Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1983
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications: then they will look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.” Zechariah 12:10,11.
HARDNESS of heart is a great and grievous evil. It exists not only in the outside world, but in many who frequent the courts of the Lord’s House. Beneath the robes of religion many carry a heart of stone. It is more than possible to come to Baptism and the sacred Supper, to come constantly to the hearing of the Word and even, as a matter of form, to attend to private religious duties—and yet still have an unrenewed heart—a heart within which no spiritual life palpitates and no spiritual feeling exists. Nothing good can come out of a stony heart—it is barren as a rock. To be unfeeling is to be unfruitful. Prayer without desire; praise without emotion; preaching without earnestness—what are all these? Like the marble images of life, they are cold and dead! Insensibility is a deadly sign. Frequently it is the next stage to destruction. Pharaoh’s hard heart was a prophecy that his pride would meet a terrible overthrow. The hammer of vengeance is not far off when the heart becomes harder than an adamant stone.
Many and great are the advantages connected with softness of spirit. Tenderness of heart is one of the marks of a gracious person. Spiritual sensibility puts life and feeling into all Christian duties. He that prays feelingly, prays, indeed. He that praises God with humble gratitude, praises Him most acceptably and he that preaches with a loving heart has the essentials of true eloquence. An inward, living tenderness, which trembles at God’s Word, is of great price in the sight of
God.
You are in this matter agreed with me—at least I know that some of you are thoroughly thus minded, for you are longing to be made tender and contrite. Certain of you who are truly softened by Divine Grace are very prone to accuse yourselves of being stony-hearted. We are poor judges of our own condition and in this matter many make mistakes. Mark this—the man who grieves because he does not grieve is often the man who grieves most! He that feels that he does not feel is probably the most feeling man of us all! I suspect that hardness is almost gone when it is mourned over. He who can feel his insensibility is not insensible. Those who mourn that their heart is a heart of stone, if they were to look calmly at the matter, might perceive that it is not all stone, or else there would not be a mourning because of hardness! But, whether this is so or not, I address myself to all of you whose prayer is for godly sorrow for sin.
It is written in the Covenant of Grace, “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” I pray that this may be fulfilled in you even now. The object of this sermon is to show how this tenderness is to be obtained and how an evangelical sorrow for sin can be produced in the heart and maintained there. I would set forth the simple method by which the inward nature can be made living, feeling and tender, full of warm emotions, fervent breathings and intense affections towards the Lord Jesus Christ. While I speak, I beseech you to pray—“Create in me a tender heart, O Lord, and renew within me a contrite spirit.”
It will be instructive to keep to the words of the text. This passage is peculiarly suited to our purpose and it will add authority to that which we teach. Observe that holy tenderness arises out of a Divine operation—“I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications.” Secondly, it is actually worked by the look of faith—“Then they will look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him.” And, thirdly, the tenderness which comes in this way leads to mourning for sin of an intense kind—“They shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.”
I. First, note that THE HOLY TENDERNESS WHICH MAKES MEN MOURN FOR SIN ARISES OUT OF A DIVINE OPERATION. It is not in fallen man to renew his own heart! Can the adamant turn itself to wax, or the granite soften itself to clay? Only He that stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth can form and reform the spirit of man within him. The power to make the rock of our nature flow with rivers of repentance is not in the rock itself.
The power lies in the Omnipotent Spirit of God and it is an omen for good that He delights to exercise this power. The Spirit of God is prompt to give life and feeling. He moved of old upon the face of the waters and, by His power, order came out of confusion. That same Spirit at this time broods over our souls and reduces the chaos of our natural state to light and life and obedience. There lies the hope of our ruined nature. Jehovah who made us can make us over again! Our case is not beyond His power. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? He can change the nether millstone into a mass of feeling and dissolve the northern iron and the steel into a flood of tears. When He deals with the human mind by His secret and mysterious operations, He fills it with new life, perception and emotion. “God makes my heart soft,” said Job, and in the best sense this is true. The Holy Spirit makes us like wax and we become impressible to His sacred seal. Remember, you that are hard of heart, that your hope lies this way—God Himself, who melts the icebergs of the northern sea, must make your soul yield up its hardness in the Presence of His love. Nothing short of the work of God within you can effect this. “You must be born again.” And that new birth must be from above! The Spirit of God must work regeneration in you. He is able, of these stones, to raise up children unto Abraham. But until He works, you are dead and insensible. Even now I perceive the goings forth of His power—He is moving you to desire His Divine working and, in that gracious desire, the work has already begun!