Christ Our Peace
(No. 3386)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1913.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
JANUARY 19, 1868.
"He is our peace." Ephesians 2:14.
THE true minister of Christ is not satisfied to be long away from his
main theme. There are many things which it is very proper for him to
speak upon in your hearing. We dare not forget the Doctrines of the
Word of God, or the precepts, or the experiences of God's people. But
recognizing the claims of all these, God forbid that we should glorify
save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is the preaching of
Christ which is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Therefore,
wherever we may wander around the circumference, we always feel a
drawing in of our soul toward the center, which is "Christ in you, the
hope of Glory."
And if the preacher feels that he cannot go on long in the pulpit
without preaching up his Lord and Master, I am quite sure that all the
saints of God feel that they cannot be long content without this theme.
They must constantly have Christ. As often as the table is spread in
our homes, we need bread. We do not care to have the same meats and
drinks in the morning, at mid-day and at the evening meal. We like to
have a frequent change of food, but we always want the bread–and the
table is badly furnished, let it have what it may upon it, if there is
not there the bread which is the staff of life! So the Believer
delights in the variety of God's Word and there is no Truth which is
not precious to him. He counts the very shavings of truth to be like
the dust of diamonds. Let every particle of it be gathered up and
treasured, yes, so treasured that men may be ready to die for the
slightest fragment of a Truth of God! But still, the purest diamond,
the Koh-I-Noor of the whole, is the Doctrine of the Savior suffering
for our sins–and if we do not hear much concerning the Lamb of God, if
this is not the big bell that is rung most often, we feel that none of
the others can make up for the lack! If this silver trumpet of Jubilee
is not blown, the year is dull and dreary, and the service of God's
sanctuary becomes an empty thing. Christ, Christ, Christ! Oh, that we
may always make Him the sum and substance of our ministry and that you
may always desire Christ as the Water of Life to your souls–your
All-in-All, without whom you cannot be at rest! We come then, at this
time, to our dear theme, praying God the Holy Spirit to take of the
things of Christ and show them to us. It is His office–may He tenderly
consider us and fulfill that office in our souls–here and now!
There are only four words in the text and, therefore, four things may
suffice us for tonight. The first great word, or, at any rate, the
second greatest, is the word, "peace," and we shall think for a little
while upon that, considering–
I. IN WHAT SENSE WE ARE TO REGARD THE EXPRESSION, "HE IS OUR PEACE."
The text compels us to begin with the thought, the Lord Jesus Christ is
peace between the Jew and the Gentile. There was an old enmity between
these two, an enmity on both sides. The Jew looked down upon the
Gentile. He said, "I am of the seed of Abraham, the friend of God–ours
are the oracles, ours the true God and the Covenant–as for you
Gentiles, you are an idolatrous seed whom God has left, as He did your
father, to carry out the devices of your own hearts and to perish in
your uncircumcision." The Jew called the Gentile a dog, thought him
unclean, would have no friendly dealings with him, considered that
uncircumcised men were little better than beasts and scarcely to be
written down in the same list as the seed of Israel.
And the Gentiles, with equal earnestness and intensity, returned the
enmity, for if the Jew taunted the Gentile with uncircumcision, much
more did the Gentile ridicule the Jew because of his circumcision! The
most severe edicts, especially under the Roman Empire, were passed
against the Jews. Some of the Emperors expressed themselves as
believing them to be the most detestable of all races! One of them said
that he had seen the heathens of Sarmatia and had beheld the barbar-
ous tribes of the North, but he had seen all vices and all wickedness
outdone among the Jews! It was not true–it was a gross lie–but it
shows what was the enmity of the Gentile mind generally against the
Jew, for the fact was that in those days the Jew was looked upon as
unsocial. He never mingled with other nations. He could by no
possibility be absorbed into other tribes, but held firmly to his
nationality and would not be reckoned among the people. Hence there was
a perpetual conflict. But my Brothers and Sisters, no sooner did the
Lord Jesus Christ display the fullness of the Gospel in the Pentecostal
effusion of the Holy Spirit resting upon the Jew, than the Jew began to
preach to the Gentile! There was a little tug in Peter's heart at
first. He hardly liked it, but still, God gave him a vision and
immediately he went to preach the Gospel among those whom he had
counted to be common and unclean! As for Paul, though a Pharisee of the
Pharisees, though one of the strictest of Jews, yet he seems to have
taken naturally to preaching among the Gentiles as soon as he was
converted. He immediately went to these despised people and began to
declare unto them the unsearchable riches of Christ! Now, in Christ
Jesus, what fraternity there is, my Brothers and Sisters, between the
seed of Israel and the Gentile stock! How we all feel that we are one!
How many of the Jewish people has the Lord called! I hear it sometimes
said that He called a larger proportion of the Jews than He has of the
Gentiles, for, remember, the seed of Israel is but small, while the
Gentiles at the present time number, I suppose, a thousand millions at
least, so that a small number of Christian Jews make a large proportion
to the bulk! But wherever you meet with a converted Jew, a true
Believer, there is no more hearty lover of the Gentiles, no one more
desirous to see the Gentiles saved!
And when you meet with a genuine, converted, instructed Gentile, how
his heart goes out toward the seed of Israel and how rejoiced he is
when he hears that some of the Lord's Brothers and Sisters, according
to the flesh, are converted to the faith in the crucified Jesus! Yes,
there is now no longer enmity. It is all over. Nothing can be more
un-Christian than for a Christian to despise a Jew! Nothing is more
unlike the spirit of our Master than when you laugh at the Jew and
speak of him with contempt. Remember that the King of kings was a Jew!
The Lord Jesus Christ, Himself–whom we adore as true Deity–came in
our humanity as of the stock of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, a
Hebrew of the Hebrews. Let there always be love and concord between
us–and when the Lord shall be pleased to take the veil from Israel's
eyes–then shall be our happy time as well as theirs. The Lord send it
soon that He may be glorified.
Enough, however, upon that. The Lord Jesus Christ is our peace in a
second sense, namely, in making peace between nations. That there are
wars in the world at the present time is not the consequence of
anything that Christ has said, but of the lusts of our flesh. As I
understand the Word of God, I always rejoice to find a soldier a
Christian, but I always mourn to find a Christian a soldier, for it
seems to me that when I take up Christ Jesus, I hear one of His Laws,
"I say unto you, resist not evil. Put up your sword into its sheath; he
that takes the sword shall perish by the sword." The followers of
Christ in these days seem to me to have forgotten a great part of
Christianity. How many of you would go tomorrow into a court of law
and, if you were called upon to do it, would take an oath, whereas if
there is anything taught in Scripture, it is expressly taught that you
are not to swear at all, neither by Heaven, nor by earth, nor by any
other oath! If Christ ever delivered a plain precept, it is this–and
yet all denominations of Christians seem to have cast it to the winds,
with the exception of the Society of Friends. And so with regard to
this matter of war. Our Apostle does not mince matters when he says,
"Whence come wars? Whence come fights? Come they not from your own
lusts?" That is the top and bottom of it, but, wherever true
Christianity prevails, war becomes less frequent. It is owing to
Christianity that war is far less common–though still too
frequent–than it used to be. The length of human life has been much
increased by the prevalence of peace–and wars, devastating wars,
though, alas, they still break out–are not so constant as once they
were and we are confidently looking forward to the time when the
Messiah shall wield His blessed scepter and wars shall cease to the
ends of the earth! Then shall men–
"Hang the useless helmet high, And study war no more."
Then shall the shrill clarion of the battlefield yield to the pipe of
shepherd's plaintive melody. Then shall the weaned child play upon the
hole of the asp and the lion shall eat straw like an ox. Oh, that the
Prince of Peace would come and establish His empire upon a firm
foundation! Then could we, indeed say, "He is our peace!"
But, Brothers and Sisters, there is another meaning in the text. The
Lord Jesus is the great cause of peace between man and man. As soon as
you become a Christian, you cannot hate anybody. To be angry without a
cause is a sin to you as soon as you are a Believer in Christ! Unless
you are a fearful hypocrite, you then forgive every man his offenses
and you
continue to forgive your brethren even unto 70 times seven, once you
become the sincere disciple of Jesus. It is utterly inconsistent with
Grace in the heart to harbor malice against your fellow man. Through
our infirmity we may be, and sometimes are, quick of temper and
sharp–and this we ought to regret and mourn over–but to carry in our
soul any enmity against any man is contrary to the spirit of the Lord
Jesus Christ! Give me your hand, my Brother, my Sister, for the sake of
Him who died for us! We cannot quarrel at the foot of the Cross! We
cannot look up and see the streaming wounds and then break the King's
peace! I mean the peace that the bleeding, thorn-crowned King has made!
Especially among Christians, there must not be anything like a shadow
of division or discord. And I do pray you, as I have often done, if you
would be followers of Christ, be you as little children and lay aside
everything like enmity, hatred, variance, strife and jealousies! You
will have to live in Heaven together, I hope. Oh, live like heavenly
ones together here! You profess to have one Lord, one faith, one
Baptism. You say that you are filled with the Holy Spirit–then let no
root of bitterness springing up trouble you, lest thereby many are
defiled! May that sweet and holy dove, the Spirit of Christ, rest upon
all mankind, so that each man may see in his fellow man a Brother or a
Sister. May divisions between sects and par-ties–and especially
between nations and men of different colors–be laid aside and may we
all rejoice in one universal confraternity. May the day soon break when
there shall be true liberty the world over and fraternity established
everywhere after Christ's own model!
Still, Brothers and Sisters, these are only secondary applications of
the text. The great peace which Christ has made is between God and man.
There was war between man and his God. Man offended and loved to
offend. God would have him return and be obedient, but man would not,
for his heart was set on mischief. Man had so offended the Divine Law
that punishment was inevitable! Jesus Christ came in and bore "the
chastisement of our peace," suffering an equivalent for what His
redeemed would have suffered!
Now, God can with strictest justice pardon human transgressions.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other at the Cross of Christ.
God was merciful and yet was just in our forgiveness–and now, between
Him and those who are in Christ Jesus–there is no difference, no
division, no strife, no war! Therefore, being reconciled by His blood,
"we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord." We are brought
near by the blood of the Atonement. The chasm is bridged, the mountain
is removed! Do you enjoy this peace, my dear Hearer? Can you look up to
God, the great God, and feel that there is no alienation between
you–that what He loves, you love? That the object of His heart is the
supreme object of yours? That if there has been any idol set up,
contrary to Him, in your heart, you desire to have it thrown out? Oh,
if it is so, then bless God that He has given you Christ to be your
peace!
And then, Brothers and Sisters, there follows from this peace between
man and God peace between man and himself for man is as much at war
with himself as he is with God, and until Christ comes in, he enjoys no
rest. "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked." Some of you
know experimentally what it is to have a strife and a warfare going on
within–and you will never get a deep and settled calm until Christ
comes into the vessel of your soul and says to the winds of your fear,
and to the waves of your sins, "Peace, be still."
He that has Christ has a peace that passes all understanding! He that
has Christ has great peace and nothing shall offend him. But he that
has no Christ has no solid peace. He may say, "Peace, peace," where
there is no peace, and daub his wall with untempered mortar, but the
hail shall sweep away all his refuges of lies! And after his false
peace there shall come a terrible alarm. Oh, my Hearer, have you had
peace made between God and you by the precious blood? If so, then you
are now at rest! But if you are tossed to and fro between one thought
and another, you have nothing to rest upon! I pray you listen carefully
to what I have to say concerning the Lord Jesus, and may the Holy
Spirit bless it to you! Thus much upon that priceless gem, that blessed
word, "peace."
The next great word in the text worthy of our adoring thought is that
little one of two letters only, the pronoun "He." "He is our peace."
II. WHO IS SAID TO BE "OUR PEACE"?
What are we to understand by the Lord Jesus Christ being our peace? I
want you carefully to notice that it does not say that His work on our
behalf is the sourceof our peace. That, of course, is true, but here it
says, "He is our peace." He, personally–HE–Christ Himself, is the
peace of His people! It does not say that He makes our peace, or that
He brings us peace. That is very true, most true, but it is a greater
Truth that He, Himself, is our peace!
Now, I beseech you, Believer, to look at this Truth of God very
carefully, and you, Unbeliever, too! The unbeliever thinks that in
order to get peace, he must perform good works. But see, Man, your good
works are not your peace! If they had been, God would have said so
plainly, "Your good works shall be your peace." But not so, "He is our
peace." It is not that you are to be a peace unto yourself, nor does it
say that your repentance, or tears, or prayers can give you peace.
These are good and they are to be used, but the ground of your peace
must never be, "I have prayed. I have re-pented"–but He–He is our
peace! There are many things that you may do and that you shalldo by
the power of the Holy Spirit, but I tell you that none of these things
are to be the basis of your comfort! Your soul's fountain of crystal
comfort is to be Christ and Christ alone! He, He, He–HE is our peace!
Nothing in you, nothing you can do, nothing you can feel, but Christ,
to whom you must look or perish. He must be your peace!
Now, Believer, look this in the face. Christ is to be your peace–not
your communion with God, nor your high and holy experiences. All these
are very precious and I wish we could always be on Tabor's brow. It
were well for us if, like, Enoch, we always walked with God, but still,
our communion must never be looked upon as the ground of our peace with
God. It is Christ and Christ, alone, that is our peace! Though you
could mount as high as Gabriel and soar aloft through Heaven, as on a
wing of fire–like the swift archangel, your rapid flight must not be
your comfort, nor all the glorious service which you could render to
your God, but Christ, Christ, Christ and Christ, alone, must be your
peace. Beloved, it is all in vain for any of us to look back and try to
find peace in what we have done!
It is a very great comfort to us, in some respects, to have been called
by Grace in early youth–to have been enabled to preach the Gospel year
after year with success–and I know what it is to think of all the
souls who have been converted under my ministry. I know what it is to
remember how many times I have addressed immense crowds of people. But
I also know what it is to think, "Well, I may do all this and only be
more condemned for it! I may do all this and yet be found out to be a
miserable hypocrite, after all." Therefore, there is no abiding comfort
to be found in this. It is not our doingfor Christ, but Christ,
Himself, that is our peace! Now, some of you have been in the Sunday
School, today, and you do not feel that you have got on well with the
children. Well, I am glad if you have a passionate yearning for the
salvation of the children's souls, but do not begin to lose your hope
and confidence in Christ because you do not succeed! If you had
succeeded, you would have been very mistaken had you taken it as an
evidence of your redemption! And if you fear you have not succeeded,
have spoken in vain and spent your strength for nothing, do not be
greatly cast down by it, for your peace does not lie either in your
service, or in your success–it lies entirely in Christ!
I like the remark that was once made by a poor bricklayer who tumbled
from the top of a house. A clergyman went to see him and, as he thought
the man was dying, he said to him, "My dear Fellow, you must try to
make your peace with God." "Ah, Sir," said the man, "you do not
understand it, I can see. Make my peace with God? Why that was made for
me in the Eternal Covenant before the world began! That was made for me
on Calvary's tree of shame, when Christ laid down His life. If Christ
had not made my peace with God, I know I could not make it!"
So put all the things you have done and can do, into the scale,
Believer, and when they are all there–kick them all out again–for
they are not worth a single ounce of weight in your soul's salvation!
Christ must be there! And Christ alone!
One of the occupations of the dying saint must be the tying up of his
bad works and of his good works in one bun-dle–for they are
wonderfully much alike–and throwing them all overboard, every one of
them, and floating to Glory on the plank of Free Grace in the Person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is our peace! HE is our peace! If
Believers would always remember this, they would not be so often
depressed and distressed. Ah, I have often heard this cry, as I told
you this morning, "I do not grow in Grace as I could wish. I do not
serve my Lord as I should. I live at a great distance from Him. I am
afraid I dishonor His holy name." I like to hear that! That is all
good, very good, but then they go on with this–"I am afraid that I
shall perish, after all"–and that is all wrong, very wrong, for if the
question is put, "Do you trust in Christ?" and if the answer is that
you do, well then, if God is true, you cannotperish! If all your help
comes from Him who made Heaven and earth, and who died upon the bloody
tree for your sins, then Heaven and earth may pass away and shall, but
His promise cannot! He has given you two immutable things, wherein it
is impossible for God to lie, that you may have strong consolation if
you have fled for refuge to Christ Jesus! Do you believe in Jesus? Do
you hang upon Christ wholly and entirely? Then are you saved and God's
Word is pledged to bring you safely home at the last! Sanctification
must never be put in the place of justification–when we do so, we
shall miss sanctification, as well as jus-
tification. When Believers say, "I cannot grow in Grace as I would, and
therefore I doubt," do you see what they do? It is as though they said,
"Here is a plant that will not grow and therefore it shall not have any
water." It is impossible for any one of us–for you–to get
sanctification through doubts! Your doubting takes away the water which
alone can nourish the roots of your sanctity. If, in the teeth of all
your sins, you still believe in Christ–believe over the head of all
your shortcomings and your negligence–then your belief will breed love
and admiration! And then your love of Christ and your admiration of Him
will breed imitation–and so there will come holy living to the glory
of God! Love is the forceful mainspring of a gracious life, but doubt
makes it grow limp and feeble. Doubt snaps the string of your bow,
takes off the edge of your sword, makes you languid and powerless and
causes all your Divine Graces to flag. Therefore, keep to it,
Christian, keep to it and let not the devil, himself, drag you from it!
"He is our peace"–my peace–not myself, nor anything that is in me,
but Christ Jesus alone!
I have thus put the negative of it, but now let us take the positive.
"He is our peace." By this is meant, first, that the Person of Christ i
s our peace. He is God. I rest on Him. I have perfect peace, then, for
He is Almighty, He cannot fail me. He is inimitable–He will not leave
me. He is Truth itself–He will not belie His word.
Jesus Christ is also Man, and if Man, then He sympathizes with me,
being touched with a fellow feeling for me in my infirmities. Then with
such a heart of tenderness, He will not throw up the work of Grace, but
He will bear with my ill manners and be my "Brother born for
adversity," even to the end. So, then, the complex Person of Christ, as
God, as well as Man, is the peace of the Believer when he trusts Him.
In the next place, the perfect righteousness of Christ is another part
of our peace. In a delightful little book upon the Person of Christ by
good Mr. Bonar, he speaks about our sins as though they were so many
mud creeks–our sins of unbelief, neglect, lack of love and so on.
Well, but wherein we have failed, Christ has not failed–every duty in
which we have come short, He has fulfilled! For every sin that we
commit, you will always find an opposite virtue in Christ. Well says
Mr. Bonar, "Then Christ is the flood tide which comes up and fills all
these creeks and covers all the mire–and there is not a little creek
nor a great bay but what this tide of Christ's glorious merits fills
all!" Perhaps this thought may give you the meaning of the text, "Your
peace shall be like a river and your righteousness like the waves of
the sea"–the many waves which come up and cover all the sands and the
mire of our iniquities till God sees no sin in us, because He sees the
righteousness of Christ standing for us–and looks upon us, not as we
are separately, but as we stand in Him–and so He makes us to be
"accepted in the Beloved." Oh, Believer, if you can wrap the
righteousness of Christ around you, you can feel, then, the sweetness
of the truth of our text, "He is our peace."
Yet once more. After His person and His righteousness, there comes His
precious blood. Oh, Beloved, there is no balm for the soul like the
Cross! Sometimes I like to sing to myself, when I get a little
fluttered in my soul, that precious hymn–
"Sweet the moments, rich in blessing, Which before the Cross I spend!
Life and health, and peace possessing, From the sinner's dying Friend!
Here it is I find my Heaven, While upon the Cross I gaze. Love I much?
I'm more forgiven– I'm a miracle of Grace."
I have sometimes used this simile and will use it again. If you ride
through London, mile after mile, mile after mile, and see the great
swarms of people, you say to yourself, "I cannot make out how all these
people are fed. I cannot see how there is always a meal for these four
millions and more." But go off tomorrow morning and make a round of the
great markets–the cattle market, the meat markets, the fruit markets
and I know not what besides–and now you say, "I cannot make out where
the people can be found to eat all this! How does such a tremendous
mass of provisions of all kinds ever get consumed?"
You change your note directly. When you only looked at the people's
needs, you thought, "How can they all be supplied?" but when you look
at the supply, you say, "How can there be needs great enough for all
this?" So you look at your sins and you say, "How can there be merit
enough to put all these sins away?" But if you will but look at the Son
of
God dying on the Cross for sinners, you will change your note and you
will say, "Where could there be sinners great enough to demand such an
immense Sacrifice as the giving up of the life of the Son of God to
redeem men from their iniquities?" You must go to the Cross if you want
to have peace concerning your sins, for "He is our peace."
Further, Beloved, the ever-living Christ is always our peace. The
thought that there beats a heart in Heaven that is always loving us,
that there moves a tongue in Heaven that always pleads for us, that
there is an arm in Heaven that always fights for us and that there is a
foot in Heaven that will be swift to run for our defense–oh, this is a
precious consolation! If faith can but perceive that Jesus Christ is
within the veil at the Father's Throne, with His heart full of love
towards those who trust in Him, then will He be to us our peace!
I shall not, however, enlarge farther upon that point, though it is a
very fruitful subject. But I must say that the more you know of
Christ's Character and work, the deeper will be your peace. Ignorant
professors who do not know that Jesus Christ "is the same yesterday,
today, and forever," are sometimes afraid that the promises will not be
fulfilled. But they must be fulfilled, for He is not only full of
Grace, but of Truth! Know Christ and trust Him–and you need not be
afraid. Poverty shall not make you poor, sickness shall not make you
diseased, death shall not make you die! You shall triumph over all
these in your inmost soul and come off more than conqueror through Him
who has loved you and is your peace!
We have only as yet handled two words, but they are two big, colossal
words. "Heis our peace." But we must now speak briefly upon those two
diamond rivets which fasten Christ and peace together. So we look now
at–
III. WHOSE PEACE IS HE?
Notice that word, "our." "He is our peace." To whom, then, is this
splendid peace given? Every man that has Christ as his Savior! I have
half a mind to ask those who have trusted Christ to be their peace, to
say aloud, here and now, "He is our peace." There is a gray-headed man
here, and if he were to rise and lean on his staff, he could say, "Yes,
blessed be God, without doubt I can say that He is my peace." There is
a valiant soldier of Christ yonder, and he would declare boldly, "He is
my peace." But I daresay there is some timid Hannah here who would wipe
the tears from her face and quietly say, "Yes, He is my peace." And
there are some youngsters here, whom the Lord has but lately brought
in, and they can say, tremblingly, but yet meaning it from their inmost
souls, "He is my peace."It is all the same, whether we are old or
young, whether we are advanced in the Divine Life, or are only just in
the beginning of it–we have no other peace except the Lord Jesus
Christ!
But who are these people who have Christ to be their peace? Well, they
are those who could not get peace anywhere else, for we never come to
Christ until we are driven to Him by stormy weather. He is such a
blessed port that we might all wish to cast anchor in Him, but yet we
are such fools that we keep out at sea as long as we can–and only when
we feel our sins to be like hurricanes howling in our ears, do we fly
to Christ! Well, if you have nowhere else to go and you come to Him
with all your hunger and nakedness–and trust in Him–whether you sink
or swim, then shall He be your peace!
I cannot delay upon that, however, for our time is gone and, therefore,
I must take that other word–"is."
IV. WHEN IS HE OUR PEACE?
I know the world says, "I hope He will be my peace." Dear Hearer, do
not be satisfied with that! Never be content with "may be," but seek
after a present salvation! I was soundly enough asleep the other
morning when, about half-past three my bell rang very sharply, and then
rang again. And when I put my head out of the window to see who was
there, I heard someone say, "Oh, if you please, Sir, there is a poor
man dying, and he wants to see you badly! Do come." "Oh, yes, where
does he live? I will be there as quickly as I can." And away I went.
The dying man said to me, "I beg your pardon, Sir, for sending for you
at this time of night, but it is very hard for a man to go out of this
world and not know where he is going. Do tell me the way I may be
saved." I was glad enough to tell him about Him who is our peace, but
how I wished and wished again that he had not needed to be told about
it then! As I said to those who were round about him, "Now see, he has
enough to think of with his dying pains, without having to think of
finding a Savior now! Oh, the rest of you seek Him while you have
health and strength!" And I now say that to you! You will find other
work when you come to die without having to search for a Savior!
Besides that, what a joy it is to get Christ now–to say, "He is my
peace." Why, there are some of us who are as happy now in Christ as we
could well wish to be! We find that our religion is no misery to us. It
is not a chain, but like the wings of a bird and it helps us
to mount! We feel at perfect peace with God right now, and if Death
were to come tonight, or tomorrow, or while we are sitting here, I
trust we should not think of him as an adversary, but our Father's
servant, sent to take us into our Father's Presence! Oh, my dear
Hearers, some of you, when you come to dying, will, perhaps, have to
think, "I used to attend a Sunday school. I used to go to a place of
worship, but I gave it all up when I came to London. When I got into
business and had a family, I thought I needed Sunday for recreation,
and so I neglected my soul, and now where am I? Far off from God!" Oh,
I hope I shall not have to come and tell you in your extremity about a
Savior, but may you now receive Him! All that He asks of you is to
trust Him–and that He gives you! My poor friend said the other night,
"I cannot think, Sir. I cannot settle my thoughts." Yes, but you can
think now and, therefore, now, before the evil days come and the dark
night draws on, turn, turn! May God turn you! May effectual Grace lead
you to see my bleeding Master with His five streaming wounds, with the
crown of thorns about His brow, mocked and despised, and spit upon for
us, that we might escape the thorn and not have to be wounded with the
arrows of death, but might live through Him! May the Lord Jesus Christ
be to everyone of you your peace tonight, that you may take the text
and say, "He is now, even tonight, our peace."
God grant it for His name's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN11:27-46.
Our Lord's greatest miracles were always the reward of faith.
Verse 27. She said unto Him, Yes, Lord I believe that you are the
Christ, the Son of God, which should come unto the world.By which she
as good as said, "I believe that and I believe everything else. I have
an implicit faith in You. Whatever You say, whatever You have said or
shall say, I am prepared to believe it all, for I believe in You. I
believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into
the world."
28. And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her
sister secretly. Because she knew that the Jews hated the Savior. She
could not tell what would come of it if they knew of His coming, so she
whispers to her–
28-30. Saying, The Master is come, and calls for you. As soon as she
heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto Him. Now Jesus was not yet
come into the town, but was at that place where Martha met Him. Their
cemeteries were outside the town and probably the Savior was near the
very grave where Lazarus slept.
31-32. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted
her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out,
followed her, saying, She goes unto the grave to weep there. Then when
Mary was come where Jesus was, andsawHim, she fell down at His feet,
saying unto Him, Lord, if You had been here, my brother hadnot died.
Her thought was the same as the thought of Martha, but she did not say
as much as Martha. She never did. Martha had a dialogue with the
Savior, but Mary bowed at His feet.
33. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping
which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and
said, Where have you laid him? They said unto Him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him! And some of
them said, Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have
caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus, therefore, again
groaning in Himself came to the grave. Many have asked why Christ
groaned. Why, Brothers and Sisters, it is the way in which He gives
life–by His own death! We sometimes say of one who does a great
action, "It took so much out of him." So it did out of the Savior. He
must groan that Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus may rejoice. It is not
without the stirring of His very life that He gives life to the dead!
38-39. It was a cave and the stone lay upon it Jesus said, Take you
away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto Him,
Lord, by this time he stinks: for he has been dead four days. "It were
a pity to roll away the stone."
40-41. Jesus said unto her, Said I not unto you, that if you would
believe, you should see the Glory of God? Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes,
and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. That is grand
praying, is it not? Sometimes we ought to say, "Just so." "Father, I
thank You that You have heard me."
42-44. And I knew that You hear Me always, but because of the people
which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that You have sent Me.
And when He had thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come
forth! Andhe that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave
clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. He probably
slipped himself off from the ledge in the tomb upon which he been laid
and there he appeared before them bound so that he could not move
farther.