A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Evening, January 12, 1868, By C. H. Spurgeon, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7)
1. Certain things preceded this prosperity—the counterpart of which I truly believe we have experienced among ourselves. There had been a little trouble in the church; some had thought one thing, some had thought another. There appeared to have been a just cause for complaint. The apostles, conciliatory in their temper, and earnest in their endeavour to keep the church together, as all true ministers should be, proposed the election of seven men who should distribute the contributions impartially among the poor. This was agreed to and acted upon by the entire church, and immediately the multitude of those who believed were of one heart, and of one soul. Well might great grace rest upon them all, for they fervently loved each other with a pure heart. Such unanimity, as a rule, I consider essential to church prosperity. If there are divisions among you, and one shall say, “I am for this,” and another, “I am for that,” how can you expect that the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of peace, should be present with you, and working among you? But when we are knit together in brotherly affection, the Lord commands the blessing, even life for evermore. Where brotherly love continues, and saints walk in holy unity, the witness they bear is powerful, and the increase they gather is palpable.
2. I felt like this when I met with the brethren last Thursday night. The attendance at the church meeting was very large, and the unanimity that prevailed not only gratified me, but I must confess astounded me too. I think all of us who know anything about the history of churches, especially those of a democratic order, where we recognise the rights of every member, understand how easy it is for thoughts to diverge, for counsels to vary, and for excellent brethren conscientiously to disagree. A breach once made has a tendency to widen, and a rent, unless speedily repaired, may tear a church to pieces. But not so much as a single word was spoken, nor do I know that so much as a single thought crossed the mind of any one that evening, contrary to the general current of unanimous opinion with which you elected my brother to take upon himself the office proposed to assist me in my work. I felt as if I could only weep for joy. I knew of no words by which I could express it, because I looked not only at the unity itself, but regarding it as one of the qualifications for future prosperity, I thought within myself, “Surely God will bless us; surely he will bless us even more abundantly than before.”
3. Moreover, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you know that two or three years ago, Baptist churches of London scarcely knew each other. There might have been some secret love between them, but certainly there was no obvious display of it. But now for two years we have been associated together to the number of eighty or ninety; in fact, there are now nearly a hundred of the churches among whom union has been cemented. We have been enabled to do service for the Master by this incorporation, but whatever service we may have done or may not have done, this certainly has been the result of our meeting with each other, that the churches have come to feel themselves to be united, they keep rank, they walk together as a phalanx, desire to be faithful to Christ, and to bear each others’ burdens. If anyone had told me, three or four years ago, that I should live to see, as I did last year, this house filled with the representatives of our Baptist churches met together to pray, I would have said, “If the Lord will open windows in heaven, may such a thing be!” But it has been, and by God’s grace it will be yet again, and we shall hold hands next Tuesday, and go on for another campaign against the common enemy, united as one man, first to Christ, and then to one another. May we not look upon this as a sign that God is intending to bless all our churches, to pour us out a blessing such as we shall not have room enough to receive? The Lord send prosperity. Amen, we say, amen from our hearts. And we hope all God’s saints will say amen. May the blessing speedily be sent. Since we have the first matter I am hopeful.
4. But many will suggest discouragements. “How is it likely,” one says, “that we can hope to make an impression upon the present age? What means have we except the simple gospel of Jesus Christ?” We are certainly not among the wealthy, and we do not number among us the great ones of the land. Our membership has always been, and still is, among the poor. How shall we expect to impress so large a city as this, or to exert any influence upon so great a country; and, above all, how shall we make any impression upon the population of the whole world? My dear brethren, we are weak, but we are not weaker than the first disciples of Christ. Neither were they educated, nor were they the wealthy of the earth: the most of them were fishermen, by no means men of cultivated ability—their walk was that of a legion that went out to conquer as well as to fight. Wherever they went and wielded the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, their enemies were put to confusion. It is true they died in the conflict. Some of them were slain by the sword, and others of them were torn asunder by wild beasts; but in all these things they were more than conquerors through him who loved him. The primitive church left its mark upon its age, and left a seed behind which the whole earth could not destroy; and so shall we by God’s grace if we are equally set upon it, equally filled with the divine life, equally resolved by any means and by all means to spread abroad the savour of Jesus Christ’s name: our weakness shall be our strength, for God shall make it to be the platform upon which the omnipotence of his grace shall be displayed. Keep together, brethren, keep close to Christ; close up your ranks. Heed the battle cry; hold the faith firmly; behave yourselves like men in the conflict, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against you. Only may the King himself lead us onward to the fray, and we shall not fear the result.
5. Having thus looked at the precedents of that prosperity enjoyed by the church at Jerusalem, we shall, this evening, with deep earnestness, draw your attention to the means by which a similar prosperity may be procured for such churches as do not enjoy it now; secondly, we shall have a word or two upon the results of such prosperity; and then, thirdly, upon the alternative which is before every church, either to obtain such prosperity or else to mourn over grievous evils.
6. I. WHAT ARE THE MEANS BY WHICH THIS PROSPERITY MAY BE PROCURED?
7. If we pant to see the Word
of God increase, multitudes added to the disciples, and
a great company of those who are least likely to be
saved brought in, there must be an adequate
instrumentality. Nothing can avail without the
operation of the Holy Spirit and the smile from heaven.
Paul plants, Apollos waters, and God gives the increase.
We must never begin our catalogue of outward means
without referring to that blessed and mysterious
potentate who abides in the church, and without whom
nothing is good, nothing efficient, nothing successful.
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy quickening powers.
This should be our first prayer whenever we attempt to serve God, for if not, we begin with pride, and can little hope to succeed by prowess. If we go to the warfare at our own expense we must not marvel if we return stained with defeat. Oh Spirit of the living God, if it were not for your power we could not make the attempt, but when we rely upon you we go forward in confidence.
8. As for the ostensible means, if any church would prosper, there must be much plain preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have been struck lately in looking through the history of the Reformation, and of the times before the Reformation, with the remarkable straightforwardness of the testimony of the early preachers. If you look at the life of Farren you find him not preaching about the gospel, but preaching the gospel. So it was with John Calvin. He is looked upon now, of course, as a theologian only, but he was really one of the greatest of gospel preachers. When Calvin opened the Book and took a text, you might be sure that he was about to preach “Through grace you are saved, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” And it was the same with Luther. Luther’s preaching was just the ringing of a big bell, the note of which was always, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and live! It is not by works, lest any man should boast, but by faith you are saved, and by faith alone.” They spoke this, and they spoke it again; neither did they couch the doctrine in difficult words, but they laboured with all their might, so to speak, that the ploughman behind the plough should understand, and that the woman selling fish should comprehend the truth. They did not aim at lofty phrases and flowing eloquence; they had a most contemptible opinion of rhetoric, but they just dashed right on with this one truth, “He who believes has everlasting life”; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” And, my brethren, if we are to see the church of God really restored to her pristine glory, we must return to this plain, simple, gospel preaching. I do believe that the hiding of the cross beneath the veil of fine language and learned dissertation is half the cause of the spiritual destitution of our country. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He came to seek and to save those who were lost. I would sooner say these few words and then cease my testimony, than utter the most splendid oration that ever streamed from the lips of Demosthenes or of Cicero, but not have declared the gospel of Christ. We must keep to this. This must be the hammer that we bring down upon the anvil of the human heart again, and again, and again. God forbid that we should glory except in the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord! God forbid that we should know anything among men except Jesus Christ and him crucified! Look to him—not to the priest, not to your good works, not to your prayers, not to your church goings or your chapel goings, but to Christ Jesus exalted. Look to him in faith, and God is willing to forgive you, able to forgive you, to receive you, to make you his children, and for ever to glorify you with himself. We must have much more of this plain preaching, and not only plain preaching but plain teaching. Sunday School teachers, you must teach this same gospel. I know you do, but very many Sunday School teachers do not. A certain denomination has made the confession that after having had their schoolrooms crowded with children, they do not know that any of those children have afterwards come to be attendants at the places of worship. Miserable confession! Miserable teachers must they be! And have we not known teachers who believed in the doctrines of grace, and upstairs in the chapel they would have fought earnestly for them, but downstairs in the schoolroom they have twaddled to the little children in this kind of way—“Be good boys and girls; keep the Sabbath; do not buy sweets on a Sunday; mind your fathers and your mothers; be good, and you will go to heaven!”—which is not true, and is not the gospel; for the same gospel is for little children as for grown up men—not “Do this and live,” which is after the law that was given by Moses, but “Believe and live,” which is according to the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ. Teachers must inculcate the gospel if they are to see the salvation of their classes, the gospel, the whole gospel, and nothing but the gospel, for without this no great thing will be done.
9. And if we wish to see the gospel spread abroad in London as once it did in Geneva, as once, under John Knox, it did in Scotland, as it did in Luther’s day throughout Germany, we must have much holy living to back it all up. After we have done the sermon, people say, “What about the people that attend there? What about the church members, are they upright? Are they such people as you can trust? What about their homes? Do they make good husbands? Are they good servants? Are they kind masters?” People will be sure to enquire about this, and if the report about our character is bad, our testimony is worthless. The doctor may advertise, but if the patients are not cured, he is not likely to establish himself as being well skilled in his art; and the preacher may preach, but if his people do not love the gospel, they kick down with their feet what he builds up with his hands. As I told you this morning, the followers of the early Reformers were distinguished by the sanctity of their lives. When they were about to hunt out the Waldenses, the French king, who had some of them in his dominions, sent a priest to see what they were like, and he, honest man as he was, came back to the king, and said, “As far as I could find, they seem to be much better Christians than we are. I am afraid they are heretics, but really they are so chaste, so honest, so upright, and so truly pious, that, although I hate heresy—I hope your majesty does not suspect me on that account—yet I wish that all Catholics were as good as they are.” Now, this was what made the gospel victorious in those days—the stern integrity of those who received it, and so it will be still. It cannot be otherwise. But if you become worldly, if you members of this church are just the same as other men who have no grace and make no pretensions, what is the good of your profession? You are liars before God unless you live above the common life of the rest of mankind. Oh! to get back to the simplicity of Christian manners! I cannot go into particulars, and ordain that this you shall do and that you shall avoid, but you know very well what the simplicity is, and if it were carried out there is a great deal that is now practised among professors that would have to be given up at once. As the books were burned when Paul preached, so there would be a great deal to be burned in the Christian church if we had the Spirit of God in all his power to bring us back to the old simplicity of the Christian faith. And why not? If you put the sword into the scabbard, you cannot kill with it; you must pull it out, and let it glitter in all its naked sharpness. If you put the sword of the gospel into the scabbard of worldly conformity, as some of you do, you cannot expect that there will be any power in it. Draw it away from your worldly company, and your pernicious customs, and then you shall see that it still has power to kill and to make alive. There must, then, be holy living as well as plain testimony.
10. Yet all this would not suffice, if the church is to be multiplied and many are to be saved, unless we add individual, personal exertion. I am so full with one theme today, that if I plough in the same furrow this evening as I did this morning I cannot help it, for I am anxious to make that furrow very deep and broad. I believe that no Christian church can have prosperity if only some of the members are active for the conversion of souls. Why, sirs, it had become popular among Christians that we ministers were to do all the work of bringing souls to Christ, and that you were to sit still and enjoy the sermon, and perhaps criticise it and pull it to pieces. But this was not orthodox; according to Christ’s law, every Christian is to be a minister in his own sphere; every member of the church is to be active in spreading the faith which was delivered not to the ministers, but delivered to the saints, to every one of them, so that they might maintain it and spread it according to the gift which the Spirit has given them. Shall I venture a parable? A certain band of men, like knights, had been exceedingly victorious in all their conflicts. They were men of valour and of indomitable courage; they had carried everything before them, and subdued province after province for their king. But suddenly they said in the council chamber, “We have at our head a most valiant warrior, one whose arm is stout enough to strike down fifty of his adversaries; would it not be better if, with a few such as he to go out to the battle, the mere men-at-arms, who make up the ordinary ranks, were to stay at home? We should be much more at our ease; our horses would not so often be covered with foam, nor our armour be battered in returning from the fray, and no doubt great things would be done.” Now, the foremost champions, with fear and trembling, undertook the task and went to the conflict, and they fought well, no one could doubt it; to the best of their ability they unhorsed their foe and they did great exploits. But still, from the very hour in which that scheme was planned and carried out, no city was taken, no province was conquered, and they met together and said, “How is this? Our former prestige is forgotten; our ranks are broken; our banners are trailing in the dust; what is the cause of it?” When the champion spoke out, and said, “Of course it is so! How did you think that some twelve or fifteen of us could do the work of all the thousands? When you all went to the battle, and every man took his share, we dashed upon the foe like an avalanche, and crushed him beneath our feet; but now that you stay at home and have us, only a handful, to do all the work, how can you expect that great things should be done?” So each man resolved to put on his helmet and his armour once again, and go to the battle, and so victory returned. I speak to you tonight, I, one of the rank of God’s servants, and I say, my brethren, if we are to have the victory every one of you must be in the battle. We must not spare a single one, neither man nor woman, old nor young, rich nor poor, but you must each fight for the Lord Jesus according to your ability, that his kingdom may come, and that his will may be done upon earth even as it is in heaven. We shall see great things when you all agree to this and put it into practice.
11. Combined with this there must be much earnest prayer. The prayer of faith! have we not held it in high esteem, have we not made some considerable proof of it in this place? We hope to have more faith—a great increase both of volume and power. Nothing is impossible to the man who knows how to overcome heaven by wrestling intercession. When we have seen one, two, or ten, or twenty penitents converted, and when we have sometimes been heartily thankful that a hundred have been added to this church in a month, ought we ever to have been satisfied? Should we not have felt that the prayer which was blessed to the conversion of a hundred, had it been more earnest, might, in the divine purpose, have been answered with the conversion of a thousand? Why not? I do not know why London should not be shaken from end to end with gospel truth within twelve months. You will say, “We do not have enough ministers.” But God can make them. I tell you, sirs, he can find ministers for his truth—indeed, if he willed it, among the very offscourings of the earth. He can take the worst of men, the vilest of the vile, and change their hearts, and make them preach the truth if he pleases. We are not to look at what we have. The witness of the senses only confuses those who would walk by faith. See what he did for the church in the case of Saul of Tarsus. He just went up to the devil’s army, and took out a ringleader, and said to him, “Now, sir, you preach the gospel which you once despised.” And who preached it better? Why, I should not wonder if before long in answer to prayer we see the Ritualistic clergy preaching the gospel! Who can tell—the Catholic priests may yet do it, and repeat the history of Luther and Melancthon. Were not Luther, and Melancthon, and Calvin, and their comrades, brought out of Papal darkness to show light to the people? We have heard with our ears, why may we not see with our eyes, the mighty works of God? The Lord can find his men where we know nothing about them. “From these stones,” said the Baptist, as he pointed to the banks of the Jordan, “From these stones God can raise up children to Abraham”; and as he could then, so he can now. Let us not despair. If we will only pray for it, our heavenly Father will deny his children nothing. Come, do only come, in simplicity of heart, and according to your faith it shall be done for you.
12. If you wish to see the
church greatly increase, and the kingdom come to the
throne of the Son of David then we must all get more
intense glowing spiritual life. Do you understand
me? There are two people over there. They are both
alive, but one of them lies in bed. He awakens, but he
says, with the sluggard—
“You have woke me too soon, I must slumber again,”
and when he gets up he gazes around with vacant wonder and strange bewilderment. He has no energy, he is listless, and we say of him, “What a lifeless creature he is!” “He is living, but with how little vitality!” Now, you see another man. His sleep is short; he awakens soon; he is out to his business; takes down the shutters; he is standing behind the counter waiting upon this customer and that; he is all active; he is here, there, and everywhere, nothing is neglected; his eyes are wide open, his brain is active, his hands are busy, his limbs are all nimble. Well, what a different man that is! you are glad to have this second man to be your servant; he is worth ten times the wages of the first. There is life in them both, but what a difference there is between them! The one is eagerly living, the other is drawling out an insipid existence. And how many Christians there are of this kind! They wander in on a Sunday morning, sit down, get their hymn book, listen to the prayer without joining in it, hear the sermon, but might almost as well not have heard it, go home, get through the Sunday, and go into business. With them there is never any secret prayer for the conversion of men, no trying to talk to children, or servants, or friends, about Christ, no zeal, no holy jealousy, no flaming love, no generosity, no consecrating of the substance to God’s cause! This is too common a picture of a vast number of professing Christians. Oh that it were not so. On the other hand, we see another kind of man—one who is renewed in the spirit of his mind; though he has to be in the world, his main thoughts are how he can use the world to promote the glory of Christ. If he goes into business, he wants to make money so that he may have something to give bountifully for the spread of the gospel. If he meets with friends, he tries to thrust a word in edgeways for his Master; and whenever he has an opportunity, he will speak, or write, but he will be aiming to do something for him who has bought him with his precious blood. Why, I could pick out, if it were right to mention names, some here who are all alive, until their bodies seem to be scarcely strong enough for the real vitality and energy of their souls. Oh! these are the cream of the church, the pick and choice of the flock, the men who are true men, and the women who are the true daughters of Jerusalem. May the Lord multiply the number of such; yes, may he make every one of us to be such, for I am afraid that all of us need quickening. I know I do myself. It is a long time since I preached a sermon that I was satisfied with. I scarcely remember ever having done so. You do not know, for you cannot hear my groanings when I go home, Sunday after Sunday, and wish that I could learn to preach someway or other; wish that I could discover the way to touch your hearts and your consciences, for I seem to myself to be just like the fire when it needs stirring; the coals have got black when I want them to flame forth. If I could only say in the pulpit what I feel in my study, or if I could only get out of my mouth what I have tried to get into my own soul, then I would preach indeed, and move your souls, I think. Yet perhaps God will use our weakness, and we may use it with ourselves, to stir us up to greater strength. You know the difference between slow motion and rapidity. If there was a cannon ball rolled slowly down these aisles, it might not hurt anyone; it might be very large, very huge, but it might be so rolled along that you might not rise from your seats in fear. But if someone would give me a rifle, and ever so small a bullet, I imagine that if the ball flew along the Tabernacle, some of you might find it very difficult to stand in its way. It is the force that does the thing. So, it is not the great man who is loaded with learning that will achieve work for God; it is the man, who, however little his ability, is filled with force and fire, and who rushes forward in the energy which heaven has given him, that will accomplish the work—the man who has the most intense spiritual life, who has real vitality at its highest point of tension, and living, while he lives, with all the force of his nature for the glory of God. Put these three or four things together, and I think you have the means of prosperity.
13. II. Time flies, and therefore while I briefly hint, I must leave you largely to meditate, THE RESULTS WHICH FLOW FROM THIS PROSPERITY—Souls are saved.
14. John Owen said that if you had to preach to a whole nation for twelve months, in order to win one soul, it would be good wages, for a soul is so priceless, that to redeem it from going down to the pit would be worth the expenditure of all human strength. Richard Knill once said, that if there were only one unconverted person in the wilds of Siberia, and that God had ordained that every Christian in the world must go and talk to that one person before he would be converted, it would be an exceedingly little thing for us all to do, to go all the way there through the cold, and frost, and snow, to win that one soul. And he was right, and I may well stir you up to energy when the result will be the conversion of souls.
15. The name of our Lord
Jesus Christ is glorified. Who would not wish to
live, or even to die, for this?
Let him be crowned with majesty,
Who bowed his head in death,
And let his praise be sounded high,
By all things that have breath.
If you have not forgotten what he suffered for you, dear friends, do you not wish to see him crowned with many crowns? He wore the crown of thorns for you, would you not wish to see the fruit of his soul’s travail, the removal of the curse, the extension of his kingdom, the honour of his fame, the growing enthusiasm of his subjects—to make his excellency apparent, and his praise more and more famous to the very end of time? I know you would, and therefore I ask you to strive together with us in your prayers and your efforts, so that the number of his disciples may be multiplied greatly.
16. Moreover, the result will be to build up the church itself, for there is no good done in the name of Jesus which does not redound to the satisfaction of his bride. If you do good for another, you are taking the shortest way to do good for your own soul. As those who promote sanitary measures for the benefit of the neighbourhood are by it favouring the conditions of their own health, so the promulgation of saving knowledge throughout the world is augmenting the peace and the welfare of our own hearts, and of all who are already saved. Truly, I believe, that some people are never comfortable in religion, because they are selfish in it. If they began to live with some object, their constant distress of mind would soon be rolled away. May God, therefore, stir us up, so that the whole church may by it be blessed.
17. III. But I must now come to the point with which I proposed to finish, namely, THE ALTERNATIVE WHICH I THINK STANDS BEFORE THIS CHURCH AND EVERY OTHER CHURCH.
18. Either we must get a high state of prosperity, or else we shall lack what is to be dreaded to the very uttermost. How many churches are there which have proved the truth of what I am now going to say! They have not tried to increase; they have not cared about conversions, and very soon there has been murmuring. One did not like the minister; another did not like the deacons; a third objected to a brother who was introduced; and all this, perhaps, was quietly hushed up because they were too respectable to come to a public disturbance, but still there it was—the fire in the embers; and so it kept on until, by and by, they come to one of two things, either lethargy or else division. They settled down as quiet and sober religious people. The minister was not enthused; not he! The people could not be stirred. The boast was that there were so many carriages on a Sunday outside the chapel. Some trusted in chariots and some in horses, but there was nothing about conversion. Why, I know churches whose baptismal pool would have been green by now if the water had been standing in it, so few have been added to their number. And yet they are not at all dissatisfied. “No,” the good deacon says, “you know our pew rents keep up very well; we do not have a seat to rent in the gallery!” “Ah!” and says the minister, “And while we have the most respectable people in the town come among us, we do not approve of these revivalists down the back street who are trying to catch those poor sinners; at least, if they want them, they may have them, for we do not want them.” That is the manner in which some of these people talk. If they do not say it in words, they think it in their hearts. Well, and when a church does get into that dreadful state, it becomes noxious as a very dunghill. And when there is very little spiritual life there soon comes to be the ferment of very great division. Someone or other cannot bear this. Some young and fervent spirit speaks out about it, and the minister does not like it, the deacons do not like it, and they try to put him down. Then half a dozen more of the members think that he is right, and the life that is in the church wakes up. The trumpet is sounded, and there is a troop led off to establish a healthy organisation somewhere else, and the old corpus is left to rot as it may, and to decay as many churches do. Now, if I were a prophet, I might tell you what should come to pass in the latter days; but speaking as a monitor, rather than as a seer, but I could almost tell what you will come to by and by. In my day may it never, never be. You will get to be very respectable over at the Tabernacle; after I die you will have an organ, I dare say, and you will get a fine parson to deliver the most polished discourses to you, and where you will then drift I can readily guess. The Lord have mercy upon you, and save you from it. This is the tendency, however, of every church, it does not matter what it is. Where the most honest, simple, faithful preachers have been, the people have become too self-righteous for the gospel, and too proud to receive the truth in love. May it never happen in our days, however, and if earnest prayer can prevent it, may it never happen as long as the world stands, but until Christ comes may you be an honest, truth loving people, striving together for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and never departing from the earnest simplicity of the faith. But unless we keep up the earnest spirit among us, we shall very soon degenerate into the ordinary dead-alive Christianity, which is only half as good as nothing at all, because it gives men a name to live when they are dead.
19. The picture I have drawn may seem to you too highly coloured, but I assure you that I have seen such things. I am not old, but I have lived long enough to see churches go in this way; indeed, and churches too, that were once warm hearted. I have seen young members who were once earnest grow cold. I have seen old members who were once content to worship with the humble ones, get a little up in the world. Then “of course” they must go to church! I have seen congregations broken to pieces, and churches split up, and the bottom of it all has been because the vital godliness has been drained out of the system; the love of God has not remained in the heart, for when the rich man has the love of God in his heart, he delights to see the multitude gathered together; he is glad to do his part, and help in all he can. And the learned man, if the preaching does not always suit him, still he is glad to think that the unlearned have a preacher whom they can understand. Whoever the man may be, or however great and famous, if he loves Christ he is satisfied with the simple truth. “Give me that,” he says, “and that is enough. I can get my fine thinking and my fine reading in the weekdays if I want it; but on the Sabbath let me hear of Jesus; let me hear the story of the cross; let me see sinners led to Calvary—it is all I want, and I am well content if I have this.”
20. Are there not many here
tonight who are unconverted? They will wonder perhaps
what I am making all this stir about. Let me address
myself personally to you. Oh you unconverted women, it
is about you that we are concerned. And you,
you unconverted men, it is about you that we are
anxious; we are seeking after you. Why, for our own
sakes, if there was no one to be saved, we might be
content to hear far different doctrine from this. The
doctrines of grace are sweet in our ears, and our souls
would be well enough fed by them. But because we want to
see you saved we have to talk with you, and attend to
these practical matters since we want to see you brought
to Christ. Now look at the text, and it may give you
some comfort if you are willing to lay hold on Christ.
Do you notice, it is said that “a great company of the
priests were obedient to the faith?” Now, these priests
were those who conspired to crucify Christ. They were
once the bigoted enemies of the gospel, but they became
obedient to the faith. Then, why should not you? I know
the devil tells you that you have been too great a
sinner. That cannot be. Perhaps he reminds you that you
have been a scoffer, or have lived in immorality, or
have been self-righteous, which is as heinous a sin as
any other. Ah! well, but the blood of Jesus Christ, his
Son, cleanses us from all sin. A young woman wrote to me
the other day—I do not know who she is, but she said, “I
cannot tell anyone, but I have done so-and-so, a
dreadful sin indeed, if my mother knew it it would break
her heart.” I do not know her, and therefore her mother
will never know it from me, but she says, “Can I be
saved?” Young woman, you can! She says that she is worse
than Magdalene, for Magdalene did not know Christ when
she was a sinner, but she did know the gospel, and still
sinned. Oh! well, if you are worse than Magdalene,
Christ will be glorified in saving such a one as you
are. Only come with all your sin around you, and throw
yourself at his feet. Trust him! Trust him! Do him the
honour to believe that he can save even such an
abominable sinner as you have been. Though you have gone
to the utmost extremity of human guilt, and looked over
the gulf of endless misery, yet still believe him; trust
him, and he will be as good as ever you can think him to
be; for when you think your highest thoughts of him, he
is higher than your highest thoughts, and can save even
to the uttermost. The priests were obedient to the
faith; why not you? They believed in Christ, saw the
fold, entered in, and were saved; why should you not be
like them? Did you notice how it is described? They were
“obedient to the faith.” Then it seems that the
gospel is all summed up in that word “faith.” To be
obedient to the faith; to believe that Jesus is the Son
of God; to trust him because he has suffered in your
place; to believe that the divine justice is satisfied
with the death of Christ, and to rely upon that
satisfaction which Christ has rendered, that is to be
saved, to be obedient to the faith. We sang at the
Lord’s Table, this morning, that sweet verse which
really is the quintessence of the gospel, and therefore
I will repeat it to you, though you already know it so
well:—
Nothing in my hand I bring:
Simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress;
Helpless, look to thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.
21. Yes, just as you are come
and depend upon the blood and righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. And this is what
the stir is all about, we cannot bear that you should
drift down to destruction, we cannot bear that there
should be cataracts of souls leaping down the eternal
gulf. We cannot endure that Satan should gloat his
malicious soul with the prey of tens of thousands of
mankind. We cannot bear that Christ should stand
neglected, that his cross should be despised, that his
blood should be trampled on. Oh come to him! He will not
reject you. Him that comes to him he will in no wise
cast out. Breathe a silent prayer to him now. Cast your
soul upon him, sink or swim.
Venture on him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude,
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.
But he can do it. Rely on him, and eternal life is yours.
22. Brothers and sisters, since
we are in the New Year now, and have only reached the
second Sunday in it, let us begin and sweep out of the
house the old leaven of ease and self-indulgences and
lukewarmness, and let it be our cry before we go to our
beds tonight, that the Lord would make us to be real
living Christians, make us flames of fire from this time
forth truly to serve him who served us even to the
death. You will never get to be too warm. I am persuaded
you will not be too zealous. I only wish I could get
into such a devout enthusiasm myself as that of the
apostle Paul when, constrained by the love of Christ, he
said, “Whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God.”
When we have done all, we are unprofitable servants. How
much more unprofitable when we have done so little! The
Lord quicken this church. The February meetings are
coming on, when we shall be especially and earnestly
seeking the ingathering of souls. Believers, you who are
mighty with God in secret, pray for these February
meetings, so that the month may be a holy month for us,
the best month we have ever had, so that more may be
gathered into the church than ever have been in our
times. Make that a point of prayer, and prove God now
whether he will not hear you, and you shall find he will
to your soul’s comfort. Amen.
[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon—Acts
6:1-15
7:54-60]