The Oberlin Evangelist

October 23, 1839

Lecture XIX.

LEGAL AND GOSPEL EXPERIENCE

by the Rev. Charles G. Finney

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth Praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.” (Psalms 40:1-3)

Many of the Psalms should be regarded as inspired diaries, and as inspired diaries, they are important signposts for the Christian. The diaries of other men may mislead us. But when we find our experience agreeing with the experience of the inspired writers, and with those parts of their experience that were recorded by the Spirit of God, we can be sure that we are on the same path that they traveled to heaven. The 119th Psalm, together with many others, are inspired diaries. They are as if the Psalmist had set up billboards all along the pathway to heaven, and by recording his own experiences along the way on these billboards, he has given us the advantage of being certain whether or not we are on the same path that those inspired men have walked.

Today’s passage from scripture is an example of this kind, where the Psalmist, after having passed through severe mental trials, records both his trials, and his deliverance for the benefit of all succeeding ages.

I will discuss this subject in the following order.

I. What should we understand by the horrible pit of miry clay?

II. What is implied in waiting patiently for the Lord?

III. What is implied in being brought up out of the horrible pit of miry clay?

IV. What is implied in having our steps established?

V. What are the consequences of this experience?

I. What should we understand by the horrible pit of miry clay?

Please notice that this language is figurative. Surely, the Psalmist did not really fall into a muddy pit. However, he had been in circumstances that this analogy could accurately represent. Although this language is figurative, it still must have a meaning. And generally, it is very easy to understand figurative language. The analogy used here implies,

1. That he was in circumstances of extreme difficulty and danger from which he could not escape.

2. That his efforts to help himself only increased his distress and danger. The analogy he uses certainly implies “a horrible pit of muddy clay”. Now everyone knows, that if a man were thrown into a pit of quicksand, the more he struggled to escape the more he would sink deeper into the sand, and make his circumstances more and more desperate. Whatever else this figure teaches, we must not overlook the fact that the Psalmist was placed in circumstances where all his struggles and efforts to escape only made the matter worse.

3. This analogy implies that his condition was desperate and horrible, like a man who, wandering alone in a desert, had fallen into a deep pit of muddy clay, beyond the reach and almost beyond any hope or possibility of aid.

Commentators have had all kinds of ideas concerning the Psalmist’s meaning in these verses. Even summarizing them would be a waste of time. Something connected with his worldly circumstances might have been on the Psalmist’s mind, when he wrote these verses. However, it appears to me that he planned to describe his own experience, first in a state of legal bondage, and then his passage from that state into the liberty of the Gospel. This language is so perfectly suited to such an experience, that probably no one who has had this experience would doubt that this was his purpose. This experience is familiar to all those, and only to those, who have passed from legal bondage to the liberty of faith. It appears to me, that this passage describes, in a more condensed form, the same experience that appears in the seventh chapter of Romans. The latter part of the seventh chapter of Romans contrasted with some of the first verses in the eighth chapter appears to reveal an experience similar to the one in our scripture reading today.

A selfish soul, whether a backslider or an impenitent sinner, when attempting to serve God is really guilty, and is condemned for every act and every attempt to serve God with a wrong heart. The law requires pure and perfect love, and every selfish act and effort is the direct opposite of the requirements of the law. Whether he attempts to obey because of hope, fear, the lashings of conscience, or any other consideration than love, he is condemned, and the law utters its thunders, and holds him guilty and worthy of eternal death.

Now it often happens that backsliders and the unconverted, because they are both selfishly motivated and are equally under condemnation, have too much conviction to be satisfied with anything they do, and yet they are too distressed to do nothing. They see and feel their condemnation, even in their prayers, and yet they will cry for mercy. They turn in this and that direction, and grab a hold of every shrub or bush within their reach to pull themselves out of the pit, and yet their guilt and condemnation is increasing every moment they live. They read, pray, go to meetings, stay at home, think, meditate, seek, and strive, and yet they see and feel that they are condemned for all their striving and efforts, because supreme selfishness lies behind everything they do. A person in this situation finds himself ready to resolve and re-resolve, and heap up resolutions almost without end, but his resolutions yield like air before every breath of temptation, because he makes every resolution selfishly. Selfishness is that principle that sweeps away all those resolutions and efforts that are put forth to withstand its influence. The truth is that, in all such situations, selfishness is at the foundation of all those resolutions and efforts, and as long as the heart is selfish, nothing but a dreadful delusion can keep the mind from seeing that it is in a horrible pit of muddy clay. No matter which way that person turns, as long as selfishness remains, his guilt increases by every act, and his soul sinks increasingly deeper under condemnation and wrath. This is truly a desperate situation. The person in this state will not give up trying, but all his efforts is worse than useless, because everything he does is sin, and increases his condemnation. In this state of mind, for an individual to praise the Lord is entirely out of the question.

It appears to me that no analogy could more perfectly describe a state of total bondage than this. A soul convicted of sin, yet having no love for God. A soul influenced by fear, and not by faith or love. A soul that is struggling and agonizing, yet sinking deeper in guilt and condemnation every moment. This is indeed a horrible pit of muddy clay.

II. What is implied in waiting patiently for the Lord?

1. Waiting patiently for the Lord is not a lethargic sitting still. A person under these circumstances will do anything but sit still.

2. Waiting patiently for the Lord is not ignoring your situation and occupying your time and thoughts doing other things. This certainly can’t be. Nor is anything like this intended in this passage.

3. Waiting patiently for the Lord is not consenting to postpone an answer to our requests. A person in this state is in too much trouble, and he feels that he cannot have and has no right to be willing to remain for one hour longer in its horrible situation.

I have often thought that the translation of this passage was designed to make, and had actually made, in many situations, an impression directly contrary to the truth. By waiting patiently, many seem to understand a kind of indifference and carelessness about the result. Now the original Hebrew word expresses a state of mind that is the exact opposite of this.

(1) This passage implies constantly looking to God. It implies waiting on the Lord, as a criminal condemned to die would wait anxiously and constantly at the door for one who had the power to pardon.

(2) This passage implies an earnest, agonizing, and intense looking or waiting on the Lord. The translation would have accurately expressed the idea if it had said, “I waited agonizingly or intensely for the Lord”. In the original, it reads, “in waiting I waited”, which is one of the forms of expressing a superlative, and implies, in this connection, a steady yet intense attitude of supplication.

4. Waiting patiently for the Lord implies holding on and refusing to be denied. Like Jacob when he said, “I will not let You go except You bless me”. The Bible frequently describes this state of mind. The Bible powerfully presents the importance and power of a persevering state of mind in the parable of the loaves, and in the parable of the troublesome widow.

5. It implies a sense of looking to God for help. It is a full and ripe conviction of our mind that our circumstances are desperate unless God takes over our situation. The Psalmist seems to have waited only on God.

6. Waiting patiently for the Lord implies a ripe conviction that one’s sin is deliberate, and as a result, his situation is horrible. The Psalmist did not look on his circumstances as a calamity or a misfortune but as desperately wicked. A man never sees the truly horrible nature and desperation of his circumstances, until he sees that his voluntary selfishness is the only reason why he does not yield full and instant obedience to God. Furthermore, this selfishness grows as he grows, and strengthens as he strengthens, and is pulling him deeper down into that horrible pit of quicksand, and despite his resolutions, his selfishness is dragging him down into the depths of hell.

7. Waiting patiently for the Lord implies so much hope that he will be heard, that it encourages prayer. Like a person, who has fallen into a pit, cries out repeatedly, hoping that someone who is passing by, may hear his cries, and come to his rescue.

I do not think this waiting on the Lord implies an anchoring down in faith on the promises of God, for this would immediately remove anguish from the mind. Instead, it means a cry of distress that is almost despairing, and yet it has so much hope remaining that it encourages an intense crying to the Lord.

If someone objects, saying that God only answers a prayer of faith, please remember that there is a sense in which He hears and answers other prayers than these. He hears the cry of the little ravens, and the young lions when they lack food. (Job 38:39-41) And Christ, when on earth, heard and answered the prayer of devils when they pleaded that they might not be sent out of the country, but might be allowed to go into a herd of swine. (Matt 8:31-32) God’s ear is always open to the cry of distress, and where there is no good reason why He should not, He may, and no doubt, He often hears, and in some sense answers the prayer of those whose moral character He detests. I don’t believe that God has anywhere placed Himself under an obligation to answer only prayers of faith. And, I cannot doubt that He often hears the cry of souls in distress and brings deliverance to those in bondage to the law.

III. What is implied in being brought up out of the horrible pit?

This is an inspiring analogy. The language is peculiar. God is represented here as having His attention arrested by some distant cry of distress. A soul has fallen into a horrible pit, and lifts up his voice and cries. “Help! Oh God, help!” But, receiving no answer, he cries again. “Help! Oh my God, help!” Here he gets God’s attention. The cry comes into His ear. God stoops down, “He inclined to me”. He leans in the direction of the cry, and listens intensely. Again, He hears the cry, “Help! Oh my God, help!” Then, hastening as upon the wings of the wind, He reaches down from heaven, and lifts the soul up from the horrible pit of quicksand. These words imply,

1. Deliverance from that state of mind in which all his efforts were selfish and sinful. It implies a breaking up of the influence of self on his mind, and his mind fills with so much love that the person becomes aware that he has truly rendered acceptable service to God. While under legal influence, he constantly felt that his services were not accepted or acceptable, that a holy God could not and should not accept his services. He felt that his best services were selfish, and that made it increasingly impossible for God to justify and save him.

2. This language implies being placed on firm footing, where he can serve God with a conscious assurance and a firm heart, being aware that love and not fear influences him, and that his heart is fixed, sincere, and full of the love of God. Thus, the power of his bondage to the law is broken.

3. This expresses the experience of a soul led to grab a hold of Christ by faith. His feet are set on the Rock, which is Christ. The faith that produces love breaks the yoke of bondage, selfishness, and death, and allows his soul to immediately enter into the rest and liberty of joy, faith, and love. If any of you have passed through this state of mind, you don’t need me to say anything to make you understand it; and if you have not, no matter what I could say, you would understand very little about it.

IV. What is implied in having our steps established?

This statement is also figurative. He is set on a rock, not to slip off or swept off by the first wave of temptation, but having his footsteps established on the rock implies,

1. That his faith that works by love is permanent, stable, and prevents him from falling again under condemnation. I know that he says in the latter part of this same Psalm, “My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up”. (v. 12) However, this does not imply that he had really fallen into sin again, but that an awareness of his old sin had laid him exceedingly low before God. The awareness of old sin is familiar to all those whose feet are so established that they live in the faith of the gospel. They often have such a great sense of their former guilt that it produces the greatest loathing and makes them cry out, “My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up”. However, this does not imply that they have present doubts about their acceptance with God, that they feel a sense of present condemnation, or that their hearts are not right with God. Instead, it implies an opposite state of mind. Remembering their former sin almost overwhelms them with a sense of their exceeding vileness. But, as soon as their thoughts return, and God becomes the object of their thoughts, their hearts are full of love, joy, and peace.

2. Established on the Rock implies, that he is so upheld by grace that he is able to go forward in the service of God without being brought under the influence of fear and legal motives, and thus slip back again into the miry clay.

V. What are the consequences of this experience?

1. God puts a new song in his mouth. He can now praise God. A man under legal influences cannot truly praise God. Any attempt is mockery, as everyone who has been in this state knows. Praise is therefore a new song to the soul that has passed into gospel liberty.

2. Another consequence of this change becomes obvious to all: “Many”, he says, “shall see it”. Yes, the very countenance of such a person has changed, so that at first glance you would see that he was out of the pit. Instead of that despondency, anguish, and guilt, which covered his whole mind there is a sweet calm, a glow, a joy, a peace, and a heaven in his very countenance. Everyone can see it.

I once knew an unbeliever whose only and beloved daughter was in great mental distress. He noticed it and he became very concerned about her. He proposed to send her out of the city to divert her mind, and restore her former happy disposition. During this crisis, a pious woman in his family convinced him to let his daughter attend an anxious meeting. She came, gave her heart to God, and returned home in great peace. As soon as her father saw her the next morning, he was struck with the change in her countenance. It was so obvious that it almost overwhelmed him. He said to his wife, that their daughter was greatly changed, and cried out to his daughter with tears, “Oh you can’t love me anymore if you have given your heart to Christ”. I have seen many situations where the change was so great, just the person’s countenance alone told the whole story more forcibly than any words could do, and it could be said, "their appearance told unutterable things”.

3. Others “shall fear”. When such a great change occurs in any person, backsliders and unrepentant sinners are alarmed. It brings God and eternity near to them. It produces an awe that no preaching can do. In fact, it is a real, living illustration of the power of the gospel and of almighty God. Many times, I have known such a change frighten a whole household, and in some situations, a whole neighborhood!

4. This change results in others trusting in the Lord. This is common. When one passes through this great change, it first alarms, then encourages and brings many to fear and trust in the Lord.

REMARKS.

1. Billions of souls are sinking in the horrible pit of quicksand. From my own observation, I am convinced that many, even of those who are called the most pious in their churches, are in a state of legal bondage, and have gone no further in religion than to find themselves in a state of almost continuous condemnation. They have just enough conviction to be miserable. Their consciences and the law of God drive them and drag them down. They struggle and resolve, but are under the influence of so much selfishness that they continually cry out, as in the situation presented by Paul in the seventh chapter of Romans, “When I would do good, evil is present with me”. “I find a law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity”. “Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

2. It doesn’t look like they expect to get out of this state. People have perverted the seventh chapter of Romans to the point where it has become a tremendous stumbling block to many souls in this state of mind. They seem to think that Paul is talking about his spiritual condition at time he wrote his epistle. And because they think that way, they can’t expect to advance beyond the apostle Paul. They get the idea that they must live and die in their pit of muddy clay. It hurts to see how scholars separate the seventh and eighth chapters. If people would carefully read the entire seventh and eighth chapters in their context, they would see the flow of the Apostle’s reasoning. In context, I can see that Paul simply presented an example to demonstrate the difference between the influence of the law and the influence of the gospel. Now whether he is simply using an example or whether he is speaking about his own experience, it is certain that the same individual who, in the seventh chapter, is represented as being under the bondage of law, sin, and death, is, in the beginning of the eighth chapter, represented as being brought into an entirely different and opposite state of mind. The same individual, who could complain about being in such horrible bondage in the seventh chapter, and being a slave sold under sin, could break forth, in the beginning of the eighth chapter and say: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4)

3. These trapped souls don’t do what they need to do to be set free. They strive to earn grace by works of law, instead of immediately taking hold of the promises of God by faith.

4. They are not in the right state of mind to break the power of lust and temptations. Therefore, they expect to live and die in the pit of their own filthy lusts. And if they do die, they will surely go to hell.

5. Many are sleeping in this horrible pit. They are dreaming that they are awake and they imagine themselves on the rock, even though they are suffocating in the mud of their own filth, and they are ready to sink down to hell.

6. Will you consider how much more inexcusable you are if you remain in this pit one moment longer than the Psalmist did? There are thousands of promises now that were not written in those days. We are now living in the age where God has poured out His Holy Spirit. God surrounds you with so much more light, you have such a full and perfect revelation, and indeed, your circumstances are such that you are infinitely guilty if you remain in that pit one more moment.

7. Those, who God delivers, abound in praise. Their hearts and lips are full of praise. They sing a new song. Praise is as natural as their breath. What has happened to them is foretold by the prophet, “He shall appoint unto them to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:3)

Sometimes I have known those under legal bondage, rebuke those who were full of praise, reminding them that they had something better to do, that they should be praying for sinners rather than praising and rejoicing. But let all such people remember that this new song of praise often does more on the one hand to rouse the careless to fear, and on the other hand to encourage the desponding to hope, than could be produced by any other means.

8. From this subject we can see how we can know who has been delivered. They have “a new song in their mouth, even praise to our God”. (Psalms 40:3)

9. You can see the importance and the effect of proclaiming your joy before the Church and the world. The Psalmist says, “I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your loving kindness and Your truth From the great congregation.” (Psalms 40:10)

10. Many may wonder and despise, and perish. Nevertheless let all who have experienced the loving kindness of the Lord say with the Psalmist in another place, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, And I will declare what He has done for my soul.” (Psalms 66:16)