Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3105
“There aire many who say, Who will show us any good? LORD, lift up the light of Your Countenance upon us.” Psalm 4:6.
THIS is a text which, by the rich assistance of the Holy Spirit, may serve as a touchstone to try our state. See, here are two classes of men—the many panting after the good of this world—and the few turning the eyes of faith to their God and begging that He would lift up the light of His Countenance upon them.
I. Let us contemplate with sadness and with searching of heart, THE MANY—trembling lest we should find ourselves among the number!
“THE MANY.” What multitudes of thoughts cluster around these two words! The million-peopled city, the populous town, the wide-spread country, this isle, kingdoms, empires, continents, the world—all seem to issue forth like armies from the hundred-gated Thebes, at the mention of those two words, “The many.” Here we see the toiling peasant and his lordly squire, the artisan and the princely merchant, the courtier and the king, the young and the old, the learned and the unlearned all gathered within the compass of a word.
And all that form this vast gathering of human souls are joining in one cry and moving in one direction! This is a thought at which the faithful may well weep, for their cry is SELF, their course is SIN. Here and there are the chosen few struggling against the mighty tide, but the masses, the multitude, as in the days of David, are hurrying along their mad career in search of a fancied good and reaping the fruit of their futile search in disappointment, death and Hell! O my Hearer, are you like the dead fish floating with the stream—or are you, by constraining Grace, drawn onward and upward to the bliss prepared for the elect? If a Christian, I beseech you to pause and admire the Grace which has made you to differ. If your heart is right with God, I know you will confess that there is no intrinsic natural goodness in you, for, like your friend the speaker, I doubt not that you are made to groan over a strong propensity within which often tempts you to join in the world’s chase and leave “the fountain of Living Waters” for the “broken cisterns” of earth and, therefore, you will join with the preacher in singing—
“‘Tis all of Free Grace we were brought to obey, While others were allowed to go The road which, by nature, WEE chose as our way, Which leads to the regions of woe.”
Come then, with me and behold the evil and the folly of the world. Listen to their never-ceasing cry, “Who will show us any good?”
Mark, first, its sensual character “Who will SHOW us any good?” The world desires something which it may see, taste and handle. The joys of faith it does not understand. We, by Divine Grace, do not walk by sight. But the poor sons of earth must have visible, present, terrestrial joys. We have an unseen portion, an invisible inheritance—we have higher faculties and nobler delights. We need no carnal showman to bid the puppet joys of time dance before us. We have seen “the King in His beauty” and, spiritually, we behold “the land which is very far off.” Let us pity the worldling who is seeking water where there is none, in a salt land, a thirsty soil. Let us earnestly intercede for poor, short-sighted man, that he may yet have “the wisdom that is from above,” and the eye-salve of Divine Illumination—then will he no more seek for his happiness below, or look for pleasure in things of time and sense.
Take care, my Hearer, that you do not suffer under the same delusion! Always pray that you may be kept from hunting in the haunts of sense and fixing your affection on earthly things for, be sure of this—the roses of this world are
covered with thorns! And her hives of honey, if broken open, will surround you with stinging remembrances, but not a drop of sweetness! Remember to lay to heart the words of a holy poet—
“Nor earth, nor all the sky
Can one delight afford.
No, not a drop of real joy,
Without Your Presence, Lord.” Notice, next its indiscriminating nature. “Who will show us ANY good?” The unregenerate mind has no discernment in its choice. One good is to it as desirable as another. Men easily allow toleration here. The intoxicating cup is the “good” of the winebibber. The indulgence of lust is the object of the voluptuary. Gold is the miser’s god and fame or power the choice of the ambitious. To most men, these are all “good” in their way—if not esteemed good morally, they are looked upon as forbidden fruits, only untasted because of the penalty and not abhorred because of a real distaste. O my Hearer, have you sufficient judgment to see that any good will not suit you? Have you made an election of “solid joys and lasting pleasures,” and are the dainties of time tasteless to you? You are not like the bee, which can find her food in nettles and poisonous weeds. “The Rose of Sharon” is the flower of your choice and, “the Lily of the Valley” is to you the perfection of beauty. No longer can you ask for ANY good, for you have found the one, the only good and in HIM is such a fullness, such an abundance, that your song will always be—