The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856. Charles H. Spurgeon

rules, and speak to you as one speaks to his fellow whom he loves? Ah! if I did not love you, I would not need to be here. It is because I wish to win your souls, and if it is possible, to win for my Master some honour, that I would thus pour out my heart before you. As the Lord lives, sinner, you stand on a single plank over the mouth of hell, and that plank is rotten. You hang over the pit by a solitary rope, and the strands of that rope are breaking. You are like Damocles of old, whom Dionysius placed at the head of the table: before him was a dainty feast, but the man did not eat, for directly over his head was a sword suspended by a hair. So are you, sinner. Let your cup be full, let your pleasures be high, let your soul be elevated. Do you see that sword? The next time you sit in the theatre, look up and see that sword; the next time you are in a tavern, look at that sword; when next in your business you scorn the rules of God’s gospel, look at that sword. Though you do not see it, it is there. Even now you may hear God saying to Gabriel, — “Gabriel, that man is sitting in his seat in the hall; he is hearing, but as though he did not hear; unsheathe your blade. Let the glittering sword cut through that hair; let the weapon fall upon him, and divide his soul and body.” Stop! oh Gabriel, stop! Spare the man a little while. Give him yet an hour, that he may repent. Oh, let him not die. True, he has been here these ten or a dozen nights, and he has listened without a tear; but stop; perhaps he may repent yet. Jesus backs up my entreaty, and he cries, “Spare him yet another year, until I dig around him, and fertilize him, and though he now encumbers the ground, he may yet bring forth fruit, that he may not be hewn down and cast into the fire.” I thank you, oh God, you will not cut him down tonight; but tomorrow may be his last day. You may never see the sun rise, though you have seen it set. Take heed. Hear the word of God’s gospel, and depart with God’s blessing. “Whoever believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.” “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” “He is able to save to the uttermost all who come to him.” “Whoever comes to him he will in nowise cast out.” “Let every one that hears, say come; whoever is thirsty, let him come, and take of the water of life, freely.”

      {a} Escutcheon: Shield containing a coat of arms. OED.

      {b} Perseus: He was the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths in the cult of the Twelve Olympians. Perseus was the hero who killed Medusa and claimed Andromeda, having rescued her from a sea monster. See Explorer “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus”

      Forgiveness

      No. 24-1:181. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, May 20, 1855, By C. H. Spurgeon, At Exeter Hall, Strand.

      I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins. {Isaiah 43:25}

      1. There are some passages of sacred writ which have been more abundantly blessed to the conversion of souls than others. They may be called salvation texts. We may not be able to discover how it is, or why it is, but certainly it is the fact, that some chosen verses have been more used by God to bring men to the cross of Christ than any others in his Word. Certainly they are not more inspired, but I suppose they are more noticeable from their position, from their peculiar phraseology, more adapted to catch the eye of the reader, and more suitable to a prevailing spiritual condition. All the stars in the heavens shine very brightly, but only a few attract the eye of the mariner, and direct his course; the reason is this, that those few stars from their peculiar grouping are more readily distinguished, and the eye easily fixes upon them. So I suppose it is with those passages of God’s Word which especially attract attention, and direct the sinner to the cross of Christ. It so happens that this text is one of the chief of them. I have found it, in my experience, to be a most useful one; for out of the hundreds of people who have come to me to tell me about their conversion and experience, I have found a very large proportion who have traced the divine change which has been wrought in their hearts to the hearing of this precious declaration of sovereign mercy read, and the application of it with power to their souls: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.” Hence I feel this morning somewhat pleased to have such a text, because I anticipate that my Master will give me souls; and I feel likewise somewhat afraid lest I should spoil the passage by my own imperfect handling of it. I will, therefore, cast myself implicitly on the help of the Spirit, so that whatever I speak, may be suggested by him, and whatever he says that may I speak, to the exclusion of my own thoughts as much as possible.

      2. We shall notice first, this morning, the recipients of mercy — the people of whom the Lord is here speaking; secondly, the deed of mercy, — “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions”; thirdly, the reasons for mercy — “for my own sake”; and fourthly, the promise of mercy — “I will not remember your sins.”

      3. I. We are about to see who are THE RECIPIENTS OF MERCY; and I would have you all listen; perhaps there are some who have strayed in here who are the very chief of sinners — some who have sinned against light and knowledge, who have gone the full length of their powers for sin, so that they come here self-condemned, and fearing that for them there is neither mercy nor pardon. I am about to speak to you about the lovingkindness of our glorious Jehovah, and may some of you be led to read your own condition in those characters which I shall describe to you.

      4. If you will turn to your Bibles, you will find who the people are here spoken about. Look for example at the 22nd verse of the chapter from which our text is taken, and you will see, first, that they were prayerless people: “You have not called upon me, oh Jacob.” {Isaiah 43:22} And are there not some prayerless ones sitting or standing here this morning? Might I not walk along these benches, and point my finger to one and another, and say, “You are not a praying one?” Or might I not reach out my hand to one and another upon this platform, and say, “You have not been with God in secret, and held close communion with him?” These prayerless ones may have repeated many a form of prayer, but the breathing desire, the living words, have not come from their lips. You have lived, sinner, up to this time without sincere prayer, and if an ejaculation has been forced from your lips from a fear that took hold of you; if a cry has gone forth from you when in the sufferings on a sick bed, because the pains of death had gotten hold on you; if it has not been your habit to pray, the impressions of that trying period have been soon forgotten. Is prayer your constant practice, my hearers? How many of you now before me, indeed, and behind me too, must confess that you have not prayed, that it is not your habit to hold communion with God. Prayerless souls are Christless souls; for you can have no real fellowship with Christ, no communion with the Father, unless you approach his mercy seat, and be often there; and yet if you are condemning yourselves, and lamenting that this has been your condition, you need not despair, for this mercy is for you: “You have not called upon me, oh Jacob”; yet, “I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake.”

      5. Next, these people were despisers of religion, for observe the language of the same verse: — “You have been weary of me, oh Israel.” {Isaiah 43:22} And may I not say to some here — you despise religion, you hate God; you are weary of him, and do not love his services. As for the Sunday, do not too many of you find it the most tiresome day in the week, and do you not, in fact, look over your ledger on the Sunday afternoon? If you were compelled to attend a place of worship twice on the Sunday, would you not think it the greatest and most terrible hardship that could be inflicted upon you? You have to find some worldly amusement to make the hours of the Sunday pass away with any comfort at all. So far from wishing that “congregations might never break up” and the Sunday last for eternity, is it not to some of you the most tedious day of the week? You feel it to be a weariness, and are glad when it is over. You do not understand the sentiment expressed by the poet:

      Sweet is the work, my God, my King,

      To praise your name, give thanks and sing.

      You know nothing of the pain of banishment from the courts of Zion, where the sacred tribes repair; and when there you do not hold communion with God, rejoicing that the hallowed place has become a Bethel — the house of God — the very gate of heaven. You can never say —