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Ezekiel Chapter
Thirty-six
Ezekiel 36
Chapter Contents
The land shall be delivered from heathen oppressors.
(1-15) The people are reminded of former sins
and promised deliverance.
(16-24) Also holiness
and gospel blessings. (25-38)
Commentary on Ezekiel 36:1-15
(Read Ezekiel 36:1-15)
Those who put contempt and reproach on God's people
will
have them turned on themselves. God promises favour to his Israel. We have no
reason to complain
if the more unkind men are
the more kind God is. They
shall come again to their own border. It was a type of the heavenly Canaan
of
which all God's children are heirs
and into which they all shall be brought
together. And when God returns in mercy to a people who return to him in duty
all their grievances will be set right. The full completion of this prophecy
must be in some future event.
Commentary on Ezekiel 36:16-24
(Read Ezekiel 36:16-24)
The restoration of that people
being typical of our
redemption by Christ
shows that the end aimed at in our salvation is the glory
of God. The sin of a people defiles their land; renders it abominable to God
and uncomfortable to themselves. God's holy name is his great name; his
holiness is his greatness
nor does any thing else make a man truly great.
Commentary on Ezekiel 36:25-38
(Read Ezekiel 36:25-38)
Water is an emblem of the cleansing our polluted souls
from sin. But no water can do more than take away the filth of the flesh. Water
seems in general the sacramental sign of the sanctifying influences of the Holy
Ghost; yet this is always connected with the atoning blood of Christ. When the
latter is applied by faith to the conscience
to cleanse it from evil works
the
former is always applied to the powers of the soul
to purify it from the
pollution of sin. All that have an interest in the new covenant
have a new
heart and a new spirit
in order to their walking in newness of life. God would
give a heart of flesh
a soft and tender heart
complying with his holy will.
Renewing grace works as great a change in the soul
as the turning a dead stone
into living flesh. God will put his Spirit within
as a Teacher
Guide
and
Sanctifier. The promise of God's grace to fit us for our duty
should quicken
our constant care and endeavour to do our duty. These are promises to be
pleaded by
and will be fulfilled to
all true believers in every age.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 36
Verse 1
[1]
Also
thou son of man
prophesy unto the mountains of Israel
and say
Ye
mountains of Israel
hear the word of the LORD:
The mountains —
The inhabitants being in captivity
speak to the mountains
that is
the land
of Judah
and Israel
which was a country full of mountains.
Verse 2
[2] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you
Aha
even the ancient high places are ours in possession:
Because the enemy —
Many were the enemies of God's people; but they so conspired in one design
that the prophet speaks of them as one
and particularly of Edom.
Verse 3
[3]
Therefore prophesy and say
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made you
desolate
and swallowed you up on every side
that ye might be a possession
unto the residue of the heathen
and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers
and are an infamy of the people:
Swallowed —
Devoured you
as hungry beasts devour their prey.
Ye are taken up —
You are the subject of all their discourse.
An infamy —
Ever branding you as infamous.
Verse 7
[7]
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have lifted up mine hand
Surely the
heathen that are about you
they shall bear their shame.
Lifted up mine hand —
Sworn in my wrath.
The heathen —
The Moabites
Ammonites
and Idumeans.
Verse 8
[8] But ye
O mountains of Israel
ye shall shoot forth your branches
and
yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
At hand —
The time is near
when my people shall come out of Babylon to settle in their
own land.
Verse 12
[12] Yea
I will cause men to walk upon you
even my people Israel; and they shall
possess thee
and thou shalt be their inheritance
and thou shalt no more
henceforth bereave them of men.
And thou — O
land of Canaan.
Bereave —
Consume thine inhabitants.
Verse 13
[13] Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you
Thou land devourest up men
and
hast bereaved thy nations;
They —
The heathen round about.
Verse 14
[14]
Therefore thou shalt devour men no more
neither bereave thy nations any more
saith the Lord GOD.
Therefore — I
will so bless thee
O land
that thou shalt bring forth and breed up many sons
and daughters
and this reproach shall cease for ever.
Verse 17
[17] Son
of man
when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land
they defiled it by
their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness
of a removed woman.
By their doings — By
their carriage
and whole conversation.
As the uncleanness — Or
as one cut off from the congregation
because of some great sin.
Verse 20
[20] And
when they entered unto the heathen
whither they went
they profaned my holy
name
when they said to them
These are the people of the LORD
and are gone
forth out of his land.
Entered —
When they were come into Babylon.
Profaned —
They sinned.
They —
Their heathen neighbours.
Them —
The profane Jews.
These —
These profane slaves
call themselves the people of the Lord and say
he gave
them the land out of which they are driven.
Verse 21
[21] But
I had pity for mine holy name
which the house of Israel had profaned among the
heathen
whither they went.
But I had pity —
For these sins I had just cause to cut them off; but I had pity
for the glory
of my name: had I destroyed them
the heathen would have concluded against my
omnipotence
and my truth.
Verse 23
[23] And
I will sanctify my great name
which was profaned among the heathen
which ye
have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the
LORD
saith the Lord GOD
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
I will sanctify my great name — They gave the heathen occasion to think meanly of me
but I will shew I
am as great as good. When God performs what he hath sworn by his holiness
then
he sanctifies his name.
Verse 25
[25] Then
will I sprinkle clean water upon you
and ye shall be clean: from all your
filthiness
and from all your idols
will I cleanse you.
Sprinkle —
"This signifies both the blood of Christ sprinkled upon their conscience
to take away their guilt
as the water of purification was sprinkled
to take
away their ceremonial uncleanness and the grace of the spirit sprinkled on the
whole soul
to purify it from all corrupt inclinations and dispositions."
Verse 26
[26] A
new heart also will I give you
and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh
and I will give you an heart
of flesh.
A new heart — A
new frame of soul
a mind changed
from sinful to holy
from carnal to
spiritual. A heart in which the law of God is written
Jeremiah 31:33. A sanctified heart
in which the
almighty grace of God is victorious
and turns it from all sin to God.
A new spirit — A
new
holy frame in the spirit of man; which is given to him
not wrought by his
own power.
The stony —
The senseless unfeeling.
Out of your flesh —
Out of you.
Of flesh —
That is
quite of another temper
hearkening to God's law
trembling at his
threats
moulded into a compliance with his whole will; to forbear
do
be
or
suffer what God will
receiving the impress of God
as soft wax receives the
impress of the seal.
Verse 27
[27] And
I will put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statutes
and ye
shall keep my judgments
and do them.
My spirit —
The holy spirit of God
which is given to
and dwelleth in all true believers.
And cause you —
Sweetly
powerfully
yet without compulsion; for our spirits
framed by God's
spirit to a disposition suitable to his holiness
readily concurs.
Ye shall keep — Be
willing; and able to keep the judgments
and to walk in the statutes of God
which is
to live in all holiness.
Verse 28
[28] And
ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my
people
and I will be your God.
Ye shall dwell —
Observe: then
and not before
are these promises to be fulfilled to the house
of Israel.
And I will be your God — This is the foundation of the top-stone of a believer's happiness.
Verse 29
[29] I
will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn
and will increase it
and lay no famine upon you.
I will also save you — I will continue to save you.
From all your uncleannesses — Salvation from all uncleannessess
includes justification
entire
sanctification
and meetness for glory.
The corn —
All necessaries comprised in one.
Verse 35
[35] And
they shall say
This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden;
and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced
and are
inhabited.
And they —
Strangers
or foreigners.
Verse 37
[37] Thus
saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel
to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
Enquired of —
Though I have repeated so often my promise to do this
yet it is their duty to
intreat it
to wait on me
and then I will do it.
Verse 38
[38] As
the holy flock
as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the
waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the
LORD.
As the holy flock —
Flocks designed to holy uses.
In her solemn feasts — These flocks were for quality
the best of all; and for numbers
very
great
on the solemn feasts. Thus shall men multiply
and fill the cities of
replanted Judea. And the increase of the numbers of men is then honourable
when they are all dedicated to God as a holy flock
to be presented to him for
living sacrifices. Crowds are a lovely sight in God's temple.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
36 Chapter 36
Verses 1-38
Verse 9
And ye shall be tilled and sown.
A vision of the field
I. Man’s heart by
nature is like a waste field.
1. He brings forth no fruit unto God. Leave him alone and he will
live unto himself. He will live and he will die a strange monstrosity in the
world--a creature that has lived without his Creator. Methinks I see the great
God coming to look at the man
even as a farmer might come to look upon his
fallow field. He looks the whole field through. There is no thought for God
no
consecration of time to God
no desire to honour God
no longing to produce in
the world fresh glory to God
no effort to raise up to Him fresh voices that
shall praise His name. He lives unto himself or to his fellow men
and having
so lived
he so dies.
2. Worse than this; the field that has never been ploughed or sown
does produce something. There is an activity about human nature that will not
let us live without doing. “No man liveth to himself.” Is there no wheat
growing on that soil? no barley? no rye? Very well
then
there will be darnel
and cockle
and twitch
and all sorts of weed. So it is with the unrenewed heart.
It is prolific of evil imaginations
wrong desires
and bitter envyings. As
these ripen they bring forth ill words--idle
or
it may be
lascivious words
and perhaps atheistic
blasphemous words; and as these ripen they come to
actions
had the man becomes an offender in his deeds
perhaps against man
certainly against God. The apples of Gomorrah hang plentifully upon him.
II. There is no
hope for this field
unless God turn to it in mercy. “I am for you
and I will
turn unto you.” Man never does of himself turn unto God
and that for obvious
reasons. We are sure he never can
for he is dead in trespasses and sins. We
are certain he never will
for by nature he hates anything like a new birth;
and if he could make himself a new creature he would not
for Christ has
expressly said
“Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life.” If you have
turned
you know that the Lord has done it. Give unto Him the glory. If you
have not been converted
God help you to cry unto Him instantly and earnestly
“Turn us
and we shall be turned.” Look unto Him who is exalted on high to
“give repentance and remission of sins.” Seek ye unto Him
and ye shall live.
III. When the field
is to be put under cultivation it must be tilled. So when God turns to any man
in His mercy there has to be an operation
a tillage
performed upon his heart.
Common calling is addressed to every man
but effectual calling comes only to
prepared men
to those whom God makes willing in the day of His power. Now
what is the plough wanted for? Why
it is wanted
first of all
to break up the
soil and make it crumble. The more thoroughly pulverised the heart becomes
the
better. The seed will never get into an unbroken heart. The plough is also
wanted to destroy the weeds
for they must be killed. If the Lord save you
He
must kill your drunkenness
He must kill your swearing
He must kill your
whoredom
He must kill your lying
He must kill your dishonesty. These must all
go; every single weed must be torn up; there is no hope for you while there is
a weed living. The Lord make a clean sweep of the weeds
and burn them all!
Well
now
mark you
in this tilling there are different soils. There is the
light soil and the heavy soil; and so there are different sorts of
constitutions. There are some men who are naturally tender and sensitive. Many
too
of our sisters are like Lydia: they soon receive the Word. There are
others that are like the heavy clay soil; and you know the farmer does not
plough both soils alike
or else he would make a sad mess of it. And so God
does not deal with all men alike. Some have
as it were
first a little
ploughing
and then the seed is put in
and all is done; but some have to be
ploughed and cross ploughed; and then there is the scarifier and the clod
crusher
and I know not what
which have to be rolled over them before they are
good for anything; and perhaps
after all
they produce very little fruit. And
you know
the farmer has his time for ploughing. Some soils break up best after
a shower of rain
and some do best when they are driest. So there are some
hearts--ay
and I think almost all hearts--that are best ploughed after a
shower of heavenly love has fallen upon them. They are in a grateful frame of
mind for mercies received
and then the story of a dying Saviour comes to them
as just that which will touch the springs of their hearts.
IV. Unless God has
tilled the heart
it cannot be sown with any hope of success. After ploughing
there comes the sowing. When the heart is ready God sows it--sows it with the
best of wheat. The wise farmer does not sow tail corn
but
as Isaiah says
he
casts in “the principal wheat.” The seed which God sows is living seed. It
shall grow
for God has prepared the soil for it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 11
I will settle you after your old estates
and will do better unto
you than at your beginnings.
Hope for your future
I. What is there
then
so good in our beginnings?
1. One choice enjoyment was our vivid sense of pardon. Taken out of
the bonds of iniquity
our hearts danced at the very sound of the redeeming
name.
2. You had then a delicious enjoyment of the good things of the
covenant of grace. You did not know a tenth of what you know now
but you
intensely enjoyed what you did know.
3. And
at that time
we were like the children of Israel in a third
matter
namely
that we had repeated victories. You marvelled to see how the
adversary was subdued beneath the
foot of your faith. Those were good times
were they not--those beginnings?
4. In those days you had great delight in prayer. When alone with
Christ
it was heaven below; and in the prayer meetings
when God’s people were
warm at heart
how you delighted to unite with them!
5. In those days we were full of living fruitfulness. What marvels we
were going to do; ay
and we did many of them by God’s good grace!
6. Then
if we had but little strength
yet we kept the Lord’s Word.
If we had but one talent
we made as much use of it
perhaps
as some do with
ten.
7. Oh
how we loved the Saviour when first we discovered how He had
loved us with an everlasting love!
II. Can anything be
better than this? Well
it would be a very great pity if there could not be
because I am sure we
when we were young beginners
were not much to boast of;
and all the joy we had was
artier all
but little compared with what is
revealed in the Word of God. In what respects
then
can our future be better
than that which is behind?
1. I answer very readily
faith may be stronger. At first it shoots
up like the lily
very beautiful
but fragile; afterwards it is like the oak
with great roots that grip the soil
and rugged branches that defy the winds.
2. God gives to His people
as they advance
much more knowledge. We learn
the art of dissecting truth--taking it to pieces
and seeing the different
veins of Divine thought that run through it; and then we see with delight
blessing after blessing conveyed to us by the person and sacrifice of our
exalted Lord.
3. Love to Christ gets to be more constant. It is a passion always
but with believers who grow in grace it comes to be a principle as well as a
passion. If they are not always blazing with love
there is a good fire banked
up within the soul.
4. As Christians grow in grace
prayer becomes more mighty. If the
Lord builds you up into true spiritual manhood you will know how to wrestle.
5. So
I think
it is in usefulness. Growing Christians
and
full-grown Christians
are more useful than beginners. Their fruit
if not quite
so plentiful
is of better quality
and more mellow.
6. In fact
this one thing is clear of all believers who have grown
in grace--that the work of grace in them is nearer completion. They are getting
nearer heaven
and they are getting more fit for it.
III. How can we
secure that it will be better with us by and by than it is now?
1. I answer
first
keep to the simplicity of your first faith. Never
get an inch beyond the Cross; for
if you do
you will have to come back. That
is your place till you die: you nothing
and Christ everything.
2. At the same time
practise great watchfulness. We ought to have
the eyes of a lynx
and they ought never to be closed. We know not which way
the next temptation will come.
3. The next advice is
grow in dependence upon God. You cannot keep
yourself unless He keeps you. Remember that.
4. Determine
at the very beginning
to be thorough. Daily dread lest
in anything you should omit to do your Lord’s will
or should trespass against
Him. In this way your joy shall be maintained
and you shall be settled after
your old estates; and God will do better unto you than at your beginnings.
5. Seek for more instruction. Try to grow in the knowledge of God
that your joy may be full. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Better on before
In some parts of the Western Highlands of Scotland the traveller’s
eye is delighted by the clear and sunlit waters of the lake
running far up
into the hills. But as he climbs over the slopes and catches sight of the
waters of the Atlantic
bathed in the glory of the setting sun
he almost
forgets the beautiful vision which previously arrested him
for the latter
scene is far superior. Thus do the growths of spiritual character unfold richer
conceptions of Christ’s infinite love and character. (R. Venting.)
Verse 16-17
Moreover
the word of the Lord came unto me
saying
son of man.
The messenger
Having scattered over an open field the bones of the human body
bring an anatomist to the scene. Observe how he fits bone to bone and part to
part
till from those disjointed members he constructs a framework
which
apart from our horror at the eyeless sockets and fleshless form
appears
perfectly
divinely beautiful. Now
as with these different parts of the human
frame
so is it with the doctrines of the Gospel
in so far as they are
intelligible to our limited understandings. There is a difference
which even
childhood may discern
between the manner in which the doctrines and duties of
the Gospel are set forth in the Word of God
and their more formal arrangement
in our catechisms and confessions. They are scattered over the face of
Scripture much as the plants of nature are distributed upon the surface of our
globe. There
for example we meet with nothing that corresponds to the formal
order
systematic classification
and rectangular beds of a botanical garden;
on the contrary
the creations of the vegetable kingdom lie mingled in what
although beautiful
appears to be wild confusion. On the same moor
on the
surface of the same meadow
the naturalist collects grasses of many forms
and
finds both enamelled with flowers of every hue. And in those primeval forests
which have been planted by the hand of God
and beneath whose silent and solemn
shades man still walks in savage freedom
trees of every form and foliage stand
side by side like brothers. Now
although over the whole surface of our globe
plants of every form and family seem thrown at random
amid this apparent
disorder the eye of science discovers a perfect system in the floral kingdom;
and just as
though God has planted these forms over the face of nature without
apparent arrangement
there is a botanical system
so there is as certainly a
theological system
though its doctrines and duties are not classified in the
Bible according to dogmatic rules. Does not this circumstance teach us that He
intended His Word to be a subject of careful study as well as of devout faith
and that man should find in its saving pages a field for the exercise of his
highest faculties?
I. That this
portion of scripture
extending onwards from the 16th verse
presents an
epitome or outline of the Gospel. Its details
with their minute and varied
beauties
are here
so to speak
in shade; but the grand truths of redemption
stand boldly up
much as we have seen from sea the summits of a mountain range
or the lofty headlands of a dim and distant coast. In the 17th verse
we have
man sinning--“Son of man
when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land
they defiled it by their own way and by their doings.” In the 18th verse
we
have man suffering--“Wherefore
I poured My fury upon them.” In the 21st verse
man appears an object of mercy--“But I had pity.” In the 22nd verse
man is an
object of free mercy
mercy without merit--“I do not this for your sakes
O
house of Israel.” In the 24th verse
man’s salvation is resolved on--“I will
bring you into your own land.” In the 25th verse
man is justified--“Then will
I sprinkle clean water upon you
and ye shall be clean.” In the 26th and 27th
verses
man is renewed and sanctified--“A new heart also will I give you
” etc.
In the 28th verse
man is restored to the place and privileges
which he
forfeited by his sins--“Ye shall be My people
and I will be your God.” “This
land that was desolate
is become like the garden of Eden.” We have our
security for these blessings in the assurance of the 36th verse--“I the Lord
have spoken it
and I will do it”; and we are directed to the means of
obtaining them in the 37th verse--“I will yet for this be inquired of
” etc.
Such is the wide and interesting field that lies before us. But before entering
upon it
let us consider--
II. Who is
commissioned to deliver God’s message. Who and what is the chosen ambassador of
heaven? An angel? No; but a man. “Son of man
” says the Lord. By this title
Ezekiel is so often addressed that it forces all our attention Lord remarkable
fact
that God deals with man through the instrumentality of man
communicating
by men His will to men. The rain
in its descent from heaven
falls upon the
surface of our earth
percolates through the porous soil
and
flowing along
rocky fissures or veins of sand
is conveyed below ground to the fountain
whence it springs. Now
although rising out of the earth
that water is not of
the earth
earthy. The world’s deepest well owes its treasures to the skies. So
was it with the revealed will of God. It flowed along human channels
yet its
origin was more than celestial; it was Divine.
1. The kindness of God to man. The God of salvation
the author and
finisher of our faith
might have arranged it otherwise. Who shaft limit the
Holy One of Israel? The field is the world. And as the husbandman ploughs his
fields and sows his seed in spring by the same hands that bind the golden
sheaves of autumn
God might have sent those angels to sow the Gospel
who
shall descend at the judgment to reap the harvest. But though these blessed and
benevolent spirits
who are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation
take a lively interest in the work; though watching from on high the
progress of a Redeemer’s cause
they rejoice in each new jewel that adds lustre
to His crown
and in every new province that is won for His kingdom; and though
there be more joy even in heaven than on earth when man is saved
a higher joy
among these angels over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine
just persons
yet theirs is little more than the pleasure of spectators. To
man
however
in salvation
it is given to share
not a spectator’s but a
Saviour’s joy; with his lips at least he tastes the joys of that cup for which
Jesus endured the Cross and despised the shame. If theft parent is happy who
has snatched a beloved child from the flood or fire
and the child
saved
and
thus twice given hind
becomes doubly dear
what happiness in purity or
permanence to be compared with his
who is a; labourer with God in saving
souls?
2. The honour conferred on man. Did Moses occupy a noble position
when
taking advantage of some rock
he stood aloft amid the dying Israelites
and there
the central figure of the camp
on whom all eyes were turned
raised
high that serpent
at which to look was life? Nobler his attitude
much holier
his office
who with his foot on a dying world
lifts up the Cross--exalts
Jesus Christ and Him crucified--that
whosoever looketh and believeth on Him
might not perish
but have everlasting life. What dignity does this world
offer
what glittering stars
what jewelled honours flash on her swelling
breast
to be for one moment compared with those which they win on earth
and
wear in heaven
who have turned souls from darkness to light
from the power of
Satan to the living
loving God? Each converted soul a gem in their crown
they
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament
and they that turn
many to righteousness
as the stars
forever and ever. How has the hope of this
touched
as with burning fire
the preacher’s lips
sustained his sinking
heart
and held up the weary hands of prayer! It has proved an ample recompense
for the scanty rewards which God’s servants have received at the hands of men
for the penury which has embittered their life
and the hardships which have
pressed on their lot. You are “a son of man”; and as you bear the prophet’s
title
whatever otherwise you may be
let me call you to the prophet’s office.
The Master hath need
much need
daily need of you. Take a living
lively
loving interest in souls. Don’t leave them to perish. You are your brother’s
keeper. Permanently and formally to instruct may be the duty of others
but to
enlist is yours. “This honour have all His saints.”
3. The wisdom of God. However highly gifted he may otherwise be
it
is a valid objection to a preacher
that he does not feel what he says; that
spoils more than his oratory. Once on a time an obscure man rose up to address
the French Convention. At the close of his oration
Mirabeau
the giant genius
of the Revolution
turned round to his neighbour
and eagerly asked
Who is
that? The other
who had been in no way interested by the address
wondered at
Mirabeau’s curiosity. Whereupon the latter said
That man will yet act a great
part; and added
on being asked for an explanation
He speaks as one who
believes every word he says. Much of pulpit power under God defends on that;
admits of that explanation
or of one allied to it. They make others feel who
feel themselves. How can he plead for souls who neither knows nor feels the
value of his own? How can he recommend a Saviour to others who himself despises
and rejects Him? It is true that a man may impart light to others who does not
himself see the light. It is true that
like a concave speculum cut from a
block of ice
which
by its power of concentrating the rays of the sun
kindles
touch wood or explodes gunpowder
a preacher may set others on fire
when his
own heart is cold as frost. It is true that he may stand like a lifeless
fingerpost
pointing the way on a road where he neither leads nor follows. It
is true that God may thus in His sovereign mercy bless others by one who is
himself unblessed. Yet commonly it happens that it is what comes from the heart
of preachers that penetrates and affects the heart of hearers. Like a ball red
hot from the cannon’s mouth
he must burn himself who would set others on fire.
We have read the story of a traveller who stood one day beside the cages of
some birds
that tuned their plumage on the wires
struggling to be free. A
wayworn and sun-browned man
like one returned from foreign lands
he looked
wistfully and sadly on these captives
till tears started in his eye. Turning
round on their owner
he asked the price of one
paid it in strange gold
and
opening the cage set the prisoner free; thus he did with another and another
till every bird had flown away singing to the sides--soaring on the wings of
liberty. The crowd stared and stood amazed. They thought him mad
till to the
question of their curiosity he replied
I was once a captive; I know the sweets
of liberty. And so they who have experience of guilt
who have felt the
serpent’s bite
the poison burning in their veins
who on the one hand have
felt the sting of conscience
and on the other the peace of faith
the joys of
hope
the love
the light
the liberty
the life that are found in Jesus
they
not excepting heaven’s highest angels
are the fittest to preach a Saviour; to
plead with man for God
and with God for man. During a heavy storm off the
coast of Spain a dismasted merchantman was observed by a British frigate
drifting before the gale. Every eye and glass were on her; and a canvas shelter
on a deck almost level with the sea suggested the idea that even yet there
might be life on board. With all their faults
no men are more alive to
humanity than our rough and hardy mariners; so the order instantly sounds to
put the ship about; and presently a boat is lowered
and starts with
instructions to bear down upon the wreck. Away after that drifting hulk go
these gallant men over the mountain swell and roaring sea. They reach it; they shout;
and now a strange object rolls from that canvas screen against the lee shroud
of a broken mast. It is hauled into the boat. It proves to be the trunk of a
man
bent head and knees together
so dried up and shrivelled as to be hardly
felt within the ample clothes--so light that a mere boy lifted it on board. It
is conveyed to the ship and laid on the deck. In horror and pity the crew
gather around it. These feelings suddenly change into astonishment. The
miserable object shows signs of life. The seamen draw nearer; it moves; and
then mutters--in a deep sepulchral voice mutters--There is another man. Rescued
himself
the first use the saved one made of Speech was to try to save another.
Oh! learn that blessed lesson. Be daily practising it. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
They defiled it.--
The defiler
When with slow and lingering steps Adam and Eve came forth weeping
from Paradise
and the gate was locked behind them
that was the bitterest home
leaving the world has ever seen. Adam belay; the federal head of his family
they come not alone. A longer sad sadder procession follows them than went
weeping on the road to Babylon. They are attended by a world in tears. Death
has passed upon all men
for that all have sinned.
I. Let us look at
man sinning. “Ye have defiled the land.” Sin is presented here as a defilement.
Pluck off that painted mask
and turn upon her face the lamp of God’s Word. We
start--it reveals a death’s head. I stay not to quote texts descriptive of sin.
It is a debt
a burden
a thief
a sickness
a leprosy
a plague
a poison
a
serpent
a sting; everything that man hates it is; a load of curses and
calamities beneath whose crushing
most intolerable pressure the whole creation
groaneth. But leaving what is general let us fix our attention on that view of
sin which the text presents. Here it is set forth as a defilement; and what
else in the eye of God can deform
and does defile? Yet how strange it is
that
some deformity of body shall prove the subject of more parental regrets and
personal mortification than this most foul deformity of soul! Your manners may
have acquired a courtly polish
your dress may
rival the winter’s snow
unaccustomed to menial offices
and sparkling with Indian gems
your hands may
bear no stain
yet they arm not clean; nay
beneath that graceful exterior may
lie concealed more foul pollution than is covered by a beggar’s rags. This son
of toil
from whose very touch your delicacy shrinks
and who
till Sabbath
stops the wheels of business
and with her kind hand wipes the sweat of labour
from his brow
never knows the comfort of cleanly attire
may have a heart
within
which
compared with yours
is purity itself. Beneath this soiled
raiment he wears
all unseen by the world’s dull eye
the “raiment of
needlework
” and the “clean linen” of a Redeemer’s righteousness.
II. The nature of
this defilement.
1. It is internal. Like snowdrift
when it has levelled the
churchyard mounds
and
glistening in the winter sun
lies so pure
and white
and fair
and beautiful
above the dead that fester and rot below
a plausible
profession may wear the look of innocence
and conceal from human eyes the
foulest heart corruption. The grass grows green on the mountain that hides a
volcano in its bowels. Behind the rosy cheek and lustrous eye of beauty
how
often does there lurk the deadliest of all diseases! Internal
but all the more
dangerous that they are internal
such maladies are reluctantly believed in by
their victims. They are the last to be suspected and the hardest to cure. To
other than the physician’s skill or a mother’s anxious look
this youthful and
graceful form never wears bloom of higher health
nor moves in more fascinating
charms
nor wins more admiring eyes
than when fell consumption
like a miner
working on in darkness
has penetrated the vital organs
and is quietly sapping
the foundations of life. Like these maladies
sin has its seat within. It is a
disease of the heart. It is the worst and deadliest of all heart complaints.
Needing not food
but medicine
a new nature
a new heart
a new life
this is
the prayer that best suits thy lips and meets thy case--Create in me a clean
heart
O God
and renew a right spirit within me.
2. This defilement is universal. Our world is inhabited by various
races; different specimens
not different species of mankind. The Mongolian
the Negro
the race early cradled among Caucasian mountains
and the Red
Indians of the New World; these all differ from each other in the colour of the
skin
in the contour of the skull
in the cast and character of their features.
But although the hues of the skin differ
and the form of the skull and the
features of the face are cast in different moulds
the features
colour
and
character of the heart are the same in all men. Be he pale-faced or red
tawny
or black
Jew
Greek
Scythian
bond or free
whether he be the lettered and
civilised inhabitant of Europe
or roam a painted savage in American woods
or
pant beneath the burning line
or wrapt in furs shiver amid Arctic snows
as in
all classes of society
so in all these races of men
“the heart is deceitful
above all things
and desperately wicked”; “the carnal mind is enmity against
God.” The pendulum
farther removed from the centre
vibrates more slowly at
the equator than at the poles; the farther north we push our way over
thick-ribbed ice
the faster the clock goes; but parallels of latitude have no
modifying influence on the motions of the heart. It beats the same in all men;
nor
till repaired by grace
does it in any man beat true to God. How can it be
otherwise? The tree is diseased
not at the top
but at the root; and therefore
no one branch of the human family can possibly escape being affected by sin.
Man is the child of unholy parents
and how can a clean thing come out of an
unclean?
3. This evil is incurable. Hear the word of the Lord
Though thou
wash thee with nitre
and take thee much soap
yet thine iniquity is marked
before Me
saith the Lord. Again
Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the
leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.
Again
Why should ye be stricken any more
ye will revolt more and more? Of
these solemn and humbling truths it were difficult to find a more remarkable
illustration than that before us. What moral effect had God’s judgments on His
ancient people? Were they cured by their afflictions
by trials that extended
over long years of suffering? Did these arrest the malady? Had they even the
salutary effect of preventing their sinking deeper into sin? By no means. As
always happens in incurable diseases
the patient grew worse instead of better.
“Seducers wax worse and worse.” As always happens when life is gone
the dead
became more and more offensive. The brighter the sun shines
the more the skies
rain
the thicker the dews of night
and the hotter the day
the faster the
fallen tree rots; because those agents in nature which promote vegetation and
develop the forms and beauty of life
the sounding shower
the silent dews
the
summer heat
have no other effect on death than to hasten its putridity and
decay. And even so--impressive lesson of the impotency of all means that are
unaccompanied by the Divine blessing--was it with God’s ancient people. Trust
not.
therefore
in any unsanctified afflictions. These cannot permanently and
really change the condition of your heart. I have seen the characters of the
writing remain on paper which the flames had turned into a film of buoyant
coal; I have seen the thread that had been passed through the fire
retain
in
its cold grey ashes
the twist which it had got in spinning; I have found every
shivered splinter of the flint as hard as the unbroken stone: and let trials
come
in providence
sharp as the fire and ponderous as the crushing hammer
unless a gracious God send along with these something else
bruised
broken
bleeding
as your heart may be
its nature remains the same. (T. Guthrie
D.
D.)
Man sinning
Range the wide fields of nature
travel from the equator to
the poles
rise from the worm that wriggles out of its hole to the eagle as she
springs from the rock to cleave the clouds
and where shall you find anything
that corresponds either to our scenes of suicidal dissipation or the
blood-stained fields of war? Suppose that
on his return from Africa
some
Park
or Bruce
or Campbell were to tell how he had seen the lions of the
desert leave their natural prey
and
meeting face to face in marshalled bands
amid roars that drowned the thunder
engage in deadly battle. Would he find one
man so credulous as to believe him? The world would laugh that traveller and
his tale to scorn. But should anything so strange and monstrous occur
or
while the air shook with their bellowings
and the ground trembled beneath
their hoofs
should we see the cattle rush from their distant pastures
to form
two vast
black
solid
opposing columns
and
with heads levelled to the
charge
should these herds dash forward to bury their horns in each other’s
bodies
we would proclaim a prodigy
asking what madness had seized creation.
But is not sin the parent of more awful prodigies? Fiercer than the cannon’s
flash
flames of wrath shoot from brothers’ eyes. They draw; they brandish
their swords
they sheathe them in each other’s bowels; every stroke makes a
widow
every ringing volley scatters a hundred orphans on a homeless world.
Covering her eyes
humanity flies shrieking from the scene
and leaves it to
rage
revenge
and agony. Sooner would I be an atheist and believe that there
was no God at all
than that man appears in this scene as he came from the hand
of a benignant Divinity. Man must have fallen.
I. Apart from
derived sinfulness we have personal sins to answer for. Come
let us reason
together. Do you mean
on the one hand
to affirm that you have never been
guilty of doing what you should not have done? or
on the other
that you were
never guilty of not doing what you should have done? Could you be carried back
to life’s starting post
leant you again an infant against the cradle
stood
you again a child at your mother’s knee
sate you again a boy at the old school
desk
with companions that are now changed
or scattered
or dead and gone
were you again a youth to begin the battle of life anew
would you run the
self-same course; would you live over the self-same life? What! is there no
speech that you would unsay? no act that you would undo? no Sabbath that you
would spend better? are there none alive
or mouldering in the grave
none now
blest in heaven
or with the damned in hell
to whom you would bear yourself
otherwise than you have done? Have none gone to their account whose memory
stings you
and whose possible fate
whose everlasting state fills you with the
most painful anxiety? Did you never share in sins that may have proved their
ruin
nor fail in faithfulness that might have saved their souls?
II. The guilt of
these actual sins is our own. There are strong pleas which the heathen may
advance in extenuation of their guilt; there are excuses which they
Stepping
forward with some confidence to the judgment
may urge upon a just and merciful
as well as holy God. What value may be given to these pleas
what weight they
may carry at a tribunal where much shall be exacted of those who have received
much
and little asked where little has been given
it is not for us to say
or
even attempt to determine. But this we know
that we have no such excuse to
plead
nor any such plea to urge
in extenuation of our offences
of one of a
thousand of our offences. Supposing
however
that the plea were accepted
more
than enough remains to condemn us
and leave guilt no refuge out of Christ. We
talk of a natural bias to sin; but who has not committed sins that he could
have avoided
sins which he could have abstained from
and did abstain from
when it served some present purpose to do so? Some years ago
on a great public
occasion
a distinguished statesman rose to address his countrymen
and
in
reply to certain calumnious and dishonourable charges
held up his hands in the
vast assembly
exclaiming
These hands are clean. Now
if you or I or any of our
fallen race did entertain a hope that we could act over this scene before a God
in judgment
then I could comprehend the calm
the unimpassioned indifference
with which men sit in church on successive Sabbaths
idly gazing on the Cross
of Calvary
and listening with drowsy ears to the overtures of mercy. But are
these
I ask
matters with which you have nothing to do? Beware! Play with no
fire; least of all
with fire unquenchable. Play with no edged sword; least of
all
with that which Divine justice sheathed in a Saviour’s bosom. Your
everlasting destiny may turn upon this hour. Do you feel under condemnation?
Are you really anxious to be saved? Be not turned from such a blessed purpose
by the laughter of fools and the taunts of the ungodly. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
Verse 18-19
Wherefore I poured My fury upon them.
Man suffering
I. God is slow to
punish. He does punish; He shall punish; with reverent be it spoken
He must
punish. Yet no hand of clock goes so slowly as His hand of vengeance. He does
pour out His fury; but His indignation is the volcano that groans loud and long
before it discharges the elements of destruction
and pours its fiery lavas on
the vineyards at its feet. Where
when God’s anger has burned hottest
was it
ever known that judgment trod on the heels of sin? A period always intervenes;
room is given for remonstrance on His part
and for repentance upon ours. The
stroke of judgment is like the lightning flash
irresistible
fatal; it
kills
--kills in the twinkling of an eye. But the clouds from which it leaps
are slow to gather; they thicken by degrees: and he must be intensely engaged
with the pleasures
or engrossed in the business of the world
whom the flash
and peal surprise. The mustering clouds
the deepening gloom
the still and
sultry air
the awful silence
the big pattering raindrops
these reveal his
danger to the traveller; and warn him away from river
road
or hill to the
nearest shelter. And
heeded or unheeded
many are the warnings you get from
God. As these prove
He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; He is not
willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance. Let us
do the same justice to our Father in heaven that we would render to an earthly
parent. Would it be doing a father justice to look at him only when the rod is
raised in his hand
and
though the trembling lip and weeping eyes and choked
utterance of his culprit boy
and a fond mother’s intercession
all plead with
him to spare
he refuses
firmly refuses? In this
how stern he looks! But
before you can know that father
or judge his heart aright
you should know how
often ere this the offence had been forgiven; you should have heard with what
tender affection he had warned that child; above all
you should have stood at
his closet door
and listened when he pleaded with God on behalf of an erring
son. Justice to him also requires that you should have seen with what slow and
lingering steps he went for the rod
the trembling of his trend
and how
with
tears streaming from his eyes
he raised them to heaven and sought strength to
inflict a punishment which
could it serve the purpose
he would a hundred
times rather bear than inflict.
II. How He punished
His ancient people. These were the children of Abraham
beloved for the
father’s sake
the honoured custodiers of Divine truth; God’s chosen people
through whose line and lineage His Son was to appear. How solemn
then
and how
appropriate
the question
If they do these things in a green tree
what shall
be done in the dry? Look at Judah sitting amid the ruins of Jerusalem
her
temple without a worshipper
her silent streets choked with the dead: look at
that bound
weeping
bleeding remnant of a nation toiling on its way to
Babylon: look at these peeled and riven boughs; may I not warn you with the
Apostle
If God spaced not the natural branches
take heed lest He also spare
not thee. If we speak thus
it is for your good. We arm ourselves with these
thunders only
in the words of Paul
“to persuade you by the terrors of the
Lord.” We have no faith in terror dissociated from tenderness. And as we trust
more to drawing than to driving men to Jesus
we entreat you to observe that He
who is the good is also a most tender Shepherd. Among the hills of our native
land I have met a shepherd far from the flock and folds
driving home a lost
sheep
one which had “gone astray
” a creature panting for breath
amazed
alarmed
foot-sore; and when the rocks around rang loud to the baying of the
dogs
I have seen them--whenever it offered to turn from the path
with open
mouth dash fiercely at its sides
and so hound it home. How differently Jesus
brings back His lost ones! The lost sheep sought and found
He lifts it up
tenderly
lays it on His shoulder
and
retracing His steps
returns homeward
with joy
and invites His neighbours to rejoice with Him. Catching grace from
His lips
and kindness from His looks
I desire to address you as becomes the
servant of such a gentle
lowly
loving Master. Yet
shall I conceal God’s
verity
and ruin men’s souls to spare their feelings? If any are living without
God and Christ and hope and prayer
I implore them to look here: turn to this
dreadful pit. With what fire it burns! How it resounds with moaning wail and
woeful groans 1 Now
while we stand together on its margin
or rather draw back
with horror
ponder
I pray you
the solemn question
Who among us shall dwell
with everlasting burnings? It is alleged by travellers that the ostrich
when
hard pressed by the hunters
will thrust its head into a bush
and
without
further attempt either at flight or resistance
quietly submit to the stroke of
death. Men say that
having thus succeeded in shutting the pursuers out of its
own sight
the bird is stupid enough to fancy that it has shut itself out of
theirs
and that the danger which it has ceased to see has ceased to exist. We
doubt that. This poor bird
which has thrust its head into the bush
and stands
quietly to receive the shot
has been hunted to death. For hours the cry of
staunch pursuers has rung in its startled ear; for hours their feet have been
on its weary track; it has exhausted strength
and breath
and craft
and
cunning
to escape; and even yet
give it time to breathe
grant it but another
chance
and it is away with the wind; with wings outspread and rapid feet it
spurns the burning sand. It is because escape is hopeless and death is certain
that it has buried its head in that bush
and closed its eyes to a fate which
it cannot avert. To man belongs the folly of closing his eyes to a fate which
he can avert. He thrusts his head into the bush while escape is possible; and
because he can put death and judgment and eternity out of mind
lives as if
time had no bed of death
and eternity no bar of judgment. Be wise. Be men.
Look your danger in the face. Flee to Jesus now. Escape from the wrath to come.
To come? In a sense wrath has already come. The fire has caught
it has seized
your garments; delay
and you are wrapt in flames. Oh! haste away
and throw
yourselves into the fountain which has power to quench these fires
and cleanse
you from all your sins. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
God’s punitive justice
Does man ask
Why am I born with a bias to sin? why has another’s
hand been permitted to sow germs of evil in me? why should I
who was no party
to the first covenant
be buried in its ruins? To these questions this is my
reply: I shrink from sitting in judgment upon my judge. Clouds and darkness are
round about Jehovah now; but I feel confident that
when the veil of this
present economy shall be rent
and expiring Time
echoing the cry of the cross
exclaims
It is finished
it shall be seen that righteousness and judgment are
the pillars of Jehovah’s throne
that there is no unrighteousness with God. But
although the permission of sin is a mystery
the fact of its punishment is no
mystery at all; and
while every answer to the question
How did God allow sin?
leaves us unsatisfied
to my mind nothing is plainer than this
that
whatever
was His reason for permitting it to exist
He could not permit it to exist
unpunished.
I. The truth of
God requires the punishment of sin. Some have fancied that they honour God most
when
sinking all other attributes in mercy--indiscriminating mercy--they
represent Him as embracing the whole world in His arms
and receiving to His
bosom with equal affection the sinners that hate and the saints that love Him.
They cannot claim originality for this idea. Its authorship belongs to the “father
of lies.” Satan said so before them. It is the identical doctrine that damned
this world. The serpent said to the woman
Ye shall not surely die. Are your
hopes of salvation resting on such a baseless fancy? If so
you cannot have
considered in what aspect this theory presents that God for whose honour you
profess such tender regard. We almost shrink from explaining it. You save the
creature
but save him at a price more costly than was paid for sinners upon
the Cross of Calvary. Your scheme exalts man; but far more than man is exalted
God is degraded. By it no man is lost; but there is a greater Joss. The truth
of God is lost; and in that loss His crown is spoiled of its topmost jewel
His
kingdom totters
and the throne of the universe is shaken to its deepest
foundations. It is as manifest as daylight that God’s truth and your scheme
cannot stand together. “Liar” stands against either God or you; and
in the
words of the Apostle
you make God a liar. Nor is that all; my faith has lost
the very rock on which it stood
as I flattered myself
steadfast and
unmovable. For however awful the threatenings in His word may be
if God is not
true to them
what security have I that He will prove true to its gracious
promises?
II. The love of God
requires that sin should be punished. Let me at once prove and illustrate the
point by a piece of plain analogy. This city
its neighbourhood
nay
the whole
land
is shaken by the news of some most cruel
bloody
monstrous crime. Fear
seizes the public mind; pale horror sits on all men’s faces; doors are double
barred; and justice lets loose the hounds of law on the track of the criminal.
At length
to the relief and satisfaction of all honest citizens
he is caught.
He is tried
condemned
laid in irons
and waits but the sentence to be signed.
To save or slay
to hang or pardon
is now the question with him whose
prerogative it is to do either. And the law is left to take its course. Now
by
what motive is the sovereign impelled to shut up his bowels of mercy
and sign the
warrant for execution? Is it want of pity? No; the fatal pen is taken with
reluctance; it trembles in his hand; and tears of compassion for this guilty
wretch drop upon the page. It is not so much abhorrence of the guilty
as love
of the innocent
and regard for their lives
peace
purity
and honour
that
dooms the man to death. If he were pardoned
and his crime allowed to go
unpunished
neither man’s life nor woman’s virtue were safe. Unless this felon
dies
the peace of a thousand happy families lies open to foul attack. Love for
those who have the highest claim on a sovereign’s protection requires that
justice be satisfied
and the guilty die. There are scenes of domestic
suffering which present another
no less convincing
and more touching analogy.
It has happened that
from love and regard to the interests of his other
children
to save them from a brother’s contamination
a kind parent has felt
constrained to pronounce sentence on his son
and banish him from his house.
How sad to think that he may be lost! The dread of that goes like a knife to
the heart; yet
bitter truth! painful conclusion! it is better that one child
be lost than a whole family be lost. These lambs claim protection from the
wolf; he must be driven forth from the fold. Love herself
while she weeps
demands this sacrifice; and
just because it is most lacerating
most
excruciating
to a parent’s heart
it is in such a case the highest and holiest
exercise of parental love to bar the door against a child. There have been
parents so weak and foolish as to peril the morals
the fortunes
the souls of
all their other children
rather than punish one; and in consequence of this I
have seen sin
like a plague
infect every member of the family
and vice
ferment and spread till it had leavened the whole lump. Divine love
however
is no blind Divinity: and God
being as wise as He is tender
sinners may rest
assured
that out of mere pity to them He will neither sacrifice the interest
nor peril the happiness of His people. Bleeding
dying
redeeming Love shall
bolt the gates of heaven with her own hand
and from its happy
holy precincts
exclude all that could hurt or defile.
III. Unless sin is
to be awfully punished
the language of scripture appears extravagant. The
sufferings and misery which await the impenitent and unbelieving have been
painted by God in most appalling colours. They are such that
for our
salvation
His Son descended from the heavens and expired upon a Cross. They
are such that
when Paul thought of the lost
he wept like a woman. They are
such that
though a dauntless man
who shook his chain in the face of kings
whose spirit no sufferings could subdue
and whose heart no dangers could
appall
who stood as unmoved amid a thousand perils as ever sea rock amid the
roaring billows
he could not contemplate the fate of the wicked without the
deepest emotion. What horror did David feel at the sight and fate of sinners!
With his face turned up to heaven
you see a blind man approach the edge of an
awful precipice; every step brings him nearer
nearer still
to the brink
Now
he reaches it; he stands on the grassy edge. Oh
for an arm to reach him
a
voice to warn him
a blow to send him staggering back upon the ground. He has
lifted his foot; it is projected beyond the brink; another moment
a breath of
wind
the least change of balance
and he is whirling twenty fathoms down. You
stop your ears; shut your eyes; turn away your head; horror takes hold of you.
Such were David’s feelings when he contemplated the fate of the wicked. The
wrath of God is the key to the Psalmist’s sorrow
to an Apostle’s tears
to the
bloody mysteries of the Cross. That was the necessity which drew the Saviour
down. God certainly is not willing that you should perish; and by these terrors
He would persuade you to accept salvation. Meditate on these words: pray over
them--Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! The wicked shall be turned
into hell
and all the nations that forget God. Still
it is not terror which
is the power
the mighty power of God. The Gospel
like most medicines for the
body
is of a compound nature; but whatever else enters into its composition
its curative property is love. God
indeed
tells us of hell
but it is to
persuade us to fly to heaven; and
as a skilful painter fills the background of
his picture with his darker colours
God introduces the smoke of torment and
the black thunder clouds of Sinai to give brighter prominence to the Cross
to
Jesus
and His love to the chief of sinners. His voice of terror is like the scream
of the mother bird when the hawk is in the sky. She alarms her brood that they
may run and hide beneath her feathers; and as I believe that God had left that
mother dumb unless He had given her wings to cover them
I am sure that He
who
is very “pitiful
” and has no pleasure in the meanest creature’s pain
had
never turned our eyes on the horrible gulf unless for the voice that cries
Deliver him from going down to the pit
for I have found a ransom. (T.
Guthrie
D. D.)
Verse 20
They profaned My holy name.
How God’s name is profaned
Men sanctify Jehovah when they recognise that which He is
or
ascribe to Him His true nature. On the other hand
when the iniquities of His
people constrain Him to act in such a way as to disguise any of His great
attributes
such as His power
in the eyes of the nations
so that they
misinterpret His being
His holy name is “profaned
” as
on the contrary
He is
“sanctified” in the eyes of the nations by the restoration of His people
and
their defence when restored and righteous. (A. B. Davidson
D. D.)
The nations’ conceptions of Jehovah regulated by His people’s
conduct
These disasters which the people of Jehovah brought on themselves
led to the desecration of His name among the heathen. The nations judged Him
weak
and unable to protect His people. In the eyes of the nations
the
interests of the god and his people were one; if a people were subdued by
another
it was because its god was too feeble to protect it. Naturally
the
idea of a god exercising a moral rule over his own people would not yet occur
to them. That Jehovah so rules is the lesson which the history of Israel
its
dispersion and restoration
is intended to read to the nations of the earth. (A.
B. Davidson
D. D.)
I had pity for Mine holy
name.
God’s motive in salvation
There is a land lying
beneath a burning sky where the fields are seldom screened by a cloud
and
almost never refreshed by a shower; and yet Egypt--for it is of it I speak--is
as remarkable for the fertile character of its soil as for the hoar antiquity
of its history. At least
it was so in days of old
when hungry nations were
fed by its harvests
and its fields were the granaries of ancient Rome. Powers
so prolific Egypt owed to the Nile; a river whose associations carry us upward
to the beginning of all human history; on whose banks
in the tombs of
forgotten kings
stand the proudest monuments of human vanity; the very name of
which recalls some of the grandest scenes that have been acted on the stage of
time. From the earliest ages the source of the Nile was regarded with intensest
interest. Whence it sprung and how its annual flood was swelled were the
subjects of eager but ungratified curiosity. One traveller after another had
attempted to reach its cradle
and had failed or fallen in the enterprise; and
when--travelling along its banks
from the shore where
by many months
it
disgorged its waters into the sea
till its ample volume had shrunk into the
narrowness of a mountain stream--our hardy countryman
boldly facing many
dangers and difficulties
at length stood beside the long-sought fountain
this
achievement won him an immortal reputation. How he enjoyed his triumph
as he
sat down by the cradle of a river which had fed the millions of successive
generations
and in days of famine long gone by had saved the race which gave a
Redeemer to the world! Now
what this river
which turns barren sand into the
richest soil
is to Egypt
the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to the world. And if
it be interesting to trace the Nile to its mountain source
how much more
interesting to explore the stream of eternal life
and trace it upward till we
have reached its fountain. Bruce discovered
or thought he had discovered
the
springs of Egypt’s river
among cloud-capped mountains
at an elevation of many
thousand feet above the plains they watered. All great rivers
Unlike some
great men who have been born in lowly circumstances
boast a lofty descent. It
is after the traveller has left smiling valleys far beneath him
and toiling
along rugged glens
and pressing through deep mountain gorges
at length
reaches the chili shores of an icy sea
that he stands at the source of the
Alpine river
which
cold as the snows that feed it
and a full-grown stream at
its birth
rushes out from the caverns of the hollowed glacier. Yet such a
river in the loftiness of its birth place is but an humble image of salvation.
The stream of mercy flows from the throne of the Eternal; and here we seem to
stand by its majestic and mysterious fountain; in contemplating the words of
the text
we look upon its spring--“I do this for Mine holy name’s sake.”
I. Attend to the
expression
“My name’s sake.” The name of God
as employed by the sacred
writers
has many and most important meanings. In the 20th Psalm
for instance
it embraces all the attributes of the Godhead. “The name of the God of Jacob
defend thee”; that is
when paraphrased
may His arms be around; may His wisdom
guide thee; may His power support thee; the bounty of God supply thy wants; the
mercy of God forgive thy sins; may the shield of heaven cover
and its precious
blessings crown thy head. Again
in Micah 4:5
where it is said
“We will walk in the name of the Lord
” the
expression assumes a new meaning
and indicates the laws
statutes
and
commandments of God. Again in the blessed promise
“In all places where I
record My name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee
” the expression
bears yet another meaning: it stands for religious ordinances and worship
and
rears
by the hand of faith
a holy temple out of the rudest edifice
changing
into heaven-consecrated churches those rocky fastnesses and lonely moors where
our fathers found their God in the dark days of old. Contenting ourselves with
these illustrations of the various meanings of this expression in Scripture
I
now remark that here the “name” of God comprehends everything that either
directly or remotely affects the Divine honour and glory; whatever touches
to
use the words of our Catechism
His titles
attributes
ordinances
word or works;
or anything whereby God maketh Himself known.
II. We are to
understand that the motive which moved God to save man was regard to his own
glory. This doctrine
that God saves men for His own glory
is a grand
a very
precious truth; yet it may be stated in a way which seems as offensive as it is
really unscriptural. Have you never observed how concave mirrors magnify the
features nearest to them into undue and monstrous proportions
and how common
mirrors
that are ill-cast and of uneven surface
turn the most beautiful face
into deformity? Well
there are some good men whose minds appear to be of such
a cast and character. Neither seeing nor exhibiting the truths of the Bible in
their proper harmony and proportions
they represent our Lord in this matter of
salvation as affected by no motive whatever but a regard to His Father’s glory
and even God Himself as moved only by a regard to this end. Excluding from
their view the pity and love of God
or reducing these into shrunken and small
dimensions
they magnify one doctrine at the expense of another; and thereby
weaken
if not annihilate
some of the most sacred and tender ties which bind
the believer to His God. I know that we should approach so high a theme with
the deepest reverence. It becomes us to speak on this subject
and on anything
else that touches the secret movements of the Divine mind
with profound
humility. Yet
reasoning from the form of the shadow to the nature of the
object which projects it
from the image to that of which it is the reflection
from man to God
I venture to say
that it is with Him as with us
when we are
moved to a single action by the influence of various motives. To borrow an
example from the place I fill. The minister ascends the pulpit to preach; and
in preaching
if worthy of his office
he is affected by a variety of motives.
Love to God
love to Jesus
love to sinners
love to saints
regard to God’s
glory
and also to man’s good--these
like the air
the water
the light
the
heat
the electricity
the gravity
which act together in the process of
vegetation
may all combine to form and inspire one sermon. They are present
not as conflicting but as concurring motives in the preacher’s breast. This
difference
however
there is between us and a perfect God
that though--like
the Rhone
which is formed of two rivers
the one turbid
the other pure as the
blue sky above it--our motives are mixtures of good and evil
all the emotions
of the Divine mind
and the influences that move God to action
are of the
purest nature. Never
therefore
let us exalt this doctrine of the Divine glory
at the expense of Divine love to sinners. His love to sinners is His mightiest
His heart-softening
as an old writer called it
His heart-breaking argument;
and it were doing Him
His blessed Gospel and our own souls the greatest
injustice if we should overlook the love that gives Divinity its name
which
sent
in His Son
a Saviour from the Father’s bosom
and was eulogised by an
apostle as possessed of a height and depth and breadth and length which passeth
knowledge.
III. Observe that in
saving man for His “holy name’s sake
” or for His own honour and glory
God
exhibits the mercy
holiness
love
and other attributes of the Godhead. The
truth is
that God saves man for much the same reasons as at first He created
him. What moved God
then
to make man
or
when through the regions of empty
space there was neither world rolling
nor sun shining
nor angel singing--when
there was neither life nor death
nor birth nor burial
nor sight nor sound
no
wave of ocean breaking
no wing of seraph moving--when God dwelt alone in
silent
solemn
awful
but complacent solitude
what moved Him to make
creatures at all
and with these bright worlds
suns
and systems
to garnish
the vacant heavens
and people with its varied inhabitants a lonely universe?
These are the deep things of God
and it becomes us with our finite and
fallible minds to approach them modestly. Still
by turning the eye inward on
ourselves
we may form some conception of the mind of God; even as a captive
child
born and retained in a dark dungeon
may learn something of the sun from
the beam that
streaming through a chink of the riven wall
travels the grey
lonely floor; or even as
though I had never walked its pebbly shore
nor heard
the voice of its thundering breakers
nor played in summer day with its
swelling waves
I could form some feeble conception of the ocean from a lake
from a pool
or from this sparkling dew drop
which
born of the womb of night
and cradled in the bosom of a flower
lies waiting
like a soul under the Sun
of Righteousness
to be exhaled to heaven. Look at man
then. Is he a poet or a
philosopher
a man of mechanical genius or artistic skill
a statesman or a
philanthropist
or
better than all
one in whose bosom glow the fires of
piety? It matters not. We perceive that his happiness does not lie in
indolence
but in the gratification of his tastes
the indulgence of his
feelings
and the exercise of his faculties
whatever they be. Assume the same to
be true of God
and the conception
while it exalts
endears our heavenly
Father to us. Does it not present Him in this most winning and attractive
aspect
that the very happiness of Godhead lies in the forthputting
along with
other attributes
of His goodness
love
and mercy? The minnow plays in the
shallow pool
and leviathan cleaves the depths of ocean; winged insects sport
in the sunbeam
and winged angels sing before the throne; but whether we fix
our attention on His least or greatest works
the whole fabric of creation
seems to prove that Jehovah delights in the evolution of His powers
in the
display of wisdom and love and goodness; and
just as it is to the delight
which God enjoys in the exercise of these that we owe creation
with all its bounties
so is it to his delight in the exercise of pity
love
and mercy that we owe
salvation
with all its blessings. Let us be both humble and thankful.
Salvation is finished. Salvation is offered
freely offered. Shall it be
rejected? Oh
take the good
and give God the glory. Say
He is the God of
Salvation; and in His name we will set up our banners. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
Man an object of Divine
mercy
I. The doctrine
that God is not moved to save man by any merit or worth in him is a truth of
the highest importance to sinners. Like the rough and stern Baptist
it
prepares the way for Christ. We must be emptied of self before we can be filled
with grace; we must be stripped of our rags before we can be clothed with
righteousness; we must be unclothed
that we may be clothed upon; wounded
that
we may be healed; killed
that we may be made alive; buried in disgrace
that
we may rise in holy glory.
1. To tell man that he has no merit is no doubt a humbling statement.
It lays the loftiest
self-sufficient sinner in the dust. Yes
this doctrine
like death
is the true leveller. It puts all men on the same platform before a
holy God. It sets crowned kings as low as beggars
honest men with rogues and
thieves
and the strictest virtue
virtue which the breath of suspicion never
sullied
alongside of base and brazen-faced iniquity. God pronounces our
righteousness--observe
not our wickednesses
but our devotions
our charities
our costliest sacrifices
our most applauded services--to be filthy rags. Trust
not therefore to them. What man in his senses would think of going to court in
rags
in rags to wait upon a king? Nor think that the righteousness of the
Cross was wrought to patch up these; to supplement
as some say
what is either
defective or altogether awanting in our personal merits. Nor fancy
like some
who would embrace a Saviour and yet keep their sins
that you may wear these
rags beneath His righteousness. God says of every sinner whom Faith has
conducted to Jesus
Take away the filthy garments from him
“Behold I have
caused thine iniquity to pass from thee
and I will clothe thee with change of
raiment.”
2. If this doctrine is humbling to human pride
it is full of
encouragement to the lowly penitent. It lays me low in the dust
but it is to
lift me up. It throws me on the ground
that
like Antaeus
the giant of fable
I may rise stronger than I fell.
II. It is as
important for the saint as for the sinner to remember that he is not saved
through personal merit
or for his own sake. When age has gnarled its bark and
stiffened every fibre
if
turning that to the right hand which had grown to
the left
or raising a bough to the skies which had drooped to the ground
you
bend a branch in a new direction
it long retains a tendency to resume its old
position. Even so
when God has laid His gracious hand upon us
and given this
earthly soul a heavenward bent
how prone it is to start back again! Of this
sad truth
David and Peter are memorable and dreadful examples. And who that
has attempted to keep his heart with diligence has not felt
and mourned over
the old tendency to be working out a righteousness of his own
to be pleased
with himself
and
by taking some satisfaction in his own merits
to undervalue
those of Christ? So was it with that godly man who
on one occasion--most rare
achievement!--offered up a prayer without one wandering thought; and afterwards
described it as the worst which he had ever offered
because
as he said
the
devil made him proud of it. So was it also with the minister who
upon being
told by one
more ready to praise the preacher than profit by the sermon
that
he had delivered an excellent discourse
replied
You need not tell me that;
Satan told me so before I left the pulpit. Ah! it were well for the best of us
that we could say with Paul
We are not ignorant of his devices. Oh
it is
needful for the holiest to remember that man’s best works are bad at the best;
and that
to use the words of Paul
it is not by works of righteousness that we
have done
but according to His mercy He hath saved us
through the washing of
regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
III. This doctrine
while it keeps the saint humble
will help to make him holy. Here no ornament
to park or garden
stands a dwarfed
stunted
bark-bound tree. How am I to
develop that stem into tall and graceful beauty
to clothe with blossoms these
naked branches
and hang them
till they bend
with clustered fruit? You cannot
make that tree grow upwards till you break the crust below
pulverise the hard
subsoil
and give the roots room and way to strike deeper down; for the deeper
the root
and the wider spread the fine filaments of its rootlets
the higher
the tree lifts an umbrageous head to heaven
and throws out its hundred arms to
catch
in dews
raindrops
and sunbeams
the blessings of the sky. The
believer
in respect of character
a tree of righteousness of the Lord’s
planting; in respect of strength
a cedar of Lebanon; in respect of
fruitfulness
an olive; in respect of position
a palm tree planted in the
courts of God’s house; in respect of full supplies of grace
a tree by the
rivers of water
which yieldeth its fruit in its season
and whose leaf cloth
not wither--offers this analogy between grace and nature
that as the tree
grows best skyward that grows most downward
the lower the saint descends in
humility the higher he rises in holiness. The soaring corresponds to the
sinking. We have wondered at the lowliness of one who stood among his tallest
compeers like Saul among the people; wondered to find him simple
gentle
generous
docile
humble as a little child
till we found that it was with
great men as with great trees. What giant tree has not giant roots? When the
tempest has blown over some monarch of the forest
and he lies in death
stretched out at his full length upon the ground
on seeing the mighty roots
that fed him
the strong cables that moored him to the soil
we cease to wonder
at his noble stem
and the broad
leafy
lofty head he raised to heaven
defiant of storms. Even so
when death has struck down some distinguished
saint
whose removal
like that of a great tree
leaves a vast gap below
and
whom
brought down now
as it were
to our own level
we can measure better
when he has fallen than when he stood
and when the funeral is over and his
repositories are opened
and the secrets of his heart are unlocked and brought
to light
ah! now
in the profound humility they reveal
in the spectacle of
that honoured grey head laid so low in the dust before God
we see the great
roots and strength of his lofty piety. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
The conversion of Israel
1. The first point to be noticed
and the one most characteristic of
Ezekiel
is the Divine motive for the redemption of Israel--Jehovah’s regard
for His own name. The name of God is that by which He is known amongst men. It
is more than His honour or reputation
although that is included in it
according to Hebrew idiom; it is the expression of His character or His
personality. To act for His name’s sake
therefore
is to act so that His true
character may be more fully revealed
and so that men’s thoughts of Him may
more truly correspond to that which in Himself He is. What is meant to be
excluded by the expression not for your sakes All that it necessarily implies
is
not for any good that I find in you. It is a protest against the idea of
Pharisaic self-righteousness that a man may have a legal claim upon God through
his own merits. The truth here taught is
in theological language
the
sovereignty of the Divine grace. A profound sense of human sinfulness will
always throw the mind back on the idea of God as the one immovable ground of
confidence in the ultimate redemption of the individual and the world. When the
doctrine is pressed to the conclusion that God saves men in spite of themselves
and merely to display His power over them
it becomes false and pernicious
and
indeed
self-contradictory. But so long as we hold fast to the truth that
God is love
and that the glory of God is the manifestation of His love
the
doctrine of the Divine sovereignty only expresses the unchangeableness of that
love and its final victory over the sin of the world.
2. The intellectual side of the conversion of Israel is the
acceptance of that idea of God which to the prophet is summed up in the name of
Jehovah. This is expressed in the standing formula which denotes the effect of
all God’s dealings with men--“They shall know that I am Jehovah.” The prophet
here regards conversion as a process wholly carried through by the operation of
Jehovah on the mind of the people; and what we have next to consider is the
steps by which this great end is accomplished. They are these two--forgiveness
and regeneration.
3. The forgiveness of sins is denoted by the symbol of sprinkling
with clean water. But it must not be supposed that this isolated figure is the
only form in which the doctrine appears in Ezekiel’s exposition of the process
of salvation. On the contrary
forgiveness is the fundamental assumption of the
whole argument
and is present in every promise of future blessedness to the
people. For the Old Testament idea of forgiveness is extremely simple
resting
as it does on the analogy of forgiveness in human life. The spiritual fact
which constitutes the essence of forgiveness is the change in Jehovah’s disposition
towards His people
which is manifested by the renewal of those indispensable
conditions of national well-being which in His anger He had taken away. The
restoration of Israel to its own land is thus not simply a token of
forgiveness
but the act of forgiveness itself
and the only form in which the
fact could be realised in the experience of the nation. In this sense the whole
of Ezekiel’s predictions of the Messianic deliverance and the glories that
follow it are one continuous promise of forgiveness
setting forth the truth
that Jehovah’s love to His people persists in spite of their sin
and works
victoriously for their redemption and restoration to the full enjoyment of His
favour. In urging individuals to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of God
he makes repentance a necessary condition of entering it; but in describing the
whole process of salvation as the work of God he makes contrition for sin the
result of reflection on the goodness of Jehovah already experienced in the
peaceful occupation of the land of Canaan.
4. The idea of regeneration is very prominent in Ezekiel’s teaching.
5. Note the two-fold effect of these operations of Jehovah’s grace in
the religious and moral condition of the nation.
6. This outline of the prophet’s conception of salvation illustrates
the truth of the remark that Ezekiel is the first dogmatic theologian. Although
the final remedy for the sin of the world had not yet been revealed
the scheme
of redemption disclosed to Ezekiel agrees with much of the teaching of the New
Testament regarding the effects of the work of Christ on the individual. (John
Skinner
M. A.)
Verse 23
I will sanctify My great
name.
God glorified in redemption
Passing over the special
application of these words to the Jews
and looking at them in their
prophetical connection with the scheme of redemption
I remark--
I. That God might
have vindicated His honour and sanctified His name in our destruction. Two
methods of glorifying His name are open to God. He is free to choose either;
but by the one or the other way He will exact His full tale of glory from every
man. In Egypt
for instance
He was glorified in the high-handed destruction of
His enemies; and glorified also in the same land by the high-handed salvation
of His people. In the one case He proved how strong His arm was to smite
and
in the other how strong it was to save. In like manner God sanctified His name
on the plains of Sodom
sanctifying it
on the one hand
in the destruction of
His enemies
and on the other
in the preservation of Lot. Since there are two
ways open to God
by either of which He may sanctify His great name
He might
therefore
at the fall
have vindicated His justice by swift and unsparing
vengeance
by destroying the whole human family. What unsparing vengeance did
He execute on the fallen angels! Of these there was no wreck or remnant saved.
Not one escaped. No ark floated on the waters to which
like Noah’s dove
a flying
angel
pursued by wrath
might turn his weary wing. Can it be doubted that the
measure meted out to fallen angels
God might have meted out to fallen
men?--sanctifying His great name in our ruin rather than in our redemption.
Now
before I show how He sanctifies Himself in the redemption of His people
let me warn you
that what God might have done with all
He shall do with some;
certainly do with all those who despise and reject
or even neglect salvation.
This day I set before you life and death. Will you do His will in heaven
or
suffer it in hell?
II. God sanctifies
His name and glorifies Himself in our redemption. It is easy to destroy
to
inflict irreparable injury on character
virtue
life. Falling with murderous
strokes on yonder noble tree
the woodman’s axe demolishes in a few hours what
it has required the springs and summers
the dews and showers and sunbeams of
centuries to raise. It is both more difficult and more noble to repair than to
destroy. In this material body man destroys what God only can make; but in this
more precious and immortal soul
Satan destroys what God only can save. It
needs but a devil to ruin a human spirit; it needs Divinity to redeem it.
Excepting
of course
the preacher’s--for with Paul we magnify our office--of all
earthly employments it appears to me that the physician’s is the noblest; and
that of all arts the healing art is the highest
offering to genius and
benevolence their noblest field. In the eye of reason
and of a humanity that
weeps over a suffering world
his is surely the nobler vocation
and if not
more honoured
the more honourable calling
who sheds blood not to kill
but
cure; who wounds
not that the bleeding may die
but live; and whose genius
ransacks earth and ocean in search of means to preserve life
to remove
deformity
to repair decay
to invigorate failing powers
and restore the rose
of health to pallid cheeks. His aim is not to inflict pain
but relieve it; not
to destroy a father
but
boldly standing between him and death
to save an anxious
wife from widowhood
and these little children from an orphan’s lot. And if
although they be woven around no coronet
those are fairer and fresher laurels
which are won by saving than by slaying
if it is a nobler thing to rescue life
than destroy it
even when its destruction is an act of justice
then
on the
same principle
God most glorified Himself when revealed in the flesh
and
speaking by His Son
He descended on a guilty world; His purpose this
I came
not to judge the world
but to save it; and this His character
the Lord God
merciful and gracious
long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth.
I. His power is
glorified in the work of salvation. The path of redemption is marked
and its
pages are crowded with stupendous miracles. At one time God stays the waves of
the sea; at another He stops the wheels of the sun; and now
reversing the
machinery of heaven to confirm His Word
He makes the shadow travel backwards
on the dial of Ahaz. Heaven descends to earth
and its exalted inhabitants
mingling with men
walk the stage of redemption. But to glance at the change
wrought by redemption on man himself
what amazing power does it display! What
a glorious combination of benevolence and omnipotence! Punishment is
confessedly easier than reformation. Nothing is more easy than
by the hand of
an executioner
to rid society of a criminal; but to soften his stony heart
to
turn his steps from the paths of crime
to wean him from vice
to get him to
fall in love with virtue
to make the cunning rogue
the brutal ruffian
an
honest
high-minded
kind
and tender man--ah! that is another thing. Hence
among politicians callous of heart
and deaf to the groans of suffering
humanity
the preference given to prisons over schools
to punishment over prevention.
Well
then
since it is confessedly easier--easier
but not better
nor
cheaper--to punish than reform
I say that God’s power is more illustriously
displayed in pardoning one guilty
in purifying one polluted man
than if the
law had been left to take her sternest course
and bury our entire family in
the ruins of the fall. The power of divinity culminates in grace. Oh
that we
also may be made its monuments
built up by the hands of an eternal Spirit to
the memory and glory of the Cross!
II. His wisdom is
glorified in redemption. That work associates such transcendent wisdom with
love
power
and mercy that the Saviour of man is called the wisdom of God. The
apostle selects the definite article
and pronounces Christ to be “the power of
God and the wisdom of God.” Nor can the propriety of the language be doubted
if we reflect but for a moment on what a hard task Wisdom was set
what a
difficult problem she was called to solve
when man was to be saved. She had to
forge a key that could unlock the grave; she had to build a lifeboat that could
swim in a sea of fire; he had to construct a ladder long enough to scale the
skies; she had to invent a plan whereby justice might be fully satisfied
and
yet the guilty saved. The mystery of godliness
God manifest in the flesh
a
“daysman” such as the patriarch desired
with the right hand of divinity to lay
on God
and the left hand of humanity to lay on man
and thus the “fellow” and
friend of both
to reconcile the estranged; in short
a man to suffer and a God
to satisfy
this was a thought which it never entered the noblest minds to
conceive. We find nothing corresponding to it
nor guess nor glimmering of it
in the creeds and religions of a heathen world. Every way but the right one was
thought of.
III. His holiness is
glorified in redemption. What saith the prophet? Thou art of purer eyes than to
behold evil
and canst not look on iniquity. Nothing might appear more strongly
to express the holiness of God than this language
Thou canst not look on iniquity;
and yet His hatred of sin is more fully illustrated
and much more strongly
expressed by the very way in which He saves the sinner; more fully expressed
than if
relentless
executing vengeance with an eye that knew no pity
and
with a hand that would not spare
He had made an utter end of sinners; such an
end that
to borrow the language of the prophet
there was none that moved the
wing
or opened the mouth
or peeped. What man
being a father
has not felt
this on reading the story of the Roman who pronounced sentence of death upon
his own son? Had that sternest of patriots condemned common criminals enough to
make the scaffolds of justice and the gutters of Rome run red with blood
such
wholesale slaughter had been a feeble expression of his abhorrence of crime
compared with the death of this solitary youth. When the culprit
his own
child
the infant he had carried in his arms
the once sweet and beautiful boy
who had wound himself round a father’s heart
rose to receive the immolating
sentence at a father’s lips
that man offered the greatest
costliest sacrifice
ever made at the shrine of justice
and earned for Roman virtue a proverbial
fame. But that is nothing to the spectacle which redemption offers. The Son of
God dies beneath His Father’s hand. Innocence bleed for guilt; Divine innocence
for human guilt.
IV. His justice is
glorified in redemption. The prophet
addressing God
says
Thou art of purer
eyes than to behold evil; but then
as one perplexed
unable to reconcile the
attributes of God’s character with the dealings of His Providence
he asks
Wherefore lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously
and holdest Thy
tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? This
question implies that clouds and darkness are round about Jehovah’s throne.
Still
whatever mysterious shadow present events may seem to cast upon His
justice
and to whatever trial
as in the wrongs of a Joseph or David
faith
may be put
in believing that there is a just God upon earth
His justice appears
as conspicuous in redemption as was the Cross
which illustrated that justice
to the crowd on Calvary. Sinners
indeed
are pardoned
but then
their sins
are punished; the guilty are acquitted
but then
their guilt is condemned; the
sinner lives
but then
the surety dies; the debtor is discharged
but not till
the debt is paid.
V. His mercy is
glorified in redemption. To do justice to God
to the Saviour
and to our
subject
we must be careful to distinguish between pity and mercy. The poor old
man
into whose trembling hand you drop your alms as he begs his way onward to
a grave
where
his head sheltered beneath the sod
he shall feel neither cold
nor hunger
appeals to your compassion
not to your mercy. He has done you no
wrong. He has not stolen your goods
nor traduced your character
nor inflicted
injury on your person
nor in any way whatever disturbed your peace; and so it
is only pity that walks forth in the charity which shares its bread with the
hungry
and spares a corner of an ample cloak to cover the nakedness of the
poor. Mercy is a higher attribute; an act of mercy is a far nobler achievement.
She sits enthroned among the Graces. On her heavenly wings man rises to his
loftiest elevation
makes his nearest approach and closest similitude to God.
This distinction between compassion and mercy is clearly enunciated in the
sacred Scriptures. We are told that like as a father pitieth his children
so
the Lord pitieth them that fear Him; bat the Lord is merciful to them that fear
Him not. He so loved the world as to give up His Son to die for it; but more
than that
He commended His love to us
in that
while we were yet sinners
Christ died for us. We pity simple suffering; but let pity and love be extended
to guilty suffering
and you have now the very element and heavenly essence of
mercy. Mercy is the forgiveness of an injury. Pity relieves a sufferer
but
mercy pardons a sinner. Now
understanding mercy to be the forgiveness of a
wrong
the pardon of a sinner
the kindness of the injured to the injurer
where
I ask
as in redemption
where but in redemption
is this crowning
attribute of the Godhead to be seen?
VI. In redemption
God is glorified in the complete discomfiture of all His and our enemies.
1. He is glorified by Satan’s defeat. Observe yonder skilful
wrestler! He embraces his antagonist
and
lifting him from the ground with the
power of an athlete
he holds him aloft. Ah! he raises
but to dash him back on
the earth with a heavier fall. So fared it with the Evil One. God permits him
to push on his sap and mine
to scale the walls
to carry the citadel by
assault
and plant for a time his defiant standard on the battlements of this
world
just that from his
proud eminence He may hurl Satan into a deeper hell;
and
angels rejoicing in man’s salvation
and devils discomfited in their
leader’s defeat
both friends and foes might be constrained to say
Hast thou
an arm like God
or canst thou thunder with a voice like His!
2. While God is glorified by Satan’s defeat
He is glorified also by
the very time and manner of it. Here are no marks of haste. Not for four days
nor even four years
but for the long-drawn out period of four thousand years
Satan holds all but undisturbed possession of his conquest. God leaves the
invader ample time to entrench himself; to found
to strengthen
to establish
to extend his kingdom. And why? bat that a Redeemer’s power might appear the
more triumphant in its ignominious
and more complete in its total overthrow.
3. God is not only glorified in Satan’s defeat
and also in the time
and manner of it
but preeminently glorified in the instrument of it. Man
falls; the world is lost; Satan triumphs. And how does God pluck the victory
from his hands? He might have hurled thunderbolts at his audacious head.
Summoning the forces of heaven
He might have overwhelmed this enemy
and borne
him back to hell by legions of embattled angels. Not thus is the Prince of
Darkness defeated. He is met and mastered by a solitary man. Out of the mouth
of a babe and suckling God ordaineth strength
and by the heel of a man of
sorrows He crushes the Serpent’s head. A son of man is the saviour of his race;
a brother rises up in the house of exile to redeem his brethren; a conqueror is
born in the conquered family. Never was tide of battle so strangely
completely
triumphantly turned. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
Verse 24
I will take you from among the heathen.
The benefits flowing from redemption
I. In carrying out
the work of redemption God will call His people out of the world. “I will take
you from among the heathen.” By nature His people are no better than other
people. They were no better till grace made them so. Here are two children.
They were born of one mother; nestled in one loving bosom; rocked in one
cradle; baptized in one font. Reared under the same roof
they grew up under
the same training; sat under the same ministry; and
in death not divided
are
sleeping now
where their dust mingles in a common grave. But the one is taken
and the other left. This
a child of God
ascends to heaven; the other
alas!
is lost. Mysterious fate! Yet who dare challenge the justice and decree of God?
By nature this whole world is sunk in sin
and in a sense all men are
idolaters. The Hindu reckons his divinities by thousands and tens of thousands;
yet the world has a larger Pantheon; as many gods as it has objects
be they
innocent or guilty
which usurp the place of Jehovah
and dethrone Him in the creature’s
heart. Nor are men less idolaters if drunkards
though they pour out no
libation to Bacchus
the god of wine; nor less idolaters
if impure
that they
burn no incense at the shrine of Venus; nor less idolaters
if lovers of
wealth
that they do not mould their gold into an image of Plutus
and
giving
a shrine to what lies hoarded in their coffers
offer it their morning and
evening prayers. It may therefore be justly said of all who have been converted
by the grace of God
that He has taken them from among the heathen.
II. The power of
Divine grace is strikingly displayed in this effectual calling. It is a
remarkable fact that
while the baser metals are often diffused through the
body of the rocks
gold and silver lie in veins
collected together in distinct
metallic masses. They are in the rocks
but not of the rocks. Some believe that
there was a time
long gone by
when
like other metals
these lay in intimate
union with the mass of rock
until by virtue of some electric agency
their
scattered atoms were put in motion
and
made to pass through the solid stone
were aggregated in those shining veins
where they now lie to the miner’s hand.
These precious metals are the emblems of God’s people. And as by some power in
nature God has separated them from the base and common earths
even so by the
power of His grace will He separate His chosen from a reprobate and rejected
world. They shall come at His call. It is in a state of deep
ungodliness--without God
without the love of God
without holiness
without
purity of heart
without solid peace of conscience--that grace finds all it
saves. It is indeed amazing to see what grace will do
and where grace will
grow; in what unlikely places God has His people
and out of what unfavourable
circumstances He calls them. I have seen a tree proudly crowning the summit of
a naked rock; and there
sending its roots out over the bare stone
and down
into every cranny in search of food
it stood securely anchored by these
moorings to the stormy crag. I have wondered how it could grow up there
starved on the bare rock
and how it had survived the rough
unkindly nursing
of many a wintry blast. Yet
like some neglected
ragged child
who from early
infancy has been familiar with adversities
it has lived and grown; it has
stood erect on its weather-beaten crag when the pride of the valley has bent to
the storm; and
like brave men
who
scorning to yield
nail their colours to
the mast
there it maintains its defiant position
and keeps its green flag
waving on nature’s rugged battlements. More wonderful still is it to see where
the grace of God will live and grow. “Never despair” should be the motto of the
Christian; and how ought it to keep hope alive under the darkest and most
desponding circumstances
to see God calling grace out of the foulest sin! Look
at this cold creeping worm! Playful childhood shrinks shuddering from its slimy
touch; yet a few weeks
and with merry laugh and feet that press the flowery
meadow that same childhood is hunting an insect which never alights upon the
ground
but
flitting in painted beauty from flower to flower
drinks honeyed
nectar from their fairy cups
and sleeps the short summer night away in the
bosom of their perfumes. If that is the same boy
this is no less the self-same
creature. Change most wonderful! yet but an imperfect emblem of the Divine
transformation wrought on those who are transformed by the renewing of their
minds. Glorious change! Have you experienced its Divine gracious influences?
III. God will make
up the number of His people. “I will gather you out of all countries.” There
are some pleasant gatherings in this world which are alloyed with pain.
Christmas
the New Year
or a birthday time comes round
summoning the members
of a scattered family. Some are dead and gone--“Joseph is not
and Simeon is
not”; and a dark cloud hangs on a mother’s brow
as on the cheek of yet another
her anxious eye
quick to see
discovers an ominous spot that threatens “to
take Benjamin away.” There is a gathering also when
at the close of a
hard-fought day
the roll of the regiment is called
and to familiar names
there comes no answer back. They shall answer no trumpet but that which calls a
world to judgment. When daylight breaks on the shore and the shipwreck
there
is also a mustering and reckoning of numbers. There
a mother clasps and kisses
the living babe which the waves had plucked from her arms
and she never hoped
more to see; and here
a true brother cheers up the boy whom he held in a grasp
strong as death
while
with the other hand buffeting the billows
he bore him
safely to the beach. But many
less fortunate
are wringing their hands in the
wildness of unavailing grief. Flying from group to group
distracted mother’s
cry
Where is my child? These are mournful mutterings. In striking contrast to
them look at the gathering in that land-locked creek on Melita’s shore:--It was
a frightful storm; the coast is unknown; the ship
run ashore
grounds in deep
water with nigh three hundred souls on board. “Some on boards
and some on
broken pieces of the ship”; but
by whatever way it came to pass
it did come
to pass
as the narrative tells
“they escaped all safe to land.” Even so shall
it be with those of whom Jesus says
I give unto them eternal life
and they
shall never perish. My Father that gave them Me is greater than all
and no man
is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. Happy those who sail in the
ship
and have embarked in the same good cause with Christ. The Lord knoweth
them that are His; and all that His Father hath given Him He shall keep. But my
text tells us not only that He will gather His people
but gather them out of
all countries. Let those mark that who
indulging an extravagant patriotism
or
shrivelled up in the cold and contracted spirit of bigotry
allow themselves to
limit the Holy One of Israel
and say with the Jews of old
We have Abraham to
our father
we are the people of the Lord; the temple of the Lord are we. God
has people both where we look not for them
and know not of them. The Gospel is
indigenous in no country
and yet belongs to all. Every sea is not paved with
pearl shelves; nor does every soil grow vines and stately palms; nor does every
mine sparkle with precious gems; nor do the streams of every land roll their
waters over gold-glittering sands. These symbols of grace have a narrow range;
not grace itself. She owns no lines of latitude or longitude. All climates are
one to her. She wears no party badge; and belongs neither to caste
nor class
nor colour. With this truth
as by a zone of love
elastic enough to stretch
round the globe
we would bind together the whole family of man. Let it awaken
in Christian hearts an interest in every land
and an affection for every race.
IV. We are assured
that God will bring all His people to glory
by the fact that His own honour
as well as their welfare
is concerned in the matter. When I think of the sins
to be forgiven
and the difficulties to be overcome
the wonder seems
not that
few reach heaven
but that any get there. We have read the story of voyages
during which for nights the weary and storm-tossed sailors enjoyed no sleep
and for days saw no sun. Lying at one time becalmed beneath a fiery sky
at
another time shivering amid fields of ice; here with sunken rocks around them
and treacherous currents there sweeping them on dangerous reefs
exposed to
sudden squalls
long dark nights
and fearful tempests
the wonder was that
their battered ship ever reached her port. Some while ago a vessel entered one
of our western harbours
and all the town went out to see her. Well they might.
She had left the American shore with a large and able-bodied crew. They have
hardly lost sight of land when the pestilence boards them; victim drops after
victim; another and another is committed to the deep: from deck to deck
from
yard to yard
she pursues her prey; nor spreads her wings to leave that
ill-fated ship till but two survive to work her over the broad waters of a
wintry sea. And when
with providence at the helm
these two men
worn by toil and
watching to ghastly skeletons
have brought their bark to land
and now kiss
once more the wives and little ones they never thought more to see
and step
once more on a green earth they never more hoped to touch
thousands throng the
pier to see the sight
and hear the adventures of a voyage brought to such a
happy issue against such dreadful odds. Yet there is never a bark drops anchor
in heaven
nor a weary voyager steps out on its welcome strand
but is a
greater wonder. Save for the assurance that what God hath begun He will finish
but for the promise that what concerns His people He will perfect
oh
how
often would our hope of final blessedness expire! To compare small things with
great
our heavenward journey
with its dangers and changes
has sometimes
appeared to me like that of a passenger to our own lovely
romantic city. On
these iron roads he now rolls along rich and fertile plains; now
raised to a
dangerous and dizzy height
he flies across intervening valleys; now he rushes
through a narrow gorge excavated in the solid rock
with nothing seen but
heaven; now
plunging into the earth
he dashes into some gaping cavern
and
for a while loses sight even of heaven itself; then again he sweeps forth and
on in sunshine
till the domes and towers and temples of the city burst upon
his view; and
these now near at hand
he concludes his journey by passing
through an emblem of death. Entering a gloomy arch
he advances slowly and in
darkness through a place of graves
and then all of a sudden emerges into day
to feast his eyes on the glorious scenery
and receive the kind welcomes and
congratulations of waiting friends
as he finds himself safe “in the midst of
the city.” (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
Then will I sprinkle clean
water upon you.
The new heart
All God’s bestowal of good
must begin with cleansing. The black barrier of sin lies across the stream
and
before His full goodness can reach us it must be broken and swept away.
Experience teaches us that not only is sin the direct cause of many of our
sorrows
but that it so clogs the heart that it keeps God’s love out
like an
iron shutter which excludes the sunshine. Our deepest need
then
is to be
delivered from sin
and all attempts to banish human sorrow which do not begin
with grappling with sin must fail
as they have failed. They are like
physicians who treat a patient for pimples when he is dying of cancer. To
sprinkle clean water upon a person or thing which had become unclean by
touching a dead body was part of the Mosaic ritual. That practice is probably
the source of Ezekiel’s metaphor
as his priestly descent would familiarise him
with it. In any case
the substance of the Divine promise is cleansing
and we
must not narrow it down to forgiveness only. The difference between that first
washing with clean water and the subsequent gift of a new heart and spirit is
not so much that the one promises pardon and the other sanctifying
as that the
one is mainly negative--the removal of sin
both in regard to its guilt and its
tyranny; and the other is positive--the giving of a new nature. Forgiveness
never comes alone
but hand in hand with its twin sister
purity. And such
double cleansing “from its guilt and power” is a Divine prerogative. But more
is needed than even these blessings. The past having been thus dealt with
the
future remains to be provided for. Therefore the prophet holds forth a still
brighter hope
and comes still nearer to the very heart of New Testament
teaching
in his assurance of the gift of a new life’s centre and power
a
“heart of flesh
” from which shall come issues of a God-pleasing and
God-inspired life. Two forces act on us all
and our sensitiveness to the one
measures our non-sensitiveness to the other. Either we are “flesh” towards God
and “stone” towards the world
impressible by and yielding to Him
and
unaffected by earth’s temptations
or our hearts are soft and weak as flesh
towards them
and hard as the nether millstone towards God. But Ezekiel was
given a glimpse into still deeper and more wonderful abysses of God’s givings
when he learned that the new spirit to be given was “My Spirit.” Ezekiel may
not have had any conscious dogma about the Spirit of God
but he had been
taught by that Spirit at least this much--the possibility of a Divine spirit
entering into a human spirit
and being there the motive power. We know more
than he did. Do we feel as deeply as he felt
that the only way by which our
spirits can be kept pure
and give forth pure streams
is by God’s Spirit being
within us? But what is the end of all these Divine gifts? A life of obedience.
We are forgiven
cleansed
made sensitive to God’s touch
inspired with His
Spirit
for this purpose most chiefly
that we may shape our lives by His will.
Not a correct creed
not blessed emotions
but a life which runs parallel with
God’s will
should be the outcome of our religion. The result of obedience is
abundance (verses 28-30). If there were anywhere a nation of people all
obedient to God’s laws
no doubt it would be exempt from most of the ills that
afflict our modern so-called civilisation. Suppose one of our great cities
inhabited only by God-fearing men living by His law
most of the evils that make
the scandal of our national profession of Christianity would die out
like a
fire unfed by fuel. And if
individually
we ordered our footsteps by God’s
word
we should find that even the rough ways became ways of pleasantness. It
is forever true that “godliness” hath “promise of the life that now is
” even
though its promise may not always be what the world calls “good.” The result of
these lavish blessings within and without is deepened sense of unworthiness.
The penitence that springs from experience of God’s love is far deeper than
that which rises from dread of His wrath. When all fear of penal consequences
is gone
and a new standard of judging ourselves is set up within by the
indwelling Spirit
and when a flood of blessings has been poured on us
then we
see
as never before
the sinfulness of sin against such a God. The higher a
true Christian goes
the lower he lies. The more sure we are that God has
forgiven us
the less can we forgive ourselves. The holiness and prosperity of
the renewed Israel will reveal God to the world. The lives of men and
communities
who are cleansed and blessed by God
proclaim Him to the world in
His character of being able and willing to repair all the desolation of
humanity
and build up our ruined nature in fairer shapes. Christian lives
should be illustrated copies of the Gospel. Gardeners pick out their best
plants for flower shows; would the great Gardener select us as specimens of
what He can do? If not
it is not because His gift has been withheld
but
because we have not taken
or not used
“the things that are freely given to us
of God.” (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Man justified
I intend to set forth the
means by which He
who is most willing to save sinners
accomplishes His
generous and gracious purpose. I am now to show you that famous breach by which
the soldiers of the Cross
pressing on behind their Captain
with banners
flying and sword in hand
have taken the kingdom
and
trampling under foot the
powers of sin
have entered heaven as by a holy violence.
I. God’s people
are not chosen because they are holy. They are chosen that they may become
holy
not because they have become so. It is after God elects that he
justifies
as it is after He has justified that He sanctifies. This stands out
very visibly in the terms of the text
“then will I sprinkle clean water upon
you.” We do not hold good works cheap. We say that by them God is glorified; by
them faith is justified; by them on the great day of judgment shall you
and I
and every man be tried. You are not to be justified by works
yet you are to be
judged by works; the rule of that day being this--The tree is known by his
fruit
and every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast
into the fire. The most important results often depend on the right adjustment
of place and position. What a monster in nature
how hideous of aspect
and
happily how brief its existence
were that body which should have its organs
and members so arranged
that the hands occupied the place of the feet
and the
heart palpitated in the cavity of the brain! And who
besides
does not know
that the fruitfulness
the beauty
the very life of a tree depends not only on
its having both roots and branches
but on these members being placed in their
natural order? Well
if the order established in nature is of such consequence
I can confidently affirm that it is of as much consequence to abide by the
order established in the kingdom of grace. It is not enough that you hold right
doctrines
nay
hold all the doctrines. Each right doctrine must be in its own
right place. Are any of you attempting to make yourselves more pure and more
penitent
that you may get up some claim to Divine mercy? In that you are
trying to weave ropes of sand; and he who has set you to a task so impracticable
knows right well that by and by you will abandon it in despair; and then
perhaps
returning to your old sins
like a drunkard to his cups after an
irksome season of sobriety
you shall furnish but another illustration of the
saying
The last state of that man is worse than the first. I would endeavour
to disabuse your minds of so great an error. For that purpose let me borrow an
illustration from such an asylum as a ragged school. That institution
like the
Gospel that it teaches
opens its loving arms to the outcast
and seeks to
train up to God the poor
perishing children whom its piety and pity have
adopted. On entering these blessed doors
the only gate of hope to many
your
attention is caught by a child
who is supported thereby the bounty of some
generous Christian. The boy now can spell his way through the Bible
once a
sealed book to him; now he knows the name
and in tones that have melted our
heart he now sings sweetly of a Saviour who said
Suffer little children to
come unto Me
for of such is the kingdom of heaven. These little hands are now
skilful to weave the net
or ply the shuttle
which once were alert only to
steal
or held out in pitiful emaciation for oft-denied charity. And now there
is such sharp intelligence in his once languid eye
and such an open air of
honesty in his beaming face
and such attention to cleanliness in his dress and
person
and such buoyancy in his whole bearing
as if hope hailed a bright
future for him
that these bespeak your favour. But were these the child’s
passport to this asylum? Do you suppose that
when he wandered an outcast in
the winter streets
shoeless among the snow
shivering in the cold
it was what
now so interests you that caught the eye of pity? If you suppose that to these
habits and accomplishments
acquired under a parental roof the child owed his
adoption
how great is your mistake! This were to turn things upside down. He
was adopted
not for the sake of these
but notwithstanding the want of them.
It was his wretchedness that saved him. The clean hands and rosy cheek and eye
lighted up with intelligence and decent habits and useful arts and Bible
knowledge and all which now wins your regard
are the consequences of his
adoption. They never were nor could be its cause Even so it is with holy habits
and a holy heart in the matter of redemption; Ye have not chosen Me
lint I
have chosen you
says God. Blessed truth!
II. In redemption
the saved are not justified by themselves
but by God. This is no recondite
truth
one which we need to dig or dive for. The pearl lies in the hidden
depths of the sea
but gold commonly near the surface of the earth; and like
that precious ore gleaming from the naked rock
this truth shines on the face
of my text. A child’s eye can catch it there and a child’s mind comprehend it.
For how is a sinner made clean? but through the application of what is here
called clean water; and by whom
according to the text
is that water applied?
It is applied to the sinner
but not by the sinner. Observe what happens when the
cry rises at sea--A man overboard! With all on deck you rush to the side; and
leaning over the bulwarks
with beating heart you watch the place where the
rising air bells and boiling deep tell that he has gone down. Some moments of
breathless anxiety
and you see his head emerge from the wave. Now
that man
I
shall suppose
is no swimmer
he has never learned to breast the billows; yet
with the first breath he draws he begins to beat the water; with violent
efforts he attempts to shake off the grasp of death
and
by the play of limbs
and arms
keep his head from sinking. It may be that these struggles but
exhaust his strength
and sink him all the sooner; nevertheless
that drowning
one makes instinctive and convulsive efforts to save himself. So
when first
brought to feel and cry. “I perish
” when the horrible conviction rushes into
the soul that we are lost
when we feel ourselves going down beneath a load of
guilt into the depths of the wrath of God
our first effort is to save
ourselves. Like a drowning man
who clutches at straws and twigs
we seize on
anything
however worthless
that promises salvation. Thus
alas! many poor
souls toil and spend weary
unprofitable years in the attempt to establish a
righteousness of their own
and find in the deeds of the law a protection from
its curse. There was a time
no doubt
when man held his fortunes in his own
hand. That time is gone. Our power passed away with our purity. Impotence has
followed the loss of innocence
and nothing is left us but poverty and a proud
spirit. How few
who have been accustomed to a high position in society
are
able to reconcile themselves to a humble one! I have seen such an one
when he
had lost his wealth
retain his vanity
and continue proud in spirit even when
he had become poor in circumstances. So is it with us in our low and lost
estate. Spiritually poor
we are spiritually proud
saying
I am rich and
increased in goods
and have need of nothing
while we are wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked. Even when we are in some degree
sensible of our poverty
and know we cannot pay
like the unjust steward we are
ashamed to beg. Indulging a pride out of all keeping with filthy rags
we will
not stoop to stand at God’s door
poor mendicants
who ask for mercy. No. We
shall work out our own salvation
nor be beholden to another. Nor
ordinarily
till the sinner learns
by prolonged and painful and unsuccessful trials
that
he cannot be his own saviour
does this proud heart allow us to stand
suppliants at the gate of mercy; our plea for pardon not our own merits;
nothing
nothing whatever but a Saviour’s merits and a sinner’s misery. Yet
thus and there we must stand if we would be saved. Jesus is a Saviour of none
but the lost. Now
to bring us down to this humbling conviction
to draw from
our lips and hearts the cry
Lord
save me
I perish
God often leaves awakened
sinners to try their hand at working out their own salvation. God
in fact
deals with them as Jesus did with Simon Peter. Impetuous
self-satisfied
puffed
up with vanity
to parade his power and prove his superiority to the other
disciples
he will walk the sea. His Master allows him to try it. “Lord
save
me
I perish.” Painful but profitable lesson! His danger and failure have
taught him his weakness. Now
to such a state
and confession
all who are to
be saved must first be brought.
III. We are not
justified or cleansed from the guilt of sin through the administration or
efficacy of any outward ordinance. “I will sprinkle clean water upon you
and ye
shall be clean.” The question that we would urge on your most serious
consideration does not concern the sign
but the thing signified. If you have
got the living element
I care little
or nothing
through what church or by
what channel it may flow. Have you got the living grace of God? In the words of
an apostle
Have ye received the Holy Ghost?
IV. We are
justified
or cleansed from the guilt of sin
by the blood of Christ. “Without
the shedding of blood there is no remission”; and none
we may add
without its
application. Where do we find this doctrine in the text? By what process of
spiritual chemistry can this truth be extracted from it? There is water
and
clean water
and sprinkling of water
it maybe said
but no word of blood;
there is neither sign nor spot of blood upon the page
True
so it looks at
first sight; but without the hand of Moses we shall see this water turned into
blood. This at least is plain
that here
as elsewhere
water is but the sign
of spiritual blessings. And a most expressive symbol we shall find it
if we
but reflect on the important part that this element plays in the economy of
nature. The circulation of this fluid is to the world what that of blood is to
the body
or that of grace to the soul. It is its life. Withdraw it
and all
that lives would expire; forests
fields
beasts
man himself would die. This
world would become one vast grave; for water constitutes as much the life as
the beauty of the landscape; and it is true
both in a spiritual and in an
earthly sense
that the world lives because heaven weeps over it. It was
Christ’s choicest figure of Himself. Turning the eyes of thousands on His own
person
as on a perennial fountain
one never sealed by winter’s frost
nor
dried by summer suns
free
full
patent to all
He stood up on the last and
great day of the feast
and cried
If any man thirst
let him come unto Me and
drink. All the world use water for washing as well as drinking; and the
reference in the text is to that solvent power
by virtue of which it removes
impurities
turning white what is black
and cleansing whatever is foul. It
stands here
therefore
the figure of that which cleanses. The object to be
cleansed is the soul; the defilement to be cleansed away is sin; and we now
therefore address ourselves to the all-important question--Of what is this
water the figure? The key to that question lies in the epithet “clean” water.
The water is such as the Jews understood by clean water; not merely free from
impurity
and in itself clean
but that maketh clean; in the words of the
ceremonial law
“water of purifying.” This was prepared according to a divinely
appointed ritual. Look how it was prepared
and you shall see it reddening into
blood. Gathering the lowing herds from their different pastures
they sought up
and down among them
till a red heifer was found; red from head to tail
from
horn to hoof
mottled by no other colour
but all red; and one also on whose
free neck yoke of bondage had never lain. What was that heifer? Spotless and
separated from the common herd
she is a type of Him who was without spot or
blemish
holy
harmless
undefiled
and separate from sinners. With neck on
which yoke had never lain
she is a type of Him who said
The prince of this
world cometh
and he hath nothing in Me. Red in colour
she is a type of Him
whose feet were dipped in the blood of His enemies
and who
as seen by the
prophet on His way from Bozrah
was red in his apparel
travelling in the
greatness of His might. And what is this public procession
which conducts the
heifer without the camp
but a figure of the march to Calvary? And what is her
bloody death
but a type of that which Jesus suffered amid the agonies of the
Cross? And what are these fires that burn so fiercely
and consume the victim
but a flaming image of the wrath of God
under which His soul was withered like
grass? And what is the water mingled with this heifer’s ashes
but a type of
the righteousness
which
imputed by God
received by faith
and applied to
sinners
makes sinners just? For
as the Jew over whom that water was sprinkled
became ceremonially clean
so the guilt of original and actual sin
all guilt
is removed from him (much the happier man)
whom God sprinkles with the blood
of Jesus
and to whom sovereign mercy imputes a Saviour’s merits. (T.
Guthrie
D. D.)
Cleansing: a covenant
blessing
Sin
to the awakened
sinner
is his burden
his misery
his horror. It is a nightmare which haunts
him; he can never escape from it. Like David
he cries
“My sin is ever before
me.” Even when sin is forgiven
the memory of it often makes a man go softly
all his days. It is therefore a very blessed thought on the part of our God to
make the covenant to bear so much ripen our sin and our sinfulness
and
especially to make it open with this unconditional promise of infinite love
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you
” etc.
I. God begins to
deal with His people while they are yet in sin. He does not make promises of
purification to them upon condition that they cleanse themselves; but He comes
to them according to the riches of His grace
even when they are dead in
trespasses and sins. He finds them in all their defilement
rebellion
and
iniquity
and He deals with them just as they are. His grace stoops to the ruin
of the fall and lifts us up from it. If the covenant of grace did not deal with
sinners as sinners I should be afraid to come to Christ; but because it opens
its mouth wide to me while I am yet unclean and polluted by sin
I feel that it
meets my case. You may notice in the text
or gather it therefrom by clear
inference--that these people with whom God dealt were not only unclean
but
they could not cleanse themselves
lit Is a rule with miracles
as well
miracles of the Spirit as miracles of the body
that God never does what others
can do. Cleansing cannot come from any other place
therefore seek it of the
Lord
who says
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you
and ye shall be clean.”
If you go about through heaven
and earth
and hell
you shall find no other
detergent that shall take away sin but the precious blood of Jesus Christ the
Son of God. More than that
when God begins to deal with His people many of
them have a special filthiness. “From all your filthiness
and from all your
idols
will I cleanse you.” The heathen of old once reported that ours was the
religion of the most abandoned. They laughed at Christianity
for they said it
was like the building of Rome
when Romulus received everybody that was in debt
and discontented
and all the criminals from all the towns round about came to
make the city of Rome. There is much truth in the statement; it is a very good
figure
though meant to be a slander. The Lord does receive the devil’s
runaways.
II. God provides
for the cleansing of those to whom He comes in sovereign grace. Where could
this “clean water” be found by mortal man? God has provided a system of
cleansing men
perfect in itself
and just
and right
and effectual. When
under the old Mosaic law they took water
and scarlet wool
and hyssop
and
sprinkled the unclean therewith
he was cleansed ceremonially; and now under
the Gospel God has provided a wondrous way by which
being Himself perfectly
pure
He can put away the impurities of our nature
and the iniquities of our
lives.
1. It is a righteous way. Sin must not go unpunished; it would be
ruinous that such a thing should be. Therefore the Lord took sin and laid it on
His Son
that His Son might bear what was due for our transgressions. This the
Lord Jesus did as our substitute and Saviour. In addition to that
God has
given the Holy Ghost as a gift of Christ on His ascension; and that Holy Spirit
is here to renew men in their hearts
to take away from them the love of sin
to give them a new life
to create in them a new heart and a right spirit
and
so to change their inward longings and desires that their outward conduct shall
become altogether different from what it was before.
2. And what a simple way it is
as well as clean! The wisdom of God
made the rite by which the leper was cleansed under the law very simple; but
even more simple is the act by which God applies the merit of His dear Son to
us.
3. It is a way of universal adaptation
too; for wherever there is a
soul on whom God has looked with love He can apply to that soul the blood of
sprinkling.
4. It is a way of unfailing efficacy
for He says
“From all your
filthiness and from all your idols
will I cleanse you.” He does not only
attempt the cleansing
but He accomplishes it. What though your heart be like
the Augean stable
the labours of Hercules shall be outdone by the wonders of
Jesus.
III. God Himself
applies this means of cleansing. Some of you remember when first the Lord
revealed to you how much you needed to be cleansed: that discovery was a great
part of the cleansing. Then did it not seem to you impossible that you could be
cleansed from so much defilement? It seemed to me--I dare say it did to
you--the most extraordinary thing in the world to believe in Jesus. I could not
make it out. How could I get to Christ? I could see that He was a Saviour. I
could see that He saved others
and I was glad that He did; but the thing was
how could I ever come to be personally a partaker of His power to save? I heard
about that woman touching the hem of the garment; and I felt that if Christ
were before me
I would touch the hem of His garment with my finger; but I
could not understand how I was to touch Him spiritually. To this day the
simplest thing under heaven is perverted by our evil hearts into difficulty and
mystery. Despite the simplicity of faith
no man ever would have savingly
believed in Jesus Christ if the Lord had not guided him
and led him into
faith. Oh yes
the clean water is provided
but the clean water must be
sprinkled by another hand than ours if we are to be cleansed. And all the way
through the rest of life it is just the same. “All things are of God.”
IV. The Lord
effectually cleanses all His people. First
He cleanses them from all their
filthiness. Oh
what a vast “all” that is! All the filthiness of your birth
sin; all the filthiness of your natural temperament and constitution and
disposition. All the filthiness that came out of you in your childhood
that
was developed in you in your youth
that still has vexed your manhood
and
perhaps even now dishonours your old age. From all your actual filthiness
as
well as from all your original filthiness
will I cleanse you. From all your
secret filthiness
and from all your public filthiness; from everything that
was wrong in the family; from everything that was wrong in the business; from
everything that was wrong in your own heart--“From all your filthiness will I
cleanse you.” And then it is added that we shall be cleansed “from all our
idols.” We are all of us idolaters by nature and by practice. If there is
anything that has our love more than God
it is an idol
and we must be purged
from it. This is not a threatening but a promise: it is a great blessing to
have our images of jealousy put away. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 26
A new heart also will I
give you.
The necessity of a new
heart
I. The work which
is here promised.
1. A work of spiritual purification. The gains of business
the
pleasures and enjoyments of the world
the vanities and follies of time; of
these we may
and of these many do
make a God. Now when the Lord takes a
sinner to Himself
and calls him out of that state in which he is by nature
He
says
“From all your idols will I cleanse you.” He cleanses
both from the
power and the guilt of them. The love of sin is now destroyed
as well as the
guilt of it taken away. The great end of the Gospel is thus accomplished (Ephesians 5:26-27).
2. As a work of inward regeneration. Man is often content with
outward reformation
but the Lord goes to the seat of the evil. The heart of
man is hard by nature. There may be
and there is
in many persons much
kindness towards their fellow creatures; much affection towards their friends
and all around them; but the heart is hard towards God. How unfeeling is it
under the Divine dispensations. Warnings and invitations are given; judgments
from God of the most awful nature are pointed out; the dying love of Christ is
preached and heard; the sweet and encouraging promises of the Gospel are held
forth; but still these are met with cold indifference
or possibly with
disdain! Melted by the love of Christ
he grieves over sin; he hates himself on
account of it
and both prays and strives against it. A wrong temper causes him
more sorrow now
than cursing or drunkenness did in former days. In short
old
things are passed away
all things are become new.
3. A work of outward reformation. If the Lord gives a new heart
it
follows as a necessary consequence that there must be a willingness to walk in
His statutes. Was a man
before this change
addicted to sinful practices? They
will be given up. Did be keep sinful company? It will be forsaken. He is not
indeed perfect
for perfection is a plant which grows not in this lower world;
it flourishes only in the paradise above. Sin will cleave to him
for it is his
nature; but the sin which the Christian does
he allows not; it is his grief;
he prays and he struggles against it. When the heart of stone is changed to a
heart of flesh
there is a total alteration both in the motives and habits of a
man.
II. The author of
this work.
1. Man cannot be the author of it. It is far above human power. It is
opposed to all the prejudices
passions
and inclinations of man.
2. God alone is the Author of it. He may
and does use instruments;
and
in various ways
brings about this change; but the work is His.
III. The blessed
privileges flowing from this work.
1. He acknowledges them as His people. “They shall be My people
” not
in that general sense in which all the world belongs to Him by right of
creation; but His peculiar people
His “chosen ones”; those over whom He
delights to do good; over whom He rests in His love; making them His care
and
enriching them with all spiritual blessings; and all this from His free grace
and mercy.
2. They claim Him as their God. Mark the steps which lead to this
blessed privilege. God sprinkles clean water; He purifies the heart of the
sinner; He renews it
and puts into it right dispositions
and then they walk
in His statutes. This promise then ensures a supply of all that His people can
possibly need or desire. Are they weak? I will be their God to strengthen them.
Are they guilty? I will be their God to pardon them. Are they ignorant? I will
be their God to teach them. Do they mourn? I will be their God to comfort them.
Are they mortal? and do they sometimes look upon the grave with trembling? What
are the words of God on this subject? (Hosea 13:14.) (J. G. Breay
M. A.)
The heart all wrong made
all right
I. The rottenness
of the human heart.
1. Every unregenerated heart is unclean. “From your filthiness will I
cleanse you.” Our hands may be clean as water can wash them
and our garments
as white as snow; and yet our inward nature be polluted. Sin is not like wine
that gets better by being kept. It gets worse and worse. The Arabs have a fable
that once a camel came to the door of a tent and thrust in his nose. Not being
resisted
he thrust in his feet. There being no hindrance
he came half way in.
After a while he got all the way in. The Arab said to the camel
“This tent is
too small for two.” Then the camel said to the Arab
“If that be so
you had
better leave.” So sin comes into the heart further and further
until it takes
full possession. It is not satisfied until it has pushed the soul into an
eternal prison house
and slammed to the door
and shoved the bolts
and turned
the locks of an everlasting incarceration.
2. The text represents the heart as idolatrous. “From all your idols
will I cleanse you.” If we do not worship the God in heaven
we worship
something on earth. This man worships pleasure. This one
applause. This one
money. This one
his family. That to which a man gives his supreme thought and
affections is his idol. Like Dagon
how often it falls down
crushing its
worshippers. God will have no rivals.
3. The text represents the heart as stony
or insensible. I prove it
by the fact that we do not realise the truth of what we have already said. If
we had any appreciation of our unclean and idolatrous nature
could we be as
unmoved as we are? We are insensible. I saw men walking through the Louvre
Gallery
in Paris
half asleep. No flash came to their eyes
no flush to their
cheeks
no exclamation to their lips
amid the most thrilling triumphs of
painter’s pencil and sculptor’s chisel. And so
until grace touches our soul
we walk through the great picture gallery of the Gospel; and the wonders of
Christ and the glories of heaven strike no thrill through the heart.
II. The healing
process that God proposes for everyone. “I will sprinkle
” etc. It is a change
from black to white
from down to up
from the highway to hell to the highway
of heaven. The whole nature made over again. Here are men who once rejected the
Bible
cared not for God
talked against high heaven; but now all their hopes
are hung on one strong nail: the Nail of the Cross. One Form is to them more
glorious than any other: the Form of the Son of God. “I take Him
” they cry.
“Through joy and sorrow
through fire and flood
for time and for eternity.
None but Jesus!” They would stick to Him though the guillotine flashed its
bloody knife in their faces. They have a new heart. New in its sentiments
hopes
affections
ambitions. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The power and dominion of
God over the heart
I. God hath
supreme dominion over the hearts of men.
1. He furnishes the hearts of men with qualifications suited to their
several offices and employments
which He assigns them in the course of His
providence.
2. He moderates and controls the most unruly passions
and renders
them subservient to His own glory.
3. He sends spiritual judgments into the hearts of men.
4. He also shows His supreme dominion over the hearts of men
by
renewing and sanctifying the various powers of their souls.
5. He restores order to the affections
and places them upon their
proper objects.
6. He likewise inclines the heart to those things which are well-pleasing
in His sight
and brings it into a willing subjection to His law.
II. God mercifully
removes every obstacle that might obstruct His powerful gracious operation. The
stony heart
which God graciously promises to take away
is remarkable--
1. For insensibility.
2. For obduracy. The hearts of all men are naturally possessed of
this bad quality
which is greatly augmented by sinful habits
which
when
indulged
provoke God to permit them judicially to harden themselves more and
more.
3. For inflexibility. The stony heart is not easily bent to comply
with the gracious purposes which God hath in view to execute. It will not be
persuaded to accept of the rich mercies which He offers to bestow
nor obey the
directions of His Word.
4. For resistance. The stony heart strongly resists the instruments
employed to soften and render it tender. The merciful designs of providence are
counteracted. Even the convictions and impulses of the Holy Spirit are
resisted.
III. God promises to
work a great change in the hearts of his people.
1. The spiritual and gracious qualities conveyed to the soul
by the
fulfilment of this promise
are called a new heart and a new spirit; because
they come in place of the old things which pass away
and are very different
from them. By the new heart and the new spirit
we are made partakers of the
Divine nature
and renovation after the image of Christ is begun
which is
afterward gradually carried forward under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The
eyes of the mind are enlightened
and a new light shines into it
whereby it is
filled with the knowledge of God’s will. Divine truths are seen in their native
beauty
displaying the manifold wisdom of God
and the unsearchable riches of
Christ; they penetrate to the bottom of the heart
they are embraced with
sincere affection
and have a transforming influence on the heart and life.
2. God also promises to give you an heart of flesh--which seems to
intend
a heart the reverse of the stony heart
which He takes away.
3. “And I will put My Spirit within you.” By the Spirit may be meant
the Holy Ghost
who dwelleth in the people of God as in His temple
the
Comforter whom Jesus Christ promises to send from the Father
that He may abide
with them forever
even the Spirit of truth--who dwelleth with you and shall be
in you (John 14:16-17). As a Spirit of power
He strengthens with all might in the
inner man; as a Spirit of supplication
He helps their infirmities
and teaches
them to pray; in every respect acting as a Spirit of holiness
sanctifying them
wholly
and enabling them to perform duties in another and more spiritual
manner than ever before. As the promised Comforter
He supports and comforts;
so that as their sufferings abound
their consolations by Christ are made to
superabound. As a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
He discovers the deep things
of God
that we may know the things freely given us of God. As a Spirit of
adoption
He enables us to cry
Abba
Father
and to draw near to God with
filial freedom and confidence.
IV. The
accomplishment of the precious promises which are here given
is attended with
blessed effects and consequences. Those who have the Spirits of God put within
them
shall be made to walk in God’s statutes
and to keep His judgments and do
them. The statutes of God are the rule by which they shall walk
His judgments
point out the work which they ought to do. By both expressions the Word of God
is intended
which is given to be a lamp to our feet
and a light to our
goings
and to show us what is good
and what the Lord our God requireth of us.
In these statutes and judgments
God promises that those in whom He puts His
Spirit shall walk. In Scripture
walking is often mentioned in a figurative
sense
to denote a person’s habitual temper and practice.
1. Walking in God’s statutes is a voluntary
agreeable employment to
those who have received a new heart and spirit. They delight in the law of the
Lord after the inward man
and in the ways of His commandments which they have
loved. In doing the will of their heavenly Father
they find far more real
pleasure and satisfaction than in sensual pleasures
worldly riches
and great
temporal honours.
2. Walking in God’s statutes is a diligent and progressive business.
There may be
no doubt
some accidental obstructions and checks made to growth
in grace
and progress in holiness; still
however
faith and love
and other
graces
increase and grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ. (W. M’Culloch.)
The Lord’s New Year’s
gifts to hardened sinners
It is recorded that when
Sir Walter Raleigh knelt on the scaffold with his neck on the block waiting for
the axe of the executioner to behead him
the latter said
“Does your head lie
easy
Sir Walter?” The brave man replied
“It matters not
my friend
how my
head lies
provided my heart is right.”
I. A new heart.
The old heart is compared in this verse to a stone. What use is there then in
preaching to such as are in heart senseless? The love of Christ is a solvent to
soften the heart which is hard as a stone; and the Holy Spirit then shall mould
it into the image of the Saviour. In a cathedral at Rome I saw what I thought
to be most precious stone; but
placing my hand upon that huge slab
I found
that it was wood
painted like marble. A stone is known by its coldness; and we
know a man is unconverted by his coldness to God and to his fellow men. A few
men possess natural benevolence; but many are as cold as a stone to the appeals
of the helpless and the suffering. When the new heart is received their
disposition is changed; they are tender and compassionate to the sufferer
and
weep with the sorrowing. A man with a stony heart who loves money wonders why
another gives his time and his money so generously
day after day
to the cause
of God and of his fellow men; and he says to himself
“Why
the Christian does
this as if he really enjoyed it! I like to get money; but he seems to be most
pleased when he is giving it!” The reason is that the Christian has received a
new heart; and
loving God and his fellow men
it is his delight to minister to
them of his time and substance. The new heart does not grudge what it gives;
because it loves.
II. A new spirit.
The old spirit readily conforms itself to the world; and it seeks to run with
the stream. But when God gives the new spirit
we are ruled by the mind that
was in Jesus; and though there were only one Christian in an opposing world
that Christian would be against the world. The old spirit thinks it cannot
resist sin
and it yields to it as a necessity of his nature; but when God
gives the new spirit
it breaks the gyves of Satan
and cries
“I am free; and
will not longer submit to my besetting sin; I am to cast aside every weight
so
that I may run the race that is set before me.” The old spirit trusts in
outward circumstances
in money
and in men; but when we receive the new spirit
we trust in the power of our God. The old spirit does not know the sweetness of
communion with God. But the new spirit delights to pray; it is a privilege
rather than a duty. The old spirit also is corrupt. It is like the polished
veneer that is placed over the decayed wood which smells with the dry rot. But
when the new spirit is received the Christian is all glorious within.
III. A new pilot. “I
will put My Spirit within you.”
IV. A new life.
“And cause you to walk in My statutes.” We shall not be dragged to heaven: ours
is a willing service. It is a walk
not a limp Christ heals perfectly.
V. New rules. “Ye
shall keep My judgments.” The fingerpost points out your way at the corner of
the road
and you do not hesitate to walk in the path pointed out
because you
believe that fingerpost to tell the right direction. Likewise
the fingerpost
of the Bible is a sufficient security for us to keep in the path of
righteousness.
VI. New employment.
“And do them.” How sweet to be assured that God will give us power to do His
will! Pray with increasing faith
“Thy will be done”; and expect the ability
and the resignation to do it. You shall do His will! Rejoice!
VII. God’s
guarantee. “I will do it: I will give it you.” The Lord means what He says.
Cannot you trust Him? Whosoever will may receive the gifts offered by our
loving Father. (W. Birch.)
Covenant blessings
I. Observe
first
we have here to all God’s covenanted people
or in other words
to all
believers
a promise of preparation for the Spirit’s indwelling. This promise
is as a cluster of nuts
or a bough with many golden apples. Like the cherubim
of Ezekiel it has four faces
all smiling upon the heirs of salvation. Like the
New Jerusalem it lieth four-square. It is a quadruple treasure worthy of
four-fold consideration.
1. The first of the four blessings is the gift of a new heart.
Observe where the inward work of grace begins. All man’s attempts at the
betterment of human nature begin from without
and the theory is that the work
will deepen till it reaches that which is within. They profess to emancipate
the man from the grosser vices
trusting that the reform will go further
that
he will be brought under superior influences
and so be elevated in mind and
heart. Miserable physicians are they all. Their remedies fail to eradicate the
deep seated maladies of humanity. God’s way of dealing with men is the reverse.
He begins within and works towards the exterior in due course. Look at our
brooks and rivulets which have been by a lax legislature so long delivered over
to the tormentors to be blackened into pestiferous sewers; if we want to have
them purged it is of small avail to cast chloride of lime and other chemicals
into the stream; the only remedy is to forbid the pollution
to demand that
manufactories shall not poison us wholesale
but shall in some other manner
consume their useless products. The voice of common sense bids us go to the
original cause of the defilement and deal with it at its sources. That is just
what God does when He saves a sinner
He begins at the origin of the sinner’s
sin and deals with His heart. Blessed be God
He is omnipotent enough to give Us
new hearts
He has wisdom enough to renew us
He has purity sufficient to
cleanse us
He has abounding mercy to bear with us.
2. Turn
now
to the second blessing--“A new spirit will I put within
you.” The natural man is correctly and strictly speaking a compound of soul and
body only. The first man
Adam
was made a living soul; and
as we bear the
image of the first Adam
we are body and soul only. It is our own belief that
in regeneration something more is done than the mere rectifying of what was there:
there is in the new birth infused and implanted in man a third and more
elevated principle
--a spirit is begotten in him; and
as the second Adam was
made a quickening spirit
so in the new birth we are transformed into the
likeness of Christ Jesus
who is the second Adam. The implantation
infusion
and putting into our nature the third and higher principle is
we believe
the
being born again. Regarded in this light
the words before us may be regarded
as an absolute and unconditional promise of the covenant of grace to all the
seed that a new spirit shall be put within them. But
if we view it as some do
we shall then read it thus--the ruling spirit of man’s nature shall be changed.
The spirit which rules and reigns in Godless
Christless men
is the spirit of
a rebellious slave
the spirit of self. But
when the Spirit of God comes upon
us
to make our spirit a fit place for His residence
He takes away the spirit
of the slave
and gives us the spirit of a child
and from that moment the
service of God becomes a different thing: we do not serve Him now because we
are afraid of the whip
but nobler motives move us; gratitude binds us to the
Lord’s service
and love gives wings to the feet of obedience. Now the Lord is
no more regarded as a tyrant
but as a wise and loving parent. Whatever He may
do with us
we rejoice in His wisdom and goodness. We view Him no longer with
suspicion and dread
but with confidence and joy.
3. A third and further blessing of the text is the removal of the
stony heart. “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh.” I do not
think the Lord removes at once the evil heart out of any man’s flesh; there it
remains to be fought with
like the Canaanites in Canaan when Israel had
entered there
to prove us and to try us
but He does take away the stony heart
at once. The stony heart is a hard heart. We have heard of many expedients for
softening hard hearts
but none of them are of any avail. You may make a man
weep over his dead child or his dead wife
till his eyes are red
but his heart
will be black for all that. Men’s hearts are changed by quite another agency
than oratorical or rhetorical appeals to the natural affections.
4. The fourth promise of the preparation of the heart for the
indwelling of the Spirit is this: “I will give you a heart of flesh
” by which
is meant a soft heart
an impressible heart
a sensitive heart
a heart which
can feel
can be moved to shame
to repentance
to loathing of sin
to
desiring
to seeking
to punting
to longing after God; a tender heart
a heart
that does not require a thousand blows to move it
but
like flesh with its
skin broken
feels the very faintest touch
--such is the heart which the Holy
Spirit creates in the children of God. It is a teachable heart
a heart willing
to be guided
moulded
governed by the Divine will: a heart which
like young
Samuel
cries
“Speak
Lord
for Thy servant heareth”:--an obedient heart
ready to be run into the mould
plastic beneath the sacred hand
anxious to be
conformed to the heavenly pattern.
II. The indwelling
of the Holy Ghost.
1. Observe
first
that the Lord says
“I will put My Spirit within
you.” God Himself
the Eternal Spirit in propria persona
in His own
person
resides and dwells within the renewed heart. The mystery of the incarnation
is not greater than that of the Holy Ghost’s indwelling
nor does it appear to
me to involve more condescension. I marvel at Christ’s dwelling with sinners
and I marvel equally at the Holy Ghost’s dwelling in sinners.
2. Note a little word also in the text worthy of your attention. “I
will put My Spirit within you.” It is not the spirit of angels
it is not the
spirit of good men
it is God’s own Spirit who takes up His residence in every
sinner’s heart when God renews it. “My Spirit.” And
perhaps
this may allude
to the fact that this is the self-same Spirit which abode without measure in
our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Observe also carefully the words
“within you.” This is
marvellous. Augustine
when reflecting upon the various glories which come to
God
and the benefits which accrue to men through redemption
none of which
could have been revealed without the fall of Adam
exclaimed
“O beata
culpa!” “O happy fault”; and I have the self-same expression
trembling on my lips. Where sin abounded grace has much more abounded.
III. The blessed
results which come from all this. The indwelling Spirit leads every man in whom
He reigns into obedience to the ways of God. The soul that possesses the Spirit
becomes active. It walks. It is not passive
as one carried by main force; it
works because the Spirit works in it
“to will and to do of His own good
pleasure.” The Holy Ghost leads us to holy habits
for
mark the phrase
“I
will cause you to walk in My ways.” Mere excitement may produce momentary zeal
and transient morality
but habitual holiness is the fruit of the Spirit. Note
next
the delight it implies. “I will cause you to walk in My ways
” not as a
man who toils
but as one who walks at ease. The believer finds it as sweet to
walk in God’s ways as Isaac felt it sweet to walk in the fields at eventide
it
implies
too
holy perseverance; the words have the meaning of continuing to
follow after holiness. It is a small matter to begin
but to hold out to the
end is the testing point. The text promises to us a complete obedience
--“I
will cause you to walk in My statutes
and to keep My judgments.” A Christian
man is obedient to God
--he minds the first table; he is just to man
--he does
not despise the second table. And the Holy Ghost also works a holy care for
righteousness in the soul. “I will cause you to keep My judgments”;--that is
to have an exactness of obedience
a precision
a deliberation
a willingness
to find out God’s will
and a care to attend to it in every jot and tittle.
Now
to what a delightful consummation has our text conducted us. It began with
a renewed heart
and it ends in a purified life. It commenced with taking away
the stone and giving the flesh; now it gives us the life of Christ written out
in living characters in our daily practice. Glory be to God for this! (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
A new heart
1. No problem
whether of religion or philosophy
of nature or
revelation
more transcends the power of human reason to solve than that of the
existence of moral evil in the world.
2. In what consists the nature of this evil? What is its essence? In
nature
it subsists in a heart not in accordance with the Divine law. In
essence it is a moral depravity; a moral corruption; a perversion of the
understanding and the affections in regard to moral truth and duty; a discord
among the harmonies of our moral being
and a slavish subjection to the
appetites of our bestial nature in opposition to the nobler promptings and
requirements of our higher
our godlike
nature.
3. Is there any escape from this evil--any remedy for it on man’s
behalf. And if so
in what
and where
and how may it be obtained? “A new heart
will I give you.” God makes for us a way of escape; God provides the remedy
and we are made the beneficiaries of it by God’s bestowal upon us of a new
heart.
I. This gift of
God
a new heart. A new heart contrasts with the old. The old heart is
alienated from God; the new heart cleaves to God with supreme affection of
love. The old heart is sold under sin; the new heart is redeemed from all iniquity.
The old heart is accompanied by carnal-mindedness
which is death; the new
heart by spiritual-mindedness
which is life and peace.
II. How does God
bestow this gift? God gives this new heart
not by destroying the freedom of
human will and agency
but by emancipating it from every condition of slavery.
By the unspeakable gift of His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins
by the
influence and agency of His Holy Spirit
enlightening us in the knowledge of
Christ
and renewing our wills
and regenerating our natures
and by His
blessing upon the means of grace which He has appointed
God confers this gift
of a new heart upon all those who believe in Jesus
and who walk by the Spirit
according to revealed truth
in the use of the appointed means of grace
and in
obedience to God’s law.
III. How does the
new heart manifest itself in the life and character of its recipient? It
effects an entire change in them. There are new objects of life and new
attributes of character consequent upon the desires
affections
and purposes
of a new heart. His life is a continual proof and illustration of the power of
the Gospel to save
and his character is a beautiful example of purity of
thought
simplicity and integrity of purpose
kindliness of demeanour
beneficence of deeds
and faithfulness in the discharge of every duty toward
God and man. (W. T. Findley
D. D.)
A new heart
I. A new heart is
a contrast to the old.
II. A new heart is
productive of new effects.
1. Repentance.
2. Holiness.
III. A new heart is
connected with new privileges (verse 28). If Jehovah be our God
there is not a
real good that is not ours. We have Him for the portion of our souls. We are
interested in the exercise of all His perfections. His love is inviolably and
eternally fixed upon us. His wisdom is incessantly engaged in making all things
work together for our good. His power is ever operating to defend us from
essential injury. His universal presence becomes an uninterrupted source of
peace and a never failing occasion of comfort. We have access to Him and
communion with Him. He is our Father
our Guide
our Friend.
IV. A new heart is
the work of God.
V. A new heart is
the gift of God. Application--
1. What an important subject on which to examine ourselves. It is
possible to be mistaken--and a mistake here is fatal.
2. How vain are the attempts men make to do without a new heart.
3. Let the most guilty be encouraged to seek this blessing as the
gift of God in Christ Jesus; and the most hardened to hope for it as the work
of God
if He be sought as the Author of it.
4. Let every man know that he inevitably and justly perishes if he
neglects it--despises it--or presumes that he can be saved without it.
5. Let us adore God for having made known so wonderful and gracious a
method of restoring our fallen nature. (Essex Remembrancer.)
The new heart
Behold a wonder of Divine
love. When God maketh His creatures
one creation He regardeth as sufficient
and should they lapse from the condition in which He has created them
He
suffers them
as a rule
to endure the penalty of their transgression
and to
abide in the place into which they are fallen. But here He makes an exception;
man
fallen man
created by his Maker
pure and holy
hath wilfully and
wickedly rebelled against the Most High
and lost his first estate
but behold
he is to be the subject of a new creation through the power of God’s Holy
Spirit.
I. The necessity
for this great promise. You will notice that God does not promise to us that He
will improve our nature
that He will mend our broken hearts. No
the promise
is that He will give us new hearts and right spirits. Human nature is too far
gone ever to be mended. If only a wheel or two of that great thing called
“manhood” were out of repair
then He who made man might put the whole to rights;
He might put a new cog where it had been broken off
and another wheel where it
had gone to ruin
and the machine might work anew. But no
the whole of it is
out of repair; there is not one lever which is not broken; not one axle which
is not disturbed; not one of the wheels which act upon the others. The whole
head is sick
and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot
to the
crown of the head
it is all wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. Consider
for a moment how bad human nature must be if we think how ill it has treated
its God. I remember William Huntingdon says in his autobiography
that one of
the sharpest sensations of pain that he felt after he had been quickened by
Divine grace was this
“He felt such pity for God.” I do not know that I ever
met with the expression elsewhere
but it is a very expressive one; although I
might prefer to say sympathy with God and grief that He should be so evil
entreated. Let us look back upon our past lives--how ungrateful have we been to
Him! We have never returned His mercies into His bosom with gratitude and
thankfulness; but we have let them lie forgotten without a single hallelujah
from our carelessness concerning the Most High
that He had entirely forgotten
us
and that therefore we were trying to forget Him. It is so very seldom that
we think of Him that one would imagine that surely He never gave us occasion to
think of Him. But worse than this
we have not only been forgetful of Him
but
we have rebelled against Him. We have assailed the Most High. Oh! it is a mercy
that He is God and changeth not
or else we sons of Jacob would long ago have
been consumed
and justly too. You may picture to yourselves
if you like
a
poor creature dying in a ditch. I trust that such a thing never happens in this
land
but such a thing might happen as a man who had been rich on a sudden
becoming poor
and all his friends deserting and leaving him; he begs for bread
and no man will help him
until at last
without a rag to cover him
his poor
body yields up life in a ditch. This
I think
is the very extreme of human
negligence to mankind; but Jesus Christ
the Son of God
was treated even worse
than this. Ah
if you think of human nature as it acts towards God
you will
say indeed it is too bad to be mended
it must be made anew. Again
there is
another aspect in which we may regard the sinfulness of human nature: that is
its pride. It is the very worst phase of man--that he is so proud. What a
strange thing it is to see a sinful
guilty wretch proud of his morality! and
yet that is a thing you may see every day. A man who is an enemy to God
proud
of his honesty
and yet he is robbing God; a man proud of his chastity
and yet
if he knew his own thoughts
they are full of lasciviousness and uncleanness; a
man proud of the praise of his fellows
while he knows himself that he has the
blame of his own conscience and the blame of God Almighty. Ah
human nature
this is
then
thine own condemnation
that thou art insanely proud
while thou
hast nothing to be proud of. Write “Ichabod” upon it. The glory has departed
forever from human nature. Let it be put away
and let God give us something
new for the old can never be made better. It is helplessly insane
decrepit
and defiled. Furthermore
it is quite certain that human nature cannot be made
better
for many have tried it
but they have always failed. A man trying to
improve human nature
is like trying to change the position of a weathercock
by turning it round to the east when the wind is blowing west; he has but to
take his hand off and it will be back again to its place. But
once again
you
will easily perceive we must have a new heart when you consider what are the
employments and the enjoyments of the Christian religion. The nature that can
feed on the garbage of sin
and devour the carrion of iniquity
is not the
nature that ever can sing the praises of God and rejoice in His holy name. And
yet once again God hates a depraved nature
and therefore it must be taken
away
before we can be accepted in Him.
II. The nature of
this great change which the Holy Spirit works in us.
1. It is a Divine work from first to last. To give a man a new heart
and a new spirit is God’s work
and the work of God alone. We have heard of
some kind of insects that have lost their limbs
and by their vital power have
been able to recover them again. But take away the seat of the vital power--the
heart; lay the disease there; and what power is there that can
by any
possibility
rectify it
unless it be a power from without--in fact
a power
from above?
2. It is a gracious change. When God puts a new heart into man
it is
not because man deserves a new heart--because there was anything good in his
nature
that could have prompted God to give him a new spirit. The Lord simply
gives a man a new heart because He wishes to do it; that is His only reason.
3. It is a victorious effort of Divine grace. God will have the
sinner
if He designs to have him. God never was thwarted yet in any one of His
purposes. Man does resist with all his might
but all the might of man
tremendous though it be for sin
is not equal to the majestic might of the Most
High
when He rideth forth in the chariot of His salvation. He doth
irresistibly save and victoriously conquer man’s heart.
4. It is instantaneous. To sanctify a man is the work of the whole
life; but to give a man a new heart is the work of an instant. Other parts of
salvation are done gradually; but regeneration is the instantaneous work of
God’s sovereign
effectual
and irresistible grace.
III. Hope and
encouragement to the vilest of sinners.
1. There are some who are seeking after mercy; for many a day you
have been in prayer in secret
till your very knees seemed sore with the
oftenness of your intercession. Your cry to God has been
“Create in me a clean
heart
and renew a right spirit within me.” Let me comfort you by this
reflection
that your prayer is already heard. You have a new heart and a right
spirit: perhaps you wilt not be able to perceive the truth of this utterance
for months to come
therefore continue in prayer till God shall open your eyes
so that you may see that the prayer is answered; but rest assured it is
answered already. The Lord hath begun a good work in thy heart
and He will
carry it on even unto the end. All these feelings of thine are more than thou
ever couldst have attained of thyself. God has helped thee up this Divine
ladder of grace
and as sure as He has brought thee up so many staves of it
He
will carry thee to the very summit
till He grasps thee in the arms of His love
in glory everlasting.
2. There are others
however
who have not proceeded so far
but you
are driven to despair. The devil has told you that you cannot be saved; you
have been too guilty
too vile. Any other people in the world might find mercy
but not you
for you do not deserve to be saved. Have I not tried to make it as
plain as the sunbeam all through this service
that God never saves a man for
the sake of what he is
and that He does not either begin or carry on the work
in us because there is anything good in us? The greatest sinner is just as
eligible for Divine mercy as the very least of sinners. He can take you
a
thief: a drunkard
a harlot
or whoever you may be; He can bring you on your
knees
make you cry for mercy
and then make you lead a holy life
and keep you
unto the end. “Oh!” says one
“I wish He would do that to me
then.” Well
soul
if that be a true wish
He will. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A new spirit will I put within you.
The invaluable gift
The gifts of God are
unspeakably great; should we attempt the enumeration they would appear like the
stars of heaven
or the sands on the shore for multitude. When the author of
the Spectator recovered from a dangerous illness he penned a delightful
hymn
in which he expresses the transports of his soul
and the wonder
love
and praise which a sense of the Divine mercies awakened in his grateful mind.
But if such language was the result of a survey of God’s providential goodness
how should the believer exult in the gift of a Saviour
and in that last
best
blessing
the enlightening and sanctifying Spirit by which He is revealed to
the heart!
I. What this
invaluable blessing includes and what we are to understand by a new spirit.
1. God engages to bestow that grace upon us of which we were altogether
undeserving.
2. In the bestowment of this blessing we invariably see the
providence and word of God preparing the way for its reception.
II. The reasons and
grounds of encouragement we have to seek this blessing.
1. Think of the character of Him who gives this new spirit.
2. Consider that this is a free gift.
3. Reflect on the many instances in which this blessing has been
conferred on individuals as undeserving as ourselves.
4. The perfection of our moral character depends on obtaining it.
Enriched with this treasure
we can never be poor or unhappy; nor is it in the
power of men or devils to make us miserable.
5. By individually seeking this precious gift we shall be
instrumental in promoting the advent of Christ’s kingdom
and in hastening that
blessed consummation which the Church of God so earnestly desires. (Essex
Remembrancer.)
The new heart bestowed
I. The old heart
removed.
1. The senselessness of the unconverted heart.
2. The resistance of the unconverted heart.
3. The impenetrableness of the unconverted heart.
4. The coldness of the unconverted heart.
An unconverted man will
have a very tender and warm heart about earthly things. If he loses a wife
or
a child
or some valuable property
oh
what intense warmth of feeling do we
instantly behold! But when we tell him about the death of Christ
or the love
of the Holy Spirit
he takes no more notice of what we say than the cold
pavement of the street would listen to a beggar’s petition.
II. The new heart
given.
1. Your new heart is sensitive. “The spiritual man
” we are told
“discerneth all things.” You are sensitive of spiritual pains and of spiritual
pleasures. You are especially sensitive with respect to sin.
2. Your new heart is flexible. It can bend in accordance to God’s
will.
3. Your new heart is easily impressed. Its fleshy tablets are always
waiting to receive the writing of the Lord’s commands.
4. Your new heart is well known for its warmth of feeling. Once it
saw no beauty nor comeliness in Jesus; but now that it is renewed
it cries
“Thou art the King of glory
O Christ”: “Thy name is as the ointment poured
forth”: “In Thee
O Jesus
have I righteousness”: “Whom have I in heaven but
Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee”: “Thou
art the chiefest among ten thousand
and the altogether lovely.”
III. The author of
the change. Clean water is here used as the emblem of the blood of Christ
and
of the work of the Holy Spirit. When the blood of Christ is applied to our
conscience through faith
it cleanses us from all dead works; and the Holy
Spirit
when applied to all the powers of your soul
purifies it from the love
and dominion of sin. Conversion work is all God’s work; insomuch that
wherever
God’s Spirit converts men by the ministry
He there may be said to raise up
children to Abraham out of stones. There He makes water to gush out of rocks;
and there He makes dead and dry bones to live. (C. Clayton
M. A.)
A new heart
I. The old
principle which must be got rid of. “A stony heart.” Of course this is a figure
when you speak of a man’s heart
because you do not speak of that which beats
in a man’s frame
but of his will and affections. Likewise a stony heart is a
figure used to describe one who knows not Christ
and cannot until it is
removed. What is a stone? A stone is a thing upon which you can make no
impression. You may strike it with a hammer
or a sword
or any other weapon
but you can make no impression upon it; so with a stony human heart
no
arguments or anything we can do will influence it. There are some hearts we
cannot reach
they seem harder than the nether millstone. Until God touches the
hard heart it has no feeling; and there are men and women now who figuratively
go to that stony rock of Calvary
whereon Christ died for our sins
and even come
to services like these in which we literally go there with Him
and yet do not
feel touched in their hearts.
II. A new principle
which is to be given us. There are two ways in which people may be said to have
anything new. First
when it is absolutely new. When the Ark of God was to be
brought back
a cart was to be made by the Divine Will
and it has to be a new
cart
entirely out of new materials. So in the New Testament we are told Joseph
of Arimathea laid our Lord in a new tomb
wherein yet never anyone had lain.
There is another sense in which a thing is made new
that is
when it is
renewed
for that comes to the same thing. This is what happens when a man’s
heart is renewed
and turned to God. You may meet a man
and say
“I see no
change in him
” and yet that man has been renewed by the Spirit of God. This
then
is the new principle that God will give; and it is “a new heart
” and
when that happens the whole man is changed. Again
when a man’s will is renewed
he is made to say
“Not my will
but Thine be done.” And a man’s affections are
renewed
and even his memory is renewed. That memory
that used to be running
off on other things
now returns to God.
III. The Divine
Giver. It is the work of Omnipotence. He can make the heart love and glow with
life. When He does this work it is done in an instant. A man at the receipt of
custom
who was as busy as any of you
was called by Christ
and Matthew arose
and followed Him in a moment. He said also to Zacchaeus
“Make haste and come
down
” “and he made haste and came down.” It was done in a moment. And when
Lydia sat listening to Paul’s address we are told that “the Lord opened her
heart
” and then she attended to the words spoken by Paul. And when Saul was
entering into Damascus to persecute the Christians in that city
carrying with
him letters from the high priest at Jerusalem
a voice asked him
“Saul
Saul
why persecutest thou Me?” God touched his heart
and it was done in a moment.
IV. It brings great
glory to God. It is greater than creating a world. Someone has said. “It was
great to speak a world from nought”; but it is a greater work when He comes
down to that heart which He first made in His own image
and which sin has
marred and ruined
and promises to dwell there
than the work of creation. (Canon
Fleming.)
I will take away the stony heart.--
The stony heart removed
I. The stony heart
and its dangers.
1. Why is the heart of man compared to a stone at all?
2. The danger to which this hard heart is exposed.
II. A heart of
flesh and its privileges.
1. What is meant by a heart of flesh? It means a heart that can feel
on account of sin--a heart that can bleed when the arrows of God stick fast in
it; it means a heart that can yield when the Gospel makes its attacks--a heart
that can be impressed when the seal of God’s word comes upon it; it means a
heart that is warm
for life is warm--a heart that can think
a heart that can
aspire
a heart that can love--putting all in one
--a heart of flesh means that
new heart and right spirit which God giveth to the regenerate.
2. But wherein does this heart of flesh consist; wherein does its
tenderness consist?
3. The privileges of this renewed heart are these. “‘Tis here the
Spirit dwells
‘tis here that Jesus rests.” The soft heart is ready now to
receive every spiritual blessing. It is fitted to yield every heavenly fruit to
the honour and praise of God. A soft heart is the best defence against sin
while it is the best preparative for heaven. A tender heart is the best means
of watchfulness against evil
while it is also the best means of preparing us
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The nature of the change
in conversion
I. The old heart
is taken away and a new one put in its place. The head was justly considered by
ancient philosophers to be the residence of the intellectual faculties
where
the soul
presiding over all
sat enthroned
as in a palace. On the other hand
they regarded the affections as having their home in the heart
that other
great organ of our system. Within the breast
love and hatred
grief and joy
aversion and desire
generosity
jealousy
pity
revenge were supposed to
dwell; and thus (to dismiss the metaphor)
that substitution of one heart for
another which is promised in the text
just implies a thorough change in the
character and current of our affections. Now
a change may be simply a reform;
or
extending deeper and taking a wider range
it may pass into a revolution.
Conversion is not a mere reform. No. It changes the heart
the habits
the
everlasting destiny of an immortal being. To be sensible of our need of a new
spirit
to feel that this old heart will not mend nor make better
is one of
the first steps in salvation; and the deeper our impression of this truth
the
more diligently shall we labour
and the more earnest shall be our prayers to
be renewed day by day.
II. The view which
our text gives of the natural heart. It is a heart of stone. “I will take the
stony heart out of your flesh.”
1. A stone is cold. Coldness is its characteristic. Hence
the
lapidary
by using his tongue to test the temperature
can tell whether the
seeming jewel is paste or a real gem. Hence
also
when our eye has been
deceived by the skill of the artist
the sense of touch has informed us that
what seemed a marble pillar was only painted wood. There is reason
therefore
in the common saying
As cold as a stone. But what stone so cold as that which
sin has lodged in man’s breast? We are by nature lovers of pleasure
not of
God. He is not the object of our love
but of our aversion. And what return do
we make to Jesus for His warm and matchless affection? The carnal mind is
enmity against God; is not subject to the law of God
neither indeed can be.
2. A stone is hard. Fire melts wax
but not stone; water softens
clay
but not stone; a hammer bends the stubborn iron
but not stone. It
resists all these agents; and
emblem of a heart crushed
but unsanctified by
affliction
a stone may be broken into fragments
or ground to powder
yet its
atoms are as hard as ever. The man who remains unmoved under a ministry of
mercy
who is insensible at once to the most appalling and appealing lessons of
providence
who fears no more than a rock the thunders that peal and the
lightnings that play round his brow
and feels no more than a rock the
influences that fall like summer sunbeams from the face of a gracious Saviour
is manifestly beyond all human power. I would despair of his salvation
but for
the omnipotence and benevolence of God; and because I know that He
who of the
stones of the street could raise up children to Abraham
can change that heart
of stone into a heart of flesh.
3. A stone is dead. It has no vitality
nor feeling
nor power of
motion. Look at this statue; however skilful the sculptor’s chisel
there is no
life here; no speech breaks from these cold lips; the limbs seem instinct with
power
yet they never leave their pedestal; no fire flashes in these dull grey
eyes
nor passions burn within that stony breast; the stone is deaf
and dumb
and dead. Spoken to
it returns no answer; wept over
it sheds no tears.
III. In conversion
God gives a new spirit.
1. By this change the understanding and judgment are enlightened.
Time and eternity are now seen in their just proportions
in their right
relative dimensions; the one in its littleness
and the other in its greatness.
When the light of heaven rises on the soul
oh
what grand and affecting
discoveries does she make of the exceeding evil of sin
of the holiness of the
Divine law
of the infinite purity of Divine justice
of the grace and
greatness of Divine love. On Sinai’s summit and on Calvary’s Cross
what new
truths and what sublime scenes open to her astonished eyes!
2. By this change the will is renewed. Bad men are worse
and good
men are better than they appear. Yes
better; for in conversion the will is so
changed and sanctified that
although a pious man is in some respects less
in
other respects he is more holy than the world gives him credit for. The
attainments of a believer are always beneath his aims; his desires are loftier
than his deeds; his wishes are holier than his works. Give other men their
will
let them have full sway and swing for their passions
and they would be
worse than they are; give him the hill power to do as he would
and he would be
better than he is. And thus
if you have experienced this gracious change
it
will be your daily grief that not only are you not what you know you should be
but what you wish to be. The fruits of holy peace are reaped with sharp swords
on the field of war; and this conflict within you proves that grace
even in
its infancy a cradled Saviour
is engaged in struggling with and strangling the
old Serpent.
3. By conversion the temper and disposition are changed and
sanctified. It is with the believer under the influences of the Spirit as with
fruit ripening beneath the genial power of dews and sunbeams. Hard at first
its substance grows soft; sour at first
its juices become sweet; green at
first
it assumes in time a rich and mellow colour; at first adhering tenaciously
to the tree
when it becomes ripe it is ready to drop at the slightest touch.
So with the man who is ripening for heaven. His affections and temper grow
sweet
soft
mellow
loose from earth and earthly things.
IV. In conversion
God gives a heart of flesh. “I will give you a heart of flesh.”
1. In conversion man gets a warm heart. Let us restrict ourselves to
a single example. When faith embraces Him
how does the heart warm to Jesus
Christ! There is music in His very name. “His name is as an ointment poured
forth.” All the old indifference to His cause
His people
and interests of His
kingdom has passed away; and now these have the warmest place in a believer’s
bosom
and are become the objects of its strongest and tenderest affections.
2. In conversion a man gets a soft heart. As “flesh
” it is soft and
sensitive. It is flesh; and can be wounded or healed. It is flesh; and feels
alike the kiss of kindness and the rod of correction. It is flesh; no longer
like a stone
hard
obdurate
impenetrable to the gentle influences of heaven.
To change the figure
once a hard block of ice
it has been melted by the beams
of the sun
and turned into flowing water.
3. In conversion a man gets a living heart. The perfection of a
saint’s life is death; is to be dead to sin
but alive to righteousness
alive
to Christ
alive to everything which affects His crown and kingdom. With Christ
living in his heart
the believer feels that now he is not his own
and belongs
no longer to himself. As another’s
and purchased at a great price
the grand
object of his life is Christ’s. He wishes that he could look on the seductions
of the world
and sin’s most voluptuous charms
with the cold
unmoved stare of
death; and that these had no more power to kindle a desire in him than in the
icy bosom of a corpse.
4. By conversion man is ennobled. Religion descends like an angel
from the throne of God
to burst our chains. She raises me from degradation
and bids me lift my drooping head and look up to heaven. Yes
it is that very
Gospel
by some supposed to present such dark
degrading
gloomy views of our
destiny
which lifts me from the dust and the dunghill to set me among princes
on a level with angels
in a sense above them. To say nothing of the nobility
grace imparts to a soul which is stamped anew with the likeness and image of
God
how sacred
how venerable does even this body appear in the eye of piety!
Angels hover round its walls
and the Spirit of God dwells within. What an
incentive to holiness
to purity of life and conduct
lies in the fact that the
Body of a saint is the temple of the living God!--a truer
nobler temple than
that which Solomon dedicated by his prayers
and a greater even than Solomon
consecrated by his presence. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
The heart of stone; or
the soul without religion
I. The soul of man
is
like the stone
a mystery. Here is a stone. I see it
weigh it
feel it.
But what is it? Colour
weight
and tangibility are not entities. These are
mere qualities which belong to entities. By these qualities we may recognise
the entities and form an opinion respecting them. In this sense the stone
itself a mystery
may be looked on as a type or picture of every soul
saved or
unsaved. Every soul feels
reasons
and think;--and yet the soul is neither feeling
reason
nor thought: these are mere qualities which form no part of its
essence. In itself it is a mystery.
II. The soul of the
unregenerate
however
is
like the stone
very hard.
1. All stones are not equally hard
though hardness is a characteristic
of each.
2. Neither are all souls equally without feeling or moral
susceptibility
though all are sadly deficient in this respect. This is
illustrated--
III. The soul of the
unregenerate is
like the stone
not what it originally was. The stone has not
been always as hard as it is now. Every pebble or grain of sand was once a part
of a great rock
and that rock itself a soft material; but heat
pressure
and
time combined made it hard. Even flint existed in a soft and pulpy form.
Similar is the history of your soul
my unregenerated brother. It was once
soft
tender
and full of felling
though now it is hard. This is proved--
IV. The
unregenerated soul has
like the stone
been gradually hardened. Even Nero
who
assassinated his mother
set fire to the Roman capital
and brought to an
untimely grave in misery thousands of men
women
and innocent children
had
once a tender heart
like others. “Would to God I could not write!” was his
feeling exclamation once when a death warrant was presented to him for
signature.
V. The
unregenerated soul
like the stone
bears in itself a faithful record of all
the powers which have helped to make it what it is. In the stone
some of its
particles are spherical
showing that once
after having been broken from the
mother rock
they were for centuries under the action of flowing water; others
are crystallised
showing that once they were in a state of solution; others
are organic
showing that they were once the seat of vegetable or animal life.
In the form and composition of these particles we find a record of the various
changes through which the stone has passed
as well as the numerous influences
which have been at work in the effecting of those changes. The soul of man is
similar. In eternity it may be possible to trace distinctly in every soul in
heaven or hell a faithful record of all the influences which
on earth
have
ever tended to elevate or degrade it.
VI. The
unregenerated soul
like the stone
may be softened by the application of
appropriate elements. The flint
may be reduced to pulp by chemical reagents
and moulded like the clay to any form. The hardest metals may be dissolved. So
may also the hardest heart. The love of Christ is the dissolving element for
souls. (Evan Lewis
B. A.)
Change of heart
I. The old and
stony heart. There are some who tell us that the heart of man by nature is like
a sheet of white paper or parchment
that you may inscribe on it whatever you
please. We are bound to say
from our experience
this is not the condition of
our hearts. We are conscious in ourselves that we were born with inclinations
to evil; and that
as the fruit of inward corruption and depravity
our lives
have been exceedingly defective and blemished everywhere
and that we have been
disobedient to the Lord. The heart is said to be stony
that is
to be hard;
and it remains so although we try it by every system
every principle
and
every revelation of God
which would be adapted to impress and to make it feel
feel deeply and poignantly
if it were not a stone. Take the stone and bring it
out to the light of heaven
and let the sunbeam fall on it--it does not feel;
bring it again and let the dews of heaven distil on it
the rain of Divine
mercy baptize it
take it to a fountain and let the waters play on it--it is a
stone still; carry it into the Garden of Eden
and let all that is lovely
there
all that is blooming in that place
created by Divine wisdom and
goodness
be presented before it--it is a stone; shiver with lightning
it is a
stone still; grind it to powder
it is a stone still--and that is the figure of
the heart. It must be changed: God must take away the heart of stone and give
the heart of flesh.
II. The change and
renovation of the heart is the work of God.
1. We do find
we think
the doctrine in question very strongly
stated in this passage: it looks as if God were all in all in this matter. The
word I occurs four times.
2. The agency of heaven upon the heart of man is
without doubt
silent and inscrutable
and in many respects mysterious. But then
we ask
is
it not equally so in elemental nature--in the world by which we are
surrounded--in all the animal tribes--in our own bodies?
3. Throughout Scripture the change in the heart is ascribed to God.
4. This presents to our mind a very beautiful and important view of
genuine religion. It is not of man’s creation--it is not the product of human
genius--it is not that with which we can invest you
or you have any power to
invest yourselves. You must receive it as the gift of Divine power--as the
operation of Divine love--as the creation of God’s mercy.
5. God has promised to exert His power
and to give His Spirit
in
order to this end.
III. When God
undertakes it
he makes it new and renders it alive to every divine and
celestial impression. But what is the change
what is the new heart which God
gives? The man with a new heart will say
in penitence
humility
and shame
“I
have broken the law
I have gone astray
I have done what I ought not
I have
left undone that which I ought to have done
to me belong shame and confusion
of face.” There is the heart changed. Bring him to judgments
those which
happen round about him
and it will awake him from his slumber
and induce him
to trim his lamp
and gird his loins
and to stand ready and prepared for whatever
the will of God may be. There is a feeling heart in that man. Bring him to
God’s mercies
mention them
recount them
let them be enumerated
and he
exclaims
“Bless the Lord
O my soul
and all that is within me bless His holy
name.” I am not worthy the least of them all
and yet He makes them towards me
to abound. Bring him to nature
show him the creation
and he will say
“the
heavens declare God’s glory
and I am glad of it
and the firmaments show forth
His handiwork”; and he will recognise Deity everywhere
and in all this. Tell
him of God’s dispensations towards him in his own life
and he will be thankful
for every deliverance that has been wrought
and for every seasonable and
remarkable interposition.
IV. The advantages
and the blessedness of this renewed state.
1. In the changed state itself there is incomparable enjoyment.
2. And if we have this change of heart we shall certainly be
victorious at the last. We shall find the new nature struggling with the old;
the old will grow weaker and weaker
and the new stronger and stronger; but the
time draweth near when that which is corrupt and depraved and defiled shall
fall of itself and be dropped forever
and the new nature shall be revealed in
its refulgence and beauty
not as delinquent to be punished
but as victorious
to receive the crown of life. (J. Stratten.)
Gradual hardening of the
heart
Many of you have no doubt
seen the dripping wells at Matlock Bath. The caves are like an old curiosity
shop. There are all kinds of objects. Drop by drop the water falls
until
things that once were soft
and could have been bent as easily as a cane
have
become as stiff and hard as stone. Slowly and surely the work goes on. And so
it is with our life. The heart does not become hard all at once.
The stony heart
The “stony heart” refers
obviously to a curious custom of the ancient Egyptians. When a dead body was
embalmed
the heart along with the other internal organs was taken out
and in
the cavity where it had been a large scarab was placed. This was a representation
in stone of a beetle that was worshipped by the Egyptians
because it sprang
from the fertilising mud left behind by the annual overflow of the waters of
the Nile. It seemed to be created directly by the rays of the sun
and was
therefore regarded as a symbol of life springing from death. Myriads of this
sacred beetle wrought in all kinds of material have been found in Egyptian
tombs. Ezekiel
as is abundantly evident in his prophecies against Egypt
was
intimately acquainted with the manners and customs of that country. He
therefore borrows his image from an Egyptian source It suggests to us not only
the hardness and lifelessness of a common stone
but also the peculiar shape
and superstitious use of a special sacred stone. It was with the Jews as it was
with an Egyptian mummy. They were spiritually dead
and the tender living heart
had disappeared and a heart of stone had been substituted. (Hugh Macmillan
D. D.)
Transformed to stone
We read in ancient Greek
fable of the Gorgons
who had the power of turning mortals into stone by a
look. There are still Gorgons in existence that can turn to stone the hearts of
those who look upon their alluring forms and listen to their flattering
speeches. The love of money
the love of pleasure
are great Medusas that
change by their evil spells the warm heart that cherishes them into a piece of
rock
without sensibility or sympathy. (Hugh Macmillan
D. D.)
And I will give you an heart of flesh.--
A heart of flesh
A heart of flesh is known
by its tenderness concerning sin. To have indulged a foul imagination
or to
have allowed a wild desire to tarry even for a moment
is quite enough to make
a heart of flesh grieve before the Lord. The heart of stone calls a great
iniquity nothing
but not so the heart of flesh.
2. The heart of flesh is tender of God’s will. My Lord Will-be-will
is a great blusterer
and it is hard to subject him to God’s will; but when the
heart of flesh is given
the will quivers like an aspen leaf in every breath of
heaven
and bows like an osier in every breeze of God’s Spirit. The natural
will is cold
hard iron
which is not to be hammered into form; but the renewed
will
like molten metal
is soon moulded by the hand of grace.
3. In the fleshy heart there is a tenderness of the affections. The
hard heart does not love the Redeemer
but the renewed heart burns with
affection towards Him. The hard heart is selfish
and coldly demands
“Why
should I weep for sin? Why should I love the Lord?” But the heart of flesh
says: “Lord
Thou knowest that I love Thee; help me to love Thee more!” Many
are the privileges of this renewed heart; “‘Tis here the Spirit dwells
‘tis
there that Jesus rests.” It is fitted to receive every spiritual blessing
and
every blessing comes to it. It is prepared to yield every heavenly fruit to the
honour and praise of God
and therefore the Lord delights in it. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The heart of flesh
It is a peculiar feature
in our holy religion that it begins its work within
and acts first upon the
heart. The Holy Spirit does not attempt to improve human nature into something
better
but lays the axe at the root of the trees
and declares that we must
become new creatures
and that by a supernatural work of the omnipotent God.
True religion begins
then
with the heart
and the heart is the ruling power
of manhood. The heart is more nearly the man than any other of the faculties
and powers which God has bestowed upon our nature. The heart
when renewed by
grace
is the best part of manhood; unrenewed
it is the very worst. AEsop
when his master ordered him to provide nothing for a feast but the best things
in the market
brought him nothing but tongues
and when the next day he
ordered him to buy nothing but the worst things in the market
still brought
nothing but tongues; and I would venture to correct or spiritualise the story
by exchanging hearts for tongues
for there is nothing better in the world than
hearts renewed
and nothing worse than hearts unregenerate.
I. The tenderness
here intended is absent in the unregenerate. They frequently have a natural
sensitiveness; some persons who are not converted are very tender indeed
as
mothers to their children
as fathers to their offspring
as friends to
friends; and God forbid that we should say anything amiss concerning that which
is good in human nature after its kind
but that is widely different from the
spiritually tender heart. In all unregenerate men there is a lack of the real
spiritual tenderness of which I have to speak
though all are not equally
hardened. In all
for instance
there is a natural stoniness of heart. We are
not born into this world perfect
so that when sin meets us it receives a
kindly reception
and is not dreaded and shunned as it should be. The heart by
nature is like the nether millstone
and its hardness is increased by contact
with the world. Familiarity with sin doth not breed contempt for it
but often
causes a measure of contempt for the law which forbids it. This world is a
petrifying spring
and all who are of the world are being petrified in its
stream
and so are growing harder and harder as the years roll on. Moreover men
harden themselves by their own sins. Like a stone falling
sin gains impetus
and increased velocity. As labour renders the hand hard
so sin makes the heart
callous
and each sin makes the stony heart yet more like adamant. At the same
time
all the circumstances around an unregenerate man will be perverted to the
same result. If
for instance
a man prospers
nothing is more hardening to the
heart than long prosperity. The opposite condition of circumstances will
through sin
produce the same result. Affliction hardens those whom it does not
soften. And
alas! alas! that we should have to add it
holy influences will
come to complete this hardening
and carry it to a still higher degree. The
sunlight of the Gospel shining upon hearers either melts them into repentance
or else hardens them into greater obstinacy. Yet
further
when an unregenerate
man dares to put on a Christian profession
this is perhaps the most rapid and
certain process for consummating the devil’s work; for if a man will be
audacious enough to join himself with the saints while he is indulging in
private sin; if he will continue to come to the communion table when he knows
that his basest lusts are still indulged; and if
moreover
he has the face to
boast of being a child of God when he knows that he is an utter stranger to
Divine grace
why
such a man is the raw material out of which Satan can make a
Judas.
II. Wherever true
tenderness is found it is a special gift of the new covenant. A heart of flesh
is a boon of sovereign grace
and it is always the result of Divine power. No
heart of stone was ever turned into flesh by accident
nor by mere providential
dispensations
nor by human persuasions. Neither is such a change wrought by
man’s own actions. How shall a stone
being a stone
produce in itself flesh?
The Spirit of God must change the nature
or the heart of stone will never
become a heart of flesh. Note that the first works of the Spirit of God upon
the soul tend towards this tenderness
for when He comes to a man He convinces
him of sin and so softens him; the man convinced of sin does not laugh any
longer at sin
neither does he despise the wrath of God on account of it. When
the soul comes to be really saved
and to obtain peace through Jesus Christ
one great mark of its salvation is tenderness in heart. Oh
what a place for
tenderness the Cross is! When for the first time oar eye beholds the Saviour
we
weep; we look and live
but we also look and mourn that we pierced the
Lord. The fact that He loved us and gave Himself for us is enough to dissolve a
heart of iron
if it could once know it. Now
as these first works of the
Spirit of God in conviction and conversion lead to tenderness
so is it true of
all the Divine operations which follow in due course. The whole tenor of the
Gospel is towards tenderness. I cannot recollect a promise
I cannot recall a
doctrine
I cannot remember a fact connected with the Gospel
which could make
a believer hard-hearted. Can you? So is it with every Christian grace. All the
Christian virtues promote warmth and tenderness of heart. You cannot be strong
in piety unless you are tender in heart. Are you a child? Can a child be good
if it be indifferent
haughty
obstinate
and stony-hearted towards its
parents? Are you a servant? Who is a good servant but he that is tender of his
master’s reputation
and anxious to fill his lord’s command? Are you a soldier?
Where is there a good soldier that is not jealous of his captain’s honour
and
careful lest by any means he should break the martial law? There must be
tenderness. It is an essential point.
III. This
tenderness
when it is given
is observable under several aspects. The man who
has a heart of flesh given him becomes sensitive to fear. He trembles at the
thought of a holy God in arms against him. The renewed heart is afraid of what
other men call little sins
and flees from them as from a serpent. Again
a
tender heart becomes sensitive as to the decisions of its enlightened
conscience. The Christian feels that it is a horrible thing to sin against God
against the Saviour’s love
and against the influence of the indwelling Spirit
and he starts back from sin
not only because he is afraid of the punishment
but
because he is wounded by the sin itself. As smoke to the eyes
as thorns to the
flesh
and as gall to the palate
such is sin to the heart of flesh. Then
again
the new heart
the fleshy heart
becomes sensitive of the Divine love.
The renewed heart feels that the love of Christ constraineth it
and it judgeth
“that if Christ died for all
then were all dead
and that He died for all
that they which live should not live henceforth to themselves
but unto Him
that died for them and rose again.” Moreover
the heart becomes sensitive
henceforth to holy grief. When it has erred it chastens and humbles itself for
having grieved the Saviour: it takes revenge upon itself if sin has been
indulged. Withal it becomes sensitive to joy
and oh the joy which a Christian
feels
to which the ungodly man must forever be a stranger! Heaven itself seems
to flash along every nerve when the heart is steeped in fellowship with Jesus.
And so we become sensitive with pity for others. I would give nothing for your
religion if you do not desire others to share in it; if you can
without
emotion
think of a soul being damned
I fear that it will be your own lot.
Where this tenderness of heart is carried to a high point
as it ought to be in
every Christian
the believer becomes delicately sensitive concerning the
things of God. A Christian’s heart should resemble a sensitive plant
which the
moment it is touched folds up its leaves
as a sailor reefs his canvas; or like
a wound in a man’s flesh
which is pained by the faintest brush. Spiritual
sensitiveness is fulness of life; insensibility is death. To feel the slightest
motion of the Holy Spirit is a sign of high spirituality.
IV. Tenderness of
heart is to be greatly prized and earnestly cultivated. Beloved
do not try to
get rid of soul alarm and conviction and sin
except in God’s way. You will
never prize the Saviour until you loathe yourself; you will never love His
blood until you have been ashamed of the crimson of your own sin. Go to Jesus
and put your trust in Him
and harden not your heart against Him. Next
I speak
to you
O child of God. Cultivate tenderness of heart more and more. Be very
humble
lie very low: be more and more conscious of your natural guilt
and
repent daily more earnestly. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 27
I will put My Spirit
within you.
The gift of Pentecost
I. The agent in
this change. God Himself.
1. Nothing less than this will suffice. Outward morality not enough
does not produce true obedience. Importance of motives.
2. Failure of all else to regenerate mankind.
II. The method of
this change
as here predicted.
1. Change of heart. Heart of stone removed (Zachariah 7:12); heart of
flesh given
receptive of holy influences: case of Lydia (Acts 16:14). The whole will thus changed.
2. The Spirit bestowed. God Himself dwelling in the heart (Psalms 68:18; John 14:17; John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 3:16). The great gift of Pentecost (Acts 2:4); the Church’s birthday. Mark the wider diffusion
the increased
knowledge
the higher tone
the advance in spiritual life since the day of
Pentecost.
III. The result of
this change. “Cause you to walk in My statutes
” etc. The fruit of the Spirit
is obedience (Galatians 5:22-23); no true obedience without the Spirit (Romans 8:8-9); the good tree alone brings forth good fruit (Matthew 7:17-20). This then supplies a practical test.
1. Are we exhibiting these fruits? If not
then we are not led by the
Spirit
then we are “none of Christ’s”; then the great work of the changed
heart has not taken place.
2. Do we desire a better
higher life? If so
then remember the
distinct promise of text. Pentecost is a pledge (Acts 2:39). (A. G. Hellicar
M. A.)
The renovator
In many respects the new
corresponds with the old creation
the Paradise Regained with the Paradise
Lost. Man is the subject of both; his good and the Divine glory are the ends of
both; devils are the enemies
and angels are the allies of both; the Father
Son
and Holy Ghost are the authors of both. The Father decrees redemption; the
Son procures it; the Holy Spirit applies it; and for the latter purpose this
promise is both given and fulfilled--“I will put My Spirit within you.”
I. The Holy Spirit
is the great agent in conversion and sanctification. Man cannot be saved unless
elected; nor elected without the Father. He cannot be saved unless redeemed;
nor redeemed without the Son. Not less true is it
that he cannot be saved
unless converted; nor converted without the Spirit. Do you ask why? We may
compare the change wrought in conversion to the removal of what was old and
shattered
and the supplying its place with new machinery. But what is mere
machinery? Just what a new heart were without the Spirit of God. In addition to
the machinery we must have a moving power. Of what use were that which is to be
moved without a force adequate to the end in view? Without a mainspring inside
the timepiece
however complete the number and perfect the workmanship of its
wheels
pinions
pivots
axles
the hands would stand on its face
nor advance
one step over the encircling hours. So were it with the renewed soul without
the Spirit of God to set its powers in motion
bring them into play
and impart
to their movements a true and heavenward character. For this purpose God
fulfils the promise
I will put My Spirit within you. To illustrate this truth
let me avail myself of the clement which gives a name to the Spirit
and which
our Saviour selects as its appropriate emblem--“The wind bloweth where it
listeth
” etc. Here is a noble ship. Her masts are all in; and her canvas is
spread out; yet no ripple runs by her side
nor foam flashes from her bows
nor
has she any motion
but what she receives from the alternate swell and sinking
of the wave. Her equipment is complete. The forests have masted her; in many a
broad yard of canvas a hundred looms have given her wings. Her anchor has been
weighed to the rude sea chant; the needle trembles on her deck; with his eye on
that friend
unlike worldly friends
true in storm as in calm
the helmsman stands
impatient by the wheel. And when
as men bound to a distant shore
the crew
have said farewell to wives and children
why then lies she there over the
self-same ground
rising with the flowing
and falling with the ebbing tide?
The cause is plain. They want a wind to raise that drooping pennon
and fill
these empty sails. They look to heaven
and so they may; out of the skies their
help must come. Even so
though heaven born
heaven called
heaven bound
though endowed with a new heart
and new mind
and new will
we stand in the
same need of celestial influences. The grace and Spirit of God are
indispensable. This Divine gift
however
neither circumscribes nor supersedes
our own exertions. These gracious influences descend not to set us idle
any more
than the breeze blows to send the sailor to his hammock and rock him over in
the arms of sleep. The more full the gifts and Divine breathings of the Spirit
the busier let us be; more diligent in the use of prayer
of sacraments
of the
Word
of all those ordinances through which the Spirit works
and bears
believers onward and homeward in their heavenly course.
II. God’s spirit is
not only given to His people
but dwells in them. “I will put My Spirit within
you.” Whatever habitation the prince of darkness may have within unconverted
men; and however also
holding for a time some footing
even in God’s people he
may suggest those thoughts of blasphemy and desires of sin
which come as
unbidden as they are unwelcome
yet the saints of God enjoy what may be called
a blessed possession. Not the angels
but the Spirit of God dwells in them.
Heaven has descended into their bosoms
and there they have a little heaven
below. God now in very truth not only dwells with man
but in man. “I will put
My Spirit within you.” He is enshrined within them: so that
as the soul dwells
in the body
God dwells in the soul. Speaking of the man that loves Him
our
Lord said
We will come unto Him. A condescension and kindness unknown to those
who boast the friendship of kings
God bestows the honour of daily visits on
the lowliest and poorest Christian. He comes at the time of prayer; He occupies
the mercy seat at the stated hour of worship; and into the closet where the
good man goes
He goes along with him. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
The necessity of the
Spirit’s work
We lay down this
proposition--that the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to us if
we would be saved.
1. This is very manifest if we remember what man is by nature. Holy
Scripture tells us that man by nature is dead in trespasses and sins. It does
not say that he is sick
that he is faint
that he has grown callous
and
hardened
and seared
but it says he is absolutely dead. When the body is dead
it is powerless; it is unable to do anything for itself; and when the soul of
man is dead
in a spiritual sense
it must be
if there is any meaning in the
figure
utterly and entirely powerless; and unable to do anything of itself or
for itself. The Spirit finds men as destitute of spiritual life as Ezekiel’s
dry bones; He brings bone to bone
and fits the skeleton together
and then He
comes from the four winds and breathes into the slain
and they live
and stand
upon their feet
an exceeding great army
and worship God. But apart from that
apart from the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God
men’s souls must lie
in the valley of dry bones
dead
and dead forever. But Scripture does not only
tell us that man is dead in sin; it tells us something worse than this
namely
that he is utterly and entirely averse to everything that is good and right.
“The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of
God
neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). Turn you all Scripture through
and you find continually the
will of man described as being contrary to the things of God. They will not
come unto Christ
that they may have life. Until the Spirit draw them
come
they neither will nor can. Hence
then
from the fact that man’s nature is hostile
to the Divine Spirit
that he hates grace
that he despises the way in which
grace is brought to him
that it is contrary to his own proud nature to stoop
to receive salvation by the deeds of another--hence it is necessary that the
Spirit of God should operate to change the will
to correct the bias of the
heart
to set man in a right track
and then give him strength to run in it.
2. Salvation must be the work of the Spirit in us
because the means
used in salvation are of themselves inadequate for the accomplishment of the
work. And what are the means of salvation? Why
first and foremost stands the
preaching of the Word of God. But what is there in preaching
by which souls
are saved
that looks as if it would be the means of saving souls? Under the
ministry dead souls are quickened
sinners are made to repent
the vilest of
sinners are made holy
men who came determined not to believe are compelled to
believe. Now
who does this? If you say the ministry does it
then I say
farewell to your reason
because there is nothing in the successful ministry
which would tend thereunto. It must be that the Spirit worketh in man through
the ministry
or else such deeds would never be accomplished. You might as well
expect to raise the dead by whispering in their ears
as hope to save souls by
preaching to them
if it were not for the agency of the Spirit.
3. The absolute necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart
may be clearly seen from this fact
that all which has been done by God the
Father
and all that has been done by God the Son
must be ineffectual to us
unless the Spirit shall reveal these things to our souls. We believe
in the
first place
that God the Father elects His people; from before all worlds He
chooses them to Himself; but let me ask you--what effect does the doctrine of
election have upon any man
until the Spirit of God enters into him? Until the
Spirit opens the eye to read
until the Spirit imparts the mystic secret
no
heart can know its election. He
by His Divine workings
bears an infallible
witness with our spirits that we are born of God; and then we are enabled to
“read our title clear to mansions in the skies.” Look
again
at the covenant
of grace. We know that there was a covenant made with the Lord Jesus Christ
by
His Father
from before all worlds
and that in this covenant the persons of
all His people were given to Him
and were secured; but of what use or of what
avail is the covenant to us until the Holy Spirit brings the blessings of the
covenant to us? Take
again
the redemption of Christ. We know that Christ did
stand in the room
place
and stead of all His people
and that all those who
shall appear in heaven will appear there as an act of justice as well as of
grace
seeing that Christ was punished in their room and stead
and that it
would have been unjust if God punished them
seeing that He had punished Christ
for them. We believe that Christ having paid all their debts
they have a right
to their freedom in Christ--that Christ having covered them with His
righteousness
they are entitled to eternal life as much as if they had
themselves been perfectly holy. But of what avail is this to me
until the
Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them to me?
4. The experience of the true Christian is a reality; but it never
can be known and felt without the Spirit of God. Trouble comes
storms of
trouble
and he looks the tempest in the face
and says
“I know that all
things work together for my good.” His children die
the partner of his bosom
is carried to the grave; he says
“The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away
blessed be the name of the Lord.” His farm fails
his crop is blighted; his
business prospects are clouded. You see him approaching at last the dark valley
of the shadow of death
and you hear him cry
“Yea
though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil; Thy rod and Thy staff they
comfort me
and Thou Thyself art with me.” Now
I ask you what makes this man
calm in the midst of all these varied trials
and personal troubles
if it be
not the Spirit of God? But look at the Christian
too
in his joyous moments.
He is rich. God has given him all his heart’s desire on earth. Mark that man;
he has plenty of room for pleasures in this world
but he drinks out of a higher
cistern. His pleasure springs from things unseen; his happiest moments are when
he can shut all these good things out
and when he can come to God as a poor
guilty sinner
and come to Christ and enter into fellowship with Him
and rise
into nearness of access and confidence
and bold approach to the throne of the
heavenly grace. Now
what is it that keeps a man who has all these mercies from
setting his heart upon the earth? What can do this? No mere moral virtue. No
doctrine of the stoic ever brought a man to such a pass as that. No
it must be
the work of the Spirit
and the work of the Spirit alone
that can lead a man
to live in heaven
while there is a temptation to him to live on earth.
5. The acceptable acts of the Christian life cannot be performed
without the Spirit; and hence
again
the necessity for the Spirit of God. The
first act of the Christian’s life is repentance. Have you ever tried to repent?
If so
if you tried without the Spirit of God
you know that to urge a man to
repent without the promise of the Spirit to help him
is to urge him to do an
impossibility. Faith is the next act in the Divine life. Perhaps you think
faith very easy; but if you are ever brought to feel the burden of sin you
would not find it quite so light a labour. Then we have to cry for the help of
the Spirit; and through Him we can do all things
though without Him we can do
nothing at all. In all the acts of the Christian’s life
whether it be the act
of consecrating one’s self to Christ
or the act of daily prayer
or the act of
constant submission
or preaching the Gospel
or ministering to the necessities
of the poor
or comforting the desponding
in all these the Christian finds his
weakness and his powerlessness
unless he is clothed about with the Spirit of
God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The promise of the Spirit
I. The blessing
promised.
1. The gift of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is revealed to us.
2. That Spirit is to be put within us. The signs of the Spirit
dwelling in us will be--
II. The practical
influence this blessing is to produce. The Spirit will--
1. Impart the nature and disposition to serve God. This must be the
new nature
the new heart
the right spirit
the obedient mind.
2. Will give us ability to serve God We require strength
power
etc.
(Ephesians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 4:16).
3. Will enable us to advance in the service of God.
Application--
1. Let us seek largely the influences of the Holy Spirit. It is
obtained by believing prayer.
2. Let us yield ourselves freely to His Divine influence.
3. Let us be careful that we quench not and grieve not the Spirit of
God. (J. Burns
D. D.)
The covenant promise of the
Spirit
I. The
commendation of the text
the tongues of men and of angels might fail.
To call it a golden sentence would be much too commonplace: to liken it to a
pearl of great price would be too poor a comparison. “I will put My Spirit
within you.”
1. I would begin by saying that it is a gracious word. So great a
boon as this could never come to any man by merit. A man might so act as to
deserve a reward of a certain kind
in measure suited to his commendable
action; but the Holy Spirit can never be the wage of human service: the idea
verges upon blasphemy.
2. Note
next
that it is a Divine word: “I will put My Spirit within
you.” Who but the Lord could speak after this fashion?
3. To me there is much charm in the further thought that this is an
individual and personal word. “I will put My Spirit within you” one by one. “A
new heart also will I give you.” Now
a new heart can only be given to one
person. Each man needs a heart of his own
and each man must have a new heart
for himself. “And a new spirit will I put within you.” Within each one this
must be done. “And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh
and I
will give you an heart of flesh”--these are all personal
individual operations
of grace.
4. This is a separating word. Those who have the Spirit are not of
the world
nor like the world; and they soon have to come out from among the
ungodly
and to be separate; for difference of nature creates conflict.
5. It is a very uniting word. It separates from the world
but it
joins to God. By the Spirit we have access to the Father; by the Spirit we
perceive our adoption
and learn to cry
“Abba
Father”; by the Spirit we are
made partakers of the Divine nature
and have communion with the thrice holy
Lord.
6. It is a very condescending word--“I will put My Spirit within
you.” The Saviour has gone away on purpose that the Comforter might be given to
dwell in you
and He does dwell in you. Is it not so? If it be so
admire this
condescending God
and worship and praise His name. Sweetly submit to His rule
in all things. Grieve not the Spirit of God. Watch carefully that nothing comes
within you that may defile the temple of God. Let the faintest monition of the
Holy Spirit be law to you.
7. It is a very spiritual word. Our text has nothing to do with
outward rites and ceremonies; but goes much further and deeper. God puts His
Spirit not upon the surface of the man
but into the centre of his being. The
promise means--“I will put My Spirit in your bowels
in your hearts
in the
very soul of you.”
8. This word is a very effectual one. “I will put My Spirit within
you
and cause you to walk in My statutes
and ye shall keep My judgments and
do them.” The Spirit is operative--first upon the inner life
in causing you to
love the law of the Lord; and then it moves you openly to keep His statutes
concerning Himself
and His judgments between you and your fellow men.
II. The exposition
of the text.
1. One of the first effects of the Spirit of God being put within us
is quickening. We are dead by nature to all heavenly and spiritual things; but
when the Spirit of God comes
then we begin to live. This life of the Spirit
Shows itself by causing the man to pray. The cry is the distinctive mark of the
living child. He begins to cry in broken accents
“God be merciful to me.”
Remember
dear friends
that as the Holy Spirit gives quickening at the first
so He must revive and strengthen it. Whenever you become dull and faint
cry
for the Holy Spirit.
2. When the Holy Spirit enters
after quickening He gives enlightening.
We cannot make men see the truth
they are so blind; but when the Lord puts His
Spirit within them their eyes are opened. At first they may see rather hazily;
but still they do see. As the light increases
and the eye is strengthened
they see more and more clearly.
3. The Spirit also works conviction. Conviction is more forcible than
illumination: it is the setting of a truth before the eye of the soul
so as to
make it powerful upon the conscience.
4. Furthermore
the Holy Spirit comes into us for purification. When
the Spirit comes
He infuses a new life
and that new life is a fountain of
holiness.
5. Next
the Holy Ghost acts in the heart as the Spirit of
preservation. Where He dwells men do not go back unto perdition. He works in
them a watchfulness against temptation day by day. He works in them to wrestle
against sin.
6. The Holy Spirit within us is for guidance to lead us into all
truth. Truth is like a vast grotto
and the Holy Spirit brings torches
and
shows us all the splendour of the roof; and since the passages seem intricate
He knows the way
and He leads us into the deep things of God. He is also our
practical Guide to heaven
helping and directing us on the upward journey.
7. Last of all
“I will put My Spirit within you
” that is
by way of
consolation
for His choice name is “The Comforter.” You that are under the
burden of sin; it is true no man can help you into peace
but the Holy Ghost
can. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The gift of inward moral
power
It would be a very poor
affair if all we had to say to man was:--“There is a beautiful example
follow
it!” Models are all very well
only
unfortunately
there is nothing in a model
to secure it being copied. You may have a most exquisite piece of penmanship
lithographed on the top of the page in a child’s copy book
but what is the
good of that if the poor little hand is trembling when it takes the pen
and if
the pen has got no ink in it
or the child does not want to learn? Copy books
are all very well
but you want something more than copy books. (A.
Maclaren.)
And cause you to walk in My statutes.
The new life
Good works
though not
always the believer’s attainment
will always be his aim. Committing to his
heart those tables which
in testimony of their excellence and authority
Moses
committed to the tabernacle’s holiest shrine
he will say
O how I love Thy
law
O Lord; and he will ever pray that God would fulfil to him this gracious
promise
“I will cause them to walk
” etc.
I. It is a willing
obedience. Many movements take place in the universe independent of any will
but that of God. The sap ascends the tree
the planets revolve round the sun
the moon waxes and wanes in her quarters
the stars rise and set in the
heavens
the tides flow and ebb upon the shore
and Nature walks in God’s statutes
keeping His judgments
and doing them
moved to obedience by no will but His.
So soon
however
as
leaving inanimate creation
we ascend into the regions
where intelligent mind and matter
or even blind instinct and matter are
united
we discover a beautiful and benevolent law
by virtue of which their
Maker at once secures the happiness and provides for the welfare of His
creatures. He so orders it that the will of His creatures is in perfect harmony
with their work; their inclinations with their interests. The nature of the
redeemed is so accommodated to the state of redemption
their wishes are so
fitted to their wants
their hopes to their prospects
their aspirations to
their honours
and their will to their work
that they would be less content to
return to polluted pleasures than the butterfly to be stripped of its silken
wings
and condemned to pass its life amid the foul garbage of former days.
With such a will and nature as believers now possess
their old pleasures would
be misery; their old haunts a hell. Rather than leave his father’s table and
bosom for the arms of harlots and the husks of swine troughs
would not the
reclaimed prodigal embrace death itself
and seek a refuge in the grave? Even
so God’s people would rather not be at all
than be what once they were. Hence
on the one hand
their unhappiness when entangled in sin; hence
on the other
hand
their enjoyment in God’s service; hence David’s ardent longing for the
place of ordinances; hence the beauty of a Sabbath scene
and the sweet music
of Sabbath bells
and the answer of their hearts to the welcome sound
I was
glad when they said unto me
let us go unto the house of the Lord.
II. This is a
progressive obedience. To “walk” implies progress in grace. Walking is an art
and one not acquired either in a moment or a day; for the power to walk is not
ours
in the same sense as the power to breathe. We are born with the one
power
but born without the other. Walking
indeed
becomes so easy by use
that we are unconscious of any effort; yet step into the nursery
and you see
that this art
acquired by labour
is the reward of continuous
conquering
perseverance. In fact
our erect attitude and progressive motion
simple and
easy as they seem
are achieved by means of most delicate and dexterous
balancing. The marble statue cannot stand erect without foreign support: and
you have no sooner raised a dead man
and set him upon his feet
than he falls
at yours
a heap of loathsome mortality.
1. In this image God’s people find comfort and encouragement. Does
the infant who is learning to walk abandon the attempt
or yield to despair
because its first efforts are feeble
and come far short of success? If not
why then should we despond
because in attempting to walk in God’s ways we often
stumble
and not seldom fall?
2. This image stimulates to exertion
as well as comforts under
failure. In attempting to walk
the child falls; blood stains its brow
and
tears fill its eye. Does it lie there to weep? By no means. If not by speech
yet by signs that go to a mother’s heart
it prays; for it can pray before it
speaks
Looking through these tears
and stretching out its little arms
the
infant solicits
implores her help. Nor in vain. Teachers of our children! here
let us become their scholars
and take a lesson from the nursery. Let the
perseverance of the nursery be imitated by the Church. Let our knees be as
often employed in prayer
and our powers and hours as much engaged in
attempting a holy life
as those of infancy in learning to walk. Oh
if we
would give the same diligence to make our calling and election sure
the same
diligence to work out our salvation
the same diligence to grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
I am certain that we should
be holier; much holier than we are.
III. This willing
and progressive obedience is the sign and seal of salvation. True religion
consists not in passive
but active piety. We are to walk in God’s statutes
to
keep His judgments
and to do them An active Christian life is implied in the
very terms of the text. Grant that we are thereby exposed to hardships and
temptations
from which a retiring piety might exempt us. Still
a life of
active service shall prove best for others
and in the end also for ourselves.
A candle set beneath a bushel is
no doubt
safe from wind and weather; but
what good purpose does it serve? No light shineth for itself
and no man liveth
for himself. Besides
the very trials to which piety is exposed on the stormy
heights of duty
impart to it a robust and healthy character. The strongest
trees grow not beneath the glass of a conservatory
or in sheltered and sunny
nooks. The stoutest timber stands on Norwegian rocks
where tempests rage
and
long
hard winters reign. And is it not also With the Christian as with animal
life? Exercise is the parent of health; and strength the reward of activity. A
Christian man should feel like some strong
brave swimmer
who has hundreds
around him sinking
drowning
shrieking for help. The difficulty is to make
selection
on whose unhappy head first to lay a saving hand. Amid such scenes
and calls
oh
it is lamentable to think how much of our time has been
frivolously
or worse than frivolously spent. Surely the time past of our lives
may suffice us to have wrought the will of the flesh; to have enjoyed our own
ease
made money
and gathered around us the comforts of life. To nobler ends
be its remaining sands devoted! Take Jesus Christ for your copy. What is our
Christianity but a name
a shadow
a mockery
unless we resemble Him who
being
incarnate God
was incarnate goodness; and of whom
though He stood alone in
that judgment hall
without one brave brother’s voice raised to speak for Him
there were hundreds and thousands to bear witness that He went about doing
good
and was the friend both of sufferers and sinners. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
Incentives to Christian
activity
I. One of the most
powerful means to accomplish the duty of the text is to cultivate the love of
Christ. They who would live like Jesus must look to Jesus. The effect which
should be produced by looking to Jesus we may learn by turning our gaze on the
sun. To eyes that have been bathed in his dazzling beams
how do other objects
appear? Why
all are changed. They have become dim
if not dark and invisible.
And were Jesus Christ revealed to us in the full effulgence of His Saviour
glory
all sinful
even all created and dearly loved objects
would appear to
undergo some such
and a no less remarkable change.
1. Love is the most powerful of all motives. It is as with a stone on
the dry ground
which we strain at
but cannot stir. Flood the field where it
lies; bury the huge block beneath the rising water; and now when its holed is
submerged
bend to the work. Put your strength to it. Ah! it moves
rises from
its bed
rolls on before your arm. So
when under the heavenly influences of
grace the tide of love rises
and goes swelling over our duties and
difficulties
a child can do a man’s work
and a man can do a giant’s. Let love
be present in the heart
and out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God
ordaineth strength. Strength! How great strength? Death pulls down the youngest
and the strongest; but love is stronger than death. She welcomes sacrifices
and glories in tribulation. Duty has no burden too heavy
nor death any terrors
too great for her.
2. Love is a motive to duty as pleasant as it is powerful. Love
weaves chains that are tougher than iron
and yet softer than silk. She unites
the strength of a giant to the gentleness of a little child; and with a power
of change all her own
under her benign and omnipotent influence duties that
were once intolerable drudgeries become a pure delight. To the feet of love the
ways of God’s law are like a fresh and flowery sward
ways of pleasantness and
paths of peace. Love changes bondage into liberty. Delighting in a law which is
to our carnal nature what his chain is to a savage dog
what his task is to the
slave
and against which our corrupt passions foam and fret like angry seas on
an iron the fact
that by our obedience to these statutes the verdict of the
last judgment shall be settled. We are saved by grace
but are tried by works.
We are to be judged by the deeds done in the body
whether they were good or
bad. Every one of us
says Paul
shall give account of himself to God. Oh! how
should these solemn truths hedge up our path to a close and holy walk in His
statutes! The day is coming when every unpardoned sin shall find out its
author. Without a pardon
Jesus shall have no answer to us but the terrible
response of Jehu
What hast thou to do with peace? Peace!--Yes
being justified
by faith
we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ; and the secret
of that tranquillity lies in that which gave courage to a royal favourite when
arraigned before his country for a most flagrant crime. Men wondered at his
strange serenity
and how
amid circumstances trying to the strongest nerves
he could bear himself so calmly. Long after hope had expired in the breast of
many anxious friends
and they looked on him as a doomed man
there he was
looking round serenely on that terrible array. His pulse beat calm
nor started
suddenly
but went on with a stately march. Peace
like innocence
sat
enthroned upon his placid brow. At length
amid the silence of the hushed
assembly
the verdict of guilty is pronounced. He rises. Erect in attitude
in
demeanour calm
he stands up not to receive a sentence
which was already
trembling on the judge’s lip
but to reveal the secret of this strange peace
and self-possession. He thrusts his hand into his bosom
and lays on the table
a pardon--a full free pardon for his crimes
sealed with the royal signet.
Would to God we all were as well prepared for the hour of death and the day of
judgment! Then fare ye well earth
sun
moon
and stars; fare ye well wife and
children
brothers and sisters
sweet friends
and all dear to us here below.
Welcome death
welcome judgment
welcome eternity; welcome God and Christ
angels and saints made perfect
welcome--welcome heaven. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
Verse 28
Ye shall dwell in the land
. . . and ye shall be My people.
The blessedness of the
saints
I. The abundance
of the blessings of grace. A newborn infant is the most helpless of all
creatures. In its nakedness
weakness
dumbness
how dependent on a mother’s
love; yet not more so than God’s people are on His care and kindness. Theirs
are therefore circumstances in which His promises are exceedingly precious. The
condition of believers closely resembles that of a man of boundless affluence
whose wealth lies
not so much in money
as in money’s worth; in bills and
bonds
all to be duly honoured
so soon as they become due. With these promises
the poorest Christian is really a richer man than other men
with all their
possessions; nor would he part with one of them for the world’s wealth. Are you
cast down because
while others have shallows
you have depths
dark depths of
sorrow and suffering to pass through? Be it so: it is as easy for God to march
“the host” through the wide
deep sea
as across the bed of Jordan. Are your
corruptions strong? Be it so: Samson found it as easy to snap a new spun cable
as withes fresh gathered on the river’s bank; and believe me it is as easy for
God to break thy tyrant’s strongest as his lightest chain. A chain of iron and
a thread of flax are all one to God. The blood of thy Saviour cleanseth from
every sin; and nothing being impossible
nay
not even difficult to
Omnipotence
be assured that in your battle
and watch
and toil
you shall
find this promise true
My grace is sufficient for thee.
II. The happiness
which God’s people enter on at death. God’s people are like His ancient Israel.
They have enemies who will harass them in life
and follow on their track to
the very shores of time; but whoever or whatever these may be--sin
sorrow
poverty
temptations
trials
fears
doubts
Satan himself--oh! a death bed
shall be the death of them all. This is what the redeemed escape from
but what
they escape to
oh
the joys they enter on when they are with Christ
who can
tell? We know that to die is--not shall be at a future time
and after some
intermediate state--but to die is gain
gain immediate. One step
and what a
step! the soul is in glory. And what and where is heaven? I cannot tell. It
looks to the eye of faith
much like a star to the eye of flesh. A shining
object
we see it gleaming in the dusky fields of space
but see nothing more
even when our eyes are assisted by the most powerful telescope. By what beings
it is inhabited; what forms they have; what tongue they speak; what the
character of the landscape in these upper worlds
we do not know
and perhaps
never shall
till we have cast loose a body which
like an anchor
moors us to
this earth
and with a soul unchained
free perhaps as thought
we are left to
roam the universe
and pass
as on the rapid wings of a wish
from world to
world of our Father’s kingdom. Never
till then
shall we know either where or
what heaven is. The best description of it is to say that it is indescribable.
III. The complete
blessedness of the saints at the resurrection in the restoration of all that
sin forfeited. There were periods in creation; progressive stages. Step by step
the work advanced to its consummation. Like creation
the Gospel has had its
periods of progress. It gradually advanced in its development from the date of
the first promise given by God; when He
the Judge
and the culprits
man and
the devil
stood face to face upon the ruins of Eden. There yet remains an
aspect of redemption in which it is not complete. All that death and Satan hold
they must relinquish; all that Christ has purchased He shall possess. The soul
wants her partner; and although the exile may return no more
nor see his
native land
the redeemed shall come back to claim their bodies from the earth;
aye
and claim the very earth they lie in. The saints shall inherit the earth.
Under laws accommodated to a new economy
this wide world shall become one
smiling Eden
where
exempt from physical as from moral evils
none shall
shiver amid arctic frosts
nor wither under tropic heat; and these fields of
snow and arid sands shall be all flowered with roses. From the convulsions of
expiring
or rather the birth-pangs of parturient nature
a newborn world shall
come; a home worthy of immortals; a palace befitting its King. The blood that
falling on Calvary
dyed earth’s soil shall bless it; and this ancient theatre
of Satan’s triumph shall be the seat of Emmanuel’s kingdom
and the witness of
His glory. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
Verse 31
Then shall ye remember
your own evil ways . . . and shall loathe yourselves.
True conversion
Israel had fallen from
God
had gone after idols
and had sunk into the grossest moral corruptions.
Then came the Chaldeans and crushed the nation
and removed it into captivity.
However
God promised restoration to His people.
I. What is the
result
the very first result of restoration? What happens directly that Israel
is cleansed from past defilements
saved from present misery
assured against
future fall? There would be exultation
no doubt
triumphant shouting when
restored to the promised land and full privileges of being God’s children; but
this is observable
that the first and truest emotion called forth is
remembrance of past transgression and therefore self-loathing. It is the sight
of God’s mercy enduring forever
the sight of the overflowing of the cup of
love from His hand that calls forth this intense sorrow
this bitter loathing.
There is a German story of a man
who
for the love of gold
sold his heart to
a wood demon
and obtained in its place a heart of stone
and a purse which was
never empty. He was now rich
but cold-hearted. He ill-treated his wife and
caused her death
he drove his old mother from his door
be oppressed the poor
neglected his children
and went over the world seeking selfish pleasure. After
many years he returned discontented
but still rich. He could get no real
pleasure anywhere. Then in a fit of spleen
he sought the demon of the forest
and by the aid of the Cross recovered his heart of flesh. And the moment it was
again in his breast
all that he had done returned to him. He flung himself
in
floods of tears
on the ground weeping for his wife
his mother
his children
his friends
for all the wrong he had done
and all the good he had left
undone. So it was with Israel. The heart of stone was taken from them
a heart
of flesh was given them back
and instantly they remember their evil ways
and
loathe themselves in their own sight for their iniquities.
II. This is the
picture of true conversion. (S. Baring Gould
M. A.)
The sense of sin
A true sense of sin
implies the consciousness of the fact of our sinfulness. Intellectually
speaking
at different periods we estimate ourselves very differently. Whilst
still young
we were confident and self-sufficient. But years bring experience
to all
and sense to some
and looking back on our earlier selves we are
distressed: we see how egregiously vain
stupid
and intolerable we were. The
older man knows that his younger self was a fool.
1. A true sense of sin implies the consciousness that our sinfulness
is personal. “Your own evil ways.” Ezekiel is the prophet of individuality
and
here he singles out the individual sinner
seeking to bring home to the
consciousness of his personal fault.
2. A true sense of sin implies the consciousness of its hatefulness. The
text speaks of evil with the sense of horror and loathing--“detestable” things
“iniquities
” “abominations
” “filthiness
” “uncleanness.” How tenderly and
apologetically certain writers speak of ghastly vices! The true thinker must
know no anger or contempt in the presence of a crime; he must regard it with
the indifference with which the chemist regards a poisonous drug
or the
naturalist a poisonous flower. Again Bourget writes: “The artist admits that
there are virtues which are not lovely
and corruptions which are splendid
or
rather
he cares nothing for virtue or for corruption. He knows that there are
beautiful things and things that are ugly
and he knows nothing else.” It is
altogether another thing when the soul is convinced of sin and judgment. “Ye
shall loathe your own face
” declares the text. As a patient afflicted with a
malignant disease shrinks with horror from the sight of his own face when for
the first time he looks in the mirror
so does the convicted sinner shrink at
the sight of his heart and life as revealed in the light of God’s holiness. “Ye
that fear the Lord hate evil.” “I repent and abhor myself in sackcloth and
ashes.”
3. A true sense of sin implies the consciousness of its guilt. “And
shall judge yourselves unworthy to live.” We judge ourselves
condemn
ourselves
pass the sentence of death upon ourselves. We instinctively feel
that the difference is simply immeasurable between a mistake and a sin. A man
may be liable to punishment for a mistake
as it involves culpable carelessness;
but a simple error of judgment
a lapse of memory
an oversight
belongs to a
mild category compared with the deliberate breach of the moral law. We feel
that the difference is infinite between a misfortune and a sin. When one is
overtaken by blindness
crippled by rheumatism
smitten by fever
or shattered
by an accident
we do not blame and punish
we pity and help; but a
transgression of God’s law awakens quite another order of ideas and sentiments.
The penitent stands face to face with the righteous and loving God
and is
filled with surprise
grief
and shame. He has done what deserves utterest
reprobation
and is worthy of death. The sense of sin is first created by the
Divine Spirit causing us to see and feel the purity and love of God
especially
as these attributes are revealed in Jesus Christ. This is the golden ground
against which sin stands out in terrible relief. And the sense of the folly
shame
and peril of sin becomes more acute all through the regenerate life. (W.
L. Watkinson.)
Mistaken notions about
repentance
The day of manifested
mercy is to be the day of hearty repentance. “Then.” When God loads you with
benefits you shall loathe yourselves. Repentance is wrought in the heart by a
sense of love Divine. Many are kept from Christ and hope by misapprehensions of
this matter. They have--
I. Mistaken ideas
of what repentance is.
1. They confound it with--
2. It is--
3. It is all wrought by a sense of Divine love.
II. Mistaken ideas
of the place which repentance occupies.
1. It is looked upon by some as a procuring cause of grace
as if
repentance merited remission: a grave error.
2. It is wrongly viewed by others as a preparation for grace; a human
goodness laying the foundation for mercy
a meeting of God half way; this is a
deadly error.
3. It is treated as a sort of qualification for believing
and even
as the ground for believing: all which is legality
and contrary to pure Gospel
truth.
4. Others treat it as the argument for peace of mind. They have
repented so much
and it must be all right. This is to build our confidence
upon a false foundation.
III. Mistaken ideas
of the way in which it is produced in the heart.
1. It is not produced by a distinct and immediate attempt to repent.
2. Nor by strong excitement at revival meetings.
3. Nor by meditating upon sin
and death
and hell
etc.
4. But the God of all grace produces it--
5. Every Gospel truth urges repentance upon the regenerate. Election
redemption
justification
adoption
eternal love
etc.
are all arguments for
loathing every evil way.
6. Every Gospel privilege makes us loathe sin: prayer
praise
the
reading of Scripture
the fellowship of saints
the table of the Lord
etc.
7. Every Gospel hope purifies us from sin
whether it be a hope for
more grace in this world
or for glory in the next. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
True repentance
I. The nature of
true repentance.
1. True repentance is the gift of God
and the peculiar effect of His
Holy Spirit.
2. The grief and self-loathing of true penitents do not flow so much
from their feeling that sin is hurtful to themselves
as from the consideration
of its own base nature; and especially of the ingratitude which it carries in
it towards a kind and merciful God.
3. The soul’s conversion to God is the great introductory blessing
which renders all other blessings valuable.
4. As this great and valuable blessing cometh down from the Father of
lights
who is the Author of every good and perfect gift
it is therefore to be
sought by our humble supplications and prayers (verse 37).
II. To recommend
the example of these penitents described in the text to your imitation.
1. Let me call upon you to remember your ways. The neglect of serious
consideration is the ruin of almost every soul that perisheth eternally.
Consider the various relations in which you have been placed
the special
duties which arose from those relations
and the manner in which you have
performed them. When by such means you have discovered your own evil ways
then
proceed to consider attentively the nature and degree of that evil which is in
them. Let it not suffice to know that you have been sinners
without pondering
the dreadful malignity and demerit of sin.
2. Loathe yourselves in your own sight
for your iniquities
and for
your abominations. Thou art displeased with thine enemies who seek to injure
thee; but where is there such an enemy as thou art to thyself? Thou abhorrest
him who hath killed thy dearest friend; but where hadst thou ever such a friend
as the Lord Jesus Christ
whom
by thy sins
thou hast crucified and slain?
3. Let me conclude with exhorting you to repair to that fountain
which is opened for sin and for uncleanness
to that blood which can cleanse
you from all sin. (H. Blair
D. D.)
Self-abasement
the sign
of a Christian
Bradford
a martyr
yet
subscribes himself “A sinner.” “If I be righteous
yet will I not lift up my
head”; like the violet
a sweet flower
but hangs down the head. (Thomas
Watson.)
Verse 32
Not for your sakes do I
this
saith the Lord God
be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded.
Free grace
There are two sins of man
that are bred in the bone
and that continually come out in the flesh. One is
self-dependence and the other is self-exaltation. It is very hard
even for the
best of men
to keep themselves from the first error. Instead of looking to
grace alone to sanctify us
we find ourselves adopting philosophic rules and
principles which we think will effect the Divine work. We shall but mar it; we
shall bring grief into our own spirits. But if
instead thereof
we in every
word look up to the God of our salvation for help
and strength
and grace
and
succour
then our work will proceed to our own joy and comfort
and to God’s
glory. The other error to which man is very prone
is that of relying upon his
own merit. Though there is no righteousness in any man
yet in every man there
is a proneness to trust in some fancied merit. Human nature with regard to its
own merit
is like the spider
it bears its support in its own bowels
and it
seems as if it would keep spinning on to all eternity.
I. I shall
endeavour to expound this text. “Not for your sakes do I this
saith the Lord
God.” The motive for the salvation of the human race is to be found in the
breast of God
and not in the character or condition of man. God
who doeth as
He wills with His own
and giveth no account of His matters
but who deals with
His creatures as the potter deals with his clay
took not upon Him the nature
of angels
but took upon Him the seed of Abraham
and chose men to be the
vessels of His mercy. This fact we know
but where is its reason? certainly not
in man. Here
very few object. If we talk about the election of men and the
non-election of fallen angels
there is not a cavil for a moment. Come
then
we must go further. The only reason why one man is saved
and not another
lies
not
in any sense
in the man saved
but in God’s bosom. The reason why this
day the Gospel is preached to you and not to the heathen far away
is not
because
as a race
we are superior to the heathen; it is not because we
deserve more at God’s hands; His choice of Britain
in the election of outward
privilege
is not caused by the excellency of the British nation
but entirely
because of His own mercy and His own love. We are taught in Holy Scripture
that
long before this world was made
God foreknew and foresaw all the
creatures He intended to fashion; and there and then foreseeing that the human
race would fall into sin
and deserve His anger
determined
in His own
sovereign mind
that an immense portion of the human race should be His
children and should be brought to heaven. As to the rest He left them to their
own deserts
to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
to scatter crime and
inherit punishment. Now in the great decree of election
the only reason why
God selected the vessels of mercy must have been because He would do it. As the
fruit of our election
in due time Christ came into this world
and purchased
with His blood all those whom the Father hath chosen. Now come ye to the Cross
of Christ; bring this doctrine with you
and remember that the only reason why
Christ gave up His life to be a ransom for His sheep was because He loved His
people
but there was nothing in His people that made Him die for them. After
Christ’s death
there comes
in the next place
the work of the Holy Spirit.
Those whom the Father hath chosen
and whom the Son in us. To go a little
further: this truth
which holds good so far
holds good all the way. God’s
people
after they are called by grace
are preserved in Christ Jesus; they are
“kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation”; they are not suffered
to sin away their eternal inheritance
but as temptations arise they have
strength given with which to encounter them
and as sin blackens them they are
washed afresh
and again cleansed. But mark
the reason why God keeps His
people is the same as that which made them His people--His own free sovereign
grace. And to conclude my exposition of this text. This shall hold good in
heaven itself. The day is coming when every blood-bought
blood-washed child of
God shall walk the golden streets arrayed in white. Our hands shall soon bear
the palm; our ears shall be delighted with celestial melodies
and our eyes
filled with the transporting visions of God’s glory. But mark
the only reason
why God shall bring us to heaven shall be His own love
and not because we
deserved it. We must fight the fight
but we do not win the victory because we
fight it; we must labour
but the wage at the day’s end shall be a wage of
grace
and not a debt.
II. I have to
illustrate and enforce this text
Suppose that some great criminal is at last
overtaken in his sin
and shut up in Newgate
He has committed high treason
murder
rebellion
and every possible iniquity. He has broken all the laws of
the realm--every one of them. The public cry is everywhere--“This man must die;
the laws cannot be maintained unless he shall be made an example of their
rigour. He who beareth not the sword in vain must this time let the sword taste
blood. The man must die; he richly deserves it.” You look through his
character: you cannot see one solitary redeeming trait. He is an old offender
he has so long persevered in his iniquity that you are compelled to say
“The
case is hopeless with this man; his crimes have such aggravation we cannot make
an apology for him
even should we try. Not jesuitical cunning itself could
devise any pretence of excuse
or any hope of a plea for thin abandoned wretch;
let him die!” Now
if the Queen
having in her hands the sovereign power of
life and death
chooses that this man shall not die
but that he shall be
spared
do you not see as plain as daylight
that the only reason that can move
her to spare that man
must be her own love
her own compassion? For
as I have
supposed already that there is nothing in that man’s character that can be a
plea for mercy
but that
contrariwise
his whole character cries aloud for
vengeance against his sin. Whether we like it or not
this is just the truth
concerning ourselves. This is just our character and position before God.
III. I come to a
very solemn practical application.
1. First
since this doctrine is true
how humble a Christian man
ought to be. I remember visiting a house of refuge. There was a poor girl there
who had fallen into sin long
and when she found herself kindly addressed and
recognised by society
and saw a Christian minister longing after her soul’s
good
it broke her heart. What should a man of God care about her? she was so
vile. How could it be that a Christian should speak to her? Ah! but how much
more should that feeling rise in our hearts? My God! I have rebelled against
Thee
and yet Thou hast loved me
unworthy me! How can it be?
2. This doctrine is true
and therefore it should be a subject of the
greatest gratitude. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The true redemption of man
I. Has its origin
in God and God only. “I do this for My Holy Name’s sake.” All that God does is
self-originated. He alone is spontaneous in action. This fact--
1. Takes away all ground for human pride.
2. Should inspire us with adoring gratitude.
II. Serves to
reveal the glory of God’s character to the world. The moral redemption of man
which involves the marvellous history and work of Christ
reveals more of the
glory of God than all the material universe in its vastness and variety.
III. Involves
separation from all unholy associations.
1. “Come out
” as a protest against iniquity.
2. “Come out” as an example to others.
3. “Come out” to qualify yourself for usefulness. Every man must
morally be like Christ
“separate from sinners
” to be able to save them.
IV. Comprises a
thorough renovation of human life.
1. The nature of this renovation.
2. The consequences of this renovation.
Verse 36
I the Lord build the ruined places.
The security of the believer
I. The text
announces a most important truth. When we look at our text
we feel
in reference
to the sad event of Eden
much as Martha did when she fixed her weeping eyes on
Jesus. Would His presence have preserved the life of Lazarus? No less
certainly
these words
had they been present in their power to Eve
would have
protected her innocence
and saved the world. Not Lazarus only
but no man had
died; there had been neither sin
nor sorrow
nor griefs
nor graves
in a
happy world
had our mother
when she stood by the fatal tree
but remembered
but believed
but felt this sentence
“I have spoken
and I will do it.” But
when the deed has been done
and it is now too late
my object is not to show
how man might have been saved. There is little kindness in telling me of a
medicine that would have cured my dead. Glory to the grace of God
I tell not
that my text would have saved man
but
if believed in
still shall save him.
What would have saved us from the grave
can raise us out of it. Let my text
lay hold of the redemption of Christ
and it has all
more than all
the power
it ever possessed. The cross
the crown
peace
pardon
grace in life
hope in
death
heaven throughout all eternity--these are all wrapped up in a deep
solemn
heartfelt
Divine conviction of the truth. “I the Lord have spoken
and
I will do it.”
II. The comforts
this truth imparts to a true Christian.
1. Through his confidence in this truth he commits all his earthly
cares to God. By faith in a superintending providence and an unfailing word
Child of God
thou mayest shield thy heart from cares that torture others
and
from temptations that often prove their ruin! Between a man
torn with
anxieties
haunted by fears
fretting with cares
and the good man
who calmly
trusts in the Lord
there is as great a difference as between a brawling
roaring
mountain brook
that with mad haste leaps from crag to crag
and is
ground into boiling foam
and that placid river
which with beauty on its
banks
and heaven on its bosom
spreads blessings wherever it flows
and
pursues the noiseless tenor of its way back to the great ocean
from which its
waters came.
2. Through his confidence in this truth the believer is sustained
amid the trials of life. Winter
no doubt
is not the pleasant season that
summer brings with her merry songs and wreaths of flowers
and long
bright
sunny days; nor are bitter medicines savoury meat. Yet he who believes that all
things shall work together for good
will thank God for physic as well as food;
for the winter frost that kills the weeds
and breaks up the clods
as for
these dewy nights and sunny days that ripen the fields of corn. May God give us
such a faith!
3. Through his confidence in this truth the believer cheerfully
hopes
and patiently waits for heaven. Home! to be home is the wish of the
seaman on his lonely watch and on the stormy deep. Home is the wish of the
soldier; and tender visions of it mingle with the troubled dreams of trench and
tented field. And in his best hours
home
his own sinless home
a home with
his Father above that sky
will be the devout wish of every true Christian man.
The holier the child of God becomes
the more he pants after the perfect image
and blissful presence of Jesus; and dark though the passage
and deep though
the waters be
the more holy he is
the more ready is he to say
It is better
to depart and be with Jesus.
III. Both nature and
providence illustrate the truth of my text.
1. Nature assures us that what God hath said He will do. No man looks
for sunrise in the west. No soldier stands beneath the hissing shell expecting
to see it arrested in its descent
and hang like a star in empty space. We
build our houses in confidence that the edifice will gravitate to the centre;
nor ever doubt
when we set our mill wheel in the running stream
that as sure
as man is on his way to the grave
the waters shall ever wend their way onward
to the sea. We consult the Nautical Almanack
and
finding that it shall be
high water tomorrow at such an hour
we make our arrangements for being then on
board
certain that we shall find our ship afloat
and the seamen shaking out
their sails to go away on the bosom of the flowing tide. If fire burned the one
day
and water the next; if wood became at one time heavy as iron
and iron at
another as buoyant as wood; if here the rivers hasted to the embraces of the
sea
and there
as in fear
retreated from them
what a scene of confusion this
world would become! In truth
its whole business rests on faith; on our belief
that God will carry into unfailing effect every law which His finger has
written in the great volumes of Nature and Providence. This is the pillow on
which a sleeping world rests its weary head. This is the pivot on which the
wheels of business turn. And now let us remember
that there are not two Gods;
a consistent Divinity who presides over nature
and a capricious Divinity who
presides in the kingdom of grace. Hear
O Israel
the Lord thy God is one Lord.
In regard
therefore
to all the promises and also all the solemn warnings of
the Bible
Nature lifts up her voice and cries in the words of the prophet
O
Earth
Earth
Earth
hear the word of the Lord.
2. Providence assures us that what God hath said
He will do. The
voice of every storm that
like an angry child
weeps and wails itself asleep
the voice of every shower that has cleared up into sunshine
the hoarse voice
of ocean breaking in impotent rage against its ancient bounds
the voice of the
seasons as they have marched to the music of the spheres in unbroken succession
over the earth
the scream of the satyr in Babylon’s empty halls
the song of
the fisherman
who spreads his net on the rocks
and shoots it through the
waters where Tyre once sat in the pride of an ocean queen
the fierce shout of
the Bedouin as he hurls his spear and careers in freedom over his desert sands
the wail and weeping of the wandering Jew over the ruins of Zion--in all these
I hear the echo of this voice of God
“I the Lord have spoken
and I will do
it.” (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
Thus saith the Lord God
I will yet for this be inquired of by the
house of Israel
to do it for them.
The prayers of the Church required for the conversion of souls
This chapter is full of “exceeding great and precious promises.”
The text is associated with all these prophecies. Though God promises these
blessings
and they are absolute blessings springing out of Divine grace and
flowing from sovereign electing love to this people
yet He determined that for
these blessings there should be prayer
and that not one of them should be
communicated but through this channel. Two things God designs by this plan. The
first is
to make the mercy we get
valuable. No man fancies a thing that comes
without his care
without his concern
without his anxiety; hence
to render
these mercies precious and valuable to us--as they are valuable in themselves
so also to make us account them so--God will have us ask for them. And next
we
shall not only prize them more
but praise the Giver of them
when we have them
in answer to prayer. Coming without prayer
we should be very apt to forget the
hand that bestowed them; but coming immediately in answer to prayer
a song of
gratitude naturally arises to God.
I. The subject of
our prayers. What is it to be? “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house
of Israel
to do it for them.”
1. The conversion or sanctity of souls
human souls
to God.
2. Not only that souls should be converted and sanctified
but that
numbers should be converted. Why are we to ask for this so especially?
II. The impediments
to prayer.
1. The want of vigorous personal piety.
2. The power of unbelief.
3. Private sins. Sometimes these sins are personal; sometimes
relative; sometimes social.
III. The success of
prayer. God then designs to do it for us. He ha made up His mind to the
granting of the blessings. And here is our comfort--that no uncertainty exists
when we ask Him to grant His blessings which He has promised.
1. It has been His practice to answer prayer in all generations of
the Church.
2. He pledges His faithfulness and honour to hear and answer prayer.
3. Christ’s fulness is to be received by prayer--is to be
communicated through this channel. (James Sherman.)
Inquire of the Lord
I. Why should we
arouse ourselves to this inquiry at the hands of the Lord?
1. It is a great privilege to be allowed to inquire at the hands of
the Lord.
2. Prayer is also to be looked upon as a precious gift of the Spirit
of God. It is by virtue of covenant promise and covenant grace that men are
made to pray: for the Lord has said
“I will pour out upon the house of David
and upon the inhabitants in Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of
supplications.
3. We must pray
because it is a needful work in order to the
obtaining of the blessing. The Church of God is to be multiplied; but “Thus
saith the Lord God
I will yet for this be inquired of.”
4. It is a business which is above all others remunerative. “I will
yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel
to do it for them; I will
increase them with men like a flock.” That is a beautiful idea of multitude.
You have perhaps seen an immense flock
a teeming concourse of congregated
life. Such shall the increase of the Church be. But then it is added
to
enhance the blessing
“As the holy flock
as the flock of Jerusalem in her
solemn feasts.” This to the Jewish mind conveyed a great idea of number.
5. The results of prayer as I have already described them are such as
greatly glorify God. “And they shall know that I am the Lord.” When the kingdom
of God is largely increased in answer to prayer
there is a wonderful power
abroad to answer the arguments of sceptics
and put to silence the ribaldry of
ungodly tongues. “This is the finger of God
” say they.
II. How should this
duty be performed?
1. First
it should be by the entire body of the Church. For this
will I be inquired of by”--By the ministers? By the elders? By the little
number of good people who always come together to pray? Look! Look carefully!
“By the house of Israel”; that is by the whole company of the Lord’s people.
2. Next
the successful way to inquire of the Lord is for the Church
to take personal interest in the matter. “Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet
for this be inquired of by the house of Israel
to do it for them.” If the
sinner will not repent
let us break our heart about him. Let us go and tell
the Lord his sins
and mourn over them as if they were our own. If men will not
believe
let us by faith bring them before God
and plead His promise for them.
If we cannot get them to pray
let us pray for them and intercede on their
behalf
and in answer to our repentance they shall be made to repent
in answer
to our faith they shall be led to believe
and in reply to our prayer they
shall be moved to pray.
3. The blessing will come to the prayer of a dependent Church. “I
will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel
to do it for them”;
that is to say
they will not dream of being able to do it for themselves
but
will apply to God for it. Christian men should never speak of getting up a revival.
Where are you going to get it up from? We must wait upon God
conscious that we
can do nothing of ourselves
and we must look to the Holy Spirit as the alone
power for the conversion of souls. If we pray in this dependent way we shall
obtain an overflowing answer.
4. Again
the way to obtain the promised blessing is that the prayer
must be offered by an anxious
observant
enterprising Church. The expression
used
“I will be inquired of
” implies that the people must think and ask
questions
must argue and plead with God. It is well to ask Him why He has not
given the blessing
and to urge strong reasons why He should now do so.
5. If we are to obtain the blessing in answer to prayer
that prayer
must be offered by a believing Church. Answers to prayer do not now appear to
us to be contrary to the laws of nature; it seems to us to be the greatest of
all the laws of nature that the Lord must keep His promises and hear His
people’s prayers. Gravitation and other laws may be suspended
but this cannot
be. “Oh
” says one
“I cannot believe that.” No
and so your prayers are not
heard. You must have faith
for if faith be absent you lack the very backbone
and soul of prayer.
III. On what ground
can anybody be excused from the duty of prayer? Answer: On no ground whatever.
1. You cannot be excused on the ground of common humanity; for if it
be so that God will save sinners in answer to prayer
and I do not pray
what
am I? Surely the milk of human kindness has been drained from my breast
and I
have Ceased to be human
and if so
it is idle to talk of communion with the
Divine.
2. Next
can any excuse be found in Christianity for neglect of
prayer? In God’s name
how can we make a profession of Christianity if our
hearts do not ascend in mighty prayer to God for a blessing on the sons of men?
3. But perhaps an excuse is found in the fact that the Christian man
does not feel that his prayer is of very much consequence
for his heart is in
a barren state. Ah
well
this is no excuse
but an aggravation of the sin. At such
a time there should be a double calling upon God that the Spirit of prayer may
be vouchsafed.
4. I do charge you
professing Christians
not to restrain prayer to
God for a blessing
for
if you do
you hurt all the rest of the brotherhood.
Get a bit of dead bone into your body and it harms first the member in which it
is placed and subsequently the whole body. So if there is a prayerless
professor among us
he is an injury to the entire company.
5. Now
surely we ought to be much in prayer
because after all we
owe a great deal to prayer. Those who were in Christ before me prayed for me:
should I not pray for others?
6. I am afraid I shall have also to plead that I must suspect your
soundness in the faith
brethren
if you do not join in prayer. Correct
opinions are a poor apology for heartlessness towards our fellow men. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The necessity and power of prayer
Observe how God hangs all the blessings of salvation upon prayer.
He says
as it were
I have had pity upon sinners; I have provided pardon for
the guilty
justification through the righteousness
and life through the death
of My Son; I have engaged to take away the heart of stone and replace it with
one of flesh; I have promised My Spirit to sanctify
sufficient grace
and
certain glory; all these blood-bought
gracious
happy
holy blessings shall be
yours
freely yours; yet not yours
unless they are sought in prayer. “I will
yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel
to do it for them.”
I. Nature herself
teaches us to pray. Prayer must be natural
for it is universal. Never yet did
traveller find a nation on this earth but offered prayers in some form or other
to some demon or God. Races of men have been found without raiment
without
houses
without manufactures
without the rudiments of arts
but never without
prayers. Prayer is as common as speech
human features
or natural appetites.
It is universal
and seems to be as natural to man as the instinct which
prompts an infant to draw the milk of a mother’s bosom
and by its cries to
claim a mother’s protection.
II. Some
difficulties connected with this duty. The decrees of God
say some
render
prayer unnecessary
useless. Are not all things
they ask
fixed by these
decrees
irrevocably fixed? By prayer I may
indeed
prevail on a man to do a
thing which he has not previously resolved not to do
and even although he
should have so resolved
man is changeable; and I may show him such good
reasons for doing it
as to change his resolution. But if an immutable God has
foreseen everything
and indeed
foresettled everything by an eternal and
irreversible decree
what purpose can prayer serve? The objection admits of a
conclusive answer. We might show that the decrees of God embrace the means as
well as the end; and since prayer is a means of grace
being a means to an end
it must therefore be embraced within these very decrees
and cannot be excluded
by them. I content myself
however
with simply remarking
that this objection
is not honestly
at least not intelligently
entertained by any man. For
if
the objection is good against prayer
is it not good against many things else?
If it stops action in the direction of prayer
if it arrests the wheels of
prayer
it ought also to stop the wheels of our daily business. If it is a valid
argument against prayer
it is an equally good objection to ploughing
sowing
taking meat or medicine
and a thousand other things. Others
more earnest and
honest
reading that without faith it is impossible to please God
reading and
misunderstanding what they read
He who doubteth is damned
say that from want
of faith
their prayers must be useless. Most false reasoning! What says the
apostle? I will that men pray everywhere. God will have all men to be saved.
Like little children
we take our Father’s simple word
nor trouble ourselves
with the metaphysics of the question. If you were sufficiently alive to your
danger
oh
these difficulties would have no more power to hold you than the
fragile meshes of a spider’s web. I knew of one who
while wandering along a
lonely and rocky shore at the ebb of tide
slipped his foot into a narrow
crevice. Fancy his horror on finding that he could not withdraw the imprisoned
limb. Dreadful predicament! Did he cry for help? Cry for help! Who dreams of
asking such a question? True
none heard him. But
how he shouted to the
distant boat! how his heart sank as her yards swung round
and she went off on
the other tack! how his cries sounded high above the roar of breakers! how
bitterly he envied the white sea mew her wing
as
wondering at this intruder
on her lone domains
she sailed above his head
and shrieked back his shriek!
how at length
abandoning all hope of help from man
he turned his face to
heaven
and cried loud and long to God! All that God only knows. But as sure as
there was a terrific struggle
so sure
while he watched the waters rising inch
by inch
these cries never ceased till the wave swelled up
and washing the
dying prayer from his lips
broke over his head with a melancholy moan. There
was no help for him. There is help for us
although fixed in sin as fast as
that man in the fissured rock. Whether we have true faith
may be a question
which is not easily settled; but to pray is a clear and commanded duty. The
“help
oh
help
Lord
” never yet burst from an anxious heart
but it rose to
be heard in heaven
and accepted by God.
III. Prayer must be
earnest. It is the heart that prays; not the knees
nor the hands
nor the
lips. Have not I seen a dumb man
who stood with his back to the wall
beg as
well with his imploring eye and open hand
as one that had a tongue to speak?
If you would have your prayers accepted
they must be arrows shot from the
heart; none else reach the throne of God. You may repeat your prayers day by
day; you may be punctual in your devotions as a Mohammedan who
at the Mollah’s
call from the top of the minaret
drops on his knees in the public assembly or
crowded street. What then? The prayer of the lip
the prayer of the memory
the
prayer of the wandering mind in its dead formality
is
in God’s eyes
of no
more value than the venal masses of Rome
or the revolutions of a Tartar’s
wheel. The sacrifice of the hypocrite is an abomination to the Lord.
IV. Prayer is
powerful. An angel
says our great poet
keeping ward and watch on the
battlements of heaven
caught sight of Satan as he sailed on broad wing from
hell to this world of ours. The celestial sentinel shot down like a sunbeam to
the earth; and communicated the alarm to the guard at the gates of Paradise.
Search was made for the enemy
but for a time without success. Ithuriel at
length entered a bower
whose flowery roof “showered roses which the morn
repaired
” and where our first parents
“lulled by nightingales
embracing
slept.” There he saw a toad sitting squat by the ear of Eve. His suspicions
were awakened. In his hand he bore a spear that had the power of revealing
truth
unmasking falsehood
and making all things to stand out in their genuine
colours. He touched the reptile with it. That instant the toad
which had been
breathing horrid dreams into the woman’s ear
changes it shape
and there
confronting him face to face
stands the proud
malignant
haughty form of the
Prince of Darkness. With such a spear as that with which Milton
in this flight
of fancy
arms Ithuriel
prayer arms us. Prayer moves the hand that moves the
universe. It secures for the believer the resources of Divinity. What great
battles has it fought! what victories won! what burdens carried! what deep
wounds healed! what sore griefs assuaged! Prayer is the wealth of poverty; the
refuge of affliction; the strength of weakness; the light of darkness. Prayer
has just two limits. The first is
that its range is confined to the promises;
but within these
what a bank of wealth
what a mine of mercies
what a store
of blessings! The second is
that God will grant or deny our requests as He
judges best for His own glory and our good. And who that knows how we are
in a
sense
but children
would wish it otherwise?
V. Prayer is
confident. It is easy to know the knock of a beggar at one’s door. Low
timid
hesitating
it seems to say
I have no claim on the kindness of this house; I
may be told I come too often; I may be dismissed as a troublesome and unworthy
mendicant; the door may be flung in my face by some surly servant. How
different
on his return from school
the loud knocking
the bounding step
the
joyous rush of the child into his father’s presence; and
as he climbs his knee
and flings his arms round his neck
the bold face and ready tongue with which
he reminds his father of some promised favour! Now
why are believers bold?
Glory to God in the highest! It is to a father in God
to an elder brother in
Christ
that Faith conducts our steps in prayer; therefore
in the hour of
need
bold of spirit
she raises her suppliant hands
and cries
O that Thou
wouldst rend the heavens
and come down. I know a parent’s heart. Have I not
seen the quivering of a father’s lip
the tear start into his eye
and felt his
heart in the grasp and pressure of his hand
when I expressed some good hope of
a fallen child? Have I not seen a mother
when her infant was tottering in the
path of mettled coursers
with foam spotting their necks
and fire flying from
their feet
dash like a hawk across the path
and pluck him from instant death?
Have I not seen a mother
who sat at the coffin head
pale
dumb
tearless
rigid
terrible in grief
spring from her chair
seize the coffin which we were
bearing away
and
with shrieks fit to pierce a heart of stone
struggle to retain
her dead? And if we
that are but worms of the earth
will peril life for our
children
and
even when they are mouldered into dust
cannot think of our
dead
nor visit their cold and lonesome grave
but our hearts are wrung
and
our old wounds bleed afresh
can we adequately conceive or measure
far less
exaggerate--with fancy at its highest flight--the paternal love of God? (T.
Guthrie
D. D.)
The necessity of prayer
I. The blessings
for which we should inquire.
1. We should pray for ourselves. We are sinful
indigent
and
dependent creatures. God only can supply our wants and satisfy our desires.
2. We should pray for the Church of God. Good men feel interested in
each other’s welfare
and desire the peace and prosperity of Zion (Psalms 122:6-9). They pray for the
extension and stability of her borders--the increase of her converts--and the
unity and progression of her members (Habakkuk 3:2; Ephesians 3:14-21; Philippians 1:9-11).
3. We should pray for the world (Psalms 43:3; Isaiah 62:1; Matthew 6:10; Revelation 11:15).
II. The manner how
we should inquire for them.
1. In the method which He appoints. We cannot approach unto Him
acceptably
but through Jesus Christ
who is the high priest over the House of
God forever (John 14:6; Hebrews 7:17).
2. With devout dispositions of mind.
3. In every situation of human life. In private retirement (Matthew 6:6);--in our families (Joshua 24:15)--in the public ordinances
of the Gospel (Psalms 27:4)--and in our daily
occupations
we should “pray always
with all prayer
and everywhere
lifting
up holy hands without wrath and doubting” (Ephesians 6:18; 1 Timothy 2:8).
4. With diligent perseverance unto death.
III. The reasons why
we should inquire of the Lord.
1. Prayer is an ordinance of Divine authority. The Lord commands us
to pray (Psalms 4:4-5; Jeremiah 29:12; Luke 18:1)--He promises to hear and
answer prayer (Psalms 91:15-16); and He directs how to
pray (Matthew 6:9-13).
2. Prayer evinces the dependence of the creature on the Creator.
3. Prayer demonstrates the connection between duty and interest. As
intellectual beings
we are capable of moral actions and spiritual enjoyments.
The Lord is therefore pleased to suspend the blessings He promises
on the
performance of the duties He enjoins: and it is only by complying with the
latter
that we can realise the former (Psalms 34:17; Jeremiah 33:3). (Sketches of Four
Hundred Sermons.)
Prayer
I. Prayer is a
“reasonable service.” This can be best shown by examining those speculative
objections which have been preferred by sceptics against it.
1. That prayer is inconsistent with the Divine omniscience. “If God
knows your wants
and your disposition to have them supplied
why inform and
importune Him in prayer?” The objection proceeds from a misapprehension of the
design of prayer. Its ostensible design is indeed the attainment of the
blessing for which we pray; but there is an ulterior and higher object for
which it was appointed
namely
the spiritual influence
the disciplinary
effect of the habit.
2. Another objection alleges that prayer is inconsistent with God’s
immutability. I answer
God is immutable in the principles of His
administration
but not in His acts. The laws protect you today because you
conform to them
tomorrow they may put you to death for transgressing them; not
because they change--the change is in yourself. So the sinner is heard if he
truly prays
but lost if he prays not; yet God does not change
it is His
ordained economy that it should be so. And this economy is founded in His
immutable wisdom.
3. It is objected again that the universe is governed by secondary
causes; and
in order that prayer should bring about results different from
what would take place without it
there must be an interference with--a
suspension of--those fixed causes; but there is no such interference. I have
three remarks to make on this objection. The first is
that it applies to
prayer only so far as physical blessings are concerned
for these alone are
affected by physical causes. I remark
secondly
that the objector is
incompetent to the assumption
that there is no Divine interference with fixed
causes in answer to prayer. How does he know it? And how can he assert it
against God’s own assertion if he is incompetent to know it? Thirdly
I remark
it is not necessary to assume that there is any rupture of natural causes in
the case. We notice but the lowest links in the chain of those causes; how then
can we assume that the higher ones are not adapted or controlled
so as to meet
this peculiarity of the moral system? The last link of the series is in the
hand of Omnipotence.
4. Another objection is
man’s comparative insignificance. “Can it be
supposed that the infinite God will stoop from amid all worlds to regard our
wants and prayers?” The objection includes two elements
--the insignificance of
man and the greatness of the Deity. The first is a mere fallacy. Man is
indeed
physically insignificant
but not morally nor intellectually. Weakest
and most imbecile of all living creatures at his birth
in a few years he
masters all others
controls the elements by his arts
and by his science
transcends his own sphere to survey kindred worlds. This he does amid
innumerable impediments
physical
mental
and moral. What then must be his
progress in his purely spiritual sphere? It is not improbable that an hour’s
exercise of his faculties there will unfold them more than the labour of a life
here. Let us pass to the next element in the objection--the greatness of the
Deity. “Can it be supposed that the infinite God will stoop from amid all
worlds to regard our wants and prayers?” Yes
the greatness of God
the very
ground of the objection
is the ground of our confidence. God is infinite; were
He finite
however great
there might be plausibility in the objection. Then it
might be supposed that His attention would be so absorbed in the more general
affairs of the universe
as to exclude from it entirely our minute interests;
but infinite greatness implies that the small as well as the great
the minutia
as well as the aggregate--that all things are comprehended by it.
II. Prayer is a
salutary exercise. It is so
in the first place
because it is the means of the
blessings prayed for. Faith is the condition of salvation; it is faith that is
imputed for righteousness: yet prayer is the expression
the vehicle of faith;
prayer is the wing on which faith rises to the mercy seat. In the second place
its disciplinary effect is salutary. If our spiritual blessings were not
conditional
but matters of course
like the blessings of light
air
or water
we would forget
as the world has in regard to the latter
the merciful agency
of God in conferring them. Prayer
therefore
tends to humility. Gratitude
likewise
is produced by it in the same manner; for every blessing received in
answer to it comes to us as a gratuity of the Divine mercy. There is no
virtuous affection with which it is not congenial. It is serene
tranquillising
spiritualising. It cannot consist with sin. “Prayer
” says one
“will make us either cease sinning
or sin make us cease praying.”
III. Prayer is a
consolatory exercise. Man has a moral nature. His moral faculties are as
distinguishable and as constitutional as his physical or intellectual. His most
perfect happiness consists in the due gratification of all his faculties. There
is a higher gratification than that of sense; there is a higher exercise than
that of thought. It is the satisfaction of the conscience and the exercise of
the heart. God made man for intercourse with Himself; all other exercises and
enjoyments were to be but secondary to this. Prayer is the means of this
intercourse; its language is the converse of this communion. But it is
consolatory in a second sense. It is a source of aid and security. A devout
mind
constant in the habit of prayer
may acquire such a lively sense of the
immediate presence and sympathy of God as to exult in the most trying danger
and be almost superior to even the instinctive fears of human nature.
IV. Prayer is a
sublime exercise. The reach of a mighty mind
transcending the discoveries of
ages
and evoking to view new principles or new worlds
is sublime. Newton’s
discoveries
pushing human comprehension higher in the series of natural causes
and effects
were sublime. But there may be a progress remaining
compared with
which his discoveries
as he said himself
are like the bubble compared with
the ocean
But prayer sweeps over all secondary causes
and lays hold on the
first cause; it bends not its flight to repose its wing
and refresh itself
amid the light of undiscovered worlds
but rises above stars and suns
until it
bathes its pinions in the light of “the excellent glory.”
Conclusion--
1. These views should lead us to estimate prayer as a privilege
not
merely as a duty.
2. Our interest in it may be considered a criterion of our piety. (A.
Stevens
M. A.)
Prayer--the forerunner of mercy
The word used here to express the idea of prayer is a suggestive
one. “I will yet for this be inquired of.” Prayer
then
is an inquiry. No man
can pray aright
unless he views prayer in that light. First
I inquire what
the promise is
I turn to my Bible
and I seek to find the promise whereby the
thing which I desire to seek is certified to me as being a thing which God is
willing to give. Having inquired so far as that
I take that promise
and on my
bonded knees I inquire of God whether He will fulfil His own promise. I take to
Him His own word of covenant
and I say to Him
“O Lord
wilt Thou not fulfil
it
and wilt Thou not fulfil it now?” So that there
again
prayer is inquiry.
After prayer I look out for the answer; I expect to be heard; and if I am not
answered I pray again
and my repeated prayers are but fresh inquiries. “Wilt
Thou answer me
O Lord? Wilt Thou keep Thy promise? Or wilt Thou shut up Thine
ear
because I misunderstand my own wants and mistake Thy promise?”
I. Prayer is the
forerunner of mercies. We bid you turn back to sacred history
and you will
find that never did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by prayer. The
promise comes alone
with no preventing merit to precede it
but the blessing
promised always follows its herald
prayer. You shall note that all the wonders
that God did in the old times were
first of all
sought at His hands by the
earnest prayers of His believing people. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest
blessing that men ever had. He was God’s best boon to a sorrowing world. And
did prayer precede Christ’s advent? Was there any prayer which went before the
coming of the Lord
when He appeared in the temple? Oh yes
the prayers of
saints for many ages had followed each other. Abraham saw his day; and when he
died Isaac took up the note; and when Isaac slept with his fathers
Jacob and
the patriarchs still continued to pray; yea
and in the very days of Christ
prayer was still made for Him continually: Anna the prophetess
and the
venerable Simeon
still looked for the coming of Christ; and day by day they
prayed and interceded with God
that He would suddenly come to His temple. It
has been so in the history of the modern Church. Whenever she has been roused
to pray
it is then that God has awaked to her help. Jerusalem
when thou hast
shaken thyself from the dust
thy Lord hath taken His sword from the scabbard. When
thou hast suffered thy hands to hang down
and thy knees to become feeble
He
has left thee to become scattered by thine enemies; thou hast become barren
and thy children have been cut off; but
when thou hast learned to cry
when
thou hast begun to pray
God hath restored unto thee the joy of His salvation
He hath gladdened thine heart
and multiplied thy children. And now
again
to
come nearer home: this truth is true of each of you
my dearly beloved in the
Lord
in your own personal experience. God has given you many an unsolicited
favour
but still great prayer has always been the great prelude of great mercy
with you. And now some will say to me
“In what way do you regard prayer
then
as affecting the blessing? God
the Holy Ghost
vouchsafes prayer before the
blessing; but in what way is prayer connected with the blessing?” I reply
prayer goes before the blessing in several senses. It goes before the blessing
as the blessing’s shadow. Even as the cloud foreshadoweth rain
so prayer
foreshadoweth the blessing; even as the green blade is the beginning of the
harvest
so is prayer the prophecy of the blessing that is about to come.
Again: prayer goes before mercy
as the representative of it. The prayer comes
and when I see the prayer
I say
“Prayer
thou art the vice-gerent of the
blessing; if the blessing be the king
thou art the regent; I know and look
upon thee as being the representative of the blessing I am about to receive.”
But I do think also that sometimes
and generally
prayer goes before the
blessing
even as the cause goes before the effect. Some people say
when they
get anything
that they get it because they prayed for it; but if they are
people who are not spiritually minded
and who have no faith
let them know
that whatever they may get it is not in answer to prayer; for we know that God
heareth not sinners
and “the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the
Lord.” “Well
” says one
“I asked God for such-and-such a thing the other day;
I know I am no Christian
but I got it. Don’t you consider that I had it
through my prayers?” No
sir
no more than I believe the reasoning of the old
man who affirmed that the Goodwin Sands had bean caused by the building of
Tenterden steeple
for the sands had not been there before
and the sea did not
come up till it was built
and therefore
said he
the steeple must have caused
the flood. Now
your prayers have no more connection with your blessing than
the sea with the steeple; in the Christian’s case it is far different. Ofttimes
the blessing is actually brought down from heaven by the prayer. Oh! the
testimonies to the power of prayer are so numberless
that the man who rejects
them flies in the face of good testimonies. We are not all enthusiasts; some of
us are cold blooded enough; we are not all fanatics; we are not all quite wild
in our piety; some of us in other things
we reckon
act in a tolerably common
sense way. But yet we all agree in this
that our prayers have been heard; and
we could tell many stories of our prayers
still fresh upon our memories
where
we have cried unto God
and He has heard us.
II. Why it is that
God is pleased to make prayer the trumpeter of mercy
or the forerunner of it.
1. I think it is
first
because God loves that man should have some
reason for having a connection with Him. It is as if some father should say to
his son
who is entirely dependent upon him
“I might give you a fortune at
once
so that you might never have to come upon me again; but
my son
it
delights me
it affords me pleasure to supply your wants; I like to know what
it is you require
that I may oftentimes have to give you
and so may
frequently see your face. Now I shall give you only enough to serve you for
such a time
and if you want to have anything you must come to my house for it.
Oh
my son
I do this because I desire to see thee often; I desire often to
have opportunities of showing how much I love thee.”
2. God would make prayer the preface to mercy
because often prayer
itself gives the mercy. You are full of fear and sorrow; you want comfort--God
says
pray
and you shall get it; and the reason is because prayer is of itself
a comforting exercise. Take another case. You are in difficulty; you don’t know
which way to go
nor how to act. God has said that He will direct His people.
You go forth in prayer
and pray to God to direct you. Are you aware that your
very prayer will frequently of itself furnish you with the answer? For while
the mind is absorbed in thinking over the matter
and in praying concerning the
matter
it is just in the likeliest state to suggest to itself the course which
is proper; for whilst in prayer I am spreading all the circumstances before
God
I am like a warrior surveying the battlefield
and when I rise I know the
state of affairs
and know how to act. Often
thus
you see
prayer gives the
very thing we ask for in itself.
3. But again it seemeth but right
and just
and appropriate
that
prayer should go before the blessing
because in prayer there is a sense of
need. A sense of need is a Divine gift; prayer fosters it
and is therefore
highly beneficial.
4. And yet again
prayer before the blessing serves to show us the
value of it. If we had the blessings without asking for them
we should think
them common things; but prayer makes the common pebbles of God’s temporal
bounties more precious than diamonds; and in spiritual
prayer cuts the
diamond
and makes it glisten more.
III. Let me close by
stirring you up to use the holy art of prayer as a means of obtaining the
blessing. Do you demand of me
and for what shall we pray? The answer is upon
my tongue. Pray for yourselves
pray for your families
pray for the Churches
pray for the one great kingdom of our Lord on earth.
Prayer
Almost every page of the Bible is radiant with exceeding great and
precious promises
which God in His love has given and in His faithfulness has
fulfilled. When we have pleaded them confidingly in prayer
and obtained the
fulfilment of anyone
even the least of them
how rich and happy have we
become! Prayer is the golden link which binds promise to fulfilment. If men
say
God has purposed this
and it will be done whether we pray or not
this
passage asserts just the contrary. In this utterance
stern in its condemnation
of all that is not simple in prayer
and yet encouraging to all that is so
the
Lord solves the ever-recurring doubt
“Will God
in deference to our prayer
interfere with the order of the world?” He has already
in arranging that
order
provided for the answer to every prayer.
I. One reason why
God looks for prayer before the fulfilment of a promise is that we may be
reminded the more strongly of our entire dependence upon Him. This dependence
is taught us in various ways. Sometimes we have grasped something as if it were
our own
and it has been suddenly taken from us. Sometimes
when we have
fancied that we had attained some strength of virtue so as to be able to resist
temptation
we have been made to feel
by our sins and our failures
what utter
weakness ours is. Now
of the various ways in which God teaches us the lesson
of dependence on Him
I know none at once so powerful and so pleasant as that
which He has adopted when He says: If you are to have any promise fulfilled you
must plead it with Me; come to Me as one who remembers that all the sufficiency
of man is in God; come to take good from My gracious hands
as the bestowment
of My unchanging love and faithfulness
the fulfilment of My certain promises;
come and ask of Me and you shall receive; seek Me and ye shall find Me; knock
at My door and it shall be opened unto you.
II. Another reason
which may be adduced why God particularly desires that we should pray is in
order that we may have a due estimate of the worth of His gifts. You must look
at things in the light which the eternal world throws upon them. You are apt to
miscalculate their value amidst your fellow men
who themselves estimate amiss
the true proportion of the things that God either gives or withholds. You are
too liable to take their estimate of them; and when you are enjoying God’s
earthly gifts you are too apt to undervalue the higher blessings which are most
to be enjoyed in quiet communion with Himself. Therefore He draws you away from
the glare of the world
and from the false notions prevalent among your fellow
men
and brings you into your closet
that there
as you think of Him
as you
approach Him
as you remember that these things come from Him
you may estimate
that as the best which speaks most of Him
that which has most of His own
nature
and brings you most into harmony with Himself. Then you begin to see
that it is comparatively immaterial whether you be strong or feeble in body
if
only you be strong in faith
giving glory to God; that it matters little
whether you be rich or poor
if only you be rich in faith and have firm hold of
the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.
III. Another reason
is to connect the gifts more particularly with the giver and with the purposes
for which those gifts are bestowed. In Fatherly love He looks down upon His
children
and for His children’s happiness He pours out His bounties of every
kind upon them. But we are not to let our thoughts terminate here. No; we must
love Him beyond ourselves. Why are His blessings given? As “of Him and from
Him
” so “to Him are all things.” Everything that He bestows is indeed intended
to enrich and to bless those who receive His gifts
but it is intended also to
come back to Himself in love and praise and service. God has connected the
fulfilment of His promises with prayer
in order that we
asking these
blessings
and being heard in our prayers
and receiving God’s gifts
may also
remember that
if given by Him
they are given for His own purposes and to be
used according to His will. How can we bend our knees before Him
and earnestly
solicit some benefit
some one of God’s blessings
with the thought in our
minds that the gifts of God may be used merely for ourselves? Is there not in
the very position we are made to occupy
as creatures dependent upon His will
something which suggests to the mind which has been renewed
the heart in which
the love of God has been in some measure shed abroad by the Holy Spirit
that
all with which God enriches us
should be used for Him? We feel then that we
are “stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Observe
too
another thing in
connection with this recognition of God as the Giver
and the use and purpose
of His gifts. We find that those who obtain God’s blessings in answer to prayer
constantly pass on from the benefit to recognise in their gratitude the Divine
beneficence of Him who gives it. When you have received a blessing there may be
a transient feeling of happiness
but it is important that we should remember
that every blessing we have is but an isolated instance of the exercise of that
Divine beneficence
a putting forth of those Divine attributes
which are
always and everywhere at work.
IV. Yet another
reason is in order to encourage the habit of intercourse with himself. It is
impossible for anyone fully to understand
until he experiences it himself
what the coming into the secret presence of God is; what it is to shut the door
and have communion with the Father who seeth in secret. But every renewed soul
the soul of every true Christian believer
knows what it is to have access to
God through Jesus Christ. Yet there are influences which so drag us down
so
draw us away from God
so shut up the channels of communication
so send the
heart
as it were
coldly back into its own selfishness
that we continually
need to be drawn again and again into this intercourse with God. We mourn
oftentimes that it is so; yet so it is; and because it is so
God has coupled
His blessings with prayer. He gives us a promise of a blessing
and then
in
order that we may be drawn to intercourse with Him
He tells us that if we
would have the promise fulfilled
we must come to Him and ask as His children;
we must enter into our Father’s presence and must kneel before Him; we must
lift up the pleading eye and utter words of entreaty
and endeavour
with the
strength of faith
to grasp all His declarations. We must do this
and then
and not till then
shall we have the fulfilment of God’s promise. (W. A.
Salter.)
Why God requires His people to pray
even though He has told them
what He is about to do
I. In order that
He may teach us that we have nothing at all to do with His purposes and
determinations. Suppose God has fixed something
His decree is nothing to
you
--that is not to be the law of your action. He calls you to a nobler and a
more profitable study than the study of His determinations would be. You would
soon be lost in such a subject
and never would arrive at any reasonable and
satisfactory result respecting them. He calls you to search deep down into the
eternal principles of your own nature
and of those Scriptures which He has
given you for your guidance. He calls you to exercise your own sense of right
and wrong. He has not revealed His determinations that He may lessen your
activity or repress your thought. He calls you to exercise and make use of the
powers He has given you. And that His determinations may not have a wrong
influence over you
He has enjoined upon you the duty of prayer
even in
reference to their execution.
II. In order that
He may teach us that He accomplishes nothing without the use of means. If everything
has been fixed absolutely
then clearly there is no occasion for any means to
be employed to secure the result. It is equally clear that things have not been
fixed and determined in this manner; and anyone who should presume that they
have been
and act upon his presumption
would soon discover
in his utter ruin
and destruction
the error he had Committed. In all matters relating to this
present life
we never entertain such ideas for a moment. We all know that God
has fixed and promised that there shall be a harvest every year whilst the
world lasts. This fixing
however
does not secure the harvest. Suppose the
husbandman
relying upon the promise
had refused to sow the seed
he would
most assuredly have been taught his folly by being deprived of any harvest. But
it is not in this direction that we need to be cautioned. We shall never be
deterred from working in temporal matters by the knowledge we have of God’s
decrees. But there is still danger in the principle
and that danger is
sometimes realised in religious matters. The knowledge that God has promised
success
and that we are entirely dependent upon God for our success
may lead
us to inactivity. Because we know what God intends to do
we may rashly and
foolishly conclude that He will accomplish His purpose without the employment
of any means at all. But I do not find God acting in this way in the world
around us. There was a time when God would prepare the world for the coming of
His own Son. He might have done so by an immediate act of His own will; but He
chose to raise up a visible messenger
and sent John the Baptist to prepare in
the wilderness a highway for our God. There was a time when God would gather
the fulness of the Gentiles unto His Church. He might have done so by causing some
mysterious and unseen influence to be felt simultaneously throughout the world;
but He raised up Paul
and sent him to preach amongst them the unsearchable
riches of Jesus Christ. He works through means. It matters not that those means
are trifling and insignificant
and disproportioned to the end they serve to
secure. The slightest means
so long as they are used
serve to substantiate
and justify the principle that God works not without them
and the weakest
instrumentality becomes strong and powerful when it is wielded by the hands of
an Almighty God
and serves
too
to show us that we have some part to do in
the carrying out and accomplishment of the purposes of God. And this is the
lesson we have to learn here. God has promised; but He says that the fulfilment
of the promise rests with ourselves. It may not be much that we have to do
but
that little must be done before God’s work will he accomplished.
III. In order that
He may teach us what immense capacities for doing good He has endowed us with.
The whole world is within the range of our influence
because it may be made
the object of our prayer. There is not a single living person who is not within
reach of our power. Our prayer can rise up unto the highest
and it can sink
down to the lowest and most depraved. Our friends may be separated from us by
distances which we cannot destroy; but distance is a thing unknown to prayer
and so
for all practical purposes
they are near
and we can bring to bear
upon them an immense
an omnipotent power. Our feelings may not allow us to
talk upon religious subjects to some of our friends
and yet we can use
on
their behalf
an instrumentality that has never been known to fail. We may have
no wealth with which to carry forward the cause of Christ
and yet
out of our
poverty
we may enrich its treasures and augment its affluence. We may have no
talents to set forward
and no eloquence to describe
the glories of our
Redeemer
--we may never be able to speak a single word in support of the claims
of religion
and yet we may do more to Promote the cause of Christ
to magnify
the glories of our Lord
and to support the claims of religion
than the man
who has at his command wealth and talents and eloquence
but who is not a man
of prayer.
IV. In order that
He may teach us that
after all our efforts
success cometh wholly from the
Lord. The husbandman never thinks of taking to himself the credit when he reaps
a bountiful harvest. He blesses Him who made the seed to burst forth into life
even when it had died; who watered the earth with His showers
and matured its
fruits by the genial influence of His sun. He praises God for His faithfulness
to His promise. Such
too
ought our feelings to be. We knew beforehand what
the result would be. We were sure of success
for God had said that He would do
it. We only prayed for the fulfilment of a promise thus graciously given
and
the very fact that we were only told to pray
ought to teach us that God meant
that we should attribute all the glory
and ascribe all the praise to Him. Had
He meant that we should share with Him the glory of securing the result
He
would have given us some greater portion of the toil. He only told us to pray;
and those few words that we breathe
--what are they towards securing so grand a
result? They are nothing. It is only the fact that they are told to God that
makes them strong and efficacious. Clearly
then
there is no glory belonging
unto us. Success only humbles us: and as we look upon the answers to our
Prayers in souls renewed and converted
piety and reason alike dictate the
confession: “I have planted
Apollos watered
but God gave the increase.” (F.
Edwards
B. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》