God's Valiant Right Hand
(No. 3361)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1913.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE OPENING OF THE EAST LONDON TABERNACLE, ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22,
1872.
"The right hand of tie Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord does
valiantly." Psalm 118:16.
THIS verse might full often have leapt from the lips of Believers in
the olden times. This verse might have constituted part of the Song of
Moses at the Red Sea, for how wondrously did God there overthrow the
host of His enemies, when, after dividing the sea, Egypt was swallowed
up in it, God, Himself causing the last foe of Israel to be swept away
by the mighty waters! "Sing unto the Lord," they said, "for He has
triumphed gloriously," and by the shores of the Red Sea they knew that
"The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does
valiantly." It was so in the wilderness when Joshua fought with Amalek
and Moses held up his hands in prayer. It was so when they smote Sihon,
king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan. Are not these things
written in the Books of the wars of the Lord, and is it not said, "The
Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name"? It was conspicuously so in
the driving out of the Canaanites. When the people of Israel, untrained
for war, marched into the land, they found that their enemies had
chariots of iron and they were entrenched in cities that were walled up
even unto Heaven–but yet all the Canaanites, the Hivites and the
Jebusites could not stand against the twelve tribes of Israel! They
fled before them like chaff before the wind! They were scattered like
the clouds before the tempest! "Oh, praise you the Lord and magnify
Him, for He cast out the heathen and He planted His people in their own
land." The right hand of the Lord was that day exalted, for His right
hand does valiantly!
And was it not so throughout the period of the Judges? Time would fail
us to tell you of Samson, of Gideon, of Barak and all those mighty men
who were as weapons in the hands of Jehovah–javelins cast forth by
Omnipotence! Truly in those days, also, the right hand of the Lord did
valiantly! David, who penned this Psalm, knew this in his own
experience, for he smote the Philistines hip and thigh with great
slaughter. And long after David had slept with his fathers, others
arose and God was with them–and the Lord did mighty deeds. Have you
forgotten how the hosts of Sennacherib lay like the sere leaves of
autumn when the breath of the archangel had blasted them? Right onward
throughout the whole history of Israel, the foes of God had made
headway for a while, for He put His hand, even His right hand, into His
bosom. But when the Lord has risen and His people have chanted the
solemn Psalm, "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered," then
they that hated Him have fled before Him! Into smoke have they been
consumed like the fat of rams! Into smoke have they been consumed away!
"The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does
valiantly."
But from those triumphs of physical might over warlike powers we turn
our eyes to another field of battle–a spiritual one! And God who was
mighty with weapons of war, we find mighty with the sword of the Spirit
and with the weapons of the Gospel! And we claim the verse which is now
before us as a song of the New Testament as well as a chant of the Old!
The right hand of the Lord is this day exalted and still it does
valiantly!
We shall ask your attention not to a very lengthy sermon, but to these
three points–The triumphs of the Lord Jesus; the triumphs of the
Gospel in the Church; the triumphs of Grace in individual hearts. To
all these, and I know not to which one more than another, the text is
most appropriate.
I. CONCERNING THE TRIUMPHS OF THE LORD JESUS IT MAY BE SAID, "The right
hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does
valiantly." He did not come as a Man of war, for He is the Prince of
Peace. He came not here with sword, shield and buckler, but He came
with a body fitted to suffer and with a heart that was made
strong to endure. The Christ of God came in lowliness and in shame, to
be despised and rejected of men, but for all that He fought great
battles in the midst of His weakness and won for Himself wondrous
spiritual victories. Observe, dear Friends, with holy adoration, how
our Lord Jesus Christ met Satan in conflict, not once nor twice, but
many times! In fact, throughout the Savior's life, the prince of the
powers of the air assailed our Master. That was a glorious duel which
was fought in the wilderness and on the lofty mountain, from which
those two contending spirits had a view of the whole world! And on the
pinnacle of the Temple, too. Sharp was the sword of Diabolus when he
sought to smite the Savior under the fifth rib and make a full end of
His innocence. But oh, how glorious the strokes of the Lord, Himself,
with the sword of the Spirit, when He said, "It is written," and yet
again, "It is written," and yet again, "It is written," and He chased
the fiend away! And then triumphant angels came and ministered to the
Conqueror amidst the loneliness of the desert. Oh, you Spirits, you
might have sung that day, "The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the
right hand of the Lord does valiantly." All through His life our Savior
kept His vantage ground. The prince of this world assailed Him, but he
made no dent upon His armor, much less wound upon His soul! He was
tempted in all points–the darts flew so thick that they assailed Him
from head to foot–but He was without a wound at the close of the
conflict! He was tempted, but yet without sin. And you know how it came
to the last tug of all in the Garden of Gethsemane. Oh, what a
wrestling was that, when, as it were, the arch-fiend grappled close
with Christ and gripped Him so that–
"That desperate tug His soul might feel, Through bars of brass and
triple steel."
It brought the bloody sweat down the Master's face, but He did not
relinquish His hold upon the foe and gave him such a fall that he never
shall recover the defeat which he sustained amidst the olive trees of
Gethsemane! And on the Cross, too, when he rallied his forces for the
last time and assailed the Spirit of our Lord with all the malice of
his infernal nature, there the great Michael, the true Archangel, set
His foot upon the dragon's head–and though His heel was wounded–yet
He broke that head! And the strength of the power of evil is gone
forever! Its monarchy is finally destroyed. "The right hand of the
Lord," though it was a pierced hand, "the right hand of the Lord,"
though it had grasped a scepter of reed, "does valiantly"! "The right
hand of the Lord is exalted."
The same might be said, but we should go over the same ground, again,
if we spoke of the conquests which our Lord achieved over sin in every
shape and form. It mattered not how it approached Him–He repelled it!
He overthrew it as far as He was personally concerned. And when the
sins of His people were laid upon Him, oh, Brothers and Sisters, how
dreadful was that hour, but how ought we to look back upon it with
devout thankfulness! When the sins of His people came like an avalanche
to crush Him, how gloriously did He sustain the load! With what
wondrous power of angels did He suffer the wrath of God which was due
for the sins of His people–
"Bore all Incarnate God could bear, With strength enough, but none to
spare."
And when He had made Atonement forever for all His people's sins and
brought in everlasting righteousness for all His chosen, and could say,
"It is finished"– when He gave up the ghost–then truly the right hand
of the Lord was exalted and the right hand of the Lord had done
valiantly! Brothers and Sisters, the Lord Jesus has this day conquered
all our sins! There is not a transgression left to accuse His people!
There is no record against them in God's book! He has perfected forever
them that are set apart. The work is finished! Salvation is complete!
The right hand of the Lord has done for us what we could not have done
for ourselves! What the angels of Heaven would not have been so foolish
as to have attempted, the Lord Jesus Christ has most surely completed
for all Believers! Heaven rings this day with the joyful songs of His
triumphant saints who tell how "the right hand of the Lord is exalted."
Our precious Lord is to be praised in language like our text for having
vanquished death as well as sin. Satan and sin He overthrew and
virtually therein He conquered death. It did not seem as if He would
vanquish death, my Brothers and Sisters, when He lay in the grave. The
image of death was set as with a seal upon His brow! The Lord of Life
and Immortality seemed, and was as really dead as any of the sons of
Adam! The three days passed–the appointed time in which He should be,
like Jonah, in the bowels of the earth. But on the third day He could
not be held by the bonds of death. I think
1 see Him, like another Samson who had been bound with cords, awakening
from His slumber like a strong man refreshed, and He snaps the bonds of
death, for it was not possible that He could be held by them! Then the
stone was rolled away from the door of the sepulcher and out He came,
resplendent in the glory of His Resurrection body! From that moment
death has been destroyed! Children of God shall pass through the grave,
but they cannot be confined in it. "Oh,
death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory?" Christ
has forever taken away the gates of the Gaza of the grave, carried them
far away where Satan can never bring them back, and death cannot
restore his stronghold. Glorify the ever-living Christ, for His right
hand is exalted!
And the same was conspicuously true in the day when our Lord left this
world and rose to the Father Our imagination can hardly depict that
scene, when they who received Him after the Apostles had lost sight of
Him, brought His chariot from on high to bear Him to His Throne. Oh,
what an ascent was that, when flashed the eternal coursers up the
celestial hills. For He comes, mighty to save! He went forth to battle,
but He comes back from conquest to wear His well-earned renown. Do you
not see at His chariot wheels the bound monsters? They must be dragged
to the very gates of Heaven and then hurled down again! He has led
captivity captive and received gifts for men. Oh, in that day of our
Lord's ascending up on high, they who gazed upon the matchless
spectacle of the returning King of kings must have said, if not in
words, yet certainly in sense, "The right hand of the Lord is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord does valiantly."
In those victories, Beloved, you and I have a share. Satan was
conquered for us! Sin was overcome for us! Death was bound for us–
"Hell and our sins obstruct our course, But Hell and sin are vanquished
foes! Our Savior nailed them to His Cross, And sang the triumph when He
rose."
Believe it and be glad of it! All your enemies are overcome! You still
have to battle, but you fight with conquered foes. The dragon who is
most dreadful to you carries a deadly wound about him. Your sins with
which you have to contend from day to day are virtually slain. They
have their death wound–they shall not be able to follow you into
Heaven. Oh, rejoice in your Lord, conquer in His conquests, be
victorious in His victory, overcome through the blood of the Lamb, and
give Him all the glory of your triumph! Now, I pass on to note, in the
second place, that our text is very applicable to–
II. THE PERPETUAL TRIUMPHS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST.
The Church began with feeble numbers, with small wealth. I might add,
with comparatively little talent, but she was clothed with the Holy
Spirit–she was, therefore, mighty! Let us just look at the history of
the Church a minute or two, that our souls may be comforted with the
prospect of the like victories in days to come. When first the Church
was in the world like a new-born child, the dragon vomited forth
torrents with the hope of drowning it. You know the rough weapons with
which the world assailed the Church at first. The sword was unsheathed,
prisons were put into use, the rack, unutterable torments, shame,
reproach, every infernal art of persecution was pressed into the
diabolical service to put down, if possible, the cause and Kingdom of
Christ in the world. Now, only think for a minute what became of the
continued attempts, the cruel attempts of the world against the Church,
for the result conspicuously shows how the right hand of the Lord was
exalted! The more they persecuted Israel in Egypt, the more they
multiplied–and it was the same with the Church of God. They that were
persecuted went everywhere preaching the Word. They might have tarried
at home, perhaps, and been corn in the garner, but persecution broke
down the door and they were thrown, like handfuls of wheat, broadcast
over the nations–and everywhere the precious Seed sprang up! It was of
no use killing the Christians–it was like the killing of the
Hydra–the cutting off of one head made a hundred fresh ones spring up!
Young men went to see the martyrdom of saints and as they saw their
holy patience, they came to be Believers themselves, till dying
Christians became the most powerful preachers of the Gospel and even
the saints that believed were comforted by the sight of the death of
the martyrs–they went to see how to die, they went to learn the way to
give themselves up for Christ! The anvil never smites the hammer in
return, but it breaks many hammers. It wears out the hammer. Here is
the patience of the saints. God being in His Church, she has borne year
after year, and God has forborne to avenge her, but she has triumphed!
Her weak, feeble maidens and her illiterate men, her sons and her
daughters who lifted not a hand in self-defense, have vanquished those
that were armed to the teeth and had the power of Imperial Rome and of
all empires at their back! "The right hand of the Lord," amidst the
hosts of martyrs who wear the ruby crown in Heaven today, "is exalted,"
for "the right hand of the Lord does valiantly."
Then, at the same time, the Church was sent into the world to combat
with the superstitions which existed in that age and, Brothers and
Sisters, the superstitions of ancient Rome were very attractive, very
venerable. They had existed
through long ages. They were interwoven with the daily life of the
people. Poetry, art, philosophy, all lent their power to maintain the
old heathenism with which the Christian Church came in contact. I have
no doubt whatever that the Pontifex Maximus of the day, if he had been
told that in Paul he saw a rival, teaching a religion which would break
down all the old altars and the temples of Rome, would have ridiculed
the statement. And yet it was so, for where are the gods of old Rome
today? Who worships Jupiter today? Who bows before Saturn, father of
the gods? Or who pays reverence to Venus or Diana? These have gone–and
what has smitten them and broken them in pieces? The stone cut out of
the mountain without hands has dashed them all in pieces and broken
their power like potters' vessels! And none shall set up these false
gods again. Nor was it so in Rome, alone. In all countries, the Church
of God has had a complete triumph. Weird superstitions woven with
stories of magic which alarmed the multitudes have fled like the birds
of night before the rising sun! No form of superstition which the enemy
has been able to devise has had power to retain its hold where the
Gospel has been fully preached. The superstition might seem to stand
like the eternal hills, but Faith has said, "Who are you, great
mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain," and the mountain
of superstition has melted away! "The right hand of the Lord is
exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly."
But, my Brothers and Sisters, the Church has been assailed by heresies
within herselfand if anything might have destroyed her, surely it would
have been these! I will single out but one–the Arian heresy. You that
are well read in Church History will know how very potent at one time
the Arian heresy was in the ancient Church. The Divinity of our Lord
became almost universally denied! He was a great man, a good man,
perhaps the best of men, but they said that He was nothing more. It was
a grand day when Athanasius declared that Christ was "very God of very
God," and, finding himself alone, yet said, "I, Athanasius, against the
world." It did seem an unequal combat, for there were monarchs on the
side of the Arians–bishops and the power of the then Church, as well
as the power of the world! But Arianism– where is it now? The pure
faith of God has flung it off like drops of rain that are cast off from
the housetops and remain not! There may be some sleeping in the dens
and corners of the earth, to hide their ignoble heads, but the heresy
is dead for any power that it has in the Christian Church. And so shall
every heresy die. As the eternal God lives, nothing is immortal but the
Truth of God–nothing is eternal but the Gospel! The right hand of the
Lord fights not for a lie, but it is lifted up and His arm is made bare
for the truth of His Son Jesus Christ! And all along through the pages
of Church History this is true–that the right hand of the Lord is
exalted, and does valiantly in overthrowing error!
But the Church had to suffer from something which excelled heresy
because it was the aggregation of heresy, superstition and apostasy. I
mean the spread of Popery. In the Middle Ages the night was sevenfold.
There was scarcely light enough for the anxious seeker to see his Lord!
And men were crushed by the Inquisition, by the practice of priestly
confession, by the domination of priests, bishops and popes. And if any
man had then bewailed the absence of the light, as some few did, and an
angel had said to him, "Courage, my son. The day shall come in which
all this system shall lose its power and the old Gospel shall come
back"–I can imagine I hear the weeper say, "If the Lord should open
windows in Heaven, could such a thing be?" But such a thing was! God
found the man and gave him a heart of iron and a brow of brass–and
Martin Luther's voice was heard ringing across these waters, saying,
"Therefore is a man justified by faith, and not by the works of the
Law." And other voices took up that strain till in regions where that
Truth of God was an utterly unknown thing, it became familiar to the
peasant at the plow and humble men and women, hiding away from the
powers that would have destroyed them, cheered one another with the
gladness of that Gospel sound! Oh, you know, Beloved, how God smote the
church of Rome in those days gone by, and as you read the story of the
Reformation, you can say, "The right hand of the Lord is exalted."
Now, I shall not detain you with history. I shall bring you to today,
for the truth of the olden times is fulfilled in your ears again this
day. Wherever the Gospel is preached, the right hand of the Lord is
exalted! We have seen it and, therefore, we speak what we know. If the
Gospel of Jesus Christ is faithfully preached, no matter by whom–if it
is the whole Gospel affectionately declared, prayed over, believingly
delivered–it will always glorify God's name! I want you to notice in
these days how the Lord's hand is exalted in some respects.
First, in this respect–in awakening the attention of a negligent
people to the Gospel. There is nothing in the world that makes so much
stir as preaching Christ! You shall preach anything else you like and
the people will sleep. But if you will preach Christ out and out
simply, in plain Saxon, as Paul would have Him preached, not with
wisdom of words, you shall find the people will come together! I know
not why it is, but so it is, that even those who dislike the Gospel
will
come to hear it! And though sometimes they set their teeth together and
curse the men that preach it, yet they come again–they cannot help it.
A Gospel preacher has charms coming from his lips that bind themselves
around men's hearts. And he holds them captives, unwilling at first,
and afterwards joyful captives, to the power of the Word He preaches!
There should be little need of advertisements with a simple, plain,
bold Gospel preacher. You shall put him down a back street, you shall
give him a passage down a court, you shall then do nothing more for him
but let him speak to a handful of people–and the first news you will
hear of him is that he is eccentric, that he is extraordinary, that he
is a fool, that he is a madman! This is always good news! There is a
man of God somewhere about when we hear that noise! Straightway people
want to hear this enthusiast, this Methodist, this Presbyterian–and
they rush to listen–and then it is that there is power felt by the
people! They do not know what it is, but there is a something in it
which seems to grip their hearts and hold them! It is nothing other
than this–that the Lord has said of Christ that if He is lifted up, He
will draw all men to Him! And where Christ is lifted up, people will be
drawn to hear. They must hear! We need not ask them to come–they must
come!. Where His body is, there will the eagles be gathered together!
Where the Savior Christ is proclaimed, there shall they come who need
to feed upon a Savior! Does philosophy achieve such a triumph as this?
You call it a poor triumph. So it may be in itself, but in its ulterior
results it is a very great one. There are wise men on the earth that
would give their eyes and ears if they could but get the people to
listen to them–but where Christ is not preached, there are generally
more spiders than there are human souls. Put Unitarianism in the pulpit
and you shall soon find how the pews begin to multiply in emptiness!
Little else comes of it. A gospel with no Gospel has great power of
dispersion, but it has little power of attraction–but the Gospel of
Jesus Christ soon draws a multitude together and, "the right hand of
the Lord is exalted."
But you will still say this is little, and I shall confess it is
comparatively little, but mark you, if the Gospel is preached, it does
not end in coming and going to hear it, for soon that Gospel comes like
an eagle from afar and pounces down on men's hearts and makes them a
prey to its power! They that came to scoff, remain to pray! They that
looked in from curiosity, remain to receive the Savior into their
hearts! And those who came from enmity become converted into friends!
Oh, how the right hand of the Lord was exalted in the days of Whitfield
and Wesley! The stories of these two eminent men have been written
lately by many loving pens–and I must confess I am always to read the
narratives, however they may be written. Though I have read them many
times, I can always read them again. Oh, it was wonderful when the
whole land was asleep! The Church of England was asleep in the dark and
the Dissenters were asleep in the light– but there suddenly arose up a
man who dared to stand upon his father's grave in the churchyard and to
preach the Gospel! And then there came another, a twin seraph, with
equal wings, who went into fields and began to proclaim the strange
Doctrine of Faith as a saving Grace, the necessity of regeneration and
the work of the Holy Spirit! Oh, those were brave days–the days of the
early Methodists–when the time of the singing of birds was come and
the land was full of the power of the Holy Spirit! And it is just so
now. Anywhere where the Gospel is preached, and preached with the Holy
Spirit sent down from Heaven, there are conversions, there are broken
hearts, there are spirits held by Jesus' love, there are glad ones
consecrating themselves to the Redeemer's service! "The right hand of
the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly."
And we have seen the truth of this in some of the very darkest parts of
London. What a wonderful instance of what God's Grace can do can be
seen by anyone who chooses to see it in such spots as Seven Dials,
where God's love has blessed the earnest Evangelist. Or in Golden Lane,
where a dear Brother of our own, labors amidst the poverty and sin of
the masses. Why, when I have gone there to see my Brothers and Sisters
meet together, the poorest of the poor–fruit sellers, men that were
drunks and blasphemers, women that were thieves and harlots–and have
heard them sing the praises of Jesus and rejoice in His dear name, I
have felt "the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the
Lord does valiantly." And so here and all around! I need not quote
instances, for you know them better than I do, of how lions are turned
into lambs and ravens into doves, and the most unlikely spots in East
London–that were deserts, salt lands and not inhabited, that looked as
if they were cursed of God–have been made to rejoice and blossom, as
the rose, when the preacher of the Gospel has come into the place and
His master with him! Oh, yes, "the right hand of the Lord is exalted."
But they say the Gospel has lost its power. I read the other day that
some of us were the echoes of a dead Puritanism, that we were not
abreast of the age and were preaching a faith that was practically
dead! Sirs, they lie in their throats that say so, and some of them
know it, for the Gospel is no more dead than they are, nor half as
much! It lives and lives in all its energy! And they speak not the
truth that dare to say it has lost its force. But it is
unphilosophical! Hair-splitters do not care about it! Neological
divines toss it out as a thing fit for old women! Glory be to God! If
it suits old women, it will suit us and all kinds of people! But
inasmuch as it is not philosophical according to their declaration,
that word of God is fulfilled in our ears, "The foolishness of God is
wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
Then they turn round and say, "But look at those who preach
it–uneducated men–men that are not of the higher classes of society,
unskilled in the refinements, not able to always give the original word
of the Scripture upon which they preach." Yes, Sirs, and it would be a
difficult task for any man to prove that the early triumphs of the
Gospel owed a solitary jot to education and learning! In looking at the
inscriptions in the catacombs a few days ago, when in Rome, I could not
help the observation continually coming to my lips that the early
Christians must all, or almost all of them, have been so illiterate as
scarcely to have been able to write their own names, for the most
common words that are upon the slabs of stone that face the graves of
the early Christians are badly spelt–and there are Greek letters and
Latin letters intermingled, showing that they hardly knew how to finish
a word in one language, but must piece it out with another, not knowing
completely either the one or the other! Yes, but it was because God had
put His Truth into the mouth of babes and sucklings, and established
strength, that when the Church had conquered by such humble
instrumentalities, and the Truths of God had been mighty when preached
by such simple men, the right hand of the Lord was exalted, for the
right hand of the Lord had done it–not the wisdom, nor the craft, nor
the energy of man! God's arm was the more conspicuous because of the
feebleness of the instrumentality! Much rather, then, will we glory in
infirmities, because the power of God does rest upon us, for He it is
that does valiantly! But now I must, in the third place, say a few
words, and but a few, for time fails us, upon–
III. THE TRIUMPHS OF GRACE IN INDIVIDUALS.
Let us talk together. You remember, some of you who are this day
converted, the time when first the Gospel had power over your soul I
remember how I fought against it. A mother's tears would not move me,
nor a father's earnest rebukes. I heard the Gospel, sometimes, and I
was a little affected by it, but I threw it off! But I shall never
forget when it came with power to my soul. I had no shield that could
keep off its darts–the arrows of God found a ready way into my
conscience–and they seemed to drink my very blood! My wound rankled
and was corrupt. My soul refused to be comforted. Then, as I used to go
up to my little chamber and bow my knees in prayer and come down more
wretched than when I entered it, when I would search the Word of God to
find comfort, but could not find it–then it was that he who knew me
might have said, "The right hand of the Lord is exalted in that young
man, for he was proud and lofty, and self-righteous, but now he lies in
the very dust, and wonders that God lets him live, and marvels that
there should be a Gospel for him, and can only half believe it true
that such a wretch as he should ever be saved." Oh, I wish the Lord
would come with power to some self-righteous ones that are here this
afternoon! You are as good as your neighbors? Ah, suppose you are
condemned with your neighbors, will that help you? To be lost in
company is small benefit. Oh, but you have never done anybody any harm?
No, except your God–and you have robbed Him of all the praise that was
due to Him! And you have lived in this world just as you might have
lived if there had been no God! Oh, proud Sinner, I cannot bring you
down, but God can! Oh, for a blow from the mighty arm to level you and
roll you, biting the dust in shame and self-abasement! Some of us know
what that means. May you know it, too, and then you will say, though
your heart is breaking as you say it, "The right hand of the Lord is
exalted! He is good, but I am evil! He is great and I am nothing! He is
infinitely holy, but I am shamefully impure! God be merciful to me a
sinner! God save me for His Name's sake." It is in such a thing as this
that the right hand of the Lord is exalted.
But let me talk with you further, you that know the Lord. Beloved, do
you remember when you sought to escape from the multitude of your sins?
Do you recollect when they compassed you about like bees? You could not
count your sins–you had forgotten them–they seemed dead and buried,
but they all came to life, again, and they swarmed about you! They
buzzed about you at your table. They stung you in your sleep, in your
dreams. They stung you at your work. You had no peace because of your
sins! And do you remember the place, the spot of ground, where you met
with Jesus? Some of us recollect it to a yard. We looked to Him upon
the Cross and the battle was over at once! One look to Jesus,
Crucified, and the sins that compassed us about were destroyed in the
name of the Lord–and the fires that threatened to devour us were
quenched as a fire of thorns through the precious blood of Jesus! Do
you remember it? Oh, let your soul go back to your spiritual birthday.
Ring the bells of your heart, again, and hang out the streamers of your
soul for that
happy day when Jesus washed your sins away! Oh, Beloved, that day
beyond all others, the right hand of the Lord was exalted, the right
hand of the Lord did valiantly for you! It is a grand picture. I should
like to see some artist attempt to sketch it, but he certainly must
fail. I would like to hear some poet sing it, but I think that he could
hardly reach the dignity of the argument. When Miriam and the daughters
of Israel took their timbrels and went forth with the song and the
dance to sing because Egypt had been destroyed, and Israel was free, do
you know the note in that song that pleases me best of all is this,
when they said, "The depths have covered them; there is not one of them
left." Why, they looked upon the Red Sea and could not see a trace of
their foes! And I think I hear them singing it, "The depths have
covered them; there is not one, not one," and they answered each other,
"Not one, not one, not one of them left." And so when you and I looked
to Christ and saw His atoning Sacrifice like a mighty sea roll over all
our sins–in that blessed day our spirits sang, "The depths have
covered them; there is not one, not one, not one of them left." Every
sin is gone, every transgression swallowed up in superabounding Grace.
"The right hand of the Lord does valiantly."
The same has been true, beloved Friends, in the many cases in which you
and I have had to overcome our troubles. What sore afflictions have we
passed through! Some to whom I speak, it may be, have had mountains of
tribulation. Yes, Beloved, but when God has been with you, you have
stepped from mountaintop to mountaintop without going down into the
valley at all!
And, beloved Friends, to close all, where there was much room for great
enlargement, let me say, when you and I shall come to die–as soon,
thank God, we shall, for it is a subject to be treated of with
thankfulness–we shall find in our dying moments that "the right hand
of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly." I
might almost say that I came here from the grave, for it is in truth
but a day or so since I went to bury one of the holiest men I ever knew
and, I may add, the happiest man I ever saw in all my life! He fell
asleep at a good old age, but as I stood by his bedside often in his
last illness, I envied him. Covered from head to foot, as he said, with
the boils of Job and the sores of Lazarus in one–with all his bones
aching as though they were out of joint, yet he said to me–"What a
happy thing it is to be here." And I said, "What a happy thing to be
upon a dying bed?" "Yes," he said, "for I am with God, and God is with
me, and Christ is mine and I am His, and it is the happiest day I ever
lived." He had often said that in his lifetime, for I never knew him
otherwise than rejoicing in his God. But I was glad to hear him, when
his eyes were almost glazed with death, say, "It is the happiest day I
ever lived." And just before he died, instead of expressing any regrets
at the pain he was feeling, or at his departure, he turned round and
said to his dear ones around the bed, "You seem all changed to me from
what you were. I love you, but I have reached a higher stage than
things that are seen. I have seen the King in His beauty in the land
that is very far off–and I have heard words which it is not lawful for
a man to utter." And they said, "Can you not tell us something of what
you have seen?" He said, "You must pardon me. I am forbidden to tell
you. But henceforth, I have done with all things here below, and I am
taken up with the joy and glory of my Lord." "My bliss is so great," he
said, "it kills me! I cannot live much longer through the excess of joy
I feel!" In a few short minutes he had closed his eyes and was with
God.
The Negro said of his minister, "Sir, he is dying full of life!" So
have I seen them die, full of life–the best of life! And I have then
thought, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. The
right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does
valiantly." Fear not! The last conflict shall be the chief of your
victories this side the river! The Lord bless you and make you a
blessing. Amen.