The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

of the lady declined, and her heart became wedded to the world. And it is not to be wondered at, that her three children, as they grew up, imbibed her spirit and copied her example. ‘A severe disease,’ it is said, ‘demands a severe remedy’; and that God soon applied. One morning news came that her little son had fallen into the fish lake and was drowned. The mother’s heart was pierced with the affliction, and she wept and murmured against the providence of God. Soon afterwards, her only daughter, a blooming girl of sixteen, was taken sick of a fever, and died. It seemed then as if the mother’s heart would have broken. But this new stroke of the rod of a chastening Father seemed only to increase her displeasure against his will. The only remaining child, her oldest son, who had come home from college to attend his sister’s funeral, went out into the fields soon afterwards, for the purpose of hunting. In getting over a fence, he put his gun over first to assist himself in springing to the ground, when it accidentally discharged itself and killed him! What then were that mother’s feelings? In the extravagance of her grief, she fell down, tore her hair, and raved like a maniac against the providence of God. The father, whose grief was already almost insupportable, when he looked upon the shocking spectacle, and heard her frenzied ravings, could endure his misery no longer. The iron entered into his soul and he fell a speedy victim to his accumulated afflictions. From the wife and mother, her husband and all her children were now taken away. Reason returned, and she was led to reflection. She saw her dreadful backslidings, her pride, her rebellion; and she wept with the tears of a deep repentance. Peace was restored to her soul. Then would she lift up her hands to heaven, exclaiming, ‘I thank you, oh Father! — the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Thus did her afflictions yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, and her heavenly Father chasten her, ‘not for his pleasure, but for her profit, that she might become partaker of his holiness.’ ”

      17. So God delivered her soul out of the snare of the fowler. She started afresh in the ways of righteousness, serving God with diligence and zeal, and growing up in his fear. By trouble and trial, by some means or another, God will surely deliver his people out of the snare of the fowler, even when they are in it.

      18. III. And now, to conclude, I am to dwell for a moment or two upon that word “SURELY.” The assurance of every truth of Scripture is just the beauty of it. If it were not sure, it would not be precious; and it is precious just because it is sure.

      19. Now, it says, “surely he shall deliver you.” Why? First because he has promised to do it; and God’s promises are bonds that never yet were dishonoured. If he has said he will, he will. Secondly, because Christ Jesus has taken an oath that he will do it. In ages long gone by Christ Jesus became the shepherd of the sheep, and the Surety of them too. “If any of them perish,” he said, “at my hand you shall require it”; and, therefore, because Christ is responsible, because he is the heavenly sponsor for all God’s people, they must be kept: for otherwise Christ’s bond would be forfeited, and his oath would be null and void. They must be kept again because otherwise the union that there is between all of them and Christ would not be a real one. Christ and his Church are one — one body; but if any of the members of my body were cut off, I would be maimed, and if Christ could lose one of his children he would be a maimed Christ. “We are his body, the fulness of him that fills all in all.” If, then, the whole Church were not to be gathered in, Christ would be an incomplete Christ, seeing he would lack his fulness. They must all be saved, for God the Father has determined that they shall be; no the Son has sworn they shall be; and God the Holy Spirit vouches for it they shall be. Not one of God’s people shall be cast away, or else the Bible is not true. The whole stability of the covenant rests on their final perseverance. The whole covenant of grace rests on this —

      He shall present our souls,

      Unblemished and complete,

      Before the glory of his face,

      With joys divinely great.

      And therefore they must be preserved out of the snare of the fowler, because otherwise the covenant would be null and void. If one would perish the oath would be broken; if one would be cast away the covenant would be void; and therefore they must be kept secure.

      His honour is engaged to save

      The meanest of his sheep;

      All that his heavenly Father gave,

      His hands securely keep.

      20. I have no time to enlarge upon that subject, which is filled with glory, and might afford a topic for many discourses. I now close up by saying, Men and brethren, is this promise yours? “Surely he shall deliver you.” Are you the man? “How can I tell?” you say. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you, as a guilty sinner, cast yourself wholly on the blood and righteousness of the immaculate Redeemer? I do not ask you whether you are a Wesleyan, a Churchman, a Baptist, an Independent, or a Presbyterian; my only question is, Are you born again? Have you passed from death to life? Are you “a new creature in Christ Jesus?” Is all your trust put in the Lord Jesus Christ? Has his life become your model, and does his Spirit dwell in your mortal body? If so, peace be to you: this promise is yours. You may have been the worst of men; but if you have faith in Christ those sins are all forgiven, and you may take this promise to be yours for ever. But if you are self-righteous, self-sufficient, ungodly, careless, worldly, there is no such promise for you: you are in the snare, you shall be there, and you shall perish, unless you repent; for it is written “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” May God save you from perishing, by giving you an interest in the blood of Christ! and to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be glory for ever and ever.

      The Fruitless Vine

      No. 125-3:145. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Evening, March 22, 1857, By C. H. Spurgeon, At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

      And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, — “Son of man, How is the vine tree better than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?” {Ezekiel 15:1,2}

      1. The Jewish nation had arrogant ideas about themselves; when they sinned against God, they supposed that on account of the superior sanctity of their forefathers, or by reason of some special sanctity in themselves, they would be delivered — sin as they pleased. In consequence of the infinite mercy of Jehovah, which he had displayed towards them, in delivering them out of so many distresses, they gradually came to imagine that they were the favourite children of providence, and that God could by no means ever cast them away. God, therefore, in order to humble their pride, tells them that they in themselves were nothing more than any other nation; and he asks them what there was about them to recommend them? “I have often called you a vine; I have planted you, and nurtured you in a very fruitful hill, but now you bring forth no fruit; what is there in you that I should continue to favour you? If you imagine there is anything about you more than about any other nation, you are mightily mistaken.” “How is the vine tree better than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest.”

      2. Let us remember, that these things might be said, without implying that God in the least degree alters his eternal purpose towards any chosen vessel of mercy; for the Israelitish nation was not chosen to eternal salvation, as a nation, but chosen to special privileges; — a type and shadow of that eternal personal election, which Christ has given to his Church. From his own elect Church, God will never withdraw his love; but from the outward and visible church he sometimes may. From his own people he never will take away his affection; but from professors, from those who merely stand in his people’s external condition, and are not his children, he may, yes, and he will, withdraw every token of his favour. God humbles Israel, by reminding them that they had nothing which other nations had not, — that in fact they were a contemptible nation, not worthy to be set side by side with the cedar of Lebanon, or with the oak of Samaria; they were of no use, they were worthless, unless they brought forth fruit for him. He checks their pride, and humbles them, with the parable we have here before us.

      3. Beloved, we shall, by God’s help, use this parable for ourselves, and learn two lessons from it.