Sermon 2805. 'Life for a Look'

(No. 2805)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1902.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 22, 1877.

"Look unto Me, and beyou saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." Isaiah 45:22.

SINCE this text was blessed to my conversion many years ago, I have often preached from it, but, on this occasion I am notgoing to speak of it as a whole. There is only one thought that I shall endeavor to bring out of it and I intend to act asthe gold-beaters do with the metal upon which they work, that is-beat it out very thin and, perhaps, when it covers a widesurface, some may be able to see it who have not previously perceived its preciousness and power.

The great sin of man ever since he has fallen, has been that of idolatry. He is always seeking to get away from God, who isreal, but whom he cannot see, and to make for himself a god which can only be an idol, but which pleases him because he cangaze upon it. And thus it comes to pass that some with images of wood and stone-and others with carnal confidences and thelike-put something else into the place which should be occupied by God alone. And they look to that something and expect goodfrom it, instead of looking for all good to come from God, and from Him alone. This looking to anything which usurps the placeof God cannot but be most offensive to Him and it must also be very disappointing to ourselves, for it is impossible for thefalse god to yield us any true comfort. When matters come to a pinch and we really need succor, we shall find that we havebeen leaning upon a broken reed if we have been trusting to anything except the Lord our God.

For a while the idolater may delight himself in the idol which he has so dexterously carved and which he has covered withsilver plates and adorned with golden chains. But when he finds that he cries in vain to his god in the day of trouble-whenhe discovers that no answer comes to his earnest prayer-in his disappointment and vexation of spirit, he is ready to lie downin despair! It must be so, more or less, with all of us. If we trust in anything but God, we shall be disappointed. And ifwe are living for anything but the Unseen One, who created and still sustains us, we shall have to lie down in sorrow despitethe sparks of the fire we have ourselves kindled.

Yet note the Lord's great patience even with those who are thus provoking Him by this idolatry of theirs. What do you think,Sirs? If you had made men, sustained them and provided for them, yet they did not worship you, or serve you, or fear you,or trust you, but, instead, transferred their fear, or love, or trust to mere idols that had eyes, but could not see, hadhands, but could not help-would you not feel righteously angry? Would it not grieve you to have a dead thing, which thesepeople had themselves made, put into your place? I am sure it would! And the Lord our God is a jealous God and He has been,generation after generation, provoked by the idolatries of men. Yes, and He has even been provoked by us who profess to beHis people, but who have loved something else better than we have loved Him. Why, some of us have actually trusted ourselvesmore than we have trusted the lord and, sometimes, in the hour of trial, we have fled to a friend and relied upon an arm offlesh, instead of trusting in the Lord alone!

Yet how patient He has been under it all! And how blessedly this chapter teaches us of the loving kindness of the Lord! HereHe admonishes His ancient people with great gentleness, while He also reasons with great force of argument. Tenderly He chidesthe wrongdoers and then earnestly He invites them to a better way. He seems to say to them, "Have done with these idols onceand for all! You have come into trouble and difficulty through looking to them, yet they could not save you. Now turn awayfrom them and look to Me. Though you are like the very ends of the earth and have gone as

far away from Me as you could, as if you would escape from My Presence altogether if that were possible, yet, now, in thehour of your distress, turn your eyes to Me and see if I will not help you! Come and trust Me just this once. 'Look unto Me,and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. "Listen to this Divine message, you whohave forgotten your God, as, in these gracious terms, He bids you turn your eyes to Him and let your expectations be fromHim!

Our text, as I read it, teaches me, first, that for salvation out of any trouble, we should look to God alone. When I havespoken briefly upon that point, I shall carry the principle into deeper spiritual matters by showing you, in the second place,that, for eternal salvation, we must assuredly look to God alone.

I. First, then, FOR SALVATION OUT OF ANY TROUBLE, WE SHOULD LOOK TO GOD ALONE.

You know, Brothers and Sisters, that there are some troubles in which men dolook to God alone. I have known even the mostprofane, godless men turn to God, after a fashion, in the hour of supreme peril. It has often been observed that men in timeof storm or shipwreck-those who had used blasphemous language and ridiculed all religion-when they have been caused to reelto and fro and stagger like drunken men, and have been at their wits' end, they have cried unto the Lord in their trouble.And in earthquakes, when the very globe, itself, rocks and reels, as though it were as unstable as the restless sea, and hugebuildings are torn in pieces, and strong towers come tumbling down, thousands of men have cried aloud to God to save them!Knees, unused to devotion, have been bent in abject terror while hearts that never felt the gracious Presence of God, havebegun to tremble at the majestic display of His power. This kind of experience has often been witnessed in ungodly men atthe approach of death. When, at last, the chill drops stand on their brow-when they know that life is almost over and theirsoul is melting in their dire distress and the dark gates of the grave stand wide open before them-then they also cry untothe Lord in their trouble.

Now, if men will act thus by the compulsion of great calamity, is there not sound reason why you should cheerfully and willinglydo the same and resort to God in every trial, difficulty and dilemma? Why do not men also seek Divine help in other matters?It is evident that God's hand is in other things besides shipwrecks, earthquakes and death! And it has often been proved thatHe is able to help in the lesser troubles a well as the greater ones. It is the Lord that quickens the wheels of commerce,or that stops them and so causes distress. It is the Lord that permits the good and the evil which happen to men. "Shall therebe evil in a city, and the Lord has not done it?" Is there a cry or a wail in war that God does not hear? Then why shouldwe not go to Him in every time of peril and trouble-even in the minor trials and difficulties of life? Why must we have asevere sickness in order to drive us to God? Why is it that only the very peril of life brings us to our knees?

It ought not to be so-especially with the Lord's own children. Is anything too unimportant for the Lord to notice? Is anytrial too slight for you to bring in prayer before Him? If you, fathers, listen to your children's little tales of sorrow.If you, mothers, with your needle, deftly take out the tiniest thorn from your child's hand, how much more will your Father,who is in Heaven, note all the little trials you have to bear in this life-and deliver you out of them all? Look unto Him,then, and be you saved out of all the trials that beset you! Brothers and Sisters, we ought to habitually look to God-in themorning, looking to Him for the mercies of the day. At night, looking to Him for the pardon that shall cover the day's offenses.In the morning, expecting strength for the day's burden and, in the evening, laying down the burden at the Master's feet andblessing Him for the Grace which has sustained us.

"But," says one, "may we not use means to help us out of our difficulties?" Of course you may! You would be wrong if you didnot. He who bids you pray for harvest, would have you sow your seed! He who would have you ask to be guided all through yourjourney, would have you also follow industriously the track of the fiery-cloudy pillar. Yes, use the means, but mind thatyou trust in God while you use the means-and trust in God beyond all means! And when means utterly fail and you have cometo the limit of the tether of your own wit and skill, then feel as if you were flung into the bare arms of God and confideall the more because there is nothing else that you can do! You are not to make faith in God an excuse for idleness. It wouldbe equally wrong to make your industry a pretext for trusting to yourselves, instead of confiding only in God.

Let this be the rule of your whole life. For all things, trust in God. In all matters, submit to God and, in all ways, serveGod. You may take this Divine command, "Look unto Me," as the motto which shall illuminate your pathway at all times. Youcan stand safely on the high hills of prosperity as long as you look to Him. And even in the chilly valley of

adversity, your heart shall rejoice while you keep looking unto Him. You may go forth to battle against innumerable foes andconquer them all while you look to Him. You may lie upon the bed of sickness and be able to bear your pain with patience whileyou look to Him! And you shall come at last into the valley of death-shade-death's sullen stream shall begin to flow overyour feet and chill your heart's blood-but, if you are still looking unto the Lord, the promise of our text shall be fulfilledto you and you shall be saved, for He is God and beside Him there is none else!

II. Now, secondly, while this is the principle which should guide all Believers, it is also the right principle for thosewho are beginning to be Believers, that is, those who are seeking the salvation of their souls. FOR ETERNAL SALVATION WE MUSTLOOK TO GOD ALONE!

I want to keep you to this point if I can, so I ask you to remember, first, that salvation is not to be found in any mereagent. The idolatry which leads some men to make blocks of wood and stone into objects of worship has led others to make godsof what are called, "the means of Grace," selecting this or that matter-sometimes, that which is of Divine appointment and,sometimes, things which are the result of human invention. At one time you may find a man resting the whole weight of hissoul on what he calls, "sacraments." Has he not been baptized and is he not, therefore, a member of Christ, a child of Godand an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven? He goes regularly to what he calls, "Holy Communion," and he supposes that he hasreceived Grace by the eating of "consecrated" bread and the drinking of "consecrated" wine. But, Beloved, "sacraments" becomemere idols as much as the false gods of the Hindu when we expect salvation from them! We have put the Christian ordinancesaltogether out of their place when we have allowed them to usurp the position which belongs only to the Savior.

I do not suppose that many of you will do this, yet I am sometimes afraid that you may fall into an equal error of much thesame character. Some people seem to suppose that because God blesses the hearing of sermons, (and He does bless it, even asHe blesses other means that He has ordained), therefore they shall surely be saved through the hearing of sermons. Or becausegood books are often exceedingly useful and lead men to Christ, they expect that by reading such books they shall be savedand, especially, because the Bible, itself, is the best of books-the Book of God, and the God of books-because it gives muchLight to those who are in darkness, they suppose that if they search the Scriptures, they will have eternal life. Now, dearFriends, sermons, good books and even the Bible, itself, may be made into idols if you look to them for salvation and expectthat by hearing and by reading-and going no further-you will be saved! You must go beyond all these things and get to God,Himself, and say, with David, "My soul, wait you only upon God; for my expectation is from Him."

The two Christian ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are precious things. The ministry of the Word- and the InspiredWord as we have it recorded in this Book-these are precious things. But they are only like the porch through which we passto get to God, Himself. If a man stays on the porch, instead of passing through it to the great Host of the house, he missesthe design and end of the porch which is not intended to keep the man upon the threshold, but that he should pass throughit and find the God who dwells within! It is very easy to look to mere agents for salvation, but salvation is not to be foundthere. "Salvation is of the Lord," and of the Lord alone! No man in the world can accomplish this great work. The Psalmisthad learned that lesson when he wrote, "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him."Though a man should speak with the tongues of men and of angels, yet, if you are not led, by his speech, to look to God forsalvation, you will not be saved! And though the ordinances of God's House are observed before you in all their sacred simplicity,yet they can yield you no profit if you do not pass beyond that which is seen by the eyes and look unto the great invisibleGod to whom your soul must draw near, in spirit and in truth, if you are ever to find salvation!

Does someone ask, "To what, then, are we to look?" I will try to tell you if you will listen. You are guilty, so, in orderthat you may be saved, you need to have your sins pardoned. And you also need that your heart should be renewed by God's almightyGrace. So, the great thing that you need to know, look at and rely upon, is the mercy of God. Especially should you thinkmuch of the greatness of that mercy. If your sin is great, remember that it is so and mourn over it. But also remember thatGod's mercy is a bottomless, boundless ocean which can swallow up and cover, forever, the great mountain of your guilt. Themerciful God is able to put away all your sin. Think, too, of the freeness of that mercy, which asks nothing at your hand-noprice, no bribe to move the heart of God to take pity upon you-for his heart burns with love of itself. It does not need youto bring anything to make Him love you, or to incline Him to be ready to

forgive you. He is so already from the very force of His own Character! God's mercy is free, full, rich and abundant. To Moses,He, "proclaimed the name of the Lord" in that remarkable utterance, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering,and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression and sin." He claspsHis lost child to His bosom and rejoices that he is found!

Yet also remember that God's mercy is Sovereign-He saves whom He will-and that there is no reason known to you why He shouldnot save you as well as any other sinner, especially since that Sovereignty of His is generally displayed toward the mostunlikely and undeserving! Well says the Apostle, "Not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble are called,but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God has chosen the weak things of the world toconfound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yes, andthings which are not, to bring to nothing things that are: that no flesh should glory in His Presence." Ponder this greatTruth of God and then say to your soul, "I, a guilty sinner, needing salvation, must look for it to the rich, full, free,ever-flowing, over-flowing, Sovereign, everlasting mercy of God." O eyes that weep because of sin, behold this glorious attributeof the God of Mercy and of Grace-and let your tears be dry!

Then, since God says, "Look unto Me," let me ask you whether you are looking unto Him as He has revealed Himself to us inHis Word. If you simply look to God as He reveals Himself in Nature, you will have but a very imperfect view of Him and youwill derive but little comfort from Him. We cannot possibly understand Him, there, as well as we do when He speaks to us-notby the signs and hieroglyphics of Nature-but in the plain words that we can read in our own mother tongue in this blessedBook. Therefore, if you would be saved, look to God here where He looks at you from the pages of His Word-and hear what Hetells you. He tells you, by almost innumerable promises, that He is ready to forgive your sin if you repent of it and trustHis Son. Then, to His promises, He adds such gracious and cheering invitations as this, "Come now, and let us reason together,says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shallbe as wool." And such loving exhortations as this, "Let the wicked forsake His ways, and the unrighteous man His thoughts:and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

Read this blessed Book, search out its exceedingly great and precious promises, study its many invitations and also examinethe examples that are given in its records of the multitudes of sinners God has saved by His Grace-the great sinners whom,in His abundant mercy, He has accepted and made to be His children! Keep your eyes fixed on God as He so graciously manifestsHimself in the pages of His own Book, for then you will be able to cry with the Prophet Micah, "Who is a God like unto You,that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retains not His anger forever, becauseHe delights in mercy." O guilty Soul, if you would find salvation, you have not to look to any priest, nor to any book, norto any ceremony, nor to any doings of your own! But look to God as He has revealed Himself in His Word!

And especially is it intended that we should look unto God as He reveals Himself in the Person and work of His dear Son. Thisis the very essence of the Gospel-that we should look to God in Jesus Christ and so find salvation. That is where salvationis to be found-and nowhere else-"for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." And,"other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Look, then, to the Lord Jesus Christ if you wouldfind salvation! You say that you dare not come to God by reason of your great sin? You do well to regard your sin as greatand to mourn over it, but you must not be content with doing that. Look away to Jesus, the great Sin-Bearer, on whom was laidthe iniquity of all who believe in Him, even as the Prophet Isaiah says, "He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruisedfor our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Look away from your sin,Sinner! No, rather, follow your sin as it is laid by God on the Sin-Bearer's shoulders and, as you look there, you will findsalvation!

"But," you say, "I have no merit to plead before God. I cannot hope to meet with acceptance in His sight." Then listen tomy text. God says here, "Look unto Me, and be you saved." God, in the Person of His well-beloved Son, shows the only methodby which you can be accepted by Him. The perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ is both imputed and imparted to all who believein Him and, therefore, dream not of trusting in their own merits! Indeed, you have none to trust in-a spider's web is moresubstantial than the flimsy, fancied merits of the best man under Heaven! But if you look to what Christ was and is, to whatHe did and what He suffered, you will find the garment-the royal robe beyond all com-

parison for beauty-in which you may wrap yourself for time and for eternity! If you put on this robe, Friend, God will loveyou and bless you! No, I must reverse the order of my words and say that, because God has loved you, He has made it possiblefor you to take the righteousness of Christ to be your righteousness forever and ever!

"Ah," says another, "but if I am to find salvation, I must escape from the power of sin-and I have no strength to do that."I know you haven't-do not think of looking to yourself to find any, but listen again to our text, "Look unto Me, and be yousaved." The sin that you cannot master, Christ can conquer! He can make the lust that now binds you as with fetters of iron,to have no more power over you! Have I not often seen this happen to a man who has been bound with chains that he could notbreak? But the Spirit of the Lord has come upon him and he has snapped them as easily as Samson, "broke the ropes, as a threadof straw is broken when it touches the fire." Poor manacled slave of sin, Christ can enable you to get your liberty! Looknot to what you can do, for that is nothing! Look only to the Omnipotence that dwells in the eternal arms of the once-crucifiedRedeemer.

"But," you cry, "I could never hold on even if I did once look to Christ! If I were to begin to believe in Him, I would betempted and would go back to the world." I know you would if the matter rested with you-but if the Lord Jesus Christ beginsto work upon you, He will persevere with the task until He has fully accomplished it! Look to His faithfulness, for you havenone apart from Him! Look to His Immutability, for you are as fickle as the wind that continually changes its course! Restwholly in the Christ who says to you, "Look unto Me, and be you saved."

"Oh," you say, "but I have none of the gifts and graces that make up a Christian life." That is quite true, but Christ isready to give them to you. He is a full-handed and a freehanded Savior-and when He begins to bless sinners, riches untoldare lavished upon them so that they become rich as kings through the spiritual wealth which Christ bestows upon them! Thereis nothing that any one of us can need between here and Heaven, but is stored up for us in Christ-and we are to look to Himalone for it. Oh, that the Lord would teach all of us this simple and blessed art, for this is the way of salvation! "Lookunto Me"-to God in Christ Jesus-"and be you saved."

Now I shall conclude by trying to strike this one nail on the head and urging you to give your most earnest heed to this onematter of looking to God in Christ. Dear Friend, you are seeking salvation, so the devil will make a dead set at you to tryto keep you from looking unto Jesus. I cannot tell you exactly which way he will go to work, for he has many inventions, butI know that this will be one main point that he will drive at with you-he will try to get you to not look to God, but to looksomewhere else. Now, if you are determined to look to yourself-if you feel that you cannot help doing so, mind that you neverlook to yourself without mourning, for every look at yourself ought to cost you a tear. Look to yourself that you may sorrowover your sinful state, but never look there with any hope of finding salvation! When a man is altogether bankrupt, will hego and look into his ledger for consolation? When a man's house has been stripped by creditors, will the poor penniless tenantgo and gaze into the bare rooms to find comfort? When there is not a morsel of bread in the cupboard, will a man look intothe empty dishes in order that he may appease the cravings of hunger? If the well is dry, what is the good of looking downto the bottom of it? So, dear Friend, if you do not understand your ruined condition, look at yourself! But if you know thatyou are lost and undone, you might as well look to the grave for life as to yourself for salvation! Do not let the devil persuadeyou that there is anything good in you by nature, or that there is any hope of salvation for you in yourself! If he tellsyou that you are utterly bad, ruined and lost, believe him, for that is true. But if he ever tries to persuade you that thereis some good in you, tell him that he lies and you may also tell him that if there were any good in you, there would be nohope for you even in that, for your only hope lies in that utter hopelessness which drives you out of yourself to God!

You know how the high priest, under the old Jewish law, was commanded to treat the lepers who were brought before him. Whenthere came a man who said, "I think that my case is a very hopeful one, for I have a large spot of perfectly sound flesh onmy arm. And I have another place on my foot where my flesh is like that of a little child." When the high priest heard theman say that and he looked upon him, and saw that it was even so, he said to him, "Alas, you are a hopeless leper and mustbe shut outside the camp!" And there he remained till he died. But there came another leper who was quite covered with thesigns of the loathsome malady and he said to the high priest, "My disease has gone to the very extreme-there is not a soundplace on me from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet, there is not a single spot that is not affected." "Ah, my Brother!"replied the high priest, "I am glad to hear you say that and to be able to tell you that

now you are clean." It appears that when the leprosy threw itself out all over the body, the man would recover, but if itwas only on a part of him, it was there forever.

And so is it with the sinner-when he cannot see any good in himself, he is the man whom God will save, but, as long as thereis a spot of his own supposed goodness as big as a pin's head, or a pin's point-he is still suffering from the leprosy ofsin and must be shut away from the people of the Lord. "That is strange talk," someone says. I hope it will be strangely comfortingto some poor broken-hearted sinner who has been well-near in despair, but who will now hope, believe and live!

Do not let Satan take your eyes away from Christ by any other device. I have known him trouble poor souls with questions aboutdifficult doctrines, or various forms of church government, or about the disputes that arise even between Christian people.The sinner's one business is to look to Christ and be saved-yet he will get to bothering his head with this and that and theother which he does not understand, and which he does not need to understand. Oh, what thousands of people there are who havesome wonderful knot which they want to untie and which they cannot! It would not make the slightest difference to them ifit were untied, yet it keeps them from looking to God in Christ Jesus that they may be saved. You may ask about church governmentafterwards! You may decide, further on, as to Calvinism or Armi-nianism-or as to the post-millennial or pre-millennial Adventof Christ-but those matters do not concern you now. When a man is drowning, he does not want to read "The Times" newspaper,or Adam Smith's, "Wealth of Nations." He needs someone to help him out of the water before he is quite dead! And that is whatyou need, my unsaved Friend-you need salvation-and you can only obtain it by looking to God in Christ Jesus!

I have known Satan also to take away a man's gaze from Christ by saying to him, "You do not know whether you are elect ornot." Well, it is a very important question whether a man is one of the elect of God, but I beg you to remember that an unsavedsinner has nothing to do with his election and that it is not possible for him to know anything about that matter at present.When he has believed in Jesus Christ, then he will have the evidence that he is one of the Lord's chosen people. But untilhe has done so, he has no reason to think that he is elect. Divine Election is the eternal choice which God the Father hasmade-and there is no way of coming to the Father except by Christ, His Son. Redemption is the word with which you are firstconcerned-then, when you know the power of the precious blood of Jesus, you will have the proof of your election unto eternallife-and so you will begin to understand the "Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure."

Sometimes-and this is a common trick of Satan's-he tries to make men look at their own faith instead of looking unto Jesus."See," says he, "you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but have you the right kind of faith? Is yours the faith thatsaves?" Thus, he fixes your eyes on your faith instead of on Christ. And then he will ask you, "Is your state of mind whatit ought to be?" So you begin looking into your state of mind and you enquire, "Have I a due sense of my need? Have I a properrealization of my dire necessities and of the hardness of my heart?" My dear Friend, whatever your question may be-whetherit is holy or profane-it is out of place just now! The only questions that concern you now are such as these-What has Godrevealed to me in His Word? What has God done for me through His Son? What does He say to me? What does He require of me?What does He promise to give me? You can find the answer to all those questions in our text, "Look unto Me, and be you saved,all the ends of the earth." The devil tells you that you have not got the right kind of eyes, or that you have a squint, orthat you have a cataract in one of your eyes! He will say anything to keep you from looking to God in Christ! Yet that iswhere you are to look-and it is on Him, alone, that you are to rely. And you are not to rely upon your reliance, nor on yourfaith, nor on your looking-you are to place your complete dependence upon Jesus Christ and Him Crucified!

I pray you to let these simple yet important Truths of God sink into your mind and heart. Endeavor every day to know moreof Jesus and, to that end, search the Scriptures that you may learn more and more of God in Christ as He is there revealed.Try to think more about Him, you who are seeking the salvation of your souls. Get as much time as you can, alone, that youmay think of Jesus on the Cross and of all that God reveals to you in His dear bleeding wounds, for, the more you know ofHim and the more you think of Him, the more you will be able to rely upon Him. Our confidence usually increases in proportionto our knowledge, if the thing known is really worthy of our trust. It is emphatically so with Christ. The more we know Him,the more we shall trust and love Him!

Settle this matter in your mind as an absolute certainty that whoever and whatever you are, you may look to God in Christand be saved. Do not let any doubt upon that point ever cross your mind. Our text says, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, allthe ends of the earth." And there are many other passages which are quite as wide in the sweep of their invitation-such asthese-"Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely." And, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." And thevery Gospel commission itself, "Go you into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believes and isbaptized shall be saved." Whoever you may be, you have a perfect right to look to God, for He invites you to do so! No, morethan that, you are bound to do so, for you are commandedto do it! And there is this dreadful threat against all who disobeythe command, "He that believes not shall be damned." Look, then, to God in Christ, without fear, for, looking unto Him, youshall be saved!

With this last point, I close. Let no feeling of yours beat you off from looking to Christ. If, when you look to God, yoursins seem to rise and howl at you and say, "Who are youthat you should trust in God?" keep on looking all the same! And ifit appears to you that a thousand texts thunder against you, look all the same! Look to God even if He appears to look angrilyat you. Run to His arms, for it is your only place of shelter! If He takes His rod to chastise you, still run to His arms.He cannot smite you half so heavily as if His arms get full swings at a distance from you! Lay hold on God's strength. Justas the child, when his father is going to flog him, lays hold of his father's hands and, with his tears melts His father'sheart, you do the same! Lay hold on the strength of God and tell Him that you will trust in Him. Even if He shall still seemto threaten you, tell Him that you know that He delights in mercy-that you have heard of great sinners, like yourself, beingsaved by Him-and that you believe that Christ's precious blood will make you clean and that you will continue to believe it,come what may.

Will He reject you if you come to Him thus? That is impossible! He never did shake off a soul that thus clung to His arms.He never drove from the door of His mercy one who was resolved to die upon the threshold of His house rather than trust toanyone else! So let nothing turn you from looking to Jesus. Even if you walk without a ray of the Light of God-if you shouldbe tried in circumstances and so afflicted in body as to be at death's door-remember that the Lord has said, "Look unto Me,and be you saved." Hang upon that blessed word and this, also, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Carry outboth parts of that text and when you have done so, claim the fulfillment of the promise, feeling sure that the mountains shallmelt away and the seas lifted up with flaming tongues of fire sooner than God shall be false to the promise He has made toyou, unworthy though you are, if you believe in Jesus Christ and are baptized after His own example! May God the Holy Spiritenable you thus to look to Christ for, looking to Him, as surely as He lives, you, too, shall live! And, as surely as Godis true, you shall be saved, for you are saved the moment you believe in God through Christ Jesus His Son!

I have not attempted to set these great Truths before you in fine language, for I want them to come home to the heart of everyonehere present who is not yet saved. I recollect when I used to go to various places of worship meaning business-and my businesswas to try to find a Savior-if there really was one for me. I am sure that if anybody in the whole place used to listen withboth ears and all his heart, I did. I did not care anything about the preacher's elocution-the one thing that I wanted toknow was what I must do to be saved. Am I addressing anyone in a similar case? If so, O you poor Soul, convinced of sin, Iassure you that if you believe in Christ Jesus, you shall be saved! Understand clearly, however, what the salvation is thatHe will give you. It is not salvation from the consequencesof your sin while you continue to indulge in it. He will save youfrom being the sinner that you now are. The ancient Covenant promise runs thus, "From all your filthiness, and from all youridols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away thestony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh." I can see some people sitting before me, now, who, ifthey had been told, a few years ago, that they would be what they now are, would have laughed such a notion to scorn-theywould have poured the utmost contempt upon the speaker! "What?" such a man would have said, "I-the man of pleasure-ever befound among canting hypocritical professors of religion? It is not likely."

Many a man has said, "I know how to look after myself. I need none of the Grace of God of which you think so much." Yet thereare many such persons here at this moment and they are rejoicing in the very thing they once despised! And their lives arenow so altered that no two persons could be more different than their present self is from their old self. I am afraid theirold self still occasionally visits them, but I am sure that they never show him indoors. They try, if

they can, to push him into the back yard and they get rid of him as quickly as possible. I have known many an one of thissort cry out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this old enemy of mine? I never want to see him again."The change is marvelous between what he was and what he is-and such a change as that must be worked in secret.

Our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Read that 3rd chapter ofJohn's Gospel-and, before you get to the end of it you will find that the very same chapter in which the new birth is insistedupon by our Lord, also has these verses in it-"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Manbe lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Both doctrines are true, and perfectlyconsistent with each other-the free Grace of God and the necessity of a change of heart and life. May you prove them consistentin your own experience and then we will glorify God together forever and ever! Amen and Amen.