Holiness Demanded
(No. 2902)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, IN
1862.
"Holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord." Hebrews 12:14.
ONE feels most happy when blowing the trumpet of jubilee, proclaiming
peace to broken hearts, freedom to the captives and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound. But God's watchman has another trumpet
which he must sometimes blow, for thus says the Lord to him, "Blow the
trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in My holy mountain." There are
times when we must sound the alarm–men must be startled from their
sleep, they must be awakened to enquire, "What are we? Where are we?
Where are we going?" Nor is it altogether amiss for the wisest virgins
to look to the oil in their vessels and for the most sound Christians
to sometimes be constrained to examine the foundations of their hope,
to trace back their evidences to the beginning and make an impartial
survey of their state before God. Partly for this reason, but with a
further view to the awakening and stirring up of those who are
destitute of all holiness, I have selected for our topic, "Holiness,
without which no one shall see the Lord."
There has been a desperate attempt made by certain Antinomians to get
rid of the injunction which the Holy Spirit here means to enforce. They
have said that this is the imputed holiness of Christ. Do they not know
when they so speak, that by an open perversion they utter that which is
false? I do not suppose that any man in his senses can apply that
interpretation to the context–"Follow peace with all people, and
holiness." Now the holiness meant is evidently one that can be followed
like peace– and it must be transparent to any ingenuous man that it is
something which is the act and duty of the person who follows it. We
are to follow peace! That is practical peace, not the peace made for
us, but "the fruit of righteousness which is sown in peace of them that
make peace." We are to follow holiness–that must be practical
holiness, the opposite of impurity, as it is written, "God has not
called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." The holiness of Christ
is not a thing to follow. I mean if we look at it imputatively–that we
have at once–it is given to us the moment we believe. The
righteousness of Christ is not to be followed–it is bestowed upon the
soul in the instant when it lays hold of Christ Jesus!
Our text speaks of another kind of holiness. It is, in fact, as
everyone can see who chooses to read the connection, practical, vital
holiness which is the purport of this admonition. It is conformity to
the will of God and obedience to the Lord's command. It is, in fine,
the Spirit's work in the soul by which a man is made like God and
becomes a partaker of the Divine Nature, being delivered from the
corruption which is in the world through lust. No straining, no hacking
at the text can alter it! There it stands, whether men like it or not!
There are some who for special reasons best known to themselves, do not
like it, just as no thieves ever like policemen or jails–yet there it
stands and it means no other than what it says! "Without
holiness"–practical, personal, active, vital holiness–"no one shall
see the Lord." Dealing with this solemn assertion, fearfully exclusive
as it is, shutting out as it does so many professors from all communion
with God on earth and all enjoyment of Christ in Heaven, I shall
endeavor, first, to give some marks and signs whereby a man may know
whether he has this holiness or not Secondly, to give sundry reasons by
way of improvement of the solemn fact, "Without holiness, no one shall
see the Lord." And then, thirdly, to plead hard, in Christ's place,
with those who are lovers of gain that they may consider this before
time is over and opportunity past.
I. First, then, Brothers and Sisters, you are anxious to know whether
you have holiness or not. Now, if our text said that without perfection
of holiness, no one could have any communion with Christ, it would shut
every one of us out, for no one who knows his own heart ever pretends
to be perfectly conformed to God's will! It does not say, "Perfection
of holiness," but, "holiness." This holiness is a thing ofgrowth. It
may be in the soul as small as a grain of mustard seed and yet not
developed. It may be in the heart as a wish and a desire, rather than
anything that has been fully realized–a groan, a pant, a longing, a
striving. As the Spirit of God waters it, it will grow till the mustard
seed shall become a tree. Holiness in a regenerate heart, is but an
infant. It is not matured–it is perfect in all its parts, but not
perfect in its development. Hence when we find many imperfections and
many failings in ourselves, we are not to conclude that, therefore, we
have no interest in the Grace of God. This would be altogether contrary
to the meaning of the text. As it is not so much my present purpose to
show what this holiness is as, what it is not, I think while I am
endeavoring to undeceive those who have not this holiness, those who
are not condemned may reasonably draw some comfortable inferences as to
their own pursuit of this inestimable Grace.
Well, now, let us note four sorts of people who try to get on without
holiness. First, there is the Pharisee. The Pharisee goes to work with
outward ceremonies. He pays tithes of all that he possesses–his anise,
his mint, his cummin– everything, even to the tithe of his
parsley-bed! He gives alms to the poor, he wears his phylacteries and
makes broad the borders of his garment–in fact, anything and
everything that is commanded ceremonially, he most punctiliously
attends to! But all the while he is devouring widows' houses, he is
living in the practice of secret sin and he thinks that by ceremonies
he shall be able to propitiate God and be accepted. Sinner, pharisaic
Sinner, hear the death-knell of your hopes tolled out by this verse!
"Without holiness"–and that is a thing you know nothing of–"no man
shall see the Lord." Your ceremonies are vain and frivolous! Even if
God ordained them, seeing you put your trust in them, they shall
utterly deceive and fail you, for they do not constitute even a partof
holiness. You cannot see God till your heart is changed, till your
nature is renewed, till your actions, in the tenor of them, shall
become such as God would have them to be. Mere ceremonialists think
they can get on without holiness. Fell delusion! Do I speak to any
Ritualist who finds himself awkwardly situated here? Do I speak to any
Romanist who has entered into a place where not the works of the Law,
but the righteousness of Christ is preached? Let me remind you again,
very solemnly, my Hearer, that those fine hopes of yours built upon the
maneuvers of the priests and upon your own performances shall utterly
fail you in that day when most you shall need them! Your soul shall
then stand in shivering nakedness when you most need to be well
equipped before the eyes of God. These men know not true holiness!
Then there is the moralist. He has never done anything wrong in his
life. He is not very observant of ceremonies, it is true–perhaps he
even despises them–he treats his neighbor with integrity, he believes
that as far as he knows, if his ledger is examined, it bears no
evidence of a single dishonest deed. As touching the Law of God, he is
blameless! No one ever doubted the purity of his manner–from his youth
up his carriage has been amiable, his temperament what everyone could
desire and the whole tenor of his life is such that we may hold him up
as an example of moral propriety! Ah, but this is not holiness before
God! Holiness excludes immorality, but morality does not amount to
holiness, for morality may be but the cleaning of the outside of the
cup and the platter, while the heart may be full of wickedness.
Holiness deals with the thoughts and intents, the purposes, the aims,
the objectives, the motives of men. Morality does but skim the surface,
holiness goes into the very caverns of the great deep–holiness
requires that the heart shall be set on God and that it shall beat with
love to Him. The moral man may be complete in his morality without
that.
I think I might draw such a parallel as this. Morality is a sweet, fair
corpse–well washed, robed and even embalmed with spices–but holiness
is the living man, as fair and as lovely as the other, but having life!
Morality lies there, of the earth, earthy, soon to be food for
corruption and worms–holiness waits and pants with heavenly
aspirations, prepared to mount and dwell in immortality beyond the
stars! These two are of opposite natures–the one belongs to this
world, the other belongs to that world beyond the skies. It is not said
in Heaven, "Moral, moral, moral are You, O God!" But, "Holy, holy, holy
are You, O Lord!" You note the difference between the two words at
once. The one, icy cold. The other, oh, how animated! Such is mere
morality and such is holiness! Moralist–I know I speak to many
such–remember that your best morality will not save you! You must have
more than this, for without holiness–and that not of yourself, it must
be given you of the Spirit of God–without holiness, no one shall see
the Lord.
Another individual who thinks to get on without holiness and who does
win a fair reputation in certain circles is the experimentalist. You
must be aware that there are some professed followers of Christ whose
whole religious life is inward. To tell you the truth, there is no life
at all, but their own profession is that it is all inward. I have had
the misery to be acquainted with one or two such. They are voluble
talkers, discoursing with much satisfaction of themselves, but bitter
critics of all who differ from them in the slightest degree. Having an
ordained standard as to the proper length to which Christian experience
should go, they cut off everybody's head who is taller than they are
and stretching every man out by the neck who happens to be a little too
short! I have known some of these persons. If a minister should say
"duty" in the sermon, they would look as if they would never hear him
again. He must be a dead legalist–a "letter man," I think they call
him. Or, if they are exhorted to holiness, why, they tell you they are
perfect in Christ Jesus and therefore there is no reason why they
should have any thought of perfection in the work of the Spirit within.
Groaning, grunting, quarrelling, denouncing–not following peace with
all people, but stirring up strife against all–this is the practice of
their religion! This is the summit to which they climb and from which
they look down with undisguised contempt upon all those worms beneath
who are starving to serve God and to do good in their day and
generation.
Now I pray you to remember that against such men as these there are
many passages of Scripture most distinctly leveled. I think this is one
among many others. Sirs, you may say what you will about what you dream
you have felt. You may write what you please about what you fancy you
have experienced. But if your own outward life is unjust, unholy,
ungenerous and unloving, you shall find no credit among us as to your
being in Christ! "Without holiness, no one shall see the Lord." The
moment you know a man who is drunk on a Saturday night and then enjoys
So-and-So's preaching on Sunday. The moment you know a man who can tell
you what a child of God should be and then appears himself exactly what
he should notbe–just quit his company and let him go to his own place!
And where is that? Judas can tell you! Oh, beware of such highfliers
with their waxen wings mounting up to the very sun–how great shall be
their fall when He that searches all hearts shall open the book and
say, "I was hungry, and you gave Me no food. I was thirsty, and you
gave Me no drink. . . Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of
these, My brethren, you did it not to Me."
There is another class of persons, happily fewer than they once were,
but there are some among us still–opinionists who think they can do
without holiness. These, too, it has sometimes been my misfortune to
know. They have learned a sound creed, or perhaps an unsound one, for
there are as many Arminians as Calvinists in this line–they think they
have got hold of the Truth of God, that they are themen and that when
they die, the faithful will fail from among men. They understand
theology very accurately. They are wiser than their teachers. They
can–
"A hair divide
Betwixt the west and north-west side."
There is no question about their being masters in divinity. If degrees
went according to merit, they would have been dubbed "D. D." years ago,
for they know everything and are not a little proud that they do! And
yet these men live a life that is a stench even in the nostrils of men
who make no profession of religion! We have some of this kind in all
congregations. I wish you would not come here. If we could do you good,
we might be glad to see you, but you do so much harm to the rest and
bring so much discredit upon the cause at large that your absence would
be better than your company. You listen to the sermon and sometimes,
perhaps, have the condescension to speak well of the preacher who
wishes you would not. Yet, after the sermon is done, on the road home,
there may be a bar just opened at one o'clock and the brother refreshes
himself and perhaps does so many times! Even if it is the Lord's Day,
it is all the same and yet he is a dear and precious child of God? No
doubt he is in his own estimation! And then, during the week, he lives
as others live and acts as others act–and yet congratulates himself
that he knows the Truth of God and understands the Doctrines of the
Gospel and, therefore, he will surely be saved! Out with you, man! Out
with you! Down with your hopes! "Without holiness, no one shall see the
Lord"–
"No big words of ready talkers, No mere Doctrines will suffice– Broken
hearts and humble walkers– These are dear in Jesus' eyes."
Heart-work, carried out afterwards into life-work–this is what the
Lord wants! You may perish as well with true Doctrines as with false if
you pervert the true Doctrine into licentiousness! You may go to Hell
by the Cross as surely as you may by the theater, or by the vilest of
sin. You may perish with the name of Jesus on your lips and with a
sound creed
sealed on your very bosom for, "except a man is born-again, he cannot
see the Kingdom of God." "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for
whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap." Now, if any of you
belong to either of these four classes, I think you cannot help knowing
it and, being destitute of Gospel holiness, you have good cause to
bewail your character and tremble for your destiny!
But to help you still further, Brothers and Sisters, that man is
destitute of true holiness who can look back upon his own past sin
without sorrow. Oh, to think of our past lives! There were some of us
who knew the Lord at 15 years of age, but those 15 years of
unregeneracy–we can never forget them! Others may say, "We did not
know Him till we were 50 or sixty." Ah, my dear Brothers and Sisters,
you have much to weep over, but so have those of us who knew the Lord
in early life! I can look back upon God's mercy with delight, but I
hope I shall never be able to look back upon my sins with complacency.
Whenever a man looks to any of his past faults and shortcomings, it
ought to be through his tears. Some recall their past lives, talk of
their old sins and seem to roll them under their tongues as a sweet
morsel. They live their sins over again. As it was said of Alexander–
"He fought his battles over again, And twice he slew the slain."
There are those who revel in the memory of their iniquities. They live
their life in imagination all over again. They recollect some deed of
lewdness, or some act of infamy and, as they think it over, they dare
not repeat it, for their profession would be spoiled–but they love the
thought and cultivate it with a vicious zest! You are no friend to true
holiness, but an utter stranger to it unless the past causes you
profound sorrow and sends you to your knees to weep and hope that God,
for Christ's sake, has blotted it out!
And I am quite sure that you know nothing of true holiness if you can
look forward to any future indulgence of sensual appetites with a
certain degree of delightful anticipation. Have I someone here, a
professed Christian, who has formed some design in his mind to indulge
the flesh and to enjoy forbidden dainties when an opportunity occurs?
Ah, Sir, if you can think of those things that may come in your way
without tremor, I suspect you! I would you would suspect yourself.
Since the day that some of us knew Christ we have always woke up in the
morning with a fear lest we should that day disown our Master. And
there is one fear which sometimes haunts me–and I must confess it–and
were it not for faith in God, it would be too much for me. I cannot
read the life of David without some painful emotions. All the time he
was a young man, his life was pure before God and in the light of the
living it shone with a glorious luster. But when gray hairs began to be
scattered on his head, the man after God's heart sinned. I have
sometimes felt inclined to pray that my life may come to a speedy end
lest haply, in some evil hour, some temptation should come upon me and
I should fall. And do you not feel the same? Can you look forward to
the future without any fear? Does not the thought ever cross your
mind–"He that thinks he stands may yet fall"? And the very possibility
of such a thing–does it not drive you to God's Mercy Seat and do you
not cry, "Hold me up my God and I shall be safe"! There is no doxology
in Scripture which I enjoy more than that one at the end of the Epistle
of Jude–"Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to
present you faultless before the Presence of His Glory with exceeding
joy, to Him be glory." I say you are a stranger to holiness of heart if
you can look forward to a future fall without great alarm.
Again, I think you have great cause for questioning unless your
holiness is uniform. I mean if your life is angelic abroad and devilish
at home–you must suspect that it is at homethat you are what you
really are. I question whether any man is much better than he is
thought to be by his wife and family for they, after all, see the most
of us and know the truth about us. And if, Sir, though you seem in the
pulpit, or on the platform, or in the shop to be amiable, Christian and
God-like to the passer-by–if your children should have to mark your
unkindness, your lack of fatherly affection for their souls and your
wife to complain of your domineering, of the absence of everything that
is Christ-like–you may shrewdly suspect that there is something wrong
in the state of your heart! O Sirs, true holiness is a thing that will
keep by night and by day, at home and abroad, on the land and on the
sea! That man is not right with God who would not do the same in the
dark that he would do in the light! That man is not right with God who
does not feel, "If every eye should look upon me I would not be
different from what I am when no eye gazes upon me. That which keeps me
right is not the judgment and opinions of men, but the eyes of the
Omnipresent and the heart of the Lord who loves me."
Is your obedience uniform? Some farmers I know in the country maintain
a credible profession in the village where they live. They go to a
place of worship and seem to be very good people–but there is a
farmer's dinner once a year–it
is only once a year and we will not say anything about how they get
home. The less of that is said, the better for their reputation. "It,
is only once a year," they tell us, but holiness does not allow
dissipation even "once a year." And we know some who when they go on
the Continent, for instance, say, "Well, we need not be quite so exact
there." And therefore the Sabbath is utterly disregarded and the
sanctities of daily life are neglected, so reckless are they in their
recreations. Well, Sirs, if your religion is not warranted to keep in
any climate, it is good for nothing! I like the remark which I heard
from one of the sailors on board ship in crossing the Irish Channel. A
passenger said, to try him, "Wouldn't you like to attend a certain
place of amusement?" which he mentioned. "Well, Sir," said the sailor,
"I go there as often as I like. I have a religion that lets me go as
often as I think proper." "Oh, how is that?" he enquired. "Because I
never like to go at all," was the reply. "I do not stay away because of
any law, for it is no trial to me, but I should be unhappy to go
there." Surely the fish, were it asked if it did not wish to fly, would
reply, "I am not unhappy because I am not allowed to fly–it is not my
element." So the Christian can say, "I am not unhappy because I do not
spend my nights in worldly society, because I do not join in their
revelry and wantonness–it is not my element and I could not enjoy it.
Should you drag me into it, it would be a martyrdom which to my spirit
would be repulsive and painful!" You are a stranger to holiness if your
heart does not feel that it revolts at the thought of sin.
Then, let me further remark that those who can look with delight or any
degree of pleasure upon the sins of others are not holy. We know of
some who will not, themselves, perpetrate an unseemly jest, yet if
another does so and there is a laugh excited upon some not
overly-decent remark, they laugh and thus give sanction to the
impropriety. If there is a low song sung in their hearing which others
applaud, though they cannot quite go the length ofjoining in the
plaudits, still they secretly enjoy it–they betray a sort of
gratification that they cannot disguise–they confess to a gusto that
admires the wit while it cannot endorse the sentiment. They are glad
the minister was not there! They are glad to think the deacon did not
happen to see them just at that moment yet still, if there could be a
law established to make the thing pretty respectable, they would not
mind. Some of you know people who fall into this snare. There are
professing Christians who go where you at one time could not go but,
seeing that they do it, you go too–and there you see others engaged in
sin and it becomes respectable because you give it countenance.
There are many things, in this world that would be execrated if it were
not that Christian men go to them and the ungodly men say, "Well, if it
is not righteous, there is not much harm in it, after all. It is
innocent enough if we keep within bounds." Mind! Mind! Mind, professor!
If your heart begins to suck in the sweets of another man's sin, it is
unsound in the sight of God! If you can even wink at another man's
lust, depend upon it that you will soon shut your eyes on your own, for
we are always more severe with other men than we are with ourselves!
There must be an absence of the vital principle of godliness when we
can become partakers of other men's sins by applauding or joining with
them in the approval of them! Let us examine ourselves scrupulously,
then, whether we are among those who have no evidences of that holiness
without which no one can see God!
But, Beloved, we hope better things of you and things which accompany
salvation. If you and I, as in the sight of God feel that we would be
holy if we could, that there is not a sin we wish to spare, that we
would be like Jesus–O that we could!–that we would sooner suffer
affliction than ever run into sin and displease our God. If our heart
is really right in God's statutes then, despite all the imperfections
we bemoan, we have holiness wherein we may rejoice! And we pray to our
gracious God–
"Finish, then, Your new creation, Pure and spotless let us be."
II. Now then, for the second point very briefly, indeed–"Without
holiness, no one shall see the Lord." That is to say no one can have
communion with God in this life and no one can have enjoyment with God
in the life to come without holiness. "Can two walk together except
they are agreed?" If you go with Belial, do you think that Christ will
go with you? Will Christ be a pot companion for you? Do you expect to
take the Lord of Love and Mercy with you to the haunts of sin?
Professor, do you think the Just and Holy One will stand at your
counter to be co-trader with you in your tricks? What do you think, O
man! Would you make Christ a sharer of your guilt? And yet He would be
so if He had fellowship with you in it! No, if you will go on in acts
of unrighteousness and unholiness, Christ parts company with you or,
rather, you never did have any fellowship with Him at all! You have
gone out from us because you were not of us, for, if you had been of
us, doubtless you would have continued with us.
And as to Heaven, do you think to go there with your unholiness? God
smote an angel down from Heaven for sin– and will He let man in with
sin in his right hand? God would sooner extinguish Heaven than see sin
spoil it! It is enough for Him to bear with your hypocrisies on
earth–shall He have them flung in His face in Heaven? What? Shall an
unholy life utter its licentiousness in the golden streets? Shall there
be sin in that higher and better Paradise? No, no! God has sworn by His
holiness–and He will not, He cannot lie–that those who are not holy,
whom His Spirit has not renewed, who have not been, by the regenerating
power of the Holy Spirit, made to love that which is good and hate that
which is evil shall never stand in the congregation of the righteous!
Sinner, it is a settled matter with God that no one shall see Him
without holiness!
III. I come to my last point which is to plead with you. Doubtless,
there are some in this vast crowd who have some sort of longings after
salvation and after Heaven. My eye looks around. Yes, sometimes it has
been my habit to gaze with sorrow upon some few here whose cases I
know. Do I not remember one? He has been very often impressed and so
impressed that he has not been able to sleep. Night after night he has
prayed, he has wrestled with God–and there is only one thing in his
way–strong drink! By the time Wednesday or Thursday comes around he
begins to forget what he heard on Sunday. Sometimes he has taken the
pledge and kept it three months–but the craving has been too strong
for him and then he has given all resolutions and vows up and has
plunged into his besetting sin worse than before!
I know others in whom it is another sin. You are here now, are you? You
do not come in the morning and yet, when you come at night you feel it
very severely. But why not come in the morning? Because your shop is
open and that shop seems to stand between you and any hope of
salvation. There are others who say, "Well, now, if I go to hear that
man, I must give up the vice that disquiets my conscience–but I cannot
yet, I cannot yet." And you are willing to be damned for the sake of
some paltry joy? Well, if you will be damned, it shall not be for lack
of reasoning with you and weeping over you! Let me put it to you–do
you say that you cannot give up the sin because of the profit? Profit?
Profit? Forget it! "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the
whole world and lose his own soul?" What profit have you obtained to
now? You have put it all into a bag full of holes! What you have earned
one way, you have spent in another and you know that if this life were
all, you surely have not been any the better for it! Besides, what is
profit when compared with your immortal soul? Oh, I plead with you,
lose not gold for dross! Lose not substance for shadows! Lose not your
immortal soul for the sake of some temporary gain!
But it is not profit with some of you, it is pleasure–it is a morbid
passion. You feel, perhaps, for some particular sin which happens to
beset you, such an intense longing and, in looking back upon it
afterwards, you think you could give up everything but that. Young man,
is it some secret sin which we must not mention, or is it some private
guilt which is hidden from all hearts but your own? O Soul, what is
this pleasure, after all? Weigh it, weigh it! What does it come to? Is
it equal to the pain it costs you now–to the pangs of conscience, to
the agonies of remorse? When an American doctor, who had led a loose
life, came to die, he seemed to wake up from a sort of stupor and he
said, "Find that word, find that word!" "What word?" they asked. "Why,"
he said, "that awful word–remorse!" He said it again–"Remorse!" And
then gathering up his full strength, he fairly seemed to shriek it
out–"REMORSE!" "Write it," he said, "write it." It was written. "Write
it with larger letters and let me gaze at it. Underline it. And now,"
he said, "none of you know the meaning of that word and may you never
know it! It has an awful meaning in it and I feel it now–Remorse!
Remorse!! Remorse!!!"
What, I ask, is the pleasure of sin contrasted with the results it
brings in this life? And what, I ask, is this pleasure compared with
the joys of godliness? Little as you may think I know of the joys of
the world, yet so far as I can form a judgment, I can say that I would
not take all the joys that earth can ever afford in a hundred years for
one half-hour of what my soul has known in fellowship with Christ! We
who believe in Him have our sorrows, but, blessed be God, we have our
joys and they are such joys–oh, such joys with such substance in them
and such reality and certainty–that we could not and would not
exchange them for anything except Heaven in its fruition!
And then, think, Sinner, what are all these pleasures when compared
with the loss of your soul? There is a gentleman, high in position in
this world with fair lands and a large estate who, when he took me by
the button-hole after a sermon–and he never hears me preach without
weeping–said to me, "O Sir, it does seem such an awful thing that I
should be such a fool!" "And what for?" I asked. "Why," he said, "for
the sake of that court, of those gaieties of life, of mere honor and
dress and fashion I am squandering away my soul! I know," he said, "I
know the Truth of God, but I do
not follow it. I have been stirred in my heart to do what is right, but
I go on just as I have done before. I fear I shall sink back into the
same state as before. Oh, what a fool I am," he said, "to choose
pleasures that only last a little while and then to be lost forever and
forever!" I pleaded hard with him, but I pleaded in vain. There was
such intoxication in the gaiety of life that he could not leave it.
Alas! Alas! If we had to deal with sane men, our preaching would be
easy–but sin is a madness–such a madness that when men are bitten by
it, they cannot be persuaded even though one should rise from the dead.
"Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord."
"But," I hear someone say, "it is impossible! I have tried it and I
have broken down. I did try to get better, but I did not succeed. It is
of no use, it cannot be done!" You are right, my dear Friend, and you
are wrong. You are right–it is of no use going about it as you did. If
you went in your own strength, holiness is a thing you cannot get–it
is beyond you. The depth says, "It is not in me." And the height says,
"It is not in me." You can no more make yourself holy than you could
create a world! But you are wrong to despair, for Christ can do it! He
can do it for you and He can do it now! Believe on Him and that
believing will be the proof that He is working in you. Trust Him and He
that has suffered for your sins, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, shall
come in and put to rout the lion of the Pit! He will bruise Satan under
your feet shortly. There is no corruption too strong for Him to
overcome, there is no habit too firm for Him to break. He can turn a
lion to a lamb and a raven to a dove. Trust Him to save you and He will
do it, whoever you may be, and whatever your past life may have been!
"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved"–that is, he shall be
saved from his sins and delivered from his evil practices. He shall be
made a new man in Christ Jesus by the power of the Spirit, received
through the medium of his faith. Believe, poor Soul, that Christ is
able to save you and He will do it! He will be as good as your faith
and as good as His own word. May He now add His own blessing to the
word I have spoken and to the people who have heard it for His own
sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM32.
Verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered. The Lord can bless the man who is full of sin only when his
sin is covered by the Atonement–the Propitiation–which hides his sin
even from the sight of God! And he is a truly blessed who, although he
knows himself to be a sinner, also knows that his sin is forgiven and
covered.
2. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputes not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile. He is an honest, truthful, guileless
man. A man cannot be a blessed man while he is double-minded, while he
has graft or, what is here called, guile, within him. A sincere and
guileless heart is an evidence of Grace so, "blessed is the man unto
whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no
guile." But, David, how did you obtain this forgiveness? Let us hear
the story of your experience.
3, 4. When Ikept silent, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the
day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is
turned into the drought of summer Selah. He tells us that he had such a
sense of guilt that he could not rest. And until he made confession of
his sin to God, he became sick in body as well as in soul. It seemed as
if his very bones, the most solid part of his frame, were beginning to
decay under the influence of his grief and he was getting worse and
worse in the brokenness of his spirit till he seemed like a dried-up
country in which there is no dew. His moisture was turned into the
drought of summer. Yes, David, but how did you get rid of your sin? We
see how deeply you felt it–how did you get clear of it?
5. I acknowledged my sin unto You, and my iniquity have I not hid. I
said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and You forgave
the iniquity of my sin. Selah. You see, as long as he covered his sin,
God did not cover it. But when he no longer tried to hide it, but made
an open confession of it, then God blotted it out and covered it up
forever! There was but a believing confession of sin and David's heart
was at once at rest! Shall we not try the same remedy? Will we not go
to God and say, "Father, I have sinned"? Is there any better course
than that? Is it not right to acknowledge a wrong? Is it not the
simplest and safest way to go at once to Him who blots out sin and ask
for mercy?
6, 7. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto You in a time
when You may be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall
not come near unto him. You are my hiding place: You shall preserve me
from trouble; You shall
compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. Surely if God has
given us the pardon of our sin, He will give us everything else that we
need! If He has delivered us from Hell, He will certainly deliver us
from trouble!
8. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I
will guide you with My eyes. The forgiven man is afraid of going wrong
again. He is as anxious about his future life as he was about his past
sin. So the Lord meets him and gives him the gracious promise contained
in this verse.
9. Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no
understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest
they come near unto you. Do not be hard-mouthed. Be obedient to God's
will. Be tender of heart and willing of spirit. The Lord will make His
children go in the right way, somehow or other. He will put a bit into
their mouths if nothing else will do it, but it would be much better
for them if they would be of tender and gentle spirit and would yield
at once to His gracious and holy will.
10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. Godly men also have many
sorrows, but then they always have sweets with their bitters, but,
"many sorrows shall be to the wicked," and there will be no sweets to
go with them.
10. But he that trusts in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about He
shall have mercy all round him. He who trusts his God shall find that
the golden compasses of Divine Mercy shall strike a circle of gracious
protection all round him–"mercy shall compass him about."
11. Be gladin the LORD, andrejoice, you righteous: and shout for joy,
allyou that are upright in heart. Godly men ought to be glad men. They
have a right to be happy. They recommend the Gospel when they are so
and they are the true sons of the King of kings when they do not go
mourning all their days.