NO. 3045<\/b><\/p>\n
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 20TH, 1907,<\/b><\/p>\n
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,<\/b><\/p>\n
ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12TH, 1871.<\/p>\n
\u201cYe shall be a blessing,\u201d \u2014 Zechariah 8:13.<\/i><\/p>\n
SO terribly had God punished idolatrous Israel and Judah that their names were a by-word and a proverb among all the surrounding nations. If any man wished be pronounce upon his fellow-man the most dreadful curse that he could utter, he would say, \u201cMay you become like a Jew; may a blight fall upon your whole life as awful as that which has fallen upon Israel!\u201d Even the heathen used the Jewish nation as a model of their cursing, and blasphemed the name of Jehovah who had poured out the vials of his wrath upon them. But God declared that he would return to his ancient people in love and mercy, and replenish them in the multitude of his loving-kindnesses to them; so that, from that time, instead of being the pattern of cursing, they should be used as the model of a blessing; that, when men wished good things for one another, they should say, \u201cMay you be as blessed as the children of Israel, whom the Lord of hosts has favored above all the rest of mankind!\u201d You remember that old Jacob, when he blessed the sons of Joseph, uttered a sort of formula for future use by others, \u201cHe blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh;\u201d and I believe that, to this day, in Jewish marriages, the blessing is given to the newly-married couple, \u201cAs Isaac and Rebekah may they be!\u201d In like manner would God make his people to become the model of benediction as aforetime they had been the pattern of a curse.<\/p>\n
Leaving that primary meaning of the passage, I am going to apply the promise of the text to the spiritual Israel. In his inscrutable wisdom, God allowed his ancient people, the nation of Israel, to become a curse among the other nations of the earth. Their idolatry was not only high treason against God, but it also gave the very heathen reason to blaspheme his holy name. The Lord said, by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, \u201cHath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.\u201d Israel turned aside from Jehovoah to worship Baal, and Ashtaroth, and other false gods without number; and so, by evil example, Israel led other people into idolatry, dishonored the name of the Most High, and became a curse among the nations. Yet Israel was the guardian of the oracles of God, and the time will yet come when God shall again visit his ancient people, and the branches that have been broken off, because of unbelief, shall be grafted again into their own olive tree, and their \u201cfullness\u201d shall be \u201cthe riches of the Gentiles,\u201d as Paul so plainly shows in the parable of the olive trees in Romans 11:11-36. Indeed, at this very hour, a Jew is the riches of Jews and Gentiles alike, for our Lord sprang out of Judah; and, therefore, do we \u201ctake hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you;\u201d and he is, to us, \u201cmore precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.\u201d The Son of Mary, who is also the Son of God, is our blessed Lord and Savior, and in him is that ancient promise fulfilled which was made to Jacob at Bethel, \u201cIn thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.\u201d We cannot sing too often that grand Coronation Anthem of the Christian Church, \u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cAll hail the power of Jesu\u2019s name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown him Lord of all.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cCrown him, ye martyrs of our God,
Who from his altar call;
Extol the stem of Jesse\u2019s rod,
And crown him Lord of all.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cYe chosen seed of Israel\u2019s race,
A remnant weak and small,
Hail him who saves you by his grace,
And crown him Lord of all.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Yet let us not omit also to sing, \u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hymn shall yet in Zion swell
That sounds Messiah\u2019s praise,
And thy loved name, Immanuel!
As once in ancient days.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cFor Israel yet shall own her King,
For her salvation waits,
And hill and dale shall sweetly sing
With praise in all her gates.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Whereas through sin, then, Israel had been a curse to the other nations of the earth, she shall, through the mercy of God, be a blessing when she repents of her sin, and accepts the Messiah whom she has so long rejected. But we need not confine to the literal Israel and Judah the promise of our text, for it belongs to all the people of God, and so to you, beloved, who are, by faith, take true seed of believing Abraham. This promise is applicable to you: \u201cYe shall be a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I. <\/b>And, first, I want to remind you that This Promise Quickens Regret Within Our Spirits: \u201cYe shall be a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the first emotion in our heart is that of penitential sorrow; <\/i>for, if God saith that he will make us a blessing, surely it is implied that we were not so once. Let us look back to the days of our unregeneracy. It may be that some of us were great curses to our families, and to the neighborhood in which we dwelt. If so, we must look back with deep sorrow upon the past; for, albeit that God has blotted out the guilt of our iniquity, yet the consequences of the sin still continue. We cannot undo the evil that we have done to others. If we first tempted them, and they fell into sin, we may be forgiven the temptation, but we cannot recall it, nor can we put them back into the place from which they have fallen. A child once learned an evil word from you; \u2014 oh, how gladly would you unsay that word if you could; but it entered that child\u2019s memory, and it will abide there, perhaps forever! If you led others into places of frivolous amusement, or into haunts of vice, you may abhor those places now, and God may have forgiven you the sin of your youth; but what about those whom you led there, \u2014 what will become of them? You can pray for them, and I know that you will do so; you will plead with them if you know where they are, and you will be quickened in your service for the Savior by your remembrance of the earnestness with which you served Satan in those evil days of the past; but, beloved, there must still remain the bitter fruit of perpetual regret that you cannot destroy the results of that early sowing of bad seed. The handfuls of cockle and darnel that you scattered broadcast in the furrows, \u2014 you cannot call them back again. The firebrands you have thrown, the hot coals that you have cast about, and which caused such a terrible conflagration, \u2014 you cannot undo the mischief and ruin that they wrought. The results of good or evil deeds will abide forever and ever, so let us beware what we do, since it can never be undone. So, first, when God makes us a blessing, it reminds us that we were once a curse.<\/p>\n
It also brings to us \u2014 at least, it does to me, \u2014 a painful remembrance of the time wasted, \u2014 <\/i>time spent unprofitably before our conversion, when, if we were not actually doing damage to the souls of others, yet we allowed opportunities for doing them good to glide by unused. Oh, these blessed hours, these precious hours, these more than golden hours, in which Christians may win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ! Angels never had them, and the spirits of just men made perfect have them no more. Though they can render other and perhaps yet higher service to their Lord; this special service of soul-winning is reserved for us who are still living on this earth. We have, at the longest, only a few days, or weeks, or months, or years, allotted to us in which we may glorify God by being a blessing to our fellow-creatures after we have found the Lord for ourselves; yet some of us allowed many years to pass away before we even gave earnest heed to these things for ourselves. Those of us, who were brought to know the Lord in our early youth, bless him for that; yet we regret that we were not saved in our childhood. We wish we had given to God the very first rays of the morning of our life, as well as the bright beams of the fuller day, so that we might have been made a blessing to the church and the world as soon as we had intellect and understanding, and were capable of influencing the minds and hearts of others.<\/p>\n
There is another reflection, which is also a sorrowful one, and causes us deep regret; namely, that, since the ever-blessed hour when the Holy Spirit taught us to trust in Jesus, and gave us new life in him, we have not been such a blessing to our fellow-creatures as we ought to have been. <\/i>Not altogether in vain have we lived; we have not sown to the flesh, but to the Spirit; yet, how scanty has been our sowing of the good seed of the kingdom; and, in consequence, how small has been the harvest that we have reaped! Oh, that we had availed ourselves of all the golden opportunities we have had of serving the Lord Jesus Christ! How much more good we might have done had we been earnest at all times, fervent at all seasons, had we thrown spirit, and soul, and body entirely into this holy service, and lived, and breathed, alone for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! If we had reached the ideal Christian life, so that we did eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life, having Christ living in us, and we living in him, how much more we might have achieved than any of us have yet done! The capacity to \u201cbe a blessing\u201d to others was given, at our conversion, to all of us who have believed in Jesus; but we have left that precious talent unused to a very large extent. To some Christians, and to some now present, this message must go home, and this question must be asked and answered, \u2014 what have we done for him who died to save us? Alas, how little, \u2014 at the most, how little; but by the idlest, alas, alas, how little! God help you to turn your regret to practical account while the glad sound of the text rings in your ears like the music of a silver bell, \u201cYe shall be a blessing.\u201d Let your tears fall plenteously as you recall the sad fact that, before you knew the Lord, you were a curse to others, and not a blessing; and that, even since you have known him, you have not grasped the truth of the text, and realized the fullness of its blessed meaning as you should have done, for such tears of regret will be likely to lead you to change your course of action for the future.<\/p>\n
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II. <\/b>Let us now notice, in the second place, that Our Text Is Calculated To Excite Inquiry, as well as to quicken regret. Inquiries will come, from young believers, something in this style, \u201cWill you kindly tell us what we can do by which we shall be a blessing? We hear the promise of the text, but how can we get it fulfilled in our own experience? In what way can we be made a blessing to others?\u201d Beloved friends, there are many ways in which God can make you the channels of blessing to your fellow-creatures if you are yourselves regenerated by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
First, it will probably be by your consistent conduct <\/i>that you will be made a blessing to others more than in any other way. An unholy professor is a downright curse both to the church and to the world; and as for a church of inconsistent members, Satan himself could not devise an instrument more fitted to carry out his diabolical purposes. A community of ungodly men, that is known by everybody to be a synagogue of Satan, is robbed of much of its power to do mischief; but if it is misnamed a church of Christ, it is potent for all manner of evil. An unholy professor, outside the Church of God, may batter against the walls with small effect; but, inside, he would be like the concealed soldiers, in the wooden horse, who opened the gates of Troy to the besiegers. It was only an apostle who could be such a \u201cson of perdition\u201d as Judas was; so beware, ye who profess to be followers of Christ! You have great capacities for usefulness; but your position gives you immense capacities for doing damage to the cause of Christ. Only holy Christians are useful Christians; and the preaching of Christ\u2019s truth must be backed up by the consistent living of Christ\u2019s followers if it is to have its due effect upon the hearts and lives of the ungodly. No doubt, many a shaft has missed the mark because it has not been shot from the bow of a consistent preacher, or because it has been turned aside by inconsistency in the church of which he is the pastor. Oh, for holy living! The honest tradesman who has just weights and measures, the diligent domestic servant who sweeps under the mats and in the dark corners, the laborious workman who may be trusted when his master is absent, the man who would not tell a lie even though he could win a fortune or a throne by doing so, the man who in all things acts justly towards men and walks humbly before his God, \u2014 these are the people who \u201cshall be a blessing\u201d to all around them. If a man had no tongue, and so never spoke a word, if it were not in his power to bestow as much as a farthing upon the poor, if he could not visit the sick or the prisoners, yet his very presence upon the earth would be in itself a blessing; \u2014 a reproof, silent, but none the less eloquent, to ungodly men, and a powerful example to such as wish to walk in the way of righteousness. \u201cBe ye holy,\u201d for so shall ye serve God, and serve the Church of Christ, and, in the highest sense, serve your generation, and serve the world. I love to sing, with John Newton, \u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cLet worldly minds the world pursue,
It has no charms for me;
Once I admired its trifles too,
But grace has set me free.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cNow, Lord, I would be thine alone,
And wholly live to thee.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
But, in addition to that, all Christians may be made a blessing to others by instructing them in the truths of the gospel. <\/i>The world is still very dark, spiritually, though many people foolishly speak of \u201cthis enlightened century.\u201d It has \u201clight,\u201d of a certain sort \u2014 or, rather, of a very uncertain sort \u2014 within it; but the light that is in it is almost entirely darkness. It is still true, of the bulk of mankind, as it was in Isaiah\u2019s day, they \u201cput darkness for light, and light for darkness, . . . . bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!\u201d The scarcest thing in the whole world, today, is true spiritual light; and, where it is revealed, men hate it, and try to banish it from their sight. Philosophy is exalted above revelation; science, falsely so-called, is set up in the place of Christ, who is the wisdom of God, though true science is never in conflict with the true gospel; and anything that pretends to be light is preferred by many to him who is \u201cthe true Light.\u201d Spiritual light is mainly conveyed to the dark souls of men through the proclamation of the gospel, the good news concerning Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners; so, tell out that \u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cOld, old story
Of Jesus and his love,\u201d \u2014<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
to as many as you can; tell it to thousands, to hundreds, to scores; tell it to one if you cannot tell it to more. Tell to all, as far as you can, these precious things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, \u2014 his incarnation, his holy life, his wondrous words, his perfect example, and his substitutionary death. Tell these things to your children, and charge them to tell them to their <\/i>children, and to charge their <\/i>children to tell them to the generation following. Tell that great central truth of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ to the man who sits beside you in the tram or train, or who calls at your house on business. Seize every opportunity you can get of letting men know, by the inspired Word, or by the written or spoken message, all that you can about \u201cthe redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,\u201d \u201cand by him all that believe are justified from all things;\u201d and not only justified, but also glorified. Every true testimony to Christ brings glory to God, and blessing to men. A preacher may half and limp, his elocution may be faulty, his theology may be open to criticism; but if it is \u201cthe gospel of Christ\u201d that he proclaims, it will be precious truth to the saints who hear him, and sinners will be saved by it.<\/p>\n
Not only by instructing men will you be a blessing to them, but also by reproof. <\/i>This is a far more difficult matter; and, probably, nine out of ten of us had better keep to the easier task of giving instruction; yet, now and then, there will come occasions when you must not see sin in your brother or sister without rebuking it. If I hear blasphemy, and am able to condemn it, yet do not, my silence makes me a sharer in the sin. I am always afraid lest, when I hear God\u2019s name blasphemed, my guilty silence should make me an accomplice of the blasphemer. A rebuke need not be, and should not be, discourteous or disrespectful, and it should not be unduly severe; but I am afraid that, nowadays, we are not so likely to err by our harshness, as by failing to be faithful to our conscience and our God. We must boldly stand up, at all costs, for God, for truth, for purity. Shut your ear to the lascivious song, suffer it not to be sung in your house; and let not scandal be spoken at your table. Set your face like a flint against sin of every kind; and, God speeding your testimony, you \u201cshall be a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
More frequently, however, and much more pleasingly to yourself, you can be a blessing by giving words of comfort, <\/i>and, often, something mote substantial than words to the poor and afflicted ones with whom you may come into contact. If you know someone who is fighting with a fierce temptation, go and help to succor him; if you know another who is struggling with a troublesome doubt, try to assist him to drive it away. Your experience may be just what he needs to know, so tell it to him. Be not backward or bashful in speaking of what the Lord has done for you. I am always grieved when I hear of any persons coming to this Tabernacle for a. long time, and nobody speaking to them; let it not be so. Do endeavor, brethren and sisters, you who know Christ by experience, to tell others of the sweetness that you have found in him, and of the faithfulness of God to his promises, and of the power of prayer and the reality of faith. You will thus bring many a poor soul out of bondage who, but for you, might have lingered long in Doubting Castle, in the dungeons of Giant Despair. God grant you the grace \u201cto speak a word in season to him that is weary.\u201d A word on wheels, as Solomon calls, \u201ca word fitly spoken,\u201d is like apples of gold on salvers of silver.<\/p>\n
Besides that, you can be a blessing by your actions, <\/i>as well as by your words. Some of you have the means with which you can assist your poorer neighbors. Of all people who ought to be kind and neighborly, of all who should be sympathetic and generous, the Christian should be the first. The tendency nowadays is to get everything under a cast-iron code of law, and I should not wonder if a law is passed, some day, making it penal to give sixpence to a poor person who is starving. Somebody said to me today, when I was telling him how I had been deceived by a vagabond whom I had relieved, \u201cIt is such as you who make the vagabonds.\u201d If so, I shall go on making vagabonds sooner than let the stream of charity in my soul be frozen into ice. It is better to be taken in a few times than to let the heart become hardened like steel against the real poverty that there is in London, and many other places besides; \u2014 the gaunt, grim poverty that may soon be seen if we will but take a little trouble to search for it. Be charitable, notwithstanding all the mischief that unworthy applicants may make of your charity, remembering the command of our Savior to his disciples, \u201cGive to him that asketh thee.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can also \u201cbe a blessing\u201d in many other ways which I need not intimate now. In such a vast city as this metropolis, there is work for all to do. A Christian man, living in a remote hamlet, might perhaps say to his minister, \u201cSir, can you find me an opportunity of serving the Lord?\u201d but no person, who lives in London, ought ever to ask another person, \u201cWhat can I do for Christ?\u201d If he is willing to do anything for the Master, the work lies at his door. Floods of sin are surging all around you, and sinners are sinking in them; stretch out your hands to help them.<\/p>\n
\u201cRescue the perishing, care for the dying;
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
In such a city as this, with hundreds of thousands \u2014 I might truthfully say, millions \u2014 needing the bread of life, and the water of life, and with many of them literally needing bread and water, every one of you can do something to relieve them; and I beseech you, if you love your Lord and Master, do the first thing that comes to hand, and \u201cwhatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.\u201d Well did Dr. Horatius Bonar write, \u2014<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019Tis not for man to trifle! Life is brief,
And sin is here.
Our age is but the falling of a leaf,
A dropping tear.
We have no time to sport away the hours,
All must be earnest in a world like ours.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cNot many lives but only one have we,
One, only one;
How sacred should that one life ever be,
That narrow span!
Day after day filled up with blessed toil,
Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
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III. <\/b>Now we must pass on to the third point, which is that Our Text Is Also Calculated To Suggest Endeavor. It has quickened regret and excited inquiry; now it suggests endeavor. And what endeavor?<\/p>\n
Well, first, I think it stirs us up to look for a blessing upon what we have already tried to do for Christ and his Church. <\/i>You, my brother, have been teaching a Sunday-school class for two years: is it not time that you saw some blessing? Go and look for it; perhaps, in looking for it, you will be the means, under God, of bringing it to your scholars. I think that an earnest, godly teacher, believing that God had blessed his message, would be well repaid if he asked the boys or girls in his class, \u201cHas God blessed your souls through my teaching?\u201d If he asked that question with tears, it might be more effective than all his ordinary teaching. And you, my dear brother, have you been preaching in some little mission-room in London or in the country, and have you seen no \u201cfruit\u201d from your sowing of the good seed of the kingdom? Have you asked, \u201cWho hath believed our report?\u201d If so, I ask you, \u2014 Have you believed the promise of my text, \u201cYe shall be a blessing\u201d? If not, do so at once, and go and inquire if there has not been a blessing, and never rest satisfied until you have it.<\/p>\n
Next, the text bids us look for a blessing wherever we may be, and whatever we may do. <\/i>What have you been doing just lately? You have removed to a more suitable neighborhood; then, let one of your first questions there be, \u201cHow can I be a blessing here?\u201d You have been recently married; I congratulate you, and suggest that you should ask, \u201cHow can I, in my new relationship, be made a blessing?\u201d You, my friend over yonder, have gone down in the world lately; well then, ask yourself, \u201cFor what purpose am I put in this lower position? Is it not that I may be a blessing to some whom I could not have reached under happier circumstances?\u201d Are you a commercial traveler? Are you not sent from town to town to be a blessing to those you meet? Are you a tradesman? Are you not put behind the counter to be a blessing there?<\/p>\n
So I might go on addressing the members of various trades or professions; but I want to remind you that there are some persons who ought, above all others, to aim at being a blessing to their fellow-creatures; <\/i>and I put, first of all, ministers of the gospel. O my brethren in the ministry, if we are not a blessing, we are a double curse. Every so-called \u201cplace of worship\u201d in which the true gospel is not preached is a curse, for it is like a sepulcher full of rottenness, doing nothing but harm. Worldlings more often judge Christianity by fruitless trees than by fruit-bearing trees. O preacher, be a blessing, or never enter the pulpit again!<\/p>\n
This rule should apply also to parents. What a blessing Christian parents often are to their children! I can conceive of nothing more natural, and, at the same time, nothing more blessed, than a father and mother, who, by precept and example, have trained up their children in God\u2019s fear, and whose loving instruction and earnest prayers have been blessed by the Holy Spirit to their children\u2019s salvation. What greater joy can we have than to see our children walking in the truth? God grant that you, fathers and mothers, may all diligently seek to be a blessing to your offspring!<\/p>\n
There may be some domestic servants here; if so, let me remind you that you have great opportunities for being made a blessing. Good servants can contribute much to the well-being of the family. By the faithful discharge of their duties, they may be the means of preventing others from committing sin; whereas, on the other hand, slatternly and idle servants create so much discord in the household that they are the fomenters of sin. I do not know of any person, who can have so much influence for good, as a godly maid who has the care of little children; one who, instead of scaring them with wicked threats or silly tales, talks to them discreetly concerning him who said, \u201cSuffer the little children to come unto me.\u201d I have known domestic servants, who were earnest Christians, who have gone to live where there was no religion whatever, no family prayer, and no Sabbath observance; and, without ever intruding beyond their proper place, they have worked a blessed revolution in the house, and their masters and mistresses and fellow-servants have been brought to Christ by their godly example. Let all Christian servants here endeavor to get the fulfillment of the promise of our text, \u201cYe shall be a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
I might speak thus to you who have the duty and privilege of instructing the children in our schools, to you masters of large factories, to you who, as working-men, meet with great numbers of your fellow-men; \u2014 all of you ought to aim at realizing this promise, \u201cYe shall be a blessing.\u201d Dearly-beloved in Christ, let me say to all of you, \u2014 Do, by God\u2019s grace, maintain a holiness of walk with God, and then seek to be a blessing to others. Look at the six words before our text: \u201cSo will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing.\u201d It. is only as you yourselves are, in the fullest sense, saved, \u2014 <\/i>saved from falling into sin, saved from inward corruption, saved from error; \u2014 it is only as you are conformed to the image of Christ, that you can expect to be a blessing to others. Do, I pray you, as members of this Christian church, always feel that you are to take your full share in being made a blessing to others. There are some who hold that blessing comes to men only through priests; that is what I hold. I believe that no blessing comes to men except through priests; first, through the great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then through all who believe in him, who are, as Peter says, \u201ca holy priesthood\u201d, and \u201ca royal priesthood\u201d, and whose song in heaven shall be, \u201cUnto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.\u201d The priesthood of the Christian Church is common to all the saints; there is no other true priesthood but that of the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot discharge any of your religious duties, or relieve you of any of your responsibilities. My own are quite heavy enough for me to bear; I will seek, as God gives me grace, to discharge them; but I cannot discharge the responsibilities of any other person in the world. You, having been personally redeemed by Christ, personally washed in his blood, personally saved by his grace, are to render personal service to him. All proxy-religion must be abhorrent to Christ, \u201cwho his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.\u201d He did not seek to find someone else to save you, for he knew that no one else could do it. He trod the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with him. So, to your personal Redeemer render your personal service. Give liberally of your substance to help others to do their part of the work; but give yourself also, \u2014 spirit, soul and body, \u2014 for these are claimed by Christ as \u201cyour reasonable service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
IV. <\/b>Now I must conclude by trying to show you that our Text Furnishes Us With Many Consolations: \u201cYe shall be a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of you have to live in places where you are not comfortable; <\/i>perhaps you are not in a neighborhood that you like. Possibly, in the very house where you live there may be others whose thoughts and feelings are very different from yours; and, sometimes, you are grieved, and perhaps perplexed, because you have to live there; but, if God put you there, \u201cye shall be a blessing.\u201d My dear friend, Mr. Orsman, of the Golden Lane Mission, has often told me that the results of his work will never be visible in Golden Lane, because, as soon as a man is converted, he begins to save, he becomes industrious, wears a better coat, seeks a better house, for he cannot live in that dirty room in which he once lived, and he cannot bear the foul language of the court or alley; so, very properly, and very naturally, he moves away. Unhappily, there are always others coming in to keep the place as bad as ever. Now, when a Christian man is compelled to live in such a place as that, let him conclude that he has been put there that he may be a blessing. If that is your trying lot, my brother, fight the devil where you are placed, on his own ground; it is not fair that you should have the pick of the spot where the great duel is to be fought. Fight the devil where he has a firm foothold, and beat him by God\u2019s grace. I think, if I were a gas lamp, and had the choice of the place where I should be hung, and it was proposed to me that I should hang up somewhere in the West End where there is already abundance of light streaming from the fine shops, I don\u2019t know that I should particularly care to be put there; but if there was a dark corner where thieves were in the habit of meeting, and where much mischief might be done if it were not for the light of a lamp, I fancy I should ask to be hung up there where I should be of the most use. At any rate, if you are placed, in the providence of God, in a dark neighborhood, let this be your prayer, \u201cO Lord, make me a blessing just here!\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps, however, you are a member of an ungodly family. Now, you had no hand in that matter; you were not responsible for your birth, and you cannot get out of that family into which you were born. Now, instead of saying, \u201cI wish I had a Christian mother, and that our house were ordered in God\u2019s fear;\u201d say, \u201cGod has called me by his grace; at present, I am the only one saved; but he must mean me to be a blessing to my brothers, and sisters, and parents; and, therefore, I am thankful that he has put me where I am wanted. I will try to do everything that shall be kind to them, \u2014 I will win their love if I can, and I will try also to win them for Christ.\u201d I am really thankful when some of you come to join the church, and tell me that there is no other in the house who cares for the things of God; for I look upon your conversion as getting in the thin end of the wedge. If we get one who fears God inside the house, I hope we shall get more; for, blessed be God, good example is contagious as well as bad! God grant that, since it is your unhappiness to have ungodly relatives, it may be your happiness to \u201cbe a blessing\u201d to them!<\/p>\n
It may be that you are persecuted, that you live in places where you are sneered at, where the doctrines, that are dearer than life to you, are regarded with contempt, and Scriptural ordinances, in which you delight, are held up to constant ridicule. Do not altogether regret this, but, say to yourself, \u201cPerhaps I am put here in order that I may be a blessing to my persecutors.\u201d Do not imagine that the unlikeliest man to get a blessing out of you is the one who laughs most at you. I sometimes think that the infidels who shout most loudly have more faith than others; and that, because they are afraid they shall hear conscience speak, they make a great clamor to try to drown its voice. When a man bullies you, there is a great deal better opportunity for you to get at him than when he says, as so many do, \u201cOh, yes, sir; it is all true;\u201d and there the matter ends so far as they are concerned. But there is something in a man who will stand up to oppose you; and you may yet be able to say a word for Christ, that will be blessed to him. Why should we want to run away because men mock at us? If they say, \u201cCome and fight,\u201d let us go and fight, only with other weapons than theirs, \u2014 with the weapons of holy gentleness giving a good reason for the hope that is within us with meekness and fear, for that is always the more powerful way of speaking. Do not, therefore, fear persecution; but, rather, thank God for it, and say, \u201cI have to endure this that I may be a blessing to those who revile and abuse me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brethren and sisters, I think our text furnishes sweet consolation to any who have been engaged in very arduous service. <\/i>Have you a great deal to do for Christ, \u2014 a great deal too much to do, it often seems to you? Are you incessantly occupied about the Lord\u2019s business? Then thank God for it, for he has said, \u201cYe shall be a blessing;\u201d and, the more you have to do for him, the more blessing you are likely to be the means of conveying to others.<\/p>\n
Or on the other hand, are you passing through a very trying experience? <\/i>If so, you are being qualified for greater usefulness; your dark experience will only teach you more that you will be able to teach to others concerning God, and his dealings with his own. Believe that you will become a blessing to others by means of your trials, and cheerfully bow your heads to overwhelming floods of sorrow in he confident assurance that you will thus be made a blessing to others, and so bring glory to God.<\/p>\n
Yes, beloved, and we may even be content to die, <\/i>if our last testimony shall be more useful than any that we have borne before. If God will enable us to glorify him by being a blessing to others, we will be content. I hope we can say that we desire nothing on earth compared with this, \u2014 to be blessed of God, and to be made a blessing by God. We covet not earthly wealth or position, but we do covet the honor of being a blessing. Have an insatiable thirst for this honor, beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, \u2014 to be a blessing to tens, to hundreds, to thousands, to the millions of this great city. Incessantly strive, by your private prayer, by your generous alms, by your kindly deeds, by your public testimony, to be a blessing; and may God bless you more and more, you and your children, for his dear name\u2019s sake!<\/p>\n
But, alas, there are many who cannot be a blessing to others, for they are not themselves saved. They are getting gray, but they are not saved! Death will soon call for them, hell gapes wide for them, and they are not saved! May the Lord have mercy upon all of you who are not saved, and may he, by his grace, constrain you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to make the Scriptural profession of your faith, for HE said, \u201cHe that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.\u201d May God grant that you may all \u201cbe saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation,\u201d for Jesus\u2019 sake! Amen.<\/p>\n
Publishers\u2019 Note. \u2014 Mr. Spurgeon\u2019s Exposition of Zechariah 8 was an unusually long one, so it must appear with the next short <\/i>Sermon that is published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 3045 A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 20TH, 1907, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12TH, 1871. \u201cYe shall be a blessing,\u201d \u2014 Zechariah 8:13. SO terribly had God punished idolatrous Israel and Judah that their names were a by-word and a proverb among all the … Continue reading “BELIEVERS A BLESSING.”<\/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-4372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372","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=4372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}