A Witness and a Partaker
(No. 2610)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1899.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 4, 1883.
"The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a
witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed." 1 Peter 5:1.
KINDLY notice, dear Friends, the Apostle's great gentleness. Peter was
not always thus gentle, but the Spirit of God had rested upon him and
now he writes with much tenderness. He does not say, "As an Apostle, I
command," but, "As an elder, I exhort." It is always well to combine
the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re, that is, suavity in our
method blended with strength in the thing, itself. There are some who
are very blustering in their style of speech and there are others who,
if they do not bluster, yet in the smallest matter always put forth
their greatest force, or what they think to be so. They command and
rebuke with all authority–yet here is Peter, who certainly was not a
whit behind the very chief of the Apostles–and he speaks, not by way
of command, but, addressing the elders, he tenderly exhorts them. Oh,
that we may always manifest such a meek and gentle spirit–not drive
men, but draw them to Christ–not terrify and threaten, but entice and
woo to the Savior those to whom we are speaking or writing!
Next, notice Peter's humility. "The elders which are among you I
exhort, who am also an elder." He was an elder, most truly, as are all
those who, in word and doctrine, feed the flock of God and who, at
Christ's command, take the oversight of the souls of men. But Peter was
much more than an elder, he was an Apostle. There were but few Apostles
and those who were called to that high dignity were greatly
favored–yet Peter does not mention his higher office, but, with true
humility, he puts himself on a level with his Brothers. "The elders
which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder." My Brother, if God
has given to you extraordinary talent, do not exalt yourself on that
account. If others willingly follow your leadership and you have the
privilege of rendering to the Lord greater service than they can give,
what have you that you have not received? And should not the chief
among the saints be the servant of all? Is not he really the highest in
Christ's esteem who is willing to be counted the lowest? Therefore, let
no man exalt himself, or think highly of himself, for this he ought not
to do. We admire in Peter–the once headstrong, impetuous Peter–the
gentleness blended with humility which leads him to say, "The elders
which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder."
At the same time, let us especially note the wisdom of Peter, for it
would have been an unwise thing for him to speak to the elders as an
Apostle, for they might have replied to him, "You do not know the worry
and toil and trouble of our service. You labor in a higher sphere. You,
sitting on the Apostolic benches, are far above us. We, poor plain
elders, cannot hope to attain to such eminence as yours." "No, my
Brothers," says Peter, "I am one of you, for I, also, am an elder and,
as a brother speaks to brother, so I exhort you. Knowing all your
travail of heart and all your hard service in the cause of the Master,
I, sympathizing with you, and altogether one with you, speak from my
heart to your heart. Exhorting you, the elders, I, who am also an
elder, say to you, Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the
oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy
lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away."
It will always be our wisdom, dear Friends, to put ourselves as much as
we can into the position of those whom we address. It is a pity for
anyone ever to seem to preach downto people–it is always better to be
as nearly as possible on the same level as they are. Paul knew this
and, therefore, he became "all things to all men." To the Jew, he was a
Jew. Among Gentiles, he was a Gentile, for it so happened that he
belonged to both classes. He was one with all men, barbarian, Scythian,
bond or free. If he had to argue with the learned upon Mars' Hill, he
could be a match for them. If he had to speak with the rough and
illiterate, he threw out all beauty of language and talked to them in
the plainest style. And you and I, if we want to win men to Christ,
must act after the same wise fashion. Dear Sunday school teachers,
would you be the means of blessing to the children under your charge?
Then, be yourselves, children! Keep a child's heart throbbing beneath a
manly breast. If you are a mother, go to the girls in your class as
though you were still a girl, yourself, and you shall soon find the key
of their heart and enter into the innermost chambers of their spirit. A
true man welcomes a fellow man–he sees that he is a member of the
great family of mankind and he says to him, "Come in." But if you, in
your majestic greatness, speak to me like Jupiter thundering from a
cloud, I shall not be likely to regard you. Or, if I do regard you,
your message will be forgotten in the grandeur and glory of yourself!
This is what never ought to happen, my Brothers–that people should
think of us and forget our message Let us belittle ourselves that we
may magnify our God. Let the Truth of God be borne before us like a
shield! And though we are the Lord's armor bearers, let us hide behind
the great shield which we lift up before the eyes of men. "'The elders
which are among you I exhort'–not as Peter, the head of the College of
Apostles–but as one who is a fellow elder with you." Therein, we see
Peter's gentleness, humility and wisdom combined–and we shall be wise
if we imitate him in all those respects.
With this introduction, I now come to speak of the two great offices
which Peter said that he filled. I cannot help calling them great, yet
they are open to you and to me–and I hope that, by God's Grace, we
have also, in our measure, been what Peter said that he was–"A witness
of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that
shall be revealed."
I. First, then, let us think of Peter as "A WITNESS OF THE SUFFERINGS
OF CHRIST." And, as far as possible, let us be witnesses with him.
Peter was what we have not been, an eyewitness of the suffering of
Christ. He actually and in very deed saw our Divine Master in His
terrible griefs. Peter could never forget that he saw the Lord Jesus in
His agony in the Garden. He was one of the three disciples who failed
to watch with their Lord even for one hour and who, for very sorrow,
fell asleep within a stone's cast of the place where Christ was
"exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." Peter remembered how, when
the Master rose from prayer, and said, "He is at hand that does betray
Me," he was there and saw the traitor imprint that cruel kiss upon the
cheek of Him who still called him, friend. Peter was, about that time,
drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of Malchus–and he could not
fail to remember the look upon his Master's face when he who had eaten
bread with Him did lift up his heel against Him, and the Son of Man was
betrayed with a kiss from the apostate Apostle. Peter was also an
eyewitness of our Lord's being hurried away to the bar of Annas where
He underwent His preliminary examination. He remembered seeing one
strike Him on the mouth. He could recall how they charged Him with
blasphemy. He could remember how, after the first examination was over,
Annas sent Him, bound, to Caiaphas. Peter was in the palace of Annas,
warming himself by the fire, so he was an eyewitness of all that
transpired. I do not quite know how far that witnessing went, for the
time came when he denied his Master, but he could never forget that
gaze of concentrated agony and pity when Jesus looked at him–not so
much reproachfully, perhaps, as mournfully–feeling in His own soul
that sorrow which He knew that Peter must, before long, feel. A spark
from the torch of the Savior's anguish set the heart of Peter on fire
and he went out and wept bitterly.
I believe–I cannot help believing–that Peter rallied, by-and-by, from
his fit of cowardice and that he came to the front, again, and saw the
Master in Pilate's judgment hall. You know the story of our Savior's
griefs and woes and I think that Peter and others of the Apostles were
eyewitnesses of His sufferings. They saw Him after He had been
scourged. They marked Him after He had been despised, flouted and
mocked. They saw Him as the Cross-Bearer and heard Him say," Daughters
of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your
children." They watched Him as He went in awful anguish along the Via
Dolorosa t o the Mount of Crucifixion. And they stood and saw Him
nailed to the tree, to die there, like a felon, with no relief or
succor, for God Himself forsook Him. And the bitterest pain of all was
that He had to cry," My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
Possibly, Peter saw it all. Certainly he was an eyewitness of Christ's
sufferings and, I think, when he was writing to these elders, he seemed
to say to them, "Feed the flock of God, for I saw the Great Shepherd
when He bought that flock. I was there when He purchased the sheep with
His own blood. And, after He had risen from the dead, three times He
said to me, 'Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love Me?' And when I answered,
''Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You," He said to me,'
Feed My lambs. Shepherd My sheep. Feed My sheep.' Therefore, O my
Brethren, by His agony and bloody sweat, by His Cross and passion, by
His precious death and burial, by His glorious resurrection and
ascension, I beseech you, 'feed the flock of God which He has purchased
with Jesus' own blood.'" I see great force in this exhortation by the
eyewitness who is writing to his fellow elders.
But, dear Brothers and Sisters, you and I, never having seen Christ in
His sufferings, might never have had a participation in this part of
our text if there had not been another kind of witnessing, namely, the
faith-witness. I do not place this second in importance, though I put
it second in order, for, indeed, it is of the very greatest importance.
There were thousands who were eyewitnesses of our Lord's sufferings
who, nevertheless, saw not the true meaning of them. They saw the dear
Sufferer besmeared with His own blood, but into His wounds they never
looked by faith. Thousands saw the Savior die, but they simply went
their way back to Jerusalem, some of them beating on their breasts, but
none of them believing in Him, or really knowing the secret of that
wondrous death. I trust that I am addressing many who could be grouped
together as faith-witnesses of the sufferings of Christ. Speaking for
myself, I remember well when my sins, like an intolerable burden,
crushed me down. I dared not look up and I never would have been able
to look up, or to speak to anyone of the joy which is now within my
bosom if I had not, by faith, seen–
"One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood, Who fixed His languid
eyes on me As near His Cross I stood. Sure never till my latest breath
Can I forget that look! It seemed to charge me with His death, Though
not a word He spoke. A second look He gave, which said, 'I f-eely all
forgive. This blood is for your ransom paid, I die, that you may live.
Then I saw not only that Christ Jesus died upon the Cross, but I also
perceived who He was and why He died–and what He accomplished by that
death. I was helped to learn that He "loved me and gave Himself for
me." I understood that He took my place that I might take His
place–that He took my sin that I might take His righteousness–that He
bore my woe that I might share His joy. And when I saw that–I do
notmean when I heard about it–I do notmean when I read of it–but when
I saw it with my soul's inner eyes and not only understood it, but
perceived my share in my Savior's Sacrifice, and believed in Him to the
saving of my soul, oh, it was a blessed day for me! Many of you, dear
Friends, know well what I mean, for you also had just such a sight as I
have described. You were faith-witnesses of Christ's sufferings! With
some of us, many days have passed since we had that first sight of our
suffering Lord, yet that sight has been often renewed to us. Sitting at
the Communion Table I have seen it most clearly–the bread and the wine
have set forth Christ's broken body and poured out blood–and my soul
has realized within herself His Godhead and His Manhood, His perfection
and His grief, His sinlessness and yet His sin-bearing, His suretyship
and the way He smarted for it. And it has been a great joy to see it,
and to be able to sing–
"He bore on the tree the sentence for me, And now both the Surety and
sinner are free"– for Jesus redeemed us completely and effectually
when He died upon the Cross. Many of you, Beloved, have been in like
manner, faith-witnesses of Christ's sufferings.
There are some who depreciate this faith-witness, but, Sirs, it is
faith that saves! You may be an eyewitness and yet perish as Judas did.
You may be an eyewitness and yet be lost as Pilate was. You may be an
eyewitness and still hate Christ as Caiaphas did. But if you become a
faith-witness, then shall you be included among those of whom it is
written, "They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they
shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in
bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."
Such a faith-view begets repentance, hope and love–and brings
salvation to every soul that has it!
Peter, then, was an eyewitness, but, better still, he was a
faith-witness. And this being the case, he went on to be a testifying
witness. If a man sees anything happen, he is a witness of it. But he
is more manifestly a witness when he comes and says that he saw
it–when he appears in court and bears a public testimony concerning
it. I judge that the principal business of any minister of Christ, or
of any elder of the Church of Christ, is to bear testimony to the
sufferings of Christ. If the atoning sufferings of Christ are left out
of a ministry, that ministry is worthless. "The blood is the life
thereof," is as true about sermons as it is about animals and
sacrifices. A bloodless gospel, a gospel without the Atonement, is a
gospel of devils and not the Gospel of God. Many are laboring hard,
till their oars bend, to get away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ–I
mean hundreds of so-called ministers of Christ–but in proportion as
they forsake the Gospel, they cease to be what they pretend to be. They
are not the ministers of God, or of His Christ! They are not
ambassadors telling of reconciliation to men if in their teaching the
sufferings of Christ are hazy and their cause and motive and objective
are obscured. It is the glory of some of us that whatever else we bear
witness to, we certainly are witnesses of the sufferings of Christ. We
declare to men that there is no hope for them but in Christ who died!
We testify to them that we have, ourselves, exercised faith in His
death and have, thereby, received eternal life! We tell them that we
know that what we say is true–we are as sure of it as was that
disciple who, when he saw the blood and water flowing from Christ's
side, bore witness to it, and added–"He knows that what he says is
true, that you might believe." These things are not like dreams to us,
they are part of our very being! We have believed in the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ and our troubled conscience has therein
found peace. Our soul has been filled with all the fullness of God and,
therefore, we are and must be witnesses to the sufferings of the
crucified Son of God, to the reality of the Atonement that He made on
the Cross and to the effect of that Atonement upon the heart and
conscience of all those who receive it.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, this is not only the minister's work,
but it is your work, too. We are all to be constantly bearing our
witness to Christ and saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away
the sin of the world." You know what the people said of John the
Baptist when he was dead–it is a kind of epitaph which any one of us
might be glad to have put on our tombstone–"John did no miracle, but
all things that John spoke of this Man were true." He had no great
talents. He was not noted for His eloquence. He was not s man of
commanding presence. He had no recondite knowledge. He had no profound
logical power, but all that he said concerning Christ was true! I would
like to have John the Baptist's epitaph as my own and I would be glad
for you to have it, too–that in life and death we might be known as
true witnesses to the sufferings of Christ, the power of which we have
felt in our own souls.
There is one other view of this witness-bearing, and that is that Peter
was, to a very large extent, a partaking witness in the sufferings of
Christ. He does not say so in our text, but in the 13th verse of the
fourth Chapter he wrote, "Rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of
Christ's sufferings." And he could write like that because of what he
had, himself, endured for Christ's sake. He had been mocked, despised,
persecuted. His life had been sought and he knew that he would have to
suffer a painful death, for His Master had said to him, "When you shall
be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird you,
and carry you where you would not." Putting all these things together,
Peter could truly say that he was a witness of Christ's sufferings
because he had, in a measure, participated in them.
I hope I am addressing some who can also say–though to a far smaller
degree than could the saints of old–"Yes, for Christ's sake we have
been accounted fools. We have been reckoned among those who have not
the courage to advance with the times. We have been willing to be
mocked in the workshop, or in the pulpit, or wherever our lot has been
cast among men. And we would cheerfully have borne far more if it had
been imposed upon us." As the persecuted Believer looks up to his Lord,
he can truthfully say–
"If on my face for Your dear name, Shame and reproaches be, All hail
reproach, and welcome shame, If You remember me."
Thus you see how Peter was a witness of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
May each of us be appointed to the same high and honorable position!
II. The second thing which Peter says of himself is, perhaps, more
remarkable than the first. He says that he was 'A PARTAKER OF THE GLORY
THAT SHALL BE REVEALED.
I like to see that word, "partaker," coming after the word, "witness,"
for I do not think that any man can really be a useful witness for
Christ unless he is a partaker. Can you go and talk to others about the
bitterness of sin when you have never wept over it or repented of it,
yourself? Can you speak of the sweets of Divine mercy of which you have
never tasted? Will you magnify "precious faith" when you are, yourself,
a stranger to the faith of God's elect? Will you set forth Christ,
evidently crucified among men, when you have never seen Him, yourself?
Can you describe the love which has never cheered your own heart? Will
you tell of communion with Christ when you know nothing of its
blessedness? Unhappy man! Your office would be, indeed, terrible if you
were called to such a work! It were better for you to perform the most
menial labor with the most grievous sweat and wear and tear of your
very marrow and bones, than have to occupy a pulpit to talk of things
which you have never tasted, handled and felt yourself. I would sooner
not exist than be a preacher of the Truths of God which I had never
believed in my own soul! The old writers used to speak of men who
served in the shambles and butchers' shops and who saw and handled and
sold the meat, but who, themselves, died of hunger. And they spoke of
wretched folk who prepared dainties for their fellow men, but who did
not, as they expressed it, get so much as a lick of their own fingers,
but died of famine while they were feasting others.
Oh horrible, horrible, must it be to be sick unto death and yet to be
selling medicines that will heal! Oh, dreadful must it be to be
hammering away building an ark, as Noah's carpenters did, and yet never
to enter it, but to die in the deluge while the ship which you helped
to build bears others over the wild waste of waters! Get home,
minister! Tear off your gown and lay aside the very name that makes you
appear to be a servant of God! Get down on your knees and cry, "God be
merciful to me, a sinner, and forgive me for ever having dared to
assume an office whose duties I could not fulfill! For how can I, who
am blind, be the guide of others? And how shall I, who am spiritually
deaf and dumb, make others hear? And how shall I tell of God and of His
Covenant, and of His Grace, while I know not God experimentally and
have no evidence that I am in the Covenant and have never tasted of His
Grace?" That is right, Brother–you are getting on the right lines–if
you would be a witness, you must first be a partaker! And you who teach
in the Sunday school, you who preach at the street corners, you who go
from house to house with your tracts–whoever you are who profess to be
witnesses for Christ, take care that you are both witnesses and
partakers. Join the two together–you cannot witness if you do not
partake, or if you witness and do not partake, you only witness to your
own condemnation!
Very strangely, Peter here writes of himself as "a partaker of the
glory." Did he mean that he was on the holy Mount of Transfiguration
and saw the splendor of that sight when Christ was all aglow with a
white light which gathered up all brightness and beauty into its
solitary ray? Was he thinking of that memorable scene? I know not. It
may have flitted across his mind but, in this passage, he says that he
is "a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed." Not the glory that
had been revealed, but that shall be revealed. Is that possible? Can a
man be a partaker of a glory that, as yet, is not revealed?
I answer that he may, first, by the closeness of his union with the
glorified Christ. If I am, by faith, indissolubly one with Christ, then
in His Glory I am glorified. On His Throne I am enthroned. By His
victory I am "more than conqueror." If we are one with Him, then we are
raised up together with Him and made to sit together with Him in the
heavenly places. Oh, it is grand when a Believer does not so much think
of himself as himself, but as part and parcel of his Lord! This is a
very high attainment, yet Peter had reached it–and if you are vitally
joined to Christ, you may reach it, too. If you have been, indeed,
planted with Him in the likeness of Hs death, you shall also share the
likeness of His resurrection–and you even now share it with Him, for
as He is, so are you in this world! Was He humbled? Every saint
underwent humiliation in Christ. Is He glorified? All His elect are
virtually glorified in the glorification of their Covenant Head. It is
indeed a blessed thing to know your union with Christ so completely
that you are made "a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed" as
far as you are personally concerned, but which is already revealed to
Christ and, therefore, is already yours.
I am sure that Peter also means that he had become a partaker of this
glory to be revealed by the absolute certainty which he felt in his own
soul that he should be ultimately, in very deed, a partaker of it When
a man knows that he has such-and-such a possession in reversion, if he
is very poor, he discounts it and begins to live upon its present
worth. It is a very blessed thing when a child of God knows that
because he is in Christ by faith, therefore, whatever things God has
laid up for His people in general, He has laid up for him in
particular! Whatever Christ has prepared for His redeemed, He has
prepared for this redeemed one. Often his faith does, as it were,
appropriate the future glory, and cry, "It is mine." The Believer
begins to glorify God for it, though as yet he has not actually
partaken of it, for faith brings him the substance of things hoped for,
and is to him the evidence of things not seen. Brothers and Sisters,
the next best thing to being actually in Heaven is to be assured that
you will be there, and also to have this thought at the back of the
assur-ance–that you may be there within the next five minutes! Oh, how
speedily may you and I be in Glory! Before the clock ticks again, I may
see the face of the King in His beauty, in the land that is very far
off, in some respects, but very near in others. You know how John
Newton puts it–
"In vain my fancy strives to paint
The moment after death,
The glories that surround the saint,
When yielding up his breath.
One gentle sigh the fetter breaks–
We scarce can say, 'They're gone!'
Before the willing spirit takes
Her mansion near the Throne." Well, since this glory is certain and may
be so near, let us sit down and look at the golden gates–look until we
see them–until they seem to come nearer and nearer and nearer, until
the vision becomes so vivid that it ceases to be a vision and we are
actually where we were thinking that we should soon be! It has so
happened to many a child of God. There is one whom God favored with
great wealth and to whom a friend said, "What a paradise this lovely
garden is!" "Yes," he replied, "and I bless God for the assurance that,
when I leave it, I shall go from one paradise to another and a better
one." Some have said to a poor Christian, "What an ill-furnished place
your room is! How scanty are your worldly goods!" "Ah," the man, has
answered, "but I have enough to last me till I get Home, for I have the
promise that bread shall be given me, water shall be sure and then I
shall have Heaven to crown it all." When we have faith like that, then
are we partakers of the Glory that shall be revealed!
There is a step even beyond this when we advance from faith to positive
enjoyment. There is such a thing as anticipating the glory to be
revealedwith such a full, realizing faith that we begin to enjoy it
even now! Surely, you have, at times, sat down with your fellow
Believers, when the Word has been preached in the demonstration of the
Spirit, and you have said, "Well, Heaven must be glorious, indeed, to
be any better than this! My soul is all ablaze with love to Christ and
even while my poor body is lingering here–
"My heart is with Him on His Throne,
And ill can brook delay.
Each moment listening for the voice,
'Rise up, and come away.'"
And when the service has been over, you have said, "My soul was like
the chariots of Amminadib–whether I was in the body or out the body, I
could not tell." On your bed, sometimes, or in the chamber of sickness,
or sitting alone in quiet meditation after you have been enraptured
with a vision of your Lord, has it not seemed as if God had taken some
dainty dish from off the table of the angels and passed it down to His
waiting child below? Have you not heard stray notes of which you could
almost say, "I am persuaded that is the angels' song"? And sweet sounds
have reached your ears, like the music of "harpers harping with their
harps," making you impatient of your exile here, but, at the same time,
making you unspeakably happy until you shall be called up to join in
the grand chorus of the Church of God above! "Unto Him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and
priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever
and ever!"
Yes, Beloved, Peter could truly say that he was a partaker of the Glory
yet to be revealed. I have no doubt that, sometimes, when he preached
the Word, his soul was all aglow with holy fervor. I know that, often,
I have been so graciously helped by the Holy Spirit to uplift my Lord
and Master from this platform, that I have not wanted to go up those
stairs any more. I would have liked to just finish up my discourse and
say, "Amen," on earth, and at once begin to sing the everlasting song
above! Have not you, dear Friend, also reached that blessed state? I am
sure that Peter was often in that condition. And when he was
persecuted, despised, imprisoned and his own brethren cast him out,
there was often within his own bosom a company of the angels of God,
Christ's sacred host–a very Mahanaim–and, still better, there was the
Prince of Princes, the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord and Master of
all the angels, speaking deep bliss into His servant's soul and filling
him with unspeakable joy and glory!
Now, my Brother or my Sister, if you get that Presence of Christ–and I
pray that you may–you will be qualified to be a witness for Christ.
People will say, "What makes those eyes so bright? What causes that man
to be so happy? What is it that produces that calm, quiet spirit in the
house? How is it that that man is not troubled as others are? He does
not seem to have much cause for joy, but he is very serene and placid
in spirit." They will perhaps say to you, "What is the secret of it
all?" Then you will have an opportunity of saying, "I am a witness of
Christ's sufferings, but I am also a partaker of the Glory that shall
be revealed." Come with me, in thought, to Calvary, that you may learn
the meaning of His sufferings, that you may afterwards be taught how
you may share His Glory.
I wish I could speak right to the very soul of some of you who do not
know my Master–how I wish you did know Him! I cannot imagine what some
of you have to comfort you which you can, for even a moment, compare
with the bliss of knowing my Lord! I have seen your joys. I know
something of what mirth can do and what relief laughter may be able to
bring, but I also know that these things are of little use in the time
of sickness, or when one is near death. It is just at such times that
true joy in Christ becomes more deep, more sweet than ever! The less
there is of the creature, the more room is there for the Creator. The
more of suffering and sorrow we have to endure, the more of content and
bliss can we enjoy. And oftentimes, when the body is weak and the head
is aching, and the soul is faint, there is, as it were, a sweet swoon
of Divine delight which comes over the spirit, which has more strength
in it than strength, more joy in it than joy, and almost as much of
Heaven in it as there is in Heaven! May you know this, for the sake of
Him who has loved us and given Himself for us! God bless you all! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 CORINTHIANS 1.
I am going to speak about the testimony of the Apostle Peter concerning
his Lord, but we will first read together part of the writings of his
"Beloved brother Paul," that we may see how these eminent servants of
Christ agreed in their witness-bearing.
Verses 1-3. Paul, called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the
will of God, andSosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is
at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints, with all that in everyplace call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God
our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ So this is a message to us,
also, who "call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord."
4-9. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the Grace of God which
is given you by Jesus Christ; that in everything we are enriched by
Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of
Christ was confirmed in you: so that you come behind in no gift;
waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm
you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the
fellowship ofHis Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul was going to blame
them for some things that were not right, but he began by commending
whatever good was in them by God's Grace.
10-12. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the
same mind and in the same judgment For it has been declared to me of
you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there
are contentions among you. Now this I say, that everyone of you says, I
am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ So that,
at the least, there were four parties in that one little Church which
ought to have been knit together in unbroken harmony! This is only one
instance of what has happened hundreds of times since. These
Corinthians had a great many speaking Brothers among them and they held
services in which it was open to anybody to speak as he felt inclined.
There was no reason why they should not do so, but what was the result
of it? This Christian liberty of theirs, by-and-by, tended to mischief.
They became divided into factions. They did not practice discipline as
they ought to have done and, therefore, this community at Corinth is a
beacon to all other churches, warning them not to carry on their
worship in a similar style. It is a very curious thing that some people
have taken these Corinthians as an example instead of a warning and,
having copied their methods, the very same result has followed until
there is no section of the Church of Christ that has become such a
scandal, through its divisions and its intestine quarrels, as that
which has imitated the Corinthians in their mode of worship! I suppose
that while human nature is what it is, the same causes will produce the
same results to the very end of the chapter. Paul does not tell them
that their mode of worship was wrong–perhaps it was not–for great
liberty is allowable to Christians, but he does lay the axe at the root
of their divisions.
13, 14. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you
baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you,
but Crispus and Gaius. They were such a quarrelsome set of people that
he could not have taken any comfort from having baptized them. He was
glad that they could not quote his name as having done so and thus it
may be, have added still more to their division and strife.
15-18. Lest any should say that I have baptized in my own name. And I
baptized also the household of Stephanus: besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the Gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should
be made of no effect. For the preaching of the Cross is to them that
perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
I suppose that in that Church, with its many eloquent speakers and men
of knowledge, there came to be a spirit of emulation among them as to
which should speak best. And some were tempted to find novel meanings
in the Word, and to come to the meetings to tell of their wonderful
discoveries. The Apostle says that he did not so preach–he kept to the
Cross of Christ, which some counted to be but foolishness. "We know all
about that," they said. "Ah, but," replied the Apostle, "unto us which
are saved it is the power of God."
19-21. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and
will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Where is the
wiser, where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Has
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God, in His
infinite wisdom, raised up a number of philosophers just about the time
of the coming of Christ and a little before that great event. If ever
there were great minds upon the earth, it was then–yet these men, with
all their schools of thought, knew not God–and the people did not
follow after them, so that the earthly wisdom turned out to be a
failure.
22-29. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and
unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is
stronger than men for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called:
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which
are despised, has God chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring
to nothing things that are: that no flesh should glory in His Presence.
And, at this day, it is a great snare to the Church when she glories in
her education, when she puts any confidence in the learning, or the
wit, or the eloquence of her ministers, when she relies in any degree,
whatever, upon an arm of flesh. The sword of the Spirit, if it is put
into a velvet and embroidered scabbard, is all the worse for that. Pull
it out! The Word of God cannot cut while it is hampered with human
wisdom and human learning half as well as when its keen edge, alone, is
used! It is the Lord, by the power of His Spirit, who must make the
Word effectual. Oh, for more faith and truer faith in Him!
30, 31. But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifca-tion, and redemption: that,
according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.
There is no one else in whom we may glory! Away with every form of
boasting except that of making our boast in the Lord, and especially of
glorying in the great atoning Sacrifice of His dear Son, our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ!