Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 548
Delivered on Sunday Evening, October 18, 1863
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Why cry you unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” Exodus 14:15.
SPIRITUAL men, in their distresses, turn at once to prayer even as the stag when hunted takes to flight. Prayer is a never-failing resort. It is sure to bring a blessing with it. Even apart from the answer of our supplications, the very exercise of prayer is healthy to the man engaged in it. Far be it from me ever to say a word in disparagement of the holy, happy, heavenly exercise of prayer. But, Beloved, there are times when prayer is not enough—when prayer itself is out of season. You will think that a hard saying and say, “Who can bear it?” But my text is to the point. Moses prayed that God would deliver His people. But the Lord said to him, “Why cry you unto Me?” As much as to say this is not the time for prayer, it is the time for action. “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” When we have prayed over a matter to a certain degree, it then becomes sinful to tarry any longer. Our plain duty is to carry our desires into action, and having asked God’s guidance and having received Divine power from on high, to go at once to our duty without any longer deliberation or delay.
Brethren, a vigorous faith will often shut its eyes to difficulties. When faith looks upon a difficulty as being exceedingly great, then she turns to prayer. But, on the other hand, after having sought God’s help and having received it, she frequently laughs at the impossibility and cries, “It shall be done.” and then, instead of betaking herself any longer to her knees, she boldly marches on, believing that the difficulty will vanish before her, that the crooked will be made straight and the rough places plain. We are not to be always praying over a difficulty. When we have fairly committed it to God, we are to act upon the assurance that He has heard us.
Nor will such an action be the fruit of rashness for it is a solid and substantial fact that prayer does avail with God. Beloved, it strikes me that the advice which the Lord gave to Moses was such as He has given to the preacher tonight— and that the message which Moses delivered to the children of Israel is a very fit one for me to deliver to you. Short, prompt, soldier-like, here is the whole of it—“Forward! Forward!” If you have been sitting down or tempted to go back—“Forward!” We have long been praying, let us tonight, “go forward.” The one subject we shall take up and try to deliver to different classes of characters, is, “Thus says the Lord, you children of Israel, Forward!”
I. First, we will contemplate THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AS A FLOCK OF FUGITIVES. And in this light they give encouragement to trembling sinners flying from the curse of the Law and from the power of their sins. I think I see those poor Israelites crowding together, all alarmed and afraid, whispering to one another some such trembling words as these—“I saw them. I saw my old master on horseback riding after me. I looked and I saw regiment upon regiment of warriors marching in long red lines.” “I heard,” says another, “the sound of their war music. I heard the clash of their spears. We cannot stand against them! We are only defenseless multitudes and they are the well-trained sons of Mizraim. Their swords will be drunk with our blood.”
They huddled together as a company of doves seeking to escape the hawk. Alas! What can they do? They are crying to God and to Moses, thinking of this plan and devising another. And Moses himself, in some sort of alarm, is crying out to God for them—“Lord, help this people! They are in great straits. They are in frightful difficulties. The enemy says, ‘I will pursue them. I will overtake them. I will divide the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon them.’ Lord, what am I to do with this company?” Here comes the Divine answer, full of wisdom and love—“Speak unto them and bid them go forward.”
Now such is my message to the company of fugitives who are here tonight. You have been awakened. Your conscience has been alarmed. You have begun to feel the terrors of the Law. You have heard the crack of the whip and felt it on your back. You are trying to escape from your sins. You are not as you used to be, a contented bondsman, but you pant to be delivered altogether from sin and its power and its guilt. You have been flying as best you could from sin. But the whole of your sins are after you and your conscience, with its quick ear, can hear the sound of threatening judgment. “Alas,” your heart is saying, “unless God helps me, I shall be in Hell!” “Alas,” says your judgment, “unless God is merciful, I shall soon perish!” Every power of your manhood is now upon the alarm. The different parts of your heart are talking to one another and they are all foreboding desperate mischief.