A Caution for Sin-sick Souls

A Caution for Sin-sick Souls

(No. 2819)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1903.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
EARLY IN THE YEAR 1861.

"When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim
went to Assyria, and sent to King Jareb: yet he cannot heal you, nor
cure you of your wound." Hosea 5:13.

THERE is a tendency, in the heart of man, to want something to look at
rather than something to trust to. The children of Israel had God for
their King and a glorious King He was. Where else was there found such
impartial justice, such tender compassion for the poor, or such perfect
righteousness in every statute that was ordained and every sentence
that was enforced? But they said, "No, let us have a king whom we can
see–a king whose pomp and magnificence shall dazzle our eyes, even
though he will take our sons to be his bond slaves and our daughters to
be his confectionaries. Let us have a king that we may see the gaudy
glitter of his crown with our eyes and hear the sovereign mandate from
his throne with our ears." God granted them that request.

Their sole allegiance was due to that almighty King whose superlative
Glory admitted of no natural similitude. The Lord Jehovah was the God
of Israel, a God always ready to forgive their sins, to hear their
prayers and to seek their welfare. But the children of Israel said,
"Not so! Let us make a king to judge us like all the nations–and let
us set up gods after the fashion of the Gentiles, that our hands can
handle and that our eyes can behold! Let us have blocks of wood and
stone. Let us have the carved images of the heathen." Neither would
they rest till they had set up for themselves in every high place, gods
that were not gods. For this the Lord chastised them–He gave up their
lands to famine and their habitations to the spoiler. He brought
enemies from far countries to lay them waste, so that the State became
sick and the whole nation impoverished. Then the people of Ephraim
opened their eyes and looked to their condition.

But when Judah saw himself to be wounded, what course did he pursue?
There was God waiting to help him when he returned to his allegiance.
There was Jehovah ready to heal all his distresses, to give him back
all that had been laid waste and to restore to him everything that the
spoiler had taken! But, no, the arm of Jehovah was not enough for
Judah– Judah must rely upon a force that could look imposing in its
array. "Oh," said the people, "let us send to the king of Assyria and
let him furnish us with tens of thousands of soldiers, and aid us with
his mighty men so we shall be safe! Thus will our State recover
itself." But if they had trusted in God, my Brothers and Sisters, how
secure they would have been! Mark what God did for them in the days of
Hezekiah. Their enemies came upon them in great numbers–Hezekiah
prayed before the Lord. And it came to pass, that night, God sent forth
the blast of His nostrils and their foes were utterly destroyed! When
the men of Judah arose early in the morning, "behold, they were all
dead corpses!" As often as they trusted in God, they found immediate
succor and their enemies were put to confusion!

But not so was their heart stayed in its confidence. No, they cannot
rely upon the unseen arm. They must have men and men's devices. They
must have something they can see. Unless they have the spear, the sword
and the shield of the Assyrian state, they can feel no sense of
security. They went to the Assyrian king–they sent to king Jareb, "yet
could he not heal them, nor cure them of their wound." How foolish they
were to hope he could, for, as soon as they sent their ambassadors to
the king of Assyria, he flattered himself while he spoke to them, "Oh,
you want help, do you? I will send you some soldiers to help you."
Remember that their houses had been stripped of all the gold and silver
they contained to give a present to the king of Assyria. "I will send
you soldiers to help you" he said to them–and then he whispered to

himself–"After they have helped you, they shall help themselves!" And
so they did. When they had come and, for a little while, had fought for
the people of Israel and set them free, then they turned round upon
them and carried them captive and spoiled them of all they had! This
comes of trusting in man. "Cursed be the man that trusts in man and
makes flesh his arm; but blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord and
whose hope is in the Lord."

Looking at this fallacy of a nation as illustrative of a common
tendency of mankind–and using my text as the picture of a sinner in a
certain peculiar state of mental anxiety, I shall observe, first, the
sinner's partial discovery of his lost estate. Secondly, the wrong
means which he takes to be cured of his evil And then I will endeavor
to direct you, as God shall enable me, to the right means of finding
healing and deliverance through the Atonement and obedience of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

I. We have in our text somewhat of A PICTURE OF THE SINNER WHEN HE HAS
PARTIALLY DISCOVERED

HIS LOST ESTATE.

Mark, it is but a partial discovery. Ephraim felt his sickness but he
did not know the radical disease that lurked within. He saw the local
ailment, but was ignorant of the organic derangement of his very
vitals. He only perceived the symptoms! He was uneasy, he felt pain,
but the discovery did not go deep enough to show him that he was
actually dead in trespasses and sins. "He saw his sickness and Judah
saw his wound." Yes, he saw his wound–it smarted and, therefore, his
eyes were drawn to the spot. But he did not know how deep it was. He
did not know that it had pierced to the heart, that it was, in fact, a
death-blow–that the whole head was sick, that the whole heart was
faint and that, from the crown of the head even to the sole of the
foot, it was all wounds, bruises and putrefying, festering sores! There
was but a partial discovery of his lost estate.

How many men there are who have got just far enough to know there is
something the matter with them! They little reckon that they are
totally ruined, though they do feel that all is not quite right with
them. They are conscious that they are not perfect, not even up to
their own low standard of rectitude–hence they begin to be uneasy,
albeit they still seem to think they can make themselves better and
that by degrees of reformation and daily prayer they will become
superior to what they are. They have not yet learned the Doctrine of
the Fall, the deep depravity of mankind, the total perversion of the
human heart. They have only gotten so far as some modern ministers who
speak of man as being a little marred, but not entirely broken–as
having had a fall and become somewhat damaged, and rather spoiled as to
outward beauty, though not altogether ruined, or incapable of raising
himself up and recovering his strength. In fact, the fashionable phrase
that has been recently coined is, "the lapsed state of men." Depend
upon it, when men use Latinized words to express their meaning, they do
not mean much! The Fall of man is full and entire–and when people
frame certain phrases of rather uncertain significance instead of
talking honest English–they show a disposition to dispense with the
bare facts. I know there are some sinners brought so far as to find
themselves undone and to feel convinced that unless some change takes
place they are not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. But they have not as
yet seen the fountains of the great deep of their depravity broken up.
They have not been taken into the chambers of imagery and shown the
abominations of their own hearts! They still cling with some hope to
their own devices.

However, I would remark that even this, though it is but a partial
discovery of their state by nature, is not without its good effects.
When a man gets this far, the first good sign in him is that he cannot
speak against religion. While he is at peace with himself, he calls
religious men hypocrites–he can rail at the things of God and despise
and trample them underfoot. But the man who is like Ephraim, in our
text, will not be very anxious to find fault with others. His
philosopher's tongue has been plucked out and he is now a little more
gentle in his speech as he sighs for something in religion that he
would like to have. "Oh," he says, "I do not now find fault with the
good folk who are always praying and singing. Would to God I could
become like they are! Would that I had as they have–an interest in the
blood of Christ!" So far, so good.

Such men, again, are generally thoughtful. I have known many a man who,
before he came into this state, was a very daredevil and never thought
anything with regard to his soul and eternity. Yet, when brought to
know his sickness and his wounds, he has become not only thoughtful but
serious, until some of his former companions have noticed it and called
him, "Old Sobersides," or some such epithet, and laughed him out of
countenance. They tell him he is a saint. The man says, "I wish what
you are saying was true." They tell him, "You are beginning to be
religious." "Yes," he says, "I wish I were really so." Some man once
called me a saint as I went along the street and I turned round and
said I wished I

could make him prove his words. I would certainly like to be one! Such
is the condition of a man when he begins to discover, though it is but
partially, his lost estate. He is thoughtful. He cannot laugh as he
did. He does not now shut his eyes, throw the reins upon the neck of
his lusts and let them rush madly on down to the Pit, but he tries to
curb them and hold them in with bit and bridle, for he knows that all
is not right within him.

Such a man, too, has another good trait, another hopeful feature in his
case–that he begins to attend to the things that belong to the peace
of his soul. You now see him coming into the House of God be it Chapel
or Church–to hear the Word preached. He never cared for that before.
He worked so hard all the week that he was not able to go out on a
Sunday–but now he feels he must go. He must be by the side of
Bethesda's pool. Even though the angel stirs not the water, he feels a
kind of satisfaction while he is lying at the edge of the healing pool.
He longs to be saved and, therefore, he is found in the Way, hoping
that God may meet with him.

Such a man, too, you will find, takes no pleasure in sin. If he is
asked by his worldly companions to go into the haunts of vice where
once he went, even should he go, he comes away and says, "It was the
dullest evening I ever spent. No enjoyment whatever does it yield me.
God has turned the sweet wine of my memory into bitter gall. 'Vanity of
vanities, all is vanity.' I can find no comfort in sensual pleasures."

Have I been depicting the state of one who is here present? I hope I
have and I pray God that what I shall be able to say will, by the
influence of the Holy Spirit, be instrumental in leading such an one to
the true remedy for his soul-sickness.

II. But when the man is thus partially awakened to know his lost
estate, HE USUALLY BETAKES HIMSELF TO

THE WRONG MEANS FOR DELIVERANCE–"Then went Ephraim to the Assyrian,
and sent to king Jareb."

A sinner, when he finds himself lost, usually at first thinks, "I will
make myself better, I will be diligent in religious observances–I will
attend to every ceremony, I will keep my tongue from evil and my life
from speaking guile. I will restrain my steps from evil haunts, my
hands from evil deeds." And so he thinks within himself that all his
sins will be forgiven and that he shall have rest for the sole of his
feet. Be it known, once and for all, that all this is a vain and
useless effort to work out a radical cure in the soul of man! All that
man can do apart from faith in the blood and righteousness of Jesus
Christ is utterly in vain! Let him do his best and strive to the very
uttermost–not one inch has he proceeded on the road to Heaven! He has
done mischief instead of doing anything meritorious. He has pulled down
instead of having built up!

O you that are now hoping, while you are under conviction, that you
will get relief by works of your own, let me remind you that you are
undertaking a long task which will tax your endurance. The men
mentioned in our text went a very long way to the king of Assyria–it
was a wearisome journey they took, while God, who was near at hand, was
forgotten! How long do you suppose it would take you to work out your
own salvation by your own good works? Why, my Friends, you may bend
your knees till your joints grow stiff. You may work till there is no
flesh upon your bones. You may weep till there is no moisture in your
body from which to draw a tear and you may persevere incessantly in
every exercise of body and mind–trying fresh postures and trifling
with fresh problems–but you will find yourselves not half a league
nearer eternal life than when you left the life of sin you used to
like–

"Not the labors of my hands

Can fulfill Your Law's demands–

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone–

You must save and You, alone." If a criminal should get it into his
head that he could climb up to the stars by going up the steps of a
treadmill, he would be about as rational as when a poor sinner thinks
of getting to Heaven by his own good works! Tread, tread, tread–up,
up, up–but never one inch higher! As old Matthew Wilks used to say,
"You might as well hope to sail to America on a sere leaf as hope to go
to Heaven by your own doings." This is not the way, Man, and run ever
so fast in it, if it is not the right road, it will not bring you to
the right end! If a man takes the road to the right when he needs to go
to the left, he may run as fast as a race horse, but he will but lose
his labor and find out that he is a fool for his pains.

And it is not only a very long task, but it is a very expensive one. If
you would have salvation by the works of the Law, you must give body
and soul up–all you have–hope and joy and comfort included. I used to
live near some per-

sons who regularly attended mass early every morning and I noticed how
straight they used to look down the face. I thought they had good
reason to be gloomy if they were trying to reach Heaven by their own
righteousness. It is enough to put any man out of countenance if he has
to stand before God and justify himself! We might put our hands upon
our loins and roll in the dust in despair if we had no hope but in our
own merits. Go and look for cooling streams in the arid desert. Cast
about for fresh water to drink in the midst of the sea. Seek shelter on
the mountaintop where the hurricane is spending its fury and then crave
for comfort in the Law! Go and visit Sinai, you that seek to be saved
by your own works. Look at it–shrink, tremble and despair! Behold, the
mountain is altogether on a smoke while God proclaims His holy Law! If
it melted like wax of old, how much more, now, after you have broken
the commandments and incurred the penalty–now that God comes not to
proclaim the Law–but to execute His fierce anger upon the
law-breakers?

"Well," says one, "but suppose we do our best, will not that suffice?"
My Friend, God requires from man, if he would be saved by his works,
perfect obedience. Nothing but perfection can be acceptable to a
perfect God. One wrong thought, one evil desire–not to say anything of
one wrong act–will effectually shut any man out of Heaven if he
desires to go there by his own works! That one sin at once puts up an
impenetrable barrier across that meritorious way to Heaven which is
known by the common name of, "the Law." If you can be perfect and have
kept the precepts from your youth up, and shall do so till your dying
day–then might there be salvation by works. But if there is one flaw,
then is that road to Heaven effectually stopped up so that no human
foot can ever tread it!

And, once more, let me remind you, O Man, when you try to be saved by
your works, you presume that your enemy will prove to be your friend!
'And who is my enemy?" you ask. Why, Moses. The Law of God is sworn
against you. It has become your enemy and do you go to your enemy to
help you? It is a device of Satan to try and draw poor sinners away
from the path of faith into the path of Law. Remember how John Bunyan
graphically describes it? Poor Christian, with the burden on his back,
is going to the wicket-gate with the light above it and, all of a
sudden, a very good-looking gentleman meets him and says, "It is a
dangerous journey you are going, you had better turn aside to the right
there. There is a town there known as the town of Legality, where lives
a very skillful physician who will soon help you off with your burden.
And if he is not at home, he has got a very good lad who will do almost
as well as his master. Go there and you will soon get cured." Away went
poor Christian! Nor had he gone far before he found that he had come to
the foot of Mount Sinai and the mountain hung right over the way. And
there stood Christian. And while he was looking up, presently the
mountain began to shake, the thunder to roar and the lightning to
flash–and he fell down upon his face and said, "I am undone, I am
undone!" Then came Evangelist and showed him the right way once more.

Just so, Sinner, if you trust to the works of the Law, you will have to
cry out, "I am undone, I am undone." Mr. Morality cannot cure you–he
may put on a little poor man's plaster and make your wound worse, and
tie it up, and bandage it a little, but he can never relieve your pain,
or recover your sore. It will go on bleeding, notwithstanding all the
balsams he can apply. No hand can heal a sin-sick soul but the hand
that wounded it, even the hand of God, through the Person of Jesus
Christ our Lord!

It is astonishing, after all the Gospel preaching in England, how
deeply rooted is this constant fallacy of going to king Jareb for cure!
Not very long ago, having engaged to preach at a seaport town, I
arrived some hours before night and, as I was standing by the
riverside, I thought I would like to go down the river in a boat. So,
hailing a waterman, I went with him and, while sitting in the boat,
wishing to talk with him about religious matters, I began by asking him
about his family. He told me that the cholera had visited his place and
that he had lost no less than 13 of his relatives, one after another,
by death. So I said, "Have you, my Friend, a good hope of Heaven if you
should, yourself, die?" "Well, Sir," he said, "I think as how I have."
"Pray tell me, then," I said, "what is your hope, for, of a good hope
no man need ever be ashamed." "Well, Sir, I have been on this here
river, I think, for these 25 or 30 years, and I don't know that anybody
ever saw me drunk." "Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" I replied, "is that all you
trust to?" "Well, Sir, when the cholera was about and my poor neighbors
were bad, I went for the doctor for 'em, and was up a good many nights.
And I do think as how I am as good as my neighbors."

Of course I told him that I was very glad to hear that he had sympathy
for the suffering and that I considered it far better to be charitable
than to be churlish, but I did not see how his good conduct could carry
him to Heaven. "Well, Sir," he said, "perhaps it will not. I cannot be
often going to church, but I think, when I get a little older, I shall
give up the boat and take to going to church, and then, I think, that
will be right–won't it, Sir?" "No," I said, "certainly your

resolutions will not renew your heart. And should you ever perform
them, they will not purge your soul from its sinful-ness. Begin to go
to church as soon as possible, but you will not be an inch further, if
you think that by attending the sanctuary you will be saved." The poor
man seemed perfectly astounded while I went on knocking down his hopes,
one after another. Then I put the question, "You have sometimes sinned
in your life, have you not?" "Yes," he said, "I have." "On what ground,
then, do you think your sins will be forgiven?" "Well, Sir," he said,
"I have been sorry about them and I think they are all gone–they do
not trouble me now."

Trying to awaken his conscience, I said, "Suppose you were to go and
get into debt with the grocer where you deal, and you should say to
her, 'Now, mistress, you have a score against me. I cannot pay for
these goods, I am sorry to say, but I'll tell you what I'll do–I'll
never get into your debt again.' Why, she would say that was not the
way she did business and do you suppose that is the way in which God
does business, or that He is going to strike out your debts because you
say you will not run deeper into debt?" "Well, Sir," he said, "I should
like to know how my sins are to be forgiven. Are you a parson, Sir?" In
reply, I said, I preach the Gospel, I hope, but I do not go by the name
of a parson. I am only a Dissenting minister." I told him how the Lord
Jesus Christ had paid the debts of sinners. How those that reposed in
Him and rested in His blood and righteousness would find peace and
mercy. And the man was delighted and he said he wished he had heard
that years ago. "But, to say the truth, Master," he added, "I had not
felt quite easy, after all, when I saw those poor creatures taken away
to the graveyard. I did think there was something I needed, but I did
not know what it was."

I tell you this little personal incident because I see here a great
many working people and I know they delight in a little homely dialog.
It is not what we do or devise, the religious rites we observe, or the
romantic aims we aspire to, the self-satisfaction we encourage, or the
sufferings we endure, that can lead us to the land of the Light of
Good! Not all your uprightness, however plausible, or your honesty,
however rigid you may be, will carry you to Heaven! Your good works are
good enough in themselves, good enough in your generation–but they
will never do for a foundation to rest upon. Do not run away and say
something like the foolish man who went to a place where there was a
house being built and, seeing the chimney pots standing there, he took
them and laid them in the trench to make the foundation.

"What are you doing?" said one of the workmen. "Why, laying the
foundation." "What, with the chimney pots?" "I did not know that it was
wrong," he said. "Well, take them away–they won't do for a
foundation." "Oh!" said the other, "you are finding fault with them."
"No, I am not finding fault with them, but with the place where you put
them. They are good enough on the top, but they won't do at the
bottom." So with good works–they will do at the top, but they will not
do at the bottom! As a foundation for the soul to rest upon, nothing
will suffice but the righteousness of Christ and His finished work.
This is our hope of salvation! Our good works are good enough
afterwards, when God the Holy Spirit, by His Grace, works faith, love
and all other good things in us. III. WHAT, THEN, IS THE WAY OF
SALVATION?

Whoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary he should know
that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down from Heaven and was, for
our sin, Incarnate in human form, born of the Virgin Mary, lived a life
of sanctity and of suffering and, at last, this glorious Son of
God–this grief-stricken Son of Man–became obedient even unto death.
In the garden He wrestled and shed, as it were, great drops of blood in
the prospect of the coming terrors of His death-struggle. To the Cross
He was nailed, amidst shame, ignominy and scoffing. There He endured
incredible pain, pangs of body and agony of soul. He hung there,
through the thick darkness, three hours and, at last, when the
appointed time was come, when He had suffered all, when the full
chastisement of our sin had been laid upon Him and the iniquity of us
all had received its dreadful retribution at His hands, He cried, "It
is finished!" Thus He gave up the ghost, was laid in the tomb and then
arose from the dead on the third day and ascended to Heaven.

Now, if you would be saved, my Friend, it is necessary that you should
believe in Him who was the Son of God and the Son of Man, and that you
should believe in your heart these things of Him–First, that He is a
Divinely-ordained Savior, able to save all those that come to God
through Him. You must believe, likewise, that He is willing to save and
that He will save those that seek salvation, believing and trusting in
His power. When you have believed this, you have gone a good part of
the way toward that saving faith which shall bring you into a state of
Grace. It is by acting upon this belief, by casting yourself simply on
the merits of His blood and of His perfect righteousness as the ground
of your acceptance before God, that you shall find peace. No man can be
saved if he does not trust his soul in the hands of Christ. We

must give up ourselves from our own keeping into Christ's keeping
saying, "Lord, take me, save me, make me what You would have me to be
and then, when Your Father shall require my soul at the Last Day, stand
as my Surety and bring me, perfect and spotless, into His Presence."

I must add one thing more–there must be what the old divines call a
recumbency–a leaning on Him, a dependence on Him. But here I must warn
you that some people have an idea that if they get faith in Christ, it
matters not how they live, or what they are. Now, be it understood,
once and for all, we are saved by faith–not by works! But we must have
good works if we are really saved. You know that faith is not only
leaning on Christ, but obeyingChrist. Suppose there is a man who says
to me, "You have committed such-and-such an offense. You are in
such-and-such difficulties, but if you will implicitly trust me and
leave the matter entirely in my hands, I will see that you come through
all right." Well now, if I get to meddling with it, that will prove I
do not trust him! But, by-and-by, he comes to me and says, "My dear
Friend, are you trusting me wholly?" "Yes," I say, "I am reposing all
my trust in you." Suppose he says, "I want you to look over this
document, which you must sign, and then I shall want you, on a certain
morning, to be at such-and-such a place." What if I answer, "I shall do
no such thing! I will not sign the deed, nor meet you by appointment."
"Then," he says, "you are not trusting me." "I am leaning on you and
trusting you," I say. "Well," he says, "unless you do what I tell you,
your faith is not genuine faith, neither are you trusting in me at
all."

Now, if you are perfectly trusting Christ, your next question will be,
"Lord, I am trusting to be saved by You, but how will You have me be
saved?" "Oh," says Christ, "I will save you, but you must break off
those old habits." "Oh," you say, "Lord, assist me with Your Grace and
I will renounce them all." "Well," says Christ, "and if you would be
saved, I will have you, in the next place, attend to My ordinances.
Come forward and make a profession of your faith. Be baptized. Unite
yourself to the Church visible. Receive the Lord's Supper." But you
say, "No, Lord! I will do no such thing." "Well, then," He says, "you
are not trusting Me because whatever I tell you to do, you ought to do
it."

You may have heard the good illustration which Mr. Cecil gives of
faith. His little child was standing, one day, at the top of a dark
cellar. She was in the light and he was down below in the cellar. "My
dear child, jump down and I will catch you," he said. And the child,
without a moment's thought, sprang into the father's arms! Now that is
one kind of faith. That is when we are enabled so to trust Christ that
we do, so to speak, venture our souls on Him, risk all with Him. But
mark, that is not the complete picture of the faith of saints. This
kind of faith some people profess to have, but their lives do not bear
out their profession and, therefore, there must be something else to
make it clear. And Mr. Cecil gives another illustration through the
same little girl. "I said to her, one day, as she had a necklace of
beads, 'My dear child, you know I love you and you would do anything I
told you. Take those beads off and throw them into the fire.' She did
so at once." Now, the first faith was the faith of daring, venturing
herself. But the second proved her faith to be true and genuine, when
she could obey at such a cost. To a large extent, faith and obedience
are really one, and it is useless for you to say that you believe in
Christ as your Savior if you do not obey Him as your Lord. Some try to
do so, but their faith is worthless. But when we can unite unwavering
trust with implicit obedience, we prove that we are really trusting in
Christ–and then we are safe.

O my dear Hearer, if I have puzzled you instead of making the Truth of
God plain, I can say I did not intend to do so. I would have you to
understand, if you are troubled on account of sin, that God requires
nothing of you but what He gives you. He requires nothing but that you
should depend for all on Christ. That is all He asks. Do it. Oh, may
His Holy Spirit enable you to do it now!

Let me tell you a parable which shall illustrate faith. There were two
children, according to the fable, walking with their father along a
narrow ridge. On either side there was a dark, deep precipice. One of
the dear children put his hand inside the father's hand and his father
grasped it. The other put his little fingers round his father's hand
and took hold of his father's hand. It was not long before, in the
midst of the thick darkness, the children grew weary. And the child who
had taken hold of the father's hand perished. But the child who had put
his hand into the father's hand and let the father take hold of it, was
carried safely to the end. Now, put your hand inside the hand of Christ
and when He bids you obey Him, don't take it away! Give yourself wholly
up to Him to be His–come life, come death, for better or for worse–to
be His to trust and His to obey, being from this time forth His
forever!

Oh, may God the Holy Spirit lead us to do this! It is easy enough when
the Hoy Spirit enables us, but it is hard enough when our human nature
kicks against it. May Sovereign Grace subdue our hearts and teach us to
depend on Chr-

ist–and no more foolishly attempt to work out our salvation by
impossible means! I can only pray that God will bless this brief,
hurried discourse, and to His name shall be the glory, through Christ
Jesus. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 1:1-20.

Verse 1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah. During the time in which Isaiah prophesied, the worship
of God was, upon the whole, maintained in Judah. Yet, prosperous as the
times appeared to be, there was visible to the eye of the Lord much
iniquity. He who saw not as man saw, but who looks beneath the surface
and into the hearts of men, saw that the condition of the people was
exceedingly unsatisfactory. Do not forget that these upbraiding words
were spoken during the reigns of comparatively good kings. Try to
imagine how the Lord must have felt towards the people who lived in the
reigns of bad kings.

2, 3. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD has spoken,
I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled
against Me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but
Israel does not know, My people do not consider God's own people were
worse than the brutes that perish! They had no gratitude towards their
Maker and Preserver. Am I not addressing many persons of the same kind,
who have little or no thought concerning Him who made them and who
supplies all their needs? God seems here as if He were tired of
appealing to His people, so He speaks to the heavens and the earth, as
if He knew that even inanimate things would be more capable of feeling
than hardened Judah was!

4. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD,
they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone
away backward. If I am now addressing any who have backslidden from
God, let them take these words of His to heart–He observes how you
have forsaken Him. He feels grieved at your provoking Him. He mourns
over your going backward from Him. May you be moved by the Holy Spirit
to mourn, too!

5. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more:
the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint One of God's ways of
bringing people to Himself is by chastisement and affliction. He had
tried that method upon Judah–He had used His rod so long that, at
last, He exclaimed, "Why should you be stricken anymore?" What is the
good of My sending any more affliction upon you?" Now, whenever the rod
is of no more use, there will be a sharper instrument to follow! When
men can no longer be chastened for their good, the axe of execution is
ready to be brought forth. What a sorrowful description is here given
of the people of Judah and their land!

6-8. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness
in it but wounds, and bruises, and purifying sores: they have not been
closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment Your country
is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers
devour it in your presence and it is desolate, as overthrown by
strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard,
as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. The Lord had
allowed invaders to pillage the land until it was almost reduced to a
desert, yet, even then, the people did not, and would not, turn unto
their God! It is a terrible thing when sickness, or loss of property,
or frequent bereavements do not bring men to their knees. Unsanctified
afflictions prophesy certain condemnation to us. "He, that being often
reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
without remedy."

9. Except the LORD ofHosts hadleft unto us a very small remnant, we
shouldhave been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
The state of the country, even under godly kings, had become so bad
that if there had not been a remnant according to the election of
Grace, there would have been no help for the land and its
inhabitants–and they would have been burnt up like Sodom and Gomorrah.

10-15. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom, give ear unto
the Law of God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices unto Me, says the LORD: I am full of the
burnt offerings of ram, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in
the brood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to
appear before Me, who has required this at your hand, to tread My
courts? Bring no more vain oblation; incense is an abomination unto Me;
the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot! Away
with it, it is iniquity, even the so-

lemn meeting. Your new moon and your appointed feasts My Soul hates:
they are a trouble unto Me, I am weary to bear them, and when you
spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you: yes, when you
make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. It is
very possible for people to be outwardly very religious and yet really
to be very wicked. The fact is that the multiplication of rites and
ceremonies, the observance of forms, feasts, fasts, new moons and all
the rest of mere external ritual–may rather indicate an increase of
sin than an increase of anything else! Often, in proportion as men's
hearts get further and further away from God, they have more and more
of outward ritual, more Roman rags on the priest's back, more smoking
incense, more gorgeous architecture! The more of all the externals of
religion, the less they have of the internal and eternal. If a man is
conscious that he needs something in the shape of godliness and he
knows that he has none of it in his heart, he often tries to get it
outside. But this is what God says–

16, 17. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doing from
before My eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Repentance,
practical change of life, renewal of heart, the giving up of evil, the
following of right–this is what the Lord approves. Otherwise, all your
fripperies and trickeries of worship are loathsome to Him. Do you think
your finest music is sweet to the ears of Him who listens to the
angels' everlasting songs? Do you imagine that you can build temples
worthy of Him who made the heavens and the earth? What cares He for
temples made with hands? He despises all material things where the
heart goes not with them–but purity, holiness, true spiritual
worship–these are the things in which He delights!

17. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow. This is better than all your incense, or the fat of rams
and he-goats.

18. Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your
sins are as scarlet, they shall be a white as snow; though they are red
like crimson, they shall be as wool. This, too, is what God
loves–confessed sin, pardoned by His infinite mercy and Grace.

19, 20. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the
land: but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the
sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.