A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 2, 1875,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"For You did separate them from among all the people of the earth, to
be Your inheritance" 1 Kings 8:53.
ISRAEL was a type of the Church of God. The Apostle, in the Epistle to
the Romans, clearly shows that Abraham was the father, not of the
circumcision only, but of all those who walk in the steps of the faith
of Abraham, and that the promise that he should be heir of the world
was not to Abraham or his seed through the Law, but through the
righteousness of faith. The covenanted inheritance was not to be given
according to descent through the flesh, else would the inheritance have
fallen to Ishmael, but the peculiar blessings which God promised to
Abraham are the heritage of those who are born after the Spirit,
according to the promise, even as Isaac was. Abraham, himself,
believed, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness, and all
those who possess faith are the true children of "the father of the
faithful."
We may, therefore, without any violence, apply what is said of ancient
Israel to the present people of God. The promises which were made to
the great Patriarch had an eye to us, "as it is written, I have made
you a father of many nations," and, "the promise is sure to all the
seed, not to that only which is of the Law, but to that also which is
of the faith of Abraham" (Rom. 4:16, 17). "The children of the promise
are counted for the seed" (Rom. 9:8), and of them the children of the
flesh, namely, the Jews, are but a type. We shall not err, then, in
applying this prayer of Solomon to the people of God at the present
time.
It is worthy of remark concerning this prayer that it is as full and
comprehensive as if it were meant to be the summary of all future
prayers offered in the temple. One is struck, moreover, with the fact
that the language is far from new and is full of quotations from the
Pentateuch, some of which are almost word for word, while the sense of
the whole may be found in those memorable passages in Leviticus and
Deuteronomy in which the Lord threatened His people that if they were
untrue to Him, He would visit them with heavy chastisements. And, in
which He also added that if they turned to Him with sincere repentance
and confessed their iniquities, He would smile upon them again and
deliver them.
Solomon was certainly able to have found words of his own, for the
royal preacher was wise and sought out acceptable words. Yet he
preferred the words of the Holy Spirit to his own. In prayer there is a
peculiar sweetness in being able to bring before God not only His own
meaning, but His own Words! "Remember the Word unto Your servant upon
which You have caused me to hope." No language has such a mystic charm
and solemn power about it as that employed by the Holy Spirit. "How
sweet are Your Words unto my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my
mouth!" When we spread the very Words of the Lord before Him, our mind
is conscious of great power in asking–and much assurance of receiving.
The expressions by which the Spirit teaches us are very comely when we
return them to Him in supplication. By the illumination of the Spirit
of God much more is to be seen in Solomon's prayer than may be apparent
upon the surface. The chief point to which I shall call your attention
at this time will be its concluding plea which he repeats in various
forms, saying, "For they are Your people and Your inheritance, which
You brought forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron."
And again in the words of the text, "For You did separate them from
among all the people of the earth, to be Your inheritance, as You spoke
by the hand of Moses, Your servant, when You brought our fathers out of
Egypt."
The Lord's choice of Israel, His past mercies towards the elect people
and His peculiar relationship to them above all other nations–these
were the pleas which the suppliant son of David laid before the
Covenant God. Three things, then, this morning. The first is the fact,
"You have separated them from among all people." The second is the
design, "to be Your inheritance." And the third is the plea, which is
fitly based thereon. We shall try to work out the plea in reference to
the various petitions of Solomon's prayer, for they comprehend most, if
not all, of the trials of the godly.
I. First, here is THE FACT. "You did separate them from among all the
people of the earth." The historical Books of Scripture show that this
was emphatically true of Abraham and his descendants. Balaam spoke the
truth when he said, "Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be
reckoned among the nations." Israel never prospered when it forgot its
separateness, for the promise was, "Israel then shall dwell in safety
alone." When they followed the customs of their neighbors, they had
bitter cause for lamentation. But all things went well when they
remembered how the Lord had said, "You shall be holy unto Me, for I,
the Lord, am holy; and have severed you from other people that you
should be Mine."
Israel's safety and glory lay in being distinct from all other
people–and that Truth of God holds good concerning the Church of God
at this day, for we, also, are not of this world! In the human race
there are many divisions– nationalities, races and the like–but these
are only like the marks of a plow upon the surface of a field, they do
not divide. There is a far deeper and more lasting division which God,
Himself, has made. All around us is the world's wide wilderness and
yonder is the spot enclosed by Grace which the Lord of All has set
apart to be His garden. Before us lies the great and troubled sea which
cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. But we also see the
Rock on which He has built His Church, which God has settled and made
to stand fast by His eternal power.
Gross darkness covers the earth, for the whole world lies in the Wicked
One. But in the land of Goshen there is Light, for upon those that fear
His name the Sun of Righteousness has arisen. This separation of the
world into two races was predicted when our first parents fell. At the
gates of the Garden of Eden the Voice of the Lord spoke concerning the
Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, between whom an enmity
was to be placed. From that day until this, the serpent's seed has
continued in direct lineal descent and, blessed be God, the Seed of the
woman has not failed from off the face of the earth, for God's infinite
Grace has evermore raised up children in the family of Grace. The two
lines of Cain and Seth, of Ham and Shem, of Ishmael and Isaac, of Esau
and Jacob are very visible from the first hour of history until now.
There is a separation, then. Let us speak of it. That separation
commenced in the eternal purpose of God. Before the earth was, He had
set apart unto Himself a people whom He looked upon in the glass of His
foreknowledge and viewed with infinite affection. "Moreover whom He did
foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son." Think not that God's children are born into His family by chance,
for, when they are born again, they do but receive "that eternal life
which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Conceive
not that the newly converted ones are strangers to Him–He has known
them long before they knew themselves! And He has shed abroad upon them
"that great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in
trespasses and sins."
We may say of the mystical body of Christ that in the Lord's Book all
His members were written which in continuance were fashioned, when as
yet there was none of them! Long before He had made the world in which
men should dwell, He had ordained a place for His people and the
arrangements of Providence were made with an eye to them, for Moses
says, "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people
according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's
portion is His people. Jacob is the lot of His inheritance."
This first act of separation was followed up, or I might say,
accompanied, by a distinct act of Grace in which the chosen were given
over to the Lord Jesus Christ. "Yours they were," says Jesus, "and You
gave them to Me." He speaks of as many as His Father gave Him–these
were to be members of Christ's body, they were to make up His bride,
the Lamb's wife–they were to be His brethren and He the Firstborn.
They were to be taken under a federal headship of which He should be
the second Adam. "He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the
world." Oh, what a blessing this is to be the chosen of God and given
to the Lord Jesus–to have one's name written in the Lamb's Book of
Life–that book in which the Lamb's name stands first and is followed
by the names of all whom He has redeemed with His precious blood!
O bliss, eternal and boundless, to know by assurance of faith that you
belong to those who are set apart unto God, and are one with Jesus! So
far the separation is hidden from us, but what is hidden in the
purpose, in due time develops itself into the event, for all the people
of God are at the proper moment called out by effectual calling, and in
this way they are separated from among the people of the world. They
hear a voice which others hear not! Their eyes are opened to see what
others perceive not! Drawn by cords which others do not feel, they
yield to those bands of love which others resist. With full consent,
their will being sweetly influenced, they follow as they are drawn!
Like Abraham, they go forth from the country of their birth to seek a
city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.
The Most High has called them to come forth and be sojourners with Him,
and they come. Do you not remember, Brothers and Sisters, when first
the sacred Voice sounded in your inner ears? It said, "You are in a far
country, My child. You are poor and hungry. You are sick and faint. You
are feeding swine. You are disgraced and dishonored. Come back to your
Father's house." Well do I remember how that Voice charmed me to
consideration, to humiliation, to confession and to resolve until my
heart cried out, "I will arise and go unto my Father." Did not Jesus
say, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me"? And
did He not say to others, "You believe not because you are not of My
sheep"?
Here begins the separation which is visible and manifest! Grace works
and calls the chosen out of Nature's lost estate. At the call of the
Almighty Spirit, dead souls arise to Divine life and forsake the tombs
among which they wandered! Lepers find their flesh returning to its
former health and quit the lazar house in which they dwelt! And rebels,
flinging down their weapons, sue for peace and become loyal subjects of
their gracious King! Do you know, Beloved, what this means? It is what
we call conversion. It is a wonderful phenomenon–who shall understand
it? Let no man dare to ridicule it! There is a mock conversion which
arises from a little feverish feeling which turns cold when the fit is
over–but this is no evidence that there are no true conversions.
Real conversion by the Holy Spirit is as distinct and radical a change
as though an old man were placed in a mill and ground young again! No,
it is something more than that would be, for "old things are passed
away, behold all things are become new." The regenerate are dead,
indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God by Jesus Christ! In them has been
performed a deed of the same power which worked in Christ when He was
raised from the dead–and this has most effectually put a difference
between them and the rest of mankind! Believers become separate from
the hour of their conversion by possessing a new nature. Do not think I
am too bold when I say that the distinction between the child of God
and the carnal man is as great as the difference between a man and a
beast! As man possesses an intellectual life which is denied to the
beast, so the regenerate are endowed with a third and loftier principle
called the spirit, which lifts them into a higher sphere of existence.
The most moral and most educated of unregenerate men are still dead as
to spiritual things–and they must remain so till the new life is
implanted in them. Those who have been born again have received the
living and incorruptible Seed of God which abides forever. They have,
in the words of the Apostle, been "made partakers of the Divine Nature,
having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust." This
makes a wonderful distinction between them and the rest of mankind. A
man is separate from an ox or a sheep by every instinct of his
nature–there is no mistaking the one for the other. True, there are
parts of manhood which have affinity with the animal, but still the
possession of a mind creates tastes, desires, emotions, joys, sorrows,
cravings and motives with which the animal cannot intermeddle.
The Christian man is endowed with a nature above that of other men and
is conscious of a life with which they cannot sympathize. Dear Hearer,
do you know anything of this deep, vital, radical, essential
distinction from the world? You must know it, or you cannot belong to
Christ, for He says of His disciples, "they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world." The separateness of the Believer comes out
in his life. We shall do well to call to mind that the Jews were
remarkably separated from the Gentiles by the ordinances and
commandments which the Lord gave them. If they sat down to eat they
could not mingle with the heathen, for they were discriminating in
their food–the Lord had said to them, "You shall, therefore, put
difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean food
and clean: and you shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by
fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creeps on the ground, which
I have separated from you as unclean."
If the Jew went out to fish, some of the fish were without scales and
fins–and these were unclean to him–and the Jewish fisherman was thus
distinct from the Gentile. Or, if he became a fowler, some of the birds
which might be taken were unclean, and so the Israelite was detected
again. Not alone in his food, but in his dress, also, he was a marked
man, for the Lord had commanded, "Speak unto the children of Israel,
and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their
garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the
fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue: and it shall be unto you for a
fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of
the Lord, and do them." It did not matter where he was, whether he ate,
drank, slept, walked, rode–there was such a distinction about the man,
that, with a little observation, you could safely say, "that man is an
Israelite."
Even thus should it be with the Lord's people. I do not mean that we
are to use cant phrases, or set up distinctive trademarks as certain of
the sects are doing. Behold how broad they make their phylacteries! One
sort can do nothing without the "sign of the cross," and another cannot
be happy except they exhibit the orthodox formula–"The Gospel of the
Grace of God will be preached here, God willing.''" How readily does
the most simple worship fix itself down to form and become as
ritualistic without rituals as others with a superabundance of
ceremonies! A broad brimmed hat and a collar-less coat were once brave
protests against wide-spread folly. And they may be well enough, even
now, if worn in a right spirit. But still the distinction between saint
and sinner can never lie in beaver and broadcloth, nor can it be
revealed by mere peculiarities of speech–it needs other and more
important modes of manifestation.
We do not believe the Lord would have us become unnatural. The Grace of
God has left us men and intends us to be men, though it has quickened
us with a higher life and actuated us with nobler motives. Not John the
Baptist in the wilderness, but Jesus among men, is the example of our
lives! We are to be in the world but not of it! Grave distinctions are
to mark us. A worldling loves himself–the Christian loves his God. The
worldling seeks gain for self–the Christian seeks glory for God. The
worldling lives to bless himself–the Christian lives to bless his age.
If the love of God is in a man, he will, in motive and spirit, differ
as much from the ungodly as light from darkness–and in his life you
will see the difference with the naked eye. The saints are a peculiar
people and this is their main peculiarity–they are zealous for good
works–not to save them, but because they are saved!
Dear Brethren, it is to be feared that many of us are not separated
enough from the world. God intends the difference to be very marked. He
would have the line between the Church and the world drawn very
clearly. I could wish to obliterate forever the unhappy and artificial
distinction which is constantly made between sacred and secular, for a
world of mischief has come out of it. The Truth of God is that a real
Christian may be known by this–that to him everything secular is
sacred and the most common matters are holiness unto the Lord! I do not
believe in the religion which only lifts its head above water on Sunday
and confines itself to praying and preaching and carrying hymn books
about.
We must have a religion which gives a true yard when it is measuring
its calico, a religion which weighs a true pound when it is dealing out
shop goods, a religion which scorns to puff and lie and take advantage
of a gullible public. We must have a religion which is true, upright,
chaste, kind and unselfish. Give me a man who would not lie if the
whole earth or Heaven, itself, were to be won thereby! We need among
professed Christians a high morality–no, far more– we need unsullied
holiness! O, Holy Spirit, work it in all of us!
As we have often said, holiness means wholeness of character in
contradistinction to the cultivation of some few virtues and the
neglect of others. Oh that we were like the Lord in this–that we loved
only that which is right and abhorred that which is evil! If only we
kept along the straight and narrow path and could not be decoyed from
it, fearing not the frown of man nor courting his smile, but resolved,
as God lives in us, that we will live in our daily actions according to
His will! This would make Christians to be a separated people, indeed,
and this is precisely what their God would have them to be!
There shall be a final separation, by-and-by, when the wheat shall be
gathered into the garner and the tares cast into the oven–when the
Great Shepherd shall come and set His sheep on the right hand and the
goats on the left. O, in that day of final separation, may we be found
among those of whom He has said, "They shall be Mine in the day when I
make up My jewels."
II. Now, secondly and briefly, as to THE DESIGN. What has the Lord
aimed at by separating His people from among men? The text tells us,
"to be Your inheritance." God has made a choice of a people who are to
be called, "the Lord's portion." They are to be "the lot of His
inheritance," by which is meant that He would have a peculiar interest
in them. All the world belongs to God–"The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein," yet out of
the mass He has chosen His own, of whom He says, "You, only, have I
known of all the nations of the
earth."
The Queen of England may traverse the whole of these islands and say,
"All this is mine," but yet there are spots which are, in a deeper
sense, her own inheritance. Windsor is the home of her ancestors and
Balmoral and Osborne are also hers, as Blair Athol and Ventnor are not.
Jehovah claims all men as His–"All souls are Mine, says the Lord," but
He singles out some and says, "I know whom I have chosen." "It has
pleased the Lord to make you His people." "Blessed is the people whom
He has chosen for His own inheritance." A man, when he takes anything
to be his inheritance, expects
to have it used for his own purposes. If he has inherited a farm he
looks to receive the rents of it, or if he tills the ground, himself,
he rightfully considers that the crops belong to him.
So, my Brothers and Sisters, if we are the Lord's inheritance, all that
we are capable of producing belongs to Him, and He looks to have it. To
Him every power, every faculty, every passion, every ability, yes, even
life itself, belongs to Him. All the clusters of our vine are His and
His each ear of our nature's harvest. We are vessels unto honor,
reserved only for His use. We are His servants whose sole and only
business it is to wait upon Him. We dare not look upon ourselves as our
own, or as belonging unto others, for we are bought with a price! And
therefore it is but reasonable that we serve the Lord in our bodies and
our spirits, which are His.
A man will generally take up his abode in the spot which he has
selected to be especially his own. "For the Lord has chosen Zion; He
has desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever: here will I
dwell; for I have desired it." "I will dwell in them, and I will walk
in them," says the Lord. Blessed is that man with whom Jehovah deigns
to dwell! Will He, in very deed, dwell upon earth? He will, for He has
said, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembles at My Word." In a man's inheritance he
takes his delight, and oh, we mention it with joyful awe–Jehovah takes
delight in His people! "The Lord your God, in the midst of you is
mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest
in His love, He will joy over you with singing."
It is said of Him who is the Incarnate Wisdom, "My delights were with
the sons of men." So does He love us that He rejoices over us–and when
we know that His joy is fulfilled in us then our joy is full! Oh,
Brothers and Sisters, see the honor which is put upon you by being made
the delight of the Lord! When a man takes a portion to be his
inheritance he means never to give it up. A Jew never yielded his
inheritance. Poor Naboth had a little vineyard and Ahab wanted it and,
therefore, he said–"I will give you the worth of it in money, or I
will give you a better vineyard." "No," said Naboth, "the Lord forbid
it that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto you." And he
died sooner than alienate his heritage! Beloved, you are the
inheritance of God! You are the Lord's own portion! Sooner than give
you up, the Only-Begotten shed His heart's blood! You are His and He
will not lose you. "Who shall separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord?"
Now, before I go further, I want to ask, have we realized our separated
condition and our being wholly the Lord's? Certain regiments in the
army count it a great honor to be called the Queen's Own. Oh, Brothers
and Sisters, what an honor to be God's own, to be Jesus Christ's own! I
would like to be the branded slave of Christ, like Paul, who, when he
looked upon the scars which commemorated his sufferings said, "Let no
man trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," as if
these were the brands never to be erased which marked him forever as
belonging to the Crucified Savior! If you and I belong to Jesus, let us
never be false to Him. Let us never be ashamed of His service, nor
negligent in it. Such an honor as we possess must not be trifled with.
What manner of persons ought we to be? Brothers and Sisters, are you
living for God? May I press the question home upon you? You profess to
have been born into His family, are you seeking to glorify God as the
main object of life? You may have other objects, but they must be
secondary to this. This must eat you up! It must be like fire in your
bones. You must feel, "For me to live is Christ." An old Divine said,
"I desire to eat, drink and sleep eternal life." Let us be wholly
consecrated, for the Lord's portion must not be spoiled! The King's
private garden must not be trod under the stranger's foot. His bride
must not be for others.
Brethren, you cannot but joyfully confess that you are the Lord's! Yes,
you delight to have it so and desire to make the Lord's possession of
you more and more manifest–go on unto perfection. There is no
happiness comparable to a complete submergence of self into the Glory
of God. This is the nearest approach to Heaven this side of the grave!
O, to be reserved for the Lord, hedged round about, shut up and
enclosed for Jesus and for Him alone!
III. Thirdly, the subject before us furnishes us with A PLEA. If you
have realized that you are separated to belong to the Lord, this is a
plea–and the plea applies in prayer to all your trials. As time would
fail me, I shall not read all the words of Solomon, but I will ask you
to notice that from the 31st verse he pleads for any who may have a
case pending in judgment. It happens that righteous men are falsely
accused. Solomon asks that God would decide the case and give forth His
sentence and establish the right.
Now, Brothers and Sisters, perhaps some of you are under the peculiarly
severe trial of being misunderstood, misrepresented and misjudged. You
have not been guilty of that which is laid at your door. You loathe
from your very heart the
evil which is attributed to you. Now, if you are the Lord's own, you
may go to Him with this argument–your Savior has put it into your
mouth–"And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night
unto Him?" Be not very sorely troubled when men falsely speak evil
against you, for they so persecuted the Prophets that were before you.
Your reputation may be dead and buried, but, if you have not killed it
by your own conduct, it will have a resurrection! And when it rises,
again, it will be much more fair and beautiful than it was before.
"Light sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart."
Do not believe that the good man's sun has set, for it is written,
"Your righteousness shall come forth as the light, and your judgment as
the noon-day." Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him, for He will
do you justice in due time, for you are His own, and He will not forget
you. I think this is good pleading–surely God will defend His own!
Then Solomon goes on to speak, at verse 33, of those who had suffered
defeat, and there may be some present who have passed through this
experience. "When Your people Israel are defeated before the enemy
because they have sinned against You, and shall turn to You, and pray
and make supplication to You, then hear You in Heaven."
He speaks of, "Your people Israel," so that it seems a man may be a
true Israelite and yet be defeated by the foe. Perhaps you have been
struggling against an error and the advocate of that error is more
clever in the use of his weapons than you are, and has gained an
apparent advantage over you. Fear not, dear Brother, if you are God's
servant, you shall have victory! Perhaps some failing in your spirit
while pleading for the Truth has baffled you. Go to God and confess it.
And then return to the war. God will help you. Perhaps you have been
struggling against some besetting sin and, as yet, you fear you have
been overcome. Say unto the dragon, "I shall yet defeat you, Rahab.
Were you not wounded at the Red Sea? Behold, the Lord will yet enable
me to cut you in pieces. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, though I
fall, yet shall I rise again."
O you people of God, who have been defeated by Satan in your attempts
to teach the infidel, the scoffer, or the Ritualist–go to the Strong
for strength–and cry unto the Lord, "Am I not Your own servant? Did I
not do this for Your cause? Did I not seek Your honor?" And assuredly
you shall have an answer of peace and you shall yet conquer. Solomon
then proceeded to speak of barrenness and the absence of the dew and
the rain, a fearful calamity in Judea, for if the rain did not fall
there could be no gladsome weeks of harvest. At times, Brothers and
Sisters, we, also, are without the heavenly rain–God's Spirit is
withheld and our hearts become dry as the desert sand. Do any of you
suffer from spiritual drought this morning? Do you feel as if you had
no sap left in you?
Those of us who search our own hearts, experience seasons when we can
scarcely find a trace of Grace, except that we do long after Grace and
do certainly rest in Jesus Christ if we rest anywhere. I believe that
even those of God's children who live nearest to Him sometimes undergo
spiritual drought. They cry unto God for help, but help does not
immediately come. At such times they may come, each one, with the plea,
"Save me, O Lord, for I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid!
You have loosed my bonds. I am Yours, quicken me. You bid dew fall on
the grass and You give each blade of grass its own drop. And yet the
grass cannot pray as You have taught my soul to do. Come, Lord, give me
the dew for which You have made me cry with eagerness of desire. O, by
the desire which You could not have created in order to tantalize me, I
pray You, hear me and let Your Spirit come upon me." This is good
pleading.
"If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
to them that ask Him." You ask of a father and he gives to you as his
child. You may ask peculiar gifts because you stand in a peculiar
relationship. Brother, do you belong to some decaying Church? Do you
come up here, today, to be refreshed, and are you saying, "Our Church
is very dry and barren." Go and plead with the Lord and say, "This is
Your Church, Lord, and though the members have grown very slothful and
seem to be indifferent about sinners, they are still Your people,
therefore look upon them and revive them again. Will You not visit us
again, for we are Your people? Revive us, we pray You, and send upon us
the showers in their season."
Solomon further uses this plea in connection with chastisements, giving
a long list of them. "If there is pestilence, blasphemy, mildew,
locusts, caterpillars" and the like. Beloved, you may be under some
chastisement, today, on account of sin. "What son is there whom his
father chastises not?" O how some of us have had to learn the meaning
of those words, but blessed be God we have not had to ponder over that
other dreadful verse, "If you are without chastisement whereof all are
partakers, then are you bastards and not sons." Know you not what the
smarting rod means? At such times when the rod falls again and again it
is well to turn your eyes upward and say, "Father, am I not Your child?
Are
You sitting as a Judge? Will You smite me with the blows of a cruel
one, as though You hate me? My God, it cannot be for I am Your own–
Gently, gently lay Your rod On my sinful head O God; Stay Your wrath,
in mercy stay, Lest I sink beneath its sway.
"I am Yours, You know I am! Have compassion on the offspring of Your
own eternal love! Look down with favor on me, whose name is sculptured
on the heart of Jesus, The Well-Beloved. O, do not crush me, do not
utterly destroy me! Truly, I deserve Your utmost wrath, but by Your
ancient affection when You did appear of old unto me and say, 'Lo, I
have loved you with an everlasting love,' put up Your rod, and restore
unto me the joy of Your salvation." I am not telling you, now, what I
do not know. How many times I have pleaded just like that with God!!
And sometimes I have even made bold to say to Him, when pain was sharp
and the mind was weary, "I would not thus chastise my child, and O, my
Father, will You be a less tender Father toward me than I am?" Being
bold like this I have often obtained an answer of peace from His hands,
and even felt physical pain relieved, while spiritual distress has been
swept away.
This is Solomon's argument–"Are they not Your people? Have You not
separated them? Be not angry with Your inheritance!" This is equally
good pleading if we come to the next point–which is warfare, for
Solomon says, "If Your people go out to battle against the enemy, where
ever You shall send them." Brethren, our life is warfare. There is a
convict within and there is a warfare to be carried on outside–at this
very hour we hear the trumpet sounding for an earnest assault upon the
iniquities of London–and if we wish to plead for a blessing, this may
serve us–"Lord, are we not Your people? Is not this Your Gospel? Is
not Jesus Christ Your Son? Is not this Your cause? For if it is, then,
O Lord, go forth with us! If we are mistaken and the Gospel is not Your
Truth, and if we are not Your servants, then we wish that our cause
should sink, for we would not fight against You. If we are Yours, O
remember us and now, even now, send prosperity for Jesus' sake." You
may plead thus, and you shall be heard.
Again, Solomon prayed for any, who through their sins, were carried
into captivity. Some here may be in that state. Brother, you were once
a member of this Church, but you have been put away for your unseemly
conduct. Sister, you once walked in the Light of God's Countenance, but
it is many a day since you have seen the gleaming of the Savior's face,
for you have behaved strangely towards your best Beloved. Well, now,
notwithstanding all this, your Lord says, "Return, you backsliding
children." It is a wonderful thing, that even if you have been a
prodigal, and have spent your living with harlots, yet if you are His
child you may call Him, "Father."
Did not the prodigal say, "Father, I have sinned"? There is good
pleading in this fact, for you are not disowned, even by your sin! If
you are a child of God you are a child of God and always will be, for
it is not possible that the relationship of son-ship should come to an
end. Alas, our children may bring grave dishonor upon us and we may cry
over them, "O Absalom, my son, my son," but even Absalom is still
acknowledged as David's son, and must be. And, therefore, O Backslider,
you are still the Lord's child! Come back, I pray you, and ask to be
delivered from your captivity.
I have but one thing more to say. I hear a mourner cry, "This sermon is
very consolatory for the people of God, but what about us? Some of us
do not belong to the separated ones. Are you going to send us away
without a word?" Oh no! What did Solomon say in his prayer? His prayer
was all for Israel, was it not? Well, yes, but I will read you a little
piece of it. Just listen. See if it suits you. "Moreover concerning a
stranger that is not of Your people Israel, but comes out of a far
country for Your name's sake. For they shall hear of Your great name
and of Your strong hand, and of Your stretched out arm. When he shall
come and pray toward this house, hear You in Heaven, Your dwelling
place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to You for: that
all people of the earth may know Your name, to fear You, as do Your
people Israel."
That is a prayer for strangers! Stranger, where are you? Stranger to
yourself, stranger to Christ and a stranger to His people–have you
come here this morning among the people of God? What has brought you?
Have you come from a far country? Are you far off from God by wicked
works? Is there something in your breast which makes you long to draw
near? Stranger, have you heard that Christ has been saving thousands of
late, and do you want Him to save you? Stranger, have you a relative
who has lately passed from death to life, and do you want to know that
saving change yourself? Stranger, has your mother gone to Heaven? Has
some beloved child been borne away to sing like a seraph beyond the
stars? And do these things tempt you to desire to know more about the
great Redeemer?
You are welcome! O, so welcome, not to this Tabernacle merely, but to
Jesus and to His heart of love! Stranger, utter your heart's desire.
Ask of the Lord great things, for whatever you shall ask believingly,
you shall receive! The Queen of Sheba was not sent away empty-handed by
Solomon and you shall not be sent away hungry by Jesus Christ the Lord!
Breathe your prayer now. Do you want pardon? Ask for it now! Would you
be saved? Pray for salvation now, for the Lord will certainly hear you!
Let this be the plea, the plea which Solomon gives us–that God's name
may be known and glorified to the very ends of the earth! For if the
Lord will but save you, I guarantee you, you will never let Him hear
the last of it, for you will tell of His Grace to everybody as long as
you live!
The Lord will bless you if you plead His Grace in Christ Jesus. Say,
"Lord, there is no reason why I should be saved, except this, that if
You will save me it will greatly glorify Your mercy. Surely, if ever I
get to Heaven, the glorified ones will stand surprised and hold up
their hands, and say, 'How came you in here?' Lord, if You will but
make me a changed man, the people of my parish will marvel greatly, and
say, 'What has God worked!' Therefore do it and be glorified
thereby!"
I have an impression upon me that there are persons here, this morning,
who are very unlikely ever to be converted, and I pray the Lord that
these very men may begin to seek His face. If they do so they may plead
in this wise–"Lord, because I judge myself to be the least likely to
be saved, and because others judge me to be so, do be pleased to
perform a wonder of Grace this morning! Lord, it is nothing to put tame
doves on Your finger and teach them to peck from Your lips–this is
what saints do. But Lord, if You will lure a wild bird like me and tame
me to Your will, You will be renowned, indeed! To lead a lamb by a
string as You lead Your gentle children, Lord, is not so hard a thing.
But I am as a raging lion, or a hungry wolf! O that Your Sovereign
Grace would transform me into a lamb–then will Your mercy appear
glorious, indeed!"
Plead thus, O Sinner, and at the same time look unto Jesus Christ, and
you shall find salvation, to the praise of the glory of His Grace!
Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–1 Kings8:22-53. HYMNS FROM
"OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–47, 195, 106 (PART II).