Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1304
“Thus says the Lord God, I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 36:37,38.
MULTIPLICATION is a very ancient form of blessing. The first benediction pronounced upon man was of this sort, for we read in the first chapter of Genesis, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” That same blessing was pronounced, again, when God accepted His servant Noah, and entered into covenant with him. We read in Genesis 9:1 that “God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” This also constituted a main part of the blessing promised to faithful Abraham. In Genesis 22:17, and many other places, we read to this effect, “In blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of Heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.”
This was the blessing of God’s chosen people, a blessing which all the malice of Pharaoh could not turn aside, for the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they multiplied. David, in the 107th Psalm uses the expression, “He blesses them, also, so that they are multiplied greatly” (v. 38), so that, clearly, increase of numbers in families and nations was anciently regarded as a token of Divine favor. In a spiritual sense this is the blessing of the Church of God. When the Church is visited by the power of the Holy Spirit, she is increased on every side. When a Church, in the midst of a vast population, remains stationary in numbers, or even becomes smaller, no man can see in such a condition the marks of God’s blessing. Certainly it would be a novel sort of benediction, for the first blessing, the blessing of Pentecost, resulted in 3,000 being added to the Church in one day! And we find afterwards that, “The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved.”
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that the Churches, “walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, were multiplied.” Ever since those early days, when the Lord has been with His people, they have increased in numbers. Their children have sprung up as among the grass and as willows by the water courses. When they have been “diminished and brought low,” it has been because they have departed from the Truth of God or lost their first love. The result is the clearness of Gospel testimony has been dimmed, spirituality has been at a low ebb, the Holy Spirit has been despised and He has suspended His operations—and the Church has dwindled down till she has had little more than a name to live. But as soon as the Lord has returned to her, she has become a fruitful mother and her children have cried out, “the place is too strait for us, give place to us that we may dwell.”
When the Lord has sent forth His power with the preaching of the Gospel, converts have been as innumerable as the drops of the dew and as the sands upon the seashore! It is plain that one of the blessings which we, as a Church, should seek with all our hearts is that of continual increase. The entire Church of God should look for the daily multiplication of the spiritual seed. We have the promise of it in the text, but there is appended to it this condition, “I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.” Every true Christian desires to see the Church increase. At any rate, I should pity the man who thinks himself a Christian and yet has no such wish.
“Let the whole earth be filled with His Glory,” is the natural aspiration of every child of God! And if any man has persuaded himself that he is a child of God and yet does not desire to see the Glory of the Lord made manifest by the conversion of multitudes, I pity the condition of his heart and of his understanding. I trust we all feel the missionary spirit. I trust we all long to see the kingdom of the Lord come and to see the converts in Zion multiplied. But God has appended to the granting of our desire that we should pray for it—we must plead and enquire—or else the increase will be withheld. Why has the Lord thus made prayer the necessary prelude to blessing?
He has done so in great mercy to our souls. The Lord knows how beneficial it is to us to be much in prayer and, therefore, He makes it easy for us to draw near to Him. He affords us a multitude of reasons for approaching the Mercy Seat and gives us errands which may be used as arguments for frequent petitioning. When one knocks at a man’s door it is a good thing to have some business to do, for then one knocks boldly. If the porter opens and enquires, “Why did you come here?” we can reply, “Good Sir, I came on an important errand,” and so we are bold to remain at the door.