C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.”-Psalm 107:17-22.*

It is a very profitable thing to visit a hospital. The sight of others’ sickness tends to make us grateful for our own health, and it is a great thing to be kept in a thankful frame of mind, for ingratitude is a spiritual disease, injurious to every power of the soul. A hospital inspection will also teach us compassion, and that is of great service. Anything that softens the heart is valuable. Above all things, in these days, we should strive against the petrifying influences which surround us. It is not easy for a man, who has constantly enjoyed good health and prosperity, to sympathize with the poor and the suffering. Even our great High Priest, who is full of compassion, learned it by carrying our sorrows in his own person. To see the sufferings of the afflicted, in many cases, would be enough to move a stone; and if we go to the hospital, and come back with a tenderer heart, we shall have found it a sanatorium to ourselves.

I purpose, at this time, to take you to a hospital. It shall not be one of those noble institutions so pleasingly plentiful around the Tabernacle; but we will take you to Christ’s Hospital, or, as the French would call it, the Hotel Dieu: and we shall conduct you through the wards for a few minutes, trusting that while you view them, if you are yourself healed, you may feel gratitude that you have been delivered from spiritual sicknesses, and an intense compassion for those who still pine and languish. May we become like our Saviour, who wept over Jerusalem with eyes which were no strangers to compassion’s floods: may we view the most guilty and impenitent with yearning hearts, and grieve with mingled hope and anxiety over those who are under the sound of the gospel, and so are more especially patients in the Hospital of God.

We will go at once with, the psalmist to the wards of spiritual sickness.

And, first, we have set out before us the names and characters of the patients.

You see, in this hospital, written up over the head of every couch, the name of the patient and his disease, and you are amazed to find that all the inmates belong to one family, and, singularly enough, are all called by one name, and that name is very far from being a reputable one. It is a title that nobody covets, and that many persons would be very indignant to have applied to them,-“Fool.” All who are sick in God’s Hospital are fools, without exception, for this reason, that all sinners are fools. Often, in Scripture, when David means the wicked, he says, “the foolish”; and, in saying this, he makes no mistake, for sin is folly.

Sin is foolish, clearly, because it is a setting-up of our weakness in opposition to Omnipotence. Every wise man, if he must fight, will choose a combatant against whom he may have a chance of success; but he who wars with the Most High commits as gross a folly as when the moth contends with the flame, or the dry grass of the prairie challenges the fire. There is no hope for thee, O sinful man, of becoming a victor in the struggle. How unwise thou art to take up the weapons of rebellion! And the folly is aggravated, because the One who is opposed is so infinitely good that opposition to him is violence to everything that is just, beneficial, and commendable. God is love; shall I resist the infinitely loving One? He scatters blessings; wherefore should I be his foe? If his commandments were grievous, if his ways were ways of misery, and his paths were paths of woe, I might have some pretence of an excuse for resisting his will. But O my God, so good, so kind, so boundless in grace, ’tis folly, as well as wickedness, to be thine enemy!

“To all that’s good, averse and blind,

But prone to all that’s ill,

What dreadful darkness veils our mind!

How obstinate our will!”

Besides this, the laws of God are so supremely beneficial to ourselves, that we are our own enemies when we rebel. God’s laws are danger signals. As sometimes, on the ice, those who care for human life put up the warning word “Danger” here and there, and leave the part that is safe for all who choose to traverse it, so God has left us free to enjoy everything that is safe for us, and has only forbidden us that which is to our own hurt. If there be a law which forbids me to put my hand into the fire, it is a pity that I should need such a law, but a thousand pities more if I think that law a hardship. The commands of God do but forbid us to injure ourselves. To keep them is to keep ourselves in holy happiness; to break them is to bring evil of all kinds upon ourselves in soul and body. Why should I violate a law, which, if I were perfect, I should myself have made, or myself have kept finding it in force? Why need I rebel against that which is never exacting, never oppressive, but always conducive to my own highest welfare? The sinner is a fool, because he is told, in God’s Word, that the path of evil will lead to destruction, and yet he pursues it with the secret hope that, in his case, the damage will not be very great. He has been warned that sin is like a cup frothing with a foam of sweetness, but concealing death and hell in its dregs; yet each sinner, as he takes the cup, fascinated by the first drop, believes that, to him, the poisonous draught will not be fatal. How many have fondly hoped that God would lie unto men, and would not fulfil his threatenings! Yet, be assured, every sin shall have its recompense of reward; God is just, and will by no means spare the guilty. Even in this life many are feeling in their bones the consequences of their youthful lusts; they will carry to their graves the scars of their transgressions. In hell, alas! there are millions who will for ever prove that sin is an awful and an undying evil, an infinite curse which has destroyed them for ever and ever.

The sinner is a fool, because, while he doubts the truthfulness of God as to the punishment of sin, he has the conceit to imagine that transgression will even yield him pleasure. God saith it shall be bitterness; the sinner denies the bitterness, and aiffirms that it shall be sweetness. O fool, to seek pleasure in sin! Go rake the charnel-house to find an immortal soul; go walk into the secret springs of the sea to find the source of flame. It is not there, and thou canst never find bliss in rebellion. Hundreds of thousands before thee have gone upon this search, and have all been disappointed; he is indeed a fool who must needs rush headlong in this useless chase, and perish as the result. The sinner is a fool-a great fool-to remain as he is in danger of the wrath of God. To abide at ease in imminent peril, and scorn the way of escape; to love the world, and loathe the Saviour; to set the present fleeting life above the eternal future; to choose the sand of the desert, and forego the jewels of heaven;-all this is folly, in the highest conceivable degree.

Though all sinners are fools, yet there are fools of all sorts. Some are learned fools. Unconverted men, whatever they know, are only educated fools. Between the ignorant man who cannot read a letter, and the learned man who is apt in all knowledge, there is small difference if they are both ignorant of Christ; indeed, the scholar’s folly is in this case the greater of the two. The learned fool generally proves himself the worst of fools, for he invents theories which would be ridiculed if they could be understood, and he brings forth speculations which, if they were judged by common sense and men were not turned into idiotic worshippers of imaginary authority, would be scouted from the universe with a hiss of derision. There are fools in colleges and fools in cottages.

There are also reckless fools and reckoning fools. Some sin with both hands greedily. “A short life, and a merry one,” is their motto; while the so-called “prudent” fools live more slowly, but still live not for God. These last, with hungry greed for wealth, will often hoard up gold as if it were true treasure, and as if anything worth the retaining were to be found beneath the moon. Your “prudent” “respectable” sinner will find himself just as much lost as your reckless prodigal. They must all alike seek and find the Saviour, or be guilty of gross folly. So, alas! there are old fools as well as young ones. There are those who, after an experience of sin, burn their fingers at it still. The burnt child dreads the fire, but the burnt sinner lovingly plays with his sin again. Hoar hairs ought to be a crown of glory, but too often they are fool’s caps. There are young sinners who waste the prime of life when the dew is on their spirit, and neglect to give their strength to God, and so miss the early joy of religion, which is the sweetest, and makes all the rest of life the sweeter: these are fools. But what is he who hath one foot hanging over the mouth of hell, and yet continues without God and without Christ, a trifler with eternity?

I have spoken thus upon the name of those who enter God’s Hospital; permit me to add that all who go there, and are cured, agree that this name is correct. Saved souls are made to feel that they are naturally fools; and, indeed, it is one stage in the cure when men are able to spell their own name, and when they are willing to write it in capital letters, and say, “That is mine! If there is no other man in this world who is a fool, I am. I have played the fool before the living God.” This confession is true, for what madness it is to play the fool before the Eternal One, with your own soul as the subject of the foolery! When men make sport, they generally do it with trifling things. A man who plays the fool, and puts on a cap and bells, is wise in comparison with him who sports with his God, his soul, heaven, and eternity. This is folly beyond all folly. Yet the sinner, when he is taken into God’s Hospital, will be made to feel that he has been such a fool, and that his folly is folly with emphasis. He will confess that Christ must be made unto him wisdom, for he himself by nature was born a fool, has lived a fool, and will die a fool, unless the infinite mercy of God shall interpose.

Now, for a minute or two, let us notice the cause of their pains and afflictions. “Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.”

The physican usually tries to find out the root and cause of the disease he has to deal with. Now, those souls that are brought into grief for sin, those who are smarting through the providential dealings of God, through the strikings of conscience, or the smitings of the Holy Spirit, are here taught that the source of their sorrow is their sin. These sins are mentioned in the text in the plural: “Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities.” How many have our sins been? Who shall count them? Let him tell the hairs of his head first. Sins are various, and are therefore called “transgressions and iniquities.” We do not all sin alike, nor does any one man sin alike at all times. We commit sins of word, thought, deed, against God, against men, against our bodies, against our souls, against the gospel, against the law, against the week-day duties, against the Sabbath privileges-sins of all sorts, and these all lie at the root of our sorrows. Our sins also are aggravated; not content with transgression, we have added iniquities to it. No one is more greedy than a sinner, but he is greedy after his own destruction. He is never content with revolting; he must needs rebel yet more and more. As when a stone is rolled downhill, its pace is accelerated the further it goes, so is it with the sinner, he goes from bad to worse.

Perhaps I speak to some who have lately come into God’s Hospital. I will suppose a case. You are poor, very poor, but your poverty is the fruit of your profligate habits. Poverty is often directly traceable to drunkenness, laziness, or dishonesty. All poverty does not come from these sources. Blessed be God, there are thousands of the poor who are the excellent of the earth, and a great many of them are serving God right nobly; but I am now speaking of certain cases, and probably you know of such yourselves, where, because of their transgression and iniquities, men are brought to want. There will come to me, sometimes, a person who was in good circumstances a few years ago, who is now without anything but the clothes he tries to stand upright in, and his wretchedness is entirely owing to his playing the prodigal. He is one of those whom I trust God may yet take into his Hospital.

At times, the disease breaks out in another sort of misery. Some sins bring into the flesh itself pains which are anticipatory of hell; yet even these persons may be taken into the Hospital of God, though they are afflicted, to their shame, through gross transgression. Oh, how many there are, in this great City of London, of men and women who dare not tell their condition, but whose story is a terrible one indeed, as God reads it! Oh, that he may have pity upon them, and take them into his lazar-house, and heal them yet through his abundant grace!

In more numerous cases, the misery brought by sin is mental. Many are brought by sin very low, even to despair. Conscience pricks them; fears of death and hell haunt them. I do remember well when I was in this way myself; when I, poor fool, because of my transgression and my iniquities, was sorely bowed in spirit. By day, I thought of the punishment of my sin; by night, I dreamed of it. I woke in the morning with a burden on my heart,-a burden which I could neither carry nor shake off, and sin was at the bottom of my sorrow. My sin, my sin, my sin,-this was my constant plague. I was in my youth, and in the heyday of my spirit; I had all earthly comforts, and I had friends to cheer me, but they were all as nothing. I would seek solitary places to search the Scriptures, and to read such books as “Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted” and “Alleine’s Alarm,” feeling my soul ploughed more and more as though the law, with its ten great black horses, was dragging the plough up and down my soul, breaking, crushing, furrowing my heart, and all for sin. Let me tell you, though we read of the cruelties of the Inquisition, and the sufferings which the martyrs have borne from cruel men, no racks, nor firepans, nor other instruments of torture can make a man so wretched as his own conscience when he is stretched upon its rack.

Here, then, we see both the fools and the cause of their disease.

Now let us notice the progress of the disease. It is said that “their soul abhorreth all manner of meat,” like persons who have lost their appetite, and can eat nothing; “and they draw near unto the gates of death,” they are given over, and nearly dead.

These words may reach some whose disease of sin has developed itself in fearful sorrow, so that they are now unable to find comfort in anything. You used to enjoy the theatre; you went lately, but you were wretched there. You used to be a wit in society, and set the table on a roar with your jokes; but you cannot joke now. They say you are melancholy, but you know what they do not know, for a secret arrow rankles in your bosom. You go to a place of worship, but you find no comfort even there. The manner of meat that is served to God’s saints is not suitable to you. You cry, “Alas, I am not worthy of it!” Whenever you hear a sermon thundering against the ungodly, you feel, “Ah, that is for me! “but when it comes to “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,” you conclude. “Ah, that is not for me!” Even if it be an invitation to the sinner, you say, “But I do not feel myself a sinner. I am not such an one as may come to Christ. Surely I am a castaway.” Your soul abhorreth all manner of meat, even that out of God’s kitchen. Not only are you dissatisfied with the world’s dainties, but the marrow and fatness of Christ himself you cannot relish. Many of us have been in this way before you.

The text adds, “They draw near unto the gates of death.” The soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, and feels that it cannot bear up much longer. I remember once, in the bitterness of my spirit, using those words of Job, “My soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life,” for the wretchedness of a sin-burdened soul is intolerable. All do not suffer like strong convictions; but, in some, it bows the spirit almost to the grave. Perhaps, my friend, you see no hope whatever; you are ready to say, “There cannot be any hope for me. I have made a covenant with death, and a league with hell; I am past hope. There were, years ago, opportunities for me, and I was near the kingdom; but like the man who put his hand to the plough, and then, looked back, I have proved myself unworthy of eternal life.” Troubled heart, I am sent with a message for you: “Thus saith the Lord, your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your league with hell shall not stand. The prey shall be taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive shall be delivered.” You may abhor the very meat that would restore you to strength, but he who understands the human heart knows how to give you better tastes and cure these evil whims; he knows how to bring you up from the gates of death to the gates of heaven. Thus we see how terribly the mischief progresses.

“Our beauty and our strength are fled,

And we draw near to death,

But Christ the Lord recalls the dead

With his almighty breath.”

And now the disease takes a turn. Our fourth point is the interposition of the Physician: “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”

The good Physician is the true Healer. Observe when the Physician comes in,-when “they cry unto the Lord in their trouble.” When they cry, the Physician has come. I will not say that he has come because they cry, though that would be true; but there is deeper truth still,-they cried because he came. For, whenever a soul truly cries unto God, God has already blessed it by enabling it to cry. Thou wouldst never have begun to pray if the Lord had not taught thee. God is visiting a soul, and healing it, when it has enough faith in God to cast itself, with a cry, upon his mercy. I cannot hope that there is a work of grace in thee until I know that thou prayest. Ananias would not have believed that Paul was converted had it not been said, “Behold he prayeth!”

Note the kind of prayer here; it was not taken out of a book, and it was not a fine prayer in language, whether extempore or pre-composed; it was a cry. You do not need to teach your children how to cry; it is the first thing a new-born child does. It wants no schoolmaster to teach it that art. Our School Boards have a great deal to teach the children of London, but they need never have a department for instruction in crying. A spiritual cry is the call of the new-born nature expressing conscious need. “How shall I pray?” says one. Pour thy heart out, brother. Turn the vessel upside down, and let the contents run out to the last dreg, as best they can. “But I cannot pray,” says one. Tell the Lord you cannot pray, and ask him to help you to pray, and you have prayed already. “Oh, but I don’t feel as I should!” Then confess to the Lord your sinful insensibility, and ask him to make your heart tender, and you are already in a measure softened. Those who say, “We don’t feel as we should,” are very often those who feel the most. Whether it be so or no, cry. If thou art a sin-sick soul, thou canst do nothing towards thine own healing but this,-thou canst cry. He who hears thy cries will know what they mean. When the surgeon goes to the battlefield, after a conflict, he is guided to his compassionate work by the groans of the wounded. When he hears a soldier’s cry, he does not enquire, “Was that a Frenchman or a German, and what does he mean?” A cry is good French, and excellent German too; it is part of the universal tongue. The surgeon understands it, and looks for the sick man. And whatever language thou usest, O sinner, uncouth or refined, if it be the language of thy heart, God understands thee without an interpreter.

Note well that, as we have seen, when the Physician interposed, we shall see next what he did. He saved them out of their distresses, healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh, the infinite mercy of God! He reveals to the heart pardon for all sin; and, by his Spirit’s power, removes all our weaknesses. I tell thee, soul, though thou art at death’s door this moment, God can even now gloriously deliver thee. It would be a wonder if your poor burdened spirit should, within this hour, leap for joy; and yet, if the Lord shall visit thee in mercy, thou wilt do so. I fall back upon my own recollection; my escape from despondency was instantaneous. I did but believe Jesus Christ’s word, and rest upon his sacrifice, and the night of my heart was over; the darkness had passed, and the true light had shone. In some parts of the world there are not long twilights before the break of day, but the sun leaps up in a moment; the darkness flies, and the light reigns; so it is with many of the Lord’s redeemed. As in a moment, their ashes are exchanged for beauty, and their spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise. Faith is the great transformer. Wilt thou cast thyself now, whether thou shalt live or die, upon the precious blood and merits of Jesua Christ the Saviour? Wilt thou come and rest thy soul upon the Son of God? As thou dost so, thou art saved; thy sins, which are many, are now forgiven thee. As of old the Egyptians were drowned in a moment in the Red Sea, and the depths had covered them so that there was not one of them left; so, the moment thou believest, thou hast lifted a mightier rod than that of Moses, and the sea of the atoning blood, in the fulness of its strength, has gone over the heads of all thine enemies; thy sins are drowned in Jesu’s blood. Oh, what joy is this when, in answer to a cry, God delivers us from our present distresses and our threatened future destructions!

But how is this effected? The psalmist saith, “He sent his Word, and healed them.” “His Word.” How God ennobles language when he uses it! That word “word” is uplifted in Scripture into the foremost place, and put on a level with the Godhead. “The Word.” It indicates a God-like personage, for, “in the beginning was the Word;” nay, it denotes God himself, for “the Word was God.” Our hope is in the Word,-the incarnate Logos, the eternal Word. In some respects, our salvation comes to us entirely through the sending of that Word to be made flesh, and to dwell among us. He is our saving health, by his stripes we are healed. But here the expression is best understood of the gospel, which is the Word of God. Often, the reading of the Scriptures proves the means of healing troubled souls; or, else, that same Word is made effectual when spoken from a loving heart with a living lip. What might there is in the plain preaching of the gospel! No power in all the world can match it. They tell us, nowadays, that the nation will go over to Rome, and the gospel candle will be blown out. I am not a believer in these alarming prophecies; neither believe in the battle of Dorking, nor in the victory of Pius the Ninth. Leave us our Bibles, our pulpits, and our God, and we shall win the victory yet. Oh, if all ministers preached the gospel plainly, without aiming at rhetoric and high flights of oratory, what great triumphs would follow! How sharp would the gospel sword prove itself to be if men would but pull it out of those fine ornamental, but useless scabbards! When the Lord enables his servants to put plain gospel truth into language that will strike and stick, be understood and retained, it heals sick souls, that else might have lain fainting long.

Still, the Word of God in the Bible and the Word of God preached cannot heal the soul unless God shall send it in the most emphatic sense; “He sent his Word.” When the eternal Spirit brings home the Word with power, what a Word it is! Then the miracles of grace wrought within us are such as to astonish friends and confound foes. May the Lord, even now, send his Word to each sinner, and it will be his salvation. “Hear, and your soul shall live.” “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” and faith brings with it all that the soul requires. When we have faith, we are linked with Christ; and so our salvation is ensured.

That brings us to the last point,-the consequent conduct of those who were healed.

First, they praised God for his goodness. What rare praise a soul offers when it is brought out of prison! The sweetest music ever heard on earth is found in those new songs which celebrate our recent deliverance from the horrible pit and the miry clay. Did you ever keep a linnet in a cage, and then bethink yourself that it was cruel to rob it of its liberty? Did you take it out into the garden, and open the cage door? Oh! but if you could have heard it sing when it had fairly escaped from the cage where it had been so long, you would have heard the best linnet music in all the wood. When a poor soul breaks forth from the dungeon of despair, set free by God, what songs it pours forth! God loves to hear such music. Remember that ancient word of his, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness.” God loves the warm-hearted praises of newly-emancipated souls; and he will get some out of you, dear friend, if you are set free at this hour.

Notice that these healed ones praised God especially for his goodness. It was great goodness that such as they were should be saved. So near death’s door, and yet saved! They wondered at his mercy, and sang of “his wonderful works to the children of men.” It is wonderful that such as we were should be redeemed from our iniquities; but our Redeemer’s name is called Wonderful, and he delights in showing forth the riches of his grace.

Observe that, in their praises, they ascribe all to God; they praise him for his wonderful work. Salvation is God’s work, from beginning to end. Their song is, moreover, comprehensive, and they adore the Lord for his love to others as well as to themselves; they praise him “for his wonderful works to the children of men.”

Forget not that they added to this praise sacrifice: “Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving.” What shall be the sacrifices of a sinner delivered from going down into the pit? Shall he bring a bullock that hath horns a and hoofs? Nay, let him bring his heart; let him offer himself, his time, his talents, his body, his soul, his substance. Let him exclaim, “Let my Lord take all, seeing that he hath saved my soul.” Will you not lay yourselves out for him who laid himself out for you? If he has bought you with such a price, confess that you are altogether his. Of your substance give to his cause as he prospers you; prove that you are really his by your generosity towards his Church and his poor.

In addition to sacrifice, the healed ones began, to offer songs, for it was to be a “sacrifice of thanksgiving.” May those of you who are pardoned sing more than is customary nowadays. May we, each one of us, who have been delivered from going down to the pit, enter into the choir of God’s praising ones, vocally singing as often as we can, and in our hearts always chanting his praise!

Once more, the grateful ones were to add to their gifts and psalms a declaration of joy at what God had done for them: “Let them declare his works with rejoicing.” Ye who are pardoned should tell the Church, of the Lord’s mercy to you. Let his people know that God is discovering his hidden ones. Come and tell the minister. Nothing gladdens him so much as to know that souls are brought to Jesus by his means. This is our reward. Ye are our crown of rejoicing, ye saved ones. I can truly say that I never have such joy as when I receive letters from persons, or hear from them personally the good news, “I heard you on such-and-such a night, and found peace;” or, “I read your sermon, and God blessed it to my soul.” There is not a true minister of Christ, but would willingly lay himself down to die if he could thereby see multitudes saved from eternal wrath. We live for this. If we miss this, our life is a failure. What is the use of a minister unless he brings souls to God? For this we would yearn over you, and draw near unto God in secret, that he would be pleased in mercy to deliver you.

But, surely, if you are converted, you should not conceal the fact. It is an unkind action for any person, who has received life from the dead, through any instrumentality, to deny the worker the consolation of hearing that he has been made useful; for the servant of God has many discouragements, and he is himself readily cast down, and the gratitude of those who are saved is one of the appointed cordials for his heavy heart. There is no refreshment like it. May God grant you grace to declare his love, for our sake, for the Church’s sake, and, indeed, for the world’s sake. Let the sinner know that you have found mercy; perhaps it will induce him also to seek salvation. Many a physician has gained his practice by one patient telling others of his oure. Tell your neighbours that you have been to the Hospital of Jesus, and been restored, though you hated all manner of meat, and drew near to the gates of death; and, may be, a poor soul, just in the same condition as yourself, will say, “This is a message from God to me.”

Above all, publish abroad the Lord’s goodness, for Jesus’ sake. He deserves your honour. Will you receive his blessing, and then, like the nine lepers, give him no praise? Will you be like the woman in the crowd, who was healed by touching the hem of his garment, and then would fain have slipped away? If so, I pray that the Master may say, “Somebody hath touched me,” and may you be compelled to tell us all the truth, and say, “I was sore sick in soul, but I touched thee, O my blessed Lord, and I am saved, and to the praise of the glory of thy grace I will tell it! I will tell it, though devils should hear me; I will tell it, and make the world ring with it, according to my ability, to the praise and glory of thy saving grace.”

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 107:1-22

Verse 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

In the heading of this Psalm we are reminded that the psalmist here exhorts the redeemed, in praising God, to observe his manifold providence over travellers, prisoners, sick men, seamen, “and in divers varieties of life;” but, inasmuch as the exhortation is specially addressed to the redeemed of the Lord, I shall endeavour to cast the red ray of redemption over it, and to explain these various circumstances as relating to the spiritual experience of God’s people, and to their deliverance out of divers perils to which their souls are exposed.

“O give thanks unto the Lord.” This seems to imply that we are so slow to praise God that we have to be stirred up to this sacred duty. This exhortation looks as if we needed to be entreated to give thanks unto the Lord. Yet this ought not to be an uncongenial or disagreeable task. It ought to be our pleasure to praise the Lord; we should be eager to do it; and yet it is to be feared that we are often silent when we ought to be giving thanks unto his holy name.

“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.” Whether you give him your praises, or-

“Let his mercies lie

Forgotten in unthankfulness,

And without praises die,”-

he deserves them, “for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

2, 3. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

Whenever God’s people are redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered unto himself, it is always by his grace and power. They are not only gathered to him, but they are gathered by him; and therefore let them all praise his holy name.

4. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.

This is the experience of all God’s redeemed and gathered ones; they were, at one time, all lost, and wandering to and fro in the wilderness, as God’s ancient people did.

5, 6. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

This is the point to which a true spiritual experience sooner or later brings all God’s elect ones; they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. The end, the design of their trouble is that they may cry unto him; and when they do so, it is absolutely certain that they shall be delivered out of their distresses.

7-11. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High.

All God’s people, all his redeemed have been made to feel, in a greater or lesser degree the agony of their spiritual bondage. They have been like captives sitting in darkness, dreading death, realizing that they are utterly unable to deliver themselves. They have been rebellious against the words of God, and have despised his counsel, so that it is absolutely needful that they should be brought to their right position, and be made to kneel before the Lord in true humility of heart.

12-16. Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.

Is any child of God thus shut up in the dark? Those of you who have ever been lost in a London fog know what a depression of spirit it brings upon you while you are in the impenetrable darkness, out of which you cannot see any way of escape. All that you can do is to stand still and cry out for help. Well, try what crying to God will do for you in your spiritual depression. Your spirit is cast down into the very deeps; then, out of the depths cry unto the Lord, as Jonah did; rest in him, trust in him, and see whether he will not bring you up into the light of his countenance.

17, 18. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.

All God’s redeemed people have suffered from soul-sickness, and some of them have suffered from it so acutely that they have lost all appetite for spiritual comfort. “Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat;” they cannot bear the sight or the thought of it. A man in this condition says, “Do not bring me any food; I loathe it.” The very nourishment that might have restored him he rejects because of the nausea which soul-sickness brings.

19, 20. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

He healed them with his Word; and there is a specific, in God’s Word, for every form of spiritual malady. What we need to know is where the particular remedy for our special form of soul-sickness is to be found; and this the Holy Spirit will teach us if we will but ask him.

21, 22. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.*

IDOLATRY CONDEMNED

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, December 19th, 1907, delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, September 6th, 1874.

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”-1 John 5:21.

This is the conclusion of one of the most mysterious, most simple and yet most sublime, of all the divinely-inspired Books, and we may naturally expect that the closing verse of the Epistle will have great weight in it. This seems to be the practical conclusion of the whole matter upon which John had been writing, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” This Epistle is specially perfumed with love. As you read it, you cannot help realizing that it was written by a very tender, gentle hand; and yet, when this loving writer is giving his last words in this Epistle, the admonition with which he closes is this, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” As love thus speaks in its fulness, let us be ready to give earnest attention to the message which it utters. John has, in this Epistle, written much concerning the love of Jesus, as well he might, for he knew more about that love than any other man knew; and yet, when he had written concerning love to Jesus, he was moved to an intense jealousy lest, by any means, the hearts of those to whom he wrote should be turned aside from that dear Lover of their souls who deserved their entire affection; and, therefore, not only love to them, but also love to Jesus, made him wind up his letter with these significant words, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

My first observation shall be concerning the title under which we are here addressed: “Little children.”

I do not think that John meant, literally, to address little children; nor do I think he merely referred to a certain class of believers who are very little in grace, and therefore are called “babes” in contrast to those who are men in Christ; but I think he addressed himself to the whole body of believers to whom he was writing; and, through them, that he addressed the whole Church of Christ when he wrote, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

This is, first, a title of deep affection. The Christian Church is the home of Christian love. When it is what it should always be, it is a family, it is “the household of faith,” of which God himself is the Father, the Lord Jesus is the Elder Brother, and all the members are brethren,-all equal, all one in Christ Jesus, all seeking to serve the rest, laying themselves out to be servants to the whole band of brothers and sisters in Christ. It seems most appropriate that an aged apostle, such as John doubtless was when he wrote this Epistle, should have looked round upon the younger members of the Lord’s family, and should have called them “little children.” And when we recollect how much he knew, and above all, how much he had seen of Jesus, how he had fallen at the feet of his glorified Lord as one who was dead, and then had had the pierced hand of Jesus laid upon him to raise him up,-when we remember how he had heard the blowing of the seven trumpets and seen the pouring out of the seven vials, how he had beheld a door opened in heaven, how he had counted the foundations of the glorious city, and gazed within its streets of gold, and heard the music of the celestial harps,-I do not wonder that such a man, with such a mind and heart, so brimful of God, must, as he looked upon the rest of his brethren, have regarded them, without any egotism, as still remaining as “little children.” It is a familiar, endearing mode of speech, such as, I think, should often be coming from the lips of aged saints. At any rate, if our expressions are not exactly the same as John’s, the love to which expression was thus given should burn in each one of our hearts. Like as a father loves his children, so should the pastor love his flock, so should the teacher love his class, and he may speak to them in such terms as these, “My little children.”

Mark, next, that, in this title, there is much that indicates good. John calls those to whom he wrote “children”-children of God, he means, and he calls them “little children.” Now, it is a good thing to be even little children in Christ, for this is an indication that the new birth has taken place. If this is the case with us, we are not now men or women in sin, but children, of God by faith in Christ Jesus. What a priceless privilege it is to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit! There is a so-called “regeneration” by a priestly ceremony which leaves the man or the child as unregenerate as he was before the ceremony had been performed; but the regeneration by the Holy Spirit entirely changes the nature of the person concerned, and bestows upon him a new heart and a right spirit. To have this high privilege, is to have one of the choicest gifts of heaven;-indeed, it is that which is essential to the enjoyment of all other blessings. So, however humble the title “little children” may be, it is an indication of much good, for it is no small thing to be a little child in Christ Jesus, and to be able even to lisp, as a little child might, “Abba, Father,” and to say, with all the rest of God’s family, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

The title “little children” also indicates the humility of those who are rightly called by that name. A little child is not proud; he meddleth not with high things; he is content to sit at his father’s feet or to lie in his mother’s bosom. And Christians, being born again,-born from above,-become as little children; otherwise, they could not enter the kingdom of heaven. They were very great people once; but they are very little now. They thought, at one time, that they were really growing as they grew bigger in their own estimation; but now they understand that they are growing in the best fashion when they are growing smaller. Growing Christians reckon themselves to be nothing, but full-grown Christians count themselves less than nothing; and when we feel ourselves to be “less than the least of all saints,” then we are indeed making good progress in the divine life. To grow less and less in your own esteem is the right kind of growth. Naturally, we grow up from childhood to manhood; but, spiritually, we grow down from manhood to childhood; yet it is not really growing down, but growing up, as we increase in humility.

Moreover, this title denotes teachableness. A little child will go to school. A little child is not above learning its letters. We cannot often get men to do this, especially in spiritual things. They are so crusted over with prejudice that they think they know all they need to know, yet it is little that they do know, and even that little is wrong, yet it is enough to keep them from being willing to be taught what they really need to learn. Truly blessed is the man who is a little child in relation to God. I do believe that, very often, great knowledge, and more especially great pretensions to knowledge of science and philosophy, stand in men’s way, and prevent them from learning what is most worth learning. God forbid that I should say anything in praise of ignorance! Yet I think that I might, in spiritual things, give it greater praise than I could give to “philosophy” or “science falsely so called.” Happy and wise were the shepherds to whom the angels came, and sang and spoke concerning the birth of Jesus, for, in their simplicity, they went straight away to Bethlehem, and found the newborn King. But the wise men (happy, too, for a star came to guide them,) in their very wisdom seemed to make mistakes, for they went to Jerusalem, and enquired, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” and so, for a time, they lost their way, and caused Herod to seek the life of the Holy Child Jesus. Well did Augustine say, “Shepherds and artizans oft enter the kingdom of heaven while wise men and scholars are fumbling to find the latch.” Know all you can that is really worth knowing; but, with your knowledge, mind that you have the childlike spirit without which all your knowledge will be of little service to you. After all, there is not much difference between those who are called wise men and those who know but little, for the wisest of men really know but little; and if they are truly wise, they know that they know but little.

There are some, nowadays, who think themselves to be such wise men that they even pretend to know more than God knows, or has revealed to us in his Word. They sit upon the throne of judgment, and call God himself before them, and arraign him, rejudge his judgments, and profess to be the god of God! Such “wise” men are the most credulous fools of the age. I pity the poor creatures who believe in popish miracles, but I have learned now to think that those who can believe in such frauds are not half such dolts as the men who try to teach us that inanimate matter has fashioned itself into those marvellously beautiful shapes in which we see it all over this wondrous world which God created “in the beginning.” Set these “wise” men up on a pinnacle in the centre of the court of fools, and let the hugest fools’ caps that ever were made be placed upon their heads. When they sneer at the credulity of believers in Christ, we can tell them to look at home, for there are none who are so credulous as they are; and let us still come to God’s Book as little children who are willing to be taught by God’s Spirit all that God’s Son has to say to our hearts.

And little children, too, have faith. What a great deal of faith they usually have, and how wicked it is for anyone ever to trifle with the faith of little children! It is really scandalous when nurses and others tell little children idle tales and foolish stories, which the children believe to be true. We should be very careful and jealous concerning the faith which a little child reposes in its elders, and never do or say anything to weaken their belief. Little children have a very beautiful faith, especially when the word of their father is concerned. They know that what he says is true; they scout the idea that their father would ever tell a lie. Let us be little children of that sort towards God, unquestioningly believing whatever he says to us; not asking how or why it is so, but being quite prepared to be told that we cannot yet understand everything, and that all we have to do is implicitly to believe all that our Heavenly Father says. If it be God who speaks, believe ye what he saith, and say, with the confidence of a little child, “My Father cannot lie.”

So far, we see that it is a good thing to be called little children; but I think there is another view of the matter which we must not forget, for the title also implies weakness. “Little children”-that is all we are at the very best; little children are very apt to be led astray, and so are we. We all of us feel the influence of others, and we sometimes feel it more than we should like to confess; and it is a singular thing that, probably, there are no persons who are so much influenced by others as those who themselves influence others. The leaders are often those who are most led; and, therefore, we need to be extremely cautious. Surrounded as we are by hosts of idolaters, we are all too apt to be swayed by their example, so John says to us, “Little children, do not be led into evil by those who are around you. Try to be men in this respect, and dare to do right even if you stand alone. Stand fast, and quit yourselves like men; be not carried about by every wind that blows, but stand like a mighty rock that is immovable.”

Little children, too have this weakness, that they have need, as a rule, of something to see. You cannot teach them so well in any other way as you can by pictures and models. That tendency is also manifest in us spiritually; we have a craving for signs and symbols. The great mass of people-even Christian people-want something or other that they can see. Like Israel in the wilderness, they say, “Make us gods, which shall go before us.” If they cannot have a god in some visible shape, then they want some ceremony, some ritual, something or other that is not purely spiritual. As the girl wants her doll, and the boy his rocking-horse, so those who are little children in spiritual things seem to want some article which they can see and touch. Oh, that we were men enough to believe in the spiritual, to be content with God’s revelation without needing anything symbolical excepting the two grand symbols which Christ has given us in his two ordinances, and never putting even these out of their proper place, much less wishing to overlay them with any adornments of our own; but worshipping him, who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth, and yielding ourselves up to the guidance of his gracious Spirit, who will teach us how to worship God acceptably!

Little children also have a very bounded range. Put a little child down with a few broken platters, and a little dirt, and he will amuse himself by the hour together. It does not seem to strike him that he may grow up to be a man, and have to work for his living, or manage a big business, like his father does. It is, under some aspects, a great blessing to be such a child as that, but it is a pity that we are so prone to be thus childish spiritually. We are so much engrossed in the present that, if we have a little trouble, we fret over it as if that trouble would last for years. If we meet with a little discouragement, we are worried by it, and seem quite to forget the heaven that is awaiting us, the God who ruleth over all, the Divine Comforter who is ever near us, and the unerring wisdom which will bring good out of evil. Our sphere of observation is too confined, we are too much taken up with the present, and do not turn our eyes across the gulf of time to that fair glory-land where the day has broken, and the shadows have for ever fled away. Little children, it is because of this special weakness of yours that the apostle has said, “Keep yourselves from idols.”

This remark brings me to the second part of my subject, which is this, the warning which is directed to us: “Keep yourselves from idols.”

I hope that I need not say to you, dear friends, Keep yourselves from all sorts of visible idols, for I trust that you abhor them as much as I do. Yet, in this present age, idol-temples are being set up almost everywhere by our Ritualistic clergy,* and a form of idolatry that is on a par with the fetichism of ignorant Africans has come back to this land, for they make a god out of a bit of bread, and after worshipping their idol, eat it up,-a process which can only be fitly described in such sarcasm as Elijah would have poured upon it if he could have stood in the midst of these modern priests of Baal as be stood amongst their prototypes of old. Keep yourselves, beloved, from all their idols; pay no reverence to them, nor to their so-called “priests.” It is strange that now, when men have open Bibles, and can read them, there should come back to us the old idolatry which our fathers abhorred, and which, even in the days of dim religious light, their ancestors could not endure. Do not you endure it for a moment, but make your protest against it every day, in the most earnest possible manner, and let the cry ring out to any Christians who are mingled with the idolaters, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.” God will surely punish this land, and every other land, where these or any other idols are set up.

But to you, dear friends, I must speak concerning other idols. First, keep yourselves from worshipping yourselves. Alas, how many fall into this gross sin! Some do it by indulgence at the table. How much of eating, and especially of drinking, is there which, correctly speaking, is nothing better than gluttony and drunkenness! There are professing Christians who, perhaps, never are regarded as intoxicated, yet they sip, and sip, and sip until, if they do not lose the control of their brain, they cause observers to raise the question whether they ever had any at all. It is almost a pity for some professing Christians that they can thus indulge themselves at home, for if, like working-men, they had to go home from the tippling-shop, it would soon be discovered that they were scarcely able to walk straight, and the evil habit might be cured. It is a scandalous thing when there is such a sin as this in the Church of God; and as it has been known, I urge all of you, beloved, to see to it that you offer no sacrifices to gluttony, nor pour out libations to Bacchus; for, if you do, you prove that you are idolaters worshipping your own bellies, and that God’s love dwelleth not within you.

There are others who worship themselves by living a life of indolence. They have nothing to do, and they seem, to do it very thoroughly. They take their ease, and that is the main thing in which they take any interest. They flit from pleasure to pleasure, from show to show, from vanity to vanity, as if this life were only a garden in which butterflies might fly from, flower to flower, and not a sphere where serious work was to be done, and all-important business for eternity was to be accomplished. Worship not yourselves by trifling as these indolent people do.

Some worship themselves by decorating their bodies most elaborately; their first and their last thought being, “What shall we wear?” Fall not into that idolatry.

Then there are some people who make idols of their wealth. Getting money seems to be the main purpose of their lives. Now, it is right that a Christian man should be diligent in business, he should not be second to anybody in the diligence with which he attends to the affairs of this life; but it is always a pity when we can be truthfully told, “So-and-so is getting richer every year, but he has got stingier also. He gives less now than he gave when he had only half as much as he now has.” We meet, occasionally, with people like the man who, when he was comparatively poor, gave his guinea, but when he grew rich, he only gave a shilling. His explantion was that, when he had a shilling purse, he had a guinea heart; but when he had a guinea purse, he found that he had only a shilling heart; but it is always a pity when hearts grow smaller as means grow greater. Remember, dear friends, that it will be only a little while ere you must leave all that you have. What is the use of your having it at all unless you really enjoy it, and how can you so truly enjoy it as by laying it at your Saviour’s feet, and using it for his glory? There is certainly more lasting enjoyment to be gained out of the unrighteous mammon in this way than in any other that I ever heard of; this is the testimony of those who have tried it, and proved it to be so. I trust that none of you will worship the golden calf.

Some worship the pursuit which they have undertaken. They give their whole soul up to their art, or their particular calling, whatever it may be. In a certain sense, this is a right thing to do; yet we must never forget that the first and great commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” This must always have the first place.

Let me here touch a very tender point. There are some who make idols of their dearest relatives and friends. Some have done this with their children. I remember reading a story of a good man who seemed as if he could never forgive God for taking away his child. He sat in a Quakers’ meeting, bowed down, and sorrowful, and his time of deliverance came when a sister rose, uttered these words, “Verily, I perceive that children are idols,” and then resumed her seat. Such a message as that is often needed; yet it is a pity that it should be. Make no idol of your child, or your wife, or your husband; for, by putting them into Christ’s place, you really provoke him to take them from you. Love them as much as you please;-I would that some loved their children, their husbands, or their wives more than they do;-but always love them, in such a fashion that Christ shall have the first place in your hearts.

The catalogue of idols that we are apt to worship is a very long one. Hindoos are said to have many millions of idols, and it would take me a very long while to make a list of the various forms which the idolatry of the heart, will take; but, in a sentence, let me say to you,-Remember that God has a right to your whole being. There is nothing, and there can be nothing, which ought to be supreme in your affections save your Lord; and if you worship anything, or any ideal, whatever it may be, if you love that more than you love your God, you are an idolater, and you are disobeying the command of the text, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” So pray to him, with Toplady,-

“The idols tread beneath thy feet,

And to thyself the conquest get:

Let sin no more oppose my Lord,

Slain by the Spirit’s two-edged sword.”

I would say to you, beloved, in closing my observations upon, this point,-in the matter of your faith, be sure to keep yourselves from the idol of the hour. Some of us have lived long enough to see the world’s idols altered any number of times. Just now, in some professedly Christian churches, the idol is “intellectualism”, “culture”, “modern thought.” Whatever name it bears, it has no right to be in a Christian church, for it believes very little that appertains to Christ. Now, I have some sort of respect for a downright honest infidel, like Voltaire or Tom Paine; but I have none for the man who goes to college to be trained for the Christian ministry, and then claims to be free to doubt the Deity of Christ, the need of conversion, the punishment of the wicked, and other truths that seem to me to be essential to a full proclamation of the gospel of Christ. Such a man must, have strange views of honesty; and so has the minister who goes into a pulpit, and addresses people when he knows that he does not believe any of the doctrines that are dearer to them than their own lives; yet, the moment he is called to account for his unbelief, he cries out, “Persecution! Persecution! Bigotry! Bigotry!” A burglar, if I found him outside my bedroom door, and held him till the policeman came, might consider me to be very bigoted, because I did not care to have my property stolen by him, and because I interfered with his liberty. So, in like manner, I am called bigoted because I will not allow a man to come and assail, from my own pulpit, the truths which are dearer to me than my life. I am quite willing to give that man liberty to go and publish his views somewhere else, and at his own expense; but it shall not be done at my expense, nor in the midst of a congregation gathered by me for the worship of God, and the proclamation of the truth as it is revealed in the Scriptures. Keep yourselves from this idol of the times; for it is the precursor of death to any church that gives it admittance. Unitarianism, to which this so-called liberality of thought always goes, is a religion of a parasitical kind; it flourishes by feeding upon the life of other churches, just as the ivy clings to the oak, and sucks the life out of it. Let us tear this ivy down wherever we find it beginning its deadly work. Believe me, my brethren, that the Church of Christ, if not the world, shall yet learn that the highest culture is a heart that is cultivated by divine grace, that the truest science is the science of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and that the greatest thought and the deepest of all metaphysics are found at the foot of the cross; and that the men who will keep on simply and earnestly preaching the old-fashioned gospel, and the people who will stand fast in the old paths are they who will most certainly win the victory. When those who are sailing in a frail bark, which they or their fellow-sinners have constructed, without a rudder, and without a pilot at the helm., shall drift away, and be dashed to pieces upon the rocks; they who trust in the Lord, and have him as their Pilot, shall be kept clear of the rocks on which others have made shipwreck, and shall be safely steered into the haven of peace, and there be at rest for ever.

Many of us are about to gather around the communion table, to celebrate the death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This ordinance should help us to keep ourselves from idols; for, if there is any place where idols disappear, it is at the foot of the cross. Look, by faith, at your Lord and Saviour as he hung upon the accursed tree.

“See from his head, his hands, his feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?”

Can you give your heart’s affection to any idol after that? Has not Christ so engrossed your warmest love that no earthly charms have any power to allure you away from him? Are you not, as it were, fastened up by his nails? Is not your heart pierced with his spear? Are you not so crucified with Christ that the world is dead to you, and you are dead to the world? Bethink you, did Jesus live for self? What provision did he make for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof? Was not his whole life one of self-denial and self-renunciation? What idol did he ever set up? To what object did he devote his life? Did he seek fame? Did he labour for earthly honour and glory? Did he hoard up wealth? Did he say to the man of the world, “Applaud me”? Was he turned aside from his purpose by either the frowning or the fawning of men? You know that it was not so; then, ye who have been washed in his blood, follow him! O ye who are called by his name, do not blaspheme that name among the Gentiles by idolatry of any kind! Bring out your idols if you have hidden them as Rachel hid her father’s images in the camel’s furniture; bring them all out, and let them be broken in pieces at the foot of the cross or be ground to powder, as Moses treated the golden calf that his brother Aaron had made. O Jesus, where thou art, who can worship any other but thyself? If he came, and lodged in your house, that child of yours would not be adored as it now is. If he always dwelt there, you would not pamper yourself as you now do. If you could see him as he is, you must admit him to reign within your heart. Well, let it be so as you now, by faith, gaze upon him; and as these dear memorials of his broken body and his shed blood are fed upon by you, and you remember him, do with all your idols as the Ephesians did with their magical books, bring them out, and let them be burned,-a blessed holocaust in honour of him who “hath loved us, and hath given himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” Sing, with Cowper, and let the prayer ascend to your Lord from the very depths of your heart.-

“The dearest idol I have known,

Whate’er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from thy throne,

And worship only thee.

“So shall my walk be close with God,

Calm and serene my frame;

So purer light shall mark the road

That leads me to the Lamb.”

God bless you; and if any of you are living without Christ, perhaps it is some beloved idol that is keeping you from him. If so, may you be delivered from its thraldom by coming to Jesus just now, for his dear name’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

1 JOHN 5

Verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God:

Where there is real faith in Jesus Christ as the Anointed of God, there is the evidence that the new birth has taken place. Let the first, the best, and the clearest proof of our regeneration be the fact that we do verily and in our heart believe that Jesus is the Christ.

1. And every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

If we really love God with our whole heart, we must equally love Jesus Christ, and we shall also love all his people, for they are one with him.

2. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

For love leads to imitation. If we truly love the children of God, we shall imitate them; and they are known by these distinguishing characteristics, that they love their Heavenly Father, and keep his commandments.

3. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Obedience is the flower of love. Where obedience to God does not exist, no love to God exists. It is a mockery for us to talk about emotions of the heart if there are not actions that correspond with them.

4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world;

The new life is the conquering life; the old must give place to the new. The world, that is one day to be finally overthrown, is already overcome by the child of God.

4. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

For it brings a better and brighter world before us; and, opening to us the eternal, takes away from us the charms and allurements of the temporal.

5. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

No one else can overcome the world; but where there is true faith in Christ, it creates within the heart a holy valour by which the conquest of the world is achieved. The law tells us to overcome the world, but the gospel of God’s grace enables us to do it. The legal spirit knows that it ought to conquer the world, but the evangelical spirit does conquer it.

6. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

The cleansing of the outward life does not stand alone, but it is accompanied by the putting away of sin from the heart. The two must go together; and no man will ever rightly value the cleansing water unless he equally values the atoning blood. It is said, by some, that the preaching of the doctrine of the full and free forgiveness of sin, which is bestowed upon all who exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, will lead men to carelessness of life; but it has quite the opposite effect. The cleansing of the life, by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, through the Word, becomes incumbent upon us when once we are washed from sin in the precious blood of Jesus. The atonement is the true guarantee of holiness.

7, 8. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

What a blessing it is for us to get the witness of these three, even here on earth, in the new life which is created within our souls by the Holy Spirit, the daily cleansing of our life by that same blessed Spirit through the Word, and the continual application by the Spirit of that precious blood by which peace is given to the conscience, and sin is put away from the heart.*

9, 10. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself:

That very faith becomes to him the best witness, and he himself is able to confirm the witness of his faith that he is a partaker of the salvation of Christ.

10, 11. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

That is the gospel in brief, what Luther would have called a little Bible, containing a condensation of the whole revelation of God.

12. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

He may exist; he may have that which may be called moral, physical, or animal life; but there is such a thing as existing, ay, and existing for ever, without even a particle of “life” in the apostle’s sense of the word, in the Scriptural sense of the word; and blessed and happy are those who do not merely exist, but who have, by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, been brought into that living inner circle, and have been made to live, really to live in Christ.

13, 14. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

First we believe, and so we prove that we have eternal life; then we climb up to the full assurance of faith; from full assurance we mount still higher to the clear conviction that God hears prayer; and from that height we mount yet higher to the assured confidence that he will hear our prayer.

15, 16. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,-

What then? He shall run all over the place, and tell everybody of it? Oh, no! that is not what the apostle says; yet I have seen something like that carried into practice. But when I look into this inspired Book, I do not see anything about talking of this sin to our fellow-men, but something is said about talking of it to God, and this is what every true Christian should do. If you see any man sin, mind that you ask for pardon for the erring one: “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,”-

16. He shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

John does not say that he may not; and as we cannot be absolutely sure that any sin is a sin unto death, this verse does not prevent us from praying for any man, whatever his sin may have been. John says, writing under inspiration, “There is a sin unto death.” “What is it?” someone asks. Ah! would you not like to know? If you did know that, you could go and commit all other sins except that one, could you not; but would that be any help to your piety? Certainly not. You know that, sometimes, a notice to this effect is put up as a warning, “Man-traps and spring guns set on these premises;” but do you go, and knock at the door, and say, “Will you kindly tell me where the man-traps and spring guns are?” No, for it is the fact that you do not know where they are that keeps you out of the premises. In like manner, somewhere in the fields of sin, there is one great man-trap which John calls “a sin unto death;” but you need not want to know what that sin is, nor where that trap is set; your business is to keep as far away from all sin as ever you can, whether it is unto death, or not unto death.

17. All unrighteousness is sin:

If a thing is not right,-if it is not right all round, it is sin, be you sure of that. I heard, the other day, of a man who was said to be a splendid Christian Godwards, but a wretched creature manwards; but there cannot be such a monstrosity as that. Such a man as that was not a Christian at all. Our righteousness, if it is real and true, must be an all-round righteousness, towards men as well as towards God.

17, 18. And there is a sin not unto death. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

That is to say, sin is not the bent of his renewed nature; it would not be a fair description of his life to say that he was living a sinful life. There are spots in the sun, but the sun itself is a great mass of brightness. So is it with the Christian’s life; it is not a sinful life although there are imperfections in it.

19-21. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.