Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, March 12th, 1871, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the
joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord
God of hosts,"–Jeremiah 15:16.
Jeremiah was a man of exceedingly sensitive temperament; the very
reverse of Elijah. Yet he was sent of God to execute a duty which
apparently required a person of great sternness and slender
sensibility. It was his unhappy duty to denounce the judgments of God
upon a people whom he dearly loved, but whom it was impossible to save;
for even his deep anguish of heart and melting pathos were powerless
with them, and rather excited their ridicule than their attention.
Either they did not believe that he was sent of God at all, or else
they neither cared for Jehovah nor for his prophet. Naturally mild and
retiring, his strong sense of allegiance to God and love to Israel made
him bear a fearless testimony for the truth; but the reproaches,
insults, and threats, which were heaped upon him, sorely wounded his
soul; and even deeper was his anguish, because he well knew that his
rejected warnings were terribly true. He carried before his mind's eye
at all times the picture of Jerusalem captured by her foes, and her
wretched sons and daughters given up to the sword. There is no line in
the whole of his prophecy more characteristic of him than that
exclamation, "O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of
tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of
my people."
He was eminently the man that had seen affliction, and yet in the midst
of a wilderness of woe he discovered fountains of joy. Like that
Blessed One, who was "the man of sorrows" and the acquaintance of
grief, he sometimes rejoiced in spirit and blessed the name of the
Lord. It will be both interesting and profitable to note the root of
the joy which grew up in Jeremiah's heart, like a lone palm tree in the
desert. Here was its substance. It was an intense delight to him to
have been chosen to the prophetic office; and when the words of God
came to him, he fed upon them as dainty food. They were often very
bitter in themselves, for they mainly consisted of denunciations, yet
being God's words, such was the prophet's love to his God, that he ate
every syllable, bitter or not. This also was evermore a consolation to
him–that he was known by the people to be a prophet of Jehovah. This
distinction, whatever persecution it brought upon him, was his joy "I
am called by thy name." God's word received, God's name named upon him,
and God's work entrusted to him, these were stars which cheered the
midnight of his grief. However hard his lot might be, and none seem to
have fallen upon worse times, there were secret sweetnesses of which
none could deprive him. When he was "filled with bitterness, and
drunken with wormwood," he still drank of that ever-flowing river, the
streams whereof make glad the city of our God. The basis of faith's joy
lies deeper than the water-floods of affliction; no torrents of misery
can remove the firm foundations of our peace.
May our hearts be so moulded by divine grace that the words of the
weeping prophet in this verse may be proper language for us to use.
Especially do I speak to those who during the last few weeks have found
a Savior; my prayer and cry to God for you, beloved friends, is that
you may say sincerely, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and
thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am
called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts."
I. In considering these words, we shall begin by dwelling upon A
MEMORABLE DISCOVERY–"Thy words were found." As Jeremiah meant them,
they signified this: that certain messages came to him most clearly
from God, and he recognised them as such; he ascertained how far the
thoughts which passed through his mind were originated by the Spirit of
God, and how far they were merely his own imaginings; he separated
between the precious and the vile, and when he had found, discovered,
and discerned God's word, then it was that he fed upon it.
But the words, as we may use them, may signify something more. Beloved,
it is a great thing to find God's word, and discern it for ourselves.
Many have heard it for years and yet have never found it. I may say of
them as of the heathen gods, "Eyes have they, but they see not: ears
have they, but they hear not." Content with the outward letter of the
Scriptures, the inner meaning is hid from their eyes. O that they had
known the life-giving truth! O that they had found the "treasure hid in
the field!" The word of God to them might as well be the word of King
James the First, whose name dishonors our authorised version, for they
have never felt that its truths proceed immediately from the throne of
God, and bear the sign-manual of the King of kings. Hence they have
never felt the weight of authority with which its authorship impresses
holy writ. What is meant by finding God's words! The expression
suggests the mode. A thing found has usually been sought for. Happy is
that man who reads the Scriptures and hears the word–searching all the
while for the hidden spiritual sense, which is indeed the voice of God.
The letter of the truth contains a kernel, which is the inner life of
it. Like some tropical fruits, which are very large, but in which the
actual life-germ is a comparatively small thing, so within the sacred
volume are many words and books, but the living secret may be summed up
in a few syllables. The mystery which was hid from ages, is a secret
something which flesh and blood cannot reveal unto us. "Understandest
thou what thou readest?" is a vital and heartsearching question,
meaning more than appears at once. The chosen of God dig into the mines
of revelation, believing that "Surely there is a vein for the silver,
and a place for gold where they fine it;" therefore they give their
hearts to meditation, and cry mightily unto God to reveal himself unto
them. Such seekers winnow sermons as the husbandman winnows his corn;
they care little for the chaff of fair speeches; they desire only the
fine wheat of the Lord's own truth. Solomon tells us the method of
finding the true wisdom, in that cheering word at the commencement of
the second chapter of the Proverbs, "My son, if thou wilt incline thine
ear to wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou
criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if
thou seekest her as silver, and searches for her as for hid treasures;
then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge
of God." Though occasionally the Lord in his infinite sovereignty has
been pleased to reveal his salvation to those who sought it not,
according to his own word, "I am found of them that sought me not," yet
there is no promise to this effect; the promise is to those who seek.
To find God's words, means that we have been made to understand them. A
man may be well versed in Scripture, both in the English and in the
original tongue; he may be accustomed to read the best of commentaries,
and be acquainted with Eastern manners, and yet he may be quite
ignorant as to the word of God. For the understanding of this Book, as
to its depth of meaning, does not lie within the range of natural
learning and human research; reason alone is blinded by the excess of
light, and wanders in darkness at noon day; for "the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness
unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned." Before my conversion I was accustomed to read the
Scriptures, to admire their grandeur, to feel the charm of their
history, and wonder at the majesty of their language; but I altogether
missed the Lord's intent therein; but when the Spirit came with his
divine life, and quickened all the page to my newly-enlightened soul,
the inner meaning-shone forth with quickening glory. The Bible is to
many carnal minds almost as dull a book for reading as an untranslated
Latin work would be to an ignorant ploughman, because they cannot get
at the internal sense, which is to the words as juice to the grape, or
the kernel to the nut. It is a tantalising riddle till you get the key;
but the clue once found, the volume of our Father's grace absorbs our
attention, delights our intellect, and enriches our heart.
To find the word of God means not only to understand it, but to
appropriate it as belonging to yourself. To read a will is not an
interesting occupation–repetitions, legal phrases, tautologies
multiplied to utter weariness; but if there be a legacy left to you in
that will, no writing will be more fascinating; you will trip lightly
over the lawyer's fences and five-barred gates, and rejoice as one that
findeth spoil when you reach those clauses which leave certain
"messages, tenements, and hereditaments" to yourself and heirs. In such
a case every repetition becomes musical, and technical phrases sound
harmoniously. After this manner we learn to enjoy the word of God by
discovering that we have a part and lot in it. When we perceive that
the Lord is calling us and blessing us, then have we found his word.
When the divine promise assures us personally that our sin is forgiven,
that our spirit is clothed in the righteousness of Christ, that heaven
is for us, that we are accepted in the Beloved, then the word is found
indeed. I will ask each hearer here, whether in this respect he has
found God's word. Have you an ear to hear gospel truth as the voice of
the Infinite God addressed to your own soul? The Dutch farmers at the
Cape, at no very distant period, considered the hottentots around them
to be little better than beasts, quite incapable of anything beyond
mere eating, drinking, stealing, and lying. After our missionaries had
labored among the natives for a time, one of them was found reading the
Bible by the roadside. The Dutchman enquired of him, "What book are you
reading?"–"The Bible." "The Bible! Why that book was never intended
for you."–"Indeed it was," said the black man, "for I see my name
here." "Your name: Where?" cried the farmer. "Show it to me."–"There,"
said the Hottentot, putting his finger on the word "sinners." "That's
my name; I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ came to save me." It were well
indeed if men would but read the Bible, saying, "In this volume the
great God condescends to speak to me, and bids me come and reason with
him that my scarlet sins may become white; therein he appeals to my
weakness that he may remove it, to my wilfulness that he may subdue it,
to my distance from him that he may bring me near!" Happy is that man
who hears or reads the word of God for himself, feeling evermore a
living power witnessing within his soul, and operating mightily upon
him. Unapplied truth is useless. Unappropriated truth may condemn but
cannot save. The word of God to an unregenerate heart is like a trumpet
at the ear of a corpse: the sound is lost. Beloved, I pray that you may
discern the truth, and then may grasp it as your own. May your interest
and title to the promises be clearly made out, so that not
presumptuously, but with the full approbation of your conscience, you
may know yourself to be beloved of the Lord.
"Thy word was found." Yes, indeed, it has been found by many of us, and
a blessed find it was! Recollect, my brethren, the time when you first
found God's word. Recall the period of your conversion; let the
remembrance kindle in you anew the flame of gratitude. Magnify the
divine grace which revealed the heavenly word to you. What a removal of
darkness, and bursting in of glory you then felt! It was a discovery
far more memorable than the finding of a new continent by Columbus, or
the discovery of gold mines in the southern continent–you found
eternal life in God's word. May you who have never found the
life-giving word, be led to desire it. We pray for you, that the Lord
may open your eyes to see wondrous things in his law.
II. Secondly, our text testifies to AN EAGER RECEPTION. "Thy words were
found, and I did eat them."
It is not "I did hear them," for that he might have done, and yet have
perished. Herod heard John gladly, and yet became his murderer. He does
not say, "I did learn them by heart"–hundreds have committed chapters
to memory, and were rather wearied than benefited thereby. The Scribes
fought over the jots and titles of the law, but were blind leaders of
the blind not withstanding. It is not "Thy words were found, and I did
repeat them," for that he might have done as a parrot repeats language
it is taught: nor is it even, "Thy words were found, and I remembered
them;" for though its an excellent thing to store truth in the memory,
yet the blessed effect of the divine words comes rather to those who
ponder them in their hearts. "Thy words were found, and I did eat
them." What is meant by eating God's words? The phrase signifies more
than any other word could express. It implies an eager study–"I did
eat them." I could not have too much of them, could not enter too
thoroughly into their consideration. He who loves the Savior desires to
grow in knowledge of him; he cannot read or hear too much or too often
concerning his great Redeemer. He turns to the holy page with ever new
delight; he seeks the blessing of the man who meditates in God's law,
both day and night. It is pleasing to notice the sharp-set, spiritual
appetite of a new convert; he hungers and thirsts after righteousness;
he will hear a sermon without fatigue, though he may have to stand in
an uncomfortable position; and when one discourse is over, he is ready
for another. O that we all had our first appetites back again! Some
professors grow very squeamish and proudly delicate; they cannot feed
on heavenly truth, because forsooth they see defects in the style of
the preacher, or in the manner of the service. Some of you need a dose
of bitters to keep you from quarrelling with your food. When the word
was found by my soul I did not stand to remark upon an inelegant
expression or a misplaced word, but I seized at once the marrow of the
truth, and left the bones to the dogs. I drank in the expressed juice
of the sacred clusters, and left the husks to the swine. I was greedy
for the truth. My soul hungered even to ravenousness to be fed upon the
bread of heaven.
The expression also implies cheerful reception. "I did eat them." I was
so in love with thy word that I not merely held it, rejoiced in it, and
embraced it, but I received it into my inner man. I was not in a frame
of mind to judge God's word, but I accepted all without demur; I did
not venture to sit in judgment upon my judge, and become the reviser of
the unerring God. Whatever I found to be in his word I received with
intense joy. The stamp of divine authority upon any teaching is enough
for the believer. Proud self-will demands to have doctrines proved by
reasoning, but faith lets the declaration of Jehovah stand in the place
of argument. Others may cry, "Let us spin our creed out of our own
bowels like the spiders; let us find in the easings of the great the
grounds of our beliefs, or let us remain in a state of suspense, to be
moulded by fresh discoveries;" but we are committed to revelation, our
minds are made up; we confess that we have eaten God's word and intend
still to feed upon it–upon the whole of it, and upon nothing else.
Open your mouths, ye wild asses of the wilderness, and snuff up wind;
our food is more substantial, and we will not leave it to wander with
you.
The expression signifies also an intense belief. "Thy words were found,
and I did eat them." He did not say, "Perhaps it is true, and if it be
so it is of no great consequence," but he made practical use of it at
once. He set about testing the power of the word to nourish his soul;
he brought it into the most intimate contact with his being, and
allowed it to operate upon his vital parts. We have heard that God's
word is life; be it ours to possess that life abundantly. The truth
makes men strong, free, pure, god-like. Let us then eat it, that it may
purify, strengthen, liberate and elevate us. Whatever God's word by his
Spirit can do for man, it should be our desire to experience for
ourselves. Blessed is that man who is so humbled as to become like a
little child in the submission of his mind, his judgment, and all his
faculties to the operation of the word of divine truth; he has eaten
it, and shall live by it.
The language before us means besides both the diligent treasuring up of
the truth and the inward digestion of the same. Food eaten does not
long continue as it was; the juices of the body operate upon it, and
the substance is dissolved and absorbed, so that it becomes a part of
the man's body. So when we find God's truth, we delight to meditate,
con template, and consider. We let it dwell in our hearts richly till
at last its sustaining, upbuilding, nourishing influence is felt, and
we grow thereby. It is not a hasty swallowing of the word which is
blessed to us, but a deliberate eating of it. Our inward life acts upon
the truth, and the truth acts upon our life. We become one with the
truth, and the truth one with us. I would to God we were all more given
to feeding and lying down in the green pastures of God's word; the
sheep fattens as it chews the cud at peace, and so do we. Establishment
in the gospel is the result of meditation, and nothing is more
desirable at this present crisis than that all believers should more
constantly study and weigh the word of God. Neglect in this matter has
weakened, is weakening, and will weaken the church. We want at this
time not merely persons who have been aroused by solemn exhortation,
and led to give their hearts to Christ under the influence of deep
emotion, but Christians well instructed in the things which are verily
believed among us, rooted and grounded in gospel doctrines. Many
professing Christians think very lightly of Scriptural knowledge, and
especially of an experimental acquaintance with divine truth. Few
nowadays have studied the doctrines of grace so as to be able to give a
reason for the hope that is in them. Too often converts are made by
excitement, and, as a consequence, when the excitement is gone, they
grow cold; some of them go back to the world, and prove that they were
never taught of God, and others linger on in a half-starved condition,
because soul-sustaining truth is hidden from them. The man who knows
the truth, and feels that the truth has made him free, is the man who
will continue a free man at all hazards. There are enemies of the faith
about nowadays; error is put in very tempting forms. Those who try to
subvert the gospel are exceedingly dextrous, and know how to make every
falsehood fascinating. These will rend and devour, but who will be
their victims? Not the instructed saints, not those who can say "Thy
words were found, and I did eat them," but the mixed multitude in
nominal union with the church, who scarce know what they believe, or
knowing it merely in the letter have no inward vital acquaintance
therewith. We read in the word of God of certain deceivers who would,
if it were possible, deceive the very elect, from which we gather that
the elect cannot be deceived, and that for this reason–that the truth
is not held in the hand of the elect man as a staff which can be
wrenched from him, but he has eaten it: it has entered into his vital
substance. You cannot tear away from a man what has become assimilated
to himself. You might draw the silken thread out of a piece of
tapestry, and in so doing injure the material, but you cannot remove
the truth which is interwoven into the fabric of our new-born nature by
the Holy Spirit. A Christian is dyed ingrain with the truth–he wears
no flying nor fading colors; he can as soon cease to be as cease to
believe what he has learned by the Spirit's teaching. In olden times,
the fury of persecutors has failed to make the servants of Christ deny
the faith. The saints were taken to the stake, but the fires which
devoured their bodies only burned their testimonies into the hearts of
other witnesses. They were faithful even unto death. This glorious
firmness in the faith is greatly needed now to resist the insidiousness
of error. Besides, dear friends, it may in the providence of God happen
that some of you will be taken away from the ministry which now feeds
you, and what will you do if the word of God be not in your inmost
souls? I have observed many who did run well when under a gospel
ministry, who, when they have been removed into a barren region, have
lagged and loitered in the race. Some whose principles were never very
deep have given them up when placed in society which despised them. I
pray you get such a hold of the gospel, that you need not be dependent
upon the preacher or upon earnest companions. Let not your faith stand
in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. No truth will be of any
use to you unless it is branded into you; yea, and made to penetrate
the marrow of your being. If you could give up truth you have never
received it. He only has the truth of God who so holds it that he could
never part with it. A person takes a piece of bread and eats it. He who
gave it to him demands it back. If he had put that bread upon a shelf,
or laid it in a cupboard, he can hand it down; but if he can reply, "I
have eaten it," there is an end to the request; no human power can
reproduce what is already eaten. "Give up justification by faith and
trust in sacraments," says the Ritualist. "Give up faith and follow
reason," cries the Infidel. We are utterly unable to do either. And
why? Because our spiritual nature has absorbed the truth into itself,
and none can separate it from us, or us from it. To live upon the truth
is the sure method to prevent apostacy. "Be not carried about with
divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be
established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them
that have been occupied therein." May you all be rooted and built up in
Christ Jesus, and established in the faith as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Besides, good friend, you cannot be very useful to others if you are an
unintelligent Christian. To do much good, we must have truth ready to
hand, and be apt to teach. I desire that you may grow up, you who are
new-born into the Christian family, to become fathers and mothers in
Israel; but this cannot be, unless you as new-born babes desire the
unadulterated milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. O for a race
of Bible-reading Christians! We have long had a society for selling the
Bible, but who shall found a society for getting the Bible read? A
young man who never had read his Bible was tempted to do so, and led to
conversion by the gift of a bookmarker, presented to him by a relative.
The gift was made upon the condition that it should be put into his
Bible, but should never stop two days in a place. He meant to shift it,
and not to read the book, but his eye glanced on a text; after awhile
he became interested, by-and-by he became converted, and then the
bookmarker was moved with growing pleasure. I am afraid that even some
professors cannot say that they shift their bookmark every day.
Probably of all the books printed, the most widely circulated, and the
least read volume, is the word of God. Books about the Bible are read,
I fear, more than the Book itself. Do you believe we should see all
these parties and sects if people studiously followed the teaching of
inspiration? The Word is one; whence these many creeds? We cry, "the
Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants;" but it is
not true of half the Protestants. Some overlay the Bible with the
Prayer-book, and kill its living meaning; others read through the
spectacles of a religious leader, and rather follow man's gloss than
God's text. Few indeed come to the pure fount of gospel undefiled. A
second-hand religion suits most, for it spares them the trouble of
thinking, which to many is a labor too severe while to be taught of man
is so much easier than to wait upon the Holy Spirit for instruction.
Remember ye, my beloved children in Christ, the words of David, and
make them your own. "I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not
forget thy word." "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter
than honey to my mouth." "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage
for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart." "Mine eyes prevent
the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word." "My soul hath
kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly. I have kept thy
precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee."
III. Thirdly, the text tells us of HAPPY CONSEQUENCES. "Thy word was
unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." He who has spiritually
found God's word, and consequently feeds upon it, is the happy man. But
in order to get joy from God's word we must receive it universally.
Jeremiah first speaks of God's "words," then he changes the number and
speaks of God's "word." We are not only to receive parts of the gospel,
but the whole of it, and then it will afford us great joy. That man's
heart is right with God who can honestly say that all the testimonies
of God are dear to him. "But," saith one, "that is impossible: parts of
the Bible are full of terrible denunciations; can they afford us joy?"
In this way, brethren. If God appoints that sin should be punished, we
are not to rebel against his righteous ordinance, nor to close our
minds to the consideration of divine justice: God's judgments are
right, and what is right we must rejoice in. Moreover, by the
threatenings of the word many are led to forsake their sin, and thus
the warning itself is a means of grace. To tender-hearted Jeremiah I
have no doubt it was a trial to say, "Your city will be destroyed, and
your women and your children will be slain." But when he considered
that some might be led to repentance he would with tearful vehemence
deal out the thunder of the Lord. But, brethren, God's word is not all
threatening. How much of it consists of exceeding great and precious
promises? grace drops from it like honey from the comb. How would even
Jeremiah brush away the falling tear, while that face usually so
clouded would beam as the sun when he spoke of the Messiah? Surely, if
there be anything in the whole range of truth which can make our hearts
leap for joy, it is the part of it which touches upon the lovely person
and finished work of our adorable Redeemer, to whom be honor and glory
for ever. Receive the whole of God's word. Do not cut a single text out
of Scripture or desire to pervert its meaning. Hold the truth in its
entirety and harmony, and then as a matter of certainty it will become
to you the joy and rejoicing of your spirit.
Allow me to interject another thought. No word of God to Jeremiah would
have given him joy if he had not been obedient to it. If he had kept
back a part of his Master's message, it would have been a burden
intolerable to his conscience. What a wound it makes in the heart if we
have inwardly to confess, "I have been unfaithful. I have neglected a
command of the Host High." Never, I beseech you, allow any text of
Scripture to accuse you of having neglected its teaching or denied its
obvious meaning. There are ordinances to which some of you have not
submitted yourselves which you know to be the will of Jesus Christ. How
can the Scriptures be a joy and rejoicing to you when their pages
accuse you of disobedience to your Master's will? In order to have the
full joy of the testimony of God, your mind must yield itself to what
God reveals as the plastic clay to the potter's touch, your willing
spirit must be prompt to run as with winged feet in the ways of
obedience to all that Christ commands. Then the word being found, and
you having eaten it, it will be to you a song in the house of your
pilgrimage.
Let me refresh your memories for a moment by reminding you of certain
choice truths in God's word which are brimming with comfort. There is
the doctrine of election: the Lord has a people whom he has chosen, and
whom he loved before the foundations of the world. I will suppose that
you have found it out for yourself, and have read the riddle, and like
the apostle Paul, can say, "Whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son; and whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified." I will suppose that you know yourself to be called, and
therefore know yourself to be predestinated. Is not this the joy and
rejoicing of your heart? Is it not to you a very heaven below to
believe that ere the hills were made God loved you, ere sin was born or
Satan fell, your name was in his book, and he regarded you with
infinite affection? Could any doctrine be a more abundant table, spread
for you in the presence of your enemies? Take the other doctrine, the
doctrine of the immutability of divine love. Before you knew the secret
of it, it was a mere dogma; but now you understand that Jesus never
changes, and therefore the promises are yea and amen, you will, you
must rejoice. Having loved his own, he loved them to the end. Is not
this music to your ear? "I have loved thee with an everlasting love,"
is not this a heavenly assurance? As you sit down and consider for
yourself, "God has loved me, for he has given me salvation in Jesus
Christ, and the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, but the
covenant of his grace cannot depart from me;" will not your cup run
over, and your soul dance before the ark of God? Of course it will not
be so till you have found the word for yourself, and have eaten it, but
then it shall be marrow and fatness to you. Thousands of God's people
live in doubts and fears, because they have not eaten God's word as
they should; they do not know the fullness of the blessings of the
gospel of peace. How many are in bondage through the fear that after
all though they have been for years believers they are not yet saved,
whereas if they read the Scriptures, and received their meaning, they
would know that the moment the sinner believes in Christ he is saved in
that very instant he has passed from death into life, and shall never
come into condemnation. If they read the Scriptures, would they endure
such doubts about being left to perish after having believed? The thing
is impossible. The people of his choice Jehovah cannot cast away. No
members of Christ's body shall be suffered to perish, or else the body
of Christ would be mangled, and he himself would be the head of a
dismembered frame. To have a clear understanding of the gospel, to know
the covenant which like a mighty rock underlies all gospel blessings,
to know Christ and our union with him, to know his righteousness, his
perfection and our perfection in him, to know the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost, these things must inevitably make us strong in the joy of
the Lord. Half our doubts and fears would vanish if we had more
acquaintance with the Lord's statutes. Other knowledge brings sorrow,
but this wisdom is the joy and rejoicing of the heart.
Beloved, if there is a quarrel between you and any text of Scripture,
end the dispute by giving way at once, for the word of God is right,
and you are wrong. Do not say, "We have always been of one way of
thinking, and our parents were so before us." Have respect unto God,
and sit at Jesus' feet. The Lord's teaching is in this Book, and may be
opened to you by his Spirit. Test everything by the word; prove the
spirits whether they be of God. Do not be such fools as to take your
religion from fallible men when you may have it from the infallible
God. Some who do so are not fools in other matters, but in this case it
may be said of them as it was once said of the people of an Italian
city, "They were not fools, but they acted as if they were." Persons
who would not take the opinion of anybody else as to the goodness of a
half-crown, will leave their religion to be settled by an Act of
Parliament, or by convocation, or by conference. What are brains given
to us for? Are we for ever to be the slaves of majorities and follow a
multitude to do evil? God forbid! Stand upright, O Christian man, and
be a man. God has given you a judgment, and his Spirit waits to
enlighten it. Search the Scriptures! See whether the things handed down
by tradition came from the devil or from God, for many an ancient maxim
may be traced to the infernal pit. To the law and to the testimony, if
they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light
in them. May we have grace given us like Ezekiel to receive the roll
from the Lord's hand, to eat it, and to find it in our mouth as honey
for sweetness.
IV. The fourth point is A DISTINGUISHING TITLE. "I am called by thy
name, O Lord God of hosts." This may not appear to some of you a very
joyful thing–to Jeremiah it was pre-eminently so. In Jeremiah's day
the name of the Lord God of hosts was despised. The God of hosts was
the subject of derision among the rabble of Jerusalem, and the weeping
prophet of mournful countenance, who spoiled their mirth, came in for
his full share of scorn. Now. Jeremiah, instead of feeling it a hard
thing to be associated with the Lord in this contempt of the wicked,
was glad to be so honored. The reproaches of them that reviled the Lord
fell upon his poor servant, and he was content to have it so. O you who
love Jesus Christ, never shun the scandal of his cross! Count it glory
to be despised for his sake. Let fear be far from you. Remember Moses,
of whom it is written, "he esteemed the reproach of Christ to be
greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt." It does not say he
esteemed Christ to be greater riches, an ordinary believer would do
that; but he reckoned the worst thing connected with Christ to be
better than the best thing about the world. The reproach of Christ he
esteemed above Pharaoh's crown. Disciples of Jesus, be willing to bear
all the contumely the wicked pour upon you for your Lord's sake, for in
so doing they help to make you blessed. Through the mire, and through
the slough, march side by side with truth, for those who share her
pilgrimage shall share her exaltation. Be content to abide with Christ
in his humiliation, for only so may you be sure that you shall be with
him in his glory. It was a comfort to Jeremiah that he bore the name of
the despised God. It made him the object of very much persecution as
well as contempt; the king put him in the dungeon; he was made to eat
the bread of affliction, and was in tribulations oft, but he took it
all joyfully for the Lord's sake. And if to serve Christ to-day, and
bear his name, should entail suffering extreme, as in the days of
Rome's tyranny, yet, my brethren, we ought to be cheerful in the
bearing of it, and glad that we are counted worthy to suffer for the
name of Jesus Christ.
Yet I am afraid I am speaking to some who do not count it a fair thing
to bear the name of the Most High. I gather this from their conduct.
They have a belief in Jesus, they hope they have, but they have never
avowed Christ's name. You have missed, then, that which was a comfort
to the prophet. Why have you missed it? Because you imagined that it
would be a source of discomfort to you? Are you wiser than the prophet?
To him it was consolation that he was called by God's name. Do you
think it would be a sorrow to you? "Oh!" saith one, "I could not bear
the world's rebuke." Can you bear Christ's rebuke, when he will say to
those who did not confess him before men, "I never knew you"? But you
say you could not live up to a profession; you are afraid your life
might fall short of what it should be–a very salutary fear; but do you
hope to improve your life by beginning with disobedience! If I own my
Savior's name, it is Christ's business to keep me; but if I am so
overwise that I think I am safer in the path of disobedience, then I
cannot reckon upon grace to preserve me. The warfare is arduous, but we
do enter upon it at our own charges, there is one who has promised to
help us. Well, if you will be cowards, I will part company with you. If
you were every one of you this day enemies of Christ, or if you were
all of you lovers of Christ in secret, and none of you gloried in him,
I, for my part, could not fire a moment without being an avowed
Christian. I say not this in egotism, but as fact. My heart might
sooner cease to beat than cease to own the Lord. It is a sneaking
thing, and utterly degrading that my Lord should die upon the cross for
me to save my soul from hell, and I should be ashamed to wear his
livery; that he should honor me by redeeming me with his blood, and I
should deny to him the little honor that my poor name could give when
it is enrolled with his people. Nay, though least of all his followers,
put down my name, O recording angel, and there let it stand, and if all
men revile and devils rage so let it be. It shall be my heaven to
suffer hell for Christ, if such must needs be. I cannot comprehend how
so many believers remain outside the visible church of Christ. I would
not question the safety of any man who has believed in Jesus, but I do
avow that I would not run the risk that non-confessors run. For what is
the gospel? "He that with his heart believeth, and with his mouth
maketh confession of him should be saved." How dare you leave out one
half of the gospel command? What was the gospel which according to the
Evangelist Mark is to be preached to every creature? It runs thus: "He
that believeth and is baptised shall be saved." I do not question the
safety of the soul that has believed, but I do say again, I would not
run the risk of the man who, having believed, refuses to be baptised.
It is plainly his Master's will. I question the genuineness of his
faith if he starts back from obedience to the known command of Jesus
Christ. My dear brother, to confess Christ is so easy a burden, it
involves so temporary a loss, and so real a gain, that I would have you
say, "I have found God's word, and I have eaten it: it is the joy and
rejoicing of my soul; and now from this day let others do as they will,
but I will serve the Lord. I bow my willing back to his cross. I will
be buried with him in baptism unto death, I would die to the world, and
rise to newness of life through his Spirit." Blessed are they who go to
their Lord without the camp, leaving the world's religion as well as
its sin, in obedience to that sacred call: "Come out from among them,
and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive
you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters." The Lord deal graciously with you, beloved, and lead you in
a plain path, because of your enemies, for his name's sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Jeremiah 15.
Just Published. A Memorial of the Marriage of the Princess Louise,
entitled,
THE ROYAL WEDDING: the Banquet and the Guests. By C. H. SPURGEON. Price
One Shilling, beautifully bound; or six pence, in paper wrapper.
London: Passamore & Alabaster, 18 Paternoster Row.