A Testimony To Free and Sovereign Grace
A SERMON DELIVERED
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ON A THURSDAY EVENING.
"But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord." Psalm 37:39.
SALVATION is a blessing peculiar to the righteous. The ungodly do not,
as a rule, believe that they have any need of salvation and, therefore,
they do not desire it, or seek after it. The righteous know that they
are born in a fallen state; they acknowledge that they have destroyed
themselves by personal sin; and they are conscious of a thousand
dangers which surround them. Hence they need salvation, seek it and
find it. It is to them that salvation has come to make them righteous,
for until they are saved, they are unrighteous, even as others. But now
that salvation has come to their house, they bring forth the fruits of
righteousness to the glory of God their Savior.
This may be used as a description of the Believer's life–he lives a
life of salvation. He is saved in Christ, who is his life, in whom he
has forgiveness of sins and every other Covenant blessing. He is always
being delivered, or saved and, from the moment in which he begins as a
Believer till that last moment on earth when he shall be about to
depart out of the world unto the Father, his whole life is encompassed
within the Divine circle of salvation. God is working salvation for
him, salvation in him and salvation by him–and is giving him to
receive the fullness of salvation which he shall forever enjoy in the
world to come–
"Salvation is forever near
The souls that fear and trust the Lord.
And Grace, descending from on high,
Fresh hopes of Glory shall afford." Beloved Friends, we rejoice in that
right royal word, "salvation!" We would let its echo fly over the whole
world. To us it is a word of great meaning. It does not signify
salvation from the punishment of sin, alone, though it comprehends that
blessing and we are glad that it does so, but it means complete and
immediate salvation from the love of sin, conscious salvation from the
power of sin, growing salvation from the propensity to sin and ultimate
salvation from all tendency to sin! When we have gained full salvation,
we shall never, never again sin, but shall find ourselves before the
Throne of God as pure as that throne, made perfect by the work of the
Holy Spirit, who will have sanctified us wholly– spirit, soul and
body! Men of the world think, when we talk of salvation, that we mean
escaping from Hell. This is all they would fear and so it strikes them
as the great matter–but we are not of their mind. Being delivered from
the pains and penalties of evil is certainly a great blessing, but it
is by no means the greatest! It follows in the train of a grander
blessing, even as the blaze of the comet follows the central light. The
righteous dread sin more than Hell and, to them, wrong is more terrible
than any punishment which awaits it. The joy of salvation to us is that
we are delivered from this present evil world, delivered from the lusts
of the flesh, delivered from the old death of natural corruption,
delivered from the power of Satan and from the dominion of evil! Our
salvation will not be full till we are totally and finally delivered
from every trace of sin and are "without fault before the Throne of
God." Sanctification completed is our salvation perfected–purity
without spot will be our Paradise Regained!
"The salvation of the righteous" in the broadest sense of the word "is
of the Lord" and the more breadth of meaning we give to it, the more
completely we shall see that it must be Divine. At the same time, our
life is made up of a series of salvations and each of these is of the
Lord. We are constantly being saved–saved from this and that form of
danger and evil. As each daily trouble threatens to engulf us, we are
saved from it. As each temptation, like a dragon, threatens to swallow
us up, we are saved from it. Our God is the God of salvations and unto
Him belongs the issues from death. We
escape from deaths often, yes, and from the very belly of Hell–and
still we live to sing, as Jonah sang when he was in the depths of the
sea, "Salvation is of the Lord!"
I have said that this glorious salvation, which is of the Lord, is the
peculiar heritage of Believers. They alone know their need of it and
they alone participate in it. Look at the ungodly man who is pictured
in this Psalm. He does not want salvation. He flourishes like the green
bay tree–he spreads his branches to overshadow everybody else. Such
men need no salvation. "Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have
more than heart could wish." They want no salvation–their lands are
abundant, their house is full of treasure and they leave the rest of
their substance to their babes. They put no trust in the name of the
Lord. "They call their lands after their own names." They want no
God–they have no sighs after Him. They never cry, "As the hart pants
after the water-brooks, so pants my soul after You, O God!" They have
no trials in their lives and "there are no bands in their death: but
their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither
are they plagued like other men." The rod of God's children does not
fall upon them–"Whom the Lord loves, He chastens"–but often those
whom He loves not, He leaves to indulge in such pleasure as they can
find. He gives His swine good measure of husks, for He would not be
unkind even to them! And there they lie and feed without fear– knowing
nothing of another world, nor caring for it–
"Fools never raise their thoughts so high–
Like brutes they live, like brutes they die!
Like grass they flourish, till Your breath
Blasts them into everlasting death."
See the distinction between the righteous man who fears God and he that
fears Him not! Were it not for this word, "salvation," their ease and
prosperity might make us envy the ungodly, but this turns the scale.
Because "the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord," we would take
the worst portion that ever was meted out to them in preference to the
best that was ever given to the ungodly! Taking all for all, God's
worst is better than the devil's best and the portion of God's saints
at the lowest ebb is better than the portion of the wicked, even when
their joys are at the flood!
I am going to speak at this time upon our text as a statement by
itself. It is complete and self-contained. It is a diamond of the first
water. Its words are few, but its sense is precious. "The salvation of
the righteous is of the Lord."
I. Our first head is this–THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF SOUND DOCTRINE. 'The
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.''" There are several young
men here who go forth to preach the Gospel. I hope that they will speak
with clear knowledge and attractive speech, but this is far from being
the main object of my desire–I want them to really preach the Gospel,
the whole Gospel and nothing but the Gospel! I reckon preaching to be
Gospel preaching and sound preaching, in proportion as it is consistent
with this statement–"The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord."
It is not every preacher who proclaims this Truth of God in bold terms
and in plain English. More or less, I hope that all who preach Christ
Crucified would subscribe to this. But some are a little afraid of it
in all its breadth and length. They must bring in man a little. They
must have him something, or some thing. They are always afraid lest
Grace should be misunderstood and should be turned into licentiousness
and, truly, I share in their fear, though I would not use their way of
preventing the evil which I dread.
I have known some of these timorous ones try to say, "Free Grace," but
they have had a little impediment in their speech and the words have
come out, "free will." They have meant that it should be all of Grace,
but by some means or other there has been so much hesitancy and such a
deal of fencing, that one could hardly tell Grace from works! There
will be no hesitancy on my part when I say that "the salvation of the
righteous is of the Lord"–neither will you find me guarding the
statement as if I thought it a lump of spiritual dynamite which might
do infinite damage!
"The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord" in the planning. Long
before we were in existence, God had planned the way of salvation.
Before the Fall He had ordained the Covenant by which the fallen should
be restored and that plan shows, in every line of it, that consummate
wisdom and infinite love which can be found nowhere but in the Lord. He
took counsel with no one and no one instructed Him–He alone fixed the
eternal settlements of unchanging love!
"The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord" as to the persons who
are included in it, for God has chosen from the beginning, His people
and, "whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed
unto the image of His Son." There is a choice, somewhere, and I am
persuaded we have not chosen Him, but He has chosen us. Did not the
Lord Jesus say as much? He is first and foremost in salvation and
though we gladly run when He calls, yet His call comes first
and His choice comes before the call! The salvation of the righteous
was determined in the council chambers of eternity before the stars
began to shine. It is of God and only of God!
And as it is of the Lord in the planning, so it is of the Lord in the
providing. It was He who gave His Son from His bosom and truly our Lord
Jesus Christ is the full purchase -price of our salvation. We do not
add a penny to it. The mortgage upon lost humanity was paid off by
Christ to the last farthing, without any contribution on our part to
eke out the matchless price.
The Spirit of God, who is another great item in the provision of
salvation, is of the Lord. God has given us the Spirit. The Holy Spirit
comes, not according to our mind or will, but according to the gift and
purpose of the Lord. Nothing is lacking for the salvation of men. God
has provided all. He has not left the garment almost long enough, just
needing that we should add a fringe. Nor has He provided a feast almost
sufficient for us if we bring at least another loaf. Nor has He built a
house of mercy, almost completed, but leaving us to add a few more
tiles to the roof. No, the work is finished and, from top to bottom,
salvation is of the Lord! All Covenant provisions are already in the
Lord Jesus in full and the salvation of the righteous is entirely of
the Lord in the providing!
So, dear Friends, it is of the Lord in the applying. The first
application of the blessings of the Covenant to us is of God. Of course
that first application is in regeneration, when the soul first begins
to live. The first sense of need of mercy springs not from nature, but
is a work of Grace. The first desire we have to be right–the first
prayer we breathe towards God–all this is the movement of eternal
Grace upon our souls which otherwise would have lain as dead as the
corpses in their graves! The Lord first deals with us before we have
any inclination whatever to deal with Him. We do not see this Truth of
God at first. Possibly we discover it months after our conversion, when
we come to sit down and look over our experience. Then we cry, "Yes!
Had You not sought me, I had never sought You! Had You not drawn me, I
had never run to You! Had You never looked on me in love, I had never
looked to You in faith! It is Your Free Grace which began with me. I
acknowledge that the Alpha of my salvation is of the Lord." The
knowledge of this Truth of God usually comes to us as we advance in
knowledge–the full understanding of it is a fruit of the Spirit and
belongs to our riper years rather than to our spiritual infancy.
As salvation is of the Lord at the commencement, so it is as to the
continuing of it. Rest assured, Beloved, there is no true growth in
Grace except that which is of the Lord. No, there is no sustaining the
position to which you have reached except by the Lord–
"Andevery virtue wepossess, And every victory won, And every thought of
holiness Are His and His alone."
He has worked all our works in us and if we have produced any fruit to
the honor of His name, from Him has our fruit come, for our Lord truly
said, "Without me You can do nothing." We must give Him all the glory,
for certainly He has given us all the Grace and as it has been, so will
it be. Between here and Heaven there will be nothing of our own in the
matter. We shall work out our own salvation with fear and trembling
because He first works it in us to will and to do of His own good
pleasure. There is no working out our salvation unless the Lord works
it in! We bring to the surface of our life what He works in the deep
foundation of our inward nature, but both within and without the
spiritual life is all of Grace. When we put our foot upon the threshold
of Glory and pass through the gate of pearl to the golden pavement of
the heavenly city, the last step will be as much taken through the
Grace of God as was the first step when we turned unto our great Father
in our rags and misery! Left by the Grace of God for a single moment,
we would perish. We are dependent as much upon Grace for spiritual life
as we are upon the air we breathe for this natural life. Take the
atmosphere from us–put us under an exhausted receiver–and we die.
Take Your Grace from us, O our God, and we perish at once! What else
could happen to us?
Brothers, we must always believe this and preach it, for it is the sum
of all true doctrine. If you do not make salvation to be wholly of the
Lord, depend upon it, you will have to clip salvation down and make it
a small matter. I have always desired to preach a great salvation and I
do not think that any other is worth preaching. If salvation is of man,
then you do not wonder that man falls from Grace. Of course he does!
What man begins, man also soon ends in his own way with a failure! When
God saves, He saves eternally. Someone said to me the other day, "I do
not quite know about that doctrine of Final Perseverance, whether it is
true or not." So I said to him, "What kind of life does Jesus Christ
give His sheep?"
He answered very correctly–"He has said, 'I give unto My sheep eternal
life.'" Very well, does not that settle it? If He has given them
eternal life, they have eternal life.
"But," he said, "might they not die?" I answered, "Is it not clear that
those who die have not eternal life? If they had eternal life, how
could they die? Does eternal life mean six months' life?" "No." "Does
it only mean 600 years' life?" "No. It must mean nothing less than life
which has no end." Death is out of the question. I must live if I am
one of those of whom the Great Shepherd says, "I give unto My sheep
eternal life." But what is next? If you cannot quite see the Truth of
God from that one expression, what follows? Will the sheep of Christ
ever perish? Here is His answer. "They shall never perish." Does not
that secure them? What language could better describe their security?
But another question is raised–"May it not mean that, if they get away
from the Lord Jesus, they shall perish?" Then comes the next sentence–
"Neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." Does not that answer it?
"Oh, but perhaps the Savior might fail!" We think not! But listen
again–"My Father, which gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no
man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand."
There are four great reasons why Believers are and must be saved!
Neither can anything shake the force of any one of them. If words mean
anything, those who are in Christ are safe! The Lord God Almighty has
given them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of Christ's hand and over that first hand of Jesus is
the Father's hand to make assurance doubly sure!
Salvation, then, is of the Lord. This is a doctrine to be believed. If
you do not believe it, you are sure to minimize and make small
salvation and especially are you likely to deprive it of its certainty
and immutability. It is a pity that you should attempt this, for thus
you rob Christ of His power, God of His glory and the saints of their
comfort! That is the awkward point about a salvation which is of
man–it is worth nothing when you get it. We need an eternal salvation.
We need a salvation which does really save. We need something which is
not made up of, "ifs and ans," and, "buts," and, "perhapses," and,
"maybe," and, "if you do this," and, "if you do that." We need sure,
immutable, abiding, unchanging salvation–and this is exactly what we
get and what we are not ashamed to preach, while we thunder out this
Truth of God, "The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord!"–
"'Allof Grace'–from base to summit, Grace on every course and stone.
Grace in planning, rearing, crowning, Sovereign Grace, and Grace
alone!"
II. Secondly, this is not only the essence of sound doctrine, but THIS
IS A NECESSARY FACT. "The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord."
Assuredly it must be so, or else they will never be saved. Look for a
moment, you that love the Lord, to your own inward conflicts. Beloved,
we are not all alike, tossed to and fro with the uprising of inbred
sin, but there are times with most of God's saints when they are hard
put to it to withstand a certain raging temptation–they have to
struggle hard to keep it down. And when they have mastered that evil,
another form of sin comes on the sly and attempts to stab them in the
back. You were giving all your attention to one insidious foe and at
that terrible moment you were set upon by another! And you had to turn
round and bend all your strength in the name of God to resist this
second adversary. Nor was this all, a third evil bent its bow against
you and a fourth prepared a net for your feet! Thus you were beset
behind and before–and had it not been that the Lord was on your side,
you would have been quickly swallowed up! Some of us know the truth of
this in our experience if the rest of you do not.
Salvation must be of the Lord with me, I know, or else my inward lusts,
my proud spirit, my rebellious will and my natural despondency will
surely ruin me! Do you not feel it to be so with you? If God does not
save you, you are a lost man. You must feel that. I know that those who
have no conflicts sing another song and praise themselves. Your
carpet-knights who wear the regimentals of Christianity, but know
nothing of battle with inbred sin, may talk about salvation by self,
but he that is hard put to it to wrestle against all wrong-doing will
tell another tale! He who grieves if he even utters a rash word, or
allows an impure thought to cross his mind feels that if God does not
save him, saved he never can be! And he sees it to be a necessary fact
that the salvation of the righteous must be of the Lord.
When you have looked within a sufficient time to convince you, just
look at your outward temptations. Ah, we little know what many of our
Brothers and Sisters have to endure in the form of temptation in their
own houses from their own friends. Many have a very hard fight of it. I
know some now present who will, I believe, persevere and hold on to the
end, but almost every day they endure a martyrdom. Cruel words are
spoken and unkind actions are done against them.
And a bitter spirit is shown towards them because they are the people
of God. Salvation must be of the Lord to these poor persecuted ones, or
they will faint under their oppressions! Outside in the world, what
temptations abound! You cannot engage in any business without finding
that it has its peculiar sins. Many things are done in the trade–many
matters established by custom–which the scrupulously upright child of
God cannot tolerate. He has to set his face against the general habit
and, therefore, he has a battle. Need I go into particulars? Why,
Brothers and Sisters, we are surrounded with snares! They are on the
table–you may readily sin there. They are in your secret chamber–you
are tempted there. They are in the counting-house and on the study
table. You cannot sit down to read a book without being in danger. You
cannot go among the crowd without risk. Depend upon it, if any man is
saved in the midst of this wicked and ungodly generation in which the
very air smells of corruption and the common talk is polluting–his
salvation will be evidently of the Lord! If any Believer remains
steadfast in this day of philosophic doubt, verily, I say unto you, his
salvation must be of the Lord. He cannot go through this Vanity Fair.
He cannot pass through this horrible slough, this Stygian bog of modern
society and be pure in heart, lips and life unless God shall grant him
His salvation!
Besides that, our salvation will certainly be of the Lord, because the
world hates us. It cannot help it. If you are a genuine Christian, the
world will not love you. There may be natural traits of kindness and
goodness about you which even the outside world may respect, but in
proportion as you are definitely and thoroughly a Christian, you will
have the dogs at you. Worldlings will see a little flaw in your
character and they will report it and magnify it. Some of us cannot do
anything but we are misrepresented so that we have become unmindful of
what people say about us, so long as we know in our own conscience that
we are clear. The act which we have done with the most transparent
sincerity has been the very one which they have set upon as though it
were a piece of trickery! Blessed be God, the world is crucified to us
and we are crucified unto the world! But if we are to escape its
venom–especially those who stand in the front of the battle–if we are
to hold on to the end with a stainless character, then we shall have to
say and sing, "The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord."
We know, dear Friends, that it must be so. It is a necessary fact, even
if we only look at the contrary view. What professions some make and
how long they keep them up! We have said of such-and-such a man, "If he
is not a child of God, who is?" We have even wished that our soul were
in his soul's place when we have heard him pray and marked the
impressive devotion of his demeanor. And yet we have lived to see the
very person we admired rolling in filth, character gone and hope gone!
This happens in the Church sadly too often. Whenever we see it, we may
truly feel that "the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord." If
ever you see a Christian man, professedly so, suddenly disappear and
melt away, you will say to yourself, "Ah, had it not been for Divine
Grace, it would have happened just the same to me and my fellow
professors, too." We should have gone out, like the snuff of a candle,
if God had not preserved us and kept us alight. The older we grow in
the Divine Life and the more earnestly we seek to exhibit the character
of a Christian, the more we shall feel that if we had to go to this
warfare at our own expense, it would be better for us that we had never
been born! The life of many modern professors might be lived without
supernatural help, but the life of a genuine Christian is a perpetual
miracle which could be worked by none but the Lord God! True Christian
life is produced by God, Himself, working mightily, even as when He
made the world, or raised His only-begotten Son from the dead! I say
that this is a necessary fact, for there can be no salvation but that
which is of the Lord.
III. In the third place, our text being true, that "the salvation of
the righteous is of the Lord," THIS IS A SWEET CONSOLATION, for if my
salvation is of the Lord, then I shall be saved! If it had been of
anybody else, I would be lost. Ah, Gabriel, if my salvation had to be
accomplished by you and all your fellow angels, I would despair! Ah, my
Brothers and Sisters, if all of you put together were sent into this
world to try and help poor me to Heaven, you would never get me there!
I would wear you all out! When it is written, "Salvation is of the
Lord," I am comforted, for I am sure that the Lord will do it. He can,
for He is Omnipotent. He will, for He has promised to do it–and He is
true and unchangeable! He will go through with what He has begun. If
man began, he might leave off before he had finished for lack of stores
to go on with it, or because he had made a mistake and changed his
fickle mind. But when God begins, as surely as ever He opens the war,
He will push on till He has won the victory. As surely as He lays the
first stone, He will not withdraw His right hand till He has brought
forth the top stone, with shouts of, "Grace, Grace unto it!" "The
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord"–therefore it will be
accomplished. Not all the temptations of life, nor all the terrors of
death, nor
all the furies of Hell shall prevent any soul upon whom God has begun
His work of Grace from reaching eternal salvation! What a blessing is
this and what a comfort it is!–
"Things future, nor things that are now, Not all things below nor
above, Can make Him His purpose forego, Or sever my soul from His
love."
This grand fact comforts us partly by leading us to believe in prayer.
If the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, then, whenever we get
into any great trouble, we go to Him and cry, "O Lord, my salvation is
of You! I have come to You for it." When strong temptation seems to
catch us, like birds in a net, and we cannot break loose, then we cry,
"O God, salvation is of You alone! Help me. You can. I look to You for
it!" When our soul lies dead, as it sometimes does, like this heavy
weather–when there is little sun to brighten us, or air to enliven
us–we feel inactive and cannot stir. Oh, then it is most blessed in
prayer to feel "all my fresh springs are in You, my Lord! You can
quicken me! You can give me vigor, force of character and energy to do
Your work, or suffer Your will!" In drawing near to God, we are coming
to the right place–we are only asking God to do what He undertakes to
do, since, "the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord."
This, in addition to increasing our hope in prayer, urges us at all
times to look out of ourselves to God. "The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord." Then I must not be always searching within my own
heart to find some good thing within me. I must not be turning over
evidences and living upon past experiences, but I must remember that
salvation, even of the righteous, is of the Lord. I have often thrown
all my evidences overboard–every one of them. I have felt that I would
not give a farthing for the whole lot put together and I have gone to
Christ Jesus just as I went at first, singing my old ditty–
"I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my All in
All."
We are encouraged to do this by the fact that salvation is of the Lord.
Go again to the Cross and read your pardon there. Suppose the devil
tells you, or suppose it even to be true, that all your experience is a
fiction, all your past profession a lie, all your faith presumption,
all your enjoyments delirium, all that you have known and felt a
daydream? Well, then, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners
and He can save you! O my Lord, I can boast nothing whatever of myself,
but I come and cast myself on You! You have said, "He that comes to Me
I will in no wise cast out"! Frequent beginnings are the very safest
things. In fact, we should, in a sense, be always beginning, for the
spiritual life begins with coming to Jesus and the continuance of that
spiritual life is described thus–"To whom coming as unto a living
stone." To whom coming, always coming–always trusting, always looking
out of self, always looking to Christ!
When evidences are bright, you know where you are, but at such a time
you could tell that without them. It is easy to tell the time of day by
a sundial, but then the sun must be shining. And when I am at home and
can see the sun, I know whereabouts the sun is at 12 o'clock and,
therefore, I do not need the sundial to tell me the time. Evidences are
exceedingly good things when you do not need them, but they are of very
little use when you do. Evidences are clear when Christ is present, but
when Christ is present you do not need their help! But when Christ is
not present, evidences fail to comfort you. It is better to live by a
daily faith upon Christ than to live upon evidences. They most readily
turn moldy and then they are most unwholesome food. Live upon Christ
who is the daily manna and you will live well!
You will be driven to such a life by the force of this blessed Truth of
God, that the salvation of the righteous, just as much as the salvation
of the wicked, is of the Lord! A sinner cannot be saved by himself and
neither can a righteous man. A sinner must look to the Lord for
salvation and so must a righteous man. We are on the same footing
here–the rich saint as well as the poor sinner. Christ must be
everything to one as well as to the other–and what a blessed thing it
is that He is everything to us! Let us hourly make Him so.
IV. Fourthly, and very briefly, THIS DOCTRINE IS A REASON FOR HUMILITY.
"The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord'" Are you saved, my dear Brother or Sister? And do you
know it? Then all idea of pride must vanish, for it is clear that you
did not save yourself. That regeneration, of which you are a partaker,
is the free gift of God to an undeserving one–a work of Grace upon one
who could not have worked it upon himself. Pride is excluded! Has the
Lord granted you such a salvation that you have remained fast in your
integrity all these years? Do not be proud of it, for your salvation
from any gross outward sin has been of the Lord! It is none of your
doing. Above all, do not begin to censure
others! And when you see a poor Brother down–yes, when you see a child
of God who has erred and grossly sinned, do not begin censuring him in
bitterness and giving him over to despair. If you had been in his case,
you might have done worse.
Do I speak harshly? Any man who says, "If I had been in that Brother's
place I would have done better," is a fool! He does not know himself.
The probabilities are that he would have done worse. Ah, Sir Pharisee!
You–yes, oh yes, you are a wonder! Marvelous is your purity!
Splendidly you act! What a paragon you are! If you were to see yourself
in God's light, you would see that You are a mass of corruption,
smelling of pride! That is what you are. The man who begins to exult
over his fallen brother is the likeliest man to fall, himself. He who
points at a tear in his Brother's garment is in rags himself. If we
have stood fast amid temptation, we may bless God that we have done so,
but we must not find fault with others as though there was some good
thing in ourselves. The salvation of the most righteous man that ever
lived is of the Lord! If his sun has not been eclipsed–if his moon has
not been turned into darkness–if his stars have not fallen like
withered leaves from the tree, it is all owing to the Grace of God and
the Grace of God alone! It is necessary to say this to keep us from
being lifted up with foolish boasting.
So, dear Friends, we shall have to sing to a grave, sweet melody as
long as we are here, whenever we touch a matter that concerns
ourselves. When we get to Heaven, we shall see, then, much more than we
do tonight that salvation is of the Lord. Mr. Bunyan represents his
Pilgrim as going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death–and even
while he was in the darkness and horror of that defile place, he knew
that he needed the Lord to help him. He felt that he had a terrible
walk of it that night, when there was a bog on this side and a quagmire
on that–and hobgoblins and all sorts of horrid creatures all
around–he knew that he needed Divine aid. He held on his way, with his
sword in his hand and, grasping the weapon of All-Prayer, till at last
he left that horrible place. And then he knew better than before how
great was his necessity. He looked back when the morning rose and till
then he had not fully known what a place he had been travers-ing–and
how great was the power which upheld him in his night march! When we
get to Heaven and look back upon our life below, we shall then see the
wonders of delivering Grace which at this time we do not fully
appreciate–
"When I stand before the Throne Dressed in beauty not my own. When I
see You as You are, Love You with unsinningheart. Then, Lord, shall I
fully know– But not till then–how much I owe."
I believe that in the day of our full deliverance we shall lift up,
every one of us, such a song of praise as we are not capable of here.
We shall sing with all our powers of heart and tongue at the sight of
what we have been delivered from. Even then this will be the sum and
substance of the song–"Salvation is of the Lord!" He has worked it all
and brought us safely through. The hymn of Miriam and of all the
children of Israel at the Red Sea, when they had passed through it and
all the Egyptians were drowned, was a very exultant song. But what will
ours be when the gates of Hell shall have been overthrown, all our
enemies destroyed and we shall find ourselves before the Eternal
Throne, saved forever? Shall we not exclaim, "Sing unto the Lord, for
He has triumphed gloriously"?
Shall we not, each one, tell out his own experience and bid our fellow
Believers sing yet more and more rapturously unto the God of salvation?
Will not some of you take up that note which Miriam dwelt upon when she
could not see a single Egyptian? Pharaoh's chariots and horses were all
sunk in the sea! His chosen captains were also drowned in the Red Sea
and so she struck her timbrel and with all the maidens she danced right
joyously as she sang, "The depths have covered them. There is not one,
not one, not one of them left." Thus will we sing in Heaven. "There is
not one, not one of them left! Not one of all the sins, all the trials,
all the temptations and all the vexations of life–the Lord has removed
them all! There is not one of them left! Salvation is of the Lord."
V. I close with one more remark and it is this–this text GIVES US A
COMFORTABLE GROUND OF HOPE.
"The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord." Then I believe He will
save me. I trust myself with Him and thus I become righteous by faith
and, therefore, He will save me from my trouble and care. Brother, draw
the same conclusion. Sister, draw the same conclusion. You are in a
terrible condition just now. Everything has been going wrong. You do
not know what to do. But "the salvation of the righteous is of the
Lord." He will bring you through. You are in good hands. The Great
Pilot knows the navigation of the river of life better than you do. You
cannot see a channel for your boat–there
are snags everywhere, or quicksand, or rocks, or shallows. He knows all
about them. Rest. Trust. Wait. Commit your way unto the Lord. There is
personal comfort in the fact that our salvation is of the Lord.
And there is comfort, next, with regard to all our tried Brothers and
Sisters. It is my lot–my happy or unhappy lot–to be continually
consulted by Brothers and Sisters in great trouble. They think I can
help them, though I cannot. I hardly know what to say to them. I can
only take their burden with my own unto the Lord. I often feel great
pain in sympathizing with trials which I cannot remove, but then it is
cheering to know that the Lord can help where we cannot, for "the
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord." He can help the helpless,
the forlorn, the impoverished, the dying. He will bring His people
safely through floods and fires. Their straits are very great and their
burdens very heavy, but the Lord will put underneath them the
everlasting arms. Pray for them; sympathize with them; help them as far
as you can and then, when you cast yourself on your Lord, cast them,
also!
Next, this ought to give us hope about seekers. I see some Brothers and
Sisters before me whose lives are spent in trying to encourage poor
erring souls to return unto the Lord. Sometimes you are balked and
defeated. Well, "the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord."
Surely, if the salvation of the righteous is to come from the Lord,
much more must the salvation of poor seekers! Have hope about the
vilest and worst of men. If there are any such here, tonight, let them
have hope, for if the Lord bids the righteous, in whom there is a
measure of His Grace, to look to Him for salvation, assuredly He bids
you to do the same, for you have nothing of your own. If those who are
righteous before God yet find their salvation in Him, alone, where are
you to look? You must look to the Lord, also! Look to Jesus on the
Cross and find salvation in Him, for the Lord Jesus redeemed with His
precious blood all who trust in Him.
O my dear Hearer, come and cast yourself upon Him! "In due time Christ
died for the ungodly." So runs the Word of God. Look to that wondrous
death of the Son of God which redeems such as you are and, in your
case, too, it shall be found that your salvation is of the Lord! May
God bless you and cause you to rejoice in His salvation!