The Divided Heart
(No. 3527)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1916,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S DAY EVENING, APRIL
14, 1872.
"Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty." Hosea 10:2.
THIS was originally spoken of the Kingdom of Israel. For many years
they had been under a king who commanded the worship of Baal and
persecuted the worshippers of Jehovah. God chastened the people very
sorely for this, but He did not utterly destroy them. At last Hoshea,
the king, came to the throne. He was the last king of Israel and it is
very remarkable that it is said of him that he was much better than
those who went before him. He did not evil in the sight of the Lord
after the manner of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. He was not what could
be wished, but still he was not like the rest–and it seems very odd to
a person who reads it casually that God should spare the nation under
worse kings–and then should carry it away into captivity when they
had, for once, a far better king! But the matter is explained thus.
Ho-shea withdrew the curse of persecution from the people and they were
left free to follow Jehovah.
While they were persecuted–compelled to worship Baal–God, as it were,
had compassion upon them. He abhorred their idolatry, but still His
anger did not burn against them to the same degree as it did afterwards
when they were left to do as they pleased, religious persecution was
withdrawn and the pressure was taken off. Then, when there began to be
internal discussion and strife–and some went after the true God, but
others still followed the old idol– then it was that God saw that the
nation was incurable. They were altogether set upon evil and He said,
"Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty." Or it might be
read, "Now shall they be condemned." From which I gather that a sin in
a certain case may be overlooked for a while, but the same sin under
another circumstance may be speedily punished. God knows the
circumstances of temptation in which a man may be placed, and though
the force of temptation is not an excuse for sin, it may serve as a
mitigation of it. A person under a tyrannizing power who is driven to
sin by fear may be far less guilty than another who is under no such
constraint, but who willfully, of his own heart, chooses the evil. And
God may bear a long time with the same sin in a man under certain
circumstances, which in another, under different circumstances, shall
provoke Him at once to anger–and He shall sweep the man from off the
face of the earth! Beware, dear Hearers, of deliberate sin! Beware of
the sin which is of your own choosing! I may say, beware of all sin,
for in a measure it is deliberate and of your own choosing–but
especially that sin which is not brought upon you by any pressure, but
simply by your own willful disobedience to God! This is a crying sin
and one which God will not long put up with!
And now I shall take the language of the text and apply it in other
ways. "Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty."
I. THIS MAY BE TRUE OF ANY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
It has long been my joy, Beloved in the Lord, that our heart has not
been divided. We have walked together these many years in holy
fellowship and, imperfect as we are, yet there have not been divisions
among us. There has been no division about Doctrine. We have agreed
upon the great Truths of God. There has been, I believe, no division
about who shall be the greatest. We have been content, each one, to
occupy his place in the Church and to work on. It is not our goodness
that has made it so–it is only the power of God's Spirit which has
kept us, who otherwise might readily have been divided–kept us as the
heart of one man in sacred unity. Oh, let it always be so–let it
always be so! May these eyes be closed in the darkness of death long
before I shall see you contending, the one against the other! If it
should ever happen that I should be unfit to go in and out among you to
your edification, may I be laid aside and some other found round whom
you may rally as one man, that by any means and every means the Church
may be kept in its integrity–one in heart–a threefold cord which
cannot be broken! Let each man endeavor to avoid giving offense to his
brother. Let us
all be members unto edification of the same one Lord, one faith, one
Baptism. May the same Spirit abide in us and work with us to God's
Glory, for we well know that a divided Church is found guilty. It is
guilty so far as anything like usefulness is concerned. The strength
that is spent in division is so much taken away from service. When the
children of God use their swords against one another, they are not
using them against the adversaries of the Lord. May our strength never
be spent in division. A house divided against itself must come to
nothing, but strong in the unity which God shall give us may we not be
found guilty! I will not dwell upon that, however, but remark that the
text– II. MAY BE USED, AGAIN, OF EACH INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN.
One-heartedness in a Christian is a great point. "Unite my heart to
fear Your name" is a prayer which every Christian should always pray.
"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." A double-hearted
Christian–what shall I say of him? He is like the eye which when it is
single, fills the body with light, but if it has lost its singleness,
it causes the body to be in darkness–and if the light that is in us is
darkness, how great is that darkness! Though a Christian, deep down in
his soul, cannot be divided in heart, but must love his God, yet there
may be very much of division of pursuit, division of aim and objectives
in Christians. And, Brothers and Sisters, may I not suggest that it may
be so with some of you, that your hearts may be divided and, therefore,
you are found guilty? Take the Christian who desires to serve God, but
still is equally desirous to amass wealth. Such a man–may God not put
him into the scales and judge him, for I fear he will be found
wanting–but if his desire for wealth is ever subordinate to that of
the Gory of God only in a slight degree, he will never attain to any
great eminence in the Divine Life. He cannot! In proportion as his
vital force is divided and drawn away from the main business of life,
he will become spiritually lean, even if he becomes peculiarity rich.
He may be a millionaire in the world, but he will be a pauper in the
Church. He may be a "strong" man in the market, but he shall be a very
dwarf in the House of God! There will sure to be a guiltiness where the
heart is so divided! The most charitable construction we can put upon
it is that there are darker evils!
We have known Christians, too, whose objective in life has been the
large acquiring of knowledge, the pursuit of science, the gathering up
of information. This, like the pursuit of wealth, is lawful enough in
its subordinate place, but when it comes into rivalry with the seeking
of the Glory of God, the man may become a scholar, but he will never
become a beloved disciple that leans his head upon Jesus' bosom! He may
be great in the classics and he may be a master in the sciences, but he
will never be a master in Israel! The division of his vital powers, the
lack of concentration will be sure to keep him in the rear ranks of the
Church of God–if he is kept there. Oh, what a blessed thing it is to
see a wholehearted Christian, who, while he pursues his present
business, still pursues it for God's Glory! While he studies and stores
his mind, is doing it for one objective, namely, that he may be thereby
more useful to the Church of God and more helpful in the winning of
souls! Give the man but one heart, one objective, and he is a man!
Someone has said that he dreaded the man of one book–and so the wicked
world may dread the man of one objective if that one objective is the
Glory of God! They that have two targets to shoot at shall not strike
either–they miss their aim–but he who lives only for God with all his
might is like a thunderbolt launched from Jehovah's hand that goes
crashing through every difficulty and reaches the point God aims
at–and that the man, himself, seeks! He shall live for something! He
shall count upon his age! He shall leave his mark! The man with an
undivided heart–he shall not be found guilty. But he that is this and
that–a follower of Christ, but yet something over and above that,
almost equally as much the other, as he is a Christian–he shall be a
poor, poor thing! He shall not enjoy the light of fellowship with God.
He shall not walk in nearness to Christ. He shall be saved, but "so as
by fire." No "abundant entrance" shall be administered to him into the
Kingdom of God, our Father.
I believe, dear Friends, and I will go a step further using the same
words, that this case, if it should happen to be that of a minister
with a divided heart, is more sad than it is in the case of the common
Christian. Dear Brothers, those of us who believe that we are called to
be ministers for Christ are, above all the rest of the Church, bound to
devote ourselves to one thing. "This one thing I do." If other men have
two things to do, we, by our call and office, if we are not liars in
professing to be of God, and traitors to our office, are bound to do
but one thing–and that is to free ourselves from the blood of all men
that we may stand before God as His honest servants. You may depend
upon it that a minister with his heart at all divided will make a
failure of his ministry. It must be so. I have watched the career of a
good many young men, though not old, myself, [Spurgeon was near 36] and
I remember one with remarkable abilities. In his preaching there was a
good clear sound of the Gospel. But I, who was as a father to him,
noted that he had an ambitious desire to be
distinguished as a speaker. I saw that even when he sought to win
souls, it was with a view that persons might say how earnest he was. I
could not help detecting in his conversation that there was an evident
objective to make himself something, that he might be great in Israel.
And I remember well how I walked with him and warned him that if God's
servant did anything whatever for himself, God would not use him for
His Divine purposes. That if we sacrificed to our pride, God would not
let us stand as priests at His altar. That if we would be honored, we
must stay down, stay humble–that God would not long bless a man who
was self-seeking, even in the ministry of Christ. The warnings he
received very kindly, but they never sank into his heart, and I can see
him now! He is not here, but were he here I think he would confess the
truth of what I say. He lies a miserable wreck upon the shore and he
has fallen by his ambition! Had it not been for that, I would have
conceived for him a high and excellent career. And I would say to every
minister, "I charge you fling away your ambition! Your only ambition
must be to be nothing, to be hated, scouted, called a fool, a
driveller, if by any means you may win souls for Christ! But to
cultivate rhetoric, to be an orator, to study that you may be thought
to be a profound thinker, to labor earnestly with this idea that you
may be esteemed to be a first-class soul-winner–even that is bad! The
only thing is to seek to do what God would have you do and to glorify
Him–to lay every honor at His feet and live for Him, for any sort of
division in the Christian minister's pursuit may make him faulty." I
believe that the man who gives himself to be a preacher should divest
himself of the cares of this life, as the soldier does in the army,
that he may be able to give his whole soul and life to the one matter
for which his Lord has called him. It will be good for him to do this.
And then he had better leave politics alone. He had better leave
everything alone but his one work. We have not mind enough for two
things–and besides, our work is such that if we had mind enough for 20
things it would be best to consecrate it all to that one thing! If I
may snatch firebrands from the flame, who will, may fill your Senate
and may guide the policies of Cabinets! If I may lead sinners to the
Cross of Christ and tell them of life in His dear wounds, I should be
content, though I should never influence anything else except the
hearts of men to the Savior! One thing, young man, if you are about to
be a minister–one thing, my Brother, however old you may be, permit me
to say to you and myself tonight–there is only one thing we must do if
we would not be found guilty.
But the stress of my text I intend to lay tonight upon one particular
case, and that is–
III. THE SEEKING SINNER.
There are some persons who are awakened and are seeking salvation, but
they are not likely to find it because their heart is divided and they
will be found guilty. Very briefly, and very briefly, indeed, I mean to
speak upon this disease, upon the evil of it, and suggest a few
thoughts by way of a cure for it.
Of this disease, let me say that it is a disease in the heart. Now a
very small prick in the heart will kill. A great gash in the head may
be healed, but a slight wound in the heart is deadly. A division of
understanding or of judgment may be remedied, but a division of heart
is a very terrible and often a very fatal disease. Let me show you how
and in what respects some seeking souls are divided in heart.
And they are, first, divided as to a sense of their condition. At one
time they think they are in great danger. Tomorrow they don't know that
there is anything very particular. When they have read a passage of
Scripture, they believe their heart to be evil, but they forget the
text and they think their heart is, after all, not so bad as Scripture
says it is. They hear that there is a wrath to come and they are
alarmed, but they get away to their friends and neighbors and say, "Why
was I so foolish as to be frightened by the preacher?" They are in
danger–they dare not say they are not, but yet they almost hope it is
not true! They know it is not all right with them, yet they try to
cheat themselves with the idea that it is pretty nearly all right. They
are never likely to seek a Savior while they are in this condition, for
until a man's mind is thoroughly made up that he must be saved by
Christ or perish, he will never go to Christ. A divided heart about our
personal condition before God is a deadly sign.
These same seekers are often divided as to the objects of their choice.
They need salvation tonight–they would give their eyes to have it.
They will get to their chamber and pray, "O God, save me!" They will
endorse the language of that hymn–
"Wealth and honor I disdain. Earthly comforts, Lord, are vain. These
can never satisfy– Give me Christ, or else I die."
Tomorrow they will forget all about Christ and they will be seeking
after something else. Tonight they would have Heaven, but tomorrow they
would find a Heaven on earth! Tonight they would give up sin, but
tomorrow they wish to have much of it. Tonight they see the emptiness
of earthly pleasure, but tomorrow they will suck it down as the ox
drinks down water. Their heart is divided between this and that. They
are not quite for the world nor quite for Christ–they halt between two
opinions! Oh, that God would decide them that their heart, their
divided heart, may not prove their ruin!
Some seekers are divided as to the object of their trust. They trust in
Jesus Christ, but they also trust a little in themselves. They believe
His blood has a great deal to do with it, but they think their prayers
have something, too, and so they stand with one foot on the land and
the other on the sea and, therefore, they fall! They are relying upon
self in part and upon Christ in part, and so they will assuredly come
to destruction, for Christ will never be part Savior! It must be all or
nothing! He never entered into partnership with sinful worms to help
save them–He is the sole Foundation–and other foundation can no man
lay. Alas, upon this matter, how many have their hearts divided! They
are trusting to their Baptism, or to their Confirmation, or to their
"sacraments"–all false foundations–and yet they are trying to trust
in Christ at the same time! Their heart is divided and now they are
held guilty.
And this division is found in their love. They think they love Divine
things, but by-and-by some earthly thing comes in and gets uppermost in
their souls! Oh, I do remember myself when, if I woke in the morning, I
always took care to have a godly book under my pillow, and an awakening
book, too–Doddridge's, "Rise and Progress," Alleine's, "Alarm,"
Bunyan's books and the like–and yet at another time I forgot all about
that. I was hot today and cold tomorrow. I would have been ready to die
in order to be saved, sometimes, and other times would gladly have
escaped from the mercy of God to be permitted to "enjoy myself," as I
said, in the things of the world! Oh, it is a sad state to be in. A
seeker will never get Christ until he must have Christ, and he will
never get salvation until salvation is the first thing, the last thing,
the middle thing with him–until it comes to this, "By God's Spirit I
must be saved! Nothing will content me. I must be saved and until I am
saved, I cannot give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids." The
Lord in His mercy give us an united heart about this, for a divided
heart, here, is a guilty heart in the seeker. Now let me speak upon–
IV. THE DANGER OF THIS DISEASE–the evil of it. The evil of it is,
first, that seekers with divided hearts miss the blessing. You shall
find Him when you seek Him with your whole heart–not till then.
Mercy's door opens to the knock of a whole-hearted knocker. A
half-hearted seeker will have to wait many a day before that gate will
ever give him entrance. No, Soul, if you do not think enough of mercy
to ask for it with all your heart, you will have to wait awhile. No,
Man, the choice mercies of God are too precious to be thrown away upon
one who asks with a divided heart! Now look at Heaven's gate instead of
here and there, instead of looking right and left. For you one thing is
necessary, Sinner–just one thing. Fifty things you may leave to be
sought, by-and-by, but now for you it is one thing, and if you will not
make it one thing, you will miss it–miss it to your eternal loss!
Again, remember that you who seek the Lord with a divided heart condemn
yourselves. When you stand before the Judgment Seat you won't be able
to say, as some will, "Lord, we did not know of this salvation. Lord,
we never were impressed with its value," for the Lord would tell you,
"Why, you trembled under a sermon. You knelt and prayed, and you cried
to Me, though you lied with yours lips because your heart was not
perfect before Me. Yet you did know the value of these things and you
did feel them, too, in a measure, so that you are without excuse." He
that follows the world with all his heart and thinks that is the best,
is a reasonable man in following it. But he who thinks the world to
come the best, and yet follows this present evil world–why, what a
fool he is–and who shall plead for him? When he stands before God, his
prayers will damn him, if nothing else will, for his prayers will be
swift witnesses against him that he did know, did feel and yet he would
not act upon his knowledge–he blotted out that which he perceived in
his feelings. God save us from missing Heaven and from condemning
ourselves by seeking it with a divided heart!
Moreover, O Man, I would press one fact upon you very solemnly, and
that is that a divided search after salvation is an insult to the
Savior. Who is it and what is it, O Man, that you set up in competition
with Christ? All Heaven and earth cannot produce His equal, and have
you found something that can rival Him? What is it? Dare you say what
it is? There have been men who have had good thoughts, but even a
harlot's love has been chosen by them, instead of Christ! There are
others who have loved the wages of unrighteousness, and
Sabbath-breaking has made them forego Christ. We have known others who,
for fear of a little scandal from their worldly companions, have been
ashamed to follow Christ, and
they have given up Jesus Christ sooner than bear a fool's derision! O
Man, if you had the choice given you tonight of all the kingdoms of
this world, or Christ, you would insult Christ if you should pause in
the choice, for He is better than them all, and your soul's salvation
is better than them all! "For what shall it profit a man, though he
gains the whole world, and lose his own soul?" But I can weep for you
while I rebuke you. What is it you put in competition with Christ? What
is it you prefer to Christ? Man, are you mad that you should insult
your Savior, who poured out His heart's blood for the salvation of such
as you are, and do you think that anything can be worth the having at
so dreadful a price as the loss of your soul, and the loss of the
Savior's salvation? I beseech you, turn that over in your mind! I
cannot put it as forcibly as I would, but I pray you let your
conscience help you and answer if it is right in you to have a divided
heart, and so to insult your Savior.
Once more on this point, and that is, do you not know that a divided
heart is a continued disobedience to God He says, "You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
strength"–and now you have sinned your soul out of His favor and in
danger of eternal death–and still with only half a heart do you turn
to Him! You put out one hand towards God, but with the other you would
have your sin! You would gladly go to Heaven and take your sins with
you! You would be saved, but you want to sit both at the table of the
Lord and the table of Satan! You desire to hold with the hare and run
with the hounds–be the friend of the devil and yet the friend of God.
O Man, the very thought is rebellion against your Maker! Cast it away
from you and ask the Lord, this night, to bind all your affections into
one bundle, and then draw them all to Him–that for you the one thing
may be to seek salvation through Christ and reconciliation to the good
Lord in Heaven through the precious blood of His dear Son! And now hear
the last few words which shall be meant to be–
V. A CURE FOR THIS DISEASE of a divided heart. And the first word shall
be this. You ought well to have done with a divided heart when the
matter in hand is your salvation or damnation. When a ship is floating
gaily out at sea with favorable winds, men think but little of their
safety. When she begins to rock and there is some danger, then their
safety rises in importance and they put it side by side with the safety
of the gold they carry with them! But when the winds break loose and
the storm is up, and the ship is about to go by the board, and the man
must leap into the lifeboat, he flings his gold away–he leaves his
treasures loose upon the floor. As they sink into the abyss, he gives
up anything if he may but save his life! In that dread hour when the
vessel is going down and a handful of men alone are clinging to a mast,
all is gone from them except the thought of saving life. And surely it
should be so with you! When you are saved, you may begin to think of
some other thing, but not tonight! For as the Lord lives, before whom I
stand, there is but a step between some of you and death! Before
another Sabbath–I may speak positively, for out of so many as there
are here, someone of us will die this week, by all the probabilities of
life and death–before another Sabbath one of us will lie in the shell,
prepared to be taken to the grave! And if that should happen to be an
unconverted man, then before another Sabbath you will know of Hell and
of the Lake of Fire more than this Book can tell or these lips can
utter, unless you are converted and fly to Christ! Surely in such
jeopardy, your whole heart ought to be set upon the one matter–your
own salvation–and I beseech you and I pray God the Spirit to make it
so that you may now, with your whole undivided faculties, seek first
the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. By the awful peril of your
soul, I do entreat you linger, delay and remain undecided no more, lest
your heart, being divided, should prove guilty and be cast away
forever!
Remember, again, and the argument is equally forcible, though it is
more pleasing, the mercy that you are seeking after is worth the
concentration of all your thoughts to find it To be delivered from all
your past sin–is not this worth the seeking? To be made a child of
God–is not this worth wrestling for? To be secure of Heaven, to be
delivered from Hell–is not this worth an attempt to obtain? Oh, if it
were necessary that you should go to your houses, tonight, and neglect
your tomorrow's business–it does not require it, but if it did–if you
went not to the market or to the Exchange by the week together–yes,
and if your tables were deserted and you snatched but a morsel that
might sustain life–and if you took no walk, had no recreation, if you
denied yourself anything and everything until you found Christ, I could
not blame you! I am sure it would be well worth the while! Anything,
everything should be neglected that you might become one of the people
of God and saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation! Did you
know the joy that belongs to Christians, you would never be satisfied
until you had it! The man that saw the pearl of great price saw it in
another dealer's hands, and he thought, "I must have that! It is the
finest pearl of all, so I must have it!" And he went his way, you know,
and though he had many a dainty jewel, he sold all he had and turned it
all to gold–and back he came
to the trader–and he gave with joy all that he had that he might buy
that one pearl, and he made a good bargain, too! And you would make a
blessed bargain if everything were given up that you might find a
Savior and be delivered from the wrath to come! Therefore I do pray you
to seek Him with your whole heart.
Once more, do remember that the Savior gave His whole heart when He
came to save men. There was no by-play about Christ. His zeal for souls
did eat Him up. He, loved, He lived, He died to save them! Will you
have a divided heart about that which took the Savior's whole soul?
Remember the devil is in earnest to destroy you. He will leave no stone
unturned to keep you his victim that he may utterly destroy you! Shall
Hell be in earnest to ruin you and will you not be in earnest to escape
from it? Remember, good men are in earnest. I wish that I could speak
to you with the tongue of an angel tonight. There is no faculty of my
mind which I would not lay under a heavy mortgage if I might but bring
your soul to Christ! I would willingly enough go to school, again, and
sit at my Master's feet if He could tell me how to deal with human
hearts aright, and stir them and draw them to the Savior! Ah, 'tis
poorly done, but it is with my whole soul I would plead with you to fly
to Christ! And yet 'tis but little a concern of mine, compared with the
way in which it is a concern of yours! If I have been faithful, I shall
not be responsible for you–it is your soul that is at stake. Sirs,
shall I be anxious about your souls and will you not care about them?
Do they seem precious to me and trifles to you? Shall I urge you to
escape and will you feel, "It does not matter–it is but a trifle"?
Lord, deliver us from this insanity, for insanity it is for a man to
trifle with his soul, when others are in earnest for him! And God is in
earnest. The great eternal God is in earnest! He says tonight to you,
"Turn you, turn you! Why will you die, O house of Israel?" If salvation
is child's-play to you, it is not to Him. He gave His Son from His
bosom to redeem men! And He sent His Spirit unto men to sanctify them.
He puts out His Omnipotence, lays His Wisdom under tax to find a plan
and devise a way by which He might save mankind! Oh, trifle not where
God is so in earnest, lest you find Him terribly in earnest in the day
when His incensed love shall turn to wrath! Jealousy–what is it but
love set on a blaze? And if you so hate God that you will prefer to
live in Hell sooner than be indebted to His mercy, then rest assured
you shall feel how heavy His arm can be–
"What chains of vengeance shall they feel
Who slight the cords of Love?
How they deserve the deepest Hell
Who scorn the joys above!"
May God in His infinite mercy prevent anybody here from daring the
wrath of God by following after Christ with a divided heart–trifling
with his Maker, trifling with his soul, trifling with Heaven, trifling
with Hell! May we be in earnest, each one of us, and may we all meet at
the right hand of God through Sovereign Grace. The Lord bless you all,
for Jesus' sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HOSEA 10:1-6.
Verse 1. Israelis an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself Not
to his God. It matters not how much fruit we bear–if it is for self,
we are fruitless. A thing which is good in itself may lose all its
goodness because stained with a selfish motive. We are to live unto
God–and we must always be watchful about this–otherwise we may be
doing much, and doing nothing. "Israel is an empty vine, he brings
forth fruit unto himself."
1. According to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars;
according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.It
is a very sad thing when the more men receive from God, the more they
sin. But just in proportion as the land of Israel was fat and fertile,
in that proportion did they set up altars to false gods and provoke the
true God, who had given them these mercies. It is an ill thing when men
grow rich and offer sacrifice to their own vanity– when men gather
learning and only use it to debate against the simple teachings of
God–when just as God blesses, men cease to bless Him!
2. Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty. A half heart is no
heart at all. And when men seem to go after God, and at the same time
to go after their idols, they are not going after God. Their religion
is vain. The good side is but a pretense–the evil side is the real
thing!
2. He shall break down their altars. He shall spoil their images. Let
us take heed then, dear Friends, that we make nothing into an idol. The
shortest way to lose the dearest object of your affections is to make
an idol of him. "He shall
break down their altars. He shall spoil their images." Sometimes this
is done in great mercy to God's people, for there is no greater evil
than for a heart to be happy in idolatry. Sometimes it is done in
judgment upon the ungodly. They will not have the true God, and the
false god shall be false to them. "He shall break down their altars. He
shall spoil their images."
2. For now they shall say, We have no king because we feared not the
LORD; what then should a king do to us? Their king was slain, but if he
had lived, what would be the good of him without God? What is the good
of any temporal blessing if God is not in it? It is the husk with the
kernel gone! And if we are able to enjoy the husk, it looks as if we
were swine, and swine are being fattened for the slaughter! What is the
use of anything that we possess if God is divorced from it? I put the
question again. If you are a true child of God, all the corn and wine
in the world cannot feed you. Your bread must come from Heaven.
4. They have spoken words. That which they spoke was not the truth. We
cannot speak without words, but it is an evil thing when our speech is
nothing but words. Words, words, words!–no heart, no truth! "They have
spoken words."
4. Swearing falsely in making a Covenant: thus judgment springs up as
hemlock in the furrows of the field. God keep us from untruthfulness,
and especially from a want of truth towards Himself. Do you not think
that oftentimes, both in prayer and praise, it might be said, "They
have spoken words–nothing more"? There has been a falsehood in the
most solemn transaction towards God. Woe unto you, dear Friends, if
that should turn out to be the case! You may cheat your fellow men if
you have a heart for it, but you never will be able to cheat your God!
He is not mocked. "They have spoken words," He says.
5. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth
Aven. Why, those calves are their trust. They rely upon those images of
false gods–those images which they set up in the place of the true
God. Pretending thereby to worship Him, they trusted in these–and now
they shall become their fear. He who will have a confidence apart from
God will find his confidence soured into a fear before long. Your
greatest ground of distress will be that which was once the ground of
your reliance apart from God!
5, 6. For the people thereof shall mourn over it And the priests
thereof that rejoiced in it, for the glory thereof, because it is
departed from it It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to
King Jareb. The spiteful king.
6. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own
counsel. These golden calves excited the desires of the king of
Assyria, and he took them away. These gods were baits to their enemies,
instead of basis for their confidence. They were carried away captive
of the people with them–their god, captive–their god melted down to
make images, or to make money for the king of Assyria! Ah, what shame
does God pour upon idolaters! And what shame He will pour upon us if we
have any confidence except the unseen God and if we rely anywhere but
upon the eternal Covenant of His Immutable Grace! Oh, Brothers and
Sisters, let us try to flee away from that which is so tempting to
sense– confidence in an arm of flesh–and let our sole and only trust
be in Him who made the heavens and the earth, and in His Son, Jesus
Christ!