Joy And Peace In Believing
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 20, 1866, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Joy and peace in believing.'" Romans 15:13.
I WOULD address myself, this morning, to a special class and if there
should be no spiritual instruction for others, I trust that they will
follow what is said with their prayers, that the word may be useful to
those for whom it is mainly intended. There are a large number of
persons who profess to have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ but who
assert that they have no joy and peace in believing. They do not make
this profession by union with the Christian Church or in any open
manner, but when they are pushed upon the matter of personal salvation,
they will sometimes tell us, "I do believe in Christ, but still I am so
unhappy, I am so miserable, that I cannot believe that I am saved."
That statement being tantamount to this–that the Word of God declares
that whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned–but they assert that
they have believed in Jesus and nevertheless they are haunted with
fears of condemnation which lead them to believe that they cannot have
been delivered from the wrath to come. Now, I shall suppose that the
persons whom I am trying to address this morning are sincerely anxious
to be saved and that they are not raising this difficulty by way of
cavil. If they are cavilers, I shall not attempt to deal with them this
morning.
Such persons need a discourse to themselves. I am speaking to tender
hearts, or to those who desire to have tender hearts–to those who have
their faces towards Jerusalem though as yet they travel in the dark. If
you are really desirous to obtain joy and peace through believing, we
trust God may bless you to the obtaining of it this morning. We
suppose, also, that the persons whom we are addressing are not laboring
under any bodily sickness such as might bring on hypochondria feelings
and those despondencies which are rather the symptoms of physical
disease than marks of spiritual feeling.
I believe there are some persons who are beyond the reach of the
preacher and who must be dealt with, if treated at all successfully, by
the ordinary physician. Their case has gone beyond the limits of
argument. Their mind has got into a disordered condition and the body,
also, and therefore both body and mind must be set right by some other
means before it is likely that spiritual reasons will prevail upon
them. Provided you are sane people in some measure of health, and that
you are sincere persons, we think that with God's blessing we may be
the means of comfort to you this morning.
At any rate, we will try. And we will begin by making two observations.
We grant to you that joy and peace are exceedingly desirable things. We
hope you will never be satisfied until you get them and enjoy very much
of them–until you are, in fact, as the text puts it–filled with joy
and peace. For your own sakes this is very desirable because your
present condition is a very mournful and unhappy one. It is still more
desirable for the sake of your acquaintances and kinsfolk, for they set
down your present despondency to your religion, and so you tend,
unwittingly, to dishonor the Cross of Christ.
I know you would be willing to suffer anything sooner than that the
Gospel should be evilly spoken of. But it is evilly spoken of through
you, and necessarily so, because you cannot expect carnal persons to
have a discernment between your religious feelings, which are right,
and those which are wrong. They set your present despondency down to
religious feelings of some sort and with one sweeping verdict they are
apt to condemn religion altogether.
Now you do not wish this, surely for their own good–for you desire
them to find peace. With all your anxiety for yourself you are not
selfish–you wish others to enjoy peace in Christ. You would consent, I
believe, to the loss of your right eye if your husband and children, if
your wife and friends might be reconciled to God by the blood of the
Cross. At present, however you are standing in the way–and instead of
assisting by proving that "her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all
her paths are peace," you are doing an injury to those dear immortal
souls by the misrepresentation which you give them. I grant again that
this is done unwittingly, but alas, you are as surely injuring them as
if you designed to do them evil.
But a second remark I must also venture upon, namely that you must take
care, while valuing joy and peace, that you do not overestimate them.
Remember that joy and peace are, though eminently desirable, not
infallible evidences of safety. There are many persons who have great
joy and much peace who are not saved. Their joy springs from a mistake,
and their peace is the false peace which does not rest upon the rock of
Divine Truth but upon the sand of their own imaginations. It is
certainly a good sign that spring is come, that you find the weather to
be so warm, but there are very mild days in winter.
I must not infer because the heat of the sun is at such and such a
degree, that therefore it is necessarily spring. And, on the other
hand, we have had very cold days this week–cold days which, if we had
to judge by such evidences, might have convinced us that we were rather
in November than in May. And so, joy and peace are like fine sunny
days. They come to those that have no faith that are in the winter of
their unbelief, and they may not visit you who have believed. Or, if
they come, they may not stay, for there may be cold weather in May and
there may be some sorrow and some distress of mind even to a truly
believing soul.
Understand that you must not look upon the possession of joy and peace
as being the absolutely necessary consequence of your being saved. A
man may be in the lifeboat, but that lifeboat may be so tossed about
that he may still feel himself exceedingly ill and think himself to be
still in peril. It is not his sense of safety that makes him safe–he
is safe because he is in the lifeboat–whether he is sensible of it or
not. Understand, then, that joy and peace are not infallible or
indispensable evidences of safety, and that they are certainly not
unchanging evidences.
The brightest Christians lose their joy–and some of those that stand
well in the things of God, and concerning whom you would entertain no
doubt–entertain a great many suspicions, however, about themselves.
Joy and peace are the elements of a Christian, but he is sometimes out
of his element. Joy and peace are his usual state, but there are times
when, with fights within and wars without, his joy departs and his
peace is broken. The leaves on the tree prove that the tree is alive,
but the absence of leaves will not prove that the tree is dead.
True joy and peace may be very satisfactory evidences, but the absence
of joy and peace, during certain seasons, can often be accounted for on
some other hypothesis than that of there being no faith within. And,
once more, I pray you, dear Friends, not to seek joy and peace as the
first and main thing. Let your prayer be, "Lord, give me comfort, but
give me safety first. Forbid that I should take comfort except from
Your right hand." Use Toplady's vow, which he puts into verse–
"/ will not be comforted Till Jesus comforts me."
Believe that it were better for you to go all your life in darkness and
to end in everlasting life and light, than to enjoy much of what you
thought to be heavenly joy here, and then to go into outer darkness,
where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Be anxious
to be happy, but be more anxious to be holy. Be desirous after peace,
but be more desirous, still, to get a good hope through Christ from
which that peace may flow.
I like the fruit of the tree, but if I transplant the tree and put it
into my garden, I should like that better. I like the gold from the
mine, but if I may become the possessor of the mine itself, I should
much prefer it. I like joy and peace, but I like better, still, that
sacred faith which looks to Christ and brings me joy and peace as a
consequence.
Well now, having thus paved the way by these remarks, we come more
distinctly to the text. The text speaks of joy and peace in believing.
I. And the first observation shall be this–THE TEXT MAY BE USED TO
CORRECT TWO ERRORS very, very common and very dangerous. The first of
the two errors the text corrects is the error of supposing that there
is a way of joy and peace through self. This is the broad road that
leads to death, but it is full of travelers. In different forms and
ways the most of men are trying to obtain joy and peace through
something done by themselves, instead of resting upon the finished work
of the Savior.
Some look for joy and peace through good works. Now I can suppose that
if you and I had never sinned, joy and peace would have been the
consequences of perfect holiness. Adam in the garden must have had joy
as the result of serving so good a Master, and he must have felt peace
when at nightfall he could say, "O God, I have kept Your command, and I
have not touched the forbidden fruit." Still the fear would haunt him,
"perhaps I may do so," and that dark suspicion would go far to dampen
his joy and disturb his peace.
But do you think that this can bring you solid peace? Since you and I
have broken God's Law, any rational joy and peace are impossible under
the Covenant of Works, for whatever may be the perfection of our future
life, it can make no atonement for the past. You have broken the
alabaster vase–you may preserve the fragments if you will–but you
cannot make it whole again. You have spoiled the perfection of your
obedience, and having ruined it, God cannot receive it at your hands.
YOU may try if you please, but take my word for it, (for I have tried
it, too), it is as unlikely for you ever to get peace by attempting to
obey God's Law as it is to gather grapes from thorns or figs from
thistles.
Many who are conscious of this run to another form. They say, "Then I
will do my best, and having done my best I shall, at any rate be able
to say, 'Well, I can do no more.' " A man who is drowning may say that,
but it is no solace to him as the billows close over him. In yonder
burning house the woman in the upper story who has thought over all the
plans of escaping finds it no sort of comfort to say, "I have done all
I can and can therefore do no more."
What if you should do all you can? I am afraid none of you will ever do
it, yet if you should there is no peace or joy to be found in that.
Some try the plan of scrupulous observance of all religious ceremonies!
Now, however much these rites and services may differ externally, yet
trusting in them is the same in all cases. You, all of you, feel vexed
with the Romanist that he can rely upon confession, upon penance
imposed by his priest, or upon the hearing of masses.
You are indignant with the Puseyite that in a professedly Protestant
church he should put confidence in his baptism and confirmation, and so
on. But are you equally indignant with yourself that you should rely
upon your own prayers or upon your own tears? Is there any more virtue
before God in your prayers than in the prayers of priests? There
certainly is no less, but is there any more? Is there any more virtue
in your tears than there may be in those of a so-called saint? I tell
you that if you trust in these things, your holiest emotions and your
best desires are nothing but an antichrist–foul and unclean–which God
will abhor!
The way of salvation is not by your holiness nor by your ceremonies,
nor by anything upon which you can put your hand. "If you lift up your
hammer upon it," said God of His altar, "you have polluted it." And so
have you, if you have put your little finger to the work. Unless it is
all of Christ and not of yourself you have polluted it. And God will
see to it that no joy or peace shall ever come to you by that road. Do
not, therefore, try it! Do not try to get joy and peace by penitential
feelings, by humbling yourself, by consecrating your life, or by any
attempts of this kind. These things are good, pre-eminently good in
themselves if they are used lawfully–but to rest in them will be your
ruin. As to your present peace and joy–it can never be obtained by
work or by anything from yourself.
But the text also corrects another common error, namely, turning the
text upside down. There is such a thing as joy and peace in believing,
and some simpletons, therefore, infer that there is such a thing as
believing in joy and peace! I believe there is such a thing but that it
is of Satan, and that the sooner we are clear of it the better. My dear
Friend, to get joy and peace through believing is one thing–it is
God's plan of salvation–but to get your believing as the result of
your joy and peace is quite another thing. It is of yourself, and is a
snare of Satan. Beware of it!
You will get peace just as the florist gets his flower from the
bulb–but you will never get the bulb from the flower. Take the tulip
and try it. That fine flower will come up if you put that ugly bulb
into the ground and give it time. You will get the glory of the flower
before long. But take the flower and put it into the best prepared
earth and see if you will ever get the bulb! Now joy and peace are the
soul's flower. And if you get faith into the ground, joy and peace will
come of it. But if you get joy and peace first and say, "Now I
believe," no you do not–it is not believing–it is the very opposite
of it!
You must not, therefore, reverse the laws and rules of right procedure.
Let me just argue this point with you. To trust Christ because you feel
happy is, in the first place, irrational. Now suppose a man should have
said during the last panic, "I feel sure that the Bank my money is in
is safe." Why? "Because I feel so easy about my money." Now anybody
would say to him, "That is no reason."
Suppose he said, "I feel sure that my money is safe," and you had said,
"What is the reason?" "Why because I believe the Bank is safe." "Oh,"
say you, "that is right enough. That is good reasoning." But here you
put the effect in the place of the cause and try to make that a cause,
but you cannot do it. If a man should say, "I have got a large estate
in India." How do you know? "Why, because I feel so happy in thinking
about it." "Why, you fool," say you, "that is no proof whatever, not
the slightest." But if he says to you, "I feel very happy," and you ask
him why, and he replies, "Because I have got an estate in India." "Oh,"
say you, "that may be right enough."
A man may be thankful for that which he rightly possesses, but to make
joy and peace the evidence of facts from without is supremely
ridiculous! For a man to say, "I know I am saved, because I am happy,"
is most irrational–while to be happy because you are saved is right
enough. Oh, I pray you, take care that you do not act irrationally
before God! Or take another view of this thought. Suppose I am in fear
this morning about the health of some dear friend. "Well," I say, "I
should like to have my friend healthy, but I want to feel myself safe
about that friend. I do not know anything about the state of my friend
just now, and I am uneasy. Now I can tell you if I could get to feel
easy, then I should be convinced that my friend was well."
"Why," you would justly reply, "there is no connection between the two
things. The proper mode of procedure is to try and find out whether
your friend is well, then you will feel easy." But you say, "I should
believe I was saved if I felt happy." Is there any reason in that? On
the contrary, first of all believe that you are saved and then
happiness shall come of it. But you cannot believe that you are saved
while you persist in doing what God tells you not to do–looking to
your own joy and peace, instead of looking to the finished work of
Jesus Christ.
While this is illogical and inconsistent it is also very irreverent.
You say to God, "O God, You tell me to trust Christ and I shall be
saved. Well, I cannot trust Christ but I can trust my own feelings. And
if I were very happy I could believe that He would save me." Oh let the
words I have spoken be forgiven, if they sound like blasphemy, but I
think they have the essence of blasphemy in them. What? Are my poor
changeable frames of feeling to be set up in preference to the word of
Christ? He tells me if I trust Him I shall be saved, and I reply to
Him, "I cannot trust Your word, Jesus, but I could rely upon it if I
felt so-and-so." That is to say I could trust myself but I cannot trust
Him. Weep, dear Friends, that you should have been guilty of such
irreverence, and do not persist in it!
Once again, is it not very egotistical? Here is a person who has God to
deal with and has the Divine promise–"He that believes on Him is not
condemned." And instead of confiding in this, he says, "No, I shall
believe nothing which I do not feel. When I feel I am saved, I shall
believe it. When I have joy in consequence of being saved, then I will
trust Christ to save me." That is, "I will trust Him for nothing, but I
will set up my own feelings and my own knowledge over and above the
promises and the positive declarations of a dying Savior."
May the Lord forgive you, my dear Friends, who are in this state of
heart, for being so guilty in this thing. I think, if nothing else
should make you feel your sinnership, you ought to feel it on this
account–that you find it hard to trust Christ. If you were what you
should be, remember that to trust Christ would be the natural outgoings
of your nature. But because your nature is what it ought not to be, it
becomes so hard for you to trust the truthful One while you think it so
easy to trust in what is fickle as the wind and false as the deceitful
sea.
Well, I have just exposed these two matters and want your patient
attention while I seek to bring out the truth of the text. We are
finished with the errors that are not in it–now for the Truth of God
that is in it.
II. The great truth of the text is THAT BELIEVING IN CHRIST IS THE TRUE
GROUND FOR JOY AND
PEACE. What is believing in Christ? In one word it is trusting Christ.
He is sent of God to save sinners and those sinners who trust in Him to
save them are saved. Faith then, the faith which is the ground of our
joy and peace, is a simple trust in Christ.
Now I feel sure, from what we understand of mental science as well as
from the teaching of God's Word and one's own experience, that if a man
unfeignedly trusts Christ, he must, in the main, have joy and peace. I
think you will see this. There is a sinner who feels himself guilty
before God, but he hears enough of the Gospel to understand that God
has devised a plan of salvation. The very believing of that must give
some sort of peace.
The sinner would say, "I thought I could not be saved, but now the very
whisper of that word, 'Savior,' gives me some hope. The black thought
that it is impossible for me to be saved is gone. There is evidently a
possibility, for there is a desire on God's part, or else He would not
have provided a plan by which men might be saved." When, however, the
sinner comes to look at the Gospel more carefully, he perceives, in the
suitability of the plan, another cause for joy. "Why," he says, "I see
it is thus–God will save me not on account of anything I do or am, but
out of pure Divine Grace! I see that He has provided a salvation, not
for the good, but for the bad-not for those who have something to
recommend themselves to Him–but for those who have nothing to
recommend but everything to disqualify them for His favor!
"And I see," says the sinner, "as I look at the Gospel, that the way to
get a hold of this is not by feeling any good feeling–if so, it were
impossible! Not by doing any good works, else it were also beyond my
power! But I perceive that the method of salvation is that of believing
in the Savior. Now, if my heart is but right. If I really am desirous
of salvation, what is it that I am expected to believe?" Already he
feels a certain sense of joy at the thought of such a plan! By works he
felt he could not be saved, but he begins to hope that it may be by
that plan of faith which requires neither good feelings nor good works!
And so he opens his ears and his heart, too, and says, "Master, what is
it I am to believe? Only tell me what it is. I am so sick of sin and so
sad at heart that if I am to have joy and peace in believing, tell me!
And if it is reasonable, if there is anything in it which a man can
believe, I am prepared to accept it at once." Very well then, and so
far we shall be agreed that the mere understanding that there is a
Savior, and the information that that Savior is to be received by
believing in Him has a tendency to give some joy and peace.
But now to the point. When the sinner asks, "What is it I am to believe
in order to have peace? In whom am I to trust?" he is told that he is
to look for his salvation, present and to come, wholly from the hands
of Christ, and then he will be saved. "Oh," says he, "but what sort of
a Christ is this I am to confide in? Is He worthy of my trust? That is
all I want to know." And the reply we give to the sinner is this–we
have trusted Christ for these reasons–
1. We have trusted Him because of the wonderful union of His Natures.
He is God, and we know that whatever God undertakes He is able to
accomplish. But He is Man, and feeling that He is like ourselves, a
man, we realize that He has the requisite tenderness to deal with such
poor sinners as we are–compassed about with infirmities. We are
prepared to rely upon Him because of His Godhead, which renders Him
Omnipotent.
We are equally glad to trust Him because of His Manhood, which makes
Him kind and considerate for our infirmities. It seems to us that if we
believe Jesus Christ to be God and Man, it is not difficult to place
ourselves in the hand of Incarnate Deity.
2. But next, we trust Him because of the evident truthfulness of His
Character. We have read the four Evangelists through, and we find Him
scorning every subterfuge. His Character seems to us to be resplendent
with the Truth of God. We think that no exaggeration was used when it
was said, "And we beheld His Glory, the Glory of the only begotten of
the Father, full of Grace and Truth."
Our Lord seems to us to be the most tender of Men and the most truthful
of Men, too. We cannot believe that He would lie. Moreover, when we
consider Him to be God we understand that God cannot lie and we feel
inclined to think that every promise He has given will be kept. We
believe that if He undertakes to save, Heaven and earth may pass away
but He will do what He has promised.
Now we think this is a good reason for our confidence if there were no
others. Could we suspect the Savior we should find it difficult to
trust Him, but as we cannot imagine a cause for suspecting Him, we (and
oh, that you may be brought to the same pass!) feel shut up to
believing Him. And when He says, "Come unto Me all you that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," we trust Him and we get
rest! And we believe that ifyou trust Him you will get rest, too.
Millions of spirits before the Throne of God all bear witness to the
trustworthiness of Christ. He did not fail one of them–Mary Magdalene
or the thief on the cross, or Saul of Tarsus, or even blaspheming
Peter–they have all found Him able to save to the uttermost them that
come unto God by Him. And we therefore believe Him because of His
Nature and of the trustfulness of His Character.
3. But the main reason, perhaps, why we believe Him is because He tells
us, and God tells us, that He was sent of God on purpose to save. God
has set forth Christ. Christ did not undertake this work on His own
account apart from heavenly authorization. He is called "Messiah," that
is, the Sent of God.
Now it seems to us that if God sent Christ on purpose to save, and
Christ comes into the world and says, "Trust, and I will save you," He
has God to back Him and the everlasting honor of the Eternal Trinity is
pledged to every soul that comes to rest on Christ to be saved. I
venture to say that unless you can make God a liar, you must believe in
Christ! And if you are not prepared to trust Christ, remember you do
what John says, and I hope you shudder at the thought of doing it–"He
that believes not God has made Him a liar, because he believes not the
record that God gave of His Son."
4. Another reason why we trust Christ is because we conceive that the
merit of His sufferings must be great enough to save us. Beloved
Hearer, if you cannot trust Christ, will you come with me a few
minutes?
Can you see the Son of God agonizing in the garden? Your Maker lies on
the ground. Can you see Him taken before Herod and Pilate, and there
mocked and scourged and spit upon? Can your eyes endure to see that
spectacle of grief when the plowers made deep furrows on His blessed
back? Can you believe that He is very God of very God, and yet is
suffering thus? Can you see Jehovah grind Him to powder between the
upper and the nether millstone of His wrath?
Can you hear Him say, "It is finished"? Can you mark the fearful shriek
of "Eloi! Eloi! Lama Sabacthani?" Can you believe that this is the Son
of God–standing for sinners and suffering all this weight of wrath and
punishment for us– and yet think that He is not worthy of being
trusted to do that for which He died?
Oh, Sinner! Let me tell you, when I heard it said to me, "Look unto
Christ and be saved," I did look and when I saw God suffering for me,
the perfect Son of man bleeding for me–the Immaculate and Innocent One
afflicted for me–and Jehovah Himself suffering for me in the Person of
His own dear Son, I could not help believing!
And it does seem to me this morning that if you really believe that all
this has occurred, and that Christ bids you trust Him, you will not say
any more, "I cannot trust Him." I hope you will say instead, "I cannot
help trusting Him." The thing commends itself so to me–if Christ died
to save–He is able to save.
5. We have still another reason. After our Lord had died and was buried
He was put into the tomb, but He could not be held there. On the third
day He rose again from the dead and now He ever lives to make
intercession for us. He is gone up on high with this resolve upon His
heart, that He will plead for sinners, and that every sinner that seeks
God through Him shall find peace by Him. This day I hope your faith
believes it. This day the Savior, once slain, stands a living priest
before the Father's Throne, and this is His plea, "Father, forgive
them. Father, forgive them."
Now it is written that He is able to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for us.
Now we feel as if a living Savior being what He is and having done what
He has done must be able to save, and we therefore trust Him.
Now then, if you wind it all up, and say to me, "Why do you personally
believe you are saved?" I will tell you. I believe I am saved, I know I
am–and the ground of my assertion is not because I feel I am nor yet
because I can preach to you about it, nor because I sometimes or
generally feel joy and peace–but I believe I am saved because I-God
knows I do–trust myself wholly and entirely in the hands of Him whose
business it is to save sinners.
I find my name in the Bible. Why do you look at me? Have you never
heard of the little child that sat reading the Bible, and someone said
to her, "Why do you read that Book so much?" She said, "I have always
loved to read it since I found my name in it." "Found your name in it!"
"Yes," said she, "here it is." And she pointed to the text, "This is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners." "That is my name, Sir. That is my
name–for if you are not a sinner, I am."
I know myself to be laden with iniquity, to be defiled with all sorts
of sin in my holiest times. I have not one good work that I dare think
of, much more, trust to! But being what I am, unworthy, undeserving,
and Hell-deserving, I trust Christ to save me–and if He does not save
me, He is not as good as His word! But I have no suspicion about that–
"I know thatsafe with Him remains Protected by His power What I've
committed to His hands, Till the decisive hour.'
And now I get joy and peace! But if I wait for joy and peace, and
afterwards trust, I go the wrong way to work, and put the cart before
the horse. Then I have begun to expect a harvest before I sow the
wheat–to expect the flower before I cultivate the stem–and I shall be
mistaken and go down to the pit with a curse because I would not obey
the command, "Believe and live." We will now close with the last point.
III. Remember that THE PRINCIPLE OF THE TEXT IS OF CONSTANT
APPLICATION–JOY AND PEACE ALWAYS COME THROUGH BELIEVING. I have told
you we do not always have joy and peace, but still, in the main, joy
and peace are the result of believing, and they are results, not
sometimes, but in every case.
For instance, as soon as a person is saved one of the earliest
evidences of spiritual life is a great battle within. Some have the
notion that as soon as they are saved they shall never have to fight.
Why, it is then that you begin the campaign! The moment you get into
Canaan, what are you to do? Canaan is yours now–you have passed out of
the wilderness. It is all yours–what have you got to do? Why you must
ever seek to drive those Canaanites out, and you will fight continually
till you get to Heaven!
You did not expect this. Well, but you shall have joy and peace while
the fighting is going on! Is it possible to be fighting with inbred
sins and yet to have joy and peace? My dear Friends, it is not only
possible, but it is the only chance we have of victory! I know that
some of you–and I deeply sympathize with you–are fighting with your
bad temper and with many other imperfections. But you have not believed
in Christ, and you have not any joy and peace–and you cannot conquer
that evil spirit.
Of course you cannot, because while you are distressed in mind, that
helps to irritate you! But if you simply believe Jesus, and get joy and
peace, oh, then you can use the sword against that bad temper of yours!
You will say to these little worries, "Be off with you! I have
something more to think of! I have something sweeter to cheer me than
anything you can bring to annoy me."
Why, you will say to yourself, "I trust Christ to save me, and I know
He will do it, for He is no liar, and oh, now it is that I feel peace,
and now, Lord, help me to overcome that temper of mine! Enable me to be
holy like You, since You have done so much for me–now lend me
strength." But you cannot do this, nor hope to conquer except by the
blood of the Lamb. Go and wash in the fountain He has opened and you
shall be more than a conqueror through Him that has loved you.
Furthermore, remember that even after you are secure in Christ, and
accepted before God, and clothed in Jesus' righteousness, you may
sometimes get despondent. Christian men are but men, and they may have
a bad liver or an attack of bile, or some trial, and then they get
depressed if they have ever so much Divine Grace. I would defy the
Apostle Paul himself to help it. But what then? Why then you can get
joy and peace through believing.
I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none
of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to. But I
always get back again by this–I know I trust Christ. I have no
reliance but in Him, and if He falls I shall fall with Him. But if He
does not, I shall not. Because He lives, I shall live also–and I
spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and my
down castings, and get the victory through it! And so may you! And so
you must, for there is no other way of escaping from it.
In your most depressed seasons you are to get joy and peace through
believing. "Ah!" says one, "but suppose you have fallen into some great
sin–what then?" Why then the more reason that you should cast yourself
upon Him! Do you think Jesus Christ is only for little sinners? Is He a
doctor that only heals finger-aches? Beloved, it is not faith to trust
Christ when I have no sin! It is true faith when I am foul, and black,
and filthy–when during the day I have tripped up and fallen and done
serious damage to my joy and peace–to go back again to that dear
Fountain and say, "Lord, I never loved washing so much before as I do
tonight, for today I have made a fool of myself. I have said and done
what I ought not to have done, and I am ashamed and full of confusion,
but I believe Christ can save me, even me, and by His Grace I will rest
in Him still."
That is the true way of Christian life and the only way of getting joy
and peace. Go to Christ even when sin prevails. "Yes, but," I hear one
say, "I am so afraid of presumption." Well, I am not sorry that you
are, but when you are most afraid of presumption the true way to get
joy and peace and to be kept from presumption is by believing. They say
that "like cures like." Certainly belief cures presuming! Trusting
Christ cures trusting self!
Dear Friend, when you are afraid of presuming, believe! When you say,
"Perhaps, after all, I may be cast away," then go to the Cross and say,
"But if I am I will be cast away trusting in Christ." "Pshaw," says the
devil, "you fool! Do you think that such a sinner as you can ever be
perfectly saved?" Say to the devil, "Whether I am a fool or not I do
not know, but if I am not saved, I will be damned trusting Christ. If I
am cast away, I will be cast away hanging to the Cross."
Stick to this, dear Friends, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in
Him." You cannot help having joy and peace then–
"And when your eye of faith is dim,
Still hold on Jesus, sink or swim.
Still at His footstool bow the knee,
And Israel's God your strength, your peace shall be."
Only let your confidence be not in your peace, not in your joy, but in
Christ.
Now, I will finish with this declaration. If you can get into such a
state that all the sins that were ever committed should swear that they
will block your pathway to peace. If all the suggestions of Hell that
ever came up from the infernal pit should surround you at one time. If,
in his own proper person, the very Prince of Hell should stand across
the way and swear to spill your soul's blood.
If, in addition to this, the light of God's countenance should be
hidden from you, and no promise should seem to come comfortably with
power to your soul. And if, over and above this, every Christian
minister should be silent, or have no word for you but condemnation,
and every Christian should turn his back on you and tell you that you
were a hypocrite, a deceiver, a foul and lost villain. And if
conscience should come in at the back of these and say, "Every word of
this is true, you are all this."
Yet, yet in that fearful extremity, if you can believe, you are saved!
If you can then come, even in the most abject, filthy, leprous,
horrible condition–so that the blackness of Hell were whiteness
compared to you! And the hardness of adamant were softness compared to
your horrible and obdurate heart–yet if you can come and believe
Christ is able to save to the uttermost, and you can fling yourself as
a helpless, lost one at the foot of His dear Cross and resolve to live
or to die there, you shall never perish! Neither shall any pluck you
out of His hand, for He will save and you will rest in His love!
And if you believe in Him you can no more perish than He can perish!
And, unless He can be untrue and reverse His promise–and cast His
blood upon the ground to be spilt in vain–it is not possible that a
soul trusting in Jesus should be lost! May God bless this testimony to
you! I have brought you to the water, but I cannot make you drink. I
can bring Christ to you in the preaching, but I cannot bring you to
Christ. However, I can pray this, that the Lord Jesus may now bless the
word and seal it home, both to heart and conscience, for His name's
sake.
One word, before we part, to those who know neither joy nor peace
through faith in Jesus and have no wish to share these blessings with
us because they are satisfied with the delusions of the god of this
world. Weigh for one moment your so-called joy with ours and put your
peace as you conceive of peace into the scale against ours. Judge now.
Is your joy as pure? Has it no alloy? Are your cups without dregs and
your delights without bitterness? Is it as lasting as ours? Will it
never be cut off? Does your sun never go down? Do your riches never
take to themselves wings and fly away?
Does no moth corrupt, no thief break through and steal? Is it as
powerful to fill the heart at all times? Does it never pall? Are you
never weary of your delights? Can you live upon them forever and wish
no higher good than to have them continued through eternity? Do your
pleasures ennoble and exalt? Are you led by them ever higher and
higher? Do they elevate you as a man, and develop every higher power
and faculty of your being? Do they give you a power and a strength in
the path of duty, and never lead astray to folly?
Or are they prone to spread snares for your feet, and to beguile you
into evil ways? Ponder these questions, and, if I am not mistaken, you
will learn to despise your present state and seek that joy and peace
which come through believing in Jesus. May it be so! Amen.