3045. Believers a Blessing

A Sermon Published On Thursday, June 20, 1907.

You shall be a blessing. {Zec 8:13} {a}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 543, “Once a Curse but Now a Blessing” 534}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3045, “Believers a Blessing” 3046}

   Exposition on Zec 7; 8:9-22 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3489, “Encouragement for the Depressed” 3491 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Zec 8 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3045, “Believers a Blessing” 3046 @@ "Exposition"}

1. So terribly had God punished idolatrous Israel and Judah that their names were a byword and a proverb among all the surrounding nations. If any man wished to pronounce on his fellow man the most dreadful curse that he could utter, he would say, “May you become like a Jew; may a blight fall on your whole life as awful as what has fallen on Israel!” Even the heathen used the Jewish nation as a model of their cursing, and blasphemed the name of Jehovah who had poured out the vials of his wrath on them. But God declared that he would return to his ancient people in love and mercy, and replenish them in the multitude of his lovingkindnesses to them; so that, from that time, instead of being the pattern of cursing, they should be used as the model of a blessing; that, when men wished good things for each other, they should say, “May you be as blessed as the children of Israel, whom the Lord of hosts has favoured more than all the rest of mankind!” You remember that old Jacob, when he blessed the sons of Joseph, uttered a kind of formula for future use by others, “He blessed them that day, saying, ‘In you shall Israel bless, saying, "God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh"’”; and I believe that, to this day, in Jewish marriages, the blessing is given to the newly-married couple, “As Isaac and Rebekah may they be!” In the same way would God make his people to become the model of blessing as previously they had been the pattern of a curse.

2. Leaving that primary meaning of the passage, I am going to apply the promise of the text to the spiritual Israel. In his inscrutable wisdom, God allowed his ancient people, the nation of Israel, to become a curse among the other nations of the earth. Their idolatry was not only high treason against God, but it also gave the very heathen reason to blaspheme his holy name. The Lord said, by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, “‘Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet not gods? but my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. Be astonished, oh you heavens, by this, and be horribly afraid, be very desolate,’ says the Lord. ‘For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.’” Israel turned aside from Jehovah to worship Baal, and Ashtaroth, and other false gods without number; and so, by bad example, Israel led other people into idolatry, dishonoured the name of the Most High, and became a curse among the nations. Yet Israel was the guardian of the oracles of God, and the time will yet come when God shall again visit his ancient people, and the branches that have been broken off, because of unbelief, shall be grafted again into their own olive tree, and their “fulness” shall be “the riches of the Gentiles,” as Paul so plainly shows in the parable of the olive trees in Ro 11:11-36. Indeed, at this very hour, a Jew is the riches of Jews and Gentiles alike, for our Lord sprang out of Judah; and, therefore, we “take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, ‘We will go with you’”; and he is to us, “more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” The Son of Mary, who is also the Son of God, is our blessed Lord and Saviour, and in him is that ancient promise fulfilled which was made to Jacob at Bethel, “In you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” We cannot sing too often that grand Coronation Anthem of the Christian Church, — 

   All hail the power of Jesus’ name!

      Let angels prostrate fall;

   Bring forth the royal diadem,

      And crown him Lord of all.

   Crown him, ye martyrs of our God,

      Who from his altar call;

   Extol the stem of Jesse’s rod,

      And crown him Lord of all.

   Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race,

      A remnant weak and small,

   Hail him who saves you by his grace,

      And crown him Lord of all.

3. Yet let us not omit also to sing, — 

   The hymn shall yet in Zion swell

      That sounds Messiah’s praise,

   And thy loved name, Emmanuel!

      As once in ancient days.

   For Israel yet shall own her King,

      For her salvation waits,

   And hill and dale shall sweetly sing

      With praise in all her gates.

4. Whereas through sin, then, Israel had been a curse to the other nations of the earth, she shall, through the mercy of God, be a blessing when she repents of her sin, and accepts the Messiah whom she has rejected for so long. But we need not confine to the literal Israel and Judah the promise of our text, for it belongs to all the people of God, and so to you, beloved, who are, by faith, the true seed of believing Abraham. This promise is applicable to you: “You shall be a blessing.”

5. I. And, first, I want to remind you that THIS PROMISE REVIVES REGRET WITHIN OUR SPIRITS: “You shall be a blessing.”

6. Then the first emotion in our heart is that of penitential sorrow; for, if God says that he will make us a blessing, surely it is implied that we were not so once. Let us look back to the days of our unregeneracy. It may be that some of us were great curses to our families, and to the neighbourhood in which we lived. If so, we must look back with deep sorrow on the past; for, albeit that God has blotted out the guilt of our iniquity, yet the consequences of the sin still continue. We cannot undo the evil that we have done to others. If we first tempted them, and they fell into sin, we may be forgiven the temptation, but we cannot recall it, nor can we put them back into the place from which they have fallen. A child once learned an evil word from you; — oh, how gladly would you take back that word if you could; but it entered that child’s memory, and it will remain there, perhaps for ever! If you led others into places of frivolous amusement, or into haunts of vice, you may abhor those places now, and God may have forgiven you the sin of your youth; but what about those whom you led there, — what will become of them? You can pray for them, and I know that you will do so; you will plead with them if you know where they are, and you will be quickened in your service for the Saviour by your memory of the earnestness with which you served Satan in those evil days of the past; but, beloved, there must still remain the bitter fruit of perpetual regret that you cannot destroy the results of that early sowing of bad seed. The handfuls of cockle and twitch-grass that you scattered broadcast in the furrows, — you cannot call them back again. The fire-brands you have thrown, the hot coals that you have thrown around, and which caused such a terrible conflagration, — you cannot undo the mischief and ruin that they did. The results of good or evil deeds will remain for ever and ever, so let us beware what we do, since it can never be undone. So, first, when God makes us a blessing, it reminds us that we were once a curse.

7. It also brings to us — at least, it does to me, — a painful remembrance of the time wasted, —  time spent unprofitably before our conversion, when, if we were not actually doing damage to the souls of others, yet we allowed opportunities for doing them good to glide by unused. Oh, these blessed hours, these precious hours, these more than golden hours, in which Christians may win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ! Angels never had them, and the spirits of just men made perfect have them no more. Though they can render other and perhaps yet higher service to their Lord; this special service of soul winning is reserved for us who are still living on this earth. {b} We have, at the longest, only a few days, or weeks, or months, or years, allotted to us in which we may glorify God by being a blessing to our fellow creatures after we have found the Lord for ourselves; yet some of us allowed many years to pass away before we even gave earnest heed to these things for ourselves. Those of us, who were brought to know the Lord in our early youth, bless him for that; yet we regret that we were not saved in our childhood. We wish we had given to God the very first rays of the morning of our life, as well as the bright beams of the fuller day, so that we might have been made a blessing to the church and the world as soon as we had intellect and understanding, and were capable of influencing the minds and hearts of others.

8. There is another reflection, which is also a sorrowful one, and causes us deep regret; namely, that, since the ever-blessed hour when the Holy Spirit taught us to trust in Jesus, and gave us new life in him, we have not been such a blessing to our fellow creatures as we ought to have been. We have not altogether lived in vain; we have not sown to the flesh, but to the Spirit; yet, how scanty has been our sowing of the good seed of the kingdom; and, as a result, how small has been the harvest that we have reaped! Oh, that we had availed ourselves of all the golden opportunities we have had of serving the Lord Jesus Christ! How much more good we might have done had we been earnest at all times, fervent at all seasons, had we thrown spirit, and soul, and body entirely into this holy service, and lived, and breathed, only for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! If we had reached the ideal Christian life, so that we ate, and drank, and slept eternal life, having Christ living in us, and we living in him, how much more we might have achieved than any of us have yet done! The capacity to “be a blessing” to others was given, at our conversion, to all of us who have believed in Jesus; but we have left that precious talent unused to a very large extent. To some Christians, and to some now present, this message must go home, and this question must be asked and answered, — what have we done for him who died to save us? Alas, how little, — at the most, how little; but by the most idle, alas, alas, how little! May God help you to turn your regret to practical account while the glad sound of the text rings in your ears like the music of a silver bell, “You shall be a blessing.” Let your tears fall plentifully as you recall the sad fact that, before you knew the Lord, you were a curse to others, and not a blessing; and that, even since you have known him, you have not grasped the truth of the text, and realized the fulness of its blessed meaning as you should have done, for such tears of regret will be likely to lead you to change your course of action for the future.

9. II. Let us now notice, in the second place, that OUR TEXT IS CALCULATED TO AROUSE INQUIRY, as well as to revive regret.

10. Inquiries will come, from young believers, something in this way, “Will you kindly tell us what we can do by which we shall be a blessing? We hear the promise of the text, but how can we get it fulfilled in our own experience? In what way can we be made a blessing to others?” Beloved friends, there are many ways in which God can make you the channels of blessing to your fellow creatures if you yourselves are regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

11. First, it will probably be by your consistent conduct that you will be made a blessing to others more than in any other way. An unholy professor is a downright curse both to the church and to the world; and as for a church of inconsistent members, Satan himself could not devise an instrument more suited to carry out his diabolical purposes. A community of ungodly men, that is known by everyone to be a synagogue of Satan, is robbed of much of its power to do mischief; but if it is misnamed a church of Christ, it is potent for all kinds of evil. An unholy professor, outside the Church of God, may batter against the walls with little effect; but, inside, he would be like the concealed soldiers, in the wooden horse, who opened the gates of Troy to the besiegers. It was only an apostle who could be such a “son of perdition” as Judas was; so beware, you who profess to be followers of Christ! You have great capacities for usefulness; but your position gives you immense capacities for doing damage to the cause of Christ. Only holy Christians are useful Christians; and the preaching of Christ’s truth must be backed up by the consistent living of Christ’s followers if it is to have its due effect on the hearts and lives of the ungodly. No doubt, many a shaft has missed the mark because it has not been shot from the bow of a consistent preacher, or because it has been turned aside by inconsistency in the church of which he is the pastor. Oh, for holy living! The honest tradesman who has just weights and measures, the diligent domestic servant who sweeps under the mats and in the dark corners, the laborious workman who may be trusted when his employer is absent, the man who would not tell a lie even though he could win a fortune or a throne by doing so, the man who in all things acts justly towards men and walks humbly before his God, — these are the people who “shall be a blessing” to all around them. If a man had no tongue, and so never spoke a word, if it were not in his power to bestow as much as a farthing on the poor, if he could not visit the sick or the prisoners, yet his very presence on the earth would be in itself a blessing; — a reproof, silent, but none the less eloquent, to ungodly men, and a powerful example to such as wish to walk in the way of righteousness. “Be holy,” for so shall you serve God, and serve the Church of Christ, and, in the highest sense, serve your generation, and serve the world. I love to sing, with John Newton, — 

   Let worldly minds the world pursue,

      It has no charms for me;

   Once I admired its trifles too,

      But grace has set me free.

   Now, Lord, I would be thine alone,

      And wholly live to thee.

12. But, in addition to that, all Christians may be made a blessing to others by instructing them in the truths of the gospel. The world is still very dark, spiritually, though many people foolishly speak of “this enlightened century.” It has “light,” of a certain kind — or, rather, of a very uncertain kind — within it; but the light that is in it is almost entirely darkness. It is still true, of the majority of mankind, as it was in Isaiah’s day, they “put darkness for light, and light for darkness, … bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” The scarcest thing in the whole world, today, is true spiritual light; and, where it is revealed, men hate it, and try to banish it from their sight. Philosophy is exalted above revelation; science, falsely so-called, is set up in the place of Christ, who is the wisdom of God, though true science is never in conflict with the true gospel; and anything that pretends to be light is preferred by many to him who is “the true Light.” Spiritual light is mainly conveyed to the dark souls of men through the proclamation of the gospel, the good news concerning Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners; so proclaim that — 

         Old, old story

   Of Jesus and his love, — 

to as many as you can; tell it to thousands, to hundreds, to scores; tell it to one if you cannot tell it to more. Tell to all, as far as you can, these precious things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, — his incarnation, his holy life, his wondrous words, his perfect example, and his substitutionary death. Tell these things to your children, and charge them to tell them to their children, and to charge their children to tell them to the generation following. Tell that great central truth of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ to the man who sits beside you in the tram or train, or who calls at your house on business. Seize every opportunity you can get of letting men know, by the inspired Word, or by the written or spoken message, all that you can about “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has presented to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,” “and by him all who believe are justified from all things”; and not only justified, but also glorified. Every true testimony to Christ brings glory to God, and blessing to men. A preacher may halt and limp, his elocution may be faulty, his theology may be open to criticism; but if it is “the gospel of Christ” that he proclaims, it will be precious truth to the saints who hear him, and sinners will be saved by it.

13. Not only by instructing men will you be a blessing to them, but also by reproof. This is a far more difficult matter; and, probably, nine out of ten of us had better stick to the easier task of giving instruction; yet, now and then, there will come occasions when you must not see sin in your brother or sister without rebuking it. If I hear blasphemy, and am able to condemn it, yet do not, my silence makes me a sharer in the sin. I am always afraid lest, when I hear God’s name blasphemed, my guilty silence should make me an accomplice of the blasphemer. A rebuke need not be, and should not be, discourteous or disrespectful, and it should not be unduly severe; but I am afraid that, nowadays, we are not so likely to err by our harshness, as by failing to be faithful to our conscience and our God. We must boldly stand up, at all costs, for God, for truth, for purity. Shut your ear to the lascivious song, do not allow it to be sung in your house; and do not let scandal be spoken at your table. Set your face like a flint against sin of every kind; and, God prospering your testimony, you “shall be a blessing.”

14. More frequently, however, and much more pleasingly to yourself, you can be a blessing by giving words of comfort, and, often, something more substantial than words to the poor and afflicted ones with whom you may come into contact. If you know someone who is fighting with a fierce temptation, go and try to help him; if you know another who is struggling with a troublesome doubt, try to assist him to drive it away. Your experience may be just what he needs to know, so tell it to him. Do not be backward or bashful in speaking of what the Lord has done for you. I am always grieved when I hear of any people coming to this Tabernacle for a long time, and no one speaking to them; let it not be so. Do endeavour, brothers and sisters, you who know Christ by experience, to tell others of the sweetness that you have found in him, and of the faithfulness of God to his promises, and of the power of prayer and the reality of faith. So you will bring many a poor soul out of bondage who, except for you, might have lingered long in Doubting Castle, in the dungeons of Giant Despair. May God grant you the grace “to speak a word in season to him who is weary.” A word on wheels, as Solomon calls, “a word fitly spoken,” is like apples of gold on settings of silver.

15. Besides that, you can be a blessing by your actions, as well as by your words. Some of you have the means with which you can assist your poorer neighbours. Of all people who ought to be kind and neighbourly, of all who should be sympathetic and generous, the Christian should be the first. The tendency nowadays is to get everything under a cast-iron code of law, and I would not wonder if a law is passed, some day, making it penal to give sixpence to a poor person who is starving. Someone said to me today, when I was telling him how I had been deceived by a vagabond whom I had relieved, “It is such as you who make the vagabonds.” If so, I shall go on making vagabonds sooner than let the stream of charity in my soul be frozen into ice. It is better to be taken in a few times than to let the heart become hardened like steel against the real poverty that there is in London, and many other places besides; — the gaunt, grim poverty that may soon be seen if we will only take a little trouble to search for it. Be charitable, notwithstanding all the mischief that unworthy applicants may make of your charity, remembering the command of our Saviour to his disciples, “Give to him who asks you.”

16. You can also “be a blessing” in many other ways which I need not intimate now. In such a vast city as this metropolis, there is work for everyone to do. A Christian man, living in a remote hamlet, might perhaps say to his minister, “Sir, can you find me an opportunity for serving the Lord?” but no person, who lives in London, ought ever to ask another person, “What can I do for Christ?” If he is willing to do anything for the Master, the work lies at his door. Floods of sin are surging all around you, and sinners are sinking in them; stretch out your hands to help them.

   Rescue the perishing, care for the dying;

   Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.

In such a city as this, with hundreds of thousands — I might truthfully say, millions — needing the bread of life, and the water of life, and with many of them literally needing bread and water, every one of you can do something to relieve them; and I beseech you, if you love your Lord and Master, do the first thing that comes to hand, and “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.” Well did Dr. Horatius Bonar write, — 

   ’Tis not for man to trifle! Life is brief,

         And sin is here.

      Our age is but the falling of a leaf,

         A dropping tear.

   We have no time to sport away the hours,

   All must be earnest in a world like ours.

   Not many lives but only one have we,

         One, only one;

      How sacred should that one life ever be,

         That narrow span!

   Day after day filled up with blessed toil,

   Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil.

17. III. Now we must pass on to the third point, which is that OUR TEXT IS ALSO CALCULATED TO SUGGEST ENDEAVOUR. It has revived regret and aroused enquiry; now it suggests endeavour. And what endeavour?

18. Well, first, I think it stirs us up to look for a blessing on what we have already tried to do for Christ and his Church. You, my brother, have been teaching a Sunday School class for two years: is it not time that you saw some blessing? Go and look for it; perhaps, in looking for it, you will be the means, under God, of bringing it to your students. I think that an earnest, godly teacher, believing that God had blessed his message, would be well repaid if he asked the boys or girls in his class, “Has God blessed your souls through my teaching?” If he asked that question with tears, it might be more effective than all his ordinary teaching. And you, my dear brother, have you been preaching in some little mission room in London or in the country, and have you seen no “fruit” from your sowing of the good seed of the kingdom? Have you asked, “Who has believed our report?” If so, I ask you, — Have you believed the promise of my text, “You shall be a blessing?” If not, do so at once, and go and enquire if there has not been a blessing, and never rest satisfied until you have it.

19. Next, the text tells us to look for a blessing wherever we may be, and whatever we may do. What have you been doing just recently? You have moved to a more suitable neighbourhood; then, let one of your first questions there be, “How can I be a blessing here?” You have been recently married; I congratulate you, and suggest that you should ask, “How can I, in my new relationship, be made a blessing?” You, my friend over there, have gone down in the world recently; well then, ask yourself, “For what purpose am I put in this lower position? Is it not that I may be a blessing to some whom I could not have reached under happier circumstances?” Are you a commercial traveller? Are you not sent from town to town to be a blessing to those you meet? Are you a tradesman? Are you not put behind the counter to be a blessing there?

20. So I might go on addressing the members of various trades or professions; but I want to remind you that there are some people who ought, above all others, to strive to be a blessing to their fellow creatures; and I put, first of all, ministers of the gospel. Oh my brethren in the ministry, if we are not a blessing, we are a double curse. Every so-called “place of worship” in which the true gospel is not preached is a curse, for it is like a sepulchre full of rottenness, doing nothing but harm. Worldlings more often judge Christianity by fruitless trees than by fruit-bearing trees. Oh preacher, be a blessing, or never enter the pulpit again!

21. This rule should apply also to parents. What a blessing Christian parents often are to their children! I can conceive of nothing more natural, and, at the same time, nothing more blessed, than a father and mother, who, by precept and example, have trained up their children in God’s fear, and whose loving instruction and earnest prayers have been blessed by the Holy Spirit to their children’s salvation. What greater joy can we have than to see our children walking in the truth? May God grant that you, fathers and mothers, may all diligently seek to be a blessing to your offspring!

22. There may be some domestic servants here; if so, let me remind you that you have great opportunities for being made a blessing. Good servants can contribute much to the well-being of the family. By the faithful discharge of their duties, they may be the means of preventing others from committing sin; whereas, on the other hand, slovenly and idle servants create so much discord in the household that they are the fomenters of sin. I do not know of any person, who can have so much influence for good, as a godly maid who has the care of little children; one who, instead of scaring them with wicked threats or silly tales, talks to them discreetly concerning him who said, “Allow the little children to come to me.” I have known domestic servants, who were earnest Christians, who have gone to live where there was no religion whatever, no family prayer, and no Sabbath observance; and, without ever intruding beyond their proper place, they have accomplished a blessed revolution in the house, and their masters and mistresses and fellow servants have been brought to Christ by their godly example. Let all Christian servants here endeavour to get the fulfilment of the promise of our text, “You shall be a blessing.”

23. I might speak like this to you who have the duty and privilege of instructing the children in our schools, to you managers of large factories, to you who, as working men, meet great numbers of your fellow men; — all of you ought to strive to experience this promise, “You shall be a blessing.” Dearly beloved in Christ, let me say to all of you, — Do, by God’s grace, maintain a holiness of walk with God, and then seek to be a blessing to others. Look at the six words before our text: “So I will save you, and you shall be a blessing.” It is only as you yourselves are, in the fullest sense, saved, — saved from falling into sin, saved from inward corruption, saved from error; — it is only as you are conformed to the image of Christ, that you can expect to be a blessing to others. Please, as members of this Christian church, always feel that you are to take your full share in being made a blessing to others. There are some who believe that blessing comes to men only through priests; that is what I believe. I believe that no blessing comes to men except through priests; first, through the great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then through all who believe in him, who are, as Peter says, “a holy priesthood,” and “a royal priesthood,” and whose song in heaven shall be, “To him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to God, and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” The priesthood of the Christian Church is common to all the saints; there is no other true priesthood but that of the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot discharge any of your religious duties, or relieve you of any of your responsibilities. My own are quite heavy enough for me to bear; I will seek, as God gives me grace, to discharge them; but I cannot discharge the responsibilities of any other person in the world. You, having been personally redeemed by Christ, personally washed in his blood, personally saved by his grace, are to render personal service to him. All proxy religion must be abhorrent to Christ, “who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” He did not seek to find someone else to save you, for he knew that no one else could do it. He trod the wine-press alone; and of the people there was no one with him. So, to your personal Redeemer render your personal service. Give generously from your substance to help others to do their part of the work; but give yourself also, — spirit, soul and body, — for these are claimed by Christ as “your reasonable service.”

24. IV. Now I must conclude by trying to show you that our TEXT FURNISHES US WITH MANY CONSOLATIONS: “You shall be a blessing.”

25. Some of you have to live in places where you are not comfortable; perhaps you are not in a neighbourhood that you like. Possibly, in the very house where you live, there may be others whose thoughts and feelings are very different from yours; and, sometimes, you are grieved, and perhaps perplexed, because you have to live there; but, if God put you there, “you shall be a blessing.” My dear friend, Mr. Orsman, of the Golden Lane Mission, has often told me that the results of his work will never be visible in Golden Lane, because, as soon as a man is converted, he begins to save, he becomes industrious, wears a better coat, seeks a better house, for he cannot live in that dirty room in which he once lived, and he cannot bear the foul language of the court or alley; so, very properly, and very naturally, he moves away. Unhappily, there are always others coming in to keep the place as bad as ever. Now, when a Christian man is compelled to live in such a place as that, let him conclude that he has been put there so that he may be a blessing. If that is your trying lot, my brother, fight the devil where you are placed, on his own ground; it is not fair that you should have the pick of the spot where the great duel is to be fought. Fight the devil where he has a firm foothold, and beat him by God’s grace. I think, if I were a gas lamp, and had the choice of the place where I should be hung, and it was proposed to me that I should hang up somewhere in the West End where there is already abundance of light streaming from the fine shops, I do not know that I should particularly care to be put there; but if there was a dark corner where thieves were in the habit of meeting, and where much mischief might be done if it were not for the light of a lamp, I imagine I should ask to be hung up there where I would be of the most use. At any rate, if you are placed, in the providence of God, in a dark neighbourhood, let this be your prayer, “Oh Lord, make me a blessing just here!”

26. Perhaps, however, you are a member of an ungodly family. Now, you had no hand in that matter; you were not responsible for your birth, and you cannot get out of that family into which you were born. Now, instead of saying, “I wish I had a Christian mother, and that our house were ordered in God’s fear”; say, “God has called me by his grace; at present, I am the only one saved; but he must intend for me to be a blessing to my brothers, and sisters, and parents; and, therefore, I am thankful that he has put me where I am needed. I will try to do everything that shall be kind to them, — I will win their love if I can, and I will try also to win them for Christ.” I am really thankful when some of you come to join the church, and tell me that there is no one else in the house who cares for the things of God; for I look on your conversion as getting in the thin end of the wedge. If we get one who fears God inside the house, I hope we shall get more; for, blessed be God, good example is contagious as well as bad! May God grant that, since it is your unhappiness to have ungodly relatives, it may be your happiness to “be a blessing” to them!

27. It may be that you are persecuted, that you live in places where you are sneered at, where the doctrines, that are dearer than life to you, are regarded with contempt, and scriptural ordinances, in which you delight, are held up to constant ridicule. Do not altogether regret this, but, say to yourself, “Perhaps I am put here in order that I may be a blessing to my persecutors.” Do not imagine that the unlikeliest man to get a blessing out of you is the one who laughs most at you. I sometimes think that the infidels who shout most loudly have more faith than others; and that, because they are afraid they shall hear conscience speak, they make a great clamour to try to drown its voice. When a man bullies you, there is a great deal better opportunity for you to get at him than when he says, as so many do, “Oh, yes, sir; it is all true”; and there the matter ends so far as they are concerned. But there is something in a man who will stand up to oppose you; and you may yet be able to say a word for Christ, that will be blessed to him. Why should we want to run away because men mock us? If they say, “Come and fight,” let us go and fight, only with other weapons than theirs, — with the weapons of holy gentleness giving a good reason for the hope that is within us with meekness and fear, for that is always the more powerful way of speaking. Do not, therefore, fear persecution; but, rather, thank God for it, and say, “I have to endure this so that I may be a blessing to those who revile and abuse me.”

28. Brothers and sisters, I think our text furnishes sweet consolation to any who have been engaged in very arduous service. Do you have a great deal to do for Christ, — a great deal too much to do, it often seems to you? Are you incessantly occupied about the Lord’s business? Then thank God for it, for he has said, “You shall be a blessing”; and, the more you have to do for him, the more blessing you are likely to be the means of conveying to others.

29. Or on the other hand, are you passing through a very trying experience? If so, you are being qualified for greater usefulness; your dark experience will only teach you more that you will be able to teach to others concerning God, and his dealings with his own. Believe that you will become a blessing to others by means of your trials, and cheerfully bow your heads to overwhelming floods of sorrow in the confident assurance that by this you will be made a blessing to others, and so bring glory to God.

30. Yes, beloved, and we may even be content to die, if our last testimony shall be more useful than any that we have borne before. If God will enable us to glorify him by being a blessing to others, we will be content. I hope we can say that we desire nothing on earth compared with this, — to be blessed by God, and to be made a blessing by God. We do not covet earthly wealth or position, but we do covet the honour of being a blessing. Have an insatiable thirst for this honour, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, — to be a blessing to tens, to hundreds, to thousands, to the millions of this great city. Incessantly strive, by your private prayer, by your generous alms, by your kindly deeds, by your public testimony, to be a blessing; and may God bless you more and more, you and your children, for his dear name’s sake!

31. But, alas, there are many who cannot be a blessing to others, for they are not themselves saved. They are getting grey, but they are not saved! Death will soon call for them, hell gapes wide for them, and they are not saved! May the Lord have mercy on all of you who are not saved, and may he, by his grace, constrain you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to make the scriptural profession of your faith, for HE said, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” May God grant that you may all “be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation,” for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

{a} For Mr. Spurgeon’s Sermon on the whole verse: —  {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 543, “Once A Curse, But Now A Blessing” 534}
{b} One of the most helpful of Mr. Spurgeon’s books, published since his home-going, is The Soul Winner; or, How To Lead Sinners To The Saviour. 2s. 6d. Passmore and Alabaster.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Zec 8} {c}

1, 2. Again the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.’

Because they worshipped idols instead of the living God, Jehovah of hosts, who is a jealous God, was very angry with his ancient people, and allowed them to be carried away into captivity; and it is good for us, in these days, to remember that we serve a jealous God, and that, if our hearts are not true to him, he will soon send us sharp afflictions, and make us feel the weight of his rod. It was Paul’s anxious desire that he might be able to present the church at Corinth “as a chaste virgin to Christ”; and, certainly, our Lord Jesus Christ will not accept the professing church of these days on any other terms. Let your heart be loyal and true to him, or else you will stir up the holy jealousy of your God. Yet the same jealousy which makes God punish his people for their unfaithfulness, prompts him to return to them in love as soon as he sees that he can justly do so. When their enemies have severely vexed and oppressed them, then the Lord is jealous, not against them, but against their enemies, and he swiftly returns to his own people in love.

3. Thus says the LORD; ‘I am returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.’

The first coming or the return of God to a church, or to an individual heart, always promotes holiness; so, unless your piety is growing daily, do not imagine that God is in the midst of you; for, wherever the Lord comes, he comes “as a refiner and purifier.” You will never find Jesus come except as John the Baptist pictured him to the Pharisees and Sadducees of his day: “whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor.” The coming of Christ into any soul, or into any church, is the death of sin and the birth of holiness.

4, 5. Thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘There shall yet be old men and old women dwelling in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.’

It is an indication that there is peace in the city when the children can play in the streets without fear. We may apply these verses spiritually like this, — when God greatly blesses a Christian church, there are sure to be many aged people in it, those who, by their long experience and their matured wisdom, are able to teach others the lessons which they have themselves learned at the feet of Jesus. Happy is the church that has in it many fathers and mothers in Israel. At the same time, a church that is largely blessed by God will also have in it many young converts, who will be as full of life and joy as children playing in the streets of a city in a time of peace. There is a text which is true both in its literal and its spiritual sense: “Lo, children are an inheritance of the Lord. … Happy is the man what has his quiver full of them.” There is no glory so great for a Christian minister, and a Christian church, as that of having an abundance of spiritual children, and multitudes of converts brought to Christ. So it shall be with any church when God is in her midst.

6. Thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘If it is marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in my eyes?’ says the LORD of hosts. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1747, “Marvellous! Marvellous!” 1748}

This is a very remarkable passage, warning us not to judge God by ourselves. Though a thing may be difficult to us, there are no difficulties with God. Indeed, even if we imagine anything to be impossible to man, the word impossibility has no relationship to the Deity, for “with God all things are possible.” Are you in trouble today? Do you say that it is impossible for you to be delivered? It is an easy thing for God to deliver you, though the task seems so hard for you. Do you feel the weight of your sin, and do you imagine that it is impossible for your sin to be pardoned? Would you look at it as a miracle; and because it seems so marvellous to you, do you think it is marvellous in God’s eyes? Remember what he said by the mouth of Isaiah, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ says the Lord.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 676, “Man’s Thoughts and God’s Thoughts” 667} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1387, “God’s Thoughts and Ways Far Above Ours” 1378} Consider the infinite difference between God and man, and no longer look at God through the misleading glasses of your own feebleness.

7, 8. Thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.’

Note God’s emphatic language, how full it is of “shalls” and “wills.” “I will,” and “they shall,” he says, again and again; and if God says, “I will,” who shall dare to say that it shall not be? What God declares shall certainly come to pass. Surely this is golden language of comfort to those who are bowed down; then, how great must be the sinfulness of that unbelief which dares to despair when God says “shall” and “will”! That one sentence in the eighth verse contains the whole gospel in two short sentences: “They shall be my people, and I will be their God.” This is the tenor of the covenant of grace. There is no “if,” nor “but,” nor “perhapses” in it, God does not say, “I will be their God if they will be my people”; nor, “I will love them if they will keep my laws.” That is the old covenant of works, which has been broken for ever; but the covenant of grace runs like this, “They shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.”

9-11. Thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, so that the temple might be built. For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace for him who went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men against his neighbour. But now I will not be to the rest of this people as in the former days,’ says the LORD of hosts.

The Jewish people had been brought into abject poverty; they were all so poor that there was not one who could hire his fellow man or even pay for the hire of a beast of burden. This was before the foundation of Solomon’s temple was laid; but, as that wondrous structure grew, the State also grew; and, often, the prosperity of a church brings prosperity to the people around it, and to the rest of God’s people there comes a blessing, and not a curse.

12. ‘For the seed shall be prosperous;

It is a happy omen for a church when the Word preached is with power.

12. The vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase,

Happy are the hearts that are like fruitful vines, and good and fertile ground yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold increase.

12. And the heavens shall give their dew;

We cannot produce fruit to God without the bedewing influences of the Holy Spirit. This is that “womb of the morning” of which David speaks in Ps 110:3, {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 74, “A Willing People and an Immutable Leader” 70} and out of which the precious fruit of the Spirit must come.

12-15. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And it shall come to pass, that just as you were a curse among the heathen, oh house of Judah, and house of Israel; so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing; do not fear, but let your hands be strong.’ For thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and I did not relent: so again I have thought in these days to do well to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: do not fear.

Did you notice the repetition of the exhortation, “Do not fear,” and then again, “Do not fear?” The Lord knows how much mischief doubts and fears do to his people, and therefore many a time, in Scripture, he aims a blow at them. “Fear nots” abound in Scripture; it would be good if you made every one of them into a gallows-tree on which to hang your unbelief until it died. What is your fear at this moment? What is the cause of your trembling? “Do not fear,” says God to you; will you dare to fear after this?

16, 17. These are the things that you shall do; Speak every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour;

Some have wickedly said that “thought is free, and cannot be condemned”; but here we see that, if it goes after evil, it is a wicked thing which God abhors.

17-19. And love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,’ says the LORD.” And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be for the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.’

God turns sad fasts to glad feasts when he visits his people in love. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2248, “Sad Fasts Changed to Glad Feasts” 2249} Is there one here who has been having a long fast? Has your soul been severely afflicted? Have you been desponding and trembling, so that you have had no joy and gladness? Ah, when the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself to you, he will soon change your sad state into something brighter and better. He will give you “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Look up, poor trembling soul, to that hill of Calvary where Jesus bled and died for you, and there let your joys begin, and never, never end.

20, 21. “Thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, "Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also.’ {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1107, “A Call to Worship” 1098}

You see that, in the latter days, there is to be a great spirit of prayer and of seeking the Lord. This will include the hearing of the Word, and the love of the truth; and one good sign is that the people will say, “Let us go speedily.” They will not come in late, as so many do nowadays, just getting into their seats when the Scripture is being read, instead of being present at the opening prayer. I am sorry to say that some of you are getting later and later; and some morning, I shall most certainly carry out my threat, and preach the sermon first, unless you are more punctual. A little more thought, and a little sooner start, and you might all be at God’s house in time. David longed to be a doorkeeper in the Lord’s house, and you know that the doorkeeper is always the first in and the last out. May you all have more of David’s spirit, though you cannot all be doorkeepers! These people are to say, “Let us go speedily (the marginal reading is ‘continually’) to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also.” That is the best way of bringing others to God’s house, — to say, “I will go also.” I have read that Julius Caesar never said to his soldiers, “Go,” but “Let us go.” So we should seek to get others to God’s house by saying to them, “Let us go; … I will go also.”

22, 23. Yes, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts; ‘In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, "We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you."’”

In the latter days, the Jews, who are still despised, and oppressed, and persecuted in many countries, shall be so highly honoured by God that men of other nationalities will want to be in their company. But, no doubt, there is here a special reference to Jesus, the Jew, the Son of God who became the Son of Mary too. Oh, that this very day, many Jews and Gentiles may take hold of his skirt by a living faith, and so may receive blessing from him, and be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation!

{c} This exposition was originally published with sermon No. 3047 for lack of room to publish it with this sermon to which it properly belongs. Editor.