Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3358
“The Lord will give Grace and Glory.” Psalm 84:11.
IT is very wise to look within ourselves to discover our own weakness and spiritual poverty, but it is very unwise to be always dwelling upon that weakness and poverty—and to forget that our strength does not lie there, nor are our riches to be found within ourselves! Let us look within to be humbled, but not to be made unbelieving. Look within, so as to be driven from all confidence in ourselves, but never so as to shake our absolute confidence in God. Our text, as it were, beckons us away from seeking the living among the dead, calling us up from searching for precious jewels amid dross and refuse, but directs us to the living God Himself—the overflowing Fountain of every good thing, our Father whose arm is not shortened that it cannot save, and whose ear is not heavy that He cannot hear us tonight! He—He— Jehovah, Himself, the Infinite, Eternal, Everlasting, Inimitable I AM—He will give Grace and Glory, so that though you may think you have no Grace, He will give it to you, and though you may fear that you shall never obtain Glory, yet He can and will bestow it upon you! He will give Grace and Glory. The very first word of the text, I say, is a taking us away from leaning upon the broken reeds of our own self-reliance and a calling us away to the Rock of our salvation, where we may rest with security!
“He will give Grace and Glory.” That word, “give,” also takes us off from our natural legality of self-trust. I think that we are all very apt to go back to the bondage of Mount Sinai. We are like those foolish Galatians! We are often “bewitched,” so that we do not obey the Truth of God, but, having begun in the Spirit, we seek to be made perfect in the flesh and, being saved already by faith, we often try to be perfected by the works of the Law!
“‘Tis strange, ‘tis passing strange, ‘tis amazing,” that after having felt the whip of legal bondage, we should wish to go back to the brick kilns of Egypt and to be slaves once more! The text says, “He will give Grace and Glory,” which is the very opposite of wages and puts us on the footing of Grace and not on the footing of debt. Oh, it is a blessed thing to see a finger from the sky thus beckoning us away from underneath the quaking mountain, where even Moses confessed that he did altogether fear and quake! It is a blessed thing to be set free from the thunder and lightning, and the Voice as of a trumpet, and to be brought to the blood which speaks better things than that of Abel, and to hear God speaking concerning His great and unspeakable gifts to us!
Now, in the spirit of these two thoughts, let us come to this text, which is very simple, extremely simple, but which is also exceedingly full of comfort if the Lord shall apply it to our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
There are just two great and splendid gifts that God here declares He will bestow. First, the gift of Grace, and then next, the gift of Glory. We will take the first gift first in our meditations—
I. God Will Give Grace
To whom will He give Grace? Broadly understood, we may say that He will give Grace to His own chosen ones. So is it in the Covenant of Grace. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So, then, it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.” Grace is a most Sovereign thing. God has the right to give it where He pleases and He takes care that the Sovereignty shall be seen. Some of His chosen ones have gone afar into sin, but He gives them Grace, for all that. Some of them may be on the very verge of destruction and come to the last hour of life—but still, He will give them Grace—and there is not one upon whom His electing love has set the broad arrow of the Kingdom, marking that man to be a vessel of mercy, who shall pass away without receiving Divine Grace! This is a broad statement and though there are some that cavil at it, yet rest assured that it is the Truth of God!
Another statement we may also make as broadly, namely, that He will give Grace to all those who were specially redeemed by Christ As many as Christ has redeemed and purchased by His blood, shall be His, for we hear Him say, “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Christ loved His Church and gave Himself for it. The chosen are spoken of in this manner, “These are they who are redeemed from among men,” and although the redemption of Christ has its universal aspect very plainly taught in God’s Word, and I hope we shall never try to take away the force of those universal passages—yet there is a special redemption besides. “He is the Savior of all men,” says the Apostle, “especially of them that believe.” Now, that special redemption is of such a kind that to all those who are concerned in it, He will give Grace. Not one whom Christ has thus redeemed from among men shall perish! Not one of His own blood-bought sheep shall be devoured by the wolf. Not one member of that body of His shall be maimed. Not one part of His bride, the Church, shall be destroyed! To every one of these, it is quite certain, He will give Divine Grace!