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TOPIC: Spurgeon - C.H. - Sermons from Acts (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 22 - ACT 20:21 Two Essential Things
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Two Essential Things
March 3rd, 1889
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the
Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ."-- Act_20:21
This was the practical drift of Paul's teaching at
Ephesus, and everywhere else. He kept back nothing
which was profitable to them; and the main profit he
expected them to derive from his teaching the whole
counsel of God was this, that they should have
"repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ." This was the great aim of the apostle. I pray
that it may be so with all of us who are teachers of
the Word: may we never be satisfied if we interest,
please, or dazzle; but may we long for the immediate
production, by the Spirit of God, of true repentance
and faith. Old Mr. Dodd, one of the quaintest of the
Puritans, was called by some people, "Old Mr. Faith and
Repentance," because he was always insisting upon these
two things. Philip Henry, remarking upon his name,
writes somewhat to this effect--"As for Mr. Dodd's
abundant preaching repentance and faith, I admire him
for it; for if I die in the pulpit, I desire to die
preaching repentance and faith; and if I die out of the
pulpit, I desire to die practising repentance and
faith." Some one remarked to Mr. Richard Cecil, that he
had preached very largely upon faith; but that good
clergyman assured him that if he could rise from his
dying bed, and preach again, he would dwell still more
upon that subject. No themes can exceed in importance
repentance and faith, and these need to be brought very
frequently before the minds of our congregations.
Paul testified concerning "repentance toward God, and
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ"; by which I
understand that, as an ambassador for Christ, he
assured the people that through repentance and faith
they would receive salvation. He taught in God's name
mercy through the atoning sacrifice to all who would
quit their sin and follow the Lord Jesus. With many
tears he added his own personal testimony to his
official statement. He could truly say, "I have
repented, and I do repent"; and he could add, "but I
believe in Jesus Christ as my Saviour; I am resting
upon the one foundation, trusting alone in the
Crucified." His official testimony, with its solemnity,
and his personal testimony, with its pathetic
earnestness, made up a very weighty witness-bearing on
the behalf of these two points--repentance toward God,
and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Beloved friends, we cannot at this time do without
either of these any more than could the Greeks and
Jews. They are essential to salvation. Some things may
be, but these must be. Certain things are needful to
the well-being of a Christian, but these things are
essential to the very being of a Christian. If you have
not repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ, you have no part nor lot in this matter.
Repentance and faith must go together to complete each
other. I compare them to a door and its post.
Repentance is the door which shuts out sin, but faith
is the post upon which its hinges are fixed. A door
without a door-post to hang upon is not a door at all;
while a door-post without the door hanging to it is of
no value whatever. What God hath joined together let no
man put asunder; and these two he has made inseparable-
-repentance and faith. I desire to preach in such a way
that you shall see and feel that repentance toward God
and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ are the two
things which you must have; but even then I fail,
unless you obtain them. May the Holy Spirit plant both
these precious things in our hearts; and if they are
already planted there, may he nourish them and bring
them to much greater perfection.
I. Let me observe, in the first place, that THERE IS A
REPENTANCE WHICH IS NOT TOWARD GOD. Discriminate this
morning. Paul did not merely preach repentance, but
repentance toward God; and there is a repentance which
is fatally faulty, because it is not toward God.
In some there is a repentance of sin which is produced
by a sense of shame. The evil-doers are found out, and
indignant words are spoken about them: they are
ashamed, and so far they are repentant, because they
have dishonoured themselves. If they had not been found
out, in all probability they would have continued
comfortably in the sin, and even have gone further on
in it. They are grieved at having been discovered; and
they are sorry, very sorry, because they are judged and
condemned by their fellows. It is not the evil which
troubles them, but the dragging of it to light. It is
said that among Orientals it is not considered wrong to
lie, but it is considered a very great fault to lie so
blunderingly as to be caught at it. Many who profess
regret for having done wrong are not sorry for the sin
itself, but they are affected by the opinion of their
fellow-men, and by the remarks that are made concerning
their offence, and so they hang their heads. Truly, it
is something in their favour that they can blush; it is
a mercy that they have so much sense left as to be
afraid of the observation of their fellows; for some
have lost even this sense of shame. But shame is not
evangelical repentance; and a man may go to hell with a
blush on his face as surely as if he had the brazen
forehead of a shameless woman. Do not mistake a little
natural fluttering of the heart and blushing of the
face, on account of being found out in sin, for true
repentance.
Some, again, have a repentance which consists in grief
because of the painful consequences of sin. The man has
been a spendthrift, a gambler, a profligate, and his
money is gone; and now he repents that he has played
the fool. Another has been indulging the passions of
his corrupt nature, and he finds himself suffering for
it, and therefore he repents of his wickedness. There
are many cases that I need not instance here, in which
sin comes home very quickly to men. Certain sins bear
fruit speedily: their harvest is reaped soon after the
seed is sown. Then a man says he is sorry, and he gives
up the sin for a time; not because he dislikes it, but
because he sees that it is ruining him: as sailors in a
storm cast overboard the cargo of the ship, not because
they are weary of it, but because the vessel will go to
the bottom if they retain it. This is regret for
consequences, not sorrow for sin. Ah, look at the
drunkard, how penitent he is in the morning! "Who hath
woe? who hath redness of the eyes?" But he will get a
hair of the dog's tail that bit him, he will be at his
cups again before long. He repents of the headache, and
not of the drink. The dog will return to his vomit.
There is no repentance which only consists of being
sorry because one is smarting under the consequences of
sin. Every murderer regrets his crime when he hears the
hammers going that knock the scaffold together for his
hanging. This is not the repentance which the Spirit of
God works in a soul; it is only such a repentance as a
dog may have when he has stolen meat, and is whipped
for his pains. It is repentance of so low a sort that
it can never be acceptable in the sight of God.
Some, again, exhibit a repentance which consists
entirely of horror at the future punishment of sin.
This fear is healthful in many ways, and we can by no
means dispense with it. I do not wonder that a man who
has lived a liar, a forger, and a perjurer, should, in
the hour of his discovery, put an end to his life. If
he accepts modern theology, he has escaped, by this
means, from the hand of justice: the little pretence of
punishment which deceivers predict for the next world
no man need be afraid to risk rather than subject
himself to a felon's fate. According to current
teaching, it will be all the same with all men in the
long run, for there is to be a universal restitution;
and therefore the suicide does but rationally leap from
pursuit and punishment into a state where all will be
made happy for him by-and-by, even if he does not find
it altogether heaven at first. He escapes from
punishment in this life, and whatever inconvenience
there may be for him in the next life he will soon get
over it, for it is said to be so trivial that those who
keep to Scripture lines, and speak the dread truth
therein revealed, are barbarians or fools. Many men do,
no doubt, repent truly through being aroused by fear of
death, and judgment, and the wrath to come. But if this
fear goes no further than a selfish desire to escape
punishment, no reliance can be placed upon its moral
effect. If they could be assured that no punishment
would follow, such persons would continue in sin, and
not only be content to live in it, but be delighted to
have it so. Beloved, true repentance is sorrow for the
sin itself: it has not only a dread of the death which
is the wages of sin, but of the sin which earns the
wages. If you have no repentance for the sin itself, it
is in vain that you should stand and tremble because of
judgment to come. If judgment to come drives you, by
its terrors, to escape from sin, you will have to bless
God that you ever heard of those terrors, and that
there were men found honest enough to speak plainly of
them; but, I pray you, do not be satisfied with the
mere fear of punishment, for it is of little worth. The
evil itself you must lament, and your daily cry must
be, "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse
me from my sin."
Another kind of repentance may be rather better than
any we have spoken of, but still it is not repentance
toward God. It is a very good counterfeit; but it is
not the genuine article. I refer to a sense of the
unworthiness of an ill life. I have known persons, upon
a review of their past, rise above the grovelling level
of absolute carelessness, and they have begun to enjoy
some apprehension of the beauty of virtue, the
nobleness of usefulness, and the meanness of a life of
selfish pleasure. A few of those who have no spiritual
life, have, nevertheless, keen moral perceptions, and
they are repentant when they see that they have lost
the opportunity of distinguishing themselves by noble
lives. They regret that their story will never be
quoted among the examples of good men, who have left
"footprints on the sands of time." Musing upon their
position in reference to society and history, they wish
that they could blot out the past, and write more
worthy lines upon the page of life. Now, this is
hopeful; but it is not sufficient. We are glad when men
are under influences which promise amendment; but if a
man stops at a mere apprehension of the beauty of
virtue and the deformity of vice, what is there in it?
This is not repentance toward God; it may not be
repentance at all in any practical sense. Men have been
known to practise the vices they denounced, and avoid
the virtues they admired; human sentiment has not force
enough to break the fetters of evil. Repentance toward
God is the only thing which can effectually cut the
cable which holds a man to the fatal shores of evil.
Once more, there is a repentance which is partial. Men
sometimes wake up to the notice of certain great blots
in their lives. They cannot forget that black night:
they dare not tell what was then done. They cannot
forget the villainous act which ruined another, nor
that base lie which blasted a reputation. They recall
the hour when the inward fires of passion, like those
of a volcano, poured the lava of sin adown their lives.
At the remembrance of one gross iniquity, they feel a
measure of regret when their better selves are to the
front. But repentance toward God is repentance of sin
as sin, and of rebellion against law as rebellion
against God. The man who only repents of this and that
glaring offence, has not repented of sin at all. I
remember the story of Thomas Olivers, the famous
cobbler convert, who was a loose-living man till he was
renewed by grace through the preaching of Mr. Wesley,
and became a mighty preacher, and the author of that
glorious hymn, "The God of Abraham Praise." This man,
before conversion, was much in the habit of contracting
debts, but could not be brought to pay them. When he
received grace, he was convinced that he had no right
to remain in debt. He says, "I felt as great sorrow and
confusion as if I had stolen every sum I owed." Now, he
was not repentant for this one debt, or that other
debt, but for being in debt at all, and, therefore,
having a little coming to him from the estate of a
relative, he bought a horse, and rode from town to
town, paying everybody to whom he was indebted. Before
he had finished his pilgrimage, he had paid seventy
debts, principal and interest, and had been compelled
to sell his horse, saddle, and bridle, to do it. During
this eventful journey he rode many miles to pay a
single sixpence: it was only a sixpence, but the
principle was the same, whether the debt was sixpence
or a hundred pounds. Now, as he that hates debt will
try to clear himself of every sixpence, so he that
repents of sin, repents of it in every shape. No sin is
spared by the true penitent. He abhors all sin.
Brethren, we must not imitate Saul, who spared Agag and
the best of the sheep. He had been told to destroy all,
but he must needs spare some. Agag must be hewn in
pieces, and the least objectionable of sin, if such
there be, must be at once destroyed. Grace spares no
sin. "Oh," saith one man, "I can give up every sin
except one pleasure. This I reserve: is it not a little
one?" Nay, nay; in the name of truth and sincerity,
make no reserve. Repentance is a besom which sweeps the
house from garret to cellar. Though no man is free from
the commission of sin, yet every converted man is free
from the love of sin. Every renewed heart is anxious to
be free from even a speck of evil. When sin's power is
felt within, we do not welcome it, but we cry out
against it, as Paul did when he said, "O wretched man
that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" We cannot bear sin: when it is near us, we feel
like a wretch chained to a rotting carcass; we groan to
be free from the hateful thing. Yes, repentance vows
that the enemy shall be turned out, bag and baggage;
and neither Sanballat, nor any of his trumpery, shall
have a chamber or a closet within the heart which has
become the temple of God.
II. I have said enough to show that there is a
repentance which is not toward God; and now, secondly,
let us observe that EVANGELICAL REPENTANCE IS
REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. Lay stress on the words, "toward
God." True repentance looks toward God. When the
prodigal son went back to his home, he did not say, "I
will arise, and go to my brother; for I have grieved my
brother by leaving him to serve alone." Neither did he
say, "I will arise and go to the servants, for they
were very kind to me. The dear old nurse that brought
me up is broken-hearted at my conduct." "No," he said,
"I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before
thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." Our
Lord's picture of a returning sinner is thus drawn in
very clear colours, as a return to the Father, a
repentance toward God. You are bound to make humble
apology and ample compensation to everybody you have
wronged; you are bound to make every acknowledgment and
confession to all whom you have slandered or
misrepresented: this is right and just, and must not be
forgotten. Still, the essence of your repentance must
be "toward God"; for the essence of your wrong is
toward God. I will endeavour to show you this. A boy is
rebellious against his father. The father has told him
such a thing is to be done, and he determines that he
will not do it. His father has forbidden him certain
things, and he therefore defiantly does them. His
father is much grieved, talks with him, and endeavours
to bring him to repentance. Suppose the boy were to
reply, "Father, I feel sorry for what I have done,
because it has vexed my brother." Such a speech would
be impertinence, and not penitence. Suppose he said,
"Father, I will also confess that I am sorry for what I
have done, because it has deprived me of a good deal of
pleasure." That also would be a selfish and impudent
speech, and show great contempt for his father's
authority. Before he can be forgiven and restored to
favour, he must confess the wrong done in disobeying
his father's law. He must lament that he has broken the
rule of the household; and he must promise to do so no
more. There can be no restoration of that child to his
proper place in the family till he has said, "Father, I
have sinned." He is stubborn, unhumbled, and rebellious
till he comes to that point. All the repentance that he
feels about the matter which does not go toward his
father, misses the mark: in fact, it may even be an
impudent aggravation of his rebellion against his
father's rule that he is willing to own his wrong
toward others, but will not confess the wrong he has
done to the one chiefly concerned.
O sinner, you must repent before God, or you do not
repent at all; for here is the essence of repentance.
The man repenting sees that he has neglected God. What
though I have never been a thief nor an adulterer; yet
God made me, and I am his creature, and if throughout
twenty, thirty, or forty years I have never served him,
I have all that while robbed him of what he had a right
to expect from me. Did God make you, and has he kept
the breath in your nostrils, and has he kindly supplied
your wants till now, and all these years has he had
nothing from you? Would you have kept a horse or a cow
all this time, and have had nothing from it? Would you
keep a dog if it had never fawned upon you? never
noticed your call? Yet all these years God has thus
preserved you in being, and blessed you with great
mercies, and you have made no response. Hear how the
Lord cries, "I have nourished and brought up children,
and they have rebelled against me!" This is where the
sin lies.
Further than that, the true penitent sees that he has
misrepresented God. When he has suffered a little
affliction, he has thought God was cruel and unjust.
The heathen misrepresent God by worshipping idols: we
misrepresent God by our murmurings, our complainings,
and our thought that there is pleasure in sin, and
weariness in the divine service. Have you not spoken of
God as if he were the cause of your misery, when you
have brought it all upon yourself? You talk about him
as if he were unjust, when it is you that are unjust
and evil.
The penitent man sees that the greatest offence of all
his offences is that he has offended God. Many of you
think nothing of merely offending God: you think much
more of offending man. If I call you "sinners" you do
not repel the charge; but if I called you "criminals"
you would rise in indignation, and deny the accusation.
A criminal, in the usual sense of the term, is one who
has offended his fellow-man: a sinner is one who has
wronged his God. You do not mind being called sinners,
because you think little of grieving God; but to be
called criminals, or offenders against the laws of man,
annoys you; for you think far more of man than of God.
Yet, in honest judgment, it were better, infinitely
better, to break every human law, if this could be done
without breaking the divine law, than to disobey the
least of the commands of God. Knowest thou not, O man,
that thou hast lived in rebellion against God? Thou
hast done the things he bids thee not to do, and thou
hast left undone the things which he commands thee to
do. This is what thou hast to feel and to confess with
sorrow; and without this there can be no repentance.
Near the vital heart of repentance, right in its core,
is a sense of the meanness of our conduct toward God.
Especially our ingratitude to him, after all his favour
and mercy. This it is that troubles the truly penitent
heart most: that God should love so much, and should
have such a wretched return. Ingratitude, the worst of
ills, makes sin exceeding sinful. Sorrow for having so
ill requited the Lord is a spiritual grace. A tear of
such repentance is a diamond of the first water,
precious in the sight of the Lord.
True repentance is also toward God in this respect,
that it judges itself by God. We do not repent because
we are not so good as a friend whom we admire, but
because we are not holy as the Lord. God's perfect law
is the transcript of his own perfect character, and sin
is any want of conformity to the law and to the
character of God. Judge yourselves by your fellow-men,
and you may be self-content; but measure yourselves by
the perfect holiness of the Lord God, and oh, how you
must despise yourself! There is no deep repentance
until our standard is the standard of perfect
rectitude, till our judgment of self is formed by a
comparison with the divine character. When we behold
the perfection of the thrice holy Jehovah, and then
look at ourselves, we cry with Job, "Mine eyes seeth
thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes."
To sum up: evangelical repentance is repentance of sin
as sin: not of this sin nor of that, but of the whole
mass. We repent of the sin of our nature as well as of
the sin of our practice. We bemoan sin within us and
without us. We repent of sin itself as being an insult
to God. Anything short of this is a mere surface
repentance, and not a repentance which reaches to the
bottom of the mischief. Repentance of the evil act, and
not of the evil heart, is like men pumping water out of
a leaky vessel, but forgetting to stop the leak. Some
would dam up the stream, but leave the fountain still
flowing; they would remove the eruption from the skin,
but leave the disease in the flesh. All that is done by
way of amendment without a bemoaning of sin because of
its being rebellion against God will fall short of the
mark. When you repent of sin as against God, you have
laid the axe at the root of the tree. He that repents
of sin as sin against God, is no longer sporting with
the evil, but has come to stern business with it; now
he will be led to change his life, and to be a new man:
now, also, will he be driven to cry to God for mercy,
and in consequence he will be drawn to trust in Jesus.
He will now feel that he cannot help himself, and he
will look to the strong for strength. I can help myself
toward my fellow-man, and I can improve myself up to
his standard; but I cannot help myself toward God, and
cannot wash myself clean before his eye; therefore I
fly to him to purge me with hyssop, and make me whiter
than snow. O gracious Spirit, turn our eyes Godward,
and then fill them with penitential tears.
III. Thirdly, I am going to throw in a bit of my own. I
confess that it does not rise to the glorious fulness
of the text, but I use it as a stepping-stone for
feeble footsteps. I thus apologize as I say--THOSE WHO
HAVE EVANGELICAL REPENTANCE ARE PERMITTED TO BELIEVE IN
JESUS CHRIST. Paul says that he testified of
"repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ"; and, therefore, where there is repentance,
faith is allowable. O penitent sinner, you may believe
in the Saviour! While you are labouring under your
present sense of guilt, while you are loathing and
abhorring yourself, while you are burdened and heavy
laden with fears, while you are crushed with sorrow as
you lie before the Lord, you may now trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. Before you have any quiet of conscience,
before any relief comes to your heart, before hope
shines in your spirit; now in your direct distress,
when you are ready to perish, you may at once exercise
faith in him who came to seek and to save that which
was lost. There is no law against faith. No decree of
heaven forbids a sinner to believe and live.
You may pluck up courage to believe when you remember
this--first, that though you have offended God (and
this is the great point that troubles you) that God,
whom you have offended, has himself provided an
atonement. The sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ is
practically a substitution presented by God himself.
The Offended dies to set the offender free. God himself
suffers the penalty of his law, that he may justly
forgive; and that, though Judge of all, he may yet
righteously exercise his fatherly love in the putting
away of sin. When you are looking to God with tears in
your eyes, remember it is the same God who is the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this offended
God, "so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life."
Recollect, also, that this atonement was presented for
the guilty: in fact, there could be no atonement where
there was no guilt. It would be superfluous to make
expiation where there had been no fault. For man, as a
sinner, Christ died. "This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners." I pray you, then, the more
deeply you feel your sinnership, the more clearly
perceive that the sacrifice of Calvary was for you. For
sinners the cross was lifted high, and for sinners the
eternal Son of God poured out his soul unto death. Oh
that my hearers, who mourn over sin, could see this,
and rejoice in the divine method of putting sin out of
the way!
But, remember, you must, with your repentance, come to
God with faith in his dear Son. I have said that you
may do so; but I apologize for so saying, for it is
only half the truth. God commands you to believe. The
same God that says, "Thou shalt not steal," is that God
who says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved." This is his commandment, that you
believe on Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. Faith is
not left to your option, you are commanded to accept
the witness of God. "Believe and live," has all the
force of a divine statute. "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Therefore, if thou
art already a rebel, do not go on rebelling by refusing
to believe in the Lord's own testimony.
Remember that there can be no reconciliation made
between you and God unless you believe in Jesus Christ,
whom he has given as a Saviour, and commissioned to
that end. Not believing in Jesus is caviling at God's
way of salvation, quarrelling with his message of love.
Will you do this? You have done wrong enough by
fighting against Jehovah's law, are you going to fight
against his gospel? Without faith it is impossible to
please him; will you continue to displease him?
Disbelief in Christ is on your part casting a new
dishonour upon God, and thus it is a perseverance in
rebellion of the most aggravated form. By refusing his
unspeakable gift, you do, as it were, put your finger
into the very eye of God. To refuse the Son is to
blaspheme the Father. "He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar; because he believeth not the record
that God gave of his Son." Come, poor soul, be
encouraged. Clearly, if you have repentance toward God,
you are allowed to believe in Jesus. Upon the drops of
your repentance the sun of mercy is shining; what a
rainbow of hope is thus made!
Do not hesitate. You would fain be washed, for you
mourn your defilement; yonder is the cleansing fount!
You are pained with the malady of sin; there stands the
healing Saviour, cast yourself at his feet! No embargo
is laid upon your believing. God has not even in secret
said to you, "Seek ye my face in vain." Come, I pray
you, and fear not.
We testify to you "repentance toward God, and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ." But that faith must be
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. You must look to Jesus,
to the substitute, to the sacrifice, to the mediator,
to the Son of God. "No man cometh unto the Father,"
saith Jesus, "but by me." No faith in God will save the
sinner except it is faith in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. To attempt to come to God without the appointed
Mediator, is again to insult him by refusing his method
of reconciliation. Do not so, but let your repentance
toward God be accompanied with faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ; you are warranted in thus believing.
IV. And now I come to my last point. Oh that I might be
helped by the Holy Ghost! Here I come back to the text,
and get on sure ground. EVANGELICAL REPENTANCE IS
LINKED TO FAITH, AND FAITH IS LINKED TO REPENTANCE. We
testify not only of repentance toward God, but of faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance and faith are born of the same Spirit of
God. I do not know which comes first; but I fall back
on my well-worn image of a wheel--when the cart starts,
which spoke of the wheel moves first? I do not know.
Repentance and faith come together. Perhaps I may say
that repentance is like Leah, for it is "tender eyed";
and faith is like Rachel, fairer to look upon. But you
cannot take Rachel to yourself unless you will have
Leah also; for it is according to the rule of the
gospel that so it should be. The Old Testament, with
its law of repentance, must be bound up in one volume
with the New Testament of the gospel of faith. These
two, like Naomi and Ruth, say to each other, "Where
thou dwellest I will dwell." There are two stars called
the Gemini, which are always together: faith and
repentance are the Twins of the spiritual heavens. What
if I liken them to the two valves of the heart? They
must be both in action, or the soul cannot live. They
are born together, and they must live together.
Repentance is the result of an unperceived faith. When
a man repents of sin, he does inwardly believe, in a
measure, although he may not think so. There is such a
thing as latent faith: although it yields the man no
conscious comfort, it may be doing something even
better for him; for it may be working in him
truthfulness of heart, purity of spirit, and abhorrence
of evil. No true repentance is quite apart from faith.
The solid of faith is held in solution in the liquid of
repentance. It is clear that no man can repent toward
God unless he believes in God. He could never feel
grief at having offended God, if he did not believe
that God is good. To the dark cloud of repentance there
is a silver lining of faith; yet, at the first, the
awakened soul does not know this, and therefore laments
that he cannot believe; whereas, his very repentance is
grounded upon a measure of faith.
Repentance is also greatly increased as faith grows. I
fear that some people fancy that they repented when
they were first converted, and that, therefore, they
have done with repentance. But it is not so: the higher
the faith, the deeper the repentance. The saint most
ripe for heaven is the most aware of his own
shortcomings. As long as we are here, and grace is an
active exercise, our consciousness of our unworthiness
will grow upon us. When you have grown too big for
repentance, depend upon it you have grown too proud for
faith. They that say they have ceased to repent confess
that they have departed from Christ. Repentance and
faith will grow each one as the other grows: the more
you know the weight of sin, the more will you lean upon
Jesus, and the more will you know his power to uphold.
When repentance measures a cubit, faith will measure a
cubit also.
Repentance also increases faith. Beloved, we never
believe in Christ to the full till we get a clear view
of our need of him; and that is the fruit of
repentance. When we hate sin more we shall love Christ
more, and trust him more. The more self sinks, the more
Christ rises: like the two scales of balance, one must
go down that the other may go up: self must sink in
repentance that Christ may rise by faith.
Moreover, repentance salts faith and sweetens it, and
faith does the same to repentance. Faith, if there
could be true faith without repentance, would be like
the flowers without the dew, like the sunshine without
shade, and like hills without valleys. If faith be the
cluster, repentance is the juice of the grape. Faith is
dry, like the fleece on the threshing-floor, receptive
and retentive; but when heaven visits it with fulness,
it drips with repentance. If a man professes faith, and
has no sense of personal unworthiness, and no grief for
sin, he becomes a man of the letter, sound in the head,
and very apt to prove his doctrine orthodox by
apostolic blows and knocks. But when you add to this
the mollifying effects of true repentance, he becomes
lowly, and humble, and easily to be entreated. When a
man repents as much as he believes, he is as patient in
his own quarrel as he is valiant in "the quarrel of the
covenant." He holds his own sinnership as firmly as he
holds the Lord's Saviourship, and he frequents the
Valley of Humiliation as much as the hills of
Assurance.
If there could be such a thing as a man who was a
believer without repentance, he would be much too big
for his boots, and there would be no bearing him. If he
were always saying, "Yes, I know I am saved; I have a
full assurance that I am saved"; and yet had no sense
of personal sin, how loudly he would crow! But, O dear
friends, while we mourn our sins, we are not puffed up
by the privileges which faith receives. An old Puritan
says, that when a saint is made beautiful with rich
graces, as the peacock with many-coloured feathers, let
him not be vain, but let him recollect the black feet
of his inbred sin, and the harsh voice of his many
shortcomings. Repentance will never allow faith to
strut, even if it had a mind to do so. Faith cheers
repentance, and repentance sobers faith. The two go
well together. Faith looks to the throne, and
repentance loves the cross. When faith looks most
rightly to the Second Advent, repentance forbids its
forgetting the First Advent. When faith is tempted to
climb into presumption, repentance calls it back to sit
at Jesus' feet. Never try to separate these dear
companions, which minister more sweetly to one another
than I have time to tell. That conversion which is all
joy and lacks sorrow for sin, is very questionable. I
will not believe in that faith which has no repentance
with it, any more than I would believe in that
repentance which left a man without faith in Jesus.
Like the two cherubs which stood gazing down upon the
mercy-seat, so stand these two inseparable graces, and
none must dare to remove the one or the other.
I have almost done; but the thought strikes me, Will
these good people go home, and remember about
repentance and faith? Have I so talked that they will
think of me rather than of the points in hand? I hope
it is not so. I do pray you, throw away all that I may
have said apart from the subject; cast it off as so
much chaff, and keep only the wheat. Remember,
"repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ." Let each one ask himself, Have I a repentance
which leads to faith? Have I a faith which joins hands
with repentance? This is the way to weave an ark of
bulrushes for your infant assurance: twist these two
together, repentance and faith. Yet trust neither
repentance nor faith; but repent toward God, and have
faith toward the Lord Jesus. Mind you do this; for
there is a sad aptitude in many hearers to forget the
essential point, and think of our stories and
illustrations rather than of the practical duty which
we would enforce. A celebrated minister, who has long
ago gone home, was once taken ill, and his wife
requested him to go and consult an eminent physician.
He went to this physician, who welcomed him very
heartily. "I am right glad to see you, sir," said he;
"I have heard you preach, and have been greatly
profited by you, and therefore I have often wished to
have half an hour's chat with you. If I can do anything
for you, I am sure I will." The minister stated his
case. The doctor said, "Oh, it is a very simple matter;
you have only to take such and such a drug, and you
will soon be right." The patient was about to go,
thinking that he must not occupy the physician's time;
but he pressed him to stay, and they entered into
pleasant conversation. The minister went home to his
wife, and told her with joy what a delightful man the
doctor had proved to be. He said, "I do not know that I
ever had a more delightful talk. The good man is
eloquent, and witty, and gracious." The wife replied,
"But what remedy did he prescribe?" "Dear!" said the
minister, "I quite forget what he told me on that
point." "What!" she said, "did you go to a physician
for advice, and have you come away without a remedy?"
"It quite slipped my mind," he said: "the doctor talked
so pleasantly that his prescription has quite gone out
of my head." Now, if I have talked to you so that this
will happen, I shall be very sorry. Come, let my last
word be a repetition of the gospel remedy for sin. Here
it is. Trust in the precious blood of Christ, and make
full confession of your sin, heartily forsaking it. You
must receive Christ by faith, and you must loathe every
evil way. Repentance and faith must look to the water
and the blood from the side of Jesus for cleansing from
the power and guilt of sin. Pray God that you may, by
both these priceless graces, receive at once the merit
of your Saviour unto eternal salvation. Amen.
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