Immeasurable Love

A Sermon

(No. 1850)

Intended for reading on Lord's-Day, July 26th, 1885,

Delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At [14]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington,

On the evening of June 7th, 1885

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life."–John 3:16

I WAS very greatly surprised the other day, in looking over the list of
texts from which I have preached, to find that I have no record of ever
having spoken from this verse. This is all the more singular, because I
can truly say that it might be put in the forefront of all my volumes
of discourses as the sole topic of my life's ministry. It has been my
one and only business to set forth the love of God to men in Christ
Jesus. I heard lately of an aged minister of whom it was said,
"Whatever his text, he never failed to set forth God as love, and
Christ as the atonement for sin." I wish that much the same may be said
of me. My heart's desire has been to sound forth as with a trumpet the
good news that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life."

We are about to meet around the communion table, and I cannot preach
from this text anything but a simple gospel sermon. Can you desire a
better preparation for communion? We have fellowship with God and with
one another upon the basis of the infinite love which is displayed in
Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel is the fair white linen cloth which
covers the table on which the Communion Feast is set. The higher
truths, those truths which belong to a more enlightened experience,
those richer truths which tell of the fellowship of the higher
life–all these are helpful to holy fellowship; but I am sure not more
so than those elementary and foundation truths which were the means of
our first entrance into the kingdom of God. Babes in Christ and men in
Christ here feed upon one common food. Come, ye aged saints, be
children again; and you that have long known your Lord, take up your
first spelling-book, and go over your A B C again, by learning that God
so loved the world, that he gave his Son to die, that man might live
through him. I do not call you to an elementary lesson because you have
forgotten your letters, but because it is a good thing to refresh the
memory, and a blessed thing to feel young again. What the old folks
used to call the Christ-cross Row contained nothing but the letters;
and yet all the books in the language are made out of that line:
therefore do I call you back to the cross, and to him who bled thereon.
It is a good things for us all to return at times to our starting
place, and make sure that we are in the way everlasting. The love of
our espousals is most likely to continue if we again and again begin
where God began with us, and where we first began with God. It is wise
to come to him afresh, as we came in that first day when, helpless,
needy, heavy-laden, we stood weeping at the cross, and left our burden
at the pierced feet. There we learned to look, and live, and love; and
there would we repeat the lesson till we rehearse it perfectly in
glory.

To-night, we have to talk about the love of God: "God so loved the
world." That love of God is a very wonderful thing, especially when we
see it set upon a lost, ruined, guilty world. What was there in the
world that God should love it? There was nothing lovable in it. No
fragrant flower grew in that arid desert. Enmity to him, hatred to his
truth, disregard of his law, rebellion against his commandments; those
were the thorns and briars which covered the waste land; but no
desirable thing blossomed there. Yet, "God loved the world," says the
text; "so" loved it, that even the writer of the book of John could not
tell us how much; but so greatly, so divinely, did he love it that he
gave his Son, his only Son, to redeem the world from perishing, and to
gather out of it a people to his praise.

Whence came that love? Not from anything outside of God himself. God's
love springs from himself. He loves because it is his nature to do so.
"God is love." As I have said already, nothing upon the face of the
earth could have merited his love, though there was much to merit his
displeasure. This stream of love flows from its own secret source in
the eternal Deity, and it owes nothing to any earth-born rain or
rivulet; it springs from beneath the everlasting throne, and fills
itself full from the springs of the infinite. God loved because he
would love. When we enquire why the Lord loved this man or that, we
have to come back to our Saviour's answer to the question, "Even so,
Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." God has such love in his
nature that he must needs let it flow forth to a world perishing by its
own wilful sin; and when it flowed forth it was so deep, so wide, so
strong, that even inspiration could not compute its measure, and
therefore the Holy Spirit gave us that great little word SO, and left
us to attempt the measurement, according as we perceive more and more
of love divine.

Now, there happened to be an occasion upon which the great God could
display his immeasurable love. The world had sadly gone astray; the
world had lost itself; the world was tried and condemned; the world was
given over to perish, because of its offenses; and there was need for
help. The fall of Adam and the destruction of mankind made ample room
and verge enough for love almighty. Amid the ruins of humanity there
was space for showing how much Jehovah loved the sons of men; for the
compass of his love was no less than the world, the object of it no
less than to deliver men from going down to the pit, and the result of
it no less than the finding of a ransom for them. The far-reaching
purpose of that love was both negative and positive; that, believing in
Jesus, men might not perish, but have eternal life. The desperate
disease of man gave occasion for the introduction of that divine remedy
which God alone could have devised and supplied. By the plan of mercy,
and the great gift which was needed for carrying it out, the Lord found
means to display his boundless love to guilty men. Had there been no
fall, and no perishing, God might have shown his love to us as he does
to the pure and perfect spirits that surround his throne; but he never
could have commended his love to us to such an extent as he now does.
In the gift of his only-begotten Son, God commended his love to us, in
that while we were yet sinners, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. The black background of sin makes the bright line of love
shine out the more clearly. When the lightning writes the name of the
Lord with flaming finger across the black brow of the tempest, we are
compelled to see it; so when love inscribes the cross upon the jet
tablet of our sin, even blind eyes must see that "herein is love."

I might handle my text in a thousand different ways to-night; but for
simplicity's sake, and to keep to the one point of setting forth the
love of God, I want to make you see how great that love is by five
different particulars.

I. The first is the GIFT: "God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son." Consider, then, what this gift was that God gave. I
should have to labour for expression if I were to attempt to set forth
to the full this priceless boon; and I will not court a failure by
attempting the impossible. I will only invite you to think of the
sacred Person whom the Great Father gave in order that he might prove
his love to men. It was his only-begotten Son–his beloved Son, in whom
he was well pleased. None of us had ever such a son to give. Ours are
the sons of men; his was the Son of God. The Father gave his other
self, one with himself. When the great God gave his Son he gave God
himself, for Jesus is not in his eternal nature less than God. When God
gave God for us he gave himself. What more could he give? God gave his
all: he gave himself. Who can measure this love?

Judge, ye fathers, how ye love your sons: could ye give them to die for
your enemy? Judge, ye that have an only son, how your hearts are
entwined about your first-born, your only-begotten. There was no higher
proof of Abraham's love to God than when he did not withhold from God
his son, his only son, his Isaac whom he loved; and there can certainly
be no greater display of love than for the Eternal Father to give his
only-begotten Son to die for us. No living thing will readily lose its
offspring; man has peculiar grief when his son is taken; has not God
yet more? A story has often been told of the fondness of parents for
their children how in a famine in the East a father and mother were
reduced to absolute starvation, and the only possibility of preserving
the life of the family was to sell one of the children into slavery. So
they considered it. The pinch of hunger became unbearable, and their
children pleading for bread tugged so painfully at their heart-strings,
that they must entertain the idea of selling one to save the lives of
the rest. They had four sons. Who of these should be sold? It must not
be the first: how could they spare their first-born? The second was so
strangely like his father that he seemed a reproduction of him, and the
mother said that she would never part with him. The third was so
singularly like the mother that the father said he would sooner die
than that this dear boy should go into bondage; and as for the fourth,
he was their Benjamin, their last, their darling, and they could not
part with him. They concluded that it were better for them all to die
together than willingly to part with any one of their children. Do you
not sympathize with them? I see you do. Yet God so loved us that, to
put it very strongly, he seemed to love us better than his only Son,
and did not spare him that he might spare us. He permitted his Son to
perish from among men "that whosoever believeth in him might not
perish, but have everlasting life."

If you desire to see the love of God in this great procedure you must
consider how he gave his Son. He did not give his Son, as you might do,
to some profession in the pursuit of which you might still enjoy his
company; but he gave his Son to exile among men. He sent him down to
yonder manger, united with a perfect manhood, which at the first was in
an infant's form. There he slept, where horned oxen fed! The Lord God
sent the heir of all things to toil in a carpenter's shop: to drive the
nail, and push the plane, and use the saw. He sent him down amongst
scribes and Pharisees, whose cunning eyes watched him, and whose cruel
tongues scourged him with base slanders. He sent him down to hunger,
and thirst, amid poverty so dire that he had not where to lay his head.
He sent him down to the scourging and the crowning with thorns, to the
giving of his back to the smiters and his cheeks to those that plucked
off the hair. At length he gave him up to death–a felon's death, the
death of the crucified. Behold that cross and see the anguish of him
that dies upon it, and mark how the Father has so given him, that he
hides his face from him, and seems as if he would not own him! "Lama
sabachthani" tells us how fully God gave his Son to ransom the souls of
the sinful. He gave him to be made a curse for us; gave him that he
might die "the just for the unjust, to bring us to God."

Dear sirs, I can understand your giving up your children to go to India
on her Majesty's service, or to go out to the Cameroons or the Congo
upon the errands of our Lord Jesus. I can well comprehend your yielding
them up even with the fear of a pestilential climate before you, for if
they die they will die honourably in a glorious cause; but could you
think of parting with them to die a felon's death, upon a gibbet,
execrated by those whom they sought to bless, stripped naked in body
and deserted in mind? Would not that be too much? Would you not cry, "I
cannot part with my son for such wretches as these. Why should he be
put to a cruel death for such abominable beings, who even wash their
hands in the blood of their best friend"? Remember that our Lord Jesus
died what his countrymen considered to be an accursed death. To the
Romans it was the death of a condemned slave, a death which had all the
elements of pain, disgrace, and scorn mingled in it to the uttermost.
"But God commendeth his love to- ward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us." Oh, wondrous stretch of love, that Jesus
Christ should die!

Yet, I cannot leave this point till I have you notice when God gave his
Son, for there is love in the time. "God so loved the world that he
gave his Only Begotten Son." But when did he do that? In his eternal
purpose he did this from before the foundation of the world. The words
here used, "He gave his Only Begotten Son," cannot relate exclusively
to the death of Christ, for Christ was not dead at the time of the
utterance of this third chapter of John. Our Lord had just been
speaking with Nicodemus, and that conversation took place at the
beginning of his ministry. The fact is that Jesus was always the gift
of God. The promise of Jesus was made in the garden of Eden almost as
soon as Adam fell. On the spot where our ruin was accomplished, a
Deliverer was bestowed whose heel should be bruised, but who should
break the serpent's head beneath his foot.

Throughout the ages the great Father stood to his gift. He looked upon
his Only Begotten as man's hope, the inheritance of the chosen seed,
who in him would possess all things. Every sacrifice was God's renewal
of his gift of grace, a reassurance that he had bestowed the gift, and
would never draw back therefrom. The whole system of types under the
law betokened that in the fulness of time the Lord would in very deed
give up his Son, to be born of a woman, to bear the iniquities of his
people, and to die the death in their behalf. I greatly admire this
pertinacity of love; for many a man in a moment of generous excitement
can perform a supreme act of benevolence, and yet could not bear to
look at it calmly, and consider it from year to year; the slow fire of
anticipation would have been unbearable. If the Lord should take away
yonder dear boy from his mother, she would bear the blow with some
measure of patience, heavy as it would be to her tender heart; but
suppose that she were credibly informed that on such a day her boy must
die, and thus had from year to year to look upon him as one dead, would
it not cast a cloud over every hour of her future life? Suppose also
that she knew that he would be hanged upon a tree to die, as one
condemned; would it not embitter her existence? If she could withdraw
from such a trial, would she not? Assuredly she would. Yet the Lord God
spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all, doing
it in his heart from age, to age. Herein is love: love which many
waters could not quench: love eternal, inconceivable, infinite!

Now, as this gift refers not only to our Lord's death, but to the ages
before it, so it includes also all the ages afterwards. God "so loved
the world that he gave"–and still gives–"his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting
life." The Lord is giving Christ away to-night. Oh, that thousands of
you may gladly accept the gift unspeakable! Will anyone refuse? This
good gift, this perfect gift,–can you decline it? Oh, that you may
have faith to lay hold on Jesus, for thus he will be yours. He is God's
free gift to all free receivers; a full Christ for empty sinners. If
you can but hold out your empty willing hand, the Lord will give Christ
to you at this moment. Nothing is freer than a gift. Nothing is more
worth having than a gift which comes fresh from the hand of God, as
full of effectual power as ever it was. The fountain is eternal, but
the stream from it is as fresh as when first the fountain was opened.
There is no exhausting this gift.

"Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood

Shall never lose it power

Till all the ransomed church of God

Be saved to sin no more."

See, then, what is the love of God, that he gave his Son from of old,
and has never revoked the gift. He stands to his gift, and continues
still to give his dear Son to all who are willing to accept him. Out of
the riches of his grace he has given, is giving, and will give the Lord
Jesus Christ, and all the priceless gifts which are contained in him,
to all needy sinners who will simply trust him.

I call upon you from this first point to admire the love of God,
because of the transcendent greatness of his gift to the world, even
the gift of his only begotten Son.

II. Now notice secondly, and, I think I may say, with equal admiration,
the love of God in THE PLAN OF SALVATION. He has put it thus: "that
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." The way of salvation is extremely simple to understand, and
exceedingly easy to practise, when once the heart is made willing and
obedient. The method of the covenant of grace differs as much from that
of the covenant of works as light from darkness. It is not said that
God has given his Son to all who will keep his law, for that we could
not do, and therefore the gift would have been available to none of us.
Nor is it said that he has given his Son to all that experience
terrible despair and bitter remorse, for that is not felt by many who
nevertheless are the Lord's own people. But the great God has given his
own Son, that "whosoever believeth in him" should not perish. Faith,
however slender, saves the soul. Trust in Christ is the certain way of
eternal happiness.

Now, what is it to believe in Jesus? It is just this: it is to trust
yourself with him. If your hearts are ready, though you have never
believed in Jesus before, I trust you will believe in him now. O Holy
Spirit graciously make it so.

What is it to believe in Jesus?

It is, first, to give your firm and cordial assent to the truth, that
God did send his Son, born of a woman, to stand in the room and stead
of guilty men, and that God did cause to meet on him the iniquities of
us all, so that he bore the punishment due to our transgressions, being
made a curse for us. We must heartily believe the Scripture which
saith,–"the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his
stripes ye are healed." I ask for your assent to the grand doctrine of
substitution, which is the marrow of the gospel. Oh, may God the Holy
Spirit lead you to give a cordial assent to it at once; for wonderful
as it is, it is a fact that God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Oh that you may
rejoice that this is true, and be thankful that such a blessed fact is
revealed by God himself. Believe that the substitution of the Son of
God is certain; cavil not at the plan, nor question its validity, or
efficacy, as many do. Alas! they kick at God's great sacrifice, and
count it a sorry invention. As for me, since God has ordained to save
man by a substitutionary sacrifice, I joyfully agree to his method, and
see no reason to do anything else but admire it and adore the Author of
it. I joy and rejoice that such a plan should have been thought of,
whereby the justice of God is vindicated, and his mercy is set free to
do all that he desires. Sin is punished in the person of the Christ,
yet mercy is extended to the guilty. In Christ mercy is sustained by
justice, and justice satisfied by an act of mercy. The worldly wise say
hard things about this device of infinite wisdom; but as for me, I love
the very name of the cross, and count it to be the centre of wisdom,
the focus of love, the heart of righteousness. This is a main point of
faith–to give a hearty assent to the giving of Jesus to suffer in our
place and stead, to agree with all our soul and mind to this way of
salvation.

The second thing is that you do accept this for yourself. In Adam's
sin, you did not sin personally, for you were not then in existence;
yet you fell; neither can you now complain thereof, for you have
willingly endorsed and adopted Adam's sin by committing personal
transgressions. You have laid your hand, as it were, upon Adam's sin,
and made it your own, by committing personal and actual sin. Thus you
perished by the sin of another, which you adopted and endorsed; and in
like manner must you be saved by the righteousness of another, which
you are to accept and appropriate. Jesus has offered an atonement, and
that atonement becomes yours when you accept it by putting your trust
in him. I want you now to say,

"My faith doth lay her hand

On that dear head of thine,

While, like a penitent, I stand,

And here confess my sin."

Surely this is no very difficult matter. To say that Christ who hung
upon the cross shall be my Christ, my surety, needs neither stretch of
intellect, nor splendor of character; and yet it is the act which
brings salvation to the soul.

One thing more is needful; and that is personal trust. First comes
assent to the truth, then acceptance of that truth for yourself, and
then a simple trusting of yourself wholly to Christ, as a substitute.
The essence of faith is trust, reliance, dependence. Fling away every
other confidence of every sort, save confidence in Jesus. Do not allow
a ghost of a shade of a shadow of a confidence in anything that you can
do, or in anything that you can be; but look alone to him whom God has
set forth to be the propitiation for sin. This I do at this very
moment; will you not do the same? Oh, may the sweet Spirit of God lead
you now to trust in Jesus!

See, then, the love of God in putting it in so plain, so easy a way.
Oh, thou broken, crushed and despairing sinner, thou canst not work,
but canst thou not believe that which is true? Thou canst not sigh;
thou canst not cry; thou canst not melt thy stony heart; but canst thou
not believe that Jesus died for thee, and that he can change that heart
of thine and make thee a new creature? If thou canst believe this, then
trust in Jesus to do so, and thou art saved; for he that believes in
him is justified. "He that believeth in him hath everlasting life." He
is a saved man. His sins are forgiven him. Let him go his way in peace,
and sin no more.

I admire, first, the love of God in the great gift, and then in the
great plan by which that gift becomes available to guilty men.

III. Thirdly, the love of God shines forth with transcendent brightness
in a third point, namely, in THE PERSONS FOR WHOM THIS PLAN IS
AVAILABLE, and for whom this gift is given. They are described in these
words–"Whosoever believeth in him." There is in the text a word which
has no limit–"God so loved the world"; but then comes in the
descriptive limit, which I beg you to notice with care: "He gave his
Only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish."
God did not so love the world that any man who does not believe in
Christ shall be saved; neither did God so give his Son that any man
shall be saved who refuses to believe in him. See how it is put–"God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish." Here is the compass of the love:
while every unbeliever is excluded, every believer is included.
"Whosoever believeth in him." Suppose there be a man who has been
guilty of all the lusts of the flesh to an infamous degree, suppose
that he is so detestable that he is only fit to be treated like a moral
leper, and shut up in a separate house for fear he should contaminate
those who hear or see him; yet if that man shall believe in Jesus
Christ, he shall at once be made clean from his defilement, and shall
not perish because of his sin. And suppose there be another man who, in
the pursuit of his selfish motives, has ground down the poor, has
robbed his fellow-traders, and has even gone so far as to commit actual
crime of which the law has taken cognisance, yet if he believes in the
Lord Jesus Christ he shall be led to make restitution, and his sins
shall be forgiven him. I once heard of a preacher addressing a company
of men in chains, condemned to die for murder and other crimes. They
were such a drove of beasts to all outward appearances that it seemed
hopeless to preach to them; yet were I set to be chaplain to such a
wretched company I should not hesitate to tell them that "God so loved
the world, that he gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." O man, if thou
wilt believe in Jesus as the Christ, however horrible thy past sins
have been they shall be blotted out; thou shalt be saved from the power
of thine evil habits; and thou shalt begin again like a child newborn,
with a new and true life, which God shall give thee. "Whosoever
believeth in him,"–that takes you in, my aged friend, now lingering
within a few tottering steps of the grave. O grey-headed sinner, if you
believe in him, you shall not perish. The text also includes you, dear
boy, who have scarcely entered your teens as yet: if you believe in
him, you shall not perish. That takes you in, fair maiden, and gives
you hope and joy while yet young. That comprehends all of us, provided
we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither can all the devils in hell
find out any reason why the man that believes in Christ shall be lost,
for it is written, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
Do they say, "Lord, he has been so long in coming"? The Lord
replies,–"Has he come? Then I will not cast him out for all his
delays." But, Lord, he went back after making a profession. "Has he at
length come? Then I will not cast him out for all his backsliding."
But, Lord, he was a foul-mouthed blasphemer. "Has he come to me? Then I
will not cast him out for all his blasphemies." But, says one, "I take
exception to the salvation of this wicked wretch. He has behaved so
abominably that in all justice he ought to be sent to hell." Just so.
But if he repents of his sin and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ,
whoever he may be, he shall not be sent there. He shall be changed in
character, so that he shall never perish, but have eternal life.

Now, observe, that this "whosoever" makes a grand sweep; for it
encircles all degrees of faith. "Whosoever believeth in him." It may be
that he has no full assurance; it may be that he has no assurance at
all; but if he has faith, true and childlike, by it he shall be saved.
Though his faith be so little that I must needs put on my spectacles to
see it, yet Christ will see it and reward it. His faith is such a tiny
grain of mustard seed that I look and look again but hardly discern it,
and yet it brings him eternal life, and it is itself a living thing.
The Lord can see within that mustard seed a tree among whose branches
the birds of the air shall make their nests.

"My faith is feeble, I confess,

I faintly trust thy word;

But wilt thou pity me the less?

Be that far from thee, Lord!"

O Lord Jesus, if I cannot take thee up in my arms as Simeon did, I will
at least touch thy garment's hem as the poor diseased woman did to whom
thy healing virtue flowed. It is written, "God so loveth the world that
he gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life." That means me. I cannot preach
at length to you to-night; but I would preach with strength. Oh that
this truth may soak into your souls. Oh you that feel yourselves
guilty; and you that feel guilty because you do not feel guilty; you
that are broken in heart because your heart will not break; you that
feel that you cannot feel; it is to you that I would preach salvation
in Christ by faith. You groan because you cannot groan; but whoever you
may be, you are still within the range of this mighty word, that
"whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

Thus have I commended God's love to you in those three points–the
divine gift, the divine method of saving, and the divine choice of the
persons to whom salvation comes.

IV. Now fourthly, another beam of divine love is to be seen in the
negative blessing here stated, namely, in THE DELIVERANCE implied in
the words, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish."

I understand that word to mean that whosoever believes in the Lord
Jesus Christ shall not perish, though he is ready to perish. His sins
would cause him to perish, but he shall never perish. At first he has a
little hope in Christ, but its existence is feeble. It will soon die
out, will it not? No, his faith shall not perish, for this promise
covers it–"Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish." The penitent
has believed in Jesus, and therefore he has begun to be a Christian;
"Oh," cries an enemy, "let him alone: he will soon be back among us; he
will soon be as careless as ever." Listen. "Whosoever believeth in Him
shall not perish," and therefore he will not return to his former
state. This proves the final perseverance of the saints; for if the
believer ceased to be a believer he would perish; and as he cannot
perish, it is clear that he will continue a believer. If thou believest
in Jesus, thou shalt never leave off believing in him; for that would
be to perish. If thou believest in him, thou shalt never delight in
thine old sins; for that would be to perish. If thou believest in him,
thou shalt never lose spiritual life. How canst thou lose that which is
everlasting? If thou wert to lose it, it would prove that it was not
everlasting, and thou wouldst perish; and thus thou wouldst make this
word to be of no effect. Whosoever with his heart believeth in Christ
is a saved man, not for to-night only, but for all the nights that ever
shall be, and for that dread night of death, and for that solemn
eternity which draws so near. "Whosoever believeth in him shall not
perish;" but he shall have a life that cannot die, a justification that
cannot be disputed, an acceptance which shall never cease.

What is it to perish? It is to lose all hope in Christ, all trust in
God, all light in life, all peace in death, all joy, all bliss, all
union with God. This shall never happen to thee if thou believest in
Christ. If thou believest, thou shalt be chastened when thou dost
wrong, for every child of God comes under discipline; and what son is
there whom the Father chasteneth not? If thou believest, thou mayest
doubt and fear as to thy state, as a man on board a ship may be tossed
about; but thou hast gotten on board a ship that never can be wrecked.
He that hath union with Christ has union with perfection, omnipotence
and glory. He that believeth is a member of Christ: will Christ lose
his members? How should Christ be perfect if he lost even his little
finger? Are Christ's members to rot off, or to be cut off? Impossible.
If thou hast faith in Christ thou are a partaker of Christ's life, and
thou canst not perish. If men were trying to drown me, they could not
drown my foot as long as I had my head above water; and as long as our
Head is above water, up yonder in the eternal sunshine, the least limb
of his body can never be destroyed. He that believeth in Jesus is
united to him, and he must live because Jesus lives. Oh what a word is
this, "I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave
them to me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand."

I feel that I have a grand gospel to preach to you when I read that
whosoever believeth in Jesus shall not perish. I would not give two
pins for that trumpery, temporary salvation which some proclaim, which
floats the soul for a time and then ebbs away to apostasy. I do not
believe that the man who is once in Christ may live in sin and delight
in it, and yet be saved. That is abominable teaching, and none of mine.
But I believe that the man who is in Christ will not live in sin, for
he is saved from it; nor will he return to his old sins and abide in
them, for the grace of God will continue to save him from his sins.
Such a change is wrought by regeneration that the newborn man cannot
abide in sin, nor find comfort in it, but he loves holiness and makes
progress in it. The Ethiopian may change his skin, and the leopard his
spots, but only grace divine can work the change; and when divine grace
has done the deed the blackamore will remain white, and the leopard's
spots will never return. It would be as great a miracle to undo the
work of God as to do it; and to destroy the new creation would require
as great a power as to make it. As only God can create, so only God can
destroy; and he will never destroy the work of his own hands. Will God
begin to build and not finish? Will he commence a warfare and end it
before he has won the victory? What would the devil say if Christ were
to begin to save a soul and fail in the attempt? If there should come
to be souls in hell that were believers in Christ, and yet did perish,
it would cast a cloud upon the diadem of our exalted Lord. It cannot,
shall not, be. Such is the love of God, that whosoever believeth in his
dear Son shall not perish: in this assurance we greatly rejoice.

V. The last commendation of his love lies in the positive–IN THE
POSSESSION. I shall have to go in a measure over the same ground again,
let me therefore be the shorter. God gives to every man that believes
in Christ everlasting life. The moment thou believest there trembles
into thy bosom a vital spark of heavenly flame which never shall be
quenched. In that same moment when thou dost cast thyself on Christ,
Christ comes to thee in the living and incorruptible word which liveth
and abideth for ever. Though there should drop into thy heart but one
drop of the heavenly water of life, remember this,–he hath said it who
cannot lie,–"The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life." When I first received
everlasting life I had no idea what a treasure had come to me. I knew
that I had obtained something very extraordinary, but of its
superlative value I was not aware. I did but look to Christ in the
little chapel, and I received eternal life. I looked to Jesus, and he
looked on me; and we were one for ever. That moment my joy surpassed
all bounds, just as my sorrow had aforetime driven me to an extreme of
grief. I was perfectly at rest in Christ, satisfied with him, and my
heart was glad; but I did not know that this grace was everlasting life
till I began to read in the Scriptures, and to know more fully the
value of the jewel which God had given me. The next Sunday I sent to
the same chapel, as it was very natural that I should. But I never went
afterwards, for this reason, that during my first week the new life
that was in me had been compelled to fight for its existence, and a
conflict with the old nature had been vigorously carried on. This I
knew to be a special token of the indwelling of grace in my soul; but
in that same chapel I heard a sermon upon "O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And the preacher
declared that Paul was not a Christian when he had that experience.
Babe as I was, I knew better than to believe so absurd a statement.
What but divine grace could produce such a sighing and crying after
deliverance from indwelling sin? I felt that a person who could talk
such nonsense knew little of the life of a true believer. I said to
myself, "What! am I not alive because I feel a conflict within me? I
never felt this fight when I was an unbeliever. When I was not a
Christian I never groaned to be set free from sin. This conflict is one
of the surest evidences of my new birth, and yet this man cannot see
it; he may be a good exhorter to sinners, but he cannot feed
believers." I resolved to go into that pasture no more, for I could not
feed therein. I find that the struggle becomes more and more intense;
each victory over sin reveals another army of evil tendencies, and I am
never able to sheathe my sword, nor cease from prayer and watchfulness.

I cannot advance an inch without praying my way, nor keep the inch I
gain without watching and standing fast. Grace alone can preserve and
perfect me. The old nature will kill the new nature if it can; and to
this moment the only reason why my new nature is not dead is
this–because it cannot die. If it could have died, it would have been
slain long ago; but Jesus said, "I give unto my sheep eternal life";
"he that believeth on me hast everlasting life"; and therefore the
believer cannot die. The only religion which will save you is one that
you cannot leave, because it possesses you, and will not leave you. If
you hold a doctrine which you can give up, give it up; but if the
doctrines are burnt into you so that as long as you live you must hold
them, and so that if you were burnt every ash would hold that same
truth in it, because you are impregnated with it, then you have found
the right thing.

You are not a saved man unless Christ has saved you for ever. But that
which has such a grip of you that its grasp is felt in the core of your
being is the power of God. To have Christ living in you, and the truth
ingrained in your very nature–O sirs, this is the thing that saves the
soul, and nothing short of it. It is written in the text, "God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." What is this but
a life that shall last through your three-score years and ten; a life
that shall last you should you outlive a century; a life that will
still flourish when you lie at the grave's mouth; a life that will
abide when you have quitted the body, and left it rotting in the tomb;
a life that will continue when your body is raised again, and you shall
stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; a life that will outshine
those stars and yon sun and moon; a life that shall be co-eval with the
life of the Eternal Father? As long as there is a God, the believer
shall not only exist, but live. As long as there is a heaven, you shall
enjoy it; as long as there is a Christ, you shall live in his love; and
as long as there is an eternity, you shall continue to fill it with
delight.

God bless you and help you to believe in Jesus.–Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon–John 3.

Hymns from "Our Own Hymn Book"–291, 538, 539.
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