DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 22, 1880,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Receiving the end of your faith–the salvation of your souls. Of this
salvation the Prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who
prophesied of the Grace that would come to you, searching what, or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did indicating,
when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories
that would follow. To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but
to us they did minister the things which are now reported to you by
them that have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent down
from Heaven–which things angels desire to look into." 1 Peter 1:9-12.
"Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Your salvation,
according to Your Word."
Psalm 119:41
THESE two texts will be, to me, as a bow and a sword–the first for
shooting the arrows of the Truth of God and the second for close
quarters in dealing with individual consciences. You will see the
reason for the pair of texts as we proceed. May the Holy Spirit make
use of both according to His own mind. Last Sabbath I preached upon the
God of salvation [#1523–The Royal Prerogative]–this morning our
principal objective is to speak of that salvation, itself. I then tried
to show that God is always the same and that the God of the Old
Testament, unto whom belongs the issues, or escapes from death, is
still the God of our salvation.
My first text runs upon the same line, for it teaches us that the
Prophets of old, who spoke by the power of the Holy Spirit, testified
concerning the same salvation which has been reported to us by the
Apostles as actually accomplished. There has been no new salvation!
There has been a change in the messengers, but they have all spoken of
one thing and, though their tidings have been more clearly understood
in these latter days, the substance of the good news is still the same.
The Old Testament and the New are one, inspired by the same Spirit and
filled with the same Subject, namely, the one promised Messiah.
The Prophets foretold what the Apostles reported. The Seers looked
forward and the Evangelists look backward– but their eyes meet at one
place–they see eye to eye and both behold the Cross. I shall aim, this
morning, at commending the salvation of God to those of you who possess
it, that you may be the more grateful for your choice inheritance. But
I will still more labor to commend it to those who possess it not, that
having some idea of the greatness of its value, they may be stirred up
to seek it for themselves. Ah, my unsaved Hearers, how great is your
loss in missing the salvation of
God!
"How shall you escape if you neglect so great a salvation?" O that you
might be rescued from such folly! Perhaps God the Holy Spirit will show
you the preciousness of this salvation and then you will no longer
neglect, despise, or refuse it, but will offer the prayer which I have
selected as a sort of second text and entreat the Lord to let His
mercies come to you, even His salvation. The prayer may be helpful in
enabling you to take with you words and turn to the Lord. God grant it
may be so!
I. First, I shall in much simplicity, with a vehement desire for the
immediate conviction and salvation of my hearers, try to COMMEND THE
SALVATION OF GOD by opening up what Peter has said in the verses before
us. Let me urge you to give earnest heed to the salvation of God,
because it is a salvation of Grace. The 10th verse says, "Of this
salvation the Prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who
prophesied of the Grace that would come to you." Salvation is
altogether of Grace–Grace which comes from God in His mercy to man in
his helplessness! The Gospel does not come to
you asking something of you, but its hands are laden with gifts more
precious than gold which it freely bestows upon guilty men. It comes to
us, not as a reward for the obedient and deserving, but as a merciful
gift for the disobedient and undeserving.
It deals with us, not upon the ground of justice, but upon terms of
pure mercy. It asks no price and exacts no purchase. It comes as a
benefactor, not as a judge. In the Gospel, God gives liberally and
upbraids not. We are accustomed not only to say, "Grace," but, "Free
Grace." It has been remarked that this is a tautology. So it is, but it
is a blessed one, for it makes the meaning doubly clear and leaves no
room for mistakes! Since it is evidently objectionable to those who
dislike the doctrine intended, it is manifestly forcible and,
therefore, we will keep to it. We feel no compunction in ringing such a
silver bell twice over–Grace, Free Grace! Lest any should imagine that
Grace can be otherwise than free, we shall continue to say, not only
Grace, but Free Grace, so long as we preach!
You are lost, my dear Hearer, and God proposes your salvation, but not
on any ground of your deserving to be saved, else the proposal would
most assuredly fall to the ground in the case of many of you–I might
have said in the cases of us all, though some of you think not. The
Lord proposes to save you because you are miserable and He is merciful!
Because you are needy and He is bountiful. Why, I think every man who
hears this good news should open both his ears and lean forward, that
he may not lose a word! Yes, and he should open his heart, too, for
salvation by Grace is most suitable to all men and they need it
greatly.
Only give intimation that goods are to be had free and your shop will
be besieged with customers! Those who want us to notice their wares are
often crafty enough to put at the head of their advertisement what is
not true, "To be given away." But salvation's grand advertisement is
true–salvation is everything for nothing–pardon free, Christ free,
Heaven free! "Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
Our good Physician has none but gratis patients. Since the gifts which
the God of All Grace grants to sinful men are beyond all price, He does
not barter and dicker with them, but makes His blessings free as air! I
am sure that if you feel yourselves to be guilty, the very idea of
being saved by Grace will have a charm for you. To a thirsty man, the
sound of a rippling stream is music and to a convicted conscience, free
pardon is as rivers of water in the wilderness! Oh, that all the world
would listen when we have such a message to tell!
Again, your closest attention may well be asked to the salvation of God
when you are told in the text that it is by faith. "Receiving the end
of your faith–the salvation of your souls." Salvation is not obtained
by painful and humiliating penances. Nor by despondency and despair.
Nor by any effort, mental or spiritual, involving a purchase by labor
and pain. It is entirely and only by faith, or trust, in the Lord
Jesus! Do you ask–"Is it really so, that salvation is by believing,
simply believing?''" Such is the statement of the Word of God! We
proclaim it upon the guarantee of Infallible Scripture! "All that
believe are justified from all things from which they could not be
justified by the Law of Moses." "Whoever believes that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God." "He that believes in Him is not condemned." "He
that believes on Him has everlasting life."
These are a mere handful of proof texts gleaned from wide fields of the
same kind. "Repent and believe the Gospel," is our one plain and simple
message. We cry again and again, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
you shall be saved." "Believe only," and, "Jesus only," are our two
watchwords! Now, it is singularly foolish that men should quibble at
this which ought to please them! What? Shall it be that the Gospel
shall be regarded as too easy a thing? Will men quarrel with Mercy for
being too generous? If there is a condition, is it wisdom on our part
to contend with God because that condition seems to be too slight? What
would you have for a condition? Would you have it proclaimed that men
must be saved by works?
Which among you would, then, be saved? Your works are imperfect and
full of evil! The Law cannot justify you, it condemns you! As long as
you are under the Law, has not the Holy Spirit declared that you are
under the curse? Ought you not, you sons of men, bless God that
salvation is of faith that it might be by Grace and that it might be
possible to you and sure to all the seed? The sinner cannot keep the
Law of God–he has already broken it most terribly and he is, himself,
enfeebled and depraved by the Fall. Adam did not stand when he was in
his perfection–what shall we do who are ruined by his fall and full of
evil?
By the Grace of God the sinner can believe in Jesus! This is ceasing
from his own power and merit and leaving himself in his Savior's hands.
Salvation by faith thus sets an open door before those whom the Law
shuts out! It is in every way
adapted to the case of the guilty and fallen–and such characters
should hasten to accept salvation thus presented to them! O my God, how
is it that this message does not, at once, awaken all who hear it to an
eager acceptance of Your salvation? O that the Spirit of God would make
these appeals powerful with you! The Gospel of salvation ought to be
regarded by you, for it has engrossed the thoughts of Prophets! The
text says, "Of this salvation the Prophets have inquired and searched
diligently, who prophesied of the Grace that would come to you."
Those great men, the choice spirits of the ages which they adorned,
were delighted to preach of this salvation as a blessing to be
hereafter revealed! They did not, themselves, altogether understand
what they were called to reveal, for the Holy Spirit often carried them
beyond themselves and made them utter more than they understood. The
Inspiration of the Bible is verbal Inspiration. In some cases it must
have been only verbal–in every case it must have been mainly so! The
human mind is not able to understand and to express all the thoughts of
God, they are too sublime and, therefore, God dictated to the Prophets
the very language which they should deliver–language of which they,
themselves, could not see the far-reaching meaning.
They rejoiced in the testimony of the Spirit within them, but they were
not free from the necessity to search and to search diligently, if they
would, for themselves to derive benefit from the Divine Revelation. I
know not how this is, but the fact is clearly stated in the text and
must be true. Oh, my Hearers, how diligently you ought to search the
Scriptures and listen to the saving Word of God! If men that had the
Holy Spirit and were called, "Seers," nevertheless searched into the
meaning of the Word of God which they, themselves, spoke, what ought
such poor things as we are to do in order to understand the Gospel?
It should be our delight to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the
Doctrines of Grace. Surely it must be a crime of crimes to be living in
utter neglect of a salvation which gained the attentive mind of Daniel
and Isaiah and Ezekiel! O that the long list of great and holy men
would have some weight with thoughtless ones! I would cause a noble
line of Prophets to pass before you this morning that you may see how
many of them spoke of Christ and His salvation. From Abel, whose blood
cried from the ground, down to him who spoke of the Sun of
Righteousness and His Resurrection– they all spoke in Jehovah's name
for your sakes! From Moses down to Malachi, all of these lived and many
of them died that they might bear witness to "the Grace that would come
to you."
They, themselves, were, no doubt saved. But still, the full
understanding and enjoyment of the Truth was reserved for us! Unto them
it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to us, they ministered the
things of God! They lighted lamps to shine for future ages! They told
of a Christ who was actually to come in later days to work out His
Redemption after they had all died in faith without a sight of His
actual coming! You and I live in the light of a finished salvation! God
has appeared in human flesh! Christ has borne the guilt of man! His
Atonement is complete! Jesus has risen from the dead and gone into
Glory pleading for Believers!
Surely that which Prophets thought worth their while to study night and
day, though they knew that they would never see it, ought to be thought
worthy of the devout attention of those immediately concerned in it! If
Daniel set his face, by prayer and study–in fasting and in
loneliness–to search out the salvation of the future, we ought at once
to seek for the salvation which is now present among us! If Isaiah
spoke with a golden tongue as the very Chrysostom of the old
dispensation; if Jeremiah wept, like a Niobe, rivers of tears; if
Ezekiel, despite the splendor of his princely intellect, was almost
blinded by the splendor of his visions–if the whole goodly fellowship
of the Prophets lived and died to study and to foretell the great
salvation–we ought to give most earnest heed to it! If they pointed us
to the Lamb of God and, according to the best of their light, foretold
the coming of the Redeemer, then woe unto us if we trifle with Heaven's
message and cast its blessings behind our backs! By all the Prophets
whom the Lord has sent, I beseech you, give His salvation a hearty
welcome and rejoice that you have lived to see it!
Furthermore, when prophecy had ceased, the Holy Spirit came upon
another set of men of whom our text speaks. Peter says of these things,
that they "are now reported to you by them that have preached the
Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven." The Apostles
followed the Prophets in testifying to this salvation and with the
Apostles there was an honorable fellowship of earnest Evangelists and
preachers. I will not stay to point out to you the admirable character
of these men, but I would beg you to observe that, having personally
seen Christ Jesus for themselves, they were not deceived. Many of them
had eaten and drank with Him–all the Apostles had done so–they had
been with Him in familiar conversation and they were resolute in
bearing witness that they had seen Him after He had risen from the
dead.
These men spoke with the accent of conviction! If they were duped,
there certainly never was another instance of such persons and so many
of them being so utterly deluded. They continued throughout all their
lives to bear hardships and to endure reproaches for the sake of
bearing witness to what they had seen and heard–and all the Apostles
but one died a martyr's death rather than allow the slightest suspicion
to be cast upon the truth of their report! The text says that they
reported these things when they preached the Gospel by the Holy Spirit
sent down from Heaven. I see them going everywhere preaching the Word
of God!
They were dressed in no robes but those of poverty. They had no
distinctions but those of shame and suffering. They had no power but
that of the Holy Spirit. I hear them fearlessly lifting up their voices
among a warrior population, or gently testifying in peaceful homes.
They evangelized the open country and they instructed the capital
itself–Caesar's household hears of them! I see them far away among the
Parthians and Scythians telling the barbarians that there is salvation
and that Jesus has accomplished it! With equal joy I see them telling
cultured Greeks that God was in Christ a Man among men and that the
Incarnate God died in man's place that believing men might be delivered
from the wrath of God and from the plague of sin.
These noble bearers of glad tidings continued to report this salvation
till they had finished their missions and their lives and, therefore, I
feel that for us, in these times, to trifle with God's Word and give a
deaf ear to the invitations of the Gospel is an insult to their honored
memories! You martyr them a second time by contemptuously neglecting
what they died to hand to you! From the dead they bear witness against
you and when they rise again they will sit with their Lord to judge
you! Nor have we merely Prophets and Apostles looking on with wonder,
but our text says, "Which things angels desire to look into."
We know very little of these heavenly beings. We do know, however, that
they are pure spirits and that the elect angels have not fallen into
sin. These beings are not concerned in the Atonement of Christ so far
as it is a ransom for sin, seeing as they have never sinned–they may,
however, derive some advantage from His death, but of that we cannot
now speak particularly. They take such an interest in us, their fellow
creatures, that they have an intense wish to know all the mysteries of
our salvation. They were pictured, you know, upon the Ark of the
Covenant as standing upon the Mercy Seat and looking down upon it with
steady gaze. Perhaps Peter was thinking of this holy imagery. They
stand intently gazing into the marvel of Propitiation by blood!
Can you quite see the beauty of this spectacle? If we knew that a door
was opened in Heaven, would not men be anxious to look in and see
Heaven's wonders? But the case is here reversed, for we see a window
opened towards this fallen world and heavenly beings looking down upon
the earth, as if Heaven, itself, had no such Object of attraction as
Christ and His salvation! Watts sang not amiss when he gave us the
verse–
"Archangels leave their high abode
To learn new mysteries here and toll
The love of our descending God,
The glories of Immanuel."
Paul tells us that to principalities and powers in the heavenly places
shall be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. For men
to be lessons to angels, books for seraphs to read, is a strange fact!
Perhaps the angelic enquirers ask such questions as this–How is God
just and yet the Justifier of the ungodly? At first it must have been,
I think, a wonder that He who said, "In the day you eat thereof you
shall surely die," could have permitted man to live on and to have a
hope of eternal life.
How could He who says that He will by no means clear the guilty yet
bestow His favors upon guilty men? Angels wonder as they see how,
through the Substitution of Jesus Christ, God can be sternly just and
yet abundantly gracious! And while they learn this, they long to
discover more of the Truth of God wrapped up in the one great
Sacrifice–they peer and pry and search and consider and, therefore,
the doctrines of the Gospel are spoken of as "things which the angels
desire to look into."
Now think–if these glorious spirits who need not to be
redeemed–intently gaze upon the Redeemer, should not we, also, desire
to look into the mysteries of His death? O men and women, is it nothing
to you that the Son of God should give His life as a ransom for many?
If these spotless ones marvel at that sacred bath of blood by which sin
is washed away, will not you, who are covered with defilement, stop
awhile to see the Lord whose flowing veins afford such purging? I think
if I saw an angel intently gazing upon any object, if I were a
passerby, I should stop and look, too. Have
you never noticed in the streets that if one person stands still and
looks up, or is occupied with gazing into a shop window, others become
curious and also look? I would enlist that faculty of curiosity which
is within every man and prompt you to search with the angels as they
pry into the underlying meaning of the fact and doctrine of Atonement!
They stand at the foot of the Cross ravished, astounded, yes, all
Heaven to this day has never ceased its amazement at the dying Son of
God made sin for men! And will none of you spare an hour to look this
way and see your best Friend? Shall it be that time out of mind we must
come into our pulpits and talk of Christ to deaf ears and speak to our
fellow men about the Grace which is brought to them, only to find that
they treat it as an old wives' fable or a story with which they have
nothing to do? Ah, my careless Hearer, I wish you were in the same
plight as I was in once when I was burdened with a sense of my
transgressions. If you felt as I did, you would grab that word,
"Grace," right eagerly and be delighted with the promise made to
"faith."
You would make up your mind that if Prophets searched out salvation; if
Apostles reported it; if angels longed to know it, you yourself would
find it or perish in searching after it! Do you forget that you must
have eternal life or you are undone forever? Do not trifle with your
eternal interests! Do not be careless where earth and Heaven are in
earnest! Prophets, Apostles, angels all beckon you to seek the Lord!
Awake, you that sleep! Arise, O sluggish soul! A thousand voices call
you to bestir yourself and receive the Grace which has come to you!
We have already gone a long way with this text, rising step by step. We
have stood where angels gaze. Now behold another wonder–we rise beyond
them to the angels' Master. Christ is the substance of this salvation!
For what says the text? The Prophets spoke "beforehand of the
sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." Ah, there is
the point! To save men Jesus suffered. The Manhood and the Godhead of
Christ endured inconceivable anguish! All through His life our Lord was
"a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief." His was the bravest heart
that ever lived and the gentlest spirit that ever breathed, but the
most crushed and downtrodden! He went from one end of our heavens to
the other like a cloud of sympathy, dropping showers of blessing.
All the trials of His people He carried in His heart and all their sins
pressed heavily upon His soul–His daily burden of care for all His
people was such as none can sympathize with to the fullest, even though
like He they have kept the flock of God. I have sometimes had intense
sympathy with Moses–I hope I am not egotistical in comparing small
things with great–when he cried, "Why have You afflicted Your servant?
And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You lay the burden
of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I
begotten them, that You should say to me, Carry them in your bosom as a
nursing father bears the sucking child, to the land which You swore
unto their fathers? I am not able to bear all this people alone because
it is too heavy for me."
But what was the care of the tribes in the wilderness on Moses' heart
compared with the myriads upon myriads that lay upon the heart of
Christ, a perpetual burden to His spirit? The sufferings of His life
must never be forgotten, but they were consummated by the agonies of
His death. There was never such a death! Physically it was equal in
pain to the sufferings of any of the martyrs. But its peculiarity of
excessive grief did not lie in His bodily sufferings–His
soul-sufferings were the soul of His sufferings! Martyrs are sustained
by the Presence of their God, but Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me?" That cry never came up from the stakes of
Smithfield, or from the agonies of the Spanish torture chambers, for
God was with His witnesses! But He was not with Christ! Here was the
depth of His woe!
Now, I pray you, if you will manifest some sign of thought and
softness, remember that if the Son of God became a man so that He might
suffer to the death for men, it is astonishing that men should turn
deaf ears to the salvation which He accomplished! I hear from His Cross
His sad complaint, "Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold
and see if there was ever sorrow like My sorrow, which is done to Me."
Oh, if you are born of woman and have a heart that has any flesh about
it, think well of the salvation, "the Grace, which is brought unto
you," by the sufferings of the Son of God! One other step remains. It
cannot be higher–it is on the same level and I beseech you to stand
upon it and think a while, you that have thought so little of
yourselves and of your God.
It is this. The Holy Spirit is the witness to all this. It was the Holy
Spirit that spoke in the Prophets. It was the Holy Spirit who was with
those who reported the Gospel at the first. It is the same Holy Spirit
who every day bears witness to Christ. Do you not know that we still
have miracles in the Christian Church? Scoffers come to us and say,
"Work a miracle and we will believe you." We work miracles every day!
Had you been present at a meeting held here last month you would have
heard something not far short of one hundred persons, one after
another, assert that by the preaching of the
Gospel in this place lately, their lives have been completely changed.
In the case of some of these the change is very obvious to all persons
acquainted with them.
How was this great change achieved? By the Holy Spirit through the
Gospel of your salvation! But I need not quote those special cases.
There are many here who would tell you, if this were the time to speak,
where they used to spend their Sundays and what was their delight. All
things have become new with them. They now seek after holiness as
earnestly as they once pursued evil! Though they are not what they want
to be, they are not what they used to be. They never thought of purity
or goodness, or anything of the kind, but they loved the wages of
unrighteousness and now they loathe the things they once loved! I have
seen moral miracles quite as marvelous in their line as the healing of
a leper or the raising of the dead! This is the witness of the Holy
Spirit which He continues to bear in the Church and, by that witness I
entreat you to stop and think of the blessed salvation which can work
the same miracle in you.
From the first day in which man fell–when the Holy Spirit, at the
gates of Eden presented the Gospel in the first promise–all down the
prophetic ages and then by Christ and by His Apostles and onward by all
the men whom God has sent, since, to speak with power, the Holy Spirit
entreats you to consider Christ and His salvation! To this end He
convinces the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to
come–that men may turn unto the salvation of God and live forever! By
the Spirit of the living God I entreat you, dear Hearers, to neglect no
longer the great salvation which has won the admiration of all holy
beings and has the seal of the Triune God upon its forefront!
II. So far I have commended my Lord's salvation and now I would desire
you, with all this in your minds, to turn to the prayer in the 119th
Psalm–"Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Your
salvation, according to Your Word." Use the prayer with this
intent–Lord, I have been hearing what Prophets and Apostles and angels
think of Your salvation. What Your Son and what Your Spirit think of
it. Now let me humbly say what I think of it–Oh that it were mine! Oh
that it would come to me! This, then, is my second head. I would
RECOMMEND THE PRAYER OF
THE PSALMIST.
I will say about it, first, that it is, in itself, a very gracious
prayer, for it is offered on right grounds. "Let Your mercies come also
unto me." There is no mention of merit or desert. His entreaty is only
for mercy. He pleads guilty and throws himself upon the prerogative of
the King who can pardon offenders. Are you willing, my dear Hearer, you
who have never sought the Savior–are you willing at this moment to
stand on that ground and to ask for salvation as the result of mercy?
You shall have it on such terms, but you can never be saved until you
will acknowledge that you are guilty and submit to Justice.
Observe the plural, "Let your mercies come unto me," as if David felt
that he needed a double share of it, yes, a sevenfold measure of it!
Elsewhere he cried, "According unto the multitude of Your tender
mercies blot out my transgressions." Our sense of sin leads us to use
similar language. Lord, I need much mercy, manifold mercy, multiplied
mercy! I need mercy upon mercy! I need forgiving mercy! I need
regenerating mercy! I need mercy for the present as well as for the
past and I shall need mercy to keep me in the future if I am to be
saved at all! Friend, set your plea on that ground! Multiplied sins
crave multiplied mercies. "Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord."
It is a gracious prayer, because it asks for the right thing–"Your
salvation"–not a salvation of my own invention, but, "Your salvation."
God's salvation is one in which His Divine Sovereignty is revealed and
that Sovereignty must be accepted and adored. Do not dispute against
God's salvation, but accept it in its entirety, just as it is revealed.
Receive the salvation which the Lord planned in eternity–which He
worked out on Calvary and which He applies to the heart by the Holy
Spirit. You need salvation from sinning as well as salvation from Hell
and the Lord will give you that. You need salvation from self to God
and that, too, He will bestow. Ask for all that the Lord intends by His
salvation and includes in it. "Let Your mercies come also unto me, even
Your salvation."
You see, dear Brothers and Sisters, that the prayer is put in the right
form, for it is added, "Even Your salvation according to Your Word." He
wishes to be saved in the manner which the Lord has appointed. Dear
Hearer, where are you? Are you hidden away in the foggy corners? I wish
I could get a hold of your hand and speak as a Brother to you. You do
not want God to go out of the way of His Word to save you, do you? You
are willing to be saved in the Scriptural way, the Biblical way! People
nowadays will do anything but keep to the Word of God! They will follow
any book but the Bible! Now, pray the Lord to give you the salvation of
the Bible in the Bible's own way.
Lord, if Your Word says I must repent, give me Your salvation and cause
me to repent! If Your Word says that I must confess my sin, give me
Your salvation in the confession of sin! If You say I must trust
Christ, Lord, help me, now, to trust Him–only grant me Your salvation
according to Your Word. Observe that the whole prayer is conceived and
uttered in a humble spirit. It is, "Let Your salvation come also unto
me." He admits his helplessness. He cannot get at the mercy! He needs
it to come to him. He is so wounded and so sick that he cannot put on
the plaster nor reach the medicine and, therefore, he seeks the Lord to
bring it to him.
He is like the man half dead on the road to Jericho and needs that
someone should pour on the oil and wine, for he cannot help himself by
reason of his spiritual lethargy and death. "Let Your mercies come to
me, O Lord." This implies that there is a barrier between him and the
mercy. The road appears to be blocked up. The devil intervenes and his
fears hedge up the way and he cries to God to clear the road. "Lord,
let Your mercies come! Did you not say, Let there be light and there
was light? So let Your mercy come to me, a poor dying sinner and I
shall have it, Lord! But it must come to me by Your power. Lo, here I
lie at Hell's dark door and feel within my spirit as if the sentence of
condemnation were registered in Heaven against me! But let Your mercies
come also unto me, O God, even Your salvation, according to Your Word."
That is a very gracious prayer.
In the second place this prayer may be supported by gracious arguments.
May the Spirit of God help you to plead them. I will suppose some poor
heart painfully longing to use this prayer. Here are arguments for you.
Pray like this. Say, " Lord, let Your mercy come to me, for I need
mercy." Do not go on the tack of trying to show that you are good,
because mercy will then pass you by. To argue merit is to plead against
yourself! Whenever you say, "Lord, I am as good as other people. I try
to do my best," and so on, you act as foolishly as if a beggar at your
door should plead that he was not very badly off, not half so needy as
others and neither scantily fed nor badly clothed. This would be a new
method of begging and a very bad one!
No, no! State your case in all its terrible truthfulness. Say, "O Lord,
I feel that nobody in all this world needs Your mercy more than I do!
Let my need plead with You! Give me Your salvation. I am no impostor, I
am a sinner–let Your mercy and Your Truth visit me in very deed." Your
soul's wounds are not such as sham beggars make with chemicals– they
are real sores–plead them with the God of all Grace! Your poverty is
not that which wears rags abroad and fine linen at home–you are
utterly bankrupt and this you may urge before the Lord as a reason for
His mercy.
Next plead this–"Lord, You know and You have made me to know somewhat
of what will become of me if Your mercy does not come to me–I must
perish, I must perish miserably! I have heard the Gospel and have
neglected it. I have been a Sabbath-breaker, even when I thought I was
a Sabbath-keeper. I have been a despiser of Christ, even when I stood
up and sang His praises, for I sang them with a hypocrite's lips. The
hottest place in Hell will surely be mine unless Your mercy comes to
me. Oh, send that mercy, now." This is good and prevalent
pleading–hold on to it.
Then plead, "If Your mercy shall come to me, it will be a great wonder,
Lord. I have not the confidence to do more than faintly hope it may
come, but, oh, if You ever do blot out my sins I will tell the world of
it! I will tell the angels of it! Through eternity I will sing Your
praises and claim to be, of all the saved ones, the most remarkable
instance of what Your Sovereign Grace can do! Do you feel like that,
dear Hearer? I used to think if the Lord saved me He would have begun
on a new line altogether–that His mercy would have sent up her song an
octave higher than before! In every man's case there will be a
conviction that there is a something so special about his guilt that
there will be something very special about the mercy which can put that
guilt away.
Plead, then, the peril of your soul and the Glory which Grace will gain
by your rescue. Plead the greatness of the Grace needed, for Christ
delights to do great marvels and His name is Wonderful. "Lord, pardon
my iniquity, for it is great. Lord, save me, for I am a nobody and it
will be a wonder, indeed, if Your Grace shall visit me." Then you can
put this to the good Savior. Tell Him if He will give you His
salvation, He will not be impoverished by the gift. "Lord, I am a
thirsty soul, but You are such a River that if I drink from You there
will be no fear of my exhausting Your boundless supply." They put up
over certain little nasty, dirty ponds by the roadside, "No dogs may be
washed here." Pity the dogs if they were!
But no one puts up such a notice on the banks of great, glorious Old
Father Thames! You may wash your dogs if you like and his flood will
flow on! There is too much of it to be so readily polluted. So is it
with the boundless mercy of God! God permits many a poor dog of a
sinner to be washed in it and yet it is just as full and efficacious as
ever! You need not
be afraid of enjoying too much sunlight, for the sun loses nothing by
your basking in his beams. So is it with Divine Mercy–it can visit you
and bless you and remain as great and glorious as ever! Out of the
fullness of Christ millions may still receive salvation and He will
remain the same overflowing Fountain of Grace! Plead, then, "Lord, if
such a poor soul as I shall be saved, I shall be made supremely happy,
but none of Your attributes or glories shall be one jot the less
illustrious! You will be as great and blessed a God as ever."
You may even say, "Lord, now that Your Son Jesus has died, it will not
dishonor You to save me. Before the atoning Sacrifice it might have
stained Your Justice to pass by sin, but now that the Sacrifice is
offered, You can be just and yet the Justifier. Lord, none shall say
You are unjust if You save even me now that Jesus Christ has bled.
Since You have made my salvation possible without infringement of Your
Law, I beseech You fulfill the design of the great Sacrifice and save
even me!" There is another plea implied in the prayer and a very sweet
argument it is–"Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord." It
means–"It has come to so many before, therefore let it also come unto
me. Lord, if I were the only one and You had never saved a sinner
before, yet would I venture upon Your Word and promise! Especially
would I come and trust the blood of Jesus! But, Lord, I am not the
first by many millions. I beseech You, then, of Your great love, let
Your salvation come unto me."
You notice in the parable of the prodigal that the forlorn feeder of
swine was the only son that had gone astray and consequently the first
that ever tried whether his father would receive him. The elder brother
had not gone astray and was there at home to grumble at his younger
brother. But the poor prodigal son, though he had no instance before
him of his father's willingness to forgive, was bold to try, by faith,
his father's heart! None had trod that way before, yet he made bold to
explore it! He felt that he should not be cast out. But when we hear
any of you say, "I will arise and go to my Father," scores of us are
ready to leap out of our seats and cry, "Come along, Brother, for we
have come and the gracious Father has received us!"
I do not know whether the elder brother is here to murmur at a penitent
sinner. I am happy to say I have none of his spirit. It will make my
heart happy! The bells of my whole nature will ring for joy if I may
only bring one of my poor, prodigal brothers back to my great Father's
house! Oh, come along with you and let this be the plea–"You have
received so many, O receive me!" Cry, "Bless me, even me, also, O my
Father!" The Lord has not come to the end of His mercy. Jesus has not
come to the end of His saving work. There is room for you and there
will be room for thousands upon thousands until the Master of the house
has risen up and shut the door. He has not risen up, nor closed the
door as yet and still His mercy cries, "Come to Me! Come to Me! Come to
Me and he that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."
I will close by assuring you that this blessedly gracious prayer which
I have helped to back up with arguments will be answered by our
gracious God. Oh, be sure of this! He never sent His Prophets to preach
to us a salvation which cannot be ours! He never sent His Apostles to
report to us concerning a mere dream! He never set the angels wondering
at an empty speculation! He never gave His Son to be a Ransom which
will not redeem and He never committed His Spirit to witness to that
which will, after all, mock the sinner's need! No, He is able to
save–there is salvation–there is salvation to be had, to be had now,
even now!
We are sitting in the light in this house while a dense fog causes
darkness all around, even darkness which may be felt. This is an emblem
of the state of those who are in Christ–they have light in their
hearts, light in their habitations, light in Jesus Christ! O come to
Him and find salvation now! May God bring any that have been in
darkness into His marvelous light and bring them now and unto His name
shall be praise forever and ever! Amen and amen.
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The Lily Among Thorns