THE DIVIDED HEART

A SERMON (NO. 3527)

PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1916,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

ON LORD’S DAY EVENING, APRIL 14, 1872.

“Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty.”
Hosea 10:2.

THIS was originally spoken of the Kingdom of Israel. For many years they had been under a king who commanded the worship of Baal and persecuted the worshipers of Jehovah. God chastened the people very sorely for this, but He did not utterly destroy them. At last Hoshea, the king, came to the throne. He was the last king of Israel and it is very remarkable that it is said of him that he was much better than those who went before him. He did not evil in the sight of the Lord after the manner of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. He was not what could be wished, but still he was not like the rest—and it seems very odd to a person who reads it casually that God should spare the nation under worse kings—and then should carry it away into captivity when they had, for once, a far better king! But the matter is explained thus. Hoshea withdrew the curse of persecution from the people and they were left free to follow Jehovah.

While they were persecuted—compelled to worship Baal—God, as it were, had compassion upon them. He abhorred their idolatry, but still His anger did not burn against them to the same degree as it did afterwards when they were left to do as they pleased, religious persecution was withdrawn and the pressure was taken off. Then, when there began to be internal discussion and strife—and some went after the true God, but others still followed the old idol—then it was that God saw that the nation was incurable. They were altogether set upon evil and He said, “Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty.” Or it might be read, “Now shall they be condemned.” From which I gather that a sin in a certain case may be overlooked for a while, but the same sin under another circumstance may be speedily punished. God knows the circumstances of temptation in which a man may be placed, and though the force of temptation is not an excuse for sin, it may serve as a mitigation of it. A person under a tyrannizing power who is driven to sin by fear may be far less guilty than another who is under no such constraint, but who willfully, of his own heart, chooses the evil. And God may bear a long time with the same sin in a man under certain circumstances, which in another, under different circumstances, shall provoke Him at once to anger—and He shall sweep the man from off the face of the earth! Beware, dear hearers, of deliberate sin! Beware of the sin which is of your own choosing! I may say, beware of all sin, for in a measure it is deliberate and of your own choosing—but especially that sin which is not brought upon you by any pressure, but simply by your own willful disobedience to God! This is a crying sin and one which God will not long put up with!

And now I shall take the language of the text and apply it in other ways. “Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty.”

I. THIS MAY BE TRUE OF ANY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

It has long been my joy, beloved in the Lord, that our heart has not been divided. We have walked together these many years in holy fellowship and, imperfect as we are, yet there have not been divisions among us. There has been no division about doctrine. We have agreed upon the great truths of God.

There has been, I believe, no division about who shall be the greatest. We have been content, each one, to occupy his place in the church and to work on. It is not our goodness that has made it so—it is only the power of God’s Spirit which has kept us, who otherwise might readily have been divided—kept us as the heart of one man in sacred unity. Oh, let it always be so—let it always be so! May these eyes be closed in the darkness of death long before I shall see you contending, the one against the other! If it should ever happen that I should be unfit to go in and out among you to your edification, may I be laid aside and some other found round whom you may rally as one man, that by any means and every means the church may be kept in its integrity—one in heart—a threefold cord which cannot be broken! Let each man endeavor to avoid giving offense to his brother. Let us all be members unto edification of the same one Lord, one faith, one baptism. May the same Spirit abide in us and work with us to God’s glory, for we well know that a divided church is found guilty. It is guilty so far as anything like usefulness is concerned. The strength that is spent in division is so much taken away from service. When the children of God use their swords against one another, they are not using them against the adversaries of the Lord.

May our strength never be spent in division. A house divided against itself must come to nothing, but strong in the unity which God shall give us may we not be found guilty! I will not dwell upon that, however, but remark that the text—

II. MAY BE USED, AGAIN, OF EACH INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN.

One-heartedness in a Christian is a great point. “Unite my heart to fear Your name” is a prayer which every Christian should always pray. “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” A double-hearted Christian—what shall I say of him? He is like the eye which when it is single, fills the body with light, but if it has lost its singleness, it causes the body to be in darkness—and if the light that is in us is darkness, how great is that darkness! Though a Christian, deep down in his soul, cannot be divided in heart, but must love his God, yet there may be very much of division of pursuit, division of aim and objectives in Christians. And, brothers and sisters, may I not suggest that it may be so with some of you, that your hearts may be divided and, therefore, you are found guilty? Take the Christian who desires to serve God, but still is equally desirous to amass wealth. Such a man—may God not put him into the scales and judge him, for I fear he will be found wanting—but if his desire for wealth is ever subordinate to that of the glory of God only in a slight degree, he will never attain to any great eminence in the divine life. He cannot! In proportion as his vital force is divided and drawn away from the main business of life, he will become spiritually lean, even if he becomes peculiarity rich. He may be a millionaire in the world, but he will be a pauper in the church. He may be a “strong” man in the market, but he shall be a very dwarf in the house of God! There will sure to be a guiltiness where the heart is so divided! The most charitable construction we can put upon it is that there are darker evils!

We have known Christians, too, whose objective in life has been the large acquiring of knowledge, the pursuit of science, the gathering up of information. This, like the pursuit of wealth, is lawful enough in its subordinate place, but when it comes into rivalry with the seeking of the glory of God, the man may become a scholar, but he will never become a beloved disciple that leans his head upon Jesus’ bosom! He may be great in the classics and he may be a master in the sciences, but he will never be a master in Israel! The division of his vital powers, the lack of concentration will be sure to keep him in the rear ranks of the Church of God—if he is kept there. Oh, what a blessed thing it is to see a wholehearted Christian, who, while he pursues his present business, still pursues it for God’s glory!

While he studies and stores his mind, is doing it for one objective, namely, that he may be thereby more useful to the Church of God and more helpful in the winning of souls! Give the man but one heart, one objective, and he is a man! Someone has said that he dreaded the man of one book—and so the wicked world may dread the man of one objective if that one objective is the glory of God! They that have two targets to shoot at shall not strike either—they miss their aim—but he who lives only for God with all his might is like a thunderbolt launched from Jehovah’s hand that goes crashing through every difficulty and reaches the point God aims at—and that the man, himself, seeks! He shall live for something; he shall count upon his age; he shall leave his mark. The man with an undivided heart—he shall not be found guilty. But he that is this and that—a follower of Christ, but yet something over and above that, almost equally as much the other, as he is a Christian—he shall be a poor, poor thing; he shall not enjoy the light of fellowship with God; he shall not walk in nearness to Christ. He shall be saved, but “so as by fire.” No “abundant entrance” shall be administered to him into the kingdom of God, our Father.

I believe, dear friends, and I will go a step further using the same words, that this case, if it should happen to be that of a minister with a divided heart, is more sad than it is in the case of the common Christian. Dear brothers, those of us who believe that we are called to be ministers for Christ are, above all the rest of the Church, bound to devote ourselves to one thing. “This one thing I do.” If other men have two things to do, we, by our call and office, if we are not liars in professing to be of God, and traitors to our office, are bound to do but one thing—and that is to free ourselves from the blood of all men that we may stand before God as His honest servants. You may depend upon it that a minister with his heart at all divided will make a failure of his ministry. It must be so. I have watched the career of a good many young men, though not old, myself, [Spurgeon was near 36] and I remember one with remarkable abilities. In his preaching there was a good clear sound of the gospel. But I, who was as a father to him, noted that he had an ambitious desire to be distinguished as a speaker. I saw that even when he sought to win souls, it was with a view that persons might say how earnest he was. I could not help detecting in his conversation that there was an evident objective to make himself something, that he might be great in Israel. And I remember well how I walked with him and warned him that if God’s servant did anything whatever for himself, God would not use him for His divine purposes. That if we sacrificed to our pride, God would not let us stand as priests at His altar. That if we would be honored, we must stay down, stay humble—that God would not long bless a man who was self-seeking, even in the ministry of Christ. The warnings he received very kindly, but they never sank into his heart, and I can see him now! He is not here, but were he here I think he would confess the truth of what I say. He lies a miserable wreck upon the shore and he has fallen by his ambition! Had it not been for that, I would have conceived for him a high and excellent career. And I would say to every minister, “I charge you fling away your ambition! Your only ambition must be to be nothing, to be hated, scouted, called a fool, a driveller, if by any means you may win souls for Christ! But to cultivate rhetoric, to be an orator, to study that you may be thought to be a profound thinker, to labor earnestly with this idea that you may be esteemed to be a first-class soul-winner—even that is bad! The only thing is to seek to do what God would have you do and to glorify Him—to lay every honor at His feet and live for Him, for any sort of division in the Christian minister’s pursuit may make him faulty.” I believe that the man who gives himself to be a preacher should divest himself of the cares of this life, as the soldier does in the army, that he may be able to give his whole soul and life to the one matter for which his Lord has called him. It will be good for him to do this. And then he had better leave politics alone. He had better leave everything alone but his one work. We have not mind enough for two things—and besides, our work is such that if we had mind enough for 20 things it would be best to consecrate it all to that one thing! If I may snatch firebrands from the flame, who will, may fill your Senate and may guide the policies of Cabinets! If I may lead sinners to the cross of Christ and tell them of life in His dear wounds, I should be content, though I should never influence anything else except the hearts of men to the Savior! One thing, young man, if you are about to be a minister—one thing, my brother, however old you may be, permit me to say to you and myself tonight—there is only one thing we must do if we would not be found guilty.

But the stress of my text I intend to lay tonight upon one particular case, and that is—

III. THE SEEKING SINNER.

There are some persons who are awakened and are seeking salvation, but they are not likely to find it because their heart is divided and they will be found guilty. Very briefly, and very briefly, indeed, I mean to speak upon this disease, upon the evil of it, and suggest a few thoughts by way of a cure for it.

Of this disease, let me say that it is a disease in the heart. Now a very small prick in the heart will kill. A great gash in the head may be healed, but a slight wound in the heart is deadly. A division of understanding or of judgment may be remedied, but a division of heart is a very terrible and often a very fatal disease. Let me show you how and in what respects some seeking souls are divided in heart.

And they are, first, divided as to a sense of their condition. At one time they think they are in great danger. Tomorrow they don’t know that there is anything very particular. When they have read a passage of Scripture, they believe their heart to be evil, but they forget the text and they think their heart is, after all, not so bad as Scripture says it is. They hear that there is a wrath to come and they are alarmed, but they get away to their friends and neighbors and say, “Why was I so foolish as to be frightened by the preacher?” They are in danger—they dare not say they are not, but yet they almost hope it is not true! They know it is not all right with them, yet they try to cheat themselves with the idea that it is pretty nearly all right. They are never likely to seek a Savior while they are in this condition, for until a man’s mind is thoroughly made up that he must be saved by Christ or perish, he will never go to Christ. A divided heart about our personal condition before God is a deadly sign.

These same seekers are often divided as to the objects of their choice. They want salvation tonight—they would give their eyes to have it. They will get to their chamber and pray, “O God, save me!” They will endorse the language of that hymn—

“Wealth and honor I disdain.
Earthly comforts, Lord, are vain.
These can never satisfy—
Give me Christ, or else I die.”

Tomorrow they will forget all about Christ and they will be seeking after something else. Tonight they would have heaven, but tomorrow they would find a heaven on earth! Tonight they would give up sin, but tomorrow they wish to have much of it. Tonight they see the emptiness of earthly pleasure, but tomorrow they will suck it down as the ox drinks down water. Their heart is divided between this and that. They are not quite for the world nor quite for Christ—they halt between two opinions! Oh, that God would decide them that their heart, their divided heart, may not prove their ruin!

Some seekers are divided as to the object of their trust. They trust in Jesus Christ, but they also trust a little in themselves. They believe His blood has a great deal to do with it, but they think their prayers have something, too, and so they stand with one foot on the land and the other on the sea and, therefore, they fall! They are relying upon self in part and upon Christ in part, and so they will assuredly come to destruction, for Christ will never be part Savior! It must be all or nothing! He never entered into partnership with sinful worms to help save them—He is the sole foundation—and other foundation can no man lay. Alas, upon this matter, how many have their hearts divided! They are trusting to their baptism, or to their confirmation, or to their “sacraments”—all false foundations—and yet they are trying to trust in Christ at the same time! Their heart is divided and now they are held guilty.

And this division is found in their love. They think they love divine things, but by-and-by some earthly thing comes in and gets uppermost in their souls! Oh, I do remember myself when, if I woke in the morning, I always took care to have a godly book under my pillow, and an awakening book, too—Doddridge’s, “Rise and Progress,” Alleine’s, “Alarm,” Bunyan’s books and the like—and yet at another time I forgot all about that. I was hot today and cold tomorrow. I would have been ready to die in order to be saved, sometimes, and other times would gladly have escaped from the mercy of God to be permitted to “enjoy myself,” as I said, in the things of the world! Oh, it is a sad state to be in. A seeker will never get Christ until he must have Christ, and he will never get salvation until salvation is the first thing, the last thing, the middle thing with him—until it comes to this, “By God’s Spirit I must be saved!

Nothing will content me. I must be saved and until I am saved, I cannot give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids.” The Lord in His mercy give us an united heart about this, for a divided heart, here, is a guilty heart in the seeker. Now let me speak upon—

IV. THE DANGER OF THIS DISEASE—the evil of it. The evil of it is, first, that seekers with divided hearts miss the blessing. You shall find Him when you seek Him with your whole heart—not till then. Mercy’s door opens to the knock of a whole-hearted knocker. A half-hearted seeker will have to wait many a day before that gate will ever give him entrance. No, soul, if you do not think enough of mercy to ask for it with all your heart, you will have to wait awhile. No, man, the choice mercies of God are too precious to be thrown away upon one who asks with a divided heart! Now look at heaven’s gate instead of here and there, instead of looking right and left. For you one thing is necessary, sinner—just one thing. Fifty things you may leave to be sought, by-and-by, but now for you it is one thing, and if you will not make it one thing, you will miss it—miss it to your eternal loss!

Again, remember that you who seek the Lord with a divided heart condemn yourselves. When you stand before the judgment seat you won’t be able to say, as some will, “Lord, we did not know of this salvation. Lord, we never were impressed with its value,” for the Lord would tell you, “Why, you trembled under a sermon. You knelt and prayed, and you cried to Me, though you lied with yours lips because your heart was not perfect before Me. Yet you did know the value of these things and you did feel them, too, in a measure, so that you are without excuse.” He that follows the world with all his heart and thinks that is the best, is a reasonable man in following it. But he who thinks the world to come the best, and yet follows this present evil world—why, what a fool he is—and who shall plead for him?

When he stands before God, his prayers will damn him, if nothing else will, for his prayers will be swift witnesses against him that he did know, did feel and yet he would not act upon his knowledge—he blotted out that which he perceived in his feelings. God save us from missing heaven and from condemning ourselves by seeking it with a divided heart!

Moreover, O man, I would press one fact upon you very solemnly, and that is that a divided search after salvation is an insult to the Savior. Who is it and what is it, O man, that you set up in competition with Christ? All heaven and earth cannot produce His equal, and have you found something that can rival Him? What is it? Dare you say what it is? There have been men who have had good thoughts, but even a harlot’s love has been chosen by them, instead of Christ! There are others who have loved the wages of unrighteousness, and Sabbath-breaking has made them forego Christ. We have known others who, for fear of a little scandal from their worldly companions, have been ashamed to follow Christ, and they have given up Jesus Christ sooner than bear a fool’s derision! O man, if you had the choice given you tonight of all the kingdoms of this world, or Christ, you would insult Christ if you should pause in the choice, for He is better than them all, and your soul’s salvation is better than them all! “For what shall it profit a man, though he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul?” But I can weep for you while I rebuke you. What is it you put in competition with Christ? What is it you prefer to Christ? Man, are you mad that you should insult your Savior, who poured out His heart’s blood for the salvation of such as you are, and do you think that anything can be worth the having at so dreadful a price as the loss of your soul, and the loss of the Savior’s salvation? I beseech you, turn that over in your mind! I cannot put it as forcibly as I would, but I pray you let your conscience help you and answer if it is right in you to have a divided heart, and so to insult your Savior.

Once more on this point, and that is, do you not know that a divided heart is a continued disobedience to God? He says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength”—and now you have sinned your soul out of His favor and in danger of eternal death—and still with only half a heart do you turn to Him! You put out one hand towards God, but with the other you would have your sin! You would gladly go to heaven and take your sins with you! You would be saved, but you want to sit both at the table of the Lord and the table of Satan! You desire to hold with the hare and run with the hounds—be the friend of the devil and yet the friend of God. O man, the very thought is rebellion against your Maker! Cast it away from you and ask the Lord, this night, to bind all your affections into one bundle, and then draw them all to Him—that for you the one thing may be to seek salvation through Christ and reconciliation to the good Lord in heaven through the precious blood of His dear Son! And now hear the last few words which shall be meant to be—

V. A CURE FOR THIS DISEASE of a divided heart. And the first word shall be this. You ought well to have done with a divided heart when the matter in hand is your salvation or damnation. When a ship is floating gaily out at sea with favorable winds, men think but little of their safety. When she begins to rock and there is some danger, then their safety rises in importance and they put it side by side with the safety of the gold they carry with them! But when the winds break loose and the storm is up, and the ship is about to go by the board, and the man must leap into the lifeboat, he flings his gold away—he leaves his treasures loose upon the floor. As they sink into the abyss, he gives up anything if he may but save his life! In that dread hour when the vessel is going down and a handful of men alone are clinging to a mast, all is gone from them except the thought of saving life. And surely it should be so with you! When you are saved, you may begin to think of some other thing, but not tonight! For as the Lord lives, before whom I stand, there is but a step between some of you and death! Before another Sabbath—I may speak positively, for out of so many as there are here, someone of us will die this week, by all the probabilities of life and death—before another Sabbath one of us will lie in the shell, prepared to be taken to the grave! And if that should happen to be an unconverted man, then before another Sabbath you will know of hell and of the lake of fire more than this book can tell or these lips can utter, unless you are converted and fly to Christ! Surely in such jeopardy, your whole heart ought to be set upon the one matter—your own salvation—and I beseech you and I pray God the Spirit to make it so that you may now, with your whole undivided faculties, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. By the awful peril of your soul, I do entreat you linger, delay and remain undecided no more, lest your heart, being divided, should prove guilty and be cast away forever!

Remember, again, and the argument is equally forcible, though it is more pleasing, the mercy that you are seeking after is worth the concentration of all your thoughts to find it. To be delivered from all your past sin—is not this worth the seeking? To be made a child of God—is not this worth wrestling for? To be secure of heaven, to be delivered from hell—is not this worth an attempt to obtain? Oh, if it were necessary that you should go to your houses, tonight, and neglect your tomorrow’s business—it does not require it, but if it did—if you went not to the market or to the Exchange by the week together—yes, and if your tables were deserted and you snatched but a morsel that might sustain life—and if you took no walk, had no recreation, if you denied yourself anything and everything until you found Christ, I could not blame you! I am sure it would be well worth the while! Anything, everything should be neglected that you might become one of the people of God and saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation! Did you know the joy that belongs to Christians, you would never be satisfied until you had it! The man that saw the pearl of great price saw it in another dealer’s hands, and he thought, “I must have that! It is the finest pearl of all, so I must have it!” And he went his way, you know, and though he had many a dainty jewel, he sold all he had and turned it all to gold—and back he came to the trader—and he gave with joy all that he had that he might buy that one pearl, and he made a good bargain, too! And you would make a blessed bargain if everything were given up that you might find a Savior and be delivered from the wrath to come! Therefore I do pray you to seek Him with your whole heart.

Once more, do remember that the Savior gave His whole heart when He came to save men. There was no by-play about Christ. His zeal for souls did eat Him up. He, loved, He lived, He died to save them! Will you have a divided heart about that which took the Savior’s whole soul? Remember the devil is in earnest to destroy you. He will leave no stone unturned to keep you his victim that he may utterly destroy you! Shall hell be in earnest to ruin you and will you not be in earnest to escape from it?

Remember, good men are in earnest. I wish that I could speak to you with the tongue of an angel tonight. There is no faculty of my mind which I would not lay under a heavy mortgage if I might but bring your soul to Christ! I would willingly enough go to school, again, and sit at my Master’s feet if He could tell me how to deal with human hearts aright, and stir them and draw them to the Savior! Ah, ‘tis poorly done, but it is with my whole soul I would plead with you to fly to Christ! And yet ‘tis but little a concern of mine, compared with the way in which it is a concern of yours! If I have been faithful, I shall not be responsible for you—it is your soul that is at stake. Sirs, shall I be anxious about your souls and will you not care about them? Do they seem precious to me and trifles to you? Shall I urge you to escape and will you feel, “It does not matter—it is but a trifle”? Lord, deliver us from this insanity, for insanity it is for a man to trifle with his soul, when others are in earnest for him! And God is in earnest. The great eternal God is in earnest! He says tonight to you, “Turn you, turn you! Why will you die, O house of Israel?” If salvation is child’s-play to you, it is not to Him. He gave His Son from His bosom to redeem men! And He sent His Spirit unto men to sanctify them. He puts out His omnipotence, lays His wisdom under tax to find a plan and devise a way by which He might save mankind! Oh, trifle not where God is so in earnest, lest you find Him terribly in earnest in the day when His incensed love shall turn to wrath!

Jealousy—what is it but love set on a blaze? And if you so hate God that you will prefer to live in hell sooner than be indebted to His mercy, then rest assured you shall feel how heavy His arm can be—

“What chains of vengeance shall they feel
Who slight the cords of love?
How they deserve the deepest hell
Who scorn the joys above!”

May God in His infinite mercy prevent anybody here from daring the wrath of God by following after Christ with a divided heart—trifling with his Maker, trifling with his soul, trifling with heaven, trifling with hell! May we be in earnest, each one of us, and may we all meet at the right hand of God through sovereign grace. The Lord bless you all, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

HOSEA 10:1-6.

Verse 1. Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself. Not to his God. It matters not how much fruit we bear—if it is for self, we are fruitless. A thing which is good in itself may lose all its goodness because stained with a selfish motive. We are to live unto God—and we must always be watchful about this—otherwise we may be doing much, and doing nothing. “Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself.”

1. According to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. It is a very sad thing when the more men receive from God, the more they sin. But just in proportion as the land of Israel was fat and fertile, in that proportion did they set up altars to false gods and provoke the true God, who had given them these mercies. It is an ill thing when men grow rich and offer sacrifice to their own vanity—when men gather learning and only use it to debate against the simple teachings of God—when just as God blesses, men cease to bless Him!

2. Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty. A half heart is no heart at all. And when men seem to go after God, and at the same time to go after their idols, they are not going after God. Their religion is vain. The good side is but a pretense—the evil side is the real thing!

2. He shall break down their altars. He shall spoil their images. Let us take heed then, dear friends, that we make nothing into an idol. The shortest way to lose the dearest object of your affections is to make an idol of him. “He shall break down their altars. He shall spoil their images.” Sometimes this is done in great mercy to God’s people, for there is no greater evil than for a heart to be happy in idolatry.

Sometimes it is done in judgment upon the ungodly. They will not have the true God, and the false god shall be false to them. “He shall break down their altars. He shall spoil their images.”

2. For now they shall say, We have no king because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us? Their king was slain, but if he had lived, what would be the good of him without God?

What is the good of any temporal blessing if God is not in it? It is the husk with the kernel gone! And if we are able to enjoy the husk, it looks as if we were swine, and swine are being fattened for the slaughter! What is the use of anything that we possess if God is divorced from it? I put the question again. If you are a true child of God, all the corn and wine in the world cannot feed you. Your bread must come from heaven.

4. They have spoken words. That which they spoke was not the truth. We cannot speak without words, but it is an evil thing when our speech is nothing but words. Words, words, words!—no heart, no truth! “They have spoken words.”

4. Swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. God keep us from untruthfulness, and especially from a want of truth towards Himself. Do you not think that oftentimes, both in prayer and praise, it might be said, “They have spoken words—nothing more”? There has been a falsehood in the most solemn transaction towards God. Woe unto you, dear friends, if that should turn out to be the case! You may cheat your fellow men if you have a heart for it, but you never will be able to cheat your God! He is not mocked. “They have spoken words,” He says.

5. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth Aven. Why, those calves are their trust. They rely upon those images of false gods—those images which they set up in the place of the true God. Pretending thereby to worship Him, they trusted in these—and now they shall become their fear. He who will have a confidence apart from God will find his confidence soured into a fear before long. Your greatest ground of distress will be that which was once the ground of your reliance apart from God!

5, 6. For the people thereof shall mourn over it. And the priests thereof that rejoiced in it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jareb. The spiteful king.

6. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. These golden calves excited the desires of the king of Assyria, and he took them away. These gods were baits to their enemies, instead of basis for their confidence. They were carried away captive of the people with them—their god, captive—their god melted down to make images, or to make money for the king of Assyria! Ah, what shame does God pour upon idolaters! And what shame He will pour upon us if we have any confidence except the unseen God and if we rely anywhere but upon the eternal covenant of His immutable grace! Oh, brothers and sisters, let us try to flee away from that which is so tempting to sense—confidence in an arm of flesh—and let our sole and only trust be in Him who made the heavens and the earth, and in His Son, Jesus Christ!

PLEASE PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.

By the grace of God, for all 63 volumes of C. H. Spurgeon sermons in Modern English, and 574 Spanish translations, visit: www.spurgeongems.org

“REPENTANCE AND REMISSION”

A SERMON (NO. 3224)

PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1910,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 17, 1870.

“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Luke 24:47.

THIS verse is among our Lord’s last words to His disciples just before He left them to return to heaven. He wished to impress upon them the truth of God that it was His purpose and desire that their lives should be devoted to the preaching of His gospel among all nations upon the face of the earth. In Christ’s own words and throughout the New Testament, we find the greatest stress laid upon preaching.

Preaching is the great battering ram that is to shake the gates of hell! Preaching is God’s chief method of winning souls unto Himself—“for after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” We cannot too often remind this age in which we live of this truth, for this is a time in which it is supposed that rites and ceremonies, human learning and literature and I know not what else, may very properly be allowed to supplant the preaching of the word! Yet our Lord has given no intimation of any change in His purpose and plan—on the contrary, His great commission is evidently intended to cover the whole of this present dispensation—“Go you, therefore, and teach (that is, make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them (that is, those who have been made disciples) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (or, more properly, unto the end of the age). Amen.” So, until this dispensation is brought to a close by the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ, “repentance and remission of sins” are to “be preached in His name among all nations.” Blessed, indeed, are those who, in this land or anywhere else, have heard their Lord and Master say to them as He said to His disciples before He left them, “and you are witnesses of these things.”

As I have been called, by His grace, to be one of His witnesses, I will now try to put the text to practical use by preaching, first, upon the subject, and secondly, upon the audience here mentioned by our Lord.

I. First, let us consider THE SUBJECT OF OUR PREACHING as here stated by our Lord—“that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name.”

So the first part of the subject is that repentance should he preached in the name of Jesus. There is a very important point that must here be noted—and that is that repentance is not to be preached in the name of Moses as a legal duty. Undoubtedly, it is a legal duty, for everyone who sins against God ought to repent of doing so. Whenever we have broken any law of God, we ought to be sorry for having broken it. It is the natural, commonsense duty of the creature, when he has disobeyed any command of his Creator, to grieve that he has thus grossly offended his Maker and to resolve that if possible, he will not do so any more. But it is not in this fashion, simply as a legal duty, that Christ has bid His servants preach repentance. If we preach it thus, our labor will be in vain—at least to a very large extent!

Nor are we to preach it merely as a matter of faint hope. There is, indeed, more than a faint hope for any man who is bid to repent because he will suppose, naturally and properly, that the God who bids him repent must have some designs of love towards him. But we are not to preach to sinners in such a fashion as simply to make them faintly hope that they may be saved. You know that when Jonah passed through the streets of Nineveh, his mournful and monotonous message was, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” When that message was carried to the king, he laid aside his gorgeous robe and put on sackcloth, sat in ashes, proclaimed a fast for man and beast and commanded his people to turn from their evil ways! Yet he had no better hope than this—“Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger that we perish not?” When they repented, God did have mercy upon them and spared them. But we have to carry to sinners a far more hopeful message than that heathen king’s inquiry, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent?” Our Lord Jesus Christ has ordained that repentance should be preached in quite a different fashion than that!

We are not even to preach it after the manner of John the Baptist who preached repentance as a preparation for the coming of Christ. His message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

To the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism, he said, “Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance,” evidences of a change of life, because there was one far mightier than he coming after him—whose shoes he was not worthy to bear. John was only sent to prepare the way for Him who should baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. There are some, nowadays, who seem to think that repentance is a sort of preparation for faith in Christ, but that is not as we understand the Word of God—as we will try to show you before we have finished our discourse. We have not to preach repentance after the manner or in the nature of Moses, or Jonah, or John the Baptist—we have to preach repentance in the name of Jesus Christ! What does this mean?

First, it means that we are to preach repentance as the gift of God. Christ was exalted with His Father’s right hand, to be a Prince and a Savior, “to give repentance” as well as “forgiveness of sins.”

Wherever there is real sorrow for sin, wherever there is an honest determination, by God’s grace, to cease from sin, wherever there is a complete change of mind with regard to sin—for that is what repentance means—that repentance has been produced by the Spirit of God and it is as much a gift of the covenant of grace as even the pardon which comes with it is! This is the repentance which we are to preach in Christ’s name, and of which Joseph Hart so sweetly sings—

“Come, you needy, come and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify!
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings us near,
Without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and buy!”

You are not to seek to draw up repentance from the depths of your own heart, as you might draw up water from a well, but to ask Christ to work repentance in you by His Holy Spirit, through belief of the truth of God as it is recorded in the Word of God, or as it is set before you in the preaching of the gospel.

As you learn how terribly Christ suffered because of sin, that truth will, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, be the means of leading you to hate sin. And you will realize how the Holy Spirit, by enlightening the understanding and influencing the affections, produces repentance even in that sterile heart which had never been previously softened and made fertile by the gentle dew and rain of grace. So we are to tell sinners that God gives repentance—that it is one of the free gifts of His grace—and that whoever has it may rest assured that the hand of the Lord has been upon him for good and that, in fact, the work of salvation has been already begun in his soul!

Further, to preach repentance in the name of Jesus also means that wherever there is real repentance, it is the token of the pardon of sin—not merely a hopeful sign, but the sure and infallible sign of pardon.

If any man’s heart is turned away from sin; if he prostrates himself in the dust before God because of his offenses; if he looks with true penitence to Christ upon the cross, crying, “Lord, remember me,” “Lord, save me,” “God be merciful to me, a sinner”—it is not a question whether forgiveness may or may not be granted to him—it is a fact that he is already forgiven! David’s words are still true, “The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as are of a contrite spirit.” It was for such as these that Jesus suffered upon Calvary. So let the message ring out through every land beneath the canopy of heaven, that wherever there is a soul that loathes sin and leaves sin, eternal mercy has already commenced its gracious work and that soul is forgiven!

I also think that to preach repentance in the name of Jesus means that we are to preach it on the authority of Jesus. We are not merely to bid men repent and to try to persuade them to do so by various reasons that might be urged! We are to take far higher ground than that, as Paul did at Athens when he said, “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent.”

The servants of Christ are not to preach repentance on their own authority, or even on the authority of the church of Christ, but they are to preach it on the authority of the church’s ascended Head! This was Christ’s own message, for we read, “After that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent you, and believe the gospel.” So no true minister of Christ need be either afraid or ashamed to tell sinners—even the very worst sinners—that they should repent! When Jesus went into the country of the Gadarenes, a man possessed by an unclean spirit met Him—a wild man whom no mere human being could tame, a man who snapped the fetters and chains with which he was bound, a man who lived in the mountains, or among the tombs, a man who was a terror to the whole countryside and from whom all who could, fled—did Jesus flee from him or pass him by as too bad to be cured? No, the fiat of omnipotence was, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.” And though it was not merely one demon, but a whole legion of evil spirits that possessed the man, they all departed at Christ’s command! And the man, himself, was shortly afterwards found “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind.”

And soon he, too, was taken into Christ’s service, “and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.” In like manner, the true minister of Christ is not only to call upon the most moral and the most hopeful to repent, but he is to give the same message to the most immoral and the most hopeless! On the day of the Pentecost, when Peter had charged his hearers with putting Jesus to death, they were pricked in their heart and said to the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” You know what followed—about three thousands of them gladly received Peter’s words, were baptized and the same day were added to the church! Our commission to preach the gospel to every creature was issued by Him to whom all power in heaven and in earth had been given! It is, therefore, under divine authority that “repentance and remission of sins” are to be preached in Christ’s name among all nations! “Repentance and remission” are so joined together that wherever we find the one, we are sure to find the other. Where there is no repentance, there can be no remission. But where there is true repentance—that godly sorrow for sin that needs not to be repented of—there is the full and free forgiveness of all sins of the one who has thus sincerely repented!

According to our text, this remission of sins is to be preached in the name of Jesus. We have the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ for declaring that “all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” And when Paul was preaching at Antioch concerning the resurrection of Christ, he put this truth of God very plainly—“Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.” We also are to preach, not as unauthorized persons who hope that what we say may possibly prove to be true, but as those who are proclaiming divine truths and certainties on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! As one of the Lords witnesses, let me tell you, my dear hearers, that there is promised to penitents a full pardon of every sin they have ever committed, whether it has been a sin of thought, or word, or deed—whether it has been a sin of omission or of commission! This pardon makes a clean sweep of the accumulated heaps of defilement that have resulted from years of iniquity! It is a pardon as great as it is full—pardon for the most horrible and oft-repeated offenses, pardon for uncleanness, for theft, for blasphemy, even for murder if the murderer has truly repented! It is a—

“Pardon for crimes of deepest dye,
A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood.”

The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin, all who truly repent and believe in Him! It cleanses from the sins that banish men from the presence of their fellows, and from the sins that would banish them forever from the presence of the thrice-holy God! Yes, pardon is to be proclaimed in the name of Jesus for sins such as these—they are not too black to be forgiven by God—they are not too deeply ingrained to be washed out by the precious blood of Jesus!

And this great and full pardon is also a pardon that is given instantaneously. In a moment the guilt of the penitent sinner is forgiven! To quote Hart, again, “His pardon at once he receives.” The instant that faith is begotten in the soul, we are justified in the sight of God and we can say with the Apostle Paul, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.” The believing penitent turns his weeping eyes to Christ upon the cross, gazes with mingled sorrow and joy upon the blood that flowed from His many wounds, places all his reliance upon the God appointed propitiation, “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world,” and in that very moment all his iniquities are gone forever! The Lord has blotted them out and driven them away like clouds that have been dispersed by a tornado, and that can never be found again!

This pardon is realized by the penitent sinner who receives it. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” Oftentimes, the sense of pardon comes upon a man like a piece of good news that makes him almost leap for joy—he was never before thrilled with so wondrous an emotion! He is half inclined to sing—

“He has lifted me out of the miry clay,
And set my feet on the king’s highway”—

but, perhaps, instead of doing so, he bows himself before the Lord in solemn silence, feeling that he could never express the gratitude he feels for such amazing mercy. Or, possibly, he finds David’s words just suited to his experience and, therefore, he says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits who forgives all your iniquities.” He realizes, as David did, that all his iniquities are forgiven and with the royal Psalmist he sings, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

Nor is this all, for this pardon is one that is never reversed. O sinner, if you really repent of your sin and believe in Jesus, the sinner’s Savior, you are saved with an everlasting salvation! Remember that you have to deal with a God who never changes—He gives to the guilty penitent full and free forgiveness, not a reprieve or a respite! Once washed in the precious blood of Jesus, you shall never go back to your sin so as to live in it, and to die in it and perish. If you are truly trusting in Jesus, you are saved, not merely for today, tomorrow and next week, but forever. What says the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand.” Were you, my dear hearer, ever pardoned by God for Christ’s sake? Then you are pardoned forever! But if not, I pray that you may repent and believe the gospel this very hour.

Perhaps you say, “But all this seems so strange to me. You tell me that my sins can all be forgiven in a moment, and forgiven forever—and that I have nothing to pay for this priceless blessing, but am simply bid to repent of my sin and believe in Jesus.” Yes, that is all true. But I do not ask you to believe it because I say it, for I only repeat to you the message that I have received from the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, through His word and by His Spirit. He cannot lie—and it is He who says, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.” He has given the best proof possible that your sins can be forgiven in the fact that He died in the place of sinners. Jesus Christ, who was God as well as man, suffered as the substitute of all who believe in Him. He bore their sins in His own body up to the tree and away from the tree! And now, for all who truly trust Him, there is no condemnation forever!

“But,” says one, “I do not doubt that repentance and remission of sins are to be preached in Christ’sname. My difficulty is as to whether they are for me!” Well, that is a point that you must settle under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Have you really repented of your sin? Have you sorrowed over it as the great curse of your life? Have you hated it and turned away from it, and sought to live as the holy God would have you live? Well, then, if the repentance is yours, the remission, also, is yours—for they gotogether in Christ’s own words—“repentance and remission of sins.” To hate sin because it slew Christ.

To hate sin because God is so good that we ought not to sin against Him. To hate sin because God is so gracious as to forgive it. To weep over sin, not like a child who has done wrong, and so keeps away from his father, but like a penitent child who lays his head in his father’s bosom and sobs out his grief there, and mourns that he has offended such a loving father who is so ready to forgive him—this is evangelical repentance and wherever it is found, there is also the remission of sins! If you do not know experimentally what it is thus to repent, breathe the prayer, “O Lord, show me the guilt of my sin. Teach me to mourn over it, to loath it and leave it. Let me see Your dear Son bearing its penalty on my behalf and then assure me, by Your Spirit’s gracious instructions, that my sins, which were many, are all forgiven for Jesus’ sake, that so I may go on my way rejoicing as a sinner saved by sovereign grace.”

Those of you who were here last Sabbath morning will remember that my text was, “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” And you will also recollect that I tried to describe various characters to whom that verse applies. I hope God gave comfort and blessing to some wholistened to the sermon here. But oh, it was a joy to me to hear of one far away in Scotland who had been for years desponding and despairing who was led to find rest and peace through reading the printed sermon! But why should not many more of you be blessed while hearing the Word of God as so many are in reading it? Poor captive soul, why should you not be set at liberty? Arise and shake yourself from the dust, for in Christ’s name pardon is preached unto you if you will but repent of your sins and trust Him to save you from them!

II. Now, secondly, we are to think of THE AUDIENCE THAT IS TO BE ADDRESSED UPON THIS SUBJECT—“that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

Why is this gospel to be preached among all nations? Well, first, because all nations need it! And then, because the gospel is exactly suited to all nations. And further, because God has a chosen number in all nations who will receive the word and be saved by it. And also because it shall be a witness against those in all nations who hear it but refuse to heed it.

Some nations were learned, yet when Paul was addressing the Greeks who were proud of their philosophy and were continually seeking after wisdom, he preached repentance and remission of sins in Christ’s name—the same A B C doctrine of Jesus Christ and Him crucified that he proclaimed wherever he went! And the greatest scholars of the present day, if they would be wise unto salvation, must stoop to learn the same gospel alphabet! No, rather they will be elevated as they acquire these elements and rudiments of heavenly knowledge and become scholars in Christ’s school of grace!

Other nations were very ignorant. In the apostles’ days there were some parts of the earth where the people were rude barbarians without any knowledge of books and letters. Yet the apostles went to them and preached repentance and remission of sins—and the gospel was simple enough for them to understand—and many of the heathen turned from their idols to serve the living God! And in later days, many of the greatest triumphs of the truth of God have been won among the savages and untutored tribes of Africa, India and North America—and the islands of the southern seas. Ignorant and degraded as they were, many of them have become new creatures in Jesus Christ, living here to the praise and glory of God and, in due time, going to join the ranks of the blessed above!

There are nations that worship God after a very imperfect fashion, although they know not Jesus Christ, whom He has sent to be the Savior of sinners. To these, also, we must preach repentance and remission of sins in Christ’s name, for no man can come unto the Father except by Jesus Christ, His Son!

Men cannot know God until they see the brightness of His glory revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. To theists and polytheists, those who believe in one God and those who worship “gods many and lords many,” we have but one message, even that which our Lord Himself delivered, “Repent you, and believe the gospel.” And already, many of them, by divine grace, have repented and received the remission of their sins in Christ’s name!

There are three very important words at the end of our text—“beginning at Jerusalem.“ John Bunyan has a masterly treatise upon this text, entitled The Jerusalem sinner saved; or, good news for the vilest of men: being a help for despairing souls, showing that Jesus Christ would have mercy in the first place offered to the biggest sinners. Those of you who have his works will find the whole treatise well worth reading, but I am going to borrow some of his divisions and speak upon them after my own fashion.

Bunyan’s first reason why Christ would have mercy proclaimed first to the biggest sinners is “because the biggest sinners have most need thereof.” A surgeon who is caring for the wounded on a battlefield and who has several soldiers awaiting his attention, will be anxious, first, to attend to the man who is the most seriously hurt and whose life seems fast ebbing away. He will leave for a while the one who has only a slight scratch or cut on his flesh, and devote all his thought and care to the man who is so terribly maimed and lacerated that it is a marvel how he manages to live at all! He will have him put in the ambulance and taken at once to the field hospital that his life may be saved if it is possible. And oh, if among my hearers there are some great offenders—some who have sinned very terribly, some who have sinned against God and man, against their own bodies and souls, some who may be truly called, “Jerusalem sinners, the vilest of men”—I want to assure them, first, that my Master has sent me to preach especially to them and to tell them that if they repent of their sins—many and great as they have been—they shall all be forgiven!

Bunyan’s second reason why Christ would have mercy preached first to the biggest sinners is “because when they, any of them, receive it, it redounds most to the fame of His name.” If a doctor cures someone’s finger that is only slightly injured, he may get the credit of it, yet no one will say much about it. But if there is a person who is suffering from a disease that is believed to be incurable and a wise physician is the means of his restoration to health, how the whole neighborhood will ring with his praises! When someone else is very ill, friends will say, “You should send for Dr. so and so. You know what he did for that other poor man, perhaps he could do as much for you.” And when the Lord Jesus Christ saves some black blasphemer or some leader in vice and iniquity, how fast the news flies throughout the whole region where he lives! Why, even among the lowest of the low, when one of their companions is converted, you know how they talk about it! They cry, “Have you heard what’s happened to old Jack?”

“No. What is it?” “Why, you know that he used to go along with us, first in all manner of evil—and now he has become a Christian!” That is sure to be repeated among all his old connections and so Christ gets fame and honor through His great work of grace and, therefore, it is that He would have the biggest sinners specially bid to repent and believe the gospel.

Bunyan’s third reason is “because, by their forgiveness and salvation, others, hearing of it, will be encouraged the more to come to Him for life.” When sinners hear that some big black sinner has been forgiven by Christ, they naturally ask, “Then why should not we be forgiven?” A rebel city is besieged and the king threatens to hang every traitor when he captures it. They do all they can to strengthen their defenses and to beat off the besiegers, resolved never to yield. But when one of their greatest captains is captured and the king, instead of hanging him, sends him back to the city loaded with gifts and bids him tell his fellow rebels that if they will only open the gates, he will forgive them and he will give them a royal charter for their city, and will be the patron of all their industries, what do they do? Why, sirs, they fling wide the gates! They ring the bells and they beg the king to enter at once and accept their loyal homage! You can easily apply the parable to your own case. I pray that many of you may do so right now.

The time flies so fast that I cannot take Bunyan’s lessons in detail. His next one is that when the biggest sinners are saved, they weaken Satan’s kingdom the most. Catch the ringleaders and you can soon break up the band. Often one man can twist quite a number round his fingers and make them do as he pleases. When he is converted, he brings his mates to hear the preacher whose word was blessed to him—and thus many are won to Christ and Satan’s ranks are thinned!

Besides, how it strengthens the church when great sinners are converted! It was a great day for the Churches of England when John Bunyan was saved. It was a glorious day for the apostolic churches when Saul the persecutor became Paul the preacher! And this will be a grand night for the Tabernacle Church if the Lord will turn some great sinner here from the error of his ways and enlist him beneath the banner of the cross! This is the kind of man who will lead the forlorn to hope in Christ, and plant the victorious banner of the gospel on heights of sin that seem inaccessible to ordinary Christians! Great sinners, when they are converted, are the men to do great exploits in the name of Jesus!

Further, where great sinners are forgiven, it is a clear proof that the gospel has power to bless other sinners. When the elephants entered the ark, all the beasts outside could see that the door was wide enough to admit them. As God’s grace saved the chief of sinners, that grace can save you, my friend, however great a sinner you have been! There may have come in here tonight, as they often do, those who are not usually found in places of worship. My brother or my sister, for as such I regard you, sinner as you are, I have to tell you that if you will repent of your sin and trust in Jesus as your Savior, you shall go out of this house justified, even as the publican went out of the temple of old after he had, from the depths of his soul cried, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”

Thus have I tried to preach repentance and remission of sins in Christ’s name to the Jerusalem sinners, the very worst men and women here! But I must not close without also preaching in the same fashion to you who think you are not the worst sinners here. O you respectable sinners, you moral and amiable sinners! You also need a Savior! Though you would stand by yourselves and say, “God, we thank You that we are not as other men and as other women are,” yet Christ’s message to you is, “You must beborn again.” You, too, need to be washed in the precious blood of Jesus! Therefore, in His name, I preach to you “repentance and remission of sins,” just as I have done to the greatest sinners here. May the ever blessed Spirit come to you and take away your pride and your self righteousness, and bring you down where you must come—just as publicans and harlots must come—to the pierced feet of Him who loves sinners, receives sinners and saves sinners—and who will receive you and save you if you will but trust Him! God grant it for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

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EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

ACTS 2:36-47.

You know that Peter had been preaching a plain, simple, straightforward sermon upon the death, crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who was once such a coward that he trembled before a little maid, now that he is filled with the Spirit, boldly charges this crowd with being murderers and deicides because their kind put to death the Lord of life and glory! If you turn to the 36th verse, you will see the effect of Peter’s plain preaching through the power of the Holy Spirit—

36, 37. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.

A little later in this same book, we read of those who listened to Stephen’s sharp, sword like sentences, “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart”—and soon they stoned Stephen to death! To be “cut to the heart” is not enough! But to be pricked in the heart is to receive a mortal wound! Happy is the man who has had his sin killed through having received a deadly wound from the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God! These people who heard Peter preach “were pricked in their heart” and, first, they were in doubt as to what they should do, but secondly, they were resolved that whatever they were told to do they would do at once.

37, 38. And said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?  Then Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Nobody but a Baptist minister could have preached that sermon! At least we shall have to wait a long while before we hear any other saying to a whole congregation, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you.” This is, indeed, the full proclamation of the gospel—and we have no more right to leave out the baptism than we have to leave out the repentance! “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you.” Peter was not like those hyper Calvinists who are afraid to give an exhortation to a sinner because he is spiritually dead! He spoke out boldly to those who had asked, “What shall we do?” and said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”

39. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 

This is a most blessed verse. The promise is to us and to our descendants—not merely to our children, but also to our grandchildren. Yes, and to our race as far as it yet may run! And the next clause, “and to all that are afar off” proves that the promise is made to the far off ones as well as to our children, with only this limitation, “even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

40. And with many other works did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this perverse generation.

Not, “save yourselves from hell”—that Christ, alone, can do for you, but “save yourselves from this generation” by coming boldly out from among the ungodly, taking upon you the distinctive mark of the Christian and so separating yourselves from those upon whom the sentence of death shall fall.

41-45. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

What a notable instance this was of the power of divine grace! We would not usually suppose that the Jewish race would be given to any excess of making common property—but where grace came in the first flush of its dawn, see to what prodigies of liberality it excited the early believers! Would that we had more of this generous spirit nowadays!

46. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.

I believe that wherever two or three disciples of Christ meet together it is competent for them to celebrate the Lord’s supper. That ordinance is not, as some think it to be, a church ordinance, to be confined to the official assembling of all believers—but wherever two or three are met in Christ’s name, there He is—and where He is, there may the emblems of His broken body and shed blood be partaken of in memory of Him!

47. Praising God, and having favor with all His people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

PLEASE PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.

By the grace of God, for all 63 volumes of C. H. Spurgeon sermons in Modern English, and 574 Spanish translations, visit: www.spurgeongems.org

Coram Deo (May 2017)

Coram Deo: Other religions might say they respect Christ for being a good prophet or moral teacher, but Scripture will not allow us to stop there. Jesus is also truly God and worthy of our worship. To be a servant of Christ is to worship Christ as the incarnate Creator. Let us share the truth of His deity with those who claim to respect our Savior.

The law, in its first use, reveals the character of God, and that’s valuable to any believer at any time. But as the law reveals the character of God, it provides a mirror to reflect to us our unholiness against the ultimate standard of righteousness. In that regard, the law serves as a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. —R.C. Sproul in May's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Christ is our Lord but He is not a master who is unapproachable or who does not understand us. Having taken on our flesh, He is able to sympathize with us and He knows what we need for strength in our weakness. Let us not be afraid to run to Him when we are being tempted or to rest in His strength. He can sustain us in all things no matter how difficult they become.

Coram Deo: Christ came not merely to restore us to what we were before Adam’s fall but to give us something better. As the last Adam, Christ restores what was lost and guarantees that we will never lose it again. He gives us His perfect righteousness and is now conforming us into His image. If we are in Christ, we should be thankful daily for all that Christ has brought back to us as the last Adam.

If I hate someone who is in Christ, I’m not only sinning against that person, I’m sinning against Christ Himself. —R.C. Sproul

Coram Deo: Ultimately, the Israel of God is not an ethnic designation but a spiritual one. God’s covenant people includes all those who put their faith in the true fulfillment of Israel, Jesus our Lord. Together, Jews and Gentiles united to Christ have a common and exalted end. Let us rejoice in our status as the Israel of God and work to break down needless divisions in the body of Christ. God’s people are one Israel in the Savior.

Coram Deo: In his lecture on Isaiah 45, Martin Luther draws another parallel between Jesus and Cyrus: “Just as Cyrus would by his power and his expense set them free, so Christ would redeem us by His Word and grace, without cost.” Luther affirms that there is no cost that we pay for our salvation, for Jesus paid it all. Because God’s deliverance through Christ is perfect, there is no price we pay for eternal life. All we must do is believe in Jesus and we will be saved.

Coram Deo: From His first breath to His last, our Savior was committed to doing what was necessary for our salvation. He resolved always to obey His Father and never failed. Such commitment encourages us to trust Him with all that we have and are. If He is so committed to our salvation, we know that we are safe in His hands no matter what may come our way.

Beauty itself is not necessarily problematic. The problem is that humans are not good at recognizing true beauty when they see it. In a fallen world, even our perception of beauty has been corrupted by sin. This is nowhere more evident than in the magazine racks found at checkout lines of grocery stores. —Albert Mohler in May's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: We are called to obey every command God has given us, but our obedience does not secure our salvation. Only the obedience of Christ can do that. Our obedience is a reflection of whether we are grateful for our Lord’s obeying God perfectly in our place. When we fail to obey, we are not showing gratitude for what Christ has done, so let us seek to obey God so that we may properly express thankfulness to our Savior.

Coram Deo: As we grow in our knowledge of and love for God’s Word, we grow in our ability to recognize the sin in our own hearts and to identify temptation when it confronts us. Growing in God’s Word also shows us God’s glory, convincing us that He is better than anything sin has to offer. If we want to grow stronger against sin, we must grow in our understanding of God’s Word.

Coram Deo: The suffering that Christ endured at the hands of other men was unjust, and yet He endured it. Although there are times when we are called to fight back against unjust suffering, there are times when we are to endure it for the sake of gospel witness. Discerning what we should do in a given situation is difficult, so let us be in constant prayer that God would give us discernment for when and when not to submit to suffering.

Coram Deo: History is filled with false prophets who deceived many people but were ultimately proven not to have a word from God. Christ, however, is the true Prophet whose Word is absolutely trustworthy and whose Word never fails to accomplish His purposes for it. He executes His prophetic ministry today through His inscripturated Word, and if we want to know God’s will for us, we must be committed to studying the Scriptures.

In order to be faithful stewards of what we have received, each of us needs to pass on to others what we have been taught. In other words, every Christian ought to be a teacher. No matter who you are, you can find someone who knows less than you and teach them. That responsibility is inherent in our Lord’s Great Commission: “Make disciples” (Matt. 28:19). —John MacArthur in May's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: We find it difficult to know how to pray for ourselves, but Christ does not have that problem. He prays for us perfectly before His Father such that if we trust in Him, we cannot fail to persevere in faith. Our perseverance ultimately depends on Christ’s faithful prayers for us. If you are discouraged this day, know that if you trust in Jesus Christ, He is praying perfectly for you right at this very moment.

Coram Deo: God’s kingdom is a monarchy ruled over by the perfect King who will not fail to execute justice. Knowing this will sustain us as we face the many injustices this world has to offer. Christ sees them and He will set them all right in the end. He calls us to be ambassadors of His kingdom, to proclaim His reign of justice, warning people that they can enjoy the peace of His kingdom only if they bow the knee to Him today.

When we behold the face of God, all memories of pain and suffering will vanish. Our souls shall be totally healed. —R.C. Sproul

Coram Deo: All people have a sense of guilt for their transgressions no matter how hard they try to suppress it. The only way to lose the weight of guilt is to have it removed through atonement. If you have trusted in Christ alone for salvation, you need not feel guilty before God this day, for He has paid for your sin. If you have not trusted Christ, your guilt will be removed when you rest in Him alone.

We must learn to see the Scriptures not primarily as texts to be interpreted in order to form our doctrinal understanding, however necessary that is, but as words addressed to the Lord’s disciples, words that to hear are to obey, and in the obeying of which comes true understanding and right knowledge. Like our first parents, our problem is not what we know or don’t know, but that we are disobedient. —Robert Ingram in May's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Christ died for all kinds of people; that is what passages telling us that He made propitiation for the world mean (1 John 2:2). But Jesus did not die for everyone without exception. God chose a particular people, including men and women from every tribe and tongue, and Christ died for them specifically to atone only for their sin. If you believe in Jesus, He had you particularly in mind when He made atonement for your sin. He loves you in particular that much.

Seeker-sensitive religion has been a monumental spiritual failure. The quest for worldly esteem leads to spiritual disaster. That itch for the world’s favor causes people to go to shameful extremes in order to avoid saying or doing anything that might cost them esteem in the eyes of unbelievers—even denying what they know to be true. However, Christ’s charge to us as believers is not to avoid the world’s contempt, but to respond rightly to it, as He Himself gave us the perfect example. —John MacArthur in Tabletalk Magazine

Hear the good news afresh today: your identity is centered on God’s disposition toward you, not your disposition toward God. Live freely today in the identity you’ve been given: beloved, called, saint. Who you are changes everything about how you live. —Melissa B. Kruger in May's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: We understandably think readily of the cross when we consider the saving work of Christ because the atonement pays for our transgressions and cleanses us from sin. But Christ’s resurrection is equally important. Without His resurrection, Christ’s death would have been no more significant than the death of any other person. Meditate on the resurrection today and thank God for how it guarantees your salvation.

Coram Deo: The ascension of Christ makes it possible for people all over the world to commune with Him both in His deity and His humanity. The whole Christ is present to us so that we can benefit from His humanity even though His physical body is localized in heaven. Let us fellowship with Him in prayer today, asking God to conform us to the image of His Son.

Coram Deo: Human beings try to ascend to heaven in various ways, always relying on their own merit for entry into eternal life. But there is no other way to God than through Jesus. We cannot enter heaven on our own merit; neither will Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna, or any other figure take us there. If we do not tell other people that Jesus is the only way to God, we are not truly loving them.

The Holy Spirit gives the supreme gift by which a person is united to Christ: the gift of faith. —R.C. Sproul

Coram Deo: When we fall in love, we can hardly keep ourselves from talking about the object of our affections. Jesus is far greater than anything else, so we should have the same zeal to tell others about Him as we are able. If we find ourselves not speaking much of Jesus, it may be that we do not grasp His glory. Reading through the Gospels on a regular basis can help us recapture our knowledge of and affection for our Lord and Savior.

Coram Deo: Pilate’s question “What is truth?” betrays his lack of concern for the facts (John 18:38). Fallen people are willing to bend the truth in order to advance or protect themselves. Christians, however, must not imitate their example. Let us always love the truth and proclaim it even when it is not convenient for us.

If a person becomes persuaded, whether by a secular or a religious fear-mongerer, that “our very civilization is at stake,” then all ordinary restraints and civilities are easily put aside for the sake of the great cause of winning the war and preserving the civilization. Ironically, civility is then sacrificed to civilization. —W. Robert Godfrey in Tabletalk Magazine

As church members, we must integrate our lives with one another, show hospitality, and make sacrifices for one another. We must invite correction for sin in our own lives and be willing to give it to others. Neglecting church discipline undermines evangelism (see 1 Cor. 5:1-2). We must get equipped to share the gospel, share it, and then live lives that bless outsiders. —Jonathan Leeman in May's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: It is easy to think that someone will believe if we can just amass enough evidence or make the best argument. God can and does use these means to bring people to faith, so we should be diligent in apologetics. At the same time, we should always remember to pray that the Spirit will move. People will not believe unless the Spirit gives them faith.

Coram Deo: Do we really believe that no sinner is beyond the grace of God? If we do, then we will pray for our enemies and not turn away from the church anyone who professes faith in Christ and is seeking to live in a way that pleases Him. Our God is mighty to save, and He will redeem anyone He chooses to redeem.

What a privilege it is to belong to this millennia-old covenant family. If the Corinthians could be told that “Paul … Apollos … Cephas … the world … are yours” (1 Cor. 3:22), then we can surely add, “and Abraham … Elijah … Isaiah … Daniel … are also ours,” because we “are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” So, whenever we read the Old and New Testaments, we are looking at our family album. Learning about church history is simply visiting our relatives. —Sinclair Ferguson in May's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Worship is the natural outflow of a true encounter with Jesus. If we are not motivated to worship our Savior, then we may not actually know Him. If we want to worship but feel something is amiss, it may be that we need a fresh encounter with Christ in His Word. Let us meditate on God’s Word that we might be reminded of Christ’s glory and be motivated to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

FULLNESS OF JOY OUR PRIVILEGE

A SERMON (NO. 3406)

PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1914,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“And these things we write unto you, that your joy may be full.” 1 John 1:4.

VERY closely does the apostle John resemble his Lord in the motive that prompted him to write this Epistle! You remember how Christ said in His last discourse to His disciples on the eve of His passion, “These things have I spoken unto you that your joy may be full”—and how He counseled them, “Ask and receive that your joy may be full”—and how He prayed to the Father for them, “that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” Here, then, the beloved disciple, moved by the Spirit of God, reflects and follows out the same gracious purpose—“These things we write unto you, that your joy may be full.” What an evidence of our Savior’s deep attachment to His people that He is not content with having made their ultimate salvation sure, but He is anxious concerning their present state of mind! He delights that His people should not only be safe, but happy! Not merely saved, but rejoicing in their salvation! It does not please your Savior for you to hang your head as the bulrush and go mourning all your days. He would have you rejoice in Him always and for this end He has made provision and to this end He has given us precepts. Therefore it appears—

I. THAT THE CHRISTIAN’S JOY NEEDS LOOKING AFTER.

We should not find the apostle John writing to promote that which, in the natural order of things, would be sure to occur. In this object of pastoral anxiety, he seems to include the whole of the apostolic college with himself when he says, “These things we write unto you that your joy might be full,” as if your joy would not be full unless inspired apostles should be commissioned of God to further it. Your joy then, I say, needs looking after. I do not doubt but you have very suggestive proofs of this, yourselves, in your external circumstances. You cannot always rejoice because, although your treasure is not in this world, your affliction is. Poverty will sometimes be too heavy a cross for you to sing under.

Sickness sometimes casts you upon a bed on which you have not, as yet, learned to rejoice. Losses befall you in business, failures of hope, forsaking of friends and cruelty of foes—and any of these may prove like winter nights which nip the green leaves of your joy and make them fade and fall off your branches.

You cannot always rejoice, but sometimes there is a necessity that you should be in heaviness through manifold temptations. I suppose none of you are so perfectly happy as to be without some trial. Your joy will need to be looked after, then, lest floods should come in and quench it. You will need to cry to Him who alone can keep its flame burning, to trim it with fresh oil.

I suppose, too, that you have moods and susceptibilities which make it no easy matter to maintain perpetual joy. If you have not, I have. Sometimes there will be deep depression of spirit—you can scarcely tell why. That strong wing with which you mounted like an eagle will seem to flap the air in vain. That heart of yours, which once flew upwards like the lark rising from amidst the dew, will lie cold and heavy like a stone upon the earth, and you will find it hard to rejoice.

Besides, sin will stop the beginning of your holy mirth, and when you would dance for joy, like David before the ark, some internal corruption will come to hamper your delight. Ah, beloved, it is not easy to sing while you fight. Christian soldiers ought to do it—they should march to battle with songs of triumph, that their spirits may be nerved to desperate valor against their inbred corruptions, but sometimes the garment rolled in blood and the dust, and the turmoil will stop for a while the looked for shout of victory. With trials many and manifold—trials from the thorns and briars of this fallen world, trials from Satanic suggestions, trials from the uprisings of black fountains of corruption within your own polluted hearts—you have, indeed, need that your joy, to keep it full and flowing at high tide, should be guarded and supplied by an influence above your own—and fed from a celestial spring!

I dare say you have learned by this time, my beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, how exceedingly necessary it is that this joy of ours should be abundant. When full of joy, we are more than a match for the adversary of souls, but when our joy is gone, fear slackens our sinews, and, like Peter, we may be vanquished by a little maid! When our joy in the Lord is at its fullest, we can bear that the fig tree should not blossom, that the herd should be cut off from the stall and the flocks from the field, but how heavy our sorrows are to bear, how impatient we become when the chains that link heaven and earth are disarranged, or the communication in any way intercepted. If we can see the Savior’s face without a cloud between, then temptation has no power over us, and all the glittering shams that sin can offer us are eclipsed in their brilliance by the true gold of spiritual joy which we have in our possession. Oh, what rapture!—

“I would not change my blest estate
For all that earth calls good or great!
And while my faith can keep her hold,
I envy not the sinner’s gold.”

Thus the Christian, by his holy joy, outbraves temptation and is strong to endure a martyrdom of vice. Why, you can do anything when the joy of the Lord is within you! Like a roe or a young hart, you leapt over the mountains of Bether. The mountains cannot appall you—you make a stepping-stone across the brook. The heaviest tempests which lower over you cannot chill nor dampen your courage, for your song pierces it, and your soul mounts above it all into the clear blue of fellowship with your God!

But when this joy is gone, then are we weak, like Samson when his hair was shorn. We become the slaves of temptation and if we do not yield to its treacherous enticements, at any rate, it harasses us, and so enervates the power with which we were known to glorify our God. The Christian’s joy needs looking to. If any of you have lost the joy of the Lord, I pray you do not think it a small loss. I have heard of a minister who said that a Christian lost nothing by sin—and then he added—“except his joy.”

And one replied, “Well, and what else would you have him lose?” That is quite enough! To lose the light of my Father’s countenance. To lose my full assurance of interest in Christ. To lose my heaven below—oh, this is a loss great enough! Let us walk carefully, let us walk prayerfully so that we may realize perpetual joy and peace even to the fullest! Let none of us be content to sit down in misery.

There is such a thing as getting habituated to melancholy. My bias is toward that state of mind, but, by the grace of God, I resist it. If we begin to give way to this foolishness, we shall soon weave forged chains for ourselves which we cannot readily snap. Take your harp from the willows, believers. Do not let your fingers forget the well-known strings. Come, let us praise Him. If we have looked black in the face for a while, let us brighten up with the thoughts of Christ! At any rate, let us not be easy till we have shaken off this lethargic distemper and once again come into the normal state of health in which a child of God should be found—that of spiritual joy!

II. THE CHRISTIAN’S JOY LIES MAINLY IN THINGS REVEALED, otherwise it would not find its fitting sustenance in inspired words.

If the Christian’s joy lay in the wine vat and in the barn, in the landed estate, or the hoarded purse, it would only be necessary that the vineyard should yield plenteous clusters, that the harvest should be crowned with abundance, that peace should prevail and trade should prosper—and forthwith the heritor and the merchant have all that heart could wish. But the Christian’s joy is not touched by these vulgar things. These commonplace satisfactions do not suit the noble mind of the believer! He thanks God for all the bounties of the basket and the barn, but he cannot feast his soul upon stocks or fruits that perish with the using. He needs something better! The apostle John seems to tell us this when he says, “And these things write I unto  you”—nothing about prosperity in this world, but all about fellowship with Christ—“And these things we write unto you, that your joy may be full.” From which I infer that everything which is revealed to us in Scripture has for its intention the filling up of the Christian’s joy.

What is Scripture all about, then? Is it not, first and foremost, concerning Jesus Christ? Take this book and distil it into one word, and I will tell you what it is—it is JESUS! All this is but the body of Christ. I may look upon all these pages as the swaddling-bands of the infant Savior, and if you unroll Scripture, you come to Jesus Christ, Himself. Now, beloved, is not Jesus Christ the sum and summit of your joy? I hope we do not utter a falsehood when we sing, as it is our custom—

“Jesus the very thought of Thee,
With rapture fills my breast,
Tho’ sweeter far Your face to see,
And in Your bosom rest.”

Jesus—man yet God—allied to us in ties of blood. Why, here is mirth! Here is Christmas all the year round! In the nativity of the Savior there is joy for us—the babe born in Bethlehem—God has taken man into communion with Himself! Jesus the Savior—here is release from the groans of sin! Here is an end to the means of despair! He comes to break the bars of brass and to cut the gates of iron in sunder—

“Jesus, the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease!
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis life, ‘tis health, ‘tis peace!”

Scripture, surely, has well taken its cue! Would it make us joyful, it has done well to make Christ its head and front.

All the doctrines of the Bible have a tendency, when properly understood and received, to foster the Christian’s joy. Let us mention one or two of them. There is that ancient, much-abused, but most delightful doctrine of election, that “all worlds before,” Jesus elected His people and looked with eyes of infinite love upon them as He saw them in the glass of futurity. What? Christian, can you believe yourself “loved with an everlasting love,” and not rejoice? Was it not the doctrine of election that made David dance before the ark? When Michel sneered at him for dancing, he said, “It was before the Lord who had chosen me before your father (Saul), and all his house.”

Surely to be chosen of God, to be selected from the mass of mankind and made favorites of the heart of Deity—this ought to make us, in our worst moments, sing with joy of heart! Oh, that doctrine of election! I wish some of you would acquaint yourselves with it in the Psalmody of the Church, rather than in the wrangling of the schools! It is a tree that puts forth its luxuriance in the tropical climate of divine love—but it looks dwarfed and barren in the arctic regions of human logic! Then there are the doctrines which like living waters, drop from this sacred and hidden fountain. Take, for instance, that of redemption. To be bought with a price—a price whose efficacy is not questionable—bought so that we are now the property of Jesus, never to be lost! Bought not with that general redemption which holds to the sinner’s eye a precarious contingency, but bought with an effectual ransom which saves every blood-bought sinner because he was redeemed—his own proper self, of God’s own good will! Oh, here is occasion for song!—

“Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God—
He to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.”

Can you see the blood-mark on yourself, and not rejoice? Oh, Christian, surely your joy ought to be full!

Or turn to the doctrine of justification and consider how, through faith, every believer is “accepted in the beloved,” and stands, wrapped in Jesus’ righteousness, as fair in God’s sight as if he had never sinned.

Why, here is a theme for joy! Know and acknowledge your union with Christ—

“One with Jesus,
By eternal union one!”

Members of His body, “of His flesh, and of His bones,” and what?—not a song after this? How sweet the music ought to be where this is the theme! Then, too, to mention no more, there is one doctrine which is like a handful of pearls—that of eternal preservation unto glory which is to be revealed at the appearing of Jesus Christ. You are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” You shall be with Him where He is. You shall behold His glory. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Oh, can you put on this robe of splendor and go up to the throne where Christ has already made you sit representatively in His own person, and can you not begin, tonight, your song which shall never end?

Truly we have but to mention a truth of God and you can think it over for yourselves—every doctrine of revelation is to the Christian a source of joy!

Well, and every part of Christian experience is to further our joy. “Why,” says one, “all a Christian’s experience is not joyful.” I grant you that, but remember that all a Christian’s experience is not Christian experience! Christians experience a great deal which they do not experience as Christians—but experience it because they are not such Christians as they ought to be! I believe that much of that groaning which some people think such a deal of, is rather of the devil than of the Spirit of God.

Certainly that unbelief which some people seem to look upon as such a precious flower, is rank herbage, never sown in us by the hand of God the Holy Spirit! Beloved, there is a mourning which comes from the Spirit of God that is a joyful mourning, if I may use such a strange expression. Sorrow for sin is sweet sorrow. I would never wish to miss it. I think Rowland Hill was right when he said that it would be his only regret in going to heaven that he could not repent any more. Oh, repentance, true evangelical repentance, is not that half-bitter thing which comes from the law! It is a sweet genial thing. I do not know, beloved, when I am more perfectly happy than when I am weeping for sin at the foot of the cross!

I find that to be one of the safest and best places where I can stand. I have sometimes thought that the raptures of communion I have known are not altogether so deep—though they may be higher—not, I say, so deep as the pensive joy of weeping over pardoned sin, when—

“Dissolved by His goodness, I fall to the ground
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found!”

Yes, sorrow for sin is a part of the Christian’s experience which helps to fill his joy. And though your cares and anxieties, dear friends, with regard to the things of this world may be very distressing, yet remember, in every drop of gall which your Father gives you to drink, there is, if you can find it, a whole sea of sweetness! God sends you trials to wean you from the world—a happy result, however grievous the process! Oh, that I might never desire to suck of the breasts of her consolation anymore!

Oh, to come to Christ, and find my all in Him! Believe me, beloved, our joy ends where the love of the world begins. If we had no idols on earth—if we made neither our children, nor our friends, nor our wealth, nor ourselves our idols—we should not have half the trials that we have. Foolish loves make rods for foolish backs. God save us from these, and when He does, though the means may seem severe, they are intended to promote our joys by destroying the eggs of our sorrows. But there is much of a Christian’s experience that is all joy, and must be all joy. For instance, to have faith in Christ, to rest in Him—is not that joy? To sing from one’s heart—

“I know that safe with Him remains,
Protected by His power,
What I’ve committed to His hands,
Till the decisive hour.”

Is not that joy? And even that humbler note—

“Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Your cross I cling,”

has the germ of heaven in it! Truly, there can be no more delightful place for the soul to stand than close to the cross, covered with the crimson drops of blood and clasping Christ Himself! And then hope is another part of the Christian’s experience. What a fountain of joy it is! We are saved by hope. Sweetly does the Psalmist express himself, “My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in Your Word.” To the followers of Christ there is a full assurance of hope—“which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil.” Above all things, Christian fellowship is the chief auxiliary of Christian joy. Read the verse that immediately precedes our text, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” Ah, now we hit the mark!

This is the center of the target. Fellowship with Christ is the summum bonum—it fills up the measure of joy! All other graces and gifts may help to fill our cup of blessedness but fellowship with saints in their fellowship with the Father and the Son—surely this, of itself, must suffice to fill our vessels to the very brim! Fullness of joy! Did you ever prove it, my beloved? I think some of you have. No, I know you have! You could not have contained more joy—you were full to overflowing! Do you know that a little joy is healthful? Be it relief from anxiety, pleasure after pain, or even a cheerful thought in breasts to sorrow prone. But to have a fullness of joy, joy that pulsates through our every nerve and paints the entire universe of God’s goodness before our eyes in a meridian glow, this is a myriad of blessings in one! If I held in my hand a glass, and poured water into it till it were full, right to the very brim, till it seemed as if the least touch would make it run over—well, that is how the Christian sometimes is.

“Why,” he says, “I could not feel happier! If anyone should make me rich, if I could have all that the worldling craves, I could not be any happier! I am rich to all the intents of bliss since You, God, are mine.” It is not every man that can go home and say, “There is nothing on earth I want, and there is nothing in heaven that I yearn after beyond the endowments my God has already bestowed on me!

“Whom have I in heaven but You, and who is there upon earth I desire beside You?” Go, you that pine for joy, and traverse the wide earth round in fruitless search—my soul sits down at the foot of the cross and says, “I have found it here!” Go, like the swallow. Fly across the purple seas to find another summer now that this is over—my soul would stop just where she is—living at the foot of the cross, my sun is in its solstice, and stands still forever—never stirring, never moving—without parallax or shadow of a tropic! Evermore the same—bright and full and glorious! Oh, Christian, this is a blessed experience!

May you know it all your life!

Never doubt, my dear friends, that every precept in the Word of God is intended to further the Christian’s happiness. When I read the ten commandments, I understand them to be just and salutary directions not to do myself any harm. The spirit of the law seems to be benevolent in its warnings. If I were commanded not to put my finger into the fire, and did not know that fire would burn, I ought to be thankful for the prohibition. If I were commanded not to plunge into the sea, not having known before that the sea would drown me, I should be thankful for the interdict. God’s precepts are designed to enlighten our eyes and preserve our feet from falling. They forbid what is dangerous, hurtful. God never denies His servants anything that is really for their good. His laws are freed-men’s rules—they are never fetters to the Christian. And as for the precepts of our blessed Christianity, they, every one of them, promote our happiness! Let me take one or two of them. “Love one another.” That is the first. Well, now, when are you happiest? When you feel spiteful and bitter towards everybody else, or when you feel charity towards the faulty, and love towards your fellow servants? I know when I feel best. There are some people who seem to have been suckled upon vinegar—wherever they go, they always see some defect. Were there to be men on earth again such as Chrysostom and others of his day, who have been portrayed in history, or like the Nazarites of Jeremiah’s plaintive hymn, “Purer than snow and whiter than milk,” they would say, “Ah, well, though their reputation is unsullied, we do not know what they do in secret!—we cannot scan their motives!” Some people are always in a cynical, suspicious humor, but they who “love one another” can see much to rejoice in everywhere. We are told in Scripture to “serve the Lord with diligence,” and I am sure it is “the diligent soul” that is made fat. The do-nothing people are generally those who say—

“Lord, what a wretched land is this,
That yields us no supplies.”

It ought to be a wretched land to lazy people! Those that will not work, neither shall they eat, neither in spiritual things or in temporal shall they be fed. If, in the winter, you complain of cold, get to the plow and you will soon be full of warmth! Sit you down, groan, and complain, and blow on your blue fingers and you shall soon find the cold will starve you yet more and more. Holy activity is the mother of holy joy! And growth in grace, again—why, when is a man happier than when He grows in grace? To be at a standstill, to contract one’s self—why, this is misery! To force one’s understanding, like a Chinese foot into a Chinese shoe, is torture! But to have a mind that is capable of learning, to be able to sometimes say, “There, I was wrong”—to be able to feel that you know a little more today than you did yesterday because God, the Holy Spirit has been teaching you, why, this is joy! This is happiness! This is such as God would have us know!

All the writings of Scripture, whether they are doctrinal, experimental, or practical, have the drift which John indicates in these words, “That your joy may be full!” Having thus shown that the Christian’s joy needs looking after and that it is mainly fed upon things revealed in Scripture, the inference clearly must be that—

III. WE SHOULD CONSTANTLY READ THE SCRIPTURES.

Read the Scriptures in preference to any other book. What a deal of reading there is now-a-days! But how large a proportion of what you call, “popular literature,” is mere chaff-cutting—nothing more!

Why, I am really ashamed to state the fact that I am bound, as a Christian minister, to denounce. You cannot publish a religious newspaper, or a religious magazine, as a rule, to make it pay, without a religious novel in it—and these religious novels are a disgrace to the Christianity of the 19th century!

People’s minds must be in an odd state when they can eat nothing but these whipped-creams and syllabubs—for people who would be healthy, should sit down to something solid, and their stimulants should be consistent with sobriety. You will never attain the mental growth of men and women by feeding on such stuff as that! You may make lackadaisical people in the shape of men and women, but the thinking soul with something in it, the woman who would serve her God as a true helper to the Christian ministry, the young man who would proclaim Christ and win souls need some better nutriment than the poor stuff that modern literature deals out so plentifully. Oh, my dear friends, read the Bible in preference to all such books! They only deprave your taste. If you want these books, have them. We would not deny pigs their proper food and I would not deny any person living that which his taste goes after, provided it does not shock decent morals. I lament the taste rather than the indulgence of it! If you have a soul that can appreciate the pleasures of wisdom, eschew the trifles of folly. And if you have been taught to love verities, and substantial truths, you scarcely need that I should say, “Search the Scriptures.” Search them diligently and frequently!

Prefer the Scriptures to all religious books. In our books and our sermons—we will say it of all of them—we do our best to give you the truth of God, but we are like the gold-beaters whose brazen arms you can see out over their doors—we get a little bit of gold and we hammer it out. Some of my brothers are mighty hands at the craft. They can hammer out a very small piece of gold so as to cover a whole acre of talk. But the best of us, those who would seek to bring out the doctrines of grace in love, are poor, poor things. Read the Bible for yourselves more, and confide less in your glossaries. I would rather see the whole stock of my sermons in a blaze, all burned to ashes, than that they should keep anybody from reading the Bible. If they may act as a finger pointing to certain chapters—“Read this! Read this!”—I am thankful to have printed them. But if they keep you away from your Bibles—burn them!

Burn them! Do not let them lie on the top of the Scriptures—put them somewhere at the bottom, for that is their proper place. So with all sorts of religious books—they are a sort of mixture—their human thinking dilutes divine revelation. Keep to the revelation of God, pure and simple.

And, when you read your Bible, read it in earnest. There are several ways of reading the Bible.

There is a skimming over the surface of it—content with the letter. There is also diving into it and praying yourselves down deep into the soul of it—that is the way to read the Bible! Do not always read it one verse at a time. How would Milton’s Paradise Lost be understood if read by little snatches selected at random? You would never scan the purpose or design of the poem. Read one book through.

Read John’s gospel. Do not read a bit of John and then a bit of Mark, but read John through, and get at John’s drift. Remember that Matthew, though he wrote of the same Savior as Luke, is not more various in his style than he is distinct in his aim and, in a certain sense, independent of the testimony he bears.

The four evangelists are four separate witnesses, each giving a special contribution to the doctrine as well as the history of Christ. Matthew, for instance, shows you Jesus as a King. You will notice that most of his parables begin with “a king.” “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened.” Mark shows you Christ as the servant. Luke shows you Christ as man, giving sketches of His childhood. And His parables begin with, “A certain man,” while John teaches you Christ in His Godhead, with a starting point far different from the other three, which have been styled the synoptical gospels. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Try, if you can, to get a hold of what the books mean, and pray God the Holy Spirit to lead you into the drift and aim of the sacred writers in so writing. I would like to see my Church members, all of them, good, hard, solid Bible students. Beloved, I would not be afraid of all the errors of Popery, infidelity, Socinianism, Plymouth Brethrenism, or any other “ism” if you were to read your Bibles! You will thus keep clear of the whole lot. There is no doubt about your standing firm to the good old faith which we seek to teach you, if you do but keep to Scripture—the book, the one book, the book of books, the Bible! That studied, not hurriedly, but with a determination to compare spiritual things with spiritual, and to observe the analogy of faith, you shall find a well-spring of delight and holy joy which men of letters who dabble in the proudest classics might envy, for Isaiah is better than Homer, and David is richer than Horace. But better still, you shall stand while others fall!

IV. BUT ARE WE ALL BELIEVERS? IS THIS BOOK JOY TO ALL OF US?

That is a significant pronoun in the text, “These things we write unto you that your joy may be full.”

To whom writes he? Is it to you? Young woman, does the Scripture write to you that your joy may be full? Young man, does the Scripture speak to you to fill you with holy joy? You do not know whether it does or not—you do not care about it. Then, it does not speak to you. You get plenty of joy elsewhere.

Well, it does not speak to you. It does not intrude upon you. It leaves you alone. It offers you no joy.

You have enough. “The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.”

But there are some of you here who need a joy, and you have not found it. You are uneasy. You cannot find a tree to build your nest. You are like the needle, when it is turned away from its pole—you cannot be quiet. You have got a horseleech in you, that is always crying, “Give! Give!” You are uneasy.

Oh, dear friend, I am glad to hear it! May that uneasiness go on increasing. May you become weary of heart, and heavy-laden of spirit, for I have a whisper for you. Jesus Christ has come into the world to call to Himself all those who labor and are heavy-laden! And when you are sick and weary with the world, come to Him, come to Him! What? You have been turned out, have you? The world has got all it could out of you and thrust you away? Now, Jesus Christ will have you. Come to Him! Come to Him!

He will receive you. So you are burnt out, are you? All the goodness that was in you is burned up and you have now become nothing but smoking flax—a stench in the estimation of your once flattering companions? You are nowhere. They do not like you. You are mopish and miserable. Oh come to Him!

Come to Him, come to Him! He will not quench you. Your music is all over, is it? You were like a reed, like one of Pan’s pipes. You could give out some music, once, but you got bruised and you cannot make one sound or note of joy. Well, poor soul, come to Him! Come to Him! He will not break you. He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax—

“Weary souls that wander wide
From the central source of bliss,
Turn to Jesus’ wounded side
Look to that dear blood of His.”

Here is peace, here is joy in Christ Jesus! Oh, if you are sick of the world, come to my Master! May God the Holy Spirit bless this sickness and make you come because you have nowhere else to go! Jesus Christ will receive the devil’s castaways. The very sweepings of pleasure, the dregs of the intoxicating cup, those who have gone so far that now their friends reject them, Jesus Christ accepts! May He accept me, and accept you—and then in Him our joy shall be full! Amen.

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EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

PSALM 66:1-15.

Verse 1. Make a joyful noise unto God, all you lands. Let not Israel alone do it. Take up the strain, you nations. He is the God of all the nations of the earth. “Make a joyful noise unto God, all you lands.”

2-4. Sing forth the honor of His name: make His praise glorious. Say unto God, How terrible are You in Your works! Through the greatness of Your power shall Your enemies submit themselves unto You. All the earth shall worship You and shall sing unto You. They shall sing to Your name. Selah. I still must always cling to the belief that this whole world is to be converted to God, and to lie captive at the feet of Christ in glorious liberty! Do not fall into that lethargic, apathetic belief of some that this is never to be accomplished—that the battle is not to be fought out on the present lines, but that there is to be a defeat—and then Christ is to come. No, foot to foot with the old enemy will He stand, till He has worsted him and until the nations of the earth shall worship and bow before Him!

5, 6. Come and see the works of God: He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in Him. Where God is most terrible to His enemies, He is most gracious to His friends! As Pharaoh and his hosts went down beneath the terrible hand of God, the children of Israel lifted up their loudest hallelujahs and sang unto the Lord, who triumphed gloriously! And so shall it be to the end of the chapter. God will lay bare His terrible arm against His adversaries but His children shall, meanwhile, make music! “There did we rejoice in Him.”

7-9. He rules by His power forever: His eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. O bless our God, you people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard. Who holds our soul in life and allows not our feet to be moved. Loudest among the singers should God’s people be! If others can restrain their praise, yet let the love of Christ so compel us that we must give it a tongue and tell forth the majesty of our God! It is He alone who keeps us from Hell—which holds our soul in life! It is He alone who keeps us from falling foully. Yes, and falling finally, “and allows not our feet to be moved.”

10. For You, O God, have proved us. All God’s people can say this. It is the heritage of the elect of God. “You have proved us.”

10-11. You have tried us, as silver is tried. You brought us into the net. Entangled, surrounded, captive, held fast. Many of God’s people are in this condition.

11. You laid affliction upon our loins. It was no affliction of hand or foot, but it laid upon our loins—a heavy, crushing burden.

12. You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water. It was the full ordeal. One was not enough. Fire destroys some, but water is the test for others—but God’s people must be tried both ways. “We went through fire and through water, but”—. Blessed “but.”

12. But You brought us out into a wealthy place. Out of the fire and out of the water they came because God brought them! And when He brought them, it was not to a stinted, barren heritage, but into a wealthy place. Oh, beloved, when we think of where the covenant of grace has placed every believer, it is a wealthy place, indeed!

13-15. I will go into Your house with burnt offerings: I will pay You my vows which my lips have uttered, and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. I will offer unto You burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams. I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah. The best, I think. “The best of the best will I bring You, O my God. I will bring You my heart. I will bring You my tongue. I will bring you my entire being!

PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST!

By the grace of God, for all 63 volumes of C. H. Spurgeon sermons in Modern English, and 574 Spanish translations, all free, visit: www.spurgeongems.org