1526. The Fair Portrait Of A Saint

A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, March 7, 1880, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. *1/13/2013

My foot has held to his steps, I have kept his way, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. [Job 23:11,12]

1. Thus Job speaks of himself, not by way of boasting, but by way of vindication. Eliphaz the Temanite and his two companions had brought distinct charges against Job’s character: because they saw him in such utter misery they concluded that his adversity must have been sent as a punishment for his sin, and therefore they judged him to be a hypocrite, who under cover of religion had exercised oppression and tyranny. Zophar had hinted that wickedness was sweet in Job’s mouth, and that he hid iniquity under his tongue. Eliphaz charged him with hardness of heart to the poor, and dared to say, “You have taken a pledge from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.” This last charge from its very impossibility was meant to show the extreme baseness to which he falsely imagined that Job must have descended — how could he strip the naked? He was evidently firing at random. Since neither he nor his companions could discover any palpable blot in Job upon which they could distinctly lay their finger, they splattered him right and left with their groundless accusations. They made up in venom for the lack of evidence to back up their charges. They felt sure that there must be some great sin in him to have procured such extraordinary afflictions, and therefore by hitting him all over they hoped to touch the sore place. Let them stand as a warning to us never to judge men by their circumstances, and never to conclude that a man must be wicked because he has fallen from riches to poverty.

2. Job, however, knew his innocence, and he was determined not to give way to them. He said, “You are forgers of lies, physicians of no value. Oh that you would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.” He fought the battle very manfully; not, perhaps, without a little display of temper and self-righteousness, but still with much less of either than any of us would have shown had we been in the same plight, and had we been equally conscious of perfect integrity. He has in this part of his self-defence sketched a fine picture of a man perfect and upright before God. He has set before us the image to which we should seek to be conformed. Here is the high ideal after which every Christian man should strive; and happy shall he be who shall attain to it. Blessed is he who in the hour of his distress, if he is falsely accused, will be able to say with as much truth as the patriarch could, “My foot has held to his steps, I have kept his way, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.”

3. I ask you, first, to inspect the picture of Job’s holy life, so that you may make it your model. After we have done this, we will look a little below the surface, asking the question, “How was he enabled to lead such an admirable life as this? Upon what food did this great patriarch feed that he had grown so eminent?” We shall find the answer in our second point, Job’s holy sustenance — “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” May he, who created in Job his patience and integrity, by our meditation teach us the same virtues by the power of the Holy Spirit.

4. I. Let us sit down before this sketch of JOB’S HOLY LIFE: it will well repay a meditative study.

5. Notice, first, that all along Job had been a man fearing God and walking after the divine rule. In the words before us he dwells much upon the things of God — “his steps,” “his way,” “the commandment of his lips,” “the words of his mouth.” He was preeminently one who “feared God and shunned evil.” He knew God to be the Lord, and worthy to be served, and therefore he lived in obedience to his law, which was written upon his instructed conscience. His way was God’s way; he chose that course which the Lord commanded. He did not seek his own pleasure, nor the carrying out of his own will: neither did he follow the fashion of the times, nor conform himself to the ruling opinion or custom of the age in which he lived: fashion and custom were nothing to him, he knew no rule except the will of the Almighty. Like some tall cliff which defies the flood, he stood out almost alone, a witness for God in an idolatrous world. He acknowledged the living God, and lived “as seeing him who is invisible.” God’s will had taken the helm of the vessel, and the ship was steered in God’s course according to the divine compass of infallible justice and the unerring chart of the divine will. This is a great point to begin with; it is, indeed, the only sure basis for a noble character. Ask the man who seeks to be the architect of a great and honourable character this question — “Where do you place God? Is he second with you?” Ah, then, in the judgment of those whose view comprehends all human relationships you will lead a very secondary kind of life, for the first and most urgent obligation of your being will be ignored. But is God first with you? Is this your determination, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord?” Do you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? If so, you are laying the foundation for a whole or holy character, for you begin by acknowledging your highest responsibility. In this respect you will find that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Whether the way is rough or smooth, uphill or down dale, through green pastures or burning deserts, let God’s way be your way. Where the fiery cloudy pillar of his providence leads be sure to follow, and where his holy statutes command, promptly go there. Ask the Lord to let you hear his Spirit speak like a voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” As soon as you see from the Scriptures, or from conscience, or from providence, what the will of the Lord is, hurry and do not delay to keep his commandments. Always set the Lord before you. Have respect for his statutes at all times, and in all your ways acknowledge him. No man will be able to look back upon his life with satisfaction unless God has been sitting upon the throne of his heart and ruling all his thoughts, aims, and actions. Unless he can say with David, “My soul has kept your testimonies and I love them very much,” he will find much to weep over and little with which to answer his accusers.

6. We must follow the Lord’s way, or our end will be destruction; we must take hold upon Christ’s steps, or our feet will soon be in slippery places; we must reverence God’s words, or our own words will be idle and full of vanity; and we must keep God’s commands, or we shall be destitute of that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I do not proclaim obedience to the law as the way of salvation; but I speak to those who profess to be saved already by faith in Christ Jesus, and I remind all of you who are numbered with the company of believers that if you are Christ’s disciples you will produce the fruits of holiness, and if you are God’s children you will be like your Father. Godliness fosters God-likeness. The fear of God leads to imitation of God, and where this is not so, the root of the matter is lacking. The scriptural rule is “by their fruits you shall know them,” and by this we must examine ourselves.

7. Let us now consider Job’s first sentence. He says: “My foot has held to his steps.” This expression describes great carefulness. He had watched every step of God, that is to say, he had been minute as to particulars, observing each precept, which he looked upon as being a footprint which the Lord had made for him to set his foot in; observing, also, each detail of the great example of his God; for in so far as God is capable of being imitated he is the great example for his people, as he says — “Be holy, for I am holy”: and again, “Be perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” Job had observed the steps of God’s justice, so that he might be just; the steps of God’s mercy, so that he might be tender and compassionate; the steps of God’s bounty, so that he might never be guilty of churlishness or lack generosity; and the steps of God’s truth, so that he might never deceive. He had watched God’s steps of forgiveness, so that he might forgive his adversaries; and God’s steps of benevolence, so that he might also do good and share, according to his ability, with all who were in need. As a result of this he became eyes to the blind and feet to the lame; he delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless and the one who had no one to help. The blessing of the one who was ready to perish came upon him, and he caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

8. “My foot,” he says, “has held to his steps”: he means that he had laboured to be exact in his obedience towards God, and in his imitation of the divine character. Beloved, we shall do well if we are to the minutest point hourly observant of the precepts and example of God in all things. We must not only follow the right road, but also his footprints in that road. We are to be obedient to our heavenly Father not only in some things, but in all things: not in some place but in all places, outside and at home, in business and in devotion, in the words of our lips and in the thoughts of our hearts. There is no holy walking without careful watching. Depend on it, no man was ever good by chance, nor did anyone ever become like the Lord Jesus by a happy accident. “I put gold into the furnace,” said Aaron, “and this calf came out,” but no one believed him. If the image was like a calf it was because he had formed it with an engraving tool; and if it is not to be believed that metal will by itself take the form of a calf, much less will character assume the likeness of God himself, as we see it in the Lord Jesus. The pattern is too rich and rare, too elaborate and perfect, ever to be reproduced by a careless, half-awakened trifler. No, we must give all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength to this business, and watch every step, or else our walk will not be close to God, nor pleasing in his sight. Oh to be able to say, “My foot has held to his steps.”

9. Notice here that the expression has something in it of tenacity, he speaks of taking hold upon God’s steps. The idea needs to be illuminated by the illustration contained in the original expression. You must go to mountainous regions to understand it. In very rough ways a person may walk all the better for having no shoes on his feet. I sometimes pitied the women of Mentone coming down the rough places of the mountains barefooted, carrying heavy loads upon their heads, but I ceased to pity them when I observed that most of them had a fine pair of shoes in the basket at the top; and I perceived as I watched them that they could stand where I slipped, because their feet took hold upon the rock, almost like another pair of hands. Barefooted they could safely stand, and readily climb where feet encased after our fashion would never carry them. Many Orientals have a power of grasp in their feet which we appear to have lost from lack of use. An Arab in taking a determined stand actually seems to grasp the ground with his toes. Roberts tells us in his well known “Illustrations” that Easterners, instead of stooping to pick up things from the ground with their fingers, will pick them up with their toes; and he tells of a criminal condemned to be beheaded, who, in order to stand firm when about to die, grasped a shrub with his foot. Job declares that he took hold of God’s steps, and by this secured a firm footing. He had a hearty grip on holiness, even as David said, “I have stuck to your testimonies.” That eminent scholar Dr. Good renders the passage, “in his steps I will rivet my feet.” He would set them as firmly in the footprints of truth and righteousness as if they were riveted there, so firm was his grip upon that holy way which his heart had chosen. This is exactly what we need to do with regard to holiness: we must feel around for it with a sensitive conscience, to know where it is, and when we know it we must seize upon it eagerly, and hold onto it as for dear life. The way of holiness is often craggy, and Satan tries to make it very slippery, and unless we can take hold of God’s steps we shall soon slip with our feet, and bring grievous injury upon ourselves, and dishonour to his holy name. Beloved, to build up a holy character there must be a tenacious adherence to integrity and piety. You must not be one who can be blown off his feet by the hope of a little gain, or by the threatening breath of an ungodly man: you must stand fast and stand firm, and against all pressure and blandishment you must seize and grasp the precepts of the Lord, and remain in them, riveted to them. Standfast is one of the best soldiers in the Prince Emmanuel’s army and one of the most fit to be trusted with the colours of his regiment. “Having done all, still stand.”

10. To build a holy character we must take hold of the steps of God in the sense of promptness and speed. Here again I must take you to the East to get the illustration. They say of a man who closely imitates his religious teacher, “his feet have laid hold on his teacher’s steps,” meaning that he so closely follows his teacher that he seems to take hold of his heels. This is a blessed thing indeed, when grace enables us to follow our Lord closely. There is his foot, and close behind it is ours; and there again he takes another step, and we plant our feet where he has planted his. A very beautiful motto is hung up in our nursery at the Stockwell Orphanage, “What would Jesus do?” Not only may children take it as their guide, but all of us may do the same, whatever our age. “What would Jesus do?” If you desire to know what you ought to do under any circumstances, imagine Jesus to be in that position, and then think, “What would Jesus do? for whatever Jesus would do that I ought to do.” In following Jesus we are following God, for in Christ Jesus the brightness of the Father’s glory is best seen. Our example is our Lord and Master, Jesus the Son of God, and therefore this question is only a beam from our guiding star. Ask in all cases — “What would Jesus do?” That unties the knot of all moral difficulty in the most practical way, and does it so simply that no great wit or wisdom will be needed. May God’s Holy Spirit help us to copy the line which Jesus has written, even as scholars imitate their writing teacher in each stroke, and line, and mark, and dot. Oh, when we come to die, and have to look back upon our lives, it will be a blessed thing to have followed the Lord fully. They are happy who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Blessed are those in life and death of whom it can be said, — as he was, so were they also in this world. Though misunderstood and misrepresented, yet they were honest imitators of their Lord. Such a true-hearted Christian can say, “He knows the way that I take. He tried me, and I came out as gold. My foot has held to his steps.” You will avoid many a sorrow if you keep close to your Master’s heel. You know what came from Peter’s following afar off; try what will come from close walking with Jesus. Remain in him, and let his words remain in you, so you shall be his disciples. You dare not trust in your works, and will not think of doing so, yet you will bless God that, being saved by his grace, you were enabled to produce the fruits of the Spirit, by a close and exact following of the steps of your Lord.

11. Three things, then, we get in the first sentence, — an exactness of obedience, a tenacity of grip upon what is good, and a promptness in endeavouring to keep in touch with God, and to follow him in all respects. May these things be in us and abound.

12. We now pass on to the second sentence. I am afraid you will say, “Spare us, for we have not even yet attained to the first sentence.” Labour after it then, beloved; forgetting the things that are behind except to weep over them, press forward to what is before. May God give you those sensitive grasping feet which we have tried to describe: feet that take hold on the Lord’s way, and may you throughout life keep that hold; for “blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.”

13. The next sentence runs like this: “I have kept his way”; that is to say, Job had adhered to God’s way as the rule of his life. When he knew that such and such a thing was the mind of God, either by his conscience telling him that it was right, or by a divine revelation, then he obeyed the intimation and kept it. He did not go out of God’s way to indulge his own imagination, or to follow some supposed leader: he kept to God’s way from his youth, even until the time when the Lord himself said of him, “Have you considered my servant Job, a perfect and an upright man, one who fears God, and shuns evil?” The Lord gave him this character to the devil, who could not deny it, and did not attempt to do so, but only muttered, “Does Job serve God for nothing? Have you not set a hedge around him and all that he has?” When he uttered our text Job could have replied to the malicious accuser that, even when God had broken down his hedges and laid him waste, he had not sinned nor charged God foolishly. He did not heed his wife’s rash counsels to curse God and die, but he still blessed the divine name even though everything was taken from him. What noble words are those: “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there: the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Though bereft of all earthly comfort, he did not forsake the way of holiness, but still kept to his God.

14. Keeping to the way does not mean simply adherence, but continuance and progress in it. Job had gone on in the ways of God year after year. He had not grown tired of holiness, nor weary of devotion, neither had he grown sick of what men call straight-laced piety. He had kept the way of God on, and on, and on, delighting in what Coverdale’s version calls God’s “high street” — the highway of holiness. The further he went the more pleasure he took in it, and the more easy he found it for his feet, for God was with him and kept him, and so he kept God’s way. “I have kept your way.” He means that notwithstanding there were difficulties in the way he persevered in it. It was stormy weather, but Job kept to the old road; the sleet beat in his face, but he kept his way: he had gone on that path in fair weather, and he was not going to forsake his God now that the storms were out; and so he kept his way. Then the scene changed, the sun was warm, and all the air was redolent with perfume, and merry with the song of birds, but Job kept his way. If God’s providence flooded his sky with sunshine he did not forsake God because of prosperity, as some do, but kept his way — kept his way when it was rough, kept his way when it was smooth. When he met adversities he did not turn onto a sideroad, but travelled the King’s highway, where a man is safest, for those who dare to assail him will have to answer for it to a higher power. The high street of holiness is safe because the King’s guarantee is given that “no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up on it.” The righteous shall hold on his way, and so did Job, come fair, come foul. When there were others in the road with him, and when there were none, he kept his way. He would not even turn aside for those three good men, or men who thought themselves to be good, who sat by the wayside and miserably comforted, that is to say, tormented him; he kept God’s way, as one whose mind is made up and whose face is set like a flint. There was no turning him, he would fight his way if he could not have it peaceably. I like a man whose mind is set upon being right with God, a self-contained man by God’s grace, who does not need patting on the back and encouraging, and who on the other hand does not care if he is frowned on, but has counted the cost and sticks with it. Give me a man who has a backbone; a brave fellow who has grit in him. It is good for a professor when God has put some soul into him, and made a man of him, for if a Christian man is not a man as well as a Christian, he will not remain a Christian man for long. Job was firm: a well-made character that did not shrink in the wash. He believed his God, he knew God’s way, and he kept to it under all circumstances from his first start in life even until that day when he sat on a dunghill and transformed it into a throne, where he reigned as among all mere men, the peerless prince of patience. You have heard of the patience of Job, and of this as one part of it, that he kept the way of the Lord.

15. Now, dear brethren, on this second clause let me utter this word of self-examination. Have we kept God’s way? Have we gotten into it and do we intend to remain in it? Some are soon hot and soon cold; some set out for the New Jerusalem like Pliable, very eagerly, but the first slough of despond they tumble into shakes their resolution, and they crawl out on the homeward side and go back to the world again. There will be no comfort in such temporary religion, but dreadful misery when we come to consider it on a deathbed. Changeful Pliables will find it hard to die. Oh to be constant even to the end, so as to say, “My foot has held to his steps, I have kept his way.” May God grant us grace to do it, by his Spirit indwelling us.

16. The third clause is, “And not declined,” by which I understand that he had not declined from the way of holiness, nor declined in the way. First, he had not declined from it. He had not turned to the right hand nor to the left. Some turn away from God’s way to the right hand by doing more than God’s word has asked them to do; such as invent religious ceremonies, and vows, and bonds, and become superstitious, falling under the bondage of priestcraft, and being led into will-worship, and things that are not scriptural. This is as truly wandering as going out of the road to the left would be. Ah, dear friends, keep to the simplicity of the Bible. This is an age in which Holy Scripture is of very little account. If a church chooses to invent a ceremony, men fall into it, and practise it as if it were God’s ordinance. Indeed, and if neither church nor law recognises the performance, yet if certain self-willed priests choose to burn candles, and to wear all kinds of gaudy attire, and bow, and cringe, and march in procession, there are plenty of simpletons who will go which ever way their clergyman chooses, even if he should lead them into downright heathenism. “Follow my leader” is the game of the day, but “Follow my God” is the motto of a true Christian. Job had not turned to the right.

17. Nor had he turned to the left. He had not been lax in observing God’s commandments. He had shunned omission as well as commission. This is a very heart-searching matter; for how many there are whose greatest sins lie in omission. And remember, sins of omission, though they sit very lightly on many consciences, and though the majority of professors do not even think of them as sins, are the very sins for which men will be condemned at the last. How do I prove that? What did the great Judge say? “I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” It was what they did not do that cursed them, more than what they did do. So look well to it, and pray God that you may not decline from the way of his precepts, from Jesus who himself is the one and only way.

18. Furthermore, I take it Job means that he had not even declined in that way. He did not begin with running hard and then get out of breath, and sit by the wayside and say, “Rest and be thankful”; but he kept up the pace, and did not decline. If he was warm and zealous once, he remained warm and zealous; if he was indefatigable in service, he did not gradually tone down into a sluggard, but he could say, “I have not declined.” Whereas we ought to make advances towards heaven, there are many who are, after twenty years of profession, no further ahead than they were, but perhaps in a worse state. Oh, beware of a decline. We were accustomed to use that term years ago to indicate the beginning of a consumption, or perhaps the effects of it; and indeed, a decline in the soul often leads on to a deadly consumption. In a spiritual consumption the very life of religion seems to ebb out little by little. The man does not die by a wound that stabs his reputation, but by a secret weakness within him, which eats at the vitals of godliness and leaves the outward surface fair. May God save us from declining. I am sure, dear friends, many of us cannot afford to decline much, for we are none too earnest, none too much alive now; but this is one of the great faults of churches, so many of the members are in a decline that the church becomes a hospital instead of a barracks. Many professors are not what they were at first: they were very promising young men, but they are not performing old men. We are pleased to see the flowers on our fruit trees, but they disappoint us unless they develop into fruit, and we are not satisfied even then unless the fruit ripens to a mellow sweetness. We do not plant orchards for the sake of blossoms, we want apples. So it is with the garden of grace, our Lord comes looking for fruit, and instead of it he often finds nothing but leaves. May God grant to us that we may not decline from the highest standard we have ever reached. “I wish,” said the Lord of the church of Laodicea, “that you were either cold or hot.” Oh, you lukewarm ones take that warning to heart. Remember, Jesus cannot endure you; he will spue you out of his mouth; you make him sick to think of you. If you were downright cold he would understand you; if you were hot he would delight in you; but being neither cold nor hot he is sick at the thought of you, he cannot endure you; and indeed, when we think of what the Lord has done for us, it is enough to make us sick to think that anyone should drag on in a cold, inanimate manner in his service, who loved us, and gave himself for us.

19. Some decline because they become poor: they even stay away from worship on that account. I hope none of you say, “I do not like to come to the Tabernacle because I do not have proper clothes to come in.” As I have often said, any clothes are proper for a man to come here in if he has paid for them. Let each come by all manner of means in such clothing as he has, and he shall be welcome. But I do know some very poor professors who, in the extremity of their anxiety and trouble, instead of fleeing to God, flee from him. This is very sad. The poorer you are, the more you need the rich consolations of grace. Do not let this temptation overcome you, but if you are as poor as Job, be as resolved as he was to keep to the Lord’s way and not decline. Others flee from their religion because they grow rich. They say that three generations never will come in carriages to a dissenting place of worship, and it has proved to be sadly true in many cases, though I have no reason to complain about you as yet. Some people when they rise in the world turn up their noses at their poor friends. If any of you do so you will be worthy of pity, if not of contempt. If you forsake the ways of God for the fashion of the world you will be poor gainers by your wealth. May the Lord keep you from such a decline. Many decline because they conform to the fashion of the world, and the way of the world is not the way of God. Does not James say, “Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Others wander because they get into bad company, among witty people, or clever people, or hospitable people, who are not gracious people. Such companions are dangerous. People whom we esteem, but whom God does not esteem, are a great snare. It is very perilous to love those who do not love God. He shall not be my bosom friend who is not God’s friend, for I shall probably do him very little good, and he will do me much harm. May the grace of God prevent your growing cold from any of these reasons, and may you be able to say, “I have not declined.”

20. One more sentence remains: “Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips”: that is to say, just as he had not slackened his pace, so much less had he turned back. May none of you ever go back. This is the most cutting grief for a pastor, that certain people come in among us, and even come to the front, who after awhile turn back and walk no more with us. We know, as John says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, so that they might reveal that they were not all of us”; yet what anguish it causes when we see apostates among us and know their doom. Take heed, brethren, lest there is in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Let Lot’s wife be a warning. Season your souls with a fragment of salt from that pillar, and it may keep you from corruption.

21. Remember that you can turn back, not only from all the commandments, and so become an utter apostate, but there is such a thing as turning back from a single commandment. You know the precept to be right, but you cannot face it; you look at it, and look at it, and look at it, and then go back, back, back from it, refusing to obey. Job had never done so. If it was God’s command he went forward to perform it. It may be that it seems impossible to go forward in the path of duty, but if you have faith you are to go on whatever the difficulty may be. The negro was right who said, “Massa, if God say, ‘Sam, jump through the wall’; it is Sam’s business to jump, and God’s work to make me go through the wall.” Leap at it, dear friends, even if it seems to be a wall of granite. God will clear the road. By faith the Israelites went through the Red Sea as on dry land. It is ours to do what God tells us to, as he tells us, when he tells us, and no harm can come from it. Strength equal to our day shall be given, only let us cry “Forward!” and push on.

22. Here we have just one other word. Let us take heed to ourselves that we do not go back, for going back is dangerous. We have no armour for our back, no promise of protection in retreat. Going back is ignoble and base. To have had a grand idea and then to turn back from it like a whipped cur, is disgraceful. Shame on the man who dares not be a Christian. Even sinners and ungodly men point at the man who put his hand to the plough and looked back, and was not worthy of the kingdom. Indeed, it is fatal; for the Lord has said, “If any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” Forward! Forward! though death and hell obstruct the way, for backward is defeat, destruction, despair. Oh God, grant us by your grace that when we come to the end of life we may say with joy, “I have not gone back from your commandment.” The covenant promises persevering grace, and it shall be yours, only be careful that you do not trifle with this grace.

23. There is the picture which Job has sketched. Hang it up on the wall of your memory, and may God help you to paint like this old master, whose skill is unrivalled.

24. II. Secondly, let us take a peep behind the wall to see how Job came by this character. Here we notice JOB’S HOLY SUSTENANCE, “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.”

25. First, then, God spoke to Job. Did God ever speak to you? I do not suppose Job had a single page of inspired writing. Probably he had not even seen the first books of Moses; he may have done so, but probably he did not. God spoke to him. Did he ever speak to you? No man will ever serve God properly unless God has spoken to him. You have the Bible, and God speaks in that book and through it; but be careful that you do not rest in the printed letter without discerning its spirit. You must try to hear God’s voice in the printed letter. “God has in these last days spoken to us by his Son”; but oh, pray that this divine Son may speak by the Holy Spirit right into your heart. Anything which keeps you from personal contact with Jesus robs you of the best blessing. The Romanist says he uses a crucifix to help him to remember Christ, and then his prayers often stop at the crucifix, and do not get to Christ; and in the same way you can make an idol of your Bible by using the mere words as a substitute for God’s voice to you. The book is to help you to remember God, but if you stick to the mere letter, and do not get to God at all, you misuse the sacred word. When the Spirit of God speaks a text right into the soul, when God himself takes the promise or the precept and sends it with living energy into the heart, this is what makes a man have a reverence for the word: he feels its dreadful majesty, its divine supremacy, and while he trembles before it he rejoices, and goes forward to obey because God has spoken to him. Dear friends, when God speaks be sure that you have open ears to hear, for often he speaks and men do not regard him. In a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon men God has spoken to his prophets, but now he speaks by his word, applying it to the heart with power by his Spirit. If God speaks only a little to us it is because we are dull of hearing. Renewed hearts are never long without a whisper from the Lord. He is not a dumb God, nor is he so far away that we cannot hear him: those who keep his ways and hold his steps, as Job did, shall hear many of his words to their soul’s delight and profit. God’s having spoken to Job was the secret of his consistently holy life.

26. Then notice, that what God had spoken to him he treasured up. He says in the Hebrew that he had hidden God’s word more than ever he had hidden his necessary food. They had to hide grain away in those days to guard it from wandering Arabs. Job had been more careful to store up God’s word than to store up his wheat and his barley; more anxious to preserve the memory of what God had spoken than to garner his harvests. Do you treasure up what God has spoken? Do you study the Word? Do you read it? Oh, how little do we search it compared with what we ought to do. Do you meditate on it? Do you suck out its secret sweets? Do you store up its essence as bees gather the life-blood of flowers, and hoard up their honey for winter food? Bible study is the metal that makes a Christian; this is the strong food on which holy men are nourished; this is what makes the bone and sinew of men who keep God’s way in defiance of every adversary. God spoke to Job, and Job treasured up his words.

27. We learn from our version of the text that Job lived on God’s word: he considered it to be better to him than his necessary food. He ate it. This is an art which some do not understand — eating the word of the Lord. Some look at the surface of the Scriptures, some pull the Scriptures to pieces without mercy, some cut the heavenly bread into dice pieces, and show their cleverness, some pick it over for plums, like children with a cake; but blessed is he who makes it his food and drink. He takes the word of God to be what is, namely, a word from the mouth of the Eternal, and he says, “God is speaking to me in this, and I will satisfy my soul upon it; I do not need anything better than this, anything truer than this, anything safer than this, but having gotten this it shall remain in me, in my heart, in the very sinews of my life, it shall be interwoven with the warp and woof of my being.”

28. But the text adds that he esteemed it more than his necessary food. Not more than dainties only, for those are superfluities, but more than his necessary food, and you know that a man’s necessary food is a thing which he esteems very highly. He must have it. What, take away my bread? he says, as if this could not be tolerated. To take the bread out of a poor man’s mouth is looked upon as the highest kind of villainy: but Job would sooner that they took the bread out of his mouth than the word of God out of his heart. He thought more of it than of his necessary food, and I suppose it was because food would only sustain his body, but the word of God feeds the soul. The nourishment given by bread is soon gone, but the nourishment given by the word of God remains in us, and makes us to live for ever. The natural life is more than food, but our spiritual life feeds on food even nobler than itself, for it feeds on the bread of heaven, the person of the Lord Jesus. Bread is sweet to the hungry man, but we are not always hungry, and sometimes we have no appetite; but the best thing about God’s word is that he who lives near to God always has an appetite for it, and the more he eats of it the more he can eat. I confess I have often fed upon God’s word when I have had no appetite for it, until I have gained an appetite. I have grown hungry in proportion as I have felt satisfied: my emptiness seemed to kill my hunger, but as I have been revived by the word I have longed for more. So it is written, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled”: and when they are filled they shall continue to enjoy the benediction, for they shall still hunger and thirst though filled with grace. God’s word is sweeter to the taste than bread to a hungry man, and its sweetness never dulls the appetite, though it remains long on the palate. You cannot be always eating bread, but you can always feed on the word of God. You cannot eat all the food that is set before you, your capacity is limited that way, and no one except a glutton wishes it otherwise; but oh, you may be ravenous for God’s word, and devour it all, and yet be no glutton. You are like a little mouse in a great cheese, and you shall have permission to eat it all, though it is a thousand times greater than yourself. Though God’s thoughts are greater than your thoughts, and his ways are greater than your ways, yet may his ways be in your heart, and your heart in his ways. You may be filled with all the fulness of God, though it seems a paradox. His fulness is greater than you, and all his fulness is infinitely greater than you, yet you may be filled with all the fulness of God. So that the word of God is better than our necessary food: it has qualities which our necessary food does not have.

29. No more, except it is this: you cannot be holy, my brethren, unless you live upon the blessed word of God in secret, and you will not live on it unless it comes to you as the word of his mouth. It is very sweet to get a letter from home when you are far away: it is like a bunch of fresh flowers in winter-time. A letter from the dear one at home is as music heard over the water; but half-a-dozen words from that dear mouth are better than a score of pages, for there is a sweetness about the look and the tone which paper cannot carry. Now, I want you to get the Bible to be not only a book but a speaking trumpet, through which God speaks from afar to you, so that you may catch the very tones of his voice. You must read the word of God like this, for it is while reading, meditating, and studying, and seeking to dip yourself into its spirit, that it seems suddenly to change from a written book into a talking book or phonograph; it whispers to you or thunders at you as though God had hidden himself among its leaves and spoke to your condition; as though Jesus who feeds among the lilies had made the chapters to be lily beds, and had come to feed there. Ask Jesus to cause his word to come fresh from his own mouth to your soul; and if it is so, and you live like this in daily communion with a personal Christ, my brethren, you will then with your feet take hold upon his steps; then you will keep his way, then you will never decline or go back from his commandments, but you will make good speed in your pilgrim way to the eternal city. May the Holy Spirit be with you daily. May every one of you live under his sacred bedewing, and be fruitful in every good word and work. Amen and amen.

[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Ps 119:9-40]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 84” 84]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 112” 112]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Desires After Holiness — Holy Principles Desired” 649]

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 84 (Song 1)
1 How pleasant, how divinely fair,
   Oh Lord of hosts, thy dwellings are!
   With long desire my spirit faints
   To meet the assemblies of thy saints.
2 My flesh would rest in thine abode,
   My panting heart cries out for God;
   My God! my King! why should I be
   So far from all my joys and thee?
3 Bless’d are the saints who sit on high
   Around thy throne of majesty;
   Thy brightest glories shine above,
   And all their work is praise and love.
4 Bless’d are the souls that find a place
   Within the temple of thy grace;
   There they behold thy gentler rays,
   And seek thy face, and learn thy praise.
5 Bless’d are the men whose hearts are set
   To find the way to Zion’s gate;
   God is their strength, and through the road,
   They lean upon their helper, God.
6 Cheerful they walk with growing strength,
   Till all shall meet in heaven at length,
   Till all before thy face appear,
   And join in nobler worship there.
                           Isaac Watts, 1719.

Psalm 84 (Song 2)
1 Great God, attend while Sion sings
   The joy that from thy presence springs;
   To spend one day with thee on earth
   Exceeds a thousand days of mirth.
2 Might I enjoy the meanest place
   Within thy house, oh God of grace!
   Not tents of ears, nor thrones of power,
   Should tempt my feet to leave thy door.
3 God is our sun, he makes our day;
   God is our shield, he guards our way
   From all th’ assaults of hell and sin,
   From foes without and foes within.
4 All needful grace will God bestow,
   And crown that grace with glory too;
   He gives us all things, and withholds
   No real good from upright souls.
5 Oh God, our King, whose sovereign sway
   The glorious hosts of heaven obey,
   And devils at thy presence flee;
   Bless’d is the man that trusts in thee.
                           Isaac Watts, 1719.

Psalm 84 (Song 3) <148th.>
1 Lord of the worlds above,
   How pleasant and how fair
   The dwellings of thy love,
   Thy earthly temples are!
   To thine abode,
      My heart aspires
      With warm desires,
   To see my God.
2 Oh happy souls that pray
   Where God appoints to hear!
   Oh happy men that pay
   Their constant service there!
   They praise thee still;
      And happy they
      That love the way
   To Zion’s hill.
3 They go from strength to strength,
   Through this dark vale of tears,
   Till each arrives at length,
   Till each in heaven appears:
   Oh glorious seat,
      When God our King
      Shall thither bring
   Our willing feet.
4 To spend one sacred day,
   Where God and saints abide,
   Affords diviner joy
   Than thousand days beside:
   Where God resorts,
   I love it more
   To keep the door
   Than shine in courts.
5 God is our sun and shield,
   Our light and our defence;
   With gifts his hands are fill’d;
   We draw our blessings thence;
   He shall bestow
      On Jacob’s race
      Peculiar grace
   And glory too.
6 The Lord his people loves;
   His hand no good withholds
   From those his heart approves,
   From pure and pious souls:
   Thrice happy he,
      Oh God of hosts,
      Whose spirit trusts
   Alone in thee.
                        Isaac Watts, 1719.

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 112 <8.7.4.>
1 Blessed is the man that feareth,
   And delighteth in the Lord;
   Wealth, the wealth which truly cheereth,
   God shall give him for reward;
      And his children,
   Shall be blest around his board.
2 He shall not be moved for ever,
   Though with evil tidings tried;
   Nought from God his faith shall sever,
   Fix’d his heart shall still abide;
      For believers
   Are secured on every side.
3 To the upright light arises,
   Darkness soon gives place to day;
   While the man who truth despises,
   And refuses to obey,
      In a moment,
   Cursed of God, shall melt away.
4 Therefore let us praise Jehovah,
   Sound his glorious name on high,
   Sing his praises, and moreover
   By our actions magnify
      Our Redeemer,
   Who by blood has brought us nigh.
                  Charles H. Spurgeon, 1866.

The Christian, Desires After Holiness
649 — Holy Principles Desired
1 I want a principle within
      Of jealous, godly fear;
   A sensibility of sin,
      A pain to feel it near.
2 I want the first approach to feel
      Of pride, or fond desire;
   To catch the wandering of my will,
      And quench the kindling fire.
3 That I from thee no more may part,
      No more thy goodness grieve,
   The filial awe, the fleshy heart,
      The tender conscience, give.
4 Quick as the apple of an eye,
      Oh God, my conscience make!
   Awake my soul, when sin is nigh,
      And keep it still awake.
5 If to the right or left I stray,
      That moment, Lord, reprove;
   And let me weep my life away,
      For having grieved thy love.
6 Oh may the least omission pain
      My well instructed soul;
   And drive me to the blood again,
      Which makes the wounded whole!
                     Charles Wesley, 1749.