Heart-communing
(No. 2779)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 18, 1902.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
7, 1878.
"She communed with him about all that was in her heart." 1 Kings 10:2.
Last Sunday evening I mentioned some of the "hard questions" which
Jesus is able to answer [Sermon No. 2778, Volume 48–CONSULTING WITH
JESUS]. It appears that the queen of Sheba, when
she had once obtained an interview with the great and wise king of
Israel, was not content with merely putting to him various difficult
questions, for she unloosed herself to him and exposed all that lay
concealed in her heart–and Solomon listened attentively to her–and,
no doubt, so spoke to her that he sent her away rejoicing.
It is not generally a wise thing to tell all that is in your heart.
Solomon himself said, "A fool utters all his mind; but a wise man keeps
it in till afterwards." There are many things which you had better not
tell to anybody. Make no one your complete confidant. If you do, you
run great risks of making an Ahithophel or a Judas for yourself. David
said, in his haste, that all men were liars. That was not quite true.
Probably what he meant was that if we trust all men, we shall soon find
ourselves deceived. But if we could meet with a Solomon–one who had
been Divinely endowed with wisdom, as he was–it might be safe for us
to bring all our questions and tell all our troubles to him. At any
rate, we know of One, who is "greater than Solomon," to whom it is most
safe and blessed to tell out all that is in our heart! He is willing to
listen to us, and to commune with us and, the more frank and open we
are with Him, the better will He be pleased and the better will it be
for us. That is to be our subject–heart-communing with
Jesus–spiritualizing the action of the queen of Sheba, when she came
to Solomon, and "communed with him about all that was in her heart."
I. We will begin by saying that WE OUGHT TO COMMUNE WITH JESUS ABOUT
ALL THAT IS IN OUR HEART.
I do not mean all of you who are present–I mean all those who have
been redeemed from among men by His most precious blood–all those who
are believing in Him and who call Him their Savior, their Master, their
Lord. You are bound to tell Him all that is in your heart and to have
no secrets hidden away from Him within your soul.
Tell Jesus all that is in your heart, for neglect of communing with
Christ, of the most intimate kind, is ungenerous towards Him. Are there
any professing Christians here who have lived for a month without
conscious communion with Christ? If I were to speak of a longer period
and to ask, "Are there not some professing Christians here who have
lived for three months without conscious communion with Christ," I am
afraid there are some who, if they were honest and truthful, would have
to reply, "That is the case with us." If so, think what that means! You
profess to belong to Jesus and to be His disciple, yet you confess that
you have lived all this while without real, intimate communication with
Him who is your Master and Lord! What is more, you profess to be not
only one of His disciples, but one of His friends. "Is this your
kindness to your Friend?"
I may go further than that, for you believe yourself to be married to
Christ, for that is the union which exists between Him and His people.
That would be a strange kind of marriage union in which the wife should
be in the presence of her husband and not even speak to him by the
week, by the month, by the three months, by the six months together!
For them to have no fellowship with one another, no mutual interchange
of love, no communications with each other would be regarded as
unnatural and would be rightly condemned. But do we not, sometimes, act
towards our heavenly Bridegroom in just that manner? Are we not, too
often, like the men of the world who do not know Him? Do we not live as
if we did not know Him, or as if He were no longer present with us? It
ought not to be thus! Unless we would act contrary to all the dictates
of our higher nature, we must be continually be holding intimate
conversations with our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we must tell Him all that is in our heart, because to conceal
anything from so true a Friend betrays the sad fact that there is
something wrong to be concealed. Is there anything that you do that you
could not tell Jesus? Is there anything you love that you could not ask
Him to bless? Is there any plan before you that you could not ask Him
to sanction? Is there anything in your heart which you would wish to
hide from Him? Then it is a wrong thing–you can be sure of that! The
thing must be evil, or else you would not wish to conceal it from Him
whom, I trust, you really love. O my Lord, why should I desire to hide
anything from You? If I want to hide it, then, surely, it must be
because it is something of which I have cause to be ashamed! Help me to
get rid of it. O Christian Brothers and Sisters, I beseech you to live
just as you would do if Christ Jesus were in your room, in your
bedchamber, in your shop, or walking along the street with you–for His
spiritualPresence isthere! May there never be anything about you which
you wish to conceal from Him!
If we cannot tell Jesus all that is in our heart, it shows a lack of
confidence in His love, or His sympathy, or His wisdom, or His power
When there is something that the wife cannot tell to her husband, or
there begin to be some secret things on the part of one of them that
cannot be revealed to the other, there will soon be an end of mutual
love, peace and joy. Things cannot go on well in the home while there
has to be concealment. O Beloved, I beseech you to love Christ too much
to keep anything back from Him! Love Him so much that you can trust Him
even with the little frivolous things which so often worry and vex you.
Love Him so much that you can tell Him all that is in your heart–and
never, for a moment, wish to keep back anything from Him. As the hymn
says–
"Tell it all to Jesus, comfort or complaint"
If we do not tell it all to Jesus, it looks as if we have no confidence
in His love and, therefore, thought that He would not bear with us. Or
that we had no confidence in His sympathy and fancied that He would not
take any notice of us. Or that we had no confidence in His wisdom and
thought that our trouble was too perplexing to bring to Him–or that we
had no confidence in His power and dreamt that He could not help us in
such an emergency. Let this never be the case with any of you, but,
each day unburden your heart to Christ and never let Him think that you
even begin to distrust Him! So shall you keep up a frank, open and
blessed fellowship between Christ and your own soul.
I am quite certain that if you will carry out the plan I am commending
to you, it will bring you great ease of mind. Whereas, if you do not,
you will continue to have much uneasiness. Is there anything that I
have not told to Jesus– anything in which I could not have fellowship
with Him? Then, there is something wrong with me! Are you keeping your
trouble to yourself and trying to manage without consulting with Jesus?
Well, then, if anything goes wrong, you will have the responsibility of
it! But if you take it all to Him and leave it with Him, it cannot go
wrong, whatever happens! And even if it should seem to go wrong, you
would not have the responsibility of it.
I believe that our trials usually come out of the things that we do not
take to the Lord and, moreover, I am sure that we make greater blunders
in what we consider to be simple matters, which we need not take to the
Lord, than we do in far more difficult matters which we take to Him.
The men of Israel were deceived by the Gibeonites because they had on
old shoes and clothes, and had moldy bread in their packs, and the
Israelites said, "It is perfectly clear that these men must have come
from a long distance. Look at their old boots and their ragged
garments." So they made a covenant with them and inquired not the will
of the Lord. If it had not appeared to them to be quite so clear a
case, they would have asked the Lord for direction–and then they would
have been rightly guided. It is when you think you can see your way
that you go wrong! When you cannot see your way, but trust to God to
lead you by a way that you know not, you will go perfectly right. I am
persuaded that it is so that the simplest and most plain matter kept
away from Christ will turn out to be a maze, while the most intricate
labyrinth, under the guidance of Christ, will prove to have in it a
straight road for the feet of all those who trust in the Infallible
Wisdom of their Lord and Savior!
On the other hand, if you do not come to Jesus, and commune with Him of
all that is in your heart, you will lose His counsel and help, and the
comfort that comes from them. I do not suppose anybody here knows what
he has lost in this way, and I can hardly imagine how you are to
calculate what you have lost of spiritual good that you might have had.
There is many a child of God who might be rich in all the intents of
bliss, who continues to be as poor as Lazarus the
beggar–he has hardly a crumb of comfort to feed upon and is full of
doubts and fears–when he might have had full assurance long ago! There
is many an heir of Heaven who is living upon the mere husks of Gospel
food when he might be eating the rich fare of which Moses
speaks–"Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams
of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat."
Very often, Beloved, you have not because you ask not, or because you
believe not, or because you do not confide in Jesus and commune with
Him. How strong the weakling might be if he would go to Jesus more
frequently! How rich the poor soul might be if it would draw
continually from Christ's inexhaustible treasury! Oh, what might we not
be if we would but live up to our privileges! Might we not live in the
suburbs of Heaven, and often, as it were, be close to the pearly gates,
if we would but go and tell all to Jesus and commune with Him
concerning all that is in our hearts?
Sometimes, our naughty habit of reticence towards Jesus is aggravated
by our eagerness to tell our troubles to others. In the time of trial,
we often imitate King Asa, who, when he was sick, "sought not to the
Lord, but to the physicians." It was not wrong to go to the physicians,
but he should have gone to the Lord first. It is the same with many of
you as it was with Asa–away you go to your neighbor over the fence, or
you call in a friend, and have a talk with Him in your own drawing
room, or you go to some great one, and tell him all your trouble–yet
how much have you gained by doing so? Have you not often found that you
would have been wiser if you had followed Solomon's advice, "Go not
into your brother's house in the day of your calamity?" Have you not
also frequently discovered that when you have talked over your griefs
with your friends, they still remain? Cowper truly wrote–
"Have you no words? Ah, think again– Words flow apace where you
complain And fill your fellow creature's ears With the sad tale of all
your cares. Were half the breath thus vainly spent To Heaven in
supplications sent, Our cheerful song would more often be, 'Hear what
the Lord has done for me!'"
You say that you need a friend, yet He who is the Friend that sticks
closer than a brother is neglected by you! Suppose the Lord Jesus
Christ were to meet some of you and you were to say to Him, "Good
Master, we are in trouble"? And suppose He should say to you, "Where
have you been with your trouble? You have not been to Me." And suppose
you were to reply, "No, Lord, we have been consulting with flesh and
blood–we have been asking our friends to help us"? And suppose He were
to say to you, "And have they disappointed you?" You would have to
reply, "Yes, Lord, they have." And suppose He looked at you and said,
"Where you have already gone, you had better go again. You went to your
friends first–are you coming to Me last? Am I to play the lackey to
you and do you only come to Me after having tried all the others?" Ah,
if He did talk like that, what could you reply? Why, I think your only
answer could be, and I trust your answer now will be, "Jesus, Master, I
have too much forgotten You. I have not regarded You as a real present
Friend. I have gone to my neighbors because I could see them, speak
with them and hear what they had to say to me. But I have thought of
You as if You were a myth, or, perhaps, I have not thought of You at
all. Forgive me, Lord, for I do believe that You Are and that Your Word
is true, which declares that You are always with Your people, and help
me, henceforth, by Your Grace, to always go to You."
That is my first remark–that we ought to commune with Jesus concerning
all that is in our hearts.
II. Secondly, WE NEED NOT CEASE COMMUNING WITH CHRIST FOR LACK OF
TOPICS.
The queen of Sheba and Solomon came at last to an end of their talk.
They could not go on speaking to one another forever. But with regard
to ourselves and our Lord, there need never be an end to our communion
with Him, for the subjects upon which we can have fellowship with Him
are almost innumerable. Let me mention just a few of them.
There are, first, your sorrows. Are you very grieved? Are you smitten
of God and afflicted? Then, Brothers and Sisters, you may well go to
Jesus with your sorrows, for He is the Man of Sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He knows all about you and all about your sorrows, too.
There is not a pang that you have ever felt but He has felt the like.
If you will only talk with Him, you will find an open ear, a
sympathetic heart and a ready hand, all placed at your disposal. "What
do you mean, Sir? Do you mean that I am to sit down in my room and tell
Jesus all about my troubles?" Yes, I mean just that! And as you would
do if you could see Him sitting in the chair on the other side of the
fire, sit down and tell it all to
Him. If you have a quiet and secluded chamber, speak aloud if that will
help you, but, anyway, tell it all to Him–pour into His ears and heart
the story which you cannot disclose to anyone else. "But it seems so
fanciful to imagine that I can really speak to Jesus." Try it,
Beloved–if you have faith in God, you will discover that it is not a
matter of fancy, but the most blessed reality in the world! If you can
only see what your eyes perceive, it is no use for you to do as I
say–in fact, you cannot do it. But if you have the inner eyes that
have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and if your heart discerns
the invisible Presence of the once-crucified but now glorified Savior,
tell Him the whole story of your grief. Oftentimes, after you have
done, you will find that it will cease to grieve you anymore.
Then, also, tell Him your joys, for He can have as much true fellowship
with the joyous as with the sad. Go, young Sister, young Brother, in
the gladness of your first youthful joy, and tell it all to Jesus! He
rejoiced in spirit when He was upon the earth and, now He has the joy
that was set before Him when He endured the Cross and despised the
shame. If you tell Him your joys, He will sober them–not sour them. He
will take away from them their earthly effervescence and impart to them
a spiritual flavor and an abiding sweetness, so that, even in common
things, your joy shall not become idolatrous and sinful. You who are
bereft of creature comforts should pray that you may find all things in
God. But you who have such comforts and are full of joy, should pray
this prayer–that you may find God in all things. They are both good
prayers. That latter petition, you joyous souls may well pray to Jesus,
and He will answer it, and you shall find that the marriage feast is
all the better for Jesus being there to turn the water into wine, and
that to all earthly joys He adds a bliss which they could not otherwise
possess.
Some people say that we Christians get into ecstasies and raptures and
then we hardly know our head from our heels, and we are so excited that
we are not fair witnesses as to matters of fact. I do not think that
the Church has often had too much excitement–the fault has usually
been something quite in the opposite direction! But my own conviction
is that we do not see the Glory of Christ when we are excited, or when
we are in an ecstasy, one half as well as we do in our cool, calm,
reflective moments. I know a great many Christian people who are by no
means fools. If you try to do business with them, you will find that
they are as shrewd and wide awake as any men. I would like to appeal to
them about this matter. I believe that I have, myself, a certain degree
of common sense and I venture to say that Christ never appears to me so
glorious as when I am perfectly cool and collected–just as I would be
if I were sitting down to write out some statistics, or to work out a
mathematical problem, or to make up an account and strike a balance.
Whenever, in the very calmest and quietest manner, I begin to think of
my Lord and Master, He then, most of all strikes me as glorious. Our
religion does not require the excitements and stimulants upon which
some seem to live, but when we are in the most serene state of mind and
heart, then we can best see the glories of Christ. O Sirs, my Master
would have you sit down and count the cost of being His servants! He
would make you mathematicians, that, after you have counted the cost,
you may see that He is worth ten thousand times more than He could ever
cost you! He would have you survey Him and look upon Him from all
points of view–look at His Person, His work, His offices, His
promises, His achievements–that in all things you may see how glorious
He is! I ask you calmly to see what kind of Lord and Master He is and
what sort of Glory it is that surrounds Him. And if you will do
so–that is, if your hearts have really been changed by His Grace–you
will say, "Oh, yes! Tell the wide world over that it is simple common
sense to believe in Christ, that it is irrational to reject Him! Tell
them that the best use of your reason is to lay it at His feet–and
that the truest wisdom is to count yourself but a fool in comparison
with Him–and to sit with Mary and listen to His wondrous words."
You may also go to Jesus and tell Him all about your service. You have
begun to work for the Lord and you are very pleased with the
opportunity of doing something for Him, but you do not find it to be
all sweetness. Perhaps you are like Martha who was "cumbered" with her
service for Christ. When she was preparing a dinner for Him, she was
greatly worried over it. The servants might burn the meat, or she was
afraid that one very special delicacy would be spoiled altogether.
Besides, somebody had broken the best dish and the tablecloth did not
look as white as she liked to see it. Martha was also troubled because
Mary did not help her, so she went to the Master about it, which was
the most sensible thing she could do. I can speak very sympathetically
about this matter, for I get to worrying concerning it sometimes. I
want to see Christ served with the best that I have, and with the best
that all His people have. And if things go a little awry, and will not
work quite right, I am apt to become fidgety. But this will not do,
either for me or for you. We must go and tell the Master about it. He
will set it all right and make us see that it is all right. Suppose any
of you have not been treated kind-
ly by your fellow members even when you were trying to do good? Suppose
that the girls in your class have grieved you? Suppose that you have
been rapped over the knuckles when you really meant to be serving your
Lord, what are you to do? Again I say, as I said before–
"Tell it all to Jesus, comfort or complaint"
Do not come and tell me! If I could help you, I would, but there is One
who is far better than any pastor on earth to go to, even the Great
Shepherd and Bishop of Souls, our Lord Jesus Christ!
Then, next, go and tell Jesus all your plans. You think you will do
something for Him, do you? Do not begin till you have told Him all
about what you mean to do. He had great plans for the redemption of His
people and He communicated them all to His Father. No, I should rather
say that He drew them out of His Father's eternal decrees. Go and tell
Him what you are planning for the Glory of God, and the good of men,
and you may, perhaps, discover that some of it would be a mistake.
When you have any successes, go and tell Him. The 70 disciples returned
to Jesus with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject to us
through Your name." If you have the high honor of winning a soul, tell
Jesus–and be sure to give God all the glory of it! Sing, "Non nobis,
Domine"–"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Your name give
glory, for Your mercy, and for Your truth's sake."
And when you have any failures–when your hopes are disappointed–go
and tell it all to Jesus. I do not know whether I make myself clearly
understood upon all these points, but I feel that working side by side
with Christ is the only style of working at which a man can keep on
year after year. If you get alone away from your Master–if you have
sorrows or joys which are all your own and which you do not tell Him,
you will get into a sad state. But if you feel, "He is near me, He is
with me"–and if you act upon that belief by constantly communicating
with Him concerning what you feel, and what you believe, and what you
do–you will lead a holy and blessed and useful, and happy life. I have
not time to complete the long list of topics on which we are to commune
with Jesus, but, in brief, let me urge you to tell Him all your
desires. If you desire anything that you ought to desire, and may
desire, let Him know it. Tell Him, also, all your fears. Tell Him that
you are sometimes afraid to die. Tell Him every fear that distresses
you, for, as a nurse is tender with her child, so is Christ with His
people.
Tell Him all your loves. Bring before Him, in prayer, all upon whom
your love is set. Tell Him especially all you can about your love to
Himself and ask Him to make it firmer, stronger, more abiding, more
potent over the whole of your life. Often sing a song to Jesus, your
Best-Beloved and say, "Now will I sing to my Well-Beloved a song
touching my Beloved." Sing and speak often to Him and whenever you have
any mysteries which you cannot explain or tell to anyone else, go and
ask Him to read the inscription that is engraved upon your heart and to
decipher the strange hieroglyphics which no one else can read.
III. Now, dear Friends, I will close when I have briefly shown you, in
the third place, that WE SHALL NEVER CEASE COMMUNING WITH CHRIST FOR
LACK OF REASONS.
I am not now speaking to those who have never communed with my Lord. I
have often communed with Him. I still commune with Him and so do many
of you. And I say that we shall never cease communing with Him for lack
of reasons.
For, first, it is most ennobling to have fellowship with the Son of
God. "And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son
Jesus Christ." I have heard it said of some men that to know them is a
liberal education. If you are only slightly acquainted with them, you
are sure to learn much from them! But to know Christ is to know
everything that is worth knowing–and He is our All-in-All.
It is also highly beneficial to commune with Christ. I know of nothing
that can lift you up so much above the evil influences of an ungodly
world as constantly abiding in close fellowship with Christ and telling
Him all that you feel in your heart of hearts.
How consolingit is to do this! You forget your griefs while you commune
with Him. How sanctifying it is! A man cannot take delight in sin while
he walks with Christ. Communion with Him will make a man leave off
sinning, or else sinning will make him leave off communing. You will
not be perfect while you are in this world, but the nearest way to
perfection lies along the pathway where Jesus walks. How delightfulit
is, too, to commune with Jesus! There is no other joy that is at all
comparable with it–and it prepares us for the higher joys above. When
those who walk with Christ on earth come to live with Him above, there
will certainly be a change in some respects, but it will be no new
experience to
them. Did He not love His saints and seek their fellowship while they
were here below? Then they shall have that fellowship continued above!
Did you not walk with God here? They you shall walk with Jesus up
there!
Are there any of Christ's followers who seldom commune with Him?
Beloved, shall I not chide you if that is true of you? My Master is
looking down upon you at this moment. Does He need to speak to you? He
did not speak to Peter when the boastful Apostle had denied His Lord.
Jesus turned and lookedat Peter and I trust He will look upon you–
that those dear eyes, which wept for you, will gaze right down into
your soul–and that His blessed heart that bled for you will look out
of those eyes of His upon you. He seems to say, "Do you, indeed, love
Me, as you never wish for My company? Can you really love Me?"
And then, I think that my Master looks upon some here who have never
had any communion with Him at all, and He says, "Is it nothing to you
that I loved mankind, and came to earth, and died to save sinners? Is
it nothing to you that I bid you trust Me, and that I promise to save
you if you do? Will you still refuse to trust Me? Will you turn upon
your heels away from Me? Oh, why will you die!? Why will you die!?
And then, lastly, He speaks to those of you who have long enjoyed
fellowship with Him and, as He looks at you, He says, "Abide in My
love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His
love." Beloved, if you have ever enjoyed fellowship with Christ, never
lose it! Oh, to hold on–to hold fast–to hold through life and to hold
in death to Him whose face we have never seen, yet whom we know to be
among us now! O Beloved of our souls, never leave us! No, You will not
do so–we will constrain You to abide with us! Give us Divine Grace, we
pray, to never vex You or grieve Your Holy Spirit. Come very near to us
just now–nearer than You have ever been since the first day we saw
You. Come near to all of Your people, Immanuel–God With Us–and be
always with us and go with us wherever we go–and never leave us again,
for Your love's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 KINGS 10:1-13; MATTHEW12:38-45.
Let us first read part of the 10th Chapter of the First Book of Kings
and, afterwards, a part of the 12th Chapter of the Gospel according to
Matthew.
1 Kings 10:1. And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon
concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard
questions. Her visit, you see, had a religious aspect. She "heard of
the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord." He had wisdom of
various kinds, but it was his knowledge of God, and of God's ways, that
seemed chiefly to attract this ruler from a far-distant land.
2. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that
bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was
come to Solomon, she communed with him about all that was in her heart.
She came with a price in her hand to get wisdom. Well did Solomon say,
"Buy the truth, and sell it not." No price is too dear to pay for it,
but any price would be too cheap to sell it.
3. So Solomon answered all her questions: there was nothing to
difficult for the king, that he could not explain it to her. His wisdom
came from God and, therefore, it was full and complete, and could not
be confounded by man. Let us seek after the Wisdom which comes from
above, and remember that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom." Indeed, is it not the sum total of wisdom, really, to fear, in
a filial sense, the Lord Most High?
4. 5. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and
the house that he had built, and the food of his table, and the sitting
of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their
apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto
the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her She was a queen,
but she had never seen such royal magnificence as Solomon's! "The
ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord" appears to have
been a marvelous viaduct constructed of the most ponderous stones, by
which the king went from his own house up to the Temple itself. I have
read that an arch of that viaduct is standing at the present day and it
is still a marvel. To this princess, it must have seemed a wonder of
wonders!
6-12. And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in my
own land of your acts and of your wisdom. However, I believed not the
words until Icame, and my eyes have seen it: and, behold, the half was
not toldme: your wisdom and prosperity exceeds the fame which I heard.
Happy are your men, happy are these, your servants, which stand
continually before you, and that hear your wisdom. Blessed be the LORD
your God, which delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel:
because the LORD loved Israel forever, therefore made He you king, to
do judgment and justice. And she gave the king an hundred and twenty
talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones:
there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of
Sheba gave to king Solomon. And the navy also of Hiram, that brought
gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and
precious stones. And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the
house of the LORD, and for the king's house, also harps and psalteries
for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this
day. Probably these "almug trees" were trees of sandal-wood. Whatever
they were, they seem to have been the best timber known to the Easterns
and, therefore, Solomon very properly used them in the house of the
Lord. Let the harps of our praises be made of such wood that there
shall be no others equal to them in the whole world! Let us give to our
Lord our best young blood, our warmest zeal, our highest thoughts, our
most careful attention. Let us give Him, in fact, the whole of our
being, the love of our heart. He should be served with the best of the
best, "for He is good, and His mercy endures forever."
13. Andking Solomon gave unto the queen ofSheba allher desire, whatever
she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So
she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants. The king
first of all bountifully gave her a present which he thought most
fitting. And then, afterwards, permitted her to ask whatever she would.
How much is this like our King Solomon, who has already given us all
our hearts can wish for and yet, if there is any right desire that is
still ungratified, He provides the golden Mercy Seat at the foot of His
Throne where we may present our petitions to Him, encouraged by His
gracious word, "Ask what you will; according to your faith, so shall it
be unto you."
Matthew 12:38, 39. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees
answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from you. But He answered
and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a
sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the
Prophet Jonah. The queen of Sheba did not ask for a sign. She did not
expect Solomon to work a miracle, but, sitting down in his presence,
she proposed her hard questions and meekly awaited his answers. So
should these scribes and Pharisees have done with the Lord Jesus
Christ. These were His signs–
40, 41. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's
belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this
generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of
Jonah and, indeed, a greater than Jonah is here. Jonah was a
servant–Jesus was the Master. Jonah preached only one sermon–Jesus
preached many. That sermon was a short one–Jesus Christ labored long
after souls. Jonah was a man full of infirmities and with an unloving
heart–Jesus was tender and compassionate. Jonah did but hurry through
the streets, crying, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown"–without a word of mercy–Jesus lived long among the
people, giving them directions, warnings and invitations to seek and
find salvation. "Behold, a greater than Jonah is here."
42. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this
generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to
hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
As I have so recently
preached upon this verse, [Sermon No. 2777, Volume 48–THE QUEEN OF
SHEBA, A SIGN–Read/download the entire sermon, free ofcharge at
http://www.spurgeons.org ] I need not say anything about it just now.
43. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man. Mark, not when he is
turned out of him by superior force, but when he has gone out of his
own accord.
43. He walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. The
devil was in the Jews of old, but he went out of them at the time of
the Babylonian captivity–that heavy punishment cured them of idolatry.
But the devil could never find a resting place in Gentile hearts so
pleasant to himself as among God's own people.
44. Then he says, I will return to my house from where I came out; and
when he is come, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished. "I will go
back to those Jews," says the devil and, when he comes back, he finds
them without any true love to God–"empty, swept, and garnished." See
how correctly the Pharisee is dressed and note with what sanctimonious
unction he repeats his hypocritical prayers! He fasts twice in the week
and pays tithes of his mint and anise and cummin. The devil finds the
house "empty, swept, garnished" and, as he does not care whether he
lives in a foul heart or a clean one, so long as he can but live in it,
he takes up his abode there again.
45. Then he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked
than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of
that man is worse than the first. If idolatry did not come back to the
Jews, the devil of pride and self-conceit and many more came and fought
against the Son of God, so that they became worse than they were
before! And the first devil of the Jewish people was nothing compared
with the seven devils which afterwards possessed them. We have seen
some men of this kind. Under temporary conviction, they have given up
certain outward sins, but, afterwards, they have been 10 times worse
than they were before. We have known a man to be a drunk and we have
rejoiced to see him leave his cups but, yet, when he has made a
self-righteousness out of his temperance and set himself up against God
and His Truth, we have verily believed that he has had within him seven
devils worse than the first! A man may reform himself to blacker stains
and wash himself with the waters of his self-righteousness till he
becomes more hard to clean than he would have been at the first. Oh,
for the mighty hand of One who is stronger than the prince of Hell to
throw the devil out! And then he will never come back again–but if he
goes out by mere human persuasion, or by our own wills and wishes, he
will most certainly come back to us! If the Holy Spirit turns him out,
he will never gain an entrance any more.
45. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.