I hear Thee for the guilty plead,
And grief o'erflows the more.
'Twas for the sinful Thou didst die,
And I a sinner stand:
Convinc'd by Thine expiring eye,
Slain by Thy pierced hand.
Surely the cross is that wonder-working rod which can bring
water out of a rock. If you understand the full meaning of the
divine sacrifice of Jesus, you must repent of ever having been
opposed to One who is so full of love. It is written, "They shall
look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for
him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."
Repentance will not make you see Christ; but to see Christ will
give you repentance. You may not make a Christ out of your
repentance, but you must look for repentance to Christ. The Holy
Ghost, by turning us to Christ, turns us from sin. Look away,
then, from the effect to the cause, from your own repenting to
the Lord Jesus, who is exalted on high to give repentance.
I have heard another say, "I am tormented with horrible
thoughts. Wherever I go, blasphemies steal in upon me. Frequently
at my work a dreadful suggestion forces itself upon me, and even
on my bed I am startled from my sleep by whispers of the evil
one. I cannot get away from this horrible temptation." Friend, I
know what you mean, for I have myself been hunted by this wolf. A
man might as well hope to fight a swarm of flies with a sword as
to master his own thoughts when they are set on by the devil. A
poor tempted soul, assailed by satanic suggestions, is like a
traveler I have read of, about whose head and ears and whole body
there came a swarm of angry bees. He could not keep them off nor
escape from them. They stung him everywhere and threatened to be
the death of him. I do not wonder you feel that you are without
strength to stop these hideous and abominable thoughts which
Satan pours into your soul; but yet I would remind you of the
Scripture before us--"When we were yet without strength, in due
time Christ died for the ungodly." Jesus knew where we were and
where we should be; He saw that we could not overcome the prince
of the power of the air; He knew that we should be greatly
worried by him; but even then, when He saw us in that condition,
Christ died for the ungodly. Cast the anchor of your faith upon
this. The devil himself cannot tell you that you are not ungodly;
believe, then, that Jesus died even for such as you are. Remember
Martin Luther's way of cutting the devil's head off with his own
sword. "Oh," said the devil to Martin Luther, "you are a sinner."
"Yes," said he, "Christ died to save sinners." Thus he smote him
with his own sword. Hide you in this refuge, and keep there: "In
due time Christ died for the ungodly." If you stand to that
truth, your blasphemous thoughts which you have not the strength
to drive away will go away of themselves; for Satan will see that
he is answering no purpose by plaguing you with them.
These thoughts, if you hate them, are none of yours, but are
injections of the Devil, for which he is responsible, and not
you. If you strive against them, they are no more yours than are
the cursings and falsehoods of rioters in the street. It is by
means of these thoughts that the Devil would drive you to
despair, or at least keep you from trusting Jesus. The poor
diseased woman could not come to Jesus for the press, and you are
in much the same condition, because of the rush and throng of
these dreadful thoughts. Still, she put forth her finger, and
touched the fringe of the Lord's garment, and she was healed. Do
you the same.
Jesus died for those who are guilty of "all manner of sin
and blasphemy," and therefore I am sure He will not refuse those
who are unwillingly the captives of evil thoughts. Cast yourself
upon Him, thoughts and all, and see if He be not mighty to
save. He can still those horrible whisperings of the fiend, or He
can enable you to see them in their true light, so that you may
not be worried by them. In His own way He can and will save you,
and at length give you perfect peace. Only trust Him for this and
everything else.
Sadly perplexing is that form of inability which lies in a
supposed want of power to believe. We are not strangers to the
cry:
Oh that I could believe,
Then all would easy be;
I would, but cannot; Lord, relieve,
My help must come from thee.
Many remain in the dark for years because they have no
power, as they say, to do that which is the giving up of all
power and reposing in the power of another, even the Lord Jesus.
Indeed, it is a very curious thing, this whole matter of
believing; for people do not get much help by trying to believe.
Believing does not come by trying. If a person were to make a
statement of something that happened this day, I should not tell
him that I would try to believe him. If I believed in the
truthfulness of the man who told the incident to me and said that
he saw it, I should accept the statement at once. If I did not
think him a true man, I should, of course, disbelieve him; but
there would be no trying in the matter. Now, when God declares
that there is salvation in Christ Jesus, I must either believe
Him at once, or make Him a liar. Surely you will not hesitate as
to which is the right path in this case, The witness of God must
be true, and we are bound at once to believe in Jesus.
But possibly you have been trying to believe too much. Now
do not aim at great things. Be satisfied to have a faith that can
hold in its hand this one truth, "While we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." He laid down
His life for men while as yet they were not believing in Him, nor
were able to believe in Him. He died for men, not as believers,
but as sinners. He came to make these sinners into believers and
saints; but when He died for them He viewed them as utterly
without strength. If you hold to the truth that Christ died for
the ungodly, and believe it, your faith will save you, and you
may go in peace. If you will trust your soul with Jesus, who died
for the ungodly, even though you cannot believe all things, nor
move mountains, nor do any other wonderful works, yet you are
saved. It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the
salvation lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith
trusts. Faith as a grain of mustard seed will bring salvation. It
is not the measure of faith, but the sincerity of faith, which is
the point to be considered. Surely a man can believe what he
knows to be true; and as you know Jesus to be true, you, my
friend, can believe in Him.
The cross which is the object of faith, is also, by the
power of the Holy Spirit, the cause of it. Sit down and watch the
dying Saviour till faith springs up spontaneously in your heart.
There is no place like Calvary for creating confidence. The air
of that sacred hill brings health to trembling faith. Many a
watcher there has said:
While I view Thee, wounded, grieving,
Breathless on the cursed tree,
Lord, I feel my heart believing
That Thou suffer'dst thus for me.
"Alas!" cries another, "my want of strength lies in this
direction, that I cannot quit my sin, and I know that I cannot go
to Heaven and carry my sin with me." I am glad that you know
that, for it is quite true. You must be divorced from your sin,
or you cannot be married to Christ. Recollect the question which
flashed into the mind of young Bunyan when at his sports on the
green on Sunday: "Wilt thou have thy sins and go to hell, or wilt
thou quit thy sins and go to heaven?" That brought him to a dead
stand. That is a question which every man will have to answer:
for there is no going on in sin and going to heaven. That cannot
be. You must quit sin or quit hope. Do you reply, "Yes, I am
willing enough. To will is present with me, but how to perform
that which l would I find not. Sin masters me, and I have no
strength." Come, then, if you have no strength, this text is
still true, "When we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly." Can you still believe that? However
other things may seem to contradict it, will you believe it? God
has said it, and it is a fact; therefore, hold on to it like grim
death, for your only hope lies there. Believe this and trust
Jesus, and you shall soon find power with which to slay your sin;
but apart from Him, the strong man armed will hold you for ever
his bond slave. Personally, I could never have overcome my own
sinfulness. I tried and failed. My evil propensities were too
many for me, till, in the belief that Christ died for me, I cast
my guilty soul on Him, and then I received a conquering principle
by which I overcame my sinful self. The doctrine of the cross can
be used to slay sin, even as the old warriors used their huge two-
handed swords, and mowed down their foes at every stroke. There
is nothing like faith in the sinner's Friend: it overcomes all
evil. If Christ has died for me, ungodly as I am, without
strength as I am, then I cannot live in sin any longer, but must
arouse myself to love and serve Him who hath redeemed me. I
cannot trifle with the evil which slew my best Friend. I must be
holy for His sake. How can I live in sin when He has died to save
me from it?
See what a splendid help this is to you that are without
strength, to know and believe that in due time Christ died for
such ungodly ones as you are. Have you caught the idea yet? It
is, somehow, so difficult for our darkened, prejudiced, and
unbelieving minds to see the essence of the gospel. At times I
have thought, when I have done preaching, that I have laid down
the gospel so clearly, that the nose on one's face could not be
more plain; and yet I perceive that even intelligent hearers have
failed to understand what was meant by "Look unto me and be ye
saved." Converts usually say that they did not know the gospel
till such and such a day; and yet they had heard it for years.
The gospel is unknown, not from want of explanation, but from
absence of personal revelation. This the Holy Ghost is ready to
give, and will give to those who ask Him. Yet when given, the sum
total of the truth revealed all lies within these words: "Christ
died for the ungodly."
I hear another bewailing himself thus: "Oh, sir, my weakness
lies in this, that I do not seem to keep long in one mind! I hear
the word on a Sunday, and I am impressed; but in the week I meet
with an evil companion, and my good feelings are all gone. My
fellow workmen do not believe in anything, and they say such
terrible things, and I do not know how to answer them, and so I