Four Choice Sentences
DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 3, 1881,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Behold I am with you." Genesis 28:15.
"I will be with you." Genesis 31:3.
"The God of my father has been with me." Genesis 31:5.
"Behold, I die: but God shall be with you." Genesis 48:21.
My discourse, this evening, will scarcely be a sermon–it will be an
expository, rather, of the life and experience of Jacob upon one point.
In order to bring it out I shall need four texts, but lest you should
let any one of them slip, I will give them to you one at a time.
I. First, turn to the 28th chapter of Genesis, at the 15th verse, and
read OF PRESENT BLESSING. The Lord said to His servant Jacob, "Behold,
I am with you." Jacob was the inheritor of a great blessing from his
fathers, for this sentence was spoken in connection with the following
words, "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father, and the God of
Isaac." It is an inexpressible privilege, dear Friends, to be able to
look back to father and grandfather and, perhaps, still farther, and to
say, "We come of a house which has served the Lord as far back as
history can inform us." Descended from Christians, we have a greater
honor than being descended from princes! There is no heraldry like the
heraldry of the saints.
Jacob might be very thankful that, as God had blessed Abraham and had
blessed Isaac, so He blessed him in the same way, speaking to him in
the same terms as He had spoken to them, for He had expressly said to
each of them, "I am with you." Are any of you the children of godly
parents and has the Lord called you by His Grace? Then bless His name
and take heed that you do nothing to dishonor an estate so honorable!
Try and maintain, as long as you live, the good repute which in
infinite love God has put upon your household. Are you, however, a
child of godly parents and not yet converted? I would warn you against
putting the slightest reliance upon your birth, for, remember, if Isaac
was the child of Abraham, so also was Ishmael–but no blessing came to
Ishmael of a spiritual kind.
It is in vain to be born of blood, or of the will of the flesh. We must
be born again from above. God is sovereign, He is not bound to dispense
His favors from father to son. And when He does so, we are to admire
His Grace. Do not imagine that there is such a thing as hereditary
piety–it must be worked in each individual by the same Spirit. Still,
it is one of the highest privileges that God has ever been pleased to
grant to me that I can rejoice in a father and a grandfather who
trained me in the fear of God! And I congratulate every young person
who has such a pedigree. God bless you. Be not satisfied unless you,
yourself, obtain such mercy as God gave to your ancestors and hear the
Lord saying, "I am with you."
This mercy was brought home to Jacob at a time when he greatly needed
it. He had just left his father's house and he felt himself alone. He
was coming into special trial and then it was that he received a fuller
understanding of the privilege which God had in store for him. Let me
read the words to you–"I am with you." I have tried to think them out,
that I might speak concerning them to you, but they are too full. I
defy anybody to measure their height and depth, their length and
breadth! That God should give to Jacob bread to eat and raiment to put
on was much–but that is nothing compared with, "I am with you." That
God should send His angel with Jacob to protect Him would have been
much–but it is nothing compared with, "I am with you."
This includes countless blessings, but it is, in itself, a great deal
more than all the blessings we can conceive of! There are many fruits
that come of it, but the tree that yields them is better than the
fruit! "I am with you." Will God, in the very deed, dwell with men upon
earth? Will God walk with a man and speak with him? "Lord, what is man,
that You are mindful of him? And the son of man, that You visit him?"
And yet He says, "I am with you." You are in Your courts above and You
make Heaven, Heaven by Your Presence, and yet You say, "I am with you."
What more could You say to a seraph than this–"I am with you"?
Why, when God is with a man there is a familiarity of condescension
that is altogether unspeakable! It insures an infinite love. "I am with
you." God will not dwell with those He hates. He puts away the wicked
of the earth like dross. He says to them, "Depart, I never knew you."
But to each one of His people He says, "I know you by your name; you
are Mine. And, more than that, I am with you." As a man delights to be
with a friend, so are the delights of Christ with the sons of men whom
He has chosen and redeemed with blood! "I am with you"–it means
practical help. Whatever we undertake, God is with us in the
undertaking. Whatever we endure, God is with us in the enduring!
Wherever we wander, God is with us in our wandering!
"If God is for us, who can be against us?" If God is with us, can we
ever be exiled or banished? If God is with us, what can we not do? If
God is with us, what can we not endure? Well said the Apostle, as if
answering that question, "I can do all things through Christ which
strengthens me." "I am with you." Come, Brother or Sister, if you would
get the fullness of this privilege, believe that God is near you,
now–as near to you as he that sits at your side! No, nearer, for He is
so with you as to be in you. And do you know that His whole Godhead is
with you? "I am with you," as if there were not another–the whole
Godhead is with you! Your have not to cry aloud like Baal's priests, or
cut yourself with knives that you may attract His eye, for He says, "I
am with you." He hears your sighs. He puts your tears into His bottle.
"I am with you."
And you have not only His Presence, but His sympathy! He means, "I am
feeling with you, suffering with you. If there is a load, I bear it
with you. If there is work to do, I will work with you." You are
workers, together, with God. Beloved, said I not rightly that I can
never open up all this to you? Roll it under your tongue as a sweet
morsel and if it goes down into your inward parts it shall not be
bitter, but still sweeter! "I am with you." Oh, the richness of this
special blessing! How precious it must have seemed as it came to Jacob
in that den of a place, where he lay with the hedges for his curtains,
the heavens for his canopy, the earth for his bed, stones for his
pillow and God for his companion! "I am with you."
Tomorrow, when you shall open your eyes, you will look back to the west
and say, "I have left my father's house and my mother, Rebecca, behind
me." And the tears will be in your eyes and you will look to the east
and say, "I am going to the house of my mother's kindred and I know
them not, except that I have heard concerning Uncle Laban that he is
hard and grasping. And I know not how he will receive me." But is not
that a precious thing to start upon a journey with–"I am with you"–I,
the Ever-Blessed? Though your mother is not with you, "I am with you."
Is there any young friend here who is leaving home? Are you going away
for the first time and do you feel sad? Or are you about to emigrate to
a distant country and your heart feels heavy? Do not go at all till you
can get a hold of this–"I am with you."
Say unto the Lord, "If Your Spirit goes not with me, carry me not up
from here." Wait till He gives the answer, "My Spirit shall go with you
and I will give you rest." This ought to be the blessing of your
opening life, "I am with you." Is God with you tonight? Can God be with
you? Souls come to service, after having quarreled with their wives and
families. God is not with them. People who are following evil trades
and living evil lives, rejecting the Gospel–God cannot be with them.
"Can two walk together except they are agreed?" If you are a Believer
in Christ and the Spirit of God has produced in you the true fruits of
the Spirit, then you may say, "He is with me," but not else.
Now turn to the 31st chapter of Genesis, at the third verse, and read
these words, "I will be with you." We will call this FUTURE BLESSING.
It is almost unnecessary to take this second text, for if it is
written, "I am with you," you may depend upon it that He will be with
us, for God does not forsake His people! Some people believe in a God
who loves today and hates tomorrow; who pardons sin and yet,
afterwards, condemns. Such a God is not my God! My God is
unchangeable–
"Whom once He loves He ne ver leaves, But loves them to the end."
"I am God; I change not: Therefore you sons of Jacob Are not consumed."
Poor Jacob had been living with Laban and had passed through many
messes and troubles. It was time that he should receive the word of
blessing over again. We read that, "Jacob beheld the countenance of
Laban and, behold, it was not toward him as before." He had begun to
take root in the worldling's portion and was willing to stay away from
the promised land and build up a family among his worldly connections.
But the Lord practically said to him, "This is not your rest." Laban's
sons begin to growl as they see how their brother-in-law's flocks have
increased and, therefore, the time has come for Jacob to go. Jacob does
not like it. He never did like moving. Family connections, a host of
children and a mighty crowd of cattle made a removal a great
undertaking.
Then the Lord said to him, "I will be with you." As much as to say, "I
will be more with you in Canaan than I ever have been in this place,
which is not the land of promise. I will give you My special Presence
if you will get away into the place of the separated life and walk with
Me as your father Isaac did." It was very sweet, many years ago, to
some of us to hear the Lord say, "I am with you," and to know that it
was true, for, "truly, our fellowship was with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ." But it may, at this hour, be very opportune if the
Lord should renew His promise to us by saying, "I will be with you."
You are commencing a new form of life. You are entering on new trials.
You are undertaking new duties. And now comes in the new promise, "I
will be with you." If those upon whom you had a right to rely have
turned against you. If those who were really indebted to you have
become envious of you–"yet, nevertheless," says God–"I will be with
you." Jacob's journey was to be a very venturous one. He knew that
Laban would not like it and, probably, would pursue him. But God says,
"Go, and I will be with you." He knew, also, that his brother Esau
would be pretty sure to take vengeance upon him for the sorry trick he
had played on him and that touched his conscience.
Jacob feared and trembled, but God said, "I will be with you." The most
plain road in the world is wrong if God does not bid us take it! And
the roughest and most unpromising way will turn out to be safe and
right if God commands our journey. Jonah thought it was all right to go
to Tarshish, but God was not with him, and he came back by a route
which he never expected to follow. If you go your own road, I wish you
may be fortunate enough to meet with as good a return conveyance as
Jonah did, for you will certainly have to come back! But if the road is
ever so rough, if it is God's road, you shall run over it like a young
roe!
God will make your feet like hinds' feet and you shall tread upon your
high places. "Your shoes shall be iron and brass; and as your days, so
shall your strength be." Only mind that you follow a road in which God
can be with you, for there are some ways in which God will never be
found. He cannot walk in the ways of sin, or worldliness, or
self-seeking–if we choose these, we must go alone. See, then, the
promised mercy, and rejoice in it! Go forward, dear child of God, if
the pillar of cloud is moving, without the slightest hesitancy, and let
this be your joy and comfort– "Certainly, I will be with you. In all
places wherever you go, I will be with you."
III. I need to go a step farther and come, in the third place, to
EXPERIENCED BLESSINGS. Let us look at Jacob's experience. Did Jacob
find God to be with him? He had a long life and a tried one. He was a
man that knew a great deal and men that know a great deal are doubly
likely to meet with great trouble. Cunning, wise, crafty, prudent,
self-reliant people frequently flounder out of one slough into another.
Above all things, I should dread being partners with a man that is
overly wise, for such men either make fools of themselves, or else they
have to sleep with one eye open. Jacob's cunning was a liability to him
in the long run.
Abraham was simple as a child. He believed God and never stooped to
trickery and, therefore, his life was a noble one. Jacob was a very
wise person, the kind of gentleman to have made a financier, or the
manager of a company. He was a rare man of business. In fact, he was
the father of the Jews and that is saying a great deal. Yet because of
his sharpness, he was often robbed. And through his cunning he was
overreached. And he did not, after all, so much enjoy life and was
neither so rich nor so happy as his simple-minded grandfather, Abraham.
We will, however, hear what Jacob has to say about these two gracious
words of God, "I am with you," and, "I will be with you."
Turn to the 31st chapter, again, and read the fifth verse. Up to as far
as the time that he was about to leave Laban, he says, "The God of my
father has been with me." I have read that testimony with great joy! I
thought of Jacob thus–
Well, you certainly were not eminent for Grace while with Laban. You
were plotting and scheming–you against Laban and Laban against
you–and yet your witness is, "The God of my father has been with me."
This is all the more encouraging coming from you! Jacob seems to say of
his God–It was He that gave me my wife and my children. It was He that
prospered me in the teeth of those who tried to rob me. The God of my
father has been with me, notwithstanding all my shortcomings." I trust
that some of you can bear the same witness. Though you have not been
all that you could wish in the Christian life, yet you can say, "The
God of my father has been with me."
Now, we will look at him a little further on, in the 35th chapter and
the third verse. There we shall find him saying– "Let us arise, and go
up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me
in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." As
I have already said, he left Laban's house and it was a very
venturesome journey, but God was with him! Jacob tells us that it was
so. Poor Jacob was full of fear when he heard that Esau was coming to
meet him. You can see that by the way in which he divided his flocks
and his herds–and set apart so large a present for Esau.
But God does not leave His people because of their fears. I am so
thankful for that! If He were to cast us off because of our unbelief,
is there one of us who would not have been cast off long ago? There was
Peter walking on the waters with a brave faith–was not Christ with
him? Yes, or else he could not have stood on the wave at all. By-and-by
his faith failed him and down went Peter! But did Christ give him up
and say, "You shall die! According to your unbelief shall it be unto
you"? No, there is not such a word as that in the Bible. But it is
written, "According to your faith shall it be unto you." Jesus
stretched out His hand and grasped sinking Peter, saying, "O you of
little faith, why did you doubt?"
So, though you may grieve the Lord by doubting and fearing, and though
you ought to be ashamed of yourself for so doing, still, He will not
forsake you! If there is faith in your heart, though it is but little,
you shall have to say, in spite of your doubts and fears, "The Lord was
with me in the days of my distress and was with me in the ways which I
went." There was a night of wrestling with Jacob. His faith enabled him
to draw near to God in mighty prayer and his fear made him the more
desperate and importunate. He said, "I will not let You go except you
bless me." Though he had to be importunate, yet it was not because God
was against him, but because God was with him, for he that can exercise
importunate prayer proves that God is with him strengthening him thus
to supplicate. His wrestling ended in his victory!
On that day, too, I have no doubt, Jacob was very much cast down
because he remembered his sin. He knew he had treated Esau badly and
robbed him of the blessing. But, for all that, he came with a repentant
heart to submit himself before his brother and to do what he could to
please him. Because of this, God was with him. Oh, in that day, dear
child of God, when you remember your faults and your heart is heavy, do
not think that the Lord has left you! It is one token that He is with
you–that He makes you confess your sin–and humble yourself before
Him. Still believe in Him; still hear His Word and you shall have to
say, "He was with me in the ways which I went."
At the close of his life, we find Jacob more fully than ever confessing
that the Presence of God had been with him. I read you the passage
where he wished that the God that had been with him might be with his
grandsons in the same way–the 48th chapter, at the 15th and 16th
verses–"He blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto
this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads."
There is his last testimony to the faithfulness of God. He had lost
Rachel–oh, how it stung his heart–but he says, "God redeemed me from
all evil."
There had come a great famine in the land, but he says that God had fed
him all his life long. He had lost Joseph and that had been a great
sorrow. But now, in looking back, he sees that even then God was
redeeming him from all evil! He said once, "Joseph is not, and Simeon
is not, and you will take Benjamin away; all these things are against
me." But now he eats his words and says, "The Lord has redeemed me from
all evil." He now believes that God had been always with him, had fed
him always, redeemed him always and blessed him always. Now, mark you,
if you trust in God, this shall be your verdict at the close of life.
When you come to die, you shall look back upon a life which has not
been without its trials and its difficulties, but you shall bless God
for it all–and if there is any one thing in life for which you will
have to praise God more than for another, it will probably be that very
event which seems darkest to you! Did God ever do a better thing for
Jacob than when He took Joseph away and sent him to Egypt to preserve
the whole family? It was the severest trial of the poor old
man's life and yet the brightest blessing, after all! Can you not
believe it? Inside that hard-shelled nut there is the sweetest kernel
that you have tasted! Rest assured of that.
Your Father's rumbling wagons have awakened you out of sleep and you
are frightened by them, but they are loaded with ingots of gold! You
have never been so rich as you will be after your great trouble shall
have passed away!
IV. It is time for me to conclude and I do so by bringing before you,
in the fourth place, one more word of blessing. We have had present
blessing. We have had future blessing. We have had experienced blessing
three times over. And now we go to TRANSMITTED BLESSING, for we find
Jacob transmitting the blessing to his son and to his grandsons. Read
in the 48th chapter, at the 21st verse–
"Behold I die: but God shall be with you." I commenced by noticing the
blessing which passed on from Abraham to Isaac. And now we see that
Jacob hands it on to Joseph, to Manasseh and to Ephraim–"I die: but
God shall be with you."
Some of you, perhaps, are thinking, "We are getting near the end of
life. We have children, but they are not all converted, yet, and those
that are, it may be, are dependent upon us–what will become of them?"
Do you think God will leave your children? Can't you trust them with
Him? What did your father do with his son? One after another the former
generations have passed away and the Lord has been faithful to their
successors! Do you think He will not be faithful to those who come
next? You have brought up your children in His fear. You have rested
upon His name and, therefore, you may say to them, "I die: but God
shall be with you."
The time will come when we who are ministers shall be taken away from
our beloved work on earth and we cannot help thinking about the dear
friends who hang upon our lips and depend upon our ministry. It is well
for us to look a little forward and say, "I die: but God shall be with
you." My venerated predecessor, Dr. Rippon, many a time prayed for his
successor. I am sure he did not know who his successor was to be, for I
was born about the time when he was dying! But, doubtless, I inherited
that good man's prayers. I am sure I did. "I die," the old man might
have said, "but God shall be with you."
The Church at New Park Street thought it an awful thing for the old
gentleman to die. But he would have been of no service to us if he had
remained here forever. And so it will be, by-and-by, that people will
say, "What will the Tabernacle people do if they lose their minister?"
It will probably be the greatest of blessings when it happens! Many
good men have clung to their places longer than they should have
done–and have pulled down much that they had built up. It is well when
the Lord says to such, "Friend, come up higher." We may look forward,
each one, to leaving our class, or to leaving the Church over which we
watch, or to leaving the great work over which we preside and we may
say, "I die: but God shall be with you." God is not limited to one
minister or 50 ministers! When we are gone, God will be with you!
They used to say of our dear friend, George Muller, "What will become
of the Orphanage when Mr. Muller is laid aside?" When I was speaking to
him, he said to me, "That was a question which I felt George Muffler
had nothing to do with. God will use George Muller as long as He likes.
And when He chooses to put him aside, He will use somebody else." And
now, mark, George Muller is not at Bristol! I believe he is, at this
present moment, preaching in America. He has been all over Europe
preaching and the Orphanage has had very little of his personal
presence–and yet it has gone on without George Muller so far!
Such a fact tends to answer man's idle questions. Blessed be the
everlasting God–if Abraham dies, there is Isaac! And if Isaac dies,
there is Jacob! And if Jacob dies, there is Joseph! And if Joseph dies,
Ephraim and Manasseh survive! The Lord shall never lack a champion to
bear His standard high among the sons of men! Only let us pray God to
raise up more faithful ministers. That ought to be our prayer day and
night. We have plenty of a sort, but, oh, for more that will weigh out
16 ounces to the pound of Gospel in such a way that people will receive
it! We have too much of fine language; too much of florid eloquence and
too little full and plain Gospel preaching! But God will keep up the
Apostolic succession, never fear for that!
When Stephen is dying, Paul is not far off. When Elijah is taken up, he
leaves his mantle behind him. "I die: but God shall be with you." Take
comfort, dear Friends, and may His Spirit be with you, through Jesus
Christ, His dear Son, whose name is Christ, His dear Son, whose name is
"Emmanuel"–God With Us. Amen.
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The Main Matter