HEARKEN AND LOOK—OR, ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BELIEVERS – Charles Spurgeon
HEARKEN AND LOOK—OR, ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BELIEVERS
“Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bore you: for I called him alone and blessed him, and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.” Isaiah 51:2, 3.
The second verse contains my actual text. It is the argument by which faith is led to look for the blessings promised in the third verse. It is habitual with some persons to spy out the dark side of every question or fact—they fix their eyes upon the “waste places”—and they study them till they know every ruin and are familiar with the dragons and the owls. They sigh most dolorously that the former times were better than these and that we have fallen upon most degenerate days. They speak of “shooting Niagara” and of all sorts of frightful things. I am afraid that a measure of this tendency to write bitter things dwells in almost all of us at this present season, for certain discouraging facts which cannot be ignored are pressing heavily upon men’s spirits. The habit of looking continually towards the wildernesses is injurious because it greatly discourages and anything that discourages an earnest worker is a serious leakage for his strength. Perhaps a worse result than honest discouragement comes of depressing views, for they often afford an apology for indifference and inaction. The smallest peg suffices to hang an excuse upon when we are anxious to escape from the stern service of faith. “I pray you have me excused,” is a request which was supported in the parable by the flimsiest of pretences and discouragement makes one of the same sort. The sluggard’s argument is on this wise—“I will not attempt the work, for it is far too heavy for my poor strength. I fear the times are ill adapted to any special effort. Indeed, I am not quite certain that success will ever attend the general work.” It is, therefore, a dreadful thing when the Christian Church begins to be discouraged and means must be used to stop the evil. Such means we would use this day. Lo, we lift the standard of the Divine Promise. “Comfort you, comfort you, My people,” sounds out like a silver trumpet in the front of the host! Be encouraged, O you of the faint heart—there are no more difficulties now than there were of old! The cause is no more in jeopardy than it was a thousand years ago! The result, the end, the consummation of all things is absolutely certain—it is in His hands who cannot fail—therefore be of good courage and in waiting upon the Lord renew your strength!
Remember, you that are cast down, that there are other voices besides those of the bittern and owl from the “waste places.” My text has near to it twice, no, three times, “HEARKEN TO ME.” You have listened long enough to dreary suggestions from within; to gloomy prophecies from desponding friends; to the taunts of foes and to the horrible whispers of Satan! Now hearken to Him who promises to make the wilderness like Eden and the desert like the garden of the Lord! O you whose eyes are quick to discover evil, there are other sights in the world besides waste places and deserts and, therefore, my text has near to it twice over the exhortation, “Look”—“Look unto the rock from where you are hewn.” “Look unto Abraham your father.” Why should your eyes forever ache over desolations? Probably you have seen as much in the wilderness as you are ever likely to see there. It does not take long to discover all the treasures and comforts of the burning sand—you have probably discovered them all by now. As for the discomforts and needs of the desert, you are, perhaps, as well acquainted with them as you need to be. Gaze no longer at the thirsty land and the burning sky! Turn your eyes where the finger of the Lord points by His Word. If we enquire what it is that the Lord would have us observe, He answers, “Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bore you”—for there we may find comfort. O for the Presence of the Holy Spirit, that the Word of God may be full of the dew of Heaven to refresh our souls!
I. THE ORIGINAL OF GOD’S ANCIENT PEOPLE
We shall first look towards Abraham that we may see in him the original of God’s ancient people, the foundation stone, as it were, of the dispensation by which God blessed the former ages. In Judah was God known. His name was great in Israel—let us look to the rock from where Israel and Judah were hewn. We observe, first, that the founder of God’s first people was called out of a heathen family. “Your fathers,” says Joshua, “dwelt on the other side of the flood in the old times, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and they served other gods.” Abraham, the founder of the great system in which God was pleased to reveal Himself for so long a time and to whose seed the Oracles of God were committed, was a dweller in Ur of the Chaldees, the city of the moon God! We cannot tell to what extent he was actually engrossed in the superstition of his fathers, but it is certain that the family was, for years afterwards, tainted with idolatry, for in Jacob’s day the teraph was still venerated and Rachel stole her father’s images. Abraham, therefore, was called out from the place of his birth and from the household to which he belonged, that in a separated condition, as a worshipper of the one God, he might keep the Truth of God alive in the world.
Remember, then, that the first man from whom sprang that wondrous nation which God has not yet cast away was originally, himself, an idolater and had to be called out of his sinful state by effectual Grace. Why, then, might not the Lord, if the cause of Truth were, this day, reduced to its utmost extremity, again raise up a Church out of one man? If an almost universal apostasy should hide the Divine Light, could He not kindle a torch among the heathen and by its light illuminate the earth again? He could call out another Abraham and bless him and increase him and achieve the whole of His eternal purposes if all of us should sleep in the dust and the visibly organized Church of today should pass away as the snow of Winter at the advent of Spring! Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is He not able to raise up children unto Abraham from stones? As to anything like discouragement, it ought to vanish at the thought that not only out of your Sunday schools, your colleges and your pulpits can God raise up leaders for His Church, but He can find them in the very center of heathenism! Where Satan’s seat is, even there can the Lord raise up advocates for His cause! The thick darkness of superstition shall not prevent the chosen one from seeing the light, neither shall the bondage of sin hold back the captive from finding freedom and proclaiming it to others.
“Ah,” you say, “but men are not called now, as Abraham was, by miraculous calls from Heaven.” I reply—The statement may be true, but God’s visible means of calling men are now so many that there is seldom a need of a miracle. The Lord can, by His Spirit, make one of the millions of Bibles scattered over the world to be as powerful a means of calling as though He had sent an angel from Heaven! Yes, a solitary leaf of a printed tract, if blown by the wind, or carried by a wave, may be borne where God shall bless it to the calling forth of a champion ordained of old to do great exploits! Where ordinary means are so plentiful, wisdom resorts not to signs and wonders! Miracles were of admirable use while they were necessary—but now that they are no longer required—the prudence of God forbids an extravagant display of the supernatural. Now that the Word of God is scattered, “thick as leaves in Valambrosa,” everywhere by willing and ready hands, what necessity can there be of voices of the day or visions of the night? The same Spirit who called Abraham by a supernatural voice can call others by the Word of Truth.
Instead of regarding it as a prodigy, that a man should be unexpectedly called out from among the heathen, I look for it and shall not be surprised to hear that in the remote provinces of China, or in the center of Tibet, or in the recesses of Africa, men have been raised up to found Churches for our Lord Jesus! God can, through the printed page or by hints and rumors passed from hand to hand, convey enough instruction to call out more Abrahams and bless them—and increase His Kingdom by them. “Omnipotence has servants everywhere.” Let us never dream that the God of Abraham is short of means for calling out chosen men to build up His Church! Surely Christian people should never doubt the power of God to raise up lights in dark places when we remember that the greatest preacher of the Gospel, namely, the Apostle Paul, was drafted into the army of Christ from the ranks of His direst foes! The proud Pharisee, a fanatic of the fanatics who was embittered against Christ and persecuting His people, became the earnest advocate of Christ Jesus! Before, his breath was threats and slaughter—yet on the road to Damascus he was conquered and transformed! As a lion roars over his prey, so did Paul rejoice that the saints in Damascus were now in his power! But the Lord struck him down and turned the lion to a lamb—and from now on where sin abounded Grace did much more abound! First in the ranks of Christian heroes stands the man who called himself the chief of sinners because he persecuted the Church of God.
My Brothers and Sisters, as Luther came from among the monks, so out of Rome, yes, from the Vatican, itself, can God, if He wills, call another Luther! The darkness of the times cannot forbid it, for God is Light. The weakness of the Church cannot hinder it, for all power belongs to God. There may not be among us, today, one whom God will so greatly honor as to make him a spiritual father of nations, but there may be such a one in the courts of Whitechapel or in the rookeries of St. Giles. The Christ, who was, Himself, called the Galilean, despises no place or people! Our King is not particular as to the mine from which He digs His gold. The great Seeker of precious souls full often finds His purest pearls in the deepest and the blackest waters! Take this, then, for encouragement, you who tremble for the Ark of God—He can build up a spiritual house for Himself out of dark quarries and find cedars for His temple in forests untraversed by the feet of missionaries.
II. THE MAIN CHARACTERISTIC OF THIS CHOSEN MAN
“Ah,” you say, “but Abraham was naturally a man of noble mold. Where do you find such a princely spirit as his?” I answer, Who made him? He that made him can make another like he! There is a Grace of God which goes before what we are accustomed to call Saving Grace—I mean a Grace of God which, in the creating of the nature, makes it a fit instrument for the Grace which is later to be bestowed. By such Sovereign favor, one man is, from his birth, endowed with a superior mind and character, being adorned, even as a natural man, with much that is excellent in its own order. How often do you see among certain men of the world a generosity, honesty, open-heartedness and nobility of disposition which are not Divine Graces, but which mark men out as fit to be leaders in all that is good when Grace calls them into the Divine service?
The Lord can just as soon make a man after the type of Abraham as after any other type—and doubtless He has such in store, even now, to whom His call will yet come. We may expect to see men of strong convictions converted into Believers who “stagger not at the promise through unbelief.” From among priests and pagans we may hope that the Lord will raise up pillars for His Church. Is not this hope encouraged in your breasts as you “Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bore you”?
Look again and observe that Abraham was but one man. Do not be startled at the sound which seems to have such terrors for certain brethren. I have heard the cant of those who object to a “one-man ministry,” a ministry to which all the while they usually submit in their own meetings. But to my ears there is music and not terror in the term, “a one-man ministry.” I bless God that all my hope of salvation hangs upon the Divine ministry of the One Man! Is not Christ, as the Servant of God, the very pattern of all ministries which are of God? Working out the Father’s eternal purpose by a life which was necessarily unique in many points, He trod the winepress alone in this, however. He causes many of His people to have fellowship with Him, even as in the case of Paul, who says, “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.” I am bold, also, to say that the Lord has, as a rule, worked more nobly by one man than by bands and corporations of men. He in whose seed all nations are blessed was but one. “I called him,” He says, “alone and blessed him, and increased him.” Nor is this a solitary instance. When the earth was utterly corrupt, God conserved the race by a solitary preacher of righteousness who prepared an ark for the saving of His house. See how one Joseph saved whole nations from famine and one Moses brought out a race from bondage! Who was there to keep Israel right when Moses fell asleep but the one man, Joshua? What were the prosperous times in the era of the Judges but days when one man went to the front as a leader? When all the rest hid away in dens and caves, some Barak or Gideon, or Jephthah, or Samson came boldly forward and delivered Israel. One man, standing like a figure at the head of many ciphers, soon headed victorious, thousands, through faith in God! What was there but one man in the days of David? The Philistines had triumphed over the land if the one lad had not brought back Goliath’s head and if the one man had not again and again smitten the uncircumcised in the name of the Lord.
Beloved, if we should ever be reduced, as we shall not be, to one man, yet by one man will God preserve His Church and work out His great purposes! I hope we shall never go into our chamber and shut the door and cry with Elijah, “I only am left and they seek my life!” No, my Brother, there are more faithful men in this world than you! The Lord has yet reserved to Himself His thousands that have not bowed the knee to Baal. We are, this day, not one man, but many, and we all desire to live for the Glory of God and for the spread of His Gospel—but if our hosts were so diminished that we could be numbered by a little child upon his fingers—still there would be no excuse for dismay, for the God of Abraham still lives, even He who created a people to His praise by one man, of whom He says, “I called him alone and blessed him, and increased him.”
III. OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THAT ONE MAN
Think, my Brothers and Sisters, of the power for good or evil which may be enshrined in a single human life! What mischievous results may come of one man! One sinner destroys much good and if there were but one person left who had knowledge of the ways of vice and the words of blasphemy, that one man would suffice to infect the race with his abominations. If evil is so mighty, is not good, with God in it, quite as powerful? We may rightly measure quantities in reference to many things, but with others it is absurd! It would be ridiculous to measure the power of fire by the quantity which burns on your hearth.
Give us fit materials and a single match and you shall see what fire can do! If ordinary fire, that may so readily be extinguished, is thus powerful, who shall venture to measure the power of the fire from Heaven which neither men nor devils can quench—the fire which fell at Pentecost and burns among us still? You carry fire, you servants of God! You work with a Heaven-sent force of boundless energy! Why, therefore, should you despair? If all the lights in the world were put out except a solitary lamp, there is enough fire in one wick to kindle all the lamps in the universe! What inch of ground remains for despair to stand upon?
Furthermore, we are bound to notice that this one man was a lone man. He had not only to do the work of God, but he had nobody to help him. “I called him alone.” True, he was attended by Lot—a poor miserable lot he was, costing his noble uncle more trouble than he ever brought him profit! How little did he maintain or adorn the righteousness which, nevertheless, had saved him—true type of many a feeble professor in these days! Abraham was not backed by any society when he crossed the Euphrates and afterwards traversed the desert to sojourn in Canaan as a pilgrim and a stranger. If ever man was fairly cut adrift and cast upon the Lord, it was the great Father of the Faithful! He certainly found no patronage in his onward course except the All-Sufficient patronage of the Lord, his God. When he came near to kings, it was a source of trouble to him. It led to contention and once to war—or else he felt bound to refuse their offers of gifts and say as he did to the king of Sodom, “I will not take from you a thread or even a shoelace, and I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich.” That same boastful sentence might be uttered by the State concerning some churches that I know of, but not concerning us—may God preserve us, my Brothers and Sisters, from every desire to come under obligations to earthly sovereignties lest, becoming indebted to them, we should be bound to render suit and service at their bidding—such service being already due to “another King, one Jesus.”
Abraham bad no prestige of parentage, rank, or title. If you had looked at the stately Patriarch when he trod the plains of Mamre, you would have seen about him a presence, a calm dignity, a truly regal manner—but that came to him solely through his faith in God and his communion with Heaven. Abraham was distinguished from other men only by the Grace of God. What grander difference can there be than that which is established by the existence of faith in the heart?
Thus Abraham was, in the fullest sense, a lone man, unsupported by any of those outward distinctions which enable some men to do more than others. The fulfillment of his calling rested on his loneliness, for he must get away from his kindred and wander up and down with his flocks, even as the Church of God now does, dwelling in a strange land and feeding her flock apart. When he was alone, God blessed Abraham—“I called him alone and blessed him, and increased Him.” The blessing did not come to him in Charran while he still had some connection with the old stock—he was not yet thoroughly nonconformist— but held in some small degree to the old house at home and till the last link was snapped, the blessing could not come. And now, my Brother, if in the town or district where you live you seem to lose all your helpers. If they die, one by one, and it seems as if nobody would be left to you—if even the Prayer Meeting fails for need of earnest, pleading men—still persevere, for it is the lone man that God will bless! “He sets the solitary in families.” In your present forlorn condition you are learning sympathy with that lone man in Gethsemane, with that lone man upon the Cross who there vanquished all your foes! Remember that your enemies are thus beaten before you encounter them and, therefore, you may readily overcome through the blood of the Lamb.
Oh, be not afraid. Thus says the Lord—“I called him alone and blessed him, and increased him.”
IV. THE LORD WILL BLESS US
We must go forward with a stronger faith, with a vision to see the wilderness turned to Eden, and with a sure hope that God will keep His promises. If we look unto Abraham and trust in God, there is nothing too great for His power and nothing too small for His care. We are called to serve the same God who promised Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars of the heavens. Let us live in faith and act with assurance, for God is faithful and will accomplish His good work through us.
May we all be encouraged and strengthened by the great truths we have seen in the life of Abraham, and as we walk in faith, may we see the promises of God fulfilled in our own lives and in the world around us.