A Sermon by R M M’Cheyne
Psalms 42:1. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
These words are supposed to be the words of David when he fled from his son Absalom. He seems to have been wandering in some solitary wild district on the side of Mount Hermon, the stream of Jordan flowing at his feet. David seems to have been meditating thoughtfully, for his enemies reproached him daily, saying, “Where is thy God?” Even God seemed to forget him; all God’s waves and billows were going over him when, perhaps, a deer suddenly bounded past him. It had been sorely wounded by the archers, or pursued by some wild beast on the mountains of the leopards. Faint and weary, he saw it rushing toward the flowing stream, and quenching its thirst in the brook. David’s soul was revived by the sight. Is this not a suitable picture of what I should be? Is my God not to me as the flowing stream is to that wounded deer? “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”
I do hope that many of you have come here this day with the same panting desire in your bosom. Only gracious souls can pant after God and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. As a magnet attracts nothing to itself but what is made of steel, so an uplifted Saviour, God manifest in the flesh, draws nothing to Him but what has been awakened by His own Spirit. May God enable me to show you some of the reasons why the believer pants after God.
1. The burden of sin makes the soul pant after God.
(1.) Unawakened souls – those who feel no burden – do not pant after Christ.
[1] “The full soul loatheth an honeycomb.” Christ is the honeycomb which God has provided for poor sinners. The sweetest honey is to be found in the clefts of that Rock; but unawakened people are full – full of peace, full of business, full of pleasure. They have no desire after Christ; they loathe the honeycomb.
[2] Unawakened people are “dead in trespasses and sins”. They are as dead to Christ and eternal things as the dead in the churchyard are to the things of this world. The dead bodies in the churchyard are at present within reach of the preacher’s voice. If they could look up out of their graves, they would see the table spread, with the bread and wine; and yet when we speak they do not hear; they do not weep; their bosoms do not pant; they do not rise and come. Dear friends, the dead souls within the church are just as dead as they are. You too are within reach of the preacher’s voice; you too can see Christ evidently set forth crucified; yet you have no desires after Christ. Your eyes do not weep; your bosoms do not pant; you have no heart-longings after Christ.
[3] When Israel was in the land of Egypt, they had leeks and onions and garlic; they sat by the fleshpots and did eat bread to the full. They did not cry for manna; they did not seek water out of the flinty rock. So it is with those of you who are unawakened. You have got the leeks and the onions of this world’s pleasures and profits and diversions, and you do not care for Christ, the bread of life. You do not pant after forgiveness and a new birth; you have no heart-longings for the living water of which, if a man drink, he shall never thirst again.
(2.) Many awakened people do not pant after Christ.
There are some who feel like the deer stricken by the archers, but they think they can pull out the arrows and heal their own wounds. [1] When Naaman the Syrian came to Elisha, he felt his loathsome disease and he longed to be cured, but when the prophet told him: “Go and wash in Jordan seven times . . . and thou shalt be clean”, he did not believe God’s word: “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” So do many awakened souls among you. You are made to feel your loathsome disease; you sometimes tremble for fear of hell; but when we tell you of Christ’s blood cleansing from all sin, you go away in a rage.
[2] When the flood came upon the earth, when the rain fell for 40 days, and the bowels of the great deep were broken up, I do not doubt there were great pantings of heart. Many fled from the rising water. Some fled to the top of snowy Lebanon, some to the peaks of Ararat; but only Noah believed God’s word and entered into the ark. So many of you tremble about your souls, yet you do not believe God’s word and are not panting after Christ. He says, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life”.
[3] When Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven, it is said that all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. There will not be one unawakened person in earth or in hell. Not the proudest and dearest of you will keep from trembling in that day. But it is only those who believe His Word that will flee under His wings. Dear friends, it is not enough for you to be anxious about your souls; you must flee to Christ; you must be in Christ before you are safe.
(3.) All who are taught of God long after Christ:
“Every man that . . . hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me”; All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”. When a sinner is convinced by God that his sins are a burden heavier than he can bear; that if he will die, they will crush him into an eternal hell – when convinced that God has provided a Lamb for a burnt offering and that this Lamb is free to all – he rushes through the crowd. Others may keep back, but he cannot. He places both his hands on the head of the divine Lamb, and says: “My Lord, and my God”; “This God is [my] God for ever and ever; He will be [my] guide even unto death”. “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”
If any of you is convinced that you are perishing, that heaven is like a great city with walls, that you are outside and the storm of wrath is about to fall on you, has God also convinced you that Christ is the only gate into the city, the strait gate, and yet it is wide enough to admit any sinner in all the world? Then I know you will strive to enter in; you will agonise; you will not rest day nor night: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God”. If any of you is convinced that sin is a mortal disease, that all other physicians are vain, that Christ is passing through the midst of us full of virtue to heal, then I know you will press forward, whatever others do: “If I may but touch His garment I shall be healed”. “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”
I would now invite panting souls to close with Christ. It is a sad truth that most of you are like the manslayer running toward the city of refuge, rather than sitting down within the gates. If you feel that you are condemned in yourself and that God has provided a free surety, why will you not rest your soul upon His finished work? Why will you go round the city of refuge and not enter in? May God give you light to venture on Christ and say: “This God is [my] God for ever and ever”.
2. A desire for holiness makes the soul pant after God.
(1.) Unconverted persons have no holiness
and therefore they do not pant after God and Christ. Indeed, this is the chief reason why poor sinners do not come to Christ. They know that, if they would come to Christ, they would bid eternal farewell to their old companions and pleasures, but most people would rather go to hell than this. When a few people from Greenland were brought to this country, they saw no beauty in the rich corn fields and woods and plains; they asked for their fields of snow and the mountains of ice glinting in the sun. When they came into our houses, they could not endure the cleanness; they preferred their own smoky, filthy cabins.
So it is with those of you who are unconverted. You have grown up with hearts frozen to God and to divine things; and when you come to see the heart of a Christian like a garden, with the river of life flowing through it, and beautiful flowers of meekness, love and holiness growing in it, you cannot bear the sight; you love your own frozen heart better. When you see the clean heart of a child of God, you say, I had rather have my own filthy one. This is the way with most people. You do not long to be made holy; you do not pant after the new birth. You need grace to desire grace. You do not desire to be made a new creature; you would rather remain in the image of the devil than be changed into the image of God. You are like Jerusalem: “Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be?”
(2.) But all saved souls pant after holiness.
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” [1] When a soul closes with Christ, he is not made perfectly holy all at once: “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day”. Just as you have seen the day struggling with the darkness, then with clouds, till the sun shines forth in meridian splendour, so it is with the holiness of a Christian. Just as in the richest ground, after the deepest ploughing, weeds will still grow up among the corn; so many roots of bitterness remain in the believer’s heart. Paul thanked God for the grace that was given to the Corinthians, so that they came behind in no gift; yet he said that they had strife, envy and divisions, so that he could not call them spiritual, but carnal. So it is with every Christian heart. Weeds grow up in the best-cultivated gardens. There is enough in Christ to supply all our need. It is our own fault that we are not as holy as God is holy. It is not in Christ, but in ourselves, that we are straitened. The shower of grace is plentiful enough, and more than enough; but we do not open our mouth wide.
[2] But every soul in Christ hates sin and pants after holiness. Nothing makes him pant after God more than corruption striving within. Paul never prayed more earnestly than when he had the thorn in his flesh. The thorn in the flesh makes us pant after God. When a ship is left by the tide lying dry on the sand, it cannot be shifted – it is like an immoveable log. The seamen may try to draw it with ropes, but it only sinks deeper in the sand. They can do nothing but long for the tide, so that the ship may again be lifted up on the waves and sail into the harbour. Thus it is with a Christian. You are often like a ship on the sand. You cannot move. You attempt duties, but it is heavy work. Without Christ you can do nothing. You wait and pant for Christ, for the full tide of the Spirit, to lift your soul above the waves and carry you prosperously on toward the heavenly harbour.
Let me invite weary souls to come to Christ this day. Some of you are feeling the thorn in the flesh and you are praying that it may depart from you. Some of you feel like the criminal who was chained to a dead body. You feel your loathsome body of sin and you cry, “O man!” Some of you are like the deer that has been wounded by the lion and trembles at its roaring. You have been wounded by Satan and you tremble to hear his roar. Come to Jesus. He will give you rest, O panting soul. Close with Christ; feed upon Christ. Without Him you can do nothing. Through Christ strengthening you, you may do all things. The Lord’s Supper is intended to teach you to feed on Jesus. You do not only look on the bread or handle it; you eat; you drink. So come into personal union with Christ, O longing soul, and He will be your strength. “God is our refuge and our strength.”
3. Desolation makes the soul pant after God.
(1.) Believers should never be desolate.
It is contrary to the promise: “None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate”. Christ is always the same. His righteousness is as perfect one day as another. If you are clothed in that righteousness, your peace should be like a river. It is very dishonouring to Christ for believers to be going bowed down all the day long. “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice.”
(2.) Still I fear that some of you can bear witness that the believer is sometimes very desolate.
The moon does not always shine in a cloudless sky. The ships do not always sail on a waveless sea. The believer does not always live in the smile of his Father. [1] Outward providences sometimes cause desolation, when they come unexpectedly upon us, when we cannot see God’s meaning in them; when we suspect His love and fall into darkness. So Job: “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived”.
[2] Sin admitted into the heart is the most common cause. God is a jealous God. So Israel: “She said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink”.
(3.) The desolate soul pants after God.
So it was with Job: “O that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat”. So it is with the bride: “I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways”. So David: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God”. When a child that has been tenderly brought up, that has been warmly clad and comfortably fed, and cared for by a gentle mother’s hand, when that child is turned out on the cold world, it is bitter indeed! O for my father’s roof! O for my mother’s smile! So it is with a child of light walking in darkness.
Let me invite desolate souls to come to God, the living God. Some of you may be feeling like a ship tossed on a stormy sea. Deep calls unto deep, at the noise of God’s waterspouts; all the waves and billows are breaking over you. Be persuaded to close with Christ, freely offered to you. Put away entirely, for the moment, the question as to whether you ever believed before. Believe now. The Lord’s Supper is specially fitted for you. You say you cannot realise a Saviour; well, here He is set forth plainly in bread and wine: “This is My body, broken for you”. You ask, But how shall I know He is a Saviour to me? See, here the bread is freely offered: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” You say: But how do I know He is still offered to me? I answer, “Yet there is room”. Here is bread enough and to spare. You say: But may I really close with Him? I answer, “Take, eat”. O panting soul, come under His wings. “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.”
1Taken with editing from The Christian Treasury. The sermon was preached at a communion season.