Seeing Is Not Believing, But Believing Is Seeing
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 1, 1866, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT
CORNWALL ROAD CHAPEL, BAYSWATER.
"Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet
believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."
1 Peter 1:8,9.
A VERY formidable difficulty frequently besets earnest but uninstructed
minds who are seeking the Savior. They do not find it difficult to
believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is a Savior, that He is
mighty to save–their difficulty lies in getting at Him. They believe
that the medicine will cure, but their question is, how shall they
drink it? They are convinced that a touch of the hem of the Savior's
garment would heal their diseases, but their question is how to touch.
By what means shall they be brought into contact with Christ and a
Savior become the Savior of their souls? The constant aim of the Gospel
ministry should be to remove such difficulties as these out of the way
of coming souls, and we shall try this morning, as God shall help us,
to lift out that stone and fill up that miry place in the king's
highway that some may today be enabled to come to Jesus–understanding
what that coming means–and exercising it before they leave this house.
It is very common to meet with persons who say, "I wish that I had
heard the Savior–actually heard Him speak. If I could have listened to
that matchless eloquence of which it is written, 'Never man spoke like
this Man,' I should have been convinced, melted, led to penitence and
inspired with faith. I wish I could have heard Him pronounce those
words, 'Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.' I would have leaped from among the crowd, and I
would have cried, 'Master, I come! Your invitation draws me! Here I am,
a heavy-laden sinner, give me rest.' "
You have also wished that you had been able literally to touch Him–to
have put your finger into the print of the nails–and to have thrust
your hand into His side. It seems to you that then you could have
believed. If you might have been privileged with even the touch of the
woman who did but touch the hem of His garment, much more if you might
have been privileged to lean your head upon His bosom with John, you
would then have believed, you think, as a matter of course, and there
would have been no sort of difficulty in the way of your salvation. You
have sighed, "Oh that I could have heard, have touched, and have seen
Him! These would have been three pearly gates through which I might
have come at Him. I could have reached Him then, if I might but have
exercised my senses upon His blessed Person."
Your soul has lingered over the thought of seeing Him. You have
especially wondered whether it would have been possible to have seen
Him upon Tabor with His garments glistening whiter than any fuller
could have made them, and yet not have believed! You have thought it
impossible! You have said, "If I could have been among the disciples in
the garden of Gethsemane to have seen the bloody sweat and marked the
tokens of the drops of blood on the frosty ground. And if I could, with
tearful eyes have seen Him at the scourging and the spitting. If I
could have wondered and wept with Mary at the foot of the Cross and
seen the blood drop from His hands and feet, I should then have been
saved! It would have been easy to believe if there had been something
to see."
At first sight, indeed, this is a very plausible statement and seems as
if there must be truth in it. But believe me, my dear Hearer, there is
none at all! And I may say of the Savior very much what Abraham said of
Lazarus, You have the Gospels and the Epistles, and you have the
abiding Presence of the Holy Spirit. And if you believe not, neither
would you have believed if you had been among the company who saw
Jesus, touched Him and listened to His voice. It is a mistake, a great
mistake–as I think a moment's reflection would show you–to conceive
that contact with Jesus through the senses would produce faith.
Mark the fact that out of the mass who did see Jesus, and who did hear
Him, few, very few believed. The crowd which gathered round the
Crucifixion, which might seem to be the most moving scene in the story,
were not bettered by what they saw. As the multitude gazed, instead of
tears they yielded laughter! Instead of penitence they exhibited
blasphemy! There they gathered, thousands of them of all sorts, the
highest and the lowest, the intelligent and the uneducated, and all
alike they spat the venom of their hatred upon the Crucified One. They
cried, "If He is the Son of God, let Him come down from the Cross."
Seeing was not believing, but disbelieving and hating!
They had beheld His miracles before His being nailed to the Cross. They
had seen dead Lazarus come forth from the tomb and marked those that
had leprosy and other incurable diseases suddenly healed. They had,
moreover, feasted upon the bread which He Himself had created for them,
and yet they believed not. Why, then, do you conclude that you would
have done so? There is nothing better in your heart than in the hearts
of other men! Doubtless you would have seen all, and have been
astonished and possibly affected–but the probabilities are that you
would have remained what you are now, if not something worse–an
unbeliever, an unsaved one.
Besides, it should never be forgotten that those who did believe in
Jesus Christ in His own day had to get out of and beyond the sphere of
the senses in order to believe. Let me show you what I mean. I am not
certain that what they saw helped them to believe. I think it did the
reverse. I grant you that to see the holiness and the self-consecration
of the Lord Jesus must have had a convincing influence upon gracious
hearts. But then, let me ask you, would the sight of the deep poverty
of the Man of Sorrows lead you to believe in His Godhead? Would an
association with Him in His rejection and dishonor lead you to believe
in His celestial Glory?
Is it likely that if you had seen Him betrayed and dragged away to an
ignominious doom that the shameful scene would have been an assistance
to your faith? Would not your faith have had need to triumph over all
that the eye beheld, and would it not have been needful to use the
soul's eyes rather than the poor optics of the body in order to see the
Son of God in the Son of Man? How was the Messiah-ship, the Godhead,
the Glory and the power of Christ to be seen by the eye? That which was
seen was to a great extent hostile to faith, contradictory to it, and
faith, to be exercised, had to struggle with what it saw.
Does not the Prophet tell us that when we shall see Him there is no
beauty that we should desire in Him? He is a root out of a dry ground.
He is a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. That which was seen
of the Christ was a difficulty in the matter of faith instead of being
an assistance to it. Yet further, I say when they did believe they went
beyond the mere evidence of sense. Even Thomas, in that celebrated
interview with Christ, when he made the utmost use of seeing, and
touching, and handling, went much farther than mere sight could conduct
him. The putting of his finger into the print of the nails, and
thrusting his hand into the side was convincing evidence that Christ
had risen, but it does not seem to me to be evidence of what Thomas
drew from it–namely, "My Lord and my God."
Here faith went beyond what the finger revealed. The eye and hand
showed a wounded man–but faith could see Godhead and authority–and
therefore bowed and accepted the risen Man as being from now on her
Lord and her God! Now a number of reflections of this kind I think
would go very far to show you that instead of it being certain that had
you seen and heard and touched the Savior you would have believed, it
is, on the contrary, quite certain that you might not have believed.
And that if you had done so it would not have been the result of your
seeing, but it would have had to be accounted for on quite another
ground, namely, that described by the Savior, when He said to Peter,
"Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed
this unto you."
You would not have had faith in Christ as the result of sight. The Holy
Spirit must have worked faith in you if you had received it. That same
Spirit who is able and willing to give you faith today though now you
see not the Savior! The question returns, "If I cannot come into
contact with the Savior by seeing, by hearing, by touching, tell me how
I may, for I do desire that virtue should come out of Him to me. I am
sick. I would be healed. I am lost. I would be saved. But by what means
can I attain unto that salvation which He came upon earth to bestow?"
The answer is in the text and we shall bring it out by the following
method–First, we will observe how we come into contact with Jesus.
Secondly, what virtue flows from that contact. And then, thirdly, what
then?–What are the inferences from this Truth of God?
I. To begin, then, upon this point–HOW DO WE COME INTO CONTACT WITH
JESUS? The uppermost point of contact, the most apparent and visible in
the Believer's life, is love. Observe–"Whom having not seen you love."
The Apostle Peter twice puts in the "not seen," as if he felt that
though he, himself, had seen or had been with Jesus in the most private
of His retirements, yet these Hebrew saints, strangers scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, had not
seen Jesus.
He dwells much on the fact because he knew that they were types and
specimens of all succeeding Believers, of us among the rest. Therefore,
recording the fact that they had not seen Jesus, he describes them as
loving Him whom they had not seen. Now then, dear Fiends, the first
point of contact with Christ is love and I think I can show you that we
can, no, that we do love Him whom we have not seen! Jesus Christ is
Incarnate God. He who fills all things and yet is not contained by all
things that are made because He is greater than them all, condescended
to become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
He was born of the virgin and laid in the manger. In His flesh we have
not seen Him. We might have gazed upon that Infant's face and seen Him
in the flesh and yet we might not have loved Him. But now, as our
believing hearts think of Him as Incarnate, our minds go back to
Bethlehem and Nazareth, and our recollection pictures Him as a Man
among us men. And as our soul sees Him, first as an Infant of a span
long, and then suffering all our infirmities and tempted in all points
like as we are–and when we reflect that He need not have suffered so,
but condescended to cast aside His Glory wherein He counted it not
robbery to be equal with God that He might be on a level with us–why,
then, without seeing Him we love Him!
Blessed Man, blessed God, condescending to be Man for me! At the very
thought of Your leaving the highest throne of Glory, I love You! Foxes
have holes and the birds have nests, but You had not where to lay Your
head, and yet You were Lord of All! My soul needs not to see You–she
loves You!
We believe, moreover, that as a Man there were beauties in His
Character of such a sort that it must have been impossible,
spiritually, to appreciate them without loving Him. Now we never saw
Him when He forgave His enemies, when He answered meekly those who
railed at Him. We never saw Him in all His splendid life of
disinterested philanthropy, nor do we regret that we did not. But when
we read the story of His life, our heart pictures Him who went about
doing good–and falling adoringly by faith at His feet, we say–Such a
character is lovely! Such a Person commands our hearts! And though we
have not seen Him, yet the mental sight of His portrait as it is drawn
by those four master artists, the Evangelists, wins our affections and
holds our souls fast.
It is true, too, that we never saw the Redeemer's grief. We never
peered into that face, more marred than that of any man. We did not see
Him in the garden in His agony, nor behold Him upon the Cross when the
cry of, "Lama Sabacthani!" startled Heaven and earth. But we have mused
upon all, and with the spirit's eye have seen all. We need no great
strength of imagination to think of Him until Ecce Homo–"Behold the
Man!"–rings as clear from the page of Scripture as though it came from
Pilate himself.
We have realized, by meditation, the scars upon His back where the
plowers made deep furrows. We have thought upon the crown of thorns and
marked the ruby drops. We have considered Him staggering beneath His
Cross along the Via Dolorosa. We have marked Him as His hands and feet
were pierced. We have counted the purple drops and said, "Thus our sins
were washed away." And though we have not seen Him, we do not need
sight to make us love Him, for the very thought of Him–the
contemplation of His intense agony for us who were His
enemies–constrains us to love Him. We are fastened to that Cross
forever, crucified with Him–the nails which fasten us being the mighty
love He bore us.
Now, Beloved, though we never saw Him dead and did not handle that
sorely marred but blessed Body–that casket for awhile deprived of its
inestimable jewel, His sinless soul–yet when we think of Him as lying
in the cold prison of the tomb, embalmed in spices, we cannot but shed
tears which are only wiped away by the glorious truth of His
Resurrection! So all the story through we feel that in each one of the
positions the Savior commands from us as much love as if we had been
present there to see Him.
No, perhaps the sight might have produced too much astonishment, if not
terror, to have permitted us to indulge with freedom the holy passion
of consecrated love. Possibly we might have been so amazed,
astounded–perhaps even alarmed when we saw the circumstances which
surrounded the Master's grief–that we might have forgotten Him in His
surroundings. But now we can sit alone in our little upper room, or
beneath some silent shade in the calm retreat which so well agrees with
prayer and praise–and there, all alone and quiet–we can bring the
Savior before our mind and feel that we love Him.
Now, my dear Hearer, I think you will see that this, although it does
not seem to be so real a contact as touching Him, is truly, if you
think of it, more real. I may see things and yet not truly perceive
them. You may travel through a country without understanding it. You
see a thousand things in daily life which do not sufficiently catch
your mind for you really to grasp them. But here is a case in which,
without the exercise of sight, it is quite plainly within the range of
our ability to get the very soul, and heart, and essence of the entire
matter. And after all, it is not the seeing–that must ever be
external–it is the thinking upon the thing, the understanding, the
being affected with it which is the real point of contact.
So, love to Christ becomes as real a means of union, as strong a bond
to bind as ever sight and touch could be, and infinitely more so. You
may touch without realizing, but you cannot love a fiction, you cannot
love a myth. Love makes the Savior real to the heart. When I preach
sometimes, and my love is cold, and my zeal is flagging, I talk about
the Master as though He were but an historical person, someone that had
lived and gone. But when my heart is warm towards Him! Then I talk of
Him as though He were in the pulpit with me! As though I could see Him!
As though you, too, could see Him! As though I was speaking of our own
familiar Friend who was here in the midst of us!
Beloved, every spiritual mind knows, and I need not remind him of it,
that love realizes Christ and thus the contact which love makes between
Christ and the soul is more real than any which the hands or the eyes
could form.
But the text tells us of another point of contact–"Though now you do
not see Him, yet believing." We are again reminded here that we do not
see, but we are assured of the possibility of believing in Him without
sight. I must take you again to the Savior's life. Beloved, we did not
see Him die–that terrible misery, that fearful ignominy we never did
behold. We did not sit still during the three hours of black darkness
which covered all the land! We did not hear Him say, "I thirst," nor
mark them as they thrust the sponge full of vinegar up to His blessed
lips! But we have believed on Him.
Ah, have I not, by faith, made real to myself the Savior on the Cross?
Have I not, by faith, seen Him and cast myself there and said, "Ah,
Lord, I trust my whole eternity with You? My soul, my spirit, my body,
everything that is mine trusts in You." I know, and you know who have
believed Him, that you could not, if you saw Him, trust Him more really
than you do now. His death is the unsupported pillar of your confidence
and the sole foundation of your hope. In Christ you have believed, and
you know that your sins are forgiven, that His righteousness is imputed
to you, and that you stand accepted in the Beloved.
This is not to you a matter of hope–it is a matter of firm conviction.
If you perish you will perish at the foot of the Cross. But you are
convinced you will never perish there. You have not seen, but you have
believed. As to His Resurrection, also, you did not see Him when He
rose early in the morning from the tomb and the watchmen in terror fled
far away. But you have believed in Him as risen. Have you not thus
believed? We are persuaded that Jesus lives and we derive consolation
from the fact. We believe concerning Him that death has no more
dominion over Him. Immortal, He cannot die again. The lamb of the
Jewish Passover was slain every year, but He, our Lamb, lives no more
to die for He has accomplished the work of His death and now lives to
carry on the work of His great after-life.
We trust Him! Why not? What more reason for trust could I have if I had
seen Him rise than I have now, when I believe the fact? I cast myself
upon the Truth of God that my Lord is risen! I believe that because He
lives I shall also live! And it is possible to believe this as firmly
as though we saw it! Beloved, at this moment Christ is in Heaven
pleading for us! We cannot see the ephod and the breastplate. We cannot
hear the tones of majestic love in which our great High Priest pleads
before His Father's Throne! But we believe that He intercedes
successfully for us.
We choose Him to be our Advocate in every case of sore distress, in
every case of grievous sin! We believe that because He is at the
Father's right hand He is able to save unto the uttermost them that
come unto God by Him and we leave our suit with Him in perfect
confidence. Believing in Jesus brings us into as real a contact with
Him as seeing Him could possibly produce, for you cannot believe in
what you think to be fiction. You cannot trust your soul and your best
and most weighty interests with a mere myth. Your faith must be
convinced of Christ and must have had communion with Him, or else it
would not be faith at all! So you see, dear Friends, both love and
faith are two clear points of contact. These are the two bonds which
unite us to the Savior.
While some go about teaching that there is a connection with Jesus
brought about by infant sprinkling and by confirmation–by what certain
gentlemen are pleased to call "the blessed Sacraments"–we solemnly
testify in the name of Him that lives and was dead, that the true way
of coming to Jesus lies in faith and love. And without these you may
baptize and confirm and give sacraments ad nauseam–but you have not
approached the Lord! The true Christ is not there at the font, nor
there with the lawn sleeve, nor there at the altar, nor with your
acolytes and other performers–He is to be found where the heart longs
after Him, where the soul trusts Him, where the spirit loves Him. Even
the two Scriptural ordinances are but in the outer court and are
nothing of themselves. The true keepers of the door of Jesus' house are
faith and love.
I read the other day of a certain renovated Puseyite synagogue having a
path up to it called the Via Crucis. I must confess to having had but
slender acquaintance with the play-things and nursery games of that
sect. I have no idea of what is meant by their Via Crucis, but this I
know, the true Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, is to believe and to
love. We were told not long ago by an Anglican priest that the history
of the spiritual life was portrayed in the edifice in which he
officiated. He began with regeneration in the font, and led his hearers
by easy stages till he perfected them in the chancel or up in the
steeple, I cannot remember which!
All that may sound very pretty–I think it shamelessly immature! To me
it looks like a return to the absurd superstitions of the Dark Ages. I
have no more reverence for their genuflections, performances, and
theatrics than for the incantations of an old hag who pretends to be a
witch! There is nothing manly, much less Divine, in the new-fangled
Romanism! God's religion is spiritual– theirs is carnal and sensuous.
"The day comes, and now is, when they that worship the Father must
worship Him in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to
worship Him."
For spiritual men there is not needed incense, banners, wide-sleeved
garments, or crosses, nor any external thing– only the mental action
of the inward nature exercised upon the Lord Jesus in love and trust.
How simple this is! There is a story told of a certain farmer in France
who, in the days of bad farming, produced wonderful crops from his
ground. All his neighbors believed him to be addicted to witchcraft and
when they summoned him for the practice of it, he brought up before the
court his two sturdy lads, his oxen, and his plows. He said, "These are
the implements of my witchcraft! I simply work hard."
Now I fear there are many who, if asked what is the way of their coming
into union with Christ, have all sorts of mysterious, laborious
inventions. But we bring before you nothing but just these–trust and
love! These are the instruments of our religion. Like the Apostles, we
need no wagon to carry with us our altar, our vestments and other
paraphernalia–we preach the Gospel and exhort men to faith and
love–we have no need of drapery, architecture, rubrics and ceremonies.
Trust and love! These two things brining the spirit into contact with
the Lord Jesus Christ! And we are prepared against all the world to
hold these two things and believe that were those other things to fail,
and turn out to be a delusion and a lie, these will succeed to the
salvation of the soul. "Whom having not seen you love. Though now you
do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice."
Still, the point is that carnal people will imagine that if there could
be something to touch or smell they should get on, but mere believing
and loving are too hard for them. Yet such thought is not reasonable
and I can show you why. Occasionally one meets with an illiterate
working man who will say to those whose occupation is mental, "I work
hard for my living," insinuating that the mind-worker does not work at
all. Yet I ask any man who is engaged in a mental pursuit whether he
does not know that mental work is quite as real work–and some of us
think more so–as working with your hands. The thing is mental, but is
none the less real.
An illiterate man cannot see that it is work, but he who is capable of
mental labor soon feels the reality of it. Just transfer that thought.
Coming into contact with Christ by touch looks to most people to be
most real because their animal nature is uppermost. Coming into contact
with Jesus by the spirit seems to them to be unreal only because they
know nothing of spiritual things. Thoughtless persons think that mental
pain is nothing. Mere animal men will often say, "I can understand the
headache, I can understand the pain of having a leg cut off." But the
pain of injured affection, or of receiving ingratitude from a trusted
friend–this is by the rough mind thought to be no pain at all. "Oh,"
he says, "I could put up with that."
But I ask you who have minds, Is there any pain more real than mental
pain? Is it not the sharpest when the iron enters into the soul? Just
so the mental operation–for it is a mental operation–of coming into
contact with Christ by loving Him and trusting Him is the most real
thing in all the world! And no one will think it unreal who has once
exercised it. So then, poor seeking Sinner, it comes to this–you have
not to go anywhere, or say anything, or do anything–but, sitting where
you are, if you can trust the Son of God with your soul, if you can
love the altogether Lovely One, the thing is done!
There is life in a look, we often say, but this is the kind of
look–the look is loving and trusting–they go together, they are born
at the same time. We love those we trust, and we trust those we love,
and if you love and trust Jesus you are saved.
II. I must have your patient attention to the second part of the
subject–WHAT VIRTUE IS THIS WHICH FLOWS FROM HIM? When a soul has
touched Him by love and faith, what virtue comes? The Apostle answers,
"Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet
believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." The
first result of trusting and loving Christ is joy, and joy of a most
singular, remarkable kind. It is far above all common joy. It is spoken
of as "inexpressible"–"joy inexpressible."
Now earth-born joys can be told to the full. One man can tell his joy
to his fellow and his fellow understands, for he is earth-born, too.
But spirit-born joys cannot be told because we have not yet received a
spiritual language. I suppose that is the language reserved for Heaven
where spiritual minds shall talk to spiritual minds without being
confined to the poor poverty-stricken words of earth so necessary to us
while yet in the body. The joy is inexpressible because you cannot
possibly describe its true essence. If a man should try to tell all
spiritual joys to his fellow he would feel silenced like Paul, and feel
that he had heard things which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Holy Rutherford, in his letters, has gone far to picture to us what the
Christian's joy is, and so has Solomon in the Book of the Song. But
carnal men cannot comprehend Rutherford, and as to the Canticles, there
is no book in the Bible which staggers a worldling so much as the Song.
He says, "Oh, it is a mere love tale." Of course it is to you, O carnal
Reader, but the reason is in yourself. It was not possible for Solomon
to put into language the experience of Divine Love, except by the use
of metaphors. He had to describe love as we have to describe God,
speaking after the manner of men, and so he must speak after a natural
sort and therefore the golden Canticle looks as if it were an earthly
nuptial ode, whereas it is so high that the uninstructed cannot attain
to it.
The joy of Believers is unspeakable because there is no telling it.
Earthly joy is often exaggerated. You can describe it in words too
flatteringly expressive, but you cannot act thus with a Christian's
joy. His joy is one that speaks better through his eyes than his lips!
It makes his countenance glow with delight. I have seen men's faces lit
up with Heaven's sunlight when the joy of the Lord has been shed abroad
in their hearts. The very people who a day ago looked dull and heavy
look as if they could dance for mirth because they have found the
Savior and their soul is at peace through Him.
The Apostle adds that it is full of glory. Many sensual joys are full
of shame–a man with a conscience dares not tell them to his fellows.
The joys of sense are oftentimes unfit to be whispered in the dark, and
the joys of the world are mostly too selfish to be boasted of. The joy
of making money is not full of glory, nor is the joy of killing one's
fellows in battle. There is no joy like that of the Christian, for he
dares to speak of it everywhere, in every company. We will tell the
devils in Hell that we are not ashamed to glory in the Cross and we
will tell unbelievers upon earth the same!
We will dare to say it to the teeth of the worst of men that we have a
joy they know nothing about. And in Heaven we shall not be ashamed to
tell to principalities and powers of those draughts of love which we
have been made to drink from the well of Christ Jesus–in whom, though
now we see Him not–yet believing, we rejoice with joy inexpressible
and full of glory! Why is this joy of the Christian so inexpressible
and full of glory? I think it is because it is so altogether Divine. It
is God's own joy! It is Christ's own joy! Can you guess what the joy of
God is? No, perhaps not–but every Christian has within himself a
portion of the joy of God, for God joys in Christ and glorifies Himself
in Jesus–and so do we, also, joy and glory in Him whom having not
seen, we love.
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, it is for you to prove to
the world by your daily walk and conversation that it is so! For my own
part, I will bear my own personal witness that I never knew the meaning
of that little word "joy" till I knew Christ. I knew the childish glee
of boyhood. I understand, alas, something of the frothy joy upon the
cup of sin, but let me say–I am speaking to those of my own age
especially–if I had to die like a dog and there was no hereafter. If I
had nothing for my faith but the happiness which it yields me in this
life, I would be a Christian sooner than I would be any conceivable
form of existence.
I would sooner be a believer in Jesus in the depth of poverty, racked
with bodily suffering and oppressed with the greatest possible
persecution, than I would be without faith in Christ! I would rather be
a believer in Christ Jesus than have the noblest possible position with
the greatest possible earthly enjoyments–for there is nothing at all
like the joy inexpressible and full of glory! Sometimes, when it is
flood-tide with us, our joy is so great that we think we shall die–
our joy is too strong for our frail body! And even when it is ebb-tide
with us, yet we have a peace of God which passes all understanding–a
peace which the world cannot give, and which, thank God–it cannot,
cannot take away!
Now, Brethren, many of you know this, and you know also that this joy
inexpressible and full of glory is not dependent upon circumstances.
You have had great success–this joy inexpressible and full of glory
was not increased by that success–you rather trembled lest you should
sin through being in high places. And you who have had great
trouble–this joy inexpressible has not been diminished by it. You have
felt that God was with you and that all things would work together for
your good! You have wept over your children when they have died–a
mother's grief has filled the eyes with tears–but still the joy
inexpressible has cheered the heart.
You have lost property and been wrongfully despoiled of reputation, but
the joy inexpressible has been unaffected by all this. You have done
with your crown jewels what many of the princes on the Continent have
done with theirs–you have sent them where they are safe–you have put
your treasure in the better land on the other side of Jordan, in the
islands of the blessed, in the land of the hereafter where Jesus is.
The Apostle mentions another blessing received by loving and trusting
Christ. He says, "receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls."
Every man who trusts and loves Christ is saved. The common idea is that
perhaps we shall get saved when we die. I know nothing of such a
salvation! True salvation saves NOW. The Apostle, when he writes to
Believers, always speaks to them as persons who are saved, not who
shall be, but are. When salvation is once done, it is done forever! If
you are saved, you are saved–you will be never lost. Those who trust
Jesus and love Him are saved. But it will be said, "How is that a
matter of fact?"
Well, it is a matter of fact two ways. First, they are conscious that
they are saved from the guilt of sin. Of this they are conscious in
themselves. The guilt of sin, when it is on a man's conscience, is
unmistakably there, for it weighs him down to such an extent that he
cannot doubt it. Well do some of us recollect when we could not even
sleep by night much less have comfort by day because sin was on our
conscience. We wished sometimes, as John Bunyan says, that we had been
made frogs or snakes rather than men, for sin on the conscience makes
manhood odious and life itself undesirable. But when we believed and
loved Jesus we knew that our guilt was taken off the conscience.
You say, "How did you know?" We knew just as we knew when it was on. If
a man has a burden on his back, even though he has no eyes, he can feel
it. And as soon as it is gone, though he has no eyes he can feel that
it is removed. So was it with us–when we believed in Jesus, our sin
was all gone! Our feelings were altogether different from what they
were–
"Now, oh joy my sin is pardoned, Now I can and do believe."
We began to sing for very joy of heart! The removal of guilt is no
fiction. It will be said it is a mere brain-sick enthusiasm. Have you
ever tried it? If you have not, you are not fit to judge about it! But
if you have experienced it you will say of it, "Oh if it is enthusiasm,
blessed enthusiasm! Let me never be rid of it! If this is a dream it is
so Divine that it should be true!" When we trusted Jesus, though we
used no forms and ceremonies, we received the salvation of our souls!
Here is a point more tangible still–they who trust and love Christ are
saved from the power of sin–and this is a practical point to be seen
even by the eye.
For instance, a man with a horrid temper–almost insane from his
anger–was led to trust Jesus and to love Him. There may be traces of
that old temper in the man still, but I will defy you to find a gentler
or more patient soul than he is now! That same man whose fist was so
soon doubled and whose eye so rapidly flashed fire will now hear a vast
amount of teasing and look on and feel, "If I were what I once was I
would join in this row, but now I pity and forgive." I can picture you
another. There was a man who spent every night in the beer house or in
worse places. His house was a Hell– his wife and family afraid to see
him–the man a drunkard, a fornicator and everything that was foul. But
he came to believe and trust Christ.
Now it is a matter of fact that he is a new man through believing. Ask
his wife and she says, "Never was there such a change! Our home is
happy, our children happy! We have happy mornings and evenings for my
husband prays! That is not all, Sir–my husband is such a
heavenly-minded man that you could no more believe him to be the same
man than you could believe that a lamb was once a lion." Ah, the man
has received the salvation of his soul! How did he receive it? Did we
baptize a new heart into him? Did we confirm him into morality? Did we
perfume him, intone him and confess him into holiness? No! No! He
trusts Jesus and loves Him, and all is done! He received the salvation
of his soul by these simple means.
Now every man who has trusted and loved Jesus becomes a living witness
to this. The vital power of religion is perceived by each man in
himself. If you have a faith which has left you what you used to be,
throw your faith to the dogs! If you have a faith in Christ which does
not make you desire holiness it is a delusion that will drag you to the
bottomless pit! Only the faith that works by love and purifies the soul
is genuine. True trust in Jesus and love to Him always does this–it
makes the man receive the salvation of his soul from the enslavement of
his baser powers, delivers him from the dominion of Satan and of sin
and he becomes at once a sinner saved by Divine Grace–and all this by
the two points of contact you cannot see–trusting and believing.
III. I must not stop longer, but finish by a few words upon the third
point. WHAT FOLLOWS, THEN, FROM THE
WHOLE OF THIS? It follows, in the first place, that a state of joy and
salvation is the fitting, proper, and expected condition of every
believer in Christ. If you are a believer in Jesus, and I see you
sorrowing, what must I say? I do not mean sorrowing as the effect of
mere Providential arrangements–of course we sorrow as other men–and
Jesus wept. I mean this–if I see you constantly without joy
inexpressible–if I mark that all your joy and hope are gone, what must
I say?
I begin to doubt whether you can be a Believer. And if I may not raise
that question, and if it is certain that you have faith and love to
Christ, I must say to you, my dear Friend, that you have suspended
their action and therefore you have suspended the enjoyment of their
result. Go back again to where you were! Go and stand at the foot of
the Cross and trust Christ and love Him–and your joy will return. I am
sure it will. I have tried it–I have tried it hundreds of times! I am
unbelieving by constitution, frequently desponding, very often
depressed. But I have never been in the depths of despondency without
almost immediately coming up from them as soon as ever I have thought
of Him, and my soul has rested upon Him and leaned on Him.
There is another inference to be drawn from my subject, and that is to
the seeking soul. If you want comfort this morning, go to Christ. But I
have here the old answer again–I have heard it scores of times–"Sir,
you say come to
Christ. How can I come? If Jesus Christ were at New York I should know
how to get at Him. I should understand what He meant by 'come.' If
there were some appointed place in London where every soul might go, I
could understand it." Yes, that is to say, you could understand the
mere carnal act of coming. But this coming is a spiritual thing and it
is just as real as if it were carnal. You come to Christ by thinking of
Him, trusting Him, and loving Him though you have not seen Him.
I say, then, come to Christ! Trust Him and love Him! And whatever your
infirmities and spiritual difficulties, you shall get over them
all–for if Christ undertakes to get you through them He will do it. He
is mighty to save! But you say, "I cannot believe, 'Faith is the gift
of God.' " I know it is, but perhaps you have it already. Dead men
cannot believe, but the quickened can. The Son of God bleeds for
sinners! The Son of God, on the tree, offers an Atonement for human
sin! Can you trust Him? You answer, "I do trust Him." Then you not only
have the power to do it, but you are doing it!
If you are convinced that Jesus is able to save you, and are willing to
trust Him, you certainly can trust Him for inability lies in the will,
and as your will is now right, all your inability is gone. The power
which the Holy Spirit gives is spiritual–a power which removes our
natural opposition to Jesus–and when this is removed the power is
given! If you do now trust Christ, fall before Him and say, "Savior,
God, deliver me! By Your life and by Your death. By Your griefs and
passion. By Your resurrection and Your pleading at Your Father's
Throne, deliver me! I trust You to deliver me. I cast myself upon You!"
If you do this you are saved–you are saved now–you have no sin in
God's book. Every sin is blotted out and therefore being justified by
faith, you shall have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But
you reply, "My sins are very great." Yes, but however great your sin it
matters not. The same hand which can receipt a little bill can receipt
a great one–it takes no more when the money is paid. Christ has paid
all the debts of those that trust Him and He can readily forgive you.
"Come now and let us reason together, said the Lord. Though your sins
are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red
like crimson, they shall be as wool." "Yes, but," says another, "it is
my propensity to sin that I am afraid of. How shall I ever break the
neck of my corruptions?"
You will never do it, but He will! Do you not remember that when they
pierced His side there flowed blood–that was for pardon. And there
flowed water–what was that for? That was for cleansing. He will be
sin's double cure. Is it some sin or some lust that you would conquer,
or an angry disposition? Take it to Him! Those vipers die at the sight
of Christ! There is no form of sinfulness to which you are captive
which Christ cannot remove! You must give them up. Remember there is no
going to Heaven and keeping your sins–you must give them all up. But
then you are not to give them up in your own strength. You shall
receive a strength which shall make you more than a man–you shall be a
man with God living in you–for the Holy Spirit dwells in us! We are
temples of God.
When God dwells in the temple He can purge out a great deal which we
cannot purge out. He can make us clean though otherwise we must have
remained impure. "Still," says another, "I have such a need of
tenderness this morning. I have not thought about these things. I have
lived a careless giddy life–must I not give some week or month or two
to the consideration of these things–and then come to Christ? Must I
not go home and humble myself before God and then believe and love?"
My dear Hearer, do what you will after trusting, but trusting is the
immediate remedy this morning! Now is the accepted time! Now is the day
of salvation! May you and I come to trust and love–and we shall soon
prove to ourselves, if we cannot prove it to others–that there is a
power and vitality in faith and love not to be found in all the
performances of the priests who are laboring to bring our nation back
to the midnight of Romanism!