God's Time for Comforting
(No. 3027)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1907.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
21, 1867.
"My eyes fail from searching Your Word, saying, When will You comfort
me?" Psalm 119:82.
DAVID, in his troubles, knew where to turn for consolation–and that is
no small piece of wisdom. When a man is ill, he may not know to which
physician he had better send, but if he knows of one who has had much
experience with the disease from which he is suffering, he sends for
him at once if he is a wise patient. David knew that the best place for
a true Believer to find consolation was in God's Word, so he did not
look in a thousand places, but his eyes were turned to God's Word–and
though he did not immediately find the comfort that he sought, yet he
continued to look even till his eyes seemed to fail him, till they
ached with looking, till they wearied with watching, till his
disappointed expectation made his heart sick! Yet the idea never
entered into his mind that he had better knock at another door, or seek
another friend, or try another fountain! He still continued in the
attitude of expectancy and desire, his eyes still searching the Word of
God to find the comfort that he so greatly needed.
Christian, learn this piece of heavenly wisdom from the Psalmist's
experience–there is no other comfort for you beneath the skies like
that with which the Word of the Lord will furnish you. If God's
promises cannot comfort you, rest assured that no speech from the lips
of man can do it. If your God shall not yield you the consolation that
you need, you will go in vain to the giddy world and its pleasures and
follies in the hope of finding it. If that overflowing well could ever
dry up, you would indeed be the subject of despair. Resolve in your
mind never to expect any good thing apart from God. Say with Toplady–
"I will not be comforted Till Jesus comforts me."
Refuse all consolation but that which comes from the Most High, for it
will be fictitious, delusive, dangerous, perhaps fatal–but cling to
your God whatever happens! Though He smite you, still cling to Him.
Though He slay you, still trust Him. If His Word should seem to be like
thunder and lightning to you, though every page of it should seem to
bristle as with bayonets and not a single thought of consolation should
be found in a thousand verses, yet still cling to your father's Bible,
hold fast to the good old Book which made glad your mother's heart,
for, before long, comfort shall shine forth from it upon you like the
sun in the fullness of its strength–and the day shall break and the
shadows flee away. Go not elsewhere to look for consolation! Seek out
no strange doctrines! Weary not yourself in searching for other
comfort, but let your eyes, even if they fail, still look to the Word
of God for the consolation that your soul needs!
David, however, besides looking to the Book of the Lord, looked to the
Lord of the Book, saying, "When will You comfort me?" He did not expect
the Word in itself to be a sufficient consolation to him, so he looked
to the Word as applied by God, the Holy Spirit, the Word as spoken over
again by the mouth of God into the silent soul of the waiting Believer.
Paul tells us that "the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." And
the Psalmist so far anticipates that Truth of God as to cry to the
Lord, "When will You comfort me?"
Christian, I again exhort you to imitate the Psalmist's example by
going to your God for comfort. You are still far too apt to lean upon
an arm of flesh, but have you not yet learned what disappointments are
always to be met with there? Will you still go to the broken cisterns
that can hold no water when they have already only mocked your thirst?
When will you give up running to your neighbors and going to your
brother's house in the day of your adversity? You will do far better if
you will go to your Father's house and to your Elder Brother! Even our
common proverb says, "Straightforward makes the best runner," so, run
straight to your God! Do not beat around the bush in the hope of
getting at God through second causes, but go to the great Fountainhead
of all consolation at once. Depend upon it, that
the more absolutely you hang upon the bare arm of God, the better will
it be for you and the more will you learn to live independently of
those poor creatures of earth whose breath is in their nostrils! The
more you depend upon the great, invisible, Omnipotent, eternal Jehovah,
the stronger and happier will you become! Then shall your head be
lifted high above your enemies and you shall sing praises unto God for
very gladness of heart.
Troubled ones, I urge you to resolve that if you cannot have comfort
from God, at any rate you will not have it from the devil–determine
that if you cannot do business with Heaven, you will not trade with
Hell! And say that you would rather live in a dungeon with God than
dwell in tents of ease with Satan. If your life must always be one of
sorrow, be content that it shall be so if the Lord so wills it, but be
resolved that you never will dally with sin or Satan for the sake of
any present consolation. You cannot afford to buy your gold so dearly
as that, nor to part with Heaven for the sake of the richest comforts
of earth!
It is worthy of note that the Psalmist, even in his worst condition,
always expected to be comforted. Our text was probably uttered by the
same man who more than once asked himself, "Why are you cast down, O my
Soul? And why are you disquieted within me?" Some men readily fall into
a state of despair, but the Psalmist was not a man of that sort. When
all God' s waves and billows had gone over him, he still said, "Yet the
Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night
His song shall be with me." And where deep called unto deep at the
noise of Jehovah's waterspouts, he could still hear the still small
voice of hope, so that he said to his soul, "Hope in God: for I shall
yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."
Beloved, let none of us give way to despair! No doubt Satan will tell
us that it is humble to despair, but it is not so. The pride of despair
is truly terrible. I believe that when a man altogether doubts the
power of God to save him and gives himself up to sin because he thinks
he cannot be saved, so far from there being any humility in it, it is
the proudest action that depraved flesh and blood can perform! Man, how
dare you say that there is no hope for you? If the iron gates of Hell
were shut upon you and God had hurled the key of the Pit into the
infinite abyss, then you might say that there was no hope for you. But
as long as there trembles in the air that blessed invitation of Christ,
"Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest," it is only a lying voice that tells you that there is no
hope for you! No hope, Man? Why, if you were in the very jaws of death
and the grim monster's teeth were about to close upon you, there would
still be hope for you! The dying thief on the Cross did but trust to
the expiring Savior by his side–and that very day he was with his Lord
in Paradise! Never despair, Sinner, but trust in Jesus when at your
worst!
And as for you, Christian, what have you to do with despairing? Be of
good cheer, for your sins are forgiven you. [See Sermon No. 3016,
Volume 52–GOOD CHEER FROM FORGIVEN SIN.] Even though your eyes fail,
God's eyes do not fail, nor His arm, either. And though you grow weary
with your long waiting, yet when He comes to you, He will make amends
for that and your weary waiting shall be well repaid. Wait at the posts
of His doors, for–
"He never is before His time, He never is too late."
If you will but play the man and let patience have her perfect work,
you shall be well rewarded before long. Therefore wipe away your tears
and "wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your
heart: wait, I say, on the
Lord."
Now, although the Psalmist expected to receive comfort from the Lord,
whatever his trouble might be, yet he was careful to do what he could
in order to obtain it. He looked into God's Word for comfort and he
asked the Lord, "When will You comfort me?"–as if he meant to say, "If
there is anything on my part which prevents my receiving the comfort,
let me know and, Lord, I will put it away from me. Should You be
withholding Your consolation from me because of any sin which I am
harboring, only say the word, Lord, and my sin shall be taken out to
execution! Quick shall be my hand and sudden shall be the stroke, for I
must have Your comfort to sustain my soul–I cannot longer live in this
state of sadness."
I trust that this will be the language of anyone here who is seeking
the forgiveness of his sins. Perhaps I may be addressing someone who
has been seeking mercy for months and he has not yet found it. I hope
he is not satisfied to go without it–I trust that he will hunger and
thirst until he gets it and that he will, at this moment, put up these
requests to God, "Show me, Lord, why You contend with me. When will You
comfort me? What is there which parts me from You and hides the light
of Your face from my poor, guilty, dying spirit?"
Perhaps the words which I am about to utter, in answer to the question
in my text, may be the means of bringing comfort to some who are
groping for it in the dark like blind man trying to feel the way marks
which they cannot see. I shall first address myself to Christians and
then to seekers after salvation.
I. First of all, I SPEAK TO YOU, BELOVED BELIEVERS–to you who are
saying with the Psalmist that your eyes are failing from searching the
Word of God–to you whose hearts are saying to Him, "When will You
comfort us?"
God will answer your question in His own good time and way, but it is
certain that God will comfort you one day He cannot leave His people
without comfort. You know that He said, in olden times, by the mouth of
the Prophet Isaiah, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she
should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may
forget, yet will I not forget you." The mother ought not to be able to
forget her child when it is in that specially dependent stage of its
existence–when it is a sucking child not only her love, but the very
force of Nature ought to compel her to remember it! Yet, though she may
forget her child, God cannot and will not forget you who are His
children! That is impossible–the whole force of His Divine Nature
constrains Him in loving kindness to remember you and to say to you,
"As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." His message
to His servants is still, "Comfort you, comfort you My people, says
your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned." Now, how can
comfort be withheld from those whose sins are pardoned? Christian, you
must have comfort from your God sooner or later!
To help you to answer your question as to why you do not have that
comfort now, consider, in the first place, that God may, of His own
Sovereign will and pleasure, withhold from you the comforting light of
His Countenance. He has His reason for doing so, but He may not give
you that reason. And surely, if He does not tell you the reason, you
will submit to His will. Remember the good advice of the Prophet
Isaiah, "Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of
His servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in
the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." If you do but at last get
to Heaven–if the Lord should take away His candle from you on earth
for a little time, you may cheerfully submit to that privation! You may
cry out to Him, for "His own elect" do that–they "cry day and night
unto Him," yet you must not be impatient if He does not at once grant
your request. With ardent desire you may long for Him to comfort you in
the night seasons, but, amid the darkest shades, you may still say to
Him, "I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right and that You in
faithfulness have afflicted me." It may be because of Divine
Sovereignty that comfort is, for a while, being withheld from you. If
so, then the same Sovereignty which shuts you up in the dark room will,
in due season, open the door and set you at liberty!
But more likely, dear Friends, you will get comfort when you have cast
away your present unbelief. Most of us owe a great part of our sadness
to our lack of faith in God. Is it any wonder that you are sad when you
will not believe your Heavenly Father's promises? Child of God, is it a
surprising thing that your mind should be ill at ease when you mistrust
the veracity of your Father? Would you expect your own children to be
happy if they were always doubting the truth of their father' s
promises to them? What a wretched household such dark suspicions would
soon make! Away, then, with all suspicion of the truth of your Heavenly
Father's promises! It is utterly groundless! It is unworthy of yourself
and it is dishonorable to God! Testify against Him now if you can. When
did He ever fail you? Has He been a wilderness to you? Has He ever
forsaken you? He has chastened you, it is true, but has He ever
deserted you? "Come now, testify, O My people; bear witness against Me
if you can!" says the Lord. "Have I wearied you with labor? Have I
borne you down with burdens and not given you help?" Oh, no! We all
bear witness that He is a good and gracious God–and we pray for the
Holy Spirit's power to rest upon us that we may have done with our
cruel, wicked, disgraceful unbelief! Come, child of God, take down your
Bible, look up some precious promise, grasp it, believe it and expect
to see it fulfilled to yourself! You will not then have long to ask,
"When will You comfort me?" You will be comforted as soon as you have
cast away your sinful unbelief from your soul. Ask the Holy Spirit to
help you to do so at once!
Possibly the answer to your question may take another form–The Lord
will comfort you as soon as you have done with complaining. There are
certain people in the world whom God will never comfort until He has
taken their present murmuring spirit out of them. I know some such
people, to my sorrow. If they prosper very much, if they get on a great
deal in their business, they say, "Oh, yes, we have had a tolerably
good year!" They never admit that they have had anything beyond "a
tolerably good year." That is all that they will say even when their
money is rolling in, in floods! Many a farmer, when his ground is
bearing as much corn as it possibly can, says, "Yes, I shall do pretty
middling this year." He calls the very best that he can possibly have,
"pretty middling!" And if he should happen to have a little loss, or a
little trouble, or some little vexation, then straightway his mouth is
filled with murmuring against God. And though
he would not like to have it called by that name, yet it is a sort of
minor blasphemy against the Most High–envying others, speaking of them
as though they had all the sweets of life and talking of himself as
though he had to drink all the bitters and all the dregs of the cup.
Some of you know people of that kind, who seem to be "cut on the
cross"–a strange sort of people who can always see clouds on the
finest day and who will say that the grass is all dried up even when
all can see that it is beautifully green!
Ah, my dear Friends, you must get rid of all this if you want God to
comfort you! There is something expressive in that word, murmur–I have
often wondered at the wisdom of the man who gave it the meaning that it
has, though I do not know who he was. "Mur-mur"–two ugly little
syllables such as any cross child could easily sound! But it is a
childish, foolish, wicked habit for any of us to fall into–to be
murmuring against God–for, after all, our mercies far outnumber our
sorrows! As long as we are out of Hell, we have no right to complain,
for, if we had received our just desserts, we would have been there.
Dear Friends, may God help you to shake off this murmuring spirit as
Paul shook the viper off his hand into the fire! And when you have done
that, then you will probably find that the Lord will speedily appear to
comfort your heart!
Again, in some persons there is an absence of Divine Consolation
because there is some sin which is tolerated within them. There might
be very startling discoveries made here, this very hour, if every
professing Christian were compelled, by his accusing conscience, to
stand up and tell the congregation what his secret, besetting sin is. I
fear that at least some of you would never dare to show your faces in
the Tabernacle again–you would be ashamed to be seen among those who
knew such things about you! Yet the smoke of these burning sins rises
in clouds and shuts the face of God away from such inconsistent
Christians. God loves His people, but He does not love their sins. Sin
is hateful anywhere, but it is most hateful in the Lord's own people.
You are, none of you, fond of loathsome diseases such as fevers, but I
am sure that you loathe the fever most of all when it attacks your own
dear child. So, sin is a disease which God hates everywhere, but He
hates it most of all when He sees it upon one of His own children and,
for this reason, He takes His rod into His hand and causes His sinning
child to smart and to cry out with Job, "Show me why You contend with
me." When the Lord's people are really in earnest about this matter, He
points to their idol-gods, or to some other evil thing which they have
harbored in their hearts and so awakened His anger. Then, if they arise
and cast out these abominations, the rod is put away and God once more
gives them the comforts of His Grace. Therefore, my Brothers and
Sisters in Christ, if you lack comfort, search and see where the fault
lies, for it is my firm conviction that in nine cases out of ten, it is
owing to some sin that has been indulged! I quoted Job's question just
now, and Eliphaz asked him, "Are the consolations of God small with
you? Is there any secret thing with you? Why does your heart carry you
away? And what do your eyes wink at, that you turn your spirit against
God and let such words go out of your mouth?" I pass those searching
questions on to anyone here to whom they may apply. And I trust that as
the result of doing so, such a soul will be able to present the poet's
petition with the poet's confidence–
"The dearest idol I have known,
Whatever that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Your Throne,
And worship only Thee!
So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame,
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb."
Possibly the lack of comfort is owing to some other cause. Dear
Christian Brother or Sister, you may be at this moment without comfort
because you have neglected some duty. I believe that many of God's
people who know their Lord's will, yet do it not, do get beaten with
many stripes. They say that they do not understand why they are thus
chastised and they do not know what it is that causes them to be so
frequently and so sorely afflicted. It is because there is some
precept, which they know to be their Lord's precept, yet they wink
their eye at it and leave it neglected. Learn a lesson from Jonah's
experience. If the Lord should bid any of us go to Nineveh and cry
against it and, instead of doing so, we go down to Joppa and find a
ship going to Tarshish, and get in it, we must not reckon upon having a
smooth passage! Before long there will be "a mighty tempest in the
sea." If we had not been God's servant, there might have been fair
weather–but when a child of God runs away from his plain duty, God
will send a tempest after him–and he may be very thankful if God also
sends a whale–for although the whale may swallow him, yet it may bring
him safely to
land–but he will be sure to rue the day on which he turned away from
his clear duty and sought out a more comfortable path.
Master John Bunyan, whom I cannot help quoting, tells us the result of
Christian and Hopeful going over the stile into By-Path Meadow. They
thought it would be much smother walking just on the other side of the
fence and Christian tried to assure his companion that the path ran
along by the way-side. No doubt they thought that they could keep so
close to the King' s Highway that they would see, in a minute, when the
path began to turn away from the right road– and then they would just
jump over the fence and get into the right way again. They felt sure it
would be all right. At least Christian did, for Hopeful was doubtful
all the while, though he gave way to his older companion. But when
Giant Despair found them sleeping in his grounds, he drove them off
into his dungeon and came, the next morning, with a great crab-tree
cudgel and gave them not a mouthful of bread, nor a drink of water, but
plenty of crab tree! And when, the day after, he counseled them to
destroy themselves, and left them lying, day after day, pining in their
filthy prison– then they understood that smooth walking is not always
safe walking, and that it is best to walk in the right road even though
it may be a rough one! Let us be careful where we walk, for we may lose
our comfort very speedily unless we keep strictly to the path of
obedience. Let us, at all times, with a cheerful and willing spirit,
wear our Master's yoke, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
I will speak very plainly to some of you who get downhearted and
desponding, for I am rather glad that you do get into such a state of
mind. There are some who think that the blame rests with the preacher
if they become despondent. They say that he ought to comfort them more
than he does. Ah, but lazy professors must remember what Paul wrote to
the Thessalonians, "This we commanded you, that if any would not work,
neither should he eat." As for you busy preachers, Sunday school
teachers, tract-distributors and other earnest workers for Christ, when
you do get to a sermon, how sweet it is to you! You have been hard at
work for the Lord and it has sharpened your spiritual appetites! But
lazy Christians who never fail to win souls for the Savior and who only
want to be spiritually fed without doing a stroke of work in the
Master' s service get to be very dainty. No matter how good the fare
may be, nor however much others enjoy it, they are sure to say, "That
is not the food that we like." They want it spiced up to a wonderful
degree and it must be carved so daintily or they will not touch it!
Whereas if they had been hard at work, they would have gained a healthy
appetite which would have turned even the bitters into sweets!
I pray God that those professors who do nothing for Him may be
miserable! "That is a very unkind prayer," say some of you. No, it is
not, for it is meant for your good. See, if you get to be happy in your
idleness, you will stay in that sinful state. But if you are unhappy
while you are doing nothing for the Master, I think you will be the
more likely to say to Him, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" Then I
hope you will soon get to work and I believe that comfort will be sure
to come to you when, in an evangelical spirit, depending upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, you go out to do
what you can for the Lord! Some of you, perhaps, have a great heap of
money stored up and you cannot make out why there is such a bad smell
of canker all over the house–I could tell you! Some of you who have
not been doing anything for your Master for a long while, think that
surely your blood must be congealed in your veins, for it does not seem
to move! I think I could tell you why that is. If you would again
exercise yourself in God's work, as you used to do, you would soon find
that the blood would again course through your veins and that the dew
of your spiritual youth would come back to you. Our sorrows are often
manufactured by our sins–our sins of omission, or of commission. May
we all have Grace, then, to search within ourselves to see if we can
discover the answer to the question, "When will You comfort me?"
II. Now I am going, for a few minutes, to deal with THE CASE OF
ANXIOUS, SEEKING SINNERS.
Where are you, anxious one? Never mind where you my happen to be at
this moment–let the Word of the Lord come straight to you as though
nobody else were here! You are sorrowfully saying, "I have been praying
for pardon for months. I am in the House of God whenever it is open. I
search the Bible as diligently as I can, yet I cannot find comfort. Oh,
that I could get my sins forgiven! I must get that blessing, or I shall
die. Tell me, Sir, when will God comfort me?"
My dear Hearer, it may be that comfort is withheld from you because you
have not fully confessed your sin. We have God's Word for it that "if
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
Then if we do not make a complete confession to our God, we must not
expect to receive pardon. "Oh," you say, "I have said, 'Lord, I am a
sinner.'" That is right, but you must do more than that. Tonight,
before you go to bed, think over your past life. Recapitulate your
faults and confess the whole of them to God–and do not keep anything
back. I have heard of a professor who was guilty of backsliding for a
time and, therefore, was suspended from church membership. He prayed
about the matter, but he used to pray thus, "Lord, you know that I have
indulged a little–have mercy upon me!" Of course no comfort came to
him. Then a Christian Brother said to him, "Tell the Lord the whole
truth–He knows just what it is." The man was wise enough to follow
this good advice, so he prayed, "Lord, you know that I was drunk, will
you not forgive me, for Jesus Christ's sake?" Then the comfort came to
him and you, also, must call your sin just what it is when you go
before God, for you are not truly humbled and penitent as long as you
try to put a gloss upon your sin. David could get no peace till he
prayed, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God." And, my dear Hearer,
you must confess the worst aspect of your case before God. "Make a
clean breast of it," as we commonly say–tell the Lord all about your
sin. Perhaps it is the lack of this that keeps you from being
comforted–the lack of an explicit, plain, full confession of your
sins.
Again, if you ask me why you do not have comfort, although you do try
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I answer, Perhaps there is some
sin that you have not given up and, depend upon it, if that is the
case, although salvation is all by the Grace of God and we are not
saved by our own works, yet, Sinner, you can never have peace with God
till you have made a clean sweep of every known sin! There may be a man
here who has attended the Tabernacle for a long time, and who says that
he cannot get peace. Now, where was he last night? His conscience knows
and I will ask him whether he expects to get peace with God while he
can be found in such society? There is another man here who says that
he cannot get comfort–but where is he to be found the greater part of
the week? Does he not regularly go to the gin-palace? And can he expect
that the Lord Jesus Christ will go there with him? No, that cannot be!
There was no room for Christ in the inn when He was born and there is
certainly no room for Him in the gin-palace of the present day. There
are some men who can cheat in their business–they know very well that
they do not deal fairly with their customers. Their goods are
adulterated and they give short weight–yet they expect to have peace
with God while this is the case? How can it be? Do you suppose that God
will patch up a truce with your sins and give you His forgiveness while
you are harboring such evil things in your house? No, that cannot be!
Though you cannot be perfect, yet you must wantto be perfect and there
must not be any sin which you knowingly spare. Cut them in pieces,
every one of them! As soon as you know that anything is wrong, I pray
you to have such a tender conscience that you will seek to escape from
it, for, as long as you harbor even one of them, comfort will never
come to you.
"But this is such a little sin," says one. Yes, and those little errors
are like the little boys that the big thieves take with them to crawl
through the little windows–and then they open the door and let the big
thieves in! Those little sins will be your ruin unless you forsake them
and get them forgiven! One of our proverbs says, "Take care of the
pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves." Turn that proverb
round and it will teach you that if you look sharply after your little
sins, you will not fall into great ones. It is these so-called little
sins–mixing with worldly society, going into bad company and so
on–that keep so many of you from getting peace with God! Some of you
young women get to walking with ungodly young men. And some of you
young men form acquaintances that are no good to you. And then you come
here and your consciences are somewhat touched, and you ask that you
may be found "accepted in the Beloved." How can that be when you will
walk straight away from this service and talk in such a way as would be
impossible if the Holy Spirit were really in you? The Holy Dove would
fly away from such talk as that! A defiled heart is no nest wherein He
can take His rest.
Once again, is it not very likely that the reason why you do not get
peace with God is this–that you have not trusted to the Lord Jesus
Christ wholly and entirely? There is the root of the mischief! You
still hope to save yourself in some measure and, as long as you cling
to a rag of self-righteousness, you cannot get peace or comfort! If
ever a Sinner is to be saved, it must be entirely by the mercy of God
shown to him solely because of the merit of Jesus Christ and, as long
as a man puts so much as a shadow of a trust in himself beside his
trust in Christ, his comfort will be marred! You must be to yourself as
though you were dead, so far as any confidence in yourself is
concerned–and you must rest alone in Jesus. The finished work of the
exalted Redeemer must be your only confidence!
"How was it, Sam," asked a Christian master of his servant, "that when
you and I were both under conviction of sin, you got comfort so much
sooner than I did? As far as I know, Sam, my life seemed to be as good
as yours before conviction came to me, yet I could not get comfort,
though you did." "Ah," said Sam, "you see, Master, I was a great deal
worse than you were. And when God the Holy Spirit showed me what I was,
I looked at my rags and I said, 'Ah, they are nothing but a lot of
filthy rags, they will never patch up.' So I took them off at once and
I put on the robe of Jesus Christ's righteousness, for I knew my rags
would never match that spotless garment of His. But, Master, when you
got a little light, you looked at yourself and you had been so
good–you had lived such a decent life that you said–'Ah, my coat
needs mending. There is a hole in the elbow and a tear here and there,
but it can be patched up and it shall do a
little longer.' And so, Master, you did not got the robe of Christ's
righteousness as quickly as I did." And some of you moral people will
have hard work in fighting against your self-righteousness. When good
Mr. Hervey questioned a godly farmer as to what was the greatest
hindrance to a sinner's coming to Christ, he thought the farmer would
say, "Sinful self," but he said, "Righteous self," and so it is.
Righteous self-confidence in our prayers. Self-confidence in our
repentance, self-confidence in something we mean to do, or something we
feel that we already have–all this keeps us back from true peace and
comfort!
All the candles in the world will not enable us to do without the sun.
Some of you light your poor little candles and try to get comfort that
way. Put the extinguisher on every one of them and go and stand in the
sunshine, for then you will have light indeed! Give up all your carnal
hopes, your earthly confidences, your good works, your own
righteousnesses–away with them all–and come as poor, guilty,
condemned sinners and trust in Jesus Christ, and you shall get comfort
this very instant, for, the moment a sinner trusts in Jesus Christ, he
is saved! Peace and pardon immediately follow trust in Jesus! Only come
to Him with your sins and miseries, your burdens and your unworthiness,
your hardness of heart and your coldness of spirit–come to Him just as
you are, for, "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by Him." The Lord Jesus is a Physician who heals the sick when
their disease is at its worst–He does not want you to try to make
yourselves better, but to come to Him just as you are–and then He will
heal you as you are.
That was a beautiful act on the part of the Good Samaritan who found
the poor wounded man half dead by the roadside. He did not stand and
gaze at his injuries, and say to him, "My dear fellow, when your wounds
are less painful to you, I will come back and bind them up." He did not
say to him, "My dear man, when you are more conscious of your need of
my services, and can sit up and ask me to help you, I will do what I
can for you." He did not say, "My dear man, when you are very sorry
that you ever came down this dangerous road where you have been waylaid
and injured, I will come and heal you." Oh, no! There the poor man lay,
half dead, and the Good Samaritan went just where he was, stooped over
him and looked at his wounds. Probably the man did not feel anything
just then, for most likely he had been stunned, but the Good Samaritan
felt for him. The man could not plead for himself, but the heart of the
Good Samaritan pleaded for him–and he tenderly bound up his gaping
wounds, pouring in oil and wine–and lifted him up, set him on his own
beast, carried him to the inn and there did all he could to ensure the
completion of his cure. As the Good Samaritan went to the wounded man
where he was, so Jesus Christ, "the Good Samaritan" in the highest
sense of the term, comes to the sinner where he or she is!
But, Sinners, though you are trying to make your hearts ready for
Christ, you will never succeed in doing it! You are wasting your
strength upon a task that must end in failure. Remember that if you
cannot come to Christ with a broken heart, you can come to Him for a
broken heart! If you cannot come as you ought, come just as you are!
And if you have no good thing to plead as a reason for your acceptance,
so much the better will it be for you.
I have tried to put this matter of finding comfort plainly and in as
simple language as I could. O Sacred Spirit, come now, and bring
sinners to Jesus, for His dear name's sake! Amen.