Numbers 11:1
Against Murmuring
Sermon Notes
C H Spurgeon
And when the people complained, it
displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and his anger was kindled; and
the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the
uttermost parts of the camp. — Numbers 11:1
Rehearse the historical fact.
Observe how the mischief began in the outskirts among the mixed multitude,
and how the fire of the Lord burned in the uttermost parts of the camp.
The great danger of the church lies in her camp-followers or hangers-on:
they infect the true Israel. Hence the need of guarding the entrance of
the church, and keeping up discipline within it. Grumbling, discontent,
ungrateful complaining — these are grievous offences against our gracious
God.
We shall consider the subject in a series of observations.
I. A DISSATISFIED SPIRIT CAUSES DISPLEASURE TO THE LORD.
1. This we might infer from our own feelings, when dependents, children,
servants, or receivers of alms are always grumbling. We grow weary of
them, and angry with them.
2. In the case of men towards God it is much worse for them to murmur,
since they deserve no good at his hands, but the very reverse. "Wherefore
doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins" (Lam.
3:39; Ps. 103:10 -
Spurgeon note)?
3. In that case also it is a reflection upon the Lord's goodness, wisdom,
truth, and power. See the complaint in verses 4-6.
4. The evil lusting which attends the complaining proves its injurious
character. We are ready for anything when we quarrel with God (1 Cor.
10:5-12).
5. God thinks so ill of it that his wrath burns, and chastisement is not
long withheld. See verse 33 of this chapter, and other parts of Scripture.
II. A DISSATISFIED SPIRIT FANCIES IT WOULD FIND PLEASURE IN THINGS
DENIED IT.
Israel had manna, but sighed for fish, cucumbers, melons, onions, etc. But
to set an imaginary value upon that which we have not:
1. Is foolish, childish, pettish.
2. Is injurious to ourselves, for it prevents our enjoying what we already
have. It leads men to slander angels' food and call it "this light bread"
It led Haman to think nothing of his prosperity because a single person
refused him reverence (Esther 5:13).
3. Is slanderous towards God, and ungrateful to him.
4. Leads to rebellion, falsehood, envy, and all manner of sins.
III. A DISSATISFIED SPIRIT FINDS NO PLEASURE FOR ITSELF EVEN WHEN ITS
WISH IS FULFILLED.
The Israelites had flesh in superabundance in answer to their foolish
prayers, but:
1. It was attended with leanness of soul (Ps. 106:15 -
Spurgeon note).
2. It brought satiety;-"until it come out at your nostrils, and it be
loathsome unto you" (verse 20).
3. It caused death. He "slew the fattest of them" (Ps. 78:31 -
Spurgeon note).
4. It thus led to mourning on all sides. Kibroth Hattaavah, or, "the
graves of lust" was the name of this station (verse 34).
IV. A DISSATISFIED SPIRIT SHOWS THAT THE MIND NEEDS REGULATING.
Grace would put our desires in order, and keep our thoughts and affections
in their proper places, thus:
1. Content with such things as we have (Hebrews
13:5 [note]).
2. Towards other things moderate in desire. "Give me neither poverty nor
riches" (Proverbs 30:8).
3. Concerning earthly things which may be lacking, fully resigned. "Not as
1 will, but as thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39).
4. First, and most eagerly, desiring God. "My soul thirsteth for God"
etc., (Ps. 42:2 -
Spurgeon's note).
5. Next, coveting earnestly the best gifts (1 Cor. 12:31).
6. Following ever in love the more excellent way (1 Cor. 12:31 )
Helpful Notes
I have read of Caesar, that, having
prepared a great feast for his nobles and friends, it fell out that the
day appointed was so extremely foul that nothing could be done to the
honor of their meeting; whereupon he was so displeased and enraged, that
he commanded all them that had bows to shoot up their arrows at Jupiter,
their chief god, as in defiance of him for that rainy weather; which, when
they did, their arrows fell short of heaven, and fell upon their own
heads, so that many of them were very sorely wounded. So all our
mutterings and murmurings, which are so many arrows shot at God himself,
will return upon our own pates, or hearts; they reach not him, but they
will hit us; they hurt not him, but they will wound us therefore, it is
better to be mute than to murmur; it is dangerous to contend with one who
is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29
note).—Thomas
Brooks
God hath much ado with us. Either we lack health, or quietness, or
children, or wealth, or company, or ourselves in all these. It is a wonder
the Israelites found not fault with the want of sauce to their quails, or
with their old clothes, or their solitary way. Nature is moderate in her
desires; but conceit is insatiable.— Bp. Hall
Murmuring is a quarreling with God, and inveighing against him. "They
spake against God" (Num. 21:5). The murmurer saith interpretatively that
God hath not dealt well with him, and that he hath deserved better from
him. The murmurer chargeth God with folly. This is the language, or rather
blasphemy, of a murmuring spirit — God might have been a wiser and a
better God. The murmurer is a mutineer. The Israelites are called in the
same text "murmurers" and "rebels" (Num. 17:10); and is not rebellion as
the sin of witchcraft? (1 Sam. 15:23). Thou that art a murmurer art in the
account of God as a witch, a sorcerer, as one that deals with the devil.
This is a sin of the first magnitude. Murmuring often ends in cursing:
Micah's mother fell to cursing when the talents of silver were taken away
(see note
Judges 17:2).
So doth the murmurer when a part of his estate is taken away. Our
murmuring is the devil's music; this is that sin which God cannot bear:
"How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against
me?" (Num. 14:27). It is a sin which whets the sword against a people; it
is a land-destroying sin: "Neither murmur ye, as some of them also
murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer" (1 Cor. 10:10). — Thomas Watson
Losing our temper with God is a more common thing in the spiritual life
than many suppose.— F. W. Faber
Life is a field of nettles to some men. Their fretful, worrying tempers
are always pricking out through the tender skin of their uneasiness. Why,
if they were set down in Paradise, carrying their bad mind with them, they
would fret at the good angels, and the climate, and the colors even of the
roses.— Dr. Bushnell
I dare no more fret than curse or swear.— John Wesley
A child was crying in passion, and I heard its mother say, "If you cry for
nothing, I will soon give you something to cry for" From the sound of her
hand, I gathered the moral that those who cry about nothing are making a
rod for their own backs, and will probably be made to smart under it.
><> ><> ><>
See related resource
- See notes on doing all things without grumbling or disputing
Philippians 2:14
and notes on giving thanks in
everything
1Thessalonians 5:18
Numbers 27:5
Women's Rights -- A Parable
NO. 3141
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 22ND, 1909,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON
“And Moses brought their cause before
the LORD.” — Numbers 17:5
BY the help of God the Holy Spirit,
I want to use this incident, which forms a kind of episode in the
rehearsal of the history of Israel’s forty years’ wanderings in the
wilderness, for a twofold purpose. First, let me indicate its general
teaching, and, secondly, let me take it as a ground of appeal to certain
special classes.
—————
I. First, I will try to indicate
Its General Teaching.
I would ask your attention, and
exhibit for your imitation, the faith which these five young women, the
daughters of Zelophehad, possessed with regard to the promised
inheritance. You must remember that the children of Israel were still in
the wilderness. They had not seen the promised land, but God had made a
covenant with them that they should possess it. He had declared that he
would bring them into a land which flowed with milk and honey, and there
plant them; and that that land should belong to them and to their
descendants by a covenant of salt for ever. Now, these women believed in
this heritage. They were not like Esau, who thought so little of the
inheritance which was his birthright that he sold it to his brother Jacob
for a mess of pottage; but they believed it to be really worth having.
They regarded it, though they had never beheld it, as being something
exceedingly substantial, and so looking upon it, they were afraid lest
they should be left out when the land was divided; and though they had
never seen it, yet, being persuaded that it was somewhere, and that the
children of Israel would have it in due time, their anxiety was lest they,
having no brothers, should be forgotten in the distribution, and so should
lose their rights. They were anxious about an inheritance which they had
never seen with their eyes, and therein I hold them up to the imitation of
this present assembly. There is an inheritance that is far better than the
land of Canaan. Oh, that we all believed in it, and longed for it! It is
an inheritance, however, which mortal eye hath not seen, and the sounds
whereof mortal ear hath not heard. It is a city whose streets are gold,
but none of us have ever trodden them. Never hath traveler to that country
come back to tell us of its glories. There the music never ceases; no
discord ever mingles in it, it is sublime, but no member of the heavenly
choir has ever come to write out for us the celestial score, or to —
“Teach us some
melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above.”
It is not a matter of sight; it must
be to each one of us a matter of faith. By faith we know that there is
another and a better land. By faith we understand that our disembodied
souls shall mount to be with Christ, and that, after a while, our bodies
also shall rise to join our spirits, that body and soul may together be
glorified for ever in the presence of our gracious Redeemer. We have never
seen this land, however; but there are some of us who as firmly believe in
it as if we had seen it, and are as certain of it and as fully persuaded
as though these ears of ours had listened to its songs of joy, and these
feet of ours had trodden its streets of gold.
There was this feature, too, about
the faith of these five women they knew that the inheritance was only to
be won by encountering great difficulties. The spies who came back from
the land had said that the men who dwelt in it were giants. They said,
“We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their
sight.” There was many a man, in the camp of Israel, I have no doubt, who
said, “Well, I would sell my share cheaply enough; for though the land be
there, we can never win it; they have cities walled up to heaven, and they
have chariots of iron; we can never win the land.” But these women
believed that, although they could not fight, God could; and though they
had never put their fingers to a more terrible instrument than a needle,
yet did they believe that the same right arm which got to itself the
victory when they went with Miriam, dancing to the timbrel’s jubilant
sound, would get the victory again, and bring God’s people in, and drive
the Canaanites out, even though they had walled cities and chariots of
iron.
So these women had strong faith. I
would to God that you had the same, all of you, dear friends; but I know
that some of you, who do believe that there is a land which floweth with
milk and honey, are half afraid that you shall never reach it. You are
vexed with many doubts because of your own weakness, which, indeed, should
not, merely make you doubt, but should make you utterly despair if the
gaining of the goodly land depended upon your own fighting for it, and
winning it; but, inasmuch as “the gift of God is eternal life,” and God
himself will give it to us, and inasmuch as Jesus has gone up on high to
prepare a place for us, and has promised that he will come again, and
receive us unto himself that where he is there, we may be also, I would to
God that our doubts and fears were banished, and that we said within
ourselves, “We are well able to go up and attack the land, for the Lord,
even the Lord of hosts, is with us; Jehovah-nissi is our banner; the Lord
our righteousness is our helper, and we shall surely enter into the place
of the beloved people of God, and shall join the general assembly and
church of the firstborn which are written in heaven.”
I commend the faith of these women
to you because, believing in the land, and believing that it would be won,
they were not to be put about by the ill report of some who said that it
was not a good land. There were ten out of the twelve who spied out the
land who said, “It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.”
They brought back an evil report. But, whoever may have been perverted by
these falsehoods, these five women were not. Others said, “Why, the land
is full of pestilence and hornets, and those who live in it now are
dying,” forgetting that God was making them die in order to bring in the
children of Israel in their stead; and so they said, “who cares to have a
portion there? Give us the leeks, and the garlic, and the onions of Egypt,
and let us sit again by the flesh-pots that we had at Rameses; but as for
going on to this Canaan, we will never do it.” But these five women, who
knew that, if there were troubles in the household, they would be sure to
have their share of them; that if the bread ran short, they would be the
most likely to feel the straitness of it; and that if it were a land of
sickness, they would have to be the nurses, yet coveted to have their
share in it, for they did not believe the ill report. They said, “No; God
hath said it is a good land, a land of hills and valleys, a land of brooks
and rivers, a land of oil olive and honey, a land out of whose hills we
may dig iron, and brass; and we will not believe what thee spies say; it
is a good land, and we will go in and ask for our share, of it.” So I
commend their faith in this respect.
I know that some of you are
occasionally met by sneering skeptics, and they say to you, “There is no
such place as heaven; we have never seen it; are yet such fools as to
believe in it? Are you going on a pilgrimage over hedge and ditch,
helter-skelter, to a country that you know nothing of? Are you going to
trust that old-fashioned Book, and take God’s Word, and nothing but his
Word, and believe it? “Oh, I hope there are many of us — would that all
of us were in that happy position! — who can say, “It is even so.” Stand
back, Mr. Atheist, and stop us not, for we are well persuaded that ours is
no wild-goose chase. Stand back, Sir Ironical Skeptic; laugh if thou wilt.
Thou wilt laugh on the other side of thy face one of these days, and we
shall have the laugh of thee at that time. At any rate, if there be no
heaven, we shall be as well off as thou wilt be, but if there be a hell,
where, O where, wilt thou be, and what will thy portion be? So we go on
our own way confident and sure, nothing doubting; believing as surely as
we believe in our own existence, that —
“Jesus, the Judge
will come
To take his people up To their eternal home;” —
and believing that one hour with him
will be worth all the trials of the road; worth enduring ten thousand
deaths, if we could endure them, in order to win it; and that, moreover,
by God’s grace we shall win it.
“We shall behold
his face,
We shall his name adore,
And sing the wonders of his grace
Henceforth for evermore.”
So I hold up these daughters of
Zelophehad to your commendation and imitation on account of their faith.
But there was another point. Feeling
certain concerning the land, we must next commend them for their anxiety
to possess a portion in it. Why did they think so much about it? I heard
someone say, the other day, speaking of certain young people, “I do not
like to see young women religious; they ought to be full of fun and mirth,
and not have their minds filled with such profound thoughts.” Now, I will
be bound to say that this kind of philosophy was accredited in the camp of
Israel, and that there were a great many young women there who said, “Oh,
there is time enough to think about the good land when we get there! Let
us be polishing up our mirrors; let us be seeing to our dresses; let us
understand how to put our fingers upon the timbrel when the time comes for
it; but as far prosing about portion among those Hivite and Hittites, what
is the good of it? We will not bother ourselves about that.” But such was
the strength of the faith of the five women that it led them to feel a
deep anxiety for a share in the inheritance. They were not such simpletons
as to live only for the present. They had outgrown their babyhood; they
were not satisfied to live merely for the day. They knew that, in due
time, the tribes would cross the Jordan, and would be in the promised
land, so they began, as it were, like good housewives, to think about
where their portion would be, and to reflect that, were they left out when
the muster-roll was read, and should no portion be appointed for Tirzah,
and no portion for Milcah, and no place for any of the five sisters, they
would be like beggars and outcasts in the midst of the land. The thought
of all others having their plot of ground, and their family having none,
made them anxious about it. O dear friends, how anxious you and I ought to
be to make our calling and election sure, and how solemnly should that
question of the Countess of Huntingdon come home to our hearts, —
“But can I bear
the piercing thought —
What if my name should be left out,
When thou for them shalt call?”
Suppose I should have no portion in
the skies! O ye foundations of chrysolyte and all manner of precious
stones, ye gates of pearl, ye walls of jasper, must I never own you? O
troops of angels, and armies of the blood-bought, must I never wave the
palm or wear the crown in your midst? Must the word that salutes me be
that awful sentence, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire”? Is
there no place for me, no room for me in the inheritance of the saints? I
do beseech you, never be satisfied till you can answer this question in
the affirmative, and say, “Yes, I have a place in Jesus’ heart; I have
been washed in Jesus’ blood; and therefore I shall be with Jesus where he
is in his glory when the fitting time cometh.” Oh, I would have you who
are not sure about this, be as anxious as these women were! Let it press
upon your hearts, let it even take the color from your cheek, sooner than
that you should have an empty and frivolous gaiety and mirth, which will
entice you down to the pit. Oh, do make sure work for eternity! Whatever
else you trifle with, do seek to have an anchor that will hold you fast in
the last great storm. Do seek to be affianced unto Christ. Be sure that
you are founded upon the Rock of ages, where alone we can safely build for
eternity.
These women were taken up with
prudent anxious thoughts about their own part in the land of promise, and
they were right in desiring to have a portion there when they recollected
that the land had been given by covenant to their fathers. They might well
wish to have a part in a thing good enough to be a covenant blessing. The
land had been promised over and over again by divine authority; they might
well wish to have a share in that which God’s own lips had promised. It
was a land to bring them into which God had smitten the firstborn of
Egypt, and saved his people by the sprinkling of blood; they might well
desire a land which cost so great a price to bring them to it. Besides, it
was a goodly land; it was the most princely of all lands, peerless amongst
all the territories of earth. Its products were most rich. The grapes of
Eshcol, what could equal them? Its pomegranates, its olives, its rivers,
the land that, flowed with milk and honey, there was nothing like it in
all the world besides. These women might well say, “Let us have a portion
there!”
And, my dear hearers, the heaven of
which we have to tell you is a land so good that it was spoken of in the
covenant before the world was. It has been promised to the people of God
ten thousand times. Jesus Christ has shed his precious blood that he might
open the gates of it, and bring us in. And it is such a land that, if you
had but seen it, if you could but know what it is, you would pine away in
stopping here; for it’s very dust is gold, its meanest joys are richer
than the transports of earth, and the poorest in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he who is the mightiest prince in the kingdoms of this world.
Oh, that your mouths were set a-longing after the feasts of paradise! Oh
that ye pined to be where Jesus is; and then, surely, you would be anxious
to know whether you had a portion there.
I hold these women up as an example,
because they believed in the unseen inheritance, and they were anxious to
get their portion in it.
But I must commend then yet again
for the way in which they set about the business. I do not find that they
went complaining from tent to tent that they were afraid that they had no
portion. Many doubters do that, they tell their doubts and fears to
others, and they get no further. But these five women went straight away
to Moses. He was at their head, he was their mediator; and then it is said
that “Moses brought their cause before the Lord.” You see, these women
did not try to get what they wanted by force. They did not say, “We will
take care to get our share of the land when we get there.” They did not
suppose that they had any merit which they might plead, and so get it; but
they went straight away to Moses, and Moses took their cause, and laid it
before the Lord. Dost thou want a portion in heaven, sinner? Go straight
away to Jesus, and Jesus will take thy cause, and lay it before the Lord.
It is a very sorry one as it stands by itself; but he has such a sweet way
of so mixing himself up with thee, and thyself with him, that his cause
and thy cause will be one cause, and the Father will give him good
success, and give thee good success too. Oh, that someone here would
breathe the prayer, if he has never prayed before, “Savior, wilt thou see
that I have a portion in the skies? Precious Savior, take my poor heart,
and wash it in thy precious blood, and change it by thy Holy Spirit, and
make me ready to dwell where perfect saints are! Oh, do thou undertake my
cause for me, thou blessed Advocate, and plead it before thy Father’s
face! “That is the way to have the business of salvation effectually
done. Put it out of your own hands into the hands of the Prophet like unto
Moses, and you will surely speed.
Now, observe the success of these
women.
The Lord accepted their plea, for he
said unto Moses, “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right.” Yes; and
when thou criest to him, and when his dear Son takes thy prayer to him,
God will say, “That sinner speaks right.” Beat, on thy breast, and cry,
“God be merciful to me a sinner,” and he will say, “That soul speaks
right.” Young woman, imitate these five sisters now. May God the Holy
Spirit bring you to imitate them by humbly offering your plea through the
Mediator, Jesus Christ, and God will say, “Ah, she speaks right, I have
heard her; I have accepted her.” And then God said that these sisters
should have their portion just the same as the men had, that they should
have their share of land just as if they had inherited it as sons, and so
will God say to every seeking sinner. Whatever may be, the disability
under which you labor, whatever bar there may have seemed to be to your
claim, you shall inherit amongst the children, you shall take your part
and your lot amongst the chosen people of God. Christ has set your cause
before his Father, and it shall be unto you, poor sinner, according to
your desire, and you shall have a part amongst the Lord’s people.
I wish I had power to press this
matter more immediately home upon you. Many of us who are now present are
saved. It is a great satisfaction to remember how large a proportion of my
congregation has come to Christ; but, ah, there are many, many here who
are — well, what are they? They do not know that they have any
inheritance. They cannot read their title clear to mansions in the skies;
and, what is worse, they are unconcerned about it. If they were troubled
about, it, we should have hope concerning them; but no, they go their way,
and, like Pliable, having got out of the Slough of Despond, they turn
round, and say to Christians, “You may have the brave country all to
yourselves for all we care.” They are so fond of present pleasure, so
easily enticed by the wily whispers of the arch-enemy, so soon overcome by
their own passions, that they find it too hard to be Christians; to love
Christ is a thing too difficult for them. Ah! may God meet with you, and
make you wiser! Poor souls, you will perish, some of you will perish while
you are looking on at this world’s bubbles and baubles! You will perish;
you will go down to hell with this earth’s joys in your mouths, and they
will not sweeten those mouths when the pangs of hell get hold upon you!
Your life is short; your candle flickers in its socket. You must soon go
the way of all flesh. We never meet one week after another without some
death occurring between. Out of this vast number, surely it is all but
impossible that we should ever all meet here again. Perhaps, before this
day week, some of us will have passed the curtain, have learned the great
secret, and have entered the invisible world. Whose portion will it, be?
If it be thine, dear hearer, wilt thou mount to worlds of joy, or shall —
“Devils plunge
thee down to hell
In infinite despair?”
God make that a matter of concern
with us first, and then may we come to Jesus, and receive the sprinkling
of precious blood, and thus may he make it a matter of confidence with us
that we are saved through him, and shall be partakers with them that are
sanctified!
—————
II. Secondly, I am going to use
the whole incident as a Ground Of Appeal To Certain Special Classes.
Does it not strike you that, there
is here a special lesson for our unconverted sisters? Here are five
daughters, I suppose young women, certainly unmarried women, and these
five were unanimous in seeking to have a portion where God had promised it
to his people. Have I any young women here who have not acted like that? I
am afraid I have! Blessed be God for the many who come in among us who
become solemnly impressed, and give their young days to Jesus; but there
are some, there may be some here, of another mind. The temptations of this
wicked Metropolis, the pleasures of this perilous city, lead them away
from the right path, and prevent them from giving a fair hearing to God’s
Word. Well, but you are here, my sister, and may I, as a brother, put this
question to you? Do you not desire a portion in the skies? Have you no
wish for glory? Have you no longing for the everlasting crown? Can you
sell Christ for a few hours of mirth? Will you give him up for a giddy
song or an idle companion? Those are not your friends who would lead you
from the paths of righteousness. Count them not dear, but loathe them, if
they would entice you from Christ. But, as you will certainly die, and
will as certainly live for ever in endless woe or in boundless bliss, do
see to your souls. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness,” and all other needful things shall be added to you. You
have come fresh from the country, young woman, and, leaving your mother’s
care, it is very likely that you have begun to absent yourself from the
means of grace, but I charge you not to do so. On the contrary, let this
bind you to your mother’s God, and may you feel that, whereas you may have
hitherto neglected God’s house, and profaned God’s day, yet henceforth,
like the daughters of Zelophehad, you will seek to have a portion in the
promised land.
The subject bears another way. Has
it not a voice, and a loud voice too, to the children of godly parents? I
like these young women saying that their father did not die; with Korah,
but that he only died the ordinary death which fell upon others because of
the sin of the wilderness; and also their saying, “Why should the name of
our father be done away from among his family, because he hath, no son?”
It is a good thing to see this respect to parents, this desire to keep up
the honor of the family. I was thinking whether there may not be some
here, some children of godly parents, who would feel it a sad thing if
they should bring disgrace upon the family name. Is it so, that though
your father has been for many years a Christian, he has not one to succeed
him? O young man, have you no ambition to stand in his place, no wish to
let his name be perpetuated in the Church of God? Well, if the sons have
no such ambition or if there be none, let the daughters say to one
another, “Our father never disgraced his profession, he did not die in
the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord,
but he served the Lord faithfully, and we will not let his name be blotted
out from Israel; we will join ourselves to the people of God, and the
family shall be represented still.” But, oh, how I desire that the
brothers and sisters would come together, and what a delightful thing it
would be to see the whole family! In that household there were only five
girls, but they all had their heritage. O father, would you not be happy
if it should be so with your children? Mother, would you not be ready to
say, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to
thy Word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,” if you could see all
your children brought in? And why not, my brethren, why not? We will give
God no rest until it is so; we will plead with him until they are all
saved. And, young people, why not? The Lord’s mercy is not straitened. The
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and your father’s God, we trust,
will be your God. Oh, that you would follow in the footsteps of your
parents so far as they followed Christ! These daughters of Zelophehad seem
to me to turn preachers, and I stand here to speak for them, and all five
of them say to you, “We gained our inheritance by seeking for it through
a mediator. Young women, brothers and sisters, you shall gain it, too, by
seeking it through a Savior.”
And does not this text also speak
to another class — to orphans? These good girls had lost their
parents, or otherwise the question would not have arisen. Father and
mother had passed away, and therefore they had to go to Moses for
themselves. When the parents could not come to Moses for them, they came
for themselves. Think of the skies a moment, some of you. Perhaps you were
this morning in a very different place, but think of the skies a minute.
No, I do not mean the meteoric stones; I do not mean the stars, nor yon
bright moon; but I want you to think of your mother, who is yonder. Do you
remember when she gave you the last kiss, and bade you farewell, and said,
“Follow me, my children, follow me to the skies?” Think of a father who
is there, his voice, doubtless, helping to swell the everlasting
hallelujah. Does he not beckon you from the battlements of heaven, and
cry, “Children of my loins, follow me, as I followed Christ”? Some of us
have an honored grandsire there, an honored grandmother there. Many of you
have little infants there, young angels whom God lent you for a little
time, and then took them to heaven to show you the way, to lure you to go
upwards too. You have all some dear friends there with whom you walked to
God’s house in company. They have gone, but I charge you, by the living
God, to follow them. Break not your households in twain. Let no solemn
rifts and rents come into the family; but, as they have gone to their
rest, God grant unto you by the same road to come and rest eternally too.
Jesus Christ is ready to receive sinners; he is ready to receive you, and
if you trust him, the joy and bliss which now your friends partake of
shall be yours also.
Daughters of godly parents, children
of those who have gone before to eternal glory, I entreat you look to
Jesus; go and present your suit to him now. It shall surely prosper. If
the question was once doubtful, it has now become “a statute of
judgment.” The Lord has commanded it. May God bless these counsels and
exhortations to you, for Christ’s sake! Amen.
Numbers 32:23
The Great Sin of Doing Nothing
NO. 1916
A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 5TH, 1886,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“But if ye will not do so, behold,
ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.”
— Numbers 32:23.
THERE are many dear friends engaged
in business who can only reach the Tabernacle in time for the middle of
the service, and therefore they lose the reading of the Scriptures and the
exposition, which make up a whole with the sermon. This is a great loss to
them, but as it is not their fault we must not let them suffer for it, so
far as we can remedy the evil. With this design let me explain to them
that, according to the chapter which we have read and expounded, the
Israelites had conquered the country possessed by Og, king of Bashan, and
Sihon, king of the Amorites; and the tribes of Reuben and Gad, having
great quantities of cattle, thought that so rich a pasture-country would
be eminently suitable for them and for their flocks. They were no bad
judges, for the country was specially fitted for sheep-farming. They
therefore asked of Moses that they might have that country to be theirs.
But Moses objected. Did they mean to sit still and enjoy that country, and
then leave the rest of the tribes to cross the Jordan, and to fight for
their possessions? If so, he declared that it was a very evil course to
take — that they were selfish in seeking their own ease, and that they
would be discouraging God’s people, and doing all sorts of mischief: He
therefore proposed to them that, if they were to have that conquered
country for their own, they should at least cross the river with their
brethren, and fight and continue fighting until the land on the other side
of Jordan had been cleared of its old inhabitants, and the whole of Israel
could take the whole of the country, and each tribe could possess its
portion. He put it to them as a matter of honor, and as a matter of right,
that they ought to help in conquering the rest of the land. Why should
they receive their lot without fighting, and leave the other tribes to
bear the toil and danger of war? Had not God bidden them all to go up and
drive out the condemned Canaanites? How could they evade their duty
without great sin? He would have them take their full share in the war,
and on that condition they might have the rich meadows of Bashan, but not
else. This was clearly just and equitable, and commended itself to those
concerned. They at once agreed to the proposal, and Moses, to enforce the
agreement, told them in the words of the text that, if they did not keep
their covenant, and give all due aid to their brethren, then they would
sin against God; and they might be sure that their sin would find them
out.
I remarked in reading the chapter
that Moses spoke very wisely, very forcibly, very honestly; and the people
were very pliant. They yielded to his persuasions, and the difficulty
which threatened to divide the nation was readily got over. It is well to
have a wise leader. It is well for him when he leads a reasonable people.
Oh, that I may be able to-night to speak a word in season, and may your
ears be ready to hear it! May the Lord bring as gracious an issue out of
this service as he did out of the discourse of his servant Moses! To his
Holy Spirit shall be all the praise.
We shall speak at this time, first,
of what was this sin? Secondly, what would be the chief sin of that sin?
“If ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord.” This
would be the peculiar atrocity of their sin, that it would be leveled at
God himself. And then there is a third point: What would the consequence
of such sin? “Be sure your sin will find you out.” They would be guilty,
and would not long go unpunished.
—————
I. First, then, What Was This
Sin? What is this sin about which the Spirit of God says by Moses, “Be
sure your sin will find you out?”
A learned divine has delivered a
sermon upon the sin of murder from this text, another upon theft, another
upon falsehood. Now they are very good sermons, but they have nothing to
do with this text, if it be read as Moses uttered it. If you take the text
as it stands, there is nothing in it about murder, or theft, or anything
of the kind. In fact, it is not about what men do, but it is about what
men do not do. The iniquity of doing nothing is a sin which is not so
often spoken of as it should be. A sin of omission is clearly aimed at in
this warning, — “If ye will not do so, be sure your sin will find you
out.”
What, then, was this sin? Remember
that it is the sin of God’s own people. It is not the sin of Egyptians and
Philistines, but the sin of God’s chosen nation; and therefore this text
is for you that belong to any of the tribes of Israel — you to whom God
has given a portion among his beloved ones. It is to you, professed
Christians and church members, that the text comes, “Be sure your sin
will find you out.” And what is that sin? Very sadly common it is among
professed Christians, and needs to be dealt with: it is the sin which
leads any to forget their share in the holy war which is to be carried out
for God and for his church. A great many wrongs are tangled together in
this crime, and we must try to separate them, and set them in order before
your eyes.
First, it was the sin of idleness
and of self-indulgence. “We have cattle: here is a land that yields much
pasture: let us have this for our cattle, and we will build folds for our
sheep with the abundant stones that lie about, and we will repair these
cities of the Amorites, and we will dwell in them. They are nearly ready
for us, and there shall our little ones dwell in comfort. We do not care
about fighting: we have seen enough of it already in the wars with Sihon
and Og Reuben would rather abide by the sheepfolds. Gad has more delight
in the bleating of the sheep and in the folding of the lambs in his bosom
than in going forth to battle.” Alas, the tribe of Reuben is not dead,
and the tribe of Gad has not passed away! Many who are of the household of
faith are equally indisposed to exertion, equally fond of ease. Hear them
say, “Thank God we are safe! We have passed from death unto life. We have
named the name of Christ; we are washed in his precious blood, and
therefore we are secure.” Then, with a strange inconsistency, they permit
the evil of the flesh to crave carnal ease, and they cry, “Soul, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and
be merry.” Spiritual self-indulgence is a monstrous evil; yet we see it
all around. On Sunday these loafers must be well fed. They look out for
such sermons as will feed their souls. The thought does not occur to these
people that there is something else to be done besides feeding.
Soul-saving is pushed into the background. The crowds are perishing at
their gates; the multitudes with their sins defile the air; the age is
getting worse and worse, and man, by a process of evolution, is evolving a
devil; and yet these people want pleasant things preached to them. They
eat the fat and drink the sweet, and they crowd to the feast of fat things
full of marrow, and of wines on the lees well refined — spiritual
festivals are their delight: sermons, conferences, Bible-readings, and so
forth, are sought after, but regular service in ordinary ways is
neglected. Not a hand’s turn will they do. They gird on no armor, they
grasp no sword, they wield no sling, they throw no stone. No, they have
gotten their possession; they know they have, and they sit down in carnal
security, satisfied to do nothing. They neither work for life, nor from
life: they are arrant sluggards, as lazy as they are long. Nowhere are
they at home except where they can enjoy themselves, and take things easy.
They love their beds, but the Lord’s fields they will neither plough nor
reap. This is the sin pointed out in the text — “If ye do not go forth to
the battles of the Lord, and contend for the Lord God and for his people,
ye do sin against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.” The
sin of doing nothing is about the biggest of all sins, for it involves
most of the others. The sin of sitting still while your brethren go forth
to war breaks both tables of the law, and has in it a huge idolatry of
self, which neither allows love to God or man. Horrible idleness! God save
us from it!
This sin may be viewed under another
aspect, as selfishness and unbrotherliness. Gad and Reuben ask to have
their inheritance at once, and to make themselves comfortable in Bashan,
on this side Jordan. What about Judah, Levi, Simeon, Benjamin, and all the
rest of the tribes? How are they to get their inheritance? They do not
care, but it is evident that Bashan is suitable for themselves with their
multitude of cattle. Some of them reply, “You see, they must look to
themselves, as the proverb hath it, ’Every man for himself, and God for us
all.’” Did I not hear some one in the company say, “Am I my brother’s
keeper?” I know that gentleman. I heard his voice years ago. His name is
Cain, and I have this to say to him: it is true that he is not his
brother’s keeper, but he is his brother’s killer. Every man is either the
keeper of his brother, or the destroyer of his brother. Soul-murder can be
wrought without an act or even a will; it can be, and is constantly,
accomplished by neglect. Yonder perishing heathen — does not the Lord
enquire, “Who slew all these?” The millions of this city unevangelized —
who is guilty of their blood? Are not idle Christians starving the
multitude by refusing to hand out the bread of life? Is not this a
grievous sin?
“But oh,” says another, “they can
conquer the land themselves. God is with them, and he can do his own work,
and therefore I do not see that I need trouble myself about other
people.” That is selfishness; and selfishness is never worse than when it
puts on the garb of religion. The boy at school, who selfishly feeds
himself upon his luxuries, and gives nothing to his young companions, is
generally their ridicule. He is the greedy boy whom all despise. A man
with large stores, who, in time of famine, would feed himself but never
think of the poor, is despised among men. But what shall I say of the man
who, concerning the things of the soul — concerning heaven, and hell, and
Christ, and eternity — is so selfish that, being saved himself, he cares
not one jot for others? He is so unbrotherly that I am half afraid he is
no brother. He is so inhuman that I can scarcely think a touch of the life
of Christ can ever have quickened him. How is he a Christian who is not
like Christ, but who just feels, “Well, I am all right; and if I look to
myself other people must look to themselves. God will see to them all, no
doubt! I have nothing to do with it?” Now unless we shake off that
horrible selfishness, and feel that the very essence of our religion lies
in love, and that one of the first-fruits of it is to make us care about
the salvation of our fellow-men — unless, I say, we shake that off and go
forth to fight the Lord’s battles — then this text threatens us very
solemnly, — “If ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the
Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.” O my brothers, hear ye
this text, and let it operate with salutary influence to produce in you
constant effort for the salvation of those around you!
But with this there was mingled
ingratitude of a very dark order. These children of Gad and Reuben would
appropriate to themselves lauds for which all the Israelites had labored.
God had led them forth to battle, and they had conquered Sihon and Og, and
now these men would take possession of what others have struggled for, but
they are not to fight themselves. This is vile ingratitude; and I fear it
is common among us at this very day. How come we to be Christians at all?
Instrumentally, it is through those holy missionaries who won our fathers
from the cruel worship of the Druids, and afterwards from the fierce
dominion of Woden and Thor. We must also trace our gospel light to those
stakes at Smithfield, where men of God counted not their lives dear to
them, but willingly gave up all they had, and their lives also by a
painful death, that they might keep truth alive in the land. Some of you
came to be Christian men through the earnest labors of men who preached by
the roadside, or by the loving entreaties of tender mothers who wept you
to the Savior, or by the faithful ministry of some brother from the
pulpit, or the equally faithful teaching of an earnest Sunday-school
teacher. We owe under God much to past ages, and much to present laborers.
There is no man among us but stands immensely indebted to the church of
God. Though God be our Father, yet the church is our mother, and through
her various agencies we have been born to God. Do we acknowledge all this
debt, and are we not going to pay it? Are we to receive all, and then give
out nothing at all? Are we to be like candles burning under bushels? Are
we to waste our life by much receiving and little distributing? This will
never do. This will not be life, but death. I do not charge this home upon
anybody personally; but if this cap fits anybody, pray let him wear it. If
any man must acknowledge his obligation to the church of God, and yet he
is not repaying it, let him cover his face for very shame. Wilt thou not
hand on the light thou hast received? Verily thou deservest to perish in
darkness. Art thou fed, and wilt thou not break thy bread to the hungry,
or pass a cup of cold water to the thirsty? What art thou at, strange
ingrate! that thou shouldst simply be a stagnant reservoir into which
streams of mercy fall never to run out of thee again, but to stand and
putrefy in selfishness? Remember the Dead Sea, and tremble lest thou be
like it, a pool accursed and cursing all around thee! O God, have mercy
upon the great mass of thy professing people to whom this must be solemnly
applied: that they do receive, but give to thee and to thy cause so little
either of time, substance, talent, prayer, or anything else!
The text, when spiritually
interpreted, says concerning our personal service in the conquest of the
world for Christ, — “if ye do not so, behold ye have sinned against the
Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.”
Again, we may view this from another
point of view. It is the sin of untruthfulness. These people pledged
themselves that they would go forth with the other tribes, and that they
would not return to their own homes until the whole of the campaign was
ended. Now, if after that they did not go to the war, and did not fight to
the close of it, then they would be guilty of a barefaced lie. It is a
wretched thing for a man to be a covenant-breaker. It is sacrilege for any
man to lie, not only unto man, but unto God. I would speak very tenderly,
but if any man has been converted from the error of his ways, by that very
conversion he is bound to serve the Lord. If he has been baptized as a
believer, by that baptism he declared that he was dead to the world, and
buried to it, that henceforth he might live in newness of life. Now, if he
lives only to make money and hoard it, and he does nothing for God’s
church and for poor sinners, is not his baptism a lie? Such a baptized
person was buried, but he was never dead: is not this to turn baptism into
a farce? He gave himself up to the church of God, he became a member of
it; and by that act and deed he pledged himself to do all he could for its
growth and its prosperity; and if he does nothing, he is a deceiver. If
his joining a church meant anything, it meant that he would take part in
the common service of God. A do nothing professor is a merely nominal
member, and a nominal member is a real hindrance. He neither contributes,
nor prays, nor works, nor agonizes for souls, nor takes any part in
Christian service, and yet he partakes in all the privileges of the
church. Is this fair? What is the use of him? He sits and hears, and
sometimes sleeps under the sermon. That is all. Is not his union with the
church a practical falsehood? I will not say so, but I will ask the
question. It does seem to me that if I belong to the Israelites, and they
are sent by God to conquer a country, and I do not go forth to the war
with them, and take my part in the conflict, I am not a true Israelite. I
am unworthy of my nation; I am disloyal to the standard; I am false to my
fellow-soldiers. I think it is so: do not you? Having entered the
Christian ministry, if I did nothing in it, I should feel that I disgraced
it. If I simply tried to enjoy religion without an effort to spread it, I
ought to be drummed out of the army of preachers. If there be any in the
church who have talent that they do not use for God, or money which they
do not lay out for Christ, or time which they do not use for holy
purposes, they are sinning, and their sin will find them out. Your buried
talent, will it not rust, and rusting, will it not create within your
spirits a most horrible disease, and be a peril to you? Must it not be so?
Are they not guilty of an acted lie before high heaven who call themselves
servants of God, and yet do not serve him? You often sing —
“’Tis done! the
great transaction’s done;
I am my Lord’s, and he is mine:
He drew me, and I follow’d on,
Charm’d to confess the voice divine.
High heaven, that
heard the solemn vow,
That vow renew’d shall daily hear:
Till in life’s latest hour I bow,
And bless in death a bond so dear.”
Is that hymn true? Do you mean those
verses, or do you mock God? You have all sung the hymn many times, and
mark, “Happy day! Happy day!” the chorus; but is your singing true or
false? If any man or woman among you shall after such a song sink back
into himself, and do nothing for his Lord, what truth is there in him? God
save us from using our lips to mock his holy name! It can be little short
of blasphemy to sing such words and yet live a selfish, indolent life.
Will a man thus insult his God? O sirs, I beseech you make such language
true, or else have done with it, lest the record of it destroy your souls!
Once more, and I will have done with
this painful subject. What would their sin be? According to Moses it would
be a grave injury to others. Do you not notice how he put it to them?
“Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall
your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?” What an example to set!
If one Christian man is right in never joining a Christian church, then
all other Christian men would be right in not doing so, and there would be
no visible Christian church. Do you not see, you non-professing believers,
that your example is destructive of all church-life? What are you at? If
one Christian man, with the talent to preach, is right in not preaching,
then other Christian men have a right to trifle in the same way, and then
there would be no ministry left. An idler is a great waster, and makes
others wasters too: his example is likely to make all around him as
indolent as himself. I notice in our churches that a few earnest men and
women lead the way, and others are sweetly drawn to follow them. How
precious are the earnest few in a Christian community. David knew the
value of the first three in his band. But if the leading spirits are dead,
cold, indifferent, what happens? Why, lethargy spreads over the whole. I
am sorry to say that I hear of instances in which a minister laments, “I
labor with all my might, but I am persuaded that nothing will ever be done
while Mr. So-and-so is there.” He is often a coldblooded deacon, or a
purse-proud member. When you come to know him, you feel, “While there is
such a great big iceberg floating close to the shore, the garden by the
sea must be frostbitten: nothing can grow.” It were a pity that any of us
should freeze others. God save us from it! “Oh,” says one, “nobody
knows me, and therefore I cannot have much influence either for good or
for evil.” Not over your own child — your daughter, your son? That
influence which you have over even one or two little ones may spread far
further than you imagine. We cannot calculate the range of moral
influence: it is immeasurable. I suppose that there is not a single moving
atom of matter which does not influence in some measure the entire
universe. One atom impinges upon another, and that upon another, and so it
reaches the remotest star. Whether we do or do not do, what we do or do
not do, will have an influence upon all that are round about us, perhaps
to all eternity. Perhaps the word I speak tonight shall thrill when yonder
sun has burned out like a coal, and the moon has become black as sackcloth
of hair. I am not sure but that our thoughts upon our bed may throb
throughout the ages in their incessant results. “None of us liveth to
himself, and no man dieth to himself:” for good or for evil we are yoked
with the universe, and there is no possibility of severance. There is much
influence for evil in an idle example: possibly such an example would not
be set by certain persons if they would but think of the consequences. To
such consideration of consequences I invite all whose gravest fault is
forbearing to do good. O barren tree, do not excuse thyself because thou
dost not drip with poison like the upas! It is crime enough that thou
cumberest the ground!
Moses goes on to remark that if
these people did not go forth to war they would discourage all the rest.
“Wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going
over into the land which the Lord hath given them?” It is no slight sin
to discourage holy zeal and perseverance in others. May we never be guilty
of killing holy desires even in children! How often has a burning desire
in a boy’s heart been quenched by his own father, who has thought him too
impulsive, or too ardent! How frequently the conversation of a friend, so
called, has dried up the springs of holy desire in the person with whom he
has conversed! Let it not be so. Yet without cold words our chill neglects
may freeze. I know a terrace where the shutting up of one or two shops has
a deadening effect upon the trade of the other shops. Somehow, the closed
shutters give a gloomy look to the place, and customers are repelled. Does
not the same thing happen to groups of workers when one grows idle? Does
not the one call brother deaden the rest? We cannot neglect our own
gardens without injuring our neighbors. Do you live anywhere near a house
that is not let, which has a back garden left to run to waste? All manner
of seeds are blown over upon your ground; and, though you keep the hoe
going, yet the weeds baffle you, for there is such a nursery for them just
over the wall. One mechanic coming late among a set of workmen may throw
the whole company out of order for the day. One railway truck off the
rails may block the entire system. Depend upon it, if we are not serving
the Lord our God, we are committing the sin of discouraging our
fellow-men. They are more likely to imitate our lethargy than our energy.
Why should we wish to hinder others from being earnest? How dare we rob
God of the services of others by our own neglect? O God, deliver us from
this sin!
If I had preached a sermon about
murder or theft, you would all have escaped the lash; but few of us will
be without rebuke now that I have kept the text in the setting in which
God originally put it, and in which he meant it to be presented for our
rebuke and exhortation.
—————
II. Secondly, let us carefully
notice What Was The Chief Sin In This Sin?
Of course, if the Reubenites did not
keep their solemn agreement to go over Jordan, and help their brethren,
they would sin against their brethren; but this is not the offense which
rises first to the mind of Moses. Moses overlooks the lesser, because he
knows it to be comprehended in the greater; and he says, “Behold, ye have
sinned against the Lord.” In this he anticipated the confession of David,
“against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy
sight.” To refuse to help their brethren would be disobedience to the
Lord. Did he not command all Israel to drive out the Canaanites? In like
manner, neglect of holy work is positive sin against the Lord. It is
disobedience against the Lord not to be preaching his truth if we are able
to do so. Did not our Lord say, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to every creature?” This command was not confined to a dozen or
so, but was meant for all his people, as they have opportunity and
ability. We who hear the gospel are bidden to proclaim it, for it is
written, “Let him that heareth say, Come.” The hearer of the gospel is
bound to be a repeater of the gospel. We are all called upon, as we know
the Lord, to tell to others what the Lord has told to us; and if we do not
so, we are guilty of disobedience to a great gospel precept.
We are certainly guilty, dear
friends, of ingratitude, if, as I have already said, we owe so much to
other men, and yet do not seek to bless mankind; but chiefly we owe
everything to the grace of God, and, if God has given us grace in our own
hearts, and saved us with the precious blood of the Only-Begotten, how can
we sit still, and allow others to perish? As we value salvation we are
under bonds to make it known. We rejoice to be in the kingdom of God —
should we not spend and be spent for the growth of that kingdom? He that
doth not bear arms in this war is a traitor to his sovereign Lord.
There would be sin against God in
the conduct of these people, if they did not aid in the conquest of Canaan
for they would be dividing God’s Israel. Shall the Lord’s heritage be rent
in twain? God meant them all to keep together. They all came out of Egypt
together; they all marched through the wilderness together, and now he
meant them to fight his battles together. Were these to take their
inheritance, and abide among the sheep-cotes, and leave the other ten and
a half tribes to go over Jordan and wage the war alone? This would be
scattering the family of God. Can it be that any of us are dividing the
church of God; that is, dividing it into drones and workers? This would be
a terrible division: and I fear that it exists already. It is apparent to
those who are able to observe; and it is mourned over by those who are
jealous for the God of Israel. Half the schisms in churches arise out of
the real division which exists between idlers and workers. Mind this. Be
not sowers of division by being busy-bodies, working not at all.
If you are not serving the Lord, you
are sinning against the sacred Trinity. You sin against our Father, who
would have you do good and be imitators of him as dear children. You sin
against the Son of God, who has bought you with a price that you might be
zealous for his glory. You sin against the Holy Ghost, whose impulses are
not to sleep and idleness, but to quickening and to holiness. May we no
longer sin against the Lord by refusing to perform his will!
—————
III. We have now reached the last
point, and the point that is most serious: What Will Come Of This Sin Of
Doing Nothing? What will come of it?
“Be sure your sin will find you
out.” Now, as the time is nearly gone, I will not do more than show that
these Gadites and Reubenites would be sure to be found out by their own
neglect. Their sin would find them out to their shame and sorrow if they
did not lend all their strength to their brethren according to their
promise.
It would find them out thus: they
would be ill at ease. One of these days their sin would leap upon their
consciences as a lion on its prey. They would wake up and say, “We were
wrong. We were bound to have taken our share in that war;” and every man
among them that was good for anything would be troubled in heart because
he had failed to do his duty in the hour of need. He would feel uneasy: he
would not want anybody to point him out with the finger, but he would
point himself out and he would say to himself, “I failed in that case. I
know I did. I acted very wrongly. I ought to have been with Joshua chasing
out those Canaanites: I received my own portion of the land, and ought
therefore to have helped others to win their portions.”
When conscience was thus aroused,
they would also feel themselves to be mean and despicable. As king after
king was conquered, and the notes of victory were heard all over Canaan,
they would think themselves mice rather than men to have shunned so
glorious a conflict. They would feel disgraced by their own inaction.
Their manhood would be held cheap by the other tribes: in fact, they would
become a by-word and a proverb, as men do who are notoriously greedy and
selfish. Surely it is an intolerable disgrace to any one to profess to be
a man of God, and to have no care about the souls of others, while they
are perishing by millions.
More than that, the tribes who went
not to the war would be enfeebled by their own inaction. God would have
his people learn war; but if these men did not go to the fight they would
not be soldierly, and they would not be able to take care of themselves
when their land was invaded. How much of sacred education we miss when we
turn away from the service of God! I believe that no man understands
salvation so well as the man who, having tasted it for himself, has also
preached it to those about him. If you want to know the evil of the human
heart, try to do good to the unconverted, and endeavor to guide the
unbeliever to Jesus. Get a dozen girls around you, my sister, and watch
the workings of their hearts as you seek to lead them to Christ, and you
will learn much more than you knew before. My dear brother, gather a
number of youths about you, and observe their feeling and conduct while
you seek their conversion. You will soon know the depravity of human
nature if you watch for souls for a little season; and if you get souls
converted, and act as a spiritual father to them, you will soon see how
much they need the Holy Spirit to keep them; and how much you need him to
keep you also, for your patience will be tried. You will learn both the
sweet and the bitter of the things of God by being engaged in Christ’s
service. Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me”: service
is a yoke we must bear in order to learn of Christ. The only way to learn
to swim is to get into the water. To be a soldier and never know the smell
of gunpowder is impossible: at least, such soldiers are little to be
relied on in case of war. No, no; our sin, if we do nothing, will find us
out in our being enfeebled, in our being disgraced, in our feeling that we
are mean, and in the accusation of our conscience. Let us find this sin
out, and shake ourselves free from it before it finds us out.
Their sin would also have found them
out, had they fallen into it, because they would have been divided from
the rest of God’s Israel. If they had not gone across the Jordan to fight,
the ten and a half tribes would always have said, “What have we to do
with you? The Jordan rolls between us, and so let it do. We do not want
any connection with those who acted so basely to us in our hour of need.”
They would practically have cut themselves off from union with the Israel
of God, and they would have secured to themselves the loss of all
fellowship with earnest men. Those who are non-workers lose much by not
keeping pace with those who are running the heavenly race. The active are
happy: the hand of the diligent maketh rich in a spiritual sense. There is
that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty: I am sure
it is so in a spiritual sense.
To come more practically home,
brethren beloved, if you and I are not serving the Lord, our sin will find
us out. It will find us out perhaps in this way. There will be many added
to the church and God will prosper it, and we shall hear of it: but we
shall feel no joy therein. We had no finger in the work, and we shall find
no comfort in the result. We did not point out the way to troubled
consciences; we never went to early morning prayer-meetings, nor to any
prayer-meetings, to pray for a blessing; we never spoke a word or even
gave a tract away; and therefore we shall see the blessing with our eyes,
but we shall not eat thereof. While God’s people lift up their loud
hallelujahs of joy we shall only mourn, “My leanness, my leanness, woe
unto me!” It is no joy to see a harvest reaped from fields which we
refused to plough.
It may be that you will begin to
lose all the sweetness of public services. By doing nothing you lose your
appetite. Many a person who has no appetite needs a wise doctor to say to
him, “Of course you cannot eat, for you do not work. Exercise yourself;
and your appetite will return.” He that earns his breakfast enjoys his
breakfast; and he who labors for Christ finds that the services of the
sanctuary are exceedingly sweet to him. I know some dear brethren here who
cannot get to a Sunday sermon because they have something to do for their
Lord throughout the Sabbath; therefore they drop in to this Thursday
evening sermon. Thus they gain a Sabbath in the middle of the week, which
is exceedingly sweet to them. They can only attend one service on the
Sunday, but that is doubly refreshing to them. They are engaged at the
ragged-school, or at the corner of the street, where they are accustomed
to preach: and the Lord makes up to them their lost opportunities. Believe
me, when they do get a meal they heartily appreciate it; for they come
with an appetite which they have gathered in the service of their Master.
If you do not work, your sin will find you out in the loss of enjoyment
when present at the means of grace.
I have known this sin find people
out in their families. There is a Christian man: we honor and love him,
but he has a son that is a drunkard. Did his good father ever bear any
protest against strong drink in all his life? No; he did not like the blue
ribbon, of course. I will not dispute about total abstinence, but I do not
feel much astonished at a boy drinking much when he sees his godly father
drink a little regularly. Every man should labor by precept and example to
put down intemperance, and he who does not do so may be sure that his sin
will find him out.
Here is another. His children have
all grown up thoughtless, careless, giddy. He took them to his place of
worship, and he now enquires, “Why are they not converted?” Did he ever
take them one by one and pray with them? Did he ever speak earnestly to
each boy and each girl, and labor for the conversion of each one? I am
afraid that in many cases nothing of the sort has been attempted. Certain
mistaken individuals almost think it wrong to seek the conversion of their
children while they are children, and their sin finds them out when they
see them growing up in ungodliness.
Besides, if we do not look after
God’s children, it may be that he will not look after ours. “No,” says
God, “there were other people’s children in the streets, and you had no
concern about them, why should your children fare better? You never opened
a ragged-school for the poor, why should I bless you? There were men in
your employment by whom you gained your living, but you never spoke to
them about their souls, nor cared whether they were saved or damned, and I
am not going to look after your family when you have no concern for
mine.” “Be sure your sin will find you out.”
I do not know how this warning may
come home to any brother or sister here who has been idling: but it is
better that my warning should find him out than that his sin should find
him out. I do not know whether there are any idlers here, though I have a
pretty shrewd guess that there are. Friends, neglect of the Lord’s work
will come home to you, and I will tell you when it will come to you, if it
does not do so before. When you are sick and ill, your faith in Christ
will bring you great comfort, but you will be sorrowful if you have to say
to yourself, “Oh, that I had served God while I was young!” A friend
said to me not long ago, “My dear sir, you are often laid aside, and no
doubt the reason is the imprudent manner in which you worked away in your
youth. You preached ten times in a week almost all the year round, year
after year, and of course you wore yourself out.” “Oh, yes,” I said,
“it may be so, but I do not regret it in the least. Thank God, I preached
with all my might all over the land when I could do so; and I would again
if I could only get renewed strength!” If I cannot work so much as in
earlier days, I have not the misery of saying, “I wasted my
opportunities, and spent my best days in ease.” I do say to myself,
“Would God I had done more, or had done it better; but I am thankful to
be able to exonerate myself from all charge of sloth.” If those of us who
do much have to whip ourselves a bit, what should those do who practically
do nothing at all, and discourage others? What can idlers do but fear that
their sin will find them out?
Thus far have I spoken to God’s
people, and if you think that this is rather rough upon them, what shall I
say to you who do not love the Lord at all? O sirs, if the fan that is in
Christ’s hand purges his own floor in this stern way, what will that fan
do with you who are as chaff to the wheat! If he sits here as a refiner,
and purifies the sons of Levi, and puts even the gold into the fire, what
will become of the dross? “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” If the language of God is sharp
even to his own beloved, because he says, “As many as I love, I rebuke
and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent,” what will his language be
to those who are not his children, but are living in open rebellion
against him? Tremble, ye that forget God. Hear his own words, they are
none of mine: “Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in
pieces, and there be none to deliver.” God help you to flee from the sin
of doing nothing! The Lord Jesus Christ himself lead you into the Father’s
service! Amen.
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