The Lord’s Name and Memorial

The Lord's Name and Memorial

A Sermon
(No. 833)

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, September 27, 1868, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
at the [42]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the
brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for
a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."
Isaiah 55:13.

THESE words are a poetical description of great moral changes which the
Gospel works wherever it comes. It transforms human nature and makes
society to become as though a desert suddenly blossomed into a
cultivated field. At the same time, the words of the text are not
solely and alone poetical, for it is a great Truth of God that wherever
the spiritual change comes the physical change is almost sure to
follow. As men are elevated the earth yields her increase more largely.
The earth was cursed for man's sake, and in proportion as man forsakes
his sloth, his drunkenness, his savageness, the ground rewards his
diligence with plenteous harvests.

Look at the field of the sluggard and the garden of the industrious!
Look over the wild wastes of Africa, and then see the fertility of the
same soil when tilled by the missionary's converts! The surest way to
benefit men in their outward circumstances is to bless them
spiritually–for as they draw near to God in obedience to His will, He
will, as a rule, bless and prosper them. England will always flourish
while she honors the Word of God. If she departs from the Gospel to
follow after Popery she may expect her prosperity to decline.

If we desire our land to maintain her eminent position among the
nations, we must go on to do everything which is just and right towards
all classes. We must break down every old abuse and build up the good
and the true. Doing this, and upholding the Word of God, we may expect
that this land will inherit a future brighter than the past. The text
certainly touches upon changes in the soil, yet it has mainly to do
with the great moral world. The Gospel transforms the whole state of
man, so that instead of the thorn of sin comes up the fir tree of
Divine Grace–and instead of the brier of lust comes up the myrtle tree
of holiness.

I. I call your attention to THE EFFECTIVE AGENCY here spoken of, and I
beg you to refer to your Bibles and read the chapter with me, for it
gives a very full and minute description of the Gospel. I do not find
in this 55th chapter of Isaiah that the cause of the spiritual miracles
of my text is a gospel of forms and ceremonies–of altars and priests,
genuflections and processions–images and incense, millinery and
mystery. I find not a single word concerning any of these throughout
the whole chapter!

Nor do I find here a gospel of dogmas and orthodoxies, of rigid creeds
and infallible statements of which it is said that he who believes them
not "shall without doubt perish everlastingly." Instead I learn of a
Gospel of quite another sort, more Divine, more glorious by far! We
perceive in the chapter before us a Gospel revealing Divine provision
for man's necessity and earnestly inviting man to partake of it. Look
at the first verse–observe its earnest "Ho!" and note the repetition
of the entreaty, "Come." The soul has a longing, fitly described as
thirst, and for this thirst the Lord provides abundant water–and if
man thirsts for a drink more nourishing, here is milk. Or if he
requires a draught more comforting and cheering, here is wine. And,
inasmuch as the soul has hunger and needs to receive spiritual food,
here is provision whereof the man is bid to buy and eat.

The Lord has fully provided for man's needs. The Gospel of Jesus says
to man, "Man, all that you can possibly need Jesus Christ has prepared
for you. Do you need sin forgiven? Behold a fountain filled with
blood–wash in it and you are clean. Do you need sin conquered in you?
Behold the Holy Spirit willing to dwell in you and to subdue inbred
sin. Do you desire to grow in Grace and to be made in the image of
holiness? Look unto Jesus! Behold the Spirit waiting to work the image
of the Son of God in you, changing you from glory to glory as by the
Presence of the Lord." What are the cravings of your nature? What are
the deep woes and longings of your uneasy spirit? "Behold," said Jesus,
"only come to Me, and I will give you satisfaction, and that
satisfaction shall lead to rest."

The Gospel does not come to upbraid man, or say to him, "You ought not
to have these needs," or, "You ought, by your own efforts, to supply
them." No, it says, "Poor, abject, poverty-stricken man, come to Me.
God has loaded both My hands with supplies for your great necessities.
Only come and take what God freely presents to you without money and
without price." The Gospel, then, which is to turn the thorn into the
myrtle, is one which declares that God has made provision for the
necessities of man, and which then heartily and earnestly invites man
to partake thereof. I cannot understand the gospel of some of my
Brothers who never dare to say to a sinner, "Come," and are afraid to
bid him repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

I know why they are so afraid, because they believe that man is not
able, of himself, to repent and believe (in which belief I fully agree
with them), and therefore they will not bid men do what is beyond their
power. Yet if preaching is the Word of God, it should of right be
something more than any and every simpleton might accomplish! Now, any
fool has faith enough to tell a man to do what he knows he can do! But
it takes a man full of faith and sent of God to command men, in God's
name, to do things far beyond human reach! When a man dares speak as
God would have him, the Holy Spirit puts force into the command and the
hearer is enabled to do what he would not otherwise have attempted.

The Gospel which cries, "Awake, you that sleep, and rise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you life"–this is the power of God unto
salvation! We prophesy unto the dead, and cry, "You dry bones, live!"
Any man in all Israel could have said to the living bones, "Live," but
only an Ezekiel could say, "You dry bones, live!" This is one of the
tests of the true servants of God–that they dare to bid men do what,
of themselves, they cannot do! That, speaking in their Master's name
they believe that the power of God, Himself, goes forth with the word
of Gospel command, and that God's commands are God's enabling to His
elect when listening to His Truth.

From the same verse it is most clear that this Gospel is as free as the
air, for we read over and over again, "Buy without money and without
price," and are not those invited to come who have no money? The
meaning of this must be not merely that men cannot purchase salvation
with gold, but that they cannot merit it any way. Gospel blessings must
be received gratis! The Lord stops not to bargain and quibble with
sinners. You are not to dream of deserving mercy! You are not to think
of making yourself fit for salvationl You are to come to Jesus just as
you are. If you have no good feelings, you are to come to Christ to get
them.

If you have no graces, or virtues, or right emotions, you may come to
Jesus for all things. If you are so bad that if you were sifted there
would not be found a grain of goodness in you, yet, nevertheless, he
that has no money, let him come, let him come and freely take what God
provides! The Gospel of Jesus is as free as the air we breathe–our
lungs receive air without let or hindrance–and there is no toll or tax
upon it. Divine Grace is as free as the water gushing from the rock,
whereof every thirsty traveler may partake! Free, I say, to every man
of woman born who is led by Grace to long for it. "Then why do they not
take it?" you ask. Because their wills are perverse towards Christ, and
it needs an act of Sovereign Grace to make men willing to receive Him!
Yet remember if they will not receive the Grace of God, the fault lies
wholly with themselves–their eternal ruin is of their own procuring.

Further observe that it is a Gospel of hearing and not of doing. See
the second verse, "Hearken diligently." Notice the third verse,
"Incline your ear." And yet again, "Hear and your soul shall live."
Death came to us first through the eyes, but salvation comes through
the ears. Our first parent, Eve, looked at the fruit–she "saw that it
was good," and so she plucked, and so we fell. But no man rises to
eternal life by signs and symbols appealing to the eyes–it is by the
use of the ears that the joyful news is communicated! The soldiers of
Emanuel would gladly carry Eye-Gate by storm, but it is not to be done.
Ear-Gate is a far more accessible point of attack for the Gospel
warrior. There we must sound the silver trumpet, and there we must keep
the battering rams of the Gospel continually beating–for faith comes
not by seeing– it comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Dear Hearer, if you desire eternal life, you have not now to perform a
dreary penance or to pass through tormenting horrors of mind. You do
not have to live for years a meritorious life. You have but to listen
to the Gospel with attention and faith! Listen to it and receive it
into your soul and that Gospel will do for you what you never can do
for yourself– it will change your nature! And when your nature is
changed then good works will follow as a result. If you seek good works
as a cause of salvation, you will make a gross mistake! But if you will
take the Gospel to be in you the cause and root of holiness, then all
manner of good things shall spring up to your comfort and to God's
praise.

The first business of a sinner is to hear the Gospel. Note how it is,
over and over again, "Hearken." "Incline your ear." "Hear, and your
soul shall live." I charge you, frequent a Gospel ministry! I beseech
you, search the Scriptures! Be diligent in seeking to know what the
Gospel is, for while you are waiting at the posts of Jesus' doors, you
shall hear the good Word which says, "Your sins, which are many, are
forgiven you." Down with those gospels of gazing and staring! They will
damn men, but they cannot save them! The gaudy idolatries, which every
day are flaunted in our faces, are enough to make the martyrs start
from their graves to curse their cowardly sons that tolerate such worse
than fooleries!

The land must surely groan at its heart to see that here, again, on
English soil, the pollution of crucifixes, and cross-bearings, and
altars, and bald monks, and I know not what besides, multiplied in
every corner! The Gospel says, "Look to Jesus and live." It does not
say, "Look to crucifixes." Its message is, "Incline your ear, and come
unto Me." Not, "Turn your faces and gaze upon a priest, acting like a
fool in a pantomime." The Gospel heard by the heart and believed in by
the soul is the great transforming agency of which Isaiah speaks.

Furthermore, running your eyes down the chapter you will notice that
the great means God makes use of for turning deserts into gardens is
the Gospel founded on a Covenant, a Covenant made with David's Lord and
Son. "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David." We were all lost through a covenant. God made a
Covenant with Adam, a Covenant of works. It was on this wise–"This do,
and you shall live. Abstain from eating of the forbidden tree, and you,
and those whom you represent, shall live in My favor." Adam broke the
condition of the agreement, and then and there, you and I, and all of
us, fell down and perished by the fatal act of our first parent.

The Lord has now arranged a new Covenant of a different character. It
is made with Christ Jesus, the second Adam, and with all whom He
represents. It is on this wise–"You, Jesus, You shall keep the Law and
You shall also suffer a penalty for all the breaches of My Law by all
who are in You. If You do this, all those who are in You shall live
eternally." At this hour this Covenant can never fail us because our
Lord Jesus has fully and completely obeyed the Law and has suffered the
penalty due for our guilt. The conditions of the Covenant of Grace have
been fulfilled and the Covenant of Grace is henceforth unconditional!
It consists only of promises on God's part to us, and not of legal
obligations on our part to God–for Jesus Christ has fulfilled the
obligations of His people towards God so far as the law of works is
concerned.

The Everlasting and sure Covenant stands on this wise: "I will bless
you. I will save you. I will be your God, and you shall be My people."
Now, if there had been an "if in the Covenant, turning upon something
to be done by us, it could not have been called, as it is in the
chapter, "an Everlasting Covenant," for it would have been quite sure
to break down sooner or later. But Jesus, the Lord, having kept to the
utmost jot and tittle His part of the Covenant of Grace and fulfilled
the conditions, the eternal Father is now engaged to fulfill His
portion of the Covenant towards Jesus Christ and all who are
represented in Him. This is the Rock on which rests the blessed Gospel!
Wherever a Covenant Gospel is preached, it will work wonders! But it
must always be a Gospel based upon the Covenant of Grace, even the sure
mercies of David.

Still proceeding in our investigation of the chapter, notice that
Isaiah describes a Gospel whose success is guaranteed. See the fifth
verse, "You shall call a nation that you know not." But we may call
often and men will not come–in this case, however, they shall come.
"Nations that knew not you shall run unto you." And again, in the 10th
and 11th verses, "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from Heaven,
and returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth
and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so
shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return
unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is an agency adapted to produce the results
which God designed. And with the accompanying Spirit of Divine Grace,
the ordained results are always produced. It is no chance involved as
to whether the preaching of the Word this morning shall be useful or
not. God has determined and settled its results from before the
foundations of the world! What a consolation this ought to be to all of
you who are serving your Lord Jesus! As far as you are concerned,
everything depends upon your earnestness and fidelity. But, so far as
God is concerned, He has decreed and determined all results, and you
may go in confidence that God shall not be disappointed and the eternal
purpose shall not be frustrated.

Brethren, come what may, the Gospel shall ultimately be triumphant!
Even in our own land the Gospel will yet, like a blast from the Lord,
sweep cardinals, and priests, and monks, and all the Popish crew down
Albion's white cliffs and sink them in the sea! The day shall come when
the ranks of superstition shall be broken like thin clouds before a
Biscay gale. The gods of the heathens, shaking even now, shall fall
from their pedestals! Celestial light shall scatter the infernal
darkness once and for all. Only be of good heart, you soldiers of the
Cross. The voice of Christ shall call the nations, and, rising up from
their bondage, the nations shall come to Him! The Eternal Father shall
send His quickening power into the hearts of myriads of men, and as
though it were but one man they shall throw their idols to the moles
and to the bats, and shall turn to the Lord and live! In this is our
comfort! Let this be the encouragement of every fainting laborer.

One other remark only. The Gospel which Isaiah speaks of is one which
is very full of gracious encouragement. Were there ever more inviting
words written than these, "Seek you the Lord while He may be found.
Call you upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his ways,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon"? Those 8th and 9th verses–what drops of honey they are! How
they must delight the trembling sinner! Yes, and when we preach Christ,
we are to preach Him in this spirit.

Jesus did declare the judgment of God and warn men of Hell–nobody ever
spoke more solemnly than He concerning the world to come and all its
woes. But still it was all in gentleness, tenderness, and pity. Men are
saved not so much by threatening them and making them to tremble with
physical fear, as by gently wooing them with Jesus' mighty love, and
reminding them of the great Father's pity, and the Holy Spirit's
condescension. How tenderly the Lord deals with unbelieving,
faint-hearted sinners! He puts language into the Bible which is so
loving as almost to make fear impossible! The Holy Spirit searches for
metaphors and illustrations, if I may so say, that shall by some means
calm the perturbed spirit of poor tremblers.

"Look," He says, "your thoughts are very dark and despairing, and you
conclude that you must be lost. But My thoughts are not as your
thoughts. You know not how kind a God I am. You have no idea how ready
I am to forgive the past, how willing to restore My rebel child to all
that he has lost through offending Me." You slander the great Father
who is in Heaven! You dream of Him as a tyrant! You fancy that He bears
always the sword in His hand. But know that like the father in the
parable, He sees returning prodigals a great way off. And when they
come towards Him He runs to meet them! His heart yearns for them and
His tongue is ready to speak words of peace. Let us, dear Brothers,
whether we preach in pulpits, or preach in parlors, or preach in
kitchens (and I hope we preach somewhere if we know the Gospel
experimentally), let us always talk encouragingly to those we meet!

"Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord"–what says the
Apostle?–"We persuade men." That is a very unexpected word,
"persuade." You expected the passage to be, "Knowing, therefore, the
terror of the Lord, we thunder at men, we threaten men." It is not so,
but, "We persuade men." With all those terrors heavily pressing our
minds, we still adopt the soft, tender and gentle method–we tell men
of the great mercy of God, of the preciousness of the blood of
Jesus–of the power there is in the atoning Sacrifice to take away
human guilt, of the readiness with which a sinner at Hell's gate may
yet be lifted up to Heaven!

It is the Gospel of encouragement which, after all, wins the day. We
have spent enough time in noticing the efficient agency which produces
the results spoken of in the text and must pass on to another point.

II. Secondly, observe THE BENEFICIAL RESULTS OF THE GOSPEL. The change
depicted in this verse is very radical. A little observation will
convince you that it is a change in the soil. The verse does not say,
"Instead of the thorn God shall plant the fir tree," no, but as the
thorn coming up naturally by itself indicates such-and-such a condition
of soil, so fir trees shall spring up by themselves
spontaneously–indicating an altogether radical change in the earth
beneath. Instead of the thorn, the fir tree shall come up, shall spring
up naturally. The results and outgrowth of the soil are different, but
it is clear from the use of the words, "shall come up," that the soil
itself is different, too.

I passed by a piece of common land yesterday. They had been enclosing
it, as those rascals always will if they can, to rob the poor of their
rights and filch every morsel of green grass upon which we may freely
put our feet. But I noticed that they had only enclosed it. They had
not dug it up, nor plowed it, nor planted it–and though they had cut
down the gorse and furze, they were coming up again–of course they
would, for they are a common bush, and a bit of fence or a rail could
not alter them. The furze would come peeping up, and before long the
enclosure would be as wild as the heath outside.

It is not so in the text. When God encloses a heart that has laid
common, does He cut down the thorns and the briers, and then plant fir
trees? No. No! He so changes the soil that from the ground itself–from
its own vitality there spontaneously starts up the fir tree and the
myrtle! This is a most wonderful result! You take a man and leave him
at heart the same godless man. You mend his habits. You make him go to
Church, or to the Meeting House. You clothe him. You break his wine
bottles. You rinse his mouth out so that he does not talk so filthily.
And after all that, you say, "He is now a respectable man." Ah, but if
these respectabilities and appearances are only skin deep outwardly,
you have done nothing! At least what you have done is no great
wonder–there is nothing in it to be proud of.

But suppose this man can be so changed that just as freely as he was
apt to curse he now delights to pray? And suppose that just as heartily
as he hated religion he now finds pleasure in it? And just as earnestly
as he sinned he now delighted to be obedient to the Lord? Ah, then this
is a wonder! It is a miracle which man cannot accomplish! It is a
marvel which only the Grace of God can work, and which gives to God His
highest glory! Note the poetic metaphor which describes the outward
change. Originally the natural heart yields thorns.

A thorn is the conspicuous emblem of the Curse. Upon many ungodly men
there is very evidently the Curse–while upon all it really rests–they
toil hard but are yet impoverished. The Curse of the Lord is in the
house of the wicked. Drunkenness, gambling and uncleanness always carry
a curse with them. You cannot enter some men's houses without seeing on
the dirty walls and the bare floor the mark of the Curse. Listen to
them. Hear them talk and their speech betrays them. They can hardly get
through a sentence without some word which indicates the curse of sin.
Or, sojourn among another class of society and you soon find the mark
of the Curse either in the shape of discontent, or weariness of
religious exercises, or fear of death, or hatred of the Gospel, or some
other form.

But when Divine Grace displays its marvelous transformation, how
different is the scene! Instead of the thorn there comes up the fir
tree–a tree chosen to be used in the building of the House of
God–where beams of cedar and fir were abundantly to be seen! The man
blesses and magnifies, now, the Most High God, and though he feels (and
mourns as he feels it) some of the effects of the Curse in his own
corrupt nature, yet the longings of his soul are in the opposite
direction–and the bent and bias of his spirit are towards the hearty
and loving service of the Most High.

Observe, again, the man originally brought forth a thorn–that is, a
fruitless thing–look at it and see how barren it is! God gets neither
prayer nor praise from the ungodly man. Throughout his whole life the
God who made him is forgotten. He never seeks to glorify his Maker. He
looks upon that, perhaps, as cant. His great god is his money, and if
he can increase his wealth he is satisfied! But O, good God! From this
unconverted man You get nothing–he is a thorn, and bears no fruit.
Now, as soon as he is changed by the Grace of God through the hearing
of the Gospel, he becomes like a fir tree! The tree here described is
one of the most useful growing in the East–and so the converted man
becomes useful to his God–useful to his fellow man, useful to the
Church, useful for spiritual things, useful to eternity!

A thorn, too, is a repulsive thing–there is nothing inviting about it.
Nobody would choose to make it a pillow or a companion! An unconverted
selfish man is frequently most repulsive. I say not so of all, for some
people without Christ are persons naturally amiable. But many and many
a man, especially when sin has come to a head with him, is a
thorn-hedge, a churl, an unsympathizing selfish being. Sinners are as
bad a company for true saints as thorns and briers would be for a naked
man. "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men,"
says the Psalmist, as if he felt their company to be too irksome to be
borne.

But when changed, sinners become beautiful and attractive like those
stately firs which delight our eyes! Happy is that man who, though he
was once like a thorn–pushing aside all Christian communion and
standing in solitary rebellion by himself–has now become one of those
who fear the Lord and speaks often one to another, even as the pine
trees of the forest speak often to one another in their sacred solitude
when the wind sounds through their pillared shade. Again, the thorn is
a ripping thing–offending and noxious. Pass over it with naked feet
and what a laceration you receive! See how your garment is torn and the
beauty marred by the thorn! So has it been with ungodly men, when
unrestrained by Divine Grace. Like Saul of Tarsus, they breathe out
vengeance against God and His people.

Persecutors are rending and tearing thorns, but when saved of God, they
are not the same men. That which they once pulled down, they now seek
to build up. And they are, now, as earnest to extend the kingdom of
Christ as once they were to blaspheme His name. As for the metaphor of
the brier used in the text, it was always the emblem of desolation. The
brier came up on the desolate walls of Babylon and Nineveh. The brier
covered the land of Israel when the inhabitants were carried away
captive. In how many human hearts where the Gospel has not come is
there desolation, sadness, despair? They want they know not what. Their
cries are like the cries of the dragon and the owl amidst the broken
palaces of kings–the heart is deserted of its God and therefore
deserted of all happiness.

The brier, too, is a thing that cumbers the ground. It occupies the
place of the palm or of the fig. And so, ungodly men cumber the
ground–they do no good–they occupy spheres in which others might have
served God. They are altogether wasters–they rob God–they bring Him
no revenue of Glory. The brier is soon to be cut down, and when cut
down no use can be made of it. It is burnt. It is put away. Such is the
future history of the unconverted man. His sin will bring him sorrow
and the halls of his soul shall be desolate. His life is a cumbering of
the ground and his end shall be to be utterly destroyed among the
refuse things which God casts away.

Blessed is such a one when God transforms him into the comely myrtle,
nurtured and tended and cared for by the Lord–and made to celebrate
the victory of all-conquering Divine Grace! All this the Gospel does!
It enters a man's heart and finds him like a wild heath overgrown with
thorns. It plows him through and through, and cross-plows him. Sin is
made a bitter thing to him. In the sight of the Cross of Christ he is
made to detest himself that he should have treated Divine love with
such infamous and insolent ingratitude. And then, after the plowing
comes the sowing! Living Truth is cast into the furrow! Up it
springs–first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the
ear–and God is glorified where once Satan ruled and mischief alone was
worked!

There are many such cases of glorious transformation in this house this
morning. It is our comfort to know that if we wanted proofs of our
ministry, or seals to the power of the Gospel, here they are. Oh, how
clearly can some of us testify what Divine Grace has done for our
souls! Blessed be the name of our God, it was not priestcraft that
saved us–but we heard the good news that Christ came into the world to
save sinners and it exactly suited our case! We came to Jesus just as
we were and we cast ourselves on Him! And now, being saved, our great
concern is to show forth His praise who has called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light!

III. Our last exercise is to notice THE GLORIOUS ISSUE. "It shall be to
the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut
off." Jehovah might, if He willed, have taken other names. He might
have selected other works of His hands to be the ensigns of His Glory,
but He has chosen the results of the Gospel to be His proudest honors!
He has, if I may use such a term, staked His eternal majesty upon the
effects of Gospel of Grace!

With the heathen, their gods took names from what were thought to be
their most glorious works. We read of Jove, the thunderer, because they
imagined that he launched the bolt from his hand. They spoke of the
far-darting Apollo– the rays of light flashing from the sun. They
talked of the cruel Juno in the wars of Troy. Each god and goddess was
allotted some particular name as indicating its individuality.

If Jehovah, the one and only true God, had chosen, He might have been
"Jehovah, the Thunderer." We might have read of the far-darting God. We
might have had Him constantly portrayed in Scripture as the terrible
and avenging Lord. But He has not chosen such a name. He has not been
pleased to select anything that is terrible as His peculiar Glory, but
that which is full of melting mercy and tender pity! The Gospel of
mercy to guilty sinners, the Gospel of abounding mercy for abounding
sin shall be His name–the Gospel of hearing and living–the Gospel of
inclining the ear and being saved!

Now observe that the Lord was by no means necessitated to choose this
to be His distinguishing sign, escutcheon, and Glory. See what His arm
has done in days gone by–where He made the heavens and the earth, and
stretched out the firmament, and filled the channels of the great
deep–might not He have said, "These shall be unto Me for a name" when
He spoke, and it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast? Or if the
things of earth were too insignificant, lift up your eyes on high and
behold who has created all those things! Those ponderous orbs which
move in majesty–has not He made them all? If He had willed it, as He
made those stars whose distance and magnitude are utterly inconceivable
by us, might not He have said, "These shall be unto the Lord for a
name"?

We are told by astronomers, and we do not doubt it, that the whole of
the fixed stars visible by the telescope may be possibly nothing more
than a little group somewhere in an obscure corner of the universe
occupying a space perfectly inconceivable for immensity. They may yet
be as the small dust of the balance compared with the whole of God's
works. If it is so, and God has made worlds without number filled with
countless inhabitants, all of which sound forth His praise, He might
have said, "This creation which I have finished shall be to Me for a
name." But it is not so. The Lord has not chosen Creation to be His
distinguishing Glory!

Beloved, there is the world of Providence, and in that Providence there
are wheels within wheels evolving marvels of manifold wisdom. Surely
these might have been to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting
sign! But it is not so declared. Those mighty acts which we read of in
sacred story–surely these might have been unto God for a name! When He
laid bare His arm and crushed the pride of Pharaoh–do you Hear
Miriam's timbrel? Can you not, even now, catch the exulting strains of
Israel's song, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider has He cast into the sea"? Surely, this might
be to Jehovah for a name, but it is not so recorded!

The leading of His people through the wilderness, when He fed them with
manna dropping like dew from Heaven. Or the destruction of the
inhabitants of Palestine, when He made the heathen kings to flee before
the Israelites. Or the overthrow of Sennacherib. Or those 10,000 mighty
wonders worked by Him, whose mercy endures forever–surely these might
have been called His name, but it is not so! Turn your thoughts, for a
moment, from that which we have seen with our eyes and heard with our
ears, and think of another world.

There is a land of spirits, where weeping rules the day. No, let me
amend my speech–where lamentation rules the night, unbroken by glimpse
of light! There lie the enemies of God, defeated and bound in chains.
Deep in the awful dungeons lie the princes and kings who said of the
royal Son, "Let us break His bands asunder." Behold the boasters! They
are abject slaves in the lowest Hell! There lie the cruel persecutors
of the Church–wicked popes, proud cardinals, lascivious monks and
lying priests–what a heap of fuel for the fire! There, too, are the
nations that forgot God, and the myriads who hated and despised Him.

See how Jehovah has conquered! See how all His enemies are overthrown!
See how His foot falls heavily upon them all, crushing them eternally!
How terribly He tears them in pieces, and there is none to deliver! An
Alexander or a Napoleon might carve their names in conquest, and write
up their glory in crimson lines of blood–and shall not the awful
Jehovah who will by no means spare the guilty–shall He not make this
to Himself to be a name? Not so, says the text, not so! MERCY is His
name! PARDON is His Glory! FORGIVENESS of men is His everlasting sign!

Brothers and Sisters, observe that there is nothing material which God
takes to be His Glory, because, although He made materialism, it is far
beneath Him and not to be gloried in. God is a Spirit, and His highest
Glory must always come from the spiritual world. To find Rome built of
brick and leave it built of marble is a fit triumph for mortal man–but
there is nothing in the loftiest material work worthy of an immortal
Spirit! What is the difference between stone and marble, after all?
Both shall pass away–and when the desolating wave rolls up, marble and
brick shall, alike, be overthrown by its shock. God has made fairer
things than these and worked mightier miracles than all the pomp of
kings can imagine, or the skill of art can execute! And He delights not
in material things–His name rises from a spiritual conquest–the
Gospel reigning in men's hearts!

Observe, further, that out of spiritual things God has selected as His
special fame a very peculiar case. He has not made unfallen spirits to
be to Him for a name. There are probably many orders of beings who were
never tempted. They are unconscious of anything like evil. They are
always holy, they cannot be otherwise than pure. And while these
spotless beings honor and glorify God, He has not selected them to be
to Him for a name. Pure, untried, untempted virtue is fair, but there
is something nobler yet! There are angels that have been tempted but
did not fall–these are the elect angels, who when Satan fell,
preserved their integrity–faithful among the faithless. They did well
not to sin. They did better than Adam, who did sin–and yet these
ever-faithful servants are not called a name unto God nor an
everlasting sign!

But see, He has selected creatures who know good and evil and know them
both by experience! And he has selected these fallen and defiled
beings! He has entered into the arena of their hearts! And in them He
has fought foot to foot the battle of love against moral evil! And His
love has conquered! And therefore to have won that creature once so
enslaved to evil–to have overcome sin by the power of love, to have
brought His creature back by His Grace to perfection–He reckons a
greater honor than even to have upheld an angel or made a world!

The Lord has given evil a great opportunity. He has thrown down the
gage of battle to it, and said, "Do your worst." He has suffered it to
entrench itself in the very nature of man. He has suffered man to be a
prey to the machinations of Satan and a slave to his own lusts–and yet
He has delivered him and brought him to His feet. The Lord has ceded to
the hosts of evil, for ages, all the wisdom of the world–its riches,
its pomp and greatness. And He has put down in the world, a humble
Man–despised, rejected and nailed to the Cross. And He has sent out,
as followers of that Man, feeble men with no weapons but their tongues
and their hearts, and no power except the force of the Truth of God and
the aid of the Holy Spirit. And yet the Lord has overthrown Satan,
utterly worsted and destroyed him! And the archangel of truth has put
his foot upon his neck.

Moral evil has been defeated by the love of God! In the hearts of tens
of thousands of men who believe in Jesus, evil has had the fullest sway
but it has been dethroned–it has been cast from its royalty, its hands
have been bound, it has been lashed to the chariot wheels of
Christ–and He has led its captivity captive. Now, THIS is what is,
"unto God for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut
off." The Lord has acted wisely, as He always does, in selecting such a
matter as this to be His name–to be a display of Himself, because it
is everlasting. God might have made materialism everlasting if He had
chosen to do so, but He has not done it.

It follows, then, if this world had been God's name, since it will be
destroyed and burnt up, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the Lord would have been dishonored. If the sun, moon and stars had
been the grandest illustrations of Deity–since they all shall pass
away–where, then, were the glory of God? The sun shall grow dim with
age, and the whole universe shall shrivel up like a scroll that is
burnt in the flame. But God has selected immortal men who cannot die!
And in these He has worked a work which they never can forget–a work
which has plunged them under solemn obligations to Him which they never
can discharge! He has bound them to Himself by grateful ties of
affection which nothing can dissolve!

He has plucked us out of the horrible pit and put us into such a place
that throughout eternity it shall be our delight, our very life, to
praise and magnify His name! Oh, how will we tell angels what He has
done! How will we show forth in every street to the sacred inhabitants
what Divine Grace has done for us, and how the love of God accomplished
a mighty triumph over our sins! We will tell the cherubim and seraphim
what God has done, and make them think they never saw God before till
they beheld Him working in men! Long down the ages, when the morning
star is laid asleep, we will tell our fellow immortals of Golgotha, of
Calvary, of Jesus and His love! We will repeat the story of the Cross!
We will publish abroad the story of the God that loved and died, and of
the triumph of the pierced and Crucified One when He entered the doors
of our hearts and captured us by the force of His love! This, then,
will be an everlasting sign unto the Lord our God!

Let this encourage Christians. If it is God's glory to save man, expect
to have them saved and go to work to save them! Get to your knees, this
afternoon, with great courage and confidence. Go out with tracts, my
good Brothers and Sisters, expecting God to bless you! Preach in the
streets, young men! Engage in all sorts of holy work, my Brothers and
Sisters–for your labor is not in vain in the Lord! A man always likes
to do what will honor himself. God also delights in that which will
glorify Him. Expect Him, then, to save sinners!

To you who are unconverted, this last word. How this ought to encourage
you to come to God in Christ Jesus! Is it to His Glory to save you? Oh,
then He will do it! There is nothing in you that could be a motive for
Grace–you do not deserve His pity. But then the greater your present
sin is, the more the mercy of God will be seen in pardoning you! Come,
then, with your sin! If you are the biggest sinner that ever lived,
then God's mercy will be seen better in you than in any before. So come
now, even now! Come to Jesus as you are, and let the infinitude of His
mercy cover the vast extent of your sin.

As for you who have been saved, let the text encourage you to tell it
to others. Do not be backward to profess your faith. If it glorifies
God, you owe Him so much that you must not rob Him of His praise, but
be bold at once to come forward and tell what God has done to your
soul. May His blessing rest upon you, for His love's sake. Amen.
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The Universal Remedy

A Sermon