Iconoclast

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 13, 1870,

BY C. H. SPURGEON

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"He removed the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the
groves, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for
until those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it. And he
called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that
after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that
were before him." 2 Kings 18:4,5.

THE First Commandment instructs us that there is but one God, who alone
is to be worshipped. And the Second Commandment teaches that no attempt
is to be made to represent the Lord, neither are we to bow down before
any form of sacred similitude. "You shall not make unto you any graven
image, or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above, or that is
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you
shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them." The two
commandments thus make a full sweep of idolatry. We are not to worship
any other god. We are not to worship the true God by the use of
representative symbols. He is a Spirit and is to be worshipped in
spirit and in truth, and not by the use of visible imagery.

It seems clear that the human mind, since the Fall, finds it hard to
keep to this. All over the world men set up images and idols–not at
first with the view of worshipping the wood or stone–but with the
intention of being helped to worship the Deity by having some outward
symbol of his presence. After awhile the evil heart falls into
something even more debasing, and the image itself is adored. Even the
people of God, the children of Israel, who so peculiarly enjoyed the
Lord's Presence in their midst, and who were taught to worship Him by
Lawgivers and Prophets inspired of the Most High could not keep to pure
and spiritual worship.

Though their weakness was somewhat helped to the understanding of the
Truth of God by a system of types, they were not content with these
because they contained no similitude of God. The religion of pious Jews
was mainly spiritual, for only at the one appointed spot at Jerusalem
was sacrifice allowed, and there the sacred vessels of ceremonial
worship were in secret places and seldom, if ever, seen by the people.
A worship so little outward was too spiritual for unregener-ate Israel.
The people wanted an outward ritual for other places beside Jerusalem.
And wherever there was a rock or lofty hill, there they put up an altar
to God, and it was called one of the "high places" of the land.

Wherever a grove of ancient trees could be discovered, they set that
apart, also. To the true God, mark you–but still without Divine
sanction, and contrary to His Law, seeing that He had not appointed
that there should be any groves or places sacred to Himself except the
one chosen spot at Mount Zion. Then they came to the use of teraphim,
symbolical forms, statues, "images," as our English translation puts
it. Not that they actually worshipped these as God, but used them, as
they said, to help them to worship God.

This was all contrary to the Divine Law, and led to a forgetfulness of
God Himself, robbing Him of His worship and giving it to dumb idols. As
soon as good Hezekiah had come to the throne and taken possession of
its power, he set to work to cut down all the groves, to break the
images, and as far as he could, as governor of the land, to bring back
Israel to her allegiance to the great invisible Jehovah–and to the
spiritual worship in which He delights–restraining the outward worship
with sacrifice and offering to the one temple at Jerusalem.

Among the various objects of Israel's degenerate worship was one which
it would have seemed natural even for a reformer to spare. It was the
famous serpent of brass which had been made by Moses in the wilderness,
and had been lifted up upon a pole. By looking to it thousands had been
cured of the poisonous bites of fiery serpents. This had been carefully
preserved, but seeing that it had become an object of superstitious
reverence, Hezekiah destroyed it. According to

some, he ground it to powder, and he called it by an opprobrious
epithet, Nehushtan. The margin has the translation, "a piece of brass."

It might be read, "filth," or "verdigris," or "a piece of copper." The
king gave it a name which would show that he protested against the
idolatrous reverence shown to it. Although it was an interesting
memorial, it must be utterly destroyed because it presented a
temptation to idolatry. Here, if ever in this world was a relic of high
antiquity, of undoubted authenticity–a relic which had seen its
hundreds of years about which there was no question as to its being
indisputably the very serpent which Moses made. And it was moreover a
relic which had formerly possessed miraculous power–for in the
wilderness the looking at it had saved the dying.

Yet it must be broken in pieces, because Israel burned incense to it.
Away with it, it is a defiled thing! Call it by an ill name! Dash it to
atoms–make Israel to despise it and to forget it. If the bronze
serpent is put to a wrong use and made into an idol, it must not be
spared. Put the piece of verdigris away. Let the coppery reptile be
ground to powder if it is once set up as a rival to Jehovah, or as a
sharer in the veneration which is due to Him only.

This leads me to the following remark. After all, our reformers acted
well, and after a Scriptural model when they poured contempt upon the
idols of Rome, and made a mockery of her saints, relics, images,
masses, and priests. They were more than justified in exposing the
idolatries of Popery and subjecting the objects formerly reverenced to
the utmost contempt. There was a deep meaning in their breaking of
crosses, and the burning of holy crucifixes. The white linen of
priestly vestments served well for undergarments for the poor, and
altar stones made admirable backs for stoves. But this meant more than
utility–it was a protest against superstition.

Holy water vats were in those practical times frequently given to the
country people to be turned into troughs for swine. The little altar
bells which had formerly been rung at the elevation of the host were
hung around horses' necks, and the box which contained the detestable
mockery of our incarnate God, which the Papists most adored, was broken
in pieces. No contempt could be greater than these idols deserved! The
iconoclasts of that age did not go one bit too far. I could wish they
had been even less lenient than they were, and that not a single thing
ever worshipped by man had been spared for a moment.

Call it God? Then break it up, though art itself perish with it! Adore
it as a holy thing? Then away with it, though it is made of gold and
inlaid with gems! What God abhors, what His anger smokes against–is
not for us to spare from motives of tenderness to other people's
feelings, or because the canons of taste would say, "Let the idol be
preserved."

Our sires, the Nonconformists, when they left the State-created
religion to maintain a spiritual worship and gathered themselves
together as the servants of God, did well in bearing their protest
against the less glaring idolatries of their age. In their day, as now,
there existed the very common idolatry of superstitious reverence of
buildings. Certain piles of stone, brick, and timber are regarded as
holy places. It is thought that inside certain walls God is more
peculiarly present than outside, where the trees are growing and the
birds singing.

Our forefathers protested against this by never calling their buildings
Churches. They knew they could not be. They knew that Churches mean
companies of faithful men and women. They called the places of their
usual worship "meeting houses." That is what they were, and nothing
more. The veneration of building materials, pulpits, altars, pews,
cushions, tables, candlesticks, organs, cups, plates, etc., is sheer,
clear idolatry.

"Worship God" is a command which needs to be spoken in these days in
tones of thunder. There is none holy save the Lord. "God that made the
world and all things there, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth,
dwells not in temples made with hands. Neither is He worshipped with
men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He gives to all life,
and breath, and all things." Hear the Lord's own words–"Heaven is My
Throne, and earth is My footstool: what house will you build Me? says
the Lord: or what is the place of My rest? Has not My hand made all
these things?"

Our sires also stood out against another idolatry which still survives
in England–namely, the observing of days and months. Certain days are
set apart as holy and observed with great reverence by those calling
themselves Christians. Not content with the Sunday as the day appointed
of God for His worship, they have, like Israel of old when under legal
bondage, new moons, and appointed feasts for which they claim great
respect, but to which none whatever is due. Our sires said, "This is
not of Scripture, therefore it is of man, therefore it is will-worship,
and idolatrous."

And they showed their contempt of the commandments of men by an open
disregard of holy days. And we shall do well in this respect and in all
others to maintain their pure testimony. Whenever we see superstition
in any shape, we

must not flatter the folly, but according to our ability act the
iconoclast's part and denounce it. In this matter too many do the work
of the Lord deceitfully, and bow in the house of Rimmon, instead of
maintaining inviolate the spiritual worship of the great I AM.

But let this suffice on such themes, we have other thoughts in our
minds. I intend, this morning, first to apportion a share of
image-breaking work to Believers. And, secondly, we shall prescribe
another form of this same work for seeking souls.

I. We have much IDOL-BREAKING FOR CHRISTIANS TO DO. There is much to be
done in the Church of God. But there is much more to be done in our own
hearts. First of all, there is much idol-breaking to be done in the
Church of God. Let me mention some of the things against which you and
I must always bear our personal and earnest protest. We are all too apt
as Christians to place some degree of reliance upon men whom God in His
infinite mercy raises up to be leaders in the Christian Church.

1. We ought to be thankful for the Paul who plants so well, and the
Apollos who waters so ably. We are never to look with contempt or with
slighting upon those precious gifts which Christ received when He
ascended up on high, and which He continues to give to His Church,
namely, Apostles, teachers, preachers, Evangelists, and the like. A man
is more precious than a wedge of the gold of Ophir. When God gives a
man to the Church fitted for her enlargement, for her establishment,
and her confirmation, He gives to her one of the richest blessings of
the Covenant of Grace.

But the danger is lest we place the man in the wrong position, and look
to him not only with the respect which is due to him as God's
ambassador, but with some degree of–I must call it so–superstitious
reliance upon his authority and ability. Brethren, we have discarded
saints–we abhor the idea of worshipping them, and yet by slow degrees
we may gradually fall into canonization, and virtually set up among
ourselves another set of saints. Is it not true that some almost
worship St. Calvin, and St. Luther? Beyond their teachings they cannot
go.

Over others St. John Wesley, or St. Charles Simeon sway an
awe-commanding scepter. And to far more, the minister under whom they
sit, and whose teachings they constantly receive, is the reason and
basis of their faith. I am afraid that some of the conversions worked
in the Christian Church are rather the work of the preacher than of the
Spirit of God. And therefore when the minister who was the instrument
of them happens to be removed, the faith which was built upon the
wisdom or the earnestness of man is removed, too.

The point I want to bring you to is this–receive the Truth of God from
us if we give it to you purely, and are truly God's mouth to you–but
accept it not because we say it is so. Go to the fountainhead of
Truth–search the Scriptures for yourselves–and see whether these
things are so. Let nothing be to you a spiritual Truth of God unless it
is taught of the Spirit of God in the Scriptures. Do not be content to
hear with the outer ear and say, "That is true, for such-and-such a man
of God has said it." Ask to hear with the heart so as to feel, "That is
true, for God has said it in His Word, and His Holy Spirit has also
written it over again in my consciousness and experience."

We must get beyond men, or else we shall be very babes in Divine Grace.
If we overvalue the blessings which God gives us in our teachers and
preachers, He may remove them from us. We are to exalt not the pipes
but the fountainhead. Not the windows but the sun must we thank for
light. Not the basket which holds the food or the lad who brings the
loaves and fishes must we reverence, but the Divine Master who blesses
and multiplies the bread and feeds the multitude. To Jesus must all
adoring eyes be turned, and to the Holy Spirit, the Revealer of the
Truth, and to our Father who is in Heaven. And we must receive the
Gospel not as the word of man, but as it is in Truth, the Word of God.
Love the ministers of Christ, but fall not into that form of bronze
serpent worship which will degrade you into the servants of men.

In the Christian Church there is, I am afraid, at this moment, too much
exaltation of talent and dependence upon education. I mean especially
in reference to ministers. I do not believe that a man of God who is
called constantly to preach to the same people can be too thoroughly
educated. Neither do I believe that the highest degree of mental
culture should be any injury to the Christian minister, but rather
should be very helpful to him. By all means let the religious teacher
intermeddle with all knowledge, let him give himself unto reading and
be able mentally as well as spiritually to take the lead.

But, O Church of God, never set up human learning in the place of the
Eternal Spirit, for "it is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,
says the Lord." The great wonders of Apostolic times were mainly worked
by men who were illiterate in the world's judgment. They had been
taught of Christ and so had received a noble education. But in
classical

studies and in philosophical speculations they were but little versed,
with the exception of the Apostle Paul, and he came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom. Yet the Apostles and their followers preached
with such power that the world soon felt their presence.

On the slabs of stone which mark the burial places of the early
Christians in the catacombs of Rome, the inscriptions are nearly all
ill spelt, many of them have here a letter in Greek and there a letter
in Latin. Grammar is forgotten, and orthography is violated–a proof
that the early Christians who thus commemorated the martyred dead were
many of them uneducated persons–but for all that they crushed the
wisdom of the sages and smote the gods of classic lands. They smote
Jupiter and Saturn until they were broken in pieces, and Venus and
Diana fell from their seats of power.

Their conquests were not by the learning of the schools. That hindered
them–the Gnostic heresy, the heresy of pretended knowledge hindered,
but never helped the Church of God. Even thus at this hour the culture
so much vaunted in certain places is opposed to the simplicity of the
Gospel. Therefore I say we do not despise true learning, but we dare
not depend upon it. We believe that God can bless and does bless
thousands by very simple and humble testimonies. We are none of us to
hold our tongues for Christ, because we cannot speak as the learned.

We are none of us to refuse the Lord's message to ourselves because it
is spoken by an unlettered messenger. We are not to select our pastors
simply because of their talents and acquirements. We must regard their
unction. We must look at their call, and see whether the Spirit of God
is with them. If not, we shall make learning to be our bronze serpent,
and it will need to be broken in pieces. Just the same also may be said
of human eloquence. It is a good thing when a man can speak well, and
His Words flow from his soul like a torrent, sweeping everything before
them. It is good when his heart burns and flashes with a Divine
enthusiasm when he speaks what he believes and feels to be of the
weightiest importance.

But after all, conversions worked by carnal rhetoric, what are they?
Conversions worked by human logic, what are they? "That which is born
of the flesh is flesh." Let the men speak well–the Truth of God ought
to be delivered in the best of sentences. But the most noble language
ever uttered by man never convinced a soul of sin, or bound up a
wounded conscience, or raised a sinner from his death in sin. We must
in prayer cry for the Spirit of God, and all our confidence must be
placed in Him. For oratory is but a sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal if the Holy Spirit is not there.

Continuing our remarks with regard to the Christian Church, I will
further remark that much superstition may require to be broken down
among us in reference to a rigid adhesion to certain modes of Christian
service. We have tried to propagate the Truth of God in a certain way,
and the Lord has blessed us in it–and therefore we venerate the mode
and the plan, and forget that the Holy Spirit is a free Spirit. There
are persons in our Churches who object very seriously to any attempt to
do good in a way which they have not seen tried before. For them custom
has all the force of authority– the traditions of the fathers are
their Law.

Bold measures of evangelization shock them as innovations, as if
anything could be an innovation where all is free! I know Dissenting
congregations which are as conservative of their do-nothing plans as if
they had received them directly from Heaven. Their life is fossilized!
Their order is funereal. Their orthodoxy is sepulchral. "As it was in
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen,"
seems to be the chant of many good, but mistaken Christians among us
who cannot think a thing ought to be done if it never has been done.

If there is anything clear in the teaching of our Lord and His
Apostles, it is this–that we are not under Law, rubric, and
tradition–but are brought into the liberty of the children of God, so
that we are led by the Spirit, and in the service of God are not to
hunt for precedents or wait for regulations, but follow the great
principles of the Word, and the guidance of the Spirit, and "by any
means save some."

I have known Brethren frightened at open-air preaching, and yet what
sort of preaching was there in Christ's days but open-air preaching? I
have known others quite alarmed at the idea of Christ's name being
mentioned in a place that had been put to commoner uses, as if in the
olden times Christ could have been preached anywhere if it had been
necessary to have a place consecrated to Christian worship! There is a
class of persons who object to every holy project for evangelization,
however right and judicious, if it happens to be novel–and they will
continue to object till the work has been long in action–and has
placed itself beyond fear of their opposition or need of their
assistance.

We shall degenerate into a race of Scribes and Pharisees if we give way
to this spirit. We shall again be slaves to traditions, legends, and
old wives' fables, as bad as those which polluted Judaism. In the name
of everything that is Christlike, away with all that checks the vital
action of the body of Christ! Fetters are none the less burdensome for
being an-

tique. Let the bronze serpent be broken if it becomes a barrier to the
onward progress of the Cross. If any endeavor to force upon us the yoke
of habit, let us resist them in the spirit of Paul, who, speaking of
those who came in privately to spy out his liberty in Christ Jesus that
they might bring him into bondage, declares "to whom we gave place by
subjection, no, not for an hour."

So it is with the forms of Divine worship. I have frequently,
especially in our country Churches, met with the most determined
protests against the most trivial alteration of the routine of their
worship. You must sing at such a time, for they always have sung at
such a point in the service. You must pray at such a moment–they
always have prayed at that part of the worship. And if you can keep to
the same quantity of minutes usually occupied, so much the better. The
whole service, though not in a book–for our sturdy Brethren would rise
in revolt against the use of a book–yet is quite as stereotyped as if
it were taken from the Common Prayer.

Now I believe that in public worship we should do well to be bound by
no human rules, and constrained by no stereotyped order. I like, and we
have often done it, to have an interval of silence sometimes. Why not?
Why should it be all vocal worship? And why not begin with the sermon
occasionally? You who come in late would probably mend your manners in
such a case. And then why should we not sing when we have been
accustomed to pray, and pray when we have been accustomed to sing?

We are under the dispensation of the Spirit, and as far as I know, the
Spirit of God has not inspired those cards which I see sometimes nailed
up in pulpits–"begin with short prayer, sing, read, pray, preach," and
so on. A legality of form is growing up among us, and I enter my
heart's protest against it. Not that you and I may have been affected
by this dissenting ritualism, but practices good in themselves are to
be protested against if they gender to bondage, for the Spirit of God
goes where He wishes, and if we worship God according to His guidance,
the worship cannot invariably take the same form.

2. Thus we have done a little image-breaking in the Church. Now let us
turn to the temple of our own hearts, and we shall find much work to be
done there, too. Beloved Brothers and Sisters, exercise
self-examination now for the next five minutes or so. How about your
present position as a Christian? You feel, probably, after ten, twelve,
twenty, or thirty years of profession, very considerably in advance of
what you were when you first came to Christ. Do you feel that you are?
You can now see the imprudence of your early zeal, and you can look
down with unmeasured pity upon those young people who know so little
about the road to Heaven–of which you know so much. And who have so
little strength, of which you now have a very considerable share. Who
are so little aware of the devices of Satan, against which you guard
yourself so ably.

Dear brother, are you thus really congratulating yourself upon your
advanced position? Are you? Then permit a little image-breaking
there–for rest assured if we, any of us, come to put much value upon
our attainments we shall be very near to sliding into self-confidence,
carnal security, and I know not what of mischievous pride. Beloved, are
you stronger than you were? But does your strength lie anywhere else
than where it used to lie–in Christ? Are you wiser than you were? But
have you any wisdom except that Christ is made unto you wisdom? Do you
really think that twenty years' experience has changed your
corruptions? That your passions have become extinct, that your
tendencies to sin are not so strong as they were? That, in fact, you
have less need to watch, less need to depend simply upon the merit of
Christ and the work of His Spirit? Do you think so? Do You think so?

"Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." I have heard
that more horses fall at the bottom of a hill than almost anywhere
else, and I know that more professors make shipwreck towards the close
of life than at any other time. As I have often told you, the falls
recorded in the Old and New Testament are the falls, not of young men
in the heat of passion, but of old or middle-aged men. Lot was no boy
when he disgraced himself. David was no young man when he transgressed
with Bathsheba. Peter was no child when he denied his Lord. These were
men of experience and knowledge and attainments.

Your attainments, my Brothers and Sisters? Oh, brave word for a poor
thing! Your attainments? Your attainments, poor Sinner? Apart from what
you have in Christ, how absurd the language! Better still to say,
"Having nothing and yet possessing all things, God forbid that I should
glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Do I, then, despise
Christian attainments? By no manner of means, only when they are
idolized and hide the Savior–then I call them Ne-hushtan–and would
gladly break them in pieces.

Again, dear Brothers and Sisters, it may be that you are enjoying very
near fellowship with Christ. How delightful it is when you know by
assurance that you are the Beloved's and that the Beloved is yours.
When all doubts and fears have fled away and you are walking in the
light of His countenance! When we are in such a condition we are like
Peter, and would gladly build three tabernacles, for we say, "Master,
it is good to be here." But we must mind lest we elevate our enjoyments
into the place of our Master. We may even make our communion with
Christ an idol, by putting it before Christ Himself.

I am not saved and safe because I am greatly rejoicing. Not my
enjoyment, but Jesus saves me! He alone saves me. If my communion were
interrupted, I should still be secure in Him, and because now I enjoy
it sweetly, it does not add to my actual security or acceptance before
God. An old Puritan quaintly says, "suppose a loving husband were to
give to his wife many rings and jewels out of love to her, and she
should come to think so highly of the love-tokens that she sat and
looked at them, and admired them, and forgot her husband?" Would He not
be rather inclined to take these things away to turn her love once
again to himself? So with our Graces and our enjoyments. If we think
too much of them the iconoclastic hammer will come in, and these things
will vanish because they have provoked the Lord to jealousy.

Further, we have a little more work to do. You have, and you thank God
for it, some good friends in this world, dear Friends, Christian
friends, reliable friends. Hold them fast. But it is not always easy to
keep these friends where they should be. There is a text that might
save us a thousand sorrows if we thought more of it–"Cursed is the man
that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm. But blessed is the man
that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." And there is
another text of the same tone–"Cease you from man whose breath is in
his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted

of?"

Friendship, by all means, and confidence in those who deserve it, by
all means–but pass not the bound which God has set–think not that to
be immutable which is but clay. And fancy not that to be faithful which
is but flesh. Changing circumstances have changed many hearts, and
altered positions and conditions have made sad havoc among friendships
which seemed to be eternal. Lean on your friends, but not with all your
weight. Trust and be confident as you may, but let your inmost
reliance, your deepest faith lean on that arm which you cannot see, but
which arm, nevertheless, upholds the universe!

Now a word that may cut more keenly still, and it concerns our dear
relationships in the family circle. The last thing I should do is to
speak against the love that is due to husband, and wife, and child, and
Brethren. Christianity fosters all the domestic loves. We love none the
less our dear ones below because our heart still loves our Savior above
all. But, Beloved, there is such a thing as putting child or wife or
husband into Jesus' place. The beloved one was meant to be loved, but
not to be worshipped. That little gem was given to be prized, but not
to be valued beyond the Pearl of Great Price.

Beware of desecrating your earthly love into idolatry–rather
consecrate it by seeking God's glory in it, and it shall be well with
you. If you are a child of God, whatever idol you worship, God's great
hammer will be lifted up against it. You will lose the child, or it may
live to prove your curse. You will lose the love you think so precious,
or you may have it, but it will lead you astray. Beloved, I know there
is work to be done in many of our hearts in this respect.

And so there is yet further to do in the pursuits of our minds. I do
not see why a Christian man should not have for a pursuit the
attainment of eminence in learning, proficiency in science, or success
in business. If he does not do so he is not likely to distinguish
himself, and there can be no reason why a Christian should be always in
the rear. But these lawful worldly aims must be kept in their place and
be subservient to higher ends, or else what is right in itself will get
to be wrong through being put in the wrong place.

You may pursue that branch of knowledge, young man, but seek first the
kingdom of God. Do you desire to be an artist and rank with Landseer
and Millais? I would not discourage you for a moment. In the skillful
use of that pencil may you rise to the highest position in your art.
But for all that, do not worship the palette–do not bow down before
the outspread canvas–there is something better to live for than to
paint. Student, I do not wonder at your desire to excel. Why should not
Christian men be first in all departments of learning?

But after all, there are higher objects than zoology, geology,
mechanics, or astronomy. Do then, I pray you, guard against putting
anything where Christ should be. Seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness. Ever God first, and then the rest that you may glorify
God by what ability or influence you have obtained by His Grace. I
charge you

look to this on pain of seeing idols broken, and aspirations destroyed.
Thus have we gone into the temple of your hearts, and used the hammer a
little there.

II. Now I desire for awhile to speak with those who ARE SEEKERS OF
JESUS. There is some idol-breaking to be done for them. I pray God the
Holy Spirit to do it. The way of salvation lies in coming to Christ, in
trusting in Jesus Christ alone. Why is it that so many refuse to do
this and remain in the border land of desire unsaved? Many think that
they ought to be much better than they are–they have faults to be
corrected, their minds are in a wrong condition, they must be put
right–they are trying to do this with the intention when they feel
better to put their trust in Jesus.

O that my hammer might smash all that to pieces! My Friend, you ought
to be better, your mind ought to be in a better state. I grant all
that. But if you put this improvement of yours in the place of the work
of Christ, you are going the sure way to destruction. Your
righteousness is not what is needed, but Christ's righteousness. And if
you conceive that you must fit yourself for Him, you know not the
Gospel. Come to Jesus as you are.

Your conscious sinfulness and imperfections will but enable you to
prize His perfection and His power to save. Do not look to yourself for
a part of your salvation. If you do, I must call your goodness,
"Nehushtan," and compare it to dross and dung! Look to Jesus, and Jesus
only–all else will deceive you. See how He carried sin, and was
punished for it, and how His righteousness avails with the Father, and
look not to any preparations or fitness which you may conceive to be in
yourself.

With some the Nehushtan which they set up is their sense of sin. Either
they do not feel their need of Christ as they ought, or else they do
feel their need, and therefore think they are in a fair condition. Now,
believe me, you often misunderstand the promises of Christ. That
matchless promise, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden," is thought to be a promise made to those who labor and are
heavy laden. My Brethren, the promise is not made to laboring nor to
being heavy laden. "What is it made to?" you ask. The promise is made
to coming to Christ.

"Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." You may be weary and heavy
laden as long as you will, but you will not get rest by laboring. It is
coming to Christ that gives rest. Do not think that feeling your need
of Christ is salvation. It is coming to Christ, depending, relying upon
Him alone, that brings you to the blessing. Do not delay, then. The
most proper sense of sin, though it may be commendable as the bronze
serpent–if you rest in it–it must be broken in pieces, for it is an
antichrist.

Many persons are resting in their fear of self-deception. "I would
gladly trust in Christ," says one, "but I am so afraid of being
self-deceived." And do you think that your being afraid of presumption
is a better thing than believing God's testimony concerning His Son?
You must think so, or else you would not keep it in preference to
believing. To believe in Jesus Christ–that is, to rest upon God's own
Son who was put to death because our sin was laid upon Him– to believe
in Him simply with a childish confidence is the way of salvation. But
you prefer not to do it on the ground that you are afraid of being
self-deceived! You prefer tarrying in a state of caution to advancing
to faith. Away with your idolized bronze serpent–away with it! Give up
the fear or keep it, which you will, but come to Jesus!

Many of you, I am afraid, are resting in sermon hearing. "I shall get
good one of these days," says one, "I am always at the Tabernacle, or
always at my Church," or, "I go to hear a good Gospel preacher, and I
shall get a blessing." What? Do you think salvation comes through
merely hearing sermons? Ah, Sirs, responsibility comes when the Gospel
is honestly preached, but nothing more, unless you believe the message
which you hear. Faith is the vital point, the coming to Jesus. I pour
ridicule on sermon hearing, and sermon preaching, too, if you look to
this as the groundwork of salvation. It is not the poor trumpet that
makes the jubilee–it does but proclaim it. O that you would obtain the
liberty which the trumpet proclaims!

But some of you may say, "I not only hear sermons, but I read the Bible
regularly!" Yes, and I commend you for it, but if you imagine you are
in a good and proper state because you are a Bible reader, I must tell
you that as an unbeliever you are condemned already, and, while reading
the Bible, that very Bible itself condemns you! Go on with the reading
of it–I am in hopes that you may get beyond that, to be a believer in
Jesus. But as long as you are not a believer in Jesus, you may read
your Bible as much as ever you will–it will not–cannot save you.

What does our Savior say? He says (so I read the original), "You search
the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they
are they that testify of Me. But you will not come unto Me that you may
have life." A great

many in His days studied the Scriptures, but would not believe in Him.
You may be lost with a knowledge of Scripture as well as without it, if
you tarry in the letter and go not to the Spirit of the Word.

There are others who are making an idol of brass out of their prayers.
"I am not saved," says one, "I have not trusted Christ, but I do pray."
Neither do I find fault with your prayers any more than I have a right
to find fault with the bronze serpent in its place. but if you suppose
you will be saved by praying, you are greatly mistaken. He that will
not be saved by the Cross shall never be saved by his closet. He that
will not be saved by Christ's wounds, shall not find salvation by his
own groans and tears. There on the Cross is all your hope, Sinner, and
if you will not have it, there is no other. No, though you hardened
your knees with kneeling and blinded your eyes with weeping, you would
find no gate of Heaven and no hope of mercy but in the crucified
Savior. Fly to Jesus and you are saved! Keep from Jesus and your
prayers do but insult the Savior, for you place them in His place. I
must break up these things–they are idols if they hide the Cross of
Jesus.

And so, to close, it is with all the unbelieving reasoning and
rebellious considering which some people so abound with, seekers of
Christ will, some of them, continually start new difficulties. If you
solve one doubt they get another. If you solve that, they invent a
third. Their doubts, and reasonings, and questions are like an endless
chain–pull up one link and it brings up another. Their suspicions are
like a chain of dredging buckets that come up all full of mire, and
over they go and empty themselves but to come up full again.

There is no comforting them! Their soul refuses to be comforted. If one
tenth part of the ingenuity they use in rebelling against the command
of God, which bids them believe, were used in simply investigating what
they are told to believe, they would come to faith, and be saved from
their doubts. Do you think you are wise in trying to discover reasons
why you should be damned? I can hardly conceive of a man in the
condemned cell–and that is where every unbeliever is–trying to find
out reasons why he should not be pardoned. There lies the pardon before
him, and he is perversely searching the whole treasury of logic to find
out arguments against his pardon, and reasons for his execution.

You fool! Will you perish through your reasonings? Sinner, let me say
to you–let your artful doubts and reasonings be nailed to yonder tree
where Jesus died. Crucify them. You suspect too much, you consider too
much, you question too much. Here it is–receive it as a little child
receives his father's word–"God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." "The Son of Man
is come to seek and to save that which was lost." "Whosoever believes
in Him is not condemned."

"He that has the Son of God has life." "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you shall be saved." For, "He that believes and is baptized
shall be saved. But he that believes not shall be damned." Here is all
simplicity! Do not mystify it. Here all is clear as noonday! Do not
shut out the light. God grant you Grace to break up these idols of
yours, and take your Savior now, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
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The Saint One With His Savior