A SERMON FOR THE TIME PRESENT – Charles Spurgeon
A SERMON FOR THE TIME PRESENT
“In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear not: and to Zion, Let not your hands be slack. The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty. He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy. He will rest in His love; He will joy over you with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful over the solemn assembly, who are of you, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.” Zephaniah 3:16-18.
The Abiding Inner Sense of Holy Scripture
Holy Scripture is wonderfully full and abiding in its inner sense. It is a springing well where you may draw and draw again, for as you draw, it springs up forever new and fresh! It is a well of water springing up everlastingly. The fulfillment of a Divine promise is not the exhaustion of it. When a man gives you a promise and he keeps it, there is an end of the promise—but it is not so with God. When He keeps His Word to the fullest, He has but begun—He is prepared to keep it, and keep it, and keep it forever and ever!
What would you say of a man who had wheat upon his barn floor and threshed it until he had beaten out the last golden grain, but the next day he went and threshed again and brought back as much as the day before? And what if, on the day after, again taking his flail, he went to the same threshing and again brought back his measure as full as at the first, and so on for all the days of the year? Would it not seem to you as a fairy tale? It would certainly be a surprising miracle! But what should we say if, throughout a long life, this miracle could be prolonged? Yet we have continued to thresh the promises of God ever since faith was given us—and we have carried away our full portion every day! What shall we say of the glorious fact that the saints in all generations, from the first day until now, have done the same? And of that equal Truth of God, that as long as there is a needy soul upon earth, there will be upon the threshing door of the promises the same abundance of the finest of the wheat as when the first man filled his measure and returned rejoicing?
The Present Fulfillment of God’s Promise
I will not dwell upon the specific application of the text before us. I do not doubt that it was specially fulfilled as it was intended, and if there still remains some special piece of history to which this passage alludes, it will again be fulfilled in due time. But this I know, that those who have lived between whiles have found this promise true to them! Children of God have used these promises under all sorts of circumstances and have derived the utmost comfort from them! And this morning I feel as if the text had been newly written for the present occasion, for it is in every syllable most suitable to the immediate crisis. If the Lord had fixed His eyes upon the condition of His Church just now, and had written this passage only for this year of Grace, 1887, it could scarcely have been more adapted to the occasion! Our business shall be to show this, but I would aim at much more. Let our prayer be that we may enjoy this marvelous portion of the sacred Word of God and take intense delight in it. As God rests in His love, so may we rest in it this morning. And as He joys over us with singing, so may we break forth into joyous Psalms to the God of our salvation!
I. A Trying Day for God’s People
Beginning at the 18th verse, we notice a trying day for God’s people. The solemn assembly had fallen under reproach. The solemn assemblies of Israel were her glory—her great days of festival and sacrifice were the gladness of the land. To the faithful, their holy days were their holidays. But a reproach had fallen upon the solemn assembly, and I believe it is so now at this present moment.
It is a sad affliction when in our solemn assemblies the brilliance of the Gospel Light is dimmed by error. The clearness of the testimony is spoiled when doubtful voices are scattered among the people and those who ought to preach the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, are preaching doctrines which are the imaginations of men and the inventions of the age! Instead of the Revelation of God, we have philosophy, falsely so-called! Instead of Divine Infallibility, we have surmises and larger hopes. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever, is taught as the production of progress, a growth, a thing to be amended and corrected year by year.
It is an ill day, both for the Church and the world, when the trumpet does not give a certain sound—for who shall prepare himself for the battle? If added to this, we should see creeping over the solemn assembly of the Church a lifelessness, an indifference, and a lack of spiritual power—it is painful to a high degree. When the vitality of religion is despised and gatherings for prayer are neglected, what are we coming to?
The Church in a Lukewarm State
The present period of Church history is well portrayed by the Church of Laodicea, which was neither cold nor hot and, therefore, to be spewed out of Christ’s mouth. That Church gloried that she was rich and increased in goods, and had need of nothing, while all the while her Lord was outside, knocking at the door, a door closed against Him! That passage is constantly applied to the unconverted, with whom it has nothing to do—it has to do with a lukewarm Church, with a Church that thought itself to be in an eminently prosperous condition—while her living Lord, in the doctrine of His atoning Sacrifice, was denied an entrance!
Oh, if He had found admission—and He was eager to find it—she would soon have flung away her imaginary wealth, and He would have given her gold tried in the furnace and white raiment with which she might be clothed! Alas, she is content without her Lord, for she has education, oratory, science, and a thousand other baubles! Zion’s solemn assembly is under a cloud, indeed, when the teaching of Jesus and His Apostles is of small account with her.
Worldliness and Deviation from the Gospel
If in addition to this, worldly conformity spreads in the Church so that the vain amusements of the world are shared in by the saints! Then is there reason enough for lamentation, even as Jeremiah cried—“How is the gold become dim!” Her Nazarites, who were purer than snow and whiter than milk, have become blacker than coal. “All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.” If there is no longer a clear distinction between the Church and the world, but professed followers of Jesus have joined hands with unbelievers, then may we mourn, indeed! Woe worth the day! An ill time has happened to the Church and also to the world. We may expect great judgments, for the Lord will surely be avenged on such a people as this!
Know you not of old that when the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they were joined unto them, then the flood came and swept them all away? I need not pursue this subject further, lest our burdens take from us the time which is demanded for consolation. It appears from the text that there were some to whom the reproach was a burden. They could not make sport of sin. True, there were many who said that the evil did not exist at all! And others who declared that it was not present in any great degree. Yes, and more hardened spirits declared that what was considered to be a reproach was really a thing to be boasted of, the very glory of the century! Thus they huffed the matter and made the mourning of the conscientious to be a theme for jest. But there was a remnant to whom the reproach of it was a burden—these could not bear to see such a calamity.
The Burden of Reproach for the Sake of God’s Glory
To these, the Lord God will have respect, as He said by the Prophet—“Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.” The majority drank wine in bowls and anointed themselves with their chief ointments, but they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph (Amos 6:6). But some were pressed in spirit and bore the Cross, counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt.
God’s people cannot bear that Christ’s atoning Sacrifice should be dishonored! They cannot endure that this Truth of God should be trod under as mire in the streets. To true Believers, prosperity means the Holy Spirit blessing the Word to the conversion of sinners and the building up of saints. And if they do not see this, they hang their harps on the willows.
The Power of God’s Promise
True lovers of Jesus fast when the Bridegroom is not with His Church—their glory is in His Glory and in nothing else! The wife of Phinehas, the son of Eli, cried out in her aging agony, “The glory has departed,” and the reason that she gave was once because of the death of her husband and his father, but, twice, because, “the Ark of God is taken.” For this she named her new-born child, Ichabod—“The glory is departed from Israel, for the Ark of God is taken.” The most bitter pain of this godly woman was for the Church and for the honor of our God! So it is with God’s true people—they lay it much to heart that the Truth of God is rejected. This burdened spirit is a token of true love to God—those who love the Lord Jesus are wounded in His wounding and vexed with the vexing of His Spirit.
God’s Restoration of His People
When Christ is dishonored, His disciples are dishonored. Those who have a tender heart towards the Church can say with Paul, “Who is offended and I burn not?” The sins of the Church of God are the sorrows of all living members of it. This also marks a healthy sensibility, a vital spirituality. Those who are unspiritual care nothing for Truth or Grace—they look to finances, numbers, and respectability! Utterly carnal men care for nothing spiritual and, so long as the political aims of Dissenters are progressing and there is an advance in social position, it is enough for them. But men whose spirits are of God would sooner see the faithful persecuted than see them desert the Truth!
The Promise of Restoration and Joy
Beloved, the reproach will yet be rolled away from the solemn assembly—the Truth of God will yet again be proclaimed as with trumpet tongue! The Spirit of God will revive His Church, and converts as many as the sheaves of the harvest shall yet be gathered in! How will the faithful rejoice! Those who were burdened and sorrowful shall then put on their garments of joy and beauty! Then shall the ransomed of the Lord return with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads! The conflict is not doubtful. The end of the battle is sure and certain. I think I even now hear the shout, “The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”
II. A Glorious Ground of Consolation
Secondly, let us think of something which shines like a star amid the darkness. The second verse of the text presents a glorious ground of consolation. Here is a rich text, indeed! This passage is like a great sea, while I am as a little child making pools in the sand which skirts its boundless flood. A series of discourses might well be founded on this one verse—I mean the seventeenth. Our great consolation in the worst times lies in our God.
The very name of our Covenant God—“The Lord Your God”—is full of good cheer! That word, “The Lord,” is really JEHOVAH, the Self-Existent One, the Unchangeable One, the Ever-Living God who cannot change or be moved from His everlasting purpose! Children of God, whatever you have not got, you have a God in whom you may greatly glory! Having God, you have more than all things, for all things come of Him. And if all things were blotted out, He could restore all things simply by His will. He speaks and it is done! He commands and it stands fast! Blessed is the man that has the God of Jacob for his trust and whose hope is Jehovah! In the Lord Jehovah, we have righteousness and strength. Let us trust in Him forever!
The Ever-Present God
Let the times roll on—they cannot affect our God. Let troubles rush upon us like a tempest, but they shall not come near unto us now that He is our defense. Jehovah, the God of His Church, is also the God of each individual member of it—and each one may, therefore, rejoice in Him. Jehovah is as much your God, my Brothers and Sisters, as if no other person in the universe could use that Covenant expression! O Believer, the Lord God is altogether and wholly your God! All His wisdom, all His foresight, all His power, all His immutability—all Himself is yours! As for the Church of God, when she is in her lowest estate, she is still established and endowed in the best possible sense—established by the Divine decree and endowed by the possession of God All-Sufficient! The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her.
The Immediate Presence of God
Let us exult in our possession! Poor as we are, we are infinitely rich in having God! Weak as we are, there is no limit to our strength, since the Almighty Jehovah is ours! “If God is for us, who can be against us?” If God is ours, what more can we need? Lift up your heart, you sorrowful one, and be of good cheer! If God is your God, you have all you can desire. Wrapped up within His glorious name we find all things for time and eternity, for earth and Heaven. Therefore, in the name of Jehovah, we will set up our banners and march onward to the battle! He is our God by His own purpose, Covenant, and oath—and this day He is our God by our own choice of Him, by our union with Christ Jesus, by our experience of His goodness and by that spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.”
III. The Brave Conduct Suggested Thereby
Let us not sorrow under the burdens which we bear, but rejoice in God, the great Burden-Bearer upon whom, this day, we roll our load. Here it is—“In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear you not; and to Zion, Let not your hands be slack.” There are three things for God’s people to do. The first is to be happy. Read verse fourteen—“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.” Any man can sing when his cup is full of delights. The Believer, alone, has songs when waters of a bitter cup are wrung out to him! Any sparrow can chirp in the daylight—it is only the nightingale that can sing in the dark. Children of God, whenever the enemies seem to prevail over you, whenever the serried ranks of the foe appear sure of victory, then begin to sing! Your victory will come with your song! It is a very puzzling thing to the devil to hear saints sing when he sets his foot on them. He cannot make it out—the more he oppresses them, the more they rejoice! Let us resolve to be all the merrier when the enemy dreams that we are utterly routed. The more opposition, the more we will rejoice in the Lord! The more discouragement, the more confidence!
Conclusion
I close with a brief word upon the brave conduct suggested thereby. Let us not sorrow under the burdens which we bear, but rejoice in God, the great Burden-Bearer upon whom, this day, we roll our load. The victory is ours, through the Lord God who is mighty to save!