The Flight to Zoar
(No. 2642)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 1, 1899.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, IN THE
AUTUMN OF 1857.
"The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar." Genesis
19:23.
THE destruction of Sodom was, undoubtedly, a literal fact. And the
record of it in Genesis is as true a piece of history as any event that
is recorded by Tacitus or Josephus. But it was also intended to be a
great parabolic lesson to us–a lesson in the shape of a parable–by
which we might receive both instruction and blessing. The Old Testament
is a great Book of texts and the New Testament contains the sermons
upon them. Lot's wife was in the Old Testament as a text and in the New
Testament we have the sermon upon it, "Remember Lot's wife." And
wherever, my Brothers and Sisters, I find our Lord Jesus Christ, or any
of His Apostles referring to an incident in the Old Testament, I always
think it is our business to look at that event to which they refer. In
the writings of the old Puritans, which I delight to read, I often find
in the margin a hand pointing to some special words which it is
requisite that the reader should particularly note and read with care.
And when I see the hand put opposite the passage, by some old lover of
the Truth of God, who, in days of yore, read the book, I generally turn
to it with eagerness, to see what is the gem pointed at by the finger.
Now, I think, when our Savior said, "Remember Lot's wife," He did, as
it were, put a hand on the margin of the Bible, pointing to the whole
incident describing the destruction of Sodom. He did, in effect, say,
"Mark that event. Look at it closely, for there is more in it than
there seems to be." And as there is something instructive in Lot's wife
becoming a pillar of salt, there is something to be learned from every
step of Lot's journey–and from every incident connected with it. If it
is so, I shall not be regarded as being whimsical and fanciful if I
assert that, in this text, I believe there is much instruction in the
simple incident recorded here–"The sun was risen upon the earth when
Lot entered into Zoar."
I will soon map out my sermon. Lot was nearly in the dark till he
reached Zoar–that is the first head. Secondly, the sun was risen upon
the earth as soon as Lot was in Zoar. Thirdly, the same moment which
saw the sun rise on Lot saw the fiery hail fall on Sodom. We have here
three facts which I think are three pictures illustrating three great
Truths of God with regard to the sinner's experience.
I. First, then, LOT WAS NEARLY IN THE DARK ON THE ROAD HE RAN TILL HE
REACHED ZOAR.
Mark, when he first started, the Scripture tells us, in the 15th verse,
that the morning rose–there was the first gray dawn when the angels
hurried him out of Sodom! it was just the breaking of the day and it is
said that as soon as Lot entered into Zoar, the sun was thoroughly
risen, but not till then. He had to find his way through shadows and
run, to a great degree, in the dark.
Ah, my Friends, that was a solemn moment when those notable guests
turned their host out of doors and did it all out of love and kindness,
too! When the two angels took Lot, his wife and his daughters by the
hand and dragged them forth, and bade them run, it was a solemn moment.
The heavens were heavy with God's wrath and only waited until Lot was
safely housed to burst in impetuous torrents upon the devoted cities.
Do you not see them, or, rather, do you not fancy you can see their
black figures in the gloom of the twilight? You scarcely understand
what it can be–there are two men pushing forth a family into the
street. You see them next grasping their hands and with loving haste
driving them forward. You now hear a voice, something more than
earthly, speaking in the celestial language, crying, "Escape for your
life!" And now mark the man, his wife and his daughters
fleeing–fleeing from their own house–fleeing from their own kinsmen
and acquaintances! A woman leaving her own sons-in-law and wives
leaving their own husbands to perish in the city! Watch their flight!
See them as they flee across the plain–they often stumble, for the way
is not clear before them–and they little know where they are going.
They only see the dark shadow of the mountain looming in the distance
and they run there, in the darkness, with all their might.
Now, Lot running in the dark is the picture of a poor sinner when he
comes out of Sodom. You who have just been awakened and convinced of
sin, must not expect that you will have the sunlight of God's favor all
at once. There must first come into your house the angel of conviction
to thrust you out of your abode of ruin. After you have run a while,
you will then have sunlight, joy and peace. But in your running, while
you are seeking the Savior, you must expect to run in the darkness–and
if you do expect it, you will not be disappointed. Oh how dark it is to
a poor sinner when he is first brought to know his state by nature,
before the blessed remedy of Grace has been applied to him by the Holy
Spirit! Look at him–tears follow each other down his cheeks in one
perpetual race! He weeps almost all day and all night. And if he rests
for a while for very sorrow, his dreams disturb him–he is always
miserable–men call him mad, for he is as one demented. He talks to
himself in doleful language and, as he goes about his business, he
moans and sighs, "Oh, that!" And, "Ah!" And, "Would that!"
Monosyllables that no man understands, but which are well known in
their inward meaning both to God and to his own heart! He has no ray of
hope. He believes he is shut out from God forever and he thinks that
God is just in having hidden the light of His Countenance from him.
He does not murmur against the Most High, but never was man so nearto
complaining as he is. He is ready to lay violent hands on himself, for
he says he cannot bear his existence. He cries with David, "I am weary
with my groaning! All night I make my bed swim; I water my couch with
my tears!" "Day and night Your hand is heavy upon me." He turns to the
Book of Job and he reads the Patriarch's doleful cries and declares
that he could say the same. And all the mournful words of David or
Jeremiah, he applies to himself. "I watch, and am as a sparrow alone
upon the housetop," he says. "I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I
am like an owl of the desert. I have no comfort, no peace, no joy.
God's mercy is clean gone from me forever! He will no longer be mindful
of me!"
Now, dear Friends, please remember that, to a greater or lesser degree,
this always is and always must be the condition of a sinner when he is
seeking the Savior. O you who are in the dark, remember that you are
only where thousands of others have been! Think it not a strange thing
that you are subject to this eclipse–others have been eclipsed,
too–and all those who have found the Sun of Righteousness have had to
run through the dark to get to Him! There must be a dark tunnel before
we can get at Christ and we must grope through worse than an Egyptian
night before we behold the face of God with joy!
Perhaps I may be asked what it is that makes it so dark to a poor
sinner while he is seeking Christ. I think I may tell you, very
briefly, it is partly his own ignorance. Poor Soul, he does not know
enough about the Savior, nor enough about the plan of salvation to
cheer him. Very likely he has never heard the way of salvation preached
in all his life. That may be true and yet he may have attended a
chapel–as chapels go in these times–for many a year! He does not
understand the simple A B C of the Gospel, the sinner's sinnership the
only argument to prove that he has an interest in Christ's salvation.
He does not understand the Atonement–he cannot make it out how God can
be just and yet pardon such a wretch as he is. "All this ignorance
necessarily causes darkness." And, mark you, that mistakes concerning
the Gospel are never little things–they are always dangerous, they are
always painful. Sinners have more griefs than they need have because
they have less knowledge than they should have.
Sometimes, too, this darkness arises from mistakes concerning the
Gospel There is not so much ignorance as there is error with regard to
it–by which word, I mean, not a mistake willfully committed, but a
mistake ignorantly committed. I know some people who understand the
theory of salvation quite well, but they have a mistaken idea as to its
application, or else, perhaps, they read it the wrong way upwards. I
know many who do not neglect the Scriptures, but they begin reading
about election and predestination before they know anything of
conviction. So, often, the darkness of the sinner arises from
misapprehension concerning the Gospel.
Many a time, too, the poor soul is running after Christ in the dark
because he has got legal ideas in his head. That Mr. Legality is the
ruin of many and, after all we do and say to him, he still lives on!
You know how Martin Luther said that he preached Justification by Faith
every day because he found that the people forgot it every day. In one
of his quaint sermons, he says, "I feel as if I could take my book and
beat this doctrine into your heads because you will never remember that
you are not saved by your own good works, but by the righteousness of
Christ." A sinner may be told, as plainly as possible, that all he can
do is less than nothing–that salvation is all of Grace from first to
last–but that crafty old devil will not let him believe it. He will
always lead him to think that he must dosomething, or besomething, or
feelsomething before he can take Jesus Christ to be his All-in-All! And
so legality, like a black dragon, spreads its wings between the soul
and God's Light and shuts out every ray of comfort from the poor
desponding spirit.
Moreover, this darkness is caused principally by conscience and by
Satan. It is a strange thing, but, sometimes, a sinner's conscience and
the devil will strike hands. When Mr. Conscience is blowing his
dreadful trumpet and startling the sleepy sinner, he is doing good
service. But, sometimes, after the sinner is thoroughly awakened, the
devil comes and whispers to Mr. Conscience–and in such a voice that it
seems as if an angel said it–"Blow on, Mr. Conscience! Blow a still
more dreadful blast and I will help you." And the devil comes in and,
with his awful yells, he makes a thousand times worse noise than even
conscience does–and the poor soul is bewildered, terror-stricken and
well-nigh driven mad! "Oh," cries Satan, "you have been a sinner beyond
the reach of Christ's mercy!" "Yes," says conscience, "that you have!"
"Oh," says the devil, "you have committed every crime that flesh can
commit." "Yes," says conscience, "that's true!" And he echoes every
word that Satan says.
In comes the devil, and says, "You have committed the unpardonable
sin." "No doubt," says conscience, "I always told you so." "And now,"
says Satan, "there is no hope for you–you must be cast away forever."
"Yes," says conscience, "you must be cast away forever! There is no way
of escape for such a wretch as you are." And when conscience and the
devil get to blowing the same trumpet, it is a dreadful noise, indeed!
And there is not a soul in the world that can endure its life when both
Satan and conscience are making such a furious noise! No wonder, my
dear Friends, it should be dark with the sinner when he is running on
the road to Heaven! No wonder that before he finds the Savior, there
should be a doleful cry in his ears, if Satan and conscience are both
assailing him! I know that I do not like my conscience to be against
me, even without the devil. Conscience, when he is noisy, is not a very
comfortable housemate–certainly, we would rather have him still and
quiet than always thundering in our ears. But when Hell and conscience
go together, I say again, there is no soul that can long bear its
existence, except God, in sovereign mercy, shall either support the
soul or put a speedy stop to the noise!
Perhaps you ask me, "Why does not the poor sinner look to Jesus?" Ah,
that is the very point of his difficulty! He does not look to Jesus
because he does not think that Jesus Christ died for such a wretch as
he! You know, it is one thing for you to talk about a sinner looking to
Jesus when he is in the dark, and quite another thing to do it when you
are in the dark, yourself. It is a blessed thing when the Lord enables
a poor sinner to turn his eyes to Calvary and see the brightness of
Jesus. But there are, often, long days and dreary nights before the
sinner learns his own sinfulness and is enabled to look to the Savior.
"But," says one, "why does he not go hear a good minister preach?
Surely that would help him out of his trouble." My dear Friends, we try
to preach the Gospel as plainly as we can, but it seems that we only
rivet the chains on some people.
There is a poor soul in this place now–I have talked with her many
times. I know her sad condition and I have often shaped my discourse so
as to meet her case. Many times I have thought that the Lord has given
me some sweet word that would break the gates of brass and set the
imprisoned one at liberty. It has taken a little of the pride out of me
and shown me how impossible it is for man, when he labors the hardest,
to bring a soul out of bondage before the Lord's promised hour of
redemption comes. "But," says one, "why do they not turn to the Bible
and lay hold on some precious Truth of God! I do so and find comfort
from it." Yes, my dear Friends, and they do turn to the Bible just as
you do, yet they find no comfort, for they cannot lay hold on the
promises. I know when I was, for many a month, in bondage, I used to
read the Bible through–and the threats were all printed in capitals,
but the promises were in such small type that, for a long time, I could
not make them out! And when I did make them out, I did not believe they
were mine. But the threats were all my own–I was sure of it!
"There," I said, "when it says, 'He that believes not shall be damned,'
that means me." When I read, concerning Christ, "He is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him," then I thought I
was shut out. When I read, "He found no place of repentance, though he
sought it carefully with tears," "Ah," I thought, "that is myself
again." And when I read, "That which bears thorns and briers is
rejected and is near to cursing," "Ah," I said, "that describes me to
the last iota!" And when I heard the Master say, "Cut it down; why
cumbers it the ground?" "Ah," I thought, "that is mytext–He will have
me down before very long and not let me cumber the ground any more."
But when I read, "Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters,"
I said, "That does not belong to me, I am sure." And when I read, "Come
unto Me all you that labor and are heavy laden," "No," I said, "that
belongs to my brother, to my sister," or those I knew round about me,
for they were laboring and heavy laden, I thought, but I was not. And
though, God knows, I would weep and cry and lament till my heart was
breaking within me, if any man had asked me whether I sorrowed for sin,
I would have told him "No, I never had any true sorrow for sin" "Well,
do you not feel the burden of sin?" "No." "But you really are a
convinced sinner?" "No," I would have said, "I am not."
Is it not strange that poor sinners, when they are coming to Christ,
are so much in the dark that they cannot see their own hands? They are
so much in the dark that they cannot see themselves! And though God has
been pleased to work the good work in them and give them godly fear and
a tender conscience, they will stand up and declare that they have
neither of those blessings, that in them there is not any good thing
and that God has not looked on them nor loved them! But, strange as
this is, that is how souls go to Christ. They are like Lot going to
Zoar–they are all in the dark and can see nothing until they come to
the Savior.
II. Now think of the second fact. NO SOONER WAS LOT IN ZOAR THAN THE
SUN WAS UP.
Once he was inside the gate of that little city, the sun shone forth in
all its brightness! I daresay Lot thought, "Well, I wish it had risen a
little earlier. Oh, how pleased I would have been if I had had a little
of that light while running across the plain!" So, when we are brought
to the Lord Jesus, we often say, "I wish I had had a little of this
peace when I was in bondage. Oh, if I could have had one cupful of this
river ofjoy I am now drinking! When I was so thirsty, what a blessing
it would have been!" But God knows best. Depend upon it, my Brothers
and Sisters–if one ray of sunlight more had been good for Lot, he
would have had it! And if, poor tried Sinner, one gleam of comfort more
than you now have, would be good for you, God would not deny it to you.
But He keeps you in the dark for your good, as He shall ultimately
bring you into the light for your good!
Lot, when he reached Zoar, had the sunlight. And when the sinner gets
to Christ, then he gets sunlight, too. When the poor soul is widowed of
all its hopes and bereaved of all its trust. When it is reduced to
beggary and in a penniless condition. When it has its feet cut from
under it and its hands shot away. When it has nothing left to call its
own, but is reduced to death's door. In the hour of its extremity, then
is God's gracious opportunity! Then, when the spirit casts itself
wholly, without reserve, upon the blood and righteousness of Jesus and
puts implicit trust in Him who lived and died to work, and weave, and
spin, and dye a righteousness for poor sinners–I say, then, for the
first moment, the sinner gets joy in his heart! Do not expect, my dear
Hearers, that you will ever get any comfort while you are running
anywhere except to Christ. Expect the comfort only when you get to Him.
You may have just a gleam or two of light beforehand, as Lot did, but
you will not have much more.
And remember, it is no use your running anywhere except to Christ, for,
though you run ever so fast, you will only run into deeper darkness
unless you run to Him–
"The moment a sinner believes, And trusts in his crucified God, His
pardon at once he receives, Redemption in full through His blood." That
very moment his burden rolls off his shoulders, his chains fall to the
earth and he is free! That moment his sores are all healed, his wounds
are all bound up and his flowing blood is stanched forever. Have you,
dear Friend, ever felt that instantaneous change which works such joy
as this? If you have, then I am not uttering a strange thing when I say
that the sun has risen upon you! Oh, that moment, when the sinner first
starts up, clean rid of guilt on his conscience! I thought I could have
leaped from earth to Heaven, at one spring, when I first saw my sins
drowned in the Redeemer's blood! You know what John Bunyan says–to
repeat an often-quoted tale–"I wanted," said he, "to even tell the
crows on the plowed land what God had done for my soul!"
Did you ever follow a poor simple convert as soon as he knows the Lord?
He runs home and calls his neighbors together and says, "I have found
the Lord Jesus." Probably they will begin laughing at him, but he
cannot understand what there is to laugh at, for he says, "My Master is
a precious and blessed Master–He has taken all my sins away!" And he
will go on telling the simple story till, perhaps, some of them are
melted by it, though the rest may scoff. The joy, the gladness, the
rhapsody, the exultation, the young Heaven begun in the heart of the
newborn convert is the nearest thing to Paradise that the earth ever
saw! On the day that our sins are pardoned, God sets all the bells of
Heaven ringing–and then the bells of our heart chime in melody! On the
day when God is pleased to blot out our sins, He hangs every lane and
every alley of Mansoul with splendid flags and colors, gilded lamps and
bright jewels! Then He bids sweet music play in every part of the city
and He makes the fountains run with wine–and He gives hogsheads of the
precious liquid for poor souls to drink–souls that have been faint and
dying and thirsty! Oh, that marriage day, when the soul is advanced to
Christ! That day, when, for the first time, it rides in the chariot of
Mercy and sits in the same seat with its Well-Beloved! Oh, that first
hour, when Jesus puts the ring of His eternal love on the finger of our
experience and whispers, "You are Mine," and our heart says to Jesus,
"I am Yours."
Oh, that moment! Surely, Heaven itself is not happier! All the
difference between that moment and Heaven is that Heaven is a great
piece of tapestry and this is one of the threads. "The sun was risen
upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar," so the Light of God's
Countenance rises upon poor sinners when they come to Jesus!
III. Now, thirdly, we have to consider a sadder fact. GOD CAN DO TWO
THINGS AT A TIME.
With His right hand, He wheeled the sun up the steeps of Heaven and
bade it shine upon Lot. And with the other He opened the batteries of
Heaven that they might rain their fire and brimstone upon Sodom. Let us
remember that God's two hands are always at work in that way–from the
very beginning, that is always what He has done. With one hand, He shut
Noah in the ark and with the other He sent forth the floods of the
everlasting cisterns and let the fountains of the great deep burst upon
the earth. With one hand he smote the Red Sea and bade Israel walk
through it dry-shod and with the other He cast the waters down into
their place and drowned Pharaoh and all his hosts. And now look at
Him–with one hand He lights the sun–and with the other hand He
darkens Sodom with the smoke of the devouring flames! Ah, Friends,
remember that this is what shall be done all the story through!
A day is coming when we who, like poor Lot, have been running to Heaven
in the dark, with many clouds of fear and much gloom and sorrow, will
reach the river of death! And when the Christian comes to die, God the
mighty Savior is pleased to take the film from his eyes and enables him
to see the angels! He opens wide his eye and bids him behold the
glorious City that is built on high and those shining ones that
perpetually traverse its streets! He opens his ears and bids him listen
to the hallelujahs of the blessed and then, sometimes, He catches away
his spirit and seems to waft it almost over Jordan, till, before the
man dies, he says, "Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot
tell, only God knows, but I have been caught up to the third Heaven and
have seen and heard things which mortals cannot utter." Oh, who can
describe the raptures of the dying saint, the glories of that moment
when God is pleased to cut the fetters that bind us to our clay and
give us leave to soar into His Presence?!
But while God is doing that with His right hand, what is He doing with
His left? He is smoothing the path of His children to the grave, but
what is He doing to the wicked? He is not smoothing their path. "Upon
the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone and a horrible
tempest." When they are dying, He draws no curtains around them, except
the black curtains of doom! When they are expiring, no angels attend
their deathbed–but grim fiends are waiting there. The left hand of God
falls heavily upon the wicked man and as he is entering the world of
spirits, God sometimes gives him a foretaste and prelude of the horrors
of Hell. His right hand wheels the sun to give light to the Christian
and bids him look to Heaven–but His left hand rains down a tempest on
the wicked and bids him dread to die!
And now follow the two spirits out of this world. The vital spark of
the Christian has fled–
"In vain my fancy tries to paint The moment after death, The glories
that surround the saint, When yielding up his breath."
The right hand of God is under the saint and in love He embraces him!
God upholds His child in the floods. He whispers, "I am with you,
Israel, passing through the stream; be not afraid, underneath you are
the everlasting arms." Listen to the shouts of victory! Mark the calm
composure of the countenance and see the joy flashing in the eyes! This
is what God's right hand is doing to the righteous. But what is His
left hand doing to the wicked! My dear Brothers and Sisters, I dare not
attempt to describe the sinner as he dies! And when he is dead, it were
too awful for me to suppose how he feels the moment his spirit is out
of his body. Oh, what an awful sensation that must be when the first
pang of Hell shoots through the soul! My imagination can just mount to
it, but I cannot go further. That man was a blasphemer–how must he
feel when he confronts the God whom he blasphemed and stands before the
burning eyes of his incensed Creator! Can you imagine that solitary
moment–for I should suppose there is but one such–although eternity
is horrible, there can scarcely be more than one moment so new with
horror, so dolefully novel with torment as when the soul is launched
upon that everlasting sea, the waves of which are fire, and the depths
of which are Hell! I cannot tell all that it means. I only know that
these are the Lord's own words, "Consider this, you that forget God,
lest I tear you in pieces, and there is none to deliver."
And now comes the Last Great Day! The world is standing before God's
bar. Look what He is doing with His right hand! He is beckoning the
righteous to Glory! He is adorning their heads with crowns that excel
the sun in brightness! He is girding their loins with snow-white robes
of immaculate purity! He is touching their lips and making them sing
like cherubim! He is setting their hearts on fire with the bliss of
Heaven and kindling their spirits with everlasting Glory! He is lifting
them up and making them sit together with Christ, far above all
principalities and powers and every name that is named! See how the sun
is risen upon them! Describe if you can, or imagine if you dare, the
brightness of the sunlight of Glory when it shall dawn upon redeemed
man in the day of the final account! Look, it is a sunshine without a
cloud! It is a sun without an eclipse! Look, see, their happy faces!
Listen to their joyous songs!–
"No groans do mingle with the songs That warble from immortal tongues."
Words fail me to depict the bright sunlight of the Savior's love as it
shines on every happy saint! Thought cannot let me tell the brightness
of the Glory that shall stream from the brow of the eternal Father when
He shall smile upon His well-beloved children! And who can describe the
Glory of the Sacred Spirit when, in all the riches of His fullness, He
shall beam in the eye and heart of every blood-bought soul? This is
what God is doing with His right hand–leading all His saints to Heaven
and setting them upon thrones forever and ever!
And what is He doing with His left hand?No, pardon me, excuse me from
the task of picturing that dread work of Judgment! I might, perhaps,
say things that would be horrible, terrible and doleful–yet, even
then, my speech would fall infinitely short of the terrible reality!
What is God doing to the wicked? He is unloosing the loins of the
mighty and breaking the iron sinews of their necks! What is God doing
to the wicked? He is alighting them with terror and driving them mad
with despair! See them as they fly from His Presence! Listen to them as
they shriek in their agony! There they go–down, down, down–to the
gulf of everlasting woe! What is God doing with His left hand? He is
hurling fire upon them! He is launching thunderbolts! What is He doing?
O earth, I see you shaking! O stars, I behold you vanishing from the
vault of night! Sun, you are quenched! Moon, you are a clot of blood! I
see the heavens stripped of their light and the glorious Son of God
seated on His snow-white Throne! And I see sinners trembling at their
everlasting doom! I see them bite their tongues, that, like firebrands,
scorch their mouths. I see them dying, but not dead! Damned, but not
annihilated–not ceasing to be–forever bruised beneath the foot of
vengeance and yet never crushed out of existence! O my God, no mortal
tongue can tell this dreary tale! Had I been dead and passed the
burning lake, and smelt the sulfurous flame, then, perhaps, I might
have spoken of all these terrible realities, but tonight I cannot
speak! Take your Bibles and read of the fire that cannot be quenched,
of the worm that dies not, of the Pit that is bottomless–and remember
that this is what God is doing with His left hand!
The sun had risen upon Zoar and the fire was falling upon Sodom. Ah,
Sinner, will it not be an awful thing to see the contrast between you
and the righteous? If you perish in your ungodly state, it will make
your Hell more awful when you behold, afar off, the righteous exalted
in Heaven! Nothing makes the famished man more hungry than to see
others feasting when he has nothing! O young man, what will it be to
see your mother there in Heaven and you cast out? O young woman, will
you see your companion glorified with Jesus and you cast away with
devils? O husband, will you find yourself crying, with Dives, for a
drop of water, while your wife is in the Presence of Jesus? Ah, son,
will you see your parents glorified and you, yourself, cast out? Set
the two in contrast–look on this picture and on that! God give you
Grace to bow the knee and "kiss the Son." And if He has taught you your
need of a Savior, may He give you Grace to accept the hearty invitation
I would tender you in His name, "Come, and welcome, Sinner, come!"
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW24:42-51; MATTHEW 25:1-13.
Matthew 24:42. Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord
does come. That He will come is certain. That His coming may be at any
moment is equally sure and, therefore, we ought to always be ready for
His appearing. The Lord make us to be so!
43, 44. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in
what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not
have allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore be you also ready,
for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes. Perhaps you
can imagine how eagerly the householder watches when he expects
thieves. Every little sound alarms him. He thinks he hears someone at
the door, then he fancies it is someone at the window! But he is on the
alert, with eyes and ears and his whole being wide awake. So ought we
to be with regard to the coming of the Lord, as watchful as if we knew
that Christ would come tonight! We do not know that He will come so
soon, yet it may be so, "for in such an hour as you think not, the Son
of Man comes."
45, 46. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has made
ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is
that servant, whom his lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. Doing
whatever the Master has appointed him to do. If he is a minister,
preaching the Truth of God with all his heart. If he is a teacher,
endeavoring to feed the minds of the young with sound doctrine.
Whatever may be his calling, endeavoring to fulfill it to the great
Taskmaster's satisfaction, as if He should suddenly break in upon the
work and look at it, then and there, and judge His servant by it. This
is the way to live!
47. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his
goods. There are rewards for faithful service– not of debt, but of
Grace–not according to the Law, but according to the discipline of the
House of God. Oh, that we may be such faithful servants that our Lord
may make us rulers over all that He has!
48-51. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord
delays his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to
eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in
a day when he looks not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of,
and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the
hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He was a
servant, you see. So this is a warning, not to the outside world, but
to you who are inside the nominal church and who professto be servants
of God. And it is especially a warning to those of us who are ministers
of the Gospel! Oh, that we may never begin to smite our fellow
servants! Of course, we shall not do it with our fists, but we may do
it with our tongue. May we never be numbered with those who are living
for the delights of the flesh! If so, see what must come to us. Our
Lord still continued to speak upon the same subject of watchfulness by
delivering the very striking parable of the wise and foolish virgins.
Matthew 25:1-4. Then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten
virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were
foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took
oil in their vessels with their lamps. There did not seem to be much
difference between them. They were all virgins, they all carried lamps,
their lamps were all lit. And, perhaps, the lamps of the foolish were
quite as bright as those of the wise. The difference was unobservable
to most onlookers, but it was an essential and fatal difference.
Ah, dear Friends, it is the lack of oil that is the ruin of many a
professor's lamp! Men have a name to live, but they have not the true
life which is the evidence of the effectual working of the Grace of God
within their souls. They make a profession of religion, but they have
not the secret Grace to keep it up. There is a glitter and flash, but
there is no permanency–and there cannot be any unless the Spirit of
God is, indeed, in us! We may make a fair show in the flesh for a
while, but what will be the end of it. This is the all-important
question–Can we hold on and hold out? Certainly not without that
heavenly oil which only the Spirit of God can supply!
5. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. Oh, how
sadly true it is that, sometimes, true saints as well as mere
professors slumber and sleep! Even those who have the oil of Grace are
not always wide awake to serve their Master and to proclaim the Gospel
as they should. There are, alas, sleeping Believers and sleeping
hypocrites, side by side!
6, 7. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom
comes; go out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed
their lamps. They were suddenly awakened, and they leaped to their
feet–
"Rising up at the midnight cry, 'Behold the heavenly Bridegroom nigh!'"
They all trimmed their lamps. That was the first thing for them to
do–to look to their torches and have them ready. They could not meet
the Bridegroom in the dark. They must each have a light, so they began
their lamp-trimming. It is a pity to have to trim your lamp at the
last. O dear Friends, it is hard work, upon a dying bed, to have to be
looking to one's lamp! You need your evidences to be bright there–your
faith to be firm and all your Graces brilliant! There must be no doubts
and questions there, else they make a dying bed feel hard as granite.
May we, none of us, have at last to trim our lamps! Those virgins who
had oil in their vessels were able to trim their lamps and, though the
work was done hurriedly, it was done, and they were able to take their
places in the bridal procession.
8, And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our
lamps are gone out. The modern rendering of this request is, "Send for
the minister and ask him to pray for us, for our lamps are gone out."
Take heed, I pray you, you who are bold professors, now–lest you
should have to say at the last, "Our lamps are gone out." It was too
late for trimming and lighting then!
9, 10. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough
for us and you: but go you to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came. There are deathbed
repentances, undoubtedly, but I fear that, in the great majority of
cases, people who wake up so late will find that while they go to buy,
the Bridegroom will come and there will not be, after all, the time in
which to find the Savior. The mental capacity with which to think of
Him may fail. The poor head may be so distracted with pain that it may
not be able to catch the meaning of what faith in Christ is, or how it
can be exercised. And so, the lamp will have gone out, and it will be
too late to buy the oil which alone can make it burn. "While they went
to buy, the bridegroom came."
10, 11. And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage; and
the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us. "Open the door at least to us, for we came to meet
you, and we carried lamps, and we were with the other virgins. 'Lord,
Lord, open to us.'" You know, perhaps, those striking lines which
describe the foolish virgins request and the Bridegroom's response to
it–
"'Late, late, so late; and dark the night and chill! Late, late, so
late; but we may enter still. 'Too late! Too late! You cannot enter
now.'"
12. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
When that door is once shut, it will never again be opened! All
Scripture goes to prove that. There are some who foolishly dream about
an opening of that door after death for men who have died
impenitent–but there is nothingin Scripture to warrant us in having
any such expectation. The final answer of the Bridegroom to these
foolish virgins is, "Verily I say unto you, I know you not."
13. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein
the Son of Man comes. That is, we do not know when it will be. Some
have foolishly said, "We do not know the day, or the hour of Christ's
coming, but we may find out the year." We shall not do anything of the
kind–the time is hidden altogether! It is not revealed to us and it
shall not be known till, suddenly, the Lord Himself shall come in the
clouds, with His bright heavenly retinue, to be glorified in His saints
and to be admired in all them that believe! Therefore, be always on the
watch, Beloved, "for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the
Son of Man comes." God help us to be ready for His appearing at any
moment, for His dear name's sake! Amen.