“I THOUGHT” – Charles Spurgeon

“I THOUGHT”

“I thought.” 2 Kings 5:11.

Introduction: The Objective of Preaching

Our great objective in preaching today will be the conversion of sinners. There is a great deal else to be done—Believers need building up, comforting, and quickening, but while myriads of men remain careless until they are swept away into Hell, it becomes us to lend our strength to the most necessary work of winning souls for Jesus. Therefore, again this morning, I shall leave the 99 in the wilderness, and go after that which has gone astray, pleading earnestly with God that He will bless my pleading with men so that while I discourse with them concerning their folly in rejecting the Savior, His Spirit may discourse with them, also, and lead them to flee to Jesus for Eternal Life!

The Danger of Preconceived Ideas

At the outset, however, we will have a few words for Believers. Preconceived ideas of what ought to be the Lord’s mode of action are very injurious, even to those who have true faith in God, and yet they are very frequently indulged. We map out beforehand the path of Providence, and the method of His Mercy, forgetting that the Lord’s way is in the sea, His path in the great waters, and His footsteps are not known. When the Lord does not choose to act according to our notions, we start back and cry, half-indignantly, “I thought He would surely act otherwise.”

This folly is seen in Believers, sometimes, in reference to their way to Heaven. They are like the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt; there is a straight road to Canaan—why are they not allowed to take it? Instead of a direct march onward, they are led round about with ever-varying experiences; their course is by turns progressive, retrograde, and standing still—to the right and to the left, forward and retreat. Does not Providence often perplex you, and run counter, not only to your wishes, but to your deliberate judgment? That which for many reasons seems to be the best does not happen to you, while that which appears to be distressingly injurious overtakes you! Your forecasts do not come true, your daydreams are not realized, and your schemes for life are not carried out; you cannot understand why!

Why is it that you are kept in poverty when you could have made such good use of riches? How is it you are laid aside just when you could have been most useful? Why have talents been denied to you when you feel you would have used them with such diligence and fidelity? How is it that others, who waste away life, are endowed with 10 talents, while you who are industrious and zealous have scarcely one? You have ventured to propose such inquiries, but you have not been able to answer them; it is as well that you should not, for our business is not the solution of problems, but the performance of precepts. Let us cease from our own wisdom and leave all arrangements in the hand of our heavenly Father. Our thoughts are vanity, His thoughts are precious!

Prayers and Answers

The like fault will arise in connection with our prayers. We pray believingly and an answer comes, for believing prayer never fails, but the answer comes in an unexpected fashion, and not at all as we thought! We prayed God to bless our family, and, lo, our wife is taken away, or our child sickens! We besought the Lord to make us more spiritual, and He has sent a severe affliction to grieve us—

“I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love and every Grace,
Might more of His Salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.
I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His Love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yes, more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried.
‘Will You pursue Your worm to death?’
‘’Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied,
‘I answer prayer for Grace and faith.’”

“I thought,” you say, “but oh, how different from my thoughts!” Yes, but how much better than your thoughts! You shall find that the Lord is doing for you abundantly above all that you asked or even thought! God is enriching you by your poverty; He is healing you by your sickness, and drawing you nearer to Himself by driving you further away from creature confidence.

Reflections on God’s Answer to Prayer

Often and often we fail to see God’s gracious answers to prayer because we make up our minds as to the way in which they will come. We refuse letters from Heaven because they are sent in black-bordered envelopes; we thought our Lord would send us bread and meat by angels, but instead, He sent it by ravens! When we see the Lord’s hand in unexpected ways, we are apt to say, half in disappointment, “I thought it would have been otherwise.”

Perhaps we have carried these preconceptions of ours still further, for we have actually thought beforehand that God would not bless us at all! He has been graciously designing our good by afflictions, and we have written bitter things both against Him and against ourselves, for we have thought that He had utterly forsaken us! We have cried with Jacob, “Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and you will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me!”

When the good old Patriarch stood up in the chariot and felt Joseph’s warm kiss upon his cheek, he might have said, “I thought that all things were against me, but now I see that I misjudged my God; He sent my Joseph here to provide for me and for my household in the days of famine; He fetched my Simeon and my Benjamin away, that it might be all the more easy for me to come down to the place where my sons had been before me. The Lord has dealt well with His servant, but I thought not so.”

The Folly of Preconceived Notions

Dear Brothers and Sisters, leave off these forecasts, for blind unbelief is sure to err—the trade of a Prophet does not suit many of God’s servants! We look into the telescope, for we are curious to peer into the future, and having breathed upon the glass with anxious breath, we cry out in dismay, “I see nothing but clouds and darkness before me!” Yet our pictures of the dreadful future dissolve into the realities of boundless goodness as we see goodness and mercy following us all the days of our lives! We blush for our unbelief, for we had said in our heart, “I shall one day perish by the enemy’s hand.” May God save us from that cruel, “I thought,” which torments us and belies our God!

On the other hand, we sometimes make flattering forecasts of the future which are equally untrue. “In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved; but, Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong.” That was David’s thought; everybody else might be tossed to and fro, but he would be calm and confident; no doubt others might be in trouble and in doubt, but his faith was so firm, and his position so well established that he feared no change or commotion! David was too strong to tremble at the assaults from which others fled away discomfited. Now listen to the sequel—“You did hide Your face, and I was troubled.” Like any other man, he feared, and his firm mountain turned out to be only a rolling cloud which fled before the blast, and the man who was so brave asked for the wings of a dove so he might take his flight!

Believers Should Not Prophesy

Beloved, we must give up this prophesying of our own greatness—it is a mere bag of wind! It is the very worst form of judging what is to be and what ought to be; things are in better hands than ours! We have enough to do to obey the Lord’s Commands without setting up to be managers of Providence; let Him plan and let us trust! Walk as in His sight, resigned to His will, and you shall rejoice all your days. But if you begin to map out a course for yourselves, to be your own guides and providers, your way will be both rough and dangerous—and your heart will be wounded with many sorrows!

The Preconceived Notions of the Unconverted

So far, then, I have spoken a lesson to Believers. I must now turn to the unconverted, and in so doing, I ask every Christian’s prayer that a blessing may attend my words. Preconceived notions of the way of Salvation are great hindrances to the very existence in the minds of the unconverted. It is our business from Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day, yes, everyday, to tell the sinner that, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” As clearly as words can put it, we repeat it ten thousand times—that to trust in Jesus is the only way of Salvation, for Jesus has offered a great and acceptable Atonement before God for the sins of men—and whoever will come to Him and rest upon His Atonement has Eternal Life.

The Obstacles to Accepting Salvation

We are met, at once, with opposition, and men turn upon their heels and reject our message because it is not what they thought it would be. To wash in Jordan and be clean is not according to their notion; or they expected some more difficult, mysterious, and showy way of Salvation. “Behold, I thought,” they say, and they go their way, either in a rage, or else in utter carelessness. Come, Friend, let me get you by the buttonhole and talk with you upon this matter—and may the Lord make both of us wise!

The Foolishness of Human Thought

First, how could you expect to find out the way of Salvation by your own thoughts? There are a great many things which men can discover; the inventiveness of the human mind about earthly things appears to have scarcely any limit, but, with regard to heavenly things, the natural man has not the faculty of discerning and never did make a discovery yet, and never will! Whatever is known of God is made known by God! Upon the face of Nature, the existence of God is written, but we look in vain for any indication of a plan of Salvation! Jesus, alone, is the Savior—how can you imagine that His way of saving can be known to men except as He has revealed it?

The Arrogance of Rejecting Salvation

I will ask you a question: Suppose you were sick of a mysterious and fatal disorder, and a skillful physician was recommended to you. Would you expect to foresee that physician’s mode of action? Would you go to him and then hesitate to accept his advice because it was contrary to what you had supposed it would be? If so, I can only say that you must be very foolish to go to a physician at all! Why not heal yourself? Your case is complicated, and here is a surgeon who, by long experience and wonderful skill, has acquired power to deal with your disorder. Do you insist upon it that he shall only operate as you approve? Is he to use knife, lances, bands, and splints at your dictation? If so, you had better dispense with him, and call in a nurse who has never studied the art, but is quite able to do your bidding, for you are surgeon to yourself!

The Plan of Salvation Must Be God’s

Unconverted Friend, your case is one in which you cannot help yourself—none but Jesus can save you! How can you expect to invent for yourself a plan of Salvation? You are bid to become Christ’s disciple—do you expect to know more than your Master? Are you to teach Him, or is He to teach you? If you could discover the way to Heaven for yourself, why has the Lord given you the Bible? That Inspired Volume is a superfluity if your thoughts are to appoint the way of Salvation! And what need is there of the Holy Spirit to reveal the Truth of God and lead us into it, if, after all, our thoughts are to be the rule?

The Futility of Human Plans

Oh, Sirs, your arrogance—for I dare not call it less—makes you claim to be equal to the Physician of souls, to be beyond the need of Revelation, and superior to the assistance of the Holy Spirit! Retract, I pray you, and leave a position which involves such blasphemies!

The Ineffectiveness of Self-Righteousness

I will ask every awakened sinner here who has been settling in his thoughts what the plan of Salvation ought to be, what peace his thoughts have brought to him? How far have your inventions brought you? They have led you to physicians of no value! They have caused you to spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfies not; you have leaned upon reeds and trusted in shadows! Kindling a fire with your own fuel, you have, for a moment, rejoiced in the sparks, but before long you have had to lie down in sorrow. I have one passed through your state of mind; I tried full many an invention, but upon them all was written, “Vanity of vanities.” Self was at the bottom of all—in some form or other I looked to self—and I looked in vain! I was like a man in a bog, who, the more he struggles, the more he sinks; or like a prisoner upon the treadmill who rises no higher, but only wearies himself by his climbing.

The True Way to Salvation

No good can result from efforts made apart from faith in Jesus! However earnest and sincere we may be, we must fail in our search if we do not seek God’s way. Would it not be wise, after so many bitter disappointments, to leave your own inventions? If they have done you no good, depend upon it, they never will! You had better humble yourself as a little child, and learn from God what the plan of Salvation is, and then obediently accept it. Come, poor Soul, in humble obedience read the sacred roll of Inspiration and say, “O Lord, show me what You would have me to do.” Then will the Light of God break in upon you, and peace shall follow!

Faith in Jesus Is the Only Way

Faith in Jesus is God’s way—it will be the height of folly to set up another! Let me now ask you a second question, or a series of questions. Should the plan of Salvation be arranged according to your will and judgment? You are a sinner and need pardon; your nature is depraved and needs renewing. Should the plan of forgiving and regenerating you be shaped to please your tastes and whims? Should the great Lord of Mercy wait upon you, and consult you as to how He shall work out your Salvation?

The Sovereignty of God in Salvation

As a reasonable man I beg you to tell me—does not the Lord have an absolute right to dispense His favors as He pleases? Shall He not do as He wills with His own? You yourself, perhaps, are a man of generous spirit, and you relieve the poor; but suppose a poor man should dictate to you how he should be helped, and in what shape you should bestow your charity—would you listen to him for a moment? “No,” you would say, “I am not bound to give you anything! If I give, I give freely, but I am not going to be bound by rules which you may choose to make.” Beggars must not be choosers! Now, you, O unsaved one, are a beggar needing alms from God. Do you intend to dictate to the Host on high how and in what manner He shall give His Salvation to you? Act not so foolishly! As a reasonable man, renounce such an idea!

God Knows Better Than We Do

I claim for God not only that He has a Sovereign right to make His own plan of Salvation, but that He is infinitely wiser than you are! Had He left it to you to devise a scheme of mercy, it would have been most unfortunate for you; God knows more about man than man knows about himself, and the great designs of God are much more far-reaching than the expectations or desires of man, even when he is most desirous to be blessed!

The Pride of Self-Generated Salvation

I do not hesitate to say that the most intelligent Christian would have been content with far less than God is accustomed to give, and that if the arrangements of Divine Grace had been left to us, they would have borne but very stunted proportions compared with the present dimensions of the plan of Divine Grace! Surely it is best to leave it with God who will surpass all that we could desire or devise! Why should you be thinking of ways to be saved, when the mind of God, which is infinite as well in Love as in Wisdom, has already arranged a scheme so much superior?

The Consequences of Rejecting God’s Way

Furthermore, do you not think that if the plan of Salvation were left to your choosing, you would become very self-conceited? If you had the sketching of the system of Salvation and it were well done and fully accomplished, you would say, “My methods were admirable! Am I not wise? Did I not arrange it well?” You would be proud as Lucifer, and when you got to Heaven, saved on your own system, you would have grounds for glorying and many a note upon those golden harps would be dedicated to the glory of your own skill—and very few enough be consecrated to your Redeemer!

Salvation Cannot Be Self-Designed

Now, an arrangement which would increase our self-conceit would be fatal to Salvation, for self-conceit is a part of the sin from which we need to be saved! Salvation is the destruction of sin, while a system which would foster self-conceit and self-confidence is evidently unadapted to the end in view. Therefore, since your own plan could not save you, bow your hearts to the method of Divine Grace and live!

The Glory of God’s Plan for Salvation

Moreover, consider, O man, you who desire to sketch for yourself the road to Heaven; do you not see how you derogate from the Glory of God? Did the Lord ask your judgment when He made the heavens; when He dug the channels of the deep; when He poured out the water floods; when He balanced the clouds; when He set the stars in their places? With whom did He take counsel; who instructed Him? Who was with Him to stretch the line or hold the plummet? He, Himself, in the old Creation, made all things by His infinite Wisdom. Do you think that He needs your aid in the new?

The Need to Trust God’s Plan

In the work of Redemption did He ask your help, or take your counsel when He made the Covenant of Grace, and fixed it by firm Decree? Did you stand in the winepress, side by side with the Redeemer, in the day when His garments were red with blood? Have you contributed to the ransom price which He redeemed His people from going down into the Pit? Creation and Redemption have been, up to now, works of God, alone—and has the Lord, now, a need of you? Has He called you into His counsels, that you may guide Him as to the application of Redemption?

The Ultimate Decision

Dare you pluck Jehovah by the sleeve, and tell Him what He ought to do in order to save a guilty worm like you? Must He ask you how He shall deal with you? O man, it will not do! The supposition cannot be endured! You must leave the Lord to save you as He wills—and as His plan is that of simple faith—it is wickedness to set up another! Renounce your proud conceit; if you would be saved, renounce it, and humbly come and say, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.”

The Simplicity of Faith

Here is His message of life to your souls—“Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an Everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

Conclusion: Trust in God’s Way of Salvation

Now, if you have determined what the plan of Salvation ought to be, I ask you, next, by what rule are you able to preconceive that plan? You refuse to be told what that plan really is because you think you know beforehand. Now by what rule have you judged? I will tell you in one word; the most of sinners conceive the plan of Salvation to be what they wish it to be. They thought—but their wish is father to their thought. Naaman with his chariots and his horses wanted the flattering homage of the Prophet, and therefore he thought, “Surely he will come out to me.” Men love to be flattered! They need a plan of Salvation which will gratify their self-esteem and enable them to show what dignity there is in human nature! They think that man should be treated like an emperor in disguise—and mercy should be bestowed on him as if it were a reward for merit! As they wish it to be, so they believe it is.

The Foolishness of Human Assumptions

Gentlemen of the modern school of thought think out what God ought to be, like the German who evolved a camel out of his own consciousness, and was very disgusted when he found that it had a hump! They make a god as they imagine he ought to be, and deify the creature of their addled brains! And then they turn to the Bible for passages which may be twisted to support their ideas, instead of coming to the Book to learn what is in it and accepting its every teaching as the Truth of God. They bring their notions to the Bible and try to mold it to their views; in this spirit men believe the road to Heaven to be what they wish it to be, but it is not so! But you assure me that you have conceived the way of Salvation according to your understanding! Well, then, you have conceived it wrongly for certain—for what is your understanding compared with the understanding of God?

Trusting God’s Plan for Salvation

A little child has asked a favor of his father; his father knows it to be difficult to grant it, but he has, at great expense and skill, arranged it. And, now, is the way in which it is to be accomplished to be according to the child’s understanding? No, I say it must be according to the father’s understanding, for that is more able to lead the way; and besides, the father is the benefactor. In your case, is your understanding to be the guide, or God’s? I will suppose you to be a person of considerable education, far above the common level; but yet I would have you remember that, “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are God’s thoughts above your thoughts, and His ways above your ways.”

Why, then, should you wish to measure the dealings of the Most High by so short a line as your own? Have done with this folly!

The Foolishness of Pride

“Well,” you say, “but I have received my ideas from my parents.” Well, then, who were your parents? That is a very great point in such a case; who were they, and were they saved? Suppose your parents were lost, is that a reason why you should be? Nobody here who has a blind father would consider it his duty to put his eyes out by way of honoring his parents! If a man was born of a crippled parent, and God blessed him with all his limbs and faculties, he would not consider himself obliged to limp, or use a crutch, or twist his foot! We have an old proverb that if a man were born in a stable he need not be a horse—nor should a man be of a false religion because of his family connections. If our parents were mistaken, that is no reason why we should be; we regret it for their sakes, but with the Word of God in our hands, we do not intend to follow them any further than they were led by God.

The Need for Personal Faith

A certain heathen warrior was about to profess to be a Christian. Standing with one leg in the waters of Baptism, he turned to the missionary and inquired, “Where are my parents? Where are the chiefs of my line who worshipped Woden and Thor? Where have they gone? Are they in Heaven?” “No,” said the missionary, “we fear not.” “Ah, then,” he said, “I will not leave the house of my fathers,” and so he drew back his foot from the font. Many are of his mind, if I may call it mind at all, for it is a certain animal instinct of the same nature as that which makes sheep follow each other when they go astray! God save us from this evil fashion! A man cannot inherit religion; it is not a thing to be bequeathed like old clothes or family china. Search the Scriptures for yourselves! Go to God the Holy Spirit for enlightenment, and follow where that enlightenment leads—even to Jesus the Savior!

The Only Way to Salvation

Never dream of keeping to a false religion because it is that of your family or your nation—for by that rule we ought, at this moment, to be worshipping with the Druids in the oak groves! If we are bound to follow the religion of our forefathers, missionaries are great criminals, and there must be dozens of true religions instead of only one! On this principle Naaman ought never to have gone to wash in Jordan—he ought to have stuck to Abana and to Pharpar, as his fathers had done before him—and have remained a leper all his days!

Conclusion: The Gospel of Grace

“Well,” you say, “my idea of how I ought to be saved is gathered from what I have read and observed; I cannot submit to be saved by simple trust in Jesus, for I have been reading the biography of a good man, and I want to feel just as he felt. Moreover, I noticed how my cousin was troubled in mind, and I observed that she had a very remarkable dream; and, besides, she obtained very extraordinary joys—and unless I have some of these I shall never believe.”

But, my dear Friend, do you think that God is tied down to give to each penitent the same line of experience? Is a master artist bound to paint always the same picture? May there be no variations in form and tint? In man’s work there is always a degree of monotony—even the most versatile genius has its own peculiar line of things; but God is never monotonous! There is a wonderful variety in all that He does, and this is very conspicuous in conversions, for these are masterpieces of His Spirit. Do not, therefore, settle how you ought to be brought to Christ, as if that were a stereotyped affair, for the Lord does as He wills!

“Believe and live”—is not that enough? Why, if the terrors did come upon you, they could not help you, or if they did, you would trust in your despair, and this would be a false way. “Jesus only” is your hope, why demand more?

Trust in Jesus for Salvation

Let me ask you, then, do you mean to be damned for the sake of a whim? Come, I will not mince the matter. Do you mean to lose Heaven and be cast into Hell forever for the sake of your proud fancies? For, oh, Sir, I assure you, in God’s name, His plan will not change for you! If the Lord should change His Gospel for you, then He must change it for another, and another—and it would be as shifting as quicksand! There it is! Take it or leave it, but change it, you cannot! “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved” is always true. And the other side of the question is true, too—“He that believes not shall be damned.”

Procrastination and Its Consequences

Remember, also, that however much you may dislike it today, it will be quite as unpleasant tomorrow! If there is at present some sharp, stripping, and humbling work about it, it always will strip, and always humble you if ever you receive it! To be saved by Grace alone will be as hard to your pride in 10 years’ time as it is now—perhaps harder, because your heart will have grown harder, and your stomach even more haughty against the Lord God of Hosts.

The Consequences of Rejecting Salvation

Surely, Sir, if you are lost because you will not have Salvation in God’s way, you will get small comfort from your meditations when you lie in Hell! When you are shut in the eternal prison, you will reflect that you are there because you thought God ought to save you in another way; then you will say to yourself, “I would not take His Mercy freely; I would not fall down at Jesus’ feet and simply trust Him. I wanted to feel, or do, or be something! I would not give up self and its foolish confidences—and here I am.”

Conclusion

My dear Hearers, I do not ask you to believe anything I say because I say it. Fling it to the winds if it has no better authority than mine! But if it is God’s Word, I charge you, on your soul’s peril, do not reject it! We shall face each other at the last tremendous day, and if I have told you honestly the plan of Salvation, I am clear of your blood! But if, having heard it, you reject it because it does not suit your preconceived ideas, then, Sirs, your doom will lie at your own door! Yield to the Master’s bidding! May His Holy Spirit sweetly incline you, and He shall have praise! There it is. Jesus died instead of sinners; He suffered God’s Wrath in the place of the guilty, and, “Whoever believes in Him has everlasting life.” Other foundation can no man lay; there is not another name under Heaven among men whereby you can be saved!

The Urgency of Salvation

The worst of all is, you will say, “We do not reject it, but we mean to think of it tomorrow.” That has been the cry of some of you for 50 years! The bell will toll for your funerals before your tomorrow comes! Do not run this frightful risk! If to believe and to be saved would incapacitate you from your daily calling, or rob you of a single honorable joy, I might see sense in your procrastination; but since to be saved will make you fit for this life, and fill your cup to the brim with joy, in addition to preparing you for the life to come, I charge you, by the Living God, “Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish from the way, while His Wrath is kindled but a little.” The Lord bless you for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Charles Spurgeon