory of our God!

This is, I think, the meaning of the expression, “clear shining after rain”, as applied to the ministry of the Word.

I have done when I have said just this much with regard to the clear shining after rain in the ages to come.

I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet. Every now and then I see the walls of our city placarded with an intimation that something very wonderful is going to happen in such and such a year. Now, believe me, brethren, it may be, but then it may not be. Whenever I find a brother quite sure about what will happen on April the 1st, in such and such a year, I begin to wonder whether he knows anything at all about the subject; I suspect that all those who prophesy in these days, apart from the sacred Word, are as much to be respected as the Norwood gipsy, and no more. And yet I am now going to turn prophet, taking my prophecy out of the Word of God.

And, first, times of gloom are to be expected. There has been held, in this city of London, a conference with regard to the establishment of peace. I heartily sympathize with the grand object of that conference. Oh, that wars might cease unto the ends of the earth! War is the sum of all villanies. There is nothing to be said for it. It is a monstrous thing that men should murder one another wholesale. But there will be no end of war from anything that you and I can do apart from preaching the gospel of Christ. When the King comes, when Jesus comes, when the King shall reign in righteousness, there will be an end to war; but till then there will be wars and rumours of wars; and when you hear of them, do not be disturbed as though everything was going to pieces. There will be clear shinings after the rain. Ay, though it be a reign of blood, afterwards he shall shine out who is our peace, and who will set up an unsuffering kingdom which shall know no end. In religious matters, do not expect that the world will go on getting better and better. I think the belief that it is already much improved has a very slight foundation of fact. We have learned the art of hiding sin behind the vestments of hypocrisy, but we are not much better after all. We have changed the fashion of sin, but the sin is there. Now, do not expect to see the churches always sound, and religion always spreading. You may see, somebody will see, a falling away before the coming of Christ, and a departure from the faith. “The love of many shall wax cold.” It shall come to pass that, if you ask for faith, you will scarcely find it, for, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Scarcely. It will be a very rare commodity; but be not distressed, even though all men are turned aside from the Christ of God, for there will be “clear shinings after the rain.”

Although times of gloom are to be expected, an age of light will follow. There will come a day when Christ shall reign amongst his ancients gloriously; when the ungodly shall hide themselves in obscure places, and the meek shall have dominion in the earth, and the sons of God in that morning shall be owned as the noblest of men. There is to come yet “a thousand years” (whatever that period may mean) of a reign of righteousness, wherein the whole of the earth shall be filled with the glory of God, and become the vestibule of heaven. Have comfort about that glorious truth.

Now, dear friend, with regard to yourself, it may be that, unless the Lord shall soon come to his temple, you will grow old, and as you grow old, the clouds will return after the rain. You will get into times of infirmity when there will be rain, and rain, and rain, and rain, and, perhaps, little sunshine; yet expect that, before you die, you will come to the clear shining after the rain. There is a place called the land of Beulah. It lieth on the verge of the Jordan; but it also lieth, with that little stream before it, on the verge of the heavenly Canaan. That land is full of light and flowers, and I have heard that, if the wind blows in the right direction, you may hear the music of heaven in that land, and from a hill in that land you may see the Celestial City. I have known some old men and women who have reached the land of Beulah. It has been a great delight to me to sit and talk with them in their last days. They have had clear shinings after the rain. They have told me all about the rain, about the children dying, about the wife who was buried long ago, about the poverty they passed through, about the persecution they endured, and so on, and so on. All that is rain; but they have never been able to tell me all about the clear shinings; but they have said that they felt as happy as they could be out of heaven, and they had no particular wish about whether they should stay or whether they should go. I saw, the other day, an old man, who had passed his ninety-first year; and though he looked like little more than a skeleton, it was grand to hear him speak of the faithfulness of God, and the doctrines of the gospel. He was as clear on those points as ever he was; and, perhaps, even firmer. It was a great treat to listen to him. I pray that all of us may, in due time, get to the land Beulah, where all is bright and happy; and there may we dwell till the post comes from the King to say that we must pass the stream to joyfully behold our Lord; and, oh, what clear shining after rain will there be when we once get home, when we behold his face, and when we, like himself, have risen from the dead, and stand perfect and complete in our flesh to behold our God! Oh, the glory and the bliss of being-

“For ever with the Lord,”

after the rain is over and gone! Go through it. Never be afraid of all the drenchings you may get on your way to glory. Get home as quickly as you can along the good old road; for, after the rain, comes the clear shining. Be this the motto of each one of you from this sweet Sabbath evening hour, “Clear shining after rain.” God bless you all! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 32

A Psalm of David,

You can see David all through this Psalm; here we have David’s sin, David’s confession of sin, David’s pardon. It is a Psalm of David. Oh, that we might each one make it our own! It is entitled-

Maschil.

This is an instructive Psalm. The experience of one man is instructive to another. We learn the way in which we should walk, and sometimes the way in which we should not walk, by observing the footsteps of the flock. The Psalm begins with blessing.

Verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

I think I hear a sort of sigh of relief, as if the man had been burdened with a load of guilt, and now at last his sin is put away; and his sigh has more solemn joy in it than if it had been a song: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Beloved, you must know the bitterness of sin before you can know the blessedness of forgiveness; and you must have such a sight of sin as shall break your heart before you can understand the blessedness of the divine covering, that sacred coverlet which hides sin effectually, blots it out, and even makes it cease to be. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Would you not think so, dear burdened heart, if it ever came to your lot? I hope that it will be so to-night. Do not we think so, who remember the day when almighty mercy forgave us our transgression, and covered our sin? Indeed we do. This is one of the greatest blessednesses out of heaven. Perhaps, for a sort of still soft melody with much of the minor in it, this is the sweetest music in the whole Book, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

Now David must put the same truth in another form. He loves to reduplicate, to repeat again and again a truth which is very precious to him.

2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

Here are two reasons for the man’s blessedness: sin is not laid to his charge, and he is no longer deceitful; he no longer tries to palliate and to excuse his sin; he makes a clean breast of it; and God, in a higher sense, gives him a clean breast. He acknowledges the justice of God, and God displays his infinite mercy to him.

Now David tells us how he learned this sacred blessedness; what were the ways by which he went, which ended at last in this divine sweetness.

3, 4. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

I understand this to have been the feeling of David after his great sin, before he confessed it. He tried to excuse it to his conscience. It has been thought by some that David was, for at least nine months, in a very insensible state; but he does not appear to have been so. All the time until his sin was confessed and acknowledged, he was miserable. Because there was divine grace in his heart, sin could not dwell there with comfort. As he would not own his sin before the bar of God, pleading guilty, and waiting for judgment, as he kept silence, it preyed upon him so, that he seemed to grow prematurely old, and that, not only in his skin and his flesh, but his very bones were affected: “My bones waxed old.” Those solid pillars of the house of manhood trembled and were shaken under his awful sense of sin. You cannot be a child of God and sin, and then be happy. Other men may sin cheaply, but you cannot. If you are a man after God’s own heart, and you venture into uncleanness, it will sting you as does a viper; it will burn within your bones like coals of juniper.

“When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” David did pray, but he did not dare to call it prayer. It was like the moaning and groaning of a beast that is wounded, and faint, and near to die; and this terrible pain was upon him always: “For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.” God has a heavy hand for his sinful children. Other fathers may spoil their children with indulgence; but the Lord will not spoil his children. If we sin, we shall feel the weight of God’s hand. We ought to thank him for this; for though it brings great sorrow, yet it brings great safety to us. The worst thing that can happen to a man is to be allowed to sin, and yet to be happy in it. One of the best things for an erring believer is a taste of his Father’s rod.

“Thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” All David’s joy was squeezed out, pressed out, by the heavy hand of God. His flowers ceased to bloom; his fruit was withered; his experience was nothing but a hard drought, without a drop of moisture.

When David had gone so far, and had played only on the bass strings so long, he said, “Selah,” that is, “Screw up the harp strings, let us put them in tune again. We are going up to something better now.”

5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Oh, how swift is the divine compassion! Quick upon the heels of confession came that word from Nathan, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.” I can fancy David standing there, with the hot tears in his eyes, never so broken down as when his sin was all forgiven. Before he knew that he was pardoned, he stood tremblingly fearful, brokenhearted before God; but when Nathan had said (I will repeat those gracious words), “The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die,” oh, what gratitude he felt, and what tenderness, and what hatred of sin! Dear hearer, if you are burdened under a sense of sin, go and make confession to God straight away. If you feel very heavy to-night at the recollection of some great and grievous offence, if some scarlet spot is on your hand, and you cannot get rid of it, go and show it to God. With penitential honesty confess the sin, and it shall be forgiven you.

“Selah.” Now David puts the harp strings right again. They still seem to suffer from the previous strain; and so he says “Selah” once more. “Sursum corda.” Lift up the heart; let the whole soul go up to God.

6, 7. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place;

He had talked, in the first verse, of his sin being covered. Now he not only hides his sin beneath the divine covering, but he hides himself beneath the divine shelter: “Thou art my hiding place.” Thus does the believer sing-

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in thee.”

7. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble;

Lord, if thou hast taken away the greatest of all troubles, that is, guilt on the conscience, if thou hast really forgiven me, what trouble have I to be afraid of? “Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.”

7. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

If thou hast pardoned me, there is the making of all manner of music in the fact of my pardon. He that is washed by the precious blood of Jesus is the man to sing. Has not God made a chorister of him? John tells us, in the Revelation, that one of the elders said to him, concerning the white-robed throng, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.”

“Selah.” David must screw up the strings of his harp again, for now he wishes to exult in God, and to magnify his holy name, as he listens to his Lord’s gracious words.

8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Here is another blessing. The God who has forgiven the errings of the past, will preserve us from erring again. God’s flowers always bloom double. He gives us justification; but he adds sanctification. He pardons our sins; but he also makes disciples and scholars of us, and teaches us the art of holiness, which is the noblest art that man can learn: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” When we are willing to be guided, we hardly need a word from God; a look is enough, just a glance of his eye: “I will guide thee with mine eye.”

9. Be ye 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 unto thee.

Do you want bits and bridles? If you want them, you shall have them. If you will be a horse or a mule, you shall be treated as horses and mules are. There are some Christians that need to be driven with a very sharp snaffle; and they need to have their mouth made very tender, for now they are hard-mouthed; and, sometimes, they take the bit between their teeth, and try to run away instead of doing God’s bidding. Usually, the rods with which God scourges us are made of reeds grown in our own gardens. When God hides his face from his people, it is almost always behind clouds of dust which they have themselves made. You will have sorrow enough in the ordinary way to heaven; do not make an extra rod for your own back.

10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked:

This refers to you who are outside the family of God, who do not come under his rod, you are not in his love and favour, for you have no faith in his dear Son. Do not think that you will escape punishment. If the Lord “scourgeth every son whom he receiveth”, what will he do with his enemies? “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.”

10. But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.

He always wants mercy; for he is a sinner still. He shall always have mercy; for his Saviour lives still. “Mercy shall compass him about.”

11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

Be demonstrative; let men see that you are happy: “Shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” The Psalm is a joyful one, after all. David’s experience has taken him through a deep sense of his own sin; but it has brought him out into an elevated sense of God’s mercy; so he closes the Psalm with the jubilant exhortation, “Shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” So let us do this night, and for ever. Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-686, 716, 749.

paul the ready

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, December 4th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, May 22nd, 1890.

“I am ready.”-Romans 1:15.

I think Paul might have used these words as his motto. We had once a Saxon king called Ethelred the Unready; here we have an apostle who might be called Paul the Ready. The Lord Jesus no sooner called to him out of heaven, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” than he answered, “Who art thou, Lord?” Almost directly after, his question was, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” He was no sooner converted, than he was ready for holy service; and “straightway he preached Christ” in the synagogues at Damascus. All through his life, whatever happened to him, he was always ready. If he had to speak to crowds in the street, he had the fitting word; or if to the élite upon Mars’ hill, he was ready for the philosophers. If he talked to the Pharisees, he knew how to address them; and when he was brought before the Sanhedrim, and perceived the Pharisaic and Sadducean elements in it, he knew how to avail himself of their mutual jealousies to help his own escape. See him before Felix, before Festus, before Agrippa, he is always ready; and when he came to stand before Nero, God was with him, and delivered him out of the mouth of the lion. If you find him on board ship, he is ready to comfort men in the storm; and when he gets on shore, a shipwrecked prisoner, he is ready to gather sticks, to help to make the fires. At all points he is an all-round man, and an all-ready man; always ready to go wherever his Master sends him, and to do whatever his Lord appoints him.

In talking at this time about Paul’s readiness, I shall, first, dwell for a little while upon the state of Paul’s mind, as indicated by his declaration, “I am ready.” Secondly, I shall show that this state of mind arose from excellent principles; and, thirdly, I shall point out that this readiness produces admirable results wherever it is to be found.

First, let us consider the state of Paul’s mind, which enables him to say, “I am ready.”

I shall refer you to four passages where he expresses his readiness. The first is our text. Here we have Paul’s readiness to work. “So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” He had preached the gospel throughout a great part of Asia, he had crossed over into Europe, he had proclaimed the Word through Greece; and if ever an opportunity should occur for him to get to the capital of the world, whatever might be the danger to which he would be exposed, he was prepared to go. He was ready to go anywhere for Jesus, anywhere to preach the gospel, anywhere to win a soul, anywhere to comfort the people of God. “I am ready.” There is no place to which Paul was not ready to go. He was ready to make a journey into Spain; and if he did not come to this island of ours, which is a matter of question, undoubtedly he was ready to have gone to the utmost isles of the sea, and to lands and rivers unknown, to carry his Master’s mighty Word. Are we as ready as Paul was to go anywhere for Jesus, or do we feel that we could only work for Christ at home, and that we should not dare to go to the United States, or to Australia, or into some heathen land? Oh, may God keep us always on tiptoe, ready to move if the cloud moves, and equally ready to stay where we are if the cloud moveth not!

If Paul went to Rome, he would be going into the lion’s mouth; but he was ready for that, for lions had no kind of terror for him. He had fought with beasts at Ephesus. In spirit he had died in the mouth of the lion many a time, counting not his life dear unto him. I wish we were ready for all danger, all slander, all contumely, all poverty, all or anything that it might cost us to preach Christ where he is not known. The apostle was ready to go anywhere with the gospel, but he was not ready to preach another gospel; no one could make him ready to do that. He was not ready to hide the gospel, he was not ready to tone it down, he was not ready to abridge it or to extend it. He said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” As to the matter of preaching the gospel, Paul was always ready for that; he kept not back anyone of its truths, nor any part of its teaching. Even if it should bring upon him ridicule and contempt, though it should be to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, Paul would say, “As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel” to them all. He did not always feel alike fit for the work; he did not always find the same openings, or the same freedom in speech; but he was always ready to preach wherever the Lord gave him the opportunity.

If you will kindly turn to Acts 21:13, you will read, in the second place, of Paul’s readiness to suffer. He says, “I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” This is perhaps a greater thing than the former one; to be ready to suffer is more than to be ready to serve. To some of us it has become a habit to be ready to preach the gospel; but here was a man who was ready to suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus; so ready that he could not be dissuaded from it. He might preach the gospel; but why must he go to Jerusalem? All the world was before him; why must he go to that persecuting city? Everybody told him that he would have bonds and imprisonment, and perhaps death; but he cared nothing about all that; he said, “I am ready, I am ready.”

Beloved friends, are we ready to be scoffed at, to be thought idiots, to be put down amongst old-fashioned fossils? Perhaps so. Are we ready, if we should be required to do so, to lose friends for Christ’s sake, to have the cold shoulder for Christ’s sake? Perhaps so. Are we also ready, if it be the Lord’s will, to go home, to be carried upstairs, and to lie there for the next three months? Are we as ready as that poor woman, who said, “The Lord said to me, ‘Betty, mind the house, look after the children,’ and I did it. By-and-by, he said, ‘Betty, go upstairs, and cough twelve months.’ Shall I not do that also, and not complain, for it is all that I can do?” “I am ready.” You remember what is on the seal of the American Baptist Missionary Society, an ox with a plough on one side and a halter on the other, ready for either, ready to serve, or ready to suffer. You have not come to the highest style of readiness till you are ready for whatever the will of God may appoint for you. Unreadiness from this point of view is very common; but it shows unsubdued human nature. It is a relic of rebellion; for when we are fully sanctified, when every thought is brought into subjection to the mind of God, then the cry is not, “As I will,” but “As thou wilt.”

Ah! dear friends, while I am talking very feebly to you, I should not wonder but what you are saying to yourselves, “This is above us as yet; we shall need much more teaching of the Holy Spirit before we are ready for unknown sufferings, for lonely sufferings, for suffering that seemeth to have no good in it, useless suffering, for being put on the shelf, for being laid aside from the holy services of God’s house, and from the little works that once we were able to do for Christ. Are you ready? Can you answer, “Ready, aye, ready”? So it should be with you if you belong to Christ; and so it was with Paul.

The third passage I must now quote is not exactly the same in words; but it means the same as the others. It tells us of Paul’s readiness to do unpleasant work. I am afraid many of God’s servants fall short here. The passage is in 2 Cor. 10:6: “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” The church at Corinth had sunk into a very sad condition. It was a church that did not have any minister; it had an open ministry, and nobody knows what mischief comes of that kind of thing. Paul recommended them to try what a minister could do for them; for he said, “I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) that you submit yourselves unto such.” They were too gifted for that, and everybody wanted to speak. When a church is all mouth, what becomes of the body? If it were all mouth, it would simply become a vacuum, nothing more; and the church in Corinth became very much that. It was nobody’s business to administer discipline, for it was everybody’s business; and what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business, as we well know; so no discipline was administered, and the church became what we call “all sixes and sevens.” It stands in the Scriptures for ever as a warning against that method of church government, or, rather, of no church government at all.

Paul, when he went among these people, determined to administer discipline, and to try to put things right. He was not going to Corinth with a sword, or with any carnal weapon, or with anything of unkindness or hasty temper; but he was going with the Word of God. He wrote, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;” and he meant to go among the Corinthian professors, and pull down the stronghold of heathen vice that had entered the church to such an extent, that even at the Lord’s table some of them were drunken. Paul meant to deal honestly with all who were dishonouring the name of Christ. Now, dear friends, I speak especially to brethren whom God has put into the ministry, or put into office in the church, are you ready for this unpleasant duty? Oh, it costs some of us a great deal to say a strong thing! Perhaps we cannot say it at all without getting into a temper; and then we had better not say it at all. It is not easy to have firmness in the language combined with sweetness in the manner of uttering it. It is easy to congratulate friends, it is not difficult to condemn them in the gross; but it is another think to speak personally and faithfully to each erring one, and to be assured in our own souls that, as far as we have any responsibility in the matter, we will not tolerate an Achan in the camp, and will not have evil done knowingly in the house of God. It should be our endeavour, as God has made us overseers, not to overlook things that are evil, but really to oversee everything that is committed to our charge, and to try to set right whatever is wrong.

Is it not the case with you who are private members of churches, do you not sometimes find it difficult to rebuke sin? Even profane swearing will come under the notice of many Christian people without a word of rebuke from them. They say they thought it best to hold their tongue; you mean you thought it easiest for yourselves. Sometimes known wickedness comes before the eyes of Christians, and they excuse themselves, and say, “We did not like to interfere.” “Perhaps they were too gentle,” you say; I suggest that they were too lazy, too much inclined to save their own precious skins, too anxious to have the soft side of this life, and not willing to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Are you ready, as Paul was, to exhibit a holy indignation against sin, and lovingly and tenderly, yet firmly, in the name of the Lord to see that evil does not go unrebuked? If any man has come to this, I will not say that I envy him; but that I desire to be found in that position, so that, when the Lord cometh, none of the evil of this generation may lie at my door. When he shall come, and find his church lukewarm, faithless, adulterated by worldliness and all manner of heresies, I pray that he may not have to point his finger at unfaithful pastors, and say of any one of us, “Thou art the man who art responsible for this sad state of affairs.” Oh, may God make us ready for whatever is laid upon us; however unpleasant and contrary to our mind and feeling the task may be, may we be ready to do the Lord’s work, faithful even to the end!

Now, once more, will you kindly turn to 2 Timothy 4:6, where you have a verse well known to you all, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” Paul was ready to die; he was ready to loose his cable from earth, and to sail away to the haven of the blessed; and well he might be, for he could add, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Beloved friends, we cannot be ready to die unless we have been taught how to live. We who are active, and have talents to use, and health and strength with which to use those talents, must go on with “the greatest fight in the world” till we can say, “I have fought a good fight.” We must go on running the Christian race till we can say, “I have finished my course.” We must go on guarding the Word of God, and holding fast the truth of God, till we can say, “I have kept the faith.” It will be hard work to lie dying if we have been unfaithful. God’s infinite mercy may come in, and forgive and help us; and we may be “saved; yet so as by fire;” but if we would look forward to death with perfect readiness, having no dread or fear about it, but being as ready to die as we are to go to our beds to-night, then we must be kept faithful to God by his almighty grace. The faith must keep us, and we must keep the faith.

Thus, you see, Paul was ready for service, ready for suffering, ready for unpleasant duty, and ready to die. If I were to go round this Tabernacle, and ask of everyone, “My friend, are you ready in these four ways?” how many of you would be able to answer, “We are ready”? I am afraid many would have to shake their heads, and say, “I do not know what to say; I am doing my best in some style, but I cannot say that I have the readiness which the apostle claimed.”

Let me show you now that Paul’s readiness arose from excellent principles. That is our second point.

As for Paul’s readiness to preach, I should trace that to his solemn conviction of the truth of the gospel. If a man only thinks it is true, he will not care whether he preaches it, or does not preach it; but if he knows it is true, then he must preach it. I do not think we need find much fault with people nowadays for being too positive and dogmatic about the truth of God; the present current runs in quite another direction. A feeble faith, which might almost be mistaken for unbelief, is the common thing; and hence there is no great readiness to speak. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “As it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.” If I get a grip of a thing and know it is true, then I must tell it to others. The backbone of the preaching of Christ is a conviction of the truth of Christ.

Paul also had a dauntless courage in this matter. He said, “Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel!” Whatever happened to him if he did preach it, he had counted the cost, and he was quite ready for all the consequences of his action. He had a holy self-denial; so that he put himself out of the question. “I am ready for anything; I am ready to preach this gospel, if I am stoned, if I am thrown out of the city as dead, if I am imprisoned, if I am sent into the den of Cæsar at Rome.” Paul was ready, because his courage had been given him of God.

Paul was ready to preach the gospel at Rome because he had freed himself from all entanglement. You know how he put it, in writing to his son Timothy, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” There are some of us who get so tied up, and entangled, that we are not ready to do God’s service because we are all in knots through too much worldly business. Try, dear friends, you who are the servants of Christ, to keep yourselves as clear as you can of all entanglements. You have your living to earn; but serve God while you are earning it. If you see an opportunity of getting rich, but in order to do so you will have to deny yourself from Christ’s work, you will have to give up week-night services, and so on, do not thus entangle yourself; keep yourself as clear as you can. Her Majesty does not expect one of her soldiers to take to farming, and then to send word that he cannot go to battle because he has to get in his hay harvest, or he has his wheat to cut. He must come whenever he is called; and blessed is that good soldier of Jesus Christ who can come when he is wanted by his King and Captain. Sir Colin Campbell, when told that he was wanted to go to India, was asked, “How long will you take to get ready, Sir Colin?” He replied, “Twenty-four hours”; and in twenty-four hours he was ready to go. A Moravian was about to be sent by Zinzendorf to preach in Greenland. He had never heard of it before; but his leader called him, and said, “Brother, will you go to Greenland?” He answered, “Yes, sir.” “When will you go?” “When my boots come home from the cobbler;” and he did go as soon as his boots came home. He wanted nothing else but just that pair of boots, and he was ready to go. Paul, not even waiting for his boots to come home from the cobbler, says, “I am ready.” Oh, it is grand to find a man so little entangled that he can go where God would have him go, and can go at once.

Paul had, besides, such love for men, whether they were Jews, or Romans, or any other people, that he was ready to go anywhere to save them. He had also such zeal for God that it was a happiness to him to think of going to the furthest region if he might but preach Christ where He was not known; not building on another man’s foundation, but laying the first stone of the edifice himself. This, then, accounted for his readiness to preach; a holy conviction of the truth of what he had to preach, and of the need of preaching it.

But what helped Paul to be ready to suffer? Some here will have to suffer for Jesus Christ’s sake, though they may never be called to preach. Well, I should say, dear friends, first, that Paul was completely consecrated to the Lord. He was not his own, he was bought with a price; and that led him to feel that his Master might do whatever he liked with him. He belonged to Christ, he was Jesus Christ’s branded slave, and he was absolutely at Christ’s disposal. Moreover, he had such trust in his Lord that he felt, “whatever he does with me, it will be good and kind, and therefore I will make no condition, I will have no reserve from him; it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.” He had resolved to serve his Lord; and, therefore, if he had to be bound, or to die, he would not shrink back. He could have sung, as we sometimes sing, but he could carry it out better than we do,-

“Through floods and flames, if Jesus lead,

I’ll follow where he goes.”

A whole-hearted consecration, a child-like confidence, a deep-toned submission, these will make us ready for suffering, whatever it may be.

But however did Paul screw himself up to be ready to exercise discipline? That is, to me, the ugliest point of all. How could he bring himself to be able to do that? I think it was because he had not received his gospel of men, nor by men; and he had learned not to depend upon men, nor to look for their approval as the support of his life. He was able to lean on the Saviour, and to walk alone with his Lord. So long as he had Christ with him, he wanted nobody else. Paul had learned the fear of God, which casteth out the fear of man. “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker?” Remembering man leads to the forgetting of God. If we learn to speak very plainly, yet very lovingly, habitually cultivating frankness towards all Christian people, and even towards the ungodly, and do not know what it is to ask of any man leave to speak the truth, how much better it will be all round! May the Holy Spirit deepen in us the fear of God, and so take away from us the fear of man! Then, with Paul, each of us will be ready to say, even concerning the most unpleasant duty, “I am ready.”

But how came he to be able to say that he was ready to die? I will not dwell upon that. I have already told you that he felt ready to die because he could say that, as far as he had gone, he had finished the work God gave him to do, and he had kept the faith. Ah, dear friends, it is nothing but keeping faithful to God that will enable you to treat death as a friend! One dereliction of duty will be sufficient to rob you of comfort. When a traveller is walking, a very small stone in his shoe will lame him; and a very small offence against the integrity that God requires of his servants may do us great mischief. Did you ever notice, in Gideon’s life, that he had seventy sons, his own legitimate sons, and that he had one son who was the child of a harlot, and that one, Abimelech, killed his father’s seventy sons? So it may be that a good man has seventy virtues, but if he tolerates one wrong thing, it will be enough to rob him of the comfort of all the good things of this life, so that, when he comes to die, he may go limping and lame. Ay, and all his life long, he may go, like David did, halting even to the grave. May the Lord in mercy and love keep us right! If he teaches us how to live, we shall know how to die.

It is not dying that is the great difficulty; it is living. If we are but helped to fight the good fight of faith, to finish our course, and to keep the faith, we shall die right enough. As Mr. Wesley said when the good woman asked him, “Do you not sometimes feel an awe at the thought of dying?” “No,” he replied, “If I knew for certain that I was going to die to-morrow night, I should do just exactly what I am going to do. I am going to preach (I think it was) at Gloucester this afternoon, and this evening; and I shall go to lodge with friend So-and-so. I shall stay up with him till ten o’clock, and then I shall go to bed; and I shall be up at five, and ride over to Tewkesbury; and I shall preach there, and shall go to friend So-and-so’s for the night; and I shall go to bed at ten o’clock, and whether I live or not, it does not matter at all to me, for if I die, I shall wake up in glory. That is what I am going to do, whether I live or die.” It was said of Mr. Whitefield, that he never went to bed at night, leaving even a pair of gloves out of its place; he used to say that he would like to have everything ready in case he might be taken away. I think I see that good man standing, with a bedroom candle in his hand, at the top of the staircase, preaching Christ the last night of his life to the people sitting on the stairs; and then going inside the room, and commending himself to God; and going straight away to heaven. That is the way to die; but if you do not live like Wesley and Whitefield lived, you cannot die like Wesley and Whitefield died. May God grant us grace that we may be perfectly ready to die when the time for our departure is at hand!

Now I finish by saying that this readiness produces admirable results.

First, it prevents surprise. It is always bad to be taken by surprise. He who lives unto the Lord shall not fear evil tidings, for his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. If you are perfectly submissive to God’s will, and, as you crossed your threshold to-night, you heard that your child was dead, or that your dearest friend was smitten with sore sickness, you would say, “Well, I stoop to the surrender; when I had my children, I did not think they were immortal; I knew they would die, and I have stood ready for anything that might happen to them.” Oh, brethren, it is because we are not submissive, not sanctified, not fully resigned to God’s will, that we get tripped up every now and then, and do not quite know where we are! May the Lord give us the grace to be prepared for every emergency!

Again, when a man is ready, it prevents loss of time and opportunity. Many a sportsman has lost his bird because he was not ready to take aim; many a fisherman has lost his fish because he has not been ready to grasp his rod, and put the line into the stream. Many a preacher has, no doubt, missed the mark because, when he might have said a word for Christ, he was not ready to say it. Have you not often gone home, and said to yourself, “Now I recollect what I ought to have said. That man made an observation, and I could not tell at the moment what to reply to it; I know now what I should have said”? It is a fine thing to be wise when it is too late; but it would be much better if we waited upon God, and asked him to make us ready, ever ready, to speak for him in every place, and at any time, whenever an opportunity occurs.

Readiness also helps us to make good use of every occasion. He who is ready as each occasion comes, not only snatches the first part of it, but all the rest of it; he is prepared to deal with the whole thing as it proceeds. He who is always doing his Master’s work learns how to do it well, but he who only does it occasionally is like a bad workman who half forgets his craft because he is so much engaged in doing something else. God keep us all ready! May you be ready to-night to say a good word to somebody on your way home, and to serve God in your family when you get home!

To be ready puts a bloom on obedience, and presents it to God at its best. Some Sunday-school children were once asked what was the meaning of doing the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven; and they gave some very pretty answers. One said, “In heaven they do God’s will always;” another said, “They do God’s will cheerfully;” but one said, “Please, Sir, they do God’s will directly.” That is the thing; that is how it is done in heaven, directly. May we be in such a state of heart that we are ready to do the Lord’s will directly!

In this readiness, our obedience is multiplied; I mean, that any one act is multiplied, for the man who is ready to do the right thing has already done it in the sight of God. The Lord accepts it as done; and then, if the man still remains ready, he does, as it were, do the thing again, and when it is actually done he is still ready to do it again. If the act is only one, yet to God’s eye it hath a teeming multitude of obedient actions swarming around it.

To be ready, especially to be ready to die, removes all fear of death. I wish we could all sing as she did, who died in her sleep, and left this verse written on a piece of paper by her bedside,-

“Since Jesus is mine, I’ll not fear undressing,

But gladly put off these garments of clay;

To die in the Lord, is a covenant blessing,

Since Jesus to glory through death led the way.”

If we are ready as Paul was, all fear of death will be gone from us.

And I think it takes away a thousand ills if we are ready for service, ready for suffering, ready to die. I will tell you one thing, dear sister over yonder, you would not be so ready to halt as you are if you were ready for the Lord’s work and the Lord’s will. And you who are ready to perish, would get out of that sad kind of readiness if you came and trusted Christ, and became ready to suffer, or to do the Master’s will. The Lord is ready to pardon; may we be ready to believe, and may we come at once to Him, accept salvation through Jesus Christ, and then all through the rest of our lives say to the great Captain of our salvation what good sailors reply to their captain’s call, “Ready, aye ready! Ready for storms and ready for calms; ready for whatever Thou dost command, ready for whatever Thou dost ordain!” The Lord bless you, dear friends, and give all of you this readiness, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ISAIAH 63

Some of you will remember that chapter 62 ends with the announcement of the Saviour’s coming: “Say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.” The present chapter describes his coming.

Verse 1. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?

Who can He be, this mysterious personage, this friend of God’s people, this destroyer of their enemies? Who can He be?

“Who is this that comes from Edom,

All his raiment stain’d with blood;

To the slave proclaiming freedom;

Bringing and bestowing good:

Glorious in the garb he wears,

Glorious in the spoils he bears?”

1. This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.

He that has come to save us is majestic in his person, but he is also mighty in his power to save. When we ask, “Who is this?” the answer comes to us, “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Listen to this, you who feel that you are great sinners, you who know that you need a mighty Saviour. Here is one able to do for you all that you need. He comes from the field of battle, from the place of conquest, where he has fought the fight on your behalf, and won for you the victory over sin, and death, and hell. Who is he?

“’Tis the Saviour, now victorious.

Travelling onward in his might;

’Tis the Saviour, oh, how glorious

To his people is the sight!

Jesus now is strong to save;

Mighty to redeem the slave.”

2, 3. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me:

In all Christ’s redeeming work he was alone. None could help him to redeem his people. He must alone pay the ransom price. None could help him in his last great battle, when he stood forth as the sole Champion of all whom his Father had given to him.

“Death and hell will he dethrone,

By his single arm alone.”

3, 4. For I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

It was the day of vengeance on the enemies of God, vengeance on sin, and death, and hell; and it was the year of redemption for the great host of believers in Christ, for whom his garments were dyed in his own most precious blood. Notice how the great Redeemer speaks of his chosen people: “My redeemed.”

5, 6. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.

Dear friends, I will not go into a full explanation of these verses just now; I have often explained them to you; but this is the one lesson that they teach, there is a Saviour “mighty to save.” Nothing can destroy those who put their trust in him; he will overthrow every enemy of our souls if we take him to be our Saviour.

Now the prophet speaks again:-

7. I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.

It is well to talk of God’s love and God’s mercy, for, if we afterwards speak of our own sin and unfaithfulness, it tends to set our sin in a clearer light, and we are the more ready to confess it, and to mourn over it. God has dealt well with us; and, therefore, that we have dealt ill with him, is the more shameful. See what he did for his ancient people, and behold in his action a picture of what he has done for his spiritual Israel.

8. For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.

He thought well of them, he said, “They will be true to me.” He loved them; he chose them; he put them in a place of trust and honour; he entered into fellowship and sympathy with them.

9. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

This is what he did for them in Egypt, what he did for them in the desert. He was very near them, one with them, very tender to them.

10. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

Hear ye this, ye people of God! This is what God will do to you if you rebel against him, and vex his Holy Spirit; he will turn to be your enemy, and will fight against you. If God’s people will not yield to his love and his pity, they must suffer from his hand and his rod.

11. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?

God begins to think of the past, and of what he did for his people in the days of old.

12-14. That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name.

See what God did for his people in his tenderness and lovingkindness. Is it not strange that, after that, they rebelled against him?

15. Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?

If you are in trouble to-night, if you have lost the light of God’s countenance, here are words for you to use in prayer to God.

16. Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

Get a hold of this great truth, believer. Say, “God is my Father. He is my Father still; and though he smite me, though he frown upon me, I will not quit my hold on him; I will still plead his dear Son’s name, and wait for his mercy, trusting in his grace.”

17-19. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.

I pointed out to you, at the beginning of our reading, that this chapter appropriately follows the preceding one. It is itself most suitably followed by chapter 64; indeed, the first verse of that chapter belongs to this one, and should not have been separated from it. God’s people, in their low estate, recognized that deliverance must come from the Lord alone, so they prayed, “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!” God bless the reading of his Word, and give us his presence during the whole of the service, for Christ’s sake. Amen!

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-639, 694, 658.

an ancient question modernized

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, December 11th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s Evening, May 4th, 1890.

“And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?”-Ezekiel 24:19.

Ezekiel’s wife died. His heart was bleeding; but he received orders from his divine Master that he should not mourn, nor weep, nor make any sign of mourning whatever. It was a strange command, but he obeyed it. The people understood that Ezekiel was a prophet to them in all that he did; his actions did not concern himself alone. He was a teacher, not only by his words, but by his acts; so the people gathered round him, and said to him, “What is the meaning of this? It has some bearing upon our conduct; tell us what it has to do with us.” He soon explained to them that, before long, they also would lose by sword, and pestilence, and famine, the dearest that they had, and they would not be able to have any mourning for the dead. They would be themselves in such a state of distress that the dead would die unlamented, the living having enough to do to mourn over their own personal sorrows. It was a terrible lesson, and it was terribly taught.

Now, dear friends, just as Ezekiel, at his Lord’s command, did many strange things entirely with a view to other people, we must remember that many things that we do have some relation to others. As long as we are here, we can never so isolate ourselves as to become absolutely independent of our surroundings; and it is often well, when we note the behaviour of other people, to say to somebody, if not to them, as the people did to Ezekiel, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us?”

I am going to use the text at this time thus. First, this should be your question to the Lord Jesus Christ, our divine Prophet. When we see him taken forth to die without the camp, may we not solemnly say to him, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?” When I have spoken a little upon that, I shall then say to the people who will see us gathering at the table of our Lord to-night, this may be your question to the church, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?” After I have explained that matter, I shall want to speak to our friends who are not coming to the communion-table with us, but are going home, or going to sit in the upper gallery, and I shall say to them, this is our question to you, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?”

First, then, this should be your question to the Lord jesus. Very reverently, though, as far as I am concerned, very feebly, let us approach our divine Master, and looking at him in his wondrous passion, let us earnestly ask him, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?” Do you see him? There he is, amid the dark shadow of the olives, bending low, and pleading with God. He pleads, and pleads, and pleads again till he is covered with sweat. Sweat, did I say? ’Tis blood, and it is so plenteous that it falleth to the earth, “great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Man sweats for bread, which is the staff of life; but it needs a bloody sweat to win life itself, and Jesus pours it out. Dear Master, while that bitter cup is at thy lip, canst thou stay a minute to tell us what these things are to us that thou doest so? His answer is, “Sin is an exceedingly bitter thing; and to remove it, costs me the agony of my soul. It is not easy to bear the wrath of God; I have cried, ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass from me;’ but if I would save you, it is not possible.” Hear that, my brethren, listen, and learn it well. Never trifle with sin; never make a spot which will need a bloody sweat to wash it away. Never laugh at that over which Christ had to agonize; and never count redemption a trifle when to him it was a pouring out of his soul unto death.

But do you see through the trees the lanterns twinkling? Men are coming, evil men, with rough voices, with torches, and lanterns, and staves to take the blessed pleading One. He rises to meet them; he speaks a word, and down they fall. He can release himself, there is no need for him to be captured; but he yields himself up without a struggle; and they take him to do unto him according to their wicked will. Dear Master, while the traitor’s kiss is still wet upon thee, and thou art being led away bound to Caiaphas, tell me, I pray thee, what meanest thou by all this? What has this to do with us? He answers, “I go willingly; I must be bound, for sin has bound you; sin has bound your hands, sin has hampered and crippled you, and made you prisoners. You are the bond-slaves of Satan, and I must be bound to set you free.” O beloved, learn the lesson well. Sin always enslaves you. Free thought, free love, free living, in the highest sense, are to be found alone in the service of God; sin brings no freedom, it binds. As Christ was bound and delivered up to die, so does sin bind man, and lead him forth to the second death. This is what Jesus Christ’s resignation to his captors means to us.

But now they have taken him before his judges. He stands before Annas, and Caiaphas, and Pilate. His enemies accuse him violently; but he answers them not a word. Pilate says to him “Answerest thou me nothing?” Blessed Sufferer, like a lamb in the midst of wolves, tell us, if thou wilt speak a word, why this silence? And he whispers into the hearts of his beloved, “I was silent, for there was nothing to say; willing to be your Advocate, what could I say? You had sinned, though I had not. I might have pleaded for myself; but I stood there for you, in your room, and place, and stead; and what could I say, what excuse, what apology, what extenuation could I urge?” All that could be said was, “Guilty, Lord, guilty.” That is all that you may dare to say to God, for you have nothing to plead when you stand upon the ground of your own merits; and so the silent Christ was eloquent in the condemnation of sin; and we thank him that he answered not a word, when wicked men clamoured against him.

But now, do you see, they are scourging him, they are crowning him with thorns, they are mocking him, blindfolding him, and then smiting him with the palms of their hands? What scorn, what shame, they poured on him! Blessed One, blessed One, wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us? I think I hear him speak from that sacred head, once wounded, and he says, “I must be put to shame, for sin is a shameful thing. No scorn is too great for sin, it deserves to be loathed, to be treated with contempt, to be dashed over the walls of the universe as a thing unclean, mean, despicable.” Christ, in that great shame of his, teaches us to hate sin, to treat it with contempt, to turn away from it with loathing, for it is a mean thing for a creature to rebel against his Creator, for a man to be an enemy of his God.

But now, you see, they take him out through the streets of Jerusalem; along the Via Dolorosa he pursues his weary walk, blood-drops falling on the pavement, himself staggering beneath the load of the cross. “Why do they not let him rest? Those weeping women could have found him shelter. No, he must not rest, Jerusalem cannot hold him, there is not a house that can retain him, there is not one who can give him shelter, for he is going out to die. He must go without the city gate. I do not know whether there was, or was not, “a green hill far away”; but I know that it was “without the city wall.” My Master, my Master, why goest thou without the city wall? Tell me, Jesus, why goest thou out there, to the place of public execution, the Old Bailey, the Tyburn of Jerusalem? Why art thou here? And he answers, “I suffer without the gate because God will not tolerate sin in his city. Sin is an unclean thing; and I, though not myself unclean, yet standing in the stead of the unclean, must die outside the city gates.” And so I see him, as they throw him on his back, and nail his hands and feet to the cross, and then lift him up as a gazingstock for guilty men. Oh! why, oh! why, thou Son of God, art thou lifted up like the brazen serpent of Moses? Why are thou lifted up between earth and heaven? And he answers, “That I may draw all men unto me. Earth refuses me, and heaven denies me shelter, I hang here, the Just for the unjust, that I may bring men to God.” How I wish that I could speak this explanation of my crucified Master in more piercing and penetrating, and yet more tender tones! My hearers, you must understand this sublime mystery, or you cannot be saved. Jesus dies, that we may not die. He is made a curse, that we may have the blessing. He is treated as a felon, that we may be treated as the children of God. Blessed be his name, thus has he told us what these things are to us that he does so!

They take him down from the cross, for he is dead; but before they take him down, they pierce his heart, and even after death that heart for us its tribute pours. Somewhere, amongst the matter of the globe, is the very blood and water that flowed from his side; and though perhaps nobody thinks with me, yet I set it over against the fact that, somewhere on the earth, are the pieces of the two tables of stone which Moses broke beneath the mount. Better still, Christ’s wondrous atonement is always here, always operating, always reconciling men to God, always opening a way of access for guilty men to the righteous Lord. Again I say, blessed be his holy name!

But they have buried him, and he lies in his cell alone through the long, dark night of death; but the third morning sees him rise. Or ever the sun is up, the Sun of Righteousness has arisen, with healing in his wings. Jesus has quitted the tomb, and I invite all sinners to say to the risen Redeemer, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?” This is what I understand that his resurrection means to us, he is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

He not only rises from the dead; but he ascends to his Father. He has gone home now; the cloud received him out of the sight of his followers. With the sound of the great trumpets of glory he has returned to his kingdom, and to his throne. Ask him what he means by that, and he will tell you that he has led captivity captive, and “received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also.” What a word is that to every heart that is conscious of rebellion! Christ has received gifts for you. Learn that lesson, I pray you. Believe on him, and live. Cast yourself at his feet, and be forgiven. Yield yourself up to him, and be his servant henceforth and for ever.

This is a wide theme; but my strength will not enable me to say more upon this part of it, namely, our question to the Lord Jesus.

Now, dear friends, in a few minutes we shall lift the damask covering from the communion-table, and you will find upon it a supply of bread and wine. We are coming to that table to think of our Lord, and I think that I hear some of you ask, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?” This may be your question to the church. That will be our second point.

We are coming here, to-night, to keep Christ’s death in remembrance. I love to see our dear friends come to the Lord’s table as often as they can. I am very sorry if I cannot be here every week; for, if there be a time appointed for the breaking of bread, it is the first day of the week. Every first day of the week, if you can, come to the table as a part of your Sabbath worship. This service is intended to be a memorial of Christ’s death. The best memorial of an event is not to rear a column, or erect a statue, or engrave a record on brass. All these things are frail and pass away. The tooth of time eats up the brass; the foot of the ages dashes down the statue or the column. The best memorial of any event is to associate with it the observance of some rite, or some ceremony frequently repeated; this will cause it to be a perpetual memorial. Now, as long as half-a-dozen Christians meet together for the breaking of bread, Christ’s death can never be forgotten. However poor you may be, or however illiterate, when you come to the breaking of bread, you are helping to record, as in eternal brass, the greatest fact in all human history, the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. If this were all, it would be no little thing. It means to you who do not come just this, that some of us mean to keep this memorial before our eyes. You may forget it; but to you our action is so far significant, that, whatever you may do, we mean to perpetuate as long as we live, and we trust that our children after us will perpetuate this which we esteem to be a priceless fact, that the Son of God died for guilty men, the Sinless One for the sinful, to bring them to God. That is what this memorial has to do with you.

We are not, however, coming to the table merely to look at the bread and the wine. We are coming there to eat and to drink, to show our personal benefit by Jesus Christ’s death. We wish all who see us to know that we enjoy the result of Christ’s death. We have a life that feeds upon his sacrifice; we have a hope that makes Christ to be its very meat and drink. There is a something about Christ who died that is indeed life-giving and that is sustaining and strengthening to our new-born spirit. If you are up in the gallery, as spectators of the ordinance, you say to us by your actions, “Tell us what these things are to us.” Well, we have to say this to you, that if you will not have these emblems of Jesus Christ’s death to be your meat and drink, at any rate, we will. What we say further to you is, if you do not feed on Christ, why do you not feed on him? Have you any better bread? Have you any firmer faith than the faith we have in his atoning sacrifice? Have you a deeper peace than Jesus gives to us? Have you a surer hope of heaven than faith in Christ gives? Have you a brighter hope? We know you have not; and, therefore, while to us his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed, we say that these things are to you a rebuke, a question, a suggestion concerning something lacking in you.

But, beloved friends, we not only come to the table to eat and to drink, but there is this point about the communion, that we come together to declare our unity in Jesus Christ. If I went home, and broke bread, and drank of the juice of the vine by myself alone, it would not be the observance of the Lord’s Supper. It is a united participation. It is a festival. It is a token and display of brotherhood. Those who will come to the table to-night will say practically, “We are one, ‘We, being many, are one body of Jesus Christ, and everyone members one of another.’ ” I think that I hear you say, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so!” Well, they are to you this, if you do not believe in Christ, you are not of the brotherhood. If you do not feed upon Christ, you are not one with him, you are not one of his people. There is another brotherhood; and if you do not belong to the brotherhood of Christ, you belong to the other fraternity. They who are not with Isaac are with Ishmael; they who are not with Jacob are with Esau; they who are not the seed of the woman are the seed of the serpent. To-night, as with a drawn sword, Christ divides this congregation into two parts. If you believe in him, you are his; but if you believe not in him, there is a present condemnation resting upon you. It is well that you should know this fact, when God’s people come together for the communion, it incidentally means that they leave the rest of the congregation behind.

Once more, when this communion is over, if we live, we shall meet again next Lord’s-day, and when that is over, if we are spared, we shall meet again the following Lord’s-day. We meet continually, to show our belief in Jesus Christ’s coming again. More than fifty-two times in the year is this table spread in our midst; for, frequently, in different parts of the Tabernacle, the elders and deacons and other friends meet, and commune with the Lord, doing this often in remembrance of him. Here is the point to which I call your attention, we are to do this “until he come.” Every celebration of the Lord’s supper speaks, not with the voice of a trumpet, but still with a clear sound, and it says, “The Lord is coming. He is on the way back. This is one of the tokens that he is coming again.” As for himself, before he went away, he took the great Nazarite vow. He said that he would drink no more of the fruit of the vine till he should drink it new with his disciples in his Father’s kingdom; and he remained the great Abstainer, who had sworn never to drink of the cup till he should pledge them again in the new wine of his Father’s kingdom; but he bids us go on drinking of it until he shall come again to receive us unto himself, that where he is there we may be also.

Perhaps you still enquire, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?” Well, they are this to you, that, whether you remember Jesus Christ’s coming or not, he is coming; he is coming quickly. When you read, “Behold, I come quickly,” it does not mean, “I shall be here soon;” but it means, “I am coming quickly.” A man may be coming quickly from New York to-night, and yet he may not be here to-morrow, he may not be here for another week, but he is coming quickly all the same. Christ is coming as quickly as he can; long leagues of distance lie between him and us, and he is covering them with the utmost speed. The glowing wheels of his chariot, whose axles are hot with the haste of his journey, are hurrying over the weary way; he is coming quickly. I should not be surprised, certainly I should not be distressed, if he came before I have finished this sermon. Could you all say as much as that? Oh, how some of us would stand up, and welcome him with gladdest acclaim if he should make his blessed presence manifest upon this platform before this evening’s service is over! I know no reason why he should not come to-night. The times and seasons are all unknown to us. We venture upon no prophecy; but as often as we come to the communion-table, we say to you, “He will come.” When he comes, the day of the Lord will be darkness, and not light, to every unbeliever. When he comes, woe unto his adversaries! How will they face their Judge? Now Judas, come and kiss him! Now Pilate, ask him “what is truth?” Now, ye Jews, come and spit in his face! Now, impenitent thief, come and cast bitter sayings in his teeth! What are they at? See how they try to slink away; they have not a word to say. Nay, I hear them burst into agonizing shrieks, crying to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Ah! you, who used to brag and boast, sing another tune now that Christ has come! You who despised him, you who would have nought to do with him, what would you not give if he were now your Friend? Make him to be your Friend to-night by putting your trust in him, and then you will be ready for his coming. Let him come when he may, his coming will be full of love and joy to all who have trusted him.

Thus I have answered two sets of questions, first for my Master, and then for my brethren in the church.

Now, in closing, this is our question to you, “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?”

First, there are some of you who are here to-night who do not often go to a place of worship; I know you. Shall I tell you what you do on Sunday morning? Well, I do not know that it would do anybody any good if I did, so I will not. Shall I tell you how you generally spend the afternoon and evening of the Lord’s-day? You know as well as I do, perhaps better; so I will not tell you. But here you are now, for once in a while. By seldom coming to the Lord’s house, you teach us your utter indifference. Your carelessness seems to say to me, “God is nobody, put him in a corner. Get on in business; mind the main chance. God and eternity are only for fools. Gospel? Salvation? Oh, they are trifles, not worth anybody’s consideration!” What about the Sabbath, which God appoints to be his own? “Well, he has given us six days out of seven, so we will steal from him the other one. We will not give him even an hour, if we can help it, for who is the Lord that we should obey his voice?” You seem to say, “What is heaven, and what is hell?” O sirs, this is the pratical teaching of your lives! If you are living in indifference, you are teaching your children this, you are teaching your neighbours this, you are teaching me this, as far as I am willing to learn it; but I am not willing to learn it, for I cannot believe that hell is a thing to be trifled with. You can trifle yourself into it; but you cannot trifle yourself out of it. There is no opening of the iron gate when once it has closed upon you. And heaven is not a thing to be trifled with. How many have I seen die with the light of heaven on their faces! How have I heard them talk of beginning already its endless joys while yet they were here! Have we not often rejoiced at the deathbeds of believers, who have died with glory flowing into their souls? I have seen too much of this to think heaven a trifle. I expect to go there myself before long; and I mind not how soon it may be. I read, the other day, that one called on my old grandfather, and said to him, “Mr. Spurgeon, you are getting old.” He replied, “Yes, I am; I am eighty-seven, and I should like to go home next week; but I should like better to go home to-day, for I have been here as long as I want to be, and I am not as equal to preaching as I used to be. I should like to go home, and do some of the singing up above.” Well I cannot trifle with that heaven where my grandfather has gone, I have too many friends there to run any risk of not going there myself. Perhaps you think in your own mind, “I do not want to be lost.” Then, I pray you, cease your indifference; give God your Sabbaths; go and hear the gospel preached, and when you hear it, think over it, read your Bibles, begin to pray, and talk to your children about God and Jesus Christ and heaven. Why do so many of you forget your God? How can you live without him? How can you live without a Saviour? These things are grievous to me, and they ought to be very grievous to you; and you ought to have done with this indifference at once. God help you to have done with it even now!

There are others of you who are not indifferent; you come to the services, and you are attentive listeners; but just observe what you are going to do to-night. We shall want all the ground-floor and the greater part of this first gallery for communicants; but you are going home, and so telling us that you have no part in the communion. Yes, the Lord’s table is spread, Christ is to be remembered, fellowship is to be had with him, and you are going home! I know, my friend over yonder, that you do not quite like it, because you have to leave your wife behind you. My dear boy up in the gallery, you do not quite like it, for your mother will stay behind, and you will stop about somewhere, I daresay, to walk home with her. I do not like your departing from God’s people, for it makes me think of a hymn that I used to hear sung years ago,-

“Oh, there will be weeping

At the judgment seat of Christ!”

When the last parting comes, when mother is caught up to dwell with Christ, and her boy, whom she loved so well, is driven away into outer darkness, there will be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. A dividing day must come. You may grow with the wheat, but the time will come when the tares must be separated from it, when the Lord will say to his reapers, “Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” I hope that you will not go home many Sundays, leaving dear ones at the communion-table; but that, having trusted Christ as your Saviour, you will remain with them to show forth his death in his own appointed way.

I hear another say, “I am not going home; I shall remain at the ordinance as a spectator.” I always like to see you look on. I like to see the birds come where the chickens are being fed; they always will do so, you know. If you feed your chickens well, there will be sure to be sparrows in the trees near, waiting while the chickens are feeding; and afterwards the sparrows will come, and have their portion. So I expect it will be with you; when you have been looking on for a little while, you will drop down from the gallery, and you will get in among the birds Christ came to feed. You are getting into a place of happy danger. Get where the shots fly, and one of them may make a target of you. Oh, that it might be so!

But to-night you are going to be only a spectator. Will you tell me what that means, only a spectator?

“There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood

Lose all their guilty stains;”

but you are only a spectator! There is my Father’s house, and prodigals returning are clasped in his arms, the ring is on their finger, and the shoes are on their feet, but you are only a spectator! In Paris, during the siege, when it was straitly shut up, there were meals given at certain times in appointed places; but what would you have thought, if you had been there, and had been allowed to come to the window, and see the feeding, and yourself remain only a spectator? I pity the poor shoeless urchins, on a cold winter’s night, who stand against a London cook-shop, flattening their noses against the great plate of glass, and looking in, and seeing all the steaming joints, while they are only spectators. Do not be so, I pray you; there is room for you at the gospel feast, and a hearty welcome, too.

Do not be merely spectators; but if you mean to be so, then I say this to you, there will be no spectators in heaven. They will all partake of the feast above, or they will not be there. And, I grieve to add, there will be no spectators in hell. You will have to participate in the award of vengeance, or else in the gift of mercy. Therefore have done with being spectators.

“Come guilty souls, and flee away,

Like doves, to Jesu’s wounds.”

Come and put your trust in him who died for the ungodly. He that believeth in him is not condemned. Would to God that you would believe in him to-night! I feel that God has helped me to speak to you. It has been no small task to me in my weakness; and now I want the Lord to give me some souls to-night. I expect to be paid for this service. When one preaches with joy and comfort, and is full of health and strength, there is a great delight in the work; but now, to-night, when it is heavy work to get a thought, and to utter it, I expect my wages in another form; and I shall go home to my Master, and say, “Lord, give me my wages!” If he asks me what I want, I shall say to him, “Lord, I should like the soul of that young man who sits in the aisle there, and of that old man in the top gallery who has been so interested while he has been listening; and I should like half a dozen of those young women over there.” I believe that, when I once began to plead with my Lord, I should ask for every one of you. At any rate, why should I leave anyone out? Which one should I leave out? When I was preaching once in the great plough-shed of Mr. Howard, of Bedford (they had cleared out all the ploughs to make room for a large congregation), his dear old father was sitting on the platform with me, and in the afternoon I prayed that the Lord would give us some souls, I asked that a few might be converted. After the service, the good old saint said, “I enjoyed your preaching; but I did not enjoy your praying. I did not say ‘Amen’ when you asked the Lord to give us a few souls. My dear brother,” he said, “I would not be content unless he gave us hundreds. Go in for it to-night,” he added, “pray for hundreds to be converted.” I thought, what a good thing it was to have a brother with larger faith than one’s own! Now may the Lord make some of you, who have great faith, like good old Mr. Howard, to pray the Lord to save the whole ship’s company here to-night! Why should they not all be brought in, to the praise of the glory of his grace? God grant it, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

EZEKIEL 33:1-20; 30-33

Verses 1-4. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon, his own head.

In that case the watchman is quite clear; he has done his duty, he has sounded an alarm, and a fitting alarm, upon the trumpet; he has sounded it immediately, without loitering or delaying. He has not been afraid of giving uneasiness to men; he has done his duty, fearless of remark, and he is clear. Happy also is he in knowing that, by heeding the trumpet’s warning blast, many have escaped the threatened danger.

Still, even then it seems that there are some who hear the trumpet, and will not take the warning. That is the sad part of our service; it makes the most successful ministry to be fringed with black. It cannot be all joy for him who wins the most souls for God; for at times he can sympathize with his brethren the prophets in their sorrowful enquiry, “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Listen to this, you who hear the gospel, and yet do not repent. If you heed not the warning, your blood will be upon your own head.

5, 6. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

This is a very solemn truth. It not only concerns me, and the many ministers of Christ who are here, but it is for all of you who know the Lord, for you also are set as watchmen to your families, to your neighbours, to the class which you teach, or which you should teach, in the Sunday-school. May God grant that we may, each one of us, be delivered from other men’s sins, for we may become partakers with them in their iniquity unless we bear our testimony against them, and give them warning of the consequences of their evil-doing!

7. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;

It is not merely the people who took a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman; but, “I have set thee.” Oh, the solemn ordination of a true servant of Christ! It is not by laying on of hands of man, nor by a pretended descent from the apostles; it is a call from God.

7. Therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

That is the way to preach, to get the sermon from the mouth of God, and then to speak it as the mouth of God. Dear teachers, wait upon God for that which you are to teach; take it warm with love out of the very mouth of God, and then speak it for God out of your own mouth. Good will surely come of such teaching as that.

8. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Even as God required Abel’s blood at the hand of Cain, and pronounced him cursed because he was guilty of that blood, so will he require the blood of perishing men at the hands of those set over them, and a curse shall come upon them if they be found negligent.

9, 10. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

This is as much as to say, “We cannot get away from our sins; there is no hope of our living.” When men get into the iron cage called “Despair”, there really seems to be no hope that they will turn from their sin. There is no hope in themselves; their only hope is in the Lord.

11. 12. Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Therefore, thou son of man,

Notice how often God calls Ezekiel the son of man. He had many wonderful visions; but he was to be kept humble by being constantly reminded that he was nothing more than a son of man. He was to be kept sympathetic with the people; they were men, and he was one of them: a “son of man.” It seems hard that any mother’s son of ours should die and perish; the thought that he will perish for ever, is terrible indeed to one who recognizes his union with the race as a “son of man.”

12. Say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.

It is not merely what we have been, but what we are, and what we shall be, that will have to be taken into account. If we have been righteous in our own esteem, what of that if we turn from it? If we have been sinful, yet if, by God’s grace, we turn from it, the past shall be blotted out.

13. When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

There is no salvation for any man without final perseverance, and if that final perseverance were not secured to us in the covenant of grace, there would be no salvation even for the brightest believer, or the most sparkling professor. What are our lights in themselves? Will they not soon burn dim unless the secret oil of God’s grace shall keep them bright? Whatever point any of you have reached, do not begin to put your confidence in that. If you had seemed to be righteous through a lifetime of seventy years, yet, unless the grace of God kept you even to the end, you must perish. The mercy is that we have many precious promises concerning the eternal safety of all who are in Christ, and God will not fail to fulfil every one of them.

14-17. Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.

Sinners are very fast in judging God. Oh, that they would judge themselves! It is not the Lord who is unjust; it is the balances and weights of men that are unjust. Oh, that they did but know it!

18-20. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

Now let us read at the thirtieth verse.

30, 31. Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.

This is another of the great sorrows of the prophetic calling, that however accurately we report the Lord’s message, however earnestly we try to drive it home to the consciences of our hearers, it must often be said, “They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.”

32. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

Preaching seems to such people to be only a song, or a piece of acting for their amusement; but it is not so. They that can find sport in the things of God, will find it dull sport in hell when they shall be for ever driven away from the presence of God, and from the glory of his power.

33. And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.

But then it will be too late for them to know it; for they will have missed their opportunity of profiting by the message that the prophet delivered to them. God grant that it may not be so with any one of us, for his abounding mercy’s sake! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-560, 898, 938.

“if there be no resurrection,-”

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, December 18th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, February 20th, 1890.

“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”-1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

Our religion is not based upon opinions, but upon facts. We hear persons sometimes saying, “Those are your views, and these are ours.” Whatever your “views” may be, is a small matter; what are the facts of the case? We must, after all, if we want a firm foundation, come down to matters of fact. Now, the great facts of the gospel are that God was incarnate in Christ Jesus, that he lived here a life of holiness and love, that he died upon the cross for our sins, that he was buried in the tomb of Joseph, that the third day he rose again from the dead, that after a while he ascended to his Father’s throne where he now sitteth, and that he shall come by-and-by, to be our Judge, and in that day the dead in Christ shall rise by virtue of their union with him.

Now, very soon, within the Church of God, there rose up persons who began to dispute about the fundamental and cardinal principles of the faith, and it is so even now. When those outside the Church deny that Christ is the Son of God, deny his atoning sacrifice, and deny his resurrection, we are not at all astonished; they are unbelievers, and they are acting out their own profession. But when men, inside the Church of God, call themselves Christians, and yet deny the resurrection of the dead, then is our soul stirred within us, for it is a most solemn and serious evil to doubt those holy truths. They know not what they do, they cannot see all the result of their unbelief; if they could, one would think that they would start back with horror, and replace the truth, and let it stand where it ought to stand, where God has put it.

The resurrection of the dead has been assailed, and is assailed still, by those who are called Christians, even by those who are called Christian ministers, but who, nevertheless, spirit away the very idea of the resurrection of the dead, so that we are to-day in the same condition, to some extent, as the Corinthian church was when, in its very midst, there rose up men, professing to be followers of Christ, who said that there was no resurrection of the dead. The apostle Paul, having borne his witness, and recapitulated the testimony about the resurrection of Christ, goes on to show the horrible consequences which must follow if there be no resurrection of the dead, and if Christ be not risen. He showed this to be a foundation truth; and if it was taken away, much more was gone than they supposed; indeed, everything was gone, as Paul went on to prove.

Beloved friends, let us never tamper with the truth of God. I find it as much as I can do to enjoy the comfort of the truth, and to learn the spiritual lessons of God’s Word, without setting up to be a critic upon it; and I find it immeasurably more profitable to my own soul believingly to adore, than unbelievingly to invent objections, or even industriously to try to meet them. The meeting of objections is an endless work. When you have killed one regiment of them, there is another regiment coming on; and when you have put to the sword whole legions of doubts, doubters still swarm upon you like the frogs of Egypt. It is a poor business, it answers no practical end; it is better far firmly to believe what you profess to believe, and to follow out to all the blessed consequences every one of the truths which, in your own heart and soul, you have received of the Lord.

One of the truths most surely believed among us is that there will be a resurrection of all those who sleep in Christ. There will be a resurrection of the ungodly as well as of the godly. Our Lord Jesus said to the Jews, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” Paul declared before Felix the doctrine of the “resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust;” but his argument with the Corinthians specially referred to believers, who will rise from the dead, and stand with Christ in the day of his appearing, quickened with the life that quickened him, and raised up to share the glory which the Father has given to him.

Paul’s argument begins here, and this will be our first head, if there be no resurrection, Christ is not risen.

If the resurrection of the dead is impossible, Christ cannot have risen from the dead. Now, the apostles bore witness that Christ had risen. They had met him, they had been with him, they had seen him eat a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb on one occasion. They had seen him perform acts which could not be performed by a spirit, but which needed that he should be flesh and bones. Indeed, he said, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” One of them put his finger into the print of the nails, and was invited to thrust his hand into Christ’s side. He was known by two of them in the breaking of bread, a familiar token by which they recognized him better than by anything else. They heard him speak, they knew the tones of his voice; they were not deceived. On one occasion, five hundred of them saw him at once; or, if there was any possibility of a mistake when they were all together, they were not deceived when they saw him one by one, and entered into very close personal communion with him, each one after a different sort. “Now,” says Paul, “if there be no resurrection of the dead, if that is impossible, then, of course, Christ did not rise; and yet we all assure you that we saw him, and that we were with him, and you have to believe that we are all liars, and that the Christian religion is a lie, or else you must believe that there is a resurrection of the dead.”

“But,” says one, “Christ might rise, and yet not his people.” Not so, according to our faith and firm belief, Christ is one with his people. When Adam sinned, the whole human race fell in him, for they were one with him; in Adam all died. Even those that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression have, nevertheless, died. Even upon infants the death-sentence has taken effect, because they were one with Adam. There is no separating Adam from his posterity. Now, Christ is the second Adam, and he has a posterity. All believers are one with him, and none can separate them from him. If they do not live, then he did not live; and if he did not rise, then they will not rise. But whatever happened unto him must also happen unto them. They are so welded together, the Head and the members, that there is no dividing them. If he had slept an eternal sleep, then every righteous soul would have done the same, too. If he rose again, they must rise again, for he has taken them unto himself to be part and parcel of his very being. He died that they might live. Because he lives they shall live also, and in his eternal life they must for ever be partakers.

This is Paul’s first argument, then, for the resurrection of the righteous, that, inasmuch as Christ rose, they must rise, for they are identified with him.

But now he proceeds with his subject, not so much arguing upon the resurrection of others as upon the resurrection of Christ; and his next argument is, that, if there be no resurrection, apostolic preaching falls: “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain” (see the fourteenth verse). “Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.”

If Christ was not raised, the apostles were false witnesses. When a man bears false witness, he usually has a motive for doing so. What motive had these men, what did they gain by bearing false witness to Christ’s resurrection? It was all loss and no profit to them if he had not risen. They declared in Jerusalem that he had risen from the dead, and straightway men began to hale them to prison, and to put them to death. Those of them who survived bore the same testimony. They were so full of the conviction of it, that they went into distant countries to tell the story of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. Some went to Rome, some to Spain; probably some came even to this remote island of Britain. Wherever they went, they testified that Christ had risen from the dead, and that they had seen him alive, and that he was the Saviour of all who trusted in him. Thus they always preached, and what became of them? I may say, with Paul, that “they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.” They were brought before the Roman Emperor again and again, and before the pro-consuls, and threatened with the most painful of deaths; but not one of them ever withdrew his testimony concerning Christ’s resurrection. They still stood to it, that they had known him in life, many of them had been near him in death, and they had all communed with him after his resurrection. They declared that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, that he died and was buried, that he rose again, and that there was salvation for all who believed in him.

Were these men false witnesses? If so, they were the most extraordinary false witnesses who ever lived. What were their morals? What kind of men were they? Were they drunkards? Were they adulterers? Were they thieves? Nay; they were the purest and best of mankind; their adversaries could bring no charge against their moral conduct. They were eminently honest, and they spoke with the accent of conviction. As I have already said, they suffered for their testimony. Now, under the law, the witness of two men was to be received; but what shall we say of the witness of five hundred men? If it was true when they first declared that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, it is equally true now. It does not matter though the event happened nearly nineteen hundred years ago; it is just as true now. The apostles bore witness which could not be gainsaid, and so it still stands. We cannot assume that all these apostolic men were false witnesses of God.

If we even suppose that they were mistaken about this matter, we must suspect their witness about everything else; and the only logical result is to give up the New Testament altogether. If they were mistaken as to Christ having risen from the dead, they are not credible witnesses upon anything else; and if they are discredited, the whole of our religion falls with them; the Christian faith, and especially all that the apostles built on the resurrection, must be turned out of doors as altogether a delusion. They taught that Christ’s rising from the dead was the evidence that his sacrifice was accepted, that he rose again for our justification, that his rising again was the hope of believers in this life, and the assurance of the resurrection of their bodies in the life to come. You must give up all your hope of salvation the moment you doubt the Lord’s rising from the dead.

As for Paul, who puts himself with the rest of the apostles, and says, “If Christ be not risen, we are found false witnesses of God,” I venture to bring him forward as a solitary witness of the most convincing kind. I need not remind you how he was at first opposed to Christ. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, one of the most intolerant members of the sect that hated the very name of Christ. He had a righteousness that surpassed that of the men of his times. He was a religious leader and persecutor; and yet he was so convinced of the appearance of Christ to him on the way to Damascus, that from that time he was completely turned round, and he preached with burning zeal the faith which once be blasphemed. There is an honesty about Paul which convinces at once; and if he had not seen the Saviour risen from the dead, he would not have been the man to say that he did. Dear brethren, you may rest assured that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead. You cannot put down these good men as impostors; you cannot reckon the apostle Paul among those readily deceived, or among the deceivers of others; so you may be sure that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead, according to the Scriptures.

Once more, Paul’s argument is that, if there be no resurrection, faith becomes delusion.

As we have to give up the apostles and all their teaching, if Christ did not rise from the dead, so we must conclude that their hearers believed a lie: “your faith is also vain.” Beloved, I speak to you who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who are resting in him with great comfort and peace of mind, yea, who have experienced a great change of heart, and a great change in your lives through faith in Christ. Now, if he did not rise from the dead, you are believing a lie. Take this home to yourselves: if he did not literally rise from the dead on the third day, this faith of yours, that gives you comfort, this faith which has renewed you in heart and life, this faith which you believe is leading you home to heaven, must be abandoned as a sheer delusion; your faith is fixed on a falsehood. Oh, dreadful inference! But the inference is clearly true if Christ is not risen; you are risking your soul on a falsehood if Christ did not rise from the dead. This is a solemn statement. I said last Sabbath, and I repeat it,-

“Upon a life I did not live,

Upon a death I did not die,

I risk my whole eternity.”

It is so. If Jesus Christ did not die for me, and did not rise again for me, I am lost; I have not a ray of comfort from any other direction; I have no dependence on anything else but Jesus crucified and risen; and if that sheet-anchor fails, everything fails with it, in my case; and so it must in yours.

“Your faith is also vain,” wrote Paul to the Corinthians, for, if Christ is not risen, the trial will be too great for faith to endure, since it has for the very keystone of the arch the resurrection of Christ from the dead. If he did not rise, your faith rests on what never happened, and is not true; and certainly your faith will not bear that, or any other trial. There comes to the believer, every now and then, a time of great testing. Did you ever lie, as I have done several times, upon the brink of eternity, full of pain, almost over the border of this world, fronting eternity, looking into the dread abyss? There, unless you are sure about the foundation of your faith, you are in an evil case indeed. Unless you have a solid rock beneath you then, your hope will shrink away to nothing, and your confidence will depart.

When you are sure that “the Lord is risen, indeed,” then you feel that there is something beneath your foot that does not stir. If Jesus died for you, and Jesus rose for you, then, my dear brother, you are not afraid even of that tremendous day when the earth shall be burned up, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. You feel a confidence that will bear even that test. If Christ did not rise from the dead, and you are resting your soul on the belief that he did rise, what a failure it will be for you in another world, what disappointment when you do not wake up in his likeness, what dismay if there should be no pardon of sin, no salvation through the precious blood! If Christ is not risen, your faith is vain. If it is vain, give it up; do not hold on to a thing that is not true. I would sooner plunge into the water, and swim or wade through the river, than I would trust myself to a rotten bridge that would break down in the middle. If Christ did not rise, do not trust him, for such faith is vain; but, if you believe that he did die for you, and did rise again for you, then believe in him, joyously confident that such a fact as this affords a solid basis for your belief.

Now I am going to advance a little further. Paul says next that, if there be no resurrection, they remained in their sins: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”

Ah! can ye bear that thought, my beloved in Christ, that ye are yet in your sins? I think that the bare suggestion takes hold upon you, terrifies you, and chills your blood. A little while ago, you were in your sins, dead in them, covered with them as with a crimson robe, you were condemned, lost. But now, you believe that Christ has brought you out of your sins, and washed you and made you white in his precious blood; ay, and has so changed you that sin shall not have dominion over you, for now you are by grace a child of God. Well, but, if Christ did not rise again, you are yet in your sins.

Observe that; for then there is no atonement made; at least, no satisfactory atonement. If the atonement of Christ for sin had been unsatisfactory, he would have remained in the grave. He went there on our behalf, a hostage for us; and if what he did upon the tree had not satisfied the justice of God, then he would never have come out of the grave again. Think for a minute what our position would be, if I stood here to preach only a dead and buried Christ! He died nearly nineteen hundred years ago; but suppose he had never been heard of since. If he had not risen from the dead, could you have confidence in him? You would say, “How do we know that his sacrifice was accepted?” We sing right truly,-

“If Jesus ne’er had paid the debt,

He ne’er had been at freedom set.”

The Surety would have been under bonds unless he had discharged all his liability; but he has done so, and he has risen from the dead,-

“And now both the Surety and sinner are free.”

Understand clearly what I am saying. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took upon himself the sum total of the guilt of all his people. “The Lord hath made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all.” He died, and by his death obtained the full discharge of all our obligations. But his rising again was, so to speak, the receipt in full, the token that he had discharged the whole of the dread liabilities which he had taken upon himself; and now, since Christ is risen, you who believe in him are not in your sins. But, if he had not risen, then it would have been true, “Ye are yet in your sins.”

It would have been true, also, in another sense. The life by which true believers live is the resurrection-life of him who said, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” But if Christ is not risen, there is no life for those who are in him. If he were still slumbering in the grave, where would have been the life that now makes us joyful, and makes us aspire after heavenly things? There would have been no life for you if there had not first been life for him. “Now is Christ risen from the dead,” and in him you rise into newness of life; but, if he did not rise, you are still dead, still under sin, still without the divine life, still without the life immortal and eternal that is to be your life in heaven throughout eternity.

So, you see, once more, the consequences that follow: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”

Now follows, if possible, a still more terrible consequence. If there be no resurrection, all the pious dead have perished: “Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” “Perished”, by which is not meant “annihilated”; they are in a worse condition than that.

One phrase must be explained by the other which went before it; if Jesus Christ is not risen, they are yet in their sins. They died, and they told us that they were blood-washed and forgiven; and that they hoped to see the face of God with joy; but if Christ rose not from the dead, there is no sinner who has gone to heaven, there is no saint who ever died, who has had any real hope; he has died under a delusion, and he has perished.

If Jesus Christ be not raised, the godly dead are yet in their sins, and they can never rise; for, if Christ did not rise from the dead, they cannot rise from the dead. Only through his resurrection is there resurrection for the saints. The ungodly shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt; but believers shall rise into eternal life and felicity because of their oneness with Christ; but, if he did not rise, they cannot rise. If he is dead, they must be dead, for they must share with him. They are, they ever must be, one with him; and all the saints who ever died, died under a mistake if Christ did not rise. We cast away the thought with abhorrence. Many of us have had beloved parents and friends who have died in the Lord, and we know that the full assurance of their faith was no mistake. We have seen dear children die in sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection; and we know that it was no error on their part. I have stood by many death-beds of believers, many triumphant, and many more peaceful and calm as a sweet summer evening. They were not mistaken. No, dear sirs, believing in Christ, who lived, and died, and rose again, they had confidence in the midst of pain, and joy in the hour of their departure. We cannot believe that they were mistaken; therefore we are confident that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead.

Once more, if there be no resurrection, our source of joy is gone. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, we, who believe that he did, are of all men the most miserable: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ,” and we certainly have no hope of any other life, apart from Christ, “we are of all men most miserable.”

What does Paul mean? That Christian men are more miserable than others, if they are mistaken? No, he does not mean that; for even the mistake, if it be a mistake, gives them joy; the error, if it be an error, yields them a present confidence and peace. But supposing they are sure that they are under an error, that they have made a mistake, their comfort is gone, and they are of all men the most miserable.

Believers have given up sensuous joys; they have sedulously given them up; they find no comfort in them. There are a thousand things in which worldlings find a kind of joy, all of which the Christian loathes. Well, if you have given up the brown bread, and cannot eat the white, then are you starved indeed. If we consider the mirth of the worldling to be no better than the husks of swine, and there be no bread for us, in the fact that Christ rose from the dead, then we are hungry indeed.

And, more than that, we have now learned superior things. We have learned to love holiness, and we seek after it. We have learned to love communion with God, and it has become our heaven to talk with our Father and our Saviour. We now look after things which are spiritual; and we try to handle the things that are carnal as they should be handled, as things to be used, but not abused. Now if, after having tasted these superior joys, they all turn out to be nothing, and they must turn out to be nothing if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we are indeed of all men the most miserable.

More than that, we have had high hopes, hopes that have made our hearts leap for joy. We have been ready sometimes to go straight away out of the body, with high delights and raptures, in the expectation of being “with Christ, which is far better.” We have said, “Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” We have been transported with the full conviction that our eyes “shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off;” and if that be not sure, if it can be proved that our hopes are vain, then are we of all men the most miserable.

You will wonder why I have been so long in bringing out these points, and what I am driving at. Well, what I am driving at is this. After all, everything hinges upon a fact, an ancient fact, and if that fact is not a fact, it is all up with us. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, then his gospel is all exploded. What I want you to notice is this, that there must be a basis of fact in our religion; these things must be facts, or else nothing can give us consolation.

Our eternal hopes do not depend upon our moral condition; for, observe, these men in Corinth would not have been better or worse if Christ had not risen from the dead. Their character was just the same. It had been fashioned, it is true, by a belief that he did rise from the dead; but whether he did or did not, they were just the same men, so that their hope did not depend upon their good moral condition. The apostle does not say, “If you are or are not in such and such a moral condition,” but, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” So, my beloved, the reason of your being safe will be that Christ died for you, and that he rose again; it is not the result of what you are, but of what he did. The hinge of it all is not in you: it is in him, and you are to place your reliance, not upon what you are, or hope to be, but wholly and entirely upon a great fact which transpired nearly nineteen hundred years ago. If he did not rise from the dead, you are in your sins still, be you as good as you may; but if he did rise from the dead, and you are one with him, you are not in your sins; they are all put away, and you are “accepted in the Beloved.”

Now I go a step further. The great hope you have does not hinge even upon your spiritual state. You must be born again; you must have a new heart and a right spirit, or else you cannot lay hold of Christ, and he is not yours; but still, your ultimate hope is not in what you are spiritually, but in what he is. When darkness comes over your soul, and you say, “I am afraid I am not converted,” still believe in him who rose from the dead; and when, after you have had a sight of yourself, you are drifting away to dark despair, still cling to him who loved you, and gave himself for you, and rose again from the dead for you. If thou believest that Christ is risen from the dead, and if this be the foundation of thy hope of heaven, that hope stands just as sure, whether thou art bright or whether thou art dull, whether thou canst sing or whether thou art forced to sigh, whether though canst run or whether thou art a broken-legged cripple, only able to lie at Christ’s feet. If he died for thee, and rose again for thee, there is the groundwork of thy confidence, and I pray thee keep to it. Do you see how Paul insists upon this? “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” The inference is that, if Christ be raised, and you have faith in him, your faith is not vain, and you are not in your sins, you are saved. Your hope must not be here, in what your hands can do, but there, on yonder cross, in what he did, and there, on yonder throne, in him who has risen again for your justification.

The hardest thing in the world seems to be to keep people to this truth, for I have noticed that much of the modern-thought doctrine is nothing but old self-righteousness tricked out again. It is bidding men still to trust in themselves, to trust in their moral character, to trust in their spiritual aspirations, or something or other. I stand here to-night to say to you that the basis of your hope is not even your own faith, much less your own good works; but it is what Christ has done once for all, for “ye are complete in him,” and you can never be complete in any other way.

Here, again, I would have you notice that Paul does not say that your being forgiven and saved depends upon your sincerity and your earnestness. You must be sincere and earnest; Christ is not yours if you are not; but still, you may be very sincere, and very earnest, and yet be wrong all the while; and the more sincere and earnest you are in a wrong way, the further you will go astray. The self-righteous man may be very sincere as he goes about to establish a righteousness of his own; but the more he does it, the more he ruins himself. But here is the mark for you to aim at, not at your sincerity, though there must be that; but if Christ was raised, and that is where you are resting your hopes, then you are not in your sins, but you are accepted in Christ, and justified in him.

This is where I stand, and I pray every believer to keep here. There are many new discoveries made in science; we are pleased to hear it. I hope that we shall be able to travel more quickly, and pay less for it. I hope that we shall have better light, and that it will not be so expensive. The more true science, the better; but when science comes in to tell me that it has discovered anything about the way to heaven, then I have a deaf ear to it. “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; ye are yet in your sins.” But if Christ be risen, then I know where I am. If it be really so, that he is God in human flesh; if he took my sin, and bore the consequences of it, and made a clear sweep of it from before the judgment-seat of the Most High; and if his rising again is God’s testimony that the work is done, and that Christ, who stood as Substitute for me, is accepted for me, oh, hallelujah, hallelujah! What more do I need, but to praise and bless the name of him who has saved me with an effectual salvation? Now will I work for him. Now will I spend and be spent in his service. Now will I hate every false way, and every sin, and seek after purity and holiness; but not, in any sense, as the groundwork of my confidence. My one hope for time and eternity is Jesus, only Jesus; Jesus crucified and risen from the dead.

I do not know any passage of Scripture which, more thoroughly than this one, throws the stress where the stress must be, not on man, but on Christ alone: “If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” O dear hearer, if thou wouldst be saved, thy salvation does not lie with thyself, but with him who left his Father’s bosom, and came down to earth a babe at Bethlehem, and hung upon a woman’s breast; upon him who lived here, for thirty-three years, a life of suffering and of toil, and who then took all the sin of his people upon himself, carried it up to the tree, and there bore all the consequences of it in his own body,-

“Bore all that Almighty God could bear,

With strength enough, but none to spare.”

Jesus Christ bore that which has made God’s pardon an act of justice, and vindicated his forgiveness of sin so that none can say that he is unjust when he passes by transgression. Christ did all that; and then, dying, was laid in the tomb, but, the third day, his Father raised him from the dead in token that he spoke the truth when he said, on the cross, “It is finished.” The debt is paid now; then, O sinner, leave thy prison, for thy debt is paid! Art thou shut up in despair on account of thy debt of sin? It is all discharged if thou hast believed in him who was raised from the dead. He has taken all thy sin, and thou art free. That handwriting of ordinances that was against thee is nailed to his cross. Go thy way, and sing, “The Lord is risen indeed,” and be as happy as all the birds in the air, till thou art, by and by, as happy as the angels in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-20

Verse 1, 2. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

Paul preached the gospel, his hearers received it, and also stood in it: “wherein ye stand.” It is essential to salvation to hear the gospel, to receive it, and then to stand in it.

Now, what was this gospel? Paul is going to tell us; and instead of making a list of doctrines, he mentions a set of facts.

3. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,

Notice that the preacher does not make the gospel. If he makes it, it is not worth your having. Originality in preaching, if it be originality in the statement of doctrine, is falsehood. We are not makers and inventors; we are repeaters, we tell the message we have received.

3. How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

This, then, is the gospel, that Jesus “died for our sins”, taking our sins upon himself. He bore the death penalty for us, “according to the Scriptures.” There are plenty of Scriptures, Old Testament Scriptures, which teach this great truth by way of prophecy.

4. And that he was buried,

This was necessary as a proof of his death, and as the ground work of his rising again.

4. And that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

This is the gospel, Christ dead, buried, risen again, ever living. We must dwell upon these points, for they are the essentials of the gospel.

5, 6. And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present,

When Paul wrote,-

6, 7. But some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

In different places, and at different hours; sometimes by one, sometimes by eleven, once by five hundred brethren at once, Jesus was seen after he had risen from the dead. As I have often said, there is no historical fact that is so well authenticated as that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

8. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

Paul calls himself an abortion, and speaks of himself as one hardly worth mentioning; yet he had seen the Lord after his resurrection from the dead. He was not a man to be deceived, for he had persecuted the Church of Christ. He was exceedingly mad against the Messiah; so that if he said that he had seen Jesus of Nazareth, and that he was converted by the sight, we may be quite sure that it was so. Paul was not a man to undergo all the sacrifices he had to endure, for the sake of a mere dream.

9, 10. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

No man could be more thoroughly with Christ, heart and soul, than that Paul who, aforetime, had been the blood thirsty Saul of Tarsus. His witness may well be believed: and, in connection with all that went before it, it proves beyond all doubt that he who was crucified and was laid in the tomb, did certainly rise again, and was seen in life after death.

11. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

There was not a doubt about that. All the apostles, all the early Christians preached the resurrection of Christ; and the Corinthians, when they became Christians, believed it.

12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

What! had they got so far as that, to call themselves Christians, and yet they doubted the truth of the resurrection of the dead? Yes, they spirited it away, they made it into a kind of myth or fable; and yet they called themselves Christians. That the heathen should not believe it, was not wonderful; but that those who professed to believe that Christ had risen from the dead, yet doubted the resurrection of his people, was indeed a strange thing. Paul argues with them about this matter.

13, 14. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, we are preaching a falsehood. If he did not rise from the dead, you are believing a falsehood, and our preaching and your believing are nothing but vanity.

15-17. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

If Jesus Christ is not risen, he has done nothing for you; you are not saved, you are not pardoned, you are not renewed. It is all a myth, all a piece of deceit. If that fact be given up, that Christ rose from the dead, everything connected with salvation is also given up.

18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

All the godly saints died resting in the risen Christ; and if he is not risen, they died under a delusion, and they have perished.

19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Those who are believers in Christ, says Paul, are miserable dupes if he has not risen from the dead. They are believing and resting all their hopes upon a lie. It makes them happy, truly; but if you can take away from them that hope, by persuading them that what it is grounded upon is not true, you have made them miserable indeed.

20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.

Paul has been arguing on every supposition, and now he comes back with his own positive witness that Christ is risen. You remember that Jesus died at the time of the Passover, as the one great Paschal Lamb; but he rose again on the first day of the week, and that was the feast of firstfruits with the Jews. They brought handfuls of wheat from the fields to show their gratitude to God, and in order that a blessing might rest on all the crop; and Paul uses Christ’s rising on that particular day as a figure: “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” He lives. He is the firstfruits, and the full harvest will follow. All who are in him will rise from the dead; for he is one with them, and none can separate them from him, nor sever him from them. They died in him, and they live because he liveth, blessed be his name!

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-289, 309, 609.

the empty place: a christmas day sermon

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, December 25th, 1892,

delivered by

c. h. spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,