Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 833
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, September 27, 1868, by C. H. SPURGEON, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington..
“Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Isaiah 55:13.
THESE words are a poetical description of great moral changes which the Gospel works wherever it comes. It transforms human nature and makes society to become as though a desert suddenly blossomed into a cultivated field. At the same time, the words of the text are not solely and alone poetical, for it is a great Truth of God that wherever the spiritual change comes the physical change is almost sure to follow. As men are elevated the earth yields her increase more largely. The earth was cursed for man’s sake, and in proportion as man forsakes his sloth, his drunkenness, his savageness, the ground rewards his diligence with plenteous harvests.
Look at the field of the sluggard and the garden of the industrious! Look over the wild wastes of Africa, and then see the fertility of the same soil when tilled by the missionary’s converts! The surest way to benefit men in their outward circumstances is to bless them spiritually—for as they draw near to God in obedience to His will, He will, as a rule, bless and prosper them. England will always flourish while she honors the Word of God. If she departs from the Gospel to follow after Popery she may expect her prosperity to decline.
If we desire our land to maintain her eminent position among the nations, we must go on to do everything which is just and right towards all classes. We must break down every old abuse and build up the good and the true. Doing this, and upholding the Word of God, we may expect that this land will inherit a future brighter than the past. The text certainly touches upon changes in the soil, yet it has mainly to do with the great moral world. The Gospel transforms the whole state of man, so that instead of the thorn of sin comes up the fir tree of Divine Grace—and instead of the brier of lust comes up the myrtle tree of holiness.
I. I call your attention to THE EFFECTIVE AGENCY here spoken of, and I beg you to refer to your Bibles and read the chapter with me, for it gives a very full and minute description of the Gospel. I do not find in this 55th chapter of Isaiah that the cause of the spiritual miracles of my text is a gospel of forms and ceremonies—of altars and priests, genuflections and processions—images and incense, millinery and mystery. I find not a single word concerning any of these throughout the whole chapter!
Nor do I find here a gospel of dogmas and orthodoxies, of rigid creeds and infallible statements of which it is said that he who believes them not “shall without doubt perish everlastingly.” Instead I learn of a Gospel of quite another sort, more Divine, more glorious by far! We perceive in the chapter before us a Gospel revealing Divine provision for man’s necessity and earnestly inviting man to partake of it. Look at the first verse—observe its earnest “Ho!” and note the repetition of the entreaty, “Come.” The soul has a longing, fitly described as thirst, and for this thirst the Lord provides abundant water—and if man thirsts for a drink more nourishing, here is milk. Or if he requires a draught more comforting and cheering, here is wine. And, inasmuch as the soul has hunger and needs to receive spiritual food, here is provision whereof the man is bid to buy and eat.
The Lord has fully provided for man’s needs. The Gospel of Jesus says to man, “Man, all that you can possibly need Jesus Christ has prepared for you. Do you need sin forgiven? Behold a fountain filled with blood—wash in it and you are clean. Do you need sin conquered in you? Behold the Holy Spirit willing to dwell in you and to subdue inbred sin. Do you desire to grow in Grace and to be made in the image of holiness? Look unto Jesus! Behold the Spirit waiting to work the image of the Son of God in you, changing you from glory to glory as by the Presence of the Lord.” What are the cravings of your nature? What are the deep woes and longings of your uneasy spirit? “Behold,” said Jesus, “only come to Me, and I will give you satisfaction, and that satisfaction shall lead to rest.”
The Gospel does not come to upbraid man, or say to him, “You ought not to have these needs,” or, “You ought, by your own efforts, to supply them.” No, it says, “Poor, abject, poverty-stricken man, come to Me. God has loaded both My hands with supplies for your great necessities. Only come and take what God freely presents to you without money and without price.” The Gospel, then, which is to turn the thorn into the myrtle, is one which declares that God has made provision for the necessities of man, and which then heartily and earnestly invites man to partake thereof. I cannot understand the gospel of some of my Brothers who never dare to say to a sinner, “Come,” and are afraid to bid him repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ!