"God, and Not Man"–What Does It Mean?
(No. 2447)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 12, 1896.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
17, 1889.
"I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man."
Hosea 11:9.
THE Lord, speaking of Himself as, "God, and not man," mentions as the
special point in which He is above and beyond man, that He has greater
Grace, greater long-suffering, and greater willingness to forgive–"I
will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man." In a
thousand respects, God is greater than man! For us to enter into that
theme would require a very considerable length of time, but the Lord,
here, puts this Truth of God most prominently forward, that He is "God,
and not man," in that He is infinitely more forbearing, infinitely more
tender, infinitely more ready to pass by offenses than any man can ever
be. What men cannot do by reason of the narrowness and shallowness of
their goodness, God can and will do by reason of the height and depth
and length and breadth of His immeasurable love!
Note that Truth in our text and then note another. When God can find in
man no reason for showing mercy to him, He still finds a reason for
displaying His mercy, for He looks for it in His own heart. He does not
say, "I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for he is not as bad as he
might be, and there is really something hopeful about him." No, the
Lord does not let the bucket down into that dry well, but He fetches
the argument for His mercy out of Himself–"For I am God." "It is not
what he is, but what I am that decides the case," says Jehovah. "I will
have mercy upon Ephraim because I am God, and not man." Guilty one,
your hope of pardon lies in the Character of God! And the more quickly
and completely you recognize this fact, the better will it be for you.
Do not be looking into yourself to find some reason why God should have
pity upon you, for there is no reason within you but what Satan can
answer and overturn!
Rather look to God–especially as God looks to Himself–for your hope
lies in what He is whom you have offended. I know that He is just and
holy and that this Truth, at first, condemns you. But He is also good
and gracious–and this Truth of God brings joy and brightness to you!
The only rays of light you can ever get must come to you from the sun.
You will not find any in your own eyes, for they are blind. It is from
the sun that your very power to see, as well as the light by which you
can see, must come. So, God fetches His argument in favor of mercy from
Himself! You have one specimen of it in that grand passage where He
says, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion," drawing the reasons for the
display of His mercy out of the great deeps of His own Sovereignty.
Our text reveals this as God's reason, drawn from His own Nature, why
He forgives men–"I am God, and not man." I have known a despondent
soul often turn to this great Truth the wrong side out and find in it a
reason for despair rather than for hope. "Look," says the awakened
sinner, "if I had only offended against my fellow man, I would have
some hope of pardon. But my sin is terrible because it is committed
against high Heaven! It is with God that I have to deal and I can say
with David, 'Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in
Your sight: that You might be justified when You speak, and be clear
when You judge.'" It is because you have to deal with God, rather than
with men, that some of you think you must be shut up to despair. That
mistake of yours only shows what a poor, faulty guide unbelief is, for
it turns your back to the Light of God and makes you walk on in
darkness! Faith, on the other hand, argues after the manner of God and
says, "If I had offended against man, I could not have expected him to
forgive me. If I had injured man as I have injured God, I could not
have hoped to be pardoned. But since I know that God is Love and that
He is infinite in Grace, I see that there is a wondrous depth of sound
reasoning about this Divine declaration, 'I will not return to destroy
Ephraim: for I am God, and not man.'"
I am going to speak upon this one theme, to hammer away upon this one
nail! There will be no great variety in my subject and no particular
freshness of thought in considering it, but I shall dwell upon just
this one Truth of God, that there is hope for guilty men! There is hope
for every man, woman and child who will come and confess sin, and trust
in Christ, on this ground–that He with whom we have to deal is, "God,
and not man." This I shall have to show you at considerable length and
under many particulars, but the whole purpose of my discourse will be
to show you the hopefulness in this great Truth of God that, as
sinners, we have to deal with God, and not with men!
I. For, first, MAN CANNOT LONG FORBEAR HIS ANGER.
I am not speaking, now, of certain passionate people who have no
control over their tempers. Oh, dear, there are some persons whom I
know whose blood seems to lie very close to the surface! It is soon up
and very hot. With them it is, as men say, "a word and a blow." But
sometimes it is the blow without even waiting for the word! They are so
very irritable that any little offense puts them on the defensive, or
makes them ready to attack others. They cannot bear anything that
annoys them. Some, because they are so little and, as the proverb truly
says, "A little pot is soon hot." And others because they think
themselves so big that if anybody comes between the wind and their
nobility, that person has committed an altogether unpardonable offense!
Oh, dear, if we had to deal with a God who was like these men, we
should have perished long, long ago!
But our text means even more than that. The Hebrew of this passage is
very significant and expressive and it might be rendered thus–"I will
not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not the best of men."
For with even the best of men–the noble spirits who can bear a good
deal more than ordinary individuals–yet there is still a point of
forbearance beyond which they cannot and will not go. If you have
offended them once, twice, thrice, it may be that they are patient with
you and forgive you. But when the offense is repeated and the
provocation is multiplied, even the best of men are apt to ask, "Lord,
how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven
times?" He who put that question thought that he had gone a long way
when he suggested sevenfold forgiveness! But the Savior said to Peter,
"I say not unto you, Until seven times: but, until seventy times
seven." You remember what the Apostles said when they heard this
saying? They prayed, "Lord, increase our faith." As much as to say, "It
needs very great faith to be able to forgive an offender until seventy
times seven."
We have offended against God far more often than seventy times seven,
yet He has borne with us! We who are here are the living monuments of
Divine Mercy and might truly write upon our brows, "Spared by the
long-suffering of God," for if He had strictly marked our sin, He must
have destroyed us and if He had even dealt with any one of us who has
been unfruitful, He must have said, as did the owner of the fruitless
fig tree, "Cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?" But here is the
mercy of our case–we have to deal with the God of Patience who is
long-suffering and full of pity–who is, in fact, as our text
declares–"God, and not man." This should make us bless His name
continually for the great forbearance He has shown toward us. And this
goodness, forbearance and long-suffering of God should lead us to
repentance. We may not continue in sin because God's Grace abounds, but
His abounding Grace should make us loathe and leave sin.
II. Next, if we had to deal, not with God, but with our fellow men, we
would very often find that WHEN MEN GET INTO A LOW, NERVOUS, SENSITIVE
STATE, THEY ARE USUALLY QUITE UNABLE TO BEAR WITH OTHERS. A person's
temper often depends a great deal upon the state of his health. If a
man is perfectly well, sound in mind and body, he can put up with a
good deal. But there are times when the head aches, or when the tooth
aches, or when the heart aches, or when there is an overpowering sense
of nervousness upon you–and then you know what a very little thing
will put you out. "Oh, take that child away!" you cry, petulantly, "I
cannot bear its noise." That ringing bell has startled you. That cry of
the vegetable seller in the street has quite irritated you and now you
are in a state of mind to act the part of a tyrant!
One who was discussing a certain trial said, "I wonder what the jurymen
are having for breakfast this morning, for their food will have a good
deal to do with the verdict they will give." And, no doubt, unless a
person is pretty well and in a good mental and spiritual condition, his
weakness or his sensitiveness will make him deal severely with others
even for a very small offense. What a mercy it is that the One with
whom we have to deal is, "God and not man"! Our glorious Jehovah is
never weak, impetuous, unjust, ungenerous! He is always magnanimous,
kind, gracious, forbearing! He is never in such a condition that He
feels ready to be irritated with His creatures, but, self-contained and
self-possessed,
dwelling in the eternal sublimities of His own unsullied happiness, the
God over all, blessed forever, He is in that state of mind–if I may so
speak of Him after the manner of men–that He is willing to pass by
iniquity, transgression and sin. He is a God ready to pardon, waiting
to forgive the guilty. Could you truly know Him and see how free He is
from those human frailties which lie at the roots of all irritability
and unwillingness to forgive offenders, you would understand what a
mercy it is that He is, "God, and not man."
Come, poor Soul, approach your God! You have not to come before an
angry judge! You have not to approach an austere person who is ready to
take offense even at little things, but you are coming to the
infinitely-blessed God who delights not in the death of any, but would
rather that they should turn to Him and live!
III. There is a third reason why we should rejoice that the Lord is
"God, and not man. It is this–MEN ARE NOT ANXIOUS TO RECONCILE TO
THEMSELVES THOSE WHO HAVE OFFENDED THEM IF THEY ARE PERSONS OF BAD
CHARACTER.
A man who has been injured may, in the greatness of his mind, say, "I
hope that person did not realize the wrong that he was doing. I hope
that he is a good man–he must surely have misunderstood the
consequences of his action. He probably only made a mistake, so I am
willing to see him and, frankly, to forgive him and to put the matter
right as soon as possible." But suppose that you have been grievously
wronged by some mean, base individual, whose character you know to be
altogether beneath contempt? I know what you say to yourself, "Well, I
shall not put myself out of the way to seek him. I do not particularly
care what he thinks or says about me. Perhaps it is just as well that
such a person as he is should remain at a distance. I do not need his
company. Let him go, he really is not worth my seeking to be reconciled
to him."
Ah, Sirs, if God had said that concerning us, He would have spoken
justly, indeed! For us, creatures of the dust, to have offended our
great and glorious Creator. For us, worms of the earth, to have
offended the Infinite Jehovah and to have done it willfully and
continually as we have done, might well have made the Lord say, "There,
let them go. If they will be My enemies, let them be My enemies. They
cannot harm Me and their curses will fall on their own heads. If they
speak evil of Me, what does it matter to Me while I have the songs of
angels and of cherubim and seraphim? If they despise Me, what is their
opinion worth, one way or the other? Let them go."
But, dear Friends, the Lord does not deal thus with us, for He is,
"God, and not man." What a wonder of Grace and mercy it is that He
should actually desire that we should be reconciled to Him! That He
should desire it with anxiety, should long for it, and that His whole
heart should go forth with the desire! The Lord is not willing that we
should be His enemies. He is not willing to treat us as His enemies,
but, to speak after the manner of men, He is anxious to reconcile us to
Himself and, therefore, He sends to us His ambassadors with tears
beseeching us to be reconciled to Him! Oh, this is Godlike! This is
Divine!
IV. In addition to the points I have mentioned, I must remind you that
THERE ARE SOME MEN WHO ARE WILLING TO BE RECONCILED TO THOSE WHO HAVE
OFFENDED THEM IF THE OFFENDERS WILL BEG
FORGIVENESS. Notice what they say–"That person has done me grievous
wrong. I am quite willing to pardon him, but let him ask to be
pardoned. I do not think it is my place to go after him. I am the
offended person and it cannot be expected that I should humble myself
before him. If he comes to me and asks forgiveness, I shall be going a
great way if I do heartily forgive him. But as to being the first to
move in this matter–well, it is not to be expected of me." No, Friend,
it is not to be expected that you should do so, for you are only a man.
But the Lord is, "God, and not man" and, therefore, He is the first to
move in the direction of the reconciliation that is to end the quarrel.
It is the offended One, the grievously offended One, who comes to the
offender and says, "Let us be friends. I will blot out this offense, I
will remove this sin. Come to Me. Accept the reconciliation I am
prepared to give." I feel half inclined to stop here and to say, "Let
us sing, again, the last verse of that grand hymn that we sang before
prayer, and roll out the refrain in full thunder of grateful
thanksgiving–
"'Oh may this strange, this matchless Grace,
This God-like miracle of love,
Fill the wide earth with grateful praise,
And all the angelic choirs abo ve!
Who is pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has Grace so rich and free?'"
It is never the sinner who wants to be reconciled first. It is always
God, in the freeness of His Grace, who comes to the sinner–no sinner
can ever be premature with God! If you are anxious to be reconciled to
God, it is He who has given you that anxiety. It is His own infinite
Grace that has begun to work in you to will and to do of His own good
pleasure, for here is seen the superiority of the Godhead to the
highest and the kindest manhood–that the Lord begins the work of
reconciliation by Himself–seeking out those who have offended against
Him!
V. Next, A MAN MAY BE WILLING TO BE RECONCILED IF THE OFFENDER DOES NOT
REPEAT THE
OFFENSE. Suppose that the offending person breaks out again with a new
offense just as the reconciliation is about to be given. "There," says
the man he has offended, "I was quite willing to have overlooked the
past, but look, he is up to his evil ways again! I stood prepared to
give him my right hand, but he has added insult to injury! Even while
we were talking about reconciliation, look what he has done–he has
made a new breach! If there had been nothing between us before, he has
now acted in a way that would have commenced a terrible battle between
us. I cannot put up with this. You cannot reasonably expect that I
should be on terms of amity with one who, again and again and again
repeats the grievance–and who, having done me wrong, at the very time
that I am inviting him to be reconciled, commits that wrong again!
There is a limit to all things and certainly there must be a limit to
the pardon that a man will give to an offender."
Just so, just so. I knew there was such a limit. I do not altogether
blame you, I do not say much against you, but I do say much in
commendation of the forgiving Grace of God! Though we sin. Though even
while the sinner is repenting, there is still a measure of sin about
him–and while God is forgiving and while we are receiving the
forgiveness–there is still evil about us, yet He forgives! Is He not,
as one said, a great Forgiver? There is not any offense so aggravated
but that God is willing to forgive you if you come to Jesus Christ by
faith! If you have heaped up your sins, mountain upon mountain, as the
giants in the old fable were said to have piled Pelion upon Ossa, hill
upon hill–if you have done even this, yet is God willing to sweep them
all away and still be your Friend!
You remember that blessed expression in the 55th of Isaiah, "He will
abundantly pardon"? I cannot help ringing out those words again and
again, "He will abundantly pardon! He will abundantly pardon." I hope
that the music of them may strike the ear of some poor desponding soul
who will say, "That is the word for me! It must be either great mercy
or no mercy at all for me, for little mercy is of no use for such a
sinner as I am! I must have great mercy to pardon my great sin." Oh,
then, thank God that you have to deal with Him and not with man!
VI. Now let me go a step further. I feel morally certain that men who
are offended with their fellows–MEN WHO
HAVE BEEN VERY GREATLY WRONGED, WOULD NOT PROPOSE TO GO AND LIVE WITH
THOSE WHO
HAVE WRONGED THEM, AND TAKE UP A POSITION OF EQUALITY WITH THEM.
I could not expect a king, whose subjects had revolted against him, who
had refused to render to him due honor and submission, who had even
insulted his crown and done despite to his character, to say, "I will
leave my palace and my crown, and my splendor and all that I have, and
I will go and live among these rebels. I will wear their rags. I will
fare as they fare and dwell in their hovels. I know that they will kill
me–they will spurn me, and spit upon me and, at last they will fasten
me to a cross and hang me up to die. But with the strong desire that
they should be reconciled to me, I am willing to go and to be one with
them."
Such a thing was never heard of among men! But listen. There is One who
is God as well as Man, even that blessed Savior who descended from
Heaven to earth, became a Man, shared our poverty, lived in the midst
of our sin and, knowing that He would be despitefully treated, scorned,
scourged and nailed to a Cross, yet endured all out of an excess of
love which overflows to the guiltiest of the guilty even now! This was
compassion worthy of a God, that the Son of the Highest should leave
the perfections of Heaven to dwell here amid the infirmities and the
sins of earth, as you know He did!
VII. If such wondrous love were possible to any man, here is another
thing that I cannot conceive of, that any man would say, "I have been
grievously wronged by that person. The injury is a very cruel one and
there is no remedy for it,
but I WILL, MYSELF, BEAR THE PENALTY FOR ALL THE WRONG WHICH HAS BEEN
DONE. The offender has broken the law. There is a penalty laid upon him
for what he has done and which he righteously deserves to bear. It was
an offense against me and he deserves to be punished for it–but I will
bear the whole penalty myself."
We never heard any mere man say, "Here is a burglar who has broken into
my house. He is to serve five years in prison for his crime, but I will
offer to go to prison in order that he may be set free." Or, "Here is a
murderer doomed to die, but I will offer to suffer in his place, that
he may be accounted innocent." Such a thing was never heard of among
men! But this is exactly what God has done!
As Judge, the righteous God must punish sin. Say what you will, there
is a necessity that the Judge of all the earth should do right. If you
could take away the justice of God and the fact of the judgment to
come, you would have stolen the linchpin from the wheels of God's
chariot! You would have marred the moral government of the universe!
Sin must be punished, but the Judge, Himself, condescends to bear the
penalty for the offenses committed against Himself! Mark– to bear the
consequences of sin committed against His own authority and His own
Person–and to bear those consequences in His own Person so that the
offending one may be reconciled to Him! There never was such another
tale as I am now telling you! It could not have been invented by
men–it must be Divine! It has such a stamp of originality about it,
that it must have come from God! It is so Divine on the very surface of
it that it must be a blessed fact!
God Himself becomes the Substitute for those who have broken His own
Law and done despite to His own name and, in union with human nature,
in His own body on the Cross, He bears the consequences of the sin
which otherwise must have fallen upon His enemies–the guilty sons of
men! It is a very amazing story, this, "old, old story of Jesus and His
love." I cannot tell it to you as I should like to tell it, but it does
not so much matter how it is told. The power of it lies not in the
telling of it, but in the doctrine and Truth, itself, when blessed by
the Spirit of God!
VIII. MEN WOULD NOT ENTREAT, AGAIN AND AGAIN, AN OFFENDER IF HE REFUSED
THE PARDON. When a man has done all that lies in his power to make
peace. When he has even suffered what he ought not to have suffered in
order to produce peace with one who has offended him–suppose that
after all that he comes to the offender and he says, "Let us be
friends," and the person turns on his heels and says, "I have too much
to do to attend to you"? Or, suppose that he says, "I do not need any
of your peace! It is nothing to me, I have other things to think of"?
And suppose that this generous-hearted one should say, "But incline
your ear and come to me. Hear what I have to say! Come, now, and let us
reason together"? And suppose that the man says, "I need none of your
reasoning! I care nothing about all this talk! I do not believe it–it
is all an idle tale and I want to hear nothing of it"? And suppose that
this generous person should follow him and entreat him, persuade him,
implore him, plead with him–and still use a thousand arguments of
loving kindness with him?
"Ah," you say, "that is not like man!" No, it is not. But He who deals
in mercy with you is "God, and not man," and therefore He pleads with
you who have long resisted Him and begs you, even now, to listen to
Him–and even now to turn to Him! Listen to His own words, "Turn you,
turn you, from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of
Israel?" These are the pleadings of God, Himself, with men who have
sinned against Him. If you pleaded for mercy at God's feet and were
importunate with Him, that would seem natural enough. But for God to
plead with you and to beseech you to accept His mercy is supernatural
and Divine!
IX. Yet again, remember that MEN WOULD NOT RESTORE AN OFFENDER WITHOUT
A SEASON OF PROBATION. Suppose that someone had grievously offended any
one of you and that he asked your forgiveness? Do you not think that
you would probably say to him, "Well, yes, I forgive you, but
I–I–I–cannot forget it"? Ah, dear Friends, that is a sort of
forgiveness with one leg chopped off! It is a lame forgiveness and is
not worth much. "But," one says, "I need to see how this man goes on.
If he is really sincerely penitent for what he has done and he acts
kindly to me in the future, then I think I could believe him to be
sincere and I think–I hope–I could restore him to my favor." Ah, yes,
that is because you are a man that you talk like that! But He of whom I
am speaking is "God, and not man," and His invitation to you is, "Come
to Me just as you are." The Lord will receive you and forgive you
without any probation!
There was a good old minister who said, "The Lord Jesus took me into
His service without a character. He gave me a good character and He has
helped me to keep it even to my old age." Yes, He does take us without
a character, so come to Him just as you are! He freely forgives and He
perfectly forgets, for He says, "Their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more"–a feat in which Omnipotence outdoes itself! For God
to forget is impossible! Yet He does forget the sins of His people.
This is one of the impossibilities that are only possible to Omnipotent
Grace–it would be impossible with men, but it is possible with the
Lord, for He is "God, and not man."
X. Yet further, MEN CANNOT FORESEE THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING LENIENT.
One says, "I do not see what the consequences would be if a man is to
behave so badly toward me as this one has done, and I am to overlook it
and say nothing about it. After that, I shall have every dog barking at
my heels. I really think, Sir, that you must not preach up there and
tell us to forgive absolutely because you know that if you tread on a
worm, it will turn. And really, there is something due to society. I
cannot suffer such wrong as this and pass it by, for everybody will be
doing me a similar injury and saying, 'He is such a flat, and so soft,
that he will never resent it.'"
My good Sir, I am not going to argue with you! You are a man, so go
your way among other men. But He of whom I speak is "God, and not man."
He knows precisely what the consequences of forgiving sinners will be
and yet He does it! When we preach free pardon to the chief of sinners,
what do you think they say in certain newspapers? Why, that we are
encouraging immorality! The wise men who write for them say that our
doctrine does not tend to public morality. Ah, poor dears, what do they
know about morality? We do not care much about their opinion on that
point, for we see well enough where true morals are. They run side by
side with "Free Grace and dying love" and we intend to still preach
those Truths of God albeit that there are some, and we must admit it,
who will turn the Grace of God into lasciviousness! If a man means to
hang himself, he is sure to find a piece of rope somewhere. And when a
man means to live in sin, he can find an argument for it even in the
infinite mercy of God! But we must not stop our preaching because of
that. God is willing to forgive crimes of the greatest horror, sins of
an intense blackness, known in their full blackness only to Him– and
as for the consequences, He is well aware of what they will be.
XI. I am going another step further. MEN WOULD NOT LOVE, ADOPT, HONOR
AND ASSOCIATE WITH
THE OFFENDING. "Well," says one, "suppose I could entirely forgive
everything that has been done against me? Is anything more required of
me?" Could you do something else? Could you love the one who slandered
you, who tried to take away your good name, who sought to injure your
business and offended you in every way that he could? Could you take
him into your family and make him your son, or make him heir of all
that you have? Could you provide for him for life? Could you be content
to make him your friend and companion? Could you trust him, do you
think–actually trust him with the most precious things that you have?
Could you do all that?
"Well, Mr. Spurgeon," says one, "it is an unreasonable thing that you
are asking. You are talking quite unreasonably." I know that I am, but
that is because you are a man that it seems unreasonable to you. Yet
our God goes beyond all reason, for this is exactly what He does. He
takes the wretched sinner just as he is, blots out his sin and gives
him to believe in Christ–and to as many as believe in Him, to them He
gives power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His
name! More than that, He says, through His Apostle, that if children,
then they are heirs–"heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ."
These poor miserable sinners become the objects of His daily care as
they are the objects of His eternal choice! He engraves their names
upon the palms of His hands. They lie on His heart and in His heart!
"They shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up
My jewels." Yes, more–Christ is married to them! Oh, what
condescension it is for Him to be married to those who were black as
Ethiopians! There is nothing that He will not do for a pardoned sinner!
There is nothing that He will withhold from a soul that, believing in
Christ, has sin forgiven! You shall be with Him where He is. You shall
sit on His Throne with Him. You shall reign with Him forever and ever,
as surely as you come and accept His infinite Grace!
XII. The last point is that MEN WOULD NOT TRUST ONE WHO HAD FORMERLY
WRONGED THEM. I have always felt, in my own mind, that it was one of
the clearest proofs that I had God's forgiveness of my many sins when I
was trusted to preach the Gospel. I should think that if a prodigal
came back to his father, the old gentleman would kiss him and receive
him, and rejoice greatly over him–but the next Saturday, market day,
the old gentleman would say– "I cannot send young William to
market–that would be putting temptation in his way. Here, John, you
have always been with me–go to market and buy and sell for me, for all
that I have is yours. William, you stay at home with me." He might not
let him see all that he meant, but he would say to himself, "Dear boy,
he is hardly fit for that great trust. I love him, but still, I hardly
dare trust him as much as that."
But see what my Lord did with me–when I came home to Him as a poor
prodigal, He said, "Here is My Gospel, I will entrust you with it–go
and preach it." I bless His name that I have not preached anything else
and I do not mean to begin to do so–
"Ever since by faith I saw the stream His flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming lo ve has been my theme, And shall be tiil I die."
Then the Lord said to me, "I will trust you with those people at
Waterbeach, at New Park Street, at the Surrey Gardens, and at the
Tabernacle. Go and see what you can do to bring them to Heaven." I do
long to see souls saved as one great result of my ministry! But what an
instance of my Lord's love it is that He thus trusts me! That was one
of the things that made Paul hold up his hands in astonishment–he said
that he had been put in trust with the Gospel and he could not make it
out. He was a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious, yet he was put in
trust with the Gospel!
O dear Heart, you who have been a drunk, or a swearer, or whatever else
you have been, come and trust in Jesus! If you do, I should not wonder
but that one of these days you, also, will be put in trust to preach
the Gospel of Christ. "Oh," you say, "I could never preach." You do not
know what the Grace of God can do for you and through you–and you
would, anyhow, be able to tell what a wonderful Savior He was who saved
you, would you not? That is the best preaching in the world–telling
others what God has done for you! And I know that the burden of your
testimony would be, "He is God, and not man," and you would ask them to
sing over and over again–
"Who is a pardoning God like Thee? Or who has Grace so rich and free?"
Now trust the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the way of salvation! "Look
unto Me and be you saved, all you ends of the earth." Or, if you want
the plan of salvation stated in full, here it is, "He that believes and
is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned."
God grant to all of us Grace to believe in Christ and to confess our
faith in Him for his dear name's sake! Amen.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–605, 202, 568.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HOSEA11.
Verse 1. When Israel was a child. When the nation was yet young and had
scarcely started on its march among the peoples of the earth–"When
Israel was a child"–
1. Then I loved him and called My son out of Egypt. God's love does not
depend upon the standard of our spiritual attainments. While we are yet
children in Grace, the Father's love is set upon us, as it was upon
Israel in its beginnings as a nation.
2. As they called them, so they went from them. Such was the perversity
of this child-nation which, nevertheless, God loved, that though called
by Jehovah, they went away and refused to obey the Divine call. The
Israelites in Egypt "hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit,
and for cruel bondage" and, even after their great deliverance, they
were constantly turning aside from the path pointed out by Moses, who
bade them be faithful to their God.
2. They sacrificed unto Baalim. They offered sacrifice to many Baals,
first to one and then to another, for men will readily change their
idols when they know not the true God.
2, 3. And burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go.
This child-nation was taught by God how to walk–
3. Taking them by their arms. As nurses hold up their little children
when, for the first time they try to stand or toddle along.
3. But they knew not that I healed them. This was an amazing thing and
it shows the great blindness of man, that he does not know his own
Physician. It was so with Israel–"They knew not that I healed them."
Surely, Brothers and Sisters, it seems impossible that we should not
know our Divine Healer, yet our blindness is extreme by nature and
leads to many a folly.
4. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to
them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto
them. As men do to their cattle when they have been plowing and they
come to the end of the day's work, then the bit is removed, or the yoke
is lifted off the shoulder and fit fodder is provided for the cattle
that they may be refreshed. This is what God did to His people Israel.
He brought them out of Egypt where they had to perform hard tasks,
caused them to rest from their labors and gave them both material and
spiritual meat to eat. Nevertheless they were ungrateful to Him. We say
that ingratitude is the worst of sins, but, alas, it is one of the most
common evils and we, ourselves, are ingrates to our God!
6. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall
be his king because they refused to return. If we try to escape from
our trouble without hearing the voice of God in it, we shall run into
another. If, by our own plotting and scheming, we escape from Egypt,
then the Assyrian shall be our king and there is small difference
between Assyria and Egypt. It is always best to take with submission
the sorrow that God appoints, lest, by fleeing from the bear, the
serpent bite us and so we go from bad to worse.
6. And the sword shall abide on his cities and shall consume his
branches, and devour them because of their own counsels. That is a very
striking expression, "Because of their own counsels." It should be a
solemn warning to us not to follow the devices of our own heart when we
see the consequences of Israel's walking after his own way.
7. And My people are bent to backsliding from Me. They seemed as if
they must do it–as if their hearts were set upon it. They were "bent"
upon it. Oh, that our bent and bias were towards holiness and not
towards backsliding!
7. Though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt
Him. See how Israel puts God away and will not hear Jehovah's voice?
Now observe the change in the chapter, for God speaks of His
faithfulness even to backsliding Israel. He does not give His people
up. He still yearns over them in the most tender pity and forbearance.
8. How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you, Israel?
How shall I make you as Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart
is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together. And this
Divine turning and repenting, remember, were toward a people who did
not turn to the Lord! God turned towards a people that would not turn
towards Him and His repentings were "kindled together" towards the
nation that would not repent! Oh, the unspeakable, the unthinkable
Grace of God! He does for us "exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think."
9. I will not execute the fierceness of My anger, I will not return to
destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man. Our hope lies in the fact
that God is God! Sometimes that Truth of God is a terror to men–they
are distressed at the thought of the great and holy God, yet in this
Truth is their only hope of salvation! The Lord says, "I will not
return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not man."
9. The Holy One in the midst of you: and I will not enter into the
city. That is, the Lord says, "I will not come into it to see all its
iniquities, lest in My wrath I smite and destroy it." How tenderly does
God bear with wicked men! How great is His long-suffering! How
graciously He seems to close His eyes, as if He would not see that
which must bring upon us swift destruction if He looked upon it in His
righteous anger!
10. They shall walk after the LORD. It is a great blessing when men
begin to seek the Lord whom they formerly shunned. This proves that
there has been worked in them a complete change of heart.
10. He shall roar like a lion: when He shall roar, then the children
shall tremble from the west. God's terrible voice often makes men
tremble and that is one proof of the working of His Grace in their
hearts, for they tremble before Him and flee unto Him.
11, 12. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of
the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, says the
LORD. Ephraim compasses me about with lies, and the house of Israel
with deceit: but Judah yet rules with God and is faithful with the
saints. There are still some left to serve Jehovah! There is a remnant
according to the Election of Grace even in the very worst of times.
"Judah yet rules with God and is faithful with the saints." May we be
found among the faithful few! Amen.