LivePrayerSermon 1664. "Jehovah-Rophi"
(No. 1664)
DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 11, 1882,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"I am the Lord who heals you." Exodus 15:26.
WE shall consider this passage in its context, for I have no doubt that the miracle at Marah was intended to be a very instructiveillustration of the glorious title which is here claimed by the Covenant God of Israel- "I am Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord thatheals you." The illustration introduces the sermon of which this verse is the text. The healing of the bitter waters is theparable of which the line before us is the lesson. How different is the Lord to His foes and to His friends! His Presenceis light to Israel and darkness to Egypt. Egypt only knew Jehovah as the Lord that plagues and destroys those who refuse toobey Him. Is not this the Lord's memorial in Egypt, that He cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? He overthrew their armies atthe Red Sea and drowned their hosts beneath the waves! But to His own people, in themselves but very little superior to theEgyptians, God is not the terrible Avenger consuming His adversaries, but, "Jehovah that heals you."
Their mental and moral diseases were almost as great as those of the Egyptians whom the Lord cut off from before Him, butHe spared His chosen for His Covenant's sake. He bared the sword of Justice against rebellious Pharaoh and then He turnedHis tender, healing hand out to His own people, to exercise towards them the heavenly surgery of His Grace. Israel knew Himas the Lord that heals and Egypt knew Him as the Lord that smites! Let us adore the Grace which makes so wide a difference-theSovereign Grace which brings salvation unto Israel-and let us confess our own personal obligations to the mercy which hasnot dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities!
Again, how differently does God deal with His own people from what we should have expected. He is a God of surprises! He doesthings which we looked not for. God deals with us not according to our conception of His ways, but according to His own wisdomand prudence, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so high are His thoughts above our thoughts. You would not havesupposed that a people for whom God had given Egypt as a ransom would have been led into the wilderness of Shur-neither wouldyou have guessed that a people so near to Him that He cleft the sea and made them walk between two glassy walls dry shod-wouldhave been left for three days without water!
You naturally expect to see the chosen tribes brought right speedily into a condition of comfort, or, if there must be a journeybefore they reach the land that flows with milk and honey, you look at once for the smitten rock and the flowing stream, themanna and the quails and all the other things which they can desire. How singular it seems that after having done such a greatmarvel for them, the Lord should cause them to thirst beneath a burning sky and, that, too, when they were quite unpreparedfor it, being quite new to desert privations, having lived so long by the river of Egypt where they drank of sweet water withoutstint.
We read at other times, "You, Lord, did send a plenteous rain, whereby You did refresh Your inheritance when it was weary."But here we meet with no showers! No brooks gushed forth below and no rain dropped from above. Three days without water isa severe trial when the burning sand is below and the blazing sky is above! Yet the Lord's people, in some way or other, aresure to be tried-theirs is no holiday parade-but a stern march by a way which flesh and blood would never have chosen. TheEgyptians found enough water and even too much of it, for they were drowned in the sea, but the well-beloved Israelites hadno water at all! So is it with the wicked man-he often has enough of wealth and too much of it-till he is drowned in sensualdelights and perishes in floods of prosperity. He has his portion in this life and in that portion he is lost, like Pharaoh,in the proud waters.
Full often the Lord's people are made to know the pinch of poverty. Their lives are made wretched by sore bondage and theyfaint for a morsel of bread-they drink from a bitter fountain which fills their inward parts with gall and wormwood. Theyare afflicted many times, almost to the breaking of their hearts. One of them said, "All the day long
have I been plagued and chastened every morning." They lie at the rich man's gate full of sores, while the ungodly man isclothed in scarlet and fares sumptuously every day. This is God's strange way of dealing with His own people. He Himself hassaid, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." "He scourges every son whom He receives." Thus He made His people know thatthe wilderness was not their rest, nor their home-for they could not even find such a common necessity as water with whichto quench their thirst!
He made them understand that the promised brooks that flowed with milk and honey were not in the wilderness, but must be foundon the other side of Jordan, in the land which God had given to their fathers-and they must journey there with weary feet."This is not your rest," was the lesson of their parched lips in the three-day march. You know what teaching there is in allthis, for your experience answers to it. Do not marvel, Beloved, if with all your joy over your vanquished sin, which shallbe seen by you no more, you yet have to lament your present grievous needs. The children of Israel cried, "What shall we drink?"This was a wretched sequel to, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously." Have you never made the same descent?If you are in poverty you are, no doubt, tempted to put that trinity of questions, "What shall we eat? What shall we drink?And with what shall we be clothed?"
You are not the first to whom this temptation has happened. Do not marvel at all if up from the triumph of the Red Sea, witha song in your mouth and a timbrel in your hand, you ascend into the great and terrible wilderness and enter upon the landof drought! This way lies Canaan and this way you must go. Through much tribulation we must enter the Kingdom of God and,therefore, let us set our minds to it. By this grievous test the Lord was proving His people and causing them to see whatwas in their hearts. They would have known no wilderness outside if there had not been a wilderness within-neither had therebeen a drought of water for their mouths if the Lord had not seen a drought of Grace in their souls. We are fine birds tillour feathers are ruffled-and then what a poor figure we cut! We are a mass of diseases and a bundle of disorders and, unlessGrace prevents, we are the sure prey of death. O Lord, we pray to be proven, but we little know what it means!
Let this suffice for an introduction and then let our text come in with comfort to our hearts, "I am the Lord that heals you."It was to illustrate this great name of God that the tribes were brought into so painful a condition! And, indeed, all theexperience of a Believer is meant to glorify God, that the Believer, himself, may see more of God and that the world outsidemay also behold the Glory of the Lord. Therefore the Lord leads His people up and down in the wilderness and, therefore, Hemakes them cry out because there is no water-all to make them behold His power, His goodness and His wisdom. Our lives arethe canvas upon which the Lord paints His own Character.
We shall try, this morning, to set forth before you, by the help of the Divine Spirit, this grand Character of God, that Heis the God that heals us. First, we shall notice the healing of our circumstances, dwelling upon that in order the betterto set forth the greater fact, "I am the Lord that heals you." Secondly, we shall remember the healing of our bodies whichis here promised to obedient Israel and we shall set forth that Truth of God, in order to bring out our third point, whichis the healing of our souls. "I am the Lord that heals you"-not your circumstances, only, nor your bodily diseases, only,but yourself, your soul, your truest self-for there is the worst bitterness, there is the sorest disease and there shall thegrandest power of God be shown to you and to all who know you.
I. THE GLORIOUS JEHOVAH SHOWS HIS HEALING POWER UPON OUR CIRCUMSTANCES. The fainting Israelites thought that when they cameto Marah they should slake their thirst. Often enough the mirage had mocked them as it does all thirsty travelers-they thoughtthat they saw before them flowing rivers and palm trees-but as they rushed forward, they found nothing but sand, for the miragewas deluding them. At last, however, the waters of Marah were fairly within sight and they were not a delusion! Here was realwater and they were sure of it. No doubt they rushed forward, helter-skelter, each man eager to drink-and what must have beentheir disappointment when they found that they could not endure it!
A thirsty man will drink almost anything, but this water was so bitter that it was impossible for them to receive it. I donot read that they had murmured all the three days of their thirsty march, but this disappointment was too much for them.The relief which seemed so near was snatched away! The cup was dashed from their lips and they began to murmur against Mosesand so, in truth, against God. Here was the proof of their imperfection-they were impatient and unbelieving. Have we not,too often, fallen into the same sin? Brethren, let your conscience answer! When you have felt a
sharp affliction and it has continued a long time and you have been wearied out with it, you have, at last, seen a prospectof escape, but that prospect has completely failed you. What woe is this!
When the friend you so surely relied upon tells you that he can do nothing. When the physician upon whom you put such relianceinforms you that his medicine has not touched the malady. When the last expedient that you could adopt to save yourself frombankruptcy-the last arrow in your quiver has missed the mark-how your spirit has sunk within you in dire despair! Then yourheart has begun to wound itself, like the scorpion, with its own sting. You have felt as if you were utterly spent and readyfor the grave. The last trial was too much for you! You could bear up no longer. Happy have you been if under such conditionsyou have not been left to give way to murmuring against God.
These poor Israelites were in a very pitiable condition. There was the water before them, but its horrible flavor made themshrink from a second taste. Have you not experienced the same? You have obtained that which you thought would deliver you,but it has not helped you. You looked for light and beheld darkness; for refreshment and beheld an aggravated grief. The springsof earth are brackish until Jehovah heals them-they increase the thirst of the man who too eagerly drinks of them. "Cursedis he that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm." Now, dear Friends, in answer to prayer, God has often healed your bitterwaters and made them sweet. I am about to appeal to your personal experience, you that are truly pilgrims under the guidanceof your heavenly Lord.
Has it not been so with you? I should have no difficulty in refreshing your memories about Marah, for very likely its bitternessis in your mouth, even now, and you cannot forget your sorrow. But just now I wish to refresh your memories about what cameof that sorrow. Did not God deliver you? Did He not, when you cried to Him, come to your rescue? I appeal to facts which maybe stubborn things, but they are also rich encouragements. Has not the Lord oftentimes made our bitter waters sweet by changingour circumstances altogether? When the poor in heart have been oppressed, God has taken away the oppressor, or else takenthe heart away from the oppression. When you have been in great straits and could not see which way to steer, has not theLord Jesus seemed to open before you a wider channel, or Himself to steer your vessel through all the intricacies of the narrowriver and bring you where you would come?
Have you not noticed in your lives that most remarkable changes have taken place at times when anguish took hold upon you?I can bear my witness, if you cannot, that the Lord has great healing power in the matter of our trials and griefs. He haschanged my circumstances in Providence and in many ways altered the whole aspect of affairs. On other occasions the Lord hasnot removed the circumstances and yet He has turned sorrow into joy, for He has put into them a new ingredient which has actedas an antidote to the acrid flavor of your affliction. You were not allowed to leave the shop, but there came a fresh managerwho shielded you from persecution! You were not permitted to quit your business, but there came a wonderful improvement inyour trade and this reconciled you to the long hours! You were not made to be perfectly healthy, but you were helped to amedicine which much lessened the sharpness of the pain-thus has your Marah been sweetened. Have you not found it so?
The weight of your affliction was exceedingly great, but the Lord found a counterbalance and, by placing a weight of holyjoy in the other scale, He lifted up your load and its weight was virtually taken away! You have been at Marah, but even thereyou have been able to drink, for a something has been put into the waters of afflictive Providence which has made them endurable.And where this has not been done, the Lord has, by a heavenly art, made your bitter waters sweet by giving you more satisfactionwith the Divine will, more submission, more acquiescence in what the Lord has ordained. After all, this is the most effectualremedy. If I cannot bring my circumstances to my mind, yet if God helps me to bring my mind to my circumstances, the matteris made right.
There is a degree of sweetness about pain, poverty and shame when once you feel, "The loving Lord ordained all this for me-mytribulation is of His appointing." Then the soul, feeling that the affliction comes from a Father's hand, accepts it and kicksagainst the pricks no longer. Surely, then, the bitterness of life or of death will be past when the mind is subdued to theEternal will! These people said, "What shall we drink?" and they would have concluded that Moses was mocking them if he hadanswered, "You shall drink the bitter water." They would have said, "We cannot bear it! We remember the sweet water of theNile and we cannot endure this nauseous stuff." But Moses would have said, "Yes, you will drink this and nothing else butthis and it will become to you all that you need." Even so, Beloved, you may have quarreled with your circumstances and said,"I must have a change! I can no longer bear this trial."
Has not the Lord of His Grace changed your mind and so influenced your will that you have really found comfort in that whichwas uncomfortable and content in that which made you discontented? Have you never said, when under tribulation, "I could nothave believed it. I am perfectly happy under my trial and yet when I looked ahead to it, I dreaded it beyond measure. I saidit would be the death of me, but now I find that by these things men live and in all this is the life of my spirit." We exclaimwith Jacob, "All these things are against me," but the Lord gives us more Grace and we see that all things work together forgood-and we bless the Lord for His afflicting hand! So you see the Lord Jehovah heals our bitter waters and makes our circumstancesendurable to our sanctified minds.
Brothers and Sisters, all this which you have experienced should be to you a proof of God's power to make everything thatis bitter, sweet. The depravity of your nature will yet yield to the operations of His Grace! The corruptions that are withinyou will yet be subdued and you shall enter into the fullest communion with God in Christ Jesus! I know you shall, becausethe Lord is unchangeable in power and what He has done in one direction He can and will do in another. Your circumstanceswere so terrible and yet God helped you-and now your sins, your inbred sins, which are so dreadful-He will help you againstthem and give you power over them. You shall overcome the power of evil! By His Grace you shall be sanctified and you shallmanifest the sweetness of holiness instead of the bitterness of self! Can you believe it? Does not God's power exhibited inProvidence around you prove that He has power enough to do great things within you by His Grace?
Moreover, should not this healing of your circumstances be to you a pledge that God will heal you as to your inner spirit?He that brought you through the sea and drowned your enemies will, also, drown your sins, till you shall sing, "The depthshave covered them! There is not one of them left." He that turned your Marah into sweetness will yet turn all your sense ofsin into a sense of pardon! All the bitterness of your regret and the sharpness of your repentance shall yet be turned intothe joy of faith and you shall be full of delight in the perfect reconciliation which comes by the precious blood of Christ!Sustaining Providences are to the saints sure pledges of Divine Grace! The sweetened water is a picture of a sweetened nature-Ialmost said it is a type of it! God binds Himself by the gracious deliverances of His Providence to give you equal deliverancesof Grace. It is joyous to say, "He is the Lord that healed my circumstances," but how much better to sing of His name as "TheLord that heals you"?
Do not be contented till you reach to that! But do be confident that He who healed Marah will heal you-He that has helpedyou to rejoice in Him in all your times of trouble will sustain you in all your struggles with sin till you shall more sweetlyand more loudly praise His blessed name!
II. Let us now proceed a step further. As we have spoken of God's healing our circumstances, so now we have to think of THELORD'S HEALING OUR BODIES. Why are diseases and pains left in the bodies of God's people? Our bodies are redeemed, for Christhas redeemed our entire manhood, but if Christ is in us, the body is still dead because of sin, even though the spirit isalive because of righteousness. It is not till the Resurrection that we shall enjoy the full result of the redemption of thebody. Resurrection will accomplish for our bodies what regeneration has done for our souls. We were born again. Yes, but thatDivine work was exercised only upon our spiritual nature-our bodies were not born again-therefore they still abide under theliability of disease, decay and death, though even these evils have been turned into blessings.
This frail, sensitive and earthly frame, which Paul calls, "this vile body," grows weary and worn and, by-and-by, it willfade away and die unless the Lord shall come. And even if He should come, this feeble fabric must be totally changed, forflesh and blood, as they now are, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Neither can corruption dwell with incorrup-tion. Evento this day the body is under death because of sin and is left so on purpose to remind us of the effects of sin- that we mayfeel within ourselves what sin has done-and may the better guess at what sin would have done if we had remained under it,for the pains of Hell would have been ours forever. These griefs of body are meant, I say, to make us remember what we oweto the redemption of our Lord Jesus, and so to keep us humble and grateful.
Aches and pains are also sent to keep us on the wing for Heaven, even as thorns in the nest drive the bird from its sloth.They make us long for the land where the inhabitant shall no more say, "I am sick." Yet the Lord does heal our bodies. FirstHe heals them by preventing sickness. A prevention is better than cure. The text says, "If you will diligently hearken tothe voice of the Lord, your God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His com-
mandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians:for I am the Lord that heals you."
It is concerning this same healing Lord that we read, "You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrowthat flies by day; nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousandshall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall youbehold and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation;there shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling." Do we sufficiently praise God for guardingus from disease? I am afraid that His preserving care is often forgotten.
Men will go 30 or 40 years, almost, without an illness, and forget the Lord, in consequence. That which should secure gratitudecreates indifference! When we have been ill, we come up to the House of the Lord and desire to return thanks because of ourrecovery. Ought we not to give thanks when we are not ill and do not need to be recovered? Should it not be to you healthyfolks a daily cause of gratitude to God that He keeps away those pains which would keep you awake all night and wards offthose sicknesses which would cause your beauty to consume away like the moth? But we see this healing hand of the Lord moreconspicuously when, like Hezekiah, we have been sick and have been restored.
Sometimes we lie helpless and hopeless like dust ready to return to its fellow dust. We are incapable of exertion and readyto be dissolved. Then if the Lord renews our youth and takes away our sickness, we praise His name-and so we ought! It isnot the doctor; it is not the medicine-these are but the outward means-it is the Lord who is the true Physician and unto Jehovah-Rophibe the praise! "I am the Lord that heals you." Let those of us that have been laid aside and have been again allowed to walkabroad, lift up our hearts and our voices in thanksgiving to the Lord who forgives all our iniquities, who heals all our diseases!
According to the analogy of the healing of Marah, the Lord does this by means, for He cast a tree into the water. Those whowill use no medicine, whatever, certainly have no Scriptural warrant for their conduct. Even where cures are given to faith,yet the Apostle says, "Is any sick? Let him send for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him withoil in the name of the Lord." The anointing with oil was the proper medicine of the day and, possibly, a great deal bettermedicine than some of the drugs which are used nowadays. To the use of this anointing the promise is given, "and the prayerof faith shall raise the sick." Hezekiah was miraculously healed, but the Lord said, "Take a lump of figs and lay it uponthe sore."
God could have spoken a word and turned Marah sweet, but He did not choose to do so! He would exercise the faith and obedienceof His people by bidding them cast a tree into the waters. The use of means is not to hinder faith, but to try it. Still,it is the Lord who works the cure and this is the point which is so often forgotten. Oh, come, let us sing unto Jehovah whohas said-"I am the Lord that heals you"! Do not attribute to secondary means that which ought to be ascribed to God! His freshair, warm sun, or bracing wind and refreshing showers do more for our healing than we dream of, or if medicine is used, itis He who gives virtue to the drugs and so, by His own Almighty hands, works out our cure. As one who has felt His restoringhand, I will personally sing unto Him who is the health of my countenance and my
God.
Note this, that in every healing of which we are the subjects, we have a pledge of the Resurrection. Every time a man whois near the gates of death rises up, again, he enjoys a kind of rehearsal of that grand rising when from beds of dust andsilent clay the perfect saints shall rise at the sound of the trumpet of the archangel and the voice of God! We ought to gatherfrom our restorations from serious and perilous sickness a proof that the God who brings us back from the gates of the gravecan also bring us back from the grave, itself, whenever it shall be His time to do so! This should also be a further proofto us that if He can heal our bodies, the Lord can heal our souls! If this poor worm's meat, which so readily decays, canbe revived, so can the soul which is united to Christ and quickened with His life! And if the Almighty Lord can cast out evilsfrom this poor dust and ashes which must ultimately be dissolved, much more can He cast out all manner of evils from thatimmaterial spirit which is yet to shine in the brightness of the Glory of God!
Therefore, both from His healing your souls and from His healing your bodies, gather power to believe in the fact that Hewill heal your mental, moral and spiritual diseases! Lift up your hearts with joy as you sing of Jehovah-Rophi, "The Lordthat heals YOU."-
"Sinners of old, You did receive,
With comfortable words and kind,
Their sorrows cheer, their needs relieve,
Heal the diseased and cure the blind.
And are You not the Savior still,
In everyplace and age the same?
Have You forgot Your gracious skill,
Or lost the virtue of Your name?
Faith in Your changeless name I have;
The good, the kind Physician, You
Are able now our souls to sa ve,
Are willing to restore them now.
Though eighteen hundred years are past
Since You did in the flesh appear,
Your tender mercies ever last;
And still Your healing power is here! Would You the body's health restore,
And not regard the sin-sick soul?
The sin-sick soul You love much more,
And surely You shall make it whole." The healing of Marah and the healing of the body are placed before the text and theyshed a light upon it. They place this name of the Lord in a golden frame and cause us to look upon it with the greater interest.
III. Now we come to THE HEALING OF OUR SOULS. The Lord our God will heal our spirits and He will do it in somewhat the samemanner as that in which He healed Marah. How was that? First, He made the people know how bitter Marah was. There was no healingfor that water till they had tasted it and discovered that it was too brackish to be endured! But after they knew its bitterness,then the Lord made it sweet for them. So is it with your sin, my Brothers and Sisters! It must become more and more bitterto you. You will have to cry out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" You will have to feel that you cannotlive upon anything that is within yourself. The creature must be made distasteful to you and all trusts that come of it, forGod's way is first to kill and then to make alive-first to wound and then to heal. He begins by making Marah to be Marah andafterwards He makes it sweet!
What next? The next thing was there was prayer offered. I do not know whether any of the people possessed faith in God, butif so, they had a prayerless faith, and God does not work in answer to prayerless faith. "Oh," says one, "I am perfectly sanctified."How do you know? "Because I believe I am." That will never do! Is a man rich because he believes he is? Will sickness vanishif I believe myself to be well? Some even think it useless to pray because they feel sure of having the blessing. That puttingaside of prayer is a dangerous piece of business! If there is not the cry to God for the blessing, yes-and the daily cry forkeeping and for sanctification-the mercy will not come. Again, I say, healing comes not to a prayerless faith. You may believewhat you like, but God will only hear you when you pray. Faith must pour itself out in prayer before the blessing will bepoured into the soul. Moses cried and he obtained the blessing-the people did not cry and they would have been in an evilcase had it not been for Moses. We must come to crying and praying before we shall receive sanctification, which is the makingwhole of our spirits.
Marah became sweet through the introduction of something outside of itself-a tree. I know not of what kind. The rabbis saythat it was a bitter tree and naturally would tend to make the water more bitter, still. However that may be, I cannot imagineany tree in all the world, bitter or sweet, which could have power to sweeten such a quantity of water as must have been atMarah! The transaction was miraculous and the tree was used merely as the instrument and no further. But I do know a treewhich, if put into the soul, will sweeten all its thoughts and desires-Jesus knew that tree, that tree whereon He died andshed His blood as a victim for our sin!
If the merit of the Cross is imputed to us and the spirit of the Cross is introduced into our nature. If we trust the LordJesus and rest upon Him. Yes, if we become Cross-bearers and our soul is crucified to the world-then we shall find a marvelouschange of our entire nature! Whereas we were full of vice, the Crucified One will make us full of virtue! And
whereas we were bitter towards God, we shall be sweet to Him and even Christ will be refreshed as He drinks of our love; asHe drinks of our trust; as He drinks of our joy in Him! Where all was acrid, sharp and poisonous, everything shall becomepure, delicious and refreshing! But we must first experience a sense of bitterness-then cry out to the Lord in prayer andthen yield an obedient faith which puts the unlikely tree into the stream-then the Divine power shall be put forth upon usby Him who says, "I am the Lord that heals you." The inner healing is set forth as in a picture in the sweetening of the bitterpools of Marah. I know I am right in saying so, because we are told of Moses, "There he made for them a statute and an ordinance,and there he proved them."
Again, the task of turning Marah sweet was a very difficult one. No human power could have achieved it and, even so, the taskof changing our nature is not only difficult, but impossible to us. We must be born again, not of the will of man, nor ofblood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. There was no turning Marah sweet by any means within the reach of Moses orthe myriads that came up with him out of Egypt. This wonder must come from Jehovah's hands. So is the change of our naturea thing beyond all human might. Who can make his own heart clean? God must work this marvel! We must be born again from above,or else we shall remain in the gall of bitterness even unto the end.
But yet the work was very easy for God. How simple a thing it was just to take a tree and cast it into the bitter water andfind it sweet at once! Even so it is an easy thing for God to make us a new heart and a right spirit and so to incline usto everything that is right and good. What a blessing is this! If I had to make myself holy, I must despair! And if I hadto make myself perfect, and keep myself so, it would never be done! But the Lord Jehovah can do it and has already begun todo it! Things which I once hated I now love-all things have become new. Simple faith in Jesus Christ and the putting of theCross into the stream does it all, and does it at once, too! And does it so effectually that there is no return of the bitterness,but the heart remains sweet and pure before the living God.
The task was completely accomplished. The people came and drank of Marah just as freely as they afterwards drank of Elim orof the water that leaped from the smitten rock. So God can and will complete in us the change of our nature. Paul says, "Iam persuaded that He that has begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ." The Lord has not begun tosweeten us a little with the intent of leaving us in a half-healed condition, but He will continue the process till we arewithout trace of defilement and made pure and right in His sight. This work is one which greatly glo-rifles God. If the changeof Marah's water made the people praise God, much more will the change of nature make us adore Him forever and ever! We aregoing to be exalted, Brethren, by-and-by, to the highest place in the universe-next to God! Man, poor, sinful man, is to beso changed as to be able to stand side by side with Christ, who has, for that very purpose, taken upon Himself human nature.We are to be above the angels! The highest seraphim shall be less privileged than the heirs of salvation!
Now, the tendency to pride would be very strong upon us, only that we shall always remember what we used to be and what powerit was that has made us what we are. This will make it safe for God to glorify His people. There will be no fear of our sullyingGod's honor, or setting ourselves up in opposition to Him, as did Lucifer of old. It shall never be said of any spirit washedin the precious blood of Jesus, "How are you fallen from Heaven, O son of the morning!" for the process through which we shallpass in turning our bitterness to sweetness will fill us with perpetual adoration and with constant reverence of the unspeakablymighty Grace of God! Will it not be so, Brethren? Do not your impulses even now lead you to feel that, when you gain yourpromised crowns, the first thing you will joyfully do will be to cast them at the feet of Jesus, and say, "Not unto us, notunto us, but unto Your name be Glory forever and ever"?
That sweetened Marah was all of God-our renewed nature shall be all of God. We shall not be able to take the slightest particleof credit to ourselves, nor shall we wish to do so. Brothers and Sisters, the Lord will do it! He will be sure to do it becauseit will glorify His name. Let us draw comfort from this fact-there will be no interfering with the Lord by a rival claimantto honor! There will be no idolatry in us taking away part of His praises! Therefore He will do it and change our bitternessinto perfect sweetness. Blessed be His name, He can do it-nothing will baffle the skill of "the Lord that heals you."
Whenever I am cast down under a sense of corruption, I always like to get a hold of this Divine name, "The Lord that healsyou." "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." "Faithful is He that has called you, whoalso will do it," says the Apostle. He has not undertaken what He will fail to perform. Jehovah, who made Heaven and earth,has undertaken to make us perfect and to effectually heal us-therefore let us be confident that
it will assuredly be accomplished and we shall be presented without spot before God! He who heals us is a God so gloriousthat He will certainly perform the work. There is none like unto the Omnipotent One! He is able to subdue all things untoHimself. His wisdom, power and Grace can so work upon us that where sin abounded Grace shall much more abound-
"You can o vercome this heart of mine!
You will victorious prove,
For everlasting strength is Yours
And everlasting love.
Your powerful Spirit shall subdue
Unconquerable sin;
Cleanse this foul heart, and make it new,
And write Your Law within."
He is a God who loves us so and makes us so precious in His sight that He gave Egypt for our ransom, Ethiopia and Seba forus! A God so loving will surely perfect that which concerns us.
Moreover, a God so fond of purity, a God who hates sin so intensely and who loves righteousness so fervently will surely cleansethe blood of His own children! He must and will make His own family pure! "This people have I formed for Myself: they shallshow forth My praise." The devil cannot hinder that decree. "They shall," says God, and they shall, too-no matter what shallstand in their way! They must and they shall show forth God's praise.
Now, as you have believed in God for your justification and found it in Christ, so believe in God for your sanctifica-tion,that He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure! Believe that He will exterminate in you the veryroots of sin-that He will make you like Himself, without taint or speck, and that, as surely as you are trusting in Christ,you shall be whiter than snow, pure as the infinite Jehovah-and you shall stand with His First-Born, accepted in the Beloved!My soul seems to grasp this and to hold it all the more firmly because the Lord has turned my bitter circumstances into sweetnessand has healed the sickness of my body.
Because of these former mercies, I know that He will heal the sickness of my spirit, and I shall be whole, that is to say,holy, without spot or trace of sin and so shall I be forever with the Lord. "Therefore comfort one another with these words."Brothers and Sisters, if the Lord has taken you into His hospital and healed you, do not forget other sick folk! Freely youhave received, freely give! Give today to the hospitals in which so many of the poor are cared for and relieved. Do it forJesus' sake and may the Lord accept your offerings!