God'S Witnesses
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 13, 1865,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My Servant, whom I have
chosen."
Isaiah 43:10.
You, most of you, know that I am incessantly engaged every hour in the
week either in preaching the Gospel or in endeavoring to discharge the
multifarious duties connected with this immense Church. Now I always
look upon my Saturdays as being consecrated, as far as possible, to
meditation and study, that I may find something to set before you on
the Lord's Day. But, unfortunately for me, I was served with a subpoena
to attend the courts at Croydon and was compelled to spend the whole of
yesterday sitting in a hot and crowded court.
There is a vast difference between the Throne of Grace and the bench of
justice, and between communion with Heaven and converse with lawyers
and witnesses! I tried to think, while sitting there, but I found the
business so distracting that I went home with a headache and thought I
should scarcely be able to preach to the assembled crowds on the
morrow. It struck me, however, that if I could not preach about
anything else, I must just try to get something out of the occupation
of yesterday.
Perhaps we may glean some profitable ears of corn among such unlikely
stubble. Let me draw your attention to the text and compel my
occupation of yesterday to yield a few illustrations to set forth its
meaning. As the text stands, in its connection, we have before us a
great assembly. All the nations of the earth are summoned to bring
forth their rival gods, and the question to be decided is this–which
one of them is the living and true God? The mode of test is this most
admirable one–which out of these gods has foretold the future? Among
all these votaries of various idols, which of them can claim that their
deity possesses the gift of foresight?
Let all the venerated blocks of wood and stone bring forward their
witnesses! They can tell of Sibylline oracles, of strange mysterious
mutterings which contained doubtful declarations hidden under ambiguous
terms. The Lord demands that there shall be presented before this court
plain prophecies, distinct declarations of events which could not have
been foreseen by human discernment. In this respect, the gods of the
heathen failed. But when Jehovah summoned His people Israel and put
them into the witness box, and said to them, "You are My witnesses,"
they were able distinctly to prove that all the great events of their
national history had been foretold by their God and that each had
occurred precisely as foretold.
Not one of His prophecies had failed! Not one word had dropped to the
ground. Surely the Jew might, with great satisfaction, recur to that
ancient prophecy which is recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Book
of Genesis. We read in the twelfth verse of that chapter that "when the
sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And, lo, an horror of
great darkness fell upon him. And He said unto Abram, know of a surety
that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and
shall serve them. And they shall afflict them four hundred years. And
also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward
shall they come out with great substance. And you shall go to your
fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. But in the
fourth generation they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the
Amorites is not yet full."
Every descendant of the Patriarch could point to this as a Revelation
given to his great ancestor at a time when such events seemed
improbable and yet it was literally fulfilled. The people went down
into Egypt. They stayed there till the four hundred years of this
prophecy had been fulfilled. At that very hour they came out of Egypt.
With a strong hand and with an outstretched arm did God bring them out!
He judged Egypt with many plagues and with a terrible overthrow in the
Red Sea–but Israel came out with great substance, for we find that
they had jewels of silver and jewels of gold. After forty years they
found the sin of the original inhabitants of Canaan was full and that
the set time was come for their slaughter and destruction.
All this was fulfilled verbatim and in the eighteenth and following
verses there is a continuation of the prophecy– and this, too, was
literally accomplished. "Unto your seed have I given this land, from
the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the
Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites and the
Perizzites and the Rephaims and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the
Girgashites and the Jebusites." And all the inhabitants of the land
were to be destroyed and Canaan was to be the possession of the
descendants of the solitary man who, as a stranger and a pilgrim with
his God, trod its acres without owning a foot of the soil!
This early prophecy was so exactly accomplished that to Israel it was
conclusive proof that Jehovah was truly the Lord. Moreover, the Jews
could say that in every national event they had always been forewarned.
Was David appointed that his seed should rule over Israel? Jacob long
before had seen the scepter in the tribe of Judah. Was the kingdom to
be divided at the latter end of the reign of Solomon? Ahijah rends the
garment of Jeroboam and foretells that he shall take ten pieces to make
another kingdom for himself.
Was the race of Jeroboam to be put away? Remember the terrible words,
"There shall not be left so much as a dog of the house of Jeroboam, son
of Nebat." Were they to be molested for their sins by the neighboring
nations? God always sent to them a warning Prophet to bid them repent,
lest suddenly they should feel the smarting rod. Now, what the Jew
could say in Isaiah's day, we can say yet more fully! My Brethren, it
is our happiness to live in an age when expeditions to eastern lands
are proving every letter of prophecy!
Go to Nineveh and mark her heap and her solitary river flowing silently
to the sea. Did it ever seem likely that Tigris and Euphrates, where
the Chaldeans made their boast in their ships, upon whose banks stood
the two greatest cities of antiquity, should become the haunt of
dragons and owls? Go to Nineveh and learn what God can do and how He
can foresee the desolation of His foes. Cast your eyes to the beach of
Tyre where the fisherman spreads his net and there is not a ship to be
seen–but where once the commerce of half the world floated in its
glory! Tread the silent and deserted halls of Petra and shiver as you
read the words–"The pride of your heart has deceived you, you that
dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high. That says in
his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though you exalt
yourself as the eagle and though you set your nest among the stars,
there will I bring you down, says the LORD."
Where is Moab? What ails you, O Ammon? Where are those boastful
monarchs which said, "We are rulers forever: we shall sit upon our
thrones and know no sorrow"? Jehovah has spoken and has done it–He is
God–He only is the God of the whole earth!
This is the scene presented before us in the text–the whole assembled
nations and the Jewish people brought together to prove that in their
Sacred Books they had distinct notification of future events–proving
that God is God– since no heathen idols have been able, after this
sort, to foresee or to foretell. We will depart from the precise
meaning of the text and take it in a very truthful sense, though not in
the one originally intended. Believers in Christ Jesus, you take the
place of Israel of old and you are, every one of you, God's witnesses
this day!
A great controversy is going on between God and the world. The world
puts its witnesses forward to speak in its name. And you, the chosen
ones of the Most High, are ordained to this office to be testifiers and
witness-bearers for your God and for His Truth. "You are My witnesses,
says the Lord, and My Servant, whom I have chosen."
I. We will advance at once to our subject by mentioning some of THE
QUESTIONS UPON WHICH CHRISTIANS ARE CALLED TO GIVE EVIDENCE IN FAVOR OF
THEIR GOD. These questions are the most weighty which can be discussed.
One of the first is this–is there such a thing nowadays as a distinct
interposition of God on behalf of man in answer to believing prayer?
The world ridicules the idea. The horse laugh is heard the moment you
talk about the efficacy of prayer and faith.
"Why," some say, "the wind that drives the pirate on the rock will also
cause the shipwreck of a vessel laden with ministers of the Gospel.
Providence is alike severe in its severities and alike bountiful in its
bounties. The rain falls upon the field of the wicked as well as upon
the field of the righteous! God has gone away from earth and left it to
manage it-self–has wound it up like a clock and set it going and now
He does not interfere, but lets each wheel act upon the other wheel and
the whole machinery go on without any interposition from His hand."
That is the world's theory.
Now, in opposition to this, we hold that, albeit the same event happens
to the righteous and the wicked, yet still in those very events there
are distinct differences in God's dealings. But that is not precisely
the question. The question is whether or not God does answer prayer and
come in to the assistance and deliverance of those who have faith in
Him. We declare that He does do so. I think, dear Friends, if I were to
call some of you into the witness box, you would give very clear and
distinct proofs of this.
Suppose I call Mr. George Muller, of Bristol? He would say, "Look at
those three orphan houses, containing no less than one thousand one
hundred and fifty orphan children who are entirely supported by funds
sent to me in answer to prayer. Look," says he, "at this fact–that
when the water was dried up in Bristol and the water works were not
able to serve sufficient water to the people–I, with my more than a
thousand children dependent upon me, never asked any man for a drop of
water. But I went on my knees before God and a farmer who was neither
directly nor indirectly asked by me, called at my door the next hour
and offered to bring us water! And when he ceased because his supplies
were dried up, instead of telling anybody, I went to my God and told
Him all about it and another friend offered to let me fetch water from
his brook."
He will point you to his report in connection with the orphan houses
these many years, and say to you, "Here it is– I solemnly assert that
I never told any man one of my needs but went straight away to call
unto my God–and while I have been calling, He has answered me! And
while I have yet been speaking, He has sent the reply." And George
Muller is no solitary specimen! We can, each of us, tell of like events
in our own history. Indeed, it were hard for me to find in my life a
case in which I have asked and not received. I should find it difficult
to discover a season in which I have cried unto God and not received
deliverance during the whole run and tenor of my life.
I admit it to be shorter than that of some of you, but yet that short
life suffices for me to say that in hundreds of instances I have had as
distinct answers to prayer as if God had thrust His right hand through
the blue sky and given right into my lap the bounty which I had sought
of Him. Now we are not insane! We are not so wonderfully
enthusiastic–we wish we were a little more so! Many of us are as
soldiers' souls, as common sense acting men as any that are to be
found! There are Brethren here who exhibit a shrewdness in business
which would screen them from being called fools by worldlings
themselves, and yet our unanimous witness as Christians is this–we
have sought God and He has heard us–and though we have been brought
very low, if we have been enabled to cry out to God, even from the very
depths He has delivered us in our hour of need!
Upon this point the Christian should take care that he bears very clear
testimony, for he certainly may do it without any difficulty. There is
a question, also, as to the ultimate results of present affliction. The
world holds, as a theory, that if there is a God, He is very often
exceedingly unkind. That He is severe to the best of men and that some
men are the victims of a cruel fate. That they are greatly to be pitied
because they have to suffer much without compensating profit.
Now, the Christian holds, first of all, that the woes of sinners are
punishments and are very different from the chastening sorrows of
Believers. Of these last he believes that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His
purpose. He believes, as a matter of faith, that he gains by his
losses! That he gets health by his sicknesses! And that he makes
progress towards Heaven by that which threatens to drive him back.
This, I say, is the doctrine with which he begins!
Now what is your testimony, Brother Christian, with regard to this as a
matter of experience? How have you found it? I must speak for myself
and say, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept
Your Word." "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." All of you
who have sounded the deeps of soul-trouble and have enjoyed the
Presence of Jesus can distinctly testify the same! You have found that
affliction works the comfortable fruits of righteousness, though now,
for a season, it is anything but joyous. You have, some of you, passed
through very severe difficulties and trials–I have been the
sympathizing witness of the griefs of some of you–but I have heard you
say and say it confidently–not in moments of religious excitement, but
in times of sober quiet–that you would not have had it otherwise for
all the world!
I have heard you say and I know you are ready to repeat it in any
company and in any place, that if you could have altered your past
life, especially as to its trials and its difficulties, you would not
now in looking back upon it have had it altered for a thousand worlds.
Oh no, the rough was a right way. The tempest purged the pestilential
air. The earthquake shook down houses of evil. The fire consumed heaps
of wood, hay and stubble. In this thing may I beg you always clearly
and distinctly to state the truth as witnesses for your God.
A third point very much in dispute is as to the joyfulness of a true
Believer's life. The world's theory is that we are a very miserable set
of people who take to religion from the necessity of a naturally
melancholy disposition. "The gloomy tenets of Calvin," as they are
generally called. "The horrid dogmas of Calvin," are supposed to
possess congenial charms for minds gloomy and morose. Now what is your
testimony, Christian, especially you Christians who have learned to see
in "the horrid dogmas of Calvin" the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Well, we can say if we are melancholy, joyous people must be very
joyful, indeed. We sometimes think we have run up as high on the gamut
of joy as any human hearts can go and if we are melancholy, what a deal
of joy there must be in the world! What happy people other people must
be if we are melancholy! I know that many of God's saints can say that
when they can lay hold upon the great doctrines of Sovereign Grace they
are as happy as the day is long in midsummer– with all their trials
they can rejoice in the Lord and again and again rejoice!
I saw a Baptist minister this week who was "passing rich on forty
pounds a year" owing no man anything. I told him I hoped he would not
die with the secret, for I should like to learn the art of keeping
house on forty pounds a year. But he said to me, when I smiled at his
salary, "You see before you the happiest man out of Heaven." And I know
I did, too, for his face showed that he meant what he said. The
happiest man out of Heaven–a poor Baptist minister on forty pounds a
year!
Yes and there are some here who can declare though they are nothing but
poor work girls, and have to stitch, stitch, stitch far into the night
to get their living, yet when they think that Christ is their own
Beloved, they are the happiest girls out of Heaven! Some of you have
not much to spare when the rent is paid and food is bought, yet with
all that you want no man's pity for you are rich to all the intents of
bliss! When Mr. Hone, who wrote the "Everyday Book," was traveling
through Wales–he was an infidel–he stopped at a cottage to ask for a
drink of water. A little girl said, "Oh yes, Sir, I have no doubt
mother will give you some milk. Come in."
He went in and sat down. The little girl was reading her Bible. Mr.
Hone said, "Well, my little girl, you are getting your task?" "No, Sir,
I am not," she replied, "I am reading the Bible." "Yes," said he, "you
are getting your task out of the Bible?" "Oh, no," she replied, "it is
no task to read the Bible, I love the Bible." "And why do you love the
Bible?" said he. Her simple, childlike answer was, "I thought everybody
loved the Bible." She thought full sure it was the greatest treat in
all the world and fancied that everybody else was delighted to read
God's Word! Mr. Hone was so touched with the sincerity of that
expression that he read the Bible himself, and instead of being an
opponent to the things of God, came to be a friend of Divine Truth!
Let us, in the same way, show to the people of the world who think our
religion to be slavery, that it is a delight and a joy–that it is no
more a burden to us to pray than it is for fish to swim. That it is no
more bondage for us to serve God than for a bird to fly. True godliness
is our natural element now that we have a new nature given us by the
Spirit of God. On that matter be you witnesses for God!
Another point in dispute refers to the moral tendencies of Christianity
and especially of that form of Christianity which it is our delight to
preach. There is a growing belief, nowadays, that the preaching of the
doctrines of Free Grace has a tendency to make men think little of sin.
And that especially the free invitations of the Gospel to the very
vilest of sinners and the declaration that who believes in Jesus shall
be saved, has a tendency to make men indulge in the worst of crimes. I
read a paper the other day in which a public writer had the impudence
to lay the crimes of Southey and Pritchard and such men at the door of
our holy religion.
I called the writer a villain and he deserves no better name. He must
be a villain to dare to lay at the door of Christ's holy Gospel the
infamy of murder! He says that while we continue to preach that God
forgives sin so easily, men will sin more and more. Now our testimony
is, and we speak positively here, that there can be nothing which
exerts so sanctifying an influence upon the heart of man as the
doctrine of the love of God in Christ Jesus. And if you seek proofs,
look around. If it were right for you to speak, my Brothers and
Sisters, there are certain happy ones among us who could testify this
day, "We are living manifestations that the Grace of God can turn the
drunkard into a sober man and make the harlot a Christian woman–and
bring up the depraved and the profane to seek after purity and
holiness."
Why, we are each of us, in our degree, witnesses to that! When do you
hate sin most? Why, at the foot of the Cross! And when do you love
holiness best? Is it not when you feel that God has blotted out your
sins like a cloud? No truth can so subdue the human mind as the majesty
of infinite love. It is just that which makes a man hate himself for
having offended against so tender and gracious a God. Prove by the
integrity and uprightness of your characters that the Gospel has had a
mighty power on you to make you honest, benevolent, devout, loving your
neighbor and your God!
Again, it has been whispered–no, it has been boasted by certain very
profound philosophers–that the Christian religion has reached its
prime. And though it had an influence upon the world at one time, it is
now going down and we want something a little more juvenile and
vigorous, with a fresher vigor in its veins to stir the world and
produce noble deeds. I have been told many times that the simple
preaching of the Doctrines of Grace has no effect now upon the thinking
portion of the community. The gentlemen who say this being, themselves,
the thinking portion of the community in their own estimation–for you
must understand that in order to be one of the "thinking portion of the
community," it is necessary not to think in a straight line but to
think in a kind of circumbendibus–to think in a style in which nobody
else can understand!
It is necessary that you think till you get at the bottom of things and
stir the mud so that you cannot find your own way and nobody else can
see where you are. That is considered to be thinking nowadays–whereas
it strikes me that the best form of thinking is that which submits
itself to God's thoughts and is willing to sit at the feet of Jesus.
Now is the time, however, for true Believers to vindicate the manliness
and force of their faith. It is not true that Christianity has lost its
force and its power! And we must make this clear as noonday. You are
God's witnesses, my Brethren! You are put in the box and I pray if in
the past or present you have not proven this, do it in the future.
The Gospel can now nourish heroes as it did of old–it could furnish
martyrs tomorrow if martyrs were required to garnish Smithfield's
stakes! It produces now self-denying missionaries! It educates men and
women by the thousands who can bear the sneer and the jeer and who
would be prepared to lie in a prison till the moss grew on their
eyelids sooner than give up Christ! Our belief is that Christ has the
dew of His youth and that the Gospel is as adapted to the boasted
enlightenment of the nineteenth century as to the darkness of the first
ages.
But you are God's witnesses and you must prove it, and I must ask every
one of you to prove it by the holy zeal, the conspicuous enthusiasm,
the sacred fire and fervor that shall blaze and flash in your lives.
For truth and for Christ let us teach this world that we retain the old
power among us! Let us ask the Holy Spirit to enable us to live such
forceful vigorous lives that men shall know once more what we can do.
Indeed, I am not boastful in venturing to say that there are still a
host of facts to prove that the Gospel has not lost its power over the
minds of men. We can point to spots in Glasgow, London, Edinburgh–in
the most crowded of our cities where once there were dens of infamy and
haunts of vice. And there, by the enterprising benevolence and holy
perseverance of single, solitary men, the desert has been made to
blossom as the rose!
But enough of this! Go, each man! Witness in his own person! Once
again–it is our daily business to be witnesses for God on another
question–as to whether or not faith in the blood of Jesus Christ
really can give calm and peace to the mind. Our hallowed peace must be
proof of that. The last testimony we shall probably bear will answer
the question, whether Christ can help a man to die well or not–whether
religion will bear the test of that last solemn article– whether we
shall be enabled to go through the river either triumphantly shouting,
or quietly accepting our end.
Well, Beloved, we will prove that when the time comes! And how many
there have been among us, whose names we venerate, who have died
rejoicing in the love of Jesus! There are those above whom we mention
with a joyous sorrow, when we recollect how well to the last they
testified of the faithfulness of Christ and His power to bless when all
other blessings fail us. You see, then, that there are many questions
in dispute and that the Christian's business is to be God's witness,
speaking the Truth for God upon these matters.
II. Time flies and therefore I must take you on to the second point,
which is to give SOME SUGGESTIONS AS TO THE MODE OF WITNESSING. Let me
say, as a first suggestion, that you must witness–you must witness if
you are a Christian. You may try to shirk it if you will, but you must
witness, for you are subpoenaed–that is to say, you will suffer for it
if you do not. Some Christians think they will sneak comfortably into
Heaven without bearing witness for Christ. I fear they will be
mistaken–and this I know–every Christian who does not come out
distinctly and boldly for his Master will lose all choice enjoyments.
He may have enough religion to make him wretched, but he shall have
none of the joy and peace, the exhilaration and delight which a greater
boldness and faithfulness would have given him. The bravest Christians
are the happiest Christians. Those who serve God most have the most
enjoyment–and those Nicodemites who come to Christ by night, generally
find it night.
Christian, do not shun witnessing for Christ. After the disgraceful
defeat of the Romans at the battle of Allia, Rome was sacked and it
seemed as if at any moment the Gauls might take the capitol. Among the
garrison was a young man of the Fabian family, and on a certain day the
anniversary of a sacrifice returned–when his family had always offered
sacrifice upon the Quirinal Hill. This hill was in the possession of
the Gauls. But when the morning dawned the young man took the sacred
utensils of his god, went down from the capitol, passed through the
Gallic sentries–through the main body, up the hill–offered sacrifice
and came back unharmed. It was always told as a wonder among Roman
legends.
I think this is just what the Christian should do when there is
something to be done for Christ–though he is a solitary man in the
midst of a thousand opponents–let him, at the precise moment when duty
calls, fearless of all danger, go straight to the appointed spot! Let
him do his duty and remember that consequences belong to God and not to
us. I pray God that after this style we may witness for Christ.
In the next place, every witness is required to speak the Truth of God,
the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. Christian, as a witness for
God, do this. Speak the Truth, and let your life be true as well as
your words. Live so that you need not be afraid to have the shutters
taken down–that men may look right through your actions. You are not
true if you have any sinister motive or anything to conceal. Speak in
your life the Truth of God and let it be the whole Truth, too. Proclaim
for God all the Truth as it is in Jesus and let your life proclaim the
whole teaching of Truth. Let it be nothing but the Truth.
I am afraid many Christians tell a great deal which is not true–their
life is contrary to their words. And though they speak the Truth of God
with their lips, they speak falsehoods with their hands. Suppose, for
instance, I draw a miserable face and I say, "God's people are a
blessed people." Nobody believes me because my face tells a falsehood
while my mouth utters a truth! And if I say, "Yes, religion has a
sanctifying influence upon its professors and possessors," and put my
hand into my neighbor's pocket in any sort of way, who will believe my
testimony? I may have spoken the truth, but I am also speaking
something that is not the truth and I am thus rendering my witness of
very small effect.
When the witness is before the court, his direct evidence is always the
best. If a man can only say, "I heard somebody say," the judge will
frequently stop him and say, "We do not want hearsay evidence. What did
you see?" Many professing Christians only give witness of what they
have read in books. They have no vital, experimental acquaintance with
the things of God. Now remember, dear Friends, that second-hand
Christianity is one of the worst things in the world. We do not like it
as we see it in the Church of England–we do not believe in that
sponsorial salvation in which one man promises for another that he
shall keep all God's holy commandments to be anything better than a
lying pretense.
The same is true of any form of religion which you may happen to
have–which you borrow from your mother, or take from your father–or
gather from good books. True religion is more than what we can teach or
learn. It is something that must be known and felt. And your witness
for God is not worth the words in which you utter it, unless it comes
from your own experience of its truth. A witness must take care not to
damage his own case. How many professed witnesses for God make very
telling witnesses the other way? They damage their case by either
retaining a part of the truth, or else by flatly contradicting, as we
have said before, in their lives what they have professed!
Do not let it be so! As a witness for God be careful that every action
speaks for His Glory–yes, and that every thought and word and deed
shall be such witnessing as you shall wish to have borne in the day
when the great Judge shall call you to account. Every witness must
expect to be cross-examined. "He that is first in his own cause," says
Solomon, "seems just. But his neighbor comes and searches him." You
know how a counsel takes a man and turns him inside out– and though he
was one color before–he looks quite another directly afterwards.
Now you, as God's witnesses, will be cross-examined. Watch, therefore!
Watch carefully. Temptation will be put in your way–the devil will
cross-examine you. You say you love God–he will set carnal joys before
you and see whether you cannot be decoyed from your love to God. You
said you trusted in your heavenly Father–Providence will cross-examine
you. A trial will dash upon you. How is it now? Can you trust Him? You
said religion was a joyous thing. A crushing misfortune will befall
you. How is it now? Can you now rejoice when the fig tree does not
blossom and the flocks are cut off and the cattle are dead? Can you now
rejoice in God as before?
By this species of examination true men will be made manifest and the
deceiver will be detected. What cross-examinations did the martyrs go
through? What fiery questions had they to answer? What cutting
cross-examinations were the sword, the rack, the spear, the prison, the
banishment? And yet you know how faithfully they witnessed, still
standing fast to the Truth of God even to the end! What a noble sight
is Martin Luther when under trial! His friends said to him, "Luther,
you will never think of going to Worms, will you? Why the cardinal will
burn you as they did John Huss." "Ah," he said, "but if they were to
make a fire so big that it would reach from Wurttemberg to Worms and
should flame up to Heaven, in the Lord's name I would go through it to
declare the Truth of God before the council. I would enter between the
jaws of Behemoth! I would break his teeth and would confess Jesus
Christ."
Thus Luther was proved to be the true man of God and his witness for
God moved the world in his own time and is moving it now. May we all be
able to stand the test of such cross-examinations!
III. Did you observe in the text, dear Friends, that THERE IS ANOTHER
WITNESS BESIDE YOU? "You are My witnesses, and My Servant whom I have
chosen." Who is that? Why the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ! If you
want an exposition of who this servant is, turn to the Philippians and
read these words–"Who took upon Himself the form of a servant and was
made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He
became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."
Witnesses for God are never alone! When they seem alone there is still
One with them whom Nebuchadnezzar saw in the fiery furnace with the
three holy children–"The fourth is like unto the Son of God." "Fear
not," Christ may well say to all His faithful witnesses, "I am with
you, the faithful and true Witness." Let us remark, concerning Christ's
life, that He witnessed the Truth of God, the whole Truth and nothing
but the Truth. If you want to have a witness to every attribute of God,
only read the four Evangelists and there you have it!
Beloved, would you see God's Truth? Observe how Jesus Christ, in all
His actions–with a sacred simplicity, with a transparent
sincerity–writes His heart out in His every act! Here you have no
sophistry, no Jesuitical reservation–He lives out His life–His own
heart and the heart of God! What testimony you have to God's holiness
in the life of Christ! In Him was no sin. "The Prince of this world
comes and has nothing in Me." Read that Divine Book, "The Life of
Christ," through and through and through–you shall find nothing to be
put at the end by way of addendum, much less anything by way of errata.
It is all there and there is nothing there but what ought to be!
What witness-bearing, too, there is in the life of Christ to Divine
Justice. See Him sweating great drops of blood! Mark His face marred
with a multitude of sorrows! See His brow crowned with thorns, decked
with ruby drops of His own blood! Read in His hands and in His feet the
terrible writing of Divine vengeance! Look into His side and see there
the sacred mystery of God's hatred for sin–a hatred so deep that He
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him because of sin! Never could
there be a clearer Witness than the bleeding Jesus, of God's hatred to
sin! Above all, read Christ's witness to God's love. "Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
Propitiation for our sins."
In every action of the life of Jesus–from the time when He lay in
Bethlehem's manger to the moment when a cloud received Him out of their
sight–it is all LOVE! Elijah brings fire from Heaven to
destroy–Christ sends it in Pentecost to bless. He opens His mouth at
the first with–"Blessed, blessed, blessed"–for so He multiplied that
word on the Mount where He preached His first sermon. And He closed His
earthly sojourn by blessing His people. His paths dropped fatness. No
imagination can picture love more deep and pure than that which is
reflected in the life of Jesus Christ!
I cannot, however, detain you this morning to show that the entire
circumference of Divine excellence is contained in the life of
Christ–that every pearl of Deity is in the Crown which we call Jesus.
There is not time to show that He contains in Himself a full
declaration of all that the Father is, so that His words are true–"He
that has seen Me has seen the Father." Brothers and Sisters, you are to
be witnesses for Christ and Christ is to be a Witness with you. If you
want to know how to discharge your duty, look at Him–He is always
witnessing. By the well of Samaria and the Temple of Jerusalem. By the
lake of Gennesaret, or on the mountain's brow. He is witnessing night
and day! His mighty prayers are as vocal to God as His daily services.
He witnesses under all circumstances! Scribes and Pharisees cannot shut
His mouth! That fox, Herod, cannot frighten or alarm Him! Even before
Pilate He witnesses a good confession–He witnesses so clearly and
distinctly that there is no mistaking Him. The common people heard Him
gladly, for among other reasons, that no dark, unintelligible jargon
concealed His meaning. Beloved, make your lives clear! Be as the brook
where you may see every stone at the bottom–not as the muddy creek of
which you only see the surface–but clear and transparent, so that your
heart's love to God and man may be distinctly visible to all.
You need not tell men that you love them–make them feel that you love
them. You need not say, "I am true"–be true. Boast not of integrity,
but be upright. So shall your testimony be such that men cannot help
seeing it. Let me beg of you to never, for fear of feeble man, hold
back your witness. Never put the finger of shame after this style to
your lips. Those lips have been warmed with a coal from off the Divine
altar–let them speak like Heaven-touched lips! "In the morning sow
your seed and in the evening withhold not your hand." Watch not the
clouds! Consult not the wind! In season and out of season still witness
for the Lord!
And if it shall ever come to pass that for Christ's sake and the Gospel
you shall have to be like Napthali–a people that hazarded their lives
unto the death in the high places of the field–then blush not, but
rejoice in the honor this conferred upon you–that you are counted
worthy to suffer loss for Christ's sake! For then your suffering shall
be a pulpit for you! Your losses and persecutions shall make you a
platform from which the more vigorously and with greater power you
shall proclaim your witness for Christ Jesus!
Gird up your loins, my Brethren, and go out from this assembly asking,
"Am I God's witness? Then, Lord, open my lips that I may speak with
decision and power and give me Grace that my witness-bearing shall be
such that I shall not be ashamed when the reporting angel shall read
the whole of it before assembled worlds." The Holy Spirit is needed for
this–may He dwell in us and make our bodies His temple and so make
each of us witness for Christ!
Remember, this sermon has nothing to do with many of you. You cannot
witness for Christ, for you do not know Him. You cannot witness for Him
till you have trusted Him. O you who are out of Christ, let my witness
to you this morning be this–that except you seek Him you must perish!
But that if you seek Him He will be found of you! May the Lord grant
you Grace to find Him now and His shall be the glory. Amen.