LivePrayerSermon 3326. The Wondrous Covenant
(No. 3326)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put My Laws intotheir mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people." Hebrews 8:10.
THE Doctrine of the Divine Covenant lies at the root of all true theology. It has been said that he who well understands thedistinction between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace is a master of divinity. I am persuaded that most of themistakes which men make concerning the Doctrines of Scripture are based upon fundamental errors with regard to the Covenantsof Law and of Grace. May God grant us now the power to instruct-and you the Grace to receive instruction on this vital subject.
The human race in the order of history, as far as this world is concerned, first stood in subjection to God under the Covenantof Works. Adam was the representative man. A certain Law was given him. If he kept it, he and all his posterity would be blessedas the result of obedience. If he broke it, he would incur the curse, himself, and entail it on all represented by him. ThatCovenant our first father broke. He fell-he failed to fulfill his obligations-and in his fall he involved us all, for we wereall in his loins and he represented us before God. Our ruin, then, was complete before we were born! We were ruined by himwho stood as our first representative. To be saved by the works of the Law is impossible, for under that Covenant we are alreadylost. If saved at all, it must be all quite a different plan, not on the plan of doing and being rewarded for it, for thathas been tried-and the representative man upon whom it was tried has failed for us all. We have all failed in his failure!It is hopeless, therefore, to expect to win Divine favor by anything that we can do, or merit Divine blessing by way of reward!
But Divine Mercy has interposed and provided a plan of salvation from the Fall. That plan is another Covenant, a Covenantmade with Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who is fitly called by the Apostle, "the Second Adam," because He stood again as theRepresentative of man. Now, the Second Covenant, as far as Christ was concerned, was a Covenant of Works quite as much asthe other! It was on this wise. Christ shall come into the world and perfectly obey the Divine Law. He shall also, inasmuchas the first Adam has broken the Law, suffer the penalty of sin. If He shall do both of these, then all whom He representsshall be blessed in His blessedness and saved because of His merit. You see, then, that until our Lord came into this world,it was a Covenant of Works towards Him. He had certain works to perform, upon condition of which certain blessings would begiven to us. Our Lord has kept that Covenant! His part in it has been fulfilled to the last letter! There is no commandmentwhich He has not honored. There is no penalty of the broken Law which He has not endured! He became a Servant and obedient,yes, obedient to death, even the death of the Cross. He has thus done what the first Adam could not accomplish and He hasretrieved what the first Adam forfeited by his transgression. He has establishedthe Covenant, and now it ceases to be a Covenantof Works, for the works are all done!-
"Jesus did them, did them all, Long, long ago."
And now what remains of the Covenant? God on His part has solemnly pledged Himself to give undeserved favor to as many aswere represented in Christ Jesus. For as many as the Savior died for, there is stored up a boundless mass of blessing whichshall be given to them-not through their works, but as the Sovereign gift of the Grace of God, according to His Covenant promiseby which they shall be saved!
Behold, my Brothers and Sisters, the hope of the sons of man! The hope of their saving themselves is crushed, for they arealready lost! The hope of their being saved by works is a fallacious one, for they cannot keep the Law-they have
already broken it! But there is a way of salvation opened on this wise-whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ- receivesand partakes of the bliss which Christ has bought! All the blessings which belong to the Covenant of Grace through the workof Christ shall belong to every soul that believes in Jesus! Whoever works not, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly,unto him shall the blessing of the new Covenant of Grace be undoubtedly given!
I hope that this explanation is plain enough. If Adam had kept the Law, we would have been blessed by his keeping it. He brokeit and we have been cursed through him. Now the Second Adam, Christ Jesus, has kept the Law-we are, therefore, if Believers,represented in Christ and blessed with the results of the obedience of Jesus Christ to His Father's will. He said of old,"Lo, I come to do Your will, O God! Your Law is My delight." He has done that will and the blessings of Grace are now freelygiven to the sons of men!
I shall ask your attention then, first, to the privileges of the Covenant of Grace. Secondly, to the parties concerned init This will be quite enough, I am sure, for consideration this evening during the brief period allotted to our sermon.
I. As to THE PRIVILEGES OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE.
The first privilege is that to as many as are interested in it there shall be given an illumination of their minds. "I willput My Law in their minds." By nature we are dark towards God's will. Conscience keeps up in us a sort of broken recollectionof what God's will was. It is a monument of God's will, but it is often hardly legible. A man does not care to read it-heis averse to what he reads there. "Their foolish heart was dark," is the expression of Scripture with regard to the mind ofman. But the Holy Spirit is promised to those interested in the Covenant. He shall come upon their minds and shed light insteadof darkness, illuminating them as to what the will of God is. The ungodly man has some degree of light, but it is merely intellectual.It is a light that he does not love. He loves darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil. But where the Holy Spiritcomes, He floods the soul with a Divine luster in which the soul delights and desires to participate to the fullest degree!Brothers and Sisters, the renewed man, the man under the Covenant of Grace, does not need constantly to resort to his Bibleto learn what he ought to do, nor to go to some fellow Christian to ask instructions. He has not got the Law of God now writtenon a tablet of stone, or upon parchment, or upon paper-he has got the Law written upon his own mind! There is now a Divine,Infallible Spirit dwelling within him which tells him the right and the wrong-and by this he speedily discerns between thegood and the evil. He no longer puts darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Hismind is enlightened as to the true holiness and the true purity which God requires!
Just mark the men to whom this Light of God comes. By nature some of them are deeply depraved. All of them are depraved, butby practice some of them become yet further dark. Is it not marvelous that a poor heathen who scarcely seemed to recognizethe distinction between right and wrong before the Spirit of God entered his mind, has afterwards, without needing to be taughtall the precepts, individually, received at once the quick Light of a tender conscience which has led him to know the rightand love it, and to see the evil and eschew it? If you want to civilize the world, it must be by preaching the Gospel! Ifyou want to have men well instructed as to the right and the wrong, it must be by this Divine Instruction which only God,Himself, can impart. "I will do it," and oh, how blessedly He does it when He takes the man that loved evil and called itgood, and so sheds a Divine beam into his soul that henceforth he cannot be perverse, cannot be obstinate, but submits himselfto the Divine Will! That is one of the first blessings of the Covenant-the illumination of the understanding.
The next blessing is, "And I will write My Law in their hearts.." This is more than knowing the Law-infinitely more. "I willwrite the Law, not merely on their understandings, where it may guide them, but in their hearts where it shall lead them."Brothers and Sisters, the Holy Spirit makes men love the will of God, makes them delight in all in which God delights andabhor that which the Lord abhors! It is well said in the text that God will do this, for certainly it is not what a man cando for himself. The Ethiopian might sooner change his skin or the leopard his spots! It is not what the minister can do, forthough he may preach to the ears, he cannot write God's Law on the affections. I have marveled at the expression used in thetext, "I will write My Law in their hearts." To write on a heartmust be difficult work, but to write in a heart, in the verycenter of the heart-who can do this but God? A man cuts his name upon a tree in the bark and there it stands. And the lettersgrow with the tree-but to cut his name in the heart of the tree-how shall he accomplish this? And yet God does Divinely engraveHis Will and His Law in the very heart and nature of man!
I know what the notion is about Christian people-that they do not conform to this and that custom because they are afraid-theywould like to revel in the vanities of the world, but they do not care to encounter the penalties. Ah, you sons of men, youcomprehend not the mysterious work of the Spirit! He does nothing of this sort! He makes not the child of God to be a serf,a slave, in fear of bondage, but He so changes the nature of men that they do not love what they once loved! They turn awaywith loathing from the things they once delighted in and can no more indulge in the sins which were once sweet to them thanan angel could plunge himself down and wallow in the mire with the swine! Oh, this is a gracious work! And this is a blessedCovenant in which it is promised that we shall be taught the right, to know and love the right, and to do the right with awilling mind!
Am I addressing some tonight who have been saying, "I wish I could be saved." What do you mean by that? Do you mean you wishyou might escape from Hell? Ah, well, I would to God you had another wish-namely, "Oh, that I could escape from sin! Oh, thatI could be made pure, that my passions could be bridled! Oh, that my longings and my likings could be changed!" If that isyour wish, see what a Gospel I have to preach to you! I have not come to tell you-do this, and do not do that. Moses tellsyou that-and the preacher of the Law speaks to you after that fashion-but I, the preacher of the Gospel, unveiling the Covenantof Grace tonight, tell you that Jesus Christ has done such a work for sinners that God, now, for Christ's sake, comes to them,makes them see the right and by a Divine work upon them and in them, makes them love holiness and follow after righteousness!
I count this one of the greatest blessings of which ever tongue could speak! I would sooner be holy than happy if the twothings could be divorced. Were it possible for a man to always sorrow and yet to be pure, I would choose the sorrow if I mightwin the purity, for, Beloved, to be free from the power of sin, to be made to love holiness though I have spoken after themanner of men to you, is true happiness! A man that is holy is in order with the Creation-he is in harmony with God! It isimpossible for that man to suffer long. He may for awhile endure for his lasting good, but as sure as God is happy, the holymust be happy! This world is not so constituted that in the long run holiness shall go with sorrow, for in eternity God shallshow that to be pure is to be blessed, to be obedient to the Divine Will is to be eternally glorified! In preaching to you,then, these two blessings of the Covenant-I have virtually preached to you the open Kingdom of Heaven-open to all such whomGod's Grace shall look upon with an eye of mercy!
The next blessing of the Covenant is-"I will be to them a God." If any ask me what this means, I must reply, Give me a monthto consider it. And when I had considered the text for a month, I should ask another month! And when I had waited a year,I should ask another year-and when I had waited till I grew gray, I would still ask the postponement of any attempt to fullyopen it up until eternity! "I will be to them a God." Now, mark you, where the Spirit of God has come to teach you the DivineWill and make you love the Divine Will, God becomes to you-what? A Father? Yes, a loving, tender Father. A Shepherd? Yes,a watchful Guardian of His flock. A Friend? Yes, a Friend that sticks closer than a brother. A Rock? A Refuge? A Fortress?A high Tower? A Castle of defense? A Home? A Heaven? Yes, all that, but when He said "I will be their God," He said more thanall these put together, for, "I will be to them a God," comprehends all gracious titles, all blessed promises and all Divineprivileges! It comprehends-yes, now I stop, for this is Infinite, and the Infinite comprehends all blessings. "I will be tothem a God." Do you need provision? The cattle on a thousand hills are His-it is nothing to Him to give! It will not impoverishHim! He will give to you like a God! Do you need comfort? He is the God of all consolation-He will comfort you like a Lord.Do you need guidance? There is infinite wisdom waiting at your beck and call! Do you need support? There is eternal power,the same which guards the everlasting hills waiting to be your stay! Do you need Grace? He delights in mercy and all thatmercy is yours! Every attribute of God belongs to His people in covenant with Him. All that God is or can be-and what is therenot in that?-all that you can conceive and more! All the angels have and more! All that Heaven is and more! All that is inChrist, even the boundless fullness of Godhead-all this belongs to you, if you are in covenant with God through Jesus Christ!How rich, how blessed, how august, how noble are those in covenant with God, confederate with Heaven! Infinity belongs toyou! Lift up your head, O child of God, and rejoice in a promise that I cannot expound, and you cannot explore! There I mustleave it-it is a deep which we strive in vain to fathom!
Notice the next blessing, "And they shall be to Me a people." All flesh belongs to God in a certain sense. All men are Hisby rights of Creation and He has an Infinite Sovereignty over them. But He looks down upon the sons of men and He
selects some, and He says, "These shall be My people, not the rest. These shall be My peculiar people." When the King of Navarrewas fighting for his throne, the writer who hymns the battle, says-
"He looked upon the foemen, and his glance was stern and high.
He looked upon his people, and the tear was in his eye."
And when he saw some of the French in arms against him-
"Then out spoke gentle Henry, No Frenchman is my foe Down, down, with every foreigner, but let your brethren go."
The king looked for his people even if they were in rebellion against him! He had a different thought towards them from whathe had towards others. "Let them go," he seemed to say, "they are my people." So, mark you, in the great battles and strifesof this world, when Lord lets loose the dread artillery of Heaven, His glance is stern upon His enemies, but the tear is inHis eyes towards His people. He is always tender towards them. "Spare My people," He says, and the angels interpose lest thesechosen ones should dash their feet against a stone!
People have their treasures, their pearls, their jewels, their rubies, their diamonds-and these are their peculiar stones.Now, all in the Covenant of Grace are the peculiar stones of God. He values them above all things else! In fact, He keepsthe world spinning for them! The world is but a scaffold for the Church. He will send Creation packing when once it has donewith His saints. Yes, sun, moon and stars shall pass away like worn-out rags when once He has gathered together His own electand enfolded them forever within the safety of the walls of Heaven! For them time moves! For them the world exists! He measuresthe nation according to their number and He makes the very stars of Heaven to fight against their enemies and to defend themagainst their foes! "They shall be to Me a people." The favor which is contained in such love it is not for tongue to express.Perhaps on some of those quiet resting places prepared for the saints in Heaven, it shall be a part of our eternal enjoymentto contemplate the heights and depths of these golden lines!
II. And now, Brothers and Sisters, I wish I had time to go over the other parts contained in the 11th and 12th verses of theChapter, but I have not, for I have a practical business to do, and it is to enquire-FOR WHOM HAS GOD MADE
THIS COVENANT?
I said He made it with Christ, but He made it with Christ as the Representative of His people. The question tonight for you,and for me, and for each one is, "Am I interested in Christ? Did Christ Jesus stand for me?" Now, if I were to say that Christwas the Representative of the whole world, you would not find any substantial advantage in that because the great proportionof mankind being lost, whatever interest they may have in Christ, it is certainly of no beneficial value to them as to theireternal salvation! The question I ask is-have I such a special interest in Christ that this Covenant holds good towards meso that I shall have, or so that I now have the enlightened mind, the sanctified affections and the possession of God to bemy God? Be not deceived, my Brothers and Sisters-I cannot and you cannot turn over the leaves of the book of destiny! It isimpossible for us to force our way into the cabinet chamber of the Eternal! I hope you are not deluded by superstitious ideasthat you have had a Revelation made to you, or that there has been some special sound or dream which makes any one of youthink you are a Christian!
Yet on sounder premises I will try to help you a little. Have you already obtained any of these Covenant blessings? Have yougot an enlightened mind? Do you now find that your spirit tells you which is the right and which is the wrong? Better still,have you got a love for that which is good? Have you got a hatred for that which is evil? If so, as you have got one Covenantblessing, all the rest go with it! Now, men and women, have you passed through a great change? Have you come to hate thatwhich you once loved? If you have, the Covenant lies before you like Canaan before the ravished eyes of Moses on top of themountain! Look now, for it is yours! It flows with milk and honey and it belongs to you- and you shall inherit it! But ifthere has been no such change worked in you, I cannot hold you out any congratulations, but I thank God I can do what mayserve your turn! I can hold you out Divine Direction-the direction for the obtaining an interest in this Covenant and forclearing up your interest in it is simple. It is contained in few words. Mark well those three words-"Believe and live," forwhoever believes in Christ Jesus has everlasting life-which is the blessing of the Covenant. The argument is obvious. Havingthe blessing of the Covenant you must be in the Covenant! And being in the Covenant, Christ evidently must have representativelystood Sponsor for you. But says one, "What is it to believein Christ?" Another word is a synonym to it. It is-trust Christ."How do I know whether He died for me in particular?" Trust Him whether you know that or not. Jesus Christ is lifted up uponthe Cross of Calvary as the Atonement for sin and the proclamation is given out, "Look, look, look and live!" And whoeverwill cast away his self-righteousness, cast away
everything upon which he now depends-and will come and trust in the finished work of our exalted Savior, has, in that veryfaith, the token that he is one of those who were in Christ when He went up to the Cross and worked out eternal redemptionfor His elect! I do not believe that Christ died on the tree to render men salvable, but to save them! Not that some men mightbe saved "if," but to really redeem them! And He did then and there give Himself a ransom. He paid their debts there. Therecast their sins into the Red Sea and there made a clean sweep of everything that could be laid to the charge of God's elect.You are one of His elect if you believe! Christ died for you if you believe in Him and your sins are forgiven you. "Well but,"says one, "how about that change of nature?" It always comes with faith! It is the next akin to faith. Wherever there is genuinefaith in Christ, faith works love. A sense of mercy breeds affection. Affection to Christ breeds hatred to sin. Hatred tosin purges the soul-the soul being purged, the life is changed!
You must not begin with mending yourselves externally-you must begin with the new internal life and it is thus to be had-thegift of God through simply believing in Jesus! A slave who had been for some time attending a place of worship, had imbibedthe idea and a very natural one, too, that he was saved because he had been baptized. He had been to one of those places wherethey teach little children to say after this fashion, "In my baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, a child of God,and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven." "Now," said he, very simply and very plainly, for so the catechism teaches-anda gross delusion it is-"I am saved because I have been baptized! That has made me a child of God." Now the good man who soughtto instruct him better could find no metaphor to suit his intellect better than taking him into the kitchen and showing hima bottle of black ink. "Now," he said, "I will wash it," and he washed the outside of the bottle and invited the man to drinkout of it because it was clean. "No," said the man, It is all black! It is all black-it is not clean because you have washedthe outside." "Ah," said he, "and so it is with you! All that these drops of water could do for you-all that baptism coulddo for you is to wash the outside-but that does not make you clean, for the filth is all within!" Now, the work of the Covenantof Grace is not to wash the outside, not to clean the flesh, not to pass you through rites and ceremonies and Episcopal hands,but to wash the inside-to purge the heart, to cleanse the vitals, to renew the soul-and this is the only salvation that willever bring a man to enter Heaven! You may go tonight and renounce all your outward vices-I hope you will. You may go and practiceall church ceremonies. And if they are Scriptural, I wish you would. But they will do nothing for you, nothing whatever asto your entering Heaven if you miss one thing else-that is, getting the Covenant blessing of the renewed nature which canonly be had as a gift of God through Jesus Christ-and as the result of a simple faith in Him who did die upon the tree!
I press the work of self-examination upon you all. I press it earnestly upon you Church members. It is of no avail that youhave been baptized! It is of no avail that you take the sacrament. Avail? Indeed it shall bring a greater responsibility anda curse upon you unless your hearts have been by the Holy Spirit made anew according to the Covenant of Promise! If you havenot a new heart, oh, go to your chambers, fall upon your knees and cry to God for it! May the Holy Spirit compel you to doso! And while you are pleading, remember the new heart comes from the bleeding heart, the changed nature comes from the sufferingnature. You must look to Jesus, and looking to Jesus, know that-
"There is life in a look at the Crucified One! There is life at this moment for you!"
These blessings I have spoken of seem to me to be a great consolation and inspiration. They are a great consolation to Believers.You are in the Covenant, my dear Brother, but you tell me you are very poor. But God has said, "I will be your God." Why,you are very rich! A man may not have a penny in the world, but if he has a diamond, he is rich. So if a man has neither pennynor diamond, if he has his God, he is rich! Ah, but your coat is threadbare and you do not see where means are to come fromto renew your apparel. "Consider the lilies how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you thatSolomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." You have the same God that the lilies have-shall He so clothethe grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, and shall He not much more clothe you, O you oflittle faith? I also said it was an inspiration and I think it is. It is an inspiration for us all to work for Christ becausewe are sure to have some results. I would, indeed I would, that the nations were converted to Christ. I would that all thisLondon belonged to my Lord and Master and that every street were inhabited by those who loved His name! But when I see sinabounding and the Gospel often put to the rout, I fall back upon this- "Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure. TheLord knows them that are His." He shall have His own! The infernal powers shall not rob Christ! He shall see of the travailof His soul and shall be satisfied! Calvary does not mean defeat!
Gethsemane a defeat? Impossible! The Mighty Man who went up to the Cross to bleed and die for us, being also the Son of God,did not there achieve a defeat but a victory! He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His day, and the pleasure in the Lordshall prosper in His hands! If some will not be saved, others shall. If, being invited, some count themselves not worthy tocome to the feast, others will be brought in, even the blind, the crippled and the lame-and the supper shall be furnishedwith guests! If they come not from England, they shall come from the east, and from the west, from the north and from thesouth. If it should come to pass that Israel is not gathered, lo, the heathen shall be gathered unto Christ! Ethiopia shallstretch out her arms! Sinim shall yield herself to the Redeemer! The desert ranger shall bow the knee and the far-off strangerenquire for Christ! Oh, no, Beloved, the purposes of God are not frustrated! The eternal Will of God is not defeated! Christhas died a glorious death and He shall have a full reward for all His pain. "Therefore, be you steadfast, immovable, alwaysabounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 5:1-11; PSALM 81:1-14.
Romans 5:1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ The Gospel is full of "therefores,"it is above reason, but it is never against reason-it is the most reasonable thing under Heaven! "Therefore"-it is a matterof argument. You will have to read the previous Chapters to see how this conclusion flows naturally from what he had beforetaught by the Holy Spirit.
Let us linger over these sentences while we read them. "Being justified by faith." Is it so? Are you, indeed made just byfaith in Jesus Christ your Righteousness? Then you have peace this day and hour-peace within your own conscience and withyour fellow men-but what is much better, you have peace with God! As soon as we are justified by reliance on Jesus, we ceaseto have any quarrel with God and He has no quarrel with us! We are allies, we are in happy union, we have peace with God!Not shall have it by-and-by, but we have it nowas our present glad possession because we are justified by faith. We are nowin the enjoyment of perfect peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. "By whom also we have access by faith into thisGrace wherein we stand." Since we are at peace with God, we may enter His house. His door is open to us-we have Divine welcomeunto His Grace and we abide in it-abide in it with certainty and full assurance!
2. By whom also we have access by faith into this Grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God. Oh, whata comfort this is to be rejoicing, especially to be rejoicing in hope! It is better ahead-there may be clouds and darkness,here, but we can see the sunlight breaking yonder-"until the day breaks and the shadows flee away," we will make hope to beour bright candle of the Lord! We "rejoice in the hope of the Glory of God, and not only so." When we once get into God'shouse, we rise higher in it-we go up another pair of stairs. "Not only so," though that seems to be enough-to be rejoicingin the hope of the Glory of God, and to have access into His Grace and to have peace with Him because we are justified! Butit is not only so-"we Glory in tribulations also." We transform our troubles into gladness and glorying! We get spirituallyenriched by tribulation!
3, 4. And not only so, but we Glory in tribulations, also, knowing that tribulation works patience andpatience, experienceand experience, hope. Another hope, or rather the same hope rising up into another form. We begin with rejoicing in the hopeof the Glory of God by faith. Now we get a further hope which is born of experience-the things we have tasted and handledof the love of God create in us a more radiant hope inferred from what we have enjoyed.
5, 6. And hope makes not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given untous. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. What is the connection here? Is it notthis-that the Holy Spirit makes us feel what a wonderful love the love of God is to us because when we were without strength,in due time, Christ died for the ungodly? Wonderful love! When we were Godless and Christless, in due time Christ died forus!
7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. Nobody would feelimpelled to die for a man who is severely and strictly just. He may command our admiration, but not our affection. Aristidesthe Just is, indeed, at last banished-men cannot bear a man whose whole character is bare justice, for they are themselvesusually so unjust. But "a good man"-he commands our love. A man of that character who is gra-
tuitously kind, gracious and benevolent, perhaps-and it is a bare perhaps-somebody might be found to die for such as he. Itis not, however, very probable.
8. But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He did the utmost for us whenwe were the least deserving of it! Oh, what a love is this! Let it be shed abroad in our poor stony hearts and commended byus to others.
9. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. This is a resistless argumentand should be the deathblow to all misgiving. If He died for us when we were unjust, will He let us perish, now that He hasmade us just and completely justified us? Impossible!
10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shallbe saved by His life. There are three points which strengthen the argument here, which you will readily see by reading itat your leisure. The Lord our God who justified us when we were enemies, by the death of His Son, will save us now that weare friends through the life of His Son. "And not only so." Here we ascend again-it is ever higher and higher, something yetmore-so that we are never at the end of this blessed record of mercy and Grace!
11. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement.We areat one with God. We are perfectly reconciled to Him and we have at present, at this very moment, a great joy and delight inGod!
Now we shall read together the 71st Psalm, just in order that we may see how good men in all ages have been assisted by theirexperience and their hope-and how their hope has grown out of their tribulation, their patience and their experience. TheOld Man's Psalm. You can remember it, dear Friends, who are aged, by its being 71-it is just past the threescore years andten!
Psalm 71:1. In You, OLORD, do Iput my trust: let me never beput to confusion. There is his trust and there is his fear. His trust hedares to avow, his fear he turns into a prayer.
2, 3. Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline Your ear unto me, and save me. Be You my strong habitation,whereunto I may continually resort: You have given commandment to save me; for You are my rock and my fortress. "Be you mystrong habitation whereunto I may continually resort." Not merely now and then a hiding place in emergencies, but my constantabode, my home-so that from morning to night I may come to You and feel myself secure. "You have given commandment to saveme; for You are my rock and my fortress." You see he knows that God has commanded Nature, Providence and His Grace to protecthim! He has commanded His angels-indeed, He has commanded all His forces to protect David for this reason-that David feelsan inward rest and peace in God. That calm, that Divine repose expressed in the words "You are my rock and my refuge," arethe tokens that God has given commandment to save us.
4. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hands of the wicked, out of the hands of the unrighteous and cruel man. Two iron handsare trying to pull him down, but he cries to God, whose one almighty hand can set him free!
5. For You are my hope, O Lord God: You are my trust from my youth. Happy man that can look back upon a youth spent in God'sfear, for if we have trusted God in our youth, depend upon it, He will never cast us away!
6. By You have I been held up from the womb: You are He that took me out of my mother's womb: my praise shall be continuallyof You.When we could not help ourselves, in the very moment of our birth, God took care of us! And He will take care of useven to the end. Men and women who are old should remember how carefully the Lord nursed them when they were infants-and ifyou come to a second childhood, you shall still have the same God!
7. I am as a wonder unto many.They cannot make me out! I am a blessed problem and puzzle to them-it seems so strange thatbeing so much afflicted I am yet so much upheld!
7. But You are my strong refuge. Yes! There is the answer to the riddle. If God is with us, men may well wonder, but He willalways help us.
8-9. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your honor all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsakeme not when my strength fails. A prayer which both young and old may offer, for if we live long enough, that time of weaknesswill surely come. There are many men who cast off their old servants-but God does not. When we are worn out, He will stillbless us.
10-14. For my enemies speak against me and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, saying, God has forsakenhim: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him. O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help.Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonor that seekmy hurt. But I will hope continually and will yet praise You more and more. In the 8th verse he had said, "Let my mouth befilled with Your praise." That is a mouthful! Now he says, "I will praise You more and more." As if he needed more mouthswherewith to praise! More room for his heart's grateful thanksgiving to God! "I will praise You more and more."