Compassion on the Ignorant
(No. 2529)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 8, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
3, 1884.
"Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of
the way." Hebrews 5:2.
THE ignorant have need of compassion. "That the soul is without
knowledge, it is not good." Every kind of ignorance, like darkness, is
evil, and knowledge, which is light, is, according to its kind, good,
or better, or best. For a man to be ignorant of Divine things is a very
sorrowful piece of business. To be going into eternity and not to know
anything about it–yes, and even to be passing through this life and
yet to not know the way everlasting which leads to Glory, but to be
stumbling upon the dark mountains of mere thought and vain
imagination–this is a very dreadful thing! Ignorance of God, ignorance
of the right, ignorance of Christ, ignorance of mercy, ignorance of
Heaven–these are things for which men are to be blamed, but for which
they are also to be pitied. Wherever we see ignorance about the things
of God, let our hearts go forth in tenderness, but let our prayers
arise to God in love–and let our efforts be made in true benevolence
that the ignorance may be removed, for, if we are men of God like our
Great High Priest, it will be true, also, of us that we "have
compassion on the ignorant."
Now, dear Brothers and Sisters, it becomes every man to have compassion
on the ignorant because the ignorant man is still a man! However little
he knows, he is still a man, and you and I need not be excessively
modest if we put ourselves, also, down among the ignorant, for what if
we are better instructed than others? How little do we know, after all!
The most intelligent, the most experienced–the man who has dwelt
nearest to his Lord–yet how much there remains even for him to know!
He knows the love of Christ, but it passes his knowledge. He knows many
things, yet he is obliged to confess that here he only knows in
part–and it is not till the hereafter that he shall know even as he is
not. Therefore, seeing you are a man and, in your measure ignorant, you
are to have great compassion upon your fellow man and upon his
ignorance.
And inasmuch as the ignorance here meant is the ignorance of sin, which
is constantly described in the Old Testament as folly, so that every
sinner is declared to be a fool–yet concerning this, you and I may
well have compassion because we are sinners, too! If God has made us to
differ, yet that difference is all the result of His Grace and,
therefore, not to be taken to ourselves as a reason for pride and
lifting ourselves up above others. No, a sinner yourself, you should be
very tender to all other sinners. Yourself indebted–oh, how deeply–to
Infinite Love, you should be very gentle to others who need that love!
What if you are cleansed from the pollution of sin? It was a fountain
filled with blood in which you were washed! Therefore, be you anxious
that your fellow man should be washed there, too! What if the power of
your sin is conquered? It was the Holy Spirit who worked this victory
in you! Should you not desire that other captives should be set free,
that other rebels should be subdued, that others who are under the
domination of sin should be brought under the rule of your Divine Lord?
If you are a man, a gracious man, a man of God, a chosen man, a
blood-washed man, you should "have compassion on the ignorant, and on
them that are out of the way."
But, dear Friends, under the old dispensation, there were some who were
chosen of God to take up a peculiar relationship to their fellow men.
These were the priests and especially the High Priest–the one man who,
alone, of all Israel, might once in the year enter into the Most Holy
Place with the blood of the atonement. He who has to deal with men for
God must be, above all others, very tender and very patient. It was a
most trying experience for Hannah, when she went up with her sorrowful
spirit to the house of the Lord, that God's High Priest was not a man
of tender and compassionate spirit, for Eli spoke very sharply to the
good woman, and well-near broke that heart which God would have to be
healed!
It is a very sad thing when a man who is ordained of God to speak to
men for God, is hard, cold and cruel–as if he were a judge rather than
a father, or as if he were a butcher to slay the sheep rather than a
shepherd to fetch it back from its wandering!
The Lord Jesus has made all His saints to be priests–we offer no
sacrifice of blood–but He has made us kings and priests unto God, and
we have to deal with men for God, all of us, I mean, not ministers,
alone, but all of you who are the Lord's own people! And it ought to be
said of all of you who are kings and priests unto God that you "can
have compassion on the ignorant." A Christian without compassion seems
to me to have missed a very vital part of the Christian character. A
hard-hearted Christian–is not that a complete contradiction? Must not
our hearts have been broken before we could, ourselves, be penitent?
And He who bound them up and healed them, did not harden them with His
gentle touch! I reckon that He gave them an additional tenderness by
the very act of binding them up with His own dear pierced hands! And we
ought to be very gentle–as a nurse with her child, as a mother with
her darling–in dealing with the ignorant and those that are out of the
way. Our sympathy ought to be always flowing, like a crystal fountain
that is never dried up in summer, nor frozen in winter. The Lord has
chosen us and called us to this office, that we should "have compassion
on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way," not only because
we are men, but because God has made us priests–not only because we
are, ourselves, children of God, but because we are now servants of
God, set on purpose to look after the lost sheep and bring them into
the fold.
But, Brothers and Sisters, our text concerns our Lord Jesus Christ. So
now let me say that I speak not merely of what ought to be, but of what
is true of Him. He is a Man, a Brother to every man! He is a Man, the
Friend of all mankind. Yes, the friend of His bitterest foe–and He is
always tender towards all the sorrows and the griefs of men. Then He is
also a Priest in a sense in which you and I are not, a Priest above
Aaron and all mere earthly priests, the Great High Priest in whom all
the types unite and from whom our priesthood is derived. He, above all
others, "can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out
of the way." It is to that one point that I have to call your
attention, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ, as God's ordained High
Priest, having compassion upon the ignorant. I pray that the words I
speak may help some trembling, clouded spirit, with its eyes blurred by
the mist of earth and sin. May there strike out of this starry text a
living beam of light for you! He can have compassion on you who mourn
your ignorance! May He have that compassion even now–plentifully,
practically, permanently, savingly–and may many who, until now, knew
Him not, learn to know Him and never to forget Him throughout eternity!
I. So, first let us ask, WHAT IS THIS IGNORANCE here mentioned?
Well, it is common enough in all ranks of society. I read, the other
day, the opinion of a good man that most preachers give their
congregations credit for knowing a great deal more than they do. And I
think that it is very likely true, for there are sermons which are
preached upon various Truths of the Gospel in which certain other
Truths of God, necessary to the understanding of the whole, are not
explained because it is taken for granted that they are already known.
Yet in any large number of people there must be some who are entirely
strangers, even to the most elementary Truths of Revelation. I am sure
that it is so! There is, perhaps, nothing more amazing in this century
than the ignorance of men about the things of God. It is certain that a
knowledge of Scripture does not keep pace with the growth of knowledge
of other things and that the understanding with regard to eternal
realities is not so instructed as it is with regard to politics, to
science and to other matters which are of temporary importance for this
present life.
This ignorance is to be found among the poorest of people. They have
had very little or no education, but that is of small consequence
comparatively. They have forgotten what they learned in the Sunday
school. Perhaps they never grasped what they heard preached because
they did not understand it. As I heard one say, the other day, "I went
to the place of worship near my house, but it was no good to me. There
was not a single sentence of the sermon that I understood, for the
words were all novel to me." I am afraid that is the case in very many
places–the talk of the theological hall is not understood in the
cottage–and common phrases which reading people understand at once,
are not understood by multitudes of people. But the pity is that there
are also thousands of reading people who are totally ignorant of the
things of God–some of the wealthiest, some of the best educated, yes,
some, even, of those who have been to the university–and some who put
the, "D.D.," after their names! "No," you say, "that cannot be!" I say
that it is and if you, yourself, know the way of salvation, you have
but to talk with some of these people to find that what I say is true!
This is a Truth of God that is learned by the teaching of the Holy
Spirit–not by the teaching of theological professors!
A man might spend a century under the best ministry, or in the best
school that ever existed on earth and yet, at the end of one hundred
years, he might not know the things of God, for these Truths must come
as a revelation to each man and God, the Holy Spirit, must teach them
to each one, or they will never be learned. This is the standing
miracle in the Church of God–and unless we see it continually worked,
we have not the clearest evidence that our religion is supernatural and
Divine! Every man who really receives it, receives it not because it
suits his taste or his palate, but because the Spirit of God sends it
home to his heart! Every man who truly knows Christ, knows Him not
because with his own faculties he found Him out, but because it pleased
God to reveal His Son in him. And, apart from this, there is and must
be, to the end of human life, an absence of all real knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ. First, "You must be born again." And then, being
born again, you must be taught of the Spirit of God. And, if we are
not, as the strongest light cannot make a blind man see, and the
greatest heat cannot make a dead man warm, so, neither can anything
that we do, as long as the soul is unrenewed, ever cause it to know God
and His Grace aright! It is a common ignorance, then, in all ranks of
society.
It is also an ignorance concerning the most important matters, for the
men of whom I am now speaking are, first, ignorant of themselves. They
are ignorant of their own ignorance and, perhaps, there is no ignorance
that is so hard to deal with as the utter ignorance of men as to their
own ignorance. "What? You call me ignorant?" a man asks. "I know
everything! I have read from Genesis to Revelation and I understand it
all! I could preach as well as anybody." Yes, but that kind of talk
shows that you do notknow, for he that knows, knows that he does not
know–and there is no man less inclined to boast of his knowledge than
the man who has a good deal of it! Whenever I find the men of the
modern school of thought, as they are continually doing, sneering at
the orthodox because we are all uncultured, and so forth, I think to
myself, "And if you only had a little culture, you would not sneer so
often." It is a mark which will never mislead you, that he who thinks
that he knows is a fool! And he who says that he knows more than
anybody else and can afford to deal out his sneers liberally to others
is a gentleman who, if justice were dealt out to him, would be,
himself, sneered at! Those who are strangers to themselves do not know
their own ignorance–and that is lamentable ignorance, indeed.
They are also unaware of their own depravity–they do not think that
their heart is corrupt, or depraved at all. No man can long know
anything of himself without discovering that he has a biastoward
evil–that if let alone, quite alone, his thoughts go the wrong way! He
finds that he needs to school himself to be right, kind and loving, but
that he needs no effort to be proud, domineering, and revengeful! He
finds that sin is indigenous to the soil of his heart, while everything
that is good needs cultivation, watching and tender care. He finds, in
fact, that his heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked." But the ignorant who are described in our text, do not know
that–and do not believe it.
They are also ignorant of the heinousness of their sin. They have never
done much amiss, nothing very greatly wrong. They have not been all
they ought to have been, but they have been within a shaving of it–and
if they have fallen a little short, they can pick up, again, and make
up for all deficiencies, by-and-by! They do not feel that there is much
amiss about their characters–in fact, if they have to seek another
place and have to give themselves the character they feel that they
deserve–it will be a very fine one, indeed! Ah, But this is gross
ignorance, for he who knows himself will say, "All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. And we do all fade as a leaf and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away."
These ignorant people are also ignorant of their present and eternal
danger. They do not suppose that sin puts them into any perilous
condition with regard to God. Truly, He is very merciful, but they
ignore the fact that He is as justas He is merciful, and they put aside
all idea of any judgment to come, or of the wrath of God that abides on
the wicked. Though these solemn Truths of God are clearly revealed in
Scripture, they have left all such old-fashioned notions far behind,
for they are "abreast of the times." So they go on and, though often
reproved, they harden their necks and persevere in the way which will
surely lead them to everlasting destruction from the Presence of the
Lord and the Glory of His power. Surely, this is utter ignorance of the
worst kind!
Yet these people vainly imagine that they can turn from sin whenever
they like! They have only just to will it and they shall certainly
become Christians, if that is necessary, before they die. They do not
know their inability, or their weakness–and while they are naked,
poor, blind and miserable, they content themselves with believing that
they are rich, increased in goods and have need of nothing! May God, in
His infinite mercy, save such ignorant persons from the terrible
consequences of their folly before it be too late!
While ignorant of themselves, they are equally ignorant of the way of
salvation. But they hear it, do they not? Yes, they hear it, but they
do not understand it. It is to me a very curious thing–often an
amazing thing–when I am seeing persons lately converted. I have known
those who have heard the Gospel in its simplicity from their childhood
and yet, as soon as ever they are awakened to a sense of sin, they try
to save themselves by their good works! They know better, yet they turn
to that delusive system and, if they get weaned from that, then they
think they must be saved by their feelings. They have been warned
against such a folly thousands of times, yet they run to it! That
simple principle, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved," is an enigma, a perfect riddle. to any man until he is born
again. He thinks he knows all about the Gospel, yet he does not. And
though we try, by explanation and illustration, to make it as plain as
possible, and put it into easy Saxon words, and say that salvation
comes by a simple trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet, as far as they
are concerned, we might just as well have spoken it in Hebrew, or in
Dutch! They do not comprehend what we mean, but still fumble about
after something of their own, instead of looking altogether out of
themselves unto Him who is able to save them by what is in Himself–not
by what is in them! Ah, dear Friends, these people I am trying to
describe are ignorant of the very way of salvation!
And specially sad is it that they are ignorant of the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. They hear of Him, yet do not know Him. They do not know how
loving, how kind and how full of Grace and power He is, but they think
of Him as though He were austere and unwilling to receive them. They
are so ignorant of Him that they do not come to Him that they may have
life!
They are also ignorant of the Holy Spirit and of His power to change
the heart, renew the mind and deliver us from the thralldom of sin.
They have heard about regeneration–they know a little about the
doctrine–but what it is to come savingly under the power of the Holy
Spirit, they do not know.
This ignorance is most ruinous in its consequences and ought,
therefore, to excite the compassion of all good men! Even now it robs
the mind of joy and deprives the spirit of the best of blessings–but
the future consequences will be still more terrible. Alas, this
ignorance is often willful! No man is so blind as the man who will not
see. No man is so deaf as he who refuses to hear. And there are none so
ignorant as those who do not want to learn and will not submit
themselves to the teaching of God.
II. Here comes in the mercy that the Lord Jesus Christ can have
compassion on the ignorant. So now, very briefly, I want to answer a
second question, which is this–WHAT IS THERE IN THIS IGNORANCE WHICH
IS SO PROVOKING TO US AND, THEREFORE, DEMANDS COMPASSION?
I reply, first, its folly. If you have ever taught children, or if you
have ever taught young men who have been very careless and indifferent
and, by no means anxious to learn, you have sometimes been provoked
even by their ignorance, itself. You have said, "What? Don't you know
that?" Have you never heard a teacher speak very sharply concerning
some point upon which a young man ought to have been well-informed and
he has found him a very dolt, and he has said, "What? Not know that?"
and he has seemed to look at him almost with contempt for not knowing
such a simple thing!
Ignorance is also usually accompanied with a great deal of pride. There
is nobody who thinks he knows so much as he who knows nothing. He is
always sure, positive, certain–he does not need you to tell him
anything. In his own conceit, he is wiser than seven men that can
render a reason–roll seven clever men of reason together, and you have
not as much knowledge as this one poor feel fancies he has! That silly
pride is very provoking to the man who is trying to instruct a fool,
while the fool thinks that his instructor is the one who lacks wisdom.
And then, with ignorance, there generally goes prejudice. A man has
imbibed certain ideas and he does not want to know anything contrary to
them. He says, in his boorish brogue, "What's the good of it? I don't
want to know nothing about it. I knew a man once who did know something
about it, and it was no good to him." Well, just what the countryman
says about some branch of teaching, the natural man says about the
things of God! "I don't want to know. I already know enough. My father
and mother always went to such-and-such a place and they said, 'You do
your best and Jesus Christ will make up the rest.' And I don't want to
know about your Gospel" Now, this foolish and wicked prejudice is a
very provoking thing–and you may say to the man–"Why will you not
listen and hear for yourself, and let me tell you about it?" "No," he
says, "I don't want to know," and you turn away sad and grieved.
There also generally goes with ignorance a great deal of obstinacy. The
man will not believe what you tell him. You say to him, "Why, it is as
plain as the nose on your face!" "Yes," he says, "but I can't see my
nose," and he does not mean to see this particular Truth of God that
you are bringing under his notice. You may prove it as plainly as two
times two make four, yet, as he never did see it, so he never will see
it! This is provoking to anybody who is anxious to give instruction
upon matters that are really vital.
Sometimes ignorance is attended with a degree of very gross unbelief.
When the man is made to know after a certain sense, yet he says that he
cannot believe it. I am always grieved when I heard anybody say, "I
cannot believe in Christ." It does seem shocking. If you cannot believe
in me, I do not at all wonder! You may know something about me that may
lead you to distrust what I say. But to say, "I cannot believe in
Christ," is a very horrible thing! Did He ever lie? Is there anything
untrue about Him? Is there anything about our blessed Master that
savors of a sham? Surely you can believe in Him–may God give you the
spiritual power to believe in Him, now, and to say, "I do believe. I
will believe in Christ who died for me. I will come to Him and trust in
Him." But that unbelief which goes with ignorance is full of
provocation.
This is, I think, the most striking thing of all, men are ignorant
through sheer willfulness. They will not know any better. How many men
fight against knowledge that troubles them! "Oh," says one, "I do not
want to go to hear that man again! He touches upon some point that will
not let me sleep at nights." I have read a great many accounts of
myself that have been far from true, but, the other day, I met with one
which greatly pleased me, because it said, "He is a man who stands up
on a Sunday and troubles more people's consciences than anybody else
does." "Oh," I thought, "that is exactly what I meant to do and what I
always want to do–to trouble people's consciences when they ought to
be troubled." There are some of you who know that you could not go and
drink again if you gave your hearts to God. If you came and learned the
way of salvation, you could not be found in that company which now
pleases you. Perhaps there is one who has beguiled you into sin, from
whom you would have to separate if you were joined to Christ.
And there is many a man who says, "No, no. Not just yet, not just now.
I will think of it, by-and-by." And, meanwhile, just behind you stands
Death, the skeleton king, stretching out his bony hand and, perhaps,
tonight, he will lay it on your shoulder and chill you to a corpse!
What day you will be buried is not known, just now, on earth, but it is
known above! Oh, that you and I, and all of us might have Grace to wish
to know everything that makes for our peace! Especially would I ask you
to wish to know the very worst about yourself. Pray God that you may
never have anything kept from you, but that you may know that which
shall lead you at once to Christ, that you may find salvation through
the blood of the Lamb!
III. Now I must conclude by answering a third question–How DOES OUR
LORD SHOW HIS COMPASSION TO
THE IGNORANT?
He does it, first, by offering to teach them. If there is anybody here
who desires to be taught, the Lord is willing and waiting to teach you!
Is it a Mary? She may come and sit at Jesus' feet and He will not
upbraid her, but He will say that she has chosen the good part. Is it a
Zacchaeus? Would you steal into the House of God, as he climbed up into
the sycamore tree, that, among the foliage, he might not be seen, but
yet might hear? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is willing to teach you and
to bid you make haste and come down, that He may abide in your house
and your heart! He keeps a school which is always open and there is no
charge for admission. The poorer and the more ignorant you are, the
more welcome are you to the school of Christ–and this is how He proves
His compassion to the ignorant. An ancient philosopher in Greece put
over his door, "He that is ignorant of arithmetic must not enter here."
He required some amount of knowledge before he would take a pupil, but
the Lord Jesus Christ puts over His door, "He that is simple, let him
turn in here. As for him who is void of understanding, let him come and
learn of the Great Teacher! "Come, then, my poor ignorant Friend, for
He will have compassion on you!
And His compassion is shown, next, by actually receiving all who come
to Him. There is never one who comes to Christ but He takes him in to
lodge and tarry with Him till he is instructed in the things of God.
Come along with you, for Jesus said, "Him that comes to Me, I will in
no wise cast out." If you know nothing except that you know that you
know nothing, He will instruct you unto eternal life!
Our Lord also shows His gentleness by teaching us little by little. If
you Christian people look back upon your past history, you will be
delighted to note how the Lord let the Light of God in gradually upon
you. The blind man, whose eyes are opened, cannot bear the full light
of noonday. And the Lord abounds toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
teaching us "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and
there a little." I sometimes bless God that He does not give to some
comers such a sight of sin as they get afterwards. A full sight of sin,
my Brothers and Sisters, without a sight of the precious blood of
Christ, would drive any man or woman among us mad! But we get a little
glimpse of sin and we are appalled by it, and then we get a larger view
of the Atonement, and we are comforted.
Perhaps no man has such a knowledge of the heinousness of sin as that
man who is just going into Heaven. The Lord reveals our danger to us by
degrees–we stand on a dreadful slope where a single slip means eternal
destruction! And if the Lord were to let us see where we are, it might
cause our destruction. But He firstlifts us out of it and then lets us
see where we used to be–shows us our disease by our remedy–and lets
us know, when we are getting well, how near to death's door we once
were. Oh, what a compassionate Teacher of the ignorant is the Lord
Jesus Christ!
He also shows His compassion by teaching us the same thing over and
over again. "Why" said one to a mother, "you teach that child the same
thing 20 times." "Yes," she said, "and do you know the reason?" "No,"
said the other. "Why, it is because 19 times will not do!" Ah, how does
the Lord teach us the same thing 20 times over and still we forget it!
And then He teaches us again, and again, and again, and again till, at
last, we learn it!
Another great proof of His compassion is seen in His never casting off
those He has once taken into His school, even if they are very dull and
slow to learn and, perhaps, after 20 years, do not know much. The Lord
had to say to one of His Apostles, "Have I been so long a time with
you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip?" But He did not turn Philip
out as a dull boy and He will not turn us out! But, having once
received us into His school, He will continue to use this means, and
that, and the other, and still another, till at last we drink in the
eternal Truth of God and it becomes part of ourselves! And He permits
us to go where the Truth of God shall be seen in all its brightness and
our heart shall be prepared to receive it. This is the substance of all
I have said–Christ Jesus has compassion on the ignorant and I do
entreat you, if you feel as if you do not understand Divine things, to
come to Him to give you an understanding heart that you may receive the
Truth of God!
"Oh, but I do not know!" says one. Then come to Him who does know, and
say, "What I know not, my Lord, teach You me." "Oh, but I feel so
empty!" Just so and you are, therefore, all the fitter to be filled.
"Oh, but I am so ignorant!" A sense of ignorance is the doorstep of
knowledge! If you have come so far, I bless God that you are on the way
to something higher and better. Come to Christ! You know, sometimes,
when a boy who is a little dull goes to school, his master may not
notice him among so many. And the older boys may slight and despise
him–and he feels very miserable. But what if his master, noticing him,
shall at once feel great tenderness for him and say, "Come here, child.
I must make you the special objective of my labor and care"? That boy
will surely get on, I think, and so, if you come into Christ's school,
our compassionate Lord will say, "Come here! Come here! I will teach
you more than others, I will teach you privately. I will give you
lessons in your bed, at nighttime will I instruct you. In your sickness
I will talk with you. Because you are so dull in your own esteem,
therefore I pity you and will take more care with you than with
others."
The promise is, "All your children shall be taught of the Lord." Not
one of the whole family shall go without an education–and the very
dullest shall still be "taught of the Lord." Will you go home, if you
have never been instructed by Him, and seek Him in prayer? Ask Him to
teach you. If the Gospel seems all a maze and a mist to you, go and
say, "Lord, will You explain it to me?" One touch of Christ is better
than years of study! You may try for many an hour to see in the dark,
and yet see nothing. But if you go to Him who is the Morning Star and
the Sun of Righteousness, you shall soon see. God grant that it may be
so, for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 4:14-16; 5.
Hebrews 4:14. Seeing, then, that we have a Great High Priest, who has
passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us holdfast our
profession. Why should we let it go? Jesus has triumphed, He has
entered into Glory on our be-half–the victory on our account rests
with Him! Therefore let us follow Him as closely as we can. May He help
us, just now, if we are in the least dispirited or cast down, to pluck
up courage, and press on our way!
15. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the
feelings of our infirmities but was in allpoints tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. How this ought to draw us to the Savior–that He
was made like ourselves, that He knows our temptations by a practical
experience of them and though He was without sin, yet the same sins
which are put before us by Satan were also set before Him!
16. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we
may obtain mercy, and find Grace to help in time of need. We have a
Friend at court! Our Bridegroom is on the Throne of God! He who reigns
in Heaven loves us better than we love ourselves! Come, then, why
should we hesitate? Why should we delay our approach to His Throne of
mercy? What is it that we need at this moment? Let us ask for it. If it
is a time of need, then we see clearly from this verse that it is a
time when we are permitted and encouraged to pray!
Hebrews 5:1. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for
men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and
sacrifices for sins. The high priest of old was "taken from among men."
Aaron was chosen and then his son; an angel might have been sent to
perform Aaron's duty, but it was not so. And, glory be to our blessed
Lord and Master, He is "One chosen out of the people," "taken from
among men."
2. Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of
the way; for that He, Himself, is also compassed with infirmity. Christ
was not compassed with sinfulinfirmity, but He was compassed with
sorrowful infirmity. His were true infirmities or weaknesses–there was
no evil about Him, but still He had the infirmity of misery–and He had
it even to a greater extent than we have. The high priest of old was a
man like those for whom he stood as a representative. And our Great
High Priest is like unto us, though without sin.
3. And by reason hereof he ought.–That is, the ordinary high priest,
chosen from among men ought.
3. As for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. But our
Lord had no sins of His own. Do not, therefore, think that He is less
sympathetic with us because He had no sins–far from it! Fellowship in
sin does not create true sympathy, for sin is a hardening thing. If
there are two men who are guilty partners in sin, they never really
help each other, they have no true heart of kindness, either of them!
When the time of difficulty comes, each man looks to his own interest.
The fact that Christ is free from sin is a circumstance which does not
diminish the tenderness of His sympathy with us, but rather increases
it.
4, 5. And no man takes this honor unto himself, but he that is called
of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made
an High Priest but He that said unto Him, You are My Son, today have I
begotten You. The text is quoted from the second Psalm and it proves
that Christ did not arrogate to Himself any position before God. He is
God's Son, not merely because He calls Himself so, but because the
Father says, "You are My Son, today have I begotten You." He took not
this honor upon Himself, but He was "called of God, as was Aaron."
6. As He says also in another place.–In the 110th Psalm.
6. You are a Priest forever after the order ofMelchisedec. He does not
assume the office on His own account, but it is laid upon Him. He comes
not in as an amateur, but as an authorized Priest of God!
7. Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to
save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared. This is to prove
His infinite sympathy with His people and how He was compassed with
infirmity. Christ prayed. How near He comes to you and to me by this
praying in an agony, even to a bloody sweat, with strong crying and
with weeping! Some of you know what that means, but it did, perhaps,
seem to you that Christ could not know how to pray just so. Yet He did.
In the days of His flesh, He not only offered up prayer, but "prayers
and supplications"–many of them, of different forms and in different
shapes–and these were accompanied with "strong crying and tears."
Possibly you have sometimes had a dread of death. So had your Lord–not
a sinful fear of it, but that natural and perfectly innocent, yet very
terrible dread which comes to a greater or less extent upon every
living creature when in expectation of death. Jesus also comes very
near to us because He was not literally heard and answered. He said,
"If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me." But the cup did notpass
from Him! The better part of His prayer won the victory, and that was,
"Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." You will be heard, too,
if that is always the principal clause in your prayers. But you may not
be heard by being delivered from the trouble. Even the prayer of faith
is not always literally heard! God, sometimes, instead of taking away
the sickness or the death, gives us Grace that we may profit by the
sickness, or that we may triumph in the hour of death. That is better
than being literally heard, but even the most believing prayer may not
meet with a literal answer. He "was heard in that He feared." Yet He
died and you and I, in praying for ourselves, and praying for our
friends, may pray an acceptable prayer and be heard–yet they may die,
or we may die.
8. Though Hie were a Son.–Emphatically and above us all, "a Son,"
8. Yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. He was
always obedient, but He had to learn experi-mentallywhat obedience
meant, and He could not learn it by the things which He did–He had to
learn it "by the things which He suffered"–and I believe that there
are some of the most sanctified children of God who have been made so,
by His Grace, through the things which they have suffered. We may not
all suffer alike. We may not all need the same kind of suffering. But I
question whether any of us can truly learn obedience except by the
things which we suffer.
9. And being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey Him. ' 'Being made perfect." "What?" asks one,
"did Christ need to be made perfect?" Not in His Nature, for He was
always perfect in both His Divine and His Human Nature, but perfect as
a Savior, perfect as a Sympathizer–above all, according to the
context–perfect as a High Priest. "Being made perfect, He became the
Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." Christ will
not save those who refuse to obey Him, those who will not believe in
Him. There must be an obedient faith rendered unto Him, or else the
virtue of His passion and death cannot come to us.
10. Called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. I t is
a glorious mark of our Lord Jesus that He was "called of God an High
Priest." He did not assume this office to Himself, but this high honor
was laid upon Him by God Himself.
11. 12. Ofwhom we have many things to say, andhard to be uttered,
seeingyou are dull ofhearing. For when for the time you ought to be
teachers, you have need that one teach you again which are the first
principles of the oracles of God.–I hope it is not true of any of you,
dear Friends, but it is true of many Christians that they learn very
little to any purpose and always need to be going over the A B C of the
Gospel. They never get into the classics, the deep things of God! They
are afraid of the Doctrine of Election, of the Doctrine of the Eternal
Covenant, and of the Doctrine of the Sovereignty of God, for these
Truths of God are meant for men of full age, and these poor puny babes
have not cut their teeth yet! They need some softer and more childlike
food. Well, it is a mercy that they are children of God! It would be
better, however, for them to grow so as to become teachers of
others–"You have need that one teach you again which are the first
principles of the oracles of God."
12-14. And are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the Word of righteousness,
for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern
both good and evil. Do not be frightened, you who have lately been
brought into the Lord's family! We are not yet going to feed you with
meat! We shall be glad enough to serve you with milk for the present.
At the same time, let us all be praying to the Lord to make us grow,
that we may know more and do more, and be more what the Lord would have
us to be! A child is a very beautiful object. An infant is one of the
loveliest sights under Heaven, but if, after 20 years, your child were
still an infant, it would be a dreadful trial to you. We must keep on
growing till we come to the stature of men in Christ Jesus! God grant
that we may do so, for Christ's sake! Amen.