DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Though I am nothing." 2 Corinthians 12:11.
THE Divine discipline had succeeded well with the Apostle Paul. There
was danger of his being exalted above measure by the abundance of the
Revelation which he received and, therefore, there was given him a
thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him–this trial
fully answered its purpose and Paul remained a lowly-minded servant of
Jesus Christ. His humility comes out in the incident before us. He was
compelled to defend himself and prove his Apostleship and this he does
very thoroughly but very modestly. In the midst of strong expressions
of self-assertion, every one of them truthful and none of them
exaggerated, his true humility is as manifest as if he had been
unveiling his inward faults, or writing his, "Confessions."
Augustine in his, "Retractations," is no more humble than Paul in his
self-vindication. It is easy for a man to use lowly expressions when he
is writing about his own faults and the Grace of God which saved him
from them, but it is not so easy to maintain the virgin blush of
modesty when called in necessary self-defense to vindicate one's own
character and mention one's own achievements. Indignation is generally
awakened in such a case and humility creeps out of the way– the more
amazing is it, then, to find Paul esteeming himself as nothing, even
when answering the cruel depreciations of his opposers.
Read verse 11 and see the lowly heart of the man–"I have become a fool
in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended
of you: for in nothing was I behind the most eminent Apostles, though I
am nothing." Beloved, when we have to take the same medicine, may it
have as sure an effect upon us as it had upon Paul. If it should be
necessary for us to be buffeted, or to endure a thorn in the flesh, may
the affliction be as much sanctified to its end as it was in his case!
Alas, I am afraid that some have many thorns in the flesh and yet are
not humble. They have many buffetings and yet are lifted up and, what
is worse still, they have never enjoyed a perilous abundance of
Revelation to lift them up, but rather they have been surfeited with an
abundance of that which is gross and earthy and yet they are not
humble.
Though they have no good thing to glory in, they have exalted
themselves above their brethren and have spoken harshly of them and to
them and have been exceedingly high and haughty in all that they have
done. Such persons may expect to be stopped in their boasting before
long. May God grant that a little thorn may be enough for us; that one
touch of the knife may suffice to let out our proud blood; that a
little buffeting by the messenger of Satan may avail to prevent our
being exalted above measure, for has not the Lord said, "Be you not as
the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose month
must be held in with bit and bridle"?
A tittle trial ought to suffice to ballast us, for I am sure we have
nothing so abundant in the way of Revelations and spiritual attainments
that we should feel inclined at all to boasting. It is a great shame if
we have fallen into the danger which Paul escaped and have fallen into
it without rhyme or reason. He who is proud about nothing is a fool in
capitals. I desire to call your attention to the fact that although
Paul was undoubtedly humble and the discipline of God had helped to
keep him so, yet there is not a particle of cant in any of his
expressions. There is no trace of the whine of hypocrites revealing,
rather than concealing, their self-conceit. Humility has been well
defined as having a just estimate of yourself. There is no humility in
such self-depreciation as would lead you to deny what God has worked in
you, or worked by you–that might be willful falsehood and certainly
would be grievous error.
Falsehood is not a constituent element of anything that is gracious–we
are not required to call five talents one in order to be humble. If we
make a fair and just estimate of ourselves, we shall certainly discover
nothing to boast about and we shall not, then, be likely to borrow from
the lips of others words and confessions which do not accurately
represent our character, or state our feelings and, ought not,
therefore, to be employed by us. The mimicry of humility is
a very common piece of masquerading. You shall find persons speaking in
very lowly terms of themselves, but they do not expect you to believe
them. A Brother who has called himself worldly in prayer, if you should
tell him in private conversation that you were glad to hear his
truthful description of himself, would not take it at all kindly, but
would ask who and what are you that you should judge him! He would tell
you he is as spiritual as you are and perhaps more so.
A monk, we remember, confessed that he was so great a sinner that he
had broken all the commandments. But when afterwards one of his friends
began to charge him with breaking first one commandment and then
another, the hypocrite averted that he had not broken any one of them!
Men are so little humble that when they smite on their breasts they may
be still boasting in their hearts! Mock humility creeps around us,
cringing and fawning, but every honest man loathes it and we may be
sure that God loathes it, too. Now, if the Apostle had said that he was
not an Apostle at all, that he had never suffered anything for Christ,
or done anything to spread the Gospel, he would have been speaking, as
some say, humbly. But this is a mistake–he would have been telling
lies!
He, therefore, does nothing of the kind. He says that he is not a whit
behind the very chief of the Apostles; speaks of his sufferings and his
toils; told of the manifestations of Divine Grace to his soul and, yet,
for all that, he finishes his detail of experience by saying, "Though I
am nothing." Brothers and Sisters, do not deny what God has done for
you, or by you! Look at all of it and value it and bless the Lord for
it! But still, when all is said and done you must, no, I trust you
cheerfully will come back to this–"Though I am nothing"–speaking
truthfully all the while and not using a good expression for a sort of
religious fashion's sake, but because it is deeply felt to be quite as
true that you are nothing as it is true that God has blessed you!
I shall endeavor at this time, as the Spirit of God shall help me, to
speak upon this very remarkable expression of the Apostle, "Though I am
nothing." O, that both the preacher and his hearers may be able to
enter into the spirit and soul of the text and make it all our own!
I. And first, we shall say of it that this was OTHER MEN'S ESTIMATE OF
HIM. Everyone did not value the great Apostle as we do, but many spoke
ill of him. Perhaps he meant, "though I am nothing in the opinion of my
detractors.''" I hardly think he intended it, but still, he may have
included that in its meaning. He may have meant, "I am not a whit
behind the most eminent of the Apostles, though in the judgment of
others I am nothing." I mention this point, first, because it may
comfort any earnest servant of God who is faithfully serving his Master
but finds himself undervalued and despised by those from whom he
expected sympathy and help.
You may be starting in the Christian life as a young man full of zeal
and fervor, but you dwell among a people who count you hot-headed and
self-conceited and do their best to thwart you. You are like Joseph
among his brothers and the archers sorely shoot at you. You are looked
upon as a dreamer and a pretentious fool. Your companions are as rough
to you as were David's brothers when he came down to the host–they
charge you with pride and willfulness. Be comforted about this trial if
you are, indeed, a true-hearted soldier of Jesus Christ, for if Paul
heard that in the judgment of many his personal presence was weak and
his speech was contemptible–and if many other eminent men have been
frowned upon and misjudged–you need not wonder if the same thing
happens to you! It is good for a man that he bears the yoke in his
youth–bear it and profit by it!
The case is harder with older servants of God. After a long life of
usefulness, Churches often forget all that a man was and did in his
vigorous times and now that the elasticity of his mind has abated, they
treat him with indifference. His ministry is now more solid and full of
experimental teaching–an ungenerous race of hearers do not say that
his preaching has become weighty, but they complain that the old
gentleman is "very heavy" and they cannot endure his prosiness. The
good old man, who deserves to be honored by his congregation, runs the
risk of being elbowed out and reckoned as a worn-out nobody. You must
not marvel, my dear Brother, if foolish lovers of novelty should so
treat you! It is inexcusable and yet it is common. It wounds your heart
and makes you wish to be gone to the better land, but do not let it too
sorely vex you, for the same thing happened to him at whose feet you
would be glad to sit–I mean the Apostle of the Gentiles–who, when he
was "such an one as Paul the Aged," knew that to many he was nothing.
In following up the subject, we observe that Paul was nothing, first,
in the estimation of hatred. His Jewish brethren, when he was, with
them, the slave of their prejudices and an advocate of their
principles, thought him some great one. He was a leader among them, a
Pharisee among the Pharisees, a man deeply taught in rabbinical lore, a
scholar to be gloried in, a zealot to be trusted! Then Paul was
something! But when he went over to the hated sect and became a
worshipper of
the Nazarene, he was nothing! The bigot spat at the very mention of his
name. He was an apostate, a worthless fellow, a madman, a nothing! He
became an alien and worse, a castaway and a curse. Such is, in a
measure, the case when men become thoroughly and bravely followers of
Jesus. The world's market price of them falls a hundred per cent.
If a scientific man is of infidel principles, he is cried up as an
eminent thinker and discoverer. But should he be a true Christian and
know 20 times as much as his fellows, he is a person of antiquated
views and narrow notions. If a preacher proclaims novel heresies, then
he is declared a man of advanced thought, a leader abreast of the
times–though, indeed, there may be nothing in him but an affectation
of singularity and lack of reverence for the Word of God! He who is
content with the exceeding broadness of the Divine testimony and asks
no greater liberty than that of the Truth of God, is, in certain
quarters, reported to have narrowed his soul and to be possessed of but
slender intellect.
Of course, it has always been so, but I think it is easier to call a
man a fool than to prove him to be so and it is a great deal easier to
boast of your own wonderful powers, the expansiveness of your mind and
the great progress that you have made in thought, than it will be to
convince really thoughtful and experienced men who walk with God that,
after all, the new is better than the old and that the inventions of
man's fancy are better than the doctrines of Divine Revelation! That
is, however, the custom of men who, being short of arguments, seize
upon the weapons of contempt. If you are not of their way of thinking
you are not a thinker at all! If you will chime in with their notions,
you are worthy of all honor! But if yon differ from them, you must be
nothing. Paul was marked at zero by the measurement of those who hated
him.
He was also nothing in the valuation of envy. There arose, even in the
Church of Christ, certain ones who loved preeminence and found the
Apostle already in the highest place. False brethren claimed to be
Apostles and, in order to maintain their pretensions, they questioned
the Apostleship of Paul. They strove to rise by pulling down one who
was superior to themselves. Who was Paul? they asked. He could write a
weighty and powerful letter, but if you came to listen to him, his weak
eyes, his short stature and his cramped resolve to know nothing but
Christ crucified caused him to make a sorry figure as an orator! They,
themselves, with enticing words and fair speeches, boasted that they
far excelled him.
Where was the excellency of his words? Where was the depth of his
wisdom? He was nothing and they sneered at him and exalted themselves.
The Apostle knew all this and was by no means crushed, thereby, for he
could stand even before envy. Ah, Brothers and Sisters, envy has a
wonderful skill in the cruel arts of slander and detraction–if the
envious cannot quench the sun, they can at least point to its spots, or
raise a dust to blind men's eyes to its brightness! Many a hero of the
Truth of God has been despised for the very reason which ought to have
secured him honor. It is an unfortunate thing for some men, if they
love their own ease, that they have risen to conspicuous usefulness,
for in a middle place they might have been allowed to be something, but
jealousy is now resolved to rate them as nothing.
If Paul had wanted to be comfortable and repose had been his objective,
he had only to subside into the common ranks of the lukewarm Laodiceans
and then he would have been far less plucked at. Zeal and holiness, if
they are accompanied with a measure of success, will secure a man that
contempt among the envious which is the homage that evil hearts must,
of necessity, pay to goodness. Again, the Apostle was, evidently,
nothing to those who desired that Christianity should make a fair show
in the flesh. Certain brethren had come among the Believers who brought
with them human wisdom and thought to adorn the doctrine of Christ and
cause the offense of the Cross to cease. Gnosticism was the "modern
thought" of the Apostle's age and of the era which followed it. It was
a translation of the Gospel into the language of the schools and the
evaporation of its true life and meaning in the process.
Our Apostle abhorred the wisdom of words. "We use," says he, "great
plainness of speech." He tore the mask from off those half heathens who
made the Cross of Christ of no effect by their philosophizing and,
therefore, they retaliated by declaring that he was not a man of a
great mind–that, in fact he was nothing! Other teachers arose who were
opposed to the philosophical way, but they must take the way of
tradition and ritualism, declaring that men must be circumcised, or
else their faith in Christ would be of no avail. Such persons dwelt
much upon the observance of holy days and months and so on, and thus
stirred up the spirit of the Apostle till he came forth and cried, "I,
Paul, say unto you, that if you are circumcised, Christ shall profit
you nothing! By the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified."
By declaring the plain Gospel of salvation by Grace through faith, he
laid the axe at the root of all ritualism, as he had before done at the
root of all rationalism. Straightway the high churchmen discovered that
Paul was nothing! He might have decorated the Gospel with learning and
made it palatable to the Greeks, or he might have cramped it with
tradition and made it agreeable to the Jews, but he scorned to do
either. When Peter went a little in the Jewish direction, Paul
"withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed" and,
therefore, some cried up Cephas, but cried down Paul and, according to
their account, he was just nothing.
May the Lord grant to all of us who preach the Gospel a willingness to
be lightly esteemed! May the Lord give us all Divine Grace to be fools
in the estimation of modern wise men! May we have enough backbone of
holy firmness to be conservative of the old Truth and to be careless of
the ridicule of the worldly wise. May we have enough loyalty to Christ
to be willing to be despised for His sake! May we be man enough not to
care one atom whether we are in honor or dishonor, so long as our
conscience is clear that we have faithfully preached Jesus Christ and
Him crucified! The day shall come when he who has borne the most
disgrace for Christ will be esteemed the happiest and most honored man
alive– and when he who was counted the greatest fool for Christ shall
be acknowledged to be among the wisest of men and shall shine as the
stars forever and ever.
Will we not cheerfully consent to be nothing for His sake who made
Himself of no reputation for our sakes? Will we not, with John, rejoice
that He must increase and that we must decrease? It is our joy to see
Him All in All and if any shame or contempt borne by us could lift up
His name but one hair's breadth, we would rejoice with joy unspeakable.
After all, what is man's opinion? The balances are not those of the
sanctuary and the weights are not those of justice. The verdict of
earth will be reversed by the judgment of Heaven, for that which is
highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God! When any
measure of injustice grieves us, we should console ourselves with the
remembrance that so persecuted they the Prophets that were before us
and yet the Prophets have lost no real honor! They also despised our
Master and yet His Throne has lost none of its Glory.
Thus have we discussed a meaning which some have seen in the text and
if it is not the first sense of it, at any rate it is a truth which may
be profitably remembered.
II. But now, secondly, we have here in the words of the Apostle HIS OWN
ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF. "Though I am nothing." Our first observation upon
the Apostle's valuation of himself is that it is a very great
correction upon his original estimate of himself, for in former days he
carried a high sail and would by no means lower his flag to any man.
When he was on the road to Damascus to hunt the saints, he was on
first-class terms with himself and thought that he was doing God a
great service. He was somebody then, both good and great, a Hebrew of
the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee. You might have ridden
many a mile to find his equal. Saul was like his namesake of old, head
and shoulders above all others. But Paul was of quite a different
stature–short and even diminutive. I refer, of course, to his height
in his own esteem, He would not, then, have claimed that he was
nothing, for he was a student of the Law and a great deal more besides.
This corrected estimate very much resulted from the enlightenment which
he received at his conversion. What a flood of light does the Lord pour
in upon a man's soul when he brings him to Himself! At first it almost
blinds him, so that like Paul, he admits, "I could not see for the
brightness of that light." It was so in my own case. I had often been
down into the cellar of my heart and I rather admired the purity and
order of the place. It seemed to me to be festooned and decorated and
it boasted a good share of vegetation and a considerable life of its
own. A dim, flickering light sufficed to show me, as I thought, that it
was by no means a very foul place, but rather the reverse! I could not
be so vain as to say that I thought it absolutely perfect in
cleanliness and beauty, but still, it was as well as could be expected
and far better than the most of other hearts.
Now, it was ordained that this flattering illusion should be dispelled.
One day, as I went into this vault, there came one with a larger candle
than I had been known to carry and what I saw surprised me beyond
measure! I saw that the festoons which I imagined to be special
decorations were huge cobwebs heavy with dust! The vegetation, too, I
saw was all blanched and much of it a noxious growth, while the life
which I had somewhat boasted of, I was ashamed to look upon or even to
think of! That candle shining in the cellar of my soul had worked a
melancholy change in my thoughts of myself and foolishly I resolved
never to permit so bright a light to enter there, again, as if to hide
the evil was to remove
it!
But things could not remain as they were, for one day there came
Another who did me a worse, yet better turn, for He descended into my
cellar and removed certain shutters which had long excluded the light
of day. When next I entered the vault I was ready to swoon for very
flight, for a dunghill was sweetness to it–it was the concentration of
abominations! There were all manner of creeping things, loathsome and
polluting! I was ready to die at the sight. But, to tell the truth, I
did not, even then, see it all, for the window was still so much
covered over with thick cobwebs and filth that the whole of the light
did not enter. Yes, I fear I have not even yet seen all the pollution
of my nature, but I thank God I have seen enough to make me cry to Him
who is able to cleanse! Hercules turned a river into the Augean stable
and purified it and my Lord Jesus has, with His own blood, purged my
nature–but this I know, I am nothing–less than nothing in my natural
state.
I have but given you a parable of what the Apostle saw in himself when
the Law came with its condemning power into his soul. During those
three days in which the scales were on his eyes and he was blind, not
seeing the sun for a season, he turned all his sight within and saw
himself. Then great Saul dwarfed into little Paul and the learned rabbi
shriveled into a poor Brother who was glad to receive humble Ananias
and to learn from him what he was yet to do. He who hectored over the
Church of God now meekly arose and was baptized, calling upon the name
of the Lord. Three days of glorious light, so bright that it made him
blind, had corrected his estimate of himself–and it was in memory of
that lesson and of all that he had learned subsequently that he said,
"Though I am nothing."
Beloved Friends, the force of that estimate had increased by a growing
belief in the Doctrines of Grace. If you wish to find the free will of
man very much extolled, you must not read in the Epistles of Paul. If
any of you desire to write an essay upon the dignity of human nature,
or to preach a sermon upon the glory which still remains in man despite
his fallen state–the recuperative power of human nature despite its
disease–you will gain little help from our Apostle! I could refer you
to certain modern Divines for a good deal of stuff of that kind, but
the Apostle of the Gentiles does not deal in that material. His
indictment against humanity in the first chapter of Romans is as
terrible as it is true. "Dead in trespasses and sins" is his
description of man's condition–Sovereign Grace is his only remedy!
He tells us of being born again and of being newly created by the work
of God. He tells us of justification by faith through Grace by the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, but he has not a word to say of human
power or merit. If ever a man could say, "Grace! Grace!" and did say it
and kept on saying it most distinctly, it was the Apostle Paul! In
proportion as he learned the fullness, freeness, richness and
sovereignty of Divine Grace did he see, side by side with it, the
nakedness, the filthiness, the nothingness of man and so he who could
best glory in the Grace of God thought less and less of himself and
said, "Though I am nothing."
In addition to this his own internal experience had very much helped
him to feel that he was nothing, for he had experienced great spiritual
struggles. "Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?" was not once or twice his cry, but he often felt
the law of his old nature struggling against the law of his mind and he
lived in lifelong conflict with the evil which he saw within himself,
therefore feeling daily that salvation must be of Grace alone and that
he himself was nothing and less than nothing.
Beloved, I feel sure that when the Apostle said that he was nothing, he
meant that he was nothing in comparison with his Lord. He had seen the
Glory of His Master up yonder in Heaven and he had preached that Glory
among the sons of men and, as for himself, he could not find any figure
to represent his own insignificance. The smallest of figures was too
large for him. He dared not describe himself by the figure one and so
he put down a zero and declared, "I am nothing." When a man's heart is
filled with adoring reverence of the Redeemer, he shrinks into nothing
and feels a kind of self-annihilation passing over his spirit. And, if
you have never seen the Lord, but only heard of Him, you may aim at
humility, but when your eyes see Him, then will you have it, for you
will abhor yourself in dust and ashes. Our Apostle had in the fullest
sense seen the Lord and, for that reason, with emphasis, he cried,
"Though I am nothing."
He meant, next, that he was nothing to boast of–that albeit he had
been a night and a day in the deep and had been stoned and had been
beaten with rods, and had been a faithful sufferer for Christ–albeit
that he had preached the Gospel in the regions beyond, not building
upon another man's foundation, yet in all these he saw nothing whatever
of which he could boast, but he was still nothing. I remember well a
talkative Christian who supposed herself to possess very remarkable
attainments, very much of the same character as those who swarmed
around us a few months ago, people who were of very superfine
hot-pressed quality. I wish them every blessing, but I am not at all
enamored of their pretensions, wonderful as they are.
Now, this superior person was talking of the marvelous things which she
had felt, known and done. She was, if not quite perfect, in remarkable
danger of becoming so! She turned to an aged Christian in the company
and said, "But you,
dear Brother, do not say a word." Now, you know there are individuals
who say little, who think all the more and our old friend was one of
them, but still remained silent. "Come," she said, "have you no
religious experience?" The old man said very quietly, "I never had any
to boast about." That remark I heartily endorsed! If we attain to the
highest experience and rise very near to God and conquer open sin we
shall still have to look within and say, "I am nothing." Boasting is a
sure sign offailure wherever it is found–even a giant like Goliath had
hardly done boasting before he fell beneath the sling and stone of a
ruddy youth!
Restrain every feeling of pride! No, chase it from your soul, for it is
foolish and will lead to further folly. It is a noxious insect which
will corrupt whatever it lights upon, gaudy though its wings may be.
King Herod was soon eaten of worms when he began to be blown up with
pride. Where there is the most precious Grace, there is always a
jewel-case of humility to keep it in. Gilded wood may float, but an
ingot of gold will sink. Diotrephes was a nobody and loved the
preeminence. Paul was not a whit behind the chief of the Apostles, yet
he said, "Though I am nothing." If we reach the Apostle's point of
conscious nothingness we had better stop there, for there is no place
safer and happier and none more consistent with the facts of the case!
Those who are lowly, are excellent, but pride is pestilent. The
possession of Grace secures a measure of self-deprecation and in
proportion as that Grace increases, the thermometer of self-estimation
will fall. Below zero is the proper point for us–for in truth we are
less than the least of all the saints!
The Apostle meant, next, that he was nothing to trust in. "Though I am
nothing." We begin our Christian life by trusting in Christ, alone, and
we shall continue so to trust as to His merit. But we are very apt to
get wrong in other matters. We begin with a sense of being very weak
and foolish and we look to Jesus only for strength and guidance. But
after a while we think ourselves growing into deeply experienced and
well-instructed Christians and the temptation is to lean somewhat to
our own understanding and stability. All this comes of evil and will
lead to further evil. I recollect well a person asking a Brother of my
acquaintance to lend him a certain sum of money. This my friend was
willing to do, but the man added, "You know you can trust me. I have
been a Christian now 35 years and I am past temptation."
My friend, like a wise man, buttoned his pocket very quietly and said
he must decline to make him a loan. He had intended to do so till that
vainglorious speech was made. That boaster failed the next day and was
discovered to have been an arrant rogue! Whenever a man says, "I am
past temptation," he reveals the pride of his heart! And whenever any
of us even dream of such a thing about ourselves, we have need to
tremble for fear that some terrible fall is near. Yet that thought does
come across us, though we do not utter it–we half think in our hearts
that those inexperienced young men may go wrong, but that we who are
middle-aged men are not so likely to be overthrown. Yet grievous sins
in Churches are as common among the more advanced as among the young.
Most, if not all, of the great falls recorded in the Bible happened to
middle-aged and old people! Think of the drunkenness of Noah and of Lot
and the sin of Reuben, Judah, David and Peter and you will see that
these were not hotheaded boys, but experienced men who should have
acted better. We must come to this–I am nothing–I am strong in the
Lord when He strengthens me, but I am as weak as an infant without His
aid. I may know a great many things as the Lord continues to teach me,
but if His Grace were removed I should be as foolish and ignorant as
when I first came into His school. "In me, that is, in my flesh, there
dwells no good thing." Within my nature there is no stay for my
confidence. I am nothing to trust in.
"Though I am nothing," again, means this–I am nothing worth
considering–as if he said, "If there is any good thing for me to do, I
never calculate whether I shall be a loser by it or a gainer, for I am
not worth taking into the account. If Christ's kingdom will but come,
it does not matter whether Paul lives or Paul dies. I am nothing in
comparison with His Glory." I think he meant this, also–"I am of small
consequence. Christ's kingdom will go on without me. Souls will be won
without me. His Glory will be promoted in the world even if I am no
more alive to work for His cause. I do not count myself to be a person
of such consequence to His Church that the Lord needs me. He may use
me, but if He does not use me, He will use somebody else. I am but a
pen and He can produce many such. If He does not write with one, He can
write with another–I am nothing. If I am now a trumpet in His hand, He
can blow through another if He chooses to lay me aside, for rams' horns
are common enough and the walls of Jericho will not stand for lack of
them." I think that was what he meant by, "Though I am nothing."
I pray God we may make a low estimate of ourselves and never dream
ourselves to be essential to God's cause. I shall yet spend a few
minutes more in speaking of our own estimate of ourselves, dear
Brothers and Sisters, and may we all be
made, by Divine Grace, to say "Though I am nothing." I will tell you
why I wish that we may come to this. It is because it will be
exceedingly beneficial to us if, with deep sincerity, we feel that we
are nothing. It will prevent pride and that which will prevent pride is
worth a fortune. It will prevent our being mortified, as we sometimes
are, because notice is not taken of us when we have done something that
we thought was greatly praiseworthy. If we say, "Though I am nothing,"
we do not expect people to talk much about a nothing, nor do we wish
them to do so–we are glad to get into the shade and if we do not
receive a single word of commendation we are content to have worked for
the Lord in quietness.
No man will look for honor among his fellows when he acknowledges that
he is nothing! This humility will also prevent severe censures of
others. We are all very handy at picking holes in our Brethren's coats,
but when we are nothing we shall draw back our hand and say, "It does
not become a nothing and a nobody to be finding fault with other
people." I sometimes wish that those who criticize ministers would
think of this. I do not believe that a public person can nowadays say
five plain words which some critic or other will not misunderstand or
misrepresent. I wish they would try to speak or write themselves and
see whether others could not pull them to pieces quite as readily! You
will be greatly helped in avoiding censoriousness if you have a lowly
view of yourself so as to say–"Though I am nothing."
This will also help you to avoid all self-seeking. Why should you seek
your own praise if you are nothing? There is no good in seeking for
great things for a nothing! If you are nothing, you will keep your
motives clear. You will seek the Glory of God and not your own. If you
are nothing, self-denial will become very easy to you. You will be
willing to be a doormat to God's temple for His saints to wipe their
feet upon if you can be more serviceable there than in any other
capacity. A man who feels himself to be nothing will be easily
contented. He who is nothing does not need a thousand a year to
maintain his dignity. He who is nothing, having food and raiment, is
content. It would be a pity to spend a great deal upon nothing so he
that is nothing thanks God for what he has and eats his bread and
drinks his cup of water and blesses God that he has all that and Jesus
Christ, too!
Mr. Somebody needs a large estate and a heap of money and when he has
that, Mr. Somebody need much more and is never satisfied. Then, too, he
has so many calls that he cannot afford to give anything away, while he
who is nothing has his weekly tithe to bring, for he feels himself to
be nothing but a steward and must use his Master's goods faithfully. He
who knows himself to be nothing is also full of gratitude. If you catch
him alone, you will find the tears in his eyes and if you question him,
he will tell you that he was weeping to think that God should ever have
loved him, for he is such a nobody. He was wondering at his election,
marveling that Eternal Love should have pitched upon him. He was
wondering at redemption, admiring that the Lord Jesus Christ should
have shed His blood for him! He was wondering at effectual calling,
amazed that the Holy Spirit should ever have called him. He was
wondering at the persevering love of God, that the Lord's mercy should
have endured his ill manners so long. He was wondering that there
should be a Heaven for him, wondering that there should be eternal life
for Him. "Though I am nothing," he says, "yet Infinite Grace is mine!"
How can there be all this for a nobody? Great God, how good You are! Is
not all this a sweet commendation of a lowly spirit? He that lives in
the Valley of Humiliation, among the lilies, dwells where the birds
sing all day and the gazelles and the does of the field lie down in
peace! Now, I finish with this one thought. When the Apostle says,
"Though I am nothing," that word shows that there was a fact in the
background. He had been telling us that he was once caught up into the
third Heaven and had enjoyed a special Revelation of Christ. Yes,
beloved Believers, we have had our banqueting days when the banner over
us was love. We have been very near the Beloved and we have been made
to drink the spiced wine of His pomegranate and He has manifested
Himself to us as He does not unto the world. All this you know, and I,
also, know it, "though I am nothing."
In addition to this, "the Lord has done great things for us, whereof we
are glad," by enabling us to serve His cause. If we have not been
stoned and scourged, yet we have borne something for Christ and borne
it cheerfully. If we cannot emulate the Apostle in abundance of
service, yet the Lord has not left us without fruit unto His Glory and
this we are right glad of, though we heartily add, "though I am
nothing." We can also believingly say–"though I am nothing," yet the
Spirit of God dwells in me. "Though I am nothing," the Spirit of God
uses me! I want you not to forget the background of mercy which sets
out this poor noticing and make it look all the less, albeit that it
makes it all the sweeter for it to be so little. Oh, yes, and there is
a Heaven for me and there is eternal life for me and there are the
three Persons of
the Divine Trinity sworn to save me! And Heaven and earth may pass
away, but I shall never perish, neither shall any pluck me out of
Jesus' hands, "though I am nothing." His angels are commissioned to
keep me, and He, Himself, in Covenant, has given His oath and promise
to preserve me, "though I am nothing."
"Though I am nothing." Does it not make your soul laugh with
inexpressible delight to think that you shall wear a crown of life that
fades not away and that your hands shall strike the strings of a harp
which shall pour forth immortal melody though you are nothing? My heart
dances while I feel that the pearly gates, the streets of gold, the
goodly company of angels and the assembly of the firstborn are for me,
"though I am nothing"! Dearly Beloved, go away with "Though I am
nothing" in your mouths, but yet say, "Yet has He loved me with an
everlasting love and because He has set His love upon me, He will
deliver me and set me on high! Since I was precious in His sight I have
been honorable and He has loved me and He gave more than Egypt and
Ethiopia for me, 'though I am nothing.'"
The Lord bless you and if there is a sinner here who is somebody, may
the Lord turn him into nobody! But if there is a nobody here, may the
Lord bless him, for he is the sort of man that Jesus saves! O Soul, you
must be nothing if God is to save you! You must come down from your
high horse! You must give up your trust in works and ceremonies and
natural goodness and be nothing! And when you are nothing, then will
Jesus Christ be All in All to you! He is a full Christ for empty
sinners. He gives life to dead sinners, healing to sick sinners and
clothing to naked sinners! But if you are full and rich and lively in
yourselves, you may go your way–He will have nothing to do with you.
If you are nothing. If you are clean emptied out and stripped and done
for, ground to powder, crushed, and rendered helpless, you are of those
for whom Jesus shed His precious blood! Come, trust in Him and find
eternal life!
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–2 Corinthians 11:13-33;
12:1-12. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–625, 627.
LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON:
BELOVED FRIENDS–Yesterday I was gladdened by a telegram from our
well-beloved deacon, Mr. Murrell. "All going well. Tabernacle crowded
each service. All friends united and hearty, expecting great results
this February." This was more precious to me than a banknote for a
large amount! I have no greater joy than to hear that the Lord blesses
the work at home. For myself, as you desire to hear frequently of my
welfare, I can only say that the weather here is variable and I have
varied with it, but yet I am greatly refreshed and in a fair way to
recover strength. I still lean heavily upon my staff and can only
totter a short distance, but my spirits are revived and my mind is
regaining its tone. Pray for me daily, as I also do for you with all my
heart.
Your loving friend,
C.H. SPURGEON
Mentone, February 11, 1879
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Satan's Punctuality, Power and Purpose