DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"If we believe not, yet He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself." 2
Timothy 2:13.
THIS is one of the five faithful sayings which the Apostle mentions.
All those faithful sayings are weighty and important. I suppose that
they may have come into the possession of the Church by having been
uttered by some of those Prophets who were raised up to cherish the
infancy of the Church, such as Agabus and the daughters of Philip and
others. These may have been some of their more remarkable sayings which
laid hold upon the minds of good men; were quoted by the preachers and
teachers and so became current throughout the Church. Such golden
sayings were minted into proverbs and passed from hand to hand,
enriching all who received them. To the saints they became "familiar in
their mouths as household words" and were specially named faithful or
true sayings.
No doubt the Apostle Paul gave his endorsement to many of these holy
proverbs, but five of them he has encased in the amber of Inspiration
and handed down for our special note. Perhaps it may interest you to
notice them as they occur. The first one, probably the best one, is in
the First Epistle of Timothy, first chapter, and the 15th verse, "This
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." I can suppose
that the good news was frequently conveyed by humble-minded Christians
to the outside world in that short and compact form–"Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners,''" so that it was commonly known to be
a saying among Christians. It was the way in which those who could not
preach a sermon and, perhaps, could scarcely compose a sentence for
themselves, learned the pith and marrow of the Gospel and had it in a
concise and simple form for instructing others. Converts were in the
habit of telling this to their heathen friends and acquaintances
wherever they went, that they might know what Jesus Christ had come to
do and might be led to believe on His name.
The next faithful or true saying is in the First Epistle of Timothy,
the third chapter and the first verse. "This is a true saying , If a
man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work." Any man who
desires to oversee the Church of God and to be in the midst of the
people as a shepherd, desires a good work. He will bring himself great
anxiety, labor and travail, but the work is honorable and has so large
a spiritual reward that a man is wise to choose it and to give his
whole life to it. Another of these faithful sayings will be found in
the First Epistle of Timothy, the fourth chapter, and the eighth verse,
for so the words run, "For bodily exercise profits a little: but
godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life
that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labor and suffer
reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all
men, specially of those that believe."
Godliness has the profit of this life and the next and, therefore,
godly men are content to suffer, because they expect and receive an
abundant blessing as the result thereof at the hand of God. Such a
proverb as this was greatly needed in persecuting times and it is still
valuable in these greedy days when men find godliness a hindrance to
their hasty snatching at wealth and, therefore, turn aside unto ways of
dishonesty and falsehood. The next is the one which constitutes our
text. We will not, therefore, read it again till we come to handle it.
But the fifth is in Titus, the third chapter, and the eighth
verse–"This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that you
affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be
careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men." That those who believe in Jesus should manifest the holy
character of their faith by their lives is another one of these
faithful sayings which comes with all the greater force from Paul
because he, above all men, was free from any suspicion of legality, or
the putting of human merit into the place of the Grace of God which is
received by faith.
And now, coming to the faithful saying before us, it may not strike you
at first, but scholarly men have observed that the 11th , 12th and 13th
verses assume the form of a hymn. The Hebrew hymns were written in
parallelisms, not, of course, in rhymes, and these three verses are
thought to have been one of the oldest of Christian hymns–
"It is a faithful saying: For if we are dead with Him,
We shall also live with Him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with
Him: If we deny Him, He also will deny us: If we believe not, yet He
abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself."
This is a miniature Psalm–one of those Psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs with which the saints of God were known to edify one another. I
am sure this last part of this brief hymn is well worthy to be regarded
as a faithful saying among ourselves. Brethren, we may often mention
it. We may frequently quote it. We may roll it under our tongue as a
sweet morsel. We may pass it from one to another as a classic saying of
Christian wisdom–"If we believe not, yet He abides faithful: He cannot
deny Himself."
In handling it at this time I would divide it into two folded parts.
The first double portion is, the sad possibility, with the consoling
assurance. "If we believe not"–sad possibility, "yet He abides
faithful"–consoling assurance. The second part of our subject is the
glorious impossibility and the sweet inference that we may draw from
it. The glorious impossibility is–"He cannot deny Himself and the
inference we draw from it is the obverse or converse of our text–If we
believe, He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself.
I. To begin, then, with THE SAD POSSIBILITY AND THE CONSOLING
ASSURANCE–If we believe not, yet He abides faithful." I must take the
sad possibility first–"if we believe not," and I shall read this
expression as though, first of all, it concerned the world in general,
for I think it may so be fairly read. If we believe not–if mankind
believes not, if the race believes not, if the various classes of men
believe not–yet He abides faithful. The rulers believe not and there
are some that make this a very great point. They said concerning Jesus,
"Have any of the rulers believed on Him?"
If Lord So-and-So hears the preacher, there must be something in what
he says. Englishmen are wonderfully impressed with the judgment of a
duke or an earl and even with that of titled folk of lower degree. If
any of the rulers believe in Him, who among worshippers of rank would
raise a question? Is it published under authority? Do the great ones
subscribe to it? "Oh, then," says one, "it must be good and it must be
true." Now, I venture to say that all history proves that the Truth of
God has very seldom been accepted by the rulers of this world and, for
the most part, the poorest of the poor have been more able to perceive
the Truth than the greatest of the great have ever been!
There would have been no Christianity in the world at the present
moment if it had not found a shelter in workshops and in cottages. It
has flourished among the despised poor when it has been condemned by
the great ones of the earth. Well, Sirs, if we believe not–that is, if
our greatest men, if our senators and magistrates, princes and
potentates, believe not–it does not affect the Truth of God in the
smallest conceivable degree–"yet He abides faithful." Many, however,
think it more important to know on which side the leaders of thought
are enlisted and there are certain persons who are not elected to that
particular office by popular vote, who, nevertheless, take it upon
themselves to consider that they are dictators in the republic of
opinion.
They are advanced men and far ahead of the old school of Divines. Some
of us think that they are advancing in the direction of going backwards
and that they are putting ignorant guess-work into the room of proved
doctrine and solid, experimental, Scriptural teaching. Still, as in
their own opinion they are our superiors and pioneer the way of
progress, we will, for a moment, think of them as such. Now, in our
Lord's day the advanced thinkers were not on His side at all– they
were all against Him–and after He had departed, the greatest peril of
the Church of God arose from the advanced thought of the period. The
Gnostics and other Grecian thinkers came forward and threw their
philosophical mud into the pure stream of the Gospel till there was no
plain statement which was not rendered mythical, mystical, confused, or
clouded, so that only the initiated could possibly understand it.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ was meant to be the most plain Truth that
ever shone upon the sons of men. It was meant to be legible in its own
light by the young, the unlearned and the simple. But the advanced
thinkers took the Gospel and twisted it, colored it, adorned it and
bedaubed it till by the time it came through their various processes
you would not have known it to be the same thing at all! And, in fact,
Paul said that it was not the same thing, for he called it, "another
gospel," and then he corrected himself and said it was not
another–"But there are some," he said, "that trouble you."
However, we need not care because of these wise men, for if they
believe not, but becloud the Gospel, yet God abides
faithful!
If over there in the groves where Socrates and Plato gathered disciples
by their philosophy; if over there, I say, there should not be found a
single philosopher who believes in God, so much the worse for the
philosophers! It does not affect the Gospel or our faith in it–if they
believe not, He abides faithful! If Paul at the Areopagus gets no
sympathy except from two or three and, in fact, they have only asked
him there to "hear what this babbler says" and though they all, as they
go home, say that Paul is beside himself and mad–and a setter forth of
strange gods–yet Paul is right and the Lord abides faithful! Yes, and
I venture to enlarge this thought a little more. If the rulers do not
believe and if the philosophical minds do not believe–and if, in
addition to this, public opinion, so called, rejects it–yet the Gospel
is still the same eternal Truth of God.
Public opinion is not the test and gauge of the Truth of God, for
public opinion has continually altered and it will continue to alter.
The aggregate thinking of fallible men is less than nothing when set
against the one solitary mind of God, who is Infallible, as He reveals
it to us by the Holy Spirit in the Words of Truth in the Scriptures.
But some think that the old Gospel cannot be right because, you see,
everybody says that it is out of date and wrong. That is one reason for
being the more sure that it is right, for the world lies in the Wicked
One and its judgment is under his sway. What are multitudes when they
are all under the influence of the Father of Lies?
The greatest majority in the world is a minority of one when that man
is on God's side. Count heads, do you? Well, count by the millions if
you like, but I shall rather weigh, than count–and if I speak the
Truth of God–I have more weight on my side than can be found in a
million who believe not! I wish we all partook of the spirit of
Athanasius when he said, defending the Deity of his great Master, "I,
Athanasius, against the world." You must learn to stand alone! When you
know that you have a grip on revealed Truth, you may not set all the
judgments of men in comparison with the eternal and Infallible judgment
of the mighty God! No, though we believe not, that is, the mass of us
and nations of us, "yet He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself."
I want to ask your thoughtful attention to one consideration here. Have
you not often heard it said that ministers ought to be abreast of the
times; that theology should be always toned and varied so as to suit
the advanced thought of the wonderful period in which we live? And as
this is a time when infidelity appears to be in the very air, we are
told that we ought to sympathize with it very earnestly and heartily,
for it is a form of struggling for the Light which we ought to
encourage. Now, this is another sort of talk from what I hear from the
Apostle Paul. He has no sympathy with it! He put his foot on it. "Let
God be true and every man a liar"–that is the style in which he
speaks! As to going in to study the philosophies in order to tune the
Gospel to their note, he says, "I determined not to know anything among
you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
When he finds that this style of doctrine does not please the Jew and
that it is a stumbling block to him and that it does not please the
Greek, but makes him sneer and call it foolishness, does the Apostle,
therefore, say, "Come here, dear Jewish Friend. I have a way of putting
this which will show you that I do not quite mean what you thought I
did. I used the word, "Cross," in a certain sense not at all
objectionable to Judaism"? Does he gently whisper, "Come to me, my
learned Greek Friend and I will show you that your philosophers and I
mean the same thing"? Not a bit! No, he stands fast and firm to Christ
crucified and salvation by His blood, as, by God's Grace, I trust we
are resolved to do. Though we believe not–that is, though the whole
world believe not–yet God's Gospel is not to be altered to suit human
whims and fancies, but in all its forms, in all its Divine authority,
unpaved, uncut, worked out as a whole, it is still to be proclaimed,
for, "He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself."
Now, having spoken of our text as referring to the world in general, it
is, perhaps, a more sorrowful business to look at it as referring to
the visible Church in particular. The Apostle says, "Though we believe
not," and surely he must mean the visible Church of God. And does the
Church of God ever fall into such a state that we may say of it, "It
believes not"? Yes, the visible Church has many and many a time
fearfully turned aside. Go back for a type of it to the wilderness. The
children of Israel were brought up out of Egypt with a high hand and an
outstretched arm. They were fed in the wilderness with angels' food and
made to drink of water from the Rock–but they were continually
doubting their
God–
"Now they believe His word
While rocks with rivers flow. But soon with sin they grieve the Lord,
And judgments lay them low."
And what happened? Did God depart from His purpose to give the land
that flowed with milk and honey to the seed of Abraham? Did He break up
the Covenant and grow weary of it? No–Abraham's seed inherited the
land and they dwelt therein, every man under his own vine and fig tree.
Though the visible people of God rejected Him full often, so that for
their unbelief they died in the wilderness, yet He remained
faithful–He did not, He could not deny Himself. Well, now, it comes to
pass, sometimes, according to this type, that the visible Church of God
apostatizes from the Truth of God. The Doctrines of Grace, the Truths
of the Gospel are obscured, beclouded, scarcely preached–preached with
gaudy words or hid behind ceremonies and rites and all sorts of things.
And what happens? Are the foundation Truths removed? Is the eternal
verity reversed? Has God recalled His promises? Oh no! "He abides
faithful: He cannot deny Himself." Alas, the Church of God seems to
lose, sometimes, her faith in prayer! Her pleading assemblies become
scarce. Her prayer for men's conversion is scarcely raised. Few come
together to supplicate the Lord and besiege the Mercy Seat. But what
then? Does God change? Does He forsake His cause? Oh, no: "He abides
faithful: He cannot deny Himself." At such times the Church almost
loses her faith in the Holy Spirit and looks upon preaching as,
perhaps, a necessary evil to be borne with–not as the vehicle by which
the Holy Spirit saves men. They have small confidence in God's Word
that, "By the foolishness of preaching" He will "save them that
believe."
They do not expect the kingdom of Christ to be predominant, but they
say, "Since the fathers fell asleep what long ages have dragged along
and what slow progress Christianity has made! It is a hopeless cause.
Let us be content to let the heathen world alone." At such time they
lose all heart and all faith in God! Have we not seen large portions of
the visible Church of God decline into such a state as this till we
have been ready to ask with our Master, "When the Son of Man comes,
shall He find faith on the earth?" But, what then, my Brothers and
Sisters? Suppose we should live to see a degenerate Church everywhere?
Suppose it should become like Laodicea, till the Lord should seem to
spew the visible Church out of His mouth because she has become neither
hot nor cold?
Suppose He should say of the professing Church of today as He did of
Shiloh of old–"Go now to Shiloh where My place was at the first and
see if there is one stone left upon another that is not cast down"? He
took the candlestick away from Rome and He may take that candlestick
away from other Churches, too. But would that prove that God was
unfaithful, or that He had denied Himself? No, Beloved, no! His
faithfulness would then be seen in the judgment with which He would
visit an unfaithful Church. Yes, and it is seen today. You shall see a
Church which does not believe in the simple Gospel grow few and feeble.
According as the Churches cease to be evangelical, they are diminished
and brought low. A Church that neglects prayer becomes disunited,
scattered, lethargic, all but dead.
A Church that has no faith in the Holy Spirit may carry on her
ordinances, but it will be with barren formality and without power from
on high–all of which proves the faithfulness of Him who said, "If you
walk contrary to Me, I will walk contrary to you." If they cast away
from them that which is their strength, it is but faithfulness on God's
part that they should become weak. All the history of the Church, if
you read it, from the days of Christ till now, will go to show that He
deals with His Church in such a way as to make her see that He is
faithful, whatever she may be. He will help her when she turns to Him.
He will bless her when she trusts Him. He will crown her when she
exalts Him. But He will bring her low and chasten her when she turns,
in any measure, aside from the simplicity of her faith. Thus does He
prove that He is still faithful.
Once more, my Brethren, I will read the text in a somewhat narrower
circle. "If we believe not"–that is to say, if the choicest teachers,
preachers and writers believe not, yet He abides faithful. One of the
most shocking trials to young Christians is the fall of an eminent
teacher. I have known some that have been almost ready to give up their
faith when someone who appeared to be very earnest and faithful has
suddenly apostatized. Such things have happened in our memory, to our
intense grief and I want, therefore, to put it very, very plainly. If
it should come to pass that anyone whom you revere as having been blest
to your soul–whom because you have received from him the Word of
Life–if such a one upon whom you may, perhaps, have learned much,
should, in the future, turn out not to be true and faithful and should
not believe, do not follow his unbelief, for "if we believe not, yet He
abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself."
Peter denies his Master–do not follow Peter when he is doing that, for
he will have to come back weeping and you will hear him preaching his
Master again. Worse still, Judas sells his Master–do not follow Judas,
for Judas will die a wretched death and his destruction shall be a
warning to others to cling more closely to the King. You may see the
man who stood like a cedar in Lebanon fall by one stroke of the devil's
axe, but do not, therefore, think that the trees of the Lord, which are
full of sap, will fall, too. He will keep His own, for He knows them
that are His.
Pin not your faith to any man's sleeve. Let not your confidence rest on
any arm of flesh, neither say, "I believe because of the testimony of
such a one and I hold to the form of sound words because my minister
has held it," for all such props may be pulled away and all of a sudden
may fail you! Let me put this very, very plainly. If we believe not–if
those that seem to be the choice teachers of the age, the most
successful evangelists of the period–if those who seem to stand the
highest in the esteem of God's people, should, in an evil hour, forsake
the eternal verities and begin to preach to you some other gospel which
is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I beseech you follow us not, whoever
we may be or whatever we may be!
Suffer no teachers, however great they may be, to lead you to doubt,
for God abides faithful! Keep to the revealed will and mind of God–for
"He cannot deny Himself." Here, then, is the fearful possibility and
side by side with it rims this most blessedly consoling assurance–"He
abides faithful." Jesus Christ abides–there are no shifts and changes
in Him. He is a rock and not a quicksand! He is the Savior whether the
rulers and the philosophers believe in Him or refuse Him; whether the
Church and her ministers are true to Him or desert Him. He is the same
Savior, God-Man, sitting supreme upon the Truth of God. "Why do the
heathens rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the
earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the
Lord and against His anointed? He that sits in the heavens shall laugh:
the Lord shall have them in derision. Yet," says He, "have I set My
king upon My holy hill of Zion."
They cannot affect the imperial throne of our immortal Lord! He is
still "the blessed and only Potentate" and so He must be, let them say
what they will! And as Christ remains the same Savior, so we have the
same Gospel. They have improved upon it, they tell us! Well, well, I
feel so satisfied with the Gospel as I get it from Paul and the
Inspired Apostles that I would rather not have this improved gospel if
they will allow me to keep to the old original. But so it is, like
babies pleased with new toys, they cry their "modern thought" and
culture and advanced ideas! He that has once tasted the old wines does
not desire the new, because he says, "The old is better."
Our Savior and His Gospel abide the same! The Gospel of Paul, the
Gospel of Augustine, the Gospel of Calvin, the Gospel of Whitefield,
the Gospel of any succession offaithful men you like to mention
suffices us. He abides faithful! And as the Gospel is the same, so does
Christ remain faithful to His engagements to His Father. He has
promised to keep those whom the Father gave Him and He will keep them
even to the end. And when the sheep shall pass again under the hands of
Him that counts them, He will say, "Of all whom You gave me I have lost
none." "He abides faithful." To sinners all over the world He says that
if they come to Him, He will not cast them out and He is faithful to
that. He graciously promises that "whoever calls upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved." And He will be faithful to that.
He is also faithful to His saints. He has promised to preserve them to
His eternal kingdom and Glory and He will preserve them. He says, "I
give unto My sheep eternal life and they shall never perish, neither
shall any pluck them out of My hands"–and He has held them in His
loving grasp and He will hold them even to the end! And all this,
though all the unbelief in the world should rise against Him! He will
stand to every Word He has spoken and carry out every promise He has
declared, though all should distrust and deny. "Yes and amen in Christ
Jesus" are all the promises, henceforth and forever–and we shall find
it so.
II. And now we have but a little time to spend upon the second very
important part of our text, which is A
GLORIOUS IMPOSSIBILITY WITH A SWEET INFERENCE THAT MAY BE DRAWN FROM
IT. "He cannot deny
Himself." Three things God cannot do. He cannot die. He cannot lie. And
He cannot be deceived. These three impossibilities do not limit His
power, but they magnify His majesty, for these would be infirmities,
and infirmity can have no place in the Infinite and Ever-Blessed God.
Here is one of the things impossible with God–"He cannot deny
Himself." What is meant by that?
It is meant, first, that the Lord Jesus Christ cannot change as to His
Nature and Character towards us, the sons of men, for if He were to
change He could only change from one state to another–from a better to
a worse or from a worse to a better. If from a better to a worse, that
were to deny Himself, indeed, by ceasing to be as good as He is by
Nature.
And if from a worse to a better, that were to deny Himself by proving
that He was not, before, so good as He might have been! In no one point
can Jesus Christ be changed, for He is "Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today and forever." If in any point He changed, He would, in
that point, deny Himself. But He cannot do this, for being God He
changes not.
His Word cannot alter. I want you to notice this, because His Word is
so conspicuously Himself. His name shall be called the Word of God.
Yes, He is Himself the Logos, the Eternal Word, and that Word cannot
change. "The grass withers, and the flower falls away, but the Word of
the Lord endures forever and this is the Word which by the Gospel is
preached unto you." O servant of the Lord, the assurance which Paul and
Peter gave, you may give! That same Word of mercy which those first
messengers of Heaven went forth to declare, you may declare, for it
still stands the same! He cannot deny His Word since that Word is
Himself and He cannot deny Himself. He cannot, beloved Friends,
withdraw the salvation which He has presented to the sons of men, for
that salvation is, indeed, Himself.
Jesus is the salvation of Israel. If a sinner wants to know where
salvation lies, we point him to the Christ of God. He is not only a
Savior, but He is Salvation itself! And His salvation cannot be
changed, for if it were changed He would be Himself changed or denied
and He cannot deny Himself. There is still the same pardon for the
chief of sinners; still the same renewing for the hardest hearts; still
the same generous response to those who have strayed most; still the
same adoption into the family for aliens and foreigners. His salvation,
as Peter preached it at Pentecost, is the salvation which we preach to
sinners today. "He cannot deny Himself." And then the Atonement is
still the same, for that, too, is Himself–He has, by Himself, purged
our sins.
He Himself is the Sacrifice. Well did the poet say–
"Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power."
Because it is His blood, it must be unchanged in efficacy. He cleanses
away our sins by Himself. His blood is His life and He always lives.
And since He always lives, He is "able to save to the uttermost them
that come unto God by Him." Blessed be His name, the atoning Sacrifice
has not, even in the smallest degree, lost its efficacy! It is just as
mighty as when it washed the dying thief from the foulness of Hell into
the purity of Heaven and carried him from the gallows to a throne! Oh,
how blessed must its power be to have cleansed so foul a wretch and to
have placed him with the Master Himself in Paradise the same day! The
Atonement cannot change, for that would involve that Jesus had denied
Himself.
And the Mercy Seat, the place of prayer, still remains, for if that
were altered He would have denied Himself, for what was the Mercy Seat,
or propitiatory, but that golden lid upon the Covenant Ark? What was it
but Christ Himself, who is our Propitiatory, the true Mercy Seat? You
may always pray, Brothers and Sisters, for if prayer were denied its
efficacy, God would have denied Himself! This is His memorial, "The God
that hears prayer," and if He does not hear prayer He has denied
Himself and ceased to be what He was. Jehovah will never so deny
Himself as to become like Baal, a deaf God–to imagine it would be
blasphemy!
And here is another sweet thought–Christ's love to His Church and His
purpose towards her cannot change, because He cannot deny Himself and
His Church is Himself. I mean not that visible Church of which I spoke
just now, which is a mixed multitude, but I mean that invisible Church,
that spiritual people, that bride of Christ which no man sees, for she
is prepared in darkness and curiously worked in the lowest parts of the
earth–and her Lord Himself will never actually see her till she is
perfected, even as Adam never saw Eve, but slept until the great God
had finished His bride and presented her in all her matchless beauty to
be His sister and spouse. The day comes when the Lord Jesus Christ
shall thus receive His perfected bride–and meanwhile He cannot change
towards her, but His espousals shall be confirmed. She was taken out of
His side when He lay in deep sleep of death and she is fashioned to be
like He, so that when in joy He shall behold her, His joy and her joy
shall be full. No, He will never, never deny her, for He cannot deny
Himself. His plan of love shall be carried out and all His thoughts of
Grace fulfilled.
Nor will any of His offices towards His Church and people ever fail.
The Prophet shall be Prophet forever–"He cannot deny Himself." The
Priest shall be a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec and
will never refuse to offer our prayers and praises and to cleanse our
souls, for He cannot deny Himself. The King will never cease to reign,
or doff His crown, or lay down His scepter, for He cannot deny Himself.
The Shepherd will forever keep the flock. The Friend will
eternally stick closer than a brother. The Husband will still love His
spouse. All that He is in relation to His people shall continue and
abide, for He abides faithful. "He cannot deny Himself."
Now, my last word is about an inference. The text says, "If we believe,
not, yet He abides faithful." It runs on that supposition. Now,
Brethren, take the other supposition–suppose we do believe? Will He
not be faithful in that case, too? And will it not be true that He
cannot deny Himself? I will suppose that a sinner is, at this moment,
saying, "I believe that Christ can save me. I will go and ask Him, I
will go and trust Him." Ah, He will not deny Himself by rejecting your
cry! I tell you, if He were to shut you out, dear Soul, whoever you may
be, if you go to Him, He would deny Himself! He never did deny Himself
yet. Whenever a sinner comes to Him, He becomes his Savior. Whenever He
meets a sick soul, He acts as his physician.
Now, I have heard of persons who have been physicians who were ill, or
weary and needed rest–an accident has happened and they have felt
inclined to get out of the way, if they could, because they were very
hard-worked and worn out. They have told their servant to say, "My
master is not at home!" But my Master never denied Himself! He will
never get out of the way of a sinner! If you go to Him, you will find
Him at home and on the look-out for you! He will be more glad to
receive you than you will be to be received, for He "waits to be
gracious." As Matthew sat at the receipt of custom, waiting for the
people to pay their dues, so does Christ sit at the receipt of sinners
waiting for them to mention their needs!
He is watching for you. I tell you again that He cannot reject
you–that would be to alter His whole Character and "un-Christ"
Himself! To spurn a coming sinner would un-Jesus Him and make Him to be
somebody else, and not Himself any longer. "He cannot deny Himself." Go
and try Him! Go and try Him. I wish some trembling soul would, at this
moment, go and cast Himself upon Christ and then report to us the
result. Come, poor quivering Seekers, sing in your heart, unbelieving
as you are, that hymn of ours–
"I can but perish if I go, I am resolved to try! For if I stay away, I
know I must forever die."
Oh, but if you were to perish at His feet, you would be the first that
ever did so out of all those who have ever come to Him! And that first
man has never been seen yet! Go and try my Lord and see for yourselves.
Well now, you Christian people, I want you to come, also. If you
believe your Lord, He will be faithful to you. Suppose it is a time of
trouble with you? He will be faithful to you–go and cast your burden
upon Him. Suppose at this time you are much exercised with spiritual
distress? Go to the Lord as you did at first, as poor, guilty,
rebellious sinners–and cast yourself upon Him and you will find Him
faithful. "He cannot deny Himself." If my Lord were not kind to me
tonight when I go to Him with my burdens, I should think that I had
knocked at the wrong door because the Lord has been so good and so
faithful to me up to now that it would take my breath away if I found
Him changed! Oh, how good, how exceedingly good is my Lord! Did not we
sing just now–
"He by my side has always stood: His loving kindness, oh, how good!"? I
could sing that with all my heart and I hope many of you could
earnestly join with me. You have a dear mother, or a fond wife, or a
choice friend and none of them has ever spoken anything but kindness to
you–if, therefore, in some dark hour you were to go to them and,,
instead of showing sympathy, they gave you sharp words and you could
evidently see that they did not love you, how surprised you would be!
So should I be if I were to meet anything but love from my dear Lord
after all these years of tenderness! There is no fear of it, for "He
cannot deny Himself."
So I finish by saying that we shall find it so in connection with the
things of His kingdom and the concerns of His Truth. There is a great
uproar just now about the God of Providence and they call me, I know
not by what names, for speaking the Truth for my Master. Well, what
comes of it? Shall we, therefore, be afraid? No! If we believe, we
shall find Him faithful–He will not deny Himself. Is the good old
cause really in danger from skepticism and superstition? Speaking after
the manner of men, it may seem so, but it never really is so. Even if
it were tottering, we must not put our hand upon the Ark of the Lord to
steady it.
God's cause is always safe! I do not know whether we may live to see
it, but as surely as the Lord lives the Truth of God will be triumphant
in England! They may tell us that Puritanism is thrust to the wall, but
it will take the crown of the causeway yet. The old cause goes back a
little to take a breath, but she will make such a leap in this land as
shall utterly surprise the soothsayers, for the Lord will make the
Diviners mad and they that count the towers and say that Zion is
utterly fallen shall not know where to hide their heads! The devil once
flew all over Europe and said, "It is all mine. Here they are, selling
indulgences and the Pope and I are master of it all."
But there was a poor monk who had not, himself, seen the Light of God
but for a short time, who nailed his theses on the door of a Church and
from that hour the Light of Christ began to spread all over Europe! And
do you think the Lord is short of Luthers? Do you imagine that He has
no sword or spear left in His armory? I tell you He has as many
instruments within reach as there are stars in the sky! When the
influence of the Gospel appears to recede, it is like the tide when it
is ebbing out. Steadily it goes back and if we did not know better, we
should begin to think that the silver waves would all give place to
mire and shingle–yet when the hour comes, at the very minute–the
waters pause and remain at one point awhile.
Then up comes the first wave of the wash and another and another and
another and another, rising, advancing, conquering the shore till the
set has come to her fullness again! So must it be and so shall it be
with the ocean of the Truth of God! Only let us have faith and we shall
see the Gospel at the flood, again, and old England covered with it!
Doubt what you like, Brothers and Sisters, but do not doubt Divine
Truth or doubt God! Hold on to the side that is most disgraced and
dishonored–that has the worst word from men–for Christ and His Church
usually have the bleak side of the hill. Be content to breast the
stream with courage learned from your Redeemer and Lord, for the day
comes when to have stood with the Truth and with the Son of the Highest
will be the grandest honor that a creature can have worn. May that
honor be ours, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–2 Timothy 2. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWM HYMN BOOK"–192, 664, 196.
TO MY BELOVED CHURCH AND CONGREGATION:
DEAR FRIENDS–After a long and severe illness I am now on my way to the
South of France to seek rest and gather strength in a less trying
climate. The Church has requested me to take three months' furlough and
as this corresponds with the serious counsel of physicians and
judicious friends, I shall probably accept the considerate advice. I
have promised to correspond with you and with my sermon readers, week
by week, by a note appended to the sermon, or by a short discourse such
as I have written during the last two weeks.
This, then, to commence with–I have reached Paris [Jan. 18, 1879] by
easy stages and I am none the worse for the traveling, but all the
better for the change. Snow is falling heavily and may detain us, but
if not, we hope to be at Mentone next Wednesday. It would have been a
far greater pleasure to me to have been able to occupy my pulpit, but
as this must not be, I am right glad to speak by the press. May the
weekly sermon be used by the Lord in a greater degree, now that the
preacher's voice ceases for a while to proclaim His Gospel. One great
favor I have to ask of you all–will you unite in hearty prayer that
there may be a great revival at the Tabernacle during my absence?
You have united to celebrate the 25th year of my pastorate by noble
testimonies which I have dedicated to the Lord's work. Now unite with
even greater ardor in seeking a great, a surpassing, a crowning
spiritual blessing! The Lord's own Word is, "Bring you all the tithes
into the storehouse and prove Me now, herewith, if I will not open the
windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing, that you shall not have
room enough to receive it." You have fulfilled the precept, now enquire
for the promise!
The Lord has guaranteed heavenly blessing, a Divine blessing, an
overwhelming blessing–do not be content without it, or it will look as
if you despised the promise of the Lord. We stand on vantage ground,
now. Let us plead with double importunity, saying, "I will not let You
go unless You bless me." Then will the windows open and the Divine hand
pour out the benediction of His Spirit–and salvation shall come to
multitudes through Christ Jesus our Lord. My love be with you all.
Yours for Jesus' sake, C H. SPURGEON
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The Empty Seat