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Sovereignty and Salvation
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, January 6, 1856, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark
"Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."Isaiah 45:22.
Six years ago to-day, as near as possible at this very hour of the day, I was "in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity," but had yet, by divine grace, been led to feel the bitterness of that bondage, and to cry out by reason of the soreness of its slavery. Seeking rest, and finding none, I stepped within the house of God, and sat there, afraid to look upward, lest I should be utterly cut off, and lest his fierce wrath should consume me. The minister rose in his pulpit, and, as I have done this morning, read this text, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." I looked that moment; the grace of faith was vouchsafed to me in the self-same instant; and now I think I can say with truth,
"Ere since by faith I saw the stream
His flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die."
I shall never forget that day, while memory
holds its place; nor can I help repeating this text whenever I remember that hour when
first I knew the Lord. How strangely gracious! How wonderfully and marvelously kind, that
he who heard these words so little time ago for his own soul's profit, should now address
you this morning as his hearers from the same text, in the full and confident hope that
some poor sinner within these walls may hear the glad tidings of salvation for himself
also, and may to-day, on this 6th of January, be "turned from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan unto God!"
If it were within the range of human capacity to conceive a time when God
dwelt alone, without his creatures, we should then have one of the grandest and most
stupendous ideas of God. There was a season when as yet the sun had never run his race,
nor commenced flinging his golden rays across space, to gladden the earth. There was an
era when no stars sparkled in the firmament. for there was no sea of azure in which they
might float. There was a time when all that we now behold of God's great universe was yet
unborn, slumbering within the mind of God, as yet uncreate and no-existent; yet there was
God, and he was "over all blessed for ever;" though no seraphs hymned his
praises, though no strong-winged cherubs flashed like lightning to do his high behests,
though he was without a retinue, yet he sat as a king on his throne, the mighty God, for
ever to be worshippedthe Dread Supreme, in solemn silence dwelling by himself in
vast immensity, making the placid clouds his canopy, and the light from his own
countenance forming the brightness of his glory. God was, and God is. From the beginning
God was God; ere worlds had beginning, he was "from everlasting to everlasting."
Now, when it pleased him to create his creatures, does it not strike you how infinitely
those creatures must have been below himself? If you are potters, and you fashion upon the
wheel a vessel, shall that piece of clay arrogate to itself equality with you? Nay, at
what a distance will it be from you, because you have been in part its creator. So where
the Almighty formed his creatures, was it not consummate impudence, that they should
venture for a moment to compare themselves with him? Yet that arch traitor, that leader of
rebels, Satan, sought to climb to the high throne of God, soon to find his aim too high,
and hell itself not low enough wherein to escape divine vengeance. He knows that God is
"God alone." Since the world was created, man has imitated Satan; the creature
of a day, the ephemera of an hour, has sought to match itself with the Eternal. Hence it
has even been one of the objects of the great Jehovah, to teach mankind that he is God,
and beside him there is none else. This is the lesson he has been teaching the world since
it went astray from him. He has been busying himself in breaking down the high places, in
exalting the valleys, in casting down imaginations and lofty looks, that all the world
might
"Know that he Lord is God alone,
He can create, and he destroy."
This morning we shall attempt to show you,
in the first place, how God has been teaching this great lesson to the world
that he is God, and beside him there is none else; and then, secondly, the special way
in which he designs to teach it in the matter of salvation "Look unto me,
and be ye saved: for I am God, and there is none else."
I. First, then, HOW HAS GOD BEEN TEACHING THIS LESSON TO MANKIND?
We reply, he has taught it, first of all, to false gods, and to the
idolaters who have bowed before them. Man, in his wickedness and sin, has set up a
block of wood and stone to be his maker, and has bowed before it. He hath fashioned for
himself out of a goodly tree an image made unto the likeness of mortal man, or of the
fishes of the sea, or of creeping things of the earth, and he has prostrated his body, and
his soul too, before that creature of his own hands, calling it a god, while it had
neither eyes to see, nor hands to handle, nor ears to hear. But how hath God poured
contempt on the ancient gods of the heathen? Where are they now? Are they so much as
known? Where are those false deities before whom the multitudes of Ninevah prostrated
themselves? Ask the moles and the bats, whose companions they are; or ask the mounds
beneath which they are buried; or go where the idle gazer walketh through the
museumsee them there as curiosities, and smile to think that men should ever bow
before such gods as these. and where are the gods of Persia? Where are they? The fires are
quenched, and the fire-worshipper hath almost ceased out of the earth. Where are the gods
of Greecethose gods adorned with poetry, and hymned in the most sublime odes? Where
are they? They are gone. Who talks of them now, but as things that were of yore?
Jupiterdoth any one bow before him? And who is he that adores Saturn? They are
passed away, and they are forgotten. And where are the gods of Rome? Doth Janus now
command the temple? or do the vestal virgins now feed their perpetual fires? Are there any
now that bow before these gods? No, they have lost their thrones. And where are the gods
of the South Sea Islandsthose bloody demons before whom wretched creatures
prostrated their bodies? They have well-nigh become extinct. Ask the inhabitants of China
and Polynesia where are the gods before which they bowed? Ask, and echo says ask, and ask
again. They are cast down from their thrones; they are hurled from their pedestals; their
chariots are broken, their sceptres are burnt in the fire, their glories are departed; God
hath gotten unto himself the victory over false gods, and taught their worshippers that he
is God, and that beside him there is none else. Are their gods still worshipped, or idols
before which the nations bow themselves? Wait but a little while, and ye shall see them
fall. Cruel Juggernaut, whose car still crushes in its motion the foolish ones who throw
themselves before it shall yet be the object of derision; and the most noted idols, such
as Buddha, and Brahma, and Vishnu, shall yet stoop themselves to the earth, and men shall
tread them down as mire in the streets; for God will teach all men that he is God, and
that there is none else.
Mark ye, yet again, how God has taught this truth to empires. Empires
have risen up, and have been gods of the era; their kings and princes have taken to
themselves high titles, and have been worshipped by the multitude. But ask the empires
whether there is any beside God? Do you not think you hear the boasting soliloquy of
Babylon"I sit as a queen, and am no widow; I shall see no sorrow; I am god, and
there is none beside me?" And think ye not now, if ye walk over ruined Babylon, that
ye will meet aught save the solemn spirit of the Bible, standing like a prophet gray with
age, and telling you that there is one God, and that beside him there is none else? Go ye
to Babylon, covered with its sand, the sand of its own ruins; stand ye on the mounds of
Nineveh, and let the voice come up"There is one God, and empires sink before
him; there is only one Potentate, and the princes and kings of the earth, with their
dynasties and thrones, are shaken by the trampling of his foot." Go, seat yourselves
in the temples of Greece; mark ye there what proud words Alexander once did speak; but
now, where is he, and where his empire too? Sit on the ruined arches of the bridge of
Carthage, or walk ye through the desolated theatres of Rome, and ye will hear a voice in
the wild wind amid those ruins"I am God, and there is none else." "O
city, though didst call thyself eternal; I have made thee melt away like dew. Though
saidst 'I sit on seven hills, and I shall last forever; ' I have made thee crumble, and
thou art now a miserable and contemptible place, compared with what thou wast. Thou wast
once stone, thou madest thyself; I have made thee stone again, and brought thee low."
O! how has God taught monarchies and empires that have set themselves up like new kingdoms
of heaven. that he is God, and that there is none else!
Again: how has he taught his great truth to monarchs! There are some
who have been most proud that have had to learn it in a way more hard than others. Take,
for instance, Nebuchadnezzar. His crown is on his head, his purple robe is over his
shoulders; he walks through proud Babylon, and says, "Is not this great Babylon which
I have builded?" Do you see that creature in the field there? It is a man. "A
man?" say you; its hair has grown like eagles' feathers, and its nails like birds'
claws; it walketh on all-fours, and eateth grass, like an ox; it is driven out from men.
That is the monarch who said"Is not this great Babylon that I have
builded?" And he is now restored to Babylon's palace, that he may "bless the
Most High who is able to abase those that walk in pride." Remember another monarch.
Look at Herod. He sits in the midst of his people, and he speaks. Hear ye the impious
shout? "It is the voice of God," they cry, "and not the voice of man."
The proud monarch gives not God the glory; he affects the God, and seems to shake the
spheres, imagining himself divine. There is a worm that creepeth into his body, and yet
another, and another; and ere that sun has set, he is eaten up of worms. Ah! monarch!
though thoughtest of being a god, and worms have eaten thee! thou hast thought of being
more than man; and what art thou? Less than man, for worms consume thee, and thou art the
prey of corruption. Thus God humbleth the proud; thus he abaseth the mighty. We might give
you instances from modern history; but the death of a king is all-sufficient to teach this
one lesson, if men would but learn it. When kings die, and in funeral pomp are carried to
the grave, we are taught the lesson"I am God, and beside me there is none
else." When we hear of revolutions, and the shaking of empireswhen we see old
dynasties tremble, and gray-haired monarchs driven from their thrones, then it is that
Jehovah seems to put his foot upon land and sea, and with his hand uplifted
cries"Hear! ye inhabitants of the earth! Ye are but as grasshoppers; 'I am God,
and beside me there is none else.'"
Again: our God has had much to do to teach this lesson to the wise men of
this world; for as rank, pomp, and power, have set themselves up in the place of God,
so has wisdom; and one of the greatest enemies of Deity has always been the wisdom of man.
The wisdom of man will not see God. Professing themselves to be wise, wise men have become
fools. But have ye not noticed, in reading history, how God has abased the pride of
wisdom? In ages long gone by, he sent mighty minds into the world, who devised systems of
philosophy. "These systems," they said, "will last forever." There
pupils thought them infallible, and therefore wrote their sayings on enduring parchment,
saying, "This book will last forever; succeeding generations of men will read it, and
to the last man that book shall be handed down, as the epitome of wisdom." "Ah!
but," said God, "that book of yours shall be seen to be folly, ere another
hundred years have rolled away." And so the mighty thoughts of Socrates, and the
wisdom of Solon, are utterly forgotten now; and could we hear them speak, the veriest
child in our schools would laugh to think that he understandeth more of philosophy than
they. But when man has found the vanity of one system, his eyes have sparkled at another;
if Aristotle will not suffice, here is Bacon; now I shall know everything; and he sets to
work and says that this new philosophy is to last forever. He lays his stones with fair
colors, and he thinks that every truth he piles up is a precious imperishable truth. But,
alas! another century comes, and it is found to be "wood, hay, and stubble." A
new sect of philosophers rise up, who refute their predecessors. So too, we have wise men
in this daywise secularists, and so on, who fancy they have obtained the truth; but
within another fifty yearsand mark that wordthis hair shall not be silvered
over with gray, until the last of that race shall have perished, and that man shall be
thought a fool that was ever connected with such a race. Systems of infidelity pass away
like a dew-drop before the sun, for God says, "I am God, and beside me there is none
else." This Bible is the stone that shall break in powder philosophy; this is the
mighty battering ram that shall dash all systems of philosophy in pieces; this is the
stone that a woman may yet hurl upon the head of every Abimelech, and he shall be utterly
destroyed. O church of God! fear not; thou shalt do wonders; wise men shall be confounded,
and thou shalt know, and they too, that he is God, and that beside him there is none else.
"Surely," says one, "the Church of God does not need
to be taught this." Yes, we answer, she does; for of all beings, those whom God has
made the objects of his grace are perhaps the most apt to forget this cardinal truth, that
he is God, and that beside him there is none else. How did the church in Canaan forget it,
when they bowed before other gods, and therefore he brought against them mighty kings and
princes, and afflicted them sore. How did Israel forget it; and he carried them away
captive into Babylon. And what Israel did, in Canaan and in Babylon, that we do now. We
too, too often, forget that he is God, and beside him there is none else. Doth not the
Christian know what I mean, when I tell him this great fact? For hath he not done it
himself? In certain times prosperity has come upon him; soft gales have blown his bark
along, just where his wild will wished to steer; and he has said within himself: "Now
I have peace, now I have happiness, now the object I wished for is within my grasp, now I
will say, 'Sit down, my soul, and take thy rest; eat, drink, and be merry; these things
will well content me; make thou these thy god, be thou blessed and happy.'" But have
we not seen our God dash the goblet to the earth, spill the sweet wine, and instead
thereof fill it with gall? and as he has given it to us, he has said"Drink it,
drink it: ye have thought to find a god on earth, but drain the cup and know its
bitterness." When we have drunk it, nauseous the draft was, and we have cried,
"Ah! God, I will drink no more of these things; thou art God, and beside thee there
is none else." And ah! how often, too, have we devised schemes for the future,
without asking God's permission! Men have said, like those foolish ones James mentioned,
"We will do such-and-such things on the morrow; we will buy and sell and get
gain." whereas they knew not what was to be on the morrow,, for long ere the morrow
came they were unable to buy and sell; death had claimed them, and a small span of earth
held all their frame. God teaches his people every day, by sickness, by affliction, by
depression of spirits, by the forsakings of God, by the loss of the Spirit for a season,
by the lackings of the joys of his countenance, that he is God, and that beside him there
is none else. And we must not forget that there are some special servants of God raised up
to do good works, who in a peculiar manner have to learn this lesson. Let a man, for
instance, be called to the great work of preaching the gospel. He is successful; God
helped him; thousands wait at his feet, and multitudes hang upon his lips; as truly as
that man is a man, he will have a tendency to be exalted above measure, and too much will
he begin to look to himself, and too little to his God. Let men speak who know, and what
they know let them speak; and they will say, "It is true, it is most true." If
God gives us a special mission, we generally begin to take some honor and glory to
ourselves. But in review of the eminent saints of God, have you never observed how God has
made them feel that he was God, and beside him there was none else? Poor Paul might have
thought himself a god, and been puffed up above measure, by reason of the greatness of his
revelation, had not there been a thorn in the flesh. But Paul could feel that he was not a
god, for he had a thorn in the flesh, and gods could not have thorns in the flesh.
Sometimes God teaches the minister, by denying him help on special occasions. We come up
into our pulpits and say, "oh! I wish I could have a good day to-day!" We begin
to labor; we have been just as earnest in prayer, and just as indefatigable; but it is
like a blind horse turning round a mill, or like Samson with Delilah: we shake our vain
limbs with vast surprise, "make feeble fight," and win no victories. We are made
to see that the Lord is God, and that beside him there is none else. Very frequently God
teaches this to the minister, leading him to see his own sinful nature. He will have such
an insight into his own wicked and abominable heart, that he will feel as he comes up the
pulpit stairs that he does not deserve so much as to sit in his pew, much less to preach
to his fellows. Although we feel always joy in the declaration of God's Word, yet we have
known what it is to totter on the pulpit steps, under a sense that the chief of sinners
should scarcely be allowed to preach to others. Ah! beloved, I do not think he will
be very successful as a minister who is not taken into the depths and blackness of his own
soul, and made to exclaim, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints,
is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ." There is another antidote which God applies in the case of ministers. If he
does not deal with them personally, he raises up a host of enemies, that it may be seen
that he is God, and God alone. An esteemed friend sent me, yesterday, a valuable old Ms.
of one of George Whitefield's hymns which was sung on Kennington Common. It is a splendid
hymn, thoroughly Whitefieldian all through. It showed that his reliance was wholly on the
Lord, and that God was within him. What! will a man subject himself to the calumnies of
the multitude, will he toil and work day after day unnecessarily, will he stand up Sabbath
after Sabbath and preach the gospel and have his name maligned and slandered, if he has
not the grace of God in him? For myself, I can say, that were it not that the love of
Christ constrained me, this hour might be the last that I should preach, so far as the
ease of the thing is concerned. "Necessity is laid upon us; yea, woe is unto us if we
preach not the gospel." But that opposition through which God carries his servants,
leads them to see at once that he is God, and that there is none else. If every one
applauded, if all were gratified, we should think ourselves God; but, when they hiss and
hoot, we turn to our God, and cry,
"If on my face, for thy dear name,
Shame and reproach should be,
I'll hail reproach and welcome shame,
If thou'lt remember me."
II. This brings us to the second portion of our discourse. Salvation is
God's greatest work; and, therefore, in his greatest work, he specially teaches us this
lesson, That he is God, and that beside him there is none else. Our text tells us how
he teaches it. He says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth." He shows us that he is God, and that beside him there is none else, in three
ways. First, by the person to whom he directs us: "look unto me, and be ye
saved." Secondly, by the means he tells us to use to obtain mercy: "Look,"
simply, "Look." And thirdly, by the persons whom he calls to "look:"
"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
1. First, to whom does God tell us to look for salvation? O, does it
not lower the pride of man, when we hear the Lord say, "Look unto me, and be
ye saved, all the ends of the earth?" It is not. "Look to your priest, and be ye
saved:" if you did, there would be another god, and beside him there would be some
one else. It is not "Look to yourself;" if so, then there would be a being who
might arrogate some of the praise of salvation. But it is "Look unto me." How
frequently you who are coming to Christ look to yourselves. "O!" you say,
"I do not repent enough." That is looking to yourself. "I do not believe
enough." That is looking to yourself. "I am too unworthy." That is looking
to yourself. "I cannot discover," says another, "that I have any
righteousness." It is quite right to say that you have not any righteousness; but it
is quite wrong to look for any. It is, "Look unto me." God will have you turn
your eye off yourself and look unto him. The hardest thing in the world is to turn a man's
eye off himself; as long as he lives, he always has a predilection to turn his eyes
inside, and look at himself; whereas God says, "Look unto me." From the cross of
Calvary, where the bleeding hands of Jesus drop mercy; from the Garden of Gethsemane,
where the bleeding pores of the Saviour sweat pardons, the cry comes, "Look unto me,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." From Calvary's summit, where Jesus
cries, "It is finished," I hear a shout, "Look, and be saved." But
there comes a vile cry from our soul, "Nay, look to yourself! look to yourself!"
Ah, my hearer, look to yourself, and you will be damned. That certainly will come of it.
As long as you look to yourself there is no hope for you. It is not a consideration of
what you are, but a consideration of what God is, and what Christ is, that can save you.
It is looking from yourself to Jesus. P! there be men that quite misunderstand the gospel;
they think that righteousness qualifies them to come to Christ; whereas sin is the only
qualification for a man to come to Jesus. Good old Crisp says, "Righteousness keeps
me from Christ: the whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. Sin makes
me come to Jesus, when sin is felt; and, in coming to Christ, the more sin I have the more
cause I have to hope for mercy." David said, and it was a strange thing, too,
"Have mercy upon me, for mine iniquity is great." But, David, why did not you
say that it was little? Because, David knew that the bigger his sins were, the better
reason for asking mercy. The more vile a man is, the more eagerly I invite him to believe
in Jesus. A sense of sin is all we have to look for as ministers. We preach to sinners;
and let us know that a man will take the title of sinner to himself, and we then say to
him, "Look unto Christ, and ye shall be saved." "Look," this is all he
demands of thee, and even this he gives thee. If thou lookest to thyself thou art damned;
thou art a vile miscreant, filled with loathsomeness, corrupt and corrupting others. But
look thou hereseest thou that man hanging on the cross? Dost thou behold his
agonized head dropping meekly down upon his breast? Dost thou see that thorny crown,
causing drops of blood to trickle down his cheeks? Dost thou see his hands pierced and
rent, and his blest feet, supporting the weight of his own frame, rent well-nigh in twain
with the cruel nails? Sinner! dost thou hear him shriek, "Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabbacthani?" Dost thou hear him cry, "It is finished?" Dost thou mark his
head hang down in death? Seest thou that side pierced with the spear, and the body taken
from the cross? O, come thou hither! Those hands were nailed for thee; those feet gushed
gore for thee; that side was opened wide for thee; and if thou wantest to know how thou
canst find mercy, there it is. "Look!" "Look unto me!" Look no
longer to Moses. Look no longer to Sinai. Come thou here and look to Calvary, to Calvary's
victim, and to Joseph's grave. And look thou yonder, to the man who near the throne sites
with his Father, crowned with light and immortality. "Look, sinner," he says,
this morning, to you, "Look unto me, and be ye saved." It is in this way God
teaches that there is none beside him; because he makes us look entirely to him, and
utterly away from ourselves.
2. But the second thought is, the means of salvation. It is, "Look
unto me, and be ye saved." You have often observed, I am sure, that many people are
fond of an intricate worship, and involved religion, one they can hardly understand. They
cannot endure worship so simple as ours. Then they must have a man dressed in white, and a
man dressed in black; then they must have what they call an altar and a chancel. After a
little while that will not suffice, and they must have flower-pots and candles. The
clergyman then becomes a priest, and he must have a variegated dress, with a cross on it.
So it goes on; what is simply a plate becomes a paten, and what was once a cup becomes a
chalice; and the more complicated the ceremonies are, the better they like them. They like
their minister to stand like a superior being. The world likes a religion they cannot
comprehend. But have you never noticed how gloriously simple the Bible is? It will not
have any of your nonsense; it speaks plain, and nothing but plain things. "Look!"
There is not an unconverted man who likes this, "Look unto Christ, and be ye
saved." No, he comes to Christ like Naaman to Elijah; and , when it is said,
"Go, wash in Jordan," he replies, "I verily thought he would come and put
his hand on the place, and call on the name of his God. But the idea of telling me to wash
in Jordan, what a ridiculous thing! Anybody could do that!" If the prophet had bidden
him to do some great thing, would he not have done it? Ah! certainly he would. And if,
this morning, I could preach that any one who walked from here to Bath without his shoes
and stockings, or did some impossible thing, should be saved, you would start off tomorrow
morning before breakfast. If it would take me seven years to describe the way of
salvation, I am sure you would all long to hear it. If only one learned doctor could tell
the way to heaven, how would he be run after! And if it were in hard words, with a few
scraps of Latin and Greek, it would be all the better. But it is a simple gospel that we
have to preach. It is only "Look!" "Ah!" you say, "Is that the
gospel? I shall not pay any attention to that." But why has God ordered you to do
such a simple thing? Just to take down your pride, and to show you that he is God, and
that beside him there is none else. O, mark how simple the way of salvation is. It is
"Look! look! look!" Four letters, and two of them alike! "Look unto me, and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Some divines want a week to tell what you
are to do to be saved; but God the Holy Ghost only wants four letters to do it. "Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." How simple is that way of
salvation! and O, how instantaneous! It takes us some time to move our hand, buy a look
does not require a moment. So a sinner believes in a moment; and the moment that sinner
believes and trusts in his crucified God for pardon, at once he receives salvation in full
through his blood. There may be one that came in here this morning unjustified in his
conscience, that will go out justified rather than others. There may be some here, filthy
sinners one moment, pardoned the next. It is done in an instant. "Look! look!
look!" And how universal it is! Because, wherever I am, however far off, it just
says, "Look!" It does not say I am to see; it only says, "Look!" If we
look on a thing in the dark, we cannot see it; but we have done what we were told. So, if
a sinner only looks to Jesus he will save him; for Jesus in the dark is as good as Jesus
in the light; and Jesus, when you cannot see him, is as good as Jesus when you can. It is
only, "Look!" "Ah! says one, "I have been trying to see Jesus this
year, but I have not seen him." It does not say, see him, but "Look unto
him." And it says that they who looked were enlightened. If there is an obstacle
before you, and you only look in the right direction, it is sufficient. "Look unto
me." It is not seeing Christ so much as looking after him. The will after Christ, the
wish after Christ, the desire after Christ, the trusting in Christ, the hanging on Christ,
that is what is wanted. "Look! look! look!" Ah! if the man bitten by the serpent
had turned his sightless eyeballs towards the brazen serpent, though he had not seen it,
he would still have had his life restored. It is looking, not seeing, that saves the
sinner.
We say again, how this humbles a man! There is a gentleman who says,
"Well, if it had been a thousand pounds that would have saved me, I would have
thought nothing of it." But gold and silver is cankered; it is good for nothing.
"Then, am I to be saved just the same as my servant Betty?" Yes, just the same;
there is no other way of salvation for you. That is to show man that Jehovah is God, and
that beside him there is none else. The wise man says, "If it had been to work the
most wonderful problem, or to solve the greatest mystery, I would have done it. May I not
have some mysterious gospel? May I not believe in some mysterious religion?" No; it
is "Look!" "What! am I to be saved just like that Ragged School Boy, who
can't read his letters?" Yes, you must, or you will not be saved at all. Another
says, "I have been very moral and upright; I have observed all the laws of the land;
and, if there is anything else to do, I will do it. I will eat only fish on Fridays, and
keep all the fasts of the church, if that will save me." No, sir, that will not save
you; your good works are good for nothing. "What! must I be saved in the same way as
a harlot or a drunkard?" Yes, sir; there is only one way of salvation for all.
"He hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." He hath
passed a sentence of condemnation on all, that the free grace of God might come upon many
to salvation. "Look! look! look!" This is the simple method of salvation.
"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
But, lastly, mark how God has cut down the pride of man, and has exalted
himself by the persons whom he has called to look. "Look unto me, and be ye
saved, all the ends of the earth." When the Jew heard Isaiah say that,
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "you ought to have said, 'Look unto me, O Jerusalem,
and be saved.' That would have been right. But those Gentile dogs, are they to look and be
saved?" "Yes," says God; "I will show you Jews, that, though I have
given you many privileges, I will exalt others above you; I can do as I will with my
own."
Now, who are the ends of the earth? Why, there are poor heathen nations now
that are very few degrees removed from brutes, uncivilized and untaught; but if I might go
and tread the desert, and find the Bushman in his kraal, or go to the South Seas and find
a cannibal, I would say to the cannibal or the Bushman, "Look unto Jesus, and be ye
saved, all the ends of the earth." They are some of "the ends of the
earth," and the gospel is sent to as much to them as to the polite Grecians, the
refined Romans, or the educated Britons. But I think "the ends of the earth"
imply those who have gone the farthest away from Christ. I say, drunkard, that means you.
You have been staggering back. till you have got right to the ends of the earth; you have
almost had delirium tremens; you cannot be much worse. There is not a man breathing
worse than you. Is there? Ah! but God, in order to humble your pride, says to you,
"Look unto me, and be ye saved." There is another who has lived a life of infamy
and sin, until she has ruined herself, and even Satan seems to sweep her out at the back
door; but God says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
Methinks I see one trembling here, and saying, "Ah, I have not been one of these,
sir, but I have been something worse; for I have attended the house of God, and I have
stifled convictions, and put off all thoughts of Jesus, and now I think he will never have
mercy on me." You are one of them. "Ends of the earth!" So long as I find
any who feel like that, I can tell them that they are "the ends of the earth."
"But," says another, "I am so peculiar; if I did not feel as I do, it would
be all very well; but I feel that my case is a peculiar one." That is all right; they
are a peculiar people. You will do. But another one says, "There is nobody in the
world like me; I do not think you will find a being under the sun that has had so many
calls, and put them all away, and so many sins on his head. Besides, I have guilt that I
should not like to confess to any living creature." One of "the ends of the
earth" again; therefore, all I have to do is to cry out, in the Master's name,
"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is
none else." But thou sayest, sin will not let thee look. I tell thee, sin will be
removed the moment thou dost look. "But I dare not; he will condemn me; I fear to
look." He will condemn thee more if thou dost not look. Fear, then, and look; but
do not let thy fearing keep thee from looking. "But he will cast me out."
Try him. "But I cannot see him." I tell you, it is not seeing, but
looking. "But my eyes are so fixed on the earth, so earthly, so worldly."
Ah! but, poor soul, he giveth power to look and live. He saith, "Look unto me, and be
ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
Take this, dear friends, for a new year's text, both ye who love the Lord,
and ye who are only looking for the first time. Christian! in all thy troubles through
this year, look unto God and be saved. In all thy trials and afflictions, look unto
Christ, and find deliverance. In all thine agony, poor soul, in all thy repentance for thy
guilt, look unto Christ, and find pardon. This year, remember to put thine eyes
heavenward, and thine heart heavenward, too. Remember, this day, that thou bind round
thyself a golden chain, and put one link of it in the staple of heaven. Look unto Christ;
fear not. There is no stumbling when a man walks with his eyes up to Jesus. He that looked
at the stars fell into the ditch; but he that looks at Christ walks safely. Keep your eyes
up all the year long. "Look unto him, and be ye saved;" and remember that
"he is God, and beside him there is none else." And thou, poor
trembler, what sayest thou? Wilt thou begin the year by looking unto him? You know how
sinful you are this morning; you know how filthy you are; and yet it is possible that,
before you open your pew door, and get into the aisle, you will be as justified as the
apostles before the throne of God. It is possible that, ere you foot treads the threshold
of your door, you will have lost the burden that has been on your back, and you will go on
your way, singing, "I am forgiven, I am forgiven; I am a miracle of grace; this day
is my spiritual birthday." O, that it might be such to many of you, that at last I
might say, "Here am I, and the children thou hast given me." Hear this,
convinced sinner! "This poor man cried, and the Lord delivered him out of his
distresses." O, taste and see that the Lord is good! Now believe on him; now cast thy
guilty soul upon his righteousness; now plunge thy black soul into the bath of his blood;
now put thy naked soul at the door of the wardrobe of his righteousness; now seat thy
famished soul at the feast of plenty. Now, "Look!" How simple does it seem! And
yet it is the hardest thing in the world to bring men to. They never will do it, till
constraining grace makes them. Yet there it is, "Look!" Go thou away with that
thought. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and
there is none else."
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