Strange Dispensations and Matchless Consolations
(No. 2754)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1901.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, IN THE
AUTUMN OF 1859.
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the
wilderness, and speak comfortably to her." Hosea 2:14.
THIS is one of the many instances in the Word of God of His free, rich,
Sovereign Grace. The Lord has set the children of Israel before us as a
great model. They are our beacons with regard to sin, but they are a
pattern to us when we see in them the gracious dealings of a
Covenant-keeping God. Often did they rebel, but just as often did the
Lord forgive them. Frequently did He smite them with His rod, but He
never turned them over to destruction. He still remembered His Covenant
made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and He suffered not His
faithfulness to fail.
We have, in the prophecy of Hosea, an instance of what God thought of
the sins of His people. He commands the Prophet to speak in rough
earnest language of their constant rebellion and yet, no sooner has He
directed Hosea to deal harshly with His erring spouse, than He seems to
stop him in the middle of his furious prophecy and bids him now address
her with words of comfort! This is the connection in which our text is
found set in the black letters of the volume of threats against guilty
Israel. This precious jewel shines all the more brightly in the thick
darkness of their sin and despair. This torch of love and kindness
sheds a heavenly light and makes their eyes and hearts rejoice.
Let us now turn to these words of the Lord and regard them under the
following aspects. First, I see, in the text, the singular reasons for
Divine Grace. ''Therefore, behold!" I see, in the next place, the
strange dispensations of Divine Grace. "I will bring her into the
wilderness." In the third place, matchless consolations. "I will speak
comfortably to her." And, in the fourth place, sweet persuasions.' 'I
will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak
comfortably to her."
I. In the first place, we have, in our text, THE SINGULAR REASONS FOR
DIVINE GRACE. "Therefore, behold!"
It is not without cause that the word, "therefore," is inserted here.
We are to look to the context to find what are the premises from which
a conclusion of mercy is drawn. You might naturally conceive, judging
according to human logic, that the preceding verses described either
Israel's goodness, or else her abject repentance if she has gone astray
and rebelled. But, on the contrary, there is no mention of these things
at all! They speak not of her goodness, but of her badness and, in
fact, they speak so strongly that the Prophet uses terms that are never
employed except after excessive iniquity. He charges Israel with
whoredom and speaks of her as having committed uncleanness with many
lovers. This is strong language and shows that he means to declare the
excessive character of her sin and, instead of speaking of her as being
a penitent, he declares that she was still impenitent. Notwithstanding
many, many Providences and the hedging up of her way with thorns, she
would break through and run after her many false lovers. And then,
strange to say, contrary to all human reasoning, there comes the
inference–if I may so call it–an inference of sunshine from a dark
cloud, an inference of mercy from a whole mass of sin and iniquity!
If the inference had been, "Therefore I will destroy her, I will cut
her in pieces and give her children to the sword, and her women to be
carried away captive," our reason could well have seen that it was the
natural consequence. We could easily have seen that the logical terms
agreed, but here it seems as if it were quite a non sequitur. How can
it be that a, "therefore," should spring up, when the previous verses
have been filled with a description of her sins?
Here let us pause to remember that the reasons for God's Grace to us
are far above all human reason, for He Himself has told us, "As the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your
ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." No, I will go further than
this and say that not only are God's modes of reasoning far above our
own, but they often seem as if they were even contradictory to ours.
Where we should draw one inference, God draws the very opposite! See
yon poor penitent sinner? He "would not lift up so much as his eyes to
Heaven; but he smote upon his breast and cried, 'God be merciful to me
a sinner.'" What is our inference from this, looking at the publican as
he stands there? Why, that he is a rebellious creature, and that God
cannot and will not accept him, but must punish him! Does God draw this
inference? No, for, "this man went down to his house justified." See
yonder Pharisee with outstretched hands? He stands and prays thus with
himself, "God, I thank You that I am not as other men are," and so on.
What is our inference? Surely God will accept so good a man as this! He
will be sure to justify a man so holy and so moral. Not so, for that
man went down to his house without justification, unsatisfied,
unblessed with the smile of Heaven–while yon sorrowing publican
received God's gracious forgiveness!
We, ever since the Fall, have learned to reason badly. Our reasoning
faculty has been as much confused as any other power that we possessed.
We have turned aside from the straightforward path and we know not how
to draw the true inference which God draws from our sins. So then, it
seems from our text, that so far from looking at any reason for mercy
to anything that is good in man–if God ever seeks in the creature a
reason why He should show mercy, He looks not to the good, but to the
evil! When we come before God it would be well if we would always
remember this. We are committing great folly if when we are spreading
our case before Him, we dare for one moment to speak of ourselves as
good or excellent. We shall never succeed in that way–He will not
listen to us, for this plan has no power with Him! But if, when we come
to Him, we can plead our sin and our misery, then shall we prevail. No,
we may even go the length of the Psalmist, David, when he prayed, "For
Your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity"–and for a strange
reason, you would say–"for it is great." He used the greatness of his
sin as an argument why God should have mercy on him!
O you legalists who are looking to yourselves for some arguments with
which to prevail with God! O you who look to your sacraments, to your
outward forms, to your pious deeds and your almsgivings for something
that will move the heart of God–know this, that these things are no
lever that can ever move Him to 1ove! Nothing but your sin and misery
can ever stir His mercy! And you look to the wrong place when you look
to your merits to find a plea why He should show pity on you!
And yet, albeit that this reasoning seems extremely strange, I may use
an illustration which will justify such reasoning as this in the mind
of every thoughtful man. Here is a poor creature shivering in the cold
with nakedness. And there is one who has warm garments to give away.
Will not the nakedness of the man be his claim to benevolence? If there
is any generous soul who desires to feed the hungry, it is not likely
that he will bestow his bread upon one that has abundance! But if he
hears a soul uttering the wail which is excited by the pangs of hunger,
that very wail shall make him move his hands to supply the needed food.
Generosity, liberality and mercy know of nothing that can move them as
misery can. And the very reverse argument is formed from that which men
are so fond of using. They will go to God with a plea analogous to
this–as if a beggar should meet me in the street, and say, "Sir, give
me charity! I am not very poor, I am not very hungry, therefore give me
charity!" He would not use such a foolish argument as that! He, like a
wise man, says, "I am hungry, I am starving, therefore give me food."
Would that you would use the same sensible argument when you come
before God and plead, not for your merit's sake, but for your misery's
sake! Think not that you are to tip the arrows of your prayers with the
feathers of your own merit–that shall never make them fly to Heaven.
It will be better if you can wing them with a sense of your own
miseries, for then they shall reach the heart of God and He will send
you the promised blessing in return. Strange reasoning, you say, this
of Grace–that God will save men, not for their goodness, but if there
is any reason that can be found in them, it is rather for their sin and
for their misery than for anything good in them!
If you will carefully look at the text, again, you will notice that
after the word, "therefore," there comes a word of
exclamation–"behold!" Whenever we see the word, "behold," in
Scripture, we may be sure that there is something well worthy of our
attention. It strikes me that Hosea, when the Lord commanded him to
write this verse, was quite staggered. "Lord," he said, "how can this
be?" He was filled with amazement. "I have been threatening Your
children. You have told me to set their iniquities before their
face–and now you bid me say, 'Therefore I will have mercy upon them.'"
The conclusion seemed to him so strange that he was utterly astonished!
And the Lord permitted His servant to record his astonishment by
putting in that word, "behold."
Nor do I think that is the only reason for the use of the word. It is
also, I think, put there that we may admire the Grace here displayed
and that we may remember the mercy of God–and especially the
deep-rooted secret reasons for that mercy. They will continue to be, on
earth, the theme of admiration and, in Heaven itself, the object of
eternal astonishment. When we shall be permitted to see why God had
mercy upon man and especially why, out of the human race, he had mercy
upon us–why He chose us while others were suffered to perish–we shall
be incessantly compelled to lift up our hands in astonishment! And even
in the heavenly city, itself, joy shall sometimes be superseded by
wonder, and we shall, even there, be astonished to find such matchless
Grace displayed for such singular reasons. "Therefore, behold!" Again I
would say to those who are trusting in themselves–Give up your foolish
hopes! Men and brethren, look not to the empty cisterns, but come away
at once to the fountain, the Divine, kingly fountain of Sovereign
Grace, for there, and there only, it is that your hope of pardon can be
realized! For, in yourself, there is nothing but that which would lead
to your destruction–only in Jehovah can reasons for salvation be
discovered! ' II. The second point is THE STRANGE DISPENSATIONS OF
DIVINE GRACE.
God is about to have mercy upon poor fallen Israel, so what does He
say? "I Will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness." This may
seem to some a strange way of showing His love, yet it is not an
unusual one, for it is the common method by which God manifests His
love towards His chosen ones. You will, perhaps, smile when I make the
observation that there was nothing which a Roman slave more anxiously
desired than to have a box on the ear from his master. "That was a
strange desire," you will say, yet that box on the ear was the object
of the morning and evening prayer of many a slave in Rome, for, you
must know, if a master once gave his servant a box on the ear, he was
free from that day forth and was no longer a slave! Now, that strange
manner of freeing a slave is analogous to that which God uses when He
is about to set free one of Satan's bondsmen.
He first of all gives us the blow of conviction and then He gives us
the liberty of Grace. Is it not singular that God should begin to show
His love to His people by taking them into the wilderness? Is it not a
strange manifestation of Divine favor that He should bring us, not into
Canaan, not to the grapes of Eshcol, not to all the riches of the land
which flowed with milk and honey, but that He should bring us, first of
all, into the wilderness? Your experience, if you are a child of God,
will help you to understand this. "The wilderness" may be explained
thus–when God is about to save a man, He first of all brings him into
a state of spiritual destitution. He thinks himself rich and increased
in goods and that he has need of nothing. Talk to him about the sinful
state of a natural man and he is insulted! He says he is as good as his
neighbors. He does not know that he has much to confess when he is on
his knees. Indeed, he hardly sees the use of confessing to God at all!
If such as he does not get to Heaven, at last, he does not know who
will!
Now, when God means to have mercy upon a man of that sort, instead of
feeling that he has every virtue and all strength, all of a sudden he
finds himself without one good thing to recommend him to God! And,
worse than this, he finds that he has no strength to perform a single
good act. "Oh," he says, "I once thought I could repent and believe
whenever I pleased, but, now all my strength is gone, my heart is hard
and I can scarcely compel a tear to flow! I imagined that in the last
moment of my life, I could say, 'O God, have mercy upon me!' and that,
then, I would be saved. But now, I find faith to be quite another thing
from what I thought it was. Now I am stripped of all self-confidence.
My comeliness is departed, I must robe myself in sackcloth and cast
dust and ashes upon my head. My soul is spiritually shut up. I find no
food. Nothing comes from within and nothing comes from without." This
state of spiritual destitution is set forth by this wilderness state.
Moreover, by the wilderness, doubtless, is meant affliction, for full
often, when God means to bring a man to Himself, He sends affliction
upon him. This is the Good Shepherd's black dog with which He brings
His wandering sheep back to Him. It comes howling after us and biting
at our heels, and then we fly away to Christ. How many are there among
you who were first brought to repentance by the loss of your property,
or the death of someone dear to you? If everything had gone on
smoothly, the stream would have wafted you along down to the gulf of
black despair, but, all of a sudden the flood boiled around you, and
the tempest gathered above your devoted head! Then you cried unto God
in your trouble and your losses were more than recompensed–your God
was found and your soul was saved! Happy are you who lose a fortune to
find a Savior! Blessed is the burial of a friend or relative that leads
to the new birth of our own
souls and brings us to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ! We have, many of
us, great cause to bless that rough right hand of God which has smitten
us so sternly, but which has always been moved with love whenever it
has given us a blow of chastisement.
Further, I think this wilderness may mean not only spiritual
destitution and affliction, but also loneliness. When God means to save
a man, He always makes that man to feel himself to be all alone. There
was a time with me, I know, when I went up to the House of God and I
knew not whether there was anyone else there while the sermon was being
delivered. I seemed to be shut in by a black wall while the minister's
eyes appeared to be looking down into my soul. I believed that the good
man meant me when he used the word, sinner–I could not think he was
referring to anybody else! I loved not society, but was always seeking
solitary places for prayer, trying to draw near to God in prayer, to
tell Him my needs and to ask for His mercy. It is a happy sign when the
Divine Hunter singles out one from the herd. He looks round, singles
out His prey, and hunts him until, at last, He brings him down and
carries him home rejoicing. The deer, when wounded, retires to weep,
and bleed and die alone–and so, too, hearts when wounded love shady
solitudes, that they may weep alone before God. This is, I believe, the
meaning of, "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness."
I will give you one more picture and then I think I shall have
described this wilderness sufficiently. Can you, for a moment, imagine
yourself taken away, all of a sudden, and carried by some giant hand
swiftly through the air and deposited in the midst of the Desert of
Sahara? You look around you and there is nothing to be seen that can
afford you hope. Above you is the burning vault of Heaven with the
furnace sun sending forth its fire upon you. Beneath you is the arid
sand with no track of a traveler anywhere! At first you rush on, hoping
soon to find the desert's edge and to escape. Night succeeds day and in
the thick darkness you still travel on–fear and hope together winging
your feet. Day dawns again, but you are as far from deliverance as
ever! And I can imagine that with your throat parched, and with your
soul melted within you, you would cast yourself down upon the sand and
cry, "Lost, lost, lost!" The echo of your words would come back to you
from the burning Heaven above you and you would be the complete picture
of despair–lost, lost, lost! Yet this is where God brings the man whom
He means to save! He puts him into such a position that above him seems
to be an angry God. Beneath him a desert of sin and not a glimpse of
hope–and he lies down, helpless and despairing, and cries, "Lost,
lost, lost!"
My Hearer, are you in such a position? Then, remember that the Son of
Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost and that you are
one of those whom He came to save, for you are manifestly lost. He will
never be disappointed with the result of His work! Those whom He come
to save, He will save and if you trust Him, He will save you! You shall
be brought in among His redeemed people here on earth and you shall see
His face and rejoice in His great salvation in the day when He Shall
come in the Glory of His Father with all His holy angels with Him!
III. Now, note the next division of the passage–GOD'S MATCHLESS
CONSOLATIONS.
Does He bring her into the wilderness that she may be the prey of the
vultures, or that the jackals may devour her? Oh, no! He brings her
there that He may "speak comfortably to her." You see how the two
things go together. There is a precious golden band in the text–a band
which neither death nor Hell can ever shatter, which, like a sacred
rivet or heavenly link, joins the two sentences together. "I will bring
her into the wilderness"–that is true, we know–"and I will speak
comfortably to her." That is also true. The two are linked together and
cannot be separated. Those who are brought into such a wilderness as I
have described, shall hear the comforting words of Jehovah spoken to
their hearts!
Now, with regard to these comforts, I would remark that they are sure
comforts. We may take the words, "I will," which stand at the beginning
of the verse, as relating to each clause and, therefore, we may read
it, "I will speak comfortably to her." Therefore we have, first of all,
sure mercies–"I will." Good old Joseph Irons used to say, "Our shalls
and wills are impotent and impracticable, but God's shalls and wills
are Omnipotent." Has He said it, and shall it not be done? Has He
decreed it, or promised it, and shall it not stand fast? Rest assured,
poor Soul, that whatever may not be or whatever may be, if you are
brought into the wilderness by God, He will assuredly speak comfortably
unto you there! It may be a long while that you will have to wait, but,
though the promise tarries, wait for it, for the time for its
fulfillment shall surely come–it shall not fail! In due season, the
Lord will remember you and will not forget you in your low estate, for
His mercy endures forever and His faithfulness knows no end. He will
speak comfortably unto you.
Note next, that they are not only sure consolations, but Divine
consolations. "I will speak comfortably to her." Many ministers have
tried what they could to cheer the sad, but they have done nothing. I
have never learned so much of
my own weakness as when, in preaching, I have sought to comfort some of
God's tried ones. I have sometimes, in my sermons, put in a little
honey on purpose for them, but, somehow, that honey has seemed to
ferment and become sour, so that they could not feed upon it. I have
talked with them and done all I could to comfort them and, sometimes, I
have had to turn them over to my Brothers in the Eldership and they
have done their best–and failed. What, then, shall I say, Lord? Your
poor servant can do nothing here. Will You do it, Lord? Will you, O
blessed Spirit, who are the Comforter, take them by the hand and "speak
comfortably" unto them? If You speak, they cannot refuse to hear, and
then shall they indeed be comforted! O poor, tried Soul, is not this a
rich promise, indeed? "I will speak comfortably to her." He will not
merely send an angel or minister to comfort them, but He will Himself
do the work–"I will speak comfortably to her."
The third remark I make upon these consolations is that they are
effectual consolations. The Hebrew bears the interpretation, "I will
speak to her heart" We speak to your ears, but God speaks to your
heart. Oh, what speaking that is, when God speaks right from His heart
into our hearts! Some of us have experienced this at times. We have
found the Word of God to well up, as it were, from Him and then, as it
has welled up, it has gone down deep into our hearts and we have been
made to drink of it to the very fullest. "I will speak to her heart."
Poor Soul, if you are brought into the wilderness, God will effectually
comfort you. He has effectually convicted you and He will effectually
console you! If He has brought you into the wilderness of humility and
sore distress, He will as surely bring you into the Canaan of faith and
joy!
I remark, in the next place, that these consolations are not only sure,
Divine and effectual, but they are full. "I will speak comfortably to
her." What rich words of comfort are those which God addresses to His
people! He pardons them, He justifies them, He sanctifies them, He
preserves them, He upholds them, He prevents them, He brings them
safely home, at last, and all this He speaks to the heart of the poor,
tried and tempted soul in the wilderness–and thus He makes it "rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
It is not in my power, my dear Friends, to speak to your hearts. I can
only speak to your outward ears, but let me repeat some of those things
which God says when He speaks to the heart. "Come now, and let us
reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall
be as wool." "I even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My
own sake, and will not remember your sins." "Whoever will, let him take
the water of life freely." "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast
out." "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by
Him, seeing He always lives to make intercession for them." Thus God
speaks rich promises of pardon and He also says, "A new heart also will
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you."
How sweetly He speaks concerning the trials and troubles of this world!
"Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in
Me." And how graciously He tells His people, "In the world you shall
have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." And
how comfortably does He remind His people that, come what may, they
shall still be secure! "When you pass through the waters, I will be
with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you
walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the fire
kindle upon you." And then, when His poor people think He can hardly
remember them, He says, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she
should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may
forget, yet will I not forget you."
And then, lest even this should be of no avail, He says, "The mountains
shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not
depart from you, neither shall the Covenant of My peace be removed,
says the Lord that has mercy on you." "For this is as the waters of
Noah unto Me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no
more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be angry with
you, nor rebuke you." Truly did I speak, when I remarked that this
consolation is full, and well does one of our poets express the same
sentiment when he says–
"What more can He say than to you He has said, You who unto Jesus for
refuge have fled?" We have a Bible that cannot be enlarged! We have
promises that cannot be extended! We have blessings that cannot be
exaggerated! And imagination's utmost stretch could not make us
conceive of anything beyond! Oh, may God, who has brought you into the
wilderness of sore trouble, bring each one now present into His
gracious Presence, that you may know that He Himself thus speaks
comfortably unto you!
IV. Now I close by coming back to the first clause of the text, and
meditating on THE SWEET PERSUASIONS with which God draws us to Himself.
"I will allure her."
There are many who are very much afraid they are not converted because
they have not had a thunder-and-lightning experience–they were not
converted in stormy weather–they had not the terrors of the Law of God
and the shaking over Hell's mouth that some have experienced. They have
read of John Bunyan and his desperate struggles, but they have not gone
through anything of the kind. They can say that they have felt their
need of a Savior and realized their sin, but the accounts they have
heard of what others have known of the terrors of Hell have been so
impressed upon them that they have feared that they could not be God's
people. Read our text. It says, "I will allure her." It does not say,
"I will drive her." It does not say, "I will drag her." It does not
even say, "I will compel her." It does not say, "I will make her run
into the wilderness for fear of Me." No, but the Lord says, "I will
allure her."
What does this mean? I cannot explain it better than by a very simple
figure. I see the fowlers come, sometimes, to Clapham Common. I once
saw a man with a robin redbreast in a cage. This poor little bird was
made to sing and so tried to decoy other birds from the sky. The fowler
was luring birds, catching them by the lure–and, my Brothers and
Sisters, this is how God brings many of His children to Himself. We
have all been like wild birds, but He has converted some of us, by His
Grace, and put us into the cage of the pulpit–and made us sing as best
we can, so as to lure poor sinners to come to the Divine Fowler, the
Lord Jesus Christ! I wish I could sing better. I would that I were a
better decoy, that I might bring more to Jesus. Many a Sister has been
a decoy to her brother. Many a wife has lured her husband to Christ.
You cannot drag them, but you may draw them. All that you can do, in
your daily life, and in your house, or wherever else you may meet with
these poor worldlings, is to lure them to Christ by letting them hear
how sweetly you sing and see how happy you are, even while you are, as
they say, a poor caged bird! Let them see how you enjoy your liberty in
Christ and so seek, with all earnestness, to bring them to the Savior!
There is another figure which will explain the Lord's words, "I will
allure her." When your little children are learning to walk, they are
set up by the side of the table. They are quite frightened at first,
for they have hardly tried their little legs yet. The nurse desires
that the child may walk a little way. Well, what does she do? She holds
out an apple, or a sweetmeat, to tempt it, and it tries to come to her,
but it is ready to fall–so the nurse's finger is held out and the
child is supported. It rests a moment and it is lured on again, with
some toy or picture, something that tempts it on–and thus it learns to
walk. Possibly you say that I ought not to use such a simple figure.
No, but, I ought, for it is used in Scripture–"I taught Ephraim to go,
taking them by their arms," just as a father might hold up his little
one by the arms and let its feet just lightly touch the ground. The
Lord condescends thus to speak, and surely I may do the same! May not a
man speak thus with his fellows? Yes, surely this is the way in which
God brings many of His children to Christ! He lures them! He does not
thunder forth and frighten them, but He tempts them on by mercies and
baits of heavenly pleasure– and so are they drawn to the Cross of
Christ.
Some have been lured by the sweetness of the Character of Christ. They
have taken His yoke upon them because He is "meek and lowly in heart,"
and they have found rest unto their souls. Others have been lured by
the blessings of religion. They have said, "Her ways are ways of
pleasantness and all her paths are peace," and have said to the people
of God, "We will go with you." Many have been lured by the prospect of
Heaven and the joy which has been set before them. And they have
counted their lives as less than nothing in order that they might first
suffer the reproach of Christ and then inherit His Glory. Do not be
cast down because you have not had a terrible experience. Perhaps you
are among those whom God sweetly lured to Himself.
So I conclude my discourse by bidding every Christian here to go forth
and endeavor to lure poor souls to Christ. You must alter the shape of
that face of yours that is so long and miserable! You are not luring
souls to Christ–you are doing quite the reverse–you will drive them
away from Him. Put away, I beseech you, that constant habit of
murmuring and grumbling at everything and everybody. Come, take your
harp down from the willows and sing us one of the songs of Zion! Let us
have no more groaning–that will frighten away the poor wild birds.
They see your misery and how can they be lured to come when they see
you so unhappy? I think that the long faces of God's people do a good
deal of mischief. I see nothing to cause them, but just the reverse.
Our Lord Jesus says that the hypocrites are of a sad countenance, so I
should not like to have a sad countenance, for fear any man should
think me a hypocrite!
What does He further say? "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and
wash your face: that you appear not unto men to fast, but unto your
Father which is in secret: and your Father, which sees in secret, shall
reward you openly." Do not let the worldling know that you are fasting.
If you have troubles, keep them within you, do not let him know of
them–let him see a happy exterior. In this way, you will allure him to
Christ! And take care, by the gentleness and kindness of your
conversation, to bring him to think of that religion which he has
hitherto rejected. I have heard it related of some Methodist that,
after praying a long while for his wife's conversion, threatened to
beat her if she were not converted in a certain time. I believe she was
not converted, but that was not the way to bring her to the Savior!
Instead of wooing sinners and alluring them, there are some who, if
they do not go to the length of physica1 force, nevertheless seem as if
they would bully them to Christ, they speak to them so sharply and
sternly.
There is never any good done in that way. There are more flies caught
with honey than with vinegar, and more souls are brought to Christ by
sweet words than by sour and bitter ones. Let our life be like that of
Christ–"holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners"–and then,
added to this, let us have a heavenly cheerfulness about us which will
lead others to see that though our religion takes away from us the
pleasures of the wicked, it gives us something so much better! Isaac
Watts was right when he said–
"Religion never was designed To make our pleasures less."
Go, Beloved, and lure others to Christ! And may God the Holy Spirit
bless each one of you! If in the wilderness, may He speak comfortably
to you. If hardened in your sin, may He bring you into the wilderness!
And if He has already spoken comfortably to you, may He help you to
speak comfortably to others! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE9:51-56'
Verse 51. And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be
received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. It is a
very remarkable expression that is used here–"when the time was come
that He should be received up." It does not say, "that He should
depart," or, "that He should die." It leaps over that and speaks only
of His glorious Ascension into Heaven! When that time was drawing
near–and, of course, His death would come before it– Christ
"steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem," where He knew that He
should die upon the Cross.
52, 53. And sent messengers before His face: and they went and entered
into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him. But they
didnot receive Him, because His face was set for thejourney to
Jerusalem. And, of course, Jerusalem was a sort of rival of Samaria.
And if He was going there to worship, they did not want Him to stay
with them. Yet the Samaritans were believers in the first five Books of
the Bible. They accepted the Pentateuch, and they ought, therefore, to
have practiced hospitality, imitating Abraham's noble example. They
erred both against their own Scriptures and against the dictates of
humanity when they refused to receive Christ because He was on His way
to Jerusalem.
54. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord,
will You that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume
them, even as Elijah did? James and John, two of the most loving of
Christ's disciples! John, the most loving of all, startles us all by
failing in the matter of love and so being as bad as the Samaritans
themselves! I have often noticed that very "liberal-minded" people who
denounce bigotry in general, do it with about seven times as much
bigotry as those who are out-and-out bigots! In fact, it is a
wonderfully easy thing to be a bigot against all bigotry, and to be
illiberal towards everybody except fellow-liberals. Well, that is a
pity. It is far better to have the spirit of Christ, even when the
Samaritans refuse to exercise hospitality. At any rate, let them live.
You notice that John quotes the example of Elijah and this should teach
us that the best men mentioned in Scripture did things which we may not
copy, and that they did some things right, which it would be wrong for
us to do. Under special Inspiration of God, Elijah, the Prophet of
Fire, may call down fire from Heaven–but you and I must not do so–we
are not sent for any such purpose. Let us, therefore, be cautious how
we make even Prophets our exemplars in some things.
55, 56. But He turned and rebuked them, and said, You know not what
manner of spirit you are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy
men's lives, but to save them. If that principle had been always
remembered and followed, there would have been no persecution. To cause
a man to suffer in his body, or in his estate because of his religious
opin-
ions, be they what they may, is a violation of Christianity!
Consciences belong to God, alone, and it is not for us to be calling
for fire, the stake, the rack or imprisonment for men because they do
not believe as we do! "The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's
lives, but to save them."
56. And theey went to another village. That was the easiest thing for
them to do and a great deal better than calling for fire from Heaven
upon anybody! If one village would not receive them, another would. And
if you cannot get on with one person, get on with somebody else. Do not
grow angry with people–that is not the way to make them better. To
fight God's battles with the devil's weapons is generally, in the end,
to fight the devil's battles on his behalf–let none of us make such a
mistake as that!