THOSE WHO DESIRE.

NO. 2714

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, FEBRUARY 17TH, 1901

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 11TH, 1880.

“O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name.”—Nehemiah 1:11.

Nehemiah was earnest in his prayer for the good of his sorrow-stricken nation, but he did not make the mistake of thinking that he was the only praying man in the world. He said, “Be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name.” In this one respect, I like Nehemiah better than Elijah. They were both noble men, and greatly concerned for the highest welfare of their fellow-countrymen; but, at one time at least, Elijah did not have a true or a fair estimate of things as they really were. He even presumed to say to God, “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” Nehemiah, however, acted on another and a more hopeful principle. When he had presented his own personal supplication, he felt certain, that there were others who were also praying to the Lord, so he said, “Be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name.” You know, dear friends, that Elijah was quite wrong in his calculation, for God said to him, “I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” There were, hidden in caves, or in other parts of the counter, thousands who feared God, and bowed the knee to him alone. Let not any one of us fall into the mistake that Elijah made. Do not you, my brother, claim to be the solitary prophet of God, and say, “I only am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” There are quite as good men as you are elsewhere in the world, and there are other people who are as earnest in prayer as you are. If you get supposing that you are the only man left who holds sound doctrine, you will become a bigot; and if you think that you are the only praying man on the earth, you will most likely prove to be self-righteous. If you fancy you are the only man who has a deep spiritual experience, probably you will be doing a great wrong to others of your Lord’s servants, and speaking evil of those whom he has accepted. It is better far to believe, with Nehemiah, that your suppliant voice is not a solitary one; but that there are many who, like yourself, cry day and night unto God.

I think it would be better to go even a little further, and to believe that, if you are earnest, there are others who are still more earnest; and that, if you possess a deep-toned piety, there are some who have even more than you have; so, instead of separating yourself from your brethren and sisters in Christ, as though you stood first and foremost, hope and believe that you are only one small star in a great constellation, one tiny speck in the milky way of divine light with which God still studs the evening sky of this world’s history. Take a hopeful view of things, and you will be more likely to be near the mark than if you judge others severely, and imagine yourself to be the only faithful servant of the Lord.

It is quite clear that Nehemiah valued the prayers of others, for he pleaded with God, “Be attentive”—not only “to the prayer of thy servant,” but also “to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name.” Beloved friends, there is a great value in the prayers of God’s people, so we ought to set great store by them. If you ever wish to do me a good turn, pray for me; and if you would be the means of blessing your fellow-Christians, incessantly pray for them. You may think that your petition is of small account, but it is the many littles that make up the great whole. A pinch of incense from each worshipper will fill the house of the Lord with sweet perfume. Small lumps of coal cast into the glowing furnace will still further increase its heat. Do not think that we can afford to lose your prayer, whoever you may be; but; cheerfully contribute it to the general treasury of the church’s devotion.

It seems to me that the persons to whom Nehemiah referred may be regarded as rather weak servants of God, for they were those who desired to fear his name. Perhaps it could not actually be said that they did fear it, but they desired to do so. Still, Nehemiah felt grateful even for their prayers; and we cannot afford to lose the prayer of a single godly child, or of the most feeble Christian among us. Do not twit him with his shortcomings, and say that his prayer is useless. No, my dear weak brother, we need your supplication. Even Abraham could not afford to lose the prayer of Lot, for Abraham’s prayer alone did not save a single city of the plain; but poor miserable Lot was able to bring just the last ounce of intercession that turned the sacred scale; he contributed a very little prayer and thus one city was saved from destruction. Well, then, if Lot’s prayer was needed at, the back of Abraham’s mighty plead-in it, perhaps the petition of the very least among us may, in God’s judgment, suffice to turn the scale in some other instance. The Lord may say, “The prayers of my people have prevailed now that this last one has added his request.” If one of you should stay away from the prayer-meeting, and thus not, contribute your share to the supplication of the whole church because you think you are not a person of any much consequence, it may be that yours is the last prayer which is needed to complete the chain, and that it would prevail even as Lot’s did. We shall certainly not lose any blessing if you add your prayers to ours but we shall gain by them. We wish, therefore, to offer to God, not only the prayers of any servant of his who is strong, as Nehemiah was, but also the prayers of any of his servants who desire to fear his name.

I am going now to speak concerning those of whom it is said that they desire to fear God’s name. I have already described them as being rather feeble folk, yet all who are included in this class are not alike weak. Still, as a rule, it does indicate an early stage of the, working of God’s grace when we can only say of them that they desire to fear God’s name. The two remarks I shall make upon the text are these; first, that this description includes all who have any true religion; and, secondly, that this description includes many grades of grace.

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I. First, then, This Description Includes All Who Have Any True Religion, they desire to fear God’s name.

For, first, true religion is always a matter of desire. If you do not desire to fear God, you do not fear him. If you do not feel any desire after that which is right in God’s sight, you have not anything at all right in your heart.

Some have a religion that is all a matter of custom. They go to a certain place of worship simply because they were brought up to go there. Their father went before them, and their grandfather went before him, so they follow in their steps as a mere matter of form. If we were to say to them, “Now, do just whatever you like, do not, take any notice of what anybody else has done, or is doing; but just please yourself;” in all probability, they would not go any longer; or if they did, it would be from sheer force of custom. These are the people who say that our Sundays are very dull, and that our religious services are—well, I need not repeat what they say of them;—but they do not enjoy them, for they have in their hearts no desire towards fearing God, or towards his worship in the public assembly. They would be far happier if they could go to some place of worldly amusement, or idly loiter by the seaside, for the worship, of God’s house is a weariness to them, and they are glad when the Sabbath is past. If this is true of any of you, dear friends, do not deceive yourselves about your real condition, for it is clear that you have not any religion at all. If your presence in the sanctuary is not a matter of your own deliberate choice, if yen do not desire to fear God’s name, there is nothing in it that is acceptable to the Most High, for God abhors the sacrifice where the heart is not found. What blessing can result from your coming into his courts, and rendering only hypocritical worship? What art thou doing, after all, every Sabbath day, but sending into God’s house the mere pretense of a man, if thy heart is not here! Thy coat is, here, thy flesh is here; but not thy very self; and, therefore, the form of worship is a mare mockery.

There are, others, whose fear of God arises entirely from dread.

They dare not, go to bed at night without offering some sort of prayer;—not; because they have any real desire to pray, or to commune with God, but through fear as to what might happen if they omitted their usual form. They would not allow a Sunday to pass without attending the means of grace at least once;—not because they have any desire to go, or any delight in the services of God’s house, but because they are afraid not to go. Yet we must always remember that the religion of dread is not the religion of Christ. That which you do because you are afraid to act otherwise, is no evidence of a renewed heart; it is, rather, the proof that you are a slave, living in dread of the lash, and that you would act far otherwise if you dared. But the child of God loves his heavenly Father, and delights to worship him; and, oftentimes, when the Sabbath is about; to close, he says,-

“My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,
And sit and sing herself away
To everlasting bliss.”

He delights in the worship of God; it is his element, his pleasure, his treasure, and he loves it without measure; so, dear friends, by this test; shall ye judge yourselves, for true religion is always a thing of desire. I do verily believe that attendance at public worship in this Tabernacle is a thing of desire to very many. I see people walking to some places of worship in such a sad and solemn way that they look as if they were going to be flogged or burned; but I notice how joyfully most of you trip along when you are coming here. You are glad when the Sabbath arrives, and you look forward to it with delight. May it always be so with you; for you may rest assured that there is no worship which is so acceptable to God as that we from our heart desire to render to him.

So, dear friends, I come back to the assertion that all true religion must be a thing of desire; and not only is this true generally, but if you dissect piety and devotion, you will find that every part of it must be a matter of desire. Take repentance, for instance; and I am sure I may say that there never was a man who repented who did not desire to repent; the Holy Spirit never makes anyone repent without his desiring to do it; that would be an impossible thing. So is it, with faith; no man believes, against his will, to the saving of his soul; there must be a desire to trust Christ, or else there cannot be true faith. In like manner, no man ever loves God without a desire to do so; it would be an absurdity even to talk of such a thing. Indeed, there is no Christian grace which can be exercised without the desire to exercise it.

So, there is no act of worship which can be performed aright unless it arises from desire. A man never really praises God until he desires to do so. You cannot, sit still, and say, “I joined in praising God involuntarily.” Desire is also the very life-blood of prayer; an unwilling prayer would be a hollow mockery. If I pray that which I am forced to pray, I insult God. So is it with the observance of the ordinances of the Christian religion. The time was, you know,—and not very many years ago,—when no man could he a member of a corporation;, or could be employed in the service of Her Majesty, unless he would take what some people still erroneously call” the sacrament.” Cowper truly said that they made the ordinances of Christ into a picklock of office; but do you suppose that a man, who took “the sacrament” in order that he might be made into a mayor, or a sheriff, or a member of Parliament, ever had in that act any real communion with Christ? It is all but blasphemous to suppose, such a thing. The right observance of the ordinance must be a matter of a Christian’s own free will; the grace of God must make him desire thus to show forth his Lord’s death. Anyone who pretends to observe either of the ordinances of Christ from any motive but holy desire, makes a mockery of them, and certainly does not use them aright.

Desire must be at the back of every religious act, or else there is nothing at all in it. It is so in the case of almsgiving. Always take heed that you do not give, to the poor, or to any charity, or to the funds of the church, simply because you are asked to, do so; for, unless you really desire to give what you appear to present, you have not in God’s sight given it; at all. If, in your heart of hearts, you feel “I wish I had dodged round the pillar, or gone down the other aisle, and so escaped having to give,” you have not truly offered anything to, God. The shrewd Scotchman’s remark was quite right when a man said to him, “I have given a half-crown to the collection when I only intended to give a penny,” and asked if he could have it back. “No,” said the Scotchman, “when it is once in, it is in for good.” “Well,” said the man, “I shall get credit for half-a-crown, at any rate “ “Oh, no, you won’t!” said the canny Scot, “you only intended to give a penny, and you will not get credit for any more than that.”

There is another thing that is worthy of observation; that is, wherever there is this holy desire, even if there is no power to carry it; into action, the desire is itself so much the very essence of true religion, that God accepts it. Desire is acceptable, for instance, in the matter of almsgiving even where no alms can be given. According to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not, is the measure of acceptance for his gift. David, you remember, wished to build the temple, but God would not let him carry out that great work because his hands had been stained with blood; yet the Lord said to him, “Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it; was in thine heart. Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall ’build the house unto my name;’ and God accepted the will for the deed, and blessed David accordingly. This principle may afford encouragement to any one of you who perhaps feels, “I cannot do much for the Lord’s cause, but I am quite willing to do all that I can.” Be ready to give or to act whenever you have the power, and God, our gracious Lord, will take the will for the deed whenever your desire cannot be translated into action.

But recollect one solemn fact, and that is, that wherever there is a man who has not even the desire to fear God, there is condemnation; such a man must be indeed dead in trespasses and sins. If that is your case, my friend, you have never repented, and you say that you do not desire to repent; you have never believed in Christ Jesus, and you confess that you have no desire to do so; you have never, in spirit and in truth, worshipped the God who made you, and you have no desire to do so; you have never confessed your sin, and sought pardon for it, and you say that you have no desire to do so. Well, you scarcely need, I think, that I should pronounce over you the sentence of condemnation which God’s Word declares to be yours. Does not your own conscienc