One Trophy for Two Exploits
(No. 2823)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 22, 1903.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, IN THE
SUMMER OF 1861.
"For by You I have run through a troop; and by My God have Heaped over
a wall" Psalm 18:29.
IT sometimes puzzles the unenlightened Believer to find that the Psalms
often relate both to David and to David's Lord. Many a young Believer
has found himself quite bewildered when reading a Psalm–he has
scarcely been able to make out how a passage could be true of both
David and of the Lord Jesus Christ, "our superior King." This he cannot
understand. But he who has grown far enough in Grace to understand the
meaning of conformity to Christ sees that it is not without a high and
heavenly design that the Holy Spirit has presented to us the experience
of Jesus in that model of experience through which David passed.
My dear Brothers and Sisters, we all know as a matter of doctrine, but
we have not all proved as a matter of sweet experience that we are to
be like our Head. We must be like He upon earth, like He despised and
rejected by man in our generation. We must be like He, bearers of the
Cross. Yes, we must not shrink, in any way from what is meant by being
crucified with Him and buried with Him in order that we may know, in
later days, how to rise with Him, how to ascend with Him and how to sit
with Him upon His Throne. No, I will go further–even in this life the
Believer is to have a conformity to Christ in His present glories, for
we are even now raised up together with Christ and made to sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! In Him, also, we have obtained the
inheritance, for we are complete in Him who is the Head of all
principality and power. There is such a conformity between Christ and
His people that everything that is said of Christ may, in some measure,
be said of His people. Whatever Christ has been, they should be or have
been. Whatever He has done, He has done for them and they shall do the
like, after some fashion or other. Whatever He has attained unto, they
shall also enjoy. If He reigns, they shall reign, and if He is Heir of
a universal monarchy, they shall also be kings and priests unto God and
shall reign with Him forever and ever!
Thus the riddle becomes solved, the parable is expounded, the dark
saying of David's day shines clearly in Gospel light! You can see not
only how it is possible that the same Psalm can relate to David and to
David's Lord, but that there is a Divine mystery and a most rich and
precious lesson couching beneath the fact that the Holy Spirit has
chosen to set forth the doings, the sufferings and the triumphs of
Christ under the figure or model of the doings, sufferings and
victories of the son of Jesus! You will not, therefore, be surprised to
hear me remark that this text has relation to Christ and the Believer,
too. The doings and triumphs of Jesus must, accordingly, first engage
our attention and, in the second place, observe that we have here a
picture of the wondrous doings of faith when the Believer is enabled to
triumph over every earthly ill and over every human opposition–"By you
I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall."
I. Let us take the first sentence WITH REGARD TO CHRIST.
"By You I have run through a troop."How accurately Christ's enemies are
here described! By their number they were a troop. The Captain of our
salvation, although single-handed in the combat, had to fight with a
legion of foes. It was not a mere duel. It is true there was but one on
the Victor's side, but there was an innumerable host in antagonism to
Him. Not only the Prince of Darkness, but all the powers and the
principalities thereof came against Him. Not merely sin in the mass,
but sin in daily temptations of every kind and sin of every shade and
form–not only from earth a host of
human despisers and human opponents, but a yet greater host from the
lowest depths of Hell! These, from their number, are well compared to a
troop.
Nor does this expression merely describe their number, but also their
discipline. They were "a troop." A crowd of men is a great number, but
it is not a troop. A crowd may be far sooner put to route than a troop.
A troop is a trained company that knows how to march and marshal
itself–and to stand firm under attack. It was even so with Christ's
enemies. They were a crowd and a mob, but they were also a troop,
marshaled by that skillful and crafty leader, the Prince of Darkness.
They stood firm and were well disciplined in a close-knit body–they
were not broken. As though they were but one man, they sustained the
shock of Christ's attack and marched against Him, hoping for victory.
In such a character, His opponents still appear. However well you might
discipline a crowd of men, yet they would not become a troop unless
they also had been trained for warfare. A troop means a body of
well-disciplined men, all of them prepared to fight and understanding
how to make war. Thus, all Christ' s enemies were well trained. There
was the archfiend of Hell, who, in hundreds of battles against the
Lord's elect in the olden time, had gained a thorough knowledge of all
the weak points of manhood and understood how to temper his attack–and
wherein lay the greatest chances of victory. After him, came all the
fiends of the Pit–and these were all well exercised, each of them
mighty, of giant stature like Goliath–all of them strong to do great
exploits with any man less than God, however mighty that man might be!
And as for sin, was it not a mighty thing? Were not our sins, all of
them, mighty to destroy? The least one among the sins that attacked
Christ would have been sufficient to destroy the human race and yet
there were tens of thousands of these–well disciplined, ranged in
order–and all thoroughly prepared for battle. All these came on in
dread array against our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was a troop! I
have not exaggerated this description, for Calvin translates this term,
"a wedge," for, in his day it was customary, in battle, for the
soldiers to form themselves into a wedge-shape, so that when they
attacked the enemy, the first man made an opening, though he fell. The
next two advanced and then after them the three, and as the wedge
widened, it broke the ranks of the enemy. So it seems as though the
Holy Spirit would here describe the regular and well-directed attack
which the enemy of man' s soul made upon Christ. He came against him in
settled order. It was no rush of some wild Tartar host against the
Savior–it was a well arranged and well-regulated attack–and yet,
glory be to His name, He broke through the troop and ran through them
more than a conqueror!
Another old and eminent commentator translates the term, "troop," by
the old Greek term, "a phalanx," to show again how strong, how mighty,
how great and powerful were the enemies of Christ. It will often be of
excellent use to us, for the stimulation of our faith and for the
excitement of our gratitude, if we remember the might of the enemies of
Christ. When we undervalue the strength of His enemies, we are apt to
under-estimate His Omnipotence. We must go through the ranks of His
foes and look His ghastly opponents in the face. We must march through
the long lines of our sins and look at the hideous monsters–and see
how mighty they are and how powerless all human strength would have
been to resist them. And then we shall learn, in an ample measure, to
estimate the might and the majesty of the glorious Son of God when all
unarmed and unassisted, He ran through the troop and put them all to
the rout!
Several different eminent expositors of God's Word give other
interpretations of this sentence, each suggesting a fresh meaning and
helping to bring out that which is certainly true, if not the precise
meaning. One good translator says this verse might be rendered, "By you
I have run to a troop," and takes this to be the sense. Our Savior is
represented to us as not waiting till His enemies came to Him, but
running to them–willingly and voluntarily resigning Himself to their
attack. He did not wait till Judas came to the upper room and salute
Him in the chamber as He sat at supper. Neither did He tarry on His
knees in that terrible agony of His in the olive grove, but He went
forth to meet Judas. Judas had come forth with swords and with staves
to take Him as a thief, but He sought not to make His escape. "Jesus
went forth and said unto them, Whom do you seek?" Thus did He manifest
both His willingness to undertake our redemption and also His courage
in facing the foe. There was, at one time, a human fear which seemed as
if it would hold Him back from the battle, when He said, "O My Father,
if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me." But this once expressed,
the Holy One of Israel anointed Him with fresh courage and to the
battle He went with quick but majestic steps! He would not wait till
they rushed on Him, but He would take the initiative and begin the
fight. See the conquering Hero rush to the fight and dash through the
troop! And look what Divine mercy, what holy courage is here found in
the Lord Jesus Christ–that He ran to our enemies!
But our version has it, "I have run through a troop," and this is also
exceedingly accurate, if you couple with it the idea which you will
find in the margin of your Bibles–"By You have I broken through a
troop." Christ made a dash at His foes. They stood firm, as if they
would not flinch before Him, but His terrible right hand soon found for
Him a way. They imagined, when His hands were nailed to the Cross, that
He was now powerless, but in weakness was He strong! The bowing of His
head, which they perhaps thought to be the symbol of His defeat, was
but the symbol of His victory and, in dying, He conquered! In suffering
He overcame. Every wound that He received was a deathblow to His
enemies and every pang that tore His heart was as when a lion tears the
prey and Christ, Himself, was tearing them when they thought that they
were tearing Him! He ran through a troop.
It will do your souls good if you have imagination enough to picture
Christ running through this troop. How comparatively short were His
sufferings! Compare them with the eternal weight of punishment and
misery which we ought to have endured. What a stride was that which
Jesus took when He marched right through His enemies and laid them
right and left, and gained to Himself a glorious victory! Samson, when
he grasped the jawbone of an ass, slew his thousand men and said, "With
the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I
slain a thousand men." He did it all in haste and then threw away the
jawbone, as if it were but little he had done. And even so, our
mightier Samson, meeting with the hosts of sin, death and Hell, laid
them all in heaps and then, crying out, "It is finished," He seemed as
strong and mighty as if He had not endured the fatigues of the fight,
or suffered the horrors of death and was ready, if they required it, to
meet them all again and give them another defeat!
There is yet another version–"By You I have run after a troop." After
our Savior had met and fought with His antagonists and conquered them,
they fled. But He pursued them. He must not simply defeat them but take
them prisoners. There was Old Captivity. You know his name. He had been
the oppressor of the human race for many and many a day– and when
Christ routed him, he fled. But Jesus pursued him and, binding him in
adamantine chains, "He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."
He pursued the troop and brought back old Satan in chains, bound him in
fetters, slew grim Death and ground his iron limbs to powder–and left
his enemies no more at large to wander where they would, but subject to
His Divine power and to His Omnipotent sway. He ran after a troop and
took them prisoners.
Perhaps, however, the most striking thing in our text is the
combination of those two little words, "by You." What? Did not Christ
fight and obtain the victory by His own innate strength? Did not the
Son of God, the Redeemer, find strength enough within Himself to do all
that was necessary for us? It would not be heterodoxy if I were to
assert that it was so. Indeed, it is clearly pointed out to us in the
fact that, as the Servant of God and as our Redeemer, He is continually
spoken of as being strengthened, assisted and animated by His Father
and the Holy Spirit. Especially will you notice this in the Gospel
according to Mark. The Evangelist Mark speaks of Christ, through the
whole of his Book, as a Servant. Each of the Evangelists has a distinct
view of Christ. Matthew speaks of Him as a King, Mark as a Servant,
Luke as a Man and John as God. Now, in reading through Mark, you will
observe, if you take the trouble to read it carefully, the recurrence
of such phrases as this, "And immediately the Spirit drove Him into the
wilderness." This follows close on His Baptism, when the Holy Spirit
descended on Him as a dove. And then, when He came up to Nazareth, we
read that, as a Servant, Christ needed anointing as well as any other.
So, when He begins to preach, His text is, "The Spirit of the Lord is
upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted." Now, I take it that this is
a very eminent instance of the condescension of our Divine Master, that
He in all things was made like unto His brethren and, as they are
utterly powerless without the Holy Spirit, and without the Father's
drawing, can do nothing, so Jesus Christ did, as it were, divest
Himself of His own Divine Power and, as our Brother, He fraternized
even with our infirmities. Thus He was strengthened, helped and
assisted by His Father and by the Holy Spirit. Hence, it is strictly
accurate to remark that even Christ, Himself, could subscribe to this
sentence, "By You I have run through a troop."
Does this seem to you, Beloved, to lower your view of the Person of
Christ? At first sight it may seem so. But think again–there is much
rich consolation here. O my Soul, learn that you have not only God the
Son to be your Helper, but that you have God the Father and God the
Spirit also! Oh, it is sweet to see that in Redemption, itself, where
we are too apt, with our poor blind eyes, to see but one Person of the
Trinity–in Redemption, itself, the Triune Jehovah was engaged! If this
is not the view of the work of Redemption which is commonly taken, I am
sure it is Scriptural. It is true that the Son paid the penalty and
endured the agony. But, still, it was His Father who, while smiting Him
with one
hand, sustained Him with the other. And it was the Spirit who, wrapping
Him about with zeal as with a cloak and inflaming His soul with Divine
ardor, enabled Him to dash through His enemies and become more than a
conqueror! This sweetens Redemption to me. The Father and the Holy
Spirit are also engaged and interested on my behalf. Our Redeemer is
the Holy One of Israel–the Lord of Hosts is His name! We may say of
the three Persons of the Divine Trinity that each of these is our
Redeemer because they have all brought to its full completion the grand
work of our redemption from the power of sin, death and Hell. "By You
have I run through a troop." My Soul, lift up your eyes before you turn
from this passage and see all your sins forgiven in the Person of
Christ. Look here and behold the old dragon's head broken! See Death
pierced through with one of his own shafts. See how the old serpent
drags along his mangled length, writhing in his agony, for the Lord
Jehovah is our strength and our song. He also has become our salvation
and in Him, and through Him and by Him, we have broken through a troop
and are more than conquerors!
Let us now turn to the second sentence, "By My God have I leaped over a
wall."How is this to be understood? I think that David, if we take this
as alluding to David, is here described as having stormed and taken
some strongly-armed and well-walled city. He had, by the power of God,
taken the strong place from the inhabitants of Jebus and so he had
leaped over a wall. But we are not now speaking of David, but of
Christ. In what sense can we say that Jesus Christ has leaped over a
wall? I must be allowed to be figurative for a few minutes. The people
of the Lord had become the slaves of Satan and, in order that they
might never more escape from his power, he had put them into his
stronghold and had walled them round about that they might be his
perpetual captives.
There was, first of all, the tremendous bulwark of sin gathering
strength from the Law of God, with its ten massive towers mounted with
ten hundred pieces of ordnance, in the shape of threats of destruction!
This wall was so high that no human being has ever been able to scale
it–and so terrible that even the Omnipotence of God had to be
exercised before it could be removed. Next to this there was a second
rampart–it was the rampart of diabolical insinuation and Satanic
suggestion. Satan had not only allowed the Law to stand so as to keep
the soul in despair, but had added to this his own determination that
he would not leave a stone unturned might he but keep the human race in
his own power. Thus Hell made the second rampart, while it seemed as if
Heaven had built the first. Outside thereof was a deep ditch and then
another mound, called human depravity. This, as we must observe, was as
difficult to be stormed as either of the others. Man was desperately
set on mischief. He would be a sinner, let what might be said to him or
done for him. He would seek greedily with both hands to work out his
own destruction and that love of destruction, which was in his heart,
constituted one of the great barriers to his salvation.
Christ Jesus came and He leaped over all these walls! He came and in
your Redemption He broke through the Law. No, He did not break through
it–He mounted it, He scaled it! The Law of God stands, to this day, as
fast and firm as ever–not a stone has been taken down, not one of its
castles has been dismantled–there it stands in all its awful majesty,
but Christ leaped over this. He paid the penalty, endured the wrath and
so He took His people out of the first ward of the Law. Whereas, after
this came a second–the wall of Satan's determination to keep them
prisoners. Christ, our Lord and Master, dashed this into a thousand
pieces, springing the tremendous mine of His Covenant purposes and
throwing the whole mass into the air–and there it was destroyed, once
and for all–no more to hold the people of God in captivity and
bondage!
The last wall which He had to leap in order to get His people
thoroughly free and bring them out of the stronghold of sin and Satan,
was the wall of their own depravity. This, indeed, was hard work to
storm. Many of His ministers went up to the stronghold and tried to
storm it, but they came away defeated. They found that it was too
strong for all human battering-rams. They hammered at it with all their
might, but there it stood, resisting the shock and seeming to gather
strength from every blow that was meant to shake it. But, at last,
Jesus came, and using nothing but His Cross as the most powerful
battering-ram, He shook the wall of our depravity, made a breach,
entered it and let His people out into that liberty wherewith He had
made them free! Oh, how sweet it is to think of Christ thus leaping
over the walls! He would have His people. He came down to earth and was
with them in all their misery and took upon Him all their sin. He
determined to enter in and save them from the dungeon. He made His own
escape and brought them with Him. He not only came, Himself, through
sin, and death, and Hell, triumphant, but brought all His children on
His shoulders, as AEneas did his old father Anchises. The whole
generation of the elect was redeemed in that hour when Christ leaped
over every wall!
Thus have I tried to expound to you the text as relating to the Person
of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I would only repeat once
more the remark that in this verse, it is said, "By My God have I done
it." As Mediator, in His official capacity, and in His service for our
redemption, He received the strengthening aid of His Divine Father and
He could truly say, "By My God have I leaped over a wall." It will do
you good, O Believer, if you will often stay and look at your Savior
accomplishing all His triumphs! O my Soul, what would you have done if
He had not broken through a troop, if He had not routed your foes?
Where would you have been? You would at this hour have been the captive
of sin death and Hell. All your sins would now be besetting you,
howling in your ear for vengeance. Satan, with all the hosts of Hell,
would be now guarding you, determining that you should never escape.
Oh, how joyous is this fact, that Christ has once and for all routed
them and now we are secure! Then, my Soul, what do you think, what
would you have done if He had not leaped over a wall? You would have
been dead this day, shut in within the rampart of your own hard heart,
or within the stronghold of Satan and with the mighty fiends of Hell
you would have been trebly guarded and trebly enslaved. Now your
fetters are all broken, as "a monument of Grace, a sinner saved by
blood," lift up your heart, and your hands, and your voice, and shout
for joy and gladness, "He has broken the gates of brass, and cut the
bars of iron in sunder." He has leaped over a wall and brought you out
of your prison-house!
II. This brings me now to the second part of my discourse and I must
ask your patience and pray again for the assistance of the Holy Spirit
that in this, especially, Christ's people may find a word of
edification. We are now to regard our text as being THE LANGUAGE OF THE
BELIEVER. He can say, "By You I have run through a troop; and by my God
have I leaped over a wall."
I shall divide my text after another fashion on this second point. I
shall note, first, with regard to the Believer, how varied are his
trials! Sometimes it is a troop of enemies. At another time, a wall of
difficulties. When a man has one labor to accomplish, he soon begins to
be skillful in it. If he is to be a soldier and fight a troop, at
length he learns how to get the victory. But, suppose that his labors
are varied–after fighting a troop, he has to go clambering over a
wall–then you will see the critical situations by which he is
embarrassed. Now, this aptly pictures the position of God's people–
the Spirit is continually varying our trials. There are no one day' s
trials that are exactly like the trials of another day. We are not
called to one undeviating temptation, or else it would cease to have
its force, but the temptations are erratic–the darts are shot from
different directions and the stones come from quite opposite quarters.
This is well set out in one of the Lord's parables. He speaks thus of
the trials of the righteous–There was a certain wise man who built his
house upon a rock, and the rains descended–trials from above. And the
floods came–trials from beneath. The winds blew–mysterious trials
from every quarter–and they all beat upon that house and it fell not.
Trials of every shape attend the followers of the Lamb. The archers
come against us and we repel their fiery darts. The company of
swordsmen come and we rebuke them. And then the slingers sling their
stones against us and then the company of spearmen, so that we must be
armed at all points and ready for every kind of attack. Our Savior in
this was like to us. He says to us in one place, "Dogs have compassed
Me"–that was bad enough. "Strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round."
That was not all, "they gaped upon Me with their mouths, as a ravening
and a roaring lion." Only fancy that! A man has to fight with dogs and
then with bulls–and then with lions–and yet, this is just the
Christian's state!
We cannot guess, from the trials of the past, what will be the trials
of the future. We think it is to be all fighting, but we are mistaken.
Some part of it is to be climbing over this or that wall. I have known
God's people, sometimes, try to break through a wall and to climb over
a troop. This is very absurd. If they had a troop of spiritual enemies,
they have tried to climb over them and endeavor to escape them. At
another time, they have had a difficult trial, like a wall, and they
have been so headstrong that they must try to go through it. Ah, we
have much to learn. Some things we must fight through, others we must
climb over. It is not always right for the child of God to let his
courage get the better of his discretion. Let him have courage for the
troop, to run through them, and discretion for the wall, and not try to
run through that, or he will break himself in pieces. There are
exercises and trials in various ways. The Believer's trials, how varied
they are!
And, next to this, how unflinching is his faith! There is the troop, he
runs through them. There is the wall, he leaps over it. He finds that
his faith is sufficient for every emergency. When his God is with him,
there is no difficulty too great for him. He does not stop to
deliberate. As for the troop, he runs through that and then there is
the wall at the other end–he takes a leap and is over that! So, when
God strengthens our faith, when the Holy One of Israel is with us and
the
might of Omnipotence girds our loins, difficulties are only the healthy
exercises of our faith! God will exercise faith. There is not a single
grain of faith in the breast of any living Believer that is not
exercised. God will not allow it to sleep–a sleeping faith, a dormant
faith–I do not believe such a thing exists! If you have faith, my
Brother, expect labor, for, as surely as God gives faith, He will put
it into the gymnasium and make it exercise itself–sometimes dashing at
a troop and then trying its limbs another way, no more to exercise its
arm in fighting, but its legs in climbing over a wall. We have all
sorts of exercises to keep our faith in order that we may be ready for
any emergency, whatever it may be. Some men seem as if they only had to
meet one form of trial. They remind me of the Indian fakir–he holds
his arm straight up–that is the triumph of his strength! Now God does
not exercise a Believer's limbs till they grow stiff, but He exercises
them in every way, that they may become supple, so that, come what may,
he is ready to achieve any exploit.
With faith, how easy all exploits become! When we have no faith, then
to fight with enemies and overcome difficulties is hard work, indeed,
but when we have faith, oh, how easy our victories! What does the
Believer do? There is a troop–well, he runs faith, then, to fight with
enemies and overcome difficulties. There is a hard wall, what about
that? He leaps over it! It is amazing how easy life becomes when a man
has faith. Does faith diminish difficulties? Oh, no, it increases them,
but it also increases our strength to overcome them. If you have faith,
you shall have trials, but you shall do great exploits, endure great
privations and get triumphant victories! Have you ever seen a man made
mighty through God? Have you ever seen him in an hour of desertion? He
goes out, like Samson, to meet the Philistines. "Oh," he says, "I will
shake myself as at other times." But his locks have been shorn and when
the cry is raised, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson," he shakes
his limbs with vast surprise, makes a feeble fight and loses his eyes.
They are put out, and he returns in blindness.
But, when God is with him, see what the Believer can do! They have
woven the seven locks of his head with a web, and he just carries the
loom away. Soon they bind him with seven green ropes that have never
been dried, but he breaks them as easily as fire burns twigs. All
things are possible, to him that believes–no, not only possible–but
easy when God is with him! He laughs at impossibilities and says it
shall be done, for faith can do all things. "By You I have run through
a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall."
And yet, though the victories of faith are thus easy, we must call to
mind that these victories always are to be traced to a Divine source.
That man who takes the credit of his victories to himself has no faith,
for faith is one of the self-denying Graces. Faith called a parliament
of all the Graces and passed a self-denying ordinance. It decreed that
whatever any of the graces did, it should give all the glory of it to
God. Christ once upon a time took the crown off His head and put it on
the head of Faith. "When was that?" you ask. Why, Christ healed the
poor woman and, therefore, it was He who deserved the crown, but, He
said, "Your faith has saved you, go and sin no more." He thus put the
crown upon Faith. What was the reason? Why, because Faith always puts
its crown on the head of Christ! True faith never wears its own crown.
It says, "Not unto me, Lord, but unto Your name be all the glory." This
is the reason why God has selected Faith to achieve such mighty
victories, because Faith will not allow the glory or honor to cleave to
its own wings, but shakes off all self-praise, just as Paul shook off
the viper into the fire. Faith says, "No, no, give me not thanks, or
praise, or honor. I have done nothing." Faith will have it not only
that it does nothing, but that Christ, who dwells in it, has done it
all.
And now, my dear Friends, there is one consolation with which I will
close this sermon. The Psalmist says, "By You I have run through a
troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall." I think, if he were
here at this time, he would permit me to add, "and by my God shallI
leap over a wall, and by You shalll break through many a troop." What
faith has done once, by its God, it can do again. We have met Satan
once in the battlefield and when he chooses to attack us once more,
that old Jerusalem blade that once gave him a bitter blow, is ready to
give him another! That shield, which once caught his fiery darts, is
still unbroken and still prepared to receive another shower of them
when he chooses to hurl them! Martin Luther, you know, often used to
defy Satan to battle. I care not to do that, but he used to say, in his
strange, quaint way, "I often laugh at Satan and there is nothing makes
him as angry as when I attack him to his face and tell him that,
through God, I am more than a match for him. I tell him to do his worst
and yet I will beat him. And I tell him to put forth his fury and yet I
will overcome him." This would be presumption if done in our own
strength. It is only faith in the Grace of God that can enable us to
say so. He that has made God his refuge need fear no storm, but, just
as sometimes in Christmas weather, the wind and snow and storm outside
make the family fire seem warmer, and the family
circle seem happier, so the trials and temptations of Satan do
sometimes seem to add to the very peace and happiness of the true
Believer while he sits wrapped up in the mantle of godly confidence–
"Let cares like a wild deluge come, And storm of sorrow fall. May I but
safely reach my home, My God, my Heaven, my All."
And when we know that we shall reach our Home, even the storms or the
tempests matter but little. Come, poor Believer, pluck up your courage!
I have tried to give you some strong meat–feed upon it. As the Lord
Jesus Christ had a troop to face and broke through them, so shall you!
Even as He overcame, so shall you overcome. Did He enter Heaven and is
there a long cloud of witnesses streaming in behind Him–everyone a
warrior? So, if you are His warrior, you shall be one of that long
stream! You, also, shall wear a crown and wave the palm, and sing a
song of victory, and talk of triumph purchased through the blood of and
achieved through faith in the Lamb!
And, dear Friends, what may we expect if we do this? What may the
fainting ones expect if the power of God rests upon them? They may
expect that when "the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young
men shall utterly fall," their power–the power that they have received
from God–shall become the more conspicuous. The promise is, "They that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles." That is the first thing we shall do. We who were
faint and feeble and lying among the pots shall be, "as the wings of a
dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold," and we
shall mount above the clouds in an ecstasy of holy joy! Power will be
given us to look the sun in the face even as the mighty eagle does.
But we shall do more than that–"They shall run, and not be weary."
"But," you say, "running is not so noble an action as flying." That is
what you think–that is what young people naturally think, for they are
anxious to fly high– but, as you grow in Grace, you do not care so
much for flying. You are content to move more soberly here below. You
run at a quick pace and if God's power is really resting upon you, you
are not weary.
But you shall advance yet another stage, for the promise ends
thus–"They shall walk, and not faint." "But," asks someone, "is that
advancing–going from running to walking?" Yes, it is. You do not read
much in the Bible about running with God, but you do read a good deal
about walking with God. That expression means that you go at a good
steady pace in which a man may continue all his life. It is the lad who
runs in his play, but older people, who are attending to the business
of life, are not runners, but walkers–and they get over the ground at
a good solid pace. Now, if the power of God rests upon us, we shall
sometimes take the eagle's flight–away we shall go, far beyond the
experience of ordinary Christians and get up there among the
sublimities. But, if God's power is upon us, we shall also be eager to
be employed in His service and shall rush forward with holy impetuosity
and flaming zeal. But, better still, if the power of God is on us, we
shall learn how to plod on in our daily life in obedience to the will
of God, whether it is in the domestic circle, in the common round of
business, or in the service of the Lord. We shall, in fact, make our
whole life a continual progress towards Heaven through the Grace and
power of God. So may it be to each one of you and in your experience
may the Lord fulfill His ancient word, "He gives power to the faint,"
for His dear Son's sake!
I must pause one moment while I address myself to those who know
nothing of God and nothing of Christ. Well, my Hearers, you have a
troop, too, and you have your walls of difficulty. But you have no God
to help you! Whatever trials the Believer has, he has a God to fly to.
"Look," said a poor woman to a lady who called to see her, "look,
ma'am, I'll show you all I' m worth. Do you see that cupboard, ma' am?
Look in." "Yes," said the lady, who looked, and saw but little, "but
there is nothing in it but a dry crust." "Well," continued the woman,
"do you see this chest?" "Yes, I see it, but it is empty," was the
reply. "Well," she said, "that is all I am worth, ma'am, but I have not
a doubt or fear with regard to my temporal affairs. My God is so good
that I can still live without doubts and fears." She knew what it was
to break through a troop and leap over a wall!
Now, perhaps there are some of you with cupboards just as empty as that
poor woman's–but you cannot add, "I have a God to go to." O miserable
creature–miserable if you are rich, thrice miserable if you are
poor–to be like a packhorse in this life, carrying a heavy burden and
then not to be unloaded at the grave, but to have a double burden laid
upon you! O poor men and women without Christ–with the few comforts
which you have in this life, with its many privations, with its hunger,
thirst and nakedness, oh, that you should not have a better world to go
to! Above all, it seems a
miserable thing that you should go through poverty here to a place
where a drop of water shall be denied you to cool your burning tongue!
If Christ is precious to the rich on earth, you must think that there
is a peculiar sort of relish with which the poor man feeds on the Bread
of Heaven!
"But," you ask, "may I not have a hope of Heaven?" Assuredly, my
Friend. Do you long for Christ at this moment? Then He longs for you!
Do you desire to have Him? Then He gives you that desire! Come to Him,
for the message of the Gospel is, "Whosoever will, let him take the
water of life freely."–
"None are excluded hence but those Who do themselves exclude."
The invitation is free. May many accept it! Oh, that some of you may be
led to go to your houses, now, and on your knees ask for forgiveness of
sin and seek that you may become the children of God through faith in
the precious blood once shed for many for the remission of sins! Amen.