Gracious Renewal

Gracious Renewal
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 25, 1863, BY THE REV. C.
H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10.
WE had a joyful meeting last Wednesday evening. As a Church we all met
together as a loving family, and it was a sight of the most encouraging
kind to see a great host, like the host of God, of Brothers and
Sisters, all dwelling together in unity. That solemnly joyful sight
suggested to my heart the propriety of addressing you today upon the
subject of the renewal of your consecration to Christ. I thought that
the season, the annual season when we all meet together, would be but a
fit and proper opportunity for our giving ourselves over again to Him
whose we are, and whom we serve.
In an honored sanctuary in the neighborhood, it is the custom at the
early part of the year to have a solemn form of covenant read at
communion, when the Church members all give their verbal assent with a
solemn "Amen." There must be something very solemn, and at the same
time something very delightful, in the uttered consent of a multitude
of persons to the will and law of Christ. Days of annual celebration
should be days of solemn dedication.
Dear Friends, there are other occasions when you might very rightly, I
think, renew your Covenant with God. After recovery from sickness,
when, like Hezekiah, you have had a new term of years added to your
life, and have risen from the bed of languishing to tread the
greensward, and breathe the fresh air. Then should you sing–
"My life which You have made Your care, Lord, I devote to You."
After any extraordinary deliverance, when your troubles have a pause,
when your joys bud forth anew, when after a season of deep depression
of spirit you can once again lift up your brow, and bathe it in the
light of God–then, again, should you visit the foot of the Cross of
Christ–and by the blood that is sprinkled there renew your
consecration to your Lord.
Especially will it be incumbent upon you to do this after any sin,
after any such sin, I mean, as may have grieved the Holy Spirit, or
brought dishonor upon the cause of God. Then, like David, repair to
your chamber, and, with bitter tears of penitence, look to the hyssop,
and the blood which can make you whiter than snow–and again offer
yourself unto the Lord Most High as a teacher of sinners–or a singer
of His praise. I think, Brothers and Sisters, we should not only let
our troubles confirm our dedication to God, but our prosperity should
do the same.
If we should ever meet with occasions which deserve to be called, in
Oliver Cromwell's words, "crowning mercies," then, surely, if He has
crowned us, we ought also to crown our God. If He has been pleased to
give you a wreath of loving kindnesses and of tender mercies, then
bring forth anew all the jewels of the Divine regalia that have been
stored in the jewel closet of your heart. And let your God sit upon the
throne of your love, arrayed in royal apparel. If we would get good out
of our prosperity, we should not need so much adversity.
If we would gather from a kiss all the good it might confer upon us, we
should not so often smart under the rod. If we will not gather wisdom
from vines and fig trees, we must be taught it with briars and thorns.
Our folly makes rods for its own back. Do any of you come here today
with hearts leaping for joy? Have you received a valued favor which you
little expected? Has the Lord put your feet in a large room? Oh, can
you sing of mercies multiplied? Then this is the day to put your hand
upon the horns of the altar and say, "Bind me here, my God. Bind me
here with cords, even forever."
I may also suggest that there are certain seasons in life when this
fresh espousal is very comely–in arriving at manhood, at the birth of
children, at the death of friends, in passing the anniversaries of our
birth, in advancing from strength to gray hairs–we may read anew the
memorials of our love. Inasmuch as we need the fulfillment of new
promises from God, let us give fresh promises to God, or, rather, let
us offer renewed prayers that the old ones may not be dishonored.
I have known persons who have religiously set apart a certain day in
the month, or year, when they would look anew over their obligations,
survey their state before God, and determine to be the Lord's forever.
Let us commend their zeal, if we do not imitate their precision. Well,
Beloved, I suggest–and I am sure such a joyous act as this will never
be out of season–I suggest that this morning, if God shall enable us,
we renew our vows unto Him.
These were the thoughts which possessed my heart. But there was another
which overrode them all, and prevented my following out my desire. You
see, my text deals not with renewing our vows before God, nor with our
proclaiming anew in the courts of the Lord's house our surrender to
Him–no, it goes deeper than all this–"Renew a right spirit within
me." Surely, if the Lord will do this, then our consecration will be
renewed. If the fountain is filled, then the streams must flow. If the
sun is made to shine, then the plants must bud. If the sap within the
tree flows vigorously, then the fruit without will be plentiful.
Perhaps we have done well to lay the axe at the root of the tree by
going to the very soul and core of this matter. We have our hand upon
the lever now–it is a dead weight when a man tries to renew his own
vows–but now we have the lever under it. If we cry to God in prayer,
"Renew a right spirit within me," we shall accomplish our end none the
less certainly, even though we do not so much preach upon the subject
of consecration, as upon the power of God the Holy Spirit to renew our
spirit and bring us afresh to Himself.
Come then, Beloved. I want, not so much to preach, as to lead you now
to the footstool of Divine mercy in humble, earnest entreaty–that the
Lord may renew within you a constant spirit and invigorate the life of
your piety. For this there are several reasons, which we will give at
once.
I. And, first, a cogent motive of desiring the renewal of our graces is
to be found in THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR IT, IF WE WOULD PERSEVERE.
That we need renewal is very clearly seen when we reflect that all
created things need it. Nothing that God has made is self-existent.
Self-existence belongs exclusively to the, "I AM THAT I AM." Even the
tall archangel, who stands nearest the eternal Throne, can only claim a
borrowed existence which is immortal only in the immortality of God.
The very mountains crumble, rocks dissolve, and marble wears away.
Those old rivers that have even been adored by idolaters for their
antiquity, still need to be refreshed with the melted snows from the
mountain's brow. It is rumored of our mother earth herself, that her
soil is losing its former fruitfulness. Certain it is that the most
fertile fields yield no perpetual harvests unless the labor of man
fertilizes the soil. All things on earth need, perpetually, to be
renewed.
"You renew the face of the year," said the Psalmist, for in winter
earth sleeps like a wearied giant, as if gray with the decay of age,
the snow covers its slumbering head. In winter the world shows none of
her youthful verdure. All her beauty lies buried beneath the sod. Are
not all things hushed and quiet in winter's bedchamber of life? But
spring comes leaping on. The song of birds arouses the slumbering earth
and she awakes refreshed.
But were it not for the renewing of delicious spring, would not earth
become everywhere as intolerable as at her frozen poles? Nor here,
alone, is refreshing needed, for doubtless the upper spheres require
fresh fuel for their ardent flames. The orb of day shines in radiance
lent him by the great Father of Lights, albeit that he is, in Milton's
noble phrase, "of this great world both eye and soul." That eye must
soon grow dim with age, and that soul must lose its overflowing life,
if the all-filling God refuses His ever-flowing aid.
No created thing stands by itself. It is only an infernal conceit that
anything can be without the great Creator's perpetual Presence. And
will you lend your soul to this blasphemy of Hell? If your piety can
live without God, it is not of Divine creating. It lives not but in
your imagination. It is but a dream–for if God has begotten it, it
would wait upon Him as the flowers wait for the dew.
Moreover, this Truth of God is especially applicable to those creatures
of God which are endowed with life. Those without life need
preserving–but the truth is not so clearly seen in their case as in
living objects. But life, if God would sustain it, must often, no,
constantly, receive renewal. What animal can live without the
refreshment of sleep and food? Job's war horse, whose neck is clothed
with thunder, must humble himself to his stall and to his provender.
The wild asses of the wilderness, whose bands the Lord has loosed, have
the range of the mountains for their pasture. The unicorn abides not by
the crib, neither will he harrow the valleys for the farmer–yet he
grows weary and lies down to rest. Behemoth, whose bones are as bars of
iron, eats grass as an ox, and leviathan, which makes the deep to boil
like a pot, whose eyes are like the eyelids of the morning, receives
the breath in his nostrils each hour from his Maker.
Even the trees, those motionless things, which wear not themselves with
care, nor shorten their fires with labor– these must drink of the rain
of Heaven, and suck from the hidden treasures of the soil. The cedars
of Lebanon, which God has planted, only live because day by day they
are full of sap fresh drawn from the earth. You and I, having life,
cannot expect that it should be sustained without renewal from God. Our
natural life needs constantly its bread and water. The strongest man
that ever lived must soon yield to the weakness of death, unless he
were reinvigorated by nourishment.
Sampson himself must have a cleft opened in the rock that he may drink,
for though he has slain the Philistines, yet will he perish unless his
thirst is quenched. Assuredly it must be so in spiritual life, or else
all the analogies of nature must be reversed. You must drink again of
the Living Water. You must feed anew upon the Living Bread. What mean
those texts in Scripture that speak of waiting upon the Lord, and
renewing our strength? What can be the meaning of, "renewing our
strength like the eagle's"? And what could be David's meaning when, in
his matchless pastoral, he sings, "You restore my soul," if we do not
need full often the times of refreshing from the Presence of the Lord?
But I need not travel so far to fetch my arguments in your own inner
consciousness. My Brothers and Sisters, you are aware that your piety
requires constant renovation. What downward tendencies the thoughtful
must perceive in themselves. We could travel downhill to Hell how
easily, but upwards to Heaven with what difficulty! Downward, without a
hand to help. But upward, no hand less than the Omnipotent must speed
our course. Do you not find, Christians, that as we men must eat, so we
must pray? Is there not a vacuum in your heart and a pang within it, if
you have neglected supplication?
Do you not discover that as men must breathe, so you must exercise
faith in Christ, for if your faith is suspended for a moment, there is
a suffocation of all your hope, your joy, your love? No–of your very
life! Have you not found that, as it is necessary to repair the waste
of the body by the frequent meal, so you must repair the waste of the
soul by feeding upon the Book of God, or by listening to the preached
Word, or by the soul-fattening table of the ordinances? I will not give
a farthing for your experience–it cannot be the experience of a child
of God–unless you discover a hungering and a thirsting in your inner
man.
And what are these but proofs that renewal is wanted–signs by which
your new nature sets forth to you a secret necessity which moves it to
these outward longings? Oh, how dull our love becomes if we go for a
little time without a sight of Christ! How our faith flickers if we are
for a little season absent from the Cross! How depressed are our graces
when means are neglected! What poor starvelings some saints are who
live without the diligent use of the Word of God and secret prayer! You
know you want renewal! You feel you do. Need I say more?
Moreover, if you do not perceive this very apparent Truth of God, let
me remind you that you may be made to see it, and that terribly, by
some surprising sin. Just as this prayer was forced out of David by his
adultery with Bathsheba, and his bloody murder of Uriah, so you–yes,
you, my Brothers and Sisters, saints before the Lord–yes, you,
Preacher– you may be made to know it, by being suddenly overtaken in a
fault, to your own shame forever. "Let him that thinks he stands take
heed lest he fall."
There are north winds in the hand of the Almighty which He has not yet
permitted to come forth upon men. But when the whirlwind shall be
loosed, woe, woe to the tree that has not sucked up fresh sap and
grasped the rock with many intertwisted roots. There are tempests yet
to come forth from the secret treasuries of God. If they come, woe, woe
to the mariners that have not yet strengthened their mast, nor cast
their anchor, nor sought the haven.
Without perpetual restoration, I say, we are not ready for the
perpetual assaults of Hell, or the stern afflictions of Heaven, nor
even for the strife within us. If you suffer the good to grow weaker,
the evil will surely gather strength and struggle desperately for the
mastery over you. And so may you have a sad downfall, a painful
desolation–and a lamentable disgrace may follow from your neglect of
the renewing of your spirit before God.
Once more, here, and though this reason may not seem so forcible as the
last, the wise man will understand it, and see that there is yet mighty
power therein, "That unconscious backsliding from God, which is,
perhaps, even more dangerous, though not so disgraceful as open sin.
That unconscious apostasy from God, I say, will certainly be upon you,
unless you have seasons of renewal. Does not Hosea speak of Ephraim as
having gray hairs here and there upon him, but he knew it not?
Oh, Beloved, I do proclaim–I speak not in any severity against God's
saints–but I do believe that this is the sin in the Church of God at
the present moment–that the most of us have gray hairs here and there
and know it not. We walk so carelessly before God. we do not make such
heart-work of religion as we should. Indifference, I find, to be my own
temptation. I do not know that I am assaulted with certain other sins
which prevail over other men, but this indifference I find to be harder
to meet than even a temptation to lust or covetousness.
I do believe that the Church, to a great extent, is just now where
Bunyan's Pilgrim was when he went through the Enchanted Ground and the
air was heavy, and the Pilgrim had much ado to keep himself from
sleeping. The Church has rest nowadays. These are times of quietness.
And therefore we are in danger of being given to slumber. Perhaps it is
a "ruthless legend that the holidays of Capua ruined the veterans of
Hannibal," but if it is a legend in his case, it is a fact in ours.
The peace and quietness of the Church in these calm times bring on an
idleness, a dullness, an indifference, a lethargy as deadly and as
damnable as outrageous sin itself. And unless the Holy Spirit arouses
us and constrains us to come back again to the simple earnestness of
our first love, we shall slip and slide and discover not how low we
have fallen till out of the depths we have to cry in agony, "Renew a
right spirit within me."
Now, Brothers and Sisters, for these reasons, I do persuade you, and
therein I do persuade myself–let us take with us words. Let us turn
unto the Lord. Let us beg Him to heal our backslidings, and to receive
us graciously. Let us entreat Him to be as the dew unto our souls that
we may grow as the lily and cast out our roots as Lebanon. In the words
of Jeremy in the Lamentations let us pray, "Turn You us unto You, O
Lord, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old."
If the crown is fallen from our head because we have sinned, let us
seek the Lord with deep humiliation of soul. If the joy of our heart
has ceased, if our dance is turned into mourning, let us return unto
Him from whom we have erred, and renew our marriage covenant. "Thus
says the Lord, I remember you, the kindness of your youth, and the love
of your espousals." My Brothers and Sisters, if thus He remembers us,
let us remember Him, and offer this supplication, "Renew a right spirit
within me." This brings me now to a second method of reasoning with
you.
II. Secondly, let us pray the brief but very forcible prayer of the
text because of our OWN POWERLESSNESS TO RENEW OUR OWN SPIRITS. It is a
doctrine acknowledged by all orthodox Christians, and confessed in some
form or other by all Believers, that without the Spirit of God we are
unable to do anything aright. Nevertheless, I question if any of us
have given our full consent to the doctrine of human inability in its
fullest bearings. "Without Me you can do nothing," is a text upon which
our life is the sermon–but until its very close it is probable we
shall not fully fathom the depth of our own weakness.
Brethren, when a ship is in sailing order and in good condition, she
still cannot speed on her journey of herself! Even though the sails are
spread, there is no hope of her making port unless the wind shall blow.
If that is so, how much more is it true that if that ship leaks, if the
worm has begun to eat her timbers, or if by grazing upon a rock she has
done serious damage to her bottom, it is impossible that she should
repair her own damage! If her sails are tattered, how shall she mend
them? If her masts are strained, if any injury whatever is done to her
tackling, how shall she be able to recover herself?
Brethren, you can see the analogy. If the child of God, even when in a
healthy state, needs to cry for the Divine Spirit, how much more when
he has fallen under spiritual decays, or has grievously backslidden,
does he need the Divine hand of the Mighty Carpenter to set him right!
As for ungodly men, the analogy might be pushed still farther if that
were in the subject of this morning. If the ship built and manned
cannot sail without the wind, how much less could the trees of the
forest hew themselves, convey themselves to the shipwright's yard,
fashion themselves into timbers, keel, beam, and mast–and then arrange
themselves into a ship and launch themselves upon the sea!
Yet even this were less a miracle than for an unconverted man to
regenerate himself. But we must return to our point, that the
Christian, when his heart is out of order, has no power to put himself
right again without the blessed Spirit. The disease of the living must
be cured by the same Voice which removes the sleep of the dead. He who
said, "Lazarus come forth!" is needed to say, "Take up your bed and
walk!" Indeed, if you will think for a moment, you will find the work
of renewal to be a stern work. It is called in Scripture–conversion.
Now, in conversion the same power is exercised that was put forth in
raising Jesus Christ from the dead. What power, then, must be required
in the renewal of a soul! Besides, to renew a soul is to go directly
opposite to nature. What power is necessary to make water leap uphill,
to suspend the waterfall in midair, to compel a flame to blaze in the
midst of the depths of the sea? Yet such a power as this is absolutely
needed to reverse the efforts of the flesh, and to make our old carnal
corruptions, which had begun to get the mastery, resign it once more.
The strong man armed keeps the house till a stronger than he binds him.
And sin, when it once prevails in a Believer, would continue to prevail
unless the Mighty One who first broke our chains shall come to set us
free. Do you not know, Beloved, that in the renewal of our spirits
every Divine Grace is needed that was nestled for our first conversion?
We needed repentance in order to our first salvation–we certainly need
it now, that we may be renewed. We wanted faith that we might come to
Christ at first–only the like Grace can bring us to Jesus now.
We wanted a word from the Most High, a word from the lips of the Loving
One, to end our fears then–we shall soon discover, when under a sense
of present sin, that we need it now. No man can be renewed, I say,
without as real and true an exercise of the Holy Spirit's energy as he
felt at first, because the work is as great. The same Graces are
needed, and flesh and blood are as much in the way now as ever they
were. Let your powerlessness, O Christian, be an argument to make you
pray earnestly to your God.
Remember, David, when he felt himself powerless, did not fold his arms
or close his lips, but he hastened to the Mercy Seat with, "Renew a
right spirit within me." Let not the doctrine that you, unaided can do
nothing, make you sleep. Rather let it be a goad in your side to drive
you with an awful earnestness to the great Fountain from which all
streams must flow to satisfy your wants and plead it, plead it as
though you pleaded for your very life–as though you pleaded for your
only son–"Lord, renew a right spirit within me."
Nor pray this falsely. Prove that you mean it by going forth to use the
means. Continue much in prayer. Live much upon the Word of God. Attend
constantly a soul-satisfying Ministry. Kill the lusts that have driven
your Lord from you. Be careful to watch over the future uprisings of
sin–otherwise your prayers cannot be sincere. The man who prays to God
to do a thing must use the means through which God works. He is a
hypocrite who asks the Lord to visit him, and then nails up his door,
or asks for life, and then refuses to eat.
The Lord has his own appointed ways, and sitting by the wayside you
will be ready when He passes by. Oh, continue, then, in all those
blessed ordinances which will foster and nourish your dying Graces. And
strengthen the things which remain which are ready to die. Knowing that
all the power must be from Him, cease not to cry, "Renew a right spirit
within me."
III. But we change our note and come to a third point. I would the Holy
Spirit might honor the word this morning, and I should look upon it as
no mean privilege if I might stir up any of you, my beloved Brothers
and Sisters in Christ, truly today to come afresh to the Fountain
filled with Blood, and to renew again your entire surrender and
resignation of yourselves to your Lord. The argument I use shall be
found in THE BLESSED RESULTS WHICH ARE SURE TO FOLLOW, if the Lord
shall renew your spirit.
Think what joy you will experience! There are some things, Beloved,
that perhaps may need to be renewed, but they would bring no joy. The
physician may require you to receive a new bottle of medicine. It may
be possible that an operation once performed may have lost its potency.
Painful though it is, it may be required to be performed again. But
that of which I speak has no pain to the child of God. It is in itself
so sweet that it ought to tempt you to perform it.
What is it, my Brothers and Sisters? Is it not the renewal of a
brotherly covenant, just as when Jonathan and David went into the woods
and renewed their covenant? I do not believe it was a sorrowful hour to
Jonathan. I can imagine that David shed tears when he parted from his
beloved friend, tears of deep affection, perhaps, but oh, with what joy
did they clasp each other in the woods! With what true love did they
make a covenant when Jonathan loved David as his own soul.
The prince stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it
to David. And he even gave his garments, even to his sword, and to his
bow, and to his girdle. And surely you will not object to renew your
embrace of your David today! Can it be a hard matter to you, once more,
to go without the camp bearing His reproach, to clasp the Man, once
again who is better to you than all the treasures of Egypt? Besides,
there is a sweeter figure. The Covenant we have with Christ is a
marriage Covenant.
I believe in Sweden it is common when a happy pair have been wedded for
five-and-twenty years to have what they call, "A silver wedding." And
if they should be spared to old age, until their children's children
are round about them, on the fiftieth year, they have, "A golden
wedding." Who would not wish to have a repetition of the happy day! Let
us celebrate today, dear Friends, a silver wedding with the Christ whom
we married years ago. And oh, we will wait awhile longer and anticipate
our golden wedding, in the year of jubilee, when we shall see Him as He
is and be like He is.
What? Will you not give Him the kiss that is the token of continued
affection? Do you refuse to give Him fresh pledges of your love, which
is the fruit of His everlasting love to you? Why, the thing is so
joyous that I cannot refrain from crying, "Let the marriage bells be
rung again! Bring forth the wedding dainties once more, and let us sit
at the table of the marriage festival!" Jesus, we do embrace You! We
are Yours, it is happiness, it is Heaven, it is bliss superlative to
renew our vows to You and to receive fresh tokens of Your regard to us.
Do you remember, Beloved, that in our early days, besides having an
abundance of joy, how full of heavenly light our Graces were, and how
real everything appeared to our faith at the first? Now if we can have
our spirit renewed, and made it as it was at first, why, then we shall
have back the same satisfactory reality in our emotions. I speak for
one. I know that when my eyes first looked to Christ, He was a very
real Christ to me. And when my burden of sin rolled from off my back,
it was a real pardon, and a real release from sin to me. And when that
day I said for the first time, "Jesus Christ is mine," it was a real
possession of Christ to me.
When I went up to the sanctuary then in that early dawn of youthful
piety, every song was really a Psalm, and when there was a prayer, oh,
how I followed every word! It was prayer, indeed! And so was it, too,
in silent quietude, when I drew near to God. Oh it was no mockery, no
routine, no matter of mere duty. It was a real talking with my Father
who is in Heaven. And oh, how I loved my Savior Christ then! I can talk
about loving Him now, and methinks if He said to me as He did to Simon
Peter–"Do you love me?" I would dare to answer, "You know all things,
You know that I love
You."
But still, my consciousness of loving Christ is not always as vivid,
now, as it once was. Why, then I was quite sure I loved Him, I know I
could have burned for Him, or suffered anything for His dear sake. Was
it not so with you? Well, Beloved, if we will come now, and put our
hand within His hands afresh, which will be the effect of His renewing
our spirit, then we shall have back again all the fullness and reality
that distinguished our early, new-born piety. Oh, how blessed this will
be!
Moreover, at that time how active all our Graces were! Do you not
remember? Why, you had no doubts then, your faith was so strong. You
had no lukewarmness then, your zeal was so burning. You remember, some
of you, when first the Lord met with you? Perhaps it was in this house,
or in the Surrey Music Hall. You would stand in the crowd till you were
almost ready to drop, but there were no sleepy eyes, no dull, lethargic
spirits. Oh, how you used to drink in the Word of God! It was marrow
and fatness to you when you fed upon it.
If anybody would have bribed you to stay away from a Prayer Meeting or
from a weeknight lecture, they might have offered the world, but it
would have been a bribe too low. But now, too often, if there is a
little discomfort in getting in the gate, if you happen not to get the
very seat you want, or if you happen to be seated uncomfortably, or in
a cramped position–you cannot worship as once you did. I know it may
be the fault of the minister–perhaps he does not preach as he did in
your younger days–when you were first converted. That is possible, I
suppose. Still, I think it is more likely that you have lost the ears
you once had, or that your ears are become dull of hearing.
I think it is more likely that your eyes have lost their quickness of
sight, or that your hearts may be less tender and sensitive. Certainly
your Graces are not in such active exercise as they were. Well now, if
we come back to our Master, we shall have our youthful force and vigor
renewed. To my mind it is always a pleasant sight to see lambs skipping
in the meadows, because it shows they have more strength than they well
know what to do with–and so they do a great many things that are
improper for sheep to do. What odd, fantastic gestures they have!
It is even so with young Christians. They will often do many rash
things just because they have an excess of liveliness. They have such a
full tide of love and zeal that they do not know how to put it into
action. Young life demands exercise. O that some of you who are old in
years, and others of you upon whose Graces there are signs of decay,
could but recover some of this juvenile effervescence! Ah, and you can
have it. In the answer to this prayer you will find it, "Renew a right
spirit within me."
A subject like this grows upon me while speaking of it. I cannot doubt
that you will find it equally enlarge upon you in thinking it over. But
on no account let us forget the practical ends that ought to be kept in
view. Dear Friends, your usefulness to others will be increased if the
Lord should graciously visit you with times of refreshing. You want the
re- newal of your own spirit in your Sunday school class, in the
district where you distribute tracts, in the little room where you
preach–or in your family, with your own children. You want to have
more Divine Grace in your own hearts that you may have power with them.
Well, you must get this by coming anew to your Lord.
Ah, and some of you came up here this morning complaining of the world
and its trials. The world is very hard with you, and troubles are
multiplied. How little weight the sorrows of this life will have in the
scale, if balanced against the joy of your heart when the Lord renews
your spirit. What did you care when you were first converted, whether
you were rich or poor? It seemed no matter to you. Like Peter, you left
the net, and the fishes, that you might get at your Lord. Like the
woman at the well, you left the water pot that you might go and tell
others that you had seen a Man who told you all things that ever you
did.
Well, now, if your former piety comes back, if the zeal of your young
days shall be restored to you, the world will be just as much a trifle
to you, and you will tread it beneath your feet with just as much
heroic contempt as you did when first you received the Gospel, not in
word only, but in power. Since all these blessed results will follow,
let me therefore beseech you–by your love to your own souls, by your
care to grow in Divine Grace, by your anxiety to prosper in the Lord's
way, and by your interest in the welfare of others–pray with me this
prayer, "Renew a right spirit within me."
And You, O Lord, hear it in Heaven, Your dwelling place. Let Your eyes
be open unto the supplication of Your servants, to hearken unto us in
all that we call for unto You.
IV. One other argument only, where many might be given. Do not GOSPEL
OBLIGATIONS irresistibly constrain us by the means of this, our prayer,
to renew our Covenant with God?
Legal motives I would disdain to urge you with. But Gospel motives I
may, and must. Did you do right in giving your soul to Christ at first?
Was it a mistake? Was it the effect of a juvenile excitement, misled by
some fanatical speech? No, you cannot say that. You believe it was the
best thing you ever did in your life. You have often regretted you
never did it before. There are a thousand things you repent of, but
this one thing, that you gave yourself to God, is a subject of
perpetual congratulations with you.
Very well, then, if it was well to do it then, do it now. If you would
not make out yourself to have been a fool, and your faith to have been
a lie. If you would not before the eyes of men and of angels declare
that the whole thing is a farce–this day, even this day–let us go
into Gilgal, and there let us renew the kingdom before the Lord. Oh,
once again do what you did at the first–if it were a wise, if it were
a good thing.
Moreover, Brothers and Sisters, remember how often Jesus renewed His
Covenant with His people. It was not enough to have spoken it in the
ear of Adam, and whispered it to the heart of Eve. Enoch must testify
of it. Abraham must understand it on the plains of Mamre, as Noah
adores the time, when floating securely in the ark. There must be a
renewed revelation to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to Moses, and to Joshua.
Symbols of the renewed Covenant must be seen in the tabernacle, and in
the temple. Each day, each week, each month, each year, each jubilee
must give some fresh form of Christ setting His seal anew to the love
which He bore to His people and His purpose to redeem His Church by
blood.
Does Christ do this, and will you blush to do it? Oh, do as Jesus did
to you–as you would that "the Man" should do to you, do you also unto
Him. And moreover, He has renewed His Covenant with you. Come, I want
you to look back at your old diaries. You have not burned your
pocketbooks, in which you set down in some mysterious marks that others
could not read, some mementoes of your Tabors, your Mizars and the
hills of the Hermonites. I want you to look back. Has not Christ
renewed His Covenant with some of us many times?
My soul looks back and sees some joyous seasons, some days marked with
the red Dominical letter among the days of my history, when He said to
me afresh, "You are Mine. I have redeemed you by blood." It may be it
was on a bed of sickness. Perhaps it was when you were walking in the
streets. It may be it was in a season of holy retirement, or it may be
in a moment when you were brought down to the earth. Oh, He has renewed
His Covenant with us many and many a time with such sweet reassuring
words that our soul, which was tired of this world, has been willing to
stay her three-score years and ten, because her Husband had visited
her.
You have stayed me with flagons. You have comforted me with apples. You
have made me sick with love. Your left hand has been under my head, and
Your right hand did embrace me. Therefore will I renew my vows unto You
even as You did unto me!
Yet farther, dear Friends, and I shall not stay longer than this,
though it is a very wide field. Let us be moved today to renew our
Covenant with Christ, or rather to ask Him to renew our spirit, because
every Covenant transaction binds us to it. You believe in the doctrine
of election. We do not blush to preach it, and you love to hear it.
What does election mean? It means that God has chosen you. Very well,
if it is so, then you will acknowledge it anew today, by choosing His
way and Word. You believe in a special and efficacious redemption, that
you were redeemed from among men. Very well, then, you are not your
own, you are bought with a price.
You believe in effectual calling. You know that you were called out. If
it is so, recognize your distinction and sepa-rateness as a sacred
people set apart by God. You believe that this distinction in you is
perpetual, for you will persevere to the end–if you are to be God's
forever, be His today. And are you not looking for a Heaven from which
selfishness shall be banished? Are you not expecting a Heaven where
Glory shall consist in being wholly absorbed in Christ? Well then, this
day, by all that is coming, as well by all that is cast, let your soul
be bound as with cords that cannot be snapped to the altar of your God.
Backsliders, you that have gone astray, pray this prayer today. He bids
you pray it, and He will, therefore, answer it. The text in the margin
reads "renew a constant spirit within me." You have been obstinate,
wayward, unstable, fickle. Poor Backslider, He has put this prayer here
for you–"Renew a constant spirit within me." My Brothers and Sisters,
the Church has had to cast you out, but if still there is a desire in
your soul toward God, return! Return! Return! Your Father waits to meet
you. The Church, your mother, longs for you. Your Brothers and Sisters
desire to see your face again.
Say it, and we will say it with you, "Renew a right spirit within me,"
and it shall be done. And you, Christians, that have not backslidden,
you, my Brothers and Sisters, whose heads are covered with the gray
honors of long service, offer today this prayer, for you need to pray
it as well as the youngest of us, "Renew a right spirit within me." Ask
the Master who has kept you in your youth to preserve you till, in
life's latest hour, YOU bow, "and bless in death a bond so dear."
You strong men and fathers, who are struggling with the world, battling
day by day with business and its cares, forget not your God through
being mindful of many things. Today, in this little pause in the noise
and turmoil and strife of the world's bustle, come now and renew your
vows. You young men and maidens, you little ones in God's Israel, whose
portion it is to be the lambs carried in His bosom, you, also, say,
"Renew You, O God, a right spirit within me."
Come, renew the dedication so lately made. You that are brought, like
Samuels, to God's house, that you may wear the vestments of prophets
before you wear the garments of manhood–give yourselves anew to the
Lord. Let your youthful voices, so full of sweet music, unbroken as yet
to the deeper bass which the world's care is sure to give them
by-and-by, sing unto the Lord, and let this be your cry–"Lord, I am
Your servant, and the son of Your handmaiden, You have loosed my
bonds!"
May the Lord, the Holy Spirit, so dwell in us that each of us may renew
our vows, through His renewing a right spirit within us. Amen.