A CHEERING CONGRATULATION - Charles Spurgeon
A CHEERING CONGRATULATION
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered.” Psalm 32:1.
I. Evidently There Is Forgiveness with God—Transgression May Be Forgiven
Men have, all of them, their own ideals of blessedness. Those ideals are often altogether contrary to the sayings which our Savior uttered in His Sermon on the Mount. They count those to be blessed who are strong in health, who are abundant in riches, who are honored with fame, who are entrusted with command, who exercise power—those, in fact, who are distinguished in the eyes of their fellow creatures! Yet I find not such persons called “blessed” in God’s Word, but oftentimes humble souls who might excite pity rather than envy, are congratulated upon the blessings which they are heirs to and which they shall soon enjoy. To the penitent there is no voice so pleasant as that of pardon! God, who cannot lie—who cannot err—tells us what it is to be blessed. Here He declares that “blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered.” This is an oracle not to be disputed. Forgiven sin is better than accumulated wealth. The remission of sin is infinitely to be preferred before all the glitter and the glare of this world’s prosperity. The gratification of creature passions and earthly desires is illusive—a shadow and a fiction—but the blessedness of the justified, the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness is substantial and true! How apt we are to say in our hearts, “Would God Adam had never fallen, for blessed must be the man who never sinned!” Could any man have attained to a perfect life which deserved commendation at God’s hands, blessedness would surely glow around him like a halo! At his feet the earth would blossom! In his nostrils the air would breathe sweet odors and his ears would be regaled with the sweet singing of birds—“content, indeed, to sojourn while he must, below the skies, but having there his home.” Such a man would feel and find the beams of brightness playing over the entire expanse of life and the thrill of gladness filling his heart with unbroken peace! The mountains and hills would break forth into singing and all the trees of the field would clap their hands, to multiply his inlets to happiness. But it is not of such imaginary bliss that our sacred Psalmist loves to sing, because, however true, it would be a mere mockery to tell us, who are so deeply fallen, of sweet delights that those, alone, could know who never fell! Our time of probation is over. We of mortal race were proved, tried, and condemned long ago. It is not possible, now, for us to have the blessedness of uncorrupted innocence. And yet, thank God, blessedness is still possible to us, sinners though we are! We may hear the voice of the ever-blessed of God pronouncing us to be blessed! His mercy can secure to us what our merit could never have earned, for so it is written, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered.” May every one of us partake of this blessedness and know and rejoice in the full assurance of it!
II. Blessedness May Be Enjoyed
So much sadness comes from sense of sin that it is not easy for the penitent to regard pleasure as within his reach, or for the criminal to imagine that cheerfulness can become his habitual condition. How have I heard man say, “Were God to forgive me, I do not think I could be happy, such is my sin that though it should be put away, the memory would haunt me, the disgrace would distract me—my own conscience would confound me, I never could blend with the blessed ones.” Is not this just what the prodigal said, “I am not worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired servants”? He could not think so well of his father as to suppose that he could receive him again into his affections as his child and, therefore, he would be content to take the yoke of service, and to be a hired servant of his father. Not servant born in the house, though these were common enough among the Jews—but a hired servant, willing to be even with the lowest class of servants—so that he might but live in his father’s house! I know that this is often the feeling of humble souls, but look at the text and observe the blessed truth of God which it teaches. You may not only be forgiven, my dear Friends, but you may enjoy, notwithstanding your past sin, blessedness on earth! Oh, look up through those tears! They can all be wiped away! Or should they continue to flow in a long life of penitence, if they do but fall upon the Savior’s feet, which you would gladly wash with the tears of your affection and wipe with the hairs of your head, you shall find those tears to be precious drops! Though evangelical repentance may be compared to bitter herbs in one respect, to be eaten lamenting, yet in another respect there is no Grace as sweet as repentance! In heaven, it is true, they do not repent, but here on earth it well becomes the saints. It is sweet here below to sit and weep one’s heart away in sorrow for sin at the foot of the Cross of Christ, saying, “with my tears, His feet I bathe.” And although we shall have done with it when we reach those blissful shores, until then, repentance shall be the occupation of our lives! But, dear Friends, you may suppose that as sincere repentance always leads to great searching of heart, it cannot be blessed—yet it really is so. Repentance, as we have already said, is sweet grace. You remember that the prodigal shed his tears, his best tears, in his father’s bosom, when he put his face, as it were, close to his father’s heart, and sobbed out, “Father, I have sinned!” Oh, what place for repentance is the bosom of God, with His love shed abroad in the heart, making you contrite and moving you to say, “How could I have sinned against so good a God? How could I be an enemy to One who is so full of grace? How could I run away and spend my substance with harlots, when here was my Father’s deep care for my welfare? How could I choose their base love, when love so pure, so true, so constant, was waiting for me?” Oh, it is holy sorrow that has clear life ensuing and I tell you that, however deep your repentance may be, it shall not stand in the way of your being blessed, but shall even prove to be one contributory stream to the blessedness of your experience! Does the memory of your sins haunt you, and do you feel that you shall always hang your head as one whom pardon could not purge? Not thus did the apostle Paul reflect on his many sins. Though he bewailed the wickedness of his heart, and was ashamed of the evil he had done, yet his humility after he was converted took the form of gratitude, cheering his very soul with the most lively impulse! While confessing that he was the very chief of sinners, at the same time and in the same breath he said, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Conscious of his own infirmities, he could exclaim, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Yet, confident of his full redemption, he could add, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Moreover, hurling defiance at all his accusers, he asks, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” No bolder or more triumphant champion of divine grace than that apostle who was before blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious—but now rejoices to bear record, “I obtained mercy that, in me, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering as a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.” What? Though your past offenses are ever so rank, and your present shame should sting you with ever so much poignant sorrow, yet with thrills of bliss you shall prove the full blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!
III. That the State of Forgiveness Is Evidently a State of Blessedness If We Remember the Contrast It Involves
Ask the sinner, conscious of his guilt and its penalty, who is bemoaning himself and crying out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”—what would you think if your condition could be changed and your conscience cleansed by one line of the pen, or by one word of the lips that can pronounce pardon? Would not that be blessed beyond wishful thought or wakeful dream? “Oh,” you say, “I would count no penance too severe, no sacrifice too costly, if I might but get my sins canceled, forgiven and completely obliterated!” Look at poor Christian, wringing his hands, sighing, and crying. Why was it? He needed to have his burden taken off. Had you spoken to him, he would have told you he was willing to go through floods and flames if he could get relief from his burden and be clean rid of it. Seeing how every anxious soul longs for forgiveness, clearly it must be a state to be greatly desired, and those who do attain it find it to be full of gladness, delight, and rejoicing! It is, indeed, blessed to have sin forgiven, but, oh, how wretched to face its infamy, to feel its malignity, to fear its terrible penalty! Witness the soul in despair—that is a dreadful sight! I think I would sooner walk 50 miles than see a despairing soul! I have seen several such shut up in the iron cage. You may talk, talk, talk and try to give some cheer, but it is of no use. No promises can comfort. The gospel itself seems to have no charm. Were you to put the question to the despairing soul, “Would it be a blessed thing to have sin forgiven?” sharp, quick, and decided would the answer be. Not the lips only—the heart would express itself in every muscle of the face, in every limb of the body—the nerves all tingling with joy, the eyes shining with gleams of Heaven! Ask dying sinners, stung with remorse at the memory of their lives, and filled with dread at the prospect of the future, whether it is not a blessed thing to have sins forgiven. Though they may have trifled up to now, the hour of death forbids dissembling. Now the vanities of time pass like shadows and the realities of eternity come up like spectra. “Too late!” they cry. “Too late! Had we but fled to Christ before! Had we but turned our eyes to Him in years gone by, then hope would have cheered us in this extremity!” But it is not death they dread so much as the after-death—not present dissolution, but (shall I say it?) the damnation that may follow. Unforgiven sin! Who can paint the sentence it must meet? Could we peer into that world where wicked spirits are tormented always and forever, and there ask the question, “Would it be a blessed thing to be forgiven?” Ah, you can guess the answer. I pray you, friend, tempt not the terror for yourself. Trifle not with kind entreaty—know that ‘tis treason to do so! The pardon spurned will recoil on your own head. You will bewail in everlasting misery the mercy that, through your willfulness, was unavailing. Blessed must he be whose sins are forgiven, for it enables him to escape from the horrible doom of the impenitent!
IV. All the Forgiven Help to Swell the Tide of Blessing
A thousand felicities follow in its train! He who is forgiven is justified, acquitted, vindicated, sent forth without stain or blemish on his reputation. He is regenerated, quickened, invigorated, and brought into newness of life! More still, he is adopted, initiated into the divine family, invested with a new relationship and made heir of the heritage entailed by promise. The work of sanctification begun in him, here, will one day be completely perfected. He who is forgiven was elected from before the foundations of the world. He was redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus. For him, Christ stood as his sponsor, surety, and substitute at the bar of justice. To the forgiven man all things have become new. Our Lord Jesus Christ has raised him up and made him sit in heavenly places with Him. He is even now son and heir, child of God, prince of the blood imperial, priest, and king who shall reign with Christ forever and ever! He who is washed in the precious blood is favored beyond any words that I can find to express. Ten thousand blessings are his portion. “How precious!” such pardoned one may exclaim. “How precious are Your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!”
V. The Blessedness of the Man Whose Transgression Is Forgiven, Whose Sin Is Covered, Will Be Mainly Seen in the Next State
That disembodied spirit, clear of spot or blemish, washed and whitened in the blood of the Lamb, passes without fear into the invisible world. It trembles not, though it appears before the eyes of Justice. No award can come to the forgiven soul except this, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” We commit the body of the forgiven sinner to the grave in “sure and certain hope of joyful resurrection.” We give his flesh to be the food of the worms and his skin may rot to dust—but though worms destroy his body—yet in his flesh shall he see God, whom his eyes shall see for himself and not another! I was astonished some little time ago when I heard a good pastor, standing by the coffin of an honored minister, say, “There lies nothing of our brother.” Not so, I thought! The bodies of the saints were purchased by Christ—though flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither can corruption inherit incorruption, yet there will be such marvelous change pass over the body of the forgiven sinner that the same body changed, but still the same body—shall be reunited with the disembodied spirit to dwell at God’s right hand! Listen! Listen! The trumpet sounds! Oh, my brothers and sisters, we can but speak in prose. These great scenes we shall, all of us, see! We shall then think after another fashion. The trumpet sounds! The echo reaches heaven. Hell startles at the sound to its nethermost domains. This trembling earth is all attention. The sea yields up her dead. A great white cloud comes sailing forth in awful majesty. Upon it there is a throne, where Jesus sits in state! But his heart has no cause to quake whose sins are all forgiven! Well may the ransomed soul be calm amidst the pomp and pageantry of that tremendous day, for He who sits upon the throne is the Son of Man, in whose blood we have been washed. Lo! This is the same Jesus who said, “I have forgiven you.” He cannot condemn us! We shall find to be our Friend whom others find to be their Judge. Blessed is that man who is forgiven! See him, as with ten thousand times ten thousand others pure as himself and like to himself, who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! He ascends to the celestial city, perfect man in body and in soul, to dwell forever there! Hark to the acclamations of the ten thousand times ten thousand, the sound of the harpers harping with their harps, and the song that is like great waters. Write yes, write now, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.” But doubly blessed are they, then, that they rise from the dead! Once they were sinners washed in blood, but then, in body and in soul, they shall have come, through the precious blood, to see Jesus face to face! Oh, how I wish that all of us knew this blessedness! Seek it, Friends, seek it! It is to be found. “Seek you the Lord while He may be found; call you upon Him while He is near.” I am especially encouraged in preaching the Gospel this evening, because I have just been seeing some who have been recently converted. There are hearers of the Gospel among you who have been listening to me for many years. Often have I feared that, in your case, I had labored in vain. But I have great hope, now, concerning some of you. The Lord keeps bringing in the old hearers of eight, nine, and ten years’ standing. Oh, I pray the Lord to save every one of you and bring you into the fold! I do long and pant that I may present you all before my Master’s face with joy! Even should you go and join other churches, and serve the Lord elsewhere, that will cause me no sorrow or regret. But God forbid that any of you should despise mercy, reject the Gospel and die in your sins! May you prove the blessedness of pardon, and then shall we meet, an unbroken congregation, before the throne of God. The Lord grant it, for His Name’s sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 10:37-42
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Christ must be first. He herein claims the highest place in every human breast. Could He have done so had He not been Divine? No mere prophet would talk in this fashion! Yet we are not sensible of the slightest egotism in His speech, neither does it occur to us that He goes beyond His line. We are conscious that the Son of God has the right to speak thus, and only He. We must earnestly beware of making idols of our dearest ones by loving them more than Jesus. We must never set them near the Throne of our King. We are not worthy to dwell with Christ, above, or even to be associated with Him here, if any earthly object is judged by us to be worthy to rival the Lord Jesus. Father and mother, son and daughter—we would do anything to please them—but, as opposed to Jesus, they stand nowhere and cannot, for an instant, be allowed to come in the way of our supreme loyalty to our Lord.
And he that takes not his cross, and follows after Me, is not worthy of Me. Here our Lord, for the second time in this gospel, brings in His death. At first He spoke of being taken from them—but now of the cross. There is a cross for each one which he may regard as “his cross.” It may be that the cross will not take us up, but we must take it up, by being willing to endure anything or everything for Christ’s sake. We are not to drag the cross after us, but to take it up! “Dragged crosses are heavy; carried crosses grow light.” Bearing the cross, we are to follow after Jesus—to bear the cross without following Christ is a poor affair. The Christian who shuns the cross is not a Christian—but the cross-bearer who does not follow Jesus equally misses the mark! Is it not singular that nothing is so essential to make man worthy of Christ as bearing his cross in His tracks? Yet it is assuredly so. Lord, You have laid a cross upon me—do not permit me to shirk it, or shrink from it!
He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for My sake shall find it. If to escape from death, he gives up Christ, and so finds continuance of this poor mortal life—by that very act he loses true life. He gains the temporal at the expense of the eternal! On the other hand, he who loses life for Christ’s sake does in the highest sense find life, life eternal, life infinitely blessed! He makes the wisest choice who lays down his life for Jesus and finds life in Jesus!
He that receives you receives Me, and he that receives Me receives Him who sent Me. What blessed union and hallowed communion exist between the King and His servants! The words before us are especially true of the apostles to whom they were first addressed. Apostolic teaching is Christ’s teaching. To receive the 12 is to receive their Lord Jesus, and to receive the Lord Jesus is to receive God, Himself. In these days certain teachers despise the epistles which were written by apostles, and they are, themselves, worthy to be despised for so doing! This is one of the sure tests of soundness in the faith. “He that is of God hears us,” says John. This bears hard on modern critics who in hypocritical manner pretend to receive Christ and then reject His inspired apostles! Lord, teach me to receive Your people into my heart, that thus I may receive You. And as to the doctrine which I hold, be pleased to establish me in the apostolic faith.
He that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. Men may receive a prophet as a patriot, or poet—that is not the point in hand. The prophet must be received in his highest character, “in the name of a prophet,” and for the sake of his Lord! And then the Lord, Himself, is received, and He will reward the receiver in the same way in which His Prophet is rewarded. If we cannot do all the good deeds of a righteous man, we can yet partake in his happiness by having fellowship with him, and by uniting with him in vindicating the faith and comforting his heart. To receive into our homes and our hearts God’s persecuted servants is to share their reward. To maintain the cause and character of good men is to be numbered with them in God’s account. This is all of grace, since the deed is so little and the recompense so large!