C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, November 23rd, 1876.

“And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord.”-2 Chronicles, 20:4.

Jerusalem was startled by sudden news. There had for a great while been quiet preparations made in the distant countries beyond Jordan. Upon its mountains Edom had been getting ready: the workshops of Petra had been ringing with the hammer; the enemies of Israel had been beating their pruning hooks into spears and swords, and they were now coming down in hordes. There were three great nations, and these were assisted by the odds and ends of all the nations round about, so that a great company eager for plunder was drawn up in battle. They had heard about the riches of the temple at Jerusalem; they knew that the people of Judea had for years been flourishing, and they were now coming to kill and to destroy and to sack and to plunder. They were like the grasshoppers or the locusts for multitude. What were the people of God to do? How were these poor Judeans to defend themselves? Their immediate resort was to their God. They do not appear to have looked up their armour and their swords with any particular anxiety. The fact was the case was so altogether hopeless as far as they were concerned, that it was no use looking to anything beneath the skies, and as they were driven from all manifest earthly resorts they were compelled to lift up their eyes to God; and their godly king Jehoshaphat aided them in so doing. A general fast was proclaimed, and the preparation to meet the hosts of Moab, Ammon and Edom was prayer. No doubt if the Ammonites had heard of it they would have laughed, Edom would have scoffed at it, and Moab would have cursed those that made supplication. “What! do they suppose that their prayers can defeat us?” would have been the sneer of their adversaries. Yet this was Israel’s artillery: this was their eighty-one ton gun: when it was ready it would throw one bolt, and only one, and that would crush three nations at once. God’s people resorted only to the arm invisible-the arm omnipotent-and they did well and wisely.

Now, if the Lord shall teach us to imitate them, and by his grace enable us in doing it, we shall have learnt a great lesson. The preacher needs to learn it as much as anybody, and he prays that each one of you may be also scholars in the school of faith, and become very proficient in the divine art of prayer and praise.

First, then, how they asked help? They asked their help, as you know, by a general fast and prayer, but I mean, what was the style of that prayer in which they approached the Lord?

And the reply is, first, they asked help, expressing their confidence. “O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?” If we begin by doubting, our prayer will limp. Faith is the tendon of Achilles, and if that be cut it is not possible for us to wrestle with God, but as long as we have that strong sinew, that mighty tendon unhurt, we can prevail with God in prayer. It is a rule of the kingdom, though God often goes beyond it, “According to thy faith be it done unto thee.” I have known him give us a hundred times as much as our faith, but, brethren, I have never known him give us less. That could not possibly be. This is his minimum rule, I may say, “According to thy faith be it unto thee.” When, therefore, in time of trouble you ask help of God, ask it believing that he is able to give it; ask it expecting that he will bestow it. Do not grieve the Spirit of God by unworthy doubts and mistrusts; these things will be like fiery arrows in your own soul and drink up the very life of your strength. However hard the struggle and difficult the trial, if thou seekest the Lord, seek him in the confidence he deserves.

Then they sought God, pleading his past acts. This is a fashion of prayer which has been very common among the saints, and it has proved to be very potent. “Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?” Remember what God has done for you, and then say, as a sweet refrain, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” When you are praying, recollect what he was yesterday if you cannot see that he is comfortable towards you to-day. If there be no present manifestations of divine favour, recall the former days-the days of old-the years of the right hand of the Most High. He has been gracious unto you; can you tell how gracious? He has abounded towards you in lovingkindness, and tenderness, and faithfulness; he has never been a wilderness or a land of drought unto you. Well, then, if in six troubles he has delivered thee, wilt thou not trust him for seven? If you get to sixty troubles, cannot you trust him for sixty-one? You have been carried, some of you, I see, till grey hairs are on your head. How long do you expect to live? Do you think you have got an odd ten years left? Well, do you think that the Lord who has blest you seventy years will not keep you the other ten. We say that we ought always to trust a man until he deceives us. We reckon a man honest, till we find him otherwise. Let it be so with God, I beseech you. Since we have found him good, faithful, true, kind, tender, let us not think hardly of him now that we have come into straits, but let us come to him thus, and say, “Art not thou our God? Didst not thou bring us up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay? Didst thou not bring us up out of the Egypt of our sin? Surely thou hast not brought us into the wilderness to destroy us? Wilt thou leave us now? True, we are unworthy, but so we always were, and if thou didst want a reason for leaving us thou hast had ten thousand reasons long ago. Lord, do not be wroth very sore with thy servants, and cast us not away.” That is the style of pleading which prevails. Imitate these men of old, who asked help by recalling the past.

Proceeding a little farther in their prayer, we see that they pleaded the promise of God, which promise was made at the time when Solomon dedicated the temple. “That if, when evil cometh upon us, we cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.” He that getteth the promise of God and graspeth God with the promise-he does, and must prevail. I have known sometimes a man unable to grasp anything; the object has slipped away, his hand has been slippery too, and I have seen him as he has taken up some sand in his hand, and then he has been able to get a grip. I like to plunge my hand into the promises, and then I find myself able to grasp with a grip of determination the mighty faithfulness of God. An omnipotent plea with God is: “Do as thou hast said.” You know how a man nails you when he brings your very words before you. “There,” says he, “that is what you said you would do. Of your own free will you pledged yourself to do this.” Why then you cannot get away from it, for it is the way with the saints that if they swear to their own hurt they change not; they must be true to the words they speak even if it be to their own damage. Of the saints’ Master it is always true. “Hath he said and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?” Here then is a mighty instrument to be used in prayer, “Lord, thou hast said this or that, thou hast said it, now do as thou hast said. Thou hast said, ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.’ Thou hast said, ‘He shall deliver thee in six troubles, and in seven there shall no evil touch thee.’ Thou hast said, ‘Surely in blessing I will bless thee.’ Thou hast said, ‘The Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.’ Thou hast said, ‘Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy days so shall thy strength be.’ Lord, there is thy promise for it.” With such a plea you must prevail with a faithful God.

Again, as these people asked for help they confessed their own unhappy condition. There is a great power in that. One of the strongest pleas with generosity is the urgency of poverty, and one of the most prevailing arguments to be used in prayer with God is a truthful statement of our condition-a confession of our sad estate. So they said to the Lord these words, “O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” They had no might, and they had no plan. “We have no might, neither know we what to do.” Sometimes even if you cannot do the thing, it is a little comfort to know how it might be done if you had the power, but these perplexed people neither could do it, nor knew how to do it. They were nonplussed. A little nation like Judah, surrounded by these powerful enemies, truly had no might. Their weakness and ignorance were great pleas: the logic was divine. “Neither know we what to do: therefore our eyes are unto thee.” It was as if they had said, “If we could do it ourselves, well, thou mightest very well say, ‘Go and do it. What did I give you the strength for, but that you could use the strength in doing it?’ But when we have got no strength, neither know we what to do, we come and just lay the case down at thy feet and say, ‘There it is; our eyes are upon thee.’ ” Perhaps you think that is not praying. I tell you it is the most powerful form of prayer, just to set your case before God, just to lay bare all your sorrow and all your needs, and then say, “Lord, there it is.” You know a man must not beg in the streets of London; the police will not have it, and I daresay that is a very wise regulation. But what does the needy man do? Have not you seen him? He is dressed like a countryman, and looks half-starved, and his knees can be seen through an old pair of corduroys as he stoops. He does not beg, not he: he only sits down at the corner of the road. He knows quite well that the very sight of his condition is enough. There are one or two persons about the streets of London whose faces are a fortune to them; pale, and thin, and woebegone, they appeal more eloquently than words. I was going to say that there is a man who comes to the Tabernacle, who is just of the same sort. I could point him out, but I do not see him now; but he does come here, and the very way in which he shivers, the remarkable manner in which he looks ill, though he is not ill, takes in people who are continually being duped by his appearance. All the world knows that it is the look of the thing, the very appearance and show of sorrow, that prevails with people more than any words that are used. Now, when you cannot pray in words, go and lay bare your sorrow before God: just go and show your soul. Tell God what it is that burdens and distresses you, and you will prevail with the bounteous heart of our God, who is not moved by eloquence of words, and oratory of tongue, but is swift to answer the true oratory, the true eloquence, of real distress, and who is as wise to detect sham misery as to succour real sorrow.

I wonder whether I recall to some of you any particular times of trial. To myself I do. If I do not to you, at any rate, there is one common affliction which has overwhelmed us all, that is the great affliction of sin. When sin, with its multitudinous host of offences, becomes manifest to us under conviction, and we do not know how to meet one single sin or to answer one of a thousand of the charges that might be brought against us; when we feel that we have no might whatever, and perhaps we realise that through sin we have brought ourselves into such peculiar circumstances that we do not know how to get out of it, though we feel that we must get out somehow: when we go to the right that seems blocked up, and the left seems equally closed to us: to go back we dare not: to go forward we cannot-then how wonderfully God clears the way! In what a marvellous manner we find our enemies all dead that we thought were going to kill us! and as for those that were going to rob us, we are enriched by them. Instead of taking us for a spoil, there they fall and their spoil becomes our right and we take it home with us rejoicing. Oh, what wonders God can do! He loves us to state the difficulty we are in, on purpose that when he gets us out of it we may remember that we were in such a condition. It was a real disaster and a time of real trial, and yet the Lord redeemed us from it.

What did they do after asking help, after pleading the promise and confessing their condition? Why, they expressed their confidence in God. They said, “Our eyes are upon thee.” What did they mean by that? They meant, “Lord, if help does come, it must come from thee. We are looking to thee for it. It cannot come from anywhere else, so we look to thee. But we believe it will come, men will not look for that which they know will not come. We feel sure it will come, but we do not know how, so we are looking; we do not know when, but we are looking. We do not know what thou wouldest have us to do, but as the servant looks to her mistress, so are we looking to thee, Lord. Lord, we are looking.” It is a grand posture that. Do you not know that is the way you are saved-by looking unto Jesus? And that is the way you have got to be saved, all the way between here and heaven. Whatever trouble comes, looking is to save you. Looking, often waiting, looking like the weary watcher from the tower when he wants to see the grey tints of the coming morning, when the night is long and he is weary, but still looking. “Our eyes are upon thee.” They are full of tears, but still they are upon thee; they are getting hazy, too, with sleep, but still they are upon thee-such eyes as we have got. We do look to thee. I have sometimes blessed the Lord that he has not said, “See Jesus-see me and be saved.” What he has said is, “Look.” Sometimes if you cannot see you have done your part if you have looked-looked into the darkness. Lord, that cross of thine, it would give me such joy if I could see it, I cannot quite see it, it looms very indistinctly on my gaze, but I do look. It is looking, you know, that saves, for as we look the eyes get stronger, and we are enlightened. And so in this case they looked, and they found deliverance. God help us, brothers and sisters, to do the same.

That is how they asked help.

Their help came to them, first, by a message from God. They received a fresh assurance of God’s goodness. A new prophet was raised up, and he spoke with new words. “Be not afraid, nor dismayed,” he said, “by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God’s.” Now, in our case, we shall not have a new promise, that would not be possible.

“What more can he say than to you he hath said,

You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled.”

But you will have that promise sweetly laid home to your soul, and the Spirit of God will bear witness with that promise, and so strengthen and comfort you, that you will get deliverance even before deliverance comes, because it often happens that to be saved from the fear of the trouble is the main business. To be quieted, and calmed, and assured, is really to be saved from the sting of trial; the trial itself is nothing if it does not bring a sting to your soul. If your heart is not troubled, then there is not much trouble in anything else. All the poverty and all the pain in the world would prevail nothing if the evil of it did not enter into the soul and vex it. So, in this emergency, God began to answer his people by quieting them. “Be not afraid nor dismayed, for the battle is not yours but God’s: the Lord will be with you.”

As that gracious promise calmed their fears so that they were able without fear to face the impending attack, then they received distinct direction what to do on the morrow, which was to be the day of the assault: that direction was, “Go out to meet the foe.” How often has God given his people deliverance by quieting them as to their course of action. Already the step they have taken has delivered them before they know it. The Israelites, by then marching out to meet the foe, and marching out with songs and hosannas, as we shall see, were doing the best possible thing to rout their foes. As we have already said, there is no doubt that their enemies were unable to comprehend such a defence as this: they must have supposed that there was some treachery or ambush intended, and so they began to slay each other, and Israel had nothing to do but to keep on singing.

Then came the real providence: they received actual deliverance. When the people of Judah came to their foes they found there were no foes. There they lay all stark and dead; none of the men of might could raise their hands against those whom God had favoured. After this fashion will God deliver you, brethren; in answer to prayer he will be your defence. Therefore, sing unto his name. Did not he deliver you thus when you went out to meet the great army of your sins? You saw that Christ had put them away, and your heart danced within you as you said, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, for he has slain our sins and they can curse us no more.” So has it been with a great many troubles that have appeared to you to be overwhelming: when you have come to them, lo, they have disappeared. They have been cleared out of your way as you have advanced, and you have had nothing to do but to sing and praise the name of the Lord.

And now, thirdly, and this is the main point, let us note how they acted after they had prayed and heard God’s voice. They asked for help, and they had it: how did they then behave?

Well, first, as soon as ever they had an assurance that God would deliver them, they worshipped. That is one of the intentions of trial-to revive in us the spirit of devotion and communion with God. And mercy, when it comes on the back of a great trouble, leads us sweetly to prayer. I warrant you there had not been such a piece of worship in all Jerusalem as there was that day, when, after that young son of the Levites had stood and delivered the word of the Lord, the king bowed his head and all the people bowed their heads and did homage to the God of Israel. You could have heard the sound even of the wind among the trees at the time, for they were as hushed and as quiet as you were just now. Oh, when you know the Lord means to deliver you, bow your head and just give him the quiet, deep, solemn worship of your spirit. I do not suppose we shall ever fall into Quakers’ worship in our public assemblies, though an occasional experience of it would do you a world of good: to sit still before the Lord, and to adore, and to adore, and to adore again and again, and still again, braces the spirit and clears the soul for the understanding of eternal realities. They worshipped, but why did they do it? They were not delivered. No, but they were sure they were going to be delivered. Their enemies were not dead. No, they were all alive, but they were sure they would be dead, so they had worship, and their devotion rose from trustful and grateful hearts. May we get into a worshipping frame of mind, and be kept in it. Then God will appear for our help.

As soon as ever the worship had closed, or rather ere it had quite closed, they began to praise. As we read just now, up went the loud voices of the trained singers under the leadership of the chief musician, and they praised the name of the Lord. They sang, as we do,-

“For his mercies shall endure,

Ever faithful, ever sure.”

That is the way you should deal with God. Before the deliverance comes, praise him. Praise him for what is coming; adore him for what he is going to do. No song is so sweet, methinks, in the ear of God as the song of a man who blesses him for “grace he has not tasted yet”-for what he has not got, but what he is sure will come. The praise of gratitude for the past is sweet, but that praise is sweeter which adores God for the future in full confidence that it shall be well. Therefore, take down your harps from the willows, O ye people, and praise ye the name of the Lord, though still the fig tree does not blossom and still the cattle die in the stall, and still the sheep perish from the folds; though there should be to you no income to meet your want, and you should be brought almost to necessity’s door, still bless the Lord whose mighty providence cannot fail, and shall not fail, so long as there is one of his children to be provided for. Your song while you are still in distress will be sweet music to the ear of God.

After they had worshipped and sung, the next thing these people did was, to act: they went forth marching. If there were unbelievers in Jerusalem, I know what they said. They stood at the gates and they said, “Well, this is foolishness. These Moabites and Ammonites are come to kill you, and they will do it, but you might as well wait till they get at you. You are just going to deliver yourselves up.” That would be the idea of unbelief, and that is also what it sometimes seems to our little faith when we go and commit ourselves to God. “What! are you going on your knees to confess your guilt before God and own that you deserve to be lost? Are you going to withdraw every excuse and apology, every trust of your own, and give yourself up, as it were, to destruction?” Yes, that is exactly what to do, and it is the highest wisdom to do it; we are going out of the city marching away according to orders, and if, as you say, we are to give ourselves up, so we will. Perhaps, in your case, you are going to do an action of which everybody else says, “Well, now, that will be very foolish. You should be crafty. You should show a little cunning.” “No,” say you, “I cannot do other than I am bidden, I must do the right.” Probably that will turn out to be the very best thing in the world to have done. The nearest way between any two points is by a straight line, the straight way will always be better than the crooked way. In the long run it is always so. Go right out, then, in the name of God: meet your difficulties calmly and fairly. Do not have any plans or tricks, but just commit yourselves unto God; that is the way by which you may in confidence expect to find deliverance. These people of old went out of the city.

But now, notice again, that as they went out, they went out singing. They sang before they left the city, and sang as they left the city, and when the adversary came in sight they began to sing again. The trumpet sounded and the harps rang out their notes, and the minstrels again shouted for joy, and this was the song,-

“For his mercies shall endure,

Ever faithful, ever sure.”

It must have had a grand significance when they sang that passage, “To him which smote great kings: for his mercy endureth for ever: and slew famous kings: for his mercy endureth for ever: Sihon king of Amorites: for his mercy endureth for ever: and Og the king of Bashan: for his mercy endureth for ever.” Why, every singer as he sang those lines, which look to us like a mere repetition, must have felt how applicable they were to their present condition when there was a Moabite and an Edomite and an Ammonite to be overthrown in the name of the mighty God whose mercy endureth for ever. So they kept on singing.

You will observe that, while they were singing, God had wrought the great deliverance for them. When the singing ceased, they prepared to gather up the spoil. What a different employment from what they expected! You can see them stripping the bodies, taking off the helmet of gold and the greaves of brass; the jewels from the ears and from about the necks of the princes; spoiling the dead of their Babylonish garments and their wedges of gold; heaping up the tents-the rich tents of the eastern nations-till they said one to another, “We know not what to do.” But the difficulty was different from what might have befallen them at the first. Then they did not know what to do because of their weakness in the presence of their foes, but now the difficulty was because of the greatness of the spoil. “We cannot carry it home,” they would say to each other, “there is too much of it. It will take us days and days to stock away this wondrous booty.” Now, child of God, it shall be so with you also. I do not know how, but if you can only trust God and praise him and go straight ahead, you shall see such wondrous things that you shall be utterly astonished.

Then what will you do? Why, you will at once again begin praising the Lord, for so they did. They went back singing. “They came back to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord.” When God has done great things for you, and brought you through your present difficulty, you must be sure to repay him in the courts of his house with your loudest music and your most exultant notes, blessing again and again the name of the Lord.

After that they had rest. In the narrative it is added, “So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about.” His enemies were afraid to come and touch him any more. After a very sharp storm it generally happens that there is long rest. So shall it be with all the Lord’s people. You will get through this trouble, brother, and afterwards it will be smooth sailing for a very long time. I have known a child of God have a very cyclone; it has seemed as if he must be utterly destroyed, but after it was over there has not been a ripple on the calm of his life. People have envied him and wondered at his quietness; he had had all his storms at once, and when they were over he had come into smooth water that seemed never ruffled. Perhaps you will have the same experience: only ask the great Pilot of the Galilean lake to steer you safely through your tempest, and then, when the storm shall cease at his bidding, you shall be glad because you be quiet; so will he bring you to your desired haven.

I have been desirous to speak these comfortable words to God’s children, for well I know how they are tried, and I pray the Lord, the Comforter, to apply the word to their troubled hearts. But I never can finish my discourse without having the very sad thought that there are always in our congregation some to whom these comfortable things do not belong. They are not believers. They have never trusted in Christ. If this be so with you-if this be so-ah, friend, you have to fight your own battles: you have to bear your own trials, you have to carry your own burdens, and when you come at the last great day before the judgment seat you will have to answer for your own sins, and to bear your own punishment. God have mercy upon you, and deliver you from such a condition as this. It is a bad condition to live in; it is a terrible condition to die in. May you be brought to receive Christ for your substitute and your surety, and glorify his name for ever and ever. Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

2 CHRONICLES 20; and PSALM 47

2 Chronicles 20 Verses 1-3. It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold they be in Hazazon-tamar, which is En-gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

An angry God is to be sought. Even though he smite us, we must turn to him. It is from the hand that wields the rod that we are to expect deliverance, if it ever come at all.

4. And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

The host of enemies were so enormous that they threatened to eat up all the land. The men of Judah could not keep them out. They would sack and storm and burn and destroy right and left. You see the great peril. What a heavy chastisement it must have been to the king to see his land thus in danger of being destroyed. But they had begun to pray.

5-12. And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not; Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.

What a prayer it is! How argumentative! How it pleads his case as an advocate in a court of law, appealing to the mercy of God as logically as if it were to be argued out of the divine heart. Oh, how good it would be if we learnt to pray like this,-in this earnest, importunate fashion! May the Lord teach us to pray as he taught his disciples!

13. And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

It must have been a wonderful sight-the vast crowd-the pleading king-his voice heard afar, and the men and the women; but, to my mind, the most touching thing of all is the little children standing there, making their silent appeal to God that he would not let the babes be destroyed-that he would not suffer the young children to be slain by the cruel hosts that now threatened the land. Young children’s prayers are powerful. Little ones, may God teach you how to pray.

14. Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation;

Perhaps he had never delivered a prophecy before. This is his first sermon; but the Spirit of God was with him, and he could not hold his tongue.

15-17. And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not your’s but God’s. To-morrow go ye down against them: behold they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not, nor be dismayed; to-morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.

Oh, how those words must have fallen on the weary ears of those who were in such trouble! And how glad those ears must have been to hear such a message of wondrous mercy, and so near at hand, too! “To-morrow.” Imminent danger brings eminent mercy; and when the lion is about to leap upon his prey, then comes the lionslayer and breaks his teeth, and delivers his lamb even from between his jaws. Glory be to God for such promises as he gives to his people in times of trouble, even such promises as he gave here.

18. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.

What a sight! That is the kind of ritualism one likes-when the posture is suggested by the feelings-when the man feels that there is nothing else to do but to bow before the Lord. The king could not speak, he was too full of gratitude-too joyous at the thought that God had so appeared for him. And he felt that the only thing he could do was in silence to bow his head, and prostrate himself before God. Have not you sometimes felt so full of gratitude that you could not express yourself?

“A sacred silence checks our songs

And praise sits silent on our tongues.”

Now, while they were worshipping, and just as they had finished that silent adoration, the joy-strains were heard. They had taken breath.

19. And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

Here, again, we seem to be carried by great waves of excitement and devotion. One moment we are sinking down in adoration, now all rising up to listen to the loud voice of God’s priests and Levites.

But they have to wait for the morrow.

20, 21. And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever.

So you can see them marching out of the city gate with the king at their head, and, as they go out, the army is marching with banners and with songs and hosannas. This is their style of going out to meet the foe.

22, 23. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of mount Seir, every one helped to destroy another.

There were three or four nations, and some jealousy or mistrust must have manifested itself, or some mistake had been made, and the motley host divided itself into self-destroying bands. The Israelites had nothing to do but to sing. Perhaps their very singing was the cause of that disruption among the bands. They could not make it out. They had seen the people rush to battle with discordant cries; but these were marching along as if they were coming to a wedding-feast, singing hymns and chants. That was a new style of fighting. So the Moabites and the Ammonites thought that there must be something wrong. “Surely there must be some confederates in the camp,” they would say. They suspected each other, as bad men very soon do, and so they fell foul of one another and spared the Israelites all the trouble of killing them.

24-26. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the Lord: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah; unto this day.

This is the Valley of Blessing: surely an appropriate name worthy of long remembrance.

27. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy;

Another march of hosannas. What a wonderful sight it must have been! We have read of the Battle of the Spurs; but here is the Battle of the Song-the battle of praise. How wondrously it was won! Jehoshaphat is now in the forefront of those who go back singing. He feels he must sing the loudest, who has had such signal mercy after his sin.

27-30. For the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about.

Now, it is a long piece we have read, but I think it would not be complete if I did not read you the song which they sang. In all probability it was the 47th Psalm. You can almost hear them singing it as they come marching back.

Psalm 47 Verses 1-9. O clap your hands all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

The delivered people give God all the glory. He reigneth, and he it is who subdues the people. Let him be exalted in the congregations of the people and praised in the assembly of the elders now and evermore!

PREVENTING GRACE

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, February 23rd, 1905,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

In the year 1862.

“And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me; and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.”-1 Samuel 25:32, 33.

I must tell you the story, for if you do not realize the circumstances, you will not understand these words. David was in the position of an outlaw in his country. He knew that he was one day to be king over Israel, but he had such reverence for Saul, the Lord’s anointed, that he would do nothing that should look like usurpation, or seem in any way to injure the reigning monarch. Some four hundred restless spirits, who had been impoverished by the tyrannical government of Saul, persons who were in debt, and generally discontented, came to him in the caves of Adullam, and there formed an army of freebooters of which David was the head. A little while afterwards two hundred others, men like-minded, came and united themselves with this force, so that David found himself at the head of an army of six hundred men of war, all of them valiant men, ready for exploits. You will see he was in a very difficult position; he must find work for these men; they were soldiers of fortune, and they must be employed, yet it was impossible for him to act like a traitor; he could not lead his men against his king; he could not begin a revolution, in order to provide for his followers.

What, then, must he do if he desired still to be loyal to the king, and, at the same time, not to disband his men? He occupied his forces in peacefully guarding the herds of the great sheep-masters who fed their flocks on the high steeps of Carmel. This is not a thing uncommon in the East even to-day. Certain sheikhs, with their body of followers, sometimes undertake to keep off the Bedouin Arabs, and other marauders who attack the flocks of the sheep-master, and of course they expect to have some kind of remuneration for their trouble.

Now, all through the time that the sheep were in the pasture, David and his men watched over the flocks of a certain sheep-master called Nabal. When the time came round for shearing the flocks, David sent some of his followers to Nabal, to the feast of sheep-shearing, presenting his request that some contribution might be sent for the support of his men on account of their having taken care of Nabal’s flocks, which otherwise would certainly have been diminished by systematic plunder. But Nabal had got all the good he wanted from David, and he refrained not from answering David’s messenger in a most uncourteous, surly manner. “There be many servants,” he said, “now-a-days, that break away every man from his master; shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh, that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be?”

Such a churlish message could not fail to nettle David; indeed, we know that it stung him to the quick. He had not run away from his master, but his master had driven him away, and as one who was apart from Saul, but yet was not Saul’s antagonist, he was doing the best he could to maintain the peace. His blood boiled over. “Have I guarded the flocks of this miserable wretch,” said he, “all this time, and kept my men there merely to attend his sheep, when they might have been profitable at some other work, and now, when I send to him, instead of giving me a donation, he answers me in this churlish manner?” Then, turning to his men, he said, “Gird ye on every man his sword, we will show this fellow how to treat us.” So, leaving two hundred men to guard the caves, four hundred marched out, David at the head, his hot blood all ablaze within him, his anger showing in his face. “God do so to me,” said he, “and more also, if I leave so much as a dog of that man’s house alive by the morning light.” He sallied forth doubtless with the full intent to destroy Nabal, to make his house a heap of ruins, and then to devastate the sheep-master’s estate. What a false position for a child of God! But David was naturally impulsive, and somehow men that have any life in them do sometimes get their temper roused. We hear of some people that are as quiet and as peaceful and as easy as a pond of stagnant water; certainly their peace does not flow like a river, and their righteousness is never lashed to fury like the waves of the sea. David was not one of these.

As the son of Jesse rashly pursues the man of Mount Carmel, he meets a woman, Nabal’s wife; perhaps a hard thought comes over him to smite her, but no-she is a woman, David cannot strike her, and, what is more, she is at his feet, asking him to lay all the blame at her door. Then she goes on to tell him that her lord is a very foolish and churlish man, and she hopes David will not take offence at his words. She has brought him a present, and she tells him that when he shall come to be king, it will be a great ease to his mind to think he never fought his own battles, but only the Lord’s. She reminds him of the future, and so she makes him forget the present. After a while his heart yields to quiet reflections; he acts rather as saint than as soldier, putting up his sword into the sheath, and leaving the matter with his God. Righteous vengeance was soon asserted, when barbarous revenge was stayed, for ten days afterwards Nabal died. The Lord himself dealt out retributive justice to the adversary, while the Lord’s servant was held back from indiscriminate slaughter.

That is all we shall have occasion to say about the narrative. It suggests our subject, which is “Preventing Grace,” the grace which God sends to prevent saints and sinners from running into sin. I hope before the service is over, many of us in looking back upon our past lives will gratefully bless the Lord: bless his providence, and bless the man or the woman whom he has sent to teach us, and to keep us back from evil: that we shall thank him because we have oftentimes been turned back from doing the wrong thing, and by an overruling counsel been led of him in the paths of righteousness.

Of this preventing grace we shall speak in two ways. We will deal first of all with the people of God, and with them but briefly, though they are the only persons who will ever be able to recognize the value and feel thankfulness for this precious benefit. Then we shall see how grace often prevents even men who are not followers of Jesus.

Preventing grace is enjoyed by all the people of God.

Dear friends, some of us can bless God at this hour that preventing grace came to us in the shape of a godly education. We heard no blasphemies when we lay in the cradle, no curses startled us from our dreams; many of us saw no drunkenness beneath the roof of our father’s house; no libidinous books were put in our way. Many of you were trained from your youth up to know the Scriptures like Timothy, and some of you have even heard something of the voice of God speaking to you as he did to Samuel. Blessed be God for a holy mother; blessed be God for an affectionate, prayerful father; blessed be ye of the Lord, ye that brought us forth for God, and blessed be your advice, for ye have kept us from many a sin.

Since then, preventing grace has come in the shape of godly associations; we need none of us be very proud of what we are, if we think what we might have been, had we been put in other positions. If, instead of being bound apprentice to a good master, and afterwards brought into association with religious people in the Sabbath-school, and in the Bible-class, and in the congregation, your lot had been thrown where you could pick up your education in the street and take your college degree in the coal-hole or the theatre, who can tell but you had been as black a sinner as those whom you now pass by in the street, wondering that they are so vile? Much of a man’s character comes from other men. What we are is not all of ourselves. We are deep in debt to others. Indeed, what man is there upon whom there have not been a hundred fingers to mould him and a thousand influences to make his plastic character what it is? I know that the grace of God is a thing that makes a man right before God, but I know, also, that holy associations (or ever grace comes into our heart to renew us) prevent us from indulging in sins into which, under other circumstances, we should certainly have plunged.

In extolling preventing grace, what shall I say, dear friends, besides this, of the providential circumstances which have kept us from sin? There have been times with some of us in our younger days before we knew Christ, when the temptation was very strong, but the opportunity was not near, and at other times the opportunity has been before our eyes, but there was no temptation. God help the man that has the temptation and the opportunity at the same time. Many and many a man has received the preventing and restraining grace of God when the devil has been hindered throwing the two dice at one time. It is of grace that at one time there has been the fire in the heart, but no fuel, while at another there has been the fuel but the fire did not burn just at that time so as to make it convenient or desirable for the man to sin. Oh, friends, the river of our life has been winding and tortuous in its course. Had it wound in another way, it had been very different from what it is, and, perhaps, a word-as we say, an accident, a chance hit-may have turned the whole of it. Now we can say that our moral reputation is unblemished, whereas otherwise we should have had to lament that we had been immoral, debauched, and depraved, if it had not been for this preventing grace of God working through providential circumstances.

There is a fountain which is the father of two rivers, and these two rivers both take their rise in a tarn at the top of a hill. Both rivers start from the same place, but when they end their course they are some five hundred miles apart. Behold this drop of water; there it lies. Which way shall it go? Shall it go down that stream and find its way to yonder sea, or down this stream to another destiny? It needs but a motion of a bird’s wing to move that drop either way, and it shall go rolling onward into yonder sea, or it shall find another channel and pursue its course far apart. So has it been with us. The grace of God-preventing grace-had much to do with the providence which puts us in such and such a channel, instead of casting us into another; that allowed us to come into contact with holy people rather than to associate us with the vilest of the vile. This is a hard blow at our self-righteousness. If we had not had our hearts changed and if providential circumstances had been a little different, we might have been lost ere now.

But besides the power of conversion to change life, how much believers owe to the grace of God exercised through trial and suffering! They would have gone astray, but they were barred down by affliction; they would have leaped the hedges of God’s law, but they were clogged by some adversity. Some men owe much to the fact that they were never in good health. A blind eye, or a crippled leg, or a maimed arm, may have been in the hands of God a great blessing in keeping some of you back from iniquities, in which otherwise you might have indulged. We never know what innumerable streams of good flow from that well which we call Marah, but which God often maketh to be an Elim to our souls.

“Determined to save he watched o’er my path,

When, Satan’s blind slave, I sported with death.”

I suppose, dear brethren and sisters in Christ, that in looking back you can say, “I can see the finger of God in a great many places where I might have ruined myself-there, and there, and there-though I knew him not, his arms were underneath me; he guided me with his eye, he led me by his right hand, that I might not be utterly destroyed.”

Now, Christian man, if thou couldest think of this a little, thou shouldest be very grateful indeed to God for this. I know if thou hadst sinned even more, the blood of Christ could wash thy guilt away; and if thine iniquities had been greater still, thou wouldest not have overreached the power of divine love. But think now how good it is for thee that thou wast not suffered-I speak of course only to some of you-to go so far. How much sorrow you have been spared! From what evil habits have you been saved! What temptations are now kept away from you which, if God had not kept you back from sin in former days, might else overwhelm you.

Perhaps there is a man here who is a Christian, and though he knows he is redeemed, he would give his right arm if he could forget his unregenerate days. There are some men who might say, “I would give my eyes if I could forget what they have seen, and lose my ears if I could remember no more what they have heard.” Why, there is a snatch of an old song that will come over you when you are in prayer, and when you are trying to get right up to heaven there is some old black remembrance of the merriment or dissipation of the former days that checks your flight, and is as a clog to the eagle, and will not let it mount. There is many a man who might have been a leader in God’s camp, who is afraid to come out, and who, if he had come out, would have but little force because of the weakness some old habit has brought upon him; he feels he cannot do what he would for Christ because of the past. If this be not your experience, then thank God for preventing grace.

I preached this morning to the chief of sinners, I was glad to do it, but whenever I do, I find some who wish they had been greater sinners, not because they love sin, but because they think they should then see a greater change in themselves when the grace of God lays hold of them. Instead of this, thank God most devoutly: you are big enough sinners as you are; there is enough of vileness and corruption, there is enough of base depravity, there is enough of abominable sin in you now. Thank God if you have not been allowed to give vent to the evil within you and run to an excess of riot. I write every day among my mercies that I was taught to run in wisdom’s way.

But, once again, dear friend, if you have not been permitted to run into outrageous folly, do not think that you are any nearer Christ because of this. Do not imagine that you are to be saved in any different way from the most outrageous drunkard or the most depraved of harlots. There is the same way to heaven for you who are highly esteemed among men as for the man who lies for his crime rotting in a gaol. I tell you, sirs, you who think you have done no wrong, you must go to heaven by the blood and righteousness of Christ, as much as the convict at the hulks; and when you get to glory you shall have no more right to boast of your own merits or your own goodness than the thief who went from the cross to glory, or that woman that was a sinner and loved much because she was much forgiven. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,” and while it is cause for congratulation that you have not wandered so far into sin as others, it is also cause for trembling, for verily I say unto you, often publicans and harlots enter the kingdom of heaven before Pharisees. Some who were the vilest of the vile have come to Christ, have penitently accepted his righteousness, while others robed in their own righteousness have gone down to hell and perished with a double destruction, with the rags of their righteousness about them.

I hope I have in no way whatever said anything which on the one hand detracts from the value of an early religious training and preventing grace, nor anything on the other hand which detracts from the grace which saves the very vilest of the vile. I feel that sometimes, when we are preaching, we seem to look after the scum and the raff, and we forget many others. I would not forget one of you, my dear hearers, who hear me Sabbath after Sabbath; God is my witness, if I thought I had missed any one of you I would be too glad to preach a sermon only for that one person, if I might but win his soul. What did I say? Preach a sermon! I would preach fifty sermons, I would preach my whole life but to win one of you, and think myself well paid with such a blessed reward for such easy toil. But whether you are great sinners or little sinners outwardly, remember you are all vile in the inner nature, and the same grace is presented to you all. “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”

The second part of our discourse is to be addressed to those who as yet have not experienced the grace of God in its constraining and quickening power. They, too, in a very real sense have received the preventing grace of God, for the preventing grace of God is universal.

Without the preventing grace of God to restrain man he would be unbearable, and if it were not for the preventing grace of God in society a nation would be an impossibility, and a well-ordered commonwealth would be a thing for which we might long, but should never be able to realize. Men would be little better we believe, than the beasts of the forest, tearing and devouring one another, if the grace of God did not keep them in check; and this, I think, is proved by the fact that the further you recede from the light of the Gospel-the further you get from the agencies which preventing grace is most likely to use-the more cruel and savage men are, the one toward the other. I thank God that this is a land where preventing grace is felt even by the very worst. I do not believe there is a burglar or a murderer but has been the subject of it, but has had to strive against it and against his own conscience, before he could consummate his crime and give himself up to iniquity. You have had preventing grace keeping you back from sin. Sinner, if thou canst not thank God for this we can, we bless the Lord that he restrains you and does not permit you to be worse than you are. We pray that this preventing grace may never be taken from you, or else you shall be like some wild horse that has desired to dash over the precipice, who, when the rein is laid upon his neck, leapeth to his doom and destroyeth himself and as many as be attached unto him.

Yet, while it is universal, this preventing grace of God is by some men much detested and abhorred. Some can hardly tolerate the restrictions which Christianity has imposed upon the nation! they are vexed that they have to shut up shop on Sunday, and, by a sort of custom, are compelled to go and hear the Word of God; they wish they lived in some place where they could do just as they liked. The wife who wants her husband and family to go up and hear the Gospel is thought hardly of because of it. Some men would even like, if they could, to have a family that was all the devil’s; but somehow or other God will not let them have their way. The godless man gets a godly wife, and he is angry; by-and-by it turns out that one of the children receives God’s saving grace, and he cannot bear the thought of it. I have seen men in spiritual things just like madmen of Bedlam. God knew that these men would ruin themselves if they were let alone, so, first of all, he straightwaist-coated them with poverty, that they could not do what they would. Then, afterwards, when they began to tear and foam, he put them into a godly family, as maniacs are put into a padded room, so that, dash themselves as they will, they cannot hurt themselves. These men cannot get loose, but they will strain at their bonds and foam and gnash because God has hold of them, and will not let the devil get the full mastery of them as they would like. O sinner, the day may come when God will say of thee, “Let him have his own way.” If he should give thee up, then thy doom will be sealed for ever and thy fate be more desperate than words can describe. God help thee, man, and keep thee from thyself, or else thou wilt soon destroy thyself and go post haste to destruction.

But to turn to a more cheerful view of it, in many persons this preventing grace leads to something higher. After preventing grace has kept thee back from sin, in comes quickening grace and shows thee the hatefulness of sin, and after that comes pardoning grace, and gives thee power to believe in Jesus, and, lo! thy sins are put away. May God grant that this may be the case with some of you who have got no further yet than preventing grace. Be grateful for that, thank God with all your heart for it. May it lead you to repentance; may it lead you to put your trust in Jesus and in him only! Then you will pass from the mere prevention in which grace is a shackle, to the liberty in which grace becomes a shield and a sword, the joy and the sun of your life. May the long-suffering of God lead thee to repentance!

But once again, to turn to the solemn chord once more, where it does not lead to higher things, preventing grace increases the responsibility of the man who receives it. If a man will go over hedge and ditch to hell, he shall find it a hard fall when he gets to the edge. If, when we put poison out of the way and remove everything with which a man can destroy himself, he yet will tear open his own veins, he is a suicide indeed; who shall pity him? And when God hedges you about, if you break the hedges-when he puts a bit into your mouth if you stand champing it until at last you get it from your jaws, and turn to your own way-this will not be done without bringing on your head at the last thunders of execration from the universe that shall judge you, and the full lightnings of wrath from the hand of God who shall condemn you. I fear there are some here who are sinning against light. You are not without warnings in this land, not without calls and wooing invitations; the time was when you might have gone into many of the churches in London and not have heard the Gospel so that you could understand it, but now in the corners of the streets and in the theatres you may hear it if you will; and God is my witness when I say there is one place where you can hear it preached with earnestness, and I rejoice to know there are thousands of others. Souls, if you perish, it is not for want of invitations to Christ. If you will not have Christ it is a wilful rejection; if you will be lost, blame not the minister, lay it not at our door, we are clear of your blood, we shake our skirts of the dust of your souls, we will not be responsible for you; we warn you, we cry aloud to you, and if you will not hear, but will go and turn to the downward road, on your own heads be your doom for ever and ever.

But instead of enlarging on these and other points, I will try, as God shall help me, to give you a little advice, in the hope that some who have come up, perhaps to a cattle show, or the Handel Festival, or the Great Exhibition, may get more than they came for; who could tell, some of you may have to say in time and eternity, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed be thy advice?”

Now, young man fresh from the country, you have a scheme in your head, and you are going to carry it out to-morrow. If my prayer for you is heard you will not do so. You have come up to London to have a merry time of it; you will have a merry time of another sort, I hope. Consider your ways. Bethink yourself. Why will you go wilfully, and with your eyes open, into that sin? It may be the last sin you will ever commit; it may be that you will die in the act. Great God! how prophetic these words may be! Am I pronouncing the doom of some soul here? Such things have happened, and it may be that they will happen again. Oh, I pray thee, friend, stay thy hand. Shall I fall down upon my knees and pray thee to stop, for an impulse is upon me to speak thus-do not, do not, it is for thy life. Back with thy hand, man, for fear of the viper’s tooth; thou art playing on the hole of the asp, but his tongue is ready and his fang shall envenom all thy veins. By God, by Christ, by heaven, by hell, I adjure thee, thou who has intended some sin, cease from it! May this advice be blessed to thee! Hast thou not had enough already? What, man! hast thou killed thyself, and is not that enough? Art thou a lost man to-night, and is not that enough? Wouldest thou bury deep in sin even thy last hope? The leprosy is in thee now, wouldest thou make it stare in men’s faces on thy very forehead? Oh, stay thee! stay thee! thou hast gone far enough, the wonder is that thou art spared seeing thou hast gone so far. What has all thine indulgence hitherto brought thee in? Is there real pleasure in sin? What has been thine experience up till now? Is it not a rough road, though it promised to be a joyous one? Have you not had already enough to bear as the result of your evil conduct? Why, therefore, continue to spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? As the voice of one crying in the wilderness would I now seek to prepare the way of the Lord into thy heart. Cease thou from evil man. Consider this thy sin and repent of it, for I hope that to thee the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

What if, instead of going into sin to-night, thou shouldest take my advice and seek the Saviour and find him. If God bless thee, thou shalt be saved; but if thou hast shut thine ear to God’s pleading it shall not be my fault. Man! man! thou art lost and ruined by the fall, but there is One that is able to save, even to the uttermost, those that come to him. To come to Christ is to trust him. I have preached this Gospel for many years, and I do not think I ever finished a sermon except in one way-by trying to explain what is meant by this simple trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Young man, you have the idea that you are to do twenty things; you have been trying to get ready for Christ; that is not the Gospel, that is the law. The Gospel is, trust Jesus Christ, trust Jesus Christ. He died upon the tree that he might bear the punishment of the sins of all who believe in him. So to believe in him is to trust him. Trust him, and then it is certain that your sins were laid on Christ, and that he suffered in your room and stead. Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, sinner, come just now. What if this should be the time when the Lord shall meet with thee; write it down, ye angels, in your golden tablets, record the birthday of a soul; take down your harps, ye bright ones, strike the chords with a new and heaven-born ardour. Cherubim and seraphim, lift up your voices to notes untried as yet while God himself breaketh forth into a song, rejoicing in singing over them that come unto him through Jesus Christ his Son. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Believe now, you in this area and you in these galleries. Oh! that you would believe in Jesus now! Thank God if you have not gone to the great lengths some have gone, but remember you cannot be saved except through faith in Jesus. If you have gone to the greatest lengths thank God you are not gone too far yet, for he can still reach you. He has a long arm, and he can find you in the very depths of your iniquity. Trust him, sinner, trust him now, and there shall be joy in heaven over sinners that repent more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance. May God add his own blessing for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

JONAH 1

Verses 1-3. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Observe the misconduct of the prophet Jonah. He had a plain command from the Lord, and he knew it to be a command; but he felt that the commission given to him would not be pleasant and honouring to himself, and therefore he declined to comply with it. We see, from his action, how some, who really know God, may act as if they knew him not. Jonah knew that God was everywhere, yet he “rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” What strange inconsistencies there often are even in good men! Here is one, who is favoured with a divine commission,-one who knows God, and fears him; yet, for all that, he ventures on the fool’s errand of endeavouring to escape from the Omnipresent. He “went down to Joppa,” which was the port of his country, “and he found a ship going to Tarshish.” Learn from this that providence alone is not a sufficient guide for our actions. He may have said, “It was very singular that there was a ship there going to Tarshish, just when I reached the port. I gather from this that God was not so very disinclined for me to go to Tarshish.” Precepts, not providences, are to guide believers; and when Christian men quote a providence against a precept,-which is to set God against God,-they act most strangely. There are devil’s providences as well as divine providences, and there are tempting providences as well as assisting providences, so learn to judge between the one and the other.

4. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

Learn, hence, that “Omnipotence has servants everywhere.” The Lord is never short of sheriff’s officers to arrest his fugitives, and on that occasion he “sent out a great wind into the sea.” “The wind bloweth where it listeth.” That is true; but it is also true that the wind bloweth where God listeth, and he knew how to send that great wind to that particular ship. No doubt many ships were on the Mediterranean at that time; but, possibly, unto none of them was the storm sent save unto the one which carried Jonah, the son of Amittai. We say, “Every bullet has its billet,” and this great wind was sent to pursue the fugitive prophet.

5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god,-

If there is ever a special time for prayer, it is a time of need. Nature seems then to compel men to utter prayer of such a sort as it is, for it is but nature’s prayer at the best: “The mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god,”-

5. And cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them.

Life is precious, and a man will give up everything else in order to save it. Satan spoke the truth when he said, “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, will he give for his life.” From the action of these mariners, we may learn that sometimes we may lighten our ship for the safety of our souls. When we have less to carry, probably we shall sail more safely. Losses and crosses may turn out to be our greatest gains. Let the ill-gotten ingots go to the bottom of the sea; and lo, the ship rights herself at once!

5. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

The greatest sinner on that ship appeared to be the least concerned about the storm which had come because of him; he did not even seem to know that there was a storm, for he had “gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.”

6. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

It is hard when sinners have to rebuke saints, and when an uncircumcised Gentile can address a prophet of God in language like this.

7. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

We commend not the action of these men in casting lots, but we admire the providence by which “the lot fell upon Jonah.” Solomon says, “The lot is cast into the lap,” but he did not say that it was right that lots should be cast into the lap; and he very properly added, “but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”

8. Then they said unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?

I do not know whether these men had traded with those who then lived in these islands, but they had a very English custom of not judging a man before they had heard him speak. It would be well if we all practised it more,-so that, before we condemn men, we were willing to hear their side of the question. Considering that there was such a storm raging, the questions put to Jonah were remarkably calm. They were very comprehensive, and went to the very root of the matter.

9. And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew:

That let them know whence he came, and what his country was.

9. And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.

That, I suppose, must be regarded as his occupation; and what a blessed occupation it is,-to be occupied with the fear of the Lord! So, you see that, though Jonah was not properly following his occupation while he was on board that ship, yet he did not hesitate to avow, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” The child of God, even when he gets where he ought not to be, if you test him and try him, will stand to his colours. He will confess that he is, after all, a servant of the living God.

10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this?

Jonah had to go through this catechism, question after question, and this was the hardest of them all: “Why hast thou done this?” Could you, dear friend, submit every action of your life to this test? “Why hast thou done this?” I am afraid that there are some actions, which we have performed, for which we could not give a reason, or the reasons for which we should not like to give to our fellow-men, much less to our God.

10, 11. For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us?

Here is another question; the catechism is not yet finished, and this is one of the most difficult of all.

11, 12. For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them. Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you:

Notwithstanding all his faults, Jonah was an eminent type of Christ. We know that from our Lord’s own words, for he was as long in the belly of the whale as Christ was in the heart of the earth. Here he seems to be a type of our Saviour: “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea: so shall the sea be calm unto you:”

12, 13. For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land;

They showed a deal of good feeling in all their treatment of Jonah. They could not bear to take away a fellow-creature’s life, so they pulled and tugged in order to get the ship to land.

13. But they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.

Their safety lay in the sacrifice,-not in the labour. They rowed hard to bring the ship to land, but their efforts were of no avail. If they would cast Jonah overboard, then they would be safe.

14, 15. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah,-

Put the emphasis on the first word, “So they took up Jonah”; that is, with great reluctance, with much pity and sorrow, not daring to do such a deed as that wantonly and with a light heart. When men do deeds like this, on a far greater scale, and go to war with a light heart, they will have a heavy heart before long. If ever you have to cast a brother out of the Church,-if ever you have to relinquish the friendship of any man,-do it as these men did with Jonah, patiently, and carefully. Investigate the matter, and do not act until you are driven to it after consulting the Lord.

15, 16. And cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.

Jonah had been the means of causing a greater change than he expected. His conduct and punishment had been a warning to those thoughtless sailors. They could not but believe in the God who had thus followed up his fugitive servant.

17. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.

He prepared a storm, he prepared a fish, and we afterwards read that he prepared a gourd, and he prepared a worm. In the great things of life, and in the little things, God is ever present. The swimming of a great fish in the sea is, surely, not a thing that is subject to law. If ever there is free agency in this world, it must certainly be in the wanderings of such a huge creature that follows its own instincts, and ploughs its way through the great wastes of the wide and open sea. Yes, that is true; yet there is a divine predestination concerning all its movements. Over every motion of the fin of every minnow predestination presides. There is no distinction of little or great in God’s sight; he that wings an angel guides a sparrow. “The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.”

17. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

So round about the truant prophet was the preventing grace of Jehovah.