Man's ruin the fruit of his own conduct.
"Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings." Here is a prediction of what would take place before the advent of those glorious events pointed out in the preceding verses. There will be a dark night before the morning, a great storm before the calm. The subject here is—Man's ruin the fruit of his own conduct. The reason why the land should be "desolate" before the coming of the glorious times is here stated—"for the fruit of their doings." That man's ruin springs from his conduct is demonstrated by universal experience as well as by the Word of God. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself... O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity" (Hosea 13:9; Hosea 14:1). It is the man who heareth the sayings of Christ and doeth them not that will be ruined at last. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Assuming it to be a fact that man's ruin is evermore the fruit of his own conduct, four things follow.
I. THAT HIS MISERY WILL BE IDENTIFIED WITH REMORSE. Morally it is impossible for a man to ascribe his ruin to his organization, to circumstances, or to any force over which he has no control. He must feel that he has brought it on himself; and this feeling it is that makes his miserable condition a very hell. The suffering of remorse is the soul of suffering. "A wounded spirit who can bear?"
II. THAT IN HIS SUFFERINGS HE MUST VINDICATE THE DIVINE CHARACTER. Forced to see and feel that all his sin and miseries spring from his own conduct, he will be compelled to say, "Just and right art thou," etc. (Revelation 15:3). Into the deepest heart of such God speaks the words, "They hated knowledge, they despised all my reproof; therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices" (Proverbs 1:29). All their misery is but the eating of the fruit of their own doings; they reap that which they have sown. As fruit answers to seed, as echoes to sound, their calamities answer to their conduct.
III. THAT HIS SALVATION FROM RUIN REQUIRES A CHANGE OF LIFE. Men's conduct is fashioned and ruled by their likings and dislikings, their sympathies and antipathies; in other words, if their conduct is bad, it can only be made good by a change of heart. "Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again."
IV. THAT CHRISTIANITY IS THE ONLY SYSTEM THAT CAN MEET HIS CASE. The mission of Christianity is to change the heart, to renew the life, and effect a spiritual reformation. This it is designed to do, this it is fitted to do, this it has done, this it is doing; and no other system on earth is capable of accomplishing this work.—D.T.