Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2692
“The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too small for me: give me aplace that I may dwell. Then you will say in your heart, Who has begotten these for me, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?” Isaiah 49:20,21.
MEN who have no Grace in their hearts despise the Church of God. Those who have only a little Grace have but slight sympathy with her condition. Men who have great Grace and are conscious of having received much mercy from God have great sympathy with the Church of God, and a deep regard for her. You remember how David, in that memorable penitential Psalm, the 51st, after he had poured out his whole soul in pleading for mercy and forgiveness for himself, concluded his prayer by saying, “Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion: build You the walls of Jerusalem.” In like manner, those who have needed mercy, have pleaded for mercy and have received much mercy, are usually those who are most anxious that the people of God should be happy, that the cause of God should prosper, that the Truth of God should speedily overthrow error and that the Christ of God should be exalted and glorified in the earth.
I do not expect to say anything upon this subject which will interest those who have no love for the Church of God, but those who belong to her and who are spending their lives to promote her welfare because she is the bride of Christ, will, I trust, find something in what I say which will interest and perhaps encourage them. I shall come at once to the text and notice that, first, we must expect a measure of decrease in the Church But then, secondly, we may expect a great increase in the Church And, thirdly, from what this text has to say upon that subject and also for other reasons, we ought to be encouraged to seek the increase of the Church of God.
I. First, then, dear Friends, THERE IS A DECREASE GOING ON IN THE CHURCH OF GOD ON EARTH.
Zion is represented here as mourning for the children that she had lost. The Jewish Church in the olden times saw her sons and daughters slain with the sword, or carried away captive. Afterwards, she saw the great majority of the nation refusing Christ and turning away from Him—and thus the Jewish Church was diminished and brought very low. The same thing has happened in many other cases and I am going to apply the text to ourselves and our own churches. We must naturally expect to see, in each separate church of Jesus Christ, a certain process and measure of decrease.
For, first, some are being drafted from us to supply the choirs of Heaven with fresh musicians. That is a happy source of loss which we would not stop if we could! Perhaps, in the case of each sheaf that is gathered into the heavenly garner, there are some who would gladly detain it, to the loss of that particular sheaf, and also to the loss of the great Husbandman. When we speak as we ought concerning those who are thus taken Home, we thank God that when the shocks of corn are fully ripe, they are no longer left in the field to suffer through the falling showers or the blighting mildew, but they are carried away to their proper place in the garner of God!
Therefore, Beloved, bury not the saints with dolorous music, but sing Psalms of praise as you bear them to the grave. I like the old Puritan style of funeral. The body of the Believer was borne to the tomb upon men’s shoulders and the surviving friends sang Psalms and hymns as they marched along. Their faith taught them that they had no need to sorrow as those that are without hope, so they took care to always mingle the music of a joyful faith with the tears that they shed
over the departure of those who had fallen asleep in Christ. So let it always be with us. As star by star descends below the horizon of earth, it shines far more brightly in the skies above! Should not Jesus have His own? Is it not still His prayer, “Father, I will that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My Glory”? Should we wish to detain them from their Lord’s embrace, or rob the Master of the satisfaction of receiving Home His loved ones? No, certainly not! That source of decrease has lately taken away some of the godliest and most gracious of ministers. Some of the officers of the Church who seemed to be its pillars, have been removed, and others, less known, but equally gracious, have also been missed from our midst. So must it continue to be—therefore, let us not rebel against the blessed necessity. Who among us would wish to alter the Lord’s arrangement? No, let this form of decrease still go on and let the Church on earth be the nursery for the Church above! Let it be the school, the place of education, the training-ground, until the children shall come of age and enter upon their inheritance fully prepared to enjoy it to the praise and glory of their Lord!