Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1952
“O you that are named the House of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? are these His doings? Do not My words do good to him that walks uprightly?” Micah 2:7.
BROTHERS AND SISTERS, what a stern rebuke to the people of Israel is contained in the title with which the Prophet addressed them—“O you that are named the House of Jacob”! It is as much as to say to them—“You wear the name, but you do not bear the character of Jacob.” It is the Old Testament version of the New Testament saying, “You have a name to live and are dead.” They gloried that they were the seed of Israel! They vaunted the peculiar privileges which came to them as the descendants of God’s honored and chosen servant Jacob! But they did not act in the same way as Jacob would have acted—they were devoid of Jacob’s faith in Jehovah, they knew nothing of Jacob’s power of prayer—and nothing of his reliance upon the Covenant.
The words of Micah imply that the descendants of Jacob in his day were proud of the name, “House of Jacob,” but that they were not worthy of it. Nothing is more mischievous than to cling to a name when the thing for which it stands has disappeared. May we never come to such a stage of declension that even the Spirit of God will be compelled, in speaking to us, to say, “O you that are called the Church of God!” To be named Christians, but not to be Christians, is to be deceivers or deceived! The name brings with it great responsibility and if it is a name, only, it brings with it terrible condemnation! It is a crime against the Truth of God if we dare to take the name of His people when we are not His people. It is a robbery of honor from those to whom it is due. It is a practical lie against the Holy Spirit! It is a defamation of the character of the bride of Christ to take the name of Christian when the Spirit of Christ is not among us! This is to honor Christ with our lips and disgrace Him by our lives!
What is this but to repeat the crime of Judas and betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Brothers and Sisters, I say again, may we never come to this! Truths, not names, facts, not professions, are to be the first consideration! Better to be true to God and bear the names of reproach which the adversary is so apt to coin, than to be false to our Lord and yet to be decorated with the names of saints and regarded as the most orthodox of Believers. Whether named, “the House of Jacob,” or not, let us be wrestlers like Jacob and like he, may we come off as prevailing princes—the true Israel of God!
When the Lord found His chosen people to be in such a state that they had rather the name than the character of His people, He spoke to them by the Spirit of the Lord. Was not this because their restoration must come from that direction? Was not their evil spirit to be removed by the Lord’s good Spirit? “O you that are named the House of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” I believe, Brothers and Sisters, that whenever the Church of God declines, one of the most effectual ways of reviving her is to preach much Truth concerning the Holy Spirit. After all, He is the very breath of the Church. Where the Spirit of God is, there is power! If the Spirit is withdrawn, then the vitality of godliness begins to decline and the energy thereof is near to dying out. If we, ourselves, feel that we are backsliding, let us turn to the Spirit of God, crying, “Quicken me in Your way.”
If we sorrowfully perceive that any Church is growing lukewarm, be it our prayer that the Holy Spirit may work graciously for its revival. Let us direct the attention of our fellow Christians under declension to the Spirit of God. They are not straitened in Him, but in themselves! Let them turn to Him for enlargement. It is He alone who can quicken us and strengthen the things which remain which are ready to die. I admire the wisdom of God here, that when speaking by the Prophet, He rebukes the backsliding of the people and He immediately directs their minds to the Holy Spirit who can
bring them back from their wanderings and cause them to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they were called. Let us learn from this Divine Wisdom and, in lowly reverence and earnest faith, let us look to the Spirit of the Lord.
In speaking to Israel upon the Spirit of God, the Prophet Micah uses the remarkable language in our text, upon which I would now speak to you. “O you that are named the House of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good to him that walks uprightly?” May the Holy Spirit help me to speak and you to hear!
I. And, first, I think we may consider these words to have been spoken TO DENOUNCE THOSE WHO WOULD CONTROL THE SPIRIT OF GOD. “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” Can you hold Him a captive and make Him speak at your dictation?
On turning to the connection you will find that there were certain Prophets sent of God to Israel who were unpopular. The message which they brought was not acceptable—the people could not endure it and so we read in the sixth verse—“Prophesy you not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.” The words of these Prophets came so home to their consciences and made them so ashamed of themselves, that they said, “Do not prophesy! We wish not to hear you.” To these Micah replies, “Is the Spirit of the Lord to be straitened by you?”