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Hope
Unlimited
Chapter
10: Alas! I Can Do Nothing!
AFTER THE ANXIOUS HEART has accepted the doctrine of atonement, and
learned the great truth that salvation is by faith in the Lord
Jesus, it is often deeply troubled with a sense of inability toward
that which is good. Many are groaning, "I can do nothing."
They are not making this into an excuse, but they feel it as a daily
burden. They would if they could, but they can each one honestly say,
"I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out."
This
feeling seems to make all the gospel null and void; for what is the
use of food to a hungry man if he cannot eat of it? Of what use is
the river of the water of life if one cannot drink from it?
We recall the
story of the doctor and the poor woman's child. The wise
practitioner told the mother that her little one would soon be
better under proper treatment, but it was absolutely needful that
her boy should regularly drink the best wine, and that he should
spend a season at one of the German health resorts. This, to a widow who could
hardly get bread to eat! Now, it sometimes seems to the troubled
heart that the simple gospel of "Believe and live," is
not, after all, so very simple; for it asks the poor sinner to do
what he cannot do. To the really awakened, but half instructed,
there appears to be a missing link; yonder is the salvation of
Jesus, but how is it to be reached? The soul is without strength,
and knows not what to do. He or she lies within sight of the city of
refuge, and cannot enter its gate.
Is
this want of strength provided for in the plan of salvation? It is.
The work of the Lord is perfect. It begins where we are, and asks
nothing of us in order to find its completion. When the good Samaritan
saw the traveler lying wounded and half dead, he did not bid him
rise and come to him, and mount the ass and ride off to the inn. No,
"he came where he was," and ministered to him, and lifted
him upon the beast and bore him to the inn. Thus doth the Lord Jesus
deal with us in our low and wretched estate.
We
have seen that God justifies, that He justifies the ungodly and
that He justifies them through faith in the precious blood of Jesus;
we have now to see the condition these ungodly ones are in when
Jesus works out their salvation. Many awakened persons are not only
troubled about their sin, but about their moral weakness. They have
no strength with which to escape from the mire into which they have
fallen, nor to keep out of it in after days. They not only lament
over what they have done, but over what they cannot do. They feel
themselves to be powerless, helpless, and spiritually lifeless. It
may sound odd to say that they feel dead, and yet it is even so.
They are, in their own esteem, incapable of performing any good
deed. They cannot
travel the road to Heaven, for their bones are broken. "None of
the men of strength have found their hands;" in fact, they are
"without strength." Happily, it is written, as a love
letter from God to us -
"When
we were yet without strength, in due time Jesus died for the
ungodly." (Rom 5:6)
Here
we see how God - in Jesus - came to our rescue in our time of
distress. Our helplessness is extreme. It is
not written, "When we were comparatively weak Jesus died for
us"; or, "When we had only a little strength"; but
the description is absolute and unrestricted; "When we were yet
without strength." We had no strength whatever which could aid
in our salvation; our Lord's words were emphatically true,
"Without me ye can do nothing." I may go further than the
text, and remind you of the great love wherewith the Lord loved us,
"even when we were dead in trespasses and sins." To be
dead is even more than to be without strength.
The
one thing that the poor "strengthless" sinner has to fix his mind
upon, and firmly retain, as his one ground of hope, is the divine
assurance that "in due time Jesus died for the ungodly."
Believe this, and all inability will disappear. As it is fabled of
Midas that he turned everything into gold by his touch, so it is
true of faith that it turns everything it touches into good. Our
very needs and weaknesses become blessings when faith deals with
them.
Let
us dwell upon certain forms of this want of strength. To begin with,
one man will say, "Sir, I do not seem to have strength to
collect my thoughts, and keep them fixed upon those solemn topics
which concern my salvation; a short prayer is almost too much for
me. It is so partly, perhaps, through natural weakness, partly
because I have injured myself through dissipation, and partly also
because I worry myself with worldly cares, so that I am not capable
of those high thoughts which are necessary ere a soul can be
saved." This is a very common form of sinful weakness. Note
this! You are without strength on this point; and there are many
like you. They could not carry out a train of consecutive thought to
save their lives. Many poor men and women are illiterate and
untrained, and these would find deep thought to be very heavy work.
Others are so light and trifling by nature, that they could no more
follow out a long process of argument and reasoning, than they could
fly. They could never attain to the knowledge of any profound
mystery if they expended their whole life in the effort. You need
not, therefore, despair: that which is necessary to salvation is not
continuous thought, but a simple reliance upon Jesus. Please
hold on to
this one fact--"In due time Jesus died for the ungodly."
This truth will not require from you any deep research or profound
reasoning, or convincing argument. There it stands: "In due
time Jesus died for the ungodly." Fix your mind on that, and
rest there.
Let
this one great, gracious, glorious fact lie in your spirit till it
perfumes all your thoughts, and makes you rejoice even though you
are without strength, seeing the Lord Jesus has become your strength
and your song, yea, He has become your salvation. According to the
Scriptures it is a revealed fact, that in due time Jesus died for
the ungodly when they were yet without strength. You have heard
these words hundreds of times, maybe, and yet you have never before
perceived their meaning. There is a cheering savor about them, is
there not? Jesus did not die for our righteousness, but He died for
our sins. He did not come to save us because we were worth the
saving, but because we were utterly worthless, ruined, and undone.
He came not to earth out of any reason that was in us, but solely
and only out of reasons which He fetched from the depths of His own
divine love. In due time He died for those whom He describes, not as
godly, but as ungodly, applying to them as hopeless an adjective as
He could well have selected. If you have but little mind, fasten
it to this truth, for it is fitted to the smallest capacity, and it is
able to cheer the heaviest heart. Let this text lie under your
tongue like a sweet morsel, till it dissolves into your heart and
flavours all your thoughts; and then it will little matter though
those thoughts should be as scattered as autumn leaves. Persons who
have never shone in science, nor displayed the least originality of
mind, have nevertheless been fully able to accept the doctrine of
the cross, and have been saved thereby. Why should this not happen
to you?
I
hear another man cry, "Oh, sir my want of strength lies mainly
in this, that I cannot repent sufficiently!" A curious idea men
have of what repentance is! Many fancy that so many tears are to be
shed, and so many groans are to be heaved, and so much despair is to
be endured. Whence comes this unreasonable notion? Unbelief and
despair are sins, and therefore I do not see how they can be
constituent elements of acceptable repentance; yet there are many
who regard them as necessary parts of true Christian experience.
They are in great error. Still, I know what they mean, for in the
days of my darkness I used to feel in the same way. I desired to
repent, but I thought that I could not do it, and yet all the while
I was repenting. Odd as it may sound, I felt that I could not feel.
I used to get into a corner and weep, because I could not weep; and
I fell into bitter sorrow because I could not sorrow for sin. What a
jumble it all is when in our unbelieving state we begin to judge our
own condition! It is like a blind man looking at his own eyes. My
heart was melted within me for fear, because I thought that my heart
was as hard as a grinding stone. My heart was broken to
think that it would not break. Now I can see that I was exhibiting
the very thing which I thought I did not possess; but then I knew
not where I was.
Oh
that I could help others into the light which I now enjoy! Fain
would I say a word which might shorten the time of their
bewilderment. I would say a few plain words, and pray that the Holy
Spirit would impress these plain words upon their hearts.
Remember
that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own
repentance. We can no more repent perfectly than we can live
perfectly. However pure our tears, there will always be some dirt in
them: there will be something to be repented of even in our best
repentance. But listen! To repent is to change your mind about sin,
and Jesus, and all the great things of God. There is sorrow implied
in this; but the main point is the turning of the heart from sin to Jesus. If there be this turning, you have the essence of true
repentance, even though no alarm and no despair should ever have
cast their shadow upon your mind.
If
you cannot repent as you would, it will greatly aid you to do so if
you will firmly believe that "in due time Jesus died for the
ungodly." Think of this again and again. How can you continue
to be hard-hearted when you know that out of supreme love
"Jesus died for the ungodly"? Let me persuade you to
reason with yourself thus: Ungodly as I am, though this heart of
stone will not relent, though I smite in vain upon my breast, yet He
died for such as I am, since He died for the ungodly. Oh that I may
believe this and feel the power of it upon my stony heart!
Blot
out every other reflection from your soul, and sit down quietly, and meditate deeply on this one resplendent display of
unmerited, unexpected, unexampled love, "Jesus died for the
ungodly." Read over carefully the narrative of His death, as you find it in the four
gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. If anything can melt
your stubborn heart, it will be a sight of the sufferings of Jesus,
and the consideration that he suffered all this for His enemies -
even for you.
O
Jesus! sweet the tears I shed,
While at Thy feet I kneel,
I gaze on Your wounded, fainting head,
And all Thy sorrows feel.
My
heart dissolves to see Thee bleed,
This heart so hard before;
I hear Thee for the guilty plead,
And grief overflows the more.
It
was
for the sinful Thou didst die,
And I a sinner stand:
Convinced by Your expiring eye,
Convicted by Thy pierced hand.
Surely
the cross is that wonder-working rod which can bring water out of a
rock. If you understand the full meaning of the divine sacrifice of
Jesus, you must repent of ever having been opposed to One who is so
full of love.
It is written, "they will look on
Him whom they have pierced [at the cross]; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."
You see, repentance will not make you see Jesus; but to see Jesus will give you repentance. You may not make
a Jesus out of your repentance, but you must look to Jesus for repentance. The Holy Ghost, by turning us to
Jesus, turns us from sin.
Look away, then, from the effect to the cause, from your own
repenting to the Lord Jesus, who is exalted on high to give
repentance.
I
have heard another say, "I am tormented with horrible thoughts.
Wherever I go, blasphemies steal in upon me. Frequently at my work a
dreadful suggestion forces itself upon me, and even on my bed I am
startled from my sleep by whispers of the evil one. I cannot get
away from this horrible temptation." Friend, I know what you
mean, for I have myself been hunted by this wolf. A man might as
well hope to fight a swarm of flies with a sword as to master his
own thoughts when they are set on by the devil. A poor tempted soul,
assailed by satanic suggestions, is like a traveller I have read of,
about whose head and ears and whole body there came a swarm of angry
bees. He could not keep them off nor escape from them. They stung
him everywhere and threatened to be the death of him. I do not
wonder you feel that you are without strength to stop these hideous
and abominable thoughts which Satan pours into your soul; but yet I
would remind you of the Scripture before us - "When we were yet
without strength, in due time Jesus died for the ungodly."
Jesus knew where we were and where we should be; He saw that we
could not overcome the prince of the power of the air; He knew that
we should be greatly worried by him; but even then, when He saw us
in that condition, Jesus died for the ungodly. Cast the anchor of
your faith upon this. The devil himself cannot tell you that you are
not ungodly; believe, then, that Jesus died even for such as you
are. Remember Martin Luther's way of cutting the devil's head off
with his own sword. "Oh," said the devil to Martin Luther,
"you are a sinner." "Yes," said he, "Jesus
died to save sinners." Thus he smote him with his own sword.
Hide you in this refuge, and keep there: "In due time Jesus died for the ungodly." If you stand to that truth, your
blasphemous thoughts which you have not the strength to drive away
will go away of themselves; for Satan will see that he is answering
no purpose by plaguing you with them.
These
thoughts, if you hate them, are none of yours, but are injections of
the Devil, for which he is responsible, and not you. If you strive
against them, they are no more yours than are the cursings and
falsehoods of rioters in the street. It is by means of these
thoughts that the Devil would drive you to despair, or at least keep
you from trusting Jesus. The poor diseased woman could not come to
Jesus because of the crowd, and you are in much the same condition, because
of the rush and throng of these dreadful thoughts. Still, she put
forth her finger, and touched the fringe of the Lord's garment, and
she was healed. That is all you have to do.
Jesus
died for those who are guilty of "all manner of sin and
blasphemy," and therefore I am sure He will not refuse those
who are unwillingly the captives of evil thoughts. Cast yourself
upon Him, thoughts and all, and see if He be not mighty to save. He
can still those horrible whisperings of the fiend, or He can enable
you to see them in their true light, so that you may not be worried
by them. In His own way He can and will save you, and at length give
you perfect peace. Only trust Him for this and everything else.
Sadly
perplexing is that form of inability which lies in a supposed
"lack of power to believe." We are not strangers to the cry:
Oh
that I could believe,
Then all would easy be;
I would, but cannot; Lord, relieve,
My help must come from thee.
Many
remain in the dark for years because they have no power, as they
say, to trust no more in their own power and to trust fully in
the power of another, even the Lord Jesus. Indeed, it is a very
curious thing, this whole matter of believing; for people do not get
much help by trying to believe. Believing does not come by trying.
If a person were to make a statement of something that happened this
day, I should not tell him that I would try to believe him. If I
believed in the truthfulness of the man who told the incident to me
and said that he saw it, I should accept the statement at once. If I
did not think him a true man, I should, of course, disbelieve him;
but there would be no trying in the matter. Now, when God declares
that there is salvation in Christ Jesus, I must either believe Him
at once, or make Him a liar. Surely you will not hesitate as to
which is the right path in this case, The witness of God must be
true, and we are bound at once to believe in Jesus.
But
possibly you have been trying to believe too much. Now do not aim at
great things. Be satisfied to have a faith that can hold in its hand
this one truth "at just the right time, when we were still powerless,
Jesus died for the ungodly." He laid down His life for
men even before they believed in Him, even before they were able to
believe in Him. He died for men, not as believers, but as sinners.
He came to make these sinners into believers and saints; but when He
died for them He viewed them as utterly without strength -
powerless. If you
hold to the truth that Jesus died for the ungodly, and believe it,
your faith will save you, and you may go in peace. If you will trust
your soul with Jesus, who died for the ungodly, even though you
cannot believe all things, nor move mountains, nor do any other
wonderful works, yet His salvation is for you. It is not great
faith, but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in
the Jesus in whom faith trusts. Faith as a grain of mustard seed
will bring salvation. It is not the measure of faith, but the
sincerity of faith, which is the point to be considered. Surely a
man can believe what he knows to be true; and as you know Jesus to
be true, you, my friend, can believe in Him.
The
cross which is the object of faith, is also, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, the cause of faith. Sit down and, using the mind's eye,
watch the dying Saviour
till faith springs up spontaneously in your heart. There is no place
like Calvary for creating confidence. The air of that sacred hill
brings health to trembling faith. Many a watcher there has said:
While
I view You, wounded, grieving,
Breathless on the cursed tree,
Lord, I feel my heart believing
That you suffered thus for me.
"Alas!"
cries another, "my want of strength lies in this direction,
that I cannot quit my sin, and I know that I cannot go to Heaven and
carry my sin with me." I am glad that you know that, for it is
quite true. You must be divorced from your sin, or you cannot be
married to Jesus. Recollect the question which flashed into the
mind of young John Bunyan when at his sports on the green on Sunday:
"Will you have your sins and go to hell, or will you quit your sins and go to heaven?" That brought him to a dead stand. That
is a question which every man will have to answer: for there is no
going on in sin and going to heaven. That cannot be. You must quit
sin or quit hope. Do you reply, "Yes, I am willing enough. But
sin masters me, and I have no strength." Come, then,
if you have no strength, this text is still true, "When we were
yet without strength, in due time Jesus died for the ungodly."
Can you still believe that? However other things may seem to
contradict it, will you believe it? God has said it, and it is a
fact; therefore, hold on to it like grim death, for your only hope
lies there. Believe this and trust Jesus, and you shall soon find
power with which to slay your sin; but apart from Him, the strong
man of sin will hold you for ever in slavery. Personally, I could
never have overcome my own sinfulness. I tried and failed. My evil
propensities were too many for me, till, in the belief that Jesus died for me, I cast my guilty soul on Him, and then I received a
conquering principle by which I overcame my sinful self. The
doctrine of the cross can be used to slay sin, even as the old
warriors used their huge two-handed swords, and mowed down their
foes at every stroke. There is nothing like faith in the sinner's
Friend: it overcomes all evil. If Jesus has died for me, ungodly as
I am, without strength as I am, then I cannot live in sin any
longer, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who suffered so
for me and who has redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil which slew my best
Friend. I must be holy for His sake. How can I live in sin when He
has died to save me from it?
See
what a splendid help this is to you that are without strength, to
know and believe that in due time Jesus died for such ungodly ones
as you are. Have you caught the idea yet? It is, somehow, so
difficult for our darkened, prejudiced, and unbelieving minds to see
the essence of the gospel. At times I have thought, when I have done
preaching, that I have laid down the gospel so clearly, that the
nose on one's face could not be more plain; and yet I perceive that
even intelligent hearers have failed to understand what was meant by
"Look unto me and be ye saved." Converts usually say that
they did not know the gospel till such and such a day; and yet they
had heard it for years. The gospel is unknown, not from want of
explanation, but from absence of personal revelation. This the Holy
Ghost is ready to give, and will give to those who ask Him. Yet when
given, the sum total of the truth revealed all lies within these
words: "Jesus died for the ungodly."
I
hear another bewailing himself thus: "Oh, sir, my weakness lies
in this, that I do not seem to keep long in one mind! I hear the
word on a Sabbath, and I am impressed; but in the week I meet with an
evil companion, and my good feelings are all gone. My fellow workmen
do not believe in anything, and they say such terrible things, and I
do not know how to answer them, and so I find myself knocked
over." I know this Pliable Person very well, and I tremble for
him; but at the same time, if he is really sincere, his weakness can
be met by divine grace. The Holy Spirit can cast out the evil spirit
of the fear of man. He can make the coward brave. Remember, my poor
vacillating friend, you must not remain in this state. It will never
do to be mean and beggarly to yourself. Stand upright, and look at
yourself, and see if you were ever meant to be like a toad under a
harrow, afraid for your life either to move or to stand still. Do
have a mind of your own. This is not a spiritual matter only, but
one which concerns ordinary manliness. I would do many things to
please my friends; but to go to hell to please them is more than I
would venture. It may be very well to do this and that for good
fellowship; but it will never do to lose the friendship of God in
order to keep on good terms with men. "I know that," says
the man, "but still, though I know it, I cannot pluck up
courage. I cannot show my colours. I cannot stand fast." Well,
to you also I have the same text to bring: "When we were yet
without strength, in due time Jesus died for the ungodly." If
Peter were here, he would say, "The Lord Jesus died for me even
when I was such a poor weak creature that the maid who kept the fire
drove me to lie, and to swear that I knew not the Lord." Yes,
Jesus died for those who forsook him and who fled from Him. Take a firm grip on
this truth - "Jesus died for the ungodly while they were yet
without strength." This is your way out of your cowardice. Get
this wrought into your soul, "Jesus died for me," and you
will soon be ready to die for Him. Believe it, that He suffered in
your place, and He satisfied fully the law on your behalf. If you believe that fact, you will be forced
to feel, "I cannot be ashamed of Him who died for me." A
full conviction that this is true will nerve you with a dauntless
courage. Look at the saints in the martyr age. In the early days of
Christianity, when this great thought of Jesus' exceeding love was
sparkling in all its freshness in the church, men were not only
ready to die, but they grew ambitious to suffer, and even presented
themselves by hundreds at the judgment seats of the rulers,
confessing their belief in Jesus. I do not say that they were wise to court a
cruel death; but it proves my point, that a sense of the love of
Jesus lifts the mind above all fear of what man can do to us. Why
should it not produce the same effect in you? Oh that it might now
inspire you with a brave resolve to come out upon the Lord's side,
and be His follower to the end!
May
the Holy Spirit help us to come thus far by faith in the Lord Jesus,
and it will be well!
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