the Fourth Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
They do not return unto the Lord their God, nor seek him. - Hosea 7:10.
THE history of the Jews is very peculiar. It abounds with miracles and wonders and signs, and, in perusing it, nothing strikes us more than the frequency and severity of God’s reprimands concerning them. The general resemblance between them and us, and the non-improvement of means and mercies, is the ground of our present meditation. How far does this neglect of seeking the Lord extend? Are there no exceptions?
Yes, blessed be God, there are; for “except the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” We should have had no “chariots of Israel, or horsemen thereof.” We should have had no “repairers of the breach,” no “restorers of paths to dwell in.” But the language of Scripture is very awful upon this subject. Isaiah said in his days, “There is none that calleth upon God, that stireth up himself to take hold of God.” David says, “There is none that seeketh after God.” And John says, “The whole world lieth in wickedness.” Now, this language, if it does not imply universality, unquestionably expresses generality. Let us see, therefore, how far this testimony is true and is confirmed by experience and observation. For this purpose we will glance at five classes of delinquents.
In the first class we place infidels, who, if they do not deny the being of a God, deny his moral providence and government, and a future state, and even deem the revelation God has given us nothing better than a cunningly-devised fable. These do not seek the Lord.
In the second class we place the profligate. These hide not their sin as Sodom, but publish it like unto Gomorrah. Liars, swearers, blasphemers, the unclean, drunkards, these do not seek the Lord.
In the third class we place the careless. Though not vicious, yet they seem indifferent to every thing of a religious nature. Gallios, “who care for none of these things,” who “cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God,” who never read the Scriptures, never hear the word preached, never attend the house of God unless from the influence of reputation or connections, nor observe the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Heaven is hid from their view; earth contains all they desire. To get money and spend it, to dress and adorn the body, to nurse it in sickness and pamper it in health, and to endeavour to answer the question, “What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?”-this engrosses the whole of their attention. These do not seek the Lord their God.
In the fourth class we place formalists. God requires truth in the inward parts, and “in the hidden parts.” He makes his people “to know wisdom.” “God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth,” or they do not, in his estimation, worship him at all. “We read of some in the days of Isaiah, of whom he says, “Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God.” But how was it really? Isaiah tells them, “They draw near to him with their mouth, and honour him with their lips, while their heart is far from him.” They sing, but not “with melody in their hearts unto the Lord.” They hear his word, but they are not “doers of it.” “They have a name to live, but are dead.” They have the form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. What numbers of these are members of the Christian church and yet are not partakers of Jesus Christ! “These do not seek the Lord their God.”
In the last class we place partial seekers. There are very few but have some fits and starts in religion, who have not recourse to some religious exercises at different times and places and conditions; and they are not always insincere at the time. But, alas! their “goodness is like the morning cloud and early dew.” They begin in the Spirit, but end in the flesh. They run well for a time, but are hindered. Their religion depends upon external excitements, not upon internal principles, and, therefore, fails with the cessation of these excitements. Their religion is like a tree without a root,-it soon withers away; or like a land-flood, which soon flows off, because it has no living stream to supply it. “They do not seek him with their whole hearts.”
Repent,.....or else I will come unto you quickly, and will remove thy candle-stick out of his place, except thou, repent. - Revelation 2:5.
AFTER all that philosophers have said, man needs motives to excite him to the performance of duty; and after all divines have said about disinterested love to God, the Scripture holds forth motives to obedience. God addresses them to every principle of our nature, to every passion of our soul, to our hopes and to our fears.
Our Lord here comes forward as one having authority, as one able to save or to destroy, as one having the supreme dominion over his church. And justly might he destroy; but before he strikes he announces his intention: he warns before he smites. In this solemn threatening we may observe three things. First, The manner of its accomplishment. It is accomplished when persons fall into such languor and insensibility in divine things as to be incapable of edification. If a man cannot use aliment, or if he cannot digest it, it is the same in effect as if it was taken away. And such is the case with thousands who, from week to week, hear the gospel. It makes no impression on them; they hear it, but they are sermon proof.
It is accomplished more literally and expressly when a church is deprived of the ordinary and stated means of grace; and this may be done by the tyranny of governments, or by foreign enemies, by the death of evangelical ministers, and by the introduction of others of opposite views and sentiments. In these cases, the gospel is substantially removed. Take away from the gospel the doctrine of salvation through a crucified Saviour, and the candlestick is removed, and “Ichabod” may be written in the place: “The glory is departed.”
Observe, secondly, The dreadfulness of this calamity. Some might not view this as so great an evil. Like the Gadarenes, they may even desire that Christ, as revealed in the gospel ministry, might depart out of their coasts. But by all Christians the gospel will be received as our guide, our guard, our asylum in danger, our comfort in trouble, our health, and our food, and we shall do well to reflect on the advantages, the instruction, the comfort, and the holiness which is derived from public ordinances, and to ask ourselves what it would be to be deprived of all these. Those who by sickness or accident or distance have been deprived of sanctuary privileges will bear testimony to this, that though God has not left them alone in their sorrows, yet they know that “the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” But, above all, let us take our estimate of these privileges from the Saviour himself. We have his benediction: “Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”
We have his promise: “I will give you pastors according to mine own heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” We have it, above all, in his threatening: “The days,” says he, “shall come that I will send a famine in the land.” Not a famine of bread. This is dreadful! Famine has rendered the most unwholesome thing delicious, and has led to the adoption of the most horrible expedients to satisfy the cravings of the appetite. No, it is something far worse than this. Not a famine of bread, not a dearth of water; but of “hearing the word of the Lord;” and “they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” If God were to declare the sun should never shine again upon this country, or that no rain should drop upon the land, it would be an infinitely less judgment than it were to withdraw the gospel and the means of grace. For this judgment does not so much regard the body as the soul, or time so much as eternity. Some judgments are corrective, but this is penal. Some judgments are meant to convert, but this to destroy.
Thirdly, Let us glance at the certainty of its fulfilment. He who has pronounced this threatening is faithful, and we shall find him as faithful in executing threatenings as in performing promises. Besides, he is Almighty. We are reminded by the very image which he has employed that it is as easy for him to deprive us of gospel privileges as it is for us to take a candle out of one room into another, enlightening that we enter, and darkening that we leave. Besides, he has already executed this threatening in many instances. Is it likely that God will continue the manna when it is despised?
The gospel is immensely too great a blessing to be thrown away. It is not a thing unheard-of for God to unchurch a people, and to withhold the means of grace when they have been neglected or abused. The case of the Jewish church is a striking and an illustrious instance of the means by which it may be accomplished. “If he spared not the natural branches, take heed,” says the Apostle, “lest he also spare not thee.”
What became of the very church at Ephesus here addressed? Where once the doctrines were as ointment poured forth, nothing is now heard but the blasphemies of the Koran. Though with regard to the church universal “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” it does not follow that he may not remove the candlestick from a particular place.
