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SUBJECT: 10 JOH 3:16 Immeasurable Love
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Immeasurable Love
June 7, 1885
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."-
Joh_3:16
I was very greatly surprised the other day, in looking over the list of texts
from which I have preached, to find that I have no record of ever having
spoken from this verse. This is all the more singular, because I can truly
say that it might be put in the forefront of all my volumes of discourses as
the sole topic of my life's ministry. It has been my one and only business to
set forth the love of God to men in Christ Jesus. I heard lately of an aged
minister of whom it was said, "Whatever his text, he never failed to set
forth God as love, and Christ as the atonement for sin." I wish that much the
same may be said of me. My heart's desire has been to sound forth as with a
trumpet the good news that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life."
We are about to meet around the communion table, and I cannot preach from
this text anything but a simple gospel sermon. Can you desire a better
preparation for communion? We have fellowship with God and with one another
upon the basis of the infinite love which is displayed in Jesus Christ our
Lord. The gospel is the fair white linen cloth which covers the table on
which the Communion Feast is set. The higher truths, those truths which
belong to a more enlightened experience, those richer truths which tell of
the fellowship of the higher life-all these are helpful to holy fellowship;
but I am sure not more so than those elementary and foundation truths which
were the means of our first entrance into the kingdom of God. Babes in Christ
and men in Christ here feed upon one common food. Come, ye aged saints, be
children again; and you that have long known your Lord, take up your first
spelling-book, and go over your A B C again, by learning that God so loved
the world, that he gave his Son to die, that man might live through him. I do
not call you to an elementary lesson because you have forgotten your letters,
but because it is a good thing to refresh the memory, and a blessed thing to
feel young again. What the old folks used to call the Christ-cross Row
contained nothing but the letters; and yet all the books in the language are
made out of that line: therefore do I call you back to the cross, and to him
who bled thereon. It is a good things for us all to return at times to our
starting place, and make sure that we are in the way everlasting. The love of
our espousals is most likely to continue if we again and again begin where
God began with us, and where we first began with God. It is wise to come to
him afresh, as we came in that first day when, helpless, needy, heavy-laden,
we stood weeping at the cross, and left our burden at the pierced feet. There
we learned to look, and live, and love; and there would we repeat the lesson
till we rehearse it perfectly in glory.
To-night, we have to talk about the love of God: "God so loved the world."
That love of God is a very wonderful thing, especially when we see it set
upon a lost, ruined, guilty world. What was there in the world that God
should love it? There was nothing lovable in it. No fragrant flower grew in
that arid desert. Enmity to him, hatred to his truth, disregard of his law,
rebellion against his commandments; those were the thorns and briars which
covered the waste land; but no desirable thing blossomed there. Yet, "God
loved the world," says the text; "so" loved it, that even the writer of the
book of John could not tell us how much; but so greatly, so divinely, did he
love it that he gave his Son, his only Son, to redeem the world from
perishing, and to gather out of it a people to his praise.
Whence came that love? Not from anything outside of God himself. God's love
springs from himself. He loves because it is his nature to do so. "God is
love." As I have said already, nothing upon the face of the earth could have
merited his love, though there was much to merit his displeasure. This stream
of love flows from its own secret source in the eternal Deity, and it owes
nothing to any earth-born rain or rivulet; it springs from beneath the
everlasting throne, and fills itself full from the springs of the infinite.
God loved because he would love. When we enquire why the Lord loved this man
or that, we have to come back to our Saviour's answer to the question, "Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." God has such love in his
nature that he must needs let it flow forth to a world perishing by its own
wilful sin; and when it flowed forth it was so deep, so wide, so strong, that
even inspiration could not compute its measure, and therefore the Holy Spirit
gave us that great little word SO, and left us to attempt the measurement,
according as we perceive more and more of love divine.
Now, there happened to be an occasion upon which the great God could display
his immeasurable love. The world had sadly gone astray; the world had lost
itself; the world was tried and condemned; the world was given over to
perish, because of its offenses; and there was need for help. The fall of
Adam and the destruction of mankind made ample room and verge enough for love
almighty. Amid the ruins of humanity there was space for showing how much
Jehovah loved the sons of men; for the compass of his love was no less than
the world, the object of it no less than to deliver men from going down to
the pit, and the result of it no less than the finding of a ransom for them.
The far-reaching purpose of that love was both negative and positive; that,
believing in Jesus, men might not perish, but have eternal life. The
desperate disease of man gave occasion for the introduction of that divine
remedy which God alone could have devised and supplied. By the plan of mercy,
and the great gift which was needed for carrying it out, the Lord found means
to display his boundless love to guilty men. Had there been no fall, and no
perishing, God might have shown his love to us as he does to the pure and
perfect spirits that surround his throne; but he never could have commended
his love to us to such an extent as he now does. In the gift of his only-
begotten Son, God commended his love to us, in that while we were yet
sinners, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. The black background of sin
makes the bright line of love shine out the more clearly. When the lightning
writes the name of the Lord with flaming finger across the black brow of the
tempest, we are compelled to see it; so when love inscribes the cross upon
the jet tablet of our sin, even blind eyes must see that "herein is love."
I might handle my text in a thousand different ways to-night; but for
simplicity's sake, and to keep to the one point of setting forth the love of
God, I want to make you see how great that love is by five different
particulars.
I. The first is the GIFT: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son."
Consider, then, what this gift was that God gave. I should have to labour for
expression if I were to attempt to set forth to the full this priceless boon;
and I will not court a failure by attempting the impossible. I will only
invite you to think of the sacred Person whom the Great Father gave in order
that he might prove his love to men. It was his only-begotten Son-his beloved
Son, in whom he was well pleased. None of us had ever such a son to give.
Ours are the sons of men; his was the Son of God. The Father gave his other
self, one with himself. When the great God gave his Son he gave God himself,
for Jesus is not in his eternal nature less than God. When God gave God for
us he gave himself. What more could he give? God gave his all: he gave
himself. Who can measure this love?
Judge, ye fathers, how ye love your sons: could ye give them to die for your
enemy? Judge, ye that have an only son, how your hearts are entwined about
your first-born, your only-begotten. There was no higher proof of Abraham's
love to God than when he did not withhold from God his son, his only son, his
Isaac whom he loved; and there can certainly be no greater display of love
than for the Eternal Father to give his only-begotten Son to die for us. No
living thing will readily lose its offspring; man has peculiar grief when his
son is taken; has not God yet more? A story has often been told of the
fondness of parents for their children how in a famine in the East a father
and mother were reduced to absolute starvation, and the only possibility of
preserving the life of the family was to sell one of the children into
slavery. So they considered it. The pinch of hunger became unbearable, and
their children pleading for bread tugged so painfully at their heart-strings,
that they must entertain the idea of selling one to save the lives of the
rest. They had four sons. Who of these should be sold? It must not be the
first: how could they spare their first-born? The second was so strangely
like his father that he seemed a reproduction of him, and the mother said
that she would never part with him. The third was so singularly like the
mother that the father said he would sooner die than that this dear boy
should go into bondage; and as for the fourth, he was their Benjamin, their
last, their darling, and they could not part with him. They concluded that it
were better for them all to die together than willingly to part with any one
of their children. Do you not sympathize with them? I see you do. Yet God so
loved us that, to put it very strongly, he seemed to love us better than his
only Son, and did not spare him that he might spare us. He permitted his Son
to perish from among men "that whosoever believeth in him might not perish,
but have everlasting life."
If you desire to see the love of God in this great procedure you must
consider how he gave his Son. He did not give his Son, as you might do, to
some profession in the pursuit of which you might still enjoy his company;
but he gave his Son to exile among men. He sent him down to yonder manger,
united with a perfect manhood, which at the first was in an infant's form.
There he slept, where horned oxen fed! The Lord God sent the heir of all
things to toil in a carpenter's shop: to drive the nail, and push the plane,
and use the saw. He sent him down amongst scribes and Pharisees, whose
cunning eyes watched him, and whose cruel tongues scourged him with base
slanders. He sent him down to hunger, and thirst, amid poverty so dire that
he had not where to lay his head. He sent him down to the scourging and the
crowning with thorns, to the giving of his back to the smiters and his cheeks
to those that plucked off the hair. At length he gave him up to death-a
felon's death, the death of the crucified. Behold that cross and see the
anguish of him that dies upon it, and mark how the Father has so given him,
that he hides his face from him, and seems as if he would not own him! "Lama
sabachthani" tells us how fully God gave his Son to ransom the souls of the
sinful. He gave him to be made a curse for us; gave him that he might die
"the just for the unjust, to bring us to God."
Dear sirs, I can understand your giving up your children to go to India on
her Majesty's service, or to go out to the Cameroons or the Congo upon the
errands of our Lord Jesus. I can well comprehend your yielding them up even
with the fear of a pestilential climate before you, for if they die they will
die honourably in a glorious cause; but could you think of parting with them
to die a felon's death, upon a gibbet, execrated by those whom they sought to
bless, stripped naked in body and deserted in mind? Would not that be too
much? Would you not cry, "I cannot part with my son for such wretches as
these. Why should he be put to a cruel death for such abominable beings, who
even wash their hands in the blood of their best friend"? Remember that our
Lord Jesus died what his countrymen considered to be an accursed death. To
the Romans it was the death of a condemned slave, a death which had all the
elements of pain, disgrace, and scorn mingled in it to the uttermost. "But
God commendeth his love to- ward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us." Oh, wondrous stretch of love, that Jesus Christ should
die!
Yet, I cannot leave this point till I have you notice when God gave his Son,
for there is love in the time. "God so loved the world that he gave his Only
Begotten Son." But when did he do that? In his eternal purpose he did this
from before the foundation of the world. The words here used, "He gave his
Only Begotten Son," cannot relate exclusively to the death of Christ, for
Christ was not dead at the time of the utterance of this third chapter of
John. Our Lord had just been speaking with Nicodemus, and that conversation
took place at the beginning of his ministry. The fact is that Jesus was
always the gift of God. The promise of Jesus was made in the garden of Eden
almost as soon as Adam fell. On the spot where our ruin was accomplished, a
Deliverer was bestowed whose heel should be bruised, but who should break the
serpent's head beneath his foot.
Throughout the ages the great Father stood to his gift. He looked upon his
Only Begotten as man's hope, the inheritance of the chosen seed, who in him
would possess all things. Every sacrifice was God's renewal of his gift of
grace, a reassurance that he had bestowed the gift, and would never draw back
therefrom. The whole system of types under the law betokened that in the
fulness of time the Lord would in very deed give up his Son, to be born of a
woman, to bear the iniquities of his people, and to die the death in their
behalf. I greatly admire this pertinacity of love; for many a man in a moment
of generous excitement can perform a supreme act of benevolence, and yet
could not bear to look at it calmly, and consider it from year to year; the
slow fire of anticipation would have been unbearable. If the Lord should take
away yonder dear boy from his mother, she would bear the blow with some
measure of patience, heavy as it would be to her tender heart; but suppose
that she were credibly informed that on such a day her boy must die, and thus
had from year to year to look upon him as one dead, would it not cast a cloud
over every hour of her future life? Suppose also that she knew that he would
be hanged upon a tree to die, as one condemned; would it not embitter her
existence? If she could withdraw from such a trial, would she not? Assuredly
she would. Yet the Lord God spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him
up for us all, doing it in his heart from age, to age. Herein is love: love
which many waters could not quench: love eternal, inconceivable, infinite!
Now, as this gift refers not only to our Lord's death, but to the ages before
it, so it includes also all the ages afterwards. God "so loved the world that
he gave"-and still gives-"his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him might not perish, but have everlasting life." The Lord is giving Christ
away to-night. Oh, that thousands of you may gladly accept the gift
unspeakable! Will anyone refuse? This good gift, this perfect gift,-can you
decline it? Oh, that you may have faith to lay hold on Jesus, for thus he
will be yours. He is God's free gift to all free receivers; a full Christ for
empty sinners. If you can but hold out your empty willing hand, the Lord will
give Christ to you at this moment. Nothing is freer than a gift. Nothing is
more worth having than a gift which comes fresh from the hand of God, as full
of effectual power as ever it was. The fountain is eternal, but the stream
from it is as fresh as when first the fountain was opened. There is no
exhausting this gift.
"Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose it power
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved to sin no more."
See, then, what is the love of God, that he gave his Son from of old, and has
never revoked the gift. He stands to his gift, and continues still to give
his dear Son to all who are willing to accept him. Out of the riches of his
grace he has given, is giving, and will give the Lord Jesus Christ, and all
the priceless gifts which are contained in him, to all needy sinners who will
simply trust him.
I call upon you from this first point to admire the love of God, because of
the transcendent greatness of his gift to the world, even the gift of his
only begotten Son.
II. Now notice secondly, and, I think I may say, with equal admiration, the
love of God in THE PLAN OF SALVATION. He has put it thus: "that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The way of
salvation is extremely simple to understand, and exceedingly easy to
practise, when once the heart is made willing and obedient. The method of the
covenant of grace differs as much from that of the covenant of works as light
from darkness. It is not said that God has given his Son to all who will keep
his law, for that we could not do, and therefore the gift would have been
available to none of us. Nor is it said that he has given his Son to all that
experience terrible despair and bitter remorse, for that is not felt by many
who nevertheless are the Lord's own people. But the great God has given his
own Son, that "whosoever believeth in him" should not perish. Faith, however
slender, saves the soul. Trust in Christ is the certain way of eternal
happiness.
Now, what is it to believe in Jesus? It is just this: it is to trust yourself
with him. If your hearts are ready, though you have never believed in Jesus
before, I trust you will believe in him now. O Holy Spirit graciously make it
so.
What is it to believe in Jesus?
It is, first, to give your firm and cordial assent to the truth, that God did
send his Son, born of a woman, to stand in the room and stead of guilty men,
and that God did cause to meet on him the iniquities of us all, so that he
bore the punishment due to our transgressions, being made a curse for us. We
must heartily believe the Scripture which saith,-"the chastisement of our
peace was upon him; and with his stripes ye are healed." I ask for your
assent to the grand doctrine of substitution, which is the marrow of the
gospel. Oh, may God the Holy Spirit lead you to give a cordial assent to it
at once; for wonderful as it is, it is a fact that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.
Oh that you may rejoice that this is true, and be thankful that such a
blessed fact is revealed by God himself. Believe that the substitution of the
Son of God is certain; cavil not at the plan, nor question its validity, or
efficacy, as many do. Alas! they kick at God's great sacrifice, and count it
a sorry invention. As for me, since God has ordained to save man by a
substitutionary sacrifice, I joyfully agree to his method, and see no reason
to do anything else but admire it and adore the Author of it. I joy and
rejoice that such a plan should have been thought of, whereby the justice of
God is vindicated, and his mercy is set free to do all that he desires. Sin
is punished in the person of the Christ, yet mercy is extended to the guilty.
In Christ mercy is sustained by justice, and justice satisfied by an act of
mercy. The worldly wise say hard things about this device of infinite wisdom;
but as for me, I love the very name of the cross, and count it to be the
centre of wisdom, the focus of love, the heart of righteousness. This is a
main point of faith-to give a hearty assent to the giving of Jesus to suffer
in our place and stead, to agree with all our soul and mind to this way of
salvation.
The second thing is that you do accept this for yourself. In Adam's sin, you
did not sin personally, for you were not then in existence; yet you fell;
neither can you now complain thereof, for you have willingly endorsed and
adopted Adam's sin by committing personal transgressions. You have laid your
hand, as it were, upon Adam's sin, and made it your own, by committing
personal and actual sin. Thus you perished by the sin of another, which you
adopted and endorsed; and in like manner must you be saved by the
righteousness of another, which you are to accept and appropriate. Jesus has
offered an atonement, and that atonement becomes yours when you accept it by
putting your trust in him. I want you now to say,
"My faith doth lay her hand
On that dear head of thine,
While, like a penitent, I stand,
And here confess my sin."
Surely this is no very difficult matter. To say that Christ who hung upon the
cross shall be my Christ, my surety, needs neither stretch of intellect, nor
splendor of character; and yet it is the act which brings salvation to the
soul.
One thing more is needful; and that is personal trust. First comes assent to
the truth, then acceptance of that truth for yourself, and then a simple
trusting of yourself wholly to Christ, as a substitute. The essence of faith
is trust, reliance, dependence. Fling away every other confidence of every
sort, save confidence in Jesus. Do not allow a ghost of a shade of a shadow
of a confidence in anything that you can do, or in anything that you can be;
but look alone to him whom God has set forth to be the propitiation for sin.
This I do at this very moment; will you not do the same? Oh, may the sweet
Spirit of God lead you now to trust in Jesus!
See, then, the love of God in putting it in so plain, so easy a way. Oh, thou
broken, crushed and despairing sinner, thou canst not work, but canst thou
not believe that which is true? Thou canst not sigh; thou canst not cry; thou
canst not melt thy stony heart; but canst thou not believe that Jesus died
for thee, and that he can change that heart of thine and make thee a new
creature? If thou canst believe this, then trust in Jesus to do so, and thou
art saved; for he that believes in him is justified. "He that believeth in
him hath everlasting life." He is a saved man. His sins are forgiven him. Let
him go his way in peace, and sin no more.
I admire, first, the love of God in the great gift, and then in the great
plan by which that gift becomes available to guilty men.
III. Thirdly, the love of God shines forth with transcendent brightness in a
third point, namely, in THE PERSONS FOR WHOM THIS PLAN IS AVAILABLE, and for
whom this gift is given. They are described in these words-"Whosoever
believeth in him." There is in the text a word which has no limit-"God so
loved the world"; but then comes in the descriptive limit, which I beg you to
notice with care: "He gave his Only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in
him might not perish." God did not so love the world that any man who does
not believe in Christ shall be saved; neither did God so give his Son that
any man shall be saved who refuses to believe in him. See how it is put-"God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish." Here is the compass of the love: while
every unbeliever is excluded, every believer is included. "Whosoever
believeth in him." Suppose there be a man who has been guilty of all the
lusts of the flesh to an infamous degree, suppose that he is so detestable
that he is only fit to be treated like a moral leper, and shut up in a
separate house for fear he should contaminate those who hear or see him; yet
if that man shall believe in Jesus Christ, he shall at once be made clean
from his defilement, and shall not perish because of his sin. And suppose
there be another man who, in the pursuit of his selfish motives, has ground
down the poor, has robbed his fellow-traders, and has even gone so far as to
commit actual crime of which the law has taken cognisance, yet if he believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ he shall be led to make restitution, and his sins
shall be forgiven him. I once heard of a preacher addressing a company of men
in chains, condemned to die for murder and other crimes. They were such a
drove of beasts to all outward appearances that it seemed hopeless to preach
to them; yet were I set to be chaplain to such a wretched company I should
not hesitate to tell them that "God so loved the world, that he gave his Only
Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." O man, if thou wilt believe in Jesus as the Christ,
however horrible thy past sins have been they shall be blotted out; thou
shalt be saved from the power of thine evil habits; and thou shalt begin
again like a child newborn, with a new and true life, which God shall give
thee. "Whosoever believeth in him,"-that takes you in, my aged friend, now
lingering within a few tottering steps of the grave. O grey-headed sinner, if
you believe in him, you shall not perish. The text also includes you, dear
boy, who have scarcely entered your teens as yet: if you believe in him, you
shall not perish. That takes you in, fair maiden, and gives you hope and joy
while yet young. That comprehends all of us, provided we believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Neither can all the devils in hell find out any reason why the
man that believes in Christ shall be lost, for it is written, "Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Do they say, "Lord, he has been so
long in coming"? The Lord replies,-"Has he come? Then I will not cast him out
for all his delays." But, Lord, he went back after making a profession. "Has
he at length come? Then I will not cast him out for all his backsliding."
But, Lord, he was a foul-mouthed blasphemer. "Has he come to me? Then I will
not cast him out for all his blasphemies." But, says one, "I take exception
to the salvation of this wicked wretch. He has behaved so abominably that in
all justice he ought to be sent to hell." Just so. But if he repents of his
sin and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, whoever he may be, he shall not be
sent there. He shall be changed in character, so that he shall never perish,
but have eternal life.
Now, observe, that this "whosoever" makes a grand sweep; for it encircles all
degrees of faith. "Whosoever believeth in him." It may be that he has no full
assurance; it may be that he has no assurance at all; but if he has faith,
true and childlike, by it he shall be saved. Though his faith be so little
that I must needs put on my spectacles to see it, yet Christ will see it and
reward it. His faith is such a tiny grain of mustard seed that I look and
look again but hardly discern it, and yet it brings him eternal life, and it
is itself a living thing. The Lord can see within that mustard seed a tree
among whose branches the birds of the air shall make their nests.
"My faith is feeble, I confess,
I faintly trust thy word;
But wilt thou pity me the less?
Be that far from thee, Lord!"
O Lord Jesus, if I cannot take thee up in my arms as Simeon did, I will at
least touch thy garment's hem as the poor diseased woman did to whom thy
healing virtue flowed. It is written, "God so loveth the world that he gave
his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." That means me. I cannot preach at length to you to-
night; but I would preach with strength. Oh that this truth may soak into
your souls. Oh you that feel yourselves guilty; and you that feel guilty
because you do not feel guilty; you that are broken in heart because your
heart will not break; you that feel that you cannot feel; it is to you that I
would preach salvation in Christ by faith. You groan because you cannot
groan; but whoever you may be, you are still within the range of this mighty
word, that "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life."
Thus have I commended God's love to you in those three points-the divine
gift, the divine method of saving, and the divine choice of the persons to
whom salvation comes.
IV. Now fourthly, another beam of divine love is to be seen in the negative
blessing here stated, namely, in THE DELIVERANCE implied in the words, "that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish."
I understand that word to mean that whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ shall not perish, though he is ready to perish. His sins would cause
him to perish, but he shall never perish. At first he has a little hope in
Christ, but its existence is feeble. It will soon die out, will it not? No,
his faith shall not perish, for this promise covers it-"Whosoever believeth
in Him shall not perish." The penitent has believed in Jesus, and therefore
he has begun to be a Christian; "Oh," cries an enemy, "let him alone: he will
soon be back among us; he will soon be as careless as ever." Listen.
"Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish," and therefore he will not
return to his former state. This proves the final perseverance of the saints;
for if the believer ceased to be a believer he would perish; and as he cannot
perish, it is clear that he will continue a believer. If thou believest in
Jesus, thou shalt never leave off believing in him; for that would be to
perish. If thou believest in him, thou shalt never delight in thine old sins;
for that would be to perish. If thou believest in him, thou shalt never lose
spiritual life. How canst thou lose that which is everlasting? If thou wert
to lose it, it would prove that it was not everlasting, and thou wouldst
perish; and thus thou wouldst make this word to be of no effect. Whosoever
with his heart believeth in Christ is a saved man, not for to-night only, but
for all the nights that ever shall be, and for that dread night of death, and
for that solemn eternity which draws so near. "Whosoever believeth in him
shall not perish;" but he shall have a life that cannot die, a justification
that cannot be disputed, an acceptance which shall never cease.
What is it to perish? It is to lose all hope in Christ, all trust in God, all
light in life, all peace in death, all joy, all bliss, all union with God.
This shall never happen to thee if thou believest in Christ. If thou
believest, thou shalt be chastened when thou dost wrong, for every child of
God comes under discipline; and what son is there whom the Father chasteneth
not? If thou believest, thou mayest doubt and fear as to thy state, as a man
on board a ship may be tossed about; but thou hast gotten on board a ship
that never can be wrecked. He that hath union with Christ has union with
perfection, omnipotence and glory. He that believeth is a member of Christ:
will Christ lose his members? How should Christ be perfect if he lost even
his little finger? Are Christ's members to rot off, or to be cut off?
Impossible. If thou hast faith in Christ thou are a partaker of Christ's
life, and thou canst not perish. If men were trying to drown me, they could
not drown my foot as long as I had my head above water; and as long as our
Head is above water, up yonder in the eternal sunshine, the least limb of his
body can never be destroyed. He that believeth in Jesus is united to him, and
he must live because Jesus lives. Oh what a word is this, "I give unto my
sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to me is greater than all; and
no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."
I feel that I have a grand gospel to preach to you when I read that whosoever
believeth in Jesus shall not perish. I would not give two pins for that
trumpery, temporary salvation which some proclaim, which floats the soul for
a time and then ebbs away to apostasy. I do not believe that the man who is
once in Christ may live in sin and delight in it, and yet be saved. That is
abominable teaching, and none of mine. But I believe that the man who is in
Christ will not live in sin, for he is saved from it; nor will he return to
his old sins and abide in them, for the grace of God will continue to save
him from his sins. Such a change is wrought by regeneration that the newborn
man cannot abide in sin, nor find comfort in it, but he loves holiness and
makes progress in it. The Ethiopian may change his skin, and the leopard his
spots, but only grace divine can work the change; and when divine grace has
done the deed the blackamore will remain white, and the leopard's spots will
never return. It would be as great a miracle to undo the work of God as to do
it; and to destroy the new creation would require as great a power as to make
it. As only God can create, so only God can destroy; and he will never
destroy the work of his own hands. Will God begin to build and not finish?
Will he commence a warfare and end it before he has won the victory? What
would the devil say if Christ were to begin to save a soul and fail in the
attempt? If there should come to be souls in hell that were believers in
Christ, and yet did perish, it would cast a cloud upon the diadem of our
exalted Lord. It cannot, shall not, be. Such is the love of God, that
whosoever believeth in his dear Son shall not perish: in this assurance we
greatly rejoice.
V. The last commendation of his love lies in the positive-IN THE POSSESSION.
I shall have to go in a measure over the same ground again, let me therefore
be the shorter. God gives to every man that believes in Christ everlasting
life. The moment thou believest there trembles into thy bosom a vital spark
of heavenly flame which never shall be quenched. In that same moment when
thou dost cast thyself on Christ, Christ comes to thee in the living and
incorruptible word which liveth and abideth for ever. Though there should
drop into thy heart but one drop of the heavenly water of life, remember
this,-he hath said it who cannot lie,-"The water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." When I first
received everlasting life I had no idea what a treasure had come to me. I
knew that I had obtained something very extraordinary, but of its superlative
value I was not aware. I did but look to Christ in the little chapel, and I
received eternal life. I looked to Jesus, and he looked on me; and we were
one for ever. That moment my joy surpassed all bounds, just as my sorrow had
aforetime driven me to an extreme of grief. I was perfectly at rest in
Christ, satisfied with him, and my heart was glad; but I did not know that
this grace was everlasting life till I began to read in the Scriptures, and
to know more fully the value of the jewel which God had given me. The next
Sunday I sent to the same chapel, as it was very natural that I should. But I
never went afterwards, for this reason, that during my first week the new
life that was in me had been compelled to fight for its existence, and a
conflict with the old nature had been vigorously carried on. This I knew to
be a special token of the indwelling of grace in my soul; but in that same
chapel I heard a sermon upon "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?" And the preacher declared that Paul was not a
Christian when he had that experience. Babe as I was, I knew better than to
believe so absurd a statement. What but divine grace could produce such a
sighing and crying after deliverance from indwelling sin? I felt that a
person who could talk such nonsense knew little of the life of a true
believer. I said to myself, "What! am I not alive because I feel a conflict
within me? I never felt this fight when I was an unbeliever. When I was not a
Christian I never groaned to be set free from sin. This conflict is one of
the surest evidences of my new birth, and yet this man cannot see it; he may
be a good exhorter to sinners, but he cannot feed believers." I resolved to
go into that pasture no more, for I could not feed therein. I find that the
struggle becomes more and more intense; each victory over sin reveals another
army of evil tendencies, and I am never able to sheathe my sword, nor cease
from prayer and watchfulness.
I cannot advance an inch without praying my way, nor keep the inch I gain
without watching and standing fast. Grace alone can preserve and perfect me.
The old nature will kill the new nature if it can; and to this moment the
only reason why my new nature is not dead is this-because it cannot die. If
it could have died, it would have been slain long ago; but Jesus said, "I
give unto my sheep eternal life"; "he that believeth on me hast everlasting
life"; and therefore the believer cannot die. The only religion which will
save you is one that you cannot leave, because it possesses you, and will not
leave you. If you hold a doctrine which you can give up, give it up; but if
the doctrines are burnt into you so that as long as you live you must hold
them, and so that if you were burnt every ash would hold that same truth in
it, because you are impregnated with it, then you have found the right thing.
You are not a saved man unless Christ has saved you for ever. But that which
has such a grip of you that its grasp is felt in the core of your being is
the power of God. To have Christ living in you, and the truth ingrained in
your very nature-O sirs, this is the thing that saves the soul, and nothing
short of it. It is written in the text, "God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." What is this but a life that shall last through your
three-score years and ten; a life that shall last you should you outlive a
century; a life that will still flourish when you lie at the grave's mouth; a
life that will abide when you have quitted the body, and left it rotting in
the tomb; a life that will continue when your body is raised again, and you
shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; a life that will outshine
those stars and yon sun and moon; a life that shall be co-eval with the life
of the Eternal Father? As long as there is a God, the believer shall not only
exist, but live. As long as there is a heaven, you shall enjoy it; as long as
there is a Christ, you shall live in his love; and as long as there is an
eternity, you shall continue to fill it with delight.
God bless you and help you to believe in Jesus.-Amen.
Provided by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, NJ, USA 08022
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