2660. Suffering Outside the Camp

No. 2660-46:49. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, January 3, 1858, By C. H. Spurgeon, At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, February 4, 1900.

Therefore Jesus also, so that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. {Heb 13:12}

1. In one sense, sanctification is entirely the work of the Lord Jesus Christ; but there is another meaning, which is more usually affixed to the term, in which sanctification is rightly described as the work of God the Holy Spirit. Many disputes have arisen concerning this doctrine, because all men do not distinguish between the two meanings of the same word. There is one kind of sanctification which means setting apart; and, in that sense, God’s people were sanctified from all eternity. They were sanctified in election, before they had a being, for they were even then set apart from the impure mass, to be vessels of honour fit for the Master’s use. Further, as redemption has in it much of particularity and speciality, God’s people were sanctified, or set apart, by the blood of Christ, when on Mount Calvary he offered himself up, an offering without spot or blemish, for the sins of his people. So it is true that Jesus is not only made to us wisdom and righteousness, but also sanctification.

2. You will remember that, in one of my recent sermons, {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2634, “ ‘Jesus Only’ — A Communion Meditation” 2635} the text of which was “Jesus only,” I made the remark that it was “Jesus only” for sanctification; and I have not had any reason to retract that expression; for there is a sense in which sanctification, as far as it means setting apart, is an eternal work, and is a work entirely completed for us by the election of the Father and the blood of Jesus Christ. Still, sanctification sometimes, and most generally, too, means another thing; it means the work of the Spirit within us. There is a work which God the Holy Spirit carries on, from the first moment of our spiritual birth, to the last moment when we are taken to heaven, — a work by which corruptions are overcome, lusts restrained, faith increased, love inflamed, hope brightened, and the spirit prepared to dwell with the glorified above. That is the work of God’s Holy Spirit; yet we must remember that, even though it is the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ even in this still sanctifies his people. For with what does the Holy Spirit sanctify them? Beloved, he sanctifies them with the precious blood of Jesus. We know that, when our Saviour died, his sacrifice had a double object; one object was pardon, the other was cleansing; and both the blood and the water flowed from the same source, to show us that justification and sanctification both spring from the same divine fountain; and, though sanctification is the work of the Spirit in us, yet, to accomplish this purposes, the Holy Spirit, uses the sacrificial blood of Jesus, and the sacred water of his atonement applied to our heart, sprinkling us from dead works, and purging us from an evil conscience, so that we may serve God without impediment or hindrance.

3. So, then, Christian, in your sanctification, look to Jesus. Remember that the Spirit sanctifies you, but that he sanctifies you through Jesus. He does not sanctify you through the works of the law, but through the atonement of Christ. And will you therefore remember that, the nearer you live to the cross of Jesus, the more of sanctification, and growth, and increase in all spiritual blessings his Spirit will give to you? So, then, we see that, whatever sanctification may mean, the text is still true: “Jesus also, so that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.”

4. Let us pause here for a minute, and let each of us, as we begin a new year, ask this question, — How far has Christ’s purpose of sanctifying me been answered in my own case? I know that, in one sense, I am completely sanctified; but, in another sense, I still feel my imperfections and infirmities. How far have I progressed in sanctification during the past year? How much has my faith increased during the year? How many of my corruptions have I overcome? How much nearer am I living to Christ, now, than on the first Sabbath of last year? How much do I know of the Saviour? How much closer do I approach in my likeness to him? Do I have more power in prayer? Am I more careful in my life? Is my spirit more loving than it used to be? Am I more decisive for what is right? At the same time, am I more meek in standing up for it? Am I, in all respects, more like my Master than I was a year ago? Or, on the other hand, have I been going backward? I cannot stand still, I must either go forward in grace or go backward. Which have I been doing during the past year? And I charge you, oh my heart, whatever answer you have to give to these questions, to still remember that, if you are ever so much sanctified, you have not yet attained perfection. I beseech you, forget what is behind, and press forward towards what is before, still looking to Jesus, who is both the Author and the Finisher of faith. May the Lord give you so abundantly of his grace that you may be sanctified completely, body, soul, and spirit; and I pray God to preserve you all to his coming and glory.

5. I. But now the principal subject on which I wish to discourse, is the fact that JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED OUTSIDE THE GATE.

6. You know that, when the high priest offered the sin offering, because it typified sin, it was so obnoxious to God that it might not be burned on the great altar, but it was always burned outside the camp, to show God’s detestation of sin, and his determination not only to put it away from himself, but also to put it away from his Church. Now, when our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to be our Sin Offering, it behoved him also to be put outside the camp; and it is very interesting to note how remarkably Providence provided for the fulfilment of the type. Had our Lord been killed in a tumult, he would most likely have been slain in the city; unless he had been put to death judicially, he would not have been taken to the usual Mount of Doom. And it is remarkable that the Romans should have chosen a hill on the outside of the city to be the common place for crucifixion mad for punishments by death. We might have imagined that they would have selected some mount in the centre of the city, and that they would have placed their gibbet in as conspicuous a place as our Newgate, so that it might strike the multitude with all the greater awe. But, in the providence of God, it was arranged otherwise. Christ must not be slain in a tumult, he must not die in the city; and when he was delivered into the hands of the Romans, they did not have a place of execution within the city, but one outside the camp, that by dying outside the gate, he might be proved to be the Sin Offering for his people.

7. Concerning this great truth, I have one or two remarks to offer to you very briefly. First, I want to ask you a question. Do you know who the people were who lived outside the gate? If you could have gone to the great camp of Israel, you would have seen the tents all placed in order, the standard of Dan there, of Judah there, of Ephraim there, — surrounding the ark of the covenant; but you would have seen a few wretched huts far away in the rear, outside the camp; and if you had asked, “Who lives, there? Who are the poor people that are put away from kith and kin, and who cannot go up to the sanctuary of the Lord, to present their offerings to him, or to join in the songs of praise to his holy name?” — the answer to your enquiry would have been, “The people out there are lepers and others who are unclean.” And if, in later days, you had walked through some of the shady glens around the city of Jerusalem, you might have heard in the distance, the cry, “Unclean! unclean! unclean!” — a bitter wail that sounded like the sighing of despair, as if it came from some poor ghost that had been commanded to walk this earth with restless steps for ever. Had you come nearer to the unhappy being, who had uttered so mournful a sound, you would have seen him cover his upper lip, and again, cry, “Unclean! unclean! unclean!” — to warn you not to come too near him, lest even the wind should blow infection towards you from his leprous skin. If, for a minute, he had moved his hand from his mouth, you would have seen, instead of those scarlet, ruddy lips of health, which God had originally put there, a terrible white mark not to be distinguished from his teeth. His lips were unclean, for there the leprosy had revealed itself; and, in a minute, he would have again covered up that lip that had the white mark of disease on it, and again he would have cried. “Unclean! unclean! Unclean!”

8. Of whom was that leper a type? He was a picture of you and me, my brethren, in our natural state; and if the Holy Spirit has quickened us, and made us to know our ruined condition, we shall feel that the leper’s cry well becomes our unholy lips. Maybe, I have, within the walls of this house of prayer, a hearer who is today separate from all mankind. With worldlings, he dares not associate any longer; the prostitutes and others, with whom he spent his living riotously, are, not now his companions; he cannot bear their pleasures, for they are dashed with bitterness. With the children of God, he dares not go; he feels that they would put him outside the camp, for he has no hope, no Christ, no faith; he cannot say that Christ has died for him; he has no trust in Jesus, not so much as one pale ray of hope has stolen into his poor darkened heart; and, tonight, the inward wail of his now-aroused spirit is, —

    Unclean! unclean! unclean!
       Unclean, and full of sin,
    From first to last, oh Lord, I’ve been
       Deceitful is my heart.

9. Leper, leper! be of good cheer; Christ died outside the camp, so that you might be sanctified through his blood. I see the leper now stealing through the deserted places, not daring to sip of the clear stream that lies in his path, lest he should communicate contagion to the next person who drinks from it; but seeking out some filthy puddle, that there he may satisfy his thirst, where no others are likely to drink. I see him covering up his lip. If his father met him, he must run away from him; if the wife of his bosom saw him, she must shun his presence, for a loathsome disease is in his skin, and in his garments; and in the very breath that comes from his lips there is death. Well, suddenly, as he steals along, he sees a cross, and on it lifted up One who is dying. He stands there astonished; he thinks that surely he may come near to a dying man, leper though he is; to the living, he must not approach, but to the dying he cannot bring a new death. So he draws near to the cross, and the lips of the dying man are opened, and he says, “Truly I say to you, ‘Today shall you be with me in paradise.’ ” Oh; what joy and rapture, rush through his poor leprous spirit! How his heart, that had long been heavy, and baked like a black coal within him, begins again to burn with a soft radiant light! He smiles, for he feels that that marvellous Man on the cross has forgiven him all his sins; and before he has begun to feel it, his leprosy is cleansed, and soon, he goes his way, for his flesh has come to him just like the flesh of a little child, and he is clean. Oh leprous sinner hear this, and believe it for yourself! Tonight look to him who died outside the camp, so that poor unclean sinners might find a Saviour there.

10. That is my first lesson from the text; if the Lord the Spirit shall graciously apply it to your souls, it will be a very precious one to many a sin-distracted heart.

11. But, believer, did you never feel as if you, too, were unclean, and outside the camp? Brethren, let me tell you just a little of my own heart’s feelings, and let me see whether you have ever felt the same. You have often known yourselves to be children of God; I have felt myself, with much joy, to be certainly assured of my interest in Christ; but, suddenly, sin has surprised me, some unhappy propensity has developed itself, and I have felt as if I could not meet my God. When I was on my knees in prayer, I seemed as if I could not pray; I felt like the unclean one who must be put outside the camp, — like Miriam, who, though the leprosy was only for a little while, would still be unclean for seven days. And when I have come to the house of God, I have felt as if the lowliest Christians there were so much superior to myself that I would only have been glad to have been a footstool at their feet. I would have crept into any part of the fold, if I might only have known myself to be the lowliest lamb in the flock of Jesus. I have seen the deacon, and I have seen the church member, and I have thought, “Brethren, you are happy; but my heart is sad, for I am not worthy to be called God’s son. Father, I have sinned; I have done grievously, and have transgressed against you.” For a little while, faith has seemed sluggish, and hope has been dull, and the sense of sin has rested on us, and we have seemed to be quite put away from our Lord’s presence. We have read the Bible; but we could get no comfort there. The heavens seemed like brass above our heads; no shower of grace fell on our thirsty souls; both God and man seemed to put us outside the camp. I believe, that many times, in a Christian’s experience, he will have to feel what I have been describing. I do not mean merely little Christians, but I mean the greatest Christians, those who have lived nearest to their God, those who have been eminent in the Lord’s service, — God’s Aarons and Miriams, who sometimes have to be put outside the camp. Who, then, is there among us who will not sometimes be unclean? Surely, not any of the great ones of Israel could always live without contracting some ceremonial defilement; for you know that, under the Jewish law, the sitting on the bed of a leper made a man unclean; and many things that happened to men rendered them unclean for seven days. And who can wonder if, through the infirmities of our bodies, through the companionships into which we are called, through the evil thoughts of our mind, we are often unclean as the Jews were? And who wonders that, sometimes, the Lord should put us, as it were, out of the camp for a little while, until we have been purged with hyssop, and have been made clean, — until we have again been thoroughly purified by the washing of water through the Word?

12. Ah! but, brethren, what a mercy it is that, when we are outside the gate, Christ is outside the gate, too! Oh poor backslider! Does your conscience shut you out of the Church today? Remember, Christ shut himself out, too. He was “despised and rejected by men.” Do you feel, tonight, as if you could not come to his table, — as if your Master would spurn you from it? Remember, if you are his, you are welcome; for his table is the place where his cross is, and his cross is outside the gate. Come, sinner! Come, backsliding saint! Come, and welcome! God may seem to have put you away, but it only seems so; for we know he has written that he hates to put away. Come, and though you are outside the gate, behold your Lord, who, “so that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.”

13. II. I have only one more thought to bring before your notice. The apostle says, in the next verse to our text, “Let us go out, therefore, outside the camp, bearing his reproach.” So, SINCE CHRIST SUFFERED OUTSIDE THE CAMP, LET US NOT BE ASHAMED TO SUFFER THERE, TOO.

14. I do not think much of the religion of that man who is not put outside the camp. If you can dwell with the wicked, if you can live as they live, and be “hail-fellow {a} well met” with the ungodly, if their practices are your practices, if their pleasures are your pleasures, then their god is your god, and you are one of them. There is no being a Christian without being shut out of the world’s camp. I can scarcely conceive it possible for any man to be a true saint, a holy man, one who is set apart for God, and sanctified in Christ Jesus, unless he is reproached while on earth for being too strict, too Puritanical, maybe, sometimes too melancholy. There must be a grave distinction between a Christian and a man of the world; and where there is no such distinction, or only a slight one, there is most solemn cause for suspicion that all is not right. When I see a man dress like worldlings, when I hear him talk like worldlings, when I know that all his outward deportment is just like a worldly man’s, when I can detect no difference, when I see no sign of the Lord Jesus on him, when I can hear no “shibboleth” in his speech, by which he is to be detected from a sibboleth-speaking world, when I discover no distinction between him and others, then this I know, “God is not mocked”; that man is in the flesh, and he shall “from the flesh reap corruption.”

15. Indeed, I will go even further, in this age I can scarcely imagine it is possible for a man to serve his Master faithfully unless he is sometimes shut out of the camp, even of the Church itself. I do not mean excommunicated, — I mean something far different from that; I mean, that the man, who serves his God properly, will often feel himself left in the minority, even in the Church. It is never his business so to act, and so, to think, that others are obliged to differ from him; it is folly to be different, except where to be different is to be right; but so lax has the professing Church become, so low in its doctrine, so light in its experience, and sometimes so unholy in its life, that, to be Christians now, we must be elect out of the elect, — elect out of the Church as well as elect out of the world. What pride, on the one hand; what sloth, on the other; what anger, what doubt, what covetousness, what worldly-mindedness, we constantly see! Most of us are too much mingled with the world, too much joined to Egypt; and the man who is firm in the faith, and loves his Master well, is a rarity. The man of a loving spirit, the man of a large heart, and yet of a determined zeal, and of a steadfast mind, — such a man will have to go outside the camp; and he will have to suffer now, even as all have had to suffer who have dared to go into the front lines of the sacramental host of God’s elect, in advance of the more tardy followers of the Lamb. If any minister of Christ dares to be too bold, too plain, too honest, for the common run of professors, he must expect to be slandered. Let him expect that, and let him willingly go outside the camp, for that is the place where his Master went before him.

16. If I turn to the page of history, to find the best men who ever lived, do you know where I find them? I never find them among those who were called “respectable” in their time. There, in the page of history, I see great names, Erasmus and others, mighty and learned men; but on a dirty-thumbed page, I see the name of Luther associated with such epithets as these: “dog, adulterer, beast,” and everything else that Rome’s malice could suggest; and I say, “Ah! this is the man whom God chose, for he went outside the camp.” That list of great divines, and of schoolmen, {b} and of theologians — you may wipe them all out without much regret; but this man outside the camp, he is a somebody, depend on it; he is the man whom God has blessed. Turn to another list of archbishops, bishops, deans, rural deans, rectors, and curates; there they are, all as respectable as possible, and great volumes of their sermons may be found on bookshelves, nowadays, with the dust of years on them. I read their names; there is one, there is another, there is another; but there is nothing special about any of them. At last, I find a picture by Hogarth, — a caricature of a man preaching, with demons coming out of his mouth, and underneath it written, “Fire and brimstone!” I look at the portrait, and I say, “See, that is Mr. Whitfield.” Ah! there is the man of the age, depend on it; that man, all black, charged with crimes that Sodom never knew; that is the man! Not the curate in the other picture, who is preaching to a congregation all asleep; but this man here who is abused, who is laughed at, who is mocked; this is the man who is a somebody.

17. So you may go on as long as you like, and you shall always find that those “intruders into the ministry,” as some call them, those whom the parliament of parsons dislikes, those whom the great majority reject, and laugh and scoff at, — those are the very men whom God blesses. So, if you go outside the camp, you will be in very good company. The great and holy men of years gone by have all been put outside the camp. If an ungodly throng have thrust out our forefathers, and have said, “Get out, we do not want you,” it is true, their children build their sepulchres, and then they thrust us out. What if it is so? We are content to share the lot of so goodly a parentage. We think it a high honour to be thrust out of these gates whose only glory is that good men once passed through them, and whose great disgrace is that good men pass through them the wrong way, — not into them, but out of them. So, beloved, be content to be cast outside the camp.

18. But notice, going outside the camp in itself is nothing; it is suffering outside the camp that is the great thing. Making myself different from everyone else, is nothing; it is suffering for the truth’s sake that is the truly noble thing. It is being crucified with Christ that is honourable. It is not my being a Sectarian or a Separatist, it is not your going outside the camp that is any good; it is your suffering outside the camp that proves you to be a believer. Oh Christians, if you have to do the same, rejoice! And now, as you come to this communion table, I shall ask you only to remember that word suffered: “Jesus suffered outside the gate”; and I shall ask you, as you sit there, to meditate on that word. Think it over again and again, and remember how his body and his soul all suffered for you. Then, when you have meditated on that great truth, you will be in a fit frame of mind to commune with him who has sanctified you by his own blood, by suffering outside the gate.

19. May the God of mercies give to sinners grace, so that, like lepers outside the camp, they may look to Jesus crucified for them, and so obtain eternal life! Amen.

{a} Hail-fellow: An intimate or familiar associate. OED. {b} Schoolmen: Certain theologians of the Middle Ages; so called because they lectured in the cloisters or cathedral schools founded by Charlemagne and his immediate successors. See Explorer "http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/brewers/schoolmen.html"

Expositions By C. H. Spurgeon {Jer 5:1-6,10-31 Re 22:1-7}

5:1. “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, the see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.

It was a very amazing offer, on the part of God, to forgive the inhabitants of the whole city of Jerusalem for the sake of one man; and it was all the more remarkable because he gave them time to make a thorough search to see whether such a person could be found: “if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth.” Into what a horrible state of guilt must the Jewish capital have fallen when there was not one man, even among the magistrates or the priests, who cared for what was just and true. May God prevent London and England from becoming like Jerusalem and Judah! May truth and righteousness flourish in our land!

2. And though they say, ‘The LORD lives’; surely they swear falsely.”

Even those who assumed an appearance of being religious, and who said, “Jehovah lives,” — even they were false swearers. To what a terribly sad state had the age come when its very religion was a lie, and its professedly holy things were thoroughly rotten!

3. Oh LORD, are not your eyes on the truth?

If there is any truthful man anywhere, God sees him. His eyes are on him, he regards him with attentive delight, and he will take care of him with the utmost vigilance. But what was the real character of these people? Listen.

3. You have struck them, but they have not grieved; you has consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

Nothing could make them act properly; whatever God did with them, they still persisted in their iniquity.

4, 5. Therefore I said, “Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they do not know the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God”:

But he found no improvement among them; they were even worse than the poor and ignorant, for he goes on to say, —

5, 6. But these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

Now let us continue our reading at verse 10, where we shall see that both the house of Israel and the house of Judah had turned aside from the Lord their God.

10-12. “Go up on her walls, and destroy; but do not make a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’S. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says the LORD. They have lied about the LORD, —

They have made out as though God himself were a liar. They have contradicted him whose word is the truth itself. They have despised his threatenings, they have refused his invitations, they have doubted his promises: “they have lied about the Lord,” —

12-14. And said, “It is not he; neither shall evil happen to us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: so it shall be done to them.” Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

It is a dreadful state of things when God turns from pleading with men to threatening them, when he ceases to invite them to return to him, and denounces them as transgressors against his laws. At such times, he makes the words that come out of the mouths of his prophets to be like fire, and men are utterly consumed by them as the stubble in the field is destroyed by the devouring flames.

15-18. Lo, I will bring a nation on you from afar, oh house of Israel,” says the LORD: “it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, neither understand what they say. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds: they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish your fenced cities, in which you trusted, with the sword. Nevertheless in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a full end with you.

See how, in the midst of his wrath, God remembers mercy. He utters a terrible sentence concerning transgressors, and then he pauses, and says, “Nevertheless,” — listen to the gentle note of pity in that word, — “ ‘Nevertheless, in those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will not, make a full end with you.’ ” Still he spares the guilty, and in his longsuffering he gives them further opportunities for repentance.

19. And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, ‘Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

A man may often see his sin in its punishment. Because they had served strange gods, therefore the Lord sent them to serve strangers in a strange land. Remember, oh transgressor, that your sin will come home to you in some form or other! If we sow the wind, we shall reap the whirlwind. “Whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap.” Therefore, let us beware of scattering seeds of sin, for they will produce a terrible harvest of woe.

20, 21. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and proclaim it in Judah, saying, ‘Now hear this, oh foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and do not see; who have ears, and do not hear:

And, alas! there are far too many of such people still around. They hear God’s Word, yet it never reaches their hearts. They see what God’s hand is doing all around them, yet they do not and they will not really see it as they should.

22. Do you not fear me?’ says the LORD, ‘Will you not tremble at my presence, who has placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though its waves toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass beyond it?

There is a little belt of sand which checks the surging sea, and says to it, “So far you shall come, but no farther: and here your proud waves shall be stopped.” Now, if sand, which is so weak a thing, can, nevertheless, control the mighty ocean within bounds, how readily ought you and I to be governed by God, and held in check even by the slightest intimations of his will!

23. But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

God restrains the sea, but nothing seems to be able to restrain the sinfulness of man. He breaks over every barrier that should keep him back; he is like a desolating torrent when he gives way to iniquity.

24. Neither do they say in their heart, "Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season: he reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest."

Though God gives timely and suitable seasons for the growth and ingathering of the grain, — rain when it is needed to aid the growth of the blade, and fine weather for garnering the harvest, — yet many men do not see the hand of God at all, and they are therefore not moved by gratitude to bless his name, and fear him to whom they are indebted for all that they receive. Oh, what an ungrateful and blind creature man is!

25. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.

Does any unconverted man here know what good things he has missed up to the present moment? Suppose you, my friend, were to be saved tonight, yet can you even imagine what joy you have lost through all the years of your past impenitence? Nothing can ever give back to you the years that have gone, or impart to you, in the future, the joy you might have had, but which you have missed. And, notice that, if there were no hell to be endured, it is enough of hell to have missed heaven. It will be grief enough for your heart, at the last, to find that “your sins have withheld good things from you.”

26. For among my people are found wicked men:

“Among my people,” says the Lord, — in the very church itself, making as loud a profession as the most genuine Christian, — “among my people are found wicked men.” Here, in this place, tonight, mixing with the godly in this congregation, are found wicked men. May the Lord have mercy on them, and turn them from their evil ways!

26. They lay wait, as he who sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

Beware of these man-catchers, who entrap souls, and ruin them for ever, ensnaring them by leading them into evil habits and transgressions.

27, 28. Just as a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and grown rich. They are grown fat, they shine: yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked:-

The obviously wicked, —

28, 29. They do not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy they do not judge. Shall I not punish for these things?’

Angels in heaven, God says to you, “Shall I not punish for these things?” And they answer, “Yes, Lord.” Even of the demons in hell, he may ask the same question. They are already smarting under his wrath, and he may say to them, “Shall I not punish for these things?” And they also answer, “Yes.” He asks the question of all intelligent beings who know what is right and true, “Shall I not punish for these things?” And they, with one consent, reply, “Yes, Lord; it must be so.”

29-31. Says the LORD: ‘Shall my soul not be avenged on such a nation as this? An astonishing and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so:

It is a most horrible thing that God’s own people should ever be willing that error should be preached, and that oppression and wrong-doing of any kind should be practised. You know that, if God’s own people did not tolerate false doctrine, it would soon cease to be heard in many places. But it happens when those who profess to know God’s Word endorse what is contrary to the truth that error is kept in power in the land: “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so.”

31. And what will you do in the end of it?’

That is a question which I would propose in God’s name to all here. Is your religion of such a character that, when you come to die, it will bear you up? Or have you taken up with some form of falsehood which will not stand the test of your dying hour? Are you living in neglect of God? Is your life such that he must be angry with you, for he is angry with the wicked every day? Then, take home for yourself the question with which this chapter closes, “What will you do in the end of it?”

I am going to speak to you presently about those who go out with Christ, outside the camp, bearing his reproach, so let us read from Revelation a few verses about the glory which awaits them eventually.

22:1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Infinite sovereignty bestows grace; the river of grace flows from the throne of God. It is the King who saves his people; yet the atonement is always connected with the sovereignty: “He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

2. In the midst of its street, and on either side of the river, there was the tree of life, which bore twelve kinds of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

God will enrich his Church by giving her a great variety of good things: “twelve kinds of fruits.” There shall also be a constancy and perpetuity about their supply, for this tree “yielded her fruit every month.” And if there is any evil remaining anywhere in the world in those halcyon days, God shall supply a cure for it: “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations.”

3. And there shall be no more curse:

The curse shall be taken from the soil on which it fell indirectly when God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for your sake.” There shall be no curse on man’s body; there shall be nothing but blessing. Blessing shall swallow up the cursing, and God shall be revealed everywhere.

3. But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

This is what we try to do now, but we shall more fully accomplish the blessed task in those brighter days which every revolution of the wheel of time is hastening on.

4. And they shall see his face;

Oh, that is glorious service, — to serve the Lord and to see his face at the same time. Communion and service are always best when they are blended. There can be no fellowship better than what serves, and no service sweeter than that of those who continue to see the face of their Master while they are serving him.

4. And his name shall be in their foreheads.

There will be no mistaking them; they shall bear in their foreheads the glorious name of God, just as the high priest of old had the words, “Holiness to the Lord” on his brow.

5. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; —

Even the sun is only worthy to be ranked with a candle in comparison with the light of God himself. John puts the two things in one sentence: “they need no candle, neither light of the sun”; —

5-7. For the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever and he said to me, “These sayings are faithful and true: and the LORD God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show to his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold I come quickly: blessed is he who keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”

Even so, come, Lord Jesus; come quickly! Amen.

The Standard Life Of Mr. Spurgeon.

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Price 10s. 6d. 392 pages Demy 4to. With over 100 illustrations and Facsimile Reproductions of Mr. Spurgeon’s most notable manuscripts.

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C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography, Compiled from His Dairy, Letters, and Records, By his Wife and his Private Secretary.

Vol. IV. 1878-1892.

The increasing testimonies to the value of the Standard Life, as the successive volumes have been issued, have been a great source of encouragement to the compilers; and they confidently anticipate an equally hearty welcome for Vol. IV., which, for many reasons must possess attractions uniquely its own. In these four volumes, as in no other that has been or ever can be issued, the life and work of C. H. Spurgeon are recorded, from his own standpoint, by himself and those who knew and loved him best. That fact must always give to his Standard Life a position quite by itself among all the books in which the details of his wonderful career have been published with varying degrees of accuracy. Orders for Vol. IV. should be given at once to booksellers, or colporteurs, or sent directly to the publishers.

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