"Trust in the Living God"
(No. 2964)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST
5, 1875.
"We trust in the living God." 1 Timothy 4:10.
IF we are inclined to grieve because everything around us changes, our
consolation will be found in turning to our unchanging God. If we
lament the ills of mortality, it will be wise for us to turn to Him
"who only has immortality." If our earthly joys fade and die, it is a
blessed thing for us to be able to go to the fountain of undying joy
and there to drink deep draughts of bliss which shall cause us to
forget our misery.
Without any further preface, I ask you to follow me while first, in a
very simple manner, I speak upon the great truth of the existence of
the living God. And then, secondly, while I draw practical inferences
from that existence. Before I close my discourse, I shall have a
question to put to you.
I. First, for a little while, let us think of THE GREAT TRUTH OF THE
EXISTENCE OF THE LIVING GOD. Paul wrote to Timothy, "Therefore we both
labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God."
He meant, by that expression, first, that God is truly existing and not
like the dead gods of the heathen, which are no gods at all–which, in
fact, have no existence as gods. Vast multitudes have bowed down before
images of wood, or stone, or ivory, or gold–but of them all it might
truly be said, "Eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but
they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands,
but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak
they through their throat." It is a sure sign that a man's
understanding is dead when he can worship a dead god! But you and I,
Beloved, "trust in the living God." He is the God who made Heaven and
earth and all that is in them. He is the God who supports the whole
universe by the power of His almighty arms. He is the God who rules and
overrules in Nature, Providence and Grace. He is the true God, the only
real God–no dream God, no phantom or myth conjured up by imagination,
but a real God, the only living and true God! May we worship Him, then,
with real worship, real adoration and true sincerity of heart! What a
blessing it is for us that we are able to worship the true God! We
might have been left, as our remote ancestors were, to seek after God,
if haply we might find Him, or to worship gods that are no gods and be
lost in the mazes of superstition, unable to find the Most High. But
"God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ" and, therefore, "we trust in the living God,"
the real God!
A second meaning of this expression, I have no doubt, lies in the fact
of God's self-existence and independence. ' 'We trust in the living
God," who is "living" in a very emphatic sense. You and I are living,
but our existence is entirely dependent upon the will of God. Although
He has given us immortal spirits, yet that immortality only comes to us
by reason of the Divine decree. And the glorious immortality of
Believers comes to them by virtue of their vital union with their
ever-living Head, their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have no
independent immortality–it is not inherent in us and it must be
sustained by perpetual emanations of the Divine Power. It is a fire
which could not maintain its own glow. It must be fed, or it would go
out. But God is self-existent, the great I AM–and if all His creatures
would cease to be, He would be just as completely God without them as
with them–
"He sits on no precarious throne, Nor borrows leave to be."
His is a fire which burns without fuel–a sun which scatters light
without itself diminishing! God is independent, self-existing, the only
really "living" being in the entire universe in the fullest and most
emphatic sense of the word, "living."
What a joy it is to worship such a God as this, because nothing can
diminish His life, His force, His power! If His courts are sustained,
not by the tribute of men, but by His own wealth. If His sovereign
state stands, not by the might of armies, but by His own Omnipotence
and if He, Himself, is All-Sufficient, not because He gathers up all
things into Himself, but because all things are from Him, and are all
in Him in their germ and seed–is He not a God whom we all ought to
worship–in whom, worshipping, we may joyfully trust–and relying on
whom we may be perfectly at rest, for He cannot fail us, neither can He
fail Himself in any respect or degree?
A third meaning of the expression, "living," in Paul's declaration, "We
trust in the living God," I have no doubt is to be found in the fact of
the existence of God through all eternity There was a time when you and
I, who are now alive, were not alive. And there will be a time when, as
far as this world is concerned, we shall be numbered with the dead. But
there never was a period in which God did not live. He always was and
always is and always will be "the living God." Let your thoughts fly
back to eternity if you can–for, mark you, all our ideas of eternity
are very shallow and superficial. We cannot form any clear notion of
what, "eternity," means, and the very fact that we speak of a "past"
eternity proves that we have to bring it down to our finite
apprehension and to use inaccurate words to express our imperfect and
incorrect ideas! But far back, when the sun, moon and stars–and the
whole universe slept in the mind of God, as a forest sleeps within an
acorn cup–even then God was "the living God." Before the first ray of
light had broken in upon the pristine darkness–yes, before there
wasany darkness–before anything was created–God was "the living God!"
And He was just as great and as glorious as He is now. Without an angel
to sing His praise, or a human being to look up to Him with holy
reverence or with tearful repentance–yet still independent of them
all, He was "the living God!" What a blessing it is for us that it was
so! There was never a period in which Satan could plot and plan against
us, but that God had eternally existed before him. That evil spirit is
but the infant of a day compared with God, the Eternal of all the ages,
the Everlasting Father who was always able to anticipate everything
that could possibly occur, knowing beforehand all that might be
detrimental to us, countermining every mine of the archenemy and
baffling all the old serpent's cunning in such a way as, in the end, to
add still more to His own Glory!
And as He was "the living God" in the past, so He is "the living God"
in the present, and just as truly living as He was ten thousand
millions of years ago–to speak of eternity after the fashion of men.
Dr. Watts hit the mark when he sang–
"He fills His own eternal NOW, And sees our ages pass."
Ages and years are past, or present, or future to us–but they are all
present to Him. When a man looks upon a map, he can cover a whole
country with his hand. But a traveler has to journey many weary miles
before he can cross that country from one end of it to the other! But
on the map your hand covers it all. And all eternity is under the hand
of God like that country on the map covered by a human hand. God is
"the living God" now as much as He ever was–as powerful, as wise, as
loving, as tender, as strong as He ever was, blessed be His holy name!
And so He will be throughout the whole of the future. We cannot tell
all that will yet happen in this world, but one thing we know–God will
always be "the living God." It is probable that once powerful nations
will be utterly destroyed and that there will be terrible disasters
beyond anything that has yet been experienced. We know that the present
dispensation will utterly pass away and that "the mountains shall
depart, and the hills be removed." But this fact is sure, that He who
has been the dwelling place of His people in all generations, will be
the dwelling place of His people in all the generations that are yet to
come. There will never be a funeral knell to tell us that our great
Lord is dead. There will be no need for weeping among the blessed
spirits above because He who was their Creator, Protector, Preserver,
and Friend has ceased to be, for He will always be "the living God."
So, because of His eternal existence, He is right worthy to bear this
title–yes, and to monopolize it, for it belongs to Him alone–
"Great God! How infinite are Thee!
What worthless worms are we!
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to You.
Your Throne eternal ages stood,
Ere seas or stars were made.
You are the ever-living God,
Were all the nations dead.
Eternity, with all its years,
Stands present in Your view.
To You there's nothing old appears–
Great God! There's nothing new." The fourth meaning of the text seems
to me to be this. God is called "the living God" as being always
Himself really and truly God in the full capacity of His Being.
Sometimes we say of a man that he is "all alive." At another time, he
does not appear to be fully quickened. He has life to some extent, but
not in its fullness. We say of the man, by-and-by, that he is dead–not
that he has ceased to exist, for man will no more cease to exist than
will God, Himself, but we speak of him as dead because his body, which
is part of his being, lies moldering in the tomb. But God is all life
and only life. No portion of Him, (I must use human language, though
the words are incorrect which I am using, as our words always must be
when we speak of God), no faculty, no power, no attribute of God can be
smitten by any paralysis, or can, in any degree, or in the slightest
measurer, be subject to any failure which is at all akin to death. God
is all alive and altogether life and nothing but life. God's wisdom is
always Infallible, His power is always almighty, His energy is at all
times efficacious for everything that needs His attention. There can
never come a time when He will be bowed down with age, or wearied with
toil, or affected by suffering. "The living God" is the whole God, or,
as the holy beings in Heaven call Him–and it means the same
thing–"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is, and is
to come." He is the whole God! Whatever the word, "God," means–and we
do not know, nor shall we ever know all that it means–it is too vast
to be conceived by anyone but God, Himself–but, whatever that is, that
is what God always is to the full measure, never in any degree
diminished by what we call, "death." He is evermore "the living God."
I like to think of this Truth because God, Himself, speaks of it again
and again. The Lord said to Moses in the wilderness, "Is the Lord's
hand waxed short?" In the prophecy of Isaiah we read, "Thus says the
Lord, Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no
power to deliver?" And, a little later, this Prophet was Inspired to
write, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save."
And today He is as mighty as He was in those glorious days when, in the
van of Israel's host, He led His people in safety through the depths of
the Red Sea and delivered them forever from the iron bondage of
Pharaoh. Yes, blessed be His holy name, He is still "the living God" as
full of life and power as He ever was!
Another meaning of this expression is that God is active and energetic
and not a mere name. There are plenty of people who are willing to
believe in a god of a certain sort, but I hardly know how to describe
their god. They are not atheists–they would be horrified if we called
them by that name–but their notion is that everything is regulated by
what they call, "the laws of Nature." If you ask them what, "Nature,"
is, they give you some curious answers. One man says, "I do not go into
your places of worship and sit there, and hear you talk about God. I
like to walk about and worship Nature." If it is in London that a man
talks like that, I should like to ask him what he calls, "nature." Does
he mean these miles of brick walls and the dark lanes and alleys at the
back of them? If he means that, I should not like to worship his
"Nature." Or does he mean the grass in the meadows and the flowers of
the field? If so, I hardly think that I should like to worship what
cattle eat–it seems a degradation for a man to stoop as low as that!
But they will say and do anything to get rid of the idea of the living
and true God. "Nature"–"Providence"–and so on, are the expressions
they use, just as if "God" did not enter into their calculations–or as
if He had gone out of the business and left the whole concern to go on
by itself! I should not like to be the child of a father who, the
moment I was born, had me washed and dressed by machinery–and had a
cradle ready for me to be rocked by machinery and fed me by
machinery–who, all the while that I was under his roof, dressed me by
machinery, fed me by machinery and taught me by machinery–but I never
saw him. In fact, I only knew that there was some mysterious force
about somewhere, but I never saw him or it– and never knew anything
about his personality. That is the kind of dead force that many men
call, "god." But our God, in whom we trust, is a God with a great,
warm, loving heart! He is a thinking God, an active God, a working,
personal God who comes into the midst of this world and does not leave
it to go on by itself. Although He is a stranger in the world, even as
His people are also strangers and foreigners by reason of the revolt
that men have made against their liege Lord and Sovereign, yet it is
still His world and He is still in it!
I like to think of "the living God" being in this world which He
created, for, now when I look at the cowslip or the daffodil, I know
that it is God who paints these flowers of the spring so delicately.
When I gather the geranium or the fuchsias, I know that it is God's
pencil which has been at work and I love to look at the blossom and
feel that I am near to God–just as I should feel if I were to go into
a friend's studio and see there some of his sketches and paintings. I
know that he has been there and that no other hand than his could paint
that picture so well. And, in like manner, I know that no other hand
but that of my God could paint these pictures of Nature so beautifully.
Thus I am brought very near to "the living God." O dear Brothers and
Sisters, it is such a joy to me to remember that God is not a mere dead
force–an abstract something or other which gives energy to the world,
or which did give energy to it ages ago, but has now gone away and left
the old energies to work till they wear themselves out! Oh, no. I
believe that the Lord God still walks among the trees of this
garden–that the Lord God, like a shepherd, still watches over His
sheep–that the Lord God still speaks to us in the thunder, smiles upon
us in the sunlight, scatters His blessings down in the dew and the
rain–that He gives us the fruitful fields of harvest and the golden
days in which the sheaves can be gathered into the garner–yes, and
that He is just as truly at work for us in the winter months,
sweetening the clods by the winds and the frost, and so preparing the
earth to bring forth food for man and grass for the cattle. We delight
to think that in all these ways, God is still "the living God."
Yet once again, God is "the living God" in that He is the Source of
life, the Giver of life and the Sustainer of life. We are living
creatures, but He is the living Creator. We are living dependent, but
He is "the living God" upon whom we all depend. He spoke us out of
nothing and He could speak us back to nothing if He pleased to do so.
We are the creatures of His will, living on His estates as tenants who
may, at any moment, be dismissed at His pleasure, receiving the very
breath that is in our nostrils at His absolute discretion! But God is
Life, itself, and after all the streams which have flowed from Him to
His creatures, there is as much life in Him as at the first. And when
He says, "Return, you children of men," and we go back to Him, He will
have no more life than He has now, but He will be as He has always
been, "the living God."–
"Let them neglect Your Glory, Lord, Who never knew Your Grace. But our
loud songs shall still record The wonders of Your praise. 'Twas He, and
we'll adore His name, That formed us by a word! 'Tis He restores our
ruined frame– Salvation to the Lord!"
Now, in the six ways I have brought out only one thought–which I want
to impress on your minds because it has been such a sweet thought to
me. I have, in imagination, looked upon all whom I know upon the earth
and I have said of them all, "They are dying creatures." This is always
true, but it is often forgotten. Yet, when one is taken away who has
been very precious to us, we begin to realize this truth. Thinking over
this matter, I seem to see a procession going past me. I can remember
many of those who have passed me. They have gone by while I have
remained here and I shall never see them here anymore–a long array of
my Master's servants, some of them bearing His banner aloft and others
marching with their swords drawn because of fear in the night. Some of
them were weak and feeble folk who had to be guarded on both sides by
sturdy champions. And now, those of you who are before me as I speak,
are also passing away–and there are more coming on, but they are only
coming that they may go! I said, just now, that I was looking on at
this procession, but that was a mistake, for I am in the procession and
I am passing on with the rest! What shadows we all are! What fleeting
things! What mists–what paintings on a cloud! We can scarcely say that
we live, for, the moment we begin to live, that moment we begin to die
and–
"Every beating pulse we count, Leaves but the number less."
This earth is not "the land of the living." This world is a dying
world! The living world is beyond Death's cold river. Here are graves
innumerable. What part of the globe is there that has never yet been a
cemetery? Every particle of dust which is blown in your face in the
street may have once formed a portion of some living being! O Death,
you rule over all! No, you do not, for there is One who rules over even
you, O Death! You can have no power over "the living God." You
are His servant, permitted to work out His purpose, for it is through
death that we pass into life. By the death of our redeeming Lord, we
have been redeemed from destruction and, therefore, we can turn away
from everything that wears the aspect of death and change, and turn to
Him who is always the same and of whose years there is no end–the
Eternal, in whom we trust!
II. Thus have I set forth, as best I could, the great Truth of the
existence of "the living God." Now, in the second place, LET US DRAW
SOME PRACTICAL INFERENCES FROM THIS GREAT TRUTH.
And the first inference is this–an inference of reverential awe and
holy trembling. What a great God He is whom we have professed to
worship! When a poor pagan bows down before his wooden god, I should
not wonder if what little sense he has should make him loathe and
ridicule himself. But we have gathered here to worship "the living
God." Moses tells us, in the 5th of Deuteronomy, verse 26, that the
Israelites said, when the Law of God was given to them, "Who is there
of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of
the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?" Well might they stand
there trembling because "the living God" had come down and touched the
mountains so that they smoked like great altars of incense. This is the
God whom we worship! Far from us be all trifling! Vain thoughts, be
gone! Before "the living God" we should prostrate ourselves in the very
dust. "O you who profess to serve the Lord, mind that you serve Him
faithfully, for it is "the living God" whom you serve, the God who is
not to be mocked with hypocritical service! O you who know that you are
not reconciled to Him, remember that it is to "the living God" that you
are not reconciled! And recollect that solemn and true declaration, "It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." And that
other, "Our God is a consuming fire." So I say that our first inference
should be that of reverential awe and holy trembling.
The next should be, to God's people, an inference of holy courage. Are
we on the Lord's side? Then, my Brothers and Sisters, let us never
fear, for we are on the side of "the living God." Who can successfully
defy Him? Who dares to throw down the gage of battle against Him? You
remember what young David said to Saul concerning Goliath of Gath,
"Your servant slew both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised
Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of
the living God." It was grandly put, as though he had said, "This big
fellow is only the servant of a dead god and he and his god may both
come out against me, and I, little as I am, yes, less than nothing in
myself, will go to him in the name of the living God and bring back his
head as the trophy of victory! Let no man's heart fail because of him."
So now, if the biggest Goliath that ever lived at Rome or anywhere else
should come stalking out against us, let us say, "Who is he, that he
should defy the armies of the living God?" If the God of Israel is not
now living, all is over with the cause of truth and righteousness. But
we may say, as David did on another occasion, "The Lord lives; and
blessed be my Rock." As long as He lives, we may boldly say, "If God is
for us, who can be against us?"
This, too, should be our great security in time of danger. I like to
recall that incident in the life of Hezekiah when he took that
abominable Assyrian letter, "and spread it before the Lord." Do you
ever take your letters to the Lord, Brothers and Sisters? That is the
best thing in the world to do with them when they are evil ones.
Hezekiah spread his letter before the Lord and said, "Lord, bow down
Your ear and hear: open, Lord, Your eyes and see: and hear the words of
Sennacherib, which has sent him to reproach the living God." That was
the point and the king felt quite sure that Sennacherib would be
overthrown because he had defied the living God. If God had been a dead
god, Sennacherib might have done with Him as he did with other idol
gods. He asked, "Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my
fathers have destroyed?" He did not realize that they were all broken
to pieces because they were mere idols. But this time, he was defying
"the living God." If, Brothers and Sisters, "the living, God" is on
your side, "no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and
every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall
condemn." If you, Beloved, are walking before "the living God" in all
sincerity, even if Sennacherib with a mighty host should come against
you, the Lord your God would send His holy angel and smite your foes,
and you should surely be delivered! Have no doubt or fear, if your God
is "the living God."
And this Truth of God, Brothers and Sisters, should always make us
fearless of men, for, after all, what are men? Remember what the Lord
said to His servant, the Prophet Isaiah, "Who are you, that you should
be afraid of a man that shall die?" The most powerful and most cruel
man who ever dares to threaten you is only a man that shall die! And
the Lord Jesus says to you, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body,
and after that have no more that they can do." Herod is
soon eaten of worms. Persecuting monarchs soon disappear when God
condemns them. Therefore, while "the living God" is your God, never be
afraid of a dying man–
"Fear Him, you saints, and you will then
Have nothing else to fear."
Another inference from this Truth is this. It should bring relief to us
in times of bereavement Sorrow is natural to us, but to push sorrow to
an extreme is wrong. I have heard of a good woman who had lost her
husband and who continued sorrowing over her loss for a very long time.
Her little boy saw her weeping day after day and, at last, plucking her
by the gown, he said to her, "Mother, is God dead?" "No, dear," she
said, "but your father is." But that question made her stop her
grieving, as it well might, for if God is not dead, our best Friend
still lives! So let us be of good cheer. If people had to come here and
say, "That good woman whom God so greatly blessed in the Church's work
is dead. And that dear Brother whom we all loved, is dead. And the
Pastor, too, is dead," who could help sorrowing? But even then it would
still be true that "the Lord lives!" Always get back to that great
fact, "the Lord lives." We shall have to put our Beloved ones into the
grave, but, "the Lord lives," blessed be His name! And as long as God
lives, we need never ask, "What shall we do?" It is true that we shall
not do much, but God will. We must never say, "Oh, there is such a
great gap, it cannot be filled." God is alive and He can fill it, so
you must not give way to despondency or despair. We may grieve, for
even Jesus wept, but let us never distrust the Lord, for as surely as
He takes away one worker, He knows how to raise up another! And if the
Lord should take your husband from you, He will, Himself, be your
Husband. If He should let you be fatherless, He will be your Father.
And if He should leave you childless, good woman, He will say to you,
"Am I not better unto you than ten sons?" He can fill up every gap!
Yes, and make your soul to overflow with supreme content–
"'Lo, I am with you,'says the Lord, My Church shall safe abide, For I
will ne'er forsake My own, Whose souls in Me confide. Through every
scene of life and death, This promise is our trust. And this shall be
our children's song, When we are cold in dust."
This truth ought also to keep us from grieving too much over our losses
and crosses in business. You have had a great loss today, Friend, and
your face looks very long over it. Or you have heard of someone who was
the means of bringing you much business who has moved or is dead. Well,
"the Lord lives." "Trust in the living God." There have been times in
the little business I have had to do for the Lord in connection with
the Orphanage and the College, when the funds have been very short and
sometimes we have run quite out. I have scraped the bottom of the meal
barrel a good many times and I have had to squeeze the cruse to get a
drop more oil out of it. But we have trusted in the living God and, up
till now, we have always found Him worthy of being trusted! And we
believe we always shall. There have been failures and mistakes on our
part and on the part of our friends, but never any on God's part. We
must all bear that testimony. Let us, therefore, all "trust in the
living God." If an ill wind blows upon us, let us believe that somehow
or other, it will blow us some good. And if a rough tide comes up, let
us believe that it will in some way or other wash us nearer to our
desired haven.
Once again, "we trust in the living God," and this gives us the richest
consolation concerning our departed Christian friends. As "the Lord
lives," and He is their God, they are not dead! You remember Christ's
argument with the Sadducees, it was this–God has said, "I am the God
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." "God is not
the God of the dead, but of the living." So that the dead saints are
not really dead. Whenever there comes out a new error, it generally
breeds another, for errors are very prolific. Some people started the
notion that the soul of man is not immortal–that the soul of the
wicked would die. I was quite sure that when they got as far as that
error, they would go still further and so the next notion was that
every part of us will die when we die–that there is no soul that is
immortal, or no soul at all–and that the righteous dead are all in
their graves–souls and bodies and everything! That is the beautiful
materialistic notion that after having received Christianity, we are
expected to imbibe. But we are not such idiots, whatever they may think
of us! We shall never believe that all our beloved friends, who,
according to the
Scriptures, have been with Jesus these many years, have never been with
Jesus at all! In fact, do not exist at all, except whatever may be
found of them in their coffins or in their graves! How could that be if
God was their God and if Christ's Words are true–"God is not the God
of the dead, but of the living"? They are alive, Brothers and
Sisters–as much alive as they were alive here, with the exception of
that mortal part which they have left behind to be prepared for
immortality, as Dr. Watts truly wrote–
"Corruption, earth, and worms
Shall but refine this flesh
Till my triumphant spirit comes
To put it on a^esh."
We go down to our graves, as Esther went to her bath of spices, to be
prepared for the embrace of the great King! And, in the morning of the
Resurrection, this poor body of ours, all fair and lustrous, shall be
reunited with our glorified spirit and we shall behold the face of the
King in His beauty and be with Him forever and ever! "God is not the
God of the dead" and, therefore, those of whom He is the God will never
die! The inference is clear and forcible. Believe in it, hold to it and
rejoice in it, for it will comfort you to know that as He is your God,
you will never die. "God is not the God of the dead." Then, blessed be
His holy name, I am not dead, though once I was dead, for He has
quickened me into life! And I shall never be dead any more, for Jesus
said, "Because I live, you shall live also." "The living God" is not
the Father of dead souls, but He has an innumerable host of living
children to be His heirs and to dwell with Him forever! Did you ever
notice that passage where Joshua tells the people to be ready to go
over the Jordan and says that when the priests' feet shall touch the
river, it shall divide and the Ark shall be carried across? "And then,"
he said, "hereby you shall know that the living God is among you and
that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and
the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites,
and the Amorites, and the Jebusites." The joyful triumphs of Believers
in death, when they metaphorically cross the Jordan are proofs to us
that God is with His people, that He will drive out all our enemies
before us and give us a triumphant entrance into the promised land
above! Glory be to the name of "the living God" forever!
III. Now I finish with the question which I said I might ask. It is
this–IS "THE LIVING GOD" YOUR GOD?
If so, then remember hownear He is to you, for Paul tells us in 2
Corinthians 6:16, "You are the temple of the living God." I will not
dwell on that sentence, though I am tempted to do so, but what a
wonderful thing it is that "the living God" should be willing to dwell
inside our bodies! Oh, let us keep these bodies pure and let us see to
it that we never fall under that terrible curse, "If any man defiles
the temple of God, him shall God destroy." But may our body, soul and
spirit be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!
And, dear Brothers and Sisters, if "the living God" is really ours, let
us thirst after Him. Let us say, as did the writer of the 42nd Psalm,
"As the hart pants after the water-brooks, so pants my soul after You,
O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." He is "the living
God," so thirst after Him and keep on thirsting after Him–and do not
be content to try to live without Him, for, to live without "the living
God" is to have death in life and not truly to live at all! Think,
child of God, "the living God" dwells within you! Seek to realize His
Presence, long and pant to realize it more and more!
Are any of you obliged to answer my question truthfully by saying, "No,
the living God is not mine"? Then I must repeat to you those two texts
that I quoted earlier in my sermon–"It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God." "For our God is a consuming fire." That
latter text has often been spoilt by being misquoted. I have many times
heard it quoted, "God, out of Christ, is a consuming fire." That is
notthe text at all. It is "our God"–the Christian's God–God in Christ
"is a consuming fire"–and if He is a consuming fire to His own people,
what will He be to the ungodly? That is a wonderful question that is
asked in Isaiah 33:14. "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring
fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" And the
answer is, "Nobody can except the man that walks righteously, and
speaks uprightly," and so on. The Prophet goes on to describe the man
who has been renewed by Grace, for he is the only man who can live in
the everlasting burnings of the Divine majesty and purity. He can live
there because the devouring fire will only burn up everything in him
that is unlike God–but the new life that is in the Christian, the
Grace that the Holy Spirit puts into us will endure the fire.
Everything that appertains to man and to man's work must
be tried by fire, and if God has built into us the gold, silver and
precious stones of His Grace, and if we have built upon them our life
work, both we and our work will endure the trial by fire!
But, Sinner, you will also have to go through that fire! And seeing
that there is nothing in you but the wood, hay and stubble of self and
sin–nothing in you but that which it foul and obnoxious to God, unholy
and unrighteous–or self-righteous, which it really unrighteous–the
fire will consume it! All your glory, your peace, your happiness,
everything that makes life to be life will be taken from you and there
shall remain for you nothing but existence! And this is the description
of that existence–"These shall go away into everlasting punishment."
Oh, may the Lord who alone can give you life, give it to you now! For,
if not, there will remain nothing but an everlasting death to be your
portion! From that may you now be delivered by His infinite mercy,
through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.