Luke 23:34

The First Cry from the Cross; Christ's Plea for Ignorant Sinne rs

The First Cry from the Cross

October 24th, 1869 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34 .

Our Lord was at that moment enduring the first pains of crucifixion; the executioners had just then driven the nails through his hands and feet. He must have been, moreover, greatly depressed, and brought into a condition of extreme weakness by the agony of the night in Gethsemane, and by the scourgings and cruel mockings which he had endured all through the morning, from Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, and the Praetorian guards. Yet neither the weakness of the past, nor the pain of the present, could prevent him from continuing in prayer. The Lamb of God was silent to men, but he was not silent to God. Dumb as sheep before her shearers, he had not a word to say in his own defense to man, but he continues in his heart crying unto his Father, and no pain and no weakness can silence his holy supplications. Beloved, what an example our Lord herein presents to us! Let us continue in prayer so long as our heart beats; let no excess of suffering drive us away from the throne of grace, but rather let it drive us closer to it.

"Long as they live should Christians pray, For only while they pray they live."

To cease from prayer is to renounce the consolations which our case requires. Under all distractions of spirit, and overwhelmings of heart, great God, help us still to pray, and never from the mercy-seat may our footsteps be driven by despair. Our blessed Redeemer persevered in prayer even when the cruel iron rent his tender nerves, and blow after blow of the hammer jarred his whole frame with anguish; and this perseverance may be accounted for by the fact that he was so in the habit of prayer that he could not cease from it; he had acquired a mighty velocity of intercession which forbade him to pause. Those long nights upon the cold mountain side, those many days which had been spent in solitude, those perpetual ejaculations which he was wont to dart up to heaven, all these had formed in him a habit so powerful, that the severest torments could not stay its force. Yet it was more than habit. Our Lord was baptised in the spirit of prayer; he lived in it, it lived in him, it had come to be an element of his nature. He was like that precious spice, which, being bruised, doth not cease to give forth its perfume, but rather yieldeth it all the more abundantly because of the blows of the pestle, its fragrance being no outward and superficial quality, but an inward virtue essential to its nature, which the pounding in the mortar did not fetch from it, causing it to reveal its secret soul of sweetness. So Jesus prays, even as a bundle of myrrh gives forth its smell, or as birds sing because they cannot do otherwise. Prayer enwrapped his very soul as with a garment, and his heart went forth in such array. I repeat it, let this be our example never, under any circumstances, however severe the trial, or depressing the difficulty, let us cease from prayer. Observe, further, that our Lord, in the prayer before us, remains in the vigour of faith as to his Sonship. The extreme trial to which he now submitted himself could not prevent his holding fast his Sonship. His prayer begins, "Father." It was not without meaning that he taught us when we pray to say, "Our Father," for our prevalence in prayer will much depend upon our confidence in our relationship to God. Under great losses and crosses, one is adapt to think that God is not dealing with us as a father with a child, but rather as a severe judge with a condemned criminal; but the cry of Christ, when he is brought to an extremity which we shall never reach, betrays no faltering in the spirit of sonship. In Gethsemane, when the bloody sweat fell fast upon the ground, his bitterest cry commenced with, "My Father," asking that if it were possible the cup of gall might pass from him; he pleaded with the Lord as his Father, even as he over and over again had called him on that dark and doleful night. Here, again, in this, the first of his seven expiring cries, it is "Father." O that the Spirit that makes us cry, "Abba, Father," may never cease his operations! May we never be brought into spiritual bondage by the suggestion, "If thou be the Son of God;" or if the tempter should so assail us, may we triumph as Jesus did in the hungry wilderness. May the Spirit which crieth, "Abba, Father," repel each unbelieving fear. When we are chastened, as we must be (for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?) may we be in loving subjection to the Father of our spirits, and live; but never may we become captives to the spirit of bondage, so as to doubt the love of our gracious Father, or our share in his adoption. More remarkable, however, is the fact that our Lord's prayer to his Father was not for himself. He continued on the cross to pray for himself, it is true, and his lamentable cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" shows the personality of his prayer; but the first of the seven great cries on the cross has scarcely even an indirect reference to himself. It is, "Father, forgive them." The petition is altogether for others, and though there is an allusion to the cruelties which they were exercising upon himself, yet it is remote; and you will observe, he does not say, "I forgive them" that is taken for granted he seems to lose sight of the fact that they were doing any wrong to himself, it is the wrong which they were doing to the Father that is on his mind, the insult which they are paying to the Father, in the person of the Son; he thinks not of himself at all. The cry, "Father, forgive them," is altogether unselfish. He himself is, in the prayer, as though he were not; so complete is his self-annihilation, that he loses sight of himself and his woes. My brethren, if there had ever been a time in the life of the Son of man when he might have rigidly confined his prayer to himself, without any one cavilling thereat, surely it was when he was beginning his death throes. We could not marvel, if any man here were fastened to the stake, or fixed to a cross, if his first, and even his last and all his prayers, were for support under so arduous a trial. But see, the Lord Jesus began his prayer by pleading for others. See ye not what a great heart is here revealed! What a soul of compassion was in the Crucified! How Godlike, how divine! Was there ever such a one before him, who, even in the very pangs of death, offers as his first prayer an intercession for others? Let this unselfish spirit be in you also, my brethren. Look not every man upon his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Love your neighbours as yourselves, and as Christ has set before you this paragon of unselfishness, seek to follow him, treading in his steps. There is, however, a crowning jewel in this diadem of glorious love. The Son of Righteousness sets upon Calvary in a wondrous splendour; but amongst the bright colours which glorify his departure, there is this one the prayer was not alone for others, but it was for his cruellest enemies. His enemies, did I say, there is more than that to be considered. It was not a prayer for enemies who had done him an ill deed years before, but for those who were there and then murdering him. Not in cold blood did the Saviour pray, after he had forgotten the injury, and could the more easily forgive it, but while the first red drops of blood were spurting on the hands which drove the nails; while yet the hammer was bestained with crimson gore, his blessed mouth poured out the fresh warm prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I say, not that that prayer was confined to his immediate executioners. I believe that it was a far-reaching prayer, which included Scribes and Pharisees, Pilate and Herod, Jews and Gentiles yea, the whole human race in a certain sense, since we were all concerned in that murder; but certainly the immediate persons, upon whom that prayer was poured like precious nard, were those who there and then were committing the brutal act of fastening him to the accursed tree. How sublime is this prayer if viewed in such a light! It stands alone upon a mount of solitary glory. No other had been prayed like it before. It is true, Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets had prayed for the wicked; but not for wicked men who had pierced their hands and feet. It is true, that Christians have since that day offered the same prayer, even as Stephen cried, "Lay not this sin to their charge;" and many a martyr has made his last words at the stake words of pitying intercession for his persecutors; but you know where they learnt this, let me ask you where did he learn it? Was not Jesus the divine original? He learnt it nowhere; it leaped up from his own Godlike nature. A compassion peculiar to himself dictated this originality of prayer; the inward royalty of his love suggested to him so memorable an intercession, which may serve us for a pattern, but of which no pattern had existed before. I feel as though I could better kneel before my Lord's cross at this moment than stand in this pulpit to talk to you. I want to adore him; I worship him in heart for that prayer; if I knew nothing else of him but this one prayer, I must adore him, for that one matchless plea for mercy convinces me most overwhelmingly of the deity of him who offered it, and fills my heart with reverent affection. Thus I have introduced to you our Lord's first vocal prayer upon the cross. I shall now, if we are helped by God's Holy Spirit, make some use of it. First, we shall view it as illustrative of our Saviour's intercession; secondly, we shall regard the text as instructive to the church's work; thirdly, we shall consider it as suggestive to the unconverted. I. First, my dear brethren, let us look at this very wonderful text as ILLUSTRATIVE OF OUR LORD'S INTERCESSION. He prayed for his enemies then, he is praying for his enemies now; the past on the cross was an earnest of the present on the throne. He is in a higher place, and in a nobler condition, but his occupation is the same; he continues still before the eternal throne to present pleas on the behalf of guilty men, crying, "Father, O forgive them." All his intercession is in a measure like the intercession on Calvary, and Calvary's cries may help us to guess the character of the whole of his intercession above. The first point in which we may see the character of his intercession is this it is most gracious. Those for whom our Lord prayed, according to the text, did not deserve his prayer. They had done nothing which could call forth from him a benediction as a reward for their endeavours in his service; on the contrary, they were most undeserving persons, who had conspired to put him to death. They had crucified him, crucified him wantonly and malignantly; they were even taking away his innocent life. His clients were persons who, so far from being meritorious, were utterly undeserving of a single good wish from the Saviour's heart. They certainly never asked him to pray for them it was the last thought in their minds to say, "Intercede for us, thou dying King! Offer petitions on our behalf, thou Son of God!" I will venture to believe the prayer itself, when they heard it, was either disregarded, and passed over with contemptuous indifference, or perhaps it was caught as a theme for jest. I admit that it seems to be too severe upon humanity to suppose it possible that such a prayer could have been the theme for laughter, and yet there were other things enacted around the cross which were quite as brutal, and I can imagine that this also might have happened. Yet our Saviour prayed for persons who did not deserve the prayer, but, on the contrary, merited a curse persons who did not ask for the prayer, and even scoffed at it when they heard it. Even so in heaven there stands the great High Priest, who pleads for guilty men for guilty men, my hearers. There are none on earth that deserve his intercession. He pleads for none on the supposition that they do deserve it. He stands there to plead as the just One on the behalf of the unjust. Not if any man be righteous, but "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father." Remember, too, that our great Intercessor pleads for such as never asked him to plead for them. His elect, while yet dead in trespasses and sins, are the objects of his compassionate intercessions, and while they even scoff at his gospel, his heart of love is entreating the favour of heaven on their behalf. See, then, beloved, if such be the truth, how sure you are to spend with God who earnestly ask the Lord Jesus Christ to plead for you. Some of you, with many tears and much earnestness, have been beseeching the Saviour to be your advocate? Will he refuse you? Stands it to reason that he can? He pleads for those that reject his pleadings, much more for you who prize them beyond gold. Remember, my dear hearer, if there be nothing good in you, and if there be everything conceivable that is malignant and bad, yet none of these things can be any barrier to prevent Christ's exercising the office of Intercessor for you. Even for you he will plead. Come, put your case into his hands; for you he will find pleas which you cannot discover for yourselves, and he will put the case to God for you as for his murderers, "Father, forgive them." A second quality of his intercession is this its careful spirit. You notice in the prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Our Saviour did, as it were, look his enemies through and through to find something in them that he could urge in their favour; but he could not see nothing until his wisely affectionate eye lit upon their ignorance: "they know not what they do." How carefully he surveyed the circumstances, and the characters of those for whom he importuned! Just so it is with him in heaven. Christ is no careless advocate for his people. He knows your precise condition at this moment, and the exact state of your heart with regard to the temptation through which you are passing; more than that, he foresees the temptation which is awaiting you, and in his intercession he takes note of the future event which his prescient eye beholds. "Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Oh, the condescending tenderness of our great High Priest! He knows us better than we know ourselves. He understands every secret grief and groaning. You need not trouble yourself about the wording of your prayer, he will put the wording right. And even the understanding as to the exact petition, if you should fail in it, he cannot, for as he knoweth what is the mind of God, so he knoweth what is your mind also. He can spy out some reason for mercy in you which you cannot detect in yourselves, and when it is so dark and cloudy with your soul that you cannot discern a foothold for a plea that you may urge with heaven, the Lord Jesus has the pleas ready framed, and petitions ready drawn up, and he can present them acceptable before the mercy-seat. His intercession, then, you will observe is very gracious, and in the next place it is very thoughtful. We must next note its earnestness. No one doubts who reads these words, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," that they were heaven-piercing in their fervour. Brethren, you are certain, even without a thought, that Christ was terribly in earnest in that prayer. But there is an argument to prove that. Earnest people are usually witty, and quick of understanding, to discover anything which may serve their turn. If you are pleading for life, and an argument for your being spared be asked of you, I will warrant you that you will think of one when no one else might. Now, Jesus was so in earnest for the salvation of his enemies, that he struck upon an argument for mercy which a less anxious spirit would not have thought of: "They know not what they do." Why, sirs, that was in strictest justice but a scant reason for mercy; and indeed, ignorance, if it be wilful, does not extenuate sin, and yet the ignorance of many who surrounded the cross was a wilful ignorance. They might have known that he was the Lord of glory. Was not Moses plain enough? Had not Esaias been very bold in his speech? Were not the signs and tokens such that one might as well doubt which is the sun in the firmament as the claims of Jesus to be the Messias? Yet, for all that, the Saviour, with marvelous earnestness and consequent dexterity, turns what might not have been a plea into a plea, and puts it thus: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Oh, how mighty are his pleas in heaven, then, in their earnestness! Do not suppose that he is less quick of understanding there, or less intense in the vehemence of his entreaties. No, my brethren, the heart of Christ still labours with the eternal God. He is no slumbering intercessor, but, for Zion's sake, he doth not hold his peace, and for Jerusalem's sake, he doth not cease, nor will he, till her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. It is interesting to note, in the fourth place, that the prayer here offered helps us to judge of his intercession in heaven as to its continuance, perseverance, and perpetuity. As I remarked before, if our Saviour might have paused from intercessory prayer, it was surely when they fastened him to the tree; when they were guilty of direct acts of deadly violence to his divine person, he might then have ceased to present petitions on their behalf. But sin cannot tie the tongue of our interceding Friend! Oh, what comfort is here! You have sinned, believer, you have grieved his Spirit, but you have not stopped that potent tongue which pleads for you. You have been unfruitful, perhaps, my brother, and like the barren tree, you deserve to be cut down; but your want of fruitfulness has not withdrawn the Intercessor from his place. He interposes at this moment, crying, "Spare it yet another year." Sinner, you have provoked God by long rejecting his mercy and going from bad to worse, but neither blasphemy nor unrighteousness, nor infidelity, shall stay the Christ of God from urging the suit of the very chief of sinners. He lives, and while he lives he pleads; and while there is a sinner upon earth to be saved, there shall be an intercessor in heaven to plead for him. These are but fragments of thought, but they will help you, I hope, to realise the intercession of your great High Priest. Think yet again, this prayer of our Lord on earth is like his prayer in heaven, because of its wisdom. He seeks the best thing, and that which his clients most need, "Father, forgive them." That was the great point in hand; they wanted most of all there and then forgiveness from God. He does not say, "Father, enlighten them, for they know not what they do," for mere enlightenment would but have created torture of conscience and hastened on their hell; but he crieth, "Father, forgive;" and while he used his voice, the precious drops of blood which were then distilling from the nail wounds were pleading too, and God heard, and doubtless did forgive. The first mercy which is needful to guilty sinners is forgiven sin. Christ wisely prays for the boon most wanted. It is so in heaven; he pleads wisely and prudently. Let him alone, he knows what to ask for at the divine hand. Go you to the mercy-seat, and pour out your desires as best you can, but when you have done so always put it thus, "O my Lord Jesus, answer no desire of mine if it be not according to thy judgment; and if in aught that I have asked I have failed to seek for what I want, amend my pleading, for thou art infinitely wiser than I." Oh, is it sweet to have a friend at court to perfect our petitions for us before they come unto the great King. I believed that there is never presented to God anything but a perfect prayer now; I mean, that before the great Father of us all, no prayer of his people ever comes up imperfect; there is nothing left out, and there is nothing to be erased; and this, not because their prayers were originally perfect in themselves, but because the Mediator makes them perfect through his infinite wisdom, and they come up before the mercy-seat moulded according to the mind of God himself, and he is sure to grant such prayers. Once more, this memorable prayer of our crucified Lord was like to his universal intercession in the matter of its prevalence. Those for whom he prayed were many of them forgiven. Do you remember that he said to his disciples when he bade them preach, "beginning at Jerusalem," and on that day when Peter stood up with the eleven, and charged the people with wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Saviour, three thousand of these persons who were thus justly accused of his crucifixion became believers in him, and were baptised in his name. That was an answer to Jesus' prayer. The priest were at the bottom of the Lord's murder, they were the most guilty; but it is said, "a great company also of the priests believed." Here was another answer to the prayer. Since all men had their share representatively, Gentiles as well as Jews, in the death of Jesus, the gospel was soon preached to the Jews, and within a short time it was preached to the Gentiles also. Was not this prayer, "Father, forgive them," like a stone cast into a lake, forming at first a narrow circle, and then a wider ring, and soon a larger sphere, until the whole lake is covered with circling waves? Such a prayer as this, cast into the whole world, first created a little ring of Jewish converts and of priest, and then a wider circle of such as were beneath the Roman sway; and to-day its circumference is wide as the globe itself, so that tens of thousands are saved through the prevalence of this one intercession "Father, forgive them." It is certainly so with him in heaven, he never pleads in vain. With bleeding hands, he yet won the day; with feet fastened to the wood, he was yet victorious; forsaken of God and despised of the people, he was yet triumphant in his pleas; how much more so now the tiara is about his brow, his hand grasp the universal sceptre, and his feet are shod with silver sandals, and he is crowned King of kings, and Lord of lords! If tears and cries out of weakness were omnipotent, even more mighty if possible must be that sacred authority which as the risen Priest he claims when he stands before the Father's throne to mention the covenant which the Father made with him. O ye trembling believers, trust him with your concerns! Come hither, ye guilty, and ask him to plead for you. O you that cannot pray, come, ask him to intercede for you. Broken hearts and weary heads, and disconsolate bosoms, come ye to him who into the golden censer will put his merits, and then place your prayers with them, so that they shall come up as the smoke of perfume, even as a fragrant cloud into the nostrils of the Lord God of hosts, who will smell a sweet savour, and accept you and your prayers in the Beloved. We have now opened up more than enough sea-room for your meditations at home this afternoon, and, therefore we leave this first point. We have an illustration in the prayer of Christ on the cross of what his prayers always are in heaven. II. Secondly, the text is INSTRUCTIVE OF THE CHURCH'S WORK. As Christ was, so his church is to be in this world. Christ came into this world not to be ministered unto, but to minister, not to be honoured, but to save others. His church, when she understands her work, will perceive that she is not here to gather to herself wealth or honour, or to seek any temporal aggrandisement and position; she is here unselfishly to live, and if need be, unselfishly to die for the deliverance of the lost sheep, the salvation of lost men. Brethren, Christ's prayer on the cross I told you was altogether an unselfish one. He does not remember himself in it. Such ought to be the church's life-prayer, the church's active interposition on the behalf of sinners. She ought to live never for her ministers or for herself, but ever for the lost sons of men. Imagine you that churches are formed to maintain ministers? Do you conceive that the church exists in this land merely that so much salary may be given to bishops, and deans, and prebends, and curates, and I know not what? My brethren, it were well if the whole thing were abolished if that were its only aim. The aim of the church is not to provide out-door relief for the younger sons of nobility; when they have not brains enough to win anyhow else their livelihood, they are stuck into family livings. Churches are not made that men of ready speech may stand up on Sundays and talk, and so win daily bread from their admirers. Nay, there is another end and aim from this. These places are not built that you may sit here comfortably, and hear something that shall make you pass away your Sundays with pleasure. A church in London which does not exist to do good in the slums, and dens, and kennels of the city, is a church that has no reason to justify its longer existing. A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight with evil, to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to be. Not for thyself, O church, dost thou exist, any more than Christ existed for himself. His glory was that he laid aside his glory, and the glory of the church is when she lays aside her respectability and her dignity, and counts it to be her glory to gather together the outcast, and her highest honour to seek amid the foulest mire the priceless jewels for which Jesus shed his blood. To rescue souls from hell and lead to God, to hope, to heaven, this is her heavenly occupation. O that the church would always feel this! Let her have her bishops and her preachers, and let them be supported, and let everything be done for Christ's sake decently and in order, but let the end be looked to, namely, the conversion of the wandering, the teaching of the ignorant, the help of the poor, the maintenance of the right, the putting down of the wrong, and the upholding at all hazards of the crown and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the prayer of Christ had a great spirituality of aim. You notice that nothing is sought for these people but that which concerns their souls, "Father, forgive them." And I believe the church will do well when she recollects that she wrestles not with flesh and blood, nor with principalities and powers, but with spiritual wickedness, and that what she has to dispense is not the law and order by which magistrates may be upheld, or tyrannies pulled down, but the spiritual government by which hearts are conquered to Christ, and judgments are brought into subjection to his truth. I believe that the more the church of God strains after, before God, the forgiveness of sinners, and the more she seeks in her life prayer to teach sinners what sin is, and what the blood of Christ is, and what the hell that must follow if sin be not washed out, and what the heaven is which will be ensured to all those who are cleansed from sin, the more she keeps to this the better. Press forward as one man, my brethren, to secure the root of the matter in the forgiveness of sinners. As to all the evils that afflict humanity, by all means take your share in battling with them; let temperance be maintained, let education be supported; let reforms, political and ecclesiastical, be pushed forward as far as you have the time and the effort to spare, but the first business of every Christian man and women is with the hearts and consciences of men as they stand before the everlasting God. O let nothing turn you aside from your divine errand of mercy to undying souls. This is your one business. Tell to sinners that sin will damn them, that Christ alone can take away sin, and make this the one passion of your souls, "Father, forgive them, forgive them! Let them know how to be forgiven. Let them be actually forgiven, and let me never rest except as I am the means of bringing sinners to be forgiven, even the guiltiest of them." Our Saviour's prayer teaches the church that while her spirit should be unselfish, and her aim should be spiritual, the range of her mission is to be unlimited. Christ prayed for the wicked, what if I say the most wicked of the wicked, that ribald crew that had surrounded his cross! He prayed for the ignorant. Doth he not say, "They know not what they do"? He prayed for his persecutors; the very persons who were most at enmity with him, lay nearest to his heart. Church of God, your mission is not to the respectable few who will gather about your ministers to listen respectfully to their words; your mission is not to the ‚lite and the eclectic, the intelligent who will criticise your words and pass judgment upon every syllable of your teaching; your mission is not to those who treat you kindly, generously, affectionately, not to these I mean alone, though certainly to these as among the rest; but your great errand is to the harlot, to the thief, to the swearer and the drunkard, to the most depraved and debauched. If no one else cares for these, the church always must, and if there be any who are first in her prayers it should be these who alas! are generally last in our thoughts. The ignorant we ought diligently to consider. It is not enough for the preacher that he preaches so that those instructed from their youth up can understand him; he must think of those to whom the commonest phrases of theological truth are as meaningless as the jargon of an unknown tongue; he must preach so as to reach the meanest comprehension; and if the ignorant may come not to hear him, he must use such means as best he may to induce them, nay, compel them to hear the good news. The gospel is meant also for those who persecute religion; it aims its arrows of love against the hearts of his foes. If there be any whom we should first seek to bring to Jesus, it should be just these who are the farthest off and the most opposed to the gospel of Christ. "Father, forgive them; if thou dost pardon none besides, yet be pleased to forgive them." So, too, the church should be earnest as Christ was; and if she be so, she will be quick to notice any ground of hope in those she deals with, quick to observe any plea that she may use with God for their salvation. She must be hopeful too, and surely no church ever had a more hopeful sphere than the church of this present age. If ignorance be a plea with God, look on the heathen at this day millions of them never heard Messiah's name. Forgive them, great God, indeed they know not what they do. If ignorance be some ground for hope, there is hope enough in this great city of London, for have we not around us hundreds of thousands to whom the simplest truths of the gospel would be the greatest novelties? Brethren, it is sad to think that this country should still lie under such a pall of ignorance, but the sting of so dread a fact is blunted with hope when we read the Saviour's prayer aright it helps us to hope while we cry, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." It is the church's business to seek after the most fallen and the most ignorant, and to seek them perseveringly. She should never stay her hand from doing good. If the Lord be coming to-morrow, it is no reason why you Christian people should not subside into mere talkers and readers, meeting together for mutual comfort, and forgetting the myriads of perishing souls. If it be true that this world is going to pieces in a fortnight, and that Louis Napoleon is the Apocalyptic beast, or if it be not true, I care not a fig, it makes no difference to my duty, and does not change my service. Let my Lord come when he will, while I labour for him I am ready for his appearing. The business of the church is still to watch for the salvation of souls. If she stood gazing, as modern prophets would have her; if she gave up her mission to indulge in speculative interpretations, she might well be afraid of her Lord's coming; but if she goes about her work, and with incessant toil searches out her Lord's precious jewels, she shall not be ashamed when her Bridegroom cometh. My time has been much too short for so vast a subject as I have undertaken, but I wish I could speak words that were as loud as thunder, with a sense and earnestness as mighty as the lightening. I would fain excite every Christian here, and kindle in him a right idea of what his work is as a part of Christ's church. My brethren, you must not live to yourselves; the accumulation of money, the bringing up of your children, the building of houses, the earning of your daily bread, all this you may do; but there must be a greater object than this if you are to be Christlike, as you should be, since you are bought with Jesus' blood. Begin to live for others, make it apparent unto all men that you are not yourselves the end-all and be-all of your own existence, but that you are spending and being spent, that through the good you do to men God may be glorified, and Christ may see in you his own image and be satisfied. III. Time fails me, but the last point was to be a word SUGGESTIVE TO THE UNCONVERTED. Listen attentively to these sentences. I will make them as terse and condensed as possible. Some of you here are not saved. Now, some of you have been very ignorant, and when you sinned you did not know what you did. You knew you were sinners, you knew that, but you did not know the far-reaching guilt of sin. You have not been attending the house of prayer long, you have not read your Bible, you have not Christian parents. Now you are beginning to be anxious about your souls. Remember your ignorance does not excuse you, or else Christ would not say, "Forgive them;" they must be forgiven, even those that know not what they do, hence they are individually guilty; but still that ignorance of yours gives you just a little gleam of hope. The times of your ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance. The God whom you have ignorantly forgotten is willing to pardon and ready to forgive. The gospel is just this, trust Jesus Christ who died for the guilty, and you shall be saved. O may God help you to do so this very morning, and you will become new men and new women, a change will take place in you equal to a new birth; you will be new creatures in Christ Jesus. But ah! My friends, there are some here for whom even Christ himself could not pray this prayer, in the widest sense at any rate, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," for you have known what you did, and every sermon you hear, and especially every impression that is made upon your understanding and conscience by the gospel, adds to your responsibility, and takes away from you the excuse of not knowing what you do. Ah! Sirs, you know that there is the world and Christ, and that you cannot have both. You know that there is sin and God, and that you cannot serve both. You know that there are the pleasure of evil and the pleasures of heaven, and that you cannot have both. Oh! In the light which God has given you, may his Spirit also come and help you to choose that which true wisdom would make you choose. Decide to-day for God, for Christ, for heaven. The Lord decide you for his name's sake. Amen.

Christ's Plea for Ignorant Sinners

October 5th, 1890

by

C. H. SPURGEON

(1834-1892)

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they

do."-- Luke 23:34 .

What tenderness we have here; what self-forgetfulness; what almighty

love! Jesus did not say to those who crucified him, "Begone!" One such

word, and they must have all fled. When they came to take him in the

garden, they went backward, and fell to the ground, when he spoke but

a short sentence; and now that he is on the cross, a single syllable

would have made the whole company fall to the ground, or flee away

in fright.

Jesus says not a word in his own defence. When he prayed to his

Father, he might justly have said, "Father, note what they do to thy

beloved Son. Judge them for the wrong they do to him who loves them,

and who has done all he can for them." But there is no prayer against

them in the words that Jesus utters. It was written of old, by the prophet

Isaiah, "He made intercession for the transgressors;" and here it is

fulfilled. He pleads for his murderers, "Father, forgive them."

He does not utter a single word of upbraiding. He does not say, "Why

do ye this? Why pierce the hands that fed you? Why nail the feet that

followed after you in mercy? Why mock the Man who loved to bless

you?" No, not a word even of gentle upbraiding, much less anything

like a curse. "Father, forgive them." You notice, Jesus does not say, "I

forgive them," but you may read that between the lines. He says that all

the more because he does not say it in words. But he had laid aside his

majesty, and is fastened to the cross; and therefore he takes the humble

position of a suppliant, rather than the more lofty place of one who had

power to forgive. How often, when men say, "I forgive you," is there a

kind of selfishness about it! At any rate, self is asserted in the very act

of forgiving. Jesus take the place of a pleader, a pleader for those who

were committing murder upon himself. Blessed be his name!

This word of the cross we shall use to-night, and we shall see if we

cannot gather something from it for our instruction; for, though we

were not there, and we did not actually put Jesus to death, yet we really

caused his death, and we, too, crucified the Lord of glory; and his

prayer for us was, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they

do."

I am not going to handle this text so much by way of exposition, as by

way of experience. I believe there are many here, to whom these words

will be very appropriate. This will be our line of thought. First, we were

in measure ignorant; secondly, we confess that this ignorance is no

excuse; thirdly, we bless our Lord for pleading for us; and fourthly, we

now rejoice in the pardon we have obtained. May the Holy Spirit

graciously help us in our meditation!

I. Looking back upon our past experience, let me say, first, that WE

WERE IN MEASURE IGNORANT. We who have been forgiven, we

who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, we once sinned, in a

great measure, through ignorance. Jesus says, "They know not what

they do." Now, I shall appeal to you, brothers and sisters, when you

lived under the dominion of Satan, and served yourselves and sin, was

there not a measure of ignorance in it? You can truly say, as we said in

the hymn we sang just now,--

"Alas! I knew not what I did."

It is true, first, that we were ignorant of the awful meaning of sin. We began

to sin as children; we knew that it was wrong, but we did not know all that

sin meant. We went on to sin as young men; peradventure we plunged into

much wickedness. We knew it was wrong; but we did not see the end from

the beginning. It did not appear to us as rebellion against God. We did not

think that we were presumptuously defying God, setting at naught his

wisdom, defying his power, deriding his love, spurning his holiness; yet we

were doing that. There is an abysmal depth in sin. You cannot see the

bottom of it. When we rolled sin under our tongue as a sweet morsel, we

did not know all the terrible ingredients compounded in that deadly

bittersweet. We were in a measure ignorant of the tremendous crime we

committed when we dared to live in rebellion against God. So far, I think,

you go with me.

We did not know, at that time, God's great love to us. I did not know

that he had chosen me from before the foundation of the world; I never

dreamed of that. I did not know that Christ stood for me as my

Substitute, to redeem me from among men. I did not know the love of

Christ, did not understand it then. You did not know that you were

sinning against eternal love, against infinite compassion, against a

distinguishing love such as God had fixed on you from eternity. So far,

we knew not what we did.

I think, too, that we did not know all that we were doing in our

rejection of Christ, and putting him to grief. He came to us in our

youth; and impressed by a sermon we began to tremble, and to seek his

face; but we were decoyed back to the world, and we refused Christ.

Our mother's tears, our father's prayers, our teacher's admonitions,

often moved us; but we were very stubborn, and we rejected Christ. We

did not know that, in that rejection, we were virtually putting him away

and crucifying him. We were denying his Godhead, or else we should

have worshipped him. We were denying his love, or else we should

have yielded to him. We were practically, in every act of sin, taking the

hammer and the nails, and fastening Christ to the cross, but we did not

know it. Perhaps, if we had known it, we should not have crucified the

Lord of glory. We did know we were doing wrong; but we did not

know all the wrong that we were doing.

Nor did we know fully the meaning of our delays. We hesitated; we

were on the verge on conversion; we went back, and turned again to

our old follies. We were hardened, Christless, prayerless still; and each

of us said, "Oh, I am only waiting a little while till I have fulfilled my

present engagements, till I am a little older, till I have seen a little more

of the world!" The fact is, we were refusing Christ, and choosing the

pleasures of sin instead of him; and every hour of delay was an hour of

crucifying Christ, grieving his Spirit, and choosing this harlot world in

the place of the lovely and ever blessed Christ. We did not know that.

I think we may add one thing more. We did not know the meaning to

our self-righteousness. We used to think, some of us, that we had a

righteousness of our own. We had been to church regularly, or we had

been to the meeting-house whenever it was open. We were christened;

we were confirmed; or, peradventure, we rejoiced that we never had

either of those things done to us. Thus, we put our confidence in

ceremonies, or the absence of ceremonies. We said our prayers; we

read a chapter in the bible night and morning; we did--oh, I do not

know what we did not do! But there we rested; we were righteous in

our own esteem. We had not any particular sin to confess, nor any

reason to lie in the dust before the throne of God's majesty. We were

about as good as we could be; and we did not know that we were even

then perpetrating the highest insult upon Christ; for, if we were not

sinners, why did Christ die; and, if we had a righteousness of our own

which was good enough, why did Christ come here to work out a

righteousness for us? We made out Christ to be a superfluity, by

considering that we were good enough without resting in his atoning

sacrifice. Ah, we did not think we were doing that! We thought we

were pleasing God by our religiousness, by our outward performances,

by our ecclesiastical correctness; but all the while we were setting up

anti-Christ in the place of Christ. We were making out that Christ was

not wanted; we were robbing him of his office and glory! Alas! Christ

would say of us, with regard to all these things, "They know not what

they do." I want you to look quietly at the time past wherein you served

sin, and just see whether there was not a darkness upon your mind, a

blindness in your spirit, so that you did not know what you did.

II. Well now, secondly, WE CONFESS THAT THIS IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE. Our

Lord might urge it as a plea; but we never could.

We did not know what we did, and se we were not guilty to the fullest

possible extent; but we were guilty enough, therefore let us own it.

For first, remember, the law never allows this as a plea. In our own

English law, a man is supposed to know what the law is. If he breaks it,

it is no excuse to plead that he did not know it. It may be regarded by a

judge as some extenuation; but the law allows nothing of the kind. God

gives us the law, and we are bound to keep it. If I erred through not

knowing the law, still it was a sin. Under the Mosaic law, there were

sins of ignorance, and for these there were special offerings. The

ignorance did not blot out the sin. That is clear in my text; for, if

ignorance rendered an action no longer sinful, they why should Christ

say, "Father, forgive them"? But he does; he asks for mercy for what is

sin, even though the ignorance in some measure be supposed to

mitigate the criminality of it.

But, dear friends, we might have known. If we did not know, it was

because we would not know. There was the preaching of the Word; but

we did not care to hear it. There was this blessed Book; but we did not

care to read it. If you and I had sat down, and looked at our conduct by

the light of the Holy Scripture, we might have known much more of

the evil of sin, and much more of the love of Christ, and much more of

the ingratitude which is possible in refusing Christ, and not coming to

him.

In addition to that, we did not think. "Oh, but," you say, "young people

never do think!" But young people should think. If there is anybody

who need not think, it is the old man, whose day is nearly over. If he

does think, he has but a very short time in which to improve; but the

young have all their lives before them. If I were a carpenter, and had to

make a box, I should not think about it after I had made the box; I

should think, before I began to cut my timber, what sort of box it was

to be. In every action, a man thinks before he begins, or else he is a

fool. A young man ought to think more than anybody else, for now he

is, as it were, making his box. He is beginning his life-plan; he should

be the most thoughtful of all men. Many of us, who are now Christ's

people, would have known much more about our Lord if we had given

him more careful consideration in our earlier days. A man will consider

about taking a wife, he will consider about making a business, he will

consider about buying a horse or a cow; but he will not consider about

the claims of Christ, and the claims of the Most High God; and this

renders his ignorance wilful, and inexcusable.

Beside that, dear friends, although we have confessed to ignorance, in

many sins we did not know a great deal. Come, let me quicken your

memories. There were times when you knew that such an action was

wrong, when you started back from it. You looked at the gain it would

bring you, and you sold your soul for that price, and deliberately did

what you were well aware was wrong. Are there not some here, saved

by Christ, who must confess that , at times, they did violence to their

conscience? They did despite to the Spirit of God, quenched the light

of heaven, drove the Spirit away from them, distinctly knowing what

they were doing. Let us bow before God in the silence of our hearts,

and own to all of this. We hear the Master say, "Father, forgive them;

for they know not what they do." Let us add our own tears as we say,

"And forgive us, also, because in some things we did know; in all

things we might have known; but we were ignorant for want of

thought, which thought was a solemn duty which we ought to have

rendered to God."

One more thing I will say on this head. When a man is ignorant, and

does not know what he ought to do, what should he do? Well, he

should do nothing till he does know. But here is the mischief of it, that

when we did not know, yet we chose to do the wrong thing. If we did

not know, why did we not choose the right thing? But, being in the

dark, we never turned to the right; but always blundered to the left

from sin to sin. Does not this show us how depraved our hearts are?:

Though we are seeking to be right, when we were let alone, we go

wrong of ourselves. Leave a child alone; leave a man alone; leave a

tribe alone without teaching and instruction; what comes of it? Why,

the same as when you leave a field alone. It never, by any chance,

produces wheat or barley. Leave it alone, and there are rank weeds, and

thorns, and briars, showing that the natural set of the soil is towards

producing that which is worthless. O friends, confess the inmate evil of

your hearts as well as the evil of your lives, in that, when you did not

know, yet, having a perverse instinct, you chose the evil, and refuse the

good; and, when you did not know enough of Christ, and did not think

enough of him to know whether you ought to have him or not, you

would not have come unto him that you might have life. You needed

light; but you shut your eyes to the sun. You were thirsty; but you

would not drink of the living spring; and so your ignorance, though it

was there, was a criminal ignorance, which you must confess before

the Lord. Oh, come ye to the cross, ye who have been there before, and

have lost your burden there! Come and confess your guilt over again;

and clasp that cross afresh, and look to him who bled upon it, and

praise his dear name that he once prayed for you, "Father forgive them;

for they know not what they do."

Now, I am going a step further. We were in a measure ignorant; but we

confess that that measurable ignorance was no excuse.

III. Now, thirdly, WE BLESS OUR LORD FOR PLEADING FOR US.

So you notice when it was that Jesus pleaded? It was, while they were

crucifying him. They had not just driven in the nails, they had lifted up

the cross, and dished it down into its socket, and dislocated all his

bones, so that he could say, "I am poured out like water, and all my

bones are out of joint." Ah, dear friends, it was then that instead of a

cry or groan, this dear Son of God said, "Father, forgive them; for they

know not what they do." They did not ask for forgiveness for

themselves, Jesus ask for forgiveness for them. Their hands were

imbrued in his blood; and it was then, even then, that he prayed for

them. Let us think of the great love wherewith he loved us, even while

we were yet sinners, when we rioted in sin, when we drank it down as

the ox drinketh down water. Even then he prayed for us. "While we

were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

Bless his name to-night. He prayed for you when you did not pray for

yourself. He prayed for you when you were crucifying him.

Then think of his plea, he pleads his Sonship. He says, "Father, forgive

them." He was the Son of God, and he put his divine Sonship into the

scale on our behalf. He seems to say, "Father, as I am thy Son, grant

me this request, and pardon these rebels. Father, forgive them." The

filial rights of Christ were very great. He was the Son of the Highest.

"Light of light, very God of very God", the second Person in the Divine

Trinity; and he puts that Sonship here before God and says, "Father,

Father, forgive them." Oh, the power of that word from the Son's lip

when he is wounded, when he is in agony, when he is dying! He says,

"Father, Father, grant my one request; O Father, forgive them; for they

know not what they do;" and the great Father bows his awful head, in

token that the petition is granted.

Then notice, that Jesus here, silently, but really pleads his sufferings.

The attitude of Christ when he prayed this prayer is very noteworthy.

His hands were stretched upon the transverse beam; his feet were

fastened to the upright tree; and there he pleaded. Silently his hands

and feet were pleading, and his agonized body from the very sinew and

muscle pleaded with God. His sacrifice was presented complete; and so

it is his cross that takes up the plea, "Father, forgive them." O blessed

Christ! It is thus that we have been forgiven, for his Sonship and his

cross have pleaded with God, and have prevailed on our behalf.

I love this prayer, also, because of the indistinctness of it. It is "Father,

forgive them." He does not say, "Father, forgive the soldiers who have

nailed me here." He includes them. Neither does he say, "Father,

forgive sinners in ages to come who will sin against me." But he means

them. Jesus does not mention them by any accusing name: "Father,

forgive my enemies. Father, forgive my murderers." No, there is no

word of accusation upon those dear lips. "Father, forgive them." Now

into that pronoun "them" I feel that I can crawl Can you get in there?

Oh, by a humble faith, appropriate the cross of Christ by trusting in it;

and get into that big little word "them"! It seems like a chariot of mercy

that has come down to earth into which a man may step, and it shall

bear him up to heaven. "Father, forgive them."

Notice, also, what it was that Jesus asked for; to omit that, would be to

leave out the very essence of his prayer. He asked for full absolution

for his enemies: "Father, forgive them. Do not punish them; forgive

them. Do not remember their sin; forgive it, blot it out; throw it into the

depths of the sea. Remember it not, my Father. Mention it not against

them any more for ever. Father, forgive them." Oh, blessed prayer, for

the forgiveness of God is broad and deep! When man forgives, he

leaves the remembrance of the wrong behind; but when God pardons,

he says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no

more." It is this that Christ asked for you and me long before we had

any repentance, or any faith; and in answer to that prayer, we were

brought to feel our sin, we were brought to confess it, and to believe in

him; and now, glory be to his name, we can bless him for having

pleaded for us, and obtained the forgiveness of all our sins.

IV. I come now to my last remark. Which is this, WE NOW REJOICE IN THE

PARDON WE HAVE OBTAINED.

Have you obtained pardon? Is this your song?

"Now, oh joy! My sins are pardon'd,

Now I can, and do believe."

I have a letter, in my pocket, from a man of education and standing,

who has been an agnostic; he says that he was a sarcastic agnostic, and

he writes praising God, and invoking every blessing upon my head for

bringing him to the Saviour's feet. He says, "I was without happiness

for this life, and without hope for the next." I believe that that is a

truthful description of many an unbeliever. What hope is there for the

world to come apart from the cross of Christ? The best hope such a

man has is that he may die the death of a dog, and there may be an end

of him. What is the hope of the Romanist, when he comes to die? I feel

so sorry for many of the devout and earnest friends, for I do not know

what their hope is. They do not hope to go to heaven yet, at any rate;

some purgatorial pains must be endured first. Ah, this is a poor, poor

faith to die on, to have such a hope as that to trouble your last thoughts.

I do not know of any religion but that of Christ Jesus which tells us of

sin pardoned, absolutely pardoned. Now, listen. Our teaching is not

that, when you come to die, you may, perhaps, find out that it is all

right, but, "Beloved, now we are the sons of God." "He that believeth

on the Son hath everlasting life." He has it now, and he knows it, and

he rejoices in it. So I come back to the last head of my discourse, we

rejoice in the pardon Christ has obtained for us. We are pardoned. I

hope that the larger portion of this audience can say, "By the grace of

God, we know that the larger portion of this audience can say, "By the

grace of God, we know that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb."

Pardon has come to us through Christ's plea. Our hope lies in the plea

of Christ, and specially in his death. If Jesus paid my debt, and he did it

if I am a believer in him, then I am out of debt. If Jesus bore the

penalty of my sin, and he did it if I am a believer, then there is no

penalty for me to pay, for we can say to him,--

"Complete atonement thou hast made,

And to the utmost farthing paid

Whate'er thy people owed:

Nor can his wrath on me take place,

If shelter'd in thy righteousness,

And sprinkled with thy blood.

"If thou hast my discharge procured,

And freely in my room endured

The whole of wrath divine:

Payment God cannot twice demand,

First of my bleeding Surety's hand,

And then again at mine."

If Christ has borne my punishment, I shall never bear it. Oh, what joy

there is in this blessed assurance! Your hope that you are pardoned lies

in this, that Jesus died. Those dear wounds of his are bled for you.

We praise him for our pardon because we do know now what we did.

Oh, brethren, I know not how much we ought to love Christ, because

we sinned against him so grievously! Now we know that sin is

"exceeding sinful." Now we know that sin crucified Christ. Now we

know that we stabbed our heavenly Lover to his heart. We slew, with

ignominious death, our best and dearest Friend and Benefactor. We

know that now; and we could almost weep tears of blood to think that

we ever treated him as we did. But, it is all forgiven, all gone. Oh, let

us bless that dear Son of God, who has put away even such sins as

ours! We feel them more now than ever before. We know they are

forgiven, and our grief is because of the pain that the purchase of our

forgiveness cost our Saviour. We never knew what our sins really were

till we saw him in a bloody sweat. We never knew the crimson hue of

our sins till we read our pardon written in crimson lines with his

precious blood. Now, we see our sin, and yet we do not see it; for God

has pardoned it, blotted it out, cast it behind his back for ever.

Henceforth ignorance, such as we have described, shall be hateful to

us. Ignorance of Christ and eternal things shall be hateful to us. If,

through ignorance, we have sinned, we will have done with that

ignorance. We will be students of his Word. We will study that

masterpiece of all the sciences, the knowledge of Christ crucified. We

will ask the Holy Ghost to drive far from us the ignorance that

gendereth sin. God grant that we may not fall into sins of ignorance

any more; but may we be able to say, "I know whom I have believed;

and henceforth I will seek more knowledge, till I comprehend, with all

saints, what are the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of

the love of Christ, and know the love of God, which passeth

knowledge"!

I put in a practical word here. If you rejoice that you are pardoned,

show your gratitude by your imitation of Christ. There was never

before such a plea as this, "Father, forgive them; for they know not

what they do." Plead like that for others. Has anybody been injuring

you? Are there persons who slander you? Pray to-night, "Father,

forgive them; for they know not what they do." Let us always render

good for evil, blessing for cursing; and when we are called to suffer

through the wrong-doing of others, let us believe that they would not

act as they do if it were not because of their ignorance. Let us pray for

them; and make their very ignorance the plea for their forgiveness:

"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

I want you to think of the millions of London just now. See those miles

of streets, pouring out their children this evening; but look at those

public-houses with the crowds streaming in and out. God down our

streets by moonlight. See what I almost blush to tell. Follow men and

women, too, to their homes, and be this your prayer: "Father, forgive

them; for they know not what they do." That silver bell--keep it always

ringing. What did I say? That silver bell? Nay, it is the golden bell

upon the priests garments. Wear it on your garments, ye priests of God,

and let it always ring out its golden note, "Father, forgive them; for

they know not what they do." If I can set all God's saints imitating

Christ with such a prayer as this, I shall not have spoken in vain.

Brethren, I see reason for hope in the very ignorance that surrounds us.

I see hope for this poor city of ours, hope for this poor country, hope

for Africa, China, and India. "They know not what they do." Here is a

strong argument in their favour, for they are more ignorant than we

were. They know less of the evil of sin, and less of the hope of eternal

life, than we do. Send up this petition, ye people of God! Heap your

prayers together with cumulative power, send up this fiery shaft of

prayer, straight to the heart of God, while Jesus from his throne shall

add his prevalent intercession, "Father, forgive them; for they know not

what they do."

If there be any unconverted people here, and I know that there are

some, we will mention them in our private devotion, as well as in the

public assembly; and we will pray for them in words like these,

"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." May God bless

you all, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.