1953. A Testimony To Free And Sovereign Grace

No. 1953-33:157. A Sermon Delivered On A Thursday Evening, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. {Ps 37:39}

1. Salvation is a blessing unique to the righteous. The ungodly do not, as a rule, believe that they have any need of salvation: therefore they do not desire it, or seek after it. The righteous know that they are born in a fallen state; they acknowledge that they have destroyed themselves by personal sin; and they are conscious of a thousand dangers which surround them. Hence they need salvation, and seek it, and find it. It is for them that salvation has come to make them righteous, for until they are saved they are unrighteous, even as others; but now that salvation has come to their house, they produce the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God their Saviour.

2. This may be used as a description of the believer’s life: he lives a life of salvation. He is saved in Christ, who is his life, in whom he has forgiveness of sins, and every other covenant blessing. He is always being delivered, or saved; and from the moment in which he begins as a believer until that last moment on earth when he shall be about to depart out of the world to the Father, his whole life is encompassed within the divine circle of salvation. God is working salvation for him, and salvation in him, and salvation by him, and is giving him to receive the fulness of salvation which he shall for ever enjoy in the world to come.

   Salvation is for ever nigh
   The souls that fear and trust the Lord;
   And grace, descending from on high,
   Fresh hopes of glory shall afford.

3. Beloved friends, we rejoice in that very royal word “salvation.” We would let its echo fly over the whole world. To us it is a word of great meaning. It does not only signify salvation from the punishment of sin, though it includes that blessing, and we are glad that it does so; but it means complete and immediate salvation from the love of sin, conscious salvation from the power of sin, growing salvation from the propensity to sin, and ultimate salvation from all tendency to sin. When we have gained full salvation, we shall never, never sin again, but shall find ourselves before the throne of God as pure as that throne, made perfect by the work of the Holy Spirit, who will have sanctified us wholly, spirit, soul, and body. Men of the world think, when we talk about salvation, that we mean escaping from hell: this is all they would fear, and so it strikes them as the great matter: but we are not of their mind. Being delivered from the pains and penalties of evil is certainly a great blessing, but it is by no means the greatest: it follows in the train of a grander blessing, even as the blaze of the comet follows the central light. The righteous dread sin more than hell, and wrong is more terrible to them than any punishment which awaits it. The joy of salvation for us is that we are delivered from this present evil world, delivered from the lusts of the flesh, delivered from the old death of natural corruption, delivered from the power of Satan, and from the dominion of evil. Our salvation will not be full until we are totally and finally delivered from every trace of sin, and are “without fault before the throne of God.” Sanctification completed is our salvation perfected: purity without spot will be our Paradise Regained.

4. “The salvation of the righteous” in the broadest sense of the word “is from the Lord”; and the more breadth of meaning we give to it, the more completely we shall see that it must be divine. At the same time, our life is made up of a series of salvations, and each of these is from the Lord. We are constantly being saved, saved from this and that form of danger and evil. As each daily trouble threatens to engulf us, we are saved from it. As each temptation, like a dragon, threatens to swallow us up, we are saved from it. Our God is the God of salvations, and to him belong the issues from death. We escape from deaths often, yes, and from the very belly of hell; and still we live to sing, as Jonah sang when he was in the depths of the sea, “Salvation is from the Lord.”

5. I have said that this glorious salvation, which is from the Lord, is the unique inheritance of believers. Only they know their need of it, and only they participate in it. Look at the ungodly man who is pictured in this psalm. He does not want salvation. He flourishes like the green bay tree: he spreads his branches to overshadow everyone else. Such men need no salvation. “Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish for.” They want no salvation: their lands are abundant, their house is full of treasure, and they leave the rest of their substance to their babes. They put no trust in the name of the Lord: “They call their lands after their own names.” They want no God: they have no sighs after him, they never cry, “Just as the hart pants after the water-brooks, so my soul pants after you, oh God!” They have no trials in their lives, and “there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.” The rod of God’s children does not fall upon them, “Whom the Lord loves he chastens”; but often those whom he does not love he leaves to indulge in such pleasure as they can find. He gives his swine good measure of husks, for he would not be unkind even to them; and there they lie and feed without fear, knowing nothing of another world, neither caring for it.

   Fools never raise their thoughts so high;
      Like brutes they live, like brutes they die;
   Like grass they flourish, till thy breath
      Blasts them in everlasting death.

See the distinction between the righteous man who fears God, and him who does not fear him: were it not for this word “salvation,” their ease and prosperity might make us envy the ungodly; but this tips the scale. Because “the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord,” we would take the worst portion that ever was meted out to them in preference to the best that was ever given to the ungodly. Taking all for all, God’s worst is better than the devil’s best, and the portion of God’s saints at the lowest ebb is better than the portion of the wicked, even when their joys are at the flood-tide.

6. I am going to speak at this time upon our text as a statement by itself. It is complete and self-contained. It is a diamond of the first water. Its words are few, but its sense is precious. “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”

7. I. Our first point is this: THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF SOUND DOCTRINE. “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”

8. There are several young men here who go out to preach the gospel. I hope that they will speak with clear knowledge and attractive speech; but this is far from being the main object of my desire: I really want them to preach the gospel, the whole gospel, and nothing but the gospel. I think preaching to be gospel preaching, and sound preaching, in proportion as it is consistent with this statement: “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.” It is not every preacher who proclaims this truth in bold terms, and in plain English. More or less I hope that all who preach Christ crucified would subscribe to this; but some are a little afraid of it in all its breadth and length. They must bring in man a little. They must have him do something, or be something. They are always afraid lest grace should be misunderstood, and should be turned into licentiousness; and, truly, I share in their fear, though I would not use their way of preventing the evil which I dread. I have known some of these timorous ones try to say “Free grace”; but they have had a little impediment in their speech, and the word has come out “free will.” They have meant that it should be all of grace, but by some means or other there has been so much hesitancy, and such a great deal of evasion, that one could hardly distinguish grace from works. There will be no hesitancy on my part when I say that “the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord”; neither will you find me guarding the statement as if I thought it a lump of spiritual dynamite which might do infinite damage.

9. “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord” in the planning. Long before we were in existence, God had planned the way of salvation. Before the fall, he had ordained the covenant by which the fallen should be restored; and that plan shows, in every line of it, that consummate wisdom and infinite love which can be found nowhere but in the Lord. He took counsel with no one, and no one instructed him: he alone fixed the eternal settlements of unchanging love.

10. “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord” as for the people who are included in it, for God has chosen from the beginning his people, and “whom he foreknew he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son.” There is a choice somewhere, and I am persuaded we have not chosen him, but he has chosen us. Did not the Lord Jesus say as much? He is first and foremost in salvation, and though we gladly run when he calls, yet his call comes first, and his choice comes before the call. The salvation of the righteous was determined in the council chambers of eternity even before the stars began to shine. It is from God, and from God only.

11. And just as it is from the Lord in the planning, so it is from the Lord in the providing. It was he who gave his Son from his bosom, and truly our Lord Jesus Christ is the full purchase price of our salvation. We do not add a penny to it. The mortgage upon lost humanity was paid off by Christ to the last farthing, without any contribution on our part to eke out the matchless price.

12. The Spirit of God, who is another great item in the provision of salvation, is from the Lord. God has given us the Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes, not according to our mind or will, but according to the gift and purpose of the Lord. Nothing is lacking for the salvation of men. God has provided everything. He has not left the garment almost long enough, but needing that we should add a fringe; nor has he provided a feast almost sufficient for us if we bring at least another loaf; nor has he built a house of mercy, almost completed, but leaving us to add a few more tiles to the roof. No, no! The work is finished, and from top to bottom salvation is from the Lord. All covenant provisions are already in the Lord Jesus in full, and the salvation of the righteous is entirely from the Lord in the providing.

13. So, dear friends, it is from the Lord in the applying. The first application of the blessings of the covenant to us is from God. Of course, that first application is in regeneration, when the soul first begins to live. The first sense of need of mercy springs, not from nature, but is a work of grace. The first desire we have to be right, the first prayer we breathe towards God — all this is the movement of eternal grace upon our souls, which otherwise would have lain as dead as the corpses in their graves. The Lord first deals with us before we have any inclination whatever to deal with him. We do not see this truth at first. Possibly we discover it months after our conversion, when we come to sit down, and look over our experience. Then we cry, “Yes! Had you not sought me, I would never have sought you. Had you not drawn me, I would never have run to you. Had you never looked on me in love, I would never have looked to you in faith. It is your free grace which began with me. I acknowledge that the Alpha of my salvation is from the Lord.” The knowledge of this truth usually comes to us as we advance in knowledge: the full understanding of it is a fruit of the Spirit, and belongs to our more mature years rather than to our spiritual infancy.

14. Just as salvation is from the Lord at the beginning, so it is as for the carrying of it on. Rest assured, beloved, there is no true growth in grace except what is from the Lord. Indeed, there is no sustaining the position to which you have reached except by the Lord.

   And every virtue we possess,
      And every victory won,
   And every thought of holiness,
      Are his, and his alone.

He has accomplished all our works in us, and if we have produced any fruit to the honour of his name, our fruit has come from him, for our Lord truly said, “Without me you can do nothing.” We must give him all the glory, for certainly he has given us all the grace; and as it has been, so it will be. Between here and heaven there will be nothing of our own in the matter. We shall work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, because he first works it in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure. There is no working out our salvation unless the Lord works it in. We bring to the surface of our life what he works in the deep foundation of our inward nature; but both within and without the spiritual life is all of grace. When we put our foot upon the threshold of glory, and pass through the gate of pearl to the golden pavement of the heavenly city, the last step will be as much taken through the grace of God as was the first step when we turned to our great Father in our rags and misery. Left by the grace of God for a single moment, we would perish. We are dependent as much upon grace for spiritual life as we are upon the air we breathe for this natural life. Take the atmosphere from us; put us under a vacuum jar, and we die: take your grace from us, oh our God, and we perish at once! What else could happen to us?

15. Brethren, we must always believe this and preach it, for it is the sum of all true doctrine. If you do not make salvation to be entirely from the Lord, depend on it you will have to clip salvation down, and make it a small matter. I have always desired to preach a great salvation, and I do not think that any other is worth preaching. If salvation is from man, then you do not wonder that man falls from grace. Of course he does. What man begins, man also soon ends in his own way with a failure. When God saves he saves eternally. Someone said to me the other day, “I do not quite know about that doctrine of final perseverance whether it is true or not.” So I said to him, “What kind of life does Jesus Christ give his sheep?” He answered very correctly — “He has said, ‘I give to my sheep eternal life.’ ” Very well, does that not settle it? If he has given them eternal life, they have eternal life. “But,” he said, “might they not die?” I answered, “Is it not clear that those who die do not have eternal life? If they had eternal life, how could they die? Does eternal life mean six months of life?” “No.” “Does it only mean six hundred years of life?” “No. It must mean nothing less than life which has no end.” Death is out of the question. I must live if I am one of those of whom the Great Shepherd says, “I give to my sheep eternal life.” But what is next? If you cannot quite see the truth from that one expression, what follows? Will the sheep of Christ ever perish? Here is his answer. “They shall never perish.” Does that not secure them? What language could better describe their security? But another question is raised: — May it not mean that, if they get away from the Lord Jesus, they shall perish? Then comes the next sentence — “Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand.” Does that not answer it? Oh, but perhaps the Saviour might fail! We do not think so: but listen again: “My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

16. There are four great reasons why believers are and must be saved; neither can anything shake the force of any one of them. If words mean anything, those who are in Christ are safe. The Lord God Almighty has given to them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of Christ’s hand, and over that first hand of Jesus is the Father’s hand to make assurance doubly sure.

17. Salvation, then, is from the Lord. This is a doctrine to be believed. If you do not believe it, you are sure to minimize and make little of the salvation, and you are especially likely to deprive it of its certainty, and immutability. It is a pity that you should attempt this, for by this you rob Christ of his power, God of his glory, and the saints of their comfort. That is the awkward point about a salvation which is from man: it is worth nothing when you get it. We want an eternal salvation. We want a salvation which does really save. We want something which is not made up of “ifs and ands,” and “buts,” and “perhapes,” and “may be,” and “if you do this,” and “if you do that.” We need sure, immutable, enduring, unchanging salvation; and this is what we get, and what we are not ashamed to preach, while we thunder out this truth, “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”

   “All of grace” — from base to summit,
      Grace on every course and stone;
   Grace in planning, rearing, crowning,
      Sovereign grace, and grace alone!

18. II. Secondly, this is not only the essence of sound doctrine, but THIS IS A NECESSARY FACT. “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”

19. Assuredly it must be so, or else they will never be saved. Look for a moment, you who love the Lord, to your own inward conflicts. Beloved, we are not all alike, tossed to and fro with the uprising of inbred sin; but there are times with most of God’s saints when they are hard put to it to withstand a certain raging temptation: they have to struggle hard to keep it down. And when they have mastered that evil, another form of sin comes on the sly, and attempts to stab them in the back. You were giving all your attention to one insidious foe, and at that terrible moment you were attacked by another; and you had to turn around, and bend all your strength in the name of God to resist this second adversary. Nor was this all, a third evil bent its bow against you, and a fourth prepared a net for your feet. So you were beset behind and before; and had it not been the Lord who was on your side, you would have been quickly swallowed up. Some of us know the truth of this in our experience if the rest of you do not.

20. Salvation must be from the Lord with me, I know, or else my inward lusts, my proud spirit, my rebellious will, and my natural despondency will surely ruin me. Do you not feel it to be so with you? If God does not save you, you are a lost man. You must feel that. I know that those who have no conflicts sing another song, and praise themselves. Your carpet knights, {a} who wear the regimentals of Christianity, but know nothing of battle with inbred sin, may talk about salvation by self, but he who is hard put to it to wrestle against all wrong-doing will tell another tale. He who grieves if he even utters a rash word, or allows an impure thought to cross his mind, feels that if God does not save him, he never can be saved; and he sees it to be a necessary fact that the salvation of the righteous must be from the Lord.

21. When you have looked within for a sufficient time to convince you, just look at your outward temptations. Ah! how little we know what many of our brothers and sisters have to endure in the form of temptation in their own houses from their own friends. Many have a very hard fight of it. I know some now present who will I believe persevere and hold on to the end, but almost every day they endure a martyrdom. Cruel words are spoken, and unkind actions are done, and a bitter spirit is shown towards them because they are the people of God. Salvation must be from the Lord for these poor persecuted ones, or they will faint under their oppressions. Outside in the world, what temptations abound! You cannot engage in any business without finding that it has its particular sins. Many things are done in the trade — many matters established by custom — which the scrupulously upright child of God cannot tolerate. He has to set his face against the general habit, and hence he has a battle. Need I go into particulars? Why, brethren, we are surrounded with snares! They are on the table: you may readily sin there. They are in your secret room: you are tempted there. They are in the office, and on the study table. You cannot sit down to read a book without being in danger; you cannot go among the crowd without risk. Depend on it, if any man is saved in the midst of this wicked and ungodly generation, in which the very air smells of corruption, and the common talk is polluting — his salvation will be obviously from the Lord. If any believer remains steadfast in this day of philosophical doubt, truly, I say to you, his salvation must be from the Lord. He cannot go through this Vanity Fair, he cannot pass through this horrible slough, this Stygian {b} bog of modern society, and be pure in heart, and lip, and life, unless God shall grant him his salvation.

22. Besides that, our salvation will certainly be from the Lord, because the world hates us. It cannot help it. If you are a genuine Christian, the world will not love you. There may be natural traits of kindness and goodness about you, which even the outside world may respect; but in proportion as you are definitely and thoroughly a Christian you will have the dogs at you. Worldlings will never see a little flaw in your character that they will not report it, and magnify it. Some of us cannot do anything without being misrepresented, so that we have become careless of what people say about us, as long as we know in our own conscience that we are clear. The act which we have done with the most transparent sincerity has been the very one which they have set upon as though it were a piece of trickery. Blessed be God, the world is crucified to us, and we are crucified to the world! But if we are to escape its venom — especially those who stand in the forefront of the battle — if we are to hold on to the end with a stainless character, then we shall have to say and sing, “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”

23. We know, dear friends, that it must be so. It is a necessary fact, even if we only look at the contrary view. What professions some make, and how long they keep them up! We have said of such and such a man, “If he is not a child of God, who is?” We have even wished that our soul were in his soul’s place when we have heard him pray, and noted the impressive devotion of his demeanour; and yet we have lived to see the very person we admired rolling in filth, character gone, and hope gone. Sadly this happens in the church all too often. Whenever we see it, we may truly feel that “the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.” If ever you see a Christian man, professedly so, suddenly disappear and melt away, you will say to yourself, “Ah! had it not been for divine grace it would have happened just the same to me, and my fellow professors also.” We should have gone out, like the snuff of a candle, if God had not preserved us, and kept us alight. The older we grow in the divine life, and the more earnestly we seek to exhibit the character of a Christian, the more we shall feel that, if we had to go to this warfare at our own expense, it would be better for us that we had never been born. The life of many modern professors might be lived without supernatural help, but the life of a genuine Christian is a perpetual miracle, which could be performed by no one except the Lord God. True Christian life is produced by God himself working mightily, even as when he made the world, or raised his only-begotten Son from the dead. I say that this is a necessary fact, for there can be no salvation except what is from the Lord.

24. III. In the third place, our text being true, that “the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord,” THIS IS A SWEET CONSOLATION; for if my salvation is from the Lord, then I shall be saved.

25. If it had been from anyone else, I should be lost. Ah, Gabriel! if my salvation had to be accomplished by you, and all your fellow angels, I should despair. Ah, my brethren! if all of you put together were sent into this world to try and help poor me to heaven, you would never get me there. I should wear you all out. When it is written, “Salvation is from the Lord,” I am comforted, for I am sure that the Lord will do it. He can, for he is omnipotent. He will, for he has promised to do it, and he is true and unchangeable. He will go through with what he has begun. If man began, he might stop before he had finished, for lack of resources to go on with it, or because he had made a mistake, and changed his fickle mind; but when God begins, as surely as ever he opens the war, he will push on until he has won the victory. As surely as he lays the first stone, he will not withdraw his right hand until he has brought out the top-stone, with shoutings of “Grace, grace to it!” “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord”: therefore it will be accomplished. Not all the temptations of life, nor all the terrors of death, nor all the furies of hell, shall prevent any soul upon whom God has begun his work of grace from reaching eternal salvation. What a blessing is this, and what a comfort it is!

   Things future, nor things that are now
   Not all things below nor above,
   Can make him his purpose forego,
   Or sever my soul from his love.

26. This grand fact comforts us partly by leading us to believe in prayer. If the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord, then, whenever we get into any great trouble, we go to him, and cry, “Oh Lord, my salvation is from you! I have come to you for it.” When strong temptation seems to catch us, like birds in a net, and we cannot break loose, then we cry, “Oh God, salvation is from you alone! Help me. You can. I look to you for it!” When our soul lies dead, as it sometimes does, like this heavy weather — when there is little sun to brighten us, or air to enliven us, we feel inactive, and cannot stir. Oh, then it is most blessed in prayer to feel “all my fresh springs are in you, my Lord! You can quicken me. You can give me vigour, and force of character, and energy to do your work, or accept your will!” In drawing near to God we are coming to the right place: we are only asking God to do what he undertakes to do, since “the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”

27. This, in addition to increasing our hope in prayer, urges us at all times to look beyond ourselves to God. “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord”; then I must not always be searching within my own heart to find some good thing within me; I must not be turning over evidences, and living on past experiences; but I must remember that the salvation even of the righteous is from the Lord. I have often thrown all my evidences overboard — every one of them. I have felt that I would not give a farthing for the whole lot put together; and I have gone to Christ Jesus just as I went at first, singing my old ditty —

   I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
   But Jesus Christ is my all in all.

We are encouraged to do this by the fact that salvation is from the Lord. Go again to the cross, and read your pardon there. Suppose the devil tells you, or suppose it even to be true, that all your experience is a fiction, all your past profession a lie, all your faith presumption, all your enjoyments delirium, all that you have known and felt a day-dream; well, then, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and he can save you. Oh my Lord, I can boast nothing whatever of myself, but I come and cast myself on you, and you have said, “He who comes to me I will in no wise cast out!” Frequent beginnings again are the very safest things; in fact, we should, in a sense, be always beginning, for the spiritual life begins with coming to Jesus, and the continuance of that spiritual life is described like this: “To whom coming as to a living stone.” To whom coming, always coming: always trusting, always looking out of self, always looking to Christ. When evidences are bright, you know where you are; but at such a time you could tell that without them. It is easy to tell the time of day by a sundial, but then the sun must be shining; and when I am at home, and can see the sun, I know whereabouts the sun is at twelve o’clock, and therefore I do not need the sundial to tell me the time. Evidences are extremely good things when you do not need them, and they are of very little use when you do. Evidences are clear when Christ is present, but when Christ is present you do not need their help; and when Christ is not present, evidences fail to comfort you. It is better to live by a daily faith on Christ than to live on evidences. They most readily turn mouldy, and then they are most unwholesome food. Live on Christ, who is the daily manna, and you will live well. You will be driven to such a life by the force of this blessed truth, that the salvation of the righteous, just as much as the salvation of the wicked, is from the Lord. A sinner cannot be saved by himself, neither can a righteous man. A sinner must look to the Lord for salvation; so must a righteous man. We are on one footing here — the rich saint as well as the poor sinner. Christ must be everything to one as well as to the other; and what a blessed thing it is that he is everything to us! Let us hourly make him so.

28. IV. Fourthly, and very briefly, THIS DOCTRINE IS A REASON FOR HUMILITY. “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”

29. Are you saved, my dear brother? And do you know it? Then all idea of pride must vanish, for it is clear that you did not save yourself. That regeneration, of which you are a partaker, is the free gift of God to an undeserving one — a work of grace upon one who could not have performed it upon himself. Pride is excluded. Has the Lord granted you such a salvation that you have remained firm in your integrity all these years? Do not get proud of it, for your salvation from any gross outward sin has been from the Lord. It is none of your doing. Above all, do not begin to censure others; and when you see a poor brother down — indeed, when you see a child of God who has erred, and grossly sinned, do not begin censuring him in bitterness, and giving him over to despair. If you had been in his case, you might have done worse. Do I speak harshly? Any man who says, “If I had been in that brother’s place I should have done better,” is a fool. He does not know himself. The probabilities are that he would have done worse. Ah, Sir Pharisee! you — yes, oh yes, you are a wonder! Marvellous is your purity! Splendidly you act! What a paragon of virtue you are! If you were to see yourself in God’s light, you would see that you are a mass of corruption, reeking of pride. That is what you are. The man who begins to exalt over his fallen brother is the likeliest man to fall himself. He who points at a rip in his brother’s garment is in rags himself. If we have stood firm amid temptation, we may bless God that we have done so; but we must not find fault with others as though there was some good thing in ourselves. The salvation of the most righteous man who ever lived is from the Lord. If his sun has not been eclipsed — if his moon has not been turned into darkness — if his stars have not fallen like withered leaves from the tree, it is all owing to the grace of God, and the grace of God alone. It is necessary to say this to keep us from being lifted up with foolish boasting.

30. So, dear friends, we shall have to sing to a sober, sweet melody as long as we are here, whenever we touch a matter that concerns ourselves. When we get to heaven, we shall see then much more than we do tonight that salvation is from the Lord. Mr. Bunyan represents his pilgrim as going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and even while he was in the darkness and horror of that defile he knew that he needed the Lord to help him. He felt that he had a terrible walk of it that night, when there was a bog on this side, and a quagmire on that, and hobgoblins and all kinds of horrible creatures all around: he knew that he needed divine aid. He held on his way, with his sword in his hand, and grasping the weapon of All-Prayer, until at last he left that horrible place; and then he knew better than before how great was his necessity. He looked back when the morning rose, and until then he had not fully known what a place he had been traversing, and how great was the power which upheld him in his night march. When we get to heaven, and look back upon our life below, we shall then see the wonders of delivering grace which at this time we do not fully appreciate.

   When I stand before the throne
   Dress’d in beauty not my own,
   When I see thee as thou art,
   Love thee with unsinning heart,
   Then Lord, shall I fully know —
   Not till then — how much I owe.

31. I believe that in the day of our full deliverance we shall lift up, every one of us, such a song of praise as we are not capable of here. We shall sing with all our powers of heart and tongue at the sight of what we have been delivered from. Even then this will be the sum and substance of the song — “Salvation is from the Lord.” He has accomplished it all, and brought us safely through. The hymn of Miriam, and of all the children of Israel at the Red Sea, when they had passed through it, and all the Egyptians were drowned, was a very exultant song, but what will ours be when the gates of hell shall have been overthrown, and all our enemies destroyed, and we shall find ourselves before the eternal throne saved for ever! Shall we not exclaim, “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously?” Shall we not, each one, relate his own experience, and ask our fellow believers to sing even more and more rapturously to the God of salvation? Will not some of you take up that note which Miriam dwelt upon when she could not see a single Egyptian? Pharaoh’s chariots and horses were all sunk in the sea, his chosen captains also were drowned in the Red Sea; and so she struck her tambourine and with all the maidens she danced very joyfully as she sang, “The depths have covered them. There is not one, not one, not one of them left.” So we will sing in heaven. “There is not one, not one of them left. Not one of all the sins, and all the trials, and all the temptations, and all the vexations of life: the Lord has removed them all. There is not one of them left. Salvation is from the Lord.”

32. V. I close with one more remark, and it is this: this text gives us A COMFORTING BASIS OF HOPE. “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”

33. Since it is so then I believe he will save me. I trust myself with him, and thus I become righteous by faith; and therefore he will save me from my trouble and care. Brother, draw the same conclusion. Sister, draw the same conclusion. You are in a terrible condition just now. Everything has been going wrong. You do not know what to do. But “the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.” He will bring you through. You are in good hands. The Great Pilot knows the navigation of the river of life better than you do. You cannot see a channel for your boat: there are snags everywhere, or quicksands, or rocks, or shallows. He knows all about it. Rest. Trust. Wait. Commit your way to the Lord. There is personal comfort in the fact that our salvation is from the Lord.

34. And there is comfort, next, with regard to all our tried brethren. It is my lot — my happy or unhappy lot — to be continually consulted by brothers and sisters in great trouble. They think I can help them, though I cannot. I hardly know what to say to them. I can only take their burden with my own to the Lord. I often feel great pain in sympathising with trials which I cannot remove; but then it is cheering to know that the Lord can help where we cannot, for “the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.” He can help the helpless, the forlorn, the impoverished, the dying. He will bring his people safely through floods and fires. Their straits are very great, and their burdens are very heavy, but the Lord will put underneath them the everlasting arms. Pray for them; sympathise with them; help them as far as you can; and then, when you cast yourself on your Lord, cast them there also.

35. Next, this ought to give us hope about seekers. I see some brothers and sisters before me whose lives are spent in trying to encourage poor erring souls to return to the Lord. Sometimes you are repulsed and defeated. Well, “the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.” Surely, if the salvation of the righteous is to come from the Lord, how much more must the salvation of poor seekers. Have hope about the vilest and worst of men. If there are any such here tonight, let them have hope, for if the Lord invites the righteous, in whom there is a measure of his grace, to look to him for salvation, assuredly he invites you to do the same, for you have nothing of your own. If those who are righteous before God still find their salvation in him alone, where are you to look? You must look to the Lord also. Look to Jesus on the cross, and find salvation in him; for the Lord Jesus redeemed with his precious blood all who trust in him. Oh my dear hearer, come and cast yourself upon him! “In due time Christ died for the ungodly”: so runs the word. Look to that wondrous death of the Son of God who redeems such as you are, and in your case too it shall be found that your salvation is from the Lord. May God bless you, and cause you to rejoice in his salvation!

[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Ps 37]
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Work of Grace as a Whole — ‘We Will Rejoice In His Salvation’ ” 242}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Work of Grace as a Whole — Sin Subdued By Grace” 238}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 37” 37}

{a} Carpet Knight: A contemptuous term for a knight whose achievements belong to “the carpet” (i.e. the lady’s boudoir, or carpeted chamber) instead of to the field of battle. OED.
{b} Stygian: Pertaining to the river Styx, or, in a wider sense, to the infernal regions of classical mythology. Black as the river Styx; dark or gloomy as the region of the Styx. Infernal, hellish. OED.

The Work of Grace as a Whole
242 — “We Will Rejoice In His Salvation”
1 God of salvation, we adore
   Thy saving love, thy saving power;
   And to our utmost stretch of thought,
   Hail the redemption thou hast wrought.
2 We love the stroke that breaks our chain,
   The sword by which our sins are slain;
   And while abased in dust we bow,
   We sing the grace that lays us low.
3 Perish each thought of human pride,
   Let God alone be magnified;
   His glory let the heavens resound,
   Shouted form earth’s remotest bound.
4 Saints, who his full salvation know,
   Saints who but taste it here below,
   Join with the angelic choir to raise
   Transporting songs of deathless praise.
                  Philip Doddridge, 1755.

The Work of Grace as a Whole
238 — Sin Subdued By Grace
1 Lord, we confess our numerous faults,
   How great our guilt has been!
   Foolish and vain were all our thoughts,
   And all our lives were sin.
2 But, oh my soul! for ever praise,
   For ever love his name,
   Who turns thy feet from dangerous ways
   Of folly, sin, and shame.
3 ‘Tis not by works of righteousness
   Which our own hands have done;
   But we are saved by sovereign grace
   Abounding through his Son.
4 ‘Tis from the mercy of our God
   That all our hopes begin;
   ‘Tis by the water and the blood
   Our souls are wash’d from sin.
5 ‘Tis through the purchase of his death
   Who hung upon the tree.
   The Spirit is sent down to breathe
   On such dry bones as we.
6 Raised from the dead, we live anew;
   And, justified by grace,
   We shall appear in glory too,
   And see our Father’s face.
                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 37 (Song 1)
1 Oh God of love, how blest are they
   Who in thy ways delight!
   Thy presence guides them all the day,
   And cheers them all the night.
2 Whene’er they faint, a mighty arm
   Is nigh them to uphold;
   And sin or Satan cannot harm
   The feeblest of thy fold.
3 The Lord is wise, the Lord is just,
   The Lord is good and true,
   And they who on his promise trust
   Will find it bear them through.
4 His word will stay their sinking hearts;
   Their feet shall never slide:
   The heavens dissolve, the earth departs,
   they safe in God abide.
                  Henry Francis Lyte, 1834.

Psalm 37 (Song 2)
1 Set thou thy trust upon the Lord,
   Do good and know no care,
   For so thou in the land shalt dwell,
   And God thy food prepare.
2 Delight thyself in God, He’ll give
   Thine heart’s desire to thee:
   Commit thy way to God alone,
   It brought to pass shall be.
3 And like unto the light he shall
   Thy righteousness display;
   And he thy judgment shall bring forth,
   Like noontide of the day.
                     Scotch Version, 1641, a.