Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, July 9th, 1871, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."–Isaiah
40:6-8.
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the
Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you."–1 Peter 1:23-25.
THE passage in Isaiah which I have just read in your hearing may be
used as a very eloquent description of our mortality, and if a sermon
should be preached from it upon the frailty of human nature, the
brevity of life, and the certainty of death, no one could dispute the
appropriateness of the text. Yet I venture to question whether such a
discourse would strike the central teaching of the prophet. Something
more than the decay of our material flesh is intended here; the carnal
mind, the flesh in another sense, was intended by the Holy Ghost when
he bade his messenger proclaim those words. It does not seem to me that
a mere expression of the mortality of our race was needed in this place
by the context; it would hardly keep pace with the sublime revelations
which surround it, and would in some measure be a digression from the
subject in hand. The notion that we are here simply and alone reminded
of our mortality does not square with the New Testament exposition of
it in Peter, which I have also placed before you as a text. There is
another and more spiritual meaning here beside and beyond that which
would be contained in the great and very obvious truth that all of us
must die.
Look at the chapter in Isaiah with care. What is the subject of it? It
is the divine consolation of Zion. Zion had been tossed to and fro with
conflicts; she had been smarting under the result of sin. The Lord, to
remove her sorrow, bids his prophets announce the coming of the
long-expected Deliverer, the end and accomplishment of all her warfare
and the pardon of all her iniquity. There is no doubt that this is the
theme of the prophecy; and further, there is no sort of question about
the next point, that the prophet goes on to foretell the coming of John
the Baptist as the harbinger of the Messiah. We have no difficulty in
the explanation of the passage, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God;" for the New Testament
again and again refers this to the Baptist and his ministry. The object
of the coming of the Baptist and the mission of the Messiah, whom he
heralded, was the manifestation of divine glory. Observe the fifth
verse: "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Well, what
next? Was it needful to mention man's mortality in this connection? We
think not. But there is much more appropriateness in the succeeding
verses, if we see their deeper meaning. Do they not mean this? In order
to make room for the display of the divine glory in Christ Jesus and
his salvation, there would come a withering of all the glory wherein
man boasts himself: the flesh should be seen in its true nature as
corrupt and dying, and the grace of God alone should be exalted. This
would be seen under the ministry of John the Baptist first, and should
be the preparatory work of the Holy Ghost in men's hearts, in all time,
in order that the glory of the Lord should be revealed and human pride
be for ever confounded.
The Spirit blows upon the flesh, and that which seemed vigorous becomes
weak, that which was fair to look upon is smitten with decay; the true
nature of the flesh is thus discovered, its deceit is laid bare, its
power is destroyed, and there is space for the dispensation of the
ever-abiding word, and for the rule of the Great Shepherd, whose words
are spirit and life. There is a withering wrought by the Spirit which
is the preparation for the sowing and implanting by which salvation is
wrought.
The withering before the sowing was very marvellously fulfilled in the
preaching of John the Baptist. Most appropriately he carried on his
ministry in the desert, for a spiritual desert was all around him; he
was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. It was not his work to
plant, but to hew down. The fleshly religion of the Jews was then in
its prime. Phariseeism stalked through the streets in all its pomp; men
complacently rested in outward ceremonies only, and spiritual religion
was at the lowest conceivable ebb. Here and there might be found a
Simeon and an Anna, but for the most part men knew nothing of spiritual
religion, but said in their hearts: "We have Abraham to our father,"
and this is enough. What a stir he made when he called the lordly
Pharisees a generation of vipers! How he shook the nation with the
declaration, "Now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees"!
Stern as Elias, his work was to level the mountains, and lay low every
lofty imagination. That word, "Repent," was as a scorching wind to the
verdure of self-righteousness, a killing blast for the confidence of
ceremonialism. His food and his dress called for fasting and mourning.
The outward token of his ministry declared the death amid which he
preached, as he buried in the waters of Jordan those who came to him.
"Ye must die and be buried, even as he who is to come will save by
death and burial." This was the meaning of the emblem which he set
before the crowd. His typical act was as thorough in its teaching as
were his words; and as if that were not enough, he warned them of a yet
more searching and trying baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire,
and of the coming of one whose fan was in his hand, thoroughly to purge
his floor. The Spirit in John blew as the rough north wind, searching
and withering, and made him to be a destroyer of the vain gloryings of
a fleshly religion, that the spiritual faith might be established.
When our Lord himself actually appeared, he came into a withered land,
whose glories had all departed. Old Jesse's stem was bare, and our Lord
was the branch which grew out of his root. The scepter had departed
from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet, when Shiloh came.
An alien sat on David's throne, and the Roman called the covenant-land
his own. The lamp of prophecy burned but dimly, even if it had not
utterly gone out. No Isaiah had arisen of late to console them, nor
even a Jeremiah to lament their apostacy. The whole economy of Judaism
was as a worn-out vesture; it had waxed old, and was ready to vanish
away. The priesthood was disarranged. Luke tells us that Annas and
Caiaphas were high priests that year–two in a year or at once, a
strange setting aside of the laws of Moses. All the dispensation which
gathered around the visible, or as Paul calls it, the "worldly"
sanctuary, was coming to a close; and when our Lord had finished his
work, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, the sacrifices were
abolished, the priesthood of Aaron was set aside, and carnal ordinances
were abrogated, for the Spirit revealed spiritual things. When he came
who was made a priest, "not after the law of a carnal commandment, but
after the power of an endless life," there was "a disannulling of the
commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness
thereof."
Such are the facts of history; but I am not about to dilate upon them:
I am coming to your own personal histories–to the experience of every
child of God. In every one of us it must be fufilled that all that is
of the flesh in us, seeing it is but as grass, must be withered, and
the comeliness thereof must be destroyed. The Spirit of God, like the
wind, must pass over the field of our souls, and cause our beauty to be
as a fading flower. He must so convince us of sin, and so reveal
ourselves to ourselves, that we shall see that the flesh profiteth
nothing; that our fallen nature is corruption itself, and that "they
who are in the flesh cannot please God." There must be brought home to
us the sentence of death upon our former legal and carnal life, that
the incorruptible seed of the word of God, implanted by the Holy Ghost,
may be in us, and abide in us for ever.
The subject of this morning is the withering work of the Spirit upon
the souls of men, and when we have spoken upon it, we shall conclude
with a few words upon the implanting work, which always follows where
this withering work has been performed.
I. Turning then to THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT IN CAUSING THE GOODLINESS OF
THE FLESH TO FADE, let us, first, observe that the work of the Holy
Spirit upon the soul of man in withering up that which is of the flesh,
is very unexpected. You will observe in our text, that even the speaker
himself, though doubtless one taught of God, when he was bidden to cry,
said, "What shall I cry?" Even he did not know that in order to the
comforting of God's people, there must first be experienced a
preliminary visitation. Many preachers of God's gospel have forgotten
that the law is the schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. They have sown
on the unbroken fallow ground and forgotten that the plough must break
the clods. We have seen too much of trying to sew without the sharp
needle of the Spirit's convincing power. Preachers have labored to make
Christ precious to those who think themselves rich and increased in
goods: and it has been labor in vain. It is our duty to preach Jesus
Christ even to self-righteous sinners, but it is certain that Jesus
Christ will never be accepted by them while they hold themselves in
high esteem. Only the sick will welcome the physician. It is the work
of the Spirit of God to convince men of sin, and until they are
convinced of sin, they will never be led to seek the righteousuess
which is of God by Jesus Christ. I am persuaded, that wherever there is
a real work of grace in any soul, it begins with a pulling down: the
Holy Ghost does not build on the old foundation. Wood, hay, and stubble
will not do for him to build upon. He will come as the fire, and cause
a conflagration of all proud nature's Babels. He will break our bow and
cut our spear in sunder, and burn our chariot in the fire. When every
sandy foundation is gone, then, but not till then, behold he will lay
in our souls the great foundation stone, chosen of God, and precious.
The awakened sinner, when he asks that God would have mercy upon him,
is much astonished to find that, instead of enjoying a speedy peace,
his soul is bowed down within him under a sense of divine wrath.
Naturally enough he enquires: "Is this the answer to my prayer? I
prayed the Lord to deliver me from sin and self, and is this the way in
which he deals with me? I said, Hear me,' and behold he wounds me with
the wounds of a cruel one. I said, Clothe me,' and lo! He has torn off
from me the few rags which covered me before, and my nakedness stares
me in the face. I said, Wash me,' and behold he has plunged me in the
ditch till mine own clothes do abhor me. Is this the way of grace?"
Sinner, be not surprised: it is even so. Perceivest thou not the cause
of it? How canst thou be healed while the proud flesh is in thy wound?
It must come out. It is the only way to heal thee permanently: it would
be folly to film over thy sore, or heal thy flesh, and leave the
leprosy within thy bones. The great physician will cut with his sharp
knife till the corrupt flesh be removed, for only thus can a sure
healing work be wrought in thee. Dost thou not see that it is divinely
wise that before thou art clothed thou shouldst be stripped! What,
wouldst thou have Christ's lustrous righteousness outside whiter than
any fuller can make it, and thine own filthy rags concealed within?
Nay, man; they must be put away; not a single thread of thine own must
be left upon thee. It cannot be that God should cleanse thee until he
has made thee see somewhat of thy defilement; for thou wouldst never
value the precious blood which cleanses us from all sin if thou hadst
not first of all been made to mourn that thou art altogether an unclean
thing.
The convincing work of the Spirit, wherever it comes, is unexpected,
and even to the child of God in whom this process has still to go on,
it is often startling. We begin again to build that which the Spirit of
God had destroyed. Having begun in the spirit, we act as if we would be
made perfect in the flesh; and then when our mistaken upbuilding has to
be levelled with the earth, we are almost as astonished as we were when
first the scales fell from our eyes. In some such condition as this was
Newton when he wrote:–
"I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace,
Might more of his salvation know,
And seek more earnestly his face.
Twas he who taught me thus to pray,
And he, I trust, has answered prayer;
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.
I hop'd that in some favour'd hour,
At once he'd answer my request,
And by his love's constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart.
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in ev'ry part."
Ah, marvel not, for thus the Lord is wont to answer his people. The
voice which saith, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," achieves its
purpose by first making them hear the cry, "All flesh is grass, and all
the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field."
2. Furthermore, this withering is after the usual order of the divine
operation. If we consider well the way of God, we shall not be
atonished that he beginneth with his people by terrible things in
righteousness. Observe the method of creation. I will not venture upon
any dogmatic theory of geology, but there seems to be every probability
that this world has been fitted up and destroyed, refitted and then
destroyed again, many times before the last arranging of it for the
habitation of men. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth;" then came a long interval, and at length, at the appointed
time, during seven days, the Lord prepared the earth for the human
race. Consider then the state of matters when the great architect began
his work. What was there in the beginning? Originally, nothing. When he
commanded the ordering of the earth how was it? "The earth was without
form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." There was
no trace of another's plan to interfere with the great architect. "With
whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the
path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way
of understanding." He received no contribution of column or pillar
towards the temple which he intended to build. The earth was, as the
Hebrew puts it, Tohu and Bohu, disorder and confusion–in a word,
chaos. So it is in the new creation. When the Lord new creates us, he
borrows nothing from the old man, but makes all things new. He does not
repair and add a new wing to the old house of our depraved nature, but
he builds a new temple for his own praise. We are spiritually without
form and empty, and darkness is upon the face of our heart, and his
word comes to us, saying, "Light be," and there is light, and ere long
life and every precious thing.
To take another instance from the ways of God. When man has fallen,
when did the Lord bring him the gospel? The first whisper of the
gospel, as you know, was, "I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head." That
whisper came to man shivering in the presence of his Maker, having
nothing more to say by way of excuse; but standing guilty before the
Lord. When did the Lord God clothe our parents? Not until first of all
he had put the question, "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" Not
until the fig-leaves had utterly failed did the Lord bring in the
covering skin of the sacrifice, and wrap them in it. If you will pursue
the meditation upon the acts of God with men, you will constantly see
the same thing. God has given us a wonderful type of salvation in
Noah's ark; but Noah was saved in that ark in connection with death; he
himself, as it were, immured alive in a tomb, and all the world besides
left to destruction. All other hope for Noah was gone, and thee the ark
rose upon the waters. Remember the redemption of the children of Israel
out of Egypt: it occurred when they were in the saddest plight, and
their cry went up to heaven by reason of their bondage. When no arm
brought salvation, then with a high hand and an outstretched arm the
Lord brought forth his people. Everywhere before the salvation there
comes the humbling of the creature, the overthrow of human hope. As in
the back woods of America before there can be tillage, the planting of
cities, the arts of civilization, and the transactions of commerce, the
woodman's axe must hack and hew: the stately trees of centuries must
fall: the roots must be burned, the odd reign of nature disturbed. The
old must go before the new can come. Even thus the Lord takes away the
first, that he may establish the second. The first heaven and the first
earth must pass away, or there cannot be a new heaven and a new earth.
Now, as it has been outwardly, we ought to expect that it would be the
same within us and when these witherings and facings occur in our
souls, we should only say "It is the Lord, let him do as seemeth him
good."
3. I would have you notice, thirdly, that we are taught in our text how
universal this process is in its range over the hearts of all those
upon whom the Spirit works. The withering is a withering of what? Of
part of the flesh and some portion of its tendencies? Nay, observe,
"All flesh is grass; and all the goodliness thereof"–the very choice
and pick of it–"is as the flower of the field," and what happens to
the grass? Does any of it live? "The grass withereth," all of it. The
flower, will not that abide? So fair a thing, has not that an
immortality? No, it fades: it utterly falls away. So wherever the
Spirit of God breathes on the soul of man, there is a withering of
everything that is of the flesh, and it is seen that to be carnally
minded is death. Of course, we all know and confess that where there is
a work of grace, there must be a destruction of our delight in the
pleasures of the flesh. When the Spirit of God breathes on us, that
which was sweet becomes bitter; that which was bright becomes dim. A
man cannot love sin and yet possess the life of God. If he takes
pleasure in fleshly joys wherein he once delighted, he is still what he
was: he mince the things of the flesh, and therefore he is after the
flesh, and he shall die. The world and the lusts thereof are to the
unregenerate as beautiful as the meadows in spring, when they are
bedecked with flowers, but to the regenerate soul they are a
wilderness, a salt land, and not inhabited. Of those very things
wherein we once took delight we say, "Vanity of vanities; all is
vanity." We cry to be delivered from the poisonous joys of earth, we
loathe them, and wonder that we could once riot in them. Beloved
hearers, do you know what this kind of withering means? Have you seen
the lusts of the flesh, and the pomps and the pleasures thereof all
fade away before your eyes? It must be so, or the Spirit of God has not
visited your soul.
But mark, wherever the Spirit of God comes, he destroys the goodliness
and flower of the flesh; that is to say, our righteousness withers as
our sinfulness. Before the Spirit comes we think ourselves as good as
the best. We say, "All these commandments have I kept from my youth
up," and we superciliously ask, "What lack I yet?" Have we not been
moral? Nay, have we not even been religious? We confess that we may
have committed faults, but we think them very venial, and we venture,
in our wicked pride, to imagine that, after all, we are not so vile as
the word of God would lead us to think. Ah, my dear hearer, when the
Spirit of God blows on the comeliness of thy flesh, its beauty will
fade as a leaf, and thou wilt have quite another idea of thyself thou
wilt then find no language too severe in which to describe thy past
character. Searching deep into thy motives, and investigating that
which moved thee to thine actions, thou wilt see so much of evil, that
thou wilt cry with the publican, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!"
Where the Holy Ghost has withered up in us our self-righteousness, he
has not half completed his work; there is much more to be destroyed
yet, and among the rest, away must go our boasted power of resolution.
Most people conceive that they can turn to God whenever they resolve to
do so. "I am a man of such strength of mind," says one, "that if I made
up my mind to be religious, I should be without difficulty." "Ah,"
saith another volatile spirit, "I believe that one of these days I can
correct the errors of the past, and commence a new life." Ah, dear
hearers, the resolutions of the flesh are goodly flowers, but they must
all fade. When visited by the Spirit of God, we find that even when the
will is present with us, how to perform that which we would we find
not; yea, and we discover that our will is averse to all that is good,
and that naturally we will not come unto Christ that we may have life.
What poor frail things resolutions are when seen in the light of God's
Spirit!
Still the man will say, "I believe I have, after all, within myself an
enlightened conscience and an intelligence that will guide me aright.
The light of nature I will use, and I do not doubt that if I wander
somewhat I shall find my way back again." Ah, man! thy wisdom, which is
the very flower of thy nature, what is it but folly, though thou
knowest it not? Unconverted and unrenewed, thou art in God's sight no
wiser than the wild ass's colt. I wish thou wert in thine own esteem
humbled as a little child at Jesus' feet, and made to cry, "Teach thou
me."
When the withering wind of the Spirit moves over the carnal mind, it
reveals the death of the flesh in all respects, especially in the
matter of power towards that which is good. We then learn that word of
our Lord: "Without me ye can do nothing." When I was seeking the Lord,
I not only believed that I could not pray without divine help, but I
felt in my very soul that I could not. Then I could not even feel
aright, or mourn as I would, or groan as I would. I longed to long more
after Christ; but, alas! I could not even feel that I needed him as I
ought to feel it. This heart was then as hard as adamant, as dead as
those that rot in their graves. Oh, what would I at times have given
for a tear! I wanted to repent, but could not; longed to believe, but
could not; I felt bound, hampered, and paralysed. This is a humbling
revelation of God's Holy Spirit, but a needful one; for the faith of
the flesh is not the faith of God's elect. The faith which justifies
the soul is the gift of God and not of ourselves. That repentance which
is the work of the flesh will need to be repented of. The flower of the
flesh must wither; only the seed of the Spirit will produce fruit unto
perfection. The heirs of heaven are born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of man, but of God. If the work in us be not the
Spirit's working, but our own, it will droop and die when most we
require its protection; and its end will be as the grass which to-day
is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven.
4. You see, then, the universality of this withering work within us,
but I beg you also to notice the completeness of it. The grass, what
does it do? Droop? nay, wither. The dower of the field: what of that?
Does it hang its head a little? No, according to Isaiah it fades; and
according to Peter it falleth away. There is no reviving it with
showers, it has come to its end. Even thus are the awakened led to see
that in their flesh there dwelleth no good thing. What dying and
withering work some of God's servants have had in their souls! Look at
John Bunyan, as he describes himself in his "Grace Abounding!" For how
many months and even years was the Spirit engaged in writing death upon
all that was the old Bunyan, in order that he might become by grace a
new man fitted to track the pilgrims along their heavenly way. We have
not all endured the ordeal so long, but in every child of God there
must be a death to sin, to the law, and to self, which must be fully
accomplished ere he is perfected in Christ and taken to heaven.
Corruption cannot inherit incorruption; it is through the Spirit that
we mortify the deeds of the body, and therefore live. But cannot the
fleshly mind be improved? By no means; for "the carnal mind is enmity
against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be." Cannot you improve the old nature? No; "ye must be born
again." Can it not be taught heavenly things? No. "The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness
unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned." There is nothing to be done with the old nature but to let
it be laid in the grave; it must be dead, and buried, and when it is
so, then the incorruptible seed that liveth and abideth for ever will
develop gloriously, the fruit of the new birth will come to maturity,
and grace shall be exalted in glory. The old nature never does improve,
it is as earthly, and sensual, and devilish in the saint of eighty
years of age as it was when first he came to Christ; it is unimproved
and unimprovable; towards God it is enmity itself: every imagination of
the thoughts of the heart is evil, and that continually. The old nature
called "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other," neither can
there be peace between them.
5. Let us further notice that all this withering work in the soul is
very painful. As you read these verses do they not strike you as having
a very funereal tone? "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower
fadeth." This is mournful work, but it must be done. I think those who
experience much of it when they first come to Christ have great reason
to be thankful. Their course in life will, in all probability, be much
brighter and happier, for I have noticed that persons who are converted
very easily, and come to Christ with but comparatively little knowledge
of their own depravity, have to learn it afterwards, and they remain
for a long time babes in Christ, and are perplexed with masters that
would not have troubled them if they had experienced a deeper work at
first. No, sir; if grace has begun to build in your soul and left any
of the old walls of self-trust standing, they will have to come down
sooner or later. You may congratulate yourself upon their remaining,
but it is a false congratulation, your glorying is not good. I am sure
of this, that Christ will never put a new piece upon an old garment, or
new wine in old bottles: he knows the rent would be worse in the long
run, and the bottles would burst. All that is of nature's spinning must
be unravelled. The natural building must come down, lath and plaster,
roof and foundation, and we must have a house not made with hands. It
was a great mercy for our city of London that the great fire cleared
away all the old buildings which were the lair of the plague, a far
healthier city was then built; and it is a great mercy for a man when
God sweeps right away all his own righteousness and strength, when he
makes him feel that he is nothing and can be nothing, and drives him to
confess that Christ must be all in all, and that his only strength lies
in the eternal might of the ever-blessed Spirit. Sometimes in a house
of business an old system has been going on for years, and it has
caused much confusion, and allowed much dishonesty. You come in as a
new manager, and you adopt an entirely new plan. Now, try if you can,
and graft your method on to the old system. How it will worry you! Year
after year you say to yourself, "I cannot work it: if I had swept the
whole away and started afresh, clear from the beginning, it would not
have given me one-tenth of the trouble." God does not intend to graft
the system of grace upon corrupt nature, nor to make the new Adam grow
out of the old Adam, but he intends to teach us this: "Ye are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God." Salvation is not of the flesh but
of the Lord alone; that which is born of the flesh is only flesh at the
best; and only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It must be
the Spirit's work altogether, or it is not what God will accept.
Observe, brethren, that although this is painful it is inevitable. I
have already entrenched upon this, and shown you how necessary it is
that all of the old should be taken away; but let me further remark
that it is inevitable that the old should go, because it is in itself
corruptible. Why does the grass wither? Because it is a withering
thing. "Its root is ever in its we, and it must die." How could it
spring out of the earth, and be immortal? It is no amaranth: it blooms
not in Paradise: it grows in a soil on which the curse has fallen.
Every supposed good thing that grows out of your own self, is like
yourself, mortal, and it must die. The seeds of corruption are in all
the fruits of manhood's tree; let them be as fair to look upon as
Eden's clusters, they must decay.
Moreover, it would never do, my brother, that there should be something
of the flesh in our salvation and something of the Spirit; for if it
were so there would be a division of the honor. Hitherto the praises of
God; beyond this my own praises. If I were to win heaven partly through
what I had done, and partly through what Christ had done, and if the
energy which sanctified me was in a measure my own, and in a measure
divine, they that divide the work shall divide the reward, and the
songs of heaven while they would be partly to Jehovah must also be
partly to the creature. But it shall not be. Down, proud flesh! Down! I
say. Though thou cleanse and purge thyself as thou mayst, thou art to
the core corrupt though thou labor unto weariness, thou buildest wood
that will be burned, and stubble that will be turned to ashes. Give up
thine own self-confidence, and let the work be, and the merit be where
the honor shall be, namely, with God alone. It is inevitable, then,
that there should be all this withering.
7. This last word by way of comfort to any that are passing through the
process we are describing, and I hope some of you are. It gives me
great joy when I hear that you unconverted ones are very miserable, for
the miseries which the Holy Spirit works are always the prelude to
happiness. It is the Spirit's work to wither. I rejoice in our
translation, "Because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it." It is
true the passage may be translated, "The wind of the Lord bloweth upon
it." One word, as you know, is used in the Hebrew both for "wind" and
"Spirit," and the same is true of the Greek; but let us retain the old
translation here, for I conceive it to be the real meaning of the text.
The Spirit of God it is that withers the flesh. It is not the devil
that killed my self-righteousness. I might be afraid if it were: nor
was it myself that humbled myself by a voluntary and needless
self-degradation, but it was the Spirit of God. Better to be broken in
pieces by the Spirit of God, than to be made whole by the flesh! What
doth the Lord say? "I kill." But what next? "I make alive." He never
makes any alive but those he kills. Blessed be the Holy Ghost when he
kills me, when he drives the sword through the very bowels of my own
merits and myself-confidence, for then he will make me alive. "I wound,
and I heal." He never heals those whom he has not wounded. Then blessed
be the hand that wounds; let it go on wounding; let it cut and tear;
let it lay bare to me myself at my very worst, that I may be driven to
self-despair, and may fall back upon the free mercy of God, and receive
it as a poor, guilty, lost, helpless, undone sinner, who casts himself
into the arms of sovereign grace, knowing that God must give all, and
Christ must be all, and the Spirit must work all, and man must be as
clay in the potter's hands, that the Lord may do with him as seemeth
trim good. Rejoice, dear brother, how ever low you are brought, for if
the Spirit humbles you he means no evil, but he intends infinite good
to your soul.
II. Now, let us close with a few sentences concerning THE IMPLANTATION.
According to Peter, although the flesh withers, and the flower thereof
falls away, yet in the children of God there is an unwithering
something of another kind. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for
ever." "The word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you." Now, the gospel is of use to
us because it is not of human origin. If it were of the flesh, all it
could do for us would not land us beyond the flesh; but the gospel of
Jesus Christ is super-human, divine, and spiritual. In its conception
it was of God; its great gift, even the Savior, is a divine gift; and
all its teachings are full of deity. If you, my hearer, believe a
gospel which you have thought out for yourself, or a philosophical
gospel which comes from the brain of man, it is of the flesh, and will
wither, and you will die, and be lost through trusting in it. The only
word that can bless you and be a seed in your soul must be the living
and incorruptible word of the eternal Spirit. Now this is the
incorruptible word, that "God was made flesh and dwelt among us;" that
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them." This is the incorruptible word, that
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." "He that
believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God." "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life
is in his Son." Now, brethren, this is the seed; but before it can grow
in your soul, it must be planted there by the Spirit. Do you receive it
this morning? Then the Holy Spirit implants it in your soul. Do you
leap up to it, and say, "I believe it! I grasp it! On the incarnate God
I fix my hope; the substitutionary sacrifice, the complete atonement of
Christ is all my confidence; I am reconciled to God by the blood of
Jesus." Then you possess the living seed within your soul.
And what is the result of it? Why, then there comes, according to the
text, a new life into us, as the result of the indwelling of the living
word, and our being born again by it. A new life it is; it is not the
old nature putting out its better parts; not the old Adam refining and
purifying itself, and rising to something better. No; have we not said
aforetime that the flesh withers and the flower thereof fades? It is an
entirely new life. Ye are as much new creatures at your regeneration,
as if you had never existed, and had been for the first time created.
"Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." The
child of God is beyond and above other men. Other men do not possess
the life which he has received. They are but duplex–body and soul have
they. He is of triple nature–he is spirit, soul, and body. A fresh
principle, a spark of the divine life has dropped into his soul; he is
no longer a natural or carnal man, but he has become a spiritual man,
understanding spiritual things and possessing a life far superior to
anything that belongs to the rest of mankind. O that God, who has
withered in the souls of any of you that which is of the flesh, may
speedily grant you the new birth through the Word.
Now observe, to close, wherever this new life comes through the word,
it is incorruptible, it lives and abides for ever. To get the good seed
out of a true believer's heart and to destroy the new nature in him, is
a thing attempted by earth and hell, but never yet achieved. Pluck the
sun out of the firmament, and you shall not even then be able to pluck
grace out of a regenerate heart. It "liveth and abideth for ever,"
saith the text; it neither can corrupt of itself nor be corrupted. "It
sinneth not, because it is born of God." "I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand." "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life." You have a natural
life–that will die, it is of the flesh. You have a spiritual life–of
that it is written: "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die." You have now within you the noblest and truest immortality: you
must live as God liveth, in peace and joy, and happiness. But oh,
remember, dear hearer, if you have not this you "shall not see life."
What then–shall you be annihilated? Ah! no, but "the wrath of the Lord
is upon you." You shall exist, though you shall not live. Of life you
shall know nothing, for that is the gift of God in Christ Jesus; but of
an everlasting death, full of torment and anguish, you shall be the
wretched heritor–"the wrath of God abideth on him." You shall be cast
into "the lake of fire, which is the second death." You shall be one of
those whose "worm dieth not, and whose fire is not quenched." May God,
the ever-blessed Spirit, visit you! If he be now striving with you, O
quench not his divine flame! Trifle not with any holy thought you have.
If this morning you must confess that you are not born again, be
humbled by it. Go and seek mercy of the Lord, entreat him to deal
graciously with you and save you. Many who have had nothing but
moonlight have prized it, and ere long they have had sunlight. Above
all, remember what the quickening seed is, and reverence it when you
hear it preached, "for this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you." Respect it, and receive it. Remember that the quickening
seed is all wrapped up in this sentence: "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "He that believeth and is baptised
shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."
The Lord bless you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Isaiah 40:1-11; Luke 3:1-17;
and 1 Peter 1:17-25.