The Infallibility of God's Purpose 2
Back to Charles Spurgeon
3. The text also teaches a third general truth. While God had a purpose, and that purpose has never changed, the third clause teaches us that this purpose is sure to be effected. "What his soul desires, that he does." He made the world out of nothing, there was no resistance there. "Light be," said he, and light was, there was no resistance there. "Providence be," said he, and Providence shall be, and when you shall come to see the end as well as the beginning, you shall find that there was no resistance there. It is a wonderful thing how God effects his purpose while still the creature is free. They who think that predestination and the fulfillment of the divine purpose is contrary to the free-agency of man, know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm. It were no miracle for God to effect his own purpose, if he were dealing with stocks and stones, with granite and with trees but this is the miracle of miracles, that the creatures are free, absolutely free, and joy the divine purpose stands! Herein is wisdom! This is a deep unsearchable. Man walks without a fetter, yet treads in the very steps which God ordained him to tread in, as certainly as though manacles had bound him to the spot. Man chooses his own seat, selects his own position, guided by his will he chooses sin, or guided by diving grace he chooses the right, and yet in his choice sits as sovereign, on the throne: not disturbing, but still over-ruling, and proving himself to be able to deal as with free creatures as with creatures without freedom, as wall able to effect his purpose when he has endowed men with thought, and reason, and judgment, as when he had only to deal with the solid rocks and with the imbedded sea.
O Christians! you shall never be able to fathom this, but you may wonder at it. I know there is an easy way of getting out of this great deep, either by denying predestination altogether or by denying free-agency altogether, but if you can hold the two, if you can say, "Yes, my consciousness teaches me that man does as he wills, but my faith teaches me that God does as he wills, and these two are not contrary the one to the other; and yet I cannot tell how it is, I cannot tell how God effects his end, I can only wonder and admire, and say, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out." Every creature free and doing as it wills yet God more free still and doing as he wills, not only in Heaven but among the inhabitants of this lower earth. I have thus given you a general subject upon which I would invite you to spend your meditations in your quiet hours, for I am persuaded that sometimes to think of these deep doctrines will be found very profitable it will be to you like the advice of Christ to Simon Peter: — "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught." You shall have a draught of exceeding great thoughts and exceeding great graces if you dare to launch out into this exceeding deep sea, and let out the nets of your contemplation at the command of Christ. "Behold God is great." "O Lord! how great are your works, and your thoughts are very deep! A brutish man knows not, neither does a fool understand this."
II. I now come to the second part of my subject, which will be, I trust, cheering to the people of God. From the general doctrine that God has a plan, that this plan is invariable, and that this plan is certain to be carried out, I drew the most precious doctrine that IN SALVATION GOD IS OF ONE MIND — and who can turn him? — and what his heart desires, that he does.
Now, mark, I address myself at this hour only to you who as the people of God. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heal? Is the spirit of adoption given to you whereby you can say, "Abba, Father?" If so draw near, for this troth is for you.
Come then, my brethren, in the first place let us consider that God is of one mind. Of old, my soul, he determined to save you. Your calling proves your election, and your election teaches you that God ordained to save you. He is not a man that he should lie, nor the Son of Man that he should repent. He is of one mind. He saw you ruined in the fall of your father Adam, but his mind never changed from his purpose to save you. He saw you in your nativity. You well test astray from the woman speaking lies, ‘your youthful follies and disobedience he saw, but never did that gracious mind alter in its designs of love to you. Then in your manhood you did plunge into vice and sin. Cover, O darkness, all on guilt, and let the night conceal it from our eyes forever! Though he added sin to sin, and our pride waxed exceeding high and hot, yet he has of one mind. "Determined to save, he watched o'er my path When Satan's blind slave, I spotted with death." At last, when the happy holly arrived, he came to our door and knocked, and he said, "Open to me."
And do you remember, O my brothel, how we said, "Get you gone, O Jesus, we want you not?" We scorned his grace, defied his love, but he was of one mind, and no hardness of heart could turn him. He had determined to have us for his spouse, and he would not take "No" for an answer. He said he would have us, and he persevered. He knocked again, and do you remember how we half opened the door? But then some strong temptation came and we shut it in his very face, and he said, "Open to me, my dove, my head is wet with the dew, and my locks with the drops of the night" — yet we bolted and barred the door, and would not let him in. But he was of one mind and none could turn him. Oh! my soul weeps now when I think of the many convictions that I stifled, of the many movings of his Spirit that I rejected, and those many times when conscience bade me repent, and urged me to flee to him, but I would not; of those seasons when a mother's tears united with all the intercession of the Savior, yet the heart harder than adamant, and less eat to be melted than the granite itself, refused to move and would not yield. But he was of one mind. He had no fickleness in him. He said he would have us, and have us he would. He had written our names in his book, and he would not cross them out. It was his solemn purpose that yield we should. And O that hour when we yielded at the last! Then did he prove that in all our wanderings he had been of one mind. And O since then, how sorrowful the reflection!
Since then, how often have you and I turned! We have backslidden, and if we had the Arminian's God to deal with, we should either have been in Hell, or out of the covenant at this hour. I know I should be in the covenant and out of the covenant a hundred times a day if I had a God who put me out every time I sinned and then restored it when I repented. But no, despite our sin, our unbelief, our backslidings, our forgetfulness of him, he was of one mind. And brethren, I know this, that though we shall wander still, though in dark hours you and I may slip, and often fall, yet his loving-kindness changes not. Your strong arm, O God shall bear us on; your loving heart will never fail; you will not turn your love away from us, or make it cease or pour upon us your fierce anger, but having begun, you will complete the triumphs of your grace. Nothing shall make you change your mind. What joy is this to you, believers? for your mind changes every day, your experience varies like the wind, and if salvation were to be the result of any purpose on your part, certainly it never would be effected. But since it is God's work to save, and we have proved hitherto that he is of one mind, our faith shall revel in the thought that he will be of one thought even to the end, until all on glory's summit we shall sing of that fixed purpose and that immutable love which never turned aside until the deed of grace was triumphantly achieved. Now, believer, listen to the second lesson: "Who can turn him?"
While he is immutable from within, he is immovable from without. "Who can turn him?" That is a splendid picture presented to us by Moses in the Book of Numbers. The children of Israel were encamped in the plains of Moab. As the trees of living aloes which the Lord had planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters, were their tents. Quietly and calmly they were resting in the valley — the tabernacle of the Lord in their midst, and the pillar of cloud spread over them as a shield. But on the mountain range there were two men — Balak, the son of Zippor, king of the Moabites, and Balaam the prophet of Pethor. They had built seven altars and offered seven bullocks, and Balak said unto Balsam, "Come, curse me Jacob, come, defy Israel." Four times did the prophet take up his parable. Four times did he use his enchantments, offering the sacrifices of God on the altars of Baal. Four times did he vainly attempt a false divination. But I would have you mark that in each succeeding vision the mind God is brought out in deeper characters. First, he confesses his own impotence, "How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed, how shall I defy, whom the Lord has not defied?" Then the second oracle brings out more distinctly the divine blessing. "Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he has blessed, and I cannot reverse it."
A third audacious attempt is not with a heavier repulse, for the stifled curse recoils on themselves — "Blessed is he that blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you." Once again in the vision that closes the picture, the eyes of Balaam are opened until he gets a glimpse of the Star that should come out of Jacob, and the Scepter that shall rise out of Israel, with the dawning glory of the latter days. Well might Balaam say, "There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel. And now transfer that picture in your mind to all your enemies, and specially to that arch-fiend of Hell. He comes before God today with the remembrance of your sins, and he desires that he may curse Israel, but he has found a hundred times that there is no enchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel He took David into the sin of lust, and he found that God would not curse him there, but bless him with a sorrowful chastisement and with a deep repentance He took Peter into the sin of denying his Master, and he denied him with oaths and curses. But the Lord would not curse him even there, but turned and looked on Peter, not with a lightning glance that might have shivered him, but with a look of love that made him weep bitterly. He had taken you and me at divers times into positions of unbelief, and we have doubted God. Satan said — "Surely, surely God will curse him there," but never once has he done it. He has smitten, but the blow was full of love. He has chastised, but the chastisement was fraught with mercy. He has not cursed us, nor will he. You can not turn God's mind, then, fiend of Hell, your enchantments cannot prosper, your accusations shall not prevail. "He is in one mind, who can turn him?"
And brethren, you know when men are turned, they are sometimes turned by advice. Now who can advise with God. Who shall counsel the Most High to cast off the darlings of his bosom, or persuade the Savior to reject his spouse? Such counsel offered were blasphemy, and it would be not pugnant to his soul. Or else men are turned by entreaties. But how shall God listen to the entreaties of the evil one? Are not the prayers of the wicked an abomination to the? Lord? Let them pray against us, let them entreat the Lord to curse us. But he is of one mind and no revengeful prayer should change the purpose of his love. Sometimes as men are changed by the ties of relationship: a another interposes and lose yields, but in our case, who can interpose? God's only begotten Son is as much concerned in our salvation as his Father, and instead of interposing to change, he would — if such a thing were needed — still continue to plead that the love and mercy of God might never be withdrawn. Oh, let us rejoice in this, — "Midst all our sin, and care, and woe, His Spirit will not let us go."
The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake; because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people. "He is in one mind, and who can turn him?" I know not how it is, but I feel that I cannot preach from this text as I should like. But oh! the text itself is music to my ears. It seems to sound like the martial trumpet of the battle, and my soul is ready for the fray. It seems now that if trials and troubles should come, if I could but hold my hand upon this precious text, I would laugh at them all. "Who can turn him?" — I would shout — "Who can turn him?" Come on, earth and Hell, come on, for "who can turn him?" Come on, you boisterous troubles, come on, you innumerable temptations, come on, slanderer and liar, "who can turn him?" And since he cannot be changed, my soul must and will rejoice "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." I wish I could throw the text like a bombshell into the midst of the army of doubters, that army might be routed at once, for when we get a text like this, it must be the text which takes effect, and not our explanation. This surely is a most marvelous death-blow to our doubts and fears. "He is in one mind, and who can turn him?" And now with a few words upon the last sentence I shall conclude — God's purpose must be effected — "What his soul desires, that he does."
Beloved, what God's soul desires is your salvation and mine, if we be his chosen. Well, that he does. Part of that salvation consists in our perfect sanctification. We have had a long struggle with inbred sin, and as far as we can judge, we have not made much progress, for still is the Philistine in the land, and still does the Canaanite invade us. We sin still, and our hearts still have in sheen unbelief and proneness to depart from the living God. Can you think it possible that you will ever be without any tendency to sin? Does it not seem a dream that you should ever be without fault before the throne of God — without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing? But yet you shall be; his heart desires it, and that he does. He would have his spouse without any defilement he would have his chosen generation without anything to mar their perfection. Now, inasmuch as he spoke and it was done, he has but to speak and it shall be done with you. You cannot rout your foes but he can. You cannot overcome your besetting sins, but he can do it. You cannot drive out your corruptions, for they have chariots of iron, but he will drive out the last of them, until the whole land shall be without one enemy to disturb its perpetual peace. O what a joy to know that it will be before long!
Oh! it will be so soon with some of us — such a few weeks, though we perhaps are reckoning on years of life! A few weeks, or a few days, and we shall have passed through Jordan's flood and stand complete in him, accepted in the Beloved! And should it be many years — should we be spared until the snows of a century shall have fallen upon our frosted hair — yet even then we must not doubt that his purpose shall at last be fulfilled. We shall be spotless and faultless and unblamably in his sight before long. Another part of our salvation is, that we should at last be without pain, without sorrow, gathered with the Church of the first-born before the Father's face. Does it not seem, when you sit down to think of yourself as being in Heaven, as a pretty dream that never will be true? What! shall these fingers one day smite the strings of a golden harp? O aching head! shall you one day wear a crown of glory that fades not away? O toil-worn body! shall you bathe yourself in seas of heavenly rest? Is not Heaven too good for us, brothers and sisters? Can it be that we, poor we, shall ever get inside those pearly gates, or tread the golden streets?
Oh shall we ever see his face? Will he ever kiss us with the kisses of his lips? Will the King immortal, invisible, the only wise God, our Savior, take us to his bosom, and call us all his own? Oh! shall we ever drink out of the rivers of pleasure that are at the right hand of the Most High? Shall we be among that happy company who shall be led to the living fountains of waters and kill tears be wiped away from our eyes? Ah! that we shall be! for "he is in one mind and who can turn him? and what his soul desires, that he does." "Father, I will that they whom you has given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." That is an immortal omnipotent desire. We shall be with him where be is; his purpose shall be effected, and we shall partake of his bliss. Now rise, you who love the Savior, and put your trust in him — rise like men who have God within you, and sit no longer down upon your dunghills. Come, you desponding ones; if salvation were to be your own work, you might despair, but since it is his, and he changes not, you must not even doubt. "Now let the feeble all be strong, And make Jehovah's power their song; His shield is spread o'er every saint. And thus supported, who can faint?" If you perish — even the weakest of you — God's purpose cannot be effected. If you fall, his honor will be stained. If you perish, Heaven itself will be dishonored; Christ will have lost one of his members; the Divine Husband will be disappointed in part of his well-beloved spouse; he will be a king whose regalia has been stolen; nay, he will not be complete himself, for the Church is his fullness, and how can he be full if a part of his fullness shall be cast away?
Putting these things together, let us take courage, and in the name of God let us set up our banners. He who has been with us hitherto will preserve us to the end, and we shall soon sing in the fruition of glory as we now recite in the confidence of faith, that his purpose is completed, and his love immutable. This I say by way of close such a subject ought to inspire every man with awe. I speak to some here who are unconverted. It is an awful thought; God's purpose will be subserved in you. You may hate him, but as he get him honor upon Pharaoh and all his hosts, so will he upon you. You may think that you will spoil his designs: that shall be your idea, but your very acts, though guided with that intent, shall only tend to sum serve his glory. Think of that! To rebel against God is useless, for you cannot prevail. To resist him is not only impertinence but folly. He will be as much glorified by you, whichever way you go. You shall either yield him willing honor or unwilling honor, but either way his purpose in you shall most certainly be subserved.
O that this thought might make you bow your heads and say, "Great God, glorify your mercy in me, for I have revolted; show that you can forgive. I have sinned, deeply sinned. Prove the depths of your mercy by pardoning me. I know that Jesus died, and that he is set forth as a propitiation; I believe on him as such. O God! I trust him: I pray you, glorify yourself in me by showing what your grace can do in casting sin behind your back, and blotting out iniquity, transgression, and sin." Sinner, he will do it, he will do it, if thus you plead and thus you pray, he will do it, for there was never a sinner rejected yet, that came to God with humble prayer and faith. Going to God today, confessing your sin, and taking hold of Christ, as upon the horns of the altar of mercy, and of sacrifice, you shall find that it was a part of the divine plan to bring you here today, to strike your mind with awe, to lead you humbly to the cross, to lead you afterwards joyfully to your God, and to bring you perfect at last before his throne. God add his blessing for Christ's sake! Amen.
Back to Charles Spurgeon