Co-workers With God
(No. 2559)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 6, 1898.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY
25, 1883.
"Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it:
unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It
is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of
sorrows: for so He gives His Beloved sleep." Psalm 127:1,2.
Did you notice, when we were reading this Psalm, that it is entitled,
"A Song of Degrees for Solomon"? The title may be either, "for
Solomon," or, "bySolomon." If it is bySolomon, I can only say that it
is worthy to be placed side by side with the Book of Proverbs or
Ecclesiastes. It is a Psalm which is very brief and which has the soul
of wisdom in it. It is, in fact, a Solomonic Psalm–it is quite after
his style of writing. The whole of it might be made into a Proverb and
its separate sentences might be cut up into proverbial expressions. It
was inspired by the Spirit of God and He may have used for the writing
of it no less accomplished an individual than King Solomon, whose
wisdom was greater than that of the men of his age. If it is a Psalm,
"frSolomon"–which it strikes me it is, then it is none the less
admirable in our esteem, for, if Solomon needed to be taught it,
certainly we do. If, when David knew that Solomon was to build the
house of the Lord, he thought it necessary, before he began the Temple,
to remind him that "unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in
vain who build it," we may depend upon it that as we are less wise than
Solomon, we need to have just such a lesson taught us! Let us accept it
as from David and let each one of us hear the words of the dying king
as he speaks to us as well as to his son and successor.
I intend, as God shall help me, to fetch out three or four lessons from
our text which it may be well for us to learn.
I. The first is WHAT WE MAY NOT EXPECT, namely, that God will build the
house without our laboring, that God will guard the city without the
watchman's staying awake, or that He will give us bread without our
toiling for it. This principle may be applied to a great many matters.
And, first, to what we call our ordinary life, though I never like to
draw any distinction between one portion of our life and another. It is
a part of the Christian religion to sanctify everythingso that we
worship God in the shop as well as in the meeting house–and we are as
reverent about our domestic affairs as about our devotional concerns.
But, still, as it is our habit to speak of the ordinary affairs of
life, it is necessary to say that in all things to which we put our
hand, we are expected to use all available means. We are not allowed to
be idle, to sit still and do nothing because we say that we are
trusting in Providence. One of the things which Christianity cannot
bear is laziness! The Apostle Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, was
inspired to pass a very sharp sentence upon them–"This we commanded
you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat"–a sentence
which would exterminate a great number of persons who at the present
time seem to flourish! If in business I am not diligent, I cannot
expect to prosper. If I wish to be a man of learning, I cannot get it
simply by praying for it–I must study, even to the weariness of the
flesh. If a man is sick, he may trust in God as much as he wills–that
should be his first thing–but let him also use such remedies as God
has given if he can discover them, or learn of them from others.
My grandfather said to me, many years ago, concerning the preparation
of a sermon, and I have always remembered his words, "I study my sermon
as much as if the work of preaching depended entirely upon myself. And
I go into the pulpit relying upon the Spirit of God, knowing that it
does not depend upon myself, but upon Him." For us to do all that we
can do is the appointed way in which the blessing comes. We would all
think it ridiculous if men left off sowing because they had so much
faith in God that they were sure He would not suffer men to starve and
would be certain to send a harvest. Suppose the farmer said, "Plowing
is for ordinary people. I live by faith, I never plow. Harrowing,
fertilizing, sowing–these are all the pitiful shifts of unbelief. I
shall do nothing with the land, I shall just wait. I cannot doubt that
God can make wheat to grow quite as well as weeds and, if He pleases,
He can give me a harvest without my using any of these ordinary means
which are only a coverlet for unbelief."
Within a year, he would be convinced of his folly! I wish it were as
easy to convince all Christians of their folly in thinking that faith
means that they are to work no more. "Faith without works is dead."
"Faith works by love." There is no stronger and more forceful principle
for fetching out the energy of a man than his conviction that God is
with him. If God works in me to will and to do of His good pleasure,
then the natural result is that I must work out what He has worked in.
Where God has united means and ends, I would say of them, "What God has
joined together, let no man put asunder." To trust in the means without
God is presumption–but to profess to trust in God without the means is
only another form of presumption–it will come to the same thing in the
end. I am to believe in God and in God, alone, but if
1 perceive that He works in a certain way, I am to drop into God's way
and to believe that He will work while I am pleading with Him to do so,
and seeking to carry out His plan of doing it!
So, in the ordinary affairs of life, my dear Brothers and Sisters, do
not go and put your feet on the fender and sit still, and say, "The
Lord will provide," because if you act so foolishly, very likely He
will provide you with a place in the workhouse! If you go up and down
the town with no profession, with your hands in your empty pockets and
say that you are trusting in God, God will give you the wages that you
earn, namely poverty! He will clothe you with rags if you clothe
yourself with idleness. If you will not serve Him, you shall find the
reward that comes to the man who wastes his Master's talents by
wrapping them in a napkin!
The same thing is true in the great matter of our salvation. Dear
Friends, it is quite true that God saves His people. "Salvation is of
the Lord" from first to last, but no man is saved apart from his own
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. That faith is God's gift, but it is
man's act. The Holy Spirit does not believe for us–what would He
believe? No man is saved apart from repentance–and repentance is a
work of the Spirit of God. But the Spirit of God does not repent– what
has He to repent of? It is the man, himself, who must repent and
believe. "If you believe not, you shall die in your sins." "Unless you
repent, you shall all likewise perish." Do not, therefore, any of you,
sit still and dream about the Predestination of God! Divine
Predestination is most blessedly true–it is the joy of my spirit–but
do not turn it into a pillow for your idle head and fancy that
blessings will come to you when you are not looking for them. "Faith
comes by hearing." Therefore hear most attentively and reverently the
Word of God–and drink it in. And "salvation comes by faith."
Therefore, what you hear of God's Word, believe and accept simply and
with a childlike faith–and so you shall be saved. Do not, I pray
you–any of you–fall into the idea that it matters not where you are,
or what you do, or how inattentive you are, or how careless you are
about the things of God. It does matter! All these things are
sins–sins for which you shall be called to account!
Oh, that the Spirit of God may lead you to adopt quite another line of
conduct! Search the Scriptures, says our Lord, "for in them you think
you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me." May you
often be found upon your knees, for the Lord hears them that cry unto
Him! May you be found confessing your sins, for, "whoso confesses and
forsakes them shall have mercy"! May you be found believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ, for there is no soul lost that casts i t-self at the foot
of Christ's Cross! Do not, then, misread the text as though, either in
common things or in the loftiest matter, we were to do nothing and
leave everything to God.
This also is true, dear Friends, as to the matter of our spiritual
growth We are not to assume that because we are Christians, we shall go
on growing in Grace if we use no sort of means whatever. I know persons
who stint themselves in their meals–and they are often faint–do you
wonder? What shall I say of persons who, on the Sabbath, practice
once-a-day Christianity and who never go out to a week-night service?
They have not time, they say, yet I hear of their being at various
secular entertainments. They stint themselves in their spiritual food
and then they say–
"Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought Do Ilove the
Lord or no, Am I His, or am I not?"
That is a point Ilong to know, too, for the case is very doubtful! If a
man will not feed himself upon the Bread of Heaven, can he expect that
he shall grow strong? We see some who neglect private prayer–of course
not giving it up altogether–but they have little of it and they are
seldom found where the assemblies of God's people are gathered for
prayer. And they say they do not know how it is that they do not enjoy
religion! I should think not, dear Friend–you do not have enough of
it, for it is with religion as the poem says it is concerning
learning–
"A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the
Pierian spring." It is often so with religion–a man gets just enough
of it to make him miserable! He can no longer be satisfied with the
world and he is not satisfied with God–so he is miserable all round.
Oh, that you had not only religion enough to make you a miserable
sinner, but enough to make you a rejoicing saint! But if we neglect to
search the Word and neglect private prayer, and neglect the assemblies
of God's House. If we restrain communion with the Most High, can we
wonder if we do not grow? God will undoubtedly build our spiritual
house, but we, also, must labor in it–there must be an earnestness, a
prayerfulness, a watchfulness, an intensity of desire, a using of all
appointed means by which we may be built up in our most holy faith.
I am certain that this is also true in a fourth matter, namely, in our
Christian work, i n our trying to bring souls to Christ. We cannot
expect to see men converted if we are not earnest in telling them that
Truth of God which will save the soul. It is the work of the Spirit to
convert sinners–to regenerate must always be the sole work of God–yet
the Lord uses us as His instruments. The great honor that God often
puts upon instrumentality is very wonderful. Paul speaks of himself as
the very mother of those to whom he was the means of conversion–"My
little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ is
formed in you." Then, in writing to Philemon, he says, of Onesimus,
"whom I have begotten in my bonds"–making himself to be, as it were,
both father and mother–strong expressions and yet they are warranted,
otherwise Paul would not have used them. God uses those who seek to win
souls so that, as it were, He puts the very paternity of those souls
upon them! It is great condescension that He should do so, but let it
teach us this lesson that if God works by means, as He does, He will
not have us neglect those means, or we will be found unfit for the
Master's use!
A Brother complains that there are no conversions under his ministry.
Will he ask himself whether he has aimed at conversion? A Sunday school
teacher says that she has seen no girls in her class brought to Christ.
Has her teaching been such as to tend that way? Has Christ been set
forth in His sweet attraction? Has prayer been offered that the girls
might come to Christ? Have they been pleaded with? Have they been
taught their lost condition? Have they been shown the excellence of
Christ as a Savior? You see, if we live in a region of means suited to
ends, it is the path of wisdom to find out the means best suited to the
desired end–and to use it in dependence upon God! Our text tells us
that without God our labor will be in vain. But it does not tell us
that we may expect to have our desire in our spiritual service unless
we, ourselves, work for the Lord. I believe, my Brothers, that if we
preach Christ Crucified with crucified hearts–if we set forth Christ
with earnest longing that men may see Him, they will see Him. "They
that sow in tears shall reap in joy."
I believe, teachers in the Sunday school, that if Christ is taught in
the classes earnestly and prayerfully, the children will receive Him.
Ask those who have tried it–there are many such here–and I am sure
that if I were to appeal to their experience, they would tell you that
though they may have been, at times, slack in their service, God has
never been slack concerning His promise! His Word has not returned unto
Him void–it has accomplished what He pleased and prospered in the
thing where He sent it. Let there be no listless indifference, no
falling back upon the Sovereignty of God as an excuse for
half-heartedness! Solomon was too wise a man to write a Psalm that
would be meant to encourage idleness! The Holy Spirit would never have
led him to write sentences that would bring us into such a state of
heart as that.
II. But now, secondly, our text suggests to us WHAT WE MAY EXPECT. That
is, we may expect failure if we attempt the work without God.
We may expect it and we shall not be disappointed. Going back, again,
to our ordinary life, note what the Psalmist says. "Unless the Lord
builds the house, they labor in vain who build it: unless the Lord
guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you
to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows." The
pivotal word in the text is the word, "vain." Three times it rings out
as a death-knell to the hope of every man who tries to do without God!
Vain is your building a house; vain is your watching a city; vain is
your rising up early and sitting up late. "Vanity of vanities," says
the Preacher. All is vanity–utter vanity without God! Success in life,
without God, is always vain! A man may be a millionaire without God,
but what is that? He may be reported in the newspapers to have died
worth a million, when, in fact, he was not worth a brass button! He was
put into a coffin, lowered into the grave, but he was worth nothing at
all. He could take nothing with him. Even the silver plate on the
coffin did not belong to him. If anyone had dug open the grave and
taken the plate away, he could not have said, "Leave that alone, it is
mine!" "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we
can carry nothing out." So life is a failure if it is only used in
amassing gold.
"Oh," says one, "but a man may be famous without God." Yes, in a sense,
he may. But have you ever analyzed fame? Of what good is it to a dead
man? Of what good is it to a damnedman? A man in Hell and his name in
every newspaper! A man in the bottomless Pit and they say that he is
one of the great men of the age who has left his mark upon the world!
But if it is a mark without God, what kind of mark is it? A mark that
had better be obliterated as soon as possible! No creature can be a
success unless it pleases its Creator. No man can be a success unless
he has treasure laid up for immortality, a mansion in Heaven, a place
to abide in the islands of the blessed in the land of the hereafter.
Without God, he is a complete failure in life.
It may be that some of you are trying to attain success without God,
but you will not succeed and, in the process, you will fritter away
your life. What would you think of a man who cut himself up into strips
with which to make himself a coat? "That would be a most absurd thing,"
you say. Well, but what think you of a man who destroys himself that he
may get himself bread, or that he may find a house and clothes for
himself? "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his soul?" That is, supposing he could gain the whole world by
bartering his soul for it, what profit would he make? But men do not
gain the world by losing their soul–they lose both this world and the
next, too! And for what do they lose all this? Why, they "rise up
early." Oh, what would they not give for another half-hour in the
morning? They rise up early and they "sit up late," till they fall
asleep at their work. Oh, dear! What mill horses! What worse than
slaves! And they, "eat the bread of sorrows." There is very little
bread and, instead of being buttered, it seems to be smeared over with
gall. There are some that I know who would not eat bread if they could
help it–they grudge the money that it costs to keep body and soul
together. And so they are losing this life and they are not getting
anything for the life to come. They are throwing all away for some vain
hope of becoming rich, that they may be talked of among men! Oh, happy
and blessed is the man who has risen above that groveling and who knows
that without his God he cannot prosper! He first of all goes to Him to
learn what true prosperity is–and then looks to Him to bestow it.
Now, dear Friends, here is a very important and blessed Truth of God
which concerns our salvation. What we may expect regarding our
salvation is this–if we attempt to obtain salvation apart from God, it
will be a failure. Oh, how many there are who are seeking salvation
through the works of the Law! They build and they watch. And they rise
up early and they sit up late. And they eat the bread of sorrows and,
let me tell you, if you are trying to be saved by your good works, you
have need to get up early, sit up late, work your fingers to the bone,
worry yourselves into your graves and then it will still be all in
vain! Let me read to you, again, the beginning of that 126th Psalm,
though we had it just now. The man of works rises up early, sits up
late and eats the bread of sorrows all in vain.
But this is what Faith says–"When the Lord turned, again, the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth
filled with laughter and our tongue with singing: then said they among
the heathen, The Lord has done great things for them." You are trying
to see what you can do. But we have found out what the Lord can do! You
are fretting and fuming because of what you cannot do. But we are
laughing and singing because of what the Lord has done by the
redemption accomplished on the Cross of Calvary! I wish you would flee
from Moses and get away to Christ and begin to trust and rejoice in
Him, for, if you do not, this is what you may expect–if you spend the
next half-century in tears and mortification of the body, if you deny
yourself and give all your goods to feed the poor, and even give your
body to be burned, yet vanity of vanities shall it all be! Without God,
all that you can do in the matter of your salvation shall be vain!
It is just the same with regard to the Christian's growth in Divine
Grace. The Believer must never think that he will naturally and
necessarily grow in Grace because he uses the means of Grace. I just
now insisted upon the reading of the Scriptures, but that may be a very
dry formality unless we look to Got to bless it to us. I spoke of
gathering to hear the Word, but that will be a very unprofitable piece
of ceremonialism unless our eyes are toward the Lord rather than toward
the preacher. I spoke of private prayer, but that may degenerate into a
mere form unless we have communion with God in it. Indeed, it is
nothing unless God is there! You cannot go an inch in the pilgrimage to
Heaven without God! It is not possible for you to overcome a solitary
sin, or to produce a single virtue apart from the Holy Spirit. "They
labor in vain who build" without God. You may rise up early and sit up
late–and be one of the most outspoken professors of religion–but
nothing will come of it unless God is in it all.
And so is it with regard to the work and service of God. O Bothers and
Sisters, we may preach, but none of our preaching will raise the
spiritually dead unless the Lord is there! We may adopt every kind of
expedient and go what length we like in seeking a revival, but it will
be a farce and a nullity unless our dependence is upon the Lord alone.
Give us a working Church, but let it first be a trusting Church! Let
the man be earnest, but first let him be humble. Let him believe in the
Gospel being blessed, but let him first believe that it is God, alone,
who can bless the Gospel. If not, we shall certainly meet with failure.
If we dream for a moment that we can change a heart of stone into
flesh, that stony heart will, by its obduracy, teach us a severe
lesson! If we even think that one little child can be converted by our
tears and prayers, apart from God, we shall be utterly disappointed.
Without God, we are nothing!
III. Now, thirdly, and briefly, let us notice, from the text, WHAT WE
SHOULD NOT DO.
And the first point is that in our ordinary affairs we should not fret,
or worry, or grieve. You know how some people act–they forget that God
rules all things and that they are taught to pray, "Give us this day
our daily bread." So they are all in a fume, up in the morning far too
early, waking everybody up who needed a little extra rest, then toiling
hard all day, not really doing much, but fussing over it all, rather
than really accomplishing anything. They seem as if they cannot go to
bed at night–there is always something more to be done. There is
another drawer that needs putting to rights, or something else that
must be attended to even at midnight! Then look at the man in
business–he does not do half as much as the quiet man who goes calmly
about his work. But you would think, from the fuss he makes, that he is
going to compete with all the traders in London and that his shop, if
he is to live by it, must cut out all the shops that ever existed! If
there is a bad debt, oh, he will be ruined!
I know of some people who seem to make all the affairs of life into a
kind of slavery by the way in which they are agitated about them. It is
sad to see an immortal soul worrying itself thus about the things of
time. Well did the poet say that it resembled–
"Ocean into tempest tossed
To waft a feather or to drown a fly."
Yet this is the way with very many–they forget that God "gives His
beloved sleep." They would be far better in bed, sometimes, when they
are sitting up and worrying. If they could just sleep on it and leave
the matter with God, it would go on a deal better without them than it
does with them. Yet they fancy that if they are not there to hack,
drive and scold from morning to night, everything would go amiss. My
dear worrying man or woman, pray the Lord to give you a little patience
and a great deal of faith–and the Grace to be quiet and leave all in
His hands.
In the matter of the soul's salvation, a man should be anxious, yet his
salvation will never come by his working and running from this one to
that and the other. I have known men who have desired to be saved and
who have not been satisfied with the preacher they have been accustomed
to hear–so they have gone to another. They have not been satisfied
with him–so they have gone to still another! They have not been
content, perhaps, in one denomination, so they have drifted off to
another and, at last, it is highly probable that they have cast anchor
with the worst lot of all. Perhaps they have got as far as the Papacy
and they think now they have something real–here is an historic
church–they can cast anchor there. Yet very soon they are off
somewhere else. Possibly they go to the Plymouth Brethren, or to the
Irving-ites–nobody knows where they may go, but they keep flying about
here and there. This is not the way that salvation comes! I can stop
just where I am and find that by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, I
am saved. "Lord Jesus, I believe. I trust You and I am saved." That is
the way salvation comes–not by all that running about and gadding to
and fro! This is our Lord's declaration–"He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved." That is how, in the Great Commission, He bade
us put it and I shall not put it otherwise than He commanded us. "He
that believes on the Son has everlasting life." "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." But instead of doing that, some
must be here and there, and everywhere. Oh, that they would listen to
the text! "It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat
the bread of sorrows," for to those who are in Christ, to those who
simply believe on Him, "He gives His beloved sleep."
Now, with regard to growing in Divine Grace, I believe that it is much
the same. I do not know that I ever looked down my own throat, but
there are some Christians who seem to live that way–they will not
believe that they are spiritually breathing unless they can see down
their own throats! They do not believe that their heart is beating
unless they can hear it palpitating. I mean this! There is often such
an amount of introspection about Christians that they miss the very
essence of true Christian life. They look into themselvesinstead of
looking to Christ alone. You remember that when the face of Moses shone
because he had looked at God, we read that, "Moses wished that the skin
of his face had not shone." You go and look in the mirror and you are
in hopes that you will see your face shine that way, but it will not.
You say, "Would you not have a man look in the mirror?" Of course I
would, that he may see the spots on his face. But he cannot remove them
by his looking–he must go to the water to wash the spots away. The way
to become like Christ is to think about Christ. Some people think so
much about their own sanctification that they miss sanctification
altogether. They are looking at their own image and admiring it until
they are gradually being more and more conformed to their own image!
But he who looks away from himself, entirely to Christ, shall go from
glory to glory and be transformed into the image of his Master. It is
foolish to be always fretting and worrying, and saying, "I am not
humble enough, I am not believing enough, I am not this or that." Go to
Christ and rest yourself on Him–and believe that what He has begun to
do for you and in you, He will certainly perform and perfect!
Here comes in, again, our working for the Lord. Beloved Friends, let us
work for the Lord without being "cumbered" with much service as Martha
was. The Lord Jesus Christ is admirable in His life for the quiet way
in which He does everything. He always seems ready. Whatever the
occasion is, He is never put about or flurried. He works all day long
and He gets weary, but He says nothing about it. It is a sweet way of
working for Christ–"to do the next thing," the next that needs to be
done today–not always forecasting all that we are going to do tomorrow
and the next day, but calmly and quietly believing that there are so
many days in which a man shall be able to walk and to work, and while
we have them we will both walk and work in the strength of God! It is a
very sweet thing when a man is brought into such a condition that he
can work for Christ in Christ's own quiet way, calmly leaving all his
cares at his Savior's feet.
IV. I will finish up with the description of SOMETHING WHICH I WOULD
LIKE TO SEE. When Solomon was building the Temple for the Lord, it was
done very quietly. The men had the plan–not one of them had to
consider about it–the plan was all before them and when the stones
came from the quarries, they did not need any hammering or any
altering. They only needed quietly fixing, each stone into the place
that was prepared for it. Those who went to work for Solomon on the
mountains had one month in Lebanon, and then they had two months at
home, so that they were not killed by overwork. I can well believe that
while the Temple was building, it was about the noblest form of human
labor that ever fell to men's lot. I should think they began the
morning with Psalms–not too early, before the sun was up– but just
when they could begin it properly. And they worked well on till
evening–not too late, for this was work for God, and God is no
tyrant–He does not want His servants to be slaves–and before the sun
went down there was an evening hymn and they said, when they went home,
"Oh, we have had another blessed day's work! It has been so pleasant!
Another big stone has been hoisted up–we could not have believed that
it would move, but we got it into its place all right. We had not to
hammer it, or even to tap it with a mallet–it just fitted precisely
and we felt so glad, for it is the Lord's House that is being built. We
kept singing all day. All the time the great cranes were lifting the
big statues, we kept praising and blessing the Lord as we saw the
Temple being built. We never had such work, before, and never enjoyed
work like it–it seems like one long blessed holiday."
Those who were privileged to work from day to day with all their might
yet found every day to be like a Sabbath, for now their ordinary work
was work for God. They were not like common workmen who were toiling
for the world! Even that by which they earned their daily bread was all
for the Lord. So every day went merrily on till they came to the very
last day and they saw the top stone raised. And then they looked with
the utmost delight upon it and they were the most glad of all the
company! When Solomon prayed that wonderful prayer to the great Lord of
the House, they felt that they had not labored in vain, for God had
blessed them and now He had filled the House with His Presence so that
the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the brightness of
the Glory!
Now, I want all of us to feel that as workers for God–pastor and
people, Sunday school teachers and you who teach the Bible classes, you
who distribute tracts, you who preach at the street corners, all of
you, my beloved fellow helpers– we are doing grand work! You know that
it is God's House that we are building. Under God and with His help, we
are building up His Church with stones that He points out to us, helps
us to quarry and enables us to bring into their places. And the work
goes on so easily, too, if we will but do it according to the Great
Architect's plan. And if we do not get too fussy and busy, and if we do
not think that we should knock a corner off here, and alter the shape
of a stone there, but will just do it as God would have it done, in His
fear, in simple dependence upon Him, confident that it is all
right–the great Master-Builder will complete His work! I think that we
ought to be the happiest workers who ever lived! It should be a joy to
us to do anythingfor the Lord Jesus. And, oh, when it gets finished,
and the top stone is laid, and the Lord descends and fills the House
and none of us will be any longer needed, for the priests will not be
able to stand and minister by reason of the Glory of the Christ who has
filled His Church–oh, then what joy we shall have that ever we were
engaged in the work!
I mean that for you, my dear Sister–do not go on fretting and saying,
"I shall have to give up my class. Things do not seem to go well." I
know how you talk–do not speak like that any longer! And you, dear
Brother, must not go home to your church in the country and say, "I
cannot stir the people. The work does not flourish as I wish it would."
Of course it does not! My work does not prosper as I wish it might. You
and I can never go at the pace we would like to go, but can we not be
willing to be driven by our Lord and to go at HIS pace? It is quite
right to work as if the salvation of all the souls in the world
depended upon you, yet, as it does not, you had better throw that
burden back upon your Lord and Master! Feel the weight of men's souls
till it crushes you down to Christ's feet, but do not let it crush you
any lower than that–you are not the Savior, you are not to have the
Glory of their salvation. Neither, if you have served your Lord
faithfully, shall you have the shame of their ruin if they are lost!
Rise not up early and sit not up late. I mean, so as to work yourself
away–but give yourself up by faith to do all you can do, all that God
shall help you to do–and then trust in Him to bless you and He will
bless you. God make this discourse a word of comfort to His own people,
for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALMS 126. AND 127.
Psalm 126:1. When the LORD turned, again, the captivity of Zion, we
were like them that dream. We could hardly believe it! We began to talk
incoherently, as men do in their sleep. We were so carried away with
joyful rapture that we did not know where we were–"we were like them
that dream."
2. Then was our mouth filled with laughter We became Issacs, for he was
the child of laughter. We laughed as Abraham did, for very joy of
faith! Sometimes laughter may become the holiest possible expression.
It may be one of the meanest utterances of our nature, but it may also
be one of the loftiest. These people not only laughed, but their mouth
was filled with laughter! They could not laugh loudly enough. There was
no expression of articulate speech that sufficed them at all–"Then was
our mouth filled with laughter."
2. And our tongue with singing. When they did find their tongue, they
could not speak, they must sing! They could not have anything so slow
as a mere declaration, they must have a Psalm–"Then was our mouth
filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing."
2. Then said they among the heathen, The LORD has done great things for
them. The heathen could not help seeing that it was the Lord who had
delivered Israel. No other people except the Jews ever came back from
captivity. The Babylonian tyrant never restored any others to their
land, but he did restore these people. And the very heathen said, "It
is their God, Jehovah, that has done it." And what did God's own people
say?
3. The LORD has done great things for us; whereof we are glad. See the
difference between the outsider and the insider. The outsider says,
"The Lord has done great things for them." Ah, but they who belong to
God say, "The Lord has done great things for us." Oh, the privilege of
being able to say, "for us"! Dear Hearers, can you join with all the
saints and say, "The Lord has done great things for us" This is what
happened to God's people, before, but now they have fallen into another
trouble, so hear how they pray.
4. Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. '
'You did it once. Do it again. You made us to live. Make us to live
again. We sang, then, O Lord–enable us to sing again, 'Turn again our
captivity.' As the dry riverbeds are suddenly made to be filled with
water at the melting of the snow, so come, and fill our hearts, 'as the
streams in the south.'"
5. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Take that for certain! Lay
it down as a Scripture Proverb. When God sends us a wet time, and we
have to sow in the moist, foggy atmosphere–never mind–there are
brighter days yet to come. We shall reap amid the sunbeams and carry
home our sheaves with joy!
6. He that goes forth and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. ' 'He shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing." Now, you disconsolate workers,
you who have only a handful of seed, you shall come back with an armful
of sheaves! You shall come back rejoicing though you now go forth
sorrowing, for the Lord has said it! Therefore be of good courage.
Psalm 127:1-3. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who
build it: unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in
vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the
bread of sorrows for so He gives His beloved sleep. Lo, children are an
heritage of the LORD and the fruit of the womb is a reward. The
Psalmist had been speaking about house building and there is the
building up of the house in the sense of a family being built up by
children. Some people think children an encumbrance, but they are, "a
heritage of the Lord," and they are to be looked upon with gladness.
One said, "I have 12 sons," and his friend answered, "That is exactly
Jacob's number." "Yes," said the first speaker, "and I have Jacob's God
to enable me to sustain them." There is a comfort in that thought–may
God grant that none may be troubled by those whom God sends to us for a
heritage!
4. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the
youth. In the case of an arrow, you know it all depends which way you
shoot it. Mind, therefore, that you direct your children aright. Give
them a good start, a true aim from the very first, God helping you, and
then they shall fly from you like the arrows of a mighty archer!
5. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them. That is, when
they are like arrows–not when they are gnarled and knotty, like
crooked sticks! When they are unwilling to be tutored and trained, then
they become a trial and a trouble. But happy is the man who has a
quiver full of arrows–the more the merrier of such children as the
Psalmist here speaks of.
5. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in
the gate. When there was any suit at law, these sons of his would be
there to plead for him. If there was any fighting to be done, they also
would be to the front. It was a dangerous thing to attack a man who had
a house full of strong, loyal, loving sons! They would be his
defense–they would speak–and speak with very considerable emphasis,
too, with his enemies in the gate.