Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1996
“Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.” 2 Kings 7:9.
You are not surprised to find that, when those four lepers outside the gate of Samaria had made the great discovery that the Syrian camp was deserted, they first satisfied their own hunger and thirst. And quite right, too. Who would do otherwise? It is true that they were bound to go and tell other hungry ones, but they could do that with all the louder voice and they were the more sure of the truth they had to tell when they had first refreshed themselves. It might have been a delusion—they were prudent to test their discovery before they told it. Having refreshed and enriched themselves, they then thought of going to tell the besieged and starving citizens. I would advise every soul that has found Christ to imitate the lepers in this matter. Make sure that you have found the Savior. Eat and drink of Him; enrich yourself with Him and then go and publish the glad tidings. I shall not object to your going as early as possible, but still, I would prefer that you should not go to assure others until you are quite certain yourself. I would have you go with a personal witness, for this will be your chief power with others.
If you run too soon and do not first taste and see that the Lord is good, you may say to others, “There is abundance in the camp,” and they may reply, “Why have you not eaten of it, yourself?” Thus your testimony will be weakened, if not destroyed, and you will wish you had held your peace. It is better that you, first of all, delight yourself in fatness before you proclaim the fact of a festival. It is good that your faith should grasp the exceedingly great and precious promises, and then, when you run as a tidings-bearer, you will testify what you have seen. If any say to you, “Are you sure that it is true?” you will answer, “Yes, that I am, for I have tasted and handled of the good Word of Life.” Personal enjoyments of true godliness assist us in our testimony for Truth and Grace.
But the point I desire to bring out is this—if those lepers had stayed in the camp all night, if they had remained lying on the Syrian couches, singing, “Our willing souls would stay in such a place as this”—and if they had never gone at all to their compatriots, shut up and starving within the city walls, their conduct would have been brutal and inhuman! I am going to talk to some at this time, (I do not know how many of the sort may be here), who think that they have found the Savior, who believe that they are saved, who write themselves down as having truly enjoyed religion and who imagine that now their only business is to enjoy themselves. They delight to feed on the Word of God and to this I do not object at all. But then, if it is all feeding and nothing comes of it, I ask to what end are they fed? If the only result of our religion is the comfort of our poor little souls—if the beginning and the end of piety is contained within one’s self—why, it is a strange thing to be in connection with the unselfish Jesus and to be the fruit of His gracious Spirit. Surely, Jesus did not come to save us that we might live unto ourselves! He came to save us from selfishness.
I am afraid that some of my hearers have never yet confessed the work of God in their souls. They feel that, whereas they were once blind, now they see—but they have never declared what the Lord has done for their souls. Has all this work been done in a corner for their personal pleasure? I want to have a drive at them and at all others who have not yet considered that the objective of their receiving Grace from the Lord is that God may, through them, communicate Grace to others. No man lives unto himself! No man should attempt so to live.
My subject will be this—first, to hide the great discovery of Grace is altogether wrong. In the second place, if we have made that discovery, we ought to declare it. And, thirdly, this declaration should be continually made. It should not be a
matter of one solemn occasion, but our whole life should be a witness to the power and Grace which we have found in
Christ!
I. First, then, dear Friends, TO HIDE THE DISCOVERY OF DIVINE GRACE WOULD BE WRONG.
Let me ask you to remember the connection of my text. God had come to the Syrian camp and had, by Himself, routed the whole Syrian host—they had, every man of them, fled. Though the starving citizens of Samaria did not know it, the Lord had made provision in abundance for all their hunger—and there it was—within a stone’s throw of the city gates. The Lord had done it! His own right hand and His holy arm had gotten Him the victory and had provided for Israel’s needs though they did not know it. These lepers found out the joyful facts and had utilized their discovery by entering into possession of the treasure—they were appointed to make known the joyful facts—and if they had concealed them, they would have been guilty men.