Vainglory Rebuked! 2
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You who are warmest for Christ would become like Laodicea for lukewarmness; you who are sound in the faith would become rotten with error; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would be so weak that the first temptation would remove you from your steadfastness. It would be said of us as it was said of that once bright but now fallen star, "How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning."
Bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are nothing but darkness itself when the Lord withdraws himself. It was said by the old makers of metaphors that in the soundest pomegranate there are always some rotten seeds, and the whitest swan has a black bill; to which we may add that there are worms under the greenest turf, and dead men’s carcases at the bottom of the calmest seas. In the best Christian there is enough of sin to make him the worst of transgressors if God should leave him. One who knew himself but little wrote that he was so full of Christ that there was no room for the devil, but I thought I saw the cloven foot peeping out even in that boastful speech. Dear brethren, I hope we may not need to be taught our own emptiness in the same way as Hezekiah learned it. I would willingly know doctrinally that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing; and I would know it too by the teaching of God the Holy Spirit.
But I pray for you and for myself, my brethren, that we may never know our depravity experimentally by being left to see it work itself out. Perhaps there may be no way of teaching us so thoroughly the baseness of our heart as by leaving us to its devices; perhaps we shall never know our folly, unless suffered to play the fool, but oh prevent it, Lord! prevent it by your grace! Better to be taught by suffering than to be taught by sin! Better to be in God’s dungeon than to revel in the devil’s palace.
You now see the circumstances clearly. Here is a prosperous man, in a proud state of heart, with grace at a low ebb in his spirit; he is now ready to be the prey of temptation.
II. We must now turn to consider THE OCCURRENCE ITSELF, AND THE SIN WHICH AROSE OUT OF IT. Babylon, a province of Assyria, had thrown off the Assyrian yoke, and Berodach-baladan was naturally anxious to obtain allies in order that his little kingdom might grow strong enough to preserve itself from the Assyrians. He had seen with great pleasure that the Assyrian army had been destroyed in Hezekiah’s country, and very probably not recognizing the miracle, he thought that Hezekiah had defeated the host, and so he sent his ambassadors with a view to make a treaty of alliance with so great a prince. The ambassadors arrived. Now in this case the duty of Hezekiah was very clear. He ought to have received the ambassadors with due courtesy as becomes their office, and he should have regarded their coming as an opportunity to bear testimony to the idolatrous Babylonians of the true God of Israel. He should have explained to them that the wonders which had been wrought were wrought by the only living and true God, and then he might have said, in answer to Isaiah’s question, "What have they seen in your house?" "I have told them of the mighty acts of Jehovah, I have published abroad his great fame, and I have sent them back to their country to tell abroad that the Lord God omnipotent reigns." He should have been very cautious with these men. They were idolaters, and therefore not fit company for the worshipers of Jehovah. When they came to him he should have felt, "I am in danger here," as we should do if we wandered among men stricken with plague. He should, moreover, have taken care to make no boast about his own power, since it is clear that the wonders which had been wrought were not to his honor, but to the glory of the Lord alone.
He had not slain the army, he had not made the sun go back, he had not by his skill restored himself from sickness; it was unto God and to God alone that he ought to have ascribed all the honor. He should not have been vain of his riches, for this led him to show those thievish gentry where there was ample plunder to reward their exertions. His course of action was clear enough. He should have told them of Jehovah, should have proclaimed to them the true God, have treated them with courtesy, and then dismissed them, thankful to be rid of such a temptation. We may now perceive wherein his sin was found. I think it lay in five particulars.
First, it is evident from the passage in Isaiah 39, that he was greatly delighted with their company. It is said, "Hezekiah was glad of them." In this chapter it is said, "He hearkened unto them." He was very pleased to see them. It is an ill sign when a Christian takes great solace in the company of the worldling, more especially when that worldling is profane. The Babylonians were wicked idolaters, it was ill for the lover of Jehovah to press them to his bosom. He should have felt towards them," As for your gods I loathe them, for I worship the God that made heaven and earth, neither can I receive you into close familiarity, because you are no lovers of the Lord my God." Courtesy is due from the Christian to all men, but the unholy intimacy, which allows a believer to receive an unregenerate person as his bosom friend, is a sin. "Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" applies not only to marriage, but to all other intimate unions which amount to yoking together. I would not, as a Christian, link my name in the same firm with an ungodly man, because, whether I choose it or not, however high my integrity may be, if my partner chooses to do doubtful actions I must be held responsible in a measure for his sins both before God and men. It is well when those who are yoked together both pull the same way; but what communion has Christ with Belial? Here was Hezekiah’s first sin- just the very same sin that Jehoshaphat fell into when he made ships, in connection with the idolatrous king of Israel, to go to Tarshish for gold; the ships were broken at Eziongeber, and very justly so; for when God’s servants go into connection with God’s enemies, what can they expect but a frown from their Master?
The next sin, which he committed, was that he evidently leaned to their alliance. Now Hezekiah was the king of a little territory, almost as insignificant as a German principality, and his true strength would have been to have leaned upon his God, and to have made no show whatever of military power. It was by God that he had been defended, why should not he still rest upon the invisible Jehovah? But no, he thinks, "If I could associate with the Babylonians, they are a rising people, it will be well for me." Mark this- God takes it hard of his people when they leave his arm for an arm of flesh. O lover of the Lord Jesus, if you leave the arm of your Beloved, if you cease to lean on him and begin to lean upon your own craft or policy, or upon your dearest and best friend, you will smart for it. "Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." It was this getting away from God, this ceasing to walk by faith, this wanting to depend in a carnal manner upon the king of Babylon, which provoked the Lord to anger.
His next sin was, his unholy silence concerning his God. He does not appear to have said a word to them about Jehovah. Would it have been polite? Etiquette, now-a-days, often demands of a Christian that he should not intrude his religion upon company. Out on such etiquette! It is the etiquette of hell. True courtesy to my fellow’s soul makes me speak to him, if I believe that soul to be in danger. Some one once complained of Mr. Rowland Hill that he was too earnest, and he told them in reply the following story. When walking at Wootton-under-Edge he saw part of a chalk pit fall in upon some men. "So," said he, "I ran into the village, crying, Help! help! help! and nobody said, ‘Dear me, how excited the old gentleman is, he is much too earnest;’ why," said he, "and when I see a soul perishing, am I not to cry help, and be in earnest? Surely souls are yet more to be cared for than bodies." But, now-a-days, if one cares about fashion, one must be gagged in all companies. You must not intrude, nor be positive in your opinions, if you would have the good word of fashionable people. O sirs, when disease is abroad in the land, the physician is never an intruder among dying men; and so you that have Christ, the true medicine, will never be intruders in God’s eye, if with prudence, but yet with boldness, you speak concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ. Shame on your dumb tongues! Shame on your silent lips, if you speak not of him! Oh, by the love which Jesus manifested on the cross, bear some such love to your fellow men; and as he broke through all things, even through the bonds of life and death that he might save you, break through some of these flimsy ties, if by any means you may save some.
Meanwhile, mark that Hezekiah sadly made up for his silence about his God by loudly boasting about himself. If he had little to say of his God, he had much to say about his spices, his armor, and his gold and silver; and I dare say he took them to see the conduit and the pool which he had made, and the various other wonders of engineering which he had carried out. Ah, brethren, etiquette lets us talk of men, but about our God we must be silent. God forbid we should defer to such a rule. He did as good as say, while he was showing them over all these, "See what a great man I am!" He would not have said it in words, but that was the spirit of it, self- glorification, and self-glorification, too, before the very people who would take advantage of it.
Surely also his sin lay in his putting himself on a level with these Babylonians. Suppose he had gone to see them- what would they have shown him? Why, they would have shown him their spicery, their armory, their gold and their silver. Now, they come to see him, and he is a worshiper of the invisible God, and he glories in just the same treasures as those in which they also trusted. When a Christian man constantly acts like a worldly man, can it be possible that he is acting rightly? When the two actions are precisely the same, and you discern no difference, is there not grave cause to suspect that there is no difference? For by the fruit must you know the tree, and if two trees bear precisely the same fruit, is there not cause to suspect that they are the same sort of trees? Dear friends, may you and I shun this sin of Hezekiah, and not try to match ourselves with sinners as to the joys of this present life. If they say, "Here are my treasures," let us tell them about the "city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God," and say, "Our treasure is above." Let us imitate the noble Roman lady, who when her friend showed her all her trinkets, waited until her two fair boys came home from school, and then pointed to them, and said, "These are my jewels."
Do you when you hear the worldling vaunting his happiness, drop in a gentle word, and say, "I too have my earthly comforts, for which I am grateful; but my best delights are not here, they spring neither from corn, nor wine, nor oil- nor could spices, and gold, and music render them to me. My heart is in heaven, my heart is not here; I have set my soul upon things above; Jesus is my joy, and his love is my delight. You tell me of what you love, permit me to tell you of what I love!
I have listened patiently to you, now listen to one of the songs of Zion; I have walked with you over your estate, now let me take you over mine; you have told me of all the good things which you enjoy, do lend me a few minutes of your attention while I tell you of still better things which make my portion. The Lord takes it hard on the part of his people if they are ashamed of the blessings which he gives them, and if they never boast in the cross of Christ they have good cause to be ashamed of themselves.
This, then, we think to be his sin. Putting it altogether it was a delight in worldly company; beginning to lean to an arm of flesh; saying little of his God, making much of himself, and besides putting himself on a level with worldly men by making his boast where they made theirs.
III. The third matter we will handle very briefly, namely, THE PUNISHMENT AND THE PARDON. We may generally find a man’s sin written in his punishment. We sow the thorns, and then God flogs us with them. If Jesus loves you, my dear brother or sister, if there be anything in the world that keeps you from him he will take it away. It may be a favorite child, it may be your health, it may be your wealth. But God hates idols, and he will never allow anything to stand between our heart’s love and himself. It may be a very painful operation, but it will be a needful one for you that God should grind your idol in pieces, and make you to drink of it with bitterness and sorrow.
Moreover, mark you, he threatened to make the same people the means of his punishment who had been the means of his sin. "You were so pleased while you showed these Babylonians your treasures, these very men shall take them away." And so, brethren, the things in which we confide shall be our disappointment. If we take our hearts away from God and give them to any earthly things, that earthly thing will be a curse to us. Our sins are the mothers of our sorrows.
Judgments being therefore threatened, Hezekiah and the people humbled themselves. If you and I would escape chastisement we must humble ourselves. The child that bares his hack to the rod shall not be very hardly smitten. Submission more easily averts blows from God’s hand than anything else. Yet although God removed the punishment as far as Hezekiah was concerned, he did not remove the consequences. You see the consequences of showing the Babylonians the treasures were just these: they would be sure to go back and tell their king "That little prince has a vast store of spice and gold, and all sorts of precious things; we must before long pick a quarrel with him, and despoil his rich hive. We must bring these choice treasures to Babylon, they will repay us for the toils of war."
That was the certain result of Hezekiah’s folly; and though God did forget the sin and promise to remove the punishment from Hezekiah, yet he did not avert the consequences from another generation. So with us. Many a sin which the believer has committed God has pardoned, but theconsequence come all the same; you may have the guilt forgiven but you cannot undo the sin, there it remains, and our children and our children’s children may have to smart for sins which God has forgiven to us.
A spendthrift may be forgiven for his profligacy, but he sends a stream of poverty down to the next generation. Some sins are peculiarly mischievous in this way, and I doubt not but that all sin inevitably brings mischief upon the man committing it, and upon all around him in a measure, and thatGod who forgives the sin leaves the consequences to work themselves out. That is a very solemn matter, is it not? You let loose the river, it will flow on forever. The action of today will affect all time; more or less remotely it will affect every coming age, for you affect another man, and that other man on another, and even eternity itself shall hear the echo trembling along its halls of your momentary action which you, perhaps, without thought, committed against the living God. This should make us very careful, surely, in our walk.
IV. I have now to conclude by asking you thoughtfully TO GATHER UP THE LESSONS OF THIS NARRATIVE, for I find I have not time to do so except in hints. This narrative is very full of instruction. It needs half-a- dozen sermons instead of one. The lessons, however, which come uppermost are just these. See, then, what is in every man’s heart. This was in Hezekiah’s heart- he was one of the best of men; the same is in your heart! You are humble today, you will be proud as Satan tomorrow if left by God’s grace. You little know, my dear brother, even though you are a renewed creature- you little know the villainy of your old nature. Perhaps it is not possible for any one of us to know our full capacity for guilt. Only let the restraining hand of providence and grace be taken away, and the wisest of us might become a very madman with the rage of sin. O God, teach us to know our hearts, and help us, while we remember how black they are, never to be proud. In the next place, tremble at anything that is likely to bring out this evil of your heart. Above all, be afraid of prosperity; be thankful, but do not be overjoyed; walk humbly with your God. Let there be a double guard set over your heart. A pirate very seldom attacks a ship that is going out unloaded; it is the vessel that is well stored that the buccaneer will seek to gain, and so with you: when God loads you with mercy the devil will try to take you if he can. Set a double watch, and keep your ship as far out of his course as may be; and when you must be thrust into temptation, and must mix with worldly men, be then watchful above all other times, lest by any means you be taken in the net. Riches and worldly company are the two cankers that eat out the very life of godliness! Christian, be aware of them! Should we not be taught by this narrative to cry out every day against vainglory. Ah, it is not those standing in prominent spheres who are alone in danger of it, but all others. I recollect firing a shot once with much greater success than I knew of. A certain person had frequently said to me that I had been the subject of her earnest prayers lest I should be exalted above measure, for she could see my danger, and after having heard this so many times that I really knew it by heart, I just made the remark, that I thought it would be my duty to pray for her too, lest she should be exalted above measure.
I was greatly amused when this answer came, "I have no temptation to be proud; my experience is such that I am in no danger whatever of being puffed up;" not knowing that her little speech was about the proudest statement that could have been made, and that everybody else thought her to be the most officious and haughty person within ten miles. Why, do not you believe there may be as much pride in rags as in an alderman's gown? Is it not just as possible for a man to be proud in a dust cart, as if he rode in her Majesty’s chariot? A man may be just as proud with half a yard of ground, as Alexander with all his kingdoms, and may be just as lifted up with a few pence, as Croesus with all his treasure. Pray against pride, dear friends, wherever you may be. Pride will grow on a dunghill, as well as in the king’s garden! Pray against pride and vainglory, and God give you grace to keep it under! And then supposing that you should have given way to it, see the sorrow which it will bring you, and if you would escape that sorrow imitate Hezekiah, and humble yourself. Down! man, down! "God resists the proud:" as long as you are up he resists you, "but he gives grace to the humble." When God is wrestling with man’s pride, let the man struggle as he will, God will throw him; but when the man is down God lifts him up. None so ready to lift up a fallen foe as our God. Bow yourself, then, Christian, and if you are not conscious of any particular pride, be humble because you are not so conscious, for pride is very likely there. It is when we think we are humble we are most proud, and perhaps when we bemoan our pride it may be then that we are truly humble. Let us go unto God by Jesus Christ, and ask him to search out this pride if it be there, and to lay us low at the foot of the cross.
Lastly, let us cry to God never to leave us. "Lord, take not your Holy Spirit from us! withdraw not from us your restraining grace! Have you not said, ‘I the Lord will keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.’ Lord, keep me everywhere. Keep me in the valley, that I murmur not of my low estate! keep me on the mountain, that I wax not giddy through pride at my being lifted up so high! Keep me in my youth, when my passions are strong! keep me in my old age, when I am conceited of my wisdom, and may therefore be a greater fool than even the young! Keep me when I come to die, lest at the very last I should deny you! Keep me living, keep me dying, keep me laboring, keep me suffering, keep me fighting, keep me resting, keep me everywhere, for everywhere I need you, O my God." The Lord keep us looking unto Jesus, and resting alone upon his finished work. If we have never trusted Christ at all, may the Lord bring us to rest upon his dear Son now! O sinner! there is but one door of hope for you, and that is open. Trust Jesus and live!
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