God’s Glory and His Goodness

God's Glory and His Goodness

(No. 3448)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1915.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE.

"And he said, I beseech You, show me Your Glory. And He said, I will
make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of
the Lord before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And He said, You cannot
see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live. And the Lord
said, Behold, there is aplace by Me, and you shall stand upon a rock:
and it shall come to pass, while My Glory passes by, that I will put
you in a cliff of the rock, and will cover you with My hand when I pass
by: and I will take away My hand, andyou shall see My back parts: but
My face shall not be seen." Exodus 33:18-23.

IT has frequently happened that good men in times of great trial have
asked God either to give them a signal token of His love, or a special
Revelation of Himself, that they might be strengthened and encouraged
thereby. I suppose of many here present it is true that when called by
the Master to great labor or deep affliction, you have been conscious
of the same inward desire–your heart has craved after some
extraordinary dispensation of Grace to counterbalance the extraordinary
visitation of suffering that has overtaken you. Were you indulged with
singular nearness to God and unusual glimpses of His Glory, you feel it
would then be easy to leave all matters in His hands and acquit
yourselves valiantly–strong for service, whatever there is to do–and
patient in enduring whatever there may be to bear. That prayer, "I
beseech You, show me Your Glory," is a natural yearning, a spontaneous
impulse of the soul. Albeit, I know that there is a grievous
incredulity, a sinful unbelief which asks to see signs and wonders–and
without them men will not believe– yet I think there is a desire which
springs up in the breasts of Believers from an earnest childlike
feeling of dependence upon the great Father God which is not sinful,
and which God accepts–and to which He often sends a gracious reply.

Now we will not linger over any preliminary reflections. Our text is
rather long, and our time this evening is very short. Let us draw your
attention, in the first place, to the fact that–

I. GOD'S GLORY EVIDENTLY LIES IN HIS GOODNESS.

You observe that when Moses said, "I beseech You, show me Your Glory,"
the answer given him was this, "I will make all My goodness pass before
you." So then, Beloved, if we could actually see the Glory of the Lord,
then the Infinite graciousness of His thoughts, His words and His
deeds, all concentrated in one noontide effulgence and all beaming
forth with ineffable brightness, would break on our vision! But, of
course, it is not a Glory to be seen with mortal eyes, for God is a
Spirit and, therefore, He is not to be discerned by our weak senses, or
to be understood by our gross materialism. Still, I put it thus–could
God be beheld by the mind of man and His perfections unfolded to our
creature apprehensions, we would perceive that the chief splendor of
His Majesty lay in His Infinite Benevolence! God is Love. This is the
prominent point of the Divine Character. Though all excellent qualities
beyond measure or degree, surpassing thought or reckoning, could be
found in Him, yet, like the blended hues of many colors in the rainbow,
the whole might be summed up in such words as these, "Your goodness."

Some sublime evidences and brilliant reflections of this goodness of
God may be seen in the works of Creation. Who can leisurely walk in the
fields, or saunter among the hills and dells, observing the beauty and
order, the uses and capabilities of this fertile earth, without
breathing a tribute of gratitude to the goodness of the Creator? Who
can look up to the heavens with a gleam of sensibility, or a glimmer of
intelligence, by day or by night from these dusky streets of ours, and
observe the luster of the constellations, or meditate on the regular
motion of the celestial bodies, without an overwhelming impression of
the transcendent goodness of the Lord? Yes, "the earth is full of the
goodness of the Lord." The

woods ring with the melody of "happy birds that hymn their rapture in
the ear of God." The cattle on a thousand hills low out His praises and
winged insects in countless numbers hum their joy! The world is His
temple in which everything speaks of His Glory! Some glimpses of His
goodness may be perceived in Providence, too. The history of man is the
unrolling of the volume of Divine Benevolence to a great extent. That
silver thread runs through all the web of human history. Yet, my
Brothers and Sisters, these are but glimpses, for, alas, in Creation
(and in Providence, too) much is to be seen of the terror and of the
Justice of God as well as of His goodness. Earthquakes swallow cities.
Storms sweep away not only the possessions men own, but the men,
themselves, who own the possessions. Shipwrecks are constantly
occurring and the sea is a vast cemetery. Dire famines are still
abroad. Fell diseases stalk forth and mow down their helpless victims.
The Lord Most High is terrible, yet surely He is good! His decrees are
inscrutable. What then? We must be always ready to worship Him with
resignation as well as with exultation, with bated breath as well as
with grateful song. Tell me of the goodness of God to the whole animate
Creation! Commend me to the tiny insects that dance in the sunbeams of
His widespread benevolence and I tell you that He is great in power!
His ways baffle our scrutiny. For by one chill wind, by one cold frost,
in the course of a night millions of millions of those creatures perish
at once! Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God! Whether
in Creation or in Providence, between the tenderness that fosters life
and the sternness that destroys life, the balance is held so steadily
that we can but get glimpses of God's goodness by broadly surveying or
minutely examining them.

The full display of the goodness of God, however, is reserved for the
working of His Grace in the redemption of man. Do you ask wherein the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared? The answer is,
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His
mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of
the Holy Spirit, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ
our Savior." It is here at the Cross, by the blood of the Covenant,
that Jehovah makes His goodness known in its most Divine forms! That
God should be good to creatures is something to be thankful for, but
that He should be good to sinfulcreatures'exhibits His Character in a
far more marvelous light and should compel our gratitude beyond all
degree. That He should plan a scheme of redemption, that He should give
His Son to carry out that purpose, that His Holy Spirit should bow the
heavens and come down and be resident on earth, dwelling in the bodies
of His people, that He might work out the good pleasure of His own
will– herein is goodness! Is the earth a temple?–its windows are few
and narrow, letting in little light compared with the Temple of God's
Grace which seems to be a very crystal palace, letting in the light of
His Grace on all sides! Or rather it is like one huge pearl, whose
light beams from within and makes the earth and the nations bright with
the radiance of its glory! If you would see the goodness of God in its
purest tenderness, you must come into the Sanctum Sanctorum, into the
Holy of Holies, where He dwells in the hearts of His people, who form
the living Temple of the living God! The experience of one and all who
know Him will bear witness to this. It would appear, however, that in
the manifestation of this Grace, the goodness of God shines in a
peculiar light. Another attribute is blended with it. Permit me to read
the verse to you–"I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I
will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show
mercy."

You observe here, that while God's goodness is His Glory, the very
glory of His goodness lies in His Sovereignty. What less than this can
be meant by the sentence, "I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy." God is not
bound to be gracious to anyone, and He is peculiarly jealous of His
right to bestow His Grace where He will. "Shall I not do as I will with
My own?" is the question which the Most High seems to be constantly
asking. He will show mercy, but He will take care so to grant it that
His own absolute prerogative shall be conspicuous. He exercises a right
of His own in every act of mercy–it is not of debt, but of
Grace–therefore, no flesh shall glory in His Presence. The creature
may not say unto his Maker, "Why did You made me thus?" No man is
permitted to challenge His authority, or ask, "Why do You withheld such
a gift from me, or why have You bestowed such a gift on another"?
Against His fiat there is no appeal. "I will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." I know
this attribute of Divine Sovereignty does not shine in a very lovely
light to many eyes. Oh, may those eyes be touched with a heavenly
salve–and they will see better! The naked grandeur of the fact is not
to be impeached–the eyes are at fault! Let them be abashed–the eyes
that are dazzled and blinded by the excess of its splendor, for the
Lord is God, He gives no account of His doings. The Lord Most High does
as He wills among the armies of Heaven and with the inhabitants of this
lower world!

Glory be to His name. Some of us have learned to love this attribute
and to rejoice therein. We thank God that He is King. We delight in His
absolute Sovereignty, knowing as we do that He is too wise to err, too
good to be unkind. Therefore, we say, "Let His will be done on earth
even as it is in Heaven"–and in all things let His counsels prevail–
for in submission to Him we find all the purposes of His heart on our
side, while in resistance to Him we find all His decrees set in array
against us! Let not the creature, therefore, ask account from the
Creator! Let not the subject call in question his rightful Lord! Above
all, let not the disciple have a scruple about His Master's teaching.
Not, indeed, that we should gaze at this one attribute till our eyes
are so blinded with its dazzling splendor that we cannot perceive other
attributes of the Almighty. All His perfections blend and
harmonize–none of them clash or contradict one another!

God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, but He always exercises
that Sovereignty with respect to justice. He treats no man unequally.
In judgment He is impartial. Among lost spirits, not one shall dare
charge the Judge of All with partiality. The equity of their sentence
shall be palpable alike to the criminal and the foe. Unmoved by passion
or by prejudice, the heavens shall declare His righteousness–and Hell
itself shall be unable to impeach the integrity with which He
administers the laws and statutes of His universal Kingdom! Neither
does God exercise that Sovereignty inconsistently with wisdom. He has
chosen a people, and He did not choose them because of their merits,
yet depend upon it, He made a wise choice! Were we endowed with more
wisdom, we might easily discern the choice God has made is not only
gracious, but highly judicious. He is not blind and unwitting that the
counsel of His heart should be distorted with a random change or an
inevitable fatality. What though we cannot decipher the why or the
wherefore, there is a reason which He has not been pleased to reveal.
Therefore, it ill becomes us to pry into matters so far beyond the
sphere of our intelligence! And still less would it be fitting to
ascribe to mere caprice motives which we are unable to fathom. Our
Sovereign Lord acts according to His own will, it is true, but know
that He acts according to the counsel of His wiil, that is to say, not
without deliberation, forethought and prescience of all the issues! Nor
is this Sovereign choice of God ever exercised apart from His goodness.
He is infinitely gracious, infinitely benevolent, infinitely loving.
His election makes the Grace He bestows, the compassion He feels and
the love He manifests more abundantly conspicuous.

Some preachers have set forth this Doctrine as if it were their delight
to represent the Almighty as an austere Ruler, to be dreaded rather
than to be revered! By exaggerating one feature of His admirable
Character, or rather by neglecting to draw other features in their due
proportion, they have produced an unseemly caricature, instead of an
attractive delineation. His absolute dominion has thus made men shudder
as if it were an awful despotism wherewith He tramples down the
creatures whom verily He upholds by His power! But know you that the
Lord is good, that His tender mercy is over all His works, and His
mercy endures forever! Though in the exercise of His supreme
prerogative, He says, "I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,"
yet He speaks again in words like these, "As I live, says the Lord, I
have no pleasure in him that dies, but had rather that he turn unto Me
and live." He wills not, He declares, the death of the sinner. Infinite
Mercy is not inconsistent with unrivalled Sovereignty. Do you tell me
to show you that? No, but I cannot show you it– it is for God to show
you! Who am I that I should attempt to reveal the Infinite? Go to Him
and put up the prayer, "Show me Your Glory," and you shall see His
goodness with His Sovereignty illuminating it like a blaze of light,
always making it more resplendent, never obscuring it! At any rate,
Beloved, the Doctrine is transparent enough to arrest attention. Do
not, I beseech you, reject it. I know how angry it makes some men to
allude to it, but I know also how good a thing it often proves for them
to be incensed, when the Truth of God is more understandable than
edible, for if the arrows of God stick fast in their conscience and
wound them, there will come healing afterwards. Anything that wakes men
from their apathy and makes them think is good. What though this
Doctrine may look like a stumbling block in your pathway, it is one of
the great thought leaders that has often brought men on their knees
before the majesty of Heaven!

But ah, the best of men, while here below, can only have a partial view
of this Glory of God's goodness and sovereignty. Moses, highly favored
as he was, beholds it but in a measure. He sees the skirts of God's
garment–he cannot see His face. And yet it has been well observed that
this very Moses afterwards saw the Glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ on the mountain of Transfiguration. "What you know not now, you
shall know hereafter." Here you can but know in part, but soon, and oh,
how soon!–you shall know even as you are known. The veil will soon be
torn, my Brothers and Sisters! If we have believed in Jesus, the least
among us shall soon be wiser than the wisest of those who still linger
behind in the wilderness! We shall stand before the Throne of God upon
that sea of glass that glows with fire and cast our

crowns before the Eternal One, and see the Infinite One and rejoice in
the sight! Thus have we tried to show you that the Glory of God lies in
His goodness and His Sovereignty.

II. HIS GLORY CAN BE BEST SEEN IN THE CLIFF OF THE ROCK.

Moses was put into the cliff of the rock. Surely I am not guilty of
trifling with a literal fact or fancifully spiritualizing the sacred
narrative, when I take up the language of the Apostle Paul, and say,
"That Rock was Christ." If the Rock from which the Israelites drank was
Christ, surely this Cliff in the Rock, this splitting of the Rock, this
making a shield and shelter of the Rock, was a true type of our Lord
Jesus Christ–

"Rock of Ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee."

It is no poetical fiction, no coinage of the brain. It is a substantial
Truth of God that Jesus is the Cliff of the Rock wherein we stand when
we come to God in Christ Jesus. There it is that we can look upon the
goodness and the Sovereignty of Jehovah, and more fully survey the
glorious vision than it were possible for us to behold anywhere else.
Apart from Christ, men do not see the true goodness of God. The
description that some preachers give of God's goodness amounts to
this–that men's sins are such trifles that God will entirely overlook
them as frailties of the creature, or if He should punish the
transgressors, it will be with gentle discipline and not with fiery
indignation–and that only for a short time–after which they will
either perish by annihilation, or else perhaps they will enter into
life everlasting by a general restitution. Sin is treated with an
indifference that borders on levity! It excites so little aversion
among men, that they begin to think it of no very great account in the
sight of God! He is too good and generous to be hard upon His poor
subjects, who did but follow their own inclinations and trample on His
Laws! Knowing what they are, He pities them, as if vice were a disease
and crime a misfortune! Take heed, my Friends, of all such sophistries!
That leniency is not goodness. In fact, it is the very opposite. It has
neither integrity nor benignity to recommend it. Take the case of a
legislator or a judge, whose sense of justice might be lax, while his
feelings were too tender to denounce a crime and too timid to condemn a
criminal. Would you consider him deserving of eulogy? Suppose a
magistrate on the bench should say, "Well, it is true this man did
break into a dwelling house, smite the servant, kill the owner and
wreck the property. The evidence is clear, but there are extenuating
circumstances. He needed a little money, or he would not have done it.
Poor man! The money tempted him! Let us take a merciful view of the
matter. Is not money a commodity that everybody is anxious to get? Are
we not all exposed to temptation? Do not put him in prison! Do not
sentence him to death–how would you like to be hanged? Admonish the
unhappy fellow, but give him his liberty! Encourage him with the hope
of a better career in the future."

What would you think of this new species of charity? When felony is but
a misdemeanor, and murder is condoned as a casualty, I can hardly
imagine you would feel very comfortable with the red-handed culprit by
your side in this Tabernacle! You would rather not have him go home and
sleep in one of your houses tonight–your generous hospitality would
rather grudge him a cordial welcome! No, we say that kindness to the
murderer is cruelty to the nation! The easy good nature that makes
light of sin is a wrong to the community! The reprieve and the release
of heinous offenders is a breaking up of the defenses that shield us
from men whose conduct is unscrupulous and whose disposition is
ferocious. Or when, to give another example, I see a man in Holland,
digging away at the dykes which are made to keep out the sea, I might
ignorantly resent any interference with him. Why should not the man
have a little sand if he needs it to put on his floor, or why may not
he take home a bag of earth to make the things in his garden grow
better? Do not molest him! No, but with the knowledge I now possess of
the consequences, I would say he will let in the sea–he will break up
the ramparts! It cannot be endured. It must not be tolerated. He
infringes the law to the hazard of his neighbors, so that it becomes
such a high offense that mercy extended to him would be a misery to the
surrounding population! What say you, then, my dear Friends, shall not
the Judge of all the earth do right? Would you impute to Him a pitiful
clemency that rather exposes weakness than exhibits strength of
character? No such callousness or apathy, no such disregard of the
rights and wrongs of the inhabitants of the world belongs to the
government of the Most High! Even the mercy of God, which is revealed
in Christ and recorded in the Bible, is wise and discriminating. He is
as severe as if He were not kind and He is as tender as if He were not
rigorous. His Justice is never eclipsed by His Mercy and His Mercy is
not diminished, but rather is increased in splendor by His Justice!
Never, I pray you, think that men can understand the goodness of God
till they see Christ Jesus! When they see Him Crucified, they discover
how He pardons sin, but not till an Atonement is

made–how He puts away the transgression, but not till His Law is
fulfilled and made honorable by the suffering of the Only Begotten! He
does not pull up the sluices of iniquity and let loose the floods upon
mankind. He is too good to do that. He lays help upon One that is
mighty and executes His vengeance upon the sinner's Substitute. You
never see His goodness till you get into Christ.

Nor does any man ever see God's Sovereignty aright until he comes into
the Cliff of the Rock, Jesus Christ. I love the high Doctrines of the
Covenant of Grace, I must confess, most devoutly and devotedly. But of
this I am quite certain, that all the counsels of the Father concerning
His people, and all the benefits He has conferred on His people were
bestowed in the Person of His Well-Beloved Son! Still, I know of no
greater pest under Heaven than high Doctrine preached or believed in as
an abstract system of divinity or a blind fatalism by those who have
not their heart set upon the One Mediator whom God appointed, the
blessed Redeemer whom He has accepted as our Representative. Oh, how
they caricature God as a Moral Governor! Oh, how they burlesque the
Gospel as a proclamation of good tidings to the children of men! The
love they attempt to describe is unlovely–and the mercy they essay to
publish is unattractive! They sing hymns of Grace to the tune of
reprobation! But in Christ Jesus you may see how Sovereignty blends
with sympathy and how the strong will that knows no mutability is
consistent with the goodwill that owns no animosity! The Lord is King,
but the silver scepter is in His hand. He fulfils His own decrees, but
His decrees are not grievous, for Christ is the Messenger of the
Covenant and He proclaims His readiness to receive every heavy-laden
soul that comes to Him for mercy!

Now I further remark that in the gifts of the Gospel and the blessings
of Christ we see Divine Goodness. You will never see Divine Goodness so
clearly as you do in the fact that God gave His Son. "God so loved the
world that He gave"–gave what?–Gave what token of His love? Gave the
air we breathe, the fruits of the earth we feed upon, the flowers that
charm our eyes, the gorgeous sun that shines resplendent in the
skies–these are proofs of His benevolence no doubt, but all other
proofs are comprehended in this–"God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life." The Gospel of good news declares everywhere
that whoever believes in Christ is not condemned. Herein the amazing
goodness of God is described in a few words–an Infinity of meaning is
pressed into a single sentence! The blessings that God has conferred on
us in Christ– comprehending as they do the Holy Spirit who brings all
things to us–show the riches of His goodness! Earthly blessings are
but the lower springs–and they are often discolored in a measure by
the soil through which they flow–but heavenly blessings are the upper
springs, leaping from the Eternal Throne, immortal and pure, making
those that drink pure and immortal, so that they shall never die! In
Christ you can see Divine Sovereignty as you never saw it before. Oh, I
like to think that Christ is King–that over all the world He
reigns–that God has committed all power into His hands who is our
Brother, touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

The sons of Jacob might not go to Pharaoh, but it was a good thing when
it was said, "Go to Joseph," for they would, none of them, be afraid to
go to their brother! And now there is a mediatorial Kingdom set up on
the earth in which Christ, alone, is the Head. And who would wish to
have a better Head and a better King? We can trust the power with Him,
for He has absolute wisdom, unlimited goodness, unbounded Grace. Oh,
how glad are we that the Lord reigns and that Christ Jesus is Head over
all things to His Church, that He is King of kings and Lord of lords,
according to that ancient saying, "Yet have I set My King upon My holy
hill of Zion." In Christ, Sovereignty and goodness shine as with
noontide radiance!

And now I would ask you, my dear Hearers, to remember that the
Sovereign Grace of God may be seen in the Gospel that is preached to
you. God might, if He had willed, have made salvation conditional upon
your performing certain works. He has not done so–He has been pleased
to give salvation to every soul that will believe in Jesus Christ! In
His Sovereignty He has been pleased to make faith the channel of saving
blessing. He, in His Sovereignty, might have ordained a thousand Graces
as the way to mercy, but He has only put two. "Repent," He says, and in
another place, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." The knowledge of
salvation might have been put so far beyond the reach of common
intelligence that the whole of the British Museum could not have
contained the volumes in which it was written–and an entire lifetime
could not have sufficed to learn the rudiments of this best of all the
sciences! Instead of that, He has put it in these simple sentences, "He
that believes and is baptized shall be saved." "He that believes not
shall be damned." Here is His Sovereignty and His goodness, too! Thank
God for so simple a plan of salvation and thank Him, I pray you, for
such promises as He has made. Listen, Sinner! He has said, "Come unto
Me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
He has said, "Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man
his thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord, and He will have mercy
upon him." He might have chosen to send the Gospel to the great and
mighty, but He has dispensed it freely to the poor! He has directed it
to the humble, yes, and He has made a special mark that He has provided
it for every broken and contrite heart that trembles at His Word! How
can you kick at Sovereignty, however absolute, which is exercised in so
tender, so gentle, so merciful a manner? Instead of rebelling against
His scepter, come and kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish
from the way! Bow down before His nailed feet and ask the pardon that
His wounds and death have purchased! Come to His Cross and let your
trust fix itself on His passion which has expiated the guilt of all
Believers! On His Resurrection which has secured life to all that trust
Him, and on His intercession, which guarantees salvation to all that
come unto God by Him–salvation even to the uttermost! Oh, see Him! He
might, if He had so willed, have withheld the Gospel! He might, if He
willed, have clogged the Gospel with terms and conditions which would
make the acceptance of it a hardship! Or He might have denied to you
the hearing of it, even though He gave others that unspeakable
privilege. What, then, should be your gratitude, when He has been
pleased to send His messenger to you with these tidings of Grace, this
proclamation of pardon–"Trust in the Only Begotten, who died on the
Cross, and I will forgive you–forgive you now"? "Though your sins are
as scarlet, they shall be as wool; though they are red like crimson,
they shall be as snow." Oh, yield, yield now! May His blessed Spirit
come with these words of mine, which I would to God could be made more
quick and powerful than they are–may His eternal Spirit come and
clothe them with might and with energy to convict your conscience, to
convert your heart, to renew your spirit, to make you bow before the
Infinite heart so good and yet so absolute! Then might you say, "Great
God, I acknowledge You as my King! I love You because You are a
gracious God. I worship You because You could reject me if You willed.
I kneel at Your footstool and pray You to accept me, not for my merit,
since I have none, but for Your mercy's sake! Oh, for Christ's sake,
have pity upon me!" He will hear you, Sinner! An answer of peace shall
be given you–shall be given you now!

The practical end of all this may be summed up in a few sentences.
Sinner–unsaved, you are in the hands of God to do what He likes with
you. He can destroy you. He can save you. A moth is not more feeble
beneath the finger of a man than you are beneath the finger of God. Be
not, therefore, high-minded. Submit yourself to Him whose power is able
to crush or to uphold you. But know that He in whose hands you are, is
infinitely good and gracious! Therefore, appeal to Him for mercy. By
all means cherish hope. Yield not to despair. Suffer not that demon,
like a nightmare, to sit on your breast, to crush out all your
energies, stifle all your cries and prevent your drawing near to God in
prayer! He is not more majestic and absolute as a Sovereign than He is
benignant and compassionate! When you are in His hands, you are in good
hands. Resist not His will! Repine not at His decrees! Confide in His
clemency. Approach Him in the courts of His house. Fall down at His
Mercy Seat! Adore Him by His generous titles. Seek shelter in His love.
Give earnest attention to the Gospel–believe it implicitly. Right soon
will you then get silent musings, obvious reasoning, solid arguments to
banish fear and nourish hope! God need not have sent His Son into the
world to suffer and to die. It must have been gratuitous on His part.
That you should have a share in this great Redemption could never be
inferred from His Justice! It must be referred to His Grace. But if you
believe Him, then the Redemption is yours! The faith you have in Him is
a token of the favor He has towards you. If you rely upon the simple
fact that Christ died for you, your faith is the substance of the thing
you hope for, and it shall be the evidence of your special Redemption!
His blood was shed for your remission. Because He poured out His soul
unto death, therefore your soul is raised up to everlasting life! Your
relying upon Christ is my warranty for accrediting you with all the
immunities and all the advantages of His salvation!

This Sovereign goodness of God ought to be a great encouragement to any
of you that have been great sinners, because while there is no
competition on your part in which merit might bear the palm, there is a
complacency on His part in which Grace can assert its claims. If He can
save whom He will, He may be as willing to save you who are the most
depraved as He is to save those who have been the most virtuous of
mankind! Do you heartily repent, at this good hour, of your
transgressions? God has not limited the promise of this mercy to those
who have transgressed but a little, but He is known to make the chief
of sinners the objects of His greatest mercy! It is well for us that
Grace is distributed Sovereignly. Better that we should look to His
goodwill than dream of our own free will. To be suitors for the great
benefits He has treasured up for His people is far preferable to being
schemers seeking to justify ourselves and forge a righteousness void of
worth, graceless, heartless and good for nothing! Since He does as He
wills, He may be willing to give to you what you are desirous to ask of
Him. No, He does will to give to you if now He moves your will to
accept at His hand the

rich fruit of the Savior's passion! Never did a soul desire God, but
God desired that soul. Whenever a soul yearns to be saved through Jesus
Christ, admiring the Grace as it has been vouchsafed to others, and
craving the same Grace for itself, that hunger and thirst are prompted
by God, and by God it shall be satisfied, for blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness–they shall be filled!

Oh, come then, come and welcome! What more, what better can I do to
conclude than ring again that silver bell which has so often resounded
clear and loud in this Tabernacle? It has not lost any of its sacred
melody or its enchanting power–

"From the Mount of Calvary, Where the Savior deigned to die, What
transporting sounds I hear, Bursting on my ravished ear– Love's
redeeming work is done! Come and welcome, Sinner, come!" Come, I pray
you, for His mercy's sake. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 45:1-16.

Verses 1-4. Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right
hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and loose the loins of
kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not
be shut I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight I
will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of
iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches
of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which call you by
your name, am the God of Israel For Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel
My elect, I have even called you by your name: I have surnamed you,
though you have not known Me. Long before the period of Cyrus's birth,
this prophecy was written by Isaiah–and surely it must have flashed
solemn conviction upon the heart of the king when he came to read words
like these, in which his very name was mentioned–and all his exploits
and successes, with which he vanquished his enemies, captured their
strong places and cut the gates of brass in pieces! Our God has all
things present before Him. To Him there is no future. All things are in
one eternal now with Him and, therefore, He tells His Prophets the
things that shall be.

5. Iam the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me:
Igirdedyou; though you have not known Me. It is a wonderful
subject–the Providential government of God over princes and potentates
that know Him not–how He raised up Cyrus on the behalf of His people,
that they might be delivered–and though Cyrus did not know it, yet was
he, as it were, an instrument in the hand of God–moved according to
the Divine Will!

6, 7. That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west,
that there is none beside Me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I
form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I
the LORD do all these things. It was to correct the Persian mistake
into which Cyrus had fallen of a duplicate deity–one power creating
light and another power creating darkness. "No," says Jehovah, "I alone
am God."

8, 9. Drop down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down
righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation,
and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it
Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! As many do in these days.
Tongue-valiant men who dare accuse the Most High and arraign Him at
their bar.

9. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Let them
strive with their equals, but who is he that shall come into conflict
with the eternal God?

9, 10. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What are you
making? Or your work, He has no hands? Woe unto him that says unto his
father, What did you beget? Or to the woman, What have you brought
forth? Quarreling with God is a waste of time, is audacity and
presumption! It will end in disaster to us, for the Lord is Lord of
All!

11-13. Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask
Me of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My
hands command you Me? I have made the earth, and created man upon it.
I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts
have I commanded. I have raised him–That is, Cyrus.

13-15. Up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall
build My city, and he shall let go My captives, not for price nor
reward, says the LORD of Hosts. Thus says the LORD, The labor of Egypt,
and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall
come over unto you, and they shall be yours: they shall come after you:
in chains shall they come over, and they shall fall down unto you, they
shall make supplication unto you, saying, Surely God is in you; and
there is none else, there is no God. No other God. The day shall come
in which this shall all be true, when men shall relinquish their idols
and believe in that one great invisible God, the Maker of all things!
For the present we do not see this.

15. Verily you are a God that hides Yourself, O God of Israel, the
Savior. Throughout these long and weary years, man has forgotten or
blasphemed his Maker, and God has sat still and borne it in the
majestic patience of His Infinity.

16. They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall
go to confusion together that are makers of idols.