Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 832
Delivered by C. H. SPURGEON at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington..
“And was clad with zeal as a cloak.’” Isaiah 59:17.
THE solitary champion who is here spoken of, who looked and, “saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor”—and therefore His own arm brought salvation unto Him, and His righteousness it sustained Him—this conquering hero we cannot fail to recognize as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Prince of the House of David, our Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever may have been the first and primary meaning of the text, we are persuaded that the ultimate reference of it is to that destroyer of death, the Captain of our salvation, by whose struggles the whole host of the elect have obtained the victory!
Of Him we may say beyond and above all others, that He “was clad with zeal as a cloak.” When a man has all other excellencies, when the Grace of God has worked in him all other virtues, then zeal is still needed to elevate and perfect his entire manhood. Behold the altar, built of unhewn stones, and after God’s own Law. Behold the wood laid on it. See the victim slain and the blood flowing. But you cannot make a sacrifice without fire—unless the fire from Heaven shall perfect the sacrificial preparations, all will be useless. Behold in the altar the figure of the man—he has faith, courage, love, consecration—but if he lacks the fire of fervent zeal, his life will be a failure. He will remain an offering unconsumed, and consequently worthless and unaccepted.
By this, indeed, may you know the genuine from the false when other things might raise a question—the false is like the altar of Baal whereon there is much wood and a well-fed bullock. And around it are active genuflections and vigorous rituals, but there is no true fire from Heaven. While the genuine is like the altar of Elijah, upon which, in answer to fervent prayers, the hallowed flames descend! One of the first requisites of an earnest, successful, soul-winning man must be zeal. As well a chariot without its steeds, a sun without its beams, a Heaven without its joy—as a man of God without zeal.
Taking the text and coming to it at once, with eager expectation, because the Lord is there, we shall first observe— how zeal is to be regarded—it is to be to the Christian man as a cloak. Secondly, we shall joyfully show how our Lord Jesus Christ exhibited it. And then, thirdly, look for a few minutes at the secret springs which fed the zeal of our blessed Lord, and which in our case must also feed us.
I. First, then, according to the text, ZEAL IS TO BE REGARDED AS A CLOAK THAT COVERS ALL. The Christian man is to wear zeal as we wear an outward garment which covers all the rest of our garments—a flowing robe which encompasses the entire person. Zeal is all enveloping—zeal should envelope all the powers of the Christian. He is to invest himself with faith and love, with patience and perseverance, with hope and joy—but zeal must be over all these. We are not to be zealous with one part of ourselves, nor zealous in one particular duty, only, nor zealous at one special season.
We are to be altogether zealous for all Christ’s work, for all Christ’s truth—and at all times zealous not only in one good thing, but in all good things, wrapping ourselves up completely in zeal—by the power of God’s Spirit, just as the traveler in the snowstorm wraps himself up in his great coat or binds his cloak about him. Zeal is to envelope all. We are to wear holy zeal as a cloak in order to preserve the different parts of our soul from danger. Zeal is preserving. The cloak covers the arms, the breast, the heart and all the more delicate parts of the body. In order that when the rain comes down we may not so soon be chilled to the skin and suffer injury from cold, we are protected with a cloak and find it to be a warm and welcome shelter—so our love needs to put on zeal as a protection against the coldness of the outside world.
Our faith needs to buckle on a garment of zeal as a defense that when the storm of troubles comes as a blast against the soul, confidence may not be frostbitten. Zeal is to wrap up the whole man so that when he is subject to a furious hail of persecution, or a biting wind of poverty, or a torrent of down-pouring griefs, the pilgrim to the skies may hold on his way and bid all weathers brave defiance.
Beloved, I am afraid that many of God’s children are sickening for lack of wearing this cloak. They never rise to the point of being zealous. They are very proper, and with that doubtful virtue they remain content. Oh, that dreadful propriety which is the death of all true godliness wherever its frosty scepter sways its wintry dominion over a man! Thousands of our members are locked in the deadly arms of an Arctic propriety. They are proper, very proper! They are always afraid of being fanatical, even more than of being worldly or backsliding. When religious work is being done in earnest, they say it is exciting and irregular—and they therefore avoid it. They have heard of unwise excitement attending some religious meetings and they at once conceive a great dread of everything like excitement—however holy and useful.