The Single-handed Conquest
(No. 2567)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 24, 1898.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JANUARY 6,
1856.
"I have trodden the winepress alone; and ofthe people there was none
with Me." Isaiah 63:3.
IT is said of some stupendous works of architecture that although you
see them every day, you are struck with wonder and admiration every
time you behold them and that, although you should live close to them
and have your eyes perpetually fixed upon them, yet your admiration of
them would by no means decrease, for they are so matchless in symmetry,
such patterns of art and such marvelous displays of the skill of man. I
know not whether that is true. I believe that the best and grandest
achievements of mortals lose their glory when they are too closely
examined and that the frequency of our sight of them very much lessens
our wondering admiration. But this I know is true concerning Christ
Jesus our Lord–you may see Him every day, but the more often you see
Him, the more you will wonder at Him and call Him, "Wonderful." You may
even have communion with Him every hour, but the frequency of your
converse and the constancy of your communion will be so far from
diminishing your awe, your love, your respect, your devout adoration of
Him, that the more you know Him, the more your wonder and admiration of
Him will increase!
Now, who could be expected to know so much about Christ as Christ's own
Church? Yet, in the opening of this chapter you find that even she
bursts out with such exclamations as this–"Who is this that comes from
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His
apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?" She had often
seen Him before. She had often viewed Him under that aspect and
doubtless she had seen Him as the Conqueror of mighty heroes, Master
over princes and the Lord of the kings of the earth. But at a fresh
view of Him, she was so utterly astonished that she could not help
crying out, "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from
Bozrah?"
Live near to Jesus, Brothers and Sisters. Live with Jesus. Live in
Jesus and you will find Him a theme of such excellent and such endless
contemplation that, instead of being tired and weary with the subject
of your meditation, you will find it more easy to begin, again, than it
was to begin at first–more interesting and more pleasing to consider
Him in the 50th year of your knowledge of Him than it was in the first
hour that you knew Him! Think much of Him and you will have little
cause to think lightly of Him! Constantly meditate on Him and you will
the more admire and wonder at His goodness!
We have here our Savior answering the questions of His Church, which
she, in wonder, had asked of Him–"Who is this that comes from Edom,
with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel,
traveling in the greatness of His strength?" "I that speak in
righteousness," He says, "mighty to save." And when again she asks Him,
"Why are You red in Your apparel and Your garments like he that treads
in the wine vat?" He replies, "I have trodden the winepress alone; and
of the people there was none with Me."
Very briefly, as the Spirit shall help us, we shall notice, first, the
interesting figure employed. Secondly, the glorious fact stated.
Thirdly, the solitary Conqueror described. And then, fourthly, we shall
offer some sweet and salutary considerations suggested, that we may be
refreshed by our meditations. Let our souls be calm and quiet whilst we
contemplate the awfully-solemn and sublimely-grand spectacle of the
Conqueror of men and the Conqueror of Hell treading the winepress
alone.
I. First, then, here is AN INTERESTING FIGURE EMPLOYED–"I have trodden
the winepress."
You must understand the circumstances to which these words relate. This
is Jesus speaking after His conquest over His foes–not Jesus before
the battle, but Jesus after it–not Jesus buckling on the harness, not
Jesus becoming the Baby of Bethlehem, but Jesus after the battle is
fought and the victory is won. There were certain enemies who opposed
the salvation of God's people. There were numberless foes who stood in
the way of the deliverance of His chosen, but Christ undertook to
conquer them and now, on His return, He not only declares that He has
overcome them, but He uses an expressive figure to set out some of the
facts in that wondrous feat of conquest. "I have trodden the
winepress."
First, this denotes the supreme contempt with which the mighty
Conqueror regarded the enemies whom He had overcome. It is as if He had
said, "I have overcome the many foes of My people and I compare My
victory over them to nothing but the treading of the winepress. Angels
sing My praise, the hosts of the redeemed in Heaven swell the sublime
chorus as, in exultant strains, they declare how I have broken the
dragon's head and have put down the strength of the oppressor. They
tell how mighty kings have been slain in My wrath and giants in My hot
displeasure. But as for Myself, I say little about it, I only declare
that I have trodden the winepress and have counted My enemies as easy
to conquer as if they had been grapes beneath My feet! My people's
crimes may have been tremendous and their enemies mighty, but coming
up, 'with dyed garments from Bozrah,' I have crushed their foes and My
foes just as easily as a treader of grapes treads them under foot. I
have trodden them as in a winepress."
O ungodly Sinner, perhaps you think that it will cause God great
trouble to destroy you with an utter destruction– it will not! It may
be you think that God will have need to exert much power to send your
guilty spirit to the loathsome dungeons of Hell, but, ah, it will
require no might from Him! If you should continue to be His foe, He
will tread you beneath His feet as easily as you could tread grapes
beneath yours! What are the berries of the vine beneath the feet of the
wine presser? And what shall your soul and body be when the feet of
Jesus tread upon them? In vain your ribs of steel! In vain your sinews
of brass! In vain your bones of adamant–if such you had. If your
spirit were clothed with scales like leviathan's, yet under the feet of
Jesus you wouldst be like ripe grapes–the blood of which flows out
freely! Yes, terrible shall be the meaning of that figure when Christ
shall say of sinners, at the last day, "I have trodden them down as he
that treads grapes presses out the juice thereof–'I have trodden the
winepress.'"
But, mark you, there is in the figure an intimation of toil and labor,
for the fruit of the vine is not bruised without hard work. So the
mighty Conqueror, though in contempt He says His foes were as nothing
but the grapes of the vintage to His might, yet, speaking as a Man like
unto us, He had something to do to overcome His foes when He fought
with them in the Garden. Sometimes the wine presser is wearied with his
labor, although he takes hold of the strap which is placed above him
and jerking, and dancing, and laughing, and singing all day, he presses
out the juice of the grapes. Yet oftentimes he wipes the sweat from his
brow and is tired with his toil. So our blessed Lord, albeit He could
have crushed the enemies of His Church like moths beneath His finger,
had enough to do to overcome them in the Garden. It was no little
pressing of the foot which was needed when He bruised the old dragon's
head in Gethsemane! Then He–
"Bore all Incarnate God could bear, With strength enough, but none to
spare."
My Soul, meditate on this glorious Wine Presser! Those sins which would
have crushed you to pieces, He had to tread beneath His feet. How it
must have bruised His heel to tread upon those sins! O how powerfully
He must have trodden on those crimes of yours, breaking them into less
than nothing! How did it force from Him, not sweat like ours, but drops
of blood, when He could say, "I have trodden the winepress." Yet, toil
as it was, labor as it might be, costing Him tears and groans, He could
say, "I have done it. The great work is fully accomplished–'it is
finished'–'I have trodden the winepress alone.'"
Moreover, in the figure employed, there is an allusion to the staining
of the garments. We see it is so in the verse before the text, "Why are
You red in Your apparel, and Your garments like he that treads in the
wine vat?" The garments of the wine presser would naturally be
sprinkled over with the juice, squirting up from beneath his feet. Ah,
my Soul, stand here and solemnly contemplate your Savior, sprinkled
with His own blood! Look at Him, when but eight days old, already
shedding blood for you! And go on to the time when He commenced the
shedding of His blood, again, in Geth-semane's Garden! Mark you how, in
one gory robe, He is enveloped–not like the kings of the earth, in
garments of Tyrian-dyed purple, but like the King of Misery, dressed in
a crimson robe of blood! Go and mark the blood as it flows from His
temple, when the crown of thorns lacerates His brow! Weep when the
accursed flagellation of the cruel Roman is tearing off, piece after
piece of His quivering flesh! Pursue Him in His weary via dolorosa, as
He treads the streets of Jerusalem!
Stop and see how each stone on which He treads is stained with His
precious blood! Then mark how His hands begin to gush down streams of
blood, as the rough iron tears them asunder! See Him now crucified,
hung upon the Cross, plunged into the lowest depths of misery!–
"See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled
down! Did ever such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a
crown? His dying crimson, like a robe, Spreads o'er His body on the
tree."
Jesus, from the crown of Your head to the sole of Your feet, You were
sprinkled with blood! Your inward Man was stained with blood and your
outward Man, too! You were covered with blood, You glorious Presser of
our sins beneath Your feet! We will not ask again, "'Who is this that
comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious
in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?" We know
why Your garments are red. You have trodden the winepress of the wrath
of God!
Thus have we explained briefly, as best we could, the interesting
figure employed by our Lord. II. And now we come to consider THE
GLORIOUS FACT STATED–"I have trodden the winepress." Christian, I need
you a moment! Come with me, my Brothers and Sisters–not to Heaven, nor
to Hell, but to the great winepress which the Savior trod. You
understand the form of the Eastern winepresses, how they were built up
in order that a great quantity of grapes might be put into them, to be
trodden by the feet of the wine presser? Come here, then, and look over
the edge of this great winepress in which your Savior stood and
trampled on your behalf! Gaze down into its depths.
The first thing that you will see in that winepress is your sins. Look
down attentively. In the middle of the winepress there are the crimes
of your youth, like unripe grapes lying there in thick clusters. There
lie the sins of your manhood, dark with the black juice of Gomorrah. Do
you see them, like the grapes from the vine of Sodom? And see you not
the full clusters, like the vine of Sibmah? Look there and see the
fruits of your middle age. And there the sins of your old age, too!
They are all put into the mighty winepress. Come, then, you chief of
sinners, there lie your sins and there lie mine all mingled in one
mighty heap! But wait–the Wine Presser enters and puts His feet on
them. Oh, contemplate how He presses them! Do you see Him in
Gethsemane, treading your sins to pieces? Come, and look again! There
lie the skins– the broken skins–of all your guilt. But there is no
guilt there and there are no crimes there now! They are gone, gone,
gone! He says, "I have trodden the winepress." Look back upon those
sins and weep, for they are still your sins, but, at the same time,
weep not with bitter and despairing anguish, as if you would be
punished for them, for all the black juice, the venom of your guilt, is
pressed out and has run away! Christ has caught it in His cup of gall
and drained it to its very dregs!
1 bid you look down there, for if you have eyes of faith, you will see
all your sins destroyed. Do try and look–let not the devil put his
hands before your eyes–but look! And if some dark crime, not confessed
to man, still rankles in your bosom, look, it is there! And if some
cruel injury to your neighbor, or some dire crime to your Maker, still
haunts you, look, there it is–it is trampled on just as much as the
other! Little sins and great sins, too, all are trampled to pieces, nor
could you find one of them even by diligent seeking–
"If I search to find my sins, My sins could ne'er be found." They are
there, Believer, trodden into less than nothing! They are gone, they
are all gone! "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It
is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died,
yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also makes intercession for us." Look there, Accuser, into the
winepress! Look there, Conscience, into the wine vat! Look there,
Satan! Do you see the bruised pieces of my former sins? They are all
gone! My sins have ceased to be!–
"Covered is my unrighteousness! From condemnation I am free!"
But come, Believer, and you will see, next, something in Christ's
winepress which, perhaps, you did not expect to see. There is Satan,
lying with bruised head! How often does he come to afflict you! How
terribly does he sometimes roar in your ears and tell you that Hell
must be your portion! How does he seek to keep you from your Savior's
blood! How frequently has he striven to deprive you of peace, although
God loves you! I beseech you, tell Satan this night to come with you to
the wine vat of Gethsemane, and when he looks in there, he will see
himself! Yes, take Satan and put him into the wine vat and Christ will
bruise his head again for you! But there he is, Christian! Do not fear
that he can hurt you–he may torment, but he cannot destroy you, for he
is chained! He may roar, but he cannot bite! He may frighten, but he
cannot injure you! He may startle, but he cannot devour you! He goes
about, seeking whom he may devour, but he may not devour you! He may go
about and seek as long as he likes–he will never find you, for the
Lord has said concerning you, that you never shall be destroyed!
Whenever you have a sharp conflict with Satan, tell him about the wine
vat and rejoice over him! And as Luther said, "Laugh at the devil,"
laugh at him and tell him to remember Gethsemane's wine vat. Ask him
what he thinks of that and how he likes the bruising he received there.
It was a desperate blow which he gave our Lord in Gethsemane, but it
was a heavier blow that our Lord gave him when He took away his power,
extracted his sting and left him–still an enemy, but a conquered
one–for Christ trampled him in the wine vat!
Look again, Christian! Do you see there–just between your sins and the
devil who lies bruised there–an ugly monster? He is a bony,
skeleton-looking thing. Do you recognize him? It is your last
enemy–"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Look at him!
Do you note that his skull is broken and his bones are broken, too? Do
you mark how death is now a dismantled monarch? There he lies and yet
you are afraid of him–though he lies there broken, bruised, battered,
injured, ruined, destroyed? There they are–death, the devil, and your
sins together–an infernal trio forever trampled beneath the mighty
Conqueror's feet! He said, "O Death, I will be your plagues; O Grave, I
will be your destruction." And so He was and, henceforth, to the wine
vat we will go whenever our adversaries disturb and afflict us!
What else have you to oppose you, Christian? I do not know what it is,
but it is all here. Whatever your enemy, go look into the wine vat and
see it dead there! Giant Despair took the pilgrims to a place where he
showed them the bones of certain pilgrims that he had devoured–and
told them it would assuredly be so with them. Do you, with all your
doubts and fears, just as Despair did with the pilgrims, say to them,
"Doubts and fears, do you see the bones of my old doubts and fears that
have been trampled there? In a day or two, you shall be with them."
Take today's sins and tell them that they shall be just where
yesterday's were–drowned in the blood of Jesus and slain by His
blessed Sacrifice! And when Conscience convicts you of your crimes,
take him to this winepress. It will stop any ghost of guilt if you take
it there, for it is written, "I have trodden the winepress alone." It
is done. It is finished! Sins, doubts, fears, Hell, death, destruction
and self, too–all are trodden beneath the conquering feet of Jesus,
the Wine Presser who has "trodden the winepress alone."
III. Now, Christian, come consider THE SOLITARY CONQUEROR DESCRIBED. "I
have trodden the winepress alone."
The great lesson God will teach the world is, "I am God and beside Me
there is none else." And especially in redemption, He will have it that
the glory shall be all His. Hence, Christ never allowed any to share
with Him the toil of redemption, nor will He suffer any to share the
honors of it. And, moreover, there was no one who could help Him. None
could take any part in the work of redemption since there was none able
to bear so much as an atom of that mountain of His people's guilt which
pressed upon His heart! And there were none able to drink so much as a
drop of that cup which He had to drink to the very dregs! He did it all
alone, as the fifth verse of this chapter declares–"I looked, and
there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold:
therefore My own arm brought salvation unto Me; and My fury, it upheld
Me."
Come, now, Believer, and let us look at the lonely Jesus. How lonely He
was in this world during the few short years of His ministry! I think
there never was such a lonely man, living among so many, as the Lord
Jesus Christ was. He stood in the crowd and the congregation listened
to His preaching–and though many heard with joy, there was no one who
could give such sympathy as He needed. He went to a solitary place and
talked with His disciples, but they could not sympathize with Him. John
did so a little, for he laid his head on Christ's bosom, but it was
poor sympathy that even John could give. Jesus must have been, to a
very great extent, always a most lonely Man. Who was so pure that they
could match His unsullied purity? Who so perfect, that they could abide
with Immaculate Perfection? Who so wise as to talk with the Wonderful
Counselor? Who so far-seeing as to be able to commune with the Prophet
of all the ages? Who so benevolent as to speak with the gracious
Jesus–and who so sorrowful as to be a fit companion for the "Man of
Sorrows and acquainted with grief?
His loneliness increased as His heaviest sorrows came upon Him. When He
was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He trod the winepress all alone. I
think I see our Savior, like the true Man that He was, clinging a
little to His fellows. He says, "Peter, James and John–the other eight
may go away. Judas has already gone–they may rest there, at that end
of the Garden, but you come with Me, for I am about to be exceedingly
sorrowful." He takes them with Him. Ah, but He feels that it would not
do to have them with Him while He struggles, for they would die if they
were to see His face! His was so terrible a Countenance when His body
was racked with pain and His soul was bearing the load of our guilt,
that they must inevitably have been stricken with death if they had
looked upon that face of sorrow! What heavy drops of bloody sweat
flowed from Him in His agony! Still He clung to the three disciples as
if He needed some companionship. But, oh, how sorrowful it was to Him,
when He came back, to find them all sleeping! Do you not think you see
Jesus looking on His three slumbering disciples? There they lie! He
goes to them three times, as if He sought some help from man, as if He
had hoped that they would condole with Him, for that was all they could
do in His grief.
Thrice He goes to them and the third time He says, "Rise, let us be
going: behold, he is at hand that does betray Me." Surely, nowthey will
rally round Him! They do for a moment, for Peter, with his sword,
slashes off the ear of Malchus. But soon, "All His disciples forsook
Him and fled." He is taken prisoner by the men with swords and staves.
O Earth, has He no Friend? O heavens, have you no Friend for Jesus?
Where is Peter? He said, "Though all men shall be offended because of
You, yet will I never be offended." Where is John? He has fled! There
is no one to be with Jesus. No one to help Him. They take Him before
the council, but there is no one to declare His innocence. He stands up
in the hall, but there is no one with Him. Yes, there is one–but look
at Him! He says, "I tell you, I know not the Man." Soon Peter is
cursing and swearing almost before his Master's face!
And now He goes up to Calvary and still there is no one with Him,
until, when He is hanging on the Cross, those blessed women come to
lift their sorrowful eyes up to their beloved Lord and melt their
hearts away in tears. And when the darkness gathered round, so that He
could see no one, He was alone, alone, alone, in thick, impenetrable
gloom! Hear Him cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachthani?" which is, being
interpreted, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Then He could
cry, "I am treading the winepress alone, and of the people there is
none with Me." When He was buried, nobody slept in the grave with
Him–no other arose from the same sepulcher on the Resurrection
Morning. Ah, Christian, never associate anyone with Jesus in the work
of redemption! Rather understand well that this stands forth as a great
cardinal Truth of God–that Jesus has trodden the winepress alone and,
therefore, HE IS ALL IN ALL!
IV. Now this brings us, having briefly passed over the other points, to
some SWEET AND SALUTARY CONSIDERATIONS SUGGESTED by this most blessed
and sacred subject.
The first inference is there is no winepress of Divine wrath for you, O
Believer, to tread! If Jesus trod the winepress, and trod it alone, you
shall never have to tread it. What mistakes Christians often make in
this matter! You will hear one say that such-and-such a good man was
punished for his transgressions–and I have known Believers think that
their afflictions were punishments sent from God on account of their
sins! The thing is impossible! God has punished us, who are His people,
once and for all in Christ and He will never punish us again! He cannot
do it, seeing He is a just God. Afflictions are chastisements from a
Father's hand, but they are not judicial punishments! Jesus has trodden
the winepress and He has trodden it alone, so we cannot tread it. How
often have you thought that God would make you feel the weight of some
of your sins, that He would cause you to suffer for some of your guilt!
Ah, no! Jesus says, "I have trodden the winepress," and if you had to
tread it, if you had to suffer the smallest pang of punishment for your
iniquities, Christ could no more say, "I have trodden the winepress
alone." He has done it completely and there is no punishment reserved
for you! For you there are no flames of Hell, for you no punishment,
for you no rack–you are freely acquitted, you are fully
discharged–nor can you ever again be condemned! Christ, once and for
all, has trodden your sins beneath His feet! Therefore, you never,
never can be punished for them.
What say you to this, you seekers after the Truth of God? It may be you
have heard the doctrine taught that Christ was punished for the sins of
everybody and yet that many people are punished for their own sins. You
will never find peace or comfort in that doctrine–it is so untrue, so
unjust to God, so unsafe for man! We are taught, from the Holy
Scriptures, that God has made His Son to be the Substitute for all His
people and, "has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." And not one of
"us"–the people for whom Christ was punished–can ever be, ourselves,
punished! If Jesus did endure our punishment, we stand on this broad
ground of unalterable justice, that God cannot, consistently with His
Nature, (and He can do nothing inconsistent with it), ever punish us
any more! O rejoice, Christian Brothers and Sisters, that ours is a
solid foundation! The elect–all who are united to Christ by a living
faith–have been punished in Christ and now they stand in Him, "fair as
the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners!" None
can lay anything to their charge. "There is, therefore, now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit." Glorious God, unto You be praise, unto us
be shame that we do not better love and more fully value this
inestimable Doctrine of Substitution and its necessary consequences of
complete justification!–
"Remember, Lord, that Jesus bled,
That Jesus bowed His dying head,
And sweated bloody sweat.
He bore Your wrath and curse for me
In His own body on the tree
And more than paid my debt!
Surely He has my pardon bought–
A perfect righteousness worked out.
His people to redeem–
O that His righteousness might be
By Grace imputed now to me,
As were my sins to Him!"
Another thought for you, O child of God, is this. There are winepresses
of suffering, although not of punishment, which you wiil have to tread.
But I want you to remember that you will not have to tread these
winepresses alone. Tell a little child to go down a lonely lane on a
dark night and the child says, "Mother, I don't want to go there." "I
will go with you," says the mother. "Then I will go," says the child.
"I will go anywhere with you, Mother." Ah, Christian, there are many
dark lanes for you to go down, but you will not have to go there alone!
There are many winepresses– not of God's wrath, but of His chastening
hand–for you to tread, but you will not have to tread them alone. Oh,
is not this a Truth of God that ought to ravish our hearts? We shall
never tread the winepress alone! Minister, you go to your pulpit, but
if God has sent you, you will never go alone! Your Master's feet are
behind you and your Master, Himself, stands by you! Deacons, you have
sometimes to steer the Church in troublous waters. You need great
wisdom, but there is an Arch-Deacon with you–you shall not go to your
labors alone!
Sunday school teacher, you go to your class with earnestness and you
think you teach alone. Ah, no, there is another Teacher sitting by you
who can teach better than you can! He teaches hearts, while you teach
only heads. He teaches souls, while you only teach bodies. He will
teach for you! O daughter of affliction, you who lie on your bed of
languishing, you lie not there alone! It is not an angel there that
shades your head with its pure wing, but it is Jesus who stands and
puts His pierced hand on your burning brow. Dying saint, you fear to
die, but you shall not die alone! Jesus turns Bed-Maker to each one of
His people. David says, "You will make all his bed in his sickness."–
"Jesus can make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are. While on
His breast I lean my head, And breathe my life out sweetly there."
What is your trial, Christian? "Oh, a dark one!" you say. It may be so,
but His rod and His staff shall comfort you. His right hand shall guide
you. What is your grief, Christian? "Ah, a deep one!" you say. But
"when you pass through the waters," Jesus whispers, "I will be with you
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk
through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame
kindle upon you." In the old Pilgrim's Progress I used to read in my
grandfather's house, I remember the picture of Hopeful in the river
holding Christian up–and the engraver has done it very well. Hopeful
has his arm around Christian and lifts up his hands, and says, Fear
not, Brother, I feel the bottom." That is just what Jesus does in our
trials–He puts His arm around us, points up, and says, "Fear not! The
water may be deep, but the bottom is good." And though the cold streams
of trouble rush down the river, do not fear–Christ is with you passing
through the river–you will not have to pass through it alone. He trod
the winepress for us, but we shall never have to tread it! It would be
an ill day for us, Beloved, if we had to tread it. Some of God's people
have tried to do a little for themselves and tried to do it alone, but
they have made a sorry mess of it. If we seek to do anything in our own
strength, it is all over with us! But he who lives with Jesus and begs
Him to be with him, shall find Him with him in winepresses, in
Gethsemanes, and in Gabbathas–and if it were necessary that we should
be crucified on Calvary, we would find Christ on Calvary crucified with
us! You will not, Christian, have to pass through the river without
your Master!
We remember an old tale of our boyhood, how poor Robinson Crusoe,
wrecked on a foreign island, rejoiced when he saw the print of a man's
foot. So is it with the Christian in his trouble–he shall not despair
in a desolate land because there is the footprint of Christ Jesus on
all our temptations and troubles! Go on rejoicing, Christian! You are
in an inhabited country–your Jesus is with you in all your afflictions
and in all your woes! You shall never have to tread the winepress
alone!
But, lastly, you servants of the living God, since Jesus trod the
winepress alone, I beseech you bear with me while, for my Master's
sake, I bid you give all things to Him. Alone He suffered–will you not
love Him, alone? Alone He trod the winepress–will you not serve Him?
Alone He purchased your redemption–will you not be His property and
His, alone? Oh, have you given half of yourself to the world and only
half to your Master? Did the world ever bless you? Did the world redeem
you? Was the world crucified for you? Did the world tread the winepress
for you? No! Then give not the world a portion of your heart! You have
some dear relative whom you love with all your soul, but be careful, O
Christian, that your heart is still set most on your Lord! Did that
friend tread the winepress for you? Did that friend drink the gall for
you? Did that friend suffer for you on the Cross? No! Then let Jesus
stand first and foremost. Let Him sit King upon the throne and no one
else but He. And when you daily go forth to labor, take heed that you
labor not for self, or pleasure, or any worldly object, but that you
labor for Jesus!
If the world says, "Come with me, and I will show you all manner of
delights," reply, "O world, I cannot come! I never saw your feet in the
winepress." Does lust invite you? Cry. "O lust, I cannot love you, for
you never sweat a drop of blood for me!" Yes, if all the world's
inhabitants should open wide their loving arms to beseech you to come
in and forsake your Lord, answer, "No, no! You did not tread the
winepress and that is all I care about! Jesus trod the winepress alone,
and I will give myself wholly to Him." Half-hearted Christians, you who
divide yourselves in two–giving one half to Christ and the other to
lust–you are not the Lord's! "You cannot serve God and mammon." There
can be only one Master and one Lord because there was but one Redeemer,
one Friend, one Governor, One whom we live on, for whom we would even
dare to die, because there is only One who dared to die for us. Never,
I beseech you, Christians, and I beseech myself, also, for I plead with
myself when I plead with you–never forget this–Jesus trod the
winepress alone! And always take care that you have Him alone as King
in your heart.
If you ask me, tonight, to paint Redemption, I shall have to put only
one figure in the picture. We may paint groups when we depict Creation,
for the morning stars sang together. We may paint groups when we
picture the Resurrection, for an angel rolled away the stone. But if we
paint Redemption, there can be but one figure and that figure is "the
Man Christ Jesus." So, if you would have a painting in your heart, I
bid you paint no groups upon the canvas of your soul, but ask God's
Holy Spirit to paint on it one name, one lovely Being, one adorable
Personage–Christ, who trod the winepress alone!
Queen Mary said that when she died, they would find the word, "Calais,"
written on her heart. Ah, Christian! Live so that when you die, all
will know that the name, "Jesus," is printed on your heart, for it is
certain that your name is deeply cut on His very heart and on His
hands, and on His brow–it is written in His precious blood! Give Him
not only the best place in your heart, but allyour heart! Often do you
sing–
"Prone to wander Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love–
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it,
Seal it from Your courts above!" Brothers and Sisters who will now come
into close fellowship with your Lord at His Table, may this one idea
engross your mind, that it is–
"None but Jesus, none but Jesus, Can do helpless sinners good."
And you despisers of the Cross, oh, let me tell you that you are as
grapes in the winepress! If you die ungodly, unsaved, unrighteous,
unforgiven–you must be cast into the great wine vat of the wrath of
God, hurled into Hell with myriads of your fellows, like grapes fully
ripe, cut off by the sickle of the angel–and horrible shall be the day
when Christ shall tread on you in His fury and trample upon you in His
hot displeasure! God save you from being put in the wine vat! May you
be able to cast your sins in there instead, that Christ may trample on
them!
I cannot close my sermon without recurring to the happy circumstance
that on this day, six years ago, I found deliverance, myself, from the
bondage of Egypt and rejoiced in the liberty wherewith Christ made me
free! What if my Master would, by my lips, bring another soul to
Himself! What do you say, poor Trembler? Did you hear the text of this
morning? "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth:
for I am God, and there is none else."
[In preaching from these words in the morning, Mr. Spurgeon said, "Six
years ago, today, as near as possible at this very hour of the day, I
was 'in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity,' but had
yet, by Divine Grace, been led to feel the bitterness of that bondage
and to cry out by reason of the soreness of its slavery. Seeking rest
and finding none, I stepped within the House of God and sat there,
afraid to look upward lest I should be utterly cut off, and lest His
fierce wrath should consume me. The minister rose in the pulpit, and,
as I have done this morning, read this text–'Look unto Me, and be you
saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none
else.' I looked that moment–the Grace of faith was vouchsafed to me in
the same instant! And now I think I say with truth–
'Ever since by faith I saw the stream His flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme And shall be till I die.'
I shall never forget that day while memory holds its place. Nor can I
help repeating this text whenever I remember that hour when first I
knew the Lord." [–See Sermon #50, Volume 2, Sovereignty and Salvation]
Did you hear that? Then hear it yet again. And have you looked? If not,
oh, look now! Have you looked to Him? If you have not seen Him, still
look, and you shall see Him, by-and-by. But look now! It is all He asks
you to do and even that, He bestows upon you! Look now, poor Sinner!
Look now, for Christ's sake, for your soul's sake, for Heaven's sake if
you would escape the damnation of Hell! Look and that look shall save
you! Catch but one glimpse of that dear head crowned with thorns–get
but one glance from His sweet eyes full of pity–catch but one glimpse
of that smiling countenance, or, if you cannot look so high, see but
the sole of His pierced feet and you are saved!
For it is still written, "They looked unto Him and were lightened."
"Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth."