Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2576
“You shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yes, the set time, is come. For Your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.” Psalm 102:13,14.
A selfish man in trouble is exceedingly hard to comfort because the source of his joy lies entirely within himself and when he is sad, all his springs are dry. But a large-hearted man, a man of benevolence and Christian philanthropy, has other springs from which to supply himself with comfort beside those which are found within himself. He can go to his God, first of all, and there seek abundant help. And we who try to comfort him can use other arguments not relating to himself, but to the world at large, to his country and, above all, to the Church of Christ. The writer of this Psalm seems to have been exceedingly sorrowful. He says, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.” And, finding there was no solace in his own circumstances, the only way in which he could comfort himself was to believe that God would arise and have mercy upon Zion. Though he was sad, yet Zion should prosper. However low was his own estate, yet Zion should arise. Christian you can always comfort yourself in God’s gracious dealings toward the church at large, but, if the church of which you are a member is in a sad and sickly condition, where shall you comfort yourself? Surely, then, you will be compelled to say with the Psalmist, “I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have lifted me up, and cast me down.”
We shall notice four things. The nature, necessity, means and signs of church prosperity.
I. THE NATURE OF THE PROSPERITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Here I shall differ from many, for I think that many churches that are called prosperous are far from being so, while some churches, which are despised, are the most prosperous in God’s estimation.
We do not conceive it to be, necessarily, a sign of a church’s prosperity when the congregation is large. We love to see people throng to hear God’s Word and to hear assembled multitudes shout aloud the praises of Jehovah. But when we witness these things, we do not take it for granted that the church is prosperous. Concerning some places, we would pray God to empty every seat, for there is in them a going away to Rome, or a wandering from the fundamental principles of God’s Word. The building may be full—crammed to its very doors—but there may be a desolating blight inside. There may be more prosperity in a place where but six of Christ’s true people meet together than where thousands congregate to worship God in a way which they think to be right, but which is not in accordance with His sacred Word.
Nor do we conceive that the riches of the people make a church prosperous. Ask some member of a certain aristocratic community, “Is your church prospering?” “Yes,” he says, “there were 19 carriages waiting outside the other Sunday.” Ask another the same question and he will say, “Yes, So-and-So, who is worth so many thousands, has joined the church.” We say that a rich man’s soul is as precious as a poor man’s, but, at the same time, could anyone bring to us all the gold mines of Peru, the church would not, thereby, prosper! There are many churches which are rich in wealth, but exceedingly poor in faith, which might well barter all of their riches for the humble piety of the Methodist, or the earnest zeal of the ancient Puritan.
Nor do we think that a church is necessarily prosperous because the minister is exceedingly eloquent The tendency of the present day is toward what is called “intellectual preaching.” I never could see any intellect in it. I have heard literary men preach and I could only say of them what Locke said, “If a man cannot make you understand what he means, very likely it is because there is no meaning in it.” If you cannot understand him at once, just leave him alone, for he probably does not understand himself. We hold it to be a wrong thing that intellectual Rationalism should disgrace our churches—God’s pulpit was meant for God’s Gospel! We have theaters and public halls in which men may teach philosophy if they wish to do so. Take Christianity out of our pulpits and what have we done? The pulpit is the main bastion of the Church of Christ—the Thermopylae of Christendom. Here the great Truths of the Bible must be taught and he that uses not his pulpit to preach the Gospel has disgraced it, even though his talents are almost superhuman! He has disgraced God’s Church in not unceasingly proclaiming the Evangelical principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Then, my Friends, you may ask me how I can tell whether the Church is prospering? I answer—I must consider for what purposes the Church was formed. And if it is not accomplishing that particular objective, it is not prospering. The Church is established for two objectives. First, for bringing God’s wandering sheep back to the fold of Christ. And, secondly, for fostering those sheep that are brought within the fold.