Three Texts, But One Subject– Faith

Three Texts, But One Subject– Faith

(No. 2335)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 22, 1889.

"In the shadow of Your wings will I make my refuge." Psalm 57:1.

"Cast your burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain you." Psalm
55:22.

"Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God." Isaiah
50:10.

IT is the preacher's business to endeavor to make plain to the people
the meaning of the word, FAITH. Inasmuch as salvation comes by
believing, it is most important that men should know what believing
is–and though we have to preach upon many topics and take the whole
range of the Word of God–yet it often behooves the minister of Christ
to dwell especially upon the way whereby men are saved and to explain
what is that step by which they enter into eternal life. You may think
that it is very easy to explain faith and so it is, but it is still
easier to confuse people with your explanation. There is nothing
simpler in the world than to believe in Christ Jesus, yet probably
there is nothing more difficult than to explain to a man what it is to
believe in the Lord Jesus–not that the thing, itself, is difficult,
but the explaining of it is not so easy.

You remember the story, perhaps, of Mr. Thomas Scott, a very excellent
commentator, who brought out an edition of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, to which he had written very excellent and, I think that I
must add, very dull notes. On going round his parish, he called on an
aged person and found her studying the book. "Well, my good woman,"
said he, "I see that you are reading Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress."
"Yes, Sir," she replied, "I always enjoy that book." "And, pray, do you
understand it?" "Yes, Sir, I understand it very well and I think that,
by the Grace of God, I shall one day understand your explanation of
it"–which was not very complimentary to Mr. Scott! So, I have no doubt
that there are many who better understand what faith is without our
explanations. It is so easy to darken counsel by words without
knowledge and to give illustrations which, themselves, need to be
illustrated, and definitions which need to be defined. I am afraid of
doing that, tonight–I see my difficulty and I cry to God to help me to
put faith very plainly before every sinner here–that you may all know
what it is and may at once exercise it.

I have met with a large number of persons who have believed in Christ
who were accustomed to hear the Gospel preached and to have faith
explained to them, but in almost every case they have told me that they
did not know what faith was till they, themselves, believed and,
although they were told a hundred times over that it was simply
trusting in Christ, they still did not get a hold of the right
idea–they still entertained the thought that there was something to be
felt, something to be done, something to be endured, something or other
more than the simple casting of themselves upon Christ for eternal
salvation! I have also noticed how, when I have tried to use
illustrations, the friend to whom I have spoken has not been affected
by them and has not understood my illustrations.

Speaking to a young man, once, I quoted to him that verse of Dr. Watts
which begins–

"A guilty, weak and helpless worm, On Your kind arms I fall."

"But," he said, "I cannot fall." "Oh, my dear Friend," I replied, you
do not catch the idea at all, because it is not a thing that a man can
do. He falls because he cannot help it–there is no effort in falling,
it is cessation from effort." Still,

though I put it, as I thought, so that he ought to understand it, he
did not comprehend it. It was sometime later when the Holy Spirit
revealed it to him, that he came to understand what faith was. Perhaps
you ask, "Are we such dolts that we do not even understand plain Saxon
language when it has to do with spiritual things?" Ah, my Hearers, sin
has made fools of us! Sin has so befooled us that even God's Word,
itself, does not convey God's meaning to our stupid minds until the
Spirit of God comes and teaches our reason, reason–and takes the film
from our eyes and helps us to see what is, in itself, plain as a
pikestaff–but is not plain to us by reason of our sinful and corrupt
nature! Before I try, then, to preach about what faith is, may I ask
you to pray the Holy Spirit to come and open men's eyes, that they may
see what faith is? For truly, as we know not what we should pray for as
we ought, we know not how to believe as we ought! And we make mistakes
on this simplest of all subjects until the Holy Spirit sets us right.
Divine Spirit, we believe in You, but we do not believe in ourselves!
We see, in some measure, how stupid, how ignorant we are. Come, we pray
You, and teach us even the first lesson of the Doctrines of Christ,
teach us to believe in Jesus!

If you want to cut a diamond, you must cut it with a diamond–so, if
you want to explain Scripture, you must explain it with Scripture. I
thought, therefore, that I would take three expressions from the Old
Testament which may help to set forth what faith really is.

I. The first expression you will find in the 57th Psalm, and the first
verse. It shows that faith is HIDING IN God– "Be merciful unto me, O
God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in You: yes, in the shadow
of Your wings will I make my refuge."

See then, trusting in God, that is, faith, is the same thing as hiding
under the shadow of God's wings by way of refuge. Let me explain that
figure, first, as relating to birds beneath their mother's wings. There
is a hawk in the sky, the hen sees it, she begins to give her warning
"cluck." The little chickens hardly know what the danger is, but they
understand the mother's call and they see her crouching down on the
ground. Have you ever seen her close to the earth, with her wings
outspread and calling and calling again till every one of her chicks
comes and hides beneath her wings? They are out of sight of the bird of
prey–if that hawk comes down at all, it will have to attack the hen
and kill her before it can reach her chicks. The pecks of its bill, the
tearing of its talons will have to be, first, upon the mother bird, for
her little ones are all hidden beneath the cover of her wings.

Now, that hiding is an illustration of faith. Here is Christ, the
Savior, and I hide myself under Him. The justice of God must strike the
sinner, or One who is able and willing to suffer in the sinner's place.
It is imperative, as a first Law of the universe, that sin cannot go
unpunished. As Justice approaches, with drawn sword, I find Christ
coming and interposing between me and the sentence of the Law–and if
the avenger seeks me, I hide away under Christ and all the blows must
be dealt upon Him. You know how He was wounded, beaten, torn, that you
and I, hiding beneath Him, might escape. It sometimes happens, on the
sides of the Alps, that a mountain goat or a wild gazelle may be
feeding there and an eagle spies out a kid close by its mother–and the
powerful bird thinks to devour that kid and down it flies! But the
little creature crouches as low as it can at its mother's side and
there stands the mother with horns ready to meet the eagle, and to
fight against it for the life of her beloved little one. So the little
kid is hidden away behind its mother and she valor-ously contends for
it. In that way we must hide behind the Savior. We sang just now–

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

I put myself behind my Savior. I say to God, Deal not with me–deal
with my dying Savior! My God, I interpose between Your wrath and my
guilty head, the Sacrifice which He presented on the Cross, when He
bowed His head and said, 'It is finished!'"

The act of the chickens hiding away beneath the hen's wings is a very
good description of the act of faith.

It may be further illustrated by travelers hiding beneath a rock.
Journeying through hot countries, they find towards noon that the air
is very sultry and that the sandy soil beneath them reflects the heat
of the sun. They seem to be traveling in a hot bath and they feel faint
and weary. But yonder there is a great rock cropping out of the soil
and under its shadow the heat is not felt. I have often been struck
with the singular coolness that there is just by the side of a great
rock. I have, myself, sometimes stood out in the sunshine in the South
of France and it has been so hot that I have felt ready to faint– and
I have just stepped back within the shadow of a rock and found it
almost as chilly as a vault! Refreshing, indeed, has it been to get
into the cooler atmosphere!

Well, now, Christ is the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land–and if
you and I come to Him, and let His shadow come between us and the
burning heat of the sun of Divine Justice, the heat will fall on the
Rock–not on us. We shall be safe and refreshed and the Rock will
screen us from all evil. Come and put Christ between you and God! He is
the Inter-poser between God and man and that is true faith which gets
to the side of the Rock, Christ, and hides away beneath His sheltering
shade!

Take another Biblical metaphor, that of the manslayer hiding in the
City of Refuge. That was a part of the Law, you remember. If one had
killed a man inadvertently and not of malice, the next of kin of the
man killed could seek revenge and he followed up the manslayer–and the
poor man's only hope of life was to hurry away as quickly as ever he
could to a refuge city belonging to the priests. If he could once pass
through the gate of a City of Refuge, he was sure of a fair trial and
could not be put to death by the avenger of blood. Oh, how he hurried!
How his feet seemed to fly over the soil, especially if he saw the
avenger at some little distance following him with hot feet! But once
let the city gate be shut, he breathed freely within the sacred
streets–he was safe! Come, guilty souls, and fly away to Christ, as
the manslayer fled away to the City of Refuge and, once safe in Him,
with Jesus as the great Gate between you and the avenger of blood, you
are perfectly safe! Do you comprehend and catch the thought? It is
hiding away in Christ, from the pursuit of vengeance, from the
righteous wrath of God, that brings safety.

Another illustration comes in here, it is that of the conies hiding in
the rocks–"The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their
houses in the rocks." A coney was not exactly like a rabbit–a rabbit
hardly dwells among rocks–but this creature was always found in holes
and crannies of the rocks. Poor little coney, a dog is after it and the
sportsman seeks to destroy it. But there is an opening in the rock and
he slips in there and is perfectly safe. The dog barks and the coney's
little heart beats fast, but barking will not kill conies! The
sportsman looks up and down, but he cannot see the coney–he can see
the rock, but he cannot see the coney within the rock. The coney has
hidden right away from the keenest sight of the man who would destroy
him.

Now, just hide in that way in Christ, who died for guilty men! Trust
Him. Believe Him. Believe that He will save you. Hide yourself in the
Rock of Ages and then, though you may feel some fears, you will have no
need of any. Once safe in Christ, all is well with you! You know that
when a ship has been driven by a storm and the winds are out, the
mariners hasten to the harbor. When they got into port, down goes the
anchor! The rattle of the chains is one of the most pleasant sounds
ever heard when one is seasick and worn out with a tempest-tossed
voyage. Down goes the anchor–well, but when the motion of the ship
still keeps on, she rocks to and fro–yes, but the anchor is down, the
fear is all over! No matter how the vessel rocks, the winds cannot
drive her out of the harbor. She is safe in port and the anchor is
down–all is well with her. Oh, if tonight you can let the anchor go
right down into the deeps and trust Christ–get a grip on Christ and
hold on to Christ–you may have some fears and there may be some
tossing for you yet to endure, but all is well! As the ship hides
itself in the harbor, so do you hide away in Christ, saying with David,
"In the shadow of Your wings will I make my refuge." This is faith.

I cannot preach as I would. I have been learning to preach for ever so
many years, but I cannot do it as I want to. But I wish that, instead
of my preaching to you, you would practice what I bid you and hide away
under the shadow of Christ's wings–

"Come, guilty souls, and flee away Like doves to Jesus' wounds! This is
the welcome Gospel-Day, Wherein Free Grace abounds."

I remember when I first hid away in that Rock. I have been tempted many
times to come out, but I never will. I cannot fight the hawk, I cannot
kill the eagle, but I can squeeze myself further back into my Rock and
hide away there and even–

"When my eye-strings break in death,

When I soar through tracks unknown," and see Christ on His Judgement
Throne, I hope, still, to shelter in the Rock of Ages! Do the same,
dear Sister! Do the same, dear Brother! May the Holy Spirit lead you to
do it now! Remember that you have to believe for yourself–the Holy
Spirit will not believe for you–He cannot believe for you. How can He?
He has nothing to believe. It is you who have to believe and though He
works in you to will and to do, He works, but you believe. It is only
personal faith that

saves–it could not be the faith of the Holy Spirit–it must be the
sinner's own faith though it is worked in him by the Spirit of God.
Therefore, believe and live unto God!

II. Having dwelt on that illustration long enough, I ask you, now, to
notice another expression in Psalm 55, verse 22–"Cast your burden upon
the Lord and He shall sustain you." This passage sets forth faith as
ROLLING OUR BURDEN UPON GOD.

I believe that this text might be rendered, "Roll your burden upon the
Lord." The similar passage in Psalm 37, verse five, "Commit your way
unto the Lord," is, in the margin, "Roll your way upon the Lord."

Faith, then, is the leaving of our burdens with God. When a man
believes in Christ, he shifts his burden from his own shoulders onto
the shoulders of Christ–

"My soul looks back to see The burdens You did bear, When hanging on
the cursed tree, And hopes her guilt was there." There you are,
stooping down beneath a crushing load, heavy as that which Atlas was
supposed to bear when the whole world was on his back–and Christ comes
in and says, "Roll your burden from off your shoulders on to Mine. Let
Me bear it for you."

Well, then, if the burden is laid upon Christ, then we have not to bear
it ourselves. Notice that. Some will say, "We trust Christ, but yet we
are not at ease." How is that? If you have trusted Christ, you have
rolled your burden upon Him–it is no longer upon you. I do not know
whether there are still, near Ludgate Hill, as there used to be,
certain rests for burden bearers. You might have seen the porter come
toiling up to that spot and, as he shifted his burden onto the rest, he
was, himself, relieved of the load. I have often looked at one of those
rests at Mentone and seen the women come along the road with huge
baskets of lemons or oranges on their heads and, as soon as they have
reached this kind of table, they have put their burden on it, sat down
and rested a while.

Now, when they put their basket of oranges there, it is not on their
head, is it? There is the beauty of rolling your burden upon Christ!
When He takes it, it is not on you any longer. A thing cannot be in two
places at one time! And when, by faith, I lay my burden down at Jesus'
feet, I do not have it anymore! If my sin is laid on Him, it does not
any longer lie on me! Come, poor Soul, here is the act of faith–to
take the mighty burden that will crush you lower than the lowest
Hell–and lay it on Christ, your Savior!

When the burden is on Him, and not on us, the burden is not ours to
take up again. I have heard that some of our rests in London were done
away with because porters were known to come and put their loads on
them, and sit down a while and, afterwards, get up and go home without
them. You would hardly believe they could be so forgetful, but people
do strange things. However, that is a mistake that I want you to make
with regard to Christ, for there is no mistake in it! Lay your sin on
Him by an act of faith, but do not take it up again! I never can
believe, as some do, in God forgiving our sin and afterwards laying it
to our account. I believe that in the day when our sin was laid on
Christ, it was all laid there, and taken away from His people, never to
be charged against them again! "As far as the East is from the West, so
far has He removed our transgressions from us." How far is the East
from the West? If you could travel, like a ray of light, as far
eastward as you pleased–while another went as far westward as he could
desire–you might go on forever and forever, and yet not meet. The
distance, so far as created things can be, is infinite–and so far has
the Lord removed our transgressions from us. If we, by faith, lay our
sins upon Christ, God Himself forgets them and casts them behind His
back, so that He says that if they are searched for, they shall not be
found anymore forever.

And here is one of the greatest mercies of all, that the burden is not
even on Christ now. Roll your burden upon Him and, if you do, that
burden is not on Him now. He died on the Cross and they laid Him in the
sepulcher. Your sin rolls into His sepulcher and it is buried. Christ
has left it as a dead and buried thing and He has risen from among the
dead. He took your debt upon Himself, but when He paid that debt, it
was not anymore due from Him, neither was it due from you! Therefore,
we rightly sing–

"Now both the Surety and sinner are free." The atoning Sacrifice of
Christ is so complete a satisfaction to the Lord that even the sin that
was laid on the Lamb of God is gone forever! It has ceased, even, to
be, so that a Believer in Christ may, indeed, rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory!

Now then, roll your burden upon the Lord. I really think that if a
number of friends all stood here, tonight, groaning under a great load,
and I said, "Just roll your burdens off," they would understand me.
What a lot of rolling off would be done very soon! That is all that is
required with your sin. Jesus is willing to take it! Jesus is willing
to obliterate all the black record against you! Let it go to Him. Tell
the devil that you have been answering him long enough and you are not
going to talk to him any longer, for you have an Advocate in whose
hands you are going to leave your case. When a man has an advocate, he
does not go and do his legal business, himself–he refers everybody to
his advocate. "Go and settle with him," he says. And tonight, when the
devil says, "You are a sinner," I reply, "I know I am and so are you."
"Ah," says he, "but you deserve death." "Yes," I answer, "but there is
One who stood in my place–go and settle my account with Him. He
undertook my business and He said that He would see me through with it
if I would but trust Him, and I do trust Him! I must refer you to my
Advocate, He can settle with you, I cannot."

Do that, I pray you! Roll your burden upon the Lord. Trust in Him–to
roll your burden upon Him is to trust Him! I do not know a better
figure by which to set faith forth. Oh, that God the Holy Spirit may
use it, tonight, to the unburdening of many poor souls!

III. I said that we would have three of these Old Testament
diamonds–the third is found in the 50th chapter of Isaiah, and the
10th verse, where faith is likened to STAYING UPON GOD. I read it to
you just now, but we will read the verse again–"Who is among you that
fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in
darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and"
(here is the same thing as trusting in the name of the Lord, the
explanation of it) "stay upon his God."

The word, "stay," means, "lean." If I cannot stand, if I feel giddy, I
naturally put out my hand. And if I feel faint, I lean upon some
support and, the more faint I am, the more I lean. At this moment, I
lean my whole weight upon this platform rail, just so. If this rail
gives way, I must go down. I am leaning, staying myself wholly here.
Now that is what you have to do with Christ–lean on Him with all your
weight of sin and sorrow–lean on Jesus Christ and lean hard! Do not
try to hold yourself up, now–throw yourself right on Him, lean on Him,
rest on Him, let Him bear the whole of your weight. Stay yourself upon
Him.

In order to do that, you must believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is
able to bear you up. Do you not believe it? He is God as well as Man.
He has offered an all-sufficient Atonement to God. He is well-pleasing
to the Father. He is the Lord, strong and mighty–a Savior–and a great
One! Lean on Him and lean hard. Did anyone say, "I am afraid to trust
Christ lest He may not be able to bear me up"? Oh, dear Friend, do not
talk so! It seems so absurd. I remember a good old lady who would never
go over the Saltash bridge at Plymouth. She looked up at it and said
that she did not believe that it would ever bear her weight. There were
great luggage trains that went rolling over it, but, still, she always
said that it would not bear her. You smile, do you? Now, just think
that you are that old woman–you are doing a more foolish thing than
she did if you cannot trust Christ with your weight! Christ who is
Omnipotent to save! How foolish you must be! He is able to save you. He
is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him!
Therefore stay yourself upon Him.

Then, lean all your weight on Him. If you do that, you no longer have
to support yourself. The sinner says, "I do not think that I could ever
get to Heaven." Lean upon Christ to get there. "Oh, but if I were to
leave my sins, I am afraid that I would go back to them!" Lean upon
Christ to keep you from going back. "Oh, but if I lived here many
years, I would be tempted and I might fall!" Lean upon Christ to
preserve you from falling. "Ah, but you do not know what a temper I
have!" Lean upon Christ to conquer your temper. "But, Sir, I have gone
back so many times." Lean upon Christ to keep you from going back
anymore–stay yourself upon Him! I cannot possibly mention all your
weaknesses, all your doubts and all your fears, but whatever they are,
lean upon Christ, lean hard on Him, like one of our female
missionaries, when sustained by one of her converts in the hour of
death. The convert said, "Lean on me, Missionary. Lean on me, Sister,"
and as she thought that the missionary had a delicacy in resting all
her weight, she said, "If you love me, lean hard, for the harder you
lean, the more I shall feel that you love me." And Christ says to you,
"Sinner, if you love Me, lean hard." Lean hard on Him and He will bear
you up. You do not need strength for leaning on Christ–

"True belief and true repentance," perseverance, and every Grace that
you need to make you meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the
saints in light, Christ will give it all to you! Depend upon Him for it
all! You will never have ease of mind, you will never know what full

salvation means till you just give yourself up, as though you were
dead, that He might be your life. Resign yourself to Christ, as a
wandering sheep has to do to the shepherd when he takes it by the legs
and throws it on his shoulders and carries it home, rejoicing. Christ
can save–He will save–therefore, stay yourself upon Him!

If you do, you shall have perfect peace. "You will keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in You." I should
like to begin preaching, again, with that for my text, "You will keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in
You." If you have not perfect peace, it is because you are not staying
yourself on God as you ought to do. There is no other way of coming to
a perfect rest but by a perfect leaning upon Christ. Will you do that
tonight? If a man were to get one foot on a rock, he might stand very
well. Suppose that he puts the other foot on the sand? The sea comes
up, the sand is treacherous and his foot begins to sink. I should
recommend him to get wholly on that bit of rock and to stand there. Do
so, then–stay yourself wholly upon Christ. Have no confidence in
yourself, in Baptism, in sacraments, in prayers, in good works, in
anything but the finished work of Christ–and when you get there, you
are on a foundation that can never be moved!

I would like to say, as I finish, that I have now served the Lord Jesus
Christ for about 40 years and I have preached His Gospel, I can say,
with all my heart. Neither have I cared for anything but to win souls
to my Lord Jesus, but when I came to Him at first, I had no hope but in
His blood and merits and I have no more hope, now, apart from His blood
and merits, than I had at the beginning! I stand on the same foundation
as I stood upon then. I have heard of a good man who said, as he was
dying, that he was sorting over his life, putting his good works in one
bundle and his bad ones in the other. At last he said to his wife, "It
is no use sorting them out, for the good ones are so bad that I think
that I will fling them all away and cling to Christ, alone."

There was a famous cardinal, in Luther's day, who fought tremendously
against the Reformer, but he said, in the course of the discussion,
that, seeing that there is much in our good works that is faulty, and
no man can be quite sure that he has done enough good works to save
him–upon the whole it is better to trust only to the merits of Christ.
Well, the best of everything always suits me and if that is the best, I
will let other people have the second best and I will just trust in
Christ, and trust in Christ, alone. Oh, that you would all do so
tonight! Have done with yourself! Have done with your good works! Have
done with your bad ones–have done with any reliance upon self,
whatever–and just come as you are and trust Christ who died for the
guilty and undeserving!

O bankrupt Sinner! O Sinner without a hope, come and just stay yourself
upon the immovable foundation of the atoning Sacrifice of Christ and
you shall find eternal life tonight! Yes, even tonight! God grant it,
for Jesus' sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH50.

Verse 1. Thus says the LORD. There is always something weighty coming
when you have this preface. If God speaks, we ought to hear with
reverence, with attention.

1. Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put
away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? God is
here addressing His ancient people. They had been given up, as it were,
left, forsaken. They compared themselves to a wife who had been
divorced by her husband, or to children who bad been sold by their
father because of his extreme poverty. The Lord says, "Now, tell Me,
have I really put away My chosen people as a man in a pet puts away his
wife? Have I really sold you to profit by you? What benefit is it to Me
that you are carried away captive and that you are left without
comfort?"

1. Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your
transgressions is your mother put away. It was not God's
changeableness, but their own sinfulness that had brought upon them all
their sufferings. The Jews might have remained a nation in possession
of their own land to this day if they had not turned aside unto idols.
It was not that God cast away His people whom He did foreknow, but they
cast Him off, they sold themselves. Now, if any child of God has fallen
into trouble of heart and has lost his comfort, let him not blame
God–his sorrow is caused by his own acts and deeds. And if any man or
woman here should be in deep trouble brought on by sin, let them not
set it down to their destiny, let them not call God unkind, but let
them take the blame to themselves–"For your iniquities have you sold
yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away."

2. Therefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there
none to answer? It is Christ who is speaking here by the mouth of the
Prophet. When He came, there was "no man." He could not find in all the
nation any faithful one to help Him in His great redemptive work. "He
came unto His own and His own received Him not." He preached repentance
and faith throughout the land, but they cried, "Crucify, Him! Crucify
Him!" They loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were
evil.

2. Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no
power to deliver? If you are in the worst plight in which you can be,
God can still help you. Despair of yourself, but do not despair of Him!
If you have come to the very bottom of all things and the last ray of
hope is quenched in midnight darkness, God is still the same! Hear what
He says to you, "Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or
have I no power to deliver?" Can He not break the bonds of drunkenness?
Can He not deliver the unchaste from their vile passions? Can He not
pick up from the dunghill the outcast and the offcasts? Is anything too
hard for the Lord? Is the salvation of the greatest sinners impossible
for Him to accomplish? That can never be, for He is "mighty to save."

2. Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I Make the rivers a
wilderness, their fish stink because there is no water, and they die of
thirst. God divided the Red Sea, He parted the Jordan asunder and made
a way for His people to pass over. He who has done this can do
anything! When God takes up the case, impossibility is not in the
dictionary. However great your sorrow, however deep your misfortune, or
however grievous your sin, if God comes to deal with it, He will make
short work of all your troubles and all your despair.

3, 4. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their
covering. The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I
should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He
wakens morning by morning, He wakens My ears to hear as the learned.
This is Christ speaking again. When He came here, though He found no
man able to help Him, none to come and join Him in the redemption of
His people, yet He gave Himself up to the tremendous task. He became
instructed of the Father. He was taught to speak a word to weary ones.
"Never man spoke like this Man." There is no gospel like His Gospel, no
doctrine like His Doctrine. He went to God in private "morning by
morning." He received His message from His Father and He came and
delivered it to the people. Oh, what a glorious Christ we have!

5. The Lord GOD has opened My ears and I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. He had His ear bored as slaves had when they would
not go out free, but meant to remain with their master. Christ had a
bored ear, an opened ear. He never rebelled against God's will. He was
obedient to the Father, even unto death. If you want to know how
obedient He was, hear me read the next verse–

6. I gave My back to the smiters, and My checks to them that plucked
off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting. Now let me go
back a little and read, again, the third verse–"I clothe the heavens
with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering." "I gave My back
to the smiters, and My checks to them that plucked off the hair." It is
the same Divine Person who musters the hosts of Heaven till the very
skies are blackened with the artillery of God, who here says, "I gave
My back to the smiters, bowing down to the brutal Roman scourge, and My
cheeks to them that plucked off the hair." You remember the scene that
I pictured last Sunday night, the whole band of soldiers mocking Christ
and even spitting upon Him? [ Sermon #2333, Volume 39–The Whole Band
Against Christ.] That was the fulfillment of these words, "I hid not My
face front shame and spitting." That same Christ, without whom was not
anything made that was made, whose face is the sun of Heaven, whose
Glory is matchless and unsearchable, says, "I hid not My face from
shame and spitting." Do not say, then, that God has no love to you! Do
not say that He has cast you away as a husband divorces his wife. Talk
no more as if there were no help for you, no means of your deliverance.
Behold how low your Savior stooped, how gracious He was to suffer so
much for guilty men–and be encouraged to trust Him. He who gave His
back to the smiters says to you, "The chastisement of your peace was
upon Me, and with My stripes you are healed."

7. For the Lord GOD will help Me. This is Christ still speaking. Though
God, Himself, yet as the God-Man, looking to His Father for help in the
dread struggle through which He went to save us, He declared, "The Lord
God will help

Me."

7. Therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. And He was
not–He went through with all that He had undertaken. He drank our
bitter cup till none of the dregs re-

mained. He bore the terrible wrath of God, which otherwise would have
rested on us forever! God helped Him and He bore it all.

8, 9. He is near that justifies Me; who will contend with Me? Let us
stand together: who is My adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold,
the Lord GOD will help Me; who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they
all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. Will any
now come to battle against Christ and hope to conquer Him? Voltaire
used to say, "Crush the Wretch!" but where is Voltaire now? And those
who agreed with Voltaire, where are they now? But Jesus always lives
and reigns and God is with Him! He who shall once come to battle with
our glorious Lord shall soon know the power of Christ's weakness and
the Omnipotence of His death!

10. Who is among you–Here is a very blessed question. Christ, having
passed through all the trouble that could be passed through, and having
come out of it triumphant, now looks round on all His followers, on all
the children of God, and He says, "Who is among you"–

10. That fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of His servant, that
walks in darkness, and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the
LORD, and stay upon his God. Do you see the drift of it? Our Savior
trusted and He was not confounded. He stayed Himself upon God even when
He said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" and He came off a
conqueror! Trust in God and you, also, will be victorious! Let your
strength be drawn from that strong and mighty One who is pledged to
help all who trust Him and you shall triumph even as Jesus did! Do you
refuse to trust God? Then listen to this–

11. Behold, all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about
with sparks: walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that you
have kindled. If you think to make yourselves happy in sin, go and do
it! If you fancy that your own righteousness will save you, go and try
it!

11. This shall you have of My hand; you shall lie down in sorrow. Your
fire shall not warm you! Your sparks shall not enlighten you! You will
have to lie down to die and you shall lie down in sorrow. O my dear
Hearers, the time will come when each one of us must put off this body
and lie down to die! God grant that we may, none of us, have to lie
down in sorrow, but instead thereof, having trusted in God, may He
light our candle for us in the last moment, that we may fall asleep in
Jesus and wake up in His likeness in the everlasting Glory! May God
bless to us the reading of His Word! Amen.