DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 17, 1870,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that
fear Him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust." Psalm
103:13,14.
DAVID sang of the compassionate pity of our heavenly Father who will
not always chide, nor keep His anger forever. He had proved in relation
to Himself that the Lord is not easily provoked but is plenteous in
mercy. Remembering how feeble and how frail we are, the Lord bears and
forbears with His weak and sinful children and is gentle towards them
as a nurse with her child. Although our own observation has proved this
to be true, and our experience everyday goes to show how truthfully
David sang, yet assuredly the clearest display of the patience and pity
of God towards us may be seen in the life of Him in whom dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Therefore, instead of speaking upon Providential patience, I shall bid
you gaze upon God in Christ Jesus, and see there how human weaknesses
and follies are pitied of the Lord. With a text from the Old Testament,
I purpose to take you straight away to the New, and the tenderness and
pity of the Father shall be illustrated by the meekness and lowliness
of the Son towards His immediate disciples, the Apostles. While the
Holy Spirit shows you thus the pity of Jesus Christ towards His own
personal attendants, you will see as in a glass His pity towards you.
I. At the outset let us attentively and admiringly observe THE DIVINE
PATIENCE OF OUR LORD JESUS TOWARDS THE APOSTLES. I shall begin on this
point by reminding you of their origin. Who, and what were these whom
He received into intimate fellowship with Himself? They were not the
high-born and powerful of the earth, for, "Not many wise men after the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are chosen." Not a single
nobleman was numbered with the Apostles. They were not even educated
persons who, if poor, might still wear a gentle heart beneath a
peasant's garb.
There was not a rabbi nor a philosopher among them. They were as
uninstructed and as clownish as the rest of the peasantry of Palestine.
He selected them from the populace. They were either fishermen or
publicans–and these He made to be the first instruments of spreading
abroad the Gospel and establishing His kingdom. For our Lord Christ,
who had been accustomed to the thrones, and royalties of Heaven, to
stoop to be the familiar companion of any of the sons of men would be
wonderful condescension! But what shall I say when He elects the weak,
and the poor, and the despised, to be His friends? He might have
selected for His associates the choicest spirits, the advanced
intellects, the educated minds, but, lo, He makes foolish the wisdom of
this world, and chooses the things that are not to bring to nothing the
things that are.
I do not exaggerate when I speak of the clownishness of the
Apostles–their dullness and their ignorance. They were very honest and
sincere, but they were far from being naturally quick of understanding.
It was intentionally that our Lord made choice of them, on purpose, to
illustrate the sovereignty of election, and that no flesh should glory
in His Presence. He resolved that when He had filled them with the
Divine Spirit, and ordained them to be the chosen vessels to bear His
name unto the Gentiles, none should ascribe their power to
themselves–but all the glory should evidently belong unto the Lord
alone.
At the same time we must not forget that it must have caused the Lord
Jesus much inconvenience and trouble to bear with such disciples. The
refined spirit cannot be in continual contact with the coarse without
enduring pain. Some may call such pain sentimental, but in so doing
they only reveal their own ignorance, for, probably, no shocks are more
severe, no wounds more smarting than those inflicted upon the delicate,
the pure, the holy, the refined, by association with the groveling, the
selfish, the sinful, the unspiritual. The glory of our Master's
patience is this–that He did not betray even the slightest disgust or
weariness of His poor friends.
Though He might have said to them, as well as to the multitude, "O
faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How
long shall I suffer you?" yet He bore with them without repining, and
only now and then gave them a rebuke. He never looked contemptuously
upon them as His inferiors, though they were vastly so in all respects.
He called them friends. He told them mysteries as if they could
understand them, though often when He explained them to them they
missed the inner meaning. He took them into His most retired haunts. He
familiarized them with the garden and the Mount of Olives, where He was
likely to seek His retirement.
He would even stay His prayers to teach them how to pray–there was
nothing that He would not do for them. Just such as they were He
accepted them, and resolved to train them for His service. Having once
loved them, He loved them unto the end. He never made them feel a dread
of His superiority, or shudder at the distance between their character
and His own. He kept no register of their faults–He never rehearsed
the list of their shortcomings–but, on the contrary, His main rebuke
was His own perfect example. And He always treated them as His friends
and Brethren. Think of this, and you will see in Christ Jesus that,
"like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that
fear Him."
Much forbearance He had with their lack of understanding. The Apostles,
before Pentecost, were very gross and un-spiritual in judgment. He
Himself had to say to them, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all
that the Prophets have spoken." Until the Holy Spirit came upon them,
and made them quick of understanding, they were sorry dunces, dull
scholars–even though the best of masters had become their Teacher.
They did not understand the object of His mission. They fancied that He
came to be a king, and they expected to receive crowns and dignities,
and even began to quarrel over the division of the spoil–disputing as
to which of them should be the greatest peer in the kingdom which they
expected Him to establish.
He was thinking of suffering and death while they were dreaming of
robes and coronets. The mother of Zebedee's children even asked for her
sons that one might sit on His right hand and the other on His left in
His kingdom–a gross misconception, indeed, of what that kingdom would
be–and a piece of pride and selfishness that she should seek for her
sons, probably with their acquiescence–a place above their fellow
disciples. When He spoke to them concerning His sufferings, though He
used great plainness of speech, yet they could not understand Him. Take
this passage in the ninth of Luke, at the forty-third verse–"While
they wondered, everyone, at all things which Jesus did, He said unto
His disciples, Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son
of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood
not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not:
and they feared to ask Him of that saying."
The thought that the Son of God, the King of Israel should, by-and-by,
be proclaimed king upon a felon's Cross could not by any means find
place in their minds. They continued to cling tenaciously to the idea
of earthly dominion. What strange ignorance was that which led them to
think the Savior referred to their having no bread when He said,
"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." Think, too, of the dullness of
Philip when the Lord was speaking concerning the Father, and he said,
"Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us."
And Thomas was not much wiser when he said, "Lord, we know not where
You go, and how can we know the way?" There were many truths which
Christ did not clearly teach to them before the descent of the Spirit,
for the reason which He once gave–"I have many things to say unto you,
but you cannot bear them now." Even when He made that simple statement,
"A little while, and you shall not see Me: and again, a little while,
and you shall see Me, because I go to the Father," they did not
understand Him. And He said to them, "Do you enquire among yourselves
of that I said, A little while, and you shall not see Me: and again, a
little while, and you shall see Me?"
The expression was so simple that they should have understood it, but
their prejudices blinded their eyes. Nor was this confined to the early
days of their fellowship with Him, for even after our Lord had risen
from the tomb, those with whom He conversed on the road to Emmaus, who
were probably by no means inferior to the rest, did not understand the
references of the Prophets to Christ, and were not prepared to see in
His Resurrection the manifest fulfillment of the words which had been
spoken of old. Their eyes were held in more senses than one. Many a
master would have grown weary of such pupils, but infinite love brought
to its succor infinite patience, and He continued still to teach them
though they were so slow to learn. "Like as a father pities his
children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him."
Reflect again, my Brethren, upon the unevangelical spirit which these
Apostles often showed. On one occasion even John, as mild and gentle a
spirit as any of them, asked to be permitted to call fire from Heaven
to destroy certain Samari-
tans who would not receive the Savior because His face was set towards
Jerusalem. Jesus, the friend of sinners, calling fire from Heaven? This
might suit Elijah, but was not after the manner of the meek and lowly
Prince of Peace. It would have been quite foreign to all His purposes,
and contrary to His entire spirit. Yet the two sons of thunder would
hurl lightning on their Master's foes!
He might well have spoken to them as bitterly as David did to the sons
of Zeruiah, when in their hot rage they would have slain their leader's
foolish foes. He might have said, "What have I to do with you, you sons
of Zebedee?" But He merely said, "You know not what spirit you are of."
Read the ninth chapter of Luke, which is full of the failings of the
disciples, and notice how John and the rest forbade the man who was
casting out devils in Jesus' name. With the true spirit of bigoted
monopoly that will not tolerate anything outside the pale of orthodoxy,
they said, "We saw one casting out devils in Your name."
And instead of rejoicing that there were some beyond our company who
were assisted by the Master's power, and were glorifying the Master's
name, "we forbade him because he follows not with us." Their Lord,
instead of angrily upbraiding their intolerance, gently chided them
with the sentence, "Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is
for us." Remember, also, how the disciples put away the mothers of
Israel when they brought their tender offspring to receive the Savior's
blessing? This showed a very unevangelical spirit. They would not have
their Lord interrupted by the cries of babes, and thought the children
too insignificant to be worthy of His consideration.
But, though our Lord was much displeased with the disciples, yet He
only said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them
not. For of such is the kingdom of Heaven." But, my Brethren, it must
have required great patience for our dear Lord and Master, who Himself
would not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, to bear
with these rough men who pushed the little ones on one side, who would
gag the mouths of those who were doing good in their own way, and who
would even call fire from Heaven upon poor ignorant sinners! Admire
much His patience with their impatience, and see how, "Like as a father
pities his children, so He pitied them," because He knew they feared
Him in their hearts, and their faults were rather infirmities than
rebellions.
Again, their weakness of faith must have been, in itself, a great
provocation to Him, and yet He bore with it most meekly. When in the
storm, on the lake, they ought not to have been afraid, because Jesus
was with them, though asleep. But their alarm was so great that they
must awaken Him, not thinking of His weariness which required rest in
sleep. And they were so ungenerously unbelieving as to insinuate that
He was unkindly thoughtless of their danger–"Master," said they, "do
You not care that we perish?" Oh, what unbelief was here! He might well
have been angry, but He rather rebuked the wind than they, and sweetly
said, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?"
Not many days after, however, they found themselves in a like case, and
after such a deliverance, they ought to have been confident, but again
they were troubled. Let us not upbraid them, for it has been our case
full often. Jesus came to them in the midst of the storm, walking on
the sea, and they were afraid of Him, and thought it was a spirit, and
they cried out. Their faith was so feeble–it was scarcely faith, but
rather unbelief. Peter was a fair representative of them all when on
that occasion he said, "If it is You, bid me come to You on the water."
He had faith enough with venturous footstep to tread the wave, and to
continue to do so until a more than usually boisterous gust made his
heart tremble, and down he went. Jesus, as He caught him, tenderly
said, "O you of little faith, why do you doubt?" No anger was in that
fatherly rebuke. He spoke as a mother might, when, after teaching her
child to walk, she saw its little feet give way and saved it from a
fall.
Take another instance of their unbelief. Our Lord had fed the
multitude, if you remember, with five loaves and two fishes, and but a
short time after, another vast crowd was in a similar hungry condition.
Jesus declared His compassion to the Apostles in much the same language
as He had used previously–one would have thought that after seeing Him
feed the five thousand so short a time before, they would have had no
fear about the four thousand then to be fed, but would have said,
"Lord, do as You did before. Here are our seven loaves and our few
little fishes. If five loaves fed five thousand, surely you can feed
four thousand with seven."
Instead of that they said, "Why should we have so much bread in the
wilderness as to fill so great a multitude?" Alas, for such unbelief!
How could they doubt when with all their eyes they had seen what the
Master could do? How could they be so unbelieving as to ask, "How can a
man satisfy these men with bread here in this wilderness?" Surely the
Savior must have been sorely put to it to bear with this. Moreover,
they lost, by their unbelief, a large amount of power which
they might have exercised for good–and they exposed their Master's
name to derision. When He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration,
He found a company gathered at the foot of the mountain who were
glorying over the baffled disciples, because they could not cast out a
devil from a poor tormented child.
There were the reviling multitude, and there the disconcerted
disciples. The Lord Jesus immediately rectified the mischief by casting
out the devil, and when alone with the disciples He answered their
question, "Why could not we cast him out?" How pityingly and
encouragingly He replied, "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say
unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say
unto this mountain, Remove therefore to yonder place. And it shall
remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." Now, where unbelief
not only makes the person fearful, but causes him to be weak where he
should be strong–and to expose his Master's name and fame to doubt and
distrust–it is enough to provoke anger in the holiest.
And yet the Master was not provoked, for He pitied His disciples as a
father pities his children. Again, I would remark that it was not only
in the earlier period of His communion that they were unbelieving.
There might have been some excuse at that time, but even at the close
of His sojourn with them they still remained doubters. Take Thomas as a
case in point and hear him obstinately declare, "Except I shall see in
His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of
the nails, I will not believe." Yet our gentle Lord condescended to
grant His incredulous disciple the tokens for which he had asked.
The rest of the Apostles do not seem to have been much stronger in
faith, for when He appeared, "they were terrified and affrighted," and
were not comforted even when He said, "Behold My hands and My feet,
that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and
bones, as you see I have." How gracious it was on His part, since they
yet believed not, to eat before them all a piece of a broiled fish, and
of a honeycomb, to prove that He was yet alive and in a real body!
What? Had they seen Him three years? Had they beheld the miracles which
He worked? Had they listened to His teaching and perceived the Divinity
which dwelt within Him–and yet when He had risen from the dead, did
they refuse to believe the testimony of the holy women and of Peter and
John? Did they disbelieve the evidence of the empty tomb? Oh, yes! For
unbelief, "as in them all, and they might each have cried, "Lord, I
believe, help You my unbelief." Yet He put up with them and pitied them
still.
Nor have I exhausted this matter. Their emulations of each other must
very frequently have distressed the lowly mind of Jesus. Again and
again we find them striving among themselves which should be the
greatest. After James and John had so foolishly sought to sit on His
right hand and on His left, the ten, it is said, had indignation
against them, proving that if they did not show it in the same manner,
yet they were actuated by much the same spirit as the sons of Zebedee.
We find them again contending which should be the greatest when our
Lord took a little child and set him in their midst, and said, "Except
you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter
into the kingdom of Heaven."
As much as to say, "You need not choose places in the kingdom, and
dispute as to precedence, you cannot even enter there while you are
moved by the spirit of ambition. You must be humble, and become like
this child before you can understand that kingdom." Perhaps the worst
case of the Apostles' emulation is that recorded in Luke 22:24, when
even after the blessed festival of love the apple of discord was thrown
upon the table. Sad to think that at the Lord's Supper Satan should be
so present. Extraordinary as it may seem, yet so it was. The question,
"Lord, is it I?" was succeeded by the question which of them should be
the greatest.
Their Lord was about to die. Gethsemane's sweat of agony was almost
gathering on His brow. His passion was close at hand, and yet His
disciples were taken up with so contemptible a question as which of
them should take precedence of the other. That dear rebuke of washing
their feet was a sweet way of reproving them and revealing His own
love.
I must not forget that on some occasions they showed their pride in a
very wrong and even insulting manner. Peter, who was, after all, but a
type of the rest, when our Lord had spoken of His death, took Him and
began to rebuke Him! Yes, he rebuked his Master!!! His Lord then turned
Himself and rebuked the devil rather than Peter, though Peter had
become the foolish instrument of the devil, and He said, "Get you
behind Me, Satan: you are an offense unto Me: for you savor not the
things that are of God, but those that are of men." Nor was this the
only occasion, for when He had warned Peter that he would deny Him that
night, He was contradicted point blank by His rash follower, and his
fellow disciples joined Peter in the contradiction.
"Likewise also said all the disciples." They were told to pray that
they might not enter into temptation, but they were proud enough to
believe that their Master did not know them and to think that no
temptation could overcome them. Here was pride, indeed, and yet though
those poor things who had needed to be humbled in the dust, spoke so
exceeding proudly and lifted up their horn on high, yet all Jesus did
was just pity them and to pray for them, and bear with their ignorance
and their ill manners. Having loved them He pitied them, and remembered
that they were but dust.
I will only mention one other matter, and that was His patience with
their infirmities. I mean not only their sinless weaknesses, but those
in which sin was in some degree present. Remember their weakness in the
garden? He was in agony, and He selected three of them to watch near
the scene of His passion. But when, in the midst of His distress, He
came to them, as if He would have a word of comfort from them, He found
them sleeping. Oh, the pathos of those words, "What? Could you not
watch with Me one hour?" And such an hour–an hour of such extremity!
Where was their love that they could sleep while He was in agony?
Yet how mild His language–"The spirit, truly is willing, but the flesh
is weak." Worse than that, no sooner was He taken, than not one of all
the band, so valiant in their own opinion, was found standing at his
Master's side! Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled. And the
bravest of them all, in the hall where his Master was accused as a
criminal, stood by the fire and warmed his hands, and said, "I know not
the Man." And then with oaths and cursing, even a third time declared,
"I know not what you say." Here was cowardly weakness, indeed, at which
the Savior's resentment might well have been kindled. But He showed no
anger, He only turned and looked at Peter.
And it was such a look of mingled sorrow and pity that the poor denier
of his Lord went out and wept bitterly. When the Lord had risen from
the dead, He did not upbraid Peter, but He sent a special love message
to him, "Go, tell My disciples and Peter." And when Peter was with Him
by the sea, the only rebuke, if rebuke it could be called, was the
question, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" Asked a third time in
remembrance of the three times in which he had denied Him, and that
three times he might have the privilege of saying, "Yes, Lord, You know
all things. You know that I love You."
Beloved Friends, it is meet that I should add that the pain to our Lord
arising from these faults must be estimated by His matchless Character
and by the end He had in view. Remember He was perfectly holy as Man,
and, moreover, He was God. And to have to bear with such poor creatures
as these was therefore the most wonderful condescension and pity.
Engaged as He was in seeking their good, and not His own, it was the
harder to endure that they should be such stubborn materials, and so
great a hindrance to Him. Moreover, remember that He did not merely
bear with them but treated them as His friends.
All things that He had heard of His Father He made known unto them. He
admitted them into His most intimate acquaintanceship, and all the
while almost His only rebuke to them was His own perfect example. He
taught them humility by His humility. He taught them gentleness by His
gentleness. He did not point out their defects in words. He did not
dwell upon their errors–He rather let them see their own spots by His
purity, their own defects by His perfection. Oh, the marvelous
tenderness of Christ, who so paternally pitied them that feared Him!
II. Let us think for a short time of THE REASONS OF THIS DIVINE
PATIENCE in the case of our Lord. Doubtless we must find the first
reason in what He is. Our Lord was so greatly good that He could bear
with poor frail humanity. When you and I cannot bear with other people
it is because we are so weak ourselves. If you cannot bear with your
imperfect brother, take it for certain that you are very imperfect
yourself. Jesus was so free from selfishness that anything that they
might do which was injurious to the honor due to Him did not afflict
Him in the same way as our pride would afflict us.
All the suffering He would feel would be grief that they should be so
erring, that they should have learned so slowly. He would not think of
Himself, but would only think of them. Besides, He was so gentle, so
tender! It was no exaggeration or egotism when He said, "I am meek and
lowly in heart." I would to God we could copy His love and borrow His
"meekness so Divine." He bore with them and pitied them because of His
relationship to them. He had loved them as He has loved many of us,
"from before the foundation of the world." He was their Shepherd, and
He pitied the diseases of His flock.
He was their Savior, and He lamented the sins from which He was about
to save them. He was their "Brother born for adversity," and He stooped
to be familiar with their frailties. He had determined to bring many
sons unto glory, and therefore, for the joy that was set before Him, He
endured all things for the elects' sake.
Another reason for His patience was His intention to become perfect as
the Captain of our salvation, through suffering. You have perhaps
enquired, "Why did not the Lord Jesus at once perfectly sanctify these
Apostles, and deliver them from sin? He might have done so." I grant
you He might and I have often wondered why He does not do the same with
us. But I do not wonder when I remember that it was necessary that He
should become a faithful High Priest, touched with a feeling of our
infirmities by being tempted in all points, like as we are.
Now, you and I have to bear with our imperfect brethren and if our Lord
had never endured the same, He could not in that point have shown
fellowship with us. In order that He might be a complete High Priest,
and know all the temptations of all His servants, He bears with the
infirmities and sins of disciples whom He could have perfected at once
if He had willed, but whom He did not choose to perfect because He
desired to reveal His tender pity towards them, and to obtain by
experience complete likeness to His Brethren. Thus the High Priest of
our profession became capable of sympathy with us in like condition, by
having to bear with all the infirmities of His disciples.
Did He not also do this, my dear Friends, that He might honor the Holy
Spirit? If Jesus had perfected the Apostles, they would not have seen
so manifestly the Glory of the Holy Spirit. Until the Holy Spirit was
come, what poor creatures the eleven were! But when the Holy Spirit was
given, what brave men, what heroes, how deeply instructed, how powerful
in speech, how eminent in every virtue they became! It is the object of
Jesus Christ to glorify the Spirit, even as it is the design of the
Holy Spirit to glorify Christ in our hearts.
Moreover, our Lord was considering the future of the Apostles, and
therefore bore with them instead of removing all their evil. He knew
that after His decease they would think of these things. And I can well
conceive that in their solitude, and when they met each other, they
would either soliloquize or say to each other, "Do you not remember how
our Lord spoke to us on such an occasion? I do remember the very words
He used." "Yes," says the other, blushing and with tears, "I do
remember we did not understand Him." "And do you remember the question
Philip put to Him?" "Yes," says the other, "but do you know I did not
confess it, but I was just going to say the very same thing, for I was
quite as foolish as
Philip."
And then they would smile to themselves, and say, "How slow of
understanding we were in those days!" "Yes," but the other would say,
"Did you not notice that our blessed and ever dear Master never smiled
contemptuously upon us, and never seemed wearied by our folly? He
evidently looked at us as being little children, and He just explained
Himself again and again. And when we did not comprehend He was still
ready to explain once more. Oh, how tenderly He dealt with us!" And
then one of them would say, "How often have I lamented that I fled that
night when He was seized. I wish I had gone with Him right up to the
judgment seat. I wish I had stood at the foot of the Cross or hung on
another cross side by side with Him.
"But do you know when I met Him after His Resurrection, I thought He
would have said a word, but there was never even a hint about my
cowardice. He received me with just the same tranquil love He had been
likely to show before, and He sent me on an errand just as He had been
likely to do, to show He could trust me still." Oh, what a dear and
tender Lord He was! They did not know when He was alive how good He
was, but when He was gone, and had given them the Spirit, they could
see it all.
Just as with a photograph, when it is first taken the image is not yet
visible to the eye, it has to be a little while in the bath, and to be
washed before the artist brings it out. And so the picture of Christ on
their hearts had to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and then it was
revealed to them. And as they looked on it, they said, "Never was there
such a One. He was, and is, the Chief among ten thousand, and our souls
shall love Him even unto death." If it is so on earth it will be much
more so in Heaven–when we enter within the pearly gate we shall see
how Jesus loved us when we were on earth.
"I remember well," says one, "that trial which passed over me, and I
said God has forgotten me, He will be mindful of me no more–and all
the while He was afflicting me in very faithfulness, and in love to my
soul." Then will another saint bear testimony, "Though I was very often
cold of heart and forgot Him, yet He said unto me, 'Return unto Me, I
am married unto you, says the Lord.' And when I did return I do
remember how gently He received me and let out the
full flood of His love into my soul once again! So that He restored
unto me the love of my espousals, and I rejoiced in His salvation."
You see, the Lord is thinking of our eternity. He does not sanctify us
at once, for we should not know all the sin that is in us, and
therefore should not know how much we owe to Him. No, He leaves us
these thirty, forty, fifty years in the wilderness that we may see what
is in our hearts and what is in His heart as He manifests it towards us
in unfailing loving kindness. Blessed be His name, that thus He pities
us even as a father does his children.
III. I shall now close, by indicating THE TEACHING TO BE DERIVED FROM
THIS PATIENCE. Is it not this?– First, if the Lord has thus had pity
upon you as He had on His Apostles, do you even so to others. I know
there is a tendency with us to feel so grieved with the inconsistencies
of our fellow Christians as to lose patience. Moses, the most meek of
men, yet lost his temper with Israel, and said, "Hear now, you rebels,
must I fetch you water out of this rock?" I do not wonder that he
called them rebels, for they were such.
But God would not have Moses call them so, for they were God's
children. Their Father may call them what names He pleases, but He will
not have the servants take liberties with the children. Sometimes when
we see the inconsistencies of God's people, we are apt to speak
harshly, but our Lord sets us a different example. Jesus bore with
imperfect people, ought not you and I to do the same? Jesus must have
borne a great deal more than we ever have borne or ever shall have to
bear, yet He was still pitiful, still kind and loving to them–let us
follow in His steps.
It ought to help us when we remember that we were converted through
imperfect preachers. I am sure if any of you have been converted
through my ministry, you have been converted through a very imperfect
one. While I deeply regret my imperfections, yet in one since I glory
in my infirmities, because the power of God does rest upon me. For what
are we? We cannot turn any to righteousness–the Lord, alone, can do
that! But, if by imperfect instruments you are blessed to the saving of
your souls, you ought never again to be out of patience with imperfect
people.
Remember, also, that you are imperfect yourself. You can see great
faults in others, but, my dear Brother, be sure to look in the looking
glass every morning and you will see quite as many faults, or else your
eyes are weak. If that looking glass were to show you your own heart
you would never dare look again–I fear you would even break the glass.
Old John Berridge, as odd as he was good, had a number of pictures of
different ministers round his room, and he had a looking glass in a
frame to match. He would often take his friend into the room and say,
"That is Calvin, that is John Bun-yan," and when he took him up to the
looking glass he would add, "and that is the devil." "Why," the friend
would say, "it is myself." "Ah," said he, "there is a devil in us all."
Being so imperfect we ought not to condemn.
Remember, also, that if we are not patient and forbearing there is
clear proof that we are more imperfect than we thought we were. Those
who grow in Divine Grace grow in forbearance. He is but a mere babe in
Grace who is evermore saying, "I cannot put up with such conduct from
my brother." My dear Brother, you are bound even to wash the disciples'
feet! If you know yourself, and were like your Master, you would have
the charity which hopes all things and endures all things.
Remember that your Brothers and Sisters in Christ, with whom you find
so much fault, are God's elect for all that, and if He chose them, why
do you reject them? They are bought with Christ's blood, and if He
thought them worth so much, why do you think so little of them?
Remember, too, that with all their badness there are some good points
in them in which they excel you. They do not know so much, but perhaps
they act better. It may be that they are more faulty in pride, but
perhaps they excel you in generosity. Or if perhaps one man is a little
quick in temper, yet he is more zealous than you. Look at the bright
side of your Brother, and the black side of yourself, instead of
reversing the order as many do. Remember there are points about every
Christian from which you may learn a lesson. Look to their excellences,
and imitate them. Think, too, that small as the faith of some of your
Brethren is, it will grow, and you do not know what it will grow to.
Though they are now so sadly imperfect, yet if they are the Lord's
people, think of what they will be one day!
O Brothers and Sisters, shall we know them? Shall we know ourselves
when we once get to Heaven, and are made like our Lord? There, my
Brother, though you are a quarrelsome man, I will not quarrel with you.
I am going to live in Heaven with you, and I will keep out of your way
till then. I will not find fault with you, my Friend, if I can help it,
because you will be one day without fault before the Throne of God. If
God will so soon remove your faults, why should I
take note of them? I will not peevishly complain of the rough stone,
for I see it is under the Great Artist's chisel, and I will tarry till
I see the beauty which He brings out of it.
The drift of this lesson, is this–as your heavenly Father has pity on
you, have pity on one another. He remembers that we are dust–remember
this of others. You who live in the same house, do not fall out with
each other. You, who are members of the same Church, do not criticize
and judge each other so severely. Or if you are severe upon the fault,
be gentle towards the person who commits it, and seek not his
destruction, but his good. Preacher, mind you learn your own lesson–be
as tender towards those who sin as the Master was.
Another lesson, and I have done. In your own case, my dear Friends,
have firm faith in the gentleness and forbearance of Christ. You are
conscious, this morning, that you have been slipping, and have fallen
short or gone beyond the mark. And I know unbelief will now whisper to
you that you cannot expect to enjoy renewed fellowship with Christ, or
to taste His love again. O think not so! Think of how gentle He was
with the Apostles, and remember He is the same still. Change of place
has not changed His Character. The exaltations of Heaven have not
removed from Him the tenderness of His heart. He will accept you still.
My Brother, I know that prayer of yours was not what it should be–try
again. He will accept the prayer, despite the fault. I know, my dear
Friend, your ministry up till now has not been so earnest as it should
have been–but do not give it up. Preach again, preach with greater
fervor and greater unction–He will bless you, He has not put you away.
I know that with all of us there is nothing we have done but what we
might weep a whole shower of tears over. But Jesus, the Pitiful, knows
our meaning. He will not look at the flaws, but at the jewel. He will
cover our sins with the mantle of His love, He will accept the will for
the deed.
Let us try again. Let us trust in Him wholly, and devote ourselves
unreservedly to His service. Let us be persuaded that as we accept from
our children a poor fading nosegay on our birthday, and thank them as
much as if it were pearls and diamonds, because it shows their love,
even so if our heart loves Jesus, He will receive our poor imperfect
service for our love's sake. "He knows our frame, He remembers that we
are dust." He knows we cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean.
He, in His infinite compassion will cover our transgressions and accept
our heart's love. Be of good courage, then. Be of good courage, my
Brethren, He will accept you still.
I should think this subject ought to attract many sinners to Him, and I
pray it may, "for him that comes to Him He will in no wise cast out." O
that the Holy Spirit would lead many of you to fix your hope on Jesus,
the gentle Lamb of God. Come and trust Him, O Sinner. The Lord bless
you. Amen.
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The Way