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ALL of GRACE
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WHAT ARE WE AT?
I HEARD A STORY; I think it came from the North Country:
A minister called upon a poor woman, intending to give her help; for he knew that
she was very poor. With his money in his hand, he knocked at the door; but she did
not answer. He concluded she was not at home, and went his way. A little after he
met her at the church, and told her that he had remembered her need: "I called
at your house, and knocked several times, and I suppose you were not at home, for
I had no answer." "At what hour did you call, sir?" "It was about
noon." "Oh, dear," she said, "I heard you, sir, and I am so sorry
I did not answer; but I thought it was the man calling for the rent." Many a
poor woman knows what this meant. Now, it is my desire to be heard, and therefore
I want to say that I am not calling for the rent; indeed, it is not the object of
this book to ask anything of you, but to tell you that salvation is all of grace,
which means, free, gratis, for nothing.
Oftentimes, when we are anxious to win attention, our hearer thinks, "Ah! now
I am going to be told my duty. It is the man calling for that which is due to God,
and I am sure I have nothing wherewith to pay. I will not be at home." No, this
book does not come to make a demand upon you, but to bring you something. We are
not going to talk about law, and duty, and punishment, but about love, and goodness,
and forgiveness, and mercy, and eternal life. Do not, therefore, act as if you were
not at home: do not turn a deaf ear, or a careless heart. I am asking nothing of
you in the name of God or man. It is not my intent to make any requirement at your
hands; but I come in God's name, to bring you a free gift, which it shall be to your
present and eternal joy to receive. Open the door, and let my pleadings enter. "Come
now, and let us reason together." The Lord himself invites you to a conference
concerning your immediate and endless happiness, and He would not have done this
if He did not mean well toward you. Do not refuse the Lord Jesus who knocks at your
door; for He knocks with a hand which was nailed to the tree for such as you are.
Since His only and sole object is your good, incline your ear and come to Him. Hearken
diligently, and let the good word sink into your soul. It may be that the hour is
come in which you shall enter upon that new life which is the beginning of heaven.
Faith cometh by hearing, and reading is a sort of hearing: faith may come to you
while you are reading this book. Why not? O blessed Spirit of all grace, make it
so!
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CONTENTS.
God Justifieth The Ungodly
"It Is God That Justifieth"
Just and the Justifier
Concerning Deliverance
from Sinning
By Grace Through Faith
Faith, What Is It?
How May Faith Be Illustrated?
Why Are We Saved by Faith?
Alas! I Can Do Nothing!
The Increase of Faith
Regeneration and the Holy Spirit
"My Redeemer Liveth"
Repentance Must Go with Forgiveness
How Repentance Is Given
The Fear of Final Falling
Confirmation
Why Saints Persevere
Close
GOD JUSTIFIETH THE UNGODLY.
Back to Top
THIS MESSAGE is for you. You will find the text in the Epistle
to the Romans, in the fourth chapter and the fifth verse: To him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
I call your attention to those words, "Him that justifieth the ungodly."
They seem to me to be very wonderful words.
Are you not surprised that there should be such an expression as that in the Bible,
"That justifieth the ungodly?" I have heard that men that hate the doctrines
of the cross bring it as a charge against God, that He saves wicked men and receives
to Himself the vilest of the vile. See how this Scripture accepts the charge, and
plainly states it! By the mouth of His servant Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, He takes to Himself the title of "Him that justifieth the ungodly."
He makes those just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and
favors those who deserve no favor. You thought, did you not, that salvation was for
the good? that God's grace was for the pure and holy, who are free from sin? It has
fallen into your mind that, if you were excellent, then God would reward you; and
you have thought that because you are not worthy, therefore there could be no way
of your enjoying His favor. You must be somewhat surprised to read a text like this:
"Him that justifieth the ungodly." I do not wonder that you are surprised;
for with all my familiarity with the great grace of God, I never cease to wonder
at it. It does sound surprising, does it not, that it should be possible for a holy
God to justify an unholy man? We, according to the natural legality of our hearts,
are always talking about our own goodness and our own worthiness, and we stubbornly
hold to it that there must be somewhat in us in order to win the notice of God. Now,
God, who sees through all deceptions, knows that there is no goodness whatever in
us. He says that "there is none righteous, no not one." He knows that "all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and, therefore the Lord Jesus did not
come into the world to look after goodness and righteousness with him, and to bestow
them upon persons who have none of them. He comes, not because we are just, but to
make us so: he justifieth the ungodly.
When a counsellor comes into court, if he is an honest man, he desires to plead the
case of an innocent person and justify him before the court from the things which
are falsely laid to his charge. It should be the lawyer's object to justify the innocent
person, and he should not attempt to screen the guilty party. It lies not in man's
right nor in man's power truly to justify the guilty. This is a miracle reserved
for the Lord alone. God, the infinitely just Sovereign, knows that there is not a
just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, and therefore, in the infinite
sovereignty of His divine nature and in the splendor of His ineffable love, He undertakes
the task, not so much of justifying the just as of justifying the ungodly. God has
devised ways and means of making the ungodly man to stand justly accepted before
Him: He has set up a system by which with perfect justice He can treat the guilty
as if he had been all his life free from offence, yea, can treat him as if he were
wholly free from sin. He justifieth the ungodly.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is a very surprising thing--a
thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me
even to this day the greatest wonder that I ever heard of, that God should ever justify
me. I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap
of sin, apart from His almighty love. I know by a full assurance that I am justified
by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and treated as if I had been perfectly just, and
made an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ; and yet by nature I must take my
place among the most sinful. I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I
had been deserving. I am loved with as much love as if I had always been godly, whereas
aforetime I was ungodly. Who can help being astonished at this? Gratitude for such
favor stands dressed in robes of wonder.
Now, while this is very surprising, I want you to notice how available it makes the
gospel to you and to me. If God justifieth the ungodly, then, dear friend, He can
justify you. Is not that the very kind of person that you are? If you are unconverted
at this moment, it is a very proper description of you; you have lived without God,
you have been the reverse of godly; in one word, you have been and are ungodly. Perhaps
you have not even attended a place of worship on Sunday, but have lived in disregard
of God's day, and house, and Word--this proves you to have been ungodly. Sadder still,
it may be you have even tried to doubt God's existence, and have gone the length
of saying that you did so. You have lived on this fair earth, which is full of the
tokens of God's presence, and all the while you have shut your eyes to the clear
evidences of His power and Godhead. You have lived as if there were no God. Indeed,
you would have been very pleased if you could have demonstrated to yourself to a
certainty that there was no God whatever. Possibly you have lived a great many years
in this way, so that you are now pretty well settled in your ways, and yet God is
not in any of them. If you were labeled
UNGODLY
it would as well describe you as if the sea were to be labeled salt water. Would
it not?
Possibly you are a person of another sort; you have regularly attended to all the
outward forms of religion, and yet you have had no heart in them at all, but have
been really ungodly. Though meeting with the people of God, you have never met with
God for yourself; you have been in the choir, and yet have not praised the Lord with
your heart. You have lived without any love to God in your heart, or regard to his
commands in your life. Well, you are just the kind of man to whom this gospel is
sent--this gospel which says that God justifieth the ungodly. It is very wonderful,
but it is happily available for you. It just suits you. Does it not? How I wish that
you would accept it! If you are a sensible man, you will see the remarkable grace
of God in providing for such as you are, and you will say to yourself, "Justify
the ungodly! Why, then, should not I be justified, and justified at once?"
Now, observe further, that it must be so--that the salvation of God is for those
who do not deserve it, and have no preparation for it. It is reasonable that the
statement should be put in the Bible; for, dear friend, no others need justifying
but those who have no justification of their own. If any of my readers are perfectly
righteous, they want no justifying. You feel that you are doing your duty well, and
almost putting heaven under an obligation to you. What do you want with a Saviour,
or with mercy? What do you want with justification? You will be tired of my book
by this time, for it will have no interest to you.
If any of you are giving yourselves such proud airs, listen to me for a little while.
You will be lost, as sure as you are alive. You righteous men, whose righteousness
is all of your own working, are either deceivers or deceived; for the Scripture cannot
lie, and it saith plainly, "There is none righteous, no, not one." In any
case I have no gospel to preach to the self- righteous, no, not a word of it. Jesus
Christ himself came not to call the righteous, and I am not going to do what He did
not do. If I called you, you would not come, and, therefore, I will not call you,
under that character. No, I bid you rather look at that righteousness of yours till
you see what a delusion it is. It is not half so substantial as a cobweb. Have done
with it! Flee from it! Oh believe that the only persons that can need justification
are those who are not in themselves just! They need that something should be done
for them to make them just before the judgment seat of God. Depend upon it, the Lord
only does that which is needful. Infinite wisdom never attempts that which is unnecessary.
Jesus never undertakes that which is superfluous. To make him just who is just is
no work for God--that were a labor for a fool; but to make him just who is unjust--that
is work for infinite love and mercy. To justify the ungodly--this is a miracle worthy
of a God. And for certain it is so.
Now, look. If there be anywhere in the world a physician who has discovered sure
and precious remedies, to whom is that physician sent? To those who are perfectly
healthy? I think not. Put him down in a district where there are no sick persons,
and he feels that he is not in his place. There is nothing for him to do. "The
whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick." Is it not equally
clear that the great remedies of grace and redemption are for the sick in soul? They
cannot be for the whole, for they cannot be of use to such. If you, dear friend,
feel that you are spiritually sick, the Physician has come into the world for you.
If you are altogether undone by reason of your sin, you are the very person aimed
at in the plan of salvation. I say that the Lord of love had just such as you are
in His eye when He arranged the system of grace. Suppose a man of generous spirit
were to resolve to forgive all those who were indebted to him; it is clear that this
can only apply to those really in his debt. One person owes him a thousand pounds;
another owes him fifty pounds; each one has but to have his bill receipted, and the
liability is wiped out. But the most generous person cannot forgive the debts of
those who do not owe him anything. It is out of the power of Omnipotence to forgive
where there is no sin. Pardon, therefore, cannot be for you who have no sin. Pardon
must be for the guilty. Forgiveness must be for the sinful. It were absurd to talk
of forgiving those who do not need forgiveness-- pardoning those who have never offended.
Do you think that you must be lost because you are a sinner? This is the reason why
you can be saved. Because you own yourself to be a sinner I would encourage you to
believe that grace is ordained for such as you are. One of our hymn-writers even
dared to say:
A sinner is a sacred thing;
The Holy Ghost hath made him so.
It is truly so, that Jesus seeks and saves that which is lost. He died and made a
real atonement for real sinners. When men are not playing with words, or calling
themselves "miserable sinners," out of mere compliment, I feel overjoyed
to meet with them. I would be glad to talk all night to bona fide sinners. The inn
of mercy never closes its doors upon such, neither weekdays nor Sunday. Our Lord
Jesus did not die for imaginary sins, but His heart's blood was spilt to wash out
deep crimson stains, which nothing else can remove.
He that is a black sinner--he is the kind of man that Jesus Christ came to make white.
A gospel preacher on one occasion preached a sermon from, "Now also the axe
is laid to the root of the trees," and he delivered such a sermon that one of
his hearers said to him, "One would have thought that you had been preaching
to criminals. Your sermon ought to have been delivered in the county jail."
"Oh, no," said the good man, "if I were preaching in the county jail,
I should not preach from that text, there I should preach 'This is a faithful saying,
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.'"
Just so. The law is for the self-righteous, to humble their pride: the gospel is
for the lost, to remove their despair.
If you are not lost, what do you want with a Saviour? Should the shepherd go after
those who never went astray? Why should the woman sweep her house for the bits of
money that were never out of her purse? No, the medicine is for the diseased; the
quickening is for the dead; the pardon is for the guilty; liberation is for those
who are bound: the opening of eyes is for those who are blind. How can the Saviour,
and His death upon the cross, and the gospel of pardon, be accounted for, unless
it be upon the supposition that men are guilty and worthy of condemnation? The sinner
is the gospel's reason for existence. You, my friend, to whom this word now comes,
if you are undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, you are the sort of man for
whom the gospel is ordained, and arranged, and proclaimed. God justifieth the ungodly.
I would like to make this very plain. I hope that I have done so already; but still,
plain as it is, it is only the Lord that can make a man see it. It does at first
seem most amazing to an awakened man that salvation should really be for him as a
lost and guilty one. He thinks that it must be for him as a penitent man, forgetting
that his penitence is a part of his salvation. "Oh," says he, "but
I must be this and that,"--all of which is true, for he shall be this and that
as the result of salvation; but salvation comes to him before he has any of the results
of salvation. It comes to him, in fact, while he deserves only this bare, beggarly,
base, abominable description, "ungodly." That is all he is when God's gospel
comes to justify him.
May I, therefore, urge upon any who have no good thing about them--who fear that
they have not even a good feeling, or anything whatever that can recommend them to
God--that they will firmly believe that our gracious God is able and willing to take
them without anything to recommend them, and to forgive them spontaneously, not because
they are good, but because He is good. Does He not make His sun to shine on the evil
as well as on the good? Does He not give fruitful seasons, and send the rain and
the sunshine in their time upon the most ungodly nations? Ay, even Sodom had its
sun, and Gomorrah had its dew. Oh friend, the great grace of God surpasses my conception
and your conception, and I would have you think worthily of it! As high as the heavens
are above the earth; so high are God's thoughts above our thoughts. He can abundantly
pardon. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners: forgiveness is for the
guilty.
Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really
are; but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. A great artist some short
time ago had painted a part of the corporation of the city in which he lived, and
he wanted, for historic purposes, to include in his picture certain characters well
known in the town. A crossing-sweeper, unkempt, ragged, filthy, was known to everybody,
and there was a suitable place for him in the picture. The artist said to this ragged
and rugged individual, "I will pay you well if you will come down to my studio
and let me take your likeness." He came round in the morning, but he was soon
sent about his business; for he had washed his face, and combed his hair, and donned
a respectable suit of clothes. He was needed as a beggar, and was not invited in
any other capacity. Even so, the gospel will receive you into its halls if you come
as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at once for salvation.
God justifieth the ungodly, and that takes you up where you now are: it meets you
in your worst estate.
Come in your deshabille. I mean, come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and
sinfulness. Come to Jesus just as you are, leprous, filthy, naked, neither fit to
live nor fit to die. Come, you that are the very sweepings of creation; come, though
you hardly dare to hope for anything but death. Come, though despair is brooding
over you, pressing upon your bosom like a horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord
to justify another ungodly one. Why should He not? Come for this great mercy of God
is meant for such as you are. I put it in the language of the text, and I cannot
put it more strongly: the Lord God Himself takes to Himself this gracious title,
"Him that justifieth the ungodly." He makes just, and causes to be treated
as just, those who by nature are ungodly. Is not that a wonderful word for you? Reader,
do not delay till you have well considered this matter.
"IT IS GOD THAT JUSTIFIETH."
Romans 8:33
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A WONDERFUL THING it is, this being justified, or made just. If
we had never broken the laws of God we should not have needed it, for we should have
been just in ourselves. He who has all his life done the things which he ought to
have done, and has never done anything which he ought not to have done, is justified
by the law. But you, dear reader, are not of that sort, I am quite sure. You have
too much honesty to pretend to be without sin, and therefore you need to be justified.
Now, if you justify yourself, you will simply be a self- deceiver. Therefore do not
attempt it. It is never worth while. If you ask your fellow mortals to justify you,
what can they do? You can make some of them speak well of you for small favors, and
others will backbite you for less. Their judgment is not worth much.
Our text says, "It is God that justifieth," and this is a deal more to
the point. It is an astonishing fact, and one that we ought to consider with care.
Come and see.
In the first place, nobody else but God would ever have thought of justifying those
who are guilty. They have lived in open rebellion; they have done evil with both
hands; they have gone from bad to worse; they have turned back to sin even after
they have smarted for it, and have therefore for a while been forced to leave it.
They have broken the law, and trampled on the gospel. They have refused proclamations
of mercy, and have persisted in ungodliness. How can they be forgiven and justified?
Their fellowmen, despairing of them, say, "They are hopeless cases." Even
Christians look upon them with sorrow rather than with hope. But not so their God.
He, in the splendor of his electing grace having chosen some of them before the foundation
of the world, will not rest till He has justified them, and made them to be accepted
in the Beloved. Is it not written, "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called:
and whom he called them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified"?
Thus you see there are some whom the Lord resolves to justify: why should not you
and I be of the number?
None but God would ever have thought of justifying me. I am a wonder to myself. I
doubt not that grace is equally seen in others. Look at Saul of Tarsus, who foamed
at the mouth, against God's servants. Like a hungry wolf, he worried the lambs and
the sheep right and left; and yet God struck him down on the road to Damascus, and
changed his heart, and so fully justified him that ere long, this man became the
greatest preacher of justification by faith that ever lived. He must often have marveled
that he was justified by faith in Christ Jesus; for he was once a determined stickler
for salvation by the works of the law. None but God would have ever thought of justifying
such a man as Saul the persecutor; but the Lord God is glorious in grace.
But, even if anybody had thought of justifying the ungodly, none but God could have
done it. It is quite impossible for any person to forgive offences which have not
been committed against himself. A person has greatly injured you; you can forgive
him, and I hope you will; but no third person can forgive him apart from you. If
the wrong is done to you, the pardon must come from you. If we have sinned against
God, it is in God's power to forgive; for the sin is against Himself. That is why
David says, in the fifty-first Psalm: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in thy sight"; for then God, against whom the offence is
committed, can put the offence away. That which we owe to God, our great Creator
can remit, if so it pleases Him; and if He remits it, it is remitted. None but the
great God, against whom we have committed the sin, can blot out that sin; let us,
therefore, see that we go to Him and seek mercy at His hands. Do not let us be led
aside by those who would have us confess to them; they have no warrant in the Word
of God for their pretensions. But even if they were ordained to pronounce absolution
in God's name, it must still be better to go ourselves to the great Lord through
Jesus Christ, the Mediator, and seek and find pardon at His hand; since we are sure
that this is the right way. Proxy religion involves too great a risk: you had better
see to your soul's matters yourself, and leave them in no man's hands.
Only God can justify the ungodly; but He can do it to perfection. He casts our sins
behind His back, He blots them out; He says that though they be sought for, they
shall not be found. With no other reason for it but His own infinite goodness, He
has prepared a glorious way by which He can make scarlet sins as white as snow, and
remove our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west. He says, "I
will not remember your sins." He goes the length of making an end of sin. One
of old called out in amazement, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth
iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth
not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18 ).
We are not now speaking of justice, nor of God's dealing with men according to their
deserts. If you profess to deal with the righteous Lord on law terms, everlasting
wrath threatens you, for that is what you deserve. Blessed be His name, He has not
dealt with us after our sins; but now He treats with us on terms of free grace and
infinite compassion, and He says, "I will receive you graciously, and love you
freely." Believe it, for it is certainly true that the great God is able to
treat the guilty with abundant mercy; yea, He is able to treat the ungodly as if
they had been always godly. Read carefully the parable of the prodigal son, and see
how the forgiving father received the returning wanderer with as much love as if
he had never gone away, and had never defiled himself with harlots. So far did he
carry this that the elder brother began to grumble at it; but the father never withdrew
his love. Oh my brother, however guilty you may be, if you will only come back to
your God and Father, He will treat you as if you had never done wrong! He will regard
you as just, and deal with you accordingly. What say you to this?
Do you not see--for I want to bring this out clearly, what a splendid thing it is--that
as none but God would think of justifying the ungodly, and none but God could do
it, yet the Lord can do it? See how the apostle puts the challenge, "Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." If God
has justified a man it is well done, it is rightly done, it is justly done, it is
everlastingly done. I read a statement in a magazine which is full of venom against
the gospel and those who preach it, that we hold some kind of theory by which we
imagine that sin can be removed from men. We hold no theory, we publish a fact. The
grandest fact under heaven is this- -that Christ by His precious blood does actually
put away sin, and that God, for Christ's sake, dealing with men on terms of divine
mercy, forgives the guilty and justifies them, not according to anything that He
sees in them, or foresees will be in them, but according to the riches of His mercy
which lie in His own heart. This we have preached, do preach, and will preach as
long as we live. "It is God that justifieth"--that justifieth the ungodly;
He is not ashamed of doing it, nor are we of preaching it.
The justification which comes from God himself must be beyond question. If the Judge
acquits me, who can condemn me? If the highest court in the universe has pronounced
me just, who shall lay anything to my charge? Justification from God is a sufficient
answer to an awakened conscience. The Holy Spirit by its means breathes peace over
our entire nature, and we are no longer afraid. With this justification we can answer
all the roarings and railings of Satan and ungodly men. With this we shall be able
to die: with this we shall boldly rise again, and face the last great assize.
Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
While by my Lord absolved I am
From sin's tremendous curse and blame.
Friend, the Lord can blot out all your sins. I make no shot in the dark when I say
this. "All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men."
Though you are steeped up to your throat in crime, He can with a word remove the
defilement, and say, "I will, be thou clean." The Lord is a great forgiver.
"I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins." Do You?
He can even at this hour pronounce the sentence, "Thy sins be forgiven thee;
go in peace;" and if He do this, no power in Heaven, or earth, or under the
earth, can put you under suspicion, much less under wrath. Do not doubt the power
of Almighty love. You could not forgive your fellow man had he offended you as you
have offended God; but you must not measure God's corn with your bushel; His thoughts
and ways are as much above yours as the heavens are high above the earth.
"Well," say you, "it would be a great miracle if the Lord were to
pardon me." Just so. It would be a supreme miracle, and therefore He is likely
to do it; for He does "great things and unsearchable" which we looked not
for.
I was myself stricken down with a horrible sense of guilt, which made my life a misery
to me; but when I heard the command, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else"--I looked, and in a
moment the Lord justified me. Jesus Christ, made sin for me, was what I saw, and
that sight gave me rest. When those who were bitten by the fiery serpents in the
wilderness looked to the serpent of brass they were healed at once; and so was I
when I looked to the crucified Saviour. The Holy Spirit, who enabled me to believe,
gave me peace through believing. I felt as sure that I was forgiven, as before I
felt sure of condemnation. I had been certain of my condemnation because the Word
of God declared it, and my conscience bore witness to it; but when the Lord justified
me I was made equally certain by the same witnesses. The word of the Lord in the
Scripture saith, "He that believeth on him is not condemned," and my conscience
bears witness that I believed, and that God in pardoning me is just. Thus I have
the witness of the Holy Spirit and my own conscience, and these two agree in one.
Oh, how I wish that my reader would receive the testimony of God upon this matter,
and then full soon he would also have the witness in himself!
I venture to say that a sinner justified by God stands on even a surer footing than
a righteous man justified by his works, if such there be. We could never be surer
that we had done enough works; conscience would always be uneasy lest, after all,
we should come short, and we could only have the trembling verdict of a fallible
judgment to rely upon; but when God himself justifies, and the Holy Spirit bears
witness thereto by giving us peace with God, why then we feel that the matter is
sure and settled, and we enter into rest. No tongue can tell the depth of that calm
which comes over the soul which has received the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
JUST AND THE JUSTIFIER.
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WE HAVE SEEN the ungodly justified, and have considered the great
truth, that only God can justify any man; we now come a step further and make the
inquiry--How can a just God justify guilty men? Here we are met with a full answer
in the words of Paul, in Romans 3:21-26. We will read six verses from the chapter
so as to get the run of the passage:
"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference; for all
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins
that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in
Jesus."
Here suffer me to give you a bit of personal experience. When I was under the hand
of the Holy Spirit, under conviction of sin, I had a clear and sharp sense of the
justice of God. Sin, whatever it might be to other people, became to me an intolerable
burden. It was not so much that I feared hell, but that I feared sin. I knew myself
to be so horribly guilty that I remember feeling that if God did not punish me for
sin He ought to do so. I felt that the Judge of all the earth ought to condemn such
sin as mine. I sat on the judgment seat, and I condemned myself to perish; for I
confessed that had I been God I could have done no other than send such a guilty
creature as I was down to the lowest hell. All the while, I had upon my mind a deep
concern for the honor of God's name, and the integrity of His moral government. I
felt that it would not satisfy my conscience if I could be forgiven unjustly. The
sin I had committed must be punished. But then there was the question how God could
be just, and yet justify me who had been so guilty. I asked my heart: "How can
He be just and yet the justifier?" I was worried and wearied with this question;
neither could I see any answer to it. Certainly, I could never have invented an answer
which would have satisfied my conscience.
The doctrine of the atonement is to my mind one of the surest proofs of the divine
inspiration of Holy Scripture. Who would or could have thought of the just Ruler
dying for the unjust rebel? This is no teaching of human mythology, or dream of poetical
imagination. This method of expiation is only known among men because it is a fact;
fiction could not have devised it. God Himself ordained it; it is not a matter which
could have been imagined.
I had heard the plan of salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus from my youth up; but
I did not know any more about it in my innermost soul than if I had been born and
bred a Hottentot. The light was there, but I was blind; it was of necessity that
the Lord himself should make the matter plain to me. It came to me as a new revelation,
as fresh as if I had never read in Scripture that Jesus was declared to be the propitiation
for sins that God might be just. I believe it will have to come as a revelation to
every newborn child of God whenever he sees it; I mean that glorious doctrine of
the substitution of the Lord Jesus. I came to understand that salvation was possible
through vicarious sacrifice; and that provision had been made in the first constitution
and arrangement of things for such a substitution. I was made to see that He who
is the Son of God, co-equal, and co- eternal with the Father, had of old been made
the covenant Head of a chosen people that He might in that capacity suffer for them
and save them. Inasmuch as our fall was not at the first a personal one, for we fell
in our federal representative, the first Adam, it became possible for us to be recovered
by a second representative, even by Him who has undertaken to be the covenant head
of His people, so as to be their second Adam. I saw that ere I actually sinned I
had fallen by my first father's sin; and I rejoiced that therefore it became possible
in point of law for me to rise by a second head and representative. The fall by Adam
left a loophole of escape; another Adam can undo the ruin made by the first. When
I was anxious about the possibility of a just God pardoning me, I understood and
saw by faith that He who is the Son of God became man, and in His own blessed person
bore my sin in His own body on the tree. I saw the chastisement of my peace was laid
on Him, and that with His stripes I was healed. Dear friend, have you ever seen that?
Have you ever understood how God can be just to the full, not remitting penalty nor
blunting the edge of the sword, and yet can be infinitely merciful, and can justify
the ungodly who turn to Him? It was because the Son of God, supremely glorious in
His matchless person, undertook to vindicate the law by bearing the sentence due
to me, that therefore God is able to pass by my sin. The law of God was more vindicated
by the death of Christ than it would have been had all transgressors been sent to
Hell. For the Son of God to suffer for sin was a more glorious establishment of the
government of God, than for the whole race to suffer.
Jesus has borne the death penalty on our behalf. Behold the wonder! There He hangs
upon the cross! This is the greatest sight you will ever see. Son of God and Son
of Man, there He hangs, bearing pains unutterable, the just for the unjust, to bring
us to God. Oh, the glory of that sight! The innocent punished! The Holy One condemned!
The Ever-blessed made a curse! The infinitely glorious put to a shameful death! The
more I look at the sufferings of the Son of God, the more sure I am that they must
meet my case. Why did He suffer, if not to turn aside the penalty from us? If, then,
He turned it aside by His death, it is turned aside, and those who believe in Him
need not fear it. It must be so, that since expiation is made, God is able to forgive
without shaking the basis of His throne, or in the least degree blotting the statute
book. Conscience gets a full answer to her tremendous question. The wrath of God
against iniquity, whatever that may be, must be beyond all conception terrible. Well
did Moses say, "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?" Yet when we hear
the Lord of glory cry, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" and see Him yielding
up the ghost, we feel that the justice of God has received abundant vindication by
obedience so perfect and death so terrible, rendered by so divine a person. If God
himself bows before His own law, what more can be done? There is more in the atonement
by way of merit, than there is in all human sin by way of demerit.
The great gulf of Jesus' loving self-sacrifice can swallow up the mountains of our
sins, all of them. For the sake of the infinite good of this one representative man,
the Lord may well look with favor upon other men, however unworthy they may be in
and of themselves. It was a miracle of miracles that the Lord Jesus Christ should
stand in our stead and
Bear that we might never bear
His Father's righteous ire.
But he has done so. "It is finished." God will spare the sinner because
He did not spare His Son. God can pass by your transgressions because He laid those
transgressions upon His only begotten Son nearly two thousand years ago. If you believe
in Jesus (that is the point), then your sins were carried away by Him who was the
scapegoat for His people.
What is it to believe in Him? It is not merely to say, "He is God and the Saviour,"
but to trust Him wholly and entirely, and take Him for all your salvation from this
time forth and forever--your Lord, your Master, your all. If you will have Jesus,
He has you already. If you believe on Him, I tell you you cannot go to hell; for
that were to make the sacrifice of Christ of none effect. It cannot be that a sacrifice
should be accepted, and yet the soul should die for whom that sacrifice has been
received. If the believing soul could be condemned, then why a sacrifice? If Jesus
died in my stead, why should I die also? Every believer can claim that the sacrifice
was actually made for him: by faith he has laid his hands on it, and made it his
own, and therefore he may rest assured that he can never perish. The Lord would not
receive this offering on our behalf, and then condemn us to die. The Lord cannot
read our pardon written in the blood of His own Son, and then smite us. That were
impossible. Oh that you may have grace given you at once to look away to Jesus and
to begin at the beginning, even at Jesus, who is the Fountain- head of mercy to guilty
man!
"He justifieth the ungodly." "It is God that justifieth," therefore,
and for that reason only it can be done, and He does it through the atoning sacrifice
of His divine Son. Therefore it can be justly done--so justly done that none will
ever question it--so thoroughly done that in the last tremendous day, when heaven
and earth shall pass away, there shall be none that shall deny the validity of the
justification. "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." Now,
poor soul! will you come into this lifeboat, just as you are? Here is safety from
the wreck! Accept the sure deliverance. "I have nothing with me," say you.
You are not asked to bring anything with you. Men who escape for their lives will
leave even their clothes behind. Leap for it, just as you are.
I will tell you this thing about myself to encourage you. My sole hope for heaven
lies in the full atonement made upon Calvary's cross for the ungodly. On that I firmly
rely. I have not the shadow of a hope anywhere else. You are in the same condition
as I am; for we neither of us have anything of our own worth as a ground of trust.
Let us join hands and stand together at the foot of the cross, and trust our souls
once for all to Him who shed His blood for the guilty. We will be saved by one and
the same Saviour. If you perish trusting Him, I must perish too. What can I do more
to prove my own confidence in the gospel which I set before you?
CONCERNING DELIVERANCE FROM SINNING.
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IN THIS PLACE I would say a plain word or two to those who understand
the method of justification by faith which is in Christ Jesus, but whose trouble
is that they cannot cease from sin. We can never be happy, restful, or spiritually
healthy till we become holy. We must be rid of sin; but how is the riddance to be
wrought? This is the life-or-death question of many. The old nature is very strong,
and they have tried to curb and tame it; but it will not be subdued, and they find
themselves, though anxious to be better, if anything growing worse than before. The
heart is so hard, the will is so obstinate, the passions are so furious, the thoughts
are so volatile, the imagination is so ungovernable, the desires are so wild, that
the man feels that he has a den of wild beasts within him, which will eat him up
sooner than be ruled by him. We may say of our fallen nature what the Lord said to
Job concerning Leviathan: "Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou
bind him for thy maidens?" A man might as well hope to hold the north wind in
the hollow of his hand as expect to control by his own strength those boisterous
powers which dwell within his fallen nature. This is a greater feat than any of the
fabled labors of Hercules: God is wanted here.
"I could believe that Jesus would forgive sin," says one, "but then
my trouble is that I sin again, and that I feel such awful tendencies to evil within
me. As surely as a stone, if it be flung up into the air, soon comes down again to
the ground, so do I, though I am sent up to heaven by earnest preaching, return again
to my insensible state. Alas! I am easily fascinated with the basilisk eyes of sin,
and am thus held as under a spell, so that I cannot escape from my own folly."
Dear friend, salvation would be a sadly incomplete affair if it did not deal with
this part of our ruined estate. We want to be purified as well as pardoned. Justification
without sanctification would not be salvation at all. It would call the leper clean,
and leave him to die of his disease; if would forgive the rebellion and allow the
rebel to remain an enemy to his king. It would remove the consequences but overlook
the cause, and this would leave an endless and hopeless task before us. It would
stop the stream for a time, but leave an open fountain of defilement, which would
sooner or later break forth with increased power. Remember that the Lord Jesus came
to take away sin in three ways; He came to remove the penalty of sin, the power of
sin, and, at last, the presence of sin. At once you may reach to the second part--the
power of sin may immediately be broken; and so you will be on the road to the third,
namely, the removal of the presence of sin. "We know that he was manifested
to take away our sins."
The angel said of our Lord, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins." Our Lord Jesus came to destroy in us the works
of the devil. That which was said at our Lord's birth was also declared in His death;
for when the soldier pierced His side forthwith came there out blood and water, to
set forth the double cure by which we are delivered from the guilt and the defilement
of sin.
If, however, you are troubled about the power of sin, and about the tendencies of
your nature, as you well may be, here is a promise for you. Have faith in it, for
it stands in that covenant of grace which is ordered in all things and sure. God,
who cannot lie, has said in Ezekiel 36:26:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
You see, it is all "I will," and "I will." "I will give,"
and "I will take away." This is the royal style of the King of kings, who
is able to accomplish all His will. No word of His shall ever fall to the ground.
The Lord knows right well that you cannot change your own heart, and cannot cleanse
your own nature; but He also knows that He can do both. He can cause the Ethiopian
to change his skin, and the leopard his spots. Hear this, and be astonished: He can
create you a second time; He can cause you to be born again. This is a miracle of
grace, but the Holy Ghost will perform it. It would be a very wonderful thing if
one could stand at the foot of the Niagara Falls, and could speak a word which should
make the river Niagara begin to run up stream, and leap up that great precipice over
which it now rolls in stupendous force. Nothing but the power of God could achieve
that marvel; but that would be more than a fit parallel to what would take place
if the course of your nature were altogether reversed. All things are possible with
God. He can reverse the direction of your desires and the current of your life, and
instead of going downward from God, He can make your whole being tend upward toward
God. That is, in fact, what the Lord has promised to do for all who are in the covenant;
and we know from Scripture that all believers are in the covenant. Let me read the
words again:
A new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and will give an heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19).
What a wonderful promise! And it is yea and amen in Christ Jesus to the glory of
God by us. Let us lay hold of it; accept it as true, and appropriate it to ourselves.
Then shall it be fulfilled in us, and we shall have, in after days and years, to
sing of that wondrous change which the sovereign grace of God has wrought in us.
It is well worthy of consideration that when the Lord takes away the stony heart,
that deed is done; and when that is once done, no known power can ever take away
that new heart which He gives, and that right spirit which He puts within us. "The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance"; that is, without repentance
on His part; He does not take away what He once has given. Let Him renew you and
you will be renewed. Man's reformations and cleanings up soon come to an end, for
the dog returns to his vomit; but when God puts a new heart into us, the new heart
is there forever, and never will it harden into stone again. He who made it flesh
will keep it so. Herein we may rejoice and be glad forever in that which God creates
in the kingdom of His grace.
To put the matter very simply--did you ever hear of Mr. Rowland Hill's illustration
of the cat and the sow? I will give it in my own fashion, to illustrate our Saviour's
expressive words--"Ye must be born again." Do you see that cat? What a
cleanly creature she is! How cleverly she washes herself with her tongue and her
paws! It is quite a pretty sight! Did you ever see a sow do that? No, you never did.
It is contrary to its nature. It prefers to wallow in the mire. Go and teach a sow
to wash itself, and see how little success you would gain. It would be a great sanitary
improvement if swine would be clean. Teach them to wash and clean themselves as the
cat has been doing! Useless task. You may by force wash that sow, but it hastens
to the mire, and is soon as foul as ever. The only way in which you can get a sow
to wash itself is to transform it into a cat; then it will wash and be clean, but
not till then! Suppose that transformation to be accomplished, and then what was
difficult or impossible is easy enough; the swine will henceforth be fit for your
parlor and your hearth-rug. So it is with an ungodly man; you cannot force him to
do what a renewed man does most willingly; you may teach him, and set him a good
example, but he cannot learn the art of holiness, for he has no mind to it; his nature
leads him another way. When the Lord makes a new man of him, then all things wear
a different aspect. So great is this change, that I once heard a convert say, "Either
all the world is changed, or else I am." The new nature follows after right
as naturally as the old nature wanders after wrong. What a blessing to receive such
a nature! Only the Holy Ghost can give it.
Did it ever strike you what a wonderful thing it is for the Lord to give a new heart
and a right spirit to a man? You have seen a lobster, perhaps, which has fought with
another lobster, and lost one of its claws, and a new claw has grown. That is a remarkable
thing; but it is a much more astounding fact that a man should have a new heart given
to him. This, indeed, is a miracle beyond the powers of nature. There is a tree.
If you cut off one of its limbs, another one may grow in its place; but can you change
the tree; can you sweeten sour sap; can you make the thorn bear figs? You can graft
something better into it and that is the analogy which nature gives us of the work
of grace; but absolutely to change the vital sap of the tree would be a miracle indeed.
Such a prodigy and mystery of power God works in all who believe in Jesus.
If you yield yourself up to His divine working, the Lord will alter your nature;
He will subdue the old nature, and breathe new life into you. Put your trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and He will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and He will
give you a heart of flesh. Where everything was hard, everything shall be tender;
where everything was vicious, everything shall be virtuous: where everything tended
downward, everything shall rise upward with impetuous force. The lion of anger shall
give place to the lamb of meekness; the raven of uncleanness shall fly before the
dove of purity; the vile serpent of deceit shall be trodden under the heel of truth.
I have seen with my own eyes such marvellous changes of moral and spiritual character
that I despair of none. I could, if it were fitting, point out those who were once
unchaste women who are now pure as the driven snow, and blaspheming men who now delight
all around them by their intense devotion. Thieves are made honest, drunkards sober,
liars truthful, and scoffers zealous. Wherever the grace of God has appeared to a
man it has trained him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present evil world: and, dear reader, it will do the
same for you.
"I cannot make this change," says one. Who said you could? The Scripture
which we have quoted speaks not of what man will do, but of what God will do. It
is God's promise, and it is for Him to fulfill His own engagements. Trust in Him
to fulfill His Word to you, and it will be done.
"But how is it to be done?" What business is that of yours? Must the Lord
explain His methods before you will believe him? The Lord's working in this matter
is a great mystery: the Holy Ghost performs it. He who made the promise has the responsibility
of keeping the promise, and He is equal to the occasion. God, who promises this marvellous
change, will assuredly carry it out in all who receive Jesus, for to all such He
gives power to become the Sons of God. Oh that you would believe it! Oh that you
would do the gracious Lord the justice to believe that He can and will do this for
you, great miracle though it will be! Oh that you would believe that God cannot lie!
Oh that you would trust Him for a new heart, and a right spirit, for He can give
them to you! May the Lord give you faith in His promise, faith in His Son, faith
in the Holy Spirit, and faith in Him, and to Him shall be praise and honor and glory
forever and ever! Amen.
BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH.
"By grace are ye saved, through faith" (Ephesians 2:8 ).
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I THINK IT WELL to turn a little to one side that I may ask my
reader to observe adoringly the fountain-head of our salvation, which is the grace
of God. "By grace are ye saved." Because God is gracious, therefore sinful
men are forgiven, converted, purified, and saved. It is not because of anything in
them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but because of the boundless
love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy, and grace of God. Tarry a moment, then,
at the well-head. Behold the pure river of water of life, as it proceeds out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb!
What an abyss is the grace of God! Who can measure its breadth? Who can fathom its
depth? Like all the rest of the divine attributes, it is infinite. God is full of
love, for "God is love." God is full of goodness; the very name "God"
is short for "good." Unbounded goodness and love enter into the very essence
of the Godhead. It is because "his mercy endureth for ever" that men are
not destroyed; because "his compassions fail not" that sinners are brought
to Him and forgiven.
Remember this; or you may fall into error by fixing your minds so much upon the faith
which is the channel of salvation as to forget the grace which is the fountain and
source even of faith itself. Faith is the work of God's grace in us. No man can say
that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. "No man cometh unto me,"
saith Jesus, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him." So that faith,
which is coming to Christ, is the result of divine drawing. Grace is the first and
last moving cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important
part of the machinery which grace employs. We are saved "through faith,"
but salvation is "by grace." Sound forth those words as with the archangel's
trumpet: "By grace are ye saved." What glad tidings for the undeserving!
Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit pipe. Grace is the fountain and
the stream; faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh
the thirsty sons of men. It is a great pity when the aqueduct is broken. It is a
sad sight to see around Rome the many noble aqueducts which no longer convey water
into the city, because the arches are broken and the marvelous structures are in
ruins. The aqueduct must be kept entire to convey the current; and, even so, faith
must be true and sound, leading right up to God and coming right down to ourselves,
that it may become a serviceable channel of mercy to our souls.
Still, I again remind you that faith is only the channel or aqueduct, and not the
fountainhead, and we must not look so much to it as to exalt it above the divine
source of all blessing which lies in the grace of God. Never make a Christ out of
your faith, nor think of as if it were the independent source of your salvation.
Our life is found in "looking unto Jesus," not in looking to our own faith.
By faith all things become possible to us; yet the power is not in the faith, but
in the God upon whom faith relies. Grace is the powerful engine, and faith is the
chain by which the carriage of the soul is attached to the great motive power. The
righteousness of faith is not the moral excellence of faith, but the righteousness
of Jesus Christ which faith grasps and appropriates. The peace within the soul is
not derived from the contemplation of our own faith; but it comes to us from Him
who is our peace, the hem of whose garment faith touches, and virtue comes out of
Him into the soul.
See then, dear friend, that the weakness of your faith will not destroy you. A trembling
hand may receive a golden gift. The Lord's salvation can come to us though we have
only faith as a grain of mustard seed. The power lies in the grace of God, and not
in our faith. Great messages can be sent along slender wires, and the peace-giving
witness of the Holy Spirit can reach the heart by means of a thread-like faith which
seems almost unable to sustain its own weight. Think more of Him to whom you look
than of the look itself. You must look away even from your own looking, and see nothing
but Jesus, and the grace of God revealed in Him.
FAITH, WHAT IS IT?
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WHAT IS THIS FAITH concerning which it is said, "By grace
are ye saved, through faith?" There are many descriptions of faith; but almost
all the definitions I have met with have made me understand it less than I did before
I saw them. The Negro said, when he read the chapter, that he would confound it;
and it is very likely that he did so, though he meant to expound it. We may explain
faith till nobody understands it. I hope I shall not be guilty of that fault. Faith
is the simplest of all things, and perhaps because of its simplicity it is the more
difficult to explain.
What is faith? It is made up of three things--knowledge, belief, and trust. Knowledge
comes first. "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?"
I want to be informed of a fact before I can possibly believe it. "Faith cometh
by hearing"; we must first hear, in order that we may know what is to be believed.
"They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee." A measure of knowledge
is essential to faith; hence the importance of getting knowledge. "Incline your
ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live." Such was the word of
the ancient prophet, and it is the word of the gospel still. Search the Scriptures
and learn what the Holy Spirit teacheth concerning Christ and His salvation. Seek
to know God: "For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." May the Holy Spirit give you
the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord! Know the gospel: know what
the good news is, how it talks of free forgiveness, and of change of heart, of adoption
into the family of God, and of countless other blessings. Know especially Christ
Jesus the Son of God, the Saviour of men, united to us by His human nature, and yet
one with God; and thus able to act as Mediator between God and man, able to lay His
hand upon both, and to be the connecting link between the sinner and the Judge of
all the earth. Endeavour to know more and more of Christ Jesus. Endeavour especially
to know the doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ; for the point upon which saving
faith mainly fixes itself is this--"God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Know that Jesus was
"made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on
a tree." Drink deep of the doctrine of the substitutionary work of Christ; for
therein lies the sweetest possible comfort to the guilty sons of men, since the Lord
"made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him." Faith begins with knowledge.
The mind goes on to believe that these things are true. The soul believes that God
is, and that He hears the cries of sincere hearts; that the gospel is from God; that
justification by faith is the grand truth which God hath revealed in these last days
by His Spirit more clearly than before. Then the heart believes that Jesus is verily
and in truth our God and Saviour, the Redeemer of men, the Prophet, Priest, and King
of His people. All this is accepted as sure truth, not to be called in question.
I pray that you may at once come to this. Get firmly to believe that "the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin"; that His sacrifice
is complete and fully accepted of God on man's behalf, so that he that believeth
on Jesus is not condemned. Believe these truths as you believe any other statements;
for the difference between common faith and saving faith lies mainly in the subjects
upon which it is exercised. Believe the witness of God just as you believe the testimony
of your own father or friend. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness
of God is greater."
So far you have made an advance toward faith; only one more ingredient is needed
to complete it, which is trust. Commit yourself to the merciful God; rest your hope
on the gracious gospel; trust your soul on the dying and living Saviour; wash away
your sins in the atoning blood; accept His perfect righteousness, and all is well.
Trust is the lifeblood of faith; there is no saving faith without it. The Puritans
were accustomed to explain faith by the word "recumbency." It meant leaning
upon a thing. Lean with all your weight upon Christ. It would be a better illustration
still if I said, fall at full length, and lie on the Rock of Ages. Cast yourself
upon Jesus; rest in Him; commit yourself to Him. That done, you have exercised saving
faith. Faith is not a blind thing; for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative
thing; for faith believes facts of which it is sure. It is not an unpractical, dreamy
thing; for faith trusts, and stakes its destiny upon the truth of revelation. That
is one way of describing what faith is.
Let me try again. Faith is believing that Christ is what He is said to be, and that
He will do what He has promised to do, and then to expect this of Him. The Scriptures
speak of Jesus Christ as being God, God is human flesh; as being perfect in His character;
as being made of a sin-offering on our behalf; as bearing our sins in His own body
on the tree. The Scripture speaks of Him as having finished transgression, made an
end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness. The sacred records further
tell us that He "rose again from the dead," that He "ever liveth to
make intercession for us," that He has gone up into the glory, and has taken
possession of Heaven on the behalf of His people, and that He will shortly come again
"to judge the world in righteousness, and his people with equity." We are
most firmly to believe that it is even so; for this is the testimony of God the Father
when He said, "This is my beloved Son; hear ye him." This also is testified
by God the Holy Spirit; for the Spirit has borne witness to Christ, both in the inspired
Word and by divers miracles, and by His working in the hearts of men. We are to believe
this testimony to be true.
Faith also believes that Christ will do what He has promised; that since He has promised
to cast out none that come to Him, it is certain that He will not cast us out if
we come to Him. Faith believes that since Jesus said, "The water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everasting life, it must
be true; and if we get this living Water from Christ it will abide in us, and will
well up within us in streams of holy life. Whatever Christ has promised to do He
will do, and we must believe this, so as to look for pardon, justification, preservation,
and eternal glory from His hands, according as He has promised them to believers
in Him.
Then comes the next necessary step. Jesus is what He is said to be, Jesus will do
what He says He will do; therefore we must each one trust Him, saying, "He will
be to me what He says He is, and He will do to me what He has promised to do; I leave
myself in the hands of Him who is appointed to save, that He may save me. I rest
upon His promise that He will do even as He has said." This is a saving faith,
and he that hath it hath everlasting life. Whatever his dangers and difficulties,
whatever his darkness and depression, whatever his infirmities and sins, he that
believeth thus on Christ Jesus is not condemned, and shall never come into condemnation.
May that explanation be of some service! I trust it may be used by the Spirit of
God to direct my reader into immediate peace. "Be not afraid; only believe."
Trust, and be at rest.
My fear is lest the reader should rest content with understanding what is to be done,
and yet never do it. Better the poorest real faith actually at work, than the best
ideal of it left in the region of speculation. The great matter is to believe on
the Lord Jesus at once. Never mind distinctions and definitions. A hungry man eats
though he does not understand the composition of his food, the anatomy of his mouth,
or the process of digestion: he lives because he eats. Another far more clever person
understands thoroughly the science of nutrition; but if he does not eat he will die,
with all his knowledge. There are, no doubt, many at this hour in Hell who understood
the doctrine of faith, but did not believe. On the other hand, not one who has trusted
in the Lord Jesus has ever been cast out, though he may never have been able intelligently
to define his faith. Oh dear reader, receive the Lord Jesus into your soul, and you
shall live forever! "He that believeth in Him hath everlasting life.
HOW MAY FAITH BE ILLUSTRATED?
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TO MAKE THE MATTER Of faith clearer still, I will give you a few
illustrations. Though the Holy Spirit alone can make my reader see, it is my duty
and my joy to furnish all the light I can, and to pray the divine Lord to open blind
eyes. Oh that my reader would pray the same prayer for himself!
The faith which saves has its analogies in the human frame.
It is the eye which looks. By the eye we bring into the mind that which is far away;
we can bring the sun and the far-off stars into the mind by a glance of the eye.
So by trust we bring the Lord Jesus near to us; and though He be far away in Heaven,
He enters into our heart. Only look to Jesus; for the hymn is strictly true--
There is life in a look at the Crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee.
Faith is the hand which grasps. When our hand takes hold of anything for itself,
it does precisely what faith does when it appropriates Christ and the blessings of
His redemption. Faith says, "Jesus is mine." Faith hears of the pardoning
blood, and cries, "I accept it to pardon me." Faith calls the legacies
of the dying Jesus her own; and they are her own, for faith is Christ's heir; He
has given Himself and all that He has to faith. Take, O friend, that which grace
has provided for thee. You will not be a thief, for you have a divine permit: "Whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely." He who may have a treasure simply
by his grasping it will be foolish indeed if he remains poor.
Faith is the mouth which feeds upon Christ. Before food can nourish us, it must be
received into us. This is a simple matter- -this eating and drinking. We willingly
receive into the mouth that which is our food, and then we consent that it should
pass down into our inward parts, wherein it is taken up and absorbed into our bodily
frame. Paul says, in his Epistle to the Romans, in the tenth chapter, "The word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth." Now then, all that is to be done is to swallow
it, to suffer it to go down into the soul. Oh that men had an appetite! For he who
is hungry and sees meat before him does not need to be taught how to eat. "Give
me," said one, "a knife and a fork and a chance." He was fully prepared
to do the rest. Truly, a heart which hungers and thirsts after Christ has but to
know that He is freely given, and at once it will receive Him. If my reader is in
such a case, let him not hesitate to receive Jesus; for he may be sure that he will
never be blamed for doing so: for unto "as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God." He never repulses one, but He authorizes
all who come to remain sons for ever.
The pursuits of life illustrate faith in many ways. The farmer buries good seed in
the earth, and expects it not only to live but to be multiplied. He has faith in
the covenant arrangement, that "seed-time and harvest shall not cease,"
and he is rewarded for his faith. The merchant places his money in the care of a
banker, and trusts altogether to the honesty and soundness of the bank. He entrusts
his capital to another's hands, and feels far more at ease than if he had the solid
gold locked up in an iron safe. The sailor trusts himself to the sea. When he swims
he takes his foot from the bottom and rests upon the buoyant ocean. He could not
swim if he did not wholly cast himself upon the water.
The goldsmith puts precious metal into the fire which seems eager to consume it,
but he receives it back again from the furnace purified by the heat.
You cannot turn anywhere in life without seeing faith in operation between man and
man, or between man and natural law. Now, just as we trust in daily life, even so
are we to trust in God as He is revealed in Christ Jesus.
Faith exists in different persons in various degrees, according to the amount of
their knowledge or growth in grace. Sometimes faith is little more than a simple
clinging to Christ; a sense of dependence and a willingness so to depend. When you
are down at the seaside you will see limpets sticking to the rock. You walk with
a soft tread up to the rock; you strike the mollusk a rapid blow with your walking-stick
and off he comes. Try the next limpet in that way. You have given him warning; he
heard the blow with which you struck his neighbor, and he clings with all his might.
You will never get him off; not you! Strike, and strike again, but you may as soon
break the rock. Our little friend, the limpet, does not know much, but he clings.
He is not acquainted with the geological formation of the rock, but he clings. He
can cling, and he has found something to cling to: this is all his stock of knowledge,
and he uses it for his security and salvation. It is the limpet's life to cling to
the rock, and it is the sinner's life to cling to Jesus. Thousands of God's people
have no more faith than this; they know enough to cling to Jesus with all their heart
and soul, and this suffices for present peace and eternal safety. Jesus Christ is
to them a Saviour strong and mighty, a Rock immovable and immutable; they cling to
him for dear life, and this clinging saves them. Reader, cannot you cling? Do so
at once.
Faith is seen when one man relies upon another from a knowledge of the superiority
of the other. This is a higher faith; the faith which knows the reason for its dependence,
and acts upon it. I do not think the limpet knows much about the rock: but as faith
grows it becomes more and more intelligent. A blind man trusts himself with his guide
because he knows that his friend can see, and, trusting, he walks where his guide
conducts him. If the poor man is born blind he does not know what sight is; but he
knows that there is such a thing as sight, and that it is possessed by his friend
and therefore he freely puts his hand into the hand of the seeing one, and follows
his leadership. "We walk by faith, not by sight." "Blessed are they
which have not seen, and yet have believed." This is as good an image of faith
as well can be; we know that Jesus has about Him merit, and power, and blessing,
which we do not possess, and therefore we gladly trust ourselves to Him to be to
us what we cannot be to ourselves. We trust Him as the blind man trusts his guide.
He never betrays our confidence; but He "is made of God unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
Every boy that goes to school has to exert faith while learning. His schoolmaster
teaches him geography, and instructs him as to the form of the earth, and the existence
of certain great cities and empires. The boy does not himself know that these things
are true, except that he believes his teacher, and the books put into his hands.
That is what you will have to do with Christ, if you are to be saved; you must simply
know because He tells you, believe because He assures you it is even so, and trust
yourself with Him because He promises you that salvation will be the result. Almost
all that you and I know has come to us by faith. A scientific discovery has been
made, and we are sure of it. On what grounds do we believe it? On the authority of
certain well-known men of learning, whose reputations are established. We have never
made or seen their experiments, but we believe their witness. You must do the like
with regard to Jesus: because He teaches you certain truths you are to be His disciple,
and believe His words; because He has performed certain acts you are to be His client,
and trust yourself with Him. He is infinitely superior to you, and presents himself
to your confidence as your Master and Lord. If you will receive Him and His words
you shall be saved.
Another and a higher form of faith is that faith which grows out of love. Why does
a boy trust his father? The reason why the child trusts his father is because he
loves him. Blessed and happy are they who have a sweet faith in Jesus, intertwined
with deep affection for Him, for this is a restful confidence. These lovers of Jesus
are charmed with His character, and delighted with His mission, they are carried
away by the lovingkindness that He has manifested, and therefore they cannot help
trusting Him, because they so much admire, revere, and love Him.
The way of loving trust in the Saviour may thus be illustrated. A lady is the wife
of the most eminent physician of the day. She is seized with a dangerous illness,
and is smitten down by its power; yet she is wonderfully calm and quiet, for her
husband has made this disease his special study, and has healed thousands who were
similarly afflicted. She is not in the least troubled, for she feels perfectly safe
in the hands of one so dear to her, and in whom skill and love are blended in their
highest forms. Her faith is reasonable and natural; her husband, from every point
of view, deserves it of her. This is the kind of faith which the happiest of believers
exercise toward Christ. There is no physician like Him, none can save as He can;
we love Him, and He loves us, and therefore we put ourselves into His hands, accept
whatever He prescribes, and do whatever He bids. We feel that nothing can be wrongly
ordered while He is the director of our affairs; for He loves us too well to let
us perish, or suffer a single needless pang.
Faith is the root of obedience, and this may be clearly seen in the affairs of life.
When a captain trusts a pilot to steer his vessel into port he manages the vessel
according to his direction. When a traveler trusts a guide to conduct him over a
difficult pass, he follows the track which his guide points out. When a patient believes
in a physician, he carefully follows his prescriptions and directions. Faith which
refuses to obey the commands of the Saviour is a mere pretence, and will never save
the soul. We trust Jesus to save us; He gives us directions as to the way of salvation;
we follow those directions and are saved. Let not my reader forget this. Trust Jesus,
and prove your trust by doing whatever He bids you.
A notable form of faith arises out of assured knowledge; this comes of growth in
grace, and is the faith which believes Christ because it knows Him, and trusts Him
because it has proved Him to be infallibly faithful. An old Christian was in the
habit of writing T and P in the margin of her Bible whenever she had tried and proved
a promise. How easy it is to trust a tried and proved Saviour! You cannot do this
as yet, but you will do so. Everything must have a beginning. You will rise to strong
faith in due time. This matured faith asks not for signs and tokens, but bravely
believes. Look at the faith of the master mariner--I have often wondered at it. He
looses his cable, he steams away from the land. For days, weeks, or even months,
he never sees sail or shore; yet on he goes day and night without fear, till one
morning he finds himself exactly opposite to the desired haven toward which he has
been steering. How has he found his way over the trackless deep? He has trusted in
his compass, his nautical almanac, his glass, and the heavenly bodies; and obeying
their guidance, without sighting land, he has steered so accurately that he has not
to change a point to enter into port. It is a wonderful thing--that sailing or steaming
without sight. Spiritually it is a blessed thing to leave altogether the shores of
sight and feeling, and to say, "Good-by" to inward feelings, cheering providences,
signs, tokens, and so forth. It is glorious to be far out on the ocean of divine
love, believing in God, and steering for Heaven straight away by the direction of
the Word of God. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed";
to them shall be administered an abundant entrance at the last, and a safe voyage
on the way. Will not my reader put his trust in God in Christ Jesus. There I rest
with joyous confidence. Brother, come with me, and believe our Father and our Saviour.
Come at once.
WHY ARE WE SAVED BY FAITH?
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WHY IS FAITH SELECTED as the channel of salvation? No doubt this
inquiry is often made. "By grace are ye saved through faith," is assuredly
the doctrine of Holy Scripture, and the ordinance of God; but why is it so? Why is
faith selected rather than hope, or love, or patience?
It becomes us to be modest in answering such a question, for God's ways are not always
to be understood; nor are we allowed presumptuously to question them. Humbly we would
reply that, as far as we can tell, faith has been selected as the channel of grace,
because there is a natural adaptation in faith to be used as the receiver. Suppose
that I am about to give a poor man an alms: I put it into his hand--why? Well, it
would hardly be fitting to put it into his ear, or to lay it upon his foot; the hand
seems made on purpose to receive. So, in our mental frame, faith is created on purpose
to be a receiver: it is the hand of the man, and there is a fitness in receiving
grace by its means.
Do let me put this very plainly. Faith which receives Christ is as simple an act
as when your child receives an apple from you, because you hold it out and promise
to give him the apple if he comes for it. The belief and the receiving relate only
to an apple; but they make up precisely the same act as the faith which deals with
eternal salvation. What the child's hand is to the apple, that your faith is to the
perfect salvation of Christ. The child's hand does not make the apple, nor improve
the apple, nor deserve the apple; it only takes it; and faith is chosen by God to
be the receiver of salvation, because it does not pretend to create salvation, nor
to help in it, but it is content humbly to receive it. "Faith is the tongue
that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; but it is
not the price which buys it." Faith never makes herself her own plea, she rests
all her argument upon the blood of Christ. She becomes a good servant to bring the
riches of the Lord Jesus to the soul, because she acknowledges whence she drew them,
and owns that grace alone entrusted her with them.
Faith, again, is doubtless selected because it gives all the glory to God. It is
of faith that it might be by grace, and it is of grace that there might be no boasting;
for God cannot endure pride. "The proud he knoweth afar off," and He has
no wish to come nearer to them. He will not give salvation in a way which will suggest
or foster pride. Paul saith, "Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Now, faith excludes all boasting. The hand which receives charity does not say, "I
am to be thanked for accepting the gift"; that would be absurd. When the hand
conveys bread to the mouth it does not say to the body, "Thank me; for I feed
you." It is a very simple thing that the hand does though a very necessary thing;
and it never arrogates glory to itself for what it does. So God has selected faith
to receive the unspeakable gift of His grace, because it cannot take to itself any
credit, but must adore the gracious God who is the giver of all good. Faith sets
the crown upon the right head, and therefore the Lord Jesus was wont to put the crown
upon the head of faith, saying, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace."
Next, God selects faith as the channel of salvation because it is a sure method,
linking man with God. When man confides in God, there is a point of union between
them, and that union guarantees blessing. Faith saves us because it makes us cling
to God, and so brings us into connection with Him. I have often used the following
illustration, but I must repeat it, because I cannot think of a better. I am told
that years ago a boat was upset above the falls of Niagara, and two men were being
carried down the current, when persons on the shore managed to float a rope out to
them, which rope was seized by them both. One of them held fast to it and was safely
drawn to the bank; but the other, seeing a great log come floating by, unwisely let
go the rope and clung to the log, for it was the bigger thing of the two, and apparently
better to cling to. Alas! the log with the man on it went right over the vast abyss,
because there was no union between the log and the shore. The size of the log was
no benefit to him who grasped it; it needed a connection with the shore to produce
safety. So when a man trusts to his works, or to sacraments, or to anything of that
sort, he will not be saved, because there is no junction between him and Christ;
but faith, though it may seem to be like a slender cord, is in the hands of the great
God on the shore side; infinite power pulls in the connecting line, and thus draws
the man from destruction. Oh the blessedness of faith, because it unites us to God!
Faith is chosen again, because it touches the springs of action. Even in common things
faith of a certain sort lies at the root of all. I wonder whether I shall be wrong
if I say that we never do anything except through faith of some sort. If I walk across
my study it is because I believe my legs will carry me. A man eats because he believes
in the necessity of food; he goes to business because he believes in the value of
money; he accepts a check because he believes that the bank will honor it. Columbus
discovered America because he believed that there was another continent beyond the
ocean; and the Pilgrim Fathers colonized it because they believed that God would
be with them on those rocky shores. Most grand deeds have been born of faith; for
good or for evil, faith works wonders by the man in whom it dwells. Faith in its
natural form is an all-prevailing force, which enters into all manner of human actions.
Possibly he who derides faith in God is the man who in an evil form has the most
of faith; indeed, he usually falls into a credulity which would be ridiculous, if
it were not disgraceful. God gives salvation to faith, because by creating faith
in us He thus touches the real mainspring of our emotions and actions. He has, so
to speak, taken possession of the battery and now He can send the sacred current
to every part of our nature. When we believe in Christ, and the heart has come into
the possession of God, then we are saved from sin, and are moved toward repentance,
holiness, zeal, prayer, consecration, and every other gracious thing. "What
oil is to the wheels, what weights are to a clock, what wings are to a bird, what
sails are to a ship, that faith is to all holy duties and services." Have faith,
and all other graces will follow and continue to hold their course.
Faith, again, has the power of working by love; it influences the affections toward
God, and draws the heart after the best things. He that believes in God will beyond
all question love God. Faith is an act of the understanding; but it also proceeds
from the heart. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness"; and
hence God gives salvation to faith because it resides next door to the affections,
and is near akin to love; and love is the parent and the nurse of every holy feeling
and act. Love to God is obedience, love to God is holiness. To love God and to love
man is to be conformed to the image of Christ; and this is salvation.
Moreover, faith creates peace and joy; he that hath it rests, and is tranquil, is
glad and joyous, and this is a preparation for heaven. God gives all heavenly gifts
to faith, for this reason among others, that faith worketh in us the life and spirit
which are to be eternally manifested in the upper and better world. Faith furnishes
us with armor for this life, and education for the life to come. It enables a man
both to live and to die without fear; it prepares both for action and for suffering;
and hence the Lord selects it as a most convenient medium for conveying grace to
us, and thereby securing us for glory.
Certainly faith does for us what nothing else can do; it gives us joy and peace,
and causes us to enter into rest. Why do men attempt to gain salvation by other means?
An old preacher says, "A silly servant who is bidden to open a door, sets his
shoulder to it and pushes with all his might; but the door stirs not, and he cannot
enter, use what strength he may. Another comes with a key, and easily unlocks the
door, and enters right readily. Those who would be saved by works are pushing at
heaven's gate without result; but faith is the key which opens the gate at once."
Reader, will you not use that key? The Lord commands you to believe in His dear Son,
therefore you may do so; and doing so you shall live. Is not this the promise of
the gospel, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved"? (Mark 16:16).
What can be your objection to a way of salvation which commends itself to the mercy
and the wisdom of our gracious God?
ALAS! I CAN DO NOTHING!
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AFTER THE ANXIOUS HEART has accepted the doctrine of atonement,
and learned the great truth that salvation is by faith in the Lord Jesus, it is often
sore troubled with a sense of inability toward that which is good. Many are groaning,
"I can do nothing." They are not making this into an excuse, but they feel
it as a daily burden. They would if they could. They can each one honestly say, "To
will is present with me, but how to perform that which I would I find not."
This feeling seems to make all the gospel null and void; for what is the use of food
to a hungry man if he cannot get at it? Of what avail is the river of the water of
life if one cannot drink? We recall the story of the doctor and the poor woman's
child. The sage practitioner told the mother that her little one would soon be better
under proper treatment, but it was absolutely needful that her boy should regularly
drink the best wine, and that he should spend a season at one of the German spas.
This, to a widow who could hardly get bread to eat! Now, it sometimes seems to the
troubled heart that the simple gospel of "Believe and live," is not, after
all, so very simple; for it asks the poor sinner to do what he cannot do. To the
really awakened, but half instructed, there appears to be a missing link; yonder
is the salvation of Jesus, but how is it to be reached? The soul is without strength,
and knows not what to do. It lies within sight of the city of refuge, and cannot
enter its gate.
Is this want of strength provided for in the plan of salvation? It is. The work of
the Lord is perfect. It begins where we are, and asks nothing of us in order to its
completion. When the good Samaritan saw the traveler lying wounded and half dead,
he did not bid him rise and come to him, and mount the ass and ride off to the inn.
No, "he came where he was," and ministered to him, and lifted him upon
the beast and bore him to the inn. Thus doth the Lord Jesus deal with us in our low
and wretched estate.
We have seen that God justifieth, that He justifieth the ungodly and that He justifies
them through faith in the precious blood of Jesus; we have now to see the condition
these ungodly ones are in when Jesus works out their salvation. Many awakened persons
are not only troubled about their sin, but about their moral weakness. They have
no strength with which to escape from the mire into which they have fallen, nor to
keep out of it in after days. They not only lament over what they have done, but
over what they cannot do. They feel themselves to be powerless, helpless, and spiritually
lifeless. It may sound odd to say that they feel dead, and yet it is even so. They
are, in their own esteem, to all good incapable. They cannot travel the road to Heaven,
for their bones are broken. "None of the men of strength have found their hands;"
in fact, they are "without strength." Happily, it is written, as the commendation
of God's love to us:
When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (Romans
5:6).
Here we see conscious helplessness succored--succored by the interposition of the
Lord Jesus. Our helplessness is extreme. It is not written, "When we were comparatively
weak Christ died for us"; or, "When we had only a little strength";
but the description is absolute and unrestricted; "When we were yet without
strength." We had no strength whatever which could aid in our salvation; our
Lord's words were emphatically true, "Without me ye can do nothing." I
may go further than the text, and remind you of the great love wherewith the Lord
loved us, "even when we were dead in trespasses and sins." To be dead is
even more than to be without strength.
The one thing that the poor strengthless sinner has to fix his mind upon, and firmly
retain, as his one ground of hope, is the divine assurance that "in due time
Christ died for the ungodly." Believe this, and all inability will disappear.
As it is fabled of Midas that he turned everything into gold by his touch, so it
is true of faith that it turns everything it touches into good. Our very needs and
weaknesses become blessings when faith deals with them.
Let us dwell upon certain forms of this want of strength. To begin with, one man
will say, "Sir, I do not seem to have strength to collect my thoughts, and keep
them fixed upon those solemn topics which concern my salvation; a short prayer is
almost too much for me. It is so partly, perhaps, through natural weakness, partly
because I have injured myself through dissipation, and partly also because I worry
myself with wordly cares, so that I am not capable of those high thoughts which are
necessary ere a soul can be saved." This is a very common form of sinful weakness.
Note this! You are without strength on this point; and there are many like you. They
could not carry out a train of consecutive thought to save their lives. Many poor
men and women are illiterate and untrained, and these would find deep thought to
be very heavy work. Others are so light and trifling by nature, that they could no
more follow out a long process of argument and reasoning, than they could fly. They
could never attain to the knowledge of any profound mystery if they expended their
whole life in the effort. You need not, therefore, despair: that which is necessary
to salvation is not continuous thought, but a simple reliance upon Jesus. Hold you
on to this one fact-- "In due time Christ died for the ungodly." This truth
will not require from you any deep research or profound reasoning, or convincing
argument. There it stands: "In due time Christ died for the ungodly." Fix
your mind on that, and rest there.
Let this one great, gracious, glorious fact lie in your spirit till it perfumes all
your thoughts, and makes you rejoice even though you are without strength, seeing
the Lord Jesus has become your strength and your song, yea, He has become your salvation.
According to the Scriptures it is a revealed fact, that in due time Christ died for
the ungodly when they were yet without strength. You have heard these words hundreds
of times, maybe, and yet you have never before perceived their meaning. There is
a cheering savor about them, is there not? Jesus did not die for our righteousness,
but He died for our sins. He did not come to save us because we were worth the saving,
but because we were utterly worthless, ruined, and undone. He came not to earth out
of any reason that was in us, but solely and only out of reasons which He fetched
from the depths of His own divine love. In due time He died for those whom He describes,
not as godly, but as ungodly, applying to them as hopeless an adjective as He could
well have selected. If you have but little mind, yet fasten it to this truth, which
is fitted to the smallest capacity, and is able to cheer the heaviest heart. Let
this text lie under your tongue like a sweet morsel, till it dissolves into your
heart and flavors all your thoughts; and then it will little matter though those
thoughts should be as scattered as autumn leaves. Persons who have never shone in
science, nor displayed the least originality of mind, have nevertheless been fully
able to accept the doctrine of the cross, and have been saved thereby. Why should
not you?
I hear another man cry, "Oh, sir my want of strength lies mainly in this, that
I cannot repent sufficiently!" A curious idea men have of what repentance is!
Many fancy that so many tears are to be shed, and so many groans are to be heaved,
and so much despair is to be endured. Whence comes this unreasonable notion? Unbelief
and despair are sins, and therefore I do not see how they can be constituent elements
of acceptable repentance; yet there are many who regard them as necessary parts of
true Christian experience. They are in great error. Still, I know what they mean,
for in the days of my darkness I used to feel in the same way. I desired to repent,
but I thought that I could not do it, and yet all the while I was repenting. Odd
as it may sound, I felt that I could not feel. I used to get into a corner and weep,
because I could not weep; and I fell into bitter sorrow because I could not sorrow
for sin. What a jumble it all is when in our unbelieving state we begin to judge
our own condition! It is like a blind man looking at his own eyes. My heart was melted
within me for fear, because I thought that my heart was as hard as an adamant stone.
My heart was broken to think that it would not break. Now I can see that I was exhibiting
the very thing which I thought I did not possess; but then I knew not where I was.
Oh that I could help others into the light which I now enjoy! Fain would I say a
word which might shorten the time of their bewilderment. I would say a few plain
words, and pray "the Comforter" to apply them to the heart.
Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance.
We can no more repent perfectly than we can live perfectly. However pure our tears,
there will always be some dirt in them: there will be something to be repented of
even in our best repentance. But listen! To repent is to change your mind about sin,
and Christ, and all the great things of God. There is sorrow implied in this; but
the main point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this turning,
you have the essence of true repentance, even though no alarm and no despair should
ever have cast their shadow upon your mind.
If you cannot repent as you would, it will greatly aid you to do so if you will firmly
believe that "in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Think of this again
and again. How can you continue to be hard-hearted when you know that out of supreme
love "Christ died for the ungodly"? Let me persuade you to reason with
yourself thus: Ungodly as I am, though this heart of steel will not relent, though
I smite in vain upon my breast, yet He died for such as I am, since He died for the
ungodly. Oh that I may believe this and feel the power of it upon my flinty heart!
Blot out every other reflection from your soul, and sit down by the hour together,
and meditate deeply on this one resplendent display of unmerited, unexpected, unexampled
love, "Christ died for the ungodly." Read over carefully the narrative
of the Lord's death, as you find it in the four evangelists. If anything can melt
your stubborn heart, it will be a sight of the sufferings of Jesus, and the consideration
that he suffered all this for His enemies.
O Jesus! sweet the tears I shed,
While at Thy feet I kneel,
Gaze on Thy wounded, fainting head,
And all Thy sorrows feel.
My heart dissolves to see Thee bleed,
This heart so hard before;
I hear Thee for the guilty plead,
And grief o'erflows the more.
'Twas for the sinful Thou didst die,
And I a sinner stand:
Convinc'd by Thine expiring eye,
Slain by Thy piercËd hand.
Surely the cross is that wonder-working rod which can bring water out of a rock.
If you understand the full meaning of the divine sacrifice of Jesus, you must repent
of ever having been opposed to One who is so full of love. It is written, "They
shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in
bitterness for his firstborn." Repentance will not make you see Christ; but
to see Christ will give you repentance. You may not make a Christ out of your repentance,
but you must look for repentance to Christ. The Holy Ghost, by turning us to Christ,
turns us from sin. Look away, then, from the effect to the cause, from your own repenting
to the Lord Jesus, who is exalted on high to give repentance.
I have heard another say, "I am tormented with horrible thoughts. Wherever I
go, blasphemies steal in upon me. Frequently at my work a dreadful suggestion forces
itself upon me, and even on my bed I am startled from my sleep by whispers of the
evil one. I cannot get away from this horrible temptation." Friend, I know what
you mean, for I have myself been hunted by this wolf. A man might as well hope to
fight a swarm of flies with a sword as to master his own thoughts when they are set
on by the devil. A poor tempted soul, assailed by satanic suggestions, is like a
traveler I have read of, about whose head and ears and whole body there came a swarm
of angry bees. He could not keep them off nor escape from them. They stung him everywhere
and threatened to be the death of him. I do not wonder you feel that you are without
strength to stop these hideous and abominable thoughts which Satan pours into your
soul; but yet I would remind you of the Scripture before us--"When we were yet
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Jesus knew where
we were and where we should be; He saw that we could not overcome the prince of the
power of the air; He knew that we should be greatly worried by him; but even then,
when He saw us in that condition, Christ died for the ungodly. Cast the anchor of
your faith upon this. The devil himself cannot tell you that you are not ungodly;
believe, then, that Jesus died even for such as you are. Remember Martin Luther's
way of cutting the devil's head off with his own sword. "Oh," said the
devil to Martin Luther, "you are a sinner." "Yes," said he, "Christ
died to save sinners." Thus he smote him with his own sword. Hide you in this
refuge, and keep there: "In due time Christ died for the ungodly." If you
stand to that truth, your blasphemous thoughts which you have not the strength to
drive away will go away of themselves; for Satan will see that he is answering no
purpose by plaguing you with them.
These thoughts, if you hate them, are none of yours, but are injections of the Devil,
for which he is responsible, and not you. If you strive against them, they are no
more yours than are the cursings and falsehoods of rioters in the street. It is by
means of these thoughts that the Devil would drive you to despair, or at least keep
you from trusting Jesus. The poor diseased woman could not come to Jesus for the
press, and you are in much the same condition, because of the rush and throng of
these dreadful thoughts. Still, she put forth her finger, and touched the fringe
of the Lord's garment, and she was healed. Do you the same.
Jesus died for those who are guilty of "all manner of sin and blasphemy,"
and therefore I am sure He will not refuse those who are unwillingly the captives
of evil thoughts. Cast yourself upon Him, thoughts and all, and see if He be not
mighty to save. He can still those horrible whisperings of the fiend, or He can enable
you to see them in their true light, so that you may not be worried by them. In His
own way He can and will save you, and at length give you perfect peace. Only trust
Him for this and everything else.
Sadly perplexing is that form of inability which lies in a supposed want of power
to believe. We are not strangers to the cry:
Oh that I could believe,
Then all would easy be;
I would, but cannot; Lord, relieve,
My help must come from thee.
Many remain in the dark for years because they have no power, as they say, to do
that which is the giving up of all power and reposing in the power of another, even
the Lord Jesus. Indeed, it is a very curious thing, this whole matter of believing;
for people do not get much help by trying to believe. Believing does not come by
trying. If a person were to make a statement of something that happened this day,
I should not tell him that I would try to believe him. If I believed in the truthfulness
of the man who told the incident to me and said that he saw it, I should accept the
statement at once. If I did not think him a true man, I should, of course, disbelieve
him; but there would be no trying in the matter. Now, when God declares that there
is salvation in Christ Jesus, I must either believe Him at once, or make Him a liar.
Surely you will not hesitate as to which is the right path in this case, The witness
of God must be true, and we are bound at once to believe in Jesus.
But possibly you have been trying to believe too much. Now do not aim at great things.
Be satisfied to have a faith that can hold in its hand this one truth, "While
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." He laid
down His life for men while as yet they were not believing in Him, nor were able
to believe in Him. He died for men, not as believers, but as sinners. He came to
make these sinners into believers and saints; but when He died for them He viewed
them as utterly without strength. If you hold to the truth that Christ died for the
ungodly, and believe it, your faith will save you, and you may go in peace. If you
will trust your soul with Jesus, who died for the ungodly, even though you cannot
believe all things, nor move mountains, nor do any other wonderful works, yet you
are saved. It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies
not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith trusts. Faith as a grain of mustard
seed will bring salvation. It is not the measure of faith, but the sincerity of faith,
which is the point to be considered. Surely a man can believe what he knows to be
true; and as you know Jesus to be true, you, my friend, can believe in Him.
The cross which is the object of faith, is also, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
the cause of it. Sit down and watch the dying Saviour till faith springs up spontaneously
in your heart. There is no place like Calvary for creating confidence. The air of
that sacred hill brings health to trembling faith. Many a watcher there has said:
While I view Thee, wounded, grieving,
Breathless on the cursed tree,
Lord, I feel my heart believing
That Thou suffer'dst thus for me.
"Alas!" cries another, "my want of strength lies in this direction,
that I cannot quit my sin, and I know that I cannot go to Heaven and carry my sin
with me." I am glad that you know that, for it is quite true. You must be divorced
from your sin, or you cannot be married to Christ. Recollect the question which flashed
into the mind of young Bunyan when at his sports on the green on Sunday: "Wilt
thou have thy sins and go to hell, or wilt thou quit thy sins and go to heaven?"
That brought him to a dead stand. That is a question which every man will have to
answer: for there is no going on in sin and going to heaven. That cannot be. You
must quit sin or quit hope. Do you reply, "Yes, I am willing enough. To will
is present with me, but how to perform that which l would I find not. Sin masters
me, and I have no strength." Come, then, if you have no strength, this text
is still true, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for
the ungodly." Can you still believe that? However other things may seem to contradict
it, will you believe it? God has said it, and it is a fact; therefore, hold on to
it like grim death, for your only hope lies there. Believe this and trust Jesus,
and you shall soon find power with which to slay your sin; but apart from Him, the
strong man armed will hold you for ever his bond slave. Personally, I could never
have overcome my own sinfulness. I tried and failed. My evil propensities were too
many for me, till, in the belief that Christ died for me, I cast my guilty soul on
Him, and then I received a conquering principle by which I overcame my sinful self.
The doctrine of the cross can be used to slay sin, even as the old warriors used
their huge two- handed swords, and mowed down their foes at every stroke. There is
nothing like faith in the sinner's Friend: it overcomes all evil. If Christ has died
for me, ungodly as I am, without strength as I am, then I cannot live in sin any
longer, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who hath redeemed me. I cannot
trifle with the evil which slew my best Friend. I must be holy for His sake. How
can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?
See what a splendid help this is to you that are without strength, to know and believe
that in due time Christ died for such ungodly ones as you are. Have you caught the
idea yet? It is, somehow, so difficult for our darkened, prejudiced, and unbelieving
minds to see the essence of the gospel. At times I have thought, when I have done
preaching, that I have laid down the gospel so clearly, that the nose on one's face
could not be more plain; and yet I perceive that even intelligent hearers have failed
to understand what was meant by "Look unto me and be ye saved." Converts
usually say that they did not know the gospel till such and such a day; and yet they
had heard it for years. The gospel is unknown, not from want of explanation, but
from absence of personal revelation. This the Holy Ghost is ready to give, and will
give to those who ask Him. Yet when given, the sum total of the truth revealed all
lies within these words: "Christ died for the ungodly."
I hear another bewailing himself thus: "Oh, sir, my weakness lies in this, that
I do not seem to keep long in one mind! I hear the word on a Sunday, and I am impressed;
but in the week I meet with an evil companion, and my good feelings are all gone.
My fellow workmen do not believe in anything, and they say such terrible things,
and I do not know how to answer them, and so I find myself knocked over." I
know this Plastic Pliable very well, and I tremble for him; but at the same time,
if he is really sincere, his weakness can be met by divine grace. The Holy Spirit
can cast out the evil spirit of the fear of man. He can make the coward brave. Remember,
my poor vacillating friend, you must not remain in this state. It will never do to
be mean and beggarly to yourself. Stand upright, and look at yourself, and see if
you were ever meant to be like a toad under a harrow, afraid for your life either
to move or to stand still. Do have a mind of your own. This is not a spiritual matter
only, but one which concerns ordinary manliness. I would do many things to please
my friends; but to go to hell to please them is more than I would venture. It may
be very well to do this and that for good fellowship; but it will never do to lose
the friendship of God in order to keep on good terms with men. "I know that,"
says the man, "but still, though I know it, I cannot pluck up courage. I cannot
show my colors. I cannot stand fast." Well, to you also I have the same text
to bring: "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly." If Peter were here, he would say, "The Lord Jesus died for me
even when I was such a poor weak creature that the maid who kept the fire drove me
to lie, and to swear that I knew not the Lord." Yes, Jesus died for those who
forsook him and fled. Take a firm grip on this truth--"Christ died for the ungodly
while they were yet without strength." This is your way out of your cowardice.
Get this wrought into your soul, "Christ died for me," and you will soon
be ready to die for Him. Believe it, that He suffered in your place and stead, and
offered for you a full, true, and satisfactory expiation. If you believe that fact,
you will be forced to feel, "I cannot be ashamed of Him who died for me."
A full conviction that this is true will nerve you with a dauntless courage. Look
at the saints in the martyr age. In the early days of Christianity, when this great
thought of Christ's exceeding love was sparkling in all its freshness in the church,
men were not only ready to die, but they grew ambitious to suffer, and even presented
themselves by hundreds at the judgment seats of the rulers, confessing the Christ.
I do not say that they were wise to court a cruel death; but it proves my point,
that a sense of the love of Jesus lifts the mind above all fear of what man can do
to us. Why should it not produce the same effect in you? Oh that it might now inspire
you with a brave resolve to come out upon the Lord's side, and be His follower to
the end!
May the Holy Spirit help us to come thus far by faith in the Lord Jesus, and it will
be well!
THE INCREASE OF FAITH.
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HOW CAN WE OBTAIN an increase of faith? This is a very earnest
question to many. They say they want to believe, but cannot. A great deal of nonsense
is talked upon this subject. Let us be strictly practical in our dealing with it.
Common sense is as much needed in religion as anywhere else. "What am I to do
in order to believe?" One who was asked the best way to do a certain simple
act, replied that the best way to do it was to do it at once. We waste time in discussing
methods when the action is simple. The shortest way to believe is to believe. If
the Holy Spirit has made you candid, you will believe as soon as truth is set before
you. You will believe it because it is true. The gospel command is clear; "Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." It is idle to evade this
by questions and quibbles. The order is plain; let it be obeyed.
But still, if you have difficulty, take it before God in prayer. Tell the great Father
exactly what it is that puzzles you, and beg Him by His Holy Spirit to solve the
question. If I cannot believe a statement in a book, I am glad to inquire of the
author what he means by it; and if he is a true man his explanation will satisfy
me; much more will the divine explanation of the hard points of Scripture satisfy
the heart of the true seeker. The Lord is willing to make himself known; go to Him
and see if it is not so. Repair at once to your closet, and cry, "O Holy Spirit,
lead me into the truth! What I know not, teach Thou me."
Furthermore, if faith seems difficult, it is possible that God the Holy Spirit will
enable you to believe if you hear very frequently and earnestly that which you are
commanded to believe. We believe many things because we have heard them so often.
Do you not find it so in common life, that if you hear a thing fifty times a day,
at last you come to believe it? Some men have come to believe very unlikely statements
by this process, and therefore I do not wonder that the good Spirit often blesses
the method of often hearing the truth, and uses it to work faith concerning that
which is to be believed. It is written, "Faith cometh by hearing"; therefore
hear often. If I earnestly and attentively hear the gospel, one of these days I shall
find myself believing that which I hear, through the blessed operation of the Spirit
of God upon my mind. Only mind you hear the gospel, and do not distract your mind
with either hearing or reading that which is designed to stagger you.
If that, however, should seem poor advice, I would add next, consider the testimony
of others. The Samaritans believed because of what the woman told them concerning
Jesus. Many of our beliefs arise out of the testimony of others. I believe that there
is such a country as Japan; I never saw it, and yet I believe that there is such
a place because others have been there. I believe that I shall die; I have never
died, but a great many have done so whom I once knew, and therefore I have a conviction
that I shall die also. The testimony of many convinces me of that fact. Listen, then,
to those who tell you how they were saved, how they were pardoned, how they were
changed in character. If you will look into the matter you will find that somebody
just like yourself has been saved. If you have been a thief, you will find that a
thief rejoiced to wash away his sin in the fountain of Christ's blood. If unhappily
you have been unchaste, you will find that men and women who have fallen in that
way have been cleansed and changed. If you are in despair, you have only to get among
God's people, and inquire a little, and you will discover that some of the saints
have been equally in despair at times and they will be pleased to tell you how the
Lord delivered them. As you listen to one after another of those who have tried the
word of God, and proved it, the divine Spirit will lead you to believe. Have you
not heard of the African who was told by the missionary that water sometimes became
so hard that a man could walk on it? He declared that he believed a great many things
the missionary had told him; but he would never believe that. When he came to England
it came to pass that one frosty day he saw the river frozen, but he would not venture
on it. He knew that it was a deep river, and he felt certain that he would be drowned
if he ventured upon it. He could not be induced to walk the frozen water till his
friend and many others went upon it; then he was persuaded, and trusted himself where
others had safely ventured. So, while you see others believe in the Lamb of God,
and notice their joy and peace, you will yourself be gently led to believe. The experience
of others is one of God's ways of helping us to faith. You have either to believe
in Jesus or die; there is no hope for you but in Him.
A better plan is this--note the authority upon which you are commanded to believe,
and this will greatly help you to faith. The authority is not mine, or you might
well reject it. But you are commanded to believe upon the authority of God himself.
He bids you believe in Jesus Christ, and you must not refuse to obey your Maker.
The foreman of a certain works had often heard the gospel, but he was troubled with
the fear that he might not come to Christ. His good master one day sent a card around
to the works--"Come to my house immediately after work." The foreman appeared
at his master's door, and the master came out, and said somewhat roughly, "What
do you want, John, troubling me at this time? Work is done, what right have you here?"
"Sir," said he, "I had a card from you saying that I was to come after
work." "Do you mean to say that merely because you had a card from me you
are to come up to my house and call me out after business hours?" "Well,
Sir," replied the foreman, "I do not understand you, but it seems to me
that, as you sent for me, I had a right to come." "Come in, John,"
said his master, "I have another message that I want to read to you," and
he sat down and read these words: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." "Do you think after such a message from
Christ that you can be wrong in coming to him?" The poor man saw it all at once,
and believed in the Lord Jesus unto eternal life, because he perceived that he had
good warrant and authority for believing. So have you, poor soul! You have good authority
for coming to Christ, for the Lord himself bids you trust Him.
If that does not breed faith in you, think over what it is that you have to believe--that
the Lord Jesus Christ suffered in the place and stead of sinners, and is able to
save all who trust Him. Why, this is the most blessed fact that ever men were told
to believe; the most suitable, the most comforting, the most divine truth that was
ever set before mortal minds. I advise you to think much upon it, and search out
the grace and love which it contains. Study the four Evangelists, study Paul's epistles,
and then see if the message is not such a credible one that you are forced to believe
it.
If that does not do, then think upon the person of Jesus Christ--think of who He
is, and what He did, and where He is, and what He is. How can you doubt Him? It is
cruelty to distrust the ever truthful Jesus. He has done nothing to deserve distrust;
on the contrary, it should be easy to rely upon Him. Why crucify Him anew by unbelief?
Is not this crowning Him with thorns again, and spitting upon Him again? What! is
He not to be trusted? What worse insult did the soldiers pour upon Him than this?
They made Him a martyr; but you make Him a liar--this is worse by far. Do not ask
how can I believe? But answer another question--How can you disbelieve?
If none of these things avail, then there is something wrong about you altogether,
and my last word is, submit yourself to God! Prejudice or pride is at the bottom
of this unbelief. May the Spirit of God take away your enmity and make you yield.
You are a rebel, a proud rebel, and that is why you do not believe your God. Give
up your rebellion; throw down your weapons; yield at discretion, surrender to your
King. I believe that never did a soul throw up its hands in self-despair, and cry,
"Lord, I yield," but what faith became easy to it before long. It is because
you still have a quarrel with God, and resolve to have your own will and your own
way, that therefore you cannot believe. "How can ye believe," said Christ,
"that have honor one of another?" Proud self creates unbelief. Submit,
O man. Yield to your God, and then shall you sweetly believe in your Saviour. May
the Holy Ghost now work secretly but effectually with you, and bring you at this
very moment to believe in the Lord Jesus! Amen.
REGENERATION AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.
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YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN." This word of our Lord Jesus has appeared
to flame in the way of many, like the drawn sword of the cherub at the gate of Paradise.
They have despaired, because this change is beyond their utmost effort. The new birth
is from above, and therefore it is not in the creature's power. Now, it is far from
my mind to deny, or ever to conceal, a truth in order to create a false comfort.
I freely admit that the new birth is supernatural, and that it cannot be wrought
by the sinner's own self. It would be a poor help to my reader if I were wicked enough
to try to cheer him by persuading him to reject or forget what is unquestionably
true.
But is it not remarkable that the very chapter in which our Lord makes this sweeping
declaration also contains the most explicit statement as to salvation by faith? Read
the third chapter of John's Gospel and do not dwell alone upon its earlier sentences.
It is true that the third verse says:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
But, then, the fourteenth and fifteenth verses speak: And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
The eighteenth verse repeats the same doctrine in the broadest terms: He that believeth
on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
It is clear to every reader that these two statements must agree, since they came
from the same lips, and are recorded on the same inspired page. Why should we make
a difficulty where there can be none? If one statement assures us of the necessity
to salvation of a something, which only God can give, and if another assures us that
the Lord will save us upon our believing in Jesus, then we may safely conclude that
the Lord will give to those who believe all that is declared to be necessary to salvation.
The Lord does, in fact, produce the new birth in all who believe in Jesus; and their
believing is the surest evidence that they are born again.
We trust in Jesus for what we cannot do ourselves: if it were in our own power, what
need of looking to Him? It is ours to believe, it is the Lord's to create us anew.
He will not believe for us, neither are we to do regenerating work for Him. It is
enough for us to obey the gracious command; it is for the Lord to work the new birth
in us. He who could go so far as to die on the cross for us, can and will give us
all things that are needful for our eternal safety.
"But a saving change of heart is the work of the Holy Spirit." This also
is most true, and let it be far from us to question it, or to forget it. But the
work of the Holy Spirit is secret and mysterious, and it can only be perceived by
its results. There are mysteries about our natural birth into which it would be an
unhallowed curiosity to pry: still more is this the case with the sacred operations
of the Spirit of God. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; so is every
one that is born of the Spirit." This much, however, we do know--the mysterious
work of the Holy Spirit cannot be a reason for refusing to believe in Jesus to whom
that same Spirit beareth witness.
If a man were bidden to sow a field, he could not excuse his neglect by saying that
it would be useless to sow unless God caused the seed to grow. He would not be justified
in neglecting tillage because the secret energy of God alone can create a harvest.
No one is hindered in the ordinary pursuits of life by the fact that unless the Lord
build the house they labor in vain that build it. It is certain that no man who believes
in Jesus will ever find that the Holy Spirit refuses to work in him: in fact, his
believing is the proof that the Spirit is already at work in his heart.
God works in providence, but men do not therefore sit still. They could not move
without the divine power giving them life and strength, and yet they proceed upon
their way without question; the power being bestowed from day to day by Him in whose
hand their breath is, and whose are all their ways. So is it in grace. We repent
and believe, though we could do neither if the Lord did not enable us. We forsake
sin and trust in Jesus, and then we perceive that the Lord has wrought in us to will
and to do of His own good pleasure. It is idle to pretend that there is any real
difficulty in the matter.
Some truths which it is hard to explain in words are simple enough in actual experience.
There is no discrepancy between the truth that the sinner believes, and that his
faith is wrought in him by the Holy Spirit. Only folly can lead men to puzzle themselves
about plain matters while their souls are in danger. No man would refuse to enter
a lifeboat because he did not know the specific gravity of bodies; neither would
a starving man decline to eat till he understood the whole process of mutrition.
If you, my reader, will not believe till you can understand all mysteries, you will
never be saved at all; and if you allow self- invented difficulties to keep you from
accepting pardon through your Lord and Saviour, you will perish in a condemnation
which will be richly deserved. Do not commit spiritual suicide through a passion
for discussing metaphysical subtleties.
"MY REDEEMER LIVETH."
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CONTINUALLY have I spoken to the reader concerning Christ crucified,
who is the great hope of the guilty; but it is our wisdom to remember that our Lord
has risen from the dead and lives eternally.
You are not asked to trust in a dead Jesus, but in One who, though He died for our
sins, has risen again for our justification. You may go to Jesus at once as to a
living and present friend. He is not a mere memory, but a continually existent Person
who will hear your prayers and answer them. He lives on purpose to carry on the work
for which He once laid down His life. He is interceding for sinners at the right
hand of the Father, and for this reason He is able to save them to the uttermost
who come unto God by Him. Come and try this living Saviour, if you have never done
so before.
This living Jesus is also raised to an eminence of glory and power. He does not now
sorrow as "a humble man before his foes," nor labor as "the carpenter's
son"; but He is exalted far above principalities and power and every name that
is named. The Father has given Him all power in Heaven and in earth, and he exercises
this high endowment in carrying out His work of grace. Hear what Peter and the other
apostles testified concerning Him before the high priest and the council:
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance
to Israel, and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:30, 31).
The glory which surrounds the ascended Lord should breathe hope into every believer's
breast. Jesus is no mean person--He is "a Saviour and a great one." He
is the crowned and enthroned Redeemer of men. The sovereign prerogative of life and
death is vested in Him; the Father has put all men under the mediatorial government
of the Son, so that He can quicken whom He will. He openeth, and no man shutteth.
At His word the soul which is bound by the cords of sin and condemnation can be unloosed
in a moment. He stretches out the silver scepter, and whosoever touches it lives.
It is well for us that as sin lives, and the flesh lives, and the devil lives, so
Jesus lives; and it is also well that whatever might these may have to ruin us, Jesus
has still greater power to save us.
All His exaltation and ability are on our account. "He is exalted to be,"
and exalted "to give." He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, that
He may give all that is needed to accomplish the salvation of all who come under
His rule. Jesus has nothing which He will not use for a sinner's salvation, and He
is nothing which He will not display in the aboundings of His grace. He links His
princedom with His Saviour-ship, as if He would not have the one without the other;
and He sets forth His exaltation as designed to bring blessings to men, as if this
were the flower and crown of His glory. Could anything be more calculated to raise
the hopes of seeking sinners who are looking Christward?
Jesus endured great humiliation, and therefore there was room for Him to be exalted.
By that humiliation He accomplished and endured all the Father's will, and therefore
He was rewarded by being raised to glory. He uses that exaltation on behalf of His
people. Let my reader raise his eyes to these hills of glory, whence his help must
come. Let him contemplate the high glories of the Prince and Saviour. Is it not most
hopeful for men that a Man is now on the throne of the universe? Is it not glorious
that the Lord of all is the Saviour of sinners? We have a Friend at court; yea, a
Friend on the throne. He will use all His influence for those who entrust their affairs
in His hands. Well does one of our poets sing:
He ever lives to intercede
Before His Father's face;
Give Him, my soul,
Thy cause to plead,
No doubt the Father's grace.
Come, friend, and commit your cause and your case to those once pierced hands, which
are now glorified with the signet rings of royal power and honor. No suit ever failed
which was left with this great Advocate.
REPENTANCE MUST GO WITH FORGIVENESS.
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IT IS CLEAR from the text which we have lately quoted that repentance
is bound up with the forgiveness of sins. In Acts 5:31 we read that Jesus is "exalted
to give repentance and forgiveness of sins." These two blessings come from that
sacred hand which once was nailed to the tree, but is now raised to glory. Repentance
and forgiveness are riveted together by the eternal purpose of God. What God hath
joined together let no man put asunder.
Repentance must go with remission, and you will see that it is so if you think a
little upon the matter. It cannot be that pardon of sin should be given to an impenitent
sinner; this were to confirm him in his evil ways, and to teach him to think little
of evil. If the Lord were to say, "You love sin, and live in it, and you are
going on from bad to worse, but, all the same, I forgive you," this were to
proclaim a horrible license for iniquity. The foundations of social order would be
removed, and moral anarchy would follow. I cannot tell what innumerable mischiefs
would certainly occur if you could divide repentance and forgiveness, and pass by
the sin while the sinner remained as fond of it as ever. In the very nature of things,
if we believe in the holiness of God, it must be so, that if we continue in our sin,
and will not repent of it, we cannot be forgiven, but must reap the consequence of
our obstinacy. According to the infinite goodness of God, we are promised that if
we will forsake our sins, confessing them, and will, by faith, accept the grace which
is provided in Christ Jesus, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But, so long as God lives, there can be no
promise of mercy to those who continue in their evil ways, and refuse to acknowledge
their wrongdoing. Surely no rebel can expect the King to pardon his treason while
he remains in open revolt. No one can be so foolish as to imagine that the Judge
of all the earth will put away our sins if we refuse to put them away ourselves.
Moreover, it must be so for the completeness of divine mercy. That mercy which could
forgive the sin and yet let the sinner live in it would be scant and superficial
mercy. It would be unequal and deformed mercy, lame upon one of its feet, and withered
as to one of its hands. Which, think you, is the greater privilege, cleansing from
the guilt of sin, or deliverance from the power of sin? I will not attempt to weigh
in the scales two mercies so surpassing. Neither of them could have come to us apart
from the precious blood of Jesus. But it seems to me that to be delivered from the
dominion of sin, to be made holy, to be made like to God, must be reckoned the greater
of the two, if a comparison has to be drawn. To be forgiven is an immeasurable favor.
We make this one of the first notes of our psalm of praise: "Who forgiveth all
thine iniquities." But if we could be forgiven, and then could be permitted
to love sin, to riot in iniquity, and to wallow in lust, what would be the use of
such a forgiveness? Might it not turn out to be a poisoned sweet, which would most
effectually destroy us? To be washed, and yet to lie in the mire; to be pronounced
clean, and yet to have the leprosy white on one's brow, would be the veriest mockery
of mercy. What is it to bring the man out of his sepulcher if you leave him dead?
Why lead him into the light if he is still blind? We thank God, that He who forgives
our iniquities also heals our diseases. He who washes us from the stains of the past
also uplifts us from the foul ways of the present, and keeps us from failing in the
future. We must joyfully accept both repentance and remission; they cannot be separated.
The covenant heritage is one and indivisible, and must not be parceled out. To divide
the work of grace would be to cut the living child in halves, and those who would
permit this have no interest in it.
I will ask you who are seeking the Lord, whether you would be satisfied with one
of these mercies alone? Would it content you, my reader, if God would forgive you
your sin and then allow you to be as worldly and wicked as before? Oh, no! The quickened
spirit is more afraid of sin itself than of the penal results of it. The cry of your
heart is not, "Who shall deliver me from punishment?" but, "O wretched
man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who shall enable
me to live above temptation, and to become holy, even as God is holy?" Since
the unity of repentance with remission agrees with gracious desire, and since it
is necessary for the completeness of salvation, and for holiness' sake, rest you
sure that it abides.
Repentance and forgiveness are joined together in the experience of all believers.
There never was a person yet who did unfeignedly repent of sin with believing repentance
who was not forgiven; and on the other hand, there never was a person forgiven who
had not repented of his sin. I do not hesitate to say that beneath the copes of Heaven
there never was, there is not, and there never will be, any case of sin being washed
away, unless at the same time the heart was led to repentance and faith in Christ.
Hatred of sin and a sense of pardon come together into the soul, and abide together
while we live.
These two things act and react upon each other: the man who is forgiven, therefore
repents; and the man who repents is also most assuredly forgiven. Remember first,
that forgiveness leads to repentance. As we sing in Hart's words:
Law and terrors do but harden,
All the while they work alone;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Soon dissolves a heart of stone.
When we are sure that we are forgiven, then we abhor iniquity; and I suppose that
when faith grows into full assurance, so that we are certain beyond a doubt that
the blood of Jesus has washed us whiter than snow, it is then that repentance reaches
to its greatest height. Repentance grows as faith grows. Do not make any mistake
about it; repentance is not a thing of days and weeks, a temporary penance to be
over as fast as possible! No; it is the grace of a lifetime, like faith itself. God's
little children repent, and so do the young men and the fathers. Repentance is the
inseparable companion of faith. All the while that we walk by faith and not by sight,
the tear of repentance glitters in the eye of faith. That is not true repentance
which does not come of faith in Jesus, and that is not true faith in Jesus which
is not tinctured with repentance. Faith and repentance, like Siamese twins, are vitally
joined together. In proportion as we believe in the forgiving love of Christ, in
that proportion we repent; and in proportion as we repent of sin and hate evil, we
rejoice in the fullness of the absolution which Jesus is exalted to bestow. You will
never value pardon unless you feel repentance; and you will never taste the deepest
draught of repentance until you know that you are pardoned. It may seem a strange
thing, but so it is--the bitterness of repentance and the sweetness of pardon blend
in the flavor of every gracious life, and make up an incomparable happiness.
These two covenant gifts are the mutual assurance of each other. If I know that I
repent, I know that I am forgiven. How am I to know that I am forgiven except I know
also that I am turned from my former sinful course? To be a believer is to be a penitent.
Faith and repentance are but two spokes in the same wheel, two handles of the same
plough. Repentance has been well described as a heart broken for sin, and from sin;
and it may equally well be spoken of as turning and returning. It is a change of
mind of the most thorough and radical sort, and it is attended with sorrow for the
past, and a resolve of amendment in the future.
Repentance is to leave
The sins we loved before;
And show that we in earnest grieve,
By doing so no more.
Now, when that is the case, we may be certain that we are forgiven; for the Lord
never made a heart to be broken for sin and broken from sin, without pardoning it.
If, on the other hand, we are enjoying pardon, through the blood of Jesus, and are
justified by faith, and have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, we know
that our repentance and faith are of the right sort.
Do not regard your repentance as the cause of your remission, but as the companion
of it. Do not expect to be able to repent until you see the grace of our Lord Jesus,
and His readiness to blot out your sin. Keep these blessed things in their places,
and view them in their relation to each other. They are the Jachin and Boaz of a
saving experience; I mean that they are comparable to Solomon's two great pillars
which stood in the forefront of the house of the Lord, and formed a majestic entrance
to the holy place. No man comes to God aright except he passes between the pillars
of repentance and remission. Upon your heart the rainbow of covenant grace has been
displayed in all its beauty when the tear-drops of repentance have been shone upon
by the light of full forgiveness. Repentance of sin and faith in divine pardon are
the warp and woof of the fabric of real conversion. By these tokens shall you know
an Israelite indeed.
To come back to the Scripture upon which we are meditating: both forgiveness and
repentance flow from the same source, and are given by the same Saviour. The Lord
Jesus in His glory bestows both upon the same persons. You are neither to find the
remission nor the repentance elsewhere. Jesus has both ready, and He is prepared
to bestow them now, and to bestow them most freely on all who will accept them at
His hands. Let it never be forgotten that Jesus gives all that is needful for our
salvation. It is highly important that all seekers after mercy should remember this.
Faith is as much the gift of God as is the Saviour upon whom that faith relies. Repentance
of sin is as truly the work of grace as the making of an atonement by which sin is
blotted out. Salvation, from first to last, is of grace alone. You will not misunderstand
me. It is not the Holy Spirit who repents. He has never done anything for which He
should repent. If He could repent, it would not meet the case; we must ourselves
repent of our own sin, or we are not saved from its power. It is not the Lord Jesus
Christ who repents. What should He repent of? We ourselves repent with the full consent
of every faculty of our mind. The will, the affections, the emotions, all work together
most heartily in the blessed act of repentance for sin; and yet at the back of all
that is our personal act, there is a secret holy influence which melts the heart,
gives contrition, and produces a complete change. The Spirit of God enlightens us
to see what sin is, and thus makes it loathsome in our eyes. The Spirit of God also
turns us toward holiness, makes us heartily to appreciate, love, and desire it, and
thus gives us the impetus by which we are led onward from stage to stage of sanctification.
The Spirit of God works in us to will and to do according to God's good pleasure.
To that good Spirit let us submit ourselves at once, that He may lead us to Jesus,
who will freely give us the double benediction of repentance and remission, according
to the riches of His grace.
"BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED."
HOW REPENTANCE IS GIVEN.
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TO RETURN to the grand text: "Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness
of sins." Our Lord Jesus Christ has gone up that grace may come down. His glory
is employed to give greater currency to His grace. The Lord has not taken a step
upward except with the design of bearing believing sinners upward with Him. He is
exalted to give repentance; and this we shall see if we remember a few great truths.
The work which our Lord Jesus has done has made repentance possible, available, and
acceptable. The law makes no mention of repentance, but says plainly, "The soul
that sinneth, it shall die." If the Lord Jesus had not died and risen again
and gone unto the Father, what would your repenting or mine be worth? We might feel
remorse with its horrors, but never repentance with its hopes. Repentance, as a natural
feeling, is a common duty deserving no great praise: indeed, it is so generally mingled
with a selfish fear of punishment, that the kindliest estimate makes but little of
it. Had not Jesus interposed and wrought out a wealth of merit, our tears of repentance
would have been so much water spilled upon the ground. Jesus is exalted on high,
that through the virtue of His intercession repentance may have a place before God.
In this respect He gives us repentance, because He puts repentance into a position
of acceptance, which otherwise it could never have occupied.
When Jesus was exalted on high, the Spirit of God was poured out to work in us all
needful graces. The Holy Ghost creates repentance in us by supernaturally renewing
our nature, and taking away the heart of stone out of our flesh. Oh, sit not down
straining those eyes of yours to fetch out impossible tears! Repentance comes not
from unwilling nature, but from free and sovereign grace. Get not to your chamber
to smite your breast in order to fetch from a heart of stone feelings which are not
there. But go to Calvary and see how Jesus died. Look upward to the hills whence
comes your help. The Holy Ghost has come on purpose that He may overshadow men's
spirits and breed repentance within them, even as once He brooded over chaos and
brought forth order. Breathe your prayer to Him, "Blessed Spirit, dwell with
me. Make me tender and lowly of heart, that I may hate sin and unfeignedly repent
of it." He will hear your cry and answer you.
Remember, too, that when our Lord Jesus was exalted, He not only gave us repentance
by sending forth the Holy Spirit, but by consecrating all the works of nature and
of providence to the great ends of our salvation, so that any one of them may call
us to repentance, whether it crow like Peter's cock, or shake the prison like the
jailer's earthquake. From the right hand of God our Lord Jesus rules all things here
below, and makes them work together for the salvation of His redeemed. He uses both
bitters and sweets, trials and joys, that He may produce in sinners a better mind
toward their God. Be thankful for the providence which has made you poor, or sick,
or sad; for by all this Jesus works the life of your spirit and turns you to Himself.
The Lord's mercy often rides to the door of our hearts on the black horse of affliction.
Jesus uses the whole range of our experience to wean us from earth and woo us to
Heaven. Christ is exalted to the throne of Heaven and earth in order that, by all
the processes of His providence, He may subdue hard hearts unto the gracious softening
of repentance.
Besides, He is at work at this hour by all His whispers in the conscience, by His
inspired Book, by those of us who speak out of that Book, and by praying friends
and earnest hearts. He can send a word to you which shall strike your rocky heart
as with the rod of Moses, and cause streams of repentance to flow forth. He can bring
to your mind some heart-breaking text out of Holy Scripture which shall conquer you
right speedily. He can mysteriously soften you, and cause a holy frame of mind to
steal over you when you least look for it. Be sure of this, that He who is gone into
His glory, raised into all the splendor and majesty of God, has abundant ways of
working repentance in those to whom He grants forgiveness. He is even now waiting
to give repentance to you. Ask Him for it at once.
Observe with much comfort that the Lord Jesus Christ gives this repentance to the
most unlikely people in the world. He is exalted to give repentance to Israel. To
Israel! In the days when the apostles thus spoke, Israel was the nation which had
most grossly sinned against light and love, by daring to say, "His blood be
on us and on our children." Yet Jesus is exalted to give them repentance! What
a marvel of grace! If you have been brought up in the brightest of Christian light,
and yet have rejected it, there is still hope. If you have sinned against conscience,
and against the Holy Spirit, and against the love of Jesus, there is yet space for
repentance. Though you may be as hard as unbelieving Israel of old, softening may
yet come to you, since Jesus is exalted, and clothed with boundless power. For those
who went the furthest in iniquity, and sinned with special aggravation, the Lord
Jesus is exalted to give to them repentance and forgiveness of sins. Happy am I to
have so full a gospel to proclaim! Happy are you to be allowed to read it!
The hearts of the children of Israel had grown hard as an adamant stone. Luther used
to think it impossible to convert a Jew. We are far from agreeing with him, and yet
we must admit that the seed of Israel have been exceedingly obstinate in their rejection
of the Saviour during these many centuries. Truly did the Lord say, "Israel
would none of me." "He came to his own and his own received him not."
Yet on behalf of Israel our Lord Jesus is exalted for the giving of repentance and
remission. Probably my reader is a Gentile; but yet he may have a very stubborn heart,
which has stood out against the Lord Jesus for many years; and yet in him our Lord
can work repentance. It may be that you will yet feel compelled to write as William
Hone did when he yielded to divine love. He was the author of those most entertaining
volumes called the "Everyday Book," but he was once a stout-hearted infidel.
When subdued by sovereign grace, he wrote:
The proudest heart that ever beat
Hath been subdued in me;
The wildest will that ever rose
To scorn Thy cause and aid Thy foes
Is quell'd my Lord, by Thee.
Thy will, and not my will be done,
My heart be ever Thine;
Confessing Thee the mighty Word,
My Saviour Christ, my God, my Lord,
Thy cross shall be my sign.
The Lord can give repentance to the most unlikely, turning lions into lambs, and
ravens into doves. Let us look to Him that this great change may be wrought in us.
Assuredly the contemplation of the death of Christ is one of the surest and speediest
methods of gaining repentance. Do not sit down and try to pump up repentance from
the dry well of corrupt nature. It is contrary to the laws of mind to suppose that
you can force your soul into that gracious state. Take your heart in prayer to Him
who understands it, and say, "Lord, cleanse it. Lord, renew it. Lord, work repentance
in it." The more you try to produce penitent emotions in yourself, the more
you will be disappointed; but if you believingly think of Jesus dying for you, repentance
will burst forth. Meditate on the Lord's shedding His heart's blood out of love to
you. Set before your mind's eye the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion;
and, as you do this, He who was the bearer of all this grief will look at you, and
with that look He will do for you what He did for Peter, so that you also will go
out and weep bitterly. He who died for you can, by His gracious Spirit, make you
die to sin; and He who has gone into glory on your behalf can draw your soul after
Him, away from evil, and toward holiness.
I shall be content if I leave this one thought with you; look not beneath the ice
to find fire, neither hope in your own natural heart to find repentance. Look to
the Living One for life. Look to Jesus for all you need between Hell Gate and Heaven
Gate. Never seek elsewhere for any part of that which Jesus loves to bestow; but
remember,
Christ is all.
THE FEAR OF FINAL FALLING.
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A DARK FEAR haunts the minds of many who are coming to Christ;
they are afraid that they shall not persevere to the end. I have heard the seeker
say: "If I were to cast my soul upon Jesus, yet peradventure I should after
all draw back into perdition. I have had good feelings before now, and they have
died away. My goodness has been as the morning cloud, and as the early dew. It has
come on a sudden, lasted for a season, promised much, and then vanished away."
I believe that this fear is often the father of the fact; and that some who have
been afraid to trust Christ for all time, and for all eternity, have failed because
they had a temporary faith, which never went far enough to save them. They set out
trusting to Jesus in a measure, but looking to themselves for continuance and perseverance
in the heavenward way; and so they set out faultily, and, as a natural consequence,
turned back before long. If we trust to ourselves for our holding on we shall not
hold on. Even though we rest in Jesus for a part of our salvation, we shall fail
if we trust to self for anything. No chain is stronger than its weakest link: if
Jesus be our hope for everything, except one thing, we shall utterly fail, because
in that one point we shall come to nought. I have no doubt whatever that a mistake
about the perseverance of the saints has prevented the perseverance of many who did
run well. What did hinder them that they should not continue to run? They trusted
to themselves for that running, and so they stopped short. Beware of mixing even
a little of self with the mortar with which you build, or you will make it untempered
mortar, and the stones will not hold together. If you look to Christ for your beginnings,
beware of looking to yourself for your endings. He is Alpha. See to it that you make
Him Omega also. If you begin in the Spirit you must not hope to be made perfect by
the flesh. Begin as you mean to go on, and go on as you began, and let the Lord be
all in all to you. Oh, that God, the Holy Spirit, may give us a very clear idea of
where the strength must come from by which we shall be preserved until the day of
our Lord's appearing!
Here is what Paul once said upon this subject when he was writing to the Corinthians:
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto
the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:8, 9).
This language silently admits a great need, by telling us how it is provided for.
Wherever the Lord makes a provision, we are quite sure that there was a need for
it, since no superfluities encumber the covenant of grace. Golden shields hung in
Solomon's courts which were never used, but there are none such in the armory of
God. What God has provided we shall surely need. Between this hour and the consummation
of all things every promise of God and every provision of the covenant of grace will
be brought into requisition. The urgent need of the believing soul is confirmation,
continuance, final perseverance, preservation to the end. This is the great necessity
of the most advanced believers, for Paul was writing to saints at Corinth, who were
men of a high order, of whom he could say, "I thank my God always on your behalf,
for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ." Such men are the very
persons who most assuredly feel that they have daily need of new grace if they are
to hold on, and hold out, and come off conquerors at the last. If you were not saints
you would have no grace, and you would feel no need of more grace; but because you
are men of God, therefore you feel the daily demands of the spiritual life. The marble
statue requires no food; but the living man hungers and thirsts, and he rejoices
that his bread and his water are made sure to him, for else he would certainly faint
by the way. The believer's personal wants make it inevitable that he should daily
draw from the great source of all supplies; for what could he do if he could not
resort to his God?
This is true of the most gifted of the saints--of those men at Corinth who were enriched
with all utterance and with all knowledge. They needed to be confirmed to the end,
or else their gifts and attainments would prove their ruin. If we had the tongues
of men and of angels, if we did not receive fresh grace, where should we be? If we
had all experience till we were fathers in the church--if we had been taught of God
so as to understand all mysteries--yet we could not live a single day without the
divine life flowing into us from our Covenant Head. How could we hope to hold on
for a single hour, to say nothing of a lifetime, unless the Lord should hold us on?
He who began the good work in us must perform it unto the day of Christ, or it will
prove a painful failure.
This great necessity arises very much from our own selves. In some there is a painful
fear that they shall not persevere in grace because they know their own fickleness.
Certain persons are constitutionally unstable. Some men are by nature conservative,
not to say obstinate; but others are as naturally variable and volatile. Like butterflies
they flit from flower to flower, till they visit all the beauties of the garden,
and settle upon none of them. They are never long enough in one place to do any good;
not even in their business nor in their intellectual pursuits. Such persons may well
be afraid that ten, twenty, thirty, forty, perhaps fifty years of continuous religious
watchfulness will be a great deal too much for them. We see men joining first one
church and then another, till they box the compass. They are everything by turns
and nothing long. Such have double need to pray that they may be divinely confirmed,
and may be made not only steadfast but unmoveable, or otherwise they will not be
found "always abounding in the work of the Lord."
All of us, even if we have no constitutional temptation to fickleness, must feel
our own weakness if we are really quickened of God. Dear reader, do you not find
enough in any one single day to make you stumble? You that desire to walk in perfect
holiness, as I trust you do; you that have set before you a high standard of what
a Christian should be--do you not find that before the breakfast things are cleared
away from the table, you have displayed enough folly to make you ashamed of yourselves?
If we were to shut ourselves up in the lone cell of a hermit, temptation would follow
us; for as long as we cannot escape from ourselves we cannot escape from incitements
to sin. There is that within our hearts which should make us watchful and humble
before God. If he does not confirm us, we are so weak that we shall stumble and fall;
not overturned by an enemy, but by our own carelessness. Lord, be thou our strength.
We are weakness itself.
Besides that, there is the weariness which comes of a long life. When we begin our
Christian profession we mount up with wings as eagles, further on we run without
weariness; but in our best and truest days we walk without fainting. Our pace seems
slower, but it is more serviceable and better sustained. I pray God that the energy
of our youth may continue with us so far as it is the energy of the Spirit and not
the mere fermentation of proud flesh. He that has long been on the road to Heaven
finds that there was good reason why it was promised that his shoes should be iron
and brass, for the road is rough. He has discovered that there are Hills of Difficulty
and Valleys of Humiliation; that there is a Vale of Deathshade, and, worse still,
a Vanity Fair--and all these are to be traversed. If there be Delectable Mountains
(and, thank God, there are,) there are also Castles of Despair, the inside of which
pilgrims have too often seen. Considering all things, those who hold out to the end
in the way of holiness will be "men wondered at."
"O world of wonders, I can say no less." The days of a Christian's life
are like so many Koh-i-noors of mercy threaded upon the golden string of divine faithfulness.
In Heaven we shall tell to angels, and principalities, and powers, the unsearchable
riches of Christ which were spent upon us, and enjoyed by us while we were here below.
We have been kept alive on the brink of death. Our spiritual life has been a flame
burning on in the midst of the sea, a stone that has remained suspended in the air.
It will amaze the universe to see us enter the pearly gate, blameless in the day
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to be full of grateful wonder if kept for an hour;
and I trust we are.
If this were all, there would be enough cause for anxiety; but there is far more.
We have to think of what a place we live in. The world is a howling wilderness to
many of God's people. Some of us are greatly indulged in the providence of God, but
others have a stern fight of it. We begin our day with prayer, and we hear the voice
of holy song full often in our houses; but many good people have scarcely risen from
their knees in the morning before they are saluted with blasphemy. They go out to
work, and all day long they are vexed with filthy conversation like righteous Lot
in Sodom. Can you even walk the open streets without your ears being afflicted with
foul language? The world is no friend to grace. The best we can do with this world
is to get through it as quickly as we can, for we dwell in an enemy's country. A
robber lurks in every bush. Everywhere we need to travel with a "drawn sword"
in our hand, or at least with that weapon which is called all-prayer ever at our
side; for we have to contend for every inch of our way. Make no mistake about this,
or you will be rudely shaken out of your fond delusion. O God, help us, and confirm
us to the end, or where shall we be?
True religion is supernatural at its beginning, supernatural in its continuance,
and supernatural in its close. It is the work of God from first to last. There is
great need that the hand of the Lord should be stretched out still: that need my
reader is feeling now, and I am glad that he should feel it; for now he will look
for his own preservation to the Lord who alone is able to keep us from failing, and
glorify us with His Son.
CONFIRMATION.
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I WANT YOU TO NOTICE the security which Paul confidently expected
for all the saints. He says--"Who shall confirm you unto the end, that ye may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the kind of confirmation
which is above all things to be desired. You see it supposes that the persons are
right, and it proposes to confirm them in the right. It would be an awful thing to
confirm a man in ways of sin and error. Think of a confirmed drunkard, or a confirmed
thief, or a confirmed liar. It would be a deplorable thing for a man to be confirmed
in unbelief and ungodliness. Divine confirmation can only be enjoyed by those to
whom the grace of God has been already manifested. It is the work of the Holy Ghost.
He who gives faith strengthens and establishes it: He who kindles love in us preserves
it and increases its flame. What He makes us to know by His first teaching, the good
Spirit causes us to know with greater clearness and certainty by still further instruction.
Holy acts are confirmed till they become habits, and holy feelings are confirmed
till they become abiding conditions. Experience and practice confirm our beliefs
and our resolutions. Both our joys and our sorrows, our successes and our failures,
are sanctified to the selfsame end: even as the tree is helped to root itself both
by the soft showers and the rough winds. The mind is instructed, and in its growing
knowledge it gathers reasons for persevering in the good way: the heart is comforted,
and so it is made to cling more closely to the consoling truth. The grip grows tighter,
and the tread grows firmer, and the man himself becomes more solid and substantial.
This is not a merely natural growth, but is as distinct a work of the Spirit as conversion.
The Lord will surely give it to those who are relying upon Him for eternal life.
By His inward working He will deliver us from being "unstable as water,"
and cause us to be rooted and grounded. It is a part of the method by which He saves
us--this building us up into Christ Jesus and causing us to abide in Him. Dear reader,
you may daily look for this; and you shall not be disappointed. He whom you trust
will make you to be as a tree planted by the rivers of waters, so preserved that
even your leaf shall not wither.
What a strength to a church is a confirmed Christian! He is a comfort to the sorrowful,
and a help to the weak. Would you not like to be such? Confirmed believers are pillars
in the house of our God. These are not carried away by every wind of doctrine, nor
overthrown by sudden temptation. They are a great stay to others, and act as anchors
in the time of church trouble. You who are beginning the holy life hardly dare to
hope that you will become like them. But you need not fear; the good Lord will work
in you as well as in them. One of these days you who are now a "babe" in
Christ shall be a "father" in the church. Hope for this great thing; but
hope for it as a gift of grace, and not as the wages of work, or as the product of
your own energy.
The inspired apostle Paul speaks of these people as to be confirmed unto the end.
He expected the grace of God to preserve them personally to the end of their lives,
or till the Lord Jesus should come. Indeed, he expected that the whole church of
God in every place and in all time would be kept to the end of the dispensation,
till the Lord Jesus as the Bridegroom should come to celebrate the wedding-feast
with his perfected Bride. All who are in Christ will be confirmed in Him till that
illustrious day. Has He not said, "Because I live ye shall live also"?
He also said, "I give unto my sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." He that hath begun a good
work in you will confirm it unto the day of Christ. The work of grace in the soul
is not a superficial reformation; the life implanted as the new birth comes of a
living and incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth for ever; and the promises
of God made to believers are not of a transient character, but involve for their
fulfilment the believer's holding on his way till he comes to endless glory. We are
kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation. "The righteous shall
hold on his way." Not as the result of our own merit or strength, but as a gift
of free and undeserved favor those who believe are "preserved in Christ Jesus."
Of the sheep of His fold Jesus will lose none; no member of His Body shall die; no
gem of His treasure shall be missing in the day when He makes up His jewels. Dear
reader, the salvation which is received by faith is not a thing of months and years;
for our Lord Jesus hath "obtained eternal salvation for us," and that which
is eternal cannot come to an end.
Paul also declares his expectation that the Corinthian saints would be "Confirmed
to the end blameless." This blamelessness is a precious part of our keeping.
To be kept holy is better than merely to be kept safe. It is a dreadful thing when
you see religious people blundering out of one dishonor into another; they have not
believed in the power of our Lord to make them blameless. The lives of some professing
Christians are a series of stumbles; they are never quite down, and yet they are
seldom on their feet. This is not a fit thing for a believer; he is invited to walk
with God, and by faith he can attain to steady perseverance in holiness; and he ought
to do so. The Lord is able, not only to save us from hell, but to keep us from falling.
We need not yield to temptation. Is it not written, "Sin shall not have dominion
over you?" The Lord is able to keep the feet of His saints; and He will do it
if we will trust Him to do so. We need not defile our garments, we may by His grace
keep them unspotted from the world; we are bound to do this, "for without holiness
no man shall see the Lord."
The apostle prophesied for these believers, that which he would have us seek after--that
we may be preserved, blameless unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." The revised
version has "unreproveable," instead of "blameless." Possibly
a better rendering would be "unimpeachable." God grant that in that last
great day we may stand free from all charge, that none in the whole universe may
dare to challenge our claim to be the redeemed of the Lord. We have sins and infirmities
to mourn over, but these are not the kind of faults which would prove us to be out
of Christ; we shall be clear of hypocrisy, deceit, hatred, and delight in sin; for
these things would be fatal charges. Despite our failings, the Holy Spirit can work
in us a character spotless before men; so that, like Daniel, we shall furnish no
occasion for accusing tongues, except in the matter of our religion. Multitudes of
godly men and women have exhibited lives so transparent, so consistent throughout,
that none could gainsay them. The Lord will be able to say of many a believer, as
he did of Job, when Satan stood before Him, "Hast thou considered my servant,
a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?" This
is what my reader must look for at the Lord's hands. This is the triumph of the saints--to
continue to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, maintaining our integrity as
before the living God. May we never turn aside into crooked ways, and give cause
to the adversary to blaspheme. Of the true believer it is written, "He keepeth
himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." May it be so written concerning
us!
Friend just beginning in the divine life, the Lord can give you an irreproachable
character. Even though in your past life you may have gone far into sin, the Lord
can altogether deliver you from the power of former habits, and make you an example
of virtue. He can not only make you moral, but He can make you abhor every false
way and follow after all that is saintly. Do not doubt it. The chief of sinners need
not be a whit behind the purest of the saints. Believe for this, and according to
your faith shall it be unto you.
Oh, what a joy it will be to be found blameless in the day of judgment! We sing not
amiss, when we join in that charming hymn:
Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay;
While through Thy blood absolved I am,
From sin's tremendous curse and shame?
What bliss it will be to enjoy that dauntless courage, when heaven and earth shall
flee away from the face of the Judge of all! This bliss shall be the portion of everyone
who looks alone to the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and in that sacred might wages
continual war with all sin.
WHY SAINTS PERSEVERE.
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THE HOPE which filled the heart of Paul concerning the Corinthian
brethren we have already seen to be full of comfort to those who trembled as to their
future. But why was it that he believed that the brethren would be confirmed unto
the end? I want you to notice that he gives his reasons. Here they are: God is faithful,
by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9).
The apostle does not say, "You are faithful." Alas! the faithfulness of
man is a very unreliable affair; it is mere vanity. He does not say, "You have
faithful ministers to lead and guide you, and therefore I trust you will be safe."
Oh, no! if we are kept by men we shall be but ill kept. He puts it, "God is
faithful." If we are found faithful, it will be because God is faithful. On
the faithfulness of our covenant God the whole burden of our salvation must rest.
On this glorious attribute of God the matter hinges. We are variable as the wind,
frail as a spider's web, weak as water. No dependence can be placed upon our natural
qualities, or our spiritual attainments; but God abideth faithful. He is faithful
in His love; He knows no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is faithful
to His purpose; He doth not begin a work and then leave it undone. He is faithful
to His relationships; as a Father He will not renounce His children, as a friend
He will not deny His people, as a Creator He will not forsake the work of His own
hands. He is faithful to His promises, and will never allow one of them to fail to
a single believer. He is faithful to His covenant, which He has made with us in Christ
Jesus, and ratified with the blood of His sacrifice. He is faithful to His Son, and
will not allow His precious blood to be spilled in vain. He is faithful to His people
to whom He has promised eternal life, and from whom He will not turn away.
This faithfulness of God is the foundation and cornerstone of our hope of final perseverance.
The saints shall persevere in holiness, because God perseveres in grace. He perseveres
to bless, and therefore believers persevere in being blessed. He continues to keep
His people, and therefore they continue to keep His commandments. This is good solid
ground to rest upon, and it is delightfully consistent with the title of this little
book, "all of grace." Thus it is free favor and infinite mercy which ring
in the dawn of salvation, and the same sweet bells sound melodiously through the
whole day of grace.
You see that the only reasons for hoping that we shall be confirmed to the end, and
be found blameless at the last, are found in our God; but in Him these reasons are
exceedingly abundant.
They lie first, in what God has done. He has gone so far in blessing us that it is
not possible for Him to run back. Paul reminds us that He has "called us into
the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ." Has he called us? Then the call cannot
be reversed; for, "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
From the effectual call of His grace the Lord never turns. "Whom he called them
he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified:" this is the
invariable rule of the divine procedure. There is a common call, of which it is said,
"Many are called, but few are chosen," but this of which we are now thinking
is another kind of call, which betokens special love, and necessitates the possession
of that to which we are called. In such a case it is with the called one even as
with Abraham's seed, of whom the Lord said, "I have called thee from the ends
of the earth, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not
cast thee away."
In what the Lord has done, we see strong reasons for our preservation and future
glory, because the Lord has called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ.
It means into partnership with Jesus Christ, and I would have you carefully consider
what this means. If you are indeed called by divine grace, you have come into fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, so as to be joint-owner with Him in all things. Henceforth
you are one with Him in the sight of the Most High. The Lord Jesus bare your sins
in His own body on the tree, being made a curse for you; and at the same time He
has become your righteousness, so that you are justified in Him. You are Christ's
and Christ is yours. As Adam stood for his descendants, so does Jesus stand for all
who are in Him. As husband and wife are one, so is Jesus one with all those who are
united to Him by faith; one by a conjugal union which can never be broken. More than
this, believers are members of the Body of Christ, and so are one with Him by a loving,
living, lasting union. God has called us into this union, this fellowship, this partnership,
and by this very fact He has given us the token and pledge of our being confirmed
to the end. If we were considered apart from Christ we should be poor perishable
units, soon dissolved and borne away to destruction; but as one with Jesus we are
made partakers of His nature, and are endowed with His immortal life. Our destiny
is linked with that of our Lord, and until He can be destroyed it is not possible
that we should perish.
Dwell much upon this partnership with the Son of God, unto which you have been called:
for all your hope lies there. You can never be poor while Jesus is rich, since you
are in one firm with Him. Want can never assail you, since you are joint-proprietor
with Him who is Possessor of Heaven and earth. You can never fail; for though one
of the partners in the firm is as poor as a church mouse, and in himself an utter
bankrupt, who could not pay even a small amount of his heavy debts, yet the other
partner is inconceivably, inexhaustibly rich. In such partnership you are raised
above the depression of the times, the changes of the future, and the shock of the
end of all things. The Lord has called you into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ,
and by that act and deed He has put you into the place of infallible safeguard.
If you are indeed a believer you are one with Jesus, and therefore you are secure.
Do you not see that it must be so? You must be confirmed to the end until the day
of His appearing, if you have indeed been made one with Jesus by the irrevocable
act of God. Christ and the believing sinner are in the same boat: unless Jesus sinks,
the believer will never drown. Jesus has taken His redeemed into such connection
with himself, that He must first be smitten, overcome, and dishonored, ere the least
of His purchased ones can be injured. His name is at the head of the firm, and until
it can be dishonored we are secure against all dread of failure.
So, then, with the utmost confidence let us go forward into the unknown future, linked
eternally with Jesus. If the men of the world should cry, "Who is this that
cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" we will joyfully confess
that we do lean on Jesus, and that we mean to lean on Him more and more. Our faithful
God is an everflowing well of delight, and our fellowship with the Son of God is
a full river of joy. Knowing these glorious things we cannot be discouraged: nay,
rather we cry with the apostle, "Who shall separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?"
CLOSE.
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IF MY READER has not followed me step by step as he has read my pages, I am truly
sorry. Book-reading is of small value unless the truths which pass before the mind
are grasped, appropriated, and carried out to their practical issues. It is as if
one saw plenty of food in a shop and yet remained hungry, for want of personally
eating some. It is all in vain, dear reader, that you and I have met, unless you
have actually laid hold upon Christ Jesus, my Lord. On my part there was a distinct
desire to benefit you, and I have done my best to that end. It pains me that I have
not been able to do you good, for I have longed to win that privilege. I was thinking
of you when I wrote this page, and I laid down my pen and solemnly bowed my knee
in prayer for everyone who should read it. It is my firm conviction that great numbers
of readers will get a blessing, even though you refuse to be of the number. But why
should you refuse? If you do not desire the choice blessing which I would have brought
to you, at least do me the justice to admit that the blame of your final doom will
not lie at my door. When we two meet before the great white throne you will not be
able to charge me with having idly used the attention which you were pleased to give
me while you were reading my little book. God knoweth I wrote each line for your
eternal good. I now in spirit take you by the hand. I give you a firm grip. Do you
feel my brotherly grasp? The tears are in my eyes as I look at you and say, Why will
you die? Will you not give your soul a thought? Will you perish through sheer carelessness?
Oh, do not so; but weigh these solemn matters, and make sure work for eternity! Do
not refuse Jesus, His love, His blood, His salvation. Why should you do so? Can you
do it?
I beseech you,
Do not turn away from your Redeemer!
If, on the other hand, my prayers are heard, and you, my reader, have been led to
trust the Lord Jesus and receive from Him salvation by grace, then keep you ever
to this doctrine, and this way of living. Let Jesus be your all in all, and let free
grace be the one line in which you live and move. There is no life like that of one
who lives in the favor of God. To receive all as a free gift preserves the mind from
self-righteous pride, and from self-accusing despair. It makes the heart grow warm
with grateful love, and thus it creates a feeling in the soul which is infinitely
more acceptable to God than anything that can possibly come of slavish fear. Those
who hope to be saved by trying to do their best know nothing of that glowing fervor,
that hallowed warmth, that devout joy in God, which come with salvation freely given
according to the grace of God. The slavish spirit of self- salvation is no match
for the joyous spirit of adoption. There is more real virtue in the least emotion
of faith than in all the tuggings of legal bond-slaves, or all the weary machinery
of devotees who would climb to Heaven by rounds of ceremonies. Faith is spiritual,
and God who is a spirit delights in it for that reason. Years of prayer-saying, and
church-going, or chapel- going, and ceremonies, and performances, may only be an
abomination in the sight of Jehovah; but a glance from the eye of true faith is spiritual
and it is therefore dear to Him. "The Father seeketh such to worship him."
Look you first to the inner man, and to the spiritual, and the rest will then follow
in due course.
If you are saved yourself, be on the watch for the souls of others. Your own heart
will not prosper unless it is filled with intense concern to bless your fellow men.
The life of your soul lies in faith; its health lies in love. He who does not pine
to lead others to Jesus has never been under the spell of love himself. Get to the
work of the Lord--the work of love. Begin at home. Visit next your neighbors. Enlighten
the village or the street in which you live. Scatter the word of the Lord wherever
your hand can reach.
Reader, meet me in heaven! Do not go down to hell. There is no coming back again
from that abode of misery. Why do you wish to enter the way of death when Heaven's
gate is open before you? Do not refuse the free pardon, the full salvation which
Jesus grants to all who trust Him. Do not hesitate and delay. You have had enough
of resolving, come to action. Believe in Jesus now, with full and immediate decision.
Take with you words and come unto your Lord this day, even this day.
Remember, O soul, it may be
now or never
with you.
Let it be now; it would be horrible that it should be never.
Again I charge you,
meet me in heaven.
C. H. Spurgeon
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