A Jealous God by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This sermon was first preached on March 29, 1863.

The text for today comes from the book of Exodus, Exodus 34, verse 14. The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

The passion of jealousy in man is usually exercised in an evil manner, but it is not in itself necessarily sinful. A man may be jealously cautious of his honor and suspiciously vigilant over another without deserving blame. All thoughtful persons will agree that there is such a thing as righteous jealousy.

Self-love is no doubt the usual foundation of human jealousy. And it may be that the definition of jealousy is right when it says that it is the fear of superiority, the fear that another would by some means supplant us. Yet the word jealous is so similar to that noble word zealous that I am persuaded it must have something good in it.

Certainly we learn from scripture that there is such a thing as a godly jealousy. We find the Apostle Paul declaring to the Corinthian Church, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. He had a solemn, cautious, and anxious concern for their holiness, that the Lord Jesus might be honored in their lives.

Let it be remembered then that jealousy, like anger, is not evil in itself, or it could never be ascribed to God. God's jealousy is always a pure and holy jealousy.

The passion of jealousy possesses an intense force. It fires up the whole nature. Its coals are juniper, which have the most intense flame. It resides in the lowest depths of the heart and takes so firm a hold that it remains most deeply rooted until the exciting cause is removed. It wells up from the inmost recesses of the nature, and like a torrent, irresistibly sweeps everything in its path. It stops at nothing, for it is as strong as death. It provokes wrath to the utmost, For it is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. And it overthrows everything in the pursuit of its enemy, for anger is cruel and fury overwhelming.

But who can stand before jealousy? For all these reasons, jealousy is selected as some faint picture of that tender regard which God has for his own deity honor, and supremacy, and the holy indignation which he feels towards those who violate his laws, offend his majesty, or impeach his character.

Not that God is jealous so as to bring him down to the likeness of men, but that this is the nearest idea we can form of what the divine being feels. If it is right to use even that word towards him, when he beholds his throne occupied by false gods, his dignity insulted, and his glory usurped by others.

We cannot speak of God except by using figures drawn from his works or our own emotions. We ought, however, when we use the images to be very careful in ourselves and to caution those who listen to us against the idea that the infinite mind is really to be understood and described by any metaphors, however lofty or language, however weighty.

We might not have ventured to use the word jealousy in connection with the Most High, but we find it so many times in scripture. Let us with solemn awe survey this mysterious display of the divine mind.

I think I hear the thundering words of Nahum. The Lord is a jealous and avenging God. The Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. Oh, my soul is humbled before the Lord and I tremble at his name.

First, Reverently let us remember that the Lord is extremely jealous of His deity. The Lord is extremely jealous of His deity. Our text is coupled with the command, Do not worship any other god. When the law was thundered from Sinai, the second commandment received force from the divine jealousy. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

Since He is the only God, the Creator of heaven and earth, He cannot endure that any creature, any creature that He made with His own hands, or that any invention of a creature's imagination should be thrust into his throne and made to wear his crown. In Ezekiel we find the false god described as the idol that provokes the jealousy and the doom on Jerusalem for thus turning from Jehovah states this, I will not look on them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their own heads what they have done.

False gods patiently endure the existence of other false gods. Dagon can stand with Baal and Baal with Asheroth. How could stone and wood and silver be moved to indignation? But because God is the only living and true God, Dagon must fall down before his ark. Baal must be broken and Asheroth must be consumed with fire. Thus the Lord says, break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and cut down their Asherath poles. He shall utterly destroy the idols.

My brothers and sisters, do you marvel at this? I felt in my own soul while meditating on this matter an intense sympathy with God. Can you put yourselves in God's place for a moment? Suppose that you had made the heavens and the earth and all the creatures that inhabit this planet. How would you feel if those creatures would set up an image of wood or brass or gold and cry out, these are the gods that made us. These things give us life. What? A dead piece of wood or stone set up in rivalry with real deity?

What must be the Lord's indignation against foolish rebels when they so completely despise God as to set up a vegetable or an onion or a beetle or a frog, preferring to worship the fruit of their own gardens or the pest of their muddy rivers, rather than acknowledge the God whose very hand holds their next breath and who controls all of their ways? Oh, it is a marvel that God has not shattered the world into pieces with thunderbolts, when we remember that even to this day, millions of men and women have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

With what unspeakable contempt must the living God look down upon those idols, which are the work of man's hands? They have mouths, but they cannot speak. Eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear. Noses, but they cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel. Feet, but they cannot walk. Nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

God has been patient with men, and he patiently endures this madness of rebellion. But oh, what patience must it be which can restrain the fury of his jealousy? For he is a jealous God and tolerates no rival. It was divine jealousy which moved the Lord to bring all his plagues on Egypt. Careful reading will show you that those miraculous judgments were all aimed at the gods of Egypt. The people were tormented by the very things which they had made to be their deities. Or else, as in the case of the terrible plague on their livestock, their sacred animals were themselves struck. Even as the Lord had threatened, I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. Wasn't it the same with ancient Israel? Why were they routed before their enemies? Why was their land so often invaded? Why did famine follow pestilence and war come after the famine? Only because they angered Him with their high places. They aroused His jealousy with their idols. When God heard them, He was very angry. He rejected Israel completely. How was it that in the end the Lord gave up Jerusalem to the flames? and summoned the Chaldeans to carry them into captivity, to carry the remnant of his people. How was it that he abhorred his heritage and gave up Mount Zion to be trodden underfoot by the Gentiles? Didn't Jeremiah tell them plainly that because they had walked after other gods and forsaken Jehovah, that he would cast them out into a foreign land? Brethren, The whole history of the human race is a record of the wars of the Lord against idolatry. The right hand of the Lord has dashed into pieces the enemy and cast the ancient idols to the ground. Behold the heaps of Nineveh. Search for the desolations of Babylon. Look upon the broken temples of Greece. See the ruins of pagan Rome. Journey where you will. You will behold the dilapidated temples of their gods and the ruined empires of their foolish worshippers. The moles and the bats have covered with forgetfulness the once famous deities of Chaldea and Assyria. The Lord has made bearers arm and destroyed his adversaries. For Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. With what indignation, then, must the Lord look down upon that apostate harlot called the Roman Catholic Church, when in all her churches there are pictures, images, and relics, and their poor, deceived people are even taught to bow down before a piece of bread? In this country, Roman Catholic idolatry is not so barefaced and naked as it is in other lands. But I have seen it, and my soul has been moved with indignation like that of Paul on Mars Hill, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. I have seen thousands bow down before the wafer, the Eucharist, hundreds bow before the image of the Virgin Mary, scores at prayer before a crucifix, and companies of men and women adoring a rotten bone or a rusty nail. because it is claimed to be the relic of a saint. It is vain for the Roman Catholic to assert that he does not worship the things themselves, but only the Lord through them, for this the second commandment forbids. And it is on this point that the Lord calls himself a jealous God. How full is that cup which Babylon, the Roman Catholic Church, must drink. The day is coming when the Lord will avenge himself upon her, because her iniquities have reached unto heaven, and she has blasphemed God by exalting her Pope into the throne of the Most High, and she has thrust her priest into the office of the Lamb. Purge yourselves, purge yourselves of this leaven. I charge you before God, the judge of the living and the dead, If you do not want to be partakers of her plagues, come out from her more and more and let your protest be increasingly vehement against this which exalts itself above all that is called God. Let our Protestant churches, which have too great a savor of Roman Catholicism in them, cleanse themselves of her fornications, lest the Lord visit them with fire. and pour out the plagues of Babylon on them. Renounce, my brethren, every ceremony which does not have Scripture for its basis, and every doctrine which is not established by the plain testimony of the Word of God. Let us, above all, never by any sign or word or deed have any involvement with this communion of devils. this gathering together of the sons of Baal, and since our God is a jealous God, let us not provoke him by any affinity, gentleness, fellowship, or friendship with this mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, the Roman Catholic Church. With what jealousy must the Lord regard the great mass of the people of this country who have another God beside himself? With what indignation does He look upon many of you who are subject to the Prince of the Power of the Air, the God of this world? To you, Jehovah is nothing. God is not in all your thoughts. You have no fear of Him before your eyes. Like the men of Israel, you have set up your idols in your heart. Your God is custom, fashion, business, pleasure, ambition, and honor. You have made to yourselves gods of these things. You have said, these are your gods, O Israel. You follow after the things which perish, the things of this world which are vanity. Oh, you sons of men, do not think that God is blind. He can see the idols in your hearts. He understands what the secret things are that your souls lust after. He searches your heart, He tries your reins. Beware lest He finds you sacrificing to strange gods, for His anger will smoke against you and His jealousy will be stirred. O you that do not worship God, the God of Israel, you who do not give Him dominion over your whole soul and do not live to His honor, repent of your idolatry. Seek mercy through the blood of Jesus and do not provoke the Lord to jealousy any longer. Even believers may be reproved on this subject. Even believers may be reproved on this subject. God is very jealous of his deity in the hearts of his own people. God is very jealous of his deity in the hearts of his own people. Mother, what will he say of you if that darling child occupies a more prominent place in your love than your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Husband, what will he say to you and with what pain will he strike you when your wife reigns as a goddess in your spirit? And Wife, you should love your husband. You do well in doing so. But if you exalt your husband above God, if you let him have dominion over your conscience and are willing to forsake your Lord to please him, then you yourself have created another God and God is jealous with you. Yes, and we may also in a similar way provoke God with the dead as well as with the living. A grief carried to excess, a grief nurtured until it prevents our attention to duty, a grief which makes us murmur against the will of Providence is sheer rebellion. It has in it the very spirit of idolatry. It will provoke the Lord to anger, and He will surely chasten us until our spirit becomes submissive to His discipline. Haven't you forgiven God yet? Was the language of an old Quaker when he saw a widow who for years and years had worn her clothes of mourning and was inconsolable in her grief. Haven't you forgiven God yet? We may weep under bereavements for Jesus wept, but we must not sorrow so as to provoke the Lord to anger. We must not act as if our friends were more precious to us than our God. We are permitted to take comfort in each other. But when we carry love to idolatry, and put the creature into the Creator's place, and rebel, and fret, and bitterly repine, then the Lord has a rod of discipline in His hand, and He will make us feel its weight, for He is a jealous God. I fear there are some, some who profess to be Christians, who put their houses, their garden, their business, their skill, I know not what, they put these things at times in the place of God. My brothers and sisters, do not set up images of jealousy, but like Jacob of old, cry to yourselves and to your families Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you and purify yourselves. Let me warn those of you who neglect this, that if you are the Lord's people, you will soon be hurt by it, and the sooner the better for your own salvation. While on the other hand, to those ungodly persons who continue to live for objects other than for the divine God, let me say, You will not only suffer pain in this life through bitter disappointments, but you will also suffer eternal wrath in the life to come. Come, let me push this matter home upon your consciences. Let me carry this just like the point of a bayonet. Why, my listeners, there are some of you who never worship God. I know you go up to church but then it is only to be seen or to quiet your conscience by having done your duty. How many of you merchants have only one aim in life, and that is to accumulate a fortune? How many of you laborers are living only for your families? How many young men breathe only for pleasure? How many young women exist only for amusement and vanity? I fear that some among you make your stomach your god and bow down to your own personal charms or comforts. Talk of idolaters? They are here today. If we desire to preach to those who break the first and second commandments, we have no need to go to India or traverse the plains of Africa. They are here. To you who do not bow down before the Lord, let these words be given and let them ring in your ears. The Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. Who will stand before him when he becomes angry, when his jealousy burns like fire and smokes like a furnace? Who shall endure the day of his wrath? Beware lest he tear you into pieces. and there are none to deliver you. It will be dreadful for you if in the end you will stand before an angry God sitting in judgment. Pause now and meditate on your doom and try to imagine in your minds that you see the Almighty God robed in tempest and whirlwind. His throne is a seat of dreadful wrath covered with devouring flame. The Lord appears as a consuming fire and jealous is his name. God save you for Jesus sake. Now, secondly, today, the Lord is jealous of his sovereignty. The Lord is jealous of his sovereignty. He that made heaven and earth has a right to rule his creatures as he wills. The potter has power over the clay to fashion it according to his own good pleasure, and the creatures being made are obligated to be obedient to their Lord. He has a right to issue commands. He has done so. His commands are holy and just and wise. Men and women are obligated to obey them, but, sad to say, they continually rebel against his sovereignty and will not obey him. No, there are men and women who totally deny that he is the King of Kings, and others who encourage one another by saying, let us break away from his chains and remove his ropes from us. Oh, he that sits in the heavens is moved to jealousy by these sins and will defend the rights of his crown against all comers. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. This reminds us of the Lord's hatred of sin. This reminds us of the Lord's hatred of sin. Every time we sin, It is just like saying, I don't acknowledge God to be my sovereign. I will do as I please. Each time we speak a harsh or evil word, we really say, my tongue is my own. He is not Lord over my lips. Yes, and every time the human heart wanders after evil, unless for that which is forbidden, It attempts to dethrone God and to set up the evil one in his place. The language of sin is, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? I will not have God to reign over me. Sin is a deliberate treason against the majesty of God, an assault upon his crown, an insult to his throne. Some sins, some sins especially have rebellion written on their forehead, presumptuous sins. When a man's conscience has been enlightened and he knows better and yet still forsakes the good and follows after evil. When a man's conscience has been aroused through some judgment or sickness or under a faithful ministry If that man returns like a dog to his vomit, he has indeed insulted the sovereignty of God. But haven't we all been guilty of this? And are there not some here today, in particular of whom we once had good hope, but who have again turned back to evil ways? Are there not some of you who, Sunday after Sunday, become so convicted in your consciences that you cannot be as comfortable in sin as others are, and though you may perhaps indulge in sin, yet it costs you very dearly, for you know better. Did I not hear of one who often sits in these pews, but who is also known to often sit on a bench at the pub? Did I not hear of another who can sing with us the hymns of Zion, but is equally at home in singing the immoral songs of the drunkard? Don't we know of some who in their businesses are anything but what they should be, yet for a show come to church? O my listeners, O my listeners, you who do these things provoke the Lord to jealousy. Be very careful. For when he comes out of his resting place and picks up his sword, who are you that you could stand before the awesome majesty of his presence? Tremble and be still. Humble yourselves and repent of your sin. Surely, if sin attacks the sovereignty of God, self-righteousness is equally guilty of treason. If sin attacks the sovereignty of God, Self-righteousness is equally guilty of treason. For as sin boasts, I will not keep God's law. Self-righteousness exclaims, I will not be saved in God's way. I will make a new road to heaven. I will not bow down before God's grace. I will not accept the atonement which God has provided in the person of Jesus Christ. I will be my own redeemer. I will enter heaven by my own strength and glorify my own merits. The Lord is very angry at self-righteousness. I don't know of anything against which his fury burns more than against this, because this touches him in a very tender place. It insults the glory and honor of his Son, Jesus Christ. Joshua said to the children of Israel when they promised to keep the law, You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God, and He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. Therefore, I can say to every self-righteous person, you cannot keep the law, for God is a jealous God. carefully noting every fault and all your iniquities, nor will he forgive your iniquities as long as you attempt to win his favor by the works of the law. Throw away your self-righteousness, you proud one. Throw it away with all your other idols. Throw it to the moles and to the bats, for there's no hope for you as long as you cling to it. Self-righteousness is in itself the very height and crowning point of rebellion against God. For a man or woman to say, Lord, I have not sinned, is the culmination, the emphasis, the climax of iniquity, and God's jealousy burns hot against it. Let me add, dear friends, I feel persuaded that false doctrine, inasmuch as it touches God's sovereignty, is always an object of divine jealousy. That false doctrine, inasmuch as it touches God's sovereignty, is always an object of divine jealousy. Let me focus especially on the doctrines of free will. I know there are some good men who believe and preach them. But I am persuaded that the Lord must be grieved with their doctrines, though He forgives them their sin of ignorance. Free will doctrine, what does it do? It magnifies man into God. It nullifies God's purposes, since they cannot be carried out unless men are willing. It makes God's will a waiting servant to the will of man. and the whole covenant of grace becomes dependent on human action. It denies the doctrine of election on the ground of injustice, and it makes God to be a debtor to sinners, so that if he gives grace to one, he is bound to give grace to everyone. It teaches that the blood of Christ was shed equally for all men, and since some are lost This doctrine attributes the difference to man's own will, thus making the atonement itself a powerless thing until the will of man makes it effective. Those sentiments dilute the scriptural description of man's depravity, and by imputing strength to fallen humanity, it robs the Holy Spirit of the glory of His powerful grace. This theory says, in effect, that it does, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort and not on God's mercy. A direct contradiction of Romans 9.16. My brethren, any doctrine which stands in opposition to this truth, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, provokes God's jealousy. I often tremble in this pulpit. lest I should utter anything which should oppose the sovereignty of my God. And though you know I am not ashamed to preach on the responsibility of man to God, if God is the sovereign, man must obey Him. On the other hand, I am equally bold to preach that God has the right to do what He wills with His own, that He does not have to give an account to anyone for what He does, and no one may stop His hand or say to him, what are you doing? I believe that the free will heresy assails the sovereignty of God and mars the glory of His dominion. In all faithfulness mingled with sorrow, I persuade you who have been deluded by it to turn from your wicked way and to receive the truth which sets God on high and lays the creature in the dust. The Lord reigns, and this is our joy. The Lord is our King. Let us obey Him and defend to the death the crown rights of the King of Kings, for He is a jealous God. While pausing on this subject, I must also mention that all the boastings of ungodly men and ungodly women, whenever they exalt themselves, seeing that they are basically claiming to be sovereign must be very disturbing to God, the judge of all. When you glory in your own power, you forget that power belongs only to God and you provoke his jealousy. When kings and parliaments and governments trespass on the sacred domains of conscience and say to men, bow down that we may rule over you, When we make attempts to lord over another man's judgment or to make our opinions supreme, the Lord is moved to jealousy, for He retains the court of conscience for Himself alone to reign in. Let us humbly bow before the dignity of the Most High and pay our homage at His feet. Glory to the Eternal King, clad in majesty supreme. Let all heaven His praises sing. Let all worlds His power proclaim. Oh, let my transported soul, ever on His glory's gaze, ever yield to His control, ever sound His lofty praise. Let us crown Him every day. Let our holy obedience, let our devout lives, let our enthusiastic submission to all of His will, Let our reverent adoration before the greatness of His Majesty. Let all of these things prove that we acknowledge Him to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords, lest we provoke a jealous God to anger. Now thirdly for today, the Lord is jealous of His glory. The Lord is jealous of His glory. God's glory is the result of His nature and acts. He is glorious in His character, for everything in Him is holy and good and lovely. Therefore, He must be glorious. The actions which flow from His character, the deeds which are the outgoings of His inner nature, these are glorious too. And the Lord is very careful that all flesh should see that He is a good and gracious and just God. And He is mindful, too, that His great and mighty acts should not give glory to others, but only to Himself. Therefore, we must be so careful, so careful when we do anything for God. And God is pleased to accept what we do. We must be careful that we never, never congratulate ourselves. We must be so careful then, when we do anything for God, and God is pleased to accept what we do, that we never congratulate ourselves. The minister of Christ should remove from himself every bit of praise. You preached well, said a friend to John Bunyan one morning. You are too late, said Honest John. The devil told me that before I left the pulpit. The devil often tells God's servant a great many things which they should be sorry to hear. Why, you barely do something useful in a Sunday school class and immediately Satan says to you, you've done a very good job. No sooner do you resist the temptation or set a good example than Satan starts whispering to you, what an excellent person you must be. It is perhaps one of the hardest struggles of the Christian life to learn this sentence. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory. Now God is so jealous on this point that while he will forgive his own servants a thousand things, this is an offense for which he is sure to chasten us. Let a believer once say, I am. and God will soon make him say, I am not. Let a Christian begin to boast, I can do all things, without adding, through Christ who strengthens me, and before long he will have to groan, I can do nothing, and bemoan himself in the dust. Many of the sins of true Christians, I do not doubt, have been the result of their glorifying themselves, Many a man has been permitted by God to stain a noble character, and to ruin an admirable reputation, because the character and reputation had come to be the man's own, instead of being laid, as all our crowns must be laid, at the feet of Christ. You may build a city, but if you say with Nebuchadnezzar, this is the great Babylon I have built, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty, then you will be struck down to the earth. The worms which ate Herod when he did not give glory to God are ready for another meal. Beware of vain glory. We must be very careful to walk humbly before the Lord. We must be very careful to walk humbly before the Lord. The moment we glorify ourselves, since there is only room for one glory in the universe, is the moment we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High. Repentant souls are always accepted because they are not in God's way. Proud souls are always rejected because they are in God's way. Shall the insect that lives for only an hour glorify itself against the hot sun which warmed it into life? Shall a piece of pottery exalt itself above the man that fashioned it upon the wheel? Shall the dust of the desert try to struggle with the whirlwind? Or the drops of the ocean struggle with the thunderstorm? Oh, you of nothingness and of vanity, you puny mortal called man, humble yourself and reverence your great creator. Let us see to it that we never misrepresent God so as to rob Him of His honor. Let us never so misrepresent God so as to rob Him of His honor. If any minister shall preach of God so as to dishonor Him, God will be jealous against that man. I fear that the Lord has severe wrath against those who lay the blame for the damnation of man at God's door. for they dishonor God, and He is very jealous of His name. And those, on the other hand, who ascribe salvation to man must also be heavily beneath God's displeasure, for they take from Him His glory. Ah, thieves, thieves, will you dare to steal the crown jewels of the universe? Wherever you go, will you dare to wear the bright pearls which ought to shine upon the forehead of Christ. Will you dare to put them on the forehead of man? Stop, stop, for the Lord will not give his glory to another. Give to the Lord all you righteous. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to him the honor that is due his name. Any doctrine which does not give all the honor to God must provoke him to jealousy. Be careful, dear friends. Be careful that you do not misrepresent God yourselves. You who murmur, you who say that God deals harshly with you, you give God a bad name. You give God a bad name when you look so sad, and then the world says, Ah, the religion of Jesus is intolerable, and so you stain the honor of God. Oh, don't do this, for He is a jealous God, and He will surely use the rod on you if you do." A flash of holy pleasure crosses my mind just now. I am glad that He is a jealous God. It is enough to make us walk very carefully But at the same time, it should make us very joyful to think, to think that the Lord is very jealous of his own honor. Then brethren, if we believe in Christ, you and I are safe, because it would dishonor him if we were not kept safe. For his own namesake and for his own faithfulness sake, he will never leave one of his people, since his honor is committed to save the lowliest of his sheep. Now if Christ could not take his honor seriously, if he had no jealousy, you and I might be afraid that he would allow us to perish, but it never shall be. It shall be said on earth and sung in heaven in the end that God has not allowed any dishonorable defeats from the hand of either men or devils. I chose my people, says the Eternal Father. and they are mine now that I make up my jewels. I bought my people, says the Eternal Son. I became the security for them before the Most High, and absolutely no one can remove my sheep from me. I gave life to my people, says the Holy Spirit. The temptations of hell could not throw them down. Their own corruptions could not overpower them. I have gotten the victory in every one of them. Not one of them is lost. They are all brought safely to my right hand. Hide yourselves then. Hide yourselves under the banner of Jehovah's jealousy. It is bloody red, I know. Its flag bears a thunderbolt and a flame of fire. But hide yourselves. Hide yourselves under it. For what enemy shall reach you there? If it is to God's glory to save me, I am entrenched behind armaments of stupendous rock. If it would render God inglorious to let me, a poor sinner, descend into hell, if it would open the mouths of devils and make men say that God is not faithful to His promise, then I am secure. For God's glory is wrapped up with my salvation, and the one cannot fail because the other cannot be tarnished. Beloved, let us be careful that we are very jealous of God's glory ourselves, since He is jealous of it. Let us say with Elijah, I am very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. May our lives and conduct and conversation prove that we are jealous of our hearts, lest they should ever depart from Him. And may we strike with stern and unrelenting hand every sin and every thought of pride that might touch the glory of our gracious God. Let us live to Him as living before a jealous God. Now lastly, in the highest sense, the Lord is jealous over His own people. The Lord is jealous over His own people. Let me only hint Although it will exercise itself over man's reputation, rights, and honor, it has one particular tender place, a place where jealousy guards the most, like an armed man, the marriage covenant. A suspicion here is horrible. Even good old Jacob, when he came to die, could not look upon his son Reuben without remembering his offense. He went up to my marriage bed, said the old man, and as if the memory was too painful for him, he hurried on from Reuben to the next. The Lord has been graciously pleased to say of his people, I am married to you. The covenant of grace is a marriage covenant, and Christ's church has become his spouse. It is here that God's jealousy is liable to take fire. Men cannot be God's favorites without being the subjects of his watchfulness and jealousy. That which might be looked over in another will be chastened in a member of Christ. As a husband is jealous of his honor, so is the Lord Jesus very much concerned for the purity of his church. The Lord Jesus Christ, of whom I now speak, is very jealous of your love. The Lord Jesus Christ is very jealous of your love. Oh believer, didn't he choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Didn't he buy you with his own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that he could not live in heaven without you. He sooner died than that you should perish. He stripped himself to nakedness that he might clothe you with beauty. He bowed his face to shame and spitting that he might lift you up to honor and glory. And he cannot endure that you should love the world and the things of the world. His love is strong as death towards you and therefore will be cruel as the grave. He will be as a cruel one towards you if you do not love him with a perfect heart. He will take away your husband. He will strike down your child. He will bring you from riches to poverty, from health to sickness, even to the gates of the grave. Why? Because He loves you so much that He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Him.

Be careful, Christians. Be careful, you that are married to Christ, Remember you are married to a very jealous husband. He is very jealous of your trust. He is jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He will not tolerate that you should dig your own wells when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we come up from the wilderness leaning on our beloved, that our beloved is glad. But when we go down to the wilderness leaning on some other arm, when we trust in our own wisdom or the wisdom of a friend, worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, he is angry and he will strike us with heavy blows that he may bring us to himself.

He is also very jealous of our company. He is very jealous of our company. It would be good if a Christian could see nothing but Christ. When the wife of a Persian noble had been invited to the coronation of Darius, the question was asked of her by her husband, didn't you think that the king is a most handsome man? And her answer was, I did not care to look at the king. My eyes are for my husband only, for my heart is his. The Christian should say the same. There is nothing beneath the spacious arch of heaven comparable to Christ. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To live in him only, this is true love. But to commune with the world, to find comfort in our comforts, to be loving this evil world, this is troublesome to our jealous Lord. Don't you believe that nine out of the ten of the troubles and pains of believers are the result of their love to some other person than Christ?

Nail me to your cross, you bleeding Savior. Put your crown of thorns on my head to be a hedge to keep my thoughts within its bound. Oh, for a fire to burn up all my wandering loves. Oh, for a seal to stamp the name of my beloved indelibly upon my heart. O love divine, expel from me all carnal worldly loves and fill me with yourself.

Dear friends, let this jealousy which should keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us. For if we are married to Christ and He is jealous of us, depend on it. This jealous husband will let no one touch his spouse. Joel tells us that the Lord is jealous for his land. And Zechariah utters the word of the Lord, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And then he declares that he will punish the heathen. Therefore, will he not avenge his own elect who cry to him day and night? There is not a harsh word spoken against the Lord's elect that the Lord will not avenge. There is not a single deed done against us that will fail to receive terrible vengeance from the strong hand of Him who once died but now lives for us.

I am not afraid for the church of God. I don't tremble for the cause of God. Our jealous husband will never let his church be in danger. And if anyone strikes her, he will give them double for every blow. The gates of hell shall not prevail against his church. but she shall prevail against the gates of hell. Her jealous husband shall roll away her shame. Her reproach shall be forgotten. Her glory shall be fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as a victorious army. For he that is jealous of himself is jealous for her reputation and honor.

The subject is large and deep. Let us prove that we understand it. by from this day forward, walking very carefully. And if anyone says to us, why are you so strict in your Christianity? Let this be our answer. I serve a jealous God. Amen.