Man’S Thoughts And God’S Thoughts

Man'S Thoughts And God'S Thoughts

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 18, 1866,

BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,"
says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My
ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah
55:8,9.

THE text speaks of thoughts. It mentions the thoughts of man and the
thoughts of God. The power of thought is one point in which man is made
in the image of God. Other animated creatures which are put in
subjection to the thinking, intelligent creature, man, have no
fellowship with God in thought–into His world of pure spirit they
cannot enter. To the majestic lion or to the monstrous leviathan, no
speech could be addressed by God involving the terms, "My thoughts,"
and "your thoughts."

But the Lord is here speaking to a creature of another mold which He
has made a living soul, capable of fellowship with the invisible, the
spiritual, and the Divine. When men do not think, and especially when
they do not think of the highest and most important matters, they
degrade themselves from the true position and occupation of immortal
minds. The beast's spirit goes downward–and frivolous, thoughtless
persons do as much as they can to descend to the groveling level of the
mere animal.

Thought is that which likens us unto God. The powers of mind, when
rightly exercised upon eternal things, are the means of uplifting us to
the highest point to which unaided human nature can attain. And low as
this point is, it is vastly better than brutish carelessness. I see the
thoughtless soul yonder moving on all fours with the beast looking for
nothing more than food and drink. The thoughtful I see walking erect
with his brow toward Heaven seeking for something which clods of clay
cannot yield him. I am thankful this morning if you have begun to think
upon spiritual things, and though there should unhappily be a spice of
skepticism about your thoughts–though they should be mournfully far
from being God's thoughts–yet I shall hail it as no ill omen if you
think at all.

The man who begins to think about God, and his soul, eternity, sin, and
righteousness, is becoming like the bones in the vision when there was
a noise and a shaking. And there is a prospect that before long bone
will come to his bone and the dead shall live. As for you who never
think at all, my text can scarcely yield you a single ray of comfort.
It is my first duty to pray that the Lord may lead you to exercise the
royal prerogative of thought and to shake you from the terrible
lethargy into which you have fallen.

In the text we have two persons thinking–and the result–man's
thoughts and God's thoughts. God's thoughts are declared by Himself to
be exceedingly above man's. And yet if ever man is to dwell with God he
must think as God thinks. "How can two walk together except they are
agreed?" If my thoughts run this way, and God's thoughts are in an
opposite direction, I cannot have any fellowship with Him. My thoughts
must be conformed to God's thoughts or I cannot be like He and walk
with Him.

Yet He tells me that His thoughts are not my thoughts, but are as high
above mine as the heavens are above the earth! What, then, can I do to
rise to Him? Think as much as I please it only sets me on my feet, and
so far does me service–but it still leaves me on earth, and God is
yonder far above me! My thoughts can no more attain unto Him than an
infant can touch the stars with his finger. Still, it is a comfort to
me if I am sincerely thoughtful after God, that He is thinking about
me–for if my thoughts cannot bear me up to Him–His thoughts can bring
Him down to me! And when He has established a connection between the
Heaven which is above me and the earth which is beneath Himself, then
I, laying hold on His thoughts, and believing what He has thought out
for me, shall be drawn up to His elevation–and I shall come to think
His thoughts and so be in communion and fellowship with the Most High.

This morning I want, as the Holy Spirit enables me, to speak to those
who have been led so far as to have thoughts concerning eternal things,
and especially thoughts upon forgiveness of sin. You have as yet only
your own thoughts, and these are troubling and misleading you. I desire
to contrast your thoughts with God's thoughts in the hope that you may
lay hold on God's thoughts by faith. And, then, by holding them fast
you may be drawn up by them as by a Divine hand into a clearer
atmosphere, and into a happier state than that in which your soul now
sits, weeping and disconsolate. It may be that into perfect peace and
joyous confidence God's thoughts may lift you as on eagle's wings this
morning–a work which your deepest and most anxious thoughts can never
achieve for you.

I shall attempt first, this morning, to contrast your thoughts as to
the possibility of pardon with God's thoughts. Then, secondly, your
thoughts as to the plan of pardon shall be set in the same light. And
thirdly, your thoughts as to the present possession of personal pardon
shall pass in brief review.

I. May the Holy Spirit help me while I endeavor to compare your
thoughts of THE POSSIBILITY OF PARDON with God's thoughts about it. You
naturally form your ideas of God's ways from what you conceive would be
yours if you were in His position. I take you on that ground this
morning, and we will suppose that some wicked person has very grossly
injured you–and that the question of your forgiving him is now before
you. We will suppose you to be of a generous, frank, forgiving
disposition and in a calm and judicious state of mind.

You are ready to act most leniently, but still, the case in hand is no
trifle and requires consideration. After well pondering and considering
the matter, you feel bound to say, "I could forgive this person, but
his offense is of a peculiarly grievous kind. Had he robbed me of my
purse or my estate I could have overlooked it. But he has despoiled my
character. He has touched my person in its most tender part and injured
me to the highest extent possible. I could forgive ten thousand other
forms of trespass, but the form of evil from which he has made me
suffer is peculiarly offensive and injurious to me. The person under
consideration has perpetrated the worst conceivable form of wrong
against me. With the most sincere desire to pass over it I feel that I
must not, but must let the law take its course."

There have been many occasions when persons aggrieved have thus spoken
and when no reasonable person could have blamed them. Such, O awakened
Sinner, is your case before the Lord! And if He should think of you as
one man would think of another, you must admit Him to be just. It is
certain, dear Friend, that you have offended God in the most tender
point–you have denied His right to you, though you are His creature.
You have denied your Maker's right to command you, saying, "Who is the
Lord that I should obey His voice?"

Though you have been a pensioner upon His daily bounty, you have
constantly insisted upon it that you were your own master and had a
right to do just as you pleased. You have thus invaded the crown rights
of the King of kings, and committed treason against His sovereignty
which He guards most jealously. Worst of all you have committed sin
against His only begotten and most dear Son, the Lord Jesus. You may
not have persecuted His people, or spoken against His Deity–but you
have slighted the precious blood and you have passed by the crucified
Savior as though His Atonement were nothing to you.

You have thus perpetrated the most provoking offense against God and
touched Him in the apple of His eye. If it were your case, you could
not forgive–but be astonished as you hear that your thoughts are not
God's thoughts–and His ways of forgiveness are as high above your ways
as the heavens are above the earth! If you trust in the Lord Jesus,
your iniquity, although most heinous and detestable, shall be blotted
out forever! It is supposable that when you are weighing the case of an
offender you decide upon it thus: "I could forgive him, bad as the sin
is, if I thought he had fallen into it from inadvertence or
carelessness, or if I supposed that he was moved by some great hope of
gain for himself. But the offense was intentional, malicious, and
wanton, and therefore I cannot remit it."

Naturally you transfer these thoughts of yours to the Lord of Heaven,
and you say, "He will never pardon me for I have trespassed willfully.
I knew the right, but I chose the wrong. I was never a gainer by my
sins–I was often made to smart through them. And even when I became
like a burnt child, I wanted only to thrust my finger into the fire
again. I had no conceivable motive for sin except the determined and
incorrigible love of evil! I drank down iniquity as the ox drinks down
water–but the ox drinks to slake his thirst–I only gratified my
passions and hardly that, for the more I sinned, the more unhappy I
became! The more I drank of that ill stream, the more my horrid thirst
came upon me. I have sinned without excuse."

My dear Friend, such language as this befits a penitent's tongue, but
since you have Jehovah in Christ Jesus to deal with, do not despair!
Men cannot forgive their fellows when they perceive wanton malice in
their crimes, but God can forgive YOU! And though you have
intentionally slighted, aggrieved, vexed, and even blasphemed Him as
high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His ways above
your ways! You will in some cases also be obliged to say, "I could very
readily have overlooked this fault but it has been repeated. It was not
once, nor twice, nor even twenty times, but this person has so hated me
that he has purposely spited me every day of his life! He has teased
and worried me with his insolence till I cannot do other than let my
wrath loose against him! Forgive him? I might have done it if it were
seventy times seven, but he has out-done Herod and gone beyond all
number in his insults and injuries. You cannot expect me to forgive."

Such, exactly, is your case, O troubled Sinner, with regard to God. It
is certain that your offenses are as many as the sands on the seashore.
You have, through a life of twenty, thirty, forty, perhaps sixty or
seventy years, done nothing else but sin! Your transgressions have been
as numerous as the beats of your pulse, but still, though you hardly
dare to think of forgiveness, God can not only think of it, but bestow
it! The sins of twice ten thousand years He can blot out in a moment if
there could be supposed a sinner who had them all heaped upon himself!
God's thoughts are not your thoughts with regard to the number of sins,
neither are His ways your ways.

I can conceive a person greatly injured saying, "I would overlook all
these injuries which have been hurled against me, but I cannot see any
reason why I should have been the particular object of this man's
spite. It has been quite undeserved on my part, and unprovoked. I never
gave this enemy of mine any occasion to speak against me. I never did
him an ill turn–on the contrary, if he has asked me for any help I
have always given it cheerfully and liberally." That would be a very
excellent reason in a court of justice for insisting on the punishment
of an offender. A judge would allow very much weight to it, and
everyone would admit its reasoning.

Powerful, indeed, would it be in your case, O guilty Sinner, if the
Lord should plead it! Listen, I pray you, to the voice of the good God
whom you have injured. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! I have
nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against Me.
The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel does
not know, My people do not consider." What do you think is the sequel
to this very just but sad complaint? Is it, "Because of this
ingratitude I will never forgive"? No. "Come now, and let us reason
together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as
wool."

Dear Friend, you have received nothing from God but mercy, and though
you have been very ill, what a mercy it is that you are spared! You
brought on your sickness by your own sin, and tender mercy might have
been worn out with your rebellions and have let you destroy yourself
outright! But God has spared you! He has been provoked, but He has kept
back His mighty hand, and you are a trophy of His wonderful
longsuffering. Oh why do you continue to sin against Him? Why do you
rebel against One so kind? How can you be so ungenerous to a God so
full of Grace? Let His love melt you, for although men cannot forgive
the ungrateful wretches who wound their benefactors, yet the Lord's
thoughts are as much above our thoughts as the heavens are above the
earth!

"Yes," says an offended person, "I might overlook the fault if I
thought the man were wholly humbled. You see he asks me to pardon him,
but he has not a sufficient sense of his guilt. He has no idea of how
much I have had to smart–it has been sport to him, but it has been
death to me–and he does not seem to be rightly aware of the really
heinous nature of his sin. He asks for pardon very glibly, with a very
smooth tongue, but I believe if he were left to himself and had an
opportunity he would do the same again–how can you expect me to
forgive him?"

Troubled Sinner, this is very much your case. You are somewhat broken
down this morning, but you must confess that your heart is still hard
compared with what it ought to be. I do not think any of us have such a
sense of sin as could be called a perfect sense of it. The most
grieved, broken, and contrite sinner does not perceive all the
blackness of sin as God perceives it. And I am afraid the most of us,
though we do come to Christ, must mourn that we do not mourn more
thoroughly and bitterly over our sins.

We have sometimes made an excuse for not pardoning an offender because
of his want of humbling, but God does not do so–He says, "I will take
away the heart of stone and I will give them a heart of flesh." He does
not say, "I will have nothing to do with that sinner because he has a
stony heart." No, "I will take away the heart of stone out of his flesh
and give him a heart of flesh." Here is mercy, indeed–mercy looking
upon the heart of adamant and melting it until it becomes as
wax–long-suffering bearing with impenitence, and then putting its own
hand to the work to turn impenitence into contrition of soul. Truly is
it written, "My thoughts are not your thoughts."

"Still," exclaims the aggrieved party, "I think the man ought to make
me some compensation. He speaks of forgiveness, but then look at the
mischief he has done me all these past years. He ought to propose
something by way of making amends to me for the ill which he has done."
This principle is very properly recognized in courts of justice. It is
always thought that when a man has sustained a wanton injury he is not
to be expected to overlook it unless compensation is offered.

Now, poor Sinner, you feel that you cannot bring any compensation. If
you know yourself aright, you perceive that you can do nothing to undo
what you have done. You have dishonored the Law of God in such a way
that there is no hope of your ever removing the affront. But our loving
God does not ask you for any compensation! He says, "Only return unto
Me." "Only confess your iniquity which you have committed." Only
acknowledge, as David did to Nathan, the sin you have done, and you
shall receive, through Jesus, a word like that which Nathan brought to
David–"The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die."

He that confesses and forsakes his sin shall find mercy. No
compensation is needed. Sin is freely forgiven for Jesus' sake.
Naturally many a just-minded person would say, "If I were most
gracious, yet I could not find it in my heart freely to forgive when I
see the consequences always before my eyes." Suppose that somebody had
wantonly injured your child. Suppose he had broken one of your child's
limbs, for instance. I think I hear you say, "I could forgive him, but
look at my poor limping child! Do you expect a father freely to forgive
when he sees that poor limping one constantly before him to remind him
of this man's wanton cruelty? Can I forgive?"

But, Sinner, God sees before Him daily tokens of what you have done!
Frivolous, dissolute man, there is that poor girl's ruined body and
soul through you, in years gone by, and nothing you can ever do can
undo that mischief! Could your tears flow forever you can never undo
the past, nor restore the lost one. Could you bring that wandering soul
back by Divine Grace, even then the bitter past could not be unwritten,
for she, too, has spread the poison. All that accursed past of sin must
live on. God forgives sin, but much of the consequences of sin God
Himself does not prevent. If you light the fire, it will burn on to the
lowest Hell! God may forgive your evil deeds, but the fire itself still
continues.

You spoke a word against the Lord Jesus in the ears of some youngster
years gone by which turned him aside from the right path. You cannot
unsay it, and that youngster's infidelity and unbelief you cannot now
destroy. The perpetual mischief which you have done to others might
fitly be a reason which the Most High should not forgive you–but yet
He says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts." With all this before Him,
with all the consequences of your sin before Him, He forgives you
freely if you rest on Jesus!

Ah, it is a wonderful thing–we may have been the instrument of sending
others down to the pit, and alas, we cannot restore them from their
endless woe–yet we may, by Grace, amazing Grace–be delivered
ourselves from the horrible doom of sinners! The mercy of God may be
extolled in us, and His justice in them. There is the infidel, the
atheist who has poisoned the minds of others and sent them down to
Hell, and yet almighty mercy saves him at the last hour! He cannot save
his dupes–he cannot pull up his followers from the pit–but he is
himself saved! What a stupendous wonder of Divine Sovereignty and
Grace! Well did we sing just now–

"Who is a pardoning Godlike you? Or who gives Grace so rich and free?"

Furthermore, I can conceive a case in which the offended party can
fairly say, "I do feel from my heart fully prepared to forget this
offense against me, but it was public, and therefore highly obnoxious
and injurious. If no one else had known it, I think I might have
overlooked it. But this was done in the marketplace, and not in a
corner. I was put to public shame before a company of those whose
respect I deserved. I was laughed at in the streets through the
infamous villainy of this man. Do you expect me to pass by such an
affront as that?"

Trembling Sinner, you also may well think, "Surely God will never
forgive me, for against Him only have I sinned, and done this evil in
His sight. I sinned in the face of the sun. My iniquities were open and
visible to all. I sinned unblushingly, and gloried in my shame."
Rejoice, poor Mourner, that this is no reason why the Lord should not
forgive you, for as high as the heavens are above the earth so high are
His thoughts above your thoughts! Only turn to Him with a simple
confession upon your heart, and put your trust in His dear Son and He
will put all this away!

I will not prolong this talk, but only mention one more dark line of
guilt. I can imagine it possible that an offended person might add, by
way of clenching all his arguments against pardon, this one–"My
forgiveness he has already despised. I have often asked this man to be
at peace with me. I have put myself out of the way to be at peace with
him. Notwithstanding all his malice and mischief I have said to him,
'Come, let us make a treaty and be friends. Why should this enmity
continue? Why should there not be peace between us?' And when I have
done this, he has turned scornfully on his heels and has said that he
defied my mercy, and cared not for my love. I have acted thus
generously many times. I have put myself to a great expense in order to
subdue his hatred and set him right with me. And yet he has stood out
against me! How can reason and justice expect me to do any more?"

I might, perhaps, answer, "No, neither of them can well expect more of
you. But what we cannot expect of you, the guilty penitent may yet
expect of God." After all these years of rebellion, after these many
times in which you have rejected loving invitations given by a tender
mother or an earnest minister in God's name–after these multiplied
rejections–His mercy is not gone forever, neither does His loving
kindness fail! It is astonishing that some of you are still on earth
after the many, many times that you have been bestirred in soul to call
unto God. I know it has not been this voice only which has called you,
but there has been a voice within–your conscience, your awakened
conscience has cried to you–"Return unto the Lord your God."

But you have silenced the thunder of conscience so many times that it
is a marvel the Holy Spirit has not said, "Let him alone, he is given
unto idols." Here you are, still on praying ground and pleading terms
with God. Thank Him for it, and be grateful that all these rejections
have not moved Him to swear that you shall not enter into His rest. He
waits still to be gracious–

"Still does His good Spirit strive With the chief of sinners."

May God grant that you may have made your last rejection, and may you,
this day, yield to the Savior!

I should like to ask a favor of anyone here who is under conviction of
sin and who has formed his thoughts of God from what he would do if he
were in God's place. I would earnestly beg him to go out into the
street, or the field, or the garden–wherever he best can this
afternoon–and just look up and try, if he can, form an idea of how
high the heavens are above the earth. Or if you prefer, when night
comes on, stand under that starry canopy and think about how high those
heavens are above the earth. You need not limit your contemplations to
the planets and the nearest of the fixed stars–go beyond, beyond,
beyond, beyond the most distant of the nebulae–and think how matchless
the heavens are in height above the globe on which we tread.

Think over, if you will, what you know concerning astronomy. Measure
the infinite leagues of space which lie beyond the narrow bounds of our
solar system, or even of this universe of visible stars. And then
remember that as high as these heavens are above the earth, so high are
the Lord's thoughts above your thoughts, and His ways above your ways!
Indeed, there is no comparison between the two, for He says positively,
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways."

II. Let us now turn to the second head and contrast your thoughts about
THE PLAN OF PARDON with God's thoughts. If you have advanced far enough
to believe that God can pardon, and have to this extent laid hold upon
God's thoughts, it is well. But still another of your own thoughts
drags you down, for you have a wrong idea of the way of pardon. I will
suppose that there are persons here who ignorantly say, "If it is true
that the Lord will pardon sin, let Him do it outright. Let Him just
take the pen and mark through all my transgressions, and have done with
them. He has but to say, 'I forgive you,' and that is the end of it."

But God's thoughts are not your thoughts in this case. You have
evidently become so impure in heart as to look upon sin as a trifle.
But the Judge of all the earth is of another mind. He is the Governor
of all worlds and must maintain His government. There may be tens of
thousands of races of creatures all subject to Him and governed by the
same Law of immutable right and justice. If it were whispered
throughout the universe that on so much as one solitary occasion the
Judge of all the earth had winked at sin and exercised His Sovereignty
to suspend His moral Law and to deny Justice its due–it would not
matter how obscure an object the tolerated sinner might be–he would be
quoted in every world and mentioned by every race of creatures as a
proof that Divine Justice was not invariable and without respect of
persons.

If it is right to punish sin at all, it must be right to do so in every
case! And suffering sin to go unpunished in one case would be a sort of
confession that the penalty was too severe. Now, therefore, the great
Ruler cannot suffer sin to go unpunished. God as a moral Governor is
such in all His actions, on the smallest scale, as it would be best for
Him to be on the grandest scale. If God forgave sin without penalty, He
would no longer be equally resplendent in every attribute since Mercy
would eclipse Justice.

Princes may, on earth, exercise their sovereignty with a mercy which
forgets justice. This is because of the imperfection of the laws which
they administer, or of themselves as governors. But God, reigning as a
perfect Governor, administering perfect Laws, never allows exceptions
or does other than what is right. Jehovah is invariably the same, and
if the angels that sinned were punished, so must every other sinning
creature be punished or else God will have changed–which can never
be–since He is the same evermore.

Now, Sinner, you think that God might forgive you and no hurt would
come of it. I have hinted that there might be an universal evil
spreading through unnumbered worlds by the forgiveness of the most
obscure individual without the exaction of a penalty. The foundations
would be removed and then what could even the righteous do? No, God
will not forgive you without penalty. Your thoughts are not His
thoughts. He will have stroke for stroke, and what the Law required it
shall receive! He will not pass by your transgressions without exacting
the full demands of His justice.

I have no doubt there are others here who have a notion that God may,
perhaps, forgive them by putting them through a course of affliction.
It is still a superstitious notion lingering in England that poor
persons are the special subjects of Divine favor, and that hard work
and poverty, and especially a long lingering sickness are a means of
putting away sin. Persons so afflicted have had so much misery in this
life that they do not deserve to suffer more!

This is a falsehood which is seldom mentioned in the pulpit because it
is thought to be non-existent. But we know it to be very prevalent
among certain classes. But oh, my Hearer, your thoughts on this matter
are not God's thoughts! The eternal miseries of Hell are not a full
expiation for the unutterable blackness of sin–much less can the
miseries of this life be! You may be as poor as Lazarus and never lie
in Abraham's bosom! You may endure as many sufferings here as fell to
the lot of Job, and yet you may go from Job's dunghill to the flames of
Hell. Cast out any idea that these sufferings or privations of yours
can make atonement for sin! God's thoughts are not your thoughts.

A more current idea, still, is that God will put away the past and give
men a new start. And that if they go on well for the future, then in
their dying hour, when it comes to the end, God will pardon. But Soul,
there is nothing of that said in the Word of God! That truthful Book
tells us solemnly that as far as the matter of keeping the Law and
being saved by our good works are concerned, we have, all of us, but
one opportunity–and the moment we commit one sin that opportunity is
over! No, before we began life our father Adam had spoiled that chance
for us by his sin. The Word of God never speaks about giving us a
second chance! The law says, "Cursed is every man that continues not in
all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them."

It says nothing whatever of starting in business again in the hopes
that you may at last make your spiritual fortune! Nothing of the kind!
And those of you who are trying your hands at reformation and hoping
that in a dying hour you will get peace to your souls are spending your
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
profits not–for if you never sinned in the future–what would that
have to do with the past? Will a man's paying ready money in the future
defray the debts which he has already incurred? God has a right to the
obedience of your whole life–do you suppose that giving Him the
obedience of a part of it will be accepted as a satisfaction for the
whole?

Moreover, who are you that you should be holy? Who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean? Not one. You will only repeat your former
life–you will go back again like the dog to its vomit–and the sow
that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. As for peace in the hour
of death, he who is not pardoned living is not likely to be pardoned
dying. Nine out of ten, perhaps nine hundred and ninety-nine out of
every thousand of professed deathbed salvations are a delusion! We have
good facts to prove that. A certain physician collected notes of
several hundreds of cases of persons who professed conversion who were
supposed to be dying. These persons did not die but lived, and in the
case of all but one they lived just as they had lived before–though
when they were thought to be dying they appeared as if they were truly
converted. Do not look forward to that! It is a mere snare of Satan.
God save you from it–for in this case His thoughts are not your
thoughts.

There is a very current supposition, however, that God pardons sin in
this way–that He says, "Well now. I forgive you the past. My Law was a
little too severe for you, but I will try you again under a more
lenient rule. Do us well as you can, attend a place of worship, pray
and be very religious and I will save you." Ah, but my dear Friend, God
does nothing of the kind! He does not say to a sinner, "There, Sinner,
I forgive the past. Now you must see how you can behave for the
future." The forgiveness which is given to a sinner reaches to the sins
which are yet to be committed as well as to the sins which he has
already done–

"Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
cast. And oh my Soul, with wonder view, For sins to come here's pardon
too!"

Jesus does not forgive a part, but He forgives the whole. He says, "I
absolve you, none shall lay anything to your charge." And this is not
only for the present but for the future, too! It is a forgiveness which
makes a clean sweep of all sin, since all the sin of all Believers is
present sin in the sight of God though it is not present sin to them.
If the Lord forgives you at all, dear Sinner, let me tell you what He
will do–He will punish that sin of yours–no He has punished it in
Christ! Christ stood for you and bore all that you ought to have borne
from the wrath of God–therefore God is severely just while He is
bountifully merciful to you!

In the next place, when God forgives you He does it unconditionally. He
will not forgive you on the condition of this or that in the future.
But He now speaks the word, "I have blotted out your sins like a cloud,
and like a thick cloud your iniquities." All this He can do in a
moment! Before that clock ticks yet again the sentence may go forth,
"That soul has trusted My dear Son and I have made him whiter than
snow, and whiter than snow He shall be in My sight in time and in
eternity. I have cast all his sins behind My back. I have covered him
with a robe of righteousness. He is now Mine, and he shall be Mine in
the day when I make up My jewels."

Here is a pardon which you have not to earn, but to accept freely. Here
is a pardon given to you–not on the condition of anything you are to
be, to feel, to do, or to give–but a pardon given freely to you out of
the riches of God's loving kindness and tender mercy. Jesus Christ has
bought it! Jesus Christ has bought it for you! He brings it to you now,
and oh, if you have Divine Grace to receive it, you may accept it and
go on your way rejoicing in the Lord your God! This is a pardon worth
receiving!

Let me ask you a second time to look up and consider that all your
ideas of God's pardon are but thoughts here on the earth–but His
thoughts of love to you are as high above you as the heavens are above
the earth.

III. To conclude–time seems to have traveled at double speed this
morning–I wanted to have said, in the third place, a little as to THE
PRESENT POSSESSION of this pardon. There is an idea in the mind of many
of you that the plan of just trusting in Christ and being pardoned on
the spot is too simple to be safe. You want a plan which involves a
host of Latin and Greek and all sorts of ornaments and garments. You
want vestments, and altars, and prayers, and hymns, and chants, and Te
Deums and all that kind of thing. You want a long ceremony of baptism,
confirmation, confession, communion, penance, matins, vespers,
festivals and I know not what!

But the Gospel is, "Trust Jesus and live." "Believe on Jesus Christ and
you are saved." It is too simple, you think, to be safe. Now it is a
well known fact that the simplest remedies are the most potent and
safe. And, certainly, the simplest rules in mechanics are just those
upon which the greatest engineers construct their most wonderful
inventions! The moment you get to complexity you get into a snarl and
are on the brink of weakness. Simplicity, how solid it is! See the
old-fashioned plan of putting a plank across the village brook–that
was the old way of making a bridge! Well, then, somebody came in and
invented an arch–a grand invention, certainly, but not in all cases
available, because in a measure complex.

What are the engineers coming back to? The old plan of the plank! The
Menai tubular bridge is nothing more than the old plan of a plank
thrown across the brook–and more and more great engineers revert to
simplicities. When man grows wisest he comes back to where he was when
he started. I suppose that when the swan first sailed across the lake
it gave to the navigator the best possible model of a vessel to which
navigation will always have to keep close if it would keep close to the
true and beautiful. Now, as in nature simplicity is strength, so is it
certainly in Divine Grace. Trust Christ and live! And let me say,
simple as it looks, it is the most philosophical plan of salvation that
could have been thought out–for faith is the mainspring of the entire
man–and when faith is right all the powers are right.

Teaching men morals is as though I had a clock that would not go, and I
turned round one of the cog-wheels. But faith takes the key and winds
up the mainspring and the whole thing runs on readily. Do not despise
the Gospel because it is simple! Trust Christ and you shall live now!
Believe that Jesus Christ has made a full Atonement and rest yourself
wholly on Him! Just as I rest wholly now upon this rail–with your
whole weight rest on Christ! And if you are not saved the Word of God
does not speak the truth, for it is written, "He that believe on Him is
not condemned." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."

I think I hear you say, "It is too good to be true." That is an
objection I myself fought with for a very long time. But surely the
best things about our good God must be the truest. If anyone should
tell me a thing that was not very good about God, I might indignantly
say, "That must be untrue! If it is about God it must be good, and as
it is about the Most High it must be good in the highest degree." Oh
Sinner, it does seem a very wonderful thing that you should be made a
child of Heaven this morning–crimes of such horror and multitude be
forgiven in a moment–it does seem too good to be true!

But then it is just like our God. "Is not it surprising," said one to a
good old saint, "that God should forgive such sins?" "No," she said,
"it is not surprising, it is just like Him." And it is just like
Him–just like a God who gave His own dear Son to die that He should
take the prodigal and fall upon his neck, and kiss him, and feast him,
and rejoice and be merry because His lost one was found!

Lastly, I think I hear your heart say, "It seems to me to be a plan too
swift to be sure. What? In a moment? I can understand getting through a
long treadmill of doubts that would take me a dozen years, and then
getting into something like light and peace. But can all this be done
in an instant?" "I do not believe in those medicines," says one, "which
say 'cured in an instant.'" Very likely not, there are many quacks
about! But this is no human cure–this is a Divine prescription.
Believe and live! Have done with yourself and begin with Christ! From
sin to holiness, from earth to Heaven is only one step–that one step
is out of self and into Christ.

The thing is as simple as taking that step. "Why is it so hard, then?"
says somebody. Because your hearts are hard. It is not hard in itself.
If it were a harder thing you would like it better–but it is because
it is so simple that your wicked heart will never take it till God the
Holy Spirit breaks that heart. I never knew a man believe in Jesus
Christ till he felt he could not do anything else. "Well," says he, "I
cannot save myself and I will therefore let Christ do it." May the Lord
pump you dry of all your self-sufficiency and then the stream of
eternal mercy will come flowing down through the silver pipe of the
atoning sacrifice and you shall rejoice and live!

I have now to say to every sinner here, in conclusion, that my God is a
God willing to pardon, a God passing by transgression, iniquity, and
sin! These are His words, not only to the whole of you as a mass, but
to each unconverted person in particular, though I cannot point the
finger to everyone. "Come now, and let us reason together. Though your
sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are
red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Do not those words melt you
at all? I pray God that He may bless them to you. You have been
restored, brought here again after much affliction. God has been
gracious to you. He has passed by much sin in His long-suffering.

Oh, let Heaven's mercy melt you! He seems to me, this morning, to be
standing here and to be saying, "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How
shall I deliver you, Israel? How can I set you as Admah? How can I make
you as Zeboim? My heart is moved, my repentings are kindled together. I
will not destroy you, for I am God and not man." Fly, then, to your
Father's bosom! Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the
way! And may this day witness joy in Heaven because the prodigal has
returned and the lost sheep is found! God bless this simple address to
each of us, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.