Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 846
delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, December 20, 1868, by C. H. SPURGEON, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington..
“And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well-refined.’” Isaiah 25:6.
WE have nearly arrived at the great merry-making season of the year. On Christmas Day we shall find all the world in England enjoying themselves with all the good cheer which they can afford. Servants of God, you who have the largest share in the Person of Him who was born at Bethlehem, I invite you to the best of all Christmas fare—to nobler food than makes the table groan—bread from Heaven, food for your spirit! Behold how rich and how abundant are the provisions which God has made for the high festival which He would have His servants keep, not now and then, but all the days of their lives!
God, in the verse before us, has been pleased to describe the provisions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Although many other interpretations have been suggested for this verse, they are all stale and utterly unworthy of such expressions as those before us. When we behold the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose flesh is meat, indeed, and whose blood is drink, indeed—when we see Him offered up upon the chosen mountain—we then discover a fullness of meaning in these gracious words of sacred hospitality, “The Lord shall make a feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow.”
Our Lord Himself was very fond of describing His Gospel under the same image as that which is here employed. He spoke of the marriage supper of the king, who said, “My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready.” And it did not seem as if He could even complete the beauty of the parable of the prodigal son without the killing of the fat calf and feasting and music and dancing! As a festival on earth is looked forward to and looked back upon as an oasis and a desert of time, so the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to the soul its sweet release from bondage and distress—its mirth and joy!
Upon this subject we intend to speak this morning, hoping to be helped by the great Master of the feast. Our first head will be the feast. The second will be the banqueting hall in this mountain. The third will be the Host—“The Lord shall make a feast.” And the fourth head shall be the guests—He shall make it “unto all people.”
I. First, then, we have to consider THE FEAST. It is described as consisting of viands of the best, no, of the best of the best! They are fat things, but they are also fat things full of marrow. Wines are provided of the most delicious and invigorating kind—wines on the lees, which retain their aroma, their strength, and their flavor—but these are most ancient and rare, having been so long kept that they have become well-refined. By long standing they have purified and clarified themselves—and brought themselves to the highest degree of brightness and excellence. The best of the best God has provided in the Gospel for the sons of men!
Let us attentively survey the blessings of the Gospel and observe that they are fat things, and fat things full of marrow. One of the first Gospel blessings is that of complete justification. A sinner, though guilty in himself, no sooner believes in Jesus than all his sins are pardoned! The righteousness of Christ becomes his righteousness, and he is accepted in the Beloved. Now, this is a delicious dish, indeed! Here is something for the soul to feed upon! To think that I, though a deeply guilty sinner, am absolved of God and set free from the bondage of the Law! To think that I, though once an heir of wrath, am now as accepted before God as Adam was when he walked in the Garden without a sin! No, more accepted, still, for the Divine righteousness of Christ belongs to me, and I stand complete in Him—beloved in the Beloved—and accepted in Him, too!
Beloved, this is such a precious Truth of God, that when the soul feeds on it, it experiences a quiet peace—a deep and heavenly calm to be found nowhere on earth! This is a kind of honey which never sours—to be assured by the Word of God and by the witness of the Holy Spirit within you—that you are reconciled and brought near by the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is a choice mercy! This is a fat thing, indeed! But this is not all, it is a fat thing full of marrow! There is an inner lusciousness in it when you reach the heart and soul of the matter, transcendent in richness! Remember that this righteousness, this acceptance, this justification becomes ours in a perfectly legal way—one against which Satan, himself, cannot raise an objection—for our Substitute has paid our debt, therefore we are righteously discharged. Christ has fulfilled the Law, and made it honorable for us. Therefore are we justly accepted and Beloved.