Maroth–or, the Disappointed

Maroth–or, the Disappointed

(No. 3184)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1910.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER25,1873.

"For the inhabitant of Marroth waited carefully for good: but evil came
down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem." Micah 1:12.

The village of the bitter spring, for that is probably the meaning of
this name, Maroth, experienced a bitter disappointment. At the time
when the Assyrians invaded the land, the inhabitants expected that
deliverance would come to them from some quarter or other. From the
context, I judge that they placed some sort of reliance upon the
Philistines. They possibly had some hope that the king of Egypt would
come up to attack Sennacherib. Evidently they looked for help
everywhere except to God and, consequently, as no good came to them
from the men upon whom they had relied, trial and overwhelming distress
came to them from the hand of God. He was angry at their trust in men
and their lack of trust in Himself and, therefore, He punished their
unbelief by their total overthrow! The Assyrian swept over them and
stopped not till he reached the gate of Jerusalem, where Hezekiah's
faith in God made the enemy pause and retreat.

The fact recorded in the text suggests to us, first, sad
disappointments–"the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good:
but evil came." And secondly, strange appointments–evil came down from
the Lord." When we have considered these two things, we will change the
subject, altogether, and speak about expectations which will not end in
disappointment.

I. First, then, we are to think of SAD DISAPPOINTMENTS. "The inhabitant
of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came."

Disappointments are often extremely painful at the time. Even in little
things, we do not like to be disappointed. If our expectations are not
realized, we feel as if a sharp thorn has pierced our flesh. But in
great matters, disappointment is much more serious. In the case of the
inhabitants of Maroth, it was fatal–they expected to be delivered from
the Assyrians, but they were either slain on the spot, or carried away
captive to Nineveh. It would be the most terrible disappointment of all
if our expectations concerning our souls should not be realized! It
would be painful to the last degree to discover upon our dying bed that
the good we had looked for had not come–to find that we had built our
house upon the sand and that when we most needed its shelter, it was
swept away! O Lord, disappoint not Your servant's hope! All my
expectation is from You and You have said, "They shall not be ashamed
that wait for Me." Any other expectation beside this, concerning our
eternal interests, will only bring us pain and misery forever.

Disappointments in this life, however, although they are at times very
painful, are sometimes of such a character that could we know all the
truth, we would not lament them. There are many who have looked forward
to a change in their condition in life, or their position in
society–and they have been disappointed. For a time they have been
ready to wring their hands in anguish, yet if they knew what the
consequences would have been if their expectations had been realized,
they would fall down upon their knees and devoutly praise the Lord for
the disappointment which had been so great a blessing in disguise to
them! You, my Brother, had expected to be rich by this time, but God
knew that had you been rich, you would have been proud and worldly and
would have ceased to enjoy fellowship with him–so He kept you poor
that you might still be rich in faith! You, my Friend, had expected to
be in robust health at this time, but had you been so, you might not
have been walking so humbly before the Lord as you are now doing. You,
my oft-bereaved Brother, had hoped to see your family spared to grow
up, so that you might have had sons and daughters upon whom you could
have leaned in your declining days–yet they might have proved a plague
and a sorrow to you instead of a comfort and a blessing. Complain not
that they were taken from you in their childhood by that kind hand
which made them blest

forever and only deprived you for a while of their companionship, which
might not have been an unmixed blessing to you. Rest assured, O child
of God, that whatever happens to you is as it should be! Believe that
if you could have infinite wisdom, and the helm of your life's vessel
could be entrusted to your hands, you would steer it precisely as God
steers it! You would not always guide the ship through smooth water any
more than He does. If you could be unerring in judgment and could be
your own guide, you would choose for yourself the track which God has
chosen for you. It is Divine Love and Infallible Wisdom that have
ordered all things for you up to this very moment, so whatever your
disappointments may have been, comfort yourself with the assurance that
they have been among your greatest blessings!

There are some expectations which are certain to be disappointed. When
a man expects to prosper through wrongdoing, his expectations will
certainly not be realized–at least not in the long run, however much
he may seem to prosper for a while. When a man thinks that happiness
can be found in the ways of sin, he will be bitterly disappointed
sooner or later. When a man expects that by self-reliance he will be
able to gain all that he needs without trusting to a stronger arm than
his own, his expectations will not be realized. When a man is relying
upon his fellow creature–when he thinks that the all-important matter
for him is to have some rich patron or powerful friend–and he is under
the delusion that he can do without any help from Heaven–he is sure to
be disappointed! And he who is depending upon his own good works and
trusting to his own unaided resolutions to hold on in the way of
holiness will be terribly disappointed unless he repents before it is
too late! There are some things which only fools will expect–things
which are contrary to the laws of Nature, and things which are contrary
to the rules of Divine Grace! The man who never sows good corn, but yet
expects to reap at harvest time, is a fool and his disappointment will
come in the form of thorns and thistles all over his fields! The
sluggard who lies in bed and lazily says, "A little more sleep, a
little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep," may
expert in that way to become wealthy, but Solomon long ago said to him,
"Your poverty shall come as one that travels and your need as an armed
man." This is true in spiritual things as well as in temporal. God
gives blessing to effort and diligence–not to idleness and lethargy!

Besides this, in many cases disappointments are highly probable. Some
of our familiar proverbs relate to such cases as these. One says,
"Those who wait for dead men's shoes are pretty sure to go barefoot."
Another is, "If they never drink milk till they get their uncle's cow,
they will be long thirsty for the lack of it." Yet there are persons
who waste a great part of their lifetime in vain expectations of what
they call, "windfalls." We know that the "windfalls" in the orchard
generally fall because they are rotten and are not worth picking up!
And other "windfalls" are often no more valuable. There are men who
might have prospered if they had not foolishly sat down in the
expectation that somehow or other, a great fortune would hunt them out
and make them independent–such expectations are usually doomed to
disappointment. If any of you have fallen into the pernicious habit of
reading works of fiction and so have formed romantic ideas of what is
likely to occur to you, the great probability is that your daydreams
will be only dreams–and your castles in the air will never be
inhabited by you! I pray you not to fritter away your time and
opportunities in vain expectations which most probably will never be
fulfilled. Expect to receive not quite all you earn, nor all you lend,
and probably your expectations will not be disappointed, but, as
another of our proverbs puts it, if you count your chickens before they
are hatched, it is highly probable that your expectations will not be
realized.

There are also other expectations that will possibly end in
disappointment. Even the most legitimate hopes are not always realized.
"There's many a slip between the cup and the lips." When we feel almost
sure that a certain plan will succeed, suddenly it turns out to be all
a mistake. We think that as prudent men, we have arranged matters so
wisely that they have to succeed, yet in the issue we are grievously
disappointed. Be not hasty in condemning those who do not succeed in
business, for at least in somecases, failure has come through no fault
of theirs. Do not judge harshly all who are in need–no doubt there are
all too many instances in which poverty is the result of idleness or
drunkenness–but there are other cases in which poverty is blameless
and even honorable. Men may toil hard, do the very best they can and
seek God's blessing upon their efforts–and yet they may not be
permitted to secure a competence. If you, my Friend, reckon upon seeing
all your schemes succeed, you are very likely to be disappointed. If
you, my Christian Brother, imagine that between here and Heaven, the
way will be laid with smooth turf, well-rolled, you will certainly be
disappointed! If you think that the sea will always be calm as a lake
and that no storm will ever ruffle it, you will be disappointed. There
will be some things that will fulfill your expectations, but there will
be others that will not–and in those you will be like that inhabitants
of Maroth who "waited carefully for good, but evil came."

In every case disappointments should be borne with the greatest
possible patience and equanimity. I am sorry to say that we do not all
bear them so, not even all of us who profess to be Christians. Remember
that God has never promised that all our expectations shall be
fulfilled–it would have been a doubtful blessing if such a thing had
been guaranteed to us–and we might easily have expected ourselves into
utter misery! Who are you that everything should happen just as you
wish? Should the weather be fine simply because you want it to be so
when a thousand fields are gasping for rain? Should you have the
channels of trade turned in your direction when if that were the case,
scores of others would be bankrupts? Is everything in this world to be
so arranged that you shall be the darling and pet of Providence? It
cannot be right for such a state of things to prevail! Therefore, when
we are disappointed, whether it is in little matters or great ones, let
us bear the disappointment bravely and lay the whole case before the
Lord in prayer. Let us ask Him why He contends with us. And if there is
any reason for it which we can discover in ourselves, let us endeavor
to remove it. Or if we can find no cause, let us believe that God acts
in wisdom and in love–and let us cheerfully submit to whatever He
appoints for us.

We would bear our disappointments with all the greater equanimity if we
would always remember that disappointments are often exceedingly
instructive. What do they teach us? Well, first they teach us that our
judgment is very fallible. We learn from them that we are not such
prophets as we thought we were! We fancied that if we said that
such-and-such a thing was going to happen, it would surely be so. But
when the result proved to be just the opposite, we found that our
judgment was not as reliable as we thought it was and, therefore, our
forecast was quite inaccurate. So our disappointments teach us our need
of greater wisdom than our own–and also teach us the folly of trusting
to our own understanding.

They also teach us the uncertainty of everything that is earthly. What
is there, here, that can be depended upon for a single hour? The life
of the most robust may suddenly end! The current of affairs may change
more rapidly than the tide. Riches take to themselves wings and fly
away. The greatest wisdom becomes the greatest folly. All is vanity and
vexation of spirit. If our disappointments teach us this lesson, we
shall be well repaid for having suffered them!

Let them also teach us to speak correctly, as Christians should. You
know how the Apostle James writes, "Come now, you who say, Today or
tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year, and buy
and sell, and get gain. Whereas you know not what shall be on the
morrow…For that you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live
and do this or that.'" Let our past disappointments warn us to speak
with bated breath about tomorrow and the more distant future, and not
to say without any qualification what we will do as if all time were at
our disposal and we were the disposers of all events. Even if we do not
always use the words, "If the Lord wills," "If God pleases," "If we are
spared," or similar expressions, let the spirit of them always be in
our mind so that we do not think and speak unconditionally concerning
the unknown future!

Let our disappointments also teach us to submit–absolutely and
unquestioningly–to the Lord's will. We wish to have things in a
certain fashion, but God plainly indicated that they are not to be so.
Therefore let us cheerfully surrender our wish to His will. Surely, O
child of God, you would not think of wanting to have your way when once
you learn that it is contrary to your heavenly Father's way! If you are
right-minded, you will at once give up your wish and will say, "Not my
will, O my Father, but Your will be done!" You will probably do that
all the more decidedly if some disappointment has burnt into your soul
the Truth that God is wiser than you are–and that His will must always
prevail above yours. Stand to the surrender at all times and say to the
Lord, "Show me Your way, and let me hear the voice behind me saying,
'This is the way; walk you in it.'"

Let me also add that disappointments may be greatly sanctified. They
are not always so, for sometimes they irritate and so cause sin–or
they create a murmuring spirit against God and so make us worse than we
were before. But sanctified disappointments are part of that rod of the
Covenant which is so beneficial in the hands of a chastening God.
Sometimes a grievous disappointment has changed the whole current of a
person's life. A man was looking forward to what he hoped would be a
happy marriage, but his intended bride suddenly died–and then he
surrendered his heart to Jesus, who became the Bridegroom of his soul!
A son had expected to inherit a large estate, but by some means the
wealth came not into his possession–and when he found himself poor, he
sought true riches in Christ! A strong man had hoped to build up a
prosperous business, but he was unexpectedly struck with serious
illness, his former prosperity departed from him–and then he fixed his
hopes upon the ever-blessed Son of God and so he attained to bliss
which no earthly success could ever have brought him! I remember
meeting a man who told me that he could never see spiritually until he
had lost his natural eyesight! And there have, doubtless, been many who
were never rich until they became poor, and others who were never happy
until their earthly happiness was blighted and blasted, and then they
sought and found true happiness in Jesus. What a blessed disappointment
it is that leads us to a Savior's love!

Disappointments are also sanctified to Believers when they help to wean
them from the world. There is a sort of glue about this world that
makes it adhere to us and makes us adhere to it. David found it so when
he wrote, "My soul cleaves unto the dust." Earth naturally clings to
earth, but I will guarantee you that David cared little enough for
earth when his handsome son, Absalom, became a rebel and when his
house, which had been such a comfort to him, became a terror and when
his subjects, who had almost worshipped him, joined in rebelling
against him! Then did he plaintively sigh, "Oh, that I had wings like a
dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest." Yes, disappointments
wean us from the world and makes us plume our wings, ready to be up and
away to that fair country where hope shall reach its full fruition and
disappointment shall be unknown forever!

Moreover, Brothers and Sisters, when we meet with disappointments in
this life, we prize all the more, the faithfulness of our God! When you
have had an unkind word from one whom you have loved, how much more
closely you have nestled down in the embrace of your ever-loving
Savior! When you have been betrayed by a friend in whom you trusted,
what sweet communion you have had with the Friend that sticks closer
than a brother! When your gourd above you has withered and you have
lost its welcome shade, however more you have prized the shadow of a
great Rock in a weary land! It is a good thing for us to have all
earthly props knocked away, for then we value more than ever the
faithfulness of the God who never fails those who put their trust in
Him. Those who always remain on dry land will never learn by practical
experience what the sailors know–"They that go down to the sea in
ships, that do business in great waters: these see the works of the
Lord and His wonders in the deep." And it is when, like the
storm-tossed mariners, our soul is melted because of trouble, that our
dear Lord and Master, coming to us upon the crest of the wave, becomes
tenfold more precious to us than He had ever been before! If our
disappointments would only make us hold with a loose hand all we have–
house, lands, children, health, reputation and everything else, so that
if God should take them all away, we would still continue to bless His
name because we never reckoned that they were ours to keep, but were
only lent to us during our Lord's good will and pleasure–if our
disappointments only brought us to such a condition as that, they would
be, indeed, most soul-enriching things!

II. Now I must leave this part of the subject and turn to the second
portion which is STRANGE APPOINTMENTS–"The inhabitant of Maroth waited
carefully for good: but evil came down from the Lord."

This expression must not be misunderstood. "Evil came down from the
Lord." The word, "evil," here means trial, affliction, chastisement,
and to a Christian this kind of, "evil," is often for his highest good!
It does seem singular to a child of God that even that which he thinks
to be evil should come down from the Lord. How can it be that God is
loving and kind when He deprives one of His children of her husband, or
takes away her babe from her bosom? How can it be that God is
Infinitely Wise, yet He sometimes casts His poor weak children into
difficulties where they are at their wits' end and know not what to do?
How is it that He loves the righteous and is gracious to them, yet He
puts some of the best of them into the hottest part of the furnace and
makes it burn most furiously like that of Nebuchadnezzar of old? If our
aches and pains came from Satan. If our losses were the result of
chance, or if our sufferings arose only from the malevolence of the
wicked–they would be comprehensible–but it is oftentimes a marvel and
a mystery to a Christian why the Lord sends the trials which lays upon
him! Be patient, Brothers and Sisters! What you know not, now, you
shall know hereafter–so be content to wait until God reveals the
mystery to you if He pleases to do so–and then it will make you marvel
that your Lord should have taken such pains in training you for the
service He has for you yet to render Him!

Perhaps I am addressing some child of God who is sorely puzzled as to
why certain things have happened to him. But, Father, does your child
always understand all that you do to him and for him? It was not long
ago that your boy was sent away to school–perhaps he thought you
unkind in treating him so–yet is was real love to him that prompted
you to send him away from you to be all the better trained for whatever
may lie before him in his later life. He does not understand all that
is in your mind and you can never comprehend all that is in the
Infinite Mind of your Father who is in Heaven. Be satisfied that
whatever God does must be right.

Yet, remember that in a certain sense, all trials do come from God.
There may be secondary agents coming in between, but let us not quibble
at them, or quarrel with them. When Shimei cursed David, Abishai said
to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me
go over, I pray you, and take off his head." But David said, "Let him
curse, because the Lord has said to him, 'Curse David.'" He felt that
he deserved to be cursed so he looked upon Shi-mei's insults as being a
form of chastisement from God. If you strike a dog with a stick, he
will bite the stick–but if he had more sense, he would try to bite
you. And when we are chastened, it is foolish for us to be angry with
the rod that God employs–and we dare not be angry with God! There may
be sin in the person who causes us to suffer, as there was in the case
of Shimei, but we must look beyond him even as David did–and learn
what God's intention is in thus chastening us–and submissively accept
whatever God appoints.

There are some trials which come very distinctly from God. Perhaps you
have lost one who was very dear to you. Let it comfort your heart that
it was the Lord who took away your loved one. There is an empty chair
in your house and every time you look at it your eyes fill with
tears–yet never forget that it was the Lord who called to Himself the
one who used to occupy that chair. Or possibly your trouble is that you
are gradually fading away by consumption or some other deadly disease.
Well, if it is so, that is God's appointment for you in the order of
His Providence, so do not rebel against what is clearly His will. Or it
may be that your trial is that you have struggled hard to gain an
honest livelihood for yourself and your family, but instead of
attaining that end, you are constantly getting further and further away
from it. If it is so, look upon your trouble as coming from God and
bear patiently what you are unable to alter!

This leads me to say to every Christian whose trial is distinctly from
the Lord–my Brother or Sister, this makes it all the easier for you to
submit without murmuring at God's will When such a trial comes, there
is nothing for a Believer to say but this, "It is the Lord: let Him do
what seems good to Him." There may be cases in which submission will
best be indicated by silence before the Lord. When Nadab and Abihu, the
sons of Aaron, offered strange fire before the Lord and there went out
fire from the Lord and devoured them, it must have been a terrible
trial to their father, yet we read, "Aaron held his peace." As if he
thought, "Since God has done it, what can I say?" You know the
oft-repeated story of the gardener who had a favorite rose, and when it
was plucked, he was very angry. But when he was told that the master
had taken it, he said no more about the matter. May not the owner of
the garden take any flowers in it that he pleases? And may not the Lord
take away His beloved ones from us whenever He chooses to do so? We
ought not to be vexed with Him when He does so, but we ought to say
with Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the
name of the Lord." No, my Lord, I must not and I will not quibble at
anything that You have done. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds
of the earth, but let not man strive with his Maker. In our case, it
would not only be striving with our Maker–it would be striving with
our best Friend, our Father, our All-in-All–and that we must never do.
So, if the trial has come distinctly from God, it should be easy to
submit to it.

And, further, if it comes distinctly from God, it gives us all the more
powerful plea in prayer. One may plead thus, "O Lord, this trouble is
not of my own making. You have sent it to me for Your own wise
purposes–will You not bring me through it?" Another may say, "O Lord,
I am very poor, yet this is not because I have been imprudent or
extravagant, but because You have permitted it–so will You not help me
in my time of need?" A Sister pleads, "O Lord, I am in deep distress.
My dear husband has been taken away and I am left with many children
and with very scanty means. But as You have put me into this furnace,
will You not be with me in it and keep me from being consumed?" When a
soldier is sent on a campaign, he is not expected to bear his own
charges. And if the great Captain of Salvation has sent you out to
fight for Him, He will meet your expenses. He will also cover your head
in the day of battle and make you more than conqueror through His
might. Did the Lord ever lay a heavier burden on any man than that man
was able to bear unless He also gave him extra strength to enable him
to bear it? Rest confident concerning the trial which God sends you,
that He will also send you deliverance from it, or Divine Grace to
glorify Him in it! If His left hand smites you, His right hand will
support you. If He frowns upon you, today, He will smile upon you
tomorrow. If He leads you into deep waters, He will bring you up again
to the hills where He will gladden you with the light of His
Countenance! The deeper your sorrows, the higher shall be your joys! As
your tribulations abound, so also shall your consolations abound by
Jesus Christ! The groans of earth shall be surpassed by the songs of
Heaven and the woes of time shall be swallowed up in the hallelujahs of
eternity! Therefore if in any of these senses evil comes down upon you
from the Lord, I pray that He may give you the Grace to accept it and
even to rejoice in it!

III. Now we are to close by thinking of EXPECTATIONS WHICH WILL NOT END
IN DISAPPOINTMENT.

For instance, I expect, and so do you if you are the Lord's children,
that God will keep His promises. It is not always so with men, for they
make many promises which they never fulfill. There are men who are so
rich and so reliable that their signature to a check is as good as gold
to the full value of the check–and God's promise is His check which
can be cashed at the Bank of Faith in every time of need! We are all
too apt to rely upon our fellow men, even though they have failed us
again and again. But we sometimes find it difficult to depend upon our
God, although He has never failed anyone who has trusted Him. O
Beloved, what wickedness lurks in that fact! If you believe every
promise that God has given, you will be able to endorse the testimony
that Joshua gave to the children of Israel just before he died, "You
know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing has
failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning
you; all are come to pass unto you and not one thing has failed
thereof."

Then next, expect much from the merits and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you have really believed in Him, expect to be justified by
Him. Expect that He will answer every accusation that can be brought
against you either now or at the last great Judgment Day. Expect also
to be preserved and kept by Him. Expect that He will go before you as
your Shepherd, making you to lie down in green pastures and leading you
beside the still waters. Expect that He will plead for you in Heaven
and that He will soon come to take you up to dwell at His right hand
forever! You cannot expect too much of Christ–and large as your
expectations may be–none of them shall be disappointed.

And, Beloved, expect much from the work of the Holy Spirit If the
Spirit of God has quickened you from your death in sin, what is there
that He cannot and will not do? Are you in trouble? He can comfort you.
Are you depressed? He can cheer you. Are you in the dark? He can
enlighten you. Are you at this moment fighting against sin? He can
enable you to gain the victory! I am sure that many of God's children
do not expect half as much as they ought from the Holy Spirit. They
seem to imagine that there are some sins that cannot be driven out of
them! They do not, in the power of the Spirit, put the sword to the
throat of all their sins. Yet this should be the constant aim of every
Christian–to drive out the Ca-naanites and kill the last Amalekite
with the edge of the sword! The Spirit of God is able to subdue the
fiercest temper. He is able to impart activity to the most slothful
nature. He is able to repress the wildest and most evil desires. He is
able to excite us to those virtues which seem to be directly opposite
to our natural temperaments and characters. "All things are possible to
him who believes." If he will but wholly trust to the Holy Spirit, he
shall be able to do great exploits in the war that has to be waged
within his own heart and also in the fight against evil which is raging
all around him!

If time would permit, I might go on urging you to cherish expectations
which are not likely to be disappointed, but I can only summarize them
very briefly. Expect tonight that God will bless you as you offer up
your evening prayer. Expect that the Lord will be with you tomorrow
sustaining you amid all the cares and toils of the day. Expect for all
the days of your active life that as your days, so shall your strength
be. And when your declining years come, expect that consolation will be
given to you to meet every emergency. In sickness, expect to receive
sustaining Grace. In death, itself, expect the Lord's very special
Presence. Expect a glorious Resurrection! Expect the triumph that you
shall share with Christ in His millennial Glory. Expect an eternity of
bliss with Him as He has promised, and rest assured that none of these
expectations shall be disappointed!

I fear that there are some here who have no right to cherish any of
these expectations. You have probably had disappointments about many
things. I cannot pity you very much concerning the trivial
disappointments of this life–but if you do not seek the Savior where
He is found, there is a disappointment in store for you that might well
fill all Christian hearts with tender pity and compassion. There is a
man who has lived a life of selfish pleasure. He has been clothed in
scarlet and fine linen and has fared sumptuously every day. But all of
a sudden the voice of God declares that he must die. What will be his
horror when he sees all his treasures melting away and himself doomed
to depart out of this world as naked as when he entered it? Imagine the
case of the man who has been what he calls religious, who has attended
to all the ceremonies of his church, or who has been orthodox after the
fashion of the sect to which he belongs–but who has had no new birth
and, consequently, none of the life of God in his soul–no indwelling
Spirit, no vital connection with the Lord Jesus Christ, the one and
only Savior! Yet he has expected to be ferried across the bridgeless
river by one called Vain-Hope–and when the hour of death has come, God
has opened his eyes to let him see his real position and the dread
future that is awaiting him! Oh, the terror of that man when his vain
and unfounded hopes are disappointed! We have read of some who have
offered a great portion of their wealth if they might only be allowed
to live another hour, but it

was all in vain, for die they must! God save all of you, my dear
Hearers, from such a doom as that! In order that it may be so, put not
your trust in things below–be not like the inhabitants of Maroth who
looked to the Philistines and the Egyptians to help them–and so waited
in vain for the good that never came. But turn your eyes unto Him who
says, "Look unto Me, and be you saved," and then your expectations
shall not be disappointed. So may it be, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 4.

(This Exposition belongs to sermon No. 3182, Volume 56–"Boldness at
the Throne," but there was no space available for it there.

Verse 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering
into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.Not only
dread coming short, but dread the very appearanceof it! Oh, that we
might now enter into that rest and so clearly enjoy it that there
should not even be a seeming to come short of it!

2. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the
word preached did not profit them, not being

mixed with faith in them that heard it [See Sermon #2089, Volume
35–PROFITABLE MIXTURE.] They were not united to it by faith.
Consequently, as they did not receive the Word, it was taken away from
them.

3. For we who have believed do enter into rest.[See Sermons #866,
Volume 15–REST–and #2090, Volume 35–A DELICIOUS EXPERIENCE.] Faith
brings us into this rest, even as unbelief shut them

out.

3. As He said, As Ihave sworn in My wrath they shall not enter into My
rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the
world. That is God's rest, the rest of a finished work–and into that
rest many never enter. The work by which they might live forever, the
finished work by which they might be saved, they refuse, and so they
never enter into God's rest.

4, 5. For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place
again, they shall not enter into My rest There are many professing
Christians who do not understand what it is to rest because the work of
salvation is done. They do not even seem to know that the work is done!
They understand not that dying word of the Lord Jesus, "It is
finished." They think there is something still to be added to His work
to make it effectual. But it is not so.

6-8. Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein, and they
to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, again
He designates a certain day saying in David, Today after so long a
time; as it is said, Today if you will hear the voice, harden not your
hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward
have spoken of another day. We read of this in the 95th Psalm, where
David was urging those to whom he was writing to hear God's voice, and
not be like the unbelievers in the wilderness, so that the rest still
remained to be entered upon by somebody. Joshua had not given them
rest, or else David would not have spoken of entering into rest.

9, 10. There remains, therefore, a rest to the people of God. For he
that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works,
as God has from His. He says, "It is finished. I am no longer going to
do my own works, I have done with them–I now trust the finished work
of Christ–and that gives me rest. But as to all that wearied me,
before, and made life a continual task and toil, it is now ended." God
is not a cruel taskmaster to His people. He gives rest to those who
trust in Him–and some of us have entered into that rest.

11. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest lest any man
fallafter the same example of unbelief. Let us not repeat the story of
unbelieving Israel in our own lives. Let us not live and die in the
wilderness, but let us go in and take possession of the promised land,
the promised rest, in the power of the Holy Spirit!

12. For the Word of God is quick, and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. This verse may be interpreted with reference
to the Incarnate Word or to the Inspired Word–they are so closely
united

and related to one another that we need not attempt to separate them,
but see Christ in the Word, and the Word in Christ–and learn that both
Christ and the Word do for us all that the Apostle here declares!

13. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight:
but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we
have to do. However great a revealer the Word of God may be, however
clear a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, the God who
gave the Word is even more so!

14. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into
the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
Shall we desert Him, now that He has gone into Heaven to represent us?
Now that He has fought the fight and won the victory on our behalf, and
gone up to Heaven as our Representative? God forbid!

15. 16. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities; but was in all

of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.] Let us, therefore, come
boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
Grace to help in time of need.

as we are, yet without sin. [See Sermon #2143, Volume 36–THE
TENDERNESS OF JESUS