Labor In Vain
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 1, 1864, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Jonah said unto them, Take me up and cast me forth into the sea; so
shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great
tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the
land. But they could not: for the sea worked and was tempestuous
against them." Jonah 1:12,13.
THESE mariners manifested most commendable humanity. They were not
willing, even though it were to preserve their own lives, to cast
overboard an innocent man. Therefore they first used their best
endeavors. And when these failed they made a solemn appeal to God,
entreating Him not to lay upon them innocent blood–and then, since
necessity has no law, Jonah, as a last resource was given up to the
boisterous element, but not till every effort had been made to save
him. We should he very careful of human life, doing nothing which even
indirectly may destroy or injure it.
And if we should be jealous over life, how much more anxious should we
be concerning men's souls! And how watchful lest we should do anything
by which the least of the human family may have his eternal interests
endangered by our example or teaching! God give us Divine Grace, like
these mariners, to row hard that if possible we may bring the ship to
land laboring that none around us may be left to perish.
I shall not, however, dwell upon that aspect of the text. Our Savior
selected Jonah as one of His peculiar types– "There shall no sign be
given," said He, "to the men of this generation but the sign of the
Prophet Jonah." We believe, therefore, that we are not erring if we
translate the details of the history of Jonah into spiritual
illustrations of man's experience and action with regard to Christ and
His Gospel.
We have before us a picture of what most men do before they will resort
to God's remedy. That remedy is here most fairly imaged in the
deliverance of the whole ship's company by the sacrifice of one on
their behalf.
I. Our first observation is that SINNERS, WHEN THEY ARE TOSSED UPON THE
SEA OF CONVICTION, MAKE DESPERATE EFFORTS TO SAVE THEMSELVES. The men
rowed hard to bring the ship to land. The Hebrew is they "dug" hard,
sending the oars deep into the water with much exertion and small
success. The tempest so tossed the sea about that they could not row in
a good and orderly manner. But they desperately tugged at the oars,
which the towering waves rendered useless by too deep a digging.
Straining every sinew they labored by violence to get the ship in
safety to the haven. Brethren, no word in any language can express the
violence of earnest action with which awakened sinners strive and
struggle to obtain eternal life. Truly, if the kingdom of God were in
the power of him that wills and him that runs, they would possess it at
once! Since they struggle, however, in an unlawful manner, the crown of
victory will never be awarded them. They may kindle the fire and
rejoice in the sparks, but thus says the Lord, "This shall you have of
My hand: you shall lie down in sorrow."
Let us notice some forms of the fleshy energy of men straining after
self-salvation. The most usual is moral reformation. We have seen the
drunkard, when conscience has been awakened, renounce his cups
altogether. He has gone further than temperance and has espoused total
abstinence. And proceeding further still, it often happens that in the
excess of zeal, he vomits forth furious words against all who go not
the same length of abstinence as himself.
Yonder man was given up to blasphemy, but now an ill word never comes
from his tongue–and he is therefore content with himself because he no
longer curses God. Another has followed an ill trade, or has been in
the habit of neglecting Sunday worship. Conscience has mercifully led
him to give up his ill connections and attend a place of worship. Is
not this well? It is, indeed, well. But it is not enough! It is
marvelous how far men will push their reforms. And yet how little solid
peace such purging can secure. For what is the sinner after his
reformation but the blackamoor washed clean, a blackamoor still?
I would have the Ethiopian clean by all manner of means. But I would
not let him fancy that the soap and the niter will make him white. I
would have the leopard tamed and caged, but this will not remove his
spots. Moral reforms are excellent in themselves, but they are
dangerous if we rest in them. Let even a corpse be washed, but let no
man dream that the most careful washing will restore it to life. "You
must be born again" rings out the death knell of all salvation by human
effort. Unless reforms are founded in regeneration, they are baseless
things which fail in the end for want of foundation. They are deceptive
things, affording a transient hope, which soon, alas, must melt away.
Ah, my Hearer, you may go on improving and reforming, but all your
present and future amendments can never wipe out the old score of sin.
There stands the black catalog of your sins, engraved as in eternal
brass! The gloomy record remains unaltered and unalterable by any deeds
of yours. Something more potent than your tears and change of life must
take away the sins of your departed years. Beware, then, of thinking
that you are getting the ship to land–no matter how hard you row with
these oars of human resolution.
Others add to their reformation a superstitious regard to the outwards
of religion. According to the sect with which they unite, they become
excessively religious. They reverence every nail of the Church door and
every panel of the pulpit. There is not a brick in the aisle which is
not sacred to them, nor even tile on the roof! Every rubric, every
"Amen," every vestment and candlestick has to them a world of sanctity
about it. They are not content with the ordinary days of worship, but
the Church bell rings every morning. And well it may, for if men are to
earn salvation in God's House, they had need be there all day and all
night, too!
Even in a Protestant Church, men row very hard with multitudinous
observances and superstitious performances, but when you get into the
Romish Church, the labor in vain comes to a climax! There are vows of
poverty, celibacy, silence, passive obedience and a thousand other
tortures! If the Moloch whom they worship is not satisfied he ought to
be. We heard but the other day of a gentleman giving up all his goodly
heritage, selling his broad acres and pouring all the purchase money
into the coffers of the monks and priests in order that at last by
rowing hard in this way he might get the ship to land.
It is remarked of the Hindus that they give vastly more to their idols
than we bestow upon the cause of God and I suppose it is true–but then
they also are rowing hard to get the ship to land. All they do is for
themselves. Self is always a mighty power in the world. Do but teach
men that they can gain their own salvation by their own doings and
mortifications and offerings and I would expect to see the treasury
filled! I would expect to hear the whip constantly going upon the
shoulders. But I should despair of seeing anything like holiness
surviving in the land. Superstition is hard rowing but the ship will
not come to the land by it. Men invent ceremony after ceremony. There
is this pomp and that show–this gaudy ornament and that procession.
But the whole matter ends in outward display, no secret soul-blessing
results flow from there. Priests and their votaries may go on piling up
human inventions ad infinitum, but they will forever fail to ease the
conscience, or give rest to a disturbed soul. Man's awful necessities
crave something more than the husks of superstition!
You will find another form of the same thing among ourselves. Many
persons row hard to get the ship to land by a notional belief in
orthodox doctrine. This superstition is harder to deal with, but quite
as dangerous as the belief in good works. It is quite as legal an idea
for me to think to be accepted by believing good doctrine as to expect
to be pardoned for doing good works. Yet we have scores of people who,
if they can get hold of the Calvinistic creed at the right end–if they
become masters of it and know how to argue against Arminianism–if they
become not only sound Calvinists but a little sounder still, having not
only the sixteen ounces to the pound but two or three ounces over and
above, so as to make them ultra-Calvinistic–why then they fancy that
all must be well!
"I never can hear a preacher," this man will say, "who is not sound. I
can tell at once when there is a grain of free will in the sermon."
This is all very well, but he who boasts thus may be no better than the
devil! No, he may not be so good, for the devil believes and
trembles–but these men believe and are too much hardened in their own
conceit to think of trembling. Away with the idea that believing sound
doctrine and chaining ourselves to a cast-iron creed is vital godliness
and eternal life! Orthodox sinners will find that Hell is hot and that
their knowledge of predestination will not yield a cooling drop to
their parched tongues.
Condemning other people–cutting off the saints of God right and
left–is but poor virtue and to have these blessed doctrines in the
head while neglecting them in the heart is anything but a gracious
sign. If you can "a hair divide between the west and north-west side,"
do not therefore fancy that your fine gifts and profound orthodoxy will
ensure you an entrance into the kingdom of Heaven. Ah, you may row with
those oars, but you will not get the ship to land–you must be saved by
Sovereign Grace through the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the
heart–or you will not be saved at all. As it is not by doing that we
are saved, neither is it by subscribing to creeds. There is something
more than this needed before the ship can reach the port.
Perhaps, in this congregation, we have other subtle methods of
endeavoring to do the same thing. The pastor has noticed that many are
resting upon their own incessant prayers. Ah, my poor Hearer, you know
your need of something, you can hardly tell what. You have heard the
subject of salvation explained to you a hundred times and now when it
comes to the pinch you do not understand it after all. I thank God that
you have learned how to pray–that your sighs and cries and groans come
up before Him. But I sorrow because you trust in your prayers and rest
in them. Remember that you will no more be saved for the sake of your
prayers than for the sake of your good works.
If your knees become hard as the knees of St. James are said to have
been–hard like the camel's through long kneeling–and if with the
Psalmist you could say, 'My throat is dried, my eyes fail," yet all
this, if you look to it and do not look to Christ, will never avail
you. I knew what it was for months to cry out to God and to find the
heavens above me as brass, because I had not understood clearly the
soul-quickening words, "Believe and live," but dreamed that by praying
I could get myself into a suitable state to receive mercy, or perhaps
move the heart of God towards me!
Whereas that heart needed no moving towards me, it was full of love
from before the foundation of the world. Pray, my dear Brethren. Let me
never discourage you in that. But do let me beg you not to sit still,
or recline upon your prayers, for if you get no further than your
prayers, you will never get to Heaven. There is more wanted than crying
to God! More wanted than earnest desires, however passionately they may
be breathed. There must be faith in Jesus or else you will row hard
with your prayers, and you will never bring the ship to land.
Then there are others who are toiling by–I scarcely know how to
describe it–a sort of mental torture. Oh, the many who say, "If I
could feel as I ought to feel. O, Sir, my heart is as hard as a nether
millstone. And yet I do not feel that it is hard–I wish I did. I would
give my eyes if I could repent. I would give my right arm if I could
but weep for sin! I would be satisfied to be a beggar, or to lie
rotting in a dungeon if I could but feel that I was fit to come to the
Savior! But, alas, I feel nothing! If I did but feel my unfitness–did
but know my own unworthiness–I should have hope. But I am made of such
Hell-hardened steel that neither terrors or mercies can move me. O,
that I could repent! O, that this rock could give forth streams like
that Rock which Moses smote in the wilderness of old! O, that I could
but bring my heart to melt into something like desires after God and
Christ! Oh, I am everything but what I should be!"
Now, my dear Hearer, you will row very hard in this way before you will
ever come to land, for self-righteousness lies at the bottom of all
this. You want to save your heart from hardness and then come to Jesus,
which is much as to say you wish to save yourself and then come to Him
to put the finishing stroke upon you. You have a secret attachment to
your own goodness or you would not be so eager to compass a
fitness–you should at once do as you are bid and rest alone on Jesus.
Your business is not with self, but with Jesus! With Jesus, just as you
are. However hard your heart may be–however destitute of feeling you
may have become–this, though it should be subject for lamentation,
should never keep you from resting in Him who is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
I tell you, your trying to get your heart into a right state, your
trying to repent, your trying to be humble is all labor in vain. It is
all going the wrong way to work. Your business is with Christ! He can
soften, cleanse and sanctify, but you can do none of these, try as you
will. Come as you are to my Lord Jesus, hard-heart and all, and the sea
shall soon be calm for you. While you row with your own oars, the sea
will only work and be the more tempestuous.
Various are the shapes which this carnal energy assumes. I have met
with many who are in this kind of case. They are constantly starting
objections to their own salvation and trying to answer them. They have
comfort for a moment and they say, "Yes, this is very sweet, but"–and
then they will spend a week or two in trying to split up that but. When
they are rid of this but, a mercy will come to them from another
quarter and they are sure to meet it with, "Ah, blessed be God for
that, but." They are always pulling away at these buts.
These big waves come sweeping up to the side of their vessel and they
try to dig their oars into them. Friend, if you are never saved until
you, an unpardoned sinner, have answered all objections, you will never
be saved because there are a thousand objections to the salvation of
any man which can only be met by one argument and that is the blood of
Jesus. If you will go here and there seeking answers to the devil's
suggestions of unbelief you may travel the whole world and end your
fruitless task in despair.
But if you will come to Jesus, if you will see Him like another Jonah
thrown out of the ship for your sake. If you will but see Him lost that
you may be saved, then a peace which passes all understanding shall
keep your heart and mind by Christ Jesus.
II. We will now take the second point. Like these mariners, THE FLESHY
EFFORTS OF AWAKENED SINNERS MUST INEVITABLY FAIL. The text says, "The
men rowed hard to bring it to the land. But they could not." With all
man's rowing after mercy and salvation, he can never find it by his own
efforts. For this good reason, first of all, that it is contrary to
God's Law for a sinner to get comfort by anything he can do for and by
himself. Here is the law–"By the works of the Law there shall no flesh
living be justified."
That rule, then, fixed and fast as the laws of Nature, shuts out
forever all hope of the attainment of joy and peace by anything that we
can do, or be, or feel–for all these the Law already claims of us. How
mad then will it be on our part if we run counter to a Divine Law!
Success is impossible in so perverse a course. I do well, therefore, if
I discourage all the efforts of awakened consciences to find peace
anywhere except in the work of Christ. Let a man labor ever so
earnestly, yet if he goes against the laws of Nature, you know his
labor is lost.
Here is an oven to be warmed for hungry persons need bread. See the
workers yonder, how they toil, bringing snow with all their might to
heat the oven. "Well," you say, "do not discourage them. Do not
discourage their earnest activity. It is a pity when you see people
really determined to do anything, to discourage their efforts." Ah, it
is a pity, indeed, except when these efforts are foolish. If I see them
bringing snow to heat an oven I know they will never do it, work as
hard as they may.
And when sinners bring their own works to yield them spiritual comfort,
I know that they are spending their labor for that which profits not
and I must and will discourage them! Some years ago certain persons
engaged in a speculation to sink a coal mine in a part of England where
coal was never found. Prospectuses were issued. Directors obtained. And
shareholders duped! And the workmen began to sink their shaft. Now it
was absolutely certain–any geologist could have told them so–that
they would not find coal, let them dig to doomsday.
Suppose you and I had gone there and seen them digging and had laughed
at them, or told them it was all of no avail? Wiseacres might have
replied, "You ought not to discourage coal mining, you ought not to
discourage men who are working so very hard." I would say, "I would not
discourage coal mining in any place where there is coal to be had. But
for these poor souls to throw away their sweat and their money for that
which is not coal–I will discourage them in that insane enterprise and
think I do them good service."
When we see men struggling after eternal life through their own
efforts, we know eternal life is not to be had there. We are glad that
they are awakened to anything like effort, for anything is better than
spiritual sloth–but we are grieved to see them laboring in the very
fire, toiling where success can never crown their endeavors. There is
no salvation by the works of the Law–why then look for it there? If
you dash your head against the law of Nature, the law of Nature will
not change for you. And if you labor in opposition to the irreversible
Law of God, you will pay the penalty of it in your utter failure.
The ancients fabled that it was one of the tortures of Hell to which
the daughters of Danaus were condemned, that they should fill a tub
without a bottom with buckets full of holes. Behold the picture of the
self-righteous man's undertaking! He may labor, he may toil, but he is
filling a bottomless tub with leaky buckets. And work as he may, though
he drop down dead in the attempt, success is impossible. O that he knew
it to be so and would trust in the Lord Jesus! Besides this, the man
cannot succeed in obtaining salvation by his own efforts because in
what he is doing he is insulting God! He is casting dirt in the face of
Christ! He is denying the whole testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Ah, my Hearer, if you could save yourself, why was it necessary that
Christ should die for you? If your prayers could avail, why did He
sweat great drops of blood? Why, Man, if there were any merit in your
mortification, or your reformation, what need that the Prince of Life
and Glory should veil Himself in ignominy and suffer a death of shame?
You do, in fact, say by your fleshly attempts, I want no Savior, I can
save myself! You do, in fact, scoff at the great Atonement which God
has made in the Person of Christ!
This insult will ruin your soul, except you turn from it. Repent of it,
I pray you. Humble yourself and receive Jesus' finished work. If
scorning the Jordan, Naaman had gone to Abana and Pharpar, he might
have washed not only seven times but seventy times seven! He might have
earnestly persevered in the constant immersion, but he would have
remained a leper to his dying day. If you scorn the Atonement and
neglect God's great command to believe and live. If you go about to try
and feel, or be, or do, you will use these Abanas and Pharpars to your
own damnation! And to your own salvation never.
I pray you, do not insult God by looking for balm in Gilead, or for a
physician there. There is no balm in Gilead, there never was any. There
is no physician there, or else the daughter of my people would long ago
have been healed. Men would long ago have saved themselves. You must
look higher than the Gilead of human energy. You must look higher than
earth's physicians. You must look to the hills where comes our Help,
the great mountains of a Savior's work and merit!
There are many other reasons why it is impossible that a man can ever
get comfort in the way of works and feelings. The principal one I will
mention is because that is the way of the curse. He who is under the
Law is under the curse. So long as I stick to the Law, do what I may, I
am under the curse of the Law and consequently under the curse. And how
can I expect in the way of the curse to find the eternal blessing? Oh,
folly, to choose the way of the curse as the way of blessing! But the
best proof of it all is experience. Ask either saint or sinner and you
shall find that peace was never obtained in the way of the flesh. Turn
to the Christian and he will tell you, "Therefore being justified BY
FAITH, we have peace with God."
He will tell you that when he turns away from faith and looks to
himself his darkness begins at once. He will assure you that he never
walks in perfect light and true comfort except when he keeps his eyes
fast fixed upon the great Sacrifice of Calvary. I know, Brethren,
whenever I am dull and drooping as to my eternal interests, it is
always because I have thought more of my graces than of Christ's Grace,
or more of the Spirit's work in me than of the finished work of Christ
on my behalf. There is no living happily but by depending wholly upon
Christ. A sinner resting upon his Savior as his only hope is blest.
Now, if this is the experience of all saints, and if no sinner living
will dare to tell you that he can get his conscience quiet by his own
works–why do any of you try? Heaven bears witness that salvation by
faith is certain–Hell bears witness that works do but ruin us. O, hear
the double testimony and lay hold upon eternal life through the Person
of Christ Jesus! O my dear Friend, if you are really panting for
salvation, go not round and round these dreary performances of your own
doings! It must all end in misery, disappointment and despair. "They
rowed hard to bring it to land. But they could not."
All human work which does not begin and end in the Lord Jesus must be a
failure. All your works have been failures with you up to the present
and so it will be to the end of the chapter. Give it up and God help
you to try His method, for it is sure and efficacious.
III. Now, with very great brevity, I will bring you to the third point
of the sermon which is that THE SOUL'S SORROW WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE
SO LONG AS IT RELIES UPON ITS OWN EFFORTS. What is the effect of all
that the creature does before it believes in Christ? It may be
overruled for good, but much of its effect is mischievous. The good
effect which flows from it lies in this–the more a man strives to save
himself, the more convinced will he become of his own impotence and
powerlessness.
I thought that I could turn to God whenever I pleased till I tried to
turn to Him. I thought repentance a very easy thing till I began to
repent. I dreamed that faith in Christ must be mere child's play till I
had to groan, "Lord, help my unbelief!" As for the Law, when we attempt
to keep it, we groan under a heavy burden which we have no strength to
bear–
"How long beneath the Law I lay in bondage and distress! I toiled, the
precept to obey, But toiled without success."
Oh, it is hard serving the Law! He is a cruel taskmaster. The whip is
always going and the flesh is always bleeding. It is hard service.
Weary and faint, we fall down under it and feel it to be a load
intolerable to be borne. Well is Haggi chosen as the type of the Law,
for indeed it genders unto bondage.
And well was blazing Sinai chosen as its representative, for even Moses
said, when standing upon that mountain, "I do exceedingly fear and
quake." To be clean divorced from all legal hope is a blessed
preparation for Gospel marriage with Christ. It was well that rowing
hard made the mariners feel their inability to cope with the
tempest–and it is best of all when creature efforts produce a clear
discovery of creature weakness.
Another good result will sometimes follow. The man passionately
striving to save himself by keeping the Law finds out the spirituality
of that Law, a spirituality which he never saw before. He has given up
outward acts of sin, but all of a sudden he is startled to find that
even though he has given them all up in open fact, he is still
condemned for allowing the thoughts of them in his heart! Even a look
may be fornication, though no act of sin shall follow it. He remembers
that even the wish of his heart may be theft. And that covetousness is
not only straining after another man's goods, but envying him the
enjoyment of them.
Now he finds the work is impossible, indeed, for he might sooner hold
the winds in his fist than control his passions, or with his breath
blow the sea into a calm sooner than he could restrain the impetuous
propensities of his nature. O, Brethren, it is a good thing when we
find that the Commandments of God are exceedingly broad–when we see
the sharpness of this great axe of the Law and how it cuts at the very
root of the tree and leaves us no green thing standing wherein we can
boast!
So far so good. Fleshly effort, overruled by Divine Grace, has helped
us to the discovery of the grandeur and dignity of the Divine Law. But
I am afraid that much of this toil and labor is very mischievous
because it makes unbelief take a firmer grip. It is easier to comfort a
soul who has been a short time in darkness than it is to comfort one
who has given way a long time to an unbelieving state of heart. I
remember one, I believe she is in darkness now and if I remember right
it is ten years ago since she first fell into these doubts and fears. I
am sometimes afraid she will never see the Light because it has become
chronic with her.
Giant Despair's prisoners do not all escape. He has a yard full of
bones, remember. These are the relics of willing prisoners who would
not be comforted and put out their own eyes to avoid the Light. I
believe that some sinners make excuses for themselves out of their
despair and that they let their doubts and fears grow till they cast a
thick shadow, like Jonah's gourd. And then they sit down with a
miserable sort of comfort beneath the leaves. "There is no hope,
therefore will I go on in my sins. There is no hope for me, therefore
let the worst come to me. I can but be damned. I will fold my arms and
sit still."
Oh, this is a damnable temptation! It is one which ruins multitudes I
am sure! This is Satan's man-trap! Beware of it! This is the devil's
stocks in the inner prison–he is to be pitied who is laid by the heels
in them. While you are rowing hard to get your vessel to land and
standing out against the gracious plan which God has ordained, you are
letting the nightmare of unbelief grow into a dread reality! You are
letting this deadly incubus rest more terribly upon your hearts. O,
Sinner, I pray God deliver you from this work-mongering, this horrible
trying to save yourself by something homegrown and home-spun. If we
could cut off the head of your self-righteousness, we would have hope
of you! If you would give up all attempts to deliver yourselves and
leave the case in Christ's hands, the thing would be done!
But while you are thus doubting and fearing, you are sinking deeper in
the mire. And it is harder to get you out now than ever it was.
Remember this one thing, that while the sinner is thus straining
himself to get to Heaven by his own righteousness, his day of wrath is
getting nearer. He is adding sin to sin. He is accumulating the fuel
for his own burning, filling the sea of wrath in which he must be
drowned forever. "What? When I am praying, groaning and crying to God
and when I am trying to mend my ways and do my best, do you say I am
only doing mischief?"
I do say it. I say these things are good in themselves, but if you are
resting in them, you are so flying in the teeth of God's great Gospel,
so insulting the dignity of the great Savior that you are adding sin to
sin! And among the firewood for your burning there shall be none so dry
which shall burn so terribly as your own good wicked works, your own
rebellious virtues, your own proud detestable righteousness which you
set up in opposition to the merit, blood and righteousness of God's
appointed Mediator!
Gold is good enough, but if you bow down before the golden calf I will
hate the gold because you worship it. Your morality is good enough, but
if you trust to it I will hate your morality because it is your
destruction. Sinner, I pray you remember that your life is being
shortened all the while you tarry in the plains of self. Time flies and
you fade like a leaf, while your righteousnesses, which are but filthy
rags, are crying out against you! You are laboring without success. But
more, you are losing time which might have been turned to better
purpose. While you are spending your money for that which is not bread,
you are getting nearer and nearer to the dread famine when there shall
be no bread to buy.
While you are trying to get this fool's oil with which to keep your
lamps burning, the Bridegroom is coming and the midnight is hastening
when you shall have to say, "Give us of your oil, for our lamps are
gone out." There shall be no time, then, for you to buy for the
darkness shall have come upon you and the door shall be shut and the
Bridegroom's supper shall have begun. O that I could have some power to
induce you not to follow any longer these fine ways of yours, these
proud deceptive plans! O that you would receive God's plan of
redemption and enjoy the peace which it brings!
IV. We will try to explain God's plan and then we have done. That is
our fourth point–THAT THE WAY OF
SAFETY FOR SINNERS IS TO BE FOUND IN THE SACRIFICE OF ANOTHER ON THEIR
BEHALF. Here is Jonah. Leave out the fact that he was sinful and he
becomes an eminent type of Christ. "Take me up and cast me into the sea
and the sea shall become calm under me." Substitution saves the
mariners–Substitution saves sinners. This is the essential oil of
Gospel Truth. Jesus Christ says to His people, "I am cast into the sea.
There in that depth I sleep for a while, like Jonah, to rise again on
the third day. But My being cast into the sea makes a deep calm for
you." How very simple this process was. They take Jonah–he himself
desires it–he is thrown overboard and the deeps swallow him up.
Ah, poor Jonah, what a fall! What a terrible descent! What a frightful
end to his prophetical career! Down he goes. Did I not see huge jaws
opening amid the billows? Was he not devoured by some terrible monster!
Poor fellow, he must have our pity! But how strange it is! Why the wind
has ceased–it has dropped dead! And the waves seem to be playing now
where they were battling fiercely a moment ago! No, the sea is glassy!
We need not the oars any longer! Up with the sails, we shall soon be
safely in port!
An odd thing this, the drowning of one becomes the safety of all.
Mariners, let us sacrifice to Jonah's God. Ah, it is a strange and
marvelous thing! It is that which sets angels singing and makes the
redeemed spirits wonder on forever, that Jesus came down into this ship
of our common humanity to deliver it from tempest. The vessel had been
tossed about on all sides by the waves of Divine wrath. Men had been
tugging and toiling at the oar. Year after year philosopher and teacher
had been seeking to establish peace with God. Victims had been offered
and rivers of blood had flowed and even the first-born of man's body
had been offered up.
But the deep was still tempestuous. Then Jesus came and they took Him
and cast Him overboard. Out of the city they dragged Him. "Away with
Him! Away with Him! It is not fit that He should live!" Out of all
comfort they had cast Him long ago–now from society they cast Him,
too. From pity they cast Him! From all sympathy they cast Him! And at
last from life itself they hurled Him, while God stands there to help
them to cast Him into a sea of woes. As He, Jesus, dies there is a
calm. Deep was the peace which fell upon the earth that dreadful day.
And joyous is that calm which yet shall come as the result of the
casting out of that representative Man who suffered–the Just for the
unjust to bring us to God!
Brethren, I wish I had better words with which I could fitly describe
the peace which comes to a human heart when we learn to see Jesus cast
into the sea of Divine wrath on our account. Conscience accuses no
longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him.
Memory can look back upon past sins, with sorrow for the sin it is
true, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come! It is a blessed
thing for a man to know that he cannot be punished, that Heaven and
earth may shake, but he cannot be punished for his sin!
If God is unjust I may be damned. But if God is just I never can be.
That is how the saved sinner stands. Christ has paid the debt of His
people to the last jot and tittle and received the Divine receipt. And
unless God can be so unjust as to demand twice payment for one debt, no
soul for whom Jesus died can ever be cast into Hell. It seems to be one
of the very principles of our nature to believe that God is just. We
feel it and that gives us our terror at first. But is it not marvelous
that this very same first principle, the belief that God is just,
becomes afterwards the pillar of our confidence and peace?
If God is just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be
punished. Christ stands in my place and is punished for me. And now, if
God is just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be punished!
God must change His Nature before one soul for whom Christ was a
Substitute, can ever by any possibility suffer the lash of the Law. I
must confess I do not understand the atonements which some preach. An
atonement which does not atone–a redemption which does not redeem–a
redemption which intends to redeem all men born of Adam and yet leaves
the major part in slavery–an atonement which makes full atonement for
all human sin and leaves men to be condemned afterwards–I cannot
comprehend that!
But I do understand a Substitution–Christ taking the place of the
Believer–Christ suffering the quid pro quo for the Believer's
punishment–Christ rendering an equivalent to Divine wrath for all that
His people ought to have suffered as the result of sin. I right well
and right joyously understand that the Believer, knowing that Christ
suffered in his place, can shout with glorious triumph, "Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect?" Not God, for He has justified!
Not Christ, for He has died, "yes rather has risen again." My hope is
not because I am not a sinner, but because I AM a sinner for whom
Christ died. My trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy
Christ died for me!
My rest is here, not in what I am or shall be, or feel, or know, but in
what Christ is and must be! In what Christ did and is still doing as He
stands before yonder Throne of Glory. O Beloved, it is a blessed thing
to get right out of self. But many Believers seem to have one foot on
self and one on Christ. They are like the angel with one foot on the
sea and the other on the land–only being angels–they cannot stand on
such a footing. Put both feet on the Rock, Beloved! Stand altogether on
Christ!
Arminianism is one foot on Christ and the other foot on self. "Christ
has saved me," says the Arminian. There is His foot on the land. "But,"
he says, "I must hold on. It depends upon me whether I persevere to the
end." There is his foot on the sea. If he does not look out, that foot
will give way. But how blessed it is when the Christian can say, "I am
saved." There is no if, no but about it. There is nothing for me to do
to complete my salvation. It is all done. There is not one jot or
tittle left to complete the Covenant of my salvation. The Covenant of
effectual Grace is all written out in the fair handwriting of my Savior
with a pen dipped in His own blood, and it guarantees all spiritual
blessings to me forever! The edifice has been built and there is not
wanted a beam or a brick, or even a nail or a tin tack to complete it!
From its foundation to its top stone it is all of Grace and all
perfect. My garment of salvation has been woven from the top
throughout–there is not a rag of thread or stitch of mine wanted to
complete it. "It is finished," said the Savior, as He dipped it for the
last time in the glorious carmine of His own blood and made a rich
royal robe for His people to wear forever! O Brethren, if there were
one stone to be put to the walls of our salvation–one single trowel
full of mortar to make the stones set firmly–it would be all undone,
all in ruin. But the whole of it has been completed! Stone and mortar,
from basement to summit–all has been completed by Sovereign Grace!
And what shall you and I do? Since Jesus has been cast overboard for
us, let us now rest in perfect quiet. Let us enjoy the peace "that
passes all understanding, which shall keep our hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus." And then, having been saved in such a way as this, let
us now go to work for God–not to win life, not to win Heaven–life and
Heaven are ours already! But loved by Him let us now love Him with a
perfect heart!
The man who has not attained to rest in Jesus is incapable of virtue. A
man who does anything for his own salvation acts from a selfish motive,
does everything for himself. He has no virtue in him. But the man who
is saved, who knows there is nothing for him to do, either to put
himself into salvation or to keep himself in it–knowing that all is
now finished, having no need to do anything for self–he does
everything for God and is holy in heart and life. Now he can sing with
Toplady–
"Loved of my God, for Him again, With love intense I'd burn. Chosen of
Him before time began, I'd choose Him in return."
Let us show that this is the true root of virtue. Let us teach men who
say this doctrine is licentious that it is the most heavenly soil in
which the fruits of the Spirit can grow! Like a genial sunshine is this
doctrine to our fruits to ripen them! Like a heavenly shower to bring
them forth! God give you, Sinner, to rest in my Savior! God give you,
Saint, to live to your Savior and He shall have the praise in both
cases. Amen.