DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"The Lord will perfect that which concerns me: Your mercy, O Lord,
endures forever: forsake not the works of Your own hands." Psalm 138:8.
CONTINUALLY I am clearing the ground and laying the foundation of
eternal salvation in the Grace of God which was manifested in Christ
Jesus when He came into the world to save sinners. This I did this
morning and the Lord has set His seal thereon right speedily, which is
to me a sure proof that the frequent preaching of the foundation Truths
of God is according to the mind of God. That necessary work cannot be
done too often, for men need to hear the true Gospel as often as they
hear the striking of the hour and even then, they forget it. Yet do not
all forget. There are a few, like those who were saved with Noah, who
seek the Ark of salvation and live.
To those who have newly come to put their trust in Jesus I wish to
speak this evening and I do so with much delight, for as the sight of
the new-born babe makes glad the mother, so does the news of a new-born
soul fill me with exceeding joy! Good tidings have come to my ears! We
do not often sow and reap quite so quickly as I have done on this
occasion, for since this morning's service I have hopeful evidence that
God has blessed the Word to many souls and my beloved fellow helpers,
who watch around this congregation like scouts around an army, report
that the slain of the Lord have been many.
Now, between half-past twelve o'clock this morning and this time in the
evening such souls have gone a day's journey towards Heaven and already
they have begun, I dare say, to question themselves and possibly to be
exercised with some few fears. Thus early they may have met with lions
in the way, or have found worse than real lions in their own fears.
They have only lately known the Lord, but already they are growing
anxious and looking into the future with a somewhat troubled gaze.
Therefore we come forth lovingly as a shepherd hastens to cherish the
newborn lambs. We come to the little ones with words of good cheer, for
they need them and we have special orders from our Master to see that
they are tenderly comforted.
We trust to also speak to those who have known the Lord for many years,
some words of help with regard to matters which may now be causing them
alarm. The consolations of the Lord are very reviving and they abound
in number, therefore let small and great partake of them. "Comfort you,
comfort you My people, says your God." When a man becomes a Christian
and the Grace of God commences its work in his soul, he learns to be
serious and thoughtful. That is one of the first noticeable changes in
him. He renounces his former carelessness and indifference and becomes
a sober, considerate man in whose mind there is a deep concern as to
his own character in the sight of God. He is concerned about the
temptations he meets with in his walk among the sons of men lest these
temptations should be too much for him and he should be betrayed into
sin.
He longs to lead a holy life. In fact, holiness is his great concern.
He prays that he may leave such a life behind him for others to
remember as shall be worth their following as an example. He asks
himself, "Will the hope I have just obtained really endure to the last
days of my life? Will it sustain me amidst the pangs and weaknesses of
death? Is it truly such that when I go before the burning Throne of
God, Himself, I need not tremble?" Such matters were sport to him
once–they are serious questions now. He has thrown down the cap and
bells of the jester and taken up the staff of a pilgrim and the sword
of a warrior, confessing in an unmistakable manner that "life is real,
life is earnest."
He is a man of concern now, concerned about his soul's affairs, his
sins, his life, his death, his eternal salvation. A solemn air is about
him–he hears the wheels of eternity sounding in his ears, he girds his
loins for his lifework and he puts away childish things. This is all
well, but as every state has its dangers, so the peril of religious
concern is despondency. Thoughtfulness soon degenerates into distrust
and holy anxiety easily rusts into unbelief. The more a man looks
within him, the less he can trust himself, and the more a man looks
around him, the more he feels that he is in
danger and so he is apt very early in his Christian course to be
downcast and much afraid and to say within himself, "I shall surely one
day fall by the hands of the enemy. My confidence will prove to be a
delusion and my conversion a fiction." He is fearful as to the result
of future temptations like a fresh recruit in the battle who feels
certain that every boom of the cannon proclaims his death.
Now I want, if God will help me, to meet such fears tonight. May the
Divine Spirit enable us to have a strong and mighty faith in God, not
only with regard to past transgression, which is clean gone through the
atoning blood, but with regard to all the difficulties and dangers of
the present and future. And may we drink into the spirit of the text
which is now before us–"The Lord will perfect that which concerns me:
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever: forsake not the works of Your own
hands."
Here, first, we see that God fills us with assurance–"The Lord will
perfect that which concerns me." Secondly, He gives us rest in His
mercy–"Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever." And thirdly, He puts
prayer into our hearts and supplies us with a plea–"Forsake not the
works of Your own hands." May God, the Holy Spirit most graciously help
us in this meditation.
I. At the beginning of our text, to meet our fears about the future,
THE LORD FILLS US WITH ASSURANCE. "The Lord will perfect that which
concerns me." You see the assurance is, first, that God is realty at
work on our behalf. Get a grip of this, you troubled ones, and by a
personal faith say, "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me." You
have come to Jesus and trusted your soul in His hands–we take it for
granted that you have done so–then it is certain that the Lord has
brought you to this state of mind, for never did a man in this world
simply come and trust in Christ unless the Spirit of God had led him to
it. What says the Savior? "No man comes unto Me except the Father which
has sent Me draw him."
You would never have come to a simple reliance upon the mediatorial
work and Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus if there had not been a work of
Grace in your soul! Every effect has a cause and all spiritual faith is
created in the heart by the Holy Spirit. Since the Lord has begun to
save you, your confidence with regard to the future must be that He who
began this good work will continue to operate in your soul. If the work
of God upon your heart were discontinued–your life, your hope, your
faith, your love would be discontinued, too–for you only live because
the Holy Spirit lives and works in you! The same power which first made
the world and built yonder arch of azure must sustain it still, or the
world would feel its final crash and the blue dome would utterly
dissolve.
Continued outgoings of power from the Creator are essential to the
continued existence of creation! There is neither power, nor life, nor
being apart from God. This is true in the kingdom of Grace as much as
in that of Nature–we are gracious because God gives us Grace and we
keep His ways because the Lord keeps us by His power unto salvation.
The new life within us has been created by the Lord and by Him it must
be sustained. Let no one of my hearers forget this. You are to put your
reliance upon the working of the eternal power and Godhead within your
soul, for there is the fountain of Grace and from there the streams
must flow.
Now mind you, if you base your reliance upon your own perseverance,
your own prayerfulness, your own spirituality, your own strength of
resolution, or your own settledness of purpose, you will learn that
"cursed is he that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm." Of all the
men in the world who are unfit to be trusted, the most unfit one is
yourself! It were almost better to trust your fellow man than to trust
in yourself. "Trust in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is
everlasting strength." I think you will see that the first clause of
the text means just this–"The Lord will perfect that which concerns
me," not, "I will perfect it myself," but, "The Lord will do it." There
is a consciousness that God is at work and the full assurance that He
will still be at work in order to complete that which He has commenced.
Have you obtained a religion which is not the work of God? Then I would
exhort you to get rid of it! If your religion shines and glitters and
seems to you to be inexpressibly lovely, yet if it has budded out of
your own nature, or is the result of your own free will and is not
traceable to the operation of Divine Grace and to Divine Grace alone,
do as the man did with the bad banknote–throw it down on the highway,
or into a ditch and run sway from it. Let no one know that the homemade
counterfeit belongs to you! For it is worthless now and it will prove
deceptive at the last. But if the religion you have received is the
work of God, then be certain that He who began the work will perfect
it. Be well assured that He who works in you to will and to do of His
own good pleasure will always find a pleasure in thus working and will
never forsake the work of His own hands.
The Psalmist, however, did not merely believe that God was at work and
would be at work, but he affirms that He will complete the work. "The
Lord will perfect that which concerns me." Has He begun it? Then, my
Soul, rest sure of this, that He will finish it! Have you ever seen an
unfinished work of God? If you had been present on the second or the
third day of the week of Creation you might have seen a work
unfinished. Before the morning stars sang together over a perfect
creation, many things were made, but the complete chain of being was
not as yet visible. But did the Almighty pause in the middle of the
week and leave His design unfinished?
How would the record of creation run? That God had made the light but
had not made the sun? That He had made the waters, but had not divided
them from the land, or said to the sea, "Up to here shall you go, but
no farther"? No, the first day of Creation was a guarantee of the five
which followed it and of the grand day of rest which crowned the week!
You might have been certain from that very first day when He said, "Let
there be light," that He meant to make eyes to see the light. And when
there were living creatures for each domain of Nature, beasts of the
field, fowl of the air and fish of the sea, you might be morally
certain that He meant to crown the kingdom of Nature by bringing forth
into it a being to whom He should say, "I have made you to have
dominion over the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea and whatever
passes through the paths of the sea."
God's beginnings ensure His endings. He makes no mistake in the plan
and feels no weariness in the execution and, therefore, when He puts
forth His hand He never draws it back till His work is done. It is
always so. Devils of Hell and men under their influence, no doubt think
to stop the path of God in Divine Providence, but He who can lift the
telescope of prophecy and can see the end of the present age, may also
hear the ultimate millennial song of, "Hallelujah, hallelujah, for the
Lord God Omnipotent reigns" going up from every hill and dale of this
emancipated earth! No machinations of Hell or craft of the Prince of
Darkness can ever prevent the Lord from bringing about the consummation
of His promise for which His Church is daily praying.
Here then, youthful Believer, is your confidence–you have begun to be
a Christian! God's Grace has just changed your heart. You are anxiously
asking, "How shall I persevere to the end? How shall I arrive at
perfection?" You shall be kept and perfected by the Lord in whom you
trust! The same power which commenced a good work in you can complete
it and will complete it! Do you doubt it? Think of what is done at the
beginning of spiritual life and let this confirm you as to its end. The
Holy Spirit raises men from the dead–can He not keep them alive after
He has made them alive? He brings His people out of Egypt in the day
that they believe–do you think that He who brings them out cannot
preserve them in the wilderness till He lands them in Canaan?
He has already given us Christ to be the Bread of Heaven, will He not
furnish us with that Bread till we shall enter into the purchased
possession? Let us rest in confidence! Our Alpha will be our Omega and
He will secure every letter which lies between, for it is not His way
to lay a foundation without building thereon even to the top stone!
Now, I want you to have this blessed confidence that God is at work and
will finish what He has begun and I would have you carry this
confidence into everything. You may take it into Providence–the Lord
will perfect that which concerns you there. Dear Friend, you have a
plan on hand. You say, "I wish I could be sure that I shall carry it
through. Can you tell me?" No, I cannot. I can tell you this, however,
that if it really ought to be your purpose, if it is God's plan for you
for life, you will carry it through.
I have known men, actuated by their own folly, obstinately choose a
pursuit for which they were not fit. And in such cases one of the best
things that the Lord can do for them is to make them suffer shipwreck
and lose their all. It would have been a bad case for our friend Jonah
if he had really gone down to Tarshish, for I do not know what he would
have done there–he could not have turned sailor, for no crew would
have endured so sour a comrade! It was a great mercy for him when he
was thrown into the sea and was forced to travel towards Nineveh in the
fish's belly. And so, sometimes we enter upon a giant scheme of our own
inventing, but it is not the Lord's scheme and so it comes to nothing.
Like Jehosaphat, we make ships of Tarshish go to Ophir for gold, but
they go not for they are broken at Eziongaber as Jehosaphat's navy was.
And we complain, perhaps, but it is better to submit, for it comes
forth from the Lord of Hosts who is amazing in counsel and excellent in
working.
He often perfects that which truly concerns us by taking us away from
that which never ought to concern us. It may be, dear Hearer, that the
Lord is dealing thus with you. You have been setting up in business in
the direction of your own choice and not of His. So He ends that matter
by a heavy loss and you may be very thankful that He does. But that
course
of life which you have submitted to His wisdom, which you have taken up
in obedience to the plain indications of His Providence which you
follow out with integrity, walking before the Lord with all singleness
of purpose and committing your way unto Him–that course of life, I
say, shall have His blessing and none shall be able to put you on one
side. He will perfect, in your case, that which concerns you.
The Lord told David that he should be a king. It did not look very
likely when he was a lowly shepherd, but since such was the purpose of
the Eternal, there was no keeping the son of Jesse off the throne! He
is called to court and there Saul's javelin almost makes an end of him!
He goes to battle and takes a giant's head and that brings the king's
envy upon him. He is hunted like a partridge on the mountains by those
who thirsted for his life, but he must be king–no Saul or Deog could
hinder the Divine decree–David must be king! Though he will not lift a
hand to smite Saul, yet must his persecutor vacate the royal seat for
him. Judah shall acknowledge him, but half a crown shall not be enough.
Speedily shall Israel submit to him. The Lord must perfect that which
concerns him and make him king over the whole nation and establish the
throne to his seed after him.
Now, my Brother, if the Lord has called you to the work of the
ministry, the devil cannot shut the mouth that God opens! If He has
called you to any post of honor or difficulty in His Church, or for His
cause, you will arrive at it and your hands shall be sufficient for
you. Whatever may stand in the way, the Lord will carry you through and
perfect that which concerns you. Rest you sure of that! "If I thought
so," says one, "I should be much more quiet than I am." Think so, my
Brother, and be quiet! "Oh, but I should feel more confidence." Have
confidence, Brother! Perhaps that very confidence will be the means to
the end and help you to succeed. "Such assurance would make me more
patient and I should not put out my hand so hastily if I knew that what
I am hoping for would come in due time."
Do not put out your hand hastily, Brother. Keep back just as David did
when there was Saul lying before him sound asleep and his spear was
ready for fatal use. Then his friend said to him, "Let me smite him but
this once." It could have been done in an instant and the crown would
have been gained by a single stroke! But David did not take the
business into his own hands–he would leave matters with God. Though a
sin may seem to be the straight line which leads to an end, yet be sure
of this, that it is always the longest way! The nearest way to be a
gainer forever is to be a loser for the present for conscience sake,
while the road to failure and to shame is found in the tempting path of
hastening to be rich. Be sure that it is no business of yours to
perfect that which concerns you in Providence. God has promised to do
it and only presumption will dare to interfere. "Stand still and see
the salvation of God" is often the wisest policy as well as the truest
heroism. Take care that you put not forth an unbelieving hand to snatch
the unripe fruit from the tree. Wait, and in patience possess your
soul.
But this, dear Friends, is more especially true in the work of Grace in
the heart. In that case the Lord will perfect that which concerns you.
You have only a little faith. It looks like a spark and scarcely can be
called a flame, but it will increase until it burns aloft like a beacon
fire. The Lord will give you an Abrahamic faith if you will wait upon
Him for it and exercise what faith you already possess. Trust Him,
trust Him with your faith! Trust Him with your trust! You have a little
love and you sigh to be altogether taken up with affection for your
Lord–such affection shall be worked in you before long–even that
"perfect love, which casts out fear." Trust God with your love and the
God of Love will reveal Himself in you till your whole soul is
saturated with gratitude!
You have some little of the likeness of Christ already. Walk before the
Lord in all confidence and He will sketch the image of Christ upon your
character to perfection and you shall become so manifestly Christly
that men shall know you to be Christ's disciple by your very speech!
You are a long way from being perfect, you say. Ah, but you shall be
perfect–the Lord will perfect that which concerns you. Will you know
yourself, Brother, when you are made perfect? I do not expect to see
you coming up these aisles when you have reached that point, for
another and better assembly will claim you and gain you! If at some
future period of your sojourn here I should hear you say, "I am
perfect," I shall know better at once, for you will prove your pride by
your silly bragging! Yet you will, one day, be completely holy and
spotlessly pure.
You and I and all those who trust in Christ shall be perfect–every sin
cast out, every virtue brought to harmonious completeness. We shall be
holy as our Father in Heaven. "Oh," says one, "that is the best news I
ever heard! Shall I be perfect?" Yes, as surely as you are in the
perfect Christ, so surely shall you be perfect with Him. We shall be
holy, unblameable and unreprovable in His sight in the day of His
appearing. Even while we are here, we are struggling after
perfection–this is the goal to which we run–this is the target at
which we aim. That we may perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord and
be sanctified spirit, soul and body is the high ambition of our lives!
Let us never despair of it, for there stands the promise–"The Lord
will perfect that which concerns me."
Now, if this is true in Providence and true of the work of Grace in us,
it is also true of the work of Grace all around us. How often do I go
before the Lord with the weight of this Church and all its institutions
upon me! I cry from my heart, "What will come of them all?" Then it is
my confidence and delight that the Lord will perfect that which
concerns me! Up to now He has helped me in a marvelous manner and why
should I fancy that He will forsake me, seeing that with all my heart I
desire to honor Him? Only have trust in God, you who live for the Glory
of Christ and, as your day your strength shall be. You shall go forth
conquering and to conquer if your sword is drawn only in Christ's
quarrel!
If your charge is but a few children in the Sunday school, or if it is
the raising of a cause for Christ in a hamlet or a village, only give
your whole soul to it and rest in God and you shall find Him perfecting
that which concerns you! Why, we have not half the confidence in God
about our religious efforts that we ought to have! We go to work with a
faint heart and tremblingly hope that perhaps we shall succeed. Look
how amazed we are when we find a soul converted here and there–and
what a noise we make over a solitary convert–like a hen that has laid
a single egg and must tell all the world about it! If we had more
confidence in God, we would expect converts by the hundreds and we
would have them!
We should go to work with the great weapon of the Gospel which God has
put into our hands and, with the power which God has promised, we would
see the kingdom given unto Messiah and the pleasure of the Lord would
prosper in His hands! May we have faith enough to be certain that our
unchanging God will perfect that which concerns us. So I leave that
first part, trusting that our hearts may be filled with quiet assurance
by the Holy Spirit.
II. And now, secondly and very briefly, THE LORD GIVES US REST IN HIS
MERCY, for what says the text, "Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever."
See, my Brothers and Sisters, how this works in us rest from fear?
"Alas!" sighs one troubled heart, "I fear I shall fall into many sins
between here and Heaven." Well may you have that dread, my Brother. But
you may readily overcome the fear by singing in your heart, "Your
mercy, O Lord, endures forever." The blood of Atonement will never fail
and, therefore, mercy will always endure. "If any man sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous."–
"Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till
all the ransomed Church of God Is saved to sin no more."
Your sins between here and Heaven shall be forgiven you, so let the
dread of condemnation be banished!
Then comes up another fear–"But I do not see how I am to be perfected.
My nature is so vile. I find such resistance to the Divine operations.
The flesh struggles against the Spirit and I cannot get my rebellious
flesh to be subject to the Law of God." The answer to this distressing
lament is the same as in the former case–"His mercy endures forever."
He will bear with you and forbear beyond all bounds. None but a God
could have patience with you, but the Lord is God and not man! Some of
God's children were the most crooked people that ever were in this
world and it must be sovereignty which chose them, for they are by no
means naturally desirable or attractive.
It was hard work, even, for a Moses to have patience with them of old.
Though he was the meekest of men, yet his anger waxed hot against them
and he said, "Hear now, you rebels!" But their God had no such angry
words for them– He was still patient and bore with them for 40 years.
Brother, Sister, He will have patience with you because His mercy
endures forever. He has been teaching you faith, but how slowly you
have learned! There is a man who has been learning faith these 25 years
and he still is an unbeliever at times. Doubts frequently mar the face
of his assurance, but the Lord still bears with his unbelief and goes
on to teach him, little by little, line upon line, precept upon
precept.
There is one here who has been taught love. Yes, for the past 40 years
that Brother has been learning love to the Lord and love to the
Brethren, spelling out the lessons of love, letter by letter. He is in
the infant class even now, but the Lord is having a deal of patience
with him and He will yet make him tender, considerate and affectionate.
Let us hope it will be soon, for his own sake, and still more for the
sake of his Brethren to whom he acts so roughly. Many of God's people
are very slow learners–they have been at school these 20 years and
cannot yet read their own titles to eternal mansions, though penned in
capitals by their Redeemer's own hand!
As for myself, I am more brutish than any man and other teachers would
long ago have lost patience with me, but "the Lord will perfect that
which concerns me, for His mercy endures forever." Between now and
Heaven, dear Brothers and Sisters, some of you will, perhaps, have to
pass through a great deal of affliction and some of us who are called
daily to see others suffer, feel much tenderness towards those who are
the children of affliction and, therefore, we speak with great sympathy
when we say, "Do not shudder with regard to those pains and tremors
which may come over your poor trembling frame, for His mercy endures
forever. He will make your bed in your sickness and underneath you
shall be the everlasting arms."
Between here and Heaven, perhaps you will experience a great many
needs. It may be you have been afraid of poverty. You have not a very
large sum of money in the bank and you have not a very large sum in
your pocket, either, and sometimes you are out of work. Many times you
hardly know what you shall eat or what you shall drink–be this your
comfort–"His mercy endures forever." "Having food and raiment let us
be content, for He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you."
All the streams may dry, but the brook Cherith will flow on and even if
that chosen rivulet should fail, behold, God has a widow woman at
Zarephath who will feed you! Though she has nothing herself but a
handful of meal and a little oil in the cruse, yet you shall both live
upon it till the famine is over.
The heir of Heaven shall not lack for the bread of earth while God
lives, for it is written, "Trust in the Lord and do good; so shall you
dwell in the land and verily you shall be fed." "He gives food unto all
flesh, for His mercy endures forever." "Your bread shall be given you."
At last, unless the Lord should suddenly appear, there will come the
hour of death which, by many, is exceedingly dreaded. You will gather
up your feet in the bed and bid adieu to all temporal things. And then
the enduring mercy of God shall be your abounding consolation! A large
part of our fears about death are idle. One man of God always feared
death, but he might have spared himself his wretchedness, for he fell
asleep one night in apparently excellent health and died in his sleep!
He never could have known anything about dying, for on his face were no
tokens of pain or struggle, nor was there any reason to believe that he
ever awoke till he lifted up his eyes amid the cherubim!
Beloved, if we die awake and even if we die in pain, we shall yet hope
to die triumphantly! If we do not die shouting victory, we hope that we
shall peacefully fall asleep–the Lord, Himself, kissing away our soul
into the eternity of joy– "for His mercy endures forever." "He will
perfect that which concerns me." Now, I want you young friends,
especially, who are just beginning life, each one to feel, "Now, I am
going to put myself and all my temporal circumstances, all my fears,
all my engagements, my living, my dying, everything into the hands of
God and there I am going to leave it. I will trust Him with my all. In
the beginning I will trust Him and I will do so even to the end and go
my way with this calm confidence, 'He will perfect that which concerns
me, for His mercy endures forever.'"
I remember hearing one of our evangelists once say that some Christian
people, when they first profess to be Christians, are like a man who is
going a long distance by rail, but only takes a ticket for a short
distance and then he has to get out and make a rush for new tickets as
he goes along. "Now," said he, "there are other Believers who know
better and take a ticket all the way through at the first, which is by
far the wiser way." Some trust the Lord to keep them for a quarter of a
year and others for a month. But when I believed in Christ Jesus, I
thank His name, I trusted Him to save me to the end! I sought for and
obtained a finished salvation which is my joy and hope at this moment!
I took a ticket all the way through and I have not had to get a fresh
ticket yet. I have sometimes thought I should, but when I have run to
the office, they have handed me back my old ticket, the one I lost, the
same one as before–and I knew it to be the same, for it bore this
stamp upon it–"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."
The Believer is saved at first by believing and he shall be so to the
last. Do not trust a rickety salvation which may break down with you–a
temporary, trumpery salvation which may only last you for a time and
then fail to embrace with all your heart that Divine promise–"I will
never leave you nor forsake you." Cry out after the Living Water which
shall be in you as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life
and suck the marrow out of this text, "He that believes in Me has"–has
then and there, down on the nail–"has"–now, today, "has everlasting
life"–not life for a time, but life everlasting as surely as he
believes in Christ!
III. This brings me to conclude with the third clause of our text which
is a prayer. The Lord, having given His people
Grace to rest in His mercy, PUTS IT INTO THEIR HEARTS TO PRAY AND
SUPPLIES THEM WITH A PLEA–
"Forsake not the works of Your own hands." To my mind, it is a very
touching prayer. "Lord, You have begun the work
upon me; go on to finish it, for if You do not, it will never be
finished. If You leave it, it is left undone and I am undone, indeed.
But do not forsake the work of Your own hands." It is such a prayer as
the clay might put up when it is revolving on the potter's wheel. The
potter is using his best skill and producing an article of great
beauty, bringing out its shape and form as it spins round before him.
Already you can see something of what it will be–the design does not
yet perfectly appear, but you can guess it. But suppose the potter were
to stop the wheel, take up the clay and fling it back, again, into the
lump? That vessel would never be finished, for it cannot finish itself.
It has no power to shape itself in any degree and so if it were
rational clay and could speak, it would say, "Forsake not the work of
your own hands. Persevere in what you have begun." This is a prayer
which you and I may well bring before God, whose workmanship we are! "O
God, if I have only a little faith, yet You gave it to me. Oh, give me
more! If You have given me only a desire after You, yet that desire is
a Divine creation! Have respect unto it, I pray You, and fulfill it."
This is a powerful argument with our gracious God, for, Brothers and
Sisters, He does not give you a little Grace to tantalize you. Now He
has given you a hunger and thirst after Him–suppose He does not
satisfy you? That hunger and that thirst will be cruel gifts! He has
taken away from you the power to be happy in the world, has He not?
Well, if He does not intend to give you His own Divine happiness, why
has He made you weary of the world and the pleasures of sin? A dog
likes bones and I am sure I would not teach him to leave his bones or
turn him into a man if, afterwards, I had to say, "Now you have become
a man, there is nothing for you. If you want a meal you must try the
bones again." No, no! He who makes us hate the world means to give us
something better! He who makes us loathe sin means to cleanse us from
it! He who begins to build in our souls is not a foolish Builder of
whom it shall be said, "This man began to build, but was not able to
finish."
Do you think, Brothers and Sisters, that the Lord has found out
something in you which is so bad that it baffles Him and compels Him to
give up His work? If it were so, why did He ever begin it? He knew what
would be in you. The prescient eye of God foresaw every sin and every
tendency to sin in the heart of every man that lives–and so when He
began His work He knew all that it would require to perfect it. He has
not gone forth to fight the devil in you to discover that He is not
strong enough to meet him! Oh, no, He knows the force of your evil
nature, the force of your hasty temper, the force of that obstinate
self-love, the force of that imperious pride, the force of that dogged
will–He knows all this, nor can anything take Him by surprise and,
therefore, since He has begun to save you, rest assured that He will
accomplish His design!
His hand is not shortened, nor His heart dismayed. You may cry to Him
out of the utmost depths and be quite assured that He can and will,
even there, carry on His purposes of love, for He will not forsake the
work of His own hands. Go to Him, then, in prayer! Plead with Him
mightily! Prayer is the channel appointed to convey to you the
blessing. Open the valves and let the stream flow into your heart.
Whenever you feel as if you must be broken in pieces like a poor
earthen pot, then cry to Him–"Lord, forsake not the work of Your own
hands. Oh, do not leave me, for I bear the print of Your hands! Be
patient with this ill-worked clay and work upon me till You shall have
made me a vessel unto honor fit for Your own special use."
The closing word is just this. I have often preached to you salvation
to sinners, as sinners, just as you are and I have bid you, in my
Master's name, come and receive that free mercy which He presents to
the guilty, even to the guiltiest of all, when they will but take it
and trust in His dear name. Now, I supplement that by advising you to
carry the rule of faith into every part of your life. Trust the Lord
Jesus for everything! Do not come, tonight, to trust in Christ half
way, but for all things commit yourself into His eternal keeping, for
He is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
His Presence with exceedingly great joy. If you Believers have been
trusting the Divine Lord to keep you–but if you are keeping
yourselves–get beyond that and trust in Him to keep you that you may
keep yourselves! If you have said, "I believe that He will be faithful
to me if I am faithful to Him," go much farther, for it will never do
to stop there.
Trust in Him to make you faithful to Him! Do not suffer the pivot to
rest in you–put the whole stress and burden upon the Lord Jesus. If
you retain any, "if," or, "but," about your eternal salvation, it will
be a thorn in your pillow and a serpent at your heel. If you are the
cornerstone and mainstay of your own salvation, you are lost! You must
hang upon the sure nail, Christ Jesus, all the burden and all the glory
of His Father's house. As for depending on your own
watchfulness, or constancy, or anything else of your own, I want you to
get right away from it and now, once and for all, by an act which you
shall rejoice in as long as you live, commit your whole future–time
and eternity–into the pierced hands of Him who says that He gives to
His sheep eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of His hands!
In this one thing I would have you be as I am, for I have no shade of
hope apart from the Lord Jesus, either as to my pardon or my
perseverance, my new birth or my ultimate perfection. I want to know
what is to become of me in death and what is to become of me when I
live, again, in eternity. And if I could not have a far-reaching faith
which flung itself across the awful gulf that separates this world from
the next, my religion would yield me but small comfort. But
to-night–and may everybody here be enabled to do so–I do put my whole
self, my soul, my body, my engagements, my prospective sufferings, my
future troubles, my labors–everything which has to do with me or about
me into those same hands which bought me when they was nailed to the
tree!
He shall keep me, or I shall never be kept! Once and for all I make a
deposit of my eternal interests and leave them with Him whose honor it
is to keep safely that which is committed to Him. He is able to
preserve me and I have done with it. I hand over my all to Him. Come,
my Brothers and Sisters, do the same and when you have done so be of
good cheer! A man takes his money into his bank and leaves it. He does
not go back in a quarter of an hour and say, "Mr. Cashier, have you my
money safely?" "Yes, Sir." "Well I want to see it." They would not want
such a man to deal with their bank long, for he has no confidence and
will be more trouble than profit.
Put in your all with Jesus and leave it there! Make a permanent
investment. Draw the interest of it and spend it in present enjoyment,
but leave your all as a permanent investment and sing with me–
"I know that safe with Him remains,
Protected by His power, What I've committed to His hands
Till the decisive hour.
Then will He own my worthless name
Before His Father's face,
And in the New Jerusalem
Appoint my soul a place."
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Soul Saving Our One Business