3049. Going And Weeping

A Sermon Published On Thursday, July 18, 1907.

Going and weeping. {Jer 50:4} {a}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1752, “Mourners, Inquirers, Covenanters” 1753}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3049, “Going and Weeping” 3050}

1. Possibly, someone says, on hearing my text, “I like better to be going and singing.” Yes, my friend, and I do not blame you for making such a choice. As long as you can go and sing, in the name of the Lord, let nothing stop you from doing so. It is fitting that we, who have been redeemed by Christ from destruction, and are heirs of heaven, should make merry and be glad. We should “rejoice in the Lord always”; yet we must not despise others if they should seem to give more prominence to another phase of spiritual experience, namely, “going and weeping,” for there are sons of sorrow on earth who will undoubtedly be sons of joy in heaven. Among the sweetest flowers that bloom in the Saviour’s garden are those who, like the snowdrops and the lilies of the valley, hang down their heads.

2. It is also possible to be going and singing, and yet, at the same time, to be going and weeping, for the mind may be in such a complex condition that, while it has abundant reason for joy, it has a sweet well of happy grief within itself. There is such a thing as a bitter-sweet, — the worldling has that; but there is also such a thing as a sweet-bitter, and the Christian often has that; so that, while he is weeping, he can also be singing; while his soul is cast down within him, yet he lifts up his horn on high, and rejoices in the God of his salvation. It is quite possible to blend these two experiences, and so the life of God’s people becomes like a rainbow, consisting partly of the sunshine of heaven and partly of the raindrops of earth; they sing because of their present and future joy, and they weep because of the sad past, and the remnants of the Fall that are still around them, and the sins of the age that still surround them. I will not say that “Going and Weeping” is a better motto than “Going and Singing”; but, sometimes, it is the only one we can use; and, often, it may be joined with the other. I hope I shall be able to show you that “going and weeping” is a very choice way of living.

3. We see in our text, first, a blessed combination; when we have spoken of that, we will mention when and where this combination should be conspicuous; and, lastly, we will give reasons why this combination should be revealed in our lives.

4. I. First, here is A BLESSED COMBINATION: “going and weeping.” The two things complement each other, supplement each other, and stimulate each other.

5. First, they complement each other. I mean that, when a man is going away from his past sins, away from his old habits, away from self-righteousness, if that reformation is a work of divine grace, it will have the watermark on it; there will be “weeping” with the “going.” If the prodigal had only said, “I will arise and go to my father,” we might have doubted the reality of his repentance; but when he added, “and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you, and am no more worthy to be called your son,’” then the tears of penitence, which must have accompanied such a confession, verified the reformation. Beware, beloved, of all dry-eyed reformations. Certain preachers disparage and run down repentance; they say that it is simply “a change of mind.” That is true, in a sense; but what a change of mind it is, — not such a change of mind as a man makes when, instead of buying one hat, he buys another, or, instead of spending a shilling, he saves nine pence out of it! I have heard preachers refer to repentance as if it were a trifling, insignificant alteration of opinion; but, if that is all the repentance we have had, it is a repentance of which we need to repent. The old-fashioned repentance is the only one that will bring you to heaven; if you do not leave — 

      The sins you loved before,

   And show that you in earnest grieve,

      By doing so no more, — 

you will come short of the repentance which the Holy Spirit works in the souls of the Lord’s own chosen people. There must be, as John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees, “fruits fit for repentance”; or, as the marginal reading puts it, “answerable to amendment of life.” There must be true godly sorrow over your past evil conduct, there must be a loathing of yourself in the sight of God; and all the “going” that is not attended by “weeping” will be a bad going after all.

6. Now I will turn this truth around the other way by reminding you that there are some people who profess to be very repentant concerning the past; — if they could live their lives over again, they would not live at all as they have done, — so they say; and their tears flow copiously. I am not always pleased to see copious tears. When seeing enquirers, I have noticed that, when men weep very much, they are either men of a tender spirit, who are easily moved to tears, or else they have been so accustomed to drink that they have gotten into a maudlin state, and cannot help crying. I would rather have tears falling inside a penitent than outside. Never condemn a man because he does not weep as others do; it may be that his heart is too full for tears; nor condemn those who cry outwardly, for tears are often genuine evidences of repentance. I merely remark that a briny tear, in itself, is not a sufficient proof of that godly sorrow for sin of which the tear is only the index; and when I warned you against dry-eyed reformations, I meant those so-called reformations which do not include real sorrow for sin. External weeping is quite a secondary matter, but there must be inward weeping in all true converts. Some people cry a great deal, and talk a great deal; they say that their heart is adamant, and that they are dead as a stone. Of course they are dead; they never were spiritually alive, and the natural, stony heart has never been taken out of their flesh. There is a great deal of truth in what they say, but they have not learned it from the Spirit of God. They have caught certain phrases from the lips of gracious people, and merely say what they hear others say, just as parrots do when they are taught to repeat what their owners say. How am I to know whether this profession of repentance is genuine or not? Why, as I know the value of the “going” by the “weeping,” so I know the value of the “weeping” by the “going.” Is the weeping man’s life changed? Has God the Holy Spirit enabled him to lay the axe to the roots of those old habits of which he says he repents? Does he go on drinking, and yet say that he mourns that he was a drunkard? Does he go on swearing, and yet say that he laments his profanity? Is his temper constantly boiling over, yet he says that he repents of it? My dear friends, there must be something more than that, for God cannot look on our expressions of regret for the past as having any sincerity in them unless they are attended by a grace-assisted effort to put an end to such sins for the future. There must be the “going” to prove the “weeping” to be true, as well as the “weeping” to prove that the “going” is on the right road.

7. In the next place, these two things supplement each other; that is to say, what is deficient in the “going” is supplied in the “weeping,” and what is not in the “weeping” will be found in the “going.” For example, the “going” concerns the present. When a man is, by the grace of God, renewed in the spirit of his mind, he is a different man from what he used to be; — there is faith instead of unbelief, love for God instead of enmity against him, and holiness instead of sin; in fact, he is “a new creature” in Christ Jesus. And this “going” applies to the future as well as to the present, for the man will “go from strength to strength.” Led on by the Divine Spirit, he will “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” he will tread the path of holiness until he enters the celestial city, to go no more out for ever. But when the black and dreary past of his sinful life again comes before his mind, he cannot help weeping; yet even then he pleads the merit of the precious blood of Jesus, and prays, with penitent King David, “Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your lovingkindness: according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” When that black past is blotted out like a cloud blown away by the wind, the “weeping” and the “going” are not separated; tears still have to be shed because of the turning aside, the falterings, the halting even in going along the road which God has marked out for us. When we see men reclaimed from outward sin, when we notice the obvious change in their character, we may call that “going” on the right road; but unless there is some “weeping” through intense heart emotion, some display of sincere sorrow over what they once delighted in, and of regret that they have not attained to the high and holy things which ought to be the portion of all true Christians, there is something lacking.

8. Now turn the thought the other way, and notice how the “going” supplements the “weeping.” The “weeping” is an evidence that we have learned our need; the “going” to Christ in faith supplies that need. The “weeping” is the acknowledgment of the disease; the “going” is the application to the great Physician. The “weeping” mourns over our nakedness; the “going” takes us to the King’s wardrobe, to put on Christ’s spotless robe of righteousness. The “weeping” is because of our emptiness; the “going” links us on to his fulness. It would be wretched “weeping” if we did not know the blessed way of “going” to him of whom Paul wrote, “My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

9. I said also that these two things stimulate each other; and the truth of this statement is readily perceptible. Our “going” leads to our “weeping,” and our “weeping” motives us to “going.” The poor prodigal felt the pangs of hunger within his body, and he felt in his spirit that he had sinned against his father, therefore he said, “I will arise and go”; and I expect that, as he went, his hunger quickened his pace; and that every pang of his emptiness, and every sight of his filthiness, and every subsequent tear would make him hurry with greater energy towards his father’s house. A deep sense of sin is often a blessedly impelling power to drive us to the Saviour. I desire never, in this world, to be free from a deep sense of the bitterness and guiltiness of sin. Even though freed from the guilt of sin by the precious blood of Jesus, I still desire to feel what an abominable thing sin is, so that I may go, eagerly and passionately, to my dear Lord’s wounds, and get the only one effective remedy for all my soul’s diseases. Light thoughts of sin create light thoughts of the Saviour. When our “weeping” over our transgressions ceases, our “going” to him who “was wounded for our transgressions” is apt also to cease. Repentance and faith are like the Siamese twins. If one is sick, the other cannot be well, for they live only one life. If ever you are asked which comes first, repentance or faith, you may answer, by another question, “Which spoke of a wheel moves first when the wheel begins to revolve?” You know that they are all set in motion at the same time. So, when the hand of God sets our soul “going” on the right road, it also sets our soul and often our eyes “weeping”; and I believe that, when our soul is really “going” towards God, it is with a deepened repentance over the past, and a sincere “weeping” over the imperfections which it still has to lament.

10. So that the “weeping” stimulates the “going”; and I am sure that the “going” stimulates the “weeping.” If the Lord helps you to grow in grace, and you get much joy and peace in believing, you will be sure to say, “What a fool I was to have been all those years a slave to sin, and an enemy to such a blessed Saviour!” And when you get very near to God, and “walk in the light, as he is in the light,” you will see your imperfections more than you ever did before. When I meet a brother who tells me that he is nearly perfect, I know that he is living in the dark; for, if he lived in the light, he would see how far short he came of the glory of God. You think your white linen looks very white, do you not? But when the snow falls, and you place your linen on it, it no longer looks white. So, until you come near to God, you do not know what “perfection” is; but when you get even a dim perception of what his holiness is, you say, with the patriarch Job, “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Oh, that the Lord would enable us to have more true “going” in the way of holiness, — growing in communion with the Holy Spirit, advancing in our likeness to Christ, and becoming more humble, more prayerful, and more fervent in spirit, and more diligent in service, for then I am certain that the blessed art of holy “weeping” would be more practised by us everyday of our life. So, the “weeping” helps our “going” on the right road, and our poor “going” leads to more “weeping” because we do not go better.

11. II. Now I leave the explanation of this strange combination of “going and weeping” to point out WHEN AND WHERE IT SHOULD BE MOST CONSPICUOUS.

12. And here, brothers and sisters in Christ, I begin with myself, and with my brethren engaged in the same holy office. Scripture teaches us that, with the sower of the good seed of the kingdom, there should always be a “going” and a “weeping.” Here is a passage to prove my assertion to be true, “He who goes out and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 867, “Tearful Sowing and Joyful Reaping” 858} We have a Christ-like task if our “going” is what it should be, — to “preach the Word,” to “make full proof of our ministry,” to “keep back nothing that is profitable for you,” to bring out, as scribes instructed in the kingdom of heaven, “things new and old” out of the divine treasury, to go after the outlying masses, and “compel them to come in,” so that our Master’s great house may be filled for the great gospel feast; to care for the sick, and the sad, and the dying; — all this is included in the “going” of “a good minister of Jesus Christ.” But it will be a poor “going” if there is no “weeping” with it. Think of the Prince of preachers, — what a wonderful “going” was his! Ah, and what wonderful “weeping,” was his, — at the grave of Lazarus; {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2091, “Jesus Wept” 2092} and over Jerusalem’s sinners! {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2381, “I Would; But You Would Not” 2382} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2630, “What Jesus Would Do” 2631} How deeply he loved even those who rejected him! Oh, that we, who profess to be his servants, had more tender hearts! Then we should say, with the weeping prophet Jeremiah, “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” {b} Paul was indeed a “going” preacher, — “in journeyings often,” and “in labours more abundant”; but what a “weeping” preacher he was also! You know how he said to the elders of the church at Ephesus, in his farewell address at Miletus, “Remember, that for three years I did not cease to warn every one night and day with tears”; and to the church at Philippi he wrote, “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 102, “False Professors Solemnly Warned” 97} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2553, “The Enemies of the Cross of Christ” 2554} So these two things, “going and weeping,” ought to be characteristic of every true preacher of the Word, and of all teachers, and other servants of the Lord Jesus Christ whose office is of the same kind. I often feel that I can adopt Doddridge’s language, and say, — 

   Arise, my tenderest thoughts, arise,

   To torrents melt my streaming eyes;

   And thou, my heart, with anguish feel

   Those evils which thou canst not heal.

   See human nature sunk in shame;

   See scandals pour’d on Jesus’ name;

   The Father wounded through the Son;

   The world abused, and souls undone.

   See the short course of vain delight

   Closing in everlasting night;

   In flames that no abatement know,

   Though briny tears for ever flow.

   My God, I feel the mournful scene;

   My bowels yearn o’er dying men;

   And fain my pity would reclaim,

   And snatch the fire-brands from the flame.

   But feeble my compassion proves,

   And can but weep where most it loves;

   Thy own all-saving arm employ,

   And turn these drops of grief to joy.

13. This combination, “going and weeping,” should be conspicuous, not only in those who plead with men for God, but also in those who plead with God for men. The best praying consists in “going” “boldly to the throne of grace,” and pleading there; yet those who win most from God are those whose hearts are most deeply affected, — those in whom there is the “weeping” as well as the “going.” Such was the prayer of Jacob in that great night of wrestling, concerning which the prophet Hosea says, “He had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him.” Weeping is a wonderful help to those who would find their way to the heart of God; so, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, pour out your hearts before him, — pour them out like water before the Lord; and when your heart is breaking for the longing that it has, even if you shed no outward tears, you have learned the sacred art of praying, and you shall receive what you have asked for in as much as it is according to the will of God.

14. Beloved, it is a sad thing to have to say, yet it is true, that this “going and weeping” ought to be very conspicuous in backsliders. I am always glad to see backsliders returning to their first love, and restored to fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ; but there are one or two things that I always like to see about such people, — the absence of all arrogance and self-justification, and the presence of deep humility both towards God and towards his Church, for their offence has been against God’s people as well as against God himself. When a church member falls into sin, all the members have to suffer in their reputation among men, and they also have to suffer in their power with God; and, therefore, the returning of a backslider should always be accompanied by obvious signs of the deepest contrition. Many speak of David’s sin, but say nothing of David’s penitence. Nathan rebuked him in a way that very few kings would have endured, yet there was no anger in David’s heart against him for the stern way in which he told him about his faults. The fifty-first and other penitential Psalms show how melted David’s soul was by contrition; groans, and sobs, and sighs escaped from his heart instead of his former joyful music. There was a “going” and a “weeping” on the part of the repenting backslider. If he had known George Herbert’s quaint lines, he might have said, — 

   Oh who will give me tears? Come all ye springs,

   Oh well in my head and eyes: come, clouds, and rain:

   My grief hath need of all the wat’ry things

   That nature hath produced. Let ev’ry vein

   Suck up a river to supply mine eyes,

   My weary weeping eyes too drie for me,

   Unlesse they get new conduits, new supplies,

   To bear them out, and with my state agree.

   What are two shallow foords, two little spouts

   Of a lesse world? The greater is but small,

   A narrow cupboard for my griefs and doubts,

   Which want provision in the midst of all.

   Verses, ye are too fine a thing, too wise

   For my rough sorrows: cease, be dumbe and mute,

   Give up your feet and running to mine eyes,

   And keep your measures for some lover’s lute,

   Whose grief allows him musick and a ryme:

   For mine excludes both measure, tune, and time.

                          Alas, my God!

15. But, beloved, this “going and weeping” should also be seen in Christians who are making progress in the divine life. I believe it always will be seen in those who are diligently and carefully watching and striving against even the appearance of evil. That “going” which consists in a kind of feverish excitement, or in a sudden leap into a high condition of soul, is to be very seriously suspected. I have found that I have had to fight for every inch of the road that I have ever travelled heavenward; I do not think I ever gained any spiritual victory easily. If any here find the road to heaven to be strewn with flowers, and one in which they can run without being weary, I can only say that I have not found it so; and that, if I did not wait on the Lord, I should utterly fall. Brethren, please suspect that it is presumption, and not the full assurance of faith, if you are always “going,” but never “weeping.” I have already explained that this “weeping” does not set aside the rejoicing, for a man may “rejoice in the Lord” all the more while he mourns before God on account of his own shortcomings, and waywardness, and faultiness. I think the most joyful soul among us may willingly sing, — 

   Lord, let me weep for nought but sin,

      And after none but thee;

   And then I would, oh, that I might

      A constant weeper be!

16. And this “going and weeping” should also be conspicuous in every student; — I mean, not only students for the ministry, but students for heaven, and that is what every Christian is. The apostle John was a student, and he once saw, in the hand of God, “a book, … sealed with seven seals”; and when it was asked, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to release its seals?” and there was no man found worthy, what did John do? He says, “I wept much.” And, often, that is almost as good as knowing the original languages; indeed, it may be better. If the heart can weep over a doctrine, it will get that doctrine opened up before long. There is no chemical so strong as our tears for piercing through the hard shell of truth. Sincerely cry over the truth, and soon the truth will enter your soul, and you will know its innermost meaning. There is a way of “going” by bending the mind to the truth, but there is also a “weeping” in the passionate longing that we ought always to have towards God’s statutes. “Going and Weeping” is a noble motto for the student.

17. So it is for the Christian worker, and for the Christian sufferer. I will put the two together; the Christian worker goes and weeps; the Christian sufferer weeps, yet goes. I desire, while working for God in vigorous health, to maintain a lowly, humble, penitent frame of mind; but if sickly, and laid low, and made to weep through bodily pain or relative affliction, I ask that I may have cheerful courage, so that, if I cannot do much, I may do something for the Lord, and still keep on “going.” I have seen, and my spirit is often melted at the sight, one whose sufferings seldom abate, yet whose desire to serve God never abates, but rather increases, and who would give anything if activity might take the place of patience. Blessed be those weak ones whom the Lord elects to suffer, yet who still seek to serve him; and blessed are those who actively serve him, yet sit humbly at his feet, and feel that they are less than nothing, and who weep tears of joy to think that God should so honour such poor worms as they are as to permit them to do anything for his dear name’s sake!

18. This “going and weeping” ought to be most conspicuous in those of you who are not yet saved. If you really want to be saved, you will seek the Lord your God, by hearing his Word, and by much earnest prayer. If his grace is really working in you, you will seek him by casting yourselves at his feet, and by looking to the great sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and by trusting in his redeeming blood. But with all that “going” there will be “weeping.” You will loathe yourselves in your own sight; you will bemoan the corruptions of your heart, and cry, “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.” Never cease your “weeping” until Christ has said, “I absolve you.” Sigh and cry until, at his dear cross, you have seen all your transgressions blotted out for ever. Oh sinner, I pray God to work in you this “going” and this “weeping!” I have already told you that the “weeping” is of no avail without the “going” by faith to Christ; but I have also said to you that the supposed going to Christ is not a real “going” to him unless there is also sincere “weeping” on account of sin. May your “going” be away from your sin; and may your “weeping” lead you to look to Christ as you pray, — 

   Lord God of my salvation,

      To thee, to thee, I cry;

   Oh let my supplication

      Arrest thine ear on high!

   Distresses round me thicken,

      My life draws nigh the grave;

   Descend, oh Lord, to quicken,

      Descend my soul to save!

19. III. Our time is nearly exhausted, but I ask you to have patience with me, for two or three minutes more, while I mention a very few out of the multitude of REASONS WHY THE “GOING” AND THE “WEEPING” SHOULD BE JOINED TOGETHER IN OUR LIVES.

20. And, first, speaking to the members of this church, I mention what is always uppermost with me. We want to see a great enlargement of our church, a deep and permanent revival of religion. We have had a foretaste of it, but we are sighing and crying for a great deal more. If we are to have it, there must be, in the church, a “going” and a “weeping.” Every brother and every sister must be doing something for the Lord. You who can preach in the street, go and do it; you who can distribute tracts, go and do it; you who can teach in the Sunday Schools, go and do it; you who can serve the Lord in the lodging-houses or anywhere else, you who can speak to the ones and the twos, go, go, GO, in the Lord’s name, “go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” But you will go best where you go “weeping.” Ah, me, what reason we have for weeping! Planted in the midst of the greatest city on the face of the earth, — the greatest for population, and, considering its light, the greatest for transgression, — what reason we have for weeping! If you knew what some of us have to know, you would know enough to give you heart-ache or heart-break. If you went into some of our streets on the Sabbath day, you might ask, “Is there any Sabbath at all with all this marketing and bargaining?” Look at the {c} gin palaces, — those doors of hell are wide open on almost every street; as though they sold the bread of life, men multiply these places where they destroy both body and soul. I hardly dare remind you of the haunts of vice; I will rather speak of the agents of superstition. How busily they ply their deadly trade! Some damn men by open sin; but these damn them by a lie which they offer to them as the truth of God. This city is a reeking dunghill; and “unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah.” May God, in his mercy, preserve us as salt in the midst of the general putridity! Some of you have an even greater reason than this for weeping; for, in your own houses, there are those who do not love the Lord. Your children are not the Lord’s children; perhaps your wife or your husband does not love your God. You may well weep as you go! Sympathy and activity, compassion and diligence, — with this sweet amalgam every saint ought to be anointed. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is even better; but even that anointing has, among its choicest ingredients, the power to give us the sympathy and the diligence that we need.

21. Now, beloved friends, I speak to you who are not converted, if you are seeking the Lord, there ought to be in you the “going” and the “weeping.” The “weeping” as you think of Jesus, and his great love for sinners like yourself. They despised him, rejected him, laughed him to scorn; but he still pursued them with love, as I trust he has pursued you; and I know some for whom he has, by his grace, continued the pursuit, until, at last, with a divine art known only to himself, he has made the unwilling willing in the day of his power. For the love that Christ has for sinners, we ought all to feel our heart “weeping” that we should ever have offended such a Divine Lover. To transgress against his crown, is high treason; but to transgress against his cross, is the sin of sins; I do not know by what name to call such hardness of heart, such barbarity of spirit, such brutishness of soul. Think, for a moment, (for perhaps this may help you to go and weep,) of the Lord himself, the King of glory, coming down among men, and finding a poor shelter in his birth, little comfort in his life, and no solace in his death. Very poor was he who could have worn the sun on his head, and the stars as rings on his fingers. Very lowly was he before whom the tallest angel shrank into less than nothing in joyful adoration. Think of him, amid the cold night of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood; think of him scourged, spit on, mocked, and, at last, fastened to the cruel cross, to die the death of a slave; — all for love of guilty men! Where are our hearts? Surely, adamant is softer than our hearts if we do not weep to think that all this was for undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving sinners; and for no motive but that he was so full of love for them that he must give himself like this to suffer and to die for them. Let us go to his cross, and look at him whom we have pierced, and mourn because of him; and while we rejoice over pardoned guilt, let us mourn that we have pierced the Lord.

22. If nothing else will make us weep, there is one other reflection that should bring out the sorrow and also the activity of all believers, and that is the fact that, though we were once lost, and far from God, we are now saved. There are sitting, in this house, hundreds if not thousands of people who were “heirs of wrath, even as others,” “but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God”; and now, “beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” “Oh, what amazing mercy,” each saved soul may well say, “and all this for me!” Everlasting love ordained it, immutable love has accomplished it, and unchanging love will perfect it. The chief of sinners, yet chosen before time began; a sinner since conversion, yet loved with a love that will never change, it cannot increase, and it never will diminish; loved with a love that will outlast the sun when its bright lamp has burned up all its oil; a love that shall outlast time, so that, when the angel shall “stand on the sea and on the earth,” and swear “by him who lives for ever and ever” that there shall be time no longer, it shall not affect the inheritance my soul possesses in the infinite, eternal love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Oh, how could I ever offend such a God as this? Shame on my heart; gladly would I strike you that you could ever be an enemy to One who loved you before the day-star knew its place; and oh base spirit, that does not now serve God better, more ardently, more passionately, more perfectly, since all this love has been spent on you! Beloved, may God grant that we may experience, in all its sweetness, the meaning of our text, “going and weeping,” and to him shall be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

{a} Another Sermon by Mr. C. H. Spurgeon, on verses 4 and 5, is No. 1,752 in the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, and is entitled “Mourners, Inquirers, Covenanters.” Another, on the sentence in verse 5, “They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces pointed there,” is No. 2,566 and is entitled “A Test for True Seekers.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1752, “Mourners, Inquirers, Covenanters” 1753} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2566, “A Test for True Seekers” 2567}
{b} A Sermon preached by Mr. Spurgeon during the Indian Mutiny, — one of the most terrible discourses he ever delivered. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 150, “India’s Ills and England’s Sorrows” 144}
{c} Gin Palace: A gaudily decorated public house.

\Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Eph 1:1-14}

In this chapter, we see what Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has to say about the possessions and privileges of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

1, 2. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is a blessing for you as well as for the saints at Ephesus; it is for all “the faithful in Christ Jesus.” May you all have grace without measure, and may you all have “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” to “keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus!” Grace and peace are both to be had by believing in Jesus.

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

It is right that we should bless God since he has so richly blessed us. Blessed be the Heavenly Father who has so abundantly blessed his children. How has he blessed us? “With all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (or, things) in Christ.”

4. According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,

That is the beginning of all the blessing, God’s electing love. This is the fountain from which the living waters flow. There would have been no stream of blessing for us at all if it had not been for this first primeval choice of us by God, even as Jesus said to his disciples, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.”

4. That we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Here is the blessing of sanctification; we are chosen so that we may be made holy. For what nobler purpose could we have been elected? Is this not the very highest of our heart’s desires, — “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love?”

5. Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Oh, what a blessing this is, altogether inconceivable in its results!

      Behold what wondrous grace,

      The Father hath bestow’d

   On sinners of a mortal race,

      To call them sons of God!

6. To the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has made us accepted in the Beloved.

There is music for you: “accepted in the Beloved.” Are there grander words in any language than those four? Oh, the joy of being beloved, adopted, accepted by God the Father because of his beloved Son! Now comes something more: — 

7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Redemption from destruction, the forgiveness of our sins, — we have all this through “the riches of his grace.”

8-14. In which he has abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself: that in the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory.

There is no end to the blessing which God gives to his chosen. He is always blessing us with blessings upon blessings, grace upon grace, and then there will be glory to crown it all. Blessed be his holy name for ever and ever.