III. Now I shall ask your special and patient attention for just a few minutes to the third point, which is, PROFOUND HUMILIATION: “Let him put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.” Upon this matter, I would earnestly address those who are not yet saved, but who desire to be.
Dear friends, it often happens that men do not obtain peace with God because they have not come low enough. The gate of heaven, though it is so wide that the greatest sinner may enter, is nevertheless so low that pride can never pass through it. Thou must stoop if thou wouldst enter heaven. “Let him put his mouth in the dust.” I do believe that this precept is needed by very many; and That, when they obey it, they will get peace, but never till then. “Let him put his mouth in the dust.” Oriental monarchs require very lowly reverence from their subjects; it is out of keeping with our manners and customs, but the similitude holds good in our relation to the Lord God. When we come before him, we must prostrate ourselves till we bow our mouths in the dust. What can this expression mean? “Let him put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.”
It means, first, that there must be true, humble, lowly, confession of sin. You say that you have been praying, yet you have not found peace; have you confessed your sins? This is absolutely necessary, confess your sins to me? you ask. No, thank you; I do not want to hear your confession. It would do me much harm, and it could do you no good to tell them to me; it is to God alone that this confession should be made. Some men have never really made a confession of their sin to God at all; they have done it in such general and insincere terms that it did not amount to a confession. Go you, enter your chamber, shut the door, and get alone; and there, with words or without words, as you find it best, acknowledge before God your omissions and commissions, what you have done and what you have not done. Pour out the whole story before God, and cry with the publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Do not cloak or dissemble before the Almighty. Let all your sins appear. Take a lowly place; not simply be a sinner in name, but confess that thou art a sinner in fact and deed. I do believe that some of you are in darkness much longer than you need to be, because you do not stoop to a humble confession of your sin. Let the lances into this ugly gathering of yours that brings you so much inflammation of mind and pain of spirit. Let your confession flow like water before God; pour out your heart before him. Own to your sins, take the place of a sinner, for this is a great way towards finding salvation: “If so be there may be hope.”
Further than that, dear friends, when it is said that we are to put our mouths in the dust, it means that we are to give up the habit of putting ourselves above other people, and finding fault with others. How often is the value of our penitence destroyed because we have looked at Mistress Somebody, and said, “Well, I am guilty, but still,—well, I am not such a hypocrite as Mrs. So-and-so.” What have you to do with her? “Oh!” says another, “I know I have been a bad man, but then I—I—I have never been as bad as old So-and-so.” What have you to do with him? Here are you pretending to be humble, yet you are as proud as Lucifer. I know you; you are like that man who went up to the temple, and pretended that he was going to pray, and then he said, “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are,” and so forth;” nor even as this publican;” turning his eye in disdain towards the true penitent. There is many a man who says, “I am a sinner, but then I am a total abstainer and wear the blue ribbon; that is a good thing, is it not?” Yes, it is, but not if you trust in it for salvation. “Oh, but!” says another, “I know that I have not lived as I ought, but I have always paid 20s. in the pound.” So ought every honest man, but what is there to be proud about in that? Are you going to get to heaven by paying 20s. in the pound to a man, and not a penny in the pound to God? Yet that is often the way of men. Or else perhaps we are accusing others while we pretend that we are ourselves humble. We must get rid of all such bad habits if we want the Lord to have mercy upon us. I believe a sincere penitent thinks himself to be the worst man there is, and never judges other people, for he says in his heart, “That man may be more openly guilty than I am, but very likely he does not know as much as I do, or the circumstances of his case are an excuse for him.” A woman, convinced of sin, says, “It is true, that woman has fallen, and her life is full of foulness; but perhaps if I had been tempted as she was, and had been deceived as she was, I should have been even worse than she is.” Oh, that we might all give up that habit of cavilling at other people, and put our mouths in the dust in self-abasement before God!
I think that putting our mouths into the dust also means that we realize our own nothingness in the presence of God. We have nothing to say, nothing to claim, nothing to boast of; if the Lord should never look upon us in mercy, yet we could not complain of him. If he were to banish us from his presence for ever, yet could we not open our mouths to accuse him, but must say, “Thou art just when thou judges; thou art clear when thou condemnest.” That, dear friends, is putting your mouth in the dust; feeling that, in God’s sight, you are only like the dust. If you have sought the Lord, and have not found him, I do exhort you to sink yourself lower. Believe that you have no strength, that you have no righteousness, that you are truly lost and ruined and undone, that you are nothing but a mass loathsomeness before the thrice-holy God; and bow before him with this conviction in your heart, “if so be there may be hope.”
I am not going to preach upon that last part of the text, because the time has almost gone, and also for another reason, because I have not to say to you, “If so be there may be hope.” There is hope for any man, or woman, or child here,—I like to say “child” as well as “man, or woman,” because I believe that children are often the best part of my congregation. Last Monday week, we had five children before the church, one after the other, whose testimony for Christ was quite as clear as that of any of the elders among us. What an important part of the congregation the boys and girls make up! I believe that there are almost as many saved among the little ones now in this congregation as there are of grown-up people, perhaps even more. Well now, if any of you who are guilty,—whether old or young,—come before the Lord, and confess your sin, and trust in Christ for mercy, you shall have mercy. I do not know who you are, and I do not care who you are; but whosoever shall come, and confess his sin in all lowliness of heart, and in faith believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall have mercy. Christ sits on his throne of grace, and stretches out the silver scepter. Bow before him, and he will forgive your sin. The fountain is opened for sin and for uncleanness; if thou art sinful and unclean, come to the fountain that Christ has opened, and which the devil cannot close, and wash and be clean this very hour. God in infinite mercy is ready to forgive, his heart yearns over the wanderers. He stretches out his hands, and entreats thee to come back, and he is grieved until thou dost return. If there be in thy heart any sorrow for having sinned against thy God, if there be any anxiety to come back to him, come back. If thou dost but turn thy face towards him, whilst thou art yet a great way off, he sees, he has compassion upon thee, he runs to thee, he embraces thee. Fall into his arms now. Believe thou in his Son; trust thyself with Jesus, for he never yet failed any who trusted him. Make him the Trustee of thy soul, for he is a Trustee who can be trusted. Deposit in his hands thy spirit, for he is able to keep that which thou committest unto him against that day.
We are getting into summer, and I feel very anxious that none of my hearers should have to say, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Then, before the harvest comes, now that the summer is just beginning, may the Lord incline your hearts to come and put your trust in Jesus! Many of you are from the country; you have come to see London. Of all the sights possible to you, the best will be first to see yourselves, and then to see your Savior. There is no exhibition like the exhibition of the love of God in Jesus Christ to guilty sinners. May this be the best day you have ever lived because it shall be the first day you have ever truly lived with the life of God in your soul! I pray the Lord to bless my words to every one of you without exception. Surely, there is not anybody here who would wish to be left out. God bless you all, for Christ’s sake! Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
