FALSE SECURITIES
Isaiah 47:11-15, Therefore shall evil come upon thee, &c.
I. Look at this picture of utter and painful bewilderment. This is the necessary and inevitable result of sin.
1. We have been warned of it.
2. A way of escape has been made.
II. Hear the divine challenge addressed to the false powers in which we have trusted, as money, chance, self-confidence, atheism.
1. They ought to be most useful when most needed.
2. They should show their sufficiency by their fearlessness. See text.
(1.) There is to be a great collision.
(2.) In that collision only the true can stand.
III. See the doom of false securities.
1. Let no man complain of want of opportunity of estimating the value of his moral securities; or,
2. Of having been allowed to live unwarned.
APPLICATION.—
1. We cannot escape the trial of our securities.
2. If we set ourselves against God, we challenge all the forces of His creation—fire, wind, flood, pestilence, &c.—J. C. Gray: Biblical Museum, in loco.
THE PORTION OF THE UNGODLY. [1474]
[1474] A minister, living at Wisbech, authenticates the following singular case of conversion through our sermon on “The Portion of the Ungodly,” No. 444. The writer says in a recent letter to us, “Seventeen years ago it pleased the Lord to permit me to dream that the end of the world was come, and in my dream I saw the saints rising with the Lord Jesus to glory. I was left, and near me, upon a large quantity of stubble stood an acquaintance who addressed me thus:—They used to say in the other world that we should be in fire, but it is not so.’ In a moment flames burst out, and in my fright I awoke. A few days after my dream my friend and I heard you preach at the Tabernacle. Judge how great was our surprise when you announced for your text, Isaiah 47:14, ‘Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.’ ” In August, 1876, a severe affliction, the dream, and our sermon resulted in our friend’s conversion.—Rev. C H. Spurgeon, in the Sword and Trowel, vol. xv. pp. 294, 295.
Isaiah 47:14. Behold, they shall be as stubble, &c.
Part of a terrible description of God’s judgment upon Babylon and Chaldea. It is a truth beyond dispute that God’s justice is not partial; that the description of the destruction which He awards to one class of sinners is a most fair picture of what He will do with others, for God hath not two or three ways of dealing with men in His justice. The ruin of Chaldea is to us, to-day, a representation and metaphorical description of the destruction which shall surely come upon impenitent sinners when the Lord cometh out of His place to “judge His enemies,” &c. At first sight the figures in our text seem contradictory.
I. THE FIRST FIGURE. The punishment of the wicked will be,
1. “easily inflicted.” “They shall be as stubble.” Nothing can be more easy than to kindle stubble when it is fully dry. So shall it be with impenitent sinners.
(1.) The power of memory shall become a vehicle of sorrow.
(2.) Conscience.
(3.) Increased knowledge. Now you know enough to leave you without excuse, but then your knowledge shall increase so as to leave thee without pretence of apology.
(4.) Companions.
2. Most searching and terrible. The metaphor of fire is used in Scripture, because it is that which of all things causeth most pain, and is the most searching and trying.
3. Most inevitable. “They shall not,” &c. There is hope now; there shall be no hope then. How can it be avoided? Man has no strength to match the Most High; no wisdom to invent another plan of salvation; no ability to hide from God’s presence.
If you profess to be a Christian nominally, you believe this—one of the fundamental truths of revelation.
II. THE SECOND FIGURE. “There shall not be a coal,” &c.; by which is meant that there shall be nothing in hell that can give the sinner a moment’s comfort. Nothing as the soul lifts its eye to heaven, for that is lost. Nothing in hell itself, for the more there are, the more wretched. Nothing in themselves, nor in their thoughts. Nothing in God, for the sting of all the punishment will be—“I deserve it; I brought this on myself.” Nothing in the past, for that will give agony. Nothing in the soul’s present condition. Nothing in their future condition, for they shall never see the shadow of a hope.
III. “BEHOLD.” Turn not away your eyes from this meditation. Children of God, behold it; it will make you grateful; make you love poor sinners. Unconverted sinner, behold it. Better to think of it now than to think of it for ever. If false, reject it; but if real, meditate upon these things; and may God lead you out of self to Christ. “Turn ye,” &c.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 444.