The History of Sundry Fools
(No. 1824)
Intended for reading on Lord's-Day, March 1st, 1885,
Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the [7]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
On July 17th, 1884,
"Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities,
are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw
near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their
trouble and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word,
and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction." Psalm
107:17-20.
THE psalm contains one picture in four panels. It illustrates a single
experience in its main outlines, for in every case it is written, "Then
they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of
their distresses"; and yet each case is very different from any one of
the others. We have variety and similarity. It is just so in the case
of the people of God. Our fall, our sin, our call by grace, our prayer,
the Lord's answer to that prayer by Jesus Christin all these, "as face
answereth to face, so doth the heart of man to man." We are wonderfully
much alike as children of the first Adam, and alike when we become
children of the second Adam; and yet no two children of God are quite
the same. In human families we meet with great diversity of features
among those who are, nevertheless, the offspring of the same parents.
In the great family of God the diversity of the features is very
wonderful indeed. Look at the four pictures which are so much alike,
and which indeed do but represent one, and yet you shall discover in
them marked diversity. Learn you this double lessonthat unless your
spot is the spot of God's children you are none of his: but also, do
not expect to find that spot exactly the same in you as it is in others
of his undoubted offspring. As on earth all flesh is not the same
flesh, and as in the heavens all glories are not the same glory, for
there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and
another glory of the stars; so in the ordinary life of Christians here
below there is one Spirit, but there are divers operations. Therefore
do not judge yourself by any man's biography. Do not condemn yourself
if, after reading John Bunyan's "Grace Abounding," you say, "I never
went into these dark places." Be glad that you never did. After reading
Madame Guyon, do not condemn yourself if you never heard her
"Torrents," nor felt her ecstasies of divine life. Be sorry that you
never have, and aspire after such things, but do not condemn yourself.
Here are four pictures, and you may find your likeness in one of the
four; but be not so unwise as to condemn yourself if you are not seen
in the other three. "I never went to sea," says one, "this cannot
picture me." "I never traversed a Sahara," says another, "this cannot
picture me." "I never was in prison in the dark," says a third, "this
cannot picture me." But it is possible, dear friend, that you have been
a fool, and therefore the sick fool may picture you. When you find
yourself in one of the pictures, you may conclude that, as the four are
but variations of the same subject, all the four in some degree belong
to you. At any rate, if I cannot enter into heaven by twelve gates, I
shall be perfectly satisfied to go in at one.
I am only going to bring out two out of the many thousands of things
that lie packed away in the wonderful box of my text. There are two
things,the miserable people, and the merciful Lord.
I. THE MISERABLE PEOPLE, first. I am going to describe them, and my
object in the description will be to show what some have been who,
nevertheless, have been saved. These people are called fools. They
abhorred all manner of meat. They drew near to the gates of death. But
they were saved for all that, for they cried unto God in their trouble,
and he delivered them out of their distresses. The inference will be
that if Iif youshould happen to be just in the same condition as
these people, yet we may have hope that God will save us.
To begin with, the first description of them is that they were fools.
Now, I must not call you fools, but you have all of you liberty to call
yourselves so. I find it forbidden in Scripture for any man to call his
brother "fool," but I do not find him forbidden to call himself so.
Look well to yourself, and see whether you are not a fool now:at
least, if God's grace has saved you, you are bound to own that you were
once a FOOL in capital letters; for every unrenewed and unregenerate
man is a fool. We call those fools who have a great want of knowledge
of things which it is necessary to know. Where other men find their
way, they are lost. Where other men know what to do upon very simple
matters, they are quite bewildered and cannot tell how to act. I
remember when I did not know the way of salvation. I had heard it from
my youth up, and heard it explained very simply, too; but I did not
know it. Many must confess that, though now they understand what faith
in Jesus is, yet they were very slow in catching the idea. It is an
idea which a babe in grace can explain, but which wise men, classically
instructed, do not receive. I may stand here, and beat my very heart
out in trying to make plain how men are to believe and live, and yet
out of my congregation not one will receive God's meaning into his
heart unless God the Holy Ghost shall enlighten him; for we are such
fools that the simplest matters of heavenly truth are utterly unknown
to us.
He, too, is a fool who, when he does know, does not make right use of
his knowledge. He is a greater fool than the former one. He knows all
about it, but yet he does not do it. He understands that the only way
to be saved is to believe in Christ; but he does not believe. He knows
that men must repent of sin if they would find mercy; but he does not
repent of sin. He knows that life is uncertain, and yet he is risking
his soul upon the chances of his continuing to live. He lives as if he
had a lease of his life, and was absolutely certain that he could not
die till he chose to be converted. Now this is to be a foolto act
contrary to your own knowledge and better judgment. How many fools
there are of this kind!
We call him a fool who hurts himself without any profitwithout any
justifying cause. The man who flings his life away to save a nation, or
even to rescue one solitary person from death, is a hero; but what is
he who, for no motive whatever, will maim himselfwill take away his
own healthwill take away his own life? Are there none such here? Look
at the drunkard! Look at the man who is guilty of unclean living! Look
at such as prefer this world to the world to come, and throw themselves
away on trifles! O sirs, there be many men that have injured themselves
so that their sin lies in their bones. Even now they feel the result of
their transgressions. The moth is foolish that flies into the candle,
and, having burnt itself, dashes again into the flame. We count the ox
foolish that goes willingly to the shambles; but there are multitudes
of men and women who take delight in sin; and, though every cup around
them be poisoned, yet they drink at it as though it were nectar.
Verily, sinners are fools!
We are great fools when we think that we can find pleasure in sin, or
profit in rebellion. We are great fools when we displease our God,when
our best Friend, on whom our eternal future depends, is despised,
neglected, and even rejected and hated by us. It is the extreme of
folly when a man loses the good will of one who can help him,when he
rejects the love of a tender mother, and the counsel of a wise father.
Some men seem resolved to make their enemies their friends, and their
friends their enemies. They put darkness for light, and light for
darkness. They go to find the living among the dead, and true helpers
among those who pander to their sin. Such fools have you and I been.
Peradventure, some here are such fools now.
I call that man a fool who throws away jewels that he may gather
pebbles, who casts away gold and silver that he may gather up mire and
dirt. And what do they do who fling away heaven and eternal life for
the sake of a transient joy, a momentary gain? Are there not some men
living in this world only to get what will one day turn into smoke?
They know that this great world, and all the works of men that are
therein, must be dissolved with fervent heat; and yet they labor to
build a mansion for their immortal souls in this place, which is to be
utterly burned up. And, meanwhile, thou, O Son of God, Immortal Love,
art treated as though thou wert a mere fiction! And thou, great Father,
fullness of eternal grace, their backs are turned on thee! And O,
holiness, and virtue, and immortal blessedness all of you are suffered
to go by while men are hunting for gewgaws and gathering trinkets that
shall so soon be taken from them. If haply as you sit here you confess,
"I have been a fool; I know I have," then you may gather comfort from
the fact that fools were saved. He that has gone to the utmost excess
of unwisdom may yet hear the invitation of wisdom, and come and learn
at Christ's feet all that is needful for eternal life.
The next thing about these people is rather worse: they were not only
fools, but sinners. The text says that "fools, because of their
transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted." You see
they had several sorts of sintransgression and iniquities. They began
with one transgression; they went on to multiplied iniquities. There
was first in their heart a transgression against God; afterwards, there
were found in their lives many inequities, both towards God and towards
man. Sin multiplies itself very rapidly. It grows from one to a
countless multitude. We will not go into the details of the
transgressions and iniquities that you may have committed; but here is
the point,these people, who were fools, and full of transgression and
iniquity, nevertheless cried to God in their trouble, and he delivered
them out of their distresses. What form has your sin taken? Think of it
in your own heart. But, whatever form it has taken, God is able to
forgive you. "All manner of sin and blaspheming shall be forgiven unto
men." "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin."
There is no sin which is unpardonable if men repent of it. The sin that
is unpardonable is one of which no man ever thought of repenting, for
it is a sin which is unto death, and when committed the man is
spiritually dead, and never repents. If there be a sin upon you,
however black and foulif it be a horrible sin which I could not
mention because it might crimson the cheek of modesty if I did but even
hint at itif you are covered with it, polluted with it beyond all
imaginationyet, of the saints in heaven it can be said, "such were
some of you, but ye are washed." You are not more astray than certain
others, or if you are, so much the greater shall be the glory of God's
grace in saving you. It is written of our Lord that he is able to "have
compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way." O you
out-of-the-way sinners, what a comfortable word that is for you! No sin
shall destroy you if you will come to the sinner's Savior. No
excellence of your own shall save you if you reject that Savior. Come
in all your sin, though it reeks to heaven: though the stench of it be
loathsome in your own nostrils, yet, come to Jesus, for "the blood of
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin."
But we must go on with the picture. These people were not only fools
and sinners, which are two bad things; but they had a third mischief
about them: they were afflicted. "Fools, because of their
transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted." Their
affliction was evidently the result of their folly and their
transgression. Do I address any who are in that case? I hardly like to
say what may have happened to some here. They may be distressed in
spirit, and unable to pursue their business with anything like
cheerfulness. They may be subject to doleful forebodings and heavy
glooms, and all the result of sin in years gone by. They have now got
to the core of the apple of sin. It is wonderfully sweet till you get
to the core, and then it is bitter, ay, more bitter than death itself.
Once these men were fools and sinners, and now they have to suffer for
it. They are afflicted because of their transgression and their
iniquities. Some suffer in body. Others suffer in estate: their
property is all gone now. They have spent all. Riotously, foolishly,
wickedly it has gone. They had money once; they have none now. They had
the means of livelihood and competence, but they have so sinned that
they cannot be trusted now. They are waifs and strays on the great
ocean, drifting about, nobody wanting them. How I long to say a word of
comfort to those who are in that condition! If you repent, if you will
arise and come to your Father, why should you not be delivered out of
your distresses? Do you not see that God does deliver such as you are?
Is not the case before you in the text? They were fools afflicted, they
were sinners afflicted, beginning to feel, even on earth, a part of the
result of their sin. They began to reap those sheaves of fire which
they sowed with such merry-making years ago; and, as they put those
sheaves into their bosom, they wondered how they could escape being
immediately consumed. But they did escape, and so may you. God has
saved such as you now are, and all those saved ones should encourage
you to hope that he will save you.
The picture is getting black, but we must put on another coat of color.
In addition to this, these people had fallen into a soul-sickness.
Through their trouble and their consciousness of sin, they had fallen
into such a state of illness that nothing could help them. The best
food was brought to them, but they waved it away: their soul abhorred
all manner of meat. Some are in such a state that the amusements which
once were joys to them are now wearisome. You have been lately to the
theater, and you used to be charmed there. You cannot make out what has
come over it: it seems so dull to you. You used to enjoy cheerful
evenings with your merry-making friends, but now you would sooner get
upstairs alone, for you feel so wretched. When you are alone, there is
one person who plagues you: if you could only get away from him, you
would be content; but that person happens to be yourself, and there
appears to be no rest for you either in company or in solitude. Your
soul abhors all manner of meat. I have known souls to get into such a
state that books, interesting and instructive, they could not read any
longer. They felt no interest in anything of the sort; and poetry, and
all the charms of art, which once they very properly enjoyed could
afford them no pleasure. The best mental recreation cannot give such
persons any stay from their fierce, self-destroying thoughts. Ay, and
they even refuse good spiritual meat. If the preacher tries to give
them milk for babes, that is too weak for them: if he brings out strong
meat, that is too tough for their teeth. If he brings them "wine on the
lees, well-refined," that is too heating; if he offers the water of
life, that is too cold. Nothing will suit them. They grumble at all
kinds of teaching. Religious books do not cheer them; even the Bible
itself seems stale and unprofitable. You are in a frightful condition,
my friends, are you not? You are so sick that the meat which best would
suit you is that which you least care for. Yet God has saved some who
have fallen into this wretched way; and he invites you to come to him,
and trust in him, with the promise that he will save even you, though
you are as bad as you well can be.
But the case was worse than that, for we read, "They draw near unto the
gates of death." This poor creature was almost dead. He could see
death-gate and hell-gate right before him. He was lying at death's
door, expecting every moment to be thrown through the portal into
eternal destruction and endless wrath. I remember when I lay in bosom
of despair in my own apprehension. I knew that I was condemned on
account of sin, and my conscience said "Amen" to the condemnation. I
could not plead any reason why I should not at once be taken out to
endless execution on account of my sin; and I certainly felt the dread
shadow of coming wrath falling upon my soul. AND YET I AM SAVED blessed
be God! And so shall you, dear hearer, though you be ready to die, and
ready to be damned, be saved by faith in Jesus. Though you begin to
feel the fire-shower falling, and the first of the dread drops have
already buried their way into your soul, yet may you escape. The Savior
comes to those who
Buried in sorrow and in sin,
At death's dark door do lie.
He brings "salvation" to such; and he says to the dying sinner, "This
day has salvation come unto thy house." What a glorious gospel we have
to preach to you miserable people!
But yet we have not quite touched up the picture with the last shade of
black. This man not only lay at death's door, full of trouble, full of
distress, but he was surrounded by many destructions. In the twentieth
verse we read, "and he delivered them from their destructions." What!
Are there many destructions to a man? Oh, yes, a great many! I have
known one man destroyed by his shop, another by his wife, another by
his children. Many a woman is destroyed by her clothes; many a man is
destroyed by his eating; millions are destroyed by their drinking.
Everything about us will destroy us unless God saves us. There are a
thousand gates to hell, though there is only one road to heaven. One
man may perish by debauchery; another may perish by respectability. One
man may be lost in the ale-house; another man may be lost through his
teetotalism, if he makes a god of it. One man may go down to hell by
his want of common decency, and another by his pride, and prudery, and
self-righteousness. Do not deceive yourselfthe way to ruin is easy,
and many crowd it. If you want to go to heaven, well, we shall have to
tell you a great deal about what is to be believed; but if you want to
go to hell, I have no need to tell you anything,"How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation?" A little matter of neglect will land
you in hell. But it is not a little matter of thought that will bring
you to heaven; there must be a stirring up of the entire soulan
awakening of the whole man to seek after God in Christ Jesus; or else
you shall perish. Surrounded, then, with destructionssnares about your
bed, snares about your table, snares in your solitude, snares in the
street, snares in your shop, snares at dawn of day, and snares at set
of sunyou are in awful, terrible danger; and yet persons surrounded
with destructions have been saved, and why should not you? They have
cried to God in their trouble, and he has delivered them out of their
destructions; will he not do the same at your cry? What a charming word
is this for desponding spirits!
II. I have but a minute or two left, where I should have wished for an
hour, to speak upon THE MERCIFUL LORD.
Very briefly indeed. This merciful Lord appears in this picture where
you do not at first see him. I think I see him in that first verse: he
sent the affliction. "Fools, because of their transgression, and
because of their iniquities, are afflicted." Ah me! "Are afflicted."
Who afflicted them, then? Why, their own Fathertheir own Shepherd, who
saw that they would never come back to him if it were not for
affliction. I see you, friend. You are a stray sheep, and I could not
get you back. Now you cry, "Alas, I am in trouble!" I am sorry that you
should be troubled, but I am not altogether sorry. I can see the black
dog is worrying you. It is that he may get you back to the Shepherd.
Many will not come back till the black dog has his teeth in their
flesh, but if it surely drives you to the good Shepherd, it will be
your true friend. I question whether many of us did come to the Lord
Jesus Christ until we were afflicted in some way or other. Our bright
days led us more and more into sin. Then came a dark day; and then we
began to turn. "When he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in
that land." Blessed be God for the famine! "He began to be in want":
now he will have to test his gay friends and flatterers. There was a
gentleman who had drunk his champagne, and put his feet under his
mahogany; and the prodigal said, "Now I have fed that man, I dare say
he will entertain me now I am in poverty." "I cannot help you," he
replied. "Can you give me some employment?" "No. What are you worth?
Well, you can feed my pigs." And he "sent him into his fields to feed
swine." That is the black dog again. If the gentleman had said, "Oh,
yes, my dear young fellow, you were very generous when you had plenty
of money, I am very sorry for you, come and live with me: while I have
a crust you shall have part of it;" that would have been the worst
thing that could have happened, for the prodigal son would never have
thought of going home. I say that your troubles are mercies in
disguise. Your sicknesses, your poverty, and your miseryoh, I bless
God for them! The heavenly Father has sent this rumbling waggon to
bring you home to himself. Oh that you would but come to yourself! Oh
that you would but come to him! See, the grace of God appears in the
very affliction of these rebellious fools.
But note this, further: they began to pray; and here we see the Lord
again; for no one seeks after God till God has put the prayer into his
heart, and breathed a new life into his spirit.
Then as soon as ever he did pray, the Lord heard the prayer. We read,
"He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their
destructions." So, beloved, all that God has to do, in order to save
us, is to send us his word. He has done that by sending his dear Son,
who is the incarnate Word. He sends us the word in the shape of the
Holy Scriptures; he sends us the word in the preaching of his servants;
but what we want most of all is to have that word sent home by the
power of the Holy Spirit. "He sent his word, and healed them." There is
nothing that you want to-night but to have the word which the Lord has
spoken sealed home to your heart, so that you accept it, and believe
it. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
I want you to notice how the Lord rescued these people. You see, they
could not eat. They had reached such a state of sickness that they
could not take anything; they abhorred all manner of meat, and we do
not find that the Lord sent them any meat. No, he sent his word. Did he
send his word like a tonic, to give them an appetite? No, he made surer
work. Many doctors try to deal with the disease, but God does not. He
deals with the patient himself, and his constitution. He healed them
radically. Then, when he had healed them their appetite came back. They
did not abhor all manner of meat when once God had healed them. The
Lord does not operate upon the symptoms, but upon the person; he does
not deliver us from this sin and that sin and the other sin; but he
takes away the old heart, out of which the sin comes, and gives a new
heart, out of which there come repentance, and faith, and a change of
life. If you have a lantern, and it is dark, you may polish the outside
of it as long as ever you like, and no light will come out of it: the
first thing to be done is to put a candle inside the lantern. This is
what the Lord does; and then, when he puts the candle inside the
lantern, we say to ourselves, "this lantern looks very dirty, it must
be cleaned." Is it any fouler than it was before the light was put into
it? It is the same lantern exactly, but, when you put the candle into
it, you perceive how dirty it is by the light shining within. It is of
no use to try to clean and polish it up till you have placed the
lighted candle in it. You know how Mr. Moody puts it. A lady, we will
say, takes a looking-glass, and she looks into it and she sees a spot
on her face. That is the use of the looking-glassto reveal spots; but
you never heard of a lady trying to wash her face with a looking-glass,
for that is not its use. No, the looking-glass shows the spots, but it
cannot take the spots away. First of all, by means of the law, we find
out our spots, but we have to go to Jesus Christ, in the gospel, to get
those spots taken away. Blessed are those who have gone to him!
"He sent his word, and healed them." With one word, the Lord Jesus at
this hour can heal every sin-sick soul before me, for where the word of
a King is, there is power. He spake, and the heavens were of old; let
him but speak again, and there will be new heavens and a new earth to
you. Poor sinner, you are dead, but all that Christ did when he raised
the dead in his time was to speak to them; and his word by these lips,
through his Spirit, can raise you out of your death in sin. If you are
black as the very fiend of hell, and steeped up to the throat in every
infamy that God abhors, yet if his word shall come to you, and you
receive it into your soul, you shall be saved upon the spot, and
delivered from your destructions. Here is a word of the Lord. Obey it,
I entreat you. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth: for I am God, and there is none else." Here is another; hearken
to it, and live:"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price." Let all that labor and are
heavy-laden come unto Christ, and he will give them rest. The Lord
grant that you may come at once, without delay, and to his name shall
be the praise. Amen and Amen.
Portion of Scripture read before SermonPsalm 107.
Hymns from "Our Own Hymn Book"30, 606, 697.
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