1695. The Orphan’s Father

No. 1695-28:693. A Sermon Delivered At The Thursday Evening Lecture, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

For in you the fatherless finds mercy. {Ho 14:3}

For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1695, “Orphan’s Father, The” 1696}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2192, “Joyous Return, The” 2193}
   Exposition on Ho 11; 14 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3005, “Silken Cords” 3006 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Ho 14 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2742, “Interrogation and Exclamation” 2743 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Ho 14 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2981, “Safeguards of Forgiveness, The” 2982 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Ho 14 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3175, “ ‘Peace! Perfect Peace!’ ” 3176 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Ps 34 Ho 14 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2474, “Great Change, The” 2475 @@ "Exposition"}

1. The Lord God of Israel, the one only living and true God, has this for a special mark of his character, that in him the fatherless finds mercy. “A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.” False gods of the heathen are usually notable for their supposed power or cunning, or even for their wickedness, falsehood, lustfulness, and cruelty; but our God, who made the heavens, is the thrice-holy One. He is the holy God, and he is also full of love. Indeed, it is not only his name, and his character, but his very nature, for “God is love.” Among the acts which exhibit his love is this — that he executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed, and especially takes under his wing the defenceless ones, such as the widow and the fatherless.

2. This is very notable if you look into the subject in connection with Holy Scripture. We see this soon after the giving of the law. We have the law in the twentieth chapter of Exodus; and in the twenty-second chapter of the same book, close upon the heels of the law, you have God’s word concerning the fatherless. Listen to Jehovah’s words: they are strong and forceful; there is a thunder about their sound. “You shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.” These are the words of that Jehovah who spoke the ten commandments on Sinai. See how very near to the heart of our God lies the cause of the widow and the fatherless.

3. The Lord gave the law a second time in the book of Deuteronomy. If you turn to the tenth chapter of that book, you will find such a statute as this, — “For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, who does not regard people, nor takes reward: he executes the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger, in giving him food and clothing.” {De 10:17,18} Those are two strong and striking proofs of the fact that the cause of the fatherless lies near to the heart of God.

4. Laws were made on their behalf, and among the rest was the institution of tithes. I have read some amazing statements upon the divine right of tithes. It seems to be established in the minds of some that if God gave the tithes to Levi he must, therefore, have given them to Episcopalian ministers: an inference which I fail to see. I should just as soon draw the inference that he had given them to Baptist ministers; certainly it would be no more illogical. The idea of our being priests, or Levites, in order to get compulsory tithes, would be too abhorrent to be entertained for a moment. But while I have often seen the divine right of tithes stated and argued, I have never heard it urged that the tithes should go to those for whom God set them apart under the legal economy. Now, if you will turn to Scripture, you will find that the tithe of all the produce of the land was to be given to the Levite and to the stranger, and to the widow and the fatherless; and whenever the tithe comes to be properly distributed, if there is any divine right in it at all, it will most certainly be given to the widow and the fatherless. We should agree to its being given in part to the Levite when he turns up, but since we do not know who the Levite is at present, we may keep his portion in abeyance until he appears. But the widow and the fatherless are still here among us, and the poor shall never cease out of the land; and since the institution of the tithe was as much for them as it was for the tribe of Levi, let them have their share. The tribe of Levi had certain rights, because, while each of the other tribes had a portion, that tribe had no inheritance, and therefore took out its share in having a part of the tithe, and certain cities to live in. We read — “And the Levite, (because he has no part nor inheritance with you,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” {De 14:29} I do not know that Episcopalian clergymen have given up their earthly inheritances any more than Nonconformist ministers, and I cannot therefore see that they have the Levite’s claim; but I see clearly the right of the widow and the fatherless, and I pray that the day may come when they will get their share of what is undoubtedly theirs, if it is anyone’s at all.

5. Another ordinance was made about the widow and the fatherless — that when the people gathered in the harvest, if they omitted a sheaf of grain, they were never to go back for it, but were to leave it for the widow and the fatherless. “When you cut down your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” In gathering in the grain the field was not raked, but all that fell was left to the widow and the fatherless. It was expressly commanded that when they gathered the grapes they were never to gather a second time, but were to leave the bunches to be ripened for the widow and the fatherless. “When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.” No one was forgotten in the divine rule when Jehovah was King in Israel; but special mention was continually being made of these two classes — the widow and the fatherless, and the poor strangers who happened to be within Israel’s gates. “You shall be kind to the stranger,” said the Lord, “because you were a stranger in the land of Egypt, and you know the heart of a stranger.” I call your special attention to this, and ask you to look through Scripture, and see how again and again God calls upon his people to take care of the widow and the fatherless. Job, that upright man whom God accepted, denied the charge that he had ever forgotten the widow and the fatherless; and you know how, under the New Testament, it is written, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

6. It is established, then, that God, even the God of Israel, is one in whom the fatherless finds mercy let us take care of them too. “Be imitators of God as dear children,” and select as the objects of your charity those whom God especially cares for.

7. This, however, is not my subject at this time. I wish you to become yourselves objects of the divine charity by coming to God as orphans, and putting yourselves under his protection, so that you, like the fatherless, may find mercy from his hands. If we ourselves are sad at heart, troubled in spirit, full of needs, full of wants and trials, let us be encouraged to come to God, because in him the fatherless finds mercy.

8. First, here is encouragement; secondly, here is encouragement concerning what to do; and, thirdly, here is encouragement concerning what to expect.

9. I. First, here is ENCOURAGEMENT.

10. Here is encouragement, though such as no one discovers except needy ones. You notice that the people who said, “In you the fatherless finds mercy,” are the people who had fallen by their iniquity, and who were told to return to the Lord, saying “Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously.” They were a people who renounced all self-confidence, and cried out, “Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’ ” They were a people with whom God’s Holy Spirit had so dealt that they were stripped of their pride, and made conscious of their guilt. It was then that they discovered this precious fact, that in God the fatherless finds mercy. A tear in the eye is a fine thing to clear it. He who never saw his sin has never seen the mercy of God. David never sang of the lovingkindness and tender mercies of God so well as in that fifty-first Psalm, when he mourned his great sin. A broken-hearted sinner has a kind of instinct for finding the tender points in God’s character. The ungodly man who is self-satisfied, and has never been made to know the truth about his condition, often compares God to an austere man, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not scattered seed; but once let the man know his guilt and mourn it, and then he looks with all his eyes to God to look for mercy in him; and he is the man who delights to learn that God is merciful to the fatherless. This becomes a fountain of hope to him.

11. Have I here any sin-stricken sinner? Are you desponding and despairing? Did you come here feeling that there could be no mercy for you? Catch at this word. “In you the fatherless finds mercy.” He is a merciful God; he is tender, kind, and considerate. He evidently looks after the helpless and hopeless. He is the patron of those whom others desert. Widows without friends, the fatherless without protectors — these are under the care of God. May you not hope that he will care for you? May you not in the depth of your sin and brokenness of heart come to him and say, “Oh Lord, I hear you are the Friend of the friendless, be a Friend to me?” It looks like a candle put in the window of your Father’s house to guide you home through the darkness. May God help you to see it; but I know that you will not care to see it if there is not a tear in your eye, for no one except the needy perceive this gracious truth.

12. This encouragement is, moreover, one which is a strong inducement to discard all other confidences. If God is the Friend of the fatherless, he may be a Friend to me: would it not be good for me to trust him, and stop trusting those other things that I have relied on? You see how the text runs, “Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses.” These were their great trust and confidence, and then they go on to say — neither will we worship false gods, for we can see that the true God is kind, kind to the fatherless ones, and therefore we may come and trust him. When a man obtains a little hope, then he says to himself, “I will even venture to look to the Lord.” When the prodigal son in the far-off country had spent all his living, what was it that brought him back? Why, it was this thought, — “How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare!” This made him resolve to go home again. I know what the devil will do: he will tell you that there is no mercy for you. He is an old liar. There is abundant mercy for the greatest sinner. What does the devil know about it? He never sought for mercy, and he has never had any, and never will have any, for he will never seek for it; but for you, poor soul, there is bread enough and to spare in your Father’s house; and why do you perish with hunger? Why not arise and go to your Father? If God is the Father of the fatherless, this should induce us to hurry to him, and rest in him. “May I trust in Jesus Christ?” one says. “May I?” Of course you may; it is your sin if you do not, and, indeed, the chief and most ruinous of sins. Many of you are trusting in your sacraments and your priests, or in your good works and your prayers, or your own feelings, because you think that you may not trust Christ. But you may! for he who takes the fatherless under his blessed wing invites you to come to him. “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” If he had ever repulsed one, he might repulse you. But since the fatherless finds mercy in him, and all who come to him find mercy in him, come along, and trust in the merciful One at once.

13. Furthermore, there is much encouragement in my text, because it gives us a clear look into the heart of God. I always like to see how a man treats children. You learn a great deal about a man when you see that. Some men abhor children, and almost wish that they could exterminate them. As for the fatherless children they say, “Let them go to the workhouse: we cannot be troubled with them.” The gentle-hearted one never sees a little child in need without feeling the utmost pity. I feel more sorry for a suffering child than even for a man or a woman. Adults have a measure of power to help themselves; but if there is poverty in the house, the little one may pine away, but he cannot get relief. Little boys and girls have suffered much in this great city when their parents’ home has been desolated by poverty, frequently caused by drink and other sins. Who knows the sufferings of the little ones when father dies? I confess it touches my heart that little children should suffer as they do. When men are wicked, one is almost thankful that there should be poverty following their sin to whip them out of it; but these lambs, what have they done? Any tender heart feels this. Is this not a wonderful text which lets us gaze into the heart of God while we read, “In you the fatherless finds mercy?” Great God, the seraphim adore you. Angels, day without night, in tight ranks stand waiting to do your bidding. Your voice is the thunder, and the glance of your eye is the lightning. At your bidding kings die, dynasties decay, and empires are blotted out, and yet you care for little children and widows. It is very beautiful to me. I feel as if I could trust him all the better for that, and come with my daily burden and daily cares — indeed, and my sins too, and feel sure that he will not refuse me. This is the Father of Jesus, I am sure of it. Oh, how like the Son is to the Father, for if the Father is the children’s Patron like this, what do you think of the Son, and of his likeness to his Father, when he said, “Permit the little children to come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Does this not encourage you to come, as you see the heart of God laid bare in the blessed statement of the text, “In you the fatherless finds mercy?”

14. There is this encouragement too, that our cases are like those of the widow and the fatherless. The orphan has no father, no helper, no means of sustenance. And you, my hearer, are in that state, without God. If there is no God, you have no father. If you have no God to trust in, you have no protector, and you are undone. There is no light for you if God is not your light, no hope for you if Christ is not your hope. Do you feel that? Well, then, you are an orphan; you are a fatherless one. Come along, for Jesus has said, “I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.” Come to him, and look up into the face of the orphan’s Father, and say, “I plead that word of yours, ‘In you the fatherless finds mercy.’ Lord, let me find mercy, for my case runs parallel with theirs.”

15. If there is a heart here that needs encouraging, it will spell out my meaning. But if you do not need it, and some of you do not, for you are fine fellows, full of your own righteousness, then I have nothing to say to you but this, “The healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

16. II. Secondly, for every poor, needy sinner here is ENCOURAGEMENT CONCERNING WHAT TO DO.

17. First, if you want to find salvation tonight, take the text as a kind of spiritual guide-book, and plead your need. Do not say anything about your merits: the less said about them the better. Your position is like that of the Irish servant, who said, when asked for his character, that the gentleman at his last place told him he would do better without his character than with it. You are just in that case, only that you will be asked for your character, and the best thing you can do is to say, “My character is as bad as it can be”; and then plead for mercy. “Lord,” it says in the text, “in you the fatherless finds mercy.” It does not say that they are good and holy, but simply that they are fatherless. It does not say that they find reward, but that they find mercy. Lord, that is all I have to say to you. I am in need: — I am in awful need; and because I am such a sinner, it makes my need all the worse, for that is the place where my need lies; I need righteousness; I need a new heart; I need a right spirit. I need a total change. I need everything, for I have nothing except sin and misery. Oh Lord, I only urge that as you help the fatherless, simply and only because they are needy, I ask you to save me irrespective of my character, for my need is great.

18. The next lesson for you is this; be sure to take a hold of this text by the handle, and ask for mercy. “In you the fatherless finds,” — what? Finds mercy. Mercy is the handle of the text. When you go to God, ask for mercy, not for justice. A mother once went to the Emperor Napoleon to ask for mercy for her son. He had committed some breach of the French law; and the emperor replied, “Madam, this is the second time the boy has offended; justice requires that he should die,” She answered, “Sire, I did not come to ask for justice. I beg for mercy.” He answered, “He does not deserve mercy.” “Sire,” she said, “it would not be mercy if he deserved it. I ask for mercy.” When she put it in that way, the emperor replied, “Well, then, I will have mercy.” My unsaved hearer, you deserve to be in hell tonight. It is of the Lord’s mercy that you are not consumed. Do not dream of asking for justice, for justice will be your ruin; but get a hold of this word, “Lord, I ask for mercy,” and if something whispers, “Why, you have been a hardened sinner,” say, “Lord, it is true; but Lord, I ask for mercy.” “But you have been a backslider.” Reply, “Lord, that I have; but I ask for mercy on that account.” “But you have resisted and rejected grace.” “Lord, that is true; but I shall need all the more mercy because of that.” “But there is nothing in you to argue for forgiveness.” Say, “Lord, I know there is not, and that is why I ask for mercy. I put it entirely on that basis. Display your mercy in me, I beseech you.” That is the way to plead. Be careful to keep at it. That is the straight way. You will get heaven that way, for you will get Christ that way, since his mercy endures for ever. “In you the fatherless finds mercy.”

19. Learn another lesson, you that want to have peace with God at once, and I hope that some of you do. Cast your sin, trial, and sorrow upon God. The text says, “In you the fatherless finds mercy”; so the business of the fatherless ones is to come to God, and just look to him for mercy; and that is your business. Do not, I charge you, look to anyone else except the living God to help you. It is a snare, and a horrible one, for people to trust in priests; and I will say, in addition to that, to trust in ministers, to trust in any man whatever. I have known people when they have heard an address and have been impressed, to say, “Oh, I shall find Christ in the enquiry room!” That enquiry room may be a snare to you if you talk like this. You want to speak to the man who preached to you, do you? Do not speak to him; go to Jesus directly. “But I wish to see that good man who spoke to me the other day.” Very well, so you may eventually, but be careful that you do not put that good man or that good woman in the place of Christ. The text says, “In you the fatherless finds mercy,” and it is in Christ, and in him alone, that mercy is to be found. Go directly and distinctly to Jesus, and, by the help of his Spirit, you can do that while sitting in the pew. God is everywhere. Let your spirit be conscious that God is present, and now let your heart speak to him. Confess your sin to him: do not pour that rubbish into the ear of mortal man. Lay bare your heart to God, and to him alone it is not a fit sight for any human being. Tell the Lord Jesus all your wants and woes, and he will help you, for in the Son of God is the help of the sons of men. Oh, that I knew how to speak these things, but they will surely go home to those who are in spiritual need! You who are not in need, you who are good, you who are self-righteous, will see nothing in the text for you. No, and there was not meant to be, for the Lord has a people whom he will draw to himself, and these people are known by this — that they are weary of themselves.

20. God’s chosen people exercise the natural art of the weak, namely, clinging. They are made to feel their poverty and their need, and then when they hear of the fulness of Christ they hurry to lay hold on him. Have you never noticed how the plants that God has made weak are all endowed with a natural faculty for clinging? One of the first things that the vine does is to put out its tendrils for something to cling to. The hop, {a} the honeysuckle, the sweet pea, they have all a little hook ready to lay hold on a support. Now, if God is about to bless you at this hour, you have a little tendril that is being put out to find something to lay hold of, and as the gardener carefully places his stake for the sweet pea, or as the farmer places his pole for the hop, I have tried to place my text in your way. I would set the blessed Lord before you, and say, “In him the fatherless finds mercy, cling to him; cling to him.” It is your life to do it. Cling firmly! The limpet by the sea-shore can do little, but it can cling, and so it does cling, and very firmly too. That is the one thing you can do, poor sinner, and I pray the Holy Spirit to lead you to do it at once. God help you at this moment to cling to Christ, and if you do, you are saved, yes, saved at once. In him the fatherless finds mercy. Cling to him, and you shall find mercy too.

21. III. Now, lastly, here is ENCOURAGEMENT CONCERNING WHAT TO EXPECT OF GOD. “In you the fatherless finds mercy.”

22. What do the fatherless expect of us when we stand in God’s place to them, and take them into our Orphanage, and try to be as a father to them? What do they expect of us? Well, I do not know that the younger ones have intellect enough to know all they expect, but they expect everything. They expect all that they need, and, though they do not quite know what they do need, they leave it to us. They believe that all will be found that they require. I like a poor Christian who does not know all he needs; but yet knows that his God will supply all his needs. He trusts Jesus for everything. He trusts his heavenly Father as a child: he does not know what he may require today, and require in the unknown future, but then his heavenly Father knows, and he leaves it all to him. As our orphan boys grow older, however, they begin to have a perception of their needs, and they trust that they shall have everything provided which their own fathers would have provided for them, and more, perhaps. So it is with us when we come to the great Father. We say: all that I would provide for my children, if I had everything, and could give them all that wisdom could desire, my God will provide for me, for he will be a Father to me. If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall he, who has taken you into his family, though you were once fatherless, give all good things to you. You shall have food and clothing, and sufficient for this life. You shall have protection, guidance, instruction, and tender affection. You shall have a touch or two of the rod every now and then, and that is among your choice mercies; but you shall also have all the cherishing of his sweet love; and eventually, when you are fit for it, he will take you home from school, and you shall see his face, and you shall live for ever in his house above, where the many mansions are. Oh, if you come and put yourselves by a simple faith into the blessed custody and keeping of God, he will admit you into his Salvation Orphanage, and he will take care of you, and you shall find him a better Father than you will be to your own children — a better Father than the best of fathers could ever be to the best beloved of sons. “ ‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.” I will not say any more, but I should like to leave John’s choice sentence as my last word. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” Blessed be your name, oh Lord, that we also have been led by your Spirit to prove that in you the fatherless finds mercy!

[Portions Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Ps 68:1-24,32-35]
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Privileges, Adoption — Adoption” 728}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “God the Father, Attributes of God — Condescension” 195}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Contrite Cries — Be Merciful To Me” 593}

{a} Hop: A climbing perennial plant, with rough lobed leaves shaped like those of the vine. OED.

The Christian, Privileges, Adoption
728 — Adoption
1 Behold what wondrous grace
      The Father hath bestow’d
   On sinners of a mortal race,
      To call them sons of God!
2 ‘Tis no surprising thing,
      That we should be unknown:
   The Jewish world knew not their King,
      God’s everlasting Son.
3 Nor doth it yet appear
      How great we must be made,
   But when we see our saviour here,
      We shall be like our Head.
4 A hope so much divine
      May trials well endure,
   May purge our souls from sense and sin,
      As Christ the Lord is pure.
5 If in my Father’s love,
      I share a filial part,
   Send down thy Spirit, like a dove.
      To rest upon my heart.
6 We would no longer lie
      Like slaves beneath the throne;
   My faith shall Abba Father cry,
      And thou the kindred own.
                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

God the Father, Attributes of God
195 — Condescension
1 My God, how wonderful thou art,
   Thy majesty how bright,
   How beautiful thy mercy seat,
   In depths of burning light!
2 Oh, how I fear thee, living God,
   With deepest, tenderest fears,
   And worship thee with trembling hope,
   And penitential tears.
3 Yet I may love thee too, oh Lord,
   Almighty as thou art,
   For thou hast stoop’d to ask of me
   The love of my poor heart.
4 No earthly father loves like thee,
   Or mother, half so mild,
   Bears and forbears, as thou hast done
   With my thy sinful child.
5 Father of Jesus, love’s reward,
   What raptures will it be,
   Prostrate before thy throne to lie,
   And ever gaze on thee!
            Frederick William Faber, 1852.

The Christian, Contrite Cries
593 — Be Merciful To Me
1 With broken heart and contrite sigh,
   A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry;
   Thy pardoning grace is rich and free;
   Oh God! be merciful to me.
2 I smite upon my troubled breast,
   With deep and conscious guilt oppress’d:
   Christ and his cross my only plea;
   Oh God! be merciful to me.
3 Far off I stand with tearful eyes,
   Nor dare uplift them to the skies;
   But thou dost all my anguish see;
   Oh God! be merciful to me.
4 Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done,
   Can for a single sin atone;
   To Calvary alone I flee;
   Oh God! be merciful to me.
5 And when, redeem’d from sin and hell,
   With all the ransom’d throng I dwell,
   My raptured song shall ever be,
   God has been merciful to me.
                     Cornelius Elven, 1852.