We learn from the text a fact worth remembering, namely, that in the first stage of the Christian ministry, the thing to be aimed at is that men should be pricked in the heart. Then, in the second stage, the thing to be desired is that they should gladly receive the Word. Notice what is said in the 37th verse: “When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart;” then in the 41st verse: “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized.” Hence, in the beginning, the preacher’s business is not to convert men, but the very reverse. It is idle to attempt to heal those who are not wounded, to attempt to clothe those who have never been stripped, and to make those rich who have never realized their poverty. As long as the world stands, we shall need the Holy Ghost, not only as the Comforter, but also as the Convincer, who will “reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

I am inclined to think that the large number of backsliders who, after they have professed to be converted, turn back to the world, may be accounted for by the fact that they never seriously felt their guilt, and were never brought low by the work of the Holy Ghost convincing them of sin. Give me the old-fashioned form of conversion in which our fathers rejoiced. I have lived long enough to see people jump into what they call salvation, and jump out of it, as men plunge into a cold bath when they get up in the morning. Here is a person with a diseased leg; the doctor has looked at the limb, but he has not used his knife, he has not cut out the proud flesh; but he has applied a liniment and an ointment, and he has made a wonderful cure! Marvellous are the healing powers of the clever man, according to common report; he is in high repute everywhere around. Ay, so he may be; but that limb will never be right again; the surgeon has done a permanent injury to it under the pretence of having rendered its owner a great service. I believe that some men, who are said to have been converted many times, need to be converted now; and that multitudes of those who are trumpeted forth as having found the Saviour do not yet know why they want a Saviour, and have not really found him, but have exercised presumption in the stead of faith, and a belief in their own excited feelings instead of in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It must be so, I am sure, because we constantly see, on all hands, men who have been washed into deeper stains, and who are worse after their so-called conversion than they were before. There must be, dear friends, a probing of men’s hearts with the law before we can rightly bring to them the healing of the gospel. Old Robbie Flockhart’s simile was a good one; he said, “You may take a piece of silk thread, and try to sew with it as long as you like, but you will do nothing with it alone. You want a sharp, piercing needle to go first, and that will draw the silken thread after it. The needle of the law prepares the way for the thread of the gospel.” There must be birth-pangs, or there will be no child born. The old-fashioned grace of repentance is not to be dispensed with; there must be sorrow for sin; there must be “a broken and a contrite heart.” This, God will not despise; but a “conversion” which does not produce this result, God will not accept as genuine. So we shall still continue to preach the law; we shall thunder out the terrors of the Lord; we shall not be fashionable and popular, and prophesy smooth things, lest our labour should be declared to have been in vain when the Lord shall come. I charge all brethren, who are anxious for the true conversion of sinners, to be sometimes a little backward in dealing out comfort to them. Wait till you see that it is really needed; wait till you perceive that there is a wound before you apply the healing balm. Until people are willing to confess their sins, you have no ground upon which you can comfort them. It is the man who “confesseth and forsaketh them” who “shall have mercy.” Christ is a sinner’s Saviour; and if a man is not a sinner, Christ has no salvation for him. Until he will take the sinner’s place, and frankly own his guilt, what is the use of preaching to him? Remember Christ’s own words: “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Now I am going to try to preach as wide, plain, and open a gospel as I can, but I have no hope of its being accepted by anybody unless, first of all, he has been pricked in the heart. I am persuaded that even the wondrous illimitable liberality of God is a thing which is despised by men until they have a sense of their need of his bounty. When that sense of need is wrought within them by the Holy Spirit, then they leap at the very sound of the gospel; but until then, their heart is gross, their ears are dull of hearing, and they care not for the free grace of God.

Now let us come to our text: “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

First, notice that the promise which God has made to man in Christ Jesus is a promise which exactly meets the need of mankind. What is that promise?

First, it is the promise of the Holy Spirit. The apostle Peter quoted from the prophet Joel the promise which God had made that, in the latter days, he would pour out of his Spirit upon all flesh. That Holy Spirit is one of man’s most urgent needs. We are fallen, brethren,-fallen through the agency of the evil spirit; and we need the help of the good Spirit that we may be raised again. Our nature is polluted at its very centre; the old serpent has poured poison into the innermost fount of our being; and, therefore, we need that the Holy Spirit should come, and pour life into us, renewing us in the spirit of our mind. We need the Holy Spirit to illuminate us, for we are both blind and in the dark. We need the Holy Spirit to instruct us, for, by nature, we are ignorance itself, and it is his office to teach men. We need the Holy Ghost to soften our heart. Naturally, it is harder than the nether millstone, which is always the harder of the two, as it has to bear the grinding of the upper stone. We need the Holy Spirit to quicken us; for, by nature, we are dead in trespasses and sins, and to all good things callous and indifferent. Brethren, we need the Holy Spirit that we should be regenerated, for it is written, “Ye must be born again,” and we can only be born again, born from above, through the operation of the Spirit of God. When we are born again, we still need the Holy Spirit that he may sanctify us, that he may preserve us, that he may perfect us, and make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

Therefore, sinner, if you say, “I feel myself to be powerless, incapable, like one that is dead,” let not that stand in your way, for God gives the Holy Spirit on purpose to meet just such need as yours. Everything that is needful to be done, which you cannot do, the Spirit of God will help you to do; and that which you can do, in a measure, but which you do very badly and inefficiently, the Spirit of God is given to help you to do, for he helpeth our infirmity. There is no strength wanted in thee, sinner; he will be thy strength. There is no good operation needed on thy part; the Holy Spirit has come to work all thy works in thee. He worketh in us to will and to do according to his own good pleasure; and then we, in consequence thereof, work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. If thou wilt but believe in Christ, thou needest not come to him with a new heart; here is the Spirit of God to give thee that new heart. Thou needest not strive to make thyself tender and humble in spirit; here is the Spirit of God to make thee tender and humble. There is nothing that thou needest endeavour to produce in thyself, for this Divine Being, who brooded over chaos, and brought order out of primeval confusion, is ready to come and brood over thee,-over thy dark, disordered, chaotic soul. He can spread his dove-like wings over it, till thou shalt come to light, and love, and life, and liberty, and joy. Oh, is not this a mercy that, inasmuch as we are so weak and helpless, the promise of God is that he will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

But this is not all that a man wants in order that he may be saved. He needs, secondly, the remission of his sin, and there is a promise that God will give to the penitent the remission of their sins. Hence Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Hearken, guilty one, there is remission of sin even for thee! Thou who hast lain asoak in sin till thou art crimsoned with it, till thy sin is ingrained into thy very nature, there is power with God to make that crimson white as snow, for “all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” Whenever I repeat those gracious words of our Lord, I feel as if I had said something far more sweet than the choicest poetry, something infinitely more deserving to be written in letters of gold than all the sayings of the wisest philosophers of old. Tell the guilty man that God has mercy reserved for him, and is prepared to forgive him,-what better news can he ever hear? Tell him that it is not true, as some say, that everything we have ever done must necessarily remain upon us, to injure and to hurt us in this life and in the next, as long as we have any being; it is not so, there is a remedy provided by God for the disease of sin. Ay, God can remove the very scars which that disease has left behind when it is healed. Sin can be perfectly forgiven, and for ever put away. Remember the Lord’s declaration: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” Now, when a cloud is gone, the sky is none the darker, it is just as blue as it was ere that cloud was formed. Another emblem of God’s grace is that, when he has washed us, we shall be whiter than snow. Snow, when it first falls, bears no trace of ever having been stained, it is so perfectly white; and God can wash thee, poor sinner, though thou be guiltiest of the guilty, till not a speck of sin remains. “Ye are clean every whit,” said Christ to his disciples. Oh, what a word was that, and it is true of all who trust Jesus! Being cleansed in his blood, no trace of sin remains.

Now put those two things together, the Holy Spirit working in us a change of heart, and Jesus Christ working for us, and preparing pardon for sin, and in those two things you have the supply of man’s great need, which, put in a word, is salvation. In verse 21, you can see the promise about that matter: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” He shall be saved; that is, perfectly and completely saved both from the guilt of sin and from the power of sin. He shall not be half-saved, or saved in one particular form of salvation, but he shall be saved. Whosoever, then, repenting, trusts in Christ, and confesses his faith according to Christ’s own rule, shall be saved: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” This is the glorious promise which, in its wide sweep, comprises all that a sinner needs,-the Holy Spirit, the remission of sin, and salvation.

Now, secondly, let us enquire,-To whom is this promise made? According to my text, “the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

I never like to accuse my brethren of being tricky; but have you never heard this text quoted as far as this, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children”? And then a full stop is put in, to prove, not that an infant ought to be baptized, but that an infant ought to be sprinkled? The argument used by many ministers is that the blessings of the covenant are for believers and their children; and some of you may sometimes have thought that the argument is rather difficult to answer. I do not like to think that there has been any dishonesty in such a matter; still, one cannot approve of a brother chopping a text in the middle like that, and trying to make it say exactly the opposite of what it really does say. Instead of this passage teaching that there is some special blessing for Christian people and their children, it teaches nothing of the sort; Peter declares that there is no limit of that kind to the range of this promise. Listen: “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Suppose that I were to try and argue thus: “The promise is unto you, and to your children, therefore your children ought to be baptized.” Go on with the text: “and to all that are afar off,” therefore all that are afar off ought to be baptized. That would be the same kind of reasoning; but it would be the drivelling of an idiot, with no reasoning in it. But the passage, instead of speaking of anything being a privilege to certain people and their children, expressly declares that, while it is their privilege, and their children’s privilege, it is equally the privilege of all that are afar off, “as many as the Lord our God shall call.” That is to say, that great covenant promise, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” is meant for you, is meant for your children, is meant for Hottentots, is meant for Hindoos, is meant for Greenlanders, is meant for everybody to whom the Lord’s call is addressed. Our commission is, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” There is not any man in this place who does not come within the sweep of my text. The promise is to you if you are a Jew, it is to you if you are the child of a Jew, or if you are the child of a godly man, but it is also to you if you are afar off. If any are afar off, because of sin, having gone into the far country away from God, or if they are afar off, literally, living in distant foreign lands, to them is the word of this salvation sent.

The promise is for all to whom the message comes; and, in its innermost and special sense, it is for all whom God shall effectually call by his Spirit, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free. That is the very glory of the text, and upon that I want to reflect while I pass on to the next point.

That next point is this; inasmuch as everything that a sinner needs for his salvation is made a matter of promise, and that promise is made to all that hear the gospel, then, brethren, this is a cause for very great encouragement.

I hope that I am addressing some who are pierced in the heart, and who therefore want to find Christ. Well, see what a promise you have to come upon, and many have come to the Lord with far less encouragement. When Jonah went to Nineveh, to utter his mournful and monotonous message, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” the king believed it, and his people believed it, and they humbled themselves before God; yet what had they to go upon? Only this, “Who can tell?” They said, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” So they came to God with no other encouragement but “Who can tell?” Take heed, ye who hear the gospel, that the men of Nineveh do not rise up in judgment against you to condemn you. Take another case. There was the prodigal who came back to his father. Had he any promise from his father that he would receive him? No, nothing of the sort; it was only the prodigal’s belief in his father’s goodness that brought him back, and his father did receive him. Take another case, that of the importunate widow who went to the judge, crying, “Avenge me of mine adversary.” Had she a promise that the judge would relieve her? Not at all; he was one who feared not God, nor regarded man; yet she kept on pleading with him, and, though, he even said her nay, perhaps scores of times, yet she pressed on with her suit till, at last, her importunity won the case.

Now see what vantage ground you stand upon compared with these people. You do not go to God with the question, “Who can tell?” You do not come to God merely with an inference drawn from the kindness of his nature. You do not come to God merely persuaded that he will hear importunate prayer; but if you come to him, you come with a promise, for “the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off;” and this is the promise: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Oh! methinks you ought to come to God with joy in your face, for with such a sweet promise as this, you must, you shall prevail.

The second encouragement is, that God is always true. It would be a dreadful supposition to imagine that God could lie; in fact, that would be sheer blasphemy. If a man be a righteous man, and he makes a promise, he will keep it if he can. A good man “sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not;” much more is the good God faithful to every promise he has ever made. “Hath he said, and shall he not do it?” Then, if God has promised that whosoever believes in his Son shall be saved, you may be sure that he will be; and whoever you may be, if you believe in Christ, you must be saved. “Lord, I know that thou canst not lie.” You may plead in that fashion with him. Take his promise in your hand, and say to him, “Do as thou hast said.”

“Thou hast promised to forgive

All who on thy Son believe.”

Plead thou that promise, and thou shalt find it certainly fulfilled, for God did never yet draw back from a promise which he had made, and he never will do so. Oh, how that ought to encourage you in prayer! “But,” says one, “may I grasp that promise, ‘Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved’?” Of course you may; and if the devil says that you must not claim that promise, tell him that Peter said, “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off;” and as you are one of those that are a long way off Jerusalem,-and, certainly, the British islands must have been esteemed very far off in Peter’s day,-then you are one of those to whom that promise has come. Plead it, and you shall find that it will be fulfilled to you.

Further, take encouragement from the next point, which is, that if God has made a promise, he certainly must be prepared to fulfil it. I have known a great many very promising young men who never were performing young men. They promise to do this, and that, and the other; but they never do anything of the sort. I heard of one, the other day, who owed a great deal of money, and he got the bill for the debt renewed, and after that was done, he said to a friend, “Now that is all settled; how comfortable a fellow feels when he has no debts to trouble him!” He had not paid anything, he had not anything with which he could pay, he had only renewed his promise to pay; yet he felt perfectly content. Some people are willing to enter into any kind of promise or bond, but it never seems to occur to them that they must fulfil the obligation into which they have entered. We put them down as bad men, and we do not want to trade with them, or associate with them. But God never made a promise unless he was quite prepared to fulfil it. Men sometimes make promises because it is not convenient, or in their power, to perform the promise at once, so they postpone its fulfilment; but when God makes a promise, he can fulfil it at once, and he will always be ready to fulfil it whenever he is called upon to do so. Friends, if God has promised to give the Holy Spirit, he can do it; the Holy Spirit waits to descend into men’s hearts. If God has promised to give the pardon of sin, he can do it. The ransom price is paid; the atonement has been presented and accepted.

“There is a fountain fill’d with blood,

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins.”

It has not to be filled. The sacrifice is not to be found, or to be offered when found. “It is finished.” Everything that is required for your salvation is ready, and I am sent to you to say, “Hungry souls that want a feast of mercy, the oxen and fatlings are killed; all things are ready, come ye to the supper.” So that the Lord’s promise ought to cheer you very much, since God is ready at once to fulfil it.

Yet again, here is another word of good cheer to you. God has put salvation upon the footing of promise; not on the footing of merit,-not on the footing of purchase,-not on the footing of anything you can do, but on the footing of “he has promised it.” That is how the covenant of grace runs: “I will,” and “you shall.” It is not, “You are to do this, to feel that, and to be the other;” but it is, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” It is all promise, promise, promise, promise. When you call on a man for money, and he says to you, “On what ground do you ask for this sum?” and you say, “Why, sir, because you promised it,” that is a good ground to go upon, with one who is both able and willing to pay. If he said to you, “But I want to know whether you deserve this,”-you are such an undeserving person that you would feel that you were out of court with him; but when your answer is simply this, “Whatever I may be, is not the question; I come because you promised,”-that makes grand pleading. That is the way to be enriched with heavenly mercy, simply to say, “O Lord, thou hast promised grace to all who trust thy Son, and here am I, empty, naked, poor, and undeserving; but I plead thy promise. For thy truth’s sake, and for thy mercy’s sake, fulfil that promise unto me.”

Now is not all this encouraging? I do not say to you, “The law is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off;” but I do say, with Peter, “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off.” The word of promise is preached unto you: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;” “he that believeth on him is not condemned;” “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life;” or putting it in Peter’s words: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Now observe, in conclusion, that no exception is possible in this case. Let me repeat that expression; no exception is possible in this case. Addressing all the Jews who were gathered around him, Peter said, “The promise is unto you.” Looking forward to all the future generations of Jews that were to be born, he added, “and to your children.” And then, lifting up his eyes to the far-off Gentile world, looking in vision as far as “The Pillars of Hercules,” and across “the silver streak” that separates these islands from the mainland, looking still further to Ireland as well, and then to the great continent which Columbus afterwards discovered, he seemed to see red men, and black men, and white men, and brown men,-men of every race and clime and age, and he included them all by saying, “and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Comprehending the vast population of the whole globe, throughout all time, Peter says, “This promise is to you all, ‘Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ” Therefore, that is a promise to me. Well do I recollect the time when I first laid hold of that truth. I was in great sorrow of soul, for I thought that there was no gospel for me; but I caught a ray of hope from that blessed word “whosoever”-oh, how I love that word “whosoever”-“whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And there was another cheering message: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” I read what John Bunyan said about that text:-“What ‘him’ is this? Why, it is any ‘him that cometh.’ Any him, in all the world, that cometh unto Christ, he will in no wise cast out.” Perhaps you know how the blessed dreamer goes on about the rest of that verse: “ ‘He will in no wise cast out.’ Lord, I am a big sinner! ‘I will in no wise cast out.’ Lord, I have been a blasphemer! ‘I will in no wise cast out.’ Lord, I am an old sinner; I am fourscore years old! ‘I will in no wise cast out.’ Lord, I have been an adulterer; I have been a fornicator; I have been a thief; I have been a murderer. ‘I will in no wise cast out.’ ” So he goes over, and over, and over, and over with it to show that, whoever comes to Christ, he cannot possibly cast him out, for if he did, it would make Christ a liar, and it would make a lie of hundreds of texts. “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

Look ye, sirs; look ye! It is not for God’s honour to cast out a soul that comes to him. Suppose that there should be cast out one soul that came to Christ; suppose that one sinner who trusted in Christ should perish. I know what men would do. They would publish all round the world directly, “God has broken his Word; the gospel has failed; for here is a soul lost that trusted in Christ.” You do not suppose God will suffer that, do you? In imagination, I see that poor soul going down to hell. He is no sooner there than the devil says to him, “Did you trust Christ?” “Yes, I did.” “Did he refuse to save you?” “Yes, he did.” “Do you mean to say that you fulfilled the Word, ‘He that believeth and is baptized’?” “Yes, I did.” “And yet you are not saved!” Oh, what a roar of laughter would go all round the pit! How every fallen spirit, rising from his dungeon, would begin with unhallowed glee to shout and yell! How through the deep profound of pandemonium, where evil reigns supreme, there would go up their hisses and their hootings against a defeated Saviour,-against a conquered Christ,-against a lying God,-against one that said, and did not do, and that spake, and was not true. “Aha, aha, Emmanuel, Diabolus hath defeated thee! Aha, aha, Jehovah, thy Word is forfeited!” Shall such a thing ever be? You shudder as I picture it. It never shall be. Heaven and earth shall pass away; and, as a moment’s foam dissolves into the wave that bears it, and is lost for ever, so shall the universe pass away, but never shall a sinner come and cast himself on Christ, and yet be allowed to perish. Try it on, sinner! Try it on! Try it now! God help you to try it, and to prove that, still, Christ receiveth sinners, and casts out none who trust him! The Lord bless you, for his name’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

acts 2:1-42

We cannot too often read the story of that wondrous outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost; and let as never read it without asking the Lord to manifest in our midst the fulness of the Spirit’s power. We may not have a repetition of the miraculous gifts which were then bestowed upon the apostles and those who were with them; but we may have that gracious influence which shall convince and convert those who gather to hear the Word. Our success in preaching the Word is entirely dependent upon the presence and working of the Holy Spirit; therefore, let our prayer be,-

“Lord God, the Holy Ghost,

In this accepted hour,

As on the day of Pentecost,

Descend in all thy power.

“The young, the old inspire

With wisdom from above;

And give us hearts and tongues of fire,

To pray, and praise, and love.”

Verses 1-13. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilæans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judæa, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Gyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

The people who came together were greatly astonished to find the disciples of Christ speaking to them in their own tongues. Though all the speakers were Jews, and naturally knew no tongue but their own, yet they were able to talk in divers languages. Therefore some of their hearers, mocking, said, “These men are full of new wine.”

14-21. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judæa, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I did not detain you to speak about the moon turned into blood, or the sun darkened into midnight; those matters are of small consequence to you and to me compared with this sentence: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” What a blessed door of hope is this! What a window, letting the light of heaven shine into the darkest despondency! Whosoever shall address himself to God by repentance, by faith, by prayer, shall be saved.

22, 23. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know; him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

This was bold talking, for Peter was doubtless addressing many of the very people who had put the Lord to death, and he charges them with it. Observe how he declares that Christ’s death was in accordance with “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” yet he expressly says that “by wicked hands” they had crucified and slain him. It never occurred to Peter that the counsel of God deprived men of the responsibility and guilt of their actions. No; neither need it ever occur to you. If anyone shall say to you, “When anything is according to the foreknowledge and counsel of God, how can God blame the doer of it? “you may tell him that he has first to explain to you what he means; and if he says there is a difficulty in it, ask him to tell you what the difficulty is. Those who knew better than the objector, could see none. The inspired apostle Peter could see none; but when he was most vehement in charging these men with guilt, yet, at the same time, he said that it was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

Surely, he was a bad pleader to introduce into his argument anything that could be readily construed into an excuse for those he was accusing. But there is no real excuse in it; the free agency of man is as true as the predestination of God; the two truths stand fast for ever. It is the folly of man to imagine that they disagree. If you do wrong, you are accountable for the wrong; and if there is a providence which ordains everything,-as certainly there is,-yet that providence takes not away from any man the full responsibility for aught that he doeth. So, truly did Peter say to these Jews concerning Christ, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”

24-32. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in the abode of the dead, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

Here Peter appealed to the eleven, and to all the disciples then present who had seen Jesus after he had risen from the dead. It must have been a very impressive sight as they all stood up bearing witness that they had seen the Christ, who was crucified, alive after his death. It was a wonderful public attestation to that grandest of all facts, the raising again from the dead of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.

33. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

Was not that enough to convince them? They saw and they heard the proofs of the working of the Spirit among them, and Peter told them that “this” was the gift of Christ, who had ascended up on high. It must have been a very striking thing, to have been there, and to have heard and seen these tokens of God setting his seal to the work of Jesus.

34-36. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

What a climax to Peter’s sermon! How simple and yet how triumphant is the argument! We do not wonder that men were convinced by it.

37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart,-

There is a great distinction between being cut to the heart and being pricked in the heart. Those who were cut to the heart stoned the preacher; but they who are pricked in the heart yield a sweet obedience to the will of God: “They were pricked in their heart,”-

37-40. And said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ far the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Not, “save yourselves”; but “save yourselves from this untoward generation.” Come out from among them. They are guilty of the death of Christ; you will be found guilty of it, too, unless you now disown the people who committed that awful crime. Come right out from among them, and be altogether separated from them.

41, 42. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-488, 498, 499.

“Much more.”

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, September 11th, 1898,

delivered by

C. H. Spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, May 13th, 1883

“Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”-Romans 5:10.

The first great message of mercy to a sinner is put into four short words in the eighth verse of this chapter: “Christ died for us.” A preacher can never be wrong in lifting up Christ crucified; it is the glory of a congregation if it can be truly said, “Before your eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you.” Well did the apostle make this his boast: “We preach Christ crucified.” Still, we must always remember that there is a great deal about Christ beside his crucifixion; and however glorious his death may be,-and we are not disposed to rank it second to anything else,-yet there is another glory, another form of his excellency, which is seen, not in his death, but in his life. It is of this that the apostle speaks here: “Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Before we come to the consideration of that subject, dear friends, let us think of what the death of Christ has done for some of us. The former part of the verse from which our text is taken says, “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” What was that reconciliation? Wherein did it consist? We will not talk so much doctrinally, as practically, and experimentally. We were once enemies to God, but we are not enemies to God any longer. God was once angry with us, but God is not angry with us any more. If we have believed in Jesus Christ, a complete reconciliation has been effected between the offended God and the offending sinner. In this reconciliation, I see, first, that God, who is always love, and has always loved his people, being just, was unable to deal with the guilty sinner except upon the footing of justice, and justice demanded that the sinning soul should die; but Christ has come that God, as the great moral Ruler, might be able, without violation of his holiness, to deal in mercy with sinful men. Let there be no mistake about the object and purpose of Christ’s sacrifice. John Kent’s hymn rightly says,-

“ ’Twas not to make Jehovah’s love

Towards the sinner flame,

That Jesus from his throne above,

A suffering man became.

“ ’Twas not the death which he endured,

Nor all the pangs he bore,

That God’s eternal love procured,

For God was love before.”

He was always love to his people; but, until Christ came to earth and died, the Just for the unjust, that love could not flow freely. There was a dam that blocked up the stream, there was a great rock in the channel, and the rivers of love could not flow; but by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that impediment has been removed. God can now be “just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” I have already said that, in his heart of hearts, there was always love towards his people; but as the Judge upon the judgment-seat, he could not display that love, he could only manifest his indignation against every soul of man that does evil.

Now, this most righteous wrath of God was removed by the death of Jesus Christ, and could not have been removed in any other manner. The sword must find its victim, and Christ bared his breast to let infinite justice spend its full force on him. The debt had to be paid, and Jesus paid it to the last farthing with his own life which he poured out upon the tree. The cup of wrath must be drained, there was no putting it aside; so Jesus took it, and after saying, “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done,” he put it to his lips, and never took it away till he had drained it to its last drop. There was a necessity for Christ’s death, “it behoved Christ to suffer;” and by his suffering he appeased the wrath of the great Judge of all, so that he could justly look upon guilty men with complacency. That wondrous change was wrought by Christ’s death, and now the very justice of God demands our salvation. It is indeed marvellous that the righteousness of God, which was against us, should be made to be for us, and that the justice of God, which pronounced the sentence of death upon us, should be so transformed that justice itself now decrees our eternal life. This is a wonderful part of the reconciliation.

But the apostle speaks of our being reconciled,-our being reconciled. Well, that comes about in this way. We felt in our conscience that we had sinned against God; I am not speaking of all here present, but I am speaking of all those upon whom the Spirit of God has wrought unto salvation;-our conscience felt a secret sting, as though a burning poison had entered into the veins of our spirit. I remember when the thought that I had offended God seemed to drink up my very life. Of course I did not love him, and I could not, for it is according to the nature of our sinful heart that, if we do anyone an injury, we are sure to hate him. We do not always hate the man who injures us, but if we injure him, our hatred is almost certain to follow. And inasmuch as we had broken all God’s laws, and did not wish to own it, we hated the law itself, we kicked against it, and tried to persuade ourselves that it was the root of the offence, instead of our own wilful hearts being the source of the evil. We knew God to be holy, but we did not love holiness; in fact, having no holiness of our own, we could not endure even to hear or read about it. We set up a counterfeit righteousness of our own, and pretended that we were good, and all the while we were despising the true holiness and the perfect righteousness of God. But, beloved, when we saw Christ dying in our stead, “the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,” then conscience said, “God is satisfied, and so am I.” When we saw that God’s anger was removed because Christ had died, then our pettish, proud anger was removed, too, and we said, “Now are we reconciled to God by the death of his dear Son.” Oh, with what swift feet we fled to the mercy-seat! With what confidence, though with a holy trembling, we pleaded the merits of the dear Redeemer, and what joy and peace filled our mind! Then, we no longer hated God, or hated holiness, or hated the law, but we submitted ourselves unconditionally. We said, “The law is holy, and God is gracious; blessed be his glorious name.” Thus, the death of Christ wrought rconciliation, the anger of God was removed, and so was the trouble of our conscience. Then were our hearts won. Shall I speak for all God’s people here? I think I shall if I speak for myself, and say,-

“Law and terrors do but harden

All the while they work alone;

But a sense of blood-bought pardon

Soon dissolves a heart of stone.”

Oh, how our hearts were dissolved when we found that Christ loved us, and that he had given himself for us! When we saw God to be reconciled, how we longed for him! Our heart and our flesh cried out for God, for the living God, and we said, “When shall we come and appear before God?” And that longing is upon us still; we delight in fellowship with him. We are longing to be like him, and we are expecting to be with him where he is; and this is all the heaven that we desire. Oh, blessed be God, it is a bleeding Christ who has reconciled us even on earth! It is a bleeding Christ who has put out the fires of enmity; it is a bleeding Christ who has slain for ever the warfare in our spirit against God. Now are we reconciled unto God by the death of his Son.

Do not let me go a step further, dear friends, until you can all get as far as this. If there is any man here who is not reconciled to God, let him remember what a terrible state he is in. He is God’s enemy; how would any one of you like to have that title branded on your brow to-night, “God’s enemy”? Remember that you will never be reconciled to God except through the bleeding Saviour, and seek him now! Before even a word is said about the ever-living Christ, come and put your finger into the print of the nails of the dead Christ; come and wash in the fountain which he has filled from his own veins; come and accept the great atoning sacrifice just now. God help you, by his Divine Spirit, to do so, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake!

This brings us to the special subject mentioned in our text: “Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” The apostle Paul here bids us remember that Christ is still alive, and that, although we are reconciled to God, we still need to be kept and preserved, or, as he calls it, “saved,” and he tells us that, as Christ’s death has been effectual to reconcile us, we may be quite sure that his life will be effectual to save us. Nay, he says, “Much more”; if the death of Christ has reconciled us, “much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

I want you, dear friends, to do three things as you think of our text. First, consider what the life of Christ is to us; secondly, consider why the words “much more” may be applied to it; and, thirdly, consider how we can use this life.

First, then, briefly consider what the life of Christ is to us. If a man were to show me a picture of Christ on the cross, I should say to him, “What is that?” If he were to answer, “A picture of my Lord,” I should reply, “It is not a picture of my Saviour as he now is. It may be a representation of him as he once was, but not as he is now, enthroned in glory.” If a person were to carry about in his pocket the likeness of his mother taken after death, and were to draw it out, and say, “That is my mother,” I should say, “I should prefer to remember her as she was at her best, not as she was in the agonies of death, or after death.” So, I pray you, do not look upon any representation of Christ upon the cross as the main representation of our Lord Jesus. He was dead but for a very little while, He was on the cross only for a few hours; but our Saviour lives, never more to die. The Christ of the Church of Rome, as I have often told you, is a dead Christ on the cross, or else a baby Christ in Mary’s arms; but the Christ of the Church of God is a living Christ. We say of the grave, as the angel said to the women, “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.” We say of the cross, “He is not here; he has put an end to death in making an end of sin by his own death.” The main thought, concerning Christ, to those of us who really know him, should be that he is the living Christ.

“He lives, the great Redeemer lives,

What joy the blest assurance gives!”

What has Christ’s risen life to do with us? Well, first, Christ’s resurrection from the dead is to us who believe in him the pledge that he has saved us. When our Lord Jesus Christ died, he was, as it were, put in prison as a hostage for his people; and there he was kept till Divine Omniscience had searched his sacrifice and searched his obedience to see whether they were complete; and when it was certified that Christ had finished all the work which his Father had given him to do, then the sheriff’s officer of heaven, “the angel of the Lord,” was sent down to roll away the stone, and bid the captive come out. And when Jesus Christ came out of the grave, all his people came out of prison with their great Representative. In his own release from the tomb there was a token given to him from God that their sins were forgiven, and that his righteousness was accepted on their behalf. “He died for our sins,” says the apostle, but he also “rose again for our justification.” Wherefore, wrap not your hearts in the graveclothes which he left behind, but clothe them in the golden apparel wherewith the rising Christ girded himself, for you are justified because he has risen.

Believing in the resurrection of Christ, we view him as living and continuing to live: “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” What has that to do with us? Why, just what our Lord said to his disciples: “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Beloved, because Christ has risen from the dead, so all his people shall rise; and because, having once risen, Christ dies no more, so his rising saints shall be perfectly safe through all the future; they shall live for ever because they are partakers of his eternal life. Is not that a subject for great rejoicing? I live because he died, for that death redeemed me from death; but yet more, I live because he lives. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

Now follow with me this living Christ; we have seen that he is risen and living, what comes next? A few days after this living Christ rose from the grave, a little throng gathered about him on “the mount called Olivet,” and, to their surprise, he began to ascend. Scattering benedictions with both his hands, he continued to ascend till, at last, “a cloud received him out of their sight.” What has that ascension to do with us? Why, just this. He said to his disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” He has gone up into the glory, as our Representative, to take possession of eternal joy for us. He has gone within the veil, that he may represent us before his Father’s face, that, by-and-by, we may join him, and be with him where he is, to go no more out for ever. Wherefore, beloved, let us rejoice. As the Lord our Saviour has ascended into heaven, so shall we, in his own good time. I always admire that line of Dr. Watts, where he says that our Lord, in his ascension to heaven, has “taught our feet the way.”

“Up to our God our feet shall fly,

On the great rising day.”

Earth cannot permanently hold us down now Christ has gone up into his glory; the living Christ is a greater attraction than any other force. We who believe are one with him, and, as he has ascended, we also shall rise to him, and be for ever with him.

After he had ascended, he took his seat at the right hand of God, even the Father, clothed with honour, and majesty, and power, and dominion, and might. Listen, brothers and sisters. What has this fact to do with us? Why, just this; you who believe cannot perish, for Christ lives; you must conquer, for Jesus reigns. All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth, and “he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” A reigning Christ, an enthroned Christ,-this is the Christ to depend upon. I can risk my whole soul upon his blood, and know that there is no risk in the matter; but I feel a deep and growing confidence in the life that he now lives upon the throne.

But what else? Well, our glorified Redeemer spends much of his time in intercession; up there at the right hand of God, he continues to plead for his people. He can truly say in the fullest meaning of the words, “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” Continually does he present the rich incense of his merit before the eternal throne; and here is something more for us, for if Jesus pleads for us, we are for ever safe. If he is pleading before the throne, we may come to it with holy confidence. If Christ is there, the way is clear for you and for me to approach. “We have only to get behind him, and to look through his wounds at God, as God will look through the wounds of Christ at us, and all must be well. Oh, what do we not owe to the living Christ! My theme expands as I try to handle it; how my heart rejoices in it! Do you not know, beloved, how every part of that risen life of Jesus-his second coming, his final conquest of Satan and of the world, his eternal glory,-all has to do with us, for we are sharers in all that Christ has; we are joint-heirs with him of all his glories and his triumphs?

This, then, is just a brief summary of what the life of Christ has to do with us.

Now, secondly, why does the apostle put a “much more” in here? “Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

I think it is because we are so apt to put a “much less” to it. It is not often that we preach and talk as we ought about this living Saviour of ours. Brethren, the great Testator is dead; that makes his last will and testament valid. Listen once more: he who made the will is alive again, so he is his own Executor to carry out his own will. Is not that a blessing for you and for me? He made the will valid by his death; but, by rising again, he has come to see that every jot and tittle of it shall be carried out. We have not to depend upon somebody else executing our dying Saviour’s will. He has risen from the dead, clothed with all power and might, to accomplish that upon which he has set his heart.

Paul says, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” How can it be much more? I answer, first, because, when our Saviour reconciled us by his death, it was the time of his weakness. See, he is nailed to the cross, the fever burns him up, he cries, “I thirst;” he says, “I am a worm, and no man;” weakness has come upon him to the uttermost; he closes his eyes in the last dread sleep of death. They take down his poor body, and wrap it in white linen, with sweet spices, and put it away in Joseph’s tomb. There could not be greater weakness, could there, than in the crucified Christ? Yet, even then, he reconciled us; but now, he is clothed with power, Head over all things, Lord of angels, King of kings; all heaven resounds with his praises. Do you not see the drift of my argument? If, when he was in his uttermost weakness, he redeemed us by his death, “much more,” now that he is in all his power and glory, he must be able to save his people by his life.

Look at this expression again. When our Lord died, he was in the servant’s place. He had, for our sake, laid aside his glory; “he made himself of no reputation.” He emptied himself. He had become like ourselves, feeble and weak; but, beside that, he was bound to do the Father’s will, and to suffer it even to the last extremity. As the Mediator between God and man, he had made himself inferior to God; he had taken a subordinate place, so that he could truly say, “My Father is greater than I.” But remember, brethren,-

“The head that once was crown’d with thorns,

Is crown’d with glory now;

A royal diadem adorns

The mighty Victor’s brow.

“The highest place that heaven affords

Is his, is his by right,

The King of kings, and Lord of lords,

And heaven’s eternal light.”

Now he wears again the glory which he had with his Father or ever the earth was. Do you not see, then, that it is “much more” that he can do for his people under such circumstances? If, when he took an inferior place, and condescended for our sake to be a servant, so that-

“With cries and tears he offered up

His humble suit below;”-

if then he reconciled us, “much more” can he now save us when he has taken to himself his great power, and with authority pleads before his Father’s face: “I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” If I can trust a dying Saviour with my soul, and feel perfectly safe in doing so, how easy it is to trust a living Saviour, and to roll myself upon his almighty love, and feel eternally secure!

Furthermore, dear brethren, when our Lord took upon himself the work of saving us, he did, in a certain sense, come wider the displeasure of God. Not that he ever could be really displeasing to God, for in him was no sin, and the Father never had a greater delight in Christ than when he hid his face from him; yet still, according to the Word of God, Jehovah bruised him, Jehovah hid his face from him till Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He came under the curse, for “cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” For your sakes and mine, he bore the scourgings of infinite justice, and the frown of the offended majesty of heaven. This was diving very low; and if, even then, he was able to reconcile us to God, how “much more” must he be able to save us now that the Father’s well-beloved Son has come home again, and lives in the eternal sunlight of his dear Father’s smile,-now that God delights in him, and all heaven is lit up with the gleaming of the Father’s joy, and every angel bows before him, and, night and day, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” rises in perpetual waves of praise up to the throne of glory where he is adored and worshipped!

Yet once again. When the Saviour died, there was a certain aspect of defeat about his death. He stood alone, that dreadful day, in deadly conflict with the powers of darkness. All the battalions of hell were mustered, and they made one tremendous attack upon the Prince of life and glory. Single-handed, he fought them all, and his own right hand and his holy arm gained him the victory. But, for a while, it looked like defeat. He closed his eyes in death, saying, “It is finished,” and he gave up the ghost. Those nail-prints, and that gory side, and that pallid countenance, looked as if death had won the victory, though it was not really so. Yet, beloved, he reconciled us even then! Oh, could we see him now! I suppose we could not; our eyes are not yet formed for that beatific vision. But what a sight it would be if we could see him with his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace! One said, “You cannot see Christ’s face, and live;” and another answered, “Well, be it so; then let me see his face and die.” And I have often felt that I could say the same, and I have sung, with good Dr. Watts,-

“Oh, for a sight, a pleasing sight,

Of our Almighty Father’s throne!

There sits our Saviour crown’d with light,

Clothed in a body like our own.

“Adoring saints around him stand,

And thrones and powers before him fall;

The God shines gracious through the Man,

And sheds sweet glories on them all.

“Oh, what amazing joys they feel

While to their golden harps they sing,

And sit on every heavenly hill,

And spread the triumphs of their King!

“When shall the day, dear Lord, appear,

That I shall mount to dwell above,

And stand and bow amongst them there,

And view thy face, and sing, and love?”

Well now, if, when he lay there, all blood-bespattered and dead, defeated as it seemed, he reconciled us to God, my brothers, what can he not do now that he is in all the splendour of his majesty, the delight of heaven and of all holy beings? He must be able to save us. Well may we entrust our souls to him, and say, with the apostle, “I am not ashamed: for 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.”

So now I close by asking you to consider how we can use this life of Christ.

If Christ is still alive, and if there be, in a certain sense, “much more” power to save in his life than there was of power to reconcile in his death, then, first, all fear of our being overcome ought to vanish. He is victorious; therefore we shall be victorious. Christ was assaulted by all the powers of death and hell, and yet he conquered, and he lives. We, too, shall conquer, for he is in us, he is with us, he is over us; and we shall live though we die, and we shall win though we be apparently overcome.

How shall we use this life of Christ? Why, next, let us use it in prayer. When you feel that you cannot pray,-and there are such times with all of us,-then say, “He can pray, for he ever liveth to make intercession for us.”

“Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead,

Nor doubt the Father’s grace.”

When it goes hard with you on your knees, and you seem as if you could not prevail, then remember that Jesus is pleading, and he must prevail. Put your case into his hands, and he will present his mighty pleas on your behalf, and then you cannot be baffled. Is not that a sweet thought?

Another use to make of Christ’s life is this. Are you very solitary? In this modern Babylon of London, there are many persons who are quite alone; and there is no solitude so terrible as that which can be found in a great city. Perhaps you live in a street where there are hundreds of Christians, but you do not know one of them. I will tell you what to do; Jesus lives, get away to him, for there is no company like his. If he comes into that little room of yours, it will be like a temple. Solomon’s temple, in all its glory, was never so bright as that upper room of yours will be when Christ comes there. I know how you have to stitch away all day long to earn a scanty living. I know, too, how sometimes you cannot sleep at night because of the severe pain you have to suffer; but if your Lord be there, it shall be sweet work, and sweet suffering, too, with that best of workers and sufferers to sit at your side. Jesus lives! Jesus lives! You have not to go to Calvary to think about his cross; you have not to go to the tomb, and weep there because he is dead. He lives, and he is with his people alway, even unto the end of the world. Wherefore, in your prayers, and in your solitude, comfort yourselves.

I suppose, too, that many of you are sorely tempted. Is there a Christian man or woman among us who is not tempted of the devil? Well, Jesus lives, and he was tempted in all points like as we are, though without sin. He is able to sympathize with you, for he himself was compassed with infirmity. Get to your living High Priest; tell him what the devil is trying to do to you. It is a good thing never to dispute with the devil. I have heard that, if a man brings a law-suit against you, you had better never say anything to him, but transfer the whole affair to your lawyer, and when the man writes to you, say, “I have nothing to do with the matter; you must apply to my legal adviser, he will attend to it for me.” “He who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client,” says one of our proverbs; so, whenever the devil comes to you, remember that he knows a great deal more than you do, and if you try to answer him, he will soon trip you up. You had better say to him, “I will have nothing to do with you, Satan. I refer you to my Solicitor, my Advocate.” Then the devil will ask his name, and when you give him the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he will drop that suit, for he has suffered severe defeat many a time from that same Jesus Christ, ages and ages ago. He remembers the wilderness, and how the Master there soon sent him about his business; so, refer him to Christ. Do not be your own champion; let Christ be Champion for you, and all will be well.

In fine, dear brothers and sisters, since Christ lives, let us live with him, let us make the Lord Jesus Christ our daily Companion. I know that there are some Christians who cannot understand this advice, or cannot believe that they may put it into practice. But you will never know the very juice and marrow of the gospel until you do understand it, and get to feel that Christ is not a mere historical Personage who was upon the earth hundreds of years ago, but a living, personal Christ who is even now accessible, who can be spoken to, and who can speak to us in reply, and with whom we may live even now. Oh, if you can get into personal contact with Jesus Christ, then have you learnt how to live! Then is the dying Saviour inexpressibly dear to you, but then also the living Christ is, if possible, even more dear, and you live through him,-with him,-for him,-and he lives in you. So may God make it to be, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

romans 5

Verse 1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Do not let us simply read these words, but let us each one say in our hearts, “That is true; I have believed in Christ, therefore I am justified in the sight of God, and therefore I have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” There is nothing in the world that is half as valuable as the two precious gems in this verse,-justification and the peace which follows it.

2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

See what we owe to Christ,-not only justification and peace, but we have access into the grace in which we stand; for, when a man is at peace with God, then he longs to get to God, and to speak with God. Christ is the door, and Christ is the way; we come to God by Jesus Christ. This is no small privilege. Oh, you who have ever felt what it is to be shut out from God, let your heart sing as you know that you now have access by faith into this grace wherein you stand!

Well may the apostle add, “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God;” for, if there is any man who may and must rejoice, it is the man who has peace with God, and expects to dwell with God for ever, having access to God by Jesus Christ.

3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:

Paul is going upstairs, as it were,-rising from one platform to another. There is enough of glory in Christ to wrap up all our troubles in; it makes the black white, and the dark bright.

3.Knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

A man who never suffers does not know what patience means; but trial works patience, yet not of itself. Trials work peevishness and murmuring and discontent; but grace brings sweet out of bitter, and-“tribulation worketh patience;”-

4, 5. And patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Do you know what this means, dear friend, or is it all Greek to you? The Lord make it indeed plain every-day English to you! May you understand it, feel it, know it, prove it, taste it, enjoy it! If you do so, happy indeed are you.

6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Not, “Christ died for saints, because the saints were such gracious people.” No, no; but, “when we were yet without strength,”-when we could lift neither hand nor foot to help ourselves,-“in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die:

For a man who is perfectly just,-there are few who would be willing to die for him.

7. Yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

For a generous, noble-hearted man, some might be willing to die; yet there is a peradventure even about that.

8. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

When we were not righteous, when we certainly were not good, when the whole description of our character could be summed up in that one word “sinners”-rebels offending against God: “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

9. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

He died for us when we were unrighteous; so, now that he has made us righteous in his own righteousness, he will never cast us away. That doctrine of believers falling from grace, and perishing, is clean contrary to Scripture: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

10, 11. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God-

See, the apostle has gone up to another platform. The gospel is a tale that we may be always telling, but it can never be fully told. It is a light that keeps on breaking upon us more and more; and even when we have come to what we suppose is the full noontide of it, there is still seven times as much glory yet to be revealed. Yes; we go “from strength to strength:” “and not only so, but we also joy in God”-

11-21. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (for until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-317, 337, 329.