Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
'For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him
that hath no helper.''Psalm 72:12.
THIS IS A ROYAL PSALM. In it you see predictions of Christ, not upon
the cross, but upon the throne. In reference to his manhood as well as
to his godhead, he is exalted and extolled and very high. He is the
king'the king's son, truly with absolute sway, stretching his scepter
from sea to sea, and 'from the river even unto the ends of the earth.'
It is remarkable that in this psalm which so fully celebrates the
extent of his realm and the sovereignty of his government, there is so
much attention drawn to the minuteness of his care for the lowly, his
personal sympathy with the poor, and the large benefits they are to
enjoy from his kingdom. Where Christ is highest and we are lowest, and
the two meet, there is 'glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, goodwill towards men.' I might almost raise the question whether
this psalm is more a tribute of homage to the Messiah, or a treasury of
comfort for his poor subjects. We will compound the controversy by
saying that as Christ here is highly exalted, so his poor needy ones
are highly blessed, and while it is a blessing to them that he is
exalted, it is an exaltation to him that they are blessed.
Turning to our text without further preface, we shall note in it the
special objects of great grace. 'He shall deliver the needy when he
crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper;' then, the special
blessings which are allotted to them. Here it is said that he shall
deliver them, but all through the psalms there are scattered promises
full of instruction and consolation all meant for them. And, lastly,
the special season which God has appointed for the dispensing of these
favors. 'He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.' That shall be
God's time. When it is our time to cry, it shall be God's time to
deliver.
I. First, then, notice THE SPECIAL OBJECTS OF GREAT GRACE. There is a
three-fold description'they are needy, they are poor, they have no
helper.
They are needy. In this they are like all the sons of men. We begin
life in a needy state. We are full of needs in our infancy, and cannot
help ourselves. We continue throughout life in a needy state. The very
breath in our nostrils hath to be the gift of God's goodness. In him we
live, and move, and have our being. And, as we grow old our needs
become even more apparent. The staff on which we lean reveals to us our
needs, and our infirmities all tell us what needy creatures we are. We
need temporal things and we need spiritual things. Our body needs, our
soul needs, our spirit needs. We need to be kept from evil; we need to
be led into the paths of righteousness; we need on the outset that
grace should be implanted; when implanted, we need that it be nurtured;
when nurtured, we need that it be perfected and made to bring forth
fruit. We are never a moment without need. We wake up, and our first
glance might reveal our needs to us, and when we fall asleep it is upon
a poor man's pillow, for we need that God should preserve us through
the night. We have needs when we are on our knees, else where would be
the energy of our prayers? We have needs when we try to sing, else how
should our uncircumcised lips praise him aright? We have needs when we
are relieving the needs of others, lest we become proud of our
almsgiving. We have need in preaching, need in hearing; we have need in
working, need in suffering, need in resting. What is our life but one
long need? All men are full of needs. But God's peculiar people feel
this need'they not only confess it is so, but they know it
experimentally. They are full of needs. Once they thought that they
were rich and increased in goods, and had need of nothing, but now,
through the enlightenment of God's Spirit, they feel themselves to be
naked, and poor, and miserable. Their needs were great before, but they
appear now to be incalculable, more in number than the hairs of their
heads. They have need of a covering for the sin of the past; they have
need of help against the temptation of the present; they have need of
perseverance as to the entire future. If there are any people under
heaven who could claim the title of 'needy,' above all others, it is
not the pauper in the workhouse, nor the mendicant who asks alms in the
streets, but it is the child of God, for he feels himself to be so
dependent that the more he gets from his great Benefactor the more he
requires, and the more he must have to satisfy the enlarged desires of
a heart that begins to know the will of God concerning us. Our needs
are great and constant.
The second description given is that he is poor''the poor also.' A man
might be needy, and be able to supply his own need. As fast as his
needs arose, he might have sufficient wealth to be able to procure what
he wanted. I speak merely of his temporal wants. But, with regard to us
in spiritual things, we are not only needy, but we are poor to utter
destitution'there is nothing within our reach that we can help
ourselves with. We have need of water for our thirst, but nature's
buckets are empty, and her cisterns are broken. We have need of bread,
but nature's granary is bare. Like the prodigal son in a far off
country, there is a famine, a mighty famine, in that land, and we are
in want. We have need of clothing; we have found that we are naked, and
we are ashamed, but our fig leaves will not serve us, and we are too
poor to buy a garment for ourselves. We are so poor that when a want
comes it only shows us how empty the treasury is; and every want while
it draws upon us meets with no fitting response; there is nothing,
nothing, nothing, in human nature at its very best, that can keep pace
with its own needs. Speak of self-reliance!''tis well enough in matters
of the world, but self-reliance is absolutely madness in the things of
God. We have heard of self-made men, but if any man would enter heaven,
he must be a God-made man from first to last, for all that can come out
of human nature will still be defiled. The stream shall never mount
higher than the fountain-head, and the fountain-head of human nature is
pollution, total depravity. It cannot rise higher than that, let it do
its best. We are very needy, and very poor. If there be any poor in all
the world, who have tasted the bitter ingredients of this cup of
sorrow, it is God's people. We are very needy and very poor, though we
did not always think so. When the discovery was first made to us, we
felt the smart as those do 'who have seen better days.' Once we fancied
ourselves able to do our work and sure to get our wages; we did hope to
merit a reward for our good conduct; and we thought it was only for us
to add a little piety to our decent morals in order to be well pleasing
to God and our own conscience. Ah, sirs! when we woke from these
foolish dreams, and faced our own abject poverty, how ashamed we were;
how we shunned the light; how we sat alone and avoided company; how
fear preyed on our heart; with what anguish we chattered to ourselves,
saying, 'What shall I do? What shall I do?' Poor indeed we are and we
know it.
Moreover, it is said they have no helper. Now, until God enlightens us,
we seem to have a great many helpers. We fancy'perhaps we once
fancied'that a priest could save us. If we have a grain of grace we
have given up that idea. Perhaps we imagined that our parents would
help us, that our godly ancestry might stand us in some stead:'but we
have long ago been brought to the conviction that we must each stand
personally before God, for only personal religion is of any value. At
one time we placed some dependence upon the ministry we attended, and
hoped that in some favored hour that ministry might be of use to us;
but, if God has awakened us, we look higher than pulpits and preachers
now. Our eyes are up towards the hills whence cometh our help, and as
to all earthly things, we see no help in them. 'Cursed is he that
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.' 'He shall be like the heath
in the desert'he shall not see when good cometh.' The Lord grant us all
to be reduced to this'that we have no helper, because when we have no
helper here, he will become our helper and our salvation. Put the three
words together and you have a very correct description of the awakened
people of God'needy, poor, and having no helper.
We have felt this, beloved, very keenly some of us just before we
looked to Christ. Oh! we can remember now when we wanted to have our
sins forgiven us, we would have given all we had if we could but have
found mercy;'we were full of needs. We turned all our good works over,
but they had all become mouldy and worm-eaten, and they stank in our
nostrils. We tried our prayers. We used to fancy if we began to pray
earnestly it would all be well with us, but alas! alas! we found our
prayers to be poor comforts'broken reeds. We looked all around us, and
we could get no consolation. Even Scripture did not seem to cheer us;
the very promises seemed to shut their doors against us. We had no
helper. Oh, do you remember then when you cried to God in your trouble,
and he delivered you? I know you verified the truth of the promise in
our text, 'He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.'
Since that time, we have been equally needy; we have been making fresh
proof of our indigence; and getting into straits from which we could by
no means extricate ourselves. Indeed, when a Christian is richest in
grace he is poorest in himself. The way to grow rich in grace is to
feel your poverty. Whenever you think you have stored up a little
strength, a little comfort, a little provision against a rainy day, you
are pretty sure to have the trouble you bargained for, and to miss the
resources you counted on. Estimate your true wealth before God by your
entire dependence on him. The more you have, the less you have, and the
less you have, the more you have. When you have nothing at all in
yourself, then Christ is all in all to you. The perpetual condition of
every child of God in himself is that of a needy and a poor and a
helpless one'on the high mountains with his Lord, rejoicing in his
love, yet is he even there in himself less than nothing and
vanity'still poor and needy.
There have been times when we felt this very powerfully, perhaps, very
painfully. Has Satan ever beset you, my brethren, with his fierce
temptations? No doubt many of you have had to feel the ferocity of his
attacks. Perhaps, blasphemous thoughts have been injected into your
mind'dark forebodings, such as these, 'God has forsaken me.' Perhaps,
he has said, 'He has sinned himself out of the covenant'he is a
castaway,' and your poor little faith has tried to hold on to Christ,
but it seemed as if she must be driven from her hold. While others
found it as you thought easy to get to heaven, you realised the truth
of the text''The righteous scarcely are saved.' You have had to fight
for every inch of ground, and it seemed to you often as though you had
not a spark of grace in you, not a ray of hope, and not so much as a
single grain of the grace of God within your heart. Ah! and at such
times you have been poor and needy, and you have had no helper. And,
perhaps, at such seasons, too, temporal trouble may have come in.
Whoever may go through the world without trouble, God's people never
do.
'The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the place where sorrow is unknown.'
'In the world ye shall have tribulation' is as sure a promise as that
other, 'In me ye shall have peace.' The trials of God's servants are
sometimes extremely severe. Not a few are literally as well as
spiritually poor. Hunger, privation, and embarrassment haunt their
steps. And when you once come to be poor, how often does it happen that
you have no helper. In the summer of prosperity your friends and
acquaintances are numerous as the leaves of the forest, but in the
winter of your losses and distresses, your friends are few indeed; your
neighbors stand aloof, your old mates desert you, for like the wind
your trials have borne them all away as sere leaves, and you cannot
find them.
But, do not think that the Lord has cast you off, because he is thus
chastening you with the rod of men; take it as an exercise of your
faith, and go to him and plead this promise, 'He shall deliver the
needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.'
Thus I have set before you the character of God's especial objects of
sovereign grace; they are poor and needy spiritually. Do you ask why is
it that God selects these? Our first answer is, he giveth no account of
his matters; he doeth as he will. He is a sovereign; who shall say unto
him, 'What doest thou?' And, in order that he may make that sovereignty
clear to the sons of men, he is pleased to select those whom naturally
we might expect him to pass by. Did not Jesus lift his eyes to heaven
full of gratitude and say, 'I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good
in thy sight.' Not many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are
chosen, but God hath chosen the poor of this world, he hath chosen the
things that are despised, (and as the Apostle puts it) 'Things that are
not hath God chosen to bring to nought the things that are, that no
flesh should glory in his presence.' When the chariot of the Eternal
comes from above, he bids it roll far downward from the skies; he
passes by the towers of haughty kings; he leaves the palaces of princes
and the halls of senates, and down to the hovels of cottagers the
chariot of his grace descends, for there he sees with joy and delight
the objects of his everlasting love. 'I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,'
is the word of divine sovereignty, and God makes it true by taking the
poor and the needy, and them that have no helper.
Still, if we may enquire into the reason, we see in the poor, and the
needy, and the helpless, a reason for God's grace. They are the persons
who are most willing to accept it, for they are the persons who most
require it. Your generosity will not stand to be dictated to, but, at
the same time, you usually prefer to give to those who want most. Wise
mercy seeks out chief misery, and God therefore delights to give his
blessings to those who need them most, not to those who fancy they
deserve them'they shall have none of them, but those who need them,
they shall have all of them.
When a soul is made to feel its own poverty, it does not set itself up
in rivalry with Christ; it does not pretend to be able to help itself;
it has no disputing about the terms of the gospel. A sinner, when he is
thoroughly famished, has such an appetite that he eats such things as
God's mercy sets before him, and he raises no question. A proud
Pharisee will say, 'I will not submit to this, to be saved by faith
alone'I will not have it. To accept mercy as the absolute gift of
heaven, irrespective of my character, I cannot endure it.' The high
soul of a Pharisee, I say, kicks at it. But when God has brought a man
low, till like the publican he cries, 'God be merciful to me a sinner,'
he is glad to be saved in God's way, and no matter however humbling the
plan of grace, nor how the sinner is debased and Christ exalted, the
poor sinner loves to have it so. It is a way suitable to his own wants,
a way which he accepts for the very reason that God has adapted it to
his position. Hence, if there be reasons they lie here, not in man's
merit but on the Lord's mercy. The fact that bare misery, when touched
and guided by the Spirit of God, makes the soul to open its mouth like
the hard chapped soil to drink in the rain, as soon as the rain
descends from above, is an argument why grace so commonly flows in this
course.
In choosing to bless the poor and needy by his grace, the Lord finds
for himself warm friends, those who will give him much praise, contend
earnestly for his reign and for his sovereignty, and endure much
obloquy for very love to his dear name. Why if the Lord were to save
the Pharisees, they would hardly say, 'thank you,' they are so good
themselves. They reckon themselves to be so excellent, that if they had
salvation they would take it as a matter of course, and, like the
lepers, they would never return to thank him that healed them. But when
the Lord saves a great sinner, a man that feels there is nothing good
in him; oh, how that man talks of it and tells it to others. He cannot
take any praise to himself, he knows that he had nothing to do with it,
that it is all of the grace of God. And, oh, see that man how he will
stand up for the doctrines of grace! He is as the valiant men in
Solomon's song, 'each man with a sword on his thigh because of fear in
the night;' for the doctrines of grace are not to him matters of
opinion, but matters of experience. They are dear to him as his own
life. 'What,' says he, 'is not God the giver of salvation? Is not
salvation all of God, from first to last? I know it is,' saith he.
'Don't tell me. Whatever your arguments, however smooth may be the form
and fashion of your theology, it does not tally with what I have tasted
and handled and felt; for unless it is grace from first to last, I am a
lost man; and, if I be indeed a child of God, then can I contend for
the doctrines of grace, and will do till I die.' I know I felt myself
last Sunday night, after I had talked to you about the difficulties of
salvation, that if ever I got to heaven, I would praise and bless God
with all my soul. I felt like that good old woman who said, that if the
Lord ever saved her he should never hear the last of it, for she would
tell it everywhere, and publish it abroad throughout all eternity, that
the Lord had done it, that he was a good and gracious God to have mercy
on such a soul as she was. Now, since one object of God in bestowing
his mercy is to glorify himself, he does wisely in bestowing his mercy
upon the poor and the needy, and such as have no helper. The Lord give
to you, my dear hearer, to be brought down to this tonight. I know many
of you have been brought there and are there now. Let my text encourage
and cheer you. Dear objects of Almighty love, he finds you on the
dunghill, but he lifts you from it. He finds you in the dust, but is
not this the song of Hannah and the song of Mary too''He hath put down
the mighty from their seat, and he hath exalted them of low degree: he
hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he hath sent
empty away?' It is God's way of dealing with the poor and lost; rejoice
at it, it is full of encouragement to you. But I say to any of you that
have never been humbled, good people, who have always been good people,
you that have always kept the law from your youth up, and gone to
church regularly, or to chapel regularly, very people'The Lord have
mercy upon you, and let you see that your goodness is filthiness, that
your righteousness is unrighteousness, and that the best that is in you
is bad, and that the bad that is in you that you have never seen as yet
will be your ruin, your eternal destruction, unless God set it before
your eyes, and bring you down to loathe yourself, and feel yourself to
be abominable in his sight, and abominable also in your own sight, when
his law comes with power home to your souls. Thus I have spoken upon
the special objects of divine grace.
II. Now, a few words upon THE SPECIAL BLESSING WHICH THE GREAT KING HAS
STORED UP FOR THESE PEOPLE. Kindly look at the second verse. 'He shall
judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment;' so
that one of the special blessings for God's poor is that they shall be
judged with judgment. Alas! they are often judged with harshness; or
they are judged in ignorance; or they are judged by malice'not judged
by righteousness, nor by judgment. When their enemies see them, they
say, 'These are a broken-spirited people; they are moping and
melancholy, wretched and sad.' Thus hard things are spoken against
them, and unkind stories are told of them. Sometimes they say they are
out of their minds, and then they will insinuate that they are only
hypocrites and pretenders. Slander is very busy with the children of
God. God had a Son that had no fault; but he never had a son that was
not found fault with. Ay, God himself was slandered in paradise by
Satan: let us not expect, therefore, to escape from the venomous
tongue.
One blessing, however, that will always come to God's needy ones is
this'Christ will right them, he will judge them with judgment. Are you
harshly spoken of at home? Don't be angry, don't provoke in return,
don't answer railing with railing. 'He shall judge his poor with
righteousness.' Leave it to him. Wait, wait, till the judgment sits,
for who are these that they should judge you? Their opinion, though it
is bitter as gall to your spirit, does not really affect your character
or your destiny. If you are right before the Lord, through faith in
Christ, they cannot make you wrong by anything they say. God judges and
God knows. 'He searcheth the heart and tries the reins.' You remember
how David, among his brethren, was much despised. He had not the
appearance and the carriage that his elder brethren had, and even
Samuel, the Lord's prophet, thought the others to be better than David,
and said of them, 'Surely the Lord hath chosen these.' David was
therefore despised of his brethren, but what mattered it? The Lord
looked not as man looks, for man looked upon the outward appearance,
but God looketh at the heart. Bide your time you that are one of a
family and alone. Or, if for Christ's sake you have been despised, have
courage to-night and let not your spirit be bowed down. 'Rejoice ye in
this day and leap for joy, for so persecuted they the prophets that
were before you.' The King will speedily come, and when he cometh then
will this word be verified. 'He shall judge his people with
righteousness and his poor with judgment.' There is one mercy for
you'to have your wrongs righted and your character cleared.
God's poor and needy ones, you will perceive, if you turn a little
further down, shall be saved from oppression. Fourth verse: 'He shall
judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy,
and shall break in pieces the oppressor.' The Lord's people are like
sheep among wolves, the wolves treat them injuriously. Christ himself
was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. His people
may expect to be oppressed too; but they have this for their comfort,
that Christ will surely deliver them, and he will break their
oppressors in pieces. Are you to-night oppressed by Satan? Have you
things laid to your charge by him that you know not of, and doth
conscience oppress you with the remembrance of sins which have been
forgiven? Have you ever believed concerning them in the atonement of
Christ? Well, bow your head meekly, and go to the mercy-seat once
again, pleading the precious blood, and he shall break in pieces the
oppressor. There is no answer for Satan like the blood! and there is no
answer for conscience but the blood. Plead it before God, plead it in
your own soul, and you shall find that the great and glorious King in
Zion shall, in your hearts, break in pieces the oppressor. There is
another special mercy, then'help against the oppressor.
The third blessing is that of our text: 'He shall deliver the needy.'
Deliver them! You are brought into great troubles; you shall be
delivered out of them. You are just now the subject of many fears: you
shall be delivered from your fears. It seems as though the enemy would
soon exult over you, and put his foot upon your neck, and make an end
of you; you shall be delivered. You are like a bird taken in the
fowler's net, and he is ready to wring your neck and take the breath
out of you; but you shall be delivered out of the hand of the fowler,
and brought safely through the perils that threaten you. Oh, that we
all had faith! Oh, that we all could exercise faith when in deep
waters. It is a fine thing to talk about faith on land, but we want
faith to swim with when we are thrown into the flood. May you, tonight,
get such a grip of this precious word that you may take it before the
Lord and say, 'I am poor and needy, and have no helper. O God, deliver
my soul now.'
But, we have not exhausted the string of blessings. A little further
down in the psalm, at the thirteenth verse, you will notice it is said
of the King: 'He shall spare the poor and needy.' If he lays heavily
upon them apparently, yet will he by-and-by stay his hand; if he bids
one of his rough winds blow, he will save the other. As he is said to
temper the wind to the shorn lamb, so will he certainly temper it to
his people; they shall be afflicted, but it shall be in measure; he
shall spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him: the rod
shall make them smart, but shall not make them bleed; they shall be
made to suffer, but they shall not be called to die. Perplexed, but not
in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; there shall always be a
gracious limit put to the blows that come from Jehovah's hand for his
own people. Oh, what a mercy to be amongst his poor ones, and to feel
that he will spare us; he spared not his own Son, but he will spare us,
the poor and needy; he smote him with the blows of avenging justice,
but concerning us it is written, 'The mountains shall depart, and the
hills be removed, but the covenant of my love shall not depart. As I
have sworn that the waters shall no more go over the earth; so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.' He wilt
spare his people; he will bring them safely through, and, meanwhile, he
will not let the waters be deep enough to overwhelm them.
There is one other blessing which sums up all the rest; you find it in
the fourteenth verse: 'He shall redeem their souls from deceit and
violence.' Redemption belongs to the Lord's poor people. He bought with
a price his poor ones, and as the ransom has all been paid, they belong
to Christ, and none shall take them out of his hand. He that redeemed
them by price will redeem them by power. He will, if it be needful,
divide the Red Sea again to redeem his people; and, if by no usual
means his servants can be preserved, he will bring unusual means into
the field. There are no miracles now, we say, but if they are ever
wanted for the safety of God's people, there shall be miracles as
timely and as plentiful as of yore. 'Heaven and earth may pass away,
but his word shall never pass away.' He would sooner shake the heavens
themselves than suffer one of his children to famish, or utterly to
perish, rest assured of that. Oh, what glorious comfort there is in all
this! We shall be spared, we shall be redeemed, we shall be delivered,
we shall be saved, we shall be revenged and cleared before the
judgment-bar of God; and, all because the great King has made the poor
and needy the special objects of his love. Oh! my soul revels in this.
I cannot speak out the thoughts I feel, much less the joy that arises
out of them; but what a mercy it really is, that the great King, the
King who rules from the river to the ends of the earth, is the poor
man's friend. I am very poor and needy and helpless to-night, but the
king has made me his favourite, counts me one of his courtiers: it is
the same with you, dear brother, if you too are poor and needy, he
rules, and he rules on the throne for us; he is great and hath
dominion, but he uses all his greatness and his dominion for us. As
Joseph in Egypt was invested with power for the good of his brethren,
or at least such sovereignty as he held of Pharaoh he laid out for the
welfare of his father's house, so Jesus has all power and authority in
heaven and earth; all might, majesty, and dominion for the good of his
people. He has the king's signet ring upon his finger, but he uses it
for his own beloved ones that he may enrich, and honor, and cheer, and
perfect them. His glory is concerned in every one of us. If one of the
least of his people should perish, his crown would suffer damage. He is
the shepherd and surety of the flock, and at his hand will the Father
require all those who are committed to him. He cannot, therefore, let
us perish, for then he would not be able to say at the last, 'Of all
that thou hast given me I have lost none.' He must and will preserve
us. We are wrapped up in his honor. His power, I say, his crown, his
glory, his very name, as the Christ of God anointed to save sinners,
all are wrapped up and intertwisted in the salvation of every poor and
needy soul that is brought to rest in him.
III. And, now, our closing word is, THE SPECIAL SEASON WHEN ALL THIS
SHALL BE TRUE. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.
Ah! while I have been preaching there may have been some poor child of
God here who has said, 'I am poor and needy, and I am in great
distress, but I have not been delivered.' And there may be some sinner
here who has said, 'God has taught me my poverty and need, and I know I
have no helper, but I cannot find I have been delivered.' Perhaps, dear
friends, you have been praying for months, praying very bitterly too,
after a sort, and you have been desirous that you might find mercy.
God's time, when will it come? Well, it will come when you cry. That is
something more, I take it, than a mere ordinary prayer. A child asks
you for something, and you may perhaps deny it; but you know there is a
difference between asking for a thing and crying for a thing. Oh, when
you get so that you must have it, and your heart breaks for it, when
your needs are so extreme that you cannot stand up under them'well,
now, it comes to this, that you must have Christ or perish. 'Give me
Christ or else I die,' when it seems as if you could not put your
prayer into words any more, that you could only fall at the foot of the
cross, and say, 'O God, I cannot pray, but my very soul groans after
thee, to have mercy upon me,' then is the time, then is the time, but
not till then, when God will deliver you. The Lord loves to hear the
prayers of his people, and he sometimes keeps them waiting at the posts
of his door, that they may pray more. It is always a blessing for us to
pray as well as to get the answer to prayer. Prayer is in itself a
blessing. When the Lord hears us knock faintly at the door, he does not
open; we may knock and knock again'he likes us to knock; it does us
good to knock. But when it comes to this, that it is all knocking with
us, and our very soul and body seem to knock, and our heart and flesh
cry after God, the living God: when we shall thus come to appear before
God, and open our mouth and pant vehemently for the mercy he has
promised, then it will come. When thou canst not take a denial, thou
shalt not have a denial. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and
the violent take it by force. There is none so violent as the man who
is in desperate need. There is a person who has been without bread many
hours, and he asks you for charity in the street. You would pass him
by, but he is famished, and he says, 'Oh give me bread! I die.' He
compels you to it. And such is the prayer that prevails with God. When
the soul cannot wait, dare not wait, fears lest it should shut its eyes
and open them in hell. Oh! God will not keep such a soul long waiting.
I am always glad when I hear of convinced souls saying, 'I went up into
my chamber with the resolution that I would never come down again till
I had found the Savior.' I always delight to hear of men and women who
say, 'I went upon my knees and cried to him, saying, I will not let
thee go except thou bless me.' He will bless thee. If thou wilt let him
go, he will go, but if thou wilt not let him go, thou shalt have thy
request of him. 'But who am I,' saith one, 'that I should plead thus? I
have no right to hold him thus.' 'Tis true, but when a man is hungry,
when a man is dying, he does not think of rights. He holds you right or
wrong. His need is his right. Poor soul, go and plead your need before
God. Plead your sin, tell him you are wretched and undone without his
sovereign grace. Use the strange argument which David used, the
strangest in all the world, 'For thy name's sake, O Lord! pardon mine
iniquity, for it is great.' Plead the very greatness of your sin as a
reason for mercy; the damnable character of your sin; the certainty
that you will soon be cast into hell, the fact that he might justly
drive you from his presence for ever; plead all that before him; and
say, 'Lord, if ever the heights and depths of thy grace might be seen
in saving an undeserving soul, I am just that one. If thy mercy wants
to honor itself by saving the most undeserving, ill deserving, hell
deserving sinner that ever lived, Lord, I am the man. If thou wantest a
platform on which to erect a monument of infinite grace, that men shall
stand and wonder, and angels shall gaze on it with astonishment, Lord,
here am I. If thou wantest emptiness, here is one who is all emptiness.
If thou as the good physician wantest a bad case, a glaring case, a
desperate case, to operate on, thou wilt never have a worse case than
mine. O God, turn aside and have pity upon me, and show thy mighty
power.' This is the way to plead. Not your merits'they will never get a
hearing, but your misery, your sin, your guiltiness before God'these
are the arguments. And then if faith can come in and plead the blood,
and say, 'Didst thou not send thy Son to save sinners?' has he not said
he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? Is it not
written that the Son of Man is come to seek and to save not the good,
but that which was lost? Oh! if you can plead the blood in that
fashion, you will not fail. His name is the Savior'he came to save his
people from their sins. He died for the ungodly, he justifieth the
ungodly'the unrighteous he makes righteous through his own merits. If
you can plead this, oh, then, you shall not long wait, for though God
does not deliver till we cry, yet he does deliver when we cry. 'He will
deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no
helper.' Oh, what a mercy it is when the tide is ebbed right out, and
there is nothing left. It will turn now, it will turn now. The streams
of grace will turn now. When you are empty, when you are overwhelmed,
when you are like a dish wiped out, and there is not anything good left
in you'now will God come to you. The darkest part of the night is that
which precedes the dawn of the day. When God has killed you, he will
make you live. When he has wounded you through and through, he will
come to your healing.
''Tis perfect poverty alone,
That sets the soul at large;
While we can call one mite our own,
We get no full discharge.
But let our debts be what they may,
However great or small;
As soon as we have nought to pay,
Our God forgives us all.'
May it be so now, for his name's sake. Amen.
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Another Royal Procession
A Sermon