Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1161
“Without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1.
THE spiritual blessings promised and provided in the Gospel comprise all that man can need. They are described in the chapter before us as “water” refreshing and cleansing—the “Water of Life,” of which if a man drinks he shall never thirst again. They are next described as “wine,” the wine of joy—exhilarating, comforting, “making good the heart of man”—a wine in which is no woe, but fullness of holy delight. These blessings are thirdly represented as “milk,” for milk is almost the only article of diet which contains everything that is necessary for the support of man, and therefore it is a type of the satisfying qualities of the Gospel. He who receives the Gospel of Jesus Christ has all that his soul can possibly need for time and for eternity, so that water, wine and milk set forth a full supply of life, joy and satisfaction for our spirits.
According to the text, this provision for our souls in presented to us free. We are to buy it, that is to say, we are to have it with as good as a right, and as full an assurance, as if we had purchased it—but the purchase is to be made “without money,” and lest we should make mistakes and suppose that although money literally might not be brought, some other recompense must be offered to God, it is added, “without price.” The double expression is most sweeping, clearing away, once and for all, from the mercies of God, all idea of their being purchasable by any method whatever. The Gospel is not to be bought with gold. Vain are your treasures if you should lavish them at the feet of Christ! What cares He for gold and silver?
Neither are they to be procured by knowledge and wisdom, which are the mind’s wealth, the money of the soul. A man may know much, but his knowledge may only puff him up, or increase his condemnation. Neither are the gifts of God’s Divine Grace to be obtained by human merit. Merit, connected with man is out of the question—call it demerit and you are correct. If we had done all that we ought to have done, still we ought to have done it, and even in that case we should still be unprofitable servants. Away with the notion of merit as possible to fallen man! The day which saw Adam driven out of Paradise blotted the words “human merit” out of the dictionary of the Truth of God. Every sort of gift to God with the view of procuring His favor is excluded by the term, “without price.”
Some have dreamed that they might barter if they may not purchase. They, therefore, bring to God, instead of inward holiness the beauty of outward ceremonies. And instead of a perfect righteousness they offer a baptismal regeneration and a sacramental sanctity. If they have not kept the Law, yet, at any rate, they have observed the rubric. If they have not loved their God with all their heart, they have at least bowed the knee during the performance of a priest. Thus would they barter with the Lord and give Him rites and ceremonies in payment for His Grace!
They conceive that a kind of witchcraft rests in the use of certain words and postures—and that God is thereby moved to blot out their sins! Others, who are not quite so insane, have fallen into the same error under another form— they fancy that a certain amount offeeling will procure for them the gifts of Divine Grace—they must be distressed up to a certain point and made to tremble in a certain measure. They must become despairing or they can never hope for mercy. Thus they make unbelief, which is a sin, into a preparation for Grace—and despair—which is an insult to a merciful God, and magnify them into a fitness for the reception of His bounty!
Others have dreamed that partial reformation, the saying of prayers, the leaving of legacies, attendance upon orthodox teaching, or the performance of benevolent actions will surely procure for them the gifts of Grace! To one and all of them comes this Gospel declaration—the gifts of God’s love are “without money and without price.” I wish I knew how to put this Truth of God into such words that everybody could understand me, and that nobody could misunderstand me. Whenever a man is saved, he is saved because God freely saves him, not because there was anything in him to deserve salva-
tion, or any particular fitness in him why God should deliver him and not another. The gifts of God’s Grace are absolutely free in the most unrestricted sense of that term.
Nothing good, whatever, is brought by man, or is expected from man, by way of recommendation to mercy. Everything is given gratis and is received by us “without money and without price.” Upon that one thought I shall dwell, hoping that the Spirit of God will make it plain to your minds.
I. And, first, I shall notice THE SURPRISING NATURE OF THIS FACT, for it is very surprising to mankind to hear that salvation is “without money and without price.” It is so surprising to them that the most plain terms cannot make them understand it. And, though you tell them a thousand times a day, yet they persist in thinking that you mean it costs something. They cannot be brought to accept it as literally true that they are to have everything for nothing— salvation gratis—and eternal life is the pure gift of Heaven’s charity.