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TOPIC: Spurgeon - C.H. - Sermons from Luke (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 54 Christ's Plea for Ignorant Sinners
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Christ's Plea for Ignorant Sinners
October 5th, 1890
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do."-- Luk_23:34.
What tenderness we have here; what self-forgetfulness; what almighty
love! Jesus did not say to those who crucified him, "Begone!" One such
word, and they must have all fled. When they came to take him in the
garden, they went backward, and fell to the ground, when he spoke but
a short sentence; and now that he is on the cross, a single syllable
would have made the whole company fall to the ground, or flee away
in fright.
Jesus says not a word in his own defence. When he prayed to his
Father, he might justly have said, "Father, note what they do to thy
beloved Son. Judge them for the wrong they do to him who loves them,
and who has done all he can for them." But there is no prayer against
them in the words that Jesus utters. It was written of old, by the prophet
Isaiah, "He made intercession for the transgressors;" and here it is
fulfilled. He pleads for his murderers, "Father, forgive them."
He does not utter a single word of upbraiding. He does not say, "Why
do ye this? Why pierce the hands that fed you? Why nail the feet that
followed after you in mercy? Why mock the Man who loved to bless
you?" No, not a word even of gentle upbraiding, much less anything
like a curse. "Father, forgive them." You notice, Jesus does not say, "I
forgive them," but you may read that between the lines. He says that all
the more because he does not say it in words. But he had laid aside his
majesty, and is fastened to the cross; and therefore he takes the humble
position of a suppliant, rather than the more lofty place of one who had
power to forgive. How often, when men say, "I forgive you," is there a
kind of selfishness about it! At any rate, self is asserted in the very act
of forgiving. Jesus take the place of a pleader, a pleader for those who
were committing murder upon himself. Blessed be his name!
This word of the cross we shall use to-night, and we shall see if we
cannot gather something from it for our instruction; for, though we
were not there, and we did not actually put Jesus to death, yet we really
caused his death, and we, too, crucified the Lord of glory; and his
prayer for us was, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do."
I am not going to handle this text so much by way of exposition, as by
way of experience. I believe there are many here, to whom these words
will be very appropriate. This will be our line of thought. First, we were
in measure ignorant; secondly, we confess that this ignorance is no
excuse; thirdly, we bless our Lord for pleading for us; and fourthly, we
now rejoice in the pardon we have obtained. May the Holy Spirit
graciously help us in our meditation!
I. Looking back upon our past experience, let me say, first, that WE
WERE IN MEASURE IGNORANT. We who have been forgiven, we
who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, we once sinned, in a
great measure, through ignorance. Jesus says, "They know not what
they do." Now, I shall appeal to you, brothers and sisters, when you
lived under the dominion of Satan, and served yourselves and sin, was
there not a measure of ignorance in it? You can truly say, as we said in
the hymn we sang just now,--
"Alas! I knew not what I did."
It is true, first, that we were ignorant of the awful meaning of sin. We began
to sin as children; we knew that it was wrong, but we did not know all that
sin meant. We went on to sin as young men; peradventure we plunged into
much wickedness. We knew it was wrong; but we did not see the end from
the beginning. It did not appear to us as rebellion against God. We did not
think that we were presumptuously defying God, setting at naught his
wisdom, defying his power, deriding his love, spurning his holiness; yet we
were doing that. There is an abysmal depth in sin. You cannot see the
bottom of it. When we rolled sin under our tongue as a sweet morsel, we
did not know all the terrible ingredients compounded in that deadly
bittersweet. We were in a measure ignorant of the tremendous crime we
committed when we dared to live in rebellion against God. So far, I think,
you go with me.
We did not know, at that time, God's great love to us. I did not know
that he had chosen me from before the foundation of the world; I never
dreamed of that. I did not know that Christ stood for me as my
Substitute, to redeem me from among men. I did not know the love of
Christ, did not understand it then. You did not know that you were
sinning against eternal love, against infinite compassion, against a
distinguishing love such as God had fixed on you from eternity. So far,
we knew not what we did.
I think, too, that we did not know all that we were doing in our
rejection of Christ, and putting him to grief. He came to us in our
youth; and impressed by a sermon we began to tremble, and to seek his
face; but we were decoyed back to the world, and we refused Christ.
Our mother's tears, our father's prayers, our teacher's admonitions,
often moved us; but we were very stubborn, and we rejected Christ. We
did not know that, in that rejection, we were virtually putting him away
and crucifying him. We were denying his Godhead, or else we should
have worshipped him. We were denying his love, or else we should
have yielded to him. We were practically, in every act of sin, taking the
hammer and the nails, and fastening Christ to the cross, but we did not
know it. Perhaps, if we had known it, we should not have crucified the
Lord of glory. We did know we were doing wrong; but we did not
know all the wrong that we were doing.
Nor did we know fully the meaning of our delays. We hesitated; we
were on the verge on conversion; we went back, and turned again to
our old follies. We were hardened, Christless, prayerless still; and each
of us said, "Oh, I am only waiting a little while till I have fulfilled my
present engagements, till I am a little older, till I have seen a little more
of the world!" The fact is, we were refusing Christ, and choosing the
pleasures of sin instead of him; and every hour of delay was an hour of
crucifying Christ, grieving his Spirit, and choosing this harlot world in
the place of the lovely and ever blessed Christ. We did not know that.
I think we may add one thing more. We did not know the meaning to
our self-righteousness. We used to think, some of us, that we had a
righteousness of our own. We had been to church regularly, or we had
been to the meeting-house whenever it was open. We were christened;
we were confirmed; or, peradventure, we rejoiced that we never had
either of those things done to us. Thus, we put our confidence in
ceremonies, or the absence of ceremonies. We said our prayers; we
read a chapter in the bible night and morning; we did--oh, I do not
know what we did not do! But there we rested; we were righteous in
our own esteem. We had not any particular sin to confess, nor any
reason to lie in the dust before the throne of God's majesty. We were
about as good as we could be; and we did not know that we were even
then perpetrating the highest insult upon Christ; for, if we were not
sinners, why did Christ die; and, if we had a righteousness of our own
which was good enough, why did Christ come here to work out a
righteousness for us? We made out Christ to be a superfluity, by
considering that we were good enough without resting in his atoning
sacrifice. Ah, we did not think we were doing that! We thought we
were pleasing God by our religiousness, by our outward performances,
by our ecclesiastical correctness; but all the while we were setting up
anti-Christ in the place of Christ. We were making out that Christ was
not wanted; we were robbing him of his office and glory! Alas! Christ
would say of us, with regard to all these things, "They know not what
they do." I want you to look quietly at the time past wherein you served
sin, and just see whether there was not a darkness upon your mind, a
blindness in your spirit, so that you did not know what you did.
II. Well now, secondly, WE CONFESS THAT THIS IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE. Our
Lord might urge it as a plea; but we never could.
We did not know what we did, and se we were not guilty to the fullest
possible extent; but we were guilty enough, therefore let us own it.
For first, remember, the law never allows this as a plea. In our own
English law, a man is supposed to know what the law is. If he breaks it,
it is no excuse to plead that he did not know it. It may be regarded by a
judge as some extenuation; but the law allows nothing of the kind. God
gives us the law, and we are bound to keep it. If I erred through not
knowing the law, still it was a sin. Under the Mosaic law, there were
sins of ignorance, and for these there were special offerings. The
ignorance did not blot out the sin. That is clear in my text; for, if
ignorance rendered an action no longer sinful, they why should Christ
say, "Father, forgive them"? But he does; he asks for mercy for what is
sin, even though the ignorance in some measure be supposed to
mitigate the criminality of it.
But, dear friends, we might have known. If we did not know, it was
because we would not know. There was the preaching of the Word; but
we did not care to hear it. There was this blessed Book; but we did not
care to read it. If you and I had sat down, and looked at our conduct by
the light of the Holy Scripture, we might have known much more of
the evil of sin, and much more of the love of Christ, and much more of
the ingratitude which is possible in refusing Christ, and not coming to
him.
In addition to that, we did not think. "Oh, but," you say, "young people
never do think!" But young people should think. If there is anybody
who need not think, it is the old man, whose day is nearly over. If he
does think, he has but a very short time in which to improve; but the
young have all their lives before them. If I were a carpenter, and had to
make a box, I should not think about it after I had made the box; I
should think, before I began to cut my timber, what sort of box it was
to be. In every action, a man thinks before he begins, or else he is a
fool. A young man ought to think more than anybody else, for now he
is, as it were, making his box. He is beginning his life-plan; he should
be the most thoughtful of all men. Many of us, who are now Christ's
people, would have known much more about our Lord if we had given
him more careful consideration in our earlier days. A man will consider
about taking a wife, he will consider about making a business, he will
consider about buying a horse or a cow; but he will not consider about
the claims of Christ, and the claims of the Most High God; and this
renders his ignorance wilful, and inexcusable.
Beside that, dear friends, although we have confessed to ignorance, in
many sins we did not know a great deal. Come, let me quicken your
memories. There were times when you knew that such an action was
wrong, when you started back from it. You looked at the gain it would
bring you, and you sold your soul for that price, and deliberately did
what you were well aware was wrong. Are there not some here, saved
by Christ, who must confess that , at times, they did violence to their
conscience? They did despite to the Spirit of God, quenched the light
of heaven, drove the Spirit away from them, distinctly knowing what
they were doing. Let us bow before God in the silence of our hearts,
and own to all of this. We hear the Master say, "Father, forgive them;
for they know not what they do." Let us add our own tears as we say,
"And forgive us, also, because in some things we did know; in all
things we might have known; but we were ignorant for want of
thought, which thought was a solemn duty which we ought to have
rendered to God."
One more thing I will say on this head. When a man is ignorant, and
does not know what he ought to do, what should he do? Well, he
should do nothing till he does know. But here is the mischief of it, that
when we did not know, yet we chose to do the wrong thing. If we did
not know, why did we not choose the right thing? But, being in the
dark, we never turned to the right; but always blundered to the left
from sin to sin. Does not this show us how depraved our hearts are?:
Though we are seeking to be right, when we were let alone, we go
wrong of ourselves. Leave a child alone; leave a man alone; leave a
tribe alone without teaching and instruction; what comes of it? Why,
the same as when you leave a field alone. It never, by any chance,
produces wheat or barley. Leave it alone, and there are rank weeds, and
thorns, and briars, showing that the natural set of the soil is towards
producing that which is worthless. O friends, confess the inmate evil of
your hearts as well as the evil of your lives, in that, when you did not
know, yet, having a perverse instinct, you chose the evil, and refuse the
good; and, when you did not know enough of Christ, and did not think
enough of him to know whether you ought to have him or not, you
would not have come unto him that you might have life. You needed
light; but you shut your eyes to the sun. You were thirsty; but you
would not drink of the living spring; and so your ignorance, though it
was there, was a criminal ignorance, which you must confess before
the Lord. Oh, come ye to the cross, ye who have been there before, and
have lost your burden there! Come and confess your guilt over again;
and clasp that cross afresh, and look to him who bled upon it, and
praise his dear name that he once prayed for you, "Father forgive them;
for they know not what they do."
Now, I am going a step further. We were in a measure ignorant; but we
confess that that measurable ignorance was no excuse.
III. Now, thirdly, WE BLESS OUR LORD FOR PLEADING FOR US.
So you notice when it was that Jesus pleaded? It was, while they were
crucifying him. They had not just driven in the nails, they had lifted up
the cross, and dished it down into its socket, and dislocated all his
bones, so that he could say, "I am poured out like water, and all my
bones are out of joint." Ah, dear friends, it was then that instead of a
cry or groan, this dear Son of God said, "Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do." They did not ask for forgiveness for
themselves, Jesus ask for forgiveness for them. Their hands were
imbrued in his blood; and it was then, even then, that he prayed for
them. Let us think of the great love wherewith he loved us, even while
we were yet sinners, when we rioted in sin, when we drank it down as
the ox drinketh down water. Even then he prayed for us. "While we
were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."
Bless his name to-night. He prayed for you when you did not pray for
yourself. He prayed for you when you were crucifying him.
Then think of his plea, he pleads his Sonship. He says, "Father, forgive
them." He was the Son of God, and he put his divine Sonship into the
scale on our behalf. He seems to say, "Father, as I am thy Son, grant
me this request, and pardon these rebels. Father, forgive them." The
filial rights of Christ were very great. He was the Son of the Highest.
"Light of light, very God of very God", the second Person in the Divine
Trinity; and he puts that Sonship here before God and says, "Father,
Father, forgive them." Oh, the power of that word from the Son's lip
when he is wounded, when he is in agony, when he is dying! He says,
"Father, Father, grant my one request; O Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do;" and the great Father bows his awful head, in
token that the petition is granted.
Then notice, that Jesus here, silently, but really pleads his sufferings.
The attitude of Christ when he prayed this prayer is very noteworthy.
His hands were stretched upon the transverse beam; his feet were
fastened to the upright tree; and there he pleaded. Silently his hands
and feet were pleading, and his agonized body from the very sinew and
muscle pleaded with God. His sacrifice was presented complete; and so
it is his cross that takes up the plea, "Father, forgive them." O blessed
Christ! It is thus that we have been forgiven, for his Sonship and his
cross have pleaded with God, and have prevailed on our behalf.
I love this prayer, also, because of the indistinctness of it. It is "Father,
forgive them." He does not say, "Father, forgive the soldiers who have
nailed me here." He includes them. Neither does he say, "Father,
forgive sinners in ages to come who will sin against me." But he means
them. Jesus does not mention them by any accusing name: "Father,
forgive my enemies. Father, forgive my murderers." No, there is no
word of accusation upon those dear lips. "Father, forgive them." Now
into that pronoun "them" I feel that I can crawl Can you get in there?
Oh, by a humble faith, appropriate the cross of Christ by trusting in it;
and get into that big little word "them"! It seems like a chariot of mercy
that has come down to earth into which a man may step, and it shall
bear him up to heaven. "Father, forgive them."
Notice, also, what it was that Jesus asked for; to omit that, would be to
leave out the very essence of his prayer. He asked for full absolution
for his enemies: "Father, forgive them. Do not punish them; forgive
them. Do not remember their sin; forgive it, blot it out; throw it into the
depths of the sea. Remember it not, my Father. Mention it not against
them any more for ever. Father, forgive them." Oh, blessed prayer, for
the forgiveness of God is broad and deep! When man forgives, he
leaves the remembrance of the wrong behind; but when God pardons,
he says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no
more." It is this that Christ asked for you and me long before we had
any repentance, or any faith; and in answer to that prayer, we were
brought to feel our sin, we were brought to confess it, and to believe in
him; and now, glory be to his name, we can bless him for having
pleaded for us, and obtained the forgiveness of all our sins.
IV. I come now to my last remark. Which is this, WE NOW REJOICE IN THE
PARDON WE HAVE OBTAINED.
Have you obtained pardon? Is this your song?
"Now, oh joy! My sins are pardon'd,
Now I can, and do believe."
I have a letter, in my pocket, from a man of education and standing,
who has been an agnostic; he says that he was a sarcastic agnostic, and
he writes praising God, and invoking every blessing upon my head for
bringing him to the Saviour's feet. He says, "I was without happiness
for this life, and without hope for the next." I believe that that is a
truthful description of many an unbeliever. What hope is there for the
world to come apart from the cross of Christ? The best hope such a
man has is that he may die the death of a dog, and there may be an end
of him. What is the hope of the Romanist, when he comes to die? I feel
so sorry for many of the devout and earnest friends, for I do not know
what their hope is. They do not hope to go to heaven yet, at any rate;
some purgatorial pains must be endured first. Ah, this is a poor, poor
faith to die on, to have such a hope as that to trouble your last thoughts.
I do not know of any religion but that of Christ Jesus which tells us of
sin pardoned, absolutely pardoned. Now, listen. Our teaching is not
that, when you come to die, you may, perhaps, find out that it is all
right, but, "Beloved, now we are the sons of God." "He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life." He has it now, and he knows it, and
he rejoices in it. So I come back to the last head of my discourse, we
rejoice in the pardon Christ has obtained for us. We are pardoned. I
hope that the larger portion of this audience can say, "By the grace of
God, we know that the larger portion of this audience can say, "By the
grace of God, we know that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb."
Pardon has come to us through Christ's plea. Our hope lies in the plea
of Christ, and specially in his death. If Jesus paid my debt, and he did it
if I am a believer in him, then I am out of debt. If Jesus bore the
penalty of my sin, and he did it if I am a believer, then there is no
penalty for me to pay, for we can say to him,--
"Complete atonement thou hast made,
And to the utmost farthing paid
Whate'er thy people owed:
Nor can his wrath on me take place,
If shelter'd in thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with thy blood.
"If thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my room endured
The whole of wrath divine:
Payment God cannot twice demand,
First of my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine."
If Christ has borne my punishment, I shall never bear it. Oh, what joy
there is in this blessed assurance! Your hope that you are pardoned lies
in this, that Jesus died. Those dear wounds of his are bled for you.
We praise him for our pardon because we do know now what we did.
Oh, brethren, I know not how much we ought to love Christ, because
we sinned against him so grievously! Now we know that sin is
"exceeding sinful." Now we know that sin crucified Christ. Now we
know that we stabbed our heavenly Lover to his heart. We slew, with
ignominious death, our best and dearest Friend and Benefactor. We
know that now; and we could almost weep tears of blood to think that
we ever treated him as we did. But, it is all forgiven, all gone. Oh, let
us bless that dear Son of God, who has put away even such sins as
ours! We feel them more now than ever before. We know they are
forgiven, and our grief is because of the pain that the purchase of our
forgiveness cost our Saviour. We never knew what our sins really were
till we saw him in a bloody sweat. We never knew the crimson hue of
our sins till we read our pardon written in crimson lines with his
precious blood. Now, we see our sin, and yet we do not see it; for God
has pardoned it, blotted it out, cast it behind his back for ever.
Henceforth ignorance, such as we have described, shall be hateful to
us. Ignorance of Christ and eternal things shall be hateful to us. If,
through ignorance, we have sinned, we will have done with that
ignorance. We will be students of his Word. We will study that
masterpiece of all the sciences, the knowledge of Christ crucified. We
will ask the Holy Ghost to drive far from us the ignorance that
gendereth sin. God grant that we may not fall into sins of ignorance
any more; but may we be able to say, "I know whom I have believed;
and henceforth I will seek more knowledge, till I comprehend, with all
saints, what are the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of
the love of Christ, and know the love of God, which passeth
knowledge"!
I put in a practical word here. If you rejoice that you are pardoned,
show your gratitude by your imitation of Christ. There was never
before such a plea as this, "Father, forgive them; for they know not
what they do." Plead like that for others. Has anybody been injuring
you? Are there persons who slander you? Pray to-night, "Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do." Let us always render
good for evil, blessing for cursing; and when we are called to suffer
through the wrong-doing of others, let us believe that they would not
act as they do if it were not because of their ignorance. Let us pray for
them; and make their very ignorance the plea for their forgiveness:
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
I want you to think of the millions of London just now. See those miles
of streets, pouring out their children this evening; but look at those
public-houses with the crowds streaming in and out. God down our
streets by moonlight. See what I almost blush to tell. Follow men and
women, too, to their homes, and be this your prayer: "Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do." That silver bell--keep it always
ringing. What did I say? That silver bell? Nay, it is the golden bell
upon the priests garments. Wear it on your garments, ye priests of God,
and let it always ring out its golden note, "Father, forgive them; for
they know not what they do." If I can set all God's saints imitating
Christ with such a prayer as this, I shall not have spoken in vain.
Brethren, I see reason for hope in the very ignorance that surrounds us.
I see hope for this poor city of ours, hope for this poor country, hope
for Africa, China, and India. "They know not what they do." Here is a
strong argument in their favour, for they are more ignorant than we
were. They know less of the evil of sin, and less of the hope of eternal
life, than we do. Send up this petition, ye people of God! Heap your
prayers together with cumulative power, send up this fiery shaft of
prayer, straight to the heart of God, while Jesus from his throne shall
add his prevalent intercession, "Father, forgive them; for they know not
what they do."
If there be any unconverted people here, and I know that there are
some, we will mention them in our private devotion, as well as in the
public assembly; and we will pray for them in words like these,
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." May God bless
you all, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
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