Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1197
“Know you that the Lord, He is God: it is He that has made us, and not we, ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting: and His Truth endures to all generations.” Psalm 100:3,4,5.
BRETHREN, it is a trick of Satan to distract us from the most important and vital matters by the suggestion of trivial considerations. When the best blessings are asking for our acceptance, he will bring the most trivial things into our minds. He will fill our eyes with dust to prevent our looking to the bronze serpent for healing. From the preaching of Jesus he endeavored to distract human attention by debates upon the tithing of mint and anise and cumin—the making broad of the borders of one’s garments, the wearing of phylacteries—the straining out of gnats, and I know not what else.
He followed this method at Jacob’s Well. When our Lord spoke to the woman about Living Water and the salvation of her soul, the evil spirit prompted her to ask concerning Gerizim and Zion—“Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and You say that in Jerusalem men ought to worship.” With this same art Satan still works. It should be our business, not being ignorant of the devices of the enemy, to be more than a match for him by breaking away from all vain jangling and trivial questions. We need to go to the foundational Truths of God, the cornerstones of faith, the realities of life everlasting, the vitalities of godliness. These lie all Godward and Christward, away from the shadow land of ceremonies and vain speculations.
We must go to the eternal rock and everlasting hills whose golden tops are, to the eyes of faith, bright with the blessed daybreak. Let us get there, this morning, from the vanities of earth—and may the breath of the Spirit speed us toward the realities of Heaven—so to things essential we may give the attention which is essential to them. For what were we created, my Brothers and Sisters? I know no better answer than that of the Assembly’s catechism, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” There is a vast amount both of theology and philosophy in that simple answer which our old Divines have put into the mouth of a child.
Had man remained what God made him, it would have been his very element to glorify his God! To do the will of God would have been as natural to us as to breathe if we had not fallen from original perfection. I was about to say unconsciously, creatures which abide as God created them obey His will. But where there is consciousness there is added a supreme delight which makes their consciousness and willinghood the highest blessings. Look at yonder ponderous orbs—they are not stubborn with the so-called vis inertiae—but joyfully roll along in their predestined courses because God commands them to keep their settled track.
See yonder watching stars—they close not their bright eyes, but smile upon us from age to age—those sentinels of Heaven quench not their lamps, but shine right on, day and night because God has said, “Let there be light,” and from them light must come. We hear of no rebellion in the spheres, no revolt against the Law which holds them to their celestial courses. Orion breaks not his bands. The Pleiades cease not their sweet influences. These orbs, mighty as they are, are as subservient to God as the clay to the hand of the potter. And where there is intelligence, as long as the intelligence remains as God made it, there is no revolt against His will.
Yon mighty angel, “whose staff might make a mast for some tall admiral,” counts it his honor to fly like a flash of light at the bidding of the Eternal. It is no demeaning of his dignity. It is no diminution of his pleasure to do the command of the Most High, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Were we, today, what we should be, it would be our element to love, to serve, to adore our God—and we should not need ministers to stir us to our pleasurable duty or
remind us of Jehovah’s claims. Even the august language of our text would not be needed to bid us worship and bow down—and know that Jehovah is God who has made us, and not we ourselves—for we should bear this Truth in every particle of our being!
As things are, however, we need recalling to duty and urging to obedience. This morning, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit, are will submit our hearts to such a call.
I. First we will consider THE CLAIMS OF GOD—ON WHAT ARE THEY GROUNDED? “Know you that the Lord, He is God; it is He that has made us and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.” The claims of God are grounded, first of all, upon His Godhead. “Know you that Jehovah, He is God.” As Matthew Henry has very properly said, ignorance is not the mother of devotion, though it is the mother of superstition. True knowledge is the mother and the nurse of piety.