Grace for the Guilty
(No. 2563)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 27, 1898.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, NOVEMBER
25, 1855.
"Have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions and, as a
cloud, your sins: return unto Me, for I have redeemed you." Isaiah
44:22.
THIS declaration was not made to a pious and praying people, who kept
near their God, but was spoken to idolatrous Israel–to those who,
after having drunk from the fountain of living waters, turned aside to
drink the drops that were to be found in broken cisterns. It was spoken
to a people who, after they had tasted the good things of God and known
the high privileges of true religion, yet turned aside with the nations
of the world, forsook the God of Jacob, made unto themselves graven
images that were not gods, provoked the Lord to jealousy and moved Him
to wrath against them on account of their sins. These words of wondrous
mercy were not spoken to the nation of Israel while living near
God–who, notwithstanding, would have had sins to mourn over and to be
forgiven–but they were addressed to a brutish and foolish nation, to a
harlot people who had committed wickedness with all the idols of the
heathen! They were those who had offered incense on their hills to
false gods, who had made their children pass through the fire of
Topheth in the Valley of the Children of Hinnom–to men who were filled
with abominable and loathsome sins–men who had committed the crimes of
Sodom and bowed down to Baal and Ashtaroth!
This promise was made to those who had wandered far from God, not
because they repented, or because they believed, but simply and
entirely of the Sovereign Grace of God, because, having set His
affection upon them, He would not turn away from them because, having
sworn unto their father Abraham that He would bless his seed forever,
He still remembered them. He forgot them not, notwithstanding they had
forgotten Him days without number–but provided them a Savior and now
sends them, by the mouth of His Prophet, this comfortable assurance, "I
have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions and, as a
cloud, your sins: return unto Me, for I have redeemed you."
We will take this text as it shall open to us gradually and, therefore,
we will give you the thoughts as they come to us. [This sermon is the
one described in C H. Spurgeon'sAutobiography, Volume I, Chapter 32,
where the beloved preacher gives a graphic account of a certain Sabbath
evening when he delivered an extempore discourse from a text which the
Holy Spirit vividly impressed upon his mind while the congregation was
singing the hymn immediately before the Sermon. Readers of the
Autobiography will also see how timely was the sudden and unexpected
extinction of the gas lights mentioned at the end of the present
discourse.]
I. The first is, that A MAN'S SINS MAY BE REALLY FORGIVEN LONG BEFORE
HE KNOWS IT, for it is written, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud,
your transgressions."
If they knew it, there would be no necessity for telling it to them. If
they understood in their hearts that their transgressions were blotted
out, what need had they of a Prophet to come and tell them that it was
so? Long before a man knows that his transgressions are pardoned, God
may have pardoned and blotted them out. I do not say that a man
receives actual pardon in his own soul, or a sense of justification
without knowing it. I cannot believe, with some, that a man may be born
again without being aware of it. I know there never was a natural birth
without pangs and pains–and I am equally sure that there never will be
a spiritual birth without some suffering and some agonies. A man is not
to be born again when he is asleep–he is to know it and know it, he
will, at some time or other in his life! Not constantly, it may be, but
nevertheless he will know, even if it is only for an hour, that he is a
child of God! I think he who never had one minute of assurance, never
had faith. He who never knew himself to be a child of God, who never
could say, "I believe
in Jesus," never could see his sins blotted out–I think such an one
does not know what faith is. It may endure for ever so short a time,
but if it is real assurance, it springs from true faith and the man is
saved.
But a man may have his sins blotted out before he knows it. And they
may be blotted out when he does not believe that they are–and blotted
out when he is full of doubt on the point–yes, they may be pardoned
even when he cannot be persuaded that they actually are. I can tell you
of persons whom, in my inmost soul, I believe to be the subjects of
Divine Grace. I can see in them the marks of God's power–He has
convinced them of sin, they are humble, they are penitent, they are
prayerful, they feel their guilt, they confess it–yet they have a
haziness about their views of the Atonement and from this arises great
darkness of spirit. They cannot see the plan of salvation and because
they cannot see the plan, they do not, therefore, get a joyful sense of
the thing, itself. Yet if these persons were soon to die, I am well
assured that before they departed this life, God would give them such a
glimpse of sunshine that all the clouds would be dissipated and they
would be able to enter Heaven singing, as they waded through the stream
of Jordan, "Christ is with me! Death is nothing. Christ is with me! He
is my Helper and my Stay." Long before they know it, their sins are
forgiven.
Besides, there is a doctrine very much scandalized by certain
professors and rejected by many persons, but which I firmly believe in.
I mean, the Doctrine of the Eternal and Complete Justification of All
the Elect in the Person of Christ Jesus. It does seem to me that when
the Divine Surety paid our debts, our debts were discharged. That when
He took our guilt upon His head and suffered for us on Calvary, our
sins were, in that moment, blotted out. Some will say, "But the sins
were not in existence, then." No, they were not, except in the
foreknowledge of God, but the foreknowing God had all those sins
written in the book of His foreknowledge long before they were
committed. And by the blood of Christ, "the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world," He did forever blot out the crimes and sins
of all His Covenant people, so that everyone who shall be saved at last
was j ustified in Christ when He died. The sins of all who shall be
saved were atoned for by Christ, though they know nothing of it until
God reveals it to them, by His Spirit, in the moment when they exercise
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If the debt was paid, then surely a
full receipt was given! If the crime was then laid on Jesus' head and
He was then punished for it, surely the crime ceased to be! If you say
that the crime was not in existence because it was not committed–I
would tell you that Christ died for it before it was committed.
Therefore we are quite right in saying that it was blotted out before
it was committed.
I received my pardon when I believed–but it was purchased when Christ
died. In the Person of Christ I was as completely and as truly, in
God's sight, justified then, as I am now! But I knew it not–it was not
revealed to me, I could not rejoice in it, I could not be blessed by
it. The blood-bought pardon could not absolve me till I had a sense of
it–the pardon of Christ could not redeem me from the prison of sin
until I knew about it–but yet it was virtually given. When the ransom
price was paid, the freedom was really secured, though the slave was
still scarred, branded and chained to his oar. He was a purchased man
and would one day receive his liberty. Oh, are not your hearts
gladdened and do not your eyes glisten? Though you do not know that you
are pardoned, it may be true that your sins are blotted out! Though you
do not know that you have been justified, it may be true that you are
"accepted in the Beloved!" "Oh," says one, "if I thought there were a
hope or even a chance of such a thing for me, I would go to Jesus,
though my sins had 'risen like a mountain.'" Go, then, poor Sinner, and
if you cannot read your pardon, there–if you cannot see the
handwriting of ordinances that were against you nailed to His
Cross–come back and say that I speak not the Truth of God! There have
been many sinners who went to Christ full of sin–but there never was
one who came back from Him as he went! Many have gone to Him guilty,
but none have been turned away from His door unforgiven! He blots out,
as a thick cloud, their transgressions and, as a cloud, their sins.
A man may have his sins forgiven, then, before he knows it, and a true
Christian who has come to the Lord Jesus may have his sins blotted out
even when he does not believe they are. The devil can make you believe
anything. No lawyer is equal to him–though some lawyers have, most
undoubtedly, learned a few lessons at his hands–for not only can he
make what is half the truth appear the whole truth, but he can take a
lie and gild it with truth. How often does he persuade a truly
justified man that he is not justified! It often comes to pass that
when God has pardoned a poor sinner, the devil will come to him and
tell him that he is not pardoned–and so much logic will he use with
him, that he will make him believe that he is not pardoned, although he
really is. Though every crime of that man has been forgiven long ago,
though all his iniquities have been cast into the depths of the sea,
Satan will agitate his conscience, stir up his soul, bind him with
unbelief, cast gravel into his food, cause him to eat wormwood and
drink the water of gall, as Jeremiah has said, until he will not only
deny that he has ever tasted that the Lord is gracious, but he will be
in such despair that he will fancy it is not possible that he can ever
be saved. Satan will persuade a justified man that he is yet "in the
gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity."
Are there not some of you who have had many pleasant days, many sweet
hours of fellowship with Christ, but in some dark moment the thought
crossed your mind that you might be a hypocrite, after all? From that
hour you have not been able to come near to Him and though you have
trusted under the shadow of His wings, yet you have not seen the light
of His Countenance. Well, but let me tell you, Brothers and Sisters,
the pardon is not revoked because it is concealed from view! The pardon
is just as good when you cannot see it as when you do see it. A pardon
is a pardon and though the condemned criminal does not see the pardon,
it is not revoked. God takes care of our pardon for us! He does not put
it into our hands, for Satan might take it away from us, but He lets us
have a copy of it to read and though Satan steals the copy, he cannot
get the original–that is safe in the archives of Heaven! Up there, in
the Ark of God, where He keeps the deeds of the universe, there He
preserves the writings of the pardon of our sins! Yes, though I may
doubt whether I am pardoned, if I really am so, I am so! And I ought
not so much to depend upon my own frames and feelings as upon this–God
has said to me once, "I have blotted out your sins." He has said it to
me twice! I read it in His Word and though Satan says they are not
removed, I believe they are. And I will stand fast in this assurance
because God said, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your
transgressions."
II. Another remark upon our text is that NOTHING CAN SO STRONGLY LEAD A
MAN TO COME TO GOD AS A SENSE OF PARDONED SIN. "I have blotted out, as
a thick cloud, your transgressions and as a cloud, your sins: return
unto Me; for I have redeemed you."
Enthusiastic divines have thought that men were to be brought to virtue
by the hissings of the boiling cauldron. They have imagined that by
beating a Hell drum in the ears of men, they could make them believe
the Gospel. That by the terrific sights and sounds of Sinai's mountain,
they could drive men to Calvary. They have preached perpetually, "Do
this and you are damned." In their preaching there preponderates a
horrible and terrifying voice. If you listened to them, you might think
you sat near the mouth of the Pit and heard the "dismal groans and
sullen moans," and all the shrieks of the tortured ones in Perdition!
Men think that by these means sinners will be brought to the Savior.
They, however, in my opinion, think wrongly! Men are frightened into
Hell, but not into Heaven. Men are sometimes driven to Sinai by
powerful preaching. Far be it from us to condemn the use of the Law of
God, for, "the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ," but
if you want to get a man to Christ, the best way is to bring Christ to
the man! It is not by preaching Law and terrors that men are made to
love God–
"Law and terrors do but harden, All the while they work alone. But a
sense of blood-bought pardon, Soon dissolves a heart of stone."
I sometimes preach "the terror of the Lord" as Paul did when he said,
"Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." But I do
it as did the Apostle–to bring them to a sense of their sins. The way
to bring men to Jesus, to give them peace, to give them joy, to give
them salvation through Christ, is by God the Spirit's assistance, to
preach Christ–to preach a full, free, perfect pardon. Oh, how little
there is of preaching Jesus Christ! We do not preach enough about His
glorious name. Some preach dry doctrines, but there is not the unction
of the Holy One revealing the fullness and preciousness of the Lord
Jesus. There is plenty of, "Do this and live," but not enough of,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." O sweet
Jesus, have not some of Your disciples forgotten You? Have not some of
Your preachers almost lost the sound of Your glorious name and scarcely
know its blessed pronunciation? Send us, once again, we pray You, the
spirit of love and of a sound mind, that we may preach more fully Jesus
Christ our Lord!
But now, my Friends, let me ask you earnestly–when did you ever feel,
under a sense of sin, the most inclination to come to the Savior? I
think you will reply at once, when you felt that there was hope for you
and that He had blotted out your sins! No man will come to Jesus while
he thinks harshly of Him. But when he has sweet thoughts of Him, then
will he come. You have no doubt heard the old figure, borrowed from
John Bunyan, of a certain army that was inside a city and which was
attacked by another host. The king outside said, "Give up the city,
directly, or I'll hang every man of you." "No," they said, "we will
fight to the death and we will never give up!" "I will burn your city,"
he said, "and utterly destroy it, raze it to the ground and slay your
wives and children. I will wholly cut off the race and exterminate
you." "Ah," they said, "then we will fight till we die! We will never
open the doors." Seeing that threats were of no avail, he sent another
message, "If you will only open your gates and come out to me, I will
let you go away, bag and baggage. I will give all of you your lives and
liberty and, what is more, I will let you have your lands, again, for a
small tribute, and you shall be my servants and friends forever."
"Straightway," says the parable, "they unbarred the gates and came
tumbling out to the monarch." That is the way, by the Spirit's help, to
get a sinner to come in penitence to Jesus– to tell him that the Lord
says this–"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions
and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed you."
Come along, Beloved! Why are you afraid of Jesus? He says, "Return unto
me; for I have redeemed you." Come along, Brothers and Sisters, to the
Lord Jesus if you are a sinner! I speak to that one who feels himself a
lost and guilty one. Come with me to Jesus, for He has blotted out your
transgressions as a thick cloud and, as a cloud, your sins. And He has
redeemed you. "Oh," says one, "I dare not come in! He will frown upon
me." Come and try Him! He says He has forgiven you–come in at the door
and you will find it true that Christ has forgiven you! I think I see
you standing and looking at yourself and saying, "Oh, was I not worse
than ten thousand fools to be afraid to come in–to be afraid to trust
Him when He had pardoned me beforehand? Was I not worse than ignorant
to stand back from my best Friend, as if He had been a lion–to stay
away from the dear Jesus who had purchased my ransom, as if He were my
foe?"
One would think, dear Friends, when you are so loath to come to Christ,
that you were coming to receive condemnation instead of coming to be
saved! Men come unwillingly to execution, but must they come as
unwillingly to Christ as they do to the slaughter? You think Him some
angry Judge. You have bad ideas of my sweet Jesus, or else you would
not keep away from Him when He is continually crying, "Return unto Me!"
"Return unto Me!" O that you would so love Him and rejoice in Him, that
you would feel the greatest pleasure in the world in coming to Him!
[Some alarm was here occasioned by the gas lights suddenly going out.
After the temporary confusion had subsided, Mr. Spurgeon proceeded to
address the large and excited auditory on a different subject. In his
Autobiography, he mentions that both the discourses delivered under
these unusual circumstances were blessed to the conversion of some of
his hearers.]
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM125.
Verse 1. They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion which
cannot be removed, but abides forever Various conquerors have destroyed
the buildings upon Mount Zion, but the mountain, itself, is still
there. None have ever dug it up and cast it into the Mediterranean Sea.
It stands fast and will stand there as long as the world endures. And
"they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion"–they shall abide
as firmly as that sacred mountain does! Nothing can move them, or
remove them. They are in the hands of Christ and none can pluck them
from there. "My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all," says
Christ, "and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." Oh,
what strength does faith give to a man!
2. As the mountains are roundabout Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His
people from this time forth and forever This verse shows the Believer's
safety, as the former one showed his stability. As the mountains stood
to guard the sacred city, so does God surround His people as a wall of
fire. Before any can hurt the Believer, they must first break through
the ramparts of the Godhead! It is not merely said that horses of fire
and chariots of fire are round about His people, though that is true,
but that the Lord, Himself, surrounds them, and that not occasionally,
but "from this time forth and forever." I believe in the eternal safety
of the saints and I would base it upon these two verses if there were
no other Scriptures to that effect! If they never are to be moved any
more than Mount Zion and if God is round about them forever, then they
must live and they must stand. There is no, "if," or, "but," put in
here–there is no, "provided that they behave themselves," and so on.
No, but, trusting in God, they shall never be moved and God will
surround them as their sure defense! I fancy I hear someone say, "If it
is so, why am I tried and troubled?" Ah, my Brother, it was never
contemplated that you should be free from trouble! There is a rod in
the Covenant and if you never feel it, you may suspect that you are
notin the Covenant!
3. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the
righteous lest the righteousput forth their hands unto iniquity. You
will feel that rod, but it shall not rest upon you. The days of
persecution shall be shortened for the elect's sake and though,
perhaps, the devil may be more furious with you than ever–having great
wrath because he knows that his time is short–yet God will put an end
to your suffering, your persecution, your oppression, for He knows your
frame and he is aware that, perhaps, if the temptation were pushed too
far, you might yield. Therefore will He makes a way of escape for you.
He means to try and test you, but not too much. He will abate the
fierceness of man's wrath and deliver you.
4. Do good, O LORD, unto those that are good, and to them that are
upright in their hearts. True Believers are good–especially are they
good at heart, for Divine Grace has made them so and God, therefore,
will do them good. He will bless them more and more. He will sanctify
them and prepare them for the ineffable goodness that is at His right
hand forever and ever.
5. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall
lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon
Israel There are–there always have been–in the Church of God some who
have been the Church's dishonor. They have crooked ways of their own
and, in due time, under stress of persecution, or through temptation,
they "turn aside unto their crooked ways." They leave the path of
trustfulness and holiness, as Judas did, as De-mas did, as many have
done. What will God do with them? He will "lead them forth." He will
show them up. He will bring them into His Light. And in what company
will He lead them forth? Why, "with the workers of iniquity," for if
they were not such in outward action, they were really so in thought
and heart! And where will He lead them? He will lead them forth to
execution–they shall go among the malefactors–they shall be led forth
to die. But will this hurt the Lord's people? No. When the chaff is
separated from the wheat, the wheat shall be all the purer. "Peace
shall be upon Israel." All the Lord's chosen, pleading, princely
people–His Israel–shall have peace upon them! May we all be found
among them, for Christ's sake! Amen.