“How Good to Those Who Seek!”

"How Good to Those Who Seek!"

(No. 2436)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, OCTOBER 27, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 23, 1887.

"The LORD is good to the soul that seeks Him." Lamentations 3:25.

I DO not know whether it has ever struck you what a grand man Jeremiah
was. If you were to read the book of his prophecy through, from
beginning to end, and make yourself familiar with the circumstances
under which the Prophet spoke and wrote, I think you would come to
admire him as one of the greatest men who ever lived, for he was not,
like Isaiah, brightened and cheered by having a joyful message to
deliver, but he had received a sorrowful burden from his Lord–and he
faithfully carried it out–and when the people rejected his testimony
and refused his message, he went on delivering it all the same. There
was no gleam of success to gladden his ministry, yet he never flinched!
Nobody seemed to believe in him–he was the jest and the by-word of the
people, but that did not matter to him at all. He was tender and
affectionate, so that he cried, "Oh that my head were waters, and my
eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain
of the daughter of my people!"

Yet he was as stern and unflinching as if his face had been made of
adamant stone. I think him second to no man in the whole list of human
beings who have ever lived. Therefore, when I found some of those with
whom I have been in controversy of late describing one of my protests
against false doctrine and worldliness as a, "Jeremiad," or a
Jeremiah's Lamentation, I said to myself, "That is the highest
compliment they could pay me." If they call me a fool, even, I will,
nevertheless, accept the epithet with delight! I count it no dishonor
to have to lament as Jeremiah did, and to have to bear a sorrowful
testimony even as Jeremiah did–and in that great day when the Lord
rewards His servants, the rewards will not be in proportion to the way
in which their testimony was received, but in proportion to the
fidelity with which they delivered it! If Jeremiah is rejected of men,
yet, if he has delivered his Master's message, he is not rejected of
his Master! And in that great day when God, the Judge of all, shall
bring us to account, we who have spoken out of the depths of our soul
and have had our testimony made jest and a by-word, shall receive none
the less honor from our Lord if we have faithfully delivered it!

I begin with this thought, concerning the man who uttered my text,
because the people who speak somewhat sorrowfully and sadly are said to
be "pessimists." It is an ugly word, yet I have had it applied to
myself. Whereas other men who speak very brightly–possibly more
brightly than they ought to speak–those who have rose-colored glasses
for everything, are called "optimists." Well now, when a man is in deep
distress of mind and in sore trouble of heart, if a person comes to
him, and says, "Oh, my dear Sir, there is really not much the matter
with you! It is a very simple thing to cure, and I will soon get you
through it," you say to yourself, "That gentleman is an optimist," and
you make very large deductions from what he has to say because you feel
that he is inclined to flatter, and to put a brighter face upon things
than they ought to wear!

But if another person comes, who is called a pessimist, one who always
makes the worst of everything–a man who writes "Jeremiads" and who
utters lamentations–if he, nevertheless, says something very bright
and cheering, you say to yourself, "Now I know that what he says is
true. There must be something really cheering and hopeful when such a
man as that, who dares to look at the dark side of things, can yet
venture to encourage me." Well now, it is the Prophet Jeremiah, in his
Book of Lamentations, who says to you who are seeking the Lord, "The
Lord is good to the soul that seeks Him." You do not need to take any
discount off his words of cheer! Depend upon it, what he says is true!
If he of the weeping eyes. If he of the sorrowful spirit, nevertheless,
in all the bitterness of his misery, bears testimony that the Lord is
good to the soul that seeks Him, then, depend upon it, it is so! So we
begin at an advantage. I pray you to believe the text because of the
man who was inspired to utter it.

I shall try briefly and earnestly, first, to describe a seeking soul.
Next, to assure him that God is good to him. And then further to cheer
him on in his seeking.

I. First, I am to try to DESCRIBE A SEEKING SOUL.

Everybody does not seek the Lord. There are many who say to God, by
their actions if not by their words, "Depart from us; we desire not the
knowledge of Your ways." The man who seeks the Lord is the man who
feels that he needs Him. He is under a sense of need–a need which he
could hardly describe, but which, nevertheless, weighs very heavily
upon him. He needs something very great, but he hardly knows what it
is. He feels that he has a void–an emptiness within that needs
filling. There is a something that he believes would content him if he
could get it, but he has not got it yet. He feels that he is not right
with God. He feels like one who is far off from God. He feels guilty
and he needs pardon. He feels sinful and he needs renewing. He feels
everything that he ought not to be and he wants to be changed, to be
made a new man. That is the one who seeks the Lord–a man does not seek
after that which he does not want–but a conscious and urgent need
drives the troubled soul to seek after God.

This seeker, also, is one who, though he does not know it, has a
measure of faith, for he believes, deep down in his heart, that if he
could once get to God, all would be well with him. He has heard of God
in Christ Jesus and he says within himself, "Oh, if I could but find
this blessed Mediator! If I could but discover this glorious Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world, it would be well with me." He
has not believed so as to appropriate Christ, but he believes so much
as to wish that he could appropriate Him. This is the man who seeks the
Lord. We do not seek for that which appears to have no value in it,
but, in proportion as a man has, first, a sense of his need, and
secondly some idea of the value of the great blessing which he needs,
he becomes an earnest seeker! I hope I am talking to some persons of
this kind as I am describing their true character.

Further, this seeker sometimes seeks very unwisely. He goes to seek God
where he will never find Him, like the holy women did when they went to
the sepulcher to find the risen Christ, and the angel asked them why
they were seeking the living among the dead! When a soul wants God, and
needs salvation, it will begin to seek the Lord by its own doing, by
its own feelings, by its own strange eccentricities, perhaps. It wants
God and it must have Him! You know how a starving man will break
through stone walls to get at the food that he so terribly needs, and,
often, a man who is seeking after God would go through stone walls, or
over them, if he might but find Him–yet that is not the way to seek
the Lord. "Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven? (that
is, to bring Christ down from above), or, Who shall descend into the
deep? (that is, to bring up Christ, again, from the dead)." Christ is
not far off, He is very near you–and yet the seeker is unwisely
seeking after God as though He were far away–and for Christ as though
he had to do some strange and wonderful thing in order to find Him.
Some of you think that you must have a remarkable dream. Others expect
an angelic vision. Some are waiting to hear a very extraordinary sermon
and to feel very amazing emotions. This is the nature of seekers, that
they often seek in a very unwise way. But still, they do seek–and it
is a mercy that they do–for, "the Lord is good to the soul that seeks
Him."

I will tell you what true seekers do when they act wisely. I notice
that they often get alone. When you begin to seek the Lord, my young
Friend, you will steal away by yourself. Father and mother will say,
"We do not quite know what has come over him, he seems so different
from what he used to be. He gets up into his little room–we think he
must go there to pray." If his parents are gracious people, they begin
to have great hope of him. I remember times when I was never so happy
as when I could get alone. Seekers, true seekers, will find some quiet
place. That is a difficult thing to find in this noisy London, yet a
real seeker will make even a crowded street to be his place of
retirement, or he will walk down some back alley and be thinking, and
crying, and seeking and groaning! But in the country, how often have I
known young lads to get down a sawpit, or up a hayloft, or in the
corner of a barn, or anywhere where they could but sit in quiet
meditation and try to think their way to Jesus' feet, that they might
find Him if they could. That getting alone is a good sign. When a stag
is wounded, it delights to hide in the recesses of the forest that it
may bleed and die alone. And when God has shot His arrow of conviction
into a human heart, one of the first signs of the wounding is that the
man likes to get alone.

I will tell you another thing about the true seeker. You will find that
he begins to bring out his Bible, that much-neglected Book. Now that he
is seeking the Lord, he knows that–

"Within this sacred Volume lies, The mystery of mysteries."

And he begins to study his Bible as he never did before! It is a
blessed sign when the young man or the young woman begins to take an
interest in the Word of God and searches the Scriptures, saying, "Lord,
bless this Book to me. The Christ is here. He feeds among the lilies of
Your revealed Truth. Oh, that I might meet Him, and that I might call
Him mine!"

And as, perhaps, in his study of the Scriptures he meets with
difficulties, you will find that this seeking young man is anxious to
go and hear the Word preached, for the Word rightly preached has a
warmth about it and a vividness which are not always so manifest to the
seeker in his reading of the Word. If you are true seekers, I know that
you will want to go and hear a preacher who touches your conscience,
who speaks to your heart and who longs to bring you to Christ. My dear
Hearers, I do not mind where you go on the Sabbath if you really hear
the Truth of God faithfully preached. As far as I am concerned, there
are plenty of people here, but I do wish that, on the Sabbath, and on
weeknights too, you would not have any desire to go and hear a "clever"
preacher, or to some fine musical service, but that you would say, "We
have to care, first, for our immortal souls, and we long to seek and
find eternal life, therefore let us go where the minister preaches
Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Let us go where we can hear the Gospel
of the Grace of God, for that is what we need." You cannot afford to
throw away a single hour, either in listening to human oratory or to
any other kind of performance. With you, it must be, "Give me Christ,
or else I die." Therefore, be diligent in hearing the Gospel preached.

That is, then, another mark of a true seeker–he loves to be alone, he
searches the Scriptures, he goes as much as he can to hear the Gospel
preached.

And there is another sign of the true seeker that I always love to
see–he likes to get into godly company. He does not care, now, for the
friends he once so much admired–his merry friends who laughed away the
years–if he can but get where he can hear a few poor people talking
about Jesus! Something like John Bunyan, you remember, who saw three or
four godly women at Bedford talking about the things of God and the
tinker drew near and listened to their gracious conversation, though
their talk about the new birth was beyond his comprehension! That is
good seeking when you turn eavesdropper to hear about Christ, when you
like to listen to some poor neighbor who does not know much more than
you know, yourself, but who, in her simple language, talks about an
experience of the things of God to which you have not as yet attained,
but which you wish you had felt and known!

There is another mark of a seeker that is still better–"Behold, he
prays." Possibly, he used to repeat a form of prayer, but he has given
that up and now he talks to God straight out of his heart and asks for
what he really needs. And he not only does that morning and evening,
but he is praying during most of the day! If you watch him from the
other side of the counter, you may hear a sigh every now and then. Or
when he is at his work, driving the plane, or using the hammer–if you
are close to him, you may see his lips moving and you may catch such
words as these, "Savior, reveal Yourself to me. Blood of Christ,
cleanse me. Spirit of God, renew me." That is one of the men who are
seeking the Lord!

I think there will be one more mark that you will see upon a sincere
seeker–he will quit all that is evil as much as possible and he will
seek after that which is good–and especially he will seek after faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has heard it said that he that believes in
Him has everlasting life and he says to himself, "Oh, that I could
believe in Him!" You will see him, now, trying to believe, very much
like a little child tries to take his first steps in walking alone. His
mother holds out an apple and baby makes a daring venture to try, with
three or four steps to get across to where mother holds out the bribe!
Oh, I love to see poor souls trying to trust Christ, trying to rest in
Jesus! They often make sorry work of it, but still, the Lord accepts
it, for with their hearts they are really trying to rest in Jesus! If,
poor trembling Seeker, your faith should bring you no comfort because
it is so weak–keep on trusting to Christ!

When the bronze serpent was lifted up, all who looked to it were
healed. There were, doubtless, some clear bright eyes that saw the
bronze serpent from its head to its tail and, as they looked, they
lived. But there were probably others who were so bitten by the
serpents that their eyes were swollen and dim–they could only see out
of the corners and the death-damp seemed to blind even that little bit
of sight which they had–but, oh, if they could only get just a
glimpse, so as just to see the glittering brass, though they could not
make out the shape of the serpent, yet they lived! They were bid to
look and if they looked, and could not see, yet the promise was not to
the seeing, but to the looking! And so, as they looked, they were
healed! Thus look to Jesus and you shall live.

I trust that many seekers here have come as far as this. If so, I may
now conduct them to the next stage of my sermon.

II. I want, in the second place, to ASSURE THE SEEKING SOUL THAT THE
LORD IS GOOD TO HIM–"The

Lord is good to the soul that seeks Him."

"Ah," says one, "my heart is almost ready to break! I have been seeking
so long, I feel so sad, I am so discouraged." But, "the Lord is good to
the soul that seeks Him." Let me show you this Truth of God very
rapidly.

First, it is good of Him to have set you seeking at all. He might have
left you in your sins as He has left so many millions of your fellow
men. He might have left you to be content with this vain, wicked world.
At this moment you might have been leaning across the counter of the
gin palace instead of listening to the Word of the Lord. Yes, instead
of going home to pray, you might have been getting to the harlot's
haunt and, tomorrow, instead of coming to the Prayer Meeting, you might
have been found where the multitude amuse themselves with vice. Thank
God that you are a seeker, for there is something good in that fact! On
a dark night you may be grateful for one star shining in the sky, or
even for a single match–it is very little, you think, but thank God
for that little! "The Lord is good to the soul that seeks Him," in
setting him seeking at all!

But God is also good to the seeker in giving him some gleams of
comfort. Did you say that you had been seeking the Lord for months?
Well, how is it that you have kept on seeking? I think it must be
because you have, sometimes, had a few rays of light. I cannot give you
any better evidence than my own. I was long in seeking Christ and for
that I blame myself, not Christ. But there were times, before I found
Him, when I almost met with Him. I did not see Him, but I seemed to see
the trees move as He passed along! I did not see Him, but I heard His
footsteps and, sometimes I went home and said to myself, "Oh, yes, I
shall find Him! I shall not cry to Him in vain." I even thought,
sometimes, that I had laid hold of Him and that I had trusted Him–and
though I went back, again, into despondency, yet I was not without hope
of ultimately finding Him.

You know what it is, sometimes, when you are very hungry and you cannot
get a meal, if you can get just a bite or two of something, it keeps
you up till the mealtime comes. Well, it was like that when I was
hungering and thirsting for Christ. Many a crumb this poor dog picked
up from under the Master's table and so I was encouraged to keep on
seeking till I found my Savior. Is it not so with you, dear Friend?
Yes, the Lord is good to them that seek Him by just keeping their
courage up and preventing them from sinking utterly into despair! Is He
not good in keeping back the temptation which might have destroyed you?
The foul insinuations of Satan trouble you, but they might be worse
than they are! You have been driven almost to despair, but not quite.
You have grated against the rock, but you are not shipwrecked yet. "He
stays His rough wind in the day of the east wind." Thank God for that!
"The Lord is good to the soul that seeks

Him."

I think that He is also good in not letting us rest short of Himself.
You would have liked to have had comfort long ago, would you not? Yes,
but comfort is not the main thing that you require–you need safety.
Often the surgeon, when he has a bad case, will not let the wound heal.
"No, not yet," he says. "if that wound heals too soon, there will be
more mischief coming from it." So he lets in his lancet again and cuts
out a bit of proud flesh. And our Lord will not let us close up the
wound that sin has made lest it is but a sorry healing that will end in
a worse wound than before! I pray God that no one who is really seeking
Christ may ever be able to rest till he gets to Him. There is good
resting at the foot of the Cross, but you want to rest before you get
there! I thank God for not letting you rest until you get to Christ.
And I hope you will say–

"I will not be comforted Till Jesus comforts me."

Make that your resolve and may the Spirit of God keep you up to it! If
so, you, too, will also prove that "the Lord is good to the soul that
seeks Him."

But He is much better to them that seek Him than you have ever
imagined, for He has given such rich promises to seekers. Oh, the
blessed invitations of Christ! "Come unto Me, all you that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Come now, and let us
reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall
be as wool." "Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man
his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." This blessed
Book is full of such promises as these–just the kind of promises that
seeking souls need! And they all prove that the Lord is, indeed, good
to them that seek Him.

He is also good to seekers because He has made the way of salvation so
plain. Brothers and Sisters, there are certain gentlemen, nowadays, who
want us to have what they call an advanced theology, an eclectic
religion which will suit those who are supposed to be "cultured!" O
God, save me from ever hearing such a thing as that! I want to be the
means of saving to the poor and needy, the ignorant and the fallen–and
God wishes to save such people–and, therefore, He puts the Gospel very
plainly, "Believe and live. Trust the great Sacrifice, rely on Jesus
Crucified and you are saved, and saved forever." A man with an
intellect not much above that of an idiot may understand this Gospel
and enjoy it! While a man with the greatest mental powers cannot
understand it any better–no, he cannot understand it at all unless the
Spirit of God shall reveal it to him! I thank God that it is not a
difficult way of salvation that He has laid before us, but that it is
simple, or as men say, "as plain as a pikestaff." God bring us all to
accept this gracious plan of salvation!

Then, once more, is it not very good of the Lord in being found of
seekers in due time? There is no true seeker who shall die in his sins.
If you are sincerely seeking, you shall find–this is promised in our
Lord's own words that we read just now–"For everyone that asks,
receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks it shall be
opened." If I could take you through the whole dread region of Hell. If
we could pause at every cell where the finally impenitent are shut up
without hope. And if it were possible to interrogate every lost spirit,
there would not be found, there, a single one that sincerely sought the
Lord through Jesus Christ! No one shall be able to stand up at the Last
Great Day and say, "I came to Jesus, but He cast me out. I trusted Him,
but He did not keep His promise." No, my dear Hearer, if ever you shall
be lost, it will be because you never came to Christ, because you never
trusted Him, because you would not have Him as your Savior! But if you
come to Christ–poor, ragged, defiled, loathsome, guilty up to the
hilt–if you come to Christ, remember that He said, "Him that comes to
Me I will in no wise cast out." And that Word of God still stands true!
If you seek the Lord with all your heart, you shall surely find Him,
for He "is good to the soul that seeks Him."

I try to speak to you very plainly, as if I were talking to you by your
own fireside. I do not feel at any great distance from you in standing
here to speak to all of you round about me, yet I half wish that I
could get a hold of your hands, you unconverted ones, and say to you,
"Believe that my Lord is good to them that seek Him! Believe it and
seek Him for yourselves!" He is a good Lord. We sang, a few minutes
ago–

"Oh, hope of every contrite heart! Oh, joy of all the meek! To those
who fall, how kind You are! How good to those who seek!" Those are not
mere words–they are the very Truth of God! He is, indeed, good to
those who seek Him.

III. But, lest I weary any seeker where I want to win him, I shall
close by FURTHER CHEERING HIM ON IN HIS SEEKING.

Friend, be of good comfort, Christ is seeking you. It is written, "The
Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." If I were
at this time seeking a person in London, I might have a long and
difficult task–it would be like the proverbial "hunting for a needle
in a haystack." But suppose I knew that the person I was seeking was
also seeking me? I think then I should say that there was a double
probability of our meeting! If I am seeking him, and he is seeking me,
and especially if he who seeks me is a man of high intelligence and
wide knowledge, we shall meet one of these mornings or evenings, depend
upon it! So, if you are seeking Christ, that is hopeful. But if Christ
is seeking you and He knows all about you–all the ins and outs of you
poor life–He and you will come together soon, I am persuaded of it!
You are drawing nearer to each other every hour and it will not be long
before your arms are about His neck and His arms about yours! You will
be rejoicing in Him and He will be rejoicing over you!

I want to give you another word of good cheer, my seeking Friend. It
may not be long before you find the Savior. It may, indeed, be so
little a while that, before the clock strikes again, you will have
found Him! Why not? "Oh," you say, "I wish it might be so! Oh, that I
might find the Lord in that short time!" Well, look at me! I had been
seeking Christ some four or five years under a heavy burden of sin. I
remember well that Sabbath morning in the month of January, 1850, for
there was a very severe snowstorm. I was going to the Congregational
Chapel at Colchester that morning, but it snowed so heavily that I
turned into the little Primitive Methodist Chapel, merely because of
the heaviness of that snowstorm.

I was cold at heart, almost despairing. I thought that I would never
find the Savior, but between half-past ten o'clock, when I entered that
place, and half-past twelve o'clock, when I was back at home, again,
what a change had taken place in me! I had passed from darkness into
marvelous light, from death to life! Simply by looking to Jesus, I had
been delivered from despair and I was brought into such a joyous state
of mind that, when they saw me at home, they said to me, "Something
wonderful has happened to you!" And I was eager to tell them all about
it. I was like Bunyan when he wanted to tell the crows on the plowed
field all about his conversion! Yes, I had looked to Jesus as I was,
and found in Him my Savior! Well now, this October Sabbath night, you,
dear Heart, have been seeking the Lord for ever so long. You will not
need to seek Him any more if you will but look to Him–that is all you
have to do! Look to Him! Look to Him! Look to Him and, as you look to
Him, the great transaction will be done–your burden will be gone, the
joy of salvation will be given to you from Heaven by God's own right
hand–and you shall have a new song in your mouth, your feet shall be
set upon the Rock and your goings shall be established!

And mark you this–when the blessing comes, it will be worth waiting
for! When the pardon of your sin comes, you will say, "I do not regret
my cries and tears, my weary waiting and anxious seeking. He has come!
He has come! HE has come, my Lord and my God!" Why, if I had to wait at
the posts of His door from youth to old age, yet if I found Him at
last, it would well repay all my waiting! The joy and peace through
believing, which come from Christ, are a wonderful off-set against the
tears and sorrows that we have endured while we have been seeking Him.

This is my closing thought–you have no need to go about seeking Christ
any longer. You have no need to wait even five minutes before you find
Him, for it is written, "He that believes on the Son has everlasting
life." Do you know what it is to believe on Him, to trust Him? Do so
now! "It would be a great venture," says one. Then venture on Him!
"Would He save me?" Try Him! You have heard, I dare say, of the African
who came over to England. Before he came, the missionary told him that,
sometimes, it was so cold in England that the water grew hard and men
could walk on it. Now, the man had heard a great many things that were
not true which he had believed, but this, he said, he would never
believe! It was "one great big lie, for nobody ever could walk on
water." When he woke up, one December morning, and the stream was
frozen over, he still said that he would not believe it. Even when his
friend went on the ice and stood there, and said, "Now you can see that
what I told you was true. This is water, yet it is hard, and it bears
me up." The African would not believe it, till his friend said to him,
"Come along," and he gave him a pull and dragged him on the ice, and
then he said, "Yes, it is true, for it bears me up."

I would like to give some of you a bit of a pull like that! I am
resting on Christ, on Christ alone, and He bears me up! Come along and
try Him for yourselves! May the Lord lead you to do so! There never yet
was a heart that truly trusted in Christ that was deceived by Him!
Remember that verse which we sang at the beginning of the service,
and–

"Venture on Him, venture wholly Let no other trust intrude! None but
Jesus Can do helpless sinners good!"

Then shall you know for certain that "the Lord is good to the soul that
seeks Him." God bless and save you, everyone, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 7:7-29.

Verse 7. Ask, and it shall be given you. He that will not ask for it
deserves to go without it. Have you ever asked for it? If not, whose
fault is it that you have it not?

7. Seek, and you shall find. How can you hope to find if you do not
seek? Have you never found it? Have you never sought it? And if you
have never sought it, how do you excuse yourselves for your neglect?

7. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Is that all–knock? Is the
gate of Heaven not opened to you? Have you ever knocked? Do you wonder,
therefore, that the door is shut? Take care, for the time may come when
you will knock and the door will not be opened to you, for, "when once
the Master of the house is risen up, and has shut the door," then
knocking shall be in vain. But at present this verse is still God's
gracious word of command and promise–let me read it to you
again–"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

8. For everyone that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to
him that knocks it shall be opened. When you are dealing with men, this
is not always true. You may ask and not receive. You may seek and not
find–you may knock and not have the door opened to you. But when you
deal with God, there are no failures or refusals! Every true asker
receives; every true seeker finds; and every true knocker has the door
opened to him! Will you not try it and prove for yourself that it is
so?

9-11. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son asks for bread, will
he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a
serpent? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give
good things to them that ask Him? You not only give, but you know how
to give so as not to disappoint the asker. It is most blessedly so with
the great Father in Heaven! He will not give you that which will mock
and disappoint you–He will give you bread, not a stone–fish, not a
serpent! No, more, He will give you the Bread of Life, and the Water of
Life, that you may live forever!

12. Therefore all things whatever you would that men should do to you,
do you even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets. This is
rightly called, "the golden rule." Christ says of it that it is, "the
Law and the Prophets." It is the essence of them, it is the sum and
substance of the highest morality. What you would that others should do
to you, do that to them. Do not let that golden rule remain merely as a
record in this Book, but take it out with you into your daily life. If
we did all act to others as we would that others should act to us, how
different would the lives of many men become! Ours would be a happy
world if this Law of Christ were the law of England and the law of all
nations! God send us the Spirit by whom, alone, we shall be able to
obey so high a rule!

13. Enter you in at the strait gate. The narrow gate.

13, 14. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and many there are which go in thereat because strait is
the gate, and narrow is the way which leads unto life, and few there
are that find it. Do not try to go with the majority–truth is usually
with the minority. Do not count heads and say, "I am for that which has
the most on its side," but prefer that which is least liked among men!
Choose that which is most difficult, most trying to flesh and
blood–that which gives you least license because–"strait is the gate
and narrow is the way which leads unto life, and few there are that
find it." You will not hit upon it, then, in a "happy-go-lucky" sort of
style. Heaven's gate is not found open by accident–there was never
anybody yet who was saved by accident! No, "few there are that find
it," is still true. God grant that we may be among the few! And why
should we not be?

15. Because of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves. There are always plenty of them
around! There is nothing of the sheep about them but the skin–and
there is no connection between that skin and those that wear it.

16-20. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of
thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree brings forth good
fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and
cast into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you shall know them. You
may judge men as well as trees that way–and you may judge doctrines
that way. That which gives a license to sin cannot be true. But that
which makes for holiness is true, for, somehow, truth of doctrine and
holiness of life run together. We cannot expect holiness to grow out of
lies, but we may expect all manner of evil to come out of false
teaching.

21. Not everyone that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven; but he that does the will of My Father, which is in
Heaven. Practice is the true test, not words. Not he that says, "Lord,
Lord," but, "he that does the will of God." Not he that merely has good
words on his tongue, but he that has the will of God laid up in his
heart and worked out in his life–that is the man who "shall enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven."

22, 23. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Your name? And in Your name have cast out devils? And in
Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity. If our lives
are evil, it does not matter to what denomination we belong! We may be
clever preachers, or mighty teachers. We may fancy that we have had
dreams and visions. We may set ourselves up to be some great ones, but
if we have not done the will of God, we shall, at the last, hear Christ
say to us, "Depart from Me, you that work iniquity."

24, 25. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them,
I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock: and
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. He was
a good man and a practical man, yet he was also a tried man. His house
was built on the rock, but that did not prevent the rain descending,
the floods coming and the winds blowing! The highest type of godliness
will not save you from troubles and trials! It will, in some measure,
even necessitate them. But, blessed be God, here lies the gem of the
parable or narrative–"It fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." It
could stand the strain and endure the test, for it had a good
foundation.

26, 27. And everyone that hears these sayings of Mine, and does them
not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon
the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of
it. He was a great hearer, but he was a bad doer–yet he thought that
he was a good doer, for he built a house. Alas, the house was on the
sand! There was no real obedience to Christ, no true trusting in Him
and so, when the time of trouble came–and trouble will come even to
the hypocrite and to the false professor–we read of his house, "It
fell: and great was the fall of it," because it could never be built up
again! It fell hopelessly! It fell forever! Therefore, "Great was the
fall of it."

28, 29. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the
people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one
having authority, and not as the scribes. There was a force and power
about what Jesus said. He spoke from the heart. He spoke with the
accent of conviction, whereas the scribes and Pharisees only spoke
magisterially and officially, with no heart in their utterance–and
there was, therefore, no power about it. God give to all of us the
Grace to know the power of the Words of Christ! Amen.