I. That they are the most ancient sinners. They were the first transgressors of Heaven’s eternal law.
1. The uniqueness of their circumstances. They had no tempter. Adam had; so has his race ever since; so have we. All their propensities were in favour of holiness.
2. The force of their freedom. Having neither an outward tempter nor an inward propensity to wrong, they must have risen up against all the external circumstances and internal tendencies of that being.
II. That they are the most influential sinners.
1. They were the original introducers of sin to this world.
2. They are the constant promoters of sin in this world.
III. That they are the most incorrigible sinners. Instances of man’s conversion from sin are numerous. Their incorrigibility shows two things.
1. That intellectual knowledge cannot convert.
2. That an experience of the evil of sin cannot convert.
IV. That they are the most miserable of sinners. There are three things which indicate the extent of their misery.
1. Contrast between their present and past condition.
2. The vastness of their capacity.
3. The utter hopelessness of their state. (Homilist.)
Fallen angels a lesson to fallen men
“These are ancient things.” Most men hunger after the latest news; let us on this occasion go back upon the earliest records. It does us good to look back upon the past of God’s dealings with His creatures; herein lies the value of history. We should not confine our attention to God’s dealings with men, but we should observe how He acts towards another order of beings. If angels transgress, what is His conduct towards them? This study will enlarge our minds, and show us great principles in their wider sweep.
I. Consider our text for our warning. “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell.” Behold here a wonder of wickedness, angels sin; a wonder of justice, God spared them not; a wonder of punishment, He cast them down to hell; a wonder of future vengeance, for they are reserved unto judgment! Here are deep themes and terrible.
1. Let us receive a warning, first, against the deceivableness of sin, for whoever we may be, we may never reckon that, on account of our position or condition, we shall be free from the assaults of sin, or even certain of not being overcome by it. Notice that these who sinned were angels in heaven, so that there is no necessary security in the most holy position. This should teach us not to presume upon anything connected with our position here below. You may be the child of godly parents who watch over you with sedulous care, and yet you may grow up to be a man of Belial. You may never enter a haunt of iniquity, your journeys may be only to and from the house of God, and yet you may be a bond slave of iniquity. The house in which you live may be none other than the house of God and the very gate of heaven through your father’s prayers, and yet you may yourself live to blaspheme.
2. The next thought is that the greatest possible ability, apparently consecrated, is still nothing to rely upon as a reason why we should not yet fall so low as to prostitute it all to the service of the worst of evils. A man may not say, “I am a minister: I shall be kept faithful in the Church of God.” Ah me! But we have seen leaders turn aside, and we need not marvel; for if angels fall, what man may think that he can stand?
3. Neither must any of us suppose that we shall be kept by the mere fact that we are engaged in the sublimest possible office. Apart from the perpetual miracle of God’s grace, nothing can -keep us from declension and spiritual death.
4. I want you to notice, as a great warning; that this sin of the angels was not prevented even by the fullest happiness. The most golden wages will not keep a servant loyal to the kindest of masters. The most blessed experience will not preserve a soul from sinning. No feelings of joy or happiness can be relied upon as sufficient holdfasts to keep us near the Lord.
5. This warning, be it noted, applies itself to the very foulest of sin. The angels did not merely sin and lose heaven, but they passed beyond all other beings in sin, and made themselves fit denizens for hell. Oh my unrenewed hearer, I would not slander thee, but I must warn thee: there are all the makings of a hell within thy heart! It only needs that the restraining hand of God should be removed, and thou wouldst come out in thy true colours, and those are the colours of iniquity.
6. The text may lead us a little farther before we leave it, by giving us a warning against the punishment of sin as well as against the sin itself. “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell:” They were very great; they were very powerful; but God did not spare them for that. If sinners are kings, princes, magistrates, millionaires, God will cast them into hell. You unbelievers may combine together to hate and oppose the gospel, but it matters not, God will deal with your confederacies and break up your unities, and make you companions in hell even as you have been comrades in sin. Neither did He spare them because of their craft. There were never such subtle creatures as these are--so wise, so deep, so crafty; but these serpents and all the brood of them had to feel the power of God’s vengeance, notwithstanding their cunning.
II. But now I want to ask all your attention to this second point for our admiration.
1. I want you to admire the fact that though angels fell the saints of God are made to stand. Oh, the splendour of triumphant grace! Neither the glory of our calling, nor the unworthiness of our original, shall Cause us to be traitors; we shall neither perish through pride nor lust; but the new nature within us shall overcome all sin, and abide faithful to the end.
2. Now let us learn another lesson full of admiration, and that is that God should deal in grace with men and not with angels. One would think that to restore an angel was more easy and more agreeable to the plan of the universe than to exalt fallen man. I rather conceive it to have been the easier thing of the two if the Lord had so willed it. And yet, involving as it did the incarnation of the Son of God and His death to make atonement, the infinitely gracious Father condescended to ordain that He would take up men, and would not takeup the fallen angels. It is a marvel: it is a mystery. I put it before you for your admiration. Behold how He loves us! What shall we do in return? Let us do angels’ work. Let us glorify God as angels would have done had they been restored and made again to taste Divine favour and infinite love. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The punishment of the wicked
I. The certainty of the sinner’s future punishment might be argued from that attribute of justice which belongs to the Divine character, and the entire purity of which is in Scripture so frequently insisted on. For it is manifestly contrary to justice, that no distinction should be made between the righteous and the wicked.
1. The first instance he adduces is that of “the angels that sinned.” The angels, it may be admitted, fell from a loftier elevation in the scale of being than man did; but the final fall of those who perish through their own neglect of the salvation of the gospel, will be more terrible than that of angels.
2. But the apostle deduces the same inference from the Divine judgments atsundry times inflicted upon men--specifying particularly the general deluge, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. And the inference on this latter ground is as just as in the former. For in the first place there can be no reasonable doubt that these remarkable events were purposely intended to manifest in a conspicuous manner the Divine displeasure against sin.
3. But while they serve as manifestations of the general truth, that God cannot look upon sin with allowance, they serve more particularly, as argued by the apostle, to remind us that a day of still more awful judgment is approaching, in which the ungodly shall be subjected, not to the calamity of a temporal destruction, but to a punishment commensurate with the magnitude of their guilt.
II. The magnitude of the evil and suffering in which their punishment is to consist.
1. It has already been apparent in some degree, that the punishment is indescribably dreadful; and it is farther manifest from the fact that it is a punishment which cannot be inflicted upon them in the present life. Our nature in its present state, if subjected to such a torment, would faint, and be consumed; and the punishment, so far at least as the body is concerned, would presently be ended.
2. There is another terrible indication on this subject, in the circumstance that the punishment is one in which man will be associated with the fallen angels. What must be the nature of that torment which constitutes an adequate punishment to fallen angels I
3. And then to all these considerations is to be added the tremendous thought that the punishment is everlasting. The fearful characteristic of those who die under “the curse of the law” is that they die “without mercy.” “Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched; and “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.” (T. Crowther.)
The punishment of the angels that sinned
1. He “delivered them”: but into whose hands? Indeed, He delivers guilty mortals into the hands of guilty angels (Mat_18:34; 1Co_5:5; 1Ti_1:20). Some answer, that themselves are the instruments to torture themselves. After a sort, every transgressor is his own tormentor; and wickedness is a vexation to itself. Ambition racks the aspiring; envy eats the marrow of his bones that envieth; the covetousness which would be most rich, keeps the affected with it most poor; sobriety begets the headache; lust afflicts the body that nourishes it; and we say of the prodigal, he is no man’s foe but his own.
2. “Into chains of darkness.” Into darkness--there is their misery; into chains--there is their slavery.
(1) Darkness signifies tile wrath of God, and is opposed to that favour of His which is called the light of His countenance (Psa_4:6).
(2) “Chains.”
(a) The power of Divine justice.
(b) The guiltiness of their own conscience. (T. Adams.)
Noah … a preacher of righteousness.
Noah’s preaching
1. Noah had his calling immediately from God; whereas we are mediately ordained by the imposition of hands.
2. The Lord honoured Noah in conferring his office upon him. Certainly a minister’s life is full of honour here and hereafter, too; so it is full of danger here and hereafter, too.
3. Noah faithfully executed this calling, and continued preaching a hundred years. Both in his doctrinal instructions and exemplary life he was a preacher of righteousness.
4. He had not such happy success of his preaching as his own soul desired, and he might in reason have expected. A man may be lawfully called by God and His Church, and yet not turn many souls. It is the measure, not the success, that God looks to; our reward shall be according to our works, not according to the fruit of our works; which is our comfort.
5. So long as Noah preached, the world was warned. God needed not to have given them any warning of His judgments; they gave Him no warning of their sins. Yet, that He might approve His mercy, He gives them long warning that they might have space enough of repenting. Oh, how loth is He to strike that threatens so long before He executes! (T. Adams.)
Sodom and Gomorrha.--
Sodom and Gomorrha
1. The strongest cities are not shot-proof against the arrows of God; but even things ordained for refuge are by His justice made destructive. There is nothing peaceable where God is an enemy.
2. Sin can bring down the most magnificent cities.
3. None of these wicked cities escaped. Men, women, children, houses, plants, monuments, all that grew on the earth were destroyed (Gen_19:25).
4. Great is the danger of living in opulent and delightful places. Where is no want is much wantonness; and to be rich in temporals hastens poverty in spirituals. In a scantiness, the things themselves do stint and restrain our appetites; but where is abundance, and the measure is left to our own discretion, our discretion is too often deceived. (T. Adams.)
Sodom and Gomorrha an example of the fate of the ungodly
1. No society of men or policy can hinder the judgment of God, which He will bring upon them for their sins.
2. The same judgments of God are executed by contrary causes. The old world was destroyed by water, these cities by fire. Sinners should not think themselves safe because they have escaped one judgment, for when they are farthest off from one evil, another is ready to fall upon them (Amo_5:19).
3. Extreme judgments follow extreme sins.
4. They that are unto others examples of sin shall be also unto them examples of punishment. (Wm. Ames, D. D.)
Delivered just Lot.--
Lot in Sodom
I. The spirit’s testimony concerning lot. Lot was a “just “man and a “godly.” What disclosures shall the last day make! What changes in our views of individuals!
1. His state before God. Only as justified by faith can we be accounted righteous.
2. Lot’s character. The bent and purpose of his soul was towards God. He ran not as he should have done in the way of God’s commandments; trial upon trial was needed to keep alive the flickering lamp of spiritual life.
II. His situation in sodom. He first “pitched his tent towards” it, and the next step was downwards--he dwelt in Sodom.
1. I ask of that residence, was it profitable? I would not make it the chief motive to serve the Lord, that it shall be well with you here; but i would yet say lose not this world and that which is to come.
2. I ask, further, concerning that residence, was it happy? Did it bring peace to his soul? could he rejoice whilst there abiding? What saith the Word of God? It speaks of him as “vexed from day to day.” “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation,” and He did deliver Lot; but He suffered His servant to feel that “an evil and a bitter thing” it is to depart from the narrow way; whilst dwelling in Sodom, happiness must not be his.
3. Nay, was that residence safe? He came forth from it a fugitive who had entered it as a prince. Are you seeking to avoid reproach by some concession contrary to God’s truth? Are you planning for the world’s aid? Cast off your vain confidences, safety is not in them!
III. The hindrances to his removal might be these.
1. The tie of property. There Lot had laid up his goods. For a time, doubtless, worldly prosperity was his, and the entanglement was strong. How strong that tie is to all! How great the grace to those who have burst from its hold!
2. The ungodly amongst whom he dwelt would be opposed to Lot’s departure. He evidently stood in fear (if them, and he might dread to give them any excuse for violence.
3. His family had, fearful to relate, formed alliances in that city of evil; these would cling around him, and prevent the determination to depart.
4. But far more than all was that lethargy of soul the hindrance, which nourished by the atmosphere in which he lived--increased by each day’s sojourn ill the infected city--would make him less and less capable of the effort needed for his escape.
Conclusion:
1. What a God is He with whom we have to do!
2. What a world is that with which we have to contend! We dwell as it were on enchanted ground.
3. What depths of heart-deceit does the history of man bring to light! (F. Storr, M. A.)
Just Lot
I. His grace--a just man.
1. What this justice is.
(1) Legal righteousness is of three sorts--
(a) Perfect, which consists in an absolute completion of the law: this is lost beyond all recovery.
(b) Civil, which consists in an outward deportment conformable to the law (Mat_5:20).
(c) Internal, when a man by repentance, and by endeavour after repentance, inwardly serves God. This may justify our faith; it cannot justify us.
(2) Evangelical righteousness is that which is revealed in the gospel; and should never have been revealed if that of the law could have saved us.
2. Thus is a man just before God, but Lot was also just before men; and there is a visible justice, as well as the invisible.
(1) There is a righteousness of preparation, which is a resolution of heart to be righteous (Psa_119:106). Though he do sometimes admit sin, he doth never intend sin.
(2) There is a righteousness of separation, because it is seen to decline the places of temptation (1Jn_5:18).
(3) There is a righteousness of reparation which consists in the reforming of errors and conforming of manners, salving past defects by a bettered life, and is indeed the righteousness of repentance. Righteous, not because there is no sin committed, but because there is no sin that is not repented.
(4) There is a righteousness of comparison; so was Lot just comparatively among the Sodomites.
(5) There is an operative righteousness. The best traveller may stumble in his journey, yet have his eye observant and his foot constant on his way.
(a) If we will be delivered, let us be just.
(b) Never did man serve God for nothing; if Lot be just, he shall now find the benefit of it.
(c) The Lord first makes us just and then saves us.
II. His place, which was sinful. But why would Lot stay in such a wicked city? Not as a neighbour affected with their customs, but as a physician to cure their diseases. But he that looked for a paradise found a hell, and the cup of his prosperity was spiced with the bitter fruits of a cursed society. What doth Lot in Sodom--a saint among sinners? Fishes may be fresh in salt waters; live in the sea and not partake the brinish quality. It is not so with man; rather some evil for neighbourhood’s sake. Can a man be clean among lepers? Sooner are the good corrupted by the bad than the bad are bettered by the good.
III. His case. “Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.”
1. The matter of his vexing was their sin; the evil of the place came from the persons, who were fully, filthily, palpably wicked.
(1) The impudence. It was manifest wickedness; their faces did not blush at it (Isa_3:9).
(2) The continuance. As their sins were extant, so constant; their ways were always grievous (Psa_10:5). It is not so much sin, as the trade of sin, that is damnable.
(3) The uncleanness. Their sin was not only palpable and durable, but detestable. They were exposed to turpitude, their bodies prostituted to fleshly pollutions.
2. “Vexed.” This was no ordinary disturbance, nor common displeasure; but oppressed, excruciated, tormented; his senses, his very soul, exceedingly afflicted. He was not an idle looker-on, as if he minded not what they did; nor in a timorous observation of the proverb, “Of little meddling comes great rest”; but knowing it to be the cause of God, his heart was perplexed about it. He was not vexed with them, but with their deeds; we are to hate none for their creation, but perverting the end of their creation. “Vexed.” That which is here passive is in the next verse active: he “vexed his righteous soul.” Who bade him stay there to be vexed? He vexed himself when he might have quitted himself. Yet because he was vexed he is delivered. Because he avoided their sins he escaped their judgments. And surely they were both miraculous; for his declining their sins was no less a wonder than his deliverance from their flames. As the latter was God’s gracious prevention, so the former was His prevenient grace. (Thos. Adams.)
Vexed his righteous soul.--
A saint’s vexation
I. The incentives.
1. Causal or radical--“He being righteous.” As in natural things, like things are not opposed by like things, fire fights not against fire, but against water; so in moral things, the innocent are not opposed by the innocent; one good man does not persecute another. Wolf and wolf can agree, lamb and lamb fall not out; but who can reconcile the wolf to the lamb?
2. Occasional--“Dwelling among them.” One reason why God suffers evil men is to try the good. They are the best lilies that thrive amongst thorns.
(1) “Amongst them” that hate righteousness, and him for it.
(2) “Among them” that thought Lot to be the only man that molested them.
(3) “Among them” that thought Lot a proud and imperious fellow.
(4) “Among them” that thought him a fool for his labour.
(5) “Among them” that thought him exorbitant, because he walked not after their rule.
(6) “Among them” that hated the truth, and loved the prophecy of wine and strong drink. Among these bad men dwelt this good Lot, and still he was righteous. It is likely they endeavoured to win him to them, either by rewards or menaces.
3. Objectual--“Their unlawful deeds.” Sin is the object or matter of a saint’s vexation. That which grieves God should also vex us: this hath tried the zeal of the saints. (Exo_32:19; 1Ki_19:14; 1Sa_4:22; Num_25:7-8).
4. Organical or instrumental--“In seeing and hearing.” The eye and ear are those special doors that let into the heart its comfort or torment.
(1) The sight of sin makes a man either sad or guilty; if we see it, and be not sorrowful, we are sinful.
(2) The most offensive sins are such as be objected to sight and hearing. Spiritual and internal sins may be more culpable, outward are more infamous.
(3) He did see and not see, hear and not hear. Connivance at rank impiety is bad in all men, in tolerable in some; such are the ministers of either gospel or justice.
(4) Sodom’s sin was so much the more heinous to God, for offending man, and vexing the heart of His servant Lot.
(5) He that would not be vexed with evils, let him turn his eyes and ears another way. Let us frequent their company, where in seeing and hearing we may reap comfort.
II. The fire itself. “Vexed his righteous soul.”
1. Its property.
(1) It is the argument of a righteous man to be far from his Maker’s service. As sails to the ship and wind to the sails, so is fervency to righteousness. A soldier without courage,, a horse without mettle, a creature without vivacity, such is a Christian without fervency.
(2) It doth also improve righteousness; like the fire which came down from heaven upon the sacrifices, causing them to ascend thither in acceptation. Fervency is that mark which God would have us set on all His services, that so they may be discerned to be His own.
(3) It honours righteousness; many thousands have been righteous whose names are not on record; but of those who have been zealous in their piety, the Scripture takes special notice.
2. Its sincerity. As this was no common fervency, so no counter feit; he little dissembles whose soul is moved.
(1) There be some that vex them selves out of envy; Lot did not so. This is a black zeal, reckoned among the works of the flesh (1Co_3:3; Act_5:17; Gal_5:21; Jam_3:14; 1Co_13:4; Rom_13:13).
(2) There be that vex themselves out of choler; transported with in temperate passions. We do not read that Lot was cruel and turbulent, vexing others; but he vexed himself.
(3) There be that vex themselves without cause, and strike their friends for their enemies. Let our zeal come in to part, not to par take the fray; all endeavouring and praying, that peace may be within the gates of Zion.
(4) There be that vex themselves out of hypocrisy; they have other ends than God’s glory.
(5) There be that vex themselves out of Ignorance; for there is a zeal not according to knowledge. Here is a pitiable fervency, like mettle in a blind horse, or a sting in an angry bee.
(6) The very name of a counterfeit pre-supposeth an original. That virtue which even hypocrites put on to grace them, is, questionless, some rare and admirable thing. The true Lot, whose fervency is in the spirit, not in show; in substance, not in circumstance; for God, not for himself; guided by the Word, not by humour; tempered with charity, not driven with turbulency; such a man’s praise is of God, though it be not of men; and through all contempts on earth, it shall find a glorious reward in heaven.
3. Its singularity. One Lot will be righteous amongst and against all Sodom, and express this righteousness in the midst of their vicious customs. It hath been the lot of fervent holiness to be rare, as to be excellent: adherents may hearten, opposites must not dash zeal out of countenance.
(1) So near as we can, let us make choice of the good; for man naturally produces works conformable to the objects before his eyes.
(2) If, like Lot, we be necessitated to the society of bad people, yet let us be good still; yea, therefore the more holy, because in the midst of a perverse generation, shining as lights in a dark place.
(3) Let us follow the examples of the best, not of the most. Who had not rather be righteous with one singular Lot, than perish with all ungodly Sodom?
4. Its constancy. “From day to day.” The fixed stars are even like themselves, whereas meteors and vapours have no con-tinned light. To run with the stream, or sail with the wind, or, like the marigold, to open only with the sunshine, is no praise of piety. Give me that Job that will be as honest a man among his thousands as under the rod, when the number of his present ulcers exceeds his former riches. (Thos. Adams.)
How ought we to bewail the sins of the places where we live
It is the disposition and duty of the righteous to be deeply afflicted with the sins of the places where they live.
I. For the obvious Scripture examples.--Our Lord (Mar_3:5) was “grieved for the hardness of their hearts,” namely, in opposing His holy and saving doctrines. David professeth that “rivers of waters ran down his eyes, because men kept not God’s law”; and that when he “beheld the transgressors, he was grieved; because they kept not His Word” (Psa_119:136; Psa_119:158). The next example shall be Ezra’s, who, hearing of the sins of the people in marrying with heathens, in token of bitter grief for it, “rent his garment and his mantle, and plucked off the hair of his beard and of his head, and sat down astonied” (Ezr_9:3); and he did neither ‘“ eat bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away “(Ezr_10:6). To these I might add the example of Jeremiah (Jer_13:17). I shall conclude this with that expression of holy Paul (Php_3:18).
II. The manner how this duty of mourning for the sins of others is to be performed.
1. In our mourning for the sins of others in respect of God, we must advance--
(1) His great and unparalleled patience and long-suffering extended toward those whose sins we lament. This was evident in Nehemiah’s bewailing the sins of the sinful Jews (Neh_9:30).
(2) In mourning for the sins of the wicked, advance God in the acknowledgment of His justice and spotless righteousness, should He with utmost severity take vengeance upon offenders.
(3) In spreading before God the wickednesses of great sinners, admire His infinite power, that can not only stop the worst of men in, but turn them from, their course of opposing God by their rebellions. We are not so to mourn for, as to despair of the conversion of, the worst. They are as much within the converting reach as the destructive reach of God’s hand.
(4) In mourning admire that grace and power that hath kept thee from their excesses. It should more comfort thee that thou sinnest not with them, than trouble thee that thou sufferest from them.
2. The second branch of the manner how we must bewail the sins of others is as it respects those for whom and for whose sins we lament and mourn.
(1) We must bewail the sins of our bitterest enemies, as well as of our most beloved relations--a rare and seldom-practised duty I fear that this will be found.
(2) We ought to bewail the sins of our near and dear relations in a greater measure than those of mere strangers--natural affection, sanctified, is the strongest.
(3) They that mourn for others’ sins, especially the sins of those they most love, must mourn more for their sins than their afflictions and outward troubles.
(4) We ought to bewail the sins of others according to the proportion of the sins of the times and places where we live.
(5) We ought to mourn for the sins of others advantageously to those for whom we mourn, with the using of all due means to reclaim and reduce them.
(a) By prayer for their conversion and God’s pardoning them.
(b) We must endeavour to follow the mourning for sinners with restraining them from sin (if we have it) by power.
(c) We must mourn for sinners with advantaging them by example, that they may never be able to tax us with those sins for which we would be thought sorrowful.
(d) We must follow our mourning for others’ sins with labouring to advantage them by holy reproof for the sins we mourn for.
(e) With expressing that commiseration toward a sinner in private which thou expressest for him before God in secret.
(6) We must mourn for those sins of others that are in appearance advantageous to ourselves.
3. I shall consider how we should mourn for the sins of others in respect of ourselves.
(1) They whom God hath set in any place or station of superiority over others, either more public or in families, should be the most eminent mourners for the sins of those committed to their charge.
(2) Those who, now converted, have been the most open sinners in their unconverted state should more lay to heart the sins of the openly wicked than those who have lived more civilly and without scandal.
(3) They that mourn for others’ sins must more mourn because those sins are offensive and dishonourable to God and hurtful to sinners, than because they are injurious to themselves that mourn over them.
(4) They that mourn for others’ sins should mourn more in secret than in open complaining.
(5) They that mourn for others’ sins must mourn to a high degree who have been the occasions and promoters of their sins--either by neglecting to reprove them for, restraining them from, or giving them examples of, sinning. This sanctified conscience will make one of the bitterest ingredients into sorrow for the sins of others.
(6) They that mourn for the sins of others must mourn with a holy reflection upon themselves.
(a) They must reflect upon themselves with sorrow, because they have the same impure natures that the most-to-be-lamented sinner in the world hath.
(b) With a reflection of examination.
(i) Whether you have not some way or other furthered this sinner in his much-to-be-lamented impieties.
(ii) Whether the same open sins that are acted by him--the noted offender--or sins almost or altogether as bad, are not acted and entertained by thee in secret places, or at least in thy heart.
(c) With a reflection of care and watchfulness that thou mayest never dare to fall into the sins that thou bewailest in another; that thou who labourest to quench the fire that hath seized upon thy neighbour’s house, mayest be careful to preserve thine from being set on fire also.
III. To show why this holy mourning is.
1. The disposition, and
2. Duty of the righteous,
I shall express the reasons of both distinctly.
1. It is their disposition, and that under a threefold qualification--
(1) Because they are a knowing people. They know what tears and heart-breakings sin hath stood them in; they know that sin will cost the wicked either tears of repentance or damnation; they know that sin is but gilded destruction, and fire and brimstone in a disguise (2Co_5:11).
(2) As to a saint’s disposition: he is compassionate and tender-hearted. If sinners mourn, he mourns with them; if not, he mourns for them.
(3) The righteous are a purified, sanctified people. A saint, as such, hates nothing but sin.
2. It is the duty as well as the disposition of the righteous to mourn for the sins of others; and that as they are considerable in a threefold relation.
(1) In their relation to God. As “the sons of God “they are commanded to be “blameless, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation” (Php_2:15).
(2) Their relation to the Mediator, the Lord Christ. Here I shall mention only a double relation between Christ and saints, that engageth them to mourn for the sins of others.
(a) The first is His relation to us as a suffering Surety, in respect whereof He paid the debt of penalty which we owed to God’s justice; for it was sin in man that made Christ “a man of sorrows.”
(b) There is a second relation between Christ and saints that should make them mourn for the sins of the wicked; and that is the relation of Teacher and Instructor. We are His disciples and scholars; and it is our duty as much to make Him our Example as to expect He should obtain our pardon. Christ never had a pollution, but oft a commotion, of affection; Christ never wept but for sin or its effects.
(3) Their relation to the wicked, for whose sins they should mourn.
(a) The saints are men with the worst; they have the relation of human nature to the greatest sinners upon earth (Heb_13:3). It is a wickedness to hide ourselves from our own flesh (Isa_58:7).
(b) The righteous are the same with the wicked in respect of corrupt, depraved nature; born in sin as much as they, with a principle of inclination to all their impieties (Eph_2:3). Should it not, then, make thee mourn to consider, by the wickedness of others, thine own inbred depravation? what thou hadst done thyself if God had not either renewed or restrained thee? yea, what thou wouldest do if God should leave thee, and withdraw His grace from thee?
(c) Perhaps the holiest men have been, some way or other, furtherers of the sins of the wicked among whom they live; perhaps by their former sinful example when they lived in the same sins themselves which now the wicked wallow in. Shouldest not thou, then, mourn for killing that soul which God so severely punisheth, though free grace hath pardoned thee? Should we not quench that fire with our tears which we have blown-up with our bellows of encouragement?
(d) In this relation of saints, to sinners that should put them upon mourning for them, it is very considerable that the godly and the wicked make up one community, or political body, in the places where they live. In which respect the sins of some particular offender or offenders may pull down judgments upon the whole body. So that every one had need do his utmost, by mourning, and in whatever other way he can, to redress the sins, and so to prevent the plagues, of the place where he lives.
IV. Application.
Use
I. Of information in sundry branches.
1. Godliness is uniform in all times, places, and companies. A righteous man is not, as the swine in a meadow, clean only in clean places; he will maintain opposition to sin in the midst of inducements to sin. His goodness may justly be suspected that only shows itself in good places, companies, and times.
2. The greatest sinners cannot constrain us to sin. The greatest temptation is no plea for committing the least sin: if we give not away, none can take away our holiness.
3. One cause may produce contrary effects. Others’ sins draw the wicked to follow them, but they put the saints upon bewailing them.
4. It is our duty to rejoice in the holiness, if to mourn for the sins, of others. Love to God’s house in others was David’s gladness (Psa_122:1). It was the greatest joy of holy John that his spiritual “children walked in the truth “(3Jn_1:4). Holy ones were Paul’s “joy, crown, and glory” (1Th_2:19-20).
5. Christianity abolisheth not affection, but rectifies it. Grace is like the percolation or draining of salt water through the earth; it only takes away the brackishness and unsavouriness of our affections and faculties.
6. Everything betters a saint. Not only ordinances, word, sacraments, holy society, but even sinners and their very sinning. Even these draw forth their graces into exercise, and put them upon godly, broken-hearted mourning.
7. The great misery that sill hath brought into the world, to make sorrow and mourning necessary. It should make us long for a better world, where that which is here our duty to practise shall for ever be our privilege to be freed from.
8. There must needs remain a better state for the saints.
9. How ought sinners to mourn for their own sins! The nearer the enemy is, the more dreadful he is. Nothing more dismal than to see a sinner to go, not swiftly only, but merrily, to eternal mourning. “He that hath no tears for himself, should be helped by others.”
Use
II. The second use is of reprehension; and that to sundry sorts.
1. To those that reproach the holy mourning of saints for others’ sins. They are falsely esteemed the incendiaries in a state whose great study is to quench God’s burning wrath. If sinners kindle the fire, let saints quench it.
2. This doctrine of mourning for the sins of others speaks reproof to those that take pleasure in the sins of others (Rom_1:32).
3. This doctrine reproves those that mourn for the holiness of others. I have known some parents that have greatly desired their children should be good husbands, to get and increase their estates; but then have been very fearful lest they should be too godly; and it hath been the righteous judgment of God that their children proved spendthrifts, neither godly nor good husbands. It is often seen that, as gardeners with their shears snip off the tops of the tallest sprigs, so men most labour to discountenance the tallest in Christianity.
4. This doctrine reproves those that put others upon sin, so far are they from mourning for their sins. Poor souls! have they not sins enough of their own to answer for? If is little enough to be a leader to heaven, but too much to be a follower to hell; what, then, to be a leader!
Use
III. of exhortation, to mourn for the sins of the wicked among whom we live.
1. If we mourn not for others’ sins, theirs become ours.
2. Mourning for others’ sins is the way to awaken thy conscience for thine own former sins.
3. Without mourning for sinners you will never seek the reformation of sinners.
4. This mourning for others’ sins will make us more fearful to admit sin into ourselves.
5. Mourning for others’ sins speaks thee a man of public usefulness to thy country.
6. Mourning for others’ sins makes the sins of others beneficial to thee.
7. Holy commotion of soul for others’ sins sends forth a most acceptable and fragrant savour into the nostrils of God.
Use
IV. I shall add one use more; and that is direction to the means of practising this duty of holy mourning for others’ sins:
1. Look not upon this duty with self-exemption. As if it belonged only to the highest in the practice of religion, or persons in office. All desire to bc marked, and therefore should be mourners (Eze_9:4).
2. Look upon mourning for sin to be no legal practice, but an evangelical duty. The gospel-grace makes tears sweeter, not fewer.
3. Preserve tenderness of conscience in respect of thine own sins.
4. Strengthen faith in divine threatenings against sin.
5. Be holily, not curiously, inquisitive into the state of the times.
6. Take heed of being drowned in sensual delights. (W. Jenkin, M. A.)
Distress of the pious at the wickedness of the godless
The pious are distressed at the sins of the godless because--
1. These sins sully the glory of God;
2. They show the tyranny of Satan over men;
3. They conduce to the condemnation of the godless. (J. Fronmuller.)
Grief at sin
JohnBunyan’s wife having, after several previous applications to different judges, made a specially importunate appeal to Judges Hale and Twisdon for the release of her husband from Bedford gaol, and being again unsuccessful, said: “I remember that though I was somewhat timorous at my first entrance into the chamber, yet, before I went out, I could not but break forth into tears, not so much Because they were so hard-hearted against me and my husband, but to think what a sad account such poor creatures will have to give at the coming of the Lord, when they shall then answer for all things whatsoever they have done in the body, whether it be good or whether it be bad.” (Tinling’s Illustrations.)
A Christian in the world is like a rose among noxious weeds
Does a rose refuse to grow and to emit a sweet odour because there are noxious weeds in the same field? And does the rose complain and declare that it will not fulfil its mission until every weed is pulled up? A rose is a rose in the midst of thorns and thistles. A Christian is a Christian under all circumstances, and whether the world is full of noxious weeds, and the Church swarming with hypocrites, the man of faith continues to grow and bear fruit, exhaling a sweet and salutary fragrance on all around. A Christian who refuses to shed spiritual fragrance upon the desert air, because of the presence of mean and defective church members, is a mere fungus sort of Christian, being devoid of the seeds of truth, and hence empty of spiritual vitality.
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly.--
The Lord’s knowledge our safeguard
I. The Lord’s knowledge in reference to character.
1. He knows the godly--
(1) Under trial, when they are not known to others.
(2) Under temptation, when scarcely known to themselves.
2. He knows the unjust--
(1) Though they make loud professions of piety.
(2) Though they may be honoured for their great possessions.
II. The Lord’s knowledge in reference to the godly. He knows how to let them suffer, and yet to deliver them in the most complete and glorious manner.
1. His knowledge answers better than theirs would do.
2. His knowledge of their case is perfect.
3. He knows in every case how to deliver them.
4. He knows the most profitable way of deliverance.
5. His knowledge should cause them to trust in Him with holy confidence, and never to sin in order to escape.
III. The Lord’s knowledge in reference to the unjust.
1. They are unjust in all senses, for they are--
(1) Not legally just by keeping the law.
(2) Nor evangelically just through faith in Jesus.
(3) Nor practically just in their daily lives.
2. The Lord knows best--
(1) How to deal with them from day to day.
(2) How to reserve them under restraints. He makes it possible to reprieve them, and yet to maintain law and order.
(3) How to punish them with unrest and fears even now.
(4) How and when to strike them down when their iniquities are full.
(5) How to deal with them in judgment, and throughout the future state. The mysteries of eternal doom are safe in His hand. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God’s dealings with the godly and their persecutors
I. The deliverance of the godly.
1. A deliverance. It is a great comfort in every distress to hope for a deliverance; to believe it, greater; to be sure of it, greatest of all. Thus certain is every Christian, by the assurance of faith, grounded on the infallible promise of God. God often defers His deliverance.
(1) To return us home: when no man will harbour that unthrift son, he Will back again to his father.
(2) To make us seek our deliverance in the right place: while money can buy physic, or friends procure enlargement, the great Physician Helper is not thoroughly trusted.
(3) To set a better price on His benefits; for suddenly gotten are suddenly forgotten.
2. The persons delivered are the “godly.” Godliness consists in two things:
(1) The devout admiration; and
(2) Sincere imitation of God.
3. From what--“out of temptations.” They, of all men, are most subject to temptations. The higher a tree shoots up, the more tempest-beaten. To suggest evil is Satan’s blame; to resist it our praise. The more we are tried in the furnace, the purer gold we shall go to the treasury of heaven. Lord, make us as strong as the devil is malicious.
(1) We that pray for deliverance from evil must endeavour against evil. Let us have wary eyes, for it is not the self-appearing devil, but the same or transformed angel, that doth corrupt us.
(2) Consider what preventions the provident God useth against our sinnings. Sometimes He shortens our own arms, sometimes strengthens others against us. Sometimes reason is heard, when religion sits out; and the dishonesty, inutility, or difficulty of a sin is perpended. But it is best, when the fear of God hath corrected us, or the Word of God averted us, or the Spirit of God recalled us.
(3) Let us meditate how we are blessed of God, and have reason to bless God, for these happy deliverances.
(4) If we love not evil, let us long for our final and plenary deliver ance from it; that immortal court, where sin can no more enter; out of this the tempter is excluded for ever. Here the Lord delivers us from the damnation and domination of sin, there from the temptation and assault; here it shall not over come us, there it shall not come near us.
4. Our deliverer--“The Lord.” His sovereignty is--
(1) Independent.
(2) Absolute.
(3) Universal.
(4) Necessary. We could not live but by His dominion.
(5) Immutable. What God once is, He is for ever,
(6) Incomprehensible.
(7) Glorious and blessed.
5. “The Lord knoweth how.” As there is nothing impossible to His might, so there is nothing concealable from His understanding.
(1) He knows our temptations before they be upon us; He sees the preparing of the potion, weighs the ingredients to a scruple, qualifies the malignity of the purgatives with sweet consolations.
(2) He knows them when they be upon us (Exo_2:25; Psa_31:7).
(3) He knows how to rid them from us. They are often so perplexful and intricate, that neither we see, nor the world sees, nor reason apprehends how, yet the Lord knoweth.
II. The end of their persecutors.
1. The malefactors. The wicked are “unjust.”
(1) To God. Righteousness is an obedience to the will of God, and injustice is no other than disobedience.
(2) To man. Such are they that measure their right by their power, and therefore will do injury because they cannot do it. Unjust--
(a) To the commonwealth.
(b) To the Church.
(c) To private persons.
(3) To a man’s self. So is the thriftless, that spends himself into poverty by pride and luxury; the envious, that loses the sweetness of his own by grudging at his neighbours; the covetous, that adds to the continent of his treasure what he should add to the content of his nature.
2. The binding over. “Are reserved.” Whether they sleep or wake, play or work, stand or walk, their time runs on, their judgment is nearer; and they are more surely kept unto it, than any dungeon, with the thickest walls and strongest chains, can hold a prisoner till his arraignment comes.
(1) Wickedness hath but a time, but the punishment of wickedness is beyond all time.
(2) The unjust are already reserved, the decree is passed against them. They are bound over to the last assizes by a threefold recognisance, as it were with infrangible, though insensible, chains of judgment--the bond of their sins, the bond of their conscience, and the bond of omnipotent justice--and this threefold cable is not easily broken.
3. The assizes. “To the day of judgment.”
(1) The sufficiency of the Judge
(2) The necessity of the judgment (2Th_1:6-7).
4. The execution. “To be punished.” In this judgment, God respects no persons; He knows no valour, no honour, no riches, no royalty, in the matter of sin; but Rom_2:9. (Thos. Adams.)
The trial and deliverance of the godly
I. Our religion must be fairly tried.
1. The pleasures of life, as they are generally deemed; present themselves before you; many of them decidedly sinful, others of them, though not directly immoral, yet very ensnaring, they invite you to the indulgence of gratifications which war against the soul. Do you habitually resist these salutations?
2. The world, apart from its disgusting vices, exhibits to your mind, in bright colours, the numerous comforts, the many enjoyments, the family advantages, the great interests, belonging to a state of prosperity and affluence. Do you when thus tempted adhere firmly to the great Christian principle of renouncing the world?
3. Even religion itself, with imposing professions, will invite your attention and adherence for the purpose of ensnaring and deceiving your souls. Do you continue steadfast in the faith, true to your only Lord and Master? Do you reject every substitute for Christ Himself?
4. A persecuting spirit, under the pretext of holy zeal for God and religion, has often been exerted, and has proved a severe trial of faith and sincerity. Do you notwithstanding cleave to the Lord?--hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering?
5. Afflictions generally are a trial of our religion. It is when we are brought low in trouble that the excellency of faith, the sincerity of our hearts, the truth of our profession, the reality of our love to God, and the purity of our faith in the Son of God will be most satisfactorily manifested. Yet, let it be seriously remembered, that it is not the impression of the moment, but the subsequent permanent, abiding effects of affliction that become a real test of godliness.
II. The encouraging promise conveyed in this passage to men of truth and sincerity. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.” A faithful God is not only able to comfort and sustain them that wait upon Him, but He will do it most wisely; He knoweth how to dispense His grace most advantageously to them that really love Him and cast their care upon Him. (S. Morell.)
Deliverance from temptation the privilege of the righteous
1. Who are here to be understood by “the godly.” He, and he only, can lay claim to so glorious a qualification who is actually in covenant with God, and that not only by external profession, but by real relation. In a word, he, and he only, ought to pass for godly, according to the unalterable rules of Christianity, who allows not himself in the omission of any known duty, or the commission of the least known sin. And this certainly will, and nothing less that I know of can, either secure a man from failing into temptation, or (which is yet a greater happiness) from falling by it.
2. The other thing to be inquired into is, what is here meant by “temptation”; a thing better known by its ill effects than by the best description. The Greek word signifies “trial,” and so imports not so much the matter as the end of the dispensation. But (the common and most received use of the word having added something of malignity to its first and native signification) generally in Scripture it denotes not only a bare trial, but-such a one as is attended with a design to hurt or mischieve the people so tried. As for the sense in which the word ought to be taken here, it may be, and no doubt with great truth is, in the full latitude of it, applicable to both sorts of temptation: it being no less the prerogative of God’s goodness and power to deliver men from such trials as afflict them, than from such as are designed to corrupt them. Nevertheless, I think it also as little to be doubted, that the text chiefly respects this latter signification, and accordingly speaks here most designedly of such a deliverance as breaks the snares and defeats the stratagems by which the great and mortal enemy of mankind is so infinitely busy, first to debauch, and then to destroy souls. And now, if it be inquired whether they are the righteous only whom God delivers from temptation, and that no such deliverances are ever vouchsafed by Him to any of the contrary character, I answer that I can find nothing in Scripture or reason to found such a doctrine upon, but that such deliverances both may be and sometimes are vouchsafed to persons far enough from being reckoned godly, either in the accounts of God or man. And first, that they may be so we need no other reason to evince it than this, that God in these cases may very well restrain the actions, without working any change upon the will or affections. And in the next place, that such deliverances not only may be, but sometimes actually are afforded to persons represented under no note of piety or virtue, but much otherwise, those three memorable examples of Abimelech, Esau, and Balaam (Gen_20:1-18; Gen_33:1-20; Num_22:1-41.) sufficiently demonstrate. So that we may rationally conclude that even wicked persons also are sometimes sharers in such deliverances; but still so, that this by all means ought to be observed Withal, that the said deliverances are dealt forth to these two different sorts of men upon very different grounds, viz., to the former upon the stock of covenant or promises; to the latter upon the stock of uncovenanted mercy, and the free overflowing egress of the Divine benignity, often exerting itself upon such as have no claim to it at all.
I. To show how far God delivers persons truly pious out of temptation.
1. God delivers by way of prevention, or keeping off the temptation; which, of all other ways, is doubtless the surest, as the surest is unquestionably the best. For by this is set a mighty barrier between the soul and the earliest approaches of its mortal enemy. Unspeakable are the advantages vouchsafed to mankind by God’s preventing grace, if we consider how apt a temptation is to diffuse, and how prone our nature is to receive an infection. For though the soul be not actually corrupted by a temptation, yet it is something to be sullied and blown upon by it, to have been in the dangerous familiarities of sin, and in the next approach and neighbourhood of destruction. Such being the nature of man, that it is hardly possible for hint to be near an ill thing and not the worse for it.
2. We are now to consider such persons as advanced a step further, and as they are actually entered into temptation; and so also God is at hand for their deliverance. For as it was God who suspended the natural force of that material fire from acting upon the bodies of the three children mentioned in Dan_3:1-30., so it is God alone who must control the fury of this spiritual flame from seizing upon the soul, having always so much fuel and fit matter there for it to prey upon. And for an eternal monument of His goodness, He has not left us without some such heroic instances as these upon record in His Word, that so the saints may receive double courage and confidence, having their deliverance not only sealed and secured to them by promise, but also that promise ratified and made good to them by precedents and examples, like so many stars appearing, both to direct and to comfort the benighted traveller.
3. And lastly, we are to consider the persons hitherto spoken of as not only entered into temptation, but also as in some measure prevailed upon by it. But that I may give some light to this weighty case of conscience, how far a person truly godly may, without ceasing to be so, be prevailed upon by temptation, I will here set down the several degrees and advances by which a temptation or sinful proposal gradually wins the soul, and those all of them comprised in Jam_1:14-15.
1. The first of which we may call seduction.
2. The second degree of temptation may be called enticement or allurement.
3. The third degree is, when after such possession had of the thoughts and fancy, the temptation comes to make its way into the consent of the will, and to gain that great fort also, so that the mind begins to propose, and accordingly to contrive the commission of the sin proposed to it.
4. The fourth degree of prevalence which a temptation gets over the soul is, the actual eruption of it in the perpetration or commission of the sin suggested to it.
5. The fifth and last degree, completing the victory which temptation obtains over a man is, when sin comes to that pitch as to reign, and so by consequence put out of all possibility either of resistance or escape. Having thus reckoned up the several degrees of temptation, and set before you the fatal round of the devil’s methods for destroying souls, let us now in the next place inquire how far God vouchsafes to deliver the pious and sincere out of them in answer to which, I first of all affirm, that God’s methods in this case are very various, and not to be declared by any one universal assertion. Sometimes by a total and entire deliverance, He delivers them from every degree and encroachment of a temptation. Sometimes He lets them fall into the first degree of it, and receive it into their thoughts; but then delivers them from the second, which is to cherish and continue it there, by frequent pleasing reflections upon it. Sometimes He gives way to this too, but then hinders it from coming to a full purpose and consent of will. Sometimes He lets it go thus far also, and suffers sin to conceive by such a purpose or consent: but then, by a kind of spiritual abortion, stifles it in the very birth, and so keeps it from breaking forth into actual commission. And lastly, for reasons best known to His most wise providence, He sometimes permits a temptation to grow so powerful as to have strength to bring forth and to defile the soul with one or more gross actual eruptions. But then, in the last place, by a mighty overpowering grace, He very often, as some assert, or always, as others affirm, keeps it from an absolute, entire, and final conquest. So that sin never comes to such a height as to reign in the godly, to bear sway, and become habitual. But though its endeavours are not always extinguished, nor its sallyings out wholly stopped, yet its dominion is broken. It may sometimes bruise and wound, but it shall never kill.
Now the foregoing particulars, upon a due improvement of them, will naturally teach us these two great and important lessons.
1. Concerning the singular goodness as well as wisdom of our great Lawgiver, even in the strictest and severest precepts of our religion. Certainly it is a much greater mercy and tenderness to the souls of men to represent the first movings of the heart towards any forbidden object as unlawful in themselves, and destructive in their consequence, and thereby to incite the soul to a vigorous resistance of them while they may be mastered, and with tea times less trouble extinguished, than after they are once actually committed, they can be repented of. No doubt sin is both more easily and effectually kept from beginning than, being once begun, it can be stopped from going on.
2. The other great lesson is concerning the most effectual method of dealing with the tempter and his temptations; and that is, to follow the method of their dealing with us. A temptation never begins where it intends to make an end.
II. To show what is the prime motive, or grand impulsive cause, inducing God to deliver persons truly pious out of temptation. NOW this is twofold:
1. The free mercy of God; and
2. The prevailing intercession of Christ.
III. To show why and upon what grounds deliverance out of temptation is to be reputed so great a mercy
