The Bond of the Covenant
(No. 1840)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 10, 1885,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of
the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an
outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into
the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to
face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land
of Egypt, so willIplead with you, says the Lord God. And I will cause
you topass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the
Covenant: And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that
transgress against Me: I will bring them forth out of the country where
they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you
shall know that I am the Lord." Ezekiel 20:34-38.
THIS striking utterance was given forth by that renowned Seer, Ezekiel,
at the time when the Israelites, scattered in every country, had begun
to forget their nationality. They judged it prudent and wise, as much
as possible, to disguise their distinctive character and melt their
race into the Babylonian or Chaldean–and become like the heathen. But
God, who chose His people of old, would not have it so, and He
interposed with this striking passage–"And that which comes into your
mind shall not be at all, that you say, we will be as the heathen, as
the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone." The Lord tells
them that He had them for a people and He meant to hold them for a
people. Whether they delighted in it or not, He would not let them go!
He pronounced a solemn oath concerning them–"As I live, says the Lord
God, surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with
fury poured out, will I rule over you."
They shall no more become Babylonians than of old He would suffer them
to become Egyptians. This passage, which I have taken for a text, may
very truthfully be regarded as a threat of terrible judgment upon
erring Israel–as much as if the Lord had said, "You of the house of
Israel, whom I have made to be the type of My spiritual people, you
shall be Mine. And if you wander from Me, I will distinguish you by
special punishments. Therefore I now threaten you with special
judgments. If you will attempt to mix yourselves up with the Gentiles,
I will deal with you with a startling severity, such as I have never
shown unto the heathen. Your sins are greater, your privileges greater
and so shall your chastisements be greater. You, only, have I known of
all the nations of the earth, therefore I will punish you for your
iniquities."
Dear Friends, it is a dreadful thing to profess to belong to the people
of God! It is a matter of great privilege if it is true, but if it is a
lie, it is an awful thing involving sevenfold judgment! God will cause
His professing people to be distinguished from other men and they that
come in among them, who are not truly of them, shall be so dealt with
that both the ears of him that hears thereof shall tingle! Special
severities will overtake apostate professors–therefore they had better
know what they are doing. You cannot trifle with the Christian faith!
You cannot be a traitor and quietly glide away–you shall be marked as
the son of perdition! You shall be known like Judas, as one for whom it
would have been better that he had never been born! A profession of
Christianity, without the real possession of it, will turn out to be a
mantle of fire to him who puts it on! Such is the run of this passage.
But at the same time, reading between the lines and considering the
verses very carefully, another reading is sug-gested–God, if He does
not show distinguishing judgment, will display distinguishing Grace.
Without twisting the passage at all, I will use the whole of it as
setting forth that peculiar favor which God intends to exhibit towards
His own chosen and of which they shall be the subjects, to the praise
of the glory of His Grace. I see within this threatening black cloud, a
bright light of infinite mercy, a silver lining of love! A golden
thread of Grace runs through these threatening
verses, for the Lord speaks of taking away the rebels from among His
people but, all along, when He addresses the remnant of His people, His
tone is that of Grace.
He solemnly threatens judgments, but these are preparations for mercy.
He preaches to them, by the Prophet, concerning mercy and judgment
blended in effectual working for salvation. Lovingkindness underlies
and overlays His wrath. He puts on a frown in order to smile. He deals
harshly with His chosen, that He may deal safely with them– killing
them, that He may make them alive–piercing them with the arrows of
conviction, that He may pour in the wine and oil of His healing
comforts! The central part of my text is this–"I will bring you into
the bond of the Covenant." I want briefly to explain what that means.
Our second subject shall be the method which God often pursues with men
when He is bringing them into this bond of the Covenant. By terrible
things in righteousness He saves those whom He determines to bring to
Himself!
When we have spoken upon that matter, our third point will be the
ultimate design of it all–of His severity in leading them by so stern
a way and of His love in bringing them into the bond of the
Covenant–the design is, "You shall know that I am Jehovah." Judgment
and mercy are both intended to make men know, in their inmost souls,
that He who thus deals with them is, indeed, the living God.
I. First, then, the MEANING OF BRINGING MEN INTO THE BOND OF THE
COVENANT. If we take the passage as referring to the work of Grace, it
signifies that they shall know under what Covenant they stand. Beloved,
there is scarcely a more important question for all of us than
this–under which Covenant do we live? Are we under Law or under Grace?
By the very fact of our creation, we are under bonds to our Maker to
love and serve Him–and this is a form of the Covenant of Works. In
serving God, we should have found happiness. In rebelling against Him,
we have found sorrow. Thus the Covenant which was bound up with the
very nature of things had its sanctions of reward and penalty.
Without being strictly defined in words, the foundation of it was laid
from the first. But God put it into words when He dealt with us in
Adam, our first Covenant-head. He was forbidden to eat of the fruit of
one special tree and he was warned that in the day in which he should
eat of it, he would surely die. This Covenant was speedily broken–man
being in honor, continued not. Our whole race in Adam broke the
Covenant and fell from its high estate. There we lie by nature,
condemned under the Covenant of Works. Set forth, as that Covenant is,
in the Ten Commandments of the Law, it is as terrible as it is pure.
The commandment is holy, just and good, but we constantly violate it.
The perfect Law has been broken by all of us–by some it has been
violated openly by wanton, willful acts of rebellion–by all of us it
has been broken in heart and will. He that breaks one link has broken
the chain. He that is guilty of one command is guilty of the whole
Law–for it is one and indivisible.
Now, you that are under the Law, hoping to be saved by your own works,
see where you are–as many as are of the works of the Law are under the
curse, for, "cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which
are written in the book of the Law, to do them." Whatever excellencies
you may have–and you have many in the sight of men–yet if you are
under that Covenant of Works, your comeliness is turned into
corruption! "This do and you shall live," is no promise to you now,
seeing you have failed to do! It becomes to you a curse because of your
transgressions. But there is another and a better Covenant, which is
not a Covenant of Works at all, but of free, rich, Sovereign Grace. It
was made of old with Christ, the second Adam, our better Covenant-Head.
Its tenor was on this wise–He shall obey the Father's will– actively
and passively He shall do and suffer the will of the Most High. And, in
doing so, He shall save those whom the Father has given Him! A great
multitude inherit the reward of Christ's perfect obedience for, being
chosen by God and having the Lord Jesus to be their Representative,
they are made to live by His fulfilling and honoring of the Law.
The great question for each one is–Am I under that New Covenant? Am I
under that Covenant of Grace and peace?–that Covenant "ordered in all
things and sure"? You can answer that question by this one–Are you in
Christ Jesus? Are you resting wholly on Him, alone? If so, mark
this–the Lord has said, by His servant Isaiah, "I have given Him for a
Covenant to the people." If you have Christ, you are in the Covenant of
Grace! If you are trusting in Him, God has made an everlasting Covenant
with you, ordered in all things and sure, concerning which we read in
your hearing, just now, both in Jeremiah 31 and in Ezekiel 36. Dwell on
those Covenant promises! "A new heart, also, will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you." And again, "And I will make an
everlasting Covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to
do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall
not depart from Me."
Oh, the blessedness of being under such a sure Covenant! This is what
is aimed at, that God may bring His own from under the Law and place
them under the Covenant of Grace. Though as yet they care nothing about
it, He will bring them to know and realize that they are standing in
the Covenant of Grace, with Christ as their Covenant-Head. The drift of
the inward work is to lead them to accept the gift of God and so to
come "into the bond of the Covenant."
They shall, secondly, be led to see how this Covenant binds them to
God. If you are in this Covenant, you belong to God and He will have
you, for the Christ will not shed His blood in vain, nor pay a ransom
price for that which He will not possess. He will keep to Himself the
spoil which He has taken from the hand of the mighty–and His Father
will give Him to see of the travail of His soul and to be satisfied. If
you are in this Covenant, you belong to the Lord forever and neither
shall it be possible for you to be your own, or to be the devil's. You
are "the sheep of His pasture and the people of His hand"–and He will
keep you as the apple of His eye and preserve you as the jewels of His
crown. You are bound to Him if you are in the Covenant of Grace–do you
wish to break this Covenant? Do you wish to depart from the solemn
obligations which that Covenant of love casts upon you?
Though this Covenant is not of works, it produces more works than the
Covenant of Works ever could, for, being saved by Grace, it is written,
"Sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the Law,
but under Grace." Grace, and the gratitude which comes of it, form a
firmer bond to hold the soul from straying than the hope of reward can
possibly do! It is stronger than the fear of Hell. O, mighty Grace, you
hold us with the cords of a man from which we never desire to escape!
We are the Lord's people and He is our God! He holds us and we hold to
Him. He is our Husband and our hearts are knit to Him. The bond of the
Covenant unites us to the thrice holy God and none shall break the
sacred union.
To come under the bond of the Covenant means, also, to come under the
discipline of the Covenant, for they that are in gracious Covenant with
God will find that He deals with them as with sons and, inasmuch as He
loves them, they shall know the truth of that Word of God–"As many as
I love I rebuke and chasten." "If they break My Covenant," He says, "I
will chasten them with the rod of a man." And again, "You, only, have I
known of all the nations of the earth, therefore I will punish you for
your iniquities." If you enter into Covenant with God and you turn
aside, even in little matters, you shall soon discover that the Lord is
a jealous God! If you disobey God, He will make sin bitter to you. He
will not let you transgress as other men do– goats may wander with
impunity, but the sheep may not! God reserves the ungodly unto the day
of judgment, but judgment begins even now at the house of God! His fan
is in His hand and He will thoroughly purge His floor if He purges
nothing else! You cannot be in Covenant with God and yet be left alone
in your transgressions, for it is to the reprobate that He says "Let
him alone, he is given unto idols."
The mark of God's people is that if they sin they smart–and if they
wander they are whipped back. Despondency, sickness, bereavement, loss
and even temporal death may fall upon the chosen as visitations of God
to deliver them from the power of Satan! So, you see, it is God's
design to bring His people to know their Covenant standing, to see how
the Covenant binds them to their God and to feel that this holds them
under a holy discipline such as God does not exercise upon the mass of
mankind, but only upon "a people near unto Him."
Further, this coming under the bond of the Covenant means, surely, that
they yield to its restraint. I do not know how to give a better
expression to what I mean than by quoting the lines we often sing–
"Oh to Grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be! Let that
Grace, now, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee." Can Grace
ever be a fetter? Oh, yes–it is the most blessed of all fetters, for
it holds us fast–and yet never violates our liberty! It binds the very
heart in willing captivity. This is the bond of the Covenant. "Oh,"
says one, "I do not want to be under any bond." Then, in all
probability, you are bound by the chains of self-will. In Grace you can
be under bonds, yet not in bondage. I am in the bonds of wedlock, but I
feel no bondage–on the contrary, it is a joy to be so bound! The bonds
of love and the cords of a man cause no chaffing. The bond of Grace is
a marriage bond, inviting us to Him whom we love above all, even the
altogether lovely Bridegroom of our souls! It is our joy to look up to
our Covenant-Head and obey Him in all things!
This bond holds us back from doing what it would be to our injury to
do. It restrains us from sinning against God. Instead of wishing to be
free of this bond, we desire to realize it in its most stringent
form–by being crucified with
Christ–nailed up hands and feet so as to be incapable of following the
wandering wishes of the unregenerate nature! O, that we were utterly
incapable of sin! Would God we were bound to holiness as with belts of
steel! I hope many of you feel the blessed restraint of Covenant
relationship, so that you cry with Joseph, "How can I do this great
wickedness and sin against God?" The love of Christ both restrains and
impels us because we thus judge that if One died for all, then all
died, and that He died for all that they which live might not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and
rose again! Blessed bond of the Covenant! Oh, to wear its easy yoke and
bow before its gentle scepter! The heart is never so free as when it is
brought into complete captivity to the love of God. The true freedom of
the will is freedom from sin. O, Lord, truly I am Your servant! You
have loosed my bonds; and now I cry, "Bind the sacrifice with cords,
even to the horns of the altar!"
But surely, it means, also, the security of the Covenant–"I will bring
you under the bond of the Covenant," must mean, "I will bind you to the
Lord Jesus, your Surety and Bondsman, and He shall secure you forever."
This Covenant is everlasting, a Covenant of Salt, hence we sing–
"This bond shall never break,
Though earth's old columns bow!
Our sure foundations never shake,
We're one with Jesus now!"
One with Jesus we shall always be, for who shall separate us? That is a
blessed phrase which speaks of our soul being bound up in the bundle of
life with the soul of the Lord our God. This is what the Covenant has
done for us–it has made us so one with Christ and in Christ; so one
with the eternal Father, that it is written, "I will never leave you
nor forsake you." Bound by everlasting bonds, who shall separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? I cannot linger
longer over this precious Truth of God, but surely it is an unspeakable
privilege to be brought into such a Covenant bond! I trust many of you
know by experience what it means.
How earnestly do I pray that some who have been strangers to this
matter may begin to spell it out this morning. Oh, you whom God means
to save, I trust He has brought you into such a condition that you
would give your eyes to come from under the Covenant of Works, since
there is no salvation there! You feel it must be Grace, alone, that can
save such unworthy creatures as you are and, though you cannot, as yet,
see spiritual truth, you are longing and looking out for some ground of
hope in the infinite loving kindness and long-suffering of God in
Christ Jesus. Well, be of good cheer, for I am going to talk to you,
now, about the way in which God deals with many whom He brings under
the bond of the Covenant!
II. This is our second head. THE EXPERIENCE OF SOME IN COMING UNDER THE
BOND OF THE COVENANT. I do not want to be mistaken. I believe that many
are brought under the bond of the Covenant by very simple and gentle
means, especially those who sweetly yield to the gentle drawings of the
Holy Spirit. Very early in life some are brought to Jesus with little
terror or distress of mind. Let them be very grateful for it. If you
come to Christ, I do not care how you come, for I am sure you could not
have come at all if the Father had not drawn you and if He has drawn
you, there is no mistake in your method of coming! If you have tasted
but little of the bitterness of sin because you have been kept from it
by preventing Grace, do not raise a question on that account. Though
you may not have been made to sit and sigh in the blackness of
darkness, it is enough if you now see the great Light of God. The Lord,
in great tenderness, brings many of His children to Himself early in
the morning, so early that they enjoy a long and blessed day in His
service–and they are strangers to those broken bones which come of a
long sojourn in the enemy's camp.
These Israelites to whom Ezekiel spoke had gone very far into sin, as
far as they could go–they had been false to their promises, wicked in
their lives and rebellious in heart against their God. With many of
this character, the Lord deals with a singular severity of love. He
strikes them with a sword, for only so can their sins be slain. Of
those processes of Grace we will now speak.
To begin, will you follow me in the text at the 34th verse? Here were a
people whom God had chosen to be His own, but they had ignored that
choice and had said to themselves that they would be like the families
of the countries, to serve gods of wood and stone. Many among those
whom the Lord has chosen in His secret purposes are saying to
themselves, "We will never belong to those religious people; we will
never be called cants, hypocrites, Methodists, or Presbyterians." They
have a perfect horror of being ridiculed for Christ's sake! These
persons are, for the present, perfectly satisfied to
take their lot with the multitude–distinguishing Grace has no charms
for them. Hear, then, what God will do with such if He means to bring
them under the bond of the Covenant!
First, He will cause them to come out from their present company. "I
will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the
countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an
outstretched arm, and with fury poured out." You do not mean to leave
your present settlement, but you shall come out of it once and for all.
You shall feel yourself to be as a speckled bird among your former
associates. The Lord will make you to loathe the amusements which are
now your delight–and the lusts of the flesh–which you now follow
after as the fish hastens to the bait, shall become abominations to
you! You shall find in your old sins such death and corruption that you
shall turn from them as a man turns from a rotting carcass. God can
readily enough accomplish this by ways known to Himself. Your old
friends will not miss you and, what is more, they will not desire you
to return to them! You shall be so miserable that they will be glad to
be rid of you! As the wounded stag retires into the depths of the
forest to bleed and die, alone, because those which are not wounded
roughly push at it with their horns, so it shall be with you–you shall
prefer solitude to the galling words of the ungodly.
If the Lord has chosen you and you have chosen sin, He will deal with
you with a strong hand and an outstretched arm–and make you know His
fury against evil. His love to you shall show itself in wrath against
your sin. You shall come to think of God as angry with the wicked every
day, for so He is. You shall hear that sentence sounding in your ears,
"If he turns not, He will whet His sword. He has bent His bow and made
it ready." What is more, you shall not only read the words, but you
shall feel the arrows of vengeance sticking fast in you, till you long
to escape from your transgressions.
The Israelites in Egypt, for a time, were glad to dwell there and they
began to worship the gods of Egypt. But presently God put it into
Pharaoh's heart to oppress them–and he did so most grievously–Israel
had to make bricks without straw till their bondage grew unbearable and
they cried unto the Lord their God. He will make it so with you, if you
are one of His, for out of the Egypt of the world you shall come. You
may get the flavor of the leeks and the garlic and the onions of Egypt
upon your palate and delight in then, but you shall yet be made to
nauseate that in which you de-light–and long for heavenly manna which
you now despise! The Lord Jesus will seek out His own sheep and
separate them from all other flocks.
Note, next, that God said He would bring them into distress and
loneliness–"And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people."
It was not to be a wilderness like the wilderness of sin where there
were no inhabitants, but, "I will bring you into the wilderness of the
people." This is, indeed, a terrible wilderness, for you walk in the
midst of crowds and yet you are perfectly alone–you mingle with the
great congregation and yet feel that none can enter into your secret.
How wretched to sit here and feel that there is not another man like
you in all this vast assembly! You have come into a howling wilderness
where there is no water of joy, or track of hope. Where now your mirth
and giddiness? Where now your comrades in iniquity? The Lord can soon
make the gay worldling into the desponding solitary. I have seen Him
touch proud young men and they have been brought to deep humiliation of
spirit, so as to be glad to sit down like little children and learn the
way of the Kingdom of God! Oh, you stiff-necked, hard-hearted
sinners–if God's almighty love goes forth, He will soon turn your
hearts of stone into flesh till you become ready to weep yourselves
away because you have grieved your Savior!
Many here can remember when they were in that condition–when the
ministry seemed a wilderness! They went up to hear the Word of God
preached and, while others were converted, they were not! The Bible,
itself, seemed to be a wilderness–when they read it they found no
comfort. The Book appeared to thunder at them! Great pieces of ordnance
were fired against their consciences out of its Law. They turned to
Christian friends and, sometimes, to unchristian friends–but from
neither the one nor the other could they obtain any help! No man
understood them–they did not understand themselves! "They wandered in
the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in." Like
the Jews in Babylon, they sat down and wept. Then was fulfilled in them
this Word of God–"I will bring you into the wilderness of the people."
This is God's way of bringing men to Himself. He digs them up by the
roots, that He may remove them and plant them by the rivers of waters
in the garden of the Lord.
Read on. What does He say next?–"And there will I plead with you face
to face." Brothers and Sisters, you that know what this means by
experience must help me out, for I cannot describe it in words. When
the Lord becomes so realized to
the guilty conscience that there seems to be nothing anywhere except
God and that poor sinner, face to face with one another, then there is
a time of fear and trembling, indeed! For God to stand face to face
with an unpardoned sinner and plead with Him is a matter of deep
solemnity. Do you know it? The sinner then cries out with Job, "I have
heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eyes see You. Why, I
abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." If the Lord does but let
loose His terrors upon men's minds and deals with them hand to hand,
then their beauty is consumed like the moth! The poor preacher tried
often to touch their proud hearts, but he could not reach them. But
when God comes, by His Holy Spirit, as a spirit of bondage and begins
to plead with them face to face, they are right speedily low in the
dust! They know not how to answer the Lord for one of a thousand of the
sins which He presses upon their consciences! When He lays judgment to
the line and righteousness to the plummet, the hail soon sweeps away
their refuges of lies! If I could have been saved by finding one excuse
for my sin when I was under conviction, I could not have discovered it.
I was without excuse. I knew that I was guilty and I wondered that I
was not sent to Hell then and there! When once God pleaded with me,
"face to face," there was no help for it but to plead guilty at once.
The Lord further declares He will plead with them as He pleaded with
their fathers in the wilderness. How did He do that? Why, very terribly
indeed! Certain men had rebelled against God and against Moses–and God
said, "Hang up their heads in the face of the sun." At another time
when certain of them rebelled against Aaron, the earth opened and
swallowed them up–and Korah, Dathan, and Abiram went down alive into
the Pit. Once the Lord pleaded with them by sending fiery serpents
among them–and multitudes were bitten and died. At another time the
pestilence multiplied graves at each resting place. He brought them
very low by these terrible pleadings! Had not Moses stood in the gap,
as mediator, and had not Aaron intervened as a faithful High Priest,
they had been utterly consumed! Truly the Lord pleaded with them by
terrible things in righteousness!
Beloved, broken-hearted Hearer, are you passing through that stage? Is
God pleading with you in that fashion? Does He bring judgment after
judgment upon you? Do His threats follow each other like peals of
thunder? Has He burned up all your comfort? Has He scorched and
withered all your confidence? Are you brought unto the dust of death?
Do you cry out, "My soul chooses strangling rather than life! Day and
night Your hand is heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer"? Believe me, you are not alone in such a dread
experience–many of God's dear children have traversed this valley of
death shade and, by this road, they have been brought under the bond of
the Covenant! It is not that God loves to treat us thus, for He does
not afflict willingly, but, like a wise father He will not spare the
rod and spoil the child. Self-confidence must be killed! Carnal
confidences must be destroyed! Self-righteousness must be slain. The
Lord will turn your sweetness into bitterness and your light into
darkness, that you may be fully weaned from your own ways and may be
made willing to be saved by Sovereign Grace.
What more does God do? Well, it is said, "And I will cause you to pass
under the rod." What is this passing under the rod? I have frequently
seen sheep, when the shepherd has required to count them–he makes them
pass through a half-opened gate and there he numbers them. They would
all come rushing through, but the shepherd blocks the way and, as they
come out, one by one, he touches them with his staff and so counts
them. The Lord makes His chosen to pass through a narrow place, even a
strait gate, where only one can come at a time–and then and there He
counts them and causes them to give an account of themselves
individually. You have been hidden away among the thousands, but now
you shall be made to appear as a separate individual and so you shall
come under the rod of the Lord and be numbered with His flock. Perhaps
you are frightened, as the sheep are when the shepherd counts them, for
they think they are all going to be killed–but there is far more room
for comfort than for dismay–for that which God counts, He values, and
if He visits you with special chastisement it is because He has special
designs of Grace towards you which you shall understand, by-and-by!
Then mark this–as the shepherd, by counting his own sheep, declares
and exercises his right of possession, so the Lord, when He wakes up
our minds to feel our personality, causes us to recognize that we are
not our own, but are bought with a price. What a blessed knowledge that
is when we discover that we are not our own, for in it lies the
brightest hope for us! If I had been my own, I would have been lost! It
is because I am the Lord's that I shall not be lost, for He will not
lose the Father's gift, or His own purchase. They are kept by the power
of God, through faith, unto salvation, even as Jesus says, "I give unto
My sheep eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand." This is to come under the rod–to be
counted one by one–and to be accounted to belong to God alone.
Moreover, we come under the rod of rulership, for a rod, in the old
time, was the usual scepter of kings. What a blessed thing it is when a
man comes under the rulership of Christ–when he cries–
"I yield–by Sovereign Grace subdued; Who can resist its charms? And
throw myself, by wrath pursued Into my Sa vior's arms!"
"I will bring you under the rod." That is, "I will make you to yield
willing obedience to My Law and Word." It means, also, the rod of
chastisement. "Happy is the man whom God corrects." Let the afflicted
rejoice in his adversities instead of being cast down by them, for,
"whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He
receives."–
"The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown."
"I will bring you under the rod."
Now, have I been describing the experience of any person here? I feel
sure I have! Thousands who will read these words will leap for joy as
they exclaim, "This is precisely where I am! I said, 'Surely He is
going to destroy me,' but if this is the way in which the Lord brings
me under the bond of the Covenant, I will forever bless His name!" May
the Holy Spirit apply these, my words, to all the prisoners of hope!
III. But time fails me, so I must close by noticing THE ULTIMATE DESIGN
OF ALL THIS. This bringing them under the bond of the Covenant has a
grand intent in it.
The first design is evident in the text–it is to bind them to God. We
would have gone astray long ago and entirely left our God, if it had
not been for our bitter experience when the Lord was making Himself
known to us. In later life, all the better crops come in from having a
deep plowing before the seed is sown. I bear the scars of my terrible
convictions about me to this day–and they prevent my trifling with
sin. When I came to Christ, my soul was stripped to the skin– not a
rag of my own righteousness or of my own strength remained upon me. I
was worse than a beggar! I was utterly destitute and did not even know
how to beg.
It seems to me that some of my Brothers and Sisters came to Christ with
a good coat on and have never ceased to wear it under their Grace-given
robes. Too many are unable to say, "Grace," without stuttering. But
when a man's mouth has been washed out with the wormwood of
self-humiliation, it is a fine thing for his pronunciation–he can say,
"Grace," I will guarantee you–and give it a full emphatic sound! If
anybody had said to me, "You are a saved soul and the Lord has put away
your sin, but your salvation is the result of a good, natural
disposition," I am afraid I would have proved the reverse by calling
him a liar to his face! It would have angered me to hear such a
falsehood! Grace, alone, has made me to differ and saved me through
faith in Christ Jesus. I cannot go any further, my Brothers and
Sisters. My highly-intelligent, cultured Brethren may go where they
like, but I must abide with the Doctrines of Grace! The march of proud
human intellect will end with the devil, but I am bound, in all
sincerity, to continue where I began, namely, with Free Grace.
Where else can I go? Nowhere else is there for me a beam of light, or a
ray of comfort. Rock of Ages, I am secure on You! But once off that
foundation, I sink in quicksand. Much of our smarting experience in
coming home to God is meant to bring us under the bond of the Covenant
so that we shall never leave it again. We have had such a drilling and
dressing that the very thought of any other salvation but that which is
of Grace is detestable to us.
The next design of God is that He may entirely separate His people from
the world. "I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that
transgress against Me." When God makes His servants to bitterly know
the evil fruit of sin, then they no longer hunger for that forbidden
fruit. "Oh, you are straight-laced," says one. Indeed, we are, where
sin is concerned! A boy climbed into a neighbor's garden and stole
unripe plums and, after eating them, he became very ill and was forced
to drink pints of horrible medicine to save his life. When he was
better, his school fellows said to him, "Come with us and steal some
plums," but they seemed to be mocking him. The boy is very
straight-laced, is he not? He remembers the gripes and the pains which
those plums brought him and he will have no more of them! The burnt
child dreads the fire. Thus the Lord often brings His people away from
their sins by giving them sharp and cutting experiences of what evil
will do for them. If such is the present consequences of sin, they
begin to guess what sin will bring them when they come into judgment
and condemnation on account of it.
Furthermore, the Lord chastens His people, thus, that He may bring them
into their own land of promise into the rest of His love. Whereas this
text tells us of the rebels–that they shall not enter into the land of
Israel–it is implied that those who obey the Divine command shall
enter into the land of promise and peace. Blessed be God for the land
of promise into which we enter by faith! What a subject! I wish I had a
week in which to preach upon it! When you quit the desert of Sinai, or
the Covenant of Works, you enter into the land of promise, or the
Covenant of Grace–and then you plead the precious promises of God and
realize the riches of His Grace to the delight of your soul! Then is it
true, "so shall you dwell in the land and verily you shall be fed." But
no man ever gets to live upon the promise of God until, first of all,
he is weaned from all self-reliance and all self-glorying. When God has
stamped self with the seal of death and we have seen destruction
written upon all carnal confidence, then we are glad to accept as a
gift that which we can never win as a reward!
The table of Covenant-Grace is loaded when, in all the land of human
merit, there remains not a morsel of bread! None so joyfully enter into
the land of Grace as those who are weary of the wilderness and can find
no rest in their own doings. As the way to Canaan was across a desert,
so the way to the Covenant is often by a bitter experience. And as the
land that flows with milk and honey was all the lovelier because of the
howling wilderness, so is Grace all the more precious because of the
utter failure of self!
Last of all, the great end of all is that we may know the Lord. I speak
thoughtfully when I say I fear that large numbers of professors do not
know the Lord. That is to say, the Lord Jehovah–as known to Ezekiel,
is not known by many who profess to believe in the true God. Jehovah,
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob–is the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But He is not the god of the 19th Century. This
generation has made a god of its own. The effeminate deity of the
modern school is no more the true God than Dagon or Baal. I know him
not, neither do I reverence him! Jehovah is the true God–He is the God
of Love–but He is also robed in Justice. He is the God of forgiveness,
but He is also the God of Atonement. He is the God of Heaven, but He is
also the God who sends the wicked down to Hell. We, of course, are
thought to be harsh, narrow-minded and bigoted–nevertheless, this God
is our God forever and ever. There has been no change in Jehovah! He
has revealed Himself more clearly in Christ Jesus, but He is the same
God as in the Old Testament–and as such we worship Him.
When a man has smarted because of his sin and has been made to feel the
burning coals of anguish in his own spirit. When the Lord has set him
up as a target and shot at him with arrows which drink up his life.
And, when afterwards he has been saved and the splendor of infinite
love has shone upon him, then he knows Jehovah! When God has brought
the contrite man into the place of security, comfort, joy and delight
in Christ Jesus, then he knows the Lord! The full-orbed Deity is beheld
by the broken and contrite in the day of his deliverance–neither does
he know which to adore and admire most–the power, the wisdom, the
justice, or the Grace of God! We love everything that is in God when we
are brought under the bond of the Covenant. May God bless this word to
many sorrowing spirits, for Jesus' sake! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Jeremiah 31:31-37;
Ezekiel36:25-32;20:32-44.
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