The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God
A sermon
(No. 758)
Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, June 30, 1867,
by C. H. Spurgeon,
At Camden Road Chapel.
"According to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which was
committed to my trust."- 1 Timothy 1:11.
THIS verse occurs just after a long list of sins which the Apostle
declares to be contrary to sound doctrine, from which we gather that
one test of sound doctrine is its opposition to every form of sin. That
doctrine which in any way palliates sin may be popular, but is not
sound doctrine. Those who talk much of their soundness but yet, by
their lives, betray the rottenness of their hearts, need far rather to
be ashamed of their hypocrisy than to be proud of their orthodoxy.
The Apostle offers, in the verse before us, another standard by which
to test the doctrines which we hear. He tells us that sound doctrine is
always evangelical–"sound doctrine according to the glorious Gospel."
Any doctrine which sets up the will or the merit of man, any doctrine
which exalts priest-craft and ceremonies, any doctrine, in fact, which
does not put salvation upon the sole footing of free Grace, is unsound.
These two points are absolutely necessary in every teaching which
professes to come from God. It must commend and foster holiness of life
and, at the same time, it must, beyond all question, be a declaration
of Divine Grace and mercy through the Mediator. Our Apostle was, by the
drift of his letter, led incidentally to make mention of the Gospel.
And then, in a moment, taking to himself wings of fire, he mounts into
a transport of praise, and calls it "the glorious Gospel of the blessed
God." Such is his mode of writing generally, that if he comes across a
favorite thought, he is away at a tangent from the subject that he was
aiming, and does not return until his ardent spirit cools again!
In this case, before he was aware, his soul made him like the chariots
of Amminadab! His glowing heart poured forth the warmest eulogy upon
that hidden treasure, that pearl of immense price which he prized
beyond all price and guarded with a sacred jealousy of care. I think I
see the radiant countenance of the Apostle of the Lord, as with
flashing eyes he dictates the words, "The glorious Gospel of the
blessed God, which was committed to my trust."
Our subject affords us a fine ocean but our time is short, our boat is
small, and the atmosphere is so hot and heavy that scarcely a breath of
air is to be had, and therefore I will keep to one straightforward
track and not distract you with many topics. To open up the text in all
its length and breadth would be fit exercise for the loftiest
intellect, but we must be content with a few experimental and practical
remarks, and may the Lord enable us to weave them into a
heart-searching discourse.
I. In the first place, then, Paul praises the Gospel to the utmost by
calling it "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God." HAVE WE
EXPERIENCED ITS EXCELLENCE? It is necessary to ask the question even in
this congregation, for even to great multitudes who attend our Houses
of Prayer, the Gospel is a dry, uninteresting subject. They hear the
Word because it is their duty. They sit in the pew because custom
requires an outward respect to religion–but they never dream of the
Gospel having anything glorious in it–anything that can stir the heart
or make the pulse beat at a faster rate. The sermon is slow, the
service is dull, the whole affair is a weariness to which nothing but
propriety makes men submit.
Some people do their religion as a matter of necessity–as a horse
drags a wagon–but if that necessity of respectability did not exist
they would be as glad to escape from it as the horse is to leave the
shafts and to miss the rumbling of the wheels. It is necessary, then,
to ask the question, and I shall put it before you in three or four
ways. Paul calls the sacred message of mercy the Gospel. Has it been
the Gospel to us?
The word is plain and I hardly need remind you that it means–"good
news." Now, has the Gospel been "good news" to us? Has it ever been
"news" to you? "We have heard it so often," says one, "that we cannot
expect it to be news to us. We were trained by godly parents. We were
taken to Sunday school. We have learned the Gospel from our youth
up–it cannot be news to us." Let me say to you, then, that you do not
know the Word of Reconciliation unless it has been, and still is, news
to you.
To every man who is ever saved by the Gospel, it comes as a piece of
news as novel, fresh, and startling as if he had never heard it before.
The letter may be old, but the inward meaning is as new as though the
ink were not yet dry in the pen of Revelation. I confess to have been
tutored in piety, put into my cradle by prayerful hands, and lulled to
sleep by songs concerning Jesus.
But after having heard the Gospel continually, precept upon precept,
here much and there much, yet when the Word of the Lord came to me with
power, it was as new as if I had lived among the unvisited tribes of
central Africa, and had never heard the tidings of the cleansing
fountain filled with blood from the Savior's veins! The Gospel in its
spirit and power always wears the dew of its youth–it glitters with
morning's freshness–its strength and its glory abide forever!
Ah, my dear Hearer, if you have ever felt your guilt, if you have been
burdened under a sense of it, if you have looked into your own heart to
find some good thing and been bitterly disappointed. If you have gone
up and down through the world to try this and that scheme of getting
relief and found them all fail you like dry wells in the desert which
mock the traveler–the Gospel will be a sweet piece of news to your
heart that there is here present salvation in the Savior! It is a most
refreshing novelty to hear the voice of Jesus say, "Come unto Me and
rest."
Though you have heard the invitation outwardly thousands of times, yet
Jesus' own voice, when He speaks to your heart, will be as surprisingly
fresh to you as if these dumb walls should suddenly find a tongue and
reveal the mysteries which have been hidden from the foundation of the
world. To every Believer the Gospel comes as news from the land beyond
the river–God's mind revealed by God's Spirit to His chosen. It is
good news, too.
Now, has the Gospel ever been experimentally good to you, my Hearer?
Good in the best sense? Good emphatically? Good without any mixture of
evil? The Gospel is just that to those who know it–is it so to you?
Have you ever been deeply sensible of your overwhelming debt to the
justice of God and then gladly received the gracious information that
your debts are all discharged? Have you trembled beneath the
thunder-charged cloud of Jehovah's wrath which was ready to pour forth
its tempest upon you, and have you heard the gentle voice of Mercy
saying, "I have blotted out, as a cloud, your transgressions, and, as a
cloud, your sins"?
Have you ever known what it is to be fully absolved, to stand before
God without fear, accepted in the Beloved, received as a dear child,
covered with the righteousness of Christ? If so, the Gospel has been
"good," indeed, to you. Grasping it by the hand of faith and feeling
the power of it in your soul, you count it to be the best tidings that
ever came from God to man! I shall now ask you earnestly to answer my
question as in the sight of God. Let no man escape from this most vital
enquiry! Has that which Paul calls the Gospel, proved itself to be
Gospel to jou?
Did it ever make your heart leap, just as some highly gratifying
information excites and charms you? Has it ever seemed to you an
all-important thing? If not, you know not what the Gospel means. O let
my anxious questions tenderly quicken you to be concerned about your
soul's affairs and to seek unto the Lord Jesus for eternal life! Paul,
having called the message of mercy "the Gospel," then adds an
adjective–"the glorious Gospel"–and a glorious Gospel it is for a
thousand reasons! It is glorious in its antiquity, for before the beams
of the first morning drove away primeval shades, this Gospel of our
salvation was ordained in the mind of the Eternal!
It is glorious because it is everlasting–when all things shall have
passed away as the hoarfrost of the morning dissolves before the rising
sun, this Gospel shall still exist in all its power and Grace! It is
glorious because it reveals the glory of God more fully than all the
universe beside. Not all the innumerable worlds that God has ever
fashioned, though they speak to us in loftiest eloquence from their
celestial spheres, can proclaim to us the Character of our heavenly
Father as the Gospel does. "The heavens are telling the glory of God!"
But the Gospel which tells of Jesus has a sweeter and a clearer speech!
The poet talks of the great and wide sea where the almighty form
mirrors itself in tempest. So, indeed, the finger of God may mirror
itself, but a thousand oceans could not mirror the Infinite
Himself–the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only molten lookingglass in
which Jehovah can be seen! In Jesus we see not only God's train, such
as Moses saw when he beheld the skirts of Jehovah's robe in the cleft
of the rock, but the whole of God is revealed in the Gospel of Jesus so
that our Lord could say, "He that has seen Me, has seen the Father."
If the Lord is glorious in holiness, the Gospel reveals Him. Is His
right hand glorious in power? So the Gospel speaks of Him. Is the Lord
the God of love? Is not this the genius of the Gospel? The Gospel is
glorious because every attribute of Deity is manifested in it with
unrivalled splendor. But I desire to come home to your consciences by
asking, Is the Gospel to you a glorious Gospel? Beloved Friends, we may
know our state very much by what answer we shall give to that question.
The Gospel, seen with these eyes and heard with these external ears,
will be like the Lord Himself, "A root out of a dry ground, having no
form nor comeliness." But the Gospel understood by the renewed heart,
will be quite a different
thing. Oh, it will be a glorious Gospel, indeed, if you are raised up
in newness of life to enjoy the blessings which it brings to you!
So, I beseech you, answer the question! And to help you, let me remind
the people of God how glorious the Gospel has been to them. Do you
remember the day when the Gospel carried your heart by storm? Can you
ever forget when the great battering ram of the Truth of God began to
beat against the gates of Mansoul? Do you remember how you strengthened
the posts and bars, and stood out against the Gospel, resolving not to
yield? You were at times compelled to weep under impressions, but you
wiped away your transient tears–your emotion was "as the morning
cloud, and as the early dew."
But eternal Love would not relinquish its gracious assaults, for it was
determined to save. Providence and Grace together besieged the city of
your soul and brought Divine artillery to bear upon it. You were
straightaway shut up till–as it was with Samaria, so it was with
you–there was a great famine in your soul. Do you remember how, Sunday
after Sunday every sermon was a fresh assault from the hosts of
Heaven–a new blow from the celestial battering ram?
How often, when the gates of your prejudice were dashed to shivers, did
you set up fresh barricades! Your heart trembled beneath the terrible
strokes of justice, but, by the help of Satan, your depraved heart
managed to secure the gates a little longer with iron clamps of pride,
and bronze bars of insensibility–till at last, one blessed day–do you
remember it?–one blessed day the Gospel battering ram gave the
effectual blow of Divine Grace, the gates flew wide open, and in rode
the Prince of Peace, Immanuel, like a conqueror, riding in the chariots
of salvation!
Our will was subdued, our affections were overcome, our whole soul was
brought into subjection to the sway of Mercy. Jesus was glorious in our
eyes that day, "the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether
lovely." That day of days we have registered upon the tablets of our
heart! It was the true coronation day of Jesus in us, and our birthday
for eternity!
When our glorious Lord entered into our souls wearing His vesture
dipped in blood, pardoning and blessing in the plenitude of His Grace,
then the bells of our heart rang merry peals! The streamers of our joy
floated in the fragrant air! The streets of our soul were strewn with
roses! The fountains of our love ran with rich red wine, and our soul
was as full of bliss as a heart could be this side of Heaven! For
salvation had come to our house, and Mercy's ring had deigned to visit
us!
Oh, the sweet perfume of the spikenard, when, for the first time, the
King sat at our table to sup with us! How the savor of His Presence
filled every chamber of our inner man! That day when Grace redeemed us
from our fears, the Gospel was a glorious Gospel, indeed! Ah, dear
Hearer, you stood in the crowded aisle to hear the sermon, but you did
not grow weary! The lips of the preacher refreshed you, for the Truth
of God dropped like sweet smelling myrrh. You could have gone over
hedge and ditch to hear the Gospel at that season of first love! No
matter how roughly it might have been served up by the preacher, you
rolled the bread of Heaven under your tongue as a sweet morsel, for it
was the Gospel of your salvation!
Christian, I will refresh your memory further. Do not forget the after
conquests of that Gospel. If you have made any advance in the Divine
life, it has been by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ applied by
the Holy Spirit. We make mistakes sometimes, for, having begun in the
Spirit we hope to be made perfect in the flesh. I mean that frequently
we try to battle with our inbred sins by smiting them with legal
reasoning. No Believer ever conquered sin by being afraid of the
punishment of it–this is a weapon fit only for sons of the bondwoman.
It is the blood of Jesus which is the conquering weapon in the holy war
against natural corruption. "They overcame by the blood of the Lamb."
Knowing that I am dead to sin and risen with Christ, it is in the power
of resurrection life that I wrestle against the old man and overcome
him. Beloved, remember that you are always weak when you get away from
the Cross. Remember that it is only as a sinner saved by blood that you
can hope to make any advance in sanctifica-tion. Do not attempt to flog
yourself into Divine Grace–the new life must not be touched with the
whip of bondage. Go to the Cross for motive and energy as to holiness.
Look to Jesus in the Gospel as you did in the beginning of your new
life. Know yourself to be saved in Him and then go forth to battle
temptation with the Gospel as the standard of your lifelong warfare. If
any of you have tried to make war with sin apart from the Captain of
your salvation, you have either been wounded to your hurt already, or
you will be. But if Judah's Lion shall go up before you, and you follow
with the Gospel as your war cry, your victory is sure and you shall
have another wreath to lay at the feet of Jesus and His glorious
Gospel!
Beloved, let me say that all true saints have found it to be a glorious
Gospel from its comforting us in our darkest hours. We are not without
our troubles, for which we should be grateful–they are flinty rocks
which flow with oil. The roots of our soul might take too firm a hold
upon this poor clay soil if they were not toughened by affliction. This
is not our rest. It is polluted and our sorrows are useful because they
remind us of this.
But what has such power to calm the troubled spirit as the Gospel? Go
to the Lord Jesus, you daughters of grief! Know and understand once
more your union with Him, and your acceptance in Him, and you will
repine no more! You will bow your shoulder and cheerfully take up your
cross when you have found out in your hour of need that the Gospel has
a glorious power to sustain those who are ready to sink.
Did you ever perceive the glory of the Gospel in its power to resist
the attacks of the great enemy? The soul has been beleaguered by a
thousand temptations. Satan has howled, and all the fiends of Hell have
joined in horrible chorus, and your own poor distracted thoughts have
said, "I shall perish notwithstanding all my high enjoyments and
confidence." Have you never gathered, as John Bunyan would picture it,
all your forces to the top of the wall to sling the great stones
against the enemy? Have you not felt that the castle would be taken,
till, as a last resort, you ran up the blood-red flag of the Cross,
seized the sword of the Spirit, and went to the rampart determined to
hold the wall against the enemy?
Then when the scaling ladder touched the wall and the foe leaped on the
bulwarks, you dashed him down again, in the name of Jesus by the power
of the Cross, and as often as he came up, so often did you hurl him
down again, always overcoming in the power of the Gospel! You kept your
ground against temptation from without, and corruption from within by
the energy which the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone could give you!
One point may help us to see the glory of the Gospel, namely, that it
has saved us from tremendous ills. The ills which are to come upon the
unbeliever–who shall describe them? If a spirit could cross the
bridgeless gulf which parts us from the land of darkness and the shadow
of death, if he could tell us what are the pangs unutterable which are
endured by guilty souls, then might we say, "Glorious, indeed, is that
Gospel which can lift us from the gates of Hell, and preserve us from
going down to the pit."
Think, my Brothers and Sisters, of what the joys are for which the
Gospel is preparing us! It is by the Holy Spirit, through the preaching
of the Word, that we are ripening for those joys which "eye has not
seen," and which "ear has not heard." Meetness for Heaven will not come
to us by the Law, but by the Gospel. Not so much as one of the
celestials came there by the deeds of the flesh, but altogether by the
Sovereign Grace of God revealed to them in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
A glorious Gospel it is, for it brings its disciples to Glory!
Let me ask you whether it is glorious to you at this hour? I think I
can say it is to me. I wish it were in my power to make it more
glorious in my ministry, but it is glorious to my own heart. After some
years of experience the Christian comes to know better than he did at
first how much the Gospel suits him. He finds that its simplicity suits
his bewilderment. Its Grace suits his sinfulness. Its power is suitable
to his weakness. Its comfort is suitable to his despondency. And the
older he grows the more he loves the Gospel of the Grace of God. Give
it up? Ah, never! We will hold Christ the more firmly because men
despise Him. To whom or where should we go if we should turn aside from
our Lord Jesus?
Now, dear Hearers, before I leave this point, I want to put it to you
again with much loving solicitude. Is the Gospel glorious to you?
Remember, if it is not, there can be no hope for you. There is no way
of salvation except by the good news that, "Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners." And if that news should sound in your ears as a
dry, dull thing, rest assured you are not on the way to Heaven, for the
Gospel to every saved soul is sweeter than the sound of the best
earthly music. Is it so to you?
God is pleased today to put up before your eyes the white flag of
mercy, calling you to come to Jesus and live. But remember, if you do
not yield to it He will run up the red flag of threatening, and then
the black flag of execution will not be far off! Perhaps some of you
have been suffering under bodily disease–take that as a warning. When
our vessels of war would stop a suspicious vessel, they fire a shot
over her bow as a warning. If she does not haul to, perhaps they give
another. And if no notice is taken of this, the gunners go to their
business in real earnest, and woe to the offender! Your affliction is
the Gospel's warning gun. Pause awhile, I beseech you. Ask the Lord in
mercy to look upon you that you may be saved!
As I think upon some of you here who are not saved, I feel something
like the boy I read of yesterday in the newspapers. Last week there
were two lads on the great rocks of Lundy Island, in the Bristol
Channel, looking for seagull eggs. One of them went far down the cliff
and lost his footing, and when his brother, hearing a faint voice,
looked down, he saw him clinging to a jutting crag and striving in vain
to find a place for his feet.
There stood the anxious brother, alarmed and paralyzed with dread,
quite unable to help the younger one in so much peril below–who soon
relaxed his hold and was dashed to pieces far beneath. I feel somewhat
like that alarmed brother. Only there is this happy difference–I can
hope for you, and bid you hope for yourselves! You are clinging now,
perhaps, to some false hope and striving to find a rest where rest is
not to be found. But the strong-winged Angel of the everlasting Gospel
is just underneath you this morning, crying, "Drop now! Simply drop
into My arms. I will take you and bear you aloft in safety." That angel
is the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. You must be dashed
to pieces forever
unless you rest in Him! Cast yourself upon Him, I pray you, and then,
as you are carried in safety far off from every fear, you will magnify
the Grace of God and extol the glorious Gospel!
I must leave that point and observe that Paul recognized the Gospel as
being the Gospel of God. Here arises another enquiry by which we may
know whether we are saved or not. Has the Gospel been the Gospel of God
to you, my Friends? It is easy to receive the Gospel as the Gospel of
"my minister." I am afraid there is a good deal of that sort of thing
among us. We have great faith in our religious teachers, and very
properly so, if we have received benefit from them.
But if the Gospel only comes to us as the Gospel of such-and-such a
preacher, it will not save us! It must come distinctly and directly as
God's Gospel, and we must receive it as such. It is in solemn silence
of the mind our privilege to hear the voice of God speaking to us and
to receive the Truth of God in the love of it as coming with Divine
authority directly from God. Remember that all religion which is not
the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart will have to be unraveled, let
it be woven ever so cunningly.
We may build, as our little children do, on the seashore, our sand
houses, and we may pile them up very quickly, too. And we may be very
pleased with them–but they will all come down as the tide of time
advances! Only that which God the Holy Spirit builds upon the
foundation of Christ's finished work will stand the test of time and
eternity. How is it with you? If the Spirit of Christ is not in you,
you are dead.
If the Gospel, itself, should come to you in a sort of power, but only
because of the pathos of the preacher, or the eloquent manner of his
speech–it has not brought eternal life to you! If the Gospel is,
indeed, the Gospel of God to us, it will exalt God in our estimation.
The Father we shall love and adore, having chosen us to eternal life.
The Son we shall love with warmest affection, having redeemed us with
His precious blood. The Holy Spirit we shall constantly reverence, and
we shall cherish Him as dwelling a welcome guest within these bodies of
ours.
By this we may tell whether we have received the Truth of God, by its
bringing us consciously into connection with God. Does God dwell in
you, my Hearer? If not, you will not dwell where God is. You must know
the Holy Spirit–not as an influence to be poured out as some pray–but
as dwelling within you, resting in your heart. I put that as a very
important question, but I will not pause over it, for I have to close
our first head by noticing that the Gospel was to Paul the "Gospel of
the blessed God." I believe William Knibb used to read this passage,
"The Gospel of the happy God," and it was not a mistake–it is the very
gist of the matter.
"The Gospel of the happy God." Have you ever considered how happy God
must be? How supremely happy? No care, no sorrow can ever pass across
His infinite mind! He is serenely blessed evermore. Now, when a man is
miserable, and of a miserable turn of mind, he as naturally makes
people miserable as a foul fountain pours out foul water. But when a
good man is superlatively happy, he imparts happiness. A happy face
attracts many of us, and a happy temperament, a quiet mind, a serene
disposition–why, a man who has these–inevitably tries to make others
happy!
And it is, I suppose, because God is infinitely happy that He delights
in the happiness of His creatures. The fabled gods of the heathen were
vexed with all sorts of ambition, longing, and craving which they could
not gratify, or which, when gratified, only made them crave more.
Consequently they are pictured as revengeful and cruel, delighting in
the miseries of men. But our God is so perfectly blessed that He has no
motive for causing needless sorrow to His creatures! He has all
perfection within Himself, and, consequently He delights to make us
happy.
How much satisfaction does God find in the happiness of creatures that
are devoid of intellect? You may have seen, sometimes, when the sea is
going down, a little fringe at the edge of the wave which looks like
mist. But if you were to examine it carefully, you would find that
there were countless multitudes of very tiny shrimp, all leaping up and
casting themselves into all manner of forms of intense delight! Look
again at the gnats, as you walk in your gardens in the summer's
evenings–how they dance up and down–these little mirthful beings are
all exhibiting to us the perfect blessedness that God would have to be
manifested by all His creatures!
He would have His people supremely blest. He would have every vessel of
mercy full to the brim with the oil of joy. And the way to make us so
is to give us the Gospel! The Gospel is sent, to use our Savior's
words, "that His joy may be in us, and that our joy may be full." We
enjoy Heaven upon earth as we sit at the feast of fat things on earth.
Just imagine what will be our glory when the Gospel of the blessed God
shall have turned out all our sin! When we shall swim in the Gospel as
the fish swims in the sea! When the Gospel shall become our element in
the next world! Oh, the happiness of the creatures that are full of the
Gospel spirit before the Throne of God!
Dear Hearer, did the Gospel ever come to you in that shape? I am afraid
that to most people the Gospel is a bondage because they do not know it
in very deed. I am afraid that to many, Gospel emotion is a sort of
spasm–they are satisfied with the Truth of God sometimes, but at other
times, when they feel they must have a treat, they go into the world
for it. Where you get your treats, there your heart is! Whatever it is
that gives you the most happiness, that is the master of your spirit.
The Christian feels that he can sing with old Mason–
"I need not go abroad for joys,
I have a feast at home.
My sighs are tamed into songs,
My heart has ceased to roam.
Down from above the blessed Dove
Is come into my breast,
To witness God's eternal love,
And give my spirit rest.
My God, I'll praise You while I live,
And praise You when I die;
And praise You when I rise again,
And to eternity."
The religion of the genuine Christian is calculated to impart perfect
delight. The truly regenerated man desires to have more and more of it
so that his soul may be baptized in heavenly joy. "The Gospel of the
happy God," also means the Gospel of the God whom we must bless in
return. As being happy, He makes us happy. So we, being happy, desire
to ascribe to Him all the glory of our happiness.
Now, is the Gospel to you, my dear young Friend over there, the Gospel
of a God whom you bless with all your heart because He has sent it to
you, and made you willing to receive it? If so, you are saved. But if
now no emotions of sincere gratitude stir the depths of your soul, then
the Gospel has been to you no more than a sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal.
II. The Apostle says, "The glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which is
committed to my trust." DO YOU RECOGNIZE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY? Paul
speaks not here of himself, alone. He might have said, "which is
committed to the trust of every Believer in Christ." The Gospel is a
priceless treasure and the Believers are the bankers of it. It is
committed to our trust as men commit business to their agents.
First, we are bound to believe it all. Take heed of receiving a divided
and maimed Gospel! It has been said that "only half the truth is a lie"
and so it is. Most of the ill reports which distress the world have
truth at the foundation of them, but they become false through the
exaggeration of one part and the omission of the next. It should be the
duty of every enlightened Christian to labor to master the whole
compass of Truth so far as possible.
I suppose none but the Infinite mind can know all the lengths and
breadths of the Truth of God, but still we should not be warped by
education, nor be kept from receiving it by prejudice. We should strive
against all partiality. And it should be, whenever we open this Book,
one of our prayers, "Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out
of Your Law." We must pray to have a mind like molten metal, ready to
be run into the mold of the Truth. To have a soul like the
photographer's sensitive plate, ready to receive the light-writing of
God at once, so that His Truth may be there in its entirety.
We must plead with the Holy Spirit for Grace to be willing to give up
the most cherished dogma, the most flesh-pleasing form of teaching when
we find it to be contrary to Scripture. To sit at Jesus' feet and learn
of Him is the life-business of the Christian in this house of his
pilgrimage. The Gospel is, in this sense, committed to our trust for we
are to lay it up in our hearts. But someone demands, "How am I to know
which is the Gospel?" You may know it by searching the Scriptures. "But
one sect says this, and another sect says the reverse!"
What have you to do with the sects? Read the Book of God for yourself!
"But some men do read it and arrive at one opinion, and some maintain
the opposite, and thus they contradict themselves, and yet are equally
right." Who told you that? That is impossible! Men cannot be equally
right when they contradict each other! There is a Truth of God and
there is a falsehood. If yes is true, no is false. It may be true that
good men have held different opinions. But are you responsible for what
they may have held, or are you to gather that because they were good,
personally, therefore everything they believed was true?
No! This Book is plain enough. It is no nose of wax that everybody may
shape to what form he likes. There is something taught here plainly and
positively, and if a man will but give his mind to it, by God's Grace
he may find it out. I do not believe that this Book is so dark and
mysterious as some suppose. And even if it is, the Holy Spirit who
wrote it still lives, and the Author always knows His own meaning–you
have only to go to Him in prayer, and He will tell you what it means.
You will not become infallible! I trust you will not think yourself to
be so, but you will learn doctrines which are infallibly true, and upon
which you may put down your foot and say, "Now I know this, and am not
to be duped out of it." It is a grand thing to have the Truth of God
burnt into you, as with a hot iron, so that there is no getting it out
of you.
The priest, when he took away the Testament from the boy, thought he
had done the work. "But," said the boy, "Sir, what will you do with the
26 chapters which I learned by heart? You cannot take them away." Yet
memory might fail, and, as the lad grew into an old man, he might
forget the 26 chapters. But suppose they changed his heart and made him
a new creature in Christ–there would be no getting that away–even
though Satan himself should attempt the task! Seek to carry out the
sacred trust committed to you by believing it, and believing it all.
Search the Word to find out what the Gospel is, and endeavor to receive
it into your inmost heart that it may be in your heart's core forever.
Next, as good stewards we must maintain the cause of Truth against all
comers. "Never get into religious controversies," says one. That is to
say, being interpreted, be a Christian soldier but let your sword rust
in its scabbard and sneak into Heaven like a coward! Such advice I
cannot endorse! If God has called you by His Truth, maintain the Truth
which has been the means of your salvation. We are not to be
pugnacious–always contending for every notion of our own– but where
we have learned the Truth of the Holy Spirit, we are not tamely to see
that standard torn down which our fathers upheld at peril of their
blood.
This is an age in which the Truth of God must be maintained zealously,
vehemently, continually. Playing fast and loose as many do, believing
this today and that tomorrow, is the sure mark of children of wrath.
And having received the Truth, to hold fast to the very form of it, as
Paul bids Timothy to do, is one of the duties of heirs of Heaven. Stand
fast for Truth, and may God give the victory to the faithful. We must
believe the Gospel and maintain it, for it is committed to our trust.
It seems to me, however, that the most of us may best fulfill our
responsibility to the Gospel by adorning it in our lives, Men give
jewels to those whom they love, and so, if we love the Gospel, let our
virtues be the jewels which shall display our love. A servant girl may
adorn the Gospel. She goes to a place of worship and perhaps her
irreligious mistress may object to her going. I remember Mr. Jay
telling a story of such a case, where the master and mistress had
forbidden the girl to attend a Dissenting place of worship.
She pleaded very hard, and at last determined to leave the house. The
master said to his wife, "Well, you see our servant is a very excellent
servant. We never had such an industrious girl as she is. Everything in
the house is kept so orderly, and she is so obedient, and so on. Now,
she does not interfere with our consciences, it is a pity we should
interfere with hers. Wherever she goes, it certainly does her no
hurt–why not let her go?" In the next conversation the wife said, "I
really think, Husband, that our servant gets so much good where she
goes, that we had better go and hear for ourselves." And they were soon
members of the very same Church which they had thought so lightly of at
the first!
Now we can each of us, in our station, do that. We are not all called
to preach in these boxes called pulpits, but we may preach more
conveniently and much more powerfully behind the counter or in the
drawing room, or in the parlor, or in the field, or wherever else
Providence may have placed us. Let us endeavor to make men mark what
kind of Gospel we believe. Only a few weeks ago a missionary in China
took his gun to go up one of the rivers of the interior to shoot wild
ducks, and, as he went along in the boat he shot at some ducks, and
down they fell.
Unfortunately they did not happen to be wild fowl, but tame ducks
belonging to some of the neighbors. The owner was miles away but the
boat was drawn up to the side of the river and the missionary went
about, carefully endeavoring to find out the owner of the ducks, for he
could not rest until he had paid for the damage he had ignorantly done.
The owner was much surprised. He had been so accustomed to having
people shoot his ducks and never saying a word about it that he could
not understand the honesty of the man of God.
And he told others until crowds of Chinese gathered round and stared at
the missionary as if he had dropped from the moon–a man so extremely
honest as not to be willing to take away ducks when he had killed them!
They listened to the Gospel with attention and observed that the
teaching must be good which made people so conscientious as the
missionary had been. I should not wonder but what that little incident
did more for the Gospel than the preaching of twenty sermons might have
done without it! So let it be with us! Let us so act in every position
that we shall adorn the Gospel which is committed to our trust.
Lastly, it is committed to our trust, if we have received it, that we
may spread it–spread it personally by telling it abroad. If more could
preach the Gospel it would be well. We have in all our congregations
young men who are hard at work–at this very moment I do not doubt but
what we have a hundred preaching in the street–perhaps more. But I
have sometimes regretted that so few of the wealthier men enter into
such labor. We could wish to see the men of ten talents preaching–the
men of large abilities consecrating themselves to Christ.
Many of our young members are more useful at literary institutions than
in the Church. Other useful occupations are all very well in their way,
but I wish we could get the strength of our men spent more in the
preaching of the Gospel. The first business of a Christian is his
Christianity. All the rest, his patriotism even, must be kept
subservient to that, for
Heaven is more his country than England is, and Jesus Christ is rather
his King than any of the kings of earth. "Seek you first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness."
I would ask young men now present, who love the Lord, whether they
really are doing for the cause of God what they ought to do. Whether
they could not do something more by way of making manifest in every
place the savor of Jesus Christ's name. My Sisters, your voices are
exceedingly sweet, but we like to hear them better anywhere than from a
pulpit. But still you have your sphere–do you occupy it for Christ?
The Christian woman's first call is to serve Jesus in the family. Next
to that to serve Christ in her neighborhood. Are you doing so? The
"glorious Gospel of the blessed God" is as much committed to your
trust, Christian woman, as if there were not another Christian under
Heaven–how would it fare if it were so? If all other Christians died,
would you have done by the Gospel what it might demand of you? All the
zeal and industry of10,000 others cannot touch your personal
responsibility as a Christian.
I have to ask you, this morning, to help me to spread the glorious
Gospel. Some years ago, having done my utmost to preach the Word with
my own mouth, I found that running up and down throughout the country
preaching 10 or 12 times a week, I was still able to do but very
little. I thought if I found other tongues and set them talking, found
other brains and set them thinking, I might, perhaps, do more for the
cause of my blessed Master. One young man was thrown in my way who was
educated for me by an esteemed brother for the Christian ministry. And
when he was greatly owned of God as preacher, the desire to assist
students grew within my heart,
The Pastor's College, for which I ask your contributions this morning,
has grown to be a power for good. We have had for some successive years
between 80 and 90 Brothers in training for the ministry. The whole of
the support for them is found by the gifts of God's people which they
voluntarily send, without being waited upon by any collector, or asked
for annual subscriptions. I have nothing to depend upon but the
Providence of God which directs the generosity of His people. Sometimes
my funds run rather short, but never so short that I am really in need,
for when the treasury is scantily furnished, we call the young men
together and pray about it, and many a time we have had as distinct
answers to prayer as though God had stretched his hand out of Heaven to
give the needed money!
Some 5,000 pounds a year are spent in this way, which God always sends
when it is needed. We have built several places of worship. We have
formed and founded several fresh Churches. We have evangelized the
darkest districts of London and the country–and our men are now to be
found in Australia, on the rock of St. Helena, in Southern Africa, in
America–and all quarters of the earth. God has been pleased to bless
them and has given them souls for their hire, and we shall be glad if
you feel moved to give towards their maintenance.
Before I dismiss you, I would like to press home to each one the
question, "Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Has the Gospel
become a glorious Gospel to you?" I do not know you as I know my own
people, but when I look along my galleries I mourn over those who have
been hearing the word 10 years and are the same as if they never heard
it. I suppose there are some of you in the same case, and my esteemed
brother, Mr. Tucker, must cast his eye around the gallery, and the
area, and see many who have grown Gospel-hardened.
It is a horrible thing to think of! The same sun that melts wax hardens
clay, and to some hearts the Gospel becomes the savor of death unto
death. If nothing comes of this morning's service but making everyone
enquire how it is with his own soul. If it shall only constrain you to
go to your solitary chamber and shut the door and pray, "O Lord, let me
know this glorious Gospel! I have not understood it up till now, for it
has not been glorious to me. Do make it so to me this day, that I may
be saved," my heart will be very glad if such shall be the case.
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Jesus Putting Away Sin
A sermon