Tag: God

“The Rock that is Higher than I“

January 20, 1957

Now, to help us this morning, I want to read four verses of the sixty-first Psalm. About two years ago, I gave a little prayer meeting talk about this one Wednesday night, but I want to develop it more fully today in the form of a sermon. The man of God says, Hear my cry O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry under Thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. Now, the punctuation there can be shifted around. Probably, he said this, from the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee when my heart is overwhelmed, or he could have said, from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, because he had just said he was crying unto the Lord. And then added, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for thou hath been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.

I asked you to notice just as a matter of intellectual curiosity only, that this man in four verses here, has packed so many figures of speech, that it’s a joyous confusion. It is like the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. Everything’s delightful, but everything’s badly mixed up. When my heart is overwhelmed, that could only mean a boat. And then the rock, lead me to the rock. For Thou hast been a shelter and Thou hast been a strong tower. And I will abide in Thy tabernacle, and I will trust in the covets of thy wings. There is the daring of genius, shifting figures and metaphors as he pleases.

Now, I asked you to notice that this was written a great many hundred years before Christ was born, before He had ever uttered those wonderful words, God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. And yet, here is a Jew, who has been taught that there is only one land properly, and that’s Israel; only one people and that’s the Jewish people; only one place to pray, and that is Jerusalem; only one direction to face and that is toward Jerusalem. And yet here is this Jew breaking through this form to the mercy of God. And he tells us and anticipates by many hundred years, what the New Testament taught, and what a lot of Christians have forgotten, that God is everywhere. Not only in the temple in Jerusalem between the wings of the cherubim, but that God is everywhere and that the church is anywhere where two people meet in the name of Jesus, and that help may be found wherever it is needed.

Now, this was learned by this Jew under pressure. He doesn’t tell us what pressure it was. And I have read the commentators on this and various translators to try to get some help, but they never give you any help, never. The thing to do is read the Bible and leave the commentators to their infinitive splitting. But God is everywhere and the church is anywhere and help may be found everywhere. Now, that is in this text lying dormant, lying as an oak tree lies in an acorn. Ready, if it’s given time to break out into a mighty oak, inviting the birds and sheltering the beast and living and outliving generations of men.

I might say here though it’s not properly, I suppose part of the sermon, that’s the best theology you’ll ever learn will be learned under pressure. And the least useful theology you’ll ever learn is that which you learn the easiest way, that is, by Bible classes. I believe in Bible classes and teach them all the time. But, that’s the least important thing that you can learn. A man will learn more philosophy, spiritual philosophy and more truth when he gets under pressure if he prays and seeks God than he can never learn any other way. I think that not all the rabbis in Israel could have taught David to pray from the ends of the earth will I cry under Thee, but David’s troubles taught him to say that. Or, if it was David. Some scholars think it was David when Absalom drove him out of Jerusalem and he was far away and felt that he was literally at the ends of the earth, though he wasn’t too far away as we look at such things.

Now, the man said this, and this is really what I’m interested in. When my heart is overwhelmed, he said. I want to ask this question. Of what does man consists? You know that we are not like a diamond, all one piece. We’re not like God, unitary, in the sense that we have no parts. We are thrown together. And, I want to know, what is that, that is the man? What is it? Now, is it his body? It can’t be the body that’s the man, because when the man dies, we talk about the man and his body. We say John Smith was a fine Christian and the church owes a lot to his godliness and his prayer. He was, John Smith was, we say. And the body can be viewed at such and such an undertakers. We distinguish unconsciously between the man and his body. And well we might, and it’s the wisdom of the ages that has given us this language to distinguish the man from his body, bone and muscle. Bone and muscle don’t constitute the man. And therefore, we when we say, the man, we do not mean his muscle or his blood even, because the man is not there. That’s not the man. You can separate the man from his muscle and blood and you still have the man. Well, certainly then, if his body is not the man, his goods wouldn’t be the man. What we have as property is all right, and we’re glad for anything the Lord allows us to have if we haven it honestly and give generously. But, that’s not us. That’s not the man.

We say when a man dies, how much was he worth? And we mean, how much did he have? Well, he’s worth 90 cents the chemists say. Probably with this inflation he’s worth about $1.06. But, they used to say he’s worth 90 cents. That is, that you could buy a 160-pound man at the drugstore for about 96 cents. I don’t want to give any of you ladies any wrong ideas, but the body of a man, the body of the man can be had for about that amount. So how ridiculous it is to say he’s worth 96 cents. No, that’s the tabernacle in which he lived. He is worth what God paid for him in blood and tears. The man is worth everything. Ten thousand worlds could not be compared with him.

And it’s not the man’s goods. I was thinking how we judge each other by our clothing. An ad says 90% of us is covered up and the most we all see is our face. Well, that’s true, face in hand, that’s true, and clothing means a lot. And now in these days, lots of money, a great deal is made of clothing. But you know one of the most pitiful, touching things in the wide world is a very fine garment after it’s been discarded. It has a miserable, deserted, rundown, discouraged look that nothing else I know of has, unless it is an expensive automobile after it’s been put out on the back lot. If you want to experience a feeling that’s a bit different, just stop sometime when you pass one of these graveyards for forgotten automobiles and go out and look them over. There with so much rust that you can scrape it off with your thumb. They’re passing back into the elements there. Weather-beaten and forgotten is an automobile. And, if you walk around to the front you’ll see the proud name, Packard or Lincoln. Proud names they are, but how unutterably pitiful when they’re pushed out to rot away or rust away and be forgotten. Surely your goods are not you? Surely, no matter how large the car, how big the house, how wonderful is the property, it isn’t you.

When my heart, said the man of God, and there he got through to what a man is. A man is heart. It is a heart living in a body. And our thoughts and fears and hopes and aspirations and loves and joys and worship. And in faith, all this is the man. That’s the man, that’s the heart. Think of Jacob. Jacob had cattle, lots of cattle, but his cattle and his herds were not Jacob. But when his son was killed, or he thought he had been killed, and was shown as proof, the bloody garment, he said, I will go down now into the grave mourning for my son. There was Jacob. Jacob was found when he was mourning for his son. And that same Jacob would have mourned in the same way, if he had nothing but one little ewe lamb to his name. And if all the herds and sheep and camels that he possessed had not been his, Jacob would have still been there saying, I will go down to the grave mourning for my son. There we have the grave. There we have tears. There we have love. There we have relationship. There we have father and son. And there we have death. That’s the man my brother.

David, when David was driven from his throne, and some say he wrote this when he was driven from his throne, as I’ve said. David, driven from his throne across the river, and that wicked man cursing him every inch of the way. Why that was not David. David with his crown off his head and his scepter out of his hand and wearing the common business clothes of his time, no longer king. That was not David. No, no. But when Solomon who had driven him from the, not Solomon, Absalom, who had driven him from his throne, was killed. Then, David went in and knelt down by the coffin and said, Oh, Solomon, Solomon, ah, Absalom, Absalom, my son. Oh, that I had died for thee! Would God that I had died for thee. There you found David mourning for Absalom. But when David was simply being chased through the mountains, that was not David. And when David was driven from his throne and gave it up, that was not David. But when David’s heart was broken over the death of a bad boy that he still loved, Absalom, that was David.

Then there’s Peter. Peter left his nets you remember and went along and he got whipped, and he got thrown into jail, and he got taken out and all. That wasn’t really Peter. Peter was living in there, and I suppose feeling it, but a whipping. You can’t whip a man really. You can only whip his body. You can’t really put a man in jail.

The famous Madam Guyon wrote a little hymn when she was in prison. And she said a little bird am I shut in these walls. Well, she was just a bird in the cage. And yet, she could soar and sing and worship and walk with God. And the man in the prison, his imagination can range, and his heart can rise to God. So, that wasn’t Peter when he was in jail. But later when Peter was crucified for his faith, and out of the joy of loyalty of his heart and remembering his failure at the time of his Lord’s crucifixion, he begged them to crucify him upside down because he wasn’t worthy to be crucified right side up. That was Peter. Then you got through to the man. You got through to the heart of the man.

You might go down through all the Bible, and through all Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs” and through all biography and church history, and show that the man is never the external. The man is never his office, or his clothes. The Pope over on the throne sitting there that gaunt-faced, serious-minded, old chap with all of his thrones and his hats and all the rest. That’s not the man. But, one of these days, that heart of his that’s beated so long will suddenly stop and he’ll face his Maker. There you’ll have the man. That’s the man, the heart of the man, and so with every bishop, and so with every pastor, and so with all of us together.

My heart, that’s the man my friends. And you will find that your heart is always you. And that these other things are not you at all. And we Christians are called to the cultivation of the heart. And it’s a sad thing to me that Christianity in our day, even evangelical Christianity has forgotten that people have hearts. Our magazines have gone statistical, and how to do it, and surveys, and all the rest. And we’re talking about ecumenisity and percentages and numbers, and architecture and all that.

We’re living on the outside where it’s said in the book that man, God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship him in Spirit. And we’re called to be internal men and women, living within. But, instead of that, we have gotten out. And so now, books are written, magazines published, and lectures and sermons all the time, and the heart is never mentioned. We turned the heart over to Hollywood. And the only time the heart is mentioned much anymore, is when some sultry gal from out there moans about her heart. I’ve heard cows in the same tone of voice and with the same thing wrong with them, bellowing in the pasture field.

But when our hearts have been turned over to the world, and the only meaning it has is sex love, we Christians have voided our responsibility and forgotten our religion. For Christianity is the religion of the heart. God has made us to be men and women of the heart, of spirit, of soul, of loyalty and faith and love and memory and worship. This is the heart of the man. And David said when my heart is overwhelmed. Now, I don’t know what happened. But I know that David’s life was was hit hard, very hard. And that the three parts of the man that we usually say make up the personality, the mental, the volitionally, emotion, all of them had been overwhelmed.

And overwhelmed of course is like the capsizing of a boat. It is like the landslide that buries the cars and the trains. It is just liked the avalanche in the mountains that buries whole villages sometimes. And so, when the heart is overwhelmed, life has its earthquakes and life has its avalanches and life has its overwhelming experiences; mental experiences where you stand perplexed, volitional experiences where you stand in a state of indecision. And one of our harshest, harshest situations that life presents us with, is to find a man fleeing at a crossroad and not knowing which road to take. He’s compelled by fear behind him to flee. And he’s compelled by uncertainty and indecision to stand still not knowing which of a half dozen directions he might take. And that’s to be overwhelmed.

And then, what can a man say about the pain? We talked about physical pain, but it’s still my belief, after all the years, that the greatest pain is not physical pain at all. The greatest pain is the pain of the heart.

There was an old saying down in one of the southern states where I used to preach sometimes, about children. When they’re little they tramp on your feet. But when they get big, they tramp on your heart. That came out of the bitterness of practical experience. That was not a cynical conclusion reached by a grouch. That was the wisdom of the countryside; the knowledge that when your little one is a little one, he can tramp on your feet. He can make you frightened by getting suddenly sick in the night. Or, he can come in with a bump that you’re afraid a fracture. That’s tramping on your feet. But when he gets to be 25 or 30 years old, he or she and, or younger even, run out on you and turn their back on you. That’s tramping on your heart.

And so we have these earthquakes, these avalanches that overwhelm us. But I think we should stay by David’s figure, because he talked about being overwhelmed and that means by water. And evidently, he had a boat in mind. When I am overwhelmed. When my boat capsizes, oh, my God, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Now, when your capsized out on a lake or on an ocean, it’s too far back to the shore. There’s no use even hoping to get back. The only hope is that there may be a rock within swimming distance. A rock that you can get to and await rescue.

Now, when the heart of mankind was overwhelmed at the fall, when Adam and Eve took hand in hand and walked out from the garden, and when their children were born out there and when Cain became a fugitive and with a mark on his brow, there was over whelming grief. There was a capsized boat. And the old man of God says lead me to a Rock that is higher than I.

Now, I want to warn you against certain rocks. Because there are rocks that are found everywhere and, in every age, they’re turning up in some form. There is the stoical rock, it says live hard and kill your feeling and cultivate reason. One of the old folk songs that would hardly rate as a folk song, but at least it’s one of the people songs. You will find it in all the books that have Annie Laurie and the rest. It is this. It starts out this way, love not, the one you will love may die. That’s the first line. That’s about as far as I’m interested in it. Love not, the one you love might die. That’s stoicism. Never let yourself get attached to any human being because that human being may betray you.

There is the philosophy of the cynic. That’s the philosophy of the devil. God allowed Himself to get attached to the human race and endured the broken heart when that race betrayed Him. Jesus loved John and Peter and James and endured the heartache along with the crucifixion when his disciples deserted him and fled. So that’s an unworthy sentence, love not for who you love may die. Men become cold hard clods and murder their humanity. Not many are like that in our time, but there are the stoics. They will always turn up everywhere saying, be hard.

Then over on the other side, the Epicureans who say the opposite. You were born for pleasure therefore get all you can out of it. Paul quoted the Epicureans without approval of course in one of his epistles when he said eat drink and be merry for tomorrow, we die. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. That is the language of Epicureanism. And then, there is the rock of education. There’s the rock of religion. And I could name are many rocks that come up and appear there but they’re not rocks at all. They’re simply illusions.

Now, is there a rock when my heart is overwhelmed? Lead me to the rock that is higher than. Is there a rock that is high enough?  Oh, my friend, there is a Rock that can be seen above the waves. We used to sing in the Methodist church this song, which way shall I take, shouts a voice in the night. I’m a pilgrim a wearied and spent is my life. And I look for a palace that shines on the hill, but between us a stream lieth solemn and chilled. And then, another part of the chorus would come in. Near, near thee, my son, is the old wayside cross, like a gray friar cowled, in lichens and moss; And its crossbeam will point to the bright golden span that bridges the water so safely for man. And that was a good song for that was the song of the cross that points with one of its, one of its hands, it points to the rock and the bridge and the strand that brings man and God together. There is a rock my brethren, there is a rock. Rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee.

Now, the main thing is to reach that Rock. Some people are so concerned about the age of the rock and the kind of rock and all, but that’s not important. Security is what is important when you’re perishing in the waves. When life is churning you about and you’re soon to go down, we can’t afford to go into details and reason about Christianity. God presents Jesus Christ and says, here is a Rock that’s high enough for you. Here is a Rock that is high enough. And it’s our business to take that Rock and then later on, we may think all we will. I have no objection to thinking. In fact, I’m for it. I’m going to give a, don’t laugh now, but I’m going to give a lecture out at Wheaton here after a while on the Christian thinker. I don’t know why but I am, if live it out. But I believe in thinking. But there was an old church father who said that we get to know things by faith, and then we figure them out as far as we can by reason. And he said, we are busy thinking, not because we can ever get to know God that way, but because we already know God, we’re letting our happy reason fly and search and gaze and look like a bird that’s been kept in a cage now looking over all the landscape. I added of course that figure of speech. But that’s what St. Anselm said, in his great work on God. So, I believe that we ought to think, but I don’t believe that we ought to allow our skeptical, dubious thinking to keep us away from the Rock when we’re perishing. There’s only one thing to do, and that’s to get to the Rock or you’ll be dead in a little while.

So, Jesus Christ is the Rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. That was a great gospel song in the days of Moody. Christ is a Rock in a weary land. So, by reason, we reflect upon the Rock, but by faith we reached the Rock and are safe. If we’d only humble ourselves, just humble ourselves and dare to believe that the dear Lord God has made a way for us, and that the Rock there is big enough and high enough. The other rocks aren’t high enough. They only fool you. They fool you, that’s all. Like a man who at low tide gets on a rock, but at high tide finds that the water is higher than his neck, higher than his head. And so, he perishes, but it just prolongs his dying.

And so, it is with philosophy and religion without Christ, and education and all the rest. They’re simply little rocks, but it’s low tide, and when high tide comes, you will find the rock isn’t high enough. So, God, Jesus Christ, God has given us a Rock that is high enough.

Then he changes the figure without asking our permission. Suddenly, he changed the figure and says, in the covert of Thy wings, I will abide in Thy tabernacle. I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. He becomes a worshiper now and goes to a tabernacle and he becomes a little chick and goes to the covert of his mother’s wings. David there is a bold figure here. And yet, it is a figure that Jesus picked up and used and repeated for the same Jesus that repeated it in Galilee in the flesh had inspired David to say it. He spake by the mouth, the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David when he said in the covert of Thy wings.

Now, I’ve seen this myself as a boy on the farm. I’ve seen the chickens everywhere, running about, running about, and tiny little balls of fur, dashing about looking, pecking away, and making that tiny little peep, peep, peep, which gave them their name. They were always known as peeps on our farm. They’re known as chicks; I think in a more scientific terminology. But they were peeps then because they peeped and they’re always peeping around there looking for things. And the mother was busy, busy scratching away for them, busy paying no attention to anything, and then the whistle would come, so high that for me, it was beyond my hearing. It was supersonic. I couldn’t hear the thing. But she could hear it. And she would, you know, a chicken has to turn this way to look up. Some of the old farmers know that. And they have to turn up that way. They can’t look straight up for some reason.

So, she turned and look up. And then she would utter a gurgling sort of excited sound. And every one of those little fellas would dash to her. And she throws out her wings and make an assuring sound. And then, if you wait a little while and watched, you’d see between every feather in the front part of the wing and beside the tail and back part of the wing everywhere, you’d see two little beady round eyes, looking out with a little yellow beak in the middle. They knew they were safe, because no hawk is going to come down and attack a brooding hen.

And David had seen that. And he said, in the covert of Thy wing will I make my, will I take my refuge. I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. And later on, Jesus said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but she would not. David would and you and I can, and I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever. I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever. And then he says, Selah, Selah. I’ve tried for thirty-some years to discover what selah means and I don’t quite know yet. And I’ve never met anybody that was sure. But I sort of think God puts it in as a little bit of a lullaby. It’s sort of God making those little sounds of assurance to us. He says, I will trust in the covert of Thy wings, Selah.

I listened to a program last night on the radio–Brahms, dedicate to, devoted, that particular program devoted to the great composer, Brahms. What was he German? German. And they had a man from one of the universities there commenting. These evidently were records, commenting on these different records. A very scholarly sounding man with a strong accent. And they said to him, what about Brahms? Well, he said, Brahms didn’t write for the violin he wrote against. And he said, It’s so with every instrument. He said, the violinists complain, and the singers complain, and the horn players complain, and even the conductors complain. He is so very difficult.

Well, I was lying there listening to him, resting up a bit, and I remembered Brahms under another setting. I remembered years ago hearing Schumann-Heink sing Brahms Lullaby. There’s nothing difficult there. Nobody’s complaining there. That’s Brahms, the father; Brahms, when he isn’t quite such a genius. That was the other side of Brahms.

Now, we come to theology and there’s lots of it. And we come to spiritual philosophy, and it’s heavy and it’s hard. And it demands time and attention. But when I’m reading such a verse as this, and it says, I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of Thy wings, Selah. I am listening to a lullaby. I am listening to God, by the Holy Ghost speaking to us through a man and saying now, you’re in a world where there’s a lot of trouble; and there’s difficulty and there are problems. And you will sometimes be overwhelmed in your heart. The boat will sink and your heart will start down, but don’t worry, there is a Rock, and there is a tabernacle, and there is a covert, and there is a God, Selah. So don’t let it get you down.

I am preaching to you. I don’t know what may be wrong with you. It is amazing how much we can get wrong with us. How people will write and come to see me and tell me things. What problems we do have. We make them mostly, but sometimes the devil sends them collect. But here they are these problems of ours, these little ticking things that we don’t know whether it’s a Christmas present or a bomb. And we don’t know what to do with it. My God, my heart is overwhelmed. My heart aches and I feel the weight of an avalanche on my soul. And God says Selah. You’re my child and you belong to me. And don’t be bothered by anything. My Son went down that far too, and the avalanche killed Him, and killed Him for your sake. And He came out of the grave alive forevermore and you’re going to too.

So, don’t worry about it. We Christians ought to be the happiest people in the world. And there never ought to be a mouth turned down in the whole kingdom of God. They all ought to be turned up. There never should be a human, Christian face without little crow tracks up here which show that there’s a smile, because God’s people ought to be a smiling people, because they ought to be a happy people. And they ought to be a happy people, because they dwell in the tabernacle of God and have full access to the covert of His wings. Selah

“The Treachery of Hope Without Faith“

“The Treachery of Hope Without Faith”

June 10, 1956 Evening Service

This morning I talked on a subject that I must deal with again tonight. You might call this little two sermon series, “Hope, the Universal Treasure.” And this morning I talked on the blessedness of hope and showed that hope in the natural world is universal, and that it made life livable here below.

Tonight, I want to talk about the treachery of hope, and show that if hope does not have a valid object, its blessing can be turned into a curse. And that which is meant to be a nurse and a guide to lead us home, can become a false teacher to lead us astray.

Now, in the book of Job, the 11th chapter, a man said, if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away. And let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles. Then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be steadfast and shalt not fear. Because thou shalt forget thy misery and remember it only as waters that pass away. And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday: thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety. Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee. But here is that terrible swivel word, which we turn about face on, but the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape. And their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost, or as the margin says, their hope shall be as a puff of breath.

Now there are two classes mentioned here. Those that put iniquity far away, stretch out their hands toward God and verse 13, put iniquity far away, put wickedness out of our tabernacles. Then, we shall be secure and rest in hope. But, the eyes of the wicked in contrast, shall fail. They shall not escape. And their hope shall be as a puff of breath.

Now, hope is natural to us, and universal. And if grounded in God, hope is a treasure beyond compare. But, when it rests on nothing more substantial than wishes and fear and unbelief and error, then it is treacherous and betrays our lives to death.

I’ve been interested to learn that secular thinkers, the great poets and philosophers of mankind, have found hope to be a treacherous thing. Of course, they speak not from the standpoint of God, nobody who has divine inspiration in his hand. Nobody who places his trust in Jacob’s God, ever holds hope to be treacherous. But, the secular thinkers, the men of this world, Adams brood, the wise of this world, those who are filled with science, falsely so-called, they are keen and sharp and observant, and they notice, and the bitterness creeps into their voice when they talk about hope.

Sir Philip Sidney says that hope is the fawning traitor of the mind. And another poet says this, hope tells a flattering tale, delusive, vain and hollow. Ah, let not hope prevail less disappointment follow. And old Henry Constable says, hope like the hyena, coming to be old, alters his shape and is turned into despair.

And now, why do worldly men fear hope? And why do they warn us that hope is the poor man’s riches and that we dare not trust it. They’re talking from the human standpoint, and they’re not believing in God. And therefore, what they say is true. Experience has proved the treachery of hope. Hope without faith is precarious. You see, hope is not wholly false or else we would recognize it for what it is and reject it. And yet it cannot be relied on, because out of God and out of Christ, we rarely attain to our hopes. Or, if we do attain to them, we find they’re disappointing at last. And hope is likely to betray our confidence and violate our trust and leave us at last, betrayed, disappointed and filled with despair.

Now, I point out that human hope rarely fulfills its promises. It offers a gold, but it gives only clay instead. It offers centuries and gives only years. It offers years and perhaps gives only days. And sometimes it is false, cruelly, sadistically false. I said this morning that without hope in the world, the human race would die out and all the zest for living would go. That we could not survive adversity or endure pain if we did not have the hope that they would end. And I said that hope would enable the shipwrecked sailor to endure long days that seemed years, out on the bosom of the sea, floating in a boat or on a raft, hoping, always hoping that help would come, and keeps him alive until help does come.

But candor and realism will compel me also to say that a hope has left many a man after telling him for days that help would come, and whispering in his ears that surely, he could not die there on the bosom of the deep. Hope has left him and watched his eyes grow dim and his tongue grows thick and his whole frame grows weaker, until at last he gave up the ghost and his hope was but a puff of breath. I said that the man who was injured or ill might lie in a hospital somewhere, and hope would whisper that he would be better and would keep him alive and keep him sane, until returning health should restore again his strength and drive away the pain. But I must say also that there’s many a man and many a woman, there have been, who have, say, had cancer or tuberculosis or some other dreaded disease, and have listened to the fawning flatterer hope and have believed that they should get better and live a long life and be useful upon the earth. When at the same time those people never saw another well day and never got out of the bed whereon, they laid dreaming of a bright tomorrow.

Faith is a fawning flatterer of the mind. And if faith has no foundation to rest upon, she is a liar and a deceiver and a Judas who leads the mind of men astray. Hope has whispered to many a mother, that her son missing in action would surely be found and would turn up all right, alive and well. That it was only a mistake and that he would return. And hope has kept that mother waiting for a letter that never came and kept her until she died, waiting for a letter every day. She went and looked every weekday to see whether the letter had come. And she died waiting for a letter that never came and that never could come, because hope had been deceiving her. And the boy that was to have written the letter had long been sleeping in an unmarked grave on a foreign shore.

Hope has told the traveler, if you will travel a little faster and walk a little faster, you will get there before the loved one dies. And the feet that weigh a hundred pounds apiece and the body that’s exhausted and ready to fall, by the strength of hope managed to stagger on to the cottage and open the door and find the loved one long gone that he had hoped to see. That’s why they say that hope is a fawning flatterer of the mind. And that’s why the poet says hope tells a flattering tale, delusive, vain and hollow. Ah, let not hope prevail, lest disappointment follow.

Now, when is hope trustworthy? When can this become a treasure to us, this universal blessed gift of God to man that keeps him from despair? When is this trustworthy? Hope is trustworthy when it walks with faith. Faith rests on the character of God. Let God be true though every man be a liar. And hope relies on God’s revealed promise. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is, said Jeremiah. And Isaac Watts said, happy the man whose hopes rely on Israel’s God. He made the sky, the earth, the sea and all therein.

And when we hope in Israel’s God, in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, then hope is a blessed nurse and comforter. Hope is a guide and a shield, and hope strengthens us and enables us to endure. Hope takes the sting out of fear. Hope takes the pain out of illness. Hope enables us to go on fighting against hopeless odds, and believing that God has spoken and it shall be so. But, when hope, like the dove of Noah’s ark, flies out of our heart and finds no place for the sole of his feet to rest and comes fluttering weakly back again and rests upon us. Then I say, hope is a flatterer and the Hindu proverb is justified which says there is no disease like hope. But, I can understand why the Hindu can say there is no disease like hope.

Imagine, if you will, the Hindu making his way like in the inchworm from some far part of India to the Ganges River, Old Mother Ganga whose waters were supposed to be able to cleanse sin from the heart of a man. From somewhere, from that light that lighted every man that cometh into the world. From that inbuilt conscience and moral perception, some Indian man became deeply conscious of his sins. And he was told to hope and that if he would punish himself enough, and if he would go and make a trip of pilgrimage to the Ganges River, he’d be delivered from the great crushing burden of sin.

And so, he started from his home and marked a chalk line put his toes toward fell full length, then marked the chalk line where his forehead was and stepped forward to that chalk line on the ground or that mark on the ground, fell full length again. And so, inched himself through hundreds of miles of heat and sand and flies and stinging insects and thirst and hunger and fatigue, until at last, he smelled the waters of the Ganges there. And hope, the fawning flatterer said, now your troubles are all over and the burden of your sin will roll away, washed in the Ganges.

And so, he took that painful, emaciated form and dragged it into the sacred waters of Mother Ganga and when plunging into the filthy waters, submerged himself, immersed himself in its sacred waves. He crawled back to the bank, drank a bit of water and ate a little food, believing now that his sins would roll away. But as he slowly went back retreating or retracing his steps in the direction from whence he came, he found the sense of sin and the consciousness of iniquity still on his heart like a great crushing burden. In his disappointment and bitterness, he said, hope is the worst disease of all.

When hope has no place to rest. When there is no revealed truth back of it, when there is no, thus saith God. When there is no blood of the Lamb, no cross, no atonement, no mighty speaking voice of God to hold it up, then faith can be their worst deceiver and the worst disease of all. And there are religious-minded people and church people by the thousands who are hoping against hopeless, hope that will betray them at last.

There is that hope that says my sins are not so bad after all. I’ve been a reasonably good man. And certainly, I’m not a murderer. Certainly, I’m not a robber. I’ve had my faults, but I’m a decent fellow. And there’s many a church member that has joined the church and been baptized and takes the Lord’s Supper, and all the hope he has in the wide world is that he is a reasonably good fellow. Every cannon of God is trained on that man’s soul. And every sword of justice in heaven above and earth beneath is waiting to cut that man down. And every threatened warning and admonition of a holy God is aimed against that man’s head like a gun. And that man, though he may be a deacon or an elder or a pastor indeed, he has not the remotest reason to hope in all the wide world. Hope is a fawning, flatterer and whispers to his unborn-again soul that he doesn’t need to repent and be born again like bums in a rescue mission. That he’s a decent fellow, comes from a good family, drives a good car and lives on a good street. My brother, such hope is but a disease worse than all and a flatterer that fawns and betrays and lies and damns at last.

And then there’s the hope that says, my good deeds will justify me. I’ve been a bad man, but if I turn and do good now and give of my money and go to church and pray and have family prayer and read my Bible and do good, I shall surely be saved at last. And when God balances my evil deeds against my good deeds in the great balance scale of justice in eternity, surely my good deeds will outweigh my bad deeds. And you’d be surprised how many people raised under the sound of the gospel still believe that ancient heresy. And hope whispers the lie that says your good deeds will get you in. My brother, your good deeds can’t get you in and your bad deeds can’t keep you out if Jesus Christ our Lord becomes your Advocate, and Savior.

Jesus Christ is your hope and should be your hope. God says that except a man repent, he shall perish. And Jesus Christ says that there’s no name under heaven given among men, save the name of Jesus, whereby men should be saved. And the Scripture says that men are not saved by works, but by grace through faith, and it’s a gift of God. And all of Romans and all of Galatians and all of Colossians and all of John and all of the teachings of Jesus and all of the teachings of the Apostles are aimed like a gun against the man that says, I’ll let my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. I have lied and stolen and committed adultery and tramped around nights, but I’ve stopped all that. And I’ll try to undo it, and make the water run uphill and make the iron swim and reverse the course of justice. And I will be a good boy now and God will overlook my sins. My brother, if you were to suddenly turn into an archangel and shine with iridescent beauty as the angels above, you’d still go to hell unless sin has been washed from your soul by the blood of the Lamb.

And then, hope says to some that God will be merciful to them, and that God isn’t as bad as He’s made out to be. That He’s a good fellow and ’twill all be well, as Omar Khayyam said. He’s a good fellow and ’twill all be well. Why be so excited about religion? Why take it all so seriously. Everything will be alright. God’s a good fellow. And He understands our frame, and He knows we’re dust; and everything will be all right. My brother, mercy is a stream, and mercy flows within its banks. And we’ll come to that stream and bathe or we’ll perish.

Mercy does not hunt a sinner that’s running away. Mercy does not run down a back alley and into a whore’s den and dig a man out against his will and wash him and make him clean against his will. No, we must confess our sins. If we confess our sins, then He has mercy upon us. And He’s merciful and just and righteous and forgives our sins and cleanses us from iniquity. But an uncleansed sinner is a lost man. Let hope flatter and whisper and fawn, and breath her moist breath on our neck and pat our shoulders and tell us it’s all right. Hope lies. For wherever there is sin, that man belongs below, and none above; not with a holy God, but with an unholy devil.

And then hope says, I can continue on in sin and still be alright. Hope says, everybody has sinned and therefore I don’t need to be delivered from sin. I can still hold black malice in my heart and still be a member of the kingdom of God. I can be a liar when I need to be and steal into the kingdom of God. I can still practice impurity and enter the kingdom of God. I can still hold grudges against my brother. I can still gossip and assassinate character. I can still practice worldliness and love worldly pleasures, and still be a child of the Eternal Father and a brother of the Eternal King.

Oh, my brother, the man of God who knows what he’s talking about, says, my children, I have warned you and I warn you again that they that practice such things shall not enter the kingdom of God. Only the blood-washed, only those who have put malice from their heart, only those who have stopped lying, not the liar can enter the kingdom of God. But the ex-liar can. Not the impure man, but the ex-libertine can. Not the man who holds a grudge, but the man who used to hold a grudge. Not the woman who gossips can enter heaven, but the woman who used to gossip, but has been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

And then hope whispers and says, show the good side of your life and don’t cause others to stumble. And even if you do live an impure or a wicked or dishonest life in secret, what will be the difference? Well, the man of God said bluntly, the hope of the hypocrite shall perish. And what shall be the hope of the hypocrite when God taketh away his soul? The public may not know, but the Judge of all the earth knows. The church may not know, but the Head of the church knows. Your family may not know, but the great God, the Most High God, Maker of heaven and earth whose fiery eyes sees through the souls of men, He knows.

Don’t imagine that you can have two faces and God will save one of them. God never saves two faces. No two-faced man was ever been converted or saved since the world began. A two-faced man is as much of a monstrosity in heaven as a two-headed baby is in a hospital. And God Almighty will never take a man with two faces into the kingdom. Only one face, that’s all, only one. And though your face is black with gazing, lined with sin from looking upon evil; if you will believe and turn away from that evil gaze and fix the gaze of your soul on the dying Lamb whose precious blood has never lost its power, God will save that one face of yours. But, if you look at God with one face and at sin with another and hide the face that looks at sin and never let your neighbor know you have it, you’ll perish as sure as the sparks fly upward. And as sure as the lead goes down, and as sure as God is holy and as sure as heaven is high, and as sure as hell is low, the hypocrite will perish. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul.

My brethren, there are three worlds. We live in one of them now. And this earth is bearable because there is hope. And I said this morning and repeat, that for no other reason, is this world bearable. The man who lies in pain in a hospital tonight wouldn’t get off that bed; he would commit suicide lying there if he didn’t believe there was hope. The man in prison would go crazy and become completely demented if he didn’t believe there was hope. Even the man who is going to die in the electric chair or at the end of a rope, still keeps sane because he believes until the trap is sprung or the switch is thrown, that there’s hope and he’s going to be saved.

Earth is bearable because there is hope. And hell is unendurable because there is no hope. Old Dante knew too well, and built with theological precision into his shocking and terrifying picture of the inferno. He built this thought, and said in the deepest lowest hell from which there was no escape, on the entablature over the door, there was deeply engravened these words, “All hope abandon ye who enter here.”

Earth, I say, is bearable because there is hope. And when the baby’s temperature flares, and the little eyes shine too bright and the cheeks are too red, the mother hopes that it’s only a passing thing and the baby will be better tomorrow. A shipwrecked sailor hopes and awaits his rescue. The man in his cell hopes and sometimes receives his pardon. The man in the sick room hopes and sometimes, health returns. But in hell there is no hope. And that’s why hell is unendurable. Nobody can go to another there in that terrible place and say, we’ll be better tomorrow. For it will never be better. No one can ever hum, there’s a better day coming, I know I know, ’twill not always, not always be so. No, no, nobody can ever go to another and say cheer up, the worst is past. For the Bible says that there is no hope in hell. All hope abandon ye who enter here.

And while earth is bearable because there is hope and hell unendurable because there is no hope, heaven is eternal beatitude, because there, hope is in radiant fulfillment. All the dreams of the race are fulfilled in wonderous, generous fulfillment. Don’t you imagine that any poet or any humanists or any psalmist ever dreamed a dream that cannot out-soar God’s reality? No, no, let not a David who talks about seeing God in the morning. Not at John who saw the Holy City coming down clothed as a bride adorned for her husband. Not John in all of his high dreams could ever dream a heaven as great as heaven will be. Not all the language used in the Bible to describe that glorious shining place can do justice to that place itself.

For no human being, no mortal, no finite mind, can ever grasp the wide-ranging, out-soaring glories that belong to God Almighty. I say that in heaven, there is glorious fulfillment. And that’s why Heaven is eternal beatitude. And we say well, when we see heaven, we’ll have seen it. We will have seen the whole thing. It’ll be like standing at Niagara after dreaming about it for a long time and seeing it rolling there. And after an hour’s gazing, we would shrug and walk away. Heaven won’t be one thing to be seen or tasted or touched or smelled or enjoyed. Heaven will be an infinite fold within fold, height upon height, pile upon pile, story upon story, glory upon glory while the ages roll. Heaven will be eternal beatitude, because there I say, hope is in radiant fulfillment.

But there is no hope in hell. These terrible, wonderful words, if thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands toward God, and if iniquity be in thine hand and now put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles, then thou shalt be secure because there is hope. And thou shalt take thy rest in safety and thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the puff of a breath. How terrible my brother!

Hope without Christ is a leaky boat. Hope without Christ is a weak bridge. Hope without Christ is the worst disease of all. And how foolish to nourish a groundless hope tonight when there is hope in God. Happy the man whose hope relies on Israel’s God. He made the skies. And he sent his Son to save from sin and darkness and the grave. And tonight, he calls you. And Peter calls this hope, a living hope as I pointed out. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a living hope, of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled that faded not away, reserved in heaven for you, incorruptible, undefiled and unfading. It can’t rot. It can’t become impure, and it can’t fade away. And there isn’t a treasure on earth, not even the diamond, not the pearl, not the silver, not the gold, can this be said of. 

We’re kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, thou now for a season, if need be, you’re in heaviness through manifold temptations. Now brethren, you need not go out of here trusting in a vain hope. You need not be the fool of that treacherous siren that lies about your future. You can put your hope in the cross of Jesus. And he who dies believing, dies safely through His love. And you cannot only die believing, you can live believing. And the hope of the Christian is a safe hope. And the Christian is the only one who has any right to hope. For it’s the only one whose hope relies on God.

So, you can tonight know that you can go out of this place with a hope that’s as big as the world and as long as eternity, and as deep as hell and as high as heaven, and know that you don’t have to apologize nor wonder about it. Thou shalt lie down in safety because thou hast hope. Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him.

What about it this evening? Are you hoping now in Jesus’ blood? Are you hoping in God’s spoken Word, thy sins be forgiven thee. Are you hoping now in the merits of the blood of the Lamb? If you are, happy are you. Happy are you. But, if you’re not, you have no right to be happy and no right to hope. For the man in Adam, hope is a treacherous siren. To the man in Christ, hope is a precious treasure. Don’t let your hope betray you to death. Jesus calls us o’er the tumult, and He calls us to His heart, into His cross, into His feet. And He calls us not to come on our feet, but in our hearts, a journey for the heart to Jesus Christ.

Why not tonight? I know this is a rather small crowd for us. And maybe that not many are here this evening who are out of Christ. But, if there should even be one, I beg of you, start your inner feet in motion and turn away from all that’s wrong and face toward the cross of Jesus. Put your hope in God’s Eternal Son. And thou shalt lie down in peace and well shall it be with thee. Let us pray.