Deuteronomy 32:5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. There are frequently great difficulties in identifying the persons of men, even when they have been distinctly seen. Our police courts have given us most serious evidence that men may be utterly deceived as to the identity of individuals. Turning to the moral universe, identity there is far more difficult to be made out, for both the moral and religious world swarm with pretenders. You cannot know to a certainty who among your acquaintances is a Christian and who is not. You see the text talks about certain secret spots. These are tokens in which men cannot so readily deceive as to their identity. The mother will be able to tell whether this is her child or not by the spot which is known to none but herself. The pretender may be very like her child: the voice may be the voice of Jacob, and the hands may not be dissimilar, and he may be able to relate many things concerning his youth which it would seem that none but the real child could know; but the mother recollects that there was a secret spot, and if that be not there, she turns aside the pretender; but ii she discovers that private token, she knows the claimant to be her child. There are secret marks upon every Christian, and if we have not the spot of God's child too, it will little avail us how fairly in our outward garb and manner we may conform ourselves to the members of the heavenly family. I. First, then, at the mention of private spots which are to be the insignia of the regenerate, there are thousands who say, "We do not shirk that examination. Truly, the signs of saints are in us also! Are others Israelites? so are we: we challenge an investigation." Be it so, then! LET US COMMENCE A MINUTE EXAMINATION. I am not now to deal with anything that is public. We are not speaking now about actions or words, but concerning those secret things which men have judged to be infallible marks of their being saved. Here is a friend before us, and as he lays bare his heart he indicates to us the spot which he thinks proclaims him to be a child of God. I will describe it. The man has embraced sound doctrine. Wherever he goes, his whole talk is of his favourite Shibboleth, "The truth! The truth!" Not that the aforesaid truth has ever renewed his nature; not that it has at all made him a better husband or a kinder father; not that it influences him in trade. Now, sir, we do not hesitate to say concerning you, although you will not be best pleased with us for it, that Four spot is not the spot of the children of God. No form of doctrine, however Scriptural, can ever save the soul if it be only received by the head, and does not work in its mighty energy upon the heart. "Ye must be born again," is the Saviour's word; and unless ye be born again, your carnal nature may hold the truth in the letter without discerning the spirit; and while the truth shall be dishonoured by being so held, you yourself shall not be benefited thereby. II. WHAT IS THE TRUE SECRET SPOT WHICH INFALLIBLY BETOKENS THE CHILD OF GOD? "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." Here it is, then: if I have received Christ Jesus into my heart, then I am a child of God. That reception is described in the second clause as a believing on the name of Jesus Christ. If, then, I believe on Jesus Christ's name, I am a member of the family of the Most High. III. THE DISCRIMINATION OF DEFILING SPOTS. The term "spot" as used in the text will not be read usually as we have read it. It will, no doubt, to most readers suggest the idea of sin, and very properly so — then the text would run thus: the sin of the people mentioned here is not the sin of God's people. There is a difference between their guilt and the offences of the Lord's chosen. There is a discrimination to be made, even as to sinful spots. God forbid that you should imagine that I wish to excuse the sins of believers. In some views, when a believer sins, his sin is worse than that of other men, because he offends against greater light; he revolts against greater love and mercy; he flies in the teeth of his profession; he does despite to the Cross of Christ, and he brings dishonour upon the name of Jesus. Believers cannot sin cheaply. The very least speck on a Christian is more plainly seen than the foulest blot on the ungodly, just as a white dress shows the dirt the sooner. Sin is a horrible thing, and, it is above all things detestable when it lurks in a child of God; yet the sins of God's people do differ from the sins of other men in many important respects: they do not sin with cool determination, meaning to sin and sinning for its own sake. A sinner in his sins is a bird in the air, but the believer in sin is like the fish that leaps for a while into the air, but must be back again or die. Sin cannot be satisfactory to an immortal spirit regenerated by the Holy Ghost. If you sin, you "have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous"; but if you sin and love sin, then you are the servant of sin, and not the child of God. Again, the child of God cannot look back upon sin with any kind of complacency. The ungodly man has this spot, that after the sin he even boasts of it,; he will tell to others that he enjoyed himself greatly in his wicked sport. "Ah," saith he, "how sweet it is!" But no man of God ever sins without smarting. IV. AN EXHORTATION. To make sure work for eternity, and to make it clear to your own consciences that you are the children of God. A famous case is now pending, in which a person claims to be the son of a deceased baronet. Whether he be or not I suppose will ere long be decided by the highest authorities; meanwhile the case is pending, a very weighty case for him, for upon the decision will hang his possession or non-possession of vast estates and enormous property. Now, in your case you, many of you, profess to be the children of God, and heaven hangs upon the question of the truthfulness of your profession. A child of God! Then your portion is eternal life. An heir of wrath, even as others! Then your heritage will be eternal death. Is it uncertain now whether you are a child of God or not? Is it uncertain now whether your spot is the spot of God's children? Then let not an hour pass over your head till you have said, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. |
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