This is a blessed chain of gospel experience. Our text is not meant for the men of the world, who have their portion in this life, but for the chosen, and called, and faithful, who are brought into the inner circle of Christ’s disciples, and taught to understand the mysteries of his kingdom. It was in answer to the question of Jude as to how Christ would manifest himself to his own, and not to the world, that these words were spoken, and Christ explained that it would be manifest who were his own people by certain marks and signs. They would be those who love him, and keep his commandments, and so win the complacency of the Father; and the Father and the Son would come to these loving and obedient disciples, and make their abode with them. God grant that all of us may be able to take each of the steps here mentioned, so that our Lord may manifest himself to us as he does not unto the world!

The subject upon which I am about to speak to you is one which the preacher cannot handle without the people. I must have God’s people with me in spirit to help me while I am dealing with such a topic as this. You know that, in the Church of England service, there are certain places where the clergyman says, “saying after me,” so that it is not simply the minister alone uttering the prayer or the confession, but he is a sort of precentor leading the rest of the congregation. In a similar style, I want you people of God, as the Holy Spirit shall enable you, to bend all your thoughts and energies in this direction, and step by step to climb with me to these distinct spiritual platforms,-ascending from the one to the other by the Spirit’s gracious aid, that your fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Our text begins with the first link in this golden chain, namely, love to Christ: “If a man love me.”

This “if” seems to me to stand at the portals of our text, like a sentinel at the gate of a palace, to prevent anybody from entering who ought not to enter. It is an “if” that may be passed round the present assembly, for I fear that all in this house do not love the Lord Jesus Christ. If you cannot answer in the affirmative the question asked by the lips of Jesus himself, “Lovest thou me?” you have nothing to do with the rest of this verse. Indeed, what have you to do with any of the privileges revealed in the Bible, or with any of the blessings promised there, so long as you are without love to Christ? Let that “if” stand, then, as with a drawn sword, like the cherubim at the gate of the garden of Eden, to keep you from venturing to intrude where you have no right to go if you do not love the Lord Jesus Christ: “If a man love me.”

Art thou a lover of the Lord, dear hearer? Put not that question aside, but answer it honestly, in his sight, for there are some, who only pretend to love him, but really do not;-some, who make a loud profession, but their language is hypocritical, for their conduct is not consistent therewith. Do you love the Lord Jesus with your whole heart? He is well worthy of your love, so let the question go round the whole assembly, and not miss any one of us, “Lovest thou me?”

For there are some, too, who are Christ’s disciples only by profession. All they give him is a cold-hearted assent to his teaching. Their head is convinced, and, in a measure, their life is not altogether inconsistent with their profession; but their heart is dead; or, if it be at all alive, it is like that of the church of Laodicea, neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm; and that is a state which Christ abhors. He must occupy the throne of our hearts, and be the best loved of all, or else we lack that which is essential to true Christianity.

“If a man love me,” says Christ; so, do you love him? I do not ask whether you love his offices, though I hope you do. You love the Prophet, the Priest, the King, the Shepherd, the Saviour, and whatsoever other title he assumes; each of these names is music to your ear;-but do you love Christ himself? I will not ask whether you love his work, especially the great redemption which comprehends such innumerable blessings. I hope you do; but it is a personal love to Christ that is spoken of here. Jesus says, “If any man love me.” Have you realized Christ, personally, as still alive, and gone into heaven, and soon to come again in all the glory of his Father and of the holy angels? Say, brother, sister, dost thou love him? “If,” says Christ, “If a man love me,” so it is right and wise for each one of us to put that question to ourselves, even though we know that we can answer it satisfactorily, and say,-

“Yes, I love thee, and adore;

Oh, for grace to love thee more!”

And if there should be any doubt about the matter, we ought to put the question, pointedly, again, and again, and again, and let not ourselves escape till there is a definite answer given one way or another. Heart of mine, dost thou really love the Saviour? Brothers and sisters, put this question to yourselves; and if you do love him, let your love well up like a mighty geyser,-the hot spring that leaps up to a great height. So let the hot spring of your love to Jesus leap up now, and let each one of you say to him,-

“My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine,

For thee all the follies of sin I resign;

My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art thou,

If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.”

If you can do so, then you may add,-

“I will love thee in life, I will love thee in death,

And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath;

And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.”

Remember that, if you do love him, he must have loved you first. Think of his ancient love,-the love that was fixed upon you or ever the earth was, when he saw you in the glass of futurity, and beheld all that you would be in the ruinous fall of Adam, and by your own personal transgression, and yet loved you, notwithstanding all. Think of him, when the fulness of time was come, stripping himself of all his glory, and descending from the throne of infinite majesty to the manger of humiliation, and being there, as a babe, swaddled in his weakness. Will you not love him who became God incarnate for you? Think of him all through his life,-a life of poverty, for he had not where to lay his head;-a life of rejection, for “he came unto his own, and his own received him not;”-a life of pain, for he bare our sicknesses;-a life of dishonour, for he was despised and rejected of men. Will you further think of him in the garden of Gethsemane? Will not your love be stirred as you watch the bloody sweat, and hear his groans and mark his tears, as he pleads with God until he prevails? Follow him to the judgment-seat, and hear him there charged with sedition and with blasphemy, if you can bear it. Then see the soldiers, as they spit in his face and mock him, while they thrust a reed into his hand for a sceptre, and put on his brow a crown of thorns as his only diadem. See him tied up to be scourged, till the cruel thongs lacerate and tear his precious flesh, and he suffers agonies indescribable. And when you have followed him so far, go further still, and stand at the cross-foot, and mark the crimson stream that flows from his hands, and feet, and side. Stand and watch him when the soldier’s spear has pierced his heart, and made the blood and water flow forth for your pardon and cleansing. Did he suffer all this for you, and do you not love him in return? May I not tell that “if” to get out of the way, and let you pass in, that you may take the next step? Track him as he rises from the grave for you, as he ascends to heaven for you, and obtains great gifts for you; and as yonder, before his Father’s face, he pleads for you; and as there he governs all things, as King of kings, and Lord of lords, and governs all for you; as there he prepares many mansions for his own people; and as there he gets ready to come to earth, the second time, that he may receive his people unto himself, that where he is they may be also for ever and for evermore. As you think of all this, love the Lord, ye who are his saints, ye who have been washed in his blood, love him! Ye who are wearing the spotless robe of his righteousness,-love him. Ye who call him “Husband”, love him,-ye who are married to him,-united in bonds that can never be severed.

If this be true of you, let us pass on to the next point, that of keeping Christ’s words. “If any man love me,” says Christ, “he will keep my words.” Let us see how far we have kept his words.

I trust that, first, we keep his words by treasuring them, and prizing them. Brothers and sisters, I hope that we venerate every word that Christ has ever uttered. I trust that we desire to treasure up every syllable that he has ever spoken. There is not a word of his, recorded in the Gospels, or in any other of the inspired pages of revelation, by which we do not set more store than by much fine gold.

I trust that we keep Christ’s words, next, by trying to know them. Are you all diligent students of the Word? Do you search the Scriptures? Do you live upon the truth that the Lord hath spoken? You should do so, for every word that cometh out of his mouth is the true food of your souls. I must ask you whether you are doing these two things. Are you keeping Christ’s words by prizing them, and by seeking to be so familiar with them that you know what his words are?

Then, next, do you endeavour to lift the latch, and to find your way into the inner meaning of his words? Do you pierce the shell to get at the kernel? Does the Spirit of God lead you into all truth, or are you content with the rudiments of the faith? This is the way to keep Christ’s words, namely, by endeavouring, to your very utmost, to understand what the meaning of those words may be.

Then, when you know the meaning of them, do you seek to keep them in your hearts? Do you love what Christ has spoken, so that you delight to know what it is, and love it because it is his doctrine? Will you sit at his feet, and receive the instruction that he is willing to impart? Have you attained to that stage that you even love his rebukes? If his words come home to you, and sharply reprove you, do you love them even then, and lay bare your heart before him that you may feel more and more the faithful wounds of this your beloved Friend? Do you also love his precepts? Are they as sweet to you as his promises; or, if you could do as you wish, would you cut them out of the Bible, and get rid of them? O brothers and sisters, it is a blessed proof that grace has been largely given to us when even the smallest word uttered by Jesus Christ is more precious to us than all the diamonds in the world, and we feel that we only want to know what he has said, and to love whatever he has spoken.

“If a man love me, he will keep my words.” This declaration of our Lord suggests this question,-Do we keep his words practically? That is a most important point, for you will not be able to get any further if you stumble here. Do you endeavour, in a practical way, to keep all his moral precepts? Are you trying to be, in your lives, as far as you can, like him; or are you selfish unkind, worldly? Are you endeavouring to be like him who hath left you an example that you should follow in his steps? Come, answer honestly. Is this the object of your being? Are you seeking to be moulded by the Holy Spirit in that way? And are you practically keeping Christ’s words as to the precepts of the gospel? Have you believed on him? Believing on him, have you been baptized according to his command? Being baptized, do you come to his table, according to his bidding, “This do in remembrance of me”? Or do you turn on your heel, and say that these are nonessential things?

Beloved, if your heart is right with God, you will want to know all his words, and to put them into practice. What care I about the words of any earthly church? They are only the words of men; but search ye, and find the words of Christ; and wherever they lead you, even though you are the only one who has ever been led in that way, follow wherever he leads. You cannot take the next step mentioned in my text unless you can deliberately say, “Yes, Lord, ‘thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts;’ and I long to walk in all thy statutes and ordinances, blamelessly, even to the end of my days.” You may err; you may make mistakes; you may commit sin; but the intent of your heart must be that, having loved the Lord, you will keep his words in those various senses that I have mentioned.

If you have been enabled to pass through these two gates, you may now come to the next one, which tells us of a high privilege and great joy: “He will keep my words, and my Father will love him.”

What wonderful words these are,-“My Father will love him”! It is quite certain that he will do so; for, when a man loves Jesus, he is in sympathy with the Eternal Father himself. You know, my brethren, that the Father’s love is fixed upon his only-begotten Son. One with himself in his essential Deity, he has loved him from eternity; but since Jesus has been obedient unto death, “even the death of the cross,” we cannot imagine what must be the Father’s complacency in the blessed person of our risen and ascended Lord. This is a deep subject, and there is no human mind that can ever fathom the depths of it, and tell how truly and how wonderfully the Father loves his everlasting Son. So, you see, brethren, that, if we love Jesus Christ, our heart meets the heart of God, for the Father also loves him. Have you never felt, when you have been trying to praise Jesus, that you are doing, in your feeble way, just what God has always been doing in his own infinite way? The ever-blessed Spirit is continually glorifying Jesus; and when you are doing the same, God and you, though with very unequal footsteps, are treading the same path, and are in sympathy the one with the other.

Then, besides the fact that you are in sympathy with the Father in having one object of love, you are also in sympathy with him as to character. Jesus said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words.” Well, when you are keeping Christ’s words,-when the Divine Spirit is making you obedient to Jesus, and like to Jesus,-you are treading the path where your Heavenly Father would have you walk, and therefore he loves you.

Let me make a clear distinction here. I am not now speaking about the general love of God towards all mankind,-that love of benevolence and beneficence which is displayed even towards the thankless and the evil. Neither am I speaking, just now, concerning the essential love of God towards his own elect, whom he loves, irrespectively of their character, because of his own sovereign choice of them from eternity; but I am speaking of that complacent love which God, as a Father, has towards his own children. You know that you often say to your child, “If you do this or that, your father will love you;” yet you know that a father will love his child, as his child, and always must do so even if his character is not all that the father desires it to be. But what a love that is which a father has to a good, dutiful, obedient child! It is a love of which he talks to him again and again, a love which he manifests to him in many sweet and kindly words, a love which he displays to him in many actions which he would not otherwise have done, bestowing upon him many favours which it would not have been safe to bestow upon him if he had been a naughty, disobedient child. Never forget that our Heavenly Father exercises wise discipline in his house. He has rods for his children who disobey him, and he has smiles for his children who keep his commands. If we walk contrary to him, he has told us that he will walk contrary to us; but if our ways please him, there are many choice favours which he bestows upon us. This teaching is not suggestive of legal bondage, for we are not under law, but under grace; but this is the law of God’s house under the rule of grace;-for instance, if a man keeps the Lord’s commandments, he will have power with God in prayer; but when a man lives habitually in sin, or even occasionally falls into sin, he cannot pray so as to prevail, he cannot win the ear of God as he used to do. You know right well that, if you have offended the Lord in any way, you cannot enjoy the gospel as you did before you so sinned. The Bible, instead of smiling upon you, seems to threaten you, in every text and every line; it seems to rise up, as in letters of fire, and burn its way into your conscience.

It is certainly true that the Lord deals differently with his own children according to their condition and character. So, when a man is brought into such a state of heart that he keeps Christ’s words, then his character is of such a kind that God can take a complacent delight in him, and in this sense can love him. It is in such a case as this that the Father will let us know that he loves us, that he will assure us of that love, and shed it abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. He will give us special blessings, perhaps in providence, but certainly in grace. He will give us special joy and rejoicing; our horn shall be exalted, and our feet shall stand upon the high places of the earth. All things-even his trials-shall be blessed to the man who walks aright with God; and the way to do that is to love Christ, and to keep his words. Of such a man, Jesus says, “My Father will love him.”

If you have passed through these three gates, you come to another which bears this inscription, “We will come unto him.”

This is a singular use of the plural pronoun: “We will come unto him.” It is a proof of the distinct personality of the Father and of the Son. Jesus says, “If a man love me,” (do not forget the previous links in this blessed gospel chain,) “he will keep my words: and my Father will love him;” and then follows this gracious assurance: “We will come unto him.” Does not this mean, first, distance removed? There is no longer a gap between such a man’s soul and his God. He feels heavy in heart, perhaps, and thinks, “I cannot get near to God;” but he hears this comforting message, “We will come unto him;” and, soon, over all the mountains of division that there may have been in the past, like a roe, or a young hart, the Well-beloved comes; and the great Father, when he sees, in the distance, his child returning to him, runs to meet him, and folds him to his heart. What a wondrous divine coming this is! Christ and his Father, by the Holy Spirit, come to pay the believer a most gracious visit. Yes, beloved, if you are living in love to Christ, and keeping his words, there will not be any distance separating you from the Father and the Son, but the text will be blessedly fulfilled in your experience, “We will come unto him.”

And, while it means distance removed, it also means honour conferred. Many a great nobleman has beggared himself that he might receive a prince or a king into his house; the entertainment of royalty has meant the mortgaging of his estates; that is a poor return for the honour of receiving a visit from his sovereign. But, behold, my brothers and sisters, how different it is with us. The obedient lover of the Lord Jesus Christ has the Father and the Son to visit him, and he is greatly enriched by their coming. He may be very poor, but Jesus says, “We will come unto him.” He may be obscure and illiterate, but Jesus says, “We will come unto him.” Do you all, dear friends, know what this coming means? Did you ever know the Son to come to you with his precious blood applied to your conscience, till you realized that every one of your sins was forgiven? Have you taken Jesus up in your arms, spiritually, as old Simeon did literally, and said, with him, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”? Has Jesus seemed, to your faith, to be as near to you as one who sat on the same chair with you, and talked with you in most familiar conversation? It has been so with some of us, and it has often been so.

This also has meant knowledge increased. Jesus has revealed himself to us by coming to us, even as he came to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Then, in addition, have you not known the Father come to you, in his Divine relationship, yet making you feel yourself his child, and causing you to realize that he loved you as truly as you love your own children, only much more deeply and fervently than human love can ever be? Have you not received, at his hands, such tokens for good, and such benedictions as only he could give, so that you felt the Divine Fatherhood to be something coming very near to you, and the Spirit of God, operating within you, has made you cry, “Abba, Father,” with an unstammering tongue? “We will come unto him.” The Saviour will come, and the Father will come, and the blessed Spirit will represent them both in the believer’s heart.

So, “We will come unto him,” means distance removed, honour conferred, and knowledge increased; and it also means assistance brought; for, if the Father and the Son come to us, what more can we need? With their gracious presence in our souls, we have omnipotence and omniscience, infinity and all-sufficiency, on our side, and grace to help us in every time of need.

Can you catch the full meaning of that phrase? Jesus says that the Father and the Son will visit us; they will come to us, as the three blessed ones came to Abraham when he was at the tent door, and he entertained the Lord and his attendant angels; but they did not make their abode with him. They went on their way, and Abraham was left in the plains of Mamre. God often visited Abraham, and spake familiarly with him, but our Saviour’s promise goes beyond that; he says, “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” To make your abode with a person, is for that person and yourself to have the same house and home, and to live together. In this case, it means that the Lord will make his people to be his temple wherein he will dwell continually. “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” I have turned that thought over and over again until I have got the sweetness of it into my own heart; but I cannot communicate it to your minds and hearts; only the Holy Spirit can do that.

See what this expression means. What knowledge of one another is implied here! Do you want to know a person? You must live with him; you do not really know anybody, however much you may think you know, until you have done so. But, oh, if the Father and the Son come and live with us, we shall know them,-know the Father and the Son! This is not the portion of carnal minds; neither is it for professing Christians who have not fulfilled the conditions laid down by our Lord; but it is for those who love Christ, and keep his words, those who consciously live in the enjoyment of the Father’s complacency, and who have fellowship with the Father and with the Son by the Spirit. To these privileged individuals, God reveals himself in his triune personality, and to them he will make known all that is in his covenant of love and mercy.

This expression also implies a sacred friendship; for, when God comes to dwell with men, he does not thus dwell with his enemies, but only with those who love him, and between whom and himself there is mutual sympathy. O beloved, if God the Father and God the Son shall indeed come to dwell with us, it will be to us a proof of wondrous love, and dear familiarity, and intense friendship! If you go to live with an earthly friend, it is quite possible for you to stay too long, and to outstay your welcome. But God knows all about the man with whom he comes to live, and Jesus says, “We will make our abode with him,” because he knows that his Spirit has purified and sanctified that heart, and made it ready to receive himself, and his Father, too. You remember how Jeremiah pleaded with the Lord not merely to be as a sojourner: “O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?” But this is not the way that the Father and the Son deal with us, for Jesus says that they will make their abode with us. Does not this imply a very sacred friendship indeed between God and our soul?

It also reveals the complete acceptance of the man before God; for, when anyone comes to stay with you, it is taken for granted that you exercise hospitality towards him; he eats and drinks in your house; and, for the time, he makes himself at home with you. “But,” you ask, “is it possible that God should accept the hospitality of man?” Yes, it is; listen to the words of Christ himself: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Oh, the blessedness of thus entertaining the King of kings! Then will he drink of my milk and my wine, and eat the pleasant fruits that are grown in the garden of my soul. Will that which I present to him be acceptable to him? It must be, or else he would not live in my house? And when the Father and the Son come to dwell in the soul of the believer, then all that he does will be accepted; if he is himself accepted, his thoughts and his words, his prayers and his praises, his almsgiving and his labours for Christ will be accepted by both the Father and the Son.

What a blessed state for anyone to reach! For then it shall come to pass that this reception, on God’s part, from us, shall be followed by a sevenfold reception, on our part, from him. You do not imagine, I hope, that, when God the Father and God the Son make their abode in a man, that the man will continue to be just as he was when they came to him. No, my brethren; the Lord pays well for his lodging; where he stays, he turns everything that he touches into gold. When he comes into a human heart, it may be dark, but he floods it with the light of heaven. It may have been cold before, but he warms it with the glow of his almighty love. A man without the indwelling of God is like the bush in Horeb when it was only a bush; but when the Father and the Son come to him, then it is with him as when the bush burned with fire, yet was not consumed. The Lord brings heaven to you when he comes to you, and you are rich beyond the intents of bliss. All things are yours, for you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s, and Christ and God have come to make their abode with you.

Now, according to our Lord’s promise, “We will come to him, and will make our abode with him, it is implied that there they mean to stop. Let me take your thoughts back, for a minute, to the earlier links in this blessed gospel chain, and remind you that it is only “if a man love me,” and it is only “if he keep my words,” that the Saviour’s promise applies: “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Have the Father and the Son come to your heart? Then, I charge you, do nothing that might cause them to depart from you even for a moment. If you ever get into conscious enjoyment of the divine indwelling, be jealous of your heart lest it should ever from your Lord depart, or drive him from you. Say, with the spouse, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.”

“But,” perhaps you ask, “can we keep him? Can we keep him always?” I believe you can. By the blessed help of the Divine Spirit, who has taught you to love him, and to keep his words, you may have near and dear fellowship with your Lord by the month and by the year together. I am sure that we have too low a standard of the possibilities of Christian fellowship, and Christian enjoyment, and Christian living. Aim at the highest conceivable degree of holiness; and, though you will not be perfect, never excuse yourselves because you are not. Always aim at something higher and yet higher still than you have already reached; ask the Lord to come and abide with you for ever. You will be happy Christians if you attain to this privilege, and keep in that condition; and we shall be a blessed church if the most or all of us should attain to it. I mean to go in for this blessing, by God’s gracious help; will not you, my brother, my sister? Can any of you be content to live a lower life than is possible to you? I hope you will not be; but that you will reach all of these steps that I have pointed out to you, and ask God in prayer to help you to surmount them. “Lord, help me to love Jesus. Set my soul on fire with love to him. Lord, enable me to keep all his words, and never to trifle with his truth in anything. And then, Father, look upon me with complacency. Make me such that thou canst take delight in me. See the resemblance to thy Son in me, because thou hast made me to be like him; and then, Father, and Saviour, come and abide with me for ever and ever. Amen.” Such a prayer as that, truly presented, will be answered, and the Lord shall get glory from it.

But, alas! many of you have nothing to do with this text because you do not love Christ; and the first thing you have to do is not to think about loving him, but about trusting him, for you know that the only way of salvation is by trusting Christ; so, if you do not trust him, you are not in the way of salvation. Have you ever thought of what is involved in being an unbeliever? The apostle John says, “he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” Do you really mean to make God out to be a liar? Surely, you cannot; the very thought is too horrible to be entertained for a moment. Well, then, believe his record concerning his Son. That record declares that he is the propitiation for our sins; then, if you rely upon that propitiation, and trust to him who made it, you are saved.

I often have the remark made to me, by an anxious soul, “But, sir, I cannot believe; I wish I could.” This is the answer which I generally give to the person who says that:-“What! you cannot believe? Come, now, let us have that matter out. You cannot believe God? Could you believe me?” Of course, the answer is, “Oh, yes, sir; I can believe you!” I reply,-“Yes, I suppose that is because you have confidence in my character, and believe that I would not tell you a lie. Then, in the name of everything that is good and reasonable, how is it that you dare say that you cannot believe God? Is he a liar? Has he ever given you any cause to say to him, ‘I cannot believe you’? What do you mean? Give me some reason why you cannot believe God? What has he done that you cannot believe him?” Well, they do not quite see it in that light; but, still, they return to that sentence, “I cannot believe.” Well now, sinner, if Jesus Christ were present, and he were to say to you, “Trust me, and I will save you; believe my promise, and you shall enter into eternal life;” would you look him in the face, and say, “I cannot believe thee”? And if he asked you the question, “Why canst thou not believe me?” what would be your reply? Surely, a man can believe what is true. There have been times, with me, since I have known the Saviour, when it seemed to me as if I could not doubt my Lord,-as if I could not find a reason, even if I ransacked heaven, and earth, and hell, why I should doubt him. I protest that I do not know any reason why I should not trust Christ; I cannot conceive of any. Well, will men continue this monstrous, unjust, ungenerous conduct? Alas, they will.

“But,” says someone, “if I do trust my soul to Christ, will he save me?” Try him, and see; you have his own promise that he will cast out none who come unto him. So, if thou believest in the Lord Jesus Christ this very moment,-this very moment thou art saved. What more need I say? May the Blessed Spirit cause you to cease, by your unbelief, from practically making God a liar, and may you now come and trust in Jesus, the Substitute and Surety for his people! So shall you rest your weary hearts upon his loving bosom, and it shall be well with you for ever and ever. May God bless you all, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

JOHN 14:15-31

Verses 15, 16. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Is it not very sweet to think that the Spirit of God is given to the Church in answer to the prayer of Christ? Prayer is a holy exercise, for Jesus prayed; and what a powerful influence prayer has, for his prayer has brought to us “another Comforter,”-

17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:

This poor world will not receive anything which it cannot see. It is ruled by its senses; it is carnal and fleshly, and mindeth not the things that are unseen. It cannot discern them.

17, 18. But ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

That expression, “I will not leave you comfortless,” might be rendered, “I will not leave you orphans.”

19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

What a wealth of meaning these words contain! The sentences are very simple, but they are also sublime. The gorgeous language, in which some orators indulge, is, when the meaning of it is condensed, like great clouds of steam which produce but a few drops of water. But, here, you have vast truths pressed into a small compass, and those that seem most plain are really the most deep.

“Because I live, ye shall live also.” As surely as Christ lives, so must his people. They cannot die, for he lives, to die no more, and they live in him.

20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Mysterious triple union,-Christ in the Father, we in Christ, and Christ in us. This is a complete riddle to all who have never been taught of the Spirit of God.

21, 22. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

He did really answer the question, though perhaps not directly. This is the process by which he manifests himself unto his people, and not unto the world:-

23, 24. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

There is Divine authority at the back of every word uttered by the Man Christ Jesus. His message comes not from himself alone, but from the Eternal Father as well.

25-28. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

And truly so he was, for Christ had, for a while, laid aside his own greatness, and taken the position of a servant.

29, 30. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

His words must come to an end, for he was going to perform his mightiest deeds. He could converse no longer, for he was going from converse to conflict. He must meet his great enemy now, and leave his dearest friends.

31. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

And so he went to the garden of Gethsemane,-a brave, gentle, confident, victorious spirit, “straitened” till he had accomplished the great work of our redemption.

HARVEST TIME*

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, August 11th, 1904,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at new park street chapel, southwark,

In August, 1854.

“Is it not wheat harvest to-day?”-1 Samuel 12:17.

I shall not notice the connection; but I shall simply take these words as a motto; and my sermon will be founded upon a harvest field. I shall rather use the harvest for my text than any passage that I find here. “Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” I suppose the dwellers in cities think less of times and seasons than dwellers in the country. Men who were born, trained up, nourished and nurtured among corn-fields, harvests, sowings, and reapings, are more likely to notice such things than you who are always engaged in mercantile pursuits, and think less of these things than rustics do. But I suppose, if it is almost necessary that you should less regard the harvest than others, it ought not to be carried to too great an extent. Let us not be forgetful of times and seasons. There is much to be learned from them, and I would refresh your memories by a harvest field. What a wondrous temple this world is; for in truth it is a temple of God’s building, wherein men ought to worship him. What a wondrous temple it is to a mind spiritually enlightened, which can bring to bear upon it the resources of intellect, and the illuminations of God’s Holy Spirit! There is not a single flower in it that does not teach us a lesson, there is not a single wave, or blast of thunder, that has not some lesson to teach to us, the sons of men. This world is a great temple, and as, if you walk in an Egyptian temple, you know that every mark and every figure in the temple has a meaning, so when you walk this world, you must believe that everything about you has a meaning. It is no fanciful idea that there are “sermons in stones”; for there really are sermons in stones, and this world is intended to teach us by everything that we see. Happy is the man who only has the mind, and has the spirit to get these lessons from Nature. Flowers, what are they? They are but the thoughts of God solidified, God’s beautiful thoughts put into shape. Storms, what are they? They are God’s terrible thoughts written out that we may read them. Thunders, what are they? They are God’s powerful emotions just opened out that men may hear them. The world is just the materializing of God’s thoughts; for the world is a thought in God’s eye. He made it first from a thought that came from his own mighty mind, and everything in the majestic temple that he has made, has a meaning.

In this temple there are four evangelists. As we have four great evangelists in the Bible, so there are four evangelists in Nature; and these are the four evangelists of the seasons,-spring, summer, autumn, winter.

First comes spring, and what says it? We look, and we behold that, by the magic touch of spring, insects which seemed to be dead begin to awaken, and seeds that were buried in the dust begin to lift up their radiant forms. What says spring? It utters its voice, it says to man, “Though thou sleepest, thou shalt rise again; there is a world in which, in a more glorious state, thou shalt exist; thou art but a seed now, and thou shalt be buried in the dust, and in a little while thou shalt arise.” Spring utters that part of its evangel. Then comes summer. Summer says to man, “Behold the goodness of a merciful Creator; ‘he makes his sun to shine on the evil and on the good,’ he sprinkleth the earth with flowers, he adorneth it with those gems of creation, he maketh it blossom like Eden, and bring forth like the garden of the Lord.” Summer utters that; then comes autumn. We shall hear its message. It passes, and forth comes winter, crowned with a coronal of ice, and it tells us that there are times of trouble for man; it points to the fruits that we have stored up in autumn, and it says to us, “Man, take heed that thou store up something for thyself; something against the day of wrath; lay up for thyself the fruits of autumn, that thou mayest be able to feed on them in winter.” And when the old year expires, its death-knell tells us that man must die; and when the year has finished its evangelistic mission, there comes another to preach the same lesson again.

We are about to let autumn preach. One of these four evangelists comes forth, and it says, “Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” We are about to take the harvest into consideration in order to learn something from it. May God’s most blessed Spirit help his feeble dust and ashes to preach the unsearchable riches of God to your souls’ profit!

We shall talk of three joyful harvests and of three sorrowful harvests.

First, we shall speak of three joyful harvests that there will be.

The first joyful harvest that I will mention is the harvest of the field which Samuel alluded to when he said, “Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” We cannot forget the harvest of the field. It is not meet that these things should be forgotten; we ought not to let the fields be covered with corn, and to have their treasures stored away in the barns, and all the while to remain forgetful of God’s mercy. Ingratitude, that worst of ills, is one of the vipers which make their nest in the heart of man, and the creature cannot be slain until divine grace comes there, and sprinkles the blood of the cross upon man’s heart. Such vipers die when the blood of Christ is upon them. Let me just lead you for a moment to a harvest field. You shall see there a most luxuriant harvest, the heavy ears bending down almost to touch the ground, as much as to say, “From the ground I came, I owe myself to the ground, to that I bow my head,” just as the good Christian does when he is full of years. He holds his head down the more fruit he has upon him. You see the stalks with their heads hanging down, because they are ripe. And it is goodly and precious to see these things.

Now just suppose the contrary. If this year the ears had been blighted and withered; if they had been like the second ears that Pharaoh saw, very lean and very scanty, what would have become of us? In peace, we might have depended on large supplies from Russia to make up the deficiency; now, in times of war,* when nothing can come, what would become of us? We may conjecture, we may imagine, but I do not know that we are able to come to the truth; we can only say, “Blessed be God, we have not yet to reckon on what would have been; but God, seeing one door closed, has opened another.” Seeing that we might not get supplies from those rich fields in the South of Russia, he has opened another door in our own land. “Thou art my own favoured island,” says he; “I have loved thee, England, with a special love, thou art my favoured one, and the enemy shall not crush thee; and lest thou shouldst starve, because provisions are cut off, I will give thee thy barns full at home, and thy fields shall be covered, that thou mayest laugh thine enemy to scorn, and say to him, ‘Thou thoughtest thou couldst starve us, and make us perish; but he, who feeds the ravens, has fed his people, and has not deserted his favoured land.’ ” There is not one person who is uninterested in this matter. Some say the poor ought to be thankful that there is abundance of bread. So ought the rich. There is nothing which happens to one member of society which does not affect all. The ranks lean upon one another; if there is scarcity in the lower ranks, it falls upon the next, and the next, and even the Queen upon her throne feels in some degree the scarcity when God is pleased to send it. It affects all men. Let none say, “Whatever the price of corn may be, I can live;” but rather bless God who has given you more than enough. Your prayer ought to be, “Give us this day our daily bread;” and remember that, whatever wealth you have, you must attribute your daily mercies as much to God as if you lived from hand to mouth; and sometimes that is a blessed way of living,-when God gives his children the hand-basket portion, instead of sending it in a mass. Bless God that he has sent an abundant harvest! O fearful one, lift up thine head! and thou discontented one, be thou abashed, and let thy discontent no more be known! The Jews used to observe the feast of tabernacles when the harvest time came. In the country they always have a “harvest home,” and why should not we? I want you all to have one. Rejoice! rejoice! rejoice! for the harvest is come,-“Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” Poor desponding soul, let all your doubts and fears be gone. “Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy waters shall be sure.” That is one joyful harvest.

Now, the second joyful harvest is the harvest of every Christian. In one sense, the Christian is the seed; in another, he is a sower. In one sense, he is a seed, sown by God, which is to grow, and ripen, and germinate, till the great harvest time. In another sense, every Christian is a sower sent into the world to sow good seed, and to sow good seed only. I do not say that Christian men never sow any other seed than good seed. Sometimes, in unguarded moments, they take garlic into their hands instead of wheat; and we may sow tares instead of corn. Christians sometimes make mistakes, and God sometimes suffers his people to fall, so that they sow sins; but the Christian never reaps his sins; Christ reaps them for him. He often has to have a decoction made of the bitter leaves of sin, but he never reaps the fruit of it. Christ has borne the punishment. Yet bear in mind, if you and I sin against God, God will take our sin, and he will get an essence from it that will be bitter to our taste; though he does not make us eat the fruits, yet still he will make us grieve and sorrow over our sins. But the Christian, as I have said, should be employed in sowing good seed; and doing so, he shall have a glorious harvest.

In some sense or other, the Christian must be sowing seed. If God calls him to the ministry, he is a seed sower; if God calls him to the Sabbath-school, he is a seed sower; whatever his office, he is a sower of seed. I sow seed broadcast all over this immense field; I cannot tell where my seed goes. Some are like barren ground, and they refuse to receive the seed that I sow. I cannot help it if any man should do so. I am only responsible to God, whose servant I am. There are others, and my seed falls upon them, and brings forth a little fruit, but by-and-by, when the sun is up, because of persecution, they wither away and they die. But I hope there are many who are like the good ground that God has prepared, and when I scatter the seed abroad, it falls on good ground, and brings forth fruit to an abundant harvest. Ah! the minister has a joyful harvest, even in this world, when he sees souls converted. I have had a harvest time when I have led the sheep down to the washing of baptism, when I have seen God’s people coming out from the mass of the world, and telling what the Lord has done for their souls,-when God’s children are edified, and built up, it is worth living for, and worth dying ten thousand deaths for, to be the means of saving one soul. What a joyful harvest it is when God gives us converted ones by tens and hundreds, and adds to his church abundantly such as shall be saved! Now I am like a farmer just at this season of the year. I have got a good deal of wheat down, and I want to get it into the barn, for fear the rain comes and spoils it. I believe I have got a great many, but they will persist in standing out in the field. I want to get them into the barns. They are good people, but they do not like to make a profession, and join the church. I want to get them into my Master’s granary, and to see Christians added to the church. I see some holding down their heads, and saying, “He means us.” So I do. You ought before this to have joined Christ’s church; and unless you are fit to be gathered into Christ’s little garner here on earth, you have no right to anticipate being gathered into that great garner which is in heaven.

Every Christian has his harvest. The Sabbath-school teacher has his harvest. He goes and toils, and he ploughs very stony ground often, but he shall have his harvest. Oh, poor labouring Sabbath-school teacher, hast thou seen no fruit yet? Dost thou say, “Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Cheer up, thou dost labour in a good cause, there must be some to do thy work. Hast thou seen no children converted? Fear not,-

“Though seed lie buried long in dust,

It shan’t deceive your hope,

The precious grain can ne’er be lost,

For God insures the crop.”

Go on sowing still, and thou shalt have a harvest when thou shalt see children converted. I have known some Sabbath-school teachers who could count a dozen, or twenty, or thirty children, who have, one after another, come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and to join the church. But if you should not live to see it on earth, remember you are only accountable for your labour, and not for your success. Sow still, toil on! “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” God will not allow his Word to be wasted; it shall not return unto him void, but shall accomplish that which he pleases. There may be a poor mother, who has often been sad. She has a son and a daughter, and she has been always praying that God might convert their souls. Mother, thy son is an ungainly boy still; he grieves thy heart; still the hot tears scald thy cheeks on account of him. And thou, father, thou hast reproved him often; he is a wayward son, and he is still running the downward road. Cease not to pray! O my brethren and sisters, who are parents, you shall have a harvest!

There was a boy once, a very sinful child, who hearkened not to the counsel of his parents; but his mother prayed for him, and now he stands to preach to this congregation every Sabbath. And when his mother thinks of her first-born preaching the gospel, she reaps a glorious harvest that makes her a glad woman. Now, fathers and mothers, such may be your case. However bad your children are at present, still press toward the throne of grace, and you shall have a harvest. What thinkest thou, mother, wouldst thou not rejoice to see thy son a minister of the gospel; thy daughter teaching and assisting in the cause of God? God will not suffer thee to pray, and thy prayers be unheeded.

Young man, thy mother has been wrestling for thee a long time, and she has not won thy soul yet. What thinkest thou? Thou defraudest thy mother of her harvest! If she had a little patch of ground, hard by her cottage, where she had sown some wheat, wouldst thou go and burn it? If she had a choice flower in her garden, wouldst thou go and trample it under foot? But by going on in the ways of the reprobate, thou art defrauding thy father and thy mother of their harvest. Perhaps there are some parents who are weeping over their sons and daughters, who are hardened and unconverted. O God, turn their hearts! for bitter is the doom of that man who goes to hell over the road that is washed by his mother’s tears, stumbles over his father’s reproofs, and tramples on those things which God has put in his way,-his mother’s prayers and his father’s sighs. God help that man who dares to do such a thing as that! And it is wondrous grace if he does help him.

You shall have a harvest, whatever you are doing. I trust you are all doing something. If I cannot mention what your peculiar engagement is, I trust you are all serving God in some way; and you shall assuredly have a harvest wherever you are scattering your seed. But suppose the worst,-if you should never live to see the harvest in this world, you shall have a harvest when you get to heaven. If you live and die a disappointed man in this world, you shall not be disappointed in the next. I think how surprised some of God’s people will be when they get to heaven. They will see their Master, and he will give them a crown. “Lord, what is that crown for?” “That crown is because thou didst give a cup of cold water to one of my disciples.” “What! a crown for a cup of cold water?” “Yes,” says the Master, “that is how I pay my servants. First I give them grace to give that cup of water, and then, having given them grace, I give them a crown.” “Wonders of grace to God belong.” He that soweth liberally shall reap liberally; and he that soweth grudgingly shall reap sparingly. Ah, if there could be grief in heaven, I think it would be the grief of some Christians who had sown so very little. After all, how little the most of us ever sow! I know I sow but very little compared with what I might. How little any of you sow! Just add up how much you give to God in the year. I am afraid it would not come to a farthing per cent. Remember, you reap according to what you sow. O my friends, what surprise some of you will feel when God pays you for sowing one single grain! The soil of heaven is rich in the extreme. If a farmer had such ground as there is in heaven, he would say, “I must sow a great many acres of land;” and so let us strive, for the more we sow, the more shall we reap in heaven. Yet remember it is all of grace, and not of debt.

Now, beloved, I must very hastily mention the third joyful harvest. We have had the harvest of the field, and the harvest of the Christian. We are now to have another, and that is the harvest of Christ.

Christ had his sowing times. What bitter sowing times were they! Christ was one who went out bearing precious seed. Oh, I picture Christ sowing the world! He sowed it with tears: he sowed it with drops of blood; he sowed it with sighs; he sowed it with agony of heart; and at last he sowed himself in the ground, to be the seed of a glorious crop. What a sowing time his was! He sowed in tears, in poverty, in sympathy, in grief, in agony, in woes, in suffering, and in death. He shall have a harvest, too. Blessings on his name, Jehovah swears it; the everlasting predestination of the Almighty has settled that Christ shall have a harvest. He has sown, and he shall reap; he has scattered, and he shall gather in. “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days; and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.” My friends, Christ has begun to reap his harvest. Yea, every soul that is converted is part of his reward; every one who comes to the Lord is a part of it. Every soul that is brought out of the miry clay, and set on the King’s highway, is a part of Christ’s crop. But he is going to reap more yet. There is another harvest coming, in the latter day, when he shall reap armfuls at a time, and gather the sheaves into his garner. Now, men come to Christ in ones and twos and threes; but, then, they shall come in flocks, so that the church shall say, “Who are these that come in as doves to their windows?”

There shall be a greater harvest when time shall be no more. Turn to the 14th chapter of Revelation, and the 13th verse: “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” They do not go before them, and win them heaven. “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.” That was Christ’s harvest. Observe but one particular. When Christ comes to reap his field, he comes with a crown on. There are the nations gathered together before that crowned Reaper!

“They come, they come: the exiled bands,

Where’er they rest or roam;

They heard his voice in distant lands,

And hastened to their home.”

There they stand, one great army before God. Then comes the crowned Reaper from his throne; he takes his sharp sickle, and see him reap sheaf after sheaf, and he carries them up to the heavenly garner. Let us ask the question of ourselves, whether we shall be among the reaped ones,-the wheat of the Lord.

Notice again, that there was first a harvest, and then a vintage. The harvest is the righteous; the vintage is the wicked. When the wicked are gathered, an angel gathers them; but Christ will not trust an angel to reap the righteous. “He that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle.” O my soul, when thou comest to die, Christ will himself come after thee; when thou art to be cut down, he that sits upon the throne will cut thee down with a very sharp sickle, in order that he may do it as easily as possible. He will be the Reaper himself; no reaper will be allowed to gather Christ’s saints in, but Christ the King of saints. Oh, will it not be a joyful harvest when all the chosen race, every one of them, shall be gathered in? There is a little shrivelled grain of wheat there, that has been growing somewhere on the headland, and that will be there. There are a great many who have been hanging down their heads, heavy with grain, and they will be there too. They will all be gathered in.

“His honour is engaged to save

The meanest of his sheep;

All that his heavenly Father gave

His hands securely keep.”

But now we are obliged to turn to the three sad harvests. Alas! alas; the world was once like an Eolian harp; every wind that blew upon it gave forth melody; now the strings are all unstrung, and they are full of discord, so that, when we have a strain of joy, we must have the deep bass of grief to come after it.

The first sad harvest is the harvest of death. We are all living, and what for? For the grave. I have sometimes sat me down, and had a reverie like this. I have thought: Man, what is he? He grows, and grows, till he comes to his prime; and when he is forty-five, if God spare him, perhaps he has then gained the prime of life. What does he do then? He continues where he is a little while, and then he goes down the hill; and if he keeps on living, what is it for? To die. But there are many chances to one, as the world has it, that he will not live to be seventy. He may die very early. Do we not all live to die? But none shall die till they are ripe. Death never reaps his corn green, he never cuts his corn till it is ripe. The wicked die, but they are always ripe for hell when they die; the righteous die, but they are always ripe for heaven when they die. That poor thief there, who had not believed in Jesus, perhaps an hour before he died,-he was as ripe as a seventy years’ saint. The saint is always ready for glory whenever death, the reaper, comes, and the wicked are always ripe for hell whenever God pleases to send for them. Oh, that great reaper; he sweeps through the earth, and mows his hundreds and thousands down! It is all still; death makes no noise about his movements, and he treads with velvet footfall over the earth; that ceaseless mower, none can resist him. He is irresistible, and he mows, and mows, and cuts them down. Sometimes he stops and whets his scythe; he dips his scythe in blood, and then he mows us down with war; then he takes his whetstone of cholera, and mows down more than ever. Still he cries, “More! more! more!” Ceaselessly that work keeps on! Wondrous mower! Wondrous reaper! Oh, when thou comest to reap me, I cannot resist thee; for I must fall like others;-when thou comest, I shall have nothing to say to thee. Like a blade of corn I must stand motionless; and thou must cut me down! But, oh! may I be prepared for thy scythe! May the Lord stand by me, and comfort me, and cheer me; and may I find that death is an angel of life,-that death is the portal of heaven, the vestibule of glory!

There is a second sad harvest, and that is the harvest that the wicked man has to reap. Thus saith the voice of inspiration, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Now there is a harvest that every wicked man has to reap in this world. No man ever sins against his body without reaping a harvest for it. The young man says, “I have sinned with impunity.” Stay, thou young man! go there to that hospital, and see sufferers writhing in their agony. See that staggering, bloated wretch, and I tell thee, stay thy hand! lest thou become like him. Wisdom bids thee stop; for thy steps lead down to hell. If thou enterest into the house of the strange woman, thou shalt reap a harvest. There is a harvest that every man reaps if he sins against his fellows. The man who sins against his fellow-creature shall reap a harvest. Some men walk through the world like knights with spurs on their heels, and think they may tread on whom they please; but they shall find their mistake. He who sins against others, sins against himself; that is Nature. It is a law in Nature that a man cannot hurt his fellows without hurting himself. Now, you who cause grief to others’ minds, do not think the grief will end there; you will have to reap a harvest even here. Again, a man cannot sin against his estate without reaping the effects of it. The miserly wretch, who hoards up his gold, sins against his gold. It becomes cankered, and from those golden sovereigns he will have to reap a harvest; yes, that miserly wretch, sitting up at night, and straining his weary eyes to count his gold, that man reaps his harvest. And so does the young spendthrift. He will reap his harvest when all his treasure is exhausted. It is said of the prodigal, that “no man gave unto him,”-none of those that he used to entertain,-and so the prodigal shall find it. No man shall give anything unto him. Ah! but the worst harvest will be that of those who sin against the Church of Christ. I would not that a man should sin against his body; I would not that a man should sin against his estate; I would not that a man should sin against his fellows; but, most of all, I would not have him touch Christ’s Church. He that touches one of God’s people, touches the apple of his eye. When I have read of some people finding fault with the servants of the Lord, I have thought within myself, “I would not do so.” It is the greatest insult to a man to speak ill of his children. You speak ill of God’s children, and you will be rewarded for it in everlasting punishment. There is not a single one of God’s family whom God does not love, and if you touch one of them, he will have vengeance on you. Nothing puts a man on his mettle like touching his children; and if you touch God’s Church, you will have the direst vengeance of all. The hottest flames of hell are for those who touch God’s children. Go on, sinner, laugh at religion if thou pleasest; but know that it is the blackest sin in the whole catalogue of crime. God will forgive anything sooner than that; and though that is not unpardonable; yet, if not repented of, it will meet the greatest punishment. God cannot bear that his elect should be touched, and if you do so, it is the greatest crime you can commit.

The third sad harvest is the harvest of almighty wrath, when the wicked at last are gathered in. In the 14th chapter of Revelation, you will see that the vine of the earth was cast into the winepress of the wrath of God; and, after that, the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out, up to the horses’ bridles;-a wonderful figure to express the wrath of God! Suppose, then, some great winepress, in which our bodies are put like grapes; and suppose some mighty giant comes and treads us all under foot; that is the idea,-that the wicked shall be cast together, and be trodden under foot until the blood runs out up to the horses’ bridles. May God grant, of his sovereign mercy, that you and I may never be reaped in that fearful harvest; but that rather we may be written amongst the saints of the Lord!

You shall have a harvest in due season if you faint not. Sow on, brother; sow on, sister; and in due time thou shalt reap an abundant harvest. Let me tell you one thing, if the seed thou hast sown a long while, has never come up. I was told once: “When you sow seeds in your garden, put them in a little water over-night, they will grow all the better for it.” So, if thou hast been sowing thy seed, put it into tears, and it will make thy seed germinate the better. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” Steep your seed in tears, and then put it into the ground, and you shall reap in joy. No bird can devour that seed; no bird can hold it in its mouth. No worm can eat it, for worms never eat seeds that are sown in tears. Go thy way, and when thou weepest most, then it is that thou sowest best. When most cast down, thou art doing best. If thou comest to the prayer-meeting, and has not a word to say, keep on praying; do not give it up, for thou often prayest best when thou thinkest thou prayest worst. Go on, and in due season, by God’s mighty grace, you shall reap if you faint not.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

1 SAMUEL 12

In Samuel’s old age, the people desired to have a king; and though it went much against the grain, yet, by the Lord’s advice, Samuel consented to it. Here he makes his last protest.

Verse 1. And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.

“I have not stood in your way. I have not sought mine own honour. I have at once frankly resigned my office among you.”

2. And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and gray-headed; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.

“My sons come here to-day, not as my successors, but as fellow-subjects with you of your newly-chosen king; they are not in opposition to him any more than I am.”

Like an old servant who is about to be dismissed, Samuel asks them to bear witness to his character; and this he does, partly as a lesson to the king who had taken his place, and partly as a clearance of himself in rendering up his charge.

3. Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.

It is so usual a thing, among Oriental judges and rulers, to expect bribes, that you cannot, in those countries, take a single step in a court of law without bribery. It was therefore a very unusual circumstance that Samuel should be able to challenge anybody to say that he had ever wrongfully taken so much as a single farthing. And the great rulers, in those countries, are accustomed to enrich themselves by levying heavy taxes upon the people. But Samuel affirmed that his services had been perfectly gratuitous, so that all he had done for the people had cost them nothing. If they had any fault to find with his government, it could only be because it had been so just and also so cheap; his yoke had indeed been easy to their necks. What a fine sight it is to see an old man able thus to challenge all who had known him, throughout a long life, to testify that he had not led a selfish life, or studied his own interests even in the least degree!

4, 5. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand. And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.

In the most solemn way, they cleared him; when he rendered to them the account of his stewardship, they all bore witness that everything had been done, not merely according to strict rectitude, but in the most generous spirit of self-consecration. May all of us be enabled so to live that, when our sun goes down, it shall be as cloudless a sunset as was that of Samuel!

6-8. And Samuel said unto the people, It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers. When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place.

A remembrance of past mercies is very profitable to us. National mercies ought not to be forgotten, and personal favours should always be fresh in our memory. Alas! the old proverb is only too true, “Bread that is eaten is soon forgotten.” So is it even with the bread which God gives us; we eat it, yet soon forget the hand that fed us. Let it not be so with us.

9-11. And when they forgat the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. And they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe.

They oft transgressed, and were as often afflicted; but whenever they returned to the Lord with their confession of sin, and again sought his mercy, he was always quick to deliver them. Let us profit by their experience. Have we brought ourselves into trouble through sin? Have we wandered and backslidden, and are our hearts therefore heavy? Let us return unto the Lord, and confess our sin, for he hath not cast us away. He will turn again at the voice of our cry; he will forgive us, and graciously receive us unto himself again.

12, 13. And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the Lord hath set a king over you.

“He has consented to your request, though it was a foolish one.” Remember, brethren, it is not every answer to prayer that is a token of God’s favour. If our prayers are very foolish, and even if there is sin in them, God may sometimes give us what we ask in order to show us our folly, and make us smart for having offered such a prayer. Though, under God’s government, they had been most highly privileged, they must needs have a king, like the nations which were not so favoured. “So now,” says Samuel, “God has given you this king, so do your best with him.” Samuel had a hopeful spirit; and he hoped that, though the circumstances were not as he would have wished them to be, yet that the people might do well after all.

14-17. If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers. Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king.

This was to be a token to them that Samuel was God’s prophet. On a previous occasion, in answer to his prayer, God had thundered against the Philistines; but, this time, his thunder was his voice against Israel.

In reading the Bible, we must always remember that it was not written in England, but in Palestine. Wheat harvest there takes place about the month of May, when the weather is usually settled, and such things as thunder and rain are almost unknown. It was extraordinary, therefore, as we speak of “a bolt out of the blue.”

18, 19. So Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.

That thunderstorm was a powerful preacher to them, and the rain drops, that fell so copiously, brought the tear drops into their eyes. The phenomena of nature frequently impress men with a sense of God’s power, and prostrate them before him.

20-22. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; and turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people.

How gently the old prophet speaks! What a change from the pealing thunder to this gracious voice! It seems like the clear shining after rain.

23-25. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.

THE SOURCE

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, August 18th, 1904,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, July 6th, 1876.

“The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence then hast thou that living water?”-John 4:11.

This was a sensible and very important question. May the Holy Spirit graciously enable us to answer it aright! Our Lord’s great object, in his talk with this woman at the well, was not to convince her of his oratorical power, for he spoke to her as simply as one would speak to a child. Many sermons are far too elaborate in their construction; they are evidently intended to display the preacher’s own powers. But if we would imitate the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Prince of preachers, we should not strain after effect; and we should get a better effect, without any straining, by taking the living truth, and telling out, as simply as possible, the story of salvation.

Jesus Christ’s sole object, in talking with this woman, was to bring her to salvation. That is also my object with regard to my hearers and readers; and, my dear unconverted friend, if you shall agree with me in that object, and shall breathe the prayer, “Lord, help the preacher so to speak to my soul that I may find Christ,” there will be joy among the angels of heaven over sinners repenting and returning unto the Lord.

Our Saviour, in seeking to win this woman to himself, was completely successful. He hit the mark he aimed at; his shot struck the very centre of the target. Only one sermon was preached to her;-nay, it was hardly a sermon,-just a brief talk with her, and the woman received the living word. Alas! there are some of you, who have had a great many affectionate talks, from godly mothers and fathers, or from earnest ministers, teachers, or other Christian friends; but, so far, they have not been so successful as Jesus of Nazareth was on this occasion. You have heard many sermons;-you cannot tell how many you have heard, and some of them have produced some effect upon you; but, up to the present, you have not been slain by the sword of the Spirit, nor quickened by Jesus Christ the Life-giver. I hope the Lord is about to do what has not been done before; and, with the accumulated responsibility upon you of having heard the gospel so often in vain, I think you should the more earnestly breathe the prayer to God, “O Lord, let this be the effectual time of speaking to me! Call me as thou didst the Samaritan woman. While the preacher is speaking, and I am listening to thy Word as it shall be proclaimed, graciously grant that Jesus may be revealed to my soul, and that he may say to me, ‘I that speak unto thee am he.’ ” If you are brought to pray that prayer from your heart, I believe that it will be answered, and so, as I have already said, there will be joy in the presence of the angels of God over you. Our Lord aimed at this woman’s conversion by simply instructing her, and also by bringing the truth home to her conscience. Let us see whether, if we do the same thing, trusting in the same Spirit that anointed our Master, similar results will follow here as followed at the well of Sychar.

First, then, I am going to expound the teaching which preceded the woman’s question, and suggested it; then, secondly, I will answer the question; and then, thirdly, I will draw some inferences from it.

First, then, what was it that led this woman to ask our Saviour the question, “From whence then hast thou that living water?”

Jesus Christ had told her that, had she known him, she would have asked of him, and he would have given her living water. There was Jacob’s well; they were both of them close to it, and they could look down into it. There was some water in it, but the well of Sychar was not a well of “living water.” You probably know that the expression which is translated “living water” refers to water that springs up from a fountain; but the well of Sychar is not a well of that kind. The water in it is surface water, the gatherings of the neighbouring hills; land water, not spring water. Jesus Christ seemed to draw his illustration from that fact: “The water in that well runs into it, and is drawn out from it; but if you had asked me, I would have given you water that bubbles up,-water that is full of life, very different from this well-water,-water from the great deep that coucheth beneath.” You know the difference between those two sorts of water. I have illustrated it before by the two wells which are in the courtyard of the Doge’s palace at Venice. One of them has its copper or bronze margin worn with holes cut by the string by which little cans are let down to fetch up the water that wells up from the spring; it is so precious because it springs up from a living fountain. The other well, which looks very like the one I have mentioned, is not worn at all. Very few people care to draw from it; and the reason is, because it is simply filled with water brought into the city. It is flat, dead water, not “living water” at all. So Jesus Christ had used this illustration in speaking with the woman: “You have come here, to draw this water out of the well,-the mere rain water that runs into Jacob’s well; but if you had asked of me, I would have given you water of a far better sort,-water with life in it,-water which would be life unto you,-water which would be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

The woman caught the figure, though she did not at first understand its spiritual meaning. Its spiritual meaning is this,-that Jesus Christ has grace in himself,-grace to give to sinners,-grace to give to those who ask him for it; for he said to the woman, “Thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” In the Lord Jesus Christ, then, there is a deep fount of grace always springing up within himself. “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;” and it does dwell in him. To him, the Spirit has been given without measure. There is no meagre supply of grace in Christ. He hath an abundance, and I might almost say a redundance for ever springing up within himself. And this he has on purpose to give away. He has it not for himself, for he needs it not. Almighty and ever-blessed as he is by nature, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, he needs no grace for himself; but what he has is all for him to give away. He came into this world to open up channels by which he might distribute all his grace to thirsty souls.

And he gives it all away for the asking,-almighty grace to be had for the asking! No human merit can demand it, and no performance of any earthly ceremony is required in order to obtain it. Here it is in a nutshell: “Thou wouldest have asked …, and he would have given.” “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God;” and if any man lack pardon, let him do the same. If any man lack anything that is essential to his purity, to his happiness, to his present life, or to his future life, it is stored up in Christ, and it can be had from him for the asking. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

The teaching of the text, to you unconverted people, is this:-if ever you are saved, it must be by the grace of God. That grace is in Jesus Christ; it has been put into Jesus Christ, not because he needs it himself, but that he may distribute it; and he does distribute it, and whosoever asketh it of him receiveth it from him; “for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” And when you receive this grace, it will remain in you. It will not be like ordinary water, which you drink, and which then is done with, but it will abide in you. It shall turn into a well of living water; inside your soul there shall be an ever-springing well of life, which never shall cease to flow, either in summer or in winter, and which, in glory, shall enable you to understand what that eternal life was which Jesus gave to you, and of which he said to his Father, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Now, secondly, I am going to answer the question that this woman put to Christ.

Her question was, “ ‘From whence then hast thou that living water?’ How didst thou come to have it? If thou hast living water, how is it that thou hast it? It is not in that well; and even if it were there, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: ‘from whence then hast thou that living water?’ ” What an important question this is to put in a spiritual sense! Lord Jesus, we hear that thou hast an abundance of grace, treasured up in thee, which thou dost freely distribute amongst those who ask thee for it; but how camest thou by it? How is it that thou hast this grace? In what way did it come to be stored up in thee? “From whence then hast thou that living water?” While I am asking this question, I pray every unconverted one, who desires to find peace with God, to say to himself or herself, “I am now to hear how it is that Christ can save; I am now to learn why it is that he is the Giver of grace to the guilty.” Perhaps, dear friend, while you are listening, you may see something in Christ which you never saw before, and faith may spring up in your soul almost insensibly to yourself; and ere you go out of this place, you may be able to say, “I cannot fully explain this great mystery, but I know sufficient of the Lord Jesus Christ to believe in him; I cannot but believe in him now that I see how it is that he is so mighty to save.”

The first answer to the question, “From whence then hast thou that living water?” is this:-He has it in his very nature. Jesus Christ is able to save because he is divine. “With God, all things are possible;” and Jesus Christ is God, so all things are possible with him. “God is love;” and Jesus Christ is God, so he, too, is love. God possesseth all things; and Christ is God, so he hath all things freely to distribute among the sons of men. Jesus of Nazareth, as he sat on the well at Sychar, seemed to that woman, at first, to be only an ordinary Jew, and she wondered that he, being a Jew, should speak to her, a woman of Samaria. But veiled under the form of that Son of Mary, there was God himself made flesh, and dwelling among men. Oh, it is glorious to think that he, who has come to redeem you, is no mere man, but over all God blessed for ever! If a man were to tell me that he was going to take the world upon his shoulders, I should distrust his power to bear such a burden, even though he were as strong as Samson. But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can not only bear up this world, but the entire universe, upon his hand, for all fulness of power dwells in him. If any man were to say that he would take upon himself the sins of the whole world, I should be even more diffident than if he proposed to play the part of Atlas, and to bear the world upon his shoulders. But when Jesus, who counted it not robbery to be equal with God, takes upon himself the form of a servant, and yet has the iniquity of us all laid upon him, I can understand how he can bear the tremendous load, for he bears the earth’s huge pillars up, and spreads the heavens abroad. When we think of Jesus as divine, nothing seems to be impossible to him. The strength of sin, which is the law, is not too great for him who made the law, and kept it, too. The sting of death, which is sin, shall certainly not be able to destroy, or even to resist, the almighty power of him who hath the keys of death and of hell. If you commit your soul, my dear friend, to the keeping of a man, or of an angel, you will have made a fatal mistake. If all the angels in heaven were to band themselves together to save a soul, and were to ask me to be the soul that they would seek to save, I would have nothing to do with them. Nobody who is less than Deity can save sinners, and Jesus is “mighty to save” because he is God as well as man. This is a basis upon which the soul’s hope may well be founded and established for ever. If the interposing Mediator be indeed “very God of very God,”-and he is,-we see whence he hath this living water, and we can come to him with the utmost confidence, knowing that he is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him.

Another answer to the Samaritan woman’s question is that Christ has this living water by the divine purpose and appointment. It was the divine plan that Jesus Christ, the second Person of the blessed Trinity in Unity, should be appointed to be the treasury of grace for all his elect ones. In the council chamber of eternity, it was ordained that the Son of God should, in due time, come into this world, and take upon himself our nature, and also our sin, and he was set apart, in the eternal purpose, so to do; and, in the proclamation of the gospel, that decree of the Lord is published to the sons of men. The Lord God hath set forth his Son Jesus as the one propitiation for the sins of men; he is authorized by God to be a Saviour, and he comes here, by divine appointment, to bestow upon us the blessings of his grace. When an ambassador comes to this land from another country, he brings credentials to prove that he is duly accredited by the authority that he represents, and our Lord Jesus Christ comes to men with credentials which prove that he was appointed by God to this service before all worlds were made, and that he will be divinely sustained in that appointment till time shall be no more; and then, having completed his mediatorial work, he will surrender the Kingdom to his Father, and God shall be All-in-all. So now, as Mediator, he stands, appointed by the Most High, to distribute the blessings of his grace, which is the living water of which our text speaks.

To me, this truth is inconceivably sweet; for, when I trust in Jesus Christ to save me, I rejoice to know that he is no amateur saviour, who has come on his own authority, and at his own bidding. But, behold, the Father himself hath sent him. He is the Messias, the Sent One, the Anointed, the Christ of God. God must accept his Son, for he sent him into the world for this very purpose. If I bring to God the blood of Jesus as the atonement for my sin, he must accept it, for he himself ordained it as the medium of reconciliation. My blessed Saviour, if I hide in thee, I cannot be either dragged or driven from thee, for God has set thee apart to be the City of Refuge to which my poor soul may flee for protection and shelter. God hath appointed Jesus “to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” It seems to me that these are two grand answers to the question of the Samaritan woman, “From whence then hast thou that living water?”-first, from his own natural and essential Deity; and, secondly, as the Mediator appointed and sustained by the eternal Father.

But, thirdly, the Lord Jesus could give a further answer to the woman’s question by referring to the anointing which he had received from the Holy Spirit. On the day of his baptism in the Jordan, the Spirit descended upon him, like a dove, and abode upon him. He could truly say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” He was anointed by the Holy Spirit for the work of distributing the living water to the sons and daughters of men. He was God’s Christos,-God’s “Anointed.” Those are two very precious titles which are often put together,-Jesus Christ,-the anointed Saviour; they describe both his office and his qualification for that office. Well, then, behold Jesus Christ, with the fulness of the Spirit abiding upon him, coming into the world endowed with all those divine gifts which, as Mediator, he needed, that he might be able to carry out the work which the Lord had of old appointed him to do. The Spirit of God is still with him, and he gives the Spirit to those who seek him. This, then, is the third answer to the woman’s question, “From whence then hast thou that living water?” He has it because the Spirit of God is upon him.

There is another answer, which may convince some, who have not been comforted or enlightened by the previous ones; it could not have been given to the woman, at the time she put the question, except by way of anticipation; but we can now say that Christ has this living water because his redeeming work is finished. He had it, virtually, during his life on earth, in foresight of the work which he had undertaken to finish. Hence it was that multitudes of souls went to heaven long before Christ had paid the ransom for them, his pledge and promise being a guarantee that the great deed would surely be accomplished. Think of this, that the Son of God, whom the holy angels worshipped without ceasing, should have come hither in the form of a babe, who nestled in a woman’s arms,-that he might save us! Oh, let the joy-bells ring as we think of God in human flesh! Does not the thought of Christ’s incarnation bring hope to the lost? May not sinners see, in it, how the living water finds a channel in which it can flow down to them in the person of the incarnate God,-“Emmanuel, God with us”? “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” He lived for thirty years, in this world, a quiet, humble life, working out a righteousness for all his people, fulfilling all the relationships of life into which he was brought; and so, when he came to be baptized, he openly revealed the work that he was doing all his life, namely, fulfilling all righteousness. Throughout the whole of his earthly career, he was living for us, and working for us, and the merit of his unique life stands to the credit of all who believe in him. At last, the time came for him to die, for “without shedding of blood there is no remission.” The living water could not come to us unless Christ’s heart was opened to let it out. He must give his life a ransom for many, or else there could never be any ransomed souls. You know the sad, sad story. Jesus goes forth from the place where he had instituted the memorial supper, he enters Gethsemane’s garden, utters a series of agonizing prayers, in the course of which a shower of his precious blood falls upon the earth where he kneels. He rises from the ground, meets his betrayer, and receives his cruel traitor kiss. He thrusts aside the sword with which his too eager disciple would have defended him; and he is led like a lamb to the slaughter; and like a sheep dumb before her shearers, he opens not his mouth to answer his accusers. He gives his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that pluck out the hair; he hides not his face from shame and spitting. Yea, though he is Lord of all, he voluntarily yields himself up to a felon’s death, and gives up his immaculate body, which had never been stained by sin, to be pierced with the nails, and every bone to be dislocated by the jar as the cross is first lifted up, and then hurled down into its place. He hangs in the burning sun, parched with fever. He has no friend or comforter, for even God has forsaken him while he is bearing his people’s sin, and his enemies mock and laugh at his agonies. He yields up his soul unto death without a murmuring word. He knew that the price of pardon was his blood, but his pity ne’er withdrew; and, until he could say, “It is finished,” he held on to life. When it was finished, he submitted himself to death, and the Lord of glory was laid in the new tomb in the garden. Now, if you ask me, “From whence, then, has Jesus of Nazareth, God incarnate, that living water?” I answer in three words,-“Gethsemane, Gabbatha, Golgotha.” Put these three together;-the place where he sweat great drops of blood, the place where he was scourged, and the place where he died,-and you can comprehend whence he hath this living water.

Another answer to the woman’s question, “From whence then hast thou that living water?” is that he hath it in the reward which his Father promised to him for his mediatorial work: “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” God’s only-begotten and well-beloved Son is to receive a full reward for all that he endured, and all that he has so far received of his Father is not for himself, for he needs nothing; but he has received it that he may distribute it amongst the rebellious children of men. The psalmist truly sang, “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” And this is whence he has that living water. Poor soul, groping in the dark, and trying to believe in Jesus, ought not this to enable thee to believe in him? Christ has lived, and loved, and bled, and died, and now there is a reward due to him which can only be met by the salvation of all for whom he died. See, then, how he has the living water, and come and trust him to give it to you freely.

There is one other answer to the woman’s question, “From whence then hast thou that living water?” It is this. Because of his intercession at his Father’s right hand in glory. Jesus, the God-man, the Mediator between God and men, ever liveth to make intercession for us: “Wherefore 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.” Look at him, my brethren, the risen Christ at God’s right hand, if you can; see him standing there, in his robes of glory and beauty, for he is no longer a sacrificing Priest, for his one sacrifice, in which he offered up himself, is finished for ever. Now he has put on the royal robes of the High Priest, for he is both a Prince and a Priest; and there he stands, with our names engraven upon his breastplate, each glittering jewel dear to the eyes of God. Wherever he moves, the bells and the pomegranates upon his glorious garments pour forth sweet music in the ear of the Most High, for Christ is altogether lovely in the eyes of his Father, and he is ever dear to the heart of his Father. There he stands as the great representative Man, fully acceptable to God;-nay more, dearly beloved of God; and, for his sake, God looks upon all who are in him with infinite love and divine complacency. Some of you may know what it is to have a beloved son away in America or Australia for many years. By-and-by, he comes home, and he brings his wife. You have never seen her, but you love her for his sake. Possibly, he also brings home a dozen children. Well, that is a large addition to your family, but you welcome them all for your boy’s sake, do you not? I am sure you do; and you seem to see his image in them all. All who belong to him are dear to you for his sake. So, the ever-blessed God looks with unspeakable love upon the whole family of Christ, because of the love which he bears to their covenant Head, and Lord, and Surety. This eternal life that is in him,-this boundless love that God gives to him,-this intercessory power that he hath with the Father, and that he uses on our behalf,-this is whence he hath that living water.

Now may God the Holy Spirit specially aid us while we briefly notice, in the third place, the inferences to be drawn from this truth.

If this is whence Christ hath this living water, then he is able still to bless the children of men. If he had received grace from some temporary source of supply, it would have been exhausted long ago; but, since he received it from his own divine nature, from the purpose and plan of God, from the anointing of the Holy Spirit, from his own finished work, and from his ever-living power and infinite merit, since all these fountains of grace are as full to-day as ever they were, and since they always will be just as full, from the same source the stream of grace will continue to flow. If the deeps, from which a well draws its water, are always the same, then depend upon it, the supply in the well will be always the same. If, therefore, the great deeps from which Christ draws the living water cannot be supposed to be lessened, the living water is in him, at this moment, as much as it was eighteen hundred years ago.

The remembrance of this truth should bring consolation to the soul of anyone who may have said, “I wish that I had lived long ago, when Christ was upon this earth in visible form.” You should not speak so, for you may as readily receive grace from Christ as did the woman of Samaria. The very words, which Jesus used to that poor fallen creature, he also addresses to thee, “If thou knewest the gift of God, … thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” Ask, and thou shalt have, even as she asked and received. It is abundantly clear that there is an ample supply of grace stored up in Christ Jesus for all who trust him.

It is equally clear that he needs nothing from us. If he had drawn the living water out of the well at Sychar, he would have wanted to borrow the woman’s water-pot; he would have said, “Now, mistress, you must lend me your rope, and your water-pot, for, otherwise, I cannot get at the water in the well.” But, as the living water comes only from himself, he needs nobody’s water-pot or rope. This is a very important matter, because you, sinners, will persist in bringing your water-pots and your ropes to help Christ. You want to aid the Lord Jesus Christ, in some way or other, in his work of saving you. “Ah!” you say, “I know that he is a Saviour, but then I must”-Well, what “must” you do? “Oh!” says one, “I must do this,” and another says, “I must do that.” I will tell you all the “must” there is about your case; you must be willing to be nothing, and let Christ be everything. You must be the emptiness, and he must be the fulness. You must be the poverty, and he must be the riches. You must be the poor miserable beggar, and he must be your great Enricher, your All-in-all. That is all that is needed.

Then, once more, since this living water comes to Christ from his essential Deity and all the other grand things of which I have spoken, it is not exhausted at this present time. There is an abiding fulness in Christ since the living water comes thus to him. Millions of happy spirits are now in heaven, who have drunk of this living water; but Christ is just as able to save millions upon millions more; and your sins cannot exhaust Christ’s fulness. I remember, when the thirst of my soul was so strong, by reason of my acute sense of sin, that I compared myself to behemoth, of whom the Lord said to Job, “He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.” Well, now, if your soul’s thirst is so great that it will take more than Jordan to satisfy you, and the rivers of Abana and Pharpar after that, and Kishon after that, and the Mediterranean sea after that, and the Pacific and Atlantic oceans after all those,-if you could drink up all that is good in the whole universe, and still thirst for more, if you will receive grace from Christ, he will fill you to the full, yet he will still be just as full of grace as he ever was.

There was a sailor, who, if I remember the story rightly, once called at Lubbock’s bank, to cash his pay notes. I think he was to draw £50, so he said to the clerk, “I don’t like to be hard on anybody. As you have to pay out all this money, I will take ten pounds now, and I will call again, another day, for some more, as I don’t want to break you up.” Of course, you may imagine how they smiled at the simplicity of the man who thought that he might break the bank by drawing out such an enormous sum of money as fifty pounds all at once! You smile at the illustration, yet that is just exactly how many sinners treat the Lord Jesus Christ. They seem to think it is too much to expect to receive from him the full and free forgiveness of all their sins; they imagine that it is too much for Christ to give all at once; but they do not know that the Lord Jesus Christ has already pardoned enough sinners to make heaven as bright with redeemed spirits as the sky is with stars, and yet that he has as much pardoning mercy left as ever he had. After you draw from a perennial fountain as much water as you need, it still springs up as copiously as ever; so is it with the living water which is stored up in Christ, and you may have it, poor thirsty soul, as much as you need. I will not underestimate the greatness of your sin; it is indeed enormous; but since Christ has borne it, in his own body, on the tree, he knows its weight, and all about it; and, as soon as you trust in him, you will realize that he has for ever put it all away.

So I think that the final inference to be drawn is that we should all take of this living water, which Christ so freely gives. “Ah!” says one, “I bless God that I drank of it years ago.” Never mind, brother; never mind, sister; come and drink of it again. Keep on receiving Jesus Christ again and again, continually looking unto him as the Author and Finisher of your faith. Let us all go to him, saints and sinners, saved and unsaved, this very moment. May the Holy Spirit draw us, and may we all, as one man, say, “I give myself up to thee, O Saviour, to save me; and I trust thee to cleanse me from all my sin, and to present me at last, faultless, before the presence of thy glory with exceeding joy. I am nothing, and I have nothing that I can bring to thee to merit thine esteem. I am nothing but a mass of sin and misery,-not even feeling my sin as I ought to feel it. Look upon me, O Saviour, in love and mercy, and give me the grace to drink of the living water this very hour, if I never drank of it before; and if I did drink of it long ago, let it spring up within me just now, and may I be conscious of its power, to my own comfort and to thy praise and glory!” If this be your prayer, my brothers and sisters, God will bless you, and we shall meet in heaven, by his grace, still to drink of the living water for ever and ever, and to his blessed name we will ascribe all the praise and glory for our salvation, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

JOHN 4:1-34

Verses 1-4. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) he left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria.

And, surely, not only because it was the more convenient way, but because he had designs of love for some souls there that his Father had given him. There is many a needs-be in divine providence because of the needs-be of divine grace.

5, 6. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

Wearied, and needing rest, yet there was no rest for him, except that he found his sweetest rest in winning immortal souls unto himself.

7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

That is practically what Jesus still says to the sons and daughters of men: “Give me to drink.” He asks for your love, for your trust, for your confidence. It is his meat and drink to bless your souls, and to give you the blessing that you need, and it is a refreshment to his spirit when you give him the opportunity of thus blessing you.

8. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

It was a great mercy that the disciples were out of the way just then; had they been there, they might have tried to keep this poor woman from speaking to the Saviour; and, sometimes, brethren, it may be well for us to be laid aside. God may do more good without our presence than with it; who can tell?

9, 10. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

See, then, the evil of spiritual ignorance, and see also how the chain of grace works, “If thou knewest …, thou wouldest have asked …, and he would have given.” When God gives the knowledge of Christ to the soul, then there comes the spirit of prayer, and then consequent blessing.

11, 12. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

She took the Saviour’s figure literally; and there are still many who cannot see the spiritual meaning of God’s Word, and so run their heads against the hard stern letter which killeth, instead of seeking and finding the inner living spirit which giveth life. These are the people who build their hopes of salvation upon outward ordinances, and who impute saving power to “sacraments.” Would God that they knew better!

13-15. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

She was still unable to see the inner meaning of the Saviour’s words; the outward sense still held her fast. She needed to have her conscience aroused, for that would prove to be the way into her heart. Christ has different doors for entering into different people’s souls. Into some, he enters by the understanding; into many, by the affections. To some, he comes by the way of fear; to another, by that of hope; and to this woman he came by way of her conscience.

16-19. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Something had come home to her conscience through what the Saviour said to her, so she began to speak about what he was, not about what she herself was. This often happens when the preacher is enabled, by divine grace, to come home to the conscience. The result is, that the hearer says, “What a wonderful preacher he is!” But that will do no good; that is not the point at which we are aiming. “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet;” and off she goes, at a tangent, to enquire about various forms of religious observance. Evil liver as she was, she was still a person who wished to be regarded as a religious woman; and it is strange how often a certain religiousness will flourish even in the most depraved heart,-not true godliness, however. So she propounded this difficulty to the Saviour:-

20. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

“There are so many sects, can you tell me which is the right one?” That is the question which men often put to us when we begin to touch their consciences.

21. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

This question is of very temporary interest. The hour cometh, when neither of these places, nor yet any other, shall be considered sacred.

22-24. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

No longer is any consecrated building necessary to true worship; indeed, no building can be consecrated. No longer are we to be confined to canonical hours. No longer is God to be sought with the sensuousness of sweet music or of fragrant incense; but he is to be sought with the heart, and soul, and spirit.

25, 26. The woman saith unto him. I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

This great truth burst upon her with all the force of a divine revelation, and faith came with the information. The words that had gone before had prepared her to expect this manifestation of Christ to her soul.

27-34. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water-pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

THE SEARCH-WARRANT

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, August 25th, 1904,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On a Lord’s-day Evening, during the winter of 1861-2.

“But there are some of you that believe not.”-John 6:64.

Are there indeed? Yes; he that searcheth the hearts saith so. Then it is high time for us to enquire, “What is it to believe in Christ? What is it to believe to the saving of the soul?” It is not merely to consider the gospel to be true. It is not simply to endorse the doctrine that Christ is God. Those who hold a sound creed may be destitute of precious faith, and those who are able to defend the Divinity of Christ with admirable scholarship may, nevertheless, be without God in the world. To believe in Christ includes much more than a religious profession. It is so to believe the gospel as to forsake all other beliefs for the possession of its blessed hope; it is to imbibe the spirit of the Word while you accept the letter of its pure teaching; or, in other words, it is to come to Jesus, and to prove, in your own souls, his power to save.

Just as the faith of Abraham led him to leave his kindred, and his father’s house, under the guardian care of Jehovah, so saving faith leads a man to leave his self-sufficiency, with all the carnal pursuits and ambitions that encircled, like a farmstead, his natural and primitive abode, and to go forth, led by Jesus Christ, not knowing whither he goes. Just as faith led the harlot Rahab to anticipate the doom of Jericho, to hang the scarlet line in her window, and then to rest securely in her house, though the town walls, upon which it was built, were shaking, so, by faith, the sinner comes to the blood of sprinkling, hangs the promise of redemption in the window of his soul, and though he feels himself to be, naturally, no better than others, yet he rests secure because that scarlet line is there, and he is safe. Or, to use another figure, just as the Hebrew householder slew the lamb, dipped the bunch of hyssop in its blood, sprinkled it upon the lintel and the two side posts of his house, and then calmly ate of the Passover supper, though he knew that the destroying angel was flying through the land of Egypt, and though, peradventure, he could even hear the shrieks of the dying and the wailing of the bereaved, yet he remained quietly in his house, knowing that, though he might be the guiltiest of men, the blood secured his safety according to the promise of God.

To believe in Jesus, then, is to trust for our soul’s salvation to what Jesus has done for us, to prove what he is doing in us, and to rely entirely upon his promise to save us even to the end. It is to drop from the giddy elevation where we stand on the rotten timbers of self-righteousness, and to fall into the omnipotent arms of him who stands ready to receive us; it is to tear off the rags of our own spinning, that we may be clothed upon with the righteousness which is from heaven. Faith is the reverse of sight. It is to believe that we are saved when sin tells us that we are lost. It is to believe that Christ has cleansed us when we still feel defilement within. It is to believe that we shall see his face in glory when clouds and darkness enshroud our path, and doubts and fears distress our heart. This is the faith which saves the soul.

We are not saved by faith itself as a meritorious work. There is no merit in believing in God; and even if there were, it could not save us, since salvation by merit has been once for all solemnly excluded. Nor does faith save us as an efficient cause. Faith is the channel of salvation, not the fountain and source of it. Hence faith, though it saves, never boasts. He that boasts hath not faith; and he that hath faith can say, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When the poor man, who was bitten by the fiery serpent, looked to the brazen serpent upon the pole, it was his eye that saved him; yet it was not the merit of looking, nor was it his eye that was the efficient cause of his cure; but all the glory of it was to be given to God who had ordained that the brazen serpent should be the means of healing to all who looked to it. So, faith is the eye with which we look to Christ, yet it has neither merit nor efficacy in itself; all the merit and efficacy lie in the precious blood of him to whom we look.

Again, faith is an empty hand; yea, it is the filthy hand of the leprous sinner, and Christ puts his mercy into that black hand. Is there any merit in the hand? God forbid! Is there any efficiency to save in the hand? Oh, no, my brethren; the hand which gives must have the glory, not the hand which takes. He who bestows the blessing must have the honour of it, not the faith by which we receive the blessing from him.

Now, having thus spoken upon what faith is, and having tried to show you its peculiar position in the work of salvation, I am solemnly reminded, by our text, that “there are some of you that believe not.” The context shows that these words were spoken by Christ to his disciples. They were gathered around him, and he was addressing them; some of them had murmured because what he said to them was too “hard” for them to receive, and the Lord Jesus, being able to read their hearts, could say to them, “There are some of you that believe not;” and the inspired Evangelist adds, “For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.” I am going to speak, first, about those whose unbelief is secret; and, secondly, about those who are known to us to be unbelievers.

First, there are some whose unbelief is secret, it is known only to Christ.

If you had looked upon those disciples of Christ, you would have judged that they had received the gift of eternal life; you would have said, “God forbid that I should condemn any of those men who have come out from an ungodly generation, and have professed to be followers of the Prophet of Nazareth!” Although it would be wrong for us to judge our fellow-creatures, Jesus judged his disciples, and judged them rightly, for he can penetrate even to the heart, he can discern the secret thoughts, and intents, and motives of all men, and the day is coming when he will finally judge the whole race of mankind. His eye even now pierces through the hypocrite’s disguise, but his hand shall tear it away when he shall say to those who cry to him, “Lord! Lord!”-“Verily I say unto you, I never knew you; depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.” We know not the hollowness of their pretence, but Christ knows all about it; and if the Holy Spirit shall help us, we may be enabled to show it to themselves. Oh, that it may be so, even now, that they may stand with their souls revealed, and their consciences convicted, and that they may now seek for faith, seeing that they have it not!

What reason for alarm and for heart-searching there is here, for it is to be feared that, even in the ministry, there are some who have not faith! Ay, brethren, there have been, in all ages, men who have worn the robes of God’s ambassadors, but who have not themselves been at peace with him. It is a solemn and dreadful fact that there have been men who have broken the bread at the Lord’s table, and who have been leaders in God’s Israel, yet who, notwithstanding that, have had neither part nor lot in the matter. Brethren in the ministry, and young men, who occasionally go out to preach the Word, and who are hoping, by-and-by, to have a settled pastorate, let us ask ourselves this question,-Is it not possible that we, although preachers of the Word, may yet be without faith? Are we seeking to teach to others what we have not ourselves learned? Are we only like scaffolds, used in the building of Christ’s Church, yet not ourselves part of the spiritual structure; or like Noah’s labourers, who helped to build the ark, yet were themselves drowned by the great deluge? Are we like Elijah’s ravens, which brought him bread and meat from Ahab’s table, yet themselves remained unclean birds of evil omen? Let us seriously question ourselves thus, for God has sometimes done good works by bad men; yet this has not saved the men themselves, even as it was with Judas, who worked miracles as the other apostles did, and preached as they did, yet who, nevertheless, was “a son of perdition”, who went unto “his own place” among the lost.

Further, is it not possible that there are some, in the other offices of the church, who have not faith? Men and brethren, let me speak to you who are the fathers in Israel. Though but young myself, yet, as God’s servant, delivering his message, I speak to you with authority. Is it not possible that you may serve tables, as deacons of the church, and yet that you may be yourself an intruder at Christ’s table? You may be an elder and an overseer of others, and yet have to say, “They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.” It is solemn work to be made a watcher over the souls of men; but what must be our position if, after watching over others, our own soul should still be in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity? “I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say.” Office-bearing and the choice of the church cannot guarantee your salvation.

And as this is true of some ministers, and of some church-officers, it may be true of others who are engaged in various works of piety. I thank God that we have here many Sabbath-school teachers, tract-distributors, street-preachers;-in fact, I hope that there are very few persons, in this church, who are not regularly engaged in doing good in one way or other. If there be, among them, any who do not believe, I am happy to say that I do not know them; yet it is possible, dear friend, that you are teaching a Sunday-school class, although yourself needing to become as a little child before you can enter the kingdom of heaven? May you not be distributing messages of mercy to others, in the streets, or from door to door, and yet be yourself in need of that mercy? If that is your sad case, you are like a man with a leprous hand dealing out medicine to the sick. Take care, Christian workers, that, in this day of activity, when there is so much to do, you do not neglect the personal act of faith which unites your soul to Christ. See to this vital and all-important matter. Make clean the outside of the cup and platter, so far as you can, but see that the inside is not full of hypocrisy. However active you are in the Lord’s service, I pray that your exclusive self-examination may be as earnest as your expansive zeal. May you be as much concerned to be yourselves saved as to proclaim salvation to others!

Now I speak to the church-members in general. I thank God that he is adding to this church every day. Sometimes, I hear a whisper, from one side, that those of us, whose business it is to examine candidates for church-fellowship, are too severe in our judgment of them; and, on the other side, there are some who say that we are not searching enough. Brethren, it is enough for me, and my fellow-labourers in Christ, when we can say that, with singleness of spirit, and not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, we have sought to serve God in this matter. I do verily believe that, for the most part, what we have bound on earth has been bound in heaven, and what we have loosed on earth has been loosed in heaven. At any rate, this I can say, if we have erred in any case, it has been neither by favour nor by prejudice; but we have sought, after lifting up our hearts to heaven, to give a righteous judgment in every instance. Yet, with all the care that may be exercised, there is not, beneath the cope of heaven, a single church that is perfect. Some of you, who are now here, are members of this church, and some are members of other churches, yet it is almost certain that “there are some of you that believe not.” I do not profess to be able to separate the tares from the wheat, but Jesus can do it, he knows those among you who have no faith. You may talk about faith, and yet not really have it yourselves. You may have a great gift in prayer, and yet not have faith. You may be an acceptable preacher, and yet not have faith. You may walk uprightly before your fellow-men, and yet not have faith. You may be a generous subscriber to every holy work, and yet not have faith. How nearly a man may be a Christian, and yet be lost, after all! The counterfeit may be made to look so like the genuine that men may look at it again, and again, and again, and yet may pronounce the real to be counterfeit, and the false to be genuine. The Lord grant that, if there are, in this congregation, any who have a name to live, and yet are dead, they may be aroused to a sense of their true condition before God ere it is too late, and that Christ may give them life! Brethren, I do not know that, at the present moment, I have any doubt of my own personal interest in Christ; yet I do know that it is a very solemn thing to be too sure, and that it is a damnable thing to be presumptuous concerning such a matter. There will be times, with all of us, when it will do us good to sit down, and seriously ask, “Are these things so, or are they not?” Let us dig down to the very foundations of our faith, and see what it is upon which we are building for eternity. There will be times when all our past experience will be blown to shreds, like the sail of the mariner in a great gale. There will be times when our strongest evidence will snap like a mast broken by the fury of the storm. There will be times when all our comforts and joys will go like hen-coops washed overboard from a labouring ship. Oh, what a blessed thing it is, at such a time as that, to cast our great bower anchor into the sea, and calmly to sing,-

“In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.”

When anyone can say,-

“His oath, his covenant, and his blood,

Support me in the sinking flood;”-

he may feel that he is everlastingly secure, and that Jesus is indeed his Saviour. May the Holy Spirit enable you to judge,-for we cannot,-whether you have this saving faith or not!

Now, in the second place, I am to speak about those who are known to us as unbelievers.

First, there is a very pleasing class of persons here, who say, “We have no faith, but we are very anxious to have it.” I bless God for you, dear friends, and I wish that we had thousands like you. You feel your need of Christ, you long to be saved, you hate sin, you hate self-righteousness; yet you have no faith. There are certain questions that each of you often puts to us. First, “May I believe in Christ?” I answer,-Of course you may, because Christ bids you do so; and what he bids you do, you may do. “But am I fit to believe in him?” No fitness is required. “But am I the person who may believe in Jesus?” There is no special person indicated, for the gospel runs on this wise, and it is to be preached to every creature under heaven, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” As to the question whether you may believe in Jesus, whoever you are, I say,-Yes, certainly; come and welcome, for Christ has said, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Your next question probably is, “Can I believe?” I do not know, but I should think that you can. I will put a few questions to you,-Can you believe that Christ is God? “Yes.” Can you believe anything that God says? “Yes.” You can believe, then, for Christ said it,-and Christ is God,-that he came to seek and to save that which is lost, and you know that you are lost. God says, through his servant, the apostle Paul, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;” and you know that you are a sinner, therefore he came into the world to save you. You can believe that, surely. I know many persons, who say that they cannot believe, when in truth they can, yet they do not know that they can. How is it, then, that there are still so many who believe not?

The chief reason is because they will not believe; they are too proud, they love their own righteousness too much, they think themselves too wise to submit to the righteousness of Christ. But you say, “Can I believe in Jesus?” I say rather,-Can you? I ask you the question. You who are black as hell, can you believe that Christ can save you? “Yes, sir,” you say, “I can believe that.” Can you believe that he is willing to save you,-good and gracious Christ that he is,-hanging on the cross, and bidding you trust him? “Oh, sir!” you say, “I cannot help believing that.” Well, then, you have proved that you can believe, for you have done it already. I used to think that believing in Christ was some mysterious thing, and I could not make out what it was; but when I heard that it was just this, “Look unto me, and be ye saved,” I found that the only reason why it was so hard was that it was so easy. If it had been a more difficult matter, then my proud spirit would have tried to accomplish it; but being so easy, my proud spirit would not do it. You remember why Naaman could not wash in the Jordan, as the prophet bade him; it was because he would not, his proud spirit would not let him. “I thought,” said he;-that was where the mischief lay, for what right had he to think? “I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean?” That is why he could not wash in the Jordan, because he would not, but persisted in asking questions, wanting to be wiser than God.

O tried heart, you may believe, and I think I may say that you can believe! God is true; you know that, and it cannot be hard to believe when you know that. Christ is able to save; you know he is, so it cannot be difficult to believe in him. Christ is willing to save; you know he is; then, is it hard for you to believe in him? So I say that you can believe. May God bless you, and make you willing to believe; for, if he makes you willing, he will be sure to show you that you are able to believe.

The next class, without faith, is not one over which we can rejoice so much as over those who are anxious to have faith; I mean, the despairing ones. There are some souls that feel their sin to be very heavy. They have the gospel faithfully preached to them; but they are so proud that they will have it that Christ is not willing to save them, so they will not go to him. There is such a thing as proud humility, when a person feels a sort of self-conception of being base. “No,” says he, “I cannot take the medicine, I am too sick.” Now, that man is as much a suicide, spiritually, as though he took poison, or stabbed himself to death. God says that he is able to save you, but you say that he is not; you are lying in the very teeth of his promise, and charging him with falsehood. The apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says that Christ is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him; yet you, in effect, say, “No, he is not.” Why, you are imitating Satan, setting up your wisdom in the place of God’s, instead of accepting God’s Word as true.

I know that, when I first heard that Christ could save such a sinner as I was, I thought the news was too good to be true; but the Holy Spirit led me to trust in him, and then I proved that it was true. If you are a poor miserable beggar, and some good man here should say to you, “Come home with me, and I will give you a good situation; nay, more, I will take you into my home, and you shall be my son and heir;” you would say, “Well, I can hardly believe it, but I will go and see if it is true.” I hope you will say to God, who has promised you far more than that, “Lord, I am as black a sinner as there is out of hell; but if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Lord, do it; I give myself to thee.” And if, poor despairing soul, you can say, “It is God with whom I have to deal, and he can do anything; it is a dying Saviour with whom I have to deal, and he must be willing to forgive; it is the risen Redeemer of whom I have to think, he can speak peace to my soul, and he will do so;”-if you can thus trust yourself with him, you will honour God, and you yourself will be saved.

But there is a larger class still, in perhaps greater danger; I mean, the careless and thoughtless. How many of you have come in here oat of a curiosity which may never bring you here again? For you, death is a dream, heaven a fiction, and hell a bugbear. You know that the Word of God is true, yet you never trouble yourself about its warnings and threatenings. You say, “Let us eat, and drink, and enjoy ourselves;” but as for your immortal soul, you have left that to take care of itself as the ostrich leaves its eggs in the wilderness. Permit me, for a minute or two, to show you that I care for your soul even if you do not care for it yourself. Thou who art indifferent to thy spiritual welfare, remember that thou belongest to the most hopeless class under heaven. The profane are frequently converted, but the indifferent not so often. I have noticed that those, who get into the habit of going first to one place of worship, and then to another, are very rarely saved; yet that is not because they oppose the truth. No; if they would do that, there might be some hope concerning them. When you are at home, take up a flint and an India-rubber ball of the same size; then take a hammer, and strike both of them with it. Every time you smite the ball, you make an impresion upon it, but it quickly returns to its original shape. When you hit the flint with the hammer, you may produce no impression for a time; but, by-and-by, after one of your blows, it is shivered to atoms. Many of you are like that india-rubber ball. Under the preaching of the gospel, you are interested, moved, affected, but the impression is never very deep, and you soon return to your original form. You are shallow with regard to heavenly things; we cannot get at your conscience, we cannot reach your heart,-would God that we could!

I pray you to remember, however, that there is a time coming when death will preach far more effectually to you than I can. I recollect a narrative of a young woman, a fair and lovely lady, whose mother was very proud of her. She had introduced her into all the fashionable circles of the city. Her dresses were always becoming, but also expensive, and even extravagant. She lived only to go to one party and another, and to one amusement and another. Her mother had not observed-for mothers do not like to notice such things,-that there had been a great paleness on her daughter’s cheeks. A rapid decline set in, and, at last, to the mother’s terror and the daughter’s dismay, the doctor thought it his duty to say that it was impossible that she could live many weeks. Neither mother nor daughter had ever cared for ministers; religion would have stood in the way of their chosen pursuits, so they avoided it; but now the minister was sent for. He was an earnest, faithful servant of Christ; so, instead of striving to bolster her up with false hopes, he began to talk of death, and judgment, and eternity, and the wrath of God. The young woman deeply felt the force and the truth of his words, and said to her mother, “I cannot think what you have been doing with me. You have led me to believe that those fine dresses, and those parties and amusements, were all I had to live for; why did you not tell me I must die? Why did you not bid me prepare for eternity? O my mother, would that you had told me that I must soon leave this world, and enter the eternal state!” She begged them to bring out her last fineries, and she said, “Mother, I feel it is too late now, for I shall die; but hang those things up, and look at them, and never bring up another child as you have brought me up; and as for yourself, I charge you to think how soon you, too, must die.”

So I say to all careless ones here,-Think of the grave to which you must come, sooner or later; think of your last hours, and of the only true preparation for them. While it is true of you now that you have no faith, may it not be true very long; but may you, even now, seek and find faith in the. Lord Jesus Christ! For, remember that, not to believe in Christ is to be already exposed to the wrath of God. Not to believe in Christ is to be without salvation, and already under condemnation. There are many who do not know what it is to have a present salvation; but I bless God that there are also many who do know what a present salvation is. Do you know what it is? Not long ago, I was asked this question, “Is it possible for a man to be saved now?” Possible? Possible? If it is not possible for him to be saved now, it is not possible for him to be saved at all; but the apostle Paul assures us that “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation;” and no man should give sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eyelids, until he feels and knows that this present salvation is really his. Oh, what peace it gives to know that you are now forgiven, now blessed, now saved! Oh, how sweet it is to be able to say that God is my Father, that I am his child, and that he will keep me in perfect safety, and bring me to be for ever where he is! Oh, the delights of this present salvation! It is better than a king’s throne; it is better than a prince’s riches. Present salvation,-it is heaven on earth; it is the antepast of the peace of immortality. Heaven on earth can only be known by those who are saved, and who know that they are saved. May that be your case and mine, beloved! Christ’s own words are, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” May God bless us all with the true belief which is eternal life to all who possess it, for Jesus’sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

LUKE 12:1-32

The teaching of our Lord, in this chapter, has very much to do with Christianity in connection with this present life, and its cares and troubles. God has nowhere promised us exemption from affliction and trial. Indeed, it has been said, with much truth, that the Old Testament promise was one of prosperity, but that the New Testament promise is one of tribulation. You may rest assured that, if it had been best for us to be taken away to heaven directly we were converted, the Lord would have done it, and that, as he has not done so, there are wise reasons why he keeps his people here for a while. The gold must go through the fire ere it has its place in the king’s crown, and the wheat must be exposed to the winnowing fan ere it can be taken into the heavenly garner.

Verse 1. In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy, however, of a kind that was calculated to spread, like leaven. If you know that a man is a hypocrite, you do not feel inclined to imitate him; but the Pharisees were such well-made hypocrites,-such excellent counterfeits,-that many people were tempted to imitate them. Our Lord teaches us, however, that it is no use being a hypocrite,-

2. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

For many a day, the hypocrite’s true character may not be discovered; but there is a day coming that will reveal all secrets; and woe unto the man whose sin is laid bare in that day!

3. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

It would be well if we all lived in such a fashion that we should not be ashamed to have everything we did placarded on the very sky. I have heard of one who said that he would like to have a window in his heart, so that everybody might see what was going on. I think that, if I had such a window in my heart, I should like to have shutters to it; and I question whether any man really could wish to have his heart open to the gaze of all mankind. But, at least, let our lives be such that we should not be ashamed for the universal eye to be fixed upon them. If thou art ashamed to have any one of thine actions known, be ashamed to do it. If thou wouldst be ashamed to hear again what thou wast about to say, do not say it. Check thy tongue; be cautious and careful. Live ever as one who realizes God’s omniscience. While one of the ancient orators was speaking, on one occasion, all his hearers went away with the exception of Plato; but he continued to speak as eloquently as ever, for he said that Plato was a sufficient audience for any man. So, if there be no eye but the eye of God looking upon thee, be just as careful as if thou wert in the street, surrounded by thy fellow-creatures; nay, be more careful because thou art in the presence of thy Creator.

4, 5. And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

And how brave we shall be if we fear God! It is well put in that psalm which we sometimes sing,-

“Fear him, ye saints, and you will then

Have nothing else to fear.”

This great filial fear will chase out all the little, mean, craven fears, for he who, in the Scriptural sense, fears God, can never be a coward in dealing with men.

6, 7. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

God does not forget the sparrows, but he regards you with far greater interest and care, for he counts the very hairs of your head. He not only knows that there is such a person, but he knows the minutest details of your life and being. It is always a great comfort to remember that our Heavenly Father knows us. A dying man, who had been for many years a believer, had a minister at his bedside who said to him, “Don’t you know Jesus?” “Yes, sir,” he replied, “I do, but the ground of my comfort is that he knows me.” And, surely, there is a great force in that truth. Your Heavenly Father knows you so completely that he has counted the hairs of your head: “Fear not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows.”

8, 9. Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: but he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.

What courage this ought to give us! In company where the very name of Christ is kicked about like a football,-where everything is respected except true religion,-it is not always an easy thing to come forward, and say, “I also am his disciple.” But if you will do this, you have Christ’s pledge that he will own you before the angels of God. If you do not do so, but practically deny him by a shameful silence, you may reasonably expect that he also will deny you before the angels.

10. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.

This is one of the very difficult texts of Holy Scripture. We are told, in 1 John 5:16, that “there is a sin unto death,” and I would have you very chary of ever daring to trifle with the Spirit of God, since sin against him is guarded with such special warnings. The flaming sword of divine vengeance seems to hang before the very name of the Holy Ghost; so, whatever you do, never trench upon his royal dignity, or blaspheme him in heart or by lip.

11. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers,-

That is to say, the persecutors,-“when they bring you there, to be tried for your lives, as many have been in past ages, and some still are,”-

11, 12. Take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

I have often been amazed and delighted with the remarkable answers which were given to bishops and priests by poor humble men and women who were on trial for their lives. Perhaps you remember that Anne Askew was asked, in order to entangle her in her speech, “What would become of a mouse if it ate the bread of the holy sacrament?” She said that was too deep a question for a poor woman like her to answer, and she begged the learned bishop on the bench to tell her what would become of the mouse; to which his lordship answered that it would be damned. Now, what reply could be given to that but the one Anne Askew gave, “Alack, poor mouse!” I do not know that anything better could have been said; and, on other occasions, there have been answers which have been deeply theological, and there have been some which have been wisely evasive and, also some full of weight, and others full of grace and truth, for the Holy Ghost has helped his saints, in time of persecution, to answer well those who have accused them.

13-17. And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

There were empty cupboards in the houses of the poor, and there were hungry children to be filled; so this man need not have lacked room where he could bestow his fruits.

18-20. And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,-

Which was the last thing he thought, he imagined that he was a very wise man: “But God said unto him, Thou fool,”-

20, 21. This night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Here our Saviour shows us the frail nature of the tenure upon which we hold all earthly goods, and how it is not worth while to make these the chief things of our life; for, while they may leave us, we are quite sure, by-and-by, to have to leave them.

22. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought-

No undue, anxious thought, for such is the meaning of the word used here: “Take no thought”-

22-30. For your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

So that, with the knowledge of his guarantees to you that you shall always have enough, what need have you to be careworn and anxious? I have often looked at birds in a cage, and thought of the happiness and carelessness of heart which they seem to exhibit; and yet, if you were to forget to give them water, or if you were to fail to give them seed, how soon they would die! Perhaps the little creature has not enough to last it more than one day, but it goes on singing its tune, and leaves all anxiety about the morrow to those whose business it is to care for it. You would be ashamed to let your bird starve; and will your Heavenly Father let you, who are not his birds, but his children, starve? Oh, no! “Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.”

31, 32. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

He does not give you all that you would like to have, but he is going “to give you the kingdom.” He gives the lesser gifts to others, but he is saving up the kingdom for you. Luther once said, “All the empires of the earth are only so much meal for God’s swine; but the treasure is for his children. They may have less meal, but they shall have the eternal kingdom.” Oh, how blessed are we if, by faith, we know that this is true concerning us: “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”!

“TO YOU”

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, September 1st, 1904,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, July 9th, 1876.

“To you is the word of this salvation sent.”-Acts 13:26.

My text must be read in the light of the 46th verse, or else I may be thought to be guilty of wresting it from its true meaning. Paul originally said, to the Jews and proselytes in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, “To you is the word of this salvation sent.” But they rejected the message; and, therefore, the apostle said to them, “It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” So, if Paul were here now, he might, in addressing you, use the very same words which he used in addressing Israel of old, and say, “To you is the word of this salvation sent.”

This fact furnishes us with a warning. Remember, brethren, that the gospel was first sent to Israel. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself confined his personal ministry almost entirely within the bounds of Palestine, and he bade his disciples begin the preaching of the gospel at Jerusalem; and such was the narrowness which naturally appertained to their nationality that it took a very long time to bring the most of the apostles to preach to any people beside the Jews. In this way, the Jews had a full opportunity of knowing the truth; but, because they were blinded by prejudice and sin, they could not see Christ. They judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, so Paul and the rest of the apostles turned to the Gentiles. I would solemnly remind you, who now have the opportunity of hearing the gospel, that, if any nation shall be privileged to have the gospel sent to it, and yet shall continue to reject it, God may turn from that nation as readily as he turned from the Jews;-perhaps, even more readily than he turned from his ancient and peculiarly favoured people, Israel.

If, in this country, men and woman continue to go after the idolatrous calves of Ritualism, or turn aside to the modern Sadduceeism of scepticism, it may be that the Lord will remove the candlestick out of its place, and that the word of the gospel will be no longer sent to us. There are many nations, to which the gospel has scarcely been sent, at present, by the way of preaching it in their own tongue. They have not yet heard it; but they must do so, sooner or later. There are other countries, that were, at one time, the home of saints to whom Christ’s name was known; yet they are now left in the darkness of Popery, or else Mohammedanism has brought the falsehoods of the crescent to take the place of the truth of the cross. Go to the ruins of the seven churches of Asia, and ask how it is that, as churches, we know nothing of them now; and learn, from their doom, not to trifle with the truth when it comes to you, nor to judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life; lest, perhaps, the messengers of peace should be sent to other lands, and the light of the gospel should no longer shine upon our highly favoured island.

And you, dear friend,-speaking personally to you as an individual rather than to the nation in general,-I pray you to take heed that, while you are able to hear the gospel, you also receive it; for it may be that, very soon, you will be unable to come to the house of prayer, or your lot may be cast where the gospel is not faithfully preached, and you may have to rue these blessed days in which the kingdom of God came so near to you, yet you did not enter in. Yea, you may lie a dying, and you may have to lament the Sabbaths that you have wasted, and which never will come back to you. And oh, in the next world, with what regret you will have to look back upon the desecrated Sabbaths, and the neglected means of grace, and the despised invitations of God’s ministers; and you will mourn that you judged yourself unworthy of everlasting life; and, therefore, have passed away into that place of woe where gospel invitations can never reach your ears. I am preaching with the hope that at least some of you may be saved from such a terrible doom as that, and that, this very hour, the gospel, which is sent to you, may be accepted by you.

There was a little boy, whom his mother noticed as always wonderfully attentive to the Word; he would frequently put his hand to his ear so as to catch every word from the preacher. She said to him, “John, why do you do that, my dear?” He replied, “Did you not hear the minister say, the other Sunday, that, if there was any part of the sermon that would be sure to do us good, the devil would try to cause a disturbance just then, so that we might not hear it So I am determined that, if there is anything that is likely to do me good, I will hear it.” Any man, or woman, or child, who will hear like that, will not hear in vain; that is impossible.

My talk will be very simple, and not very long; and, first of all, I am going to answer the question, What is this word of salvation, which is sent to us?

If you read the passage through, as we did just now, you will see that the word of salvation, which is sent to us, is the testimony that Jesus Christ is the promised Saviour. Paul showed that he was of the seed of David, the Messiah whom God had promised to his people by the prophets. Jesus of Nazareth was the seed of the woman who was to bruise the old serpent’s head, the One of whom the ancient seers spake so sweetly, and for whom the twelve tribes, instantly watching night and day, waited so long. This is the Messiah, the world’s only hope, the one Redeemer, rightly called the King of the Jews, yet also the Saviour of all who believe in him.

What has this truth to do with you? Why, it has this to do with you,-that, through this Man, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. That same Jesus, who was the Son of God, took upon himself our human nature, lived in this world, and wrought righteousness; and when the due time came, he took upon himself the sins of all his people. The Lord laid them upon him, and he carried them up to the tree, and there, upon the tree, he bore the full penalty for all the transgressions of his people. The penalty for sin was death, so Jesus died; and Paul writes, by inspiration, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Now, because Christ died in the room, and place, and stead of the ungodly, the forgiveness of sins is being preached, at this moment, in tens of thousands of places, all over the world. Whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ,-that is, simply trusts in him,-shall receive at once the forgiveness of all his sins,-a complete and irreversible forgiveness, by which the whole of his sin is blotted out, as when a man strikes his pen through the record of a debt, or writes below it, “Settled.” All his sin is removed, as when the North wind drives away the cloud, and the sky is bright and clear. All his sin is removed, as when the fuller cleanses the filthy garment, and makes it white as snow. All his sin is removed for ever, “as far as the East is from the West.” So, who can lay anything to the charge of the man whose sins Christ hath forgiven? This forgiveness is preached unto you, through the Man Christ Jesus, even to you who believe on his name.

The word of this salvation is the proclamation of perfect salvation through the risen Redeemer, for the apostle adds, “by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” That is to say, there were some sins which the law given to Moses never thought of forgiving, but there are no sins which Christ is either unable or unwilling to forgive. The law of Moses could not, in very deed, put away any sin; so, fresh sacrifices had to be continually offered under the Mosaic dispensation; “but this Man,” whom we preach unto you, “after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God,” having no need to present any more sacrifices. So that, if you believe on him, your sins shall be, not figuratively, but actually, put away for ever, and there shall remain to you no more consciousness of sin. Washed in the precious blood of Christ, you shall be whiter than snow, and shall enter into heaven, none daring to accuse you; for who shall accuse the man or woman whom Christ hath justified? This is the word of salvation, then, that is sent to you, my dear friends, as much as to those to whom Paul spoke. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” He shall never perish, for he is forgiven by God, and is “accepted in the Beloved.”

If there are any of you who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it seems to me that you are like a ship that is derelict, left to the mercy of the winds and waves. O soul, yours is an unhappy condition for anyone to be in! Though as yet you are not destroyed, though as yet you are not in hell, it ought to be misery enough for a man to feel, “I am not under the direction of God; I have not Christ on board to be my Pilot.” Stop, young woman; stay, young man; if that is the case with you. Go no further as you are, but ask the Lord to direct you from this time forth, and even for ever more. I stand here as a living witness to this fact, that it is the highest wisdom and happiness to trust in the Lord. I have relied upon him since I was fifteen years of age, and my only grief is that I did not trust him earlier; but since the hour that brought me to his feet, and enabled me to rest in him, he has been a good Helper, a sure Guide, and a blessed Friend to me; and, speaking from my own experience, I would entreat my brothers and sisters, who are younger than I am, to delay no longer, but to take my Heavenly Father to be their Guide also. May the Lord, the Holy Spirit, lead you to do so, this very hour, for Jesus Christ’s sake!

Now let us pass on to a second question, which is, In what manner is this gospel sent to you? Let me have your ears and your hearts while I try to answer this important question, as the Holy Spirit shall guide me.

Well, first, it was sent to you, dear friend, whoever you may be, in Christ’s universal commission, which he gave to his disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” You are a creature, are you not? Then the gospel is to be preached to you. Paul wrote to Timothy, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” You are a sinner, are you not? Then, Christ came to save you, and this faithful saying is worthy of your acceptation. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his last invitation in the Book of Revelation, says, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Surely, “whosoever will” must include you, whosoever you may be, for you have a will, and you can come to Christ if you will.

“Let every mortal ear attend,

And every heart rejoice;”-

for, to everyone of woman born,-

“The trumpet of the gospel sounds

With an inviting voice.”

Young or old, rich or poor, whosoever you may be, “to you is the word of this salvation sent” by him who bade us go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, saying, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

But it is also sent to you in another sense, for the preaching of it has come actually to you. The word of this salvation is sent to every creature under heaven, but the great mass of mankind have not yet heard it. “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” O Church of the living God, what a sin lies at thy door because they are not sent, and therefore the heathen do not hear, and hence they are not saved! But “to you” the preacher has come. You have heard the gospel; some of you, from your childhood. Can you recollect the time when you did not hear it? You say, sometimes, that it has been dinned into your ears until you are almost weary of it. When we come into the pulpit, we cannot tell you anything fresh; it is just the same old story that you have heard so long. “To you” the word of this salvation has been sent, and you have heard it, and know what it is.

Perhaps some of you may say to me, “Sir, we live in a place where the gospel is not preached. We have rank Ritualism in the parish church, and nothing but vapid intellectualism in all the Dissenting chapels.” I am sorry if that is true; but look you here, sirs, you have all got this Bible, or you can all get it, and it will be a stern witness against every one of you, whether you hear the gospel preached or not. I suppose that a copy of the Bible is in almost every Englishman’s house; I wonder whether there is one home in this land without it; there should not be. Well, then, as long as this invaluable preacher is with you,-as long as you can read the Word of God in your home, or in the field, or in the barn or the shop,-to you, indeed, is the word of this salvation sent.

Further, I believe that, to some people, the gospel is sent in a yet more remarkable manner. Possibly, the very fact that you are here, at this service, is one of the many instances in which the gospel has been sent to you. There was a young man, some years ago, who dishonoured his father’s name in the village where he lived,-a scapegrace, as they called him,-and he ran away from his home, to go to a distant land. He came to London, and went on board a vessel, at the docks, expecting to sail. This was on a Saturday, but an accident occurred, and the ship was delayed, so he had a Sunday in London. He remembered that his father had often spoken of the Tabernacle, so he enquired the way, and came here, an utterly ungodly young man. Some months after, in a letter which he wrote to his home, his father was surprised to find that he was commencing to preach the gospel. He said that, on that Sunday night when he came here, the Lord met with him, and saved him. That was a blessed accident, that kept him from sailing on the Saturday, and that brought him here to listen to the gospel of Jesus. I never know who may be in my congregation. Ah, Tom, you scapegrace, I should not wonder, as you have come in here, if there was another wonder in store for you; and I trust that the Lord has sent the gospel to you by that singular providence which has brought you amongst us here. Out of this crowd, there must be some who are here under very peculiar circumstances. Some of you have come up from the country, and you have been persuaded by friends to come here. I do not know you, or aught about you; but my Lord does, and I trust that to you is the word of this salvation sent by the very providence which has brought you here. A child takes the seed of a weed, when it is fully ripe, and blows upon it in sheer sport; away go the little parachutes, bearing through the air the seeds, and you may find that weed, over hill and dale, miles away. We, though not little children, take the divine seed of truth, and, with our anxious, but believing breath, we blow it abroad in this congregation. Where that seed may fall, we cannot tell; it may fall upon some stranger from the backwoods of Canada, or some brother from a great city of America, or some lonely worker who has been toiling far away in India, or on some at home, unknown to us, who, nevertheless, shall receive into good soil the seed, not of a weed, but of a precious flower of God; and if the world be not sooner brought to its close, even a thousand years hence there may be plants growing that can trace their spiritual parentage to the sowing of to-night. O young man, young woman, worker for Christ, thou canst never tell the infinite issues of what seemed so small a matter as the sowing of the good seed of the kingdom!

Sometimes, God sends the truth very specially home to the heart and conscience of the hearer by the singularity of the preacher’s words; he has been guided by the Holy Spirit to paint the man’s portrait to the life, and the man has been astounded at it. He has imagined that somebody must have informed the preacher about him; yet the speaker was, all the while, quite innocent of the man’s affairs. “Why, the very words I have used,” says he, “and the inmost thoughts of my heart were laid bare.” Do you not know that this is one of the characteristics of the Word of God? Paul says that it “is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” If anything, in the preaching, at any time comes right home to you, as though the preacher looked right into you, and knew all about you, and reckoned you up as a boy does a sum in arithmetic on his slate, do not begin to wonder how it is done, but realize that, in this way, “to you is the word of this salvation sent.” Oh, that the blessed Spirit would now arrest some of you;-laying his hand of grace upon your shoulder, as the sheriff’s officer does when he arrests a man in the name of the law! May the Lord say to you, “Thou art my prisoner; thou shalt give thine heart to me. Make haste, and come down, and receive me into thine heart, for there I must dwell for ever.”

“Thus the eternal counsel ran,-

‘Almighty grace, arrest that man;’ ”-

and when the eternal counsel so runs, and the divine decree so determines, so shall it be, for the Lord God is mighty to save, and none shall be able to withstand the power of his omnipotent grace.

Now, thirdly, I am going to keep to the same theme, yet to touch another string, while I reply to this question,-In what position does the gospel place a man when it comes to him?

The word of this salvation has been sent to many of you; in what position does it put you? Well, first, in a position of great indebtedness, for you owe-I dare not try to calculate how much-to God for sending the gospel to you. That there should be a gospel to send to you,-that Christ should be given for you,-that his precious blood should be shed for you,-that there should be full and free forgiveness for you, though you feel that you are altogether undeserving of it,-all this makes up a stupendous favour from God. May you never dare to thrust it from you!

Then think of what you owe to the providence that has sent the gospel to you. For you, dear friends, apostles lived, and laboured, and suffered, and journeyed, that even to these distant isles of Britain the gospel of Jesus might be brought. For you, Reformers battled, bled, and died, that they might dispel the darkness of error and falsehood, and bring out the light of truth. For you, the martyrs suffered by thousands. Go you to Smithfield, and recall what your brave sires endured in order that their sons might have the gospel freely preached to them,-that very gospel which many of them despise. Wonderful have been the arrangements of divine providence to keep the light of truth burning in these lands.

The fact that, at this moment, you should be hearing the gospel preached, imposes a great obligation upon you. Who built this place, but generous Christian people, for the most part? Who are even now praying for your conversion, but God’s servants who love you, and desire your eternal welfare? And, though I ask no thanks of you, yet does my soul yearn over you, poor soul, longing that you may find the Saviour as I have found him, and be as happy in him as I am. Well, you cannot be thought of and loved by others thus, and you cannot have the great wheels of divine providence continually revolving to bring the gospel to you; and, above all,-transcendently above all,-you cannot have the Lord Jesus Christ bleeding on Calvary’s cross that there may be a gospel to preach to you, without your being put under very solemn obligations.

Further, the fact that you have the gospel sent to you puts you into a very hopeful position. I like to think about how many people are going to be saved every time the gospel is faithfully preached. It is not preached in vain; we deliver a message from God that never misses the mark at which he aimed it. We are sure that it is so, for we preach it in faith. We always expect to hear of sinners being saved, and we are never disappointed, nor shall we ever be while we can preach the truth with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It is in his power that we preach, for we have sought the aid of the Holy Ghost, and thousands of you have sought his aid, too; and we have not sought in vain, so we look for conversions, and we, therefore, feel, dear friends, that you are in a hopeful condition, and we believe that many of you will be brought to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But remember that-and here let me throw the whole emphasis of my soul into my message,-you are put into a very responsible position; for, if the gospel be thus brought to you, and you reject it, it will be a savour of death unto death to you. To every person to whom the word of this salvation comes, I have to say, in my Master’s name,-If thou art not saved by it, thou wilt have the blood of thy soul on thine own skirts. Woe unto you, if ye judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, and declare that ye will not have Christ to reign over you. Woe unto you if ye are disobedient, and stumble at this stumbling-stone. Ah, my dear hearers, it may seem but a trifling thing to you to hear the gospel; but this makes your position very different from what it would otherwise have been. The last great day will call me to account for every word I utter in delivering my Master’s message, and it will also call each one of you to account for the reception or rejection of that message. You young men and young women, and you greybeards, will have to answer in that day, for the way you deal with the message now. You will not be able to excuse yourselves by saying, “We never did hear of pardon through the blood of Jesus.” You will not be able to say, “The preacher did not proclaim the gospel to us. He gave us some fine language, and tried to play the orator, and finished off with a grand display of fireworks.” You will never be able truthfully to say that. You know that there is nothing that I desire but to set Christ plainly before you, and to beseech, and entreat, and implore you to put your trust in him, for he is worthy of all the trust of your heart. So, have done with all other confidences, and with the love of sin, and lay hold on eternal life. But, whether ye will do so or not, be ye sure of this; to you is the word of this salvation sent, and the kingdom of God hath come nigh unto you.

My last question is this. How are you going to treat the word of this salvation, now that it is sent to you?

First, are any of you going to contradict it, and blaspheme it? I trust not, although that sin is not an uncommon one nowadays; yet I most sincerely hope that I am not addressing one who blasphemes the Christ who died for sinners; such love as his ought to be free from blasphemy.

If you do not commit that sin, I fear that you may say, as so many others have said before you, “I will think of it to-morrow.” You do not really mean to think of it if you talk like that. When Felix said to Paul, “Go thy way for this time: when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee,” what he meant was, “I do not want to listen to you any longer; you are a nuisance to me.” Let me put the matter to you very plainly. You either love Christ or do not love him; which is it? That “to-morrow” plea is a false one. Satan has invented it in order that he may enable men to reject Christ, and yet flatter their souls with the notion that they are not doing so. Come, then; it may be that this is the last time you will ever be put to the question in this fashion. I have you, as it were, by the button-hole now; and, as the “Ancient Mariner” detained the wedding guest with his weird story, so would I hold you with this earnest personal pressure upon your heart and conscience. Do you mean to give Christ the go-by, or not? Remember that the bell shall toll ere long for you, and six feet of earth shall hold each one who comes to this Tabernacle, and who now sits and listens to the word of this salvation. Oh, whatever you do, do not procrastinate! Say “No” if you mean “No.” Say “Yes” if God the Holy Ghost enables you to say it; but do not say it, as some have too readily done, in certain revival services, without fully considering the matter. They have jumped into religion, and jump out again just as quickly. Like the rocky ground hearers, the seed quickly sprang up, and there was the green blade, but there was no depth of earth, so it soon withered away. Ask the Lord to plough your soul, and to break up the soil of your heart, that there may be roothold for the good seed of the kingdom.

And, in order to attain to this end, look right away from yourself to Jesus,-away from your repentings, and pleadings, and chapel-goings, and everything else, to Jesus only, with that true faith which has nothing to do with anything but the finished work of the Christ, who says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” Do not trust to going into enquiry-rooms, and talking with earnest evangelists and other Christian workers. If you would be saved, your soul must come to grappling terms with Christ, and Christ must come to close terms with you; otherwise, you will be none the better for having heard the gospel. Indeed, the very fact that you have heard it will only increase your condemnation.

I think I hear someone say, “Fain would I have him now! I would give my eyes to have him.” Well, you need not give your eyes, or anything else; you may have him for nothing. I have told you the story of the vessel that was out at sea, as the captain thought, but he was out of his reckoning. They ran short of water, they had not a drop to drink; so at last they hailed a vessel, and speaking through the trumpet the captain cried, “We want water; we are perishing for want of water.” Imagine his surprise when there came across the wave this reply, “Dip it up! You are in the river Amazon; it is fresh water all round you. Dip it up!” You perhaps think that you are out on the salt sea, but you are not; mercy is all round you. Throw your bucket overboard; dip it up! Trust in Jesus,-

“Only trust him; only trust him;

He will save you now,

Only trust him; only trust him;

He will save you now.”

Do you ask, “What shall I do to be saved?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” That was Paul’s answer to the question, and I cannot give you a better one. Believing does not take a week, or even a minute. Thy heart rests and relies on Christ, and Christ saves thy heart. See me leaning here, with all my weight, upon this platform rail. Lean so upon Christ, with all your weight. Have done with everything but Jesus; and when thou hast believed on him, then obey him by being baptized in his name, for he put belief and baptism together when he said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” So, accept the whole of the gospel, and keep to the command of Christ in every point, and then thou mayest look to the faithful God to fulfil his promise that thou shalt be saved. The Lord bless you, and save every one of you, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ACTS 13:13-49

Verse 13. Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem

“John”-that is, John Mark, as we see by chapter 15 verse 37.

14, 15. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

The rulers of the synagogue had noticed them as strangers coming in, and perceived that they were Jews, probably by their wearing the same kind of garments as other Jews did.

16. Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.

Or, rather, “and ye Gentile proselytes, give audience.”

17. The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.

It is always well to begin with our hearers upon some common ground. So, wishing to persuade these people to receive the Lord Jesus as the promised Messiah, Paul begins with that which was always attractive to their ears,-the history of their nation, with a special mention of the peculiar favour which God had shown to his chosen people Israel in bringing them up out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage.

18-21. And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot. And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

Do you not sometimes hear people speak disparagingly about certain parts of Scripture, and say, “Oh, that is the historical part”? Dear friends, never fall into the error of thinking less of one part of Scripture than of another, but remember that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” This sermon, by Paul, is a rehearsal of Old Testament history; and he would not have spoken unprofitably; you may depend upon that. I would urge you to bear a protest against the method, which seems to be springing up nowadays, of saying, “That part of the Bible is for the Jews;” or “That particular Epistle”-for they speak thus even of the New Testament-“is not for us.” It is all for us, and we are to seek to profit by every word of it, praying the Holy Spirit to apply it to our hearts.

22-25. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: when John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.

Paul went on with his narrative as far as the history of Saul and David, and so he came to great David’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He had come by way of Old Testament history to Christ, and by way of John the Baptist to Christ; and that is how the preacher of the gospel should travel. On whatever road he journeys, his terminus must be Christ. The motto of all true servants of God must be, “We preach Christ, and him crucified.” A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.

26. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God,

Or, “is a proselyte to God.”

26, 27. To you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.

See how easy it is for people to hear the Bible read, and yet to know very little about what it contains. They may have the lessons read every Sabbath day in their hearing, and yet they may not understand anything that is in them. They may even become themselves great readers of the Scriptures, yet not come to Christ, as it was with those to whom the Lord Jesus said, “Ye search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. But ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” If you are content with merely reading or hearing the Scriptures, and do not come to Christ himself, you stop short of salvation; yea, you stay in a position where you may be capable of the grossest sin, as were these people at Antioch in Pisidia.

28-37. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.

Note how Paul keeps to Scripture. An inspired apostle himself, yet he appeals to the Old Testament to support his case. That was the best argument he could possibly use with Jews; and, often, it will be the best that we can use with Gentiles.

38-42. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.

They did not mind hearing sermons twice in those days. We are not often asked to preach the same sermon over again. But these people wanted to know the truth; and, therefore, they asked to have it repeated. If our people will not receive the gospel the first time we preach it, we must tell it to them over and over again. With the hammer of the Word, we must smite the same nail on the head again and again. Even if we do not utter the same words, there must ever be the same subject Sabbath by Sabbath, and week by week.

43-46. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold,

Though Jews themselves, they could not bear to see the bigotry of their nation.

46. And said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

And a blessed turning it has been for you, dear friends, and for me.

47-49. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-488, 504, 521; and from “Sacred Songs and Solos”-20