Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 382
“The Lord shall record, when He registers the people, that this man was born there.” Psalm 87:6. SEVERAL times, according to the record of Scripture, there was a census taken of the people of God. When Jacob went down into Egypt all his offspring were numbered, and they were three score and ten souls. How small, then, the visible Church of Christ; it could be contained within a single tent; it had sprung of but a solitary man. All those, then, who feared Jehovah, as far as it is known to us, were of the race of Jacob. There was another census taken when the people came up out of Egypt, and if you read in the earlier Chapter of the Book of Numbers you will be astonished at the wonderful multiplication which had taken place in the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. Truly, the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied. There were 600,000 footmen, all prepared for battle, besides women and children, and aged men who were exempt from the toils of warfare. There was another census taken after the people had been 38 years in the wilderness. Through their sin they had not been multiplied. So many had fallen in the wilderness, that notwithstanding the natural increase, the population stood at very nearly the same rate, or—taking the armed men as the standard—about 2,000 less than it was when they first entered into the howling wilderness. You have further on in history another instance of the taking of the census, or rather of an attempt to do it, when David commanded Joab, the captain of the host, to go through all the tribes and number the people from Dan even to Beersheba. The people were God’s people. When He numbered them, well and good; but none but the Sovereign power has a right to take the census of the people. David, forgetting that he was only God’s viceroy, that he stood not as king in Israel, except as under the constitution which God had established, presumes to invade the priestly prerogative and commit to Joab the Levitical office of numbering the people, and that without offering the shekels of sanctuary or giving the tribute of redemption. So flagrant was the breach of the laws of Israel, that even Joab was quick to remonstrate. But before David could effect the task, the Word of God had come out against him, and three days of pestilence, or three years of famine, or a period of flight before their enemies, who would defeat them in war, were offered to him as dread alternatives for the punishment of his sin. So did God seem to say, “Jehovah shall number the people, but David shall not.” God shall count His redeemed, and number His elect, but man shall not venture to touch the mysterious roll. None but the Lamb shall take that Book and open every seal. That Lamb’s Book of Life is not to be read except by the eyes of Him who bought the people with His blood; nor are the people to pass under any hand to be counted except under the hand of Him that counts them, even the great Shepherd Himself. My Brothers and Sisters, according to the text, there is one day to be a great census taken of the Church of God. It is concerning that one census, final and decisive, that I shall have to speak this morning. May God grant that of all of us it may be said, when the Lord registers the people, “This man was born there.”
Concerning this writing up of the census I shall take four or five points. First, we shall notice what this writing will involve “when the Lord registers the people;” secondly, whose names will not be found written in the census; thirdly, whose names will be there; fourthly, who will register the people; and then lastly, why will it be done at all
I. When this dispensation shall come to its close, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come in the clouds of Heaven, when all His people shall be gathered to Him to share His splendors and to delight themselves in His triumph, then we believe the Lord shall register His people. WHAT WILL THIS REGISTERING BE?
There will be written in this census nothing but personal matters. If you note my text, it says, “This man was born there.” They are not taken in the plural—these men. They are not taken as a corporate body—this nation, this church, this family—but one by one each man’s name shall be found either written there or else left out. Personal matters alone will come into the great census paper of eternity. There is no truth which we need more frequently to hold up before the eyes of our people than the truth that nothing but personal godlinesswill ever avail! If you could trace your pedigree through a line of saints up to the Apostles, no, up to Mary herself, the mother of our Savior, yet, unless you did yourself believe in Christ, and had yourself been the subject of the personal change which is called regeneration, you should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. No connections, however admirable; no relations, however desirable, no proxies, however excellent, shall ever avail for any dying man! We must ourselves stand before God, each man for himself, to be acquitted, or to be condemned—to hear, “Come, you blessed,” or “Depart, you cursed one.” There may be, and there always must be, when we take men in the mass, (and God often in His Providence deals with men in the mass), there may be innocent persons who suffer in the common calamity. There are likewise wicked men who rejoice in common mercies. But at the last the evil shall be unto the evil; and the good shall be unto the good. The wheat shall be unmixed with chaff; the wine shall no more be mingled with the water; the gold shall not become dimmed through alloy. God’s people, each of them personally accepted, and the wicked, each of them personally condemned, shall meet their final doom! See to it, Sir, each one of you, that you personally have an interest in the blood of the Lamb!