PRECIOUS, HONORABLE, BELOVED – Charles Spurgeon

PRECIOUS, HONORABLE, BELOVED

“Since you were precious in My sight you have been honorable, and I have loved you.” — Isaiah 43:4.

Introduction

The first reference of this text is evidently to Israel; that nation was precious in God’s sight; He had been pleased sovereignly to make an election of the seed of Abraham, that they should be His portion, and He would be their portion forevermore. They were precIous in His sight because of the Covenant which He had made with their great forefather, saying, “In blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed, and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” This word of promise elevated them to an eminent position before the Lord; they were precious in the Lord’s sight because His honor was concerned in their history. If the Covenant promise could be broken, there would be an impeachment of the fidelity of the Most High; if by any means the chosen people could be crushed by their enemies, then the omnipotence of their Patron and Defender would also be in question. It was an important point that they should be preserved, because, in the fulfillment of His Covenant with them, the name of God would be glorified as the God of faithfulness and truth. They were, therefore, precious in His sight, for many of the vast purposes of the Divine Being were intertwined with the being and well-being of the chosen people. To them He had committed the sacred Oracles; among them lived His holy Prophets; to them He revealed the Law; of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, and out of them, the first preachers of the Gospel were chosen. Scarcely any great event that glorifies the grace of God can be dissociated from the Jewish people. Let me even remind you that the calling of the Gentiles is the consequence of the putting away of Israel for a while because of unbelief, and that the future glory, whenever it shall come, will certainly be intimately connected with the restoration of the chosen people. Very precious is Israel, because like a silver thread, we see her story running through the whole line of God’s grace as manifested to the sons of men.

The Preciousness of Israel

The Israelites of old were precious to God because He had done so much for them; He had brought them out of Egypt “with a high hand, and an outstretched arm.” He had cast out the tribes of Canaan before them; He had oftentimes rebuked kings for their sakes, yes, and slain mighty kings that they might be delivered. The results of all this the Lord would not lose, and they, therefore, for this cause also were precious in His sight. Doubtless, one main reason for Israel’s preciousness lay in the fact that out of Judah should arise the Royal Man, the Son of God, in whom the Father is well-pleased. For the sake of that Divine Seed, which I may call the vital kernel of Israel’s race, the Lord took pleasure in the descendants of Abraham, and they were precious in His sight.

Many other reasons might be given why God, having once elected the little nation of Israel by an act of distinguishing grace, should look upon the people as peculiarly precious, but we pass on to observe that He next declares them to be honorable—honorable because, or from the time when they had been precious in His sight. Whoever God may elect for Himself, he is by that very fact rendered honorable, and the Jewish people, in being set apart as the Lord’s own people, were by that very separation honored above all other nations on the face of the earth. They moreover received the light of God while the whole world was in darkness. Although some stray gleams fell here and there among the nations, yet the brightest illumination which enlightened the early ages from the throne of God came to the Israelite people. While others worshipped gods that were not gods, Israel adored Him whose throne is in the heavens, and whose kingdom rules over all; theirs were the commands written with the divine finger; theirs a sacredly instructive ritual; theirs a line of priests ordained to stand between man and God. All this made them honorable. Conjointly with this special privilege, they were honored by being chosen to special service; they were to conserve the knowledge of the true God amid surrounding idolatry, and they were to maintain a testimony for holiness in the center of abounding wickedness; they were ordained to be a holy nation, a peculiar people, sanctified unto the Lord to show forth the praise of Jehovah, and they were honored by His constant presence with them. No other nation saw God go before them in pillars of cloud and fire; nowhere else did the Shekinah blaze forth except between the wings of the cherubim overshadowing the Mercy Seat. He had not so dealt with any other nation—only to His chosen people had He been pleased to reveal Himself. They were favored with special protections in Providence, with special guidance in all their difficulties, special supplies in time of famine, and if they sometimes had special chastisements, yet even these were but tokens of His peculiar regard. Israel was precious in the sight of God, and therefore though small and inconsiderable, it was honorable among the nations, so that David could truthfully say, “What one nation in the earth is like Your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to Himself?”

God’s Special Love to Israel

I need not dwell upon God’s special love to Israel; we believe it continues to this hour, and though the scattered nation is despised, and the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter—yet the day shall come when “there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” Then Judea’s mountains, (Your land, O Immanuel), shall drop down with new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; then the glorious diadem of her former glory shall return to Zion’s brow, and God, even her own God, shall bless her; the Covenant of Salt shall be remembered, and it shall be seen that the Lord has not cast away His people whom He did foreknow.

We must not leave this point without noticing how true it was that because the Israelite people were so favored of God, He gave men for them, and people for their life. Egypt had to see the death of all its first-born for Israel’s sake; the Canaanites were utterly exterminated to make room for the tribes, and when mighty kings came against the chosen people, they, too, were smitten with terrible destructions! Sennacherib’s host withered like autumn leaves when “the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,” for Israel must be saved. If the people were carried captive for their sins, yet in captivity they became like the firebrand amidst the dry stubble, for Babylon was destroyed for their sakes—the hammer of the nations was broken in pieces that the exiles might be set free to worship the Lord at Jerusalem! Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba were all thrown into the scale together, and made nothing of in comparison with the Elect nation. He gave men for them, or as the Hebrew reads it, He gave man for them, as though the whole race of man, with all its interests, were made to yield to the interests of the one chosen people! Thus dear was the seed of faithful Abraham to Jehovah’s heart.

Spiritual Application to the Church

I dare not take such a text as this without first of all giving you its original and natural signification, and I doubt not that it is as I have now declared it. This passage may, however, without the slightest wrenching of it from its context, as I believe, and certainly without any distortion of its meaning, be applied to the spiritual Israel, namely, to Christ’s chosen Church, which He has redeemed with His blood. Now, this Church of God is, and always has been, precious in God’s sight. Not that there was anything of natural excellence in His elect why they should be chosen; not that in the whole of them put together there was any value above the rest of the sons of men; but because the Lord, having been pleased to choose them, put by that very act a preciousness upon them which otherwise had not been there. They are now precious to God, because having loved them from of old, that ancient love sets a stamp of preciousness upon them in the dear memories of the past eternity. His goings forth in love to His people were of old—yes, He has loved them with an everlasting love, and therefore they are dear to Him. The Church is precious because His purposes of grace mainly relate to it, and His other purposes are made subservient to the glory of His grace in them. The bounds of the nations has He set according to the number of His chosen; the arrangements of Providence have all been disposed with an eye to them; all things work together for their good, and for the achievement of their ultimate perfection.

God’s Love for His Church

God is pleased to reckon them as His crown jewels—His peculiar treasure, because He sees in them the purchase of His Son’s agonies. They have been bought with a price far above gold and silver; and by the memories of Gethsemane and Calvary, they are made most precious in the esteem of the Most High. They are precious because, in them, above all others, His glory is to be revealed; He has displayed it in nature; He manifests it in Providence; but peculiarly He intends to illustrate all His attributes in His Church, when she shall be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus her Lord.

Exceedingly precious is the Church to God, and for this cause she is in the highest sense honorable; even in her lowest estate, when despised and persecuted, the Church has still been honorable; in dark days, and times of deep depression, when her candle was ready to go out, still was she honorable in the sight of the Most High! She was honorable because of her character, for she is holiness unto the Lord; honorable because of her nearness to His Son, for is she not the “bride, the Lamb’s wife”? She is honorable because of the service entrusted to her to bear witness for the truth of the one God, and the glory of the one Mediator; she is honorable because of the destiny which awaits her, when she shall be taken up to dwell with her Lord forever, and reign with Him, world without end.

Christians’ Honor and Privileges

Every Christian is, in God’s sight, right honorable and excellent because the Lord, in His discriminating grace, has made him precious. First, every Christian is honorably born. Never mind how lowly your earthly parentage—you have been born unto God by the Holy Spirit, and therefore descended from the King of kings! It matters not though no blue blood may run in your veins, and you cannot trace your pedigree to any of the Norman invaders; if you can trace your pedigree up to the Lord of Hosts, Himself, through being “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” you belong to the blood imperial, and to the seed royal, and you may therein rejoice! God has made you honorable, no matter who despises you.

The Christian is moreover honorable in rank. God has been pleased to take us from the dunghill to set us among princes. Rank in the order of Providence exists in all societies; not only among men, but among pure spirits, we have reason to believe there are various degrees and orders; but the nobility of holy men is everywhere paramount in God’s sight. Man, redeemed by the blood of Christ, stands second to none in the whole range of created intelligences; nearest to God stands a Man. “You have put all things in subjection under His feet, You have set Him over all the works of Your hands.” In the person of Jesus Christ, man stands next to Deity, I mean man twice born—man renewed by the Holy Spirit. What lofty dignity is this, that even angels should be only “ministering spirits sent forth to minister” to us, our commissioned bodyguards commanded to pitch their tents around us!

The Christian’s Service

Speak of lords spiritual; these are they, the spiritual seed of Abraham! Speak of kings and princes, and peers of the blood royal; these are they, in whom Jesus Christ’s Spirit dwells, who are brothers and sisters to the august First-Born! Christians are honorable also in privilege. It was accounted an eminent honor when a nobleman had the right to go into his king whenever he willed to proffer a request. Approach to the royal throne was always, among Orientals, considered to be the highest token of regard. O child of God, you have access into this grace in which we stand! You are permitted to come boldly to the throne of the heavenly grace to obtain grace in your time of need! You are especially honored, O you saints, for we are “a people near unto Him.” Every middle wall of partition is broken down, and you are brought near by the blood of Christ.

The Church and Its Mission

O, what privileges are these! You are this day priests to offer acceptable sacrifices, kings to rule over your corruptions; never were men so privileged as you upon whom the Lord’s love has descended to make you precious in His sight! And every child of God who is what he should be, becomes, through grace, honorable by his achievements—and this is, in some respects, the highest form of honor—to be honored for what you have been enabled to do; to wear a coat of arms which you have fairly won in battle, and honors that are not merely attributed to you by the heraldic pencil, but which are due to you because of your victorious feats of arms!

Beloved by God

Now we come to the last of these notable words, which is “BELOVED”—“I have loved you.” I must decline to preach on this word; it is not a word for talk, but thought. “I have loved you.” Come, heir of Heaven, listen a moment! God has loved you eternally! Before the stars began to shine, and before the sun knew his place and poured forth his oceans of light, God loved you in particular! He has loved you actively and effectually, given His Only-Begotten for you; an unspeakable gift; giving you everything in Him; a boundless dowry of love. He has loved you pre-eminently, better than the angels, for unto which of them has He ever said, “You were honorable, and I have loved you”? He has loved you unchangeably, never less, and never more; in all your sin the same; in all your sorrow, still the same. He has loved you immeasurably! You can never know the heights and depths of your God’s love for you. O Brothers and Sisters, plunge yourself into this river! If you have up to now gone wading into it up to the ankles, now get breast-high, and heart-high into it—yes, commit yourself to the fathomless stream, and swim in it as in a sea of bliss!

“I have loved you.” Let that dwell richly in your heart, and ring out celestial music for your comfort and delight!

Conclusion

These three things being put together, I want you, practically, this morning, as they are your own by faith, to make use of them in other senses. “Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you.” My Savior, do You say that? Why, those words You put into my mouth to give back to You! You also are precious in my sight! Is He not so—precious beyond comparison? Therefore is He honorable in our esteem; will you not honor Him? Shall it not be the continual strife of your soul to get Him renown? Will you not talk of His fame to others? Will you not spread abroad the Glory of His mighty acts?

Final Exhortation

And now, if that is the case, how honorable all men become as objects of our zeal! “Honor all men,” says the Apostle; a text I do not hear quoted half as often as that other, “Honor the king.” Do not forget the last, but take equal care of the first! There is, because of its spiritual and immortal nature, a dignity about the soul of the meanest man, which no degree of poverty or degradation can altogether take away. May God lead you to give all you have, though it were Egypt, and Ethiopia, and Seba, that precious souls may be reclaimed. Send us such zeal, O Holy Spirit, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Charles Spurgeon