WHAT IS THE VERDICT? – Charles Spurgeon
WHAT IS THE VERDICT?
“Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God.” 1 John 3:21.
Introduction
Carefully observe that this text is spoken to the people of God. It speaks to those who are called, “beloved.” These are the people who are especially loved of God and of His people. It is a very sweet and endearing title, but it evidently, in this case, belongs only to those who are of the family of Grace—these, alone, can remain uncondemned of their hearts and live in confidence towards God. I want you to observe this because there are different ways of addressing different people, and these ways are instructive. To those who are not yet numbered among the beloved, we preach the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a Gospel intended for the sinful and it talks to them of pardon bought with blood—it is a Gospel intended for the ungodly and it speaks to them of the work of the Holy Spirit, whereby their ungodly hearts may be renewed. Its tale is altogether of Grace and free favor and the passing by of transgression, iniquity, and sin to all those who cast themselves believingly at Jesus’ feet. That is the voice of Scripture to those who, as yet, are not beloved. The hope is that the Lord will call them beloved who were not beloved—and that in the place where it was said, “They are not My people,” they shall be called the people of the living God!
But when we come to speak to those who are saved, to those who are the beloved of God, we deal not with the pardon of criminals, but with the conduct of children. They are saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation and, therefore, we do not so much urge them to saving faith as to the higher degree of boldness which grows out of faith—to that confidence towards God which is the right and privilege of the heirs of salvation! We want them not only to know that they have believed, but to be assured of it and to enjoy that holy familiarity with God, that blessed boldness towards God, that sweet joy and restfulness of spirit which are their privilege as the beloved of the Lord. These enjoyments may be had by them if they will be obedient to the directions of the Spirit of God which are laid down by the beloved Apostle in this Epistle.
I. The Trial in the Inner Court of Man’s Nature
As soon as we become children, we are freed from the condemning power of the Law. We are not under the principle and motive of the Law of Works, but yet we are not without Law unto Christ. We come under those sacred regulations which rule the household of God. We are dealt with not as mere subjects are ruled by a king, but as children are governed by a father. We come from under that Law which was promulgated with thunder and lightning and the sound of a trumpet waxing exceedingly loud and long, and we listen to the gentle voice of the Man, Christ Jesus. We come from under that Law which did not permit even a beast to touch the mountain, but kept all Israel at a distance by boundaries set about the mountain, and we draw near with glad hearts unto the Lord. We come, I say, from under the Law and we feel the sway of love. “You are not under the Law, but under Grace” and, therefore, sin shall not have dominion over you. We have come into the family of God—and in that family there is a rule and discipline devised by love and carried out with infinite compassion. Upon our obedience to that discipline, our peace and prosperity depend. If we so live that our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
It appears from the text that this child-like confidence towards God originally arises out of a certain solemn trial of our case. There is to be a trial within the heart, or conscience—a trial in which every power of the inner nature is to take its part as prosecutor, witness, jury, or judge. Out of this trial comes the non-condemnation which gives birth to “confidence toward God.” At this time I shall bring before you, first, the trial in the inward court of the heart. Secondly, the acquittal pronounced by this court, “If our heart condemn us not.” And thirdly, the result, the confidence which comes of this acquittal. “If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” May the Holy Spirit teach us while we think on these things!
II. The Acquittal Issued from This Court
Observe that a man may get an acquittal from the court of conscience, for the question laid before the heart can be settled. It can be ascertained whether I sincerely believe in Jesus Christ. It can be ascertained whether I sincerely love God and love His people. It can be ascertained whether my heart is obedient to the Commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are not hazy, mysterious problems which can never be solved! The case may be made clear one way or the other. The court has no difficulty before it beyond its faculty—it is quite competent to decide the question in the light of Scripture by the help of God. These questions, however, must be debated with great discernment. Suppose a person to be greatly tempted, to be tempted morning, noon and night with foul temptations, yet conscience must not say, “This person is no child of God because he is tempted.” There is no sin in being tempted, since our Lord Jesus was tempted of the devil and yet in Him was no sin. Abundance, yes, superabundance of temptation is no proof against the sincerity of our faith in our God! On the contrary, it may sometimes happen that the more we are tempted the more true it is that there is something in us to tempt, some good thing which Satan seeks to destroy.
Again, the verdict of the heart must be given with discrimination, or otherwise we may judge according to outward circumstances and so judge amiss. It will never do to say, “I am greatly afflicted in estate, in family, or in depression of spirits and, therefore, I cannot be a child of God.” What? Are not God’s children chastened? What son is there whom the Father chastens not? Some of the best children of God have been the most afflicted. Yes, and let me say it pointedly, some of the purest Christians that have ever lived have had the most sickness to bear and by that means they have been made more meet for Heaven, even as the sycamore fig, by being bruised, becomes ripe.
When, therefore, it is suggested that you are not a child of God because you are afflicted, the idea is not to be tolerated, since we are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward! Neither, again, do our imperfections or infirmities decide against us. An enlightened conscience says, “It is true this man has sinned, but it was not of intent, but by inadvertence or surprise. His soul hates the sin into which he fell. He deeply repents of his offense.” The occurrence of sin in the life does not prove a man to be out of Grace. The prevalence of sin, the toleration of sin, the love of sin, the willful continuance in sin would do so—but the fact of imperfection, if wept over and repented of, is not condemnatory evidence! The fact that my child is little and feeble is no proof that he is not my son. The boy may be like his father and yet be only a tiny baby. Weakness and even faultiness may be confessed and yet we may have confidence towards God.
III. The Consequence of This Acquittal
Let us consider the happy state of the man who has had his acquittal in the court of conscience. Your conscience has said, “He is a sincere man. He is a believing man. He is quickened with the life of God. He is an obedient and God-fearing man.” And now you have confidence toward God, or, at least, you have a right to such confidence. What does that confidence or boldness mean?
There is the confidence of truthfulness. When you kneel down to pray, you know that you are praying and not mocking God. When you sing, you are making melody in your heart. When you preach, you are preaching that which your soul believes. If I spoke to you, today, about things which I was not quite sure of, it would be wretched work! But I usually feel a great deal of enjoyment when I am preaching because, to me, the things which I teach are my comfort and life. If you do not enjoy the sermon, at least I do! Sometimes I say to myself, “These doctrines are exceedingly sweet. I feed upon them, myself, and, therefore, the people ought to be fed. And if they are not, it is their own fault.”
A cook may not even get a taste of the meat, but it is not often so with me. Because I believe for myself, I feel a confidence in preaching to you! Confidence towards God is a truthfulness of spirit which prevents our being ashamed in what we do towards Him. Can you say, “Whatever I do, I do it honestly. Though I am not what I wish to be in all things, yet that which I profess before God is true”? Then you have confidence! “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” I do not put spectacles over blind eyes and make people believe that I can see, but I really see. I know I do! I know I trust, I know I love God, I know I love holiness!
This deep sincerity breeds in a man a blessed indifference to the judgments of men. Having a conscience void of offense, he feels a holy freedom as to the formalities of pretence. Look at the hypocrite—he is afraid of being found out! He has to do everything most primly and demurely lest he should be suspected. If you paint your face, you must take care neither to cry nor laugh, lest you crack the enamel! If you wear shoddy clothing, you must not run or jump, for your garments might tear! Accidents must be guarded against when you deal with shams. A hypocrite will censure you very severely for having smiled just now—and he will condemn me outright for being so wicked as to make you smile on such a day. Poor soul, he must keep up his propriety, for it is all he has.
In these times of bad trade, many who are ready to fail are afraid to lower their expenditure for fear their poverty should be suspected—and so they keep up a good appearance to stave off bankruptcy as long as they may. If they were solvent, they would not be so fearful. If your conscience condemns you not, then you enjoy a blessed ease of spirit because the Truth of God is in you. The next kind of confidence is confidence towards God to one’s acceptance with Him. If my heart say, “Yes, you do believe,” then I know, from God’s Word, that I have eternal life. The Word says, “He that believes on Me has everlasting life.” Conscience says, “Yes, you have faith,” and the heart concludes, there is, therefore, now no condemnation. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Believe me, the sweetest stream that ever waters this desert world is the river of confident acceptance in the Beloved! When you know this, your life is gilded with the sunlight of the coming Glory and your heart rejoices exceedingly.
This produces and, perhaps, it is that which the Apostle most intended, a boldness of converse. The man who knows that he is truthful and that God has accepted him, then speaks freely with God! He feels a holy awe of God and never wishes to lose it. He exercises a sacred boldness towards Him. Is it not wonderful to see how Abraham talked with God? He went up to the place where God spoke with Him and, when God told Him that He was about to destroy Sodom, how exquisitely and yet how boldly did Abraham put it—“Will You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? That be far from You.”
What? Does Abraham expostulate with God? Does Abraham dream do an unjust thing? Oh, no! But he is bold and that is the most forcible plea which he can think of and so he urges it again and again with God. How he pushes his case—“I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: perhaps there shall lack five of the 50 righteous: will You destroy all the city for lack of five?” It is wonderful pleading and it illustrates the words, “confidence toward God.”
Look at Job. There was a man whose heart did not condemn him, for he could say, “Lord, You know I am not wicked.” He speaks with God very boldly and he says, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him: I would come even to His seat—I would order my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.” Though the terrors of God might make Him afraid, yet, secure in the quiet of his conscience, he has confidence towards God! Not only confidence in God, mark you, but toward God, so as to speak with God as a man speaks with his friend! Do you understand this? I know you do not if you have any doubt as to your being a child of God. Suspicion makes you a coward, for when your heart does not condemn you and you know that you are right before the Lord, then you feel liberty of converse. This leads to great confidence in prayer. Look at the context. “We have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”
If you want power in prayer you must have purity in life! There is no promise in the Bible made to all of you that whatever you ask, God will give you—it is made to persons of a certain character! The unlimited promise is to the man of God who is so sanctified that he will not ask and does not think of asking anything that is not in accordance with God’s will! Remember this passage—“Delight yourself, also, in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” The desire of the man who delights in God is always in accordance with the mind of God—therefore he is the man that can get whatever he wills. When you do all things that please God and your life is sanctified and holy, then it is that you abide in His love. Has not Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you”?
Unsanctified desires will be graciously refused—but the will of the sincerely obedient man is conformed to the will of God and, therefore, it shall be fulfilled. “This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He hears us.” Our text means, also, that such a man shall have confidence towards God in all service for God. Look at the man of God who has confidence towards God, as to the perils encountered in faithfully following His Lord. Take Daniel, for instance. Daniel does not question about what he has to do when the decree is signed that whoever shall pray, shall be cast into the den of lions. He opens his window as he was accustomed to do. He looks towards Jerusalem and bows his knees as he had done before—and he prays to God as if there were no edict! His confidence toward God is that he is safe in the path of duty. He does not count the cost and neither did the three holy children when the fiery furnace was before them, but they said, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.”
Is not that a blessed confidence towards God which a man obtains when his heart does not condemn him? If Daniel had said, “I shall pray down in the cellar, or with the blinds drawn,” he would have lost all confidence towards God and would not have been the man he was. If the three children had said, “We will bow the knee, but we will make in our minds a secret protest—we will not really worship the idol, but we will worship God while we bow before the image,” they would not have had confidence in God. Alas, what foolish tricks men play with what they call their consciences, nowadays! This wonderful 19th Century is altogether incomprehensible to a simple, honest man! Consciences used to work up and down, yes or no—but now they have an eccentric action, altogether indescribable! A man serves the devil, nowadays, and gets the devil’s pay—and all the while talks of serving God! May you have a conscience void of offense, straight and clear in everything, and so have confidence towards God.
Moreover, we have this confidence towards God in the way of service so that we are sure of receiving all necessary help. God will help the true man and if he comes to a pinch and cannot get on by himself, he may boldly summon others of his Master’s servants to his aid. Look at Joshua fighting with the Amalekites. The day is not long enough and, therefore, he lays his command upon the sun and says to it, “Sun, stand still upon Gibeon and you, moon, in the valley of Ajalon”! He had need of longer daylight and he dared the sun and moon to move an inch till the pursuit of his foes was over. Thus may a servant of God challenge help from earth and Heaven and impress all forces into the service of his Lord. An officer, if he finds himself in straits, impresses anybody that passes by, saying, “In the King’s name, help me.” Even so, if you do your Lord’s bidding and if conscience condemns you not, you may impress into the service of the great King every angel in Heaven and every force of Nature as need requires!
I wish I had time to tell you all that confidence towards God means. It means rest, perfect rest. Look at your Lord when the tempest was on. Loud roaring, the billows come near to overwhelming the ship, but He is asleep! Nobody but He could dare to slumber because nobody else had such confidence in God! He knew the vessel was safe, why should He worry? True, He was Lord High Admiral of the seas and had responsibility not only for His own flagship, but for the whole fleet of little ships that sailed with Him that day—but He did not give way to sleeplessness because of that—He cast Himself on God and fell asleep! It was the best thing to do. You and I may do the same—we need not be frightened nor worried, nor troubled, but just trust in the Lord and do good and so shall we dwell in the land and, verily, we shall be fed. This is confidence towards God!
This confidence often mounts up into joy till the Christian man overflows with delight in God. He cannot contain his happiness. As Solomon says, he eats his bread with joy, for God has accepted his works. He lives with the wife of his youth in full contentment and his children are a blessing to him. He goes to his toil rejoicing to serve God in his calling and he comes home at night to repose himself in the care of his God and Father. All is well and he knows it. Blessed man that has confidence in God! Such a man goes up to his last bed when the message comes that the spirit must return to God who gave it—he goes to die without alarm—his conscience does not condemn him and, therefore, he lays himself down in patience and waits the signal to be with God. Meanwhile the light of Heaven steals over his face and they that come to cheer and comfort him hear strange words, like notes of the birds of Paradise, dropping from his lips. They see that he is in pain, but they also mark that he is baptized in enjoyment. They think that he is dying, but he testifies that he is entering into life! The pearly gates are open before him—the glitter of the golden street is meeting his failing eyes. Hear him sing, as best as his failing breath permits— “And when you see my eye-strings break, How sweet my minutes roll! A mortal paleness on my cheek, But glory in my soul!”
Now he is gone, gone into the land of spirits! He stands before his God and he does not tremble. He has that eagle-eye which can bear the light of the eternal sun! His heart condemns him not and he has confidence towards God. Amidst the supernal splendors he cries, “My Father!” Angels are crying, “Lord and God,” but he says, “My Father”—and those loyal servants make room for a royal child! The shining ones escort the happy spirit to the blessed Father’s feet. There we leave him. “Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God.” God bless you. Amen.