“I am he that liveth, and was dead;
and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen;
and have the keys of hell and of death.”
Revelation 1:18
O what a mercy that he who was dead lives at God’s right hand! that he lives as a risen head; that he is not a dead Saviour; but a Saviour that lives for evermore; that can and does bless; that can and does comfort; that can and does bring the soul safely through all. He is not a Saviour that stands as it were upon the brink of a river, and pulls us out when we have swum half way out ourselves; he is not a Saviour that will take us half way to heaven, and then, as Rutherford says, let us “fend” or shift for ourselves. He must take us to heaven throughout. We are nothing, we have nothing without him. He must be, as he is, our “all in all.” We value him in his death, nothing but his death could reconcile us to God; we value him in his life, nothing but his life can save. We want salvation now; salvation in the heart; a spiritual salvation revealed in and unto the soul; a salvation worthy of the name, wholly, fully, completely, finally, and everlastingly to the praise of superabounding grace; a salvation indefeasible, never to be lost; worthy of God, worthy of the God-man; adapted to every want of the soul, coming into every trial of the heart, and able to save the vilest and the worst, “without money and without price.”
“The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”
1 Corinthians 4:20
It is through the word of God in the hands of the Spirit, that this kingdom is set up in the soul. All God’s people are agreed on this point, that they have no more religion than they have inward power. And all the living family are sighing, each according to his measure and season, after the manifestation of this divine power in their souls. Those that are under the law, and toiling under heavy burdens, are sighing after relief, and for that relief to come in divine power—power that shall cast all their sins into the depth of the sea. Those who having tasted that the Lord is gracious have lost their first love, are at times breathing out their inmost desire after power to revive their souls. Those who are beset with powerful temptations, and struggling, often ineffectually, with base lusts, are crying after power to deliver their feet from the fowler’s snares. Those who are hard, need power to soften; those who are doubting and fearing, need power to give them faith; the backsliding need power to return, and the sinking need power to swim.
By power I understand something solid, real, substantial, heavenly, supernatural. How do we measure the capabilities of a steam engine? We say that it has so many horse-power. But who in his senses would construct a steam engine of two hundred horse-power to break sticks and pick up straws? We measure power by its effects. We proportion the one to the other. Now the Holy Ghost, the God of all power and might, would not put forth his mighty and efficacious hand to break sticks and pick up straws in the soul. No. His work is worthy of a God; a “work of faith with power,” because springing from a God of power.
The God of Israel is not a Baal that is sleeping and needs to be awakened, or gone a journey and therefore too far off to come when needed, but “a very present help in time of trouble.” By this secret power false hopes are swept away, rotten props removed, creature righteousness brought to an end, and the soul is helped and enabled to lean upon the Lord. This power is not noise and rant; but the still, small voice of Jesus in the soul.
The people of God want no outward voice, but they are seeking after that secret voice of atoning blood in their conscience, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. The inward whisper of heavenly love sounding in their soul—not the earthquake of terror, not the fire of divine wrath, but the still, small voice of pardon and peace—makes them bow themselves before the Lord, and wrap their faces in their mantle. The Queen of England need not shout aloud in her palace, to give her commands effect. Where the word of a king is, there is power, whether from an earthly monarch or from the King of Zion. We want therefore no noise, bustle, and excitement, no raving and ranting about religion; but we want inward feeling, the very kingdom of God set up in the heart.
“For we are strangers before thee and sojourners,
as were all our fathers;
our days on the earth are as a shadow,
and there is none abiding.”
1 Chronicles 29:15
If you possess the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and, Jacob, you, like them, confess that you are a stranger; and your confession springs out of a believing heart and a feeling experience. You feel yourself a stranger in this ungodly world; it is not your element, it is not your home. You are in it during God’s appointed time, but you wander up and down this world a stranger to its company, a stranger to its maxims, a stranger to its fashions, a stranger to its principles, a stranger to its motives, a stranger to its lusts, its inclinations, and all in which this world moves as in its native element.
Grace has separated you by God’s distinguishing power, that though you are in the world, you are not of it. I can tell you plainly, if you are at home in the world; if the things of time and sense be your element; if you feel one with the company of the world, the maxims of the world, the fashions of the world, and the principles of the world, grace has not reached your heart, the faith of God’s elect does not dwell in your bosom.
The first effect of grace is to separate. It was so in the case of Abraham. He was called by grace to leave the land of his fathers, and go out into a land that God would shew him. And so God’s own word to his people is now, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
Separation, separation, separation from the world is the grand distinguishing mark of vital godliness. There may be indeed separation of body where there is no separation of heart. But what I mean is, separation of heart, separation of principle, separation of affection, separation of spirit. And if grace has touched your heart, and you are a partaker of the faith of God’s elect, you are a stranger in the world, and will make it manifest by your life and conduct that you are such.
“Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
For surely there is an end;
and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”
Proverbs 23:17, 18
The Lord is here addressing himself to a soul labouring under temptation, and passing through peculiar exercises; and this is the exhortation that he gives it: “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long;” watching his hand, submitting to his will, committing everything into his care and keeping; not hardening your heart against him, but looking up to him, and worshipping him with godly fear; “for surely there is an end.”
You may be tempted, exercised, and surrounded with difficulties, and see no outlet; but “surely there is an end;” and, when the end comes, it will make all plain and clear. This quiet submission, this watching and waiting, a man can never be brought to unless he has seen an end to all perfection; an end of his own strength, wisdom, and righteousness. To sit still is the hardest thing a man can do. To lie passive at God’s footstool when all things seem to be against us; to have a rough path to walk in, to be surrounded with difficulties, and yet to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long, watching his hand, desiring to submit to his will, seeking only that wisdom which cometh from above, and trusting that he will make the way straight; not putting our hand to the work, but leaving it all to the Lord—how strange, how mysterious a path!
And yet it is the only one that brings solid peace to a Christian; “for surely there is an end.” Whatever sorrows and troubles a man may have to wade through, there will surely be an end of them. If we try to get ourselves out of perplexities, we are like a person trying to unravel a tangled skein of silk by pulling it forcibly; the more it is pulled, the more entangled it gets, and the faster the knots become. So if we are plunged into any trial, providential or spiritual, and we attempt to extricate ourselves by main force, by kicking and rebelling, we only get more entangled.
The Lord, then, to encourage us to wait patiently upon him till he shall appear, says, “Surely there is an end.” This is the universal testimony of the Scripture, that the Lord appears and delivers, when there is none shut up or left; and the experience of the saints agrees with the testimony of the written word: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Luke 19:10
“The Son of man is come.” What a blessed coming! The Lord Jesus seems to have taken to himself, with the tenderest condescension to our wants, that gracious title, “the Son of man.” He was the Son of God, and that from all eternity; but he delights to call himself the Son of man. We want one like ourselves, wearing the same nature; carrying in his bosom the same human heart; one who has been, “in all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin;” and therefore able to sympathise with and to succour those that are tempted.
A sinner like man, when made sensible of his pollution and guilt, cannot draw near unto God in his intrinsic, essential majesty and holiness. Viewed as the great and glorious Being that fills eternity, Jehovah is too great, too transcendently holy, too awfully perfect for him to approach. He must therefore have a Mediator; and that Mediator one who is a Mediator indeed, a God-man, “Immanuel, God with us.” The depth of this mystery eternity itself will not fathom.
But the tender mercy of God in appointing such a Mediator, and the wondrous condescension of the Son of God in becoming “the Son of man,” are matters of faith, not of reason; are to be believed, not understood. When thus received, the humanity of the Son of God becomes a way of access unto the Father. We can talk to, we can approach, we can pour out our hearts before “the Son of man.” His tender bosom, his sympathising heart, seem to draw forth the feelings and desires of our own.
God, in his wrathful majesty, we dare not approach; he is a “consuming fire;” and the soul trembles before him. But when Jesus appears in the gospel as “the Mediator between God and man,” and “a Daysman,” as Job speaks, “to lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9:33), how this seems to penetrate into the depths of the human heart! How this opens a way for the poor, guilty, filthy, condemned, and ruined sinner to draw near to that great God with whom he has to do! How this, when experimentally realised, draws forth faith to look unto him, hope to anchor in him, and love tenderly and affectionately to embrace him!
This is the name which is above every name, the name that is so precious to every sinner saved by grace. The reason for its preciousness is because of its blessed suitability to meet our need as lost, ruined sinners. We have to say:
“Here’s my claim, and here alone;
None a Saviour more can need;
Deeds of righteousness I’ve none;
No, not one good work to plead.”
We are not fond of acrostics, but we remember an old preacher describing the name of Jesus: “J-E-S-U-S: Jesus exactly suits us sinners.”
The name of Jesus means the Saviour. It was given to the eternal Son of God on His coming into the world of sin and sorrow. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” So the name Jesus has a blessed relationship with us as sinners.
Clearly does the Word of God reveal that Jesus is the only Saviour. “Neither is there salvation in any other.” One of Satan’s deceptions today is the popular teaching that there are many ways of salvation, and all lead to heaven. This is a subtle attack on the truth. At one time it was, “You are wrong!” but now it is, “You are rights but….so are many other religions also!” But there will always be something exclusive in real religion, for “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” This is revealed to every grace-taught soul.
Jesus is an almighty Saviour, “able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.” What a view that is of the triumphant Saviour (Isa. 63:1), coming forth from Edom (the land of the enemy), with dyed garments from Bozrah (its chief city), “mighty to save”! The two vital lessons the Holy Spirit teaches a sinner are his inability to save himself, and the gracious ability of the Lord Jesus. So the Word speaks of “a Saviour, and a great one” (Isa. 19:20). If a child wrote that, no doubt the teacher would correct it and say, “Just write, ‘A great Saviour’”; but here is Holy Ghost emphasis: “a Saviour, and a great one.”
This name, the name of Jesus, is exceedingly attractive to living souls. We believe this is one point that unites the whole family of God; they can all say, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds!” Some cannot speak much, but their desires and affections are drawn out when Jesus is exalted in the gospel. They can all feelingly say, “The desire of our soul is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee.” They can sympathise with the old Welsh woman who walked miles each Lord’s Day over the mountains to the house of God. Her neighbours remonstrated with her about the foolishness of this. She could only understand Welsh and the minister could only speak English, and yet wind, rain and snow could not keep her away. “Ah!” she said. “8I can understand one word, the word ‘Jesus.’ And the minister mentions it so much. It is worth going to hear that!”
In the Song of Solomon, the name of Jesus is described as “ointment poured forth” – precious, fragrant, refreshing. Never shall we forget hearing a sermon, at the opening of a new chapel, on the text: “And maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place.”
To the wicked the name of Jesus is as “the savour of death unto death.” We understand this to mean that if beautifully smelling roses were placed in a room where a dead man lay, their fragrance would mean nothing to him. So when Jesus is exalted in the gospel, there is no sweet fragrance in His name to those that are dead in sin – “the savour of death unto death.” How grace makes a difference!
“The vital savour of His name
Restores our fainting breath;
Believing, we rejoice in Him,
The Antidote of death.”
The name of Jesus is a worthy name, “that worthy name by the which ye are called.” Where the fear of God is in exercise, there is a dread lest we should be left to dishonour that name that means so much to us. We can bear hearing our own name evilly spoken of, but O the grief when the Lord’s name is blasphemed!
The name of Jesus is the sinner’s only plea, and he needs no other. It is an all-prevailing plea: “For Jesus’ sake.” It is our only plea in prayer, the ground upon which our prayers are answered. That is why often such poor p0rayers are so blessedly answered. It is “for Jesus’ sake.” It is also our only plea for acceptance with God. How can I, a guilty sinner, be accepted by a holy God? This is the vital question. And there is a blessed answer:
“These He accepts for Jesus’ sake,
And views them righteous in His Son.”
Finally, Jesus is the ground and foundation of our hope. We have no other. Our only hope is in the name of Jesus – that is, His precious name, signifying all that He is, all He has done, all that He still does, exalted in heaven;
“Then let the name of Jesus be
To us supremely dear;
Our only, all-prevailing plea,
For all our hope is there.”
Our prayer often is that our unworthy names might be written on the Saviour’s heart. “Set me as a seal upon Thine heart.” And His worthy name is written upon the sinner’s heart. It was said that cruel Queen Mary died with the word CALAIS written on her heart – she was so distressed about its loss to the French. The child of God dies with the name JESUS written upon his heart.
“That the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works.”
2 Timothy 3:17
What perfection does the Holy Ghost speak of here? Certainly not perfection in the flesh; that is but a wild dream of free-will and Arminianism. But perfection here and elsewhere means a being well-established and grounded in the faith, as we find the Apostle speaking (Heb. 5:14), “Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age” (literally, as we read in the margin, “perfect”), “even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Christian perfection does not then consist in perfection in the flesh, but in having arrived at maturity in the divine life, in being what I may call a Christian adult, or what the Apostle terms “a man in Christ.”
When Paul therefore says, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect,” he means “being no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,” but favoured with a measure of Christian wisdom and strength. It is this Christian maturity which is called in Scripture, “perfection,” and it is only obtained by suffering. It is only in the furnace that the tin and dross of pharisaic righteousness is purged away; and the soul comes out of the furnace “a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use.”
The Lord of life and glory was made “perfect by suffering;” and there is no other way whereby his followers are made spiritually perfect. Until a man is led into suffering, he does not know the truth in its sweetness. We are full of free-will, pride, presumption, and self righteousness. But when the soul is baptised into suffering, it is in a measure established in the truth, strengthened in the things of God, and conformed to the image of Christ.
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him;
and he will shew them his covenant.”
Psalm 25:14
“The secret of the Lord” (that is, present possession) “is with them that fear him; and he will shew them” (that is, something future) “his covenant.” This shews, that while all the people of God, who fear his name, have the secret with them, that is, a measure of the secret, yet all the people of God have not the covenant revealed to them at the same time with the secret. The “secret” is in the present tense; the “shewing of the covenant” is in the future.
It is very sweet to see how the Holy Ghost has discriminated between these blessings. If, for instance, it had run thus, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he shews to them his covenant,” some doubting, desponding child of God might say, “How can I be one of those that fear God? for it says, God shews to them his covenant, and he has not shewn it to me yet.” But being put in the future tense, “he will shew to them his covenant,” it takes the form of a promise, and so is just adapted and sweetly suited to their wants. This covenant is the covenant that “stands fast for evermore;” the everlasting covenant of grace, which stands in the Person, love, blood, and work of the Son of God; the covenant made by a Triune Jehovah, on behalf of the elect, before the world was.
What a suitable foundation for a poor tottering heart! The Lord in shewing this covenant unto them that fear him, shews them that it is all of grace, and therefore meets all their unworthiness and superabounds over all the aboundings of their sin; that it is more than a match for their aggravated iniquities, and will land them safe in glory, because God has determined to bring them there. Nothing but a covenant of grace can suit a poor exercised soul, who knows his helplessness and worthlessness; and the Lord shews this to them that fear him.
“For he is our peace, who hath made both one,
and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.”
Ephesians 2:14
“He is our peace.” This necessarily springs from being reconciled and brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Sin has not only made us enemies to God, but made God an enemy to us. What peace, then, can there be between us whilst thus mutual enemies? Peace is between friends, not between foes. During this state of hostility and warfare, as there is no real, so there can be no felt or enjoyed peace. But the removal of the cause of the war brings about peace, first really and then experimentally. Christ has made peace through the blood of his cross (Col. 1:20). There is now no enmity on the part of God, for it was a law enmity. God always loved his people in Christ; and as he is unchanging and unchangeable, he never could or did hate them. But as a judge is an enemy to a criminal, even were that criminal his own son, so, as Judge and Lawgiver, God was an enemy to his own elect, viewed as lawbreakers.
But when the law was fulfilled, and all the breaches of it atoned for by the obedience and death of his dear Son, then this law enmity was removed, and the anger of God against sin and the sinner pacified. Sin, therefore, being put away, the whole cause of that law enmity is removed; and when we believe in the Son of God, and receive the atonement by his precious blood, then there is no enmity on our side; for the goodness, mercy, and love of God melt the heart into the sweetest humility, affection, and love to and before him.
“Hear counsel, and receive instruction,
that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.”
Proverbs 19:20
What lessons we need day by day to teach us anything aright, and how it is for the most part “line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” O what slow learners, what dull, forgetful scholars, what ignoramuses, what stupid blockheads, what stubborn pupils! Surely no scholar at a school, old or young, could learn so little of natural things as we seem to have learnt of spiritual things after so many years’ instruction, so many chapters read, so many sermons heard, so many prayers put up, so much talking about religion. How small, how weak is the amount of grace compared with all we have read and heard and talked about.
But it is a mercy that the Lord saves whom he will save, and that we are saved by free grace, and free grace alone, through the blood and righteousness of the Son of God. “He of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption;” so that if we have him we have everything, and if we have him not we have nothing. Where these things are felt they will cause exercise of soul, with many prayers and supplications to the God of all our mercies; and all this will strip and empty us of that light, superficial, and flimsy profession which seems so current in our day.
