PART I, SKETCH LXI: THE CHRISTIAN'S HEAVINESS AND REJOICING

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” (1 Peter 1.6.) 

Introduction. This verse to a worldly man looks amazingly like a contradiction. Even to a Christian, it is a paradox. Can there be in the same heart great rejoicing, and yet a temporary heaviness? Certainly there can! This is far from being the greatest paradox of the Christian life. Not only is the Christian’s condition a paradox. He is a paradox himself: corrupt and yet purified, mortal and yet immortal, fallen yet exalted far above principalities and powers. 

(1) The Christian’s Heaviness. I never understood this verse until a day or two ago. Commentaries, I’m afraid, have got it wrong. And notice that your friends often say by quoting this verse when you are in trouble, “There is a need for this affliction.” That is a correct scriptural statement. But it comes not out of this text at all. This text says something better. Not only is there a need for the temptation, but for the heaviness in it. Imagine a man of strong faith. He is slandered, or endures persecution, or maybe even gets condemned to death for the gospel, and you say to him, “There is a need for it all. The blood of the martyrs must be the seed of the church.” And suppose that he agrees with you, is unmoved by the slander, rejoices for persecution, and even kisses the stake he is to be burned on. Seek to have faith and love like that man! But our text is not for him. It is for a feebler grade of Christian who needs to go through a season of heaviness and weeping. I myself am such a man. Why is heaviness necessary? Our Lord and Saviour passed through much heaviness. We must too if we would be like him. Sometimes we are given to suffer heaviness to keep our pride down or to bring us thirsting after our Lord. And there are lessons that cannot be learned any other way but through heaviness. Some sights in the valley cannot be seen from on top of the Alps! Men will never become great in divinity until they become great in suffering. “Ah!” says Luther, “affliction is the best book in my library.” Finally, heaviness is necessary to anyone who would afterwards comfort others. A great many Christians could come by more sympathy by a journey through a furnace! God makes his sons of thunder anywhere; but his sons of consolation he makes in the fire. 

(2) The Christian’s Great Rejoicing. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice.” What is the cause of this rejoicing? In this passage the apostle is speaking of election. To be “elect according to the foreknowledge of God,” when meditated upon, can cause any infirmity to be as nothing. He is speaking also of “the blood of Jesus.” All my guilt and sin taken away, and shall I not greatly rejoice? Shall my depression cause me to break my harp, or shall it just hang on the willows for awhile? But the great cheering comfort from the apostle concerns our inheritance. Tell a dying Christian about the milk and the honey and the Lamb, and see his eyes light up! And the reason chiefly intended here for our rejoicing is in the 15th verse. We are kept by the power of God! I don’t know what a man does in affliction who does not believe this doctrine. What would we do in the day of darkness if left to keep ourselves? The Lord shall keep us safe through anything!

Selection from Conclusion. “There are some of you here to whom this precious passage has not a word to say. Our heaviness, O worldling, ‘our heaviness is but for a season.’ Your heaviness is to come; and it shall be a heaviness intolerable, because hopelessly everlasting…I beseech you, look at this matter. Search and see…whether it be well for you to venture into an eternal state as you are; and may God give you grace, that you may feel your need of a Saviour.” 

PART I, SKETCH LX: OUR DECLINE FROM FIRST LOVE

“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2.4.)

Introduction. It is a great thing to have as much said about us as Jesus praised the church at Ephesus for. Not only had this church works (and some of you do not even have that), but something called labor. Could the Lord Jesus say of you, “I know thy labor?” No. He might say, “I know thy loitering.” And how few of us could be commended for our patience, our continual labor? This church had borne persecutions, difficulties, hardships, embarrassments, and discouragements, but always continued faithful. This church hated evil doctrine and sin, and loved truth and pure practice. I trust that some of us can say the same. But I cannot say as much of myself as Jesus complimented Ephesus for. And I pray that I may return to my first love, and that you may return with me. 

(1) What was our First Love? I am sure that you can recall that first bright spot in your history, that happy hour when the Lord appeared, bleeding on his cross! “I am thy salvation,” he said. I could have easily been a martyr for him then! It is this first love that you and I must confess we have in some measure lost. Some new Christians used to walk five miles to stand in line for two hours just for a chance to get into this church! Now their love is cool enough. Some of you used to be so ridiculously in love that you did a commandment at the first sight of it! What about now? Once you could sing all day long! Now you grumble at the minister. I acknowledge that I could sometimes have held fellowship with Christ, but instead was focusing upon a preacher’s faulty style or grammar. Some of the actions we performed as young Christians, were they not just a little wild? Maybe the little in your pocket was all that you had, yet you gladly gave it to some poor saint. May the Lord deliver us from living on the past! What if the sun decided not to shine anymore on account of all the shining it already did? When we have left our first works, we have lost our first love. When first love departs, we think ten minutes of prayer will do instead of an hour; and that a verse or two will do instead of a portion. In the beginning, some of you could not even take a walk without praying. How about now?

 (2) Where did we Lose our First Love? Have you not lost it in the world? A godly man says, “I have a chance of doing more business, but I will not because I must keep up my business with heaven.” And have you not lost your first love by being too much with worldly people? Seek to have godly friends. And have you maybe forgotten how much you owe to Christ? You and I may get to talking about being saints. But we need often to recall the pit we were dug out of in order to be led, by thankfulness, back to our first love. And is it not easy to do a great deal for Christ instead of living a great deal with him? The planet Mercury, because of where it is, is in a boiling heat, and spins around the sun in rapid orbits. Even so, the heart that is near Jesus must be full of his love. But search your heart, and find out just why you have lost your first love. 

(3) Let’s get our First Love Back. How happy was David before he lost his first love! But after David’s lustful eye fixed upon Bathsheba, it was one long string of afflictions! When love declines, purity declines too. Watch yourself! Unless you are a bastard, the Father will give you the rod if your love cools! Let it never be said of us, “Ah, that church is quite as sleepy as any other.”

Selection from Conclusion. “May not this question arise in our hearts—Was I ever a child of God at all?…may it not have been that I only thought I had love to Christ, and never had it, for if I really had love to Christ should I be as I now am?”

PART I, SKETCH LIX: THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD

“Our Father which art in heaven” (Matthew 6.9.)

Introduction. I doubt that our Saviour intended this prayer just to be repeated each day as a religious exercise. And I believe this prayer was never intended for everyone. Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples. It is for those who are truly converted. In the lips of the ungodly it is entirely out of place. I earnestly ask you to never pray Our Father which art in heaven unless you can say it in honesty and in truth. Do not offer God the language of the hypocrite. This prayer is a model by which disciples may fashion their prayers. Let it be our chief prayer, but let us also cry to God in whatever way we can.

(1) The Double Relationship Implied in the Text. Here is sonship. Some say that God is man’s Father through creation. But being created by God does not argue that he is your Father. The angels were made by him, but we read, “Unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son?” No, God is man’s Father through adoption and the new birth. Now, this relationship involves love. God loves his children as a father pities his child on a sickbed. He does not discipline except by his great love and deep wisdom. And, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” And we, the chosen favorites of Heaven, shall we not love him back? If he is our Father, let us note his commands that we should obey. But the child of God never obeys to get to heaven or to avoid hell. He has been accepted to God by Jesus Christ, apart from works. He acts out of pure love and gratitude. Now, is a father no longer a father to a son who becomes a lunatic? And was not the prodigal still a son when he was among the harlots? Nothing can divide us from the Father’s heart. David was the son of God, but not more the son of God than you. Consider your privileges then, “This world is ours, and worlds to come/Earth is our lodge, and heaven our home.” Next, besides our sonship, we have brotherhood. It does not say my Father, but our Father. Then it seems there are a great many in the family! When you pray, remember God’s elect ones, paid for by Christ, but not yet called from the caves and dens of Satan. And those who differ with us in doctrine, put them in your prayer too, and also the poor who are rich in faith, and your brethren across the sea. Then be on your feet what you are on your knees. Help the needy; cheer up the sick; and comfort the sad ones.

(2) The Spirit of Adoption. The Fatherhood is recognized by the childship of the child. Unless you are a child, you cannot know what the spirit of adoption is like. You don’t know what it’s like to have the Father steer your ship across the waves of the world. May God himself bring you to know him! May he lead you to the cross of Christ!

(3) A Double Argument. First, I do not come to pray to God as my Judge, or my King, or even my Preserver—because then God may reply, “You are a lawbreaker,” or “you are a rebellious subject,” or “I have preserved you, but still you rebelled against me.” But if I come to God our Father, he will regard me. No matter how childish my language, he will get the meaning. He will not despise my prayer, then. Second, I do not come as a beggar to a stranger when I come to God. Do I not, almost without asking, sit down and eat all I desire? A Father must relieve his children! Has your father treated you badly lately? Give me a father that is angry with my sins!

Selection from Conclusion. “Go away with that upon your mind, and rejoice. But if you love not God and fear him not, go home, I beseech you, to confess your sins, and to seek mercy through the blood of Christ; and may this sermon be made useful in bringing you into the family of Christ.” 

PART I, SKETCH LVII: "AS THY DAYS, SO SHALL THY STRENGTH BE"

“As thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Deuteronomy 33.25.)

Introduction. Beloved, it seems a sad thing that every day must die and be followed by a night. But if it were not for nights, we would never have considered the work of God’s fingers: the moon and the stars. Likewise, our sin and ruined condition has been made the means of revealing the excellences of God’s character. Without trouble, we never could have had the promise, As thy days, so shall thy strength be. We do not love the nights, but we do love the stars; we do not love weakness, but we do bless God for the promise that upholds us in our weakness. 

(1) Self-weakness Hinted at in the Text. A self-sufficient man can no more understand this promise than a coal-miner can understand Greek. A sense of weakness is what is needed. Have you never been overcome with horror at your weakness to fulfill a duty to God? I have learned my own weakness right here in the pulpit. But we prove our weakness more visibly by suffering. Women suffer well. Ah! people of God, it is one thing to look at the doctor’s knife, quite another to feel it. Another thing which proves our weakness is progress. Just try and live a life of sacrifice like Henry Martyn did, and you will soon find your own weakness. Pray to love the Lord more, and he may answer by making you feel the hidden evils of your heart, and it will be as though you love him less than you did before you prayed! Temptation too, will prove your weakness. A strong tree that resisted many frosts one day gets stretched upon the ground by a howling wind. I have seen many professing Christians break just like that by the wind of temptation. You think you’re strong enough to resist this or that sin? Satan knows you better than you do. He can find out your Achilles heel, just as the Philistines found out Samson’s. 

(2) The Great Promise. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” God’s promise is well guaranteed. If God can feed the burning furnace of the sun, he can supply your strength. Do not think for a moment that the Creator has out-promised himself. But his promise is a limited one. What! Yes, it does not say, as thy desires are, but as thy days are. To have more strength than you need might be like having more manna than you can eat. And so it breeds worms and begins to stink. And it does not say, as thy fears are. Some people must have a factory out behind the house where they manufacture fears. Maybe you are sick and are praying for grace to die smoothly. But why should God give dying grace now if he intends for you to live awhile? When your cup gets empty, then God will fill it. God does not give extra strength just for you to put into storage. Next, it does not say, as thy weeks or months shall be. Why should you get Monday’s grace on Sunday? Get a week’s grace all at once, and maybe the devil will get a good deal of it. As in Job’s case, your strength will grow as your troubles grow. The bed of grace is never shorter than a man can stretch himself upon it. If you were called to be as brave as Luther was, even so your strength would be. And this promise of God adjusts to circumstances that fly at us. As thy days: and so there is given a shield for an arrow. Finally, this promise is long enough that it will outlive you. You shall, after death, have strength to bear even the brightness of the Most High! 

(3) The Lesson Drawn. Christians, whether young or bashful, why do you fear? Your days shall never be more troublesome than your strength shall be full of deliverance.

Selection from Conclusion. “And as for you that have not God to be yours…your days shall become heavier, but your strength shall become lighter…all your hopes shall die, and your fears shall live.”

PART I, SKETCH LVI: PROVIDENCE

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10.30.)

Introduction. My mind has been much directed to this subject because of the accident that occurred at Halifax, where I preached on Wednesday. Had the gallery collapsed a little sooner than it did, many more had fallen, and there might have been a panic such as we had in this place once. Instead of two thousand persons falling, only two persons were hurt. And their bones, we trust, will mend. And had the snow not melted through the roof and onto us during the service, the whole structure had fallen sooner than it did, killing us by thousands. If we are to avoid all atheism, we will learn to see God in creation, grace, and providence. Participants in this event I just mentioned will hardly deny Providence, but generally, Providence is denied very much, more than creation and grace.

(1) The Minuteness of Providence. Every man can see the hand of God in the avalanche, the whirlwind, the earthquake, pestilence, war, etc. But Providence must involve the microcosm just as much. We must believe all chance or else all God. “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Study the particulars in the life of Joseph and you will encounter Providence, not accident. Take away any link in the story, and the whole thing falls apart. And be diligent to give attention to the timings in the circumstances, and Providence will show itself still more. You may see this in other lives than Joseph’s, of course. God is in every detail. In the life of Mohammed just a sparrow turned the course of a whole empire. God has appointed every movement, even the winging of a bat. Yet this is not fate, for unlike fate, Providence has eyes and reason, and is designed to hit a target. Even every thought, even those thoughts that are born only to die, are under the hand of God, and therefore every idle word too. God has ordered everything that comes to pass. He who wings an angel guides a sparrow. 

(2) God’s Kind Consideration in Providence. What mother has counted the hairs on her infant’s head? But God has! And every believer has a half-miracle to tell about: how he was preserved by God up until the day of his conversion. And then God preserves us from sinning by timing our temptations, doesn’t he? And he guides us into our careers, very noticeably in my case. And are you poor? Then you know more about Providence than the rest of us. 

(3) Our Response in Light of Providence. We who see order in every wave, music in every breath of wind, we can be calm and bold (but not presumptuous.) And if one of us is plucked away, even in some frightening Providence, then it is as if the Gardener just plucked one of his roses, that’s all. Our graves are not filled by accident! This doctrine, if believed, ought to keep us on the level. That is the happiest state of mind. If good things come, thank God; but do not set your heart upon them; if good things go, thank God that he has taken them, and still bless his name. Not only will you be delivered from much anxiety by a full belief in Providence, but in this quieter temper you will experience higher exercises of communion with Christ. 

Selection from Conclusion. “But as for you who fear not God, remember, the stones of the field are in league against you; the heavens cry to the earth and the earth answereth to the heavens, for vengeance upon you on account of your sins. For you there is nothing good, every thing is in rebellion against you. Oh that God might bring you into peace with him, and then you would be at rest with all beside. ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.’ The Lord bless you in this, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” 

PART I, SKETCH LV: A CALL TO THE UNCONVERTED

“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3.10.) 

Introduction. Are you in Christ? Have you fled for refuge to him who is the only hope for sinners? You are either under the wrath of God, or you are delivered from it. If you know not which, better to think the worst than go on presuming until the pit of hell wakes you from your self-deception. Can you swear that you have passed from death to life? If you are truly converted and regenerated, then Christ was cursed in your place and you are secure. But I am convinced that a large proportion of this assembly dare not say so. You are what you always were, and that is the most you can say. 

(1) Trying the Prisoner. Unconverted man, are you guilty, or not guilty? Have you continued ‘in all things that are written in the book of the law?’ Do you know what the law is? “Thou shalt have no other gods before me?” What! have you never loved anything better than God? Have you never made a god of your belly, business, family, or person? “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Has no impurity ever stirred your imagination? “Thou shalt not covet.” We have all desired more than God has given us. One pleads not guilty, for he claims to have done his best. That is a lie. We have none of us done the best we could. Another says that he has been no worse than others. That is a sorry argument. To be damned in a crowd is no more comfortable than to be damned alone. And God will deal with you as if there were never another sinner in the world. I think I have kept the law for a bit, says another. Hear the sentence again: ‘Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law.’ Suppose you have been virtuous and have avoided many vices. But you must perform all virtues, for the text says, ‘all things.’ Maybe you were never a drunkard. Yet you will be damned if you’ve been a fornicator. And it is not the act, merely, that will damn a man. The imagination of sin is sufficient. 

(2) Declaring the Sentence. I would rather preach on the love of Jesus. But sinner, you are cursed tonite. You are not yet in hell. But the curse of God is a present thing. See Deuteronomy 28. You are cursed in your business, in your recreation, and in your fruit. This curse is visible on some men. When the drunkard goes home, his children run upstairs to bed. When they begin to imitate him, the man is cursed in the fruit of his body. All sin brings the curse. The curse in this life is as nothing compared with the curse to come. The wrath to come is no dream, no fraud, no whim, no wives’ story. I think I see that terrible day. Now comes the funeral of damned souls. The Man that died on Calvary has thunder on his brow. I will not tell of quenchless flames, miseries of body, or tortures for the spirit. But hell is terrible. Oh, escape!

(3) Deliverance Proclaimed. I have not condemned you. God has done it. Are you condemned? My whole spirit is stirred for you. Do you think I enjoy preaching like this? My harshest words are far more full of love than the smooth words of soft-speaking ministers, who say, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. I will have a sweet word with you now. Do you feel that your works can never save you? That you are condemned through sin? Do you hate sin? Do you repent? Has God the Spirit taught you that you are accursed? Has he made you cry, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner?’ Then, my dear friend, Christ was cursed for you, and you are not cursed.

Selection from Conclusion. “Say…‘Lord Jesus, I know I am nothing…be thou my precious all in all.’”

PART I, SKETCH LIV: THE DEATH OF CHRIST

“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53.10.)

Introduction. Myriads of eyes behold the starry orbs. But there is one great event that attracts more admiration: the death of Christ. Upon Christ, the myriad eyes of the redeemed are perpetually fixed. 

(1) The Cause of Christ’s Death. He who reads the Bible, not as a mere history, but with the eye of faith, traces the death of Christ to something beyond Roman cruelty and Jewish malice. He sees the solemn decree of God fulfilled by men who were the ignorant but guilty instruments of its accomplishment. We dare not impute to God the sin, though ‘it pleased Jehovah to bruise him.’ Jesus Christ did not die to make God loving; he died because God was loving. (I) The death of Christ is traceable to God the Father in decree. This decree is the very core of predestination; this death is the foundation-stone of all sacred architecture. (II) Christ’s coming into the world to die was the effect of the Father’s will and pleasure. Herein was matchless love, that the offended Judge should permit his co-equal Son to suffer the pains of death for the redemption of a rebellious people. Faith and obedience made Abraham bind Isaac to the altar. Love constrained God to yield his only Son for our redemption. What great love was that which completed in act what Abraham did only in intention! See on the cross the bleeding victim of awakened justice! (III) There is a martyr who sings a Psalm while his limbs are burning. Picture another scene. The Saviour is weak with suffering. His soul is so sick and sad that he faints beneath a cross that many a criminal might have carried. They nail him to a tree. He utters no song of praise. Why? God cheered the martyr; he withdrew from Christ. 

(2) The Reason of Christ’s Death. God is just. But he desires to pardon man. How can it be done? The Son of God shall stand in man’s place, and be offered instead of man. When you see Christ hurled upon the cross, you see the company of his elect there, in their substitute. Christ really died; but it was in the place of all believers. For sin man was condemned to live forever in hell. Christ’s grief was a valid payment for an eternity of fire. Though we owe God gratitude, we owe him no justice, for Christ took all our sins and was punished for them. Hell consists in the hiding of God’s face from sinners. God hid his face from Christ. There is no atonement except in this doctrine of substitution. Some believe that Christ satisfied for the sins of all. In that case, his dying was so ineffectual that multitudes are damned afterward. Such an atonement I despise and reject. I had rather believe in a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was intended, than a universal atonement that is efficacious for nobody, unless the will of man be joined with it. Are you afraid that you are not elect? and if not, that Christ did not die for you? This is the infallible proof of election—a sense of need and a thirst after Christ. 

(3) The Effects of Christ’s Death. (I) ‘He shall see his seed.’ Men have offspring by life; Christ had an offspring by death. It is not that by his death many may be saved. “By his righteousness he shall justify many.” (II) ‘He shall prolong his days.’ He rose from the dead to die no more. (III) By his death the Father’s good pleasure was effected and prospered. This poor planet shall one day be redeemed; and all the gods shall lose their thrones and be cast out to the moles and bats. 

Selection from Conclusion. “The hour approacheth when…one King shall reign.”