The Covenant

The Covenant

(No. 3261)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1911.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"He will ever be mindful of His Covenant." Psalm 111:5.

[Another Sermon by C. H. Spurgeon upon the same text, is #2681, Volume
56–Covenant Blessings.]

IT is an amazing thing that God should enter into gracious Covenant
with men. That He should make man and be gracious to man is easily to
be conceived, but that He should strike hands with his nature and put
His august majesty under bond to him by His own promise is marvelous!
Once let me know that God has made a Covenant and I do not think it
amazing that He should be mindful of it, for He is "God that cannot
lie." "Has He said, and shall He not do it?" Has He once given His
pledge? It is inconceivable that He should ever desert from it. The
doctrine of the text commends itself to every reasonable and thoughtful
man–if God has made a Covenant, He will ever be faithful of it. It is
to that point that I would now call your attention with the desire to
use it practically.

For God to make a gracious Covenant with us is so great a gift that I
hope everyone here is saying within his heart, "Oh, that the Lord had
entered into Covenant with me!"

We shall practically look into this matter, first, by answering the
question, What is this Covenant? Secondly, by putting the enquiry, Have
I any portion in it? And, thirdly, by bidding each one say, "If,
indeed, I am in Covenant with God, then every part of that Covenant
will be carried out, for God is ever mindful of it."

I. First, then, WHAT IS THIS COVENANT?

If you go to a lawyer and enquire how a deed runs, he may reply, "I can
give you an abstract, but I had better read it to you." He can tell you
the sum and substance of it, but if you want to be very accurate–and
it is a very important business–you will say, "I would like to hear it
read." We will now read certain parts of Scripture which contain the
Covenant of Grace, or an abstract of it. Turn to Jeremiah
31:31-34–"Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new
Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not
according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;
which My Covenant they broke, although I was an Husband unto them, says
the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put My Law in
their inward parts and write it in their hearts; and will be their God
and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they
shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,
says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sin no more."

Print every word of that in diamonds, for the sense is inconceivably
precious! God in Covenant promises to His people that instead of
writing His law upon tablets of stone, He will write it on the tablets
of their hearts. Instead of the Law of God coming on a hard, crushing
command, it shall be placed within themas the object of love and
delight, written on the transformed nature of the beloved objects of
God's choice! "I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in
their hearts"–what a Covenant privilege this is! "And I will be their
God." Therefore all that there is in God shall belong to them. "And
they shall be My people." They shall belong to Me. I will love them as
Mine. I will keep them, bless them, honor them and provide for them as
My people. I will be their portion and they shall be My portion.

Note the next privilege. They shall all receive heavenly instruction
upon the most vital point–"They shall all know Me." There may be some
things they do not know, but "they shall all know Me." They shall know
Me as their Father. They shall know Jesus Christ as their Brother. They
shall know the Holy Spirit as their Comforter. They shall have com-

munion and fellowship with God! What a Covenant privilege is this!
Hence comes pardon, "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more." What a clean sweep of sin! God will
forgive and forget–the two go together. "I will forgive their iniquity
and I will remember their sin no more." All gone–all their
transgression blotted out, never to be mentioned against you again,
forever! What an unutterable favor! This is the Covenant of Grace! I
call your attention to the fact that there is no, "if," in it! There is
no, "but," in it–there is no requirement made by it of man. It is all,
"I will," and, "they shall." "I will be their God, and they shall be My
people." It is a charter written in a royal tone and the majestic
straining not marred by a "perhaps" or a "maybe"–but dwells always on,
"shall," and, "will." These are two prerogative words of the Divine
Majesty and in this wondrous deed of gift in which the Lord bestows a
Heaven of Grace upon guilty sinners, He bestows it after the
Sovereignty of His own will without anything to put the gift in
jeopardy, or to make the promise insecure! Thus I have read the
Covenant to you in one form.

Turn over the pages a little and you will come to a passage in Ezekiel.
There we shall have the bright-eyed Prophet–he who could live among
the wheels and the seraphim–telling us what the Covenant of Grace is.
In Ezekiel, the 11th Chapter, 19th and 20th verses, we read, "I will
put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of
their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in
My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them; and they shall be My
people, and I will be their God."

You will find another form of it further on in the 36th of Ezekiel,
beginning at the 25th verse. How intently ought you to listen to this!
It is a deal better than hearing any preaching of mortal men to listen
to the very words of God's own Covenant–a Covenant which saves all
those who are concerned in it! Unless you have an interest in it, you
are, indeed, unhappy. Let us read it–"Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean; from all your filthiness and from all
your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a
new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put
My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you
shall keep My judgments, and do them…And you shall be My people, and
I will be your God." This promise always come in at the close, "I will
be your God." In this form of the Covenant, I call you again to witness
that God demands nothing, asks no price, demands no payment–but to the
people with whom He enters into Covenant, He makes promise after
promise, all free, all unconditional, all made according to the bounty
of His royal heart!

Let us go into a little detail about this. God has made a Covenant with
certain people that He will do all this for them–and in each case it
is of pure Grace. He will take away their own hearts–it is clear from
the promise that when He began with them, they had stony hearts. He
will forgive their iniquities–when He began with them, they had many
iniquities. He will give them a heart of flesh–when He began with
them, they had not a heart of flesh. He will turn them to keep His
statutes–when He began with them, they did not keep His statutes. They
were a sinful, willful, wicked, degenerate people and He called to them
many times to come to Him and repent–but they would not. Here He
speaks like a king and no longer pleads, but decrees! He says, I will
do this and that to you and you shall be this and this in return. Oh,
blessed Covenant! Oh, mighty, Sovereign Grace!

How came it about? Learn the Doctrine of the two Covenants.

The first Covenant of which we will now speak was that of Works, the
Covenant made with our first father, Adam. This is not first in
purpose, but it was first revealed in time. It ran thus–You, Adam, and
your posterity shall live and be happy if you will keep My Law. To test
your obedience to Me, there is a certain tree–if you let it alone, you
shall live. If you touch it, you shall die, and they whom you represent
shall die.

Our first Covenant head snatched greedily at the forbidden fruit and
fell–and what a Fall was there, my Brothers and Sisters! There you and
I, and all of us, fell down while it was proven once and for all that
by works of the Law no man can be justified! For if perfect Adam broke
the Law so readily, depend upon it, you and I would break any Law that
God had ever made! There was no hope of happiness for any of us by a
Covenant which contained an, "if," in it. That Old Covenant is put
away, for it has utterly failed. It brought nothing to us but a
curse–and we are glad that it has waxed old and, as far as Believers
are concerned, has vanished!

Then there came the Second Adam. You know His name, He is the
ever-blessed Son of the Highest. This Second Adam entered into Covenant
with God somewhat after this fashion–The Father said, I give You a
people; they shall be

Yours: You must die to redeem them and when You have done this–when
for their sakes You have kept My Law and made it honorable–when for
their sakes you have borne My wrath against their transgressions–then
I will bless them. They shall be My people. I will forgive their
iniquities. I will change their natures. I will sanctify them and make
them perfect. There was an apparent, "if," in this Covenant at the
first. That "if" hinged upon the question whether the Lord Jesus would
obey the Law and pay the ransom–a question which His faithfulness
placed beyond doubt! There is no "if" in it, now. When Jesus bowed His
head and said, "It is finished," there remained no "if in the Covenant!
It stands, therefore, now as a Covenant entirely of one side, a
Covenant of promises–of promises which must be kept because the other
portion of the Covenant having been fulfilled–the Father's side of it
must stand! He cannot and He will not draw back from the doing of that
which He covenanted with Christ to do! The Lord Jesus shall receive the
joy which was set before Him. "He shall see of the travail of His soul,
and shall be satisfied." By His knowledge shall the Christ who became
God's righteous Servant justify many, for has He not borne their
iniquities? How can it be otherwise than that they should be accepted
for whom He was the Surety? Do you see why it is that the Covenant, as
I have read it, stands so absolutely without, "ifs," "buts," and,
"perhapses," and runs only on, "shalls," and, "wills"? It is because
the one side of it that did look uncertain was committed into the hands
of Christ, who cannot fail or be discouraged! He has completed His part
of it and now it stands fast and must stand fast forever and ever! This
is now a Covenant of pure Grace and nothing else but Grace! Let no man
attempt to mix up works with it, or anything of human merit! God saves
now because He chooses to save–and over the head of us all there comes
a sound as of a martial trumpet and yet with a deep, inner peaceful
music in it–"I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion." God observes us all
lost and ruined and, in His Infinite Mercy, comes with absolute
promises of Divine Grace to those whom He has given to His Son Jesus.

So much, then, with regard to the Covenant.

II. Now comes the important question, "HAVE I ANY PORTION IN IT?" May
the Holy Spirit help us to ascertain the Truth of God on this point!
You who are really anxious in your hearts to know, I would earnestly
persuade to read the Epistle to the Galatians. Read that Epistle
through if you want to know whether you have any part or lot in the
Covenant of Grace. Did Christ fulfill the Law for me? Are the promises
of God, absolute and unconditional, made to me? You can know by
answering three questions.

First, Are you in Christ? Did you not notice that I said that we were
all in Adam and in Adam we all fell? Now, "as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so, by the obedience of One shall many be made
righteous." Are you in the Second Adam? You certainly were in the first
one, for so you fell! Are you in the Second? Because if you are in Him,
you are saved in Him! He has kept the Law for you. The Covenant of
Grace made with Him was made with you if you are in Him, for as surely
as Levi was in the loins of Abraham when Melchisedec met him, so were
all Believers in the loins of Christ when He died upon the Cross! If
you are in Christ, you are a part and parcel of the Seed to whom the
promise was made–but there is only one seed, and the Apostle tells
us–"He says not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of One, And to your
Seed, which is Christ." If, then, you are in Christ, you are in the
Seed–and the Covenant of Grace was made with you!

I must ask you another question. Have you faith? By this question you
will be helped to answer the previous one, for Believers are in Christ.
In the Epistle to the Galatians, you will find that the mark of those
who are in Christ is that they believe in Christ. The mark of all that
are saved is not confidence in work, but faith in Christ. In the
Epistle to the Gala-tians, Paul insists upon it, "The just shall live
by faith," and the Law is not of faith. Over and over again he puts it
so. Come, then, do you believe in Jesus Christ with all your heart? Is
He your sole hope for Heaven? Do you lean your whole weight, the entire
stress of your salvation, on Jesus? Then you are in Him and the
Covenant is yours–and there is not a blessing which God has decreed to
give but what He will give to you! There is not a gift which out of the
grandeur of His heart, He has determined to bestow upon His elect but
what He will bestow it upon you! You have the mark, the seal, the badge
of His chosen if you believe in Christ Jesus!

Another question should help you. It is this–Have you been born-again?
I refer you again to the Epistle to the Ga-latians which I would like
every anxious person to read through very carefully. There you will see
that Abraham had two sons. One of them was born according to the flesh.
He was Ishmael, the child of the bondwoman. Though he was the firstborn
son, he was not the heir, for Sarah said to Abraham, Cast out this
bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir
with my son, even with Isaac." He who was born after the flesh did not
inherit the Covenant promise! Is your hope of Heaven fixed on the fact
that you had a good mother and father? Then your hope is born after the
flesh and you are not in the Covenant! I am constantly hearing it said
that children of godly parents do not need converting. Let me denounce
that wicked lie! "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and
nothing better! They that are born after the flesh–those are not the
children of God! Do not trust in gracious descent, or in holy
ancestors! You must be born-again, every one of you, or you will perish
forever, whoever your parents may be! Abraham had another son, even
Isaac–he was not born of the strength of his father, nor after the
flesh at all–for we are told that both Abraham and Sarah had become
old. Isaac was born by God's power according to promise. He was the
child given by Grace. Now, have you ever been born like that–not by
human strength but by Divine Power? Is the life that is in you a life
given by God? The true life is not of the will of man, nor of blood,
nor of natural excellence–it comes by the working of the Holy Spirit
and is of God. If you have this life, you are in the Covenant, for it
is written, "in Isaac shall your Seed be called." The children of the
promise, these are counted for the seed. God said to Abraham, "In your
Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," and that was
because He meant to justify the Gentiles by faith, that the blessing
given to believing Abraham might come on all Believers! Abraham is the
father of the faithful, or the father of all them that believe in
God–and with such is the Covenant established.

Here, then, are the test questions–Am I in Christ? Am I believing in
Jesus? Am I born by the power of the Spirit of God according to the
promise, and not by the fleshly birth, or according to works? Then I am
in the Covenant! My name stands in the eternal record! Before the stars
began to shine, the Lord had covenanted to bless me. Or before evening
and morning made the first day, my name was in His Book of Life.
Christ, before the world's foundation, struck hands with the Father in
the council chamber of eternity and pledged Himself to redeem me and to
bring me and multitudes of others into His eternal Glory! And He will
do it, too, for He never breaks His suretyship engagements any more
than the Father breaks His Covenant engagements! I want you to get
quite sure upon these points, for oh, what peace it will breed in your
soul, what a restfulness of heart to understand the Covenant and to
know that your name is in it!

III. This is our last point. If, indeed, we can believe upon the good
evidence of God's Word–that we are of the Seed with whom the Covenant
was made in Christ Jesus–then EVERY BLESSING OF THE COVENANT WILL COME
TO US. I will put it a little more personally–every blessing of the
Covenant will come to you!

The devil says, "No, it, won't." Why not, Satan? "Why," he says, "you
are not able to do this or that." Refer the devil to the text! Tell him
to read those passages which I read to you and ask him if he can spy
an, "if," or a, "but," for I cannot. "Oh," he says, "but, but, but,
but, but you cannot do enough, you can't feelenough." Does it say
anything about feeling there? It only says, "I will give them a heart
of flesh." They will feel enough then! "Oh, but," the devil says, "you
cannot soften your hard heart." Does it say that you are to do so? Does
it not say, "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh"? The tenor
of it is–I will do it. I WILL DO IT. The devil dares not say that God
cannot do it–he knows that God can enable us to tread him under our
feet. "Oh, but," he says, "you will never hold on your way if you begin
to be a Christian." Does it say anything about that in the Covenant
further than this, "they shall walk in My statutes"? What if we have
not power in and of ourselves to continue in God's statutes? Yet He has
power to make us continue in them! He can work obedience and final
perseverance in holiness in us. His Covenant virtually promises these
blessings to us. To came back to what we said before–God does not ask
of us, but He gives to us! He sees us dead and He loves us even when we
are dead in trespasses and sins! He sees us feeble and unable to help
ourselves–and He comes in and works in us to will and to do of His
good pleasure–and then we work out our own salvation with fear and
trembling. The bottom of it, the very foundation of it, is Himself! And
He finds nothing in us to help Him. There is neither fire nor wood in
us, much less the lamb for the burnt offering–all is emptiness and
condemnation! He comes in with, "I will," and, "you shall," like a
royal helper affording free aid to destitute, helpless sinners,
according to the riches of His Grace! Now be sure that, having made
such a Covenant as this, God will ever be mindful of it!

He will do so, first, because He cannot lie. If He says He will, He
will. His very name is "God That Cannot Lie." If I am in Christ, I must
be saved–none can prevent it. If I am a Believer in Christ, I must be
saved–all the devils in Hell cannot stop it, for God has said, "He
that believes in Him is not condemned." "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved." God's word is not, yes, and, no. He knew what
He said when He spoke the Covenant and He has never changed it, nor
contradicted it. If, then, I am a Believer, I must be saved, for I am
in Christ to whom the promise is made! If I have

the new Life in me, I must be saved, for is not this spiritual Life the
living and incorruptible Seed which lives and abides forever? Did not
Jesus say, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life"? I have drunk the water
Christ gave me and it must spring up into everlasting life! It is not
possible for death to kill the Life that God has given me, nor for all
the fallen spirits to tread out the Divine fire which Christ's own
Spirit has cast into my bosom! I must be saved, for God cannot deny
Himself!

Next, God made the Covenant freely. If He had not meant to keep it, He
would not have made it. When a man is driven up into a corner by
someone who says, "Now you must pay me," then he is apt to promise more
than he can perform. He solemnly declares, "I will pay you this day
fortnight." Poor fellow, he has no money, now, and will not have any
then, but he makes a promise because he cannot help himself. No such
necessity can be imagined with our God! The Lord was under no
compulsion–He might have left men to perish because of sin–there was
no one to prompt Him to make the Covenant of Grace, or even to suggest
the idea! "With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him?" He made
the Covenant of His own royal will and, having made it, rest you sure
that He will never run back from it! A Covenant so freely made must be
fully carried out.

Moreover, on the Covenant document there is a seal Did you see the
seal? The grand thing in a deed of gift is the signature or seal. What
is this–this red splash at the bottom of it? It is blood! Yes, it is
blood. Whose blood? It is the blood of the Son of God! This has
ratified and sealed the Covenant. Jesus died. Jesus' death has made the
Covenant sure! Can God forget the blood of His dear Son, or do despite
to His Sacrifice? Impossible! All for whom He died as a Covenant
Substitute He will save! His redeemed shall not be left in captivity,
as if the ransom price had effected nothing. Has He not said, "All that
the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and he that comes to Me I will in
no wise cast out"? That Covenant stands secure, though earth's old
columns bow, for despite to the blood can never be possible on the part
of the Father.

Again, God delights in the Covenantand so we are sure He will not run
back from it. It is the very joy of His holy heart! He delights to do
His people good. To pass by transgression, iniquity and sin is the
recreation of Jehovah! Did you ever hear of God singing? It is singular
that the Divine One should solace Himself with song, but yet a Prophet
has thus revealed the Lord to us, "He will rest in His love; He will
joy over you with singing." The Covenant is the heart of God written
out in the blood of Jesus–and since the whole Nature of God runs
parallel with the tenor of the Everlasting Co-venant–you may rest
assured that even its jots and its tittles stand secure!

And then, last of all, O you who are in the Covenant, do not doubt that
God will save you, keep you, bless you seeing you have believedon
Jesus, are inJesus and are quickened into newness of life! You dare not
doubt if I tell you one thing more–if your father, if your brother, if
your dearest friend had solemnly stated a fact, would you bear for
anybody to say that he lied? I know you would be indignant at such a
charge! But suppose your father, in the most solemn manner, had taken
an oath–would you for a minute think that he had perjured himself and
had sworn a lie? Now turn to the Word of God and you will find that
God, because He knew that an oath among men is the end of strife, has
been pleased to seal the Covenant with an oath. "That by two Immutable
things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a
strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us." God has lifted His hand to Heaven and sworn that Christ
shall have the reward of His passion, that His purchased ones shall be
brought under His sway, that having borne sin and put it away, it never
shall be a second time charged on His redeemed!

There is all of it. Do you believe in Christ? Then God will work in you
to will and do of His good pleasure! God will conquer your sin! God
will sanctify you! God will save you! God will keep you! God will bring
you to Himself at last! Rest on that Covenant and then, moved by
intense gratitude, go forward to serve your Lord with all your heart,
and soul and strength! Being saved, live to praise Him! Work not that
you may be saved, but becauseyou are saved–the Covenant has secured
your safety! Delivered from the servile fear which an Ishmael might
have known, live the joyous life of an Isaac! And moved by love of the
Father, spend and be spent for His sake! If the selfish hope of winning
Heaven by works has moved some men to great sacrifice, much more shall
the godly motive of gratitude to Him who has done all this for us move
us to the noblest service and make us feel that it is no sacrifice at
all! "We thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead. And
that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again."
"You are not your own, you are bought with a price." If you are saved
under the Covenant of Grace, the mark of the covenanted ones is upon
you and the sacred character of the covenanted ones should be displayed
in you! Bless and magnify your Covenant God! Take the cup of the
Covenant and call upon His name! Plead the promises of the Covenant and
have whatever you need! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JEREMIAH31:1-22.

Verse 1. At the same time, says the LORD, willIbe the God ofall the
families ofIsrael, and theyshall be Mypeople. During the Israelites'
banishment to Babylon, God's Covenant with them had been, as it were,
in abeyance. But in this promise of their restoration, He brings it to
the front, again, and He gives a peculiarly gracious turn to it–"I
will be the God of all the families of Israel." What a mercy it is to
have a family God and to have our whole family in Christ! Brothers and
Sisters, you have a family Bible and you have, I hope, a family
altar–may your whole family belong to

God!

2. Thus says the LORD, the people which were left of the sword found
Grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest
Pharaoh tried to kill Israel. When he drew his sword, it looked as if
the whole nation would be slain. But God got them away from Pharaoh
into the wilderness–and there He caused them to rest. God still has a
people whom He will certainly save and the adversary shall not be able
to destroy them. Now comes this glorious verse–

3. 4. The LORD has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes, I have loved
you with an everlasting love: therefore with

loving kindness have I drawn you. [See Sermons #1914, Volume 32–SECRET
DRAWINGS GRACIOUSLY EXPLAINED; #2149, Volume 36– EVERLASTING LOVE
REVEALED and #2880, Volume 50–NEW TOKENS OF ANCIENT LOVE.] Again I
will build you and you shall be built Jerusalem was all broken down.
Her houses were vacant and her palaces were in ruins, but God's promise
to her was, "Again I will build you, and you shall be built." If the
preacher tries to rebuild those who are spiritually broken down, his
work may be a failure. But when God does it, it is effectually done.

4. O virgin ofIsrael: you shall again be adorned with your tabrets, and
shall go forth in the dances of them that make merry.God can take away
His people's sorrow and fill them with exultant joy. Their flying feet
shall follow the flying music and they shall be exceedingly glad. May
the Lord make His people joyful, now, in His House of Prayer!

5. You shall yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the
planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. God's people
shall get to work, again, and they shall have the fruit of their toil
and shall rejoice before God because they do not labor in vain nor
spend their strength for nothing.

6. For there shall be a day that the watchmen upon the MountEphraim
shall cry, Arise you, andlet usgo up to Zion unto the LORD our God. The
men of Ephraim did not go up to Zion to worship–they forsook the one
altar at Jerusalem. But the day will come when they will turn again to
the Lord! Watchmen have to be on the lookout for enemies, but the day
will come when even they shall be able to leave their watchtowers and
say, "Let us go up to Zion unto Jehovah our God." Are any of you
watching just now with anxious eyes? Have you been watching all through
the night? Well, you have not seen much and your eyes ache with looking
out for evil–so drop your watching, now, and say, one to another, "Let
us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God."

7. 8. For thus says the LORD, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout
among the chief of the nations, publish you, praise you, and say, O
LORD, save Your people, the remnant ofIsrael Behold, I will bring
them/Notice the prayer and the answer. The prayer is put into our
mouths and before we hardly have time to utter it, the answer comes–"O
Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring
them!"

8. From the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the
earth, and with them the blind and the lame. How can theycome? Will
they help one another? God Himself will be eyes to the blind and feet
to the lame!

8. The woman with child and her that travails with child together: a
great company shall return there. They were not fit for traveling, yet
God, in His great mercy, can make the feeblest of His people strong!
And when He means to bring them to Himself, they shall come even though
it looks as if they could not come!

9. They shall come with weeping.Never mind the weeping, as long as they
do but come, and remember that there is no true faith without the tear
of repentance in its eye–"They shall come with weeping."

9. And with supplications will I lead them. The way of prayer is the
way home to God.

9. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way,
wherein they shall not stumble. Happy are the people who have such
precious promises as these! The way is to be straight and their feet
are to be so firmly planted in it that "they shall not stumble."

9-11. For I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born. Hear
the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar
off and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as
a shepherd does his flock. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob.The secret
of every other blessing is redemption! If God has redeemed, He will
save–depend upon it–the precious blood of Jesus shall never be shed
in vain!

11, 12. And ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. Therefore they shall come. If they are redeemed, "they shall come."
Christ did not die in vain! The redemption that He worked must be
effectual–"therefore they shall come."

12. And sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the
goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the
young of the flock and of the herd.These are all temporal mercies and
it is a great blessing to see God's goodness in them. If God blesses
common mercies, they are blessings, indeed! But without His blessing
they may become idols and so may become curses.

12. And their soul shall be as a watered garden. What a delightful
simile! It is of little use for the body to be fed unless the soul is
also well nourished! "Their soul shall be as a watered garden."

12-14. And they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin
rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn
their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice
from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with
fatness.God will give the spiritual leaders of His people enough and
more than enough–more than they can take in–He will satiate them with
fatness.

14. And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the
LORD.What a delightful promise this is! Listen to it and carry it home,
all of you who are truly the Lord's people.

15. Thus says the LORD, A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and
bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted
for her children, because they were not.There is here a prophetic
allusion to the massacre of the infants by Herod at the time of the
birth of our Lord. It was a time of sorrow, indeed.

16. 17. Thus says the LORD; Refrain your voice from weeping, and your
eyes from tears: for your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD: and
they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in
your end, says the LORD, that your children shall come again to their
own border. As Rachel is represented as weeping for her children, so is
she represented as mourning for the tribes that were carried away into
captivity. Yet is she comforted with the Lord's gracious
assurance–"they shall come again from the land of the enemy." So they
did, and there is to be a glorious future yet for the people of God of
the ancient race of Abraham!

18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus. [See Sermon
#743, Volume 13–ephraim bemoaning himself.] There is never a penitent
in this world bemoaning himself without God hearing him! Do not think
that a single penitential cry ever rises unheeded from a contrite
heart! That cannot be–God has a quick ear for the cries of penitents.

18. You have chastened me, and I was chastened as a bullock
unaccustomed to the yoke."I bore the chastisement, but derived no
benefit from it. I have not repented of my sin, I have not turned unto
You."

18. Turn You me, andlshall be turned, [See Sermon #2104, Volume 35–THE
INNER SIDE OF CONVERSION.] for you are the LORD, my God.If the Lord
undertakes to turn us, we shall be truly turned–that is, converted.

19. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was
instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth.Are there any here
recollecting the past with terror, and lamenting before God because of
their sins? Then hear what God says! He seems to echo the voice of
Ephraim. As Ephraim bemoans himself, God bemoans him!

20. Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? You might expect
the answer to be, "No, he has lost the rights of childhood. He has been
unpleasant and provoking to God." Yet God does not give such an answer
as that to His own questions, but He says–

20. For since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still
Notwithstanding that the Lord threatened him, and sent Prophets to
foretell evil to him because of his sin, yet He says, "I do earnestly
remember him still."

20. Therefore my heart is troubled for him; I will surely have mercy
upon him says the LORD. What a wonderful speech for God to make! Even
the infinitely-blessed God represents Himself as in trouble concerning
penitent sinners, remembering them in pity and longing to have mercy
upon them.

21. Set you up signs, make you high heaps: set your heart toward the
highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin ofIsrael,
turn again to these your cities. In crossing the desert, travelers
raise little mounds of stone that they may be directed on a future
occasion across that pathless sea of sand. And so God bids them set up
signs and make high heaps that they may know how to come back to Him.

22. How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter?God still
asks in pity, "how long will you seek here and there for comfort?" You
will never find it till you come back to your God! Emptiness is written
upon everything till the heart comes to its Savior and Lord!