Days of Heaven Upon the Earth
(No. 3425)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1914.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 23, 1866.
"As the days of Heaven upon the earth." Deuteronomy 11:21.
As this text was originally written, it referred only to the length of
life and the length of endurance which God promised to His obedient
Israel. If they walked in His statutes, the Kingdom was to abide from
generation to generation, without end, "as the days of Heaven upon
earth." But it seems to me that such a phrase as this ought to mean
something more, if it did not, and might be used to express–and must
be used to express many of those happy seasons which we have enjoyed
when the Lord has manifested Himself to us–and which have been to us
"as the days of Heaven upon the earth." But is not the expression
exaggeration? Is it not too strong? Brothers and Sisters, I think not.
There were days of Heaven upon earth once. Every day upon earth was a
day of Heaven before our first parent stretched out his hand and broke
his Lord's command. When he walked through the Garden of Eden, by the
side of the rippling Hiddekel, or the streaming Euphrates, which rolled
over sands of gold. As he reclined under the shadow of the trees from
the heat of the sun, and plucked the generous fruit, God was with him
as his Companion and manifested Himself to His favorite creature. Those
were, indeed, days of Heaven upon earth! There was no strife, no sin,
no sorrow–everything was happy! It seemed as if this world was but one
chamber of God's great house, one of the many mansions in our Father's
house, the vestibule of Glory, the portal of the skies–the ground
floor, if I may say so, of the Master's palace which reached high up
beyond the clouds! There were days of Heaven upon earth–and we know
from the sweetest prophecies, as sure as they are sweet, that there
will be days of Heaven upon earth again, and that for a continuance! He
who went up to Heaven from Olivet will so come, in like manner, as we
have seen Him go up into Heaven! And when He comes, then will He reign
in the midst of His people. And we are in the habit of speaking of that
glorious reign with intense delight. No strife shall vex Messiah's
reign! There shall be no sorrow, then. They shall hang the useless
helmet in the hall and study war no more–halcyon days! A millennial
period! Peace like a river! Righteousness like the waves of the sea,
for He shall live and to Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba!
Prayer, also, shall be made for Him continually and daily shall He be
praised! We are looking for the advent of the Lord, praying for it,
desiring to be found in a working and waiting posture whenever He may
come! And when He comes, then, to the letter, there shall be a
long-continued series of days of Heaven upon the earth! But, dear
Friends, it is of little service to mourn the past, and though it may
be of much benefit to expect the future, yet what shall we say about
the present? I think the present is not without some happy seasons
which may be likened to the days of the text.
My first business at this time will be to mention some of the days
which are fit to be called days of Heaven upon the earth Then,
secondly, I shall answer the question–why do we not have more of them?
And then, thirdly, I shall try to show the best ways of getting more of
them. First, then, though man is born to sorrow, yet–
I. WE HAVE MOST HAPPY AND BLESSED PERIODS–DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH.
And the first I will mention is the day in which we first look to Jesus
and lose our sins. Our Revival Hymnbook sings–
"Happy day! Happy day! When Jesus washed my sins away." The long time
of conviction, the dolorous winter of sorrow made the day of our
release the happier and the brighter, just as the oasis is all the
greener in contrast with the dry, sandy region over which the traveler
has passed. The first day of our conversion, when we know Christ and
have peace through Him, is a peculiarly green and happy spot in our
life's pilgrimage. We can never forget it. Some of us had a very
distinct time and place of conversion. To us the day when we looked to
Jesus is as fresh as though it were newly coined from the mint of time.
Other days have lost their peculiar image and superscription. We can
scarcely recollect any one of our birthdays, perhaps, unless something
very remarkable has happened on them. But that day, if we were to live
to be as old as Methuselah, we would still remember and count it to be
the true day of our birth, the day when we truly began to live–for all
before it was but dead! Dear Friends, do you remember the excessive joy
of that day? It must have been so with all of you–but with some of us
the joy was more than we could bear! We were like Simeon, when he saw
the Lord and said, "Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace." We
made no stipulations with God. We would have been content to rot in a
dungeon, or to lie tossing on the sick bed of a hospital, now that we
had found Christ! We needed nothing beyond! We could have dared the
very gates of Hell in that day to stop our joy! Satan, himself, could
not have made us cease from singing, so joyous were we. Probably others
noticed it and asked why it was–and they learned that the Lord had
done great things for us, whereof we were glad. Oh, I wish this evening
some of you could find the Savior! Some of you, perhaps, did not come
here to find Him, but you want Him. You are feeling your sins, perhaps,
pressing heavily upon you. Your guilt is like a burden upon your
back–I do hope you will look to the Cross of Christ, for if you do,
the strings will crack that bind your burden to your back and you shall
leap for joy to find that you are free! There is life for a look at the
Crucified One! And with that life there comes such a flood of joy that
I would not wonder if you were almost ready, when you get home, to
begin singing in the house even though there might be some there who
could not sympathize with your joy! It is one of the days of Heaven
upon earth when a soul casts its anchor upon Christ and says, "I am at
rest, at rest forever!"
It must not be thought, however, that this is the only season, for
often–very often–days of calm and peace are, to the Christian, like
days of Heaven upon earth! Have you not often felt a stillness in your
souls–cares gone, doubts fled, troubles forgotten–all so peaceful
within that you did not seem to have a wish, nor a need and, happy in
the Savior's love, you did not care for all the world beside? You have
got up in the morning and you have felt so happy–there was no
excitement, no exuberance of feeling–but still, such a peaceful
happiness that you would not have changed your state with the King upon
his throne! You had to go to business and there was a good deal to try
you, but you were not vexed. You seemed to put it all aside and to go
through the day talking with Christ, your hands busy below, but your
heart occupied above–your treasure being in Heaven and your heart
being there, too–and that continued all day! And, perhaps, at night,
at the family altar, they noticed how sweetly you prayed, and, if they
did not, you remember what a calm there was upon you when you went
upstairs and cast yourself upon the bed and slept. And if you awoke
during the night, you found that you were still with God! With some of
us there have been many such periods–and they have lasted sometimes by
the week together! But far oftener they have come and gone very soon.
And to many they have been like angels' visits–few and far
between–yet have we had enough of them to make us have a foretaste of
that happier shore where all is forever peace, where the dove builds
her nest and is never disturbed, where not a wave of trouble ever rolls
across a sea of everlasting rest, where the angels continually sing the
praises of God and there are no groans to mar the melody of their
seraphic songs! Yes, those days of quiet peacefulness were as days of
Heaven upon earth!
And we have got beyond that. Many Christians can remember days of
praise. Have you not had days in which your souls seemed taken up with
singing God's praises? I do not mean that you went into the street or
in public, but your soul kept singing–you had got the prayer
answered–
"Oh, may my soul in tune be found, Like David's harp of solemn sound!"
You wanted to tell everybody about what your God had done for you! And
when you had an opportunity, you told of the goodness of the Lord and
bade people to, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." You went to see
the sick, and if they murmured, you put aside their murmuring, for you,
yourself, felt so happy that you could scarcely sympathize with a
murmuring spirit! And when you went up to the assembly of God's House
and they sang some of their joyous songs, when, like a peal of thunder,
their notes of praise went up and made the walls ring again, oh, how
blessed were you! Why, I say it without exaggeration, I have sometimes,
in this House, when we have been singing some of God's praises, felt as
though it could not be much better to be in Heaven than it was to be in
the midst of God's people singing with all their hearts His praises! We
have sometimes run up the gamut until we reached the top of the scale
and seemed to have almost got to the top of Jacob's ladder–and almost
ready to step into Heaven! Blessed days of praise! We can never forget
you,for you have been "as the days of Heaven upon the earth." Days of
finding Christ, days of peace, days of praise are "as the days of
Heaven upon the earth."
Among the choicest seasons in a Christian's life, however, are those in
which he finds himself honored of God in the conversion of souls. Those
are days of Heaven upon earth! I would like to know, but I suppose it
is impossible to find out–I would like to know how many of us, here,
who are Christians, are spiritual parents. I am afraid if there was a
stocktaking, there would not be found many diligent ones among us–and
that is not to our credit. Every Christian should make it to be one of
the grand aims of his life, if not the grandest, to bring others to
reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ! Now, as some of you may
never have tried this, I would like to encourage you by offering you
the sweet reward which God gives to those who labor for Him. Ah, my
dear Friend, the City Missionary, you need not tell me of all your
toils among the poor, the ragged and the filthy–true every word–but
there is one thing I would like you to tell me. When you have met with
a poor sinner who has been plucked by you from the depths of
degradation and you have seen the tears of gratitude glistening in the
eyes of a convert, have not you felt that it has made up for it all?
You are no true missionary if you cannot say that! And do not tell me,
my dear Brother minister, of all the toils of preaching to a people who
seem weary of hearing–and of endeavoring to convince those of the
Truth of God who do not care to listen to it–we know all about that!
But let me ask you, when you have heard that a penitent has come to
Christ and it has been said, "Behold he prays!" have not you felt that
you have been rewarded for ten times more toil and trouble than you
have ever put forth? If one could be cut in pieces and every piece
could be hanged or flayed alive, it were worthwhile to suffer all that
for the bringing of one soul to Christ–because if Jesus Christ thought
it worth His while to suffer unutterable pains to redeem a soul–it
would be worth the while of any one of Christ's people to suffer the
same–if that were the way to bring sinners to Him! Let me tell you
that there is no joy like it! When you can hear a penitent say,
"Blessed be God, I was once far from Him by wicked works, but I
listened to the Truth of God as you proclaimed it. I heard your prayer
in the class and it touched my heart–it broke me down and afterwards
it led me out of darkness into Christ's marvelous light–and blessed be
God, I am saved!" Oh, there is no joy like it, and he that has many
souls thus given to him for his hire must enjoy many of the days of
Heaven upon earth!
Again, I believe there is many a family where this same joy has been
felt–not by those who were the immediate instruments of conversion,
but by those who have long prayed for the conversion of such. Your good
mother, now, John, if you were to go home tonight a saved soul, would
be made unspeakably happy! The dear old soul has been praying for you
these many years. She wept over you when you were in your cradle. She
has often prayed for you when you have been cursing and swearing–and
has she, sometimes, fears that she will go to her grave and never see
her child brought in? But if she were to hear that you were saved,
there would be a day of Heaven upon earth in that family! How many
households are there where the conversion of the husband has turned a
little Hell into a little Heaven? You know how children are afraid of
the father–how they run upstairs to get to bed because the father
comes home the worse for drink–and how the poor mother suffers. There
may be a little furniture, but she knows at any moment it may go off to
the pawnbrokers to be converted into money to get more of the accursed
liquor! And she lives in perpetual bondage and fear! But one night he
comes home very thoughtful–where has he been? Oh, he has been to
such-and-such a place of worship! Do you know the woman cannot sleep
that night for hope? She is in hopes that there may be a change come
over him– and when she sees him washing himself the next morning, and
she hears that he is going back to the same place–how her heart beats
with joy and hope and how heartily does she pray that her husband may
become a changed character! And when he comes home and sits down, and
the tears begin to flow, and he says, "Wife, we never prayed together.
You know that I could never bear the thoughts of your praying. But it
is all changed, now–get the Bible and let us see if we cannot pray
together tonight." That is one of the days of Heaven upon earth! There
is joy to the mother who finds her son saved, joy to the wife who sees
her husband converted–and it is equal joy to the husband when he gets
his wife converted! There are some husbands who have sore trouble with
ungodly wives. And they have prayed often and I hope they will not grow
cast-down and leave off praying. The Lord who blessed them can bless
their wives! Wait, never give in, never give up praying, as long as
they have breath in their bodies, as long as they are on praying
ground, pray for them and they may be converted! Then there will be
joy, unspeakable joy and full of glory even on earth, when such an one
is brought to know the Lord! These are, indeed, days of Heaven upon
earth!
I think the Church has sometimes had them. Some of you do not know much
about it–you do not work for Christ, you do not pray for souls–you do
not feel for souls. But I could pick out in this assembly, if it were
right, some who know a great deal about it because the Lord has given
them a yearning heart and a tender soul so that they weep for others'
sorrows and repent of others' sins. These are the persons that know, in
deed and in truth, that there are days of Heaven upon earth! They
travail and, therefore, they know the joy of her who forgets her
travail because a man-child is born into the world!
But I must hasten on. There are other days. Dear Friends, a communion
with loving, Christian Brother and Sisters often brings days of Heaven
upon earth. I know some churches where there seem to be as many sects
in the church as there are male members–where there is no love, no
unity, no affection, no contention for the faith–but much contention
for power and position! Now they never have days of Heaven upon earth.
But where Christians love each other, there is the dew of Heaven! Some
Christians greatly envy you, your privileges, and in belonging to a
united Church. Scores of times, when I have received members who have
been united before with churches split up and divided, they have said–
"Here would I find a settled rest, While others go and come! No more a
stranger or a guest, But like a child at home."
And I know there are many of you who have found a settled rest here and
you have found, in communion with God's people, that you are made to
lie down in green pastures and go beside the still waters. Lonely
Christians lose much comfort and I think those Christians who are
always going abroad for company lose more. But those who have a select
few whom they love, and with whom they associate, and with whom they
can enjoy holy communion, will find many such days. I must confess that
I have often been loath to go to bed when I have had a few beloved
friends to talk about better things–and I am afraid if we had had our
way and had not had to go to work the next morning, we would have let
the clock get into the small hours, for so sweet was the company and
the talk, we did not like to part! When Jesus Christ is the theme,
there is no fear of weariness! And when those who know Him speak about
Him, there is such freshness in their speech that one likes to let them
go on without stopping them at all. Christian fellowship, how sweet!
And if you get into a Christian family and live in it, how happy and
pleasant it is! Some families have a morose father who seems to think
there is no one in the world to be cared for except himself–and he
domineers and is a tyrant. Others have a touchy, crotchety,
quick-tempered mother and very little can go right with them long
together. Others have a negligent woman, perhaps untidy, who does not
attend to the house, but is a gossip. Now, to live in such houses as
those is a misery, but if you get into some houses such as I have
known, where the father endeavors, while he rules the house, to do it
with love, where the mother is the very pattern of her sex, where the
children are obedient and yet happy and free–where the servants feel
an interest in the master's affairs, because the master feels an
interest in theirs–it is like a little Heaven upon earth! It is a
blessed thing to drop into such a house, for you feel there, indeed,
they have days of Heaven upon earth! When you young people marry, I
hope you will set up just such houses and that it will be your desire
to make your homes such that people may like to live in them. I would
have your houses like that of Sir Thomas Abney, where Dr. Watts went to
stay a few days–and stayed 26 years! It was too good a house to leave!
Let your houses be such that when good men come, they will feel, "Here
is the place where we can find rest." May you have many days of Heaven
upon earth in such a way!
Now, to pass on, surely the highest of all will be found in a close
communion with Christ. There is a nearness of approach to Christ of
which to speak in the carnal ear would be to cast pearls before swine.
There is a secret and mysterious conversation carried on between earth
and Heaven of which Solomon sang in mystic numbers in the
Canticles–and which saints have enjoyed, but which no tongue can
adequately express–a peace which is not only like Heaven, but is
Heaven! It is a piece of Heaven cast down to us here! It is not a grape
from some wilderness vine, but a cluster from the vine of Eshcol and
Eshcol was in Canaan, itself. The Lord gives earnests of His love,
pledges of joys to come, so that even here we have, in communion with
Christ, days of Heaven upon earth! But I must not prolong the catalog,
for time fails me. I think I have said enough to make some feel that
the Christian's life is a happy one–let me add my testimony that it
is! Let me add, not mine, but the testimony even of many a Negro slave
in the days of slavery, who could say that, notwithstanding all
suffering and all penury and every ill, a Christian's life was a happy
one, after all. Now, the second point was to be an enquiry, if there
are so many days of Heaven upon earth–
II. WHY DO WE NOT HAVE MORE OF THEM?
I think there are many reasons. Some people think it wicked to be
happy. You smile, but I know some Christians who even seem to think
that it is a sign of growth in Grace when you grow to be blessedly
miserable! They imagine that for anything like joy to be in a Christian
is incompatible with sincerity. We have not so learned Christ! We know
that through much tribulation we inherit the Kingdom of God, but we
have learned that as tribulation abounds, so consolation abounds
through Jesus Christ. Let your face lack no oil and your head no
ointment–go your way and live happily and joyfully–for if God has
accepted you, there is no flesh living that has such a right to be
joyous! Accepted in the Beloved! Cleansed from sin! Clothed with the
righteousness of Christ! Safe for Heaven! Why should you not be happy?
Go to the weeping willows, take down your harps and begin to strike
them to melodious tunes. You ought to be happy, you people of the
living God! Let the righteous be glad. Yes, let them shout for joy!
Some Christians, perhaps, do not think it is wrong to be happy, but
they will not be. Almost as a matter of principle, they will not be
happy. You cannot please them. They are thorough Englishmen–they
exercise the blessed prerogative of grumbling. No matter what it is,
they can always see something or other to find fault with in it. If
they have much, it might be more. If they have little, they are harshly
treated. The blessings of the upper springs cannot content them unless
the nether springs flow in as freely. And the mercies that come from
Heaven will not please them unless they can have their share of the
mercies of earth. Oh, dear Friends, pray the Lord to give you a new
heart and a right spirit! I cannot make out what such a body as you
will do in Heaven. Ask your Master to take away your grumpy spirit so
that you may be able to see reasons for joy, for there are many of
them! Charnock says, "He who observes Providence will never be without
Providence to observe," and we can say, he who is willing to be made
happy may never be without something to make him happy, if he chooses
to look for it.
There are some of us who do not have as many days of Heaven upon earth
because we could hardly bear them. Joy has sometimes danger with it.
There are, among the flowers, poisonous asps. The Christian has need,
when his cup is full, to carry it with a steady hand. Too much
spiritual joy might even be too much for the physical frame, like the
old Scotch Divine who called out, "Hold, Lord! Hold, Lord! It is
enough! Remember I am but an earthen vessel. Give me no more joy, lest
I die of excess of it!" Yes, there might be spiritual maladies, if not
bodily ones–we might grow proud, self-conceited and lifted up. If we
have much sail, we need much ballast and, perhaps, the furnace is as
good a place for us as any place on earth until we get to Heaven. If we
had so many of these days of Heaven upon earth, we might never long to
go to Heaven at all, we might say, "This is a place happy enough for
us!" But the Lord will not let us do so. He will make the wilderness to
be a wilderness, still, that we may be willing to go on to Canaan. He
would not have the sailor so content with the vessel as not to desire
the port–and so He sends us rough days and stiff breezes that we may
be disturbed and long for our desired haven. There is one thing
more–if we had so many of these days and no troubles, we would not be
like Christ–we would lack one point of conformity to Him, for He was
"a Man of Sorrows." We are to have fellowship with Him in His
sufferings–and if our path were always smooth and our sky always
bright–we might not know as well as we now know what the sufferings of
Jesus Christ meant. We might be losers in Heaven if we were not
sufferers here, for I suppose it will be a part of the joy in Heaven to
remember the sorrow through which we came, to recollect the
difficulties which we overcame and if we have not sorrows or
difficulties, we shall not have so sweet a song. Rest is all the
sweeter to the laboring man, and so shall the rest of Heaven be all the
better because of the days of grief and sorrow which we had on earth.
But now, lastly–
III. WHAT CAN WE DO TO GET MORE OF THE DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH?
Well, we cannot build a city with streets of gold. We cannot find
chrysolytes and pearls with which to build a Jerusalem the Golden! We
must take the place as we find it. And this world of ours, though a
very fair earth, is not all we should like it to be–but we cannot
alter it. It is very much like a convict settlement, a prison house to
Christians. This is not our rest and, as we look abroad upon it, we
feel it is not a proper place for the spirit to dwell in. It needs a
better land in which to develop itself. But how, then, are we to get
Heaven upon earth? I think there are three things we can do. The first
is, we can get it, if we cannot alter the place, by being more like the
spirits in Heaven. They are happy in Heaven, not only because it is
Heaven, but because they are heavenly! They could not be otherwise than
happy. If those blessed spirits were on earth, so perfectly pure as
they are, they would be perfectly happy. It is not, I say, so much the
place that makes their Heaven, as their state of mind. They are
completely conformed to the will of God. They delight themselves
intensely in the Most High. They have been freed from their earthly
grossness and they are now like the pure gold that has passed through
the furnace. Let us pray for holiness and we shall get happiness! Let
us ask to be heavenly-minded and we shall get Heaven! There is no fear
about our joy if we can get holiness. Very much in proportion as we
shall become fit for Heaven shall we have days of Heaven upon earth!
And then a second thing we can do. If we cannot get the place, we can
get the objective that makes the place such a place as it is–that is
to say, if we cannot get Heaven, we can get days of Heaven upon earth
by getting Christ, for it is Christ who makes Heaven, as the sun makes
the day! Christ is the flower in that garden that makes all the rest
sweet! Christ is Heaven's crown and glory, it's brightest jewel and
diadem–and he that gets his heart set upon Christ gets the better part
of Heaven! At any rate, he can do without the angels and without the
harps of gold for a time. When he gets Christ in his heart, the hope of
glory–when the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy
Spirit–and he can say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His," he has got
the major part of Heaven and may have days of Heaven upon earth!
There is a third thing that we can do to get Heaven, and that is to
follow the occupation of those who are in Heaven. A man's joy or sorrow
comes very much from what he has to do. In Heaven they are always
serving and praising. If we get the same work to do, if we enter into
the same happy choir and sing praises to our heavenly King, and try to
serve Him without weariness, why, then, we shall get, again, the better
part of Heaven by getting the occupation of it! Holy men with Christ in
their hearts, and with Christ's work in their hands, spend many days of
Heaven upon earth! We did not find Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Wesley very
often troubled with doubts and fears–and I believe the reason was
because their tenor of life was on high, their communion with Jesus was
very close and, above all, because they were so hard at work for their
Master that they had not time to sit down and begin raking in the mire
of doubts and fears! May we be just such men as they were–and we shall
have days of Heaven upon earth!
Now, alas, alas, alas, there are many to whom I am now speaking who
will have no days of Heaven upon earth, but they will have their poor
unsatisfactory days to drag their weary length along and then, at last,
will come the days of death. Ah, then, there are some that have had
days of Hell upon earth–some who have made the nurse declare that they
would never nurse such a man, again, for all the world–some who have
made their very parents start from their bedside to hear their cries as
they lay there suffering from the rod of Almighty wrath! Take care,
take care that such is not your end! And if you would escape from it,
remember the door of Heaven is Christ! The door is wide open! Only come
to it, trust Christ, and you shall have days of Heaven upon earth, and
afterwards Heaven, itself, shall be your portion! God grant that it
shall be so for His name's sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: DEUTERONOMY 6:1-23.
Verses 1, 2. Now these are the commandments, the statues, and the
judgments which the LORD, your God, commanded to teach you, that you
might do them in the land where you go to possess it That you might
fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments
which I command'you, you and your son, and your son's son, all the days
of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. Obedience to God
should arise from the fear of Him, or from a holy awe of God felt in
the heart–for all true religion must be heart work. It is not the bare
action, alone, at which God looks, but at the motive–at the spirit
which dictates it, hence it is always put, "That you might fear the
Lord, your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments." Neither
are we to be content with keeping commands ourselves. It is the duty of
parents to seek the good of their children–to seek that the son and
the son's son should walk in the ways of God all their lives. May God
grant us never to be partakers of the spirit of those who think that
they have no need to look after the religion of their children–who
seem as if they left it to a blind fate. May we care for them with this
care that our son and our son's son should walk before the Lord all the
days of their life!
3. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well
with you and thatyou mayincrease mightily, as the LORD God of your
fathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey.
It seems, according to the Old Covenant, that temporal prosperity was
appended as a blessing to the keeping of God's commandments. It has
been sometimes said that while prosperity was the blessing of the Old
Covenant, adversity is the blessing of the New. There is some truth in
that statement, for whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and yet is it
true that the best thing for a man is that he should walk in the
commands of God. There is a sense in which we do make the best of both
worlds when we seek thelove of God. When we seek first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness, other things are added to us so that it is
not without meaning to us that the Lord here promises temporal
blessings to His people.
4. Hear, OIsrael: The LORD our God is one LORD. This is the great
Doctrine that we learn, both from the Old and the New Testament–there
is one Lord. And this great Truth of God has been burnt into the Jews
by their long chastisement and, whatever other mistakes they make, you
never find them making a mistake about this! The Lord your God is one
Lord. May we always be kept from all idolatry–from all worship of
anything except the living God. The sacred Unity of the Divine Trinity
may we evermore hold fast.
5. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your might It is not a little love that God
deserves, nor is it a little love that He will accept. He blesses us
with all His heart and all His might–and after that fashion are we to
love Him.
6. 7. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your
heart And you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall
talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way,
and when you lie down, and when you rise up.The Word of God is not for
some particular place called a Church or a Meeting House. It is for all
places, all times and all occupations. I wish that we had more of this
talking over of God's Word when we sit by the way, or when we walk.
8. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be
as frontlets between your eyes. With you in all your actions–with you
in all your thoughts–conspicuously with you–not out of ostentation,
but through your obedience to become apparent unto all men.
9-12 And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your
gates. And it shall be, when the LORD your Godshallhave broughtyou into
the land which He swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob, to give you great and goodly cities which you built not And the
houses full of all good things which you filled not, and wells dug
which you dug not, vineyards and olive trees which you planted not,
when you shall have eaten and are full, then beware lest you forget the
LORD, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house
of bondage. Pride is the peculiar sin of prosperity–and pride stands
side by side with forgetfulness of God. Instead of remembering from
where our mercies came, we begin to thank ourselves for these
blessings–and God is forgotten. I remember one of whom it was said
that he was a self-made man and he adored his creator. And I may say
that there are a great many persons who do just that! They believe that
they have made themselves and so they worship themselves! Be it ours to
remember that it is God who gives us strength to get wealth or to get
position and, therefore, unto Him be all the honor of it, and never let
Him be forgotten.
13-15. You shall fear the LORDyour God, andserve Him, and shall swear
by His name. You shallnot go after other gods or the gods of the people
which are round about you: (For the LORD your God is a jealous God
among you). He will have the heart all to Himself. Two gods He cannot
endure. Of false gods, there may be many–of the true God there can be
but One–and He is a jealous God.
15-19. Lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and
destroy you from off the face of the earth. You shallnot tempt the LORD
your God as you tempted Him in Massah. You shall diligently keep the
commandments of the LORD your God, and His testimonies and His
statutes, which He has commanded you. And you shall do that which is
right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with you
and that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore
unto your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the
LORD has spoken. Now, this Covenant of Works they break, as we also
have long ago broken ours. Blessed be God, our salvation now hangs on
another Covenant which cannot fail nor break down–the Covenant of
Grace! Yet, still, now that we have become the Lord's children, we are
put under the discipline of the Lord's house, and these words might not
set forth what is the discipline of the Lord's house towards His own
children, namely, that He does bless us when we walk in His ways, and
that He will walk contrary to us if we walk contrary to Him. He keeps a
rod in His house, and in very love He uses that upon His best beloved
ones. "You only have I known of all the nations of the earth;
therefore, I will punish you for your iniquities." He will not kill His
children, nor treat them as a judge treats a criminal, for they are not
under the Law, but under Grace. But He will chasten them and treat them
as a father chastens his child–out of love. Oh, that we might have
Grace to walk before Him with a holy, childlike fear, so that we may
always walk in the light of His Countenance!
20-23. And when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What mean
the testimonies, and the statues, and the judgments which the LORD our
Godhas commanded you? Then you shall say unto your son, We were
Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a
mighty hand. And the LORD showed signs and wonders great and sore upon
Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. And He
brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the
land which He swore unto our fathers. And cannot we tell our children
what God has done for us–how He brought us out of our spiritual
captivity, and how in His almighty love He has brought us into His
Church and will surely bring us into the glory above? May God grant us
Grace to speak about these things without diffidence, but with great
confidence to tell our children of what He has done.