Once A Curse But Now A Blessing

Once A Curse But Now A Blessing
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 6, 1863, BY THE REV. C.
H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And it shall come to pass, that as you were a curse among the heathen,
O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will Isave you and you shall
be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong." Zechariah 8:13.
AS these words came from the lips of Zechariah, doubtless they referred
to the seed of Abraham, including the two tribes of Judah and the ten
tribes of Israel. They have already received a minor fulfillment. But
their most glorious accomplishment is yet to come. The Jews have for
many a generation been cursed by all people. For ages no one had a good
word or a kind look for the Jew. In every nation they have been
persecuted and hunted like beasts of prey. The followers of the fierce
Mohammed have not been their only enemies, for the children of the
Babylonian harlot have equally thirsted for their blood in our own
country.
In the dark ages, it was accounted God's service to afflict the
Israelites, and the day upon which the Church celebrated our Savior's
passion was chosen for the public stoning of His own Brothers and
Sisters if they ventured into the streets. To be a Jew was, in the
estimation of that era, to be deserving of all scorn and cruelty, and
of no pity or consideration. To what exactions, to what fines, to what
imprisonments and tortures have not the sons of Jacob been subjected by
the professed followers of the Messiah? It is perhaps the greatest of
all modern miracles that there should be one Jew upon earth who is a
Christian–for the treatment they have received from pretended
Christians has been enough to make them hate the name of Jesus.
It has been not simply villainous, but diabolical. Devils in Hell could
not be more cruel to their victims than professed Christians have been
to the sons of Abraham. They have been a curse, indeed. The whole
vocabulary of abuse from "dog," down to "devil," has been exhausted
upon them. Among all nations they have been a hissing and a byword. But
the day is coming, yes, it dawns already, when the whole world shall
discern the true dignity of the chosen seed. And they shall seek their
company because the Lord has blessed them. In that day when Israel
shall look upon Him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for their
sins, the Jew shall take his true rank among the nations as an elder
brother and a prince.
The covenant made with Abraham, to bless all nations by his seed, is
not revoked. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the chosen nation
shall not be blotted out from the book of remembrance. The Lord has not
cast away His people. He has never given their mother a bill of
divorce. He has never put them away. In a little wrath He has hidden
His face from them, but with great mercies will He gather them. The
natural branches shall again be engrafted into the olive together with
the wild olive grafts from among the Gentiles. In the Jew, first and
chiefly, shall Divine Grace triumph through the King of the Jews. O
Time, fly with rapid wing and bring the auspicious day!
Another meaning has been given to the passage by some very eminent
expositors, namely, that the Jews have been for ages the model of a
curse to all people. As old Master Trapp says, they bear upon their
backs the wheels of God's rod, or, as he puts it yet more strongly,
like Cain, they carry upon their foreheads the mark of God's wrath.
They have been a people scattered and peeled, not numbered among the
nations, men of weary foot and haggard countenances. Their nation has
been the football of Providence, and the butt of misfortune. They have
been shipwrecked upon every sea, overturned by every storm–the victims
of every calamity and the objects of every misery.
Everywhere have they been men evidently accursed of God and given up to
His wrath. When men wanted a name to curse by, they said, "Let me be as
accursed as the Jew." But the day is to come when they are to be quite
as manifestly the blessed ones of God. Their conversion shall show how
God favors them. Their gathering to their own land, the splendor of the
reign of Messiah in their midst. All those latter-day glories which are
dimly shadowed in the Book of the Revela- tion, and in the Book of the
Vision of Daniel the Prophet–when all these shall come to pass–then
the sons of men shall speak of the Jewish people as a royal priesthood
and a peculiar people.
The seed of Abraham, God's Friend, are very dear to Him–the darlings
of His bosom, the flock of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Oh,
that the dark night would soon be over! Long has the Christian Church
slept in forgetfulness of the Jew. Even faithful men have scarcely
given a thought to Israel, and have left the Jew to perish as though
his heart were too hard to be melted by Divine love. I trust that
mistake has been discovered and that there are many now anxiously
praying for the restoration of the glory unto Israel.
But too many are still indifferent where earnestness is needed. May the
Lord in His infinite mercy first put it into His people's hearts to
pray for Israel, and then to work in love and labor in faith. May He
hasten in His own time the fulfillment of His promises to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. And then shall the whole earth be covered with the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
We may work and we may toil, but till Israel is gathered, God's Glory
cannot be universal, nor even widely spread. Until the Jew acknowledges
Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the fullness of the times of
restitution shall not have arrived. Make no tarrying, O our Lord! Come
quickly and send as the herald of Your coming–Your own Brothers and
Sisters who once despised You when You came to Your own and Your own
received You not.
You can clearly understand the text now in its literal signification
without another word of exposition–"As you have been a curse among all
nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you and
you shall be a blessing."
We feel ourselves perfectly justified in using the text in a broader
sense. Our text teaches us that the unconverted are a curse. Secondly,
that when converted they become a blessing. Thirdly, the text tells the
means by which the transformation is worked–"I will save you." And it
closes with a word of encouragement to those who desire
salvation–"Fear not, but let your hands be strong."
I. UNCONVERTED MEN ARE A CURSE. This they are positively forever.
Unconverted man, no matter what may be his moral character, adds in his
degree to the amount of evil in the world–he adds another handful of
leaven to leaven the whole lump, another breath of death-bearing wind
to scatter the plague of sin among the sons of men. Every unre-newed
heart casts another stone upon the heap of iniquity and assists the
rising Babel of rebellion to lift its head more proudly. As I see the
ungodly advancing one by one, I hear the Prince of Darkness cry, "Here
comes another soldier to swell the ranks of evil, another lance for
Satan and another sword for the powers of evil."
To the black banner, every man that is unconverted is a recruit. Let
him do as he may and think as he will, he that is not with Christ is
against Him. He that is not for the right is on the side of the wrong.
How is the body corporate of humanity poisoned more and more as each
man adds his grain of evil! How is the torrent swollen with another and
another stream! A deluge of iniquity is but a collection of all the
contributions from every fountain of the great deep. Every graceless
spirit binds another millstone about the neck of the human race to sink
it to the lowest Hell.
Every sinner is a positive mischief-maker in the world. He is a deadly
upas tree–every feat distilling poison. It is impossible that it
should be otherwise, for as a black and filthy fountain must send forth
unclean streams, so by a law of nature, as long as man is himself evil,
he must do evil. One sinner destroys much good, and whatever sort of
sinner he may be, whether his sin is written on his forehead, or only
carried concealed in his right hand, he infects the world with evil.
The sinner is a curse, then, because he adds to the positive evil in
the world.
He is yet more–he is a curse because he helps to bring down the wrath
of Heaven upon the world. Another destroying angel to cry, "O Lord, how
long before You smite iniquity and bathe Your sword in the blood of
rebels?" Another voice to cry, "Awake! Awake! O sword of Justice! Smite
the sinner and let him perish from the face of the earth." Doubtless
every sin is a God-provoking thing. It stirs Him to jealousy. As the
blood of Abel cried, "Vengeance," so does sin. It is a thorn in the
side of justice, a stab at the heart of truth. God's great patience is
expended at a tremendous rate by the sins of men. You unconverted Men!
You make every day a draught upon the exchequer of long-suffering, and
the day shall come when the golden sun shall all be expended and then
woe unto the world, for then shall the last plagues be let loose and
the last vials shall be poured out.
Even when the ungodly man dies he has not finished his evil work. His
life may be over, but the moral death caused by his life still
continues. As the tree that has borne evil fruit sends to the winds its
seeds and these are buried in their appointed places. Where young
saplings spring up to become a forest of evil, so is it with the
ungodly man–his words and his example, like seeds in the ground,
germinate and bring forth the like in other men. Like produces like.
His children in nature and spirit arise after him, and these prolong
the echo of the dreadful curse which his life has pronounced upon the
race.
He cannot stay that curse even if he would–it is given to the course
of time as a feather to the wind and on it must go forever. Those
saplings which sprang from him as from the parent tree will all grow
into death-yielding trees, and these will scatter their seeds and so
on, and on and on, as long as the human race lasts. No, even in
eternity the victims of his sin lie in torment and blaspheme God world
without end, so that his curse is an everlasting curse, and the evil
which he does lives on when he himself sleeps with the clods of the
valley. The ungodly man is everlastingly a positive curse.
But he is also a curse negatively. It is deplorable to think how much
of good a man who knows not God keeps from this world. He cumbers the
ground in which he grows. He extracts nourishment from the ground and
covers it so that it cannot yield nourishment to any other plant, and
yet he, himself, brings forth no fruit. Is this your position, my
Hearer, this morning? Are you a do-nothing? If you are, remember that
the spot which you occupy might have been occupied by a man who would
have glorified God and done much for the spread of true religion. You
have much time upon your hands, but you kill it. If another had it, it
would be occupied with visitation of the sick, teaching the ignorant,
comforting the weary and other acts which would glorify the name of
Jesus.
You have the time and it is ill-spent. You have money. You spend
perhaps upon a feast for your own pleasure as much as might have sent a
herald of the Cross to a foreign land. Many a man, if he had your
means, would put clothes upon the backs of the naked and bread into the
mouths of the hungry. In one respect money answers all things, but you
make it answer to nothing except your own gratification. Ah, how much
mischief you do in this way! You have influence. It may be you are a
master with many servants, or placed in such a position that many wait
upon you and your example is followed and your words are weighty. If
another had your place, how would he lead a whole troop to Heaven! With
what earnestness would he seek to bless those who dwell under his
shadow.
But you, what do you do? You cumber the ground. These many years there
has not been found upon you one single ripe fruit such as may be
acceptable to the Lord of the Vineyard. Beware, beware lest He cut you
down! Don't you see what evil you are doing to others? The minister is
preaching to you this morning, and he has to do it often. If it were
not for stray sheep such as you are, he would have more time to see
after the lambs of the flock. If he had not to cry out after you and
against your sins, he might be led into the deep things of God, to the
comfort and edification of the Lord's chosen people.
While you are in this House you are spoiling the song–you are marring
the prayer by the wandering and wantonness of your thoughts. If you
should come into the midst of a company of God's people who were
talking of Divine things, you would be like an iceberg chilling the
atmosphere about you. How many young Christians you have hindered in
their zeal by your indifference? If you did nothing else but damage the
good, stop up the stream of love, and quench the light of the Truth of
God, you would have done enough to make them a curse among men and to
provoke God to smite you with the curse that withers body and soul
forever and ever.
This is true of every unconverted man. Many of you moral men, whose
lives are admirable, have not your hearts right with God. What is the
lesson that men learn from your conversation? Why, when the infidel
wants to prove that there may be goodness apart from religion, he
quotes you as an argument against the Word of God and against the
necessity of a new heart and a right spirit. Have not many in your own
position been hardened in their halt between two opinions by your
example? Young people say, "There is Mrs. So-and-So and Mr.
This-and-That, what good people they are and yet they have never given
their hearts to God. "Surely," say they, "such people must know, and if
there were anything in religion, they would certainly have followed in
the right road and have put their trust in Christ."
The better you are, the more do I deplore that you should be upon the
wrong side. If my country were at war, it would be very little comfort
to me to know that my enemies were good soldiers. No, I had rather that
they were bad ones. For there were then the more hope of overcoming
them. The weight of your character makes it the more sad that it should
be thrown into the scale of self-righteousness. I say the very
excellence of your morals renders it a more serious crime that you
should not take your stand with Christ, the lover of holiness. You do
mischief, I am sure.
Possibly there is a measure of moral good effected by your example, but
there is a more abundant spiritual evil, because many stop where you
stop. Being affected by your example, they halt at your halting place,
and as you will perish except you are born again, so will they. And the
blood of their souls will lie at your door because your example was a
curse to them.
If this is true of the moral unconverted man, how much more certainly
is it of the open follower of vice. Shall I continue? No. I will
scarcely so much as use my pencil to portray the mischief which the
votary of vice brings upon others. How does the drunkard drown
multitudes in his cups? How does the man of lust destroy and damn both
the body and the soul of his victims? How does the man who leads a
licentious life spread poison by his very eyes–like the basilisk,
doing mischief by his glance? "His feet," we may truly say, "are swift
to shed blood." His hands are full of drawn swords and flaming
firebrands to destroy souls.
The profane swearer–what a pest he is! Young ears are bombarded with
sin by him, and young hearts learn the crimes of old rebels. Ah, you
are a curse, indeed! Better for someone to walk the streets with a
deadly plague about him and to spread it in every house, than to have
such as you are living in society, for you have the death plague and
the damnation plague upon you! You are a walking malaria, a breather of
pestilence–a myrmidon of Hell–a jackal to the infernal lion, the
lackey and the slave of the Destroyer.
Perhaps there are a few such here. Therefore let us be brief upon that
point. It is the same with the sinner who makes ungodly men his
associates–he is a curse. You do not drink as they do, you say, nor go
to their excess of riot, nor curse with their curses. But yet you herd
with them. You make them your associates, and, if you want a little
pleasure, you seek their acquaintance. Sir, you are a curse. You are a
curse to these men. I will not say you make them sinful, but I must say
you add to their comfort in their sin. They see such as you are with
them and as association always hardens the sinner, they grow more
confirmed in evil. Many a drinking club would break up if it were not
for the two or three sensible men in it, and yet what is the effect of
their morality?
Not so much to check the others as to keep the whole together and put a
respectable face upon mischief. You who lie in the same bed with the
wicked must take care when God smites the house that you do not perish
in its overthrow. You that eat at their feasts, and drink of their
cups, and laugh at their jokes, and revel in their vices, and take
pleasure in their wantonness, mind when the Lord spreads His net to
take these foul birds. He will take you in the same net and award you a
portion with those that were His enemies.
Nor can we spare here the men of thoroughly bad principles. The men who
pretend to doubt the existence of a God, who question the Inspiration
of the Scripture, deny the Deity of Christ, or impugn the veracity of
Gospel promises–all such men are great destroyers of good. They will
always be on the face of the earth and we must never expect to see them
rooted up until the Lord's coming. It is wonderful that in England they
should be so miserably small a party. If again infidelity should be as
prevalent as Christianity, I should not much marvel, for it so suits
the natural heart of man. The wonder is that there is not more of it
abroad.
But one infidel–O what a curse he is! In a workshop that one man of
sharp shrewd sense will very soon make disciples! Like the Pharisees of
old they compass sea and land to make one proselyte. Too often the
Believer does not give that attention to the reading of Scripture, and
to the finding up of arguments for his faith which the ungodly man will
give in order to find arguments to shake the faith of others. I would
that our members were more industrious, both in searching the
Scriptures and in studying the evidences of their Inspiration and
authenticity, that they might have their weapons ready to meet the
attacks of infidels.
For these infidels–men of much thinking and shrewdness and sagacity
and wit–placed in the midst of poor uneducated Christians are terrible
as wolves in the midst of a flock of sheep, and much havoc may they do.
Though they cannot turn one truly blood-bought child of God out of the
flock, nor yet make one that is born again apostatize from the Truth of
God, yet they bring much misery into the heart. And doubtless many who
are undecided are led by them into decisions for Satan and go straight
away from all hopefulness of being converted to God. Now of such an one
we may say he is a curse, indeed.
But now I hear another say, "Well now, I do not come under the
description of immoral, nor yet of those who spread infidel principles
and practices." Ah, but still you may be a curse, if you have an evil
spirit towards religion. There are some who say but little, but who
hate the very name of Christ. Even if they hold their tongues, that
shrug of the shoulder, that look, that cold, heartless reception which
they give to the Truth of God must infallibly be observed by others.
Children and those round about them cannot help detecting what they
are, and who they are, and they will thus become very successful
servants of the Prince of Darkness. O dear Friends, I fear that some of
you know in your own conscience without any words of mine, that up to
now your lives have been no blessing to your fellows, but rather,
wherever you have gone, you have been a curse.
I shall conclude this point by noticing that the unconverted man is a
curse everywhere. In the family, what a curse he is! His wife, perhaps,
is a Christian–what a life he leads her! Does he strike her? Perhaps
not. But his words wound her even more than blows would have done. What
about the children? Why, they will go as the father goes–his crooked
words they learn to speak, and his crooked actions they will learn to
do. It is not likely, though by Divine Grace it is possible, that they
should be better than he. If we were to put a black cross upon every
house where there is a husband who is a curse to the household, how
many streets in London might have the black cross half the way down?
Are you an ungodly man–and does your life teem with iniquity? Then
think that the black cross is there as you go home and say, "Yes. I am
a curse to this house. I lead them away from God."
He is a curse in the workshop. As soon as he goes to it, those who
would be decent are led to the public house by him and to places where
sin is accustomed to be allowed. Let him become what is more
respectable, as we say, in life. But he is a curse even there. Make him
a master and give him many servants–then how haughty and how
domineering he will be if he meets a servant who is a professor of
religion! His misspending of his Sundays will be known to all his
working men and they are always willing enough to follow the example of
their employers in doing evil.
Make him wealthy, he can indulge himself in all sorts of pleasures and
his gold is spent in the service of Satan. Give him abilities–talents
of thought and speech–he becomes a sort of sergeant-major in the ranks
of Satan, a commander of others. Satan employs him as a decoy to bring
others into the net. Now he goes abroad and is the call-bird of others,
so that others, hearing his sweet notes, are lured into the fowler's
snare and are taken and destroyed. Put him on a throne and he curses an
empire. Give him but a small village, over which he shall be the
squire, and he is a curse to all the parish.
Let him become a professor and oh, this is the place where he can do
the most of mischief. Clothe him with the garments of a Christian while
his heart is rotten–and now, while pretending to be a disciple of
Jesus–he will become more than ever a successful servant of Satan.
Make him a minister and you have given him the worst possible position.
In fact, the better the man's place, the more evil can he do. Oh, to be
a minister–to be thought to be sent of God to the people and then to
be delivering falsehood! To be either by one's life or one's teaching
contradicting the oracles of God! Of such a man we may well say his
damnation is sure. But this is not the worst of it, for, before he goes
down to the pit himself, he drags as with a hundred ropes, multitudes
of others down the dreadful steep.
II. But secondly, here is a gracious promise made that THEY SHALL BE A
BLESSING. Dear Friends, the true Christian is a blessing temporally in
the world. If there were no life to come, yet is a converted man a
blessing–since he arrests the judgments of God. Sodom shall stand if
there are ten righteous found in it. The world shall last as long as
there is salt enough in it to keep it from putrefaction. The world
shall not be given up to blackness forever, so long as there are a few
lights still shining in it. As the conducting rod prevents the
dwellings of men from being destroyed by lightning, so Believers in a
State, or in a town, are its preservation from the avenging judgments
of God.
Who will deny, again, that the Christian, the true Christian promotes
morality–that his godly life settles the foundation of order? Where
are the most revolutions? Where is the least of religion? Where has the
guillotine fallen with its fatal drop? Where have heads rolled by
hundreds in a basket? Where have streams of blood crimsoned the street?
Where is there an empire, never safe except as the throne is supported
by bayonets? Look across the Channel and you will see that the absence
of religion is the absence of order in the State. It is England's Bible
which is the keystone of England's institutions.
The flag of old England is nailed to the mast, not so much by her
soldiers and sailors, as by the men who love her God and bring down the
blessing upon her continually by prayer. Do you think that we should
have had a famine in the north and a stoppage of the mills without riot
if it had not been for the wide spread of religion among the working
men? The blessed restraints of holiness and goodness have produced
order and patience. Dear Friends, the Christian man is the true
patriot. He is a blessing to his country, be he where he may.
Does not the Christian aid in every good work? He is no Christian if he
does not. If there is an hospital, does he not delight as much to
contribute towards the relief of sickness of the body as for the
removal of disease of the soul? If education is needed by the lower
classes, who shall be found to teach in the Sunday school and who will
support institutions on the weekday more readily than Christian men?
Anything which is pure and lovely and of good repute in this world,
owes, if not its origin, yet its main support to the godliness of
Believers. No one shall be able to estimate how much the presence of a
good man in the State is a preventative as well as a cure. It prevents
the breaking out or the more frightful forms of vice, or else drives it
into seclusion and makes it hide its head for very shame. The
Christian, I believe, is to a nation one of the greatest temporal
blessings which God can send to it.
And as for eternity, truly a Christian is a blessing there. If his
example shall lead men to seek after God–if his words shall teach the
sinner his need of a Savior–shall point him to the Cross–shall show
him the wounds–oh, if his prayers shall be heard and the Spirit of God
shall descend and his family shall be converted and his kinsfolk shall
be reclaimed, then eternity shall know the music of the blessing which
he scattered among the sons of men! You cannot bless men forever, in
any other way than by yourself being a true follower of Jesus, and then
seeking to bring them to a knowledge of the Truth of God.
Now, as I said of the ungodly, that every ungodly man is a curse, so
will I venture to say that every Christian man is a blessing in the
degree in which he is true to his Christianity. If he has been moral
before, now that he becomes a Christian, how that tells upon men like
he! How those who would have been undecided are moved to go forth! The
force of his former character and the excellence and amiability of his
deportment operate upon those who knew him. If he has been a drunkard
and a swearer before, this will not hinder him from being a blessing
now. His old companions hear of the great change. They enquire how it
was worked. They go with him to the House of God and they, too, are
brought to Christ.
Some of those who have brought more saints to God than others were once
themselves the greatest of sinners. Let no one suppose that because his
character has been up to now very vile, therefore, if converted, he
would be of no use– sometimes he will even be of the more use. What
would all your old mates say, when they saw you were a Christian?
"There must be something in it," say they, "if drunken William is
saved." What if the swearer should wash his mouth and should preach
God's Word! What if yonder voice should be heard at the Prayer Meeting,
although once so loud in a brothel! Oh, would not men wonder, and would
not there be many who would suddenly feel attracted to the Cross, as
you have been, and say, "We will go with you, for we perceive that God
has blessed you"?
Such a man, even if he has been an infidel, becomes a blessing
now–sometimes most a blessing to those to whom he was most a curse.
Now he refutes himself. Now his own example becomes the best answer to
his former false teaching. Now his love to Jesus is observed and
noticed–all those whom he taught to hate the Lord will help to adore
His sacred Person. And if the man has been through and through of a bad
spirit, though he has not openly spoken against the things of God, yet
when converted, how serviceable he becomes! For even if he is almost
silent and can say but little, yet, as the bad spirit oozed through
him, so now the Spirit of God will shine through him!
There shall be a difference about his very face! And the manner of his
walk and conversation shall be such that it will betray him. Out of the
midst of him shall flow rivers of living water, whereof multitudes
shall drink. No matter, O Christians, how poor you may be, or how
ignorant you are, or how little influence you may have–you are and
shall be a blessing, if God gives you a new heart and a right spirit.
The converted man is a blessing everywhere. He is a blessing to his
family. Daily prayer, Bible reading, teaching of the children–all
these make his house a little Paradise. When he goes to the workshop,
if any learn vice, it is not from him. If there are any who despise
Christ, it is not from his example. He has a good word for Jesus. Now
he begins to lament and pray over the sins of his fellow men. He speaks
of the Cross of Christ and perhaps he brings some of them to repentance
and to a saving faith. You may put him anywhere with safety. Make a
king of him–he rules his dominions in the fear of God. Give him a
large estate and you will find his substance expended as it should be.
Now the hungry shall have their portion and the needy their share. The
Church at home and missions abroad shall all be prospered by him.
Let him make a profession–he does not dishonor it. He puts golden
chains about the neck of piety by the excellence of his deportment. You
may put him into the pulpit with safety. With a new heart he can be
trusted, even at the altars of God. His soul, having been renewed,
there will be nothing in his example, or word, of which a Christian
could complain. Now you may take him to Heaven itself, for even there
he shall be a blessing and help to swell the song of, "Hallelujah unto
Him that washed our robes and made them white in His blood." I would to
God we had a holy ambition to be more a blessing than we have been, for
remember–if you have been converted and are not living consistently
with your religion–then your life is not much of a blessing.
Oh, it is so sad, so sad, to my own soul when I see those who might be
a blessing, by some weakness or folly throw away their golden
opportunities. There are some of you–I cannot tell what good you might
do in the world, but either through natural infirmity or sin, you are
of little service. Do not, I pray you, destroy your own power to bless
your fellow men! Do not so act in the family and in business and in the
Church as to make yourself a little blessing, when you might have been
a great one! Ask the Lord to fill you so full with His Grace that you
may be like a great cloud of mercy, resting continually over the sons
of men and pouring forth its gracious shower day by day.
III. The third point is HOW IS ALL THIS TO BE BROUGHT ABOUT? How is the
man who was a curse to be made a blessing? Can he do it himself? Rests
there a power in human will that by the magic of its might, men who
were once a curse may be made a blessing? Ah no! This abides not in the
creature, but with the Creator. So runs the text–"/ will save you."
You that have been a curse, "/ will save you." Swearer, drunkard,
whoremonger, whoever you may be, "I will save you, to show what
Sovereign Grace can do." "I will save you and make you a blessing."
But you say, "How, then, may I be saved?" Salvation from sin is one,
but yet it is a salvation from sin in two senses–from the guilt of it
and from the power of it. Sinner, cursed of God and cursing others–all
the sin that you have done can be blotted out. No matter though it is
red like scarlet, it may be as wool. And though it is as crimson, God
can make it whiter than snow. In a moment all your sins can pass away
so that if they were sought for, they could not be found. Yes, though
an inquisition were made to search them out, yet could they not be
discovered. And this can be done by the blood, the precious blood of
Jesus. Jesus the Substitute, the Son of God and yet the Son of Man,
took the sins of all Believers upon Himself and suffered the punishment
of all their sins–
"He for the sins of all the elect Has a complete atonement made. And
justice never can expect That the same debt should twice be paid." If
you believe, that is, if you trust in Christ, all the sins you have
ever done were laid upon Christ. Your believing is the sign and mark of
this. And from now on you have no sin, your sin is gone. You are an
accepted and pardoned man. No, more–you are justified. The
righteousness of Christ is yours. In the sight of God you stand
accepted in the Beloved. And all this is to be had by the simple act of
trusting. Whosoever you may be, "He that believes and is baptized,
shall be saved." But then you say, "But how can I be delivered from the
power of sin? If all my past sins were forgiven, yet I might go back
and do as before and so remain as vile as ever."
Yes, there is power in the Holy Spirit to make a new man of you. He can
put into your heart the holy influences of Divine Grace so that though
you naturally go towards evil, you shall, by supernatural influence, go
towards the right. He shall give you that fiery motion, which, as the
flame always ascends towards Heaven, shall make your heart ascend
towards holiness. He shall subdue in you the powers of evil which now
reign, shall keep your sins under your feet, and eventually cast them
out forever and make you perfect before the Lord.
Remember, this is to be done for you, not by you. You cannot make
yourself a new man. It is impossible for you to work regeneration. One
look at Jesus will take away past sins and will kill the power of sin
for the future. Sprinkle His blood upon the old serpent and it dies.
Put the water which flowed with the blood from Christ and the foulness
of nature only remains to be subdued and eventually to be cast out when
the Believer shall be taken up in perfection to dwell before the
Father's Throne. God can save you, whoever you may be, and whatever
your past life may have been. No doings of your own, no prayers, no
penances, no almsgivings, are required. Simply trust Jesus who died for
you and you are saved, saved on the spot–saved forever.
IV. And then comes the last point. The text GIVES A WORD OR TWO OF
ENCOURAGEMENT from this–"Let your hands be strong: fear not." Though
you have been a curse until now, if you sincerely desire to be made a
blessing, and if the Holy Spirit has made you willing to accept the
perfect righteousness of Christ and to be washed in His most precious
blood, then "fear not." Let not conscience make you fear. God will
answer to your conscience. The blood of Christ shall purge it from dead
works. Let not a sense of Divine Justice make you fear, Christ has
satisfied Divine Justice and Justice is your friend. Let not the
remembrance of past sins make you fear. They shall be cast into the
depths of the sea– not one of them shall rise to accuse you.
Let not the thoughts of judgment make you fear. You shall have an
Advocate at the Last Great Day to plead your cause. Fear not, but com,
and welcome! Christ invites you by His wounds. The Father bids you come
and trust His Only-
Begotten Son. He earnestly entreats you to come unto Him and live.
"Fear not," says He. And if doubts and fears stand at the door to keep
you from coming, yet rush forward through them all, saying–"God has
bid me fear not and, therefore, will I not fear, but boldly venture
upon the finished work of Christ. And if I perish, I perish."
"Let your hands be strong," especially the hand with which you grasp
the Savior. Lay hold upon Him, Sinner. O may the Spirit of God help you
to lay hold upon Him now! "Let your hands be strong." Grasp Him. Lay
hold on eternal life. As a sinking man lays hold upon the rope that is
cast to him, so lay hold on Christ. It is now or never with you. If
Christ saves you not, you are damned forever. Grasp Him, then! He
passes by. He may never pass this way again. This morning He comes in
mercy to you to turn you, you Cursed One, into a blessing!
Grasp Him. Even as Jacob laid hold upon the angel, lay hold on Christ!
And if He struggles with you and seems as though He would not bless
you, say unto Him–
"No, I must maintain my hold, It is Your goodness makes me bold. I can
no denial take, Pity me for Your love's sake."
O for strong hands to grasp the Savior! Let your hands be strong to lay
hold on His promises. They are such as these– "Though your sins are as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." "Whosoever comes to Me, I will in no
wise cast out." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved." "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by Him."
Lay hold on these. Take them before God and say to Him, "Can You lie?
Can You be untrue? If You are true, keep this promise for me. Have You
not said, 'As you have been a curse, so I will make you a blessing'? I
have been a curse–I admit it. I lament it. Make me a blessing, Lord.
By the sufferings of Jesus–by the agony and bloody sweat–by His Cross
and passion–by His precious death and burial–make me a blessing,
Lord! You have but to speak the word and I, even I, shall repent. You
have but to will it, and I shall behold Your face in Christ and believe
in Him. Your Spirit is not to be resisted–send Him forth to raise my
dead soul from the grave. Come and work in me! Turn the lion to a lamb,
the raven to a dove."
Sinner, if you can believe that God will do it, He will do it. For
anything you will believe of Him, however high and great, He can do and
will do, for He will never let your faith be in excess of His
power–His unbounded power! Trust in Him! Rest upon Him! God help you
to do it and may these poor stammering words of mine, by their very
weakness, be fitted for your conversion, because my Master's Glory
shall shine the better through my weakness! And His power to save shall
be the more resplendent because of my feeble words! If it is so, I
would sooner be dumb than speak with the tongues of men and angels, if
He were not to be honored.
Father, glorify Jesus! Glorify Him now in bringing some who have been a
curse, to the making of them a blessing, for His name's sake. Amen.