NO. 2360<\/b><\/p>\n
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD\u2019S DAY, MAY 13TH 1984,<\/b><\/p>\n
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.<\/b><\/p>\n
ON LORD\u2019S-DAY EVENING, MARCH 4TH, 1888.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountain of spices.\u201d \u2014 Song of Solomon 8:14.<\/i><\/p>\n
THE Song of Songs describes the love of Jesus Christ to his people, and it ends with an intense desire on the part of the Church that the Lord Jesus should come back to her. The last word of the lover to the beloved one is, \u201cSpeed thy return; make haste and come back.\u201d Is it not somewhat singular that, as the last verse of the Book of love has this note in it, so the last verses of the whole Book of God, which I may also call the Book of love, have that same thought in them? At the twentieth verse of the last chapter of the Revelation, we read, \u201cHe which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.\u201d The Song of love and the Book of love and in almost the selfsame way, with a strong desire for Christ\u2019s speedy return.<\/p>\n
Are your hearts, dear friends, in tune with that desire? They ought to be, yet have not some of you almost forgotten that Jesus is to come a second time? Refresh your memories. Others of you, who know that he will come, have you not thought of it as a doctrine that might be laid by on the shelf? Have you not been without any desire for his glorious appearing? Is this right? That Song of Solomon is the central Book of the Bible; it is the innermost shrine of divine revelation, the holy of holies of Scripture; and if you are living in communion with God, you will love that Book, you will catch its spirit, and you will be inclined to cry with the spouse, \u201cMake haste, my beloved.\u201d If you have no longings for Christ\u2019s appearance, no desires for his speedy return, surely your heart is sick, and your love is faint. I fear that you are getting into a lukewarm state. I believe that our relationship to the Second Advent of Christ may be used as a thermometer with which to tell the degree of our spiritual heat. If we have strong desires, longing desires, burning desires, for the coming of the Lord, we may hope that it is well with us; but if we have no such desires, I think, at best, we must be somewhat careless; perhaps, to take the worst view of our case, we are sadly declining in grace.<\/p>\n
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I. <\/b>Well now, to come to our text; I want you to notice, first, What The Church Here Calls Her Lord: \u201cMake haste, my beloved.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n
I will have only a few words upon this point. I am hardly going to preach to-night, but just to talk familiarly to you, and I want you to let your hearts talk. Observe, the spouse first calls her Lord, \u201cBeloved,\u201d and secondly, \u201cMy Beloved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christ is our \u201cBeloved.<\/i>\u201c This is a word of affection; and our Lord Jesus Christ is the object of affection to us. If you read the Bible, especially if you read the New Testament, and study the life of Christ, and yet you only admire it, and say to yourself, \u201cJesus Christ was a wonderful being,\u201d you do not know him yet; you have but a very indistinct idea of him. If, after reading that life, you sit down, and dissect it, and say to yourself, coolly, calmly, deliberately, \u201cSo far as is practicable, I will try and imitate Christ,\u201d you do not yet know him, you have not come near to the real Christ as yet. If any man should say, \u201cI am near the fire,\u201d and yet he is not warm, I should question the truth of his words; and though he might say, \u201cI can see the fire; I can tell you the appearance of the coals; I can describe the lambent flames that play about the stove,\u201d yet if he were not warmed at all, I should still think that he was mistaken, or that there was some medium that interposed between him and the fire at which he said he was looking.<\/p>\n
But when you really come to see Jesus, and to say, \u201cI love him; my heart yearns toward\u201d him; my delight is in him; he has won my love, and holds it in his own heart,\u201d then you begin to know him. Brethren, true religion has many sides to it; true religion is practical, it is also contemplative; but it is not true religion at all if it is not full of love and affection. Jesus must reign in your heart, or else, though you may give him what place you like in your head, you have not truly received him. To Jesus, beyond all others, is applicable this title of the Beloved, for they who know him love him. Ay, if ever love had emphasis in it, it is the love which true believers give to Christ; and we do well when we sing, \u2014 <\/p>\n
\u201cI love thee because thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary\u2019s tree;
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, \u2019tis now.
\u201cI will love thee in life, I will love thee in death,
And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, \u2019tis now.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
We may also go beyond that point, as the hymn does, and say, \u2014 <\/p>\n
\u201cIn mansions of glory and endless delight,
I\u2019ll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I\u2019ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, \u2019tis now.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Our love to Jesus begins with trust. We experience his goodness, and then we love him in return. \u201cWe love him because he first loved us.\u201d They say that love is blind; I should think it is, from what I have seen of it in some people; but love to Christ might have ten thousand eyes, and yet be justified in loving him. The more you see him, the more you know him, the more you live with him, the more reason will you have for loving him. There will never come a time in which you will have to question whether you were right to surrender your heart to him; but even throughout the eternal ages you shall, in the felicities of his blessed company, feel that you were, in fact, more than justified in calling him your Beloved.<\/p>\n
That is the first part of the name the spouse gives to her Lord; no, not the first<\/i>; the first part of the name is \u201cmy<\/i>\u201c, she calls him \u201cmy Beloved<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brethren, this signifies appropriation; so that the two words together mean affection and appropriation: \u201cMy Beloved.\u201d If nobody else loves him, I do. This is a distinguishing affection; and I love him because he belongs to me; he is mine, he has given himself to me; and I have chosen him because he first chose me; he is \u201cmy Beloved.\u201d I am not ashamed to put him in front of all others; and when men say, \u201cWhat is thy Beloved more than another beloved? \u201cI can tell them that \u201cMy Beloved\u201d is more than all the earthly beloveds put together. It is a delightful thing to get hold of Christ with both hands, as Thomas did when he said, \u201cMy Lord and my God.\u201d There he held him with a double-handed grip, and would not let him go. It is sweet and saving even to come into contact with him, as the woman did who touched the fringe of his garment; but, oh, to take him up in your arms, to hold him with both hands, and say, \u201cThis Christ is mine; by a daring faith, warranted by the Word of God, I take this Christ to be mine, to have and to hold, for better or worse, and neither life nor death shall ever part me from him who is \u2019my Beloved.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, there is a sweet name for the Lord Jesus Christ. My dear hearers, can you speak of Jesus in that way, \u201cMy Beloved\u201d? One who can, by the Spirit of God, say this, has uttered two words that have more eloquence in them than there is in all the orations of Demosthenes. He who cannot truly say this, though he may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, yet, since he hath not this charity, this divine love in his heart, it profiteth him nothing. Oh, that every one of you could say, \u201cMy Beloved! My Beloved!\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you all really know what saving faith is? It is the appropriation to one\u2019s own self of Christ in his true and proper character as God has revealed him. Canst thou make this appropriation? \u201cOh,\u201d says one, \u201cI am afraid I should be stealing salvation if I did!\u201d Listen: so long as thou canst get Christ anyhow, thou mayest have him. There is never any stealing of that which is freely given. The difficulty is not about any rights that thou hast, for thou hast no rights whatever in this matter, but come and take what God gives to thee, though thou hast no claim to it. Soul, take Christ to-night, and if thou takest him, thou shalt never lose him. I was going to say, if thou dost even steal him, so long as thou dost but take him to thyself, he will never withdraw himself from thy grasp. It is written, \u201cHim that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.\u201d Some come properly, and Christ does not cast them out; but there are some who come improperly, they come, as it were, limping on a wooden leg, or perhaps only creeping or crawling. It does not matter how you come to Christ, as long as you really do come to him, he will never cast you out. Get to him anyhow you can; and if you once come to him, you may plead that blessed promise of his, \u201cHim that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have told you before that, some years ago, I felt a great depression of spirit; I knew whom I had believed; but, somehow, I could not get the comfort out of the truth I preached. I even began to wonder whether I was really saved; and, having a holiday, and being away from home, I went to the Wesleyan Chapel, and a local preacher occupied the pulpit that morning. While he preached a sermon full of the gospel, the tears flowed from my eyes, and I was in such a perfect delirium of joy on hearing the gospel, which I so seldom have an opportunity of doing, that I said, \u201cOh, yes, there is spiritual life within me, for the gospel can touch my heart, and stir my soul.\u201d When I went to thank the good man for his sermon, he looked at me, and he could hardly believe his eyes. He said, \u201cAre you not Mr. Spurgeon? \u201cI replied, \u201cYes.\u201d \u201cDear, dear,\u201d said he, \u201cwhy, that is your sermon that I preached this morning!\u201d Yes, I knew it was, and that was one reason why I was so comforted by it, because I felt that I could take my own physic, and I said to myself, \u201cThere now, that which I have seen to have a certain effect upon others has had the same effect upon me.\u201d I asked the preacher to my inn to dinner, and we rejoiced together to think that he should have been led to give the people one of my sermons so that I should be fed out of my own cupboard. I do know this, that, whatever I may be, there is nothing that moves me like the gospel of Christ. Do not many of you feel just as I do?<\/p>\n
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II. <\/b>Now I will lead you on to the second division of my subject. I have shown you what the Church calls her Lord; now, in the second place, I will tell you Whence She Calls Him: \u201cMake haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.\u201d What does that mean? She cries to him to come from the place where he now is, which she calls \u201cthe mountains of spices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Readers of Solomon\u2019s Song know that there are four mountains spoken of in the Song. The first set of mountains is mentioned in the seventeenth verse of the second chapter of the Song, where we read of the mountains of division:<\/i> \u201cUntil the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether,\u201d or, the mountains of division, the divided crags, or the mountains that divide. Well now, beloved, this was Christ\u2019s first coming. There were mountains of division; our sins and God\u2019s justice, like great mountains, divided us. How could God\u2019s love ever come to us, or how could we get to it? There were mountains of division; and, as we looked at them, we said, \u201cThey are impassable; nobody can ever climb those lofty crags, or scale those awful precipices, or cross those dread abysses. These mountains effectually separate a guilty soul from a holy God; and, my brethren, there was no way over those hills, till Jesus came like a roe or a young hart. Roes and harts can stand on crags where men\u2019s heads turn giddy and they fall; and our Divine Master was able to stand where we could not. He came leaping over the mountains of our sins, and over the hills of divine justice, and he came even to us, and opened up a way over the mountains of Bether, the mountains of division, by which God comes to us and we come to God; and now, instead of division, there is a sacred union.<\/p>\n
That was Christ\u2019s first coming, over the mountains of division.<\/p>\n
But there were other mountains beside those, which you read of a little further on in the Song; these were the mountains of the leopards<\/i>, the dens of the lions. Turn to the fourth chapter, at the eighth verse: \u201cCome with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions\u2019 dens, from the mountains of the leopards.\u201d When Christ came the first time, he met with fierce opposition, from sin, and death, and hell. These were the lions; these were the leopards; and our great Champion had to go hunting them, and they hunted him. You know how these grim lions met him, and how they tore him; they rent his hands, and his feet, and his side. Do you not remember how that great lion of the pit came leaping upon him, how he received him upon his breast, like a greater Samson, and though he fell in the death-struggle, he tore that lion asunder, as though he had been a kid, and cast him down? As for his other enemies, he could truly say, \u201cO death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? \u201cOur Well-beloved came to us, over the mountains of the leopards and the dens of the lions, more than conqueror through the greatness of his love. Do you not see him as he comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, travelling in the greatness of his strength, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save? In spite of all opposition, he finished the work of our redemption.<\/p>\n
So Jesus came to us, over the mountains of separation, and over the mountains of the leopards.<\/p>\n
But there is a third mountain mentioned in this wonderful poetical Book, and that is, the mountain of myrrh.<\/i> In the sixth chapter at the second verse, it says, \u201cMy beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.\u201d It is called a garden, but in the sixth verse of the fourth chapter it is called a mountain: \u201cUntil the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.\u201d You know the story well. After Jesus had come over the mountains of our sins, after he had killed the lions and the leopards that stood in our way, he gave up his soul into his Father\u2019s hands, and loving friends took his body, and wrapped it in white linen, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus brought myrrh and aloes to preserve his blessed body, that matchless casket of a perfect soul; and, having wrapped him up, they laid him in a new tomb, which thus became the garden or mountain of myrrh. A bitter thing was that grave wherein he buried all our sin, that grave out of which he came victorious over death, that grave out of which he rose that he might justify his people. That was the mountain of myrrh to which Jesus went for a very brief season. Scarcely three days was he there; but I think I can hear his Church standing at the tomb, and saying, \u201cMake haste, my beloved! Be thou like a roe, or a young hart, and come quickly from thy sleep with the dead in the mountains of myrrh.\u201d It was but a short time that he was there, even as he said to his disciples, \u201cA little while, and ye shall not see me; and again a little while, and ye shall see me.\u201d Soon was that slumber over, and when he woke, as Samson carried away the gate of Gaza, so Christ arose, and took up the gates of death, posts and bar and all, and carried them away, and neither death nor hell can ever bring them back again. By the resurrection of Christ, the tomb is opened, never to be closed again.<\/p>\n
The \u201cmountain of myrrh\u201d is the third that is mentioned in the Song; but our text refers to \u201cthe mountains of spices.<\/i>\u201c I am not stretching this passage, or drawing a lesson where there is none; the mountains of spices are those places where Jesus dwells at this very moment at the right hand of God. It is from there that we now call him with the spouse when she said, \u201cMake haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of Spices.<\/p>\n
What are these spices? Are they not Christ\u2019s infinite merits, which perfume heaven and earth? The foul corruption of our sins is not perceptible, because of the mountains of spices. One single sin would be vile enough to pollute a universe; what, then, were all our sing put together? Behold this wondrous sanitary power of divine grace; these mountains of spices more than nullify the foulness of our sins. Christ\u2019s merit is perpetually before the eye of his Father, so that no longer does he perceive our sins.<\/p>\n
What shall I say next of these mountains of spices? Are they not our Lord\u2019s perpetual and prevailing prayers? He intercedes for the people before the throne of God. He is that great angel from whose swinging censer there goes up continually the incense of intercession. The prayers of saints are presented by him to his Father with all his own merit added to them. These are the mountains of spices, Christ\u2019s infinite merits, and his ceaseless prayers, his undying supplications to the great Father on behalf of all his people.<\/p>\n
In consequence of this, I think I may say that the praises of his glorified people, the sweet music of the harps of the redeemed, the everlasting symphonies of the spirits of just men made perfect, and cleansed by his atoning blood, \u2014 are not these as sweet spices before God? Yea, all heaven is perfumed with everything that is precious and acceptable, full of a sweet savor unto God, and a delightful fragrance to all his people. Now, this is where Jesus is now; not here in this foul, polluted world, but up yonder he rests in the mountains of spices; and the prayer of his Church continually is, \u201cCome, my Beloved! Make haste, my Beloved! Be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.\u201d<\/p>\n
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III. <\/b>That brings me to what is really the gist, the main point, the arrow-head of the text. We have noticed what the Church calls her Lord, and whence she calls him; now, thirdly, note How She Calls Him. She says, \u201cMake haste, my Beloved, make haste.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why is it that all the Church of God, and each individual Christian in particular, should be found anxious for the speedy coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? I think, surely, that this is the result of true love.<\/i> Does not love always wish to see the object on which its heart is fixed? When your dearest one parts from you for a while, do you not always wish for a speedy return? The parting is painful; it were bitter indeed if you did not expect to meet again. So you say, \u201cBe no longer absent than you are forced to be. Come home as speedily as you can.\u201d Where there is great love, there gets to be great longing; and that longing sometimes becomes so vehement as to be well-nigh impatient. May not the Church that mourns her absent Lord sigh and cry till he returns? Is not this the very language of intense love, \u201cMake haste, my Beloved, and return to me\u201d? If we love our Lord, we shall long for his appearing; be you sure of that, it is the natural result of ardent affection.<\/p>\n
But, notwithstanding this, beloved, we sometimes need certain incentives to stir up our souls to cry for our Lord\u2019s return. One reason that ought to make the believer long for Christ\u2019s coming is that it will end this conflict.<\/i> Our lot is cast in a wretched time, when many things are said and done that grieve and vex God\u2019s Holy Spirit, and all who are in sympathy with him. Sometimes, it is false doctrine that is proclaimed; and if you preach the truth, they smite you on the mouth, and then you say to yourself, \u201cWould God the Lord would come!\u201d At other times, it is sheer blasphemy that is uttered, when men say, \u201cThe Lord delayeth his coming,\u201d or when they talk as if he were not Lord, as if his gospel were no gospel, and his salvation were worn out. Then we say, \u201cMake no tarrying, O our God! Come, Lord, and tarry not!\u201d We grow almost impatient then for his coming.<\/p>\n
And, dear friend, when you see the oppression of the poor, when you hear the cry of the needy, when you know that many of them are ground down to bitter poverty, and yet are struggling hard to earn a bare pittance, you say, \u201cLord, will this state of things always exist? Shall not these wrongs be righted? Oh, that he would come, who will judge the people righteously, and vindicate the cause of the poor and the oppressed!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then we look even on the professing church, and we see how luke-warm it is, how honeycombed it is with heresy and worldliness, and how often the church that ought to honor Christ insults him, and he is wounded in the house of his friends. We say, \u201cWill not this evil soon be at an end? Will not the conflict speedily be over? \u201cOh, how have I stood, in the midst of the battle, when the deadly shafts have flown about me on the right hand and on the left, and, wounded full sore, I have cried, \u201cWill not the King himself soon come, and shall I not ere long hear the sound of those blessed feet, whose every step means victory, and whose presence is eternal life?\u201d \u201cCome, Lord! Make haste, my Beloved! Come to the rescue of thy weak and feeble servants; come, come, come, we beseech thee!\u201d Put yourself into this great fight for the faith; and if you have to bear the brunt of the battle, you will soon be as eager as I am that Jesus should make haste, and come to your relief. You also will cry, \u201cMake haste, my Beloved,\u201d when you think what wonders he will work at his coming.<\/p>\n
What will Christ do at his coming? He will raise the dead.<\/i> Mine eyes shall see him in that day. \u201cI know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.\u201d When Christ shall come the second time, and that blast, of which we sang just now, \u201cthe loudest and the last,\u201d shall ring through earth and heaven, then shall the dead men arise. There are newlymade graves; the mourners\u2019 tears are not yet wiped away. There are the graves of many who have gone home long ago, and we remember them, and we say, \u201cWould God that Christ would come, and spoil death of those precious relics! Oh, that he would reanimate those bodies, and call together the dry bones, and bid them live!\u201d Come, Lord! Come, Lord! make no tarrying, we beseech thee!<\/p>\n
And when he comes, beloved, remember that then shall be the time of the glory of his people:<\/i> \u201cThen shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.\u201d Slander will be rolled away in the day when Christ cometh. The wicked shall awake to everlasting contempt, but the righteous to an everlasting justification. They shall be clear of every accusation in that day, and then shall they sit on the throne with their Lord. They were with him in his humiliation; they shall be with him in his glory. They, too, were despised and rejected of men, as he was; but in that day none shall dare to despise them, for every saint shall be seen to be a king, and a son of the King. Oh, the glory that awaits his people in the day of his coming!\u201d It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.\u201d Well may the child of God say, \u201cMake haste, my Beloved!\u201d Oh, for the sheathing of the sword, and the waving of the palm! Oh, for the drying of the tear, and the handling of the harp of gold! Oh, for the ending of the doubt and the trouble, and the beginning of the everlasting enjoyment and the eternal serenity at the right hand of the Ever-blessed One!<\/p>\n
Still, there is another reason why we say, \u201cMake haste, my Beloved.\u201d It is this. We desire to share in Christ\u2019s glory; but our chief desire is that our Lord may be glorified.<\/i> I do believe I shall have the support of every Christian heart when I say that we would a: thousand times rather that Christ were glorified than that we should be honored. Many years ago, after the Surrey Music Hall accident, I well-nigh lost my reason through distress of heart. I was broken down in spirit, and thought that, perhaps, I might never preach again. I was but a young man, and it was a great Borrow that crushed me into the dust through that terrible accident; but one passage of Scripture brought me recovery in a moment. I was alone, and as I was thinking, this text came to my mind, \u201cHim hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior,\u201d and I said to myself, \u201cIs that so? Is Jesus Christ exalted? Then I do not care if I die in a ditch. If Christ is exhalted to be a Prince and a Savior, that is enough for me.\u201d I distinctly recollect remembering what is recorded of some of Napoleon\u2019s soldiers, who were well-nigh cut to pieces, lying dying, bleeding, suffering, agonizing on the battle-field, but when the Emperor rode by, every man lifted himself up as best he could, some resting on the only arm that was left, just to look at him once more, and shout, \u201cVive l\u2019Empereur!<\/i>\u201c The Emperor had come along, he was all right, and that was enough for his faithful followers. I think that I felt just like that; whatever happened to me, it was true of Christ, \u201cHim hath God exalted.\u201d Never mind what becomes of the man, the king lives and reigns, Jesus Christ is glorified; and so long as that is the case, what matters it what becomes of us? I think I can say for you, as well as for myself, that, if there is anything in this world that will glorify Christ, you will make no hesitation about the bargain. If it will glorify Christ, you say, let it come. Though your name should be cast out as evil, and your body should be left unburied, to be gnawed of dogs, what matters it, so long as he who loved us, and gave himself for us, should ride on conquering and to conquer in the midst of the sons of men?<\/p>\n
To every loyal soldier of king Jesus, this is the best thought in connection with his Second Advent, that when he comes, it will be to be admired in his saints, and to be glorified in all them that believe. Then shall there be universal acclamations to him, and his enemies shall hide their heads in shame and dismay. Oh, what will they do then? What will they do in that day of his appearing? They also will live again, and what will they do in that day? Judas, where are you? Come here, man! Sell your Lord again for thirty pieces of silver! What does he say? Why, he flees, and wishes that he could again go out, and destroy himself; but that is impossible. Now Pilate, vacillating Pilate, wash your hands in water, and say, \u201cI am innocent of the blood of this just person.\u201d There is no water for him to wash his hands in, and he dare not again perform that wicked farce. And now, ye who cried, \u201cCrucify him, crucify him,\u201d lift up your voices again if you dare! Not a dog doth move his tongue; but hearken, they have found their tongues, and what do they say? They are imploring the hills to fall upon them, they are calling on the rocks to hide them. The King has not put his hand upon his sword, he has not sent forth his lightnings to scatter you; why flee ye so, ye cravens? Hear their bitter wail!\u201d Oh, rocks and hills, hide us from the face, from the face, from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne!\u201d It is the face of Jesus, which they were bidden to look upon, that they might live; but now, in another state, they dare not look upon that face of placid love which, in that day, shall be more stern than the frowning brow of vengeance itself. Yes, they flee, they flee; but you who have trusted Christ, you whom he hath saved, you will draw near to him, you will shout his praises, you will delight in him, it shall be your heaven to bless him for ever and ever. Oh, yes, great Master, \u201cMake haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices\u201d and all his saints, with one voice and heart, will say, \u201cAmen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh, that you, who have never trusted him, would trust him now and if you trust him, you shall live with him for ever and ever. God grant it! Amen.<\/p>\n
EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON.<\/p>\n
REVELATION 22.<\/b><\/p>\n
Verse 1. And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb.<\/i><\/p>\n
There is no other \u201cwater of life\u201d except that which springs from a Sovereign God and a substitutionary sacrifice: \u201ca pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.\u201d This sets forth the blessings of salvation that come to us through the Sovereign grace of God by the precious blood of Jesus.<\/p>\n
2. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruit, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.<\/i><\/p>\n
When Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, he was cut out of Eden, lest he should also eat of the tree of life; but our new \u201ctree of life\u201d yields us both medicine and food. Blessed are they that eat of it; they shall find a divine variety of mercies: \u201ctwelve manner of fruits.\u201d They shall find a constant succession of blessings: \u201cand yielded her fruit every month.\u201d And there shall be an ever-present power of healing: \u201cthe leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. And there shall be no more cure: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:<\/i><\/p>\n
Happy servants, to be permitted so to do! Here, dear friends, we are hindered in our service, but I think that it will be heaven enough for some of us to be permitted to serve the Lord for ever in glory: \u201cHis servants shall serve him.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. And they shall see his face;<\/i><\/p>\n
Oh, to keep up communion with the Lord while you are at work for him, to serve him and to see his face! This is a double joy; this is to be like Martha and Mary in one person: \u201chis servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. And his name shall be in their foreheads.<\/i><\/p>\n
They will acknowledge him, and he will acknowledge them. They are glad to wear his name in their foreheads; but who wrote it there? He himself engraved it, as the seal and token that they were his. Happy, happy people, thus to be owned of God as his peculiar people while they own him as their only Lord!<\/p>\n
5. And there shall be no night there;<\/i><\/p>\n
Here, there are nights of ignorance, of sorrow, of sin, and of fear; but \u201cthere shall be no night there.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. And they need no candles, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light:<\/i><\/p>\n
He puts aside the use of means. While we are here, we need candles and suns. It seems curious, does it not, to put candles and suns in the same sentence? \u201cThey need no candle, neither light of the sun.\u201d But, after all, compared with God, candles and suns are very much the same thing. Great lights and little lights are all limited, all less than nothing, in comparison with the boundless, infinite God, who is<\/i> light, and the source of all light that exists in heaven above, or on the earth beneath.<\/p>\n
6.And they shall reign for ever and ever.<\/i><\/p>\n
It must be a wonderful city in which every inhabitant is a king; and not a dethroned king either, for \u201cthey shall reign.\u201d Every redeemed one in heaven has also an everlasting kingdom; \u201cThey shall reign for ever and ever.\u201d I hope our friends who are always cutting down the meaning of the word \u201ceverlasting\u201d will be good enough at least to let us have an everlasting heaven; whether they do so, or not, we believe that the saints shall reign \u201cfor ever and ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
6, 7. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly:<\/i><\/p>\n
Or, \u201cI am coming quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
7. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.<\/i><\/p>\n
Our Lord is on the road; he may arrive to-night, while we are sitting here. Happy would be our communion service if, for the last time, we should be doing as he commanded us in expectation of his coming, and that he should come even while we were commemorating his death!<\/p>\n
8, 9. And John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophet, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.<\/i><\/p>\n
John made a mistake; he mistook the messenger for the Master, and I am not surprised that he did so, for the heavenly beings are like their Lord when they see him as he is. John was quickly set right, and his error was soon corrected. He was bidden to pay no kind of homage to one who however bright and holy, was only his fellow-servant. No worship of angels, no worship of angelic men, must be tolerated among us. \u201cWorship God,\u201d is the command to us as it was to John.<\/p>\n
10. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.<\/i><\/p>\n
There was no need to seal the prophecy, as though it only related to those who would live in distant ages: \u201cThe time is at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.<\/i><\/p>\n
This is what will be said when Christ comes to judgment, when we get into that future state. To-day the voice of Jesus says, \u201cRepent, Repent Repent;\u201d but once cross the narrow stream of death, and pass out of the dispensation of mercy, and then character is fixed, and fixed for ever.<\/p>\n
12. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according to his work shall be.<\/i><\/p>\n
What reward will some of you get? Christ will \u201cgive every man according as his work shall be.\u201d<\/p>\n
13\u201315. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may deter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs,<\/i><\/p>\n
Men of a quarrelsome and filthy spirit.<\/p>\n
15. And sorcerers,<\/i><\/p>\n
Such as pretend to have dealings with spirits, and who intermeddle with the mysterious things of the unknown world.<\/p>\n
15. And whoremongers,<\/i><\/p>\n
All such as indulge their evil passions.<\/p>\n
15. And murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.<\/i><\/p>\n
Whether it be a lie about things on earth or things in heaven, a falsehood spoken or a false doctrine taught.<\/p>\n
16\u201318.I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the rock and the offering of David, and the bright and morning afar. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let his take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:<\/i><\/p>\n
The Book is finished. Not another line of inspiration may any man dare to put to it, on peril that God shall add to him every plague of which the Book speaks.<\/p>\n
19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.<\/i><\/p>\n
The Book is perfect. You cannot take a line from it without spoiling it if you were to out from it a solitary text, it would be misused, and the Book should be marred. You would do this at your peril, for God threatens to take away out of the Book of life the name of anyone who takes anything from \u201cthe words of the book of this prophecy.\u201d<\/p>\n
20. He which testifieth these thing saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.<\/i><\/p>\n
Thus we sang just now, \u2014 <\/p>\n
\u201cCome, thou, the soul of all our joys
Thou, the desire of nations, come!\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
21. The grace of our lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.<\/p>\n
The whole inspired volume thus closes with a benediction: \u201cThe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n
HYMNS FROM \u201cOUR OWN PRAYERBOOK\u201d–346, 350, 349.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 2360 A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD\u2019S DAY, MAY 13TH 1984, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ON LORD\u2019S-DAY EVENING, MARCH 4TH, 1888. \u201cMake haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountain of spices.\u201d \u2014 Song of Solomon 8:14. … Continue reading “COME, MY BELOVED!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}