The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

throw yourself into the sea, or I’ll shoot you!” He knew his father would keep his word; the ship lurched on one side, over went the boy splash into the sea, and out went brawny arms after him; the sailors rescued him, and brought him on deck. Now, we, like the boy, are in a position of extraordinary danger, by nature, which neither you nor I can possibly escape by ourselves. Unfortunately, we have some good works of our own, like that maintruck, and we cling to them so fondly, that we never will give them up. Christ knows that unless we do give them up, we shall be dashed to pieces at the last, for that rotten trust must ruin us. He, therefore, says, “Sinner, let go of your own trust, and drop into the sea of my love.” We look down, and say, “Can I be saved by trusting in God? He looks as if he were angry with me, and I could not trust him.” Ah, will not mercy’s tender cry persuade you? — “He who believes shall be saved.” Must the weapon of destruction be pointed directly at you? Must you hear the dreadful threat — “He who does not believe shall be damned?” So it is with you now as with that boy — your position is one of imminent peril in itself, and your slighting the Father’s counsel is a matter of more terrible alarm, it makes peril more perilous. You must do it, or else you perish! Let go of your hold! That is faith when the poor sinner lets go of his hold, drops down, and so is saved; and the very thing which looks as if it would destroy him, is the means of his being saved. Oh! believe on Christ, poor sinners; believe on Christ. You who know your guilt and misery come, cast yourselves upon him; come, and trust my Master, and as he lives, before whom I stand, you shall never trust him in vain; but you shall find yourselves forgiven, and go your way rejoicing in Christ Jesus.

      {a} Doit: A small Dutch coin formerly in use, the eighth part of a stiver, or the half of an English farthing; hence (chiefly in negative phrases) as the type of a very small or trifling sum. OED.

      {b} Sign-manual: An autograph signature (esp. that of the sovereign) serving to authenticate a document. OED.

      {c} Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp is the second novel from American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was first published in two volumes by Phillips, Sampson and Company in 1856. Although it enjoyed better initial sales than her previous, and more famous, novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin it was ultimately less popular. Dred was of a more documentary nature than Uncle Tom’s Cabin and thus lacked a character like Uncle Tom to evoke strong emotion from readers. See Explorer “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred,_A_Tale_of_the_Great_Dismal_Swamp”

      Spiritual Resurrection

      No. 127-3:161. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, April 12, 1857, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

      And you he has quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. {Ephesians 2:1}

      1. It might naturally be expected that I should have selected the topic of the resurrection on what is usually called Easter Sunday. I shall not do so; for although I have read portions which refer to that glorious subject, I have had pressed on my mind a subject which is not the resurrection of Christ, but which is in some measure connected with it — the resurrection of lost and ruined man by the Spirit of God in this life.

      2. The apostle is here speaking, you will observe, of the church at Ephesus, and, indeed, of all those who were chosen in Christ Jesus, accepted in him, and redeemed with his blood; and he says have them, “You he has quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

      3. What a solemn sight is presented to us by a dead body! Last evening when trying to comprehend the thought, it utterly overcame me. The thought is overwhelming, that soon this body of mine must be a carnival for worms; that in and out of these places, where my eyes are glistening, foul things, the offspring of loathsomeness, shall crawl; that this body must be stretched in still, cold, abject, passive death, must then become a noxious, nauseous thing, cast out even by those who loved me, who will say, “Bury my dead out of my sight.” Perhaps you can scarcely, in the moment I can afford you, appropriate the idea to yourselves. Does it not seem a strange thing, that you, who have walked to this place this morning, shall be carried to your graves; that the eyes with which you now behold me shall soon be glazed in everlasting darkness; that the tongues, which just now moved in song, shall soon be silent lumps of clay; and that your strong and stalwart frame, now standing in this place, will soon be unable to move a muscle, and become a loathsome thing, the brother of the worm and the sister of corruption? You can scarcely get hold of the idea; death does such an awful work with us, it is such a Vandal with this mortal fabric, it so rends to pieces this fair thing that God has built up, that we can scarcely bear to contemplate his works of ruin.

      4. Now, endeavour, as well as you can, to get the idea of a dead corpse, and when you have so done, please try to understand, that that is the metaphor employed in my text, to set forth the condition of your soul by nature. Just as the body is dead, incapable, unable, unfeeling, and soon about to become corrupt and putrid, so are we if we are unquickened by divine grace; dead in trespasses and sins, having within us death, which is capable of developing itself in worse and worse stages of sin and wickedness, until all of us here, left by God’s grace, should become loathsome beings; loathsome through sin and wickedness, even as the corpse through natural decay. Understand, that the doctrine of the Holy Scripture is, that man by nature, since the fall, is dead; he is a corrupt and ruined thing; in a spiritual sense, utterly and entirely dead. And if any of us shall come to spiritual life, it must be by the quickening of God’s Spirit, bestowed upon us sovereignly through the good will of God the Father, not for any merits of our own, but entirely from his own abounding and infinite grace.

      5. Now, this morning, I trust I shall not be tedious; I shall endeavour to make the subject as interesting as possible, and also endeavour to be brief. The general doctrine of this morning is, that every man that is born into the world is dead spiritually, and that spiritual life must be given by the Holy Spirit, and can be obtained from no other source. That general doctrine, I shall illustrate in rather a singular way. You remember that our Saviour raised three dead people; I do not find that during his lifetime he caused more than three resurrections. The first was the young maiden, the daughter of Jairus who, when she lay on her bed dead, rose up to life at the single utterance of Christ, “Talitha cumi!” The second was the case of the widow’s son, who was on his bier, about to be carried to his tomb; and Jesus raised him up to life by saying, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” The third, and most memorable case, was that of Lazarus, who was not on his bed, nor on his bier, but in his tomb, indeed, and corrupt too; but notwithstanding that, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the voice of his omnipotence, crying, “Lazarus, come forth,” brought him out of the tomb.

      6. I shall use these three facts as illustrations of the different states of men, though they are all thoroughly dead: secondly, as illustrations of the different means of grace used for raising them , though, after all, the same great agency is employed; and, in the third place, as illustrations of the later experience of quickened men; for though that to a great degree is the same, yet there are some points of difference.

      7. I. I shall begin by noticing, then, first of all, THE CONDITION OF MEN BY NATURE. Men by nature are all dead. There is Jairus’s daughter; she lies on her bed; she seems as if she were alive; her mother has scarcely ceased to kiss her brow, her hand is still in her father’s loving grasp, and he can scarcely think that she is dead; but dead she is, as thoroughly dead as she ever can be. Next comes the case of the young man brought out of his grave; he is more than dead, he has begun to be corrupt, the signs of decay are upon his face, and they are carrying him to his tomb; yet though there are more evidences of death in him, he is no more dead than the other. He is just as dead; they are both dead, and death really knows no degrees. The third case goes further still in the manifestation of death; for it is the case of which Martha, using strong words, said, “Lord, by this time he stinks; for he has been dead four days.” And yet, notice that the daughter of Jairus was just as dead as Lazarus; though the manifestation of death was not so complete in her case. All were equally dead. I have in my congregation some blessed beings, fair to look upon; fair, I mean, in their character, as well as their outward appearance; they have about them everything