Ezekiel’S Deserted Infant

Ezekiel'S Deserted Infant
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1862,
BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"None eye pitied you, to do any of these unto you, to ha ve compassion
upon you. But you were cast out into the open field to the loathing of
your person, in the day that you were born. And when I passed by you
and saw you polluted in your own blood, I said unto you when you were
in your blood, Live; yes, I said unto you when you were in your blood,
Live." Ezekiel 16:5, 6.
Doubtless the Lord here describes the Jewish people when they began to
multiply in the land of Egypt and were grievously oppressed by Pharaoh.
Pharaoh had commanded them to cast out the male children that they
might perish. Hence, the figure of an infant deserted, cast out into
the open field to perish by wild beasts, by starvation, or exposure,
was a very apt portrait of the youthful state of Israel, when God
looked upon her in love, and brought her out of Egypt to set her in a
goodly land.
But all the best Divines and expositors concur in the belief that we
have here also a most extraordinarily apt and significant description
of the human race by nature, and of the way in which God in Divine
mercy passes by the sinner when utterly lost and helpless and by the
power of the Spirit, bids him "Live." At any rate, we intend to
consider it so this morning.
Without any preface, for we need none, we shall, first of all, bid you
look at the misery of man's estate as set before us in the present
verses. Then, next, we shall search for motives which could urge the
Lord to have pity upon this miserable one. And then, thirdly, we shall
pause a little while to listen to the Divine mandate by which this
unhappy being is delivered from his lost estate. "I said unto you,
Live; yes, I said unto you, Live."
I. At the outset, I shall direct your contemplations to a survey of THE
MISERY OF MAN'S ESTATE.
The verse presents to us an infant exposed to die. All the common
offices that were necessary for its life and health have been
forgotten. Its heartless parents have laid it out in the open field,
having no regard whatever for it. There it lies before our eyes,
covered with blood, exposed to wild beasts, famishing, ready to perish.
Among many heathen nations there existed the barbarous custom of
leaving deformed children to perish in the woods or fields. Among the
Spartans it was an established regulation to abandon their weaker
offspring to perish at the foot of Mount Taygetus.
And in these times there are dark places of the earth which are full of
this unnatural cruelty. The Jews were certainly free from this sin but
it was a practice of their near neighbors and therefore well known to
them. And moreover, the remembrance of Egypt and their great lawgiver
among the crocodiles of the Nile and all the males murdered by royal
decree, would make the metaphor very simple to them.
1. At the very first glance, we remark, here is an early ruin. It is an
infant. A thousand sorrows that one so young should be so deeply taught
in misery's school! It is an infant. It has not yet tasted joy, but yet
it knows pain and sorrow to the fullest. How early are you blasted, O
sweet flower! How soon are your young dawnings quenched in darkness, O
rising sun! A ruin so terrible and so early has fallen upon each of us.
Let proud man kick against the doctrine as he may, Scripture tells us
assuredly that we are "born in sin and shapen in iniquity."
We came not into this world as Adam came into the garden, without flaw,
without condemnation, without evil propensities. But lo, by one man's
offense we are all made sinners and through his desperate fall our
blood is tainted and our nature is corrupt. From the very birth we go
astray, speaking lies and in the very birth we lie under the
condemnation of the Law of God. It is not mine to defend this doctrine,
to answer objections to it, or to bring arguments for it. I simply
announce what God has Himself revealed by the mouth of His servant
David and also more fully by the tongue of the Apostle Paul.
Man, unless God has mercy on you, you are lost and lost from your very
beginning! You did not come into this world as one who might stand or
fall, you were fallen already. An original and birth-sin had seized
upon you in the womb, and you were even then as an infant cast out to
perish and to die. There is hardly any doctrine more humbling than that
of natural depravity or original sin. It has been the main point of
attack for all those who hate the Gospel. And it must be maintained and
valiantly vindicated by those who would exalt Christ, since the
greatness and glory of His salvation lies mainly in the desperateness
of the ruin from which He has redeemed us.
Man, think not to save yourself by your works. Boast not of the
excellence of your character and of your nature. You are a traitor's
son, you are a felon's child! An act of dishonor was passed upon your
father's house and you were born under the Law and under the
curse–obnoxious to Divine Wrath in the very moment when your first
breath was drawn. Sad heritage of sin! Miserable estate of sorrow! How
deep the ruin of the Fall! Oh, to Divine Grace what debtors we are,
that out of this ruin it can lift us up to heights of glory!
2. The next very apparent teaching of the text is utter inability. It
is an infant–what can it do for itself? If it were a child of some few
years it might be able, with tottering feet, to find its way to some
shelter. If it had the gift of articulate speech, it might sob out its
wants and tell to the passerby what it needed. But it is an infant–it
cannot speak. It knows sin but it has not mind enough to know why the
pain is there. It is ignorant, and although conscious of its ills, its
untutored, undeveloped intellect can neither describe the evil, nor
prescribe the remedy.
Though it may cast its little eyes around, even if help were there, it
were not in its power to avail itself of the offered aid. It is
impotent, helpless, utterly powerless. If anything is to be done for
it, it must all be done by another's hand. Not even clay on the
potter's wheel is more helpless than this infant as it now lies cast
out in the open field. Such is human nature. It can by no means help
towards its own restoration. "Dead," says our Apostle, "dead in
trespasses and sins," and what shall the dead in their graves do
towards resurrection? Shall the worm become mother of life, or shall
corruption be the father of immortality?
No, trumpet of God, there is no life in the dull, cold ear of death and
no hearing in the hollow skull of the skeleton. If the graves open, a
Divine hand must break the seal, heave up the mold and uplift the
moldering corpse. If there is resurrection, it must come from God and
from God alone. It must be a miracle in the beginning and a miracle
even to the end. My Hearers, I am not the author of this doctrine, but
simply the declarer of what God reveals. You are so lost that you
cannot by the most desperate efforts of your own save yourselves!
No–worse–so lost that by nature you have no wish to be saved and will
not make the efforts or desire to make them.
You hate God. It is a cutting accusation, but it is true, and may God
the Holy Spirit make you feel its truth. Naturally, I say, you hate the
Lord. By nature you love vanity and not God's Truth. You love sin and
do not wish to be delivered from it. Holiness you choose not–God's
commandments you abhor. Your nature has become so evil that the
Ethiopian may sooner change his skin and the leopard his spots, than
you of yourself learn to do well.
But, mark you–and this is a thought that may crush our boasts and make
us hang our heads like a bulrush evermore–this inability is our own
sin. This is laid at our door–not as an excuse for our sinfulness but
as a frightful aggravation of our guilt–that we have become so bad
that we cannot make ourselves good. Our nature is now so desperately
evil, both by its native depravity, and by our continual practice of
sin, that iniquity has become our nature. It is as natural to us to sin
as for water to descend, or sparks to fly upward–
"Where vice has held its empire long, It will not endure the least
control. None but a power divinely strong Can turn the current of the
soul." You cannot, Souls, you cannot save yourselves. You are as
helpless as the infant cast out. Your inability is utter and entire.
3. Apparent, too, is yet a third misfortune–we are utterly friendless.
"None eye pitied you to do any of these things unto you." We have no
friend in Heaven or in earth that can do anything for us, unless God
shall interpose. Grant you that a tender parent may pity, but no parent
can change his child's nature or cleanse away the sin of his offspring.
Let it be granted that there are ministers of Christ whose tearful eyes
would woo you to Christ, but the most earnest Evangelist cannot quicken
your soul.
The most thundering of all God's Boanerges cannot awake the dead. Let
it be considered that angels are anxious for your conversion, that were
you saved they would clap their wings with joy and make glad holiday in
Heaven. But an angel's power cannot snatch you from the grave of your
sin, nor could the whole host of seraphs, with their kindred cherubs
combined, do anything to deliver you from the ruin into which by Adam's
sin and your own, you have been brought. Your kinsfolk may weep and
lament for you, but no lamentation can make an atonement for your sin,
no human tears can cleanse your filthiness, no Christian zeal can
clothe you with righteousness, no yearning love can sanctify your
nature.
Friendless, helpless and ruined from our earliest state–good God, what
creatures are men! Sinai thunders at us. The Law condemns us. Justice
bares its sword. Holiness is incensed and truth is sworn to destroy.
Where, where shall we fly, if You refuse us, O God!
4. Furthermore, our text very clearly reveals to us that we are by
nature in a sad state of exposure. Cast out into the open field, left
in a wilderness where it is not likely that any should pass by, thrown
where the cold can smite by night and the heat can blast by day, left
where the wild beast goes about, seeking whom he may devour–such is
the estate of human nature–unclothed, unarmed, helpless, exposed to
all manner of ravenous destroyers. Little do any of us know how exposed
by nature we are to sloth, to drunkenness, to lust, and pride and
unbelief–to all those young lions which hunt in company with the great
lion of the pit who seeks whom he may devour.
Lord God, You alone know the awful dangers which prowl around an
unregenerate man. What mischiefs waylay him! What crimes beset him!
What follies haunt him! As God only knows the fullness of the guilt of
even one sin, so His infinite mind, alone, can grasp the number of
those tremendous temptations which are planted like snares of death in
the path of an unconverted soul. Death is after you, O you helpless
one! Hell yawns for you, sin longs to devour you! Friend, you have none
but foes and they are many. Armed and mighty are those who would
destroy you, and you have no power nor will to resist them. You are as
a helpless infant in a tiger's jaws. Fascinated by the serpent eyes of
sin, you are paralyzed by its witcheries and so rendered an easy prey
for the Destroyer.
5. It seems that this child, besides being in this exposed state, was
loathsome. "You were cast out to the loathing of your person." It was
in such a condition that the sight of it was disgusting and its person
was so destitute of all comeliness that it was absolutely loathed. Such
is man by nature, but he will not believe it. He still flatters himself
that he is comely as the curtains of Solomon, while he is black as the
tents of Kedar. We think ourselves angels, when we are nearest akin to
devils. But when we get akin to angels, then we mourn the devil that
still is within us.
1 know this, that when God the Holy Spirit gives a man a view of
himself, he is utterly loathsome in his own esteem. One of the
cardinals of the olden times–when cardinals were sometimes
saints–happened to pass by a meadow where he saw a shepherd leaning on
his crook, weeping. He stopped to ask the lad what made him weep. The
lad replied by pointing to the ground, for just at his feet there was a
toad. I was weeping," said he, "to think that God should have made me,
a creature so infinitely superior to this loathsome reptile at my feet,
and that I should have made myself such a creature that this loathsome
thing is superior to me, because it has never sinned."
As the cardinal went his way, he said, "Verily, has it happened, that
the foolish and unlearned enter into the kingdom of Heaven before us,
for this peasant has found out the Truth of God." Vipers nor toads are
more venomous or more loathsome to men than man must be to God, or
would be to himself if he could see himself with the eyes of truth and
if the veil of pride were once lifted from his eyes. The image of God
in man is all obliterated. We have ashes for beauty, shame for glory,
rottenness for health and Hell for Heaven.
6. We close this fearful description by observing the certain ruin to
which this infant was exposed, as setting forth the sure destruction of
every man if Divine Grace prevent not. It is not a question whether man
will be lost or not. As to whether man shall enter into the flames of
Hell or not, is no query–man MUST perish unless God saves. Every one
of us must be lost to all eternity, unless the strong arm of the Divine
One interferes. There is no one else to nurture this helpless infant.
This infant cannot rescue itself. Lost, lost, lost! Howl its requiem,
you lost ones who have gone before, for help or hope there is none,
unless the Eternal One shall interpose.
I would, dear Hearers, that this strong language, as you may think it,
might be felt to be pertinent to your own case, if you are unconverted.
I am not selecting special characters and impeaching certain offenders
who have been outrageously wicked. I am not now describing only the
harlot, or the burglar, or the murderer–I am speaking of everyone of
you by nature, of everyone of you who have not been born again. This is
not complimentary language but it ill becomes God's minister to
compliment any man. We must tell you plainly the Truth of God.
You may have been moral, sober, generous, honest–philanthropy may have
been as the air you breathe. There may be many good traits in your
character that render you amiable to your relatives and friends–but by
nature you are not one whit better than the vilest of the vile. And
were your nature permitted to show itself in all its foulness, the
black fountain is in your heart as much as in those who are banished
from their country for their country's good. It is only Providence, or
the check of society, that keeps it under. You are as much lost and
ruined as they.
I know I address many of you who have never fled to Christ for refuge
but are on very good terms with yourselves, because in comparison with
others, your character is blameless. Let me entreat you by the living
God that searches all hearts, to look at yourselves, this morning, in
your fallen state. If you live and die as you now are, there can be
nothing for your portion but the flames of Hell. God grant that you may
be snatched from so terrible a doom. But I see not how this can be
unless first you are led to see that you deserve this doom and are made
to tremble at the evil of sin and the wrath of the Lord.
No doubt, Noah, when he told men they would all be drowned unless they
fled to the ark, was thought to be very uncharitable. But it was the
true charity which made him warn them. You must perish unless you find
shelter in Jesus Christ. Your state is so terrible and damnable, that
lost you must be unless you fly to God's plan of salvation which He has
laid down for lost, ruined, helpless sinners. "Micaiah, spoke not good
but evil," said the king, but he learned afterwards that Micaiah's
hardness and boldness came of God, while the smooth things of the false
Prophets came from the devil. I do again, then, beseech and entreat you
to lay these things to heart.
Ruined Souls, you are self-destroyed, ready to perish, without help,
without power! You are cast out and exposed to evils of which you, as
yet, are not aware but certain ultimately to make your bed in Hell
unless God delivers you. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of
God, that He may exalt you in due time. Confess your sins before Him
with broken hearts, weep before Him the tears of penitence, and He can,
yes, He will deliver and bring up His chosen from the depths of
destruction and His elect ones from the jaws of Hell. Thus mournfully
have we rehearsed the story of human ruin. Let us bless God that we do
not end here.
II. We are now to search for MOTIVES FOR GOD'S GRACE. Brethren, we have
a very difficult search before us when we look to this infant which is
cast out. Its loathsomeness and its being covered with its own blood
forbid us at once to hope that there can be anything in it which can
merit the esteem of the Merciful One. Let us think of some of the
motives which may urge men to assist the undeserving.
1. One of the first would be, necessity. Some men, I do not doubt, are
generous from necessity. That is to say they feel it necessary to
maintain their reputation, and therefore they are generous before men.
Or they gain so much self-esteem–and there is a necessity in man's
nature to make him seek after that–that they are willing to be kind
that they may be approved within. Not a few are placed in such a
position that they could not well refuse to give their help when it is
asked of them. But no necessity can ever effect the Most High. The
first of all causes must be absolutely independent of every other
cause. He acts voluntarily. It belongs to God to say absolutely, "I
will."
Man may say, "I will," but it must always be with bated breath, for the
sovereign fiat of God may contradict him. But God is under no
necessity. Has He a superior? Who is king over Him? Who dictates
counsel to the Most High? Who sits at His bar and gives Him advice and
warning and makes Him do according to his pleasure? Nor had God any
necessity in order to make Himself happy or to increase His glory. The
praises of angels were enough for Him. No, even the praise of angels is
as nothing in His awful sight. His joy is in Himself.
He finds within His own infinite essence a sufficiency of delight. He
needs go abroad for nothing, for He fills all things and He is All in
All. If it had been God's will to leave the human race to perish, He
might have done it, and there was none to say to Him, "What are You
doing?" And when He does save man, it is not because there is any
compul-sion–either moral, physical, or spiritual upon Him. He has done
as He wills in this great matter of the redemption and salvation of
men. O Soul, God is not bound to save you! Man, you are lost and there
is nothing that can compel the Almighty to deliver you! If He does it,
it must be according to His own good pleasure, to the praise of the
glory of His Grace.
2. In this case, there was nothing in the birth of this child, in its
original parentage, that could move the passerby. We are told in some
former verses, "your birth and your nativity is of the land of Canaan;
your father was an Amorite and your mother an Hittite," both of them
belonging to an accursed race. Look unto the hole of the pit from where
you are dug. There was nothing in your birth or mine why He should have
pity on us. Kings, princes, mighty men boast much of their pedigrees,
but the Lord knows nothing of the glory of these family trees and
ancestries. No, rather, He leaves the mighty man in the dust, cutting
down the high tree, that He may cause the low tree to flourish.
He pours contempt upon princes and knows no respect of persons. All
spring from the common race of man, and what is there in our corrupt
nature, what is there in us to move the heart of God? Nothing,
absolutely nothing. Young man, it is not because your father was godly,
that God should be constrained to save you. It is not because your
mother was a lady of rank, that the Almighty should stretch out His arm
to you. You were conceived in sin, and stained in your very birth.
There is, therefore, nothing here that could move the heart of deity.
3. Nor was there anything in this child's beauty, for it was loathsome.
Men are often affected by beauty. Doubtless Pharaoh's daughter
preserved Moses because he was a comely child. We know that Ahasuerus
chose Esther because of her beauty. And there have been many that have
been exalted in the world for their personal attractions. But it was
not so with man in God's sight. "The whole head is sick and the whole
heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores."
We are not only sinners, but sin itself. How then can sin attract the
regard and love of a perfectly holy God? There may be much in us that
can make our fellow creatures esteem us–there can be nothing in us as
fallen, condemned, un-godly–that can make God esteem us. I know that
you who are spiritually taught, will join with me in singing–
"What was there in us to merit esteem,
Or give the Creator delight?
It was even so, Father, we ever must sing,
For so it seemed good in Your sight."
See then, Sinner, you are without form or comeliness, and you have no
beauty that He should desire you. What can there be in a worm to
gratify the Almighty? The heavens are not pure in His sight and He
charged His angels with folly. How much less, then, should there be any
beauty in man, that is but a worm, or in the son of man, that is
crushed before the moth? Think not that He needs your beauty to excite
His love. He can love you though deformed, and love you till He has
made you comely by His comeliness, which He shall put upon you.
4. Furthermore, as we have found no motive yet, either in necessity or
the child's birth or beauty, so we find none in any entreaties that
were uttered by this child. It does not seem that it pleaded with the
passerby to save it, for it could not as yet speak. So, though sinners
do pray, yet when a sinner prays, it is because God has begun to save
him. A sinner's prayers can never be the cause of his salvation, for,
mark you, the Truth of God is that no man ever seeks God first–God has
first sought him and began a good work in his soul, before he ever
turns to God.
In some cases, this is very extraordinarily proved. The old writers
used to quote the instance of a man who went into a wood, having been
an outrageous sinner, with the determination of destroying himself.
While he adjusted the rope, some passerby, hearing a sound, came and
expostulated with him and the words were blessed to his salvation. Is
there any preparation or preparatory process in a man who has come to
such a pitch of sin, that he is about to take away his own life, to
wash his hands in his own blood? Surely this was Divine Grace.
There were one or two cases in Whitfield's history, of men who came
into places where he was preaching, with stones in their pockets to
pelt him with but who became themselves converted. Was there anything
there for the Grace of God to get a hold of, anything to foster, to
favor, to nourish the Grace, the Sovereign Grace of the Most High? No,
rather, while they were yet without anything whatever that could have
cried after God, He was found of them that sought Him not. He called
them a people that were not a people, and her Beloved that was not
Beloved.
I know some think that the sinner takes the first step but we know
better. If he did, it were like the old Romish miracle of St. Dennis,
where we are told that after his head was cut off, he picked it up and
walked two thousand miles with it in his hand! Whereupon, some wit
observed that he did not see any wonder in the man's walking two
thousand miles– for all the difficulty lay in the first step. Just so,
I see no difficulty in a man's getting all the way to Heaven, if he can
but take the first step. For all the miracle lies in that first step,
the making the dead soul live, the melting of the adamantine heart, the
thawing of the northern ice, the bringing down of the proud look. This
is the work, this is the difficulty. And if man can do that himself,
verily, he can do the whole work.
But when God looks upon men to save them, it is not because they cry to
Him, for they never do and never will cry until the work of salvation
is begun. They are unwilling and unable to use any entreaty or
persuasion that could be cogent to the heart of God. Rather, they abhor
the mercy. They run away from the Divine Grace which is offered to
them. They reject the Gospel when it is preached. They will not come to
Christ that they may have life, but they willfully and wickedly turn
their backs upon the Most High. Until He by His strong hand brings them
to Christ, saved they will never be. O Divine Grace, O Divine Grace,
how wide Your sphere! How glorious are You in meeting the degradation
and the sin of man! You show the splendor of Your power in beginning,
carrying on, and finishing the work.
5. Yet, further, Brethren–it does not appear that the pity of the
passerby was shown upon this child because of any future service which
was expected of it. This child, it seems, was nourished, clothed,
luxuriously decorated, and yet, after all that, if you read the chapter
through, you will find it went astray from Him who had set His heart
upon it. The Lord foresaw this and yet loved that child
notwithstanding. God knew that you and I, though He loved us when there
was nothing good in us, after we were saved should still rebel. He knew
that we had backsliding hearts. He knew that we should be unbelieving
even to the end–but He loved us notwithstanding all this.
He did not love you because He foresaw you would be a preacher. Nor you
because He knew you would be a tract distributor. Nor you because He
knew that you would be an indefatigable Sunday school teacher. He loved
you although He knew that you would be as you are today, ungrateful and
unkind to Him–cold in your soul, worldly in your spirit. You can
today, rehearse experimentally, our last Sunday's text, "I was as a
beast before you: nevertheless I am continually with you."
There was, then, no motive of future service why this child should be
blessed, or why God should save man. I do not know–I want to say what
I cannot say this morning. I want to exhibit to you man, standing as a
criminal at the bar, guilty, proved to be guilty even to his very face,
yet proudly saying that he is not guilty. A traitor at heart, a base
rebel, an ungrateful wretch! I want you to think of him as one upon
whom pity seems as if it would be thrown away–not an object for mercy.
One of whom the universe cries, "Away with him, away with him, it is
not fit that he should live!"
And then, I want to show you God in the sovereignty of His Divine
Grace, saying, "I will spare that traitor. He deserves to die but I
will spare him. I have no motive for it, except such as is in My own
will. There is nothing in him, no reason in him why I should spare him,
but I will spare him. I will prove that I am king forever and ever and
the God and Lord of mercy. The only answer that we can give to the
question, "Why then, does God spare this outcast infant?" is this, "I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that wills, nor
of him that runs but of God that shows mercy."
How is Jehovah exalted in our midst this morning! My spirit trembles
while it labors to exalt the Lord alone. The Lord is King forever and
ever, hallelujah! Bow your heads, both Saints and Sinners, and adore
Him as King of kings and Lord of lords. Ask not questions, for He gives
no account of His matters. Quarrel not with His dominion, for His
answer is to you, "No but, O Man, who are you that reply against God?
Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why have You made me
thus?" Impeach not His justice, or His justice you shall feel in
smiting you. Entreat His mercy, but entreat it as those that have no
claim upon Him. Ask Him for it as knowing that if he gives it to you He
has a right to give it or to withhold it if He will.
Sinners, behold yourselves this morning, in the hand of an angry God.
There you lie before God, like a moth beneath your own fingers. It is
as He wills–to save or to destroy you. Are you at ease? Will you mock
Him? Will you boast and glorify yourselves? Rather, as creatures that
are now absolutely under His control and deservedly subject to His rod,
bow your heads and cry, "God, be merciful to us, sinners! You can save,
do it for Your own will and glory's sake, that Your mercy may be
magnified and Your sovereignty may be clearly seen."
We have found no motive in the creature, and therefore, we refrain from
further search, believing that the fountain and wellspring of mercy is
in God Himself. Into His reasons we cannot search, lest like Job, we
should hear the rebuke of the Lord, "Have you entered into the springs
of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depth?" III. But now,
we turn to consider THE MANDATE OF HIS MERCY. "I said unto you, Live."
First, I want you to notice that this fiat of God is majestic. "I said
unto you when you were in your blood, Live; yes, I said unto you when
you were in your blood, Live." Darkness was upon the face of the earth
and thus the Almighty spoke, "Let there be light!" And light was.
Sublime because simple. Without any oratorical embellishments,
magnificently stern–God speaks and it is done. So, in our text, we
perceive a sinner with nothing in him but sin, expecting nothing but
wrath. But the Majestic One passes by–He is making a tour of His
dominions, splendidly arrayed, with ten thousand times ten thousand
angels at His beck and call.
He looks, and there lies an infant, loathsome, in its blood. He stops
and He pronounces the word, the royal word, "Live." There speaks a God.
Who but He could venture thus to deal with life and dispense it with a
single syllable? It is majestic, it is Divine! And mark you, Brothers
and Sisters, though the word preached by us may be very rough and
rug-ged–as we confess to you it is–though we know but little of the
graces of oratory, yet when God speaks by a minister, there is nothing
more Divine under Heaven, nor in Heaven, than the Gospel. When the Lord
speaks, even though it is by the unlettered and the ignorant, when
through the Gospel He says, "Live," to a sinner–not even the angels
who bow before the Throne of God ever heard a more Divine sound. Thus
says the Lord, you dead sinner, "Live!"
Again, this fiat is manifold as well as majestic. When He says, "Live,"
it includes many things. Here is judicial life. The sinner is ready to
be condemned and executed–his neck is on the block and the axe is
gleaming in the sunlight–but the Mighty One says, "Live," and he rises
pardoned and absolved. The execution is not only stayed, that were but
res-pite–the crime is forgiven–the man is to live for years!
It is, moreover, spiritual life. The man knew nothing of God, his eyes
could not see Christ, his ears could not hear His voice. Jehovah said,
"Live," and spiritual life was given and we were quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Moreover, it includes glory-life, which is
the perfection of spiritual life. "I said unto you, Live." And that
word rolls on through all the years of life till death comes, and in
the midst of the shadows of death, the Lord's voice is still heard, "I
say unto you, Live!" In the morning of the resurrection it is that same
voice which is echoed by the archangel, "Live," and as the spirits rise
to Heaven to be blessed forever in the glory of their God, it is in the
power of this same voice, "I say unto you, Live."
Note again, that it is an irresistible voice. When God says to a
sinner, "Live," all the devils in Hell cannot keep him in the grave. If
the Lord should say to a blasphemer here today, "Live," that blasphemer
must become a saint. Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus to
arrest the saints of the living God. A strong hand might seize the
bridle of his charger and throw him to the ground. But Saul is not to
be stopped like that. He will rise from the ground the same Saul, to go
to Damascus as blood-thirsty as ever. But see what Divine Grace can do!
A voice from Heaven and a light brighter than the brightness of the sun
and Saul is crying out, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" Within
three days he is baptized. He becomes a preacher. And Saul that was
called Paul becomes a leader in the hosts of the Most High. My Master
can do the same today. Mighty to save is He–
"Tell what His arm has done, What spoils from death He won, Praise His
dear name alone. Worthy the Lamb."
We remark again, that it is all-sufficient. "Live," do you say, great
God? Why, the man is dead! There is no life in him, but in the Voice
that bids him live. "Live," do you say? "By this time he stinks, for he
has been dead four days!" There is power–not in his corruption but in
the Voice that cries, "Come forth!" When we preach to sinners and tell
them to believe in Christ, do not fancy it is because we think we have
any power. No, but because when in God's name we say, "Believe," the
power is in the mandate as it comes from our lips, uttered by the Most
High. If a minister is not filled with God's Spirit, then His ministry
is an empty dream. But if a minister is, as I conceive him to be, a man
who speaks in God's name, and for the time being is the very mouth of
God to men's soul's, then there is power in the Gospel as it is
preached, attended with the demonstration of the Spirit, to do for the
sinner what he can by no means do for himself.
I cry today in my Master's name "Thus says the Lord, believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and you shall live." Trust my Master bleeding on the
tree and you shall be delivered. Rest on the merit of His blood and of
His glorious righteousness! Trust in the power of His intercession
before the Throne, and despite your lost estate, you shall be this
morning saved forever and ever!
We close when we shall have repeated ourselves once more by
saying–this mandate was a mandate of Free Grace. I want to lay that
down again, and again, and again–that there was nothing in this
infant, nothing but loathsomeness, nothing therefore, to merit esteem.
Nothing in the infant but inability. Nothing therefore, by which it
could help itself. Nothing in it but infancy. Nothing therefore, by
which it could plead for itself and yet Divine Grace said, "Live"–
freely, without any bribe, without any entreaty, said–"Live." And so
when sinners are saved, it is only and solely because God Wills to do
it, to magnify His free, unpurchased, unsought Divine Grace.
Surely this is a subject which will suit some here, though it will not
please others. Proud Pharisees will turn on their heels. "That is very
high Calvinistic doctrine," says one. My dear Friends, I do not care
what it is. I know it is written in the Word of God. I preach very
often sermons which get me the title of Arminian and just as often I am
charged with Hy-perism. I am simply one who seeks honestly to tell you
what he believes to be in Scripture and what he believes to be true.
And therefore, whether it IS high or low is nothing to me. Is it true?
I know the proud Pharisee will say, "No." "Why," says he, "there must
be some merit in what we do! Surely we do something! Perseverance in
well-doing and so on, surely this will effect much?"
You are under the Law and not under Grace. You have not yet learned the
A B C of the Gospel. You want to be a saint by the merit of what you
do, and you will be lost as sure as you are a man unless you look at
things in a different light. But I know that the doctrine will be
acceptable to those condemned ones here this morning, who have written
their own sentence out, who say, "I must perish, I have nothing to
bring you, O Lord. I have not even a tender heart, I have not even such
a sense of need as I want. Lord, I am empty, except that I am full of
evil and full of sin, I have nothing that I could put before Your eyes,
except that which would excite Your wrath and Your disgust. Great God,
if You should not save me I cannot blame You. I lay hold of nothing in
myself. But You have said, 'He that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ,
has everlasting life.' Lord, I venture to believe on Him. You will be
true, You will save even me."
Soul, Soul, you may go out of this house light of heart and foot, for
"your sins, which are many, are forgiven you!" In God's name I
pronounce the sentence of absolution on you, if you have thus come to
Christ and trusted in the Lord Jesus. There is not a sentence left in
God's Book against you. By His Grace, you are no more dead but you
live–no more accursed but beloved. You are no more loathsome but
beautiful–covered with Christ's righteousness and filled with the
Spirit of the living God.
What shall I say to you who are Christians but this–for the sake of
this Divine Grace–show your gratitude–live more like your Master and
live more in God's service. Seek to spend and be spent in Him. Nothing
can make a man work for Christ like Free Grace. And those who believe
the doctrine of Free Grace and yet are idle, you must surely hold the
Truth of God in unrighteousness, for there is no principle so active,
so impulsive as this–
"Loved of my God, for Him again
With love intense I'd burn.
Chosen of You before time began,
I'd choose You in return."
Finally, Christian, never give up any sinner. Never think that any man
is beyond salvation. I charge you by the solemn thought that God looks
for nothing in man, and saves only according to the sweet counsels of
His own will, bring every man you meet with before God in prayer, plead
with every man, preach Christ to every man, tell every man that Christ
can save, tell that sinner that whatever there is not in him, Christ's
power is still the same, that His arm is not shortened, neither is His
ear heavy. And spread the glad news that it is not of the will of man,
nor of his blood, nor birth–but by the power of the Spirit of God
according to the will of the Most High–that men are saved. May the
Lord add His blessing and do some of His mighty works this morning
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.