Assurance Sought
(No. 3546)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1917.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." Psalm 35:3.
DAVID knew where to run to for shelter in his hour of difficulty. Many
were there that opposed him. He had been much slandered. His course was
rough. So, after spreading his case before the Lord, as Hezekiah did
Rabshakeh's blasphemous letter, he turns to the Most High and he cries
to Him for succor with one request, as if this would suffice to relieve
him from all his troubles–"Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." He
thus invokes God to give him a word from His own mouth, to take the
buckler and the sword in his defense, and to be his Champion. "Oh, my
God, speak to my soul some assuring word and it shall be enough for
me!" It is a sign of adoption, a mark of the residence of the Spirit of
God within us, if in our times of trouble we fly to our God! Soul, can
you find any difficulty in doing so? Is this not one of your spiritual
instincts? Then, be afraid lest you are an alien, and no true-born
child, for the true-born child seeks its Father's face, cries out for
its Father's notice and creeps into its Father's bosom!
This short prayer I commend to everyone present–to saint and sinner,
to the young and the old, to those who are assured and to those who are
doubtful–"Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." It appears to me to
imply certain doctrines, to express certain desires, and to suggest
certain practical lessons upon which we may profitably meditate.
I. "SAY UNTO MY SOUL, I AM YOUR SALVATION."
Is it not very clear on the surface of the text that we need salvation?
Salvation is the great necessity of the human race. We need to be saved
from the consequences of the Fall, from the results of our own
transgressions, from the penalties due to our guilt, the indwelling
power of sin and the domination of our corrupt nature. You all know
this by the witness of conscience. Therefore I need not argue or
attempt to prove it. The main question is whether we know it
experimentally, for it is one thing to know the letter, but quite
another thing to know the spirit–one thing to know a matter with the
head–and another thing to be affected by it in a lively manner in the
soul. Answer me, then, have you learned experimentally that you need to
be saved? Did you ever see your past sins in their true color? Did you
ever behold what a future sin opens up before you, till you did start
back alarmed and terror-stricken? Have you perceived that you need just
such a salvation as Christ came to bring? Truly we never seek it till
we see we need it! We are usually driven into the Port of Grace by a
storm. It is not often that we fly to Christ if there is any other door
open. In the sore straits of poverty, we have to cry to Him for
sustenance. When we are sick we resort to Him for health and cure.
Moreover, Beloved, we continue to require a continuous salvation. It is
well for the Christian to remember that in a certain sense he, too,
needs to be saved–not from Hell, for we are saved from that–nor from
the guilt of our sins, for, thank God, that is purged by the blood once
shed for our remission. But we need to be saved every day from the
temptations that assail our souls, from the trials that beset our path,
from the corruptions of our nature. Mr. Whitefield said he hoped he was
converted, but conversion was a thing to take place every day–not
regeneration, mark you–that is once and for all. But conversion,
"Why," he said, "I need to be converted from lying too late in bed in
the morning, and converted from idleness all the day long." So do we!
There is something or other we need to be converted from, some wrong
thing that we need to be saved from–and until we get within the gates
of pearl we shall still have need to cry for salvation from some evil
that harasses us! Salvation by blood we have–salvation by the might
and power of the Holy Spirit, who is to conquer and to destroy all our
dire iniquity and innate depravity–we still need! Do we feel that we
need it? Believer, do you feel that you need it? Beware of getting
spiritually rich in yourself! Nothing is so near akin to soul-poverty
as this! Beware of thinking that you are increased in goods. You are
near to bankruptcy when you thus make account of your possessions. I
counsel you, therefore, to still bow your knee and cry unto the great
Savior, "Lord, save me, or I perish!" That prayer should never be in
advance of the most advanced Christian!
Another Doctrine lies on the surface of the text. His own personal
salvation should be the matter of a man's highest thoughts and greatest
earnestness. "Say unto my soul, I am your salvation," should be the
uppermost and the uttermost cry of your heart. Ask not the Lord to make
you rich–you may well reckon that this would involve too high a
position and too heavy a responsibility for you to bear with
equanimity. Seek not a pinnacle from which you might be in peril of
falling. Did you ask to be learned in all the knowledge and languages
of the ancients? You might miss the road to Heaven, for oftentimes the
shepherds are guided to the place where the Holy Child is, while the
wise men miss their way, going to Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem! I
will not crave the Lord to give me food for my vanity, or good fortune
for my wishes, or anything beside for which my passions yearn, but,
"Lord, give me salvation!" This is a gift I must have. It is essential
to my instant and my endless welfare! Let not Your servant be put off
with any inferior blessing. If You please to keep me poor on a scanty
pittance, or bid me toil hard for slender wages, so let it be. Yet deny
me not a draught from the upper springs! Give me the heritage of Your
chosen. Grant me Your salvation!
Salvation! Oh, salvation! This should be the chief, the insatiable
longing of each man's spirit! Alas, for the ignorance and callousness
that can trifle with salvation as though it were a matter of no
immediate concern. Are you mad enough to imagine that whether you have
an interest in Christ or not, is a question that may be solved in a few
minutes in a fearful emergency upon a dying bed? Ah, it is not so!
Wisdom should urge us, or peril should drive us to seek shelter from a
calamity that would leave us a total wreck! Nothing lies so near to our
interest and our happiness–nothing, therefore, should press so closely
on our hearts as to be in Christ and be made, through Him, partakers of
everlasting life! Dear Hearer, this question, then, I press upon you.
Be pleased to answer it. Have you been led by the Spirit of God to see
to this, your first concern? Are you saved? Or are you anxious to be
saved with an anxiety that will not rest or abate? Are you striving and
struggling in your heart to find the Savior, without whom you are
utterly lost, ruined and undone? Unless God' s Holy Spirit clothes it
with power, preaching reaches no farther than the ears! Oh, that He
would speak to your souls! With what energy you would then be filled!
A third Doctrine is couched in these words. Salvation, if it is worth
the having, must come entirely from the Lord, Himself. "Say unto my
soul, I am your salvation." The eyes of the suppliant here is evidently
turned to God alone, and rightly so, for salvation comes not from the
hills, nor from the multitude of the people, not yet from the prowess
of individuals. Surely in the Lord, alone, is the salvation of Israel.
Never did salvation spring from the devices of this poor heart. In vain
do you seek to obtain it by any religious ceremonies, or by any bodily
exercises. The source and fountain of salvation are only to be found in
the eternal purpose of God! In the Covenant of God it was resolved, in
the Wisdom of God it was planned, in the great Redemption of God it was
effected and by the Spirit of God it is applied! Jonah went to a
strange college to learn this masterpiece of sound theology, that
salvation is of the Lord. As for Israel, he could destroy himself, but
he could never save himself. In his God he found help, in his God
alone! Happy the man that knows this! Thrice happy he who knows it
experimentally! He will turn his eyes to the Lord alone.
My Hearer, are you seeking salvation by works–by anything that is
meritorious or meretricious? You are spending your money for that which
is not bread! Are you seeking a knowledge of salvation by your own
feeling? Do you consult your frames of mind, hopeful or desponding, as
one marks the rise or fall of a barometer? Do you dream of being
prepared for Christ and fitting yourself to receive mercy? This is to
impose on yourself and to insult the Savior! Christ needs nothing from
you–He comes to bring everything to you! Even your sense of need He
gives you. All your fitness is to be unfit! All your preparation for
washing is to be foul! All your prerequisite for enriching is to be
poor as poverty can make you! Come as you are to your God through
Christ, the Mediator, and in Him you shall find salvation! Do notice
particularly that the words are not, "Say unto my soul, I am your
Savior," but more than that–"I am your salvation." As if God were not
only the Giver of salvation, but absolutely salvation itself. To get a
hold of Christ is to get salvation! To get God on our side is to be
saved! Salvation does not merely come from God as a gift–it absolutely
involves the appropriation of God, Himself, as the portion of one's own
soul! How wonderful this is! Who can find God? Who can imagine, much
less describe, His Infinite perfections? Salvation proceeding from THE
LORD, from JEHOVAH, from the GREAT I AM, communicates the wealth of His
adorable attributes. "Say unto my soul, I"–our translation reads–"I
Am." Ask, what are You, Lord? The answer comes, "I Am your salvation."
No title, however noble, could enhance the description! He is the "I
Am." His existence is original and pure. "He sits on no precarious
throne, or borrows leave to be. "From everlasting to everlasting He is
God the Most High. To Him there is neither past nor future, but one
eternal
Now."
The God who can save us must be the only true and living God. So great
a salvation you cannot realize without a clear apprehension of Jehovah
in all His attributes! And if any speak of Christ as delegated Deity,
discredit His eternal power and Godhead, or deny that He made the
heavens and the earth and bears them on His shoulders, they bring to us
a Christ who cannot save! We must have a Redeemer as mighty as the
Creator and the Preserver. We must have the strong Son of God, Immortal
and Eternal, to rescue our souls from going down into the pit of Hell!
If you are leaning on any arm but an eternal one, it will fail you!
Poor silly heart, if you are depending on anything for salvation but
the same God who bears the earth' s huge pillars up, your dependence
will fail you when most you need its help! The strongest sinew of an
arm of flesh will crack–even an angel's wing will flag and the earth,
itself, will grow dim with years! This globe, with all her granite
rocks, shall melt with a fervent heat! The eternal God must be your
refuge, and underneath you must be the everlasting arms, or else the
salvation you pretended to have is worse than useless! "Say unto my
soul, I, the glorious Jehovah, I am your salvation."
These doctrines may seem to some of you so commonplace that you will
say, "We have heard them ten thousand times." But I refer to them now
to press the question–Do you know the vital force of these great
Truths of God in your own hearts? Beloved, let each man, let each
woman, enquire, "Do I know my need of salvation? Do I know that it must
come from God? Have I got it from Him? Have I applied directly to Him
for it? Have I received it at His hand in such a way that I have seen
the Glory of God therein, so that my salvation shall be to me for a
name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off?" If you have
had no dealings with God, your soul is in bad plight. Let us turn now
to observe–
II. THE DESIRE EXPRESSED IN THE TEXT.
It was David' s wish not only to have God for his salvation, but to
know it for a fact, and that on the most conclusive evidence, with the
best possible assurance, by a positive communication from
GodHimself–"Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." There are some who
doubt whether full assurance of faith can be obtained. They need not
discredit an attainment which multitudes possess and daily enjoy!
Others suppose that if they could experience a full assurance, it would
be dangerous–and yet there are thousands of the saints who, so far
from finding the privilege perilous, constantly prove its sanctifying,
elevating power while they walk by faith and live near to God! Some
have conjectured that any man who knew himself to be saved would
inevitably grow listless in character and negligent of his conduct, but
it is not so. A man who knows that an estate is really his own, does
not become indifferent about its culture. He tills and farms it all the
more sedulously. The fact is this–he who knows himself to be
saved–being rid of that curse and burden of fear which often renders
him incapable of serving God, passes beyond the sphere of a servile
bondage! No more does he selfishly seek his own interest. His labor is
free, cheered by love and lightened by song–
"Now for tie love I bear His name What was my gain, I count my loss."
Out of sheer gratitude he devotes himself to the service of the good
God, by whom so great a blessing has been bestowed. If your confidence
in your own salvation makes you walk without tenderness of conscience,
then rely upon it– you have mistaken vain boasting for pure faith, and
haughty presumption for true assurance! They who are really possessed
of this Grace are always very tender of the Lord's will. It compels
them to walk humbly with God. A king's courtier knows that conduct is
expected of him far beyond that of ordinary subjects. He would not
encroach upon the freedom he enjoys in approaching his sovereign, lest
by any negligence or impropriety he should forfeit the good esteem and
grateful smile of his royal master. He is not afraid that the king
would kill him, nor is he in terror as if his majesty were a tyrant.
But he is jealous of himself, lest he should provoke the king to take
away the light of his countenance from him. And to any child of God who
has once enjoyed the favor of Heaven's eternal King and basked in the
light of that Countenance which beams with Grace and Glory, there is no
attraction in all the world that can compare with the peace and
pleasure in which he abides! True assurance of faith is a humble thing,
a comforting thing, a sanctifying thing–and it should, therefore, be
the desire of all faithful hearts.
This assurance of which the Psalmist speaks is a personal matter, "Say
unto my soul, I am your salvation." Oh, Beloved, we must have personal
dealings with our God! No proxy will avail. Churches may invent what
ordinances they please to gratify their notions of expediency, but
there can be no sponsors in godliness–the thing is irrational, it is
impossible! Every vow and every offering, to be acceptable, must have
its own proper individuality. No eyes but your own can acceptably weep
for your sin. No heart but your own can acceptably be broken and
contrite for your transgressions. You yourself must repent! Even the
Holy Spirit cannot repent for you, as some seem to imagine. He works
repentance in you, but you must, yourself, repent. And as to faith,
that must be the looking with the spiritual eyes to Christ, and resting
on Him with your whole heart. Another cannot do it for you. National
religion–if it is depended upon for personal acceptance–is the most
deceitful of all delusions! What use is it that we call ourselves a
Christian nation if God does not call us so? Might we not be pronounced
a heathen nation if we were polled? Take a survey of this great city
and see how many there are who never enter a House of Prayer, who spend
the entire Sabbath in idleness, or seek their own pleasure in sensual
pursuits! What multitudes there are who scarcely know the name of
Jesus! Are these Christians? It is a pity we should lend the slightest
sanction to such an empty profession. While men live as heathens, we
ought to deal with them as such, and seek to convert them from darkness
unto God's marvelous Light! And as to the religion which descends in
families, this will not suffice, though it is perpetuated from
generation to generation. Not a drop of true religion comes in the
blood! You are all born of a corrupt stock and you naturally bear the
image of the earthly! If, however, you are born of God, it is not of
flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God! "You must be
born-again" is as true of the child of a long generation of godly
ancestors as it is of the young Hottentot in the kraal who never heard
the Savior's name. "You must be born-again" is of universal
application! There must be a personal work of the Spirit of God in each
individual soul, and the assurance we ought to pant after is our own
personal assurance, our own individual interest in the salvation of
Jesus Christ!
Have you thought of this, dear Hearer, or, thinking of it, have you
trifled with it? Let me urge you, since you will have to die alone.
Since through the iron gates you must pass as solemnly as others. Since
in the awful balances you must be weighed alone and before the last
tribunal you must come as a separate spirit, I beseech you seek Christ,
seek union with Him, that so you may have a blessed Companion in your
death and in your everlasting destiny! These vast congregations are
made up of units! Oh, that I knew how to reach your conscience one by
one! O Man, awake to righteousness! Your brother's conversion, your
sister's salvation, your mother's piety, your father's Grace–how will
these avail you? Thank God if you have such relatives, for therein God
has been so kind to you. But how will they comfort you if you are cast
out? What drops of water can they administer to your burning tongue if
you are cast away into the place of torment? Oh, I beseech you, be
eager, be earnest, be anxious with a sacred covetousness to make your
own calling and election sure! It is a personal assurance that we must
seek after–so shall our souls be joyful in the Lord–and in His
salvation we shall exceedingly rejoice.
But, remember, lest any should be mistaken, that the assurance David
sought was purely spiritual. When he says, "Say," it is, "Say unto my
soul." We do not expect that God will make fresh Revelations to us. We
are far from believing that voices heard or visions seen, or supposed
to be seen, or dreams, can give any satisfactory evidence of the Divine
Love to any man. I am ashamed of such ministers as would encourage
their hearers in the conviction that their fancies are to be taken as
assurances from God! Why, were you to dream tonight that you were in
Hell, thank God it would not send you there! Or were you to dream that
you were in Heaven, it would not carry you there. If you think that you
see angels, or that you hear voices–well, there is much pretence in
your tales, but little profit you will ever derive from them. Think as
you like about your own experiences, but attempt to build any inference
upon them and your construction will prove a baseless fabric. Such
things furnish no grounds of dependence. Whether there may ever be
supernatural manifestations of this kind to some men, or whether they
can have a good effect upon their minds, are questions which I will not
discuss, but that these visionary things can afford any evidence of the
favor of God, I utterly deny! The voice which alone can confirm you is
the voice of God to your soul, to your mind, to your spirit–not to
your ears, not to your eyes! Salvation is a spiritualthing. It belongs
not to external sounds, nor to external impressions upon the eyes.
There is an eye inside the eye, an ear far quicker than this organ of
sense. It is with that inner eye that you must see God, and with that
inner ear that you must hear the voice of God saying unto your soul, "I
am your salvation." Be sure that you cultivate always a spiritual
religion. "God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him." The
assurance that comes from God is addressed to the heart, to the mind,
to the conscience, to the soul–it is purely spiritual. Seek not,
therefore, after visions, fancies, miracles, signs and wonders, but
believe when God speaks to your heart, according to all the statutes
and testimonies, the precepts and promises which are contained in the
sure Word of Revelation.
And now mark this well, the assurance craved is Divine. "Say unto my
soul, I am your salvation." Do you ask in what manner does God,
Himself, tell a man that He is his salvation? He does it simply enough
through His Word. If I read in God's Word, I shall not find my name
enrolled there among the saved–if I did, I would be suspicious that
perhaps I was not the person intended. I should be rather dubious as to
the spelling of the name, or I might be apprehensive that there was
another individual of that same name. But when I find myself properly
and fully described, then I cannot doubt my own identity. For instance,
it is written, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Very
well, I have believed–I know I have–I know I trust Christ with all my
heart. I have also, in obedience to His Word, been baptized. Therefore,
if the testimony of God's Word is true–plain and designed to make
mistakes impossible–that, "he that believes and is baptized shall be
saved," the conclusion is reached, the problem is solved, the evidence
is transparent! When you find a description answering to yourself, you
have only to accept the distinct statement of God's Word. And, mark
you, God's Word in that old Book–this blessed Bible–is as good as if
He rent the heavens and spoke right out from the excellent Glory! It is
just as sure and as steadfast to the souls who believe it to be His
Word as if He did speak with a trumpet, or as if He sent a message
through an angel! "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life."
You have but to make sure that you believes on the Son, and you have
God's assurance that you have everlasting life! But, over and above the
testimony or Word, which is as clear as a mathematical
demonstration–though Euclid is not more reliable than Moses and the
Prophets–there comes a vital force to God's people with the Word,
compelling them to perceive the meaning and to accept it. This
mysterious energy comes from the Holy Spirit, Himself! Of this we
cannot speak to those who have not proved it, for we only know it and
understand it by its effect–quickening us, enlightening our
understanding, speaking to us–and saying of God to our soul that He is
our salvation!
Moreover, it is an immediate assurance. "Say unto my soul, I am your
salvation." That is a pressing cry for prompt succor. It meant in
David's case that present moment. We, reading it, take it for this very
hour. Beware of postponing the expectation of assurance until when you
are about to die! You have no more reason to expect it, then, than to
expect it now! If you are content to live in doubt and slur over the
disquietude of your soul in the vigor of your days, you will probably
be haunted with gloomy misgivings when the time of your departure
arrives. It is your duty and your privilege as a Believer not to stand
wavering over God' s promise, but, knowing it is truthful, to accept it
with unstaggering faith! I can understand a man doubting whether he is
truly converted or not, but I cannot countenance his apathy in resting
quiet till he has solved the riddle. You may say–
"'Tis a point I long to know."
But, oh, Beloved, how can you trifle, how can you give sleep to your
eyes till you have known it? Not know whether you are in Christ or not?
Perhaps unreconciled, perhaps already condemned, perhaps upon the brink
of Hell, perhaps with nothing more to keep you out of Tophet than the
breath that is in your nostrils, or the circulating drop of blood which
any one of ten thousand haps or mishaps may stop, and then your career
is closed–your life story ended! What? Sit on such a volcano, take it
easy on the brink of such a precipice and content yourself with merely
saying, "I am but a doubting one"? I entreat you, I beseech you, shake
off this sluggishness! Ask the Lord to say unto your soul tonight, "I
am your salvation." He is able and He is willing! You know that,
Beloved. He will do it for you when you eagerly seek it from Him. How
often does He suddenly disperse the doubts that overshadow us like
clouds? An autumnal day like yesterday– what a strange, fitful
atmosphere we breathed! How fiercely the wind blew–how heavily the
rain fell! And then, how quickly afterwards the soft sunshine made the
earth look cheerful and the heart of man feel glad! Perhaps you may be
dull and heavy, or the raindrops of your weeping and the winds of your
fears howling about you. All of a sudden the rain may stop, the clouds
disperse, the clear shining come about you. God, by His dear Son,
through His Spirit, may shine unto your soul at once. You may come in
very heavily burdened, and go out very light-hearted! You may be
exceedingly depressed and, all of a sudden, your soul may be like the
chariots of Amminadab. Your attire may be changed from mourning to
dancing with unspeakable joy and full of glory! You may rejoice in
tribulation if the light gleams from His chambers. Pray, then! Let your
soul now breathe out the prayer, "Oh, my God, if indeed I have relied
upon Your dear Son to be All-in-All to me, whisper to my heart the full
assurance of my everlasting safety and my present acceptance in the
Beloved."
The Lord answer such a petition to every troubled spirit. And now–
III. WHAT LESSON DOES THE TEXT TEACH?
Surely it teaches us this–if we need blessings from God, let us pray
for them. David needed assurance, he needed comfort and he prayed for
both one and the other. The quickest road to spiritual wealth is
prayer! Every prayer is like a ship sent to the Tarshish of spiritual
riches to bring us back treasures better than gold or silver, or
precious stones. Let us not be lax in the commerce, lest our wealth
decline. Every cry to God from the true heart brings a result. You see
the men in the belfry sometimes down below with the ropes. They pull
them and if you have no ears, that is all you know about it. But the
bells are ringing up there–they are talking and discoursing sweet
music up aloft in the tower. And our prayers do, as it were, ring the
bells of Heaven! They are sweet music in God's ears and as surely as
God hears, He answers, for, indeed, in Scripture, to hear and to answer
are precisely the same things! Praying breath is not spent in vain.
They who truly cry shall find that passage true, "The righteous cry,
and the Lord hears them, and delivers them out of all their troubles."
If a man may have anything for the asking, and he will not ask, he
deserves to go without! Why, if you may have assurance of every
precious thing merely for the asking–and assuredly you may–if you
will not knock and intercede at Mercy' s door, if you are such a fool,
who is to be blamed but yourself? Be much in prayer, Beloved. What I
say to you I say especially to myself. Yet I would press this home upon
Believers with the more earnestness because these times are so full of
labor and anxiety that they rob Christians of the opportunity for much
prayer. Oftentimes, too, we get so fatigued and weary that we have not
the inclination to pray as we should. I like to think of Welch, who
used to cast a Scotch plaid over the bed where he rested at night, and
would always rise in the night and cast this plaid about him, and pray
for one or two hours. And he says in his biography, "I cannot
understand how a man can sleep through the night without prayer." That
is a point to which few of us have ever thought of coming! David
Brainerd, too, speaks of rising one morning by four of the clock, and
the sun had not risen at six, and he says that in those two hours of
prayer he had so wrestled with God that he was wet with perspiration!
Such was the earnestness of his spirit as he pleaded before the Lord. I
am afraid we do not practice much of this sacred importunity. We are
sad hands at this devout exercise, whereby saints became famous in the
days gone by. God restore to us the spirit of prayer, and all other
blessings will come as the result.
Another lesson is this. Let everyone of us be satisfied we get a word
from God. This was all David needed. Would God only say, though not do
anything? He did not ask Him to interfere practically, or put out His
hand to help, but only to say. If you go into the city, you may find
plenty of merchants who, by simply writing their names, can enable you
to get from the bank shovelfuls of gold. Think you not, then, that
God's promises always stand to us as good as their fulfillment? Will
you blow upon His credit? Will you refuse to take Him at His word? I
think I heard a Brother ask, the other day, I know I did–at family
prayer–that we might trust God where we could not see Him. I have
heard that prayer many times before. I have prayed it myself, I am
sorry to say. But is it not rather a wicked prayer, if you scan it
narrowly? Should anyone say at our Monday night Prayer Meeting, "Grant,
O Lord, that we may be able to trust our minister when we cannot see
him"? I think I would want to know a little about what that Brother
thought of me! I am sure if I prayed like that for any of you, I would
be likely to see you in the vestry before long to learn my cause for
suspecting your character! How dare we, then, pray such a thing about
our God?
Yet I suppose this never struck us in that light. It seemed very
proper. That is just because we have not learned yet to believe in God.
If the Son of Man were to come into this world, would He find pure
faith among His disciples? Talk of Diogenes with his lantern looking
for an honest man! Were God to look with the sun, He could hardly
discover a believing man. Mr. Muller, of Bristol, believes in God for
the support of his benevolent institution–and God supplies him with
all his needs. But whenever you speak about him you say, "What a
wonderful thing!" Has it come to this, that in the Christian Church it
is accounted a marvel for Christians to believe in the promises of God,
and something like a miracle for God to fulfill them? Does not this
wonderment indicate more clearly than anything else how fallen we are
from the level of faith at which we ought constantly to live? If the
Lord wants to surprise His people, He has only at once to give an
answer to their prayers! No sooner had they obtained their answer than
they would say, "Who would have thought it!" Is it really surprising
that God should keep His own promise? Oh, what unbelief! Oh, what
wretched unbelief on our part! We ask and we receive not because we do
not believe in God! We waver–we must not expect to receive anything at
His hand except what He chooses to give as a gratuity, an act of
Sovereign Mercy, not a covenanted blessing. We do not get what we might
have as the reward of faith because we have not got the faith that He
honors!
I like that story of a godly old woman, who, when told of God's
answering prayer, supplemented with a reflection, "Is not that
wonderful?" She replied, "No, it is just like Him. Of course, He
answers prayer! Of course, He keeps His promise!" We ought to consider
it a right, natural, and blessed thing that believing prayer should be
answered, and that faith should have its reward. Christian, rest
content with a Word from God and be satisfied therewith. And as for
those of us who have been living in the enjoyment of the full assurance
of our own salvation (and, God be praised, there are some of us who do
not often have doubts and fears), how thankful we should be! God likes
to give to those who are grateful. Men like to put their jewels into a
good setting and a grateful heart is a fit setting for so gracious a
mercy! God loves to pour the river of His bounty along the channel of
Grace in the soul. Be thankful, and you will keep your assurance–
perhaps, keep it untouched till you die. It is a rare thing, I suppose,
though I have known one or two holy men of God who have told me that
they did not remember, for the space of 30 years, having been left to
question their interest in Chr-ist–they had enjoyed unbroken communion
with Him. Why, then, should they doubt it? May we even come to that
assurance, if so it pleases the Master!
In what way, however, can we better show our gratitude than by
comforting andassisting such as have not this blessing?–
"Thousands in the fold of Jesus This attainment never could boast. To
His Name eternal praises, None of these shall ever be lost– Deeply
graven
On His hands, their names remain."
Have you faith? You are saved, even if your faith should not develop
into assurance. As the Puritan well said, "Faith is necessary to the
being of a Christian. Assurance is necessary to his well-being." Yet,
mark you, it is a great necessity. Let us try to comfort, then, such as
are distracted, distressed and bowed down. When the Lord sees that we
are using our strength and our joy for the help of the rest of the
family for whom He cares, He will give us yet more abundantly, and make
us to be stewards of the manifold Grace of God in the midst of the
Church! Thus shall we glorify His name while we cultivate happiness in
our own bosoms.
I would that all whom I now address could have this assurance. Some of
you, alas, have not faith. "All men have not faith," said the Apostle.
Too true is this testimony! Soul, would you have faith? Consider what
it is. You have to believe in God made flesh. Think of the Son of God
bleeding on the Cross. It is at the foot of the Cross that faith is
brought to light. If you would get faith, Christ must give it to you.
Look to Him for the power to believe as well as for the Grace to
receive all the benefits that follow. May He give it to you now! To
you, oh, Seeker, He will give it. While you are seeking salvation, you
shall find it near you. He will say to your soul, "I, even I, am your
salvation." May it be so with many here. Amen.