Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 5:18

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 5:18. With a cart-rope - "As a long cable"] The Septuagint, Aquila, Sym., and Theod., for בחבלי bechabley, read כחבלי kechahley, ως σχοινιω, or σχοινιοις; and the Septuagint, instead of שוא shau, read some other word signifying long; ως σχοινιωμακρω; and so likewise the Syriac, אריכא arecha. Houbigant conjectures that the word which the Septuagint had in their copies was שרוע sarua, which is used Leviticus 21:18; Leviticus 22:23, for something in an animal body superfluous, lengthened beyond its natural measure. And he explains it of sin added to sin, and one sin drawing on another, till the whole comes to an enormous length and magnitude; compared to the work of a rope-maker still increasing and lengthening his rope, with the continued addition of new materials. "Eos propheta similes facit homini restiario, qui funem torquet, cannabe addita et contorta, eadem iterans, donec funem in longum duxerit, neque eum liceat protrahi longius." "An evil inclination," says Kimchi on this place, from the ancient rabbins, "is at the beginning like a fine hair-string, but at the finishing like a thick cart-rope." By a long progression in iniquity, and a continued accumulation of sin, men arrive at length to the highest degree of wickedness; bidding open defiance to God, and scoffing at his threatened judgments, as it is finely expressed in the next verse. The Chaldee paraphrast explains it in the same manner, of wickedness increasing from small beginnings, till it arrives to a great magnitude. - L.

I believe neither the rabbins nor Bishop Lowth have hit on the true meaning of this place, the prophet seems to refer to idol sacrifices. The victims they offered were splendidly decked out for the sacrifice. Their horns and hoofs were often gilded, and their heads dressed out with fillets and garlands. The cords of vanity may refer to the silken strings by which they were led to the altar, some of which were unusually thick. The offering for iniquity was adorned with fillets and garlands; the sin-offering with silken cords, like unto cart-ropes. Pride, in their acts of humiliation, had the upper hand.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

God’s love and Judah’s response (5:1-30)

Judah and Israel together are likened to God’s vineyard. God did everything possible to make it healthy, beautiful and fruitful, and he expected a good harvest of grapes, but the people brought God none of the fruit he expected (5:1-4). He therefore will cease to care for them, so that they might be left to suffer whatever ruin their sin brings upon them. Israel has already been destroyed and Judah will now follow (5-7).
Examples of the sins that brought this judgment are now given. The first people to be condemned are the rich landowners, who lend money to the poor at high rates of interest, then seize their lands when they are unable to pay their debts. But the houses and lands that the rich have dishonestly gained will bring them no profit (8-10).
Next to be condemned are the leading citizens of Jerusalem, who live only for pleasure and have fallen under the power of strong drink. Their greed will be replaced by tormenting thirst when they are carried captive into a foreign country. Many will die. The ‘greedy one’ in that day will be the world of the dead (Hebrew: sheol), who will eagerly ‘swallow up’ the multitudes killed by the enemy (11-14). God’s justice will be carried out upon Jerusalem and the wicked city will be left in ruins. Its only inhabitants will be sheep and goats, for all the people will have been taken into captivity (15-17).

The prophet pictures the people of Jerusalem as having so much sin that they pull it along by the cartload. Some actually boast of the amount of sin they commit and challenge God to stop them (18-19). Others try to reverse God’s standards by calling evil good and good evil. They claim that they know everything and have no need of God (20-21). Judges and officials love the social life of the upper classes. They are not interested in administering justice, but only in increasing their own luxury through collecting bribes (22-23).
When a nation claims to be God’s people but defiantly ignores his standards, it only invites his judgment. It is like a field of dry grass about to be burnt (24-25). God responds by sending against it an enemy nation whose army is so highly disciplined, well equipped and fiercely aggressive that Judah cannot possible escape (26-30).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

III. WOE TO CYNICAL MATERIALISTS

“Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin as it were with a cart rope; that say, Let him make speed, let him hasten his work; that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!”

These verses are the language of scoffing materialists who use one of Isaiah’s favorite names for God, but in mockery. These fearless sinners even dare to challenge the eternal God to “Do his thing in their presence!” Strangely, the words suggest the mockery of the leaders of Israel who challenged Jesus Christ to come down from the Cross. The mention of cords of falsehood and cart ropes, as Hailey stated, suggests that the “people are slaves to their idols and their sins… They are harnessed with their falsehoods and their idolatry.”Homer Hailey, p. 68. Archer compared the picture given here to that of a group of pagan worshippers “drawing the cart of a great idol in festal procession. Those backslidden people dragged along their idol of iniquity, challenging the Holy One of Israel.”Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 616.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Wo unto them ... - This is a new denunciation. It introduces another form of sin, and threatens its appropriate punishment.

That draw iniquity with cords of vanity - The general idea in this verse and the next, is, doubtless, that of plunging deeper and deeper into sin. The word “sin” here, has been sometimes supposed to mean “the punishment” for sin. The word has that meaning sometimes, but it seems here to be taken in its usual sense. The word “cords” means strings of any kind, larger or smaller; and the expression “cords of vanity,” is supposed to mean “small, slender, feeble” strings, like the web of a spider. The word vanity שׁוא shâv', May, perhaps, have the sense here of falsehood or deceit; and the cords of deceit may denote the schemes of evil, the plans for deceiving people, or of bringing them into a snare, as the fowler springs his deceitful snare upon the unsuspecting bird. The Chaldee translates it, ‘Woe to those who begin to sin by little and little, drawing sin by cords of vanity; these sins grow and increase until they are strong, and are like a cart-rope.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘Woe to those who draw sin with a long cable;’ that is,” one sin is added to another, until it comes to an enormous length, and the whole is drawn along together. Probably the true idea is that of the ancient interpretation of the rabbis, ‘An evil inclination is at first like a fine hair string, but the finishing like a cart-rope.’ At first, they draw sin with a slender cord, then they go on to greater deeds of iniquity that urge them on, and draw them with their main strength, as with a cart-rope. They make a strong “effort” to commit iniquity.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

18.Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity! After having inserted a short consolation for the purpose of allaying the bitterness of punishments as regards the godly, he returns to threatenings, and proceeds to launch those thunderbolts of words which are fitted to awaken some degree of alarm. By cords he means nothing else than the allurements by which men suffer themselves to be deceived, and harden their heart in crimes; for either they ridicule the judgment of God, or they contrive vain excuses, and allege the plea of necessity. Any concealment, therefore, which they employ, he calls cords; for whenever men are prompted to sin by the lust of the flesh, they at first pause, and feel that something within restrains them, which would certainly keep them back, if they did not rush forward with opposing violence, and break through all opposition. When any man is tempted to do what is sinful, his conscience secretly asks him, What are you doing? And sin never advances so freely as not to feel this check; for God intended in this manner to provide for the good of mankind, lest all should break out into unbridled licentiousness.

How comes it, then, that men are so obstinate in doing what is sinful? Assuredly they permit themselves to be deceived by allurements, and stupify their minds, that they may despise the judgment of God, and may thus have some freedom to commit sin. They flatter themselves by imagining that what is sin is not sin, or by some excuse or idle pretense they lessen its enormity. These, then, are cords, wicked ropes, by which they draw iniquity. Hence it is evident that the Lord has good reason for threatening them; for they sin, not only of their own accord, but perversely and obstinately, and, in short, they bind themselves to sin, so that they are without excuse.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 5

Now in the fifth chapter the Lord takes up the parable of a vineyard in which He likens Judah or Israel, His people, unto a vineyard.

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof ( Isaiah 5:1-2 ),

And you that have been over know what a job it is to gather the stones out of the vineyard and you see how that they gathered the stones and make walls with the stones and terraces with the stones. And you that have been there get a good mental picture of that.

and planted it with the choicest vine, and he built a tower in the midst of it ( Isaiah 5:2 ),

Some of these watching towers you'll still discover over there as you go through the land. They have these towers where during the summer season the people move out of the cities and onto the plots of ground that they own in the country. And on these plots of ground they have these towers, and in these towers are the living quarters for the family. And while they are taking care of the crops and harvesting during the summer and autumn period, they live in these towers out in the midst of the fields. And the towers, of course, also serve as watchtowers where they can watch over their land from people who come and try to steal the fruit of the land. So, "He built a tower in the midst of it."

and also he made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.

Now you determine. You make the judgment.

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? ( Isaiah 5:2-4 )

In other words, God said, "What more could I have done for the people? I brought them into the land. I established them there. They built and established their cities. They planted it. And I did everything for them. What more could I have done for them that I haven't already done? Judge."

Wherefore [or why is it], that when I looked and it should have brought forth grapes, that it brought forth wild grapes? And now go; I'm going to tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; I'm going to break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; and there shall come upon it briers and thorns: that will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold there was oppression; he looked for righteousness, but there was a cry from those who were being oppressed ( Isaiah 5:4-7 ).

God was looking for fruit from His vineyard.

Now, Jesus said, "I am the true vine, My Father is the husbandman, and every branch in Me that bringeth forth fruit He purges or cleanses it that it bringeth forth more fruit" ( John 15:1-2 ). Again, over there in the land you will notice that as you go through the area of Eshcol, where they grow some of the most delicious grapes in the world... man they're great! You go over there in October. Ah, fabulous! But you'll notice these grapevines in Eshcol grow on the ground. Big old main branches that are on the ground, and they prop them up with rocks. They do have some of the grapevines on trellises, but through the valley of Eshcol, most of these big luscious grapes actually grow right on the ground. And you'll see these big old vines just growing on the ground propped up with rocks. And when the grapes come out on the vines they actually lay right on the ground. So as the grapes are developing they will go through the vineyard and they will take these grapes that are there on the ground and they will pick them up and they will wash them, get the dirt and all off of them, as they are developing, and then will usually prop them on a rock or something in order that it might bring forth better fruit. If they just lie on the ground, then the little bugs and all start eating them, so they prop up the grapes after they've washed them in order that they might bring forth better fruit, more fruit. So Jesus is making reference to this.

Now, "My Father is the husbandman and I am the true vine and you're the branches and every branch in me that is bringing forth fruit, He cleanses it, washes it that it might bring forth more fruit." Now He said, "You are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you" ( John 15:3 ). The washing of the Word in my life, the cleansing. Now what is the purpose of the Word? In order that I might bring forth more fruit for God. What is God interested in my life? Fruit. What was He interested in for the nation of Israel? That they would bring forth fruit. Why did He do so much for them? So they would bring forth fruit. Why is God doing so much for us? That we would bring forth fruit unto Him. "And herein is the Father glorified, that you bear much fruit" ( John 15:8 ). That's what God desires of your life, that you bring forth much fruit. So the Lord comes to His garden and He's looking for fruit.

Now it is interesting in the same context in which Jesus takes the vine and makes now the application to the church, He then speaks of the new commandment that I give you that you love one another, and He relates this loving with the fruit that God was looking for. So it's significant that Paul tells us in Galatians, "Now the fruit of the spirit is love" ( Galatians 5:22 ).

Now this is really what God is looking for, because out of love proceeds true judgment, fairness. If you really love, you are not gonna be oppressing someone. So where in the Old Testament it was, "Let's have righteousness, judgment. Let's not oppress the poor," and these kind of things, in the New Testament, it is put in a positive sense, "Hey, let's love one another as we love ourselves. For if we love each other as we love ourselves, we're not gonna be taking advantage of each other. We're not gonna be oppressing each other, but we're gonna be helping one another. We're gonna be lifting up the one that has fallen. We're gonna be giving aid to those that are down. We're going to be concerned with the needs of others." And that's exactly what God is... that's the kind of fruit that God is looking for, for in our lives and in the church today that we really have a genuine love and concern for each other, where we are giving to one another those that are in need, for when one member suffers, they all suffer. We all step in to help the one that is hurting, that is down. That beautiful love within the body where we begin to bear one another's burdens, and thus, we fulfill the law of Jesus Christ. And that's the kind of fruit that God wants from our lives.

Now the opposite to this is selfishness. And that is one of the biggest problems that we have to deal with is our own self-centeredness and our own selfishness, where we're wanting everything for ourselves. We will give as long as it doesn't take away from me, and as long as it doesn't hurt me. But God wants the fruit of love to come forth from His vineyard, and so God comes to His garden to collect His fruit. And if He finds nothing but wild grapes, He'll forsake the garden. He'll say, "This is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna break down the hedge. I'm just gonna let go. If it's going to bear wild grapes, it doesn't need Me. I'm just gonna forsake the garden."

Now God pronounces His woes upon Israel. There are six of them.

Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! ( Isaiah 5:8 )

Sounds like Orange County--all of our subdivisions and condominiums and townhouses; joining house to house; lay field to field so there is no room left.

In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair houses will be without inhabitants ( Isaiah 5:9 ).

And land that will no longer produce, the land will be worn out.

Ten acres of a vineyard will only yield eight gallons of fruit, and eighty-six gallons, a homer, of the seed will only yield about a bushel ( Isaiah 5:10 ).

So real famine conditions.

Woe unto them [second woe] that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night ( Isaiah 5:11 ),

The description of the alcoholic, really.

till wine inflame them! ( Isaiah 5:11 )

When you really get to the... real alcoholism is when you start drinking the moment you get up in the morning, take your first drink to get your day started. That is a sign of real alcoholism. When you get to that point, you are a full-fledged alcoholic when you need to get your day started with a drink. Woe unto them until the wine inflames them!

And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and the wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands ( Isaiah 5:12 ).

People are just looking for entertainment and pleasures, but they don't give God a consideration in their life.

Therefore ( Isaiah 5:13 )

Because of this, because people have become pleasure mad, because people have not regarded God in their lives, God has given them over to captivity.

because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and the multitude is dried up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat ( Isaiah 5:13-17 ).

The next woe:

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of emptiness, and sin as it were with a cart rope ( Isaiah 5:18 ):

So much sin that it takes a cart rope, a huge rope, to draw it.

That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! ( Isaiah 5:19 )

They begin to challenge God and challenge the judgment of God, "If it's so, let God do something that we might see it, you know. If He's really there."

The next woe:

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ( Isaiah 5:20 );

They call those who believe in creation misfits and fools.

that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ( Isaiah 5:20 )

Now, of course, we are living, I feel, in an age in which we are really calling evil good and good evil. Men who try to stand up for something that is decent and moral are made to look like fools in the paper. If people who are interested in decency and morality get together and decide to do something about child prostitution, child pornography, and some of these other things, then the papers begin to say, "Oh, a threat of Nazism or something, and here they're wanting to rule." And they'll have a picture of Khomeini and they make them look like a bunch of half-witted idiots, you know, that are trying to force moral standards, their own moral standards, upon everyone. All we're saying is we'd like to have a decent place to live. We don't want our children to be exposed to the Playboy cover girls when they have to go to the store to buy a quart of milk. We don't want them to have to deal with the wicked, vile imaginations of perverted men when we send them out to the playgrounds. We want some laws that will really deal with these perverted men who want to display themselves and shock these precious little daughters of ours who are eight and nine years old. We feel that the sickos ought to be put away and should not be a threat to our children. And so we're made to look like a bunch of fools and prudes and idiots.

Yet, the gay community gets together and they have a large banquet in Los Angeles to raise funds in order to lobby for certain legislation that will bring a liberalization for their activities and Governor Brown comes to speak, and the papers herald it as a glorious event, a step of progress for these people. And you don't find a lot of overtones and threats in the papers of all the evil that will take place because the gays have had this big fund-raising dinner and they're going to have money to lobby against legislation that would restrict and restrain their activities to their own kind. But this is heralded in the paper as a marvelous thing. Woe unto those that call good evil and evil good, the editors of our liberal press today. Boy, it's right there. I could go on, but I won't. It's easy to climb on your little box and really wail.

Woe unto those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! ( Isaiah 5:21 )

Men who do not look at themselves in the light of God, men who do not judge themselves by God's standards, but by their own standards.

The sixth woe, and the last:

Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! ( Isaiah 5:22-23 )

God is talking here about the legislators and the judges, and it is interesting that the highest alcoholic consumption in the United States is in Washington, DC. The highest consumption per capita is in Washington D.C. I think that's tragic. All of the lobbying, "which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him," a lot of these edicts that are coming from these boozed legislators and judges and all, and it's tragic. You don't have to go to Washington to find it, you can find it right here in your own local community. It might be a good idea that you examine some of the judges that are sitting on the bench.

Now, I don't blame them for becoming alcoholics. I wouldn't want to be a judge. I wouldn't want to have on my conscience the things that they must have on theirs. And you've got to do something to live with yourself and sleep at night, so I don't blame them for becoming alcoholics. If I weren't a Christian, I'd probably be an alcoholic too. How else are you gonna cope with this stupid world? But woe unto them.

Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still ( Isaiah 5:24-25 ).

God has brought his judgment, but He's not through yet.

For he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: Whose arrows are sharp, and whose bows are bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and the wheels like a whirlwind: Their roaring shall be like a lion, and they shall roar like a young lion; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall be able to deliver it ( Isaiah 5:26-29 ).

And so Judah, Jerusalem was carried away captive unto Babylon.

And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof ( Isaiah 5:30 ).

So, the opening of Isaiah, the opening judgments of God that are proclaimed, plus always, the glorious light at the end of the tunnel when God has finished with His judgment the glorious kingdom that is coming.

And so we will continue next week with some fabulous prophecies as we get into chapters 6-10. We begin to see the glorious light of the coming Messiah as he begins to make the predictions of that One that God is going to send who will establish a righteous kingdom and bring forth righteous judgment upon the earth.

Shall we stand.

The Bible study tonight can have one of two effects upon you, and it all depends on what you are. Blessings unto the righteous; you'll eat of the fruit of the land. Woe unto the wicked; you think it's bad now, it's gonna get worse. What a hope we have, a blessed hope, of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who, when He comes, He is gonna change our vile bodies that they might be fashioned just like His own glorious image.

As we get to the twenty-sixth chapter, we find the glorious promise of the Lord taking away His people and hiding them while the time of His indignation and wrath is poured out upon the earth. For a little season, until the judgments are through, then the unfolding of the glory of His new kingdom of which you may all have a part - it's up to you. "Come now let's us reason together saith the Lord." Why should He have to lay more stripes upon you? What's it gonna take to turn you around? What's it gonna take to awaken you to God's love and that which God wants to do for you if you just give Him the chance? Though your sins be as scarlet, they may be as white as snow. God is willing tonight to wash you and cleanse you from every sin, from all iniquity. He's willing to make you over a new person. He's willing, but that's not enough. You must be willing too. If you are, I'd encourage you just go back to the prayer room. Get on your knees before God and say, "God, be merciful to me a sinner." He will. And though your sins be as scarlet, you can walk out of here tonight as white as snow. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. The wildness of the grapes 5:8-25

Yahweh’s crop was worthless because it produced wild grapes that manifested six blights. The word "woe" (Heb. hoy), a term of lament and threat, introduces each one (cf. Amos 5:18; Amos 6:1; Revelation 8:13; Revelation 9:12).

"The word ’woe’ itself, appearing six times in the passage, does not just denounce our sins, it laments our sins. The same word is translated ’Ah!’ in Isaiah 1:4 and ’Alas!’ in 1 Kings 13:30. Remember that ’woe’ is the opposite of the word ’blessed’ (cf. Luke 6:20-26)." [Note: Ortlund, p. 66.]

"He [Isaiah] holds up six clusters of wild grapes, as it were, to illustrate what’s going wrong, six ways we resist the grace of God, six answers to the question ’Why?’ Each is presented with a ’Woe.’" [Note: Ibid., p. 68.]

Two double "therefore" sections break the laments into two groups by concluding them (Isaiah 5:13-14; Isaiah 5:24-25). The "woe" sections emphasize the crop produced, and the "therefore" sections the harvest (judgment) to come. In the "woes" there is a chiastic progression.

A    The property motive (Isaiah 5:8-10)

    B    Self-indulgence (Isaiah 5:11-12)

        C    Sin pursued (Isaiah 5:18-19)

        C’    Sin justified (Isaiah 5:20)

    B’    Self-conceit (Isaiah 5:21)

A’    The money motive (Isaiah 5:22-23) [Note: Adapted from Motyer, p. 70. For a rhetorical critical study of the passage, see Robert B. Chisholm Jr., "Structure, Style, and the Prophetic Message: An Analysis of Isaiah 5:8-30," Bibliotheca Sacra 143:569 (January-March 1986):46-60.]

One writer saw saw six things the Lord hates in these sections: greed (Isaiah 5:8), hedonism (Isaiah 5:11-13), rebellion (Isaiah 5:18-19), immorality (Isaiah 5:20), pride (Isaiah 5:21), and injustice (Isaiah 5:22-23). [Note: Dyer, p. 531]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Israelites were deliberately sinning. They had not innocently fallen into sin, but they were pursuing it willfully. Rather than fleeing from it, they were holding it close to themselves. Even worse, they were doing so in an attempt to bait God to respond. They believed that He would not punish them. Their ties with sin were like the cords that the people used to lead their animals and the cart ropes that were much stronger and harder to break.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Four additional woes 5:18-23

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Sins of the cynically unbelieving 5:18-25

Isaiah proceeded to expose the attitude that resulted in the people not allowing their knowledge of God to affect the way they lived (cf. Isaiah 5:13). They thought that God would not act and that they knew what was better for themselves than He did. The prophet identified more "sour grapes" that issued from these attitudes.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,.... The prophet returns to the wicked again, and goes on with the account of their sin and punishment; and here describes such, not that are drawn into sin unawares, through the prevalence of their own hearts' lusts and corruptions, through the temptations of Satan, the snares of the world, or the persuasions of others; but such who draw it to themselves, seek after it, and willingly commit it; who rush and force themselves into it; who solicit it, and seek and take all occasions and opportunities of doing it; and take a great deal of pains about it; and make use of all arguments, reasonings, and pretences they can devise, to engage themselves and others in the practice of it; which are all cords of vanity, fallacious and deceitful.

And sin as it were with a cart rope; using all diligence, wisdom, policy, and strength; labouring with all might and main to effect it. Some by "iniquity" and "sin" understand punishment, as the words used sometimes signify; and that the sense is, that such persons described by their boldness and impudence in sinning, by their impenitence and hardness of heart, and by adding sin to sin, draw upon themselves swift destruction, and the greater damnation. The Targum interprets it of such that begin with lesser sins, and increase to more ungodliness; paraphrasing it thus,

"woe to them that begin to sin a little, and they go on and increase until that they are strong, and "their" sins "are" as a cart rope;''

to which agrees that saying in the Talmud g,

"the evil imagination or corruption of nature at first is like a spider's thread, but at last it is like to cart ropes; as it is said, "woe to them that draw iniquity", &c.''

g T. Bab. Succa, fol. 52. 1. & Sanhedrin, fol. 99. 2. Vid. Bereshit Rabba, sect. 22. fol. 19. 2.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:   19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!   20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!   21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!   22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:   23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!   24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.   25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.   26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:   27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:   28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:   29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.   30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

      Here are, I. Sins described which will bring judgments upon a people: and this perhaps is not only a charge drawn up against the men of Judah who lived at that time, and the particular articles of that charge, though it may relate primarily to them, but is rather intended for warning to all people, in all ages, to take heed of these sins, as destructive both to particular persons and to communities, and exposing men to God's wrath and his righteous judgments. Those are here said to be in a woeful condition,

      1. Who are eagerly set upon sin, and violent in their sinful pursuits (Isaiah 5:18; Isaiah 5:18), who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, who take as much pains to sin as the cattle do that draw a team, who put themselves to the stretch for the gratifying of their inordinate appetites, and, to humour a base lust, offer violence to nature itself. They think themselves as sure of compassing their wicked project as if they were pulling it towards them with strong cart-ropes; but they will find themselves disappointed, for they will prove cords of vanity, which will break when they come to any stress. For the righteous Lord will cut in sunder the cords of the wicked,Psalms 129:4; Job 4:8. They are by long custom and confirmed habits so hardened in sin that they cannot get clear of it. Those that sin through infirmity are drawn away by sin; those that sin presumptuously draw iniquity to them, in spite of the oppositions of Providence and the checks of conscience. Some by sin understand the punishment of sin: they pull God's judgments upon their own heads as it were, with cart-ropes.

      2. Who set the justice of God at defiance, and challenge the Almighty to do his worst (Isaiah 5:19; Isaiah 5:19): They say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work; this is the same language with that of the scoffers of the last days, who say, Where is the promise of his coming? and therefore it is that, like them, they draw iniquity with cords of vanity, are violent and daring in sin, and walk after their own lusts, 2 Peter 3:3; 2 Peter 3:4. (1.) They ridicule the prophets, and banter them. It is in scorn that they call God the Holy One of Israel, because the prophets used with great veneration to call him so. (2.) They will not believe the revelation of God's wrath from heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness; unless they see it executed, they will not know it, as if the curse were brutum fulmen--a mere flash, and all the threatenings of the word bugbears to frighten fools and children. (3.) If God should appear against them, as he has threatened, yet they think themselves able to make their part good with him, and provoke him to jealousy, as if they were stronger than he, 1 Corinthians 10:22. "We have heard his word, but it is all talk; let him hasten his work, we shall shift for ourselves well enough." Note, Those that wilfully persist in sin consider not the power of God's anger.

      3. Who confound and overthrow the distinctions between moral good and evil, who call evil good and moral evil (Isaiah 5:20; Isaiah 5:20), who not only live in the omission of that which is good, but condemn it, argue against it, and, because they will not practise it themselves, run it down in others, and fasten invidious epithets upon it--not only do that which is evil, but justify it, and applaud it, and recommend it to others as safe and good. Note, (1.) Virtue and piety are good, for they are light and sweet, they are pleasant and right; but sin and wickedness are evil; they are darkness, all the fruit of ignorance and mistake, and will be bitterness in the latter end. (2.) Those do a great deal of wrong to God, and religion, and conscience, to their own souls, and to the souls of others, who misrepresent these, and put false colours upon them--who call drunkenness good fellowship, and covetousness good husbandry, and, when they persecute the people of God, think they do him good service--and, on the other hand, who call seriousness ill-nature, and sober singularity ill-breeding, who say all manner of evil falsely concerning the ways of godliness, and do what they can to form in men's minds prejudices against them, and this in defiance of evidence as plain and convincing as that of sense, by which we distinguish, beyond contradiction, between light and darkness, and between that which to the taste is sweet and that which is bitter.

      4. Who though they are guilty of such gross mistakes as these have a great opinion of their own judgments, and value themselves mightily upon their understanding (Isaiah 5:21; Isaiah 5:21): They are wise in their own eyes; they think themselves able to disprove and baffle the reproofs and convictions of God's word, and to evade and elude both the searches and the reaches of his judgments; they think they can outwit Infinite Wisdom and countermine Providence itself. Or it may be taken more generally: God resists the proud, those particularly who are conceited of their own wisdom and lean to their own understanding; such must become fools, that they may be truly wise, or else, at their end they shall appear to be fools before all the world.

      5. Who glory in it as a great accomplishment that they are able to bear a great deal of strong liquor without being overcome by it (Isaiah 5:22; Isaiah 5:22), who are mighty to drink wine, and use their strength and vigour, not in the service of their country, but in the service of their lusts. Let drunkards know from this scripture that, (1.) They ungratefully abuse their bodily strength, which God has given them for good purposes, and by degrees cannot but weaken it. (2.) It will not excuse them from the guilt of drunkenness that they can drink hard and yet keep their feet. (3.) Those who boast of their drinking down others glory in their shame. (4.) How light soever men make of their drunkenness, it is a sin which will certainly lay them open to the wrath and curse of God.

      6. Who, as judges, pervert justice, and go counter to all rules of equity, Isaiah 5:23; Isaiah 5:23. This follows upon the former; they drink and forget the law (Proverbs 31:5), and err through wine (Isaiah 28:7; Isaiah 28:7), and take bribes, that they may have wherewithal to maintain their luxury. They justify the wicked for reward, and find some pretence or other to clear him from his guilt and shelter him from punishment; and they condemn the innocent, and take away their righteousness from them, that is, overrule their pleas, deprive them of the means of clearing up their innocency, and give judgment against them. In causes between man and man, might and money would at any time prevail against right and justice; and he who was ever so plainly in the wrong would with a small bribe carry the cause and recover the costs. In criminal causes, though the prisoner ever so plainly appeared to be guilty, yet for a reward they would acquit him; if he were innocent, yet if he did not fee them well, nay, if they were feed by the malicious prosecutor, or if they themselves had spleen against him, they would condemn him.

      II. The judgments described, which these sins would bring upon them. Let not those expect to live easily who live thus wickedly; for the righteous God will take vengeance, Isaiah 5:24-30; Isaiah 5:24-30. Here we may observe,

      1. How complete this ruin will be, and how necessarily and unavoidably it will follow upon their sins. He had compared this people to a vine (Isaiah 5:7; Isaiah 5:7), well fixed, and which, it was hoped, would be flourishing and fruitful; but the grace of God towards it was received in vain, and then the root became rottenness, being dried up from beneath, and the blossom would of course blow off as dust, as a light and worthless thing, Job 18:16. Sin weakens the strength, the root, of a people, so that they are easily rooted up; it defaces the beauty, the blossoms, of a people, and takes away the hopes of fruit. The sin of unfruitfulness is punished with the plague of unfruitfulness. Sinners make themselves as stubble and chaff, combustible matter, proper fuel to the fire of God's wrath, which then of course devours and consumes them, as the fire devours the stubble, and nobody can hinder it, or cares to hinder it. Chaff is consumed, unhelped and unpitied.

      2. How just the ruin will be: Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and would not have him to reign over them; and, as the law of Moses was rejected and thrown off, so the word of the Holy One of Israel by his servants the prophets, putting them in mind of his law and calling them to obedience, was despised and disregarded. God does not reject men for every transgression of his law and word; but, when his word is despised and his law cast away, what can they expect but that God should utterly abandon them?

      3. Whence this ruin should come (Isaiah 5:25; Isaiah 5:25): it is destruction from the Almighty. (1.) The justice of God appoints it; for that is the anger of the Lord which is kindled against his people, his necessary vindication of the honour of his holiness and authority. (2.) The power of God effects it: He has stretched forth his hand against them. That hand which had many a time been stretched out for them against their enemies is now stretched out against them at full length and in its full vigour; and who knows the power of his anger? Whether they are sensible of it or no, it is God that has smitten them, has blasted their vine and made it wither.

      4. The consequences and continuance of this ruin. When God comes forth in wrath against a people the hills tremble, fear seizes even their great men, who are strong and high, the earth shakes under men and is ready to sink; and as this feels dreadful (what does more so than an earthquake?) so what sight can be more frightful than the carcases of men torn with dogs, or thrown as dung (so the margin reads it) in the midst of the streets? This intimates that great multitudes should be slain, not only soldiers in the field of battle, but the inhabitants of their cities put to the sword in cold blood, and that the survivors should neither have hands nor hearts to bury them. This is very dreadful, and yet such is the merit of sin that, for all this, God's anger is not turned away; that fire will burn as long as there remains any of the stubble and chaff to be fuel for it; and his hand, which he stretched forth against his people to smite them, because they do not by prayer take hold of it, nor by reformation submit themselves to it, is stretched out still.

      5. The instruments that should be employed in bringing this ruin upon them: it should be done by the incursions of a foreign enemy, that should lay all waste. No particular enemy is named, and therefore we are to take it as a prediction of all the several judgments of this kind which God brought upon the Jews, Sennacherib's invasion soon after, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans first and at last by the Romans; and I think it is to be looked upon also as a threatening of the like desolation of those countries which harbour and countenance those sins mentioned in the foregoing verses; it is an exposition of those woes. When God designs the ruin of a provoking people,

      (1.) He can send a great way off for instruments to be employed in effecting it; he can raise forces from afar, and summon them from the end of the earth to attend his service, Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 5:26. Those who know him not are made use of to fulfil his counsel, when, by reason of their distance, they can scarcely be supposed to have any ends of their own to serve. If God set up his standard, he can incline men's hearts to enlist themselves under it, though perhaps they know not why or wherefore. When the Lord of hosts is pleased to make a general muster of the forces he has at his command, he has a great army in an instant, Joel 2:2; Joel 2:11. He needs not sound a trumpet, nor beat a drum, to give them notice or to animate them; no, he does but hiss to them, or rather whistle to them, and that is enough; they hear that, and that puts courage into them. Note, God has all the creatures at his beck.

      (2.) He can make them come into the service with incredible expedition: Behold, they shall come with speed swiftly. Note, [1.] Those who will do God's work must not loiter, must not linger, nor shall they when his time has come. [2.] Those who defy God's judgments will be ashamed of their insolence when it is too late; they said scornfully (Isaiah 5:19; Isaiah 5:19), Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, and they shall find, to their terror and confusion, that he will; in one hour has the judgment come.

      (3.) He can carry them on in the service with amazing forwardness and fury. This is described here in very elegant and lofty expressions, Isaiah 5:27-30; Isaiah 5:27-30. [1.] Though their marches be very long, yet none among them shall be weary; so desirous they be to engage that they shall forget their weariness, and make no complaints of it. [2.] Though the way be rough, and perhaps embarrassed by the usual policies of war, yet none among them shall stumble, but all the difficulties in their way shall easily be got over. [3.] Though they be forced to keep constant watch, yet none shall slumber nor sleep, so intent shall they be upon their work, in prospect of having the plunder of the city for their pains. [4.] They shall not desire any rest of relaxation; they shall not put off their clothes, nor loose the girdle of their loins, but shall always have their belts on and swords by their sides. [5.] They shall not meet with the least hindrance to retard their march or oblige them to halt; not a latchet of their shoes shall be broken which they must stay to mend, as Joshua 9:13. [6.] Their arms and ammunition shall all be fixed, and in good posture; their arrows sharp, to wound deep, and all their bows bent, none unstrung, for they expect to be soon in action. [7.] Their horses and chariots of war shall all be fit for service; their horses so strong, so hardy, that their hoofs shall be like flint, far from being beaten, or made tender, by their long march; and the wheels of their chariots not broken, or battered, or out of repair, but swift like a whirlwind, turning round so strongly upon their axle-trees. [8.] All the soldiers shall be bold and daring (Isaiah 5:29; Isaiah 5:29): Their roaring, or shouting, before a battle, shall be like a lion, who with his roaring animates himself, and terrifies all about him. Those who would not hear the voice of God speaking to them by his prophets, but stopped their ears against their charms, shall be made to hear the voice of their enemies roaring against them and shall not be able to turn a deaf ear to it. They shall roar like the roaring of the sea in a storm; it roars and threatens to swallow up, as the lion roars and threatens to tear in pieces. [9.] There shall not be the least prospect of relief or succour. The enemy shall come in like a flood, and there shall be none to lift up a standard against him. He shall seize the prey, and none shall deliver it, none shall be able to deliver it, nay, none shall so much as dare to attempt the deliverance of it, but shall give it up for lost. Let the distressed look which way they will, every thing appears dismal; for, if God frowns upon us, how can any creature smile? First, Look round to the earth, to the land, to that land that used to be the land of light and the joy of the whole earth, and behold darkness and sorrow, all frightful, all mournful, nothing hopeful. Secondly, Look up to heaven, and there the light is darkened, where one would expect to have found it. If the light is darkened in the heavens, how great is that darkness! If God hide his face, no marvel the heavens hide theirs and appear gloomy, Job 34:29. It is our wisdom, by keeping a good conscience, to keep all clear between us and heaven, that we may have light from above even when clouds and darkness are round about us.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

Cords and Cart-Ropes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Sermon

(No. 1821)

Intended for reading on Lord's-Day, February 8th, 1885,

Delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington,

On December 14th, 1884,

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope." Isaiah 5:18 .

THE text begins with "Woe;" but when we get a woe in this book of blessings it is sent as a warning, that we may escape from woe. God's woes are better than the devil's welcomes. God always means man's good, and only sets ill before him that he may turn from the dangers of a mistaken way, and so may escape the ill which lies at the end of it. Think me not unkind at this time because my message sounds harshly, and has a note in it of sorrow rather than of joy. It may be most for your pleasure for ages to come, dear friends, to be for a while displeased. It may make the bells ring in your ears for ever if to-night, instead of the dulcet sound of the harp, you hear the shrill clarion startling you to thoughtfulness. Mayhap "Woe, woe, woe," though it should sound with a dreadful din in your ear, may be the means of leading you to seek and find your Savior, and then throughout eternity no woe shall ever come near to you. May the good Spirit of all grace put power into my warning, that you may profit by it.

This is a very singular text. It is not very easy to understand it at first sight. Here are some who are said to draw sin with cords of vanity, which are slender enough, and yet they also draw it as with a cart-rope, which is thick enough. They are harnessed to sin, and the traces appear to be fragile, insignificant, and soon broken. You can hardly touch them, for they are a mere sham, a fiction vanity. What can be thinner and weaker than cobweb-cords of vanity? Yet when you attempt to break or remove them they turn out to be cart-ropes or wagon-traces, fitted to bear the pull of horse or bullock. Motives which have no logical force, and would not bind a reasonable man for a moment, are, nevertheless, quite sufficient to hold the most of men in bondage. Such a slave is man to iniquity, that unworthy motives and indefensible reasons which appear no stronger than little cords nevertheless hold him as with bonds of steel, and he is fastened to the loaded wagon of his iniquity as a horse is fastened by a cart-rope. That is our subject at this time, and may God make it useful to many. Beyond all things I would have you saved, you who are tugging away in the harness of sin. God grant it. May the free Spirit set you free.

I shall first of all explain the singular description explain it by enlarging upon it, and quoting instances from daily life. Secondly, I shall enlarge upon the woe that is certainly connected with being bound to sin; and then thirdly, as God shall help me, I will encourage you to get out of the traces. I pray that you may have these cart-ropes cut, that you may not be drawing iniquity and sin after you any longer. Oh that this might be salvation's hour to many of you, in which, like Samson, you may break the cords and ropes with which you have been bound!

I. First, let us EXPLAIN THE SINGULAR DESCRIPTION. Here are persons harnessed to the wagon of sin harnessed to it by many cords, all light as vanity and yet strong as cart-ropes.

Let me give you a picture. Here is a man, who, as a young man, heard the gospel and grew up under the influence of it. He is an intelligent man, a Bible reader, and somewhat of a theologian. He attended a Bible class, was an apt pupil, and could explain much of Scripture, but he took to lightness and frothiness. He made an amusement of religion and a sport of serious things. Sermons he frequented that he might talk of them and say that he had heard the preacher. After the sermon, when others were impressed, he was merry. He had discovered some mistake in the preacher, in his pronunciation, in the grammatical construction of a sentence, or in a misquotation from a poet, and this he mentioned with gusto, passing by all the good that was spoken. That was only his way: he did not mean any hurt by it; at least, he would have said so had any one seriously reproved him.

He came under the bond of this religious trifling, but it was a cord of vanity small as a packthread. Years ago he began to be bound to his sin by this kind of trifling, and at the present moment I am not sure that he ever cares to go and hear the gospel or to read the word of God, for he has grown to despise that which he sported with. The wanton willing has degenerated into a malicious scoffer: his cord has become a cart-rope. His life is all trifling now. You could not make him serious. He spends his time in one perpetual giggle. Every holy thing is now the subject of comedy. Like Belshazzar, he drinks his wine out of the sacred vessels of the temple. Earnestness hath a pleasantry of its own, and a bold spirit yokes mirth and laughter to its own, and subdues all the faculties of the mind to God, not even excepting humor; but this man owns no Lord within his heart, but laughs at the most solemn truths and does not seem capable of anything higher or better. His life is a sneer. He would pull a feather out of an angel's wing and wear it in his cap. On the solemn day of Pentecost he would have drawn a picture of the cloven tongues upon his thumb nail that he might show it as a curiosity. There is nothing sacred to him now, nor will there be till he is in hell, and then he will have done with his jibes and flouts. The habit of being contemptuous has grown to be a cart-rope with him, and it holds him most securely. I say, young men, break those wretched cords of vanity before they strengthen into cart-ropes. While yet there is but a slender thread snap it, before thread gathers to thread, and that to another, and that to another, till it has come to be a cable, which even a giant could not pull asunder. There are many lamentable instances of triflers ripening into scoffers, and it were a great pity that you should furnish further illustrations. Avoid trifling with religion as you would avoid common swearing or profanity, for in its essence it is irreverent and mischievous.

I have seen the same thing take another shape, and then it appeared as captious questioning. We are not afraid to be examined upon anything in the Word of God; but we dread a cavilling spirit. I, for one, believe that the more the Word of God has been sifted the more fully has it been confirmed. The result has been the better understanding of its teaching. The pure gold has shone the more brightly for being placed in the crucible. But there is a habit which begins thus "I do not see this; and I do not understand that; and I do not approve of this and I question that." It makes life into a tangle of thorns and briars where ten thousand sharp points of doubt are for ever tearing the mind. This doubting state reminds one of the old serpent's "Yea, hath God said?" If the statement made had been the opposite, the gentleman would have questioned it; for he is bound to doubt everything. He is one who could take either side and refute; but neither side and defend. He could do like the eminent barrister, who had made a mistake as to his side of the case, and he got up and gave all the arguments most tellingly, till his client's lawyer whispered to him, "You have done for us, you have used all the arguments against your own client." The barrister stopped and said, "My lord, I have thus told you all that can be urged against my client by those upon the other side, and I will now show you that there is nothing in the allegations;" and with equal cleverness he went on to disprove what he had proved before. There are minds constructed in such a way that they can act in every way except that of plain up and down. Their machinery is eccentric, it would puzzle the ablest tongue to describe it. I like the old-fashioned consciences that go up and down, yes and no, right and wrong, true and false the kind which are simple and need no great intellect to understand their methods. We are growing so cultured now that many have become like the old serpent, "more subtle than any beast of the field." The new-fashioned consciences act upon the principle of compromise and policy, which is no principle at all. To each enquiry they answer, "Yes and no. What is the time of day?" for it is yes or no according to the clock, or according to the climate, or more generally according to the breeches' pocket, for so much depends upon that. Practically many are saying, "Upon which side of the bread is the butter? Tell us this, and then we will tell you what we believe." People of that sort begin at first with an enquiring spirit, then go on to an objecting spirit, then to a conceited spirit, and then to a perpetually quibbling spirit. In the case to which I refer, there is nothing earnest; for when a man is a sincere questioner, and is willing to receive an answer, he is on the high road to truth; but when he merely questions and questions and questions, and never stops for an answer, and is nothing but a heap of cavils, he is not worth clearing away. The last thing he wants is an answer, and the thing he dreads beyond everything is that he should be compelled to believe anything at all. Such a man at last gets bound as with a cart-rope: he becomes an atheist or worse; for all capacity for faith departs from him. He is as frivolous as Voltaire, whose forte seemed to lie in ridiculing everything. You cannot save him. How can faith come to him? How can he believe who must have everything explained? How can he believe in Christ himself when he requires him, first of all, to be put through a catechism and to be made to answer cavils? Oh, take heed of tying up your soul with cart-ropes of scepticism take heed of a truth-denying spirit. God help you to break the bonds. Enquire, but believe. Ask, but do accept the truth; and be in earnest in your resolve that if you prove all things you will also hold fast that which is good. To be always using the sieve but never to be using the mill is starving work: to be always searching after adulterations, but never to drink of the genuine milk, is a foolish habit. Cavilling is a curse, and carping is a crime. Escape from it while yet it is but as a cord of vanity, lest it come to be a cart-rope which shall bind you fast.

I hear one say, "This does not touch me. I have not fallen either into trifling or into questioning." No, but perhaps you may be a prisoner bound with other cords. Some have a natural dislike to religious things and cannot be brought to attend to them. Let me qualify the statement and explain myself. They are quite prepared to attend a place of worship and to hear sermons, and occasionally to read the Scriptures, and to give their money to help on some benevolent cause; but this is the point at which they draw the line they do not want to think, to pray, to repent, to believe, or to make heart-work of the matter. Thinking, you know, is awkward work, and to them it is uncomfortable work, because there is not much in their lives that would cheer them if they were to think of it. They had rather not see the nakedness of the land. There is an ugly thing which they do not want to have much to do with called repentance: of this they require much, but they are averse to it. The more children dislike medicine the more they want it; and it is the same with repentance. These people would rather shut their eyes and go on to destruction than stop and see their danger and turn back. To think about the past why, they might have to mourn it, and who is eager after sorrow? Then there is such a thing as a change of heart, and they are rather shy of that, for they are almost heartless and do not like prying deep. If there were something to be done that could be managed in a day or two, if there were some pilgrimage to make, some penance to endure, some dress to be worn, they would not mind that; but thought, repentance, prayer, and seeking God they cannot endure such spiritual exactions. If there were some sacrifice to be made, they would do that; but this being at peace with God, this seeking to be renewed in the spirit of their mind well, they have no mind to it. The world is in their hearts and they have no wish to get it out. They have heard some people say that all conversation about God, the soul, and eternity is dull Puritanic talk, so they have picked up an expression as parrots often do, and they say "No, we do not want to be Puritans. We do not care to be extra precise and righteous over much." What a misery it is that there should be persons who are bound with such cords of vanity as those! These are unreasonable feelings, insane aversions, unjustifiable prejudices: the Lord save you from them, and instead thereof give you a mind to know him, and a heart to seek after him. Why, as a boy, when I began to feel a sense of sin within me, I resolved that if there was such a thing as being born again, I would never rest until I knew it. My heart seemed set upon knowing what repentance meant and what faith meant, and getting to be thoroughly saved; but now I find that large numbers of my hearers back out of all serious dealing with themselves and God: they act as if they did not wish to be made happy for eternity. They think hardly of the good way. You see it is such radical work: regeneration cuts so deep, and it makes a man so thoughtful. Who knows what may have to be given up? Who knows what may have to be done? O, my hearer, if you indulge in such demurs and delays and prejudices in the first days of your conviction, the time may come when those little packthreads will be so intertwisted with each other that they will make a great cart-rope, and you will become an opposer of everything that is good, determined to abide for ever harnessed to the great Juggernaut car of your iniquities, and so to perish. God save you from that.

I have known some men get harnessed to that car in another way, and that is by deference to companions. The young man liked everything that was good after a fashion, but he could not bear for anybody to say on Monday morning, "So you were at a place of worship on Sunday." He did not like to say outright, "Of course I was; where were you?" But the rather he said, Well, he did look in at the chapel, or he did go to St. Paul's or the Abbey to hear the music. "Oh," says one, "I hear you were at the Tabernacle the other day." Yes, he went in from curiosity, just to see the place and the crowd. That is how he puts it, as if he were ashamed to worship his Maker and to be found observing the Sabbath-day. O, poor coward! That young man at another time was charged with having been seen in the enquiry room, or weeping under a solemn sermon. He said it was rather affecting, and he was a little carried away and over-persuaded, but he apologised to the devil and begged that he might hear no more of it. He began giving way to his ungodly friends, and soon he became their butt. One companion pulled his ear that way, and another pulled his ear another way, and in this manner he developed very long ears indeed. He did not go very far wrong at first; but having allowed sinful men to saddle him, they took care to ride him harder and harder as the days ran on. It was only a packthread sort of business that held him to sin by a kind of wicked courtesy; but after a while he became obsequious to his equals, and fawned upon his superiors, doing their bidding even though it cost him his soul. He was vastly more attentive to the will and smile of some downright vicious comrade far more thoughtful of a fool's opinion than he was of the good pleasure of God. It is a shocking thing; but there is no doubt that many people go to hell for the love of being respectable. It is not to be doubted that multitudes pawn their souls, and lose their God and heaven, merely for the sake of standing well in the estimation of a profligate. Young women have lost their souls for very vanity, sinning in the hope of securing the love of a brainless, heartless youth. Young men have flung away all hope of salvation in order that they might be thought to be men of culture they have abjured faith in order to be esteemed "free-thinkers" by those whose opinions were not worth a pin's head. I charge you, dear friend, if you are beginning at all to be a slave of other people, break these wretched and degrading bonds. I scorn that mental slavery in which many glory. What matters it to me to-day what anybody thinks of me? In this respect I am the freest of men. Yet do I know times when, had I yielded to the packthread, I should soon have felt the cart-rope. He who sins to please his friend is making for himself a slavery more cruel than the negro ever knew. He that would be free for ever must break the cords ere yet they harden into chains.

Some men are getting into bondage in another way; they are forming gradual habits of evil. How many young men born and bred amid Christian associations do that! It is a little sip, and such a little. "I do not take above half a glass." Then why run such great risks for so small an indulgence? "The doctor" O you doctors, what you have got to answer for! "the doctor says I ought to take a little, and so I do." By-and-by the little thread becomes a cart-rope: the tale about the doctor ends in doing what no doctor would justify. Will he say, "The doctor says I ought" when he comes rolling home at night, scarce can find his way to bed, and wakes up with a headache in the morning? He would have done better to ask God for grace to escape while yet he held small pleasure in the fascinating fire-water, and was the master of his appetite. The cart-rope is hard to break, as many have found, though I would encourage even these by God's grace to struggle for liberty.

"Well," says the young man, "that is not my sin." I am glad it is not; but any other sin if it be persevered in will destroy you. I will not try to describe your sin. Describe it yourself, and think over it; but will you please recollect the deceitfulness of sin the way in which it comes to men, as the frost in the still evening in the wintry months comes to the lake? The pool is placid, and the frost only asks that it may thinly glaze the surface. The coating is so thin, you could scarce call it ice; but having once filmed the pool, the sheet of ice has commenced; soon it is an inch thick, and in a few hours a loaded wagon might pass over it without a crash, for the whole pool seems turned to marble. So men give way to one evil passion or another this vice or that; and the habit proceeds from bad to worse, till the cords of vanity are enlarged into cart-traces, and they cannot escape from the load to which they are harnessed.

I fear that not a few are under the delusive notion that they are safe as they are. Carnal security is made up of cords of vanity. How can a sinner be safe while his sin is unforgiven? How can he be at peace while he is a slave to evil, and an enemy to God? Yet many fancy that they are as good as need be, and far better than their neighbors. Surely such as they are must surely be secure, since they are so respectable, so well inclined, and so much thought of. A man may accustom himself to danger till he does not even notice it, and a soul may grow used to its condition till it sees no peril in impenitence and unbelief. As the blacksmith's dog will lie down and sleep while the sparks fly about him, so will a gospel-hardened sinner sleep on under warnings and pleadings. At first the hearer had to do violence to his conscience to escape from the force of truth, but at last he is encased in steel, and no arrow of the word can wound him. O ye that are at ease in Zion, I beseech you listen to my admonition and fly from carnal security. O Lord, arouse them from their slumbering condition!

This is a word of warning. I have not the time to-night to go into all the details. I wish I had. Beware of the eggs of the cockatrice. Remember how drops wear stones, and little strokes fell great oaks. Do not play with a cobra, even if it be but a foot long. Keep from the edge of the precipice. Fly from the lion ere he springs upon you. Do not forge for yourself a net of iron, nor become the builder of your own prison-house. May the Holy Ghost deliver you. May you touch the cross, and find in it the power which will loose you and let you go.

II. But, oh, how I wish that every person here who has not yet found liberty, but is harnessed to his sin, could escape to-night, for and this is my second point THERE IS A WOE ABOUT REMAINING HARNESSED TO THE CART OF SIN, and that woe is expressed in our text.

It has been hard work already to tug at sin's load. If I am addressing any here that have fallen into great sin, I know that you have fallen into great sorrow. I am sure you have. Much of history is happily covered with a veil so that its secret griefs do not become open miseries, else were the world too wretched for a tender heart to live in it. Could we lift the tops of the houses, could we exhibit the skeletons hidden in closets, could we take away the curtains from human breasts what sorrows we should see; and the mass of those sorrows not the whole of them, but the mass would be found to come from sin. When the young man turns to paths of unchastity or of dishonesty, what grief he makes for himself: what woe, what misery! His bodily disease, his mental anguish we have no heart to describe. Ah! yes, "The way of transgressors is hard." They put on a smile; they even take to uproarious laughter, but a worm is gnawing at their hearts. Alas, poor slaves! They make a noise as they try to drown their feelings; but as the crackling of thorns under a pot such is the mirth of the wicked hasty, noisy, momentary; gone, and nothing but ashes left. I would not have you proceed in the path of sin if there were nothing in it worse than what has happened to you already. Surely the time past may suffice for folly: you have reaped enough of the fire-sheaves without going on with the harvest. I would as a brother urge you to escape from your present bondage.

But remember, if you remain harnessed to this car of sin, the weight increases. You are like a horse that has to go a journey and pick up parcels at every quarter of a mile: you are increasing the heavy luggage and baggage that you have to drag behind you. A man starting in life is somewhat like a horse with but a slender load in the cart, but as he goes on from youth to manhood, and from manhood to his riper years, he has been loaded up with more sin; and what a weight there is behind him now! Grinning devils, as they bring the heavy packages and heap them up one upon another, must wonder that men are such fools as to continue in the harness and drag on the dreadful load as if it were fine sport. Alas, that men should sin away their souls so lightly, as if self-destruction were some merry game that they were playing at, whereas it is a heaping up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and the perdition of ungodly men.

Further, I want you to notice that as the load grows heavier, so the road becomes worse, the ruts are deeper, the hills are steeper, and the sloughs are more full of mire. In the heyday of youth man finds beaded bubbles about the brim of his cup of sin, the wine moveth itself aright, it giveth its color in the cup; but as he grows older and drinks deeper he comes nearer to the dregs, and those dregs are as gall and wormwood. An old man with his bones filled with the sin of his youth is a dreadful sight to look upon; he is a curse to others, and a burden to himself. A man who has fifty years of sin behind him is like a traveler pursued by fifty howling wolves. Do you hear their deep bay as they pursue the wretch? Do you see their eyes glaring in the dark, and flaming like coals of fire? Such a man is to be pitied indeed: whither shall he flee, or how shall he face his pursuers? He who goes on carelessly when he knows that such a fate awaits him is a fool, and deserves small pity when the evil day comes. O you that are drawing the wagon of sin, I implore you stop before you reach the boggy ways of infirmity, the tremendous swamps of old age!

Remember, friends, if any of you are still harnessed to your sins, and have been so for years, the day will come when the load will crush the horse. It is a dreadful thing when the sins which were drawn at last drive the drawer before them. In the town where I was brought up there is a very steep hill. You could scarcely get out of the town without going down a hill, but one is specially precipitous, and I remember once hearing a cry in the streets, for a huge wagon had rolled over the horses that were going down the hill with it. The load had crushed the creatures that were supposed to draw it. There comes a time with a man when it is not so much he that consumes the drink as the drink that consumes him; he is drowned in his cups, sucked down by that which he himself sucked in. A man was voracious, perhaps, in food, and at last his gluttony swallowed him; at one grim morsel he went down the throat of the old dragon of selfish greed. Or the man was lustful, and at last his vice devoured him. It is an awful thing when it is not the man that follows the devil, but the devil that drives the man before him as though he were his laden ass. The man's worst self, that had been kept in the rear and put under restraint, at last gets up and comes to the front, and the better self, if ever he had such, is dragged on an unwilling captive at the chariot wheels of its destroyer.

I am sure that there is nobody here who desires to be eternally a sinner: let him then beware, for each hour of sin brings its hardness and its difficulty of change. Nobody here wants to get into such a condition that he cannot help any longer sinning: let him not be so unwise as to play with sin. When the moral brakes are taken off, and the engine is on the down-grade, and must run on at a perpetually quickening rate for ever, then is the soul lost indeed. I am sure there is not a man here who wants to commit himself to an eternity of hate of God, an eternity of lust, an eternity of wickedness and consequent wretchedness. Why then do you continue to harden your hearts? If you do not wish to rush down the decline, put on the brake to-night: God help you so to do; or, to come back to the text, let the packthreads be broken, and the cords of vanity be thrown aside, ere yet the cart-rope shall have fastened you for ever to the Juggernaut car of your sin and your destruction.

III. Now I want to offer SOME ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BREAKING LOOSE. It is time I did. I do not wish to preach a sad unhappy sermon to-night; but I do long to see everybody here saved from sin. My heart cries to God that as long as I am able to preach, I may not preach in vain. God knows I have never shunned to speak what I have thought, and to speak very plainly and very home to you. I never come into this pulpit with the notion that I must not say a sharp thing, or somebody will be offended, and I must not deal with common sins, for somebody will say that I am coarse. I care not the snap of a finger what you choose to say about me, if you will but forsake sin and be reconciled to God by the death of his Son. That is the one and only thing my heart craves, and for that end I have given earnest warnings at this time. I may not much longer be spared to speak with you, and therefore I am the more earnest to impress you while I may. Help me, O Spirit of God!

Now, listen. There is hope for every harnessed slave of Satan. There is hope for those who are most securely bound. "Oh," you say, "I am afraid that I have got into the cart-rope stage; for I seem bound to perish in my sin, I cannot break loose from it." Listen. Jesus Christ has come into the world to rescue those who are bound with chains. That is to say, God himself has taken upon himself human nature, with this design that he may save men from their sins. That blessed, perfect babe, such as never mother before had ever seen, that virgin's child when they named him, it was said, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." He has come to this world in our nature on purpose to save men from their sins. He can cut the traces which bind you to Satan's chariot. He can take you out of the shafts. He can set you free to-night. You have been dragging on for years, and you think there is no chance for you but there is more than a chance, there is the certainty of salvation if you trust in Jesus. I remember reading a famous writer's description of a wretched cab-horse which was old and worn out and yet kept on its regular round of toil. They never took him out of harness for fear they should never be able to get his poor old carcase into it again. He had been in the shafts for so many years that they feared if they took him out of them he would fall to pieces, and so they let him keep where he was accustomed to be. Some men are just like that. They have been in the shafts of sin so many years that they fancy that if they were once to alter they would drop to pieces. But it is not so, old friend. We are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation. The Lord will make a new creature of you. When he cuts the traces and brings you out from between those shafts which have so long held you, you will not know yourself. When old things have passed away you will be a wonder unto many. Is it not said of Augustine that after his conversion he was met by a fallen woman who had known him in his sin, and he passed her by? She said, "Austin, it is I;" and he turned and said, "But I am not Austin. I am not the man you once knew, for I have become a new creature in Christ Jesus." That is what the Lord Jesus Christ can do for you. Do you not believe it? It is true, whether you believe it or not. Oh that you would look to Jesus and begin to live! It is time a change was made; is it not? Who can change you but the Lord Jesus?

Let me tell you another thing that ought to cheer you, and it is this. You are bound with the cords of sin, and in order that all this sin of yours might effectually be put away, the Lord Jesus, the Son of the Highest, was himself bound. They took him in the garden of Gethsemane, and bound his hands, and led him off to Pilate and Herod. They brought him bound before the Roman governor. He was bound when they scourged him. He was bound when they brought him forth bearing his cross. He was fastened hand and foot as they drove in the nails, and thus fixed him with rivets of iron to his cross. There did he hang, fastened to the cruel tree, for sinners such as you are. If you come and trust him to-night you shall find that for you he endured the wrath of God, for you he paid the penalty of death, that he might set you free. He bore it that you should not bear it: he died for you that you might not die. His substitution shall be your deliverance. Oh, come, all bound and guilty as you are, and look to his dear cross, and trust yourself with him; and you shall be set free.

God grant that it may be done at this very moment.

I will tell thee another cheering fact to help thee to overcome thy sin, and break the cart-ropes that now bind thee, There is in the world a mysterious Being whom thou knowest not, but whom some of us know, who is able to work thy liberty. There dwells upon this earth a mysterious Being, whose office it is to renew the fallen, and restore the wandering. We cannot see him, or hear him, yet he dwells in some of us, as Lord of our nature. His chosen residence is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. That most powerful Being is God, the third person of the blessed Trinity, the Holy Ghost, who was given at Pentecost and who has never been recalled, but remains on earth to bless the people of God. He is here still and wherever there is a soul that would be free from sin this free Spirit waits to help him. Wherever there is a spirit that loathes its own unholiness, this Holy Spirit waits to cleanse him. Wherever there is a groaning one asking to be made pure, this pure Spirit is ready to come and dwell in him, and make him pure as God is pure. O, my hearer, he waits to bless you now: he is blessing you while I speak. I feel as if his divine energy went forth with the word and entered into your soul as you are listening. I trust I am not mistaken. If thou believest in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, believe thou also in the power of the Holy Spirit to make thee a new creature, and cleanse thee, and deliver thee from every fetter, and make thee the Lord's free man.

I will tell thee one thing more, and I will have done. Our experience should be a great encouragement to you. I have tried to preach to you that are in the traces; poor worn-out cab-horses to the devil, post-horses of Satan that seem never to have a holiday, dragging your cart of sin behind you through the slush of the foul city of Vanity. The mercy is that you are not horses, but men born for nobler purposes. You may be free, for some of us are free. Oh, what a load I had behind me once: my wagon of inbred sin was a huge one indeed. Had it not been for the grace of God I should have perished in the impossible attempt to move it. I do not think that my load as to overt sin was at all like that which some of you are dragging, for I was but a child, and had not yet plunged into the follies of the world; but then I had a dogged will, a high spirit, an intense activity, and a daring mind, and all this would have driven me headlong to perdition if the Spirit of God had not wrought in me to subdue me to the will of the Lord. I felt within my spirit the boilings up of that secret cauldron of corruption which is in every human bosom and I felt that I was ruined before God, and that there was no hope for me. My burden of inward sin at fifteen years of age was such that I knew not what to do. We have seen pictures of the Arabs dragging those great Nineveh bulls for Mr. Leyard, hundreds of them tugging away; and I have imagined how Pharaoh's subjects, the Egyptians, must have sweated and smarted when they had to drag some of the immense blocks of which his obelisks were composed, thousands of men dragging one block of masonry; and I seemed to have just such a load as that behind me, and it would not stir. I prayed, and it would not stir. I took to reading my Bible, but my load would not stir. It seemed stuck in the mire, and no struggling would move the awful weight. Deep ruts the wheels were in. My load would not be moved, and I did not know what to do. I cried to God in my agony, and I thought I must die if I did not get delivered from my monstrous cumber: but it would not stir. I have no drag behind me now. Glory be to God, I am not bound with a cart-rope to the old wagon. I have no hamper behind me, and as I look back for the old ruts where the cart stopped so long I cannot even see their traces. The enormous weight is not there! It is clean gone! There came One by who wore a crown of thorns: I knew him by the marks in his hands and in his feet; and he said, "Trust me, and I will set thee free." I trusted him, and the enormous weight behind me was gone. It disappeared. As I was told, it sank into his sepulcher, and it lies buried there, never to come out again. My cart-rope snapped, my cords of vanity melted, I was out of harness. Then I said, "The snare is broken, and my soul hath escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. I will tell the story of my deliverance as long as I live." I can say to-night,

"E'er since by faith I saw the stream

His flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme,

and shall be till I die."

Oh, my beloved hearers, believe in Christ as I did. The gospel comes to each sorrowing sinner, and it says, Trust the Savior and there is joy for thee. There is but a veil of gauze between thee and peace; move the hand of faith, and that veil will be torn to pieces. There is but a step between thy misery and music and dancing and a life of perpetual delights; take that step out of self and into Christ, and all is changed for ever. Ask Jesus to break thy bonds, and with a touch of his pierced hand, he will make thee free as the swallow on the wing which no cage can hold. Thou shalt see him, and see thy sin never again for ever.

God bless thee, and break the cart-ropes, and remove the cords of vanity, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"Listen now! the Lord hath done it!

For he loved us unto death;

It is finished! He has saved us!

Only trust to what he saith.

He hath done it! Come and bless him,

Spend in praise your ransomed breath

Evermore and evermore.

"Oh, believe the Lord hath done it!

Wherefore linger? Wherefore doubt?

All the cloud of black transgression

He himself hath blotted out.

He hath done it! Come and bless him,

Swell the grand thanksgiving shout,

Evermore and evermore."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon Isaiah 5:0 .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hymns from "Our Own Hymn Book" 235, 587, 553.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TO MY HEARERS AND READERS.

DEAR FRIENDS, Owing to delays upon the road, I only reached this place on Saturday night, wearied and weak; but this morning I am refreshed! and hope to rest in real earnest. I should not sit down to write these lines were it not for the importunate requests of many friends who are so kindly interested in me. It is a joy to live in the hearts of others and to be thought of by them. But what is to be said of the great privilege of being thought upon of the Lord? "This honor have all the saints." Each one of them may say, "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me." Hence he delights to hear from us because his delight is in us. What joy lies in the assurance that his thoughts towards us are thoughts of peace, and not of evil! "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!" We are often wandering in thought, or we are cast down, and doubtful, and anxious, but he saith, "My thoughts are not your thoughts." "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee."

In this confidence let us possess our souls. Our lives, our cares, our trials, our concerns are all considered by a love which never grows cold, a wisdom which never mistakes, and a power which never fails. Wherefore, let us have delight in the Almighty, and lift up our faces unto God, seeing he taketh pleasure in his people, and remembers them in their low estate with a mercy which endureth for ever.

Yours in the ever-remembering Father,

C. H. SPURGEON. Mentone, February 1st.