NO DIFFERENCE – Charles Spurgeon
No Difference
Introduction: The Philosophy of Nature
“He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” —Matthew 5:45
You see, our Lord Jesus Christ’s philosophy of nature. He believed in the immediate presence and working of God. As the great Son of God, He had a very sensitive perception of the presence of His Father in all the scenes around Him, and therefore, He calls the sun, “God’s sun”—“He makes His sun to rise.” He does not speak of the daybreak as a thing which happens of itself as a matter of course, but He traces the morning light to His Father and declares, “He makes His sun to rise.”
As for the rain, our great Lord and Master does not speak of the laws of condensation causing the vapor to become fluid and fall to the earth in a beneficial shower. Instead, He says of His Father, “He sends rain upon the just and upon the unjust.” Jesus knew far better than any of us all the laws by which the great Creator governs the world of matter, and yet He never speaks of these laws as though they operated without the divine power making them to be effective.
In Christ’s philosophy, the Lord God Himself was everywhere present, working all things, yes, even numbering the hairs upon the heads of His chosen and marking the falling of a sparrow to the ground. Let such be your philosophy and mine, for it is the true one. Dr. Watts taught us to sing when we were children:
“My God, who makes the sun to know
His proper hour to rise,
And to give light to all below,
Does send him round the skies.”
So our mothers taught us, and they taught us the truth. But the very wise men of this proudly enlightened age seem to be spinning all sorts of theories to get rid of God, to turn our benefactor out of His own world and put man’s best friend as far away as possible. I am sometimes reminded by these schools of philosophy and science of Tom Hood’s, “I remember, I remember.” Here is a verse of it:
“I remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky.
It was a childish ignorance,
But now ‘tis little joy
To know I’m farther off from heaven
Than when I was a boy.”
It would be a good thing for our skeptical teachers, who have banished God out of His own universe, if they could go back to their mothers’ knees and learn to talk simply and naturally after the fashion of the wisest man that ever lived, namely, our Lord and Master. Then they would also confess that our heavenly Father “makes His sun to rise and He sends the rain,” for so it is.
Laws of nature can do nothing without a power at the back of the laws. What is nature, about which many infidels speak so very plentifully? Ask them to tell you what nature is, and they will reply, “Why, it is nature.” Well, but what is that? And they can only say, “Why, nature, you know, you know, you know, nature is nature.” Some such sensible reply was given to certain of our friends on Kennington Common by one who was there reviling his Maker.
Now, if men did but understand nature, they would know that nature is simply God’s creation, workshop, laboratory, storehouse, and banqueting hall. In nature, what God has made and what God is doing are made visible before our eyes. God is among us still, blessed be His name.
God Speaks to Us Through Nature
Believing this, we at once perceive that the Lord has been talking with us during the last few days very sweetly and delightfully. The merciful Father speaks to us with charming eloquence on such a day as this, of which George Herbert would have said:
“Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky.”
Coming just in the middle of this fair season of hope and promise, concerning which he sang:
“Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,”
it has a still small voice which all should wish to hear. What a blessing to have enjoyed such a May-day as this has been. We have had God speaking to us according to the exact style of our text. He has made His sun to shine, and He has sent rain.
Our days for some little time have been made up of sunshine and shower, with every now and then, that wondrous masterpiece of glory in the sky which we call the rainbow, of which God has said, “I, even I, do set My bow in the cloud,” “whose warp is the raindrop of earth and whose woof is the sunbeam of heaven”—glorious symbol of His grace and faithfulness, who hung it in the clouds.
The Meaning of Sunshine and Rain
Now, what does God say to us in the sunshine and the shower, which come one after the other, in such pleasant alternation, making the grass so green and causing flowers to deck both tree and herb? What does He say in all this? There is a voice full of the music of love, to which we shall do well to listen. There is one instruction in it, and only one, that I shall be able to expound tonight. It is the fact brought out in the text, “He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
One of the most considerable heights anywhere near London is Leith Hill, near Dorking. And if you have ever stood there, as I often have done with delight, you may, perhaps, have thought over our text. Far around you see the distant lands, pasture, cropland, parks, woods, with here and there the laughing water, and beyond the blue hills, the distant sea. Up comes a gleam of sunlight, where all was cloud before. By-and-by the sun bursts out in full beauty.
Impartiality of God’s Blessings
Do you notice how impartial it is? Men have mapped out the country. So far is allotted to this squire, so far to that, with here and there an insignificant patch pilfered from the wayside or the common, which may belong to some industrious peasant. But the sun shines on all, glances into the hall, peeps into the cottage, gleams from the white spire of the church and flashes from the tavern signboard swinging in the breeze. It shines on the wayside and floods the green where the children are at play, with its golden light. It sweeps over all, in fact.
Now, that farm over yonder belongs to a miser who is sure to rake his stubble after the harvest, lest the poor should glean an ear or two—a man who fights and quarrels with his neighbor. Yet the sun shines on his selfish heritage. Yonder farm belongs to one who would, if he could, rob the orphan, the fatherless, and the widow—a heartless wretch, unworthy to gather a sour apple from the sharpest crab tree. Yet the sun shines on his wheat and barley just the same as on that portion of land which belongs to the generous-hearted and the free, to the gracious and the godly.
There is no distinction made between the meadows of the righteous and the pastures of the wicked. As you see the sunlight bathe the whole of the scene before you, the entire landscape smiles with universal joy. While you are watching, that cloud which all day long you had suspected would turn to a shower, comes rushing up with the wind—the Great Father blowing with His breath this traveling fountain of the sky. Then it begins to pour.
Impartial Blessing
We seek the shelter of the lofty tower of Leith without a murmur, for we know that the rain is seasonable. The land needs it. It has been dry and parched for weeks. Down comes the blessed shower that shall fill our barns with plenty. Yes, yes, the Lord is pouring forth a shower of food-creating moisture, and look, it is raining on the miser’s piece of land just as much as on his liberal neighbor’s. It is watering the farm of the man who would rob the fatherless of his shoes if the law permitted him. It is making his broad acres teem with plenty just as surely as it is fattening the poor man’s patch, or falling upon the widow’s scanty plot, or on the farm of the gracious godly man.
As though He did not regard human character at all, God bids His sun shine on good and bad. As though He did not know that any men were vile, He bids the shower descend on just and unjust. Yet He does know, for He is no blind God. He does know and He knows when His sun shines on yonder miser’s acres that it is bringing forth a harvest for a fool. He does it deliberately.
When the rain is falling upon yonder oppressor’s crops, He knows that the oppressor will be the richer for it and means that He should be. He is doing nothing by mistake and nothing without a purpose. It is of His own will that He thus scatters sunlight with both His hands and pours the bounteous shower on all things that grow. He knows what He is doing, blessed be His name. He sends forth, on purpose, sunshine and shower on the evil and on the good, and that is the one lesson we want to bring out tonight.
God’s Grace and Free Mercy
What is the meaning of this boundless generosity? Why this impartial bounty, this indiscriminate liberality? What does God say to us when He acts thus? I believe that He says this—“This is the day of free grace. This is the time of mercy.” The hour for judgment is not yet, when He will separate between the good and the bad, when He will mount the judgment seat and award different portions to the righteous and to the wicked. Sheep and goats, as yet, feed together, and He gives to them all their fodder.
Wheat and tares grow in the same field, and He ripens both for the harvest. This is not the day of justice, but the period of mercy—free, rich mercy—mercy to the undeserving, grace to the worthless, sunlight of love for the evil, and showers of blessings for the unjust. That is the teaching of the great Father to us tonight, and in trying to bring it out, I shall first show how forcible it is made to appear by its being placed as an example. Secondly, I shall dwell upon the act itself, drawing inferences from the impartiality of sunshine and shower to encourage all who long to receive grace at the great Father’s hand. And lastly, I shall let the plants and grass and trees talk to you a little.
An Example of God’s Generosity
First, then, this which is spoken, concerning God’s causing His sunshine to fall on the evil as well as on the good, is set before us as an example and hence the emphasis of its meaning. We are, according to the verses which precede our text, to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good to them that hate us, to pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us, because if we do, we shall be like our Father in heaven who blesses with sunshine and showers the bad as well as the good.
It must mean, then, that He, in causing His sun to shine upon the bad, is rendering good for evil, is wishing well to those who treat Him ill, is intending favor to those that despitefully use Him and persecute His cause. That is what the text means. God would not command us to do what He will not do Himself, if placed in similar circumstances. He bids us forgive because His sunshine and showers teach us that He is ready to forgive. He bids us do good to those who do us ill, because in sunshine and showers He is doing good to those who hate Him and despitefully use Him.
A Higher Standard of Conduct
Now suppose, my brethren, that we were all enabled, by divine grace, to follow out the precept which is set before us? Our conduct would be regarded by most men as being very extraordinary, for most people say, “Well, I will do good to a man if he is a deserving character, but you cannot expect me to help the undeserving. I will cheerfully render a measure of assistance to a person who is grateful, but to the ungrateful and the evil, you do not expect me to be kind?”
Yes, I will be kind to my neighbor, but that man who the other day was so contemptuous in his behavior as to treat me worse than a dog and seemed as if he would tread me under his feet like dirt, would you have me do him kindness?” Now, suppose that you are able to rise to the example which is put before you and that you persistently do good and only good even to the worst of men? And when you are treated with evil, let us suppose you are able to do only more good and thus heap coals of fire upon the offender’s head by being more generous to him than ever—that would be very extraordinary conduct.
You think so, I know, for you feel the proposal to be too hard for flesh and blood to carry out, and so indeed it is. If, however, you are enabled to rise to so great a height, you will astonish all around you and become a wonder to many. Admire, then, with all your hearts, the marvelous conduct of your God. He is prepared to put away all the offenses of the past and He is ready to forgive and to do good to those who have been doing ill all their days. Yes, to take into His very heart of love and make into His children the very persons who have hated Him and spoken evil against Him.
Conclusion: Divine Grace and Mercy
Will it not be extraordinary if He does that to you, dear friend, if such has been your character? Know, then, that the Lord loves to do extraordinary things. “Who is a God like unto You, passing by transgression, iniquity, and sin?” “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His ways above our ways, and His thoughts above our thoughts.” God is prepared to save extraordinary sinners by an extraordinary act of love, wiping out the past and causing them to begin a new life in which they shall be enriched with His favor and preserved by His love.
Grace to the Unworthy
Even so, I have known the grace of God descend on those who have loudly denied His very existence. In our church, there is one at least who, not long ago, was a loud spokesman against God. But upon his dropping into this house, the word came with power to his soul and again, and again, and again, it described his case, till at last, he said, “There is a God, for He has found me out. The preacher seems to know my case and character.” Every time he came, something was said which so accurately described himself that he could not understand it and interpret it in any other way than that God had spoken to his soul.
Now, if God calls by His effectual grace some that even doubt His existence, how much more will He look on you who have been made to tremble before Him and who desire to be reconciled to Him? Surely He will hear the cry of the humble and grant your penitent request. The Lord sends the rain to some that never thank Him for it. “A heavy shower, William,” says the fool. “Yes, Sir,” says his pious servant, “God be thanked for it.” “I do not know much about that, William. I dare say the wind had a good deal to do with it. I knew it would come, for the glass was down.” So he ends that talk.
Yes, but, dear friend, if God sends temporal blessings to those who do not thank Him, will He not give His grace to those of you who feel that you would bless Him forever if He would but save you? A good woman said, when she sought the Lord, “If He saves me, He shall never hear the last of it, for I will praise Him as long as ever I live, and then to all eternity.” Well, now you may reckon quite surely that when a soul feels after that manner, the Lord will not deny it the sun of His love, or the rain of His grace. He gives rain even to those whom He knows will remain thankless; will He not give His Spirit to those who will become His grateful children?
God’s Patience and Generosity
Remember, too, dear friends, that God gives this rain and this sunshine year after year. If I was very kind to a man and he treated me unthankfully, I should think that I had a good deal of grace if I kept on being kind to him for a year. And supposing I kept on seven years, I fancy that I should think that I had endured a long enough trial of him and should get a little tired of being grieved by him—wouldn’t you? Yet, look, God has sent sunshine and showers upon the fields of the wicked all their lives long. He has continued to be kind to them and yet He has not grown weary.
Perhaps some of you are 50 years old and yet have never yielded to the love of God. Ah, you have been hearing sermons these 50 years. Perhaps you are getting on for 70 now. Why, you have heard tender words of love that went further than your ears and touched your conscience, but you have still held out against God. Oh, the patience of God to have borne with you from day to day!
Now, if He has suffered you so long, and if tonight you turn to Him with purpose of heart and say, “I have had enough of this rebellion. Lord, I would be at peace with You,” do you think that He will refuse you? Far from it, for His mercy endures forever.
God’s Endless Grace
One more remark on this—the sunshine which you saw today, I do not doubt, was as bright a sunlight as that which Joshua saw when he bade the sun stand still. And the showers that fell the other day, especially as it fell in these quarters and at Brixton, I should say were quite as plentiful as any downpour which our grandsires can remember. It is evident that the sun’s fire is not burnt out and that the clouds are not exhausted.
Well, it is so in heavenly things, for there the eternal fullness dwells. God has as much love as ever and as much grace as ever. And as a thousand years ago He poured forth His grace to convert the bad and the unjust, He is just as able to pour them out now upon the most guilty and the most worthless. His grace in conversion, pardon, adoption, and preservation is as large as ever. Glory be to His blessed name, He still rains His bounties on the unjust.
And that Christ who, when we were dead in sins, died for us, and who, while we were yet sinners, manifested His great love to us—that Christ who came into the world to save sinners—still abounds in power to save and bless. And if you will go to Him (and oh, may His grace make you), you shall find it to be so.
The Earth, the Flowers, and the Trees
Lest I should weary you, I will finish with the last head, under which I should like to make the earth, the flowers, and the trees which have been watered and warmed, speak to you a little.
And first, I will suppose, dear friend, that you are here tonight and feel that you cannot pray—feel as if you could not come to God, could not do anything. The flowers say, “We are cheered by the sun and refreshed by the rain. We do nothing to deserve these blessings, but we do long for them.” The little flowers say, “We do long for the rain.” Look at them. They droop their heads during a long drought. See the grass, how brown it gets. See the leaves, how dry they are. See the earth, how chapped it is after a dry season.
Now, soul, do long for the mercy of God, pine for it, sigh for it, cry for it. God help you to do that. To be forgiven, to get the love of God shed abroad in your hearts, is not that worth having? Do pant for it, I say, as the flowers sigh for the rain and the sun.
Next, the flowers seem to say, “Do turn to it.” If you keep a plant in your window, see how it grows the way the sun comes. Notice the trees, how they put out their branches sunward. See the sunflower, how it turns its head in the direction of the sun. The flowers love the sun. If you cannot do anything to get divine grace, at least turn your head that way. Look that way. Long that way. Grow that way. You will receive it, it will not be denied. It will come to you. It has come to you if you already have begun to turn to it with longing gaze.
Receiving Grace
Then the flowers seem to say, “Drink it in when it does come.” In January, there was the crocus just peeping up from the soil and the sun shone on it, and in gratitude it brought up from the deeps—from its cellar somewhere—a gold cup and set it out to catch the sunbeams till the sun smiled and graciously filled it to the brim.
And have you noticed when the soft April showers fall, how the flowers seem each to have a cup to hold a share of heaven’s bounty? And certainly beneath the soil, each flower has its little traveling rootlets sucking up each drop of moisture they can find.
Now, dear hearers, when grace does come especially near to you, drink it in. Is the sermon blest to you? Do not go away and lose its influence. Do you feel some tender movements in your conscience? Yield to them. Is there an invitation? Accept it. Is there a threat? Tremble at it. Open your bosom and say, “Come in, my Savior, come in and reign and save my soul from the wrath to come.”
Thanking God for His Grace
But then, the flowers say once more, “Do thank God for it.” The last two or three days, I have seemed to live in a temple. When I go into my garden, I have a choir around me in the trees. They do not wear surplices, for their song is not artificial and official. Some of them are clothed in glossy black, but they sing like little angels. They sing the sun up and wake me at break of day. And they warble on till the last red ray of the sun has departed, still singing out from bush and tree the praises of their God.
And all the flowers—the primroses that are almost gone—these bring into my heart deep meanings concerning God till the last one shuts his eyes. And now the forget-me-nots and the wallflowers and the lilacs and the guilder roses and a host of sweet beauties are pouring out their incense of perfume, as if they said, “Thank the God that made us. Blessed be His name. The earth is full of His goodness.”
Now, dear hearers, if you get the Lord’s grace, thank Him for it. Grow by it, blossom with it, be fragrant with it. If you only receive a little grace, be very grateful for it, for a little grace is worth a great deal. If God gives you grace enough to be called starlight, thank Him for it, and He will give you moonlight. And when you get moonlight grace, thank Him for it and He will give you sunlight. And when you have obtained sunlight grace, thank Him for it and He will give you the light of heaven which is as the light of seven days.
Praying for Grace
Lastly—and this, the flowers cannot teach you, because the flowers cannot do it—pray for grace. It will come. It will come. Do you remember George Herbert’s pretty verse? With that, I will finish. He says:
“The dew does every morning fall—
And shall the dew outstrip
Your dove?
The dew for which grass cannot call—
Drops from above.”
See his point? The dew comes every morning. The grass cannot ask for it, but it comes. And shall the dew be more free and swift than the Holy Spirit? No, says the poet—I can pray for that holy Dove, will He not come to me who prays, since the dew comes to the grass which cannot call for it?
Behold He visits the earth and waters it with the river of God which is full of water and flings back the curtains of the sky and bids the sun shine out with a genial face upon the poor dead soil. And if He does all this for the fields that cannot pray and for flowers that cannot speak, how much more will He do it for you who seek His face through Jesus Christ?
Come, then, to Him. He will gladly welcome you. Come and trust His Son. Come and rest in the merit of Jesus’ blood and you shall find eternal life. May God bless you all, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.