Forgetting God
(No. 2975)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1906.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY MORNING,
SEPTEMBER 9, 1876.
"Therefore have they forgotten Me." Hosea 13:6.
Our text reminds us that God does take notice of what men do, or of
what they do not do. Here He complains–and there is a kind of mournful
plaintiveness about His words–"Therefore have they forgotten Me." It
is not a matter of indifference to God whether men remember Him or not.
It seemed to be a subject of surprise to David that God should think of
man, for He wrote, "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your
fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man,
that You are mindful of him?" Yet God is mindful of man and it grieves
Him that man is not mindful of Him! It would not disturb our minds if
one tiny ant should forget or ignore us, yet we did not create it, and
we have not the claims upon it that God has upon us. Yet, little though
we are–and so insignificant that the ant, itself, is a great thing in
comparison with us if we reckon what we are in comparison with God–it
seems that He does want us to remember Him, to think of Him and to
trust, love and serve Him. And when we do not, He is vexed and grieved.
At least, speaking after the manner of men, we are taught to believe
that it pains Him at His heart, so that He cries out by the mouth of
His servant, the Prophet, "They have forgotten Me–their Maker, their
best Friend and their greatest Helper."
I am afraid, dear Friends, that the accusation in our text may be
brought against a very large number of us. Certainly it can be laid to
the charge of all those who have lived without thinking of God and who
have never turned to Him with repentance and faith and who,
consequently, are still strangers to Him. How many such people there
are, God alone can accurately compute! The great mass of our fellow
creatures would come under that category. But, worst of all, among the
Lord's own people there are, alas, some against whom this accusation
can be brought! They have forgotten their God–not absolutely, so as to
be utterly and altogether like the thoughtless sinner–yet very sadly
and grievously, so that God, Himself, complains of them, "They have
forgotten Me." For, mark you, if God observes what ordinary men do,
much more does He take notice of what His own people do! An unkind word
from a stranger may have a very slight effect upon us, but if such a
word should come from the lips of one whom we love it would cut us to
the quick! We could put up with a thousand things from those who are
mere acquaintances, but from a beloved child, or from the wife of our
bosom–such a thing would be very hard to bear. Remember, O Christian,
that ancient declaration, "The Lord your God is a jealous God." Because
He loves us so much, He is in that very proportion, jealous, for the
greatest jealousy grows out of limitless love. And the Lord our God who
bought us with the heart's blood of His dear Son, counts us so dear to
Him that a wandering thought in our mind becomes a crime against
Him–and the giving up of any part of our heart to love of the world,
or of self, or sin, or Satan, or any other of His rivals–becomes to
Him a cause of grief and sadness. If there are any children of God
here–and I fear there may be many–who have grown cold in heart and
who have wandered from the Lord, I hope the text will come like a
lament from Him who hung upon the Cross of Calvary, "Therefore have
they forgotten Me. Therefore have they forgotten Me."
I. I am going to call your attention, first, to THE TIME WHEN THIS SIN
WAS COMMITTED. "Therefore," says the Lord, "have they forgotten Me."
When was that? If we ascertain that, we shall also find out when we
ought to be most upon our guard against falling into a similar sin.
It appears, dear Friends, to have been when the Israelites had come out
of the wilderness into Canaan–when they had escaped from troubles and
had come into an easy condition, for so the context reads–"I did know
you in the
wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture,
so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted;
therefore have they forgotten Me." It is a very sorrowful fact that in
this case the greater God's goodness was to His people, the less was
their gratitude to Him–just in proportion as He was kind to them, they
were cold to Him. These people had been delivered from excessive toil.
In Egypt they had been a nation of slaves. And in the wilderness they
had been for 40 years pilgrims with weary feet. They seldom tarried
long in any place, but backwards and forwards across that "waste
howling wilderness" they marched almost continuously. And concerning
all that time, God says, "I did know you in the wilderness." He knew
them, morning by morning, as the manna fell. He knew them when the
quails came on swift wings to bring them flesh to eat. He knew them
when the morning and evening lambs were offered in sacrifice for them,
sinners as they were all the while they were in the wilderness, and He
says, "I did know you then." So, Brothers and Sisters, it has happened
to some men that when they have had hard times, long hours and stern
labor, they have managed to be up in the morning early to get a quiet
season of communion with God and, though they scarcely could have been
thought capable of doing it, for they worked so hard, yet they could
find leisure to teach a few children in the Sunday school, or to
distribute tracts, or to speak a word for Christ at an open-air
service! They had very hard bondage in their daily occupation, yet
whenever there was a weeknight service, they always managed to get
there. They were very apt out of sheer weariness because they had been
toiling so hard during the day, to fall asleep when they sat down in
the pew–still, they said that half a loaf was better than no
bread–and they were glad to get a message from any of the Lord's
servants in those trying days.
But, dear Friends, you remember that in due time the children of Israel
came to Canaan. Then there was no more marching to and fro in the
wilderness for them! They found houses built ready for them to occupy
and they could sit, every man, under his own vine and under his own fig
tree–and then it was that the Lord said, "They were filled, and their
heart was exalted, thereforehave they forgotten Me." It is just the
same with the man who used to come to the House of God Sundays and
weeknights, though he was sorely weary with his heavy work. He now has
what men call, "an easy berth," and has very little to do, so, being no
longer a poor galley slave tugging at the oar, you might have thought
that he would have given more time to God's service and have become one
of the most industrious Christians living! But instead he does not do
as much, now, as he used to do with the little bits of time which his
hard toil allowed him! Ah, Brothers, when you get into smooth and easy
places, then is the time when you should be most anxious, lest of you,
as of the Israelites, the Lord should have to say, "Therefore have they
forgotten Me." I would gladly wish for every one of you that you may be
able to earn your daily bread without any excessive labor. I would that
every man who has to toil beyond due and reasonable hours, were
delivered from such semi-slavery. Yet I know that there are many who
make an ill use of any leisure that they get and some who are not
nearly as fervent in the cause of God, now that they have leisure, as
they used to be before they were so privileged!
These Israelites, also, were now delivered from the pressure of urgent
needs. At the very beginning of their wilderness journey, they had to
go for three days without water. "And when they came to Marah, they
could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter." They
cried to Moses, "What shall we drink?" And he cried to the Lord and
soon the bitter waters were made sweet. Before long, they had eaten up
all that they had brought with them out of the land of Egypt–and they
murmured, again, and then the Lord gave them a daily supply of
manna–their bread dropped from the sky morning by morning! But now
that they have got into Canaan, that have broad fields that are very
fruitful, they reap abundant harvests, their barns are full to bursting
and the hillsides are clad with vines, olive trees, fig trees and all
manner of dainties! Instead of having to gather one day's food at a
time, they have many months' supplies laid up in store. Some of them
became very rich but, alas, it was of them that the Lord had to say,
"According to their pasture, so were they filled…therefore have they
forgotten Me." You surely have known or heard of men and women who have
loved the Lord when in poverty–or, at least, who have seemed to do
so–and who were very fervent and active while they had to look up to
the Lord from day to day and pray, "Give us this day our daily bread."
But, in the order of God's Providential dealings, they have been lifted
up into another station in life. You would naturally have supposed that
they would have loved the Lord more and have done more for His
cause–and laid themselves out with a greater willingness for His
service–but, instead of that, it has been the very reverse with them!
When they were financially poor, they were spiritually rich–but now
that they are financially rich, they are spiritually poor! As they have
gone up temporally, they have gone down spiritually. Their barn has
become full, but their heart has become empty! Their wine press has
overflowed, but the joy of the Lord has departed from them. It is a
sad, sad thing wherever this happens. Sadly, some of us know that it
often happens. Let it not be so with any of you, Beloved.
Then, again, these Israelites had become very self-indulgent They
enjoyed themselves and lived only for pleasure. And they despised
everybody who would not or could not do the same. Being "rich and
increased with goods," they looked down upon those who were not rich
and, worse than that, they began to forget their God. O my Brothers and
Sisters, I have often looked upon them who have been in sore trouble
and I have wished that, by some magic touch, I could lift the daughters
of sorrow out of their sad state! But I have lived long enough to feel
that if I could do it, I would deliberately stay my hand until I had
consulted with Infinite Wisdom to know whether it would be for their
good or not. If it were in my power to lift the cross from every
Brother and every Sister's shoulders here and to give all of you your
heart's desire, I would not do so, however much I might feel prompted
to do it! As I often see how the plant that bloomed in the shade is
burnt up in the sunshine–and how some natures have never yielded the
sweetest perfume except in grief's sad dripping-well–when I perceive
that some of God's saints never seem to honor Him when they are lifted
up into high places–I feel that you and I had better be satisfied to
let the Lord put His people wherever He pleases and keep them on "short
commons," sometimes, and even chasten them every morning, as the
Psalmist says was done to him. Perhaps some of them, if the Lord did
not make them cry every morning, would make themselves cry twice as
much before night–and if He did not afflict them, they would very soon
bring far worse afflictions upon themselves by falling into some great
sin.
I think I know the reason why God does not trust some of us with the
bright eyes and the elastic step which He bestows upon others. I think
I can see why He does not give some of us more prominent positions in
His Church and greater influence among the works for Him. I think I can
tell why that Sister is lame and that Brother is blind–why that one
hangs her harp upon the willows and that other toils amid continual
poverty. It is because God will not risk all His ships on the roughest
sea. He has constructed some of His vessels so that they can stand the
storm–and these He sends away into the thick of the tempest–but His
little ships He keeps nearer the shore. Some of His seamen see less of
His wonders in the deep because they are not able to bear the sight as
others can. I think it is so and, certainly, this is true– that
seasons of prosperity, of any sort, are seasons of great trial to
Christians. According to our text, it was at the time of their
prosperity that the Israelites forgot their God.
II. Now, secondly, let me indicate THE PROGRESS OF THIS EVIL WHENEVER
IT HAPPENS TO A MAN.
It has happened that some men have lived all their lives forgetting
God. It may be that some of you who are here at this service have never
really thought of God–you have forgotten all about Him. A gentleman
was walking down a country road one Sabbath morning and he met a man
with a cartload of hay. He was asked by the man who was driving the
cart whether he had seen two lads on in front. "Yes," said the
gentleman, "I have, and I think they are the boys of a father with a
short memory, are they not?" He said he did not know whether it was so
or not, but they were his lads. "Well," said the gentleman, "I thought
that you were their father and that you had a short memory, for you do
not seem to have recollected that there is a text of Scripture which
says, 'Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.'" That short memory
concerning the Sabbath affects a great many people concerning
everything else that is good. Some of you, I fear, have such short
memories that you have never even recollected the God who made you. You
have eaten just as the cattle eat and you have drunk as they drink–but
you have never blessed the Giver of the unnumbered mercies that you
have received–any more than the cattle have done! Some of you go on
from morning to night without any recognition of God. There are
hundreds of men who might be compared–as Rowland Hill did once compare
them–to hogs under an oak. "They eat the acorns," he said, "but they
never look up and thank the oak." They live in this world and feed upon
the bounties which God has provided for them, yet they have no thought
of Him! It is His air that they breathe and it is by His power that
they exhale the air–they could not exist for a single moment if it
were not for Him–yet He is not in any of their thoughts! If God were
blotted out of the universe–if such a thing could be, that He should
no longer exist, but that they could still exist–they certainly would
not be grieved. Possibly they would feel all the easier in their mind
because there would be no judgment to come and no punishment for all
their evil.
Ah, my Friend, you must be in a very bad plight if you think you can
get on better without God than with Him! If your boy were to say
concerning you, "I wish I might never see my father again"–if that
little child who eats at your table every day, whom you clothed but the
other day with new garments–if he were to say, "I never want to speak
to my father again–I wish he were dead!"–there must be something
radically wrong in that child! His morals must be thoroughly bad. Even
if nobody has ever found him out in deceiving or lying, I am sure, from
that one fact, that he is a bad boy. Now, my Friend, even if I cannot
point to any sinful act of yours, I am sure that there must be
something very wrong with you if you have lived in this world all these
years without thinking of God!
If I am invited to go and stay with a friend in the country and I
simply see his beautiful park and his fine gardens, and indoors I have
all that I need in the way of refreshment during the day and a
comfortable bed at night, but my host never puts in an appearance–and
I do not know whether he is anywhere about the premises–I do not enjoy
my visit. I came down to see him, so I cannot be content with seeing
his park and his gardens, and so on. I say to the servants, "Where is
your master? I came down here to pay a visit to him and I cannot find
any pleasure here unless I see him." And, dear Friends, I feel just
like that with regard to my God. When I look at this beautiful world
which He has made–and it is a beautiful world, after all, let who will
speak against it–I always feel that I need to see Him who made it.
Even our lovely gardens which seem to me to be a thousand times more
beautiful than all the vineyards of the Continent, would give me no
pleasure in looking at them unless I could always realize that God is
there. The sea itself–the wide and open sea– what is it if there is
no God to rule its waves and to speak in its storms? I must see traces
of God in everything that happens! But some of you have lived all this
while and God's cry concerning you–over hill and dale, up and down the
street, in the house where you live, across the table at which you eat,
and over the pillow on which you sleep–is, "They have forgotten Me. I
have made them, kept them alive and blessed them in a thousand ways,
yet they have forgotten Me!–Me, of whom they ought first to have
thought, for it was essential with them that they should first have
thought of Me–and through not thinking of Me, they have bred within
themselves all manner of evil." O unconverted people, I wish you could
put yourselves in God's place for a few minutes and just think how you
would feel if others had treated you as you have treated Him! Let the
sharp arrows of conviction stick fast in your conscience as you realize
that you have acted in a mean, dastardly, ungenerous, ungrateful way
towards your God–the tender, loving, gracious Creator, Preserver and
Friend of men!
But, now, turning to you Christian people, I want to ask of the
progress of this evil in you. I will show you how it often works. When
God prospers you in business, takes away sickness and removes causes of
sorrow, it sometimes happens that the evil of forgetting God begins
with an almost imperceptible alienation of heart from Him. You do not
notice it. You would be very grieved if you did, but your heart begins
to grow cold and the love to your Lord that once burned in your soul is
not as fervent as it used to be. And this condition of spirit very
speedily shows itself in increasing fondness for worldly things. To
have riches may be a blessing to you, but for the riches to have
youwill be a great curse to you. There are some who have abundance of
temporal things given to them and they make a good use of them, so they
may be thankful for them. But there are others who are carried away by
these temporal things which thus become the source of all sorts of
calamities. A man may have a fine house and a beautiful garden and he
may be thankful for them– so far, so good–but he may fall into the
sin of making a Heaven of that house and garden–and so they will be
the cause of sin. He may be wealthy and that will be a good thing if he
uses his money rightly. But, by-and-by, he may begin to feel that the
one thing worth living for is to have money–and that will be an evil.
If you have acquired a certain amount of money and you feel that you
are a person of importance simply because you have so much wealth, you
are putting earthly things into the place which God alone should
occupy. As old Master Brooks says, it is as when a husband, whose wife
used to dote upon him, has given her rings, chains and other
ornaments–and now that she has them, she dotes over them and forgets
him! It is very sad when this is the case and it is often so with some
who profess to be the Lord's. If we accept His gifts as tokens of love
from Him and see Him in them, than they are helpful and not hurtful.
But when we get to thinking of them, and not of Him, then they become
mischievous to us.
This is an evil which continually grows, for this man who is beginning
to mind earthly things, keeps on indulging himself. He takes more of
what he calls pleasure than he used to do and, indulging himself thus,
he gets into a wrong state for prayer, for searching the Bible, for
attending the means of Grace. And the more he enjoys this world, the
less does he think of the next world. As the things that are seen eat
like a canker into him, the things that are unseen seem to lose their
power over him. If he still attends the place where he went before to
hear the Gospel, he says that the minister does not preach as he used
to do, and the singing is not as lively as it used to be. Other
Christian people say that they cannot see any difference at all, but he
can. You know, dear Friends, what is very often the difference between
one dinner and another. It is not the fault of the cook–it is the need
of an appetite. Here are some Brothers and Sisters who have lost
their spiritual appetite. They cannot eat this and they cannot eat
that, and they cannot eat the other. They have lost their appetite,
that is the reason. "To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet,"
says Solomon, but this man, who has prospered in the world and has had
much enjoyment in it, is now beginning to lose all relish even for
those very spiritual things that were once the delight of his soul! So
he begins to drop off coming to the House of God and gradually
declines, first a little in this way, and then in that. He has more
money, now, than he used to have, so it takes him a longer time to
count it. He has more business than he used to have and it takes more
time to look after it. He cannot come to weeknight services and if, on
the Lord's-Day, for appearance sake, he does not cease going to the
place of prayer, he carries his ledger with him in his
carriage–metaphorically, if not literally! There is many a man who
comes into his pew with acres of land hanging to his boots. And there
is many a woman who sits there in a fine new dress–not only the one
she has on, but the other one that is to be made up on Monday!
It is sad when worldly things then get into the soul and come right
into God's House. Why, the preacher himself knows what it is to find a
thousand distracting thoughts come to his mind while he is addressing
you! And, therefore, he knows that they must come to your minds while
you are listening to the Word of the Lord. Thus it happens that in one
thing after another, the love of God and His Word withers–and the love
of the world grows. By-and-by, family prayer gets pushed into a
corner–very short and not very sweet. And private prayer hardly knows
where to find a place for the sole of its feet. Private prayer, as
there are none but yourselves to note its observance, is a very
convenient place for retrenchment. You want to save time, as you have
so much to do and, therefore, you snip off a piece here, and another
piece there, and who but God is the wiser? You do not perceive any very
great difference, for your conscience is getting seared. So, by
degrees, a Christian who is declining in spiritual things, gives up
private prayer–not altogether, perhaps, but the sweetness and the
enjoyment of it depart as he trifles with it, instead of entering into
the holy exercise with all his heart and soul.
In some professing Christians, this declension goes still further. At
last they give up all religious profession. I wonder whether there are
any here who once declared and probably believed that he was a
Christian, but who has now given up even the name of Christian? If so,
my Friend, one of two things is true concerning you–either you never
were converted at all, and so have been a mere professor, or else, if
you ever were truly converted, you will have to come back. As surely as
ever the Lord looked upon you with an eye of love, you must come back
to Him, for, after He has once set His seal upon you, He cannot and
will not let you go! Oh, that you would come back to Him now! You will
have to come back, poor wandering sheep, for you belong to the Good
Shepherd who will not lose one of His flock! Wayward as you are, He
will have you with Him and if you will not come back to Him when He
calls you, He has some rough dogs that will worry you back! But back
from the paths of sin you must come–and I pray God that you may come
back right speedily and so once more enjoy the blessings of peace with
Him! I sometimes pass persons who used to sit in these pews and who
were, I thought, ardent Christians. Even now some of them have respect
for me, but I fear that they have none for my Master. If I get anywhere
near them, they slink away, for fear I should speak to them. I wish
they had as much anxiety about the grief they have caused my Lord as
they have about any grief they may have caused me. May God grant,
through His Sovereign Grace, that all of us who have professed to be
His, may be preserved, lest–
"When any turn from Zion's way (Alas, what numbers do!)"– we also
should turn away, as we shall certainly do unless His Grace shall hold
us fast!
III. Now, thirdly, and very briefly, a few words about THE PECULIAR
EVIL OF THIS SAD CONDITION–
"They have forgotten Me"
It is so grossly ungratefulthat every Christian who realizes that he is
apt to slide into such a condition should, at once bestir himself and
watch against it. What? Shall I love the Lord less because He gives me
more? Shall I set the gifts which His goodness bestows upon me, upon
His Throne and let them be idols to deprive Him of my heart's love and
worship? If I do this, surely I shall be worse than the brute beasts!
God grant, dear Brothers and Sisters, that we may be ashamed of such a
condition as this and flee from it!
Remember that if any of us do begin to set our hearts upon the things
of this world, whatever we gain, we must be losers. The man who has
scarcely a rag to cover him, but who delights in God, may be the beau
idealof a happy man. But the man who is robed in purple and who calls
an empire his own–and who has forgotten his God–is to me the model
of misery mocked by majesty! God save you from being able to delight
yourselves in anything but your God! May He put so much bitterness into
every other cup that you will be compelled to take the cup of salvation
and, calling upon the name of the Lord, to drink only of that! You will
be dreadful and eternal losers, whatever else you gain, if you lose the
Lord!
If you forget God, you who are indeed His children–and I am speaking
only to such people just now–it is a terrible thing for you to be led
into a condition in which you forget your Heavenly Father. If there
were a wife who was very poor, but who, as long as she was poor, clung
to her husband and found all her delight in his love, but who, when
they became rich, no longer cared for him, it would be wretched riches
that could burn away her heart from him who ought to possess it all! If
I love my brother and find great comfort in fellowship with him, but I
should suddenly get to be so great that I should not know my
brother–what a miserable being I would be! Many a man does not know
his own relations when he begins to get rich. He thinks he is somebody
of importance, but really he is a big nobody–a very great and dreadful
nobody! And when a man, just because God prospers him, does not know
Jesus Christ, his great elder Brother, and gets to be ashamed of mixing
with God's poor people who go to the little Ebenezer Chapel or of being
seen with those poor commonplace sort of Christians who try to follow
the Lamb where ever He goes–he is a poor, poor specimen of a man, much
less of a Christian! God give us minds and hearts quickened by His
Grace, that will enable us to live above all such meanness as that!
A sad part of the wretchedness of this condition is that it involves so
much trifling with God. If we have forgotten God, dear Brothers and
Sisters, we have forgotten the many deliverances we have had in the
days that are past. We have forgotten the wiping away of our tears of
sorrow. Worse still, we have forgotten the precious blood of Jesus that
spoke peace to our soul. And we have forgotten the Holy Spirit who came
into our hearts and gave us joy and rest in Jesus Christ. And if we
have forgotten God, we have forgotten His gracious promises which are
yet to be fulfilled, and the glorious Covenant of His Grace, ordered in
all things and sure, on which our hopes of Heaven are based! We have
also forgotten His claims upon us–forgotten that we are His children,
His beloved, His elect, His redeemed! We have forgotten all that and we
are living in such a condition that we are trifling even with His
threats! He has threatened that He will chasten us and we seem to make
light of His threats and to defy His chastisements. We must have gotten
into a state that is piteous and lamentable to the last degree if we
can live from day to day in forgetfulness of God!
IV. I will say no more about this sad decline, but finish my discourse
by telling you HOW THIS EVIL CAN BE CURED.
If any of us, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, are suffering from this
dreadful decline, it is a good help towards its being cured when we see
the mischief of it. When a man has this sad condition pointed out to
him and the Spirit of God enables him to see it, that is a great help
towards lifting him out of it. But I think that the best thing for us
all to do is, just for the moment, to sink all differences and not ask
any questions about whether we are saints or sinners–whether we ever
did love the Lord, or whether we did not–and let us all go straight
away to the Cross, just as if we had never gone there before. By
nature, and by practice, too, we are all guilty and we all deserve to
be cast into Hell–the best of us as well as the worst. So let us all
go where the Savior carried the great load of sin upon Himself and bore
the consequences that He might set us free from it forever. Let us look
up to Him and, by faith, view the flowing of the blood from those many
wounds that He received on our behalf. Let us look into that dear face
of His–the image of matchless misery and majesty combined! Let us note
the crown of thorns and the marks of ignominy and shame that cruel men
put upon Him. Let us hear Him cry, "My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?" And, as we see Him die, let us believe in Him again, or
believe in Him for the first time.
My Savior, my Redeemer, wherever I may have wandered, I come back to
You. My soul believes in You, trusts You, hangs all her hopes for time
and eternity upon You. Will You not speak peace and pardon to my guilty
spirit? Ah, if you come to Him with such a confession and cry as this,
you will get your love back. The best place to get it back is the place
where it was born. It was born at the Cross and you will get it back if
you go to the Cross, just as you went at first, and stand there, with
this as your soul's confession of faith–
"I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me."
I cannot say more except just this–if God is prospering you, keep very
close to the Cross. Do you not see that if the richer you get and the
more often you go to the Cross, it will be safe for you to be trusted
with wealth? Take care to sanctify everything that God gives you by
giving Him His proper portion and do not use your own portion till you
have given Him His. Then, if you look at every blessing as coming to
you by the way of the Cross, and say, "Jesus Christ has sent me this,
for–
"'There's never a gift His hand bestows But cost His heart a groan'"–
if you receive everything as throughHim and then desire to use
everything forHim, you may be as rich as the Rothschilds and yet you
may be as gracious as the Apostle Paul! You might have all the world
given you, and yet, for all that, it would not hurt you. If you had as
much of God as you had of gold, God would see that the gold was safe in
your hands. He would trust us with prosperity if He saw that all our
prosperity only bound us more closely and more completely to the Cross
of His dear Son. So, if any of you have forgotten Him, conclude this
evening's service by coming to the Cross. And thus Father, Son and Holy
Spirit shall get glory from you. May it be so, for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HOSEA 13:1-9.
Hosea was full of complaints against the people of God, for in his day
they had very sadly wandered from the Lord. They had even forgotten
Him. In Hosea's prophecy we have the plaintive voice of a loving God
chiding His backsliding children.
Hosea 13:1. When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel,
but when he offended in Baal, he died. A modest, humble, trembling
heart is often by far the sounder heart, but when we begin to sin and
to sin boastfully, and to wrap ourselves about with the robe of
self-complacency, then is death very near to us! "When Ephraim spoke
trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal,
he died."
2. And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of
their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it
the word of the craftsmen: they say of them, let the men that sacrifice
kiss the calves. When Jeroboam became king of the new Kingdom of
Israel–in order to prevent his subjects from going to Jerusalem to
worship God in Solomon's temple–he started two shrines at Dan and
Bethel and there he set up what Holy Scripture calls in derision,
"calves." I suppose that his idea was to make images of a bull, the
emblem of power, intending them to be the symbol of the Divine Being
and that the people still intended to worship God, but to worship Him
under the image of a bull. It is the same in Roman Catholicism to this
day–the worship of God, the worship of Christ, by means of crucifixes,
and emblems and symbols of various kinds. But when men once begin that
kind of idolatry, there is no knowing where they will stop, for the
worship of God through the medium of symbols soon grows into the
worship of other gods, saints, "blessed virgins" and I know not what
besides! They are pretty sure to be set up when once people begin to
make use of outward and visible emblems of the Deity. So it was with
these ancient Israelites. From worshipping the bull, which was meant to
be a type of the Omnipotent God, they went on to the worshipping of
"molten images of their silver and idols according to their own
understanding." Brothers and Sisters, let us take warning from these
idolaters and always keep to the simplicity of worship ordained by God
in His Word. However comely and beautiful, or grand and imposing and,
consequently, fascinating, any form of idolatry may be to some minds,
let us utterly despise it if it is not according to the mind of God and
the teaching of His Spirit as revealed in His Word.
3. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew
that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of
the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Those who will have
gods of their own making shall have but a brief enjoyment of them. He
who truly worships the Everlasting God shall have an everlasting
blessing! But he who worships gods that he has made himself–mere
objects of this mortal day–shall have but a short day of it. He shall
be as the early dew which glistens brightly, but is soon gone–or as
the morning cloud which is banished by the rising of the sun.
4. 5. Yet I am the LORD your God from the land ofEgypt, and you shall
know no god but Me: for there is no Savior beside Me. I did know you in
the wilderness, in the land of great drought. The Israelites drew near
to God when
they needed bread and water in the wilderness. God says, "I did know
you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." And the Lord
might say to His people nowadays, "I did know you when you were very
sick, when you were very poor, when you were in great trouble. You
sought Me then–how is it that you are trying to do without Me now?"
6-8. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled,
and their heart was exalted, therefore have they forgotten Me.
Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I
observe them: I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her
whelps, and will tear open the rib cage of their heart, and there will
I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them. When men
forget God they may expect that they will meet with some terrible
judgments. And especially God's own people will find this to be the
case with them if they forget the Lord. Our God is a very jealous God
and when His children will set their hearts on other objects instead of
upon Him, He will take care to embitter those objects of their
affection to them–He will make their idols to be loathed by them. If
God did not love us very much, He would think little of our faults, but
just because He loves us so much, He cannot bear that any part of our
heart's affection should go away from Him. So, if He sees that we deal
unfaithfully with Him, He will make us realize that sin is an
exceedingly evil and bitter thing. His anger against us will be like
that of a bear that is robbed of her whelps, or of a lion or leopard
leaping upon his prey.
9. O Israel, you have destroyed yourself: but in Me is your help. "You
have gone away from Me, but I will bring you back again. You have
destroyed yourself by your sin, but I will restore you to My favor by
My Grace. You may look within yourself for causes of repentance, but
you must not look to yourself for the means of restoration. You must
look to Me, your Savior and your God." So this verse teaches us "O
Israel, you have destroyed yourself, but in Me is your
help."