| Back to Home Page | Back to
Book Index |
Ezekiel Chapter
Thirty-three
Ezekiel 33
Chapter Contents
Ezekiel's duty as a watchman. (1-9) He is to vindicate
the Divine government. (10-20) The desolation of Judea. (21-29) Judgments on
the mockers of the prophets. (30-33)
Commentary on Ezekiel 33:1-9
(Read Ezekiel 33:1-9)
The prophet is a watchman to the house of Israel. His
business is to warn sinners of their misery and danger. He must warn the wicked
to turn from their way, that they may live. If souls perish through his neglect
of duty, he brings guilt upon himself. See what those have to answer for, who
make excuses for sin, flatter sinners, and encourage them to believe they shall
have peace, though they go on. How much wiser are men in their temporal than in
their spiritual concerns! They set watchmen to guard their houses, and sentinels
to warn of the enemies' approach, but where the everlasting happiness or misery
of the soul is at stake, they are offended if ministers obey their Master's
command, and give a faithful warning; they would rather perish, listening to
smooth things.
Commentary on Ezekiel 33:10-20
(Read Ezekiel 33:10-20)
Those who despaired of finding mercy with God, are
answered with a solemn declaration of God's readiness to show mercy. The ruin
of the city and state was determined, but that did not relate to the final
state of persons. God says to the righteous, that he shall surely live. But
many who have made profession, have been ruined by proud confidence in
themselves. Man trusts to his own righteousness, and presuming on his own
sufficiency, he is brought to commit iniquity. If those who have lived a wicked
life repent and forsake their wicked ways, they shall be saved. Many such
amazing and blessed changes have been wrought by the power of Divine grace.
When there is a settled separation between a man and sin, there shall no longer
be a separation between him and God.
Commentary on Ezekiel 33:21-29
(Read Ezekiel 33:21-29)
Those are unteachable indeed, who do not learn their
dependence upon God, when all creature-comforts fail. Many claim an interest in
the peculiar blessings to true believers, while their conduct proves them
enemies of God. They call this groundless presumption strong faith, when God's
testimony declares them entitled to his threatenings, and nothing else.
Commentary on Ezekiel 33:30-33
(Read Ezekiel 33:30-33)
Unworthy and corrupt motives often lead men to the places
where the word of God is faithfully preached. Many come to find somewhat to
oppose: far more come of curiosity or mere habit. Men may have their hearts
changed. But whether men hear or forbear, they will know by the event that a
servant of God has been among them. All who will not know the worth of mercies
by the improvement of them, will justly be made to know their worth by the want
of them.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 33
Verse 6
[6] But
if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be
not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken
away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
Is taken away —
Punished by the Lord for his sin.
Verse 10
[10] Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye
speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away
in them, how should we then live?
Our sins —
The unpardoned guilt, and the unsupportable punishment of our sins, in the
wasting of our country, burning our city, abolishing the publick worship of
God; we shall pine away, 'tis too late to hope.
How —
How can it be better with us?
Verse 21
[21] And
it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in
the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came
unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
Smitten —
Taken and plundered.
Verse 22
[22] Now
the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped
came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth
was opened, and I was no more dumb.
Opened my mouth —
Not that the prophet was utterly dumb before, for he had prophesied against
many nations, only he was forbidden to say anything of the Jews, But now the
spirit moved him to speak, and continued his motion, 'till the messenger came,
and ever after.
Verse 24
[24] Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying,
Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given
us for inheritance.
They —
Who were left behind, now come out of their holes, or returned from
neighbouring countries, or permitted by the conqueror to stay and plant vineyards.
Wastes —
Places once fruitful and abounding with people, but now, made a desolate
wilderness.
He inherited —
Our father had a right to all this land, when but one; we his children though
diminished, are many, and the divine goodness will surely continue to us both
right and possession.
Is given — It
was given by promise to us, the seed, as well as to our progenitor; nay more,
'tis given us in possession, whereas Abraham had not one foot of it.
Verse 26
[26] Ye
stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his
neighbour's wife: and shall ye possess the land?
Ye stand —
You trust to your sword; you do all with violence.
Abominations —
Idolatry.
Verse 30
[30]
Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against
thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another,
every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word
that cometh forth from the LORD.
The children —
Captives in Babylon.
Verse 31
[31] And
they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my
people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their
mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
They come — As
if they were really the people of God.
They sit — So
we find the elders of Judah, chap. 8:1, so the disciples of the rabbis sat at their
feet.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
33 Chapter 33
Verses 1-33
Verse 4-5
Whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet.
The trumpet call
I. The analogy
between the watchman on the walls of Zion and the preacher of the Gospel of the
grace of God.
1. The qualifications needed in a watchman: vigour, courage,
intelligence, loyalty, fidelity.
2. The duties: vigilance, to watch; obedience, to warn.
3. The responsibilities: account of the service must be rendered to
those who appointed him; safety of the city depended largely upon the faithful
discharge of the watchman’s duties.
II. The analogy
between the sound of the watchman’s trumpet and the message of the Gospel
preacher. Here we are reminded of the trumpet call of alarm on the approach of
danger in time of peril. The call was to be definite, distinct, emphatic,
rousing. “Warning every man.” The Gospel trumpet is to arrest the attention of
men, call them to repent, to surrender, lay down their weapons of rebellion;
and then, armed with the whole armour of God, go forth manfully to fight His
battles. The Gospel message is a trumpet call to advance, and “no surrender”;
it is never the call to retreat, or the proclaimer of defeat. There must be “no
uncertain sound,” for all truth is dogmatic, and ought to be definitely
proclaimed.
III. The analogy
between the responsibility of those who heard the watchman’s trumpet and those
who hear the sound of the Gospel. The watchman on the walls of Zion simply
sounded the alarm; it was for the people to believe and obey. So the Gospel
hearers of today are responsible for the effects produced upon their hearts and
minds by the Gospel message. (Homilist.)
He heard the sound of the
trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him.
The warning neglected
In all worldly things men are always enough awake to understand
their own interests There is scarce a merchant who reads the paper who does not
read it some way or other with a view to his own personal concerns. In
politics, in everything, in fact, that concerns temporal affairs, personal
interest usually leads the van. Men will always be looking out for themselves
and personal home interests will generally engross the major part of their
thoughts. But in religion it is otherwise. In religion men love far rather to
believe abstract doctrines, and to talk of general truths, than the searching
inquiries which examine their own personal interest in it.
I. The warning was
all that could be desired. When in time of war an army is attacked in the
night, and cut off and destroyed whilst asleep, if it were possible for them to
be aware of the attack, and if they had used all diligence in placing their
sentinels, but nevertheless the foe were so wary as to destroy them, we should
weep; we should attach no blame to anyone, but should deeply regret, and should
give to that host our fullest pity. But if, on the other hand, they had posted
their sentinels, and the sentinels were wide awake, and gave to the sleepy
soldiers every warning that could be desired, but nevertheless the army were
cut off, although we might from common humanity regret the loss thereof, yet at
the same time we should be obliged to say, if they were foolish enough to sleep
when the sentinels had warned them; if they folded their arms in presumptuous
sloth, after they had had sufficient and timely notice of the progress of their
bloodthirsty enemy, then in their dying we cannot pity them: their blood must
rest upon their own heads. So it is with you.
1. The warnings of the ministry have been to most of you warnings
that have been heard--“He heard the sound of the trumpet.” In far off lands the
trumpet sound of warning is not heard.
2. The trumpet was not only heard, but more than that, its warning
was understood. If ye be damned, I am innocent of your damnation; for I have
told you plainly, that except ye repent ye must perish, and that except ye put
your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ there is for you no hope of salvation.
3. Again, this sound was startling. Then, sirs, if ye have heard the
cry of fire, if ye are burned in your beds, your charred ashes shall not accuse
me.
4. In many of your eases the warning has been very frequent. A
hundred times every year you have gone up to the house of God, and far oftener
than that, and you have just added a hundred billets to the eternal pile.
5. This warning that you have had so often has come to you in time.
You are not warned on a sick bed at the eleventh hour, when there is but a bare
possibility of salvation, but you are warned in time, you are warned today, you
have been warned for these many years that are now past.
II. Men make
excuses why they do not attend to the Gospel warning, but these excuses are all
frivolous and wicked.
1. Some say, “Well, I did not attend to the warning, because I did
not believe there was any necessity for it.” There was enough in reason to have
taught you that there was an hereafter; the Book of God’s revelation was plain
enough to have taught it to you, and if you have rejected God’s Book, and
rejected the voice of reason and of conscience, your blood is on your own head.
2. “But,” cries another, “I did not like the trumpet. I did not like
the Gospel that was preached.” Well, but God made the trumpet, God made the
Gospel; and inasmuch as ye did not like what God made, it is an idle excuse.
What was that to you what the trumpet was, so long as it warned you?
3. But another says, “I did not like the man himself; I did not like
the minister; I did not like the man that blew the trumpet; I could hear him
preach very well, but I had a personal dislike to him, and so I did not take
any notice of what the trumpet said.” Verily, God will say to thee at last,
“Thou fool, what hadst thou to do with that man? to his own master he stands or
falls; thy business was with thyself.”
4. There are many other people who say, “Ah, well, I did none of
those things, but I had a notion that the trumpet sound ought to be blown to
everybody else, but not to me.” Ah! that is a very common notion. “All men
think all men mortal but themselves,” said a “good poet; and all men think all
men need the Gospel, but not themselves.
5. Well, says another, “But I was so busy; I had so much to do that I
could not possibly attend to my soul’s concerns.” What will you say of the man
who had so much to do that he could not get out of the burning house, but was
burnt to ashes.
6. “Well,” says another, “but I thought I had time enough; you do not
want me, sir, to be religious in my youth, do you? I am a lad; and may I not
have a little frolic, and sow my wild oats as well as anybody else?” Well--yes,
yes; but at the same time the best place for frolic that I know of is where a
Christian lives; the finest happiness in all the world is the happiness of a
child of God.
III. Then the last
thought is, “His blood shall be on his own head.” Briefly thus--he shall
perish; he shall perish certainly; he shall perish inexcusably.
1. He shall perish. And what does that mean? There is no human mind
however capacious, that can ever guess the thought of a soul eternally cast
away from God.
2. But again, he that turneth not at the rebuke of the minister shall
die, and he shall die certainly. This is not a matter of perhaps or chance.
3. Now, the last thing is, the sinner will perish--he will perish
certainly, but last of all, he will perish without excuse,--his blood shall be
on his own head. When a man is bankrupt, if he can say, “It is not through
reckless trading--it has been entirely through the dishonesty of one I trusted
that I am what I am;” he takes some consolation, and he says, “I cannot help
it.” But oh, if you make bankrupts of your own souls, after you have been
warned, then your own eternal bankruptcy shall lie at your own door. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Verses 7-9
I have set thee a watchman.
The true watchman
I. The true
watchman’s vision of his own work. He sees--
1. It entails great responsibility on himself. Failure of duty here
is nothing less than “blood guiltiness.”
2. It involves the greatest results to his hearers.
3. It utters the emotions of God.
4. It proclaims both the hope and the method of men’s improvement.
The hope is in God; the method is from God. The hope is in His call and promise
of love; the method is in penitence, “pine” for sins; return; pardon, “none of
his sins shall be mentioned”; rectitude, “doing righteousness.”
II. The true
watchman’s vision of the conduct of others. He is emphatically the seer. For he
not only has to gaze steadily, reverently, intelligently at the truth of God he
has to reveal to men, he has to look bravely, fixedly, tenderly at the
condition and character of men. The old English watchman, to whom the care of
our streets by night was formerly entrusted, often uttered in his hourly cry of
“All right” what was indeed a sorrowful satire. For under the pall of night
what concealed felons, what secret assassins, were plotting their cruelty and
wrong! No such misleading watchman must be ours. In his vision of the conduct
of others the true watchman sees--
1. The gross sins of many of them.
2. The hypocrisy of many more. The cloak of the hypocrite’s
profession, the words of flattery that trifle with himself, fail to mislead the
true preacher. (Urijah R. Thomas.)
Sermon to ministers
We are called to be messengers, watchmen, stewards of the Lord.
I. The Divine
appointment. A faithful minister is a watchman appointed of God Himself. The
vows of the Lord are upon us. How have we fulfilled them? What efforts have we
made, with a single eye, to serve God for the promoting of His glory and the
edifying of His people?
II. The solemn
duties.
1. The first part of a watchman’s duty is to watch for himself and
over himself. The sentinel at his post is ever exposed to the watchful eye of
the enemy; and so the Lord’s watchman is, more than others, always exposed to
the ever-watchful eye of Satan. He stands forth as a mark against which the
fiery darts of the wicked one are ever being hurled.
2. The watchman has to watch over and for the souls committed to his
charge. We are assailed with the changeable winds of doctrine in all their
force; we have the same blight of formality resting on the outward church; the
same seeds of error and discord sown now as in the days of old. Against all
these we must watch as we love the souls of our flock; yea, we must lift up our
voice, and spare not, warning them against all the evils of sin, Satan, and the
world.
I shall conclude with a word of exhortation and a word of warning.
1. As to the warning; that we be not unfaithful.
2. But if the warning voice of Scripture speaks loudly to the
unfaithful watchman, not less loudly and powerfully do the promises of the
Scriptures speak, to exhort and encourage the faithful. True, our
responsibility is very deep, our difficulties very great; but let us remember,
we stand not alone; if truly called of God and man, we may take to ourselves
the promise, “Lo, I am with you.” (Evangelical Preacher.)
God’s ministers the watchmen of Israel
I. The reason and
propriety of this representation. The Christian Church may be considered as a
large and extensive country, bordering upon the world, a country yet more large
and extensive. The spiritual watchman is to view what passes in both, and to
give his own countrymen, the true Israelites, information and warning (Isaiah 21:5-8; Habakkuk 2:1). Or, the Church of Christ
is a city (Psalms 87:1; Isaiah 60:1-22; Isaiah 62:1-12; Hebrews 12:22; Philippians 3:20 --Gr.) under one Chief
Magistrate, Christ; who has appointed the laws, customs, and language thereof.
This city should be at unity with itself within, and surrounded, as by walls
and bulwarks, with salvation by the Lord, and by the faith, prayers, and
watchfulness of the citizens. And on these walls, elevated by their knowledge,
God having shined into their hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6), and by their
Divine appointment, and secured by the Divine protection (Revelation 2:1), the ministers of the
Gospel are placed as “watchmen.” This country of Christianity is liable to be
invaded from without, and this city of the Church of God to be attacked by the
world and its prince. It may be invaded and attacked in its doctrines, by
error; in its duties, by sin; in its privileges, by unbelief, despondency,
formality, lukewarmness, and sloth. The watchman gives notice and warning. This
country or city is liable also to commotions and disorders from within. As to
individuals, from the flesh and its lusts. They may become luxurious, wanton,
covetous, ambitious, proud, self-willed, discontented, impatient, etc. Or, as
to the whole community, by surmises, jealousies, envyings, enmities,
evil-speakings, which things would destroy the peace and unity of its members,
and produce strife, contention, parties, divisions. The “watchman” must warn
and reprove the citizens, and lay their conduct before their Prince.
II. What is
especially the office and duty of ministers under this character. They must
regard no toil, labour, or suffering. They must be faithful to the Lord and the
people (Luke 12:42). They must distrust
themselves, and apply to and depend on the Lord for supernatural aid. The Chief
Shepherd only can keep, feed, and rule the flock, and, in another view, that
“unless the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Isaiah 62:6-7). But, more particularly,
their duty is set forth (Habakkuk 2:1-2). We are not at liberty to
imagine or conjecture or suppose this or that as necessary or expedient to the
people over whom we watch, or retail our own opinions or fancies to them, but
must come to our hearers with “Thus saith the Lord,” and that, with respect to
doctrines to be believed, privileges to be enjoyed, precepts to be obeyed,
promises to be expected, and threatenings to be revered. We must observe, all
mankind are naturally wicked, all need repentance, all have encouragement to
repent (Ezekiel 33:11; Ezekiel 33:14); that repentance implies
not merely confession of sin, and a partial reformation, but a turning of the
heart from sin to righteousness, followed by its proper fruits, and that
without this there is no salvation (Luke 13:1). Nor is repentance sufficient
without faith (John 3:18; Mark 16:16). Nor is faith sufficient
without love; an ardent, admiring, grateful, complacent love to God, especially
in consideration of His goodness to us, and an affectionate, disinterested,
active love to all men, in imitation of God’s love to them (Hebrews 12:14). And we must persevere (Ezekiel 33:12-13; Ezekiel 33:18; John 15:4; John 15:6; Romans 11:17-22; Hebrews 10:38).
III. The consequence
of neglecting, or fulfilling, their duty.
1. “If thou do not warn the wicked”--sincerely, earnestly,
frequently, with repeated admonitions, as the word signifies, giving them light
by thy instructions, and making the matter clear and evident to them. Thus the
apostle warned all (Acts 20:31)--He “shall die in his
iniquity.” But is not this a hard case? No. For, though not particularly warned
by any messenger of God, he had the Word of God in his hands, or, at least, he
had the fight of nature, and knew more or less of what was required of him.
2. If the watchman fulfil his duty, he at least derivers his own soul
(Ezekiel 33:9). The faithful watchman
glorifies God. For it is much for the glory of all his attributes that sinners
should be warned, whether they take the warning or not; e.g., His
holiness, justice, mercy, love. He receives a reward in proportion to his
labours (Isaiah 49:4-5; 1 Corinthians 3:8). The Lord always
gives him some success (Matthew 7:16-20; John 10:2-5; 1 Timothy 4:15-16). (J. Benson.)
Faithful dealing with men’s souls
The following incident occurred on his first visit to Waterbeach
when Charles Spurgeon was a lad of seventeen. “He was put up for the night at
the house of Mr. Smith, and shared a bed with Mr. Smith’s son, then a young
boy. Charles Spurgeon, before retiring, went upon his knees, but his companion
tumbled into bed without prayer, and lay down. No sooner had young Spurgeon
finished his devotions than he inquired of his bedfellow if he were not afraid
to go to bed without asking God for protection during the night: ‘What a
fearful thing would it be,’ he said, ‘if you went to your last sleep without a
prayer and a Saviour.’ For an hour or more the young preacher talked to the
boy, and his earnestness was so evident that the boy was moved. Charles
Spurgeon had him out of bed, and prayed with him, and that night the lad was
converted. He is now an honoured deacon at Waterbeach.” (Christian Age.)
Warning the impenitent
If at an assize town at the time of any celebrated trial, and the
prisoner had been found guilty, and sentenced to death, Whitefield would, at
the close of his sermon, his eyes full of tears, pause for a moment, and then,
after a tenable denunciation upon those who neglect so great salvation,
exclaim, “I am now going to put on my condemning cap; sinner, I must do it. I
must pronounce sentence against you.” And then he would repeat the awful words
of our Lord: Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels.” (R. Winter.)
Pastoral vigilance
Latimer told the clergy in his time that, if they would not learn
diligence and vigilance of the prophets and apostles, they should learn it of
the devil, who goes up and down his diocese, and acts by an untired power,
seeking whom he may destroy. When the wolves are abroad, the shepherd should
not sleep, but watch, remembering that he were better have all the blood of all
the men in the world upon him, than the blood of one soul upon him, by his
negligence or otherwise. (T. Brooks.)
O wicked man, thou shalt
surely die.
Office and responsibility of ministers
I. What God saith
to the wicked.
1. The people addressed are all who do not unfeignedly turn from sin
to God.
2. Death is here denounced as the judgment to be inflicted on all who
turn not to their God; and to the same effect the inspired writers uniformly
speak (Isaiah 3:11; Romans 6:23; James 1:14-15).
3. There is an implied assurance that the wicked, if they will
repent, shall not die. And this is expressly stated in the following context:
verse 14-16, so that, awful as this passage is, it is no less encouraging than
it is awful; because it assures the contrite and believing sinner that he shall
never perish.
II. The necessity
imposed on ministers to proclaim it. The consequences of neglect in any
minister are declared in two respects:
1. The person whom he neglects to warn will perish. If, through the
sloth or treachery of the sentinels, a, camp be surprised at midnight, nothing
but confusion and ruin can ensue. Thus if a person appointed to warn the wicked
neglect to do so, the wicked will continue regardless of their impending doom,
till it is too late to avert it. And it will be to no purpose to say, “I was
not aware of my danger; my minister has betrayed me.” No; the wicked have means
of information within their oval reach, independent of their ministers; and
they have secret intimations in their own consciences that they ought to
repent: and therefore they must take the consequences of their own wickedness:
“they must die in their iniquity.”
2. He himself also will be dealt with as the author of that sinner’s
destruction. As a sentinel who, by neglecting to give notice of the enemy’s
approach, occasioned the overthrow of the army to which he belonged, would be
chargeable with all the consequences of his neglect, so will the blood of all
that perish through the minister’s neglect “be required at his hand.” (Skeletons
of Sermons.)
The important message
I. The end in
which the evil ways of the children of men terminate is an awful end. It is a
way that terminates in death, and that not temporal death alone, but eternal
death. Many are the terrific views which are given of the world of woe; but
what view can be more terrific than that of dying forever, and yet to be never
dead after all? It will be awful in its nature, and still more so in its
duration. The misery will be inconceivable, and the misery will be interminable.
Banishment from all blessedness forever! Blackness and darkness, weeping and
wailing, forever!
II. The realisation
of this awful end is an object which the blessed God, far from desiring,
deprecates and deplores. It is not your death that He desires, but your life.
1. By way of confirming this encouraging truth, we would remind you,
in the first place, of what God is in Himself. His nature is love--that is the
endearing name by which He is revealed; and as His name is, so is He.
Benevolence of the highest, noblest, purest kind constitutes the very essence
of His all-perfect character.
2. In connection with what God is in His nature, we would advert to
what He has done for our salvation. He has “so loved the world that He gave,”
etc.
3. His dealings with the children of men in all ages. How has He
borne with them in the face of their innumerable provocations?
III. It is the
consequent duty of sinners to forsake their evil ways, the termination of
which, if persisted in, will be so disastrous, and to turn at once to him who
waiteth to be gracious. “Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for why will ye
die, O house of Israel?” Many strange things have been done or endured before
now, which appeared unaccountable; and yet there have been substantial reasons
to justify them. To see an individual in an unresisting posture, patient and
resigned, while persons with their saws and knives were severing one of his
limbs from his body, seems a strange sight; and yet there may be no difficulty
in proving that such an operation was necessary and desirable, since the
sacrifice of a man’s limb has often been the means of saving a man’s life. For
multitudes to give their bodies to be burnt; to welcome cruel mockings and
scourgings; to abandon their homes, and wander in deserts and mountains, in
dens and caves of the earth: all this appears to be unaccountable. But there
may be the strongest reasons adduced in justification of such severe
sacrifices. Hence it is declared of the ancient: worthies, that they were tortured,
not accepting deliverance; and why? That they might obtain a better
resurrection. But for your course, poor sinner, no reason can be given. (Anon.)
The certainty of death to the wicked
I. Who are the
wicked? Profane and gross sinners, who indulge themselves in notorious
immoralities (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5-6; Revelation 21:8). In this black list you
not only find such gross vices as are scandalous in the common estimate of
mankind, but also such as are secret, seated in the heart, and generally
esteemed but lesser evils.
2. All who knowingly and wilfully indulge themselves habitually in
any one sin, whether it be the omission of a commanded duty or the practice of
something forbidden (1 John 2:4; 1 John 3:8; 1 John 3:10; John 14:23-24). I grant that good men
sin, and that they are far from perfection of holiness in this life. I grant
also that some of them have fallen, perhaps once in their life, into some gross
sin. But after all, I must insist that they do not indulge themselves in the
wilful habitual practice of any known sin, or the wilful habitual neglect of
any known duty. St. John expressly tells us (1 John 3:9), he cannot sin
habitually; again, he cannot sin wilfully--that is, with full bent of soul.
3. All who are destitute of those graces and virtues which constitute
the character of positive goodness. Wickedness is a moral privation, or the
want of real goodness. The want of faith, the want of love, repentance,
benevolence, and charity does as really constitute a wicked man, as
drunkenness, blasphemy, or any notorious immorality.
4. All who still continue in their natural state; who have never been
regenerated, or experienced a thorough change of their views and dispositions,
towards God and divine things (John 3:6; Romans 8:8; Ephesians 2:3).
II. What kind of
death shall the wicked man die? It is true, natural death is the universal doom
of all the sons of men (Ecclesiastes 2:16). The highest
attainments in piety cannot secure an earthly immortality. But though there be
no difference in this respect, there is a wide difference in another, and that
is, the death of the wicked is quite another thing, or comes under quite a
different notion, from the death of the righteous. The death of the wicked,
like an officer from their offended sovereign, strikes off the fetters of
flesh, that they may be carried away to a place of execution. Then, farewell, a
long, and everlasting farewell, to the comforts of this life, and all its
agreeable prospects: farewell to friends; farewell to hope and peace; farewell
to all the means of grace; farewell, God, and Christ, and angels, and all the
blessedness of heaven. Now nothing awaits them but wrath and fiery indignation.
But even this, dreadful as it is, is not all--there is besides this, that
dreadful something called the second death (Revelation 21:8; Revelation 2:11; Revelation 20:6; Revelation 02:14)--which thou, O wicked
man, must die. The soul will be forever dead to God and holiness--dead to all
the means of grace, and all the enjoyments of this life; dead to all happiness
and all hope; dead to all the comfortable purposes of existence; dead to
everything that deserves the name of life--in short, dead to everything but the
torturing sensations of pain; to these the soul will be tremblingly alive all
over, to eternity; but, alas! to be alive, in this sense, alive only to suffer
pain, is worse than death, worse than annihilation.
III. What you must
do to be saved.
1. Betake yourselves immediately to serious thoughtfulness.
2. Break off from those things that hinder your conversion.
3. Diligently use all means that may instruct you in the nature of
true religion.
4. Earnestly pray to God.
5. Endeavour to receive and submit to the Lord Jesus as your only
Saviour.
6. Do not delay to follow these directions. (President Davies.)
Verse 11
As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of
the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
The sincerity of Divine expostulations
1. What a contrast are God’s thoughts of man to man’s thoughts of
God!
2. How opposite are God’s feelings towards man to man’s feelings
respecting God!
3. How different God’s estimate of man from man’s estimate of God!
4. How unlike God’s purposes to man’s! God says to man, “Live”; man
says to God, Let Him die the death; crucify Him; this is the heir; come, let us
kill Him.
5. How far asunder are God’s ways from man’s!
I. The state of
man’s heart in reference to God.
1. He murmurs against God for not giving him life. God proclaims His
willingness to give it. I have no life. Is He not mocking me? Christ promises
rest. I have none. Can He be sincere?
2. Nay, more, he casts the whole blame of his death on God. He says,
I see that I must just die; there is no help for it; the blame is not mine, but
God’s. My fallen nature, my education, my circumstances, my temptations, these
are my excuses.
II. The state of
God’s heart in reference to man.
1. He has no pleasure in their death. He did not kindle hell in order
to gratify His revenge. He does not cast sinners headlong into its endless
flames in order to get vent to His blind fury. He will finally condemn the
unbelieving, but not because He delights to do so, but because He is the
righteous Lord that loveth righteousness.
2. His desire is, that the wicked shall turn and live. It is to
life--life everlasting--that He points your eye, sinner. It is of life that He
desires to make you partaker. And surely it is life that you need. For what one
word more fully or more terribly describes your present state than death? Dead,
not like the withered leaf or the uprooted tree; that would at least be
unconsciousness of loss, and ignorance of what might have been won. But you are
dead to all that is worth living for, and yet alive to all that makes life a
burden and a woe. Do you say, If God wants me to live, why does He not at once
give me life? In other words, why does He not force life upon my acceptance,
and burst through every barrier? I ask in return, Is God bound to take your way
in giving life? I ask again, Do you really suppose that a person is not sincere
in his kindness because he does not carry out that kindness by every means,
lawful or unlawful? Is it not possible that there may be a limit to that
kindness compatible with the most perfect sincerity?
III. The
expostulation, with which all this closes, is one of the most urgent
importunity on the part of God, proving yet more Fully His real desire to
bless. It is like one vehemently enforcing an invitation upon an unwilling
listener,--making a last effort to save the heedless or resisting sinner. Is it
within the remotest bounds of possibility or conceivability that He is
insincere; that He does not really mean what He says? The ways from which He
calls on them to turn are named by Him “evil ways”; and what He calls evil must
be truly so,--hateful in His eyes, as well as ruinous to the soul. The end of
these ways He pronounces to be death; so that sinners must either turn or die.
(H. Bonar, D. D.)
Pleading and encouragement
(with Ezekiel 18:23; Ezekiel 18:32):--Notice, that in each of
my texts the Lord declares that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked;
but in each following passage the statement is stronger. The Lord puts it first
(Ezekiel 18:23) as a matter of question.
As if surprised that such a thing should be laid to His door, He appeals to
man’s own reason, and asks, “Have I any pleasure at all,” etc. In our second
text (Ezekiel 18:32), God makes a positive
assertion. Knowing the human heart, He foresaw that a question would not be
enough to end this matter, for man would say, “He only asked the question, but
He did not give a plain and positive statement to the contrary.” He gives us
that clear assurance in our second text: “I have no pleasure,” etc. But still,
as if to end forever the strange and ghastly supposition that God takes delight
in human destruction, my third text seals the truth with the solemn oath of the
Eternal.
I. Notice, first,
the assertion that God finds no pleasure in a sinner’s death. Really I feel
ashamed to have to answer the cruel libel which is here suggested; yet it is
the English of many a man’s doubts. I will only bring forward certain evidence
by which you who are still under the deadly influence of the falsehood may be
delivered
1. Consider the great paucity of God’s judgments among the sons of
men. There are such things, but they are wonderfully rare in this life,
considering the way in which the Lord is daily provoked by presumption and
blasphemy. Does not the Lord Himself say that judgment is His strange work”?
2. The length of God’s long-suffering before the Day of Judgment
itself comes proves how He wills not the death of men.
3. Furthermore, remember the perfection of the character of God as
the moral Ruler of the universe. Aversion to punishment is necessary to justice
in a judge.
4. If any further thoughts were necessary to correct your misbelief,
I would mention the graciousness of His work in saving those who turn from
their evil ways. As if God were indignant that such a charge should be laid
against Him that He delighteth in the death of any, He preferred to die Himself
upon the tree rather than let a world of sinners sink to hell.
II. God finds no
alternative but that men must turn from their wicked ways, or die. It is one or
the other: turn or burn. God, with all His love to men, cannot discover any
third course; men cannot keep their sins and yet be saved.
1. Be it known to you, first, that when God proclaims mercy to men
upon this condition, that they turn from their ways, this proclamation is
issued out of pure grace. God saves you, not because of any merit in your
turning, but because He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He has
decreed to save all who turn from the paths of evil.
2. If there be no repentance, men must be punished, for on any other
theory there is an end of moral government. The worst thing that could happen
to a world of men would be for God to say “I retract My law; I will neither
reward virtue, nor punish iniquity; do as you like.” Then the earth would be a
hell indeed.
3. Sin must be punished; you must turn from it or die, because sin is
its own punishment. Even the omnipotence of God cannot make an impenitent
sinner happy. You cannot be married to Christ and heaven until you are divorced
from sin and self.
4. I believe that every man’s conscience bears witness to this if it
he at all honest.
III. God finds
pleasure in men’s turning from sin. Among the highest of the Divine joys is the
pleasure of seeing a sinner turn from evil. When your heart is sick of sin,
when you loathe all evil, and feel that though you cannot get away from it, yet
you would if you could, then He looks down on you with pitying eye. When there
is a new will springing up in your heart, by His good grace--a will to obey and
believe, then also the Father smiles. When He hears within you a moaning and a
sighing after the Father’s house and the Father’s bosom; you cannot see Him,
but He is behind the wall listening to you. His hand is secretly putting your
tears into His bottle, and His heart is feeling compassion for you. When at
last you come to prayer, and begin to cry, “God be merciful to me, a sinner,”
God is well pleased; for here He sees clear signs that you are coming to yourself
and to Him. His Spirit saith, “Behold, he prayeth!” and He takes this as a
token for good. When you unfeignedly forsake sin God sees you do it, and He is
so glad that His holy angels spy out His joy. I will tell you what pleases Him
most of all, and that is when you come to His dear Son, and say, “Lord,
something tells me that there is no hope for me, but I do not believe that
voice. I read in Thy Word that Thou wilt cast out none that come unto Thee, and
lo, I come! I am the biggest sinner that ever did come, but, Lord, I believe
Thy promise; I am as unworthy as the devil himself, but, Lord, Thou dost not
ask for worthiness, but only for childlike confidence. Cast me not away--I rest
in Thee.”
IV. God therefore
exhorts to it and adds an argument. “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for
why will ye die, O house of Israel?” He perceives His poor creature standing
with his back to Him, looking to idols, looking to sinful pleasures, looking
towards the city of destruction, and what does God say to him? He says, “Turn!”
It is a very plain direction; is it not? “Turn.” or “Right about face!” That is
all. “Turn ye, turn ye.” See, the Lord puts it twice. He must mean your good by
these repeated directions. Suppose my man servant was crossing yonder river, and
I saw that he would soon be out of his depth, and so in great danger; suppose I
cried out to him, “Stop! stop! If you go another inch you will be drowned. Turn
back! Turn back!” Will anybody dare to say, “Mr. Spurgeon would feel pleasure
if that man were drowned”? It would be a cruel cut. What a liar the man must be
who would hint such a thing when I am urging my servant to turn and save his
life! Would God plead with us to escape unless He honestly desired that we
should escape? I trow not. “Turn ye, turn ye.” He pleads each time with more of
emphasis. Will you not hear? Then He finishes up with asking men to find a
reason why they should die. There ought to be a weighty reason to induce a man
to die. “Why will ye die?” This is an unanswerable question in reference to
death eternal. Is there anything to be desired in eternal destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God has no pleasure in the sinner’s death
I. What the death
spoken of is not.
1. Manifestly this death cannot be merely the death of the body; for
all will die this death, whether they turn to God or not, and whether they live
a spiritual life or not.
2. The death spoken of cannot be spiritual, or a state of sinfulness;
for God represents them as being already in this state.
II. Positively the
death spoken of must be the opposite of the life here referred to. This life
cannot be natural life; for all, both saint and sinner, are conceived of as
being alike in natural life. Of course, the life must be salvation--eternal
life--that blessedness which saints enjoy in the favour and love of God, begun
here, prolonged forever hereafter. Now, if such be the life alluded to, the
death, being, in contrast with it, must be eternal death; the misery experienced
by all God’s enemies,
III. Why has God no
pleasure in the sinner’s death?
1. The death of saints in which God takes a special interest is only
the death of the body; but the death of the wicked is the death of both soul
and body together. Both together are involved in misery and ruin.
2. God has no pleasure in the sinner’s death, because He is a moral
being, and it is contrary to the nature of moral beings to delight in suffering
for its own sake.
3. God cannot have pleasure in the sinner’s death, because His
character forbids it. God is not only by nature a moral agent, but He is in
character a good moral agent--a being of infinite benevolence. God pities the
self-ruined sinner; never rejoices in his dreadful doom, for its own sake.
4. It must be that God regards the death of the sinner, viewed in
itself, as a great evil. No finite mind can begin to conceive how great and
dreadful this evil is. It needs the sweep of an infinite mind to measure its
length and breadth, its depth and its height.
5. God can have no pleasure in the death of sinners, because it is a
state in which He can wisely show them no more favour. Mercy has had its day;
simple justice must henceforth have unimpeded exercise.
6. Another reason still is that when sinners have out-lived their probation
and are cut off in their sins, their depravity will be thenceforward
restrained. How shocking it must be to the pure and holy God to see His
creatures giving themselves up to utter and unrestrained depravity--to see them
giving boundless scope to the most odious and horrible rebellion!
IV. Why does not
God prevent the death of the wicked? If He takes no pleasure in it, why should
He suffer it to be?
1. You are aware that men have often inferred from God’s benevolence
that He will not suffer the wicked to be lost. But who has any right to infer
this? How does it appear that benevolence cannot inflict a lesser evil for the
sake of preventing a greater?
2. God does not prevent the death of the wicked, for the good reason
that He cannot wisely do it. For God to act otherwise than with wisdom must be
wrong.
3. God could not have prevented their destruction by refusing to
create them. He saw it would be wise to create moral agents who would sin, and
some of whom would be lost; and how could He act other than wisely without
forever condemning Himself for wrongdoing?
4. God could not wisely have done more than He has done for the
sinner’s salvation. It is plain that God could not wisely abridge the liberty
of moral agents, nor indeed could He save them, even if He should, for the very
idea of the salvation of a moral agent implies his own voluntary turning from
sin.
5. God cannot save men without their concurrence; in the nature of
the ease, they could not be holy without their own concurrence; how, then, could
they be happy without it?
6. Another reason why God does not prevent the death of the wicked is
that He regards it as a less evil than to interpose in any way possible to
Himself, to save them. If they would turn under such influences as He can
wisely use, He would rejoice; but He is already going to the utmost limit of
His discretion, and how can He go further?
7. Yet another reason is that, although the evil of the sinner’s
death is great, yet He can make a good use of it. He can overrule it for
important good to others and to various interests in His kingdom.
V. The only
possible way in which the sinner’s death can be avoided, is for the sinner
himself to turn from his evil ways and live. God’s government being what it is,
repentance and faith in Jesus Christ are natural and necessary means of the
sinner’s salvation. He might as well ask Jehovah to come down from His throne,
as ask Him to do anything more or anything different from what He is doing to
save sinners. Remarks--
1. The goodness of God is really no encouragement to those who
continue in sin.
2. The goodness of God is not the security of the impenitent sinner’s
salvation, but the guarantee of his damnation.
3. The death of the wicked is not inconsistent with God’s happiness.
4. God will have the eternal consciousness of having laid Himself out
to the utmost to save sinners.
5. The death of the wicked will not be inconsistent with the
happiness of heaven. When saints reach heaven they will have more confidence in
God than many people have now. With enlarged views they will see most clearly
that God has done right, perfectly and infinitely right. (C. G. Finney.)
The death of the wicked not pleasing to God
I. The purposes of
God. Before He exercised one act of creating power, He saw all the consequences
of His creation, knowing then, as perfectly as now, and as perfectly as he ever
will know, all the results of felicity and wretchedness that would ever be
realised in heaven, earth, and hell, And with all these before Him, as the
certain consequences of that constitution of things He was about to establish,
and that creative energy He was about to exert, still He resolved, that under
such a constitution, such a creation should rise. He spake and it was done.
1. We have no right to conclude that the Almighty is the sole cause
of the miseries of His creatures, from the fact that He is the Author of their
existence, that He knew, before He created, all the consequences of His
creating, and that none of His expectations and purposes are frustrated. Before
we can apply the purposes of God to particular things--to our conduct, our
destiny, or the pleasure of the Deity--we must know the method of application;
we must know the particular character of the purposes; we must be able to
understand how they affect the particulars.
2. If it is lawful for us to infer, from the purposes of God, that He
has pleasure in the destruction of the wicked, then it is lawful for us, on the
same principle, to infer that He has pleasure in that wickedness itself, which
leads to destruction. We may conclude, therefore, on this principle of
reasoning, that God is pleased with sin! This is the result of attempting to
reason from the secret purposes of God.
3. The consideration which should correct this error is, the narrow
limits of our understandings. We have not the least knowledge of the nature of
the connection which exists between the purposes of Jehovah and the actions of
His creatures.
4. But though we are incapable of unfolding the Divine purposes, and
proving thereby, that the Deity has no pleasure in the destruction of the
wicked, and that these purposes do not render sin and death unavoidable, yet we
have other methods of showing this. He who alone knows perfectly those purposes
and the dispositions of the wicked, has told us, and we have, therefore, the
strongest of all possible evidence.
II. The nature of
religion. Those whose minds have surmounted one difficulty in religion often
meet with another. When we have learnt that the purposes of the Deity do not
infringe upon our liberty, and oblige us to be lost, the nature of religion
comes up to lend to our mistake a lame apology. But let us hush the murmur with
two reflections--the one humbling to our pride, the other complimentary to our
nature. The first is, that the difficulties which beset us in our attempts
after religion are mostly, if not altogether, placed there by ourselves,
through our own wickedness and folly. The other is, that that very
characteristic of our nature which renders us capable of religion, or of sensibility
to its difficulties, is the very characteristic which distinguishes us from the
lower order of creatures. Our Creator, in forming us such as we are, has given
us an exaltation. And if we still complain that we have so much to do in the
religion that God requires, let us remember that this activity is absolutely to
the enjoyment of that felicity which religion proposes. We are moral beings,
and religion treats us as such.
1. Its mysteries perplex you. But what have you to do with its
mysteries? Are you required to understand them? No, not at all--you have simply
to believe what is recorded concerning them. Are you required to regulate your
practices by them? Not any further than they are plainly revealed, and have
thereby lost (so far) the character of mysteries.
2. I grant that the Bible contains some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable do wrest, as they do also the other
Scriptures, unto their own destruction. But everything necessary for us to know
is fully revealed, as far as it is necessary that we should know it.
3. Christian morality is extremely plain. All those things which
concern our present and immediate conduct are not difficult to be understood.
4. There is self-denial in religion. Men often think it too severe.
But whence does the necessity of this self-denial arise? It arises wholly and
in every part of it from sin. It is benevolence, therefore, which imposes it.
For what purpose? To preserve the whole man from hell. The necessity of it
arises from corruption alone. Would you have a religion proposed to you which
should leave you at liberty to sin? which should impose no restraint? which
should plunge you into immorality and vice? which would multiply your crimes
thick upon you, and promise to take you to heaven at last? You would reject
such a religion.
5. Perhaps you are troubled with the humility of our religion. But
why should this trouble you? Does the requiring of this prove to you that the
Deity would confine you in sin, taking pleasure in your destruction? The very
aim of this humility is to exalt us.
6. Men must repent; and this troubles you. What, then, is repentance?
It is sorrow for sin--hatred, abhorrence of it, and forsaking of it. Very well:
if you have sinned, erred, done wrong, should you not be sorry for it?
7. You are troubled because God requires you to trust in His
mercy--to believe in Jesus Christ. But if you cannot trust in Jesus Christ for
salvation, where can you trust?
8. Do not the motives of religion compel you to believe that God has
no pleasure in your death? What can you soberly and really desire, that
religion does not offer to you?
III. The condition
of man is called in as an excuse or plea for irreligion. This condition is
alleged to be of such a nature that the individual cannot extricate himself
from it, and attain salvation.
1. The first characteristic of this apology for irreligion is, that
it is altogether hasty. How does this irreligious man know that his depravity
is invincible? What right has he to conclude that his condition is such, that
he cannot accept religion, repent, and be saved? If he had tried--if he had
made a full experiment in the matter, and, after doing all he could do (as
sinners sometimes say they have), had found all his efforts unavailing, then
there would be some ground for his conclusion. But he has not tried. (Men do
err when they say so.) Some little, feeble, unfrequent attempts perhaps he may
have had. But he has not done all he could. There are three proofs of his hasty
conclusion gathered from the experiment itself which he affirms he has made.
2. The second characteristic of this apology is its illegitimate
application. Impotent as the unrenewed man may be for bearing the fruits of the
Spirit, he is under no necessity, from that impotence, of running into those
courses, or those vices and crimes, which so rapidly sear his conscience, and
degrade his nature, or those vanities which take off his mind from everything
good. He resembles a prisoner furnished with a key to unlock his prison, who,
instead of using it, flings it away. He resembles a man in a gulf, from which
he is unable to extricate himself, and who, instead of availing himself of the
aid proffered for his deliverance, turns from the hand that would lift him out,
and plunges still deeper down the chasm that stretches its unfathomable abysses
beneath.
3. The third characteristic of this apology is its tendency to excuse
from moral virtues. Because external conduct is not internal grace, because the
moral virtues have not necessarily the nature of evangelical religion (though
such religion invariably leads to them), sinful men often mistake the bearing
of these virtues. The man who lives in the neglect of them (virtues of which by
nature he is capable) is taking the most direct course to render himself
insensible and inaccessible to the motives and means of an evangelical
religion. Those who have learnt to be shameless before man, have taken one step
toward being fearless before God.
4. The fourth characteristic of this apology is its direct irreligious
tendency: it is taken as an excuse for the neglect of those religious duties
which every irreligious man is capable of performing. The external duties of
religion lie quite within the scope of his ability, and if these are neglected,
what shall show that it would not be the same with all spiritual duties if they
lay as much within the range of his power? And if he is unable, while not born
of the Spirit, to render spiritual worship and service, surely there is the
more urgent reason for coming as near to it as he can.
5. The fifth characteristic of this apology is the idleness attending
it. Hope is an active principle. Despondency is an inactive one. Where has God
told us that we can accomplish nothing in working out our salvation? Where has
He told us to rest contented, or rest discouraged, till He converts us? Where
has He said, that striving to enter in at the strait gate will be of no avail?
Where is the Christian who ever became a Christian in his idleness?
6. The most strange perversion of all, is the argument from the
depravity of nature, for not seeking the aids of grace--the saving efficiency
of the Holy Spirit. Aside from the Holy Spirit, his case is just as hopeless as
if judgment had already proceeded upon him. And this is the great reason why he
should besiege the throne of grace, as standing upon the very borders of the
pit, that God would save him from going down to eternal death! This he can do.
His condition does not prohibit it. This he ought to do. His condition demands
it. (L. S. Spencer, D. D.)
God does not delight in the ruin of sinners
I. This appears
from the creation of man and the original constitution of his nature. God
created man in His own image. This is the only law, so far as we know,
according to which rational creatures can enjoy happiness. Only, he was created
mutable--he had power to stand, but he was also liable to fall--he might obey
and live, or he might transgress and die.
II. This is evident
from the plan of recovery he has formed. Although eternal death had passed on
all who sinned; it would have been impossible to have affirmed that God
delighted in the death of sinners. But in the redemption by Christ, the
character of God comes forth in brighter glory,--a glory that shines without a
cloud, a proof so overwhelming of the character of God, and of His designs of
mercy to our family, that it requires only to be stated that its force may be
felt. Where is the man who will affirm that God finds pleasure in the death of
angels? and yet what has He done for them compared with what He has done for
us?
III. It is evident
from the means God employs to carry this plan into effect.
1. The means which is obviously of first importance is the
incarnation, the obedience, and the death of His Son. Every sorrow of His
humbled estate, every word He spake, and every action He performed on our
world, is a proof of our text.
2. The ordinances of grace. Many of the blessings of God are so
common, that we have ceased to prize them, and never think what our condition
would be were they to be taken from us. The air we breathe, and the sun that
shines on us, are instances of this in the natural world. The same may be said
of the ordinances of grace. We have enjoyed them so long, in such abundance,
and with so little effort of ours, that we are now insensible to the greatness
of the blessing. And yet it is not easy to imagine in what condition we would
have been today had we never enjoyed them, or in what condition we would be
tomorrow were they to be taken from us.
3. The mercies of all kinds which God confers on men. We are
surrounded by the love of God, not only in grace, but in nature, and in
providence, and that love is designed to work on our hearts and lead us to
repentance.
4. Afflictions and chastisements. These wound the body and often
administer the cup of gall to the spirit, but their tendency is salutary, and
therefore we conclude that their design is beneficent. It is mercy, when the
sinner is in the way that leads to death, to beat him back although it should
be with the rod of trouble,--to hedge up his path, although with the thorns of
affliction.
5. The strivings of the Spirit. There are moments of fear, of
trembling, of alarm, in the life of every sinner; he starts up, he looks
around, and he would flee for safety if he only knew where he might be at rest.
These are the strivings of the Spirit of God: to pluck him as a brand from the
great burning, and, though they should never issue in his salvation, they are
sufficient to show that God has no pleasure in his death. There are others who
are “begotten again to a lively hope” by the Word of God; into their hearts the
Spirit enters, restores the palace which was lately in ruins, and makes it a
glorious temple in which God may be worshipped, and in which the Spirit may
dwell. This exhibits God not only as employing means to prevent the death of
the sinner, but as actually averting his destruction, and, therefore, it is the
highest possible evidence that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. (The
Scottish Christian Herald.)
The goodness and severity of God
I. The goodness of
God. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
1. The very commission which Christ gave to His apostles, and which
has been handed down to their successors, proves this. “Go ye into all the
world,” etc. Tell the vilest, the very chief of sinners, without any reserve or
any hesitation, that Christ died for him: that Christ hath redeemed him and all
mankind.
2. And this is to be told to men who are living in sin, rebelling and
sinning with a high hand against God.
3. Nay, such is the goodness of God, so little pleasure has He in the
death of the wicked, that He commissions His ministers to entreat and beseech
sinners to return to Him; to come and receive a full and free pardon.
4. We see His goodness yet further illustrated when these invitations
are neglected and sinners perish in spite of mercy.
5. The strong and repeated expressions or delight when His warnings
are heeded, and His invitations accepted, speak loudly the goodness of God.
II. The severity of
God. It is implied in the text. For though He has no pleasure in the death of
the wicked, they will die notwithstanding. (R. W. Dibdin, M. A.)
An appeal to the heart
Life and death are words pregnant with the highest meaning.
I. The terrible
event. “The death of the wicked.”
1. The wicked is that person, whatever he may be as regards
externals, whose will is not in unison with the will of God.
2. The wicked, far down in the dark abyss of destruction, will ever
remain conscious of his loss, his wretchedness, and the intolerable anger of an
offended God. His death will be his loss of God’s favour, and his own personal
happiness.
3. Why is the wicked doomed to die?
II. The cheering
fact. Can there be anything more consolatory to a sinner than this Divine affirmation?
God takes no pleasure in the misery of His creatures.
1. It is contrary to His benevolent nature to do so. Nature,
conscience, and scripture, testify that His delight is in making all beings
happy.
2. The ruin of a soul gives no satisfaction to the Divine justice.
3. The design of God in all His dealings with sinners is to save
them. All the powers of His infinite love, all the pathos of His infinite
compassion, all the influences of His infinite Spirit, are employed to turn the
wicked from his evil way, and to save his soul. It is not God’s pleasure,
brother, that you should die. Your destruction must be your own act. There may
be written over the portals of hell, in large letters of fire, the
inscription--self-destroyed.
III. The stirring
appeal.
1. It is an appeal addressed to man’s higher nature. Think--give a
reason for such mad conduct. This is God’s method of dealing with men’s souls:
He appeals to their reason. He wants to know the cause of our determination to
reject the offers of redeeming love. “Why will ye die?” There is nothing in the
Divine purposes, nothing in the sacrifice of God’s beloved Son, nothing in the
agency of the Holy Spirit, yea, there is nothing in God’s remedy for diseased
souls, why any sinner should die.
2. It is an appeal which implies the necessity of immediate personal
attention.
3. It is an appeal which conveys the strongest motive for obedience.
Have you any doubt about the reception of a penitent sinner? Think of the oath
of God. Remember the encouraging words of Jesus, “He that cometh unto Me, I
will in no wise cast out.” (J. H. Hughes.)
God calling the wicked to repentance
I. The
declaration.
1. The import of the declaration.
2. He tells us in what He hath pleasure--“that the wicked turn from
his way and live.” The repentance of the wicked is an occasion of delight to
God; for it is the first acknowledgment of His being “the true God”; the first
tribute to His Godhead from the creature of His hand; the first movement of a
lost one from “the wrath to come”; the first rupture between Him and that
abominable thing which God hateth; the first act of homage to His Anointed, who
is also His Son; the first fruit of the Spirit’s work of grace--it is grace
returning to the fountain whence it came, and bringing a “wretched and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” sinner back to be “filled” with “all
the fulness of God.” As our greatest pains and pleasures reach our hearts
through their love, the measure of love must indicate the capacity for joy. But
who can conceive what must be the gladness resulting from the gratification of
infinite love! And there is a three-fold love of God, through the gratification
of which He receives pleasure from the penitence and life of the wicked.
3. The declaration is in the form of an oath--As I live, saith the
Lord. It is meet that such a declaration should have such a form, for thus only
could earnestness, springing from infinite love, express itself fitly in words.
Is this Divine earnestness to be met by indifference? Oh, yield not to the
unbelief that would dare to prefer a charge of perjury against Him for whom it
is impossible to lie!
II. The call. From
out of the midst of Divine glory, from off the Divine throne of grace, and
intense with Divine earnestness, comes the call to the house of Israel--“Turn
ye, turn ye, from your evil ways.”
1. Whence? “From your evil ways.” Every way in which you depart from
the fellowship and service of God is evil. Burdened and filled with sin, having
no righteousness to cover your persons, and no excuse to hide your guilt, and
while there is nothing in all your consciousness but sin, all over and all
through,--with no ability yours but the fell power to transgress,--you are
called to receive all the pardoning mercy and all the saving grace you need.
2. Whither? To Himself God calls you. To Himself as revealed in the
declaration going before--to Himself as on His throne of grace--to Himself
through Jesus Christ.
3. How? In willingness to accept the terms proposed by God, as terms
of salvation and of service. Turning thus, you will verily be debtors to His
grace for all you need. And you may be hoping debtors, for He raiseth the poor
from the dust, He bringeth the fallen from out of the horrible pit, and He
gathereth, as He calleth, outcasts from the very ends of the earth. (John
Kennedy, D. D.)
The salvation of sinners desired by God
I. The state of
mankind as sinners.
1. A state of moral evil. The plural “ways” is here employed to
intimate that the courses pursued by sinners are various in their kinds.
2. A state of imminent danger;--a state in which they are certainly
exposed to death, even eternal death (Romans 6:23).
II. Their duty and
privilege as sincere penitents.
1. Their duty is to turn from their evil ways.
2. Their privilege is, to be saved from death, and enjoy life.
3. The attainment of this privilege is as certain as it is desirable.
1. Why will ye die? By continuing in sin you choose death, the worst
of all evils; and eternal death, the worst of all deaths. This is murder,
self-murder of the blackest description.
2. Why will ye die? By what arguments can you justify your conduct at
the bar of your own consciences? Is not God a better master than the devil? Is
not holiness better employment than sin? Are not the treasures of grace and
heaven better enjoyments than hell and damnation?
3. Why will ye die? Ye men! concerning whom there is still hope of
salvation. Ye Britons! the peculiar favourites of heaven; who enjoy the
clearest gospel light, the greatest religious liberty, and the highest
advantages for piety, in the richest abundance (Psalms 147:20). Ye professing Christians!
who are called by the name of Christ, and are encouraged in His word to seek
Him (2 Chronicles 7:14); who are baptized
in the name of Christ, and bound by the most solemn vows to serve Him alone (Ecclesiastes 5:4).
4. Why will ye die? Remember, if thou die eternally, it must be
because ye will die; your death must be the result of your own deliberate
choice; for God wills your salvation. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
The compassion of God for the unconverted
The compassion of God for the unconverted shows us how miserable
the condition of such an one is. The first trait--the root and origin of all
your misery--is sin; you are miserable because you are sinners. “Sin is the
transgression of the law.” Transgression is not weakness, but it is revolting
against order, it is the overthrowing of the law, which is order and rule; it
is total irregularity and confusion. Such law, such transgression; such order,
such disorder; he who transgresses any law offends against the order of the
whole region over which that law extends its empire. He who offends against
domestic law, offends against domestic order; he who transgresses the law of a
nation, offends against the order of a nation; he who transgresses the law of
this world, offends against the order of this world; and he who transgresses
the law of the universe, offends against the order of the universe. But more
remains. Sin is the transgression of the law of God: but of which law of God?
for there are two laws of God: there is His material law, which regulates the
visible world, to which the sea, the sun, the heavenly bodies belong; and there
is His spiritual law, which governs the invisible world, to which the soul of
man belongs. The law which sin transgresses is the second law, the spiritual
law, which regulates the invisible world. Man sins, and the harmony of the
invisible world is disturbed; but though man sins, the sea observes its limits,
and the sun pursues his course, and the celestial bodies remain in their
places. It is for this reason that the disorder of sin is less striking to us,
carnal as we are and enslaved to visible things; but it is exactly for this
reason that it ought to strike, amaze, and alarm us more. For, which is the
grander and more glorious of these two worlds, the invisible or the visible
world? Behold then the disorder which sin hath produced! And by a necessary
consequence, since the seat of this disorder is in the sinner’s heart, there is
the sinner’s misery and wretchedness; there is your wretchedness, your own
individual wretchedness; and this is the reason why the God of all compassion
is moved, conjures you, and says, “As I live,” etc. Sin does not only throw you
into disorder, it exposes you also to the chastisement of God; and if you can
blind your heart so that it can reconcile itself to disorder, you cannot blind
God to exempt you from punishment. Vain would be your hope of persuading
yourselves that your sin deserves no punishment because you were born in sin,
and that it is only in the first man it should be in justice sought for. Have
you never done anything which you knew to be sinful, though you had power to
avoid committing it? If this has been the case, have you not felt the
reproaches of conscience? Well, then, when you have done what you knew to be
wrong and what you had the power of not doing, you have committed on your part
what Adam did on his, and you have spiritually shared in the fall of all your race;
and when your conscience has reproved you for it, you have testified against
yourself that you have deserved a punishment. And what is the punishment that
God reserves for sin? (Galatians 3:10) A curse!--this single
word has something in it which makes us tremble. Yet the malediction of any man
might be unjust. If I have the approval of God and of my own heart, I could
take refuge in the sanctuary of my conscience, out of the reach of man, and
lift up my eyes in peace to heaven and say unto the Lord: “Let them curse, but
bless Thou.” And even if the malediction of man were merited, it is powerless
of itself. But if God, all just, all good, almighty, should curse me, what
would this malediction be, but all the Divine perfections arrayed against me;
the justice of God overtaking me, His power overwhelming me, and, what is more
terrible, His goodness aggravating the horror of His judgments, and of my
remorse, and constituting my severest torture? Ye unconverted ones, be not
emboldened by the consideration that you do not feel anything commensurate with
such dreadful denunciations, and do not reason in this manner within
yourselves: “No, I do not feel myself accursed of God.” Whether you feel
yourselves accursed or not, you are so, for God says it. If you feel it not,
know that this insensibility is the sign of a hardened heart and the
first-fruits of this very malediction. If you do not feel it now, know that you
will one day feel it, when the visible things through which you are now able to
disguise your condition from yourselves shall have perished. This malediction,
under which you are resting, is eternal; insomuch that if you were to appear at
the tribunal of Jesus Christ without having been converted, you would be
condemned to endless punishment (Matthew 25:41-46). I shall assume that
you are sincerely desirous of conversion, and that you are determined to do, as
far as in you lies, all that you can and ought to do on your part towards it.
It is beyond doubt that your conversion cannot be effected by your own will;
that it can only be by the will of God; that it can only be a work of God, a
gift of God, a grace of God; and that a converted soul has cause to acknowledge
with humility that its entire change proceeds from God, and from the very first
commencement. But it would be decidedly wrong for you to conclude, that,
because your conversion is the work of God and not your own, its success is
less certain; on the contrary, it is more so. If your conversion be the work of
God, the success depends upon the power and the perseverance, the faithfulness
and the wisdom of God; and have you not everything to gain by placing your
trust in such firm and sure hands,--provided only you have the assurance that
God favours your conversion? But I have something to ask you: hear me with
singleness of heart. Do not ask me to explain to you how it is equally true
from God’s Word that no one attains conversion without the grace and election
of God, and yet that you are answerable to God if you do not “turn” to Him, He
having done for each of you all that is necessary for your conversion. Both
these truths are equally attested by Scripture: this sufficiently authorises me
to preach both one and the other, and this ought to be enough also to lead you
to receive both. Let us apply to the things which concern our salvation that
spirit of simplicity and good sense that we exercise in the ordinary affairs of
life. Suppose your house on fire: the flames extend, they spread and reach the
apartment in which you are; a beam over your head takes fire, is rapidly
consuming and momentarily threatens to fall upon you . . . a way of escape is
presented to you;--will you say, in such a case, I cannot escape from the
flames unless it is ordained by God that I should; otherwise I shall perish, do
what I may; I can do nothing to save myself, therefore, I will remain where I
am? No, but you will see in the way opened to you a sign that God willeth your
deliverance, and you will hasten to escape, without perplexing yourself to
inquire whether you are destined to escape from the fire or not,. Exercise the
same prudence in whatever relates to the salvation of your soul. Flee only, and
you will be one of the elect. Whatever may happen, nothing on the part of God
raises an obstacle to your conversion; on the contrary, everything invites,
favours, and ensures its success; God willeth your conversion. What has He refused
you that is necessary for your conversion? Birth, baptism, instruction,
communion, preaching, Scripture, example,--what is wanting? Look around on all
sides, what do you see, what do you hear but the invitations of God, but His
graces, His promises, His menaces, which warn, which summon you, I had almost
said, which compel you to turn? Have you ever considered, in what manner the
preaching of the Gospel has reached you? Perhaps you think that it has been
brought hither as to all other places where it is now known. But no; it has
been borne hither by a series of special, astonishing, and miraculous
dispensations, and in which a fixed design clearly appears to cause the Gospel
to reach you in this country, notwithstanding all obstacles. There is not perhaps
any spot on the globe which the Spirit of darkness--under all the successive
forms which he has devised and assumed--has contested so pertinaciously and
fiercely with the Spirit of truth, as the land that we tread, this revered
land--this land covered with the most vivid and glorious reminiscences of
Church history; and truth banished for a time has invariably retaken hold of
this country, where it has ultimately established itself without violence
before your eyes and for your benefit. I now go farther, and feel emboldened to
assure you that there is nothing on God’s part to prevent you from turning to
Him, nothing on His part to cause the delay of your conversion; nothing,
absolutely nothing, to hinder your conversion this very day. If the work of conversion
were your own, not only would it be impossible this day, but it could never
take place; yet because it is the work of God it is as practicable this day as
on any other. And God’s desire is not that you should postpone it: even this
day He invites you to turn to Him. “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not
your hearts.” But an invitation to turn tomorrow, you will nowhere find in the
Word of God: when conversion is the subject, Scripture does not know the word
tomorrow, except to protest against all delay. Scripture presents many
instances of persons turning as soon as they are called. Lydia hears Paul, and
the Lord opens her heart. The jailor of Philippi hears the Gospel, and is
converted the same night. The nobleman of Capernaum sees his servant healed by
Jesus Christ, and believes with all his house. Zaccheus seeks Jesus, finds Him,
receives Him, and performs works of faith--all in one day. The thief humbles
himself, is converted, and receives the promise of life whilst he is on the
cross. “All things are now ready” for the conversion of souls. On the King’s
pare all is ready: “the oxen and fatlings are killed,” the dinner is prepared,
the tables are covered, the places are arranged, the doors are open, the
servants are sent, the guests are invited, they have only to enter and sit down
at the feast. All is ready since the world began, for anyone who is now
desirous, has desired, or will desire to be converted. But if God desire your
conversion, and desire it this day; if on His side all is encouragement,
invitation, will, disposition; and if He does all that can be done, all that
can be imagined--except compelling you--in order that you should turn; from
whom then arise the obstacles which impede your conversion, or the delays which
retard it? From whom, if not from yourselves? from yourselves, who wilt not
enter when God opens His door to you, who will not open to Him when He knocks
at yours, who, in short, will not turn to Him? What prevents you from taking up
your Bible and reading it with attention, perseverance, prayer? from praying to
God for His grace and His Spirit, for faith, and a new heart? from confessing
your sins to the Lord, and beseeching Him to blot them out with His blood? from
doing what God enjoins in His Word, and ceasing to do what He forbids? from
seeking the encouragement and advice of experienced Christians who are within
your reach? what, in fine, prevents you from hearing God who speaks to you,
from following God who calls you, from opening to God who knocks, and from doing,
in a word, all that is necessary to your conversion? (A. Monod.)
Life by repentance unto life
God is here; revealing the secret thoughts of many hearts on the
subject of sin, and the hopelessness of deliverance from its dominion and the
impossibility of coming to life or salvation, if that salvation is to consist
in separation from sin in the inner and outer man. Salvation, or eternal life,
by redemption from sin, and reconciliation with God in repentance, and its
fruit, or fulfilment, regeneration, this is to be the message of every minister
of the Gospel, which is not only to be proclaimed so plainly and loudly that it
cannot be mistaken, but to be pressed on the conscience of his people with the
intense earnestness of affection, and fervent longing for their soul’s
salvation, which will breathe the very spirit of the Divine love, to which the
minister but gives expression.
1. A false persuasion possesses the minds of innumerable members of
the Christian Church as thoroughly as it pervaded the Jewish on the subject of
sin, salvation, and the righteousness, as well as grace, of God’s providence,
or judgment, in His dealings with sinners. Do Christians in general, any more
than Jews in Ezekiel’s day, connect consciously in their own minds, as things
inseparable, sin not repented of and death eternal, or damnation, sin repented
of and life eternal, or salvation? Is the way of the Lord in their eyes equal,
by a revelation which has commended itself to their consciences of a way of
righteousness that is invariable in the case of every sinner, the saved and the
lost equally, and as unchangeable as the life of the eternal God Himself, being
one of the laws of the kingdom of heaven, indeed; the fundamental law on which
the kingdom eternally rests? Is life, in their faith, separation inwardly and
outwardly from sin? Is salvation, in their view, salvation from sin, and
reconciliation with God, or return to God on the sinner’s part by repentance
unto life, and regeneration to newness of spiritual life? Do they see that such
is the salvation of the Gospel?
2. What, then, is to prepare the way of the Lord in the Christian, as
formerly in the Jewish church? What but the proclamation of the antidote to the
former life in the message of the prophet which forms the second lesson of the
text? What but repentance unto life revealed to be the Gospel way of salvation,
the way of salvation open to every sinner equally without respect of persons,
and the only way of salvation to any sinner, because the only possible way by
which a sinner can become a saint?
(i) It is a man’s own fault--God is not to bear the blame--if the man,
although a sinner, does not come to life and salvation.
(ii)
This
is the purpose of a Gospel ministry, to bring you to repentance, and so to
salvation; to baptize you with the baptism of repentance, through faith in
Jesus Christ for you crucified, and so bestow on you remission of sins, and all
the other spiritual blessings of the kingdom of heaven.
(iii)
Whatever
be the actual result to you personally, “the way of the Lord is equal,” and
impartial. God is gracious, and to you gracious, whether you believe so or
disbelieve. God is righteous, and will deal with you righteously in His
providence, and judge you in righteousness according to your way and works, whether
you come to repentance, and so forsake sin, or refuse to come to repentance,
and so remain ungodly, unrighteous, unregenerate. (R. Paisley.)
Why will ye die, O House
of Israel?--
Why go to hell
I. A horrible
resolution. A resolution to die--a determination to be damned. “Stay, sir,”
says one, “that is far too strong an assertion; who ever heard anyone say that
he intended to go to hell?” I never said anyone had been heard to say so, all I
say is, they determine to.
1. A man may De said to have resolved to die when he uses the means
of death. There is a black mixture, sweet to the natural taste of man, but
labelled by God “slow poison,” called sin. The result of taking it is declared,
in language that cannot be mistaken, to be certain death. “The soul that
sinneth, it shall die.” “The wages of sin is death.” “Sin when it is finished
bringeth forth death.” These are a few of the red labels of caution that God
has put upon sin.
2. A man may be said to have determined to die, who spurns all that
could save him from death. It is possible to ensure death by simply refusing to
accept anything that could rescue from it. The poison is in your blood, working
death, and in rejecting Christ you have given as awful a proof of determination
to die, as ever you could have given by the vilest of lives.
3. A man may be said to have determined to die who surmounts all
obstacles placed in his way in order to prevent him. God only knows how many
obstacles you have overcome in your race to ruin. In early days a mother
stopped your path, but you soon evaded her, and broke her heart. A Sunday
school teacher did his best to arrest you, but he proved no great obstacle; you
soon left his class when you found he was satisfied with nothing less than the
salvation of your soul. Hundreds of sermons have been flung across your path,
but you have somehow got over them all.
II. A plaintive
question. “Why will ye die?”
1. Is hell so pleasant a place you want to enter there?
2. Is it because heaven has no charms?
3. Is eternity in your estimation a trifle? I could better understand
your indifference to salvation--or, as we are describing it tonight, your
preference for perdition--if the future state was in either case of only
limited duration. But to risk the loss of a soul, when forever and forever is
part of the contract, is almost sufficient to stagger belief, were there not so
many sad witnesses to the fact.
4. Do you consider a soul worthless? You value your health, you value
your home, you value your friends, but you set no value on your soul. Is it so?
Surely that which will outlive all the other possessions of a man must be of
some worth. Remember also that if you count it of but little value, it has been
differently estimated by One who ought to know, considering that He made it.
Christ considers that the worth of one soul outweighs the accumulated wealth of
a universe.
III. A glorious
truth, full of hope for sinners. If this text proclaims anything, it declares
with trumpet tongue that hell is not unavoidable. It steps in the path of the
sinner, throws a barrier before him, and argues with him to wean him from his
fatal resolve.
1. God does not desire the sinner’s ruin.
2. Hell was never prepared for man at all, but for the devil and his
angels, and it is only if man prefers Satan to God on earth, that he must reap
the consequences of his choice in eternity by dwelling forever in the home of
the one he has preferred.
3. Although God hates sin, He loves the sinner, with a love
unutterable. (A. G. Brown.)
Divine expostulation
Christian teachers are always talking to men about conversion,
change of heart, and consequent change of habit. The Christian teacher seems to
be intent upon pressing upon the attention of men a certain scheme of thought.
He will not speak to us so much about practical life, conduct, habit, manners,
and the like; he persistently addresses himself to the exposition and
enforcement of certain abstract or metaphysical arguments. The idea is that if
you can really alter a man’s thought, you at the same time alter the man’s fife.
The Christian teacher, therefore, if really sent from God, begins with the
heart, he does not come to wash the hands, but to cleanse the soul; knowing
that when the heart is really clean, thoroughly purified, the hands cannot be
foul. He would make the fountain good that he may purify the stream; he would
make the tree good that the fruit which it brings forth may also be good. The
motive determines the quality. If a man be building from the outside and only
on the outside, then be sure he is not a durable builder. Hence the slowness,
or the apparent slowness, of the Christian movement. You can write a programme
in a few moments; you can, by using proper instrumentalities, organise a
demonstration for fourteen or ten days, and it shall be quite impressive and
portentous to some minds and eyes; but it means nothing unless there be behind
it a conviction, a spiritual reality, a noble motive, then it must win. When
your minds are full of right thoughts we need take no further care of you. You
are under the government of God; but whilst you have cast out the evil thoughts
and have not received the good thoughts you are yourselves a temptation and an
opportunity to the devil. First of all, then, we lay down this proposition,
that a man must be born again; not merely restored, reformed, redressed,
rehabilitated, but born, born again; starting life as a babe, with a babe’s
heart, and a babe’s eye of wonder, and a babe’s trustfulness. Who is Christ?
Have you begun at the right name? My Lord hath a thousand appellations, yea by
ten thousand names is He known to all the adoring angels, but to me He is known
first and midst and last by the sweet name--Saviour. What man wants in the
first instance is the distinct consciousness that he needs a Saviour. Until he
gets that consciousness he can make no progress. Only broken heartedness can
pray; only helplessness can cry mightily to heaven; only agony has e he key of
the Cross. When a man does not thirst he does not inquire for the stream, but
when his throat is burning with thirst his lips are full of heat because of
want of water; he tries to say, though chokingly, Where is the well, where is
the stream? Then a child might load him; but so long as that necessity is not
biting him, burning him, scorching him, he holds his head aloft, he will not be
talked to, he will not have any dogmatic teaching; let him alone. The time will
come when he will ask the least child that can talk to tell him where the
living stream doth flow. The Christian idea is that there is only one Saviour.
But He is a thousand Saviours in one. He has all man needs, and man needs all
He has. It is a very complex problem, though simple in some of its aspects. Man
never knows how great a being he is until he knows Christ. Christ makes the man
himself so much larger. He addresses Himself to the very mystery of our
manhood. He does not ignore our will. He knows that we are fearfully and
wonderfully made, He knows that He is dealing with the handiwork of God, for a
moment spoiled by the devil; therefore He saith, What wilt thou, poor blind
man? what wilt thou, lonesome leper? Therefore saith He, “Believe ye that I am
able to do this?” and when He reproaches us He says, “Ye will not come unto Me
that ye might have life”; and in that last, grandest, sublimest plaint He says,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! killer, stoner of prophets and missionaries, how often
would I have gathered thee together as a hen doth gather her brood under her
wings, and ye would not”: and these words He could hardly speak, for He was
choking with emotion, and the tears were running from His eyes. Christianity is
a pleading religion, it is a missionary religion; it goes out after that which
is lost, and will not come until it hath found it. The Gospel has only one
time--now! The Gospel has no tomorrow; “Now is the accepted time, now is the
day of salvation.” All earnestness has only one time. Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might, with a will, with a tremendous
concentrated energy, for in the grave there is no device. Christianity has only
one way--believe! How this word has been maltreated! To believe is to give the
soul over to the keeping of the way of God. Belief is not assenting to
something, saying, That is true: I see no reason against it: in the meantime
your proposition seems to be wholly impregnable, your position is invincible:
on the whole I accede and consent. That is not faith; that is a mere
intellectual action. To believe is to nestle the soul in God. Christianity has
only one purpose--holiness. Christianity ends in conduct. Christianity begins
in motive, but it ends in character, in manhood. We are to be perfect men in
Christ Jesus, we are to be as He was in the earth; we are to breathe His
Spirit, repeat His deeds, follow His footsteps, and represent Him to mankind. Christianity
has only one test--service. To die for Christ, to work for Christ, to be always
repeating Christ’s great mission to the world. Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?
Watch a door, light a lamp, or preach Thy Word? Not my will, but Thine be done;
only dismiss me not Thy service, Lord! (J. Parker, D. D.)
Man is bent on his own destruction
1. Men break the law of God, knowing that the penalty of breaking
this law is their everlasting ruin. If a man should pass through the streets,
plunging a dagger into the heart of everyone he met with, if we had evidence
that he had his reason, we should say that he meant to tempt the law to do its
best for his destruction.
2. The same truth is manifest from the fact that sinners reject Jesus
Christ, the only medium of their pardon and their salvation. If one had broken
the law of man, and should refuse to receive pardon from the hands of his chief
magistrate, although he should go daily to his prison, and offer that pardon,
and solicit his acceptance, we should say that he intends to die. If the
conditions were that he should receive that pardon at the hands of the chief
magistrate, with due acknowledgments, and without any necessary degradation, we
should say that he not only intends, but deserves to die.
3. From other facts, it is evident, that sinners are determined to
die, inasmuch as they reject the influence of the Holy Ghost, the only power
that can make them clean, and take their feet out of the horrible pit and miry
clay, and set them upon a rock. If one had fallen into a deep cavern, and there
was but one ear that could hear, and but one arm that could save, and he should
refuse to be aided by that arm, we should say that he certainly means his own
destruction.
4. The same truth is evident from the fact that men are going on to
form a character for perdition, when they know that a totally different
character is requisite to fit them for heaven.
Why will ye die
1. One will die because his heart is engrossed with worldly cares.
2. Another, because he is ashamed to have it known that he is
anxious.
3. Another, because he is unwilling to give up some sinful companion.
4. Another, because he is unwilling to leave his profession.
5. Another, because he is unwilling to pray in his family.
6. Another, because he is unwilling to confess Christ before men.
7. Another will lose his soul by talking about others.
8. Pride of consistency will keep some out of heaven. They fear that
if they commence a religious life they will not hold out, and so will not
begin.
9. Some will lose their souls by spending their time in cavilling at
Divine truth.
10. Others will perish in consequence of cherishing some secret sin,
known only to God and their own consciences. (A. Nettleton, D. D.)
They hear Thy words, but
they will not do them.
The religion of a
formalist
I. The extent of a
formal religion. There is unquestionably much about the characters here
described worthy of respect and admiration. The pity is, so fair a form should
conceal so vile a heart.
1. They entertained a high respect for the truth, and the messenger
whom God had commissioned to proclaim it. How many treat the message and the
messenger with respect, who have no share in the Divine and saving power they
are appointed to convey! They have caught a feeble ray of light; it has
something of beauty and lustre about it; but it is the cold moonbeam reflected
from the church, and not the healing and life-giving ray of the Sun of
Righteousness.
2. To respect, may be added a compliance with religious ordinances
and duties. Custom, or education, or pride, or respect for the preacher, or the
desire to see, and be seen, brought them here. Even their demeanour in the very
presence of the eternal God, is not free from hypocrisy.
3. Further, there may be an apparent love for religion, and the
doctrines it inculcates; for “with their mouth they show much love.” Religion
is talked about and recommended. While it is the topic of conversation you
observe an unusual glow of animation, a seeming zeal for its interests. Its
doctrines and duties are defended against the cavils and objections of all
opposers.
4. There may be the experience of deep and powerful emotions, under
the preaching of the truth. The preacher is to them “as a very lovely song,”
etc. A thrill of indescribable pleasure vibrates on the chords of feeling as he
proceeds; but it is only the excitement of passions which would have been
aroused with equal intensity and delight by the harmonies of a concert, or the
representations of the stage. Yet is it unusual to mistake these emotions for
religious feeling? or, can any impression be more delusive?
II. The
deficiencies of a formal religion. The heart is the seat of the defect. It has
never been the subject of Divine and regenerating grace; and, where this is the
case, there may be every semblance of true religion, but reality there is none.
See the objections which a heart-searching God prefers against the characters
in consideration. They are these: “they hear Thy words, but they will not do
them.” Here the will is at fault. The prime and governing power of the heart
does not yield a just submission to the authority of Divine law. A little
further on is a second charge: “their heart goeth after their covetousness.”
The deficiency is here at once referred to the heart, whose affections have
never been surrendered to Him who justly demands them. They remain fixed, with
unchanging tenacity, to the creature, but the Creator is forgotten. Again, the
first charge is reiterated, though in an altered form of expression: “They hear
Thy words, but they do them not.” Wherefore, but because there is no heart to
them? The understanding and affections must be renewed; the will become
subject; the whole man be created anew in Christ Jesus, until the old nature is
trampled under foot, and the love of God alone holds supremacy. If religion is
designed to correct the evils and perversities of our nature, to what point
should its influence be directed rather than the heart, which is the seat of
man’s depravity, and out of which proceeds every thing that is capable of moral
or religious impress?
III. The danger of a
formal religion. The publication of the Gospel, with its riches of promise,
implies the sad alternative, which must overtake all who do not heartily
receive and obey its doctrines. No one can seriously imagine a religion of
hollow compliments and specious disguises to be acceptable in the sight of God:
to offer it in the place of a loving heart is to superadd mockery to rebellion.
(John Lyth.)
The formalist and the
Christian
I. There is a
resemblance between the formalist and the Christian in the spirit of hearing
and in the respect which is felt for the temple and the minister of the temple.
So marvellous has been the spread of Christianity; so thoroughly has it
leavened society with its influence, that that which was formerly a badge of
shame has become at once a talisman of safety, and a certificate of honour, and
the cross, formerly dishonoured and reproachful, is now the sign beneath which
armies march to battle. It glitters as the symbol of our faith on the domes of
Christian temples, and is traced in baptismal beauty on the foreheads of kings.
The sort of respect which conventionalism bears to Christianity affords
indirect encouragement to its formal profession. If there yawned the dungeon
before every confessor--if the sword flashed over the head of every saint, as
over the head of Damocles at the banquet, there might, perhaps, be fewer professors
of Christianity, but they would be braver and more sincere. Men would be chary
of entering upon their vows, but constant in their adhesion to the faith of
their espousal. But now that the earth has taken upon itself to help the
woman--now that a prayerless family, or a churchless household has a kind of
disgrace affixed to it, it is not at all an uncommon thing that there should be
an attachment to the temple and an eager hearkening to its message, in hearts
that are as impervious as granite to the reception of the truth, and as set
against its vital and quickening power as the most flippant witling who sits in
the seat of the scornful.
II. The second
point of resemblance between the formalist and the Christian is that the former
complies with and has attachment to the ordinances of religion. “And they come
unto thee as the people cometh.” They come into the sanctuary with a religious
feeling. There is devotion in their responses; there is for the time sincerity
in their approach to God. They come and sit just as the people sit--equally
decorous, equally interested, equally attentive, equally impressible, and “with
their mouth they show much love.” They pay homage to religion, to godliness,
they regard it as the chief thing; they are not ashamed to talk about it as
they pass down to the business of the day. They are fluent in its praise and in
its advocacy. They talk glibly about a life of piety and the charms and hopes
of religion, and the unparalleled attractiveness of the heaven to which it
leads. They are ready-handed and open-hearted when distress pleads or
benevolence prefers her claims. Oh, there are so many excellences about them
that it wrings our hearts to think that they lack the one thing which alone can
make those excellences of avail.
III. The resemblance
between the formalist and the Christian is that the former feels under the
minister’s discourse. They are neither heedless nor dissatisfied hearers. They
hang upon the minister’s lips, they feast upon his discourse in all the luxury
of intellectual pleasure. They have a delight in listening to him as great as
when they were enraptured by the tones of some enchantress of song, or as when
they sat breathless while the organ swelled out some psalmist’s inner soul. And
I think when you consider the sort of ministry under which these people sat you
will find there was a deeper emotion roused within them than ever mere
elocutionary gratification produced. Ezekiel certainly was no carpet wizard, he
was no dealer in literary millinery. He had a soul too brave and a purpose too
strong to labour for tropes or to be content with platitudes. Under such a
preacher there must have been the stirring of conscience, the convulsions of
the heart, the agitation of the whole moral nature, as he brought home conviction
of guilt, and launched against them the threatenings of doom. Yes, and so it is
now. So it may be now. There may be, or there may not be, connected with the
administration of the truth a refinement of intellectual pleasure. Paul may
argue forcibly, or Barnabas tenderly win; Elijah may be imperial in his irony,
and Ezekiel scorching in his rebuke, for there are diversities of gifts yet,
and God hath given to everyone as it hath pleased Him. But there must be--it is
inevitable--there must be wherever the Gospel is faithfully and evangelically
preached--and I am bold to affirm that there has been faithful preaching, and
preaching of the pure Gospel here--there must be impression and conviction--all
the works of the accompanying Spirit. If you have felt the song to be sweet and
the player to be skilful, you have felt the burning words, the power of the
thoughts that have been expressed and impressed by the power of the Spirit upon
your heart.
IV. The difference
is that in the formalist the heart is not right in the sight of God. They are
conscious that while they listen, and that while they are impressed, there is
within them a stubborn and a resisting soul which has not been renewed by the
washing of regeneration, and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. They are not
only attentive to the Word, but they acknowledge its reality and its
momentousness, and yet there is a stubborn will that refuses submission, and an
imagination that revels in the unclean chambers of its guilt. And the man,
alas, is only beautiful outwardly, like a fair damsel whose cheek rivals the
peach bloom, but in whose heart the pale fires burn, or like a gothic sepulchre
whose gorgeous architecture conceals the habitations of death. You may alter
the pointers and touch the regulators of a watch without ceasing, but if the
mainspring is broken you can have no accurate note of time. Every stone in an
arch may be proportioned and in its place, but if the keystone is wanting you
will never rear it in strength. Bone may come to his bone, and skin may cover
them, and it may be fenced with sinew and covered with flesh as the skeleton,
but unless the quick pulses are alive with the flowing blood there will be no
lighted house of life. Religion is a thing of the heart; it is not a mere
dogmatism of creed; it is not a mere timorous morality; it is not even a
flatteringly faultless observance of devotion: it is a warm life welling up
from a renewed heart; it is a new affection expelling or controlling the old;
it is the embodiment of a passion which is neither sordid nor servile, but
which in deep gratitude for its deliverance offers itself a living sacrifice,
and in the generosity of its ungrudging service can never say, “It is enough.”
Do you see the point of difference now? How is it with yourselves? Have you
turned to the Lord with full purpose of heart? (W. M. Punshon.)
A false people and a true
prophet; or, an old picture of modern life
1. Some people have true prophets. What is it that constitutes a true
prophet? Is it superiority of native power? This we hold to be a necessary
element. A man must have more brain and heart force than I before he can become
my prophet. The man in the pulpit, whose mind is constitutionally inferior to
his congregation, is not their true prophet. But although this is necessary, it
is not all. There must be, in connection with this, a reigning sympathy with
God’s truth, character, and will. This is the inspiration of the true prophet.
2. Some true prophets have false people. People in all ages have
wrongly treated the true prophets. Jewish history abounds with examples; and
even now, I think, we shall find men treating God’s ministers as Ezekiel was
treated by his hearers.
I. They conversed
much concerning their prophet.
1. This practice is very common now. To church-going people the
minister is one of their most constant themes of conversation.
2. This practice is frequently very injurious. It tends to neutralise
the power of the ministry. A minister of God is not an individual who is to
appear before people merely to be looked at, admired, and talked about; or who
is to utter opinions which are to be submitted to criticism, or become points
of social converse and debate. But he is an ambassador from God; “in Christ’s
stead” he is to beseech men to be reconciled to their Maker.
II. They were
interested in the ministry of their prophet They invited each other to his
ministrations. “Come, I pray you,” etc. Strangers, observing them pressing
their way to the scenes of devotion, or sitting with solemn face and rapt
attention in the assembly, or hearing them speak so lovingly and admiringly of
the servant of God, might infer that they were saints of the first type. A deep
interest in the ministry of a true and talented prophet is no proof of piety.
There are many things in such a ministry to interest a man. It meets many of
the native cravings of the soul. It meets the desire for excitement. It meets
the desire for knowledge. A desire for information and intellectual exercise is
common to us all. It meets the desire for happiness. “Who will show us any
good?” This is the most vehement cry of humanity, and it is the cry of an
impulse that keeps the world in action. The ministry of Divine truth meets it.
Its every aim is to reveal “the way of life.”
III. They were
spiritually unreformed by the ministry of their prophet.
1. Divine truth is preached, that it may be practised. Unless ideas
lead to actions, they have no influence upon character; and unless our
character is changed we can never reach happiness, nor obtain the approbation
of God.
2. It will never be practised, if the heart go after covetousness.
IV. They were
destined to discover, when too late, their terrible mistake in relation to the
ministry of their prophet. All attendants on a true ministry will one day feel
this--feel that a true prophet had been amongst them. This will be felt by all,
in one of three ways--
1. in the reproaches of a guilty conscience.
2. In the felicities of experimental religion.
3. In the mysterious horrors of retribution.
All true prophets will one
day be valued; their words will burn in the experience of every soul to whom
they have spoken. (Homilist.)
The prophet and the people
I. A beautiful
picture. Man is saying to man, “Come, let us hear the word of the Lord.” That
is the only thing worth doing. All other things derive their value and
importance from that central thought, that vital action. How charming, then, is
the idea that man is saying to man, Come, and hear what God the Lord will say;
come, and listen to the true music, the only music, and your hearts will be
made glad. This invitation expresses the action of a very profound instinct in
human nature; not only so, it expresses a need, an aching yearning need of the
heart. The heart needs a voice other than human; the soul says, I have not seen
all my relatives: I hear their voices, and I like them; some of the tones are
good: but the tones are more suggestive than final: I hear the ocean in the
shell. Where is that ocean? Where is that mighty roar? I am not content with
the shell; I want to go and see the instrument out of which there comes such
thunderous, solemn music. So give the soul fair play, let it talk itself right
out in all its native frankness, under the inspiration of necessity, rather
than under the force of merely mechanical instruction, and the soul cries out
for the living God. When the soul is no longer conscious of an aching, a
gnawing hunger, the man is dead: he may try to talk himself into a kind of
spasmodic life, but in the secret of him he is dead; when the earth satisfies him,
when time is enough, when the senses alone bring him all the contentment or all
the joy he needs, he is a dead man.
II. A distressing
possibility (verse 31). The people come to hear the letter only, and there is
no letter so disappointing as the letter of the Bible. If you stop at a certain
point you miss everything; you are surrounded by mountains, but they are so
high that you cannot see any sky beyond them, and therefore they become by
their very hugeness prison walls. Ezekiel’s hearers were formal, not vital.
With their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their
covetousness. This is not ancient history, whatever else it may be. If Ezekiel
could have lived upon “loud cheers” he would have been living now; if he could
have satisfied himself with popular applause, he would have reigned as a king:
but he said, I do not want your mouth worship, I want to find you at the Cross.
III. Misdirected
admiration (verse 32). What is wanted in every congregation is earnestness. No
man should come to church except to hear God’s word, and so to hear it as to be
compelled to do it. Many men who cannot understand Christian metaphysics can do
Christian charities, can exemplify Christian tempers, and so can interpret
concretely the subtlest, profoundest metaphysics of Divine thinking. The true
metaphysician will by the degree of his truthfulness be compelled to be earnest
as well as subtle, and the hero who knows nothing about spiritual metaphysics
will see that in doing God’s will he is becoming a great scholar in God’s
school.
IV. A too late
discovery (verse 33). Who has not heard men complain that they have neglected
their educational advantages? They played truant when they were children; they
did not attend to the instruction that was given to them; they had an
opportunity of becoming really well informed and highly instructed, but they
allowed the opportunity to pass by without improvement. Too late! the greatest
realisation of loss is that a prophet has vanished, a prophet has been here and
gone. Will he not return? Never. Foolish are they who stretch their necks to
look over the horizon to see if the prophet is not coming. The prophet is never
far away if you really want him. Your mother could be a prophetess to you if
you wanted to pray; your father, who is probably not a great scholar in the
literal sense, could speak things to you that would open your imagination to
new universes if you really wanted to be guided in upward thinking and heavenly
action. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 32
Thou art unto them as a very lovely song.
Ezekiel
These words are spoken of the prophet Ezekiel; he is as the lovely
song, as the pleasant voice, as the instrument of music, all this even to the
worldly mind; yet we might have thought otherwise; so full is he of woe, of the
wrath of God; and how dark and obscure are his visions! It might then at first
sight appear inconsistent with tiffs that the prophet Ezekiel should in style
be considered so engaging, that even to those to whom he was sent with heavy
tidings he should be as one that had a “pleasant voice”; in like manner, that
although the roll which is given him is “written within and without,” “with
lamentations and mourning and woe,” yet it should be in the mouth of the
prophet, that is, to the natural man, “as honey for sweetness.” Yet this is in
accordance with much we find in Scripture; for instance, what could be more
sternly severe and full of reproof than St. Stephen’s speech at his death? But
on that occasion, “looking steadfastly on him, they saw his face as it had been
the face of an angel.” Thus God arrested their minds till His martyr should
speak to them all his burden of sad admonition. Again, such types and figures
have a life such as no mere words of themselves can have, they clothe
themselves with form and spirit, and continue. Thus the images of Ezekiel not
only speak of themselves in the place where they are found; but they come up
again and are of frequent occurrence in the Apocalypse, as if still waiting for
their fulfilment. Thus, indeed, much that is in Ezekiel is also in St. John;
things which already have been in some sense fulfilled; but even now are
fulfilling themselves, and yet to be more largely and worthily fulfilled. The
vision of the four living creatures, for instance, in Ezekiel, is found again
in St. John; it is still before us; still new; we know much of what it means,
but we have much more yet to learn. The glory of the Lord coming from the East;
His voice like the noise of many waters; the earth shining with His glory;
these and many such things in Ezekiel are reproduced in St. John. In both the
angels of judgment are represented as waiting till the children of God are
sealed with His “mark upon their forehead.” Gog and Magog with their armies are
both, alike in Ezekiel and in St. John, as about to come forth in the times of
the end. The assembling of the fowls to the great sacrifice is in both. And
especially that subject of many chapters in Ezekiel, the measuring of the
Temple and the vision of the Holy City, is marked in both as yet to be. Now, I
have said that one effect of types and similitudes such as these is, that they
may not die away and be forgotten; thus if we look to those subjects of Holy
Writ which arrest at this day most attention in the world, we shall find it is
such figurative prophecies. Such are some reasons for the symbolic language of
Ezekiel; it is a language suited for all times and countries, that never grows
out of date or loses its power. Add to which it may be naturally accounted for
by the character and circumstances of the prophet, and the heavy tidings he had
to bear. Strong feeling does always naturally express itself in figures and
similitudes; it gives vent to itself in burning words that take form and are
full of life. Thus as a plant which when crushed gives forth its sweetness, as
from the grape trodden under foot is the Wine of God; and from the corn
thrashed and ground is the Bread of Life: so was Ezekiel stricken of God that
he might speak the more powerfully in the likeness of Christ. And oh, the
blessedness of that suffering, the inestimable value of that affliction which
gives us power to speak the words of God! And well did he need visions and
words of power, for nothing else would reach the hearts of those to whom he was
sent. For these reasons the prophecies of Ezekiel, like our Lord’s own miracles
and parables, present things more to the eye than to the ear; for thus they
more powerfully reach the mind. Hence the whole style and character of Ezekiel;
where another prophet persuades, Ezekiel sees a sign or symbol and leaves that
to speak. He is set as a watchman to watch for the morning, and descries its
light from afar, while fires as of Mount Sinai blend with the milder radiance
of Pentecost. He is the Prophet of Christ’s second coming no less than of His
first. As in the Day of Judgment, amidst sights and signs the most sublime and
terrible, will be manifested wonderful depths of God’s wisdom, the reach of His
Providences, and the scales of eternal justice; so throughout this prophet,
amidst visions and imagery, great, striking, and awful, there occur full and
clear enunciations of God’s mercy and truth, the rising of His temple, the
sublime and wonderful but most beautiful order of His ways on earth, bearing
onward the throne of the Incarnate Son of God. St. Jerome says that he was used
when young to go on the Lord’s day into the caves at Rome where the Apostles
and Martyrs were buried; and there, in silence and darkness amid the chambers
of the dead, to meditate on the visions of Ezekiel; and that thus he learned to
approach them with awe and reverence, not with idle curiosity, and so in some
measure to understand them; seeing light, he says as in the dubious obscure,
and exclaiming, “I have found Him whom my soul loveth, I will hold Him fast and
will not let Him go.” Thus, “in the cloudy and dark day,” in the times of
affliction, we may understand him better than now we do. One word more of
caution; a holy bishop, who has written largely on Ezekiel, the great St.
Gregory, has applied it to the examination and correction of our own heart, and
building up the soul in righteousness. Thus we know that the temple of God of
which so much is said in Ezekiel is in one sense our own soul. Happy he who
mourns for all pollutions and abominations that have been there, who puts out
from thence all idols, and makes it fit for the indwelling of God. Blessed is
he who keeps his heart tender and low to understand His prophets, whether the
plaintive voice amidst the ruins of Israel or the dark harp by the waters of
Babylon. (Isaac Williams, B. D.)
The songs our lives sing
I. Our lives sing
various songs.
1. Some lives are set to wailing music, the lives that are far away
from God, and separated by the great gulf of sin from all things good and holy.
When the measure of such a song falls on our spiritual ears we are depressed
and feel like weeping.
2. There are other life songs set to joyful music. They are sent to
brighten up the earth, and, like the flowers, to make it more beautiful. These
songs are the lives of those who love the beauties of the world, climb above
its mists, and revel in the sunlight. They look on the bright side of life,
feeling that it is better to laugh than to cry, to pluck the rose and leave
untouched the thorn.
3. There are other songs given forth by lives that are fired with a
sublime purpose to make the world better, and to lift it to a loftier plane of
living. Such lives are set to stately music that broadens and deepens the
hearts of those who hear.
4. But the sweetest song that ever fell on mortal ears is one that
flowed out from Calvary two thousand years ago, and sounded down the ages to
bless the fallen race, a song that rose to heaven, and angels climbed the
everlasting hills to hear. Now and then a human life, a song from God, catches
the metre of Jesus Christ, and when its music is heard hearts soften, nerves
thrill, and teardrops fall.
II. We hear, but
often do not heed, these life songs. In the days when the heart song of Ezekiel
sounded out there were many who heard, and yet they heeded not. When the heart
song of Jesus Christ sounded out there were many sordid souls who heeded not
the music. God says to all such today, as to those who heard Ezekiel, that if
they hear and fail to be benefited their blood shall not be required at the
hands of the singer, but shall be on their own heads.
III. Inferences.
1. Our life songs always seem feeble to ourselves. When we are
nearest to Christ there is deeper music in the heart than can be uttered by the
lips or the life.
2. We must first learn to sing life’s songs here if we expect to sing
them yonder. In the sight of God our lives upon this earth must be like the
limping songs of childhood, but up yonder we shall be prima donnas and master
singers in the choir of the skies. (Homiletic Review.)
Ezekiel’s popularity
Ezekiel had by this time become a successful preacher. He had not
always been such; on the contrary, he had been for a long time disbelieved and
disliked. Now, however, he had come to be highly regarded, partly on account of
the singularity of his preaching, partly on account of the striking and
unexpected fulfilment of his prophecies. He was the great sensation of the day;
men thought it the proper thing to go and hear him, to listen with rapt
attention to the impetuous torrent of his words, and, when they went away, to
discuss his message in the gates or on the housetops. Yet was the alteration
but a sensible one, the reformation only superficial; and in the text the Lord
exposes the hollowness of it all. I need not say how exactly this state of
things is reproduced in the case of every popular preacher. Men whose lives are
cruel or impure, whose hearts are covetous, whose thoughts are bitter, crowd to
hear the preacher of the day, because his words are sweet, because his
eloquence is full of melody, because they feel themselves for the moment
fascinated, captivated, carried out of, lifted above, themselves. And then they
talk about “getting good,” not because they have the slightest practical
intention to reform, but because they have had pleasurable emotions, and their
religious feelings have been gently excited by the skilful touch of the
preacher. In our own Church eloquence is so rarely heard that we are in little
danger of such delusion. Ezekiel in his popularity is a type not only of all
lesser preachers, but emphatically of Him who is the great Prophet and Preacher
of the world, the Master of all ages, the Incarnate Word of God. A very lovely
song it is which the Saviour sings; no poet, no prophet, no bard ever sung or
ever dreamed, or even ever strove (and striving, failed) to express anything
half so sweet, so full, so soul-subduing as the Gospel of the Grace of God. And
He that sings it hath indeed a pleasant voice, for sweeter is the voice of
Christ than the voice of any angel or archangel, or of any of the heavenly
choirs--grander it is in itself, and sweeter far is it to us, because it is a
Brother’s voice, and we can feel the sympathy, we can understand the finest,
softest shades of meaning which are woven through its melody. And so it is true
of the people now, as of old, that they hear Him gladly; if anyone will speak
feelingly, if anyone can speak eloquently of the love of Jesus for sinners,
they will crowd to hear him, they will listen with satisfaction and go away
pleased,--but they will not do His words. Men love to hear the Saviour’s
gracious invitation, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest,” but they will not come to Him in the practical ways
which He has pointed out. They love, above all things, to listen to the
melodies of that last holy and tender discourse with His own, recorded in the
Gospel of St. John, but they will not follow His practical counsels to such as
wish to be His own. There is nothing more gladly heard by the sick and dying
than that passage which begins, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it
be afraid”; there is nothing, alas! more persistently forgotten, even by the
dying than the fact that these things were spoken only to those who had
continued with Christ in His temptations, who had showed that they loved Him by
keeping His commandments: they hear His words, then, eagerly, but they do them
not. (R. Winterbotham, M. A.)
On the slender influence of mere taste and sensibility in matters
of religion
You easily understand how a taste for music is one thing, and a
real submission to the influence of religion is another--how the ear may be
regaled by the melody of sound, and the heart may utterly refuse the proper
impression of the sense that is conveyed by it. Have you ever heard any tell,
and with complacency too, how powerfully his devotion was awakened by an act of
attendance on the oratorio--how his heart, melted and subdued by the influence
of harmony, did homage to all the religion of which it was the vehicle; how he
was so moved and overborne as to shed the tears of contrition, and to be
agitated by the terrors of judgment, and to receive an awe upon his spirit of the
greatness and the majesty of God; and that, wrought up to the lofty pitch of
eternity, he could look down upon the world, and by the glance of one
commanding survey pronounce upon the littleness and the vanity of all its
concerns? It is indeed very possible that all this might thrill upon the ears
of the man, and circulate a succession of solemn and affecting images around
his fancy--and yet that essential principle of his nature, upon which the
practical influence of Christianity turns, might have met with no reaching and
no subduing efficacy whatever to arouse it. Amid all that illusion which such
momentary visitations of seriousness and of sentiment throw around the
character of man, let us never lose sight of the test, that “by their fruits ye
shall know them.” The faithful application of this test would put to flight a
host of delusions. It may be carried round amongst all those phenomena of human
character where there is the exhibition of something associated with religion,
but which is not religion itself. Religion has its accompaniments; and in these
there may be a something to soothe and to fascinate, even in the absence of the
appropriate influences of religion. The deep and tender impression of a family
bereavement is not religion. The love of established decencies is not religion.
The charm of all that sentimentalism which is associated with many of its
solemn and affecting services is not religion. They may form the distinct folds
of its accustomed drapery; but they do not, any or all of them put together,
make up the substance of the thing itself. We call for fruit, and demand the
permanency of a religious influence on the habits and the history. How many who
take a flattering unction to their souls, when they think of their amiable
feelings and their becoming observations, with whom this severe touchstone
would, like the head of Medusa, put to flight all their complacency! The
afflictive dispensation is forgotten--and he on whom it was laid is practically
as indifferent to God and to eternity as before. The Sabbath services come to a
close, and they are followed by the same routine of weekday worldliness as
before. The instances may be multiplied without number. A man may have a taste
for eloquence, and eloquence, the most touching or sublime, may lift her
pleading voice on the side of religion. A man may love to have his
understanding stimulated by the ingenuities or the resistless urgencies of an
argument; and argument the most profound and the most overbearing may put forth
all the might of a constraining vehemence in behalf of religion. A man may feel
the rejoicings of a conscious elevation, when some ideal scene of magnificence
is laid before him; and where are these scenes so readily to be met with as
when led to expatiate in thought over the track of eternity, or to survey the
wonders of creation, or to look to the magnitude of those great and universal
interests which lie within the compass of religion? We will venture to say that
as much delight may emanate from the pulpit on an arrested audience beneath it
as ever emanated from the boards of a theatre--ay, and with as total a
disjunction of mind too, in the one case as in the other, from the essence or
the habit of religion. We recur to the test. We make our appeal to experience;
and we put it to you all, whether your finding upon the subject do not agree
with our saying about it, that a man may weep and admire, and have many of his
faculties put upon the stretch of their most intense gratification--his
judgment established, and his fancy enlivened, and his feelings overpowered,
and his hearing charmed as by the accents of heavenly persuasion, and all
within him feasted by the rich and varied luxuries of an intellectual banquet!
We want you to see clearly the distinction between these two attributes of the
human character. They are, in truth, as different the one from the other as a
taste for the grand and the graceful in scenery differs from the appetite of
hunger; and the one may both exist and have a most intense operation within the
bosom of that very individual who entirely disowns and is entirely disgusted
with the other. The mere majesty of God’s power and greatness, when offered to
your notice, lays hold of one of the faculties within you. The holiness of God,
with His righteous claim of legislation, lays hold of another of these
faculties. The difference between them is so great that the one may be
engrossed and interested to the full, while the other remains untouched and in
a state of entire dormancy. Now, it is no matter what it be that ministers
delight to the former of these two faculties; if the latter be not arrested and
put on its proper exercise, you are making no approximation whatever to the
right habit and character of religion. The religion of taste is one thing. The
religion of conscience is another. We recur to the test: What is the plain and
practical doing which ought to issue from the whole of our argument? If one
lesson come more clearly or more authoritatively out of it than another, it is
the supremacy of the Bible. If fitted to impress one movement rather than
another, it is that movement of docility, in virtue of which man, with the
feeling that he has all to learn, places himself in the attitude of a little
child, before the book of the unsearchable God, who has deigned to break His
silence, and to transmit even to our age of the world a faithful record of His
own communication. What progress, then, are you making in this movement? Are
you, or are you not, like newborn babes, desiring the sincere milk of the word,
that you may grow thereby? With the modesty of true science, which is here at
one with the humblest and most penitentiary feeling which Christianity can
awaken, are you bending an eye of earnestness on the Bible, and appropriating
its informations, and moulding your every conviction to its doctrines and its
testimonies? (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
A very lovely song
This is a very lovely verse, but a very solemn and awful sentiment
is attached to it.
I. A description
of the Gospel message. The subject of our preaching is the Word of God. And oh,
what a sweet, sweet song is that blessed word! Take--
1. The history and stories of the Bible. Begin with the creation of
the world. It is told in brief, all details are omitted, but the grand outline
is perfect, and scientific investigation is only filling up the details; and
when all the details are filled up, the grand old story will be found firm as a
rock.
2. The life stories of Bible heroes, the romance of our early
progenitors, the population of the world, the fall, the deluge, the touches of
human nature, and the goodness and sins of man, all brought out in the vivid
pictures of realism.
3. The story of our Saviour’s birth, His early days, His mighty
manhood, broken by the wail of agony at His cruel death. Then swell the notes
to the sky, and a jubilant strain tells of victory over sin and death and the
grave. The song goes on in recitative till comes the final crash of the
concluding chorus.
II. A description
of the effect which this song produces.
1. It is listened to. The most obdurate and hardened will gaze at a
lovely landscape. Beauty hath a charm; it is the most powerful of all human
influence. Is it any wonder, then, that the world is attracted by the beauty of
the Gospel message?
2. It is criticised. The human mind will criticise everything great.
Now, there is nothing so great as the Gospel, and nothing has provoked so much
criticism and controversy. Its history, its poetry, its truths, its message,
its plan of salvation have all been the objects of unnumbered attacks.
3. It is approved. Not indeed by everyone, but by the generality.
Reason, common sense, sound judgment, intellectual attainments, all must concur
in approving its excellence. The wants and necessities of our own minds, the
cravings of our souls, bring the truths it proclaims into harmony with human
nature.
III. A description
of the way in which it is generally received.
1. It is a sweet song, and nothing more. “They hear thy words and do
them not.” How sad this picture of the world, and yet how true! Under the
preaching of the Gospel you have often said, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a
Christian.” But what are you the better now? Nothing at all. The echoes of the
song died away in the distance, you went to your daily toil, and the whole
thing was forgotten.
2. The reason is plainly stated. You have heard, but you have not
been doing. Salvation is a work just like any other work; it does not come of
itself. Fancy a man who wanted to make a fortune listening to the life of
Stevenson, and settling down to sleep. He would only die in the workhouse.
Fancy a young man who desired to become a statesman, like Disraeli or
Gladstone, spending his time in riot and dissipation; he would end where he
began. And fancy an immortal soul, hearing the sound of the Gospel and the
invitations of God, passing life in callousness and neglect.
3. A few words of inquiry as to why is this.
IV. A suggestion as
to the remedy to be applied.
1. Awakening. Remember that pleasant as the Gospel is to bear, it is
something more than a song. It is a power; it is the voice of God; it is the
destiny of your soul; it is your heaven or your hell.
2. Labour. Lay hold of eternal life; get rid of the deadly idea that
religion is something merely to amuse or employ your time. (J. J. S. Bird.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》