"Better Than Wine"
(No. 2459)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 5, 1896.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
2, 1872.
"Your love is better than wine." Song of Solomon 1:2.
THE Scriptural emblem of wine, which is intended to be the symbol of
the richest earthly joy, has become desecrated in process of time by
the sin of man. I suppose in the earlier ages when the Word of God was
written, it would hardly have been conceivable that there could have
existed on the face of the earth such a mass of drunken men and women
as now pollute and defile it by their very presence. For man, nowadays,
is not content with the wine that God makes, but he manufactures some
for himself of which he cannot partake, at least in any abundance,
without becoming drunk. Redeem the figure in our text, if you can, and
go back from the drinking customs of our own day to more primitive and
purer times, when the ordinary meal of a man was very similar to that
which is spread upon this communion table–bread and wine–of which men
might partake without fear of evil effects. But do not use the metaphor
as it would now be understood among the mass of mankind, at least in
countries like our own.
"Your love is better than wine." In considering these words, in the
spirit in which the Inspired writer used them, I shall, first of all,
try to show you that Christ's love is better than wine because of what
it is not. And, secondly, that it is better than wine because of what
it is. Next, we will examine the marginal reading of the text which
will teach us something about Christ's love in the plural–"Your loves
are better than wine." And then, lastly, we will come back to the
version we have before us, in which we shall see Christ's love in the
singular, for the love of Christ, even when it is described in the
plural, is always one–though there are many forms of it–it is always
the same love.
I. First, then, I want to prove to you that CHRIST'S LOVE IS BETTER
THAN WINE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT IS NOT.
It is so, first, because it may be taken without question. There may be
and there always will be in the world, questions about wine. There will
be some who will say, and wisely say, "Leave it alone." There will be
others who will exclaim, "Drink of it abundantly." While a third
company will say, "Use it moderately." But there will be no question
among upright men about partaking to the fullest of the love of Christ!
There will be none of the godly who will say, "Abstain from it," and
none who will say, "Use it moderately"–all true Christians will echo
the words of the Heavenly Bridegroom, Himself, "Drink, yes, drink
abundantly, O Beloved." The wisdom of imbibing freely of the love of
Christ shall never be questioned, even, by the pure spirits in
Heaven–this is the wine which they themselves quaff in everlasting
bowls at the right hand of God, and the Lord of Glory, Himself, bids
them quaff it to their fill! This is the highest delight of all who
know Christ and have been born again by the regenerating power of the
Holy Spirit! This is our greatest joy while here below and we can never
have too much of it! Yes, we may even swim in this sea of bliss, and
there shall be none who shall dare to ask any of us, "What are you
doing there?" Many delightsome things, many earthly joys, many of the
pleasures of this world are very questionable enjoyments. Christians
had better keep away from everything about which their consciences are
not perfectly clear–but all our consciences are clear concerning the
Lord Jesus and our heart's love to Him! So, in this respect, His love
is better than wine.
Christ's love is also better than wine because it is to be had without
money. Many a man has beggared himself and squandered his estate
through his love of worldly pleasure–and especially through his
fondness for wine. But the love of Christ is to be had without money.
What says the Scripture? "Come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price." The love of Christ is unpurchased and, I may add, it is
unpurchaseable! Solomon says, in the eighth chapter of this
Book, "If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it
would be utterly despised." And we may as truly say, "If a man would
give all the substance of his house for the love of Christ, it would be
utterly despised." The love of Jesus comes to His people freely! Not
because they deserve it, or ever will deserve it–not because, by any
merits of their own, they have won it, or by any prayers of their own,
they have secured it–it is spontaneous love. It flows from the heart
of Christ because it must come, like the a stream that leaps from an
ever-flowing fountain. If you ask why Jesus loves His people, we can
give no other reason than this–
"Because it seemed good in His sight." Christ's love is the freest
thing in the world–free as the sunbeam, free as the mountain torrent,
free as the air! It comes to the child of God without purchase and
without merit and, in this respect, it is better than wine.
Again, Christ's love is better than wine because it is to be enjoyed
without spoiling. The sweetest matter on earth which is, for a while,
pleasant to the taste, sooner or later sours upon the palate. If you
find honey, you can soon eat so much of it that you will no longer
relish its sweetness. But the love of Jesus never yet soured upon the
palate of a newborn soul. He who has had most of Christ's love has
cried, "More! More! More!" If ever there was a man on earth who had
Christ's love in him to the fullest, it was holy Samuel Rutherford, yet
you can see in his letters how he labored for suitable expressions
while trying to set forth his hungering and thirsting after the love of
Christ. He says he floated upon Christ's love like a ship upon a river
And then he quaintly asks that his vessel may founder, and go to the
bottom, till that blessed stream shall flow right over the masthead of
his ship! He wanted to be baptized into the love of Christ, to be flung
into the ocean of his Savior's love–and this is what the true
Christian always longs for.
No lover of the Lord Jesus has ever said that he has had enough of
Christ's love. When Madame Guyon had spent many a day and many a month
in the sweet enjoyment of the love of Jesus, she penned most delicious
hymns concerning it, but they are all full of craving after more–there
is no indication that she wished for any change of affection to her
Lord, or any change in the object of her affection. She was satisfied
with Christ and longed to have more and more of His love. Ah, poor
drunk, you may put away the cup of devils because you are satiated with
its deadly draft, but never did he who drinks of the wine of Christ's
love become satiated or even content with it! He always desires more
and yet more of it.
Further, Christ's love is better than wine because it is without
sediment. All wine has something in it which renders it imperfect, and
liable to corruption–there is something that will have to settle,
something that must be skimmed off the top, something that needs
purifying. So is it with all the joys of earth–there is sure to be
something in them that mars their perfection. Men have sought out many
inventions of mirth and pleasure, amusement and delight, but they have
always found some hitch or flaw somewhere. Solomon gathered to himself
all manner of pleasant things that are the delight of kings. He gives
us a list of them in the Book of Ecclesiastes–"I made me great works;
I built me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and
orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me
pools of water, to water therewith the wood that brings forth trees: I
got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I
had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in
Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the
peculiar treasure of rings and of the provinces: I got me men singers
and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical
instruments, and that of all sorts." But his verdict concerning all of
them was, "Behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit."
But he who delights himself in the love of Christ will tell you that he
finds no vanity and vexation of spirit there, but everything to charm
and rejoice and satisfy the heart! There is nothing in the Lord Jesus
Christ that we could wish to have taken away from Him! There is nothing
in His love that is impure, nothing that is unsatisfactory. Our
precious Lord is comparable to the most fine gold! There is no alloy in
Him. No, there is nothing that can be compared with Him, for, "He is
altogether lovely," all perfections melted into one perfection and all
beauties combined into one inconceivable beauty! Such is the Lord Jesus
and such is His love to His people–without anything of imperfection
needing to be removed!
The love of Christ, too, blessed be His name, is better than wine
because it will never, as wine will, turn sour. In certain stages of
development and under certain influences, the sweet ferments and
vinegar is formed instead of wine. Oh, through what fermentations
Christ's love might have passed if it had been capable of being acted
upon by anything from outside! Oh, how often, Beloved, have we grieved
Him! We have been cold and chill towards Him when we ought to have been
like coals of fire! We have loved the things of this world, we have
been unfaithful to our Best-Beloved, we have suffered our hearts to
wander to other lovers–yet never has He been soured toward us and
never will He be! Many waters cannot quench His love, neither can the
floods drown it. He is the same loving Savior, now, as He always was,
and such He will always be. And He will bring us to the rest which
remains for the people of God. Truly, in all these respects, because
there are none of these imperfections in His love, it is better than
wine!
Once more, Christ's love is better than wine because it produces no ill
effects. Many are the mighty men who have fallen down slain by wine.
Solomon says, "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who
has babbling? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine." But
who was ever slain by the love of Christ? Who was ever made wretched by
this love? We have been inebriated with it, for the love of Christ
sometimes produces a holy exhilaration that makes men say, "Whether in
the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell." There is an elevation
that lifts the soul above all earthly things and bears the spirit up
beyond where eagles soar, even into the clear atmosphere where God
communes with men! There is all that sacred exhilaration about the love
of Christ, but there are no evil effects arising from it. He that will,
may drink from this golden chalice, and he may drink as much as he
wills, for the more he drinks the stronger and the better shall he be!
Oh, may God grant to us, dear Friends, to know the love of Christ which
passes knowledge! I feel sure that while I am preaching on such a theme
as this, I must seem, to some here present, to be talking arrant
nonsense, for they have never tasted of the love of Jesus! But those
who have tasted of it will, perhaps, by my words, have many sweet
experiences called to their minds which will refresh their spirits and
set them longing to have new draughts of this all-precious love which
infinitely transcends all the joys of earth! This, then, is our first
point–Christ's love is better than wine because of what it is not.
II. But, secondly, CHRIST'S LOVE IS BETTER THAN WINE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT
IS.
Let me remind you of some of the uses of wine in the East. It was often
used as a medicine, for it had certain healing properties. The good
Samaritan, when he found the wounded man, poured into his wounds, "oil
and wine." But the love of Christ is better than wine–it may not heal
the wounds of the flesh, but it does heal the wounds of the spirit. Do
not some of you remember when your poor heart was gashed through and
through by the dagger of Moses, when you felt the wounds caused by the
Law of God, the deadly wounds that could not be healed by human hands?
Then, how sweetly did that wine of Christ's love come streaming into
the gaping wounds!
There were such healing drops as this–"Come unto Me, all you that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Or such as this,
"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." Or
this, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." Or
this, "He that believes on Him is not condemned." Or this, "Look unto
Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and
there is none else." I cannot, perhaps, quote the text that dropped
like wine and oil into your wounds, but I remember well the text that
dropped into mine. The precious vial of wine that healed up all my
wounds as in a moment and made my heart whole was that text I quoted
last, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." Wine
made by man cannot be medicine to a broken heart, nor can it heal a
wounded spirit–but the love of Jesus Christ can do this and do it to
perfection!
Wine, again, was often associated by men with the giving of strength.
Now, whatever strength wine may give or may not give, certainly the
love of Jesus gives strength–strength mightier than the mightiest
earthly force–for when the love of Jesus Christ is shed abroad in a
man's heart, he can bear a heavy burden of sorrow. If he could have the
load of Atlas piled upon his shoulders, and if he could have all the
care of all the world pressing upon his heart, yet if he had the love
of Christ in his soul, he would be able to bear the load! The love of
Christ helps a man to fight the battles of life. It makes life, with
all its cares and troubles, a happy one. It enables a man to do great
exploits and makes him strong for suffering, strong for self-sacrifice,
and strong for service. It is wonderful, in reading the history of the
saints, to notice what the love of Christ has fitted them to do! I
might almost say that it has plucked up mountains and cast them into
the sea, for things impossible to other men have become easy enough to
men on fire with the love of Christ. What the Church of Christ needs,
just now, to strengthen her, is more love to her Lord and her Lord's
love more fully enjoyed in the souls of her members! There is no
strengthening influence like it.
Wine was also frequently used as the symbol of joy and certainly, in
this respect, Christ's love is better than wine. Whatever joy there may
be in the world (and it would be folly to deny that there is some sort
ofjoy which even the basest of men know), yet the love of Christ is far
superior to it! Human joy derived from earthly sources is a muddy,
dirty pool,
at which men would not drink did they know there was a stream sweeter,
cooler and far more refreshing. The love of Jesus brings a joy that is
fit for angels, a joy that we shall have continued to us even in
Heaven, itself, a joy which makes earth like Heaven! It is, therefore,
far better than wine.
It is better than wine, once more, for the sacred exhilaration which it
gives. I have already spoken of this–the love of Christ is the
grandest stimulant of the renewed nature that can be known! It enables
the fainting man to revive from his swooning. It causes the feeble man
to leap up from his bed of languishing and it makes the weary man
strong again. Are you weary, Brothers and Sisters, and sick of life?
You only need more of Christ's love shed abroad in your heart! Are you,
dear Brother, ready to faint through unbelief? You only need more of
Christ's love and all shall be well with you. I would to God that we
were all filled with it to the fullest, like those Believers were on
the day of Pentecost, of whom the mockers said that they were full of
new wine! Peter truly said that they were not drunk, as men supposed,
but that it was the Spirit of God and the love of Christ filling them
with unusual power and unusual energy and, therefore, men knew not what
it was! God grant to us, also, this great power, and Christ shall have
all the glory of it!
III. But now, passing rapidly on, for our time is flying, the marginal
reading of our text is in the plural–"Your loves are better than
wine"–and this teaches us that CHRIST'S LOVE MAY BE SPOKEN OF IN THE
PLURAL because it manifests itself in so many ways. I ask all renewed
hearts that have been won to Jesus, the virgin souls that follow Him
wherever He goes, to walk with me in imagination over the sacred tracks
of the love of Christ.
Think, Beloved, of Christ's Covenant love, the love he had to us before
the world was! Christ is no new lover of His people's souls–He loved
them before the daystar knew its place, or the planets began their
mighty revolutions! Every soul whom Jesus loves now, He loved forever
and ever! What a wondrous love was that–infinite, unbounded,
everlast-ing–which led Him to enter into Covenant with God that He
would bear our sins and suffer our penalties, that He might redeem us
from going down into the Pit! Oh, the Covenant love of Jesus! Some dear
souls are afraid to believe this Truth of God–let me persuade them to
search the Scriptures till they find it, for, of all the doctrines of
Holy Writ, I know of none more full of consolation to the heart, when
rightly received, than the great foundation Truths of Divine
Predestination and Personal Election. When we see that we were
eternally chosen in Christ, eternally given to Christ by His Father,
eternally accepted in the Beloved and eternally loved by Christ, then
shall we say, with holy gratitude, "Such love as this is better than
wines on the lees, well refined."
Think next, Beloved, of Christ's forbearing love–the love which looked
upon us when we were born, saw us full of sin and yet loved us–the
love which saw us when we went astray from the womb speaking lies–the
love which heard us profanely speak, wickedly think and obstinately
disobey, yet loved us all the while! Let the thought of it ravish your
heart as you sing–
"He saw me ruined in the Fall,
Yet loved me, notwithstanding all!
He sa ved me from my lost estate,
His loving kindness, oh, how great!" Thus were we the subjects of
Christ's electing love and forbearing love.
Yes, but the sweetness to us was when was realized Christ's personal
love, when, at last, we were brought to the foot of His Cross, humbly
confessing our sins. May I ask you who can do so, to go back to that
happy moment? There you lay at the foot of the Cross, broken in pieces,
and you thought there was no hope for you. But you looked up to the
crucified Christ and those blessed wounds of His began to pour out a
stream of precious blood upon you–and you saw that He was wounded for
your transgressions, that He was bruised for your iniquities, that the
chastisement of your peace was upon Him–and that with His stripes you
were healed! That very instant your sins were all put away! You gave
one look of faith to the bleeding Savior and every spot and speck and
stain of your sin were all removed–and your guilt was forever
pardoned!
When you first felt Christ's forgiving love–I will not insult you by
asking whether it was not better than wine. Oh, the unutterable joy,
the indescribable bliss you felt when Jesus said to you, "I have borne
your sins in My own body on the tree, I have carried the great load of
your transgressions, I have blotted them out like a cloud, and they are
gone from you forever!" That was a love that was inconceivably
precious! At the very recollection, our heart leaps within us and our
soul does magnify the Lord!
Since that glad hour, we have been the subjects of Christ's accepting
love, for we have been "accepted in the Beloved." We have also had
Christ's guiding love, providing love and instructing love. His love in
all manner of ways has come to us and benefited and enriched us. And,
Beloved, we have had sanctifying love–we have been helped to fight
this sin and that, and to overcome them by the blood of the Lamb. The
Spirit of God has been given to us so that we have been enabled to
subdue this ruling passion and overcome that evil power. The Lord has
also given us sustaining love under very sharp troubles. Some of us
could tell many a story about the sweet upholding love of Christ–in
poverty, or in bodily pain, or in deep depression of spirits, or under
cruel slander, or reproach. His left hand has been under our head while
His right hand has embraced us. We have almost courted suffering,
itself, by reason of the richness of the consolation which suffering
times have always brought with them! He has been such a precious,
precious, precious Christ to us that we do not know how to speak well
enough of His dear name!
Then let us reflect with shame upon Christ's enduring love to us. Why,
ever since we have been converted, we have grieved Him times without
number! As I have already reminded you, we have often been false to
Him–we have not loved Him with the love which He might well claim from
us. Yet Christ has never cast us away, but still, to this very moment
He smiles upon us! He says to His own brethren whom He has bought with
blood and to each one of us, "I have engraved you upon the palms of My
hands. I have espoused you unto Myself forever. I will never leave you,
nor forsake you." He uses the most kind and endearing terms towards us
to show that His love will never die! Glory be to His holy name for
this! Is not His love better than wine?
There is one word I must not leave out and that is, Christ's chastening
love. I know that many of you who belong to Him have often smarted
under His chastening hand, but Christ never smote you in anger.
Whenever He has laid a cross on your back, it has been because He loved
you so much that He could not keep it off. He never took away a joy
without meaning, thereby, to increase your joy, and it was always done
for your good. Perhaps we cannot, at present, say that the Lord's
chastising love has always been sweet to us, but we shall say it, one
day, and I think I must say it now! I bless my dear Master for
everything He has done to me and I can never tell all that I owe to the
anvil, the hammer, the fire and the file! Blessed be His name, for many
of us can say, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I
kept Your Word." Therefore will we put in Christ's chastising love
among the rest of His loves and say of it, "This love, also, is better
than wine." We would sooner have the chastisements of God than the
pleasures of the world! We would rather have God's cup full of gall
than the devil's cup full of the sweetest wine he ever made! We prefer
to take God's left hand instead of the world's right hand–and would
sooner walk with God in the dark than walk with the world in the light!
Will not every Christian say that?
Beloved, there are other forms of Christ's love yet to be manifested to
you. Do you not, sometimes, tremble at the thought of dying? Oh, you
shall have–and you ought to think of it now–you shall have special
revelations of Christ's love in your dying moments! Then shall you say,
like the governor of the marriage feast at Cana, "You have kept the
good wine until now." I believe we have hardly any conception of what
comfort the Lord pours into His people's souls in their dying moments.
We do not need those comforts, yet–we could not bear them now–but
they are laid up in store and when we need them, they will be brought
out. And then shall our spirits find that the Lord's promise is
fulfilled, "As your days, so shall your strength be."
And then–but perhaps I had better be silent upon such a theme–when
the veil is drawn and the spirit has left the body, what will be the
bliss of Christ's love to the spirits gathered with Him in Glory?–
"Oh, for the bliss of flying,
My risen Lord to meet!
Oh, for the rest of lying
Forever at His feet!
Oh, for the hour of seeing
My Savior face to face!
The hope of always being
In that sweet meeting place!"
Or, as Dr. Watts puts it–
"Millions of years my wondering eyes Shall over Your beauties rove
And endless ages I'll adore The glories of Your love."
Then think of the love of the day of our resurrection, for Christ loves
our bodies as well as our souls and, arrayed in glory, these mortal
bodies shall rise from the tomb! Oh, the bliss of being like our Lord
and being with Him when He comes in all the splendor of the Second
Advent–sitting as assessors with Him to judge the world and to judge
even the angels! And then to be in His triumphal procession when He
shall ascend to God and deliver up the Kingdom to the Father and the
Mediatorial system shall be ended, and God shall be All in All! And
then to be forever, forever, forever, "forever with the Lord," with no
fear of the soul dying out, with no dread of the false doctrine of
annihilation, like a grim specter always crossing our blissful pathway!
With a life coeval with the life of God and an immortality divinely
given, we shall outlast the sun! And when the moon grows pale and wanes
forever, and this old earth and all that is therein shall be burned up,
yet shall we be forever with Him! Truly, His love is better than wine!
It is the very essence of Heaven! It is better than anything that we
can conceive!
God grant us foretastes of the loves of Heaven in the present
realization of the love of Jesus, which is the same love, and through
which Heaven, itself, shall come to us!
IV. Now, I must have just a few minutes for my last point, and that is,
CHRIST'S LOVE IN THE SINGULAR–a theme which might well suffice for
half a dozen sermons at the very least! Look at the text as it
stands–"Your love is better than wine."
Think, first, of the love of Christ in the cluster. That is where the
wine is first. We talk of the grapes of Eshcol, but these are not
worthy to be mentioned in comparison with the love of Jesus Christ as
it is seen, in old eternity, in the purpose of God, in the Covenant of
Grace and, afterwards, in the promises of the Word, and in the various
Revelations of Christ in the types and symbols of the Ceremonial Law.
There I see the love of Christ in the cluster. When I hear God
threatening the serpent that the Seed of the woman would bruise his
head, and when, later on, I find many prophecies concerning Him who is
mighty to save, I see the wine in the cluster, the love of Christ that
is really there, but not yet enjoyed! What delight it gives us to even
look at the love of Christ in the cluster!
Next, look at the love of Christ in the basket, for the grapes must be
gathered and cast into the basket before the wine can be made. I see
Jesus Christ living here on earth among the sons of men–gathered, as
it were, from the sacred vine and, like a cluster thrown into the
basket. Oh, the love of Jesus Christ in the manger of Bethlehem, the
love of Jesus in the workshop of Nazareth, the love of Jesus in His
holy ministry, the love of Jesus in the temptation in the wilderness,
the love of Jesus in His miracles, the love of Jesus in His communion
with His disciples, the love of Jesus in bearing shame and reproach for
our sakes, the love of Jesus in being so poor that He had not where to
lay His head, the love of Jesus in enduring such contradiction of
sinners against Himself! I cannot hope to enter into this great
subject! I can only point it out to you and pass on.
There is, first, Christ's love in the cluster, and next, there is
Christ's love in the basket. Think of it and, as you think of it, say,
"It is better than wine."
But oh, if your hearts have any tenderness towards Him, think of the
love of Christ in the winepress. Look at Him there, when the cluster in
the basket begins to be crushed! Oh, what a crushing was that under the
foot of the treader of grapes when Christ sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood! And how terribly did the great press come down, again,
and again when He gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them
that plucked off the hair! And He hid not His face from shame and
spitting! But oh, how the red wine flowed from the winepress–what
fountains there were of this precious sweetness when Jesus was nailed
to the Cross–suffering in body, depressed in spirit and forsaken of
His God! "Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachthani?" These are the sounds that
issue from the winepress and how terrible and yet how sweet they are!
Stand there and believe that all your sins were borne by Him–and that
He suffered what you ought to have suffered–and, as your Substitute,
was crushed for you–
"He bore, that you might never bear, His Father's righteous ire." Yes,
Beloved, Christ's love in the winepress is better than wine!
Now I want you to think of the love of Christ in the flagon, where His
precious love is stored up for His people–the love of His promises,
given to you. The love of His Providence, for He rules for you. The
love of His intercession, for He pleads for you. The love of His
representation, for He stands at the right hand of the Father as the
Representative of His people. The love of His union with His people,
for you are one with Him–He is the Head and you are the members of His
body–the love of all that He is, all that He was and all that He ever
shall be, for in every capacity and under all circumstances He loves
you and will love you without end! Think of His rich love, His abundant
love towards His people! I call it love in the flagon, this love of His
to all the saints which He has stored up for them.
And then, Beloved, not only think of but enjoy the love of Christ in
the cup, by which I mean His love to you. I always feel, when I get to
this topic, as if I would rather sit down and ask you to think it over,
than try to talk to you about it. This theme seems to silence me. I
think, like the poet–
"Come, then, expressive silence, muse His praise." Love to me! Dear
child of God, think of it in this way–let me speak for you–"He loves
me! He, a King, loves me! A King? The King of Kings, HE loves me! God,
very God of very God, loves me!" Strange conjunction, this, between the
Infinite and a worm! We have heard and read romantic stories of the
loves of emperors to poor village maidens, but what of these? Worms
were never raised so high above their meaner fellow worms as the Lord
Jesus is above us! If an angel loved an ant, there would be no such
difference as when Jehovah-Jesus loves us! Yet there is no fact beneath
Heaven, or in Heaven, that is so indisputable as this fact–that He
loves us if we are His believing people! For this we have the
declaration of Inspiration. No, Brothers and Sisters, we have even more
than that to confirm it beyond all question, for we have His own death
upon the Cross! He signed this document with His own blood in order
that no Believer might ever doubt its authenticity!
"Herein is love." "Behold what manner of love" there is in the Cross!
What wondrous love is there! Oh, then, let us have Christ's love in the
cup, the love that we may daily drink, the love that we may personally
drink just now at this moment, the love which shall be all our own as
if there were no others in the world–and yet a love in which ten
thousand times ten thousand have an equal share with ourselves!
God bless you, dear Friends, and give you to drink of this wine! And if
any here know not the love of Jesus Christ, I pray the Lord to bring
them to know it. May He renew their heart and give them faith in Him,
for whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God! "He that
believes on Him is not condemned." His great Gospel Word is, "He that
believes and is baptized shall be saved." May the Lord confirm this
Word by His Spirit, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH26:20,21; 27:1-9.
We will read a short passage in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah,
commencing with the 26th chapter, and the 20th verse.
Isaiah 26:20. Come, my people, enter into your chamber, and shut your
doors about you: hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until
the indignation is past. There is never a flood for the wicked without
an ark for the righteous! Never shall a storm sweep over the earth till
God has prepared a great rock wherein His people may be hidden.
21. For, behold, the LORD comes out of His place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall
disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. The earth has
often covered up the evidences of human guilt. Blood shed in battle has
soaked into the soil and men have forgotten the violence of tyrants and
conquerors, but the earth shall disclose her blood. Sin, though it is
sown in the earth, shall spring up like wheat, but to a terrible
harvest. "Be sure your sin will find you out."
Isaiah 27:1. In that day the LORD, with His sore and great and strong
sword, shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent. That is to say, He
will punish those who are like leviathan–the proudest, the greatest
and the most powerful sinners shall not escape Divine Justice. God's
Laws are not like cobwebs, meant to catch the little flies while the
great ones break through–He will strike leviathan–He will surely
punish the mightiest sinners of the earth.
1. Even leviathan that crooked serpent. Hard to come at, difficult to
find, he shall not escape the sword of the Lord.
1. And He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. If men should try
to hide from God in Hell, itself, yet would He find them. There is no
possibility that any offender shall escape His all-seeing eyes.
2, 3. In that day sing you unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the LORD
do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep
it night and day. Thus the Lord reveals the tenderness of His love to
His Church. Then follows a remarkable passage in which, it seems to me,
we have the plan of salvation plainly set out. First, here is man at
enmity with his Maker.
4. Fury is not in Me: who would set the briers and thorns against Me in
battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Men who
are at enmity with God little know how terrific is the force of His
strength. They are like dry thorns when the fire catches them and
nothing burns more readily. The bush upon the common, when some wild
youth sets fire to it, suddenly blazes up, crackles and is gone–so
will it be with the ungodly. God has but to go through them and they
shall be destroyed. But now comes a message of mercy.
5. Or let him take hold of My strength. This is what the repenting and
believing sinner does–he lays hold of Christ–he takes the strength of
God to be his defense and then the strong God, instead of being a
terror, becomes a comfort to him.
5, 6. That he may make peace with Me and he shall make peace with Me.
He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root. Taking root should
be well looked after by the Christian. Some professors have no
root–they are all leaf and flower, but they have no root and,
consequently, they soon wither and die. Happy is that man who is rooted
and grounded in the faith!
6, 7. Israel shall bloom and bud, and fill the face of the world with
fruit. Has He struck Israel as He struck those that struck him? No. God
strikes His people, but He never strikes them as He does their enemies.
He strikes His people, as old Trapp says, with the palm of His hand, as
a man may strike His child, but He strikes His enemies with His fist,
as one would dash His foe to the ground! There is a great difference
between the chastisements of God's people and the righteous judgments
that fall upon the wicked.
7, 8. Or is Israel slain according to the slaughter of them that are
slain by Him? In measure, when it shoots forth, You will debate with
it. God always chastens His people in measure. He makes a debate about
it. He weighs their troubles in scales and their sorrows in balances.
8, He stays His rough wind in the day of the east wind. He never sends
too many troubles at a time. If the east wind is blowing, He does not
send His rough wind. We have much to thank God for, that He times our
troubles. Had they come an hour before, they might have been too much
for us. Had they been kept back a week longer, they might have
overthrown us. God knows when to chasten His people and He will always
chasten them at the right time.
9, By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this
is all the fruit to take away his sin. When one of the old Puritans was
afflicted with a very painful disease–perhaps the most painful to
which flesh is heir–he kept crying out, "The use, Lord? The use, Lord?
Show me the use of it." This should be the point at which the Christian
should always aim.
9. When he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are
beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. You see,
the Israelites had piled up stones and held them in veneration. But
when God brought them back to Himself, they counted those stones to be
but as common chalkstones of the valley. It is a good thing for us,
when our sins bring us no pleasure, when they are only like common
stones of the street. When we break our images and dash down our idol
gods, we show that we prize them no longer. The Lord make this to be
the issue of all our trials! Then will we bless Him for our troubles as
for our chief mercies.