The Prince of Preachers Charles Haddon
Spurgeon has been called England's greatest contribution to
the spread of the gospel in the 19th
century.
One of his contemporaries said that the chief
secret of Spurgeon's attractiveness was the fact that
in every sermon, no matter what the text
or the occasion, he explained the way of
salvation in simple terms.
Spurgeon's messages remain one of the great treasure
houses of Christian literature, still bringing the light
of the gospel and the comfort of the
scriptures to hungry souls long after the preacher
has passed into glory.
This is Charles Kelsch inviting you to listen
to a message from the Prince of Preachers.
Prince
of
Preachers
And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor.
Last Sabbath morning we considered the first title,
His name shall be called Wonderful.
This morning we take the second word, Counselor.
I need not repeat the remark that of
course these titles belong only to the Lord
Jesus Christ and that we cannot understand the
passage except by referring it to Messiah, the
Prince.
It was by a Counselor that this world
was ruined.
Did not Satan mask himself in the serpent
and counsel the woman with exceeding craftiness that
she should take unto herself of the fruit
of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil, in hope that thereby she should be
as God?
Was it not that evil counsel which provoked
our mother to rebel against her Maker, and
did it not as the effect of sin
bring death into this world with all its
train of woe?
Ah, beloved, it was meet that the world
should have a Counselor to restore it, if
it had a Counselor to destroy it.
It was by counsel that it fell, and
certainly without counsel it never could have arisen.
But mark the difficulties that surrounded such a
Counselor.
It is easy to counsel mischief, but how
hard to counsel wisely!
To cast down is easy, but to build
up, how hard!
To confuse this world and bring upon it
all its train of ills was an easy
thing.
A woman plucked the fruit, and it was
done.
But to restore order to this confusion, to
sweep away the evils which brooded over this
fair earth, this was work indeed.
And wonderful was that Christ who came forward
to attempt the work, and who in the
plenitude of His wisdom hath certainly accomplished it,
to His own honor and glory, and to
our comfort and safety.
We shall now enter upon the discussion of
this title which is given to Christ, a
title peculiar to our Redeemer.
And you will see why it should be
given to Him, and why there was a
necessity for such a Counselor.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ is a Counselor
in a threefold sense.
First, He is God's Counselor.
He sits in the Cabinet Council of the
King of Heaven.
He has admittance into the Privy Chamber, and
is the Counselor with God.
In the second place, Christ is a Counselor
in the sense which the Septuagint translation appends
to this term.
Christ is said to be the Angel of
the Great Council.
He is a Counselor in that He communicates
to us in God's behalf what has been
done in the Great Council before the foundation
of the world.
And thirdly, Christ is a Counselor to us
and with us, because we can consult with
Him, and He doth counsel and advise us
as to the right way and the path
of peace.
Beginning then with the first point, Christ may
well be called Counselor, for He is a
Counselor with God.
And here let us speak with reverence, for
we are about to enter upon a very
solemn subject.
It has been revealed to us that before
the world was, when as yet God had
not made the stars, long ere space sprang
into being, the Almighty God did hold a
solemn conclave with Himself.
Father, Son, and Spirit held a mystic council
with each other as to what they were
about to do.
That council, although we read but little of
it in Scripture, was nevertheless most certainly held.
We have abundant traces of it, for though
it is a doctrine obscure through the effulgence
of that light to which no man can
approach, and not simply and didactically explained as
some other doctrines are, yet we have continual
tracings and incidental mentionings of that great, eternal,
and wonderful council, which was held between the
three glorious persons of the Trinity before the
world began.
Our first question with ourselves is, why did
God hold a council at all?
And here we must answer that God did
not hold a council because of any deficiency
in His knowledge, for God understands all things
from the beginning.
His knowledge is the sum total of everything
that is noble, and infinite is that sum
total, infinitely above everything that is counted noble
by us.
Thou, O God, hast thoughts that are unsearchable,
and Thou knowest what no mortal can ever
attain unto.
Nor again did God hold any consultation for
the increase of His satisfaction.
Sometimes men, when they have determined what to
do, will nevertheless seek counsel of their friends,
because they say, If their advice agrees with
mine, it adds to my satisfaction and confirms
me in my resolution.
But God is everlastingly satisfied with Himself, and
knoweth not the shadow of a doubt to
cloud His purpose.
Therefore the council was not held with any
motive or intent of that sort.
Nor again was it held with a view
of deliberation.
Men take weeks and months, sometimes years, to
think out a thing that is surrounded with
difficulties.
They have to find the clue with much
research.
Enveloped in folds of mystery, they have to
take off first one garment and then another,
before they find out the naked glorious truth.
Not so, God!
God's deliberations are as flashes of lightning.
They are as wise as if He had
been eternally considering.
But the thoughts of His heart, though swift
as lightning, are as perfect as the whole
system of the universe.
The reason why God is represented as holding
a council, if I think rightly, is this,
that we might understand how wise God is.
In the multitude of counselors there is wisdom.
It is for us to think that in
the council of the Eternal Three, each person
in the undivided Trinity being omniscient and full
of wisdom, there must have been the sum
total of all wisdom.
And again, it was to show the unanimity
and cooperation of the sacred persons.
God the Father hath done nothing alone in
creation or salvation.
Jesus Christ hath done nothing alone.
For even the work of His redemption, albeit
that He suffered in some sense alone, needed
the sustaining hand of the spirits and the
accepting smile of the Father before it could
be completed.
God said not, I will make man, but
let us make man in our own image.
God said not merely, I will save.
But the inference from the declarations of Scripture
is that the design of the three persons
of the blessed Trinity was to save a
people to themselves who should show forth their
praise.
It was then for our sakes, not for
God's sake, the council was held, that we
might know the unanimity of the glorious persons
and the deep wisdom of their devices.
Yet another remark concerning the council.
It may be asked, what were the topics
deliberated upon at that first council, which was
held before the day star knew its place
and the planets there round?
We reply, the first topic was creation.
We are told in the passage we have
read, Proverbs chapter 8, that the Lord Jesus
Christ, who represents Himself as wisdom, was with
God before the world was created.
And we have every reason to believe that
we are to understand this as meaning that
He was not only with God in company,
but with God in cooperation.
Besides, we have other scriptures to prove that
all things were made by Him, and without
Him was not anything made that was made.
And to quote yet another passage that clinches
this truth, God said, let us make man,
so that a part of the consultation was
with reference to the making of worlds and
the creatures that should inhabit them.
I believe that in the sovereign council of
eternity, the mountains were weighed in scales, and
the hills in balances.
Then was it fixed in sovereign council how
far the sea should go, and where should
be its bounds, when the sun should arise
and come forth like a giant from the
chambers of his darkness, and when he should
return again to this couch of rest.
Then did God decree the moment when He
should say, Let there be light, and the
moment when the sun should be turned into
darkness, and the moon into a clot of
blood.
Then did He ordain the form and size
of every angel, and the destinies of every
creature.
Then did He sketch in His infinite thought
the eagle as He soared to heaven, and
the worm as He burrowed into the earth.
Then the little as well as the great,
the minute as well as the immense, came
under the sovereign decree of God.
There was that book written of which Dr.
Watts sings, Chained to His throne a volume
lies, With all the fates of men, With
every angel's form and size, Drawn by the
eternal pen.
Christ was a counselor in the matter of
creation, With none else took He counsel, None
else instructed Him.
Christ was the counselor for all the wondrous
works of God.
The second topic that was discussed in this
council was the work of providence.
God does not act towards this world like
a man who makes a watch, and lets
it have its own way till it runs
down.
He is the controller of every wheel in
the machine of providence.
He has left nothing to itself.
We talk of general laws, and philosophers tell
us that the world is governed by laws,
and then they put the Almighty out of
the question.
Now, how can a nation be governed by
laws apart from a sovereign, or apart from
magistrates and rulers to carry out the laws?
All the laws may be in the statute
book, but put all the police away, take
away every magistrate, remove the High Court of
Parliament.
What is the use of laws?
Laws cannot govern without active agency to carry
them out, nor could nature proceed in its
everlasting cycles by the mere force of law.
God is the great motive power of all
things.
He is in everything.
Not only did He make all things, but
by Him all things consist.
From all eternity, Christ was the counselor of
His Father with regard to providence.
When the first man should be born, when
he should wander, when he should be restored,
when the first monarchy should rise, and when
its son should set, where his people should
be placed, how long they should be placed,
and where they should be moved.
Was it not the Most High who divided
to the nations their inheritance?
Have He not appointed the bounds of our
habitation?
O Heir of heaven, in the day of
the great counsel, Christ counseled His Father as
to the weight of thy trials, as to
the number of thy mercies, if they be
numerable, and as to the time, the way,
and the means, whereby thou shouldst be brought
to Himself.
Remember, there is nothing that happens in your
daily life, but what was first of all
devised in eternity and counseled by Jesus Christ
for your good and in your behalf, that
all things might work together for your lasting
benefit and profit.
But, my friends, what unfathomable depths of wisdom
must have been involved when God consulted with
Himself with regard to the great book of
providence.
O how strange providence seems to you and
to me!
Does it not look like a zigzag line,
this way and that, backward and forward, like
the journeys of the children of Israel in
the wilderness?
Ah, my brethren, but to God it is
a straight line.
Directly God always goes to His object, and
yet to us He often seems to go
round about.
Ah, Jacob, the Lord is about to provide
for thee in Egypt when there is a
famine in Canaan, and He is about to
make thy son Joseph great and mighty.
Joseph must be sold for a slave, he
must be accused wrongfully, he must be put
into the pit, and in the round house
of the prison he must suffer.
But God was going straight to His purpose
all the while.
He was sending Joseph before them into Egypt,
that they might be provided for.
And when the good old patriarch said, All
these things are against me, he did not
perceive the providence of God.
For there was not a solitary thing in
the whole list that was against him, but
everything was ruled for his good.
Let us learn to leave providence in the
hand of the counselor.
Let us rest assured that he is too
wise to err in his predestination, and too
good to be unkind, and that in the
counsel of eternity the best was ordained that
could have been ordained, that if you and
I had been there, we could not have
ordained half so well, but that we should
have made ourselves eternal fools by meddling therewith.
Rest certain that in the end we shall
see that all was well, and must be
well forever.
He is wonderful, the counselor, for he counseled
in matters of providence.
And now with regard to matters of grace.
These were also discussed in the everlasting counsel.
When the three divine persons, in the solemn
seclusion of their own loneliness, consulted together with
reference to the works of grace, one of
the first things they had to consider was
how God should be just, and yet the
justifier of the ungodly, how the world should
be reconciled unto God.
Hence you read in the book of Zechariah,
if you turn to the sixth chapter and
the thirteenth verse, this passage.
The counsel of peace shall be between them
both.
The Son of God, with His Father and
the Spirit, ordained the counsel of peace.
Thus was it arranged.
The Son must suffer.
He must be the substitute, must bear His
people's sins and be punished in their stead.
The Father must accept the Son's substitution and
allow His people to go free because Christ
had paid their debts.
The Spirit of the living God must then
cleanse the people whom the blood had pardoned,
and so they must be accepted before the
presence of God, even the Father.
That was the result of the great counsel.
But, O my brethren, if it had not
been for that counsel, what a question would
have been left unsolved!
Neither you nor I could ever have thought
how the two should meet together, how mercy
and justice should kiss each other over the
mountain of our sins.
I have always thought that one of the
greatest proofs that the gospel is of God
is its revelation that Christ died to save
sinners.
That is a thought so original, so new,
so wonderful, you have not got it in
any other religion in the world, so that
it must have come from God.
As I remember to have heard an unschooled
and illiterate man say when I first told
him the simple story of how Christ was
punished in the stead of His people, he
burst out with an air of surprise.
Faith, that's the gospel I know.
No man could have made that up.
That must be of God.
That wonderful thought, that a God Himself should
die, that He Himself should bear our sins,
that so God the Father might be able
to forgive, and yet exact the utmost penalty,
is superhuman, superangelic.
Not even the cherubim and seraphim could have
been the inventors of it.
But that thought was first struck out from
the mind of God in the councils of
eternity, when the wonderful, the Counselor, was present
with His Father.
Again, another part of that great council was
this.
Who should be saved?
Now, my friends, you that like not old
Calvinistic doctrine will perhaps be horrified, but that
I cannot help.
I will never modify a doctrine I believe
to please any man that walks upon the
earth.
But I will prove from Scripture that I
have the warrant of God in this matter,
and that it is not my own invention.
I say that one part of the council
of eternity was the predestination of those whom
God had determined to save, and I will
read you the passage that proves it.
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
that worketh all things after the counsel of
His own will.
The predestination of every one of God's people
was arranged at the eternal council, where God's
will sat as the sovereign empire and undisputed
president.
There was it said of each redeemed one,
At such an hour I will call him
by my grace, for I have loved him
with an everlasting love, and by my loving
kindness will I draw him.
There was it originated when the peace-speaking
blood shall be laid to that elect one's
conscience, when the Spirit of the living God
shall breathe joy and consolation into his heart.
There was it settled how that chosen one
should be kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation.
There was it determined and settled by two
immutable things wherein it is impossible for God
to lie that every one of these should
be eternally saved beyond the shadow of a
risk of perishing.
The apostle Paul was not like some preachers
who are afraid to say a word about
the everlasting council.
For he says in his epistle to the
Hebrews, God, willing more abundantly to show unto
the heirs of promise the immutability of His
counsel, confirmed it by an oath.
Now you hear some talk about the immutability
of the promise.
That is good.
But the immutability of God's counsel?
That is to fathom the very uttermost of
the doctrines of grace.
The counsel of God from all eternity is
immutable.
Not one purpose has He ever altered.
Not one decree has He ever changed.
He has nailed His decrees against the pillars
of eternity.
And though the devils have sought to rend
them down from the posts of His magnificent
palace, yet, saith He, have I set my
king upon my holy hill of Zion.
The decree shall stand.
I will do all my pleasure.
Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast made the
heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.
Thou hast determined Thy plans and purposes, and
they stand fast for ever and ever.
I think I have sufficiently declared how Christ
was the counselor in the transcendent affairs of
nature, providence, and grace, in the everlasting council
chamber of eternity.
But now I would have you notice what
a mercy it was that there was such
a counselor with God, and how fit Christ
was to be the counselor.
Christ Himself is wisdom.
He charges His angels with folly, but He
is God only wise Himself.
If a fool undertakes to be a counselor,
his counsel is folly.
But when Christ counseled, His counsel was full
of wisdom.
But there is another qualification necessary for a
counselor.
However wise a man be, he has no
right to be a counselor with a king
unless he has some dignity and standing.
There may happen to be in my congregation
some person of great talent, but if my
friend should present himself at the cabinet council
and give his advice, he would most probably
be unceremoniously dismissed, for they would say, Art
thou the king's counsel?
If not, what right hast thou to stand
here?
Now Christ was glorious.
He was equal with His Father.
Therefore He had a right to counsel God,
to counsel with God.
Had an angel offered His advice to God,
it would have been an insufferable impertinence.
Had the cherubim or seraphim volunteered to give
so much as one word of counsel, it
would have been blasphemy.
He would take no counsel from His creatures.
Why should wisdom stoop from its throne to
counsel with created folly?
But because Christ was far above all principalities
and powers and every name that is named,
therefore He had a right, not only from
His wisdom, but from His rank, to be
a counselor with God.
But there is one thing that is always
necessary in a man before we can rejoice
in his being a counselor.
There are some counselors concerning the legislation of
our country in whom you or I could
not rejoice much, because we feel that in
their counsels the most of us would be
forgotten.
Our farming friends would probably rejoice in them.
They will consult their interests, there is not
much doubt.
But whoever heard of a counselor yet who
counseled for the poor, or who has these
many years heard so much as an inkling
of the name of a man who really
counseled for economy and for the good of
his nation, we have plenty of men who
promise us that they will counsel for us,
abundance of men who, if we would but
return them to Parliament, would most assuredly pour
forth such wisdom in our behalf that without
doubt we should be the most happy and
enlightened people in the world, according to their
promise.
But alas, when they get into office, they
have no hearty sympathy with us.
They belong to a different rank from the
most of us.
They do not sympathize with the wants and
the desires of the middle class and of
the poor.
But with regard to Christ, we can put
every confidence in Him, for we know that
in that counsel from eternity He sympathized with
man.
He says, My delights were with the sons
of men, happy men to have a counselor
who delights in them.
Moreover, He then, though He was not man,
yet foresaw that He was to be bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
and therefore in the counsels of eternity He
pleaded His own cause when He pleaded our
cause, for He well knew that He was
to be tempted in all points like as
we are and was to suffer our sufferings
and to be our covenant head in union
with ourselves.
Sweet counselor, I love to think thou wast
in the everlasting counsel my friend, my brother
born for adversity.
Having thus discussed the first point, I shall
proceed to consider briefly the second, according to
the translation of the Septuagint.
Christ is the angel of the great counsel.
Do you and I want to know what
was said and done in the great counsel
of eternity?
Yes, we do.
I will defy any man, whoever he may
be, not to want to know something about
destiny.
What means the ignorance of the common people
when they appeal to the witch, the pretender,
when they inquire of the astrologer and read
the book of the pretended soothsayer?
Why, it means that man wants to know
something about the everlasting counsel.
And what mean all the perplexing researches of
certain persons into the prophecies?
I consider very often that the inferences drawn
from prophecy are very little better, after all,
than the guesses of the Norwood gypsy, and
that some people who have been so busy
in foretelling the end of the world would
have been better employed if they had foretold
the end of their own books and had
not imposed on the public by predictions assaying
to interpret prophecies without the shadow of a
foundation.
But from their credulity we may learn that
among the higher class as well as among
the more ignorant, there is a strong desire
to know the counsels of eternity.
Beloved, there is only one glass through which
you and I can look, and that glass
is the person of Jesus Christ.
Do I want to know what God ordained
with regard to the salvation of man from
before the foundation of the world?
I look to Christ.
I find that it was ordained in Christ
that He should be the first elect and
that a people should be chosen in Him.
Do you ask the way in which God
ordained to save?
I answer, He ordained to save by the
cross.
Do you ask how God ordained to pardon?
The answer comes, He ordained to pardon through
the sufferings of Christ and to justify through
His resurrection from the dead.
Everything that you want to know with regard
to what God ordained, everything that you ought
to know, you can find out in the
person of Jesus Christ.
And again, do I long to know the
great secret of destiny?
I must look to Christ.
What mean these wars, this confusion, these garments
rolled in blood?
I see Christ born of a virgin, and
then I read the world's history backwards, and
I see that all this led to Christ's
coming.
I see that all these leaned one upon
another, as I have sometimes seen clusters of
rocks leaning on each other, and Christ, the
great leading rock, bearing up the superincumbent mass
of all past history.
And if I want to read the future,
I look at Christ.
And I learn that He who has gone
up to heaven is to come again from
heaven in like manner as He went up
to heaven.
So all the future is clear enough to
me.
I do not know whether the Pope of
Rome is to obtain universal empire or not.
I do not mind whether the Russian Empire
is to swallow up all the nations of
the continent.
There is one thing I know.
God will overturn, overturn, overturn till He shall
come whose right it is to reign.
And I know that though worms devour my
body, yet when He shall stand in the
latter day upon the earth, in my flesh
shall I see God.
There is enough in that for me.
All the rest of history is unimportant compared
with its end, its issues, its purpose.
The end of the first testament is the
first advent of Christ.
The end of this second testament of modern
history is the second advent of the Savior.
And then shall the book of time be
closed.
But none could open the Old Testament history
and make it out except through Christ.
Abraham could understand it, for he knew that
Christ was to come.
Christ opened the book for him.
And so modern history is never to be
understood except through Christ.
None but the Lamb can take the book
and open every seal.
But he who believeth in Christ and looks
for His glorious advent, he may open the
book and read therein and have understanding.
For in Christ there is a revelation of
the eternal counsels.
Now, says one, Sir, I want to know
one thing, and if I knew that, I
would not care what happened.
I want to know whether God from all
eternity ordained me to be saved.
Well, friend, I will tell you how to
find that out, and you may find it
out to a certainty.
Nay, says one, but how can I know
that?
You cannot read the book of fate.
That is impossible.
I have heard of some divine, of a
very hyper school indeed, who said, Ah, blessed
be the Lord!
There are some of God's dear people here.
I can tell them by the very look
on their faces.
I know that they are among God's elects.
He was not half so discreet as Roland
Hill, who, when he was advised to preach
to none but the elect, said, He would
certainly do so, if someone would chalk them
all on the back first.
That was never attempted by anybody.
So Roland Hill went on preaching the gospel
to every creature, as I desire to do.
But you may find out whether you are
among his chosen ones.
How, says one.
Why, Christ is the angel of the covenant,
and you can find it out by looking
to him.
Many people want to know their election before
they look to Christ.
Beloved, you cannot know your election except as
you see it in Christ.
If you want to know your election, thus
shall you assure your hearts before God.
Do you feel yourself this morning to be
a lost, guilty sinner?
Go straightway to the cross of Christ and
tell Christ that, and tell him that you
have read in the Bible that him that
cometh unto him he will in no wise
cast out.
Tell him that he has said, This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners, of whom you are chief.
Look to Christ and believe on him, and
you shall make proof of your election directly.
For so surely as thou believest thou art
elect.
If thou wilt give thyself wholly up to
Christ and trust him, then thou art one
of God's chosen ones.
But if you stop and say, I want
to know first whether I am elect, that
is impossible.
If there be something covered up, and I
say, Now, before you can see this, you
must lift the veil.
And you say, Nay, but I want to
see right through the veil.
You cannot.
Lift the veil first, and you shall see.
Go to Christ guilty just as you are.
Leave all curious inquiry about thy election alone.
Go straight away to Christ just as you
are, black, naked, penniless and poor, and say,
Nothing in my hands I bring.
Simply to thy cross I cling.
And you shall know your election.
The assurance of the Holy Spirit shall be
given to you, so that you shall be
able to say, I know whom I have
believed, and I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed
to him.
Now do notice this.
Christ was at the everlasting council.
He can tell you whether you were chosen
or not, but you cannot find that out
any way else.
You go and put your trust in him,
and I know what the answer will be.
His answer will be, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love.
Therefore, in loving kindness have I drawn thee.
There will be no doubt about his having
chosen you, when you shall feel no doubt
about having chosen him.
So much for the second point.
Christ is the counselor.
He is the angel of the council, because
he tells out God's secrets to us.
The secret of the Lord is with them
that fear him, and he will show them
his covenant.
The last point is, Christ is a counselor
to us, and here I shall want to
give some practical hints to God's people.
Somehow or other, brethren, it is not good
for man to be alone.
A lonely man must be, I think, a
miserable man, and a man without a counselor,
I think, must of necessity go wrong.
Where there is no counselor, says Solomon, the
people fall.
I think most persons will find it so.
A man says, Well, I'll have my own
way, and I will ask nobody.
Have it, sir, have it, and you will
find that in having your own way you
have probably had the worst way you could.
We all feel our need at times of
a counselor.
David was a man after God's own heart,
dealt much with his God, but he had
his Ahithophel, with whom he took sweet counsel,
and they walked to the house of God
in company.
Kings must have some advisors.
Woe unto the man that hath got a
bad counselor!
Rehoboam took counsel of the young men, and
not of the old men, and they counseled
him, so that he lost ten twelfths of
his empire.
Some take counsel of stocks and stones.
We know many who counsel at the hands
of foolish charms instead of going to Christ.
They shall have to learn that there is
but one Christ who is to be trusted,
and that however necessary a counselor may be,
yet none other shall be found to fulfill
the necessity but Jesus Christ the counselor.
Let me make a remark or two with
regard to this counselor, Jesus Christ.
And first, Christ is a necessary counselor.
Sure as we do anything without asking counsel
of God, we fall into trouble.
Israel made a league with Gibeon, and it
is said they took of their vittles, and
they asked not counsel at the mouth of
the Lord, and they found out that the
Gibeonites had deceived them.
If they had asked counsel first, no cunning
deception could have been imposed upon them in
the matter.
Saul the son of Kish died before the
Lord upon the mountains of Gilboa, and in
the book of Chronicles it is written, He
died because he asked not counsel of God,
but sought unto wizards.
Joshua the great commander, when he was appointed
to succeed Moses, was not left to go
alone, but it is written, And Eleazar the
priest shall be his counselor, and he shall
ask counsel of the Lord for him.
And all the great men of olden times,
when they were about to do an action,
paused, and they said to the priest, Bring
hither the ephod, and he put on the
urim and thummim, and appealed to God, and
the answer came, and sound advice was vouchsafed.
You and I will have to learn how
necessary it is always to take advice of
God.
Did you ever seek God's advice on your
knees about a difficulty, and then go amiss?
Brethren, I can testify for my God that
when I have submitted my will to his
directing spirit, I have always had reason to
thank him for his wise counsel.
But when I have asked at his hands,
having already made up my own mind, I
have had my own way.
But like as he fed the Israelites with
the quails of heaven, while the meat was
yet in their mouth, the wrath of God
came upon them.
Let us take heed always that we never
go before the cloud.
He that goes before the cloud goes a
fool's errand, and will be glad to get
back again.
An old Puritan used to say, He that
carves for himself will cut his fingers.
Leave God to carve for you in providence,
and all shall be well.
Seek God's guidance, and nothing can go amiss.
It is necessary counsel.
In the next place, Christ's counsel is faithful
counsel.
When Ahithophel left David, it proved he was
not faithful.
And when Hushai went to Absalom and counseled
him, he counseled him craftily, so that the
good counsel of Ahithophel was brought to naught.
Oh, how often do our friends counsel us
craftily!
We have known them to do so.
They have looked first to their own advantage.
Then they have said, If I can get
him to do so and so, it will
be best for me.
That was not the question we asked them.
It was what would be best for ourselves.
But we may trust Christ.
Then in his advice to us there never
can be any self-interest.
He will be quite certain to advise us
with the most disinterested motives, so that the
good shall be to us, and the profit
to ourselves.
Again, Christ's counsel is hearty counsel.
I hate to go to a lawyer above
all people to talk with him upon matters
of business.
The worst kind of conversation is, I think,
conversation with a lawyer.
There is your case.
Dear me, what an interest you feel in
it!
You spread it out before him, and he
says, There is a word upon the second
page not quite correct.
You look at it, and you say, Ah,
that is totally unimportant.
That does not signify.
He turns to another clause, and he says,
Ah, there's a good deal here.
My dear fellow, you say, I do not
care about these petty clauses, whether it says
lands, properties, or hereditaments.
What I want you to do is to
set this difficulty right in point of law.
Be patient, he says.
You must go through a great many consultations
before he will go to the point, and
all the while your poor heart is boiling
over because you feel such an interest in
the main point.
But he is as cool as possible.
You think you are asking counsel of a
block of marble.
No doubt his advice will come out all
right at last, and it is pretty certain
it will be good for you.
But it is not hearty.
He does not enter into the sympathies of
the matter with you.
What is it to him whether you succeed
or not, whether the object of your heart
shall be accomplished or not?
It is but the professional interest he takes.
Now Solomon says, As ointment for perfume, so
is hearty counsel.
When a man throws his own soul into
your case and says, My dear friend, I'll
do anything I can to help you.
Let me look at it.
And he takes as deep an interest in
it as you do yourself.
If I were in your position, he says,
I should do so and so.
By the by, there is a word wrong
here.
Perhaps he tells you so, but he only
tells you because he is anxious to have
it all right.
And you can see that his drift is
always towards the same end you are seeking,
and that he is only anxious for your
good.
Oh, for a counselor that could tie your
heart into unison with his own!
Now Christ is such a counselor as that.
He is a hearty counselor.
His interests and your interests are bound up
together, and he is hearty with you.
But there is another kind of counsel still.
David says of one who afterwards became his
enemy, We took sweet counsel together.
Christian, do you know what sweet counsel is?
You have gone to your master in the
day of trouble, and in the secret of
your chamber you have poured out your heart
before him.
You have laid your case before him with
all its difficulties, as Hezekiah did Rabshakeh's letter.
And you have felt that though Christ was
not there in flesh and blood, yet he
was there in spirit, and he counseled you.
You felt that his was counsel that came
from the very heart, but he was something
better than that.
There was such a sweetness coming with his
counsel, such a radiance of love, such a
fullness of fellowship, that you said, Oh, that
I were in trouble every day if I
might have such sweet counsel as this.
Christ is the counselor whom I desire to
consult every hour, and I would that I
could sit in his secret chamber all the
day and all night long, because to counsel
with him is to have sweet counsel, hearty
counsel, and wise counsel all at the same
time.
Why, you may have a friend that talks
very sweetly with you, and you will say,
Well, he is a kind good soul, but
I really cannot trust his judgment.
You have another friend who has a good
deal of judgment, and yet you say of
him, Certainly he is a man of prudence
above a great many, but I cannot find
out his sympathy.
I never get at his heart.
If he were ever so rough and untutored,
I would sooner have his heart without his
prudence than his prudence without his heart.
But we go to Christ, and we get
wisdom, we get love, we get sympathy, we
get everything that can possibly be wanted in
a counselor.
And now we must close by noticing that
Christ has special counsels for each of us
this morning.
And what are they?
Tried child of God, your daughter is sick.
Your gold is melted in the fire.
You are sick yourself, and your heart is
sad.
Christ counsels you, and he says, Cast thy
burden upon the Lord.
He will sustain thee.
He will never suffer the righteous to be
moved.
Young man, you that are seeking to be
great in this world, Christ counsels you this
morning.
Seekest thou great things for thyself?
Seek them not.
I shall never forget Midsummer Common.
I was ambitious.
I was seeking to go to college, to
leave my poor people in the wilderness, that
I might become something great.
And as I was walking there, that text
came with power to my heart.
Seekest thou great things for thyself?
Seek them not.
I suppose about forty pounds a year was
the sum total of my income, and I
was thinking how I should make both ends
meet, and whether it would not be a
great deal better for me to resign my
charge and seek something for the bettering of
myself, and so forth.
But this text ran in my ears.
Seekest thou great things for thyself?
Seek them not.
Lord, said I, I will follow thy counsel,
and not my own devices.
And I have never had cause to regret
it.
Always take the Lord for thy guide, and
thou shalt never go amiss.
Backslider, thou that hast the name to live
in our deads, or nearly dead, Christ gives
thee counsel.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, and white raiment that
thou mayest be clothed.
And sinner, thou that art far from God,
Christ gives thee counsel.
Come unto me, all ye that are weary
and heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
Depend on it.
It is loving counsel.
Take it.
Go home and cast yourself upon your knees.
Seek Christ.
Obey His counsel.
And you shall have to rejoice that you
ever listened to His voice, and heard it,
and lived.
This message, His Name, the Counselor, was preached
by Charles Haddon Spurgeon on September 26th, 1858.
This is Charles Kelsch inviting you to join
me again for another message from The Prince
of Preachers