"The Zeal of the Lord"
(No. 3432)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1914.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this." Isaiah 9:7.
BEYOND all controversy, this is a most remarkable text. Zeal is an
attribute which is attributable to man–we do not often think or speak
of the zeal of the Lord of Hosts! At first sight, it might seem to be a
misplaced word–God's zeal, the Divine arm, the fervency of the
Infinite. Yet, if we think a little as we commune together tonight, I
do not doubt but that much of comfort will cluster round the word, "The
zeal of the Lord of Hosts." When I turn to Holy Writ, I do not find
that, in connection with the Creation, the word, zeal, was ever
used–and yet it was a glorious work, to make ten thousand, thousand
worlds, to fill space with ponderous orbs, before whose dimensions
human imagination, itself, is staggered! It was no small work to make
this world, with all its varieties of skill and art, adaptation and
beauty. The morning stars might well sing together at the sight of it,
and burst forth into a new hymn, as the light first shone upon this,
our planet. But the Lord seems to have done it much at His ease. In six
days He finished it and rested from all His work. No element of
hardness, no token of zeal! Indeed, what is there in the mere creative
act to awaken those marvelous attributes which dwell in the bosom of
the Infinite Jehovah? Wisdom? Why, it is but the play of wisdom! Power?
It was but a mere freak of power. There is such boundless power in God,
that all that He has created is but a drop in the bucket, and as a very
little thing, compared with Him! Nor, if I remember rightly, does the
idea ever come up in connection with the sustaining of worlds and the
guiding of the events of Providence. It is true, He calls them all by
their names, and by the greatness of His power, not one fails. Arcturus
with his sons, Mazzaroth in his season, the Pleiades in their
delightful influences–all these are swayed and governed by Him! But we
find not that He was awakened up to zeal at all concerning them. And in
the wonders of Providence which have been worked upon earth, it is
remarkable how gently, how easily Jehovah seems to take them! Look at
that splendid work at the Red Sea–a work which God, Himself, seems to
have selected as a masterpiece of His skill and of His power, for even
in Heaven they sing the Song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the
Lamb–that song, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." But how did He
accomplish that stupendous work? "You did blow with Your wind, the sea
covered them; they sank like lead in her mighty waters." No enthusiasm,
no stirring up of strength–just the tender breath of His mouth and it
is all done–and the chivalry of Egypt sinks into the middle of the
sea! Nor when I hear of angels being formed of the Lord, whenever that
event may have taken place, do I hear of anything like the zeal of the
Lord in connection therewith. Nor even the creation of Adam, when He
took the man and placed him in the garden to till it. I pray I may use
no expression which will dishonor the Most High, yet when we speak of
Him, we are obliged to use language according to the analogies of human
kind. It seems to me that when God created mere materialism, there was
nothing to excite the Divine mind beyond a mere complacency when He
looked upon it and said, "It was very good." And when He created pure
spirits that were incapable of singing such as angels, He rejoiced to
see their happiness, but inasmuch as they could not have communion with
Him, being so good as not to know good or evil, His soul does not seem
to have been stirred. But He desired, if I may use such language
concerning Him, to have a race of beings surrounding Him who should
know both good and evil, who should know evil by having practically
fallen into it, having so smarted under it as to know it to be evil in
a practical and experimental sense–a race of creatures who should,
from henceforth, never choose evil, who should voluntarily choose that
which is good forever and forever because they should be so bound to
Him, the source of all goodness, by an overwhelming obligation of love,
that while they know evil, they shall bewail it–while they understand
what it is to sin, they shall never, throughout eternity, either in
thought or imagination, defile themselves with sin, but shall remain
immaculately perfect through the constraint of a love which He shall
reveal toward them, which shall be sufficient to wash their robes and
make them white, world without end! It seems to me that He desired to
have a race of creatures that should not be like angels or a race of
creatures apart from Himself–but a race that should be His sons, that
should be mysterious and wonderful–and His plan was this, that Jesus,
His only Son, should come into this world and take upon Himself the
flesh and nature of fallen creatures, that in that flesh He should die
and put away the guilt of all their sin, and that by His flesh, when
risen, He should establish a link between them and God, so that there
should be nothing between God and man. God blessed first forever, and
then Jesus, the Man, positively and really a Man, clinging by His
Manhood through His Godhead to those chosen creatures whom He should
have purified and made clean, who should forever exist, the children of
God, partakers of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption
which is in the world through lust. It is not for me–it is not for
anyoneto strike out the Divine idea and say this is what God meant and
intended, but we have enough of Scripture to let us say that this was a
part of His aim, at any rate, that in Jesus Christ there should be a
race of creatures distinct from all others, because actually alive with
the Deity–creatures who, to use the expression of the serpent, should
"be as gods, knowing good and evil," and be as gods always and forever,
preferring the good, though they have tasted the evil, and might have
chosen it, but were constrained by Divine Grace to bewail it and,
henceforth, to keep close to God, world without end!
Now, Brothers and Sisters, it was such a plan as this that awoke the
zeal of God! This was what could not have been done by mere power, but
must bring forth all the attributes of God–the work that had to be
achieved here was worthy of a great Creator–it was a work which would
reveal the Deity as no other work had ever done and, therefore, if I
may use the expression (I have often to excuse myself, not to you, but
to Him), He seems to brace Himself up to a display of all the Divine
Energy and Almighty Omnipotence, to accomplish His purpose, to carry
out His plan and make Jesus the King of a chosen company! "The zeal of
the Lord of Hosts shall perform this."
I. GOD ENTERS INTO THE PLAN OF GLORIFYING CHRIST AND MAKING TO HIMSELF
A PEOPLE
WITH GREAT ZEAL.
This can be proved in the following way–we judge of a man's zeal when
the purpose has been long in His heart, and He has most industriously
followed it through a long period. Now, the plan of Grace through Jesus
Christ was in the eternal heart before the worlds were made. He had it
all in His mind. Hence He speaks of Christ as "the Lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world," and never once has the Divine mind
turned aside from this purpose. Think, then, what zeal God must have
towards the achievement of this design, when through these long ages,
as we call them, He has still resolved to push on the work which He
determined to do. Think, again, that all the agents of Providence that
have ever occurred on this globe have had an eye to that purpose–from
the little up to the great. When He set the bounds of the people, He
set them according to the children of Israel. He had an eye to the
people of His love and to the Son of His choice, even when He was
mapping out the territories which the different races should inhabit
and not a king has fallen from His throne, not an army has devastated a
province, no changes of government, no challenges of race have ever
taken place apart from the Divine intent–that He would set His Son
upon His holy hill of Zion, and make Him to be a King over all the
nations of the earth. To that purpose God has steadily adhered all this
while and, therefore, I honor "the zeal of the Lord of Hosts."
Just think a moment, and I will show you God must be zealous in this
matter. Behold, His Son stoops to become a Man. You see Him lying as a
Baby in Bethlehem's manger. You behold Him as a Youth obedient to His
parents, as a full-grown Man, a Servant of servants in His toil. Now,
when the Lord looks down upon His Son, how He must resolve to glorify
Him! Oh, what must be the thought in that fraternal bosom! Does My Son
thus stoop? Does He take such a Nature into union with Himself? Oh, I
will crown His head with many crowns! For all His stoopings He shall
have a glory. Does He sit there at a harlot's side at the well of
Samaria? Does He sit there at the table with publicans and sinners?
Does He go down to bear the sorrows of the sins of men? God seems to
declare by Himself that He will give Him a name that is above every
name–for all His stooping He shall have an exaltation–the name at
which every knee shall bow, even the name of Jesus, and every tongue
shall confess that He is Lord to the Glory of God the Father!
Or, look further through your tears, behold the wondrous Sacrifice of
Calvary. Can you behold Jesus, smarting, suffering, bleeding,
dying–and can you imagine God looking on, a regular spectator? Oh, no!
If we may suppose Him to be capable of passions like ourselves, we
shall have to say, as He looked upon His dying Son, He vowed that He
would lift
His head above the sons of men, and make Him see a numerous seed to
recompense His pain. If anything could make a man zealous in his cause,
it would be to see it stained with the best blood on earth, to see it
stained with his own son's blood! Surely a man would say, I consecrate
myself over the blood of my child to live and die, to honor the name
that was thus put to shame for my purpose, my design. And God says the
same! The zeal of God burned at Calvary!
Think again. Jesus Christ at this moment is everywhere dishonored.
Millions use Christ's name in superstition, worshipping a crucifix,
making a God out of the very images. Multitudes of people practice
idolatry, enshrine and adore false deities, and what does God say? Do
you think that He looks on like Jove, fabled among the heathen an
impassive spectator? Oh, it is not so! He hears the blasphemies of men!
He sees their sins and though He keeps His right hand in His bosom and
we sometimes say, "Now, where is Your zeal and the soundings of Your
heart," it is only because He is Divine and can put a Divine restraint
upon His zeal that He does not rise at once and sweep away the idols
and devastate the nations! His long-suffering makes Him wait. His pity
bids Him tarry. But the day shall come–and it draws near–when with
the hammer, He shall break in pieces, and with the iron rod He shall
dash, like a potter's vessel, the usurpers who dare to stand in
Christ's way and to take away the Kingdom from the rightful heir! Yet
the very sins of men are stirring up the Lord and their iniquities,
transgressions and blasphemies are almost exciting His holy soul,
making a zeal to burn within Him which, one of these days, in the set
time, will perform its work!
Only one more proof on this point, and it is this–Brothers and
Sisters, we become zealous when we hear the cries and tears of the
oppressed. I think I see a senator standing on the floor of the House
of Commons, pleading, in years gone by, the cause of Africa's
down-trodden sons. I do not wonder at the zeal of Wilberforce, or the
marvelous eloquence of Fox. What a cause they had! They could hear the
clanging of the fetters of the slaves, the sighs of prisoners, the
shrieks of women–and this made them speak, for they burned with an
indignation which carried them away! Pity pulled up the sluices of
their speech and their souls ran out in mighty torrents of overwhelming
eloquence! Now, think. The Lord this day hears the sighs of the
oppressed all over the world. He hears the sighs of the sorrowful and,
beyond that there comes up the daily cries of His elect, who day and
night beseech His Throne. Oh, that we were more clamorous! Oh, that we
were more intensely importunate! Oh, that we gave Him no rest until He
would establish and make Jerusalem a praise on the earth, for, remember
the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, "And shall not God avenge His
own elect? Though they cry night and day unto Him, I tell you He will
avenge them speedily."
You see, then, proofs of God's zeal and the source of it, if we may use
such a term. It is His purpose, a purpose to which He has kept so long.
His zeal is, moreover, excited by Christ's humiliation, by the
blasphemies and sins of men and by the tears of His people. God is not
as we are–cold, insensible. He is full of zeal! And in the great good
old cause, which shall, at last, win the day, there may be zealous
partisans, but none is so zealous as the Lord of Hosts! A Master in the
midst of Israel! We will now change the strain, and notice the second
point. The text says His zeal will perform it. That is to say–
II. HIS ZEAL WILL PERFORM THE SETTING OF CHRIST UPON HIS KINGDOM AND
THE ESTABLISHING OF IT FOREVER.
But it will perform everything that has to do with that Kingdom. God's
zeal will not leave a single jot or tittle of the Covenant of His Grace
unfulfilled. He has lifted His hand. He has sworn by Himself that
Christ shall see of the travail of His soul–and the zeal of God will
carry this out!
Notice, then, Brother and Sisters, tonight, first, that the Lord will
secure the salvation of all His chosen. Nothing else could secure it
but God's own zeal. The zeal of all the Church could not secure it. Men
might perish, notwithstanding every act, but God knows them who are
His, and He will find them! If there are some of them, tonight, plunged
into the depths of sin, or others far gone in Atheism or unbelief, the
zeal of God will find every blood-bought one, and Christ shall have
every single soul that the Father gave Him–and that He redeemed with
blood from among men. Oh, there is joy in this! But we cannot stay to
think of it.
This secures, in the next place, the spread of the Truth of God.
Sometimes we sit down and say, "Truth, though mighty in itself, does
not prevail among a godless generation set upon their idols." And
oftentimes we mourn and lament because the battle has turned against
the Lord. But, Brothers and Sisters, God's Truth is wide enough and
safe enough– we need not weep over a few defeats! God has ordained
that the laurels of the King are all safe! He has trodden the winepress
alone, but the victory is sure to Him! We have but to keep on in the
patience and tribulation of the saints till the set time shall come,
and every Truth that God has declared shall be crowned and honored.
Wisdom is justified of all her children, and the Infinite Wisdom of
Jesus shall be justified in all His teaching. But the grand meaning is
this–that the day is sure to come when all the nations shall be
converted unto God! I am not going into any pre-millennial or
post-millennial theories. I am neither a Prophet nor the son of a
Prophet, but if there is anything plain in Scripture, it seems to be
this–that there is a Kingdom of Christ, that there will be a reign of
Christ over the people, that the Son of David shall rule the Kingdom,
from the rivers even to the ends of the earth–they that dwell in the
wilderness shall bow before Him, the heathen shall come and lick the
dust at His feet and He shall be King of kings and Lord of lords! "The
zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this," says the text. I thank
the Master for that word. All the missionary societies in the world
will never know how to perform it! If they were strengthened to the
uttermost, they would never be able to achieve this work. Not all the
ministry will ever be able to perform this. Nor do I see any means
adapted to achieve so sublime an end. Why, the population is increasing
upon Christianity. We do not hold our own. Relatively, to the
population, I suppose, there are not so many believers in Christ,
today, as there were a hundred years ago. We are going backward instead
of forward. See, you sons of men, your zeal and your earnestness–no,
your lackof zeal and your lackof earnestness– see what it will come
to! Poor, vain instruments, what can we perform? But in the rear there
is One who will do it! As in the days of battle, when the front ranks
are beaten, and one rank after another is driven back, up comes the old
guards– and they never quail and know not how to say retreat–and so
they win the day! Now, behold a greater than all the hosts of men, the
Eternal Ages, the Ancient of Days, the Infinite, Himself, shall bring
up His servants in the day of battle! And He shall thunder gloriously!
The Gospel shall be proclaimed! The Kingdom shall be won! Christ shall
reign and the "Hallelujah" shall come up unto the Lord Omnipotent, who
not only gets the Kingdom, but gets it by His own power, wins by His
own zeal! "The Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Hosts shall perform this."
Now, our last word is practical–
III. THE PRACTICAL TEACHING WHICH ARISES OUT OF THIS TRUTH.
The expression of the text is only used four times in Scripture. One of
these is a repetition of another. Virtually it is only used three
times–in Isaiah 63:15, "the zeal of the lord of Hosts" is used, as I
have already used it, as an argument for prayer. God is thus addressed,
"Where is Your zeal, and the sounding of your heart, and of Your
mercies towards me? Are they restrained?" What a plea in prayer for us
tomorrow night! O God convert the sons of men! Put an end to blasphemy
and sin. If You do not, we have heard of Your zeal, but where is Your
zeal? You can do it–why don't You do it? You can save. The hardest
heart will yield to You. The rod of iron and steel shall be broken by
the iron of the Cross. Oh God, where, where, where is Your zeal? Have
You forgotten the great Fall and the Kingdom, and the Covenant, and
Your oath? Have You forgotten Your Son–His griefs, His merits–Your
promised recompense to Him? Where is Your zeal? Oh, but this is a
battering ram with which to shake the very gates of Heaven! Men of
prayer and faith, learn how to use this! The next time you are
wrestling with the Angel, if you would overcome Him, here is the master
plea, "Where is Your zeal, and the sounding of your heart?" Let us thus
flee to God!
But the text may be used, in the second place, as a ground of hope. If
you turn to Isaiah 37:32, you will see that there it is used in
relation to the salvation of a remnant–the remnant of Judah. When you
and I feel ourselves to be like a remnant, cut off, and put away–when
we feel ourselves to be unworthy of the Divine notice, let us recollect
that God is zealous to save His remnant and let us ask Him to save
us–and appeal to the very zeal of God to give salvation to us who need
it so much!
But not to dwell longer on this part of the subject, I am sure you will
perceive that our text, practically, is a good reason for confidence.
You begin to be dispirited in God's work–it ought not to be so. If any
of you are ready to give up your Sunday school work, or whatever it is
you are engaged in, oh, say not so! God is so zealous that He will not
let the good cause fail. There may be, as there will be in every great
battle, a certain sort of temporary defeat which may be but a retiring
of the troops, that they may the more sternly and successfully advance
again to the front. So is it with the Cross of Christ. There are slight
repulses, but everything is working to ultimate victory. Look at the
sea as it comes up towards flood and then the waves retire. A child
might sit down and weep, and say, "I thought the sea was coming up to
here, but look, it has gone back again, and it has not washed my feet."
In the long run the sea is still coming up, and it is thus a type of
the good cause of Christ! Our lives are but like seconds in the tide of
this great time of ours, which is itself but a second in the great
duration of eternity! Because the good old cause does not seem to
prosper for a single day and the Kingdom does not come to Christ in my
short life, shall I sit down and weep? No, I am but one among millions
who shallachieve the Divine Purpose–one little coral insect, helping
to pile up the rock on which, by-and-by, shall grow the cedar and the
palm tree and the lovely flowers! And the winds shall waft across it
insects in every gale–I will do my work, though it is beneath the
waves! I will do my work and die–and others shall do the same, but the
rock is rising and God's Purpose is being accomplished! In the words of
the Prayer of Moses, "Let Your work appear unto Your servants, and Your
Glory unto their children." Lord, let us take the work and give our
children the glory! Let us work on–they shall live to see the Glory!
Some future generation shall see the triumph. And the best of it all
is, we shall see it, too, for it will be but a sleep between now and
then–a little leaning upon the Savior's bosom in our disembodied
state–and then the trumpet shall ring so shrill and clear through
Heaven and earth and we shall come to dwell again in these bodies of
ours, restored and rendered fit for purified spirit to dwell in! And
our eyes shall see in that day, the God that died for us, and oh, how
we will adore Him and magnify Him! And we will say together, the cause
for which we struggled, the Kingdom for which we fought, has come at
last! It was a long day and a weary one, and we feared the Master would
not come. Some of us fell asleep before His appearing, but we awaken at
the knocks at the door–we awaken even with the blessed sleepers, and
we come to see the triumph as we once of old saw the praise! Glory be
to God, the victory is secure! Let us work on till then.
But last of all, if God is thus zealous for the crown rights, the
Kingdom of Christ, let us be zealous, too. This is not the day of
zeal–this is the day of cleverness and achievement. It is not the day
of solid earnestness–it is the day of mere sensationalism and nothing
more. Oh, what a sight it would have been to have seen old John Knox,
when old and worn, go up into his pulpit, and though before he began to
preach, he seemed so weak that he could scarcely stand, yet he did not
proceed far in preaching up the Master's name, before, as an old
historian says, "He did seem to use such force that one would think he
would dash the pulpit into fragments"–dash it into shivers, I suppose,
before the Popish priests and hypocrites of the age! How his eyes
flashed fire as he spoke out his Master's truth, as he denounced Popery
and held up the Truths of God and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus! We
need more men of this sort! Oh, that God would but send us one, such,
and then to back him, a race of Covenanters who would, with their very
blood dedicate themselves to the Truth and the Kingdom of Christ
against the insidious advances of Popery and the infidelity of Rome and
Hell, which are twin brothers! Oh, that once again the Church were
earnest to have no head or king of the Church but Christ, no creed but
the Bible, no Baptism but the Baptism which He has taught, no sacrament
but what He reveals, no Doctrine but what that book dictates–the
Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible! May we come back to
this in purity, to this with earnestness, and then it will not be long
before we shall hear Him coming in the chariot, paved with love for the
daughters of Jerusalem and we shall go forth to meet Him, even to meet
King Solomon, with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the
day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart! Oh,
God of Zeal, drop Your zeal upon us, now, and make us zealous, too,
even we, redeemed by blood, by Your Holy Spirit, inhabit and consecrate
us afresh, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 40:1-17; 25-31; JOHN1:29-42.
Verses 1, 2. Comfort you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak
you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of
the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.God would have His people
happy. He knows that we are not in strong, vigorous state, neither do
we honor His name while we are lacking in holy joy. Let the sinners be
uncomfortable. Let them be "like the troubled sea that cannot rest."
But as for God's people, it is His great joy that they should be happy.
He bids His servants again and again to comfort them! Sometimes we are
in a condition of warfare and we are under the chastising rod, but now
the Lord appears graciously to His servants, and He says, "Your warfare
is over: your chastisement is ended." Now the Lord returns in mercy and
He grants a sense of forgiven sin.
3. The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way
of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.You know
this was John the Baptist coming to proclaim the Savior. That was the
best comfort God's people could have–the coming of the Lord. So it is
now. The joy of the Church is the coming of the Lord! And toeach one of
us the greatest source of joy is the drawing near to us of our Lord. If
He appears to us, our winter is over, our summer's sun has come! If
Christ is with us, the time of the singing of birds has come and our
heart is glad.
4, 5. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall
be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough
places, plain: And the Glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it
Wherever Christ comes, it is so. All things are right at His appearing
and if the Lord but manifests Himself to us tonight, each one, we shall
find the crooked things made straight. We shall see the mountains of
difficulty, leveled, and the deep depressions will all be filled up and
there will be a causeway along which the Lord triumphantly shall ride
to display the greatness of His power! There is nothing that shall
hinder the coming of the Lord to us, and when He comes, there is
nothing that shall stand against Him!
6-8. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the fields.
The grass withers, the flower fades because the breath of the LORD
blows upon it: surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the
flower fades: but the Word of our God shall stand forever Now that is a
cry that we all need to hear–the death cry of all creature
confidence–for man at his very best is only like grass and the flower.
They will be mown down in due time, but if the scythe comes not near
them, yet will they fade in their season, for they are transient things
and every hope and confidence which is based upon that which is seen,
must be temporal and must pass away. All the joy that you have
tonight–all the hope and all the confidence you have which is based
upon an earthly thing– must, by degrees, all disappear. Nothing is
eternal but that which springs out of the Eternal. Unless our hope is
in the Lord, alone, that hope will at some time or other fail us! This
is a cry we need to hear because, until we are sick of the creature, we
shall not turn to the Creator! Till we have done with false
confidences, we shall not make God our trust!
9. O Zion, that brings good tidings, get you up into the high mountain!
O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with
strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God! Look away from these fading things and behold your
God. Look away from the brightest joy you have, though it is like the
meadow, all alive with many colored flowers, and look to your God, and
to your God, alone! "Behold your God"–your God in Christ! Your God who
has come through the wilderness, making a highway for Himself, that He
may come to you. Rejoice in Christ, your Savior, and you shall have a
joy that never shall be taken from you!
10. 11. Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and His arm
shall rule for Him: behold, His rewards are with Him, and His work
before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. Do you belong to
the flock tonight? Then let this comfort you. Never mind about the
fading flowers. "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd." He has
brought you into the pasture tonight. Depend upon it, He has not led
you by a wrong way. And now, though your soul is hungry and thirsty,
you shall not lack, for, "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd."
11. He shall gather the lambs with His arm. The feeblest, first. The
most care for those that need most care. "He shall gather the lambs
with His arm."
11. And carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are
with young. Your sorrow is to come. It is known to yourself alone. None
can sympathize with you. He will gently lead you. There is no
overdriving with Christ. Sometimes His ministers, in order to get God's
people right, one way, overdrive them another, and it is possible while
rebuking the hypocrite, to cause grief to the sincere Believer, but our
Lord is a better Shepherd than the under shepherds are at their very
best. "He shall gather the lambs with His arm, carry them in His bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young." Oh, what a blessed
Helper we have! Let us rest in Him.
12-17. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted
out Heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a
measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a
balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being His
counselor, has taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who
instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him
knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? Behold, the
nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of
the balance. Behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing. And
Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient
for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing: and they
are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. Who would not trust
such a God as this–this only God? How well may we be content to turn
away from the fading creatures to this eternal Lord and put our trust
in Him! Indeed, the wonder is that we trust the creature and do not
trust the mighty Creator! Faith, which seems so difficult, after all,
is nothing better than sanctified commonsense! It is the most
commonsensething in all the world to trust in Omnipotence–in infinite,
unchanging love–in Infallible Truth. To trust anywhere else needs a
great deal of justification, but to trust in God needs no apology. He
well deserves it. O My soul, trust you in
Him!
25, 26. To whom, then, willyou liken Me, or shall Ibe equal? says the
Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these
things that bring out their host by number: He calls them all by names
by the greatness of His might for that He is strong in power; not one
is missing. There is no other power that hangs yon lamps of Heaven in
their places and keeps them always burning, except the power of His
Word! This whole round earth of ours hangs on nothing but the bidding
of the Most High. I remember how Luther used to console himself in
troublous times by saying, "Look at yonder arch of blue. There is not a
pillar to hold it up, and yet, whoever saw the skies fall?" Nothing but
the power of God keeps them up. My Soul, if all the worlds were made by
His Word, cannot you hang on that Word? If all things exist but by the
will and Word of your Father, can He not support you, and can you not
trust Him? Oh, this confidence in the invisible and eternal ought to be
natural to us as God's children! But, alas, here is our great sin–that
we frequently trust in an arm of flesh and forget our God!
27. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hid from
the LORD, and my judgment ispassed over from my God?He forgets no star
among the myriads, no creature among the multitudes. He has marked in
His book the track of every single atom of air and every particle of
dust, and every drop of spray–how can you be forgotten?
28, 29. Have you not known?Have you not heard that the everlasting God,
the LORD, the Creator ofthe ends of the earth faints not, neither is
weary? There is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to
the faint. He loves to pour out into empty vessels. He does not give
His power to the strong, but, "He gives power to the faint," and the
more faint you are, the more room for His strength. Trust in Him! If
you are so burdened that you cannot stand, lean on Him! The more you
lean, the better will He love you. He delights to help His people. "He
gives power to the faint."
29- 30. And to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the
youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall.We sometimes wish that we were as young as some, and that we had
all their overflowing spirit–all the effervescence of their juvenile
ardor. Ah, well, we need not wish for it, for mere mortal power shall
droop and die–and earthly vigor cease–while such as trust the Lord
shall find their strength increased. "Even the youths shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall."
31. But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength: they
shall mount up with wings as eagles–That is very much when they begin.
They are all for flying and God gives them a glorious flight, and they
are so happy and so delighted. But they will do better than that!
31. They shall run, and not be weary. Is that better than flying? Yes
it is–a better pace to keep up, but God enables His servants at length
to stay along the road of duty and to run in it. But there is even a
better pace than that!
31. And they shall walk and not faint. It is a good steady pace. It is
the pace that Enoch kept when he walked with God. Sometimes it is
easier to take a running spurt than it is to keep on, day by day–walk,
walk, walk in the sobriety of Christian conversation. Many under
excitement can run a race, but it is the best of all to be able to
steadily to walk on, walking with God the Lord. The Lord bring us to
that pace! "They shall walk and not faint."
JOHN129-42.
Verse 29. The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold
the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.John lost no
time. He had no sooner discovered the Savior than he bore witness of
Him. "The next day." As soon as ever his eyes lighted upon Jesus, he
had his testimony ready for Him. "Behold!" he said, "the Lamb of God."
30- 33. This is He of whom Isaid, After me comes a Man which
ispreferred before me: for He was before me. AndI knew Him not: but
that He should manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with
water. And John bore record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from
Heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not. At
first.
33, 34. But He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto
me, Upon whom you shallsee the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him,
the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I saw and bare
record, that this is the Son of God.Notice how very clear John is.
There is no mistaking him. He repeated himself lest there should be any
possibility of an error. And he gives the detail of the mode by which
he recognized the Savior, in order that all might be persuaded to
accept Jesus as in very truth the Messiah and the Son of God! And so we
are to preach very plainly–not with enticing words of men's
wisdom–but with demonstration of the Spirit and with power. What have
we to conceal? No, we have everything to reveal and our business is
that men should be convinced that Jesus is the Christ–and should come
and put their trust in Him.
35, 36. Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples,
and looking upon Jesus as He walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of
God!There is no objection to preaching the same sermon twice if it is
on such a matter as this! "Behold the Lamb of God," he said one day.
And the next day he did not vary the phraseology. He had no new
metaphor– no new figure with which to set forth Christ, but, as
striking a nail upon the head and the same nail will help to fasten it,
and may do more service than bringing out a new nail, so he gets to the
same word and the same subject–"Behold the
Lamb of God."
37. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
They went beyond their teacher. And oh, what a mercy it is if our
hearers can go Christward far beyond us! John was well content to be
left behind if they followed Jesus, and so may any minister of Christ
rejoice if his people will follow Jesus, even if they go far beyond his
attainments.
38. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and said unto them, What
do you seek?Christ wants intelligent followers, so He asks the
question, "What do you seek?"
38, 39. They said unto Him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted,
Master), where do You dwell?He said unto them, Come and see.Which is
often His answer to enquirers–"Come and see." "Oh, taste and see that
the Lord is good." Learn by experience. Do not merely hear what I say,
but come and see.
39-42. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day,
for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak
and followed Him, was Andre w, Simon Peter's brother. He first found
his own brother, Simon, and said unto him, We have found the Messiah,
which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.
This is how the Kingdom began to grow–by individual effort. "Andrew
found Simon"–one convert must bring another–"and He brought Him to
Jesus."
42. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, You are Simon, the son of
Jonah. You shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A
Stone.There was a meaning in the change of names, for there was about
to be a change of character– the timid son of a dove soon to become a
very rock for the Church!