“Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto
you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of
Israel.”–(Ezekiel 36:32).
There are two sins of man that are bred in the bone, and that continually
come out in the flesh. One is self-dependence and the other is self-
exaltation. It is very hard, even for the best of men, to keep themselves
from the first error. The holiest of Christians, and those who understand
best the gospel of Christ, find in themselves a constant inclination to
look to the power of the creature, instead of looking to the power of God
and the power of God alone. Over and over again, Holy Scripture has to
remind us of that which we never ought to forget, that salvation is God’s
work from first to last, and is not of man, neither by man. But so it is,
this old error–that we are to save ourselves, or that we are to do
something in the matter of salvation–always rises up, and we find
ourselves continually tempted by it to step aside from the simplicity of
our faith in the power of the Lord our God.
Why, even Abraham himself was not free from the great error of relying upon
his own strength. God had promised to him that He would give him a
son–Isaac, the child of promise. Abraham believed it, but at last, weary
with waiting, he adopted the carnal expedient of taking to himself Hagar,
to wife, and he fancied that Ishmael would most certainly be the
fulfillment of God’s promise; but instead of Ishmael’s helping to fulfill
the promise, he brought sorrow unto Abraham’s heart, for God would not have
it that Ishmael should dwell with Isaac. “Cast out,” said the Scripture,
“the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir
with the son of the free woman.”
Now we, in the matter of salvation, are apt to think that God is tarrying
long in the fulfillment of His promise, and we set to work ourselves to do
something, and what do we do?sink ourselves deeper in the mire and pile up
for ourselves a store of future troubles and trials. Do we not read that it
grieved Abraham’s heart to send Ishmael away? Ah! and many a Christian has
been grieved by those works of nature which he accomplished with the design
of helping the God of grace. Oh, beloved, we shall find ourselves very
frequently attempting the foolish task of assisting Omnipotence and
teaching the Omniscient One. Instead of looking to grace alone to sanctify
us, we find ourselves adopting Philosophic rules and principles which we
think will effect the Divine work. We shall but mar it; we shall bring
grief into our own spirits.
But if, instead thereof, we in every work look up to the God of our
salvation for help, and strength, and grace, and succor, then our work will
proceed to our own joy and comfort, and to God’s glory. That error, then, I
say is in our bone, and will always dwell with us, and hence it is that the
words of the text are put as an antidote against that error. It is
distinctly stated in our text that salvation is of God. “Not for your sakes
do I this.” He says nothing about what we have done or can do. All the
preceding and all the succeeding verses speak of what God does. “I will
take you from among the heathen.” “I will sprinkle clean water upon you.”
“I will give you a new heart……. I will put my Spirit within you.” It is
all of God: therefore, again recall to our recollection this doctrine, and
give up all dependence upon our own strength and power.
The other error to which man is very prone, is that of relying upon his own
merit. Though there is no righteousness in any man, yet in every man there
is a proneness to truth in some fancied merit. Strange that it should be
so, but the most reprobate characters have yet some virtue as they imagine,
upon which they rely. You will find the most abandoned drunkard pride
himself that he is not a swearer. You will find the blaspheming drunkard
pride himself that at least he is honest. You will find men with no other
virtue in the world, exalt what they imagine to be a virtue–the fact that
they do not profess to have any; and they think themselves to be extremely
excellent, because they have honesty or rather impudence enough to confess
that they are utterly vile. Somehow the human mind clings to human merit;
it always will hold to it, and when you take away everything upon which you
think it could rely, in less than a moment it fashions some other ground
for confidence out of itself.
Human nature with regard to its own merit, is like the spider, it bears its
support in its own bowels, and it seems as if it would keep spinning on to
all eternity. You may brush down one web, but it soon forms another, you
may take the thread from one place, and you will find it clinging to your
finger, and when you seek to brush it down with one hand you find it
clinging to the other. It is hard to get rid of; it is ever ready to spin
its web and bind itself to some false ground of trust.
It is against all human merit that I am this morning going to speak, and I
feel that I shall offend a great many people here. I am about to preach a
doctrine that is gall and vinegar to flesh and blood, one that will make
righteous moralists gnash their teeth, and make others go away and declare
that I am an Antinomian, and perhaps scarcely fit to live. However, that
consequence is one which I shall not greatly deplore, if connected with it
there should be in other hearts a yielding to this glorious truth, and a
giving up to the power and grace of God, who will never save us, unless we
are prepared to let Him have all the glory.
First, I shall endeavor to expound at large the doctrine contained in this
text; in the next place I shall endeavour to show its force and
truthfulness; and then in the third place I shall seek God’s Holy Spirit to
apply the useful, practical lessons which are to be drawn from it.
I. I shall endeavour to EXPOUND THIS TEXT.
“Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God.”
The motive for the salvation of the human race is to be found in the breast
of God, and not in the character or condition of man. Two races have
revolted against God–the one angelic, the other human. When a part of this
angelic race revolted against the Most High, justice speedily overtook
them; they were swept from their starry seats in Heaven, and henceforth
they have been reserved in darkness unto the great day of the wrath of God.
No mercy was ever presented to them, no sacrifice ever offered for them;
but they were without hope and mercy, forever consigned to the pit of
eternal torment.
The human race, far inferior in order of intelligence, sinned as
atrociously; at any rate, if the sins of manhood that we have heard of be
put together and rightly weighed, I can scarcely understand how even the
sins of devils could be much blacker than the sin of mankind. However, the
God who in His infinite justice passed over angels, and suffered them
forever to expiate their offences in the fires of hell, was pleased to look
down on man. Here was election on a grand scale; the election of manhood,
and the reprobation of fallen angelhood.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”