Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 736
Delivered by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“And the Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”- Isaiah 58:11
IT is very important that our preaching should sometimes give descriptions of Christians in an unhealthy and sickly state. So many are in this condition that when we describe their symptoms they may discover themselves, and by Divine Grace be led to desire escape from it. The proper remedies being pointed out, and the Christian being earnestly exhorted to the use of them, I am quite sure that such ministry as describes the unhealthy state of the Christian’s experience will be found useful. But I have sometimes thought—and I think you will, some of you, have noticed the same thing—that such preaching as continually dwells upon inward corruption and the innate baseness of the heart is very apt to lead men to think that it must always be so with them. The prevalence of unbelief, depression of spirit, backsliding and indifference to heavenly things becomes chronic, and they grow so familiar with reflecting upon it that they regard it as a state in which a Christian man may well be content.
Now, when men come to think so, such ministry has done them a serious injury. When they flatter themselves that they outstrip their fellows in the humiliating experience of their own sinful passions. When they grow proud of those things which should cause them shame and begin to look down upon others who talk of holy joys and gracious liberties as mere recruits in the army of which they are the veterans, then I say that the ministry has been poison to them and the descriptions of carnal and devilish lusts they have listened to have fostered a wretched imagination! Instead of urging them to fight against sin, the sermons they have heard have only been rocking the cradle of their sloth, sewing pillows to their armholes, and saying to them, in some degree, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.
It is not so popular a thing to do, but it is better in its influence to frequently hold up before the eye of the Christian the portrait of a Believer in a healthy state—to let all who belong to the Church understand that it is not necessary that we should be weak in faith, or that our hands should hang down, and our bones be feeble. There is a holier, happier, and more exalted state of triumphant faith, of sweet communion, and of hallowed earnestness! And such a state is attainable, no, it ought to be attained by all Christians! And when attained it ought to be their constant ambition never to backslide from it. Having once been placed upon the high mountain by a Divine hand, they should ever pray to be kept there, to the praise and glory of the Grace of God.
We cherish a hope this evening, that by means of this text we may be able to give an humble portrait of what the Christian is in his happiest times! When the candle of the Lord shines round about him! When the visitations of the Holy Spirit refresh him, and when he rejoices in God with all his heart! Will you please observe in what connection this sunny sketch of prosperity occurs? It is set in a frame that excites the strong prejudice of some professing Christians. The setting is a framework of duties. You will perceive that the blessings are not promised to every Christian unconditionally, but it is fenced in with terms: “If you do this, and if you do that, then shall such-and-such blessings be yours.”
We are told that the heart is to be drawn from evil and that the soul is to be purged from the love of oppression, ostentation, and hypocrisy. There is to be a true and holy fast kept before the Lord, the soul being humbled and brought down to seek the Lord according to the spirit of righteousness, and not merely after the letter of the ordinances. Then, and not till then, shall the blessings here promised be enjoyed. Though salvation is of Divine Grace, the happiness of the Christian does depend upon his obedience.
Our ultimate safety is of Sovereign Grace. No man shall exceed me in the plain declaration that in this respect works of any sort cannot touch our salvation! We are saved upon another footing than that of our personal graces. But it is quite as plainly the teaching of Holy Scripture that answers to prayer, the enjoyment of the Presence of God and a healthy state of spirit are very much dependent upon our cautious walking and our holy obedience to the Divine will.
There is an “if here, and should any of us neglect and despise it, and fancy that we can still have our souls like “watered gardens,” it will not be long before we shall find out our mistake!
Suppose, however, dear Friends, that by Divine Grace we have been brought into communion with God. Suppose we have been clothed in the sackcloth of true penitence before Him, and girded with the garments of salvation. Suppose it has been our desire, as in God’s sight, to walk as becomes the saints. Suppose, I say, we have been enabled by Grace—and it cannot be otherwise—to keep ourselves “unspotted from the world”—then that same Spirit who has sanctified us will, I am sure, fulfill to us the promises of the text.