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Harvest Joy
A Sermon
(No. 2265)
Intended for Reading on Lord's-day, July 17th, 1892,
Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
On Lord's-day Evening, July 6th, 1890.
"Thou hast magnified the nation, and increased the joy:
they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men
rejoice when they divide the spoil."Isaiah 9:3.
otice that I make a
correction in the version from which I am reading. The Authorized
Version has it, "Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased
the joy." This is not consistent with the connection; the Revised
Version has very properly put it, "Thou hast multiplied the nation,
thou hast increased their joy." I have not any learning to display;
but I think I could show it to you, if this were the proper time, how
the passage came to be read with a "not", and I could also prove to
you that, in this instance, the Revisers were right in making their
alteration.
To-night, there are about
eighty-two persons, who have confessed Christ before the church, and
have been baptized, who are to be received into our fellowship; and
we feel very grateful for this large addition to our members; and all
the more so because it is no strange thing; but month by month, all
the year round, they continue to come, though, not in such large
numbers as at this time. God be thanked for thus blessing us! We
cannot allow these occasions to pass over without joying before the
Lord as men rejoice when they gather in their sheaves of corn.
To bring out your joy,
think of how we should feel if we did not have an increase in the
church, where very few are ever added to them. The good old people
seem quite content to be very few. Their notion is that the way to
heaven is very narrow, as indeed it is, and that therefore they must
not expect many to find their way. I remember a church where the good
old deacons used to say of the converts, "Summer them and winter
them. Keep them out till we have tried them for a very long time." It
came to pass, after the process of "summering and wintering", that a
great many of them never came forward at all. Though they were very
excellent people, they never summoned courage enough to join such a
church. Did you ever hear a farmer say of his wheat, "Summer it and
winter it, and then take it into the barn"? No, farmers are not such
fools. But these good men were so very wise that they became
otherwise; so they said, "Keep the corn out in the field; else you
will bring in some poppies, or some corn-flowers, and we do not want
them. Keep the converts out of the church till you are sure that
there are no hypocrites among them." Well, dear friends, we are not
at all of this mind. We try to use every caution, and great prudence;
and our friends do not come into this church without experiencing an
examination, some of them even think it to be an ordeal; yet I find
that the more difficult it is to get into a church, the more people
want to come into it; and whenever the barriers are lowered, and you
tell people that they may come without any test as to the state of
their souls, nobody cares to come. Well, we have taken pains and
care, and have sought only to welcome the worthy, that is, those who
are trusting in Jesus, yet we have had a great number come. But
suppose that we had none. Well, I hope every Christian man and woman
here would be troubled about it. I should not wonder if the question
arose, "Had we not better put somebody else on the platform?" That
somebody who is now here would be the first to say, "If I am doing no
good, let somebody else come and try; for it would be sad and
sickening business to be fishing for souls, and never catching
anything." Last winter, at Menton, I went out in a boat, where I was
assured that there were shoals of fish; and I had a line, I should
think it was a hundred and fifty feet long, and after waiting hour
after hour, and never feeling the fish bite, I gave up the useless
occupation. I think every minister is bound to give up the spiritual
fishery in any particular place if, after many days' toil, he has
caught nothing for Christ. Rachel says, "Give me children, or I die."
Christ servant says, "Give me converts, or I die." Indeed, we are
dead as far as our ministry is concerned unless God blesses it.
We also feel that we ought
to be glad when others are joined to the church, because we look
back, with exquisite pleasure, upon our own joining it. I remember
the trouble it cost me to join the church. I think I went to see the
pastor some four or five days running; he was always too busy to see
me, till at last I told him it did not matter, for I want to go to
the church-meeting, and propose myself as a member; and then he, all
of a sudden, found time to see me, and so I managed to get into the
church, and confess my faith in Christ. Oh, dear friends, that was
one of the best days' work. I ever did, when I openly declared my
faith in Christ, and united myself with his people! I think many here
could say the same; they remember when they united with the people of
God, and publicly avowed their faith. You do not regret it brethren,
do you? I am sure you feel that it was a happy day when you could
say,
"'Tis done! The great transaction's done:
I am my Lord's, and he is mine."
By the peace of mind which has come to us from joining with the
people of God after believing in Christ, we feel glad to see other
young soldiers stooping to take up the cross of Christ, and following
him, "without the camp, bearing his reproach."
I. Looking at our text, I
notice in it, first, A WORD OF DISCRIMINATION. If you look carefully
at the passage, you will soon see it: "Thou hast multiplied
the nation, and increased the joy."
Observe, first,
thatconversion must be the Lord's work. The only
multiplication of the Church of God that is to be desired is that
which God sends: "Thou hast multiplied the nation." If we add to our
churches by becoming worldly, by taking in persons who have never
been born again; if we add to our churches by accommodating the life
of the Christian to the life of the worldling, our increase is worth
nothing at all; it is a loss rather than a gain. If we add to our
churches by excitement, by making appeals to the passions, rather
than by explaining truth to the understanding; if we add to our
churches otherwise than by the power of the Spirit of God making men
new creatures in Christ Jesus, the increase is of no worth whatever.
A man picked himself up from the gutter, and rolled up against Mr.
Rowland Hill, one night as he went home, and he said, "Mr. Hill, I am
pleased to see you, sir. I am one of your converts." Rowland said, "I
thought it was very likely you were. You are not one of God's
converts, or else you would not be drunk." There is a great lesson in
that answer. My converts are no good; Rowland Hill's converts could
get drunk; but the converts of the Spirit of God, those are really
renewed in the spirit of their mind, by a supernatural operation,
these are a real increase to the church of God. "Thou hast multiplied
the nation." Pray hard that the Lord may continue to send us
converts. He never sends the wrong people. However poor they may be,
however illiterate, if they are converted, as they will be if the
Lord sends them, they will be the very people that we want. May God
send us thousands more!
The text also teaches us,
with a word of discrimination, that conversion must be such as the
Lord describes in this chapter: "The peoples that walked in
darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the
shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." When God brings
men to the church, they are the people who have undergone a very
remarkable change. They have come out of darkness, palpable,
horrible, into light, marvelous and delightful. God sends no other
than these. If you are not changed characters, if you are not new
creatures in Christ Jesus, if you cannot say, "One thing I know,
whereas I was blind, now I see," the church cannot receive you as you
are, and God has not sent you. Now, who can turn us from darkness
unto light but God? Who can work this great miracle within the heart?
Darkness of heart is very hard to move. Who but God can make the
eternal light burst through the natural darkness, and turn us from
the power of Satan unto God?
Next, conversion must
have a distinct relation to Christ. Look down the chapter, just a
little way, and you come to this wonderful passage: "For unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be on
his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." We want
converts who know this Christ, men and women to whom he is
"Wonderful", to whom he has become the "Counselor." We want no
additions to the church of those who cannot call him "The mighty God.
The everlasting Father." We want men and women to whom Christ has
become "The Prince of Peace." If these are added to us, the church
groweth exceedingly. If others are added, they do but increase our
burden; they become our weakness; in many cases they become our
disgrace. Dear hearers, you know whether you are trusting Christ or
not. If you are, come and confess him. If you are not, weep in secret
places, and cry to God the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to you as the
Wonderful, Counselor, and the mighty God, and then, when you know him
as your Saviour, come and join yourself to his people, and God will,
in your case, have multiplied the nation.
Once more, about this
discrimination, the joy must be such as God gives. The text
says, "Thou hast multiplied the nation, and increased the joy." The
joy that we ought to have to-night, the joy of any growing church,
will be joy such as God gives. That is the kind of joy we desire to
have. If anybody wishes to see the church grow that we may excel
other churches, that is not the joy that God gives. If we like to see
converts because we are glad that our opinions should be spread, God
does not give that joy. If we crave converts that we may steal them
from other people, God does not give that joy, if it be a joy. I do
not think God is the lover of sheep-stealers, and there are plenty
such about. We do not desire to increase our numbers by taking
Christian people away from other Christian communities. No, the joy
which God gives us is clear, unselfish delight in Christ being
glorified, in souls being saved, in truths being spread, and in error
being baffled. God give us a joy over those who are added to us,
which shall be pure, and Christlike, and heavenly! Oh, that he might
increase such joy! I think that he has increased it.
Did you ever worship in a
place where there were more pews than people? Did you ever go to a
church or chapel where the preacher could preach upon anything except
the gospel of Christ, where you might hear about anything except the
precious blood of Christ? That, the minister would be sure not to
mention. Then, I like I see you go grumbling down the aisle after
every service, or you sit there, and look up at the pulpit, and long
for what you never hear, till the Sabbath becomes more wearisome than
any day of the week. Oh, dear! Few people; little to be got; very
little to be given; a terrible "starvation camp:, where every man
looks at his fellow, and wonders who is going to die next. Well, now,
we ought to thank God that it is not so with us. Look on this company
gathered here to-night. Think of the congregation we had this
morning; remember the deep attention, and think in how many cases God
has blessed the Word to the hearers. I never, personally, felt so
weak, or felt as great a burden in preaching; yet I never had so
large a blessing; there are more converts than ever. Glory be to God,
this is the kind of joy that comes from him, in his Word, in his
power, that out of weakness makes his servant strong.
So much by way of
discrimination.
II. Now, secondly, notice a
WORD OF DESCRIPTION, which is the main part of the text. The joy of
the church in receiving converts may be compared to the joy in
harvest. In all nations, the time of reaping the corn, and gathering
it into the garner, has been regarded as a festival. What is the joy
of harvest?
Well, it is a joy which
we ought to expect. The husbandman expects a harvest. He says,
"It is so many weeks to harvest." He sows his seed with a view to
harvest, He turns in a man to clear out the weeds with a view to a
harvest. Well, now, every church should be looking out for a
spiritual harvest. One said to me, once, "I have preached for several
years, and I believe God has blessed the word; but nobody ever comes
forward to tell me so." I said to him, "Next Lord's-day, say to the
people, 'I shall be in the vestry when the sermon is finished, to see
friends who have been converted.' " To his surprise, ten or twelve
came in; and he was quite taken aback; but, of course, quite
delighted. He had not looked for a harvest, so of course he did not
get it. You know the story I tell of my first student, Mr. Medhurst.
He went out to preach on Tower Hill, Sunday after Sunday. He was
not then my student; but one of the young men in the church. He came
to me, and said, "I have been out preaching now for several months on
tower Hill, and I have not seen one conversion." I said to him,
rather sharply, "Do you expect God is going to bless you every time
you choose to open your mouth?" He answered, "Oh! No, sir; I do not
expect him to do that." "Then," I replied, "that is why you do not
get a blessing." We ought to expect a blessing. God has said, "My
Word shall not return unto me void;" and it will not. We ought to
look for a harvest. He who preaches the gospel with his whole heart,
ought to be surprised if he does not hear of conversions; and he
ought to begin to say in his heart, "I will know the reason why," and
never stop till he has found it out. The joy of the harvest is what
we have a right to expect.
The joy of harvest, next,
is a joy which has respect for former toil. He is bound to
rejoice in a harvest who has sorrowed in ploughing, and in the sowing
of the seed, and in watching his crop when it was in the ear, and
when frost, and blight, and mildew, threatened to destroy it.
Brothers and sisters, many of us here can rejoice with the joy of
harvest, because, in those converted to Christ, we see the fruit of
our soul's travail. I thank God first, and I thank many of you next,
that when I sit to see enquirers, I find that I am very generally the
spiritual grandfather of those who come, rather than their father in
the faith; for I find that you, whom God gave me in years past are,
many of you, diligent in seeking the souls of others. In the case of
many of you who join the church, their conversion is due to this
sister and to that, to this brother and to that, rather than
distinctly to my ministry. I am very glad to have it so. During the
last two days I have spoken to two friends, both of whom said to me,
"I am your spiritual grandchild." One from America said so this
morning. I asked, "How is that?" The answer was, "Mr. So-and-so, whom
you brought to Christ, came out to America, and he brought me to
Christ." You who have had any part in the conversion of these
eighty-two, who are to be received to-night, will rejoice; in
proportion as you have sighed, and prayed, and been beaten, and
foiled, and disappointed, in that very proportion you will rejoice
with the joy of harvest.
But, next, it is a joy
which has solid ground to go upon. I do not know of a more joyful
occasion than when young men and women, and, for the matter of that,
old men and women, too, are brought to confess Christ, and to unite
with his people. It is a very joyful thing to attend a wedding; but
it is always a speculation as to how it will turn out; but when you
come to see a soul yield itself to Christ, there is no speculation
about that; you have a blessed certainty. Oh, methinks the angels
sing more sweetly than ever as they hear a man, or woman, or child
say, "I trust in Jesus; I confess his name." When we know and believe
that true faith in Christ means present salvation, there is a great
joy about that. I heard, the other day, of some preachers who say
that there is no such thing as present salvation; and though they
constantly preach, they tell the people, every now and then, that
they must be saved when they come to die; but there is no such thing
as being saved now. I should like to present those brethren with a
little "Catechism for the Young and Ignorant:, which Mr. Cruden was
wont to give away; for, if they are not "young", they certainly must
be "ignorant" of the first principles of the faith. You are saved,
dear hearer, if you have believed in Christ Jesus. You are saved even
now. If you were not, I do not see any reason why we should rejoice
over you with the joy of harvest.
Moreover, we believer that,
if you have trusted Christ, you will be saved eternally. Angels do
not rejoice prematurely over repentant sinners. They never have to
say to one another, "Gabriel, Michael, you made a very terrible
mistake the other day. You rejoiced in the presence of God over that
man who, after all, has gone down to hell. You rang the bells too
soon." Angels do not do that. Jesus gives to his sheep eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of
his hand. Therefore, we feel that the confession of Christ is, in
itself, a thing to rejoice over; and the immediate salvation that
goes with it, and the eternal salvation that is included in it,
warrant us in rejoicing with the joy of the harvest.
Moreover, this is a joy
which looks to the future. Men rejoice in the harvest because
they remember that, all through the winter, they will feed upon the
food which they are now gathering. The poorest man in London has
reason to be thankful for a good harvest; for it will help to make
food cheaper. We are to enjoy in days to come what we gather in the
harvest-time. There are sixteen girls coming from the Orphanage to
join the church, and I am rejoicing in my heart over sixteen women
who will, I trust, during a long life glorify Christ; sixteen matrons
in the church who shall be Deborahs, Dorcasses, and Phoebes, or
whoever else you may like to think of among holy women. The boys also
who come, however young they may be, and however little they may
appear in some men's eyes, we cannot ell to what they will grow. I
may be receiving to-night a Livingstone, or a Moffat, or a Williams,
or a Whitefield, or a Wesley, or some other servant of God, who, in
some sphere or other, will serve him right nobly.
Beloved, some of us will
soon be gone. There are some here who are older than I am, who, in
the natural course of things, will soon sleep in the cemetery. Are
you not glad to see others coming forward? They will "hold the fort"
when you can no longer stand upon its walls; and, on account of this
hope of the future, I rejoice with the joy of harvest.
This is a joy which we
may join; for, in the harvest, anybody who likes may rejoice.
There is the proprietor of the field; he rejoices. How greatly Christ
rejoices! There are labourers; they may shout as they bring home the
loads; they know what that field of wheat has cost. Let us, who are
working for Jesus here, have to joy of harvest. The on-lookers, too,
as they go by, see the harvest gathered in, will stop, and even give
a shout over the hedge. If you are not yourself saved, you might be
glad that other people are. Even if you are not yourself going to
heaven, rejoice that others are choosing the blessed road. I invite
even you to come, and share with us the joy of harvest. The gleaner,
Ruth, over yonder says, "I have stooped many times. I have almost
broken my back over the work; and I have only picked up this little
handful." I know you, sister; and I am pleased that you should bring
even one to Christ. I know you, my brother; and I rejoice with you
that you should bring even one child to the Saviour. Though you be
but a gleaner, join heartily with us to-night in the joy of the
harvest.
Then something happens in
our harvest that cannot happen in the common harvest; for the
harvested ones rejoice, Sheaves cannot sing, ears of wheat cannot
lift up their voices; but in our harvest the happiest of all are
those who are called by divine grace. And, while they are happy, and
we are happy, and all are happy, the angels hovering over the
assembly to-night will mark this the first Sabbath in July, and it
shall be a red-letter day even to them, so many shall to-night, for
the first time, come to the table of their Lord, and here confess his
name.
I have a great deal more to
say, but our time is nearly gone. I can only say that this is a
joy which has its moderating tone. "Why!" say you, "what is
that?" The farmer says, "I have got that load in very well; but I
wonder how it will thresh out." I often think of you who are added to
the church, and I think that you are first-rate people, and that I
never saw better; but I wonder how you will turn out when you get
inside the church. There are members of the church whom I never hear
of as doing anything for Christ; they may be working away quietly,
but I am afraid that some are not. I know that there are some in this
church who are no better than they should be; indeed, that is true of
us all; but there are some who are not what they ought to be, as to
practical service for Christ. We get many passengers to ride in the
coach, but not so many to pull it; plenty of people to eat the fruit,
but not so many to plant fresh trees. Yet I say not even this very
heavily, or with any great emphasis, for the bulk of the members of
this church are earnestly engaged in the service of God, for which I
bless his name. Still that is the question concerning the harvest,
"How will it thresh out?"
There is another question:
How much of it will be found to be real wheat in the last great day?
Ah, we may judge our very best, and examine very carefully; but there
always will be the goats in the sheep, and the tares with the wheat;
and that is the dash of bitterness in our cup of rejoicing. God grant
that we may not have many added to us who will deteriorate instead of
growing better! How will they stand at the last great day? "Well,"
says one, "I am glad that you make that remark; I have always been
opposed to revivals, because they bring in so many, and many of the
converts fall away." Dear friends, do you remember Mr. Fullerton's
answer to that? I thought it was as good and as complete as it was
humorous. He said that when persons say that they do not like
revivals because certain of the converts afterwards turn back, and
they are like his countryman, who picked up a sovereign; but when he
went with it to the bank, it turned out to be a light sovereign, and
he only got eighteen shillings for it. Mark you, he found it, so the
eighteen shillings were clear gain. Some time after, he saw another
sovereign lying in the road, and he would not pick it up; "for," he
said, "I lost two shillings by the one I picked up the other day; I
shall not take you up; very likely I should only get eighteen
shillings for you." So he passed on, and left it where it was. I
cannot imagine an Irishman being so unwise; certainly, no Scotchman
would have been; and I think no Englishman. However, that is the
style of unwisdom of a man who says that at a revival, so many come
in, and then so many turn out to be bad. Well, but those who remain
are a clear gain, and you ought to desire to have a like gain again
and again; you will get rich through such losses, if God will
continue to give them to you. However, I hope that I shall not have
any light sovereigns to-night. Yet, if these converts so not turn out
to be twenty shillings in the pound, but only eighteen shillings, I
will be greatly rejoiced to have the eighteen shillings, and God
shall have all the glory.
I think that I will here
pause, though there is another division of my discourse; and, in
closing, I will ask four questions.
First, What say we of
those who never sow? Well, they will never reap; they will never
have the joy of harvest. Am I addressing, in this great assembly, any
professing Christians who never sow, never speak a word for Christ,
never call at a house, and try to introduce the Saviour's name,
never seek to bring children to the Saviour, take no part in the
Sunday-school, or any other service for Christ? Do I address some
lazy man here, spiritually alive only for himself? Oh, poor soul, I
would not like to be you, because I doubt whether you can be
spiritually alive at all! Surely, he who lives for himself is dead
while he lives; and you will never know the joy of bringing souls to
Christ; and when you get to heaven, if you ever do get there, you
will never be able to say, "Here am I, Father, and the children thou
hast given me." Thou wilt have to abide eternally alone, having
brought no fruit unto God in the form of converts from sin. Shake
yourselves up, brothers and sisters, from sinful sloth. "Oh!" says
one, "I am not my brother's keeper." No, I will tell you your name;
it is Cain. You are your brother's murderer; for every professing
Christian, who is not his brother's keeper, is his brother's killer;
and be you sure that it is so; for you may kill by neglect quite as
surely as you may kill by the bow or by the dagger.
Next, What say we to
those who have never reaped? Well, that depends. Perhaps you have
only just begun to sow. Do not expect to reap before God's time. "In
due season ye shall reap if ye faint not." There is a set season for
reaping. But, if you have been a very long time sowing, and you have
never reaped, may I ask the question, Where do you buy your seed? If
I were to sow my garden year by year, and nothing ever came up, I
should change my seeds-man. Perhaps that you have bad seed, my dear
friend, and have not sown the gospel pure and undiluted. You have not
brought it out in all its fulness. Go to the Word of God, and get
"seed for the sower" of a kind that will feed your own soul, for it
is "bread for the eater"; when you sow that kind of seed, it will
come up.
Next, What shall I say
to those who know the Lord, but have never confessed him. What
shall I say to you? Well, I do not think that I will say what I
think; but I think very seriously about persons who have been
converted, and yet never tell the man who was the means of saving
them that it has happened. "Well," says one, "I do not think that I
shall confess Christ; the dying thief did not confess him, did he? He
was not baptized." No, but he was a dying thief, recollect; and if
you are not baptized, I think that you will be a living thief, for
you will rob God of his glory, and you will rob his servant also of
the comfort which he ought to receive. Our wages are to hear that
souls are saved; and, if we do not hear of it, we are robbed of our
wages. You muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, if you allow a
man to toil and labour, and you get good from his services, and you
give him no return by way of encouragement. Come out, you who have
hitherto hidden away like cowards! Men or women, if you love Christ,
and have never confessed him, come out straight away, and be not
ashamed to say, "I am a soldier of the cross, a follower of the
Lamb." May the great Captain of our salvation force you to do this
right speedily!
Once more, What say we
to those who do confess Christ, and who are going to confess him
to-night? Well, we say this: "Come in, thou blessed of the Lord;
wherefore standest thou without?" Beloved, when you do come in, keep
your garments unspotted from the world. Come in with a true heart,
and a reverent spirit, with this prayer upon your lips, "Hold thou me
up, and I shall be safe." May none of you who are to-night gathered
into the barn turn out to be mere weeds dried in the sun! The Lord
save you, and keep you; and may you remember that the vows of the
Lord are upon you; and may you never, in any way, dishonour that
great name by which you are henceforth to be named!
God bless every one of this
great mass of people! "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved," for "he that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." God save all of us
from that fearful doom, for Christ's sake! Amen.

ISAIAH 49:13-26.
Verse 13. Sing, O
heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O
mountains; for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have
mercy upon his afflicted.
When God blesses his
Church, he blesses the world through her. Hence, heaven and earth are
invited to be glad in the gladness of the Church of God. Oh, that God
would visit his church; nay, he has already done so, and I feel
inclined to cry out, as the text does, "Sing, O heavens; and be
joyful, O earth: and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the
LORD hath comforted his people."
14. But Zion said, the
LORD hath forsaken me, and my LORD hath forgotten me.
We often judge contrary to
the truth; and when God is blessing us, we dream that he has
forgotten us. Oh, wicked unbelief; cruel unbelief! It robs God of
glory; it robs us of comfort. It snatches the song out of our mouth,
and fills our soul with groaning: "Zion said, the LORD hath forsaken
me, and my LORD hath forgotten me."
15, Can a woman forget
the sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb. Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee.
The child is in a condition
in which it reminds the mother of itself; her sucking child, her own child. Can she forget it? It is not according to nature,
" 'Yet,' saith the Lord, 'should nature change,
And mothers monsters prove,
Sion still dwells upon the heart
Of everlasting love.' "
What is true of God's Church as a whole, is true of every member of
it. If any of you think that God has passed over you, one of his
believing children, you think what is untrue. He cannot do it. It
would be contrary to his nature. As long as he is God, he must
remember his people.
16, Behold, I have
graven thee upon the palms of my hands;
How appropriately Christ
can say this when he looks on the nail-prints, "I have graven thee
upon the palms of my hands"! As I said, this morning, Jesus can give
nothing, he can take nothing, he can do nothing, he can hold nothing,
without remembering his people: "I have graven thee upon the palms of
my hands." How I love that verse of Toplady's hymn that speaks of
this blessed truth!
"My name from the palms of his hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impress'd on his heart it remains
In marks of indelible grace:
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven."
16, 17. Thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall
make haste;
There shall be many of
them. Converts shall be added to the church in great numbers. They
shall hurry up; they shall not be long in coming. Very often they
delay too long. The promise is, "Thy children shall make haste."
17. Thy destroyers and
they that make thee waste shall go forth of thee.
I wish this were carried
out. If it were, many of the churches of Christ, which are plagued
with false doctrines and worldly habits, which are laying them waste,
would be delivered from those curses. The enemies outside the walls,
however malicious they are, will never be so mischievous as the
traitors inside the fortress. Save Troy from the wooden horse, and
save Zion from the traitors in her midst, that seek to do her
harm.
18. Lift up thine eyes
round about, and behold; all these gather themselves together, and
come to thee.
There is a great company
coming. The church is going to be increased. Have faith in God. We
are not going to receive them now by ones and twos; we thank God we
receive them by tens and scores. They are coming by hundreds and by
thousands; let us expect them. By faith, let us see them even now
coming.*
18. As I live, saith the
LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an
ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.
What an ornament to a
church her converts are! These are our jewels. We care nothing for
gorgeous architecture or grand music in the worship of God. Our true
building is composed of our converts; our best music is their
confession of faith. May God give us more of it!
19-21. For thy waste and
thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now
be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed
thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after
thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is
too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou
say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my
children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And
who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had
they been?
Sometimes a church is
brought very low; there are no additions, there is no unity,
everything is breaking up, and going to pieces. When God visits that
church, what a change is seen! Then people come flocking to it, and
the church wonders whence the converts came. May the Lord make us
wonder in that fashion! It will take a great deal to astonish us,
after all these years of mercy; yet the Lord can do it. It may be he
will make these latter days to be better than the former. Though we
have had nearly forty years of blessing together, he may yet increase
it, and give us to rejoice yet more and more.
22. Thus saith the LORD
GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my
standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms,
and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
We do not mind how they are
brought if they do but come; some in the arms, and some after the
Oriental method of putting the child on the shoulder. When God lifts
up his hand, great wonders of mercy and grace are wrought.
24. And kings shall be
thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers:
It will take a long time
before they learn that art, for kings and queens have generally been
destroyers of the Church of Christ. Those will be grand days when
kings shall be the nourishers of the Church, and queens her nursing
mothers.
23. They shall bow down
to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy
feet:
I have heard the first part
of this verse quoted as an argument for the union of Church and
State: "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing
mothers." I have not the slightest objection, if they will bow down
to the Church "with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust
of her feet." What is proposed to us is that the Church should bow
down to the State, with her face toward the earth, and lick up the
dust of the feet of the state, by becoming obedient to rules and
regulations made by princes and parliaments. This is not according to
the mind of God, nor according to the heart of his people.
23. And thou shalt know
that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for
me.
If we wait for Christ, for
his coming, for the help which he brings, for the salvation that is
wrought by him, we shall not be ashamed.
24-26. Shall the prey be
taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus
saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend
with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And
I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they
shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all
flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the
mighty One of Jacob.
The mighty may hold their
prey with a strong hand; but there is a stronger hand that will
deliver the captive. It is Jehovah, the Saviour, the Redeemer, the
mighty One of Jacob, who says, "I will contend with him that
contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children." Here is a divine
promise for every parent to plead: "I will save thy children." May
the Lord give you grace to claim that promise, even now, for Jesus
Christ's sake! Amen.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"423, 1,004.
*It is remarkable that this sermon and exposition, which were selected long ago for publication this month, should be issued just as the Tabernacle church is again having a large ingathering of
converts. Those who have read the sermons regularly, have been struck
with the singular appropriateness of several of them, either to the
condition of the Tabernacle church, or the general state of the
churches of our land. A notable instance of this fact is described in
the "Personal Notes" of the Sword and the Trowel for July.
Many can see the overruling hand of the Lord even in the order in
which the sermons have been published. |
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