A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, June 16, 1878, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you. [Isa 30:19]
1. The great sin of man is his alienation from God. He has said in his heart, “No God,” and in his life he labours to escape from the divine presence. The journey into the far country is not only made for the sake of the riotous living, but that he may get away from the Father’s house. One would have thought man would turn to the Lord in the day of trouble, even as Hosea said, “In their affliction they will seek me early.” But this, alas, is not in truth and sincerity, for too often the sinner follows the example of Ahaz, of whom it is written, “In the time of his distress he trespassed even more against the Lord: this is that King Ahaz.” All the trials and troubles in the world will not by themselves drive a man to God, but will rather hurry him into rebellion, despair, and hardness of heart. Man will look in all directions sooner than look to God. He will sooner, like Saul, seek the help of a witch or a demon than seek the living God. He will rather make a league with death and a covenant with hell than turn his heart towards his best Friend and Helper. It is written, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help; and rely on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!” The warning is vain, for man still leans upon an arm of flesh, and considers it a foolish and fanciful thing to rely upon the almighty God.
2. Man changes his basis for trust very often, and now depends on this, then on that, and in due course upon a score of equally unreliable confidences. Very early he is deceived, the staff of the broken reed upon which he attempted to lean pierces his hand. He smarts and bleeds; repents of his folly in one direction, and repeats it in another. He cries in the pride and stoutness of his heart, “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will replace them into cedars.” Though again and again deceived by his false confidences, he returns to them like the dog to his vomit. He chooses his own delusions and attempts again to build upon that sandy foundation which the tide has already shifted so many times. Nor is it only when he is deceived that he persists in his folly, for he continues in it when he knows that he has paid heavily for his foolishness, and has been impoverished by spending his money for what is not bread. Egypt has drained his treasure, and has yielded him no assistance, and yet he sends more treasure to the same market only to be again ashamed of a people who could not profit him. He exercises painful thought, he expends his mental force, he schemes, he frets, he worries himself, to find in his carnal confidences some little consolation; and so he wastes his life, and dries up the very marrow of his bones in seeking for what in the creature might so readily be found in the Creator. He rises up early, he sits up late, and he eats the bread of carefulness: but he will not turn to the Lord, who alone gives his beloved sleep. Even when impoverished and worn out with unbelief, man will not look to the Lord; even then he dotes upon some new thing which promises him assistance. He seems anxious to be duped and willing to be deluded. If at last all carnal trust is excluded, by sheer failure of every hope, he will lie down and die sooner than seek the Lord. He suffers, ah, how cruelly, from the vain joys in which he trusted, yet he would still pursue them if he could. He faints, he pines, he is ready to die, for he cannot fill his belly with the husks the swine eat but yet he will not, until almighty grace constrains him, turn his face towards the house where there is bread enough and to spare. He will sooner perish with hunger than confess his sin against heaven and begin to live by faith in God. This is the fruit of the fall, the black evidence of our depravity, the fruitful mother of destruction — “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” We of necessity must have something to rely on which we can see with our eyes and touch with our hands, but we cannot trust the invisible Jehovah, and yet he alone is the living and true God. Oh that we were wise, that we would understand this, and say within our hearts, “Come, and let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck, and he will bind us up.”
3. Now all this time, while man is struggling to get away from God, the Lord is willing enough to receive him, to forgive him, to bless him, and to enrich him with every joy. Nor is he merely willing but he is able, fully able to assist the troubled heart in every difficulty and to comfort under every distress. Therefore the Lord waits that he may be gracious, and he is exalted that he may show mercy. If the unwillingness were on God’s part also we might very readily understand and in a measure justify the unwillingness of man to turn to God, but when the Lord asks man to return, invites him, reasons with him, entreats him, and makes every preparation for his reception, why is it that man refuses? His Lord has given rich promises for every help that he can need, and it is inexcusable ingratitude and wicked obstinacy on the part of man that he still persists in keeping aloof from his Creator. He chooses to perish for ever sooner than trust his God. Is this not the case of some who hear my words?
4. I desire at this time to present the graciousness of God and his readiness to listen to the cry of the needy, with the hope that some here present who may have forgotten this, to whom it may be a time of need, may hear it and be encouraged to say, “I will arise and go to my Father.” It is joy to me to hope that it will be so, but I remember with sadness that if I should be helped to present this clearly, and if any of you who are in trouble should afterwards refuse to trust in the Lord, your alienation will be aggravated, your sin will become still more crying. He who will not trust when he knows that the Lord will be gracious to him sins against his own soul and plunges himself into sevenfold wrath. If the Lord says that he will be very gracious at the sound of your cry, what must be your doom if you will not cry?
5. I. In trying to present the overflowing grace of the Lord our God, I shall first of all speak upon the fact that THIS ASSURANCE IS PARTICULARLY SUITABLE FOR CERTAIN CHARACTERS. “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.”
6. This is applicable and comforting for all afflicted people. To such I speak. You are depressed at this time by heavy grief. Things have gone amiss with you: you do not prosper in business, or you are sickening in body, or a dear one lies at home pining away. We do not wonder that you feel extremely burdened in spirit. At the same time you are ill at ease concerning your own state, the iron is entering into your soul. While passing through this thick darkness you will be strongly tempted to think harshly of God and to blame him for the troubles which surround you now; yet this will only make matters worse and increase your sin and your sorrow. Perhaps also you will be ready to despair and say, “There is no hope, I am taken as in a net, and there is no escape for me”: though if you knew everything you would chase away despair as your greatest enemy. Possibly you will be ready to try some wrong method by way of helping yourself out of present straits. Satan will suggest to you dishonest, impure, or reckless courses which hold out some shadow of relief. This is your danger at this time, and in pity for you the Lord asks us to assure you that there is a far wiser course open to you, namely, to turn to him, for he will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry, and when he hears it he will answer you. There is help in God for your present trial, whatever form it assumes. Infinite wisdom understands it, and infinite power can help you through it. God can remove from you what you are suffering, or he can prevent the occurrence of what you dread; or if in his divine wisdom he shall see fit to lay the rod upon you, he can enable you to bear it, and make it to turn to your everlasting good. Be well assured that he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men out of any delight in their sorrows. He pities those who are afflicted, for he is very tender and full of compassion, and always swift to help the suffering. There is a necessity for the heavy trial which now bows you down; depend upon that, and do not repine. The Lord is not now visiting you in wrath, there is kindness in his severity. Can you not believe this? It is really so, and your strength, your comfort, your ultimate deliverance out of it all, will come through your knowing this to be true, and acting accordingly. By yielding yourself to God, and trusting him in your evil plight, you will obtain deliverance. “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.’ ”
7. In so large a congregation there must be some with broken hearts on account of their temporal trials. I am persuaded that I am speaking to some of the sons and daughters of woe. Go, you sorrowing ones. Turn to the hand that strikes you. Kiss the rod and him who has appointed it, and let your confidence henceforth be in the Lord, for he is God, and besides him there is no one else. Say, “From this time, my Father, I will seek you, and you shall be my guide. Through Jesus Christ your Son I will approach you, trusting in his precious blood: help me and deliver me.” You shall find him ready to pardon and rescue, and you shall live to sing of him whose “mercy endures for ever.” Let me whisper in your ear the sweet assurance of the text — “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.”
8. A second class of people to whom the text will be very applicable consists of those who are troubled on account of sin, — sinners who are beginning to feel the iniquity of their sins surrounding them. You are at this time overthrown with a sense of guilt and with the fear of punishment. You cannot be smarting under severer blows than the law of God can give when it begins to strike the conscience and the heart. Now, in order to escape from sin and punishment, the very first thing with you is to come back to your God whom you have offended, since only he can pardon you. There must be a turning of the face in repentance, and a looking of the eye by faith to God in Christ Jesus, or you will die in your sins. The natural tendency of your heart even when under a sense of sin will be to stay away from the Lord. Alas, you will look at your sin again and again and again, until you are ready to pine away in despair, but you will not look to Christ Jesus and be saved. A terrible sound is in your ears as of an approaching judgment, and you listen both to it and to the howlings of the dog of hell, but you refuse to hear the loving voice of compassion which tells of pardon bought with blood, freely given to all who trust their Saviour God. Possibly you may conclude that there is no hope for you in better things, and that therefore you had better enjoy such pleasures as may be found in sin, and take your fill while you may. Now, do not believe this lie of Satan. There is hope: you are still in the land of mercy. Poor guilty sinner, you are at the place where pardons are commonly given, where God is gracious to all those who seek him. You have not yet come to the judgment seat, and to the voice of a trumpet growing extremely loud and long. Calvary is before you with dying love, not Sinai with consuming fire. Today is the day of salvation; the hour of vengeance is not yet. God does not will your death, nor takes delight in your perdition, but desires that you turn to him and live, for he delights in mercy. A joyful reception awaits you if you return to your Father’s house: he will not upbraid you for your wanderings, but he will take off your rags and put on the best robe of Christ’s righteousness: he will fill the house with music concerning you, and he himself will rejoice over you. You need to do nothing to make the Lord propitious, he is love already; you need not undergo penance, nor pass through grievous anguish of spirit, in order to render God more merciful, for his grace abounds. In Christ Jesus the stream of divine love flows freely, swiftly, richly, even to the worst of men. Only return to God against whom you have transgressed, acknowledge your transgression, and put your trust in him through Jesus Christ his Son, and “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.”
9. Equally sweet will the assurance of our text be to backsliders filled with their own ways, who are alarmed and distressed at their grievous departures from their God. It is true, my dear friend, that you have very greatly transgressed in becoming a backslider: you have sinned against much light, and against much love, and this makes sin extremely sinful. What peaceful hours you once enjoyed when you had communion with your Saviour and your God! You have sinned against those sweet enjoyments, and against the condescending endearments of eternal love. You have done despite to the Spirit of God, and crucified the Son of God afresh. You were taught by the Lord in the deep things of his word, and the secret of his covenant was opened up to you; you had a practical acquaintance with the divine life, and you entered into the joys of sacred fellowship; and yet you have turned aside from the way of the Lord, and been unfaithful to all your vows. You have left the cold flowing waters which come from the Rock of Ages to drink from the muddy pools of earth; you have turned away from the living God to live upon the beggarly elements of the world; you have bowed down before the golden calf, or some other image of jealousy; you have gone far astray from the Most High, defiled the chastity of your soul, and extremely provoked the Lord. Moreover, you may well be grieved, for you have done much dishonour to the name of God among the ungodly: you have pierced his saints with many sorrows; and you have made his ministers to go as with broken bones. You and such as you are our shame and our anguish. If you were cast off for ever as a traitor and left to die as a son of perdition what could be said except that you were reaping the fruit of your own ways? Yet the text rings in your ears at this time like a clear silver bell, and its one note is grace — “he will be very gracious to you.” “ ‘Turn, oh backsliding children, for I am married to you,’ says the Lord.” Return; return! It is your bridegroom’s voice that calls you. With what sweeter notes would you be wooed? “Oh Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have fallen by your iniquity.” Oh beloved friend, hear the exhortation and let your heart say, “I will return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now.” He has not shut up the heart of his compassion, but he cries in the greatness of his love, “Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will not keep anger for ever.’ ” He has chastened you severely, but he has not given you over to death; he hears your groaning at this time, and his soul pities you. Behold, he cries, “How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you, Israel? How shall I make you as Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man.” Listen to me, oh wanderer: let a brother softly whisper it in your ear, and may the Holy Spirit speak it to your heart, — “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.”
10. We are sure that a fourth class of people will be very glad of the text, namely, all believers in Christ who are at all exercised in heart; and we are all in that condition at times. We do not always dwell upon the mount of transfiguration nor sit at the festival of love in rapturous fellowship, but at times we are thrust into the furnace of soul-trouble, and our faces become black as a coal through grief of heart. We find it hard even to retain a spark of faith; we even question whether we are the Lord’s, though we resolve to battle on in his name, come what may. Even when by full assurance we can read our title clear we are apt to look forward, and there comes over us the fear that we shall still fall by the hand of the enemy. If trials multiply, how will faith be able to stand? When the days of weakness arrive, what shall we do in our old age? Behind everything stands the skeleton form of death: what shall we do in the swellings of Jordan? We remember how we ran with the footmen in our former trials, and they wearied us, and we ask ourselves, “How shall we contend with horsemen?” When eternity is close in view, and when within a few hours we shall be made to confront the judgment seat, shall we bear it? Will our religion then prove to be a reality, or will our hope dissolve like a dream? Such questions torment our souls. Now, brothers and sisters, it will not do to try and answer these questions by taking counsel with the flesh. If you consult your own strength, it is clear that you cannot win the life battle. What is your strength except perfect weakness? If you look at your own wisdom, it is evident that you cannot guide your own way across the pathless desert of life. What is your wisdom except the essence of folly? Come back, then, in childlike confidence to God, and go no more from him. Come to the very place where your spiritual life began and find strength, wisdom, rest, and all in the living God. Let this verse smile on you and beckon you to God, “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.” No trial shall happen to you except such as is common to man, and when the temptation comes the way of escape shall come with it. The burden shall always find your back strengthened to bear it, or else if your back is weak the burden shall not be laid upon you. Your entire future, though unknown to yourself, is spread out like a map before the eye of your great leader and guide. Follow where Jesus leads you, and know that he cannot forsake you; he will make you to lie down in green pastures, and his goodness and his mercy will follow you all your days. Be careful for nothing, be prayerful for everything. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass; and he shall bring out your judgment as the light and your righteousness as the noonday. Go to his mercy seat in every time of trial, for he will be very gracious to you. Pour out your heart before him and you shall have an answer of peace from the God of your salvation.
11. Now, I think those four cases include the majority of us, and, therefore, I would pray the Holy Spirit to speak the words of the text to everyone present here. May we feel them dropping into our hearts like a soft saturating rain — “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.”
12. II. Now we will make a second observation, and dwell upon it for a while: it is this — THE ASSURANCE HERE GIVEN IS VERY FIRMLY BASED. The words of our text are no old wives’ tale, they are not such a pretty fable as mothers sometimes tell their children, a story made to please them, but not actually true. Our text is not fiction, it is a faithful saying from the mouth of God. “He will be very gracious to you.” What, then, is the basis of this assurance?
13. And first I would say, the basis of our comfort is found in the plain promise of God as given in the text, and in many similar declarations which are scattered all over the Scriptures. I have repeated this text a great many times in my sermon, because it is far better than anything which can be spoken by man. Let me read it again. You want to know why we should turn to God and trust him; it is because thus says the Lord who can neither lie nor change: “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.” This is a portion of his infallible word, is it not? It is true, then: you have no doubt about its being so. Come, then, with your Bible open, put your finger upon the words and say, “I believe that God is declaring here his readiness to be very gracious to me and to hear my prayer.” Now, what more do you want? Does a child need any better assurance than his father’s word? Does a true disciple ask any stronger evidence than his Master’s promise? “It is written,” is that not enough for you? Go on your knees and plead this word at once. If your friend had said, “I will grant your request,” would you not believe him? Do not doubt, then, your God, your Father. He has never given you a reason to doubt his word. Are not all his promises faithful? Come, then, the assurance is well-grounded. If there were only this one promise, it ought to be enough, but see how many there are! The gracious promises of God’s word are as many as the stars which bedeck the midnight sky. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” “My grace is sufficient for you.” “Do not fear, I will help you.” “He who believes shall not be confounded.” “Trust in the Lord and do good, so you shall dwell in the land, and truly you shall be fed.” I need not quote them, for you know them well, and their number is very great, but they are all made to those having faith, and none of them to those who have unbelief. Have faith in them and believe your God, and his words shall be fulfilled in your happy experience.
14. A second basis upon which
this assurance is built is the gracious nature of God.
The text intimates this. “He will be very gracious to
you.” It is the nature of God, the God of Israel, to be
very generous in his dealings, he opens his hand and
supplies the need of every living thing. He is the God
of bounty. Nor does he stop there, for while he is
bountiful to his needy creatures, he is also merciful to
his sinful creatures. Judgment is his strange work, but
he delights in mercy. Nothing pleases him more than to
pass by transgression, iniquity, and sin. That he might
indulge his attribute of mercy he sacrificed the darling
of his soul, even his Son Jesus. He loved his Son, but
he loved his mercy so greatly, and he loved sinful man
so heartily, that “he did not spare his own Son, but
freely delivered him up for us all,” so that he might
have mercy upon our guilty race. See then, what a
merciful God he is. Nor does he end even here, for to
those whom he has forgiven he is rich in
lovingkindnesses. His love is very wonderful, deeper
than the abyss, higher than the heavens, broader than
the sea. Well, now, what is your trouble? Trust your
merciful God to help you. What is your sin? Trust your
merciful God to forgive you. What are your backslidings?
Trust your merciful God to restore you. What are the
trials you are expecting? Rely upon your merciful God to
bear you through. If he were a tyrant you might well
flee from him, but since his mercy endures for ever it
will be your wisdom to turn to him. Come, let us all go
together, by an act of faith, this moment, and cast
ourselves at Jehovah’s feet, and, though we do not see
him, yet let us henceforth trust him as he has revealed
himself in Christ Jesus; so we shall be at peace with
him, and hereby good shall come to us. It is certain
from the character of God, which abounds in love, grace,
and mercy, that he will be gracious to those who seek
him; let us seek him at once, every one of us. The text
does not say “he will be gracious,” but “he will be
very gracious.” I love to see grace so decorated
with expressive words. It refreshes my mind to think
that very frequently when we read about the mercy of God
in Scripture there is some word with it by way of
intimating its greatness, its freeness, or its
excellence. “God who is rich in mercy.” “You Lord are
plenteous in mercy.” “The Lord is good, his mercy is
everlasting.” “The tender mercy of our God.” “His mercy
endures for ever.” “His merciful kindness is great
towards us.” “According to his abundant mercy he has
begotten us again to a lively hope.” “According to the
multitude of his tender mercies.” See what great words
go with the mention of the Lord’s mercy: there is no
fear of exaggerating it, for all language falls short.
In the text we have the word “very.” “He will be very
gracious to you.” Do you need special comfort? you shall
have it. Do you need great help? you shall have it.
Come, you grievous sinner, forgiveness is plentiful.
Come you severely afflicted one, there is rich
consolation. Come you weary wanderer, there is complete
restoration. Come you impoverished and needy one, there
are abounding supplies.
Rivers of love and mercy here,
In a rich ocean join;
Salvation in abundance flows,
Like floods of milk and wine.
The assurance of the text is based upon the merciful nature of God, and may be relied upon without hesitation.
15. And next it is based upon the grand fact of the prevalence of prayer. “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry.” Is it not an incredible thing that God permits men to pray? It is a more incredible thing that they do not pray when he permits them. It is marvellous that God should listen to the voice of a man. This has been so astonishing to mere thinkers that they cannot admit it to be true, and consequently they have asserted that there could be no actual power in prayer to move the heart of God. I do not wonder that they should have thought so, for though this surprising truth is not contrary to reason it is certainly far above reason. Now, we know, for we have tried it, that God hears prayer: therefore we say to you, go to him and test him, for he will be gracious to the sound of your cry. God has been pleased to set up a mercy seat; answer me, oh doubting one, would there be a divinely appointed mercy seat for the presentation of prayer if the Lord did not intend to hear prayer? He has sprinkled that mercy seat with the blood of his only-begotten Son, that through that atonement the guilty might approach him. Would he shed that matchless blood, and yet reject the sinner who comes trusting in it? In addition to all this, he has promised to give the Holy Spirit to assist in prayer, helping our infirmities, because we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. Would he give that Holy Spirit, and still permit prayer to be ineffective? It is not conceivable. It delights God to listen to the cries of his creatures. Your voice may be very cracked and not harmonious, and your prayer may be like an infant’s wailing, or like the cry of a young bird in its nest when it is hungry; but he who hears the young ravens when they cry will hear your inarticulate, discordant utterances, therefore pour out your heart before him.
16. He will answer you, too, and that very quickly. “When he hears your prayer, he will answer you” — so says the text. Has he not said, “Before they call I will answer, and while they are still speaking I will hear?” Where there is true prayer for grace in the heart the prayer is heard before it is offered; for it is grace that makes us pray in such a way. He who asks for grace sincerely has grace already in a measure or else he would not be inclined to ask for more. Let this encourage us. Since God waits to be gracious, and has in wondrous condescension endued prayer with such privileges in his sacred courts, who among us will not turn to him now, with all our heart, and cry to him, “My Father, save and help me now.”
17. I am pleading for my God, and I know that I am advocating the best of causes, but my tongue and my mind fall short in the argument. I do not, however, much regret my lack of eloquence in this matter, for it is better that the theme should plead for itself. May the Lord by his Eternal Spirit make the reasonableness and the blessedness of the claim to appeal to your conscience and your heart, and instead of searching elsewhere for help may you now turn to your God in loving trustfulness.
18. If you required further confirmation of your faith beyond the three truths which I have laid before you, namely, the promise itself, the nature of God, and the efficacy of prayer, I could ask many in this house today to give their personal testimony concerning the result of faith in God and supplication to him. We can speak positively, for we speak from actual trial of faith and prayer. I have now reached middle life, and having known the Lord from my youth up I can speak from twenty-eight years of experience. Through the favour of God I have led a very happy life by faith in his name. I have not been without many trials, sicknesses, and difficulties, and some of these are daily with me, but in all things faith sustains me. I bear my witness that confidence in man is utter folly, and brings sorrow to the soul: but I am more than ever certain that confidence in God is always wise, never leads to disappointment, and never causes regret. I mourn that I have not trusted my Lord more fully, and I lament that I have not attempted greater things in reliance upon his word; but I have no question that faith is right, and I am sure that it will always be justified by results. Speaking deliberately, as though I were bearing witness concerning my fellow man in a court of justice, I have no word to say by way of questioning the faithfulness, and goodness, and truthfulness of my Lord, but I am bound to declare that he has heard my prayers, not once nor twice, but always, and has been gracious to the sound of my cry. Why do I speak like this? Why must the objectionable “I” be introduced? Because I cannot ask anyone else in the audience to stand up and speak without disturbing the order of our service; but if I could do so, my brothers and sisters here by the hundreds would each offer similar testimony. Dear friends, your troubles have been different from mine, you have tested God in other ways than I have done, but you have found him equally true: have you not? Is not his word like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times? Some of you are older than I am. The snows of many a winter whiten your brows, but in no one day of all those seventy years has the Lord been unfaithful to you. Are you verging upon fourscore? Still in that long period there has not been a single breach of covenant on the part of your Lord. Your last days are freer from doubt than your former years; though your spirits are by no means so elastic your peace is less disturbed. Each year of your life trust in God grows easier, for facts prove the reality of his working, and fellowship with your invisible Friend makes his influence over you to be more constant and powerful. The path of faith increases in brightness: every hour accumulates evidence for its support. We know and are persuaded by the love which God has towards us. Truly he is gracious, and inclines his ear to his people.
19. III. There I leave this matter, and I close by the third observation, which is this: THE ASSURANCE OF THE TEXT BEING SO WELL CONFIRMED SHOULD BE PRACTICALLY ACCEPTED AT ONCE.
20. If God will be gracious to the sound of our cry, and when he hears it will answer us, let us renounce at once all earthborn confidences. Let us defile the covering of our carved images and cast them away, and say to our false confidence, “Go away.” “We have done so,” one says. Do it again, brother, for the tendency of your heart is still to rest in what is seen rather than in the invisible Jehovah. Idolatry is bound up in our hearts. Cast out the idol yet again. Alas, some of you have never done so; your carnal hope still usurps the place of God. Let me ask you. What is your confidence for life? You all have some confidence or other; what is yours, young man? What is your reliance, oh man in middle life? Especially, oh greybeard, what is your confidence now? You have good reason to examine it, for soon you will need it; and woe to you if it is found to fail. What is your confidence, my brother? Is it your wealth? Is it your strong common sense? Is it your stalwart frame — that strong pair of arms which have enabled you to stem the current so far? What are you relying on? Will it support you in death? Will it stand you in good stead in eternity? I know it will not if it is anything short of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come let us flee from all creature confidence as from a filthy thing, for it is base to the nth degree for a creature to be trusting in another creature and putting that creature into the place of its Creator. Let us abhor such idolatrous trust. Let us shun it also as a vexing and deceitful thing, for it is treacherous as the smooth, deceitful sea, and it mocks us as the mirage of the desert mocks the thirsty traveller. Let us flee from vain confidence in self or in man, for it is a poisonous thing; the fiery flying serpent of Egypt was not more deadly than confidence in an arm of flesh. Let us abandon it and never return. Oh trusters in what is seen, leave your idols, cast them to the moles and to the bats, even the dearest of them all. If your confidence is in yourself, flee from yourself, for you have no worst enemy. Flee from unbelief and carnal trust, and do not provoke the Lord to jealousy by setting up another God, for there is no other. “Once I have spoken, yes twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God.” Do not trust then where there is no power, but place all your confidence in the Almighty.
21. If this is done, and you flee away from other trusts, then let me recommend to you at the same time to refuse despair. When a man sees that his confidences are broken up like a potter’s vessel until, to use the expressive words of the prophet, there is not a piece left large enough to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit, then he is apt to exclaim, “Now it is all over with me, and I must needs perish.” You loved your wife, she was all the world to you; but, alas, she is dead, and you cry, “Let me die also.” You hugged your wealth, it has melted; that speculation has dissolved it, and left you a beggar: and now you cry, “What is there worth living for?” Beware of dark thoughts, which may beset you just now. In your worst moment, should Satan whisper in your ear a suggestion concerning rope, or knife, or poison bowl, or sullen stream, flee from it with all your soul. Obey the apostolic word, “Do yourself no harm.” Nothing could be worse for you than to break the law, which says expressly, “You shall not kill.” Self-destruction, if done by a man in his senses, is a daring defiance of God, and the sealing of damnation. This is to leap from measured trouble into infinite woe, the depth of which no one can guess. Why should you do this? Turn to your God; that is a wiser thing for a man to do than to destroy his own life; yes, there is something braver for a man to do than to rush upon the pikes of the foe because the battle becomes too hot for him. Go to your great Captain, even to him whom God has given to be a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people, and he will make you more than a conqueror. There are brighter days in store for you yet. Yes, there are days to come, which shall never end, of everlasting life and blessedness if you will only now in your distress cast yourself upon the covenanted mercies of God in Christ Jesus his Son. It is grand to spring up from despair into the fulness of delight, and many a man has done this at a bound. This earth moves by slow degrees from the frosts of winter into the bright days of June, but God can make our souls to pass out of the deepest despair into the brightest hope in a single moment, and if we only trust and rest in him it shall be done.
22. I know some who do not trust their all with God because they have picked a quarrel with him. They resemble a little child I have heard about who one night would not say his prayers. His fond mother said to him, “Dear child, why do you not pray?” “Mother,” he said, “I shall not say my prayers to God any more, because he let my little bird die.” Do not some people talk like this against God? They have a quarrel about their dead child, or their lost property. Now, if you get into such a state of sullenness it will go hard with you; it would be far better if you would bow to the divine decision and believe that God intends your good. Oh, do believe the words of my text. May his Holy Spirit lead you to believe them. “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry.”
23. Those two counsels being
followed, namely, the renunciation of carnal hope, and
at the same time the determination not to despair, there
remains only this, that we now try the power of
prayer and childlike confidence in God. But you say,
“There is no hope for me.” Have you ever sought for
mercy? “I do not think I would be heard.” Have you ever
tried? Dear heart, have you ever gone into your room,
and shut your door, opened the word of God and found a
gracious promise, and then said, “Lord, fulfil this
promise for me. For Christ’s sake be gracious to me. I
trust you, and expect you to be gracious to me?” If any
one of you has tried this and it has failed, please let
me know it, for I am in the habit of continually saying
that “he who comes to Christ he will in no wise cast
out,” and I do not want to spread a falsehood. If you
find that Jesus casts you out, let me know it, for I
would not like to go around telling lies. I have asked
others, and I have tried for myself, but I have never
found any exception to the rule — “he who believes in
him shall not be ashamed nor confounded”; nor of that
other rule — “everyone who asks receives, and he who
seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.”
If I can have true and certain evidence that God does
not honour faith and does not hear prayer, I must revise
my convictions, contradict my statements, and doubt my
own consciousness. Have you ever tried believing prayer?
Most of the people who do not believe the Bible have
never read it with care and attention; those who doubt
the faithfulness of God have never tried it; and those
who deride prayer have never practised it. But,
mind, I am speaking of real prayer, not of repeating
certain good words. I am not talking about formal
prayer, but about going with your heart to the unseen
God, and telling him what you feel and what you need,
and trusting him to supply your needs, and help you.
Have you done this? Go and try prayer at once, I beseech
you. Divine Spirit, help these poor souls to pray today.
If you do pray and trust today it shall be as the
beginning of days for you, and from henceforth you shall
delight yourselves in the abundance of peace. Oh
believer, it shall be true of you, “His soul shall dwell
at ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth.” From the
Lord’s good Spirit there shall come to you such grace
that you shall be blessed, and become a blessing to
others. You shall walk happily before the Lord in this
land of the dying, and then shall remain with him for
ever in the land of the living above. May God bless you
all for his name’s sake. Amen.
[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Isa 30]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 125”
125]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Privileges, Support
in Affliction — Joy Under Losses” 747]
Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 125 (Song 1)
1 Unshaken as the sacred hill,
And firm as mountains be,
Firm as a rock the soul shall rest
That leans, oh Lord, on thee.
2 Not walls nor hills could guard so well
Old Salem’s happy ground,
As those eternal arms of love
That every saint surround.
3 Deal gently, Lord, with souls sincere,
And lead them safely on
To the bright gates of Paradise,
Where Christ their Lord is gone.
4 But if we trace those crooked ways
That the old serpent drew,
The wrath that drove him first to hell
Shall smite his followers too.
Isaac Watts, 1719.
Psalm 125 (Song 2)
1 Who in the Lord confide,
And feel his sprinkled blood,
In storms and hurricanes abide
Firm as the mount of God.
2 Steadfast and fix’d and sure,
His Zion cannot move;
His faithful people stand secure,
In Jesus’ guardian love.
3 As round Jerusalem
The hilly bulwarks rise,
So God protects and covers them
From all their enemies.
4 On every side he stands,
And for his Israel cares;
And safe in his almighty hands
Their souls for ever bears.
5 But let them still abide
In thee, all gracious Lord,
Till every soul is sanctified,
And perfectly restored.
6 The men of heart sincere
Continue to defend;
And do them good, and save them here,
And love them to the end.
Charles Wesley, 1741.
The Christian, Privileges, Support in Affliction
747 — Joy Under Losses
1 What though no flowers the fig-tree clothe,
Though vines their fruit deny,
The labour of the olive fail,
And fields no meat supply:
2 Though from the fold, with sad surprise,
My flock cut off I see;
Though famine pine in empty stalls,
Where herds were wont to be:
3 Yet in the Lord will I be glad,
And glory in his love;
In him I’ll joy, who will the God
Of my salvation prove.
4 God is the treasure of my soul;
The source of lasting joy;
A joy which want shall not impair,
Nor death itself destroy.
William Cameron, 1781.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2014/04/08/encouragement-to-trust-and-pray