A Door of Hope
(No. 2750)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 27, 1901.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, IN THE
AUTUMN OF 1859.
"The Valley ofAchor as a door of hope." Hosea 2:15.
A CHRISTIAN must walk by faith, not by sight. The way to Heaven is not
one which is to be trodden by the carnal foot of the man who must see
before he can believe. It is a dark way to those who have not the eyes
of faith. It is a way through the air, utterly inaccessible to those
who have not faith's wings. It is a way upward, quite impassable to the
man who has not faith's ladder. The way through this world, under the
guardianship of God, and upward to the eternal Home of the faithful is
by faith and not by sight. Yet, nevertheless, the Lord is pleased to
humor our weakness and our frailties–albeit that we would be quite as
safe if we had to walk by faith in the dark–as we are when we walk in
the light of the supernatural inward sight of faith, still seeing a
brighter light than that which glistens around us. Yet it does please
God to give us, in this wilderness, comfortable tokens and sure
evidences by which we are enabled to understand, even by reason,
judgment and sense, that we are His reconciled people. When God
withholds the Presence of His comforting Spirit, or when the sunlight
of His Countenance is taken from us, we are, nevertheless, quite safe,
for then we are enabled to cling to Christ in the dark with the arms of
faith–but God often gives us more than is absolutely necessary– He
gives us glimpses of Heaven while here below and rich spiritual
enjoyment while we are in this otherwise barren land.
Now, on the present occasion, we have to speak not of the meal on which
faith necessarily feeds, but of a luxury, a dainty, a kind of celestial
dessert which faith feeds upon, not so much for her nourishing, as for
her delight. If the children of Israel in the wilderness had manna for
their necessities, they also had quail for their satisfaction and
delight. Now God gives us, in the Presence of His Son, the manna of
Heaven! In the finished work and spotless righteousness of Jesus, He
gives our faith its solid and substantial food. But here, in these
vineyards–in these gardens which we enter through the doors of
hope–He gives to faith its fragrant spices and its clusters of grapes
of Eshcol, which, as they come in contact with the spiritual palace,
cause faith to leap for very joy!
What is this which, in our text, is called, "a door of hope"? I think
it may be understood in four ways. There is, sometimes, a greater
embarrassment in the richness of Scripture than in is poverty. In fact,
there can be no poverty in any text. I have sometimes heard a complaint
made by one who was studying a sermon, that there was not much in the
text. I have generally to complain that there is far more in the text
than I can possibly bring out and so, in this one, there seem to be
four interpretations, each of which has a host of commentators to back
it! And, as I am incapable of judging which is the best, I will give
you all four–and you shall take your choice.
If you read attentively the history of the coming of the children of
Israel into Canaan, you will see that the Valley of Achor was the first
spot on which they settled. Just at the time when they were close to
Jericho, they pitched their tents in the Valley of Achor. It was there,
for the first time, that they ate the old corn of the land. And it was
in that plain that the manna ceased to fall because there was no
further need for it. They had entered into Canaan, itself, and this
valley was their first possession.
I. Now I take it that by the Valley of Achor, in this text, you and I
may understand OUR FIRST SPIRITUAL ENJOYMENTS.
We remember–and we can never forget–the time when we were going
through the wilderness, seeking rest and finding none. We remember
looking for some substantia1 city which had foundations, in which our
unquiet spirits might find repose. We were cheered, now and then, in
that season of conviction of sin, by heavenly manna secretly given–not
to feed us by the lips of enjoyment, but secretly given simply for our
support while we were seeking something higher, something better–even
our heavenly inheritance. We remember well how, with weary feet, we
trod the hot sand, with the scorching sun above us–and found no place
where we might rest and permanently take relief. Well do we remember
the hour when we passed through Jordan, when the Spirit of God led us
to the blood of Christ! We were brought to see His finished work upon
the Cross, His spotless righteousness in His glorious life and then,
laying hold upon Him, and believing in Him, we understood the meaning
of the Apostle's declaration, "We which have believed do enter into
rest"–we had come to Canaan–to the goodly land which flowed with milk
and honey!
And, my Brothers and Sisters, if the wilderness is still fresh in our
memory, even more so is that Valley of Achor where we did feed and lie
down. Oh, the raptures of that season when I first knew the Lord! My
lips will utterly fail to tell of the bliss of that hour when my spirit
first cast itself upon Christ. John Bunyan describes his pilgrim as
giving three leaps at the Cross, but I must claim at least 300 for my
share! How I did leap for joy of heart and lightness of spirit! My sins
were gone, buried in the sepulcher of Christ, washed away by the river
of His blood and I stood "accepted in the Beloved." Was I not like the
prodigal in that hour when his father's arms were about his neck when
the sound of music and dancing was in his ears and the fatted calf was
spread before him as a dainty feast–the token of his father's
affection? Surely, at that day, we went out with joy and were led forth
with peace! The mountains and the hills did break forth before us into
singing and all the trees of the field did clap their hands! Do you not
remember how sweet your Sabbaths were, then, how rich was every hymn,
how precious was every prayer? There was not a text of Scripture which
was not helpful to you! As for your times of seclusion, your hours of
private prayer, were they not as the days of Heaven upon earth? No
human penman can describe the heavenly rapture! No banqueting house
could equal that, except it be that heavenly banquet of which the
spouse sings so sweetly in her song of love!
"But," you say, "in what way can these early enjoyments be considered
to be a door of hope? They are like the Valley of Achor, it is true,
but how are they a door of hope?" Why, they are a door of hope to us in
the time when we are enjoying them, for then it is we can exclaim,
"Surely I am reconciled to God, or else He would not treat me thus.
Would He put His lips to my lips and kiss me with the kisses of His
love if I were not reconciled to Him? Is it possible I should feel His
arms about my neck and sit at His table, and be called His child, if I
were still His enemy and my sins were still not cancelled?" The first
transports of bliss, the first enjoyments after conversion are like
golden doors of hope to those who have just escaped from under the lash
of the Law of God and have been delivered from their sins! Surely, all
of you who are in that state can say they are doors of hope to you,
for, looking back upon your past misery, you say to yourself, "If I
were not one of His children, could I be thus? If He had not accepted
me in the Beloved, if He had not taken me to Himself forever, from
where could this rapture come, this transport, this delight?"
They are, therefore, truly doors of hope to you, in this sense, that as
when the children of Israel took possession of the Valley of Achor they
did, virtually, take possession of the whole promised land! So you may
have had some first enjoyments, which are, in truth, but an earnest of
complete and unspeakable happiness. There was an old English custom by
which a man took possession of an estate "by turf and twig." A sod of
the turf and a twig from a tree were given to him. It was a token that
the whole estate, with everything which grew upon it, was his property.
And so, when Jesus whispered into your ear and gave you the assurance
of reconciliation with the Father and fellowship with Himself, He did,
as it were, give you the whole land of promise! The richest enjoyment
of the Believer is yours! You have the foretaste and that is the pledge
that you shall yet enter into the possession of the whole! However
great the promise, however rich may be its treasure, it is all yours!
You have not yet fed upon the clusters of its vineyards, but it is all
yours because, in taking possession of your first enjoyment, you have
virtually claimed the whole. It was said of Caesar, when he landed
here, that he stumbled, but, clutching a handful of earth, he hailed it
as a happy omen, saying that in taking possession of that handful of
earth, he had taken all England for his own. And you, who on your
bended knees fell prostrate before God in that first rich treasure of
joy which came into your souls–you took possession of all the
inheritance of the saints on earth and of their inheritance in Heaven,
too!
Further, I must add that in looking back to those first enjoyments,
they are a door of hope to you, you aged ones, who can talk of those
days long gone by–and to others of us who can look back some ten,
twelve, or 20 years, when first we were quickened by the Spirit and
taught to know the Savior's preciousness. To all such, those early
enjoyments are still doors of hope. I would not have you feed on
experience long gone by–such bread may be moldy–but yet, I think,
sometimes, there is a way of storing up that old manna in the golden
pot of remembrance in such a way that it remains sweet even to this
day. I know that I have, sometimes, when doubting my interest in
Christ, been led to look back to that first season of fellowship with
Jesus and to say–
"What peaceful hours I then enjoyed! How sweet their memory still!" And
though this stale provision would not do to feed upon constantly, yet,
as an old Puritan says, "When there is nothing else in the cupboard,
this cold meat that has been left from last night must satisfy us for a
little while until we get some fresh food direct from Heaven" We may
get some new experience from past enjoyments! You see the pole men and
bargemen–they lean backwards to press forwards! Some lazy people lean
backwards and never come forward at all, but we may use our experience
as the long poles of these men are used and, as we walk backwards and
push backwards in recollection, we may be really going forward in
faith, in hope and in love!
This we may do and so these early experiences–these loves of our
espousals–these early breakfasts in the vineyard with our
Beloved–these days of early fellowship and sweet acquaintance may
become as doors of hope to our poor troubled spirits.
I have thus endeavored to explain the first meaning of the text. May
God make your early spiritual enjoyments to be doors of hope to you!
II. But, again, the Valley of Achor is declared by the Rabbis to have
been a most fertile plain. Some commentators of great judgment and
discernment declare that the Valley of Achor is identical with the
valley of Eshcol, while they are all agreed upon this point–that Achor
was one of the richest and fattest valleys of the whole promised land.
Wherever you might walk within it, there was not a single barren spot.
It was all fertile, bringing forth vines and grapes of the very richest
kind, so that the wine that came from them was noted above every other.
And, my Brothers and Sisters, may not the Valley of Achor represent to
you and me not only our early enjoyments, but THOSE VERY SWEET AND
MEMORABLE SEASONS WHICH WE HAVE HAD SINCE THEN? For Christians, though
they have long Lents, do have happy Easters! They may sometimes have
forty days of fasting, but one day of such feasting as God's children
have is quite enough to make them forget all this and go fasting more
forty days and yet not hunger! There are some days when God's children
are satisfied with fatness–and so satisfied that they have not only
all that heart could wish, but their cup runs over and they can do
nothing but sit down in astonishment, in a very repletion of
satisfaction–content to sing and so to pour out their souls in
gratitude before God! Oh, you who think that religion is a dull, dry,
dreary thing, from where did you get this idea? Perhaps you have
derived it from the Pharisee–it may be that you have acquired this
falsehood from the hypocrite–but from the real Christian, I know that
you have had very little that will lead to such a conclusion as that!
We are a tried people. We have our troubles, griefs and woes, but we
are happy people and never spoke a Prophet more truly than when he
said, "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord." We have not only
times of quiet calm and deep serenity, when our peace is like a river
and our righteousness is like the waves of the sea, but we have times
when our joy exceeds all description–when the river swells to its
utmost bank and, running over–covers the green pastures of our life
and fattens them for many a future day with its rich deposits of Divine
Grace! We have sometimes had very tempests of delight, when our leaping
spirits could scarcely stay within our body and when, in a very
transport we have said, with Paul, "Whether in the body, or out of the
body, I cannot tell: God knows." In the breaking of bread at the
Communion Table, in coming together in our frequent meetings for
prayer, in our silent meditations and in the reading of the Scriptures,
our Master has appeared to us! He has taken us by the hand and our
hearts have burned within us while He has talked with us by the way. At
such moments we have been full of Heaven and, if not actually inside
the pearly gates, we have certainly stood just this side of them and
the gates have seemed to be wide open–and nothing to divide us from
Heaven except the infirmity and weakness of our nature!
Think it not a fable I am telling you–it is a sober fact! There are
red-letter days in our diary. Some among us, who appear frequently with
mournful faces, nevertheless could tell you of days when the light of
the sun has been as the light of seven days and, as for the light of
the moon, it has been as the light of the sun to them! Their meditation
concerning Christ has been sweet and rapturous. He has taken them, as
on eagle's wings, and carried them up to the very Heaven of delight
where they have beheld Christ and have been able to say, "His left hand
is under my head, and His right hand embraces me."
These enjoyments are doors of hope. The fat Valley of Achor is a door
of hope, but in these respects you certainly will perceive it is so.
The Believer, after his joyous frames of mind, often has a season of
sadness, and then these bright experiences become doors of hope, for he
says, "I am sadly changed, but God has not. Did He manifest Himself to
me yesterday? He is just the same today as He was then." The
faithfulness of God, combined with our recollection of His kindness to
us, compels us to draw the inference that He is still good, that He is
still rich in mercy and full of loving kindness! And so the old
experiences, coupled with our belief in God's Immutability, become
doors of hope to us.
Besides, they are doors of hope in this respect, for we argue thus–Did
He once shine upon me? Then He is mine forever and He will shine upon
me again! 'Tis true, I have not seem the Sun for many days, but He did
shine once and He is shining now and I shall see Him yet again. 'Tis
true, I see no sun, nor moon, nor stars, but the sun and moon and stars
are not quenched by the tempest of our trouble–I shall see them again.
Yes, I shall behold His face in righteousness. "Why are you cast down,
O my Soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I
shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God."
Though He gives trouble, yet will He give peace. Though He kills, He
will yet make alive–the third day He will raise me up and I shall
again live in His sight!
So you see the rich enjoyments, the transports, the raptures, the
delights, the ecstasies of Believers become doors of hope to them when
many other doors are shut. Now, Believer, turn back to your experience
and see if you cannot make it be a door of hope to you. Are you now
distrustful and desponding? Then, think of "His love in times past"
and, surely, it will–
"Forbid you to think
He'll leave you at last in trouble to sink."
Turn back to your Ebenezers, those golden signposts on the road to
Heaven. Can you, Believer, sit down by the side of one of those signs
of help and then despair? Or can you remember the days of old, the
years of former times when your God sent from above and took you and
brought you up out of many waters? And do you believe that He has
brought you thus far to put you to shame? If He had intended to destroy
you, would He have shown such kindness to you as this? Would all these
banquets have been given to a foe? Would the King have brought you to
His house of wine if He had not intended to bring you in to the
marriage supper of the Lamb?
Thus may past experiences be doors of hope–but do not depend upon
them, for Christ must still come through them to you–and though it is
a door of hope, what is the good of that door if it is locked? You must
get at Christ through the door–it must be your door of consolation,
for it is through this that you are helped to find Him!
III. So far the matter has been simple enough, but now, in the third
place, the Valley of Achor, you will all recollect as a matter of
history, was the place where Achan was stoned. All the spoils of
Jericho were dedicated to the Lord, but Achan had taken a goodly
Babylonian garment and a wedge of gold, and had hidden them in his
tent. He was discovered, by God's Providence, and was brought out and
stoned to death and burned in the Valley of Achor and, therefore, it is
called by that name to this day.
Now, do you not see how this may be turned to spiritual account? THE
PLACE WHERE THE CHRISTIAN MORTIFIES HIS SIN SHALL BECOME TO HIM A
VALLEY OF HOPE. You and I have our Achans in the camp. I have
already had to stone a host of them and I lament that the evil family
is not yet cut in pieces, but there still remain some of the sons of
Achan. Would to God I could burn them all! There was a time, my
Brother, my Sister, when your Achan was so strong that you would not
give heed to that Gospel which lays the sinner low and gives all the
glory to God. But you were compelled to bring it out and you did–you
cast it out, you stoned it, you burned it with fire–and now you are to
be numbered among the humble in Zion. But this day you are still
distressed and you say, "How is it I am still afflicted? I have been
trying to do good. I can do but little for my Master. Truly, there must
still be some accursed thing in my camp."
Perhaps it may be worldliness–the common Achan of our churches.
Possibly it is covetousness–a common sin that is seldom admitted. It
is a singular thing that Francis de Sales, a noted confessor of the
Romish Church, said he had met with many who confessed to the
commission of the most abominable sins, but not one who ever confessed
covetousness. It is an Achan hard to find out, for the man who is
worldly says he is industrious! And he who is griping and who grinds
the poor and says he is only diligent in business is, doubtless,
fervent in spirit somewhere or other, but you cannot find out where it
is. Look and see whether this is your Achan. If so, bring it out and
stone it! By your contributions to the poor, drain the life-blood from
your avarice and make it turn sickly and pale–let it die and burn
it–and bury it. And if that is not the sin, seek it out, whatever it
is, and bring it out and let it die, for, depend upon it, the place of
mortification of sin is the place of the comfort of the soul! If you
will be at friendship with but one traitor, God will not give you the
comforting light of His Countenance. Bring forth the idol out of your
house! Make Rachel rise and search even the camel's furniture, lest the
idol be hidden there! Bring it out and let it be utterly destroyed
before the face of the Lord your God, for He is a jealous God and He
will not let you serve another, nor give your love unto strangers, or
else He will hedge up your way with thorns and chastise you with whips
of scorpions till He brings you back to the simplicity of your
consecration to Him.
It is a high and noble thing when a man knows how to mortify sin. The
old Romish pretended saints had a very curious way of doing this. For
instance, they mortified their bodies by not cleaning and washing
themselves and by wearing their garments till they were full of
vermin–they thus thought themselves holy! I am sorry to say we have
many such saints in our time–I wish we could find them out and spoil
them by a good bath! A thorough washing would not be discreditable to
God, while it would be exceedingly healthful to man! Moreover, we have
read of some other saints who would eat nothing during Lent but dry
bread sprinkled with ashes. They thought that while they mortified
their bodies, they pleased God–and did not understand that their lusts
and pride might be fattening while their poor bodies might be
starving–for what they lose in one way, they gain in the other, until
their souls are like Jeshurun–they wax fat and kick! It is in
mortifying our evil passions, our lustful desires, our wrong thoughts,
our intemperance, our seeking too much after the things of this world,
even our abstaining from pleasure which we think allowable in itself,
and a humbling of our pride before God–it is this which is such a
Valley of Achor as shall be a door of hope to us!
I believe many of our distresses, many of our doubts and fears, arise
from our Achans. I may be giving you the most comforting advice if I
urge you to search yourselves, and examine yourselves, and turn out the
accursed thing. Let it die! Destroy it! Seek to be conformed to the
image of Christ. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Put away
every evil thing from you and then put on, as the elect of God, a heart
of compassion, humbleness of mind–and all those things whereby the
child of God shall be adorned and beautified–and so shall the Valley
of Achor become a door of hope to you. I shall not explain how it will
be so–you will find that out for yourselves better than I can tell
you. Go and try it and you will soon discover that the mortification of
sin is the gladdening of the soul!
IV. The last interpretation is one closely connected with this. The
Valley of Achor was so called from a word which signifies TROUBLE,
doubtless because Achan there troubled Israel. "Why have you troubled
us?" asked Joshua. "The Lord shall trouble you this day." And,
therefore, they called it the Valley of Achor, that is, the valley of
trouble.
"Oh!" says one, "I am glad the valley of trouble is a door of hope."
But stop! What trouble was it? It was trouble on account of sin. There
is some trouble which is not a door of hope at all. There awe some
troubles into which men thrust themselves and they may get out of them
as best they can. Trials do not prove a man to be a Christian! There is
a way to Hell "through much tribulation," as well as a way to Heaven
through "the strait gate." We may go to Hell in the sweat of our brow.
We may go from one evil to a greater from the sparks into the midst of
the fire. The trouble here intended is trouble on account of sin–and
that valley of trouble is a door of hope.
My Friends, I speak earnestly and pointedly. There are some here
present in whose hearts the Lord has been at work. You are now in great
trouble on account of your sins. You were once peaceable and happy
enough in your own hearts. You loved the ways of sin and you little
thought of the wages that would follow. You were delighted enough to
dance your merry round with the poor foolish worldlings! But now you
are startled and amazed to discover your mistake! You find yourself to
be a lost soul. Sin follows behind you with terrible howling. You
discover that you can by no means quiet your clamorous iniquities which
have been demanding your death. You have been lately crying to God for
mercy, but the mercy has not as yet come–at least you are not
conscious of it. Your trouble has been waxing worse and worse and, as
David said, your sore runs in the night and it ceases not. You make
your very bed to swim while your tears become your meat day and night.
If any should ask you if you are a child of God, you would say,
"Certainly not–would that I were!" You are told to believe in Christ
and you say, "Oh, could I but believe! But it seems impossible that
there shall be salvation for such a sinner as I am. I am the very chief
of sinners and the worst of my case is that I do not feel this as I
ought to feel it. I am hardened and careless although I mourn my
hardness and carelessness of sin."
My Friend, I am glad to see you in trouble on account of sin, for this
trouble is a door of hope! Let me show you how it is so. It is, in the
first place, a door of hope because it shows that you are one whom
Christ invites to come to Him. Christ invites the heavy laden–you are
such an one, so come to Him! You are one for whom Jesus died, for Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Now you are consciously a sinner,
rest assured that those He came to save He will save, or else His
mission would be a frustrated one. If He came to save sinners, He will
save them and you are consciously such a one. I know you can set your
hand and seal to this declaration–
"I am surely a sinner. Then Jesus died for me!" Then let that Valley of
Achor be a door of hope to you!
"But," says one, "I feel myself to be condemned, lost and ruined." That
is the reason that you are to believe! God means you to be saved.
Martin Luther used to argue from contradictions and apparent
impossibilities. He said, "I will cut your head off with your own
sword, O Satan! You say I am condemned, but I tell you for that very
reason I shall be saved! Christ came to clothe some. He could not have
come to clothe those who were already clothed! He must have come to
clothe the naked. I am such an one–then He came to clothe me! Jesus
came to wash some. He could not have come to wash those who did not
need it, but to wash the filthy. I am filthy–therefore He came to wash
me! Christ came to forgive the sinful, to cleanse those who have many
iniquities. I am such an one and I claim, therefore, to be one of those
for whom His mission was undertaken–and that He came purposely and
expressly to save me."
"Oh," one says, "that is a very narrow door!" Is it? Well, it is such a
door as I have been content to creep through many and many a time, for
when everything else has failed me, I have been obliged to come back to
this–that if I am not a saint, I am a sinner–and I do humbly confess
it. Jesus said He came to save sinners. I know that. Then He came to
save me. I clutch the precious Truth of God and joy and peace return at
once!
Come, poor Sinner. Do you not see this to be a door of hope? It is not
the hope, but the door of it. Christ comes to you through the door of
your felt necessity and your conscious distress. If now you know
yourself to be lost, ruined and undone–if now your heart grieves on
account of its own hardness and obduracy of which you accuse
yourself–now cast yourself on Him who is "able also to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He always lives to make
intercession for them."
And, besides, there is another door of hope here. If the Lord has
brought you to feel your need of a Savior, then you are not dead in
trespasses and sins. Dead men cannot feel! Prick them with a dagger and
they start not! Blow out their very brains with a pistol and there
shall be no motion, for they cannot feel. Even though the vital part is
touched, they cannot feel the pains and agonies of death. And if you
are conscious of sin–if you are seeking the Savior–there is hope for
you. "But," one says, "I am dead in sin, notwithstanding all." Well,
now, a king's ransom for one tear that ever streamed from a dead man's
eye! Come now, I challenge you! I will give you all this world's wealth
if you will bring me some signs of the pulsations of a dead man's
heart, or the moving of dead man's lips. If you can bring them to me,
then I will give you leave to despair–but such a thing cannot be! Your
sighs, your groans, your tears, your silent prayers prove that you are
spiritually alive! From this take comfort and make the Valley of Achor
a door of hope! Let this lead you to remember that where God has begun
a good work, He will carry it on. God always begins to work in a way
that looks like undoing and not doing. When we begin to build, we first
dig out before we build up. And so God digs deep with the spade of
conviction before using the trowel of His Grace to build us up unto the
edification of His people. We must, my Brothers and Sisters, first of
all be slain before we can be made alive! First wounded before we can
be healed! No, we must be buried to self and all self-confidence before
we can be quickened to enjoy a resurrection to a new life in Christ
Jesus.
I may be speaking to one who says, "I am convinced that my affliction
is a door of hope, but the door is shut." "Ah," says another, "and my
experience is a door of hope, but I cannot open it." "And," says
another, "all my mortification of
sins should be a door of hope, certainly, but I do not find it a door
of hope to me." They are doors of hope, though not always open doors.
What is your duty if the door is shut? Your first duty is to wait till
it is open. "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait
for the salvation of the Lord." Wait on the Lord–be of good courage
and He shall strengthen your heart."
In the next place, while you are waiting at the door, worship. Wait
with many prayers. Wait with many tears. Wait with anxiety. Wait
believing that God is just and merciful. And while you are thus
waiting, and while the door is shut, let me give you another piece of
advice. Cast your eyes up to the lintel and mark well that this door of
hope is a blood-sprinkled door. Look up to that sign that the Sacrifice
has been offered and, perhaps, while you are looking upon the blood on
the lintel, the door itself will open! It is a master key–many have
found that when they have learned to spell the blood and trust in that,
then the door has opened of itself.
But, if this fails you, what should you do next? Why, knock! Knock!
"But," says one, "I have knocked." Knock again and keep on
knocking–and never cease, though you are faint. Keep the knocker in
your hand, for to him that asks, it shall be given and to him that
knocks it shall be opened. But, while you are waiting outside and
knocking, let me give you another piece of advice. Clear the door for,
perhaps, you are like Cain who was not accepted because sin was at the
door. Give up all your lusts and when you have cleared the door, then
knock again, and so continue to knock with a good clear door and surely
it shall soon open! But if it opens not, let me bid you, once more,
comfort yourself by looking through the crevices and the keyhole, for I
have known many a poor soul who, when the door has not opened, has
looked through the keyhole and has found comfort–and the door has
opened immediately. If you cannot get a whole promise, get half a
promise! If you cannot get full enjoyment of Christ, touch the hem of
His garment! And if you cannot get the children's bread, be like the
Syrophenician woman and be willing to be a little dog to eat the crumbs
which fall from the children's table. Gently creep up–look down
between the doorsill and the door itself. Peep through the keyhole and
see if you cannot find some comfort from what you see within.
But let me give you one more piece of advice–keep on knocking and
remember that there is One who has the key of that door. Who is He? The
Prince of the house of David! He opens and no man shuts! He shuts and
no man opens! Who is He? He is near you, wherever you are. If you will
believe with all your heart in the Lord Jesus and trust Him and repose
all your confidence in Him, you shall find you door open straightway!
Look not to the rusty key of reason, but to the golden key which He
carries at His belt. Look to Him, alone, and say to Him, "Lord Jesus, I
am content to stay here knocking if You do not open the door, but I
beseech You, for Your mercy's sake, to let Your poor prisoner in and
let me see the hope which You have prepared for Your children."
May it come to pass that you and I, having stood on this side of the
door, may soon be seated on the other side of it! While you are on this
side, it is a door of hope. On the other side, it is a door of
gratitude. If any of you have got inside the door, sing to the praise
of Him who opened this door and let you in–and who has given you a
feast of good things which He has prepared for all them that love Him.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS5:1-5.
Verse 1. Therefore. The Apostle Paul had the logical faculty largely
developed, so his writings are full of, "there-fores." And the
Christian religion, as a whole, stands logically connected–doctrine
with doctrine, Truth of God with Truth of God. Error is inconsistent
with itself, but the Truth of God is consistent, logical, and unerring.
"Therefore."
1. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Chris. Are you enjoying that peace, dear Friend, at this moment?
If you are, indeed, justified by faith, you are at peace with God.
Therefore know it and feel no disquietude. Draw near to God as a dear
child might to a loving father. "We have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ."
2. By whom also we have access by faith into this Grace wherein we
stand, and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God. When a man is at peace
with God, then he has the desire to draw near to Him. When he is
justified, he has the right to draw near, so that, being justified and
having peace, we have access by faith. And this is not a transient
privilege, but the Grace into which we have access is a Grace in which
we stand! We abide in it. The Lord has given us, through our justifi-
cation, a permanent standing near to Himself. "We have access by faith
into this Grace wherein we stand"–and this gives us joy–the joy of
sweet hope concerning the bright future that lies before us! "We
rejoice in hope of the Glory of
God."
3. And not only so. Whenever the Apostle begins to talk of the Lord's
bounties to His people, he abounds in the word, also, and in the
phrase, "not only so." As if he had not already said enough when he had
reminded us of the joy of hope in God's Glory, he says, "And not only
so." We have something in possession as well as something to hope
for–we have a present glory as well as glory laid up in store! "And
not only so."
3-5. But we glory in tribulations, also, knowing that tribulation works
patience and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope makes
not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. Beloved, it is a mark of great
Grace to be able to acquiesce in tribulation and to accept it with
patient resignation at the Lord's hands. But it is a sign of a still
higher state of Grace when we glory in tribulation– when we welcome it
and say, "Now, the Lord is about to elevate me to the upper class in
His school–to teach me some deeper Truths than I have learned
before–to give me a closer acquaintance with some mystery of His
Kingdom than I have previously had–to work in my heart some new Grace
which has never been there before." We also glory in tribulations
knowing that tribulation works patience. You cannot learn to swim on
dry land and you cannot learn to be patient without having something to
endure! "Tribulation works patience, and patience, experience."