Fullness of Joy Our Privilege

Fullness of Joy Our Privilege

(No. 3406)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1914.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And these things we write unto you, that your joy may be full." 1 John
1:4.

VERY closely does the Apostle John resemble his Lord in the motive that
prompted him to write this Epistle! You remember how Christ said in His
last discourse to His disciples on the eve of His passion, "These
things have I spoken unto you that your joy may be full"–and how He
counseled them, "Ask and receive that your joy may be full"–and how He
prayed to the Father for them, "that they might have My joy fulfilled
in themselves." Here, then, the beloved disciple, moved by the Spirit
of God, reflects and follows out the same gracious purpose–"These
things we write unto you, that your joy may be full." What an evidence
of our Savior's deep attachment to His people that He is not content
with having made their ultimate salvation sure, but He is anxious
concerning their present state of mind! He delights that His people
should not only be safe, but happy! Not merely saved, but rejoicing in
their salvation! It does not please your Savior for you to hang your
head as the bulrush and go mourning all your days. He would have you
rejoice in Him always and for this end He has made provision and to
this end He has given us precepts. Therefore it appears–

I. THAT THE CHRISTIAN'S JOY NEEDS LOOKING AFTER.

We should not find the Apostle John writing to promote that which, in
the natural order of things, would be sure to occur. In this object of
pastoral anxiety, he seems to include the whole of the Apostolic
College with himself when he says, "These things we write unto you that
your joy might be full," as if your joy would not be full unless
Inspired Apostles should be commissioned of God to further it. Your joy
then, I say, needs looking after. I do not doubt but you have very
suggestive proofs of this, yourselves, in your external circumstances.
You cannot always rejoice because, although your treasure is not in
this world, your affliction is. Poverty will sometimes be too heavy a
cross for you to sing under. Sickness sometimes casts you upon a bed on
which you have not, as yet, learned to rejoice. Losses befall you in
business, failures of hope, forsaking of friends and cruelty of
foes–and any of these may prove like winter nights which nip the green
leaves of your joy and make them fade and fall off your branches. You
cannot always rejoice, but sometimes there is a necessity that you
should be in heaviness through manifold temptations. I suppose none of
you are so perfectly happy as to be without some trial. Your joy will
need to be looked after, then, lest floods should come in and quench
it. You will need to cry to Him who alone can keep its flame burning,
to trim it with fresh oil.

I suppose, too, that you have moods and susceptibilities which make it
no easy matter to maintain perpetual joy. If you have not, I have.
Sometimes there will be deep depression of spirit–you can scarcely
tell why. That strong wing with which you mounted like an eagle will
seem to flap the air in vain. That heart of yours, which once flew
upwards like the lark rising from amidst the dew, will lie cold and
heavy like a stone upon the earth, and you will find it hard to
rejoice.

Besides, sin will stop the beginning of your holy mirth, and when you
would dance for joy, like David before the Ark, some internal
corruption will come to hamper your delight. Ah, Beloved, it is not
easy to sing while you fight. Christian soldiers ought to do it–they
should march to battle with songs of triumph, that their spirits may be
nerved to desperate valor against their inbred corruptions, but
sometimes the garment rolled in blood and the dust, and the turmoil
will stop for awhile the looked for shout of victory. With trials many
and manifold–trials from the thorns and briars of this fallen world,
trials from Satanic suggestions, trials from the uprisings of black
fountains of corruption within your own polluted hearts–you have,
indeed, need that your joy, to keep it full and flowing at high tide,
should be guarded and supplied by an influence above your own–and fed
from a celestial spring!

I dare say you have learned by this time, my Beloved in the Lord Jesus
Christ, how exceedingly necessary it is that this joy of ours should be
abundant. When full of joy, we are more than a match for the adversary
of souls, but when our joy is gone, fear slackens our sinews, and, like
Peter, we may be vanquished by a little maid! When our joy in the Lord
is at its fullest, we can bear that the fig tree should not blossom,
that the herd should be cut off from the stall and the flocks from the
field, but how heavy our sorrows are to bear, how impatient we become
when the chains that link Heaven and earth are disarranged, or the
communication in any way intercepted. If we can see the Savior's face
without a cloud between, then temptation has no power over us, and all
the glittering shams that sin can offer us are eclipsed in their
brilliance by the true gold of spiritual joy which we have in our
possession. Oh, what rapture!–

"I would not change my blest estate

For all that earth calls good or great!

And while my faith can keep her hold,

I envy not the sinner's gold." Thus the Christian, by his holy joy,
outbraves temptation and is strong to endure a martyrdom of vice. Why,
you can do anything when the joy of the Lord is within you! Like a roe
or a young hart, you leapt over the mountains of Bether. The mountains
cannot appall you–you make a stepping-stone across the brook. The
heaviest tempests which lower over you cannot chill nor dampen your
courage, for your song pierces it, and your soul mounts above it all
into the clear blue of fellowship with your God! But when this joy is
gone, then are we weak, like Samson when his hair was shorn. We become
the slaves of temptation and if we do not yield to its treacherous
enticements, at any rate, it harasses us, and so enervates the power
with which we were known to glorify our God. The Christian's joy needs
looking to. If any of you have lost the joy of the Lord, I pray you do
not think it a small loss. I have heard of a minister who said that a
Christian lost nothing by sin–and then he added–"except his joy." And
one replied, "Well, and what else would you have him lose?" That is
quite enough! To lose the light of my Father's Countenance. To lose my
full assurance of interest in Christ. To lose my Heaven below–oh, this
is a loss great enough! Let us walk carefully, let us walk prayerfully
so that we may realize perpetual joy and peace even to the fullest! Let
none of us be content to sit down in misery. There is such a thing as
getting habituated to melancholy. My bias is toward that state of mind,
but, by the Grace of God, I resist it. If we begin to give way to this
foolishness, we shall soon weave forged chains for ourselves which we
cannot readily snap. Take your harp from the willows, Believers. Do not
let your fingers forget the well-known strings. Come, let us praise
Him. If we have looked black in the face for awhile, let us brighten up
with the thoughts of Christ! At any rate, let us not be easy till we
have shaken off this lethargic distemper and once again come into the
normal state of health in which a child of God should be found–that of
spiritual joy!

II. THE CHRISTIAN'S JOY LIES MAINLY IN THINGS REVEALED, otherwise it
would not find its fitting sustenance in Inspired Words.

If the Christian's joy lay in the wine vat and in the barn, in the
landed estate, or the hoarded purse, it would only be necessary that
the vineyard should yield plenteous clusters, that the harvest should
be crowned with abundance, that peace should prevail and trade should
prosper–and forthwith the heritor and the merchant have all that heart
could wish. But the Christian's joy is not touched by these vulgar
things. These commonplace satisfactions do not suit the noble mind of
the Believer! He thanks God for all the bounties of the basket and the
barn, but he cannot feast his soul upon stocks or fruits that perish
with the using. He needs something better! The Apostle John seems to
tell us this when he says, "And these things write I unto you"–nothing
about prosperity in this world, but all about fellowship with
Christ–"And these things we write unto you, that your joy may be
full." From which I infer that everything which is revealed to us in
Scripture has for its intention the filling up of the Christian's joy.

What is Scripture all about, then? Is it not, first and foremost,
concerning Jesus Christ? Take this Book and distil it into one word,
and I will tell you what it is–it is JESUS! All this is but the body
of Christ. I may look upon all these pages as the swaddling-bands of
the infant Savior, and if you unroll Scripture, you come to Jesus
Christ, Himself. Now, Beloved, is not Jesus Christ the sum and summit
of your joy? I hope we do not utter a falsehood when we sing, as it is
our custom–

"Jesus the very thought of Thee, With rapture fills my breast,
Tho'sweeter far Your face to see,

And in Your bosom rest."

Jesus–Man yet God–allied to us in ties of blood. Why, here is mirth!
Here is Christmas all the year round! In the Nativity of the Savior
there is joy for us–the Babe born in Bethlehem–God has taken Man into
communion with Himself! Jesus the Savior–here is release from the
groans of sin! Here is an end to the means of despair! He comes to
break the bars of brass and to cut the gates of iron in sunder–

"Jesus, the name that charms our fears,

That bids our sorrows cease!

'Tis music in the sinner's ears,

'Tis life, 'tis health, 'tispeace!" Scripture, surely, has well taken
its cue! Would it make us joyful, it has done well to make Christ its
head and front.

All the doctrines of the Bible have a tendency, when properly
understood and received, to foster the Christian's joy. Let us mention
one or two of them. There is that ancient, much-abused, but most
delightful Doctrine of Election, that "all worlds before," Jesus
elected His people and looked with eyes of Infinite Love upon them as
He saw them in the glass of futurity. What? Christian, can you believe
yourself "loved with an everlasting love," and not rejoice? Was it not
the Doctrine of Election that made David dance before the Ark? When
Michel sneered at him for dancing, he said, "It was before the Lord who
had chosen me before your father (Saul), and all his house." Surely to
be chosen of God, to be selected from the mass of mankind and made
favorites of the heart of Deity–this ought to make us, in our worst
moments, sing with joy of heart! Oh, that Doctrine of Election! I wish
some of you would acquaint yourselves with it in the Psalmody of the
Church, rather than in the wrangling of the schools! It is a tree that
puts forth its luxuriance in the tropical climate of Divine Love–but
it looks dwarfed and barren in the arctic regions of human logic! Then
there are the Doctrines which like living waters, drop from this sacred
and hidden fountain. Take, for instance, that of Redemption. To be
bought with a price–a price whose efficacy is not questionable–bought
so that we are now the property of Jesus, never to be lost! Bought not
with that general redemption which holds to the sinner's eye a
precarious contingency, but bought with an effectual ransom which saves
every blood-bought sinner because he was redeemed–his own proper self,
of God's own good will! Oh, here is occasion for song!–

"Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God–

He to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood." Can you see the blood-mark on yourself,
and not rejoice? Oh, Christian, surely your joy ought to be full! Or
turn to the Doctrine of Justification and consider how, through faith,
every Believer is "accepted in the Beloved," and stands, wrapped in
Jesus' righteousness, as fair in God's sight as if he had never sinned.
Why, here is a theme for joy! Know and acknowledge your union with
Christ–

"One with Jesus,

By eternal union one!"

Members of His body, "of His flesh, and of His bones," and what?–not a
song after this? How sweet the music ought to be where this is the
theme! Then, too, to mention no more, there is one Doctrine which is
like a handful of pearls–that of Eternal Preservation unto Glory which
is to be revealed at the appearing of Jesus Christ. You are "kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation." You shall be with Him
where He is. You shall behold His Glory. "Whom He justified, them He
also glorified." Oh, can you put on this robe of splendor and go up to
the Throne where Christ has already made you sit representatively in
His own Person, and can you not begin, tonight, your song which shall
never end? Truly we have but to mention a Truth of God and you can
think it over for yourselves–every Doctrine of Revelation is to the
Christian a source of joy!

Well, and every part of Christian experience is to further our joy.
"Why," says one, "all a Christian's experience is not joyful." I grant
you that, but remember that all a Christian's experience is not
Christian experience! Christians experience a great deal which they do
not experience as Christians–but experience it because they are not
such Christians as they ought to be! I believe that much of that
groaning which some people think such a deal of, is rather of the devil
than of the Spirit of God. Certainly that unbelief which some people
seem to look upon as such a precious flower, is rank herbage, never
sown in us by the hand of God the Holy Spirit! Beloved, there is a
mourning which comes from the Spirit of God that is a joyful mourning,
if I may use such a strange expression. Sorrow for sin is sweet sorrow.
I would never wish to miss it. I think Rowland Hill was right when he
said that it would be his only regret in going to Heaven that he could
not repent any more. Oh, repentance, true evangelical repentance, is
not that half-bitter thing which comes from the Law! It is a sweet
genial thing. I do not know, Beloved, when I am more perfectly happy
than when I am weeping for sin at the foot of the Cross! I find that to
be one of the safest and best places where I can stand. I have
sometimes thought that the raptures of Communion I have known are not
altogether so deep–though they may be higher–not, I say, so deep as
the pensive joy of weeping over pardoned sin, when–

"Dissolved by His goodness, I fall to the ground

And weep to the praise of the mercy I've found!" Yes, sorrow for sin is
a part of the Christian's experience which helps to fill his joy. And
though your cares and anxieties, dear Friends, with regard to the
things of this world may be very distressing, yet remember, in every
drop of gall which your Father gives you to drink, there is, if you can
find it, a whole sea of sweetness! God sends you trials to wean you
from the world–a happy result, however grievous the process! Oh, that
I might never desire to suck of the breasts of her consolation anymore!
Oh, to come to Christ, and find my all in Him! Believe me, Beloved, our
joy ends where the love of the world begins. If we had no idols on
earth–if we made neither our children, nor our friends, nor our
wealth, nor ourselves our idols–we should not have half the trials
that we have. Foolish loves make rods for foolish backs. God save us
from these, and when He does, though the means may seem severe, they
are intended to promote our joys by destroying the eggs of our sorrows.
But there is much of a Christian's experience that is all joy, and must
be all joy. For instance, to have faith in Christ, to rest in Him–is
not that joy? To sing from one's heart–

"I know that safe with Him remains,

Protected by His power,

What I've committed to His hands,

Till the decisive hour." Is not that joy? And even that humbler note–

"Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to Your Cross I cling," has the germ of Heaven in it! Truly,
there can be no more delightful place for the soul to stand than close
to the Cross, covered with the crimson drops of blood and clasping
Christ Himself! And then hope is another part of the Christian's
experience. What a fountain of joy it is! We are saved by hope. Sweetly
does the Psalmist express himself, "My soul faints for Your salvation,
but I hope in Your Word." To the followers of Christ there is a full
assurance of hope–"which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil." Above
all things, Christian fellowship is the chief auxiliary of Christian
joy. Read the verse that immediately precedes our text, "That which we
have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have
fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and
with His Son, Jesus Christ." Ah, now we hit the mark! This is the
center of the target. Fellowship with Christ is the summum bonum–it
fills up the measure of joy! All other graces and gifts may help to
fill our cup of blessedness but fellowship with saints in their
fellowship with the Father and the Son–surely this, of itself, must
suffice to fill our vessels to the very brim! Fullness of joy! Did you
ever prove it, my Beloved? I think some of you have. No, I know you
have! You could not have contained more joy–you were full to
overflowing! Do you know that a little joy is healthful? Be it relief
from anxiety, pleasure after pain, or even a cheerful thought in
breasts to sorrow prone. But to have a fullness of joy, joy that
pulsates through our every nerve and paints the entire universe of
God's goodness before our eyes in a meridian glow, this is a myriad of
blessings in one! If I held in my hand a glass, and poured water into
it till it were full, right to the very brim, till it seemed as if the
least touch would make it run over–well, that is how the Christian
sometimes is. "Why," he says, "I could not feel more happy! If anyone
should make me rich, if I could have all that the worldling craves, I
could not be any happier! I am rich to all the intents of bliss since
You, God, are mine." It is not every man that can go home and say,
"There is nothing on earth I want, and there is nothing in Heaven that
I yearn after beyond the endowments my God has already bestowed on me!
"Whom have I in Heaven but You, and who is there upon earth I desire
beside You?" Go, you that pine for joy, and traverse the wide earth
round in fruitless search–my soul sits down at the foot of the Cross
and says, "I have found it here!" Go, like the swallow. Fly across the
purple seas to find another summer now that this is over–my soul would
stop just where she is–living at the foot of the Cross, my sunis in
its solstice, and stands still forever–never stirring, never
moving–without parallax or shadow of a tropic! Evermore the
same–bright and full and glorious! Oh, Christian, this is a blessed
experience! May you know it all your life!

Never doubt, my dear Friends, that every precept in the Word of God is
intended to further the Christian's happiness. When I read the Ten
Commandments, I understand them to be just and salutary directions not
to do myself any harm. The spirit of the Law seems to be benevolent in
its warnings. If I were commanded not to put my finger into the fire,
and did not know that fire would burn, I ought to be thankful for the
prohibition. If I were commanded not to plunge into the sea, not having
known before that the sea would drown me, I should be thankful for the
interdict. God's precepts are designed to enlighten our eyes and
preserve our feet from falling. They forbid what is dangerous, hurtful.
God never denies His servants anything that is really for their good.
His laws are freed-men's rules–they are never fetters to the
Christian. And as for the precepts of our blessed Christianity, they,
every one of them, promote our happiness! Let me take one or two of
them. "Love one another." That is the first. Well, now, when are you
happiest? When you feel spiteful and bitter towards everybody else, or
when you feel charity towards the faulty, and love towards your fellow
servants? I know when I feel best. There are some people who seem to
have been suckled upon vinegar–wherever they go, they always see some
defect. Were there to be men on earth again such as Chrysostom and
others of his day, who have been portrayed in history, or like the
Nazarites of Jeremiah's plaintive hymn, "Purer than snow and whiter
than milk," they would say, "Ah, well, though their reputation is
unsullied, we do not know what they do in secret!–we cannot scan their
motives!" Some people are always in a cynical, suspicious humor, but
they who "love one another" can see much to rejoice in everywhere. We
are told in Scripture to "serve the Lord with diligence," and I am sure
it is "the diligent soul" that is made fat. The do-nothing people are
generally those who say–

"Lord, what a wretched land is this, That yields us no supplies."

It ought to be a wretched land to lazy people! Those that will not
work, neither shall they eat, neither in spiritual things or in
temporal shall they be fed. If, in the winter, you complain of cold,
get to the plow and you will soon be full of warmth! Sit you down,
groan, and complain, and blow on your blue fingers and you shall soon
find the cold will starve you yet more and more. Holy activity is the
mother of holy joy! And growth in Grace, again–why, when is a man
happier than when He grows in Grace? To be at a standstill, to contract
one's self–why, this is misery! To force one's understanding, like a
Chinese foot into a Chinese shoe, is torture! But to have a mind that
is capable of learning, to be able to sometimes say, "There, I was
wrong"–to be able to feel that you know a little more today than you
did yesterday because God, the Holy Spirit has been teaching you, why,
this is joy! This is happiness! This is such as God would have us know!

All the writings of Scripture, whether they are doctrinal,
experimental, or practical, have the drift which John indicates in
these words, "That your joy may be full!" Having thus shown that the
Christian's joy needs looking after and that it is mainly fed upon
things revealed in Scripture, the inference clearly must be that–

III. WE SHOULD CONSTANTLY READ THE SCRIPTURES.

Read the Scriptures in preference to any other book What a deal of
reading there is now-a-days! But how large a proportion of what you
call, "popular literature," is mere chaff-cutting–nothing more! Why, I
am really ashamed to state the fact that I am bound, as a Christian
minister, to denounce. You cannot publish a religious newspaper, or a
religious magazine, as a rule, to make it pay, without a religious
novel in it–and these religious novels are a disgrace to the
Christianity of the 19th Century! People's minds must be in an odd
state when they can eat nothing but these whipped-creams and
syllabubs–for people who would be healthy, should sit down to
something solid, and their stimulants should be consistent with
sobriety. You will never attain the mental growth of men and women by
feeding on such stuff as that! You may make lackadaisical people in the
shape of men and women, but the thinking soul with something in it, the
woman who would serve her God as a true helper to the Christian
ministry, the young man who would proclaim Christ and win souls need
some better nutriment than the poor stuff that modern literature deals
out so plentifully. Oh, my dear Friends, read the Bible in preference
to all such books! They only deprave your taste. If you want these
books, have them. We would not deny pigs their proper food and I would
not deny any person living that which his taste goes after, provided it
does not shock decent morals. I lament the taste rather than the
indulgence of it! If you have a soul that canappreciate the pleasures
of wisdom, eschew the trifles of folly. And if you have been taught to
love verities, and substantial truths, you scarcely need that I should
say, "Search the Scriptures." Search them diligently and frequently!

Prefer the Scriptures to all religious books. In our books and our
sermons–we will say it of all of them–we do our best to give you the
Truth of God, but we are like the gold-beaters whose brazen arms you
can see out over their doors– we get a little bit of gold and we
hammer it out. Some of my Brothers are mighty hands at the craft. They
can hammer out a very small piece of gold so as to cover a whole acre
of talk. But the best of us, those who would seek to bring out the
Doctrines of Grace in love, are poor, poor things. Read the Bible for
yourselves more, and confide less in your glossaries. I would rather
see the whole stock of my sermons in a blaze, all burned to ashes, than
that they should keep anybody from reading the Bible. If they may act
as a finger pointing to certain chapters–"Read this! Read this!"–I am
thankful to have printed them. But if they keep you away from your
Bibles–burn them! Burn them! Do not let them lie on the top of the
Scriptures–put them somewhere at the bottom, for that is their proper
place. So with all sorts of religious books–they are a sort of
mixture–their human thinking dilutes Divine Revelation. Keep to the
Revelation of God, pure and simple.

And, when you read your Bible, read it in earnest. There are several
ways of reading the Bible. There is a skimming over the surface of
it–content with the letter. There is also diving into it and praying
yourselves down deep into the soul of it–that is the way to read the
Bible! Do not always read it one verse at a time. How would Milton's
Paradise Lost be understood if read by little snatches selected at
random? You would never scan the purpose or design of the poem. Read
one book through. Read John's Gospel. Do not read a bit of John and
then a bit of Mark, but read John through, and get at John's drift.
Remember that Matthew, though he wrote of the same Savior as Luke, is
not more various in his style than he is distinct in his aim and, in a
certain sense, independent of the testimony he bears. The four
Evangelists are four separate witnesses, each giving a special
contribution to the Doctrine as well as the history of Christ. Matthew,
for instance, shows you Jesus as a King. You will notice that most of
his parables begin with "a king." "Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be
likened." Mark shows you Christ as the Servant. Luke shows you Christ
as Man, giving sketches of His childhood. And His parables begin with,
"A certain man," while John teaches you Christ in His Godhead, with a
starting point far different from the other three, which have been
styled the Synoptical Gospels. "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God." Try, if you can, to get a
hold of what the books mean, and pray God the Holy Spirit to lead you
into the drift and aim of the sacred writers in so writing. I would
like to see my Church members, all of them, good, hard, solid Bible
students. Beloved, I would not be afraid of all the errors of Popery,
Infidelity, Socinianism, Plymouth Brethrenism, or any other "ism" if
you were to read your Bibles! You will thus keep clear of the whole
lot. There is no doubt about your standing firm to the good old faith
which we seek to teach you, if you do but keep to Scripture–the Book,
the one Book, the Book of books, the Bible! That studied, not
hurriedly, but with a determination to compare spiritual things with
spiritual, and to observe the analogy of faith, you shall find a
well-spring of delight and holy joy which men of letters who dabble in
the proudest classics might envy, for Isaiah is better than Homer, and
David is richer than Horace. But better still, you shall stand while
others fall!

IV. BUT ARE WE ALL BELIEVERS? IS THIS BOOK JOY TO ALL OF US?

That is a significant pronoun in the text, "These things we write unto
you that your joy may be full." To whom writes he? Is it to you? Young
woman, does the Scripture write to you that your joy may be full? Young
man, does the Scripture speak to you to fill you with holy joy? You do
not know whether it does or not–you do not care about it. Then, it
does not speak to you. You get plenty of joy elsewhere. Well, it does
not speak to you. It does not intrude upon you. It leaves you alone. It
offers you no joy. You have enough. "The whole have no need of a
physician, but they that aresick."

But there are some of you here who need a joy, and you have not found
it. You are uneasy. You cannot find a tree to build your nest. You are
like the needle, when it is turned away from its pole–you cannot be
quiet. You have got a horseleech in you, that is always crying, "Give!
Give!" You are uneasy. Oh, dear Friend, I am glad to hear it! May that
uneasiness go on increasing. May you become weary of heart, and
heavy-laden of spirit, for I have a whisper for you. Jesus Christ has
come into the world to call to Himself all those who labor and are
heavy-laden! And when you are sick and weary with the world, come to
Him, come to Him! What? You have been turned out, have you? The world
has got all it could out of you and thrust you away? Now, Jesus Christ
will have you. Come to Him! Come to Him! He will receive you.

So you are burnt out, are you? All the goodness that was in you is
burned up and you have now become nothing but smoking flax–a stench in
the estimation of your once flattering companions? You are nowhere.
They do not like you. You are mopish and miserable. Oh come to Him!
Come to Him, come to Him! He will not quench you. Your music is all
over, is it? You were like a reed, like one of Pan's pipes. You could
give out some music, once, but you got bruised and you cannot make one
sound or note of joy. Well, poor Soul, come to Him! Come to Him! He
will not break you. He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the
smoking flax–

"Wearysouls that wander wide

From the central source of bliss,

Turn to Jesus' wounded side

Look to that dear blood of His." Here is peace, here is joy in Christ
Jesus! Oh, if you are sick of the world, come to my Master! May God the
Holy Spirit bless this sickness and make you come because you have
nowhere else to go! Jesus Christ will receive the devil's castaways.
The very sweepings of pleasure, the dregs of the intoxicating cup,
those who have gone so far that now their friends reject them, Jesus
Christ accepts! May He accept me, and accept you–and then in Him our
joy shall be full! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM66:1-15.

Verse 1. Make a joyful noise unto God, all you lands. Let not Israel
alone do it. Take up the strain, you nations. He is the God of all the
nations of the earth. "Make a joyful noise unto God, all you lands."

2-4. Sing forth the honor of His name: make His praise glorious. Say
unto God, How terrible are You in Your works! Through the greatness of
Your power shall Your enemies submit themselves unto You. All the earth
shall worship You and shall sing unto You. They shall sing to Your
name. Selah. I still must always cling to the belief that this whole
world is to be converted to God, and to lie captive at the feet of
Christ in glorious liberty! Do not fall into that lethargic, apathetic
belief of some that this is never to be accomplished–that the battle
is not to be fought out on the present lines, but that there is to be a
defeat–and then Christ is to come. No, foot to foot with the old enemy
will He stand, till He has worsted him and until the nations of the
earth shall worship and bow before Him!

5, 6. Come and see the works of God: He is terrible in His doing toward
the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land: they went through
the flood on foot there did we rejoice in Him. Where God is most
terrible to His enemies, He is most gracious to His friends! As Pharaoh
and his hosts went down beneath the terrible hand of God, the children
of Israel lifted up their loudest hallelujahs and sang unto the Lord,
who triumphed gloriously! And so shall it be to the end of the chapter.
God will lay bare His terrible arm against His adversaries but His
children shall, meanwhile, make music! "There did we rejoice in Him."

7-9. He rules by His power forever: His eyes behold the nations: let
not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah O bless our God, you people,
and make the voice of His praise to be heard. Who holds our soul in
life and allows not our feet to be moved.Loudest among the singers
should God's people be! If others can restrain their praise, yet let
the love of Christ so compel us that we must give it a tongue and tell
forth the majesty of our God! It is He alone who keeps us from Hell–
which holds our soul in life! It is He alone who keeps us from falling
foully. Yes, and falling finally, "and allows not our feet to be
moved."

10. For You, O God, have proved us. All God's people can say this. It
is the heritage of the elect of God. "You have proved us."

10-11. You have tried us, as silver is tried. You brought us into the
net Entangled, surrounded, captive, held fast. Many of God's people are
in this condition.

11. You laid affliction upon our loins. It was no affliction of hand or
foot, but it laid upon our loins–a heavy, crushing burden.

12. You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire
and through water It was the full ordeal. One was not enough. Fire
destroys some, but water is the test for others–but God's people must
be tried both ways. "We went through fire and through water, but"–.
Blessed "but."

12. But You brought us out into a wealthy place.Out of the fire and out
of the water they came because God brought them! And when He brought
them, it was not to a stinted, barren heritage, but into a wealthy
place. Oh, Beloved, when we think of where the Covenant of Grace has
placed every Believer, it is a wealthy place, indeed!

13-15. I will go into Your house with burnt offerings: I will pay You
my vows which my lips have uttered, and my mouth has spoken when I was
in trouble. I will offer unto You burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with
the incense of rams. I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah. The best,
I think. "The best of the best will I bring You, O my God. I will bring
You my heart. I will bring You my tongue. I will bring you my entire
being