Peace By Believing

Peace By Believing
A SERMON BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON.
"Therefore, beingjustified by faith, we havepeace with God through
ourLord Jesus Christ."
Romans 5:1.
A MOMENT'S contemplation would suffice to arouse any man to the terror
of the position involved in being at war with God. For a subject to be
in a state of sedition against a powerful monarch is to commit treason,
and to incur the forfeiture of his life. But for a creature to be in
arms against its Creator! For a thing that depends for its existence
upon the will of God–to be at enmity with the God in whose hand its
breath is! For a soul to know that God, who is terrible in His power,
and Almighty to protect or to destroy, is his foe! That He whose anger
endures forever, and His wrath burns even unto the lowest Hell, is his
chief and grand Enemy–this is an appalling thing, indeed!
Could any man but understand and realize this, smitten through with
terrors as great as those which surprised Bel-shazzar when he saw the
handwriting on the wall, he would cry out in anguish, and he would make
a thrilling appeal for mercy. God is against you, O sinful man! God is
against you, O you who have never submitted yourself unto His Word! God
is against you! And woe unto you when He shall rend you in pieces, for
none can deliver you out of His hand! Happy! Happy beyond all
description is the man who can say with our Apostle, "We have peace
with God." But wretched! Wretched, again, beyond all description!
Wretched must that man be who is at war with his own Maker, and sees
Heaven itself in arms against him!
Chiefly, now, we shall endeavor to talk of the peace which the Believer
enjoys. And then I shall have a few words of counsel, warning, and
encouragement for those who have not this peace with God, or who may
have had it, but for a time have lost the enjoyment of it.
I. In speaking of THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH THE CHRISTIAN ENJOYS, we will
commence with some remarks upon its basis. There is the widest possible
difference between a man being just in his own eyes, and his being
justified in the sight of God. Yet, perhaps no fallacy is more common
than to mistake the one for the other. Then, as a natural consequence
of building on a weak foundation, the structure, however fair to look
upon, is insecure. The peace in which multitudes of professors delight
themselves is merely peace with their own conscience and not in any
sense peace with God.
I know of no greater contrast than there is between that peace which is
a mere stagnation of thought, a lull of anxiety, or a blindness to
danger, and that soul-satisfying peace which passes all understanding.
The true peace of God flows like a river in unceasing activity. It
preserves a tranquil frame amidst storm, tempest, and tribulation–by
all of which it is frequently assaulted. It is a part of the panoply of
God with which a Christian is clothed, to withstand principalities, and
powers, and spiritual wickedness in the evil day. Or, to change the
figure, Christ gave His disciples this peace as a charm, when, as He
was about Himself to depart, and go to the Father, He sent them forth
to be buffeted about in the world.
Just so in the text. If you pursue the subject in the next few verses,
you will find that this peace with God is given first, and afterwards
comes experience of tribulations everywhere else. We ourselves,
Brothers and Sisters, have proved it. There is a natural disposition of
sin to defile, but the blood of Christ speaks peace in the conscience.
There is a constant tendency of the world to destroy our hope, but the
peaceful word of Jesus comforts us. "Be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world." There is a painful proneness of human strength to fail, but
the promise supports us–"This One shall be peace when the Assyrian
comes into our land." And this true peace gives to the Believer an
inward sense of God's acceptance. As Moses never lost sight of the
goodwill of the Dweller in the bush, so, too, there is a more blessed
assurance of goodwill in the faith that always realizes, "God in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself."
And now, as to the experimental basis of that peace which the Believer
has with his God–it must have some solid rational ground. It must have
some basis which judgment may estimate. I know some who have an
apprehension of peace with God that has no foundation whatever. Let me
describe the person. "Are you living in peace with God, my Friend?"
"Yes," says he, "thank God, I have enjoyed a sense of peace for twenty
years." "How did you get it?" "Well, as I was walking one day, in great
distress of mind, on such-and-such a road, a feeling of comfort came
over me, and it has remained with me ever since." "Yes, but, Friend,
what is the reason of your hope? What is the ground of your confidence
that you have peace with God?"
"Well, you see, I felt comfortable, and I believe that I have felt
comfortable ever since." "No, no. That's not the matter at which I aim.
What is the ground? What is the doctrinal proof? What is the matter of
fact that gives you comfort?" "Well, do not press me," he says, "for I
do not know. Only this I know–I did feel happy, and I have felt happy
ever since. And I have not had any doubt." That man, mark you, if I am
not mistaken, is under a delusion. If I err not, it is very possible
that that man has received a draught of the opium of Hell. Satan has
said to him, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace. He is going
undisturbed, and quiet, down to the place where he shall lift up his
eyes and discover too late his error.
The peace of a Christian is not such a lull of stupefaction as that. It
has a reason. It has some groundwork. And when you come to pull it to
pieces, it is as completely a logical inference from certain facts as
any deduction that could be drawn by mathematical precision. Let me,
however, bring up a few more who think they have peace but build their
supposition on wrong grounds. Here is a man who very flippantly and
joyously says, "Peace with God, Sir? Yes, peace with God. I enjoy the
unbroken satisfaction that I have made my peace with Him." "Well, how?"
"Why, you see, some years ago I never went to a place of worship on
Sunday at all, and I felt one day that I was doing wrong. Here was I
going to the theater most nights, and I was doing my trade in a very
bad way, and now and then I took too much drink.
"I was doing a great many things that were wrong, and I thought it was
time for me to turn over a new leaf, and I have done so. Now I
generally go to a place of worship twice on the Sunday. I may now and
then indulge myself–well, who is there that never does anything wrong?
But still there is very great amendment in me. If you ask my wife, she
sees a wonderful change. And if you ask my workpeople, they will say I
am a different man from what I used to be. Now, I think
1 am not like the man you brought up just now, with no ground for his
peace. I think I have a very good ground for mine, for I am deserving
very well of my Maker now. I feel now, if I go to a place of amusement
where I ought not, I cannot pray that night. But the next night I try
over again, and manage to get through my form of prayer. On the whole I
am doing so well that I think I may say I have a good bottom and ground
for saying that I am at peace with God."
Now, let this man be reminded that it is written, "By the works of the
Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." All these moral
things of which he has spoken are good enough in themselves. They will
be very excellent in the temple of Christianity if they are placed at
the top. But, if they are used as foundations, a builder might as well
use tiles and slates and chimney-pots for foundations and cornerstones
as use these reformatory actions as a ground of dependence. Man! Do you
not perceive that your foundation is not an even and secure one? For
what about the past? What is to become of the sins already committed?
How are you to get rid of these? Do you suppose that the payment of
future debts will discharge old liabilities?
Go to your tradesman and tell him that you owe him a very great sum of
money, and you cannot pay him a farthing of it. Do you expect he will
not sue you in court because you never intend to get into his debt any
more? I think he will tell you that is not a method of business he
understands. Certainly this is not the way in which God will deal with
you. Your old sins! Your old sins! Your OLD sins! What about those?
Those debts unpaid? Those crimes as yet unburied? Let your conscience
give them a resurrection in your memory tonight. What about these?
Surely you can have no peace with God while these remain unforgiven!
Besides, you have an inward conviction that you have not peace with
God, but only peace with yourself. You do feel a little better
sometimes, but it is a very poor sort of confidence that you have, for
a little sickness shakes it. How would you like to die now? Would you
wrap yourself up in these miserable rags of yours and say, "Lord, You
know I have sinned, but then I have done my best to make up for it."
You know and feel that this bed is shorter than a man can stretch
himself on, and this coverlet too narrow for a man to wrap himself in.
Renounce this confidence, for it is one that will never stand before
God!
To give an instance of yet another case–one in which I tread on more
delicate ground. Beloved, there are some who have peace which they
explain to you in such a way that while I trust they have a peace with
God, I fear they misunder- stand the ground of it. Some true Christians
will talk to you in this way–"I hope I am at peace with God now, for
my faith is in active exercise. My love is fervent. I have delightful
seasons in prayer. The eyes of my hope are no longer dim, and my
patience can endure many things for Christ. My courage did not fail me
yesterday in the midst of Christ's enemies. My graces are vigorous. The
Spirit of God has been blowing across my soul as over a garden. And all
the graces, like flowers, have yielded their best perfume, and
therefore I feel that I have peace with God."
Oh, Believer, Believer! Are you so foolish as having begun in the
Spirit by faith, to be made perfect in the flesh by your own doing?
Remember, if you have peace, if you put your peace here upon your
graces, then there will come another day–perhaps it may come
tomorrow–when all those graces will droop like withered flowers,
yielding no perfume! Instead of beauty there shall be baldness. Instead
of ornament there shall be decay. There will come a day when you shall
see yourself in your true natural colors, and discover yourself, like
Job, and cry out as he did, "Lord, I am vile!" What will you do, then,
with your peace? Why, if you have begun to look to your graces in any
way for peace, then you are looking to a fickle source.
You are going to the cistern, instead of living by the fountain! You
are using Hagar's bottle, instead of sitting like Isaac at the well to
drink from never-ceasing streams. Yet this is an evil into which we are
so apt to fall after having done well for the Master, and being helped
to serve Him. It is true we do not trust in these things. I hope God
has delivered us from self-righteousness. Yet there is just that, "Now
I must be a child of God–now I must truly be an heir of Heaven– for
see how I have been sanctified! Mark how I have been edified and built
up in the faith." Ah, Brothers and Sisters! There is the cloven foot
there! Be on your guard! It is an unclean thing. It will bring you into
pain and bondage. It will make you sick, and put your feet in the
stocks, and thrust you into the inner dungeon before long. Flee from it
as you would from a serpent. Stand ever under the dear Cross of Christ,
looking up to His wounds, rejoicing in His all-sufficiency, and
building your peace there, and there alone.
I fear, too, that there are not a few who, I trust, have genuine peace,
but who, nevertheless, are tempted to found their confidence upon their
enjoyments. We have our enjoyments–God be thanked for this. Oh, there
are times when our communion is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus
Christ! We have not been into Heaven, but we have heard some of the
songs of the angels on the other side the pearly gates. Or, if not the
songs, we have heard the echo of them in our hearts. There are times
when we have been in prayer and our soul has been like the chariots of
Aminadab, swift and strong. We have had our seasons, as it were, of
witnessing the Transfiguration! We can remember Tabor's mount–well can
we remember the hill Mizar, and the Hermonites–for there He spoke with
us.
We have had our experience of Jacob's dream, as well as our fellowship
with Jacob's wrestling. We have seen the Lord, and by faith have put
our finger into the print of the nails, and thrust our hand into His
side. He has kissed us with the kisses of His love, and His love is
better than wine. But the tendency is to say, "Now I have peace with
God. Now I must be reconciled to Him. Now I will press out the wine of
comfort from these grapes." If we do this, let us remember that perhaps
tomorrow we may be in Gethsemane. We may have our times of agonizing
and fruitless prayer. We may be in the valley of despondency, or in the
blacker valley of the shadow of death.
Brothers and Sisters, present joys, promises applied with power,
whispers of Christ's love, sweets of His Covenant, delighting ourselves
in the Lord–what then? Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, we shall find
ourselves weak, because we have taken our comforts to be the basis of
our peace, instead of continuing to look solely and only to Christ. Let
me warn you, Beloved, though this may not seem a case as dangerous as
some others, yet let me warn you that it is essential to our comfort
that we should stand to this and to this only–being justified by
faith–we have peace with God. Our peace is solely the result of a
justification achieved through faith and not the result of enjoyments,
nor of graces, much less of good works, or of any foolish irrational
impression which we may think we have been favored with.
Where, then, does lie the Christian's conviction of his peace with God?
Well it lies in this–that he is justified by faith. The process is
plain. It is as clear, I say, as a proposition in Euclid. Christ stood
in my place before God. I was a sinner doomed to die. Christ took my
place. He died for me. Well, then, how can I perish? How can I be
punished for offenses which have been punished already in the Person of
my Substitute? God demands of me perfectly to keep His Law. I cannot do
it. Christ has done it for me–kept the Law–magnified it, made it
honorable. What more can God demand of me? I, a sinner, am washed in
Jesus' blood. I, guilty, am clothed in Jesus' righteousness.
You say "How? I cannot see it is so." True, it is so by faith. God says
that he who believes in Christ shall be saved–I believe in
Christ–therefore I am saved. He says, "He that believes on Him is not
condemned." I believe on Him. Therefore I am not condemned–this is
clear reasoning enough. Very well, then, the man who has believed in
Christ has his sins forgiven, and the righteousness of Christ imputed
to him. Therefore he is at peace with God. Now this is reasoning which
no logic can deny. There is a rebel–first he is pardoned, next merit
is imputed to him–and he is at peace with his king, and a rebel no
longer. There is a child. He has offended. His Father takes him,
accepts him for his elder Brother's sake, and he is at peace with his
Father.
The thing is clear enough. Here is a reason for the hope that is within
us, which we may give with meekness and fear! It is true, never with
diffidence and timidity! We may venture to give it in the presence of
the old dragon, and defy him to break its force. We might give it,
even, in the midst of a congregation of assembled demons and defy them,
if they can, to break its power. We may give it in the presence of the
Eternal God, for He will never deny the Word on which He has caused us
to hope. "Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yes, rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
makes intercession for us." It stands forever.
Stand here, and you stand so fast that no howling tempest of temptation
can sweep you down. Stand to this, that Christ has finished your
salvation for you, that He has done everything that Omnipotent Justice
can ask. He has endured all the penalty, drained the cup of wrath,
obeyed the Law completely, given to Divine equity all it can
demand–and therefore, believing in His name, standing in His
righteousness, accented in His suretyship–you must have peace with
God. This is the basis of the Christian's peace–one on which he may
sleep or wake, live or die–and live eternally, without condemnation or
separation from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Continuing our remarks on this subject, we shall now turn your
attention to the channel of this peace. "Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Take it for a certain fact, then, that we are justified as the result
of what Christ has done for us, seeing that He, "was delivered for our
offenses and raised again for our justification." And the experience,
insofar as we have assurance of our being personally justified, is the
result of our trusting Christ. What then? How are we to enjoy the
comfort of it? There are times when we begin to doubt whether we are
justified. Brethren, we must not come to our faith to get comfort, but
to the primary cause of our justification. The channel through which
the comfort comes is Jesus Christ. So then, though justification by
faith, is, in itself, a well of comfort, even from that well we cannot
get it, except we use Christ–who dug the well–to be the Bucket to
draw the water up from its depths.
It must come through Christ. I will suppose, then, that I am in doubt
and fear tonight, and want to get my peace re-stored–how shall I seek
it? Through Jesus Christ, the Surety and Substitute Himself. How?
First, by believing in Christ over again, just as I did at the first.
Christ tells me that He came to save sinners. I am a sinner, therefore
He came to save me. He says He can save me. This looks reasonable. He
is very God. He is perfect Man. He has suffered and offered a complete
atonement. He tells me He is willing to save me. This also appears
reasonable, for why else should He die, if He did not wish to save?
Then He tells me if I will trust Him, He will save me. I trust Him, and
I have not the shadow of a doubt that He will be as good as His word.
If He is faithful and just–of which who dares to breathe a
suspicion?–this soul of mine, in Heaven, must be. It is committed to
the Redeemer's charge with every pledge that God can give, with more
security than we could ever ask. In Him I trust–in Jesus, and in
Jesus, only. Brothers and Sisters, this is how you must get your peace
with God tonight–through Jesus Christ–by going to Him. By a simple
faith, just as you went at the first.
Some silly people who have got high doctrine in their heads, so high
that it smells offensive in the nostrils of those who read the
Scriptures–they say we teach that man is saved by mere believing. We
do–by mere believing. There is a poor, starving man over there. I give
him bread–his life is spared. Why do not these people say this man was
saved by mere eating–by mere eating! And here is another person whose
tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth by thirst, and is ready to die.
I give him water, and he drinks, and his eyes sparkle–and the man is
saved by mere drinking. And look at ourselves–why do we not drop down
dead in our pews? Just stop your breath a little while and see. Surely
we all live by mere breathing.
All these operations of nature that touch the vital mysteries may be
sneered at as merely this, or merely that. And in like manner to speak
with disparagement of, "mere believing," is stupid nonsense. And yet,
let me say it in my sense of the term–we are saved, we are reconciled
to God through Jesus Christ by mere believing–by the simple act of
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I would get my peace made
more full and perfect, having come to Christ by faith, I must continue
to get peace from Him by meditation upon Him. For the more I go to
Christ believingly, the deeper will my peace be. If I believe in
Christ, and do not know much of Him, my faith will necessarily be
somewhat slender.
But if I continue, "to comprehend with all saints what are the heights,
and depths, and lengths, and breadths, and to know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge," then my little faith will become strong faith.
The bruised reed shall become a cedar, and the smoking flax shall
become a beacon flaming to the very skies! I must take care, above all,
that I cultivate communion with Christ, for though that can never be
the basis of my peace–mark that–yet it will be the channel of it. If
I live near to Christ, I shall not know fear. What sheep is afraid of
the wolf when it is close to the shepherd's hand? What child fears when
it hangs upon its mother's breast? Who should know fear when he is
covered with the eternal wings, and underneath him are the everlasting
arms?
"While His left hand is under my head, and His right hand does embrace
me," I cannot but be at peace, and that peace, if my communion is
continued, will be like a river–deep and broad–my righteousness being
like the waves of the sea. It is Christ, the substance of my salvation!
Christ, the sum of all my hope! Christ who performs all things for me,
and Christ made of God all things to me! As Christ was the first means
of giving us peace, so He must still be the golden conduit through
which all peace with God must flow to our believing hearts. And all
this through the act of merely believing, or merely trusting in Him! By
looking to Him I drew all the faith which inspired me with confidence
in His Grace. And the word that first drew my soul–"Look unto
Me"–still rings its clarion note in my ears. There I once found
conversion, and there I shall often find refreshing and renewal.
Having thus glanced at the basis of our peace, and the channel through
which it flows, let us pass on to notice its certainty. I like to read
these rolling sentences of Paul, without an "if," or a "but," in
them–"Therefore, being justified, we have peace with God." He talks as
logically as if he were a mathematician, and as positively as though he
could see the thing written before his eyes. Oh, how different is this
from the way in which some talk–"I hope," "I trust," "I sometimes hope
my poor soul may have peace with God." Now where this language is
genuine, it deserves sympathy–but I believe in many cases it is cant.
There is a certain class of professors who think strong faith is pride,
and doubts and fears are humility. Therefore they look upon these
base-born thorns as though they were choice flowers, and they will cull
them together like a bouquet of nettles and noxious weeds–a fool's
bouquet of flowers. Have you ever seen it in the magazines? I have
observed it very frequently. Or they will dig up a nasty ugly thorn,
put it in a flower pot, place it in an ornamental situation, display it
outside the window, and call you all to admire it, as being a special,
a wonderful piece of Christian experience.
Well, one likes to see a thorn when it is developed to the highest
degree, but as soon as seen, one likes to see it burned. And so with
these doubts and fears. It is very well for us to know how far doubting
and fearing may go, but we think we would like to have them plucked up
by the roots and destroyed as soon as possible. Let those who are the
subjects of these doubts be sympathized and cheered, but let their
doubts and fears be rooted out utterly. O Christian Brothers and
Sisters, it is not impudence, it is not presumption to believe what God
tells you. If he says "You are justified," do not say "I hope I am."
If I should say to some poor man–one terribly poor–"I will pay your
rent for you tomorrow," and he should say, "Well, well, I hope you
will," I should not feel pleased with him. If you should say to your
child tomorrow morning, "Well William, I shall buy you a new suit of
clothes today," and he should say, "Well, Father, I sometimes hope you
will, I humbly trust, I hope I may say, though I sometimes doubt and
fear, yet I hope I may say I believe you," you would not encourage such
a child as that in his uncomely suspicions. Why should we talk thus to
our dear Father who is in Heaven? He says to us, "I give unto you
eternal life, and you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you
out of My hand." Is it humility for us to reply, "Father, I do not
believe you, I cannot think it is possible"?
Oh, no! That is true humility which sits at the feet of the Promiser
because it is humble–looks up into the face of the Promiser because it
is trustful–and coats on the word of the promise, because it is
sincere. He will perform it. Away with you, you Fiends that make me
doubt! His honor is engaged to the carrying out of His Covenant. He
will perform it. He says by faith in Christ I am justified. Therefore I
say, I am justified, and have peace with God, nor shall anyone stop me
of this glory–I have peace with God through Jesus Christ. I should
like to hear you all talking in this way and get- ting rid of that old
Babylonian jargon of "ifs," and "buts," and doubts and fears! Be fully
persuaded that what He has promised He will fulfill, as those who do
believe what God has said, just because He has said it. Here is the
certainty of justification by faith.
And now, as to the effect produced. When a man can say he has peace
with God–what then? Why, the first effect is JOY. Who can be at peace
with God, and have Him for a Father, and yet be miserable? I think I
told you one night that, years ago, I was waited upon by a woman who
wished to convert me to a novel sect that had come up with a false
prophet at its head. She talked much and talked long, and talked all to
no purpose. At last I told her I thought it best that she should tell
me her way in which she wished to be saved, on condition that she would
let me tell her mine.
I need not tell you what she said, but I said, "This is how I hope to
be saved–it is said in God's Word, 'This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners.' And it is also written, 'he that believes on Him shall
be saved.' Now, I do trust in Him, and I believe that, therefore, I
shall be saved. No, more, I am saved and my sins are all forgiven. A
perfect righteousness, namely, that of Christ, is cast about me, and I
am so saved today that nothing by any possibility shall ever destroy
me. I am saved forever." The woman said, "If I believed that that were
true, I would very gladly give up my faith for anything so bright as
that. But you," she said, "you ought to be the happiest man in the
world." And I said, "I thank you for that word and so will I be, God
helping me, for I ought to be. I have the utmost cause."
And so should every Believer feel he ought to be, because this great
salvation, this solid hope, this rocky foundation for our everlasting
peace should give us quiet, and calm, and security, till our joy should
overflow and become an anticipation and an foretaste of the joy of
Heaven. This peace should give the Believer, beyond, and in addition to
his joy, a calm resignation, no, a delightful acquiescence in his
Father's will. Now smite me if You will, my Father, for I am Your
friend and You are mine. Now send the flames, for it shall only
chasten, but cannot kill. Now take away my goods, for You are my All,
and I cannot lose You. Now let the floods of trouble come, for You are
my ark, and though the floods come around me higher and higher, still I
shall abide in You, secure from reach of harm, while You shut me in!
Thus with calm composure the Believer walks along over life's hills and
dales. And when he comes to the valley of the shadow of death he fears
no evil, for his God is with him, His rod and His staff do comfort him.
What fear is there to the man that is at peace with God? Life?–God
provides for it. Death?–Christ has destroyed it. The grave?–Christ
has rolled away the stone and broken the seal. Affliction, tribulation,
famine, peril, or the sword? "No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him that has loved us." To have peace with God,
Beloved, I cannot tell you what innumerable streams of good shall flow
to you from this ocean of pleasure, and these rivers of delight. I have
but skimmed over one of these placid streams. There are hundreds of
blessed practical results that are sure to follow from a certain
conviction of our peace with God through Jesus Christ.
II. In drawing to a close, I want to address myself to THREE CHARACTERS
THAT I HAVE NO DOUBT ARE REPRESENTED HERE IN THIS LARGE CONGREGATION.
There is a man here tonight–I know he is here, though I do not know
his name–a man who many years ago was a professor of religion. He has
never been easy in his conscience since he forsook the ways of God.
There has been some trembling hope sometimes in him that there was a
little life, not quite extinct. And since he has come in here, he feels
quite like a stranger in the House of Prayer, where once faces were so
familiar. And there is, perhaps, a groaning in his spirit as he says,
"O that I knew the way of peace, and the sense of peace for which in
happier days I once enquired. I have lost my roll, if I ever had it. I
have lost my character, and with my character, my faith–and with my
faith my hope. Can I ever be at peace with God?"
Backslider, if you have ever been called by Divine Grace, let me ask
you this question. Do you remember the time when you had a hope? Say,
does not memory revive before you that time, when on your knees in
agony, you did cry unto Him that hears prayer, and the mercy came, and
your spirit rejoiced in pardon bought with blood? Man, do you remember
it? The tear is on your cheeks now. You were not a hypocrite–let us
hope that it was not all hypocrisy–not all a lie and a delusion. You
did feel, then, that Christ could save. And you did trust yourself with
Him.
Now then, Man, do the same tonight–and the dew of your youth will be
restored unto you. Your leprosy is white upon your brow, but wash in
Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again unto you, even as a
little child. Jehovah seeks you. He cries unto you tonight, and by the
lips of His ambassador says, "Return, O backsliding children, return
unto Me for I am married unto you, says the Lord. You have wearied Me
with your sins, you have made Me to serve with your iniquities, but I,
even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My name's sake,
and will not remember your sins."–
"To your Father's bosom pressed, Once again a child confessed, From His
house no more to roam. Come, and welcome, Sinner come."
"Oh, but I have forsaken Him." Lay aside your "buts, "and "ifs." He
bids you come. Away with you, you doubts and fears, and black
despairing thoughts! The sinner comes, and Jesus meets him. There is
the kiss of His love. "Take off his rags, clothe him, put shoes upon
his feet, bring forth the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and
be merry, for this, My son, which was dead, is alive again, he was lost
and is found." O, I wish I could persuade you–though you are growing
old now–I wish I could persuade you to fling yourself at the foot of
His dear Cross again! His hands are still nailed–He has not moved them
yet. His feet are still fast–He has not stirred from the place where
He waits for you–His arms still open wide. O believe Him! He is love,
still, and the blood is mighty, still, and the plea in Heaven is
all-prevailing, still. "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be
saved."
Then I wanted to have said a word to some here who are not backsliders,
exactly, but they have lost their peace for a little time. Many young
Christians are subject to these little fits in which their evidence
gets dark, and they lose their peace. I have no need to say more to
you, Brothers and Sisters, while you are walking in darkness and see no
light. "Let him trust," is a prophetic admonition–it shall be mine
tonight. When you cannot see a single reason why you should be saved
except that God says you shall, let that be enough for you. When you
have nothing here, or there, or anywhere to look to. When there is no
hope for you except in that Man whose wounds are bleeding, always think
that is enough– because it is–and come to Christ just as you came at
first.
I find it very convenient to come every day to Christ as a sinner–as I
came at first. "You are no saint," says the devil. Well, if I am not, I
am a sinner–and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Sink
or swim, there I go– I have no other hope–
"And when your eye of faith is dim, Still trust in Jesus, sink or swim.
And at His footstool bow your knee, For Israel's God your peace shall
be." On Christ with all my weight I lean. And as I throw myself upon my
bed to sleep, so on Christ will I stretch myself full length to
rest–for He is able and He is willing. And if He can fail, then He
fails me and fails all His Church. But if He cannot, then I shall see
His face in Glory everlasting!
By your leave, I must have two or three words with those who never had
peace. I shall be brief. I have no doubt I address many here who never
had faith, and you are wanting to get it. I ask you, first of all, not
to seek peace at all as the first object. For, if you want peace before
you get Divine Grace, you want the flower before you get the root–and
you will be apt to be like little children who, when they have a piece
of garden given them, will go and pluck up the flowers out of their
father's bed, and put the flowers into their own ground and then say,
"What a nice garden I have got!"
But to their dismay, on the morrow all is withered. Better put the
roots in, and wait a week or two till they sprout–and then the flowers
will be living ones, not borrowed ones. Do not seek after peace first.
Seek after CHRIST first. Peace will come next. Still, I pray you, do
not think that peace is a qualification for Grace. If you fancy this,
you will be in error, indeed. You are to come to Christ as Nicodemus
did, by night, that is, in the night of your ignorance, in the night of
your fear and trouble. You must come just as you are, bringing nothing
to Christ, but coming empty-handed. No money, no price, no fee,
"nothing to pay."
He asks of you nothing but that you would take all gratis from His
liberal hand. And will you please remember that if you put your eye on
anything but Christ, or anything with Christ–so as to disturb your
whole thought and attention from being directed exclusively to
Him–then peace will be an impossibility to you. If your eye is single,
your whole body shall be full of light. But if you mix another trust,
and so your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. Do
not trust your repentance! Do not trust your faith! Do not rely upon
your feelings! Do not depend upon your knowledge–above all, do not
depend upon your sense of need.
Do not come to Christ as a sensible sinner–do not come trusting
Christ, feeling that you are a man who has a right to come–that you
answer to a certain character that may come. But come because you are a
sinner. Because you have nothing to recommend you. Because, if God
should search you through and through, He could not find a point in
you, a spot in you large enough to put the point of a pin upon that
which was good. Come because you are vile, to be pardoned. Come,
because you are black in sin, to be washed. Come, because you are
penniless, to be made rich.
Look for nothing else except in Christ. Write this for your
motto–"None but Jesus." Oh, men and women, and Brothers and Sisters,
if those Israelites of old, who were inside their houses that night,
had gone outside to the lintel of their doorpost and said, "Now here is
this lintel made of very common wood, we will paint and grain it." And
if they had then gone inside and trusted to the painting and graining
of the lintel, the destroying angel would have found them out and
destroyed them. If, again, they had said, "We will write up our name
over the door–it is a respectable name. We will record the list of our
charities and good works over the door," the angel would have smitten
through the whole, and there would have been a wailing through the
house as through the houses of the Egyptians.
But what did they do? They took the blood. They marked the lintel and
the two side posts and smeared them with a crimsoned stain. Then in
they went, and sat contentedly down–or stood at last in peace–and ate
the Passover with joy. And, while the shrieks of Egypt went up in the
cold midnight air, the sons of Israel went up also into Heaven, for the
angel of death, when he spread his wings on the blast, had seen the
blood and by that mark he knew that he must pass by that habitation and
smite none that were there.
The word of the Lord was not "When I see your faith," but "when I see
the blood, I will pass over you." Oh, Soul, if you trust Christ, the
blood is on your brow tonight! Before the eyes of God no condemnation.
Why, then, need you fear? You are safe, for the blood secures every
soul that once is sheltered thereby. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you shall be saved. But if you believe not, trust where you may,
you shall be damned. God help you to believe in Christ for His name's
sake. Amen.