Jehovah-Shammah

Jehovah-Shammah
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 25, 1863, BY THE REV. C.
H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Whereas the Lord was there." Ezekiel 35:10.
HEREIN lay the special security of the chosen land. The Edomites saw
the whole country of Israel and Judah left desolate. Babylonians and
Chaldeans had carried away the people and ravaged the land, therefore
the proud inhabitants of the city in the rock said–"These two nations
and these two countries shall be mine and we will possess it." The
dukes of Edom counted upon an easy conquest and such, indeed, the Holy
Land would have proved, had there not been one great difficulty–quite
unknown to them–"The Lord was there."
Jehovah Himself was still in possession, even though His rebellious
people had been carried into captivity. HE would never allow that the
Idumea should hold Jehovah's land in possession, and with despiteful
hearts cast it out for a prey. From this one incident we gather that
whatever may be the machinations and devices of the enemies of God's
people, though there is nothing else to thwart them, there is this as
an effectual barrier–the saints are God's heritage and the Lord is
there, to guard and hold His own. The book of Ezekiel, if you will
notice, concludes with these blessed words, as the name of the great
city of the latter days. When all conflicts shall be ended, when the
scattered shall be gathered, when the tabernacle of the Lord shall be
among them. Then this which is Zion's bulwark today, shall be her
everlasting glory. JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH–" The Lord was there."
As Palestine was preserved from the enmity of Mount Seir by the
presence of the great Jehovah, so the Church and each separate member
of it is constantly kept by the power of a present God, despite the
rage of adversaries. In enlarging upon this cheering Truth of God, I
shall invite you to notice the Church as a despised people, constantly
triumphant. Next, we will observe the Christian, in his opposed life,
perpetually victorious. Thirdly, a desolate soul graciously delivered
from Satan. And lastly, a ruined and depraved earth, resplendent with
perfect beauty–and all because "The Lord was there."
I. Consider, then, A DESPISED PEOPLE CONSTANTLY TRIUMPHANT, BECAUSE
"THE LORD WAS THERE." "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated." Here
election divides two races forever. Since that hour the rejected have
always displayed a deadly hatred towards the elected. The seed of the
profane Esau, who sold his birthright, have in all generations
maintained perpetual strife against the children of the accepted Jacob,
upon whom the Lord has looked with the eyes of discriminating Grace.
The Prophet Obadiah denounces a curse upon Edom for their violence to
their brother Jacob–"In the day that you stood on the other side. In
the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces and
foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even
you were as one of them. But you should not have looked on the day of
your brother in the day that he became a stranger. Neither should you
have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their
destruction. Neither should you have spoken proudly in the day of
distress. Neither should you have stood in the crossway, to cut off
those of his that did escape. Neither should you have delivered up
those of his that did remain in the day of distress."
An eternal enmity is put between the serpent and the woman–between his
seed and her seed. This was evidenced at the beginning of human
history, in the case of Cain and Abel–and the story of the great
battle of Armageddon, when Gog and Magog shall be utterly overthrown,
will stand upon the last page of the world's story as a sure proof that
the old enmity is as hot as ever. The people of God have always been,
in every age, a hated and despised people. This may be seen if you will
notice a few facts.
1. The adversaries of God's Israel have often thought in their hearts
that they would utterly destroy them. When Israel dwelt in Egypt and
the single household began to be a great nation, Pharaoh said unto His
people, "Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply."
Hard bondage, in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in
the field was tried until their lives were made bitter. But the
tyrant's purpose was not accomplished, for the more they afflicted
them, the more they multiplied and grew.
Then spoke the king unto the midwives–"If it is a son, then you shall
kill him. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live." O deep-laid
scheme of a cruel and wily despot! Now he thinks that the work is
surely done. The Nile will be covered with the dead bodies of Israel's
sons and Egypt will know no fear from her bond slaves. Little did he
dream that the mid-wives would violate his orders and far less that
from the river which he worshipped would spring the man who would make
the fields of Zoan mourn and avenge upon the first-born of Egypt the
slaughter of Israel's sons.
As it was fabled of Hercules that while a babe in his cradle, he
strangled with his infant hands the serpents which came to destroy him,
so was it with the chosen nation. While yet feeble as a child in Egypt,
it was more than a match for the craft and malice of the dragon, for
"the Lord was there."
In after years a Pharaoh of like spirit grievously oppressed the people
until Jehovah brought them forth with a high hand and with an
outstretched arm. They had scarcely been free more than a few
hours–they had gone but a few furlongs from Egypt, when the heart of
Pharaoh was hardened and he said, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I
will divide the spoil–my lust shall be satisfied upon them." Behold
the hosts of Israel–they are entangled in the land–the wilderness has
shut them in. The Red Sea rolls before them. Now Pharaoh, now may you
destroy them at a blow! How is the prey snatched from the hand of the
mighty! How gloriously is captivity led captive! The sea divides, the
waters stand upright like an heap and the chosen people of God are led
through the deep as through a wilderness, for "the Lord was there."
After-years present us with numberless occasions in which the people
who bore the oracles of God were in imminent peril and were
miraculously preserved by her great King. Well did the Psalmist sing,
"God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved: God shall help her
and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He
uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of Hosts is with us. The
God of Jacob is our refuge."
To single out one case among many, let us remember the boastings and
the shame of Sennacherib. The great king has taken the defended cities
of Judah and sent his foul-mouthed servant, Rabshakeh, to demand the
surrender of Jerusalem, that he may carry away all the people of the
land. Hezekiah comforts the minds of the people, saying, "The Lord will
deliver us." Rabshakeh writes a blasphemous letter and cries to the
people on the wall, "Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, the
Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his
land out of the hands of the king of Assyria?
"Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where are the gods of
Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hands? Who are
they among all the gods of these lands that have delivered their land
out of my hands, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my
hands?" Thus he boasts against the living God and counts upon the ready
possession of the Holy City. And what happens? He had calculated that
his ferocious troops would cut to pieces the insignificant armies of
Hezekiah. He looked upon Jerusalem as a cauldron, and all the
inhabitants thereof as the pieces of flesh that are boiled therein–but
he forgot that the Lord was there. He knew not Jehovah-Shammah.
He little dreamed of the secret reason why the virgin daughter of Zion
despised him and laughed him to scorn. But when the hook was in his
nose, when the thousands of his troops had fallen like leaves in
autumn, and when he himself was smitten by his own sons in the house of
Nisroch, his god, then all the nations knew that God was great and
greatly to be feared in the mountain of His holiness. Had not the Lord
been on Judah's side, she would have been as stubble to the fire. But
the Lord was there, and her foe could not prevail.
Fly on still in your vision of the Lord's marvelous works, till you
come to the Church of God properly called. How easy it seemed to Herod
to destroy once and for all the followers of Jesus! They are but a
handful. He will take James to begin with and Peter shall follow. The
Apostles shall be the first fruits of the bloody harvest which he means
to reap. Aha! Aha! Foolish Herod, a greater Herod than you are sought
to destroy Him who was King of the Jews. In his blind fury he smote all
the young children of Bethlehem, but the newborn Prince escaped the
murderous sword and so shall this young child, the new-formed Church,
escape out of your wolfish fangs.
She shall fly to the uttermost ends of the earth and shall be free. Her
Word shall go forth throughout every land and people. Need I say that
you have but to change name and circumstances and this story may be
repeated thousands of times? During the first centuries, the dragon
incessantly persecuted the woman–"The serpent cast out of his mouth
wa- ter as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be
carried away of the flood." One of the Roman emperors set up a
monument, "In the memory of a destroyed superstition called
Christianity." But was our holy religion destroyed?
Could the dragon prevail against the remnant which kept the
Commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ? Behold the
multitudes who this day bow the knees at the name of Jesus of Nazareth!
Diocletian dyed the earth red with the blood of saints, and if it had
not been that the Lord was there, certainly the Roman sword must have
cut off forever the woman's seed. But why do I linger here? All ages
and all lands witness to the same struggle. Our own country, at the
Reformation, is a clear instance. Mary hunted out the saints of God. As
the bloodhound tracks the fugitive slave, so she tracked the faithful
wherever they were hidden.
But the stakes of Smithfield and the dungeons of the Lollards' Tower
were not sufficient to destroy the people of God. And Elizabeth,
equally bloody against those who followed the Lord fully, having set up
a semi-papal hierarchy, sought to parry Puritans out of the land. Her
successors followed in her steps, but neither the hangman's rope, nor
loathsome dungeons, nor the dragoons of Claverhouse, nor fines, nor
banishment, nor death could destroy the separated Church of God–for
her God was her refuge and high tower. How came it, let us ask, that
all the regal and priestly power was foiled and could not stand against
the people scattered and peeled?
How did this anvil break so many hammers? How could this earthwork
stand against the fire of such well-manned batteries? Was there any
human force in the Church capable of resisting these bloody
persecutions? Brethren, there was none but this–Jehovah-Shammah, "the
Lord was there." The Lord being there, immortality, no, eternity was in
the Church. God is eternal, He is in the Church and His Church is
immortal, too. Who shall quench immortality? Where is the sword that
can snap the links of eternity? When God the Immortal shall bow His
head to weakness. When age shall palsy His arm and death shall send His
terrible shaft into His heart, then may the Church of God be destroyed.
But not till then, because "the Lord was there."
2. The enemies of the Church have frequently shown their scorn of her
by the ridicule which they have cast upon her attacks. When the Church
defies the world, the proud servants of Satan are filled with derision.
Even as Midian rested in unguarded security, fearless of Gideon and his
three hundred men, comparing him to a poor barley-cake which they could
eat at once if it were not unworthy of their notice, so the ungodly
despise the zeal of the godly. But as the cake of barley-bread fell
upon the tent of Midian and smote it that it lay along, even so the
Church is more than conqueror.
How loudly did Goliath mock at David! How he cursed him by his
gods–"Come to me and I will give your flesh unto the fowls of heaven
and to the beasts of the field." But Goliath falls like a tottering
tower headlong upon the ground. His own sword slays him and the
despised David bears the monster's head triumphantly in his hand. So,
doubtless, in Apostolic times, the world ridiculed the armies of the
Lord. "These poor men!" said kings and princes–and they smiled in
royal scorn of the mendicant band, "what kingdom can they set up?"
"Unlearned and ignorant men!" muttered the philosophers, as they cast
their mantles about them and mocked at the strange doctrine of the
resurrection of the dead. "This handful of weaklings," said the
commander of the legions of Rome. "This handful! A miserable eleven,
what can they do against innumerable priests and worshippers supported
by the eagles of an universal empire?" "Aha! Aha!" said the world, "was
anything ever so despicable, so fanatical, so foolish! Eleven
fishermen!
"Get back to your nets and to your boats! Go back to the lake of
Gennesaret! Transform the fishes into men and then come back and think
to turn us from the ancient gods of our fathers into worshippers of the
crucified Man of Nazareth." Yet for all their wisdom, their laughter
was ill-spent, for the Lord was there and therefore the attacks of the
brave eleven were followed by speedy victory. Wherever they marched
they cast down the idols' temples. No, they hurled the gods themselves
to the moles and to the bats and the few, the ignorant, the poor, the
weak–in the course of a few score years had cast the pomps of
priesthood, the pride of philosophy, and even the might of kings–from
the abodes of their glory and trod them like mire in the streets,
because Jehovah-Shammah, "the Lord was there."
How constantly has the world ridiculed the Church in every effort she
has put forth for her own enlargement? "What of these feeble Jews,"
said Sanballat and Tobiah–"will they fortify themselves, will they
revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish? Even that which they
build, if a fox goes up, he shall break down their stone wall." But
they built the wall and the timbers were fixed in their places. How
vexed must Tobiah and Sanballat have been when they saw the city rising
upon its heap.
The same has been the case in all time. To quote a modern instance of
what has ever been the case–Sydney Smith said when Carey talked of
evangelizing India, that a consecrated cobbler was going out to preach
the Gospel to educated and enlightened Hindus. But the consecrated
cobbler took his post and dug in India a well of which thousands shall
yet drink. That man of God has placed the battering ram of the Gospel
in such a position, that before long the hoary bastions of idolatry
will tremble and the world shall see that the weakness of God is
stronger than man.
It is really an absurd thing for us to talk about overcoming the world
and converting the heathen and comforting God's people and enlarging
the borders of the Church. It is, I say, an absurd thing if we talk so
in our own strength, but it is not absurd when this little word comes
in–"Whereas the Lord was there." Then we have Omnipotence in our
midst. If God is there, the Church has God's Omnipotence. And little do
our enemies know our might. Omnipotence walks forth, in the youthful
David to fight Goliath. Omnipotence goes forth in the consecrated
cobbler to fight with Juggernaut and the gods of the heathen. And
feeble though the Church may be to this day, unlearned and to a great
extent still made up of the poor of this world, yet the day shall come
when the earth shall know that the Church is mightier than the
mightiest of her foes, because Jehovah-Shammah, "the Lord was there."
3. Let me again remind you that the world's estimation of the Church
has frequently been seen in the way in which it will mock at all her
teachings. The wise men of this world have always something far
superior to anything that the Bible can reveal. Even bishops make great
discoveries and find out that perfect wisdom has made very many
blunders in the book of Exodus. New theologians are every now and then
starting most remarkable schemes of doctrine–their own wood, hay and
stubble, being, in their own opinion, infinitely superior to the gold
and the silver and precious stones of God's Inspiration.
Well, they may go on and tell us that the Gospel is a vulgar thing and
only fit for the poor. They may assure us that it will suit very well
the uneducated masses, but the intellectual and enlightened few want
something better. Ah, we can well endure their boasting, for the
Doctrines of Grace are the loftiest of all philosophy and the most
intellectual of all teachings–because Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is in
them. And where God is, there is perfect wisdom–where God is, there is
incomprehensible knowledge.
The sum total of all human knowledge is but as a drop in the bucket
compared with the wisdom of God. And the wisdom of God is in and with
the teachings of His Church, wherever Jesus Christ is lifted up. He is
the wisdom of God and the power of God, and therefore in answer to the
world's railing against our folly, we reply, "Yes, but the foolishness
of God is wiser than man," and, in Scripture, "Jehovah-Shammah," the
Lord is there.
4. Do they not, also, very frequently cast in our teeth our trials?
They will say of the Christian, "Where is He now?" When Israel's hills
were desolate, then Edom said, "Where is their God?" The sons of Esau
boasted and said, "Let us go up and take possession." It is ever the
part of the ungodly, when they find a Christian in distress, to say,
"Where is your God? God has forsaken him. Let us persecute and take
him." Yes, and we should have been swallowed up quickly by our fierce
foes, only that, in the worst moments of the Church, God is there.
If she is in prison, God is there. At the stakes where her martyrs
burn, God is there. The silenced ministers may have to conceal
themselves in the caves and dens of the earth, but God is there. Tried
though the Christian is, God is with him in the furnace. Nebuchadnezzar
can cast in but three, he cannot, however, cast out the Fourth! Where
the Church shall be Christ shall walk the coals with His people and
they shall come out of their trials triumphant–for God is there. Where
God is, there is everlasting love. Where God abides, there is immutable
affection. And, therefore, let this be our comfort, God is with you,
Israel, passing through the fire.
Beloved, the world shows its disrespect of us by the way in which it
often treats the Christian. It sees him poor and naked and miserable,
and therefore pushes him about as though he were a beggar and not one
of the royal blood. Little do they know that however poor the Christian
may be, the Lord is there. The image of Jesus Christ is in every
Christian's face, but especially in the face of a poor Believer. The
Holy Spirit dwells in that body, however clothed with rags, however
emaciated by hunger and disease.
You remember the other day that certain young men treated rudely a
pale-faced person whom they saw sitting in the railway carriage–pushed
him about, struck him and so forth and went to their homes, no doubt,
boasting of the way in which they treated a poor fool who had not the
spirit, as they would say, to defend himself. To their consternation it
turned out to be a peer of the realm whom they had thus ill-treated.
And then how small they seemed. What abject apologies they offered. Ah,
it was quite a different thing then. They would not have pushed his
grace, his lordship, the duke. Oh if they had only known it–they
thought him only some common man.
And so nowadays the world elbows the Christian, pushes him, strikes
him. But when it finds out what a Christian is, then how small their
mirth will seem–they would not have done it if they had known who it
was. They knew not the Lord of Glory and if they knew not Him, how
shall they know His people? Let it ever be remembered that wherever
there is a true Christian, there is Glory, because God is there and God
is never apart from His own Glory. The very honor and dignity and
majesty of Deity itself guards every follower of the Savior, however
much he may be despised among men.
O for a celestial tongue to set forth the honor and safety of the
chosen people, an honor which streams from the Presence of God as light
pours from the sun! You will see how it is. There was a little flock–a
multitude of ravening wolves all hungry and athirst for blood came
howling on. They rushed to the very edge of the fold. They were about
to leap in and suck the blood of the sheep, but suddenly they started
back like whipped curs. See how they turn tail and take to flight, for
lo, a mysterious One lifts His hand over the fold. A voice cries, "Get
you gone!" and back they go–they little dreamed that the Lord was
there. Had they known it they would scarcely have attempted a task so
impossible as the destruction of a people who had God in the midst of
them and therefore could not be moved.
II. But I must leave this for want of time and introduce THE OPPOSED,
AND YET A CONQUEROR. Moses saw at the back of the desert a bush
burning. It was nothing but a bush. The fire was real. The fire was
quite capable of consuming the bush in but the twinkling of an eye, and
yet though the bush burned with fire, it was not consumed. It is such a
sight as this that I bid you now look upon for a few moments, my
Beloved.
In the Lord Jesus Christ a Christian man is constantly opposed and yet
perpetually preserved because the Lord is there. The very moment that a
Christian is born again, Satan seeks to destroy him. The early
convictions of a newborn soul are always the subject of Satanic attack.
Frequently the devil will employ our old companions to laugh us out of
our fears–"Come along, old fellow," they will say, "do not give way to
this melancholy misery. There is a first-class play tonight–come and
see it. We shall meet at the tavern–we will have merriment and a rare
time of it."
Satan hopes that with the laughs, the jeers, the jests and merriment,
he will destroy utterly all convictions of sin. Little does he dream
that the Lord is there and where God sends the arrow home, no devil can
ever draw it out. Where the Lord convicts of sin, it is not possible
that those convictions should be staunched, except by a Savior's
wounds. If we should attempt to blow out a candle, since the candle was
lit by human power, human power may put it out. But he were the
greatest of fools who should try to blow out the sun. For He alone who
kindled its matchless rays can ever quench them.
If, then, the convictions of sin are natural, and come from man, man
may destroy them. But if the sunlight of God has risen in a human
heart, no power–human or satanic–shall ever be able to destroy the
glorious day which the day-star foretold. If I attempt to stop in its
course a stone which has been slung from human hand, I may, perhaps,
accomplish my purpose. But who is he that could interpose to stop a
meteor as it flashes across the sky? Who shall cast a bridle about the
neck of the planet as it flies in its tremendous pathway? Who shall
bind it fast in its place, or thrust a bit into its jaws? If God is in
the thing, it must traverse its destined pathway, in spite of all
opposition. So, Beloved, where the Lord begins a true heart-breaking
and real conviction of sin, it cannot be destroyed. Why? Because
Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is there.
Then, as the Fiend has tried to destroy conviction, he will next shoot
his arrows against our faith. Poor, feeble Follower of Jesus, he will
worry you. "Oh," says he, "he is but a little one, I will encounter him
in full fury, I will strike him to the ground and spill his soul." But
the faith which God gives to us overcomes the world–yes, and overcome
the old dragon, too. It is a faith which lives under pressure and
load–mountains may be piled upon it–but it still breathes under the
terrific weight. It lives in the midst of death, swallowing up death in
victory. It defies the power of Hell's fiery darts. They are not only
turned aside, but they are quenched upon the shield of faith.
Satan may throw all sorts of accusations in our pathway, but faith dies
to the Advocate. He may strike us many a cowardly blow with fierce
temptations such as suited our former state and the corruptions of our
flesh, but if God is in our faith and He is in it if it is real and
genuine, "more is He that is for us than all they that are against us."
There shall be this ever for our preservation–"the Lord is there."
Beloved, have not you always found that not only your faith but all
your good works are the subjects of Satan's attacks? I never yet had a
virtue or possessed a Divine Grace but what it was sure to be the
target for hellish bullets, whether it was hope, bright and sparkling,
or love, warm and fervent, or patience, all enduring, or zeal, flaming
like coals of fire. The old enemy of everything that is good has tried,
if he could, to destroy or mar it. And why is it that anything virtuous
or lovely survives in you? There can be no reason given except this,
"God is there."
God dwells in His people. Every good thing which springs up in the
human heart is an emanation from the indwelling Deity. And being such,
the Destroyer may vent his malice upon it, but as the waves are broken
against the rocks, so shall his cruel spite be broken against the power
of the most high God–God is in it.
Note, Beloved, how sedulously Satan aims against the perseverance of
God's people. "They will never hold on their way," says he. You and I
have thought we never should. Sometimes we have sat down and become
weary in well-doing– the troubles of the way, our non-successes, our
frequent sorrows, perhaps the backsliding of our heart from God–all
these have made us say, "I shall never reach my journey's end and see
my God with acceptance." And yet you have not fallen away from Grace
yet, not yet have you disgraced your character, not yet gone back to
your old lusts.
Old Adam has given you many a grip in the side, as though he would tear
the heart out of you, but you have held on your way despite all that he
could do. How is this? Why, God was in you, and if He had not been
there, then, indeed, had you been a prey unto your adversaries. I went
last week into the lighthouse at Holyhead and marked the lights that
warn the mariner crossing the sea, or guide him in time of storm into
the haven. I noticed in the second story of the lighthouse many large
vats filled with oil laid up in store that the lamps might be
constantly trimmed for months to come. I compared that in my own mind
to that gracious provision of Divine Grace which the Lord lays up in
store for His people. The lamps would go out but Jehovah-Shammah, the
Lord is there–we have the all-sufficiency of God laying up a store of
oil so that our lights may be always trimmed.
A Christian is something like an express train. On some of our
railroads you know there are express trains which do not stop to take
water, the water lies in a trench in the middle between the rails and
as the train runs it sucks up its own supply of cold water and so
continues its course without a pause. Our God in Divine Grace has
prepared in advance our needs. He prepares supplies for His own people
so that without their stopping to seek the streams of
creature-confidence–sometimes without the use of means–He is pleased
to speed them on their pathway towards Heaven, fed by a Divine
arrangement of Grace.
O it is blessed to think that if God is there, everything a Christian
can want for his final persevering, for his eternal life, is ready at
hand. I have no doubt, Beloved, we shall find that when we come to die,
our dying confidence will be the object of the enmity of all the powers
of Hell. Perhaps Jordan will overflow her banks and Satan will issue
his command, "Come here, principalities and powers, here is the man
that we could not overturn in life, let us at last overthrow him in
death."
Perhaps like John Knox, you may have your blackest day at the last, but
oh, thanks be unto God that gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ! We have no fear for our dying confidence, for "God is there,"
even there where the billows are the most tempestuous and the water is
most chill. We shall feel the bottom and know that it is good. Our feet
shall stand upon the Rock of Ages even in our dying moments. Beloved,
from the first of a Christian's life to the last, the only reason why
he does not perish is because "the Lord is there."
How often has the devil reckoned without his host? He has thought,
"Surely I shall destroy and devour that lamb." So, indeed, he would
have, if it had belonged to anybody else–but seeing it belonged to the
Lord–the Lord was there to protect it, to pluck it out of the jaws of
the lion and out of the paws of the bear and to preserve it even to the
end. I think, my Soul, you have learned never to love anything of which
you cannot say, "The Lord is there." If you have a grace, a virtue, a
good work, a prayer–and the Lord is not in it–away with it! Away with
it!
But if you have the feeblest prayer that ever was prayed and the
faintest hope that ever gladdened a man, if God is in it, never give it
up–for where there is God there is something firmer than adamant and
the axes of your adversaries shall have their edges turned against it.
III. Now, with greater brevity still, I come to dwell upon the third
point, which is this–A DESOLATE SOUL, NOT DESTROYED, BECAUSE GOD IS
THERE. I wish I could convey, by my words, some little inkling of my
own joy of heart while I was thinking over the third part of my
subject. I thought of the dead sinner. But an elect sinner and the
devil, like the sons of Edom, said, "I shall have that dead sinner, I
shall have him." "My purpose is," says Satan, "that he shall dwell
forever with me, in extreme misery. I have laid hold upon him," says
he, "and he has made a league with Hell. He is mine, he is mine
forever."
But stop, stop, the Lord was there before the devil. Does the devil
have a purpose? Ah, but God's purpose is older than the devil's
purpose. Does the sinner make a covenant? Yes, but then, God's Covenant
was made before that sinner was born! And what is the devil's purpose
compared with God's purpose? You see God is there before him–"Whereas
the Lord was there." "I have purposed says the Lord, to make that
sinner My child, a new heart also will I give him and a right spirit
will I put within him. I will sprinkle clean water upon him and he
shall be clean. From all his filthiness will I cleanse him."
Satan, you are deceived, the purpose of God is before you. "Ah, but,"
said Satan, "he is mine, I will have him, I will go and take
possession, he is mine." And so he is about to enter the vineyard and
take possession of the vines of sour grapes, when lo, someone meets him
on the threshold and says, "What are you doing here?" "I am come to
take possession," says he. "Take possession," says Christ, "I have a
claim upon this vineyard, I bought it and paid for it with drops of
blood. What are you doing here? You say, 'I will possess this land,'
whereas the Lord was there."
And He shows the Fiend the print of the nails and points him to His
wounded side and says, "Whatever your claim may be, Mine is a higher
claim. I bought, I paid for, I have the acceptance from the Divine hand
and this vessel of mercy was Mine. Mine long before you could have any
claim upon it." "Yes, yes," says the devil, "but I have been providing
for this soul that it shall lie in Hell forever. I have determined to
put such-and-such temptations in its pathway that it may go on step by
step till it makes its bed in Hell."
"Ah," says the Lord, "I have been before you. If you have a providence
so have I, and My Providence is older than yours. I have watched this
man from the cradle even until now. And even when you have been leading
him astray further and further from Me, I have overruled it all to
bring him nearer and nearer to the predestined spot and to the
appointed moment when the Eternal Council shall be fulfilled and that
man shall be turned from darkness to light."
Satan, no doubt, thinks he lays his plans very prettily. There is only
this to deceive his calculations and baffle his designs–"Whereas the
Lord was there." Perhaps the Evil One led you here this morning to
ridicule the Gospel, but the Lord may be in it and you may be brought
to His feet. I have known the devil lead men into sin and yet the very
sin has been blessed of God to their conviction and conversion. I
remember one whose life had been eminently moral before, who was
self-righteous, but the devil led him into a trap and his fall opened
his eyes to see the depravity of his heart. And so the devil had his
head cut off with his own sword–he was taken in his own net.
Beloved, whatever Satan may do in Providence, God is the Master of
Providence, and He is waiting to be gracious, still. But the devil will
say, "Yes, but I have him–I have got him now. I have put into his
thoughts and into his mind all manner of falsehood and he is mine."
"No," says Christ, "the Lord is there. He knows the Gospel–today is
the Gospel preached in his ears–"believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
you shall be saved." "Yes," says the devil, "he may know it, but I have
the power over him, I have my hand upon the bit and the bridle–I will
manage and control him."
But I trust the Lord will say to elect souls who are here this
morning–"No, but I have the power over you. The Spirit of God shall go
with the Word, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power
of sin and Satan unto God." And then shall it be said once more, "The
dead soul had almost gone to Hell, but it could not go, for the Lord
was there in the road to stop him in his ruinous career."
Do I address a backslider–one who used to be a member of a Christian
Church, but who has gone back to the world? Ah, poor Soul, if you ever
were a child of God, you will come back, yet. You will never live at
ease–you cannot live happily, I know. But by God's Grace you will not
live to your life's end what you now are–if the Lord is in you. The
devil may get you to give up the means of Divine Grace. He may lead you
to attend the public house. He may tempt you to forget the Sabbath and
to become as vile as other men. But if God is there, he will be cheated
of his prey yet.
At the last moment, if never before, I pray that you may hear the voice
that says, "Return, return." O that you would hear it this morning!
Come, Backslider, God has not cast you away! Having loved you with an
everlasting love, He has not forgotten you. Come to His feet. Confess
your wanderings and offenses and now, again, enter into His family and
rejoice with joy unspeakable and fullness of glory! You cannot be
ruined, for "the Lord is there." You shall be saved, for "the Lord is
there," and will not leave you nor forsake you.
IV. And now lastly–and this is but a hint. The same, dear Friends, is
true with regard to THE ENTIRE WORLD. The world cannot be destroyed,
because "Jehovah is there." This world once shone, like its sister
stars, bright and fair. But a sad shadow of eclipse was thrown upon
it–it became swathed in the mists of sin and though the glory of the
Lord has risen upon it, yet still much of the gloom and the thick
darkness continues. Shall that darkness cover all the nation? Shall the
light become dim forever?
No, no! "The whole creation groans and travails in pain together until
now." Shall its groans and travails end in nothing? No, no. The day
comes when, "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh
shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it."
There are signs which we sometimes think portend the speedy coming of
the Son of Man, "when He shall stand in the latter day" upon Mount
Olivet and reign with all His ancients gloriously. Then shall it be
seen that since God in all ages was in the world with Patriarchs and
Prophets, with Christ and His Apostles and with His Church throughout
all time, there always was a reason why the world should yet be
saved–why there should be a new Heaven and a new earth, wherein dwells
righteousness.
Despair not for the world, Beloved. Work on, hope on, pray on and
expect every blessing, for God is in the earth still, and therefore it
can never be the devil's globe–it can never be wholly given up to the
enemy of Jehovah-Shammah, "the Lord is there." Now I do not know where
the Great Master is about to conduct some of you. You are, perhaps,
about to journey across the sea. You may have, some of you, to go to a
bed of sickness, but remember I give you this for your cordial–"The
Lord is there." It may be, Brothers and Sisters, some of you are
appointed unto death, you are come to the borders of the dark valley.
Or else, bereavement will befall you and you will have to visit and
re-visit the grave with children and friends and relatives. Remember
the Lord is there. Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, I'll
follow where He goes. Anywhere with Jesus! Anywhere with Jesus! Nowhere
would I be without Him. If He says, "I am with you," then will I
neither fear the floods nor the fires, nor death, nor life, nor things
present, or things to come.
This shall be my joyous trust and boast–"The Lord is there." God bless
you. And in the school, the College and our beloved classes, may it be
said, "the Lord is there." Amen.