The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ away — your bad and evil habits; and when that stone is taken away a still small voice will not do for you; it must be the loud crashing voice, like the voice of the Lord, which breaks the cedars of Lebanon — “Lazarus, come forth!” John Bunyan was one of those rotten ones. What strong means were used in his case! Terrible dreams, fearful convulsions, awful shakings to and fro — all had to be employed to make him live. And yet some of you think, when God is terrifying you by the thunders of Sinai, that really he does not love you. It is not so: you were so dead that it needed a loud voice to arrest your ears.

      19. III. This is an interesting subject: I wish I could enlarge upon it, but my voice fails me; and therefore, permit me to go to the third point very briefly. THE LATER EXPERIENCE OF THESE THREE PEOPLE WAS DIFFERENT — at least, you gather it from the commands of Christ. As soon as the maiden was alive, Christ said, “Give her food”; as soon as the young man was alive “he delivered him to his mother” as soon as Lazarus was alive, he said, “Loose him, and let him go.” I think there is something in this. When young people are converted who have not yet acquired evil habits; when they are saved before they become obnoxious in the eyes of the world, the command is, “Give them food.” Young people need instruction, they need building up in the faith; they generally lack knowledge; they have not the deep experience of the older man; they do not know so much about sin, nor even so much about salvation as the older man that has been a guilty sinner; they need to be fed. So that our business as ministers when the young lambs are brought in, is to remember the injunction, “Feed my lambs”; take care of them; give them plenty of food. Young people, search after an instructive minister; seek after instructive books; search the Scriptures, and seek to be instructed: that is your principal business. “Give her food.”

      20. The next case was a different one. He gave the young man up to his mother. Ah! that is just what he will do with you young man, if he makes you live. As sure as ever you are converted, he will give you up to your mother again. You were with her when you first as a babe sat on her knee; and that is the place where you will have to go again. Oh, yes; grace knits together again the ties which sin has loosed. Let a young man become abandoned; he casts off the tender influence of a sister and the kind associations of a mother: but if he is converted, one of the first things he will do will be to find the mother, and the sister, and he will find a charm in their company that he never knew before. You who have gone into sin, let this be your business, if God has saved you. Seek good company. Just as Christ delivered the young man to his mother, do you seek after your mother, the church. Endeavour as much as possible, to be found in the company of the righteous; for, as you were carried before to your grave by bad companions, you need to be led to heaven by good ones.

      21. And then comes the case of Lazarus. “Loose him, and let him go.” I do not know how it is that the young man never was loosed. I have been looking through every book I have about the manners and customs of the East, and have not been able to get a clue to the difference between the young man and Lazarus. The young man, as soon as Christ spoke to him, “sat up and began to speak”; but Lazarus, in his grave clothes, lying in the niche of the tomb, could do no more than just shuffle himself out from the hole that was cut in the wall, and then stand leaning against it. He could not speak; he was bound about in a napkin. Why was it not so with the young man? I am inclined to think that the difference lay in the difference of their wealth. The young man was the son of a widow. Very likely he was only wrapped up in a few common things, and not so tightly bound about as Lazarus. Lazarus was from a rich family; very likely they wrapped him up with more care. Whether it was so or not, I do not know. What I want to hint at is this: when a man is far gone into sin, Christ does this for him — he breaks off his evil habits. Very likely the old sinner’s experience will not be a feeding experience. It will not be the experience of walking with the saints. It will be as much as he can do to pull off his grave clothes, to get rid of his old habits; perhaps to his death he will have to be rending off bit after bit of the grave clothes in which he has been wrapped. There is his drunkenness; oh what a fight will he have with that! There is his lust; what a combat he will have with that, for many a month! There is his habit of swearing; how often will an oath come into his mouth, and he will have as hard work as he can to thrust it down again! There is his pleasure seeking: he has given it up; but how often will his companions be after him, to get him to go with them. His life will be always afterwards a loosing and letting go; for he will need it until he comes up to be with God for ever and ever.

      22. And now, dear friends, I must close by asking you this question — have you been quickened? And I must warn you that, good, or bad, or indifferent, if you have never been quickened you are dead in sins, and must be cast away at the last. I must bid you, however, who have gone the furthest into sin, not to despair; Christ can quicken you as well as the best. Oh, that he would quicken you, and lead you to believe! Oh, that he now would cry to some, “Lazarus, come forth!” and make some prostitute virtuous, some drunkard sober. Oh! that he would bless the word, especially to the young and amiable and lovely, by making them now the heirs of God and the children of Christ!

      23. And now only one thing I have to say to those who are quickened; and then adieu this morning, and may God bless you! My dear friends, you who are quickened, let me advise you to beware of the devil; he will be sure to be after you. Keep your mind always employed, and so you will escape him. Oh, be aware of his devices; seek to “keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” The Lord bless you, for Jesus’ sake.

      The Uses Of The Law

      No. 128-3:169. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, April 19, 1857, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

      What purpose then does the law serve? {Galatians 3:19}

      1. The apostle, by a highly ingenious and powerful argument, had proven that the law was never intended by God for the justification and salvation of man. He declares that God made a covenant of grace with Abraham long before the law was given on Mount Sinai; that Abraham was not present at Mount Sinai, and that, therefore, there could have been no alteration of the covenant made there by his consent; that, moreover, Abraham’s consent was never asked as to any alteration of the covenant, without which consent the covenant could not have been lawfully changed; and, besides that, that the covenant stands fast and firm, seeing it was made to Abraham’s seed, as well as to Abraham himself. “This I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no more by promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Therefore, no inheritance and no salvation ever can be obtained by the law. Now, extremes are the error of ignorance. Generally, when men believe one truth, they carry it so far as to deny another; and, very frequently, the assertion of a cardinal truth leads men to generalise on other particulars, and so to make falsehoods out of truth. The objection supposed may be worded thus: “You say, oh Paul, that the law cannot justify; surely then the law is good for nothing at all; ‘What purpose then does the law serve?’ If it will not save a man, what is the good of it? If of itself it will never take a man to heaven, why was it written? Is it not a useless thing?” The apostle might have replied to his opponent with a sneer — he must have said to him, “Oh, fool, and slow of heart to understand. Is it proven that a thing is utterly useless because it is not intended for every purpose in the world? Will you say that, because iron cannot be eaten, therefore, iron is not useful? And because gold cannot be the food of man, will you, therefore, cast gold away, and call it worthless dross? Yet on your foolish supposition you must do so. For, because I have said the law cannot save, you have foolishly asked me what is the use of it? and you foolishly suppose God’s law is good for nothing, and can be of no value whatever.” This objection is, generally, brought forward by two sorts of people. First, by mere cavillers who do not like the gospel, and wish to pick all sorts of holes in it. They can tell us what they do not believe; but they do not tell us what they do believe. They would fight with everyone’s doctrines СКАЧАТЬ