C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, March 4th, 1866.

“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”-Matthew 3:16, 17.*

I want to teach two lessons to-night; the first will be a most necessary one for the unconverted, the second will be more suitable to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without any preface, let us at once try to learn the first lesson from the text, which relates to the co-working of the Trinity in the matter of our salvation.

There are some who seem to suppose that Jesus Christ is our Saviour to the exclusion of God the Father and of God the Holy Ghost, but this is a most erroneous idea. It is true that we are saved by the precious blood of Christ, but it is equally true that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have had their share in the great work of our salvation. In order that we might not fall into the error in which some have been entangled, it pleased God to give us, at the very beginning of Christ’s public ministry, a very distinct intimation that he did not come alone, and that he did not undertake the work of our redemption apart from the other adorable Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity.

Try to picture to yourselves the scene that our text describes. There is Jesus Christ who has just been baptized in Jordan by John, and John bears witness that he is the Son of God because the sign from heaven for which he had been bidden to look had been given. As Jesus comes up out of the water, the Spirit of God descends upon him in a visible shape, in appearance like a dove, and rests upon him. John says that “it abode upon him,” as though the Spirit was thenceforth to be his continual Companion; and, truly, it was so. At the same time that the dove descended, and lighted upon Christ, there was heard a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This was the voice of God the Father, who did not reveal himself in a bodily shape, but uttered wondrous words such as mortal ears had never before heard. The Father revealed himself, not to the eye as the Spirit did, but to the ear; and the words he spake clearly indicated that it was God the Father bearing witness to his beloved Son. So that the entrance of Christ upon his public ministry on earth was the chosen opportunity for the public manifestation of the intimate union between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

Now, sinner, from this day forward, if you have never done so before, think humbly, reverently, and lovingly of all the three Persons of the most blessed Trinity in Unity. Bless the Son of God for becoming man in order that he might redeem us from destruction. He left his glory in heaven, and was made in the likeness of men, that he might suffer in our stead, as the Lamb of God’s Passover, and that we might shelter beneath his sprinkled blood, and so escape the sword of vengeance. Do you know that, when Christ was baptized, he gave, as it were, a picture of his great work of redemption? He said to John, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,” by which I understand, not that he fulfilled all righteousness by being baptized, but that his baptism was a picture or emblem of the fulfilment of all righteousness. What was done with Christ when he was baptized? Why, first, he was regarded as one who was dead, and therefore he was buried beneath the waters of Jordan. He thus set forth, by a most significant symbol, the fact that he had come to earth to be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and that in due time he would actually die, and be really buried, as now he was submerged beneath the yielding wave in a metaphorical burial. But baptism does not consist in merely plunging the person into the water; he must be lifted out again, otherwise he would be drowned, not baptized. So the Saviour, when he rose up out of the water, set forth his own resurrection. By his baptism, he figuratively said, “I shall die for sinners, I shall rise again for sinners, and I shall go back to heaven to plead for sinners. My death will put away their offences, and my resurrection will complete their justification.” Go ye, who long for salvation, and by faith look to the Saviour dying on the cross at Calvary, see him buried in Joseph’s tomb, see him rise the third day, and after forty days see him ascend to heaven leading captivity captive. His dying, his burial, his rising, his ascension,-these are the fulfilment of all righteousness, and it is by these that you must be saved. It is not your being baptized that can save you; it is Christ’s being baptized for you with that baptism of blood when he poured out his soul unto death that you might live for ever. It is not your suffering, but his suffering that avails for your salvation; it is not your being or your doing that is the secret of blessing, but it is his being and his doing on which you must depend for everything. Trust in Jesus Christ, and you shall find salvation in him.

Now I want you to look with humbly grateful eyes to God the Holy Ghost. You remember how Jesus Christ applied to himself the words he read in the synagogue at Nazareth: “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.” It was the Spirit of God who gave success to Jesus Christ’s ministry; and if you, dear friend, would be saved, it is only the Holy Spirit who can take away from you the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. I pray you to think with holy reverence of that mighty, mysterious Being who works in human hearts, and moulds them according to the will of God. By nature, you are spiritually dead, and only the Spirit of God can give you spiritual life. By nature, you are spiritually blind, and only the Spirit of God can give you spiritual sight. Even the work of Christ on the cross does not avail for you until the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and reveals them unto you. You must look to Christ, or he will not save you; you must trust in Christ, or his precious blood will not be applied to you; but you will never look to him or trust in him unless the Father, who sent him, shall draw you to do so by his Spirit effectually working in you. When we are thinking and speaking of the Holy Spirit, let us always feel as if we must put off our shoes from our feet, for the place whereon we stand is peculiarly holy. You remember how solemnly Christ warns us as to the consequences of even speaking against the Holy Ghost: “Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Whenever we mention the name of the Holy Spirit, let us do it with holy awe and reverence, remembering that it is the Spirit that quickeneth, it is the Spirit that instructeth, it is the Spirit that sanctifieth, it is the Spirit that preserveth, it is the Spirit that maketh us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. So, unto the ever-blessed Spirit of God as well as unto the well-beloved Son of God be glory and honour, praise and power, for ever and ever.

With equal reverence and with equal awe let us also think of God the Father. What does the Father here say concerning Christ? First, he calls him his Son. There has been much disputing about how Christ can be equal with the Father, and equally eternal, and yet be the Son of the Father. This is a great deep into which you and I, dear friends, will do well not to pry. We usually speak of Christ being the Son of the Father by what is called “eternal generation.” I confess that there is a mystery here which I can neither understand nor explain; but as the Father calls him his Son, I unhesitatingly believe that he is what the Scripture constantly calls him, “the Son of God.” In our text, we find that the Father not only calls Christ his Son, but he says, “This is my beloved Son.” What wondrous love there must be in the heart of each one of the divine Persons in the sacred Trinity towards each of the others! How blessedly they must look upon one another with divine benignity and complacency! There never could be any diversity in their interests, for they are one in heart, one in purpose, one in every respect, even as Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.”

Now, sinner, the point to which I want specially to direct your thoughts is this,-that God not only calls Christ his Son, and his beloved Son, but that he says he is well pleased with him; and this concerns you in that, if you are so united to Christ as to be one with him, God will also be well pleased with you for his dear Son’s sake. But can a sinner ever be pleasing to God? Not in himself, apart from Christ, but all who are in Christ are “accepted in the Beloved.” His Father is so pleased with him that all whom he represents are pleasing unto God for his sake. “But,” asks one, “how can I be in Christ?” My dear friend, if you are one of the Lord’s chosen, you are already in Christ in God’s eternal purpose; but the way in which you must experimentally get into Christ is by true faith in him. To trust in Jesus is to be in Jesus. To rely upon the atoning sacrifice of Christ is to be one with Christ. Faith is the uniting bond which binds together the Christ in whom we believe and those who believe in him. If you are truly trusting in Christ, God looks upon you as a part of Christ’s mystical body, and he is well pleased with you for Christ’s sake.

Thus, then, you have the Son suffering for you, the Spirit applying to you the merit of his atoning sacrifice, and the Father well pleased with you because you are trusting in his beloved Son. Or, to put the truth in another form, the Father gives the great gospel feast, the Son is the feast, and the Spirit not only brings the invitations, but he also gathers the guests around the table. Or, to use another metaphor, God the Father is the fountain of grace, God the Son is the channel of grace, and God the Holy Spirit is the cup from which we drink of the flowing stream. I wish that I could really make you see Jesus Christ standing by Jordan’s brink as he came up out of the water after he had been baptized by John, and the Spirit of God descending, and lighting upon him, and that I could make you hear the voice of the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” If I could do this, all I should have to add would be John’s message, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” There is eternal life for every one who truly looks unto him by faith.

“There is life for a look at the Crucified One,

There is life at this moment for thee;

Then look, sinner, look unto him, and be saved,

Unto him who was nail’d to the tree.”

In beginning my sermon, I told you that the second lesson I wanted you to learn to-night would be more suitable to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, though at the same time it may also be useful to the unconverted, just as I hope the first lesson has been helpful to the people of God though specially intended for those who are not yet avowedly on the Lord’s side. This second lesson, upon which I have now to speak, relates to the descent of the Spirit upon believers, but I should not have dared to take the text without also calling your attention to the first lesson upon which I have already spoken.

I want you clearly to understand that, as the Holy Spirit rested upon Christ, so he rests upon all who are in Christ; indeed, when the Spirit rested upon Christ, he rested upon the whole Church that was represented by Christ. You remember that David says the unity of brethren is “like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments.” So the anointing that Christ received from the Holy Spirit ran down to the very lowest, and least, and last of the members of that Church of which he is the Head.

When the Holy Spirit descended from heaven like a dove, and lighted upon Christ, that descent was intended to teach us several lessons which we will now try to learn. Consider, first, the swiftness of that descent. The heavens were opened, there was no delay, but swiftly as a flash of lightning the Spirit descended, and lighted upon Christ. Beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, do you feel dull and heavy to-night? Are you depressed in spirit? There is no reason why, within the next second, you should not be in quite a heavenly frame of mind, for the Spirit of God can descend upon you like a dove, and straightway you shall be lifted up out of your dulness and despondency. The Spirit needs no time in which to work. The motions of matter are necessarily tardy; matter can only move at a certain rate, and there are many things that retard it. But, as you know, the motion of mind is far more rapid; your thoughts can fly to America, and back again, more swiftly than I can describe their flight. In a flash, your mind can be soaring away up among the stars millions and millions and millions of miles away. Now, the mind of the Spirit is the highest order of mind, for he is divine, and therefore his motions are swift as the light; nay, they are incomparably swifter than that. He descended like a dove in order to set forth the rapidity of his flight. You remember that expression in the Song of Solomon, “Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Ammi-nadib.” So is it when the Spirit comes to us, our soul is as if it were borne along in a swiftly-driven chariot. It does not take the Holy Spirit an hour to convert a soul. The vital spark that regenerates a soul is kindled in an instant. Instantaneous conversion is not the exception, it is the rule; there cannot be any conversion but that which is instantaneous. The after-growth, the development of the work of grace in the heart and life is gradual, but there is a moment in which the soul passes from death unto life, from slavery to liberty, from sin to righteousness. And I have already said to you, Christian friends, that you can in a moment be transported out of a dull, languishing state of heart into one of holy peace and joy. Breathe the prayer,-

“Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,

With all thy quickening powers,

Come, shed abroad a Saviour’s love,

And that shall kindle ours;”-

and there is no reason why he should not grant your request even before you have finished your petition.

The figure of a dove also represents softness as well as swiftness. Rapidity generally causes some measure of sound; we usually associate hurry with noise, but it is not so with the Spirit of God. He descended with silent wings, and alighted upon Christ as he came up out of the river where he had been baptized. If it had been recorded that the Spirit descended like an eagle, we should have thought of the whirring of great wings; but the dove’s flight is of a far gentler and quieter order. So, beloved, the Spirit of God may come down upon some of us in this house to-night, yet no one may be aware of his coming except those upon whom he rests as he rested that day upon Christ. Your neighbour may not perceive what has happened to you; there need be no outcry, no shouting, no violent contortions as there have been in certain revivals of which we have heard. No; the blessed Spirit frequently works invisibly, as the wind bloweth where it listeth, and sometimes bloweth so softly that we are not conscious of the slightest sound from the gentle zephyrs that fan our cheeks. I pray that, in the solemn silence of the mind, many of you may thus experience the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove, so swift yet so soft, so gentle yet so strong.

Besides this, wherever the Spirit comes, he works according to his own holy nature. He comes like a dove, and he operates in a dovelike manner; and if he graciously operates upon you, you also will have dovelike qualities given to you. What are they? Well, I think that the first thought we associate with a dove is that of purity. You remember that the spouse in the Song of Solomon says of her Beloved, “His eyes are as the eyes of doves;” and the Bridegroom says to his spouse, “Thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes;” that is, eyes of purity, bright sparkling eyes that care not to look upon that which is unclean. The dove is no carrion-loving bird, and you will recollect that it was the only bird that was offered to God in sacrifice under the old dispensation. Perhaps someone says, “Oh, but it was written in the law, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons!” Yes, it was so written; but then I remind you that a pigeon is only one member of the great dove family, and that it was only amongst the doves, of all feathered creatures, that there was found a bird that was clean enough to be offered unto God as a sacrifice. So the selection of a dove as the emblem of the Holy Spirit is very suggestive, for, wherever he comes, he breeds purity. If a man shall live a life of uncleanness, and hatred, and malice, and then say that he has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, he lies, for the Spirit makes us first pure, and then peaceable. Unless thou, my dear hearer, hast shaken off from thee the love of all that is evil, and hast resolved, in God’s strength, to live as becometh the gospel of Christ, thou provest that thou hast not experienced the dove-like influence of the Holy Spirit. In my early days in the country, I was horribly shocked when I heard of a man standing on a public-house table, and saying, though at the time he was almost drunk, “I can say what none of you fellows can say, that I am one of God’s elect.” All of us who knew anything of the man used to shudder at the thought of his blasphemy in pretending to be one of the elect. Why, if the grace of God does not make a man holy, what is it worth? My dear friend, if you are determined to be damned, leave religion alone altogether; but do not pretend to be a child of God, and yet live in sin. To profess to be an heir of heaven, and then to live as an heir of hell, is such detestable hypocrisy that I pray God that all of you may be preserved from ever falling into it. Where the Spirit of God dwells, there is sure to be purity.

And next to purity comes peace. The dove with the olive leaf in its mouth was the token of peace to Noah and those who were with him in the ark, and the dove has long been used as a symbol of peace. If the Spirit of God, like a dove, shall dwell with you, my dear friend, you will have peace in your own conscience, peace with your fellow-men, peace with God; as Paul puts it, in writing to the Philippians, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.” Those worrying, distracting thoughts of yours do not come from the Holy Spirit. Those carking cares, those disquieting anxieties are not the Spirit’s work. Where the Spirit, like a dove, dwells in a believer’s heart, that ancient assurance is fulfilled, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” May you enjoy this perfect peace through the coming of the Spirit to you!

The dove is, next, the picture of gentleness. You do not expect to see doves fighting like vultures or ravens. I suppose doves do quarrel sometimes; but, as a rule, their gentle and amiable nature makes them harmless and lovable. So, Christians should be the most gentle of all men. We are to be willing to be smitten upon one cheek, and then to turn the other to the smiter. I know some professing Christians who, as soon as ever a contrary word is spoken to them, boil over with rage. Well, it is not their Christianity that makes such a display as that, and it is a poor excuse to say that it is their infirmity. “Oh!” says one, “but if you tread on a worm, it will turn.” Yes, the poor little creature turns in its agony, but is a worm to be a model for your conduct? Surely it would be better to ask the Holy Spirit to give you the grace to take the Lord Jesus Christ as your example. Have you never heard of the Christian man who killed his neighbour by kindness? When his oxen got into his neighbour’s field, the cross-grained man put them into the pound, and said that, if they came astray again he would deal with them in the same way. By-and-by, his own oxen wandered into his neighbour’s field, and then the Christian man fed them, and sent word that, if they came there again, he would treat them in the same way. That is the style in which we should endeavour to act towards any who treat us unkindly; by heaping coals of fire upon their heads we may in time burn love into their hearts.

I am afraid that all professing Christians are not as gentle as they should be, though gentleness is one of the prominent characteristics of true Christians. I am not a Quaker, but I must say that, in this particular quality of gentleness, the Society of Friends has set a good example to the whole Christian Church. I wish that the spirit of non-resistance was more generally prevalent among Christians than it often is. It is certainly in accordance with both the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” These words of the apostle Peter follow immediately after his declaration that “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” Where the dove-like Spirit dwells, there will be a gentleness of spirit in harmony with his own nature. I am charmed with the change that is often apparent in the converts who come to join this church. When I hear of a man who, before his conversion, used to rage and rave in such a way as to be a terror to his family, yet who now, though he is at times greatly provoked, just walks away, and says nothing, I feel that the grace of God is really working in his heart. If what you call grace does not change your evil tempers, you had better exchange it for the true grace of God which will do so; for, surely, it is one of the first evidences that the Spirit of God is dwelling within a man when it makes him “gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.”

A dove is also one of the most harmless of all God’s creatures, and a Christian must never intentionally hurt or harm others. Our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to suffer, but he did not make others suffer; and he would not have us seek to propagate his truth in a bitter spirit. If you are dealing with an infidel, let him see that, however strongly you disapprove of his principles, you endeavour to win him away from them, not by unkindness, but by love. I doubt if anybody is ever bullied into accepting the gospel. Certainly, more flies are caught with honey than with vinegar, and more sinners are brought to Christ by kindness than by unkindness. Never let anyone be able truthfully to say of you, “There is a professed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ who has done me most serious injury;” but rather let it be said concerning you, “There goes a man whom I grossly injured, yet he bore it patiently, and said nothing against me because he was a Christian,”

You know too that, in Scripture, the dove is spoken of as a type of love. When the turtledove has lost its mate, everybody knows how it will sit, and moan, and mourn. “The voice of the turtle is heard in our land” is the Scriptural description of a spiritual springtime, the season of love and joy. If the dove-like Spirit has come into thy heart, my friend, thy soul will be full of love to Jesus; but if thou art not conscious of his presence, thou wilt mourn like the bereaved dove, and wilt dolefully sing,-

“I cannot bear thine absence, Lord;

I cannot live without thy smile.”

If I cannot rejoice in Christ, the next best thing is to weep because I cannot enjoy sweet fellowship with him. If I cannot rest in Christ, it is a good thing if I cannot rest anywhere else. Ah, soul! if thou hast the Spirit of God within thee, thou wilt pine, and sigh, and cry until Christ is very near and very dear to thee; but when he is both near and dear to thee, then thy soul will be like a vessel that is filled to the brim, yet still remaining under the running stream, and thou wilt overflow with love and gratitude to thy dear Lord who hath done such great things for thee.

Time flies, so I must close with just one more thought. You remember that, when this world was created, “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Everything was in a state of chaos and confusion, there was neither life nor order; but when the Spirit of God spread his great wings over the face of the deep, and brooded, like a bird upon its nest, it was not long before the voice of God was heard; and soon, disorder gave place to order, darkness to light, and death to life. The Holy Spirit comes into our heart now to work the same kind of change as that. He finds our soul in a state of chaos, formless, empty, dark; but when he mysteriously spreads his dove-like wings over our soul, life, and light, and order soon appear. We then begin to see what we never saw before. We put God into his right place, and we realize how great he is; and we put ourselves into our right place, and we realize what nothings we are. We put the law into its right place, and recognize how terribly stern it is; and we put sin into its right place, and we quail before its terrible power. When the Spirit of God broods over us, one of the first signs of the new life appearing in our soul is the penitent cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Those sorrow-filled eyes, those swiftly-falling tears, that broken-hearted sigh,-all these are the result of the brooding of the Spirit of God upon our disordered nature. And when at last you can truthfully say,-

“I rest my soul on Jesus,

This weary soul of mine;

His right hand me embraces,

I on his breast recline;”-

that also is the result of the brooding of the Spirit. He has quickened you, he has given you life, for only a living soul can truly say, “I do believe in Jesus.” That is a sure sign of the new creation; it is a certain proof that Christ has made all things new in you by the effectual working of his ever-blessed Spirit. To any here who have never realized the dove-like energy of the Holy Spirit, I commend the prayer Charles Wesley wrote,-

“Expand thy wings, celestial Dove,

Brood o’er our nature’s night;

On our disorder’d spirits move,

And let there now be light.”

Dr. Watts gives us another prayer in which Christians can heartily unite,-

“Descend from heaven, immortal Dove,

Stoop down and take us on thy wings,

And mount and bear us far above

The reach of these inferior things!

“Beyond, beyond this lower sky,

Up where eternal ages roll,

Where solid pleasures never die,

And fruits immortal feast the soul!

“Oh for a sight, a pleasing sight,

Of our almighty Father’s throne!

There sits our Saviour crown’d with light,

Clothed in a body like our own.

“When shall the day, dear Lord, appear,

That I shall mount to dwell above,

And stand and bow amongst them there,

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

May the Lord bless every one of you, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ROMANS 6

Verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

If the sinfulness of man has really given an opportunity for the display of divine mercy, then the devil’s logic would be, “Let us commit more sin, that there may be more room for grace to work.” But Christians have learned their reasoning in another school, and to such diabolical arguments they answer in the words of the apostle:-

2. God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

The two terms are exactly opposite to one another. If, through grace, we are dead to sin, how can we live in it? If, sinners as we are, we come to Christ to be saved from sin, then it would be a complete misuse of language to talk of being saved from sin, yet still to continue in it. Besides, the apostle goes on to show that the ordinance, by which believers in Jesus are to be admitted into the visible Christian Church will not suffer them to continue in sin.

3, 4. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.*

You remember, my brethren and sisters in Christ, that hallowed hour when you went down into the liquid tomb, when, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you were immersed upon profession of your faith in Jesus Christ. By that solemn act you set forth your death to sin; and when you were raised again out of the opening element, you thereby made a profession of your faith in Christ’s resurrection; and, moreover, you did there and then, seeing that you had received the grace of God in truth, profess to rise unto newness of life. How could you, then, go back to sin? That would be to make your baptism a lie; indeed, you are all of you unbaptized unless you have been baptized into Christ’s death.

5, 6. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,† that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

God has driven the nails through the active powers of our sin; both hands and feet are fastened to the cross of Christ, and though the heart and the head may sometimes wander, yet our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin may be destroyed; and we are looking forward to that happy day when the old man shall be dead altogether, and we shall be made meet to enter into the inheritance of the saints in light. We believe that our old man will never die until we die, but we thank God that the death of our body will be also the death of the body of sin.

7. For he that is dead is freed from sin.

He can no longer live in it, for he is dead; and if we are really dead in Christ, we can no longer live in sin as we were wont to do.

8-11. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.‡

If Christ could die again, then believers might lose their spiritual life, and there might be such a thing as falling from grace; but while Jesus lives, no member of his mystical body can die. His own promise is, “Because I live ye shall live also.” He died unto sin once; we do the same. He lives no more to die; we also do the same. Highly privileged are they who are dead with Christ, and blessed is that ordinance in which we set forth our death and burial with him.

12, 13. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Your legs used to carry you to the theatre; compel them now to carry you to the house of God even though you are weary. Your eyes could look long enough upon wickedness; let not their lids fall when you are sitting to hear a sermon. Let all the members of your body which once served Satan now serve God. Consider that your whole body is a consecrated temple, and be not satisfied unless the whole of it is reserved for the great God himself.

14, 15. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?*

This is another of the Antinomian suggestions that were made in the apostle’s time, and that are still made now; and how does Paul answer it? Why, with this solemn adjuration:-

15-18. God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.†

Is not that a glorious sentence, “Being then made free from sin”? Yes, the fetters are all gone; we have put up our feet upon the block, and the chains have been knocked off; we have put our hands down, and the irons have been broken in pieces. Free from sin! ’Tis true that sin still tempts us, but it cannot prevail against us; it tries to put the bit in our mouth, and to ride us as once it did; but we no longer submit to its away. Sin is now an enemy to fret and worry us, but not a king to trample upon us, and rule over us.

19, 20. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

You disdained the silken bonds of piety; you said that you would never wear what you called the iron fetters of grace; you were “free from righteousness.” So, surely, now that you are the servants of righteousness, you should seek to be free from sin.

21-23. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.‡

HO! HO!

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, April 25th, 1912,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”-Isaiah 55:1.

There is a thirst which is peculiar to the believer. He can say, with David, “As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” Delightful thirst! Would God we had more of it! May we be longing and panting after our God in that sense until we shall be filled with his Spirit, and shall dwell in his presence to go no more out for ever!

But I wish now to speak of another kind of thirst to another class of thirsting ones, who thirst they scarcely know for what. They have a sense of unrest, of longing, of yearning, yet they have a very indistinct idea of what it is their souls are pining for. It may be that they will find out presently what it is their thirst requires. Better still, if mayhap, by God’s blessing, that thirst shall be quenched by their drinking that living water of which they are bidden freely to take.

I shall not detain you with a long preface, nor, indeed, with a long discourse. I will try to make each portion of my address brief, practical, and pointed. May the Holy Ghost make it effectual!

Learn from my text that God has made plenteous soul-provision; and that to every thirsty soul this provision is perfectly free and gratuitous.

In the first place, God has made an abundant soul-provision.

We read here of “water.” Water has been pronounced the simplest, purest, fittest drink for all persons of all ages and temperaments. Now, there is a thirst in man’s body which makes him require drink. He drinks, and that thirst is removed. There is a similar thirst in man’s spiritual nature. He wants something, and he feels uneasy until he gets it. The grace of God, which is proclaimed to us in Christ Jesus, is that which meets the longing of man. That is the spiritual water for man’s spiritual thirst. In the text, the word is put in the plural, “Come ye to the waters,” I suppose to show the abundance thereof, as though there were many rivers of it, so that none might fear that they should require more than was provided.

“Rivers of love and mercy here

In a rich ocean join;

Salvation in abundance flows,

Like floods of milk and wine.

“Great God, the treasures of thy love

Are everlasting mines;

Deep as our helpless miseries are,

And boundless as our sins.”

The mercy of God is not a little brook which can be almost drained up by a passing ox, but it is a vast river,-it is many rivers, rivers to swim in. “Ho, every one that thirsteth!” stand not back because ye think there is not enough, but come ye to the waters.

Or the word may be in the plural to signify variety. The soul wants many things. Viewing eternity, and God, and judgment, from different points of view, it needs manifold and multitudinous mercies. They are all provided, and the word “waters” indicates that many fresh springs of consolation are ready for those who thirst for all spiritual blessings as soon as the eye sees or the ear hears tell of them. You need not fear, if you want the pardon of sin, or the renewal of your nature, or guidance in perplexity, or comfort in distress, you need not fear but what you shall find it. “Come ye to the waters.” There is an infinite variety in the grace of God. He is called “the God of all grace.” All the grace that all the sinners that ever come to him can want, they shall find stored up in the gospel provisions of the covenant of grace. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” for God has provided for soul-needs in plentiful abundance and endless variety.

Now, are you thirsting? It surely is not the mere play of imagination, but the sober apprehension of a fact, that convinces me there are persons here who are thirsting in a spiritual sense. Methinks one of them says, “I thirst, I thirst to have my sins forgiven, and to be reconciled to God. I know that I have done wrong; for me to plead that I have been innocent would be to add a lie to all my other iniquities. I am sensible in my inmost heart that I have, both by omission and commission, transgressed the divine law. I deserve punishment, but I would that, by some means, I might be put into the divine favour; I cannot bear to think that God should be angry with me every day; once I laughed at this, but now I feel its meaning, and it is like an arrow sticking in my loins. Oh, that I could have my Maker to be my Friend! I cannot fight out the battle with him; he could crush me in a moment; I would, therefore, cast down the weapons of my rebellion, and be reconciled to him.” Come, then, thou thirsty one, come and have what thou wantest! Come and put thy trust in Jesus, and thy sin is forgiven, and thou art reconciled; for, far off as thou art, thou shalt be brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Dost thou know how? It is thus,-God must punish sin; thy sin has incurred penalty; but he exacted thy debt of thy Surety. He punished Jesus for thy sins which thou hast committed, if so be thou believest in Jesus as thy Substitute. He endured, that thou mightest never endure, the whole of the divine wrath. God can now, therefore, without marring his justice, reconcile to himself the offending sinner, be agreed with him, receive him into friendship, ay, receive him into sonship, and adopt him as his child. That troubled conscience of yours will soon have peace if you will but trust in the bleeding sacrifice of the Lamb of God for sinners slain. Put your hands upon his dear head, once crowned with thorns for thee, and thou shalt prove that God is thy Friend, and know that thy sin is forgiven. Ho, every one that thirsteth for pardon and for reconciliation, come ye to the waters, and have there your desire.

I think I hear another say, “I desire that selfsame blessing, but I want something more; I want to conquer the sin that dwelleth in me; I want to be pure and holy; I cannot bear to be in the future what I have been in the past; I feel the chains of habit that bind me; I want to snap them off. I would no longer be an example of vice; I want to be a pattern of everything that is lovely and of good repute; but I have struggled against sin, and it gets the mastery over me. I do for a time escape, but still I bear my fetters upon me, and am dragged back to my prison. I cannot be what I would; oh, that I could escape from the power of sin!” Ah, thou thirsty one, it is a blessed thing to desire as thou desirest; and let me tell thee that God will give thee the desire of thine heart, for Jesus died that he might deliver his people from the power of Satan. He came on purpose that he might destroy the power of sin in his people, and make them so free that they should not serve sin, but become a people zealous for good works. If thou wilt come to Jesus, and simply believe in him, that is, rely upon him, trust him, his grace will come and refine thee, implanting a new nature, taking away the heart of stone, and giving a heart of flesh, and thou shalt yet put thy foot upon the neck of all thy corruptions; thou shalt cast them out by little and by little, and thou shalt be made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Ho, every one that thirsteth for purity and virtue, and for victory over indwelling sin, let him come to the waters that flowed with the blood from Jesus’ side, and let him taste, and his thirst shall be appeased for ever.

In some persons this soul-thirst takes the shape of an anxious desire for perseverance and security. “I would like,” says one, “oh, how I would like to know myself saved, and so saved that I never can be lost! Would that I could get on the rock, and feel the steadfastness of my refuge, that I might be able to sing,-

“ ‘My name from the palms of his hands

Eternity will not erase;

Impressed on his heart it remains

In marks of indelible grace.’ ”

I recollect how I longed and panted after this, for no salvation ever seemed to me to be worth the having that would not last me to the end; no sign of grace within seemed worth the having, but a sign that could never be cut off. The dread “peradventure” haunted me lest the enterprise should be after all a failure, and the prospect of final deliverance should be defeated by some superior power of evil. I wanted the indwelling of eternal life, of that life incorruptible which liveth and abideth for ever. Now, such a life as this it is that we read of in the Bible. Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, “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.” You who want security, who wish to know that you are saved, and to rejoice in it, may well listen to these words: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” If you come to Christ for this blessed satisfaction, you shall have it. Give yourselves up to Christ, and you shall sing, in the words of our song,-

“I know that safe with him remains

Protected by his power,

What I’ve committed to his hands

Till the decisive hour.”

Yes, be your thirst for pardon, for reconciliation, for sanctification, for deliverance from sin, or for perseverance and safety, you shall have any and all of these in the waters which God has made to flow.

There are persons in the world, however, whose thirst takes another form. They have a thirst for knowledge. They want to know, to know infallibly. Through how many theories some people wade! There are minds so naturally inclined for cavil and controversy, for reasoning and reconsidering, that the more they study the more sceptical they grow. Ever learning, they never come to the knowledge of the truth. “Oh!” such a man seems to say, “if I could but get hold of something that was true, some fact, some certainty.” Well, sir, if thou thirstest for this, let thy soul be given up to a belief in Christ, and thou shalt soon find certainty. I believe that the religion of Jesus Christ is so certain a truth to that man who has believed it, that it is so verified to his inner consciousness, and so interweaves itself with his entire being, that no proposition of Euclid could ever be more demonstrable, or more absolutely conclusive. We have known and believed the revelation that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. We have tasted, and felt, and handled the good Word of life. I know, and many here know, that since we have believed in Jesus we have come to live in an entirely new world. We have broken through the veil that parted us from a kingdom of which we knew nothing, and we have been brought into this new kingdom, and live in it, and are as conscious of new sensations, and new emotions, and new sorrows, and new joys as we are conscious of the old sensations which we possessed aforetime. It is true, sirs, certainly true. Have not our martyrs stood at the stake and burnt for this truth? That is a stern truth for which a man will dare to burn. Twisted as their nerves and muscles were upon the rack, and their very hearts searched after with hot claws of fire by their tormentors, yet have they learned to sing in the midst of anguish, to tell of present enjoyment, and to triumph in the absolute truth of the doctrine whereof they were the witnesses. If you want to get your foot upon a bit of rock, to feel your footing, and express your conviction, “Now, this is true whatever else is not,” you must believe in Jesus Christ. Then you will be no more shifted about like an unguided vessel, by every wind and every current, but you will be sailing with the heavenly Pilot on board, directing you to the haven of everlasting peace.

But there are those whose thirst is that of the heart. It is not so much something to believe, as something to love which they want. Well, my dear friend, if you would have something worthy of your affection, a Person whom you may love to the fullest possible extent, and never be deceived, whom you may adore and never become an idolater, let me say to you,-Come ye to the waters, and drink of the love of Christ, for they that love him much may love him more, they cannot love him too much. He never disappoints any confidence that is reposed in him. His dear, sweet love which he poureth into the souls of those who love him is a recompence for any sorrows they may have endured for his sake, a recompence that makes them forget their wrongs and woes in the exceeding weight of glory which it entails.

Oh! did ye but know my Master, ye would find out that to know him is to love him. All things else in this world are insignificant in comparison with him. As a candle is not to be compared to the sun at noonday, so the joys of this world are not worthy to be mentioned in the same century as the joys of communion with Christ. Get this, and you shall have overflowing joy; you shall be satisfied with marrow and fatness, and drink of the wines on the lees well-refined.

But time would fail me if I were to try to mention all the different forms of soul-thirst. Whatever they may be, God has provided a supply for them all. Sinner, you cannot want anything which God cannot give you; your soul cannot crave for anything but he can bestow it; you cannot be so soul-sick but he has a medicine that will heal you; you cannot be so naked but he can clothe you, nor so black but he can wash you, nor so devilish but he can sanctify you, nor so near being damned but he can save you. Christ is All-in-all. If you are just now ready to die, if you have brought yourself down to the gates of the grave by your sin, if you are suffering in the body the results of your iniquities, if your own conscience has pronounced on you the dread sentence of doom,-know this, my Master’s arm is strong, and long as well as strong; he is able to reach the worst, the vilest, and the most abandoned; and when he once reaches them, he will never let go of them till he has taken them out of the miry clay, and out of the horrible pit, and set their feet upon a rock, and established their goings. I wish I had an angel’s tongue, or could sound a trumpet that would be heard right round this world. How loudly then would I proclaim the glad tidings that God has in store for needy ones everything they want. No sinner need die of famine, for there is no famine in this land of grace. No traveller through this world needs to die of thirst, for the well is deep, and it eternally springs up. No sinner needs to starve, for the oxen and fatlings are killed, and the gospel message is, “Come, for all things are ready.” God grant that, knowing how bountifully all these things are provided, we may none of us keep back, turn a deaf ear to the general call, refuse the special invitation, slight the grace, or scorn the gospel!

Observe, secondly, that the gospel provisions are free to all thirsty souls.

Do you notice the first word of the text? “Ho!” That is like the cry of the salesman at a fair. He calls out to passers by, “Ho! look! listen! turn hither! Here is a bargain; something worth your attention!” So God condescends, as it were, to cry out to those who are busy with this world’s cares, its business and its barter, its buying and selling, “Ho! ho! ho! here is something worth your minding, ye that would be rich at little cost, ye that are in want, ye that are in need, ye that would find something that shall exactly meet your case.” Ho!-this is the gospel note; a short, significant appeal, urging you to be wise enough to attend to your own interests. Oh, the condescension of God! that he should, as it were, become a beggar to his own creature, and stoop from the magnificence of his glory to cry, “Ho!” to foolish and, ungrateful men!

Notice the next words, “Ho! every one;”-not some of you that thirst, but every one,-you rich ones, you poor ones, you great men, you little men, you old people, you young folk: “Ho! every one that thirsteth.” Now, it does not say, “Every one except-except-except-.” No, no; here is an amnesty published without exception or exemption. Here is an invitation given to every longing, thirsting one, and not a single name struck out: “Ho! every one that thirsteth.”

And then it is added “come.” Not “make yourselves ready,” not “bring your money,” or “prove your title,” but “come!” Come just as you are. The coming is believing, trusting. Believe, trust, then, while you are as you are; rely upon Christ; “come ye to the waters;” come now. Read the invitation for yourselves; it is written in the present tense. Obey the summons; come, come at once. What though you have no money, you may come and take a drink, for it is freely provided for you. As I walked over a long sandy road one day last week, when the weather was sultry, and the heat, far beyond our common experience in this country, was almost tropical, I saw a little stream of cool water, and being parched with thirst, I stooped down and drank. Do you think I asked anybody’s leave, or enquired whether I might drink or not? I didn’t know to whom it belonged, and I didn’t care. There it was, and I felt that, as it was there, it was enough for me. Nobody was there to call out “Ho!” My inward craving called out “Ho!” I was thirsty, and water was there inviting to my taste. I noticed, after I had drunk, that two poor tramps came along, and they stooped down, and drank in like manner. I didn’t find anybody marching them off to prison. There was the stream; and the stream being there, and the thirsty men being there, the supply was suited to their need, and they promptly partook of it. How strange it is that, when God has provided the gospel, and men need it, they should require somebody to call out to them, “Ho! ho! ho!” and then they will not come after all. Oh! if they were a little more thirsty, if they did but know their need more, if they were more convinced of their sin, then they would scarcely want an invitation, but the mere fact of a supply would be sufficient for them, and they would come and drink, and satisfy the burning thirst within.

Now, although the gospel provision is free to all thirsty souls, there are many who cannot believe this. Some cannot believe it because they stumble at the doctrines. What doctrine affrights thee, dear friend? Is it the doctrine of election? Well now, I believe the doctrine of election, and I thank God that I do. It is a precious doctrine; and let me tell you, dear friend, that the doctrine of election shuts nobody out, though it shuts a great many in. “But I may not come and trust Christ.” How do you know that? God says you may; in fact, he says, “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed,” thus making it a sin not to believe; so you really have such a right to believe that it becomes even your duty. Whatever the doctrine of election may be, or may be meant to be, we will not talk of that just at present, for it is quite certain that it cannot contradict any plain practical direction of Scripture. Here is a plain text, which no one can gainsay, “He that believeth on him is not condemned.” If, then, you believe on Jesus Christ, you are not condemned, election or no election. But let me tell you, if you believe in Christ you are one of his elect, and it is because he elected you that you come to believe in him; it is because he chose you that you are led to desire him, and made to accept him. Let not that doctrine ever terrify you, or provoke your distrust; for if you rightly understand the revelation, it is rather a finger beckoning to Christ than a spectre that should intimidate you, or drive you away from him.

Then your spirit of legality will tell you that the gospel is not free to you. Why not? Oh! because you are not fit to receive it. This, I say, is a spirit of legality, and is clearly contrary to the gospel. There is no fitness wanted to receive Christ. You see men go to wash. What is the fitness for washing? Why, to be dirty, and that is no fitness. All the fitness a sinner can have for Christ is simply to need Christ. If you are empty, you are fit for Christ, and he will come and fill you. If you are poor, you are fit for Christ to make you rich. He that is sick is fit for a physician; he that is needy is fit for pity; he that is guilty is fit for mercy. I beseech you, get rid of that pestilent and soul-destroying idea of fitness for Christ. You cannot come to God as you are, but you may come to the Saviour as you are. All black and unwashed you may come and wash in the fountain which he has opened. Let nothing, then, by way of legality, make you think that the gospel provisions are not free to you.

But what if your unbelief should tell you that the provisions of grace are not for you because you have been such a great sinner? Did not Jesus come into the world to save the very greatest of sinners? He said, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” You may have soared as high as the mountains in your sin, but God’s flood, like that of Noah, can go over the tops of all your iniquities. Do not limit the Holy One of Israel by your unbelief. Believe him, and you shall be forgiven, even though you were worse than you are.

Ah, brethren! whatever the devil may say, and whatever your irritated conscience may say against the freeness of God’s mercy, I tell you solemnly it is as free to every thirsty one as the drinking fountain at the street corner; as free as the air that blows over the mountain and into the valleys; free to every lung that breathes. So free is the mercy of God. God stints not his mercy when men need it. Be they but thirsty, let them but long for it, and they shall have it. If there be any difficulty, it is on their part, not on God’s part. You are not straitened in him; you are straitened in yourselves. O guilty sinners, if ye find not mercy, it is not because God is unwilling to give, but because you will not trust him, because you will not think that he can save you. The prodigal never could have believed his father’s heart to be so kind as it was, had he not tried and proved it. Come and try my Master’s heart. I tell you that he will blot out your sins like a cloud, and your transgressions like a thick cloud. Only do rest on him, and you shall find him better than ever you dreamed him to be. As for my words, they cannot fully set him forth. May you be brought to try him, for then you will be sure to find that he is a mighty Saviour.

The provisions of grace must be free to thirsty ones, why else were they provided? Wherefore should there be a Saviour for sinners if God will not give salvation to sinners? Why those wounds, why that bloody sweat, why that thorn-crown, why those expiring throes, if God will not receive sinners? The dying Saviour is the best answer to the cavillings of unbelievers. He must be willing to forgive who spared not his own Son. If the gospel were not free to thirsty ones, wherefore is it published? If it were not meant for you, why are we bidden to tell it you, and to continue sounding it in your ears? If it were meant for a few in a corner, why publish it in the streets? Why gather the crowds together, as we are bound to do, and find out those in the highways and hedges, with a mandate to compel them to come in? Why do all this if God intends to bar the door in their faces? The very fact that the gospel is preached to the sinner is God’s love-token that he will accept you if you will come to him. Why is there a mercy-seat? Why are you allowed to pray, why are you bidden to pray, if God will not hear? This were a mockery of which you cannot accuse God, that he should encourage a sinner to pray with no intention of hearing him. Let me ask you again,-How is it that others have found God’s mercy so free when they have come and trusted Christ? Why is that multitude in heaven, all once as guilty as you are, but all having washed their robes in the precious blood of Jesus? Why those on earth who have found peace? They had naught to recommend them any more than you have. They will all tell you that they came just as they were, in all their rags and beggary, and Jesus did not reject them. No, glory be to his name, he received us freely. Come, then, fellow-sinners, come! May the eternal Spirit draw you now! Even now, “come ye to the waters.” Though you have no money and no price, and no goodness, come and rest in Jesus, and find everlasting life. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” That is my message. There is your welcome. Come; do come. So my errand will speed. So your souls will be blest. So God’s name will be glorified. Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ISAIAH 55

Verse 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.*

The description of gospel blessings grows sweeter as it advances. “Waters” first, “wine and milk” next, and still all “without money and without price.” We preach no narrow salvation: we rejoice in the covenant of grace; it is the backbone of our theology, but the gospel hath wide arms, and a loud voice, and persuasive tones: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” In Christ there is a full supply for all our necessities,-bread and water; yea, there are luxuries sufficient for our largest desires,-wine and milk; and he wants us to bring nothing in payment for them: “without money and without price.” That is indeed free grace. Some people object to that expression, and say that it is tautology, for grace must be free; but we mean to keep on using it that all may know that grace is free, gratis, all for nothing.

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

The less value there is in any religion, the more you have to pay for it. The pardon that costs a shilling is not worth a farthing, but that which costs us nothing is worth more than the whole world.

2. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.*

All that your largest desires can long for you will find in Christ. You shall have not only necessaries, but delicacies, delights that shall satisfy you to the full; you shall not be able to conceive of anything that shall be more rich and full than the grace of God. The gospel is “that which is good;” yea, it is the best food our souls can ever eat; it gratifies, it satisfies, and fills our spirits with holy joy and exhilaration.

3. Incline your ear, and come unto me;-†

This is the gate by which salvation enters into man,-Ear gate,-by hearing and believing. “Incline your ear,” bend it forward as if you would catch every word; “and come unto me;”-

3. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Only think of a covenant made with needy sinners, thirsty sinners; God striking hands with guilty men in the person of Jesus Christ. It is a sure covenant, too; not made up of “ifs” and “buts” and “peradventures”, but a covenant sealed with blood, and signed by him who gives an oath with it that he will never turn from it, that you may have “strong consolation.

4. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.‡

He who is our greater David comes to us to bear witness to the immutable love of God, and to be to us our Captain and our King. Happy are the souls that accept this David to be their Leader. You remember how David, in the cave Adullam, gathered to himself “every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, and he became a captain over them.” Even so, the great Antitype, David’s Son and David’s Lord, is willing now to gather to himself those who are spiritually bankrupt, discontented, and weary with the world, and God says, “I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.”

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

What joy this gives to you who love him! Jehovah has glorified his Son, and given to him the power to call to himself a people that he knew not in a saving sense, and he shall so call nations that knew not him that they shall run unto him. We do not preach the gospel at haphazard; we are sure of results. If we speak in faith, in the name of Christ, men must be saved, they must run to Christ. It is not left to their option; there is a divine hand that secretly touches the springs of the will of men, so that, when Christ calls them, they run unto him. Oh, that he would just now call them, even those that are furthest off, that they may run into him, and that he may be glorified! A Saviour without souls saved by him would be only a Saviour in name. A head without a body would be a very ghastly thing. A shepherd without sheep would be a man without occupation. A Christ anointed to save the lost, and yet no lost ones coming unto him, where would his glory be? But sinners, drawn by his almighty grace, run unto him, and so God glorifies him.

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

In these happy gospel times, when Christ is set forth on purpose that “he may be found,” seek him, call upon him. He is very near when the gospel is preached with holy unction, when Christians are praying, when hearts are breaking for the conversion of sinners, and when his Spirit is working in their hearts, that they may repent of sin.

7. Let the wicked forsake his way,-

It is a bad way, it is a downward way, it is a way that will end in destruction; do not follow it any longer: “Let the wicked forsake his way.”-

7. And the unrighteous man his thoughts:

“Thoughts!” says one, “we shall not be hanged for our thoughts.” Oh, but you may be damned for your thoughts! No man has really forsaken the way of wickedness until he hates the very thought of wickedness. If your thoughts run after evil, your tongues will soon utter evil, and your hands will soon do evil.

7. And let him return-

He is like one who has wandered from his father’s house: “let him return.” He is like the dove that flew away from Noah’s ark, and was ready to faint: “let him return”-

7. Unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.*

What a blessed word “abundantly” is here! Abundant pardon to cover abundant sin, abundant provocation, abundant rejection of his Word!

8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

“Saith the Lord,” as if he would not leave the prophet to speak any longer on his behalf; he himself appears upon the scene, and speaks: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts.”

No doubt he refers here to the pardon of sin. Our thoughts are narrow; we find it hard to forgive great offences, to forgive many offences, to forgive many offenders, to continue completely to forgive,-all this is very difficult to man.

9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Think of the biggest thought you ever had concerning God’s forgiveness of sins; try again, let your thoughts rise higher still; ye cannot have reached the utmost height yet, “for as the heavens are higher than the earth,” so are his thoughts and ways higher than yours.

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

If you believe this great promise, you shall have the full benefit of it. Let this gracious rain drop on you, and it must refresh you. Let these blessed snowflakes come down on you, and they shall melt into your bosom, and remain there to bless you for ever; they shall not go back to God with their mission unfulfilled. As for us who preach that Word, or teach it in the Sunday-school, we may have a full assurance that we shall not labour in vain, nor spend our strength for nought. No, no; the raindrops go not on an errand that can fail, and the snowflakes that fall to the earth accomplish the end for which they are sent. Much more shall the purpose of God’s Word be accomplished! Behold, it drops like the gentle rain; like snowflakes fly the messages of mercy from the lips of the Lord himself, and they shall not fall in vain, blessed be his holy name!

12. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

There shall seem to be joy everywhere when there is joy in your heart. When you receive Christ, you have put everything round about you into its true position. The whole creation is a vast organ, and man puts his tiny fingers on the keys, and evokes thunders of harmony to the praise of God. When the heart is filled with joy and peace, mountains and hills break forth before us into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands.

13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,

The thorn is everywhere to-day, pricking our feet and maiming our hands: but “instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree.”

Where is the thorn then? I see it upon the bleeding brows of Christ; he has taken it away, and worn it as a crown.

13. And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.*

It shall make men know what he is like, what gracious power he has, what goodness dwells in him: “it shall be to Jehovah for a name,”-

“An everlasting sign.” That sign is exhibited, to-day, in the eyes of men. An evil and adulterous generation called for a sign, and this is the sign that God has given,-his converting grace in his Church. Instead of miracles, we have the work of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of sinners; and if any will not believe when this sign is sent to them, neither would they believe though one rose from the dead. It stands as “an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”