Strong Consolation
A sermon
(No. 893)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, SEPTEMBER 26 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two
immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might
ha ve a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us."- Hebrews 6:17,18.
THE Lord's transactions with the Patriarch Abraham are frequently used
in Scripture as types of His dealings with all the heirs of promise.
The Lord found him in an idolatrous household, even as He finds all His
people far off from Him and strangers to Him. But the Lord separated
him by an effectual call and brought him out from his country and from
his father's house, even as He does unto all His people when He visits
them in mercy, and says, "Come out from among them and be you separate
and touch not the unclean thing."
The Lord, then, was pleased to give to His servant a very gracious
promise, the likes of which, only yet more clear and bright, He is
pleased to give to every heir of salvation. And after awhile, that the
Patriarch's faith in the midst of his increasing trials might come to a
fullness of strength, the Lord was pleased to make a Covenant with him
and to confirm that Covenant by sacrifice of blood and by solemn oath.
Even thus does He reveal Himself to us, unfolding the ancient Covenant
of Grace which He has made with us in Christ Jesus and He bids us look
upon the solemn seal of the Savior's sacrifice and of the oath of old
which the Lord made unto His Son.
As He led His servant, a stranger in a strange land, but yet surrounded
and enriched with innumerable mercies, even so are we sojourners with
Him, as all our fathers were, but yet endowed with boundless favor in
the blessings of the right hand of the Most High. No doubt, the great
end of God in this, so far as Abraham's life on earth was concerned,
was to produce in Abraham a model of unstaggering faith. God takes
pleasure in the persons of His servants. He takes a delight in the
training and education of His children, in the creating of His own
image in their characters. And especially if there is one thing in a
saint which delights God more than another, it is the choice Grace of
Faith. And therefore Abraham, who is the "friend of God" more than any
other, is also the most believing of men and the father of the
faithful.
Now, Beloved, the Lord who has dealt with us as he did with Abraham,
has the same end which he would answer in us as in the Patriarch. He
would have us manifest all the Divine Graces which can adorn our
character and make us imitators of God as dear children. Above all, He
would have us strong in faith, giving glory to God. O that this end of
God might be answered in you and in me–that we may be no more
children, carried about with every wind of doctrine, may be no more
puny in faith, tossed to and fro with anxieties and suspicions–but may
become strong men who are able both to run in the race, to persevere in
the pilgrimage, to contend in the fight and to labor in the service,
because the sinews of our strength are well knit and the muscles of our
faith are firm in reliance upon the living God, who is the strength of
our life and will be our portion forever!
How far, dear Brethren, we have as yet reached to anything like the
strong consolation and the vigorous faith of the text is for us to
enquire. And if on enquiry we find ourselves deficient, let us plead
mightily with God that He would continue His gracious work, that He
would reveal Himself more fully and that we may have a firm,
unstaggering faith in Him. In order that we may have in ourselves the
highest degree of assurance and confidence in God, the Lord is pleased
to reveal Himself to His servants as a God of Truth and Love in
multiplied promises and, in addition to this, in the most solemn oaths.
If we do not believe God, it is not because He has not plainly spoken.
If we doubt Him, it is not because He has left room for doubts, or
given occasion for mistrust. His words are plain, often repeated, very
positive, presented in the most assuring form, and ratified and settled
with the most solemn assurances. Why, then, should I doubt? Why should
I not,
since God is abundantly willing to show to me the immutability of His
counsel, be abundantly willing to rest in that immutability, giving
glory to God and enjoying peace in my own soul?
My discourse shall be aimed at the helping of God's servants to attain
to a strong faith in Him. May the Holy Spirit help my infirmities and
bless your souls. First, this morning, we shall, by the help of the
text, find out the favored people who are the rightful owners of the
strong consolations spoken of in the text. Secondly, we shall speak
upon the condescending God who is pleased to give such overflowing
comfort. And, thirdly, we shall speak upon the strong consolation
itself which flows from these immutable things of God.
I. First, then, dear Friends, may you be able to see yourselves as in a
mirror, while we look into this text, to notice who are THE FAVORED
PEOPLE OF GOD. In the 17th verse, they are described as the "heirs of
promise." In the 18th verse, they are portrayed as those "who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." Observe, then,
that the favored children of God are first described as "the heirs of
promise," by which, at once most solemnly, are excluded all those who
are relying upon their own merits.
If there are any here present who think that they have led a blameless
life and have added thereto a careful attendance to the duties of
religion and to all the decencies and amiabilities of society and that,
therefore, they have somewhat of a claim on God and something wherein
to glory, they are evidently excluded from all the blessings of the
Covenant, for that is a Covenant ofpromise, not a Covenant of legal
rewards. A promise is not a debt, but a blessing and if the blessing
comes by promise, then those who receive it are not those who put in a
claim by reason of good things worked by themselves. What do you say,
dear Hearer, is your salvation based and bottomed and grounded and
founded upon the Sovereign Grace of God to you, an undeserving sinner?
Do you confess that you have nothing of your own wherein to boast, and
do you hope, alone, in the mercy of God in Christ Jesus? Then let me
hope you are one of the heirs of promise.
"Heirs of promise," again. Then this excludes those who are heirs
according to their own will, who scoff at the mighty work of Divine
Grace and believe that their own free choice has saved them! The Lord
said unto Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." And Paul adds in
Romans 9:16, "So then, it is not of him that wills, nor of him that
runs, but of God that shows mercy." Dear Hearer, here is a weighty
question for you–from where did your religion come? Did it come
entirely of yourself and spring from your own inward promptings and
nothing else, or are you a Christian because the Grace of God came
across your will?
Are you a Christian because the hand of Divine Grace took the helm of
your vessel and turned it in the opposite direction to its natural
inclining? Are you rather the subject than the user of Grace? Are you
rather sought of God than one who of himself did seek God? Tell me,
now, is it your own will or God's will that has the honor of your
salvation? Remember they are not all Israel that are of Israel, "but in
Isaac shall your seed be called." God makes, here, a distinction and
takes Isaac and passes by Ishmael.
And yet again, as the Apostle reminds us, "when Rebecca also had
conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, (for the children being not
yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that
calls), it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." "Therefore,"
says the Apostle, "He has mercy on whom He will have mercy." It is a
blessed mark of Divine Grace when we are willing to feel that it is
just and right that pardon should be distributed according to God's
will rather than our will! The promise must be freely given of God and
who among us would interfere with His rights to give as He wills? Shall
not the Judge of all the earth be right? Shall He not do as He wills
with His own?
All heirs of promise will consent to this. One more thought–"Heirs of
promise," then heirs, not according to the power of the flesh, but
according to the energy of Divine Grace. Ishmael was the heir according
to flesh, but he obtained not the inheritance–"They which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God." Isaac was
born not through his father's or his mother's strength, for they were
well advanced in years, but he was the child of promise, the fruit of
Divine visitation. Now what is your Grace in your heart? Did it spring
from the strength of Nature? If so, it is but Ishmael, it will be
rejected–it is but the bondwoman's child and will be cast out. But if
your piety is the pure gift of God, an Isaac born when human nature was
incapable of anything that was good and when your depravity could
produce nothing that was acceptable in the sight of God–if it has been
granted to you according to the power of the Holy Spirit, then is it
such as shall surely bring you to Heaven!
The children of God, then, are heirs of promise, not heirs by merit,
not heirs by their own will, not heirs by human power. Just in this
manner does John describe Believers as, "born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13).
Here are sharp distinctions. My Soul, can you bear them? While
listening to them, do you feel no rebellion, but rather feel a humble
desire to sit down at Jesus' feet and hopefully say, "I trust I also am
a child of the promise"? Ah, then is it well with you.
A plainer description of the favored people follows in the 18th verse.
We will look at it. "Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us" Then, dear Hearers, all the people of God were once in
danger. They have "fled for refuge." Men do not flee for refuge when
they are not in distress. The vessel puts not into the harbor of refuge
when winds and waves all favor her. A man does not escape out of a city
like Lot out of Sodom unless he is persuaded that the city is to be
destroyed and that he is likely to perish in it. Ah, indeed, we who are
saved today confess with gratitude to Him who has delivered us, that we
were once in danger.
In danger, my Brothers and Sisters, is the word strong enough? In
danger of eternal burnings! It was worse than that, for we are brands
plucked out of the fire! We already burned with that fire of sin which
is the fire of Hell. We were already destroyed, already dead and
corrupt! Our danger had overtaken us and overthrown us. The accumulated
horrors of the tempest of Divine Wrath were gathering to pour
themselves on our devoted heads! But we have fled for refuge. Blessed
be God, no longer do we dread that lightning flash of wrath! No longer
are we consumed with that flame of reigning sin! Christ has called us
to shelter in His wounds and we have fled from the wrath to come.
My Brethren, every true child of God not only was in danger, but he
felt it, for, alas, if I say the child of God was in danger, why, so
were all alike, children of God and children of the devil, too! Oh, how
some of you are in danger this morning! You have but a step between you
and death and it may be you will never enter this Tabernacle, or any
other House of Prayer again, but within the next seven days you will
have to stand before the Judge of all the earth! You are in peril! But
the mark of the child of God is that he has felt his danger–for a man
must feel a danger before he will flee for refuge. Do you feel it?
Dear Hearer, have you felt it not merely as a transient fright that
passed over you for a moment and then you wiped away your tears and
went back to your carnal security? Have you felt the danger so that the
fear haunted you by day and by night and would not let you rest till
you escaped for your life? I have nothing to say to you as a child of
God unless you have so felt. I cannot address you as one that has fled
for refuge unless you have also felt that you needed a refuge, felt it
solemnly with broken heart before God and confessed that you could not
fight the battle yourself nor could you endure the storm alone, but
must find a shelter other than your own doings or resolutions could
afford you.
Still, even this does not quite describe the child of God. He was in
danger, and he felt his danger, but the text says, he has, "fled for
refuge." I have no doubt that the words here point to the old Jewish
institution of the Cities of Refuge. A man had slain another by mistake
and the next of kin would be quite sure to avenge the blood. But the
manslayer fled with all his might to the appointed City of Refuge. When
once he passed between the portals of that sanctuary he was secure. So,
Brethren, the children of God have, by nature, provoked the just
vengeance of Heaven. They have been guilty against the Law–and
Justice, red-handed and swift–was fast behind them.
This they knew, and being moved with fear they took to their heels with
a solemn repentance and an eager faith and they sped away to Jesus
Christ, the appointed City of Sanctuary! And they have found protection
in Him. I say they have found it. Dear Hearer, have you found it? No,
it is nothing to say, "I hope I shall." What if the avenger of blood
strikes you with his killing sword even now? Have you found it?
Remember, you are this day either a saved man or not! There are no
middle places between these two! The wrath of God pursues you, or else
you are at the altar's horn, secure through the sprinkled blood. You
are this day condemned already, waiting for execution, or else you are
absolved and vengeance can never strike you. Which of the two is it?
Oh, I know that many of us can say, "By God's Grace I have fled for
refuge. Jesus Christ, I have looked to You and to You alone. You are my
only confidence. If a soul can perish trusting in Christ, I shall
perish. If there is anything needed besides You, O Jesus, I shall
perish, for I have nothing besides You. But if simple faith in the once
crucified Savior can save the sinner, then I am a saved man, for I have
so believed and so I will, God helping me, to life's last hour." You
have, then, reached the Refuge. What a mercy this is! You can now walk
at peace as a saved sinner. Sin is pardoned, the wrath of God is turned
away from you.
But the text goes on to describe these favored people as running for a
crown. There is a commingling of metaphors here, and yet at the same
time no confusion. The first metaphor is over, they have, "fled for
refuge," and now they continue to run, but for another reason, "to lay
hold upon the hope set before us." Beloved, every child of God is
pressing forward towards the hope of everlasting life and glory
undefiled beyond the stars! Is it so with us? God has promised to us a,
"crown of life that fades not away," and our life is a getting ready
for that crown–a pressing forward towards that unfading bliss.
We are daily blessed with inward aspirations after it, hungry longings
for it, Divine impulses towards it! And moreover, we hope we are
purifying ourselves by His Spirit, even as He is pure–that when He
shall appear, for whose coming we are looking–we may be found of Him
in peace, made ready to enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb. I
shall not detain you longer with the description, but I shall press
upon you all to ask yourselves whether you have fled for refuge and are
pressing onward to the hope that is set before you. For upon this
question everything must hinge. If it is so, Brethren, the strongest
consolation in the Word of God is not denied you–the richest promise
and the rarest blessing of the Covenant you may grasp without any
interference, for everything belongs to you!
But if not and you do not answer to this description, so far from
wishing to administer any consolation to you, we fear lest we should
say a word that might lull you into a deeper and more dangerous peace.
For you no sweet notes of consolation! But the shrill trumpet must be
sounded in Gibeah and we must lift up the voice of alarm in Zion–for
out of Christ, not having fled for refuge–wrath comes upon you even to
the uttermost and there shall be no escape! If they that despised
Moses' Law perished without mercy, of how much sorer vengeance shall
you be counted worthy that shall despise the Son of God? How shall you
escape if you neglect so great a salvation?
II. But we must pass on to our second head. Let us humbly look, for a
minute, to the ways and dealings of our CONDESCENDING GOD to these
favored people, hoping that we belong to their number. Notice each
word, "God willing." Whenever God does anything in a way of Divine
Grace, He does it, as we say, con amore, He does it, in the highest
sense, willingly. In a certain sense, all the acts of God are willingly
done, but there are some which in another sense He does unwillingly.
"He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."
It is not the will of God that sinners should perish. He has declared
it. He had rather that they turn unto Him and live. But when He reveals
Himself to His saints, He does it with a sacred willingness, a Divine
cheerfulness. It is an occupation Divinely suitable to His generous
Nature. "God willing." "Willing more abundantly." Notice that
expression. It has, in the Greek, the sense of more than is necessary
and is secretly meant to answer the objection concerning the Lord's
taking an oath. God is willing to reveal Himself to His people and He
is willing to do that "more abundantly," up to the measure of their
need. He would let them know that His counsel is immutable and He would
not only give them enough evidence to prove it, He would give them
overwhelming evidence–evidence more than would be or could be possibly
required by the case itself–so that their unbelief may have no chance
to live and their faith may be of the strongest kind.
The word, "to show," is remarkable! It is the very word used in the
Greek when our Lord showed His disciples His hands and His side, as if
the word would say that God would lay bare the immutability of His
Nature, would, as it were, strip His eternal purposes and let His
people look upon them, handle them and see their reality, their truth
and certainty! "God is willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs
of promise the immutability of His counsel."
Beloved, oftentimes a man will not give further assurance of the truth
of what he states, when he believes he has already given assurance
enough. No, he stands on his dignity and he says, "Do you not believe
me? I have already given you a promise, I have given that promise again
and again, why seek more? My character in all past life has been such
that I am entitled to be believed. I have given you what I conceive to
be overwhelming proof of my fidelity and honesty. If you ask more, you
shall not have it. I do not feel called upon to repeat my words as if I
were suspected of untruth." Observe with wonder that our ever gracious
God never stands on His dignity in this style at all, but He looks not
so much at the dignity of His own Person as at the weakness of His
people, and therefore, being willing more abundantly to show unto His
poor feeble trembling people the immutability of His counsel–He not
only gives one promise, but He adds another and another and
another–till to count the promises were almost as difficult as to
count the stars or number the sands on the sea shore!
Yes and when He has done all this, He comes in with a master clap to
crown it all and confirms every promise by an oath–that by not one
immutable thing but by two, the promise and the oath, in both of which
it is impossible for Jehovah to lie–His people might never dare to
doubt again, but might have strong consolation. The first immutable
thing upon which our faith is to stay itself, is the promise. How badly
we treat our God! If a father should give a promise to any of you,
being a child, you believe your father. I know, dear Wife, you would
count it a great dishonor if anyone assumed that you doubted your
husband's word. I know, dear Sister, that you would think it sad
discredit to your brother if you had cause to doubt his word.
Oh, no, we readily believe and accept the truthfulness of those we love
and yet our God, our Father–Christ our Brother, our dearest Friend–O
why, why do we not believe Him? But it may be whispered in times of
darkness, "Yes, but God may have given a promise that He will save
those who fly to Christ and I hope I have fled to Christ, but suppose
He should change His mind and retract His promise?" No, but He has told
you it is an immutable promise and when a man says, "I will never alter
my word," we do not expect he will. If he is an honest man, he cannot.
If his promise were only intended to be broken, why, he is playing the
fool with us! But when it is given with an intent to be kept, as God
says His is–for He calls it an immutable promise–let us not entertain
suspicions against it.
The text implies that if God were to break His promise He would lie. He
cannot take back His promise without lying and let not the thought even
flit across our soul that God should lie! "Has He said and shall He not
do it? Or has He spoken and shall He not make it good?" Beloved, when
you are conscious that you are great sinners and have no good thing in
yourselves, it is easy to yield to the dark suspicion, "Suppose, after
all, I believe in Christ and yet my faith should not be enough? Suppose
this which has been set before me in the Word of God as the groundwork
of a sinner's hope should turn out to be too little?"
At such times it really appears that the Gospel plan is too simple and
we are tempted to think it may prove to be insufficient. But the text
will not allow such a supposition, for there is the promise of God, "he
that believes and is baptized shall be saved." And He tells us that is
an immutable promise, consequently if He did change it, if He did shift
the system of His Grace, He would lie. But He cannot lie! Oh, what
consolation is this, then! Our refuge is secure, our confidence is
firm! Look here, you people of God! This promise of God was not made in
a hurry. A man makes a promise on a sudden and he cannot keep it
afterwards, but through the everlasting ages the promise was on
Jehovah's heart before He spoke it with His lips!
Men sometimes make promises that they cannot fulfill–they are in
circumstances which do not permit them. But can God ever be in a
difficulty? Can He ever lose His power to do what He wills? He is
Omnipotent! The heavens and the earth are His. "All power belongs unto
God." Men sometimes make promises which it would be unwise to keep and
perhaps it is better to break them. But the Lord cannot be unwise, His
is infinite wisdom as well as infinite strength. The promise, then,
because of its wisdom, will surely stand. Beside, my Brothers and
Sisters, the promise He has made is to His own honor. It redounds to
His glory to show mercy to the unworthy.
Moreover, His promise is made to His own Son, and His love to Him is
intertwisted and interwoven with His promise. He could not break His
word to one of us without breaking it to His dear Son, since we are in
Him and trust in Him. O my Brethren, the Divine promise must stand
good! Show me where it was ever broken! I will tell you where it has
been kept even to the end, in the 10,000 times 10,000 of the
blood-washed, who, with white robes, are this day surrounding His
Throne with never-ceasing songs! It has never been broken even to us on
earth! Here stand some of us, the witnesses of Divine fidelity. Why,
then, should we mistrust a promise which has always been immutable and
has never been, for a moment, treated by God as a thing to be tampered
with? Why should we begin to doubt Him?–
"O for a strong, a lasting faith, To credit what the Almighty says, To
embrace the message of His Son, And call the joys of Heaven our own."
But, Brethren, it is added that God, in order to prevent our unbelief
effectually, has taken an oath. An oath, if it is allowable–and I
think our Lord Jesus has forever forbidden all Christian men every oath
of every sort–an oath, if ever allowable, as it was under the old
dispensation, should never be taken except upon the most solemn
business and in the most solemn manner. An oath of a man is a thing at
which an angel might well tremble. What greater dishonor or shame could
you pour upon a man than to convict him of perjury? We count such men
the pariahs of the human race! We put
them outside the social scale as unworthy to be communed with! Their
breath is pestilence and leprosy is on their brows! Perjury! The man is
no man! He has sunk below the level of manhood when he comes to that.
But God has, with an oath, sworn by Himself that all the heirs of
promise shall be blessed forever, saying, "Surely blessing I will bless
you."
Now, Brethren, who among us dare doubts this? Where is the hardy sinner
who dares come forward and says, "I impugn the oath of God"? Oh, but
let us blush the deepest scarlet and scarlet is but white compared with
the blush which ought to mantle the cheek of every child of God to
think that even God's own children should, in effect, accuse their
heavenly Father of perjury! Oh, shame upon us! Forgive us, great God,
this deep atrocity, and from this hour may we hold it certain that as
You have sworn that he that flees for refuge to Christ shall be
safe–that as You have promised that he that believes and is baptized
shall be saved–we who have so believed are secure beyond all question!
Let us no more doubt our salvation than our existence and no more think
ourselves in jeopardy in the darkest and the most terrible hour than we
think God's Throne itself in jeopardy, or God's Truth itself in peril.
O Believer, stand to it that the Lord cannot lie! How I have rolled
those words over in my thoughts–they have rung in my ears like a
bell–"Impossible for God to lie." Of course it is!
Next, "Things in which it is impossible for God to lie," as if there
were some things more impossible than others. "Immutable things, in
which it is impossible for God to lie." And then the finale, "Two
immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie." I do not
know whether you catch the accumulation of the meaning, the tidal wave
of reassuring thought. If you do, there is a force about it which is
rather excessive than deficient, as though a huge battering ram were
brought to crush a fly, or ocean stirred to a tempest to float a
feather. We have too much, surely, instead of too little evidence for
our faith. Here is more evidence than faith can want.
Beloved, here is ocean-room for you! Were you the vilest sinners, your
vessels which draw the most water may float here! There is room for all
the navies of sinners that ever swam the sea of sin. Leviathan may come
here and though he could make the ocean to be hoary and to boil like a
pot, in these immutable things, wherein there is an impossibility for
God to lie, there is room for him. Here is unshaken ground for a
confidence that never shall for a moment dare to mistrust God!
III. But I must turn away to the third point and note THE STRONG
CONSOLATION WHICH FLOWS OUT OF ALL THIS. This is setting the wine
bottles at the taps of the vat to catch the flowing juice from these
rich grapes of Eshcol, these mighty clusters which we have been
flinging into the winepress. There is strong consolation, says the
text, for the heirs of Grace–which implies that the children of God
must expect to have trouble. They have a promise and an oath–but then
these are given that they may have consolation.
Now, God would not give them consolation if they were not to have
tribulation. Wherever the Lord gives a man comfort, it is because he
will need it. You will need it, dear Brothers and Sisters. Write that
down in your tablets, then– "In the world you shall have tribulation."
The text says, "strong consolation." If you are an heir of Heaven, you
may look for severe trials–
"Crosses each day and trials hot The Christian's path has been, And who
has found a happy lot Without a cross between?"
All the followers of the Great Cross-bearer are cross-bearers, too! But
then there is the strong consolation for the strong tribulation.
What is strong consolation? I shall occupy but two or three minutes in
bringing that out. I think strong consolation is that which does not
depend upon bodily health. What a cowardly old enemy the devil is! When
we are strong and vigorous in body, it is very seldom that he will
tempt us to doubt and fear. But if we have been racked with hours of
pain and sleepless nights and are getting to feel faint and weary, then
he comes in with his horrible insinuations–"God will forsake you. His
promise will fail!" He is vile enough to put his black paws on the
brightest Truths of God in the Bible, yes, upon even the very existence
of God, Himself, and turn the boldest Believer into the most terrible
doubter, so that we seem to have gone bodily over to the army of Satan
and to be doubting every good thing that is in the Word of God.
Strong consolation, even at such times, enables us, still, to rejoice
in the Lord though every nerve should twinge and every bone should seem
melted into jelly with pain. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in
Him." Let Him crush me, but He shall get nothing out of me but the wine
of resignation. I will not fly in His face, but still say, "Not as I
will, but as
You will." O may you have such strong consolation, my dear Brothers and
Sisters! Strong consolation is that which is not dependent upon the
excitement of public service and Christian fellowship. We feel very
happy on Sunday, here, when we almost sing ourselves away to
everlasting bliss and when the sweet name of Jesus is like ointment
poured forth so that the virgins love it!
But when you are in colder regions, how is it? Perhaps you are called
to emigrate, or go into the country to a bare ministry where there is
nothing to feed the soul. Ah, then, if you have not good ground for
your soul to grow in, what will you do? Those poor flowers which depend
altogether upon being watered–how soon they fade if they are forgotten
for a little while! May we have root in ourselves and drink of the dew
of Heaven and be like the "tree planted by the rivers of water that
brings forth his fruit in his season, whose leaf, also, shall not
wither." This is to have strong consolation. Ministries are blessed,
but oh, we must live on surer bread than ministries if we would have
the highest form of life! We must use the means so long as God gives us
the means, but we must have a spiritual life that could live even if
means were denied us. May we have such a consolation.
Brethren, the strong consolation which God gives His people is such as
no mere reasoning can shake. Persons are often afraid that new
infidelities will upset our holy religion, that diggings in the earth,
or searchings in the skies will cast suspicion on the Word of God. Now,
Beloved, I bear witness that I have never seen, so far as I recollect,
any attack which touched, in the slightest degree, the central soul of
Christianity. All the attacks I have ever heard of in my short life
have always been upon what carnal men could discern, namely, the
outskirts of religion, such as the correctness of the numbering in the
book of Genesis, or the geology of Moses.
But, my dear Friend, how is it that they do not attack the spiritual
life of the Believer? Why are there none who touch the root of the
matter by denying the fact of spiritual life and showing that spiritual
phenomena are to be otherwise accounted for? Let them prove that there
is no such thing as prevailing prayer and that God does not hearken to
the voice of a man! Let them show that there is no such thing as joy in
the Lord, no abounding of the consolations of the Holy Spirit within
the spirit! No, they do not try to disprove these facts, because the
only answer that the Church of God would give to them, if they once
attacked her real strength, would be this, "The virgin daughter of Zion
has shaken her head at you and laughed you to scorn."
If I cannot defend the book of Genesis against the arithmetic of a
prelate. If I cannot defend certain dogmas against the sneers of a
clever unbeliever, I yet believe that I could do so if I were better
taught. But if the doubters will come to battle with me about my
blessed Lord and Master and the power of His blood and the secret of
the Lord that is with them that fear Him, I will cut them in pieces as
Samuel hewed Agag before the Lord–for my own experience makes me
strong! Oh, it is sweet contending here, for reason is laughed to
scorn! You might as well reason me out of a toothache, or convince me
that I do not exist, as reason me out of my consciousness that I love
Christ and that I am saved in Him! They cannot touch the essentials of
vital godliness and this is a strong consolation which reasoning no
more wounds than men come at leviathan with spears and swords, for he
laughs at them and accounts their spears as rotten wood.
Strong consolation, again, because it will bear up under conscience and
that is a harder pressure than mere reasoning can ever bring.
Conscience says, "Yes, but you are a wretch, indeed! See what you did
before conversion! And what have you been since? Those good works of
yours are all spoiled, rotten like apples with the maggot in them,
though they are bright red to look upon." Oh, do you not know what it
is to see your prayers and your preaching and your giving all tumble to
pieces and all blown away like dust before the March winds? Ah, then,
it is blessed to have a strong consolation which enables you to say, "I
know all this and I know a great deal more. I am the chief of sinners,
but Jesus died for me. And if I were blacker, still, Jesus would wash
me. If I were more of a devil than I am, He could make me a saint. I
rest in Him and in Him, alone, and not in self nor anything within, but
wholly on the work of Jesus and the perfect righteousness of my atoning
Lord."
Oh, this is strong consolation which can quiet the clamors of
conscience! Yes and we can deal with Satan with his horrible
insinuations and blasphemies and still can say, "I will trust in the
Lord and not be afraid." It is a strong consolation that can deal with
outward trials when a man has poverty staring him in the face and hears
his little children crying for bread. It is strong consolation when
bankruptcy is likely to come upon him through unavoidable losses. It is
strong consolation when the poor man has just lost his wife and his
dear children have been put into the same grave– when one after
another all earthly props and comforts have given way it needs a strong
consolation then! Not in your
pictured trials, but your real trials! Not in your imaginary whimsied
afflictions, but in the real afflictions and the blustering storms of
life. To rejoice, then, and say, "Though these things are not with me
as I would have them, yet has He made with me an Everlasting Covenant
ordered in all things and sure."
This is strong consolation! And it will be proved to be so, by-and-by,
with some of us, when we shall be in the solemn article of death, for I
doubt not that the message will come to many of us, before long, "The
pitcher is broken at the fountain and the wheel at the cistern and the
spirit must return to God that gave it." Ah, then to lie quiet on the
bed and look death in the face and call it, Friend, and look into an
eternity so surely ours–with all its natural gloom and all the alarm
which this poor flesh and blood naturally feels at the parting
pang–and yet calmly to prepare ourselves for undressing, expecting to
be satisfied when we wake up in His likeness–this needs strong
consolation!
And to do even more than this, as many of God's saints have done–to go
down into the river, singing as they go, "Glory! Glory! Glory!
Hallelujah, through Him that loved us, we are more than conquerors! O
Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory? The sting
of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law. But thanks be unto
God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is
strong consolation, indeed.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, by these two immutable things, wherein it is
impossible for God to lie, may you have strong consolation from this
time forth, even forever and ever. Amen and amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Hebrews 6