A Mingled Strain
(No. 1937)
A SERMON DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow." Psalm 51:7.
IN what state of heart should we come to the Communion Table? It is no
light matter–in what manner shall we come before the Lord in so sacred
an ordinance? By the very nature of the sacred supper we are taught
that there should be a mixture of emotions. The bitter and the sweet,
the joyful and the sorrowful are here intermingled. The Sacrifice of
Christ for sin–is it more a subject of sorrow or of joy? Can we look
to the Cross without mourning for sin? Can we look at it without
rejoicing in pardon bought with blood? Is not the most suitable state
of heart for coming to the Communion Table just this–mourning for our
transgression and joy because of the great salvation? There is a double
character about this holy rite. It is a festival of life and yet it is
a memorial of death. Here is a cup–it is filled with wine. This surely
betokens gladness. Listen to me! That wine is the symbol of blood!
This, surely, betokens sorrow! In my hand is bread–bread to be eaten,
bread which strengthens man's heart–shall we not eat bread with
thankfulness? But that bread is broken, to represent a body afflicted
with pain and anguish–there must be mourning on account of that agony!
At the Paschal Supper, the lamb of the Lord's Passover had a special
sweetness in it–yet the commandment expressly ran–"with bitter herbs
they shall eat it." So is it at this table. Here we, with joy,
commemorate the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world–but
with deep sorrow we recall the sin which, though taken away, causes us,
in the recollection of it, to repent with great bitterness of heart.
Our text is the expression of one who is deeply conscious of sin and
yet is absolutely certain that God can put away that sin. Thus it
holds, in one sentence, a double thread of meaning. Here is a depth of
sorrow and a still greater deep of hopeful joy–"deep calls unto deep."
I thought that this expression of mixed feeling might guide us as to
our emotions at this holy festival.
I. I shall handle the text by making three observations. The first will
be this–THERE ARE TIMES WHEN THE LANGUAGE OF A SINNER IS MOST SUITABLE
TO A CHILD OF GOD. There are seasons when it is about the only language
that he can use, when he seems shut up to it and he uses it without the
slightest suspicion that it is out of place upon his lips and, indeed,
it is not out of place at all. I suppose that everybody will agree that
the language of David in this Psalm was most suitable to his condition.
When he prayed, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me,
and I shall be whiter than snow," he prayed a proper prayer, did he
not? Surely no one is going to quibble with David over this petition
and yet I cannot be sure. The modern way of handling the Bible is to
correct it here and amend it there–tear it to pieces–give a bit to
the Jews, a bit to the Gentiles, a bit to the Church and a bit to
everybody–and then make it out that sometimes the old servants of God
made great blunders!
We, in modern times, are supposed to be more spiritual and to know a
great deal better than the Inspired saints of the Old and New
Testaments. But still, I should not think that anybody would say that
David was wrong, but if he did, I would reply, "This is an Inspired
Psalm and there is not half a hint given that there is any
incorrectness in the language of it, or that David used language under
an exaggerated state of feeling which was not truly applicable to a
child of God." I think that nobody will doubt that David was a child of
God and that, even when he had defiled himself, he was still dear to
the great Father's heart. I gather, therefore–I feel sure of it–that
he was quite right in praying the language of this 51st Psalm and
saying, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness;
according unto the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my
transgressions; wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me
from my sin!"
Yet this is precisely the way in which an unconverted man ought to
pray, just the way in which every soul that comes to God may pray. It
is only an enlargement of the prayer of the publican, "God be merciful
to me a sinner!" This language, so suitable to the sinner, was not out
of place in the mouth of one who was not only a Believer, but an
advanced Believer, an experienced Believer, yes, an Inspired Believer
and a teacher of others, who, with all his faults, was such a one as we
shall rarely see the likes of again! Yes, among the highest of saints
there was a time with one of them, at least, when the lowliest language
was appropriate to his condition! There is a spirit abroad which tells
us that children of God ought not to ask for pardon of their sins, for
they have been pardoned, that they need not use such language as this,
which is appropriate for sinners, for they stand in a totally different
position. What I want to know is this–where are we to draw the line?
If, on account of a certain sin, David was perfectly justified in
appealing to God in the same style as a poor, un-forgiven sinner would
have done, am I never justified in doing so? Is it only a certain form
of evil which puts a man under the necessities of humiliation?
It may be that the man has never fallen into adultery, or any other
gross sin, but is there a certain extent of sin to which a man may go,
before, as a child of God, he is to pray like this? And is all that
falls below that high-water mark of sin a something so inconsiderable
that he need not go and ask any particular forgiveness for it, or pray
like a sinner at all about it? May I, under most sins, speak very
confidently as a child of God, who has already been forgiven, to whom
it is a somewhat remarkable circumstance that he should have done
wrong, but still, by no means, a serious disaster? I defy anybody to
draw the line! And if they do draw it, I will strike it out, for they
have no right to draw it! There is no hint in the Word of God that for
a certain amount of sin there is to be one style of praying and for a
certain lower amount of sin another style of praying!
I venture to say this, Brothers and Sisters, going farther, that, as
this language is certainly appropriate in David's mouth and as it would
be impossible to draw any line at which it would cease to be
appropriate, the safest and best plan for you and for me is
this–seeing that we are sinners, if we have not been permitted to
backslide as much as David, yet we had better come in the same way–we
had better take the lowest place, urge the lowliest plea and so make
sure work of our salvation! It is safest to assume the greatest
supposable need. Let us put ourselves into the humblest position before
the Throne of the heavenly Grace and cry, "Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to Your loving kindness: according unto the multitude of Your
tender mercies blot out my transgressions!"
But is not a man of God forgiven? Yes, that he is! Is he not justified?
Yes, that he is! "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?"
Let that all stand true in the highest sense that you can give to it
but, for all that, the sinner's cry is not thereby hushed into silence!
True children of God cry and let me tell you they cry after a stronger
fashion than other children! They have their confessions of sin and
these are deeper and more intense than those of others. Whatever our
confidence may be, our Lord Jesus Christ never told us to pray, "Lord,
I thank You that I am forgiven and, therefore, have no sin to confess.
I thank You that I need not come to You as a sinner!" But He put into
the mouth of His disciples such words as these–"Our Father, which are
in Heaven, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass
against us." I reckon that the Lord's Prayer is never out of date! I
expect to be able to pray it when I am on the brink of Heaven and, if I
should ever be sanctified to the fullest extent, I shall never turn
round to the Savior and say, "Now, my Lord, I have got beyond Your
prayer! Now, Savior, I can no more address my Father who is in Heaven
in this language, for I have outgrown Your prayer!"
Brothers and Sisters, the notion sounds to me like blasphemy! Never
shall I say to my Savior, "I have no necessity, now, to come to Your
precious blood, or to say to You, 'Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow.'" Listen, Brethren– "If we walk in the light, as He is in the
light, we have fellowship, one with another," and what then? Why, even
then, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." We
still need the blood when walking in the light, as God Himself is in
the light!
While we are here below, we shall need to use just such language as
David did. Appropriate as our text is to the sinner, it is equally
appropriate to the saint and we may continue to use it till we get to
Heaven! Remember, Brothers and Sisters, that when our hearts cannot
honestly use such language, we may think that we are raised up by
faith, but it is possible that we may be blown up by presumption! When
we do not bow into the very dust and kiss the Savior's feet and wash
them with our tears, we may think that it is because we are growing in
Grace, but it is far more likely that we are swelling with self-esteem!
The more holy a man is, the more humble he is. The more really
sanctified he is, the more does
he cry about his sin, whatever it may be–"Oh, wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?"
When you get the clearest possible view of God, what will be the
result? Why, the deepest downcasting in your own spirit! Look at Job.
He can answer his wretched accusers, but when he sees God–ah, then he
abhors himself in dust and ashes! Was Job wrong in heart? I question
whether any of us are half as good as Job! I am sure few of us could
have played the man as he did under his sorrows. With all the failure
of his patience, the Holy Spirit does not call it a failure, for He
says, "You have heard of the patience of Job." He says not, "of his
impatience," but, "of his patience." And yet this blessed, patient
man–patient even by God's own testimony–when he saw God, abhorred
himself! Look at Isaiah, again. Was there ever a tongue more eloquent,
more consecrated, more pure? Were there ever lips more circumcised to
God than those of that mighty evangelical Prophet? And yet, when he
beheld the Glory of the Lord, the train of the Lord filling the Temple,
he said, "Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the
midst of a people of unclean
lips."
Those of you that can do so, may come to my Master's table, tonight, as
saints–I shall come as a sinner. You that feel that you can come there
glorying in your growth in Grace may so come if you like–I shall come
feeling that I am nothing, less than nothing! I shall endeavor to come
to the Cross just as I came at first, for I find that if I get beyond
the position of a believing sinner, I get into a dangerous condition.
Safety lies in conformity to the Truth of God and the Truth of God will
not allow any of us to glory before God! The more I know the Lord and
the more I live in communion with Him, the more do I feel happy in
lying at His feet and looking up to Him to be my All in All. I would be
nothing, and let Christ be everything. Take this from one who has been
a preacher of the Gospel for more than 35 years–and a soul-winner who
needs not to be ashamed–I am as entirely dependent upon the free mercy
of the Lord this day as ever I was–and I look to be saved in the same
manner as the thief upon the Cross.
II. Secondly, let me make another observation. It shall be this–AN
EXTRAORDINARY SENSE OF GUILT IS QUITE CONSISTENT WITH THE STRONGEST
FAITH. It is a blessed thing when the two go together. David was under
an extraordinary sense of sin and right well he might be, for he had
committed an extravagant transgression. He had done a very grievous
wrong to man and committed great lewdness before the Lord–and when the
Spirit of God, at last, awakened his conscience through the rebuke of
Nathan, it is not at all amazing that he should have bowed down under a
deeply humiliating sense of his own guilt. He was guilty, deeply
guilty–more guilty than even he, himself, knew.
You and I, perhaps, may also be, by God's Grace, favored with a deep
sense of sin. But I hear some people say, "Did I understand you
rightly, Sir, or did my ears deceive me? Favored with a deep sense of
sin?" "Yes, I said that, for while sin is horrible, a thorough sense of
it, bitter as it is, is one of the greatest favors with which God
blesses His chosen! I am sure that there are some of God's children
whose experience is shallow and superficial, for they do not know the
heights and depths of redeeming love–neither are they established in
the Doctrines of Grace–and all because they were never deeply plowed
with a sharp sense of sin! These know nothing of subsoil plowing, so as
to turn their very hearts up under the keen plow of the Law. But that
man who knows what sin means and has had it burned with a hot iron into
the core of his spirit–he is the man who knows what Grace means–and
is likely to understand its freeness and fullness! He who knows the
evil of sin is likely to know the value of the precious blood! I could
scarcely ask for any of you a better thing than that you should fully
know, in your own spirit, the horribleness of sin as far as your mind
is capable of bearing the strain.
David was so conscious of his guilt that he compares himself to a
leper. The language of the text refers, I believe, to the cleansing of
lepers. Hyssop was dipped in blood and then the sacrificial blood was
sprinkled upon the polluted individuals to make them clean. David felt
that he had become a leprous man. He felt like one who had contracted
the horrible, the polluting, the incurable disease of leprosy! He felt
that he was not fit to come near to God, nor even to associate with his
fellow man. He confessed that his guilt was such that he ought to be
put away, shut out from the assembly of the people. His guilt had
polluted a whole nation, of whom he was the representative and to whom
he was the example. Did you ever feel like that? I tell you that you do
not know all the pollution of sin unless you have been made to feel
yourself to be a polluted thing! If you had 50 leprosies, they would
not pollute you like sin, for a poor leper is not really pol-luted–he
may bear a grand and noble soul within that rotting body!
Sin, alone, is real pollution, hellish pollution, abominable pollution!
There is nothing in Hell that is worse than sin–even the devil is only
a devil because sin made him a devil–so that sin is the most horrible
and intolerable evil that can fall upon the spirit of man. David felt
that dreadful Truth of God. But yet, mark you, though he felt the
horror of the disease of sin, his faith was strong enough to make him
use the confident language of the text, "Purge me with hyssop, and I
shall be clean." "Black as my sin is, filthy as it is, if You do but
purge me, O my God, I shall be clean!"
Yes, David is sure that God can cleanse him. He pleads as one who has
no question upon the matter towards God. His prayer is–"You purge me,
and I shall be clean! Apply the precious blood of the great Sacrifice
to me, O God, and I shall be whiter than snow!" There is about the
Hebrew a sense which I could hardly give you, unless I were to put it
thus– "You will un-sin me." As though God would take his sin right
away and leave him without a speck of sin, without a single grain of it
upon him! God could make him as if he had never sinned at all! Such is
the power of the cleansing work of God upon the heart that He can
restore innocence to us and make us as if we had never been stained
with transgression at all! Do you believe this? Do you believe this?
Oh, you are a happy man, if, under the deepest conceivable sense of
sin, you can still say, "Yes, I believe that He can wash me and make me
whiter than snow!"
But will you follow me while I go a step farther? The words of our text
are, in the Hebrew, in the future tense and they might be read, "You
shall purge me and I shall be clean," so that David was not only
certain about the power of God to cleanse him, but about the fact that
God would do it–"You shall purge me." He cast himself, confessing his
sin, at the feet of his God and he said, "My God, I believe that,
through the great Atonement, You will make me clean!" Have you faith
like that of David? Do you believe this? Beloved, some of us can boldly
say, "Yes, that we do! We believe not only that God can pardon us, but
that He will. Yes, that He has pardoned us and we come to Him, now, and
plead that He would renew in us the cleansing work of the precious
blood and of the water which flowed from the side of Christ– and so
make us perfectly clean! Yes, we believe that He will do it! We are
sure that He will and we believe that He will continue to cleanse us
till we shall need no more cleansing!"
Hart's hymn sings concerning the precious blood–
"If guilt removed, returns and remains, Its power may be proved again
and again." This witness is true and we set our seal to it.
The Psalmist David believed that although his sin was what it was, yet
God could make a rapid cleansing of it. He speaks of the matter as
worked promptly and speedily. It took seven days to cleanse a leper,
but David does not follow the type when the reality excels it! He says,
"Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean." It is done directly, done
at once– washed and whiter than snow! It will not take seven days to
wipe out the crimes of seven years! No, if a man had lived 70 years in
sin–if he did but come to his God with humble confession and if the
precious blood of Jesus were applied to him–his sins would vanish in
the twinkling of an eye! The two facts come together. "Purge me–I
shall be clean. Wash me–I shall be whiter than snow." It is done at
once! Note the rapidity of the cleansing.
Mark the effectual character of the purgation. "Purge me, and I shall
be clean." Not, "I shall think that I am," but "I shall be. I shall be
like a man perfectly healed of leprosy." Such a man was not purged in
theory, but in reality, so that he could go up to the court of the
Lord's house and offer his sacrifice among the rest of Israel. So, if
you wash me, Lord, I shall be really clean! I shall have access to You
and I shall have fellowship with all Your saints.
Once more–David believed that God could give him internal cleansing.
"In the hidden parts," he says, "You shall make me to know wisdom." I
like that about the text. It is, "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be
clean." Where?– Hands? Yes. Feet? Yes. Head? Yes. All this is good,
but what about the heart? There is the part that you and I cannot
cleanse, but God can! Imagination, conscience, memory–every inward
faculty–the Lord can purge us in all these! "Purge me with hyssop, and
I shall be clean." This includes the whole man. And this declaration
falls from the lips of a man who knew himself to be as defiled as he
could be, a very leper, only fit to be put away into his own house and
shut up there for fear of contaminating the rest of mankind! He boldly
says, "If the Lord washes me, I shall be clean, I am certain of it! I
shall be perfectly clean and fit to have communion with Him."
Notice one more remark on this point, namely, that David, while thus
conscious of his sins, is so full of faith towards God that he
appropriates all the cleansing power of God to Him–"Wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean."
There are four personal words in one verse. It is easy to believe that
God can forgive
sin in general, but that He can forgive mine in particular–that is the
point! Yes, it is easy to believe that He can forgive man, but to
believe that He will forgive such a poor specimen of the race as I am
is quite another matter! To take personal hold upon Divine blessings is
a most blessed faculty. Let us exercise it. Can you do it? Brothers and
Sisters, can you do it? You that cannot call yourselves Brothers and
Sisters, you far-away ones, can you come to Christ, all black and
defiled as you are and just believe in Him that you shall be made
whole? You will not be believing too much of the Great Sinners' Friend!
According to your faith be it unto you.
III. This brings us to our third and last point, upon which I will
speak with great brevity. Notice that A DEEP SENSE OF SIN AND A
CONFIDENT FAITH IN GOD MAKE THE LORD'S NAME AND GLORY PREEMINENTLY
CONSPICUOUS. God is the great Actor in the text before us. He purges
and He washes–and none but He. The sins and the cleansing are, both of
them, too great to allow of any inferior handling.
"Purge me" He makes it all God's work. He does not say anything about
the Aaronic priest. What a poor miserable creature the priest is when a
soul is under a sense of sin! Have you ever met with a person who has
been really broken in heart who has gone to a priest? If so, he has
been made ashamed of his looking to man, for he has found him to be a
broken cistern that can hold no water! Why, my Brothers and Sisters, if
we had this platform full of popes and one poor soul under a sense of
sin to be comforted–the whole lot of them could not touch the sinner's
wound, nor do anything to stanch the bleeding of his heart! No, no, the
words of the best of men fall short of our need! As the dying monk
said, "Tua vulnera, Jesu!"–"Your wounds, Jesus!" These can heal, but
nothing else can! God must, Himself, wash us! Nothing short of His
personal interposition will suffice.
Now, notice the next word, "Purge me with hyssop." We must have faith,
which is represented by hyssop. How little David makes of faith! He
thinks of it only as the poor "hyssop." Many questions have been raised
as to what hyssop was. I do not think that anybody knows. Whatever it
may have been, it was a plant that had many little shoots and leaves,
because its particular fitness was that the blood would cling to its
many branches. Its use was that it stored the blood and held it there
in ruby drops upon each one of its sprays–and that is the particular
suitability of faith for its peculiar office. It is an excellent thing
in itself, but the particular virtue of faith lies in this–that it
holds the blood so as to apply it. Scarlet wool was used in the
ceremony of cleansing and the scarlet wool was useful because it soaked
in the blood and held it within itself. But the hyssop was still more
useful because while it held the blood, it held it ready to drop. That
is how faith holds the great Sacrifice–it holds the atoning blood upon
every spray, ready to drop upon the tortured conscience! Faith is the
sprinkling hyssop–it is nothing in itself, but it applies to the soul
that which is our cleansing and our life!
David, moreover, seems to me to say, "Lord, if You will purge me with
the blood of the great Sacrifice, it does not matter how it is done! Do
it with the little hyssop from off the wall. However tiny and
insignificant the plant may be, yet it will hold the precious drops and
bring them to my heart and I shall be whiter than snow." It is God, you
see–it is God all the way through.
"And I"–there is just that mention of himself. But what of himself?
Why, "I shall be the receiver. I shall be clean." "I." What about that
intensive, "I"? "I shall be whiter than snow"–I shall be the material
on which You work–the guilty pardoned–the polluted made clean–the
leper made whole and permitted to come up to Your House.
That is all I ask of my Lord tonight–that He will let me come to His
table and be the receiver, the eater, the drinker, the cleansed one,
the debtor, the bankrupt debtor, plunged head over heels in debt to the
heavenly Creditor! Oh, to be nothing! To lie at His feet! Oh, to be
nothing but washed–washed in the blood! How sweet it is no longer to
ride on horses, but to have God for your All in All–no longer to go
forth, sword in hand, boasting our strength and glorying in what we can
do–but to sit down at Jesus' feet and sing the victory which He,
alone, has won!
Come, let us pray from our very hearts, "Purge me with hyssop and I
shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." God bless
you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.