Turning From Death
(No. 3324)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S DAY EVENING, JULY,
22, 1866.
"Turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house
of Israel?" Ezekiel 33:11.
IT is a token of the great mercy of God that He is very earnest in His
pleading with men to turn from their sins that He may not be compelled
to punish them, as He must do if they go on in their iniquities. A
cruel governor is glad of an opportunity to show his severity and,
therefore, not especially anxious to prevent offenses. But a kind,
tender-hearted monarch He must be who leaves His Throne and comes down
among the rebels and, with tears in His eyes, cries to them, "Oh, do
not this wicked thing that I hate! Offend not against Me! Do not compel
Me to take the sword out of its scabbard! Do not force Me to say that I
will have no mercy upon you, but turn you, turn you from those evil
courses which will certainly bring you mischief!" Sinner, God speaks to
you tonight out of His Infinite Mercy. He has no pleasure in your
death! It will give Him no satisfaction to cast you into Hell! He has
taken an oath concerning it. "As I live," says the Lord God, "I have no
pleasure in the death of him that dies," and to prove the sincerity of
the oath, He cries, "Turn you, turn you from your evil ways: for why
will you die, O house of Israel?" If you are not spared, but perish, it
will not be because God is not merciful to you but because you are not
merciful to yourselves!
The text as it stands is a very earnest exhortation from God. It is
directed, I doubt not, to all sorts of sinful men. And it is directed
to such in all sincerity and honesty, for albeit we believe without
reserve in the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace, we do not for a moment
desire to lessen the force or explain away the reality of so earnest an
appeal as this! We can preach from such a text with all sincerity and
intensity–indeed, as much as if we did not believe in any Election of
Grace!
We would seek to give to all and every Scripture, the genuine meaning
which it contains. But, dear Friends, solemnly penetrating and
heart-searching as His exhortation is, and given as it is by God,
Himself, if a man rejects it, he thereby adds to his sin. God calls to
the sinner to turn, but turn he never will unless there is something
more than the call! By the public ministry, by sickness, by the Bible,
by conscience–yes, and by the common and universal operations of the
Holy Spirit, God calls to men–"Turn you, turn you, why will you die?"
But they seem determined to die and, therefore, they go over hedge and
ditch to destruction–and this against all the warnings and rebukes of
the Most High!
So they will continue in their sins and aggravate them by the rejection
of the very exhortation which was meant to deliver them from them–and
so make themselves yet more guilty before God by turning against His
Word which was meant to have a blessing in it for them. I do not
intend, therefore, being the means of adding to your guilt tonight.
When I took the text, I felt as if I dared not preach from it. It shook
me, though it may not shake you. As I read it, and read it, and read it
again, I thought, if I deliver it as I find it there, I shall very
likely only have to come back and say, "Who has believed our report?"
And the most of my Hearers who are unconverted will only go away and
say, "What care we for those alarming words?" So I remembered that when
the Holy Spirit comes effectually to work upon the souls of men He uses
the very same means and instruments which in our hands seem powerless.
If I say to you, "Turn you, turn you, for why will you die?" you will
take no notice of it. But if the Holy Spirit shall come and say this to
you, then you shall certainly be obedient to it, for He has the key of
the heart and He knows how, without violating the free agency of man,
to make man willing in the day of His power! So that when He says,
"Turn you, turn you," they do turn, and when He says, "Why will you
die?" they begin to reason with themselves and they see it is an ill
thing that they should perish and, therefore, they turn to God!
Now, I will earnestly hope and pray that God the Holy Spirit will use
these words upon some heart. And I intend to preach upon them, not as
they stand in the Book, but as they will then stand in your hearts! Let
me try, if I can, to picture what will take place in the man's heart in
whom God the Holy Spirit shall say by His effectual Grace, "Turn you,
turn you, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" I shall try,
therefore, to give an outline sketch of the spiritual experience which
will be known in the human breast in which the Holy Spirit is now
pressing home this solemn question.
There will be three things there–first the fears will be awakened.
That word, "die," will come like the point of a dagger to slay the
soul's false peace. In the second place, the heart will be affected. '
'Turn you, turn you," will cause the heart to turn away from its former
lusts and turn towards God. And then, in the third place, the
understanding will be set vigorously working, for the question, "For
why will you die?" if pressed home by Divine Power, will turn reason
into right reasoning–the man will begin to consider his ways and to
ask himself seriously, why he should throw away his soul–why he should
lose his most precious possession for which nothing can ever be given
in exchange, or at its purchase price.
Solemnly then, as before the Lord, let us deal in turn with these three
things. If, my dear Hearer, it should be your happy lot to have this
question brought home to your inmost soul by the power of God's Holy
Spirit you will tonight– I. HAVE YOUR FEARS AWAKENED.
This is how it will operate. You will begin to say within yourself,
"This text tells me that I must either turn or die. I must change my
present state, habits and ways–and I must turn with full purpose of
heart in another direction or else I shall die–a deserved sentence, a
capital sentence is passed against me. Not that I shall be imprisoned,
not that I shall be transported for such-and-such a time, but that I
shall die! The most terrible sentence of the Law of God, it seems, will
come upon me unless I turn." Oh, heart, look that in the face! Oh, you
fears, endeavor to awaken yourselves and on those dull and leaden eyes
to see what it is to die!
First, my Hearer, if this test should come home to you, you will say, "
Why, I am not ready to die in the common sense of that term." If you
were called to die tonight, my Hearer, your house is not in order. You
could not go home to your bed with anything like joy if you knew that
you were about to lie down upon it, never to rise from it again! I
recollect when the cholera was here the last time that I was going to a
house on Blackfriars-road where a man had just put up a bedstead. He
had moved only that very morning from another district which was
unhealthy. He had only just put up the bed, and he lay there, fast
dying, and I knelt by his bedside. Now, suppose that were to be your
case?–
"Shouldswift death this night overtake you, And your bed become your
tomb– Would the morn in Heaven awake you Clad in light and deathless
bloom?" Can you hope so? Ah, there are many of you who have no such
hope! The thought of death is very unpleasant to you just now! That hot
blood does not like to think of the chill cold hand–and those happy
eyes do not welcome the thought of the bleak pall, the cold vault and
the sad refrain–"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." So then, my Soul, if
you are afraid even to die, which is but the beginning of sorrows, do
let yourself be affected with that awful fact that there is another
death far more terrible than this first death, and a doom more fearful
by far! Do let these thoughts come home to you, my Hearer–you must
either turn or die–and in that death of the soul, there is an emphasis
of unutterable woe!
Then, again, if I am not prepared to die and this text is brought home
to me with power by the Holy Spirit, I shall see that I am still less
prepared to take my last trial before the great Judge.
It is certain that when my soul leaves my body, it will not die, but
will be summoned into the august Presence of the Great King and then,
during the time that will elapse between death and resurrection, your
soul and mine, if they are guilty, will begin to suffer under an
apprehension of the wrath which is yet to come! Am I prepared to face
God as a disembodied spirit? May we not well start at the thought? May
not even the true Christian feel it to be no child's play to think of
his spirit coming before the bar of God? But much more the man who is
without God and without hope!
Oh, Soul, what will you do when this poor flesh is left behind and you
must pass that solemn test? But before long, how soon we cannot tell,
the body which has been moldering in this grave shall rise again! The
trumpet of the archangel, shrill and loud, shall be heard over hill and
dale. Ten thousand times ten thousand angels shall descend and in the
midst of them shall come the cloud, the Great White Cloud, and on the
cloud shall be the Throne, and on the Throne, the Son
of Man who once was crucified–no longer with His hands pierced with
nails, but grasping the scepter of all worlds! No longer "despised and
rejected of men, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief," but now–
"With rainbow wreath and robes of storm, On cherub wings and wings of
wind, Appointed Judge of all mankind!" If the heart is properly
affected by this text it, will say, "I am not ready to meet Him! I am
not ready to be in that great assembly! I am not ready to hear the
cry–'Come to judgment! Come to judgment! Come away!' I am not ready be
to put into the scales! I am not prepared to be brought up before those
eyes of fire! I am not ready to have my secrets read before assembled
men and angels! I am not ready to hear the Judge say, 'Depart you
cursed!'" Well, but if the mere dying, which is only the leaving of
this world. If the mere coming before the bar of God, if ultimate
coming before Him at the Last Great Day is terrible. Oh, if the text
should come home with power, my dear Hearer, and I pray God it
may!–you will recollect that all this is not dying–it is only being
tried and sentenced, but it is not the execution! Oh, if judgment is so
terrible, what must executionbe? If merely to be brought up and
committed for trial is terrible, what will it be to be taken out to the
Mount of Doom? If we are afraid of the Judge, how much more of His
sentence being carried out! Why, before condemned souls hear their
retribution fixed, you hear them crying, "Rocks, hide us, mountains
fall upon us!" Christ has not smitten them–He has only looked at
them–but its condemnation of them for the rejection of His saving
mercy makes them appeal to the flinty rocks to yield them a shelter,
for they cannot find a place of refuge! I say again, if the Judgment is
so awe-inspiring, what will the execution of that judgment be? Guilty
Soul! Where will you fly or hide, then? Shall my soul ever be there? If
God the Holy Spirit applies this text of mine with power, we shall ask
ourselves, "How can I bear to die the second death?" What is that
second death? Surely it means this–that just as the first death takes
away man from all earthlysources of life and joy, so the second death
separates from all sources of spiritual peace and pardon, Grace and
salvation!
No more your feasts, the dance, and the sound of the violin! No more
the jest or song of ribaldry. You die and all these are over! But the
greater death means no more the house of God, the opportunity to pray,
to repent, to believe, to receive God's free and full salvation! It
means–that second death–the anguish more than these lips could dare
to speak even if this mind knew! Oh, the anguish of a soul that is
withered beneath the curse of God! Oh, the anguish of a spirit that is
banished forever from the Presence of the Mast High!–
"To linger in eternal death, Yet death forever fly!"
Here comes the worst of it, that this death is forever! What says the
Scripture? "Eternal destruction from the Presence of the Lord"–not a
moment, and then it is all over–but eternal destruction. The Scripture
has put the two side by side, "These shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous unto life eternal." The same word applies
to both. As long as Heaven shall shine so long Hell shall burn! As long
as saints are happy, so long shall those whose impenitence has made
them castaways be wretched!
How I recall the time when this Truth of God came home to my heart with
power! And I can only say of it, that I bless God I ever felt it! I
think I would never have hated sin. I would never have fled to Christ
if I had not been shown the flower that springs out of the seed of sin.
Sinner, do not turn your head away and be angry! If you love sin, look
at the child of this ill mother! Sinner, you love sin, that is but the
seed–come and see the flower that springs out of it! No, Man, look at
your own work! Sin is the spark and this is the flame. If you would
escape Hell, escape sin! If you are afraid of Hell, O Sinner, be as
afraid of sin! May the Lord drive this home! I know I cannot. It is a
topic so distasteful that it is not likely that the mind will linger on
it. I know you will try to shake it off and dismiss it. "Die," you say,
"what is there in that? Or what care we about it?" But I tell you in
deepest love, that if the Holy Spirit presses home the question of my
text, there will be no sleep for you until you have found the Savior!
There will be no rest in you until you find it in Jesus Christ! You
will then begin to cry out, "God be merciful to me, a sinner. Help me
to flee from the wrath to come, enable me to hide in the Rock of Ages
cleft for me."
Thus I have strived to make plain to you the first point. The soul's
fears are awakened when it sees that it must either turn or die, must
look these two things in the face, "I must give up my sin, or I must be
cast away eternally." The second truth of the text is this–that where
this solemn question is pressed home by the Holy Spirit–
II. YOUR HEART WILL BE MOVED.
"Turn you, turn you," says the text, twice over. It is earnest,
emphatic, importunate. "Turn you, turn you." It looks as if it had been
wetted with tears, or as if a sigh and a groan were in the very sound
of it. "Turn you, turn you." It seems to have the plaintive love of a
mother about it and yet the majesty and authority of a Divine command,
"Turn you, turn you." Now, if this shall be brought home to you by God
the Holy Spirit, you will begin to say, "Then I must turn from all my
evil practices. I must be done forever with my drinking and my cursing
if I have been guilty of these. I must now be done with
Sabbath-breaking, with coarse and evil talk. I must be done with all
these sins and lusts of the flesh!" "Turn you, turn you." But, more
than this, you will say, "I must have done with my evil thoughts–'let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.' I
must have done with proud thoughts. Lying thoughts. Vain thoughts.
Murmuring thoughts. God calls me to turn from them all! I must have
done with skeptical notions. I must have done with boastful utterances.
I must have done with everything that is contrary to the pure mind of
God. But that is not all. The text says, 'Turn you, turn you.' It means
that I must turn altogether from my natural enmity to God. I must love
Him whom I hated! The very things at which I have laughed, I must now
reverence. It must by such a complete turning round that the things I
despised I must love, and the things I loved I must hate. I hear God
saying concerning all my darling pleasures, 'Turn you, turn you!' It
will make me change my companions. It will change my way of talking. It
will make a new man of me altogether if this text comes with force to
me, 'Turn you, turn you.'"
But I think I hear you say, "Oh, but this is too hard a task, if to
turn is to be so thorough as this! If it were merely a turning from
drunkenness to abstinence, or a turning from open vice to morality, I
could manage it." Ah, that you might, and a very good thing it might
be, my Hearer, but it would not save you! The turning that is needed is
more than this. "Except you are converted and be as little children you
shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." "You must be
born-again." "Well," says one, "then I am bid do a task that is
impossible!" Yes, that is true–most true. The exhortation that comes
to you is meant to teach you something of your powerlessness. "Turn
you, turn you." You can turn from your outward sins, from many evil
ways, but if ever you are to be turned from wicked thoughts and evil
nature, it will be by something more than your own strength–you will
need to look to a stronger arm and a mightier power than a merely
mortal one! Listen to me, then, for I think this word will drop like
the balm of Gilead, or the honey from the honeycomb. "Turn you, turn
you" to Christ, for He can do for you what you could never do for
yourself! You cannot resist your sins in your own power. And you cannot
change your sinful nature and renew it in purity and holiness! But
there is One who can do it for you!
I think I see your history. You are like the vessel that is in the
stream. It is a mighty stream–so strong, so swift, that no vessel ever
came within its tremendous force and escaped there from. The vessel is
floating on and the passengers on board are frivolous and happy. They
are wondering where the wind came from that makes them sail softly and
so swiftly. They dance upon the deck, they drink, they laugh, they
sport the happy hours away. They know not that the maelstrom is but a
little way ahead–that there is an awful whirlpool that will suck in
the vessel and all its passengers and crew– and take them down to sure
destruction! As the vessel sails gaily along there is heard a Voice
above the wind, "Turn you, turn you," and the captain looks about and
wonders from where it came. "Turn you, turn you," comes the cry again,
and the passengers go to the helm. A mysterious impulse comes over them
all and then, as they look beyond they can see the gulf, they can see
the maelstrom, they can see the danger–and now they are all ready to
obey the Voice that sounds mysteriously in the air! They rush to the
helm, but–O God! O God–it is gone! There is no power to turn it and
the vessel is drifting on! She goes more swiftly than ever! She flies
upon the stream. "Turn you, turn you!" the Voice still sounds, but
every passenger is crying, "We are mocked! It must be a demon voice
that mocks us, for how can we turn? The helm is gone! In same unguarded
hour of ribaldry we unshipped the helm and lost it, and now we cannot
turn!"
Just then there is seen descending from the skies a bright Spirit. They
know Him by the pierced hands and feet, and He comes upon the deck.
They cast themselves down before Him, and cry, "Help us! Help us!" and
with a touch he refits the helm and turns the vessel around and,
against the stream, with many a struggle, she begins to make her way,
while a heavenly breeze comes and fans the sail and the vessel is safe!
Thank God, she is safe, with all on board! Now, that is your case
tonight, my dear Hearer! You have got into the stream of sin and your
habits have got too strong for you. If it were for you, and for you
only, to turn the vessel around, I would despair, but while the Voice
sounds, "Turn you, turn you!" oh, lift up your eyes to Heaven and say,
"Master, Jesus, turn us and we shall be turned! Come into our hearts!
We trust
You, You bleeding One! Your hand was once outstretched to be wounded
and made to bleed for sin–stretch it out now to save us from sin, and
turn our boat, and make her sail by Your good Spirit in the way of
righteousness."
Now this cry, "Turn you, turn you," will be of no use, then, it seems,
unless it is attended with the Divine Power, but when it is, what a
great blessing it is! Alas, there are many who hear us who will not
turn for all that, but they that are wise will obey the command. My
friend, Sir John Burgoyne, once told me that in the Peninsular War he
and some other officers were entering–I think it was the town of
Salamanca, which stood upon the side of a hill in such a way that a
church which was built on the slope would have its roof level with the
earth higher up the hill. He went, not knowing anything of danger, in
at the door of the church–and there were Frenchmen with guns on the
roof to defend the place. He said he could not forget how the
courtesies of those brave men, anxious not to shoot officers who were
more civil than military, made them to call out "Retire, retire," and
how he did retire fast enough and was not anxious to tempt a gun when
entreated to retire! Now something like that appears to me to be the
position of the ungodly man. He goes where he should not be. He
trespasses, but a Voice from above which might have been silent–and
there might have been a deadly cannonade of Divine Resentment–calls
out, "Retire, retire," tempt Me no longer, Sinner! Provoke Me no more!
My anger has long been held in! I have restrained Myself! I have sent
My Son to you! I have bid you trust Him and love Him! I have called
unto you by My servants. I have bid you, repent, but you have not
repented–are you still My enemy? You are going on in your sins, but I
charge you once again, by My eternal mercy, turn, turn, turn, for why
will you die?" This, then, seems to me to be what the text will do in
the heart if God the Holy Spirit sends it home.
And so we shall close with the third point. Should the text be made by
God the Holy Spirit to be as an arrow fixed in the heart–
III. IT WILL MAKE AN APPEAL TO THE UNDERSTANDING.
The understanding, being thus appealed to, will begin to ask questions
like this–"Why should I die? I know that this death is terrible,
indeed. Why should I have to suffer it? What reason is there why I
should be subject to it?" And, my dear Hearer, if God the Holy Spirit
awakens you, you will not be able to give a good answer to that! On the
contrary, you will begin, one by one, driving out as foolish all the
answers you used to give. You will say, "Oh, I used to say, Let well
enough alone. What is to be will be. I used to be quite indifferent to
it, but I cannot be indifferent now. Indifferent when I am in danger of
death? Indifferent when I may, within the next few minutes, know all
that is to be known of eternal things? Careless where eternity is
concerned? No, my God, my madness is now over! Behold, I turn to You! I
cannot thus answer the question."
Once, too, the sinner could say, "I hated to be troubled. I said do not
bother me with any of your religion! Keep it away." But now, "I wish to
be troubled–the more troubled I can be, the better, so that I may not
be troubled at the last. Once I liked a fashionable preacher who spoke
in fine and gaudy words, but who never seemed to insinuate that he had
a sinner in his congregation or that there was perdition for the
ungodly–but now let me know the worst of my state. Let me be dealt
with honestly and faithfully, and if I am in great danger, God grant
that I may know it, so that I may escape from it. The more a man can
cut open my heart and send the arrow direct into my conscience, the
better! I am only afraid lest mortification should set in and that I
may die before I can be awakened and healed and saved."
Moreover, if God the Holy spirit has awakened you, you will have given
up all your other excuses. Once you said, "I cannot give up my
pleasures." Now you say, "I cannot afford to sell my soul for an hour
or two of merry effervescence! I cannot give reality for shams. I have
tried the world's pleasures and all I can say is, there is nothing in
them that is real and satisfying! I am sick and weary of them"–
'I cannot sell my soul so cheap, Nor part with Heaven for you.'" Once
you used to say, "I cannot turn. I could not face my old companions. I
could not bear to hear that man that I shall meet tomorrow say, 'Ah, so
you have become religious, have you?'" "Now," says the conscience, "I
could meet the very devil! I feel as if I would be afraid of no man if
I might but be saved." They may laugh who will, but they will not laugh
you to destruction if the Holy Spirit should really send home the text!
Mark you, I am only speaking on that supposition, and then the soul
will say, "Afraid of man? No, I am too much afraid of God! Afraid of
being laughed at? No, I am too much afraid of hearing the Voice,
'Depart you cursed.' I may well bear the laughter of men so that I may
escape the wrath
of God!"
You used to say, "Time enough yet," but if this text comes home, you
will not say that. You will feel as if every moment were important and
as if every tick of the clock might be your last. You will be asking
that you may hide in Jesus, and that you may hide there at once! You
used to say, "Pshaw! Religious people are all hypocrites!" But you will
not say that now, or if you do, you will say, "That is no reason why I
should not be sincere. If every minister should be a canting pretender
and every professor should be a hypocrite, what will that matter to me?
Must not I escape personallyfrom the wrath to come? Their being
condemned, as they justly must be if they are hypocrites, will not make
my doom any more light and, therefore, I will not hide behind an
accusing of others, but I will accuse myself."
I do not know how it is, dear Friends. I did want to bring home this
text to the heart, but I am conscious now, more than ever, that it is
not for meto bring it home, but for the Master to do it. I can say,
"Turn you, turn you," but He can turn you! I can tell you of this
death, but He can enable you to feel its terrible power. I can tell you
of the love and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, but He can make you to
pant and thirst after them! And remember, if you want them, you may
have them! If you desire Christ, you may have Him! If there is a sinner
here that would to saved, let him flee to Jesus! Let him, sitting where
he is, look to Christ with his soul's eyes as He hangs upon the Cross.
Rest your soul upon Him, Sinner! Black as it is, trust Him to cleanse
it. Though you are altogether ruined and undone, if you can believe,
all things are possible to him that believes! Never did a soul rest on
Christ and find Him fail him. Come to Him! Come to Him! The doors of
His heart are opened! He is waiting to receive you! You need not wait
until you are prepared–come as you are! Come in your loathsomeness if
such is your state. Come in spiritual ruin and depravity if such is
your condition. Come now! Come now! "Why will you die?" Mercy provides
the means of life. Christ died. Why will you die? Christ lives, why
should not you live?
I remember a powerful preacher once finishing a sermon which God had
helped him to deliver with extraordinary force, by turning to his
congregation and asking, "Why will you die?" Then he paused and
continued, "What reason have you? What motive, what argument, what
apologies, what excuses? Why will you die?" Then he stopped a moment,
and said, "Why will you die? Why will you? Why this desperate resolve?
Why this firmness? You vacillate elsewhere– why be so obstinate here?
Why will you? Why is your heart set fast like iron? You can bend like a
willow towards the wrong–why are you firm as granite against the
right? Why will you die?" Then looking round his congregation, and
picking out certain members of it, he said, "Why will you die? You
gray-heads who have had such an experience of the vanity of the world,
why will you die? You young people to whom there is such happiness
offered, why will you die? You chief of sinners, whose doom will be so
terrible, why will you die? You moralists, you amiable ones, you who
seem to have some desire towards God, why will you die? So he put it to
each one. And then he came to the last, "Why will you die? Why will you
be driven from God's Presence? Why will you receive His curse? Why will
you make your bed in Hell? Why will you dwell with the devouring fire?
Why will you abide in everlasting banishment from God? Why will you
die? Do you see anything so tempting in the face of doom? Is there
anything so sweet in that grim Lake of Fire? Why will you
die?"
Oh, may the force of this exhortation come home to you–"Turn you, turn
you from your evil ways, for why will you die, house of Israel?" May
the Lord put His arm to this work and then great good shall be
done–and His shall be the Glory! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JEREMIAH3:12-25'
Verse 12-14. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,
Return, backsliding Israel, says the LORD; and I will not cause My
anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says the LORD, and I will
not stay angry forever Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have
transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to
the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,
says the LORD. Turn, O backsliding children, says the LORD; for I am
married unto you. There is a mixed figure here, but there is no mixed
sense–children and yet married unto Him. The bond was a double
one–they were begotten and betrothed. God cares little about the rules
of human oratory and formal eloquence. If His meaning can only be made
perfectly plain, He freely breaks through all such rules and
regulations as we properly make for our talk. "O backsliding children I
am married unto you."
14. And I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will
bring you to Zion. That is, "two of a tribe," for the word, "family,"
was used in a very large sense in those times and comprehended perhaps
the whole of one of the twelve tribes.
15. AndI will give you pastors according to My heart, which shall
feedyou with knowledge and understanding. The backsliders, when they
come back, shall not be left outside the fold, but they shall have
shepherds to watch over them. And they shall not be left to a lean
pasture, but they shall be fed with knowledge and understanding. This
is fine fare for the hungry soul! Knowledge is good, but understanding
is better. To know may be of little service unless we have the inner
and deeper knowledge with it and understand what we know. These pastors
shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. They shall not only
teach, but teach so that you cannot fail to learn!
16. And it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in
the land, in those days, says the LORD, they shall say no more. The Ark
of the Covenant of the LORD; neither shall it come to mind: neither
shall they remember it neither shall they visit it; neither shall that
be done any more.Ceremonial retreats into the dim background when the
spiritual is in full vigor! They have come to God for themselves and
they now need not that sacred Ark of gopher wood lined within and
without with gold. In the present day those that walk near to God think
but little of the eternal. That which God commands they obey, but their
confidence lies in Him. True religion is not a form, but a life–and
the soul living near to God is the main, the really essential thing.
17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the LORD; and
all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to
Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of
their evilheart. This is, I believe, yet to be literally fulfilled in
Jerusalem, itself, and also spiritually to be fulfilled in the Church,
when she shall not be behind the nations but become their head and take
the lead in all of blessing for mankind!
18. 19. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of
Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to
the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your father. But I
said, How shall I put you among the children?As if God, Himself, were
at a pass and brought to a nonplus! These people had sinned so much and
had been driven, consequently, to the ends of the earth. "I said, How
shall I put you among the children?"
19. Andgive you apleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts
ofnations andIsaid, You shall callMe, My Father. When God gives us the
spirit of children, then it becomes easy for Him to put us among the
children! Where the nature of children is given by Divine Regeneration,
the rights of children may well be given by adoption! "I said, You
shall call
Me, My Father."
19. And shall not turn away from Me. I always look upon that second
part of the blessing as being perhaps the richer of the two! The final
perseverance of the saints forms the cluster of crown jewels that is
found in the casket of the Covenant. "You shall not depart from Me. You
shall not turn away from Me." Oh–
"If ever it should come to pass
That sheep of Christ could fall away
My fickle, feeble soul, alas,
Would fall ten thousand times a day!" But He that has begun the good
work has promised to carry it on. There is our safety and our rest!
"You shall call Me, My Father, and shall not turn away from Me."
20-21. Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have
you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, says the LORD. A
voice was heard upon the high place, weeping and supplications of the
children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have
forgotten the LORD their God. The worst of crimes–that a wife should
be false to her marriage vows and turn aside from her husband whom she
is bound to love! And very seldom is it that a husband calls a
treacherous wife back again–but God, in infinite mercy, hates putting
away. He cannot bear divorce. He still holds to the object of His love
and, therefore, complains with a sweet fidelity of affection, of the
treachery of Israel. And while He is doing it, a voice is heard upon
the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel,
for they have perverted their way and have forgotten Jehovah their
God–and, therefore, what was there for them but sorrow? They were on
their high places offering sacrifice and incense to their new gods! And
instead of joy and holy Psalms and hymns of delight, they were crying
like the priests of Baal and cutting themselves and torturing
themselves! God heard it–weeping and supplications–but not to Him,
for they had perverted their way. Their sorrow did not come
from Him, for they had forgotten the Lord their God. But that sorrow
had something hopeful about it. They found no joy in their new gods and
derived no comfort from their backslidings.
22. Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your
backslidings. Oh, the wonderful mercy of God! He treats sin as a
disease. It was a grand thought, that, on God's part, that He would not
so much look upon sin as being a willful deed and crime, but would look
upon it as a malady of the mind and soul. "I will heal your
backslidings." And see the sweet answer that Israel gives to this–
22. Behold, we come unto You, for You are the LORD our God. Oh, that
that answer might come from every backsliding heart that is here
tonight–that there might be a restoration of the wanderer to his God!
23. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the
multitude of mountains. See, they were trying to get it from their high
places! They lifted up their voices to their gods, but they only
learned to mourn and weep. "In vain is salvation hoped for from the
hills and from the multitude of mountains."
23-25. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel For shame
has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and
their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame,
and our confusion covers us: for we have sinned against the LORD our
God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have
not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God. May such repentance as that
fall to the lot of any wanderers who listen now to my words!