Israel’s God and God’s Israel

Israel's God and God's Israel

A Sermon

(No. 803)

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, March 29, 1868, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the [15]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the Hea
ven in your help, and in His excellency on the sky. The eternal God
is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and He
shall thrust out the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy
them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob
shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also His heavens shall drop
down dew." Deuteronomy 33:26-28.

MOSES lived to be 120 years of age, and his life was divided into three
periods of 40 years. The first 40 he spent as the son of Pharaoh's
daughter in the Courts of Egypt. The second in the wilderness, at the
foot of Horeb, as a shepherd, and the third 40 he reigned as king in
Jeshurun, leading the Lord's people from Egypt to the borders of the
promised land. Observe how each of these periods terminated. The time
of his apprenticeship in Egypt concluded with his refusing to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter, his avowal of brotherhood with the
afflicted Israelites, his attempt to avenge their wrongs and his
consequent flight from Egypt, because of the king.

Brethren, it is to be desired that thus our original connection with
the world may once and for all be snapped–we are not of it though we
are in it–and may Divine Grace so work in us that, like Moses, we may
count the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than all the
treasures of Egypt, and, therefore, may flee from all worldly
conformity, resolving to come out from among the ungodly, not touching
the unclean thing, but separating ourselves, cost what it may, from the
world which lies in the Wicked One. It will be well for us, if that
which divides us from the world shall be as clear, sharp, definite and
impassable as that which cut off Moses from Egypt.

The second part of Moses' life was spent in the solitudes of Horeb and
was concluded by a manifestation of God and a commission for service.
He saw Jehovah in the burning bush–the bush burned with fire, but was
not consumed–and he was bid to deliver the Lord's message to Pharaoh.
Yes, and our times of quiet meditation are good for nothing if they do
not end and culminate in bright discoveries of God and a call to
heavenly labor. It is of little avail to be in the wilderness unless
God is seen there. Meditation and retirement shall be but as barren
fields unless they yield to us the harvest of communion with the
Invisible and give us sheaves of blessing for our Brethren! You
bookworms, you solitary students and men of meditation, think of this
and pray that your meditations may so end likewise.

The third part of his life closed with the song which is now before us.
The last 40 years were crowded with events and full of trials. He was
greatly vexed with the unholy spirit of the people, yet, in meekness
and patience he endured with them and was tender as a nurse with her
child. He led the people like a flock out of Egypt with a high hand and
an outstretched arm in the midst of miracles and wonders. And, then,
afterwards, for 40 years he conducted them as they went winding about
through the wild desert.

A great man, indeed, was Moses in what he saw, and did, and said and
suffered. His life was spent in unmeasured toil. From the day when he
first went in unto Pharaoh till he climbed the steeps of Nebo, he must
have been, night and day, incessantly engaged, and yet he finished his
life-work with a song! Even thus let it be our prayer, that we, bearing
the burden and heat of the day, may hear in our souls the voice, "Well
done, good and faithful servant, enter you into the joy of your Lord."
And then may we, in our departing hours, pour out a stream of praise
unto our God, blessing and magnifying the Most High who has worked our
works in us, and made us, unworthy as we are, to be instruments fit for
His use.

We shall now consider these words which compose the last stanzas of the
song of Moses. May the Holy Spirit remarkably assist me because I am,
this morning, so unusually unfit for ministering among you that the
weakness of the creature will be painfully manifest. Both brain and
voice are choked up, but the Holy One of Israel helps our infirmities!

I. Observe, in the first place, that Moses' song MAGNIFIES ISRAEL'S
GOD. He declares, "There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who
rides upon the Heaven in your help, and in His excellency on the sky."
The Lord is the great joy and the delightful portion of His people. In
nothing were the tribes of Israel so favored as in having the true God
to be their God. This was the great glory and the peculiar privilege of
the chosen people–that the only living and Most High Jehovah had
manifested Himself unto them and to their fathers–had taken them to be
His people, and given Himself to be their God.

Truly, when Moses looked upon the gods of Egypt, a country so
superstitious that the satirist wrote of them, "O happy nation, whose
gods grow in their own gardens"–when he heard the wild mythology of
their idolatry, he might well have said, "There is none among them all
that is like unto the God of Jeshurun." Perhaps Moses had seen those
vast catacombs of idolized animals which Egyptian discoverers have
lately opened–where the crocodiles, cats, and birds which had been
worshipped in life–were afterwards carefully consigned. Wise as Egypt
professed to be, she preserved her dead gods in myriads.

Dead gods! Hear it and be amazed at the folly of humanity! Truly, the
fancies of the most civilized nations have invented no deity comparable
for a moment to the living God who made the heavens and the earth! The
plagues of Egypt, as we have often been told, were all aimed against
the gods of Egypt and there was not a single deity adored by Egyptians
that could stand against the Most High God. The river which they adored
became loathsome to them when it was turned into blood and yielded
frogs in such abundance that the land stank. Their sacred insects
swarmed till the very dust was full of horrible life and the land was
corrupted. Vain were their soothsayers and their idols, for Jehovah
laughed them to scorn!

Not only was Pharaoh put to the worst before Jehovah, but Egypt's gods
were humbled. When all the chivalry of Egypt came to the Red Sea and
descended into the space which God had cleared to make a highway for
His people– when the bounding billows leaped upon them, covered as
they were with the emblems of their false deities, and bearing
standards inscribed with idolatrous signs–there was a triumph over all
the idol gods as well as over their votaries. Moses saw this, and
therefore sang, "Who is like unto You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is
like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"

Moses was often grieved when he saw the people of Israel going back in
their thoughts to the foul idolatrous house of bondage, when he knew
that they were ready at any time to make the image of Isis, the golden
calf, and bow before it. He mourned that they harbored the tabernacle
of Moloch, and the star of their god, Remphan. He must have felt a holy
horror that these images of mere demons, these pieces of gilded wood
and carved stone should ever be objects of Israel's adoration. For what
had they done? What could they do? They had eyes, but they could not
see. They had hands, but they could not handle–feet, but they could
not move! But the God of Jeshurun made the heavens and then, before
their eyes, made the heavens to drop with manna! He made the earth, and
for their supply made the flinty rocks to flow with rivers!

He it was who went before His people with a pillar of fire and cloud,
made them victorious over all their enemies and promised to bring them
into the promised land. "Well," said the man who had seen all this,
"There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun." Brothers and Sisters,
there is no fear that you or I shall worship any false god literally as
Israel so basely did, yet there is still need to say, "Flee idolatry."
Among all the comforts which you now enjoy, and in which there is
always the tendency for you to find idols, there is none like the God
of Jeshurun! Your home, the place of your love, must always be dear to
you. Your relatives and the children of God's gift must always be the
fond objects of your affection–but remember John's words, "Little
children, keep yourselves from idols."

None of your dearest and most cherished loves are at all worthy to sit
upon the throne of your heart–far down in the scale must they be
placed when the God who gave them to you is brought into comparison.
That broad bosom of your beloved husband beats fondly and
faithfully–but when death lays it low, as before long it must–how
wretched will be your condition if you have not an everlasting
Comforter upon whose breast to lean! Those dear little sparkling eyes
which are like stars in the Heaven of your social joy–if these are the
gods of your idolatry, how wretched will you be when their brightness
is dim, and the mother's joy is moldering back to dust!

Happy is he who has an everlasting joy and an undying comfort–and
there is none in this respect like unto the God of Jeshurun. There
would be fewer broken hearts if hearts were more completely the Lord's.
We should have no rebellious spirits if, when we had our joys, we used
them lawfully and did not too much build our hopes upon them. All
beneath the moon will wane. Everything on these shores ebbs and flows
like the sea. Everything beneath the sun will be eclipsed. You will not
find in time that which is only to be discovered in eternity, namely,
an immutable and unfailing source of comfort. "There is none like unto
the God of Jeshurun."

Let me remind you that this is the case with all the objects of human
pursuit. Some have lived for wealth, but when they have gained it they
have been disappointed with the result. Though they have heaped gold in
the bag, and added house to house, and field to field, yet their aching
spirit has craved still for food–for gold can no more feed a soul than
dust can satisfy the hunger of the body. Some have followed the star of
ambition–they would be famous and make unto themselves a name like the
great men that are in the earth. And when they have gained the bubble
reputation, they have wept to find that, "vanity of vanities, all is
vanity." Even the best of earthly joys pall upon the appetites of those
who attain them.

Christian, stand to your God. Be it your life to live for Him that made
you, to live in Him that bought you, to live with Him that chose you,
to live like Him who lived and died for you. You shall find that such
an object of life will satisfy all the powers and passions of your
soul, for to this end your soul was formed and suited. You shall run in
this race without weariness, and walk without fainting–and if you get
the prize, it is one that shall not wither in your hand like the ivy
wreath of Greece, or like the laurel crown of Rome. It will not decay
upon your brow–for you shall win a crown of life that fades not away.
Moses, in the particular words here used, seems to intimate that there
is none like the God of Jeshurun as the ground of our confidence.

Now, you who have trusted in God, remember there is room for you to
trust Him still more–and the more you shall confide in Him, the more
emphatically will you declare, "There is none like unto the God of
Jeshurun." If we rely upon men we put trust in fickleness itself!
Brethren, my own public life enables me to speak very plainly and
positively here. If we trust in men, even the very best of men, either
they may deceive us or else, good enough though their intentions may
be, they will not be able to bear us up in times of great and serious
difficulty. If we depend upon the generosity of our fellow men in
carrying on the Lord's work–especially if we depend upon committees
and upon the usual machinery which is so popular nowadays–we shall
very often have to cry, "Woe is me!"

But if we trust in God, there may be famine over all the world but
there shall be corn in Egypt for the Lord's people! And if every
society that depends upon its subscribers goes to rack and ruin, we who
depend upon the everlasting God will stand fast and firm! There are two
kinds of policy adopted by the Christian Church nowadays–the one is to
trust in man, and the other to trust in the living God–and I daily
notice that where man is trusted to more and more, there comes the
withering and the fading of the leaf. But where God is relied upon,
that work becomes like a tree planted by the rivers of water, the leaf
whereof does not wither and which brings forth its fruit in its season.
And whatever it does is prosperous.

If I had to address any Christian minister today, I would say to him,
"Let the very first point of all your Christian policy be to trust in
the Lord, for cursed is he that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm;
but blessed is he that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is."
I say the same to every one of you, my Brothers and Sisters in
Christ–place your reliance upon the Most High! Get a good leverage
upon the Rock of Ages, for when you are firmly fixed there you may lift
a world of difficulties and remove a mountain of troubles. Oh, to be
clean delivered from every confidence which is not derived from the
Covenant God of Israel! Brethren, however sharp the strokes that bring
us down to this, they are blessed strokes! However bitter may be the
medicines that rinse our mouths and put them out of taste with worldly
confidences–I say, however bitter they are–they are all the healthier
and the Lord be thanked for them!

When we drink from the pure fountain at the fountainhead and turn from
the stagnant puddles of the broken cisterns, cleaving to our God, and
to our God alone, we are then growing in Divine Grace, and only then.
That Moses meant this, I think is clear, from the words he uses, "There
is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, which rides upon the Heaven in
your help [to help you], and in His excellency on the sky." Men can
come to our help, but they travel slowly, creeping along the earth. Lo,
our God comes riding on the heavens!

They who travel on the earth may be stopped by enemies, they certainly
will be hindered. But He that rides upon the heavens cannot be stayed
nor even delayed. When Jehovah's excellency comes flying upon the sky
on the wings of the wind, how gloriously are displayed the swiftness,
the certainty, and the all-sufficiency of delivering Grace. God has
ways to help us that we dream not of. "Your way, O God, is in the sea."
He has a way in the tempest, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.
Jehovah has made for Himself a highway, a chariot road along the
heavens, that His purposes of love may never be hindered. If we will
but trust in God, invisible spirits shall fight for us! The great
wheels of Providence shall revolve for our good, and God the Eternal,
Himself, dressed in robes of war like a valiant champion, shall come
forth to join us in our quarrel!

Fall back upon yourselves, lean upon your fellow creatures, trust upon
earth-born confidences and you fall upon a rotten foundation that shall
give way beneath you! But rest upon your God and upon your God, alone,
and the stars in Heaven shall fight for you! Yes, the stars in their
courses and things present and things to come, and heights, and depths,
and all the creatures subservient to the will of the Omnipotent Creator
shall work together for good to you, seeing that you love God and are
depending upon His power. Thus, and thus sweetly, does Israel's Prophet
sing of Israel's God.

II. The second note of the song is ISRAEL'S SAFETY. "The eternal God is
your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Two sentences,
with a little variation of expression, containing essentially the same
sense. God is first said to be the refuge of His people, that is, when
they have strength enough to fly to Him He protects them. But it is
delightfully added, "underneath are the everlasting arms," that is,
when they have not strength enough to flee to Him, but faint where they
stand, there are His arms ready to bear them up in their utmost
extremity.

First, God is the refuge of His people–and He is this, let me remind
you–always and under all difficulties. If it should rain today on your
journey home, you will be glad of a little shelter beneath some
friendly doorway. It would not have killed you, certainly, if you had
not found the refuge, but still it was comfortable to be protected. Now
remember that your God is not only a shelter from the avenging tempest
at the last, but from the little present trials of the day. Do we not
lose very much of comfort by our forgetting that God is as willing to
help us in our minor sorrows as in our major griefs? He is your refuge,
dear Friend, from a little loss, a little pain, a little grief–tell
Him all.

As a father thinks nothing little that belongs to his well-loved child,
so will your heavenly Father think no grief too little for His notice.
He who guides a sparrow and counts the hairs of your head will be a
refuge for you in your daily griefs. But suppose a storm of thunder and
lightning should come on today, and a perfect hurricane should
blow–then some neighbor's house would be a shelter which you would
value more–and so your God is a refuge to you when your heavier griefs
come on. Do not, I pray you, think that anything in Providence can be
too hard for God, or that your position ever can be beyond the reach of
His delivering arm.

If you have lost all, so long as you have not lost Him, your losses
shall turn out to be gains. If your friends and children should sicken
and die, yet you are not alone so long as the ever-living Father is
with you. It is a blessed thing to learn habitually to make use of God.
There is no benefit in having a friend if we do not use him by making
application to him. There are some friends who would love us all the
less if we were often to avail ourselves of their friendship, but our
God is such that He would have us draw upon Him. He delights to
give–it is His pleasure to assist those who trust Him. Come, make your
needs, your burdens known. Hesitate not, stand not away with an unholy
bashfulness, but with a childlike boldness approach your heavenly
Father and tell Him what your griefs may be, be they little or be they
great– for the Lord is a refuge for us, a sure refuge, an open refuge,
a constant refuge–a refuge at this very moment if we have but Divine
Grace to fly to him.

Moses, I believe, in this passage alluded to one remarkable privilege
of the children of Israel in the wilderness. All day long the cloudy
pillar covered them. I do not think of it as being simply a column of
smoke arising from the center of the Tabernacle–it was such, but
besides that it covered the whole camp as a vast canopy or pavilion–so
that in the great and terrible wilderness they fainted not under the
burning heat of the sun. This pillar of cloud interposed a friendly
shade so that they passed through the wilderness beneath the wings of
God! At night their encampment would have been like a great city
wrapped in darkness, but the pillar of fire supplied to them a light
far superior to that which glows in London or in Paris through the art
of man–that great flaming pillar lit up every tent and habitation so
that in point of fact there was no night there.

They were always sheltered by God both by day and by night. If they
strayed away from the camp for a little time in the heat of the sun,
they had only to come flying back and there that emblem of the present
God became their shelter! Or at night, if they wandered for awhile,
that vast blazing lamp conducted them back again to their place of
rest. So it is with us. In nights of trouble and grief, the fire of
Divine comfort glows within us–the precious promises are round about
us and we rejoice in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. And when by day we
travel over this burning wilderness to the rest appointed, God
interposes perpetually the sweet presence of His love to screen us from
the sharper sorrows of the world that we may still, while walking
onward to Heaven, behold the shield of Heaven uplifted above our heads.

Dwell, for only one second upon that word, "The eternal God is your
refuge." Brethren, God is not only our refuge, but He is such as the
eternal God! I do not understand, my dear Brethren, how some of the
very best of men are satisfied to believe that God will forsake His
people. I thank God I cannot receive their teaching. I believe that He
is my refuge today and He was my refuge in the days of my youth–and
when this hair is gray He will be my refuge, still. Yes, and when the
sun of time has set beneath the horizon, never to rise again, and
eternity is ushered in, the same refuge will remain to all His
believing people! "The eternal God is your refuge."

What are you doing, my Brother, over there? What are you doing? You
found God to be your refuge years ago when you were in great distress,
and you are in some fresh trouble today, and you fancy God will not
help you. He is the eternal God, man! If He had changed, if He had
died, you might be in despair. But since He is eternal and immutable,
surely He will do for you today what He did for you then. Cast your
present burden upon Him who helped you in the burdens past. "The
eternal God is your refuge." It is all very well for me to stand here
and talk about this, but the sweetness lies in getting under the
refuge! It is of no use to know, when you are climbing the storm-beaten
Alps, that there is a refuge on the hill-side against the storm unless
you get into it. Beloved Believer, get into your God this morning!

I will tell you what I have often had to do. I have had perplexities in
the work which grows out of the Church, and I have mused over them and
puzzled my brain till I could see no way of escape. And at last I have
come to this conclusion– "It is beyond me altogether. Gracious God,
take it in Your hands." I have put it upon the shelf and have resolved
I would never think of it again–if God did not see to it, I would not.
I gave up the case to Him, and I have often found that then the matter
has been cleared up directly. Whereas, while I was fretting and
worrying like a drowning man, I struggled myself deeper and deeper into
the water–but when I laid quite still I could float and help came.

Do so with your troubles. When you have done the little you can do,
then say, "This is evidently a thing beyond my power. What is the use
of my straining at it? I am told God will appear for me in the time of
my extremity, and so He shall. I will have nothing to do with it."
"Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall
never suffer the righteous to be moved."

The second sentence is, "Underneath are the everlasting arms." This
seems to anticipate that the child of God may be in such a condition
that he cannot run into the refuge, but falls down in a fainting fit.
And where does he fall? Into Hell? Ah, no, he is redeemed, and Hell can
never enclose a redeemed soul! Where does he fall, then? Fall to the
hard, unsympathizing earth, to lie without help till he is strong
enough to recover himself? Not at all! Even when he falls, he falls
into the everlasting arms! I will mention some times when a Christian
needs these arms peculiarly. These are when he is in a state of great
elevation of mind. Sometimes God takes His servants and puts them on
the pinnacle of the temple. Satan does it sometimes–God does it
too–puts His servants up on the very pinnacle where they are so full
of joy that they scarcely know how to contain themselves! "Whether in
the body or out of the body they cannot tell."

Well, now, suppose they should fall! It is so easy for a man, when full
of ecstasy and ravishment, to make a false step and slip. Ah, but in
such moments, "underneath are the everlasting arms." They are safe
enough! As safe as though they were in the valley of humiliation, for
underneath are the arms of God. Sometimes He puts a man in such a
position in service–there must be leaders in the Lord's Church,
captains and mighty men of war–and the Lord sometimes calls a man and
says to him, "Now, be Moses to this people." Such positions are fraught
with temptation–and is God's servant in greater danger than an
ordinary Christian? Yes, he is, if left to himself–but he will not be
left to himself, for God does not treat His captains as David treated
Uriah, and put them in the forefront of the battle, to leave them, that
they may be slain by the enemy. No, if our God calls a man to tread the
high places of the field, that man shall say with Habakkuk, "He will
make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high
places." "Underneath are the everlasting arms."

Another period of great need is after extraordinary exaltations and
enjoyments when it often happens that God's servants are greatly
depressed. I suppose some Brethren neither have much elevation or
depression. I could almost wish to share their peaceful life, for I am
much tossed up and down, and although my joy is greater than the most
of men, my depression of spirit is such as few can have any idea of.
This week has been in some respects the crowning week of my life, but
it closed with a horror of great darkness of which I will say no more
than this. I bless God that at my worst, underneath me I found the
everlasting arms! What a grand day that was for Elijah when he saw the
fire come down upon his bullock, in answer to his prayer, and he cried
in holy wrath, "Take the prophets of Baal, let not one escape."

I think I see the grim pleasure in the Prophet's face as he saw them
taken to the brook and slain. Behold his exhilaration as he binds up
his loins and runs before Ahab's chariot, keeping pace with the
monarch's horses with an agility in which soul and body joined. And
then, what happens a day or two afterwards? In the wilderness, all
alone, he has fled from a woman's face, and you hear him cry, "Let me
die, I am no better than my fathers." Yes, the man who never was to die
at all, prayed that he might die!

Just so, high exaltations involve deep depressions. But what was under
Elijah when he fell down in that fainting fit under the juniper tree?
Why, underneath were the everlasting arms! So shall it be with you who
are called thus to fall into the depths of depression–the eternal arms
shall be lower than you are! Brethren, there are many such occasions in
which the spirit sinks sometimes through a sense of sin, through
disappointments, through desertions of friends, through beholding the
decay of the Lord's work, through a lack of success in our ministry, or
a thousand other mischiefs which may all cast us low. Yes, as low as
Jonah, who went, he says, to the bottoms of the mountains. But when
Jonah went to the lowest, underneath him were the everlasting arms! And
when the earth, with her bars, was about him forever, and the weeds
were wrapped about his head he came up again–because still lower than
he was the hand of God–the everlasting arms were underneath him still.

There is blessed comfort when we come to die. I remember being at the
funeral of one of our Brothers, and a dear friend in Christ offered
prayer in which there was a sentence which struck me, "O Lord," he
said, "You have laid our friend low, but we thank You that he cannot go
any lower, for underneath him are the everlasting arms." Yes,
underneath the bodies of the saints are the everlasting arms of God!
They cannot sink to Hell–they must rise again at the sound of the
archangel's trumpet! Think, next time you go to the grave with your
dear one–you will fancy that you are putting the body into the cold
earth to leave it there–but if you will think that there are God's
arms at the bottom of that grave, you will drop your child into them,
oh, so gently!

You will put father and mother, yes, and the dearest one you have,
softly and happily down into the Father's arms, believing that He will
raise them up again after a little sleep upon His bosom. You see here,
then, the safety of God's people. God is such a help to them that they
shall not faint–or fainting, shall only fall into His arms.

III. The second half of the verse tells us of ISRAEL'S FUTURE. "And He
shall thrust out the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy
them." You have seen a man in our streets with a telescope through
which you may see Venus, or Saturn, or Jupiter. Now, if that gentleman,
instead of revealing the stars, could fix up a telescope and undertake
that everybody who looked through it should see his future life, I will
be bound to say he would make his fortune very speedily for there is a
great desire among us all to know something of the future! Yet we need
not be so anxious, for the great outlines of the future are very well
known already. We have it on the best authority that in the future as
in the past, we shall meet with difficulties and contend with enemies.

My text, like the telescope, reveals to those who trust in God what
will become of their difficulties and we see that they are to be
overcome. God will work, and you will work. He shall thrust out your
enemies, and He shall say to you, "Destroy them." What may be our
future lot, as I have said, we do not know–save that the Holy Spirit
testifies that in every place–bonds, and adversities, and struggles,
and trials certainly await us. We shall not have an easy path to
Heaven. As it has not been, so shall it not be, but onward–till we lay
aside this body–we must contend for very life in spiritual things.

How precious it is to see that God has promised to thrust out the enemy
from before us! This He does sometimes by Providence. Providence often
removes enemies that would have been more than a match for us. When the
children of Israel came to the promised land they found that the
population had been thinned–God had sent the hornet before them. It
was a land, as the spies said, that did eat up the inhabitants
thereof–God had sent a hornet and a pestilence to clear off the hosts
of Canaan. You do not know, Brothers and Sisters, how strangely God, by
a very evident Providence, clears away temptations from before
you–temptations which you might not have been strong enough to resist.
You may be losing today something which will cause you grief for the
present, which, if you had kept it, would have been your destruction in
three years to come. The hornet has come and driven away your present
comfort–really taking away from you a future curse.

Now, whatever your enemies or your difficulties may be, God is on your
side and He will thrust them all away before you. It is a grand thing
to go straight on in the path of duty, believing that God will clear
the road. Like the priests, when they came to the edge of Jordan and
saw the billows rolling up, yet on they went–and not so much as one of
them was touched by the waves–as they put down their feet the waters
receded! Oh, it must have been grand to be the first man in that
march–to see the waters flow away before your feet! So shall it be
with you! The water shall come up to where you are, yet it shall not
touch you–you shall find it disappear as you, by faith, advance. If
you are called to march through floods and flames, they shall not hurt
you, but shall work your lasting good and expedite you on your journey
towards the promised inheritance.

God has promised, then, by His Providence to thrust out your enemies.
He will also do it by His Grace. His Holy Spirit will give you Divine
power by which every uprising sin shall be put down. If all the devils
in Hell should tempt you at one time, and all the lusts of the flesh
should rise against you in one moment, and all the pride of life should
assail you at the same instant–yet the eternal God, the
Comforter–would be able to put them all back and to deliver you, and
to put a new song into your mouth as He gave you deliverance!
Therefore, go on, Brothers and Sisters, even through the valley of the
shadow of death–for God will thrust aside your foes and make a pathway
for you. But not without your fighting will you win the victory, for He
will say, "Destroy them."

You are not to be taken to Heaven as though you were a corpse carried
there on a litter–you are to struggle according to the struggling of
the Spirit within you. You shall work because He works in you to will
and to do of His own good pleasure. Sins too hard for you today shall
be destroyed tomorrow. You shall not merely escape from them, but you
shall kill them! There are the eggs of the old serpent within your
heart, and they continue to be hatched one after another–but you shall
one day drive out the old dragon and all his hellish crew! Your heart
shall be pure and holy–as pure as Heaven, and as holy as Christ
Himself!

Thus much, then, with regard to God's people in the future–you and I
can take comfort from the precious promise here contained.

IV. And now, lastly. Moses sang of ISRAEL'S BLESSEDNESS. Israel is to
be blessed in three ways: First, "Israel then shall dwell in safety
alone." Brothers and Sisters, notwithstanding all our fights and our
struggles by virtue of our salvation in Jesus, "We which have believed
do enter into the rest," for Jesus is our peace and our rest. Now see
our privilege–we dwell alone. We have no alliance with the world. We
stay not in Egypt–we rest not upon Assyria. God alone is our comfort
and our confidence and we dwell in safety. Dwelling with God in
communion–having with Him one object, one affection, one desire–we
dwell apart from the rest of mankind, coming out daily more and more
from them, and desiring to be nearer and nearer to Christ and further
and further from men.

Here we dwell safely! There is nowhere safe except when alone with God,
but always safe then. I would roll this precious morsel under my
tongue, "Israel then shall dwell in safety alone." Like a sparrow, weak
and defenseless and on the housetop alone, but still in safety. Hunted
by Satan, molested by inward corruptions, tempted by the world,
slandered by cruel tongues–but in the bosom of Jesus Christ like a
dove, alone, always secure! Perish? That you shall not! Be destroyed by
the adversary? It must not be! In time and in eternity God's honor is
pledged for your salvation! Earth's old pillars may bow, but the
promises of God must stand fast!

Safe you are, and safe you shall be when the world is on a blaze. What
a mine of comfort in two or three words! "Israel then shall dwell in
safety alone." It does not promise that you shall dwell in wealth, nor
in fame, nor in respectability, nor even in moderate comfort–but you
shall "dwell in safety alone." You may have to lie upon the sick bed,
bedridden year after year. You may be exiled from your native country.
You may be among the poorest and most despised of mankind, but you
shall surely dwell in safety! Where God guarantees safety, there safety
is. All the princes of this world cannot make that man safe against
whom God aims His arrow, but all the devils in Hell cannot wound that
man over whom the everlasting shield is uplifted to keep him
secure–"He shall dwell in safety alone."

Come, Brothers and Sisters, let us take our harps from the willows and
begin a tune of quiet joy, for we are safe! Ah, poor world, you know
nothing about this. The legalist, standing upon Sinai's mountain, has
done much–but he has more to do. He knows he is not safe–he is to be
saved by his own good works, he says, and he never thinks that his good
works have come to a sufficiency–therefore he is never safe. But we
are safe, sinners as we are, for our righteousness is finished–it is
the righteousness of Jesus! Our standing is secure for we are accepted
in the Beloved. Blessed safety! This is what old Rome could never
promise! Serve her faithfully, and she offers you but a place in
"purgatory" as your reward! But we who have believed, have Christ
today, and are safe today, and safe forever–

"More happy, but not more secure Are the glorified spirits in
Heaven.'"

Oh, it is blessed, going to sleep with this satisfaction, "If I never
wake in this world, I shall wake in Heaven." And it is blessed, living
in this world, on land and on sea, in the midst of storm or of plague,
when one is sure that neither life nor death shall affect our safety.
Having confided in God, as He manifests Himself in the Person of Jesus
Christ, our everlasting safety is secured by the promised oath, the
Covenant of the everlasting God.

The next blessing which is given to Israel is abundant provision. "The
fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine." God's people
are to be supplied from a fountain, and around that fountain there
shall always be a superabundance of corn for their necessities, and of
wine for their comfort and their luxury. Those who come to God receive
no stinted allowance–they are gentlemen commoners upon the bounty of
God. There is a daily portion allotted to them and it is measured on a
princely scale, equal to the dignity of the new birth. We drink from an
ever-overflowing fountain. Other men get a little stock of grace, and
goodness, and comfort, as they think, and they are pleased. But these
things dry up and are gone!

But the Believer has no personal dependence whatever. He has everything
in Christ–Christ is his fullness, and it pleases the Father that in
Christ should all fullness dwell! The Believer comes to Jesus as to a
fountain always bubbling up with waters fresh and sweet. The Believer's
provision is of all kinds, to meet his necessities and to meet his more
luxurious desires. Brethren, we are not only saved from Hell–that is
like the corn, but we are made meet for Heaven– that is the wine. We
are not merely saved day by day from our besetting sins–that is as the
corn, but we are made to have enjoyments, high enjoyments, fellowship
with Jesus, the sitting in the heavenly places with Him–this is the
wine. Believe me, Brothers and Sisters, all that your souls can need,
when your desires are stretched to the utmost, you will find in Christ
Jesus!

If you have learned to trust Him, you may make your capacities of
intellect as large as those of a Locke or Sir Isaac Newton–you may
have a mind which knows no limit, which, like the horse-leech, cries,
"Give, give!" It may be as expansive as the all-embracing sky, but in
your God you shall find all and more than all, for you shall be in your
God as the fish that is in the sea, the bounds of which it cannot find,
the limit of which it cannot learn–you shall be satiated, filled,
satisfied with a superabundance from Him whose name is God
All-Sufficient. Nor shall you merely have enough for your needs–your
joys shall be high, bright, ecstatic! There shall be wine as well as
corn.

Believe me, we have our dancing days, our times of sacred
merriment–there are seasons with us when we would not envy the angels
the mirth they have–when our Jesus, the Bridegroom, puts the fasting
days away and gives us to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory! Oh, to know Him, to see Him, to feast upon Him is Heaven below!
The fountain of Jacob, then, is upon a land of corn and wine to us.

Lastly, God's people are furnished with another unspeakable blessing,
namely, celestial unction. "Also His heavens shall drop down dew." How
we need this! How dry we get, how dull, how dead, unless the Lord
visits us! The Oriental knew the value of dew. When he saw the green
pastures turn brown and at last dry up till they were nothing but dust
and powder, how he sought for the shower and the dew! And when it came,
how thankful he was! When that dew of the Holy Spirit is gone from us,
what dead prayers, what miserable songs, what wearisome preaching, what
wretched hearing! Oh, there is death everywhere when the Holy Spirit is
denied us! But we need not be without Him, for He is in the promise–
"His Heaven shall drop down dew."

The words read as if there were much dew, superabundance of moisture.
So, indeed, we may have the Holy Spirit most copiously if we have but
faith enough to believe it and earnestness enough to seek it. Would God
we had such a down-dropping of dew today! If it has not come this
morning, as I fear it has not, may it yet descend on your classes and
on your private meditations this afternoon! May you be favored with it
this evening! O God, what are our services without Your Holy Spirit? It
were better for us to be dumb than to speak without the Spirit of God!
What is all the work the Church attempts without Your power, most
blessed Holy Spirit? When we have You, then all is well–and You are
promised–therefore come and glorify Yourself and glorify the Lord
Jesus. Amen and Amen!
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Apostolic Exhortation

A Sermon