"So It Is"
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1890.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, OCT.
12, 1890.
"Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know you it for
your good." Job 5:27.
THUS closed a forcible speech by Eliphaz the Temanite–it may be called
his "summing up." He virtually says, "What I have testified in the name
of my friends is no dream of theirs. Upon this matter we are
specialists and bear witness to truth which we have made the subject of
research and experience. Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear
it, and know you it for your good." By this declaration he sets forth
his teaching with authority and presses it home. He persuades Job to
consider what he had said, for it was no hasty opinion, but the ripe
fruit of experience. When we speak what we know we expect to be heard.
I shall not follow Eliphaz–I am only going to borrow his closing words
and use them in reference to Gospel testimony which is to us a thing
known and searched out. I shall use it in the following way. First, our
text sets forth the qualification of the teacher. He must be a man who
can say, "Lo this, we have searched it, so it is." Secondly, we have
the argument with the hearers–"We have searched it, so it is; hear it,
and know you it for your good." And lastly, we have here the
exhortation for every enquirer who wants to know the truth concerning
spiritual and eternal things: "Hear it, and know you it for your good."
I. To begin with, I judge that these words may well describe THE
QUALIFICATION OF THE TEACHER. He will be poorly furnished if he cannot
run in the line which Eliphaz draws in the words of our text. He should
have, first, an intimate knowledge of his subject. How can he teach
what he does not know? When we come to talk about God and the soul, and
sin and the precious blood of Jesus, and the new birth, and holiness
and eternal life, the speaker who knows nothing about these things
personally must be a poor driveller. Let him be quiet till he knows
what he is to speak upon! Let him sweep chimneys, or cobble shoes, or
break stones, or follow any other honorable calling–it will not be
honest for him to profess to be a preacher of the Gospel unless he is
acquainted with these sacred subjects.
I know well the place of the ministry of one who was ordained to be a
preacher and drew the hire of which every true laborer is worthy. He
delivered a discourse which greatly troubled the mind of a friend named
Jonathan whom I knew and esteemed. The awakened young man went to him
on the Monday and said, "Oh, Sir, your sermon last Lord's Day has
robbed me of my sleep and made me very anxious." The preacher answered,
"I am very sorry for it, Jonathan. I will never preach that sermon any
more. If it troubles people, I will have no more of it, for I have
something better to do than to make people miserable." "But, Sir," said
the young man, "you preached about the new birth and you said we must
be born again. In fact your text said so. What does it mean?" He
answered, "Jonathan, I do not know anything about it and you are such a
good fellow that I am quite sure you need not be afraid. If there is
anything in being born again you had it when you were christened. In
your Baptism you were made a child of God and an inheritor of the
kingdom of Heaven. That is all I know about it."
It is necessary that we say to some preachers, first of all–You must
be born again, for, if not, you cannot interpret the new birth to the
people. Without personal experience you will speak riddles of which you
do not know the answers! The blind will lead the blind and both will
fall into the ditch. There is a German story of a minister who had
delivered himself very earnestly upon a vital theme and after the
service he was waited upon by one in great distress of heart who was
peculiar in his use of language. He generally said, "we," when he
should have said, "I." And so he said to the minister, "Sir, if what
you have been saying is true, what shall we do?" He did not mean to
bring the minister into it, but
the use of the word, "we," implicated the pastor so much that he began
to search–and searching he found that he had no part nor lot in the
matter–and that he had been preaching what he himself had never felt!
Have I anybody here who is doing this every Sabbath? A blind man who is
teaching others about color and vision? A preacher of an unknown God? A
dead man sent with messages of life? You are in a strange position,
dear Friend. The Lord save you! I wish that it might happen to you as
it did to my dear friend, Mr. Haslam, whom God has blessed to the
conversion of so many. He was preaching a sermon which he did not
understand and while he preached it he converted himself! By God's
Grace he began to feel the power of the Holy Spirit and the force of
Divine Truth. He so spoke that a Methodist in the congregation
presently cried out, "The parson is converted!" And so the parson was.
He admitted it and praised God for it–and all the people sang–
"Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow."
His own utterances concerning Christ Crucified had been to him the
power of God unto salvation! O Beloved, no man has any right to teach
in the Sunday school, or preach, or pretend in any other way to be sent
of God unless he has been so taught of the Holy Spirit that he has an
intimate acquaintance with the Gospel! I must add that he should have a
personal experience of it, so that he can say, "Lo this, we have
searched it, so it is." It is unseemly that an ignorant man should keep
a school. It is not meet that a dumb man should teach singing. Shall an
impenitent man preach repentance? Shall an unbelieving man preach
faith? Shall an unholy man preach obedience to the Divine will? Shall
one that is living in sin preach of freedom from sin? Surely any person
will be an unsuitable herald of the glad tidings of Divine Grace who
speaks what he has never tried and verified. Before you preach again,
Brother, pray God to enable you to know in your own soul the Truth of
that which you declare. Oh, that we may be born again and so preach
regeneration! Oh, that we may exercise faith and then preach it! Surely
it must be so! He who would learn to plow must not be apprenticed to
one who never turned a furrow. We must know the Lord or we cannot teach
His way.
It strikes me, next, that what is needed in a successful teacher is a
firm conviction of the truth of these things growing out of his having
tested them for himself. He must say, with emphasis, "So it is." When I
had found Christ and joined the Church, I began to teach in the Sunday
school, but my little class of boys taught me more than I taught them!
I was speaking to them, one day, about "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved," and one of the boys said to me, "Teacher,
have you believed?" I answered, "Yes." "And have you been baptized?"
"Yes." "Then," said he, "Teacher, you are saved." I said, "I hope so."
Years ago it was a kind of fashion to say, "I hope so," and I followed
my seniors in this modest talk. The boy looked me straight in the face
and said, "And don't you know, Teacher?"
Well, I felt that I did know and that I ought not to have said, "I hope
so." So I replied, "Yes, I do know it." "Of course," said the boy, "the
text says so. If it ain't true, well, of course, it ain't true. But if
it is true, well, it is true and nobody need hope about it." So it was.
The boy used good logic. The Scripture says, "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved." Therefore, he that believes and is baptized
is saved. That is clear enough and let not the Believer say that "he
hopes so," but let him boldly assert that, "it is so!"
You promise a man to pay him five pounds some day this week. Suppose
you asked him, "Do you expect that I shall pay you that five pounds?"
If he should answer, "I hope so," you would know what he thought of
you. And it is very much the same when we thus speak of the Lord–we
dishonor Him when we say, "I hope so," after He has said "it is so."
The Lord's Word is true. Why do you "hope" about it? Believe it and
enjoy it! But people will go hoping and hoping, and hopping and
limping–as if to be lame were the proper thing. They had better put
both feet to the ground and cry, "God has said it! I believe it! Glory
be to His name, He shall have all the praise!" "Then shall the lame man
leap as an hart." When we teach others, we ought to have a firm
conviction that what we teach is true beyond all question. You cannot
use a lever if you have no fixed fulcrum. You must have a point to work
upon or you cannot lift an ounce. So, in trying to teach another man,
you must know that something or other is true.
Infallibility used to be claimed for the pope, but Luther upset that
nonsense. The Protestants then asserted that infallibility lay in the
Bible and this became their fulcrum. It seems to me that now it is
commonly thought that infallibility lies nowhere–or, if there is any
such thing, it is to be found among young green horns, fresh from
college, who do not know A from B in theology and yet criticize the
Bible and cut it about as they choose. They are infallibles and we must
all bow down before their idol of advanced thought! I prefer my
Infallible Bible and I shall stick to it–God helping me–knowing that
it has never led me astray and believing that it never will! O dear
Teachers, know for a
certainty what you teach and, if you do not know it to be true, hold
your tongues about it! If you are not sure that your doctrine is true,
be quiet till you are sure! A ministry of hesitation must be ruinous to
souls. When Divine Truth is held fast, then let it be held forth and
not till then.
Once more–a necessary qualification for a teacher of the Lord is
earnestness and good will to the hearer. We must implore each one of
our hearers to give earnest heed. We must cry to him with our whole
heart, "Hear it, and know you it for your good." Without love there can
be no real eloquence. We must have a burning love for the souls of men
if we would win them for Jesus. Unless our hearts desire their good, we
may preach our tongues out, but we shall never bring our hearers to
salvation by Christ. The best birdlime for these wild fowl is a longing
desire for their present and eternal good! The great Savior's heart is
love and those who are to be saviors for Him must be of a loving
spirit. True love will do the work when everything else has failed. A
pastor has held the hearer by his heart long after his head has
struggled away.
A preacher had managed, somehow, to offend one of his hearers and the
angry man kept away from the place of worship for many a day. The
preacher was not in the least aware that he had given offense, but when
the matter came out, he went at once to set it right. The offended
person had become settled in unbelief. The preacher went to him and
said that he had been sorry to miss him and that he had been made ill
by learning that he had become an unbeliever. Tears were in his eyes
and his voice was half choked as he said, "Do you know, friend David, I
cannot sleep at nights for thinking about you? I am so concerned about
your soul that I cannot rest unless you are converted."
The man had grown into the habit of blasphemy and if he had been
addressed in any other way he would have cursed the minister and told
him to go about his business–but that touch of real affection did it.
"You, concerned about my soul? Then it is time that I became concerned
about it, too"–that was the reasoning which passed through David's
mind. Oh, do let us love our hearers! Let us love them to Jesus! These
are the bands that draw men to Jesus–the bands of love! And these are
the cords that hold them to the Savior–the cords of a man! We must
wish our people to hear the Truth of God, not because we have prepared
discourses which we cannot afford to waste upon an empty chapel, but
because we feel sure that if they will hear the Gospel it will do them
good and save their souls! We must sigh and cry for the souls of our
hearers! We must preach with an intent–and that intent must not fall
short of their eternal salvation! We must go as with a sword in our
bones till we see our hearers yield their hearts to Jesus! Knowledge of
our subject avails not without love to our hearers!
There are three ways of knowing, but only one sort is truly worth
having. Many labor to know merely that they may know. These are like
misers who gather gold that they may count it and hide it away in holes
and corners. This is the avarice of knowledge–in some respects less
mean than greed of gold and yet of the same order of vices. Selfishness
makes men anxious to know. Mental selfishness urges them to toils most
wearisome. Yet there may be much of this hoarded knowledge where there
is no wisdom. Poor is the ambition to know–to know more than others,
to know more today than we knew yesterday–to know what no one else
knows. What of all this? To know, to know–this is the one thing with
those who, like the horseleech live only to suck and to be swollen. To
what purpose is knowledge buried in the brain like a crock of gold
buried in a ditch? Such knowledge turns stagnant, like water shut up in
a close pond–above mantled with rank weeds and below putrid, or full
of loathsome life.
A second class aspire to know that others may know that they know. To
be reputed wise is the Heaven of most mortals. To win a degree and wear
half-a-dozen letters of the alphabet at the end of your name is the
glory and immortality of many. To me the fashion seems cumbersome and
vexatious–but the grand use of these appended letters is to let the
world know that this is a man who knows more than the average of his
fellows. After all, it is no very great thing to make your neighbors
aware that you are somebody in scientific circles. It is more
magnanimous to do without the certificates and let folks find out for
themselves that you possess unusual information. One does not eat
merely that others may know that you have had your dinner and one
should not know merely to have it known that you know. Why not wear
letters after your name to signify that you own half a million of
money, or farm a thousand acres of land, or fatten a hundred hogs? This
is the grand end of wearisome days and nights–that the knowing ones
may know that you know!
The third kind of knowledge is the one worth having. Learn to know that
you may make other people know. This is not the avarice but the
commerce of knowledge. Acquire knowledge that you may distribute it!
Light the candle, but put it not under a bushel. Some are much buried
under that bushel. My friend was half inclined to say a word or two for
his
Lord but he did not, for he remembered the big bushel marked, "TIMIDITY
& Co.," and so he kept his light out of the way. Destroy that bushel,
since it destroys your usefulness! If God has given you a candle, let
it burn and shine, for light is given that eyes may see it. If God has
lighted you from on high, do not deny your light to any far or near.
Know that others may know! Be taught that you may teach! This trading
is gainful to all who engage in it.
Thus much upon the first point–the qualification of a teacher is
intimate knowledge, personal experience, confidence, earnestness and
good will.
II. Secondly, THE ARGUMENT FOR THE HEARER–"Lo this, we have searched
it, so it is." The argument directed to the hearer is the experience of
many, confirming the statement of one–"We have searched it, so it is."
Bacon has taught us from a mass of agreeing testimonies to infer a
general truth. We are not, now, so foolish as to set up a theory and
then hunt for facts to support it. No, but we gather the facts, first,
and then deduce the theory from them. So here the three friends have
made ample research and have arrived at certain conclusions–and they
urge this reasoning upon Job.
Unrenewed men cannot know much about Christ and His salvation unless it
is through the testimonies of their friends who have felt the power of
Divine Grace. It is ours, therefore, to be witnesses for Christ to
them, that they also may believe the Truth of God which can save their
souls. Without further preface I should like to bear my own personal
witness to a few things about which I am fully persuaded. I am not
afraid of dogmatism, but I shall speak very positively, since I can
say, "Lo this, we have searched it, so it is." And my first witness is
that sin is an evil and a bitter thing. I think, my dear Brothers and
Sisters in Christ, I may speak for you and say, "We have searched this
out, and we know that it is so." We have seen sin prove injurious to
our fellow men.
"Who has woe, who has redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the
wine. Men of strength to mingle strong drink." From where comes much of
beggary but from dissipation? From where comes much of deadly disease
but from uncleanness of life? Is not half the misery in the world the
direct and distinct result of vice? I will not harrow up your feelings
by telling you of young men and young women who set out for better
things, but who turned aside to vice and thus brought evil diseases
into their bones. We could wish to forget their cries and moans with
which they appalled us when they found that wild oats had to be reaped
and that each ear of those sheaves was as a flake of fire. By-and-by
the guilty soul has to meet its God–and what will be its terror!
We know of ourselves and in ourselves, that sin is a serpent whose
tooth infuses poison into the wound it makes. Sin brought some of us
very low and nothing but Almighty Grace restored us. It made some of us
sit between the jaws of despair and question whether it would not be
better to put an end to our lives than continue to exist in such
horrible gloom. Sin is that inquisition which deals in racks and fires
and all manner of infernal tortures. No misery can for a moment be
compared with the torment which follows upon sin! We get neither
pleasure nor profit by sin, though it may dupe us with the name of
both. Sin is "evil, only evil and that continually." This we have
searched, and so it is.
We wish that others who are beginning life would accept our testimony
and withhold their feet from the paths of the Destroyer. It cannot be
necessary that everybody should taste the poison cup–may not our
mournful experience of sin's evil effects suffice for you? Sirs, you
may search the neighborhood of sin from end to end, but you will never
find a living joy therein. Therefore, flee from it, by God's Grace.
I wish, next, to testify to the fact that repentance of sin and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ bring a wonderful rest to the heart and work a
marvelous change in the whole life and character. There is such a thing
as the new birth, for we have been born again–and this not a mere
fancy or sentiment–but is a plain matter of fact. We know what it is
to have passed from death unto life as surely as we know the difference
between night and morning. Young man, have you any doubt about this?
Will my testimony be of any use to you? Do you think I would stand
here, knowingly, and tell you what is false? I hope you do me justice
and admit that I aim at speaking the truth! There is such a thing as
having the tastes all altered, the desires all changed, the fears
removed, the hopes elevated, the passions subdued, the will conquered,
the affections purified and the mind sanctified.
There is such a thing as having perfect rest about all the past because
sin is forgiven–perfect rest about the future, because we have
committed our all to the hands of Christ who is able to keep us–and
peace as to the present, because we belong to Jesus. I speak for
thousands in this place tonight when I say that repentance towards God
and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ bestow on men a wonderful delight
and transform their characters by the Holy Spirit! That is worth
knowing, is it not? Believe for yourselves and realize personally the
power of faith. "We have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know you
it for your good."
Next, we beg to bear our witness to the fact that prayer is heard of
God. If it were possible for me to tell you the many instances in which
God has heard my prayers, you would, in your kindness, follow me a
considerable way. But I should have to draw so largely upon your faith
that before I came to the end, you would feel compelled to doubt. Nor
should I blame you. Truth is stranger than fiction and if you are not
familiar with prayer, you will think me a mad fanatic! In matters in
reference to the Stockwell Orphanage I have seen the Lord's hand very
conspicuously in times of need. When money has run short and there have
been hundreds of children to be fed, faith and prayer have filled our
coffers! Well, Sirs, men of the world may say it is all fancy and laugh
at it as a spiritual dream–but fancies do not load tables and feed
children and supply thousands of pounds!
Will one of you make the attempt? Will you provide for our five hundred
orphans for a month by dreams and fancies? We have known times of close
pinching and have waited upon God–and in a short time He has sent us
abundant relief and there are Brethren on this platform who would
willingly bear witness. If there is no prayer-hearing God, we have
played the fool! And yet no other sort of foolery has ever produced
such surprising results! We know that God hears prayer! We are
personally sure of it because we have tried it for ourselves. I wish
that anybody here who is in doubt about it would try the power of
prayer. Go to God in prayer–yes, even you that are unconverted–and
see whether the Lord will not hear you!
Somebody says, "Surely that is unsound advice! How can the unconverted
pray?" Let me tell you a story. I was preaching, years ago, to the
Sunday school children of a certain country town where the people were
Calvinistic and a point or two more. They received 16 ounces to the
pound of the Gospel and they liked an ounce or two above full weight. I
made the observation to the children that before I had been renewed by
Divine Grace, I, as a child, was in trouble and I went to God in
supplication and He helped me. I need not repeat the circumstances but
it seemed to me that the Lord heard my childish pleading and helped me.
This experience led me to feel that there was a reality in prayer, for
God had heard me.
When I came out from the Chapel where I had mentioned this
circumstance, a number of grave persons who were both sound and sour in
the faith, beset me round about like bees. They began asking, "How can
a natural man pray a spiritual prayer? How can God accept a prayer
which is merely natural, since He is a Spirit? If prayer is not worked
by the Holy Spirit it is an idle form," and so on, and so on. It is
difficult to conceive how many quibbles can be made upon one point. I
was about 20 years of age but I did my best to defend myself, for I had
stated a fact and a fact is a stubborn thing. At any rate, I held my
own, but I do not know that I should have won the victory if I had been
left alone. A grand old woman in a red cloak pressed forward into the
middle of the ring and addressed the doubly-sound Brethren whom she
knew better than I did.
With an almost prophetic air she looked on them and said, "O fools and
slow of heart to come here and quibble with this young servant of the
Lord! Listen to me and be convinced, and go home in silence. Does not
the Lord hear the young ravens when they cry? Do they pray spiritual
prayers? Does the Holy Spirit work prayer in them? If God hears the
natural prayers of crying ravens, will He not hear the cries of
children?" This was fine. The adversaries vanished out of my sight.
There was no overcoming a statement so Scriptural. God does hear
prayer! We bear our witness to that fact with all our strength and
therefore we say about it–"Lo this, we have searched it, so it is;
hear it, and know you it for your good."
Another testimony we would like to bear, namely, that obedience to the
Lord, though it may involve present loss, is sure to be the most
profitable course for the believing man to take. If you will serve the
Lord Jesus Christ, you will not find your road all smooth, but you will
find it more pleasant than serving the devil. Satan said of Job, "Does
Job fear God for nothing? Have not You made an hedge about him and
about all that he has?" It was most true, but the Lord God might have
answered the devil, "Would you have My servants unrewarded? It is from
you that service meets no reward but death. Do you think I would have
you able to say, 'God's servants serve Him for nothing. Even Job gets
no return for his
faithful obedience'?"
Beloved, we may not expect immediate success in business because we
walk in the path of integrity. We may, for a time, be losers by being
honest and may miss many a chance by abhorring deception. But we do not
measure things by the inch and by the ounce when we come to deal with
eternal matters. Brothers and Sisters, here we leave the clock and its
ticking and speak of the Glory and Immortality which belong to the
infinite and the eternal! Coming into those larger regions, we declare
that nothing can be obtained worth getting by a lie, or by a trick, or
by falling into sin. The most profitable course in life that any man
can take is to do the right in every case. If it should involve loss,
do right and suffer the consequences–for there are other compensating
consequences which will make a man a gainer by uprightness–even if he
should lose the clothes from his back. To have done right is to have a
well-spring of joy within the heart.
Some of us have tried this and are sure about it. There are aged
persons here who can tell you that they owe everything in life to
having been enabled, by the Grace of God, to act uprightly in their
youth. I know one who is at this moment in a fine position, whose rise
in life dates from the moment when his employer bade him say that he
was not at home and he answered, "Sir, I could not say that. I cannot
tell a lie." From that day his promotion in the office was constant and
rapid.
Another felt himself unable to cast up the firm's accounts on Sunday
but before long was so prized that nobody would have suggested such a
thing to him. A straightforward course is the nearest way to success.
We bear our testimony that righteousness is the best course. We cannot
say, "Honesty is the best policy–we have tried both that and
thieving– and honesty pays best." But, for all that, if you consider
the Law of the Lord you will be considering your own interests. Take
notice of this testimony–righteousness is wisdom. A straight line is
the shortest way between any two places. "Lo this, we have searched it,
so it is; hear it, and know you it for your good."
I have many things to say, but our hours fly like the cherubim–each
one has six wings. We beg to say that the old-fashioned Gospel is able
to save men and to awaken enthusiasm in their souls. Here–here is the
best proof! Look around upon this vast assembly! Have we any music, any
candles, any millinery? Have we anything here to attract people but
simply the preaching of the old, old Gospel? Our service is so severely
simple as to be called bare. Have I varied from the old way and the old
faith–yes, by even an eighth part of a hair's breadth? Have I not kept
to the Gospel and set it forth in simple language? Lo, here I come to
the end of 37 years and before me are the same multitudes of people as
at the first!
Young preacher, you will not need anything but Christ Jesus should you
be spared to preach as long as I have done. When everybody seems to say
that orthodoxy is spun out, God will send us a revival and the despised
Doctrines of Grace will be to the front again and Christ shall make
them His chariot in which He will ride forth conquering and to conquer!
Behold, even at this day a company of the poorest of the people
proclaim the Gospel in its roughest form and preach it in our streets
and lanes–and the crowd is stirred as it never is by any other theme!
Notwithstanding all the infidelity of the times, faith is still lifting
the standard! Hold to the faith and to the Cross! Preach sin
down–preach Christ up! Preach the atoning Sacrifice! Preach in the
power of the Holy Spirit! Such preaching is sufficient for the purposes
of salvation! "Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and
know you it for your good."
III. I close, now, with our third point–we have HERE THE EXHORTATION
TO THE ENQUIRER. What do we say to him? This–"We have searched it, so
it is; hear it." I need hardly address that exhortation to most of the
present assembly. Hear it you do–with a delight which is remarkable.
But you know how matters tend in London in these sad days. The masses
of the people will not come to hear of Jesus and His love. They often
pass by a street preacher and have no curiosity to know what it is
which has brought him out into the open air.
But oh, if you wish to be saved, hear the Gospel! Let nothing keep you
away from God's sanctuary where the real Gospel is proclaimed. Hear it!
If it is not preached exactly in the style which you would prefer,
nevertheless, hear it! "Faith comes by hearing." Come out on Sunday
morning, you working men that are sitting at home in your shirtsleeves.
Come out and hear! I cannot make out what some of you do–you work hard
all the week round–and when the day of rest arrives, you have no hope
of Heaven and no hunger after salvation! Life is a poor thing if it
ends here. Do you believe that all you can possess is to be had on this
side the grave? It is a poor situation.
Do you fancy that your life can be nothing better than an endless
turning of the grindstone? Were you born merely to toil for daily
bread? Is there nothing higher and better? If you say that you will die
like dogs, I dare not think so meanly of you as you think of
yourselves. You have only begun to exist! You have to live forever! You
will exist in eternity as surely as God shall live, world without end!
Shall it be an immortality of happiness, or an eternal existence of
woe? Do, I pray you, think about this–and if there is a Gospel, (and
you know there is), then hear it, hear it, hear it, till by the hearing
of it God sends you faith and faith grasps salvation!
The next thing that we say is, "know it." Hear it and know it–go on
hearing it until you know it! If you cannot quite attain to knowing it
by hearing it, read your Bibles and seek the Lord till you are made to
know the sublime secret. Ask Christian men and women to explain
difficulties to you so you may know it. By getting a clear view of the
plan of salvation, know what you must do to be saved. If you do not
know anything else, know this essential matter! Christ Crucified is the
most precious piece of knowledge which you can ever come at. To know
Christ is life eternal! Look to Him till you see in Him your life, your
love, your God, your Heaven, your all. Blessed is the man that finds
this wisdom, for he has found an endless blessedness.
Our text means–know it in a particular way. "Know you it for your
good." The devil knows a great deal. He knows more than the most
intelligent of us–but he knows nothing for his good. All that he knows
sours into evil within his rebellious nature. There is a way of knowing
a great deal and yet of getting no good out of it. Like Samson's lion
which had a mass of honey within it and yet had never tasted the
sweetness of it, for it was a dead lion. You may have all the knowledge
of Solomon and yet you may know nothing for your good, but end your
days with the terrible wailing, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!"
How is a man to know anything for his good? This knowledge must first
be a practical knowledge. Does the Word say, "Repent"? If you want to
know what repentance means, repent at once. You need not go to the
Catechism or to the Creed for a definition–repent, and you know what
repentance means! Be changed in mind, confess your sin and forsake it.
Be sorry for sin. See the wrong of it. Quit it. You will know what
repentance is when you have repented. If you want to know what faith
is, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and when you have believed, you
will know what believing is. The best way to know a virtue is to
practice it! Somebody said, "What is the best way to tell a sinner the
way of salvation?" The answer given was, "The best way to tell him is
to tell him." So it is.
The very best way to eat your dinner is to eat it. We get confounding
and confusing ourselves with trivial distinctions, whereas we had
better throw distinctions to the dogs and get to soul-winning! You will
never catch hares with drums, nor souls with controversies. Come to
Jesus, Sinner! Come to Jesus! Believe in Jesus, Sinner! Believe in
Jesus at once! "He that does His will shall know of His doctrine." You
will know the Truth of God when, from the heart, you have obeyed it.
God help you to exercise this practical faith at once. "Know you it for
your good." To know a thing for our good is to know it for ourselves.
"Know you it for your good."
I find that one rendering is, "Know it for yourself." Another man's God
is no God to me–He must be, "My Lord and my God." Another man's Christ
is no Christ for you–He must reveal Himself to you personally. Another
man's faith is no faith for you. God must be your God. Christ must be
your Christ and the faith that saves you must be your own faith. God
grant that it may be so–then you will know the Lord personally for
your good. I must add that we only know things for our good when we
know them believingly. To a sinner a promise is as dark as a threat if
he does not believe it. Christ, to an unbelieving sinner, is simply a
judge. Christ's very death becomes "a savor of death unto death" to the
unbeliever and it cannot be "a savor of life unto life" to him unless
it is mixed with faith.
When you believe in Jesus, there is a vein of Divine Grace for you in
every doctrine of the Bible. You know the promise of the Lord and you
know it for your good when you humbly believe that it is so, and humbly
take it to yourself because you are resting in Christ. I would to God
that many here would know these things for their good! If they did, I
should be happy, indeed, and so would they!
Now I have done, but I should like to say this–If there is nothing in
religion, why do you come here? If there is salvation in believing in
Christ, why are you not saved? You say there is a Hell. Why are you
going there? You know that there is a Heaven. Why are you not preparing
for it? You know that there is a Christ whose wounds bleed salvation–
why are you not looking to Him? Is it all to be play, this religion of
yours–going to meetings, sitting in your seats and listening to the
preacher? I would rather be silent than be fiddling to your dancing, or
go through the service merely to spend a Sabbath in a decorous manner.
Sirs, if you are not saved what shall I do? What shall I do? If you are
saved, we will meet in Heaven and we will praise God forever, each one
of us–and our Lord shall have all the glory. But if you are lost! If
you are lost–I cannot come to you, nor can you come to me–no matter
what I do for you before the great gulf divides us. What? What shall I
say when I render in my account? Shall I tell the Lord that you were
not saved because I was afraid to tell you that there was a Hell
and I kept back every threatening doctrine and tried to make things
pleasant for you, whether you were saved or not? I could not make that
profession even if it could save your souls, for it would not, in any
measure, be true!
"I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God" as
far as I know it. God is my witness and so are your consciences that I
have longed for your conversion! You that have heard me these years, if
you are lost, it will not be for lack of pleading with, nor for lack of
instruction, nor from lack of entreaties! O Souls, why will you die?
Why will you keep on procrastinating and crying, "Tomorrow, and
tomorrow, and tomorrow"? Why should it always be tomorrow? There will
be no tomorrow of hope for you when once you are lost!
Flee, now, to Christ! I pray you, by the living God and by the Heaven
which He gives to those who believe in Christ, hasten to Jesus! Trust
yourselves to Jesus now! By that dreadful doom which will surely fall
on every man who dies rejecting Christ, I beseech you, flee from the
wrath to come! Lord, grant that it may be so, for Jesus' sake! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Job 5.