Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps14.2

Text File | 1993-03-24 | 8KB | 150 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        "_The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of
men_." As from a watchtower, or other elevated place of
observation, the Lord is represented as gazing intently upon men.
He will not punish blindly, nor like a tyrant command an
indiscriminate massacre because a rumour of rebellion has come up
to his ears. What condescending interest and impartial justice
are here imagined! The case of Sodom, visited before it was
overthrown, illustrates the careful manner in which Divine
Justice beholds the sin before it avenges it, and searches out
the righteous that they perish not with the guilty. Behold then
the eyes of Omniscience ransacking the globe, and prying among
every people and nation, "_to see if there were any that did
understand and seek God_." He who is looking down knows the good,
is quick to discern it, would be delighted to find it; but as he
views all the unregenerate children of men his search is
fruitless, for of all the race of Adam, no unrenewed soul is
other than an enemy to God and goodness. The objects of the
Lord's search are not wealthy men, great men, or learned men;
these, with all they can offer, cannot meet the demands of the
great Governor: at the same time, he is not looking for
superlative eminence in virtue, he seeks for _any that
understand_ themselves, their state, their duty, their destiny,
their happiness; he looks for any that _seek_ God, who, if there
be a God, are willing and anxious to find him out. Surely this is
not too great a matter to expect; for if men have not yet known
God, if they have any right understanding, they will seek him.
Alas! even this low degree of good is not to be found even by him
who sees all things; but men love the hideous negation of "No
God," and with their backs to their Creator, who is the sun of
their life, they journey into the dreary region of unbelief and
alienation, which is a land of darkness as darkness itself, and
of the shadow of death without any order and where the light is
as darkness.

        "_They are all gone aside_." Without exception, all men
have apostatized from the Lord their Maker, from his laws, and
from the eternal principles of right. Like stubborn heifers they
have sturdily refused to receive the yoke, like errant sheep they
have found a gap and left the right field. The original speaks of
the race as a whole, as a totality; and humanity as a whole has
become depraved in heart and defiled in life. "_They have
altogether become filthy_;" as a whole they are spoiled and
soured like corrupt leaven, or, as some put it, they have become
putrid and even stinking. The only reason why we do not more
clearly see this foulness is because we are accustomed to it, just
as those who work daily among offensive odours at last cease to
smell them. The miller does not observe the noise of his own
mill, and we are slow to discover our own ruin and depravity. But
are there no special cases, are all men sinful? "Yes," says the
Psalmist, in a manner not to be mistaken, "they are." He has put
it positively, he repeats it negatively, "_There is none that
doeth good, no, not one_." The Hebrew phrase is an utter denial
concerning any mere man that he of himself doeth good. What can
be more sweeping? This is the verdict of the all-seeing Jehovah,
who cannot exaggerate or mistake. As if no hope of finding a
solitary specimen of a good man among the unrenewed human family
might be harboured for an instant. The Holy Spirit _is not_
content with saying all and altogether, but adds the crushing
threefold negative, "_none, no, not one_." What say the opponents
to the doctrine of natural depravity to this? Rather what do we
_feel_ concerning it? Do we not confess that we by nature are
corrupt, and do we not bless the sovereign grace which has
renewed us in the spirit of our minds, that sin may no more have
dominion over us, but that grace may rule and reign?

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 2.--"_To see if there were any that did understand
... seek God_." None seek him aright, and as he ought to be
sought, nor can do while they live in sin; for men in seeking God
fail in many things: as, First, men seek him not for himself.
Secondly, they seek him not alone, but other things with him.
Thirdly, they seek other things before him, as worldlings do.
Fourthly, they seek him coldly or carelessly. Fifthly, they seek
him inconstantly; example of Judas and Demas. Sixthly, they seek
him not in his word, as heretics do. Seventhly, they seek him not
in all his word, as hypocrites do. Lastly, they seek him not
seasonably and timely, as profane, impenitent sinners do; have no
care to depend upon God's word, but follow their own lusts and
fashions of this world.--^Thomas Wilson, 1653.

        Verses 2,3.--What was the issue of God's so looking upon
men? "_They are all gone aside_," that is, from him and his ways;
"_They are altogether become filthy_;" their practices are such
as make them stink; "_There is none that doeth good, no, not
one_;" of so many millions of men as are upon the earth, there is
not one doeth good. There were men of excellent parts then in the
world, men of soul, but not one of them did know God, or seek
after God: Paul therefore hath laid it down for a universal
maxim, that the animal, natural, or intellectual man, receives
not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto
him, and so are rejected by him.--^William Greenhill.

        Verse 3.--The ungodly are "vile" persons (#Na 1:14|). "I
will make thy grave; for thou art vile." sin makes men base, it
blots their name, it taints their blood: "_They are altogether
become filthy_;" in the Hebrew it is, they are become stinking.
Call wicked men ever so bad, you cannot call them out of their
name; they are "swine" (#Mt 7:6|); "vipers" (#Mt 3:7|); "devils"
(#Joh 6:70|). The wicked are the dross and refuse (#Ps 119:119|);
and heaven is too pure to have any dross mingle with it.--^Thomas
Watson.

        Verse 3.--"_Altogether become filthy_." Thus the Roman
satirist describes his own age:

        "Nothing is left, nothing, for future times
        To add to the full catalogue of crimes;
        The baffled sons must feel the same desires,
        And act the same mad follies as their sires,
        Vice has attained its zenith."
^Juvenal, Sat. 1.

        Verse 3.--"_There is none that doeth good, no not one_."
Origen maketh a question how it could be said that there was
none, neither among the Jews nor Gentiles, that did any good;
seeing there were many among them which did clothe the naked,
feed the hungry, and did other good things: he hereunto maketh
this answer:-- That like as one that layeth a foundation, and
buildeth upon it a wall or two, yet cannot be said to have built
a house till he have finished it; so although those might do some
good things, yet they attained not unto perfect goodness, which
was only to be found in Christ. But this is not the apostle's
meaning only to exclude men from the perfection of justice; for
even the faithful and believers were short of that perfection
which is required; he therefore showeth what men are by nature,
all under sin and in the same state of damnation, without grace
and faith in Christ: if any perform any good work, either it is
of grace, and so not of themselves, or if they did it by the
light of nature, they did it not as they ought, and so it was far
from a good work indeed.--^Andrew Willet (1562-1621), on #Ro
3:10|.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 2.--I. Condescending search. II. Favoured subjects.
III. Generous intentions.

        Verse 2.--What God looks for, and what we should look
for. Men usually are quick to see things congruous to their own
character.

        Verses 2,3.--God's search for a naturally good man; the
results; lessons to be learned therefrom.

        Verse 3.--Total depravity of the race.