1733. On Humbling Ourselves Before God

No. 1733-29:421. A Sermon Delivered By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. {1Pe 5:6}

1. Pride is so natural to fallen man that it springs up in his heart like weeds in a watered garden, or bulrushes by a flowing brook. It is an all-pervading sin, and smothers all things like dust in the roads, or flour in the mill. Its every touch is evil as the breath of the cholera fiend, or the blast of the simoom. {a} Pride is as hard to get rid of as weeds from the furrows, or the American blight from the apple trees. If killed it revives, if buried it bursts the tomb. You may hunt down this fox, and think you have destroyed it, and lo! your very exaltation is pride. None have more pride than those who dream that they have none. You may labour against pride until you conceive that you are humble, and the fond conceit of your humility will prove to be pride in full bloom. It apes humility very well, and is then most truly pride. Pride is a sin with a thousand lives; it seems impossible to kill it, it flourishes on what should be its poison, glorying in its shame. It is a sin with a thousand shapes; by perpetual change it escapes capture. It seems impossible to hold it; the vapoury imp slips from you, only to appear in another form and mock your fruitless pursuit. To die to pride and self, one would need to die himself.

2. Pride was man’s first sin, and it will be his last. In the first sin that man ever committed there was certainly a large mixture of pride, for he imagined that he knew better than his Maker, and even dreamed that his Maker feared that man might grow too great. It has been questioned whether pride was not the sin by which the angels fell when they lost their first estate: I will not go into any controversy upon that subject; but there was certainly pride in the sin of Satan and pride in the sin of Adam. Pride is the torch which kindled hell and set the world on fire.

3. Pride is a ringleader and captain among iniquities: it attains to the first three of Satan’s champions. It is a daring and God-defying sin, arraigning divine justice, as Cain did; challenging Jehovah to combat, as Pharaoh did; or making self into God, as Nebuchadnezzar did. It would murder God if it could, so that it might fill his throne. While it is first to come, and first in horrible supremacy, it is also last to go. As Paul said, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” I think I might say that the last enemy but one is pride, for even at our death-bed pride will be found in attendance. In his last moments John Knox had a sharp conflict with self-righteousness though he had preached against it with all his might, and knew, with a clarity seldom given to men, that salvation is by the Lord alone. Even within an hour of glory he had to take a stand against that vile thing, the pride of the human heart. Many others of the Lord’s valiant ones have been severely assailed by the same crafty foe, which shoots with feathered flatteries shafts of destruction. In the most quiet minds the deadly calm of self-conceit may be found. Our hearts are deceitful above all things, and in nothing less to be trusted than in this matter of pride. Even while we breathe out our souls to God it will attempt to puff us up; — yes, it will puff up poor dying worms! Brothers and sisters, for certain, you and I are in danger of pride; possibly we are even now victims of it: let us be on our guard, for it may be ruining us without our knowledge even as the moth in secret eats up the garment, or as unseen rust cankers the hidden treasure.

4. Let pride lodge wherever it may, it does its host great mischief, for it bars out the favour of God, “God resists the proud.” It must be sent adrift before God can visit us with favour, for no grace comes to the proud, “but he gives grace to the humble.” Humility is the grace that attracts more grace. Just as money makes money, so humility increases humility, and with it every other spiritual gift. If you would have much grace have much humility. God has assistance for the humble, but resistance for the proud. You know how he fought Pharaoh. What blows he struck at the haughty monarch! He would get him down from the pinnacle of defiance by one way or another, and make him learn in bitterness the answer to his own insolent question, “Who is the Lord?” Remember how Nebuchadnezzar had to eat grass like an ox because he spoke with a haughty tongue. Wherever God sees pride lifting itself on high, he resolves to level it with the dust. He draws his bow, he fits his arrow to the string, and pride is the target that he shoots at. The more pride enters into the Christian’s heart the less grace will enter there, and the more opposition from God will come there; for pride is never so hateful to God as when he sees it in his own people. If you see disease in a stranger you are very sorry, but if you discover its symptoms in your own child your grief is much more deep. A viper is loathsome anywhere; but how it would startle you if you saw the head of one of those creatures peeping out from the bosom of a beloved friend! So pride is detestable anywhere, but it is the worst in those whom the Lord loves best. If God sees pride in a David he will strike him until he ceases from his high thoughts; or if it is in a Hezekiah he will abase him; and be sure that if the Lord sees pride in you he will strike you; indeed, strike you again and again until you wait humbly at his feet.

5. All this I have given by way of preface, but I think it is also an argument which may run before the words of the text, and strengthen them, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God.”

6. I shall handle the text, not at any great length, but for practical purposes in three or four ways. May the Holy Spirit bless the discourse.

7. I. First, our text is evidently intended to bear upon us IN OUR CHURCH LIFE.

8. We will use it in that respect. Observe that Peter has been speaking to the elders, and telling them how they should behave themselves in the flock over which they are set as overseers. Then he speaks to the younger members, and he says, “Submit yourselves to the elder.” He says to all church members, “All of you be subject to each other, and be clothed with humility”; and it is in the same context that he writes, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God.” I am, as a member of a church, not to seek honour for myself, but I am to walk humbly. I am not to make it in any respect the object of my Christian life to be esteemed among my fellow Christians so as to have influence over them, and to take the lead among them. I am to have far humbler motives than that. I am to think very little of myself, and to think so much of others that I admire all that I see of God’s grace in them, and am glad to learn from them as well as to help them in their progress to heaven. Each one of us should think little of himself and highly of his brethren. I cannot say that all of us as Christians are clothed with humility as we should be. I am afraid that, from the preacher down to the most obscure member, we may, every one of us, listen with awe to the injunction, “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,” and confess that we fall short of this command. Yet I may honestly add that in this church I have seen more submissiveness, and deference to others, and less of ambitious self-esteem than anywhere else in the world. I have spoken nothing less than bare justice when I have said this. Let all the world know that as a pastor I can in this point praise the people of my charge beyond any whom I have ever heard of. I am not apt to judge too favourably; I speak as I have seen, and this is my honest testimony. We owe our union and prosperity under God to the readiness of most of the brethren to do anything and everything for Christ, without considering ourselves.

9. Now, true humility in our church relationship will show itself in our being willing to undertake the very lowest offices for Christ. Some cannot do little things: they must be ordained to great offices, or they will sulk in indolence. Genuine humility makes a man think it a great honour to be a doorkeeper in the house of God, or to be allowed to speak a word to a little child about Jesus, or even to wash the saints’ feet. I am sure, brethren that those who are not willing to fulfil the lesser offices will never be used by Christ to tend the greater duties. Humility is a qualification for greatness. Do you know how to be little? You are learning to be great. Can you submit? You are learning to rule. My symbolic sketch of a perfected Christian would be a king keeping the door, or a prince feeding lambs, or, better still, the Master washing his disciples’ feet.

10. The next point of humility is, that we are conscious of our own incompetence to do anything properly. He who can do all things without Christ will end in doing nothing. The man who can preach without divine aid cannot preach at all. The woman who can teach a Bible class cannot teach a Bible class. Human ability without the grace of God is puffed-up inability. Those of you who, apart from supernatural help feel quite sufficient for any kind of holy service are miserably deluded. Self-sufficiency is inefficiency. The fulness of self is a double emptiness. He who has no sense of his weakness has a weakness in his sense. I believe, brothers and sisters, that any man whom God uses for a great purpose will be so emptied out that he will wonder that God ever uses him in the least degree; and he will be ready to hide his head, and long to get out of public notice, because he will feel himself to be utterly unworthy of the favour which God reveals towards him. I do not believe that God ever fills a cup which was not empty; or that he ever fills a man’s mouth with his word while that man has his mouth full of his own words. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God: if you desire that the Holy Spirit should bless you, be purged from your own spirit. The way to rise into God is to sink in yourself: just as our Lord Jesus descended into the depths, in order that he might rise above all things and fill all things, so we, in our imitation of him, must descend to the uttermost in order that we may rise to the highest.

11. This humility will show itself, next, in this that we shall be willing to be ignored by men. There is a craving in the heart of many to have what they do written upon tablets, and set up in the market-places. I once heard a professing Christian complain bitterly that he had been ignored. He had been a Sunday School teacher for years, and yet he had never been publicly mentioned by anyone. Did he make that a complaint? He might far rather have rejoiced in his tranquillity. The fierce light of public notoriety is not much valued by those upon whom it falls. I wish some people would ignore me — at least, all next week, so much at least as not to call to see me, or write me a letter, or name me in the papers. I would be happy as all the birds in the air to be ignored, if I might be left alone, and allowed peacefully to work for God with his sweet smile to cheer me in my loneliness. Oh, to be a little ant, allowed to labour on at God’s bidding, receiving nothing from men but the high privilege of being left alone! A saintly soul was accustomed to pray, “Grant me, oh Lord, that I may pass unnoticed through the world!” It seems to me to be one of the highest delights of life for people to permit you to work for God without being interrupted by their praises or censures. When I have seen a certain great artist at work, I have peeped at him from a corner, and have kept out of his sunshine: I am quite sure he did not want me to express my valueless opinion about his glorious creations. To have people for ever talking about you, for you, and against you is one of the wearinesses of mortal life; and yet some people sigh for the fuss that others would be glad to be rid of. Yes, so it is. It is only a little thing that certain friends have done, but they would like much made of it: their paultry alms must be proclaimed at the corners of the streets, their prosy speech must be reported in all papers. Oh, brothers, do not let us care about its being known that we have done our part. Let it be done as to God, and in God’s sight; and then, as for what our fellow mortals shall say, let us have scant concern; for, if we live on human praise, we shall grow not only proud, but vain, which, if it is not more wicked, is certainly more silly. Serve God, and do not wish to have a trumpet blown before you. Never cry with Jehu, “Come, see my zeal for the Lord of hosts.” Go on serving God year after year, though you are altogether unknown, feeling it quite sufficient that you have by the grace of God served your generation and honoured your Redeemer. This would be a great attainment in our church life if we could reach it.

12. Brethren, we need humility, all of us, in our church life, in the sense of never being rough, haughty, arrogant, hard, domineering, lordly; or, on the other hand, factious, unruly, quarrelsome, and unreasonable. We should endeavour to think very carefully of those who are poorest, for fear we should hurt their feelings; and very noticeably of those who are obscure, lest we should seem to despise them. It is ours never to take offence, and to be most cautious never to cause it even by inadvertence. He who is appointed as a leader in the church of God, let him be the person who is most ready to bear blame, and least ready to give offence: let him say, “You may think what you please about me, but I shall lay myself out to do you good, and to be your servant for Christ’s sake.” The lower you can stoop the greater is your honour. In the eye of wisdom no piece of furniture in the house of God has greater dignity than the door-mat. If you are willing to let others wipe their feet on you, then Christ Jesus shall take pleasure in you, for you are a partaker of his lowly mind. Even for your own sake it will be wise to occupy a humble place, for in the valleys the streams of peace are flowing. The mountains are the playgrounds of the storm, but in the quiet villages the dove finds her shelter. If you would escape from ill will, and live peaceably with all men practise the maxims of an influential man, who, when asked after the French Revolution how he managed to escape the executioner’s axe, replied, “I made myself of no reputation, and kept silent.”

13. I am speaking to a number of young men who have begun to speak for Jesus Christ in the church: let me earnestly entreat them to take great notice of my text, — “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” Remember, you cannot do any good unless “the mighty hand of God” is with you; therefore be humble, and look to that hand for all success. Feel it to be a wonderful thing that the mighty hand of God should ever use you; therefore lie very low in that hand, and beneath that hand, for thus you may claim the promise that he will exalt you in due time. If you are willing to look after a few poor people in a village, and to do your duty thoroughly well among a lowly company, you shall have a larger sphere before long. If you are satisfied, young brother, to stand in the corner of the street and talk about Jesus Christ to a few rough folk, you shall eventually find hundreds of hearers. If you are willing to be nothing, God will make something of you. The way to the top of the ladder is to begin at the lowest rung. In fact in the church of God, the way up is to go down; but he who is ambitious to be at the top will find himself before long at the bottom. “He who exalts himself shall be abased; but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” Accept, my younger brethren, this word of exhortation.

14. II. And now, secondly, I will use the text in quite another way — in reference to OUR BEHAVIOUR IN OUR AFFLICTIONS. Here let every tried believer listen to the counsel of the Holy Spirit.

15. Certain of us are never long together without affliction and trial, like salamanders, we live in the flame, passing from fire to fire. As by a succession of shafts we descend into the heart of the earth, going down from woe to woe; we need to learn the way of these dark places. Frequently our heavenly Father’s intention in sending trial to his children is to make and keep them humble; let us remember this, and learn a lesson of wisdom. The advice of Peter is that we should humble ourselves. Many people have been often humbled, and yet they have not become humble. There is a great difference between the two things. If God withdraws his grace and allows a Christian man to fall into sin, that fall humbles him in the esteem of all good men; and yet he may not be humble. He may never have a true sense of how evil his action has been; he may still persevere in his lofty spirit, and be far from humility. When this is the case the haughty spirit may expect a downfall. The rod will make blue wounds when pride does not abate from gentler blows. The most hopeful way of avoiding the humbling affliction is to humble yourself. Be humble so that you may not be humbled. Put yourself into a humble attitude, and draw near to God in a lowly spirit, and so he will cease from his chiding.

16. And do this, first, by noticing whether you have been guilty of any special sin of pride. You are suffering: let the rod point out to you where you have erred through pride. I believe that David was afflicted in his children because he had been proud of his children, and had indulged them. When there is a breakage in the house, it is generally the idol that is broken. Usually our sins lie at the roots of our sorrows. If we will repent of the sin, the Lord will remove the sorrow. Have you been tried in your worldly possessions? Were you ever puffed up by them? Is your health failing? Did you never boast in your bodily strength? Are you deceived? Were you never boastful of your own wisdom? Are you mourning over a failure in character? Did you not once dream that you were past temptation? Look into your affliction until you see, as in a mirror, what the thing was you were proud of, and then take the idol down from its pedestal, humble yourself before God, and henceforth worship him alone.

17. In your affliction humble yourself by confessing that you deserve all that you are suffering. Is it poverty? — then, dear child of God, admit that you deserve poverty because of your love for the world. Is it physical pain? Then admit how every erring member deserves to smart. It is a great thing to have wrung out of us the confession that our chastisement is less than our deservings, and that the Lord is not dealing with us after our sins, nor rewarding us according to our iniquities. Is there a bereavement in the house? Then, I urge you, acknowledge that if God were to visit you, as he did Job, and take all your children away at a stroke, yet still you deserve it from his hands. Confess that the chastening hand is not dealing too severely with you. Humble yourself, and then you will not quarrel with your grief.

18. But, more than that, humble yourself so as to submit entirely to God’s will. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you in this act of self-humiliation while you meekly kiss the rod. Bow yourself before the mighty hand of God, ready to receive even harder blows if God so pleases; for when your will entirely yields to the will of God, it is highly probable that either the affliction will be removed, or else its sting will be taken away. Down, brother, down in the dust as low as you can ever get. God is evidently dealing with you as with a son; and a son’s wisdom lies in cheerful submission to parental discipline. When a child is under his father’s chastening hand, it will not help him to kick, and quarrel, and say bad words: his best hope lies in submitting absolutely to his father’s good pleasure. When that is done the chastisement will soon end. Humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God. Yield up your will so as to have no lawsuit against the Lord, no difference concerning his goodness, not even if the evil you dread should actually come, and come in the worst form. Submit to the Lord’s will as the rush bends to the wind, or as the wax yields to the seal. Pray against the calamity which moves you to fear, but let your petition always end with “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Ask that you may not be obliged to drink the bitter draught, but do not upset the cup, nor push it away. Let it stand there while you for the moment supplicate for its removal; and when there comes no answer to your prayer, then take it up meekly, put it to your lips resolutely, and drink right on, even as your Master drank his cup and drained it to the dregs. This needs the help of the Holy Spirit, and truly he waits to help us: he delights to aid us in such holy acts of submission. Nothing is better for us in our time of tribulation than to bow ourselves in lowliest obeisance before the hand of God.

19. Dear friend, what can be the use of striving against the hand of the Lord? It is a mighty hand: we cannot resist it, even if we are wicked enough to attempt rebellion. If affliction is to come it will come, and come with all the greater sharpness because we refuse to yield. If God appoints a trial, we cannot escape it. What can be the use of our striving against divine decrees? It will only make our sorrow all the more severe. When the ox kicks against the goad the iron enters all the deeper into its flesh; but when the young bull hurries on its way, sensitive to the least touch, the driver scarcely urges it again. The tender, sensitive horse scarcely receives a stroke from the whip; he feels it too much: but the mule that will not move is struck again and again for his obstinacy. So it will be with us. We can make rods for ourselves by wilfulness. Oh foolish fingers, which prepare prickles for our own pillows! Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, and eventually, brother, you shall be exalted to consolation and prosperity. Your affliction shall produce the comforting fruits of righteousness. You shall come out of the furnace purified and refined. You shall have more knowledge, more grace, more zeal, more of every excellence, as the result of sanctified trial; but all this must come by obedient resignation. A rebellious heart comes out of affliction worse rather than better. Submit, and you shall be so exalted by your affliction that you shall bless God for it, and feel that you would not have missed the trouble for a million pounds if you could have done so. Heavy tribulation shall bring with it unspeakable preferment. You shall be exalted to a higher degree in the peerage of Christianity by battling with adversities. Therefore, I urge you, humble yourselves under the hand of God.

20. III. Thirdly, I am going to use the text in another way. IN OUR DAILY DEALINGS WITH GOD, whether in affliction or not, let us humble ourselves under his hand, for we can only hope to be exalted in this way.

21. It is a blessed thing whenever you come to God to come wondering that you are allowed to come, wondering that you have been led to come; marvelling at divine election, that the Lord should ever have chosen you to come; wondering at divine redemption, astonished that such a price should have been paid that you might be brought near to God. It is good to draw near to God weighed down with gratitude that ever the Holy Spirit should have condescended to work effectual calling upon you. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of divine grace, which has brought you into the family of love, and constantly say, “Why me, Lord? Why me?” A grateful walk is a gracious walk, and there is no gratitude where there is no humility. Never trace the difference between yourself and others to your own free will, nor to any betterment of your natural disposition, but entirely to the mercy and grace of God, which have been freely bestowed on you. Let grace be magnified by your grateful heart!

22. When you are doing this be very humble before God, because you have not made more improvement of the grace that he has given to you. You are chosen, but you are not as choice as you ought to be; you are redeemed, but you are not so much your Lord’s as you ought to be; you are called, but you are still too deaf to the divine call; you are blessed, enriched instructed, adopted, comforted, with heaven before you and everything prepared on the road there; but what a poor return you have made! Always feel humbled like this in reference to your God and his grace. When you are doing most, and God is using you most, always feel that if you had been fit for it he might have done much more by you — that if you had been fit to be used he might have used you far more extensively. So you will always see a reason for humility even when you discern abounding reason for gratitude. Walk always with God so that when you stand on the highest point you still feel, “I might have been higher but for my own fault. I do not have, because I have not asked, or because I have asked amiss. I have not become as rich as I might have been in spiritual things, because I have not been as diligent in my Lord’s business, or as fervent in spirit, or as abundant in serving God as I ought to have been.”

23. Next, humble yourself, dear brother, under the hand of God by feeling your own lack of knowledge whenever you come to God. Do not think that you understand all divinity. There is only one body of divinity, and that is Christ himself; and who knows him to the full? When even his love, which is the plainest point about him, surpasses knowledge, who shall know Christ in all his fulness? Come before God to be instructed in the knowledge of your God and Saviour. Do not think that you understand providence, for I am sure that none of us do. We sometimes think that we could manage things a great deal better than they are managed. Many farmers would not have appointed that heavy shower for this afternoon, and yet that downpour was essential to the general well-being of the universal kingdom. I cannot tell why, but it was so. Everything that comes by God’s appointment is a cog in the wheel of providence, and if that cog were gone, the machinery would be out of order. The Lord does all things wisely: only a vile pride will suspect otherwise. Consider, oh man that you do not know: only God knows. Little children sometimes think they are wise but they know nothing; wisdom is with their father, not with them. Let us be content to humble ourselves under the hand of God as poor know-nothings, satisfied that he knows what is best for us. This humility is the vestibule of knowledge, the corner-stone of true philosophy. Begin with a confession of ignorance, or you will never be taught by the Lord. It cannot be hard to confess this when the mighty hand of the Lord is seen and felt.

24. One point concerning which I should like everyone of us to humble ourselves under the hand of God is about our little enjoyment of divine things. The elder brother in the parable said, “Lo, I serve you these many years neither transgressed I at any time your commandment: and yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.” So I have known certain sincere Christian men fall into a horribly legal state of mind. They have always been very regular in their living, constant in their religious observances, and persevering in their prayers, and yet they have never had much joy: but they see a poor soul, just saved from sin, full of delight, and they envy him, and cry out, “Why is a fuss made over such a sinner, when I have been all these years a Christian, and my brethren have never made any rejoicing over me? There is no music and dancing over me! You never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.” I do not know how we could make a fuss over some of the elder brothers: they would not bear it, they would be angry, and enquire, in harsh and surly tones, what these things meant. Music and dancing are things too trivial for their stolid souls. They stand outside and grumble, and we cannot warm them into a revival spirit. They are freezing outside the door of our happy home. Must they always stand there? How divinely sweet was the father’s answer to that naughty elder brother! He said to him, “Son, you are always with me and all that I have is yours.” That is to say, “You live in my house. You are with me as my own dear son. Everything I have is yours by inheritance. Your brother had his portion, and he spent it, but all that remains to me is yours.” Hence his short rations had been of his own appointing. If he had not made merry with his friends it was his own fault. Is it not much the same with us if we have been dull and melancholy; I mean those of us who are believers? Are not all things ours? Come, let us humble ourselves under the hand of God, because we have not made merry with our friends. You growling Christians — if you growl it is because you will growl; there is nothing to murmur about. You who never have a happy day, who never have any of the fervours and enthusiasms of young beginners: whose fault is that? It is your own. You might have anything in the Father’s house. You have a right to rare music and dancing, for you are always with God, and all that he has is yours. It is fitting that we should make merry and be glad; and if we are dull at the business of holy merry-making, let us humble ourselves under the hand of God because of our despondencies and doubts. Oh my soul, if your ceilings are painted with black instead of vermilion, blame yourself alone, and not your God.

25. I am sure, dear friends, if any of us will go over our daily lives we shall find plenty of reasons for humbling ourselves under the hand of God. It is really dreadful how a man can serve God nobly and do great things and yet in a certain matter he may fail sadly. A grand old prophet is that Jonah, going through the streets of Nineveh, and bravely delivering the Lord’s warning. Who ever did that? “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown” is the word, which he hurls into the face of princes. Grand man! One, yet a conqueror of myriads! Yes! But look at him a day or two later! Call that a grand man, sitting there crying because the cucumber that grew up over his head is withered! fretting because a worm has devoured a gourd! He is angry, and he says that he does well to be angry about a bower of melon leaves. Dear me, that a man can be so great in noble things and so little in a trifling matter! How many have a similar reason to be humble before God! Observe that good man: he bore the loss of his property with holy resignation, but he lost his temper because a button was gone from his linen. Such a thing has often happened. Do I put it so that you smile about it? It would be better to weep over it. As you think about yourselves, my brethren, remember the reasons that you have to be humble under the hand of God because of the gross weakness by which you have shown the natural depravity of your heart, and the faultiness of your nature apart from the strengthening Spirit of God.

26. Humble yourselves therefore under the hand of God as creatures under the hand of the Creator. We are the clay, and you our potter, oh Lord: it becomes us to be lowly. Humble yourselves under the hand of God as criminals under the hand of their judge. Cry, “Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight: so that you might be justified when you speak, and be innocent when you judge.” Humble yourselves under the hand of God — as chastened children under a father’s rod — for he chastens us for our profit, and very well do we deserve each smarting blow.

27. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, lastly, as servants under their Lord’s word. Ask no questions about your Master’s command, but go and do it; and when he rebukes you for shortcomings do not answer again, but accept the reproof with bowed head and tearful eye, acknowledging that his rebuke is well deserved. Humble yourselves like this, dear brethren, in your daily lives, and God will exalt you in due time.

28. IV. I finish by using my text with all the earnestness my soul can feel in reference to the unconverted part of this audience IN OUR SEEKING FORGIVENESS AS SINNERS. Oh, tender Spirit of God, help me now.

29. The text was not originally meant for the ungodly, but it may properly be applied to them. If you would find grace in God’s sight and live, dear unconverted hearers, you must humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. So you want to be saved, do you? The way of salvation is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” “But,” you say, “I cannot understand it.” Yet it is very simple; no hidden meaning lies in the words: you are simply told to trust Jesus. If, however, you feel as if you could not do that, let me urge you to go to God in secret and admit the sin of this unbelief; for it is a great sin. Humble yourself. Do not try to make out that you are good. That will be fatal, for it will be a falsehood which will shut the gate of grace. Confess that you are guilty. When a man is clearly and obviously guilty, it is of no use his standing before the judge and beginning to urge his own merit: his best course is to throw himself upon the mercy of the court. It is your only course, dear soul, the only one that can avail you. Know that you have transgressed, and feel that it is so. Sit down and think over the many ways in which you have done wrong, or failed to do right. Pray God to break you down with deep penitence. It is no waste of time to dig out foundations when you build a house, and it is no superfluity to labour after a deep sense of sin.

30. When your sin is confessed, then acknowledge that if justice were carried out towards you, apart from undeserved grace, you would be sent to hell. Do not complain about that fact. Do not entertain sceptical questions concerning whether there is a punishment for sin, and concerning what it will be; but admit that whatever it is, you deserve it. Do not fence with God or quarrel with Scripture; but since his word declares that the wicked shall be cast into hell with all the nations who forget God, admit that you deserve to be so dealt with; for you do deserve it. When this is acknowledged you are on the road to mercy. You have almost obtained mercy when you have fully submitted to justice. You have in a measure received grace when you are brought to admit your sin and the justice of its penalty.

31. Then, next, accept God’s mercy in his own way. Do not be so vain as to dictate to God how you ought to be saved. Be willing to be saved by free grace through the blood of Jesus Christ; for that is God’s way. Be willing to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, for that also is God’s way. If your unbelief begins to ask, “How can it be, and why should it be?” cease from such questions. Humble yourself and say, “God says it is so, and therefore it must be so”; if God says, “Believe, and be saved,” I will believe and be saved; and if he says, “Trust Christ, and live,” I will trust Christ and live. If a man had forfeited his life, but should be told by the court that he shall have pardon freely given to him if he will freely accept it — he would be a fool if he began to enquire, “But is this according to law? Is this according to precedent? What may be the effect of this pardon?” and so on. These enquiries are for the court, not for the prisoner. My dear man, you do not want to hang yourself; do you? Yet some men argue against their own souls, and labour to find out reasons why they should not be saved. If this perverse ingenuity could only be taught right reason, and men would strive to find out why they should at once yield themselves to God’s way of salvation, they might enter into comfort and rest much sooner. Oh quibbling sinner, let your artful doubts and reasonings be nailed with Jesus to the tree. Be a little child, and come and believe in the salvation which is revealed in Jesus Christ. Trust Christ to save you, and he will do it, as he has saved so many of us to the praise of the glory of his grace.

32. “Ah,” you say, “I have done this, but I cannot get peace.” Then dear friend, sink lower down! sink lower down! Did I hear you say, “Alas, Sir, I want to get comfort.” Cease from that. Do not ask for comfort; ask for forgiveness, and that blessing may come through your greater discomfort. Sink lower down! Sink lower down! There is a point at which God will surely accept you, and that point is lower down. “Oh,” you say, “I think I have a due sense of sin.” That will not do. I want you to feel that you do not have a due sense of sin, and come to Jesus just like that. “Oh, but I do think that I have been broken-hearted.” I should like to see you lower than that, until you cry, “I am afraid I never knew what it is to be broken-hearted.” I want you to sink so low that you cannot say anything good about yourself; no, nor see an atom of goodness in yourself. When you look inside your heart and can see nothing except what would condemn you; when you look at your life and see everything there that deserves wrath; then you are on the road to hope. Come before God as a criminal, in the prison dress, with the rope around your neck. You will be saved, then. When you confess that you have nothing of your own except sin when you acknowledge that you deserve to die, and to be cast away for ever — God in infinite pity will let you live through faith in Christ Jesus.

33. Many years ago a certain prince visited the Spanish galleys, where a large number of convicts were confined, chained to their oars to toil on without relief; — I think nearly all of them condemned to a life sentence. Being a great prince, the King of Spain told him that he might in honour of his visit set free anyone of the galley-slaves he chose. He went down among them to choose his man. He said to one, “Man, how did you come here?” He replied that false witnesses swore away his character. “Ah!” said the prince and passed on. He went to the next, who stated that he had done something that was wrong, certainly, but not very much, and that he never ought to have been condemned. “Ah!” said the prince, and again passed on. He went the round, and found that they were all good fellows — all convicted by mistake. At last he came to one who said, “You ask me why I came here. I am ashamed to say that I richly deserve it. I am guilty, I cannot for a moment say that I am not: and if I die at this oar, I thoroughly deserve the punishment. In fact, I think it is a mercy that my life is spared me.” The prince stopped and said, “It is a pity that such a bad fellow as you should be placed among such a number of innocent people. I will set you free.” You smile at that; but let me make you smile again. My Lord Jesus Christ has come here at this time to set someone free. He has come here at this time to pardon someone’s sins. You who have no sins shall have no pardon. You good people shall die in your sins. But, oh guilty ones, who humble yourselves under the hand of God, my Master thinks that it is a pity that you should be among these self-righteous people. So come right away, and trust your Saviour, and obtain eternal life through his precious blood and to him shall be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — 1Pe 4]
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Contrite Cries — ‘Let Us Return’ ” 605}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Humility — A Prayer For Humility” 704}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Gospel, Received by Faith — ‘The Lord Hath Laid On Him The Iniquity Of Us All’ ” 564}

{a} Simoom: A hot, dry, suffocating sand-wind which sweeps across the African and Asiatic deserts at intervals during the spring and summer. OED.

The Christian, Contrite Cries
605 — “Let Us Return”
1 Come, let us to the Lord our God
      With contrite hearts return;
   Our God is gracious, nor will leave
      The desolate to mourn.
2 His voice commands the tempest forth,
      And stills the stormy wave;
   And though his arm be strong to smite,
      ‘Tis also strong to save.
3 Long hath the night of sorrow reign’d;
      The dawn shall bring us light;
   God shall appear, and we shall rise
      With gladness in his sight.
4 Our hearts, if God we seek to know,
      Shall know him and rejoice;
   His coming like the morn shall be,
      Like morning songs his voice.
5 As dew upon the tender herb,
      Diffusing fragrance round;
   As showers that usher in the spring,
      And cheer the thirsty ground.
6 So shall his presence bless our souls,
      And shed a joyful light;
   That hallow’d morn shall chase away
      The sorrows of the night.
                     John Morrison, 1781.

The Christian, Humility
704 — A Prayer For Humility <7s.>
1 Lord, if thou thy grace impart,
   Poor in spirit, meek in heart,
   I shall as my Master be,
   Rooted in humility.
2 Simple, teachable, and mild,
   Awed into a little child;
   Pleased with all the Lord provides,
   Wean’d from all the world besides.
3 Father, fix my soul on thee;
   Every evil let me flee;
   Nothing want, beneath, above,
   Happy only in thy love!
4 Oh that all might seek and find
   Every good in Jesus join’d!
   Him let Israel still adore,
   Trust him, praise him evermore!
                  Charles Wesley, 1741, a.

Gospel, Received by Faith
564 — “The Lord Hath Laid On Him The Iniquity Of Us All”
1 Charged with the complicated load
      Of our enormous debt,
   By faith, I see the Lamb of God
      Expire beneath its weight!
2 My numerous sins transferr’d to him,
      Shall never more be found,
   Lost in his blood’s atoning stream
      Where every crime is drown’d!
3 My mighty sins to thee are known;
      But mightier still is he
   Who laid his life a ransom down,
      And pleads his death for me.
4 Oh may my life, while here below,
      Bear witness to thy love:
   Till I before thy footstool bow,
      And chant thy praise above!
                  CHarles Wesley, 1762;
                  Augustus M. Toplady, 1776.