New Park Street Pulpit · Sermon No. 115
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, February 1, 1857.
“Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake.”—Psalm 106:8.
IN LOOKING upon the works of God in creation, there are two questions which at once occur to the thoughtful mind, and which must be answered before we can procure a clue to the philosophy and science of creation itself. The first one is the question of authorship: Who made all these things? And the next question is that of design: For what purpose were all these things created? The first question, “Who made all these things?” is one which is easily answered by a man who has a honest conscience and a sane mind, for when he lifts eyes up yonder to read the stars, he will see those stars spell out in golden letters this word—God; and when he looks below upon the waves, if his ears are honestly opened, he will hear each wave proclaiming, God. If he looks to the summits of the mountains, they will not speak, but with a dignified answer of silence they seem to say,
“The hand that made us is Divine.”
If we listen to the rippling of the freshet at the mountain side, to the tumbling of the avalanche, to the lowing of the cattle, to the singing of the birds, to every voice and sound of nature, we shall hear this answer to the question, “God is our maker; he hath made us, and not we ourselves.”
The next question, as to design—Why were these things made?—is not so easy to answer, apart from Scripture; but when we look at Scripture we discover this fact—that as the answer to the first question is God, so the answer to the second question is the same. Why were these things made? The answer is, for God’s glory, for his honor, and for his pleasure. No other answer can be consistent with reason. Whatever other replies men may propound, no other can be really sound. If they will for one moment consider that there was a time when God had no creatures—when he dwelt alone, the mighty maker of ages, glorious in an uncreated solitude, divine in his eternal loneliness—“I am and there is none beside me”—can any one answer this question—Why did God make creatures to exist?—in any other way than by answering it thus: “He made them for his own pleasure and for his own glory.” You may say he made them for his creatures; but we answer, there were then no creatures to make them for. We admit that the answer may be a sound one now. God makes the harvest for his creatures; he hangs the sun in the firmament to bless his creatures with light and sunshine; he bids the moon walk I her course by night, to cheer the darkness of his creatures upon earth. But the first answer, going back to the origin of all things, can be nothing else than this: “For his pleasure they are and were created.” “He made all things for himself and by himself.”
Now, this which holds good in the works of creation, holds equally good in the works of salvation. Lift up your eyes on high; higher than those stars which glimmer on the floor of heaven; look up, where spirits in white, clearer than light, shine like stars in their magnificence; look there, where the redeemed with their choral symphonies “circle the throne of God rejoicing,” and put this question: “Who saved those glorified beings, and for what purpose were they saved.” We tell you that the same answer must be given as we have previously given to the former question—“He saved them—he saved them for his name’s sake.” The text is an answer to the two great questions concerning salvation: Who saved men, and why are they saved? “He saved them for his name’s sake.”
Into this subject I shall endeavour to look this morning. May God make it profitable to each of us, and may we be found among the number who shall be saved “for his name’s sake.” Treating the text verbally—and that is the way most will understand—here are four things. First, a glorious Saviour—“He saved them;” secondly, a favored people—“He saved them;” thirdly a divine reason why he saved them—“for his names sake;” and fourthly, an obstruction conquered, in the word “nevertheless,” implying that there was some difficulty that was removed. “Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake.” A Saviour; the saved; the reason; the obstruction removed.
I. First, then, here is A GLORIOUS SAVIOUR—“He saved them.” Who is to be understood by that pronoun “he?” Possibly man of my hearers may answer, “Why, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour of men.” Right, my friends; but not all the truth. Jesus Christ is the Saviour; but not more so than God the Father, or God the Holy Ghost. Some persons who are ignorant of the system of divine truth think of God the Father as being a great Being full of wrath, and anger, and justice, but having no love, they think of God the Spirit perhaps as a mere influence proceeding from the Father and the Son. Now, nothing can be more incorrect than such opinions. It is true the Son redeems me, but then the Father gave the Son to die for me, and the Father chose me in the everlasting election of his grace. The Father blots out my sin; the Father accepts me and adopts me into his family through Christ. The Son could not save without the Father any more than the Father without the Son; and as for the Holy Spirit, if the Son redeems, know ye not that the Holy Ghost regenerates? It is he that makes us new creatures in Christ, who begets us again unto a lively hope, who purifies our soul, who sanctifies our spirit, and who, at last, presents us spotless and faultless before the throne of the Most High, accepted in the beloved. When thou sayest, “Saviour,” remember there is a Trinity in that word—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, this Saviour being three persons under one name. Thou canst not be saved by the Son without the Father, nor by the Father without the Son, nor by Father and Son without the Spirit. But as they are one in creation, so are they one in salvation, working together in one God for our salvation, and unto that God be glory everlasting, world without end, Amen.