Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3039
“Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies; whereby the people fall under You.” Psalm 45:5.
WHEN our Lord Jesus Christ is represented as a King, we delight to think of Him as the Prince of Peace whose dominion shall put an end to all war and make it unnecessary for the nations of the earth to learn the arts of war any longer. Meanwhile, however, in this present state, evil is in the world, sin is all around us and thus sin is the curse of mankind. Christ, therefore, for our good, is a fighting King, combating evil and contending against sin in every shape and form and, in that aspect, we regard Him as standing in His glorious war chariot, riding through the world in the power of His Gospel, smiting right and left with the great sword of the Spirit and, at the same time, shooting His sharp arrows of Gospel Truth to the very ends of the earth! The Truth of God is the weapon that Christ uses. The weapons of His warfare are not carnal any more than are ours. The Truth of God is His sword and the Truth of God is His arrow!
There are some Truths which Jesus Christ proclaims in the Gospel and which He bids us also proclaim, which are like sharp arrows—wounding, piercing, killing—and of these I am about to speak, hoping and trusting that those arrows may, in all their sharpness, pierce all hearts that have not felt them yet! And that where they go, they may kill sin and that He may then come in to heal who has wounded them and to give life to those whom He has slain.
First, we shall ask and answer the question, what are those Truths which are like sharp arrows?Secondly, why are they arrows? And thirdly, how come they stick fast in human hearts?
I. First, then, WHAT ARE THOSE TRUTHS WHICH ARE SHARP AS ARROWS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN?
There are many of them, but I shall only mention such as are most usually felt when men are convinced of sin. One arrow that is always sharp is this—the spirituality and holiness of the Law of God. Many men read the Law of the Ten Commandments, or hear it read in their churches on the Sabbath, but they do not know that that Law means a great deal more than the mere words seem to convey. For instance, it is written, “You shall not commit adultery,” but Christ tells us that even though no act of unchastity is committed, the very thought of it is condemned and he who indulges an unclean look has already broken the command. The Law of God not only deals with the overt acts, but also with desires—and even with those imaginations which scarcely amount to desires, in which a man pictures the sin and feels a pleasure in the picture, though he has not actually committed the sin. Now, when a man comes to understand in his heart, as well as to hear with his ears that God looks thus at his thoughts, imaginations, desires and words as well as at his actions, then he stands in awe and amazement of the Law and says, “I cannot keep this Law of God, for I am already condemned by it—and being condemned, what way of escape is there for me? How can I get my sins forgiven? By what means can I be reconciled to God?”
This Truth of God is, indeed, a sharp arrow, and well do I remember when first it pierced my heart and conscience. I felt that I could not stand the test of such a Law for a single moment and that if called to stand before God’s bar to be tried on such grounds, I would not require a trial, but must plead guilty at once, or stand there in silence to hear His righteous sentence of condemnation—
“How long beneath the Law I lay In bondage and distress! I toiled the precepts to obey, But toiled without success.
Then, to abstain from outward sin, Was more than I could do. Now, ifI feel its power within, I feel I hate it too.”
Another of the Truths connected with Christ’s Gospel that is like a sharp arrow is this—the utter impossibility of self-justification. This is one of the Truths of the Gospel that we must never fail to proclaim—“By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” Having offended against God, you cannot expiate the past by any actions of yours. If you should henceforth keep the Law without a single breach or slip, the fact remains that the sentence of condemnation has already gone forth against you! It is often said that this life is a life of probation, but that is not true. We have passed our probation! We have been proved guilty and we are already condemned! And we shall abide under that sentence of condemnation unless we have help outside of ourselves to rescue us from it. Lost, lost, lost—utterly lost is the entire human race apart from the Divine and supreme power which has been put forth in the Person of Jesus Christ! Well do I remember when I first learned that no works of mine—no repentance, no prayers, and no tears could deliver me from the horrible pit into which I was cast through sin! Then was I pierced, indeed, as with a barbed shaft that went right through my soul to the killing of all my proud hopes and boasts! May such an arrow from the King now pierce to the heart anyone here who still cherishes any hope of self-justification!