Untitled Sermon

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, DECEMBER 12, 1880,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting: give me
understanding and I shall live." Psalm 119:144.

YESTERDAY afternoon I was the subject of a somewhat singular
circumstance. An esteemed friend and relative came over to my house,
evidently laboring under great disturbance of mind and having enquiries
to make of a very important order. I was, at the time, walking in the
garden, so that I did not see him and he appeared to have great
difficulty in mentioning the subject of his concern to my wife. At last
it came out that he had seen a gentleman who had informed him that it
was generally rumored that I had been taken ill with heart disease and
had died in a very short time. My friend came to the point by cautious
degrees and asked at length if I was seriously ill. "No," was the
joyful reply of my beloved, "he is much the same as usual."

Then it was clear I was not dead and the great fear was removed. The
question was put, "Would you like to see him?" But my kind friend was
perfectly satisfied and was too full of joy to wish to linger–he would
go back and answer with certainty the many enquiries which continued to
be made at the Tabernacle. How the report originated, I am quite at a
loss to tell. It has evoked much kindness, but it is rather odd to feel
called upon to assure your friends that you are yet alive! I can but
show myself and ask my friends to see for themselves if I look like a
dead man! When the peculiarity of the position had given place to other
thoughts, it struck me in a solemn manner that the report might have
been true and my death will assuredly be a fact one day unless our Lord
should come speedily.

Only sparing mercy from God's right hand has prevented it being true at
this moment. We do not realize our mortality unless we are startled
into a recognition of it. We believe others to be mortal and are not
much surprised when they fall, but we have a secret notion that no axe
will, for the present, be laid at our root. Yet reason would lead a man
to ask, "It happens to many, to die suddenly, why should it not happen
to me?" I regard the incident as a call to me to stand ready to depart
at any time. Let it be a warning to you, also, to set your houses in
order, for in a moment Death may surprise you!

A practical lesson may be gathered from the very natural scene which
followed my friend's departure. I came in from my walk and found myself
suddenly seized by my wife with both hands–grasping the front of my
coat she turned me round and looked at me steadily with a most tender
gaze, declaring that she must take a double look at me and hold me
before her eyes to be quite sure that her husband was yet alive to her
unutterable joy. This special outpouring of thankfulness might have
been lost had it not been for the rumor and, so far, it is well. May
all of you be moved to the same feeling towards your dear ones whenever
they come home at night alive! What would you do without them?

What desolation would it cause in the house if a messenger hurriedly
rushed into your house with the news of their sudden death? How we
ought to love those who are spared to us and to praise God to think
they are still alive. Suppose they were suddenly removed–have we
valued them rightly? Try and act towards them as you would act if you
knew that they would die today. If husband or wife had died, what a
sorrow it would be if an unkind word had been spoken, or a difference
had arisen just before the last look! What a painful cause for future
regret! Let your affection to those about you gush forth freely as you
reflect that God has spared them to you.

Bless God, good woman, that you are a wife and not a widow! Bless God,
Christian man, that you sit side by side with your dear spouse and have
not to go weeping to her grave. What a blank! What a darkness! What a
gloom would come over your household if either of the parents should be
suddenly taken away! Therefore, praise God and be thankful and let us
try to live towards one another and towards our Brothers and Sisters in
Christ Jesus in such a way as we should wish to have done if they were
suddenly to be taken. Pray for your pastor the more earnestly because
you might, this

morning, have missed him from your midst–and he will try and preach
more earnestly to you because you may be gone before he will have
another opportunity of addressing you.

Let us continue knit together in love as long as we live, for the tie
which now binds us together may soon be snapped. Out of a painful rumor
may thus come a great blessing to families and congregations if it
shall cause an increase of mutual love and an outpouring of united
gratitude for sparing mercies! So much for a lesson as to this mortal
life. By this incident I was further led to turn a heart-glance upon
myself and to say, "I wonder whether there is any question as to
whether I am alive in the higher sense?" That I am alive as to my
natural life is clear enough–but is my spiritual life equally
evidenced? This is a very necessary enquiry, for it is easy enough to
make a fair show in the flesh and yet to be alienated from the life of
God.

Many abide in death, even as the Apostle says–"To be carnally-minded
is death; but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace." The enquiry
came home to my own heart and, therefore, I suggest it to yours, for it
may profit you. Brothers and Sisters, do you live unto God? Are you
walking as those who are alive from the dead? Remember, my Sisters,
that it is written, "She that lives in pleasure is dead while she
lives"–may no woman here come under that condemnation! Brothers, I
call upon you, also, to remember the word of the Lord Jesus to the
Church of Sardis, "I know your works, that you have a name that you
live and are dead."

Many exist upon the face of the earth, but into "life" they have never
entered. They know not the Spirit and because they are strangers to His
indwelling, they live after the flesh and mind the things of the flesh
and of these it is written, "If you live after the flesh you shall
die." Ask yourselves, then, these questions–have you been quickened
from your death in trespasses and sins? Does the Divine Life beat
within you in such a forceful and healthful manner that there can be no
question about it? Is your life "hid with Christ in God" and are you
numbered with the living in Zion? The living, the living! He shall
praise you, O God, as we do this day!

My subject is life–may the Lord of Life help me to speak of it after a
lively manner! A consideration of the text will help in the enquiry as
to whether we live unto God or not and it may further help those who
sigh after the Divine Life to discover the way of Divine quickening.
Let us again read the text, "The righteousness of Your testimonies is
everlasting: give me understanding and I shall live." Here we have a
touchingly humble prayer for life–"Give me understanding and I shall
live."

We will first consider this prayer in its simplicity. Secondly, I shall
try to open it up more fully and, thirdly, we will go still deeper and
search into the argument upon which the prayer is founded. There is a
something about God's testimonies which will impart and sustain life,
therefore the putting of the two sentences together–"The righteousness
of Your testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding and I shall
live."

I. First, then, let us CONSIDER THIS PRAYER IN ITS SIMPLICITY. Without
diving into its depths, let us see what lies upon its surface. This
prayer is adapted for very general use. It would suit a child and be
equally becoming from a venerable father. It might fall from the lips
of those in whom there is but the faintest sign of Divine Grace and it
might as fitly be used by those in whom Grace is ripening into Glory!
We ask you to notice, first, that this is a suitable prayer for the
awakened sinner. He discovers himself to be guilty and he perceives
that there is a punishment for sin and so far he understands his
position.

Alarmed by his conscience, he thinks he sees the Judge upon the Great
White Throne about to pronounce the final sentence and he knows what it
must be, for it is written, "The soul that sins, it shall die." So far
he understands well enough. He hears, also, that there is life, life in
Christ Jesus, life for guilty men–but his mind is much confused with
many terrors and with the horrible dread of the sure consequences of
his sin. He has sufficient faith in the Revelation of God to know that
there is life in a look at the Crucified One, but he does not quite
understand what that look means. He knows that there is salvation in
one name and in no other, but he does not quite comprehend what that
faith is which obtains for a sinner the virtue of that saving name.

Then is his time to pray, "Give me understanding and I shall live." He
needs illumination for his darkened mind that he may see the way of
salvation, that he may look to Christ and, by understanding the
doctrine of His substitutionary Sacrifice, may be enabled, at once, to
trust in Jesus and live! Christ is our life, but we need understanding,
or we shall miss it. It is a blessed understanding which enables a man
to feel that though the sentence of death may be in his members, yet he
must and shall live if he believes in the Lord Jesus! What did the Lord
Jesus say in His prayer for His people? "And

this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God and
Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." I pray you will, dear Hearers, if
you feel your need of this life, let the prayer of the text go up
quietly from your hearts–"Give me understanding and I shall live."

Equally applicable, however, will this be in the case of one who is a
Christian and who is struggling against temptation. Perhaps, my
Brother, you are placed in a position where you are fiercely tempted
from without by the world and possibly you may fear that you will not
be able to survive it. It comes with such force that you are staggered
by its power! You feel that you cannot bear up under such pressure! You
despair of your spiritual life! Well, then, ask God to bring home His
Word to your heart, that you may act wisely and may meet the rebuke of
the ungodly and the temptations of the wicked–prudently baffling the
adversary by your sacred vigilance. Pray, "Give me understanding and I
shall live," for a clear understanding is necessary for your
preservation from the enemy. May God make you wise as serpents and
harmless as doves!

Possibly the temptation comes from within you. There are passions
within you which, at times, violently rebel and you are in anguish
while you struggle to mortify them, though mortified they must be. Your
soul abhors evil and wrestles against the lusts of the flesh, agonizing
that you may walk before God in integrity, pleasing Him in all things.
At times you are harshly beset and Satan, himself, draws near to aid
the flesh with his fearful insinuations, or even by injecting
blasphemous thoughts. Then is your hour of peril, for you are pressed
out of measure while the enemy howls at you–"The Lord has forsaken
you! Your God will be gracious no more!" Ah, then you need to know how
to handle your weapons, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God, and that master weapon of All-Prayer!

Perhaps you feel yourself so confused that you do not know what
Scripture to plead in prayer, nor do you know what you should pray for
as you ought. Well, then, remember the blessed word of Scripture, "If
any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally
and upbraids not." Let this be your prayer–"Give me understanding and
I shall live, in spite of the assaults of the enemies." Though there
are fights without and fears within, we shall overcome the world, the
flesh and the devil and we shall live as Christian men, adorning the
doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things if the Lord will give us a
clear understanding of His Word and holy prudence and judgment by which
we shall know how to behave ourselves wisely in a perfect way.

Do you not think that this prayer will often well up from the heart of
the suffering Believer? To some of our dear Brothers and Sisters, life
is one long pang, for bodily disease has fixed its fangs in their
flesh. There are others whose life is always from hand to mouth and
sometimes bread is scant in the cupboard so that grinding poverty
breaks them to dust. These are sore ills for those know who have to
bear them. Some, too, are subject to domestic trials, watching daily
the pining away of one they love, or bereavement has followed
bereavement till they seem left alone in the land. Alas, the insatiate
archer has taken a poisoned arrow from his quiver, yet again and again
and love has had to weep over the terrible accuracy of his aim.

Beloved Ones who have been called to suffer in these ways, have you not
cried out at times, "I shall never be able to bear it! I shall die of a
broken heart under these great afflictions! O that I might hide in the
grave"? You fear that you will perish if the pressure continues, but
you will do no such thing! God will help you to bear your burden by
sustaining your soul with heavenly meat that others know nothing of. If
the load is not made lighter, the shoulders shall be made stronger and
this shall be done by your having a clearer understanding of the Word
of God and a fuller experience of its supporting power! You do not so
much need health, or wealth, or freedom from trouble, as more
understanding of the Lord's mind and will in all the dispensations of
His Providence. Breathe, then, the prayer to your heavenly Father–
"Give me understanding and I shall live."

Divine Grace can make us live like the three holy children in the fire,
or like Jonah at the bottom of the sea, or like Daniel in a den of
lions! It can make us patient in tribulation and joyful in
distress–and Grace works by making us understand the Word of the Lord.
Brethren, if we are taught of the Lord, we can live between the jaws of
death and sing a song unto our Well-Beloved amid the wailings of famine
and pestilence! By a God-given understanding, we shall know that all
things work together for our good and so we shall "take pleasure in
infirmities, in necessities and in distresses," for when we are weak,
then are we strong!

I thank God that a large number now present are not so much sufferers
as workers. Now, I know that you who are working for God and trying to
win souls often feel as if you were not half alive. I am compelled to
make such a confession

myself. I need to get alive to the utmost–not only having life, but
having it "more abundantly." I have some life in me, thank God, but I
need it to quicken me more completely! Sometimes we get into a sleepy
state and then the Spirit chides us and we cry, "This will never do."–

"Dear Lord! Shall we always live

At this poor dying rate?

Our love so faint, so cold to You,

And You to us so great?"

We need quickening, Brothers and Sisters! Do you not feel that it is
so? I believe that those who are most earnest are the very persons who
blame themselves the most for need of earnestness. When your whole soul
is being consumed, you feel as if you need the coals of juniper to be
blown up to a yet more vehement flame that you may go up like a cloud
of incense unto God, dissolved in His service, consumed in His praise!
Here, then, is our prayer, "Give me understanding and I shall live.
Make me so to feel the power of Your Word that I may be ardent,
fervent, full of life!" I will alter the poet's lines and say–

"Lives of saintly men assure us We may make our lives sublime." We can
live to noble purpose if, in answer to this prayer, God the Holy Spirit
shall teach us to profit and give us understanding to know the will of
the Lord and obey it faithfully.

O you who would work successfully and acceptably, ask the great Lord of
the Harvest to enlighten your hearts and minds that you may not labor
as in the dark, but as wise men made expert by the Holy Spirit. Is not
this a very proper and blessed prayer for aspiring minds in the Church
of God, of whom I trust there are many present? Such men are not
satisfied with themselves, but press forward to that which is yet
beyond and above them. They have not reached that imaginary climax
which some prattle of who dote upon their fancied perfectness–but
their motto is, "Onward! Upward! Heavenward!" These dwell on high, but
their cry is, "Higher! Higher!"

They walk with God and therefore say–

"Oh for a closer walk with God." They are calm and happy, but yet they
sigh for a still serener frame. They have power in prayer, but they
long for more of a wrestling spirit and for greater prevalence with
God. If there are any here who are fired with such Divine ambitions,
what better prayer can they use than this–"Give me understanding and I
shall live"? For if God teaches us rightly to use the Divine Word so as
to mark, learn and inwardly digest it by the understanding, then shall
we be nourished into complete manhood and shall go from strength to
strength! The new man is renewed in knowledge and nourished by the
Truth of God and, "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Our prayer must be that the Lord would make us understand what He would
have us do and how to do it. Then shall we live when we are made of
"quick understanding in the fear of the Lord" and ready in heart to
perfect all His will. This will be an angelic life, for those holy
beings do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word. It
will be a seraphic life, for as we burn with holy fervor we shall
resemble those ministers whom God makes to be a flaming fire! It will
be a heavenly life, for we shall strive to do the Lord's will on earth
as it is done in Heaven. Do you long for this? The way to it is not to
be found in dreams and visions and fanatical excitements and delirious
conceits, but in a calm, quiet, solid and deep understanding of the
revealed Word of God! Our Lord prayed–"Sanctify them through Your
truth, Your Word is truth." No other means are needed for the fullest
development of holiness–you only require the Word to be unveiled by
the Spirit to your mind and understanding and in the utmost sense of
the term you shall "live."

Last of all, when we shall not be so much aspiring saints as expiring
saints–when we come to lie upon our last bed and to look into the
unseen–then may we still pray after the same fashion! When the eyes
shall begin to open to the light of Heaven and things but darkly seen,
before, grow clearer in the dawn of the eternal day–when the songs of
angels begin to break upon the opening ears of the soul and Heaven is
drawing near, for Grace is ripening into Glory and Glory is coming to
welcome its heir–then may we pray to live through the understanding
and experience of the Divine Word! How blessed it will be to have such
an understanding of Divine realities that we shall stay ourselves upon
the promises, shall rejoice in the Everlasting Covenant and derive
strong consolation from the oath of God.

How blessed, then, to understand our living union with our risen Lord
and to know the experience of the happy Psalmist when He sang–"Yes,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me."
With God's Spirit within us lighting up the soul by the understanding
of the fact that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, we shall live
in the midst of death and find our Savior's Words to be true–"He that
lives and believes in Me shall never die." We shall ford that shallow
stream of death, which, while it chills our feet, shall not be able to
chill our hearts! It may stop our pulse, but it shall not silence our
song which shall rise higher and higher as speech shall fail. We shall
but shut our eyes on earth and open them in Heaven, for God, who has
given us understanding here below shall, surely, give us to dwell above
where they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament!

And thus, I think, I have shown you that this prayer sounds well on
every note of the scale. You may sound it out of the depths of seeking
penitence and you may run up to the very highest note with the
expectancy of Glory and the words will sound well on any note you
touch. From the wicket gate of humble faith up to the gate of pearl
which admits into the golden city, you may go on praying, "Give me
understanding and I shall live."

II. The time has come when under our second division THE PRAYER IS TO
BE MORE FULLY OPENED UP. "Give me understanding and I shall live." Here
is a need confessed because it is deeply felt–the suppliant
acknowledges his need of understanding. Has that need been felt by you,
my Brothers and Sisters? It certainly exists, "For vain man would be
wise, though man is born like a wild ass's colt." The wittiest, wisest,
best instructed man who has only human learning, if he knows not God,
has reached no further than that acme of all carnal wisdom spelled in
four letters, "FOOL." We are all fools till God gives us understanding!
A sense of our own folly is the first step of all wisdom. To cry out
after understanding proves that we have already received some
understanding for, mark you, this text of mine is the prayer of a man
of God!

I suppose the 119th is David's Psalm–at any rate it is the Psalm of a
very gracious Spirit-taught man and you see he still cries, even though
he has understanding in a measure, "Give me understanding." He that is
taught of God is the man that asks to be taught of God and she who has
chosen the good part is the woman who sits at Jesus' feet to hear His
Words. It is the mark of a wise man that he does not think himself so
and that he continues to pray, "Give me understanding." It is true of
us all, that apart from the gifts of God, by His Spirit, we are without
understanding and as naturally go astray as silly sheep. Note this fact
and be well persuaded of it, that you may pray with the greater
earnestness.

Next, the prayer is evidently put upon the footing of free Grace. He
prays, "Give me understanding"–it must be a gift from God. The prayer
is directed to God, for God, alone, can give understanding. Teachers
can enlighten an understanding which already exists, but they cannot
give one. Masters and instructors can profit nothing till we have an
understanding with which to receive knowledge aright. Any man who is
taught in the Word can teach us the letter of Scripture, but no man can
give us an inner understanding of its spirit–that must be a revelation
and it must be worked in us by Him that made the light and the sun, or
we shall never come to an understanding of the Word of God!

Let it always be known that all Light of God is from the Lord Jesus,
Himself–"In Him was life and the life was the light of men." "That was
the true Light which lights every man that comes into the world." All
real understanding of the Word of God must come to us as it did to the
disciples on the road to Emmaus, of whom it is written, "Then opened He
their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." The
Author of the sacred Volume must, Himself, expound it to the heart and
understanding or we shall be blinded by its light rather than made to
see. David prayed, "Open You my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things
out of Your Law" and we must pray the same.

When the Lord graciously hears our supplications, we must take care to
give Him all the praise and glory of the work, for it will be a deed of
Grace and Grace alone. If He left us in darkness we could not complain,
for we have refused the Light and if He opens our eyes, we must glorify
His mercy and cry, "Blessed be the Lord who has shown us light."
Brothers and Sisters, the Psalmist speaks of understanding in a general
way–"Give me understanding"–as if he wanted the faculty for use in
many directions. In every transaction of this life we need to be
prudent, for we are surrounded by a thousand snares and pitfalls and if
we do not exercise discretion we shall be taken all unawares and become
the prey of our enemies. We bear within our own natures so much to
confuse and confound and entangle that if we are not taught prudence
and understanding we shall certainly never escape from the mischief
that is within us.

We are frequently like men in a fog who cannot tell where they are. It
happened but the other day near Milan that so dense a fog covered the
railway that a number of workmen who were employed upon the line heard
the sound of an approaching luggage train and rushed to get away from
it–but at that same moment an express train, which they had not heard
or seen, came rushing upon them and cut them to pieces. Such is our
condition at times–we try to get away from one temptation and we fall
into another–we hope to escape one form of evil and we rush into
another! Haste breeds heedlessness and warmth of zeal is apt to beget
indiscretion so that we daily need a good share of understanding as a
ballast to our sail.

A Christian man should be a sensible man, a man with all his wits about
him. He needs to possess the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs as well as
the devotion of the Psalms and the rapture of Solomon's Song. Those
books are placed together in the Bible as if to show that they ought to
be read together and that their spirit and influence are essential to a
complete practical character. I would have you bow your ears to the
voice of your Well-Beloved, but you must also be ready to deal with the
voices of everyday life. It is one of the objects of true religion to
give subtlety to the simple and to the young man, knowledge and
discretion. We must not be ignorant of the devices of the devil, nor
childish in yielding credence to the falsehoods of men.

We need, in all the walks of life, to exercise understanding and, thank
God, we may learn to do so, for the Scriptures say, "The Lord gives
wisdom: out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He lays up
sound wisdom for the righteous: He is a buckler to them that walk
uprightly. He keeps the paths of judgment and preserves the way of His
saints." Still, while the understanding sought for in the prayer is
evidently of a general character, the former portion of the verse links
it with a special understanding of the Word of God and, oh, Beloved, we
need, above all things, to understand what God has revealed! Take care,
first, that you know it. Search the Scriptures–let them be the man of
your right hand. Prevent the night watches while you search them.
Prevent the dawn of the day by meditating upon them. Be you scribes
well-instructed in the Law of the Lord.

Next, believe the Divine Revelation. Be it your prayer that you may so
understand the Lord's statutes as fully to accept them by faith.
Believe the teachings of the Word as realities, not locking them up in
the dark dungeon of a forgotten creed, but making them bright realities
in the life and liberty of your Christian action and full of influence
upon every movement of your mind. Knowing and believing, it will be
time to advance to meditation. Consider the Words of God– weigh them,
test them, dive into them. The richest ore lies deepest. There may be
sands of gold sparkling upon the surface of the Bible, but the great
nuggets are reserved for those who dig deep both by day and by night!
Consider well the words of Eternal Life and then go on to obey their
teaching.

You will never have an understanding of the Word unless you practice
it. He who does the will of God shall know of the doctrine. We know
nothing aright till our hearts come into complete subjection to the
Spirit. Oh for such an understanding as this, that the inner life may
be nourished to fullness of stature by feeding on the Bread from
Heaven! To this must be added experience, for who understands the Word
of God till he has experienced its truth and power? What a blessed
knowledge of a promise you receive when it is fulfilled to you! How you
understand the reality of prayer when you have received an answer! How
you know the meaning of communion with Christ when your face shines
with having seen Him! How you understand the secret consolations of the
Holy Spirit when, in deep water, you have felt their won-drously
lifting power!

This prayer means so much that in one sermon I cannot open it all up to
you. Nor, indeed, could I do so were a lifetime at my disposal! O Lord,
give us understanding to know, to believe, to consider, to practice and
to experience Your Word! Let each man cry, "O God, give me this and
then I shall truly live!" I think you will begin to see what a
connection there is between all this and the testimonies of the Lord,
for the righteousness of the Divine Word is to be transcribed into the
letter of our daily life if we are to live to the fullest. Permit me,
now, to say that no man who is at all awakened can really live unless
he knows the Word of God and understands its inner meaning. For this
reason–Do you call it life to live without the Light of God?

You may have been in the sepulchral dungeons of Venice where not a ray
of light ever came to the unhappy prisoners. To linger there, do you
call that life? To live without the Light of God is just such an
existence! We have heard of men who have been immured in dungeons for
40 years, constantly wearing manacles, never breathing fresh air–do
you call that life? Can there be "life" where there is no liberty?
Alas, some men have never been free, but have remained captives

to their lusts, never knowing the liberty with which Christ makes men
free. Do you call such bondage, life? Another essential of life is
love. To have nobody to love and nobody to love you–is that life? Yet
many a soul feels that it cannot be content with earthly love and yet
if it has not the love of God, the love of Christ, the love of the
Spirit, it is loveless! Do you call that life?

Infinite love is a necessity of an immortal spirit. Without light,
without liberty, without love there is no life. But more, many men
exist without peace–driven to and fro like a sere leaf by the tempest.
Never resting, they are as a rolling thing before the whirlwind. Do you
call that life? "There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked." Is
that life? And then to have no grand objective, no objective worthy of
yourself–to be living in this world merely to get enough bread and
cheese to eat, just keeping yourself breathing and your family
breathing–is that life? No heavenly objective? No ambition worthy of
an immortal spirit? Do you call that life?

Death before you, which you dare not think of! No hope, unless it is
the ghastly figment of annihilation! Dreadful hope! To me a thought
most horrible! To live without hope is not life–far rather call it
death. Lord, give me understanding of Your everlasting
testimonies–then I shall live, but I shall never live till You grant
me this gift!

III. Now we will take the third step and go deeper, LAYING BARE THE
ARGUMENT OF THIS PRAYER. What does he mean by saying, "The
righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding
and I shall live"? I think he means this–that the Word of God, when it
is practically and experimentally understood by the mind, is a pledge
of life. Do you think that God would take one of us to be His child and
teach us His Word and then, after all, permit us to be condemned to
die? Is that His fashion? Did you ever hear of a judge who instructed a
criminal in the arts and sciences laboriously for years with the view
of executing him when the task was done? Nothing of the sort!

If the Lord has taught you, it is because the Lord has bought you and
He will not lose the purchase of His blood! If the Lord has taught you,
it is because He means to take you where your education will be
completed–to take you Home to dwell with Him above! "Give me
understanding and I shall live"–I am quite clear about that. If You,
great God, have made me understand the evil of sin, the preciousness of
the blood of Christ, the power of Your Spirit, the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit–if You have made me experimentally to understand this, I
know I shall live, for You will not make me ashamed of my hope–

"Can He have taught me to trust in His name, And have brought me thus
far to put me to shame?"

The next argument is this–an understanding of the Word of God is life
because we are told that the Word of God is the "living and
incorruptible Seed which lives and abides forever." Very well, then, if
that Seed is sown in my heart, my heart must live forever. There can be
no death where the Seed is incorruptible! If the Word of the Lord is
living within us, then there is within us a life eternal! Be you sure
of this, then–if you have enjoyed a vital experience of God's Word,
you have within you a well of water springing up into everlasting life!

Furthermore, the Word of God is not only the Seed of life, but it is
the food of life. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live." And if you live
on the Word that comes out of God's mouth, you cannot die. How can you?
For in the Word of God you read of the "flesh," which is, "meat
indeed," and that "blood" which is, "drink indeed." And the Incarnate
Word, Himself, has said, "He that eats Me, the same shall live by Me.
Because I live, you shall live, also." There is forcible argument here!

Once more, the understanding of God's Word is the very flower and crown
and glory of true life. When a man so understands God's Word as to
experience it and to practice it, he has reached a high point of
spiritual culture and his life will be loaded, like Aaron's rod, with
buds and blossoms and fruit unto God's glory! He will be such a man
that he shall only need to take one step and be in Heaven! He is a
shock of corn fully ripe, each single stalk bowing its head towards the
earth as if it asked to be gathered in. Let us pray God will give us an
understanding of His blessed Word, for then we shall be ripe for Glory
and in the highest sense it will be true that we shall "live."

I have scarcely a minute to spare, but I must venture to detain you
while we observe that the Psalmist alludes to one point in reference to
God's Word which is, to us, the very marrow and fatness of the whole.
God's Word is said to be righteous–"The righteousness of Your
testimonies is everlasting." Now, upon this righteousness the life of
every Christian hangs. "God is not unrighteous to forget your work of
faith and labor of love." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful

and just to forgive us our sins." A righteous God cannot destroy a man
in whom His Grace has worked an understanding of His Word, for that
were to deal unrighteously with him, since he is justified by the
knowledge of Christ.

The godly serve a just God and a Savior and, therefore, they have
nothing to fear. This righteousness of God's Word is so certain that it
is said to be everlasting. Brothers and Sisters, my life hangs on the
everlastingness of all God's Word! If it can change, then I must
die–but if it cannot change, then I shall live. The righteousness of
God, according to the text, is everlasting since none can challenge it.
No caviler will ever prove God's way of salvation, or of Providence, to
be unrighteous. If that could be done, then the Believer might die. But
since that righteousness cannot be disproved, he shall live. "Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" The Divine righteousness
stands fast forever and ever, settled in Heaven, ordained to answer all
demands throughout all ages. Let us so understand it as to take it to
be ours and we shall live!

I cannot understand the notion of certain professing Christians that a
change comes over Christianity as the ages move on–that there is a
Christianity for the first century and a revised Christianity for the
present era! We have become very enlightened of late! You are aware
that this is the marvelous 19th Century! We have invented the electric
light and none can deny that we are the most enlightened people that
ever lived on the face of the earth! It is not, of course, pride on our
part to say so, for we are very modest. Among us there are men who are
wonderfully brilliant–Paul was but a farthing candle compared with
them. They understand, by culture and thought, so much that it is an
honor to speak with them!

The Gospel that was preached to the poor, which childlike persons
understood by the enlightening influence of the Holy Spirit, is, in
their eyes a very poor business. They sneer and turn up their cultured
noses at what they call, "the simple Gospel," as if a simple Gospel
were meant for simpletons. Well, now, to my mind this is the very bliss
and blessedness of the Gospel–that the righteousness of God's
testimonies is everlasting–that though it has been tried by criticism
and tested by experience, it remains the same in its spotless purity
and in its Divine Infallibility to this day! If God should be pleased
to lengthen out the life of any of you till you are as old as
Methuselah, you will not have to say, "I must die now, for the Gospel
is worn out. I must perish now, for the righteousness of the Word of
God has been disproved."

Thus says Jehovah, "I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of
Jacob are not consumed." We may catch the echo of His proclamation and
say, "Because the Word which reveals our God never changes, therefore
we shall live." Do you need a better Gospel, any of you? Go and fish
for it, if you do, but not in the waters of the Truth of God! Do you
need any nobler promise, any surer covenant? Wander through the deserts
of salt till your skeleton lies bleaching there, for that will be your
only reward if you turn away from the feast of fat things, of wines on
the lees well-refined. As for me, I bless God that the righteousness of
His testimonies is everlasting and by them I mean to abide all my days,
God helping me.
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Bad Lodgers and How To Treat Them