Not Bound Yet
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY DECEMBER 18, 1887,
DELIVERED
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the
Word of God is not bound." 2 Timothy 2:9.
YOU will observe, if you read the preceding verse, which, indeed, it
would be wrong to sever from the text, that the doctrine of the
Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was the sheet anchor of Paul's
comfort, as it was the great substance of his preaching. "Remember that
Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according
to my Gospel: wherein I suffer trouble, as an evildoer, even unto
bonds; but the Word of God is not bound." Perhaps we do not give
sufficient prominence to the doctrine of the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Possibly, also, for this reason we do not fully
grasp the idea of "the power of His Resurrection." Our Lord's death was
not the close of His career–He still passed onward. From the Cross to
the sepulcher was still forward. With weeping and mourning they laid
Him in the tomb–surely that was the finis of His course. Ah, no, He
passed into the grave, it is true, but He also passed through it! The
grave had hitherto seemed a cul-de-sac–a blind alley from which there
was no exit. All the footsteps pointed to entrance, but none to return.
It looked like a dread abyss swallowing all and offering passageway to
none.
Look what our Lord Jesus has done! He has made a tunnel of it for all
His redeemed to pass into the Kingdom of God–we enter at the grave to
emerge in the resurrection into eternal life! In this lies part of the
power of His Resurrection, that He has opened the Kingdom of Heaven to
all Believers. It looked like an iron door or gate of death, but He has
unhinged it, yes, He has taken it quite away. The grave was once "a
charnel house to fence the relics of lost innocence," but it is so no
longer–the imprisoning stone is rolled away! By passing through death,
our Lord has made a thoroughfare for us. We take death and the grave in
transit, now–they do not hinder our advance to Glory, immortality and
eternal life! Our course is always onward, whatever may lie in the way!
In the strength of that Truth of God, Paul, when he found himself in
prison, expected to come out of it. When he saw great difficulties in
the way to Heaven, he expected to go through those difficulties and to
come out with gain at the further end thereof. This helped to cheer him
in his darkest moments. His brave heart thus spoke within him and said,
"What if I should be even dead and buried, I shall rise again! And if
the Gospel should seem dead and buried, yet it will rise again! And if
the particular cause which I am advocating in Rome should seem dead and
buried, yet it must come to life again. I take courage from the great
Truth of God that the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead according to
my Gospel."
Friends, I think we, too, may encourage ourselves in our hour of
sorrow. From the tomb of our Lord, we may gather gems of comfort!
Though He died, yet He is dead no longer! And though He was buried, yet
the sepulcher could not hold Him–and that same victorious power which
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd
of the sheep, will also bring all His sheep with Him in due
time–though they, also, shall descend into the same darkness of the
tomb–
"Vain the stone, the watch, the seal Christ has burst the gates of
Hell! Death in vain forbids His rise, Christ has opened Paradise. Lives
again our glorious King! 'Where, O death, is now your sting?' Once He
died our souls to save! 'Where's your victory, boasting grave?'
Soar we now where Christ has led, Following our exalted Head; Made like
He, like He we rise; Ours the cross, the grave, the skies."
I like much this self-forgetting sentence of the Apostle, "I suffer
trouble, as an evildoer, even unto bonds; but the Word of God is not
bound." He is shut up in the gloomy dungeon at Rome. No hideous cells
could be worse than Roman dungeons usually were. No prison is a
desirable place, but a Roman prison was a very vestibule of death. Paul
is not only in prison, but in bonds! His right arm is chained to the
left hand of a soldier. He cannot do anything except under the
inspection of his enforced companion, who, kindly as he may be
disposed, cannot be so closely bound to him without causing him much
discomfort. One would not like to be chained to the best man that ever
lived, but much less to a rough Roman soldier! Paul is in bonds as he
writes. His fetters clank, but he makes light of them and finds more
than sufficient comfort in the reflection, "I suffer as an evildoer,
even unto bonds; but the Word of God is not bound."
I am going to talk to you upon that point with as much brevity as I
can. First, I call your attention to this grand Truth, that the Word of
God is not bound–in what sense is this true? And, secondly, for what
reasons is this true? And, thirdly, what other facts run parallel to
this fact, that though the preacher is bound, yet the Word he preaches
is not bound?
I. First, then, IN WHAT SENSE IS IT TRUE that, "the Word of God is not
bound"? Possibly a meditation upon this text may revive the spirits of
some who are cast down. May the Holy Spirit, Himself, bless the subject
to us!
That the Word of God is not bound, is, at this time, true in many
senses. And, first, it is not bound so that it cannot be preached. Paul
could preach it even when in bonds and he did preach it, so that the
Gospel was made known throughout Caesar's palace–and there were saints
in the imperial household! Many came to and fro into the Praetorian
guard-room and heard the Word from the mouth of the Apostle. You may be
quite sure that he never neglected to make known the message of the
Gospel to all that visited him in his prison, so that the Word of God
was not bound, even, with respect to himself!
And, dear Friends, whatever saddens us at this hour, we rejoice that
the Word of God still finds a tongue and a voice with which to speak to
the multitudes. That Word of God which, when there was nothing, spoke
everything into existence, would still be able to speak for itself if
not a single tongue voluntarily yielded itself to give forth speech for
God! But, at the same time there are many tongues which gladly proclaim
the glorious Grace of God, the Word of God is not bound by reason of
the lack of men to make it known–the true Apostolic succession
continues among us and, "Christ is preached." That everlasting Gospel
will never be silenced! It will still be proclaimed to the ends of the
earth and to the end of time. It shall never cease to bless the world
so long as the sea pulses with tides and time is checkered with night
and day–
"Nor shall Your spreading Gospel rest,
Till through the world Your truth has run;
Till Christ has all the nations blest
That see the light, or feel the sun." "The Word of God is not bound."
Nineteen centuries after Paul, we still have an open Bible and a free
pulpit. Blessed be God for this!
There have been a great many attempts to bind the Word of God, but yet
it has not been bound. The preachers of the holy faith of Christ have
been hunted to death. They have "wandered about in sheepskins and
goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented"–but, "the Word of God has
not been bound." When Hamilton was burned in Scotland, there was such
an impetus given to the Gospel through his burning that the adversaries
of the Gospel were known to say, "Let us burn no more martyrs in
public, for the smoke of Hamilton's burning has made many eyes to smart
until they were opened." So, no doubt, it always was! Persecution is a
red hand which scatters the white wheat far and wide. I need not remind
you how the ashes of God's martyred servant, cast into a brook, were
borne onward to a river and afterwards to the sea–and by the sea they
were carried to every shore! The Word of God is not bound by the
binding of the preachers, but it happens to the persecuted as to Israel
in Egypt–"The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied."
Probably the Church of God has never had better times, certainly she
has never had happier times, than during periods of persecution! These
were the days of her purity and, consequently, her glory. When she has
been in the dark, God has been her
light–and when she has been driven to and fro by the cruelties of
men–then has she most effectually rested under the shadow of the
Almighty!
"The Word of God is not bound" so as to be no longer a living, working
power among men. Sometimes the enemies of the Truth of God have thought
that they had silenced the last witness and then there has been an
unexpected outburst– and the old faith has been to the front again.
When in Scotland, under the reign of Moderates, the Gospel seemed to
have died out, one earnest man, by Providence, fell in with a little
book, Fisher's, "Marrow of Divinity." He was enlightened as to the pure
Truth of God, began, at once, to preach it and found thousands to
rejoice in it! That marrow has never been taken away from Scotland's
bones ever since, nor can it, nor shall it, let the devil do what he
may! A desperate and subtle attempt is now being made, but it will be
assuredly foiled through the Wisdom of God. Yet, if it should come to
this, that they should get rid of all the preachers of the Gospel–of
the men who would thunder out God's Word like Boanerges, or speak it
out in tender tones as Barnabas–if the last of the faithful testifiers
were consigned to the tomb, God would be sure to raise up another
generation to publish His Truth, so that the Word of God would not lack
a spokesman in the midst of the earth! The devil's work is never
done–one word from the Lord–and it is all undone in an instant!
The enemies of the Gospel have also attempted to bind it by the burning
of books. I have in my possession an early copy of Luther's sermons and
I was told how very rare it was because, at first, the circulation was
forbidden, and afterwards they were bought up and burned as soon as
they were met with. And what did they do? They only put fire into
Luther when they burned his sermons–they drove him to be more
outspoken than he otherwise might have been–and so they helped the
cause they thought to destroy! It is impossible that the Truth of God
can die. It has about it the Immortality of God. It is utterly
impossible that the Truth of the Gospel shall die, since it is wrapped
up in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns forever!
He must see of the travail of His soul and must be satisfied for all
the scoffs and agonies He has endured. Neither will less content Him
than a Kingdom in which all others shall be merged.
"The Word of God is not bound." It will still be preached despite the
scoffs of philosophers and the roaring of devils. Do not, therefore, at
any time sit down in despair because of evil times, for the times are
always evil in one respect or another! Do not imagine that the Truth of
God will become extinct and that the simple Gospel will be forgotten.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's Word shall never pass away!
If the Gospel which we hold is of men, it will be over-thrown–and let
it be–let us see it die without regret! But if it is of God, none can
overcome it and woe unto those who set themselves to do so! If these
things are so, why are we so timorous? If our Gospel is, as some think,
only man's voice, it shall die down into the eternal silences. But if
it come from Heaven, it shall increase into the everlasting chorus of
Heaven! Error shall be blown away like smoke from the chimney, or like
March dust in the north wind–but God's own Word is as eternal as God
Himself! As the sun is not blown out by the tempest, nor the moon
quenched by the damp of the night, so is not the Gospel destroyed by
the sophistries of perverse minds! Therefore, let us comfort one
another with these words, "The Word of God is not bound." It will be
preached till doomsday!
Another sense must be remembered–the Word of God is not bound so that
it cannot reach the heart. You may have, perhaps, dear Friend, some
very obdurate relative about whose salvation you have very great
concern. You have prayed long and have used the means within your reach
perseveringly. You have also used extraordinary means and you have
looked for an immediate result. But as yet the hard heart does not
melt. As yet you see no tear of repentance and hear no cry of faith
and, moreover, it may be that your friend refuses to go and hear the
Gospel and appears to be more opposed to it than before! I see that you
are beginning to be bound in spirit, for the hot tears force up your
eyelids and scald their way down your cheeks while I mention the
painful subject. You are hardly able to speak a good word, however much
you desire it, for you have so often been repulsed. I think I hear you
complaining to the Lord in prayer and saying–
"But feeble my compassion proves, And can but weep where most it loves;
Your own all-sa ving arm employ, And turn these drops of grief to joy."
But oh, remember that "the Word of God is not bound!" God has ways of
reaching the hardest hearts and melting them–and He can do it in a
moment when such a work is least expected! He has ways of making His
servants draw the bow at what to them is a venture, but to Him is an
absolute certainty–and between the joints of the harness the shaft of
conviction finds its way! Do not give anybody up in despair! While God
is almighty, have hope for the chief of sinners! Hope on, hope always,
even when your last argument seems to have failed and your last
instruction has been refused. It is
well that it should be so, that in the work of salvation God may have
all the glory and you may learn to love Him and trust Him all the
better in years to come. "The Word of God is not bound."
Sometimes it happens to those whom we love that they are removed from
the means of Grace, but even then the Word of God is not bound. We
thought full surely, while we could take them to hear the minister whom
God blessed to us, that they were within the reach of God's Grace. But
now they have gone away and our spirit sinks. At this hour, perhaps,
they are on the sea, or you have had a letter telling you that they
live in a place remote from Gospel preaching. You sigh within your soul
and think, "Oh, now they cannot be saved!" But the Word of God is not
bound! Had we not, a little while ago, an instance of one whom we were
praying for at a Prayer Meeting and that night, while we were praying,
it was a moonlight night, and as he was walking the deck of the ship,
the Lord met with him? When no tongue was able to reach him, the memory
of what he had heard at home came over his soul and he was humbled
before God!
I was telling, just a little while ago, at our Prayer Meeting, a very
singular instance of how, just lately, three or four sermons on Sunday
evenings have been made most useful to a young friend. He was going
away to Australia unconverted and without God. He went on board to
depart and when the vessel steamed out of dock, it ran into another
ship and he was obliged to wait and spend almost a month here while the
vessel was being repaired. The Lord met with him on those Sunday nights
and he has gone, now, leaving in his mother's heart the sweet
persuasion that he has found his mother's God! The God of all Grace has
ways of getting at human hearts when, to our thinking, every avenue is
fast closed! He can reach the poor in the slums of London. He can reach
the harlot in her chambers of iniquity. He can touch the most debauched
man in town in his lordly mansion. There is not a soldier who has gone
into the ranks for the sake of hiding away from God and indulging his
passions, but what the Lord can conquer him! There is not a runaway
thief but what the Lord can find him when the police cannot! He knows
just where His fugitives are–His warrants are out against them and
when the time comes, His Grace will arrest them–
"Thus the eternal counsel ran, 'Almighty Grace, arrest that man'!" And
he was arrested, though he never thought that he should be made to turn
to God and seek eternal life. "The Word of God is not bound." It goes
forth conquering and to conquer!
But sometimes we are apt to think a case is more hopeless, still, when,
in addition to natural depravity and the absence of the means of Grace,
there springs up a skepticism, perhaps a downright derision of the Word
of God and of things sacred. One is apt to think, then, "It is all over
now. It is of no further use praying for such an one." I am not so sure
that the case is any the worse for being openly declared and honestly
described. Nothing is more deadly than absolute indifference and,
sometimes, when a man begins to avow himself an infidel, it is only
that his conscience is troubling him and he is obliged to take some
drug with which to stifle it–no drug is more handy for his use than
avowed infidelity. A profession of skepticism is often nothing more
than the whistling of the boy as he goes through the churchyard and is
afraid of ghosts and, therefore, "whistles hard to keep his courage
up." They try to get rid of the thought of God because of that ghost of
conscience which makes cowards of them all! They might have professed
to be Believers if it had not become too barefaced an inconsistency to
live as they do and yet acknowledge God.
I think it would be a good rule for all Christians to immediately pray
whenever they hear a man swear. Pray for that particular man and keep
him in your mind's eye as far as you can, hoping that he may be
converted to God. "The Word of God is not bound." Even blasphemy and
infidelity yield to the conquering touch of Sovereign Grace. I knew a
man who had lived a life of carelessness and indifference, with
occasional outbursts of drunkenness and other vices. This man happened,
one day, on Peckham Rye, to hear a preacher say that if any man would
ask anything of God, He would give it to him. The assertion was much
too broad and might have done harm, but this man accepted it as a test
and resolved that he would ask and thus would see if there really was a
God. On the Saturday morning of that week, when he was going early to
his work, the thought came upon him, "Perhaps there is a God, after
all." He was ready to swoon as the possibility struck him and then and
there he offered the test petition, concerning a matter which concerned
himself and his fellow workmen!
His prayer was granted in a remarkable manner and he came, then, to be
a believer in God! He is more than that, now, and has found his way to
be a believer in all that God has spoken and has found peace through
believing in Jesus Christ. It struck me as wonderful that this man, who
never had any religious care at all, should, all of a sudden, be turned
to serve the living God! The preacher at Peckham Rye never had a more
unlikely hearer and yet he succeeded with him! Oh, pray for them! Pray
for them till the doors of death enclose them, till the bolts of the
gates of eternal destiny are driven home! Pray for them! Pray for them!
Never cease to cry to God for those who go to the utmost extremity of
sin, for though you cannot reach them, "the Word of God is not bound."
It is not bound, then, as to the preaching of it, nor as to its power
to reach the heart!
Still further, it is not bound as to its power to comfort the soul. I
have–perhaps you have in your measure–to deal with persons under
conviction of sin; with others who are suffering through ill health, or
mental decline; with some who groan under Satanic temptation and
various forms of mental trial causing awful depression of spirits. We
have spoken to certain of them many times without being able to bring
them the Light of God and comfort. We put the Gospel very plainly to
them and try to place it in different lights, hoping that somehow or
other they may see hope. Alas, we are often unable to touch the wound
of their spirit. And, oh, how they baffle us! How frequently have we
had to cry out, "O God, help us!" We cannot comfort these poor people.
The man in the iron cage, described by Bunyan, is repeated many times
over in our observation. We bring the promises. We bring the doctrines.
We bring our own experience to bear upon such persons, but their
despair defies our consolation! The darkness is too dense for our poor
rushlight to remove. The captive is too closely shut up in prison for
us to set him free.
But here is a blessed Truth of God–"The Word of God is not bound."
By-and-by that blessed Word of God will break into the midnight
darkness! Let us, therefore, continue to ply the afflicted with the
Word of God, searching out its most cheering assurances and giving them
full and free scope. Perhaps we put too much of our own explanation
with the Lord's own Words–perhaps we have thought that clever
illustrations were necessary–and so have overlaid the Truth of God
with our poor imagination! When we have come to the end of our
explanations and our illustrations, it may be that the Word which is
not bound will come in and give liberty to the captives! Wonderful
cases have we seen of persons driven to despair and ready to lay
violent hands upon themselves, who have been raised up and set at
joyful liberty by the Word of God, of itself, alone! Oh, that some may
prove its Divine power tonight!
One Scripture has set many at liberty–"Him that comes to Me I will in
no wise cast out." Hear it, think of it, believe it and be at peace. I
think a second passage has been fruitful above all other texts–"God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Let a
man muse on that verse till he sees his fetters turn to cobwebs and his
prison walls dissolve like dreams! You are bound, poor sinner, but the
Word of God is not bound! You are bound, poor preacher, but the Word of
God is not bound! You are bound, dear mother, dear father–bound up in
your weakness and unable to do anything for your wayward child–but the
Word of God is not bound! It wears no bonds but it is able to take them
from all who groan under them.
Thus I have given you several senses of the text. There is another one.
The Word of God is not bound in the sense that it cannot be fulfilled.
I now allude principally to the promises and prophecies of God's Word.
If there is a promise of deliverance to you and you cannot see the way
in which you are to be delivered, you may not, therefore, doubt the
promise, for that would dishonor the Lord who spoke it. The Word of God
is not bound! The Word of God will cleave its own way and reach its own
destination. Who makes a path for the lightning? The lightning burns
its own instant way. Who shall make a path for the Word of God? It will
effect its own design. Jehovah speaks and it is done. He said to the
primeval darkness, "Let there be light!" And there was light. Now, if
God has given a promise to you, He will as readily fulfill His Word of
promise to the least of His people, as He will make His own Word
effective for His own designs in Nature, Providence, or Judgment. The
Word of God is not bound!
You are come, perhaps, to your last penny, but He has said, "I will
never leave you, nor forsake you." You have come to your last grain of
strength, but He faints not, neither is He weary, and He has said, "As
your days, so shall your strength be." And so shall it be. Oh, that we
could believe the promises of God! We do not half believe them,
Brothers and Sisters. We have never yet pressed the best of the wine
out of them because we have let them lie like uncrushed bunches of
grapes! Truly they are beautiful to look upon, like the clusters of
Eshcol, but that is not the way to know all that is in them. Oh, that
we had but faith to tread them in the winepress, that the ruddy juice
might run out and we might drink and be refreshed!
Remember that God has promised nothing beyond His strength, nothing
beyond His will. God carries out His promise to the full! He may
sometimes exceed it, but He certainly never falls short of it.
Therefore, let us be comforted
tonight with the recollection that God's Word is free to effect its own
accomplishment. His decree is Omnipotence resolving and His Providence
is Omnipotence acting. "The Word of God is not bound."
There is yet one other sense. "The Word of God is not bound" so that it
cannot endure and prevail unto the end. I know that there are those who
think it dead and, therefore, they are anxious to attend its funeral
and bury it out of sight, while the new theology shall dance on its
grave. They call us poor old fogies for believing in the old
Gospel–and tell us to go home and order our coffins–and leave the
world to these wiser men. They begin to crow as if their work of
defeating us had been unquestionably done. We are out of date. We are
dead. We are extinct! Perhaps so! Perhaps so! But we think they will be
mistaken in their imagination, for the Word of God is not defeated,
after all. And if it were–if it were bound like the Lord Jesus and
were taken before priests and princes to be scourged and spit upon. And
if it were crucified among thieves and taken down from the Cross and
laid in the tomb. And if the grave were sealed and watched by mighty
men, yet the story would not be ended! Because the Lord lives, it would
live again and its Resurrection power would be testified in the midst
of its adversaries! For this Gospel, on which we have rested our souls,
and on which our fathers rested throughout their generations, this is
not bound!
Who is to bind it? With what will they bind it? Green willow branches,
ropes and bars of brass cannot hold this greater than Samson! It shall
snap them in pieces as twigs! There is no overcoming the free Gospel!
They dreamed that they had bound it many times before and they cried in
mockery, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson," but they have had to
learn its might when least they expected it and so they shall yet
again! Philosophy and heresy are in league and they gather their armies
in haste. The Lord shall make them as the sheaves of the threshing
floor. Therefore, let us be of good comfort, Brothers, and rest quite
sure that, though we are beaten, the Word of God is not beaten! And
though we are in a minority and our preaching at a discount, it does
not matter–"The Word of God is not bound."
II. For a moment or two I have further to enquire, WHAT ARE THE REASONS
WHY THE WORD OF GOD IS
NOT BOUND? It is not bound because it is the voice of the Almighty. If
the Gospel is, indeed, the Gospel of God, and these Truths are
Revelations of God, Omnipotence is in them! It is not possible that the
Omnipotent Word can be bound. Who will attempt the deed? Go bit the
tempest! Put a chain about the hurricane, control the winds and bridle
the raging sea! And when you have done these, you are but at the
beginning of your task–you cannot, even then, hinder the Omnipotence
of God which finds a chariot for itself in the Word of God and rides
forth conquering and to conquer!
Moreover, the Holy Spirit puts forth His power in connection with the
Word of God and, as He is Divine, He is unconquerable! He comes as a
rushing, mighty wind–who can stop Him? He comes as fire–who can stand
before His flaming vehemence? The Holy Spirit's being with the Gospel
is the reason of its great power. It is not that Truth, alone, is
mighty and will prevail, but that the Spirit of Truth works mightily by
it and causes it to subdue the minds of men. If we had no Holy Spirit,
what could we do? But as He has promised to take of the things of
Christ, and to show them to His people, while He reproves the world of
sin, of righteousness and of judgment, we know that "the Word of God is
not bound." The Holy Spirit manifests His own Sovereign will, doing
what He pleases, even as the wind blows where it wishes–and this is
the surest proof that His Word "is not bound."
If you needed another reason less strong than these two, I should say,
"How can it be bound while it is so necessary to men?" There are
certain things which, if men need, they will have. I have heard say
that in the old Bread Riots, when men were actually starving for bread,
no word had such a terribly threatening and alarming power about it as
the word, "Bread!" when shouted by a starving crowd. I have read a
description by one who once heard this cry–he said he had been
startled at night by a cry of, "Fire!" but when he heard the cry of,
"Bread! Bread!" from those that were hungry, it seemed to cut him like
a sword. Whatever bread had been in his possession, he must, at once,
have handed it out.
So it is with the Gospel–when men are once aware of their need of it,
there is no monopolizing it. None can make "a ring" or "a corner" over
the precious commodity of heavenly Truth. Neither can anyone put this
candle under a bushel so as to conceal its light. It cannot be hidden
because there are so many that need it. They are pining, these myriads
of London, these myriads all over the world–and though they hardly
know it–yet there is a cry coming up forever from them for something
which they can never find except in Christ! You may depend upon it–you
cannot stop the Gospel being preached while there is this awful hunger
after it in the souls of men. They must have it! You cannot cheat them
into enduring a substitute for it.
You may set up your altars and put up your gimcrackeries, but they
won't have them instead of the Gospel! You may preach your speculations
and tell them "modern thought" has done away with the old Gospel, but
as soon as the Holy Spirit shows them their state by nature and their
future danger, they sweep all this rubbish away! As the mower lays the
grass in swaths to dry in the sun when he has passed up and down the
field, so will the nations of the earth sweep away the green and
flowery growths of human philosophy–and either give them to beasts to
eat, or cast them into the oven! When men once know what they need,
they will have it, despite priests or princes, scientists or skeptics.
Oh, it must be so! This dire need of men must be met–the Word of the
Lord cannot be bound.
I have one thing else to tell you. The Word of God is not bound
because, when once it gets into men's hearts, it works such an
enthusiasm in them that you cannot bind it. You cannot silence lips
which have been touched by a live coal from off the Altar of Christ!
When the humblest woman gets to know the Gospel, you may say, "There,
hold your tongue about it!" But you charge her in vain! She cannot but
speak of what the Lord has done for her. The converted man must talk to
his work mates about it. You may say, "It would be very irregular for
you to hold a meeting. It would be out of all character for a mere
working man to stand up on the village green." But he is very likely to
do it. You let the man alone–he cannot help it!
Look at the many that gathered together in the desert in the South of
France in the old persecuting times! Why did they thus risk their
lives? Why did they expose themselves to be ridden down by dragoons?
They could not help it! They were eager for the Gospel! They were in
danger of being broken on the wheel if they preached, or listened to
preaching, but they could not help it–they must hear the Word of the
Lord! The preacher said, "Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel."
Their adversaries tortured them and sent them to the galleys. They
threatened them with banishment and death, but all in vain. You had
better let them go on, for you cannot stop them! In our own land there
was no binding the Word of God, for those who knew it felt compelled to
spread it.
There is Master Bunyan. They have put him in prison and his family is
nearly starving. They bring him up and they say, "You shall go out of
prison, John, if you won't preach. Go home and tag your laces, that is
what you have to do, and leave the Gospel alone. What have you got to
do with that?" But honest John answers, "I cannot help it. If you let
me out of prison today, I will preach again tomorrow, by the help of
God. I will lie here till the moss grows on my eyelids, but I will
never promise to cease preaching the Gospel." They could sooner bind
the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion, than
govern the movements of the Spirit of God in men! The love of Christ is
such that when it once pours into a man's heart, it must run out at his
lips in loving testimony! Has He not put rivers of Living Water into
the midst of those who once drink of the life-giving stream? And they
must speak of it, even till they die!
III. Now I come to the close. ONE OR TWO OTHER FACTS RUN PARALLEL TO
THE TEXT. Paul is bound, but the Word of God is not bound. Read it
thus–the preacher has had a bad week. He is full of aches and pains.
He feels ill, but the Word of God is not ill. Oh, what a blessing that
is! We preach a healthy Gospel even though we are unhealthy ourselves.
In this, let the invalid rejoice! Dear suffering worker, your work
shall not suffer, for it is a sound Gospel which you preach, though
you, yourself, are hampered by a poor, weak body!
"What will become of the congregation when a certain minister dies?"
Well, he will be dead, but the Word of God is not dead. God buries His
workmen, but His work goes on. One light goes out, but another torch
flames forth. Star by star sinks beneath the horizon, but another star
appears on the other side to make glad the night. The Word of God is
not dead when the preacher is dead!
"Oh, but the worker is so feeble!" The Word of God is not feeble. "But
the worker feels so stupid." But the Word of God is not stupid. "But
the worker is so unfit." But the Word of God is not unfit. You see it
all comes to this–the preacher is bound, but the Word of God is not
bound! The worker is feeble, but the Word of God is not feeble! You are
nothing and nobody, but the Word of God cannot be said to be nothing
and nobody–it is everything and everybody– it is girt about with All
Power.
But you bitterly and truthfully lament that Christian men are,
nowadays, very devoid of zeal. "All hearts are cold in every place."
The old fire burns low. But the Word of God is not cold, nor lukewarm,
nor in any way losing its old fire! "Such and such a congregation is as
frozen as the North Pole." Yes, but the Word of God is not frozen!
Divine Truth is not turned into an iceberg. Do not fret yourself into
despair as to the condition of the Church, since the Lord lives! Things
are bad, indeed, without His power, but then in the dark hour the Glory
of the Lord will shine out.
"Yes," says one, "but I am disgusted with the cases I have lately met
with of false brethren." Yes, but the Word of God is not false. "But
they walk so inconsistently." I know they do, but the Word of God is
not inconsistent. "But they say they have disproved the faith." Yes,
they have disproved their own faith, but they have not disproved the
Word of God for all that! The Word of God is not affected by the
falsehood of men. "If we believe not, He abides faithful; He cannot
deny Himself." And till He denies Himself we need not make much account
of who else denies Him.
"Oh, but," says one, "it is an awful thing to think of the spiritual
ruin of so many that are round about us, who hear the Gospel and yet,
after all, willfully refuse it, and die in their sins." Truly this is a
grievous fact. They appear to be bound by their sins like beasts for
the slaughter, but the Word of God is not bound or injured. It was said
of old that it would be a sweet savor unto God in them that are saved,
and in them that perish–in the one a savor of life unto life, and in
the other a savor of death unto death.
Is not the fact as the Lord, Himself, forewarned us? The ungodly reject
the Gospel, but the Gospel has not, therefore, failed. O Sinners, you
cannot overcome God's Word! You have defeated its influence of love
upon yourselves, but it is not defeated, after all. If you will not
come to Christ, others will–the Spirit of the Lord shall bring them.
Christ shall see of the travail of His soul. If you turn away from His
precious blood and refuse the redemption that He has worked, Christ
shall not be disappointed as to the result of His passion. He shall see
His seed and shall prolong His days. You may bite at the Gospel, but it
shall be as when the viper in the fable gnawed at the file and
destroyed his teeth. You may seek to put out the Gospel light, but you
will be thrusting your hand into the fire and your own flesh shall be
consumed!
Do not try to war against the Gospel! Choose some other adversary than
the Lord God Almighty and His invincible Gospel. I pray you, cease to
fight against the Lord, for the Word of God is not bound! However much
you may try to bind it, you shall find that it has its liberty and it
will, in the next world, have liberty to accuse and to condemn if you
will not now give it liberty to persuade and to save you! God bless
you, dear Friends, for Christ's sake! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–2 Timothy 2. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–184, 766, 478.
LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON:
BELOVED FRIENDS–I would not have written this week, only you desire
it. I have suffered much from neuralgic pain, for the weather was wet
and windy. Today a summer's sun is shining and we hope for better
things.
I rejoice to hear good news of the preachers who have favored me by
filling the pulpit in my absence. May the blessing of the Lord rest
upon the good Seed which they have sown and on the rest of the services
which will take place before my return! I should like to be thoroughly
well before I return, but that is not the case just now. Still, I am
resting and hoping and, being out of the world's wars and fights, I
have a better opportunity for recovering tone and energy.
Receive my hearty Christian love and my sincere thanks for all you do
to support the work and keep me from any anxiety about it. I am sure
that the Lord, who has provided, will provide even to the end–and
bring glory to His name by the doing of it.
It is an easy matter to trust when you feel bright and joyous, but we
honor the Lord most by believing in Him when we feel depressed and
circumstances are saddening. God is to be trusted whatever the weather
may be, inside or out. God's Truth will prevail, even if every Apostle
should turn out to be a Judas and every prophet a Balaam.
In confidence in the unchanging God, let us forever abide.
Yours in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
Mentone, December 9th, 1887.