ALIVE – Charles Spurgeon
ALIVE
“The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding and I shall live.” — Psalm 119:144.
I. A Singular Incident
Yesterday afternoon, I was the subject of a somewhat singular circumstance. An esteemed friend and relative came over to my house, evidently laboring under great disturbance of mind and with inquiries to make of a very important nature. At the time, I was walking in the garden, so I did not see him. He appeared to have great difficulty in mentioning the subject of his concern to my wife. Eventually, it came out that he had seen a gentleman who had informed him that it was generally rumored that I had been taken ill with heart disease and had died in a very short time. My friend came to the point by cautious degrees and asked at length if I was seriously ill.
“No,” was the joyful reply of my beloved, “he is much the same as usual.” Then it was clear that I was not dead, and the great fear was removed. The question was put, “Would you like to see him?” But my kind friend was perfectly satisfied and was too full of joy to wish to linger—he would go back and answer with certainty the many inquiries which continued to be made at the Tabernacle.
How the report originated, I am quite at a loss to tell. It has evoked much kindness, but it is rather odd to feel called upon to assure your friends that you are yet alive! I can only show myself and ask my friends to see for themselves if I look like a dead man!
II. Reflection on Mortality
When the peculiarity of the position had given way to other thoughts, it struck me in a solemn manner that the report might have been true. My death will assuredly be a fact one day unless our Lord should come speedily. Only sparing mercy from God’s right hand has prevented it from being true at this moment. We do not realize our mortality unless we are startled into a recognition of it. We believe others to be mortal and are not much surprised when they fall, but we have a secret notion that no axe will, for the present, be laid at our root. Yet reason would lead a man to ask, “It happens to many, to die suddenly, why should it not happen to me?”
I regard the incident as a call to me to stand ready to depart at any time. Let it be a warning to you, also, to set your houses in order, for in a moment, death may surprise you!
III. A Loving Reminder
A practical lesson may be gathered from the very natural scene which followed my friend’s departure. I came in from my walk and found myself suddenly seized by my wife with both hands. Grasping the front of my coat, she turned me around and looked at me steadily with a most tender gaze, declaring that she must take a double look at me and hold me before her eyes to be quite sure that her husband was yet alive, to her unutterable joy. This special outpouring of thankfulness might have been lost had it not been for the rumor, and so far, it is well. May all of you be moved to the same feeling towards your dear ones whenever they come home at night alive!
What would you do without them? What desolation would it cause in the house if a messenger hurriedly rushed into your house with the news of their sudden death? How we ought to love those who are spared to us and to praise God that they are still alive. Suppose they were suddenly removed—have we valued them rightly? Try and act towards them as you would act if you knew that they would die today.
If husband or wife had died, what a sorrow it would be if an unkind word had been spoken, or a difference had arisen just before the last look! What a painful cause for future regret! Let your affection for those about you gush forth freely as you reflect that God has spared them to you. Bless God, good woman, that you are a wife and not a widow! Bless God, Christian man, that you sit side by side with your dear spouse and have not to go weeping to her grave. What a blank! What a darkness! What a gloom would come over your household if either of the parents should be suddenly taken away! Therefore, praise God and be thankful, and let us try to live towards one another and towards our Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus in such a way as we should wish to have done if they were suddenly to be taken.
IV. The Call to Live
Pray for your pastor the more earnestly because you might, this morning, have missed him from your midst—and he will try and preach more earnestly to you because you may be gone before he will have another opportunity of addressing you. Let us continue knit together in love as long as we live, for the tie which now binds us together may soon be snapped. Out of a painful rumor may thus come a great blessing to families and congregations if it shall cause an increase of mutual love and an outpouring of united gratitude for sparing mercies!
V. Reflecting on Spiritual Life
So much for a lesson as to this mortal life. By this incident, I was further led to turn a heart-glance upon myself and to say, “I wonder whether there is any question as to whether I am alive in the higher sense?” That I am alive as to my natural life is clear enough—but is my spiritual life equally evidenced? This is a very necessary enquiry, for it is easy enough to make a fair show in the flesh and yet to be alienated from the life of God. Many abide in death, even as the Apostle says—“To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
The enquiry came home to my own heart and, therefore, I suggest it to yours, for it may profit you. Brothers and Sisters, do you live unto God? Are you walking as those who are alive from the dead? Remember, my Sisters, that it is written, “She that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives”—may no woman here come under that condemnation! Brothers, I call upon you, also, to remember the word of the Lord Jesus to the Church of Sardis, “I know your works, that you have a name that you live and are dead.” Many exist upon the face of the earth, but into “life” they have never entered. They know not the Spirit and because they are strangers to His indwelling, they live after the flesh and mind the things of the flesh, and of these it is written, “If you live after the flesh, you shall die.”
VI. The Need for Understanding
Ask yourselves, then, these questions—have you been quickened from your death in trespasses and sins? Does the Divine Life beat within you in such a forceful and healthful manner that there can be no question about it? Is your life “hid with Christ in God” and are you numbered with the living in Zion? The living, the living! He shall praise you, O God, as we do this day!
My subject is life—may the Lord of Life help me to speak of it after a lively manner! A consideration of the text will help in the enquiry as to whether we live unto God or not, and it may further help those who sigh after the Divine Life to discover the way of Divine quickening. Let us again read the text, “The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding and I shall live.” Here we have a touchingly humble prayer for life—“Give me understanding and I shall live.”
VII. The Simplicity of the Prayer
We will first consider this prayer in its simplicity. Without diving into its depths, let us see what lies upon its surface. This prayer is adapted for very general use. It would suit a child and be equally becoming from a venerable father. It might fall from the lips of those in whom there is but the faintest sign of Divine Grace, and it might as fitly be used by those in whom Grace is ripening into Glory!
We ask you to notice, first, that this is a suitable prayer for the awakened sinner. He discovers himself to be guilty, and he perceives that there is a punishment for sin, and so far, he understands his position. Alarmed by his conscience, he thinks he sees the Judge upon the Great White Throne about to pronounce the final sentence, and he knows what it must be, for it is written, “The soul that sins, it shall die.” So far, he understands well enough. He hears, also, that there is life, life in Christ Jesus, life for guilty men—but his mind is much confused with many terrors and with the horrible dread of the sure consequences of his sin.
He has sufficient faith in the Revelation of God to know that there is life in a look at the Crucified One, but he does not quite understand what that look means. He knows that there is salvation in one name and in no other, but he does not quite comprehend what that faith is which obtains for a sinner the virtue of that saving name. Then is his time to pray, “Give me understanding and I shall live.” He needs illumination for his darkened mind that he may see the way of salvation, that he may look to Christ and, by understanding the doctrine of His substitutionary Sacrifice, may be enabled, at once, to trust in Jesus and live!
Christ is our life, but we need understanding, or we shall miss it. It is a blessed understanding which enables a man to feel that though the sentence of death may be in his members, yet he must and shall live if he believes in the Lord Jesus! What did the Lord Jesus say in His prayer for His people? “And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” I pray you will, dear Hearers, if you feel your need of this life, let the prayer of the text go up quietly from your hearts—“Give me understanding and I shall live.”
VIII. Life in the Midst of Temptation
Equally applicable, however, will this be in the case of one who is a Christian and who is struggling against temptation. Perhaps, my Brother, you are placed in a position where you are fiercely tempted from without by the world, and possibly you may fear that you will not be able to survive it. It comes with such force that you are staggered by its power! You feel that you cannot bear up under such pressure! You despair of your spiritual life! Well, then, ask God to bring home His Word to your heart, that you may act wisely and may meet the rebuke of the ungodly and the temptations of the wicked—prudently baffling the adversary by your sacred vigilance. Pray, “Give me understanding and I shall live,” for a clear understanding is necessary for your preservation from the enemy. May God make you wise as serpents and harmless as doves!
IX. Divine Sustenance in Suffering
Possibly, the temptation comes from within you. There are passions within you which, at times, violently rebel, and you are in anguish while you struggle to mortify them, though mortified they must be. Your soul abhors evil and wrestles against the lusts of the flesh, agonizing that you may walk before God in integrity, pleasing Him in all things. At times you are harshly beset and Satan, himself, draws near to aid the flesh with his fearful insinuations, or even by injecting blasphemous thoughts. Then is your hour of peril, for you are pressed out of measure while the enemy howls at you—“The Lord has forsaken you! Your God will be gracious no more!”
Ah, then you need to know how to handle your weapons, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and that master weapon of All-Prayer! Perhaps you feel yourself so confused that you do not know what Scripture to plead in prayer, nor do you know what you should pray for as you ought. Well, then, remember the blessed word of Scripture, “If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraids not.” Let this be your prayer—“Give me understanding and I shall live, in spite of the assaults of the enemies.” Though there are fights without and fears within, we shall overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, and we shall live as Christian men, adorning the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things if the Lord will give us a clear understanding of His Word and holy prudence and judgment by which we shall know how to behave ourselves wisely in a perfect way.
X. Living by God’s Word
You do not so much need health, or wealth, or freedom from trouble, as more understanding of the Lord’s mind and will in all the dispensations of His Providence. Breathe, then, the prayer to your heavenly Father—“Give me understanding and I shall live.” Divine Grace can make us live like the three holy children in the fire, or like Jonah at the bottom of the sea, or like Daniel in a den of lions! It can make us patient in tribulation and joyful in distress—and Grace works by making us understand the Word of the Lord.
Brethren, if we are taught of the Lord, we can live between the jaws of death and sing a song unto our Well-Beloved amid the wailings of famine and pestilence! By a God-given understanding, we shall know that all things work together for our good, and so we shall “take pleasure in infirmities, in necessities and in distresses,” for when we are weak, then are we strong!
XI. The Need for More Life
I thank God that a large number now present are not so much sufferers as workers. Now, I know that you who are working for God and trying to win souls often feel as if you were not half alive. I am compelled to make such a confession myself. I need to get alive to the utmost—not only having life, but having it “more abundantly.” I have some life in me, thank God, but I need it to quicken me more completely! Sometimes we get into a sleepy state and then the Spirit chides us and we cry, “This will never do.”— “Dear Lord! Shall we always live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to You, And You to us so great?” We need quickening, Brothers and Sisters! Do you not feel that it is so?
I believe that those who are most earnest are the very persons who blame themselves the most for the need of earnestness. When your whole soul is being consumed, you feel as if you need the coals of juniper to be blown up to a yet more vehement flame that you may go up like a cloud of incense unto God, dissolved in His service, consumed in His praise! Here, then, is our prayer, “Give me understanding and I shall live. Make me so to feel the power of Your Word that I may be ardent, fervent, full of life!”
XII. The Prayer for Greater Understanding
I will alter the poet’s lines and say— “Lives of saintly men assure us We may make our lives sublime.” We can live to noble purpose if, in answer to this prayer, God the Holy Spirit shall teach us to profit and give us understanding to know the will of the Lord and obey it faithfully.
O you who would work successfully and acceptably, ask the great Lord of the Harvest to enlighten your hearts and minds that you may not labor as in the dark, but as wise men made expert by the Holy Spirit.
XIII. The Connection to God’s Word
Is not this a very proper and blessed prayer for aspiring minds in the Church of God, of whom I trust there are many present? Such men are not satisfied with themselves, but press forward to that which is yet beyond and above them. They have not reached that imaginary climax which some prattle of who dote upon their fancied perfectness—but their motto is, “Onward! Upward! Heavenward!”
They walk with God and therefore say— “Oh for a closer walk with God.” They are calm and happy, but yet they sigh for a still serener frame. They have power in prayer, but they long for more of a wrestling spirit and for greater prevalence with God. If there are any here who are fired with such Divine ambitions, what better prayer can they use than this—“Give me understanding and I shall live”?
For if God teaches us rightly to use the Divine Word so as to mark, learn, and inwardly digest it by the understanding, then shall we be nourished into complete manhood and shall go from strength to strength! The new man is renewed in knowledge and nourished by the Truth of God and, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Our prayer must be that the Lord would make us understand what He would have us do and how to do it. Then shall we live when we are made of “quick understanding in the fear of the Lord” and ready in heart to perfect all His will. This will be an angelic life, for those holy beings do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word. It will be a seraphic life, for as we burn with holy fervor we shall resemble those ministers whom God makes to be a flaming fire! It will be a heavenly life, for we shall strive to do the Lord’s will on earth as it is done in Heaven.
XIV. Conclusion
Do you long for this? The way to it is not to be found in dreams and visions and fanatical excitements and delirious conceits, but in a calm, quiet, solid, and deep understanding of the revealed Word of God! Our Lord prayed—“Sanctify them through Your truth, Your Word is truth.” No other means are needed for the fullest development of holiness—you only require the Word to be unveiled by the Spirit to your mind and understanding, and in the utmost sense of the term, you shall “live.”
Last of all, when we shall not be so much aspiring saints as expiring saints—when we come to lie upon our last bed and to look into the unseen—then may we still pray after the same fashion! When the eyes shall begin to open to the light of Heaven and things but darkly seen, before, grow clearer in the dawn of the eternal day—when the songs of angels begin to break upon the opening ears of the soul and Heaven is drawing near, for Grace is ripening into Glory and Glory is coming to welcome its heir—then may we pray to live through the understanding and experience of the Divine Word!
How blessed it will be to have such an understanding of Divine realities that we shall stay ourselves upon the promises, shall rejoice in the Everlasting Covenant and derive strong consolation from the oath of God. How blessed, then, to understand our living union with our risen Lord and to know the experience of the happy Psalmist when He sang—“Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
With God’s Spirit within us lighting up the soul by the understanding of the fact that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, we shall live in the midst of death and find our Savior’s Words to be true—“He that lives and believes in Me shall never die.” We shall ford that shallow stream of death, which, while it chills our feet, shall not be able to chill our hearts! It may stop our pulse, but it shall not silence our song, which shall rise higher and higher as speech shall fail. We shall but shut our eyes on earth and open them in Heaven, for God, who has given us understanding here below, shall surely give us to dwell above where they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament!
And thus, I think, I have shown you that this prayer sounds well on every note of the scale. You may sound it out of the depths of seeking penitence, and you may run up to the very highest note with the expectancy of Glory, and the words will sound well on any note you touch. From the wicket gate of humble faith up to the gate of pearl which admits into the golden city, you may go on praying, “Give me understanding and I shall live.”