These rockv-ground hearers have occupied our thoughts twice recently.* You remember that the first sermon concerning them was upon the text, “They had no deepness of earth;” and that, in it, I tried to show the shallowness of some men’s religious character,-how the pan of rock, below the thin layer of earth, had never been broken, so the seed could not really enter into them, but lay, for a little while, in the soil, rapidly springing up, and just as rapidly perishing. The other discourse was upon the words, “It lacked moisture,”-a very instructive little sentence, full of meaning. Luke alone tells us that the rocky-ground hearers “lacked moisture.” This, you probably remember, I explained as meaning dry doctrine without gracious feeling, experience without humiliation, practice without heart-love, belief without repentance, confidence without self-diffidence, action without spirituality, zeal without communion. I went somewhat deeply into that part of the subject, and I think that there must have been some who trembled as they thought that, possibly, they were among the number of those who have no deepness of earth, and who lack moisture.

Now, my dear hearers, I do feel intensely concerned that every work of grace, supposed to be wrought in this house, should be real, and therefore permanent. We are thankful that we are constantly having conversions, but we are very grieved that we also have some perversions. It is a comparatively easy thing to increase the church-roll, but it is only God’s almighty grace that can preserve to the end those whose names are written in our church records. Oh, for sure work! It is better to have only one convert who will endure to the end than twenty who only endure for a while, and in time of trial fall away. We have so much of the superficial, the merely topsoil work, in these days, that I feel that I am not laying too much stress upon one point if, three times in succession, I preach on this same subject, taking these three forms of expression indicating different phases of the same evil,-no depth of earth, no moisture, and no root in themselves. According to our Saviour’s interpretation, this is what happens to people of this sort: “Afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the Word’s sake, immediately they are offended.”

Notice, first, that they were dependent upon externals. They had “no root in themselves.” Their religion did not spring from within, and was not fostered from within.

This reminds us of a class of persons who cause us much grief of heart, though at the first they give us cause for much hope; I mean, those whose religion depends upon their parents. What a fearful calamity it often seems to a family when the father is taken away just when the boys are growing up! We have seen, in our own royal family, an example of it. Wherever it happens, it is always a cause of very terrible hazard to the children. But do you not also think that there are many lads and lasses, who are, in the main, favourable to the things of God simply because their father is an eminently devout man? Where that is the case, and where there is no true work of grace in their hearts, the death of their father will give them such a measure of liberty, and release from restraint, as will afford them an opportunity of showing that their religion was not real. In another case, it may be the influence-the almost boundless influence-of a godly mother over her sons and daughters. Some women are queens at home; they reign with a kind of imperial sway over their children; and those gracious matrons often lead their sons and daughters in the way of truth and righteousness; yet, sometimes, it is not so much a work of grace within as the work of the mother upon the surface; and so, if the dear mother falls asleep, the family is never again quite what it used to be. There is no longer that deep devotion, that intense earnestness, that there used to be in the religion of the household, and one reason is that its members have no root in themselves. Their root was in their mother, or their father. Now, dear young friends, any of you who are making a profession of religion, I say nothing against the gracious influence of your parents. God forbid that I should do so! I say everthing in praise of it; but I pray you not to let the influence of your parents be substituted for the work of the Holy Ghost upon your own heart. The message to you, as to all others, is, “Ye must be born again.” He only is the true Christian who can say, “If my father and my mother were gone, it would greatly grieve me, and I should feel it to be a serious loss; yea, if it should happen, I should hold on to Christ with no less intensity, but rather with even more, for I should feel it to be my duty to help to fill the great void which the loss of my parents had occasioned. I should think that I heard them speaking to me from the skies, and bidding their son, their daughter, follow them even as they followed Christ.”

So, dear friends, there are other cases in which the religious life is very much dependent upon Christian association. That young lady was governess in a pious family, and she seemed to be everything that we could wish, and avowed herself a Christian; but is she the same now that she has taken a situation in a worldly household,-perhaps in a distant land, where she never gets to hear the Word of God at all? If she has root in herself, she will grow, and be fruitful even in that unkindly soil. That working-man, when he was apprenticed, and when he was a journeyman, had a godly employer, and he worked with those who feared the Lord, and he became, confessedly, a Christian. I am not speaking against the gracious influence of masters and of workmates. God grant that it may always be exercised in the right way! But, still, if any of you have a form of religion which is dependent upon the position in which you live, you are without root in yourselves, and it will soon wither away. You must so know Christ, and trust him, and love him, that you would be true to him even if you were carried off into a Mohammedan country, or if you were called to live in the midst of blasphemy and infidelity. Do not rely upon somebody else’s example, be not dependent upon external associations, but have root in yourselves.

I fear that, in the case of a great many, their religion is dependent upon externals in respect of a faithful and earnest ministry. I have noticed, several times, that God has raised up different men to carry on his cause in the earth. Just now, it appears to me to be the age of the judges, for God appears to call, first one judge and then another, to deliver Israel. But we long for the time when King David will reign on his throne. It may be that we shall have antichrist first, and Saul will rule ere David comes. But when Samuel is gone, where will the people go? In many a place I have seen a good man raised up, and he has gathered a large congregation around him. Many of them seemed to be truly converted; and while he lived, their lives seemed to be all that one could desire. But he died, and then where were they? At this present moment, I could put my finger upon many of the followers of dear Joseph Irons. They are very aged people, but the Lord has preserved them faithful until now. I could pick out, here and there, those who were educated in divine things under Harrington Evans. What a gracious man of God he was! What sweet Christian people were fed at his table! If I were to make further enquiry, I should find a very large number of those who used to hear William Carter at the Victoria Theatre, but where are they now? A large number of them had no root in themselves; while, happily, still a large number of them had root in themselves, and are here with us, or in other churches of Christ to this very day. I could name other equally good men who used to labour in London, and of whom I could say that, when they were taken away, a considerable part of their work seemed to go with them. It was no fault of theirs that their hearers seemed to depend upon them, and that their influence over them was very great. I do not doubt that it is the same in my own case, and that, when I sleep with my fathers, there are some here, who have been unwise enough to hang upon me, who will go back again to the world, which they have never really left; and if so, when the man goes, their religion will go, too. But, dear friends, if you are vitally united to the Lord, then, even if the scythe of death should cut off every minister who now preaches in God’s name,-if every candle in the Lord’s house were put out,-you would still cleave to your God with full purpose of heart, and cry to him, in the cloudy and dark day, to return to bless his beloved Zion. But, alas! there are many professors who have no root in themselves;-parents, associates, and ministers supply them with all the root they have.

Then there are many more, whose religion must be sustained by enthusiastic surroundings. They seem to have been baptized in boiling water; and unless the temperature around them is kept up to that point, they wither away. There are some persons, who, when they get thoroughly excited so that they do not know what they are doing, generally do right; but that is a poor kind of religion which always needs to have the drums beating, and the trumpets sounding; for the religion that is born of mere excitement will die when the excitement is over. I am not saying a word against genuine revivals, or even against excitement; and I do not think that it is any argument against revivals that some of those who profess to be converted at them go back to the world. I am reminded of that very good story-a somewhat amusing one,-which Mr. Fullerton told us. He said that some persons find fault with revivals because all the converts do not stand. “Why,” said he, “they remind me of the tale that is told of a countryman of mine, who picked up a sovereign; but when he went to change it, they said that it was light weight, and he only got eighteen shillings for it. Still, you see, that was all clear gain to him. However, another day, seeing a sovereign lying on the ground, he said, ‘No, I will not pick up another sovereign, for I lost two shillings by the last one.’ ” That was very unwise, if it ever happened. So, suppose that we do lose some of the converts of a revival,-suppose that we even lose two out of twenty,-a very large percentage,-yet, still, the rest are all clear gain. Let us pick up another sovereign, even though there may be a discount upon its value. Yet I am sorry for those lost two shillings. I grudge the sovereign being light weight; I would like to have the whole twenty shillings, and to have all those, who profess to be converted, really converted to the living God. So I speak to those of you who, after a while, go back. When the cyclone of the revival is over, you drop to the earth like dead things. May God renew you by his grace, and work a work in your heart that will not be dependent upon any surroundings! May you have root in yourselves!

For, you see that this class of persons, who were dependent upon their surroundings, changed when their surroundings changed. Their parents were gone, they were placed in ungodly families, and they became ungodly themselves. They simply floated with the tide. It was said, a long while ago, that someone was asking whether such-and-such a person, who was a Quaker, was bathing in the Thames; and the reply was, “How am I to know a Quaker when he is in the river? He would not have his broad-brimmed hat on, would he?” “No,” said the other, “but you can distinguish him without that, for he is sure to be swimming against the stream.” That is the way that we know a Christian; he is sure to be swimming against the stream. Live fish always do that; but dead fish go floating down the stream, and are carried away with it. Dead fish just drift with the tide. If the tide goes up, they go up; but if the tide goes out, they go out. Whatever others do, they do; “anything for an easy life,” is their motto. They profess to be Christians while they are with Christians; but they are ungodly as soon as they are with the ungodly. This will never do.

According to our Lord’s parable, this is especially the case when they have to endure affliction or persecution because of the Word. They fear that they will be losers if they are Christians, and they cannot afford to suffer so. Somebody points the finger of scorn at them, and laughs at them, and they cannot stand that. They do not mind being thought respectable for going to chapel, and taking a seat; but to be shouted at in the streets, and to be made the subject of jest at private parties, they cannot endure that, so away they go. Poor things, dependent upon externals! God deliver you from that evil, that it may be no more said of you, “They have no root in themselves”! May you be straight, distinct, direct, thorough, true, solid, substantial, enduring, rooted, grounded, settled, by the grace of God!

Notice, next, that they were deficient in essentials. These grains of wheat, when they fell upon the loose soil lying upon that pan of rock, grew very fast. They grew all the faster because the soil was so shallow, and the sun so soon caused the seed to sprout; but it was only “for a time.” Listen to the sad note in my text: “They have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time.” They joined the church “but for a time.” They taught in the Sunday-school “but for a time.” They were zealous about religious matters “but for a time.” These words seem to me to sound like the tolling of a knell,-the knell of all our hope concerning them, and of all their hope, too. Oh, what sorrow is hidden in those words! How terrible it is to be converted “but for a time,” to make a profession of religion “but for a time”! What innumerable curses seem to hiss out of every syllable,-“but for a time”!

The pity is, that they were deficient in the essentials of vitality. They were not deficient in blade, for they sprang up; but they were deficient in root, and that was a fatal deficiency. For a plant to have no root, is much the same as for a man to have no heart. There cannot be life in a plant, for any length of time, at any rate, where such an essential thing as a root is lacking.

What is meant by a root in such a case as this? First, it means hidden graces. You cannot see the roots, for they are underground. The best part of the plant is out of sight. It does not strike every casual observer; but I suppose that, as a rule, there is as much of a tree underground as there is aboveground; and that, in many cases, it needs to be so in order that it may keep its hold upon the earth. Now, mark this, with a genuine Christian, there is always as much underground as there is aboveground. That underground work is often very much neglected, but it is exceedingly important; indeed, it is essential. One of the roots of a true Christian is secret repentance, and secret prayer is another; that is a root that runs down far into the soil. He who has not got it has no root. Secret communion with God, the talking of the heart with the great Father; secret love pouring itself out in fervent fellowship and praise; the inside life, of which none of our neighbours can see anything;-all that is the most important part of us. If you are a tradesman, and have all your goods in your shop window, you will fail before long. If you can show all your piety to anybody, you have not much to show. Underground work is, however, absolutely necessary. How many builders have had to prove this! They have “run up” houses in a hurry without a good foundation; and, by-and-by, down they have come. Foundation-work is all-important, though nobody can see it, and therefore nobody will praise it, and, perhaps, for a long time, nobody may discover that it is not there. O my dear hearers, let us lay a good foundation! Let our souls be really builded in secret upon the living Christ by a true and genuine faith,-the faith of God’s elect. That is what a root is, then,-a hidden thing. These rocky-ground hearers had no root, that is, no hidden graces.

In the next place, a root is a holdfast. When the winds of March come tearing through the woods, the trees will fall if they have no roots. Even the mighty oaks will be torn away from their places in the forest if they have no roots. These are the anchors of those great vegetable ships, by which they are held fast in the earth; and it is essential to a Christian to have a holdfast,-to have hold of something that he is sure of, something that he no longer questions; or, if he does question it, he battles with the question, and holds fast by the truth. A religion that may be true, or may not be true, is irreligion. The only real religion is that of which you are absolutely sure,-that which you have tried, and tested, and proved in your very soul, and know to be as true as your own existence. Doubts yield nothing to you but continual fear and trembling, starvation to your strength, and restlessness to your soul. Christ bids you come and believe in him with a child-like faith, for so he will give you rest. Oh, how many Christians lack roots! Just look at them. They hear a certain form of doctrine taught one day; and they say, “That is not quite what I have been accustomed to hear; still, it was prettily put.” They go and hear another kind of doctrine, and the preacher is such a clever man,-as he had need to be to make that sort of stuff go down,-that they take in all he says just because he is so clever. I believe that the devil is clever; and if these people could only hear him preach, I expect they would receive all he said, for they do not know anything, they do not understand anything, they have no holdfast of anything. They are like ships drifting at sea, with no chart, no compass, no captain, no rudder. They will probably end as derelicts, a menace to all ships that sail over the seas; or they will strike on a rock, or founder at sea. Only God knows what their end will be; but a bad end it must be, for certain. O dear friends, I want all of you to have roots!

Truth understood is a grand holdfast. Resolution deliberately formed,-that is another root, another holdfast. Communion with God continually enjoyed,-that is another holdfast. A lady was once asked why she was so sure that the Bible was true, and she replied, “Because I know the Author of it; “and when you, beloved, know the Author, and know how true he is, then your doubts concerning his truth will fly away. Confirmations continually experienced, such as answers to your prayers, providential deliverances, and the like,-these things become infallible proofs to you, till you are as sure of your position as a mathematician is about the rules of geometry. He cannot be convinced that they are false, for he has tested, and tried, and proved them. When anybody says to me, “God does not hear prayer,” I never answer him. I laugh. The remark is as false and as foolish as if he had said that I did not hear. Do you say that God does not hear prayer, or that there is no God? Of course, there is no God to you who have no God, and who never go to him. If he does not hear your prayers, how can you expect him to hear such prayers as yours are, seeing that you do not “believe that he is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him”? He never said that he would hear such prayers as yours; but if you believe in him, and know him, and come to him as a child comes to his father, he will as certainly hear your prayers as that you, being evil, give good gifts unto your children. This is not a matter of supposition with us. It has become a matter of fact, because we have these holdfasts, these roots, in ourselves. If you do not have these, you will certainly wither.

A root, again, implies a means of continuance. The child, who plucks the flowers from his father’s garden, and sticks them in his own little flower-bed, says, “Father, see how the dahlias have come up; my garden is pretty.” Yes, but in a couple of days they are all gone, because they had no roots in themselves. So, if you want to continue to be a Christian, there is a secret something, which only God can put into the soul, which ensures continuance; and where it once is, it will abide for ever. You remember how our Lord said to the woman of Samaria, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” He also said to the Jews, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” That is what is meant by the root,-the root implies continuance.

And, once more, a root means living assimilation. A plant might be tied to a stick that was stuck in the soil, and it might continue there, and yet wither. But you know what a root does, it goes travelling about until it finds the nourishment it needs. It is beautiful-to take the case of a fir tree,-to see it growing high up upon a bare rock. I have often seen, among the Alps, a huge rock standing all by itself, with a fine pine growing right up the rock; one root comes down this side, and another down the other side, till it looks as if it were a colossal eagle’s claws that had grasped the big rock. What are these great roots doing? Why, there is some good soil down there, and the roots have gone travelling down that great rock till they have reached the earth. By-and-by, these roots go to another rock; but, as there is nothing to be got out of it, they turn deliberately to the right, and to the left, and go in search of good soil and water, just as if they had a kind of intelligence, as I suppose they really have. It is wonderful how they will wind and twist about for long distances. I have seen the roots of some trees, in the South of France, running along almost as far as the entire length of the Tabernacle galleries,-perhaps, even further still,-right on until they have found water, and then they have brought it up to an insignificant-looking tree, which was thus nourished. Such is the power of a root.

For what purpose do we need roots? To be able to go after spiritual food; to be feeling after it all through the Word of God, sending roots into every text of Scripture that is likely to afford us spiritual nutriment. What do the roots do for the trees and plants to which they belong? They begin to suck up the materials by some strange living chemistry which I cannot explain, and they convert it into the life-blood of the plant or tree, selecting out of the soil this or that, and rejecting the other, and enabling the plant or tree to make its leaves and its fruits with wondrous skill. No chemist could perform this feat, but the chemistry of God accomplishes it by means of these little roots. What you need is to have roots in yourselves, to be constantly going after spiritual food, and especially laying hold of Christ to whom you are rooted, seeking from him the nourishment of the spiritual life that he has imparted to you, living because he lives, feeding on him, and understanding these words of his, which, if you do truly understand them, will assure you that you shall live for ever: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.… For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”

My time has gone, yet I must briefly tell you how these people were destroyed by unavoidable influences. The sun shone; they could not help that, the sun was made to shine. The sun was hot; it could not help that, it was made to be hot. And this was quite sufficient to put an end to all the greenness of these poor dwindling things. So the common trials of life, the afflictions, the persecutions, which are inevitable to the Christian life, scorch those who are mere professors; and they, having no root in themselves, wither away.

First, they lost their original stamina. A seed, unless it is absolutely dead, has some nutriment within itself; almost every seed contains a measure of nourishment for the life-germ. So, at first, this wheat, that was sown, sprang up by itself through the influence of the heat. Thus do some people seem to begin to be religious with a few right notions, and a little good feeling; but they soon use all this up.

Next, when that stamina was all used up, they had no means of taking in a fresh supply. A plant cannot live without roots, any more than you and I can live without mouths with which to eat. These people, having no root, could not go for anything more, they already had all they could get. They had no Christ to go to, they had no eternal life, no covenant purpose, no principle of the Holy Spirit to fall back upon; and when their little all was gone, they could not come to the great All-in-all for more; they had no connection with him.

To drop the figure, and speak plainly,-what does actually happen in the case of such people? Sometimes, there is unholy conduct. At other times, there is a departure from sound doctrine, which is just as great an evil in the sight of God. In others, there is the losing of all their former zeal; and, by-and-by, there comes the perishing altogether.

I have upon my memory many cases of this sort; but some of the friends of those persons are still alive,-perhaps some of the persons themselves are living,-so that, if I were to tell you about them, I might do harm instead of good. I remember, however, a man who was the terror of the village in which I preached in my early days. If ever there was a bad fellow on the earth, it was Tom---. One afternoon, after I had been preaching, I was told that he was in the right-hand gallery of the chapel. It was more than I could believe till my friends described to me a man whom I had noticed during the service, and then I was obliged to believe the evidence of my own eyes. He was a big rough navvy, and oh, such a terribly bad fellow! He came to hear me preach again and again; and he became to me very much what a faithful dog is to his master. There was nothing that he would not have done to please me if he could. He was broken down with deep repentance, as it seemed, just for a very short time indeed; and then he became boisterously happy. I often wished that his sorrow had lasted longer. Whenever I went out to preach, no matter how far off it might be, he was always there. I have seen him pull a barge, loaded with people, up the river Cam, that they might go to hear me at an open-air service. He was full of zeal and earnestness for a while; but, by-and-by, information reached me that Tom was drunk; and when he was drunk, he was capable of any evil. He remained drunk for months, and we never saw anything of him all that time. Then he came slinking back, and professed repentance. We hoped it was really so, but I never could make anything out of him. I think that he was just one of those who have “no root in themselves.” If I could have lived with him in the house always, he might have been as right as possible; but when he went out into the field to work, and met with other men, he was as wrong as possible, for he had no root in himself. Strong as Samson, he was also as weak as Samson. I wonder if I am-addressing anyone here who is like him. Dear friends, do not be satisfied with following a minister, and being earnestly in love with any Christian man; but get to God, and ask him to give you a new heart and a right spirit, or else it will only be a temporary reformation; and good as that may be, it will never land you in heaven.

There came to this house of prayer a working-man, whose father had induced him to come. I will not indicate where he sat. He was in the habit of wasting his week’s wages on a Saturday night, and his family were, in consequence, miserable and poor; but he was brought here, and the change in him was very wonderful. He had not been attending with us long before there was an alteration even in the rooms in which he lived, and in the appearance of his wife and children. We all felt glad, and his good old father, whom I know right well, was very happy about his boy. He said, “Surely, he will be converted.” He was such a hopeful character that it was even arranged for him to come to see me about joining the church. But, alas, he never comes now! Saturday night is just the same as it used to be in his worst days, and his family is just as unhappy. He had no root in himself; and he is just a picture of ever so many, who come in here, and get impressed, and are really benefited “for a time.” They take the pledge, but only to break it. God grant that they may not go so far as to be baptized, and yet go back to their sin, as the sow that was washed goes again to wallow in the mire! Not long ago, I was asked for alms by one who begged me to help him to get a meal. I looked at him, and wanted to know who he was; and he said, at last, “Don’t you know me?” “No, I do not know you.” He mentioned his name, but I did not remember him. Then he told me some things about himself that brought him to my recollection,-how he had sat among us here, and we had esteemed and respected him, and he had been very zealous in all good things; but, after a while, that “sipping and nipping,” which is so common among business men nowadays, led him astray, till he lost his position, and could not get another situation. He has gone down, down, down, till, as he spoke to me, and his breath reeked with spirits, I could only say, “I could not recommend you to a situation; nobody could take you, you are not fit for it.” I gave him a little something to eat; I could do no more for him. It is an awful thing to think of the many, of that sort, who have no root in themselves, and so, presently, wither away. Bad company in one case, a wicked woman in another case, the wine-cup in a third case,-all these things help to spoil the work which we had hoped had been a true work of grace. What, then, is to be done? Why, come along to Jesus Christ, and really trust him. If you give yourselves to him, he will change you, and you shall be truly changed. If you commit your souls into his keeping, he will keep you for ever and ever. Try to save yourselves, and you will surely be lost; but come to Christ that he may save you, and you will be certainly and eternally saved. Oh, that his grace might lead you thoroughly to quit yourselves, and wholly to rest in him, now and evermore; and unto his name shall be all the praise and glory. Amen and Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

2 TIMOTHY 1:1-8; 3; and 4:1-6

Chapter 1. Verses 1, 2. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ-Jesus, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son:

There is the greatest possible affection between the preacher and his convert. This is a relationship which even death will not destroy. They neither marry nor are given in marriage in the Heavenly Kingdom, but this fatherhood and sonship shall endure for ever.

2. Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is not a little remarkable that, when the apostle writes to churches, he usually wishes them “Grace and peace”; but when he writes to a minister, he generally prays for “Grace, mercy, and peace”, as if we needed more mercy than other Christians. Having so great a work to do, and falling into such great sin if we are unfaithful in it, we may well ask that we may have special mercy showed unto us by the God of mercy.

3. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

At that time, Timothy was very specially laid upon the apostle’s heart; and he did not seem to think of anything without young Timothy’s image rising up before him “night and day.”

4. Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;

Paul had seen Timothy’s tears when he parted from him. He remembered, perhaps, his tears when under conviction of sin, his tears of joy when he found the Saviour, and the tears he shed in his early preachings, when the gracious youth touched the hearts of others because he so evidently spoke out of his own heart.

5. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

There is no transmigration of souls, but there is a kind of transmigration of faith, as if the very form and shape of faith, which was in Lois and Eunice, afterwards appeared in Timothy. Truly, there are certain idiosyncrasies which may pass from some Christian people to others; and when those idiosyncrasies are of a high and noble kind, it is a great mercy to see them reproduced in children and children’s children. “I thought I heard your mother speak,” said one, when she heard a Christian woman talking of the Saviour; “you speak in just the way in which she used to tell out her experience, and describe the love of Christ.”

6. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

The fire needs stirring every now and then; it is apt to die out if it is not stirred.

7. 8. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Timothy, never be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and never be ashamed of Paul when he is put in prison for the sake of the gospel; but ask to partake, not only of the gospel, and of the power of it, but even of the afflictions which come for its sake, for this is one of the highest honours that can be put upon us, that we may suffer with God’s saints for the truth’s sake. Paul, in the 3rd chapter, goes on to tell Timothy of the danger of his times.

Chapter 3. Verses 1-7. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

This is the photograph of the present age, and I do not doubt that Paul spoke of it when thus the spirit of prophecy was upon him. This is the very motto of the present age, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” It glories in knowing nothing; and its great boast is in its continual progress, “never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

8, 9. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was.

For, when God was with Moses and Aaron, Jannes and Jambres were soon, by the power and wisdom of God, proved to be fools.

10-12. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

The world does not love Christ, or his gospel, an atom more to-day than it did in Paul’s day. “The carnal mind is” still “enmity against God.”

13. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

We may look for even worse days and darker days than we have at present.

14-17. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Chapter 4. Verses 1-6. I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-84 (Song II.), 375, 538.

BARRIERS OBLITERATED

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, September 3rd, 1903,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, September 16th, 1877.

“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.”-Isaiah 44:22.

We noticed, as we read the chapter, the extreme folly of a man attempting to make a god for himself, or to worship anything as God save only the one living and true God. We consider the heathen to be very foolish for worshipping their hideous idols. Yet, you know, to be an idolater, a man need not make an image of wood, or stone, or gold, for he can worship his own thoughts, his own ideas, his own notions; and every man, whose great object in life is anything less than the glory of God, really is a worshipper of idols. If that statement be true,-and I challenge anyone to prove that it is not,-London swarms with spiritual idolaters. He, who lives to himself, practically worships himself. That, you know, is a very extreme form of idolatry, for even the heathen do not bow down and worship themselves; but there are many, who do not call themselves heathen, who do that. He who lives only to make money,-what is he but a worshipper of the golden calf? And he who cares continually for the opinion of his fellow-men,-what does he worship but that shameless creature, Fame? He lives upon the breath from other men’s nostrils, and counts it worth his while to make himself a slave that he may win the applause of his fellow-slaves. If we live to thee, great God, we live wisely; for thou alone art self-existent, and thou canst reward us and bless us; but if we live for anything less than thee, we live foolishly, since, even if we could attain the objects after which we seek, they would soon pass away from us, or else, by death, we should pass away from them. For an immortal spirit, there is nothing worth living for but to please God. “To glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever,” is the only worthy end of mortal man.

Now, beloved friends, it is strange that this, which seems so simple, is continually being forgotten; indeed, by the mass of mankind, it is not remembered at all. They go their way, and burn their sacrifices and their incense to this idol and to that, but God is not at all in their thoughts; and the worst of this evil is, that even his own people have far too great a tendency to this kind of idolatry. Even those who are born again, and who love the Lord, find within themselves an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, and I feel sure that I am addressing many who, to a greater or less degree, have been guilty of turning away from the only true God; and it is for them that my text is meant: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” I am speaking, of course, to those who really are God’s people, but who have lost somewhat of the fervour of their love, and who have not been truly faithful to him; but while I am specially addressing them, I hope that a good many others, who could not yet say that they are the Lord’s people, will, nevertheless, perceive that the door of God’s mercy is also open to them, and that they will enter in even while I am setting it open for the Lord’s wandering children. Recollect that, if you do get in, you will never be put out. Whether I know that I have a right to go through the gate of mercy, or not, if I once get in, I am in, and I shall never be turned out. If I am only like a dog that goes into a house uninvited, yet, so long as I am once inside, there is no power that can expel me, for the Lord Jesus himself said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

There are four things in our text that are worthy of notice. First, the dividing medium: a cloud of sins,-a thick cloud of transgressions; secondly, its complete removal: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins;” thirdly, the tender command: “Return unto me;” and, fourthly, the sacred claim: “for I have redeemed thee.” I must speak briefly upon each point.

First, here is an interposing and dividing medium: a cloud of sins. A vapour, says the Hebrew; and, then, a thick cloud.

God’s people ought always to dwell in fellowship with their God. There ought to be nothing between the renewed heart and God to prevent joyful and hallowed fellowship; but it is not so. Sometimes, a cloud comes between,-a cloud of sin; and, whenever that cloud of sin comes between us and God, it speedily chills us. Our delight in God is no longer manifest; we have little or no zeal in his service, or joy in his worship. Beneath that cloud, we feel like men who are frozen; and, at the same time, darkness comes over us. We get into such a sad state that we hardly know whether we are God’s people, or not. Sin comes between us and our God, and all our joy departs. To be near to God, is to live in the sunlight; but to sin against God, soon brings us under very heavy gloom. We are like men in a thick London fog; we can scarcely see our own hands, and we have, sometimes, to stand still in utter astonishment, and ask, “Where am I, and what am I? I thought I was a child of God; but if I were to die just now, where should I go?” Sin is the cloud which comes between us and God, and chills and darkens us.

Beside that, it threatens us. A great black cloud over one’s head makes us wonder what may be in it. It may be charged with tempest, and may burst upon our devoted heads. Backslider, when you get away from God, I do not wonder that you begin to be in distress and alarm. The thought of death distresses you. At one time, you could have met death with a calm countenance; but you could not do so now. You begin to have thoughts of judgment, and of eternal wrath and destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. You know you do, for he who is under the frown of God because of sin never knows what woe may come out of that dark cloud. He is full of alarm and distress, and has no true rest of heart. Affliction seems to be the judgment of God upon you who are in this sad state; and your present distress of mind, great as it is, seems to be nothing compared with what you think will come upon you. You fear that you will be utterly deserted,-that God’s mercy will be taken from you for ever, and that he will be favourable to you no more. It is your sins that look so black upon you; you have the dark side of them turned to you; and can you wonder that it is so if you have been getting away from God, loving the world, and acting like a fool in forsaking the Most High?

Remember, dear friend, if you are in that condition, that clouds are earthborn things. There is not a drop of water in the cloud yonder but what went up, first of all, from the earth or the sea; and so, your present darkness and distress have all arisen from your sins. You say that you go to the house of God, and get no comfort. Recollect the times when you used to go there, and pay but little attention; and when you used to go home, and pick holes in what you had heard,-finding fault with your spiritual food, like naughty children do with food for the body when they have no appetite, and cannot eat this, and do not like that;-like them, you need to be put on “short commons” till you get your spiritual appetite back again. Do you remember how it used to be with you? You had bright days once, and happy times; but, then, you used to be very careful of your walk and conversation. At that time, you were almost afraid to put one foot before another, for fear you should not tread in your Lord’s footprints. You used to watch your words; you were very particular as to the company you kept; you would not consort with worldlings then; but, now, you can do, without compunction, a thousand things which you would not have done then. Things for which you have severely censured others, you now tolerate in yourself; and now you say, “There is a thick black cloud over my sky.” Do you wonder that there is? With all those bogs and morasses of sin, is there any marvel that the mists of doubt and fear should have arisen around you? Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Ah! there are some of you, who used to be very fervent and earnest in divine things. You used to speak of Christ to others, and you were even the means of bringing some souls to Jesus; yet now you have yourselves turned aside from him. Oh, it is a sad thing when one who used to be a Sunday-school teacher has forgotten the lessons he taught to his boys, or when the man, who was once a street-preacher, or even the pastor of a Christian church, has himself become a profaner of the Sabbath; yet such things do happen.

I will mention only one more thought under this head,-a very encouraging one. It is this, though your sins are like clouds, which chill you, and darken you, and though those clouds are of your own making, yet recollect that the sun is not affected by the clouds. Though hidden for a while, he is still shining. This is a most comforting truth, but be careful not to pervert it. The everlasting love of God to his people is not changed even by their wanderings and their sins. The child thinks that the clouds have destroyed the sun; but high up above the clouds he is as bright as ever. Ever glowing like a mighty furnace art thou, O sun; and our damps and fogs quench not thy brilliance! And, backslider, the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, the power of God to bless, and the willingness of God to receive you back again remain just the same as ever they were notwithstanding the density of these horrible vapours of sin and transgression. Do not, I pray you, make an ill use of this great truth. If you do so, you will give sure evidence that you are no child of God, but a base hypocrite; but if there is any spiritual life within you, this blessed truth will tend to bring upon you compunction of conscience to think that you should be offending against a God, whose love is still the same notwithstanding all your backsliding, and who does not turn aside from his covenant, nor cast away his people, whom he did foreknow.

Now, secondly, we are to consider the complete removal of this barrier: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.”

Nobody but God can get at the clouds, and drive them from the firmament of heaven. There they are, floating high above our heads, and no known human power can remove them. So it is with your darkness and doubts, if you have fallen into sin. You cannot get rid of them. You may sit down under them in despondency, and weep, and be almost in despair; but there they are, and there they will remain. You may go to the so-called priests, if you like, as the poor African goes to the pretended rain-maker, and asks him to bring rain when he wants it; and the priest can do just as much for you as the rain-maker can do for the African, certainly not any more. He and the rain-maker are a couple of deceivers, so do not you be duped by either of them. There is no one who can forgive sins save God only, so do not you be deluded into the belief that there is any other forgiver in the whole universe.

But what a mercy it is that God can remove these clouds of sin! He can do it, and do it effectually. How quickly God sweeps the sky clear of clouds! Sometimes, in this fickle climate, we have all sorts of weather mixed up together, so that we experience spring, summer, autumn, and winter in the course of a few hours. You have seen the clouds hanging thick and heavy all over the sky; you have passed into your house, and said, “It will be a very wet day;” but you have hardly gone indoors before there has been a clear blue sky above you, with not a cloud the size of a man’s hand to be seen anywhere. Thus can God quickly sweep away the clouds, and he can just as quickly take away sin. Before you can even get out of this building, you, who are groaning under a sense of sin, may be completely delivered from it. You, who now see the clouds of your transgressions and iniquities hanging black above your heads, may, in a moment, be able to see the clear sky of God’s forgiving love with not a trace of all your transgression and iniquity.

The mercy is, that, when God drives away these clouds from us, though we may see other clouds, we shall never see those black ones any more. When the Lord takes away his people’s sins, they are gone, and gone for ever. They shall not be remembered against them any more for ever. Whenever I get upon this topic, I feel as though I should like to keep on speaking upon it, and go no further. The glorious forgiving love of God is an indescribable theme, and it is altogether inexhaustible. We may continue to talk about it year after year, but we shall never get to the end of it; yea, even throughout eternity, we shall never be able to tell all the splendours of the pardoning mercy of our gracious God. O backslider, he can take away all thy sin this very moment! He can shine forth upon thee like the sun in his strength; and, then, every shadow and cloud shall be driven from thy soul.

Now I am getting near to the very heart of the text, but I have not quite reached it yet, for the glory of it is that the Lord has already done this great work of grace. The text does not say, “I can blot out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions;” nor, “I will blot them out;” but, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions.” It is done, fully done, for ever done. Hearest thou this, poor wanderer? Perhaps thou sayest, “I cannot come back to God, for I have been so long a wanderer from him, and my sins still lie heavily upon me.” But, my brother, my sister, the Lord has forgiven thee all thy sin. He says, “Think no more about it, for I have blotted it all out.” If thou art indeed a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou art like a child who has offended his father,-run away from home, perhaps. In a distant land, in sin and sorrow, that son is longing to return, and he gets a message from his father saying, “All is forgiven; come home.” It is so with thee, thou wandering child of God, if thou hast repented of thy wanderings, all is forgiven; even the guilt of this backsliding of thine was laid upon Christ. If thou art believing in him, that is the clearest possible proof that all thy transgressions were laid upon him, and that he has made a full and complete atonement for them all. Even while thou art coming back to him, all thy sin is forgiven through the superabundant mercy which moves him to run to meet thee even as the father of the prodigal ran to meet his son; and before he falls upon thy neck, before thou hast begun to confess thy transgressions in his ear, he has already blotted them all out. What sayest thou to this wondrous display of sovereign grace, which be himself bids us proclaim to you? He knows whether he has forgiven thy sin, or not, and it is he who says, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” Often and often have I mused upon this great truth,-The Lord has loved me with an everlasting love, and he has washed me in the precious blood of Christ, and forgiven me all my transgressions; and whenever I think of that, I feel my heart drawn still more closely towards him.

Unbelief will never bring you rest of heart, but faith will do so. I am speaking now to any of you who have wandered quite a long way from Christ. I may be even addressing some member of the Tabernacle who has not lately been very regular in hearing the Word. You have fallen into a very lean, sad state, my brother; you are finding fault with other people, but it is yourself who ought to be blamed. Many things do not suit you now as they used to do, and you lay upon others the blame which you ought yourself to bear. You could sit on any hard seat once; but you need a soft cushion now. You could stand in any hot place to hear the gospel in those days; but you are too grand a gentleman to do that now. I do not know what we can do to get you into a good temper; for, after all, you are the one who is wrong. You know it is so; yet, notwithstanding that, I want to whisper in your ear that your Father is still your Father, that Christ is still your Saviour, that the Holy Spirit is still your Guide and Teacher; so, come home. Stay no longer away because you fear your Father’s frown. You have grieved him, you have vexed his Holy Spirit, you have dishonoured his Son; yet he has not changed. Still do his bowels yearn over you, still does he cry, “How can I give you up?” and he will not. Come back to him, for it is his mercy that is calling you.

I have already passed into the third division of my subject almost before I was aware of it. We have already seen that there is a barrier between some souls and God, and that the Lord can clear that barrier away; now we are to consider the tender command: “ ‘Return unto me.’ The great barrier, that separated us, is removed; so let us not be divided from one another any longer.”

Perhaps, my brother, you have thought that God had left off loving you; but he has not. You have begun to quarrel with God because you imagined that he had a quarrel with you; but it is not so, for he loves you still; it was your sin that he hated. Kindness is in his heart, and words of infinite love are on his lips, still. Surely, if you know that the sin, which has come like a great mountain chain between you and himself, is regarded by him as mere vapour,-a cloud,-which he has removed by the power of his almighty grace, you will give heed to him when he cries to you, “Come back. Come back. Come back. Bygones shall be bygones. The guilt of all your wanderings I have laid on the great Scapegoat’s head. I have drawn my pen through the record of your sin in my book of remembrance, and have struck it all out. Come back. Come back.” When, in your soul, you hear God speak to you thus, do not your hearts at once respond, “Lord, since thou hast taken away the barrier that separated us, we will come back to thee, and we will come back this very hour”?

When he says, “Return,” he means that he wants you to give up that which has grieved him. You cannot come back to God, you know, bringing your love of sin with you. Some of you professors, who are, I hope, still the Lord’s people, fall into various evil ways which grieve the Holy Spirit, and then the black clouds form a great barrier between you and your God. He requires you to give up that which has caused the dark clouds to cover your sky. What is it that has brought about this sad result? I have known some professors fall into a sad state through keeping ill company; they have associated with some very fascinating person who has been able greatly to amuse them, but who certainly could not edify them, for he knew nothing savingly of the things of God. I have known some professors go, by degrees, into very gross sin, as the result of giving way to the habit of tippling; they would not like to be called drunkards, but I am sure I do not know what other name I could give them. And some nominally Christian tradespeople do things, in their business, which they would not like to have generally known. They seem to forget that God sees them, and knows all about them. Now, any sin, that is known and tolerated, will soon separate a Christian from his God as to any conscious enjoyment of his presence. Be very careful, then, dear brother, as to anything which is grieving your God; and though it should be a loss or a cross to you to give it up, do not hesitate a moment, but give it up, and come back to your Heavenly Father. Nothing can compensate for the loss of his presence; and you cannot have his presence so long as you continue to hug your sin; therefore, give up the sin which he hates, especially as he has forgiven you in the past. If a young man has left his father’s house in anger, but his father writes to him, and says, “William, the trouble is all over. My boy, I fully forgive you, so come back to me;” will he still stay away? Let us hope not; and, dear child of God, your Father says to you, “Return unto me, for I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins.” So, give up your sin, seeing that God has blotted it all out.

The Lord’s gracious invitation, “Return unto me,” also means, “Come back, and love me. See how I have loved you. I have already forgiven you your sin, you who are, indeed, my child, but whose faith has almost disappeared. Though you have provoked me by your sin, I still love you. Though there is nothing lovely about you, yet still I love you, for my name’s sake, and for my Son’s sake, will you not love me?” After such pleading, can you keep on in this cold-hearted state towards your God? Some of you professors make us weep when we think of how you live, and how far you get away from your God. I do pray that he may cast the cords of his almighty love about you, and bind you to himself, so that you cannot escape from him if you would, and would not if you could.

The Lord also means, when he says, “Return unto me,” “Return again to your old joys.” Oh, you who have got away from the sunlight, through making your sins into a thick cloud, come back into the sunlight again! I would like to refresh the memories of some of you, who are here, as to the happy times you once had. Ah, then, you were the people who loved the prayer-meeting. How sweet the gatherings of the saints were to you! Do you not also recollect your little room, where, kneeling by your bedside, you had such communion with God that, although you are very cold now, you never can quite forget that holy fervour? You were not a hypocrite, were you? You know you were not. Oh, how your feet used to trip along as you went up to the house of God with the multitude that kept holy day! How earnestly you used to tell others of the joys of true religion! Possibly, you say, “Do not remind us of that joy, for we have lost it.” Yes, but you can have it all back again. God can give you once more the years which the locusts have eaten. Those wasted days, those joys which have been starved to death,-you shall have them back again, and you shall yet lift up your voice with the sweet singer of Israel, and praise the Lord that his mercy endureth for ever. Yes, though you feel like guilty Peter, when he denied his Lord, you may yet come back like Peter, and be all the stronger for your past bitter experience. Your Heavenly Father bids you return, and I, your brother in Christ, would stretch out my hand to you, and say, Come, my brother; come, my sister;-

“ ‘Come let us to the Lord our God,

With contrite hearts return.’ ”

My last point is the sacred claim which backs up the gracious invitation: “Return unto me,” saith the Lord, “for I have redeemed thee.”

I do not know whether you see the meaning of this, but I think I do. It is this: “I have loved you so much that I redeemed you with the blood of my dear Son; and, having loved you so much in the ages past, I love you still. Come back to me. I did not make a mistake when I first loved you, through which I shall have to change the object of my choice. I knew all about you from eternity; all that you ever would be or could be, I knew it; I saw it all with my foreseeing eye, and yet I loved you, and bought you with the precious blood of Jesus, my only-begotten and well-beloved Son, and I love you still. Therefore, return unto me; return, return.”

But even that does not convey the full force of this gracious invitation. It further means this: “I have a right to you. I have bought you; you are mine; and you shall not go away from me.” Come back to me, for redemption’s sign, the blood-mark, is upon you. Many of you bear in your very bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus; for you have been immersed in water, in the name of the Sacred Trinity, on profession of your being dead to the world, and alive unto the Christ. It is utterly impossible for you to get that water-mark off you; it is upon you for ever. And Christ has marked you as his own with his own blood, and he will not let you go. Listen to what he says about the matter:” Behold these wounds in my head, and hands, and feet, and side. I bought you with the very blood of my heart; so, do you think that I will lose you? Did I bow my head in unspeakable agony, and cry, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ and shall I lose those whom I purchased by my death?” Who is he that shall snatch out of the hands of Christ those whom he has bought with his own blood? Shall the arch-enemy come and steal away the sheep of Christ? Shall the lion of hell devour even one stray lamb out of his flock? Nay, verily; our greater David shall tear him in pieces first; and deliver every one of the innumerable souls that his blood has redeemed. Buy them with his death, and then leave them to be damned? I find no such sham redemption in this blessed Book, nor would I care the turn of a farthing for the value of it; but the redemption which Jesus Christ has wrought is a redemption that does redeem. He has paid too great a price for his people for him ever to lose those whom he purchased with his blood. So he says to each one of you, who have believed in him, but who have gone astray from him, “ ‘Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee;’ and I will have thee. Thy league with hell is broken, and thy covenant with death is disannulled. Come back to me. Come back to me. Thou wilt never find rest anywhere else. Thou mayest go into sin, but thou shalt never find pleasure in it, neither shalt thou be content with it. If thou wert one of the swine, thou mightest fill thy belly with the husks that they eat; but thou art my child, and thou must starve till thou comest back to my table. For thee there shall be no mirth, no music, no feast, no robe, no joy, until thou comest back to me. I have redeemed thee, and I will hedge up thy way with thorns until thou dost return unto me; but I will not let thee go. I will turn thee out of thy wicked paths. I will beat thee as with blows of a cruel one; I will smite thee with affliction upon affliction; but I will have thee, I will not suffer thee to perish. Return ere this rough treatment is meted out to thee. Return at love’s gentle wooings, and with mercy’s tender voice, for I have redeemed thee. ‘It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’ I have thee in hand, and I can do with thee as I please; and thou shalt, after all, be drawn back among the rest of my people.” Go, poor dove, and fly over the wild waste of waters. Look North, South, East, West, but thou shalt never see a log floating on the waves upon which thou canst rest. That foul raven, out yonder, can light upon a corpse, and both rest and feed upon the carrion; but thou canst not. Fly whither thou wilt, O dove, there is but one rest for thee, and Noah alone can tell thee where it is. It is within the ark. But dost thou refuse to return to that ark? Dost thou still fly, and fly, and fly, till thy wings are weary, and thou canst scarcely keep thyself above the flood? Fly on, on, on, till thy pinions, at last, cannot bear thee up any longer; but, oh, if thou wilt be wise, fly with thy failing pinions to yonder ark, and hide thyself there, for there alone is rest to be found. Thou shalt come there, thou must come there, for there is rest for thee nowhere else. Ah, young man, you did not think of this when you came in to this service; you scarcely know why you came, for you meant to go with evil companions! But if Christ has really bought you with his blood, he will have you; so, in his name, I do arrest thee, and bid thee trust in him.

“Thus the eternal counsel ran

‘Almighty grace, arrest that, man.’ ”

You are arrested in the name of the great King. Pause and turn to him, and live. Perhaps you remember how Colonel Gardiner, on the very night when he had made a sinful appointment, was convicted of sin, brought to the Saviour, and became one of the most earnest followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. My dear Lord, with his sorrowful countenance, looks into the faces of some of you. I do not know who it may be, but he does; and, lifting up his pierced hand, he lays it upon one here, and another there, and he says, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” The Lord bless you, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-605, 545, 296.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ISAIAH 43:21-28; and 44:1-28

Chapter 43. Verse 21. This people-

That is, God’s own people: “This people”-

21, 22. Have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

The very people whom he had formed for his praise forgot to pray to him,-ceased to remember him,-grew weary of him. Oh, how sad is this and how great is the longsuffering of God, that he bore with them so long

23. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.

God has laid no tax on his people. He does not ask any hard thing of us; and yet, notwithstanding that, we have been slack in his service. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light, yet our shoulders have been unwilling to bear them.

24, 25. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

That is a very astonishing verse, wherever we might find it; but to find it in such a connection is a wonder indeed. These people had wearied God; yet even then, he said, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions.” Note on what a sure and blessed ground he puts it: “for mine own sake.” The Lord could not do anything for such sinners as we are for our sakes, for there is nothing deserving about us; but in order that his mercy may be the more clearly seen, and his faithfulness and immutability may be displayed, he says, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

26-28. Chapter 44. Verses 1, 2. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified. Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches. Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.

You see, the Lord goes on to show his people that, if they were in trouble, they had brought it upon themselves. If the sanctuary had been degraded, it was because both themselves and their teachers had transgressed against God. But, after he has justified his wrath, he still goes on to talk of mercy; and, oh, with what plenteousness of love does he address these wandering people of his!

3. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

Here, O ye needy souls, ye who thirst after mercy, is a rich promise for you! How plenteously does God bestow it! “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” Your needs cannot be so great as the divine supply. All the Lord asks is that you should be willing to receive his mercy, willing that your emptiness should be filled out of his fulness.

4. And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.

They shall spring up where there were none before, and grow very quickly. These are our young converts; I trust that we shall have many such springing up “as willows by the water courses.”

5, 6. One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

That is a great truth, always to be kept in mind, that there is no God beside Jehovah. Let us beware of ever attempting to set up, in our own hearts, any god save the one living and true God.

7-12. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any. They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. The smith-

Note how the Lord holds up to mockery and scorn the makers of idol gods. He shows the process of god-making,-the making of idol gods; but his words may be equally well applied to the making of Virgin Marys, and the various saints, crucifixes, and all other lumber of this kind in the idolatry that calls itself Christian: “The smith”-

12. With the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.

That is one of these god-makers, you see; a man who makes an idol god, yet who himself gets thirsty by reason of the heat of the coals in his forge. A fine god it must be that he makes! Next comes the carpenter.

13, 14. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengthenth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.

They like some choice wood out of which to make their gods. So we see that these idol gods grow in the woods first; and then, afterwards, they need a carpenter’s rule, and line, and compass, and plane in order to shape them according to his taste, or the order of his customers.

15-17. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

Did ever sarcasm-truthful and proper sarcasm-go further than this? Idolaters in various lands have frequently been convinced of the absurdity of their worship as they have read this very remarkable piece of inspired writing.

18, 19. They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?

Shall I, an intelligent being, worship gold, silver, wood, or brass, however excellent may be the workmanship of it? Shall I, an immortal being, cast myself down before a piece of bread, and worship that, as some do, who first worship, and then eat their god? Oh, what strange infatuation!

20. He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

The prophet concludes that madness must have laid hold upon the minds of men, or they never could have fallen into the debasing superstitions which degrade them all over the world. Yet, even in this present century, old superstitions have come back to our country; it is strange that here, where so many martyrs were burnt, the sons of these martyrs should actually be willing to go back again to the beggarly elements and superstitions of the olden times. The Lord have mercy upon this land, and deliver it from all forms of idol worship!

21, 22. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

Out of all the world, God had a chosen people, his own Israel, to whom he revealed himself; but they also turned aside unto idols, yet here he bids them return to him. Even to this day, they bear their protest against idols bravely. I would to God that they also knew the Christ of God, and worshipped him. All believers are the true Israel after the spirit, and are to maintain for ever the glory of the one only living and true God.

23. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.

THEOCRACY

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, September 10th, 1903,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, September 23rd, 1877.

“I will be thy King.”-Hosea 13:10.

“Thou art my King, O God.”-Psalm 44:4.

Those of you who were present, this morning, will remember that I preached upon the Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that I earnestly entreated my hearers to submit themselves to his Kingly authority.* I hope that many, who were with us, felt that an almighty force was operating upon them, making them willing to surrender themselves to the control of the great King of kings. I dwelt, then, mainly upon the need of decision for Christ, and upon our duty to yield ourselves up wholly to him. That is the human side of the question, and is, by no means, to be kept in the background; but, on this occasion, I want to speak to you upon the privilege of having Christ for our King, and upon the graciousness of Christ in allowing himself to be our King, and permitting us to become his subjects. My purpose, at this time, is rather to set forth what God does for us in this matter than what he demands of us. To me, it seems inexpressibly beautiful that, while we are, in one place, bidden to “kiss the Son,” and accept him as our King, we have, in another portion of Scripture, such a delightful declaration as this, “I will be thy King.” It is always interesting to trace great rivers to their sources. You usually find that their springs lie far up among the mountains; and if you trace back to their springs certain practical subjects that you find in the Word of God, you get to the eternal hills of everlasting love.

I am going, first, to run away from my text, and to take another. If you look in the 10th verse of the 13th chapter of Hosea, which contains our text, you will see these words near the end of the verse: “Give me a King.” So, our first head is, the need of nature; then, in the second part of my discourse, I shall keep strictly to my first text: “I will be thy King.” That is the answer of grace; and then, thirdly, we shall go back to the 44th Psalm, and at the 4th verse we shall find the acknowledgment of faith: “Thou art my King, O God.” That is our programme; may we be helped by the Spirit to carry it out, and may we be able, in our hearts, to go from step to step all through!

First, then, we are to consider the need of nature: “Give me a King.”

Man was once happy in Eden, for God was his King; but when he cast off his allegiance to God, and became a rebel and a traitor, then he lost both his paradise and his peace. Ever since then, man has, morally and spiritually, needed a King, and the deep groaning of the natural man is, “Give me a King.”

Now, first, this is the cry of weakness. Man finds himself to be a poor puny creature, and he feels that he wants to look up to someone greater, stronger, wiser, more enduring than himself. There are some plants that cannot grow much unless they can get something stronger than themselves to which they can cling, and around which they can twine. You may, perhaps, have seen them, when they have been away from a wall or a tree, stretching out their tendrils, and seeking for something to climb upon; and if they do not find it, they fall to the ground till, in the damp weather, their leaves grow wet, and rot, and the plant is in a sickly state, in which it can barely exist. Such is human nature. It is a trailing thing, and it fain would be a climbing thing, and a clinging thing. In some persons, this trait is very conspicuous. They are always wanting somebody to whom they can cling; and this tendency is the source of the greatest possible danger and sorrow to them. They select wrong objects for their love and trust; and, consequently, they are betrayed, they are disappointed, and they sadly learn the meaning of that text, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” That is the result when this clinging tendency is wrongly, used; but many people have this tendency. Man is weak, and he knows that he is weak; and, therefore, he cries, “ ‘Give me a King,’-someone who will guide me, direct me, govern me, rule me, take care of me.”

Besides being the cry of weakness, it is also, oftentimes, the sigh of distress. In the 9th verse of this chapter, we read, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.” Then follows my first text, “I will be thy King.” Do you see the connection of the two passages? A King is promised to them because they had destroyed themselves. When a man feels that he has destroyed himself,-brought himself down to destruction by his sin and folly,-then he, too, cries, “Give me a King.” He wants help that he may be brought up out of his sad condition. When a soul is really convinced of its sin, and made to see that it is brought under the sentence of God’s righteous law, it, naturally, cries out for something, or someone, that can give it the help which it does not find in itself; and this craving is often the cause of our being duped, for a so-called “priest” comes in, and he says, “I can help you; I am ordained of God to rescue you from destruction.” Many people are willing to trust in anything that has certain robes upon it; but, for my part, I will trust neither in chasubles, nor albs, nor stoles, nor any decorations or dresses, whether they are on linen-horses or on men-milliners. What can there be, in man, or in his clothes, that can be of help to his fellow-man in such a case as this? Besides, God has not entrusted such a ministry as that to any man. He has bidden his servants preach the gospel; and that gospel conveys help, and light, and power to all who believe it; but as for forms and ceremonies, musical performances, ornate ritual, masses, and the like, they are sheer deceptions through and through. Trust not the weight of a feather to them; much less your souls. But again I remind you that there is in man a craving which makes him long for someone who can rescue him from destruction; and the mercy is, that God meets that craving by setting before us his dear Son, who is Prophet, Priest, and King,-Prophet to reveal to us the mind of God,-Priest to cleanse us by his own blood, and to make us acceptable to his Father,-and King to rule and control us, and bring us into conformity to his own will. I know that cry right well, and for years I sent it up from the very depths of my soul, “ ‘Give me a King,’-one who is wise enough, and strong enough, and willing enough to help my soul in its greatest extremity.”

Further, dear friends, if sinners were wise, this would also be the prayer of thoughtfulness. I will suppose that I am addressing a young man, to whom God has given a wise and understanding heart. He has passed his majority, and is just about to leave his father’s roof, and he feels that, now, everything must depend upon himself, and his own character; he cannot depend upon others as he has done in the past. Now, if he is a wise young man, he will say to God, “Give me a King,” for he will know from observation, I hope, rather than from experience, that anarchy in the soul is a truly terrible thing. There have been men of great talents, who, it seems to me, in the providence of God, have been permitted to live on purpose to show what a man is when there is no King in his soul,-when every passion, that rules him, leads the mob of his faculties to tumult and revolt. If his thirst said, “Drink,” the man drank till he was drunken. If his natural appetite and taste said to him, “Gratify us,” he gratified them even though, thereby, he plunged into all manner of licentiousness and excess. There have been men, I say again, of great talents, who have blazed in the moral firmament like meteors, and have astonished many with the brilliance, yet luridness, of their light; yet their influence has been baleful to the nation, and mischievous to all men except those who learnt from them not to try to govern their own passions in their own strength. To let all the powers within us be without a supreme Ruler is the most terrible thing that can happen to any man. Young man, never believe that it can be for your good to follow the leading of your own evil passions. No, it is in restraining yourself that your welfare and your happiness will lie; not in throwing the reins upon the neck of carnal desires, but in reining in those fiery steeds, and keeping them well in hand; and, to do that, you need to pray, “Give me a King.”

It is a dreadful thing to lead an aimless life. I know no person, in the whole world, who is more wretched than a man who has no true object in life. His father, perhaps, left him all the wealth that he could desire; and, now, the sole occupation of his being is to kill time, and to dig its grave, and his own also, as quickly as he can. He does not live to benefit others, he has no high and noble object as his guiding star; but he simply squanders his time till it is all gone. Now, that is the most miserable man I know. A man, who is toiling hard to bring up a large family, may be, and very often is, among the happiest of men. A man, who has an object in life,-especially if it be an unselfish one,-and who strains all his faculties in order that he may attain it, is sure to be happy; possibly, happier while he is pursuing that object than after he has attained it. Trying to win a race warms a man, and produces in him joy,-the joy of activity, the joy of competition, and, often, the joy of success; but there are some young men, who start out in life intending to do nothing, and they do it very thoroughly; they are great consumers of bread, and meat, and wine, and such-like things; but, beyond that, I know not what is to be said about them. Such poor, aimless beings are always unhappy. They pretend to be merry, and they make a great noise which is supposed to imply joy, but it is only like “the crackling of thorns under a pot.” They know nothing of what substantial pleasure means. I would as lief never have been born as live without an object; and, long ago, I said, “ ‘Give me a King.’ Give me something to live for, something to die for,-something that commands all my faculties, and wakens up all my powers,-something that stirs my spirit, and makes a man of me. ‘Give me a King.’ I must have a King, or else what is life worth to me?”

Any thoughtful man will also have noticed that selfishness, if it controls our life, is a mean thing. Look over there! Do not tell me that So-and-so is a man; tell me that he is one of a herd of swine greedily devouring all that he can grasp. He simply lives that he may be rich,-that he may be famous,-that he may be called respectable;-ho lives only for himself, his soul is so small that it is hooped up within his own ribs, his heart-if he has one,-is so cramped that it never goes out on behalf of others, but only beats one tune, and that is, “Take care of Number One.” That is a wretched kind of life, and any thoughtful young man must say, “I don’t want to live like that, ‘Give me a King.’ Let me keep clear of all selfishness; I do not want to be under the sway of the tyrant, Self. Let me have something that will rule and govern me. Give me a constitutional monarchy. Give me someone who is worthy to have the control of my whole life.” I recollect that the thoughts, which passed through my mind, when I was starting in life, were something like these. I distrusted self-guidance, for I saw how unsafe it was. I have told you before that I knew one, who was at school with me, who used to be held up as a pattern and example to me,-such a good boy, such an excellent young man. He came to London; but, within a few weeks, London was too much for him: and I saw him come home in disgrace, his employer would not have such a fellow in his house. Then I said to myself, “That may be my experience if I trust to myself. I should not like to begin life, away from home, in disgrace, to continue it in dishonour, and to die with everybody feeling that it was a relief to the world when I was gone;” so I said to myself, “By what means can I ensure my character? Can I get a guarantee that I shall be kept?” And when I turned to this blessed Book, and found that the Lord Jesus Christ had promised to keep those who committed themselves unto him, I accepted him upon this ground, as well as upon others, that he was able to keep that which I had committed unto him until the great day of his appearing. In that sense, my prayer was, “ ‘Give me a King,’-somebody who will take charge of me, and care for me, and protect me.” And I believe that such a cry as that is a very wise one for any young man to utter, and also for anyone else who has not yet owned the Lord Jesus Christ as King.

Once more concerning this cry of nature, it often comes up as the result of experience. Ah, how little do we learn except as we go to school to Dame Experience, who raps us on the knuckles very hard! When a man discovers, to his surprise, that he has played the fool, as soon as he becomes wiser, he says, “Give me a King.” How many a man, who has made shipwreck of his life, and has only discovered it when he has been upon the rocks, has at last cried, “Oh, that some strength, greater than my own, had saved me from this ruin!” I have known men, when they have been under a sense of danger,-when they have seen death approaching,-begin to cry, “ ‘Give me a King,’-one who can fight the last enemy for me,-one who can ensure my safety when I pass through the valley of death-shade.”

This experience, too, sometimes makes a man feel the weight of responsibility. He says, “How can I bear it?” And he wants someone who is his superior,-someone who will tell him what to do; so that, when he does it, the responsibility will no longer he with himself. Have not many of you, who are without Christ, felt a desire to have somebody with whom you could leave your responsibilities? Well, this is just what the Christian finds in Christ,-that he can bring all the difficulties in his life to his great Lord and King, and leave them there, and find in his King, when he obeys him, the promise that, in obedience, shall be the path of safety. It is a blessed thing to have such a King. When we have once yielded ourselves to him, our care is ended, and we are at peace.

So much about the need of nature.

Now, secondly, and but briefly, I have to speak upon the answer of grace: “I will be thy King.” Listen to this short sentence, ye who are longing for a Master-Spirit to rule your spirits: “I will be thy King.”

Notice the condescension of this promise. Here is a ruined kingdom: “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me thine help. I will be thy King.” Who will care to wear the battered crown of a desolated kingdom, whose metropolis is destroyed, and whose land is sown with salt? The great Lord and King of mercy says, “I will. Lost and rained as you are, I will accept the monarchy of your soul. I will be your King. You have had many lords who have had dominion over you, yet I will be your King; and those pretenders are yet alive, and they seek to set up their old claims over you, and to get the mastery over you again. It is an uneasy throne, yet I will occupy it, I will be your King. Besides this, you are very unruly subjects; in this kingdom, there are many thoughts, and longings, and lustings, that are in rebellion against me; yet I will be your King. Many disloyal subjects are there within my town of Mansoul, yet will I be the Prince of it, and drive out all the followers of Diabolus. Enemies are threatening on the right hand and on the left, and whoever becomes King must carry on a long and serious war, yet I will take this thorny crown, and wear it; I will be your King.” Is not this wonderful condescension on God’s part? Do not you, beloved, feel ready to spring up, and say, “Blessed Lord, if thou wilt be our King, we will gladly be thy subjects, rejoicing that we may have such a King as thou art”?

Notice, next, how suitable and satisfactory such a King as this is to us! If a man must have a King, and yet can have his choice as to which King shall be his, it is well for him to have the One whom wisdom itself would select, for there is none to equal him. He is a King who is able to subdue the whole territory of our nature through his almighty power by which he is able to subdue all things unto himself. O blessed King, we are glad to have thee to rule over us, and to have our stubborn and rebellious passions brought under the power of thy grace! This gracious King is in every way worthy to rule over us. Think, beloved, what your God is, what your Saviour is. Ought he not to be King over you? Yes, verily; then let us set him up on a glorious high throne, and let us rejoice that we can bow down before one whom it is an honour to obey. What wisdom he has to govern us aright! Fools should not be kings; but infinite wisdom is fully qualified to rule us altogether. Then, what perfect goodness there is in the Lord Jesus Christ, what unspeakable goodness in the Divine Father, and in the ever-blessed Spirit! Happy are the people whose King is the Lord of hosts. Besides, think what love he has shown to his subjects! Behold his head, his hands, his feet, look upon the spear-mark in his side, for it was by those wounds that he bought us. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to be crowned as our King, and to receive the loyal homage of our hearts.

“Let him be crown’d with majesty

Who bow’d his head to death;

And be his honours sounded high

By all things that have breath.

“Jesus, our Lord, how wondrous great

Is thine exalted name!

The glories of thy heav’nly state

Let the whole earth proclaim.”

So, it is a proof of infinite condescension, on God’s part, for him to say, “I will be thy King;” and we realize what a suitable King he is for us, and how satisfactory it is for us to have such a blessed Master and Lord!

Then, brethren, how unspeakably consoling it is that the Lord should be our King! I say “consoling”, for who could feel unsafe or uneasy when Jehovah becomes his King? If the eternal and invincible God becomes our King, what foe can harm us? His shield can protect us from all the arrows that fly by night or by day. How consolatory it is to us to submit to such a God,-no longer to stand up in opposition to him, but to lie down at his feet as his loyal subjects,-no longer to have a will and a way of our own, but to submit unreservedly to the will of God,-to lie passive in his hands, and let him be our King! Have you never experienced this kind of consolation in a time of deep affliction or bereavement? You have lost the delight of your heart, the joy of your eyes,-the dearest one you ever had; and you have somewhat rebelled. In that rebellion has been the very bitterness of your grief; but you have said, “The Lord hath done it; he is my King, so he has the right to do with me just as he wills.” That is the great source of your consolation; you never get relief from the anguish of your spirit till you see Jesus as your crowned King and only Lord, and lay your hand upon your mouth, and, in the silence of your soul say, “It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good.”

And, oftentimes, this same precious truth has consoled you when you have been in great difficulties and embarrassments. I often sing to my Lord those lines by F. W. Faber,-

“When obstacles and trials seem

Like prison walls to be,

I do the little I can do,

And leave the rest to thee.

“And when it seems no chance nor change

From grief can set me free,

Hope finds its strength in helplessness,

And, patient, waits on thee.”

I do not know a stronger force in all the world than utter helplessness, for that is the end of all care, Many and many a time, I have tried, till my head has ached, to work out a problem in church government, but have not discovered the solution; I could not see any way out of it, so I have just done as a schoolboy would who shuts up the two parts of his slate, and puts it on the shelf. I have said to myself, “I will never have anything more to do with the matter, but will leave it for the Lord to solve;” and I have found that the proposition has been worked out for me in due time. So, dear friends, your strength is to sit still, and to feel that you have a King who can settle all your difficulties. When the servant at the door is puzzled by the many questions that are put to her, she says, if she is wise, “I cannot answer you, but I will go, and ask my master;” and when she has received the message from her master, she has no further trouble about the matter; and she simply says, “I have told you what my master says; if you do not like it, I cannot help that, for I am only his messenger.” That is the way to end all controversy. A young man, or anyone else, who has a number of questions put to him by various persons, will be wise if he says, “Well, I have searched my Bible, and found what the King says about these points; if that does not satisfy you, I am sure I cannot. Your quarrel is no longer with me, but with my Master; you must settle the matter with him.” This is a blessed consolation; it gives joy to the spirit to have God for your King. No man is so free, no man is so happy, as he who loyally bows before the King of kings. To serve God, is to reign. He who has God for his King is himself a king.

Further, think how gloriously inspiriting it is to have God as our King. I should not like to be a soldier in the armies of certain kings whom I might mention; if I were in their service, I should try to run away as soon as ever I could, for I should feel ashamed to have anything to do with them. If you were a soldier in the army of some little, mean, beggarly tyrant, I think that you would be glad to leave your regimentals at home whenever you could. It is strange that any man could be found to fight for some of the miserable miscreants who have been found in the ranks of kings. But, with Alexander as leader, every Greek became a hero; he was so great a warrior that each man in his army felt that he was himself great. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ becomes our King, it is most inspiriting to us, for he leads us on to fight with sin, to fight with selfishness, to overcome evil by love, and to conquer hate by kindness. It is a grand thing to serve the King whose fights are all of that sort, and to have him for a King who never shirked a battle, but who was always to the front, the bravest of the brave. It is grand even to unloose the latchets of his shoes. To be trodden on by him, would be a high honour. To do anything, however little, in his cause, makes us feel ourselves elevated. My dear young friend, if you have God in Christ Jesus to be your King, your life will be sublime; with him for your Example, with his grace to lead you on, you shall continually rise higher and yet higher still until even your common-place life shall be made sublime. Oh, blessed, blessed, blessed,-thrice blessed,-is everyone to whom Jesus Christ is King and Lord! If we are linked with him, we are ready either to live or to die.

Now turn with me to my second text, which you will find in the 44th Psalm, and the 4th verse: “Thou art my King, O God.” That is the acknowledgment of faith.

Let me just pause a moment, and ask each one of you here, “Can you say that?” Can you say that, my brother? Can you say that, my sister. At the close of this morning’s service, we sang,-

“ ’Tis done, the great transaction’s done,

I am my Lord’s, and he is mine;”-

and it was noticed, by careful observers, that there were some persons in the congregation who did not sing that verse;-they shut their mouths quite firmly while others around them were singing. I was glad that they were honest enough to do so, and that they would not sing what they could not truthfully sing. At the same time, I was very sorry that their honesty compelled them to make such a silent confession of their lack of subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not your King, then? He is your Creator, but not your King! He is your Preserver, but not your King! He will be the Judge of quick and dead, yet he is not your King! He is the one and only Saviour of the lost, yet he is not your King! Sadly, sorrowfully, let this thought eat into your spirit, “Then, I am a rebel against the Lord Jesus Christ.” For he is, lawfully and rightly, your King, and you are a traitor, for your heart plots against him. Remember also that, if you die without accepting him as your King, there is a text which I scarcely dare to quote, yet I must; and, as I do so, let it fall like fiery hail upon your spirit: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” God grant that none of you may ever know what that terrible verse means!

But now, having given you that word of warning, I ask you to think of the blessedness of having the Lord to be your King. If you look at this 44th Psalm, you will see that, when God is our King, we may confidently expect to enter upon our inheritance in the skies: “Thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them.” That is to say, each one of the tribes, that entered Canaan under Joshua, obtained its proper portion in the covenant-given land of promise; and we, who are under the leadership of King Jesus, the true Joshua, the one and only Saviour, shall win the heritage above, and each one of us shall stand in his lot at the end of the days, blessed for ever and ever in our portion in the heavenly Canaan.

Notice, next, that, if the Lord be our King, we may expect help in the time of trouble. Read the whole of verse 4: “Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.” If ever you are in poverty,-if ever you are in sickness,-if ever you are under slander and reproach,-if ever your spirit is depressed,-if ever family trials affect you,-if ever the clouds in your sky are heavy, and the days are dark,-you may go to your King, and tell him all, and expect him to “command deliverances” for you; for, if he be your King, he will see you through, and bear you up, and make what appears to be evil to work for your good, and cause your troubles to prove to be the best of blessings to you. Who would not have such a King as this?

Next, notice, that, if the Lord be our King, we should repose in him entirely, as the psalmist says, “For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.” What a mercy it is to be able to put up your weapon,-to feel that there is Another who fights for you,-to have done with care, worry, distress, and just to feel that you have left everything with Jesus your King! If he cannot do it, then it must be left undone. Oh, it is blessed to feel that you have put the affairs of your soul into your King’s hands, and that you have left the whole of them with him, in the utmost confidence! Who would not have a King upon whom it is perfectly safe to rely?

More than this, he who has God for his King knows that he is saved. Read the 7th verse: “But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.” He, who owns Christ as his Lord and Master, knows that he is saved. His salvation is not a thing that is to be accomplished to-morrow; it is done now. It is not a privilege to be enjoyed only in the last few moments of our life, but it is to be enjoyed now, for our King hath covered us with the garments of salvation. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God,” even now. Our salvation is finished; our great Messiah said so on the tree, and he spake the truth. “He that believeth on him is not condemned.”

And, last of all, he who takes Christ to be his King has cause for present joy and rejoicing. In the 8th verse, the psalmist says, “In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever.” He who has Christ for his King, need never be ashamed of his Monarch, or of his Monarch’s livery, or of his Monarch’s laws, or of his Monarch’s friends. He may, rather, adopt the high strain of boasting in his God, and triumphing in him all the day long.

So I end by repeating the question I asked earlier in my discourse,-can each of you say, “Thou art my King, O God”? If not, what is your position with regard to him? If you do not own him as your King, you are a rebel; yet, if you are ready to own that fact, you come under the act of amnesty which is available for regicides,-for you rebels are just that, and even deicides in having conspired to put the King of glory to death by your sin, and you shall have even this high crime of God-killing blotted out from the King’s records. You shall be just as though you had never sinned at all if you are willing to take Christ to be your King and Saviour. “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Will you have him? I mean, the Son of God, who was also the Son of Mary. I mean, the man of Nazareth, who is also very God of very God. Trust to the atonement which flowed from his wounds. Accept the power which God has given to him, for all power in heaven and in earth is given unto him. God hath given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as his Father hath given unto him. Only trust him; cast your souls upon him; yield yourselves to his sway. Repent of sin, if you lay hold upon his perfect righteousness, at once, the guilt of the past is gone, and you shall be admitted into the full privileges appertaining to citizens of the heavenly kingdom, and subjects of the great King of kings. I trust that, even before this service closes, some of you will say, “By the grace of God, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I yield myself to Jesus, my Lord and King, to be his loyal subject and faithful servant for ever and ever.”

God grant it, for his dear Son’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 44, 1-8; and PSALM 45

Psalm 44. Verse 1. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.

How Israel was restored to Canaan, and the Canaanite and Perizzite were driven out, that God’s chosen people might occupy their appointed place.

2, 3. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them: how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.

They did use their own arm and sword; but, for all that, it was God who won the victory for them. It was his might that made them brave, and a consciousness of his gracious purpose that made them strong, so that they routed all their foes until, from Dan to Beersheba, the land was all their own.

4-6. Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

See how the lesson from ancient history was turned to practical account in the psalmist’s own experience: “As our forefathers were delivered, not by their own bow or sword, but by the right hand of the Most High, so I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.” Brethren, let us always labour to reproduce in ourselves, by God’s grace, the best experiences of his saints. Wherever we see the hand of the Lord displayed in others of his people, let us pray that the same hand may be manifested to us and in us.

7, 8. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.

Psalm 45. Verse 1. My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king.

You know what King is referred to here; it is he, of whom the psalmist said, in the 4th verse of the previous Psalm, “Thou art my King, O God.” “I speak of the things which I have made touching the King.”

1, 2. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men:

The psalmist writes as if he had been actually looking upon him. Faith has a wonderful realizing power; and when the soul is deeply meditative, it seems to be full of eyes: “ ‘Thou art fairer than the children of men.’ Though thou art one of them, yet thou art fairer than all the rest of them. There is a beauty about thee, O Lord, that is not to be perceived in the brightest and best of the sons of Adam!”

2-5. Grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.

There is no other conqueror who is equal to Christ, whether he smites with his sword his foes who are near at hand, or shoots his arrows from his bow at those who are far away. Whether the gospel is preached to us who have long heard it, or is proclaimed to the heathen in distant lands, it has the same almighty power in it to work the glorious purposes of God’s grace.

6, 7. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Note the connection here between God and man; the very same Person, who is addressed as God, is also spoken of as anointed by God above his fellows. God and yet man art thou, O blessed Jesu Christ! Thou art very God of very God, yet just as truly man,-the God-man, the Mediator between God and man.

8-10. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider,-

Listen, each one of you who are a part of this matchless bride of Christ, ye who are part of her whom Christ has looked upon with infinite and eternal love: “Hearken, O daughter, and consider,”-

10. And incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;

God’s message to his people in the world to-day is just what it was when the Spirit bade Paul write to the Corinthians, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord almighty.”

11. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.

Our Saviour is our King, and he must be both loved and adored: “He is thy Lord; and worship thou him.”

12. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.

When Christ’s Church really has her Lord in the midst of her, and when she is strong in the power of his might, there will never be any lack of wealth for the carrying on of his cause: “Even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.”

13. The king’s daughter is all glorious within:

Other daughters are often far too glorious without, but that is the best beauty which is inward: “The King’s daughter is all glorious within:”

13-16. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children,-

We often see the hoary head laid low, and the ripe saint taken home to heaven; but the ranks of Christ’s retinue are not thereby thinned, for the sons shall stand in the place of their sires. God be thanked for this cheering promise: “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children,”-

16, 17. Whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-416, 357, 412, 658.