To the Rescue

To the Rescue

(No. 3462)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1915.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive be
delivered?" Isaiah 49:24

IN the days when this prophecy was written, there were certain great
nations of the earth that sought and obtained their wealth, not by
commerce, but by force–not by fair trading, but by fiercely invading
their richer neighbors. The Babylonians and the Chaldeans gathered
together great armies and then pounced upon small territories, such as
those at Israel and Judea, and carried off all the substance of the
inhabitants as a prey. When the marauding host, flushed with victory,
was returning home with its booty, it would have been a very dangerous
thing to attempt to rescue the spoil. "Shall the prey be taken from the
mighty?" What a great king has captured and what his mighty hosts have
fought for– shall this be taken from them? Where are the warriors that
have strength and numbers enough to attack the victors as they return
with the spoil? Sometimes treaties were broken and then the Babylonians
made that a pretext for taking the people away captive. They were
"lawful captives," as they had broken certain conditions and made
themselves subject, according to the articles of war, to be lawfully
taken prisoners. Now where such is the case, when enraged kings and
princes have taken cities which have proved traitorous to them, shall
anybody deliver the prisoners? Who shall step in between the monarch
and his righteous captive? That is the literal meaning of the verse,
"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive be
delivered?" It was first applicable to the Jewish people. They were
taken into captivity in Babylon. Shall they ever be set free?

God declared that they should be delivered, and so they were. In due
time they came up without price or reward into their own land. God had
promised it by His Word, and by His Providence He performed it.
Leaving, however, this primary literal interpretation, we intend to
draw your attention to the spiritual sense, and to ask the question
concerning some of you whom it most intimately concerns. If it should
appear that you are "prisoners," and that, according to the conditions
of your captivity, you are "lawful captives," you will see and feel the
urgency of the matter! "Is it possible for you to be set free?" Is
there any arm that has strength enough to tear off your fetters? We
will begin by describing–

I. THE NATURAL CAPTIVITY IN WHICH EVERY UNREGENERATED MAN IS HELD.

Every creature of Adam born, who has not been saved by Grace, is a
prisoner to sin. He is a lawful captive to God's Law. His nature is in
thralldom under the power and dominion of sin, for that nature is evil.
The man does not sin by accident–he sins because he wills to sin! He
wishes to do it–he takes delight in it–he casts his heart into it. As
the fish naturally swims in the stream, so the unconverted man finds
sin congenial to his depraved instincts. He chooses to do that which is
evil, and revels therein! He omits to do that which is good, and
recoils from it. Who shall set free the man whose nature is thus
enslaved? Moreover, the chains of habit become more and more highly
riveted on those who indulge their lusts, but never restrain their
passions. Time was when you hesitated whether to follow the pleasure
that allured you, or to heed the conscience that would restrain you.
Then you chose the wrong–and now the Ethiopian might sooner change his
skin, or the leopard his spots, than you can change your guilty
propensities–so hard is it for the man accustomed to do evil to learn
to do well! As well try to reverse the course of the sun, or make the
waters of Niagara return to their source, or check the north wind in
its fury, or stop the rising tide, as hope to make men cease from ways
which by constant repetition and steady accumulation over a long course
of years have acquired the force of a natural disposition and produced
an unmistakable type of character! Unhappily, too, custom, of which it
has been well said that it is the law of fools, gives sanction to vices
which would otherwise be abhorrent. A man will willingly consent to be
the slave of sin because his fellow man sins after the same fashion. He
must do this and that because his neighbors or his comrades do the

same. Why should he be different? Why should he swim against the
general current? If others see no harm, feel no compunction and find it
pleasant sport, why should he not join them? Is it not always more
lively to follow the multitude? What road is better than the broad road
where all sorts of good company may be met with? And, brethren, the
less scrupulous men are, the more self-complacent they become. Mirth,
it would seem, extracts the venom from sin, and wit can robe ribaldry
in innocence. But be not deceived! The customs you adopt and the habits
you cherish combine with the depravity of your own nature to weld a
chain which the strength of Hercules could not snap–a chain that makes
the creature an abject slave to the flesh, instead of a liege subject
of his adorable Creator.

Each man, according to his own order, has some peculiar chain to bind
and chafe him. There are aberrations to which the constitution is
prone. There are temptations to which one's business or employment
expose him. And there may be entanglements in the social relationships
and the home circle that involve a heavy bondage. Raging passions,
restless anxieties and rigorous circumstances carry men far out to sea
and leave them to the tender mercy of the waves and breakers. They seem
to be as powerless to resist as the chaff in the wind that blows from
side to side on the summer threshing floor. Like some bird borne out to
sea by an impetuous hurricane, they cannot stem the torrent! They are
hurried away whether they will it or not. But, alas, alas, their will
concurs! They do not struggle or contend for the right, but where their
passions bear them, there do they float! 'Tis so with some men. The
slavery of other men consists in their self-righteousness. They do not
hold themselves guilty of any crime. They have always acquitted
themselves to their own satisfaction. As for their transgressions, they
are trifles! They account themselves as good as their neighbors in all
respects and in some points better. And because of this, is their
conceit. Repentance they will not practice! Remission they will not
seek! In vain the Gospel tells them that they are lost! To them the
Gospel is a fiction–a thing scarcely consonant with the delicacy of
their feelings. They will try to find a way to Heaven by their merits!
Why need they cry, "God be merciful to me, a sinner"? What need for
them of scalding tears of penitence? What occasion for them to fly to
the blood of sprinkling to be cleansed? They are not conscious that
they are foul! Others may say–

"Black, I to the Fountain fly." But they are not conscious that they
are black and, therefore, to no fountain will they resort. This is
another chain and how heavy an one it is! How difficult to take it off!
Some of the victims of self-flattery are faster bound and harder to set
free than the most reckless and profligate of their neighbors, with
whom they would count it an insult to compare them!

So it was in Christ's days. Publicans and harlots, the dregs of the
town, the refuse of the population, entered into the Kingdom of God,
hailed it with joy and were received into it with welcome, while
Scribes and Pharisees, the upper circle of society, the chief and
representative men of the synagogue, clogged and bound with their
self-righteousness, scorned the sinner's hope, refused the Savior-King,
and perished in their infatuation! And oh, how many are there upon
whose hearts a willful unbelief lays its icy chains. They ask for
evidences and proofs, only to rebut them. They are shown signs and
wonders, but they merely cast discredit on them till their hearts grow
more callous. No reasons will weigh with them. To give reasons may be
easy enough for us, but to impart reason to them is difficult. Indeed,
to furnish motives that would suffice to move their understanding to
discern Him were a miracle! Cut the ground from under their feet. Let
them look confused. No, let them acknowledge themselves non-suited–

"Convince a man against his will, He is of the same opinion still." His
conversion is as far off as ever. A new difficulty and a fresh dilemma
will they start. Making sport of matters too weighty to be trifled
with, they raise another question and argue another point. So perverse
do they become that they could argue themselves into Hell! At issue
with their own mercies, they contend with all the might of logic
against the Cross of Christ. Unwilling to yield obedience to the
precepts, they cast discredit on the promises of the Gospel. How hard
it is to rescue men that are thus manacled and fettered, whose heads
and hearts are alike enslaved! We have known sad cases–and those not
among the most hopeless–of persons carried away and led a prey to
despair because they are too guilty in their own apprehensions to
obtain mercy, therefore they will not repent! Supposing that there can
be no pardon for them, they sit down in sullen rebellion against
God–they will not believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Because
they have sinned so much, therefore they will even sin more! And
because the disease is so dreadful, they will, therefore, decline to
adopt the remedy. Oh, miserable souls! To what a plight do such
arguments reduce you! Yet how many unhap-

py creatures are subject to such thralldom, we, who have to deal with
them, find out! And how hard it is to take the prey from the mighty and
to deliver these lawful captives, we know too well.

And are not full many of you chained hand and foot–fastened, as it
were, in the stocks–your spirits so crushed that you cannot move? You
have forgotten the meaning of spiritual liberty, if you ever had an
idea of it. By nature, lost, by practice, lost, by custom, led astray,
by evil habits, bound and fettered, by all manner of vice, enslaved,
you are under the dominion of Satan! But the worst remains to be told.
That which aggravates the horror of the situation is this–that such
persons are lawful captives to the Law of God. They have violated the
precepts, transgressed the ordinances, offended the Divine
Majesty–therefore, they must be punished! It is inevitable that every
offense against God's Law should ensure the penalty due to the
offender. God will by no means spare the guilty! From Sinai's summit
there sounds no note of mercy. Justice and judgment hold undisputed
sway. "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are
written in the Book of the Law, to do them." That curse falls on
everyone of us by nature–it leaves us bruised and mangled, and
incapable of rescue! Who can deliver the man who is God's lawful
captive? Who can claim exemption for him that has broken God's Law?
Such is the helpless, hopeless case of the sinner! Believe me, I do not
overstate it. Though my words may sound rough, they do not fully
describe the state that you are in, my unconverted Friend. You are in
such a state, that unless One interpose for you whom I will tell you of
soon–you will have but a short reprieve! From the haunts of your
folly, from the scenes of your toil, from the home of your affections,
you will, before long, be taken to the place where hope will never dawn
upon you! You are lost–now you are already condemned! If Infinite
Mercy prevents not, the Pit will soon shut its mouth upon you. Although
my words were never so weighty, they could not be weighty enough to
fitly describe your momentous peril! It is not possible for human
language to set out the horror of an impenitent soul, the terrible
condition of a sinner at enmity with his God! Oh, you may dress up your
person, you may make merry and spend your little day in frivolity, but
you cannot avert the summons that awaits you! Were you wise, you would
consider this and you would heed the voice that says, "God is angry
with the wicked every day." Nor would you ever rest till that anger was
appeased and you were reconciled to God by the only method through
which reconciliation can be found!

The more we consider this question before us, the more does the
hopelessness of finding any answer to it, apart from the Revelation of
the Gospel, appear "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the
lawful captive be delivered?" Answer–no, no, most emphatically no! The
thing is beyond all human power. Look first at the man, the hapless
victim– he has lost the will to be delivered–like you may have seen,
sometimes, in the Zoological Gardens, a small creature given to a
voracious serpent for food. The reptile fixes its eyes upon its prey,
which seems to be quite unconscious of what is coming. Calm, still,
motionless, it is fascinated–charmed either by the brightness of the
serpent's eyes, or by some kind of influence unknown to us exercised
over it–until the monster darts at him and devours him! Even so does
the unconverted man offer no resistance to the Destroyer! It has been
said that birds have been so fascinated by serpents as to fly to their
foe and put themselves within his reach. Who can save the man that is
determined to venture life and soul upon a hazard that every onlooker
sees must end in death? Sitting, sometimes, in your little chamber with
an open window on a summer's evening, you may have watched a moth that
has dashed into your candle. In vain you have taken it up and put it
away, but no sooner has it recovered strength enough than it darts back
again to the flame! You put your hand out and stop it–it is but for a
little while that you can keep it from its destruction, for it is
desperately set on mischief and bent on suicide! So it is with man.
Either with naked overt sin, or else with covert lust and ill pretense,
he is so besotted and fascinated that he will plunge his soul into
ruin! Who can deliver the man who resists deliverance? Who can save the
man who will not avail himself of succor? Can the prey be taken from
the mighty? Will eloquence avail? It has been tried and it has failed
over and over again! There was never a soul divorced from his sins by
the blandishments of rhetoric! You cannot persuade men to give up their
favorite passions by goodly words. The trembling pathos or the
withering scorn of your address will prove, alike, unavailing.

Beza once preached to a heap of stones, and, I doubt not, that the
result was quite as happy as any that I could anticipate from an
audience like the present, unless the Spirit of God shall move upon the
hearts of those who lend their ears. Melancthon thought that he might
convert everybody by the force of his argument and the fervor of his
manner, but after a while he said that old Adam was too strong for
young Melancthon. The devil is not to be driven out of his stronghold
by music's melting mystic lay, nor yet by the declaimer's subtle art,
though he is like one that plays well upon an instrument. "Cannot evil
be dislodged," some will ask, "and cannot the captive be set free by
sacred rites and ceremonies?" The experiment is attempted in our day
all over this country! With what success judge you? We are told that
men can be regenerated by baptism–and we have seen these regenerated
infants develop into what, to our minds, was nothing more than
"baptized heathens, washed to deeper stains." All the ceremonies that
can possibly be practiced, with the sanction of antiquity or the
invention of modern priestcraft to recommend them, can have no effect
in changing the bias of the human will, or in renewing the qualities of
human nature! The disease is too deep and too irritant for the
prescription to grapple with as a remedy. As well hope to vanquish
Leviathan with a straw as to drive out the devil with a ceremony! Oh,
no, the captive is not delivered thus. But could not a man deliver
himself from his sins if he were to desperately strive? Yes, Brothers
and Sisters, there is the pinch–that, "iff" Therein–in that,
"if"–you touch the seat of the delinquency! Men do not, will not,
cannot strive! They are so held by the morbid vein and malevolent
propensity of their own nature, and by the fatal obstinacy of their own
disposition, that they treat the Gospel of the Grace of God with the
most bitter aversion–and the "if" becomes the master! They do not,
will not, cannot be induced to strive! What says Christ about it? "You
will not come unto Me that you might have life." Well, but could not
they have come if they would? Yes, but there is the rub–they wouldnot
if they could! "How often would I have gathered your children together
as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not."
There, Sinners, is the pith of the indictment! Were it said you
couldnot, you might find an excuse, but it is charged against you that
you willnot, and this is damnable!

Did man sin by compulsion, I see not how he could be blamed, but since
his sin is voluntary and he recklessly chooses the evil, clings to it
and will not give it up, the slavery becomes the more obnoxious! When
the iron enters into the soul and the man becomes a slave, not merely
through misfortune, but through very baseness of heart and prostitution
of his nature till he is ground down to be a serf of Satan and a drudge
of sin, his wretchedness entitles him to little pity! The man is so far
sunk that he cannot, will not deliver himself! No others can deliver
him. Bound hand and foot, the prey of the mighty and the lawful
captive–oh, Lord, what can be done for him? Do I hear anyone say,
"Perhaps as he grows older the power of sin will grow weaker"? I have
heard that suggestion many times but my solemn conviction is that if
you want the worst of man, you will find them among the oldest of men!
And if you seek a confirmed criminal, you most generally find him with
gray hairs upon his head. Have you never noticed in the annals of the
Church who were the men that fell most grievously? I never read in all
of God's Book of such instances of foul defection among young Believers
as I do among the venerable sires whose names have come to be like a
tower of strength in their generation! The youths were weak and knew
it–and God kept them. But Lot was an old man when he committed incest,
even as Noah before him had long years, ripe experience, and rich
honors on his side when he defiled himself with drunkenness! David was
far past the prime of life when he coveted Bathsheba and slew Uriah,
her husband, with the sword of the children of Amman. Peter, when he
denied his Master, was no raw recruit! His Master had pronounced on him
high encomiums and endowed him with rich blessings. The fact is, when
we begin to lean on experience, we grow weak! Temptation, instead of
getting weaker with our age, gets stronger. The passions which we
thought would expire when the heat of youth had evaporated, become more
fierce as we grow more infirm till some lusts are more rampant in those
who have the least power to gratify them! In whose breast does avarice
rage with the most unquenchable ardor but in that of the man who is
lingering on the margin of life, about to quit the world? He, indeed,
in the course of nature, is the most loath to part with the gold that
he has scraped together! Portray the miser. Do you not picture to
yourselves the skeleton with bald scalp, wan visage, and withered
fists, knocking at death's door? Ah, no, the devil does not release his
grasp because our eyes wax dim and our senses grow dull. Instead,
thereof, he seems to hold the victim more tightly. The thralldom of a
man does not slacken as his vital powers wane. If one passion expires,
another takes its place. Could we imagine that the power of evil might
sometimes sleep, we might imagine that the man might escape! Thus we
read of Giant Despair in the Pilgrims Progress, that in the night
Christian and Hopeful, when the Giant was taken with a shivering fit,
made their escape. Yes, but they were children of God, and not mere
natural men! In the case of the sinner there is no sleeping of the foe.
The power of evil has the sinner under its control and never refrains
its dreadful watch. He is held whether he is alone or in public–he is
watched by night and by day, nor is it possible by accident or
stratagem that the captive should get free.

So far the story is all black, and, like Ezekiel's roll, it is written
within and without with lamentation. Remember, Friend, that while I
speak to you, it is of you I speak, if you are not a Believer in Jesus!
Unconverted men and women, to you I address these solemn words of God's
own Truth! You are the prey of the Mighty, and the captive of God's
Law!

Can you be delivered? Can you be redeemed? We now turn to the brighter
side of our picture–to the more cheerful aspect of our text–

II. CAN THE PREY BE RESCUED? CAN THE CAPTIVE BE DELIVERED? WE ANSWER,
HE CAN.

Yes, Sinner, you can! Your nature can be radically changed. Your habits
can be snapped. Custom can lose its spell. Your besetting sins can be
put under your feet and those vices which you now cling to with
tenacity, you can be made to hate with deepest abhorrence! And this can
be done for you, done now, done without preparation. But where is He
that can achieve it? Ah, He is present with us here, though not to be
seen by the eye–the Holy Spirit of God! Be You worshipped, O most Holy
Spirit! There is one whom God has been pleased to give to His Church,
who has the power to enlighten the understanding, to renew the will, to
change the affections–in a word, to make us "new creature in Christ
Jesus." That Holy Spirit is God! Know that unless the same God who
first made Adam and Eve in the Garden comes and makes us new, we can
never be saved! There must be as great a miracle performed upon you,
dear Friend, as if you should be killed, put into the grave, and then
be raised up again to live anew. God must create you a second time! He
must quicken you in Christ Jesus unto good works! "Is that ever done?"
asks one. It is often done! There are hundreds here on whom that
strange transformation has passed, so that they are no longer what they
were. "Old things have passed away, and all things have become new."
You cannot work this of yourself. No priest can effect it, but the Holy
Spirit can produce it. He can complete it NOW, so great is His
power–so Divine!

I could give you many living proofs. Memorable, however, is one that
the New Testament history will not suffer you to doubt. There was Saul,
the hater of Christ! The persecutor of Christians–a Pharisee,
desperately resolved to oppose and efface the Christian faith! He had
hunted out the Brethren in Jerusalem. He had forced them to blaspheme
by his cruelty. He had obtained letters from the high priest and he was
on his road to Damascus, saying to himself, "I will harass them. I will
make these professors of the Christian religion bite their tongues! I
will scourge them in the Synagogues. I will weary them of trusting in
the Nazarene." He is proudly on his horse–it is about the noon of
day–the orange groves of Damascus are just coming into view, when
suddenly a light brighter than the meridian sun, shines round about
him! Astonished and blinded, he falls to the ground. Soon a Voice rings
in his ears, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" That Voice pierced
his heart and entered into his understanding. He soon perceived that
the Christ whom he was persecuting was God's own Son and he quickly
answered, "Who are You, Lord" To this question the Voice replied, "I am
Jesus, whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the
pricks." Thus he found out his mistake! He had been persecuting the
Christ, the Messiah, ignorantly supposing that he had been hunting down
an impostor! It was all he needed–he arose, blind, it is true, yet he
saw more than he ever beheld before! So they led him by the hand and
brought him into Damascus.

Oh, what a change had passed over him! What an altered man was he!
Within three days, Ananias, an obscure Christian Brother, is
instructing him in the faith and saying to him, "Brother Saul, receive
your sight." He is baptized, and not many days after you find him in
the synagogue, not to persecute, but to proselyte! Not to betray the
saints, but to testify of the Savior! Through all his later life you
can discern the sincerity of his profession, the fervor of his spirit,
the unwavering attachment of his soul to the Person of Christ–and the
steadfast confidence of his faith in the Atonement! "God forbid," he
says, "that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
For Him he could say, "I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in Him." A like
change must be worked in you! It can be worked in you! It has been
worked in many of us! It can be worked in you at this good hour! "Oh,"
says one, "I wish it were. What can I do towards it?" I will tell you.
I spoke of a lawful captive. Now you are in the condition of a lawful
captive. Since you have broken God's Law, justice demands that
punishment in full measure should be meted out to you. This is
inevitable. Every sinner stands accountable for his sins and every
sinner must receive its due recompense! But listen. Listen to this and
believe it–God, Himself, in the Person of His dear Son, out of pure
love to you, came down into this world and He suffered what you ought
to have suffered! For all who believe in Jesus, Jesus Christ suffered
the penalty due for them! "What?" says one, "If I trust Jesus Christ to
save me, do I understand you to say, then, all that is due to me on
account of sin, Christ has already borne?" I do say that! I say, you
are immediately forgiven and, henceforth, secure against the wrath of
God–if you can trust Jesus Christ with your whole heart! Because He
lived, and loved, and died for such as you are, you are forgiven! God
loves you! The past is blotted out of His Book.

"Oh," you say, "is that true?" Most certainly true! Only put your trust
in Christ, now, and this is true to you. Your sins are gone, your
iniquities are blotted out!

Now I think I hear some dear soul say, "Well, I do believe it. Yet I
can hardly realize it–the mercy seems so great. Oh, what love God must
have to me! What tender melting pity the dear Son of God must have had
towards me, that He should give Himself to die for me!" Are you
favorable to this? Then it is done! You are changed! Already you are
talking as you did not use to talk–your heart is now towards God, as
it was not before–the Holy Spirit has blest the story of the love of
Christ to you, and that love of Christ has been the key that has turned
your heart right around! Have you believed this with all your heart?
Then you will be a new man from this time forth! You will not love what
you loved before. The people of God whom you once despised, you will
honor, for you will say, "I am one of them! Christ has washed me in His
blood. I was, I know not what in wickedness, but it is all gone! God
has blotted out my transgressions. My God is reconciled. His love I
feel within my heart! Oh, how I repent of all my sins against Him!
Lord, help me to give up everything that is impure in thought, or word,
or deed. The dearest thing I have, if it stands against You, O Lord, I
will renounce it and away with it! Down with you, my sins! Down with
you, my lusts! Away, you drunkard's cups! Away, far away, be the
company of the profane and the songs of the lascivious! From this time
forth, be gone from me!–I cannot bear you any longer! My God has made
me to love Him because He first loved me! Now, from this day on, I am a
new creature, pardoned, purified, welcomed, accepted in Christ. Take
me, Lord! Declare me to be Your own! You have bought me with Your
blood, anointed me with Your Spirit, acknowledged me as Your child.
Take me and make use of me to Your Glory. Whether I live or die, may I
praise Your dear name."

I recollect hearing an old sailor say, "I have had the devil's black
flag at my masthead for 60 years, but, by the Grace of God, I have run
it down, tonight, and I put up the red Cross flag of the Lord Jesus."
Oh, Holy Spirit, come work this wonder in many hearts! So shall the
"prey be taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive be delivered."
Oh, would not some of your neighbors be surprised if you were to go
home a Christian? Others of you, who have always been moral and
outwardly religious–were you to declare to your companions the great
things God has done for you, and show them the reality and power of
saving Grace–they might laugh at you, and say, "Well, but where have
you been? You must have been among the Methodists, I should think, and
learned their cant." How thunderstruck they would be at you! To this
end is our preaching! May such miracles be worked in the name of Jesus.
Let the sot become sober, let the churl grow kind, let the covetous man
be generous, let the careless turn prayerful, let the formalist seek
after that which is spiritual! Transformations of character like these
tell their own story! And while the change is transparent, your
kinsfolk and acquaintances will take care that it fails not to be
talked about!

Glory to God! He can break chains of adamant and He often does deliver
just those very people that we do not think He would take. I believe
that in Infinite Mercy He often looks round to find out a ringleader.
There he is! Conspicuous for his vice, proclaiming his own shame! The
Gospel musket is leveled at him and down he comes! When an officer in
the devil's army falls there is a great cry! God is glorified, the man
is saved, and the ranks of the enemy are weakened! Oh, that some such
might be brought to Christ tonight–some proud formalist, some mere
churchgoer or chapelgoer, whose whole religion lies in conforming to a
few paltry sacraments, or in adopting a few Non-Conformist sentiments!
Oh, that God would strike such an one's heart right through and make
real heart-work of it with him from this day forth, even forever!

I do hope, as I beat the recruiting drum, there will be some that will
come to the standard that have been bold soldiers of the devil, and
that they will be quite as bold soldiers of Jesus Christ! My heart
longs to know if it is so! Be not slow at once to tell what Grace has
done for you, and be not slack afterwards to fight for Him who lived,
and loved, and died for you!

God bless the Word to everyone of you for His name's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 4:1-20.

Verses 1-3. What shall we say, then, that Abraham our father,
aspertaining to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham were justified by
works, he has whereof to glory, but not before God. For what says the
Scripture? Abraham believed

God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. He stands as the
great Father of Believers, and this is the charter given to him, and
given to all Believers in him. "Abraham believed God, and it was
counted to him for righteousness."

4. Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of Grace, but of
debt That is to say, to him who hopes to be saved by his works, to whom
salvation is of merit, he has worked for the reward–has earned it–do
not talk about Grace in that case!

5. But to him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. This is the man who
does not go upon the line of works–who does not rest in his works at
all, or bring them as a price to God. "His faith is counted for
righteousness." It is a very wonderful thing that faith should stand in
the stead of righteousness, and should make righteous all those that
believe in God by Jesus Christ!

6-8. Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom
God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Instead of being a worker, this
man had been an offender–a sinner. God did not impute it to him. He
was a Believer, and God imputed righteousness to him on account of his
faith, and did not impute sin to him. Then comes a very important
inquiry.

9. Comes this blessedness, then, upon the circumcision only, or upon
the uncircumcision also?Is circumcision so necessary that a man is
justified by faith after he is circumcised, and could not be so
justified if he were an uncircumcised man?

9, 10. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or in
uncircumcision?'Look back to the history. See in what condition Abraham
was when faith was reckoned to him for righteousness. Was it when he
was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? The answer is–

10, 11. Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the
sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he
had yet being uncircumcised. But the sign is to follow the thing
signified. He is, first of all, justified by his faith, and then
afterwards he receives the token of the Covenant.

11, That he might be the father of all them that believe, though they
are not circumcised: that righteousness might be imputed unto them
also.It is a very remarkable fact. A great many readers of the Book of
Genesis would never have noticed it if the Holy Spirit had not called
attention to the fact that father Abraham was justified by his faith
before he was circumcised! And this is the reason of it–that he might
be the father of allBelievers, whether they are circumcised or
uncircumcised. "That righteousness might be imputed to them also."

12, 13. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the
circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our
father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise,
that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his
seed, through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For the
law was not even given when that Covenant promise was made! The Law was
400 years afterwards. The Covenant of Grace was the oldest Covenant of
all, and it shall stand fast, whatever shall happen.

14. For if they which are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void. And
the promise made of none effect. If you are upon that tack of salvation
by the Law, then what have you to do with faith? And what have you to
do with promise, and what have you to do with Christ? You are on a
different line altogether!

15. Because the Law works wrath: for where no Law is, there is no
transgression. That is plain enough. You cannot break a law if there is
not any. And thus, through our sinfulness, the Law becomes a cause of
sin, and never does it become the cause ofjustification.

16. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by Grac Salvation is by
faith, alone, that it may be seen to be of the free favor of God, that
we may not look to merit or look to human strength, but may look always
to the abounding mercy of God in Christ Jesus.

16, 17. To the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to
that only which is of the Law, but to that also which is of the faith
of Abraham; who is the father of us all What a God we trust in–a God
who quickens the dead! We have no faith unless we believe in such a God
as this. We shall need such a God in order to bring us safely to His
right hand at last.

18-20. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the
father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall
your seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own
body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the
deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God
through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Men
seem to think that only workers can give glory to God, but there is
more glory given to God by one drachma of faith than by a ton of works!
After all, works usually generate conceit and pride in us. But faith
lays itself low before its God and gives to Him all the glory. God is
never more glorified than He is by the believing confidence of His
people when difficulties seem to come in the way. He was "strong in
faith, giving glory to God."