Our Lord's Heroic Endurance
(No. 3327)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
29, 1866.
"For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself lest you be weary and faint in your minds." Hebrews 12:3.
IF we regard the Christian as a racer contending for the great race, we
see that he is subject to several dangers. He may give up the race and
turn back unless everlasting mercy shall prevent so dreadful a
calamity. He may leap out of the track and leave for a time the only
path that leads to victory and reward. Or he may be so clogged and
hampered with weights that though he may run, he may run altogether in
vain. Or he may be tripped up and fall–and so others may pass him and
take the prize of his high calling. But even if he shall fully have
avoided all those dangers, if he shall keep to the course, if he shall
be kept upon his feet, and if his racing should be of the best kind,
yet there is still the possibility– for the best Christian is still
flesh and blood–that he may faint.
A man when running for a prize exerts every nerve and sinew and muscle.
He throws his whole being into the effort. If he may not pass his rival
by several lengths, he will at least seek to pass him by a neck and to
this end he strains and strives even to the point of agony, if by any
means he may attain unto the first place and so win the reward. Now,
while the body is in such a state of tension as that, it is possible
that it may suddenly give way–that the overworked frame may not be
able to endure the toil and stress, and the man, with the best of
intentions, may yet lack the power to carry them out. He may grow weary
and though just now he almost grasped the prize in the fond
anticipation of hope, he may fall dead upon the ground like a stone
through faintness. The Apostle knew this, for I do not doubt that even
he, in his great fight with afflictions, when he had fought with beasts
at Ephesus and when he had passed through trials of every shape and
form, even he sometimes felt as if he might faint and might, after all,
be unsuccessful. Hence it is that instead of merely exhorting us not to
faint and bidding us not be weary, he does what is far better and more
helpful–he supplies us with a double restorative whereby our strength
may be recruited. Just as Antaeus is said to have revered his strength
when he touched mother earth and, therefore, he could not be killed
until Hercules held him in the air and strangled him there, so is the
Christian strengthened by the act which the Apostle Paul here speaks
of–by touching Christ, by looking again to Jesus, by considering
Him–and the only possibility for the destruction of the Christian
would be so to separate him from Christ that he would not be able to
derive any strength from considering the great Apostle and High Priest
of his profession! The Apostle does as good as say to us, "You are very
likely to faint in your minds, and to grow weary in your spirit, so if
you would prevent this, I recommend you to consider the Lord Jesus
Christ, to think much of Him, to have Him constantly before your mind's
eye." And he is very precise about this, for he not only bids us
consider Christ, but he exhorts us to consider Him under a very special
aspect, that is, as a Sufferer, and from one particular form of trial,
namely, "suffering the contradiction of sinners against Himself."
It seem to me as if the Apostle felt that one of the most likely things
to make Christians faint would be the contradiction which they meet
with from sinners. The persecution, the slander, ill-usage, bad return
and recompense which they get from an ungodly world–all this would be
likely to make them weary at heart in well-doing.
So he bids them look away to the Savior, bravely enduring the same
trials. "Consider Him," he says, "who endured such contradiction of
sinners against Himself, lest you be weary and faint in your minds."
I am not able to speak to you this evening as I would gladly speak. I
scarcely feel in the condition either of body or of mind suitable to
the study and proclamation of so gracious a topic as the one before us,
but in my weakness I desire also
to consider Him who was wearied and sat upon the well. And in speaking
to you, I would ask His help that my weakness may not rob you of the
blessing.
I shall introduce the theme to your attention in this way–first, let
us consider the contradiction of sinners which Christ endured.
Secondly, let us for a minute or two consider His endurance of it And
then, thirdly, coming to the fullness of the text, let us consider Him
who endured such contradiction. The particular form of trial of which
we are invited to think is– I. THE CONTRADICTION OF UNGODLY MEN WHICH
THE SAVIOR ENDURED.
Even early in His ministry He had to endure this. At the very first
sermon which He preached in the synagogue of His own town, was he
received with joy? No acclamations awaited Him who spoke as never man
spoke, but the whole congregation gnashed upon Him with their teeth!
And had it not been for His supernatural escape, they would have taken
Him to the brow of the hill whereon the city was built and have cast
Him down headlong! And yet it was not that He had said anything bitter
against the town. It was not that He had inveighed against their
favorite vices. It was only that He had committed that most
unpardonable of all sins, namely, that He had preached the Doctrine of
Divine Predestination! They listened to Him well enough until He said,
"Yes, and many widows there were in Israel, but unto none of them was
the Prophet sent except to the widow of Zarepta," and when He thus
declared the Doctrine of Divine Sovereignty– when He spoke of the
giving of the blessing to the Gentiles who were the most unlikely
individuals–then it was that they gnashed their teeth and would have
cast Him down headlong from the brow of the hill! Nothing, it seems,
excites some men's envy like the Doctrines of Grace. Throughout the
whole of our Savior's life, this which was at the commencement followed
Him! His speech teems with wisdom. He preeminently carried out His own
teaching, "Be you wise as serpents and harmless as doves." It is true
His teaching was very bold, but at the same time it need not have
irritated anyone. Those who thus took His teaching to themselves and
perceived that He spoke of them, might be irritated apart from that. I
suppose that never did man put the Truth of God in a better form, or
after a fashion less likely to provoke prejudice, but the Pharisees
were always contradicting Him. They endeavored to catch Him in His
speech. Sometimes it is puzzling questions about the Law with some
woman in the midst. At another time it is something about the
government of the country. The Herodians joined with the Pharisees in
the endeavor to embarrass, to perplex Him, to catch Him in His talk, to
make Him an offender for a word. They plotted to draw Him out in
speech, somehow or other, that they might get some sentence they could
use against Him. Never did they listen with candor, never regarded Him
with any honesty, but dogging His footsteps like bloodhounds, waiting
for the first opportunity when they might tear Him in pieces! So,
during His lifetime, He endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself.
And you know, besides this, how men of the baser sort offered
contradiction against Christ's life. They said He was a drunk and a
wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. They that sat in the
gates spoke against Him and He became the song of the drunk! Reproaches
fell upon Him–the reproaches of them who reproached without a cause.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was thus perpetually, constantly and wholly the
butt of slander and of scorn! He was permanently standing in the
pillory to be ill-treated by the hands of them whom His power had
created, and whom His own love had spared! What a "contradiction of
sinners against Himself!"
But I think what was especially in the Apostle 's mind was that which
came at the time when He was betrayed by Judas. Then, Brothers and
Sisters, the old serpent vented his worst venom. They could not find
witnesses that agreed together, though they found many false witnesses,
yet even none of them agreed together till they had at last induced
two, their evidence being words which the Savior had used in a certain
sense, twisted to another sense in order to try to get it to be strong
enough to stain the charge which they brought against Him–which was
neither more nor less than this– in Pilate's court, the civilcourt,
treason! In the court of Annas and Caiaphas, the ecclesiasticalcourt,
blasphemy! What a contradiction of sinners against Himself was this!
Being Almighty God to be accused of blasphemy! And being truly the King
of the Jews to be accused of treason! I wonder not that the Apostle
should have said, "Such contradiction of sinners!"
Just let us look, then, at this contradiction of sinners which came
upon Him at the last, and I think you will see the grievousness of it
when you observe, first, the grossness of the charges alleged against
Him. Before Pilate's court it was no minor offense with which He was
charged. It was treason–the highest offense in the category of the
Roman Law. He had made Himself to be another king in opposition to
Caesar, who was the world's monarch! This was a very gross
charge to bring against the Savior and more especially because He, of
all men, must be acquitted of anything like sedition! How often did He
hide Himself when multitudes who had been fed by His bounty would have
made Him a king? And how often when His own disciples were anticipating
the coming of a great earthly kingdom, did He set Himself directly in
opposition to all their ideas and taught them that He came to suffer
rather than to reign–and that His Kingdom was not of this world–not a
Kingdom that would touch Caesar's kingdom, nor an empire that would
interfere with the kings on the earth! He was not only free from
treason, but was throughout His life such an opponent of it, such an
abstainer from interfering with the politics of men at all, that to
charge Him with this was a gross and wantonly wicked charge!
As for blasphemy, His reverence of God was supreme! He had laid aside
His own Glory as Deity in order to honor His Father in man's redemption
and was even now, when so vilely slandered, ready to be obedient even
unto death! "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," is
God's witness to Him, and yet His enemies say that He blasphemed the
Infinite Jehovah!
Now, dear Friends, I can conceive that some of you have been pure and
unblemished in your lives and yet suddenly you might find yourselves
accused, not of a minor and trivial offense, and you say, "Oh, what a
trial to be accused of this!" Well, consider Him who endured just such
contradiction, who was accused of a capital crime and of blasphemy in
the same breath! Who are we that we should not be called Beelzebub when
the Master of the house has been so named? Consider the contradiction
of Christ in this respect and it may give you comfort.
Let me say further, while speaking of this contradiction of sinners,
that it was not only a very gross charge, but we are sometimes apt to
think that a charge which is unfounded is very cruel to us. I have
heard people say, sometimes, and I have laughed when I have heard them
say it, "Sir, Mr. So-and-So has charged me with such-and-such a thing,
but I am quite innocent. I should not have minded if I had been
guilty." Then I have thought, Ah, then you ought to have minded it, but
being innocent you have no cause to mind it at all! But is it not so
that the more unfounded a charge is, the more deeply does it seem to
cut us from the very wantonness of its cruelty? Well, then, you know
how innocent the Savior was–the next time you feel innocent when you
are thus accused–"consider Him who endured such contradiction of
sinners against Himself," and who had to suffer both gross charges and
unfounded ones!
Moreover, these charges were sustained by words which had been
deliberately twisted. And sometimes a man has to say to himself, "Now,
I never said anything of the kind, and my enemies know I did not! They
have let a word out here, and put another word in there, and have
cruelly misrepresent me–they have made me say what I did not even
think– and what I didthink, and what I didsay, they have so utterly
altered that it is no longer mine." Now you are apt to grow very faint
in your mind after such a thing as this occurs, but you will recollect
that just such contradiction of sinners the Savior endured. The only
grounds or pretence upon which they brought these charges against Him
was that He had uttered certain words concerning His body which were
construed to relate to the Temple. So, dear Friends, do not be greatly
troubled, as though it were a strange thing what has happened to you.
If your good words are taken out of your mouth and mischief is made of
them, bear it without bitterness or retaliation, for so He also
suffered the "contradiction of sinners against Himself."
There certainly was, too, a sting about these contradictions arising
from the place where they were brought They were brought before the
court of judicature. It is not likely that any of us have had to smart
in this direction, but we may have had to feel this–"I should not have
minded if this contradiction had come against me at home in the family,
but it has come in my business where it will injure me." Or it may have
been the reverse. Perhaps you have had to say, "I would not care if
this man had said such-and-such in the outward world, but he has
poisoned the very home of my joy and my peace." Well, dear Friends, the
Savior had His contradiction brought against Him in a worse place, it
seems to me, than home, or any of the resorts of commerce, for He was
actually brought before the courts of His own native land as well as
before the courts of the foreign invader who was then dominating the
country!
It is not likely that this will come to you in these times as God's
people, but in the olden times the saints had often to stand before
kings and princes for Christ's sake. But if ever this should be your
lot, you will then fall back upon this as your invigoration and
consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself!
Above and beyond all this, however, in the contradiction which Christ
endured was the malice which suggested it They did not falsely accuse
Him out of mere error, but it was out of malice that had determined on
the destruction of this innocent Man. "Whether we can accuse Him
rightly or not," they said, "it is not fit that such a Fellow should
live." It was malice against One who had never done them a wrong!
Against One who had healed their sick and raised their dead! Against
One who had scattered bounties with both His hands along their streets
and who had made their wilderness like Eden and their desert like the
garden of the Lord! Against One who had gathered together the sheep
without a shepherd that were scattered on every hill! Against One who
had fed the hungry, had comforted the mourner, had proclaimed liberty
to the captive! Against One who had shone upon the Holy Land and made
it truly whole–had shone upon Palestine like a newly-risen sun, the
Sun of Righteousness with healing beneath His wings! He might well say,
"For which of these works do you stone Me? You have hated Me without a
cause." Well, now, suppose that to be your case? Suppose you have to
say, "I should not mind this charge, but I can see deliberate malice in
it. My enemies seek to destroy me and to pervert my way out of a
diabolical hatred to my soul. They come upon me to eat up my flesh.
They compass me like dogs to devour me. Oh, how hard is my lot!" Come,
Christian, come, consider Him! Consider Him! You are in the same plight
as your Master! It always gives comfort to a common soldier to see the
officers in the same position and enduring the same hardships as
himself–with the shots flying everywhere round about them. And when I
see the darts of wicked contradiction flying around our blessed Lord
and King, I feel it would be a shame for me to have an easier or safer
position than He knew!
I might thus dwell, for it is a very tempting subject, upon the
contradiction of sinners which the Savior endured. And I think a
consideration of this would save us from being weary and faint in our
minds. But we must pass on to the second point. We have now to
consider–
II. THE SAVIOR'S ENDURANCE of the contradiction of sin against Himself.
How did He endure this sore trouble? Brothers and Sisters, He endured
it with singular courage and holy equanimity. It is wonderful to see
Him in the first contradictions with which He met during His
ministry–how calm He is. If we are made warm in temper, we are off our
guard and are but half men. The Savior was never so taken. You observe
Him. They spin their webs like spiders and they think to entangle Him.
So they would such poor flies as we are–but He looks on and sees it
all–and then sweeps every cobweb away before Him! And yet no angry
word He answers.
Sometimes He makes them answer themselves, but then He turns it against
themselves. Sometimes He makes them confess themselves defeated and
then, with a solemn emphasis, as on the occasion when He said, "He that
is without fault among you, let him cast the first stone." And they,
being condemned by their own consciences, went out, beginning at the
eldest even to the youngest. All left and went their way! At the last,
however, you perceive that the contradiction of sinners is borne by the
Savior after this fashion–with entire silence!Never was there such
silence as that–the grandest silence ever known! It is an amazing
silence! It seems to have in it something of contempt, but yet more of
Omnipotent patience. He will not answer. Why should He answer such as
they are? He will not answer! If He answered, it might be their doom!
And therefore He spares them! "He is led as lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth!"
Brothers and Sisters, we are generally too fast with our tongues when
anybody accuses us! I am afraid we are not always so quick to defend
our Master as we are to defend ourselves. If there is a false
accusation in the newspapers, one's finger wants to be at the pen to
answer it, which of all things is the most foolish. Let them write! Let
them write who will, till they have used up their ink, but the wise man
answers them not a word! But we are always so ready if anybody brings a
false accusation against us to say, "It is not so! You lie!" Or to make
some sharp reply like that. Oh, that we could consider Him who endured
such contradiction of sinners against Himself, and endured it with the
holy patience of silence! There was a crest and motto which some of the
old Reformers used to use, and which I commend to any of you who are
under this trial of slander. It was an anvil with a number of hammers,
all broken, lying around. And this was the motto when translated, "The
anvil breaks many hammers." And how does it do this? Not by striking
again! Oh, no! The anvil simply endures the blows–just keeps its place
and lets the hammers fall, fall, fall until they are broken upon their
handles! And this is exactly what the Savior did. They, the accusers,
were the hammers, He was the anvil. And who shall say that the anvil
did not break the hammers in pieces, that the silence of the Savior was
not far more eloquent than all the clamor of the evil multitude? "He
held His peace," it is said of Him. May it also be said of you and of
me, and when we have to suffer similar trials, may we bear them, like
the Savior, in silence.
Yet the silence of the Savior is not all. We ought to admire the
patient serenity with which He so beautifully held His peace, but ought
we not also to admire the way in which He unswervingly kept His course?
Many a man would have
turned either to the right hand or to the left, but the heroic Savior
keeps right on. Ah, Beloved, how many of us would have given up the
work altogether! We might have said, "I came to bless these men, but
they reject me. They despise me. They ill-treat me. Let them go, then,
unblessed! These graceless people shall receive no blessing at my
hands." But not so, our brave Lord! He came into the world to save
sinners and He kept on just at that one thing–and let no rebuffs turn
Him aside. The zeal of God's House had eaten Him up and He kept
straight on in the saving of sinners! He never turned back, let sinners
do what they would in the way of contradicting Him! He never wavered
for one moment from His one life-objective–the saving of their souls!
Now, let it be so with you so that you may be kept from growing weary.
If in the Sunday school a class seems unmanageable. If the boys cannot
be taught. If the girls seem so giddy. If in the little village station
the hearers seem so dull, so inattentive, so careless and so
forgetful–if in any other sphere of labor you do not seem to be
appreciated, but to meet with very serious rebuffs, never mind! These
are nothing compared with the contradictions which the Savior endured
and yet He never swerved! And therefore swerve you not. Let the Divine
Life that is in you urge you constantly onwards. Make no provision for
the flesh nor for the ease thereof. If, indeed, it is your
life-work–go and complete it! If you feel that God has called you to
be the stern advocate of the right, go onward and vow to go onward by
the love of Christ– and let nothing stop you! If hunger can break
through stone walls, much more shall a hunger to do the Master's will!
To a man who can dare and do because he feels that he is consecrated
and destined to work, nothing is impossible! You, too, shall break
through a wall. You, too, shall dash through a host. A man who believes
that God has called him to work would tunnel through the globe, itself,
before he would be turned from his purpose! He would thread the stars
on strings before he would be disappointed of his great life-work! Do
you but feel this, and never turn aside, but remember how Christ
endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself!
And, once more, I think it is worthwhile to notice that while the
Savior did not swerve, He did not even seem to pause. He did not stop
to take a breath. All these persons came rushing round Him and tried to
push Him out of His course, but He did not even stop, I say, to take a
breath! All that they did, did but rather quicken His pace, if
possible, and made Him still more set upon His great purpose. So let it
be with us. We take far too much notice, I think, of some of our
troubles and oppositions. I sometimes quote in your hearing those brave
lines of Anne Askew. Poor soul! After having been racked to torture
many times, you still hear her singing–
"I am not she to lie,
My anchor to let fall:
For every drizzling mist
My ship's substantial."
Such a substantial vessel did she seem to ride in that she was not
going to let her anchor out! The being racked, as she cruelly was, was
no "drizzling mist," I think, but a very horrible tempest which might
well make some of us afraid, even unto death, but then, we make so much
of little things! Our fathers plucked up sycamore trees by the roots,
but we are afraid if only one or two sere leaves blow wildly across our
path! They spoke unto mountains and said, "Be you moved hence, and cast
into the midst of the sea." But we sit down and murmur over molehills
as though they were Alps, the summits of which we should never to able
to reach! We are a puny race, I fear, but may the Lord feed us and we
shall then grow stronger–and though it adds not a cubit to our
stature, yet we shall grow spiritually! And we shall grow in this way
if we consider how Christ bore the mighty trials which came upon Him.
He was bowed down. He did stagger and did sweat great drops of blood
when He was under the deep depression of His own spirit–caused by our
sins being laid upon Him. Even a strong man may quail there, but before
Herod or Pilate, or His Jewish accusers, or ribald and mocking men, He
never showed a sign of faltering! No, not He! But He "endureds uch
contradiction of sinners against Himself."
Consider Christ thus, then, and you need not be and never will be,
weary! But now, lastly, the great thing is–
III. TO CONSIDER HIM.
There is the point of the text. We are not only to consider the
contradiction and His endurance of it, but to consider Him. To consider
His endurance is well, but the striking point should be to consider the
dignity of Him who did thus endure. We are told by the historians of
Alexander the Great that it very much cheered and assisted the troops
in their long and weary marches from Persia, sometimes without water
and without food for many hours under a burning sun, that they always
saw Alexander walking on foot, too. The Persian monarch would have been
riding in some dainty cha-
riot, or in the royal palanquin, reclining upon beds of down, fanned by
unknown hands and attended by his many fair damsels. But there was
Alexander, covered with dust and splashed with mire, going through the
ditches, climbing the hills with his face all bronzed and browned. He
would suffer hunger and thirst like the rest of them–and when the bowl
of water is brought to the mighty monarch, he passes it on to some
common soldier who is even yet more thirsty than himself. It was said
that one Macedonian was worth ten thousand Persians because the king
was with them and they would dash to battle and to death for such a
monarch as that! Now consider Christ–your King–the King of the earth,
before whom all other kings should renounce their diadems! Consider
Him, the King of Heaven, whom to serve is the seraph's highest glory!
The King of Hell, before whom the fiends and dragons of the pit gnash
their teeth in fear! He, even He, "endured such contradiction of
sinners against Himself!"–
"Christ leads us through no darker rooms Than He went through before."
The dignity of the Savior has invested suffering and especially brave
endurance with great honor and glory. There is a halo round about our
griefs since Jesus Christ endured them first!
It is not only in His greatness that I think He should impress us, but
also in the perfection of His Nature. He endured, and yet He was
perfect. How, then, ought I to endure, who am so imperfect? He without
a fault, smarts! A Son without sin, but not without the scourge!
Consider Him, then, you imperfect one. When the coals are hot, you mass
of ore with so much of alloy about you, consider that the pure gold
felt the fire and how much more should you? Consider, you vessel
defiled and filthy, the alabaster vase was washed in a sea of trouble,
and how much more shall such one as you are be washed? If He who was
all gold must go through the flame, how much more shall you?
Now, there is yet a further point out of which the Apostle , I think,
would have us dig some delight, namely, that we are to consider Him not
only in His character, but now, in His present position. I t is true He
endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. It is true He
was delivered to be Crucified. It is true, sorrowfully true, that He
was despised and rejected of men. But what of it now? What of it now?
Oh, see Him yonder! But your poor eyes cannot bear this dazzling sight!
Brighter than the sun is His Glory! Grander than Heaven, itself, is His
splendor! There He sits, King of kings and Lord of lords! Where is the
mockery now? The shame and the spittle–where are they now? The crown
of thorns, the vinegar, the sponge, the nails–where are they now? Our
Lord is all over glorious! Now crowns become the Victor's brow and on
His head are many crowns. Christian, as He was, so are you also in this
world! And as He is, so shall you also be. Christ's triumph is the
triumph of every true and right principle. It is the triumph of every
true and right heart. You will have to suffer for it. There is no
victory to be achieved nowadays except in the same way as the Savior
achieved it, namely, by suffering. Is not Christ's greatest triumph
which He achieved on Golgotha? The triumphal chariot in which He
subdued sin and death, and Hell, was none other than His own Cross! So,
Beloved, we must expect to conquer, but it must be by shame. You must
expect to triumph, but it must be by being made to suffer and by being
despised. But you shall triumph after all. In the day when the trumpet
sounds, when–
"From beds of dust and silent clay, To realms of everlasting day,"
every obscure and despised child of God shall awaken–then shall it be
seen whom God delights to honor! You are in the minority now. You stand
alone. You are mocked by cruel enemies, and the ribald world asks you,
"Where is your God?"
You are by yourself, now, a solitary protester in the midst of a
multitude who are going astray. But the tables shall be turned soon.
You shall not then be in a minority, but in a great majority–in the
day when shouts of triumph shall be heard for the truth and for the
right, and when shame and confusion of face shall be the portion of
those who are now the despisers! They shall then wonder and perish and
ask the rocks to hide them and the hills to cover their confusion. He
endured, and yet He mounted to His Throne amidst the shouts of angels
and acclamations of Heaven! So also shall you! Therefore consider Him
in this light lest you be weary and faint in your minds.
And then, last of all, you must consider that He who went through this
to get to His crown is very Man akin to us all. He loves us tenderly.
He considers us now. He knows all the sorrows that tempt men, for He
has felt the same. You are not alone–He is with you. Three of you in
the furnace? No, there is a fourth, and that fourth is the Son of God!
Into your griefs He enters, for His own griefs have put into His hand a
master-key to fit the locks of every human grief that ever can be
known. He can comfort us with all consolation seeing that He, Himself,
has passed through all tribulation. He is never forgetful of you. He is
with you now. If you smart, He smarts. If you are despised, He suffers.
"Paul, Paul,
why do you persecute Me?" He cried. Why, it was but a few poor men and
women being hauled away to prison or to be scourged in the synagogue,
but Christ takes it as being done to Himself! "Why do you persecute
Me?" Oh Christian, with such nearness to Christ, and such sympathy
flowing from Him, be of good courage! Then hear Him say, "In all their
affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His Presence saved them."
So may you lift up the hands that hang down and confirm the feeble
knees and go on your way rejoicing in Him!
I would to God you could all take home this text, but some of you
cannot, and here is the sorrow of it, that you should live and die with
such rare comforts at your door, but you cannot take them! Oh, Sinners,
flee to Christ! Put your trust in Him and you shall soon be able to
find consolation in every part of His life and in every trait of His
death-pangs. God bless you very graciously, for His name's sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 12:1-17.
Verses 1, 2. Therefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is
set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith;
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising
the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God.We
can have no doubt about the great Truths of God which we believe, for
we are compassed about with a cloud of witnesses. The former Chapter
gives us the names of many of these glorious bearers of testimony, who
all by faith achieved great wonders and so bore witness to the Truth of
God. Having, therefore, no room for doubt, let us throw our whole
strength into our high calling and run with patience having our eyes
always fixed upon Him, the Beginner and Finisher of our faith, who has
run the race, Himself, and won the prize–and now sits down at the
right hand on the Throne of God.
3, 4. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. You have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. It has never come to
a bloody sweat with you as with Him, nor to death upon a Cross as in
His case. Shall the disciple be above his Master or the servant above
his Lord?
5, 6. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as
unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when you are rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loves, He
chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. With doting parents
it is not so–often he whom his mother loves is allowed to do as he
pleases and to escape chastening, but this is folly! The love of God is
higher and wiser than the partialities of parents. "Whom the Lord
loves, He chastens." It is a token of His favor to us that He takes the
trouble to remove our love of sin by sharp and bitter pain.
7-10. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for
what son is he whom the father chastens not? But ifyou are without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate,
andnot sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be
in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for
a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our
profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. What a bright light
this sheds upon all affliction–that it is for our profit–that it is,
thereby, we are made partakers of the holiness of God! Oh, blessed
result from a little smart and bitter.
11-13. Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Therefore lift up
the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight
paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way;
but let it rather be healed. Look at chastisement, then, in the Divine
Light of God and be comforted, be strengthened, be healed of the
infirmity of your weakness! Be strong in the Lord and in the power of
His might!
14. Followpeace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall
see the Lord. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." A
man's god is like himself and until he become like God we cannot see
God! We misunderstand God until we have been trained to imitate Him.
15-17. Looking diligently lest any man fall short of the Grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness springing up troubles you and, thereby,
many are defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as
Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright For you know how
that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was
rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it
carefully with tears. It was done and could not be undone. Does it not
seem strange that after speaking to us about being God's sons and
favored with His love, yet even then, in that clear blaze of light,
there comes in this caution against fornication and profanity? Ah me,
how near a foul spot may be to lily-like whiteness! How Judas may sit
side by side with favored and true-hearted Apostles, yes, and may be
near the Master, too! "Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he
fall." And, oh, Friends, if at any time the pottage should seem very
sweet and we should be very hungry–if the world's gain should be
almost necessary to our livelihood and we are tempted to do an
unrighteous thing to get it–let us take care, for Esau could not undo
the terrible act of selling his birthright and neither could we if we
were permitted to do so! God grant we may be spared from such a
dreadful crime!