The Fruits of Grace
A Sermon
(No. 3515)
Published on Thursday, June 8th, 1916.
Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At [23]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
On Lord's day Evening, January 21st, 1872.
"In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language
of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called the city
of destruction. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the
midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the
Lord. And it all be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts
in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the
oppressors, and he shall send them a Saviour, and a great one, and he
shall deliver them. And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the
Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and
oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it. And
the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall
return even to the Lord, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall
heal them. In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to
Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into
Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day
shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even blessing in
the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying,
Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the, work of my hands, and
Israel mine inheritance."–Isaiah 19:18-25.
THIS is a very remarkable prophecy. Attempts have been made to explain
it, as if it were already fulfilled. I believe all such attempts to be
utter failures. This promise stands on record to be, fulfilled at some
future day In those bright days for which some of us are looking, when
the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, so the waters cover
the sea, then shall this word to Egypt be verified; yea, and God shall
be glorified both by Egypt and Assyria, as well as in the land of
Israel. This ought to be an encouragement to carry on missionary
operations with great vigour. Here is a distinct promise for Assyria
and for Egypt. Let not the missionary be afraid, even if for thousands
of years to come there should be little apparent success to the
preaching of the gospel. If the Lord should tarry another six thousand
years, ay, sixty thousand years–and he may–we are still to go on
working, and still to go on labouring, looking for his coming, and
expecting it, but not relaxing our efforts because he pleases to delay
it, for the Lord has sworn that all flesh shall know his glory, and you
may depend upon it, there is no spot of earth that shall be left to be
Satan's dominion. It shall be conquered for Christ, and in truth he
shall "see of the travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied." It
is most encouraging to find Egypt mentioned. You find it in one of the
Psalms, "Princes shall come out of Egypt, and they shall come out of
Ethiopia." Now this I believe to be the litera1 meaning of the passage.
You must understand that the prophecy was given to the people of
Israel, and it was given to them, as it were, to children that were
using types and figures. It speaks in their language. Hence it speaks
of altars, and pillars, and oblations, all of which are to be
understood now in the spiritual sense. The Church of God has come to
her manhood, in which she has done with material altars and material
oblations, seeing that she has Christ to be her only altar, her only
priest, and prayer and praise to be the spiritual oblation which she
shall bring. I understand the prophecy to be, in brief, just this. In
the latter day, Egypt will be converted, and Assyria too, and wonders
of grace will be performed in that land, and the people of the land
shall with delight worship the Most High.
Having said this, I am now going to use the text for another purpose.
Here is a wonderful display of the grace of God in this promise to
Egypt. I see the very heart of God revealed. I see a display of what
God will do, not to Egypt only, but to others also, and though we have
much to say, we will try to open up, in as few particulars as we can
make them, the display of grace which God gives among the sons of men.
We begin thus:–
I. THE GRACE OF GOD OFTEN COMES TO THE VERY WORST OF MEN.
It is promised to Egypt. Now Egypt was the nation which was the type of
God's enemies. It was over Egypt that he triumphed at the Red Sea, when
Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord?" and we regard Egypt as always being
typical of the enemies of God–the peculiar and chief enemies. Yet the
grace of God is to come to Egypt. And so will it come often to the
worst enemies that God has. Saul of Tarsus, foaming at the mouth with
rage against the Christ of God, was met and conquered by eternal love,
and his heart was renewed, and he was made an apostle. And oftentimes
since then, electing love has chosen those that were most furious
against Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit has come upon them,
and turned the lions into lambs, and made them lie down at the feet of
the Saviour. Let us have hope for the worst of men, and let the worst
of men have hope for themselves under the gospel of Jesus Christ. The
Egyptians were a peculiarly debased people as to their idolatry. If you
go into the British Museum you will still see the cats, the crocodiles,
the scarlet ibis, which they were accustomed to worship. Besides that,
it was one of the sarcasms of the Roman poets that the Egyptians
worshipped gods which they grew in their own gardens. They had the
sacred beetle, the sacred mouse, and I know not what. And yet, degraded
as they were by idolatry, the grace of God was to come to them. And men
may have gone far into superstition; they may have debased even their
own intellect by what they have tried to believe, and forced themselves
down into the very deeps of superstition, and yet, for all that, the
grace of God can come to them and lift them up. And the Egyptian were
degraded politically too, for we read in one passage of the prophets
that Egypt shall be the basest of all nations; and yet, though the
basest of nations in that respect, the grace of God shall coma to them.
Oh! how wondrous is the sovereignty of God! The devil cannot dye a soul
so scarlet in sin but what the blood of Christ can make it white as
snow. Satan cannot drive a chosen sheep of Christ so far on the
mountains of vanity, or into the deserts of sin, but what the great
Shepherd of the sheep can find that sheep, and bring it back again.
There is hope for the mart sunken. There is hope for those that grovel,
and that sink in the mire The infinite compassion of God can reach
them, and the eternal power of God can lift them up.
But there is one singular note in the text, that one of the cities in
that land of Egypt (if I read the text aright) that was to be saved was
called the City of Destruction. It had come to be named by that name,
and yet, think of that, God looked upon it with mercy. Now there are in
villages, and there are in towns, and certainly there are in London,
men that have become so notorious for every sort of vice and sin that
they are only known as the devil's own servants; and if anybody in the
place were to speak of them, it would be with no question about the
horrible condition of their minds and the state of their character. And
yet in how many cases has the Lord been pleased to make such beings,
new men in Christ Jesus! I have some in my mind's eye now, who have
been to me a source of unutterable joy, whose characters were known,
and certainly not admired. They were the dread of all with whom they
dwelt. I remember one whose fist had many a time laid low his
adversary, and whose oaths, and cursings, and songs at midnight often
made the village tremble when he was filled with drink. But what a
humble child he became when at last the gospel brought him down! How
changed and how quiet was his manner when Jesus Christ had renewed his
soul–something like John Bunyan with his drink and his Sabbath
breakings–but what a saint was he when bowed at his Saviour's feet, he
found his sins forgiven! We must not say, "Our children are hopeful,
and God will save them, but we cannot expect him to look upon the
fallen and degraded." Ah! if, is Pharisaism that would make us speak
so. The gospel has found some of its brightest jewels in the lowest
haunts of vice. Bear it, bear it into the caves of darkness, where the
blackness seems to be palpable, and to hang like the glooms of
death–bear ye aloft the everlasting torch, which the divine Lord
himself has kindled, and you shall discover by its light some precious
blood–redeemed ones, who shall be to the praise of the glory of his
grace. "One shall be called the City of Destruction, but thus saith the
Lord, I have delivered it, I will save it, for my name's sake."
Now this ought to be very encouraging to every hearer present, for
where there is mercy proclaimed to the chief of sinners, there is
encouragement to every form of sinner to come humbly to the heavenly
Father, and plead the precious blood of Jesus, and obtain life and
peace. God grant we may be led there for his name's sake! But now the
second observation is that grace is displayed in our text from the fact
that:–
II. GOD'S GRACE SENDS A SAVIOUR.
Note, too, that he adds this word, "A GREAT ONE, and he shall deliver
them." Beloved friends, you know, all of you, what I have to say, but
yet, though you know it, I know no story ever make score glad your
spirit than the old, old story of the Saviour. He that has same to save
us is Jesus, the Son of God; to save us from every stain of sin; to
save us from our propensity to sin, from the power of our habits, and
from the snares of Satan. He has come to save us from the death
eternal, to save us from the wrath to come. God has sent us a Saviour.
We could not have saved ourselves, but one has come who can. The text
says that Saviour is a great one. Oh! I wanted a great Saviour. A
little Saviour would not have answered my turn, for great sin wanted a
great atonement, and my hard heart wanted great grace to soften it
down. Now he that came to save us was God himself–Jesus–nothing less
than God–counting it not robbery to be equal with God. He is great in
his nature, for as God he is infinite–omnipotent. He is great also in
what he has done. Look to him on the cross; it is the Son of God
pouring out his life for sinners that they may live through his death.
There most be great merit in such a sacrifice. I never dare believe in
any limited merit in Christ. He who gave himself there upon the cross,
being very God of very God, though certainly man–there can be no limit
set to the value of the atonement which he made. Oh! beloved, it is a
great Saviour that God gives. And now that he has risen from the dead,
he stands before God to plead for us, and it is no little plea–no plea
which might be put back or put off. With authority he pleads before his
Father's throne, points to his own wounds, and the Father's heart
always yields to the Son's intercession. You have a great Saviour, for
he is a great pleader. And, besides that, all power is in his hands;
the keys of death and hell are at his girdle, and the government shall
be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God. Oh! what a Saviour we have! Dare we doubt
him? When we cast ourselves upon him, is there not an end to all our
fears, for Jesus is mighty to save,
And what a word that is in the text?"a Saviour and a great one, and he
shall deliver them"! God did not send Christ at a haphazard. Jesus did
not come here to save those who might perchance be saved–to make men
salvable, but he will save all he came to save. Those on whom he fixed
his eye of everlasting love, for whom the precious drops were
shed–these he will, by the power of his arm, pluck from the jaws of
the lion, because, with the blood of his heart he had redeemed them.
"He shall deliver them." Oh! you that trust in Jesus, lay this word
home. May the Spirit of God lay it home to you. He shall deliver them
from all temptation, from all trial, from all affliction, from death
itself. "He shall deliver them."
Now put the two points together. We have mentioned that the grace of
God comes to the greatest of sinners, and it brings to them a Saviour,
and a great one, and I have laid open to you something of the heart of
God in the greatness of his compassion. But we must pass on. Where the
grace of God comes, it seems from the text that:–
III. IT CHANGES MEN'S LANGUAGE.
Turn to the 18th verse. "In that day shall five cities in the land of
Egypt speak the language of Canaan"–the spiritual meaning of which is
that the grace of God shall make men speak that holy and pure language
which is the mark of a child of God. O dear hearer, if the grace of God
ever meets with you, your friends will know it–every one–by your
conversation. That man could not speak without an oath; there will be
no oath now. When he did speak, it was in a proud, boastful, hectoring
way about himself. Ah! you will hardly know him to be the same man; for
he will speak so humbly and so gently, and when he comes to speak about
himself he will have the tears in his eyes to think of what he used to
be, and what the grace of God has done for him now. Then his language
would be lascivious and unclean at times, but now he desires not even
to hear of such things, much less to mention them; for it is a shame
for a Christian to speak of the things which are done by many in
secret. The grace of God soon rinses out a man's mouth. His wife knows
it; his children know it; his workfolk know it; and though some of them
will think him a fool to speak after the way in which he now does
though he does not imitate the language of Christians, and is not a
cant, yet there is something about his very brogue and talk that might
make men say, "Thou also west with Jesus of Nazareth, for thy speech
betrayeth thee." Oh! would not it be a mercy if God would change the
speech of some in London! Even our boys in the streets sometimes talk
in a way that is enough to make your blood chill. Foul words are very
common in our streets and elsewhere. O sovereign grace, come and visit
these, and they shall speak no longer the language of Babylon and the
language of Belial, but they shall speak the language of Canaan, for
God shall give them a pure language. When you hear men that once could
curse begin to pray, when those who were given to blasphemies begin to
pray, and when, instead of hearing the noise of strife in the
working-man's house, you hear the song of praise, then is fulfilled the
saying that is written, "In that day shall five cities speak the
language of Canaan. and swear to the Lord of Hosts." But I must pass
on. Where the grace of God comes:–
IV. IT SETS MEN ON HOLY SERVICE.
"There shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of
:Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. "When a man is
in sin he worships himself, or he serves his pleasure and Satan; but
when the grace of God comes, the man begins at once to serve God, and
becomes God's servant. I am sure I know houses now that have an altar
to God in them–the family altar–where you would not have thought such
a thing could ever have been. I know some, too, that will this very day
give of their substance to God, who two or three years ago would have
scorned the act. They would have said it was a waste of money
altogether to give anything to the cause of the Most High. There are
some teaching at the Sabbath school, and spending the day of rest in,
perhaps, the hardest toil of the week, and doing it very cheerfully
too, who once would have laughed to scorn any proposal that they should
have done any such thing. But the Lord, when he gets men's hearts, and
washes away their sins, takes them into his service, and males those
who were most ready to serve Satan become most willing to serve him. Is
not this true–I appeal to many here present–is it not your delight
now to do all you can for the Lord Jesus Christ? Perhaps, however,
while you say "Yes," you also add, "But I do not do half as much as I
should, nor as I ought. "You feel precisely as I also felt–and I must
make the same confession as yourself. But, brothers and sisters, do not
let it end in confession. Let us wake up and do more; for the love that
saved us, the love that bought us at such a price, ought not to be
recompensed so poorly as it has been. And let us pray for the grace of
God, that we may ever have an altar in our own hearts, and be ourselves
the sacrifice–that our whole life may be a life of consecration to the
living God. Oh! that our common dress might be as priestly vestment,
and our ordinary meals as sacraments, and ourselves as priests unto the
living God; our whole life a psalm, and our whole being a hallelujah to
the Most High! Where the grace of God comes with power, it makes the
worst of men become the boss, and the lowest of the low become true
servants of the living God. "Can it be?" says one; "can I ever be a
servant of God" Ah! yes: hark to the song of heaven! "We have washed
our robes"–then they needed washing–"and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb, Glory be to him who hath made us kings and priests unto
our God."
The next display of divine grace in the text is to be seen in this,
that where the grace of God comes:–
V. IT TEACHES MEN TO PRAY.
We read in the 20th verse, "They shall cry unto the Lord because of
oppressors." This is a kind of prayer that only God can teach us. You
can easily learn to say a form of prayer, or to read one from a book,
but a prayer that can fairly be called a cry is the fruit of grace. The
cry is the natural expression of distress. There is no hypocrisy in a
cry. When one is sore sick and ready to die, and cries out in anguish,
it is the genuine expression of an oppressed spirit. And God always
teaches his children to pray such prayers an those. And oh! how sweetly
will saved souls pray next to the songs of angels, I think the prayers
of new converts are among the sweetest things that ever reach our ears.
When we have been a long time professors, we are very apt to get into a
sort of stilted mode of talking to God in prayer, and men that have
more gifts than graces will spend the time in words, words, words. But
oh! how has my heart leaped when I have heard a cry, such as "God, be
merciful to me, a sinner!" when some soul, ready to burst with fear of
the wrath to come, has cried out, "Jesus, Lord, have mercy upon me!" or
when some heart that has just found Jesus has praised and magnified the
exceeding mercy that has put away its sin. Christ can teach the
blasphemer to pray; he can take the profane into his school, and teach
them all to cry, and what all the clergy and ministry in the land could
not do, namely, teach a man to pray one sincere prayer, God the Holy
Ghost can do to the very offscouring and the scum of the universe, when
once he comes to deal with them in the way of grace. Wonders of grace
to God belong. He that teaches us to pray will teach us to praise him
in heaven. The soul that lisps out its desires sincerely to God shall
one day sing with cherubim and seraphim before the eternal throne. But
I must hasten on. Where grace comes:–
VI. IT INSTRUCTS MEN.
We learn this from the next verse, "And the Lord shall be known in
Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day." It is a very
serious evil with many hearers that they are altogether ignorant of the
things of God; but it is delightful to observe how sweetly the Holy
Spirit can teach. I have spoken lately with some whom God has called by
his grace during the past few weeks, and I have been surprised that,
although they had never been Bible readers, nor received any religious
instruction in their youth, when the grace of God showed them their
sin, he did it thoroughly, and when he showed them the Saviour, he did
it in a wondrous way, so that when they came to read the Bible it was
not difficult to them to understand it, nor to lay hold upon it with
delight, and some have become well instructed in the things of the
kingdom in a very short time indeed. There is no teacher like the Holy
Spirit! "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord," and when he
teaches they are taught indeed. What boots it to a man to know all
earthly knowledge if he knows not his God? But where grace comes, the
man is no longer a stranger to the Lord; he knows the Father, the Son,
the Spirit. He must know the Father, for he has become a child. He must
know the Son, for he is his only confidence. He must know the Spirit,
for it is the Spirit that dwelleth in him, and hath renewed him. Oh!
that God would be pleaded to-night to take some fresh scholars into his
school! Don't say, "I am poor and illiterate." What matters that? With
the Lord to teach you, you will make an apt scholar. We can only teach
your ears; he can teach your hearts. We can only write the copy in a
book, but he can write it on the fleshy tablets of your souls. Never
despair of being instructed in the things of heaven. The Lord can
graciously instruct you, and if he leads you to-night to receive the
Saviour–the great one–he will begin the divine teaching which will
end in your being complete in Christ, and your entering into his glory.
I want you to notice a little more. Where the grace of God comes into a
man's heart:–
VII. IT MAKES EVEN TROUBLE A BLESSING TO HIM
Read the 22nd verse. "The Lord shall smite Egypt"–there is the
trouble-"he shall smite"–there is the trouble again-"and heal
it"–there is the mercy–"and they shall return even to the Lord, and
he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them." An ungodly man
when he is in trouble, has nothing whatever to sustain him, and no good
comes out of the trouble. But get the heart renewed, and let the man
receive the Saviour, and perhaps the greatest mercies he has are those
which are blessings in disguise. I read a story the other day–an
incident which happened to a City Missionary. He was preaching one
night out in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and there was a man–an extremely
aged man, who had lost his wife, and lived in a garret alone. He had
scarcely a rag upon him and was nearly starved, and he was going out to
commit suicide, but, moved by curiosity, he listened to the preaching
of the gospel, and it saved his soul. It turned out that he had once
been worth £100,000, and had been a distinguished merchant, but had
lost his all in a foolish speculation, and had come down from the
heights of riches to the lowest poverty, and at an extreme age he found
Christ. The missionary found him friends who kept him with about enough
to keep body and soul together–a humble crust in a very lowly,
solitary room–but he used to say that now he had found the Lord; but
he might never have found him if he had not lost all his wealth, and he
looked upon it as the greatest blessing that had ever occurred to him,
that he was brought to such beggary, that he was able and willing to
stand in the street to listen to a sermon; for he said that in his
riches he had despised the gospel, and had been altogether an atheist
and an unbeliever but now, when brought to the lowest, Christ had found
him, and he had more happiness with his cross than he had with his
wealth. Oh! get the grace of God in your heart, and then broken limbs
will be a bleeding. That long depression of trade that brought you oft
low will appear a very different thing now. Your lot is very lowly now
perhaps, and your toils severe, but God's grace will gild all these
dark things in such a way that you shall even learn to glory in
tribulation also, and bless the Lord that he did not leave you to be a
stranger to him, but made you his child and, therefore, made you feel
his rod for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not? Beloved,
what a blessing it is to have the grace of God, seeing it turns adverse
circumstances into true prosperity and makes our losses to be our
lasting gains! One other reflection, and that is this concerning the
grace of God:–
VIII. IT CHANGES THE RELATIONS OF MEN ONE TO ANOTHER.
Read the 23rd verse. "In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt
to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian
into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians." Now
the Egyptians and the Assyrians were enemies to one another; they were
always fighting. There was a bloody feud and war between them century
after century; but when the grace of God shall visit them both, there
shall be no more fighting; the Egyptian shall go and visit the
Assyrian, and the Assyrian shall visit the Egyptian. Have you never met
with a case? Two brothers were at enmity, and would not speak to each
other. One of them was saved by grace, and he thought, "Oh! if my
brother John might be converted!" He wanted to fall into his brother's
arms and make it all up, and be friends again. Meanwhile, brother John
had heard the gospel somewhere else, and his soul had been saved, and
he goes to find out the other brother, and all are reconciled, and the
families that had been at a distance are knit together in love. Oh! the
gospel soon breaks down barriers. I won't give a penny for your
religion if you are at enmity with anybody–if you can say of anyone of
your kith and kin, "I will never speak to them again." Mind, in that
day when you appear before God, how can you expect mercy? Well, now,
genuine grace makes us forgive as we have been forgiven, and it
establishes intercommunications between those who had long been enemies
to one another. Should there happen to be in this place at this time
any that have long been at variance, I believe that there is no way of
establishing a lasting love between you like your both loving Jesus
Christ. If you cannot meet anywhere else, you are sure to meet if you
come to the cross. A common Saviour will hind you together. Bought with
the same blood, and filled with tile same divine life, you will become
members of the same mystical body; you cannot help loving each other.
Oh! that God would put an end in the world to all wars between nations,
as well as all strifes between individuals. It won't come about by
trade, nor yet be politics, nor by anything of man's devising; but if
the gospel spreads, if God converts Egypt and converts Assyria, then
Egypt will not desire war with Asia, nor Assyria with Egypt, but they
shall be one in Christ Jesus the Lord. Wonders of grace! wonders of
grace, that those that hated should love, and enemies should become
friends. We will close with these last words. Where the grace of God
comes:–
IX. IT MAKES MEN TO BE BLESSED, AND TO BE A BLESSING.
You will find that affirmed in the last two verses. "They shall be a
blessing in the midst of the land, and it shall be said, Blessed be
Egypt, my people." The man that was accursed before, and was a curse,
becomes blessed, and is a blessing. I will not enlarge upon it, but I
will say this to you, the members of the church. It has delighted me to
find the many earnest hearts there are here that are trying, to do
good, some in one way, and some in another. I would in every case, if
my encouragement were worth your having, give it you very heartily.
But, beloved, if I do not know of it, and if no one knows of it but
yourself and God, go on, go on. It is God's work to save souls, and you
are workers together with him. Oh! this city wants you–wants ten
thousand earnest spirits. The lodging-houses want you; the alleys and
the courts want you; the poor want you; the rich want you. If you have
anything to say of the remedy which wisdom has prepared for the remedy
of sins disease, the millions want it. They won't come to hear the
gospel presaged, take it to their houses, carry it to their doors. If
they reject a Saviour, let it not he for want of your hunting after
them. Push it in their way. Sow beside all waters. In season and out of
season teach ye the Word. Ye know not where God may bless you. But
never be discouraged because of the badness of the neighbourhood, or
the lowness of the character of the people. If Egypt shall be saved,
have faith for this Egypt. If Assyria shall be saved, have confidence
in God for those who are often worse than heathens, and you shall have
your reward in that day when he of the pierced hand shall distribute
crowns to those who faithfully serve him. Rewards, not of debt, but of
grace, shall be given to the most obscure and unknown of you, who for
his sake have sought to teach little children or to reclaim the adult
who had fallen into sin. Take courage–your work of faith and labour of
love are not in vain in the Lord, and will do wonders yet to the praise
of his grace. And as to you that are not saved. I have been saying
great things of encouragement to you. I don't know who may take hold of
them, but if there were one here who should reckon himself to be quite
out of hope, it is to that man I spoke; and if there is a man here who
says. "You don't mean me; you don't know my character," I will suppose
it to be the worst character that was ever heard of–I meant you. He is
"able to save unto the uttermost than that come unto God by him." "All
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." Seek ye the
Lord! Confess your sins to him. Weep out your confession with your head
on your Father's bosom and say, "Forgive me, forgive me for thy Son's
sake," and it shall be done unto you. God grant it may be done, even
now: for his name's sake! Amen.