Zion evidently attracted great attention in its own day, and I suppose that the term “Zion” stood for the whole city. It was a city of many singularities, and it was especially remarkable for its worship when Jerusalem was as it should be. It had a temple, but there was no image in it. Worship was continually carried on there, but the God who was worshipped was invisible. This made Zion and its temple different from all other cities and all other temples under heaven; for, wherever else you went, you saw graven images set up, and men prostrating themselves before the work of their own hands. It was not so in Zion; there, the one living and true God resided, and the temple at Jerusalem was the centre of his worship for all the faithful, and every type or symbol in his solemn service was meant to teach the people concerning him. Zion was remarkable, not so much for the strength of its defences, the beauty of its palaces, and the glory of its temple, as for being “the city of the great King.” “God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.” Hence, although Zion was but a little hill, and other hills were great compared with it, yet the fame of it went forth even to the ends of the earth.

Now, Zion is ever a type of the Church of the living God, and everywhere the Church of God is singular, and for that reason, noticeable. It is a power altogether unlike all other powers, a kingdom quite different from the kingdoms of the earth. It uses not the force of arms, it has no defence except the indwelling Deity, it knows nothing of the pomp of earthly splendour, it exists for God’s glory, and for no other purpose. Its reason for being a Church at all is that Jesus Christ may be honoured and glorified in its midst; and, hence, the true Church of Christ is sure to be noticed, however obscure it may be in any particular place. You cannot plant a Christian church in a village without its being found out. It may be said of Christ’s Church as it was said of himself, “He could not be hid;” neither can his Church be hidden; and in any kingdom or country, though the true Christians may form a very small remnant, yet they are sure to be noticed. They are as a fire that gives light as well as heat, and, therefore, their presence must be known and felt.

I push this truth a little further, and say that, if you are one of the citizens of this Zion, one of the members of the Church of God, you also will be known. You cannot go through the world unobserved; you are like Bunyan’s pilgrim when he passed through Vanity Fair. He was but a humble individual, yet everybody looked at him because he hurried through the fair, neither attracted by its business nor detained by its wealth. Christian and his companion simply sped on; and when the men of the place asked them, “What will you buy?” they gave no answer but this, “We buy the truth,” and hastened on as fast as they could, and you must do the same if you are bound for the Celestial City. It may be that they will not take you, as the people of Vanity Fair took Faithful, and send you to heaven in a chariot of fire, but they will be sure to notice you. In a free country like this, you may be almost anything that you like except a Christian. There is no liberty for you; and you will find that the dogs of hell will bark at you because you are a stranger and a foreigner in this world. If you were a child at home, they would not trouble you, but you are of a different race from the men of the world, who have their portion in this life; and, as you pass along, they will let you know that you do not belong to them. They do not wish to understand you, and you will find that they will be ever ready to misrepresent you; and when they have finished their misrepresentation, they will endeavour to laugh you to scorn. Of old, Zion was so remarkable that the nations sent messengers to enquire about it; and to-day, the people of God are a remarkable people, a pilgrim race, strangers and sojourners in the world, passing on to “a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.” If you are a true believer in Christ, you will be sure to be noticed, questioned, quizzed, criticized, caricatured, misrepresented; never mind all that, it is the lot of all the holy seed, and the citizens of Zion must expect such treatment until the Lord himself shall come.

Our text may be made to apply to all God’s people, and I shall use the Jews and Zion as the basis upon which I shall build up my discourse; from their history we shall try to gather the true meaning of the passage. In it, we have the mention of messengers, and we shall enquire, first, What do these messengers of the nation ask? Secondly, why should they be answered? And, thirdly, how shall they be answered? “That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.”

Messengers came from Babylon to Zion, and no doubt one of the first questions they asked was, “What is the treasure of Zion? What is the wealth of this city? It stands not by the sea, like Tyre, so that it may flourish by its merchandize. It is not situated among the cedars of Lebanon, so that it may sell its precious wood or its carved work. This city stands in a strange place, and yet we see that it is a wealthy place; what is the source and the extent of its wealth?” Unhappily, Hezekiah forgot how to answer that question aright, and he took the Babylonian messengers through his palace, and showed them his material treasures. He led them from one secret cabinet to another, and let them see all his riches; and they looked on with wondering, covetous eyes, and went home to tell what loot there would be there, what a grand place Jerusalem would be to sack, and how all Babylon might be the richer because of the treasures that were hidden there. How unwise was Hezekiah! He ought to have given a far better answer. I have been in churches on the Continent, where I have been asked by the guide whether I would like to see the treasury, and I have seen it. In one church, I saw what was estimated at about a million pounds sterling in the form of plate of different kinds for the adornment of the altar; I saw a treasure which was regarded as far more precious than gold and silver,-a saint with all his bones laid bare, a skeleton saint decorated with emeralds, rubies, and all kinds of precious stones; but it was a ghastly sight for all that. If I had purchased him, I would have speedily buried him. Should not such a treasure be buried in the earth? It is the best place for saints and sinners, too, when they are dead. I do not doubt that living saints are a precious treasure in the Church of God; yet it would not do, if the messengers of the nations asked us what our chief treasure is, to exhibit the members of the church,-saints alive or saints dead,-or to talk about the wealth of the church, or the intellect of the church, or even the earnestness and prayerfulness of the church, precious as these things are. There is a better answer to that question; and our text tells us that the great treasure of the church is the fact that Jehovah has founded her. His grace is the inexhaustible storehouse from which she derives all her spiritual wealth.

The messengers of the nations probably asked next, “What is Zion’s confidence?” When city after city had been overthrown by Rabshakeh and Sennacherib, if messengers came into Jerusalem, no doubt they wondered to find the people holding out against the great king who smote and overcame wherever he went; and they said, and Rabshakeh said, “What is your confidence? Has not the king of Assyria smitten all the gods of the people whom he has fought? Upon whose arm do you rely?” If the people had taken the messengers, and bidden them look from the rocky sides of Zion, down the steep precipice, and into the ravines, and if they had said, “Who can climb up here?” or if they had pointed to the tower of David, or to the walls of the city well jointed together, or to its massive gates, and said, “These are our defences,” it would have been a poor and sorry reply, for no walls stood out long against the kings of Babylon. They brought their battering-rams and engines to the siege, and very soon they cast up breast-works and all kinds of entrenchments, and, ere long, made a breach in the city walls, and rushed in, and slew the inhabitants. But what a good answer it was to say, “Jehovah is our confidence; he is our defence, our castle and high tower, our battle-axe and weapons of war, and he hath said that Sennacherib shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast a bank against it.’ The adversary may come near enough to mark the walls and bulwarks of Zion, and count her towers, but he shall not be able to capture her, for ‘God shall help her, and that right early.’ He is our defence. Not the valiant men that stand upon the watch-towers, and shoot swift arrows against the foe; not the trained armies that throng her gates, and charge upon the adversary with sword and shield; but the Lord God is a wall of fire round about us, and the glory in our midst.” What a grand answer was that to the question of the messengers!

Let us also, beloved, give the same answer to all who ask what is our confidence; let us tell them that our confidence is in God alone. If, dear friends, we are truly citizens of Zion, this is one of the marks of our burgess-ship, that our entire confidence is in that unseen arm upon which alone we lean. We look only to God for our salvation, and we cast away all confidence in ourselves, or in our fellow-men, reckoning all earthly supports as being like broken cisterns that can hold no water, and trusting alone to the deep eternal fount of grace that wells up in the heart of God himself.

No doubt the messengers of the nations also asked, “What is the history of this Zion? What is the story of the nation of which Jerusalem is the capital? Whence came your fathers? Did they obtain possession of this land with their own bow and their own sword? Have they made advances step by step to the greatness whereof they now boast?” The right answer to that question was, “God hath founded Zion.” There was the secret of her glorious history, and the messengers ought to have received no other reply but that to their enquiry. Sometimes, nowadays, men come to us, and they say, “Where did your church come from? What is the origin of it? Whence did it arise?” Well, you may tell the story, if you give all the glory to God, and if you reflect all honour upon the power of divine truth; but never fail to go back to the very beginning, and answer, “God hath founded Zion,” for if there be a church which cannot trace its foundation to the eternal truth of God’s Word, to the eternal power of God’s Spirit, to the eternal founding by God’s own sovereign grace, it is not the Church of God at all.

I hope you would give a similar answer to the question about your own history. If you are a believer in Christ, how came you to be a Christian? How was it that you ever began to love the Lord? How is it that you have a good hope of heaven? How is it that you believe that you have eternal life? This is the answer for you to give,-

“Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed his precious blood.”

Each saved soul must say, “It is of God’s grace that I am what I am. As God hath founded Zion, so hath he founded me.”

Another question which these messengers would be sure to ask would be this, “What is the expectation of Zion? You say that Jehovah built it, and that he has hitherto guarded and preserved it; but to what end is such a little city as this made so conspicuous? Why is it so honoured by the divine presence?” Oh, then I hope the people opened their mouths wide, and told the messengers that God had founded Zion, and that the poor of his people would trust in it; and that they added, “So we have the expectation of being provided for, preserved, delivered, magnified through God’s mercy.” And as for you and me, beloved, when they say to us, “What do you expect?” let us open our mouth wide, and tell what God has done, and what we expect he will yet do for us,-that he will guide us by his counsel, and afterwards receive us to glory,-that he will correct and chasten us as a man chasteneth his own son,-that he will perfect our education, and then will take us home to dwell with him where sorrow and sighing can never come. Then let us tell them of the coming of our Lord, and of the glory that is wrapped up in his advent; and let our hearts burn and our eyes sparkle as, with joyful lip, we talk of the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, and which he hath revealed to us by his Spirit.

The question in our text is, “What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation?” but there is no hint of any question as to whether they are to be answered, or not; it is taken for granted that a reply is to be given to their enquiries. I hope, dear brethren, that we shall be ready always to give an answer to every man who asks of us a reason for the hope that is in us with meekness and fear. Questions will be sure to be put to Christians, for they are men wondered at; and hence there is a necessity for us to be well taught of God, and to have our minds stored with heavenly knowledge, that we may not be dumb when we ought to speak, but may always be ready with such an answer as shall be acceptable to God, and may be beneficial to those who ask the question.

Some, who come to Zion, ask questions out of curiosity. I should not wonder if the ambassadors, who came to Jerusalem, looked all about the city with wondering eyes, and kept on enquiring, “What is this? What is that? What is the meaning of this memorial, and what is the intention of this symbol?” They did not ask these questions because they cared particularly about what they saw; possibly they asked even more questions when they were in Edom, or when they sauntered through the streets of Nineveh; but, having come to Jerusalem, they had a curiosity about what was to be seen there, so they began to enquire. In like manner, beloved, there will come to you, to your Zion, to your house, persons who will make enquiries about your religion;-not that they love it, or believe in it;-but, still, they would like to know about it. Men are curious about religious matters; they jot down in their note-book information that they gather concerning them. They may not be themselves devout, but they would like to know what is the nature and extent of your devotion. They may not be themselves believers, but they would be glad to learn what kind of faith yours is. Would you discourage this curiosity? I think you would be very unwise if you did so. No; rather, try to make some use of it. It is in itself nothing particularly worthy of notice, but there is at least a measure of hopefulness about it. When men’s minds once begin to work, we are led to hope and pray that the Spirit of God may work with them, and work in them, according to the good pleasure of his grace. It is a very hopeful thing when you, my brethren in the ministry, get an attentive audience to listen to you. Mind that you always give them something worth listening to. It were an ill day for you and me, in trying to do good, if we could never persuade anyone to listen at all. Let us hold the wedding guest, and detain him with our tale, though it may seem to him to be as sad as that of the Ancient Mariner of whom Coleridge speaks. Let us try to hold him fast till we have told him-

“The old, old story

Of Jesus and his love!”

We shall not complain if people ask, simply out of curiosity, about our religion, for that very curiosity will give us an opportunity to set things belonging to the kingdom of God before minds which are somewhat receptive. If you ever lose your present access to those ears, and they grow fast closed to your message, you will say, “I wish that even that curiosity would come back again,” for curiosity about the things of God may lead to something better by-and-by, if you know how to use it wisely. So, we will answer the messengers of the nation, even though they ask merely from curiosity.

No doubt there are others who ask out of contempt. The ambassadors of a great power like Babylon, when they passed inside the walls of Zion, most likely said, “So this is your precious capital, is it? This little pettifogging village, that we could put in one corner of Babylon, and never know that it was there, is the city of the great King, is it?” And they laughed within themselves for very scorn, and said, “This little miserable dog-hole is your wonderful city, is it? Why! in Babylon, we have hanging gardens, and wondrous palaces, and mighty works of art, and yet you say, ‘Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion;’ ” and they gave a loud guffaw at the very thought of what seemed to them so absurd. Well, brethren, shall we refuse to answer when our questioners ask in contempt concerning our Zion? Sometimes, we shall do well not to reply, for we are forbidden to cast pearls before swine; but, on other occasions, we may answer them, because we do not wish men to think that we are ashamed or afraid to declare our convictions, or that we have nothing to say concerning the faith that we hold. Oh, tell it out, though all Philistia shall be listening! Tell it out among the nations that the Lord reigneth from the tree; tell it out amid a senate of philosophers or a parliament of kings. This truth might well be written athwart the sky; and the sun himself, as he makes his daily circuit, should be the Mercury to bear this message everywhere. The heavens should tell the glory of God, and the firmament show his handiwork; and it is our desire and intention to let the gospel be published wide as the light of day. Publish it even to the contemptuous; for, sometimes, even he who despises is not the last to be converted; and an enemy, who has enough light to hate the truth, may have enough to be brought to love it. Think not that a man like Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the saints, is the most hopeless of mankind. God thought not so, but he brought him in penitence to his feet, and made him to be not a whit behind the very chief of his servants. Therefore, if men ask you about religion, even out of contempt, and you can see the sneer upon their faces as they put the question, yet give them an answer. Tell them of Jesu’s dying love, and of all that wonderful plan of salvation arranged by the sovereign grace of God. You may even find your answer in our text: “The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.”

But sometimes, no doubt, the messengers of the nations will ask out of admiration. There were some of them that came, like the Queen of Sheba, and asked about everything because they admired it all; and there are, perhaps amongst us, some whose hearts God has touched. They have the first signs and tokens of an affection for the truth, and for the Lord; and when they come where you are who love his dear name, they will ask you many questions most admiringly. Oh, never be slow to answer such enquirers! Nay; but set out before their eager eyes all the wonders of Zion, and all the glories of your Lord. Tell them what the Lord has done for you, and for all his people. Tell them how you were washed in the blood of the Lamb, how your heart has been changed, and cheered, and comforted. Tell them everything; for, now that the Lord has given them some hungering and some thirsting after these things, now is your time to bring out the “butter in a lordly dish;” now is your opportunity to set before them the Bread that came down from heaven, even Christ Jesus, who is the Bread of life. Now let them all know about the “wines on the lees, well-refined,” and the “fat things full of marrow,” for you have before you those who will gladly feed on all the dainties and delights provided in the great banquet of the gospel.

And it may be that, while you are telling the story, there will be some enquirers who will ask because they want to enjoy these good things for themselves. The spouse in the Canticles said, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my Beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love;” and they then asked her, “What is thy Beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy Beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?” So the spouse sat down, and told them of all his matchless beauties, and finished up by saying, “This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.” Then they enquired, “Whither is thy Beloved gone, O thou fairest among women?-whither is thy Beloved turned aside?-that we may seek him with thee.” In like manner, dear friends, when you see others who are willing to hear what you can say to them about Christ, do not hesitate to tell them, for perhaps they, too, would fain love your Saviour. Perhaps they have a wish to participate in the merits of his blood, and the blessings of his salvation, and that is exactly what you wish concerning them, and concerning all mankind, for you often say,-

“His worth, if all the nations knew,

Sure the whole world would love him, too.”

Therefore, tell all who are in the world about it, praying God’s Spirit to open their hearts that they may receive the message, and may trust in Jesus and be saved.

O my dear hearers who love the Lord, be none of you reticent about these precious things; but answer the messengers of the nation whenever you meet with them! It may do them good, contemptuous though they may be. It may do them good, though they are, for the time, but curiosity-mongers. Tell them, therefore; tell them the story fully; for, at any rate, it will do you good. It is a very useful thing for a man to tell out what spiritual truth he knows, for he thereby teaches himself. It will increase your own sense of safety if you declare to others what the real defence of Zion is. It will increase your own sense of joy if you publish what is the true joy of Zion. For your own good, do this; and do it also for the glory of God. You are to be God’s mouth to man; let not God even seem to be silent because you are idle. O ye people of God, “Ye are God’s heritage;” the word the apostle uses means, “Ye are God’s clergy;” so I charge you, be not dumb dogs that cannot bark, but let others know what the Lord has done for your souls! “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence;” but speak, and speak, and speak yet again, and give to the messengers of the nations an answer to their enquiries concerning Zion and the Church of the living God.

According to our text, they are to be answered by this declaration: “The Lord hath founded Zion.” Whenever any religious enquiry is put to you, let it be definitely made known in your answer that every good thing that you have, or that the Church of God has, comes from God. Leave your hearer in no doubt about this matter; do not let him suppose that it came by your own exertion or merit, but say most plainly, “The Lord hath founded Zion.” If one soul be saved, God has done it. If five hundred souls be saved, and banded together in Christian-fellowship, “this is the finger of God.” And if there be tens of thousands of saved saints in the world, this is what the Lord has done by his own almighty power. It is not of man, neither is it by man; but it is of the Lord alone. Make that truth very conspicuous in your answers to all enquirers.

And that being done, make this truth equally plain, that the Lord is the Founder of his Church,-his true Church;-that all her doctrines are revealed in his Word, and are her doctrines because he has given them to her;-that her ordinances are taught by Christ himself in his own Word, and, therefore,-and for that reason only,-are they ordinances of his Church. Lay this down with the utmost emphasis, that the Lord has founded Zion as to her doctrines and her ordinances; and also as to all the polished stones that he has built into all her walls. Christ is the one foundation of his Church, and God has laid him in Zion as the chief corner-stone, elect, precious; but every stone that is laid upon him is laid there according to the divine purpose and predestination, ay, and by the effectual working of the power of the Holy Spirit, who brings men up from the quarry of sin, and builds them upon the foundation of Christ crucified.

To make our answer to these messengers complete, they will want to know all about our church, and our Zion, so let us acknowledge our own poverty. You notice, in the text, that the answer is: “The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.” Say to the enquirers, “Ah! you must not look for anything great in us; we are poor by nature, and poor by practice, too; and in ourselves, less than nothing and vanity. There may be some very good people in the world who think that they are perfect. We are not among them; we could not, dare not, will not, stand up and say, “We thank God that we are not as other men are.” We have rather, each one of us, to smite upon our breasts, and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” It is most important, in our testimony, that we should confess our spiritual poverty, for our Lord Jesus is never magnified unless he is set forth as the Saviour of sinners; and grace is never glorified unless sin be denounced and bemoaned. O beloved, let your own poverty be a black foil that shall make the precious gem of divine grace shine the more gloriously in the eyes of men!

Then say also that, as God has founded Zion, we mean to cleave to her. That is to say, if this Bible be God’s Book, we believe in it from cover to cover. If any doctrine, however mysterious, be taught by the Spirit of God, we accept it. If we do not understand it, we believe it. If there be any ordinance commanded by God, we will obey it to the best of our ability as it is delivered unto us. I cannot agree with those who say that they have “new truth” to teach. The two words seem to me to contradict each other; that which is new is not true. It is the old that is true, for truth is as old as God. Albeit that its locks are bushy and black as a raven for strength and force, yet I might say of every truth that its head and its hair are white like wool, as white as snow, for its antiquity. “Ah!” but they say, “we are wise in this generation; we have learnt so much from this source and that.” Have you? Then keep your precious knowledge to yourselves; we do not covet it. We are content to believe concerning this Word, that the Lord hath founded it; and, we, poor simpletons, mean to trust in it, and to cleave to it, come what may.

Do you notice how sweetly is put in the text the resolve to trust in what God has founded? “The poor of his people shall trust in it.” The inhabitants of Jerusalem sheltered behind the walls of Zion, and they felt perfectly safe. There was Sennacherib coming up with hordes of Assyrians, apparently numerous enough to eat them all up; but when they knew that God had founded Zion, and meant to preserve her, they might smile at the king of Babylon, and they did so. “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.” If Zion be founded by God, vain is all the might and malice of man or devil against it, and it shall stand against all who oppose it. I can fancy Luther talking like this, only with stronger sentences than I can put together, and bidding the people join in singing that favourite Psalm of his, the 46th: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” Let us also have this brave confidence, my brothers. Trust in Jehovah, and be at ease concerning his truth and cause. Let nothing daunt or disturb you. God has routed greater men than the wiseacres of the 19th century; and when they are all swept into the nothingness from which they came, his truth shall still live and triumph, glory be to the name of him that sent it to us, and thereby founded the one only Eternal City, the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ISAIAH 14

Verse 1. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

This promise had a measure of fulfilment when Israel was brought back from Babylon; and still is it true that, when God’s people come to their worst, there is always something better before them. On the other hand, it is equally sure that, when sinners come to their best, there is always something terrible awaiting them. The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew;” and his declaration agrees with this prophecy, “The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land.” I believe that there will be a far grander fulfilment of this prophecy in that day when God shall bring back his chosen people to their own country, and then shall be the fulness of blessing to the Gentiles also: “The strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.”

2. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

The chosen people have the worst of it now in many parts of the world, but they shall have the best of it by-and-by; they shall not always be trampled on, their time of uplifting shall come at the last, and there is nothing after the last; that which is last, lasts for ever.

3, 4. And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

O child of God, thou shalt by-and-by have a glorious season of rest! Today is thy time of labour; thou art now under hard bondage; but thou shalt yet come forth into the fulness of thy liberty in Christ Jesus. In that day, Jehovah himself shall give thee rest from all thy griefs and fears; thou shalt obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

This was a great prophecy for Isaiah to utter, for, in his day, there was no power on earth equal to that of Babylon. That great city abounded in palaces and extraordinary wealth, and its power was such that no kingdom could stand against it. For a while, it broke in pieces all those who fought against it; yet God broke Babylon in his own time; and here is a song of rejoicing in anticipation of its overthrow, “How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!”

5. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

No power can ever be permanently strong that is founded upon wickedness; sooner or later, it will have to come to an end. A falsehood may array itself in the garments of wisdom and strength, and go forth to fight hopefully for victory; but, in the end, it must die. The stone of truth will find out the giant’s brow, and lay him headlong in death.

6, 7. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

The Babylon, that none could resist, becomes herself destroyed, and there is no one to come up to her assistance. Go at this day, and see where the owl dwells, and mark the habitation of the dragons, and say to yourself, “This is Babylon, the great city that was the queen over all nations; but she did evil in the sight of the Lord, and spake extremely proudly; and, behold, Jehovah hath crumbled her in the dust; and, now that Babylon is gone, ‘the whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.’ ”

8. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

For the cruel kings of Babylon cut down the nations as the woodman with his axe fells the trees of the forest; but when the power of Babylon was broken, peace and quietness reigned everywhere. O brethren, what a blissful day it will be when the modern Babylon is taken away also, for to this hour she is the troubler among the nations! Wherever the blight of Popery comes, there is evil, there is oppression, there is bondage; and only when Romanism shall be utterly swept away, and cast like a millstone into the flood, will it be said, “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.”

Here is a very wonderful picture of the king of Babylon going down to the grave.

9, 10. Hades from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

It is a fine pictorial representation of the spirits of departed kings lifting themselves up from their beds of dust, and saying, “Art thou, king of Babylon, that slew us, also come here? The mighty conqueror, art thou thyself conquered, and brought to the grave?”

11-15. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hades, to the sides of the pit.

God hates pride with a perfect hatred. He drives his sword through the very heart of it, and cuts it in pieces. None can be great and mighty, and boast of what they are able to do, without provoking the King of kings to put forth against them some of his great power. Oh, let none of us talk about climbing to heaven by our good works, or getting there by our merits, lest it should happen to us also that we should “be brought down to Hades, to the sides of the pit.”

16-18. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

That is, they lie in state, each one in the mausoleum of his family. They went down to death, and they were buried with all the honour and glory that were supposed to be due to their high position.

19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

So total, so terrible, so disgraceful, was the destruction of Babylon, that no honour or glory remained to it.

20-22. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts,-

And he has done it. It seemed the most unlikely thing to happen; but the Lord spake, and it was done; and all the glory of Babylon was swept away. “I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts,”-

22-27. And cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

And God did this to the Assyrians in the day when Sennacherib invaded the land, and the angel of destruction slew the whole host in one night. What a striking simile the Lord uses here! “This is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” Conceive in your mind the picture here drawn,-Jehovah himself puts out the hand of his almightiness, and challenges the nations to stand up in opposition to it.

28. In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.

About this time, the Philistines had plucked up courage, and had invaded Judah.

29. Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

Ahaz was defeated, but Hezekiah was raised up to be the leader of the Lord’s people.

30. And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.

If God’s enemies have a bright day or two, it shall soon be showery weather with them. They may for the moment exult over God’s people, but he knows that their day of reckoning is coming.

31. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.

That is the way the Babylonians would come running down from the north. No one would be able to hide himself from them, not a single person would find a shelter, or escape from their terrible adversaries.

32. What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

Though the passage seems dark at first, yet it is full of consolation to the people of God, and is of similar import to that other gracious promise: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-46 (Version I.), 722, 886.

SONSHIP QUESTIONED

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, March 12th, 1899,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, November 15th, 1883.

“And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God.”-Matthew 4:3.

In speaking upon the temptation of our Lord, I want first to say a few words that ought always to be remembered by those who are tempted, lest they be surcharged with unnecessary sorrow. And to begin with, I remark that there is no sin in being tempted. Even when our first parents were in their perfect state, they were liable to temptation; the serpent came, and beguiled them. It was not their fault that they were tempted; their sin was that they yielded to the temptation. We know that our blessed Lord was personally without the slightest taint of sin,-“holy, harmless, undefiled,”-yet he was tempted by the arch-tempter himself, the prince and leader of all tempters, and he was tempted to what would have been the worst of sins. Still, there was no blame attaching to him on that account, for he did not yield to the assaults of the evil one. So, dear friends, should you be tempted while you are about your lawful calling, or when you are in the house of God, distinctly engaged in his service and worship, do not be surprised. Who are you that you should escape temptation, when your Lord had to endure it? Do not be cast down by the fact of your being tempted, as though it were in itself a sin. The guilt lies with him who tempts, but not with the tempted one until he yields to the temptation. Let that ever be remembered.

And remember, next, that temptation does not necessitate sinning. It did not in the case of our Lord, for he “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin;” and that which was possible to him, in his life on earth, can also be made possible to you by him with whom all things are possible. A man need not fall into avarice because he is tempted to covetousness. A man need not become unchaste because he is tempted to lewdness. Remember the case of Joseph; he was none the less pure because he was so foully tempted. A man need not be false to his convictions because someone tries to bribe him to be so; rather, he may prove the honesty and uprightness of his heart by recoiling from the very touch of the briber. He who is tempted need not therefore sin, for that God who permits the temptation to come will, with the temptation, make a way of escape for him that he may be able to bear it. A man may walk in the midst of a furnace of temptation, yet not even the smell of fire shall be upon him. He may be “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,” and kept as well amid the most furious temptations as if he lived in a region that was most helpful to his graces. A child of God may be specially, peculiarly, singularly, emphatically, tempted, and yet he may be preserved from sin. In the case before us, we see that our Lord was not only tempted, but that he was tempted of the devil, by him who has the greatest power and the most cunning sleight of hand of all tempters; and, though the arch-tempter put before him the subtlest of temptations, yet he did not yield in any respect whatever. So may you, dear friend, pass unharmed as it were between the very jaws of hell, preserved and upheld by the sovereign, omnipotent grace of God.

Note, yet again, that it may be necessary for you to be tempted. It evidently was so in the case of our Lord, for he did not fall into temptation through unwatchfulness. He did not go into temptation presumptuously, but we read of him that he was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil;” so that he was in his right place, he was in the path of duty even when he had to go through this his great threefold trial in the desert. It was necessary that it should be so with him that he might be made in all points like unto his brethren, that he might have full sympathy with us in all our temptations, and that he might make his life-work complete in every respect. Temptation may be necessary for us for the purpose of testing and trying us. We read, in the Book of Genesis, “It came to pass after these things, that God did tempt (or, try) Abraham;” that is, God tested him, put his faith to a very severe test. There are no champions in God’s army who are mere fair-weather soldiers. They must all endure hardness, their valour must be tried and proved. God sends none of his ships to sea without having first tested them, and when their seaworthiness is proved, then they may go on their long voyages. You, tried believer, are to be tested, that the great Angel of the covenant may say to you, as he said to the father of the faithful, “Now I know that thou fearest God.” God does know this already through his omniscience, but he would know it practically by testing us, and it is therefore needful that we should be tempted in order that we may be tested.

Temptation may also be necessary to us for our spiritual growth. Muscles are not developed except by exercise; and if we were to be, spiritually, put under a glass case, and never suffered to endure temptation, we should become dwarfed and stunted, and some of our virtues would never be developed at all. Where would our patience be if there were no suffering to test it? Where would be the grace of forgiveness if we never had to suffer injury from our fellows? It is for our growth in grace that the stormy winds of temptation are let loose upon us, that, like a stalwart oak, we may take firm root-hold. By this stern experience, Christian men grow “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” They sit loose to the world, and they take a firmer grip on the invisible things of God, as they are tried and tempted by Satan.

It may also be necessary for us to be tempted, to increase our usefulness. He that was never tempted cannot help those who are tempted; he lacks sympathy because he has never passed through the fiery trial to which they are exposed. Dear young man, it may be that you wonder why you have such a stormy inward life. Peradventure, God is going to make you greatly useful as a dispenser of comfort to others. Men might be Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder, without trouble; but you could not be a Barnabas, a son of consolation, unless you had first known what it was to be comforted in time of trial. God might use you to scatter his seed with a hand that was never wounded, but he could not use you to bind up the broken in heart unless that hand had been rendered tender and sensitive by trial. Your present experience, though painful, is a needful preparation for something which will give you tenfold joy; so you may endure the present trial even with cheerfulness because of the blessed result that will come from it.

Beside that, brethren, we must be tempted, or else we cannot be victorious. The rule of the kingdom is,-no battles, no crowns; no conflicts, no conquests. We must stand foot to foot in deadly combat with the arch-enemy of souls, or else we never can have a memorial pillar set up by the wayside, like that one of which Mr. Bunyan speaks, where Christian met Apollyon, and it was recorded of him,-

“The man so bravely played the man,

He made the fiend to fly;

Of which a monument I stand,

The same to testify.”

The great reason why God’s children are tempted is for God’s glory, for, when they stand fast, and defeat the foe, then the strong man is overcome by a stronger, and then he that is the strongest of all-the mighty Son of God-gets fresh crowns upon his head as one after the other the weakest among his people put to rout the great adversary. There is a needs-be, then, that you should at times be “in heaviness through manifold temptations;” and, though you may pray not to be led into temptation, and are bound to do so, yet sometimes it may be of necessity that, like your Lord, you should be brought into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Note, once more, that solitude will not prevent temptation. “Oh!” said a young man, “I think that I must give up my situation; for it involves me in so many temptations.” “Ah!” said a Christian woman, “I wish that I could get right away into some sisterhood where I should have no temptations.” Yes; and if you did as some foolish women have done, you would find your temptations greatly increased. I am afraid that, sometimes, solitude is a help to temptation, and that Christian people, who are much tormented by Satan, would do well to mix more often with other believers, and tell out their sorrows. A good burst of tears and a narration of your grief to a sympathetic friend may be the best possible way for you to find relief from your sorrows. Do not be so shut up within yourself as to refuse to tell the heartfret that is wearing into your very soul; seek help from some Christian brother or sister, for we are bidden to bear one another’s burdens, and I trust we are not slow to do so.

Having thus introduced the general subject of temptation at rather unusual length, I want now to speak, with some brevity, but to practical purpose, concerning the temptation of our Lord.

The text I have taken shows that Satan is apt at writing prefaces; he is cunning and crafty, if not really wise. He does not come to the Saviour, and say at once, “Command that these stones be made bread,” but he begins thus, “If thou be the Son of God.” This is his old plan of insinuating doubts, by which Eve was vanquished in the Garden of Eden; and this is the sharp end of the wedge with which he thought to separate the Son of God from his Father.

And notice, too, that Satan knows how to fire a double shotted gun; for, while he began by insinuating doubt,-“If thou be the Son of God,”-he linked with it flat rebellion,-“Command that these stones be made bread.” Thus there were two temptations at the same moment; and, sometimes, our mind is greatly perplexed and our heart is wounded by two attacks at one time, or one following very closely upon the heels of the other; and it is a part of Satan’s tactics to be quick with his temptations, so that we scarcely recover from one blow before he deals another, and then another, that, if possible, he may drive us out of our wits, and overcome us by his cunning.

Let us look closely into this double temptation with which he attacked the Saviour: “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread;” and notice, first, that the tempter begins by assailing the Saviour with an “if.”

Note, that he does not begin with a point-blank denial, saying, “Thou art not the Son of God;” but he suggests a doubt upon the point: “If thou be the Son of God.” At the present time, there is a spirit of infidelity creeping over the Christian Church, and it puzzles and perplexes me to lay hold of it, because of its very vagueness. Ministers and others of the modern-thought school do not positively assert that the Scriptures are not inspired, but they have a theory of inspiration which practically comes to that conclusion. They do not actually say that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, but they try to explain away his Divinity in such a fashion that they might just as well deny it at once. As for the Fall,-oh, of course, there was a fall, but it was a matter of very small importance; and the idea that the serpent tempted Eve is held up to positive ridicule as a myth, an ancient fable. The depravity of the human heart is admitted in words, but it is really denied when you come to see what those words actually mean. There is a new theology lately sprung up, which has taken every pea out of the pod, and every kernel out of the shell, and its advocates present us with the empty shucks and shells, and say, “Do not quarrel with us; we are all brethren; and there is very little difference between what we hold and what you teach, only we are not so dogmatic and positive as you are.” Yet, all the while, they are throwing doubts upon that which is our very life; and we cannot help feeling that they have learnt the devil’s way of dealing with the truth, “If, if, if.”

That is just how Satan comes to each believer. He will not positively say, “You are not a child of God;” but he tries to inject a doubt into our minds, “If thou be a son of God.” He will not declare that Christ’s people will certainly perish, but he says, “Suppose they should.” Often, when I have heard a great many suppositions, I have felt more indignation at them than I have ever felt at a point-blank denial. Somebody once said to Mr. Gough, “Now, Mr. Gough, suppose you were in a public-house.” Mr. Gough said, “I will not allow you to suppose anything of the kind; with my convictions about the drink traffic, I will not have you suppose such a thing;” and I do not know what better answer he could have given. Yet people come to us with their supposings and insinuations, and we feel as indignant as Mr. Gough did. It is the devil’s plan to assail with an “if”, and we have met with many who have adopted his tactics. One says, “I am not an infidel; I am not a freethinker; practically, I am just the same as you are, I hold the same views, I subscribe to the same creed, I am in the same Union, and Association,” yet, as we go on talking with him, he undermines the whole thing with some dreadful, dreary “if” concerning the faith which we hold dear.

Notice, next, that the devil grafts his “if” upon a holy thing. He says, “If thou be the Son of God.” This is the very title that had been applied to Christ by his Father at his baptism: “This is my beloved Son;” yet Satan attacks it by trying to graft an “if” on it. Thus does the devil still seek to do with every precious truth, and we must be ever on the watch against him as those who are not ignorant of his devices. What a blessed stock is that glorious doctrine of the adoption of believers into God’s family; but, with an “if” grafted upon it, what sour grapes it bears! It is with great joy we sing,-

“Behold what wondrous grace

The Father hath bestow’d

On sinners of a mortal race,

To call them sons of God!”

But put an “if” on it, and then, ah, me! All the joy and all the wonder vanish at once.

Moreover, on this occasion, Satan put an “if” upon a plain utterance of God. The Father had said, “This is my beloved Son,” yet this impudent fiend dares, in the face of God’s Only-begotten, to quote that title with an “if” added to it. I am never afraid of what any text of Scripture may teach, but I am often afraid of the gloss that has been put on a text; and this Satanic glossing is the most mischievous of all mischiefs. It matters not how plainly any truth may be revealed in the Scriptures, nor how clear is the language in which it is there stated, so that we can see that it is certainly taught to us by God; yet the devil will come, and put an “if” on it. I suppose that some of us, who have been Christians for many years, have had to fight over every doctrine in the Word of God; there is scarcely one truth, I believe, for which I have not had to contend in my own soul. David said that he rejoiced over God’s Word “as one that findeth great spoil.” Now, spoil is found after a battle, and God’s truth is to most of his people a thing for which they have had to fight with the powers of darkness, and they have had to take the doctrine from the enemy by main force through the aid of the Holy Spirit. “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?” Nay, that which has been gained in battle, by such soul-conflict as we have had, shall be held fast till we die. Yet, while we say this, we know that Satan has the impertinence to come, and write over many of the great truths of Scripture his ugly, insinuating “if.”

Ay, and not only does he put an “if” on Scripture, but he puts an “if” also on past manifestations. You enjoyed, some time ago, a blessed visit from God; you thought that you never could forget it; you said that you would never doubt again. The sacred Dove rested upon you, and you were full of holy calm. The voice and witness of the Spirit were within you, and you knew that you were a child of God, and that you lived in Jehovah’s love. But the devil will come, and say to you, “All that was fancy and excitement; there was nothing in it;” or if he is not so positive, he questions it with an “if.” With his great black pen, he scrawls “if” right across all our sweet experiences,-all the tops of Tabor,-all the communion tables where we have met our Lord, all the places of secret retirement where our soul has been made like the chariots of Ammi-nadib; and then, unless our Lord comes to our help, we lose the comfort of these past manifestations.

In this case, the devil put an “if” across nearly the whole of Christ’s life. Our Lord had already had thirty years of retirement and preparation for his public ministry. I do not know whether Satan had tempted him while he was in his obscurity, living with his father and mother in quiet; and one would think that, after thirty years of holy retirement, there must be a certainty of his being the Son of God; yet Satan has a brazen forehead, and he says “if” even to him, after all that. Some of us have been more than thirty years in God’s ways,-some perhaps for fifty years have enjoyed the Lord’s presence and blessing, yet Satan will come and say, “If-if thou be a son of God.” Ay, and he has whispered that insinuation in the ears of dying saints whose faces have begun to glow with the glory to be revealed. He has persecuted them with his cruel “ifs” even to the last moment. Do not be astonished at it, beloved, for our Lord Jesus Christ had no sin in him, he had never done anything that should have made his sonship questionable, and yet, with a perfectly pure and holy and consecrated life before him, this arch-enemy dares to sneer at it, and to spit upon it one of his abominable “ifs.” “If thou be the Son of God.” There was our Divine Master, fully assured that he was the Son of God; his unerring consciousness told him that he was so. He knew it, he was sure of it, as sure of it as he was of his own existence; and yet the fiend dared to say to him, “If thou be the Son of God.” And you, beloved, may feel the pulsings of the heavenly life, your heart may beat high with immortality; yet the hiss of the old serpent may be heard in your spirit, “If thou be a son of God.” That is his usual mode of attack, so be on your guard against it.

But, now, secondly, notice that the tempter aims the “if” at a very vital part: “If thou be the Son of God.”

In like manner, with his poisoned arrow of an “if”, he will attack a child of God, sometimes, with doubts as to whether Christ is God. “If he be the Son of God.” Oh, but that doctrine of the Godhead of our Saviour is a thing which we must be prepared to defend even with our life if necessary; we can never give up that great truth. It has been assailed all through the history of the Christian Church; the devil has seemed to say to his fiendish archers, “Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the King of Israel.” If he can get men to deny the Godhead of Christ, he knows that the chief truth is assailed; if that were gone, there would be nothing left that would be worth having.

When he has not assailed the Godhead of Christ, he has often attacked our sonship. “Oh!” says he, “are you a child of God? You, with all your imperfections and infirmities; are you a child of God?” And he puts it to you, over and over again, as a matter of question, till at last you are driven almost out of your wits. This questioning of Satan is always with an evil intention. He knows that he is assailing us in a very vital place; he is attacking our faith, and faith is vital to a Christian. If faith should fail us, then our life has failed us.

He also, by this means, attacks our childlike spirit; for, if we are not children of God, why should we submit to his will? Why should we not kick and struggle against our daily trials? If we are childlike, we trust, we obey, we believe, we endure, we persevere; but he puts an “if” on all that, and so he tries to disarm us.

Moreover, he is here aiming at our Father’s honour, for he as much as says, “Is he your Father? If he be your Father, why does he allow you to be tried as you are? Why are you so poor? Why are you so ill? Why are you so depressed in spirit? He does not act towards you as if he were your Father.” Thus the devil tries to take from us all our comfort and all our delight; for, if God be not the Father of us who believe, then are we orphans indeed. We are strangers in this land, and we have no other land to go to if God is not our Father, and heaven is not our home. The world has rejected us; and if God does not own us, we are of all men most miserable. So, Satan attacks us with that “if” in the tenderest place, where he can most wound us. If he could succeed in his assault, he would indeed leave us naked, and poor, and miserable, he would prevent our prayers, and destroy our patience, and hinder us in every respect; and he does this that he may then make room in our hearts for any other form of temptation that he likes. Once doubt your sonship, and you will get commanding stones to be made bread, or doing something like it. If you are not a child of God, and God will not take care of you, then something whispers to you, “Take care of yourself. Rob your fellowmen. Do a dishonest thing, do something or other by which you can escape from your present difficulty.” This is what Satan is aiming at; therefore, my brothers and sisters, I earnestly entreat you to look well to this vulnerable part,-your faith,-your firm conviction of your sonship in relation to the Most High.

Thirdly, Satan supports his “if” with our circumstances.

I will dwell only a minute or two upon this point. I think that the devil seemed to say to Christ, as he looked round the desert, and saw that there was not a disciple or friend or anybody about,-no guards to take care of this Prince of the blood,-“Thou, the Son of God, alone, deserted, forsaken, in a wilderness? Thou, the Son of God?”

And, sometimes, he has come upon us when we have been all alone. We have looked, and there was no man to help us. We had to war a warfare all by ourselves; friends were all gone,-some were dead, others had proved false;-and then he said, “You, a child of God? Why, he would have given his angels charge concerning you if you had been one of his children, he would not have left you all alone like this.”

And then Satan, with a glance of his cruel eye all around us, has seemed to say, “You are in the desert; there is nothing but sand and stones; no food to eat, no water to drink, no shrubs or trees to shelter you. This is a pretty place for a child of God! Why, surely, if you had been one of his children, you would have been in a paradise; was not that where God put Adam? How can you be a son of God, and be in a desert?” Has he never said something like this to you, beloved? “You have had trials all around you; losses, crosses, bereavements, afflictions, poverty; nothing but troubles, and nobody to help you out of them.” And you have echoed the devil’s words, “Alone, and in a desert;” and then the question has come, “Can I be a child of God?”

Our Lord was also with the wild beasts; and I have no doubt that Satan pointed them out to him, and said, “You, the Son of God, along with lions and bears and leopards and wolves?” So, sometimes, you have gone out into what has been a desert to you, and all day long you have been among wild beasts. When you have been at work, you have not heard a word to comfort or cheer you, but you have been surrounded by blasphemers and filthy talkers. You have said, “Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar.” The misery of your surroundings has gone right home to your heart, and then the devil has said, “You, a child of God, and put into such a position as this?”

Then, last of all, we read that Jesus hungered; and, after forty days’ fasting, well he might; and hunger is a hard thing to overcome; it bites and gnaws most terribly. It was then that the devil said to him, “If thou be the Son of God,” and threw a sardonic sneer into it,-“a hungering Son of God!” So, you see, Satan backs up his insinuations by appealing to the circumstances in which we are found. And I will put it to you now, whether there is anybody here-even the very bravest of us-who could endure such temptation as this. Suppose you had to go out of that door, to-night, with ragged garments upon you, without a single penny in your pocket, without a solitary friend left, and no place where you could lay your head; do you not think that it is very likely that you would begin to be afraid that, after all, you were not a child of God? Supposing that you had eaten nothing all this day, and for many days before, and you were faint and weary, and no man gave you anything; if the devil said to you then, “If thou be a child of God,” I am afraid that you would say, “Ah, Satan, now that it has come to this pass, I am afraid that I am not!” Or I will put it in another way. If there should knock at your door, to-night, a man without shoes on his feet, one who had nowhere to sleep, and was all in rags, and he told you that he had not broken his fast for days, would you believe that he was one of your brethren in Christ, and that he was a child of God? Well, perhaps, you might; but I know a good many who would not, and they would say, “No, no, no; you are an impostor, and if you are not off, I will call in a policeman.” Do you see, then, what pith and force there is in the temptation, when, finding the Saviour without a place to lay his head, hungering, alone, with the wild beasts, and in a wilderness, the devil comes to him, and says, “Art thou, indeed, the Son of God?” It was only the true Son of God who could answer him with confidence when in such a plight as that.

To close my discourse, let me remind you that, if the tempter can be overcome, it will be exceedingly helpful to us all the best of our life.

For, first, note that, if an “if” about our being a child of God comes from the devil, it is as good as a certificate. “Oh!” say you, “how is that?” Why, the devil never puts an “if” to anything that is not true; whenever he says “if” to a thing, we may be sure that it is true. If he comes along, and finds a text of Scripture, and says, “If it is true,” that is the only homage which he can pay to it by trying to undermine it. I believe that your sonship is true when the devil tells you that it is not. If you were not a son of God, the devil would not be likely to utter any “if” about it. I hope I am not in any sense a servant of the devil, and whenever I see anyone in my congregation who is puffed up with carnal conceit, and who thinks that he is a child of God, I say to myself, “I will try to preach, next Sunday, in such a way as to make him question whether he is or is not a Christian, for he ought most seriously to question it.” It is true, as Cowper says,-

“He that never doubted of his state,

He may perhaps-perhaps he may-too late.”

It is no part of the devil’s work to make the self-deceived and hypocrites question themselves, he rather lulls them into deeper slumber; but when he does suggest to any man the doubt, “If thou be a son of God,” you may depend upon it that the man is a son of God, or else the devil would never think it worth his while to raise a question about it. So you may take Satan’s insinuation for a certificate of your sonship. When you are once able to battle with his evil suggestion, you may say, “If I were Satan’s own, he would not worry me. If I belonged to him, he would try to make me content in his service, and these doubts and fears, those questions, this self-examination, these great searchings of heart, are all evidences that I have escaped from the talons of the old dragon, and that he worries me because he cannot devour me.” So we get a confirmation of our sonship even from Satan himself.

Then, dear friends, if you once overcome that “if” thoroughly, it is very likely that it will not occur to you again for many a day, for, as far as I know, our blessed Lord had not that “if” put to him any more for years. The devil departed, and angels came and ministered unto him, and he spoke with a holy confidence and joy in his Father’s love all the rest of his life. At the last, when he was in a still worse plight, and his hands were nailed to the cross, and he was faint with thirst, and near to death, then cruel men stood round him, and repeated the Satanic insinuation, “If thou be the Son of God.” Oh, but our blessed Master must have inwardly smiled as he thought, “You cannot tempt me with that ‘if’; I have been tempted, long ago, by a far greater adversary than any of you, even by your master and lord, the arch-fiend himself. In the wilderness, he said to me, ‘If thou be the Son of God,’ and I repulsed him, and turned the edge of his sword upon himself; and now you have only tried to pierce me with a blunted weapon; you cannot wound me as you cry, ‘If thou be the Son of God.’ ” Do you not see, brethren, that a temptation overcome may be used, the next time, to overcome another one? You may lay up this conquered temptation, just as David laid up Goliath’s sword; and, one of these days, when you come the same way, and want a sword, you will say, “There is none like that; give it me;” and you will be glad to get the old sword into your hand again. So, temptations vanquished may be of service to us even on our dying bed; and, as our Master triumphed on the cross over a temptation which he had defeated in the desert, so, when we come to die, we may have peace and joy because of those early trials in which we were enabled to overcome our great adversary by the blood of the Lamb.

I have been all this while talking to God’s children about the “if.” Yet I fear that I am addressing some to whom the devil will not say “if”, for he knows, and perhaps your own conscience knows, that you are not a child of God. O dear friends, do not deceive yourselves about this matter! If you are not his children, do not pretend that you are; but remember that, if you are not the children of God, you are children of the evil one, and heirs of wrath, even as others. Oh, may infinite mercy adopt you into the family of God! And the way that mercy works is by leading you to trust in Christ crucified. Then you shall be put among the children,-adopted into the Lord’s family,-yea, born into it by a new birth through faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord grant it to every unconverted one here, and grant it now, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

MATTHEW 3:13-17; and 4:1-11

Chapter 3 Verses 13, 14. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

Who among us would not have felt as John did? Shall the servant baptize the Master, and such a Master, even his Lord and Saviour? But mark the condescension of our blessed Lord. He would do everything that he wished his people afterwards to do; and therefore he would be baptized, and set the example that he would have them all follow.

15. And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be to now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

We are never to be so modest as to become disobedient to Christ’s commands. We have known some who have allowed their humility to grow alone in the garden of their heart without the other sweet flowers that should have sprung up side by side with it, and thus their very humility has developed into a kind of pride. John was easily persuaded to do what his feelings at first seemed to forbid: “Then he suffered him.”

16, 17. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

It has also happened unto the servants of Christ, as well as to their Master, that in keeping the commandments of God there has been a sweet attestation borne by the Holy Spirit. I trust that we, too, according to our measure of sonship, have heard in our hearts the voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved son,” and that we have experienced the descending of the dove-like Spirit, bringing us peace of mind and gentleness of nature.

Chapter 4 Verse 1. Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

What a change it seems from the descent of the Holy Spirit to being led up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil! Dear friends, be especially on the watch after a great spiritual joy, for it is just then that you may have some terrible temptation. Mayhap, the voice from heaven is to prepare you to do battle with the enemy. I have noticed that the Lord has two special seasons of blessing his people;-sometimes, before a great trial, to prepare them for it; and, at other times, after a great affliction, to remove the weakness which has been thereby occasioned. Think not that you can come up out of the waters of baptism, and then live without watchfulness. Imagine not, because the Spirit has sealed you, and borne witness with your spirit that you are the Lord’s child, that therefore you are out of gunshot of the enemy. Oh, no! At that very time, he will be preparing his most subtle temptations for you, just as Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil immediately after his baptism and his Father’s testimony: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

2. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

I suppose that he was not “an hungred” during his long fast, and this renders it a fast altogether by itself. We are here told, “He was afterward an hungred.”

3. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

“Thou canst do it if thou art indeed the Son of God. Thou art an hungred, therefore feed thyself. Thy Father has forgotten thee, his providence has failed thee; be thine own providence, work a miracle for thyself.” How little the tempter, with all his knowledge, understood the true character of Christ! Our Lord never wrought a miracle in order to supply his own needs.

4. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

He had been attacked as a man who was hungering, so he quoted a text which evidently belonged to man: “Man shall not live by bread alone.” It was a wilderness text; it concerned the children of Israel in the desert, so it was suitable to the position of our Lord in that wilderness. He meant to let the tempter know that, as God fed man by manna from the skies once, he could do it again. At any rate, this glorious Man, this true Son of God, was determined not to interfere with the ordinary working of providence, but he left himself and his needs in his Father’s hands.

5, 6. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

“It is written.” Thus the devil tried to turn Christ’s own sword against himself,-that two-edged sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God; and the devil can still quote scripture to suit his own purpose. Yet it was a misquotation as to the letter of it, for he left out the essential words, “to keep thee in all thy ways;” and it was a worse misquotation as to the spirit of it, for in the true meaning of the passage there is nothing to tempt us to presumption. There is a guarantee of safety when we are walking where we should walk, but not in leaping from a temple’s pinnacle down into the abyss.

7. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Here was a plain, positive precept, which clearly forbade Christ to tempt God by such a presumptuous action as casting himself down from the pinnacle of the temple; and we must always follow the precepts of Scripture whatever the tempter may say.

8. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

Notice that these temptations were in high places. Alas! high places are often full of trial, whether they be places of wealth and rank, or of eminent service in the Church of God. A pinnacle is a dangerous position, even if it be a pinnacle of the temple; and on the summit of an exceeding high mountain is a perilous place even if the view from it is not the poverty of the city, nor the sin of the people, but the glory of the kingdoms of the world. Even with such a view as that, the mountain’s brow is full of danger to our weak heads.

9. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Why, they were Christ’s already! They never belonged to Satan; and, though for a while he had to some extent usurped authority over them, it was like his impudence to offer to give away what was not his own.

10. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Let the bribe be what it may, thou must not worship or serve either thyself or the devil. Thy God alone claims thy homage; and if the whole earth might be thine through one act of sin, thou wouldst not be justified in committing it.

11. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

What a change! When the devil goes, the angels come. Perhaps some of you are just now sorely tempted and much troubled. Oh, that you might speedily come to Mahanaim, of which we read, “And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him;” that there you might be met by troops of angels come to minister to you, weary with the conflict with the evil one, just as they ministered to your Lord! You need them as much as he did, and therefore you are as sure to have them if you look up to him, and ask him to send them to you.

STRANGE THINGS

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, March 19th, 1899,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newtington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, November 18th, 1883.

“We have seen strange things to day.”-Luke 5:26.

The world is growing very old, and dull, and commonplace. One takes the newspaper, and, often, after glancing through it, has to say, “There is really nothing in it,” the reason probably being that there is nothing fresh or new happening on the earth, it is just the old sad story of sin and sorrow constantly repeated. The world seems to be like a cluster from the vine when all its generous juice has been pressed out. Life, to many persons, has come to be excessively humdrum. The human mind is always craving after novelties; and, to find these novelties, it makes “much ado about nothing.” It runs raving mad over that which is not worth thinking of, and whips itself up into an intense excitement about a matter that is of no more importance than a drop in a bucket, or the small dust of the balance. The fact is, man wants something really fresh and strange; and if he can get it, he feels delighted. I hardly think that, when our good friend, Mr. John Ashworth, brought out his book, he would have achieved so great a success with it if he had not called it Strange Tales; but the strangeness was the attraction. The stories in it were strange tales to the mass of mankind, though to some of us they are very familiar things, but the strangeness was the point that attracted readers.

No man ever spent a day with Jesus Christ without being filled with the sight of strange things. No man ever entered into communion with the Lord Jesus without being delighted with wonders of love, of mercy, of grace, of truth, of goodness; for, while his gospel is the old, old gospel, yet it always has a new face upon it, and is continually fresh and new,-it never gets stale. We read of our Lord that, when John saw him, “his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow,” to denote his antiquity, and yet the spouse said of him, “his locks are bushy, and black as a raven,” as if to indicate his perpetual youth, his unfailing strength, and his unfading beauty. Believe me, dear friends, if you want to see that which is truly strange, you must get into that spiritual realm where Christ is owned as King, the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. If you want to continue to be astounded, amazed, astonished, filled with holy awe, you must come and be familiar with the Saviour, his person, his work, his offices, and everything that has to do with him; and, when you have become familiar with all these things, you will then have constantly to say, “We have seen strange things to-day. Something has occurred that has surprised even us who have grown used to surprises. Our Lord has seemed to overtop himself, though we thought him to be higher than the heavens; and his mercy has appeared to go deeper than ever before, though we judged that already it had gone deeper than the abyss itself.” “O world of wonders! I can say no less.” He that enters this spiritual world where Christ is adored as God and King, has unlocked a cabinet of marvels that shall astonish him during all his lifetime here, and even throughout eternity.

I am going to speak about strange things, and I pray that God will make what is said to be of service to many.

First, I ask you to mark the strange things of that particular day which is mentioned in our text. It was so full of wonders that the people said, “We have seen strange things to-day.” Well, what did they see?

First, they had that day seen Christ disturbed in preaching, greatly disturbed, and yet delighted to be so disturbed, and accepting the disturbance as part of his usual experience, and the means of doing further good to men. The Lord Jesus has gone into the square covered court of a house; the people have pressed in behind him, one after another, till they are packed in a dense mass, and there are still others round the door vainly trying to enter. Here come four men,-it is rather remarkable that there should be four such earnest men,-who have brought a sick neighbour on his bed, with ropes tied to the four corners; but they find that they cannot get in through the crowd. They push, they squeeze, they struggle, but there is no getting in; and their poor paralyzed friend seems to be effectually shut out from Christ. They go up the outside stairs of the house, they get upon the roof which covers the square where Christ and the people are, and they begin pulling up the tiling; and now look, the man is being let down by the four ropes right before the Saviour’s face. There must be some measure of dust, even if something still heavier does not come tumbling down upon the preacher’s head; but here comes the bed with the man on it. The people are sure to make room for him now, or else he will be supported on their heads. They seemed to be squeezed as tightly as they could be, but they feel that they must, somehow or other, get a little more closely together; and so the man is gradually let down by his four friends, who carefully pay out the four ropes at the same rate, keeping good time together, lest one end of the bed should be uplifted, and he should fall.

That must have been a great disturbance to our Lord. I know some preachers who cannot bear to have even a baby crying during the sermon; I do not feel specially delighted with that sweet music, yet I rejoice that the good woman did not stop away from the service; so far as I am concerned, she may bring her baby, even if it should sometimes cry, I am glad to have her here that God may bless her. Perhaps a friend has just dropped a walkingstick in the aisle, and made a loud noise just when the preacher was trying to be very specially earnest. Well, that is a pity; but the dear Saviour was much more rudely interrupted by all the falling stuff from the tiling, and the sick man coming down into the midst of the crowd before him. If there had been any “thread” in his sermon, he certainly would have lost it; but his discourses were made of better material than that. They were made, indeed, of fire, and fell like fire-flakes on men’s heads and hearts. He still spoke on, after he had paused a while to attend to this man’s case; and he did attend to it very sweetly. He looked at the four men who had brought him, and he saw that they had great trust in him; and, seeing their faith, he wrought the cure upon the sick man. It was a strange thing that it should be so; but how much I would like to see more of this strange kind of work! I hardly know where I am to find the four men who are so in love with one of their friends that they will even break up ceilings and roofs to get him where Christ can bless him. They will probably be four very imprudent and rash men, in the opinion of others; the Lord bless the imprudent and the rash! They are generally the best sort of men for such a task as this. Your more prudent men would have stopped till the service was over, and the people had come out, and very likely they would have waited till Christ had gone out at another door, and so the man would have missed him. But these rash, headstrong, ardent lovers of their sick neighbour must get him to Christ somehow, so they break up the roof, and there he is right in the presence of Christ. It was a strange thing to do; but, brothers and sisters, do not hesitate to do strange things in order to save souls; hardly mind what you do, so long as you can get them to Christ. Your Lord will not blame you; he is so strangely loving-so strangely full of goodwill to men-that, even should you be guilty of an indiscretion in your zeal, he will not upbraid you for it. Oh, do labour for the souls of your children, your servants, your neighbours; and the Lord will accept that service, and you may yet have the delight of seeing them made whole by Christ. That was a strange thing to begin with. I will be bound to say that the people who witnessed it talked all their lives long about the man coming down from the ceiling, and Jesus Christ healing him.

But now they saw a greater wonder than that,-the Christ of God forgiving this man his sins. We talk about the forgiveness of sins, I fear, rather glibly, without always realizing what a great thing it is. You know that, when Martin Luther was in deep distress of soul, a good old monk said to him, “Brother, canst thou not say the Credo?” “Yes,” said Luther. “Well, then,” replied the old man, “in the Credo thou sayest, ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins.’ ” “Yes,” said Luther, “I know that; I have often said it.” “Then,” enquired the other, “dost thou believe in the forgiveness of thine own sin? For, if not, how canst thou say, ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins’?” This great truth is sometimes spoken of as though forgiveness were an impalpable something that was done, and yet not done; but Christ never meant it to be so. His death was not a shadowy, vague atonement that might possibly be available for sinners, but a real and complete putting away of sin; and as many as believe in him may know of a surety that their sin is put away, and is as completely gone as if it had actually ceased to be, seeing that Christ bore the punishment of it. Ay, and the sin itself was by imputation laid upon him, as it is written, “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Whenever a sinner has his sin forgiven, it is a strange, a wondrous thing; never think of it as a mere commonplace matter of no account, for it is a marvel of marvels. The angels-a far nobler race than men,-fell from their first estate, but never has any one of the devils been pardoned for his rebellion against the Most High. No Saviour has espoused their cause, no sacrifice has been offered for their guilt, no gospel is ever proclaimed in their ear. When they sinned, they fell finally; and now they are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Yet man, who was not a pure spirit, like the angels, but a spirit allied with materialism, an inferior being, fell, and for him God left his throne to come and bleed on earth to offer up an expiation. For men, sin became pardonable; nay more, to multitudes of the sons of men, sin has been forgiven, and an act of amnesty and oblivion has been passed concerning their rebellion. What a wonderful truth is this! Whenever you feel a sense of pardoned sin, or whenever you know that your fellow-man has received absolution from the great High Priest, the Son of God, you may at once say, “We have seen strange things to-day.”

When these people around our Lord had seen that wonder, they saw something else which must have greatly surprised them,-they saw an exhibition of thought-reading. I have heard and read many curious things about thought-reading; some I have believed, and some I have not. That any man can read my thoughts, I shall take leave to question. At any rate, he may read this thought, for I will tell him that it is in my mind,-that I do not believe in him. But our Lord Jesus Christ, as he looked at the Pharisees and the scribes, read their unexpressed thoughts, and at once saw what was passing within their minds. It was not an easy thing, I should think, to read thoughts like these, “Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But our Lord Jesus read those thoughts, and answered them, though the men before him had not as yet spoken a single word. I have seen wonderful exhibitions of thought-reading in this Tabernacle; not by me, but by the Lord himself. Many of you are witnesses of how I have uttered from this platform the very words you have spoken when you were coming here; and what you said in your bedchamber, where nobody heard, perhaps, but some one companion, has been repeated in this place, and you have been astounded as you discovered that the Word of God, which is quick and powerful, searches the heart, and cuts asunder, just as you have seen an animal split from head to foot by a butcher, and its innermost parts laid bare to the view of every passer-by. The Word of God often does that,-discovers the secret thoughts and intents of the heart, and makes the man see himself as God sees him, and makes him stand astonished that it should be so. So frequently have we seen this sort of thing happen that we sometimes tell to one another some of the extraordinary instances in which men’s very flesh has seemed to creep as the things they said and did have been made known to them. It will probably happen in like manner to many others; and those to whom God will thus speak will say, as these people did, “We have seen strange things to-day.”

There was another strange thing they saw, and with that I will conclude this first part of my discourse. They saw a sick man, who could not lift hand or foot, made in a single moment to walk, and carry his bed, at the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. That must have been a strange sight to those who knew this poor paralyzed man, when they saw him start up from the bed, and glorify God as he did what Jesus bade him do; and when the Lord speaks with power to a soul, as he constantly does, and the man who knew not God learns to know him, and the one who feared not the Lord is brought to trust and love and serve him, what a marvellous thing it is! I sometimes wonder whether any person would doubt the inspiration of Scripture, and the divine origin and power of the gospel, if he could live each day as I live, and see what I see of the wonders that are wrought by the gospel. Last Sunday night, there came into Exeter Hall a man who did not care for the things of God, and he sat and heard the sermon. His brother had brought him, and was praying earnestly for him. As he was going out, a friend, who had observed him during the service, said to this man who had entered the hall utterly careless and Christless, “You were interested in the sermon to-night, were you not?” “I was,” he answered, “very much.” “Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?” The man at once replied, “I do believe in him with all my heart and all my soul.” His brother, who was with him, and who had been praying for him, said, “I was astonished beyond measure to hear him make such a declaration of his faith.” Beside that one, there were twelve other persons, who came forward when the service was over, and distinctly declared that they had found the Saviour that night under the preaching of the gospel. Though they had not been religious people, and had scarcely thought of their souls before, yet God had found them out. And these strange things do not occur with us alone; they happen every day with our beloved friends, Moody and Sankey, and indeed, in a great measure, with all who preach the gospel. It is its own evidence of its almighty power, and as it wins its way, men are saved, they are healed of the deadly paralysis of sin, and made to leap with active obedience and joyful service in the cause of Christ. Whenever you see this miracle of mercy wrought, you can say, “We have seen strange things to-day.”

Now, with great brevity, I ask you to mark the strange things of Christ’s day.

If you had ever beheld our Lord’s life and work with the eyes of faith, you must have seen many strange things. First, the Maker of men became a man. He that is infinite became an infant; he that made all things was wrapped in swaddling-bands; he who filleth all space was laid in a manger, and the Son of the Highest was known as the Son of Mary. We have heard strange things when we have heard the doctrine of the incarnation: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Truly, this was a strange thing.

Further, He who was Lord of all, became servant of all. “Being found in fashion as a man,” he lived a life of perfect obedience to his Father’s will, and went about healing the sick, raising the dead, and ministering to all who came near him. Most marvellous of all, on him who knew no sin, the sin of man was laid, and the righteous God meted out to him, the innocent One, the chastisement due to the guilty. This is the ground of our hope, and the only foundation of hope for sinners, that he, the innocent Christ, was made sin for us, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” But what a wonder it is! The guilty go free because he who is free from guilt suffers in their stead. Tell to all men that wonder of wonders.

Yet that was not all. On the cross Jesus died; and loving friends laid him in the tomb. Death had conquered him; but, in that moment, death was conquered.

“He death by dying slew.”

That day, he led death itself captive to his own supremacy. Wonder of wonders,-death put to death by death! Jesus Christ, by his dying, puts dying out of the way for all his people. Yet, even that wonder is not the last. See, there he lies for a while, wrapped in the graveclothes, and death appears to have the mastery over him; but that Scripture must be fulfilled: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” He must wait there till the appointed hour strikes; and then, early in the morning, before the break of day, he was up and away. An angel rolled away the stone, for he that had been dead was alive again, and Jesus left the abode of death, no more to die. What a wonder it is that he who was dead wrought out our resurrection! And now, since he rose from the grave, so all his followers must.

You may take what point you please in the history of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you really understand it, you will say concerning every part of it, “We have seen strange things” in this matter. It is a chain of miracles. It is like Alps on Alps; and more than that, for the mountains of mercy tower above the stars, and reach even to the throne of God, and God himself was never more lofty and glorious than when he was occupied in the stupendous labours of his Son Jesus Christ. Only spend your time in the company of the great Wonderworker, and you will continually be able to say, “We have seen strange things to-day.”

Now I must close by asking you to mark the strange things still to be seen in those in whom Christ works. If he comes and blesses us, we shall often say, “We have seen strange things to-day.”

First, we have seen a self-condemned sinner justified by Christ. I can tell you what I saw, one day, and I never shall forget the sight throughout eternity. I saw a sinner whom I know right well,-and I can say no good of him, but much, very much that is evil, without at all slandering him;-he had been proud and haughty in his opinion of himself, but there shone a light into his soul which unveiled to him his deep corruption and depravity, the sin that mixed with all his best things, and the still more dreadful sin that fermented in his worst things. I saw that sinner-for I know him well,-self-condemned; he wrote his own sentence, and he handed it to the Judge. He said that he deserved to be cast away for ever from the presence of God and the glory of his power; and, as he passed up his own death-warrant, he dropped a tear upon it, and he said, “I now trust myself to the sovereign mercy of God in Christ Jesus.” I remember it well, and I saw that self-condemned sinner pardoned in a moment. The Lord said to him, “Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven;” and his face changed from darkness and gloom into shining light and joy, and he has never lost the impression of that blessed day; and, as he stands here to tell you the story, he can truly say that he saw strange things that day. But, brothers and sisters, there are hosts of you who have undergone the same blessed operation. Self-condemnation brought you where the Saviour did absolve you; and, though it seems so easy to talk about it now, oh, how blessed it was when first we felt it! My heart did leap for joy; I was never so happy before; and I sometimes think that I have scarcely ever been quite as jubilant as I was on that day of holy excitement and exhilaration.

I remember, also, a natural heart renewed by grace. I have gone into my garden, and I have seen a great number of trees that have new branches which have been grafted into them; but I never yet saw a tree get a new heart. I have seen it get new bark, and many changes have happened to it; but it cannot change its heart. There are some living creatures that shed their claws, and grow fresh ones; but I never did hear of a living creature that grew a new heart. That must be a strange, a wondrous thing, to change the very centre and source of life; yet the Lord Jesus Christ is constantly doing it,-giving men new motives, new desires, new wishes, new habits, changing them entirely; and, especially, creating in them new hearts and right spirits. Whenever you see that miracle of grace wrought, you can say, “We have seen strange things to-day.” A woman came to see me, and cast herself down at my feet, and said that she had been such a sinner that she was not fit to speak with me. I bade her rise, for I said I also was a sinner; and she told me what she had been,-I will not tell you the sad story, for I should have to use words of shame if I described her. But she is among us now, washed and sanctified, and she delights to serve her God, and honour and glorify him. What changed that woman? Was it fear? Nay, she was a brave spirit, who would have dared any kind of devil, but the grace of God changed and transformed her, and made her into a loving servant of the living Saviour. Oh, whenever we see this deed of grace done,-and we do see it continually,-we say, “We have seen strange things to-day.”

Another marvel is, a soul preserved in spiritual life amid killing evils. Did you ever see a bush burn, and yet not be consumed? Did you ever see a spark float in the sea, and yet not be quenched? Many persons here are, to themselves, just such wonders. They are living godly lives in the midst of temptation, holy in the midst of impurity, serving God in spite of all opposition. These are strange things.

Did you ever see evil turned into good? There are many of God’s children who constantly see it. “All things work together for good to them that love God.” They are made rich by poverty, made healthy by sickness, made strong by weakness, made alive by killing, made to go up by going down. You who live the new life know the meaning of these paradoxes, and understand how these strange things make up a Christian man’s progress to the Eternal City of God.

Strange things do the people of God see in their own lives as they find heaven on earth. It is a singular thing for anyone to be on earth, and yet in heaven; but we have proved it to be so. We have seen men sick, and we have seen men dying, and yet as full of bliss as they could hold, as thankful in their room of poverty, and almost as joyful, as if they had been among the angels before the throne above. There are surprises all the way along the road to glory; but what will it be when we come to the end of it? Did you ever try to picture the first half-hour in heaven? Have you ever thought of the sensations that will pass through you in the first few days there? I think that we can very well judge what they will be, for they have been revealed to us by the Spirit. We shall have just the same joys as we have here, only carried to a far higher pitch, for the life of God in heaven is just the life of God in the heart on earth. Heaven is but the outgrowth of a holy consecrated life; and he that lives with Christ below is already in the lower chamber of the Father’s house; he has but to climb a pair of stairs, and be in the upper chamber where all the glorified meet together with their Lord. Still, I doubt not that it will be passing strange to go from earth into glory.

Whenever I begin to talk about this matter, I always wonder who will be the first among us to be called away, for it happens every week that some out of our great congregation go home. Sometimes, in a single week, six or seven of our church-members go to the great Father’s house: whose turn will it be to go next? We have not the choice; else might some of us venture to put in an early claim that we might enjoy our rest. I know some old folk, and some sick ones, and some who are greatly beset by Satan, and some who are sorely troubled with doubts and fears, who would gladly say, “Would God it were time for us to go!” Well, dear friends, rest assured that you are not forgotten; the messenger will come to you, perhaps soon, and he will say to you, “By to-morrow, you shall see the King in his glory.” You will have to go down into the flood, to cross the dark river, as they call it, but I do not believe that it is dark at all. I have seen the light shining on the faces of many of the pilgrims as they have looked back at me, when I have stood upon the river’s brink to comfort them; and it has not seemed at all dark. The happiest company I ever keep is that of dying saints. I come away right merry, sometimes, from their bedside, for they say to me, “O dear Pastor, the truth you preach is good to live upon, and good to die upon!” I saw a man and his wife, both of them very ill, lying in bed together, but not a syllable of sympathy did they appear to need from me; and they seemed delighted to say to me, “We learnt Christ from your lips; we have lived on the gospel you preached, and it upholds us now that we are lying here. We are glad to go home to heaven; we are full of life and full of immortality even now.” Oh, yes, these are strange things,-except to those who form part of this strange company with God, who is, to many, a stranger in his own world, and with Christ, who is a stranger, sometimes, in his own Church! We can say, and we shall say at the close of our lives, “We have seen strange things to-day.”

There is one strange sight which I wish that you, dear friends, if you are unconverted, would look upon,-I wish that you would see Jesus as your own Saviour. He is not far from any one of you. O do look, look, look at him; and, as you look at him, you shall live! That is God’s appointed way of salvation. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” And, dear heart, if you should see that strange being yourself, a saved sinner, I would like you to see another strange sight, namely, all your family saved. It will be such joy to you to have your wife rejoicing in Christ with you, joining in your daily prayer; and your children, even in their childhood, loving their father’s God. There is a text for you to lay hold of, supposing that you are not yet converted. It was the middle of the night when, in Philippi, the gaol began to rock to and fro. The gaoler’s house was up above, and he knew that he had two strange prisoners down in the vaults below. They had been singing in the night, and the other prisoners had heard them; and, as the gaol rocked and reeled, and the doors flew open, the gaoler, a stern Roman legionary, thought that his prisoners must have escaped, and that he would be put to death for allowing it; so he was about to thrust his sword into his own heart, but Paul shouted to him, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.” Then, when a light was brought, that man fell down before Paul and Silas, and said to them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Do not leave out those last three words, “and thy house.” Do not seek your own salvation without that of your household also. Look up the passage in Acts 16:31-34: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.” It was a midnight service, and baptism of the whole household upon a profession of their faith. God send you a like blessing! You will see strange things then; many of us have seen them in our families already; and we hope to see them repeated a thousand times. The Lord give you, every one, a personal blessing, and then bless your households also, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

LUKE 5:12-32

Verse 12. And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy:

What a contrast there was between these two persons,-the Lord Jesus full of purity,-and this man full of impurity,-full of leprosy! He could not be more than full; he had as much leprosy as a man could contain.

12. Who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

This was splendid faith. Here was adoration of the noblest kind; no angel before the throne of God could render the Son of God more honour than this poor leprous man did. He believed in Christ’s power at once to rid him of that otherwise incurable disease: “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”

13. And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from, him.

This is just what Christ can do also in the spiritual realm. If a man be full of sin, let him but fall down on his face before Jesus, and say, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,” and the Lord will put out his hand, and touch him, and he will be clean in a moment. “Immediately”-not needing the lapse of a single hour,-“immediately the leprosy departed from him.”

14. And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

As long as the ceremonial law was in force, Christ very diligently obeyed it, and bade others do the same. That law is now abolished, and the Jewish priesthood has also ceased to be. But mark the modesty of our Saviour. As a man, he sought no fame or honour, but, as far as he could do so, he suppressed the voices that would have brought him notoriety; yet grateful tongues could not all be silenced, even at his bidding.

15. But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.

There was a double attraction about the Lord Jesus,-his sweet, instructive speech, and his gracious, healing hand. There is a somewhat similar attraction still in every true gospel ministry, not the attraction of the mere words of human eloquence, but in the truth which every faithful minister preaches, and in that matchless soul-healing power which goes with the Word wherever it is believingly heard.

16. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

That is just what you and I would probably not have done under such circumstances. We should have said, “We must seize this golden opportunity of publishing our message. There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to plenitude of blessing; and we must take advantage of it.” But our Saviour did not wish for fame, he cared nothing about excitement and popularity; so “he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed” for more of that real power which touches the hearts of men so as to save them, caring nothing for that power which merely attracts a crowd, and excites momentary attention. O servant of God, when thou art succeeding best in thy service, imitate thy Lord, withdraw thyself and pray!

17. And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judæa, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

To heal the people? Yes, and to heal the doctors, too; and that was a far more difficult thing than to heal the ordinary folk. It must have been a time of great mercy and favour when Christ was ready to bless even the Pharisees and doctors of the law who were sitting by.

18. And, behold,-

For it was a great wonder,-

18. Men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy:

A paralyzed man.

18, 19. And they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop,-

There was, no doubt, a staircase outside, as there usually is to Eastern houses: “They went upon the housetop,”-

19-21. And let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?

Most true, O Pharisees; and therefore he is God, for he can forgive sins, and he has forgiven this poor sinner!

22, 23. But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?

“Does not each of these require the same divine power? If I am able to bid him rise up and walk, I am also able, by the same divine authority, to forgive his sins.”

24-26. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear,-

With a reverent awe,-

26, 27. Saying, We have seen strange things to day. And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom:

This Levi, or Matthew, was a tax collector; not like those of our own day, but one who farmed the taxes for the Roman governor, and made what he could for himself out of them; at least, that is what many of the “publicans” did.

27, 28. And he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him.

This was just a parallel case to that of curing the palsied man; it is precisely the same morally as the other was physically. The office of a publican was disreputable in the eyes of the Jews, and this Levi was probably making money fast at the cost of his own countrymen. He was paralyzed morally as the other man was physically; but as soon as Christ said to him, “Follow me,” “he left all, rose up, and followed him.”

29, 30. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?

It seems that there can never be a great wonder wrought by Christ without somebody or other objecting to it. I suppose that the sun never rises without annoying thieves, who would like a longer time to perpetrate their deeds of darkness; and no miracle of mercy is ever wrought without somebody finding fault with it for some reason or other. Be not dismayed, therefore, now that in these modern days there have arisen many cunning objectors to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let them object to it, as the dog barks at the moon; but still the moon shines on in her silver brightness. So, when all objectors shall have howled themselves to silence, the eternal gospel will shine on with never-failing splendour.

These scribes and Pharisees murmured against Christ’s disciples, and said to them, “Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” Their Master did not leave them to defend themselves, but he took the case into his own hands.

31. And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole-

“Such as you scribes and Pharisees claim to be”-

31. Need not a physician; but they that are sick.

“You regard them as sick, and I regard them in the same way, and therefore am I found where these sick ones are. Why should I turn aside from them to insult you, who are so wonderfully healthy and think yourselves so good?”

32. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-289, 202, 570.