No Illusion

No Illusion
A SERMON DELIVERED BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN
TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought
he was seeing a vision." Acts 12:9.
FANCY, not fact! A dream! A delusion! That would be the world's
estimate of the most blessed Christian experience. "Fanaticism" is the
name by which they call it. But call it by whatever name you please,
the Divine Grace that interposes and rescues a sinner from the Law's
threats, from Satan's tyranny, from the malice of men, and the fears of
one's own heart is matter of abundant joy. Then let it be witnessed by
a life of undeviating principle and devoted service of God– sneer who
may–suspect it who will–it is a noble triumph.
Such triumphs of Grace we have among us, and there are many who can
witness to the fact. Still, dear Friends, not infrequently does it
happen that you, whose salvation is our joy, of whom we speak with the
utmost assurance, are yourselves in straits, exercised with fights
without and fears within. And you are unable to satisfy your own
consciences that the work is Divine. Observe now that Peter was brought
out of prison by a great miracle, and yet it seemed to him as a vision
or a dream. I need not recapitulate the circumstances. I have just read
them in your hearing. This much I propose.
First, let me endeavor to draw out some reflections from the narrative.
And then, secondly, I shall take up the text itself and try to show you
that there is no illusion, whatever you may think, in the mighty
operations of the Lord.
To begin–the first remark we think we are justified in making is this,
that if ever our enemies can get hold of us, they will be quite sure to
hold us as fast as they can. When Herod had been able to apprehend
Peter, he was not content with ordinary means of keeping him in
custody. He has Peter put into the strongest prison in Jerusalem. To
make assurance doubly sure, he is chained not to one soldier, but to
two. He was too great a prize to be readily lost. He anticipated as
much satisfaction for himself from the applause of the people, for
putting so eminent a servant of Christ as James to death, that he could
not afford to lose an opportunity of getting further prey.
So he seizes upon him who was accounted a pillar in the Church with
singular avidity. Mark you, Brothers and Sisters, if by any fault of
our own we ever fall into the hands of our enemies, we need expect no
mercy from them. And if without fault we are delivered for a little
season into their hands, we have good reason to cry aloud to God, for
whoever may be spared, the Christian never is. Men will forgive a
thousand faults in others, but they will magnify the most trivial
offense in the true follower of Jesus. Nor do I very much regret this.
Let it be so and let it be a caution to us to walk very carefully
before God in the land of the living.
You young members of the Church, who are often engaged in your worldly
calling, where a great number of persons are watching for your falling,
let this be a special reason to walk very humbly before God. If you
walk carelessly, remember the lynx-eyed world will soon see it and
then, with its hundred tongues, it will soon spread the story. You may
say– "Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon,
lest the daughters of Philistia rejoice." But they will tell it. With
many an addition of their own they will repeat the story. You shall
hear them say–"Aha! Aha! So would we have it! All these Christians are
inconsistent, they are all mere professors, they are hypocrites to a
man, every one of them."
Thus will much damage be done to our good cause and much insult offered
to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Cross of Christ is in itself
an offense to the world. Let us take heed that we do not add any
offense of our own. It is "to the Jew a stumbling block." Let us mind
that we put no stumbling blocks where there are enough already. "To the
Greek it is foolishness." Let us not add our folly to give point to the
scorn with which the worldly deride the Gospel. Oh, how jealous should
we be of ourselves, for we serve a jealous God! How rigid should we be
with our consciences, for we serve One whose name is "Holy, Holy,
Holy!"
Yes, in the presence of adversaries who will misrepresent our best
deeds and twist our best endeavors into something selfish–impugning
our motives where they cannot censure our actions–how circumspect
should we be! We pilgrims travel as suspected persons through the
world. Not only are we under surveillance, but there are more spies
than we reckon. The espionage is everywhere–at home and abroad. If we
fall into their hands we may sooner expect generosity from a wolf, or
mercy from a fiend, than to find anything like patience with our
infirmities from the men of the world, or anything like the hiding of
our iniquities from the men who spice their infidelity towards God with
scandals against His people.
The world is too much like the accursed Canaan who pointed to his
father's nakedness. We can only expect of our own Brothers and Sisters,
the conduct of Shem and Japheth, who shall go backward to cast the
mantle over us. Better far that we should so act and so live as to not
ever need this mantle of charity, but be able to say, with all
humility, yet with holy courage–"Lord, You know that in this thing I
have not sinned, but have walked uprightly in Your ways." That is the
first lesson which I feel bound to inculcate. "For what glory is it, if
when you are buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently?"
The second lesson is this. When a case is put into God's hands, He will
certainly manage it well and He will interfere in sufficient time to
bring His servants out of their distress. Peter's case was put into
God's hands. The company that met at the house of Mary, the mother of
Mark, were appealing to the great Advocate. If any man is in prison,
"we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." With
their humble prayers and tears they were pleading for their Brother,
whose valuable life they could ill afford to spare, for the infant
Church needed the Apostles, at least for a season.
I think I hear them pleading one after the other–"Lord, remember
Peter! You know how we love him. Our desires go up for him. James is
dead. Alas, we took up his body and mourned him! Let not Peter be
slain! Oh, take not You the prop from under us! Remove not the pillar
from the wall, nor the stone from its place." The Lord has heard their
cries. Peter's cause is in His hands. He will interfere in due time.
The assurance that prayer is heard is the earnest that prayer will be
answered. The petition is accepted, though no answer has yet been
received. Well, we can leave it there.
But look, Brothers and Sisters, Peter has been lying in prison the
whole week. The feast of unleavened bread is over, it is the last
night, the last night! The evening has crept on. No, the dark hours
have set in. It is midnight. The sun will soon be rising–in a few more
hours–and then where is Peter? Lord, if You do not interfere, where is
Peter? If You come not now to help him, his blood shall make the
populace of Jerusalem glad while they gloat and delight in his
slaughter! But just at that last and dark hour of the night, God's
opportunity overtook man's extremity.
A light shone in the dungeon. Peter was awakened. God never is before
His time. Nor is He ever too late. He comes just when He is needed. But
look, there is Peter asleep! Peter is asleep, doing nothing, doing
nothing! Well, and the best thing for him, too, for the case was put
into God's hands. I ask you, dear Friends, suppose Peter had been
awake, what could he do? Had he been fretting and troubling himself,
what good could he have done? Finding, therefore, that nothing remained
for him, he just throws himself upon the mercy of God, shuts his eyes
as peaceably as though he were to wake tomorrow to a wedding feast and
not to his own execution.
Sleep on, blessed Peter! Well might Herod envy you that peace which his
kingly robe could never give him. You sleep, though your hands are
chained, for your spirit is free. And it may be that in your dreams you
are rejoicing "with a joy unspeakable and full of glory." When the case
is taken into God's hands and you and I feel that we can do nothing for
ourselves, we may take sleep in perfect quietude, for so He gives His
Beloved sleep. While we sleep, His watchful eyes do keep their
ceaseless guard. Jesus might seem on one occasion to be asleep, but you
know where He slept–it was in the back part of the ship. Why there?
Methinks He slept with His hand on the tiller, so that the moment He
awoke, He might steer the vessel–
"Though winds and waves assault your keel,
He does preserve it, He does steer–
Even when the boat seems most to reel.
Storms are the triumphs of His art,
Sure He may close His eyes, but not His heart."
God never sleeps. He is ever on the watch for His people. "Well, but,"
says one, "surely the Lord should have interfered before this time, for
Peter is not only asleep, but he is bound–bound to two soldiers! How
can he escape?" Ah, that word "How?"–that word "How?" What a deal of
mischief it has done to faith! Don't you know that true faith has no
such word in all her vocabulary? Faith never says "How?" God has said
"It shall be," faith believes it will be. As to how it shall be, that
is God's business, not mine. It is Unbelief that says "How? I do not
see it. How? How? How can it be?" Hush, Unbelief! The fetters shall
drop off, gates shall open of their own accord. The case is in God's
hands, Man! If it were in man's hands it would fail, for cursed is he
that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm.
The strongest sinew in an arm of flesh must crack. There must be
impossibilities to humanity, but to Deity impossibilities are nothing.
Be quiet, for the case is with Him. It may be the last moment. The
Apostle may be asleep and he may be bound, but Peter must come out. For
God has heard the prayer and Peter shall be free. Yet a third remark,
we think, lies like a precious stone upon the very surface of this
narrative. It is this–that when God shall come to deliver His people,
all the circumstances which seem to go against their deliverance shall
only tend to set forth the more His glory. What contempt He puts upon
chains, prisons, cords, iron gates, wards–inner and outer wards–look
how He breaks their bonds asunder and casts their cords from Peter!
I know of nothing that seems to illustrate more God's splendid triumph
over man's cunning than the resurrection of Christ. "His disciples will
steal Him away while men sleep." "Well," says Pilate, "you have a
watch, go and make it as sure as you can." He trusted to men, who were
sure to do the thing well–the men that hated Him. They keep the watch,
they roll the great stone, they seal it, they go home to their beds.
Ah, men of the Sanhedrim, proud priests! You have done the work, go to
your rest and say "This deceiver shall never shake the earth again, nor
call us dumb dogs that cannot bark, nor tell us that we are blind
leaders of the blind. He is buried and the seal is on Him."–
"Vain the watch, the stone, the seal, Christ has broke the gates of
Hell."
Look! He rises! And as the angel sits down upon the stone, he seems, in
quiet sarcasm, to say to the priests, to earth, to Hell, "Roll it back
again if you can, and seal it once more, for He is risen and has
overcome the wiles of men." So, Christian, rest assured that everything
that looks black to your gaze now, shall only make it the brighter when
God delivers you. Every dark and bending line shall surely meet in the
center of His love, and but express more to your mind His power, His
wisdom, His faithfulness, His Truth.
Furthermore, the whole story seems to teach us that no difficulty can
ever occur which God cannot meet when He makes bare His arm. The chains
are gone, the warders are passed, but there is that iron gate. Oh, that
iron gate! I think there are some of you tonight that are troubled
about it. God has been helping you. You have had faith up till now, but
you have got to the iron gate. Oh, if you could but pass that–it leads
into the city–all would be well. But that iron gate! Some of you get
dreading the iron gate a month before you get to it. You get to
fretting and troubling yourself for three months, perhaps, about the
iron gate. You do for months as those holy women did for hours, who
went out at break of day to the sepulcher, and as they went along they
said, "Who shall roll away the stone?"
There was no stone to roll away! And when you go to this place, you
will find that there is no iron gate there, or if there should be, it
will open of its own accord. Oh, how often have we had to wonder at our
own folly and we have said, "Well, I will never do that again. I will
never more borrow misery. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. I
will never go out to get a loan of sorrow for tomorrow." But alas, we
have done it the very next day.
Wait, wait, O Christian, on the Lord! Leave all anxiety about the iron
Gates to Him! Since the day when you did believe in Him and put your
soul into His hands by prayer, it has been God's cause, not your cause.
It has been God's work to deliver you and not your work–
"The gates of brass before Him burst, The iron fetters yield."
There is yet this one further remark. See, Beloved, see clearly, see
indisputably–the omnipotence of prayer. If all those disciples had
sworn an oath that they would get Peter free, they could not have
accomplished it. What could they do? Herod has an army. The prison is
strong. The guards are not to be bribed. The last night is come. What
can they do? There was only one weapon they could use and that was
hanging at their girdles–the weapon of all-prayer.
They told Jesus about it. When every other gate was shut, there was the
gate to Heaven open–so they sent messages up to Him who is able to
loose the prisoners, and to their own surprise Peter is loosed. Have
not we, in this Church, often felt the power of prayer? I sometimes
fear, Beloved, we are lagging here now–lagging in prayer. I may be
permitted to say there are some of you I do not see so often at Prayer
Meetings as I would wish. It is a busy time of the year, I know, and
therefore I make plenty of excuses for you. But when it was not so busy
I did not see you!
And then there are some who grow dull in their recollections of fact.
At Park Street have not we had seasons when our hearts were hot within
us, when we could not speak because we thought, "Surely God is in this
place"? It seemed an awful place to us. We were prevailing with God, we
were drawing down the blessings and those blessings continued up till
now as the result of earnest supplication. What simple prayers they
were! Strangers that came in found much fault, but the Lord did not.
There were often things said that were not very grammatical. But what
mattered it if the heart was in the thing?
We stormed Heaven's gates and down came legions of mercies to us. We
want more prayer, more prayer! I am always glad to hear that your
special Prayer Meetings and your social assemblies for supplication are
well attended and that there is a desire among the members to have such
Prayer Meetings often. I am sure the elders of the Church will join
with me in advocating and encouraging them. We will lend the rooms
connected with this Tabernacle, convicted that more we meet together
and more we supplicate the Throne of Grace, the blessings will come
down.
There are a few Brothers and Sisters who have met every morning for
these last four years, or five years it may be. They meet now every
morning, wet or dry, winter or summer, every morning in the Chapel at
Park Street, always praying for our prosperity. Their numbers are few
to what they used to be. We have not got the fire now that we once had,
I fear. May the Lord put the embers together and fan them with His
breath and make them blaze again! And then our ministry shall be sent
down from Heaven with the Holy Spirit and the multitudes shall hear the
voice of God speaking in their hearts.
Brethren, pray for us, pray for your children, your households–take
everything to God in prayer, no matter how hard, how intricate, how
difficult. If there is a knot you cannot untie, cut it with prayer. God
knows how to deliver you when you cannot deliver yourself. Be much in
supplication, for this will make you mighty, make you prevalent with
men when you have prevailed with the Maker of men. Such are the
reflections that occur to us from the narrative.
II. But now I turn more closely to my text itself. When Peter came out
of prison, his deliverance was so marvelous that he did not know
whether it was true or whether it was a vision. Like the Psalm which
says, "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like
them that dream." Thus when a sinner is saved, pardoned, justified, he
is utterly astonished and thinks it cannot be true, because it is so
good. The astonishment lies in this–"It cannot be true," says he,
"that I am saved. I! I! I! If it had been all the people in the world,
I could have believed it, but can it be that I am delivered? How is it
that He should have mercy upon me? I, that was so lately in fetters?
That a week ago could blaspheme? That a day or two ago could have
talked all the idlest jests and could have lived upon the foulest of
earth's pleasures? That I, I should be saved–delivered from sin,
though so filthy–set free, though so fast bound?"
I must try to interpret this peculiar reflection–this dream-like
feeling. The reality of God's mercy is only apprehended by faith. And
because faith has to do with things not seen, you are apt to throw
suspicions on its evidence. You see no tangible instrumentality equal
to the mighty task. Our ruin was, in some sense, effected by degrees.
We can trace the course of evil. The soul of man is like a temple in
ruins. The temple built for God has become an abode for unclean
spirits. God suddenly deserted it, but it gradually fell into its
present dilapidation and uncleanness.
The eyes that were once as lamps which flashed with light and love,
have become contracted and their habit now is to love darkness rather
than light. The tongue that was once a fountain that did send forth
sweet water, pure and refreshing, has become as a noxious spring whose
bitter streams savor of enmity to God and envy of the Brothers and
Sisters. The heart that was once as the holy place of all our frame,
where the beauty of holiness reposed in heavenly calm, has now become
the place of idols and the abode of secret abominations. The very
breath that sent up its sacred incense in rich perfume, acceptable to
God, has grown corrupt and breathes out its baneful poison and its foul
impurities.
Will God in very deed dwell with man upon the earth? Will He take up
His abode with us? Shall the change be worked in the twinkling of an
eye? Does it suffice that the Word sown in weakness, springs up with
power of the Holy Spirit? Man fallen may baffle us, but man redeemed is
a mystery we cannot fathom. It seems ever to mere mortal sense as a
vision, the dream of poets, or the work of imagination. But, Beloved,
why marvel? The angel of the Covenant has descended from Heaven to
earth and you knew not it was he till he loosed your bonds, broke up
your path, or rather opened every door with the keys that hang at his
girdle and gave you knowledge of salvation by the remission of your
sins.
Then you thought it was a vision, because you had not known redemption
except that your own soul was redeemed. You had not understood
salvation except that you were yourself redeemed. And that matchless
secret of the new birth penetrated your understanding in the same hour
that it was worked upon your own heart. Thus it is commonly with us,
Brothers and Sisters. We see, as a main fact, the downward course by
which we corrupted our ways when we were dead in sin. But the hour we
first believed, that blessed season when we were translated out of the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son seems like a
vision to us.
Another reason why it appears so visionary to us is because no
forethought or intention of our own helped and availed. How this is
true with some of you in one way. Never were your purposes less
inclined to seek the Lord than they were when He found you. Your plans
were broken off before you were aware of it. You were asleep when the
angel entered your cell. And you were dreaming of other things than
those that were in store for you. Perhaps you dreamed that the bolts
were not heavy, the bars were not thick, the locks were not fast, and
you might get up and let yourself out whenever you liked.
It was only when you were delivered that you saw how fast you had been
held. The rescued soul, alone, can know how "Satan binds our captive
minds fast in his slavish chains." And in yet another way some of us
have proved the same. We had our schemes to get loose and many a bitter
day we had tried and toiled in vain, till at length we had fallen
asleep in blank despair, dreaming of nothing but our fearful doom. When
the deliverance came in such an unheard of manner, we could scarcely
persuade ourselves it could be true. And so it is, Brothers and
Sisters, we never believe anything to be so real as what we see with
our own eyes, and work with our own hands.
And I suppose it is just the natural idea which flesh and blood is
prone to take of the things of God. They seem more like a vision than
the work of a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. And still, I
scarcely think I have probed the matter to the bottom yet. The
simplicity of God's method of Divine Grace has not ceased to be a
marvel. The Jews seek after a sign. And there is something of the
Jewish nature about us all. At least I find a host of exercised souls
who are asking for signs. Well, and the Greeks, who are rather a
refined class of unbelievers–they seek after wisdom. They want some
extraordinary endowment. And this craving has not died out among us.
For the first, I hear one say, "I am afraid, Sir, that my experience is
only a dream. I want a sign to give me assurance." Let me tell you that
simple faith gives clearer evidence than any fancy that could possess
your mind. Are you still bound with the chains of your sins? Are you
still shut up in the stronghold of unbelief? Have you never seen the
key in the Savior's hand that opened the door to set you free? "Oh,
yes," you say, "but I am afraid it was only a vision, for I am but a
poor, helpless creature after all." And what else could you be? You are
never so safe as when you are emptied of all confidence in self. Paul
could boast of extraordinary revelations, but the Lord sent him a thorn
in the flesh, lest he should be puffed up by them.
Then, again, there are those who show more anxiety after gifts than
after graces. And to them all the mercy they have received seems but a
vision because they are not raised up above common mortals. After this
extraordinary release of Peter, you do not find any display. The
Apostle was but a poor, trembling Believer. He would not have Mary or
the damsel Rhoda talk too loudly, or express their gladness too
cheerfully–he beckoned them with his hand to hold their peace. He just
declared how the Lord had brought him out, and then he departed and
went into another place.
Brethren, I would have you make your boast in the Lord and speak of
what He has done for your souls. But I would warn you not to vaunt your
experience, or attempt to magnify yourselves as if we, any of us, had
herein matter for glory. The very manner of God's delivering Grace is
to hide pride from our eyes. And the reality is none the less palpable,
because the angel did all for us to show his strength and then withdrew
from us that we should feel our own weakness.
Once again–the suddenness of this deliverance will surprise you. "So
Suddenly, too!" It seems like a vision. We have often known persons
suddenly renewed in heart that would not believe it. They knew it was
so, but still, in thinking it over, it did seem as though it could not
possibly be true that they were saved. They had to rub their eyes again
to see whether they were not asleep and dreaming. It was much too good
to be true and happened all so quickly. The greatness of the mercy has
made them stagger. That God should just forgive them and let them into
Heaven would have been marvelous, but that He should make them His
children, His sons, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ–this
surpassed all belief!
Their fears had got such hold of them that they were ready to die. But
little prepared to be saved. Their convictions had been terrible, but
now the joy is so excessive they cannot think but that it must be all
presumption, all a dream. Many and many have there been who have come
to the pastor and said, "Oh I had such joys! I did believe in Christ, I
know I did. I cast myself wholly on Him and I felt such a change. I
became so different a person from what I had ever been before, but now
I come to look back upon it, I cannot think it was true, it must have
been a vision, it cannot possibly be a matter of fact."
Now, dear Friends, lest you should give way to this apprehension too
much, let me remind you that inasmuch as this is a great thing, it is
all the better evidence that it comes from God. So great a river may
well have a rapid tide. So glaring a sun may well shine with uncommon
splendor. The great God does not do little acts of Divine Grace. His
works are all great, sought out by all them that fear Him. Inasmuch as
you confess that you are a great sinner and therefore this is a
surprising thing, let me remind you that this is the ordinary way in
which God works to give great mercies to great sinners. He does not
give His favors to men who think they deserve them.
He searches the heart with a glance and He abhors the proud. But to
those who are made to feel that there is no good thing in them and rest
on His Grace because they have nothing else on which to depend, the
mercy comes and the prisoners are loosed. Dear Friends, do you not
remember that the Gospel that we preach is a very great Gospel? Is it
not called in Scripture, "The great salvation"? Now when you find your
salvation to be great, do not shrink back and say, "Oh, it cannot be
genuine because it is great." It would not be the genuine Gospel if it
were little. If it were not a surprising wonderful thing, if it were
not superlatively astonishing, it would not be the Gospel.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways,
says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are My
thoughts above your thoughts and My ways above your ways." Besides,
remember, my Brothers and Sisters, that Jesus died in pangs unutterable
on the Cross. Did He die there to buy farthing mercies, to purchase
little favors for little sinners? The blood of bulls and goats might
achieve some little, but the blood of Him who was the only begotten of
the Father cannot have been shed for trifles. Therefore consider that
this must have been true, because it is so great, so strange, so
surpassing all your thoughts. God help you to say with the Apostle
Peter, "Now I know that God has sent His angel."
Thus shall you know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and has
delivered you out of the hands of your enemies and from all the
expectation of your doubts and fears. I will tell you how to prove the
reality of it. If you should fear that your feelings have been all a
dream, come with me, hand in hand, and let us go and prove the
authenticity of our faith at the Cross. You and I, a pair of sinners,
full of sin, covered with the leprosy of it from head to foot–let us
go and stand at Calvary's Cross. There He hangs! His hands and feet are
pierced. The blood distils.
Jesus! O my Lord! For whom do You die? "For sinners," He says. Here are
two, most gracious Master! Remember us when You come into Your kingdom!
I think I hear Him say, "You shall be with Me in Paradise," for never
souls breathed that prayer in humble faith and were unheard. Jesus, we
look to Your wounds and they are clefts in the rock into which we fly
like doves, or if we may not compare ourselves thereunto, we will fly
as ravens and we will hide till the tempest is over. Your blood we
trust to redeem us, Your merit to clothe us from head to foot, Your
plea to preserve us, Your strong arm to keep us, Your love to give us
life now, and in eternity!
And now, before I close, let me tell you that the picture may be
inverted. If there are those to whom reality seems to be a dream, what
multitudes there are, on the other hand, to whom mere dreams appear to
be real and true. Ah, such dreaming is the saddest thing I know. And
about the hardest task it is that I ever tried–to awake such
slumberers from their delusions. Hear me, you that seek out your own
inventions, yet submit not yourselves to the righteousness of God! Do
you believe in God? Yes? Then the god you believe in is not the God who
created Heaven and earth, but the god of your own imagination.
Do you profess Christ? The Christ you profess is not the Son of the
Father, but the child of your own fancy. And do I hear you talk of your
experience? Alas, then, it is not the witness of the Holy Spirit, but
the incoherent ramblings of a delirious brain. O you poor deluded
souls. Who put your thoughts for God's counsels, your devices for His
decrees, and your efforts for His interposition. You "shall be as a
dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when an hungry man dreams
and, behold, he eats. But he awakes and his soul is empty. Or as when a
thirsty man dreams and, behold, he drinks. But he awakes and, behold,
he is faint and his soul has appetite."
Christians you call yourselves today, but Christ shall say to you
another day, "I never knew you." Ah and it is true, for you never knew
Him. Do you dream of peace? Without pardon it is a dream. Do you dream
of Heaven? Without holiness it is a dream. Do you dream of joy at God's
right hand? But you are not His people. You have never renounced the
world, overcome the Wicked One, confessed the faith, or followed the
Master in the regeneration, which is the earnest of a blessed
resurrection. Oh, my Hearers, consider the words, I beseech you–"As a
dream when one awakes, so, O Lord, when You awake, You shall despise
their image."
Here are many, I dare say, who do not understand what I have been
talking about. God give them understanding. Sinner, you must either be
in Christ, or perish. Remember, Sinners, tonight there is one of two
things for you–either to be shut up in the prison of Hell, or else to
be delivered from the prison of sin. Your destiny hangs here–salvation
or damnation–life or death. Dare you die, Sinner, dare you die? Dare
you die with your sins about you, like millstones strapped about your
neck–dare you die? No! But when the time comes for you to die, you
will say, "Now I cannot live, I must not live and I dare not die."
Would you like to be able to die peacefully, Sinner, and to rise
joyfully and to reign forever hereafter? Trust Christ with your soul
and He will save you. He, the Son of God, begotten of the Father. The
man of Nazareth, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin
Mary. He, God over all, blessed forever, and yet your Brother, born to
bear your sins! He says, "Trust Me and I will save you." O may His
electing love move the hand of His effectual Grace to incline you now
to trust in Him! And that done, you are saved and out of this House you
may go a lawfully delivered captive, though perhaps you will scarcely
know what it is and know not whether it is true that is done unto you.
But it is true for all that. He that believes on Him is not condemned
and he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not
believed on the Son of God. O that I might speak in God's name to some
of you who perhaps may never hear my voice again! I will meet you, as
the spirit said to Brutus, on the plains I will meet you another day,
each one of you. And if you live and die without trusting in that Lord
whose open wounds I have tried to set before your eyes, whose bleeding
heart, streaming with His life blood, I have tried to set all warm
before you–if you die without Him, on your own heads be your
destruction!
You have heard the Gospel–O that you would turn at its rebuke! Trust
Christ! The feeblest touch of the hem of His garment–a look to
Him–and you are made whole! As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so may he lift up the Cross on high. O lift it up, my
Brothers and Sisters, you that know Christ! Christian men and women,
lift up that Cross in your families. It is mine to lift up here and to
cry with the Hebrew Prophet, "Look, look and live!" Sin-bitten, covered
with the wounds of sin–LOOK!–It is all He asks.
"Look and live," is written on the clouds of Heaven, legible only by
the light they give. And there, too, stand the soul-quickening
words–"Believe and live." Leave your doings for Christ's doings–not
your tears but Christ's tears, not your blood but His blood, not your
groans but His groans, not your penance but His agonies. Come and rest
in Him! Join with me in saying, from your heart–
"My faith does lay her hand
On that dear head of Yours,
While like a penitent I stand,
And here confess my sin.
My soul looks back to see
The burden You did bear
When hanging on the accursed Tree,
And hopes her guilt was there.
Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse removed,
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing His bleeding love."
The Lord bless you, the God of Heaven and earth bless you, from this
time forth and forever. Amen.