Hope in Hopeless Cases
A Sermon
(No. 821)
Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, July 19, 1868, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
at the [31]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
"Bring him here to Me." Matthew 17:17.
OUR real text will be the entire narrative, but as it seems necessary
to select some one sentence, we have chosen that before us as the true
hinge of the story. The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, while on
earth, was so extensive as to touch the confines both of Heaven and
Hell. We see Him at one moment discoursing with Moses and Elijah in His
Glory, as though at Heaven's gates, and lo, in a few hours we see Him
confronting a foul spirit, as though defying the infernal pit. There is
a long journey from Patriarchs to demons, from Prophets to dumb devils,
yet mercy prompts Him and power supports Him so that He is equally
glorious in either place!
What a glorious Lord He was even while in His humiliation! How glorious
is He now! How far His goodness reaches! Truly He has dominion from sea
to sea–to the extremes of human condition His empire reaches. Our Lord
and Master hears with joy the shout of a Believer who has vanquished
his foe, and, at the same hour, He bows His ear to the despairing wail
of a sinner who has given up all confidence in self and is desirous to
be saved by Him. At one moment He is accepting the crown which the
warrior brings Him from the well-fought fight. At another moment He is
healing the broken in heart, and binding up their wounds.
There is a notable difference between the dying scene of the triumphant
Believer as he enters into rest, and the first weeping repentance of a
Saul of Tarsus as he seeks mercy of the Savior whom he has persecuted!
And yet the Lord's heart and eyes are with both. Our Lord's
transfiguration did not disqualify Him for casting out devils, nor did
it make Him feel too sublime and spiritual to grapple with human ills.
And so, at this hour, the glories of Heaven do not take Him off from
the miseries of earth, nor do they make Him forget the cries and tears
of the feeble ones who are seeking Him in this valley of tears.
The case of the deaf and dumb demoniac, which we read in your hearing,
and to which I call your particular attention this morning, is a very
remarkable one. All sin is the evidence that the soul is under the
dominion of Satan. All unconverted persons are really possessed by the
devil in a certain sense–he has established his throne within their
hearts, and there he reigns and rules the members of their body. "The
spirit, which now works in the children of disobedience" is the name
which Paul gives to the Prince of Darkness. But these possessions are
not alike in every case–and the casting out of Satan, though always
effected by the same Lord–is not always worked after the same fashion.
We bless God, many of us, that when we lived in sin, we were not given
over to a furious delirium of it–there was method in our madness. We
claim no credit for this, but we do thank God for it–that we were not
whirled along like rolling things before the tempest–but were
restrained and kept within the bounds of outward propriety. We are also
grateful, that when, being aroused and alarmed, we fell under the iron
rod of Satan, we were not all brought into that utter despair–that
horror of great darkness, that inward torment and agony–which some are
made to endure.
We are grateful that when Jesus came to save us, although we were much
hindered by Satan, yet there was none of the foaming of pride and
wallowing of obstinate lust–the tearing of raging desperation of which
we have read in memorable instances–but the Lord opened our hearts
gently with His golden key, entered into the chamber of our spirits and
took possession. For the most part, the conquests which Jesus achieves
in the souls of His people, though worked by the same power, are more
quietly accomplished than in the case before us. For this let thanks be
rendered to the God of Grace.
But every now and then there are these strange, out-of-the-way
cases–persons in whom Satan seems to run riot and to exert the utmost
force of his malice–and in whom the Lord Jesus displays the exceeding
greatness of His power, when, in almighty love He dethrones the tyrant
and casts him out, never to return again. If there should be only one
such person here this morning, I shall be justified in looking after
him, for what man is there among you, who, having a hundred sheep, if
one of them should go astray, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness,
and go after that which is gone astray?
I ask the prayers of such as have, in years gone by, been brought to
Jesus and are now rejoicing in Him, that we may, this morning, find out
the far-off wanderers, and may, by the Holy Spirit's anointing,
liberate those that are bound with fetters of iron–that they may
become, today, the Lord's freed ones–for if the Son shall make them
free, they shall be free indeed! I shall, by my Lord's help, first
enlarge upon the deplorable case. Then we shall meditate upon the one
Resource. And then we will conclude by admiring the sure result.
I. First, let us look, so far as time permits, into the details of the
DEPLORABLE CASE before us. We understand the physical miracles of
Christ to be types of His spiritual works. The wonders which He worked
in the natural world have their analogies in the spiritual world–the
outward and natural is the symbol of the inward and spiritual.
Now the demoniac who was brought by his father for healing is not so
distinctly representative of a case of gross sin, though the spirit is
called a foul one, and Satan is everywhere defiling. But it is an
instance of the great horror, disturbance of mind and raving despair
caused by the Evil One in some minds to their torment and jeopardy. You
will observe, concerning it, that the disease appeared even now and
then in overwhelming attacks of mania in which the man was utterly
beyond his own control.
The epileptic fit threw the poor victim in all directions. So have we
seen melancholy persons in whom despondency, mistrust, numbing despair
have raged at times with unconquerable fury. They have not so much
entertained these evil guests as been victims to them. As Mark puts it,
"The spirit takes him." So have such forlorn ones been captured and
carried off by Giant Despair. The fairies have scourged them onward
over dry places, seeking rest and finding none. They have refused to be
comforted, and like sick men, their souls abhor all manner of meat.
They displayed no power to struggle with their melancholy–resistance
did not suggest itself to them! They were taken off their feet and
carried clean out of themselves in a rapture of woe.
Such cases are not at all uncommon. Satan, knowing that his time is
short and perceiving that Jesus is hastening to the rescue–lashes his
poor slave with excess of malice–as if by any means he may utterly
destroy his victim before the Deliverer arrives. The poor patient
before us was filled at times with a terrible anguish–an anguish which
he expressed by foaming at the mouth, by wallowing upon the ground, and
by crying out. At times in his dreadful falls he bruised himself, and
his delirium led him to dash himself against anything which stood
before him, so causing to himself new injuries. None can tell but those
who have felt the same, what are the pains of conviction of sin when
aggravated by the suggestions of the enemy.
Some of us have passed through this in our measure, and can declare
that it is Hell upon earth. We have felt the weight of the hand of an
angry God! We know what it is to read the Bible and not find a single
promise in it that would suit our case–but rather to see every page of
it glowing with threats–as though curses like lightning blazed from
it! Even the choicest passages have appeared to rise up against us as
though they said, "Intrude not here. These comforts are not for you!
You have nothing to do with such things as these." We have bruised
ourselves against doctrines, and precepts, and promises, and even the
Cross itself!
We have prayed and our very prayer has increased our misery! Even
against the Mercy Seat we have fallen, judging our prayers to be but
babbling sounds obnoxious to the Lord. We have gone up with the
assembly of God's people and the preacher seemed to frown upon us, and
to rub salt into our wounds, and aggravate our case! Even the reading,
and the hymns, and the prayers appeared to be in league against us! And
we went home to our retirement more desponding than before. I hope none
of you are passing through such a state of mind as this, for it is, of
all things, next to Hell itself, one of the most dreadful!
In such a plight men have cried out with Job, "Therefore I will not
refrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will
complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea, or a whale, that You
set a watch over me? When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch
shall ease my complaint, then You scare me with dreams, and terrify me
through visions so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather
than life. I loathe it. I would not live always: let me alone, for my
days are vanity."
Thanks be unto God, the issues out of this slavery are often such as
make angels sing for joy, but while the black night endures it is a
horror of darkness indeed! Put a martyr upon the rack, or even fasten
him with an iron chain to the stake and let the flames kindle about
him–if his Lord shall smile upon him, his anguish will be nothing
compared with the torture of a spirit scorched and burned with an
inward sense of the wrath of God! Such a man can join in the lament of
Jeremiah, and cry, "He has set me in dark places, as they that are dead
of old. He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out. He has made my
chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer. He has
bent His bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the
arrows of His quiver to enter into my heart. He has filled me with
bitterness. He has made me drunk with wormwood."
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but who can bear a
wounded spirit? To groan over unforgiven sin. To dread its
well-deserved punishment. To fear the everlasting burnings–these are
things which make men suffer with an emphasis–and make them think life
is a burden. We learn from the narrative that the evil spirit, at the
times when it took full possession of the man, sought his destruction
by hurling him in different directions. "Sometimes it casts him into
the fire, and sometimes into the water."
So is it with deeply distressed souls. One day they seem to be all on
fire with earnestness and zeal, with impatience and anxiety! But the
next day they sink into a horrible coldness and apathy of soul from
which it appears to be utterly impossible to arouse them. All sensitive
yesterday, all insensible today! They are uncertain. You know not where
to find them. If you deal with them as for a spirit that is in danger
from the fire of insolence, you have lost your pains, for in the next
few minutes they will be in danger from the water of indifference. They
fly to extremes! They are like the souls fabled to be in "purgatory,"
of whom legends say that they suffer by turns in an oven and in cells
of ice!
You would suppose from the way in which they speak, today, that they
felt themselves to be the blackest of sinners. But in a short time they
deny that they feel any sort of repentance for sin! You would imagine,
to hear them talk at one time, that they would never cease to pray till
they found the Savior. But by-and-by they tell you that they cannot
pray at all, and that it is but a mockery for them to bend the knee!
They ring all the changes–they are more fickle than the weather! Their
color comes and goes like that of the chameleon! They are all fits and
starts, convulsions and contortions.
He were more than human who could put up with them for a month, for
they vary oftener than the moon. Their malady laughs us to scorn. Their
trouble baffles all our consoling efforts. Only Jesus Christ, Himself,
can deal with them! It is well that we can add that He has a peculiar
art in dealing with desperate diseases and finds His delight in healing
those whom all others have left for lost. To add to the difficulties of
this deplorable case, this child was deaf, so our Lord tells us in
Mark, "Come out of him, you deaf and dumb spirit." There was,
therefore, no way of reasoning with him at all! Not a sound could pass
through that sealed ear.
With other men you might speak, and a soft word might calm the
perturbations of their mind. But no word, however gentle, could reach
this poor tormented spirit–he was, to sound and sense alike,
impervious! And are there not such, still, to whom words are wasted
breath? You may quote promises. You may supply encouragements. You may
explain doctrines, but it is all nothing–they end where they began!
Like squirrels in revolving cages, they never go anywhere. Oh, the
twists and turns, the convolutions and the windings of poor tormented
minds!
It is easy enough, certainly, to tell them to believe in Jesus. But if
they understand you, it is in such a dark manner that you had need to
explain again–and that explanation you will have to explain still
further. To cast themselves simply upon the blood of sprinkling, and to
rest upon the finished work of Jesus is, of all things, most plain–the
very child's A B C cannot be plainer–and yet, for all that, it is not
plain to them. They will appear to comprehend you and then start aside
at a tangent. They will appear to be convinced, and for a time to give
up their doubts and fears–but meet them half-an-hour afterwards and
you will find you have been speaking to a wall–addressing yourself to
the deaf. Oh, lamentable case! The Lord of mercy look on such, for
hopeless is man's help! Glory be to God, He has laid help upon One that
is mighty–who can make the deaf to hear–causing His voice to ring
with sweet encouragements in the deathlike stillness of the dungeons of
despair!
Next to this it appears that the afflicted one was dumb, that is to
say, incapable of articulate speech by reason of the demon possession.
Since he cried out when the devil left him, it would seem to have been
a case in which all the instruments of speech were present, but
articulation had not been learned. There was utterance of an incoherent
sort– the noise-making apparatus was there–but nothing intelligible
came forth except the most heartrending cries of pain.
Such dumb ones abound–they cannot explain their own condition–if they
talk to you it is incoherent talk. They contradict themselves every
five sentences–you know that they are speaking what they believe to be
true–but if you did not know that, you might think that they were
telling you lies which confound each other.
Their experience is a string of contradictions, and their utterance is
even more complicated than their experience. It is very hard and
difficult to talk with them very long–it wears out one's patience–and
if it wears out the patience of the hearer, how burdensome must it be
to the unhappy speaker? They pray, but they dare not call it prayer–it
is rather the chattering of a crane or a swallow. They talk with God
what is in their poor, silly hearts, but ah, it is such a confusion and
mixture that when it is done they wonder whether they have prayed or
not. It is the cry, the bitter anguishing cry ofpain, but it is
untranslatable into words. It is an awful groan, an unutterable
yearning and longing of the spirit, but they scarcely know, themselves,
what it means.
You are weary with the details of this dolorous case, but I have not
yet concluded the tale of woe. If any of you have never experienced the
like, thank God for it, but at the same time pity and pray for those
who are passing through this state of mind. And invoke, now, silently,
the hope of the great Healer, that He would come and deal with them,
for their plight is past the art of man. The father told Jesus that his
son was pinning away. How could it be otherwise, with one borne down by
such a mass of disorders and so perpetually tormented that the natural
rest of sleep was constantly broken?
It was not likely that his strength would long be maintained in a
system so racked and torn. And, mark you, despair of mind is an
exceedingly weakening thing to the soul. I have known it even weaken
the body till the worn-out sufferer has said with David, "My moisture
is turned into the drought of summer." To feel the guilt of sin. To
fear the coming punishment. To have a dreadful cry in one's ears of the
"wrath to come." To fear death and to expect it any moment. Above all,
to disbelieve God and write bitter things against Him–this is a thing
to make the bones rot and the heart wither.
Read John Bunyan's "Grace Abounding," and behold a picture there, drawn
to the life, of a soul that was left as a heath in the desert so that
it could not see when good came to it. You see a mind tossed up and
down on 10,000 waves of unbelief, never resting at any time but
perpetually disturbed and distracted with surmises, suspicions, and
forebodings. If these attacks always continued, and were not sometimes
intermitted–if there were not little pauses, as it were, between the
fits of unbelief–surely man would utterly fail and go to his home a
prey to his own cruel unbelief!
The worst point in the case was all this had continued for years. Jesus
asked how long he had been in this case, and his parent replied, "From
a child." Sometimes God permits, for purposes which we do not
understand, the deep distress of a tempted soul to last for years. I
cannot tell for how many years, but certainly some have had to battle
with unbelief on the very confines of the grave, and only at eventide
has it been light to them. When they thought they must die in the dark,
the Holy Spirit has appeared to them and they have been cheered and
comforted.
The Puritans were apt to quote the remarkable experience of Mrs.
Honeywood as an instance of the singular way in which the Lord delivers
His chosen. She, for year after year was in bondage to melancholy and
despair, but she was set at liberty by the gracious Providence of God
in an almost miraculous way. She took up a slender Venice glass, and
saying, "I am as surely damned as that glass is dashed to pieces," she
hurled it down upon the floor, when, to her surprise, and the surprise
of all, I know not by what means, the glass was not so much as chipped
or cracked! That circumstance first gave her a ray of light, and she
afterwards cast herself upon the Lord Jesus. Sometimes extraordinary
light has been given to extraordinary darkness. God has brought up the
prisoner out of the innermost ward where his feet had been fast in the
stocks, and after years of bondage He has at last given perfect and
delightful liberty!
One thing more about this case. The disciples had failed to cast the
devil out. On other occasions they had been successful–they said to
their Master, "Even the devils are subject unto us." But this time they
were utterly foiled. They did their best. They appear to have had some
faith or they would not have attempted the task, but their faith was
not at all equal to the emergency. Scribes and Pharisees gathered
around them and began to mock them. And if there had been power in all
the company of the Apostles to have worked the deed, they would gladly
have done it. But there they stood, defeated and dismayed–the poor
patient before them racked and tormented–and they unable to give him
the slightest ease.
Ah, it becomes a painful case when an anxious soul has gone to the
House of God for years and yet has found no consolation! When the
troubled spirit has sought help from ministers, from Christian men and
women! When prayers have been offered and not answered! When tears have
been shed and have been unavailing! When books which have been
consolatory to others have been studied without results! When teachings
which have converted thousands fail to create a good impression! And
yet there are such instances in which all human agency is put to the
rout–and when it seems as impossible to comfort the poor troubled one
as to calm the waves of the sea or hush the voice of the thunder cloud.
Hearts are to be met with, still, in which the evil spirit and the Holy
Spirit are brought into distinct conflict–in which the evil spirit
displays all his malignity and brings the soul to the uttermost pitch
of distress–in which, I trust, the Holy Spirit will display His saving
power and lead the soul out of its prison to praise the name of the
Lord! I thought I heard from some ungodly person a kind of whisper to
himself, "I thank God I know nothing about these things." Pause before
you thank God for this, for evil as this is and to be deplored, it were
better that you had all this than remain altogether without spiritual
sensibility! It were better to go to Heaven burnt and branded, scourged
and scarred every step of the road than to slide gently down to Hell as
many of you are doing–sleeping sweetly while devils carry you along
the road to perdition!
It is little, after all, to be for a season tormented and troubled by
disturbance within, if it shall ultimately, by God's interposition, end
in joy and peace in believing! But it is beyond measure a dreadful
thing to have, "Peace, peace," sung in one's ears where there is no
peace, and then forever to discover one's self a castaway in the pit
from which there shall be no escape! Instead of being thankful, I would
rather ask you to tremble. Yours is that terribly prophetic calm which
the traveler frequently perceives upon the Alpine summit. Everything is
still. The birds suspend their notes, fly low and cower down with fear.
The hum of bees among the flowers is hushed. A horrible stillness rules
the hour, as if death had silenced all things by stretching over them
his awful scepter.
Perceive you not what is surely at hand? The thunder is preparing! The
lightning will soon cast abroad its mighty fires! Earth will rock!
Granite peaks will be dissolved! All nature will shake beneath the fury
of the storm. Yours is that solemn calm today, O Sinner! Rejoice not in
it, for the tempest is coming! The whirlwind and the tribulation is
near which shall sweep you away and utterly destroy you! Better to be
molested of the devil, now, than be tormented by him forever!
II. I have thus brought before you a very dolorous subject, but now,
secondly, and may the Holy Spirit help us while I remind you of THE ONE
RESOURCE. The disciples were baffled. The Master, however, remained
undefeated and cried, "Bring him here to Me." We ought to use the means
so far as the means will go. We are bound, further, to make the means
more effectual than they ordinarily are. Prayer and fasting are
prescribed by our Lord as the means of stringing up ourselves to
greater power than we should otherwise possess.
There are conversions which will never be worked by the agency of
ordinary Christians. We have need to pray more, and by self-denial to
keep our bodies more completely under and so to enjoy closer communion
with God before we shall be able to handle the more distressing cases.
The church of God would be far stronger to wrestle with this ungodly
age if she were more given to prayer and fasting. There is a mighty
efficacy in these two Gospel ordinances. The first links us to Heaven,
the second separates us from earth. Prayer takes us into the banqueting
house of God. Fasting overturns the surfeiting tables of earth. Prayer
gives us to feed on the bread of Heaven and fasting delivers the soul
from being encumbered with the fullness of bread which perishes.
When Christians shall bring themselves up to the uttermost
possibilities of spiritual vigor, then they will be able, by God's
Spirit working in them, to cast out devils, which today, without the
prayer and fasting, laugh them to scorn. But for all that, to the most
advanced Christian, there will still remain those mountainous
difficulties which must be directly brought to the Master's personal
agency for help. Still He tenderly commands us, "Bring them hereto Me."
To make the text appear practical, let me beg you to remember that
Jesus Christ is still alive. Simple as that truth is, you need to be
reminded of it.
We very often estimate the power of the Church by looking to her
ministers, her ordinances and her members–but the power of the Church
does not lie there–it lies in the Holy Spirit and in an ever-living
Savior. Jesus Christ died, it is true, but He lives and we may as truly
come to Him today as did that anxious father in the days of our Lord's
earthly sojourn. Miracles have ceased, it is said–so natural miracles
have–but spiritual miracles have not! We have not the power to work
either the one or the other. Christ has the power to work any kind of
wonder and He is still willing and able at this present hour to work
spiritual miracles in the midst of His Church. I delight to think of my
Lord as a living Christ to whom I can speak and tell Him of every case
that occurs in my ministry!
He is a living Helper to whom I may bring every difficulty that occurs
in my own soul and in the souls of others. O think not that He is dead
and buried! Seek Him not among the dead! Jesus lives! And living, is as
able to meet with these cases of distress and sorrow as when He was
here below. Remember, too, that Jesus lives in the place of authority.
When He was here He had power over devils–but up yonder He has greater
power, still–for here on earth He veiled the splendor of His Godhead,
but up yonder His Glory beams resplendent–and all Hell confesses the
majesty of His power!
There is no demon, however forceful, who will not tremble if Jesus does
but speak or even so much as look at him. Today Jesus is the Master of
hearts and consciences. He, by His secret power, can work upon every
one of our minds. He can depress us or He can exalt us! He can cast
down or He can lift up! There cannot be a case which shall be difficult
to Him. We have but to bring it to Him! He lives–and He lives in the
place of power–and He can achieve the desire of our hearts.
Moreover, Jesus lives in the place of observation and He still
graciously interposes. I know we are tempted to think of Him as of one
far away who does not behold the sorrows of His Church, but I tell you,
Brothers and Sisters, Christ's honor is as much concerned at this
moment in the defeat or victory of His servants as it was when He came
down from the mountaintop. From the battlements of Heaven Jesus looks,
today, upon the work of His ministers–and if He sees them foiled He is
jealous for the honor of His Gospel and is as ready to interpose and
win the victory now as He was then! We have but to look up to our Lord!
He sleeps not as Baal did of old. He is not callous to our woes, nor
indifferent to our griefs. Blessed Master, You are able to succor and
strong to deliver! We have but to bring the matter which distresses us
before You and You will deal with it, now, according to Your
compassion. We should also remember, for our warning, Jesus Christ
expects us to treat Him as a living, powerful, interposing One and to
confide in Him as such. We do not know what we miss through lack of
faith. We conceive that certain persons are in a hopeless condition and
thus we dishonor Christ and injure them. We leave some cases and give
them up instead of presenting them, constantly, to Him! We limit the
Holy One of Israel! We grieve His Spirit and vex His holy mind!
But if, as children trust their father, we would trust in Jesus
unstaggeringly with an Abrahamic faith, believing that what He has
promised He is able also to perform, then would we see even cases as
that before us soon brought into the light of day! We would see the oil
ofjoy given instead of mourning, and the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness. Now I earnestly urge parents and relatives, and
any who have children or friends in distress of mind, to make a point
of taking their dear ones to Jesus. Do not doubt Him–you vex Him if
you do. Do not hesitate to come and tell Him, this morning, the
position of your beloved one.
Hasten to Him! Lay the sick one before Him and even if, while in
prayer, the case should become worse instead of better, hesitate
not–you are dealing with the infinite Son of God! You need not fear,
you must not doubt! God grant us Divine Grace in all things in our
daily troubles, and especially in soul affairs, to bring all matters to
the Lord Jesus.
III. Lastly, and with brevity, THE SURE RESULT. When the child, or the
man, or whichever he may have been, was brought before our Lord, the
case looked thoroughly hopeless. He was deaf and dumb–how could the
Master deal with him? Beside that, he was foaming and wallowing–what
opening did there seem for the Divine power? I cannot wonder that his
father said, "If you can do anything, have compassion upon us."
In most other instances the voice of Jesus calmed the spirit. But that
voice could not reach the mind, for the ears were sealed. Never was
there before the Savior a more thoroughly far-gone case. It was, to all
appearances, hopeless! And yet the cure was Divinely certain, for
Jesus, without hesitating for a moment, said to the unclean spirit,
"You foul spirit, you deaf and dumb spirit, I charge you, come out of
him." Christ has power to charge devils with authority. They dare not
disobey. "And return no more unto him," said the Savior.
Where Jesus heals He heals forever. Once bring the soul out of prison,
it shall not go back again. If He says, "I forgive," the sin is
forgiven. If He speaks peace, the peace shall be like a river that
never ceases running until it melts away into the ocean of eternal
love! The cure was hopeless in itself, yet absolutely certain when
Jesus put forth His healing hand. O, you who are broken down and
desponding this morning, there is nothing that you can do, nor that I
can do!
But there is nothing which JESUS cannot do! Only go yourself, this
morning, to Him and with a word He will give you peace–a peace that
shall never be broken again but shall last till you enter into eternal
rest!
Nevertheless the word of Christ, though sure to win its way, was
stoutly opposed. The devil had great wrath, for he knew that his time
was short. He began to rend and tear, and put out all his devilish
force upon the poor child. And the poor creature, foaming and
wallowing, fell down as if he were dead, under a terrible excitement.
So often will it happen that at first the voice of Christ will make the
spirit more troubled than before–not because Jesus troubles us–but
because Satan revolts against Him. A poor tempted creature may even lie
down in despair as dead, and those around may cry, "He is dead!" But
then shall come the healing hand of tenderness and love, at whose touch
the spirit shall survive.
Ah, Soul, if you should judge yourself to be as one dead. If your last
hope should expire. If there should seem, now, to be nothing before you
but a fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation, it is
then that Jesus will interpose! Learn the lesson that you cannot have
gone too far from Christ! Believe that your extremities are only
extremities to you and not to Him! The highest sin and the deepest
despair, together, cannot baffle the power of Jesus! If you were
between the very jaws of Hell, Christ could snatch you forth. If your
sins had brought you even to the gates of Hell, so that the flames
flashed into your face–if then you looked to Jesus–He would save you!
If you are brought to Him when you are at Death's door, yet, still,
eternal mercy will receive you!
How is it that Satan has the impudence to make men despair? Surely it
is a piece of his infernal impertinence that he dares to do it.
Despair? When you have an Omnipotent God to deal with you? Despair?
When the precious blood of the Son of God is given for sinners?
Despair? When God delights in mercy? Despair? When the silver bell
rings, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest"? Despair? While life lasts, while Mercy's gate
stands wide open? While the heralds of Mercy beckon you to come, even
though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as wool! Though they are
like crimson they shall be white as snow!
I say again, it is infernal impertinence that has dared to suggest the
idea of despair to a sinner! Christ unable to save? It can never be!
Christ outdone by Satan and by sin? Impossible! A sinner with too many
diseases for the Great Physician to heal? I tell you that if all the
diseases of men were met in you, and if all the sins of men were heaped
on you, and if blasphemy and murder and fornication and adultery–and
every sin that is possible or imaginable had all been committed by
you–the precious blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, could cleanse
you from all that! If you will but trust my Master–and He is worthy to
be trusted and deserves your confidence–if you will but trust Him, He
will save you even now!
Ah, why delay? Why raise questions? Why debate? Why deliberate,
mistrust and suspect? Fall into His arms–He cannot reject you for He
has, Himself said, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."
Yet, poor Wretch, I despair of converting you unless the Master does
it! It is mine to tell you this, but I know you will not hear it, or,
hearing it, you will reject it unless Christ shall come with power by
His Spirit!
O may He come today and say to the evil spirit within you, "Come out of
him, you foul spirit, and go no more into him. Let such a one be free
for I have redeemed him with My most precious blood." O pray, dear
Friends, that weak as my words have been this morning–disconnected as
my thoughts have been–yet, nevertheless, God the blessed Spirit may
bless them to the unfastening of bars of iron, and that gates of brass
may be opened and captive ones brought forth to liberty! The Lord bless
such for His name's sake. Amen.
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The Panting Deer
A Sermon