Gratitude for Deliverance from the Grave

Gratitude for Deliverance from the Grave

(No. 2237)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 3, 1892,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

"I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord
has chastened me sorely: but He has not given me over unto death."
Psalm 118:17,18.

In connection with the dedication of the Jubilee House, which
commemorated the fifth year of a life often threatened by grievous
sickness.

"This sermon begins a new volume–in fact, it commences Volume 38 of
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. I have, myself, selected it and
prepared it for the press because it is most suitable as my own
personal testimony at the present moment. The subject is even more my
own, this day, than it was seven and a half years ago, for I have been
in deeper waters and nearer to the mouth of the grave. With my whole
soul I praise delivering Grace. To the Lord God, the God of Israel, I
consecrate myself anew! For the Covenant of Grace, for the revelation
of the Infallible Truth in the Bible, for the Atonement by blood and
the immutable love of the ever blessed Three-in-One, I am a witness and
more and more would I abide faithful to the Gospel of the Grace of God!
I see, each day, more reasons for faith and fewer excuses for doubt.
Those who will, may ship their anchors and be drifted about the current
of the age, but I will sing, 'My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is
fixed: I will sing and give praise!"'

"The whole passage, Psalm 118:13-18, is inscribed upon a marble slab on
the Jubilee House at the back of the Tabernacle and I am told that many
went to read it while I lay in the greatest peril through sore
sickness–and were comforted thereby. When the Lord permits me to
return, I must raise yet another memorial to His praise." [This quote
is at the end of the sermon with this request from Brother Spurgeon, on
page one–"Will the reader kindly note the remarks at the end of this
sermon, before he reads the discourse."–EOD]

HOW very differently we view things at different times and in differing
states of mind! Faith takes a bright and cheerful view of matters and
speaks very confidently, "I shall not die, but live." When we are slack
as to our trust in God and give way to misgivings and doubts and fears,
we sing in the minor key and say, "I shall die. I shall never live
through this trouble. I shall one day fall by the hand of the enemy;
and that day is hastening on. Hope is failing me. Bad times are at the
door. I shall not live through this crisis." Thus our tongues show the
condition of our inner man. We talk according to our frames and
feelings and would make others think that things are as we see them
with our jaundiced eyes!

Is it not a pity that we give a tongue to our unbelief? Would it not be
better to be dumb when we are doubtful? Muzzle that dog of unbelief!
Dog, did I call him? He is a wolf–or should I call him a hound of
Hell? His voice is that of Apollyon–it is full of blasphemy against
God! Unbelieving utterances will do no good to yourself and will do
harm to those who listen to your babblings. It would be wise to say,
"If I should speak thus, I should offend against the generation of your
children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me." Let
us be dumb with silence when we cannot speak to the Glory of God!

But, oh, it is a blessed thing, when faith is reigning and powerful in
our spirit, to let it have ample opportunity to proclaim the honors of
His name! To give his heart a tongue is wise in man when his heart,
itself, is wise. The more talk we get from the mouth of faith, the
better–her lips drop sweet-smelling myrrh! A silent faith, if there is
such a thing, robs others of benedictions and, at the same time, it
does worse, for it robs God of His Glory. When we have a joyous

faith in full operation, let us be communicative and let us openly and
boldly say, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the
Lord." I would follow my own advice and crave a patient hearing from
you.

You know, perhaps, that this text was inscribed by Martin Luther upon
his study wall, where he could always see it when at home. Many
Reformers had been done to death–Huss, and others who preceded him,
had been burnt at the stake. Luther was cheered by the firm conviction
that he was perfectly safe until his work was done. In this full
assurance he went bravely to meet his enemies at the Diet of Worms and,
indeed, went courageously whenever duty called him. He felt that God
had raised him up to declare the glorious doctrine of Justification by
Faith and all the other Truths of God he believed to be the Gospel of
God and, therefore, no wood could burn him and no sword could kill him
till that work was done. Thus he bravely wrote out his belief and set
it where many eyes would see it, "I shall not die, but live, and
declare the works of the Lord."

It was no idle boast, but a calm and true conclusion from his faith in
God and fellowship with Him. May you and I, when we are tried, be able,
through faith in God, to meet trouble with the same brave thoughts and
speeches! We cannot show our courage unless we have difficulties and
troubles. A man cannot become a veteran soldier if he never goes to
battle. No man can get his sea legs if he lives always on land.
Rejoice, therefore, in your tribulations, because they give you
opportunities of exhibiting a believing confidence and, thereby,
glorifying the name of the Most High. But take heed that you have
faith, true faith in God–do not become a puppet of impressions–much
less a slave of the judgments of others. To have David's faith, you
must be as David. No man may take up a confidence of his own making–it
must be a real work of the Spirit and growth of Grace within–grasping
with living tendrils the promise of the living God.

I will read the passage from the Psalms over, again, and we will
consider it, with God's help. "I shall not die, but live, and declare
the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me sorely: but He has not
given me over to death."

First, here is the Believer's view of his afflictions. "The Lord has
chastened me sorely." Secondly, here is the Believer's comfort under
those afflictions. "He has given me over to death. I shall not die, but
live." And, thirdly, here is the Believer's conduct after his
afflictions and after his deliverance from them–"I shall not die, but
live, and declare the works of the Lord."

I. At the outset, here is THE BELIEVER'S VIEW OF HIS AFFLICTIONS. "The
Lord has chastened me sorely." On the surface of the words we see the
good man's clear observation that his afflictions come from God. It is
true he perceived the secondary hand, for he says, "You have thrust
sorely at me that I might fall." There was one at work who aimed to
make him fall. His afflictions were the work of a cruel enemy. Yes, but
that enemy's assaults were being overruled by the Lord and were made to
work for his good, so David, in the present verse, corrects himself by
saying, "The Lord has chastened me sorely. My enemy struck at me and he
might make me fall, but, in very truth, my gracious God was using him
to chasten me that I might not fall. The enemy was moved by malice, but
God was working by him in love to my soul. The second agent sought my
ruin, but the Great First Cause worked my education and establishment."

It is well to have Grace enough to see that tribulation comes from
God–He fills the bitter cup as well as the sweet goblet! Troubles do
not spring out of the dust, neither does affliction grow up from the
ground like hemlock from the furrows of the field, but the Lord,
Himself, kindles the fiery furnace and sits as a Refiner at the door.
Let us not dwell too much upon the part played by the devil, as though
he were a coordinate power with God. He is a fallen creature and his
very existence depends upon the will and permission of the Most High!
His power is borrowed and can only be used as the Infinite Omnipotence
of God permits. His wickedness is his own, but his existence is not
self-derived. Blame the devil and blame all of his servants as much as
you will, but still believe in the mysterious and consoling Truth of
God that, in the truest sense, the Lord sends trials upon His saints.

"Explain this statement," you say. Oh, no–I am not called upon to
explain it, but to believe it! A great many things, when they are said
to be explained by modern thinkers, are merely explained away–and I
have not yet begun to learn that wretched art. Remember how Peter told
the Jews that He whom God, by His determinate counsel and foreknowledge
decreed to die, even His Son, Jesus Christ, was, nevertheless, taken by
them with wicked hands when they had crucified and slain Him? The death
of Christ was predetermined in the counsel of God and yet it was,
nonetheless, an atrocious crime on the part of ungodly men! The
Omnipotence and Providence of God are to be believed, but man's
responsibility is not, therefore, to be questioned. Our afflictions may
come distinctly from man, as the result of persecution

or malice, and yet they may come with even greater certainty from the
Lord and may be the necessary outcome of His special love to us.

For this reason we may wisely moderate our anger against second causes.
If you strike a dog with a stick, he will bite the stick. If he were
more intelligent, he would snap at the person using the stick and, if
that intelligence were governed by the spirit of obedience, he would
yield to the blow and learn a lesson from it. Thus, when Shimei reviled
David and Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said unto the king, "Why should
this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray you, and
take off his head," David meekly replied, "So let him curse, because
the Lord has said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Why have
you done so?" A sight of God's hand in a trial is the end of rebellion
against it in the case of every good man! He says, "It is the Lord: let
Him do what seems good to Him."

We may lie at His feet and cry, "Show me why You contend with me," but,
if the reason does not appear, we must bow in reverent submission and
say with one of old, "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because You
did it." Job saw the Lord in his many tribulations and, therefore,
praised Him, saying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord." Surely there is nothing better for a
man of God than to perceive that his smarts and sorrows come from his
Father's hand, for then he will say, "The will of the Lord be done."
This is the great point in the Believer's view of his afflictions–"He
makes sore and binds up: He wounds and His hands make whole."

Next, the Believer perceives that his trials come on as a chastening.
"The Lord has chastened me sorely." When a child is chastised, two
things are clear–first, that there is something wrong in him, or that
there is something deficient in him so that he needs to be corrected or
instructed. And, secondly, it shows that his father has a tender care
for his benefit and acts in loving wisdom towards him. This is
certainly true if the father is an eminently kind and yet prudent
parent. Children do not think that there can be any need for chastening
them, but when years have matured their judgment, they will know
better. "No chastening for the present seems to be joyous"–if it did
seem joyous, it would not be chastening! The "need be" is not only that
we have manifold trials, but that we are in heaviness through them. In
the smart of the sorrow lies the blessing of the chastisement! God
chastens us in the purest love because He sees that there is an
absolute necessity for it–"for He does not afflict willingly nor
grieve the children of men." Our fathers, according to the flesh, too
often corrected us according to their own pleasure–and yet we gave
them reverence. But the Father of our spirits corrects us only of
necessity–a necessity to which He is too wise to close His eyes. Shall
we not, therefore, pay greater reverence to Him and bow before Him and
live? When Hezekiah was recovered of his sickness, he wrote, "O Lord,
by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my
spirit." I find not that men live by carnal pleasure, nor that the life
of the spirit is ever found in the wine vat or in the oil press. But I
do find that life and health often come to saints through briny tears,
through the bruising of the flesh and the oppression of the spirit. So
have I found it and I bear my willing witness that sickness has brought
me health, loss has conferred gain–and I doubt not that one day death
will bring me fuller life!

Be wise then, dear child of God, and look upon your present affliction
as a chastening. "What son is he whom the father chastens not?" "As
many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." There is not a more profitable
instrument in all God's house than the rod! No honey was sweeter than
that which dropped from the end of Jonathan's rod, but that is nothing
compared to the sweetness of the consolation which comes through
Jehovah's rod! Our brightest joys are the birth of our bitterest
griefs. When the woman has her travail pangs, joy comes to the house
because a child is born–and sorrow is to us, also, full often, the
moment of the birth of our Graces. A chastened spirit is a gracious
spirit–and how shall we obtain it unless we are chastened? Like our
Lord Jesus, we learn obedience by the things which we suffer! God had
one Son without sin, but He never had a son without sorrow–and He
never will while the world stands! Let us, therefore, bless God for all
His dealings and, in a filial spirit, confess, "You, Lord, have
chastened me."

Consider the Psalmist's view of his affliction a little more carefully.
He noted that his trials were sore–he says, "The Lord has chastened me
sorely." Perhaps we are willing to admit in general that our trouble is
of the Lord, but there is a soreness in it which we do not ascribe to
Him, but to the malice of the enemy, or some other second cause. The
false tongue is so ingenious in slander that it has touched the most
tender part of our character and has cut us to the quick. Are we to
believe that this is also, in some sense, of the Lord? Assuredly we
are! If it is not of the Lord, then it is a matter for despair. If this
evil comes apart from Divine permission, where are we? How can a trial
be met which is independent of Divine rule and outside of the sacred
zone of Providential government? It is hopeful when we find that all
our ills lie

within the fence of Omnipotent overruling! It is a comfort that we see
a wall of fire round us–a circle so complete that even the devil,
malicious as he is, cannot break through it to do more than the Lord
allows!

The camels are gone, the sheep, the oxen, the servants–all are
destroyed–all this is most trying, but it is still true–"The Lord
gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
But, look, another messenger comes and cries, "There came a great wind
from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house, and it
fell upon the young men, and they are dead." Might not Job, then, have
said, "This is a blow which I cannot bear; for it is evidently from the
Prince of the power of the air"? No, but even after that, he said,
"Blessed be the name of the Lord." When his wife said, "Curse God, and
die," he still blessed God and held his integrity. He told her that she
spoke as one of the foolish speaks and then he wisely added, "Shall we
receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" "In
all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." May we stand fast
in patience as Job did, even when our troubles overflow!

It is folly to imagine, as we have sometimes done, the we could bear
anything except that which we are called upon to endure. We are like
the young man who says he needs a job. What can you do? He can do
anything! That man you never hire because you know that he can do
nothing. So it is with us. If we say, "I could bear anything but this,"
we prove our universal impatience! If we had the choice of our crosses,
the one we would choose would turn out to be more inconvenient than
that which God appoints for us, but we will have it that our present
cross is unsuitable and specially galling. I would say to any who are
of that mind, "If your burden does not fit your shoulder, bear it till
it does." Time will reconcile you to the yoke if Grace abides with you.
It is not for us to choose our affliction–that remains with Him who
chooses our inheritance for us! Read well this Word of God, "The Lord
has hastened me sorely" and see the Lord's hand in the soreness of your
trial! Even while the wound is raw and the smart is fresh–be conscious
that the Lord is near!

Yet there is in the verse a, "but," for the Psalmist perceives that his
trial is limited–"but He has not given me over to death." Certain of
the buts in Scripture are among the choicest jewels we have! Before us
is a, "but," which shows that, however deep affliction may be, there is
a bottom to the abyss. By God's Grace there is a limit to the force,
the sharpness, the duration and the number of our trials–

"If God appoints the number ten, They never can be eleven."

Whenever the Lord mixes a potion for His people, He weighs each
ingredient, measures the bitters, grain by grain, and allows not even a
particle in excess to mingle in the draft! Like a careful dispenser, He
will not pour out a drop too little or too much–

"To His Church, His joy and treasure, Every trial works for good– They
are dealt in weight and measure, Yet how little understood– Not in
anger,

But from His dear Covenant love." Our Father's anger with our sin will
never blaze into wrath against us, though in mercy He will smite our
sins. Remember, then, this gracious boundary. "The Lord has chastened
me sorely: but He has not given me over unto death." We have never yet
experienced a trouble which might not have been worse. One affliction
kills another–the wind never blows east and west at the same time.
When the Lord smites you with His left hand, He sustains you with His
right hand. As tribulations abound, so do consolations abound through
Christ Jesus. The whole band of troubles never comes forth at once.
Everything painful is graded and proportioned to the man and his
strength–and the objective for which it is sent. With the trial, the
Lord makes the way of escape that we may be able to bear it. Faith can
see an end and limit where Nature's dim eyes see endless confusion.
Where the carnal sense–

"Sees every day new straits attend,

And wonders where the scene will end," Faith looks over the intervening
space and comforts herself with that which is yet to come. Faith sings
pleasant songs when she foots it over weary roads–

"The road may be rough, but it cannot be long,

So let's smooth it with hope and cheer it with song."

The Lord keep your faith alive, my Brothers and Sisters, and then
whatever trials surge around you, you will sit on the Rock of Ages,
above the waves, and joyfully sing praises unto your Divine Deliverer!
Oh, how sweet to say, as I do now, "The Lord has chastened me sorely:
but He has not given me over unto death!"

II. This brings me, secondly, to consider THE BELIEVER'S COMFORT UNDER
HIS AFFLICTIONS. The Believer's comfort under his afflictions is
this–"I shall not die, but live."

Occasionally this comes in the form of a presentiment. I do not think
that I am superstitious. I fancy that I am pretty clear of that vice,
yet I have had presentiments concerning things to come or not to come.
And, moreover, I have met with so many Christians who, in the time of
trouble, have received amazing warnings, or sweet assurances of coming
deliverance, that I am bound to believe that the Lord does, sometimes,
whisper to the heart of His children and assure them in trial that they
shall not be crushed–and in sickness that they shall not die.

How do you understand the story of John Wycliffe, at Lutterworth, in
any other way than this? He had been speaking against the monks and
various abuses of the church. He was the first man known to history
that preached the Gospel in England during the Popish ages–we know him
as the Morning Star of the Reformation! He was a man so great that, if
he had possessed a printing press, we might never have needed a
Luther–for he had an even clearer light than that great Reformer! He
lacked the means of spreading his doctrine which the art of printing
supplied. He did much–he prepared everything for Luther's hands–and
Luther was but the proclaimer of Wycliffe's doctrine! Wycliffe was
ill–very ill–and the friars came round him like crows round a dying
sheep. They professed to be full of tender pity, but they were right
glad that their enemy was going to die! So they said to him, "Will you
not repent? Before we can give you viati-cum–the last oiling before
you die–would it not be well to retract the hard things which you have
said against the zealous friars and His Holiness of Rome? We are eager
to forget the past and give you the last sacrament in peace."

Wycliffe begged an attendant to help him sit up and then he cried with
all his strength, "I shall not die, but live, to declare the works of
the Lord and to expose the wickedness of the friars." He did not die,
either–Death, himself, could not have killed him, then, for he had
work to do and the Lord made him immortal until it was done! How could
Wycliffe know that he spoke truly? Certainly he was free from all
foolhardy bragging, but there was upon his mind a foreshadowing of
future work that he had to do–and he felt that he could not die until
it was accomplished!

Now, do not be making up presentiments about all sorts of things
because I have said that sometimes the Lord grants them to His saints.
This would be a mischievous piece of absurdity! I remember a young
woman who lived not far from here, who had a presentiment that she
would die. I do not think that there was really much the matter with
her, but she refused to eat and was likely to be starved. I went to see
her and she told me that she had a presentiment that she would die and,
therefore, she would not waste food by eating it. She spoke to me very
solemnly about this presentiment and I replied, "I believe there may be
such things." Yes–she was sure I was on her side! Then I went on to
say, "I once had a presentiment that I was a donkey and it turned out
true in my case. And now I have much the same presentiment about you!"

This surprised her and I asked her friends to bring her food. She said
she would not eat it and then I told her that if she was resolved on
suicide, I would mention it at Church Meeting that evening and put her
out of the Church, since we could not have suicides in our membership.
She could not bear to be put out of the Church and began to eat–and it
turned out that my presentiment about her was correct–she had been
foolish and she had the good sense to see that it was so. I felt bound
to tell you this story, lest you should fancy that I would support you
in sentimental nonsense. While there are so many stupid people in the
world, we have no need to give cautions where the wise do not need
them! Forecasts of good from the Lord may come to those who are sorely
sick–and when they do, they help them to recover. We are of good
courage when an inward confidence enables us to say, "I shall not die,
but live, and declare the works of the

Lord."

This, however, I only mention by the way. When a Believer is in
trouble, he derives great comfort from his reliance upon the compassion
of God. The Lord scourges His children, but He does not slay them. The
Believer says, "My Father may make me smart with the blow of a cruel
one, but He will do me no real harm, nor allow anyone else to injure
me. He will not lay upon me more than is right, nor above what I am
able to bear. He will stay His hand when He sees that I have no
strength left. Moreover, I know that even when He brings me very low,
still underneath me are the everlasting arms. If the Lord kills, it is
only to make alive–if He wounds, it is that He may heal. I am sure of
that."

O Believer, never let anything drive you away from this confidence, for
it has sure truth for its foundation! The Lord is good and His mercy
endures forever. It is not killing, but curing, that God means when He
takes the sharp lancet in His hands. The nauseous medicine which makes
the heart sick, works for the cure of a worse sickness. "His
compassions fail not." He may often put His hand into the bitter box,
but He has sweet cordials ready to take the taste away. For a small
moment has He forsaken us, but with great mercies will He return to us.
You have an effectual comfort if your faith can keep its hold upon the
blessed fact of the Lord's fatherly compassion.

Next, faith comforts the tried child of God by assuring him of the
forgiveness of his sin and his security from punishment. Please notice
the very distant difference between chastisement and punishment. I do
not say between the meaning of the words, but between the two things
which I just now would indicate by those terms. Here is a boy who has
committed a theft. He is brought before the magistrate that he may be
punished. Punitive justice will be executed upon him by imprisonment or
by a birch rod. Another boy has also stolen–stolen from his
father–and he is brought before his father–not to be punished as a
law-breaker, but to be chastised. There is a great difference between
the punishment awarded by justice and the chastisement appointed by
love! They may be alike in painfulness, but how different in meaning!

The father does not give his child what he would deserve if it were a
punishment according to the law, but what he thinks will cure him of
the wrong-doing by making him feel that his sin brings sorrow. The
magistrate, although he desires the good of the offender, has mainly to
consider the law in its bearings upon the whole mass of the population
and, therefore, he punishes, as a matter of justice, that which wrongs
the commonwealth. But the parent acts on other principles. "The Lord
has chastened me sorely" and, in that He has added a fatherly part,
"but He has not given me over unto death," which would have been my lot
if He had dealt with me as a judge! My heart trembles at His sword and
cries, "Enter not into judgment with Your servant, O Lord: for in Your
sight shall no man living be justified."

The sentence of Justice has been fulfilled upon our Lord and our
comfort is that now there is nothing punitive in all our troubles. "He
has not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our
iniquities"–nor will He do so, for He has already laid our sins upon
Christ–and Christ has vindicated the Law by bearing its penalty so
that nothing more in the way of penalty is demanded by the moral
government of God. That which we receive from the rod of the Lord bears
the blessed aspect of chastening from a father's hand–and this is a
gladsome fact which makes even the sharpest smart to be profitable.
"Surely the bitterness of death is past" when, in the case of the
Believer, even death has ceased to be the penalty of sin and is changed
into a sweet falling asleep upon the bosom of the Well-Beloved and to
wake up in His likeness! Every other affliction is changed in the same
fashion. Our wasps have become bees–their sting is not the prominent
thought, but the honey which they lay up in store. "All things work
together for good to them that love God," and chastisement is chief
among those, "all things." What a well of comforting thought is here!

Furthermore, it is a great blessing to a child of God to feel a full
assurance that he has eternal life in Christ Jesus. "The Lord has
chastened me sorely: but He has not given me over unto death." Notice
the words, "Given me over." It is the most awful thing out of Hell to
be given over by God! I fear that there are some such persons. Does not
the Psalmist refer to such when he says, "They are not in trouble as
other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Their eyes stand
out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish"? While God's
own people are chastened every morning and plagued all day long, the
ungodly prosper in the world and increase in riches! Of His chosen, the
Lord says, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth:
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."

But those who are not the Lord's are left unchastened because the Lord
has said of them, "Let them alone, they are given unto idols." They are
allowed their transient mirth–let them make the most they can of it,
for their end will be desolation. Unbroken prosperity and undisturbed
health may be signs of being "given over unto death"–and they are in
such cases where sin is committed without pangs of conscience, or
apprehensions of judgment. Such freedom from fear may be maintained
even in death–"There are no bands in their death: but their strength
is firm." All goes quietly with them–"Like sheep they are laid in the
grave." But, "in Hell they lift up their eyes, being in torments." To
be given over unto death is often followed by callousness, presumption
and bravado–but it is a dreadful doom–the direst sentence from the
Throne of Judgment as to this life! But you, dear child of God, have
this comfort, He has not given you over– He is thinking about

you! Men do not prune the vine they mean to uproot, nor thresh out the
weeds which they mean to burn! He who is chastened is not given over to
destruction.

Years ago, I was taken very ill, in Marseilles, while attempting to
come home to England. As I lay in bed, it seemed as if the cruel
mistral wind was driving through my bones and breaking them with agony.
I ordered a fire to be kindled, but when I saw the man begin to light
it with a bundle of little branches, I cried out to him, "Pray let me
look at that." I found that he was using the dry pruning of the vine
and my tears were in my eyes as I remembered the words–"Men gather
them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Comfort
followed, for I thought, "I am not feeling, like those dried-up shoots,
but I am the bleeding vine which is sharply cut with the pruning knife.
I feel the keen blade in every part of me." Then I could say, "The Lord
has chastened me sorely: but He has not given me over." What joy lies
in this, "He has not given me over!" As long as the father chastens his
boy, he has hope for him. If he ceased to do so altogether, we might
fear that he thought him too bad to be reclaimed. Be glad, then, dear
child of God, that since the Lord chastens you sorely, He has not
erased your name from His heart or His hands, nor yielded you up to
your enemy's power!

Another meaning may be found in this text, "I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me sorely:
but He has not given me over unto death." We are comforted by reliance
upon God's power for success in our lifework. The critics said–and I
must quote this because this sermon is very much a personal one–the
critics said, when the lad commenced his preaching, that it was a nine
days' wonder and would soon come to an end. When the people joined the
Church in great numbers, they were "a parcel of boys and girls." Many
of those "boys and girls" are here, tonight, faithful to God unto this
hour! Then there came upon me a heavy, heavy stroke–a sore chastening,
which those of us who were present would never forget if we live for a
century! And we seemed to be made the reproach of all men, through an
accident which we could not have foreseen or prevented.

But still, the testimony for God in this place, by the same voice, has
not ceased, nor lost its power. Still the people throng to hear the
Gospel after these 30 years and more! And still the Doctrines of Grace
are to the front, notwithstanding the opposition! In the darkest hour
of my ministry I might have declared, "I shall not die, but live, and
declare the works of the Lord." If you have been set on fire by a
Divine Truth of God, the world cannot put an extinguisher upon you.
That candle which God has lighted, the devils of Hell cannot blow out!
If you are commissioned of God to do a good work, give your whole heart
to it–trust in the Lord and you will not fail! I bear my joyful
witness to the power of God to work mightily by the most insignificant
of instruments–

"The feeblest saint shall win the day Though death and Hell obstruct
the way."

Once more, though we may die, we are sustained by the expectation of
immortality. When we gather up our feet in the last bed, we may utter
this text in a full and sweet sense, "I shall not die, but live." When
Wycliffe died as to his body, the real Wycliffe did not die. Some of
his books were carried to Bohemia–and John Huss learned the Gospel
from them and began to preach. They burned John Huss and Jerome of
Prague, but Huss foretold, as he died, that another would arise after
him whom they should not be able to put down! And in due time he more
than lived, again, in Luther! Is Luther dead? Is Calvin dead today?
That last man the moderns have tried to bury in a dunghill of
misrepresentation, but he lives–and will live–and the Truths of God
that he taught will survive all the calumniators that have sought to
poison

it!

Die? Often the death of a man is a kind of new birth to him–when he,
himself, is gone physically–he spiritually survives and from the grave
there shoots up a tree of life whose leaves heal nations! O worker for
God, death cannot touch your sacred mission! Be content to die if the
Truth shall live better because you die! Be content to die because
death may be to you, enlargement of your influence! Good men die as
dies seed corn which thereby abides not alone. When saints are
apparently laid in the earth, they quit the earth and rise and mount to
Heaven's gate and enter into immortality! No, when the sepulcher
receives this mortal frame, we shall not die, but live! Then shall we
come to our true stature and beauty, put on our royal robes, our
glorious Sabbath dress!

III. So I finish with just two or three words on THE BELIEVER'S CONDUCT
AFTER TROUBLE AND DELIVERANCE. "I shall not die, but live, and declare
the works of the Lord."

Here is declaration. If we had no troubles, we would all have less to
declare. A person who has no experience of tribulation, what great
deliverance has he to speak of? Such persons despise the afflicted and
suspect the character of the choicest of men for lack of power to
understand them. What does the man know about the sea who has only
walked on the beach? Get with an old sailor who has been, a dozen
times, around the world, and often wrecked, and he will interest you.
So the much-tried Christian has great wonders to declare–and these are
chiefly the works of the Lord for, "they that go down to the sea in
ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the
Lord, and His wonders in the deep." Tried Christians see how God
sustains in trouble and how He delivers out of it–and they declare His
works openly–they cannot help doing so. They are so interested in what
God has done that they grow enthusiastic about it– and if they held
their peace, the stones would cry out!

If you read the chapter further down, you will find that they not only
give forth a declaration, but they offer adoration. They are so charmed
with what God has done for them that they laud and magnify the name of
the Lord, saying, "I will praise You: for You have heard me, and have
become my salvation." The saints of God, when they are rescued from
their sorrows, are sure to sing, "My soul does magnify the Lord, and my
spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior."

This done, they make a further dedication of themselves to their
delivering God. As the Psalm puts it, "God is the Lord, which has
showed us light." It was very dark! It was very, very dark! We could
not see our hand, much less the hand of God! We were frozen with fear.
We thought we were, as dead men, laid out for burial, when suddenly the
Lord's face shown in upon us and all darkness was gone! And we leaped
into joyful security, crying, "God is the Lord, which has showed us
light." We were convinced that it was none other than the true God who
had removed the midnight gloom. Doubts, infidelities,
agnosticisms–they were impossible! We said, "God is the Lord, which
has showed us light." In the fourth watch of the night, in the prison
where the cold stone shut us in, where the darkness had never known a
candle, there a light shone round about us and an angel smote us on the
side and bade us put on our sandals, and gird ourselves, and follow
him. We obeyed the word, and our chains fell off; and when we came to
the iron gate which had always been our horror, it opened of its own
accord, and we went out into the streets of the city, and we scarcely
felt that it could be true, but thought we saw a vision. But when we
had considered the thing, and found it was even ourselves, and
ourselves set in a large place at perfect liberty, then we said, "Bind
the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar."

God has showed us light and we will live to Him forever and forever.
Oh, you tried Believers, who have, nevertheless, not been given over
unto death, who can say, tonight, "I shall not die, but live," present
yourselves anew unto your delivering Lord as living sacrifices through
Jesus Christ your Lord! Amen.

Port/on Of Scripture Read Before Sermon–Psalm 18.