DEUTERONOMY 33 VERSE 27-29EDITED BY GLENN PEASE

27 The eternal God is your refuge,

and underneath are the everlasting arms.

He will drive out your enemies before you,

saying, ‘Destroy them!’

BARNES, “Thy refuge - Rather, “dwellingplace.” Compare Psa_90:1; Psa_91:9.

CLARKE, “The eternal God - אלהי קדם elohey kedem, the former God; He who was of old. Not

like the gods which were lately come up. He who ever was and ever will be; and He who was, is,

and will be unchangeably holy, wise, just, and merciful. See the note on Gen_21:33.

Everlasting arms - As the arm is the emblem of power, and of power in a state of exertion, the

words here state that an unlimited and unconquerable power shall be eternally exerted in the

defense of God’s Church, and in the behalf of all those who trust in Him.

Thrust out the enemy - He will expel all the ancient inhabitants, and put thee in possession of

their land.

GILL, “The eternal God is thy refuge,.... God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting; the

Ancient of days, before all things, and all time; which is, and was, and is to come: the same is true

of Christ, who is the everlasting Father, or Father of eternity, the true God, and eternal life; as

appears from his nature, having the whole fulness, all the perfections of deity in him; from his

office, as Mediator, in which he was set up from everlasting; from his concern in eternal election,

in the everlasting covenant, and in the creation of all things out of nothing: and he is the refuge of

his people, the antitype of the cities of refuge, to whom sinners, under a sense of sin, flee for

refuge; and where they are safe from avenging justice, the wrath of God, the condemnation of the

law, everlasting ruin and destruction, or the second death; or their "mansion", or "dwelling

place" (k); which he has been in all generations, as Moses also says, Psa_90:1. Such is Christ to

his people, who dwelt secretly in him from everlasting, being chosen in him, and given to him;

and openly in conversion, where they dwell as in a strong hold, safely, quietly, comfortably, and

pleasantly:

and underneath are the everlasting arms; that is, of God, which are the support of his people, and

their protection, safety, and security; such as the arms of his everlasting love, which encircle

them, and compass them about as a shield; his everlasting covenant, which is immovable, and in

which they ever remain; eternal redemption and salvation, wrought out by Christ, which secures

them from destruction; and everlasting power, by which they are kept and preserved as in a

garrison; and everlasting consolation, which flows from all this: and so the arms of Christ, or his

almighty power, are under the world, to uphold it in being; and under his church, to support it,

on whose shoulders the government of it is; and under particular believers, whom he carries in

his arms, embraces in his bosom, bears them up under all their afflictions and temptations, trials

and exercises; nor will he ever suffer them to drop out of his arms, or to be plucked from thence:

and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; the Canaanites out of the land of Canaan, to

make room for Israel, which he was just about to do, and quickly did. In like manner Christ

thrusts out Satan and the spiritual enemies of his people, whom to dispossess is a work of mighty

power; and not only so, but gives orders to destroy them, and does destroy them, and makes his

people more than conquerors over them:

and shall say, destroy them; the Canaanites: to do which the people of Israel had an order from

the Lord, Deu_7:1.

HENRY, “

SPURGEON, ““The eternal God is thy refuge.” — Deuteronomy 33:27 (Morning and Evening)

The word refuge may be translated “mansion,” or “abiding- place,” which gives the thought that

God is our abode, our home. There is a fulness and sweetness in the metaphor, for dear to our

hearts is our home, although it be the humblest cottage, or the scantiest garret; and dearer far is

our blessed God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being. It is at home that we feel safe:

we shut the world out and dwell in quiet security. So when we are with our God we “fear no

evil.” He is our shelter and retreat, our abiding refuge. At home, we take our rest; it is there we

find repose after the fatigue and toil of the day. And so our hearts find rest in God, when,

wearied with life’s conflict, we turn to him, and our soul dwells at ease. At home, also, we let our

hearts loose; we are not afraid of being misunderstood, nor of our words being misconstrued. So

when we are with God we can commune freely with him, laying open all our hidden desires; for if

the “secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,” the secrets of them that fear him ought to be,

and must be, with their Lord. Home, too, is the place of our truest and purest happiness: and it is

in God that our hearts find their deepest delight. We have joy in him which far surpasses all

other joy. It is also for home that we work and labour. The thought of it gives strength to bear

the daily burden, and quickens the fingers to perform the task; and in this sense we may also say

that God is our home. Love to him strengthens us. We think of him in the person of his dear Son;

and a glimpse of the suffering face of the Redeemer constrains us to labour in his cause. We feel

that we must work, for we have brethren yet to be saved, and we have our Father’s heart to make

glad by bringing home his wandering sons; we would fill with holy mirth the sacred family

among whom we dwell. Happy are those who have thus the God of Jacob for their refuge!

SPURGEON, ““Underneath are the everlasting arms.” — Deuteronomy 33:27 (Morning and

Evening)

God—the eternal God—is himself our support at all times, and especially when we are sinking in

deep trouble. There are seasons when the Christian sinks very low in humiliation. Under a deep

sense of his great sinfulness, he is humbled before God till he scarcely knows how to pray,

because he appears, in his own sight, so worthless. Well, child of God, remember that when thou

art at thy worst and lowest, yet “underneath” thee “are everlasting arms.” Sin may drag thee

ever so low, but Christ’s great atonement is still under all. You may have descended into the

deeps, but you cannot have fallen so low as “the uttermost”; and to the uttermost he saves. Again,

the Christian sometimes sinks very deeply in sore trial from without. Every earthly prop is cut

away. What then? Still underneath him are “the everlasting arms.” He cannot fall so deep in

distress and affliction but what the covenant grace of an ever-faithful God will still encircle him.

The Christian may be sinking under trouble from within through fierce conflict, but even then he

cannot be brought so low as to be beyond the reach of the “everlasting arms”—they are

underneath him; and, while thus sustained, all Satan’s efforts to harm him avail nothing.

This assurance of support is a comfort to any weary but earnest worker in the service of God. It

implies a promise of strength for each day, grace for each need, and power for each duty. And,

further, when death comes, the promise shall still hold good. When we stand in the midst of

Jordan, we shall be able to say with David, “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” We shall

descend into the grave, but we shall go no lower, for the eternal arms prevent our further fall. All

through life, and at its close, we shall be upheld by the “everlasting arms”—arms that neither

flag nor lose their strength, for “the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is weary.”

SPURGEON, “This short passage is found in the midst of a mass of gold—sentences containing

the richest treasures of the Truth of

God. All this spiritual wealth is the heritage of the people of God—not only of His typical people

to whom these words

were spoken, but to His real people, the true seed of Abraham, those who are the believing

children of the Father of all

Believers. If you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, you may take these precious words home

to yourself—and you

may live upon them—you may eat the fat, drink the sweet and rejoice in all the refreshment that

they bring to your

spirit!

In the four verses, from the 26

th

to the 29

th

, notice how near God is said to be to His people. He is described as being

above us, arching us over with His Divine Power—“There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun,

who rides upon the

Heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds.” Faith can hear the tramp of the

celestial cavalry above our

heads! We who trust in the Lord are always safe, for the angels of God are looking down upon us

from the battlements of

Heaven, ready to show themselves strong on our behalf as soon as their presence is needed by us.

Then, our text tells us of

God beneath us. As He is above us in the heavens, so underneath us are the everlasting arms. The

next sentence shows us

God before us—“and He shall thrust out the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy

them.” And the remaining

verses of the chapter represent Him as being all around us, so that we are encompassed with God

—not only with His

Presence, with which He fills Heaven, earth and all deep places—but with the glorious Presence

of His mighty love. He is

above, beneath, before, and all around us! He never forsakes us, for in Him we live, move, and

have our being. Let us rejoice, therefore, in our Lord’s nearness!

I. Now, coming to our text, I want, as God’s Spirit shall help me, to bring to your notice, first,

THE QUARTER

THAT IS THUS HONORABLY SECURED—Underneath.

“Underneath.” Well, in the first place, that is the point of mysterious assault. We look for the

attacks of the powers

of darkness from underneath. They are very remarkable attacks—there are many who are the

objects of them, but there

are few who fully understand them. There are many of God’s children who are often sorely vexed

by Satan, yet they do not

know that it is the devil who is troubling them. They blame themselves for thoughts that are none

of their own, but which

come up from the infernal Pit like smoke and sparks from that dread lower world. O Friends, if

Satan has ever grievously

tempted and assailed you, you will dread beyond expression any repetition of that temptation or

assault! Mr. Bunyan

well says that a man had better go over hedge and ditch—and many miles round about—rather

than meet this terrible

adversary! He not only works through the world and through the flesh, but he has modes of

personal attack—fiery darts

from his own hands—false accusations and foul insinuations which come only from him. By all

these he assails Christians

and brings us to a stand so that, sometimes, we know not what to do! Just underneath us there

seems to yawn the awful

Pit, out of which Satan rises with his abandoned fallen angels, to do us mischief.

Then comes in this gracious assurance—“Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Against this

mysterious, because incomprehensible foe, whose darts are so painful and deadly, God has been

pleased to set a shield. And He puts underneath

you, O child of God, His everlasting arms! You may be tempted by Satan, but it shall only be in a

measure—God will

not let him put forth all his diabolical strength! When the Lord suffered Satan to tempt Job,

there was always a proviso,

which said to the devil as to the raging sea, “Hitherto shall you come, but no further.” The Lord

pulled him up short just 2 The Everlasting Arms Sermon #2435

2 www.spurgeongems.org Volume 41

at the point where he hoped to destroy the good man—and it shall be so with you, also, tried

Believer. Underneath you,

in your worst attacks from Satan, shall be the everlasting arms of the Lord Himself!

Note a second meaning of this word, “underneath.” That is the place of our daily pilgrimage. To

the Israelites, “underneath” was the burning sand of the terrible wilderness. Sometimes,

“underneath,” were the fiery serpents and all

manner of evil things, so that their march towards Canaan was a continual trial to them. “But,”

says God to His people,

“though sense sees nothing underneath but ever-burning sands, let faith see underneath the

everlasting arms.” Some of

you go forth to your daily labors and you find the place of your service to be a real wilderness,

full of trial and everything

that is unpleasant to you. Yet look again, with eyes touched with Heaven’s eye-salve and, instead

of seeing the bitter poverty, and the grinding toil, and the daily trial, you will begin to see that

God is in it all and, “underneath are the everlasting arms!” You shall go cheerfully home to

Heaven, borne up by God. He who made you will carry you! He who loves

you will bear you all the days of old till you shall come unto the Mountain of God and stand in

your lot at the end of the

days! I think, therefore, that our text applies not only to the point of mysterious assault, but to

the place of daily pilgrimage and toil.

Do you not think that this word, “underneath,” also relates to the place of perilous descent?

There are times in a

man’s life when he has to come down. It is not a very easy matter to go down the hill safely. Some

persons have proved

that it is difficult to grow old gracefully, but to the Christian it ought not to be impossible or

unusual to grow old graciously. Still, there are difficulties about that coming down the hill of life

—coming down in a very material sense, perhaps, from competence to real poverty. Coming

down as to your mental powers. Being conscious of losing your former

influence over your fellows. Coming down in general repute, through no fault of your own, but

through circumstances of

which you are not the master. All this is very trying to human nature. You know that on the way

to Heaven there are

many Hill Difficulties—and brave spirits rather enjoy climbing to the top of them! We like a

craggy path, hard and

rough, where we can keep on looking upward all the way even if we have to scramble on our

hands and knees. There is

something pleasant in going up in that fashion, but it is when going down into the Valley of

Humiliation that we are apt

to slip. We do not like going down and, as many horses fall at the bottom of the hill, so I believe

that many people trip at

the end of a trial when they think it is nearly over and they have no need to look so carefully to

their feet.

Well now, dear Friends, if any of you are going down the hill, I think the text comes in very

sweetly—“Underneath

are the everlasting arms.” You cannot go so low but that God’s arms of love are still lower! You

get poorer and poorer,

but, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” You get older and feebler. Your ears are failing,

your eyes are growing dim,

but, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” By-and-by, unless the Lord speedily returns, you will

have to die—and you

will come down very low, then—but still it will be true, “underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Further, I think that we may use the text as referring to a matter of intense concern. Sometimes

we say to one another,

“Is our religion real? We trust we love the Lord, but do we really love Him? We think we are

reposing in Christ, but are

we really doing so? We have a measure of joy and peace—does it really come through believing

in Jesus, or is it a delusion

of the flesh or of the devil? We have, so far, come a long way in the heavenly trail, but are we

really going towards

Heaven, or is it all a mistake?”

It is a good thing, occasionally, Brothers and Sisters, to look underneath. He who never sees what

is under him may

have great cause to do so. Examine your foundations—see what your cornerstones are, for if you

should be building on

the sand, then, in the time of storm, your fine building will be all swept away! It is a grand thing

if we can find this text

to be true—“Underneath are the everlasting arms.” I dig through my experience and,

“underneath are the everlasting

arms.” I question my joys. I examine myself about my sorrows, but do I come down on the

purposes of God, the Immutable faithfulness of the Most High, the eternal Truths of God

revealed in Scripture? Do I come down upon the everlasting

arms? If so, I am resting where the whole universe may rest—I am resting on a faithful God and

I need not be afraid! Do

not fear to examine yourself! If you do, there is, perhaps, all the graver need for the testing and

trying. Search and look,

and go to the bottom of these matters. Happy shall you be if, diving to the very depths, you can

say, “Yes, underneath are

the everlasting arms.”

I shall use this first word of my text in one more way. I think we have, here, the secret of singular

discoveries that will

yet be made. We do not at present know the reality of things—we judge according to our feelings

and by the sight of our

eyes—how else can we judge? But the day will come when things will appear very differently

from what they do now. Sermon #2435 The Everlasting Arms 3

Volume 41 www.spurgeongems.org 3

There is a huge trouble which has mastered us for years—it has seemed, with its dense shadow,

to darken our heavenly

way for a great length of time—but the day will come when we shall look through that trouble

and we shall find that

“underneath are the everlasting arms.” Perhaps some of us are in sore perplexity. We cannot

understand the Lord’s

Providential dealings with us. He does not always tell us the reason for His actions—we might not

understand it if He

did—but we may rest assured that He is working out purposes of Infinite Love! He ceases not to

care for us even when

things appear to be at their very worst. I bear my willing witness to the faithfulness of God! I am

not as old as some, but I

am old enough to have gone through fire and water, and I am here to testify that I have not been

burned by the one, nor

drowned by the other! Cannot many of you say the same? In your sorest trials and in your

hottest furnaces, has He not

been especially present with you and bestowed great blessings upon you? ‘Tis even so! Then trust

Him, you saints, for

what His Word assures you is gloriously true—“Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Go deeper down. Look further into the real reason of things than you have been accustomed to

do and you shall

come on this solid foundation—that God is working out for you infinite and eternal blessedness

by these light afflictions

which are but for a moment.

II. Now, secondly, let us note THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS QUARTER IS SECURED

—“Underneath are the

everlasting arms.”

The everlasting arms are there and that means, first of all, that God Himself is close to us,

guaranteeing the eternal

safety of all those who trust in Him. Of course, where any of his elect arms are, there He is, and

God is not divided from

His own arms. This is our joy and comfort that God is with us! What strength it gives to faith to

believe that God is present! Even the false prophet, Mohammed, had a strong faith in god—in

Allah—and when he fled for the first time and

hid in a cave with only one friend, his companion said to him, “Our pursuers are after us and

there are only two of us.”

“Stop,” exclaimed Mohammed, “there are three, for Allah is here!” It was the utterance of a

brave and grand faith—

would that his whole career had been in harmony with it! Wherever there are two of God’s

people, there is Another with

them, for God is there. We do not count Him in as we ought to do, yet, if we were wise, we would

put ourselves down as

only ciphers and say, “Nobody is there till HE is there! He is the one true, personal Numeral that

multiplies all these ciphers indefinitely.”

Mr. Wesley said, as he died, “The best of all is, God is with us.” And that is the best of all, is it

not? Underneath is

God, Himself. He who made the heavens and the earth cannot forsake those who do not forsake

Him. If you love Him. If

you trust in Him, He might as soon cease to be, as fail anyone who is relying upon Him. This is

the glory of Jehovah, that

while the gods of the heathen are worthless idols, our God hears prayer and answers the cry of

His people! Try Him and

see if it is not so. Blessed are they who trust in Jehovah, for they shall find in the living God help

in every time of need,

and sufficient strength for every day of trial! So, then, we see that what might appear to us as the

dark abyss, the dreary,

mysterious underworld, is all guarded by Jehovah, Himself—“Underneath are the everlasting

arms.”

Our text also means that the Lord’s Immutable Purpose is being fulfilled. Where God’s arms are,

He is at work, and

He is at work accomplishing His purposes of Grace. The text speaks of everlasting arms—that is

a strength that never

fails and never turns aside from the purpose to which it has bound itself. O child of God, down

deep where you cannot see

it, the Divine Power of the Eternal Godhead is always at work for you! The arms of God are busy

on your behalf! He has

made them bare to show Himself strong in your defense! You can be sure of this! God has a

purpose of love to all who

believe in Him—and that purpose of love shall stand fast to all eternity! Whatever changes there

may be in the appearance of this world and in the great universe of which it forms a part, there

shall be no change in the Infinite resolve of

God to bless His people and preserve them to the end. Why, Believer, be of good comfort, and say

to yourself, “At the

bottom of everything that happens to me, there is the Immutable Purpose of God and God,

Himself, working it out!”

Beside the Lord’s Immutable Purpose and His Infinite Power by which God is at work for you at

all times, our text

means that His inexhaustible patience is waiting its time. “Underneath are the everlasting arms”

bearing up your load,

sustaining it with long endurance while He keeps on working for you—invisible, yet always active

on your behalf. Do

you expect to see your God on this side Heaven? If so, you will be disappointed! Are you willing

to walk by faith and not

by sight? If so, you shall have a double blessing, for, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet

have believed.” Oh,

that the Holy Spirit of God would bring you to this point! Having trusted God in the Person of

His dear Son. Having

laid the whole weight of your eternal interests upon Him whom God has revealed to be your

Savior, you may leave them 4 The Everlasting Arms Sermon #2435

4 www.spurgeongems.org Volume 41

there in perfect safety, without a moment’s care or anxiety! God’s everlasting arms must carry

out God’s eternal purposes. Not one of His promises can fall to the ground, for, “God is not a

man, that He should lie; neither the son of man,

that He should repent: has He said and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken and shall He not

make it good?” It is God

Himself who undertakes to bear you up, and bear you through—therefore rest assured that He

will do it!

III. I must not speak longer upon that matter, for I must say just a little upon the third point.

THERE ARE TIMES

WHEN THIS TEXT IS VERY PRECIOUS TO BELIEVERS—“Underneath are the everlasting

arms.”

One of these times is, I think, when we are very sick and very feeble. The pillows have been

fluffed up for you and made

as soft as they can be. And the bed, which is so apt to grow hard, has been tenderly smoothed by

kind fingers, yet you

sink back as if you were about to die of exhaustion! Sink back, then! Be not afraid, for,

“underneath are the everlasting

arms.” Perhaps there comes a faintness over you and you seem to be sinking, sinking—you know

not where—still, “underneath are the everlasting arms!” You try to rise, but you cannot. You

would clutch at something by which you think

you might get back to activity, but you fall back into the same state of weary languor and pain.

Well, but still, “underneath are the everlasting arms!” It is delightful to feel that our feebleness

encroaches upon Omnipotence—that just when

there is nothing left to us—then God comes in with all His fullness and bears us up! He is always

faithful and full of compassion—He does not afflict willingly, or grieve the children of men—so,

when He must grieve them, it is then that He

displays His special power to strengthen and sustain them. Go home to your bed, if so it must be

with you. If there are

wearisome months of sickness and disease awaiting you, go home and carry this text with you

—“Underneath are the

everlasting arms.”

Is not this Word of God very sweet, too, when burdened with sore troubles, or oppressed with

heavy labors? You feel

that you need double strength and you say, “I cannot keep on any longer. There is too much for

mortal powers to endure, I cannot bear up under these repeated trials. The last time I felt thus, I

thought that I had no strength left, and now

this feeling comes over me again—what shall I do? I am thrown down, I am crushed as though

men were riding over my

head! I seem to be cast out like the mire in the streets.” Yes, but still, “underneath are the

everlasting arms.” We sang,

just now—

“As your day, your strength shall be.”

Is that truth or fiction? Ask God’s people as to their past experience and they will set to their seal

that God is true! And

you, too, shall find it true. Oh, how wondrously God’s saints have been borne up under

persecution—and cheerful and

glad under oppression! The sweetest songs that ever were heard on earth were sung behind

prison bars! Perhaps I shall

not be wrong when I say that the most wonderful joys that ever were felt by mortal hearts have

been felt by men and

women who, on the morrow, were to be burned at the stake—but whose very souls have danced

within them because of

the unspeakable delight which the Presence of God has given them!

I think it was Socrates who said, “Philosophers could be merry without music.” I take the

statement from his mouth

and alter it, and say, Christians can be happy without happy circumstances! They can,

sometimes, like nightingales, sing

best in dark nights. Their joy is not mere outward mirth. Sorrows fall upon them, yet, from the

deep that lies underneath

wells up yet more exceeding joy! Yes, “underneath are the everlasting arms,” and when we can

no longer stand, it is a

blessed thing to lean or fall back on them!

I have already told you that another time when this text is very sweet is when you are going down

hill. And some of

you may be going down hill pretty fast just now. Never mind—“Underneath are the everlasting

arms.” When you come

down the hill of old age, you know what lies at the bottom. Why, then, go up again, higher than

you ever went before,

renewing your youth and being forever with the Well-Beloved!

So, dear Friends, I may change the application of my text, “Underneath are the everlasting

arms,” and pass it on to

those who are all trembling and shaking. Some of you, perhaps, know what I mean. That young

man has begun to preach a

little, but he says, “I fear that I shall break down.” Dear Brother, if you get a message from God

to tell, then tell it, and

do not be afraid, for, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” You are seeking to gather a few

young people together and

you are trying to bless them, but you feel your own weakness so much that you say, “I know I

shall make a failure of it.”

Do not say so, for, “underneath are the everlasting arms!” He who helps us when we go down,

down, down, is equally

ready to do so when we are going up in His service! When our ardent zeal is bearing us forward

to do something more for

the Lord than we are quite equal to, then, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” And if you are

seeking greater holi-Sermon #2435 The Everlasting Arms 5

Volume 41 www.spurgeongems.org 5

ness, daring to indulge a loftier joy—if you are trying to sing some of those hymns which, a few

months ago, you

thought were pitched in too high a key for you—be bold and daring! Your wing feathers will

grow by your very attempt

to fly! The possibilities of Grace are boundless—leave yourself to them. Be not always weak and

trembling. God help

you to become as a David, and you who are as David, to become as an angel of the Lord!

Once more, the hour will come when everything will begin to melt away beneath your feet.

Earthly comforts will fail

you, friends will be unable to help you—they can wipe the clammy sweat from your brow and

moisten your lips with a

drop of water—but they cannot go with you on the great voyage upon which you are about to be

launched. When heart

and flesh fail, then may the Lord speak to you the sweet words before us, “Underneath are the

everlasting arms!” It will

be a sinking to the flesh, but a rising to the spirit! Underneath dying saints there is the living

God! Be not afraid, therefore, even to die, for, to the Christian, “to die is gain.” I remember, at a

funeral, when we laid the body of one of God’s

saints in the grave, a dear minister prayed, “Lord, we thank You that though our dear friend has

come so low as to be in

his grave, he cannot go any lower, for, ‘underneath are the everlasting arms,’ and in due time

You will bring him up,

again, in those everlasting arms, raised in the likeness of his Lord.”

That is true of all Believers! Therefore let this text come sweetly home to your heart

—“Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

I must conclude with this remark. There are some here who are net yet saved. I would illustrate

the way of salvation

to you by this text. You are hoping to save yourself. You are depending upon something that you

have done, or that you

have felt. I want you to let all that go, to give up every hope you have that comes out of yourself.

“Oh,” you say, “but I

shall fall.” Yes, you will, and that falling shall be your salvation, for, “underneath are the

everlasting arms.” There you

are, up at that window, and the flames are raging behind you so that you cannot escape—but one

stands below. He is

strong enough to catch you in his arms and he says, “Drop into my arms! Do not hesitate!” Jesus

Christ never yet allowed

any soul to be injured that dropped into His arms. Let go, man, let go! Let go everything and

drop into the arms of Jesus! That is the saving thing—to let everything else go and trust only to

Jesus, depending wholly upon Him who lived,

and died, and rose again—and is the ever-living Savior of sinners. Drop into His arms! They are

everlasting arms, as

strong to save, now, as they were 1,800 years ago! Drop into His arms. God help you to do so, for

His name’s sake!

Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

DEUTERONOMY 8.

Verse 1. All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you

may live, and multiply,

and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers. Every word, here,

seems emphatic. Like the children of Israel, we are to observe all the commandments of the Lord

our God—not merely some of them, picking and

choosing as we please. It is a very ill conscience which regards some of God’s statutes and pays no

attention to others! In

fact, the very act of making a selection as to what commands we will observe is gross

disobedience. “All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do.”

Notice that we are not only to do as we are bidden, but to do it with carefulness—“you shall

observe to do.” God

would not have a thoughtless, careless, blind service! We must bow our mind and heart as well as

our will to His service.

Remember, also, that it is not sufficient to “observe” the commandments so as to note what they

are, but we are to “observe to do” them. That observation which does not end in right practice is

like a promising blossom upon a tree which

never knits and which, therefore, produces no fruit. Further notice that to walk in the ways of

God is for our own benefit

as well as for His Glory—“That you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which

the Lord swore unto

your fathers.”

There are, doubtless, many good things which we miss because we are not careful in our walking.

I am sure that the

happiest life will be found to be that which is most carefully conducted upon the principles of

holy obedience to God’s

commands. There are certain blessings which God will not give to us while we are disobedient to

Him. Many a father

feels that he cannot indulge his child as he would wish to indulge him when he finds the child

negligent as to his father’s

will. So, if we please God, God will please us, but, if we walk contrary to Him, He will walk

contrary to us. Let me read 6 The Everlasting Arms Sermon #2435

6 www.spurgeongems.org Volume 41

this most instructive verse again, that it may be further impressed upon your memories and your

hearts—“All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you

may live, and multiply, and go in and possess

the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers.” To help you in obeying these commands, it is

added—

2. And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in

the wilderness, to humble

you, and to prove you, to know what was in your hearts whether you would keep His

commandments, or no. Look back and

derive from your past experience a motive for more careful obedience in the future. He does not

read his own life aright

who does not see in it abundant causes for gratitude—and how can gratitude express itself better

than by a cheerful,

hearty obedience in the present and the future?

3. And He humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna, These two

sentences come very closely

together—“Suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna.” I suppose we are not fit to eat

heavenly bread till first of

all we begin to hunger for it. God loves to give to men who will eat with an appetite—“He

suffered you to hunger, and

fed you with manna.”

3. Which you knew not, neither did your fathers know. It was a new kind of food and even in the

day when they ate it,

they did not fully know what it was. They saw that it came by a miracle and it remained a

mystery and, I think we can say

that though we have fed upon the Bread of Heaven, some of us, for well-near 40 years, yet we

hardly know, nor dare to

think that we know, what it is made of, nor can we tell all the sweetness that is in it. We know the

love of Christ, but it

still passes our knowledge. It is true of us, as of Israel in the wilderness, “He humbled you, and

suffered you to hunger,

and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know.”

3. That He might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that

proceeds out of the mouth

of the LORD does man live. It is a grand thing to be delivered from materialism, to be freed from

the notion that the outward means are absolutely essential for the accomplishment of the Divine

Purpose. If God had so willed it, we could have

lived on air—if the air had been sanctified by the Word of God and prayer for such a use! The

Lord has, however, chosen

to feed us upon bread—yet our highest life, our real life, does not live on bread, but it lives on the

Word which proceeds

out of the mouth of God! This is one of the passages with which our Lord fought Satan in the

desert and overcame him.

Happy is that servant of God who will arm himself with this same Truth and feel, “I am not to be

provided for merely by

money, or by anything else that is visible. God will somehow provide for me and I can leave all

care about the means, if

the means fail, and get away to the God of the means and lean, not on what I see, but on that arm

which is invisible! That

which you can see may fail you, for it is, like yourself, a shadow. But He whom you cannot see

will never fail you. The

strongest sinew in an arm of flesh will crack, but the eternal arm never fails and never is

shortened! Lean on that arm and

you shall never be ashamed, nor confounded, world without end! It takes 40 years to teach some

people that lesson, but

some, alas, have not learned it even at the end of 80 years!

4. Your raiment waxed not old upon you, neither did your feet swell these forty years. See how

God not only cares for

His people’s food, but for their raiment, also. We may, therefore, well take heed to Paul’s

injunction—“Having food

and raiment let us be therewith content.” Whether it was by a miracle that the Israelites’ raiment

did not wear out, or

whether it came to pass, in the order of Providence, that they were able to get fresh clothing

when it did wear out, does

not matter at all—it made no difference to them how it was arranged, for it was equal kindness

on the part of God who

provided for them. “Neither did your feet swell.” We call the Arab, sometimes, “The pilgrim of

the weary feet,” but the

Israelites’ feet were not weary. They traversed a stony wilderness, yet God kept them in such

health and strength that

their feet swelled not even after 40 years of journeying! You and I often get worn out in 40 hours

—forty days are as long

as we can hope to go. But God enabled His ancient people to go on for 40 years and still their feet

swelled not. Dr. Watts

sweetly sang—

“Mere mortal power shall fade and die,

And youthful vigor cease.

But we that wait upon the Lord

Shall feel our strength increase!

The saints shall mount on eagles’ wings,

And taste the promised bliss,

Till their unwearied feet arrive

Where perfect pleasure is.” Sermon #2435 The Everlasting Arms 7

Volume 41 www.spurgeongems.org 7

5. You shall also consider in your heart that, as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God

chastens you. We

sometimes think that we could do without the Lord’s chastening. If He will give us food and

raiment and keep our feet

from swelling, we will not crave the rod. No, but though we do not ask for it, the rod is one of the

choicest blessings of

the Covenant—and if we are the Lord’s children, we shall not go without it! To come under

Divine discipline is one of

the greatest mercies we can ever have. Many of us, who are now men and women, thank God for

earthly parents who have

corrected us. We wonder what we would have been if there had been no discipline in our father’s

house. So, truly, is it

with all of us who are God’s children—in years to come we shall prize the chastisement which

now makes us grieve. Even

now it is well if, by faith, we can apply to our own heart this text—“as a man chastens his son, so

the Lord your God

chastens you.”

6, 7. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways,

and to fear Him. For the

LORD your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths

that spring out of valleys and

hills. There are changes in our condition. Israel was not always in the wilderness—the chosen

people were brought into a

good land, into a place of rest from their weary wandering. So it may happen to you and to me

that even in temporal

circumstances, God may work a great change for us—and especially will He do this in spiritual

matters. After a time of

wilderness traveling, we who have believed enter into rest—we come to understand the Gospel—

and he who understands the Gospel is not, any longer, in the wilderness! In a certain sense, he

has come into the land of promise where he

already enjoys Covenant mercies. It is true that the Canaanite is still in that land and we have to

drive him out, but it is a

good land to which God has brought us, “a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that

spring out of valleys

and hills.” The Lord makes us drink of the river of His good pleasure. He satisfies us with the

cooling streams of His

Covenant love.

8. A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil, and

honey. I will not go

into a spiritualizing of all this, but I know that you who have come to believe in Christ and have

entered, by faith, into

His rest, know what sweet things God has provided for you—not merely bare necessities, but

choice delights. He gives

you to eat of the sweetnesses. He gives you the fatnesses—the wines on the lees, well-refined, and

the fat things full of

marrow. I trust that there are many here who know the blessed experience of joy and peace in

believing. You have entered

into a fair region. You have passed through the belt of storms. You have come where the trade

winds blow heavenward,

Your sails are filled, your vessel skips along before the breeze. You are making good progress

towards the Fair Havens of

eternal happiness!

9. A land wherein you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land

whose stones are iron,

and out of whose hills you may dig brass. There are deep things hidden away in the Gospel

treasuries. Silver and gold

there may be none, but then, iron and copper are much more useful things—and the most useful

things we shall ever need

in this life lie hidden beneath the surface of the Gospel! If we know how to dig deep, we shall be

abundantly rewarded by

the treasures which we shall discover. Well now, if your experience has thus changed. If you have

left the fiery serpents

and the howling wilderness behind you and have come into a place of peace and enjoyment, what

follows?

10. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land

which He has given

you. He permits you to eat—not to satiety, but you may eat and be full—only not so full but that

you can always bless

His name! Do not be afraid of holy joy! Eat and be full of it, only let it never take your heart

away from Him who gives

you the joy. On the contrary, bless your God for the good land which He has given you. It is said

that in the olden times,

pious Jews always blessed God before they ate, and always blessed God after they ate. They

blessed God for the fragrance

of the flower whenever they smelt it. Whenever they drank a cup of water, they blessed the Lord

who gave them drink out

of the rock in the desert. Oh, that we were always full of praises of God! Then it would not hurt

us to be full of meat. But

if we get full of meat and are empty of praises, this is mischievous, indeed!

11. Beware that you forget not the LORD your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His

judgments, and His

statutes, which I command you this day. That would be practical atheism—not keeping the

commandments of God is one

of the most vivid ways of forgetting Him!

12-14. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

and when your herds and

your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is

multiplied; then your heart is lifted

up and you forget the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from

the house of bondage. The 8 The Everlasting Arms Sermon #2435

8 www.spurgeongems.org Volume 41

other day a friend asked me this question, “From where does God get His princes?” And the

answer I gave was, “He often

picks them off dunghills.” Oh, but they sometimes forget the dunghills where they grew and

think themselves wonderfully important individuals! Then there is a time of pulling down for

them. We cannot eat and be full without having the

temptation of getting our heart lifted up! It is a great blessing to have the heart lifted up in one

way, that is, in God’s

way—but to be lifted up by bread, to be lifted up by silver, to be lifted up by flocks and herds is

such a bad way of being

lifted up that evil and sorrow must come of it! See, the Lord does not forbid His people to build a

house, or to eat and to

enjoy what He gives them. But He does charge them not to forget the God who gave them these

mercies, nor to forget

where they used to be in slavery—“Beware that you forget not the Lord your God which brought

you forth out of the

land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”

16. Who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and

scorpions, and drought,

where there was no water; who brought you forth water out of the rock of flint. I cannot but

pause as I remember my own passage through “that great and terrible wilderness, where there

was no water.” When a soul is under conviction of sin,

“fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought” are very feeble images of the pains and miseries that

come of guilt unforgiven! “Where there was no water.” Oh, what would we not have given, then,

to have understood a little of that Gospel

which, perhaps, we now despise? Oh, what would we not have given, then, just to have moistened

our burning lips with

the Living Water of the precious Word in which, possibly, now we see no refreshing? May God

have mercy upon us for

our forgetfulness of His great mercy! Let us, with deep gratitude, think of Him again—“Who led

you through that great

and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there

was no water; who brought

you forth water out of the rock of flint.” “More likely,” says one, “to bring fire rather than water

out of a rock of flint.”

And it did seem as if the Cross of the curse must have cursed us, yet it blessed us! The Lord

brought forth Living Water

out of that Rock which was smitten for guilty man!

16, 17. Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers knew not, that He might

humble you, and that He

might prove you, to do you good at your latter end; and you said in your heart, My power and

the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. We must not say this about either temporal or

spiritual wealth! If we have grown in Grace and have

become useful, and are spiritually a blessing to others, we must not take any credit for it—or else

down we shall go before long! God did not enrich you that you might set up for a god in

opposition to Him. Christ did not love you that you

might make yourself a rival to Him. Oh, that must not be! We must never say in our heart, “My

power and the might of

my hand have gotten me this wealth.”

18, 19. But you shall remember the LORD your God: for it is He that gives you power to get

wealth, that He may establish His Covenant which He swore unto your fathers, as it is this day.

And it shall be, if you do at all forget the LORD your

God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day

that you shall surely perish.

If you live like sinners, you will die like sinners! “Where, then, is the perseverance of the saints?”

asks one. Why, in this,

that they shall not live like sinners! God’s Grace will not let them go wandering after idols to

worship and to serve them!

He will keep us faithful to Himself, but if we will wander after idol gods, it proves that we are not

the Lord’s true Israel,

and we must expect to be served as others have been who have turned aside to worship idols—

20. As the nations which the LORD destroys before your face, so shall you perish; because you

would not be obedient

unto the voice of the LORD your God.

SPURGEON, “THERE is a great satisfaction in having such a text as this, for even if the

preacher should not be able to say anything

to edification, yet the text itself is rich food for the saints, and may fully satisfy their hunger. Let

but a child of God really digest such a royal dainty as this, and he shall be as well fed as was

Elijah when, waking up, found food under the juniper tree, in the strength of which he might go

for 40 days. This one verse may, by the Holy Spirit, be made sufficiently

nourishing to sustain a Believer from that place where he now is, to the gates of Glory. “The

eternal God is your refuge,

and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

It is fabled that the swan sings but once, and that just before it dies; so Moses, who had been all

his life a Prophet,

now closes his career a poet, and dies singing. He praises God, setting Him above all gods, and

defying all men to find

one like unto Him, “Who is like unto the God of Jeshurun?” Not satisfied with this, he also exalts

in the highest degree

all the people who have God to be their portion. “Happy are you, O Israel, who is like unto you?”

I may say that my text

is a combination of the two—he is here extolling God, the everlasting and eternal God who is our

refuge—and he is here

admiring the privilege of Believers who have such a God to rest upon. While we are speaking,

therefore, this evening, if

you are not profited by our words, yet your hearts may be blessed if you praise God for His great

goodness towards you,

and may you also feel melted with holy joy at the blessed privileges which belong to you as the

people of God, in having

such a God who is so good to you.

The text naturally divides itself into two parts—the present and the future; in the present, we

have the Eternal God

to be our Refuge; in the future it is written that He shall thrust out the enemy from before us,

and shall say, “Destroy

them.”

I. Beginning, then, with the first part of the text, THE PRESENT BLESSING appears to me to

give us three distinct thoughts.

God is our Shelter; “The eternal God is your refuge.” But the word, “refuge,” according to many

of the best translators, may be read, “mansion,” or “abiding place,” so here comes a second

thought, that God is our Abode. Then the next

sentence gives us the third thought, “And underneath are the everlasting arms,” so that God is

our Support, as well as

our Shelter and our Abode.

1. We will begin our meditation, in the Spirit’s power, by considering God as our Shelter. The

children of Israel,

while they were in Egypt, and in the wilderness, were a type of God’s visible Church on earth.

Moses was speaking primarily of them, but secondarily, of all the chosen ones of God in every

age. Now, as God was the Shelter of His ancient

people Israel, so is He the Refuge of His saints through all time. And first, He was eminently their

shelter when they were

under bondage and the yoke was heavy. When they had to make bricks without straw, and the

taskmasters oppressed

them, then the people cried unto the Lord, and God heard their cry, and sent unto them His

servant Moses. So also, there

often comes to men a time when they begin to feel the oppression of Satan. I believe that many

ungodly men feel the slavery of their position. Even some of those who are never converted have

sense enough to feel at times that the service of

Satan is a hard one, yielding but little pleasure, and involving awful risks. Some men cannot go

long making bricks

without straw, without being more or less conscious that they are in the house of bondage; these,

who are not God’s

people, under the pressure of mind consequent upon a partial discovery of their state, turn to

some form of pleasure or

self-righteousness in order to forget their burden and yoke; but God’s elect people, moved by a

higher power, are led to

cry unto their God. It is one of the first signs of a chosen soul—that it seems to know, as if by

Heavenly instinct—where Present Privileges and Future Favor Sermon #624

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 11

2

2

its true refuge is. Dear Brothers and Sisters, you remember that although you knew but little of

Christ, and in Doctrinal

matters you were very dark, though you did not understand, perhaps, even your own need, yet

there was a something in

you that made you pray, and realize that only at the Mercy Seat could you find your refuge.

Before you were a Christian,

before you could say—“Christ is mine,” your bedside was the witness to many flowing tears

when your aching heart

poured itself out before God, perhaps in strains like these—“O God, I need something; I do not

know what it is I need,

but I feel a heaviness of spirit; my mind is burdened, and I feel that You only can unburden me. I

know that I am a sinner;

oh, that You would forgive me! I hardly understand the plan of salvation, but one thing I know—

I need to be saved; I

would arise and go unto my Father—my heart pants to make Your bosom my refuge.” Now, I

say that this is one of the

first indications that such a soul is one of God’s chosen, for it is true, just as it was of Israel in

Egypt, that God is the Refuge of His people even when they are under the yoke.

When captivity is led captive, the Eternal God becomes the Refuge of His people from their sins.

The Israelites were

brought out of Egypt; they were free; albeit they were marching they knew not where, yet their

chains were snapped; they

were emancipated, and needed not to call any man, “Master.” But look, Pharaoh is angry, and he

pursues them—with

his horses and his chariots he hastens after them. The enemy said, “I will pursue, I will overtake,

I will divide the spoil;

my lust shall be satisfied upon them.” Thus there is a period in the spiritual life when sin labors

to drag back the sinner

who has newly escaped from it. Like hosts ready for battle, all the poor sinner’s past iniquities

hurry after him, and overtake him in a place where his way is hedged in. The poor fugitive would

escape, but he cannot! What, then, must he do?

You remember that then Moses cried unto the Lord. When nothing else could be found to afford

shelter to the poor escaped slaves; when the Red Sea rolled before them, and the mountains shut

them in on either side; when an angry foe pursued them, there was one road which was not

stopped up, and that was the King’s Highway upward to the Throne, the

way to their God, and therefore they began at once to travel that road, lifting up their hearts in

humble prayer to God,

trusting that He would deliver them. You know the story too well for me to need to repeat it here

—how the uplifted rod

divided the watery deeps, how the people passed through the sea as a horse through the

wilderness, and how the Lord

brought all the hosts of Egypt into the depths of the sea—that He might utterly destroy them, so

that not one of them

was left, and those who had seen them one day saw them no more forever. Beloved, in this sense

God is still the Refuge of

His people. Our sins which pursued us so hotly have been drowned in the depths of the Savior’s

blood. They sank to the

bottom like stones, the depths have covered them, there is not one, no, not one of them left, and

we, standing upon the

shore in safety, can shout in triumph over our drowned sins, “Sing unto the Lord for He has

triumphed gloriously, and

all our iniquities has He cast into the midst of the sea.”

While God is thus the Refuge of His people under the yoke, and when sin seeks to overcome

them, He is also their

Refuge in times of need. The children of Israel journeyed into the wilderness, but there was

nothing for them to feed upon

there; the arid sand yielded them neither leeks, nor garlic, nor cucumbers; and no brooks or

rivers, like the Nile, were

there to quench their thirst; they would have famished if they had been left to depend upon the

natural productions of the

soil. They came to Marab, where there was a well, but the water was very bitter; at other stations

there were no wells

whatever, and even bitter water was not to be had. What then? Why, the unfailing refuge of

God’s people in the wilderness was prayer. Moses, their representative, always betook himself to

the Most High, at times falling upon his face in

agony, and at other seasons climbing to the top of the hill, and there pleading in solemn

communion with God, that He

would deliver the people. And you have heard full often how men did eat angels’ food in the

desert—how Jehovah rained

bread from Heaven upon His people in the howling wilderness, and how He smote the Rock, and

waters gushed forth.

You have not forgotten how the strong wind blew, and brought them flesh, so that they ate and

were satisfied. Israel had

no need unsupplied; their garments waxed not old, and though they went through the wilderness,

their feet grew not

sore. God supplied all their needs. We in our land must go to the baker, the butcher, the clothier,

and many others in

order to fully equip ourselves. But the men of Israel went to God for everything! We have to store

up our money, and buy

this in one place, and that in the other—but the Eternal God was their Refuge, and their resort

for everything, and in

every time of need they had nothing to do but to lift up their voice to Him.

Now it is just so with us spiritually. Faith sees our position today to be just that of the children of

Israel then—

whatever our needs are, the Eternal God is our Refuge. God has promised you that your bread

shall be given you, and

that your water shall be sure. He who gives spirituals will not deny temporals. The Mighty

Master will never allow you Sermon #624 Present Privileges and Future Favor

Volume 11 www.spurgeongems.org

3

3

to perish while He has it in His power to succor you. Go to Him with whatever may be the trouble

which weighs you

down. Do not suppose your case too bad, for nothing is too hard for the Lord! Dream not that He

will refuse to undertake temporals as well as spirituals—He cares for you in all things. In

everything you are to give thanks, and surely in

everything by prayer and supplication you may make known your needs unto God. In times

when the cruse of oil is ready

to fail, and the handful of meal is all but spent, then go to the All-Sufficient God, and you shall

find that they who trust

in Him shall not lack any good thing.

Furthermore, our God is the Refuge of His saints when their enemies rage. When the host was

passing through the

wilderness, they were suddenly attacked by the Amalekites. Unprovoked, these marauders of the

desert set upon them,

and destroyed the tail end of them, and what did Israel do? The people did not ask to have a

strong body of horsemen,

hired out of the land of Egypt for their refuge, or even if they did wish it, he who was their wiser

self, Moses, looked to

another arm than that of man, for he cried unto God! How glorious is that picture of Moses, with

uplifted hands, upon

the top of the hill giving victory to Joshua in the plains below. Those uplifted arms were worth

10,000 men to the hosts

of Israel; no, twice 10,000 had not so easily gotten a victory as did those two extended arms which

brought down Omnipotence itself from Heaven! This was Israel’s master-weapon of war—their

confidence in God. Joshua shall go forth

with men of war, but the Lord, Jehovah-Nissi, is the banner of the fight, and the Giver of the

victory! Thus, dear

Friends, the Eternal God is our Refuge. When our foes rage we need not fear their fury. Let us

not seek to be without

enemies, but let us take our case and spread it before God. We cannot be in such a position, that

the weapons of our foes

can hurt us, while the promise stands good—“No weapon that is formed against you shall

prosper, and every tongue

that rises against you in judgment You shall condemn.” Though earth and Hell should unite in

malice, the Eternal God

is our Castle and Stronghold, securing to us an everlasting refuge.

To close our remarks upon this point—when their falls into sin had cursed the people of God,

and provoked the

Most High so that He sent fiery serpents among them, even then the Eternal God was their

Refuge. When we are conscious that sin has brought us into any mischief or sorrow, we are apt to

feel—“I must not go to God with this, because

it is clearly the natural and inevitable result of my sin—it is a rod of my own making.” Yes, but

we may go even with

that, for if the Lord should send the fieryserpents, still, you must fly into the arms of that very

God who has sent the serpents to bite you—for it is He, and He alone, who can lift up the bronze

serpent before your tearful eyes, and give you

life through looking at it! We make a mistake when we imagine that we may not go to God as

sinners; we may feel unworthy to go, but we must not think that we shall be unwelcome. I do not

go to my Heavenly Father in times of need

because I feel there are excellencies in me, which will qualify me for receiving His help, but I go,

because I feel unfit to be

blessed, and am therefore anxious for the blessing; I go because I feel unworthy of deliverance,

and am the more desirous

that I may get deliverance from the God of Grace.

The Eternal God, then, is our Refuge in a thousand ways. I have only given you a few hints on

this part of the subject, but we will sum them up, and then you can enlarge on them at your

leisure. Under the yoke, before sin is forgiven, if

you are a child of God, the Eternal God is your Refuge; when you have escaped from sin, and the

past haunts you, still

the Eternal God is your Refuge; when, in the wilderness, your needs press you down, whether

they are temporal or spiritual, then the Eternal God is your Refuge; and when your enemies

attack you, or your own guilt has brought you into

such a position that God Himself chastises you sharply, still, even then it holds good and true

that, the Eternal God is

your Refuge if you believe in Him.

2. Now take the second thought with brevity. The Eternal God is our Mansion, our Dwelling, our

Abiding Place.

The children of Israel had no other, and therefore if God were not their Dwelling Place, they

were houseless. Pilgrims of

the weary foot, they found no city to dwell in. At eventide they pitched their tents, but they struck

them again in the

morning; the trumpet sounded and they were up and away; if they were in a comfortable valley

for one day, yet that relentless trumpet bade them resume their wearisome march through the

wilderness in the morning; and, perhaps, they

thought they lingered the longest where an encampment was least desirable. Nevertheless they

always had a dwelling

place in their God. If I might use such a description without seeming to be fanciful, I would say

that the great cloudy

canopy which covered them all day long from the heat of the sun was their roof—and that the

blazing pillar which protected them by night was their family fireside. God Himself dwelt in the

very midst of them in the bright shining light,

the Shekinah, within the Holy Place, and up from the very spot there rose the great pillar which

was cloud by day, and Present Privileges and Future Favor Sermon #624

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 11

4

4

fire by night, and so, within the compass of God’s protecting Presence they found a perpetual

abode. So Moses sings,

“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.” Wherever they were, if they were

but under the shadow of

that cloud, they were quite at home, and whenever they got within the radius of the bright pillar

of fire, they felt that

they were not away from the family circle. Now I hope that many of us can say that the Eternal

God is our Dwelling

Place—

“Home, home,

Sweet home,

There’s no place like home,”

says the song, and certainly, if God is our Home, the song has a depth of sweetness in it. At home

one feels safe. An Englishman’s house is his castle; who shall intrude upon him there? When the

bolt is drawn, when the curtains are drawn,

when the family gathers round the fireside, then we have shut the world, and all our enemies’

babbling tongues out, and

we dwell in quiet. So when we get to our God, not bolts of brass nor gates of iron could guard

God’s people as well as

that wall of fire which Jehovah is to all His chosen. When we draw near to God in sweet

communion, we feel as if the devil himself were dumb—

“Then, let the earth’s old pillars shake,

And all the wheels of Nature break,

Our steadfast souls shall fear no more,

Than solid rocks when billows roar.”

At home, too, we take our rest. Out in the world, in the workshop, we toil until the sweat

streams from our face; in

the pulpit, in the midst of our congregations, our mind is so active and on the alert, that the brain

is often wearied, but

at home we cast ourselves down upon the couch, and feel that now the day’s work is over, and

that the happy evening of

rest has come. When I get to my God, no servile works have I to do—no hewing of wood and

drawing of water, like a

Gibeonite, in God’s house; but here I am, His servant, happy in His service, and finding sweet

rest in what I do for Him.

“We who have believed, do enter into rest,” and there is a peace which, “passes all

understanding, which keeps our heart

and mind, through Christ Jesus.”

At home we let our hearts loose. We cast aside all dignity there—we are no longer on our guard

like men in armor;

we are not afraid that our children will misunderstand us, or that our dear ones will misconstrue

our words and sentiments; we feel at ease. So is it when we are with our God. I dare tell Him

what I dare not tell anyone else; there is no secret of my heart which I would not pour into His

ear; there is no wish that might be deemed foolish or ambitious by others, which I would not

communicate to Him; for surely, if “the secret of the Lord is with them who fear Him,” the

secrets

of them who fear Him ought to be, and must be with their Lord.

It is at home, if anywhere, that a man is thoroughly happy and delighted. He takes his soul’s best

solace there; his

eyes sparkle most at his own fireside; whatever the man may be abroad, with all his cares and his

troubles, he can’t wait

to get home, as going to the place of his delight. So I trust it is with us and our God. We go out,

like Noah’s dove; with

weary wings we fly over the watery waste, ready to drop; but we come back again, like that same

dove, into Noah’s hand,

and there we find our resting place forever.

It is for home that a man works and labors. I am sure when I see the workers filling the streets,

just when work is

over, that the most of them have a home to go to for the sake of which they toil. What makes that

man work so hard?

Why, there are three little ones at home who must be fed! How is it that he is content to go

through so much toil, but

there is a wife at home dear to his soul, and for her and the babies he fights the battle of life

bravely. Be it ever so homely;

be it up ever so many pairs of stairs, yet the thought of that little room, and of the dear ones there

at home gives strength

to the man to bear his burden and helps his fingers to fly the quicker over his work. In this sense,

too, I think we can say

that our gracious God is our Home, our Mansion. The love of God strengthens us. We do but

think of Him in the Person

of His dear Son, and a glimpse of the suffering face of the Redeemer compels us to labor. We feel

that we must work, for

we have brethren yet to be saved; we have uncalled ones yet to be brought in; we have the head

of Christ to crown—we

have the Father’s heart to make glad by bringing home to Him His wayward and wandering

sons.

We will pause here, and see if we can say, “Yes, ‘tis true, Lord; You are, as the Eternal God, our

Mansion and Dwelling Place.” I pray, dear Friends, do not say this in words unless you know in

truth that the Eternal God is your Dwelling

Place. Sermon #624 Present Privileges and Future Favor

Volume 11 www.spurgeongems.org

5

5

3. We must be very brief on the third part of this present privilege—“Underneath are the

everlasting arms.” This

means that God is our Support, and our Support just when we begin to sink. We need support

when we are sinking, and

by the arms being “underneath,” it seems that this support is given just when we are going down.

At certain seasons the

Christian sinks very low in humiliation. He has a deep sense of his own sin; he is humbled before

God till he scarcely

knows how to lift up his face and pray, because he appears, in his own sight, so abject, so mean,

so base, so worthless.

Well, Child of God, remember that when you are at your worst, yet “underneath you are the

everlasting arms,” Christ’s

Atonement dives deeper than your sin. Sin may sink you ever so low, but the great Atonement is

still under all! I will give

you a text which proves it. “He is able to save unto the uttermost them who come unto God by

Him.” You may have gone

very low, but you can never have gone so low as “the uttermost.” Here is another. “All manner of

sin and of iniquity

shall be forgiven unto men.” You have plunged into nearly all sorts of sin, but you have not gone

into, “all manner of

sin.” Or if you have, it may be forgiven, so that this promise goes underneath you. The love of

God, the power of the

blood, and the prevalence of the intercession are deeper down than sin with all its Hell-born

vileness can ever sink the

sinner, while breath is in his nostrils

Again, the Christian sometimes sinks very deeply in sore trials from without. He loses his

property; his children die;

his wife is carried to the grave—every earthly prop is cut away. What then? He goes down, down,

down—yet still underneath him are the everlasting arms! You cannot sink so deep in distress and

affliction, but what the Covenant Grace of

an ever-faithful God will be still lower than you are—even when at your very lowest. Look at

your Savior—you are never as low as He was. Perhaps you cannot pay your rent, and you are to

be turned out of that little room; this is falling

low, indeed, but what did your Savior say—“Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests,

but I, the Son of Man,

have not where to lay My head.” I have supposed you to be in a very sad case, but, you see,

underneath you there are the

sufferings of Christ. Perhaps your friends have forsaken you; yes, but hear Him—“He who eats

bread with Me has lifted

up his heel against Me.” He is deeper in the mire than you. You are very, very, very poor, but see,

there He hangs upon

the Cross—stripped naked, without a rag to cover Him; deserted by all. You have gone very far,

but not as far as that.

Jesus represents the great goodness of God in its communion with your need, and in Him your

God puts underneath you

His everlasting arms.

Possibly you are sinking very deep down, under trouble from within. You have felt such

vexations of spirit as you

never thought you could have known; you have waged such a conflict as you never dreamed of;

the fountains of the great

deep have been broken up, and, as a deluge, sin threatens to cover your spirit, and drown all the

life in your heart. Beloved, you cannot, even there, be brought as low as Christ was, for what did

He say—“My God, My God, why have You

forsaken Me?” God is still with you to be your succor, and if you have lost the light of your

Father’s Countenance, yet

you have not lost it to so great an extent as your Savior did; you have not yet sweat “great drops

of blood,” you have not

yet prayed with strong crying and tears, and found that the cup could not be removed altogether.

You have not yet descended into the depths, as your Savior did; and so we will take it for granted

that underneath you, wherever you may be,

there are the everlasting arms. I think I see the devil trying to drown a Believer, but underneath

are the everlasting arms.

Satan says, “I will have him yet,” and down he dives lower still—but the everlasting arms are

even there. Why, look

what he did with Jonah! He got him into the whale’s belly, but he was not content with that. The

whale, of course, was

near the surface when it first sucked Jonah in, but it goes down, perhaps half a mile; it must go

yet deeper, and so it stirs

up the deep in its pain, for it has an indigestible morsel within, and it does not know what to do

with it! It plunges down,

down, DOWN, till Jonah says he went to the bottoms of the mountains, and the weeds were

wrapped about his head, and

the earth with her bars was about him forever—yet even then, “underneath were the everlasting

arms,” and therefore the

whale comes up, and Jonah stands upon the dry land once more! So shall it be with you, Beloved,

for in your worst trials

and times of difficulty, underneath you are the everlasting arms!

And this, also, I may give you by way of comfort, in any weary labors in which you may be

engaged. There are some

of God’s servants who feel as if they would willingly die; for to serve God, though very pleasant,

is at times very difficult

work; and when one is involved in God’s service, and is ready to drop, one will cry out, “Oh,

when shall the day of rest

come?” Courage, courage, you fainting soldier! Underneath are the everlasting arms—you shall

have strength equal to

your day! Your shoes shall be iron and brass! You shall end your journey well, and you shall

fight the fight till the victory comes! Present Privileges and Future Favor Sermon #624

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 11

6

6

At last, when death comes, the promise shall still hold good. We shall stand in the midst of

Jordan and, like poor

Christian, it is possible that we may begin to sink; but may we have some Hopeful with us then,

to say, as Hopeful did to

Christian, “Be of good cheer, my Brother, I feel the bottom, it is good”—for underneath us there

will be the everlasting

arms. You may be full of pain and anguish, and the spirit may sink into a spiritual death even

before the natural death

comes on; you may feel dying to be dreadful work, but still, if the worst should come to worst,

you shall yet in the hour

of extremity win the victory! You shall triumph over death, and enter into the Presence of God,

and bless His name because, “underneath you are the everlasting arms.”

I can scarcely venture on the second part of my subject tonight at all, for we have not done with

the first point. I wish

you to notice those two phrases which are the pith of the text. “The Eternal God.” “Everlasting

arms.” “The Eternal

God.” Here is antiquity. The God who was before all worlds is forever my God. Oh, how I love

that word, “eternal”!

But, Brothers and Sisters, there are some people who do not believe in an Eternal God. At any

rate, they do not believe

in Him as being theirs eternally. They do not believe that they belonged to Christ before they

were born; they have a notion that they only had God to be theirs when they believed on Him for

the first time. They do not believe in Covenant

settlements, and eternal decrees, and the ancient purposes of the Most High; but let me say that

for comfort there is no

thought more full of sweetness than that of an Eternal God engaged in Christ Jesus to His people;

to love, and bless, and

save them all! One who has made them the distinguished objects of His discriminating regard

from all eternity. It is the

ETERNAL God. And then there are the “everlasting arms”—arms that will never drop, arms

that will never grow weary, arms that will never lose their strength. They put the two words

“eternal” and “everlasting” together, and they remind us of another sweet word—Immutability.

An everlasting God who faints not, neither is weary, who changes not,

and turns not from His promise. Such is the God we delight to adore and to use as our eternal

shelter, our dwelling place

and our support.

II. The second part of the subject, AS TO THE FUTURE, I cannot dwell upon for lack of time,

but only give you an

outline of what one might have said upon it if there had been opportunity.

He who has been our God in the past, will certainly be our God in the future! And in the future

we have two things

to comfort us—Divine Work, and we have a Divine Word.

Here is a Divine Work. He will thrust out our enemies before us. Whatever your difficulties may

be, whatever your

sins may be against which you have to contend, remember, Jehovah leads the van, and crushes

your foes before you come

to them. You have to fight, Christian, with vanquished enemies, and it is an easy thing when you

have to overcome a

dragon who has already had his head broken by your risen Lord. Therefore Dr. Watts makes us

sing for our comfort—

“Hell and your sins resist your course,

But Hell and sin are vanquished foes!

Your Savior nailed them to the Cross,

And sung the triumph when He rose.”

Before you get to your difficulties, your God will have removed them. The stone was laid at the

mouth of the sepulcher,

and the women said, “Who shall roll away the stone?” But when they arrived at the spot, they

found that the stone had

been rolled away by an angel long before. March on, Christian—the Jordan may be very deep—

but as soon as the feet of

God’s priests touch the border of the river it shall be dried up. You shall have before you 10,000

things which may appall

you, but if you will but go on in the strength of faith, they shall prove to be but the shadows

which disappear when the

sun rises. There is Divine Work always going on before God’s people; His shield always goes in

front; His sword always

cuts and clears the way, and we have but to follow where He leads. When the children of Israel

passed over Jordan, the

priests who bore the Ark first dipped their feet in the stream, and it parted before the servants of

the Lord because God

was between the cherubim. So in every crossing which lies in the path to the city of our God, that

better city, Jerusalem

the Golden, we see the footprints of one who is our Priest—touched with a sense of our infirmities

and griefs because He

has endured the same before us; Who has planted His feet in the darkest depths, and made a

path through the mightiest

waters so that we need not fear—but may boldly plunge in—assured that we only follow Him

whose Presence will always enable us to say, “Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of

Death, I will fear no evil, for You are with

me, Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.” We follow the Captain of our salvation who says,

“Come on, follow Me.”

He goes before. Every dart that wounds you passes by Him. Yes, He has felt the first smart of

each poisoned arrow in the

devil’s quiver, and the venomous power has been washed away in His blood. There is not a

weapon in Hell’s armory Sermon #624 Present Privileges and Future Favor

Volume 11 www.spurgeongems.org

7

7

whose edge has not been turned on the armor of our great Champion; the keenness of every

blade is gone since it was buried in His wounds. When Jacob wrestled with the Nameless One till

the break of day, he came out of the contest with one

sinew withered so that he limped to his grave; and thus each of our foes has received a touch

from the finger of Him,

“who comes up from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah, traveling in the greatness of His

strength.” And that touch

has crippled the power of our enemies, they are spoiled and robbed of much of their satanic

might because they have been

beneath the heel of Him who has trod down all our foes beneath His feet.

Still, we are not to be idle, for we have next a Divine Word. He shall thrust out our enemies, but

He will also say,

“Destroy them.” We have to take God’s Word, and to be obedient to it in the future. Whatever

sins we have, there is only

one thing to be done with them, and that is to “destroy them.” A man has a number of faults, and

he says, “Well, Sir,

there is my drunkenness, and my swearing, and so on; I am quite agreeable to what you say, I

will destroy them. I will

hang them on a gallows as high as that on which Haman would have hanged Mordecai; but, Sir, I

have little a trick in my

trade—I should not like to tell everybody of it—it is a very profitable one, and I do not think it is

so very bad, for nearly

everybody else in the trade does it. Do you not think the best way would be to practice it, and give

part of the money I

get by it to God’s cause? I will be very careful, and do it only when compelled.” My dear Friend,

I have only one thing to

say to you about your sin, and that is, “destroy it!” Do not try to make it better, to dress it up,

swear it in, and make a

soldier of it for Christ—no—destroy it; this is your work. If your eye offends you, “pluck it out.”

“Oh,” says another,

“but I have a very bad temper; I sometimes fly into a passion, I think I must try to get over it by

degrees, but still I can

make a great many excuses for myself, and am I not quite right in doing so?” My dear Sir, I can

only say one thing, and

that is, “destroy it,” for the only proper treatment of sin is to cut it off and cast it from you. Do

not pamper it or excuse

it, but destroy it! Smite it to the heart if you can, and never be satisfied till you have utterly

destroyed it. Look at Saul.

He has been against the Amalekites, and he brings home a very beautiful flock of sheep and

bullocks, and so on. He is told

to destroy them all, but he brings them home, and Agag with them. Why did he not kill Agag?

Well, he was such a gentleman, such a thorough gentleman, that he did not want to kill him; it

was a public duty to sweep the commonplace

Amalekites out of the way, they were such rascals; but this Agag, why, he walked so delicately, he

had such a nice way

with him, he was so winning, he had such an enchanting face, had the manners and air, in fact, of

an Israelite—it would

be a pity, a great pity to kill him!

So Saul brought home the best of the sheep, and the beasts, and the cattle. and Agag with them.

But Samuel comes

in, and is in no sweet mood when he hears the bleating of the sheep. He demands of Saul—“Have

you done as God commanded you?” “Yes I have,” said Saul. “Then what mean the bleating of the

sheep, and the lowing of the cattle that I

hear?” “Oh,” said Saul, “I did not slay them all. I thought I had better spare some of the best of

them as an offering unto

God, so I kept them alive, and I have also kept Agag.” What came of it? Did the Prophet spare

the Amalekite? No, truly!

Samuel first told Saul that God had put him away from being king, and then he said, “Bring

Agag,” and Agag came to

him—you can imagine how he would come—and Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is

past.” There he stood,

and I think I see Samuel, getting gray then, very gray and not very fit for such service, but he

looked for the nearest

sword that he could get, and though it is not a Prophet’s work to kill, yet as soon as he could

grasp a sword, he hewed

Agag in pieces! He was not content to cut his head off, but hewed him in pieces, as a man would

chop a block of wood—

to show the anger and detestation which God had towards the most princely sins.

Now, Christian, your business with sin is in the Spirit’s power to serve it as Samuel did Agag—to

hew it in pieces,

and show the utmost hatred towards it. So far from making excuses for it, seek to devise ways by

which you may mortify

it and put it to death.

When the Prophet Elijah had received the answer to his prayer, and the fire from Heaven had

consumed the sacrifice

in the presence of all the people, he called upon the assembled Israelites to take the priests of

Baal, and, said he, “Let not

one escape.” And he took them all down to the brook Kishon and slew them there. So must it be

with our sins—each one

must die—let not one escape! Spare it not for its much crying. Strike, though it is a darling sin as

dear as an Isaac.

Strike, for God struck at sin when it was on His Son; even so, with stern unflinching purpose,

condemn to death that sin

which may have been the darling of your heart. Spare it not, because it may make sport or be of

use in any way. Remember Samson, how he gathered strength as his locks grew once more, and

how he avenged himself upon his foes. Beware

lest your sins which are only for a while repressed, and not totally destroyed, should rise up

again, and with new-found Present Privileges and Future Favor Sermon #624

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 11

8

8

might should hurl you to the ground, and bury you in the wreck of your noblest hopes and deeds.

You will probably ask

how you will be able to accomplish this work. Why, take the promise we have been talking about

—“The eternal God is

your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” If you would triumph over darkness, set

yourself in the Presence

of the Sun of Righteousness! There is no place so well adapted for the discovery of sin, and

recovery from its power and

guilt, as the immediate Presence of God. Get into God’s arms, and you will see how to hit at sin,

and will gather strength

to give the final blow which shall lay the monster in the dust. Job never knew how to get rid of sin

half as well as he did

when his eye of faith rested on God, and he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes.

The fine gold of the Christian is often becoming dim, and the spots will appear upon the surface

showing that we

dwell among the sons of earth in a world which lies in the Wicked One. We need some sacred fire

which shall consume

away the dross, and give us back the brightness we have lost. Go to God, He is a consuming fire,

not to your spirit, but

to your sins. You may so plead the work of Christ, and the Covenant of Grace as to make the

very Nature of God, which

would condemn you out of Christ, to cleanse you, being in Christ Jesus. You will be sanctified by

the God who would

have destroyed you had you not fled for refuge to the hope set before you. You have strength to

overcome sin given you

in the Covenant of Grace; you have strength to drive out your own iniquities; you have strength

to win battles for your

Master, because in Christ Jesus He has promised to be with you even unto the end. May the past

experience stimulate you

to future exertion, and let the goodness of God excite you to a sacred jealousy and to a holy

revenge against those sins

which are hateful in His sight.

May God bless you, Brothers and Sisters, for Christ’s sake.

SPURGEON, UNDERNEITH, “GOD surrounds His children on all sides—they dwell in Him.

The passage before us shows that the Lord is above,

for we read, “There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the Heaven to help

you, and in His excellency

on the sky.” Assuredly He is around them, for, “The eternal God is your refuge.” And He is

before them, for, “He shall

thrust out the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy them.” Here, according to the text,

the Lord is also under

His saints, for, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” “Lord, You have been our dwelling place

in all generations,” and

by You we are surrounded everywhere, as the earth is by the atmosphere—

“Within Your circling power I stand.

On every side I find Your hand.

Awake, asleep, at home, abroad,

I am surrounded still with God.”

The verse which contains our text should be interpreted somewhat after this fashion—“The

eternal God is your

dwelling place, or your rest, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” The parallel passage is

that verse in the Song

wherein the bride exclaims, “His left hand is under my head, and His right hand does embrace

me.” The soul has come to

its resting place in God and feels itself to be supported by the Divine strength. The heart has

learned to abide in Christ

Jesus to go no more out, but to lean on His bosom both day and night. It is somewhat in the

condition of Noah’s dove

which, when weary, was about to drop into the destroying waters, but Noah put out his hand and

plucked her to him

into the ark. And when she was all safe, in the hollow of his hands, held by her preserver with a

firm but tender grasp, she

found in that place a refuge which surrounded her and upheld her from below. The hands

covered her on all sides and

came beneath her, too. Even thus, the hand of God sustains all those who dwell in the secret place

of the Most High and

abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I am going, however, to take the words just as they stand in our own authorized version and to

consider them apart

from the context. I ask your most careful consideration of them, for they must be very full of

meaning and very emphatic

in their force. The words are placed at the end of Moses’ song and they are its crown and climax.

He had wound himself

up to the highest pitch of poetic excitement and spiritual fervor—and this passage is the result.

He had spoken grandly,

before, concerning the separate tribes and the words which fell from his lips are unspeakably

rich. But now he is about to

close and, therefore, he pours forth his loftiest strains and utters full and deep meanings—the

ripest and choicest fruit of

a lifetime of communion with God! As our Lord ascended to Heaven blessing His disciples, so did

His servant Moses,

before climbing to Pisgah, pour out a torrent of benedictions, full and deep, inspired by the Holy

Spirit.

It is not possible, therefore, that the language can be too greatly prized. The words mean all that

we can make them

mean! The nectar of their consolation is altogether inexhaustible! May God the Holy Spirit help

us to weigh and measure

them and then distil their inner sense and drink of the spiced wine of His pomegranate.

“Underneath are the everlasting

arms.” I shall handle the text in this fashion. Where? “Underneath.” What? “The everlasting

arms.” When? They are

underneath us now and always and if it is so, what then?

I. First let us attend to the question—WHERE? “Underneath.” Now, “underneath,” is a region

into which we

cannot see. We glance down and the dead cold earth stops our gaze. When we are heavy in spirit

we fix our eyes upon the

ground and look, and look, and look—but even an eagle’s glance cannot see far below. We

scarcely can peer beneath the

thin green sod—the bottom of a grave is well near the full range of mortal vision. The

underworld is mysterious. We

associate the subterranean with all that is dark and hidden and, because of this, it is often

regarded as terrible. A man Underneath Sermon #1413

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 24

2

2

scarcely ever fears that which he can see in proportion to his dread of what he cannot see.

Therefore, our alarm at the

“underneath.”

What may be underneath us when we leave this sunlit region for the grave’s overshadowing

vault? What will happen

to us in eternity? Life will soon end—what is death? What is the immediate result of death?

What shall we feel when we

are traversing those unknown tracks and finding our way to the Judgment Seat of God? Not

knowing except that little

which has been revealed to us, we are all too apt to conjecture terrors and invent horrors—and

so to begin trembling

concerning that which we do not understand! What a comfort it is to be told by the Voice of

Inspiration that,

“Underneath are the everlasting arms!”

Poets have usually been in a gloomy humor when picturing the underworld. Imagination is very

apt to spin a black

and tangled thread. You have read of dark caverns where the bodies of men are fast detained, of

which caverns Death has

the key. Of this the grim Anglo-Saxon poet wailed the warning note—

“Loathsome is that earth-house,

And grim within to dwell!

There you shall dwell,

And worms shall divide you!”

You have heard of gloomy ruins where the night raven forever sits and croaks. You have heard

of corridors where

prisoners incessantly rattle their chains to the dolorous music of sullen groans and hollow moans.

We have been afraid of

death because of the horrors with which our ignorance has surrounded it! And we have been

dismayed at the future

because of the mysteries which darken it.

Be comforted! Our text, like a lamp, reveals the abyss of death and lifts up the veil of the future!

Follow its gleam and

you will see how it dispels the darkness! If you are a child of God, you may descend without fear

into the lowest depths—

even if, like Jonah, you had to cry, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with

her bars was about me

forever,” yet you need not be dismayed—for, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” If you were

called to take some

such awful journey as Virgil and Dante have fabled in their poems, when their heroes descended

into the dread Avernus,

you need not tremble, though it were said of you as of them—

“Along the illuminated shade

Darkening and lone their way they made.”

If, I say, you were bound to traverse the sepulchral vaults and all the gloomy dungeons of Hades,

yet you need not fear,

for, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Mystery of mysteries! Death, you are no longer terrible to us because the Light of lights is shining

upon you! Depths

unfathomable, we no longer fear to pass through you, for there is One whose love is deeper than

the depths beneath as it

is higher than the heights above! And He has said, “I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring

them up from the depths

of the sea.” We gladly take our journey downward at the call of God! And without fear we pass

through the gates of the

tomb and enter the doors of the shadow of death, for, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

“Underneath”—the word

awakens thought and enquiry. Everything ought to be sound, solid and substantial there.

“Underneath” must be firm,

for if that fails we fail, indeed!

We have been building and our eyes have been gladdened with the rising walk and with the

towering pinnacles. But

what if something should be rotten “underneath?” Great will be the fall then, if we have built as

high as Heaven, if sand

lies underneath, yielding and shifting in the day of flood. “Underneath” is the great matter to

which the architect, if he is

wise, will give his best attention. And truly, Brothers and Sisters, when you and I begin to

examine our Graces and our

professions, that word, “underneath,” suggests many a testing question. Is it all right with us as

to the root of the

matter—“underneath?” If not, the fair flower above ground will wither very speedily. The seed

has sprung up hastily,

but how is the soil underneath? For if there is no depth of earth, the scorching sun will soon dry

up the superficial

harvest.

“Underneath,” though it is mysterious, is also intensely important and, therefore, the great joy of

being able to say

by faith, “Yes, ‘underneath’ is well secured, we have trusted in God and we shall not be confused.

We have relied upon

the eternal promises and they cannot fail. We have rested on the infinite merits of the atoning

Sacrifice of God’s dear Son

and we shall never be ashamed of our hope.” Happy is he who rests upon the Everlasting

Covenant ordered in all things Sermon #1413 Underneath

Volume 24 www.spurgeongems.org

3

3

and sure, for with him all is safe underneath! And, though the earth is removed and the

mountains are carried into the

midst of the sea, he need not fear, but may patiently hope and quietly wait for the salvation of

God.

For a period we may be content with superficial pleasures, but there are times of trial when we

have to fall back upon

something deeper and more reliable—earthly props give way, in their season, and we need

superior sustaining power.

The carnal mind meets with an hour when “the proud helpers do stoop under him” and

Believers, too, in proportion as

they foolishly lean upon an arm of flesh, find their confidences departing. Then it is that we feel

the value of Divine

upholding and rejoice that “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Let us look more closely into this most important matter. “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

That is, first, as

the foundation of everything. If you go down, down, to discover the basement upon which all

things rest, you come,

before long, to “the everlasting arms.” The things which are seen are held up by the invisible

God! This outward visible

universe has no power to stand for a single instant if He does not keep it in being. By Him all

things exist. There are no

forces apart from God’s power! No existences apart from His will! He bears up the pillars of the

universe. He, only,

spreads out the heavens and treads upon the waves of the sea. He makes Arcturus, Orion, the

Pleiades and the chambers

of the south. Foolish are those philosophers who think that they can reach the essence and soul

from which visible things

were evolved unless they bow before the invisible God! He is the foundation of creation, the

fountain and source of being,

the root and basement of existence. “Underneath” everything “are the everlasting arms.”

Most true is this with regard to His Church. He chose her and redeemed her to Himself—the

very idea of a Church is

from the Lord alone. As a temple He devised her architecture, saying, “I will lay your

foundations with sapphires.” And

He has built up her every stone by His own power. He sustains her walls against her enemies so

that the gates of Hell

cannot prevail against her, for the foundation of God stands sure. The foundation of every true

Church is the Lord

Himself, the Highest, Himself, establishes her. God is in the midst of her—she shall not be moved.

“Underneath are the

everlasting arms.” Blessed be God, what is true of the Church as a corporate body is true of

every member of the Church!

There abides no spiritual life in the world which is not founded upon the everlasting arms.

Beloved, if the life of God is in you, if you search deep and go to the basis of it, you will find that

your life is staying

itself and drawing its constant nurture, yes, deriving its very existence from the life of the eternal

God. Jesus says,

“Because I live, you shall live also.” Your life is the life of God in you, for the Divine seed is the

foundation of all

spiritual life. Beware, then, of harboring in your heart anything which has not underneath it the

everlasting arms. If

there is any hope, let it be founded on the Everlasting Covenant of God. If there is any joy, let it

well up from the

everlasting love of God. If there is any confidence, let it be stayed upon the everlasting strength of

Jehovah. If there is any

service rendered, let it be according to the everlasting commandment.

If in your soul there is any Divine Grace. If there is any virtue. If there is any praise, suffer none

of these matters to be

superficial or pretentious—the creation of your own native strength—but let them all be founded

upon the work of the

Holy Spirit in your soul. In fact, let it be said of each of them, “Underneath are the everlasting

arms.” Nothing will serve

our turn in the trials of life, the terrors of death, or the solemnities of the Last Great Day, except

that which has

underneath it the everlasting arms! See how the nations reel when God no longer sustains them

—“He removes the

mountains and they know not, He overturns them in His anger.” See how those Churches fly into

apostasy which have

not underneath them the everlasting arms—they are quenched as the fire of thorns and only a

smoke remains!

Did not Jesus say, “Every plant that my Father has not planted shall be rooted up”? See how

hypocritical professors

disappear like the morning mist when the sun rises! Nothing will abide the day of the Lord’s

coming unless its

foundation is laid in the eternal God. The Lord help us to know what this means so that we may

be like the wise man who

dug deep and built his house upon a rock. Again, we may read the words, “Underneath are the

everlasting arms,” in the

sense of being the bottom and end and object of everything. If in faith you search into Divine

Providence, however dark

and trying it may appear, you will soon find that underneath it are the everlasting arms.

Satan may be mining, but God is undermining! Even under the deep devices of Hell the

everlasting arms are to be

found. Satan’s craft is deep to us, but it is very shallow to the Lord, whose wisdom goes far

deeper than all the cunning of

the Prince of Darkness. The evils and errors which are in the world should not cause us to

despair of the ultimate victory

of the Truth of God, for beneath them there is still the immutable decree of the Ever-living and

the Ever-blessed—and Underneath Sermon #1413

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 24

4

4

that decree shall be accomplished, whoever may oppose it! Has He not said, “I have sworn by

Myself, the word is gone

out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. That unto Me every knee shall bow,

every tongue shall swear”?

His purpose shall stand. He will do all His pleasure. He works all things according to the counsel

of His own will.

Trace your present trials below their surface—trace them to the deeps, instead of groaning over

their outward

appearance—and you will find that underneath each trouble there is a faithful purpose and a

kind intent. Yes, beneath

the utmost depths of distress and grief, God is still at work in love to your soul! From seeming

evil still educing good

and, better still—and better still in infinite progression—underneath the best events are the arms

of love to make them

good and underneath the worst that can happen are the same everlasting arms to moderate and

overrule them! As the

design and object of all, “underneath are the everlasting arms.”

I take the text, “Underneath are the everlasting arms,” to mean, next, that the arms of God are

there as the

preservation of His people. His people sometimes appear to themselves to be in very great

danger, but it is written, “He

shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you up in

their hands, lest you dash

your foot against a stone.” Certain of the saints are set in very high places and their brain might

well be turned so that

they would fall. But they shall not slip with their feet, for God upholds the righteous. If under

deep depression of spirit

and sore travail of heart their feet should be almost gone, what a blessing it is to think that

“underneath are the

everlasting arms.”

Sometimes faith walks upon a very slender thread high up above the ways of common men.

Poising her balancing

pole of experience, she tries to keep her feet—but her satisfaction is that even if she should slip

for a while and her joy

should fail, yet there is a net beneath her which will receive her in her fall so that she shall not be

utterly dashed in pieces.

“I have prayed for you that your faith fail not” is the gracious safeguard of those who fall, as

Peter did, when Satan has

them in his sieve. The people of God must and shall be safe! Satan may cast them down, but God

shall save them before

they fall into Hell. Let us walk carefully, none the less, because of this. Let us watch well our

footsteps as much as if our

preservation entirely depended upon ourselves—but let us always look only to our Lord—

knowing that He, alone,

keeps the feet of His saints.

Holiness, strength of faith and ultimate perfection are the things which we must daily aim at, but

it is a blessed

consolation that when, through infirmity or carelessness, we do not fully maintain our

consecrated walk, we are not,

therefore, cast away forever, for it is written, “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down:

for the Lord upholds

him with His hand.” “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” That leads me to read my text in

the fourth sense as

teaching us that the everlasting arms are the rest of His people. If these everlasting arms are

always outstretched to

preserve me lest I totter in weakness and fall into destruction, then on those arms let me lean my

whole weight for time

and for eternity! That is the practical lesson of this choice word.

Keep yourselves, Beloved, in those arms which even now are embracing you! Why vex your heart

when you may be

free from care? Underneath everything, your Father’s arms are placed—what, then, can fret

you? Why are you

disquieted when you might dwell at ease and inherit the earth? Are you afraid to rest where the

universe rests? Are not

your Father’s arms a sufficient pillow for you? Do you think that it is not safe to be at peace

when the love and might of

God, like two strong arms, are stretched out to hold you up and the Divine Voice whispers to you

“Rest in the Lord, and

wait patiently for Him”? His own Word to His Prophets is, “Comfort you, comfort you My

people, says your God.

Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem.” Will you not accept the comfort which He sends by His

Spirit and bids His

servants impart to you?

When God Himself does rest in His love will you not rest in it and shall it not, again, be proven

that, “we that have

believed do enter into rest”? Is not the Lord Jesus our peace? Why, then, are we troubled? Well

may you lie down to sleep

in peace when underneath you are the everlasting arms! Well may your spirit be filled with

composure and become

indifferent to outward trials when you are thus held up! Blow, you winds and toss, you waves, the

boat cannot sink, or if

it did sink it could not sink to our destruction—we should only drop into the great Father’s

hands—for underneath

even the sinking vessel are the everlasting arms! Now, let the earth reel with earthquakes or open

wide her mouth to

swallow us up quickly—we need not fear to descend into her dreariest gulf—since underneath us

would still be the

everlasting arms! What a fullness of rest this secures to the believing people of God! Sermon

#1413 Underneath

Volume 24 www.spurgeongems.org

5

5

I will fetch from the text one more meaning while I am speaking upon the position of these arms.

The text seems to

give us a promise of exaltation and uplifting. We may be very low and greatly cast down, but

“underneath are the

everlasting arms.” The merciful God is great at a dead lift. “He raises up the poor out of the dust,

and lifts the needy out

of the dunghill that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people.” Who can

tell how high a man may

be lifted up—to what sublime elevations he may safely ascend when the Lord makes his feet like

hind’s feet that he may

stand upon His high places? If still underneath him are the everlasting arms he may safely obey

the word, “Get up into

the high mountains.” He may outsoar the eagle, mounting higher and higher till he has left the

sun like a speck beneath

his feet and still underneath him shall be the everlasting arms. Therefore higher and yet higher

may we hourly ascend in

thought, in joy, in holiness, in likeness to our God!

This is meant to encourage us to rise, since there can be no danger while the arms of God are

underneath. This, then,

my Brothers and Sisters, is where we may expect to find the strength and power of God—it is

underneath us, bearing us

up! We may not always see it, for the underneath is hidden from our sight, but surely as in secret

the Lord upholds the

huge columns of the universe so He bears up all His own servants and their concerns!

“Underneath are the everlasting

arms.”

II. Secondly let us meditate upon WHAT it is which is beneath us. The everlasting arms. What is

meant by this? I

hope the gentlemen who are so ingenious in toning down the word “everlasting” will not meddle

with my text. A new

way of reading the Bible has been invented in these highly enlightened days. I used to get on

exceedingly well with the

Book years ago, for it seemed clear and plain enough, but modern interpreters would puzzle us

out of our wits and out of

our souls, if they could, by their vile habit of giving new meanings to plain words! Thank God I

keep to the old simple

way—but I am informed that the inventors of the new minimizing glasses manage to read the big

words small—and they

have even read down the word, “everlasting,” into a little space of time! Everlasting may be six

weeks or six months

according to them. I use no such glasses! My eyes remain the same and “everlasting” is

“everlasting” to me whether I read

of everlasting life or everlasting punishment. If I clip the word in one place, I must do so in

another. And it will never do

to have a terminable Heaven. I cannot afford to give it up here when its meaning is joyous to the

saint and, therefore, not

there when its sound is terrible to the sinner!

What, then, are “the everlasting arms?” They are arms which always were and always will be.

They are arms which

always were strong and will never grow faint or weary. They are arms which, once outstretched,

will never be drawn

back again. They are arms which, once engaged for the defense of the chosen people, shall never

cease to work for their

good, world without end! Not failing arms, nor dying arms, but everlasting arms are underneath

the saints of God! I

understand the words to mean, first, the arms of everlasting purpose, “according to the eternal

purpose which He

purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” His purpose may be called His arms, by which He stretches

out His hands to do His

work and these can never fail, for, “The Lord of Hosts has purposed and who shall disannul it?

And His hand is stretched

out and who shall turn it back?” “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of His

heart to all generations.”

“He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, even that He does.”

We have to deal with One whose gifts and calling are without repentance. In the Book of His

purpose it is written

and His Providence and Grace shall tally with the secret decree, “He will have mercy on whom

He will have mercy, and

He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion,” and the everlasting purpose of

Sovereign Grace shall be

carried out to the end. O my Soul, when your poor purposes shift and vanish and you have to

change them 20 times a

day, what a blessing it is to think that the purpose of your God stands fast, and He, Himself, is

without the shadow of a

turning! He has declared that He that believes in Christ shall be saved and so you shall be,

though all Hell assail you!

Come what may, the eternal purpose lies at the bottom of all, and will be the end and result of all,

and so all Israel shall

be saved, for, “underneath are the everlasting arms” of unchanging purpose.

But next we see here the everlasting arms of love. I do no violence to Scripture when I compare

love to arms, for is it

not written, “I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I

drawn you”? Love has

hands and arms with which it draws us and these are, at this moment underlying all the dealings

of God with us. This

love is everlasting love—without beginning, without variation, without end. Underneath you,

child of God, is the

infinite affection of the Omnipotent God—what, then, can harm you? Underneath Sermon #1413

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 24

6

6

Your love? Ah, how it flames forth at times and then how dull it becomes! But your safety comes

from a love which

never varies, which many waters cannot quench and which the floods cannot drown. Look

beneath you and you may see a

depth of love, fathomless and eternal, which may well remind you of what Moses said when he

spoke of “the deep which

lies under.” The strength of love which abides in God, who is Love itself, no mind can conceive!

All this is placed under

you, O Believer, for your succor, support and security. Immovable arches of immortal Love

sustain your soul from fear of

ruin. Rest there and sing unto the Lord your song upon your stringed instrument as long as you

have any being.

But next, these arms may be described as the arms of power. And what says Isaiah the Prophet?

“Trust you in the

Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength.” What said Jeremiah? “Ah

Lord God! Behold, You

have made the Heaven and the earth by Your great power and stretched out arm and there is

nothing too hard for You.”

Strength is needed to uphold the people of God lest they fall to their confusion and that strength

is always ready, no, it is

always in exercise! Believer, you have been able to stand because the arm of Divine strength has

never been withdrawn.

He is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless and He will do it. “O bless our

God, you people, and make

the voice of His praise to be heard: which holds our soul in life, and suffers not our feet to be

moved.” These are the arms

of Immutability, for God abides forever the same. “I am God; I change not: therefore you sons of

Jacob are not

consumed.”

He saved His people “with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for His mercy endures

forever.” They are the arms

of everlasting blessing, for God has determined to make His people happy and happy they shall

be. “Surely,” He says, “in

blessing I will bless you.” “Your blessing is upon Your people.” He gives liberally unto them and

that liberality is never

diminished, nor can it be stopped. Underneath you, Believer, are the everlasting arms, forever

carrying you as a nurse

carries her child, forever gathering up for you innumerable blessings and carrying them for your

provision. He shall

gather the lambs with His arms and with those same arms will He show strength unto His people.

How blest are they who

have such arms beneath them!

I heard of a man who was spending a great deal of money, living in grand style and launching out

in business.

Certain of his fellow tradesmen told me that they could not see a reason for his cutting such a

figure. But said one,

“There is somebody at his back, we are quite sure of that.” And so it is with us—we may well be

strong, we may well be

happy—for there is an unseen power which is at our back—the everlasting arms are underneath

us—and we cannot fail!

Let us be joyous, confident and praise the right hand of the Lord! Yes, though our conflicts

should multiply, let us not

fear, but let us sing unto the Lord, “Your right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. The

right hand of the Lord

is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.” For this right hand upholds the cause of

His servants.

III. Now, in the third place, let us consider WHEN the everlasting arms are underneath us. The

only answer is now

and for evermore. Now, at this moment, Beloved, the everlasting arms are underneath us! The

life of a Christian is

described as walking by faith and to my mind, walking by faith is the most extraordinary miracle

ever beheld beneath the

sun! Walking on the waves, as Peter did, is a type of the life of every Christian. I have sometimes

likened it to ascending

an invisible staircase far up into the clouds. You cannot see an inch in front of you, but you wind

up towards the Light.

When you look down, all is dark, and before you lies nothing visible but clouds. Beneath you

yawns a fathomless abyss.

Yet we have climbed, some of us, for years up this perpetually ascending stairway, never seeing

an inch before us. We

have often paused almost in horror and asked in wonder, “What next? What next?” Yet what we

thought was cloud has

proved to be solid rock! Darkness has been light before us and slippery places have been safe.

Every now and then, when

the darkness has been denser than usual—a darkness which might be felt, when all the past

behind us has vanished and

nothing has been seen but the one step we stood on—we have said, “How did I get here? What a

strange, mysterious life

mine has been!” We have almost wished ourselves down on the level among the worldlings who

can always see their way

and know what is underneath them. But faith has come to our help, again—we have believed—

and believing we have

seen the invisible and grasped the eternal! And then we have gone on, have put our foot down

again and soon have run

up, with joy, the shining way!

What an ascent we have sometimes made upon that ladder of light so that we have companied

with angels and left the

world far down beneath our feet! Now and then we have enjoyed a glimpse through the thick

darkness of the jeweled

walls of the Eternal City which needs no candle, neither light of the sun. We have seen, I say, its

brightness and

determined, still, to climb the mysterious way. Well, Believer, at this moment, though you cannot

see your way, yet since Sermon #1413 Underneath

Volume 24 www.spurgeongems.org

7

7

you are walking by faith, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” It is so, though at this moment

you fear that you are

going down into a gloomy glen. You have lost a great deal of money lately and the friend who so

kindly helped you is

taken away, so that you are going down in the world—yes, but underneath are the everlasting

arms.

You are getting nearer to those arms now. Friends and wealth came between you and the

almighty arms—but now

you must lean only on them. The creature fails and you must rest on the Creator! You will have

sweeter fellowship, now,

than you ever had, since there is nothing to come between you and your Lord. “Ah,” says one,

“but I am sinking in

spirit. I am greatly depressed.” Still underneath are the everlasting arms. Your soul is sinking,

like Peter in the waves,

but a hand is outstretched to save you—you cannot sink while your heavenly Father’s hands are

near. Go on sinking, if

the Lord so wills it. Sometimes the greatest sweetness in life is found and intense bitterness. I

never have in my soul a

more solid and real joy than when I have been cast into the dust with fearful depression of spirit.

I stay myself upon my

God and Him, only, and then I touch the confines of bliss, though trembling all the while. I

hardly know how to express

the unrivalled sweetness of resting upon only the Lord!

When you are flung altogether upon God, then does your soul enter into the most Divine peace!

The natural spirits

have gone, everything that sprang from the vigor of youth and the natural elasticity of the mind

has departed—now you

come right upon God and lie naked in His hands. And then there is cast into your cup a foretaste

of Heaven which the

soul sits down and humbly sips to herself, for the secret she can never tell—no ear would

understand her if she did.

“Underneath are the everlasting arms.” And so, dear Friends, if you should sink both in

circumstances and in spirits and

your experience should happen to be a very downcast one, it will still be well. If now you have to

discover the corruption

of your nature, which you knew little of before. If now your experience, instead of being that of

the Brethren of the

higher life, should be one of humiliation, of prostration of spirit, of deep self-loathing—still,

underneath you are the

everlasting arms. If you are not to climb to Pisgah with Moses, but must dive to the bottom of the

mountains like Jonah,

still underneath are the everlasting arms—even at the lowest point of your going down! So it

shall be forever and

forever, for the arms are everlasting in their position as well as their power.

Now you have come to die. You have gathered up your feet in the bed. The death sweat stands

upon your brow. You

are sinking, so far as this life is concerned, among the sons of men, but underneath you shall then

be the everlasting arms!

Beautifully has Bunyan described confidence in death, when he pictures the pilgrims passing the

river. Christian cried out

to young Hopeful, “I sink in deep waters! The billows go over my head! All His waves go over

me.” Then said Hopeful,

“Be of good cheer, my Brother, I feel the bottom and it is good.” Thus, Beloved, shall it be with

you! You shall feel the

bottom of death’s chill river, but you shall say, “It is good,” for underneath are the everlasting

arms!

Then comes the last plunge and we shall be as when a man stands on the edge of a precipice and

leaps over into the

clouds below him. You need not fear to take your last farewell and drop into your Father’s arms,

for underneath you

shall be the everlasting arms! And oh, how sweetly shall you be caught up together with the Lord

in the air, pressed to

the bosom of the great Father and borne upward into the Heaven of heavens where you shall

behold the face of the WellBeloved and find yourselves entranced in His company forever and

forever! O heir of Glory, underneath you there is no

Hell! Underneath you there is no annihilation! Underneath you are the everlasting arms—

therefore commit your spirit

unto your faithful Creator and then welcome life or death, for all is well with you!

IV. Lastly, let us reply to the query, WHAT THEN? If underneath us are the everlasting arms,

what then? First, let

us look underneath. My Brothers and Sisters, you have been going on with great discomfort,

sighing and crying because

your way is rough and because sometimes you think it dangerous and fear that you will slip into

a chasm and perish.

Now, instead of complaining after this fashion, and fearing the road, stop a little and begin to

examine—“What is

underneath me? What is the bottom of my hope?”

You hypocrites dare not examine! You formalists dare not search! You are afraid to ask

questions and to open your

eyes lest you should see too much. But those who are honest and sincere in the way of our Lord

are not afraid to be tested.

You who are under any anxiety will do well to pull right up and say, “I have been troubled with

doubts and fears and I

will no longer endure it. I will know the end of this! I will search myself and know my ways and

pray the Lord to let me

see the worst of my case, for I long to know what there is underneath.” If you are believing in

Jesus Christ with a sincere

heart and resting in the atoning Sacrifice and the Covenant of which His blood is the seal, you

can afford to search

underneath—for you will find all things solid and eternal! Underneath Sermon #1413

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 24

8

8

It is well to look underneath an outward Providence when it frowns darkly upon you, for it

conceals the eternal

purpose of love. The sorrows which you see are but, as it were, a napkin hiding the precious

treasure of eternal Grace

and, therefore, you can say to yourself in all ill weathers, “All is well, for all is well underneath!

The eternal purpose is

working out my lasting good.” Do not be afraid to search underneath, my trembling Brothers

and Sisters. but when you

do so and find the everlasting arms to be there, then sing unto the Lord with all your might!

The next inference is, if underneath us are the everlasting arms, let us lean heavily. We are afraid

to lean too hard on

God. To be careful not to encroach on a friend is a very proper disposition. Do not spoil a

generous friend by drawing

upon him so heavily that he will dread to see you again. I wish some people had a little more of

that disposition, as far as

I am concerned, but this is not a right feeling when you have to deal with the Lord! Never fear

that you will weary your

God! Never say to yourself, “I will ask as little as I can.” Why, He says, “Open your mouth wide

and I will fill it!” Never

say, “I will trust Him a little. I will take Him a part of my cares and rest a portion of my trials

upon Him.” No, lean with

your whole weight!

Do not keep a spare ounce for your own carrying—that will break your back! Bring all the tons

and the pounds and

the ounces and the pennyweights and cast them all on God! He loves His children to treat Him

with entire confidence. All

your weight will not trouble Him. You know Aesop’s fable of the polite little gnat which

apologized to the ox for

burdening him when he lighted on his horn, and the ox replied that he really did not know he was

there. Your God will

not tell you that, for He counts the very hairs of your head, but He will tell you that your load is

no burden to Him.

Why, if you had 50 kingdoms burdening your brain and if you carried the politics of a hundred

nations in your mind, or

were loaded with all the cares of a thousand worlds, you might safely leave them with the

Wonderful Counselor and go

your way rejoicing! Lean hard, Brothers and Sisters! For underneath you are the everlasting

arms!

The next thing is, then, let us rise confidently. Do not be afraid of ascending to heights of love. Do

not be afraid of

having a high ambition for a wholly consecrated life. Be not afraid of high doctrines, or high

enjoyments, or high

attainments in holiness. Go as high as you like, for underneath you are the everlasting arms! It

would be dangerous to

speculate, but it is safe to believe. Some men are always going downward, turning diamonds into

gas and hallelujahs into

howls! They are trying to get rid of precious Truths of God and to substitute some new theories

for them. Let us be brave

in the other direction and seek to comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths,

and to know the love of

Christ which passes knowledge. You may climb, my dear young Brothers and Sisters, nor fear to

fall even if you reach the

masthead of Truth, for underneath are the everlasting arms!

Once more, let us dare unhesitatingly and be very courageous for the Lord our God—

“Through floods or flames, if Jesus leads,

I’ll follow where He goes”

for underneath are the everlasting arms! Are you called upon to lose everything for Christ? Go

on and leap like Curtius

into the gulf for your Lord Jesus, for underneath you are the everlasting arms! Does your Master

call you to an enterprise

which seems impossible? Nevertheless, if God has called you to it, attempt it, for He renders to

every man according to

his work. Remember what the Negro said—“If Massa Jesus say to me, ‘Sam, you jump through

that brick wall,’ I jump.

It is Sam’s business to jump—it is Massa’s work to make me go through the wall.” So it is with

you. It is yours to leap

forward when the Captain gives the watchword—and in confidence to attempt what mere nature

cannot achieve—for

the supernatural is with us!

The best of all is, God is with us! Underneath us are the everlasting arms! Less reliance upon self

and more reliance

upon God! Less counting of the barley loaves and fishes—and a greater readiness to bring them

to His hands who can

multiply them till they shall feed the thousands—this is what we need! God grant us Grace to

trust in His almighty

power and sing from now on and forever, “underneath are the everlasting arms!”

28 So Israel will live in safety;

Jacob will dwell[f] secure

in a land of grain and new wine,

where the heavens drop dew.

BARNES, “The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine - The King James

Version does not preserve the symmetry of the clauses. Render it: “Israel shall dwell in safety;

alone shall the fountain of Jacob be” (compare Psa_68:26; Isa_48:1); “in a land,” etc.

CLARKE, “Israel then shall dwell - alone - This people shall not be incorporated with any other

people under heaven. A prophecy which continues to be fulfilled to the very letter. Every attempt

to unite them with any other people has proved absolutely ineffectual.

The fountain of Jacob - His offspring, shall possess a most fertile land; such was Palestine.

GILL, “Israel then shall dwell in safety alone,.... The Canaanites being thrust out of their land,

and Israel put into the possession of it, should dwell in safety, or "confidently" (l); without fear of

enemies, though surrounded with them on all hands; and though alone, a separate people,

distinct from all others their neighbours round about them; see Num_23:9. So the spiritual Israel

dwell in the eternal God, their mansion, or dwelling place; in Christ, their rock; and in a strong

city, the church, where they are in the utmost safety. God is all around them; Christ is their

refuge, strong hold, and tower; the Holy Spirit in the midst of them is mighty; angels are their

guardians, and the church their strong city, whose walls and bulwarks are salvation: here they

dwell confidently and securely; though they have sometimes their fears, they have no just reason

for them; and when faith is in exercise, are free from them, casting all their care on the Lord, and

having confidence in him; where they are alone, not solitary; all the three divine Persons dwell

with them, and also angels and saints their fellow citizens; but independent of others, having

large provisions in Christ, in the covenant, and in the house of God; and are a separate and

distinct people now, and will be to all eternity; See Gill on Num_23:9,

the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; that is, the Israelites that spring

from Jacob, as streams of water from a fountain; see Isa_48:1; these shall be or dwell upon the

land of Canaan, a land abounding with corn and wine, and all good things, Deu_8:7; or "in" or

"by the fountain of Jacob" (m); in a well watered land, there they should dwell. So the spiritual

Israel of God dwell in and by Christ, the fountain of gardens, the well of living waters, of life and

salvation, in whom all fulness of grace dwells for their supply: or "the eye of Jacob" (n) is or

shall be on a land, &c. that is, the Israelites had their eye on the good land of Canaan, and would

quickly not only be in sight, but in possession of it. Every true Israelite has a spiritual eye, which

is the eve of faith, the evidence of things not seen, which looks to and upon that better country,

the land afar off, heaven and eternal happiness, and expects and waits for the full, enjoyment of

it:

also his heavens shall drop down dew: the heavens over the land of Canaan should drop down

dew upon it, and make it fruitful to bring forth corn and wine, which was Jacob's blessing,

Gen_27:28. Thus the Lord in the heavens drops down the dew of grace, and the blessings of it,

upon his people, which make them revive as the corn, and grow as the vine; and Christ's

heavenly ministers drop the dew of Gospel doctrine upon them, to the great refreshment of them,

Deu_32:3.

HENRY, “

SPURGEON, “Dwelling Safely Apart - Faith's Checkbook

“Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and

wine, also his heavens shall drop down dew.”—Deuteronomy 33:28

THE more we dwell alone, the more safe shall we be. God would have His people separate from

sinners. His call to them is, “Come ye out from among them.” A Christian world is such a

monstrosity as the Scriptures never contemplate. A worldly Christian is spiritually diseased.

Those who compromise with Christ’s enemies may be reckoned with them.

Our safety lies not in making terms with the enemy, but in dwelling alone with our best Friend. If

we do this, we shall dwell in safety, despite the sarcasms, the slanders, and the sneers of the

world. We shall be safe from the baleful influence of its unbelief, its pride, its vanity, its filthiness.

God also will make us dwell in safety alone in that day when sin shall be visited on the nations by

wars and famines.

The Lord brought Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, but he stopped halfway. He had no blessing

till, having set out to go to the land of Canaan, to the land of Canaan he came. He was safe alone

even in the midst of foes. Lot was not safe in Sodom though in a circle of friends. Our safety is in

dwelling apart with God.

SPURGEON, ““His heavens shall drop down dew.”—Deuteronomy 33:28

WHAT the dew in the East is to the world of nature, that is the influence of the Spirit in the

realm of grace. How greatly do I need it! Without the Spirit of God I am a dry and withered

thing. I droop, I fade, I die. How sweetly does this dew refresh me! When once favored with it, I

feel happy, lively, vigorous, elevated. I want nothing more. The Holy Spirit brings me life and all

that life requires. All else without the dew of the Spirit is less than nothing to me: I hear, I read, I

pray, I sing, I go to the table of communion, and I find no blessing there until the Holy Ghost

visits me. But when He bedews me, every means of grace is sweet and profitable.

What a promise is this for me! “His heavens shall drop down dew.” I shall be visited with grace. I

shall not be left to my natural drought, or to the world’s burning heat, or to the sirocco of Satanic

temptation. Oh, that I may at this very hour feel the gentle, silent, saturating dew of the Lord!

Why should I not? He who has made me to live as the grass lives in the meadow will treat me as

He treats the grass; He will refresh me from above. Grass cannot call for dew as I do. Surely, the

Lord who visits the unpraying plant will answer to His pleading child.

29 Blessed are you, Israel!

Who is like you,

a people saved by the Lord?

He is your shield and helper

and your glorious sword.

Your enemies will cower before you,

and you will tread on their heights.”

BARNES, “Be found liars unto thee - Perhaps rather, “cringe before thee.” The verb means to

show a feigned or forced obedience: see the marginal references.

Tread upon their high places - i. e., occupy the commanding positions in their land, and so have

it in subjection.

CLARKE, “Happy art thou, etc. - אשרי ashrey. O the happiness of Israel! it is ineffable,

inconceivable, because they are a people saved by the Lord - have such a salvation as it becomes

the infinite perfections of God to bestow; he is their help - their never-failing strength, and the

shield of that help - he defends their defense, saves them and preserves them in the state of

salvation.

Sword of thy excellency - Or whose sword - his all-conquering Word, is thine excellency, in its

promises, threatenings, precepts, etc., etc. St. Paul, in his exhortation to the Christians at

Ephesus, uses the same metaphor, Take unto you the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of

God.

Thine enemies shall be found liars - Who said thou shouldst never be able to gain the

possession of this good land; for thou shalt tread on - subdue, their high places - even their best

fortified cities.

The blessings contained in this chapter belong also to the spiritual Israel of God, who,

according to the Divine promise, shall have a complete victory over all their spiritual foes, shall

have all their inward enemies, the whole of the carnal mind, destroyed, (for the blood of Jesus

Christ, applied by the energy of the eternal Spirit, shall not only blot out all their sin, but purify

their hearts from all unrighteousness); and thus, being delivered from their enemies, they shall

love God with all their heart, and serve him in righteousness and true holiness, without fear

before him all the days of their life. There are many circumstances and expressions in this ode

similar to several in the prophetical blessing pronounced by Jacob on his twelve sons, Gen. 49,

for the subject is the same in both chapters, the reader is therefore requested to compare the two

places, and to consider the notes on each, as they have some tendency to cast light on each other.

Both these chapters constitute a part of those Scriptures which, according to St. Paul, Rom_15:4,

were written for our learning; and, as to instruct the reader and make him wise unto salvation

was the gracious design of God, we should particularly beg of him “that we may in such wise

hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, by patience and comfort of his holy

word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which he has given

us in our Savior Jesus Christ” - Collect for the second Sunday in Advent.

GILL, “Happy art thou, O Israel,.... This is the conclusion of the blessing on Israel summed up in

a few words; they having God to be their God, and having so many good things promised them,

and in sight of them; being now got through, the wilderness, and on the borders of the land of

Canaan; as all such must be happy, whose covenant God is the Lord; since they must be beloved

of him, chosen by him, and blessed with all spiritual blessings; and in the faith, hope, and view of

eternal happiness:

who is like unto thee? for an interest in the favour of God, for a share in the blessings of

goodness, for a good God, a good land, and good laws; for wisdom and knowledge, for riches and

honour, for holiness and happiness:

O people saved by the Lord; redeemed by him out of Egypt, preserved in the wilderness, saved

from many dangers and enemies, and now brought near to the land of Canaan. The Targum of

Jonathan is,"saved or redeemed in the name of the word of the Lord:''by whom the spiritual

Israel of God are redeemed from all their sins, from the curses of the law, and out of the hand of

all their enemies; and are and will be completely saved in soul and body, with an everlasting

salvation:

the shield of thy help; that, is, the Lord, by whom they are saved; he is the shield that protects

them; the shield of faith and of salvation, which faith lays hold on and makes use of for its

defence, and who is the help of his people in all times of trouble:

and who is the sword of thy excellency; to destroy their enemies, and whereby they would be

raised to that excellency and glory they were in the land of Canaan:

and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; who threatened what they would do unto them,

but were not able: or "shall lie unto thee" (o), be in such dread and fear as to tell lies to save

themselves, and pretend to be what they were not, as the Gibeonites did, of whom Jarchi

interprets this passage:

and thou shall tread upon their, high places; be possessed of their cities and fortresses, built on

an eminence; see Deu_32:13; all the three Targums, and so Jarchi, interpret it of treading on the

necks of their kings, which was fulfilled, Jos_10:24.

HENRY LAW, “

"Happy are you, O Israel; who is like unto you, O people saved by the Lord, the

shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellency! and your enemies

shall be found liars unto you; and you shall tread upon their high

places." Deut. 33:29.

Moses thus speaks--and then on earth his lips forever close. Just as his spirit

spreads enraptured wings--just as he enters into perfect light--he seems to

pause, and take a farewell view of Israel's camp. He now must leave the flock,

for which he long had watched--the vineyard, in which he long had toiled--the

children dearer than his very life. But he well knows, that they are God's

especial care--loved above all nations of the earth--bound in the bundle of

distinguishing grace. Hence, joying in their joy, and fervent in their hopes, he

cannot check his overflowing heart. His spirit thus finds vent, "Happy are you,

O Israel; who is like unto you, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of your

help, and who is the sword of your excellency! and your enemies shall be found

liars unto you; and you shall tread upon their high places."

These precious words are obviously, in their first sense, the portion of those

tribes, whose feet now stood on Canaan's confines. But the treasure is not theirs

exclusively. Such thought is far too narrow. Here is each true believer's lot.

This heritage descends to all faith's sons. It may be claimed by all, who to the

end of time, trust in Christ Jesus--bathe in His blood--put on His

righteousness--and are the temple of His Spirit. Happiness--perfect--heaven-

born--heaven-sent--is their sure property. Here are the pastures, in which they

all are privileged to feed. Happy are you, O child of God, who is like unto you!

Believer, you, then, are invited to draw out the fragrance, which these delicious

flowers present, and to luxuriate in these pastures of delight.

What is the first element of this HAPPINESS? What is the richest savor in this

cup? What is the sweetest music in this note? What is the brightest jewel in this

crown? It is salvation--salvation realized. "Who is like unto you, O people

saved." Saved--so that sin can no more injure, and self no more destroy, and

Satan no more claim--saved, so that soul-misery is infinitely distant--saved, so

that God is your Father--heaven is your home--a throne of glory is your high

seat--and hallelujahs are your eternal song. Is not this happiness? This joy at

once uplifts from earth. Let clouds of trial gather--let billows of affliction toss--

let persecution, threats, and sneers assail--the heart, which clasps assurance of

salvation, sits high above all other troubles. There is no darkness, where this

true light shines. "Happy are you, O Israel, who is like unto you, O people

saved!"

But assurance of salvation is not firm, unless it rests upon a mighty rock. This

rock is here displayed. It is the Lord--the Lord Himself. It is Jehovah, strong in

omnipotence--"Saved by the Lord!"

Mark well, salvation is the Father's will. He writes the book of life. He frames

the covenant of grace. He cannot change. He cannot be diverted from His plans.

None can obliterate His fixed decrees. They must be saved, for whom He

purposes salvation. Saved by the Father is sure salvation.

Mark next, salvation is the work of Jesus. He comes, able and qualified to

save to the uttermost. He rescues captive souls from Satan's grasp. By his blood

He puts out the penal flames. By His strength He shatters every fetter. By His

own right hand He tears down the gates of hell--and clears away all hindrance.

He sends His angels to be guards. He causes all revolving providences to bring

good. He never leaves His happy flock, until the crown is won. They must be

saved, for whom He thus works out salvation. Saved by Christ is sure salvation.

"Saved by the Lord." No man could help himself. United companies could

bring no aid. The hosts of the angelic world are vain to take away one sin. Jesus

alone is able to achieve such work. Alone He undertakes. Alone He

consummates. Alone He finishes. Thus the true Israel is "Saved by the Lord."

The eternal Spirit speeds on the wings of love to lend His aid. He opens

blinded eyes to see the glories of the cross. He shows the grace and beauty of

the dying Lamb. He melts the stony heart to love the precious Lord. He makes

the sinner one with Christ by faith, and so an heir of God. Saved by the Spirit is

sure salvation.

This salvation, then, is a sure Rock. Its summit towers above the heaven of

heavens. Its deep foundations cannot be uprooted. It stands secure--complete--

immovable. Nothing can detract from it. More cannot be added. He must be

happy, then, whose feet are set upon this stable ground. The word is brightly

true, "Happy are you, O Israel, who is like unto you, O people saved by the

Lord!"

But perhaps a sigh is heard, 'Will not mighty foes strive to destroy this

happiness?' Foes, indeed, are strong and many. There is SATAN, hating with

terrific hate, and aided with the countless troops of hell. He comes on, armed

with tremendous weapons, each barbed with venom, each directed with

consummate skill, each urged with super human force. Can he be happy, who

hourly stands in such a fight?

There is the WORLD, too, now smiling with seducing arts, now bitter in

sarcastic sneers, now menacing with poverty, contempt, disgrace, and countless

ills.

The FLESH, too, is a restless plague--an Achan in the camp--a viper nurtured in

the breast--a traitor hidden in the recesses of the heart, ever willing to betray--

ever ready to suck life-blood. There must be danger in such a combat-field--and

danger disturbs happiness.

But what, if the defense is so impenetrable--so wide--so near--that none of

these attacks can prosper? What, if a covering shield averts each point? Then

the calm warrior will dwell in blissful peace, fearless of real hurt.

Now view the fact. Is not a shield prepared for every child of faith? And that

shield, is it not the Lord Himself? Yes, the word loudly sounds--He is "The

shield of your help." He screens. He shelters. He protects. He keeps unharmed,

uninjured, and unwounded. Adversaries, therefore, must be infinite in number,

more than omnipotent in strength, before they can prevail.

Believer, realize this sure defense. Go forth, brave to encounter every conflict.

Shielded by God, you are as safe, as if the heaven of heavens were your covert.

Behind this panoply you may smile at the battering rage of the incessant

shower, and sing "Happy am I, saved of the Lord, who is the shield of my

help!"

But Zion's warriors are not happy in security alone. They covet trophies.

Laurels must crown their brow. Now to be conquerors they need offensive

weapons. They must give wounds, and smite, and overthrow. Their hands must

wield a sword.

Happy believer! as you have God for a shield, so, too, a sword is sharpened for

your use. It is not of the earth. It is framed by no human skill. It is from heaven.

Therefore it is resistless. It is the Lord Himself. Therefore it is all-conquering.

He is "the sword of your excellency." Know then your power. Face each

opponent. Advance to the assault. Deal heavy blows. Spare not. The mighty

God strikes with your arm. And when He strikes, each giant-adversary must fall

low.

Happy are you, so screened! Happy are you, so equipped for victories! What,

though hell's troops move on, proud in their boastings, swelling in wrathful

words of menace! It is added, "They shall be found liars unto you." Their

arrogance shall be, as empty bubbles. Their vaunting pride shall pass, as the

passing wind. Their threats shall vanish, as the smoke. They may accuse--they

may insinuate a host of doubts--they may suggest, that God will fail, and your

soul perish, before the conflict end. But these vile whisperings are false. The

fight will gloriously end. Your feet shall crush their necks. The Spirit of truth,

by Moses' lips, sounds these grand words--"Your enemies shall be found liars

unto you, and you shall tread upon their high places."

Reader, I trust, that you now are well taught, where happiness alone can dwell.

Its home is with God's Israel. It is the portion of the chosen race. It is the

heritage of those, who know and love the Lord. Under the shelter of His wings,

His people rest encircled with these joys. Let such open their eyes to view their

happy state. Let them receive with faith the countless pledges of their God. Is it

not said, "He, that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how

shall He not with Him also freely give us all things!" Rom. 8:32. Is it not said,

"All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life,

or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and you are Christ's,

and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. 3:21-23. Is it not said, "The ransomed of the Lord

shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their

heads--they shall obtain joy and gladness--and sorrow and sighing shall flee

away." Is. 35:10. Only believe, and become happy in this happiness. "Happy

are you, O Israel." Only believe, and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of

glory. Faith ever sings, and happy is its song.

Reader, this tract would sincerely detain you, while it makes a final effort to

impress your heart. Pause, then, and say, is happiness your lot? Do you arise

with morning light to joy? Do you move joyously throughout the day? Is joy

the hand, which bolts your evening door? Your head hangs down. A sigh tells a

sad tale. Your feet have not attained this happy ground. How is it? You have

sought happiness, but you have sought it, where it never grows. The world,

perhaps, enticed you. It showed a panoramic view of glittering honors--tinsel

wealth--vain titles--empty bubbles of applause--and fading flowers of visionary

peace. You toiled long in the pursuit; and now, wearied--worn-out--desponding,

you confess, the world has been a miserable cheat.

Perhaps a more refined bait has allured. Perhaps science and literature's page

have courted. For a while you have found interesting converse with brilliant

thoughts, and lofty flights of intellect. But still you are not happy. There is a

void. There is distress. Conscience is restless and disturbed. The heart finds no

repose on such a pillow. The bark cannot cast anchor on such sand. "Vanity of

vanities, all is vanity, and vexation of spirit." Alas! you are not happy.

Know, then, you never can be, while apart from God. Listen. Turn not away.

Cast not aside these lines. Is it too late? You live. Jesus still lives. The living

word still cries, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." Be, then, persuaded.

Approach the cross on bended knees--with suppliant lip--in deep humility--with

earnest prayer. Confess your need. Avow your willingness to be Christ's. Place

your whole soul and heart in His redeeming hands. Wrestle with Him. Let Him

not go, until your burdens fall, and peace swells like a rising tide. He can bring

back to God. He can assure of pardon. He can reveal His pierced hands and

side. He can bestow the title-deeds of life. He can admit you, as an adopted

child, to the high family of grace. Then you will fully feel, how true are Moses'

last words, "Happy are you, O Israel; who is like unto you, O people saved by

the Lord, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellency! and

your enemies shall be found liars unto you; and you shall tread upon their high

places."

Holy Spirit, use these humble lines as seed of happiness, now and ever, to each

reader's soul!

SPURGEON, “Over Jordan with Singing - Faith's Checkbook

“Thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee.” —Deuteronomy 33:29

THAT arch-enemy, the devil, is a liar from the beginning; but he is so very plausible that, like

mother Eve, we are led to believe him. Yet in our experience we shall prove him a liar.

He says that we shall fall from grace, dishonor our profession, and perish with the doom of

apostates; but, trusting in the Lord Jesus, we shall hold on our way and prove that Jesus loses

none whom His Father gave Him. He tells us that our bread will fail, and we shall starve with our

children; yet the Feeder of the ravens has not forgotten us yet, and He will never do so, but will

prepare us a table in the presence of our enemies.

He whispers that the Lord will not deliver us out of the trial which is looming in the distance, and

he threatens that the last ounce will break the camel’s back. What a liar he is! For the Lord will

never leave us, nor forsake us. “Let him deliver him now!” cries the false fiend: but the Lord will

silence him by coming to our rescue.

He takes great delight in telling us that death will prove too much for us. “How wilt thou do in

the swelling of Jordan?” But there also he shall prove a liar unto us, and we shall pass through

the river singing psalms of glory.

SPURGEON, ““Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord!” —

Deuteronomy 33:29 (Morning and Evening)

He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable, is himself an utter stranger to it. It were

strange indeed, if it made us wretched, for see to what a position it exalts us! It makes us sons of

God. Suppose you that God will give all the happiness to his enemies, and reserve all the

mourning for his own family? Shall his foes have mirth and joy, and shall his home-born children

inherit sorrow and wretchedness? Shall the sinner, who has no part in Christ, call himself rich in

happiness, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless beggars? No, we will rejoice in the

Lord always, and glory in our inheritance, for we “have not received the spirit of bondage again

to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The rod of

chastisement must rest upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable fruits of

righteousness; and therefore by the aid of the divine Comforter, we, the “people saved of the

Lord,” will joy in the God of our salvation. We are married unto Christ; and shall our great

Bridegroom permit his spouse to linger in constant grief? Our hearts are knit unto him: we are

his members, and though for awhile we may suffer as our Head once suffered, yet we are even

now blessed with heavenly blessings in him. We have the earnest of our inheritance in the

comforts of the Spirit, which are neither few nor small. Inheritors of joy for ever, we have

foretastes of our portion. There are streaks of the light of joy to herald our eternal sunrising. Our

riches are beyond the sea; our city with firm foundations lies on the other side the river; gleams

of glory from the spirit-world cheer our hearts, and urge us onward. Truly is it said of us,

“Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord?”

SPURGEON, HAPPINESS—THE PRIVILEGE AND DUTY OF CHRISTIANS

THESE are the last recorded words of Moses and they are significant, for they show us that he

found comfort, in his

dying moments, in considering the happiness of the people for whom he had labored all his life.

From the day when, by

God’s power, he led them up out of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness, they had never

ceased to lie near his

heart. They had been a very heavy burden to him at times, but with marvelous meekness and

patience he had borne with

their many rebellious provocations and only once spoken bitterly of them. Oftentimes had he

stood in the gap and made

intercession for them, when otherwise they would have been destroyed. He had, for their sakes,

given up the most

glorious prospect that was ever proposed to the mind of man, for the Lord had said to him in

secret, “Let Me alone, that

I may destroy them; and I will make of you a greater nation.”

But no, even such a proposal could not divert him from his patriotic zeal for his people! He loved

Israel, erring

Israel, ungrateful Israel, as a mother loves her child, and family aggrandizement was

relinquished for love of the nation.

Still he continued to instruct, lead and guide the stiff-necked race, having no thought but God’s

Glory in the midst of

Israel, and no ambition but to see the tribes brought, at length, into the promised land. When

about to die, the ruling

passion was strong upon him and from it he draws his consolation. He seems to say to himself, “I

can no more go outand

come in. The Lord has said unto me, You shall not go over this Jordan, but though I must leave

the beloved nation, yet

they are a happy people and are safe in Jehovah’s hands.”

He looks with sparkling eyes at the privileges with which God had enriched them and he feels

that he may quietly go

up to the mountain and fall asleep, for they would be blessed when he was gone, and saved of the

Lord. Ah, my dear

young Friends, you who are children of godly families, you cannot tell what joy you will give to

your parents if you are

converted to God! When they come to die, they will find it one of their sweetest consolations to

see their children

walking in the Truth of God. They have loved you dearly and they will feel a pang in leaving you,

but if they can feel that

God has blessed you and saved you, they will die in peace!

I have heard saints, when dying, say, “There is but one thing that I want and for which I could

wish to be spared a

little longer. I could wish to live to see all my family believing in the Lord. O that all my offspring

were lovers of Jesus.” I

have heard dying saints express themselves in language somewhat similar to that of David—“The

Lord has made with me

an Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure, although my house is not so with God as

I could desire.” That,

“although my house is not so with God,” has been a thorn in their pillow and they have felt it

painful to quit their

household while yet their children were so unhappy as to be out of Christ and unreconciled to

God. Think of this, dear

young people, I pray you, and, perhaps, natural affection may be blessed in the hand of God to

lead you to seek after

eternal salvation.

Thus you see how Moses consoled himself. But why was not this expression of the great Lawgiver

left as a soliloquy

unrecorded? Moses had cheered himself with this reflection, “Happy are you, O Israel,” what

need to write it down, or to

utter it before the people? It is frequently an unwise thing to tell a man of his propitious

surroundings, for he may

become vain of them. You may commend a man’s estate until he foolishly dreams that you are

commending him. When

you praise a man’s position, it is the next thing to flattering the man, for the most of men do not

divide between Happiness—the Privilege and Duty of Christians Sermon #1359

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 23

2

2

themselves and their condition, but read a commendation of their condition as a commendation

of themselves though it

is not so!

Therefore, one has sometimes to be very leery of calling men happy—and all the more so because

we cannot

generally be sure that they are happy—external circumstances being but a poor means of

judgment. The fairest apple

may be rotten at the core! The finest linen may be a cover for a corpse! Moreover, according to

the truthful rule of the

ancients, no man is to be counted happy till he is dead, seeing that you do not know the whole of

his life and it may

happen that the circumstances which now appear to be the foundation of a happy life may turn

out to be a preparation

for increased bitterness in the later part of existence.

Yet Moses speaks thus openly to Israel without a word of qualification or caution—“Happy are

you, O Israel; who

is like unto you?” Now, we are quite certain that Moses did not err in this. It would be great self-

conceit to imagine such

a thing! We may confide in the clearness of his judgment, in the maturity of his experience and in

the fidelity of his spirit.

We are sure that he did not speak with rashness, for he was of a meek and gentle disposition and

somewhat slow in speech

and, not likely, therefore, to warm into unreasonable enthusiasm and go beyond the sober truth.

Above all, the Holy

Spirit has adopted the Lawgiver’s words, for He had Himself inspired them—and we have them

here in the Infallible

Word of God, so that it is quite certain that Israel was happy, even as our text declares.

The people were favored and it was right for them to be told so. A wise design led to their being

reminded of the

blessed fact. I think that Moses thus eulogized the nation by way of consoling them for his

departure. He did as much as

say, “I climb the mount to go away to God, but happy are you, O Israel! Whether Moses is with

you or not, God is with

you.” No doubt many would say, as the great Lawgiver departed, “My father, my father, the

chariot of Israel and the

horsemen thereof,” but Moses reminds them that the shield of their help and the sword of their

excellency would still be

with them and they would still be a people saved of the Lord. What better comfort can be offered

to bereaved hearts?

I think, also, that he had in his mind’s eye the fact that they were now about to face new

difficulties. Under Joshua

they were to cross the Jordan and fight the Canaanites. They had known occasional brushes in

the wilderness with

Amalek and Bashan, but for the most part they had led peaceable lives. Now, however, each man

was to be a soldier.

From the day in which his foot pressed the promised land, each man was to contend for the

mastery and, therefore, Moses

sustains them with rich and nourishing meat to strengthen them for the new service.

“Happy are you, O Israel; you are about to throw yourself into the midst of ferocious tribes who

will all conspire to

cut you off; but you are a people saved of the Lord; your enemies shall be found liars unto you,

and you shall tread upon

their high places.”—

“My never-ceasing songs shall show

The mercies of the Lord,

And make succeeding ages know

How faithful is His Word.

The sacred Truths His lips pronounce

Shall firm as Heaven endure;

And if He speak a promise once,

The eternal Grace is sure.

How long the grace of David held

The promised Jewish Throne!

But there’s a nobler Covenant sealed

To David’s greater Son.

His seed forever shall possess

A Throne above the skies;

The meanest subject of His Grace

Shall to that glory rise.”

So, then, I gather from the example of Moses that to commend a man’s condition, if you have a

wise motive for it, and

can either console him under trouble or inspire him for future service, is a right thing to do.

This morning we are going to repeat the experiment. Whatever was said about the happy

condition of the natural

Israel is emphatically true of the spiritual Israel! The tribes were our types and what was true of

them is true of us.

Without any sort of wresting of the text, we shall, this morning, apply to all Believers—to all who

rest in Christ Jesus Sermon #1359 Happiness—the Privilege and Duty of Christians

Volume 23 www.spurgeongems.org

3

3

and have no confidence in the flesh—the words of Moses to the tribes, “Happy are you, O Israel;

who is like unto you? O

people saved by the Lord.” We are the true Israel, the spiritual seed of the father of the faithful,

and to us unbounded

happiness belongs. This shall be our point this morning.

First, let us consider the happy condition of God’s people. And then, secondly, let us consider the

result of our fully

realizing this happiness. May the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, fill us with all joy and peace while

we commune upon this

subject. May the blessed God now bless all His children!

I. Let us dwell upon THE HAPPY CONDITION OF GOD’S PEOPLE. The Israelites were so

favored that Moses,

himself, was astonished at the eminently desirable condition in which they were placed. We may

readily imagine that we

see him lifting up his hands with surprise and saying, “Happy are you, O Israel; who is like unto

you?” He considered the

nation to be incomparably favored and, therefore, enquired in astonishment, “Who is like unto

you?” He had seen Egypt

with all its wisdom and its wealth—and the desert tribes in all their rustic simplicity—and

doubtless he knew the

condition of most of the nations under Heaven. But having his eyes upon them all, he,

nevertheless, looks upon the

chosen race which God had brought up out of Egypt and he says, “Who is like unto you?”

Beloved, you who are in Christ are favored by God beyond all others! None in the whole universe

are so happily

placed as you are—“you are a chosen generation, a peculiar people.” If you have been born again

and saved, you are the

pick and choice of all God’s creatures and He has indulged you with a measure of love and

kindness such as He has shown

to none else! I address Believers as a body and I ask you, would you change your estate with the

rich of this world? Would

you barter Grace for gain? Surely not! There is much that is comfortable connected with the

possession of wealth, but if

you look at the opulent, as such, there is no reason to believe that they are the possessors of any

great amount of

happiness.

Gold cannot lighten the heavy heart or cool the burning brow—far more often it cankers the soul

and lies like a

weight upon the spirit. It is a heavy metal and has weighed many down to Hell. You, even though

you are the poor of the

flock, the despised and rejected of men—you are a people infinitely favored beyond those who

possess the treasures of

this fleeting world! Select even a company of princes and let them stand before you in all their

pomp, half worshipped by

their subjects, but they will not excite your envy, for, “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,”

and those who climb to

the high places of the earth commonly confess that there is little peace of mind to be found there.

You who believe in

Jesus are kings of a nobler sort, already, and enjoy honors and blessings which emperors might

covet!

You reign in Christ after a far higher manner than princes and emperors, for you rule in a

superior realm, since the

spiritual far exceeds the material. Who is like unto you, O Believer, among the mighty ones of the

earth? The Lord

Jehovah is your strength and your song, your portion and your praise, your comfort and your

crown! Turn, if you will,

to those who are famous for knowledge, men of skill, wit and research, yet among these there are

none to be found

comparable in happiness to Christians! To know yourself forgiven, to know yourself eternally

saved, to know yourself

ordained unto eternal life—to be assured that you will enjoy unspeakable bliss when yonder sun

turns to a coal and the

moon is black as sackcloth of hair—to know all this is to be unspeakably favored! The utmost

learning cannot compare

with it.

Nor if you take the sons of pleasure with their wine and their music and their sensual joys, can

you find any rivals for

our happiness. Solomon tells us concerning laughter that it is mad and sums up all earthly joy

with—“Vanity of

vanities, all is vanity.” Our consecrated pleasures are not such! Our holy joy has no delusion in it.

It is solid and real and

can never be taken from us and, therefore, those who possess it are a people unparalleled for

blessedness! Wealth, rank,

learning, fame, pleasure and all else that man holds dear, we would gladly renounce for the joy of

our Lord! He has

satisfied us with favor and filled us to the brim with content now that He has given us Himself for

our portion. Blessed

are our very dwellings and the beds we lie upon and the tables at which we sit. “How goodly are

your tents, O Jacob, and

your tabernacles, O Israel!”

Am I speaking to some Believers who are not enjoying this happiness? Is it not strange that men

should be in a

position which angels might envy and yet they fail to realize their blessed estate? Just as some

men with thousands a year

will live like paupers, so are there others who, with a boundless income of eternal love at their

disposal, nevertheless

starve their souls with small delights. Just think for a minute, O downcast Believers, of this

singular fact and chide

yourselves into a more joyful frame of mind. There was a time when you would have given your

eyes to be what you now Happiness—the Privilege and Duty of Christians Sermon #1359

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 23

4

4

are! Do you remember when sin lay heavy on your conscience and a dread of death and Hell

brooded over you? What

would you have given, then, to have been able to say, “By Grace I am forgiven”?

You know you used to envy the very least and poorest and most afflicted of God’s saints in those

days! And you were

apt to think that if you could lie in a dungeon and be fed on bread and water all your life, yet if

you could but once get

rid of the burden of sin, you would never murmur again! Yet here you are, accepted in the

Beloved and conscious of being

adopted into the family of Heaven—and for all that your joy is at a low ebb! Should it be so? Do

you remember, also, the

time of your espousals, the season of your first love? Why, in those days you wondered how a

Christian could be

unhappy! As for yourself, you were so full of intense delight that when you heard some older

Christian lamenting over

anxiety, doubt, fear and the like, you looked at him as a prodigy—you could not comprehend his

speaking after that

fashion!

You felt that to say, “My Beloved is mine and I am His,” was the very essence of Heaven to you

and you could not

make out how a man could be an heir of Glory and not be as overflowing with delight as you

were! Therefore, I say, chide

yourself to think that you should have fallen from your eminency and come away from those

sweet delights. Beloved, if

we are not as happy as the days are long in these summer months, it is entirely our own fault, for

there is plenty of reason

for being so! Come, Christians, why are you cast down? Why are you so disquieted? Have you

forgotten your

redemption, forgotten your adoption, forgotten your justification and forgotten your safety in

Christ?

Have you not, also, somewhat neglected to survey your hopes? What if you have little of this

world? Look at what is

laid up in store for you hereafter! Within a few years, at the outside, you are to be with the angels

where no dust of toil

shall ever stain your garments! Where no sweat of labor shall stand upon your brow! Where no

care shall scourge the

heart and no sorrow dim the eyes! Grief, loss, bereavement, or need shall never approach you

there! You are of the

imperial blood and you are soon to be acknowledged as a peer of Heaven’s own realm! The day

of your accession to

sacred honors hastens on. It may be but a week or two that the bliss will tarry—even a few hours

may be the only interval

and we shall stand beatified among the perfected ones who see God’s face without a veil between!

We have every reason to be happy and if we are not so, it must be because we fail to remember

the privileges which

our Lord has bestowed upon us. Let me stir you up, my Brothers and Sisters, to happiness this

morning—

“Why should the children of a King

Go mourning all their days?

Come, cease to groan, and loudly sing

A Psalm of gladsome praise.”

What a blessed task is mine—to urge my Brothers and Sisters to be happy! How highly favored

are you to be exhorted to

so delicious a privilege! When happiness becomes a duty, who will not be glad? What a blessed

people are they to whom

to be delighted is but to obey the Divine command to rejoice in the Lord—an obligation as well as

a privilege! My

Brethren, I would urge you to rejoice, this morning, because if you are, indeed, believers in

Christ, you are “a people

saved by the Lord.”

If you only read as far as the word, “saved,” and there pause, what music there is in the words

—“a people saved”!

Not a people who may be saved, who are in process of being saved, but a people saved! He that

believes in Jesus is saved!

The work is done. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”

“Unto us who are saved,”

says the Apostle, not speaking of salvation as a future gift, but as a deed accomplished! It is ours

at this very moment, for

in Christ Jesus we are “a people saved.”

The Israelites were saved from Pharaoh’s domination. With a high hand and an outstretched

arm did Jehovah bring

them forth, even as at this day you and I are saved from the reigning power of sin. We are no

longer held spell-bound by

Satan so that we cannot bestir ourselves and seek after holiness. We are saved from the bondage

of evil, even from the

iron furnace of our ruling passions. The Israelites were saved, also, from the destroying angel. On

that night when the

avenger flew through the land and smote all the firstborn of Egypt, the blood mark on the lintel

saved the families of

Israel and even so are we saved by the precious blood of Christ! No angel of vengeance can smite

the man who is sheltered

beneath the atoning blood! He shall feast securely when Egypt sends up her mighty cry.

The chosen tribes were saved when Pharaoh pursued them and his hosts overtook them at the

sea, even at the Red

Sea. Then came the fiery cloudy pillar between Israel and Egypt, brightness to Israel but

darkness to their foes! They

could not come near them all that night and in the morning Israel was safe, for the Lord’s

redeemed marched on foot Sermon #1359 Happiness—the Privilege and Duty of Christians

Volume 23 www.spurgeongems.org

5

5

through the Red Sea and saw their enemies no more—they were drowned in the midst of the sea

—for God had saved His

people! Even so has He saved us from being overtaken and overthrown by temptation. He has

rescued us from the

renewed attacks of the old, corrupt Nature combined with the cunning of Satan—He has saved

us up to this hour from

besetting sin and its fierce pursuits!

When the people came into the wilderness they thought they were to perish of thirst, but He

saved them by bidding

the crystal stream leap from the Rock! They were ready to die of hunger, but He saved them, for

the manna fell from

Heaven round about their camp! They were attacked by Amalek when they were weary, but He

saved them, for Joshua’s

sword and Moses’ outstretched hands brought victory for them till their foes were utterly

defeated. Israel knew what it

was to be saved in many ways—and so do we. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in

Christ Jesus, fed with

the Bread of Heaven and made to drink of water from the Rock of Ages. And as for our

adversaries, they have not been

able to harm us, for the Lord has saved us unto this day.

Mark the emphasis which Moses puts here, “A people saved by the Lord.” You and I know that

if we are saved, at all,

it is of the Lord! We cannot talk of merit. We abhor the very word! Nor dare we attribute our

salvation to our own free

will—Free Grace must wear the crown if ever we are saved! I think, Brothers and Sisters, what a

blessing it is to have a

salvation which is altogether Divine! If you had saved yourself, that poor work of yours would,

like all man’s work, one

day pass away! But salvation is of the Lord and, therefore, it will stand forever! It is God that

appointed and arranged it,

even the Father who is the God of our election, it is Jesus who worked it out, even the Son who is

the God of our

redemption! And it is the Holy Spirit who applies it, even the Holy Spirit, who is the God of our

regeneration and our

sanctification.

The Triune God has worked all our works in us and for us, glory be to His name! “Who is like

unto you, O people

saved by the Lord?” I wish I could speak as I feel this morning—I would fire your hearts with

enthusiasm towards Him

who loved you before the earth was—who, having chosen you, purchased you with an immense

price, brought you out

from among the rest of mankind by His power, separated you unto Himself to be His people

forever and who now loves

you with a love that will never weary nor grow cold, but will bring you unto Himself and seat you

at His right hand

forever and ever! You are saved! Remember that, O Believer!

You are not half-saved, but completely saved! You are saved in the Lord with an everlasting

salvation! You shall not

be ashamed nor confused, world without end! Why, that one word, “saved,” is enough to make

the heart dance as long as

life remains. “Saved!” Let us hang out our banners and set the bells ringing. Saved! What a sweet

sound it is to the man

who is wrecked and sees the vessel going down and at that moment discovers that the lifeboat is

near and will rescue him

from the sinking ship. To be snatched from the devouring fire, or saved from fierce disease just

when the turning point

has come and death appears imminent—these, also, are occasions for crying, “Saved!” But to be

rescued from sin and

Hell is a greater salvation, still, and demands a louder joy! We will sing it in life and whisper it in

death and chant it

throughout eternity—saved by the Lord! “Happy, indeed, are you, O Israel”!

Another source of joy for the Israelite is found in the grand Truth of God that the Lord’s

Beloved are, also, shielded

by God—“who is the shield of your help.” God’s people are a warring people and yet a happy

people, for though

dangers surround them, Omnipotence preserves them! No sooner are we saved than we have to

contend with foes. Now,

these foes are very good at warfare and ready to smite us even to the death. Therefore the

necessity for this blessed word,

“The shield of your help.” The sword shall be lifted against you, but God, Himself, will interpose

between you and that

sword! The arrows shall fly winged with malicious design, but God shall hold His sacred

protection over you and protect

you from even the thought of harm! He is “the shield of your help.” Think of this and rejoice!

Many evils would injure you and even destroy you, if they could, but Jehovah Jesus interposes

between you and

them—

“Many times since days of youth,

May Israel truly say,

Foes devoid of love and truth

Afflict me day by day.

Yet they never can prevail,

God defends His people still!

Jesus’ power can never fail Happiness—the Privilege and Duty of Christians Sermon #1359

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 23

6

6

To save from all that’s ill.”

See how the Lord our God has interposed, already, on innumerable occasions. We have been laid

low by sickness, but it

has worked our spiritual health. We have experienced losses, but we have been enriched by them

in the highest sense. We

have even endured calumny, but our character is still as bright as ever through the gracious

protection of our God. We

have been assailed by temptation, but the evil influence did not enter our spirit, so as to pollute it,

for just then Divine

Grace came in to prevent our yielding to the vile suggestion. We have been the subjects of much

doubt and skepticism,

but always, when these have flown at us like vultures, God, Himself, in infinite love, has turned

aside their fierce attacks.

We have been preserved in Christ Jesus, for He is our shield. We have been strengthened by

Him, for He is our help.

And being helped, we have escaped every assault, for He is our help and our shield. Brothers and

Sisters, you shall be

shielded throughout the entire battle of life. If all the quivers of Hell are to be emptied out against

you, behold, the Lord

God is your salvation! You may trust and not be afraid, for the Lord says to each one of His

chosen, even as unto

Abraham, “Fear not, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.” This, also, is true

today. As you have been

protected, so are you now shielded by the Lord. Your present troubles are only like a shower

rattling upon the window

pane—you shall not so much as be dampened by them.

Your adversaries appear to be let loose against you, but their fiery darts will stop short upon that

wondrous shield

of God which will blunt their points. “Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah there is

everlasting strength.”

“No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper and every tongue that rises against you in

judgment you shall

condemn.” “He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings shallyou trust. His truth

shall be your shield and

buckler.” Will you not be happy after that? As you cower down beneath those mighty wings,

even as the little chickens

shelter under the hen, are you not happy? As you hide behind that mighty shield, do you not feel

restful and content? If

not, pray that you may be, for so you ought to be!

Besides defensive armor we need offensive weapons and we ought to be happy, in the next place,

because we are

divinely armed—“Who is the sword of your excellency!” This wondrous Word of God, when

blessed by the Holy Spirit,

is our sword with which to fight the battles of life! Does sin invade us? The precept smites it and

the story of Calvary slays

it! Does the flesh rebel? The Word of God smites the flesh and helps us to mortify it! Does Satan

come against us? With,

“It is written,” we meet him as our Master met him in the wilderness of old! There is no weapon

like the Word of God!

This is the true Jerusalem blade that will cut through bone and marrow! It has never been

known to bend or break, yet,

in the hour of conflict. Take good heed that you have it by you. Gird it on your thigh and wield it

well, for victory

always goes with it.

We are armed with the Word of God, not only that we may smite our own spiritual foes, but that

we may win men

for Christ. As the Israelites had to conquer Canaan, so have we to conquer the world for Jesus!

Go up against the

ramparts of error! Go up against the hosts of evil with no weapon in your hand but the story of

the Cross, the Revelation

of the Most High, the declaration of the Gospel of Jesus—for by this sign we conquer—it is

impossible that we should

fail with the Gospel in our hands. How happy God’s people ought to be when they think of this!

Armed with an

invincible weapon, ought we not to rejoice in anticipation of victory?

A man who has a Bible of his own—I mean not the paper and the letterpress, but all that is in

the Inspired

Volume—is there anything more that he can desire? He finds, from Genesis to Revelation, every

promise his, every dear

assurance of almighty power and love all his own—what more does he need? He who can use this

two-edged sword may

defy doubt, fear, anxiety, care, temptation, worldliness—yes, death and the devil! At the very

sight of this sword our

adversaries tremble, for it cuts through joints and marrow and leaves a deadly wound wherever

it cuts. Be happy,

Christian! May the Lord help you to be happy as you see this sword of the Spirit to be yours.

The fourth thing which is mentioned as a great privilege is that we have security of victory

—“Your enemies shall be

found liars unto you.” Now Iask any Christian of experience here whether he has not found this

true? What a shameless

liar the devil is! “Ah,” he says, “in this trouble the hand of the Lord has gone out against you! He

has forsaken you and

He will be gracious no more. He has deserted you as He did Saul the king, and from now on dark

and brooding thoughts

will overshadow you which no musician’s hand shall be able to charm away. The Lord will no

more answer you from His

holy oracle, for behold, He has cast you away!” Sermon #1359 Happiness—the Privilege and

Duty of Christians

Volume 23 www.spurgeongems.org

7

7

But, Brothers and Sisters, we are not deserted, after all, for here we are, this morning, to sing of

Divine loving

kindness and to tell of all our past troubles as trials and proofs of eternal faithfulness! We are not

in the asylum, nor the

prison, though the arch-enemy has threatened us with the one or the other. God has enabled us to

triumph over all

difficulties, though the enemy has predicted our utter defeat. The devil came to us once, and he

said, “Now you will

assuredly fall! Already your heart is beginning to go back to sin. You are not faithful. You have

been treacherous in your

inmost thoughts and you will apostatize, altogether, and bring great disgrace upon your

profession. You are a fool to

have ever joined the Church—there is no stability about you. You are a mere flash in the pan.

You blazed like a

firebrand, but you will die out into black ashes.”

But, Beloved, we have not died out yet, blessed be Jehovah’s name! Year after year has passed

and the faint are still

pursuing, the feeble still hold on their way and utter weakness still triumphs over strong

temptations! Satan has been a

liar to us and so has that wicked unbelief of ours, which is rather worse than the devil, for, at any

rate, it has less excuse

for its existence. Unbelief has whispered a thousand accursed falsehoods in our ears—this labor

was to be too difficult,

that trial was to consume us—that adversary would swallow us up! Nothing of the kind has

happened, but so our

enemies said and they have all been liars! What fools we were to have believed them and what

greater fools we shall be if,

in days to come, we shall lend an ear to them. Let us not listen to anything which opposes itself to

the sure Truth of God.

He cannot forsake us. Leave His chosen to perish? Cast away the people whom He foreknew?

Renounce the purchase

of His blood, the darlings of His heart? Impossible! He may sooner cease to be than cease to be

the Father of His ownbegotten! He may sooner quench the sun and moon, and bid the whole

universe pass away as the withered leaves fall from

the forest trees, than He can ever say unto His children, “ I have loved you, but not now. I have

chosen you, but have cast

you away. I have brought you thus far to put you to shame.” No, Beloved, His mercy endures

forever and never does He

turn from His Covenant! What a God you have to deal with! There is none like unto the God of

Jeshurun!

In the chapter from which our text is taken we see a singular God and a singular people. There is

none like Jehovah

and none like His people. He is blessed forever and they are blessed forever in Him and by Him.

Therefore let us be happy

this morning! O you mourners, take down your harps from the willows and tune them afresh!

Put away the harp and take

the dulcimer and upon an instrument of ten strings praise the Lord. Let your heart be glad in His

name and rejoice, yes,

exceedingly rejoice!

II. Secondly and briefly, LET US CONSIDER THE RESULT OF REALIZING OUR BLESSED

ESTATE. Upon

this subject there ought to be no need to dilate, for each heir of Heaven should live in the hourly

enjoyment of his Divine

inheritance, but, alas, few are doing so! Surely spiritual blessings are the only ones which men

decline to enjoy! Bring a

thirsty man near a brimming cup and see how long he will linger. See how he hastens to enjoy the

draught! Bring a poor

man near an estate and tell him that he has but to sue the court to gain it and tomorrow morning

he will be asking where

he has to go! Alas, Christian people seem to be stupid about their privileges! They are not so wise

as the ass which knows

its master’s crib. They have great blessings, but they do not always enjoy them. The good which

the Lord provides is set

before them, but they do not grasp it as they should. May the Holy Spirit teach us wisdom!

Now, there are many reasons why you should enjoy your privileges and be happy. The first is

because it tends to keep

our allegiance to God unshaken. Israel would never seek after another god while she knew that

none could bless her as

Jehovah had done! Those who were happy with Jehovah would not be likely to wander off to

Baal. God’s people will not

go astray from Him when their hearts are thoroughly happy with Him. It is because you lose the

sweet flavor of the

waters of the flowing fountain that you dabble in those muddy, stagnant gatherings which linger

in the broken cisterns.

If you would delight yourself in the Lord, all the world could not tempt you from Him.

A man will never be dazzled with gold who has his heart satiated with God. Unhappy Christians,

when tempted, are

very apt to seek pleasure away from the Lord. But those who rejoice in the Lord always shall find

the joy of the Lord to

be their strength, for it shall be cords of love and bands of a man to hold them fast to their King.

When your joy begins

to slacken, say to yourself, “There is something wrong here. I must get back to where I was in my

earlier days. I must

return to my God and to the sunlight, for now that I am in the cold shade, my love may soon

cool.” Beloved, if you will

be happy, it will create warm enthusiasm and a grateful love within your bosom.

Have you begun to be lukewarm? Has your heart declined in affection? Nothing can make your

soul return to its first

love like the Lord’s return and the restoration of the old happiness. Yes, I am saved. Yes, I am

shielded. Yes, I bear His Happiness—the Privilege and Duty of Christians Sermon #1359

www.spurgeongems.org Volume 23

8

8

sword with which to smite my foes. Yes, I shall triumph through the blood of the Lamb and there

is a portion for me at

His right hand. Well, then, the next thought is therefore blessed be His dear name, I do love Him!

I thought I did not, but

when I begin to see what He has done for me and what He has given me and provided for me, I

find my sluggish heart

beating at a quicker rate—

“Yes, I love Him and adore,

Oh for Grace to love Him more.”

That is a good result to come of being happy. “Therefore comfort you, comfort you My people,

says the Lord; speak you

comfortably unto Jerusalem.”

Joy, also, will have another effect. It will give you confidence to expect other blessings. Because

God has dealt so well

with us in the past, we are persuaded that goodness and mercy will follow us all our days. If now,

today, Beloved, you

will survey the goodness of God to you in the past, you will feel confidence that when new

troubles arise you will be

helped in them and when new mercies are needed, they shall be supplied, “new every morning.”

Gratitude for the past

inspires us with courage for the future. And so, too, you will gain strength for bearing all your

burdens and courage for

facing all your enemies. Has the Lord done so much to make us happy? Then He will not deny us

anything! He who has

given us so much, already, will be sure to sustain us and supply our needs out of His all-

sufficiency until we have trampled

down every foe and shall rest forever at His right hand.

Lastly, for Christians to be happy is one of the surest ways to set them seeking the salvation of

others. If we found

religion to be a bondage and a deception, we should be inhuman if we wished to introduce others

to it. He who enters

upon a tyrant’s service, with little food and no pay and much misery, ought not to stand at the

door and invite others to

come in! He should, rather, warn them to seek some happier service. Now, we have found

religion to be true happiness. I

am sure I speak the sentiments of all here who know the Lord when I say that if we have not been

perfectly happy it has

not been the fault of God’s Grace, but entirely our own, for had we lived up to our calling and

our privileges we should

have been as happy as the birds of the air and our lives would have been one perpetual song!

Despite our shortcomings, blessed be God, we have been supremely happy. If we could begin life

again we would only

ask to begin it with Jesus, by the power of His Spirit. If we had our choice of all the various

positions and conditions of

our fellow men, we do not know one that we prefer to our own, so long as we can say, “Christ is

mine.” Because we have

found this honey, we desire our friends and kinsfolk to partake of it. Oh, my Hearers, I would

you were all happy! I

would you were, every one of you, supremely happy! And especially I wish it for some of you into

whose faces I have

looked these many years and see that you are still not clear of your anxieties. I see that you are

not sure about your souls

yet, and you still hesitate and linger in the border land.

O come and rest where God has provided rest for sinners’ souls! Beloved, trust in Jesus Christ

this morning! Make no

more delay! May His Divine Spirit enable you to do so—then shall your peace be like a river and

you shall confess that

we did not deceive you. You will cry, “The half has not been told me,” when you perceive the

deep peace, the holy calm,

the blessed restfulness and sometimes the ecstatic, overflowing delight which is the portion of the

child of God! If I had to

die like a dog and there were no hereafter, I would still choose to be a Christian, for of all lives

that can be lived there is

none that can compare with this! We drink the wine on the lees well-refined and are satisfied

with marrow and with

fatness!

But as for worldlings, they desire the husks that swine eat, with which their bellies cannot be

filled. The Lord grant

His people Grace to be happy in Him and may He also bring in the wanderers, for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

1. 68 FREE BOOKS http://www.scribd.com/doc/21800308/Free-Christian-Books

2. ALL WRITINGS http://www.scribd.com/glennpease/documents?page=970