Read: Psalm 84:1-12 Text: v11-12
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Mr Spurgeon was a prolific author as well as a greater preacher
When he wasn’t preparing sermons to preach to the some 6,000
souls who attended each Lord’s Day meeting at the Met/Tabernacle
then he was either editing those same sermons for the press
(A weekly sermon was sent forth every week for over 60 years – up
to 25 years after his decease) or he was writing articles for his
magazine (S&T) and writing books
One famous book (still/print) was called: “The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith”
Although it contained 365 readings, it was different from the other daily devotionals that he penned
This one was made up entirely of promises from the Bible
Spurgeon utilised the thought of the banking system
He could see the believer receiving the cheque and going by faith into the Bank of Heaven and claiming it for himself
That is a very legitimate figure to employ
We want to do likewise with our text
i.e. employ the idea of cashing in a cheque
Argument: Is hardly a cheque like this one in the whole/Bible
If this cheque can/cashed, then any other cheque can be cashed
This is the cheque that covers every other one
4 main thoughts:
1) THE SIGNATURE ON THE CHEQUE:
A/ Who wrote this cheque?
Such a question cannot be lightly dismissed
[i] Suppose I found a cheque book belonging to one of the recent bankrupt businesses – what would it profit me?
They no longer exist in any meaningful way
Or if they do – their cheques are worthless pieces/paper
Would be better tearing their cheque book and burning/pieces
[ii] Suppose it belongs to a small time business still solvent
A small struggling retailer working out of one little shop
It would be very foolish for me (apart from being dishonest) to write a cheque for say £250,000 and seek to cash it
Reality is: Account would not sustain such a request
So part/worth of the cheque lies in who signs it
Whose account does it come from?
B/ In our text, the name/cheque (as it were) is of Jehovah
This is the greatest name ever
Thus saith the LORD the King of
Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am
the last; and beside me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6)
There is coming a time when every major banking establishment and finance house will be no more
True: There are some who even in this severe economic climate are preparing to buy out their weaker competitors
Some financiers who can feel no ripples from the current crisis
But soon they will no longer exist – their Empires will crash
In a scene from the last days (Revelation 18) we have the merchant men/earth greatly lamenting the fall of Babylon/Great
And the merchants of the earth shall
weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any
more…The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her,
shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is
like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and
cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city,
wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her
costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
Why do they so mourn her departure and loss?
Answer: They themselves go to the wall also
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more (v11)
Best advice nowadays: cash your cheques while/ still valid!
C/ But God Almighty is not facing ruin
His securities are guilt edged securities
Blessed
be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to
all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good
promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant. (1 Kings
8:56)
And He it is whose signature adorns this cheque
It isn’t going to bounce in any financial climate
Whatever else men can take away from us – they cannot take away the word of our God
Gladstone: The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture
This is not because it is a book of Jewish history etc.,
It is because it is the infallible word of the Living God
2) THE SUM ON THE CHEQUE:
A/ A great signature means a lot (as said)
But it could guarantee just a small sum of money
I remember getting a cheque from the Belfast Telegraph for £1
Room on the cheque for £millions/£100’00’s/£1,000 etc.,
But I was being offered £1 for my contribution/the newspaper
Had I lost the cheque – I would hardly have cried myself/sleep!
So, next to the signature, guaranteeing the cheque, we must see the amount that it is on it as being very important:
B/ On this cheque, we discover that it offers us "every good thing” (positive way of wording/text)
No room for the bank to withhold from us any good thing
Let’s think of some of the good things not withheld:
[i] First promise God made to anyone: promise/Redeemer
The woman’s seed would smash the serpent’s head
From this first promise flows every other promise
Every promise/God is yea and amen in Jesus Christ
If there was no Redeemer – there would be no redemption
Chains/sin would continue to clank and hell burn as hot as ever
God did not withhold a Redeemer from us
God spared not His own Son… (Romans 8:34)
[ii] Another good thing not withheld was a salvation package that is within reach of the sinner
Little use there being food in the barn for the starving and the
barn be a 12,000 miles away in the other end/world, surrounded by armed troops with orders to shoot to kill!
God’s salvation package is well suited for the sinner:
A Person/great infinite worth must bear the penalty/sin
This is what Christ did on the Cross: Isaiah 53:6
Salvation must be by grace without works: This is so (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Salvation must be received by faith: This is so (Romans 10:13)
Better still: Faith that brings us salvation itself is a gift
We believe through grace (Acts 18:27)
Repentance – a noted attribute of the faith/saves – is likewise grace driven: His goodness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4)
In order to bring us to faith/repentance – the good work of world
wide, selfless, sacrificing evangelism is organised by God
The Spirit/God separates missionaries/sends them forth (Acts 13:2)
One day (in a very non abstract way) that saving gospel that our souls craved/needed badly was brought powerfully to our hearts
That man on the Road/Jericho probably would have died if the Samaritan not have come and took him up on this mule
He was left half dead and the wounds/elements/beasts/bandits were all there to finish him off and send him into eternity
But God sent us a Good Samaritan in the form of an evangelist
Perhaps a tract came through our door…someone took time to go round the streets and ensure that our house was not missed
Perhaps someone took time to talk to us
Whatever…the principle is the same
This was a good thing that was not withheld from us
[iii] If God had not have taken the initiative first then we would never have sought Him first – no movement at all
Bible/blunt: There is none that seeketh after God (Romans 3:11)
But God says: I am found of them that sought me not (Romans 10:20)
John said: We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19)
This is a very humbling matter to think upon
It really magnifies the grace/God more than any other position
Examine/non Reformed position: The sinner who starts the ball rolling
It is God looking to see what the sinner will do and then God decides on the basis of what He foresees the sinner doing
It is always God reacting– the great Second Fiddler/Universe
But in the Reformed Faith – it is God who moves first
He comes to the valley of dry bones and sends His Spirit
He passes the helpless, dying and abandoned infant and He says “live” and imparts spiritual life into the spiritual corpse
[iv] God does not withhold anything that will help the converted sinner to live for Jesus Christ
Would be most illogical for Him to do so
Salvation is not only from the curse and penalty of sin…
…but the chains and power of sin
Therefore we need help to live for Christ in holiness and power
Will never do that for ourselves or by ourselves in a million years
Therefore we need the power indwelling Spirit/God
We need the whole armour/God
We need enlightenment in Bible reading
We need power and help in prayer
We need assurance of salvation and joy etc.,
In short: Everything we need to live successful Christian lives
God says that He will not withhold such from us
If
He does – then we cannot be truly saved unto the praise of the glory of
His grace – His motive in saving us in the first place
Therefore it says: He that hath performed a good work in us will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6)
Therefore there can be no withholding of any good thing
3) THE NAME ON THE CHEQUE:
A/ Only a dishonest man would either change the name on the cheque or fill his name into the payee part without permission
May get away with that in this present evil world
Banks can be notoriously careless in these matters
But not in the Bank of Heaven
B/ This cheque will only be cashed when the proper one claims the amount that has been promised to Him
…them that walk uprightly
This presents us with a short term problem
Salvation is not offered to those who walk uprightly
If it were – who could be saved?
There were none that sought after God – so none righteous
(“Four black Roman nones” as they have been called)
Yet we have already talked about the gospel import/these words
Our
problem here is no more troublesome than when the ground that brought
forth the good fruit in the parable of the sower represented those who
had an honest and good heart (Luke 8:15)
Answer/short term problem is this:
If we are applying these words in a gospel situation, then the promise is to those who are concerned about their soul
By and through grace they respond to the gospel
Bible teaches that those who continually harden their hearts often lose the privileges that they once enjoyed
This is a fearsome matter:
He
hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not
see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them. (John 12:40)
Ultimately the sinner damns his own soul
But God can judicially harden his heart for him
All God has to do is simply withdraw His gracious influences
Illustration: Old days: They salted meat to prevent rotting
This worked as long as the salt did its preserving work
Suppose they could somehow take out/salt that had been put in: Result: The meat would very quickly begin to corrupt
When God’s Spirit stops striving with obstinate sinners then, spiritually speaking, they get worse and worse
When once they trembled at the gospel – no longer
Herod once heard John gladly and did many things
But when he had the man/God beheaded, then the light went out
Not for John’s soul (Philippians 1:21) but Herod’s
He later met the Saviour who had nothing to say to him
C/ But let the sinner be softened towards the gospel
Let him attend to it earnestly as the merchant man would to the profitable purchase of a pearl of great price (Matthew 13:46)
What does he find?
No good thing is withheld from him as he seeks
Much we could say here – we don’t need to
Let the sinner place his faith in the word/God and he will find that every door he comes to opening before him
Earnest, seeking, sinners are never disappointed
None ever arrive at the place of rejection
Why not: God will not withhold any good thing from such
They that seek me early shall find me (Proverbs 8:17)
Let the seeking sinner claim our text that we have here
God delights in mercy
God has no delight in the destruction/wicked
Those who knock earnestly at His door find admittance
4) THE CASHING OF THE CHEQUE:
A/ We have seen several things already – all vital to observe:
[i] The signature on the cheque: Almighty God
[ii] The amount on the cheque: No good thing withheld
We might have developed this further than we did:
Now unto him that is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the
power that worketh in us, (Ephesians 3:20)
The only limit is effectively self imposed by our faithlessness
[iii] The payee is the man who walks uprightly
Such may be in what is called evangelical obedience i.e. the seeking sinner who is anxious to be saved
Or the already converted child/God seeking to live for Christ
But something is missing that is all important:
B/ This cheque needs to be cashed
The willingness of God to save the sinner with a rich salvation will never take place without faith on the part of the sinner
Again, whatever can be said to give the bigger picture – what I say here is true from the sinner’s perspective
Salvation is a free gift
The cheque (as it were) needs only to be cashed
There is nothing we need to do beforehand to earn salvation
There is nothing we need to do afterward to earn salvation
It is something that is claimed by faith
It comes to us 100% by the grace/God
Salvation has been paid for in full by Christ
It just needs to be applied
The publican in the temple applied for it
On what basis did he cry out: God be merciful to me the sinner?
You just can’t pluck prayers like that out of thin air
This wasn’t a desperate hope-so-try-anything type prayer
If it were, he would not have gone home justified
Justified means: accounted righteous before God
Only way a man can be so counted is because his sins are forgiven
No this man so prayed because he had a cheque in his hand
It was a cheque from the Bank of Faith
He had read/Bible that God delights in mercy
He read of others finding mercy and he concluded that there was mercy for Him
Object: Does God not have mercy on whom He will have mercy and whom He will – He hardens?
Ans:- Yes – but those who are hardened do not seek mercy
–do not want mercy – they repudiate all the overtures of
mercy
A man who does not want mercy cannot complain if he does not find it
Here is a poor wicked publican seeking mercy
And so he comes to the place where mercy is found
Not so much the temple – but the throne of grace
He could’ve spent all his days wondering at the mercy of God
And talking about it and intending to claim it etc.,
Many have done that who never found it
A man could die in poverty with a cheque in his pocket for millions that would have kept him alive and prosperous
The cashing of the cheque brings the riches of the payee’s account to the reality of the drawer’s live
Claiming eternal salvation by faith saves the soul
Appeal
THE END