The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon

take your rest, the great High Priest has made full atonement. You have much goods laid up, not for many years, but for eternity; take your ease; eat spiritual things; drink wine on the lees and be merry; for it cannot be said of you, “tomorrow you shall die,” for you shall never die, for “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” You are no fool to take your ease and rest, for this is legitimate ease and rest, the rest which the God of Hosts has provided for all his people. And then, oh Christian! march boldly to the river of death, march calmly up to the throne of judgment, enter placidly and joyfully into the inheritance of your Lord, for you have around you an armour that can protect you from the arrows of death, a wedding garment that makes you fit to sit down at the banquet of the Lord. You have around you a royal robe that makes you a fit companion even for Jesus, the king of kings, when he shall admit you into his secret chambers, and permit you to hold holy and close fellowship with him. I cannot resist quoting that verse of the hymn, —

      With your Saviour’s garment on,

      You are holy as the Holy One.

      That is the sum and substance of it all. And on this bed let us take our rest, and during this week let us make Christ’s work our only garment, and we shall find it long enough, and broad enough, for us to wrap ourselves up in it.

      The Way To God

      No. 245-5:161. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, March 27, 1859, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

       No man comes to the Father, except by me. {John 14:6}

      1. There are many men in this world, who so far from coming to God, are going as far as they can from him. Nothing would delight such men so much as to be completely rid of his presence, and to be entirely escaped from the bounds of his dominions. They would be content to make their bed in hell, if they could thus find a satisfactory answer to the question, “Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence?” Their hearts are at enmity with God; they hate his words and his ways. They know that God is angry with them; and they in return are angry with God. There is another class, who are only a little more advanced than these. It cannot be said of them, with the same emphatic meaning, that they actually hate God, but nevertheless they run from him. Perhaps they would indignantly repel a charge of abhorring God, but nevertheless, it is true of them, that they live in utter disregard of him. They say in their hearts, “No God.” God is not in all their thoughts. They may have sublime thoughts of nature, but few yearnings after him who made nature. They think much of time, and sense, and of the things that are below; but as to eternity and its substantial realities, the things that are unseen and everlasting, these they scarcely think about. “Beware, you who forget God,” for your state is no better than the state of those I first described. “The wicked shall be turned into hell”; those who hate God shall feel his torment, but so shall their companions, for thus runs the text, “The wicked shall be cast into hell with all the nations that forget God.” It is not needful that you should hate God; that you should go to war with him in order to destroy yourself; the simple neglect of him is enough to ruin you. Thus has the apostle put it, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” You do not need to charge against the thick bosses of Jehovah’s buckler, you do not need to rush upon the point of his glittering spear. Stand still and do nothing; disregard him; shut your eyes to his existence, and engross yourself with the grovelling toys of earth, and you have as surely destroyed yourselves, as if you had defied him to his face. Neglect of God is the open gate of damnation. To forget God is to ensure a portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. There is to be found, however, upon the face of the earth a third class of men, who would not like to be classed among the enemies of God and who can truly say that they are not utterly indifferent with regard to his favour. They would prefer to be numbered with those who are seeking God. Their desire is to go to their Father. They may not as yet, perhaps, be brought to that only way at coming which he has ordained, but still their profession is that they desire to worship God, and to come before him with thanksgiving, and show themselves glad in him. It is to this very character, one that has so much that is hopeful in it, that I shall address myself particularly this morning; but indeed, to every one in this assembly, I would desire to preach the great truth of the text. No man — though he should desire ever so earnestly, or labours so diligently — no man comes to the Father, except by Jesus Christ.

      2. When Adam was perfect in the garden of Eden, God walked with him in the cool of the day. God and man held the most intimate and affectionate fellowship with one another. Man was a happy creature; God was a condescending Creator, and the two met together and held sweet conversation and communion. But from the moment when Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the way from God to man became blocked, the bridge was broken down, a great gulf was fixed, so that if it had not been for the divine plan of grace, we could not have ascended to God, neither could God in justice come down to us. Happily, however, the everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure, had provided for this great catastrophe. Christ Jesus the Mediator had in old eternity been ordained to become the medium of access between man and God. If you want a figure of him, remember the memorable dream of Jacob. He laid down in a solitary place, and he dreamed a dream, which had in it something more substantial than anything he had seen with his eyes wide open. He saw a ladder, the foot of which rested upon earth, and its top reached to heaven itself. Upon this ladder he saw angels ascending and descending. Now this ladder was Christ. Christ in his humanity rested upon the earth, he is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. In his divinity he reaches to the highest heaven, for he is very God of very God. When our prayers ascend on high they must tread the rungs of this ladder; and when God’s blessings descend to us, the rungs of this marvellous ladder must be the means of their descent. Never has a prayer ascended to God except through Jesus Christ. Never has a blessing come down to man except through the same Divine Mediator. There is now a highway, a way of holiness where the redeemed can walk to God, and God can come to us. The king’s highway, —

      The way the holy prophets went —

      The road that leads from banishment.

      Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life.

      3. Let us think for a moment of Jesus Christ as the way to God. The reason why man cannot come to God as he did in the garden is that God is the same, but man is changed. God is as affectionate and as condescending as ever, but man is unholy and impure. Now, God is as pure as he is affectionate; while God is love it is just as true that God is infinitely just and holy. His holy eyes cannot endure iniquity. If, then, a sinful creature could obtain access to God, if a rebellious creature could come into the immediate presence of the Most High, the effect must be disastrous in the extreme, for it would be a necessity of God’s nature that he must utterly devour the creature in which he sees any sin. Come into the presence of God, oh sinner, and you might as well march into a consuming fire. As Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace burned the men who came to throw in the three holy children, so must God, the consuming fire, burn and destroy us, even if we approach him with our prayers and thanksgivings, if it were not for the interposition of Jesus Christ the Mediator. I say, this is a necessity of his nature. God is necessarily just, and justice cannot endure a sin. God is necessarily pure and holy: he might sooner cease to be God than cease to be pure. Now, he must repel the approach of impurity to him. Though no laws can bind him, yet the law of his nature never can be broken. His nature is, “I will by no means clear the guilty.” He is slow to anger, he is great in power, and he is ready to forgive, but as long as guilt lies unforgiven he is also ready to punish, no, he must punish or else cease to be. Consequently, no man can come to God as a sinner, unless he comes to him to be utterly destroyed, and that without remedy. You do not want to come to God as a sinner. It is a good news that we are enabled to tell to all our fellow creatures of a way by which we can come with joy and gladness to the Father, through Jesus Christ.

      4. Now, this morning I shall have to divide my subject into three or four points, and notice. —

      5. I. Some men have a desire to come to God in worship, but there are many who desire to come to him the wrong way. You will sometimes meet with men who say, “Well, I do not go up to a church or chapel;