If So–what Then?

If So–what Then?

(No. 3047)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1907.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 15, 1871.

"If the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the
sinner appear?" 1 Peter 4:18.

SOME people suppose that it is a very easy thing to be saved, but our
Lord said, "Strive ("Agonize" is the original word) to enter in at the
strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall
not be able." When men hear a simple Gospel sermon of which the pith
and marrow is the great soul-saving message, "Believe and live," they
say, "If it is such a simple matter, will not all believe?" But the
Prophet Isaiah spoke not so, for his sad inquiry was, "Who has believed
our report ("our doctrine" is the marginal reading)?" Faith seems so
easy that one might ask, "Where will it not be found? But our Savior
thought not so, for He asked, "When the Son of Man comes, shall He find
faith on the earth?" He who knows where to look for it and who has the
quickest eyes to discern it, asks whether He shall be able to find,
anywhere on the earth, that scarce thing called faith–"the faith of
God's elect." Believe me that though "the way of holiness" is so plain
that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein," yet on
account of the hardness of our hearts, it is no easy thing for any of
us to enter that way and to continue in it until it leads us to our
everlasting Home above.

I do not intend to keep strictly to my text, but to give you the
meaning of it in this way. First, here is a fact stated– "The
righteous are scarcely saved." Then, secondly, there is an inference
drawn from that fact–if they are truly saved with great difficulty,
"where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" When we have
considered that inference, we shall take the liberty to draw two other
inferences which may afford us further instruction.

I. First, then, HERE IS A FACT STATED–"The righteous are scarcely
saved." That is to say, they are only saved with great difficulty. This
is not because there is any deficiency in Jesus Christ, our Lord and
Savior, or any lack of efficacy in His atoning Sacrifice, or in His
intercession for transgressors. God be thanked that there is no
difficulty there! It is not through any lack of power to save on the
part of the Holy Spirit. Nor is it through any failure of God's
faithfulness that "the righteous" are only saved with great difficulty.
But it is for two reasons which I will now give you.

The first reason is, because of the strictness of Divine rule. Read the
first clause of the verse preceding our text– "The time is come that
judgment must begin at the House of God." And that judgment is so
severe that even "the righteous are scarcely saved." When Christ comes
even to His own people, He comes to purge and purify them. The Prophet
Malachi wrote concerning His first coming, "He is like a refiner's
fire, and like fullers' soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge
them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness." John the Baptist said, concerning Christ, "He that
comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:
He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire: whose fan is
in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His
wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire." Judgment must always "begin at the House of God" and there is,
as good Archbishop Leighton very properly says, both "equity and
congruity in such an arrangement." There is equity in it, for
Christians profess to be better than others and so they ought to be.
They say they are regenerate, so they ought to be regenerate. They say
that they are a holy people, separated unto Christ, so they ought to be
holy and separate from sinners, as He was. It is right that where there
is a high calling and an honored name, there should be a life proving
the accuracy of these two things. So, when God begins to test that
which professes to be gold and silver, who can say that He does not
begin His testing at the right place, and with the right material?
There is also a congruity or fitness in this arrangement.

The Church of God is His house–and where does a man begin cleansing
and reforming? Why, in his own house, of course! He might perhaps feel
that he must have some filth in the farmyard, but not in his own
sitting-room! There may be much evil abroad that he cannot remove, yet
he can begin cleaning up at home. If we want to do any good in
reforming the world, the very first duty for each of us is to begin
reforming at home– and the Lord, when He means to clear away the
dross, begins at home by setting up His "fire in Zion and His furnace
in Jerusalem."

The tests to which God subjects those who profess to be His people are
not easy ones. When His fan is in His hand, woe be unto those who are
"like the chaff which the wind drives away." The Lord says, by the
mouth of the Prophet Amos, "I will sift the house of Israel among all
nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least
grain fall upon the earth." Nor shall an atom of chaff be left in the
sieve. When Omnipotence and Omniscience unite to sift the chaff from
the wheat, you may depend upon it that the sifting will be thoroughly
done! There is also the testing by fire. And if any are not able to
endure that test, "reprobate silver shall men call them because the
Lord has rejected them." Then God will weigh us–we shall be put into
the balances of the sanctuary and if we are found wanting, how terrible
it will be! We often judge by appearances, but God looks at the heart.
We may be deceived by the outward profession, but God sees what is
within. He looks for the Truth in our inward parts and in our hidden
parts there must be the true Wisdom or else we are not saved.

Now, dear Friends, as the tests are so severe, you see how it is that
the righteous are only saved with difficulty. Oh, if I may but come out
of that scale full weight, if I may but come out of that fire as pure
gold, if I may but remain with the wheat in that sieve and not be blown
away with the chaff, I shall bless God forever and ever that I was
saved, even though it was with great difficulty!

Further, the experience of all Christians proves that the work of Grace
in their hearts is not easily accomplished and that their pilgrimage to
Heaven is full of difficulties. At the very beginning of the Christian
life, some find it hard to lay hold on Christ. We truly sing or say–

"There is life for a look at the Crucified One." Yet there was a time
when I felt that I would gladly give my life in exchange for that look!
Easy as it seems to be to cast ourselves into the Savior's arms, there
are Satanic doubts, evil questionings, and fierce temptations that
cause even that simple act to be accomplished only with great
difficulty. Indeed, wherever it is accomplished, it is a miracle of
Divine Mercy and in every case saving faith is "the gift of God."

Then, how difficult it is to overcome the flesh! Are you a Believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ? Then I need not ask whether you find it so. You
love holiness, yet unholiness tries hard to make you its slave. Perhaps
it is a fiery temper that is your "thorn in the flesh," or some
constitutional sin, or some lust that you thought had been subdued. You
may have said, with David, "My feet were almost gone; my steps had
well-near slipped." And I know that if your life is that of a true
child of God, you have to fight hard in order to "put off the old man
with his deeds," and to lead a godly life in the midst of this ungodly
generation.

The temptations that assail you from without are equally hard to
overcome. There are temptations of wealth and temptations of
poverty–temptations to turn aside to the right or to the left–and it
is not easy to keep to the middle of the King's highway and to walk in
the footprints of Jesus who has left us an example that we should
follow His steps. When the world, the flesh and the devil combine to
assail us–if the Lord does not cover our head in the day of battle,
how can we gain the victory? With some Christians it is a very hard
struggle from day to day, and even from hour to hour–and then we are
like Mr. Stand-Fast who, when he was in what Bunyan calls the Enchanted
Ground, was assailed by Madam Bubble and who could do nothing but fall
on his knees and cry to God for help! There are many of us who have
felt like that and who, in the bitterness of our agony, have had to cry
to God to help us, for it is only with difficulty that we are saved. I
can say, with good John Fawcett–

"Temptations everywhere annoy,

And sins and snares my peace destroy.

My earthly joys are from me torn,

And oft an absent God I mourn.

My soul, with various tempests tossed,

Her hopes overturned, her projects crossed,

Sees every day new straits attend,

And wonders where the scene will end.

Is this, dear Lord, that thorny road

Which leads us to the Mount of God?

Are these the toils Your people know,

While in the wilderness below?

'Tis even so, Your faithful love

Does thus Your children's graces prove–

'Tis thus our pride and self must fall,

That Jesus may be All-in-All." How difficult is it for a true Christian
even to perform necessary duties in a humble and holy spirit! It is a
simple matter to pray–it is just going, like a child, to tell God all
that you feel and all that you need. Yet I ask you, Christian, whether
you do not sometimes find it hard work to pray? When you are on your
knees, all sorts of cares come buzzing about you, like so many hornets.
You want to wrestle with God as Jacob did, but you find that your
wrestling has to be with the devil! I know what it is to long to pray
when I cannot find a prayer in my soul! I make this confession because
I believe there are many of God's people who get into that state. And,
moreover, I know that we often pray best when we think we are not
praying. Perhaps those groans that come from the lowest depths of our
spirit when we think we are not groaning at all are just the most
potent prayers that ever reach the Throne of God! But there are seasons
when one can only say, "May the Holy Spirit feel for me what I cannot
feel, and utter for me what I cannot speak, and do for me what I cannot
perform!"

And if such ordinary acts of devotion are so difficult, how much more
difficult is it to reach gracious attainments in the Divine life! If
any of your graces come to you very easily, suspect whether they are
genuine, for in the Christian life, all that is worth having has to be
fought for in stern conflict. So determined are the powers of darkness
to prevent the Christian pilgrim from entering the Celestial City that
all the way to Heaven will be more or less a Hill of Difficulty. You
will have to go often upon your hands and knees because the road is so
rough and the ascent is so steep that you cannot advance in any other
way. We would be holy as God is holy, but there is another law in our
members warring against the law of our renewed minds. God knows that we
yearn after perfection but, alas, like the bird that would gladly fly,
there is something that holds us down! Many of you have seen an eagle
in a cage and you know how he looks up with those bright eyes of his
that were made to gaze into the sun! If he stretches his wings and
tries to fly, he only wounds himself against the bars of his cage and,
oh, what wounds some of us have had when in our aspirations after
better things, to will has been present with us, but how to perform
that which we would, we found not! Often have I had to cry, with Paul,
"O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" Yes, it is hard work for any of us to get to Heaven. God, the
Eternal Spirit, helps us to overcome our infirmities, but we are often
made to feel those infirmities and to confess that our weakness is no
match for the strength of sin–and to admit that were it not for God
Himself, we should certainly perish after all. I delight to sing with
holy John Newton–

"Beyond a doubt, I rest assured

You are the Christ of God!

Who has eternal life secured

By promise and by blood.

The help of men and angels joined

Could never reach my case,

Nor can I hope relief to find

But in Your boundless Grace!" Do you not, dear Brothers and Sisters in
Christ, sometimes feel how hard it is for you to be saved when you put
your soul before the tribunal of your own enlightened conscience? Our
own conscience, at the best, is a poor partial judge compared with the
impartial and Infallible Judge who will, by-and-by, sit upon the Great
White Throne. Yet I ask any Christian here who is really aware of his
own frailties and infirmities–when he comes seriously to take stock of
himself, whether he finds any reason in himself for glorying? I have
turned over my sermons and my many labors for the Lord, but there is
scarcely one of them that I dare to think of without tears–they are
all marred by sin and imperfection! As I think of every act I have ever
done for God, I can only cry, "O God, forgive the iniquity of my holy
things!" But what

about our unholy things? Brothers and Sisters, look well to the
evidences of your new birth. And as you examine them, see if you do not
have to say with the Prophet, "We are all as an unclean thing, and all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf;
and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." If so, then let
each one of us pray with penitent David, "Purge me with hyssop and I
shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." If we are
really God's people, it is a great consolation for us to know
that–notwithstanding our many infirmities and iniquities, our many
anxieties and doubts and fears as to whether, after all, we have been
self-deceived or devil-deceived–God will never forsake us!

II. This must suffice concerning the fact that Christians are only
saved with great difficulty. Now, secondly, let us consider THE
INFERENCE FROM THAT FACT.

Peter says, "If the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the
ungodly and the sinner appear?" By which he means, I think, first, that
if even the righteous are so severely tested, what short work will God
make with the unrighteous–if the wheat must thus be winnowed, how
certainly will the chaff be destroyed–if the gold must pass through
the fire, how assuredly will the dross be consumed! The God who tries
and tests the best will certainly not wink at the worst.

He means next, I think, that if "the righteous" only attain to felicity
with great diificulty, "the ungodly and the sinner" can never attain to
it Suppose there has been a terrible storm on a rock-bound coast. The
lifeboat has gone out and the men have nobly done their duty and saved
many precious lives. But as each man leaps ashore, he says, "I was
never before out in such a storm. It is only by the merciful Providence
of God that we were able to get back." When the people on the shore see
that even the lifeboat so narrowly escaped destruction, they naturally
ask, "What must become of those poor leaky and unseaworthy boats that
are hardly fit to be in a mill pond?" Or imagine a river, full of
sandbanks, with a channel that twists and turns in a tortuous
fashion–and there is a vessel on it with an experienced pilot on
board–yet even he is very anxious and is constantly heaving the lead,
and frequently going at half-speed, or stopping altogether! Now, if a
steamer with a good pilot on board can scarcely get up the river, what
will happen to a small sailboat, in the charge of a reckless drunk, who
scarcely steers at all, but lets the boat drift wherever it will? Why,
it must be lost! So, if "the vessels of mercy…before prepared unto
glory," on which Christ is the Pilot, barely escape the rocks and
quicksands, what must be the end of "the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction" which have no pilot on board and drift here and there at
the mercy of winds and waves? If there is a great conflagration in the
city and there is a massive stone structure with iron girders which the
firemen can only save from destruction with great difficulty, what will
be the fate of a wooden house, covered with pitch and tar and full of
oil? If a man who has built for eternity upon Christ, the only true
Foundation–and who has built, not with gold, silver and precious
stones, but with wood, hay and stubble– if such a man "shall be saved,
yet so as by fire," what will become of the sinner who is only like a
dry log fitted for the everlasting burning?

My text does not tell us where "the ungodly and the sinner" will
appear. This is one of the unanswered questions of Scripture–"Where
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" So I shall scarcely speak of
that dreadful place where our Savior says, "There shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth," "where their worm dies not and the fire is not
quenched." These metaphors, terrible as they are in their grim
suggestiveness, are only faint images of the awful reality! And I again
remind you that they are the words of Him to Whom we teach our children
to pray–

"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, Look upon a little child."

In Psalm 50:22 there is this dreadful Divine warning, "Consider this,
you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to
deliver." If it is difficult for a Christian to be saved–and I have
shown you that it is–where shall you who are not God's people, you who
have no Christ, you who have no Holy Spirit to guide you–where shall
you appear? The Apostle Paul wrote, "I keep my body under and bring it
into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway." If Paul entered Heaven with
difficulty, where will you be? Martin Luther's biography tells us that
he was the subject of grievous doubts, depressions and soul anxieties.
So, if he only reached Heaven as a sinner saved by Grace, where will
you be who know nothing experimentally of the Grace of God? If John
Knox, after serving his God so faithfully that his epitaph truly says,
"Here lies a man who in his life never feared the face of man"–if he,
on his deathbed, found it hard to cherish a hope of Heaven–what will
you do who despise Christ's mercy and riot in sin?

Before I close, I want to draw two other inferences. The first is
this–IF THE RIGHTEOUS ARE ONLY SAVED

WITH DIFFICULTY, WHAT ABOUT THOSE PEOPLE WHO ARE "SAVED" SO VERY
EASILY? It looks as if they were not righteous, does it not? Perhaps
there is a man here who is like Bunyan's Formalist. This is his
hope–"I was 'christened' when I was a child, I was confirmed as a
youth, I attend my church and take the 'sacrament' regularly." Or he
may say, "I regularly attend chapel." He says, "Don't talk to me about
anxieties as to my state–I have no such anxieties." No, I expect you
have not, but if you have no doubts about yourself, permit me to have
my doubts about you! And let me go a great deal further than doubts and
solemnly tell you that a hope founded on ceremonies will lead to your
"everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the
glory of His power."

There may be another who says, "I have made a profession of religion,
but I never have any questions about whether I am saved or not. I
pray–in a fashion. As to praising God, I always could sing and I
believe I am about as right as I can be. I don't see any cause for
distressing myself." Yes, Friend, but let me remind you that there is a
great difference between presumption and "full assurance of faith."
There is also a very great difference between believing that you are
saved and being really saved!

Possibly there is another who says, "I believe I am one of God's elect
and that I am quite safe." Well, Friend, if it is so, no one is more
thankful than I am. But if that is your only hope of salvation and you
have never been born-again and know nothing of the new life with its
anxieties and joys, I would not give a bent pin for your hope of
Heaven! And the sooner you get rid of it, the better. A dead fish finds
no difficulty in floating down the stream–it is only the living fish
that can swim against the current. The broad road is very smooth and
there is a good deal of company on it–but it leads to destruction.
There are few in the narrow way and many difficulties there–but it
leads to eternal life. You say that you never know any changes. No, nor
do the statues in St. Paul's Cathedral. There they stand, year after
year, upon their marble pedestals because they are dead–and you are
the same. "But I never have to fight that battle of which you have been
speaking." No, of course not, because the world and you are friends!
And because you are of the world, the world loves its own. If you were
a stranger and a foreigner in this world, you would be treated as
strangers and foreigners are in an inhospitable country.

I will draw only one more inference from our text and that is a very
comforting one. THE RIGHTEOUS ARE ONLY SAVED WITH DIFFICULTY–THEN
TEMPTED SOULS MAY BE SAVED. That Truth of God has given me comfort when
I have thought, "Well, it is difficult for me to be saved, then it
appears that I am numbered with the righteous and that I am on the
right road." "Oh, Sir," says a poor sinner here, "I am glad you said
that. I hope I have cast myself wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ and I
thought I was going to have peace always, but, instead of that, ever
since I have believed, or thought I had believed, I have had more
fights in my soul than I ever had before." Well, the righteous are only
saved with difficulty, so do not be depressed. "But I have been more
tempted than I ever was before and it seems, Sir, as if everybody is
against me and tries to drive me back. I thought I should find cheerful
companions who would help me on the road to Heaven, but I seem to be
alone in an enemy's land." My dear Brother, it is always so with the
righteous–no strange thing has happened to you. "But, Sir," says one,
"horrible thoughts and terrible blasphemies arise in my mind even when
I try to pray. And I say to myself, 'If I were a child of God, could it
be thus with me?'" Dear Friend, be comforted! Satan is afraid of losing
you, so he is putting out all his force to try to hold you. Now that
you are a Christian, you are a target for all the devil's fiery darts,
so do not be astonished–this is the lot of the people of God! When a
man has been drowning, I have heard that his sensations have often been
very pleasant, but when the circulation of the blood commences again,
pain begins at once and the more pain he suffers, the more surely is he
being restored to life! It is just so with the spiritual blood that is
circulating in your soul. You are not dead, so you smart and suffer
because you are alive. If you imagine that the moment you believe, your
battle is over, you make a great mistake–your battle has only just
begun and because while really trusting in Jesus, you have battles,
contentions, difficulties and troubles, conclude that, therefore, you
are a child of God!

Remember this, if the righteous are only saved with great difficulty,
they would never be saved if they did not look right away from
themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. There lies the one hope for
sinners and saints–in the finished work of the blessed Redeemer! "I
know what you are at," said a good man once to one who was doubting,
"Christ has finished the work of salvation, but you are not content
with what He has done, so you want to patch it up with something of
your own." Come sinners and come saints, back to the foot of that dear
Cross where Jesus bought with His own blood the souls of all who
believe in Him! let us throw ourselves prostrate before Him and say,
"You are all our confidence, our only hope and our full salvation
forever and ever. Save us, O Savior! We are sinners and You are the
sinners' Friend– save us now and we shall be saved forever!" Amen, so
let it be!

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ZECHAARIAH8. [See Note to Sermon No.
3045, on Zechariah 8:13.]

Verses 1, 2. Again the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying,
Thus says the LORD ofHosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy,
and I was jealous for her with great fury. Because they worshipped
idols instead of the living God, Jehovah of Hosts, who is a jealous
God, was very angry with His ancient people and allowed them to be
carried away into captivity. And it is well for us in these days to
remember that we serve a jealous God and that if our hearts are not
true to Him, He will soon send us sharp afflictions and make us feel
the weight of His rod! It was Paul's anxious desire that he might be
able to present the Church at Corinth "as a chaste virgin to Christ"
and, certainly, our Lord Jesus Christ will not accept the professing
Church of these days on any other terms. Let your heart be loyal and
true to Him, or else you will stir up the holy jealousy of your God!
Yet the same jealousy which makes God punish His people for their
unfaithfulness, prompts Him to return to them in love as soon as He
sees that He can justly do so. When their enemies have sorely vexed and
oppressed them, then is the Lord jealous, not against them, but against
their enemies– and He swiftly returns to His own people in love.

3. Thus says the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the
midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and
the mountain of the LORD ofHosts the holy mountain. The first coming or
the return of God to a Church, or to an individual heart, always
promotes holiness. So, unless your piety is growing daily, do not
imagine that God is in the midst of you, for wherever the Lord comes,
He comes "as a refiner and purifier." You will never find Jesus come
except as John the Baptist pictured Him to the Pharisees and Sadducees
of his day–"whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His
floor." The coming of Christ into any soul, or into any Church, is the
death of sin and the birth of holiness!

4, 5. Thus says the LORD ofHosts, There shall yet old men and old women
dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his
hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys
and girls playing in the streets thereof It is an indication that there
is peace in the city when the children can play in the streets without
fear. We may thus apply these verses spiritually–when God greatly
blesses a Christian Church, there are sure to be many aged persons in
it, those who, by their long experience and their matured wisdom, are
able to teach others the lessons which they have themselves learned at
the feet of Jesus. Happy is the Church that has in it many fathers and
mothers in Israel. At the same time, a Church that is largely blessed
by God will also have in it many young converts who will be as full of
life and joy as children playing in the streets of a city in time of
peace. There is a text which is true both in its literal and its
spiritual sense–"Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord…Happy is
the man that has his quiver full of them." There is no glory so great
to a Christian minister and a Christian Church as that of having an
abundance of spiritual children and multitudes of converts brought to
Christ. So shall it be with any Church when God is in the midst of her.

6. Thus says the LORD ofHosts; If it is marvelous in the eyes of the
remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in My
eyes?says the LORD ofHosts. This is a very remarkable passage, warning
us not to judge of God by ourselves. Though a thing may be difficult to
us, there are no difficulties with God. No, even if we imagine anything
to be impossible to man, the word impossibilityhas no relation to the
Deity, for "with God all things are possible." Are you in trouble
today? Do you say that it is impossible for you to be delivered? It is
an easy thing for God to deliver you, though the task seems so hard to
you. Do you feel the weight of your sin and do you imagine that it is
impossible for your sin to be pardoned? Would you look upon it as a
miracle and because it seems so marvelous to you, do you think it is
marvelous in God's eyes? Remember what He said by the mouth of Isaiah,
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says
the Lord." Consider the infinite difference between God and man–and
look no longer at God through the misleading glasses of your own
feebleness!

7, 8. Thus says the LORD ofHosts; Behold, I will save My people from
the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and
they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be My
people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. Mark
God's emphatic language, how full it is of, "shalls" and, "wills." "I
will," and "they shall," says He, again and again. And if God says, "I
will," who shall dare to say that it shall not be? What God declares
shall certainly come to pass. Surely this is golden language of comfort
to those who are bowed down! Then how great must be the sinfulness of
that unbelief which dares to despair when God says, "shall" and,
"will"! That one sentence in the eighth verse contains the whole Gospel
in two short sentences–"They shall be My people, and I will be their
God." This is the tenor of the Covenant of Grace. There is no "if," nor
"but," nor "perhaps" in it. God does not say, "I will be their God if
they will be My people." Nor, "I will love them if they will keep My
Laws." That is the Old Covenant of works which has been broken forever!
The Covenant of Grace runs thus, "They shall be My people, and I will
be their God, in truth and in righteousness."

9-11. Thus says the LORD ofHosts; Let your hands be strong, you that
hear in these days these words by the mouth of the Prophets, which were
in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD ofHosts was
laid, that the Temple might be built For before these days there was no
hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to
him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all
men, everyone against his neighbor But now I will not be unto the
residue of this people as in the former days, says the LORD ofHosts.
The Jewish people had been brought into abject poverty. They were all
so poor that there was not one who could hire his fellow man or even
pay for the hire of a beast of burden. This was before the foundation
of Solomon's Temple was laid. But, as that wondrous structure grew, the
State also grew and often the prosperity of a Church brings prosperity
to the people around it. And to the residue of God's people there comes
a blessing, and not a curse.

12. For the seed shall be prosperous. It is a happy omen for a Church
when the Word preached is with power.

12. The vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her
increase. Happy are the hearts that are like fruitful vines, and good
and fertile ground yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold increase.

12. And the heavens shall give their dew.We cannot bring forth fruit
unto God without the bedewing influences of the Holy Spirit. This is
that "womb of the morning" of which David speaks in Psalm 110:3–and
out of which the precious fruit of the Spirit must come.

12-15. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these
things. And it shall come to pass, that as you were a curse among the
heathen, Ohouse of Judah, andhouse ofIsrael; so willIsave you, andyou
shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands be strong. For thus
says the LORD ofHosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers
provoked Me to wrath, says the LORD ofHosts, and I repented not: so
again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the
house of Judah: fear you not Did you notice the repetition of the
exhortation, "Fear not," and then again, "Fear you not"? The Lord knows
how much mischief, doubts and fears do to His people and, therefore,
many a time in Scripture He aims a blow at them. "Fear nots" abound in
Scripture! It would be well if you made every one of them into a
gallows upon which to hang your unbelief until it died! What is your
fear at this moment? What is the cause of your trembling? "Fear you
not," says God to you! Will you dare to fear after this?

16, 17. These are the things that you shall do; Speak you every man the
truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your
gates: and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his
neighbor Some have wickedly said that "thought is free and can't be
condemned." But here we see that if it goes after evil, it is a wicked
thing which God abhors.

17-19. And love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,
says the LORD. And the word of the LORD of Hosts came unto me, saying,
Thus says the LORD ofHosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast
of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth,
shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts;
therefore love the truth and peace.God turns sad fasts to glad feasts
when He visits His people in love! Is there one here who has been
having a long fast? Has your soul been sorely afflicted? Have you been
desponding and trembling so that you have had no joy and gladness? Ah,
when the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself to you, He will soon change
your sad state into something brighter and better! He will give you
"beauty for ashes, the oil ofjoy for mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness." Look up, poor trembling Soul, to yonder
hill of Calvary where Jesus bled and died for you–and there let your
joys begin and never, never end!

20, 21. Thus says the LORD of Hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that
there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the
inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily
to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of Hosts: I will go also.
You see that in the latter days there is to be a great spirit of prayer
and of seeking the Lord. This will include the hearing of the Word and
the love of the Truths of God. And one good sign is that the people
will say, "Let us go speedily." They will not come in late, as so many
do nowadays, just getting into their seats when the Scripture is being
read, instead of being present at the opening prayer. I am sorry to say
that some of you are getting later and later–and some morning I shall
most certainly carry out my threat, and preach the sermon first unless
you are more punctual! A little more thought and a little sooner start
and you might all be at God's House on time. David longed to be a
doorkeeper in the Lord's house and you know that the doorkeeper is
always the first in and the last out. May you all have more of David's
spirit, though you cannot all be doorkeepers! These people are to say,
"Let us go speedily (the marginal reading is 'continually') to pray
before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts: I will go also." That is
the best way of bringing others to God's House–to say, "I will go
also." I have read that Julius Caesar never said to his soldiers, "Go,"
but, "Let us go." So should we seek to get others to God's House by
saying to them, "Let us go…I will go also."

22, 23. Yes, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD
ofHosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. Thus says the LORD
ofHosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take
hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the
skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have
heard that God is with you. In the latter days, the Jews, who are still
despised, oppressed and persecuted in many countries, shall be so
highly honored by God that men of other nationalities will want to be
in their company! But, no doubt, there is here a special reference to
Jesus, the Jew, the Son of God who became the Son of Mary, too. Oh that
this very day many Jews and Gentiles may take hold of His skirt by a
living faith and so may receive blessing from Him and be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation!