Teaching Resources International

“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall stand forever.” — Isaiah 40:8

A few thoughts, first, upon the things that wither; then a word or two upon that word which endureth; and then the lessons which the contrast will suggest.

I. THE THINGS WHICH WITHER.

The things which wither — grass, and its flower; man, and all that cometh of man; the creature, and all that springeth from the creature alone. We are apt to think man a long-lived creature, and as we look upon races and nations, we regard the history of mankind as though it were of considerable length. If we could form any idea of eternity, we should ridicule ourselves for blinking a thousand years or six thousand years to be anything at all.

They are but as a watch in the night in comparison with the endless ages of the life of God. They are no sooner come than they have gone. We look upon the grass as a short-lived thing, and talk about the frailty as well as the loveliness of the flowers; but is there so great a difference? They have their seasons; we have ours, and the seasons differ not so much after all. What if they last a month, and we last seventy years; yet when both are withered, what signifies it? He that died but yesterday is as much dead as he that died a thousand years ago; and when the season is over, it comes to pretty much the same thing, whether we count that season by years or count it by hours. After all, the ephemera and ourselves are cousins — germen (germs), and, looked at in the light of eternity, we and the insects are things which are and are not, floating for a while in the sunbeam, and then are gone from the land of the living. The voice that cried in the wilderness warned all mankind of that familiar truth, that all men, being but flesh, will as surely pass away as all the grass; being but grass, will surely in its season come to the scythe, or wither where it stands.

But the meaning of the text, as opened by the connection, is not only that man is frail and must die, but that everything connected with man is so — everything that man can do, all his surroundings, everything especially in which man glories, as the grass may glory in its flower; everything of which man boasts about which he measureth and esteemeth himself, shall also pass away; and I shall remind you of this, dear friends, that if you are rejoicing in anything which belongs to time and sense, you may abate what the poet calls “this brainless ardor,” and may set your affections upon something more worthy of an immortal spirit. Remember that all the hopes of man, that have to do with man, are but as the flower of grass.

You are setting your hopes, perhaps, upon that dear boy when he shall have grown up and come to maturity. What a comfort and a stay he will be! Or your hope is resting upon that speculation which you trust will turn out successfully, or more solidly, perhaps, upon the gains of perseverance, which, if slow, are sure. Set not your hopes on any of these things, for if you do, they may end in disappointment as you grasp them, like the apples of Sodom, which are fair to look upon, but which turn to ashes in the mouth. These hopes may be eggs that never shall be hatched, phantoms that have no reality in them. If your hopes be fixed on God’s Word, and the Word that endureth, be as sanguine as you will, for you shall never be deceived; but if your hopes be earth-born, hear you the cry of the prophet, “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field.” Hope will wither as flowers do.

Equally so will it be with the joys you have already attained. It may not be altogether hoping with you. You have passed the early morning of life, and you have realized something. You are content, and that is to be rich. You are thankful that God has smiled upon you in Providence, and that he has blessed you in many respects. Yes, but still even contentment may be a sin if it be an earthly contentment, which checks your aspirations for the skies. If you are content enough to say with the rich man, “Soul, take thine ease; thou hast much goods laid up for many years,” then remember that of all the attainments of this world, by way of pleasure, satisfaction, and wealth, it may be said, “The goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.” You will die and leave these things, and then what pleasure will you have in your garden, in your home, your well-stored chambers, and your money? What can all yield you when your eyes shall be glazed in death? Or, ere you depart from them, these things may depart from you, for riches have wings, and oftentimes but one clap of the hand of Providence and all these birds have flown to nests somewhere else.

But if this be true of common hopes and ordinary attainments, you must not think it is not true of higher matters, for in these it is equally the case. Suppose we have been seeking after mental acquisitions, have been great students, have read many books, have tried to be learned: now there is something in this far more elevating than in seeking to gather together so many coins of the realm; but still, all the learning that comes of man, and that comes in man, is but as the flower of the field that withers. You shall find, friends, that “much study is a weariness of the flesh, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow unto himself.” The more you know the more you shall discover of your own ignorance, and as you attain unto what you think to be the light, you shall find the very excess of light cause you a greater sense of the surrounding darkness; and when you come to die, if you have neglected the knowledge of God, how will it avail you to have measured the stars, to have counted those mighty orbs, to have fathomed the depths of ocean, or have soared the heights of the hills?

Where are all the philosophies of the man in hell? Where is all the wisdom of yon corpse that slumbers in the sepulcher, while the spirit is driven from the presence of God? All such comeliness is but as a withered flower. Perhaps, however, you are accumulating around you love, which is the richest of treasures, and the best of wisdom. You are living in the affections of your household, and you are grateful to do so, and I honor you for having thought it better to win the love of others than selfishly to amass anything to yourself. But yet, dear friend, remember that even this must go. There is not a child in the household that is immortal. The fondest object of your affections must certainly ere long succumb beneath the arrows of death. Insatiable Archer! Thou carriest many arrows, and thou sparest no human hearts! All of woman born must be targets for thy shafts!  Set not, then, your heart’s choice, chief affections upon those dear ones here, but upon another Husband, another Father, another Brother, another Friend. Immortal, let these aspirations of your heart become, lest in the bitterness of your spirit you find of all these that “the flower thereof fadeth away.”

Going a step higher, there is a kind of spiritual life, so called, which is not of God, and even this, coming entirely of man, is just as fading as everything else that is human. Beloved, if you and I should seek to obtain a righteousness by exact obedience to the law of God, by patience under suffering, by zeal in the service of our Master, if we were to be successful in this righteousness, and year, after year, by consistency of character and excellence of conduct, should win the esteem of our fellow-men, and deserve it, yet, mark you, even that righteousness, if not wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, but only the fruit of our own resolution, would be only as the flower of grass, and in due time it would wither away. Do you remember when your righteousness did wither? Some of us will never forget when ours did. We prided ourselves much. We supposed — and we were not wrong in the supposition probably — that we were about as good as our neighbors, and we were satisfied with this belief. Indeed, we had some degree of generosity, and good feeling, and good desire towards God of a sort, and in all this we wrapped ourselves up, and we said, “Surely this will suffice; I may safely venture into eternity with such a preparation as this.” But oh! when the Sun of Righteousness began to shine into our souls, though he brought healing under his wings to everything that was good within us, he brought death to all this proud righteousness of ours; and how it began to droop, and decay, and wither, just like a lily that is snapped when the heat of the sun begins to pour on it. Surely, brethren, the best that man can do for himself, with all his diligence and all his care, is but as a fading flower, and when he sits himself down at ease in his contentment, and saith, “I shall see no sorrow; I have served my Maker; I thank God that I am not as other men,” even then is he naked, and poor, and blind, and miserable a blighted, blasted, withered flower, though he thinks “himself to be as a rose of Sharon, or a lily of the valley.

So, brethren, it is equally true of everything in the child of God that does not come from God. Not only is our own righteousness a conceit of righteousness, but all our attainments in the divine life which are made in our own strength will all wither. Oh! what holy frames of mind we sometimes think we have, and how we are getting on in spirituality! We half believe in attaining to perfection; we mean to get to within an inch or two of it, at any rate. We think the old Adam is dead, and if the devil is not dead, yet we think, at any rate, he is busy somewhere else, and he is going to let us alone. If we are not quite past temptation, yet we think we are such experienced Christians that, if temptation shall come, we shall be aware of Satan’s devices, and be able to escape. But in a moment all this melts away. Some new temptation comes, we are smitten in a place for which we are not provided with any armor, and we are wounded, and fall down. Oh! the quantity of confectionery sanctification that some of us have made — such gilt gingerbread confectionery, all molded into the most delicate shapes, but somehow or other the stand on which we place these things slips aside, and there is such a breaking. There is discovered such foulness and abomination lurking within our hearts that we could not have believed that we could have been such as we turn out to be. We would have said, if we had been told, “Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?” but such dogs we, after all, turn out to be. Brethren, I am afraid of my good frames; I am afraid of my graces; I am afraid of anything that I begin to think is good in myself, for although sins are dangerous and to be abhorred, yet we generally know what they are, and we watch against them, but under the cover of that which is supposed to be good and excellent, pride creeps in, self-sufficiency, and carnal security, and so we get many a deadly stab. Believer, recollect when you work yourself up into devotedness, when you think you have got a grace, and have not got it, but have only got that which you gave yourself, this is but the flower of the grass, and it will wither; it cannot stand.

So do I believe it is in all religious exercises. Everything which is got up and worked for by man always comes to an end. Those excitements which some delight in, I do not think come of the Spirit of God, at least, they may come of his work as much as the dust in the road has to do with the progress of a carriage. It is a nuisance that somehow or other is tied to a good thing, but the excitement some people seem to think is the progress, just the fly, as he sat on the carriage, thought that he made I t roll along the road. But it is not so; it is not so at all. How many churches have been revived into perpetual barrenness! The bladder has been blown till it burst. There has been a pumping, and a heaving, and a trusting in the artificial, instead of waiting quietly upon God. People have been driven pretty nearly mad, and this has been thought to be spirituality and the work of the grace of God. Brethren, it is only the flower of grass — a very pretty flower; oftentimes a most tempting and fascinating flower, but it will all fail, for nothing will stand but the work of the Holy Ghost; nothing will endure, even the test of time, but the Spirit’s own work upon the  heart and conscience; and anything that cometh of man, and not of God, will as surely disappear as the smoke of the chimney when the wind blows it away, or as the hoar frost of the morning when the sun has fully risen with his fervent heat.

Take this, then, as the first truth, that everything in us, or which we glory in, or trust to, or rejoice in, will as certainly pass away as doth the grass from the field, and the flower which springeth of it. But now, in the second place, we have a much more comfortable subject of reflection in the next sentence: —

II. THE WORD THAT ENDURETH.

“But the Word of our God shall stand.” What “Word” is this? I think the term applies to the Word of God in five different ways. First, it is the word of his purpose. The word of our God. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Hath he purposed, and shall it not come to pass? God hath from all eternity a wondrous plan by which he will manifest all his attributes in the salvation of his people. Now from his plan he will never vary, and in the details of it he will never change. Whatever he has decreed shall most certainly come to pass, and as for the salvation of his elect, all the powers of evil, both of earth and hell, shall never be able to thwart the eternal mind as to the salvation of any of those whom he has predestinated unto eternal life. We do not find ministers often preaching about this eternal purpose, but we do find the Apostle Paul often writing about it, and the saints of old were accustomed to dwell upon it with very much delight. Oh! Beloved friends, there is a purpose concerning his people, even their eternal salvation, and that purpose will as surely be fulfilled as God is God — ay, though before conversion they plunge into sin; ay, and though during their conversion they resist the Spirit of God; ay, and though after conversion they go astray like lost sheep, yet shall the wondrous power of sovereign grace be more than a match for the waywardness of nature, and the will of God shall sweetly lead in divine captivity the will of man, and though the man resolveth on his own destruction, God, who ordaineth salvation, shall accomplish his own purpose, earth and hell notwithstanding. Oh! Precious truth, on which the child of God may fall back in his darkest moments! The grass withereth, but the word of the divine purpose shall stand forever.

This “word” also refers to his word of promise. Every word which God hath spoken to his people by way of promise is as true to-day as when it was first uttered by the prophet who was originally sent with it, and if this world should exist through tens of thousands of years, every promise will still have the raven locks of its youth about it. No promise will grow stale; no word of God will cease to be of effect. It may have been fulfilled ten thousand times ten thousand times, but it will be fulfilled still. The promise shall be forever a well flowing for thirsty souls to drink of; it shall be a granary forever stored for the hunger of the Lord’s people to be supplied from. What a mercy it is for us that the promise cannot be made to fail!

Though we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not a jot or tittle of the promise shall fail.

His every word of grace is strong,

As that which built the skies;

The voice that rolls the stars along ,

Spake all the promise.

The words spoken to nature by God when he bade seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, never cease, have all been kept. The promise that the bow should be seen in the cloud in the day of rain has not been forgotten; nor shall any one of the promises of the covenant ordered in all things and sure be forgotten by the God of grace. Oh! Christian, how you may go to-night to your Bible and read out the promise, and find it as new to you and as true to you as if an angel came from heaven to bring it in fresh language from the divine throne! You have lost your child; your husband is gone; your property has melted; your health declines; you yourself draw near to death, but the promise, the promise still is yours, “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” “As thy days so shall thy strength be.” “I am God, I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” The word of purpose and the word of promise stand forever.

So, brethren, especially is it with the Incarnate Word. We are in the habit of calling the Bible “the Word of God.” I suppose that is accurate enough, but the Word of God is not the Bible; it is Jesus Christ. His name shall be called “the Word of God.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Well now, of this incarnate Word, this everlasting logos, we may say that he standeth forever. “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.” When I, a trembling sinner, went to the great High Priest, and looked up to him who wore the mitre and the many-jeweled breastplate, looked up to his wounds, saw the blood marks, trusted him, fell at his feet, and heard him say, “I have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud thine iniquities,” how dear he was to my soul that day, how fairer than the sons of men! And this day, though years have passed since then, he is the same, and to him I may come again to-night as I did then, and find that he has still the fountain filled with blood, and that its efficacy has in no degree been diminished. And so, should I live till grey old age, shall I find that he abideth still the same. That precious blood of his:

“Shall never lose its power

Till all the ransomed Church of God

Be saved to sin no more.”

Oh! to have a faithful, an unchanging friend, one that never departs — this is comfort indeed, come what trouble may. The word of our God, Christ Jesus, shall stand forever.

The fourth signification of the term must be surely the word of the gospel — the word of gospel truth which we preach, for so says the apostle as he quotes this passage, “This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” That word stands forever. Brethren, the old gospel of the apostles is the gospel of today. There has been a notion abroad about discoveries in theology, but recollect that everything that is new in preaching is not true, and everything that is true is not new. We may say, concerning the preaching of the gospel, “The old is better.” Let us keep to the good old ways. You will never advance upon Peter and Paul; if you do, you will have to go back again. All the advances there are but running on a fool’s errand, running before the clouds, and running beyond the wisdom of God, and he that is wise beyond what is written will only find himself landed in folly. The gospel was to have been disproved years ago, according to the notion of some. Modern discoveries were to have proved this, that, and the other to have been all a mistake, and we were to have given up this dogma as being a delusion, and that other teaching as being a superstition. But it is not so. The gospel has gone through the furnace and come out like silver well refined. The gospel of Jesus Christ has not lost one iota of its glory and perfection. There is not a doctrine that has been disproved; not one of her truths has been broken, nor so much as one single pillar of the house has been shaken, nor shall it be. There may be atheists and deists, philosophers and skeptics, but when they have done their best, or done their worst, the gospel shall bestir itself, like Samson, when he had been bound with green withes, and shall snap all their cords and send the Philistines in confusion, flying hither and thither. Believe in the power of the gospel, dear Christian friends, and never be afraid. Do not believe in the wisdom of those who are wiser than God, and do not tremble at all their boastings. Many men open their mouths widest when they have nothing to say, and so may it be with these. They would not brag and boast se much if they felt secure, but feeling that they have not touched the vitality of our religion, they do but rage and rave.

And fifthly, this term, “The word of our God” refers to the inner spiritual life of the Christian, for, remember you are quickened by the incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth, and that incorruptible seed is said to be the Word of God. Now all other seed throughout the world, and that which comes from a mortal source, dieth, but the seed of the divine truth, dropped by the Holy Spirit in the heart, is incorruptible, and therefore it liveth and abideth  more. What a blessing it is to get the Word of God into the heart, because if God puts it in, none but God can take it out again. If you get a word into your heart from the lip of one man, the lip of another man may drive it out, but if you get living truth burned into your soul by God the Holy Ghost himself, then you may defy the devil himself to extirpate the glorious work. Oh! beloved, remember the words of Jesus, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.” “He that liveth and believeth in me,” says Christ, “though he were dead, yet shall he live.” We do not find our Master speaking of this new life decaying, or of the fountain which he puts into the soul drying up, but he saith, “Out of him shall flow rivers of living water,” and “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” Men may die, but Christians shall not; I mean the natural life expires but the celestial life never dies. Death does not affect the principle which God implants at regeneration. No; it sets free that principle. It delivers it from the bondage of flesh and blood, from the slavery of corruption, and introduces it into liberty, into a region where it can expand and develop, and come to all its glorious perfection. The grass withereth, the flower thereof fadeth away, but the enduring word of our God neither withers nor fades, but shall stand fast. And now to close: —

III. WHAT ARE THE LESSONS WHICH THIS STRONG CONTRAST OUGHT TO TEACH US?

Everything of the creature dying, everything of the Creator living; everything of man withering, everything of God blooming in eternal youth — what should this say to us? Why, it should say to us, first — Weave not a chaplet for thy brow, of flowers that shall surely fade. Seekest thou fame? Let it be the fame that comes from God. Seekest thou wealth? Let it be a wealth that will be current in the skies. Seekest thou love? Let it be a love which will exist where they marry not, neither are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God. Flowers? Yes, if you will, but gather them in Paradise. Garlands? Yes, if you please, but let them be woven in the King’s own gardens, in that land where: — “Everlasting spring abides, And never withering flowers.”

You are an immortal, trade for immortality. You shall never die, Christian; there is a new life within you; you shall exist forever; co-equal with the life of God shall be your life. Oh! then, be not gathering trifles — things that melt. Let not your life be as a miser’s dream, who dreams he gathers gold, and wakes and it is gone. Be not like that foolish Roman Emperor who took his troops to Britain, landed them in full State, bade every man gather a handful of shells, and then go back to Rome with great triumph. He had taken Britain, he said — here were the shells from the shore. Oh! Never say, “I have conquered life — here is the money; I can say I have lived grandly — here is honor.” Oh! these things are but the broken shells upon the shore. Seek jewels and pearls that shall be jewels and pearls before God that shall be looked upon by him as being precious because they last and continue in eternity. Dear hearer, seek thy soul’s wealth. Seek to have thy sins forgiven. Seek to wrap thy soul in the righteousness of Christ — that garment which the moth cannot fret. Seek to be one with Jesus. There is nought beneath the stars worth having if thou have not these things. Trust thou in him. All else shall be like a bubble on a wave, and melt and fly before thee, if thou hast not confidence In Jesus. There stands the first lesson. Since all of earth shall melt and fade away, build not thy house with these shadows, but with substantial timbers and hewn stones that shall stand through the lapse of ages and last into eternity.

Another lesson. If you be on God’s side, never be afraid of the mightiest opponent. What are they? What are they? Grass! Where is the mower? Then he comes, there is an end of them. And what are their boastings, and what are their railings? The flower of grass. Here comes a breeze — the sharp breath of winter, and they are gone. Some people are always afraid of the Pope, and some are dreadfully alarmed at Puseyism, some are shocked at Broad Churchism. I do not know where we are not going to, brethren, according to the accounts we are daily receiving from those who ought to know. We are in a dreadfully bad way, and it seems that the Church of God is going to be broken up, sold for old timber, and put an end to, and there will be burnings in Smithfield again, and I do not know what besides! Ah! the Lord knows how to take care of his Church without  the help of some of those gentlemen who are so very earnest in taking care of it just lately, and I am pretty sure that if he could not take care of it without them, he won’t do much at it with them. But his truth will never shake nor be moved, come what may. You never need be alarmed. If all the kings, and emperors, and cardinals, and popes, and priests, and great men, and mighty men, and merchants, and mobs, and crowds should rise against the Lord’s truth and against the Lord’s anointed, what would it signify?

Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and the son of man that is but a worm? The grass in the field — why, let it boast; what cares the king with his army about the grass? “Why,” saith he, “the steeds of my cavalry shall eat the grass; it shall soon be gone.” So God shall overthrow all their show of strength. In an hour, if so God willed it, he could convert the world. In a single hour, if so it pleased him, dominant superstitions would be relinquished, and the old systems of idolatry would totter to their fall. Never think of the Church of God as if she were in danger. If you do, you will be like Uzza; you will put forth your hand to steady the ark, and provoke the Lord to anger against you. If it were in danger, I tell you, you could not deliver it. If Christ cannot take care of his Church without you, you cannot do it. Be still, and know that he is God.

Who am I that I should begin to agitate myself about the safety of the Empire of France, and should go to Napoleon and should tell him that I was afraid the empire was insecure, and I was come to help him manage the Government? I think I should be sent back about my business. And so, surely, when you begin to say, “The Church is in danger! The Church is in danger!” what is that to thee? It stood before thou were born; it will stand when thou hast become worm’s meat. Do thou thy duty. Keep in the path of obedience, and fear not. He who made the Church knew through what trials she would have to pass, and he made her so that she can endure the trials and become the richer for it. The enemy is but grass, the word of the Lord endureth forever.

And so, beloved, take heed, let each of us take heed that we keep to the enduring truth. Never let us be tempted by the flash of novelty, or by the attractions of supposed intelligence, to turn aside from the Word of God. “To the law and the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” If our creed be partly made up of the Word of God, partly of the traditions of the Fathers partly of the speculations of thinkers, it will be like Nebuchadnezzar’s image — part of gold, part of iron, and part of clay, and the clay will fly and the iron will be melted. But if we can get a creed that is made up, as far as our poor fallible judgments can enable us, altogether of the Word of God, then we have a creed that we can take with us into eternity. The word of the Lord endureth forever. How I like to get my own thinkings and believings put through the fire every now and then. I do not think there is a single doctrine that I have not doubted. I am happy to have to say that now, painful as the process was. It has been such a blessed thing to have to go to the bottom of it, to get arguments for it, to dig up and see whether the roots were sound and healthy, and oh! what a deal of what we think we know goes to the dogs in the hour of trial! But that which comes to us through the Word, and concerning which we can give a “Thus saith the Lord,” that, and only that, will stand with an honest man, who subjects himself to a daily examination, and asks the Holy Spirit, like a refiner’s fire, to go through and through his soul. I fear me there are many who could not abide the day of the coming of this work into their hearts. It acts like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. It burns up a thousand fancies; it washes away I do not know what of predilection and of prejudice. It might induce some here to give up some of the most cherished things. It might involve a solemn sacrifice for the future, but I conjure them to do it. Side not with the grass that must wither, and you must wither with it if you take it for your defense. But keep to this grand old Book; keep the Word of God for this shall neither wither, nor shall you, if you abide, in the living Spirit of God, hard and fast by what this Word teaches you.  God grant us this, and His be the praise forever. Amen.

“It is written.” — Matthew 4:4

Thoughtful minds anxiously desire some fixed point of belief.  The old philosopher wanted a fulcrum for his lever, and believed that if he could only obtain it he could move the world.  It is uncomfortable to be always at sea; we would fain discover terra firma, and plant our foot upon a rock.  We cannot rest till we have found out something which is certain, sure, settled, decided, and no longer to be questioned. Many a mind has peered into the hazy region of rationalism, and has seen clothing before it but perpetual mist and fog, and, shivering with the cold chill of those arctic regions of scepticism, it has yearned for a clearer light, a warmer guide, a more tangible belief.  This yearning has driven men into strange beliefs.  Satan, seeing their ravenous hunger, has made them accept a stone for bread.

Many have held, and still do hold, that it is possible to find your infallible foundation in the Pope of Rome. I do not wonder that they would rather have an infallible man than be altogether without a standard of truth, yet is it so monstrous that men should believe in papal infallibility, that did they not themselves avow it we should think it most insulting to accuse them of it.  How any mind can by any possible contortion twist itself into a posture in which it will be capable of accepting such a belief is one of the mysteries of manhood.  Why, the popes err in trifles, how much more in great matters?  In Disraeli’s “Curiosities of Literature” is the following amusing incident, under the head of “Errata”: — “One of the most egregious of all literary blunders is that of the edition of the Vulgate, by Sixtus V.  His Holiness carefully superintended every sheet as it passed through the press; and, to the amazement of all the world, the world remained without a rival — it swarmed with errata!  A multitude of scraps were printed to sate the erroneous passages, in order to give the true text.  The book makes a whimsical appearance with these patches; and the heretics exulted in this demonstration of papal infallibility!  The copies were called in, and violent attempts made to suppress it; a few still remain for the raptures of biblical collectors; at a late sale the Bible of Sixtus V.  fetched above sixty guineas — not too much for a mere book of blunders!  The world was highly amused at the bull of the editorial pope prefixed to the first volume, which excommunicates all printers who in reprinting the work should make any alterations in the text!  “The notion of infallibility residing in mortal man is worthy of a madhouse, and scarcely deserves to be seriously discussed.  You can scarcely read a page of such history as even Catholics admit to be authentic without discovering that popes have been men, and not gods, and their bulls have been as blundering and erroneous as the decrees of worldly princes.  So long as a clear understanding remains to a man he cannot repose in the imaginary infallibility of a priest.

Others, however, linger hopefully around the idea of an infallible church. They believe in the judgment of general councils, and hope there to find the rock of certainty.  Apparently this is more easy, for in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom, but in reality it is quite as preposterous; for if you mass together a number of men, each one of whom is fallible, it is clear that you are no nearer infallibility.  It is quite as easy to believe that one man is inspired as that five or six hundred are so.  The fact is that churches have made mistakes as well as individual men, and have fallen into grievous errors both in practice and doctrine.  Look at the churches of Galatia, Corinth, Laodicea, Hardis, and so on; nay, we find that the first disciples of our Lord, who made up the truly primitive and apostolic church, were not infallible, they made a great mistake about a simple saying of our Lord.  He said concerning John, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?”  “Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?”  Even the apostles themselves could blunder, and did blunder.  They were infallible in what they wrote when they were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but at no other time.  Yet, brethren, I marvel not that in the sore distress to which the mind is often brought, it is found better to believe in an infallible church than to be left to mere reason, to be tossed to and fro, a desolate waif, driven by ever changeful winds over the awful leagues of questionings which are found in the restless ocean of unbelief.  Longing as I do for a sure foundation, and rejecting both popes and councils, where shall I look?

We have a more sure word of testimony, a rock of truth upon which we rest, for our infallible standard lies in, “It is written.” The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is our religion.  It is said that it is hard to be understood, but it is not so to those who seek the guidance of the Spirit of God.  There are in it great truths which are above our comprehension, placed there on purpose to let us see how shallow are our finite minds, but concerning vital and fundamental points the Bible is not hard to be understood, neither is there any excuse for the multitudes of errors which men pretend to have gathered from it.  A babe in grace taught by the Spirit of God may know the mind of the Lord concerning salvation, and find its way to heaven by the guidance of the word alone.  But be it profound or simple, that is not the question; it is the word of God, and is pure, unerring truth.  Here is infallibility, and nowhere else.

I wish to speak this morning upon this grand, infallible book, which is our sole court of appeal.  And I desire to speak especially to the young converts who during the last few days have found the Savior, for by them this book must be used as the sword of the Spirit in the spiritual conflicts which await them.  I would zealously exhort them to take to themselves this part of the whole armor of God, that they may be able to resist the great enemy of their souls.

If “it is written,” I shall commend this unfailing weapon to the use of our young soldiers by noting that this is our Champion’s own weapon; secondly, I shall urge them to note to what uses he turned this weapon; and, thirdly, we shall watch him to see how he handled it.

I.   I commend to every Christian here the constant use of the infallible word, because IT WAS OUR CHAMPION’S CHOSEN WEAPON when he was assailed by Satan in the wilderness.

He had a great choice of weapons with which to fight with Satan, but he took none but this sword of the spirit — “It is written.”  Our Lord might have overcome Satan by angelic force.  He had only to pray to his Father and he would presently have sent him twelve legions of angels, against whose mighty rush the arch-fiend could not have stood for a single moment.  If our Lord had but exercised his godhead, a single word would have sent the tempter back to his infernal den. But instead of power angelic or divine he used, “It is written”; thus teaching his church that she is never to call in the aid of force, or use the carnal weapon; but must trust alone in the omnipotence which dwells in the sure word of testimony.  This is our battle-axe and weapon of war.  The patronages or the constraints of civil power are not for us; neither dare we use either bribes or threats to make men Christians: a spiritual kingdom must be set up and supported by spiritual means only.

Our Lord might have defeated the tempter by unveiling his own glory. The brightness of the divine majesty was hidden within the humility of his manhood, and if he had lifted the veil for a moment the fiend would have been as utterly confounded as bats and owls when the sun blazers in their faces.  But Jesus deigned still to conceal his excellent majesty, and only to defend himself with “It is written.”

Our Master might also have assailed Satan with rhetoric and logic. Why did he not discuss the points with him as they arose?  Here were three different propositions to be discussed, but our Lord confined himself to the one argument, “It is written.”  Now, beloved, if our Lord and Master, with all the choice of weapons which he might have had nevertheless selected this true Jerusalem blade of the Word of God, let us not hesitate for a moment, but grasp and hold fast this one, only weapon of the saints in all times. Cast away the wooden sword of carnal reasoning; trust not in human eloquence, but arm yourselves with the solemn declarations of God, who cannot lie, and he need not fear Satan and all his hosts.  Jesus, we may be sure, selected the best weapon.  What was best for him is best for you.

This weapon, it is to be noted, our Lord used at the outset of his career. He had not yet come into the public ministry, but, if I may me the expression, while his young hand was yet untried in public warfare, he grasped at once the weapon ready forged for him, and boldly said “It is written.”  You young Christians lately converted have probably already been tempted, or ere long you will be, for I remember that the very first week after I found the Savior I was subjected to a very furious spiritual temptation, and I should not wonder if the like happens to you.  Now, I charge you do as Jesus did, and grasp firmly — “It is written.”  It is the child’s weapon as truly as it is the defense of the strong man. If a believer were as tall as Goliath of Gath, he need have no better sword than this, and, if he be a mere pigmy in the things of God, this sword will equally befit his hand and be equally effectual for offense or defense.  What a mercy it is for you, young Christian that you have not to argue but to believe, not to invent but to accept.  You have only to turn over your Bibles, find a text, and hurl that at Satan, like a stone from David’s sling, and you will win the battle.  “It is written,” and what is written is infallible; here is your strength in argument. “It is written; “God has said it; that is enough. O blessed sword and shield which the little child can use to purpose, fit also for the illiterate and simple-hearted, giving might to the feeble-minded, and conquest to the weak.

Note next, that as Christ chose this weapon out of all others, and used it in his earliest conflict, so, too, he used it when no man was near. The value of Holy Scripture is not alone seen in public teaching or striving for the truth, its still small voice is equally powerful when the servant of the Lord is enduring personal trial in the lone wilderness.  The severest struggles of a true Christian are usually unknown to any but himself.  Not in the family do we meet the most subtle temptations, but in the closet; not in the shop so much as in the recesses of our own spirit do we wrestle with principalities and powers. For these dread duels, “It is written” is the best sword and shield.  Scripture to convince another man is good; but Scripture is most required to console, defend, and sanctify our own soul.  You must know how to use the Bible alone, and understand how to meet the subtlest of foes with it; for there is a real and personal devil, as most Christians know by experience, for they have stood foot to foot with him, and known his keen suggestions, horrible insinuations, blasphemous assertions, and fiendish accusations.  We have been assailed by thoughts which came from a mind more vigorous, more experienced, and more subtle than our own, and for these there is but one defense — the infallible “It is written.”

Conflicts have taken place full many a time between God’s servants and Satan which are more notable in the unpublished annals of the sacred history which the Lord recordeth, than the bravest deeds of ancient heroes whom men praise in their national songs.  He is not the only conqueror who is saluted with blast of trumpet, and whose statue stands in the public square; there are victors who have fought with angels and prevailed, whose prowess even Lucifer must grimly own.  These all ascribe their victories to the grace which taught them how to use the infallible word of the Lord. Dear friend, you must have “It is written” ready by your side at all times.

Note, that our Lord used this weapon under the most trying circumstances, but he found it to be sufficient for his need.  He was alone; no disciple was there to sympathize, but the word was the man of his right hand, the Scripture communed with him.  He was hungry, for he had fasted forty days and nights, and hunger is a sharp pain, and oftentimes the spirits sink when the body is in want of food; yet “It is written” held the wolf of hunger at bay; the word fed the champion with such meat as not only removed all faintness, but made him mighty in spirit.  He was placed by his adversary in a position of great danger, high on the pinnacle of the lofty house of the Lord, yet there he stood, and needed no surer foothold than that which the promises of the Lord supplied him.  “It is written,” enabled him to look down from the dizzy height and baffle the tempter still.  He was placed also where the kingdoms of the world were stretched beneath his feet, a matchless panorama which has full often dazzled great men’s eyes and driven them onward to destruction; but “It is written” swept aside the snares of ambition and laughed at the fascination of power.  Or in the desert, or on the temple, or on an exceedingly high mountain, no change in his mode of warfare was required; the infallible “It is written” availed in every position in which he found himself, and so shall it be with us.

Earnestly do I commend the word of God to you who have lately enlisted beneath the banner of my Lord.  As David said of Goliath’s sword, “there is none like it,” even so say I of the Holy Scriptures.  Our Lord was tempted in all points like as we are, and therein he sympathizes with us, but he resisted the temptations, and therein he is our example; we must follow him fully if we would share his triumphs.

Observe that our Savior continued to use his one defense, although his adversary frequently shifted his point of attack. Error has many forms, truth is one.  The devil tempted him to distrust, but that dart was caught upon the shield of “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live.”  The enemy aimed a blow at him from the side of presumption, tempting him to cast himself down from the temple; but how terribly did that two-edged sword fall down upon the head of the fiend, “It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”  The next impudent blow was leveled at our Lord with the intent of bringing him to his knee — “Fall down and worship me;” but it was met and returned with crushing force by — “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”  This smote leviathan to the heart.  This weapon is good at all points; good for defense, and for attack, to guard our whole manhood or to strike through the joints and marrow of the foe.  Like the seraph’s sword at Eden’s gate, it turns every way.  You cannot be in a condition which the word of God has not provided for; it has as many faces and eyes as providence itself.  You will find it unfailing in all periods of your life, in all circumstances, in all companies, in all trials, and under all difficulties.  Were it fallible it would be useless in emergencies, but its unerring truth renders it precious beyond all price to the soldiers of the cross.

I commend to you, then, the hiding of God’s word in your heart, the pondering of it in your minds. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.”  Be rooted and grounded, and established in its teaching, and saturated with its spirit.  To me it is an intense joy to search diligently in my Father’s book of grace.  It grows upon me daily. It was written by inspiration in old times, but I have found while feeding upon it, that not only was it inspired when written, but it is so still.  It is not a mere historic document; it is a letter fresh from the pen of God to me.  It is not a sermon once delivered and ended; it speaks still.

The Holy Spirit is in the word, and it is, therefore, living truth.  O Christians, be ye sure of this, and because of it make you the word your chosen weapon of war.

II. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us TO WHAT USES TO PUT THIS “IT IS WRITTEN.”

Notice first that he used it to defend his sonship. The fiend said, “If thou be the Son of God,” and Jesus replied, “It is written.”  That was the only answer he deigned to give.  He did not call to mind evidences to prove his Sonship; he did not even mention that voice out of the excellent glory which had said, “This is my beloved Son.”  No, but “It is written.”  Now, my dear young brother, converted but newly, I do not doubt but that you have been already subjected to that infernal “if.”  Oh, how glibly it comes from Satan’s lip.  It is his darling word, the favorite arrow of his quiver.  He is the prince of skeptics, and they worship him while he laughs in his sleeve at them, for he believes and trembles.  One of his greatest works of mischief is to make men doubt.  “If” — with what a sneer he whispers this already in the ear of the newly-converted.  “If,” says he, — “if.”  “You say you are justified and pardoned, and accepted; but if!  “May you not after all be deceived?”

Now, dear friends, I beseech you never let Satan get you away from the solid ground of the word of God.  If he once gets you to think that the fact of Christ being the Savior of sinners can only be proved by what you can see within yourself he will very soon plunge you into despair.  The reason why I am to believe in Jesus, lies in Jesus and not in me.  I am not to say, “I believe in the Lord Jesus because I feel so happy,” for within half an hour I may feel miserable; but I believe in Christ for salvation, because it is written, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”  I believe in the salvation provided by Jesus Christ, not because it comports with my reason or suits my frame of mind, but because it is written, “He that believeth in him is not condemned,” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth in me hath everlasting life.”

Nothing can alter this truth: it stands and must stand for ever.  Believer, abide by it, come what may. Satan will tell you “You know there are many evidences; can you produce them?  “Tell him to mind his own business.  He will say to you, “You know how imperfectly you have behaved, even since your conversion.”  Tell him that he is not so wonderfully perfect that he can afford to find fault with you.  If he says, “Ah, but if you were really a changed character you would not have those thoughts and feelings”; argue not at all with him, but dwell upon the fact that it is written, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you believe in him, you cannot perish, but you have everlasting life, for so it is written. “It is written,” stand you there, and if the devil were fifty devils in one, he could not overcome you.

On the other hand, if you leave “It is written,” Satan knows more about reasoning than you do, he is far older, has studied mankind very thoroughly, and knows all our sore points, therefore the contest will be an unequal one.  Do not argue with him, but wave in his face the banner “It is written.”  Satan cannot endure the infallible truth, for it is death to the falsehood of which he is the father.  So long as God’s word is true, the believer is safe; if that is overthrown our hope is lost, but, blessed be God, not till then.  Flee ye to your stronghold, ye tempted ones.

Our Lord next used the Scripture to defeat temptation. He was tempted to distrust.  There lay stones at his feet, for all the world like loaves; there was no bread, and he was hungry, and distrust said, “God has left you; you will starve; therefore leave off being a servant, become a master, and command that these stones be made bread.”  Jesus, however, met the temptation distrustfully to provide for himself by saying, “It is written.”  Now, young Christians or old Christians, you may be placed by providence where you think you will be in vacant, and then if you are afraid that God will not provide for you, the dark suggestion will arise, “I will deal after the way of the unjust, and so put myself in comfortable circumstances.”  True, the action would be wrong, but many would do it, and therefore Satan whispers, “Necessity has no law; take the opportunity now before you.”  In such an hour, foil the foe with “It is written, thou shalt not steal.”  We are bidden never to go beyond or defraud our neighbor.  It is written, “Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”  It is written, “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”  In that way only can safely meet the temptation to distrust.

Then Satan tempted the Lord to presumption. “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down,” said he; but Christ had a Scripture ready to parry his thrust.  Many are tempted to presume.  “You are one of God’s elect, you cannot perish; you may therefore go into sin; you have no need to be so very careful, since you cannot fall finally and fatally,” — so Satan whispers, and it is not always that the uninstructed convert is ready to answer the base sophistry.  If we are at any time tempted to yield to such specious special pleadings, let us remember it is written, “watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.”  It is written, “Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”  It is written, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.  Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  Begone, Satan, we dare not sin because of the mercy of God; that were indeed a diabolical return for his goodness; we abhor the idea of sinning that grace might abound.

Then will Satan attack us with the temptation to be traitors to our God and to worship other gods. “Worship me,” says he, “and if thou do this thy reward shall be great.”  He sets before us some earthly object which he would have us idolize, some selfish aim which he would have us pursue.  At that time our only defense is the sure word, “It is written, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength.”  “Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price.”  “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”  “Little children keep yourselves from idols.”  Quoting such words as those with all our hearts, we shall not be suffered to fall.  Beloved, we must keep from sin.  If Christ has indeed saved us from sin, we cannot bear the thought of falling into it.  If any of you can take delight in sin, you are not the children of God.  If you are the children of God you hate it with a perfect hatred, and your very soul loathes it.  To keep you from sin, arm yourselves with this most holy and pure word of God, which shall cleanse your way, and make your heart obedient to the voice of the thrice-holy God.

Next our Lord used the word as a direction to his way.  This is a very important point. Too many direct their ways by what they call providences.  They do wrong things and they say, “It seemed such a providence.”  I wonder whether Jonah, when he went down to Joppa to flee to Tarshish, considered it a providence that a ship was about to sail.  If so, he was like too many now-a-days, who seek to lay their guilt upon God by declaring that they felt bound to act as they did, for providence suggested it.  Our Lord was not guided as to what he should do by the circumstances around him.  Any one but our holy Lord would have obeyed the tempter, and then have said, “I was very hungry, and I was sitting down in the wilderness, and it seemed such a providence that a spirit should find me out and courteously suggest the very thing that I needed, viz., to turn the stones into bread.”  It was a providence, but it was a testing providence.  When you are tempted to do evil to relieve your necessities, say to yourself, “This providence is testing me, but by no means indicates to me what I ought to do; for my rule is, ‘It is written.’“  If you make apparent providence your guide, you will make a thousand mistakes, but if you follow “It is written,” your steps will be wisely ordered.

Neither are we to make our special gifts and special privileges our guide. Christ is on the pinnacle of the temple, and it is possible, nay, it is certain, that if he had chosen to cast himself down he could have safely done so; but he did not make his special privileges a reason for presumption.  It is true that the saints shall be kept: final perseverance I believe to be undoubtedly the teaching of God’s word: out I am not to presume upon a doctrine, I am to obey the precept.  For a man to say “I am a child of God, I am safe, therefore I live as I list,” would be to prove that he is no child of God at all, for the children of God do not turn the grace of God into licentiousness.  It were only according to the devil’s logic to say, “I am favored more than others, and therefore I may provoke the Lord more than they.”  “It is written we love him because he first loved us, and by this we know that we love God, if we keep his commandments.”

Then Satan tried to make his own personal advantage our Lord’s guide. “All these things will I give thee,” said he, but Christ did not order his acts for his own personal advantage, but replied, “It is written.”  How often have I heard people say, “I do not like to remain in a church with which I do not agree, but my usefulness would be quite gone if I were to leave it.”  On this system, if our Lord had been a mere man he might have said, “If I fall down and perform this small act of ritualism I shall have a noble sphere of usefulness.  All the kingdoms of the earth will be mine!  The hungry and the thirsty, how would I supply their wants; and with me for a King earth would be happy.  Indeed, that is the very thing I am about to die for, and if it is to be done so easily, and in a trice, by bowing the knee before this spirit, why not do it?”  Far, far removed was our Lord from the wicked spirit of compromise.  Alas, too many now say, “We must give and take in little points; it is of no use to stand out and to be so absurdly wedded to your own ideas; there is nothing like yielding a little to carry your point in greater things.”  Thus many talk now-a-days, but not so spoke our Lord.

“It is written” was his guide; not his usefulness or personal advantage. My dear brother, it will sometimes happen that to do the right thing will appear to be most disastrous; it will shipwreck your fortune and bring you into trouble, but I charge you do the right thing at any cost.  Instead of your being honored and respected, and accounted a leader in the Christian church, you will be regarded as eccentric, and bigoted, if you speak straight out; but speak straight out, and never mind what comes of it.  You and I have nothing to do with what becomes of us, or our reputations, or with what becomes of the world, or becomes of heaven itself; our one business is to do our Father’s will. “It is written” is to be our role, and with dogged obstinacy, as men call it, but with resolute consecration as God esteems it, through the mire and through the slough, through flood and through the flame, follow Jesus and the word infallible.  Follow the written word wholly, and never mar the perfection of your obedience to him on account of usefulness, or any other petty plea, which Satan would put in your way.

Note, further, that our Lord used “It is written” for maintaining his own Spirit. I love to think of the calmness of Christ.  He is not one whit flurried.  He is hungry, and he is told to create bread, and he answers, “It is written.”  He is lifted to the temple’s summit, but he says, “It is written,” just as calmly as you or I might do sitting in an easy chair.  There he is with the whole world beneath his feet, gazing on its splendor, but he is not dazzled.  “It is written” is still his quiet answer.  Nothing makes a man self-contained, cool, and equal to every emergency like always falling back upon the infallible Book and remembering the declaration of Jehovah, who cannot lie.  I charge you, brethren, see to this.

The last thought on this point is that our Lord teaches us that the use of Scripture is to vanquish the enemy and chase him away. “Go,” said he to the fiend, “for it is written.” You too shall chase away temptation if you keep firmly to this, “God hath said it, God hath promised it; God that cannot lie, whose very word of grace is strong as that which built the skies.”

III. As our Lord chose the weapon and taught us its uses, so HE SHOWED US HOW TO HANDLE IT.

How are we to handle this sword of “It is written?”  First, with deepest reverence. Let every word that God has spoken be law and gospel to you.  Never trifle with it; never try to evade its force or to change its meaning.  God speaks to you in this book as much as if again he came to the top of Sinai and lifted up his voice in thunder. To trifle with Scripture is to deprive yourself of its aid.  Reverence it, I beseech you, and look up to God with devout gratitude for having given it to you.

Next have it always ready. Our Lord Jesus Christ as soon as he was assailed had his answer prepared — “It is written.”  A ready reckoner is an admirable person in a house of business; and a ready textuary is a most useful person in the house of God.  Have the Scriptures at your fingers’ end; better still, have them in the center of your heart. It is a good thing to store the memory with many passages of the Word — the very words themselves.  Brethren, study much the Word of God, and have it ready to hand.  It is of no use treating the Bible as the fool did his anchor, which he had left at home when he came to be in a storm: have the infallible witness at your side when the father of lies approaches.

Endeavour also to understand its meaning, and so to understand it that you can discern between its meaning and its perversion.  Half the mischief in the world, and perhaps more, is done, not by an ostensible lie, but by a perverted truth.  The devil, knowing this, takes a text of Scripture, clips it, adds to it, and attacks Christ with it; but our Lord did not therefore despise Scripture because the devil himself might quote it, but he answered him with a flaming text right in his face.  He did not say, “The other is not written, you have altered it;” but he gave him a taste of what “It is written” really was, and so confounded him.  Do you the same. Search the Word, get the true taste of it in your mouth, and acquire discernment; so that when you say “It is written,” you may not be making a mistake; for there are some who think their creed scriptural, and yet it is not so.  Texts of Scripture out of their connection, twisted and perverted, are not “It is written,” but the plain meaning of the word should be known and understood.  Oh, read the word, and pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, that you may know its meaning, for so will you contend against the foe.

Brethren, learn also to appropriate Scripture to yourselves. One of the texts our Lord quoted he slightly altered. “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”  The original text is, “Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God.”  But the singular lies in the plural, and it is always a blessed thing to be able to find it there.  Learn so to use Scripture that you take home to yourself all its teaching, all its precepts, all its promises, all its doctrines; for bread on the table does not nourish; it is bread which you eat that will really sustain you.

When you have appropriated the texts to yourself, stand by them whatever they may cost you. If to give up the text would enable you to make stones into bread, do not give it up; if to reject the precept would enable you to fly through the air like a seraph, do not reject it.  If to go against the word of God would make you emperor of the entire world, do not accept the bribes.  To the law and to the testimony, stand ye there. Be a Bible man, go so far as the Bible, but not an inch beyond it.  Though Calvin should beckon you, and you esteem him, or Wesley should beckon, and you esteem him, keep to the Scripture, to the Scripture only.  If your minister should go astray, pray that he may be brought back again, but do not follow him.  Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than this book teaches you, do not, I pray you, give any heed to us — no, not for a single moment.  Here is the only infallibility; — the Holy Ghost’s witness in this book.

Remember, lastly, that your Lord at this time was filled with the Spirit. “Jesus, being filled with the Spirit,” went to be tempted.  The word of God, apart from the Spirit of God, will be of no use to you.  If you cannot understand a book, do you know the best way to reach its meaning?  Write to the author and ask him what he meant.  If you have a book to read, and you have got that author always accessible, you need not complain that you do not understand it. The Holy Spirit is come to abide with us forever.

Search the Scriptures, but cry for the Spirit’s light, and live under his influence.  So Jesus fought the old dragon, “being filled with the Spirit.”  He smote Leviathan through with this weapon, because the Spirit of God was upon him.  Go you with the word of God like a two-edged sword in your land!  But ere you enter the lists pray the Holy Ghost to baptize you into himself, so shall you overcome all your adversaries, and triumph even to the end.  May God bless you, for Jesus’ sake.

“The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” — Romans 2:4

God is often exceedingly good to those who are utterly unworthy of such treatment.  “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good;” indeed, sometimes, the evil seem to have more of the sunshine than the good have.  David said, “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.”  God’s forbearance has been misinterpreted, and even misrepresented, by some who have implied, or actually asserted that God winks at sin and does not care how men behave, but treats all alike whether they are good or evil.  Some have wickedly asked, as Job reminded his friends, “What is the Almighty that we should serve him?”  Many have said, “Do not the wicked prosper?  Do they not even die in peace?  Is it not written concerning them, ‘There are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm’?”  This is a misinterpretation of the merciful design of God towards the ungodly and is corrected by the apostle in the verse from which our text is selected: “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”  The goodness of God to a man of evil life is not intended to encourage him to continue in his sin, but it is meant to woo and win him away from it.  God manifests his infinite gentleness and love that he may thereby kill man’s sin; and that, by his tender mercy, he may win man’s hard heart unto himself; and that, by his abundant lovingkindness, he may awaken man’s conscience to a sense of his true position in his Maker’s sight, that he may turn away from the sin which he now loves, and may seek his God, whom he has despised and neglected.

My fellow-man, if thou art still ungodly, yet thou hast been prospered by thy God, understand clearly the Lord’s intention in thy prosperity: “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”  Thou must not so unwise, thou must not be so wicked, as to say, “I am prospering although I am living in sin; therefore, I will continue to do so.”  Remember what the Lord said through Isaiah the prophet: “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.”  Be thou, at least, as wise as these brute beasts are and recognize from whom thy prosperity cometh; and then accept as true God’s explanation of his actions, as given by the Holy Spirit through the apostle, and believe that “the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”

I. My object, at this time, is that those who are enjoying the goodness of God, but yet have never repented of sin, may see their conduct in its true light and may be brought to a sincere and hearty repentance of their sin.  To that end, I shall, first of all, spend a little time in mentioning SOME OF THE TOKENS OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD WHICH HE HAS LAVISHED UPON MANY WITH THE VIEW OF LEADING THEM TO REPENTANCE.

I commence with this remark; it is a great blessing to have been born of Christian parents, or even of parents who were respectable and moral; it gives one a good start in life where this is the case.  On the other hand, I do not doubt that some have strong propensities to evil which have been at work within them from their very birth, so that they were more likely than certain others were to plunge into gross sin.  Therefore, it is no small mercy to have been started in this world under a roof where the name of Jesus was often heard, where holy things were constantly brought before one’s eye, where blasphemy was never heard, where uncleanness would have been put outside the door with the utmost abhorrence; so, if any of you have been the recipients of these marks of God’s favorable regard, and yet are not godly, perhaps, not even moral, it is clear, from our text, that this goodness of God to you ought to lead you to repentance.  Let me just remind you of your gracious mother, who is now, perhaps, with God in glory.  Your godly father, possibly, lives to sorrow over you.  If they could have known, when you were a fair-haired boy at home, that you would ever be what you now are, they might have wished that you had never been born.  Try to recall those early, happy days; imagine that you can hear again your mother’s earnest pleadings both with and for her boy; think once more of how you felt when you were sitting at the table on which the family Bible lay open, and, morning and evening, prayer was offered unto the Most High; and, as you do so, may the Lord, by some soft and gentle voice within your conscience, call you to repentance!

Next, it is a mark of the great goodness and forbearance of God as he continues to spare the lives of men. We often marvel that he does not more quickly cut them down as cumberers of the ground.  If the first wanton transgression had been followed by a solemn warning and if the next willful sin had involved severe chastisement with the threatening that the third offense should be the last, we might not have been surprised; yet God, in his abounding mercy, allows men to sin over and over again, to sin against light and knowledge, against rebuke and instruction against conscience and reason, and even against the love of Christ.  Singularly enough, God often spares, in an extraordinary manner, the lives of some of the most atrocious rebels against his righteous rule.  There are some men, who are so wicked that, if they were dead, the moral atmosphere of the world would be much purer; yet they live on and seem as if they could not die.  Disease after disease has laid them low, for they sin against their own bodies and bring themselves into a truly horrible condition, yet they rise from their sick-bed only to sin again more foully than ever.  How is it that such sinners are spared, while an earnest and zealous foreign missionary sickens, and dies and an eminent saint, who did but pass through a street where fever raged, was stricken with the fell disease, and speedily carried off by it?  If I understand why the miscreants are spared when the godly are taken, and I am sure I do, for my text instructs me, the goodness of God is manifested in order to lead such sinners to repentance.  He spares them that they may turn unto him.

The sailor who a little while before was blaspheming the name of the Lord and then working at the pumps, with all his might, to try to save the ship, sees the vessel go down, but he clings to a spar that floats upon the raging sea.  His shipmates have been sinking all around him, but he finds himself washed up high and dry upon a rock.  To what end, seaman, are you spared?  Is it not that the goodness of God may lead to repentance even you, who could scarcely speak without cursing?  God means, I trust, that you should, henceforth, live a new life and serve him as you have never yet done.  And the soldier, too, I have heard of him, in the day of battle, when the bullets have whistled close by his ears, and comrade after comrade has fallen at his side.  I remember speaking, many years ago, with one who rode in that celebrated charge at Balaclava when the saddles were being emptied right and left, yet on to the end he rode, and back again through the valley of death; and, though a stranger to him, I could not help laying my hand upon his shoulder and claiming him for the Christ who had spared his life in that terrible time.  Am I addressing anyone who has been in imminent peril of any sort, by railway accident or in shipwreck, in battle or in storm, when it seemed as if you must die yet you did not die?  Then, surely, your preservation means that God was saying to grim Death, “Spare him, for he is mine.  I intend to save his soul as well as to spare his life.”  If that is the case with any of you, God’s goodness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Nor is this all, though there is great mercy in a godly parentage and in life preserved in times of peril; for, sometimes, ungodly even enjoy, for many years, the privilege of perfect health. “I never had a day’s illness in my life,” says one; yet he has not been careful of his constitution; on the contrary, he has done much to injure it.  Another says, “I never missed a day’s work and never was kept away from business by suffering of any kind; I scarcely know what aches and pains mean.”  Well, friend, God deals with you, in that respect, in a very different way from the treatment he metes out to some of us, who, nevertheless, try to serve him.  Surely, you ought seriously to think of this matter, and to say to yourself, “He does not even give me as much of the rod as he gives to his own children.  It cannot be that he loves me better than he loves them; it must be because I am not his child.  As a man does not punish another person’s boy, but leaves him to go his own way, so I must not reckon that God is specially showing his love to me in this long-continued health and strength, and I must solemnly ask myself, ‘Am I his child?’  And then, on the other hand, I must say to him, ‘Dost thou, O Lord, indulge me with health and strength?  Dost thou favor me with this long immunity from pain, I, who never lived to serve thee and never even thanked thee for all thy goodness to me?  Then am I thoroughly ashamed of myself, and I implore thee, O my gracious Preserver, to forgive my forgetfulness and ingratitude, and to receive me, and to put me among thy children!’”

Nor is this all, for I know some godly people who are greatly prospering in this world. When they started in life, perhaps things were a little hard with them; and they thought that, if God would but give them enough to eat and drink, it would be a great mercy.  Possibly, they soon found a position which just suited their capacities but, ere long, they began to aspire to something higher, and God gave it to them.  So it has gone on until, now, they have pretty nearly all that they could wish to have.  Well, dear friends, if this has been your experience, recollect that all has come to you from the Giver of every good and perfect gift.  Each one of these blessings has been sent to you marked with some such message as this from the Lord himself, “Will not my creature consider what return should be rendered to me for this mercy, and that mercy, and the other mercy, which I have given to him, more even than I have given to some of the best of my own people; will he not turn unto me, and bless the Giver of all this goodness to him?”

I would like to take you by the hand, young man, you who have been signally helped, perhaps, out of a difficulty in business, when it seemed as if you must fail.  You have, since then, had many severe storms and trials to face, yet you have always been delivered out of them all, and now you have come into a channel where it is all smooth sailing.  Is it not time for you to begin to consider your ways, and to turn unto the Lord?  You were blessed with a happy marriage; your children are growing up around you, and whereas many others have had to bury their offspring, yours have all been spared to you.  Do you not see how God has blessed you in all sorts of ways? Will you not, therefore, give him your heart?  Will you not cast away from you the sin that he hates?  Will you not turn unto him, trusting and loving Christ with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength?  The goodness of God to you, coming in so many different forms and ways, should lead you to repentance.

Notice, dear friends, that the Lord does not drive you to repentance.  Cain was driven away, as a fugitive and a vagabond, when he had killed his righteous brother Abel; Judas went and hanged himself, being driven by an anguish of remorse because of what he had done in betraying his Lord; but the sweetest and best repentance is that which comes, not by driving, but by drawing: “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”  It is a wretched spirit that needs to be continually flogged with the whip of a slave-holder; I hope I am addressing those who can be affected by other motives than those of dread.  The good God, the gracious God, who has abounded in mercy and goodness so wonderfully to many of you – should you not feel that something is drawing you towards him?  At least, do him the justice to look at him as he reveals himself in Christ Jesus and see if he is not worth serving, if it is not proper and right that you should serve him.  Having provided his Son to be the Savior of sinners, is it not proper that you should turn unto him and find eternal life through believing in him?

I have only given a brief outline of the many forms of God’s goodness to many of us; but your experiences are so different that you must, each one, fill up his or her own.  I know that you all have reason to bless God for some special goodness.  We sang, just now, “Tell it unto sinners, tell, I am, I am out of hell;” —but I may add that we are also not in the lunatic asylum, not in the workhouse, not in prison, not upon the bed of sickness; and all these things are tokens of God’s goodness to us, which ought to lead us to repentance.

II. Now, secondly, I will try to show you IN WHAT WAY THE GOODNESS OF GOD IS AN ARGUMENT FOR OUR REPENTANCE.

First, God has been so good to us; He cannot be a hard taskmaster. The ungodly man cannot truly say to God what the man in the parable said to his lord, “I feared thee, because thou art an austere man.”  How can God be austere when he has manifested all this goodness to you?  Your house has been without prayer, yet you have had no fire to burn it down, no thieves to ransack it, no fever to invade it; you have lived for forty, fifty, sixty, or even seventy or eighty years without ever serving your Maker, yet you are surrounded with every earthly comfort; after all that, can you call God a hard task-master?  No; it is proved beyond all question that God is good, and only good, and that he doeth good even to the unthankful and the evil.

Well, then, what a shame it is that such a generous, magnanimous God as he is should be treated as the careless and indifferent treat him!  When a man is simply a just man, that is well so far as it goes; but he may be hard and stern; but when a man is generous, forgiving, tender-hearted, surely, the most coarse-minded among us would be unwilling to inflict pain upon such a heart as that!  But the heart of God is more loving than that of any man who has ever lived and more tender than ever any mother was with her child.  He cannot bear that you should love evil instead of loving him.  And after he has done all this for you of which I have been speaking, wherefore do you turn against him?  Did I hear you make use of a blasphemous expression?  For which of all the good things that he has done for you did you blaspheme his holy name?  For sparing your life when you had that terrible fever; or for raising up your dear little child from the very brink of the grave?  Do you neglect to worship the Lord, do you rail at his people, do you scoff at all religion because of the many tokens of God’s goodness that he has manifested toward you?  Come, now, be a man; sink not below the level of a brute, for even a brute will render good for good.  It is the devil who renders evil for good; yet you are sinking to his level if you continue in sin and turn not unto God, who has dealt so kindly and so graciously with you.

The next reflection to help you to repentance is this.  As God has dealt so kindly with you while you have been living in sin, then it is untrue, as you thought that he is unwilling to forgive. There are many, who do not seek God’s mercy, because they think it is not to be obtained by them, but that is one of the devil’s lies.  Why, man, as he has spared you so long, he must be willing to forgive you.  Turn to him, I pray you; and, with broken heart and contrite spirit, ask him to forgive you, and you shall see how quickly he will do it, for it is still true that “he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.”  “He delighteth in mercy.”  “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.”  The great goodness of God to rebellious sinners is proof positive that he is willing to bestow his forgiving mercy upon them as soon as they repent of their sin; so it should be a great inducement to them to turn unto him, and live.

The argument, however, will appear to be stronger still if, in reading our text, we lay the emphasis upon the personal pronoun: “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”  Now, dear friend, if God has taken the trouble to be specially good to you, in order to lead you to repentance, you may be certain that he would not have picked you out in this remarkable manner unless he had intended to welcome you if you do but come unto him.  I will not point my finger at any particular person, nor will I intentionally direct a glance of my eye at any special individual; but I feel persuaded that there are some here who have been, in the providence of God, very signally favored.  If your life-story could be written, it would, perhaps, scarcely be believed; and as you look back upon difficulties and trials that you have been enabled to surmount, and upon the many blessings that have been showered upon you, it must sometimes seem to you almost like a dream.  You cannot understand it; you say to yourself that you have been one of the darlings of destiny.  If you have said that, do not talk any more about destiny, but think of what the apostle says in our text: “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”  I hope that thou art one of his elect, chosen in Christ long before the foundation of the world, and that thou hast in thy heart heard him say to thee, by his Holy Spirit, though not in words audible to thine outward ear, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”

Think of John Newton, the godless sailor, reduced to the level of a slave on the coast of Africa; yet, after going from sin to sin, being spared to stand in the church of St. Mary Woolnoth, for many a year to preach the gospel of “free grace and dying love.”  So, the many fevers from which he suffered could not kill him, and his various shipwrecks could not drown him, for God had ordained that he must come home, find the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, and be his faithful servant all the rest of his days.  And you, my friend, who have long been roaming about the world, must come to that same Savior if you really wish to be saved.  You are like a besieged city; yet something more powerful than great guns is now ranged against you.  The batteries of almighty love have come into the field.  Providence after providence has surrounded you with the gracious artillery of divine mercy.  You cannot escape; therefore, surrender to your best Friend!  Surrender to your God!  Surrender to holiness, and happiness, and everlasting life!  God help you to do so, for the legitimate argument of undeserved goodness, given to the worst of men, is that it should lead them speedily to repentance and to eternal life.  This personal pronoun is in the singular, so I pray thee, my brother, and thee, my sister, to take home to thine own heart the message of the text: “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”

Now I want, just for a minute or two, before I close, to address myself to those who have repented.  Beloved friends, shall I tell you what your experience has been?  I think I can, if I tell you what mine has been First of all, when I really came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, I discovered that he loved sinners.  Before I made that discovery, I thought he loved only the good and the righteous; but when I read his Word, I found that he came, not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.  I thought, for a long while, that he wanted my good works, and I had none to bring to him; but, as I read his Word, I found that he gave himself for our sins, not for our righteousnesses.  Then I understood, as I read his word, that whosoever believed in him should not be condemned.  I believed in him, and I knew at once, from his word, that I was not condemned, that he had died for me, that my sins were all pardoned.  And, let me tell you, I never repented before as I repented then.  It seemed to me if it was really true that he had forgiven me all my sin and suffered and died that he might be able justly to forgive me, that I must have been almost as bad as the devil himself to have sinned against him as I had done.  Even while I rejoiced in being pardoned, I felt almost ashamed to look him in the face and claim his mercy.  To think that I should have sinned against such a Friend, who was so ready to forgive me my guilt, made me ready to hide my head in the very dust.  If he had bidden the thunders of his wrath to roll around me, I should not have been surprised; but when, instead of thunders, he gently said “I love thee, and I forgive thee,” then was my heart broken.

“Dissolved by his mercy I fell to the ground,

And wept to the praise of the mercy I’d found.”

After that, I found that he was not only willing to pardon me, but that he had come to robe me in his own righteousness that I might stand accepted in his place.  At this, I wondered much; but when I saw that he really did impute to me his own righteousness, and that I, a sinner, stood before God “accepted in the Beloved,” that pulled the sluices up again, and I repented more than I did before as I realized that I, whom he had ordained to bless with such a wondrous righteousness as that, should ever have been a lover of sin instead of a lover of the Lord.

Then a voice whispered to me that, being pardoned, and justified, I was also adopted into the family of God, whereat I wondered, more than ever, how it could be that an heir of wrath should be able to say, “Abba, Father.”  As I understood this, I said, “Father, I did not know that thou wert my Father, or I would not have trespassed against thee and gone away from thee as I have done.”  My voice was almost choked, my heart was full, and my tears freely flowed, as I grieved that I had so long offended my Father and my God.  To make a long story short, I find myself, I thank his name, repenting more and more every day I live.  I am more and more angry with myself to think I should not have kept my Father’s commands in my mind and served him with my whole heart.  I expect that, as I learn more of his goodness, it will always continue to lead me to repentance; and I trust, beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, you can bear me witness that I do but speak what is in your mind also.

The dearer Christ is to us, the blacker is sin in our sight.  The sweeter the love of God is to us, the more bitter is the thought of having so long sinned against it.  The more you see, in these shoreless, bottomless deeps, what divine grace has done for you, and to you, the more you smite upon your breast, and cry, “How could I ever have sinned against the Lord as I have done; and how can I sin against him as I still continue to do.  “Ah!” says one, “but mine is a very bad case, for I have had a relapse.  I did think I was saved once, but I have been just as bad or even worse since then.”  Ah, but my Master delights to forgive his backsliding children!  He has put this invitation in the Scriptures on purpose for you: “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you.”  Again and again he saith, “Return! Return! Return! You, whom the Church, in God’s name, has excommunicated, I yet invite you to return.  It is an awful thing to lie under the ban of God’s Church, for what is so done on earth is confirmed in heaven; but, though you lie under this ban, I yet invite you to return unto me, for I will receive you graciously, and love you freely.”

“Ah!” says one, “but I do not feel my need of Christ as I could wish to feel it.  I believe it in theory, but I do not feel it as I should.”  Well, be humbled about this; weep because you do not weep; be grieved to think that you should be so hard-hearted; but, oh! remember that Christ can cure hard hearts quite as well as sinful ones.  Come just as you are.  You have a real need of Christ, whether you feel it or not.  It is not your sense of need, but your real need of Christ that must draw you to come to him.  O ye who are sick, and who is there among us who is not come to the great Physician and be made whole!  I would gladly move your souls if I could, but this is not in man’s power.  There have been times when I have been able to stir you through and through, as the waves of the sea are moved by the wind; but I know that when man only has done this, all the tempest has soon subsided, and you have gone your way, and have been as before; but, if God shall own this poor and imperfect statement of most precious truth, then unto him shall be the glory.  [Edward] Payson says, “Looking back on my sermons, I often wonder that God should ever have blessed a soul through them;” and often do I think the same I pray God to bless the message.

Young man, what say you to haul down the black flag and run up the blood-red cross tonight?  You may yet be a minister of Christ, perhaps a missionary of the cross.  In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I bid you believe on him, and you shall live; and all of you who are gathered here, I command you, as well as beseech, implore, and entreat you, do not put away from you the gospel which is preached in your hearing.  Trust Christ and you shall live; if you will not do so, it may be that you will never again be exhorted to come to Christ.  You may never again be told that he is willing and able to receive you.  Oh, will ye again go your ways and despise the Lord?  Will ye go to your merchandise and to your trade, and neglect the salvation of your souls, and let them become still worse in this foul disease which ends in death and damnation?  “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die?”  By that cross where hung the Son of God in mortal flesh, by those five wounds, and by the agonies he endured, I do implore you to look to him and live.  As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so lift I up the Son of man to you now, ye sin-bitten sinners.  Though ye feel not the venom, yet look! look! look!  Sinner, look, and thou art saved!  By the living God, whose splendors of grace I now proclaim, and whose splendors of wrath ye shall one day feel if ye reject his Son, look! look yonder, see the blood, it flows for you, sinner!  See the hands of Jesus, they are fast nailed to the tree!  See his feet there, fastened by the nails as if they would stop there till you come to him!  See that heart of his, how it streams with blood to wash away your many sins!  O sinner, look and live!  I cannot say more.  God knows I cannot do more; I can only testify to you the gospel.  If ye turn not at my message, I must be a swift witness against you at the day of judgment, I must say it, I must be a swift witness against you.  Your blood is on your own heads!  Christ is preached to you.  Look and live!  Believe and be saved!  But reject him, and he that believeth not shall be damned; and I can only say “men” to that, if you reject so great a salvation.

Yet, I pray you, think not so much of the law as of the gospel, nor think so much of hell as of the Christ who has delivered his people from hell, nor so much of divine wrath as of God’s goodness.  It is a good God whom I have to set before you.  I never so much wish to be eloquent as when I have to speak of him and all his love to guilty sinners.  What has he done to any of us but that which is good?  Even if he has sorely smitten us, it has been in mercy that he has done it.  Though you may have lain for weeks upon a sick-bed, it was meant to cure your souls of the fatal disease of sin.  That limb was broken that your spirit might be healed.  That loss of sight was sent that you might learn, by inward sight, to see the Lord Jesus as your Savior.  God is all goodness, and mercy, and love, and tenderness, and he has set his own dear Son before you, saying to you, “Believe in him, and ye shall be saved. ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’”  Will you not turn unto him, and live?  Eternal Spirit, turn them, and they shall be turned, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.