Part 3
We might pursue our theme and show you that as far as all past events have gone, God's Word has been verified. But now, though we keep to history, we shall leave the large volume of the public records and ask you to take down from its shelf that little diary of yours, the pocketbook of your own life story–and then observe how
God's Word has been true. You remember the warnings that you received in your youth, when you were told that the ways of sin might be pleasantness at first, but would end in sorrow. You were told that the cup might sparkle at the brim, but that the dregs thereof were full of bitterness. Did you test that statement in the days of your early manhood? Ah, then I know you cannot deny that it was as God had declared. He said, "The wages of sin is death"–"and it was so." He said it would be bitterness in the end thereof, "and it was so." He told you that the fascinations of sin were as destructive as they were alluring and truly, "it was so." If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, you will blush as you answer the question, "What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?"
It fell on a day, as God would have it, that your eyes were opened to see your lost estate. And there was a voice which spoke in the Gospel and said, "If you will return unto Me, return. Only confess the transgressions that you have sinnedagainst Me, and I will forgive you. Come and put your trust in My Son, and your iniquity shall be blotted out like a cloud and your transgressions like a thick cloud." Led by Sovereign Grace, you came to Jesus. You washed in the fountain of His blood, guided to it by the Holy Spirit. What is your testimony? You were promised salvation, pardon, peace. My testimony is–and it was so! Is not that yours also? Oh, the joy of believing in Jesus! Oh, the bliss of casting one's self into the Father's arms and pleading the merits of the Only-Begotten! There is a peace of God that passes all understanding which comes to our faith when we exercise it upon Christ! Peace was promised–"and it was so."
Since the time when you believed in Jesus, you have had many needs, both spiritual and temporal, but He has promised no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. What say you, Brothers and Sisters? Your needs have come–have the supplies also come? I am sure you will say, "it was so"–strangely so–but always so! As your day, your strength has been. The shoes of iron and of brass have had rough usage, but they have not worn out. The all-sufficient God has proved that His Grace is all-sufficient for us.
Our personal history bears witness that with regard to the Providence of God and to the supplies of His Grace, He said that He would grant us enough, "and it was so." He told you that when you believed in His Word, He would hear your prayers. Three times
He put it in varied form, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Brothers and Sisters have been to the Mercy Seat and tried whether God hears prayer, and it has been so–He did hear prayer! We believed
His Word and in due time our faith has been turned to sight and the promise has been fulfilled. We have read in God's Word that He would sanctify our trials to us and that, "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." What then, is my witness, after having been week after week and even month after month racked with pain and laid low with sickness? What have these things been to me?
Have they worked to my good? Do they bring forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness? My truthful witness is, "and it was so." I feel persuaded that every Christian shall have to say of his afflictions that they have been blessed to him–"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept Your Word," said one of old. And many in these modern times can say the same. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted"–the Lord said it would be–"and it was so."
Up to this hour it has always been true with regard to us, His people, that what the Lord has said, He has surely performed. We can–
"Sing the sweet promise of His Grace,
And the performing God."
Let me remind you that our history is only the common experience of all God's people and if there is anything uncommon in the stories of the saints, then there is only a more than usually clear confirmation of the Truth of God. Look at the martyrs–they suffered what we can scarcely bear to read of–yet the Lord said He would be with them. "And it was so." They wore the chain for Christ's sake and He promised to be their companion –"and it was so." Theywent to the stake or bowed their head to the axe and they were promised that even to the end He would be with them–"and it was so." Right along through all the history of the Church militant and, I might also ask the confirmation of the Church triumphant, too–the saints declare that "it was so." Christ has kept His Word to the letter! Not one good thing has failed of all that He ever promised to His people!
II. And now, having taken this very brief run through history, let me ask you to follow me when I say that, AS IT HAS BEEN IN THE PAST, SO IT WILL BE IN THE FUTURE!
It is always good reasoning, when we are dealing with God, to infer the future from the past. "Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice." Having the same God and the same promises, we may expect to always see the same results. As for the future, a large part of Scripture is as yet unfulfilled. Many persons try to interpret it, but the man is not born who can explain the Revelation. Yet, whatever God has there declared will be explained by the working out of His Providence– "God is His own Interpreter, And He will make it plain."
Whatever He has there promised, it shall be said of it, by-and-by, "and it was so." We learn that there is to be a widespread of the Gospel. It is written, "All flesh shall see the salvation of God."
"Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God." Therefore be assured that it shall be so! Let the missionary toil on and the devil rage on if he will–the devil shall be disappointed and the servant of God shall have his heart's desire! God will honor His Church when she has faith enough to believe in His promises.
There is to be, in the fullness of time, a Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. He who went up from Olivet sent two of His angelic servants to promise that in the same manner as He went up into Heaven, He would return again. He shall surely come. Virgin souls who are awake and watching for the midnight cry will hear it before long. And when He comes, "the dead in Christ shall rise first"–there shall be a resurrection of the just at His appearing. So He has promised" and, "blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power." There are no bonds of death that can hold the saints in their graves when the Lord descends at the sound of the archangel's trumpet! God has said that they shall arise–and it shall be so. They shall, everyone of them, return from the land of the enemy and then will follow the millennial glory–we will not explain that splendor–but we know that it is promised, and that whatever has been foretold by God shall surely be! The saints shall possess the Kingdom and shall reign with Christ!
And Heaven and the eternal future in the Glory Land where the ever-blessed God shall reveal Himself unto His servants, "and they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads"–every golden word, every sapphire sentence which glows and sparkles with the Glory of the Most High and the loving kindness of the Infinite shall be fulfilled! It shall be said of the whole, "and it was so." Yes! And concerning the dread future of the lost–those awful words that tell of fires that burn and yet do not consume–and of a wrath that slays and yet men live beneath its power–verily, verily, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal!" These shall all be fulfilled! Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one Word that God has spoken shall fail. Of doom or of glory, of promise or of threat, it shall be said, "and it was so." And when the end shall come and Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, and the drama of history shall be ended and the curtain shall drop and God shall be All-in-All–all shall be summed up in this sentence, "He spoke, and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast," He said it, "and it was so."
I desire, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, for your consolation, to bring this Truth of God home to yourselves, if the Spirit of God will enable me. "It was so"–this has been true and it shall be so to you. God's promises shall all bekept to you personally. God will fulfill His Word to you in every letter. Observe there will occur cases in which there willbe no visible help toward the fulfillment of the Divine Promise and no tendencies that way. But if God has pledged His Word, He will keep it. Note well that in the creation of the world there was nothing to help God. "With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him?" When He began to fit up the world for man and to furnish the house which He had made in the beginning, there was darkness and that was no aid. There was chaos and that was no help. Now you are troubled at the present time. Your condition is one of confusion, disorder, darkness–you see nothing that could make God's promise come true, not a finger to help–no one even to wish you well. Never mind! God needs no helper. He works gloriously alone. See how the earth stands. What does it hang on? "He hangs the earth upon nothing." Look at the unpillared arch above it. There are no buttresses, no supports, no props to the sky–yet it has not fallen and it never will. "Trust you in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."
And if He has given you a promise and you have laid hold upon it, though nothing should appear to aid its fulfillment, yet it shall be fulfilled! You will have to write, "and it was so."
Yes, and this shall be the case though many circumstances tend the other way. When there seems to be a conflict against God–not only no help, but much resistance–then do not fear. What does it matter to God? Though all the men on earth and all the devils in Hell were against Him, what does it matter? Though heaps of chaff contend against the wind, what does it matter to the wind? They shall be whirled along in its fury! What if the wax shall defy the flame? It shall but melt in the fervent heat! If all the world and all
Hell should declare that God will not keep His promise, yet He will perform it and we shall have to say, "it was so." No opposition can stop the Lord!
But you may say, "This cannot be true, surely, in my case. I could have believed it on a great scale, but not for myself." Ah, does God speak Truth in great things, and lies in little ones? Will you blaspheme the Most High by imagining that in public acts of royalty He is true, but in the private deeds of His family He is false? What would be a worse imputation against a man than that?
Who shall throw such a charge upon the eternal God? The Lord promised His servant Elijah that He would take care of him. Did He not make the ravens feed him? Did He not send him to the widow of Sarepta and multiply her meal and her oil? He was as true to him in the ravens' matter, and in the handful of meal matter, as when, in the business of the great rain, the Prophet bowed his head between his knees on Carmel and saw at length the heavens covered with clouds and the land deluged with showers! God will keep His Word in little things to you. Do not imagine that He forgets your little problems. The hairs of your head are numbered.
A sparrow lights not on the ground without your Father. Are you not better than the sparrows which are sold at five for two farthings in the market? Will you not rest in your Father's care and believe that His promises shall be fulfilled and that your bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure and you shall dwell in the land and verily, you shall be fed?
God's Word stands true even when our unworthiness is in the way. I know you have fancied, "If I were a great saint, God would surely keep His Word to me. But I, being a very grievous sinner, how shall He be gracious to me?" And do you think that God is good and truthful only to the good and true? Would you be so yourself? Surely we must deal honestly with all men, whoever they may be! Their character is no excuse for our unfaithfulness to our own promises. Our Lord Jesus has said, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." And if you come to God, He will not cheat you and say, "I said, 'Who confesses and forsakes his sins shall have mercy,' but I did not mean the promise for such an one as you are." No, Christ has said, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out" and if you come to Him, though you are the blackest sinner out of Hell, yet Christ will not reject you, for it is not your character, but His Character that is to beconsidered in the promise! Even "if we believe not, yet He abides faithful–He cannot deny Himself."
Yes, and His promise comes true and we have to say of it, "and it was so," even in cases of our own confessedincapacity to receive it.
Take the case of Abraham, for that is typical of many others in this respect. He had the promise of a son and heir. And though, as for his own body, it was as dead and Sarah was well stricken in years, Abraham did not consider himself or Sarah, but believed the promise and, in the fullness of time, there was the sound of laughter in the tent, for Isaac was born! We err when we become so depressed by our own incapacity as to conceive doubts of God's faithfulness. The Lord gives the promise that the barren woman shall keep house–and it is so. Our desert-hearts shallhave the blessing–it shall drop upon the pastures of the wilderness and the little hills shall rejoice on every side! Our weakness shall not hinder the fulfillment of the Divine Promise. God is able to bless us even when we feel only fit to be cursed. O empty one, God can fill you! O dried branch and withered tree, you that stand like an oak smitten by lightning, only fit for the burning–the Lord, the everlasting God–can quicken you and put fresh sap in you, and make your branches to bud again to the glory of His holy name! He promises and if you believe, you shall have to say, "and it wasso."
It will be thus right on to the end of the chapter. A few days ago I stood by the side of a dear departing Brother who feebly lifted his hands from the bed and said just these few words, "Christ, Christ, Christ is All." And then he said, as I bade him "Good-bye," "We shall meet in Heaven. I shall go there soon and you will follow, but I hope it will be a long while before you do." I asked him whether that was quite a benediction and he said, "You know what I mean.
The Church needs you." About half-past five this afternoon, he who rejoiced that he would soon be in Heaven entered within the gate of pearl! He had served us well as a deacon of this Church and now he sees the face of the Ever-Blessed. He believed, while here on earth, that it was bliss to be with Christ and he finds it so! He is saying, "The half has not been told me." Well, well, whether we live to old age, or depart in mid-life, or die in early youth, what does it matter? We shall find that passing across the river is delightful when at eventide it is light. And oh, the glory of the everlasting daybreak! The splendor of the sun that goes down no more! Oh, the bliss of beholding saints and angels, and seeing the King in His beauty! The messengers of God said that Heaven is blessed–and it is so–it is so! The voice from Heaven said, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord," and it is so! [See Sermon
Volume 21–A VOICE FROM HEAVEN–Read/download the entire sermon, free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.]
I would leave a thought with those who are exercised with doubts and fears about the Lord's sure mercies. It is a very hard thing that we should doubt our God, but we do. And therefore let us shoot arrows at unbelief. Note well that when God spoke in the Creation, "and it was so," there was only His power concerned. Supposing
He had spoken and it had not been so? Then the only result would have been that God was proved not to be Omnipotent. But His might did not fail Him! His glorious attribute of power showed its majesty and what the Lord spoke was accomplished. Yet, in this instance, only one attribute was at stake. Now, when you consider any one of God's promises recorded in the Bible, there is more than one attribute engaged for its fulfillment–there are at least two–for there is the Divine Truth at stake as well as the Divine Power. If He said it should be and it is not, it is either that He would not or He could not–if He could not, then His power has failed. But if He would not when He promised, then His truth is forfeited! We have, therefore, a double hold when dealing with Covenant promises and may rest in two Immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie!
But sometimes, in certain promises, even more is observable. For instance, you who have known the Lord these 10 or 20 years, have been helped before. But suppose the Lord were to fail you now?
Then not only would His Power and His Truth be compromised, but His Immutability also, since He would then have changed and would no longer be the same God today as He was yesterday! Three attributes are leagued upon your side–you have three sacred pledges for the fulfillment of the promise! Frequently you also have God's Wisdom brought into the affair in hand. You have been in great difficulty and you have seen no means of escape. But you have laid the case before God and left it there. He has inspired His servant David to say, "Cast your burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain you." Now, if He does not sustain you, there are four attributes at stake! His Power–can He do it? His Truth–will He keep His promise? His Immutability–has He changed? His Wisdom–can He find a way of escape?
Frequently, my Brothers and Sisters, the Lord's honor is also brought into the field in addition to the otherattributes. You recollect how Moses put it when the Lord said, "Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them." Then Moses said, "Why should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth?" See, too, how Joshua uses the same argument with the Lord–"The
Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it…and what will You do unto Your great name?" Oh, that is grand pleading–that is grand pleading! Now if the Lord has brought you into deep waters and you have put your trust in Him and said, "I know that He will deliver me." If He does not do so, the enemy will say, "It is a vain thing to trust in God, for the Lord does not deliver His people." His honor is at stake and, ah, He is a jealous
God! He will rouse Himself and go forth like a man of war to show
Himself strong in the behalf of them that trust in Him!
In addition to all this, Divine Love is included in the issue. How did Moses put it? The people said, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness." And Moses argued thus with the Lord, "Did You bring all these people out of Egypt that they might die in the wilderness? Have You no love to them? Will You be cruel to the sons of men?" Even thus may we plead with the benevolence and pity of the Lord. "Will the Lord cast off forever? Will He be favorable no more?" Oh, no, that cannot be! Each child of His can sing– "And can He have taught me to trust in His name, And thus far have brought me, to put me to shame?"
"Is it so that He has taught me long after the sweetness of His Grace and yet will He deny it to me? Does the Lord tantalize men in this way? I could have been happy enough in my poor ignorant way as a sinner, but now that I have been made to taste of higher and sweeter things, I shall be doubly wretched if I may not enjoy them! If He makes men hunger and thirst, and then does not feed them, He is not a God of love." But He is a God of love and, therefore, He cannot treat His servants so! You remember Luther used to say that when he saw that God was in his quarrel, he always felt safe. "Your honor is at stake," he would say, "and it is no business of Luther's–it is God's business when God's Gospel is concerned." Every Divine Attribute is pledged as a guarantee that every Divine Promise shall be kept! Here faith may gather strength, and rest assured that the Covenant is sure in every jot and tittle! If one child of God who has put his trust in Jesus should perish, the everlasting Covenant of Grace would have failed, for this is a part of its stipulations,will I put within you." And if I have come to Jesus and rested in Him and, after all, do not find salvation and eternal life, then the Covenant has become a dead letter to me–and this it shall never be! "Although my house is not so with God, yet has He made with me an Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure." He will not allow His promise to fail!
Last word of all, remember that the very blood of Christ is at stake in the matter of God's Promise. If a poor guilty sinner shall come and rest in Jesus and yet is not saved, then Jesus Christ is grievously dishonored–He has shed His blood in vain! Shall they perish on whom His blood is sprinkled? Has the Fountain, after all its boasted efficacy, become a mockery? Is there no power in the Atonement of Jesus to cleanse the guilty? Ah, Beloved, He said it would cleanse and it was so, it is so and it shall be so forever! They who rest in Christ shall not perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of His hand. Each one of us, as we arrive in Heaven, shall add our testimony to the general verdict of all the saints and say, "It was so. He said it and He fulfilled it. Glory be unto His name!" If any soul comes to Jesus at this hour, he shall find eternal life. "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Such is the Gospel.
The Lord grant His great blessing!
Ge 3:1 • An Antidote to Satan's Devices
ERMON 2707
An Antidote To Satan's Devices
"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made."
Genesis 3:1
WE understand, of course, that this verse refers to "that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan." The Samaritan Version reads, instead of the word, "serpent," "deceiver," or "liar." If this is not the genuine reading, it nevertheless certainly declares a Truth of God. That old deceiver, of whom our Lord Jesus said to the Jews.
"When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it," was "more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." God has been pleased to give to many beasts subtlety–to some, subtlety and cunning combined with strength–in order that they may be the more destructive to certain classes of animals whose numbers require to be kept under. To others, devoid of very much strength, He has been pleased to give instincts of most marvelous wisdom for selfpreservation and the destruction of their prey, and for the procuring of their food. But the subtlety of Satan far excels the wise instincts and subtlety of all the beasts of the field by far. In fact, to go further, man has, perhaps, far more cunning than any mere creature, although animal instinct sometimes seems as if it did outride human reason–but
Satan has more of cunning within him than any other creature that the Lord God has made, man included.
Satan has abundant craft and is able to overcome us for several reasons. I think it would be a sufficient reason that Satan should be cunning because he is malicious–for malice is, of all things, the most productive of cunning. When aman is determined on revenge, it is strange how cunning he is to discover opportunities to vent his spite. Let a man have enmity against another, and let that enmity thoroughly possess his soul, and pour venom, as it were, into his very blood, and he will become exceedingly crafty in the means he uses to annoy and injure his adversary! Now, nobody can be more full of malice against man than Satan is, as he proves every day– and that malice sharpens his inherent wisdom, so that he becomes exceedingly subtle.
Besides, Satan is an angel, though a fallen one. We doubt not, from certain hints in Scripture, that he occupied avery high place in the hierarchy of angels before he fell. And we know that those mighty beings are endowed with vast intellectual powers, far surpassing any that has ever been given to beings of human mold.
Therefore, we must not expect that a man, unaided from above, should ever be a match for an angel, especially an angel whose native intellect has been sharpened by a most spiteful malice against us.
Again, Satan may well be cunning now–I may truthfully say, more cunning than he was in the days of Adam–for he has had long dealings with the human race. This was his first occasion of dealing with mankind, when he tempted Eve, but he was, even then, "more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made."
Since then he has exercised all his diabolical thought and mighty powers to annoy and ruin men. There is not a saint whom he has not beset and not a sinner whom he has not misled. Together with his troops of evil spirits, he has been continually exercising a terrible control over the sons of men. He is, therefore, well skilled in all the arts of temptation. Never anatomist so well understood the human body as Satan does the human soul. He has not been "tempted in all points," but he has tempted others in all points. He has tried to assail our manhood from the crown of our head to the sole of our foot–and he has explored every outwork of our nature– and even the most secret caverns of our souls.
He has climbed into the citadel of our heart and he has lived there. He has searched its inmost recesses and dived into its most profound depths. I suppose there is nothing of human nature that Satan cannot unravel and though, doubtless, he is the biggest fool that ever existed, as time continually proves, yet, beyond all doubt, he is the craftiest of fools, and I may add, that is no great paradox, for craft is always folly and is but another shape of departure from wisdom.
And now, Brothers and Sisters, I shall, for a few minutes, first occupy your time by noticing the craft and subtlety of Satan and the modes in which he attacks our souls. And secondly, I shall give you a few words of admonition with regard to the wisdom that we must exercise against him and the only means that we can effectually use to prevent his subtlety from being the instrument of our destruction.
Let us notice, in the first place, THE CRAFT AND SUBTLETY
OF SATAN as we have discovered it in our own experience.
And I may begin by observing that Satan discovers his craft and subtlety by the modes of his attack. There is a manwho is calm, quiet and at ease. Satan does not attack that man with unbelief or distrustfulness–he attacks him in a more vulnerable point, than that–self-love, self-confidence, worldliness. These will be the weapons which Satan will use against him. There is another person who is noted for lowness of spirits and lack of mental vigor. It is not probable that Satan will endeavor to puff him up with pride, but examining him and discovering where his weak point is, he will tempt him to doubt his calling and endeavor to drive him to despair! There is another man of strong robust bodily health, having all his mental powers in full and vigorous exercise, enjoying the promises and delighting in the ways of God. Satan will possibly not attack him with unbelief because he feels that he has armor for that particular point, but he will attack him with pride, or with some temptation to lust. He will most thoroughly and carefully examine us–and if he shall find us to be like Achilles, vulnerable nowhere else but in our heel, then he will shoot his arrows at our heel.
I believe that Satan has not often attacked a man in a place where he saw him to be strong. He generally looks well for the weak point, the besetting sin. "There," he says, "there will I strike the blow!" And God help us in the hour of battle and in the time of conflict! We have need to say, "God help us!" for, indeed, unless the Lord should help us, this crafty foe might easily find enough joints in our armor to soon send the deadly arrow into our souls so that we should fall down wounded before him. And yet I have noticed, strangely enough, that Satan does sometimes tempt men with the very thing which you might suppose would never come upon them. What do you imagine was John Knox's last temptation upon his dying bed? Perhaps there never was a man who more fully understood the great doctrine that "by Grace are you saved," than John Knox did. He thundered it out from the pulpit and if you had questioned him upon the subject, he would have declared it to you boldly and bravely, denying with all his might the Popish doctrine of salvation through human merit. But, will you believe it, that old enemy of souls attacked John Knox with self-righteousness when he lay adying? He came to him, and said, "How bravely you have served your Master, John! You have never quailed before the face of man. You have faced kings and princes, and yet you have never trembled! Such a man as you are may walk into the Kingdom of Heaven on your own footing and wear your own garment at the wedding of the Most High!" And sharp and terrible was the struggle which John Knox had with the enemy of souls over that temptation.
I can give you a similar instance from my own experience. I thought within myself that of all the beings in the world, I was the most free from care. It had never exercised my thoughts a moment, I think, to care for temporals–I had always had all I needed, and I seemed to have been removed beyond the reach of anxiety about such matters. And yet, strange to say, but a little while ago, a most frightful temptation overtook me, casting me into worldliness of care and thought–and though I lay and groaned in agony, and wrestled with all my might against the temptation, it was long before I could overcome these distrustful thoughts with regard to God's Providence, when, I must confess, there was not the slightest reason, as far as I could see, why such thoughts should break in upon me! For that reason, and for many more, I hate the devil worse and worse every day, and I have vowed, if it is possible, by preaching the Word of God to seek to shake the very pillars of his kingdom! And I think all God's servants will feel that their enmity against the arch-enemy of souls increases every day because of the malevolent and strange attacks that he is continually making upon us.
The modes of Satan's attack, then, as you will speedily learn, if you have not already done so, betray his subtlety. Ah, sons of men, while you are putting on your helmets, he is seeking to thrust his fiery sword into your heart! Or while you are looking well to your breastplate, he is lifting up his battle-ax to split your skull! And while you are seeing to both helmet and breastplate, he is seeking to trip up your feet. He is always watching to see where you are not looking–he is always on the alert when you are slumbering. Take heed to yourselves, therefore. "Put on the whole armor of God."
"Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith." And God help you to prevail over him!
A second thing in which Satan betrays his cunning is the weapons which he will often use against us. Sometimes hewill attack the child of God with the remembrance of a ribald song, or a licentious joke which he may have heard in the days of his carnal state. But far more frequently he will attack him with texts of Scripture! It is strange that it should be so, but it often is the case that when he shoots his arrow against a Christian, he wings it with God's own
Word! That seemed to be, according to the poet, the very poignancy of grief, that the eagle, when the arrow was drinking up his heart's blood, saw that the feather that winged it to his bosom had been plucked from his own breast! And the Christian will often have a somewhat similar experience. "Ah," he will say, "here is a text that I love, taken from the Book that I prize, yet it is turned against me.
A weapon out of God's own armory is made to be the instrument of death against my soul." Have you not found it so, dear Christian
Friends? Have you not proved that, as Satan attacked Christ with an, "It is written," so also has he attacked you? And have you not learned to be on your guard against perversions of Sacred
Scripture, and twisting of God's Word, lest they should lead you to destruction?
At other times, Satan will use the weapon of our own experience.
"Ah," the devil will say, "on such-and-such a day, you sinned in such-and-such a way–how can you be a child of God?" At another time, he will say, "You are selfrighteous, therefore you cannot be an heir of Heaven." Then, again, he will begin to rake up all the old stories that we have long forgotten of all our past unbelief, our past wandering, and so forth, and throw these in our teeth. He will say, "What? You, YOU a Christian? A pretty Christian you must be!"
Or, possibly he will begin to tempt you after some suchsort as this–"The other day you would not do such-and-such a thing in business–how much you lost by it! So-and-so is a Christian, but he did it. Your neighbor, across the street, is he not a deacon of a church, and did not he do it? Why may not you do the same? You would get on a great deal better if you would do it. So-and-so does it and he gets on, and is just as much respected as you are! Then why should you not act in the same way?" Thus the devil will attack you with weapons taken from your own experience, or from the church of which you are a member. Ah, be careful, for Satan knows how to choose his weapons! He is not coming out against you, if you are great giants, with a sling and a stone, but he comes armed to the teeth to cut you down. If he knows that you are so guarded by a coat of mail that the edge of his sword shall be turned by your armor, then he will attack you with deadly poison! And if he knows that you cannot be destroyed by that means, seeing that you have an antidote at hand, then he will seek to take you in a trap. And if you are wary, so that you cannot be overtaken, thus, then he will send fiery troubles upon you, or a crushing avalanche of woe so that he may subdue you. The weapons of his warfare, always evil–and often spiritual and unseen–are mighty against such weak creatures as we.
Again, the craftiness of the devil is discovered in another thing–in the agents he employs. The devil does not do allhis dirty work himself. He often employs others to do it for him. When Samson had to be overcome, and his Nazarite locks to be shorn away, Satan had a Delilah ready to tempt and lead him astray–he knew what was in Samson's heart, and where his weakness was and, therefore, he tempted him by means of the woman whom he loved. An old
Divine says, "There's many a man that has had his head broken by his own rib"–and that is certainly true. Satan has sometimes set a man's own wife to cast him down to destruction, or he has used some dear friend as the instrument to work his ruin. Remember how David lamented over this evil–"For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: but it was you, a man my equal, my guide, and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company."
"Ah," says the devil, "you did not think I was going to set an enemy to speak evil of you, did you? Why, that would not hurt you!
I know better than that how to choose my agents–I shall choose a man who is a friend or an acquaintance–he will come close to you and then stab you under the folds of your garments." If a minister is to be annoyed, Satan will choose a deacon to annoy him. He knows that he will not care so much about an attack from any other member of the church, so some deacon will lift himself up and domineer over him so that he shall have sleepless nights and anxious days. If it is a deacon that Satan wants to annoy, he will seek to set some member or brother-deacon against him–and if there is no other person that he cares for, it shall be his nearest and dearest friend who shall do the dastardly deed.
The devil is always ready to take in his hand the net into which the fish is most likely to go and to spread the snare which is the most likely to catch the bird. I do not suspect, if you are a professor of long standing, that you will be tempted by a drunk. No, the devil will tempt you by a canting hypocrite. I do not imagine your enemy will come and attack and slander you–it will be your friend. Satan knows how to use and to disguise all his agents. "Ah," he says, "a wolf in sheep's clothing will be better for me than a wolf that looks like a wolf! And one in the church will play my game better and accomplish it more readily than one out of it." The choice of Satan's agents proves his craft and cleverness. It was a cunning thing that he should choose the serpent for the purpose of tempting
Eve. Very likely Eve was fascinated by the appearance of the serpent. She probably admired its glossy hue, and we are led to believe that it was a far more noble creature, then, than it is now.
Perhaps, then, it could erect itself upon its coils and she was very likely pleased and delighted with it. It may have been the familiar creature with which she played–I doubt not it was before the devil entered into it. You know how, often, the devil enters into each one of us. I know he has entered into me, many a time, when he has wanted a sharp word to be said against somebody. "Nobody can hurt that man, or grieve that man," says the devil, "as well as Mr.
Spurgeon can! Why, he loves him as his own soul. That's the man," says the devil, "to give the unkindest cut of all and he shall give it."
Then I am led, perhaps, to believe some wrong thing against some precious child of God, and afterwards to speak of it. And then I grieve to think that I should have been so foolish as to lend my heart and tongue to the devil! I can therefore warn each of you and especially myself, and all those who have much love bestowed upon them, to take heed lest they become instruments of Satan in grieving the hearts of God's people, and casting down those who have trouble enough to cast them down, without having any from us!
And once again, Satan shows his cunning by the times in which he attacks us. I thought, when I lay sick, that if Icould but get up from my bed, and be made strong, I would give the devil a most terrible thrashing because of the way he set upon me when I was sick. Coward! Why did he not wait till I was well? But I always find that if my spirits sink and I am in a low condition of heart, Satan specially chooses that time to attack me with unbelief. Let him come upon us when the promise of God is fresh in our memory, and when we aye enjoying a time of sweet outpouring of heart in prayer before God, and he will see how we will fight against him! But, no, he knows that, then, we would have the strength to resist him and, prevailing with God, we would be able to prevail over him, also. He will therefore come upon us when there is a cloud between ourselves and our God–when the body is depressed, and the spirits are weak–then he will tempt us and try to lead us to distrust God. At another time, he will tempt us to pride.
Why does he not tempt us to pride when we are sick and depressed in spirit? "No," he says, "I cannot manage it then." He chooses the time when a man is well, when he is in full enjoyment of the promises, and enabled to serve his God with delight–then he will tempt him to pride. It is the timing of his attacks, the right ordering of his assaults, that makes Satan ten times more terrible an enemy than he would be otherwise–and that proves the depth of his craftiness. Verily, the old serpent is more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God has made.
There is one thing about the powers of Hell that has always amazed me. The Church of Christ is always quarrelling–but did you ever hear that the devil and his confederates quarrel? There is a vast host of those fallen spirits, but how marvelously unanimous they always are! They are so united that if at any special moment the great black prince of Hell wishes to concentrate all the masses of his army at one particular point, it is done to the tick of the clock, and the temptation comes with its fullest force just when he sees it to be the most likely that he will prevail. Ah, if we had such unanimity as that in the Church of God, if we all moved at the guidance of the finger of Christ, if all the Church could, at this time, for instance, move in one great mass to the attack a certain evil, now that the time has come for the attack upon it, how much more easily might we prevail! But, alas, Satan exceeds us in subtlety, and the powers of Hell far exceed us in unanimity. This, however, is a great point in Satan's subtlety–that he chooses the times of his attacks so wisely.
And yet once more, and I will have done with this point. Satan's subtlety in another thing is very great, that is, in hiswithdrawing.
When I first joined the Christian Church, I never could make out a saying which I heard from an old man, that there was no temptation so bad as not being tempted–nor did I understand, then, what Rutherford meant when he said he liked a roaring devil a great deal better than a sleeping devil. I understand it now! And you who are God's children and who have been for some years in His ways, understand it also–
"More the treacherous calm I dread
Than tempests rolling over my head."
There is such a state of heart as this–you want to feel, but you do not feel. If you could but doubt, you would think it a very great attainment. Yes, and even if you could know the blackness of despair, you would rather feel that than be as you are. "There," you say, "I have no doubts about my eternal condition! I think I can say, though I could not exactly speak with assurance, for I fear it would be presumption, yet I do trust I can say that I am an heir of Heaven.
Yet that does not give me any joy. I can go about God's work and feel that I love it, yet I cannot feel it is God's work. I seem to have got into a round of duty, till I go on, on, on, like a blind horse that goes because it must go. I read the promise, but I see no particular sweetness in it–in fact, it does not seem as if I needed any promise.
And even threats do not frighten me–there is no terror in them to me. I hear God's Word. I am perhaps stirred by what the minister says, but I do not feel impressed by his earnestness as I should. I feel that I could not live without prayer, and yet there is no unction in my soul. I dare not sin. I trust my life is outwardly blameless, still, what I have to mourn over is a lead heart, a lack of susceptibility to spiritual delight or spiritual song, a dead calm in my soul like that dreadful calm of which Coleridge's 'Ancient
Mariner' said–
"'The very deep did rot,
Alas, that ever this should be!
Yes, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.'"
Now, dear Friend, do you know anything about your own state of heart just now? If so, that is the answer to the enigma, that not being tempted is worse than being tempted! Really, there have been times, in the past experience of my own soul, when I would have been obliged to the devil if he had come and stirred me up. I would have felt that God had employed him, against his wish, to do me lasting good, to wake me up to conflict. If the devil would but go into the Enchanted Ground and attack the pilgrims there, what a fine thing it would be for them! But, you will notice, John Bunyan did not put him there, for there was no business for him there. It was in the Valley of Humiliation that there was plentyof work cut out for Satan–but in the Enchanted Ground the pilgrims were all slumbering, like men asleep on the top of the mast. They were drunk with wine so that they could do nothing and, therefore, the devil knew he was not needed there–he just left them to sleep on!
Madame Bubble and drowsiness would do all his work. But it was into the Valley of Humiliation that he went–and there he had his stern struggle with poor Christian. Brothers and Sisters, if you are passing through the land that is enchanted with drowsiness, indifference and slumber, you will understand the craftiness of the devil in sometimes staying out of our way.
II. And now, in the second place, let us very briefly enquire, WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THIS ENEMY? You and I feel that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but we cannot enter it while we stand still. The City of Destruction is behind us and Death is pursuing us–we must press towards Heaven–but, in the way, there stands this "roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." What shall we do? He has great subtlety–how shall we overcome him?
Shall we seek to be as subtle as he is? Ah, that would be an idle task! Indeed, it would be a sinful one. To seek to be crafty like the devilwould be as wicked as it would be futile! What shall we do, then? Shall we attack him with wisdom? Alas, our wisdom is but folly. "Vain man would be wise," but at his very best estate he is but like a wild ass's colt. What, then, shall we do?
The only way to repel Satan's subtlety is by acquiring true wisdom. Again I repeat it–man has none of that in himself. What then? Herein is true wisdom. If you would successfully wrestle with Satan, make the Holy Scriptures your daily resort. Out of this sacred magazine continually draw your armor and your ammunition. Lay hold upon the glorious Doctrines of God's Word– make them your daily meat and drink. So shall you be strong to resist the devil and you shall be joyful in discovering that he will flee from you. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way," and how shall a Christian guard himself against the enemy? "By taking heed thereto according to Your Word." Let us always fight
Satan with an, "It is written"–for no weapon will ever tell upon the arch-enemy so well as Holy Scripture will! Attempt to fight Satan with the wooden sword of reason and he will easily overcome you!
But use this Jerusalem blade of God's Word, by which he has been wounded many a time, and you will speedily overcome him!
But, above all, if we would successfully resist Satan, we must look not merely to revealed wisdom, but to IncarnateWisdom. O
Beloved, here must be the chief place of resort for every tempted soul! We must flee to Him "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." He must teach us, He must guide us, He must be our All-in-All. We must keep close to Him. The sheep are never so safe from the wolf as when they are near the Believer, walk according to His example!
Live daily in His fellowship, Trust always in His blood and in this way shall you be more than a conqueror even over the subtlety and craft of Satan himself! It must be a joy to the Christian to know that in the long run, the craft of Satan shall all be disappointed and all his evil designs against the saints shall prove of no effect. Are you not looking forward, Beloved, to the day when all your temptations shall be over and when you shall be in Heaven? And will you not then look down upon this arch-fiend with holy laughter and derision? I believe that the saints, when they think of the attacks of Satan, shall "rejoice with unspeakable joy" and, besides that, shall feel a contempt in their own souls for all the craft of Hell when they see how it has been disappointed.
What has the devil been doing these thousands of years? Has he not been the unwilling servant of God and of His Church? He has always been seeking to destroy the living tree, but when he has been trying to root it up, it has only been like a gardener digging with his spade and loosening the earth to help the roots to spread themselves more! And when he has been with his axe seeking to lop the Lord's trees, and to mar their beauty, what has he been, after all, but a pruning knife in the hand of God to take away the branches that do not bear any fruit, and to purge those that do bear some, that they may bring forth more fruit? Once upon a time, you know, the Church of Christ was like a little brook–just a tiny stream–and it was flowing along in a little narrow dell. Just a few saints were gathered together at Jerusalem and the devil thought to himself, "Now I'll get a great stone and stop this brook from running." So he goes and gets this great stone and he dashes it down into the middle of the brook, thinking, of course, he would stop it from running any longer. But, instead of doing so, he scattered the drops all over the world–and each drop became the mother of a fresh fountain! You know what that stone was–it was persecution and the saints were scattered by it–but then, "they that werescattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word," and so the Church was multiplied and the devil was defeated!
Satan, I tell you to your face, you are the greatest fool that ever breathed, and I will prove it to you in the day when you and I shall stand as enemies–sworn enemies, as we are this day–at the great bar of God! And so, Christian, may you say unto him whenever he attacks you! Hear him not, but resist him steadfast in the faith and you shall prevail.
Ge 3:8 • How God Comes to Man
ERMON 2900
How God Comes To Man
"And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the Presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are you?"
Genesis 3:8, 9 "How will God come to us now that we have rebelled against
Him?" That is a question which must have greatly perplexed our first parents. They may have said to one another, "Perhaps God will not come to us at all and then we shall be orphans, indeed. If spared to live on, we must continue to live without God and without hope in the world." It would have been the worst thing that could have happened to our race if God had left this planet to take its own course and had said, concerning the people upon it, "I will leave them to their own way, for they are given over to idols."
But if He came to our first parents, in what way would He come?
Surely Adam and Eve must have feared that He would be accompanied by the angels of vengeance to destroy them straight away, or, at any rate, to bind them in chains and fetters forever. So they questioned among themselves, "Will He come and if He does, will His coming involve the total destruction of the human race?"
Their hearts must have been sorely perplexed within them while they were waiting to see what God would do to them as a punishment for the great sin they had committed. I believe they thought that He would come to them. From their past experience they knew so much of His graciousness that they felt sure that He would come. Yet they also understood so much of His holy anger against sin that they must have been afraid of His coming–so they went and hid themselves among the trees of the garden although every tree must have upbraided them for their disobedience, for everyone of the trees would seem to say, "Why do you come here?
You have eaten of the fruit of the tree of which you were forbidden to partake. You have broken your Maker's command and His sentence of death has already gone out against you. When He comes, He will certainly come to deal with you in judgment according to His faithful word–and when He does, what will become of you?" Every leaf, as it rustled, must have startled and alarmed them. The breath of the evening breeze, as it passed through the garden, must have filled them with fear and dread as to the doom awaiting them.
Now, "in the cool of the day," or, as the Hebrew has it, "in the wind of the evening," when the evening breeze was blowing through the garden, God came. It is difficult for us to even imagine how He revealed Himself to our first parents. I suppose He condescended to take upon Himself some visible form. It was "the voice of the Lord God" they heard in the garden and you know that it is the Word of God who has been pleased to make Himself visible to us in human flesh. He may have assumed some form in which they could see Him, otherwise, as a pure Spirit, God could not have been recognized either by their ears or their eyes.
They heard His voice speaking as He walked in the garden in the cool of the day. And when He called to Adam, albeit that there was righteous anger in the tone of His voice, yet His words were very calm and dignified and, as far as they could be, even tender, for, while you may read the words thus, "Adam, where are you?" You may also read them thus, "Where are you, poor Adam, where are you?" You may put a tone of pity into the words and yet not misread them. So the Lord comes thus in gentleness in the cool of the day and calls them to account. He patiently listens to their wicked excuses and then pronounces upon them a sentence, which, heavy though it is towards the serpent and heavy though it is towards all who are not saved by the woman's wondrous Seed, yet has much mercy mingled with it in the promise that the Seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent–a promise which must have shone in their sad and sinful souls as some bright particular star shines in the darkness of the night!
I learn from this incident that God will come to sinful men, sooner or later, and we may also learn from the way in which He came to our first parents, how He is likely to come to us. His coming will be different to different men, but we gather, from this incident, that God will certainly come to guilty men even if He waits till the cool of the day. And we are also able to understand a little about the way in which He will ultimately come to all men.
Remember this, Sinner, however far you may get away from God, you will have to come close to Him one of these days! You may go and pluck the fruit that He forbids you to touch and then you may go and hide yourself among the thick trees in the forest and think that you have concealed yourself–but you will have to come face to face with your Maker at some time or other! It may not be today, or tomorrow. It may not be until "the cool of the day" of time. No, it may not be till time, itself, shall be no more–but, at last, you will have to confront your Maker! Like the comet that flies far off from the sun, wandering into space for an altogether inconceivable distance and yet has to come back again, however long the time its circuit takes–so you will have to come back to God, either willingly, repentantly, believingly, or else unwillingly and in chains to receive your sentence of doom from the lips of the Almighty whom you have provoked to anger by your sin! God and you have to meet as surely as you are now living–at some time or other, each one of you must hear the voice of the Lord God saying to you, as He said to Adam, "Where are you?"
Now, from this meeting between God and fallen man, I learn a few lessons which I will pass on to you as the Holy Spirit shall enable me.
The first is this. When God did meet with fallen man, it was not until the cool of the day. This suggests to me GOD'S GREAT
PATIENCE WITH THE GUILTY.
Whether Adam and Eve sinned in the early morning, or in the middle of the day, or toward evening, we do not know. It is not necessary that we should know this, but it is probable that the Lord
God allowed an interval to intervene between the sin and the sentence. He was not in a hurry to come because He could not come except in anger to bring their sins home to them. You know how quick the tempers of some men are. If they are provoked, it is a word and a blow with them, for they have no patience. It is our littleness that makes us impatient. God is so great that He can endure far more than we can. And though our first parents' sin greatly provoked Him–and it is to His Glory that He is so holy that He cannot look upon iniquity without indignation–yet He seemed to say to Himself, "I must go and call these two creatures of Mine to account for their sin. Yet judgment is My strange work–it is mercy in which I delight. This morning I drew back the curtains that had shielded them during the night and poured the sunlight in upon them, not a second beyond the appointed time, and I was glad to do it. And all day long I have been showering mercies upon them and the refreshing night-dews are already beginning to fall upon them. I will not go down to them till the latest possible moment. I will put it off till the cool of the day." God will do nothing in the heat of passion–everything shall be deliberate, calm, majestic and Divine!
The fact that God did not come to question His sinful creatures till the cool of the day ought to teach us the greatness of His patience and it should also teach us to be patient with others. How wondrously patient God has been with some of you who are here!
You have lived many years and enjoyed His mercies, yet you have scarcely thought about Him. Certainly, you have not yielded your hearts to Him. But He has not yet come to deal with you in judgment. He has waited 20 years for you young people–30 years, 40 years, for you middle-aged folk–50 years, 60 years for you who are getting past that period and perhaps 70 years, or even 80 years
He has been known to tarry for, "He delights in mercy," but He does not delight in judgment! Seventy years form a long life, yet many persons spend all that time in perpetrating fresh sin. Called to repentance over and over again, they only become the more impenitent through resisting the call of mercy. Favored with blessings as many as the sands of the seashore, they only prove themselves the more ungrateful by failing to appreciate all those blessings.
It is amazing that God is willing to wait till the cool of such a long, long day of life as 70 or 80 years make up! How patient, then, we ought to be with one another! Yet are you, parents, always patient with your children–your young children who may not have willingly or consciously offended you? What patience you ought always to exercise towards them! And have you a like patience towards a friend or a brother who may use rough speech and provoke you? Yet such your patience ought to be. Never should we take our brother by the throat and say to him, "Pay me what you owe," so long as we find God deliberately waiting till the cool of the day before He comes to those who have offended Him–and even then uttering no more words of anger than should be uttered and mingling even those words with mercy that has no boundaries!
II. The second thing that I gather from the Lord's coming to Adam and Eve in the cool of the day is HIS DIVINE CARE FOR THE GUILTY.
Though He did not come till the cool of the day, thus manifesting
His patience, He did come then, thus manifesting His care for those who had sinned against Him. He might have left them all night long–all night long without their God–all night long without Him after they had done just what He had forbidden them to do. All night long–a sleepless night, a fearful night, a night that would have been haunted with a thousand fears–all night long with this great battle trembling in the balance, with the great question of their punishment unsolved and an indefinable dread of the future hanging over them! Many of you know that the trial of being kept in suspense is almost worse than any other trouble in the world. If a man knew that he had to be beheaded, it would be easier for him to die at once than to have to kneel with his neck on the block and the gleaming axe lifted up above him, not knowing when it might fall.
Suspense is worse than death! We seem to feel a thousand deaths while we are kept in suspense of one. So God would not leave
Adam and Eve in suspense through the whole night after they had sinned against Him, but He came to them in the cool of the day.
There was this further reason why He came to them– notwithstanding the fact that they had disobeyed Him and that He would have to punish them, He remembered that they were still His creatures. He seemed to be saying within Himself, "What shall I do to them? I must not utterly destroy them, but how can I save them?
I must carry out My threat, for My word is true, yet I must also see how I can spare them, for I am gracious and My Glory is to be increased by the display of My Grace towards them." The Lord looked upon them as the appointed progenitors of His elect and regarded Adam and Eve, also, let us hope, as His elect whom He loved notwithstanding their sin So He seemed to say, "I will not leave them all night without the promise which will brighten their gloom." It was only one promise and, perhaps, it was not clearly understood by them–still, it was a promise of God, even though it was spoken to the serpent–"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." So, not one night were God's poor fallen creatures left without at least one star to gleam in the darkness for them and thus He showed His care for them.
And still, dear Friends, though God is slow to anger, yet He is always ready to pardon and very tender and compassionate even when He has to pass sentence upon the guilty. "He will not always chide; neither will He keep His anger forever." You can see His care and consideration even for the most unworthy of us because
He has not cut us off in our sin! We are– "Not in torment, not in Hell."
We can see the marks of His goodness in the very garments on our backs and the food of which we partake by His bounty. Many of His gifts come not merely to those who do not deserve them, but to those who deserve to be filled with the gall and wormwood of Almighty Wrath!
III. Now, thirdly, I want to show you that WHEN THE LORD
DID COME, HE AFFORDED US A PATTERN OF HOW THE
SPIRIT OF GOD COMES TO AWAKEN THE CONSCIENCES
OF MEN.
I have already said that sooner or later God will come to confront each one of us. I pray that if He has never come to you, dear