Jehovah Has Spoken–will You Not Hear?

Jehovah Has Spoken–will You Not Hear?

(No. 1748)

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 4, 1883,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Hear you, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord has spoken. Give
glory to the Lord your God, before He causes darkness and before your
feet stumble upon the dark mountains and, while you look for light, He
turns it into the shadow of death and makes it gross darkness. But if
you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your
pride; and my eyes shall weep bitterly and run down with tears, because
the Lord's flock is carried away captive." Jeremiah 13:15-17.

IN this chapter Jeremiah had proclaimed the judgment of God against His
sinful people under two very striking figures. Israel had been to God
what a sash is to a man–the people had been bound closely about Him in
His great love and favor. But on account of their sin, the Lord would
put them away and they should be hidden by the Euphrates till their
beauty was marred–until, in fact, like a rotten sash, their whole
state had become decayed. "Thus says the Lord, After this manner will I
mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem."

Then He spoke to them by a second parable–"Every bottle shall be
filled with wine"–and he showed how God's wrath would come upon the
people to fill them with a judicial drunkenness, so that they should
become drunk, and in their delirium should strive, one with another, to
their mutual undoing. The Lord declared that thus He would "dash them
one against another, even the fathers and the sons together." Thus,
under two homely but exceedingly terrible figures, Jeremiah preached
the Law of God to the people, that they might be humbled under a sense
of sin.

Had they but felt the force of this teaching, they would have begun to
mourn for their sin and, under dread of wrath, they would have cried
for mercy. Taking it for granted that this might be the case, though,
alas, it did not so happen, the Lord gave to His Prophet an interval
for proclaiming mercy. After those two great thunderclaps of judgment
came a gracious shower of Grace. The Prophet, in what we may venture to
call an evangelistic style, exhorts the people and addresses to them
the characteristic Gospel precept–"Hear you, and give ear; for Jehovah
has spoken."

His words remind us of Isaiah's exhortation–"Incline your ears and
come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live." And again–"Hearken
diligently unto Me, and eat you that which is good." Under the Gospel,
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God–and so Jeremiah
does, as it were, in these verses preach the Gospel to the backsliding
house of Judah. This is always God's design in threatening judgment–He
desires to prepare the people for His Grace.

I would take up the Prophet's strain, by the help of the Lord, praying
to be a partaker of his earnest and tender Spirit. Oh, that today those
who have never heard the voice of the Lord in the inward parts of their
being may hear it and live! O Holy Spirit, work to that end!

I. We will enter upon our subject at once, for there is much to speak
of. The first head will be this–listen, O my Hearers, with deep
attention, for THERE IS A REVELATION. Read the text–"Hear you, and
give ear; be not proud: for the Lord has spoken." If the Lord had not
spoken, the silence would have deepened and established your natural
darkness. And if you had been inquiring after God, your heart would
have cried, "Oh, that He would break this dreadful silence!" How sad
would have been our state if the only way to find God depended upon our
seeking Him! Shall man, by searching, find God? Who among us could
reason ourselves into the knowledge of the Lord? Or imagine the
thoughts of His mind?

But here you have the great source of comfort and instruction–"Jehovah
has spoken." Is not this a just call for the attention of all His
creatures? The voice which we are bid to hear is a Divine voice! It is
the voice of Him that made the heavens and the earth, whose creatures
we are! Jehovah has spoken! If it were but the voice of Prophets apart
from their Master, it might be but a slight sin to refuse what they
say. But since Jehovah has spoken, shall men dare to be deaf to

Him? Shall they turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven? He that
spoke us into being has spoken to our being! He by whose Word the
heavens stand and at whose word both Heaven and earth shall pass away,
has spoken, and His voice is to the sons of men! It is God who says, "I
have written to him the great things of My Law." The sacred Scriptures
are the record of what God has spoken–receive them with the reverence
which they deserve as coming from God, and as being, therefore, pure
truth, fixed certainty, and unerring right.

It is a Word most clear and plain, for Jehovah has spoken. He might
have taught us only by the works of His hands, in which the invisible
things of God, even His eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen.
What is all creation but a hieroglyphic scroll in which the Lord has
written out His Character as Creator and Provider? But since He knew
that we were dim of sight and dull of comprehension, the Lord has gone
beyond the symbols and hieroglyphs and used articulate speech such as a
man uses with his fellows–Jehovah has spoken! A man may act before us
his mind in symbols and we may fail to perceive his meaning. But when
he speaks, we understand his communications by language, since such
modes of expression are suitable to the human intellect.

Speech is the fit manner of commerce between mind and mind and it is,
therefore, most delightful that the all-glorious Jehovah should stoop
from writing in starry letters across the sky–and from mirroring His
form in tempests on the sea–and speak with us as a man speaks with his
friends! Jehovah is no dumb Deity–He has spoken to us in sweet and
chosen words by His Spirit. Oh, when there is a testimony so clear and
plain that he who runs may read, well may the Prophet exhort us,
saying, "Hear you, and give ear; for Jehovah has spoken." Let it not be
said of us, as of the sinners long ago, "I spoke unto you, rising up
early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you
answered not."

Moreover, I gather from the expression in the text that the Revelation
made to us by the Lord is an unchangeable and abiding word. It is not
today that Jehovah is speaking, but Jehovah has spoken–His voice by
the Prophets and Apostles is now silent, for He has revealed all His
Truth which is necessary for salvation. The Lord might fitly say to us
this day, "What I have written I have written." He changes not His
Word, and though Heaven and earth pass away, His Word abides. We are
not living in a period of gradual Revelation, as some imagine–Jehovah
has spoken and He opens not His mouth a second time. He has closed the
canon of Scripture with a curse upon him that shall add to or take from
the Words of the Book of this prophecy.

Jehovah has spoken! You have not to go on making discoveries of new
Truth outside of Scripture. Your duty lies in diligently receiving the
completed testimony of the Lord God, for the Word of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul. He has fully told you your relation to
your God and the way by which you may be reconciled to Him and be at
peace. "Add not unto His words, lest He reprove you, and you be found a
liar." Jehovah has spoken! And it is written in His Law, "You shall not
add unto the word which I command you." Beloved, this Revelation is
pre-eminently a condescending and cheering word. The Lord might have
trodden us down to destruction without a word when we sinned against
Him! He might have left us to that natural testimony which is borne
upon the face of creation and which is also reflected in the conscience
of all men–and when we rejected those testimonies He might have
allowed us to travel on in tenfold night.

But instead thereof, in the plenitude of His Grace, Jehovah has
spoken–and be it always remembered that while of old He spoke in
sundry times and different manners by the Prophets, He has in these
last times spoken unto us by His Son. The very fact that the great God
speaks to us by His Son indicates that mercy, tenderness, love and hope
are the burden of His utterance! His Son Jesus is full of Grace and
Truth and, therefore, that which He now speaks to us is not only Truth,
but Grace. It is truthful Grace and gracious Truth which God speaks to
us by Jesus Christ. Oh, the richness of that message–the height and
depth of love which it contains! Who can refuse to listen to the
heavenly music of mercy?

The Lord's voice on the first day of creation said, "Let there be
light," and there was light. And now this second voice, this voice to
the spiritual world, gives us light, life, love and every necessary,
conceivable, desirable gift! The words of God, as they are recorded in
this Book, have a unfathomable fullness about them–they are spirit and
life! In Christ, by whom He speaks, there is hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge! The Prophet asked no more than was perfectly
reasonable when he said, "Hear, and give ear; for Jehovah has spoken."
When the kings who dwell at the utmost ends of the earth hear that
Jehovah has spoken, they would do well to quit their thrones and make a
journey, like the Queen of Sheba, to hear of the Divine wisdom!

If all workmen should throw down their tools and say, "We will hear
what God the Lord shall speak," and if merchants should close their
shops and counting-houses for a while and come together without delay
crying, "Everything must stop till we have heard what the Lord has
spoken," would it be any more than right reason would suggest to
thoughtful and right-minded men? O Sirs, if God has spoken, every ear
should surrender itself to attention, for surely never could the sense
of hearing be more honorably and profitably employed! Jehovah has
spoken and His Word is true–"The grass withers and the flower thereof
falls away: but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the
Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." There is a way of
salvation arranged and determined by the Lord! It is not to be guessed
at, but we are to learn it from Infallible Wisdom–Jehovah has spoken!

There is an atonement prepared, provided, designated and set forth. We
have not to search for it, or add to it– Jehovah has spoken! There is
no point of necessity, nor even of real interest to the heart of man
but what Jehovah has spoken to it–and if there is any Truth of God
upon which He has not spoken, it is because it is to His Glory to
conceal the thing–and for our profit that we do not pry into it! Upon
all that is essential to our full preparation for our eternal
destination, Jehovah has spoken! He has said it and here it is
recorded–in the volume of the Book it is written–and blessed are they
that read and keep the Words of the Book of this prophecy!

II. Secondly–and I have already anticipated it–since there is a
Revelation, IT SHOULD BE SUITABLY RECEIVED. If Jehovah has spoken, then
all attention should be given. Yes, double attention! Incline your
ears; listen diligently; surrender your soul to the teaching of the
Lord God and be not satisfied till you have heard His teaching–have
heard it with your whole being and have felt the force of its every
truth! "Hear you," because the Word of God comes with power. "Give
ear," because you willingly receive it. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, I
fear that we give far more attention to the distracting voices of the
world than to the soul-satisfying voice of the God of All Grace!

How eager men are after the treasure which melts before their eyes–how
they will drink in every syllable by which they may learn how to be
rich! But when God speaks, who brings in both His hands eternal and
abiding riches, men are deaf as the adder, careless as the beasts of
the field! He says, "I have called and you refused; I have stretched
out My hand and no man regarded." Is this right or wise? Surely, if
Jehovah speaks, we are bound by all that is just, good and grateful to
wait in reverent silence till we know His mind! Let a general hush go
through the universe and let all ears, with solemn reverence, await the
sound of the voice of the Lord!

Then it is added, as if by way of directing us how suitably to hear
this Revelation–"Give glory to Jehovah your God." There ought to be in
hearing and reading the Revelation of God a constant giving of glory to
the Lord. His speaking is a manifestation of His Glory as when the sun
rises his light is spread abroad. You and I are to reflect that light
even as the valleys rejoice in his brightness of the noontide. Let us
stand, as it were, this morning, to be shone upon by the Lord–ready,
each one of us–to reflect that light which comes from on high! Give
glory to God at once by worthily hearing His Gospel. How is that to be
done? Stand still and hear the Word of the Lord! Glorify the Lord by
accepting whatever He says to you as being infallibly true! Believe in
the Lord your God, so shall you be established; believe His Prophets,
so shall you prosper. Know what the Lord has said and let it stand to
you as sure and steadfast truth. Seek for no further reasons to sustain
your faith, but let, "Thus says the Lord" stand to you in the place of
all arguments.

To me, a sentence of Scripture is the essence of logic, the proof
positive, the Word of God which may not be questioned. Eyes and ears
may be doubted, but not the written Word, inspired of the Holy Spirit!
Blessed are those who sit at Jesus' feet and receive His Words. It is
our wisdom to know nothing of ourselves, but to be taught of the Holy
Spirit–to think nothing of ourselves, but to have the mind of God–and
think after Him whose thoughts are as high above our thoughts as the
heavens are above the earth! We give glory to God in reference to
Revelation when we receive it, every jot and tittle of it, and bow our
minds before it.

In these days this virtue is lightly esteemed, for the Savior's Words
are still true–"He that loves Me not keeps not My sayings." In all its
length and breadth, whatever the Lord says, we believe, and we desire
to know neither less nor more than He has spoken. We must receive the
Word of God, however, in a hearty and honest manner so as to act upon
it. We must therefore repent of the sin which the Lord condemns and
turn from the way which He abhors. We must loathe the vice which He
forbids and seek after the virtue which He commands. We give glory to
God when we penitently confess that we have broken His holy Law and
grieve because we have done so. Did not Joshua bid Achan give glory to
God by confession of his sin? And so must we.

By confession we glorify God's Justice, Omniscience and Truth–and yet
further we glorify His mercy when, confessing sin, we ask for pardon
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus should every human being receive
the Revelation of God bringing forth fruits necessary for repentance.
Your light has shone upon me, O my God, and therefore I see my
darkness! O remove it! You have lit a candle, and by its light I
discover my spots and stains. I acknowledge them in Your sight–
"Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your
sight: that You might be justified when You speak and be clear when You
judge." Thus humbling ourselves on account of sin, we receive the Word
of God aright, and give God glory.

But we must go further than repentance and the acceptance of the Truth
of God as Truth. We must further reverence the gracious voice of God
when He bids us believe on Christ and live. He has couched that message
of love in so blessed a form that he who does not accept it must be
wantonly malicious against God and against his own soul. For the Lord
does not demand that by penances, acts of mortification and feelings of
misery and despair we are to purge ourselves from sin–He has
graciously declared–"He that believes on Him is not condemned."
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." If Jehovah
has spoken in such a manner; if the sum and substance of what He has
spoken is that, "God has set forth His Son Jesus Christ to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood," then we must and will listen
to Him! He says, "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."

If this is the heavenly Word of God, how can we refuse to hear it with
our whole hearts? Give glory to the Lord by answering, "Lord, I
joyfully obey Your call! I am glad of a Savior, glad of the atoning
blood, glad to cast myself at those dear feet that were nailed to the
Cross for me–and to find, in the Lord Jesus my salvation and my all."
This is the way in which we ought to receive this Revelation and we
ought to go on to complete obedience. We should humbly inquire, "Lord,
what further would You have me know; what further would You have me do?
Is there still left in me a part of my nature unsubdued? I would humble
myself under Your mighty hand. Is there in me anything unrenewed, of
pride revolting, or of the flesh rebelling? Then conquer it in me, for
I desire Your Word to be my rule, my law, my guide. O that my ways were
directed to keep Your statutes! I wish in all things to be obedient to
Your gracious will."

There is no part of God's Word at which the human mind should kick. If
our hearts were in a right state we would fling open all the doors of
our mind and say, "Come in, O sacred Truth, come in! You are welcome to
my heart of hearts since you come from my God." If Jehovah speaks,
ought we not, instead of quibbling, questioning, disputing and raising
difficulties, just say, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears"? When the
Lord says to us, "Seek you My face," our heart should at once reply,"
Your face, Lord, will I seek."

I think that point is clear. There is a Revelation and that Revelation
ought to be suitably received.

III. But thirdly, PRIDE IN THE HUMAN HEART PREVENTS SUCH A RECEPTION.
The text runs, "Hear you, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord has
spoken." And further on the Prophet says, "If you will not hear it, my
soul shall weep in secret places for your pride." The Prophet, here,
puts his finger upon the blot. Why is it, my dear Hearers, that there
are any among you this day who have heard God's Word, year after year,
and yet have not received it? The secret reason is your pride! Perhaps
pride prompts you indignantly to deny the accusation. In some, it is
the pride of intellect. They do not wish to be treated like
children–they are not content to receive the Kingdom of God as a
little child– and so, when Jesus says, "Except you are converted and
become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of
Heaven," they reply that they intend to think out a Gospel for
themselves.

To lay the inventiveness of thought on one side and simply to believe
what Jesus teaches is not to their mind–they will not humble
themselves to a fact so little self-exalting. Well, Sirs, if you shut
the door of the Kingdom against yourselves because you are too wise to
enter–be this known to you–that the poor have the Gospel preached to
them and they receive it! God has hid these things from the wise and
prudent and has revealed them unto babes. God has chosen things that
are despised and things that are not, to bring to nothing the things
that are–that no flesh may glory in His Presence! If your wisdom is
greater than the wisdom of God, it were better for you to be foolish!
If you will destroy yourself to indulge your own conceit, well, so it
must be, but the day shall come in which your regret shall know neither
measure nor end! Oh, let none of us be so proud as to lift up ourselves
in opposition to that which Jehovah has spoken!

In some others it is the pride of self-esteem. "No," they say, "this
Gospel which we have heard so often is too simple! We are capable of
something more elaborate. It humbles us; it represents us as fallen; as
depraved. It says that we can do

nothing; it lays us in the very dust; it makes nothing of us–it
excludes all hope of boasting and glorying–we cannot stoop so low!
Salvation by Divine Grace, is it? Then Free Grace, Sovereign Grace is
not to our mind! We care not to be saved like paupers! We care not to
be freely forgiven as those who have nothing to pay. That no
composition will be accepted, not even a farthing in the pound of our
own merit–it is a doctrine too lowering to our dignity!" They set the
Gospel on one side because it sets them on one side. They are too great
to be saved!

O Sirs, if you must be proud, at least do not throw away your souls to
indulge that propensity! Surely, something less costly may suffice for
a sacrifice to the demon of vainglory! It is a dreadful thing that men
should think it better to go to Hell in a dignified way than to go to
Heaven by the narrow road of a child-like faith in the Redeemer! Those
who will not stoop even to receive Christ, Himself, and the blessings
of eternal life, deserve to perish! God save us from such folly! It may
well make us weep to think that any man should be so far gone astray
from right reason as to throw away eternal bliss in order to walk with
haughty steps through this poor life.

Some have a pride of self-righteousness. They are good. They have kept
the Commandments from their youth up. They have attended to religion;
they have seen to it that all rites and ceremonies have been duly
performed upon them and they thank God that they are not as other men
are! This righteousness of theirs is a garment respectable enough for
them to wear and, therefore, they reject the righteousness of God! O
you proud fool! I would to God you knew that you are naked, poor and
miserable! I would to God you understood that your fig-leaf
righteousness will never cover your nakedness in the sight of God, for
if you knew this, you would seek after the perfect righteousness of
Christ and be robed and adorned with it! While sin ruins many in the
outside world, I fear self-righteousness ruins more among those who
attend places of worship. They say, "we see," and, therefore, their
eyes are not opened. They cry, "we are clean," and, therefore, they are
not washed from their iniquity. Oh that they would cease from this
vanity and give glory to the Lord their God instead of taking glory
themselves! How can they believe while they seek honor, one from
another?

In some, too, it is the pride of self-love. They cannot deny their
lusts. To cut off right-hand sins and pluck out right-eye iniquities
cannot be endured by them. Their hearts are set upon a certain evil
pleasure and they cannot give it up. The Gospel of Jesus Christ demands
of those who receive it that they shall be saved not in their sins, but
from their sins! It comes to give us renewal as well as rest, purity as
well as pardon, sanctity as well as safety. But there are many who,
because of their foolish self-indulgence, cannot deny themselves any
seeming joy, but must fill themselves with the poisoned sweets which
delight the flesh. O Friend, I wish that this pride were taken from you
and that it seemed wisdom to you to deny yourself life, itself, for the
present, rather than miss the hope of eternal life!

The pride of self-will also works its share of ruin among men. "Who is
the Lord, that I should obey His voice?" is the cry of many beside
Pharaoh! The unrenewed heart virtually says–"I shall not mind these
commands. Why should I be tied hand and foot and ruled, and governed? I
intend to be a free thinker and a free liver–I will not submit
myself." Just so, and you are free to lose all hope of Heaven, my
Friend! Free to destroy yourself. If this is your choice, then who is
to hinder you in it? I know that I cannot. Oh, that the Lord will lead
you to a better mind. Would God that the Lord would change your will
and renew your heart! But if you are so proud that you reject the
testimony of God against yourself, then who is to blame when you fall
into eternal destruction? Who is to blame but yourself?

And so I pass from mournfully considering this great evil which
prevents the Revelation of God from being properly received.

IV. Fourthly, THERE COMES AN EARNEST WARNING. The Prophet has put
it–"Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness, and
before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains." I desire to explain
this with deep humiliation of spirit on my own part–and with much
trembling lest anyone of you should ever, by experience, know the truth
of these words. Listen, my Friend, you who have rejected God and His
Christ till now! You are already out of the way, among the dark
mountains! There is a King's highway of faith and you have refused it.
You have turned aside to the right hand or to the left, according to
your own imagination. Being out of the way of safety, you are in the
path of danger even now.

Though the sunlight shines about you and the flowers spring up
profusely under your feet, yet you are in danger, for there is no
safety off the King's road. If you will walk according to His bidding,
you shall be quiet from fear of danger, for no lion shall be there,
but, inasmuch as you are now your own keeper and your own law and you
follow in your own ways, you are in great peril. The unbeliever is
condemned already, because he has not believed on the Son of God.
Escape,

I pray you, while you may, and enter upon that one road which is strait
and narrow, but leads to eternal life –the way of faith in Jesus! If
you will still pursue your headlong career and choose a path for
yourself, I pray you remember that darkness is hovering around you. The
day is far spent! Around your soul there are already hanging mists and
glooms– and these will thicken into the night-damps of bewilderment!

Thinking, but not believing, you will soon think yourself into a horror
of great darkness. Refusing to hear what Jehovah has spoken, you will
follow other voices which shall allure you into an Egyptian night of
confusion. You will go on meditating and carefully thinking, or
criticizing and trifling till you are enveloped in a cloud of doubts,
wrapped as in a dense smoke of speculation and well near smothered in
exhalations of unbelief! You shall not know what to do, nor what to
think, nor what to say, nor what to do with yourself, for you will have
renounced your Guide and quenched your torch. At the same time, it may
be there will come upon you a darkness of distress–you will be sick
and sorry; you will be faint and weary; you will be tried and
troubled–and your soul will see no help or deliverance.

To which of the saints will you turn? Upon whom will you call in the
day of your calamity? And who will help you? Then your thoughts will
dissolve into vanity and your spirit shall melt into dismay. "Thus says
the Lord, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your
friends." You shall grope after comfort as blind men grope for the
wall! And because you have rejected the Lord and His Truth, He, also,
will reject you and leave you to your own devices. Meanwhile, there
shall cloud over you a darkness bred of your own sin and willfulness.
You shall lose the brightness of your intellect. The sharp clearness of
your thought shall depart from you. Professing yourself to be wise, you
shall become a fool.

You shall no longer be able to boast of yourself because of the
clearness of your judgment, but you shall find your conceptions thrown
into confusion. You shall ask of others, but they shall know no more
than yourself, or if they know, you shall not understand what they tell
you! You shall be in an all-surrounding, penetrating blackness. Hence
comes the solemnity of this warning, "Give glory to the Lord your God,
before He cause darkness." While as yet you have not absolutely turned
away from the Truth of God and rejected God's Word, accept it in your
heart by a living faith and give Him glory, lest, by continuing a
procrastinator and a halter between two opinions, you are gradually
made to slide, little by little, away from the brightness of the Truth
till you are shut up in a sevenfold night out of which there shall be
no escape. For after that darkness there comes a stumbling, as says the
text, "before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains."

He who is going to think out his own way apart from Revelation will
meet with mysteries which he cannot surmount. There are mysteries in
Revelation, but these rise before us like hills of light–while to
those who trifle with the Word of the Lord there shall arise mountains
of gloom. I care not what philosophy you take, whether it is old or
new, openly profane or faintly sprinkled with Christianity, you will
never get rid of mystery–it is essential to the limited capacity of
the human mind confronted by boundless Truths of God. There must be
difficulties in every man's way, even if it is a way of his own
devising. But to the man who will not accept the Light of God, these
difficulties must necessarily be dark mountains with sheer abysses,
pathless crags and impenetrable ravines. He has refused the path which
wisdom has cast up and he is justly doomed to stumble where there is no
way. Beware of encountering mysteries without guidance and faith, for
you will stumble either into folly or superstition and only rise to
stumble again. Those who stumble at Christ's Cross are likely to
stumble into Hell.

There are also dark mountains of another kind which will block the way
of the wanderer–mountains of dismay, of remorse, of despair. Woe to
that man who finds himself traveling at midnight without a guide,
without a road–and in the midst of tremendous mountains impassable to
human feet! Ah, when a man comes into the land of doubt, which is a
land of darkness, as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death,
without any order, and where the light is as darkness– how terrible
his case! I say no more–thank God, my Hearers, you are not there yet!
Therefore listen to Jehovah's voice and give glory to God before He
sends a thick darkness over your soul–even darkness that may be full
and your feet stumble, never to rise again.

After that stumbling there will come bitter disappointment. The man
finding that he cannot discover his way, sits down awhile and says to
himself, "I will wait till the moon rises, or the day dawns. Many
before me have come to a pause–no doubt light will come." He looks and
looks and looks again, but all in vain, for thus says the Prophet,
"While you look for light, He turns it into the shadow of death." Dread
word–death! Terrible shade which death casts

over men's minds! That shadow is coming on the man as years advance and
he has no light with which to dispel it. The physician cannot remove
the death shadow–the disease is incurable. The sinner's face is pale
with anguish and his heart melts like wax in the midst of his insides,
for the shadow now upon him chills him to the marrow of his bones!

What will he do, now that the arrow is rankling in his heart? What will
he do, now that eternal night is descending? He cowers down and waits,
but nothing comes except the thickening of the death shadows–and the
weeping of those whom he must leave. He is anticipating the weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth which are to be his endless portion! And
now a paralyzing despair seizes him, for God makes the darkness to be,
"gross darkness," black, palpable, as it were a solid thing. The man is
shut up and he cannot come forth. The darkness is within the chambers
of his soul! It is in his brain! It is in his heart–he is drowning in
a Black Sea. This is a just ending this for one who hated the Light of
God!

Oh, I pray you, before any of you pass into that state, give glory to
God and receive His Word! I beseech you believe before your doubt has
utterly destroyed you! Accept the witness of God before you become
hardened in skepticism. I do not know what may ever happen to me in
this life–perhaps it shall come to pass that I may be visited with
severe physical infirmities and possibly these may cause me mental
depression and anguish. But this one thing I know, I have committed my
mind, my heart, my whole intellectual nature to His keeping who has
promised to preserve His own! I desire to believe nothing but what He
tells me; to do nothing but what He bids me and to yield myself to no
influence but that which He ordains for my direction! And, therefore,
it seems to me that having done this for many a day, I can with
un-staggering confidence say, at the last, "Father, into Your hands I
commit my spirit."

I think I may confidently hope to cast anchor forever in that haven
which is no new refuge to me, but the daily travel map of my soul. Can
a man be safer as to his soul's condition than when he has ceased from
depending upon himself and has taken the great Lord to be the Shepherd
at whose heels he follows? What shield can so well protect you as the
Divine faithfulness? Under what rock can you find such shelter as under
the truthfulness of God? I am at a pass with all new ideas in
religion–I will have none of them! If this grand old Book fails me, I
am content to fail! If the Lord shall desert me, I resign myself to be
deserted! If God lies, then there is an end of all things and we all,
alike, flounder in chaos!

But we tolerate no such fears. Believing in God, I am not fearful of
the future. Neither dark mountains nor dark death can cause the
Believer to stumble, for he cries, "I know whom I have believed, and I
am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto
Him against that day." But oh, if God is true, what will become of you
who will not hear Him? If the Bible is true, what must be your portion,
who pretend to be wiser than the Holy Spirit? You must assuredly wander
into that endless captivity from which there can be no redemption!

V. So now I have to close, but not till I have delivered my burdened
heart once more. If the people would not submit

to God, the Prophet determined what he would do. THERE REMAINS FOR THE
FRIENDS OF THE IMPENITENT

BUT ONE RESORT. The loving Prophet cries, "If you will not hear it, my
soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and my eyes shall weep
bitterly, and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried
away captive." He cannot do anything more! He has no other message to
deliver. He cannot hope that God will overlook their insults and invent
another way of saving them! He has told them the Truth and if they
refuse it, he will lay no flattering unction to their souls. He will
deliver the Word of the Lord once more and if they, again, refuse, he
will go home to mourn for them even as Samuel mourned for Saul when the
Lord had put him away.

Observe that he does not say in the first clause, "my eyes shall weep,"
but, "my soul shall weep." Bitter tears make red the eyes, but what
must be the brine of those tears which are wept by the soul itself–a
soul in anguish over willful men who persist in destroying themselves!
Those soul-sorrows showed themselves in floods of tears which drenched
the Prophet's cheeks, for he loved the people and could not bear to
look upon the ruin which was coming upon them. Like our Lord in later
times, the Prophet beheld the city and wept over it–he could do no
less, he could do no more. Alas, his sorrow would be unavailing; his
grief was hopeless! He could not help those who would not be helped by
God!

If they refused to hear, he does not speak to them of a "larger hope"
yet to be revealed. He speaks not of "purgatory" and another season of
probation, or a future Revelation which would override the present Word
of God. Ah no, he loved men too well to invent for them fools'
paradises! He dared not imitate the old serpent in the garden by
insinuating, "You shall not surely die." I fear that the garments of
many modern divines are steeped in the blood of souls whom they are
deluding with their, "larger hope," which is but a larger snare of
Satan! Jeremiah had a brave, though tender heart–he did not bow to men
and sing pretty ditties to them, as preachers, nowadays, are prone to
do.

He told them they would stumble in the darkness and that nothing
remained for him but to sigh out his soul over their ruin. Let us each
one learn to sympathize with this holy man–

"Arise, my tender thoughts, arise,

Though torrents melt my streaming eyes!

And you, my heart, with anguish feel

Those evils which you cannot heal!

See human nature sunk in shame–

See scandals poured on Jesus 'name!

The Father wounded through the Son;

The world abused and souls undone!

See the short course of vain delight

Closing in everlasting night

In flames that no abatement know,

Though briny tears forever flow." Observe that the Prophet did not
expect to obtain sympathy in this sorrow of his. He says, "My soul
shall weep in secret places for your pride." He would get quite alone,
hide himself away and become a recluse. Alas, that so few even now care
for the souls of men! Many ignore their danger, forgetting or else
denying it. And few mourn over the ungodly and seek–

"With cries, entreaties, tears to save, To snatch them from the fiery
wave." Hearts are hardened, pride is flattered, falsehoods are cried
up! And what can the faithful do but seek their God and weep in secret
places? Solitude and weeping are a poor solace, and yet there is no
other.

This also puts a pungent salt into the tears of the godly, that the
weeping can do no good, since the people refuse the one and only
Remedy. Jehovah has spoken and if they will not hear Him, they must die
in their sins! O Sirs, if you will not have Christ–if all the saints
in the world prayed for you, yes, all the saints that ever lived, or
ever shall live–if they all prayed for you and if in one great river,
the tears of the whole Church flowed on forever, they could not help
you nor bring you hope of salvation! You must have Christ or die! You
must believe in the Lamb of God or perish forever! Does it stand so
according to the Scriptures? Then none can change it! Do not dash
yourselves against this rock! Fall not upon this stone!

What a burden it is that so many should cause us this unnecessary
sorrow, for if men turned to God, our joy would exceed all bounds! O my
Hearers, why will you distress me? Turn, turn–why will you die? What
excuse can you urge for your folly in choosing to perish? What motive
can be strong enough to make you leap into the fire when Christ is
waiting to be gracious to you? We have labor enough in preparing and
delivering our weighty messages without the added grief of seeing you
reject them to your own destruction! Our throes of heart are sometimes
grievous enough before we preach a sermon lest we should not preach
aright–why must we be driven to this further misery?

We exhaust ourselves while pleading with you! Why should we have to sit
down in sorrow because you will not believe our report? O blessed
Spirit of God, touch all hearts this day, for Jesus' sake. Amen.