God–All in All
A sermon
(No. 737)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, FEBRUARY 24, 1867, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble? And when He hides
His face, who then can behold Him? Whether it is done against a nation,
or against a man only."- Job 34:29.
WE commenced our special services with a sermon of encouragement, by
which we were reminded of the rapid answer which Daniel received to his
prayer, [Sermon #734–The Dawn of Revival, Or Prayer Speedily Answered]
and were led to hope that the Lord intended, at the very commencement
of our supplications, to send forth a commandment of mercy. Since then,
God has done great things for us, of which we are glad. Few of you,
probably, are aware of the numerous conversions which God has worked in
this place during the past two weeks. We are not fond of publishing
numbers, nor of making estimates, but it suffices you to know, and us
to say, that the Lord has made bare His arm and led forth captive souls
from the bondage of sin.
Many fathers and mothers here have had to weep for joy because their
children have declared themselves to be on the Lord's side. Satan's
kingdom has been weakened, and the armies of the Lord have been
increased. There has been joy among the angels this week, and joy in
the heart of the great Father–for many lost ones have been found! Let
us give unto the Lord the glory which is due unto His name. Let us
rejoice and be glad in the Lord!
And now, halting in the midst of our career, like an army with uplifted
banners, resting on the wing like a lark when mounting towards Heaven,
let us give a tongue to our gratitude, and sing aloud unto God our
Strength. We cheerfully confess that neither our own arm nor our own
strength can give us the victory! Unto Jehovah be all glory! Let us
hear the voice which says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My
Spirit, says the Lord," and let each Believer here prostrate himself in
reverence before the Throne of the great King, and thank Him with heart
and soul for all the mercy and goodness which He has made to pass
before us! With one united heart let us ascribe unto the Lord honor and
glory, and dominion and power.
This grateful waiting upon the Lord will renew our strength in such a
manner that though we run, we shall not be weary, and though we walk,
and the walk is long and the road is rough, we shall not faint. Waiting
upon the Lord does not give us a merely spasmodic energy with which we
may begin and continue for a little season, and then grow cold– but
waiting upon the Lord gives a constant flow of vigor so that we go from
strength to strength until in Zion we appear before God.
This topic seemed to thrust itself upon me as most suitable for our
consideration during our present special efforts. My intention is, as
God shall help me, to magnify the name of the Lord our God by directing
your devout attention to the fact that without the Lord there is
nothing good, nothing strong, nothing effectual! But where He works
nothing can stand against Him–no powers of evil can impede the
workings of his royal hand. Our entire dependence upon God, who is our
All in All–that is the thought of the morning–and that thought the
text illustrates in two ways.
We are made to see the all-sufficiency of God to us, and our dependence
upon Him–first, in His effectual working, "When He gives quietness,
who then can make trouble?" Secondly, in His Sovereign withdrawals,
"When He hides His face, who then can behold Him?" And, thirdly, we are
reminded that this is true not only upon the small scale of the
individual, but upon the great scale of nations, "Whether it be done
against a nation, or against a man only."
I. First, then, the eye of Faith beholds the all-sufficiency of
Jehovah, and our entire dependence upon Him, as she marks HIS EFFECTUAL
WORKING. "When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?" This
unanswerable question may be illustrated by the Lord's works in Nature.
The world was once a tumultuous chaos–fire and wind and vapor strove
with one another–contention and confusion ruled the day. Who was there
that could bring that heaving,
foaming, boiling, raging mass into quietude and order? Who could
transform that sea of molten lava into rock solid as granite, fit to
become the foundations of a habitable globe?
Who could cool that boiling surface into an Eden where God might walk
with man at the cool of the day? Who could calm that ocean of fire,
lashed into terrific tempest by whirlwind and tornado, and make it into
a terra firma, fixed and stable? The Holy Spirit brooded upon it, and
by His mysterious energy before long He brought order out of confusion.
And now this fair round world of ours, with all its matchless beauty of
landscape and rolling flood, fixed and firm, has become a standing
proof that when God gives quietness, none can disturb it!
Only let the great Preserver of men relax the command of quiet, and
there are fierce forces in the interior of the earth sufficient to
bring it back to its primeval chaos in an hour. But while His fiat is
for peace, we fear no crash of matter and no wreck of worlds. Seed time
and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat do not cease. The economy
of man's era remains beneath the calm radiance of sun and moon
unmolested by the fear of returning chaos or the rebellion of terrific
elements.
Passing on to the age of man we see the Lord in the day of His wrath
pulling up the sluices of the great deep, and at the same moment
bidding the clouds of Heaven discharge themselves so that the whole
world became once again a colossal ruin. The proud waters went over the
abodes of men and even the tops of the mountains were covered by the
imperious billows! The Lord had but to will it, and the waters were
eased from off the face of the earth and once again the dry land
appeared while the world bloomed with joyous springs, blushed with
fairest summers, and with glad ripening autumns, while over all, the
Covenant bow was seen in the cloud–the token that the Lord had given
quietness to the earth, and that none again should be able to disturb
her.
Have the proud waters prevailed since that day? Has the sea dared to
leave its appointed channel? Do not the waves in their greatest fury
pause when they reach the boundary appointed by the Most High? Tempest
and storm obey the voice of the Lord who sits upon the flood, the Lord
who sits King forever. Further down in history the Red Sea asks of us
the same question, "When He gives quietness, who then can make
trouble?" He led His people forth from Egypt's bondage, but Pharaoh
said, "I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil." He
had, however, reckoned without the Lord of Hosts and when the pillar
came between the two armies, turning its black dark side to Pharaoh's
horsemen, and its side of brightness and of comfort to Israel's ranks,
then there might have been heard a voice, "When He gives quietness, who
then can make trouble?"
When down into the depths of the sea the ransomed flock descended, the
floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the
heart of the sea. The rattling chariot was heard and the horse hoof
sounded on the pebbly bed of the frightened sea. Will not Pharaoh break
the peace of the chosen flock, and drive them back to slavery? Hark to
the cracking of whips and the shouts of the horsemen! How is it now
with Israel? Wait, O Unbelief, and see the salvation of God! When the
mighty waters cover all the hosts of Egypt there comes up from the
depths where sleep the proud warriors with the waves as their winding
sheets, "When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?"
Glancing far on in history, and passing by a thousand cases which are
all to the point, we only mention one more, namely, that of Sennacherib
and his host. The marbles which are preserved to us, and have been
excavated from the heaps of Nineveh, are more than sufficient proofs of
the power and of the ferocity of the Assyrian monarch. He came even to
Lachish, destroying the nations with fire and sword! And then he sent
his Lieutenant, Rabshakeh, to Jerusalem, to overthrow it. Rabshakeh
scarcely thought that little city to be worth the toils of battle! He
thought to conquer it with his blasphemous tongue, and leave the sword
in its scabbard. He thought to swallow it as a dog swallows his
meat–to devour it as an ox eats grass. How scornfully, he asked: "Who
is Jehovah?" How he boasted of the easy overthrow of the gods of the
heathen.
"Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the gods of
Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are
they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land
out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?"
But the Lord had heard his blasphemies and answered the prayers of
Hezekiah! And all the force of Assyria could not cast a single mound
against Jerusalem, nor shoot an arrow there, but in the stillness of
the night God put a hook into the enemy's nose and thrust a bridle
between his jaws, and sent him back with shame to the place from where
he came. "When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?"–
"There is a stream whose gentle flow
Supplies the city of our God,
Life, love, and joy, still gliding through,
And watering our secure abode." "Look upon Zion, the city of our
solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a
tabernacle that shall not be taken down. Not one of the stakes there
shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords there be broken.
But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and
streams, where shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship
pass there. For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the
Lord is our King, He will save us. Your tacklings are loosed. They
could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail:
then is the prey of a great spoil divided: the lame take the prey."
They that hoped to spoil Jerusalem are spoiled themselves, and the
robbers who thought to destroy the peace of the Church of God have
their own peace and their own lives taken from them. All history
declares the Truth that when God determines to set a hedge around any
people, it is not possible for any power, human or infernal, to break
through that hedge. "I will be a wall of fire round about you, and a
glory in your midst," is a blessed promise, which ensures quietness to
those who dwell within its glorious protection.
1. We shall reflect upon this Truth of God as it applies, first, to
God's people. My Beloved, if your gracious Lord shall give you
quietness of mind, who, then, can cause you trouble? Some of us know
what it is to walk in the light of Jehovah's countenance. Let us now
bear our experimental witness to this fact. You have had, my dearly
Beloved in the Lord, stern tribulations. You have seen wave after wave
rolling up and threatening to go over you. And all these billows have
gone over your head. You have been deserted by friends–they have been
unfaithful.
You have lost kindred–you have wept over their tombs. You have lost
property–your gold and silver have taken to themselves wings and fled
away. You have been broken in health, and you have been broken in
spirit, too. But, when the Lord has lifted up the light of His
countenance upon you, were you not of the same mind as Habakkuk, that,
"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no
meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no
herd in the stalls," yet still you could rejoice in God? Beloved, a
glimpse of our heavenly Father's face even sweetens affliction–
"The bitterest tears,
If He smile but on them,
Like dew in the sunshine,
Grow diamond and gem."
We have found it sweet to be afflicted when we have enjoyed the
Presence of God in it. And we have counted it all joy when we have
fallen into many temptations because, in our hour of extremity and
peril, the Savior has been unspeakably the more precious! In the
absence of all other joys, the joy of the Lord has filled the soul to
the brim. You know very well, dear Friends, that if the Lord is
withdrawn, no comforts can make up for His absence. But if all earthly
comforts are taken, you will not utter so much as a single murmuring
word. If the Lord will but fill the vacuum with Himself, you will say,
"Lord, I thank You that there was more room for You–more room for Your
fullness–when the creature failed
me."
Added to this, when the Lord gives quietness, slander cannot give us
trouble. It has ever been the lot of God's people, the more they have
served God the more falsely to be accused of men. And I doubt not, that
when the dog is barking, he imagines that the good man who rides by is
sorely troubled by the noise. And yet, if the Lord does but smile, it
little matters though every tongue in the world should be set a-lying
against us! And when every mouth should be black with curses, we may
then say as David did–"They return at evening: they make a noise like
a dog, and go round about the city," and then he adds, "Let them
return, and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the
city."
So would the Christian give a license to those who slander him! If it
were not for the sin of it on the part of his enemies, he could even
rejoice to be evilly spoken of for Christ's sake, and count it all joy
when he was shamefully treated for his Master's cause. The face of God
sheds such a holy light into the soul that the clouds of slander cannot
hide it. Yes, and at such times you may add to outward troubles and to
the slanders of the wicked man, all the temptations of the devil. But
if the Lord gives quietness, though there were as many devils to attack
us as there are stones in the pavement of the streets of London, we
would walk over all their heads in unabated confidence.
Let Satanic temptations come. Let them fly about as thick as
hailstones! If God but lifts up the shield, they shall be but as
hailstones that rattle on the roof while the man is safe beneath.
Perhaps you think Luther's expressions, when he speaks about the
temptations of Satan, to be too highly drawn, and so they may be in
your experience, but they were not in his. He stands as a monument, in
his biography, of the power of the comforts of God to keep a man calm
when all earth and all Hell are against him.
There was Luther. It did not matter that the enraged Pope issued a
thousand bulls. That every priest gnashed his teeth at Luther. That
most of men cried, "Away with him! It is not fit that he should live."
What cared Luther any more for all they said than for the chirping of
so many grasshoppers in the field, or the croaking of so many frogs in
the pond? Let them say what they will, "if God gives quietness, who
then can make trouble?" I know that I am now touching the experience of
many of God's people, but I will go a little further. Even inbred sin,
which is the worst of ills, will cause the Christian no trouble when
the light of Jehovah's Countenance is clearly seen.
"Oh," says the soul, "I cried but yesterday, 'O wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' And there I stopped.
But now my God has whispered in my ear, 'You are Mine,' and I will not
stop at that verse any longer, but I will go on to the next! 'I thank
God, through Jesus Christ my Lord.' 'Thanks be unto God that gives us
the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' I will no longer look upon
my enemies and say, 'They are many and strong,' but I will look to my
strong Helper, 'and in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.' "
"I am as a wonder unto many; but You are my strong refuge," said David.
And so will the Christian say! Beset with all sorts of temptations from
within, yet he overcomes through the blood of the Lamb. And God gives
such a quietness in resting in the finished work of Jesus, and in the
sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit that, imperfect as we are, we yet
have power by His might to seize the crown of righteousness and to be
raised up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, even
before the day of glory shall dawn, and the shadows of mortality flee
away.
2. Beloved Friends, I thank God that my text is equally true of the
seeking sinner. If the Lord shall be pleased to give you, poor troubled
Heart, quietness this day in Christ, none can make trouble in your
soul. What a mercy it is for you that God can give you peace and
quietness! Some of you have been, during the last fortnight, much
troubled. The arrows of God are sticking fast in you. Your very flesh
faints as though it could not much longer bear the strain of your
spiritual griefs. Now the Lord can bind you up. He will bind up the
broken in heart, and heal their wounds. He can do it effectually, so
effectually that no wound ever bleeds afresh after He has bound it up.
"Ah," you say, "but there is His Law, that dreadful Law of ten
commands! I have broken that a thousand times." But if the Savior leads
you to the Cross He will show you that He fulfilled the Law on your
behalf–that you are not yourself under the Law any longer, but under
Grace! The law is a taskmaster, but the taskmaster can only rule his
own slaves. And when you believe in Jesus, you are no more a slave, but
a child, and the taskmaster has no further power over you from now on
and forever! To see the Law fulfilled by Christ–what a sight is that!
It is a vision which gives such joy and Grace that you could stand
where the seer of Horeb stood, and need not say as he did, "I do
exceedingly fear and quake," but rather say, with our hymn-writer–
"Bold shall I stand in that great day For who at all to my charge can
lay? Fully absolved through Christ I am From sin's tremendous curse and
blame."
"Yes, yes," you say, "well, I thank God for that, but my conscience, my
conscience will never let me be in quietness." Oh, but my Master knows
how to talk with your conscience. He can say to it, "I have blotted
out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your
sins." He can take His precious blood, which is better than the balm of
Gilead, and He can apply it to the wounds of your conscience. And as
soon as Conscience feels the power of the blood, all its wounds close
up directly, and the heart rejoices, saying, "If Jesus paid my debts,
then paid they are! If Jesus died for me, then God will never make me,
die, and Jesus, too, for payment He will never demand twice–first at
my bleeding Surety's hands, and then at mine."
When Conscience enters into the wounds of Christ, how happy it is! It
is like the dove that dwells in the cleft of the rock, and builds its
nest there and sits all day uttering its soft turtle notes for very joy
and gladness. O poor Heart, Mr. Conscience and you will shake hands
well enough if you will stand at the foot of the Cross and do it.
Conscience is a dreadful thunderer to a sinner unreconciled–but to a
sinner who has seen the great Atonement, and felt the power of
the blood, Conscience becomes a generous friend! And let me say, dear
Friend, if the Lord gives you quietness so the Law and Conscience will
be at peace with you, so will that Book of God be.
Some of you, whenever you turn the Bible over, can find nothing but
threats in it. Each page cries out against you, "I bear a curse for
you." Oh, but if you can only come to Jesus and rest in Him, then the
page shall glisten with blessings, and glow with benedictions! You
shall find that it utters peace to the men of peace, and good tidings
of great joy to those who look alone to the Redeemer's blood. Still I
think I see you shake your head and say sorrowfully, "Oh, but I shall
never get much quietness at home, for I have ungodly friends and they
tell me I am religion-mad."
Ah, my dear Friend, if the Lord gives you quietness, your ungodly
friends will give you very little trouble, for you will have Grace to
bear with them. If they shall revile you, you will turn their reviling
into joy, thanking God that you are accounted worthy to be reviled for
Jesus' sake. And in the midst of it you will sometimes take an
opportunity of speaking a good word for your Master, and so be thankful
that you are placed where you are needed. We ought to be glad to be
cast as a pound of salt amid the corruption which salt destroys–and we
should be thankful that we are set as a light in a dark place–where a
lamp is most required.
In this light the persecuted Believer may even look upon his painful
position as a desirable one, for the practical usefulness which it puts
in his way. If Jesus Christ is your Companion, you may walk unharmed
through Vanity Fair, if your path should lie through it, and you need
not care for all the fools that pluck at your garment. Through a shower
of mud it is safe and blessed traveling if Jesus is our Companion. I
hope you are not one of those who would choose to walk with Him in
silver slippers, and who would leave Him if He came in poverty and
shame! If so, you do not know the love of Jesus at all. Through briars
and thorns lies the path of love, and yet that thorny road is Paradise
if Jesus does but tread it with us and permit us to lean upon His arm.
The more severe the troubles of life become, the higher shall your
comforts rise if Jesus is with you. Tried soul, rest in Jesus! Only
cast yourself on Him, confide entirely in Him, and you shall find that
the peace which He gives you none can take from you.
3. Now this text, which thus belongs to the saint and to the seeking
sinner, I think is equally true, on the larger scale, to the Christian
Church. I could not omit saying this out of thankfulness to God for the
quietness which He has for years been pleased to give to us as a
Christian community. During thirteen years and more we have been knit
together as one man, while we have lived to see certain sects that were
"the one and only church"–that railed almost with the mouth of a
Sanbahat and Tobiah at all other Christians as worldly schematics,
while they themselves were Scriptural, immaculate, the "Brethren," the
"Perfect Ones"–we have seen them torn to pieces till there is scarcely
a remnant of them left, with all the elements within them of internal
discord which will dash them yet more completely into shivers.
By the Grace of God we who, as a single Church, are almost as numerous
as some of their parties, have been kept in holy peace and quietness,
working incessantly for the cause of God without dissension and without
strife. And though we are not free from ten thousand faults, yet I have
often admired the goodness of God which has enabled us to hold with a
hearty grip each other by the hand, and say, "We love each other for
Jesus' sake, and for the Truth's sake, and hope each of us to live in
each other's love till we die, wishing, if it were possible, to be
buried side by side."
I do thank God for this, because I know there is more than enough of
evil among us to plant a root of bitterness in our midst. We who bear
office in the Church have the same nature as others, and therefore,
naturally, every man of us would seek to have the supremacy, and every
man, if left to himself, would also indulge an angry temper and find
many reasons for differing from his Brother. We have all been offended
often, and have as often offended others. We are as imperfect a band of
men as might be found, but we are one.
We have each had to put up with the other, and to bear and forbear. And
it does appear to me a wonder that so many imperfect people should get
on so well for so long. I read over the door of our Tabernacle this
text–"When the Lord gives quietness, who then can make trouble?" When
some of our members were first taken into the Church, the pastor had a
very suspicious character with them. It was said, "Well, if Mr.
Spurgeon receives such a man who has been so great a trouble in our
Church, then he will be the beginning of wars at the Tabernacle." But
those very persons who came with that doubtful character have become
the most zealous of our working community, and instead of differing and
disagreeing, have felt that there is so much to do that it would be a
pity to spend one grain of strength in quarrelling with other children
of God!
How good it is to use our swords upon the devil and his allies, and not
to blunt their edges upon our fellow Christians! Possibly, my Brethren,
many of you do not sufficiently prize the peace which reigns in our
Church. Ah, you would value it if you lost it! Oh, how would you prize
it if strife and schism should come in! You would look back upon these
happy days we have had together with intense regret, and say, "Lord,
knit us together in unity again. Send us love to each other once more."
In a Church, love is the essential element of happiness, and if any of
you have violated it, or sinned against it, ask for Grace to repent of
your mistake and let us "love one another with a pure heart fervently,"
walking in love, "as Christ also has loved us and gave Himself for us."
Let us have that fervent charity which is the perfect bond, abounding
in our hearts yet more and more by Jesus Christ. I shall leave this
first point when I have briefly drawn three lessons from it. "When the
Lord gives quietness, who then can make trouble?" The first lesson is,
those who have peace should, this morning adore and bless God for it. O
God, when we remember what our trouble was before we knew a Savior!
When we recollect what the tempest was when You did hide Your face from
us, we cannot but be glad, exceedingly glad, that now You speak kindly
and favorably unto us!
You who will not thank God for peace deserve to hear war in your
streets again. You who will not thank Him at the place of the drawing
of water because the noise of the archers has ceased–you deserve to
have your hearts again plowed up by the hosts of the enemy. Praise Him,
then, my Brothers and Sisters! From your hearts praise Him! Secondly,
be hopeful, you who are seeking peace, whether for others or for
yourselves. Do not despair of any soul, however near to death and Hell
it may be–God can make quietness even in the heart that is ready to
die. Lastly, give up all other peace but that which the Lord gives to
every Believer. If you have a quietness which God has not created,
implore the Lord to break it! If you have a peace which did not come
from Heaven, it is "peace, peace, where there is no peace," and the
Lord deliver you from it.
II. Now let us turn to the second point. The all-sufficiency of God is
seen, secondly, IN HIS SOVEREIGN WITHDRAWALS. God does sometimes hide
His face from His people, and then, as His saints well know, nothing
can enable them to behold Him or to be happy. You know God doctrinally,
but what are the Doctrines of Grace to a soul when God hides His face?
You may accept and hold fast the orthodox Gospel, but is the purest
evangelical Truth anything but a cloud without rain unless the Lord
Himself shall appear?
In vain, dear Friends, is all our experience to help us see God if He
hides His face, for though we have tried and proved His faithfulness,
yet if He does not continue to smile, we grow to be as unbelieving and
as doubting as ever we were. At such times outward mercies are all in
vain. Though today we can see God's hand in the loaf of bread and in
the cup of cold water, yet if God hides His face, though there should
be a stalled ox before us, and a feast fit for kings, yet we should not
see our Father's love in them. Christian, you know well that if God
takes Himself away and hides within His secret places, and speaks no
more to you, neither earth nor all the sky can afford you one delight.
Now, Sinner, this is strikingly true in your case. If God shall be
pleased to withdraw Himself from you, you cannot behold Him. If He
should take the Gospel from you, what then? He may do it. He may send
you across the seas as an emigrant. He may put you in some country
village where there is no Gospel preaching. He may make you live in a
situation where you cannot get out to hear a faithful Gospel preacher,
and then what will you do? Still worse may it be with you! The Lord may
let you continue under the ministry, and the ministry may be full of
blessing to others, and yet be fruitless to you.
If God does but leave you to the corruptions of your own heart, dear
Friend, it will be quite enough to secure your ruin. Then the tears of
mothers, the counsels of friends, and the appeals of pastors shall all
be powerless to touch your heart. The appeals of the Book of God,
itself, shall never move your conscience–you will go headlong to your
own destruction if God withdraws His face from you. Remember, my dear
Hearer, this is possible! There is a point, we know not when, a place
we know not where, where God may end your day of sensibility by saying,
"I will let that sinner alone." Then the cloud shall rain no more rain
upon your desert soul–no more seed shall be scattered upon the highway
of your thankless heart.
Shall horses run upon a rock? Shall men plow there with oxen? If you
will not repent, God will not always waste the Gospel ministry upon
you. He shall let that Gospel become a "savor of death unto death" to
you, till you loathe it yourself as you become a Sabbath-breaker, or
give yourself up to doubt and sin. O Sinner, I long that you may feel
how abso-
lutely you are in the hands of God! Should the sun go down all the
candles in the world cannot light up the landscape. And if God shall
desert the soul, all human power must fail to give it comfort. What a
mercy it is that the Lord has not deserted you as yet, that still does
His good Spirit strive and dwell with the chief of sinners. Still the
cry is heard, "Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your
hearts."
Yet I pray you remember that if you do harden your hearts, the Lord may
do with you as He did with His people of old and swear in His wrath
that you shall not enter into His rest. I have no doubt, dear Friends,
that as this is true of the saint and the sinner, it is true of the
Church. If God shall hide His face from a Church, who then can behold
Him? Let me endeavor to set that Truth in two or three words before
you. If we as a Church prove unfaithful–if we let go of our first
love–if we do not plead in prayer, and seek the conversion of souls,
God may take away His Presence from us as He has done from Churches
that were once His Churches, but which are not now!
The traveler tells you that as he journeys through Asia Minor, he sees
the ruins of those cities which once were the seven golden
candlesticks, where the light of the Truth of God shone brightly. What
will they now say of Thyatira? Where will they find Laodicea? These
have passed away, and why not this Church? Look at Rome, once the glory
of the Christian Church, her many ministers, and her power over the
world for good–and now she is the place where Satan's seat is–and her
synagogue is a synagogue of Hell! How is this? She fell! She departed
from her integrity! She left her first love, and the Lord cast her
away.
Thus will the Lord deal with us if thus we sin. You know that terrible
passage–"Go you now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My
name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My
people Israel." God first of all had the tabernacle pitched at Shiloh,
but Shiloh was defiled by the sin of Eli's sons. That tabernacle was
taken away and Shiloh became a wilderness. So may this flourishing
Church become. If justice should thus visit you, you may hold your
Prayer Meetings–probably those will soon cease–but of what avail will
your formal prayers be? You may get whom you will to preach, but what
of that?
I know what you would do, if some of us were fallen asleep, and the
faithful ones buried–if the Spirit of God were gone, you would say,
"Well, we are still a large and influential congregation. We can afford
to get a talented minister, money will do anything." And you would get
the man of talents, and then you would want an organ and a choir, and
many other pretty things which we now count it our joy to do without.
Then, if such were the case, all these vain attempts at grandeur would
be unsuccessful, and the Church would before long become a scorn and a
hissing, or else a mere log upon the water.
Then it would be said," We must change the management," and there would
be this change and that change. But if the Lord were gone, what could
you do? By what means could you ever make this Church to revive again,
or any other Church? Alas for the carnal, spasmodic efforts we have
seen made in some Churches! Prayer Meetings badly attended. No
conversions, but still they have said, "Well, it is imperative upon us
to keep up a respectable appearance. We must collect the congregation
by our singing, by our organ, or some other outward attraction." And
angels might have wept as they saw the folly of men who sought after
anything except the Lord, who alone can make a house His temple–who
alone can make a ministry to be a ministration of mercy. Without whose
Presence the most solemn congregation is but as the herding of men in
the market, and the most melodious songs but as the shouting of those
who make merry at a marriage.
Without the Lord, our solemn days, our new moons, and our appointed
feasts are an abomination such as His soul hates. May this Church ever
feel her utter, entire, absolute dependence upon the Presence of her
God, and may she never cease humbly to implore Him to forgive her many
sins, but still to command His blessing to abide upon her.
III. The time is gone, but I want just to say these two or three
words–namely that, depend upon it, THIS IS TRUE OF A NATION as well as
of any one Church and of any one man. At this particular time, though
there is perhaps more Christian effort made in England than has been
made for many years, there is also probably as little of the Divine
blessing resting upon that effort as ever was known. It is a melancholy
fact that with all the wonderful increase of accommodations which have
been made in London for the worship of God, there is absolutely a
greater deficiency now, owing to the increase of the population–a
greater deficiency in the means of Grace now than there ever was.
It is also a notorious fact that of the new Churches which have been
erected, you might go into many of them and not find enough to make a
respectable gathering in a vestry, so that, even though tens of
thousands and hundreds of thousands of pounds have been contributed for
mere bricks and mortar, in connection with the Episcopalian
Establishment,
these have merely been a spurious addition to the spiritual supply, but
not a real one! It is easy to raise money, but it is not easy to find
men! And while it is easy to get an architect to build a Church, none
but God Himself can find a minister who will reach the dense masses of
our heathendom around us and compel them to come in and worship.
The lack of men is the great crying need of the age, and that need is
sent to us because we do not pray to God enough to send us men! We do
not pray for men, when God does send them, that they may be helped as
they should, and consequently much of the Church's effort is thrown
away. Beloved, I want to see something done in this London, and how is
it to be done? There are thousands of Christians, tens of thousands of
Christians in London, and yet the cause does not spread, or very
slowly! What is the cause?
Jonah shook Nineveh from end to end, and yet a hundred thousand
followers of Jesus cannot do it! Paul, marching along the Apian way at
Rome, marked an era in Rome's history–and yet there are many ministers
of Christ who thread our streets, and yet what are we all put together
for real power? We do not seem to amount in this great city, all of us,
to anything more than a mere chip in the porridge! We scarcely affect
the population at all. Oh, it is strange, it is passing strange! For it
is the Gospel which we preach! We know it is the Gospel, and some of us
do try to preach it with all our might. But if God withholds His face,
what can be done?
Yet, Brethren, this can be done–we will cry to the Lord until He
reveals His face again. We will give Him no rest till He establishes
and makes His Church a praise in the earth! O Christian men and women,
if you could realize the situation! A city of three millions, not
wholly given to idolatry, but still very much given to sin–and we
ourselves so weak in the midst of it! If we could but realize this
position and then take hold upon the Omnipotent arm, and by an
overcoming faith, such as only God could give to any one of us, believe
it possible for the Lord Jesus to save this city! And then go forward
boldly expecting Him to do it, we might see more than we have ever
seen!
And now, what if I prophesy that we shall see it! What if I say that if
God will but stir up His people everywhere for prayer, He will do a
work in our day that shall make both the ears of him that hears it to
tingle, not with horror, but with joy? He will yet let the world know
that there is a God in Israel! Verily, that which hinders is our lack
of faith, for if the Son of Man should descend among us, would He find
faith on the earth? O unbelieving Church! O thankless generation! You
are not straitened in God–you are straitened in your own hearts! And
if you could but believe Him, and so prove Him by your faith, He would
yet open the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing, such that
you should not have room enough to receive!
This, then, is the matter, and we leave it with you. We are utterly
dependent upon God–absolutely must we rest on Him. But this is as it
should be, for it were better to trust in the Lord than to have
confidence in man–better to trust in the Lord than to have confidence
in princes. Through the blood of Jesus let us rest in Divine love and
give the Lord no rest till He makes bare His arm in the midst of this
land! May the Lord give His blessing to our words, for Jesus' sake.
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Grieve Not the Holy Spirit
A sermon