The Refuge For The Oppressed 2
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III. "And those who know your name will put their trust in you." There is a knowing of God's name. By the "name of God" are to be understood the revealed perfections of the Almighty – all that he has revealed concerning himself in the scriptures of truth. Every attribute, every perfection, everything that God has said about himself, is summed up in the "name of God." But especially does the "name of God" signify the Son of his love, who is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his Person;" as he said to Moses, "Behold, I send an Angel before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not – for my name is in him;" that is, all my revealed perfections, all my glorious character, all my divine attributes are in him; for "in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
Now, there is a knowing this name of God; that is, there is such a thing as an experimental acquaintance in the soul with the perfections of God as revealed in the scriptures. His name is therefore known when the perfections of God are revealed in the heart and conscience by the power of the Spirit. And this is by virtue of living faith in the soul. By faith we see God. By faith we know God. When we receive into our hearts the truth as it is in Jesus, and when we believe by living faith what God has said of himself in the word, then we know the name of God – and every manifestation of God's mercy, every token of God's favor, and every shining in of God's perfections, is a discovery in our hearts, a raising up in our souls of the knowledge of God's name.
Now, until we know God's name, we cannot, we shall not, put our trust in him. But if we know his name, if we have received into our hearts the perfections of God, and have a personal experience of them – then the necessary and infallible consequence will be, that we shall put our trust in him. Let us take a review of some of these perfections of God, which when made known enable the soul to put its trust in him.
1. For instance. There is God's ETERNAL FAITHFULNESS – the covenant faithfulness of a covenant God. Now, if we have received into our hearts this perfection of the Almighty – if we have any personal, experimental knowledge of it, from having found God faithful to his word in our soul's experience – by knowing that name, or that part of God's name, we put our trust in him, as in a faithful, promise-making, and promise-keeping Jehovah. But wherever the Lord makes his faithfulness known to his people, he will test that knowledge. Our faith is to be put into the furnace, and our knowledge of God is to be tried as with fire. We may believe in his faithfulness – but that is not enough. Our belief in his faithfulness must be tried before it can be known, or proved to be genuine. The Lord therefore hides himself, veils his face with a dark cloud, does not shine forth into our souls as we would gladly have him, brings upon us a train of perplexing circumstances, and appears, instead of doing the thing we desire him to do, to do the thing exactly contrary. But if we know his name, if we know him to be a faithful God, in spite of all appearances – then we shall put our trust in that faithfulness, because that faithfulness has been proved in times past, and has been received into the heart as a part of God's eternal character.
2. His LOVING-KINDNESS and TENDER MERCY are another part of the name of God. He has shown this in the gift of his only-begotten Son. "Hereby we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us." Now, if we have tasted a measure, though it be but a small measure, of the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God – if ever his grace has dropped into our souls, like the dew upon a branch – if ever this secret of the Lord has been upon our tabernacle – we know that part of the name of the Lord, and if we know it, we put our trust in it. We feel it to be trustworthy, to be a support for the soul who knows that the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God are from everlasting to everlasting.
3. Another part of his name is, his infinite and unspeakable WISDOM. Can he err? Has he ever erred? In all the multiplicity and variety of circumstances that have distressed the children of God, has the Lord ever taken a wrong step? Though he has baffled nature, though he has disconcerted reason, though he has turned our plans upside down, though perhaps he has done the thing that we most feared, and thwarted every natural purpose and inclination of our heart – can we say that he has erred? that he has made a mistake? that he has acted unwisely? that he has not done that which is for our spiritual good? Murmuring, rebellious, unbelieving heart – hold your peace! Shall man, foolish man, a worm of the earth, a creature of a day, lift up his puny voice and say that God can make a mistake? Your path is very dark, very intricate, very perplexed – you cannot see the hand of God in the trial that is now resting upon you; you cannot believe that it will work together for your good. I admit it. I have felt it. I have known it.
But the time will come, when this dark path in which you are now walking, shall be seen full of radiancy and light, when you will prove the truth of those words – "He brought the blind by a way that they knew not." When we know God to be infinitely wise, that he cannot err, that all his dealings must be stamped with his own eternal wisdom, we are silenced, we hold our peace, we have nothing to say, we are where Aaron was. When his sons Nadab and Abihu were smitten by the Lord, Aaron knew that God could not err; he "held his peace" Le 10:3. This is our right spot. If we know anything of the folly of the creature – if we know anything of the wisdom of God – this is our spot. When our dear Nadabs and Abihus are smitten before our face, our spot is to hold our peace, to put our mouth in the dust; for God is still accomplishing his object, in the face, and in spite of nature, sense, and reason.
"Those who know your name." They who have these perfections revealed in their hearts, who have something more than a name to live, who have something deeper than a sound creed, that know God's name by a manifestation of that blessed and glorious name to their conscience, they, and they alone, will put their trust in God. These are great words. Put your trust in God! Have you ever seen him? Is he not invisible, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen, nor can see? What! put our trust in an invisible Being, one whom we have never seen? Surely, there must be something more than mere human nature here. Yes, there is something more than nature here. What says the scripture of one of the ancient worthies? "He endured, as seeing him who is invisible." He saw him who was invisible – he felt the presence, he knew the power, he beheld by the eye of living faith, the invisible Jehovah.
We must have precisely, in our measure, the same experience in our hearts, before we can put our trust in God. The faith of most professors (shall I say, nine out of ten?) is nothing but an empty trust, nothing but a name, an idea, an opinion, a speculation. It is not a heartfelt reality, known in the depths of their conscience before the eyes of a living God. 'But,' say they, 'they put their trust in God.' Yes, so they do – in a God of their own framing, by a trust of their own devising.
But to put their trust in an invisible God, just as though he was present for their eyes to look upon and their hands to touch; to rest on him the salvation of their immortal souls; to put all their concerns into his hands, and carry that on for a series of years – thus to put their trust in the invisible God, something more than flesh and blood – something more than nature, sense, and reason – something more than creature wisdom and creature prudence – something more than an enlightened judgment, is needful here.
On this wide sea all will be wrecked, except the vessels of mercy whom God is bringing to their destined haven. But he that in the quiet depths of conscience, and in the actings and exercise of that faith of which God alone is the giver, puts his trust in the name of the Lord God, and gives up himself, with all that he is and has, in the solemn moments when God weighs up the secrets of his heart and puts the thoughts of his soul into his balance – he that can solemnly, deliberately, feelingly, experimentally, and believingly thus put his trust in an invisible God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – does so because he knows the name of that God in whom he trusts.
Here is the turning point. Here is the grand line between life and death – on the one side, a dead professor – on the other side, a living soul. Mere notional confidence, masquerading to be true faith – that will one day be consumed by the blaze of God's nostrils, as flax before the fire – it will never endure the appearance of the Son of God. But the weakest spark of living faith in the soul, the humblest confidence of a child of God, will never be disappointed. That faith will be crowned in the day of the Lord's appearing. It will issue in honor, bliss, and glory.
IV. "For you, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you." There is a word here that sweetly closes the subject – "those who seek you." There are some perhaps here who say, 'These things are too high for me – I cannot attain unto them. 'I have searched my heart,' say some of you; 'I don't know whether I have passed through all that oppression you have been speaking of.' 'I have cast a hasty glance over what I have felt to be my experience,' say others, 'and I cannot speak positively of times of deep soul trouble. You have been explaining to us what it is to know the name of God, and to put our trust in the invisible Jehovah. When I search my heart, and trace out the feelings of my soul, chilling apprehensions arise, whether I am really a partaker of that grace you have been describing.' Now, shall I cut you off? Does the word of God rather cut you off? Look at it. It puts in a word for you – "You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you."
"Those who seek you." Now, this takes in the poor, the halt, the lame, the crippled – the little ones of God's family, who cannot mount up into great heights of experience, and have not sunk into great depths of soul trouble. It does not leave out any of God's family, for not a ‘hoof of Israel’ is to be left behind.
There is, then, a seeking of God. But before we can seek God, we must have two things wrought by divine power in our souls. First, we must have a desire to find something; and then, we must know something of that God from whom we are seeking that which we desire to find. If I lose anything, I seek for it. I am merely playing, merely trifling, I am at a child's game, to be looking and searching into every corner, if I have lost nothing, and want to find nothing. So that, if there be not lodged in the depths of our heart, a solemn spiritual desire to find Jesus as the salvation of our soul, as our hope, our portion, our treasure, our all, our seeking is a dream – it is only child's play – it is mocking God – it is trifling with our own soul – it is only playing the part of a varnished hypocrite.
Is this, then, wrought with divine power in your conscience – that you want to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection – that you long to feel his atoning blood sprinkled upon your conscience – that you pant to taste his dying love shed abroad in your heart – that you desire to know the fellowship of his sufferings, and be led by the Holy Spirit into solemn union with a broken-hearted Lord? Do you want to know whether your name is in the book of life? Whether the Holy Spirit has really begun a work of grace upon your conscience? Whether you are truly in the narrow, narrow way that leads to eternal life? Does this ever fill your soul with trembling anxiety, so as to lie nearer to your heart than any worldly care, or any earthly thing?
Then, if this be the case, you are seeking that you may find something; and you know what you want. You want power, you want mercy, you want the blessing that makes rich, you want the testimony of God and the sweet consolations of the Holy Spirit in your soul. If you do not want this, all your profession is a lie. But if you want this, you have also been taught by the Holy Spirit where to get it – you have been brought off the creature, been emptied of your own righteousness, weakened as to your own strength, had your evil heart laid bare, felt the burden of sin in a guilty conscience, and known real anxiety, and, at times, distress of mind. You have seen the way of salvation through the Son of God. You believe though it may not bring peace into your heart that he is "the way, the truth, and the life," and you believe that none but he, in his sweet manifestations, can do your helpless soul good.
Now, this leads you – if you know these things by divine teaching – this leads you to seek. How do you seek? You pray, you sigh, you cry, you groan, you search the scriptures, you hear the word. Your poor heart, sometimes, is panting after the Lord as the deer pants after the waterbrooks. You are crying for a sweet discovery of Jesus' blood to your conscience. Sometimes you are doubting, sometimes fearing – sometimes hoping, sometimes desponding – sometimes lifted up – sometimes cast down – sometimes feeling that you are a child of God – sometimes almost believing that you are a child of the wicked one. And yet on you go. You cannot rest satisfied, as thousands are, with a name to live, with a form of godliness, with the externals of religion. Something vital, something inward, something experimental, something saving, revealed by the Holy Spirit in your heart and conscience, you know to be the sum and substance of vital godliness – and if you have not this, you feel you have nothing. You cannot take up with anything short of this. You cannot rest upon external consistency. You cannot believe by your own strength. You cannot store your head with a system of sound doctrines, and rest in a scriptural creed. If you have not Jesus in your heart and in your arms, you have nothing, you feel you have nothing.
And this often tries your mind. You cannot get a sweet view of Jesus, cannot feel him coming into your heart in soft love and power. He will not speak. He will not whisper peace. He will not tell you that you are his. He will not bind up your wounds. He will not discover himself in the manifestations of his mercy. This tries you. It is a good thing it does. For this whets your appetite for divine things. This makes you hunger and thirst after righteousness. This makes you weary, and therefore to need rest. This makes you troubled, and therefore to need consolation. This makes you perplexed, and therefore to crave a divine solution to your difficulties. This makes you empty, and therefore you long to be divinely filled.
Now, it says for your comfort – you who seek the Lord – who really pour out your very soul before him – who seek him on your bed – who seek him in the different hours of the day – who seek him with an honest heart – who really hunger and thirst after him for what he is in himself – this is spoken for your consolation, "You, Lord" – David solemnly appeals to God himself – "You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you." 'They often fear that you have forsaken them. They often doubt and tremble in their minds whether you will ever appear. But you, Lord, have not forsaken them.' Do you often find it so? Is there not sometimes a little encouragement? Do you not sometimes under the word hear your experience traced out? Is there no little enlargement sometimes in prayer? Is there no sweet text, that sometimes comes into your bosom, and makes your very soul feast, as it were, with honey and the honey-comb? Is there no sweet sensation raised up in your heart, whereby you believe that really God is at work upon your soul?
Now, the Lord never forsakes his people. He says, "I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment – lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." O these secret waterings of God upon the soul! O these secret leadings of the blessed Spirit in the heart! How he revives the soul when dead! How he opens it when shut up! How he enlarges it when contracted! How he draws it with the cords of love! How, from time to time, he lays the everlasting arms underneath the fainting, tottering spirit! He "has not forsaken those who seek him." There may be long seasons of darkness. We may pray, and get no answer. We may cry, and the Lord give no token. We may fear that he never will hear us; yet it will be found in the end, that the Lord has not forsaken those who seek him. No, not for one moment; some appearance on our behalf, though we cannot clearly see it – some support, though we may not sensibly feel it – some check in the conscience, though we may not be fully conscious of it – some secret guidings of the feet, though we may not be able plainly to discern them.
"You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you." No! He never will forsake them, for his promise runs thus, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." The Lord never forsakes the work of his hands. He will never give up his little ones into the hands of Satan that he may destroy their souls. He will not forsake those who seek his face, and call upon his name.
Can you find, you that desire to fear God – and there is no use my speaking to any one else, for they have no ear to hear, nor heart to feel – can you feel anything of this experience in your heart and conscience?
Let me just recapitulate a few of the things I have endeavored to unfold this evening, that they may be warm in our memory, and sealed upon our conscience, if God pleases.
Were you ever oppressed, or had a real burden of sin? Were you ever harassed by the devil? ever plagued by a body of sin and death? Did you ever grieve and groan on account of the sin that dwells in you? If you have, I will pass on to another enquiry. Did this lead you to God as your refuge? There is the turning point. A man may have convictions, fears, and troubles, and they may only harden his heart the more – drive him from God, instead of drawing him to God. But what has been the case with your soul? Has it brought you to God as your refuge? so that, in solemn moments, you have fallen down before God, and said, "You are my refuge, and my hope in the land of the living!" If ever this experience has taken place in your soul, you are a child of God. The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed. But he never opens his arms, and never bows down his ear, except to his own poor and needy family.
You have known – have you? – "times of trouble." I do not mean natural trouble – though you will have your full portion of that – but soul trouble. Can you recall when? Do you remember how it came on? How long did it last? How weighty did it prove? Above all, what was the effect? Did it bring you to God as a refuge? Did it drive you out of a refuge of lies, a mere name to live, a form of godliness, an external profession? We must look at the result.
Trouble does not prove you a Christian, but your making God to be your refuge in times of trouble proves it. Cain had trouble – Saul had trouble – Ahab had trouble – Judas had trouble – and it never drove them to God. But the trouble of God's people leads them to God, for they have no other rest, no other refuge. Have you not found it so? It is a mercy for you, if you have. Have you any testimony that you know God's name? Have his glorious perfections ever been opened up in your heart? Have you ever received the love of the truth, and seen the glory of God shining forth in the face of his dear Son? And has it produced this effect in your conscience – that you have put your trust, cast your hope, anchored your soul – in these glorious perfections? If so, you are a child of God – none but living souls know these internal dealings.
One word more before we close. If you cannot come in here, can you come in with this – that you seek God? that there is a cry in your soul after him, a desire in your heart to find him gracious, a breathing out of your spirit into his ears and into his bosom? This is almost the lowest evidence of a living soul – and God has mercifully given that evidence to encourage the hearts of his fainting family. Then you are a child of God. If this seeking of your heart is really a spiritual breathing of your soul into his bosom, God will not forsake you; he will not leave undone the work he is carrying on; he will not allow sin, the world, the devil, and self to get the mastery; he never has forsaken, he never will forsake, those that seek him sincerely.
Surely, if we are children of God, we can find our character under one of these heads. Here it is traced out by the finger of God the Spirit; surely, if the Lord is our teacher, we can find some of these characters in our hearts. O what a mercy to have the feeblest spark of grace in our souls! Some men think that I am some reckless – what shall I say? – some reckless hacker and hewer, who does not care how he cuts down men, women, and children. God forbid I should lay the weight of my little finger upon the soul that the Lord has touched, though it be but the birth of yesterday.
This is my desire and aim – however far I may fall short of it – to trace out every mark of divine life in the soul, and to cut down and pull to pieces every empty profession that wears but the appearance of it. I would, if God gave me wisdom, strength, and ability, encourage the feeblest breath of divine life in the soul, the faintest mark of the finger of God upon the conscience. But as to encouraging an empty profession, as to bolstering up vain confidence, as to deceiving those who would gladly deceive themselves – God in his mercy, as long as I occupy a pulpit, keep me from doing the devil's work! On the one hand, may he enable me he alone can to take forth the precious from the vile, and thus be as God's mouth, and as a Barnabas to comfort God's children; and on the other hand, may he enable me to cut down and hew to pieces everything that does not bear the stamp, lineaments, and features of the work of God upon it.
And I know – I speak not of myself – I am a poor instrument in the hands of the Lord – I know such a ministry God will always bless, if he indeed has sent forth a man with it in his heart and mouth. Such a ministry he will bless, and no other. He will hot bless a mere doctrinal ministry; neither will he bless a mere practical ministry – he will not bless anything but an experimental ministry – men equipped, commissioned, and sent forth by his own glorious power to trace out the work of God the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of his people, and distinguish spiritual life from a mere profession, which is death – and thus become instruments in the hand of God to build up the church in its most holy faith.
Some of you I may not see again, perhaps the greater portion of you; for though if God wills, I speak again on Thursday evening, yet many of you may not hear me, at least this year, again. Therefore I would leave this with you, and may God in mercy seal it upon your conscience – What do you know of the things of God in your soul? If you know the least of God's teachings, you are as safe as if you knew the most; but if you know nothing whatever of the teachings of God in your soul, may God in mercy lead you to reflect on what the dreadful consequence will be of living and dying with a mere name to live, and with nothing but a lie in your right hand.
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