Perfect Restoration
“I HAVE MERCY UPON THEM: AND THEY SHALL BE AS THOUGH I HAD NOT CAST THEM OFF: FOB I AM THE LORD TTIEIE
GOD. AND WILL HEAR THEM.” — Zecharidh x. 6.
r I ^HE manner in which hope can come to sinners: -*• “I have mercy upon them.” Mercy abides in the heart of God even after the hope of it has left the human bosom.
The token that God’s mercy is coming, and that it is indeed come, is prayer. “Behold he prayeth” is the sure indication of coming deliverance. Acts ix. 11.
God had observed prayer in them, for he said, “I will hear them.”
The result of mercy’s coming is exceedingly delightful: “They shall be as though I had not cast them off.”
This promise may be applied, —
I. IN GENERAL, TO ATT, PENITENT 8INNEB8,
God’s mercy in many ways restores men to their lost position: and in some senses even to their pristine condition before the fall.
1. The forgiveness of sin, and justification by faith, make them as acceptable as if they had never transgressed. (342)
2. The renovation of nature, by the regenerating work of the Holy Ghost, creates in them as pure an inner life as Adam ever had.
8. Restoration to paradise. Even now we dwell with God in a blessed state, for the Lord hath raised us to the heavenlies in Christ.
4. Redemption from the curse. The curse is clean
gone for ever, through him who was made a curse for us. Gal. iii. 13. The anger of God is removed from us for ever.
5. Engagement in service. We are honorably
employed, and could not have been more so had we never sinned.
6. Communion with God. This we enjoy as truly
as unfallen humanity could have done. In deed, the Spirit of God dwells in the regenerate, and this is not said of Adam.
7. Eternal life. We are preserved from penal
death. As Jesus lives so must we. John xiv. 19. There is no fear that we shall eat and die, for the Lord has given us eternal life, and we shall never perish. John x. 28.
The further working out of the likeness between the state of the saved and that of Adam in the garden, may be made highly instructive.
II. IN PARTICULAR, TO PENITENT BACKSLIDEB8.
Only return unto God, and live in his fear, and you shall enjoy all the blessedness of your best spiritual state.
You shall again enjoy —
1. The complete removal of your guilt, and shall
have no more consciousness of sin; thua
shall you return to rest of soul.
2. Renewed joy, as in the days of your first love.
3. Restored purity of heart, as in the times before
you wandered.
4. Fresh communion with God, and guidance from
his Holy Spirit. Is not this your cry,
“Take not thy Holy Spirit from me?”
Ps. li. 11.
6. New usefulness. You shall teach transgressors the pardoning ways of Jehovah. Ps. li. 13.
6. Restoration to the church, from which you may
have been excluded. Your brethren will
rejoice over you, and so will your God.
7. Future upholding. You shall watch against
temptation all the more earnestly, and so
you shall stand the more firmly through
grace. God can make use of your unhappy
fall to teach you many precious lessons.
Suppose this invitation to turn unto the Lord should be refused —
It will be a wanton rejection of generous love.
There can never be a fairer offer.
This will increase the uneasiness of a guilty
conscience.
This will lead to the fear that the refuser ig not one of the Lord’s chosen.
But we hope better things of you, and things which accompany salvation, though we thus speak. We art jealous lest you miss the day of grace.
At once confess your sin, and humbly plead the word of the Lord, “I have mercy upon them.”
Then cry out in prayer, for it is written, “I will hear them.”
Then, in faith in the name of Jesus, hang upon the promise, “They shall be as though I had not cast them off.”
By the mercy of God, we entreat you to seek his face at once, with true heart, and resolute importunity.
SELECTIONS.
The fall is a greater mystery than the Redemption. He who has had experience of the one may well accept the revelation of the other. — O. Vaughan.
Now thou hast avenged Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing Temptation, hast regain’d lost Paradise, And frustrated the conquest fraudulent. He nevermore henceforth will dare set foot In Paradise to tempt; his snares are broke: P or, though that seat of earthly bliss be f ail’d, A fairer Paradise is founded now For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou, A Saviour, art come down to reinstall, Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be, Of Tempter and temptation without fear. — Milton.
The end of the gospel is life and perfection... It is to make ITS partakers of the image of God, in righteousness and true holintas.... God himself cannot make me happy, if he be only without me; unless he give me a participation of himself and his own likeness unto my soul. — Oudworth.
He raised me from the deeps of sin,
The gates of gaping hell,
And fixed my standing more secure
Than ’twas before I fell. — Watts.
A man upon the way, having accidentally lost his purse, is questioned by his fellow-traveller where he had it last. “Oh!” says he, “I am confident that I drew it out of my pocket when I was in such a town, at such an inn.” “Why, then!” says the other, “there is no better way to have it again than by going back to the place where you last had it.” This is the case of many a man in these loose, unsettled times; they have lost their love to Christ, and his truth, since their corn and wine and oil have increased; since outward things are in abundance added unto them they have slighted the light of God’s countenance. When they were poor and naked of all worldly comfort, then they sought God’s face both early and late, and nothing was more dear and precious unto them than the truth of Christ. What, then, is to be done to recover this lost love to Christ? Back again, back again directly where you last had it! Back to the sign of the broken and contrite heart! There it was that you drew it out into good words and better ltorks; and though it be since lost in the crowd of worldly employments, there and nowhere else, you shall be sure to find it again. — Spencer s “Things New and Old”