Comfort for Tried Believers
(No. 2912)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 21, 1876.
"There hats no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but
God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you
are able; but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape,
that you may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:13.
THIS verse immediately follows the warning to "him that thinks he
stands" to "take heed lest he fall." None of us know what stuff we are
really made of until we are tried and tested. It is a very easy thing
to imagine yourself to be strong, but it is a very different matter to
find that you have sufficient strength when you actually need it. It
has even been found possible, in these modern days, for some Brothers
and Sisters to believe themselves to be perfect–to believe that sin is
entirely conquered within them–but I will guarantee you that you will
find that the practice of perfection is not nearly so common as the
profession of it–and nothing like so easy. And I will venture to go
even further and say that if you watch those in whom sin is said to be
dead, you will find that if it is dead, it is not buried–and that it
smells remarkably like other dead things which ought to be buried! It
is possibly worse than when it was alive, for it has become alive again
in an even worse sense with a double putridity. Let no one of us
imagine himself to be perfect, or to be immune against the temptations
of Satan or even the grosser vices to which the flesh is prone. It may
only need for you to be attacked at a certain point and in a certain
way and you will be overcome even as others have been. Your wisest way
is to believe yourself neither to be wise nor strong and, therefore, to
lie humbly at His feet who can make you both wise and strong–and to
look away from yourself up to Him who will keep the feet of His saints.
It ought to cool the hot blood of self-conceit in any man to remind him
that although he thinks that he stands, it is simply because he has not
been tempted as others have been who have fallen! Or if he has been
tempted in a way which overthrew them, while he has stood fast, yet, if
the temptations were still further increased and he were left to
himself, he would find that at the last the fierce wind from the Pit
would sweep him off his feet even as it has swept off other men who
thought that they could never be moved.
After the Apostle Paul had, by this warning, rebuked the boastings of
these who thought they were standing securely, he thought of the far
larger number of persons who never think that they can stand, but who
are in constant terror lest they should fall. They say they are not the
people of God yet, in almost the next breath they say they are afraid
that they will lose what they just said they did not have! They
sometimes hope that they are saved, yet they quickly doubt if it is so
with them–and they are troubled with the fear that even though they
are saved, they may yet fall and perish! Their feelings are a strange
mingle-mangle of incorrect caution and incorrect doubt! And Paul seems
to me in this verse to give them a cordial by which their fainting
spirits may be revived. And I would like to pass it on to any of you
who also need it. You may be tried in two senses–trial will come, and
the trial will often be a temptation, while the temptation will always
be a trial
I. Now comes in the comfort–and the first comfort, even in great
trouble, is that WE HAVE NOT, AFTER ALL, BEEN TRIED IN ANY VERY UNUSUAL
WAY–"There has no temptation (or trial) taken you but such as is
common to man."
You may think, my dear Brothers and Sisters, that you have been tried
more than others, but it is only your lack of knowledge of the trials
of others which leads you to imagine that your trials are unique. There
are many others besides
you in the furnace and in quite as hot a part of it as that in which
you are now placed. Note what Paul says–"There has no temptation taken
you but such as is common to man." It is a human temptation, not a
superhuman one, which has assailed you. That is to say, one which can
be withstood by men–not one that must inevitably sweep them away. You
have never been tempted with an angelic temptation. Satan has tempted
you, young man, but not with the same temptation with which he allured
the angels who kept not their first estate. There may be other orders
of intelligence for whom there are other forms of temptation because
their intellects are superior to yours–but God has allowed you to be
assailed in a way which is suitable as a test to you as a man. The
trials that have come upon you have been moderated to your capacity as
a man. The Lord knows that you are but animated dust, so He has not
permitted you to be treated as if you were made of steel or iron. He
has, Himself, dealt with you as an earthen vessel–a thing of clay in
which He has caused life to dwell. He has not broken you with His rod
of iron as He would have done if He had struck you with it.
"But I am very sorely tempted," says one. Yes, perhaps you are, but the
Lord has given you the history of the children of Israel in the
wilderness to let you see that you have not been tempted more than they
were. "Ah," says another, "but I find myself placed in a very peculiar
position where I am greatly tried. I have to labor hard and I have much
difficulty in earning my daily bread–and I am beset with trials of
many kinds." Well, dear Friend, even though what you say is perfectly
true, I am not certain that your position is any more likely to bring
temptation than was that of the children of Israel in the wilderness.
"Ah," you say, "but they had not to work to earn their bread. The manna
came to them every morning and they had only to gather it to eat it.
They were not engaged in commercial transactions. There were no markets
in the desert–no Corn Exchange, no Stock Exchange, no Smithfield, no
Billingsgate–no taking down the shutters in the morning and putting
them up again at night–and going a great part of the day without any
customers. They were separated from all other nations and were in a
peculiarly advantageous position."
Yet, dear Friends, you need not wish to be placed in such a position
because, advantageous as it was, in some respects the Israelites there
were evidently tempted to all sorts of sins and fell into them very
grievously. Having often read the story of their 40 years' sojourn in
the wilderness, you know their sad history. With so favorable a
position granted to them under the Lord's own special guardianship and
enriched with many choice mercies, we might have expected that they
would have been free from temptation–or, at any rate, that they would
not have fallen into its snare! Yet it was not so, for the devil can
tempt in the wilderness quite as well as in the city, as we know from
the experience of Christ, Himself! The devil would tempt you even if
your bread was given to you every morning instead of your having to
earn it. He would tempt you if you had no business to attend to and
never had to go into the world to meet with your fellow men. In fact,
the story of the Israelites teaches me that it is best for you to work
and best for you to be poor–and best for you not to make money as fast
as you would like–and best for you to be surrounded by cares of
various kinds. I think I judge rightly that the people of God, the
saved ones, do not fall into such gross sins as the Israelites did in
the wilderness. So that the saints' position, though it may appear
worse than that of Israel, is really better.
To what, my dear Brothers and Sisters, are you tempted? Are you tempted
to lust after evil things. They lusted after the meat that was not
suitable to the climate, nor good for their health–and they despised
the manna which was the very best food they could have! Do you ever get
a craving for what you ought not to desire? Are you growing covetous?
Do you long for ease? Do you wish for wealth? Do you love pleasure?
Well, dear Friends, this temptation has happened to others before it
happened to those people in the wilderness! You are not the first to be
tempted in that fashion and if Divine Grace has helped others to
overcome the covetous desire and the lusting of the spirit, it can help
you to do the same! But, mark also that if others have fallen through
such temptations and perished in the wilderness, you, too, apart from
Divine Grace, will do the same! Therefore have you urgent need to cry
to the Strong for strength lest you also should fall even as they did.
Are you tempted to idolatry? It is a very common temptation to make an
idol of a child, or of some particular pursuit in which you are
engaged. Is there anything in the world that is so dear to you that the
very thought of losing it makes you feel that you would rebel against
God if He took it away from you? Remember what John was inspired to
write. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." But if you are
tempted to idolatry, do not forget that this is a thing that is common
to men. In the wilderness the Israelites were tempted to set up a
golden calf and to worship it–and even to practice other idolatrous
rites which were too foul for me to describe. They were tempted to
idolatry, so it is not an
uncommon temptation. And if you are also tempted in a similar fashion,
you must cry to God for Grace to resist and to overcome the temptation.
Are you tried, sometimes, even with that terrible temptation which is
mentioned in the verse where Paul says, "Neither let us commit
fornication, as some of them committed"? Has strong passion sometimes
suggested to you that which your soul abhors? Have you been, at times,
forced to the very brink of that dread abyss of uncleanness till you
have had to cry with the Psalmist, "My feet were almost gone! My steps
had well-near slipped"? Ah, this temptation, also, is not uncommon to
men! And even those who live nearest to God and are the most pure in
heart sometimes have to blush before the Lord that such evil
suggestions should ever come into their minds.
And have you, too, been tempted "to tempt Christ, as some of them were
also tempted and were destroyed by serpents"? They wanted God to change
His plans and purposes concerning them. They found fault with Him and
said that He had brought them into the wilderness to destroy them. Do
you feel that your present troubles are too severe–that they should
not have been sent to you–at least not as many and as heavy as they
are? If so and if you feel that you have a cause for complaint against
the Most High–and that you want Him to change His methods of dealing
with you so as to suit your whims and fancies–alas, sad as such a
state of mind is, it is only too "common to man."
And possibly you may also have been tempted to murmur, "as some of them
also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer." I must withdraw
that word, "possibly," for I am greatly afraid that many professing
Christians do murmur and that they do not always realize what a gross
sin it is to murmur, seeing that it is an act of distinct rebellion
against God. But, should you at any time feel a murmuring spirit rising
up within your heart, you must not say, "This is a trial which nobody
else has ever experienced." Alas, it is a very human temptation which
is exceedingly "common to man."
So, summing up all that I have been saying and looking around this
congregation and upon all of you who know the Lord–although it would
be impossible for me to recount all the different forms of temptation
and trial through which you have gone, yet this is a matter of
fact–"there has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man."
We are all in the same boat, Brothers and Sisters, as far as temptation
and trial are concerned. We are all warring the same warfare. Your duty
may call you to one part of the field and mine may call me to another
part, but the bullets whiz by me as well as by you. There is no nook so
quiet but it has its own special dangers and there is no Valley of
Humiliation so lowly but it has its peculiar temptations. Sins are
everywhere! They sit down with you at your board and they go with you
to your bed. Snares are set for you in your home and in the street–in
your business and in your recreations. Snares are not absent from your
pains and they are abundant in your pleasures. Everywhere and under all
circumstances, we must expect to be tried–this experience is common to
men! The remembrance that it is so ought to be somewhat of a comfort to
us in every time of trial and temptation.
II. But secondly, in our text we have a far better source of comfort
than that–it is this–"BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL." There has no temptation
taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will
not allow you to be tempted above what you are able."
"God is faithful." Oh, how I love those words! They sound in my heart
like heavenly music. "GOD is faithful." You are not faithful, my
Brother or Sister–at least I know I am not, in the full sense of the
term, faithful–full of faith and faithful. "But"–oh, that blessed
"but"–"but GOD is faithful"! "If we believe not, yet He abides
faithful"–always true to every promise He has made–always gracious to
every child whom He has adopted into His family–"a very present help
in trouble"–preserving us from sinking in our seas of trouble and
delivering us from the trouble when it has accomplished the purpose for
which it was sent.
"God is faithful"–faithful to that first promise of His which came
into your soul when you yielded yourself to Jesus and He whispered to
your heart, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Do you remember
that promise? And has not the Lord been faithful to it? "God is
faithful" also to that promise which He made of old concerning His Son,
Jesus Christ–"He shall see His seed." He has seen His seed in you and
He will see you to be His seed forevermore.
"God is faithful" to all His promises! And in your experience, my
Brother or Sister, He has been faithful to the promises which met your
case in all your changing circumstances. Has He not been faithful? Can
you put your finger upon a single page of your diary and say, "God was
unfaithful this day"? Your friend who ate bread with you has lifted up
his heel against you, but has your God forsaken you? Even your own
children have been unkind and ungrateful to
you, but has the Lord ever treated you ill? Where you had the most hope
among your earthly friends and acquaintances, you have had the most
disappointments–but has Jesus ever been a wilderness to you? "All men
are liars," you have said in the bitterness of your spirit when you
have trusted in them and they have failed you in the time of trial! But
have you ever found Christ false to His Word? Can you not join your
testimony with that of all the saints above and the saints below and
say with Paul, "God is faithful"?
Even if any of you are looking forward to a dreaded sickness, or to a
painful operation, or to business losses which may sink you from your
present comfortable position to one of great trial and poverty–think
of this blessed Truth of God–"God is faithful." The whole world may
reel to and fro like a drunken man, but the Rock of Ages stands secure!
The shooting stars of temporary prosperity may die out in everlasting
night, but God is "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." "God is faithful." Whatever your future
trials are to be, put this short sweet sentence into your mouth and
keep it there as a heavenly lozenge which shall sustain you at all
times. Make it also into a jubilant refrain and, as you go on your way,
sing again and again, "God is faithful." Trials and temptations will
assail you, "but God is, faithful." Friends will fail and forsake you,
"but God is faithful." Wealth may be lost and property may vanish, "but
God is faithful." What more do you need than this, soldiers of Christ?
Here you have breastplate, helmet, sword, shield, spear–yes, the whole
panoply of God!
III. The third comfort for a tried and tempted Believer arises from
GOD'S POWER, for Paul says, "God is faithful, who will not allow you to
be tempted above what you are able."
God, then, has power to limit temptation! It is clear, from the Book of
Job, that Satan could not tempt or try the Patriarch except by Divine
permission and, even then, his power was limited. Nor can he tempt us
unless God allows him to do so. Although the devil had great power over
the elements, so that he brought disaster upon poor Job, yet there was
a very definite limit to his chain, even when the Lord let him loose,
to a certain extent. And when God set up his barriers, Satan could not
go beyond them. You remember that the Lord first said to Satan,
concerning His servant Job, "Behold, all that he has is in your power;
only upon himself put not forth your hand." When the devil again
intruded himself among the sons of God, the Lord let out more links of
his chain, but there was still a most emphatic limit to his power over
the Patriarch, "Behold, he is in your hands, but spare his life." The
devil would have liked to kill Job outright, but he could go no further
than the Lord allowed him to go and God still has unlimited power over
the devil and over every form of temptation or trial that can ever come
upon you.
If the Lord appoints for you 10 troubles, He will not suffer them to be
increased to eleven. If He ordains that you shall be in trouble for six
years, you will not be in it for six years and a day, but when the
allotted time has expired, you shall come out of it. Nothing can resist
the might of the Omnipotent Jehovah, "who make the clouds His chariot:
who walks upon the wings of the wind." He can put a bit in the mouth of
the tempest and rein in the rushing steeds of the storm–and the
fiercest of your trials and temptations must feel the force of His
overruling and restraining hand! When you are on the dunghill, remember
that God is on His Throne. Well did the Psalmist sing, "The Lord
reigns; let the earth rejoice." But much more may His own people
rejoice because His sovereignty is pledged to defend them! Why, if all
the armies of the devil were let loose upon a single saint who felt
himself to be weak as a worm and the Lord said to them, "I am his
defense and you shall not touch him," they could not touch him! And he
would be able to say with the utmost confidence, "Greater is He that is
for me than all that can be against me." The adversaries of the
righteous may rage as much as they will, but they will have to spend
their strength in raging–for that is all they can do against God's
people without His express permission!
Not a hair of their head can be scorched by the fires of persecution
unless the Lord allows it. The waters of the Red Sea cannot drown
them–they march between the watery walls dry shod. The lions cannot
devour them–Daniel enjoyed a good night's rest even in the lions' den.
Even the waves of the sea become the servitors of the saints, for,
"Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights," in
preparation for future service for God. All His people are kept by His
almighty power! How greatly this ought to comfort you who are sorely
tried! Every twig of the rod of correction has been made by God and
every stroke of it is counted by Him. There is not a drop more gall in
your cup than the Lord has ordained. He has weighed, in the scales of
the sanctuary, every ingredient of your medicine and mixed it with all
His Infallible skill so that it may produce the cure of all your ills.
Should not this make you rejoice in the Lord all the day long, and in
the night seasons as well?
IV. Fourthly, not only should tried Believers rejoice in God's power,
but they should also rejoice in GOD'S JUDGMENT, for Paul says, "God is
faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are
able."
Who beside God knows how much we are able to are? Our consolation
arises from the fact that God knows exactly how much we can bear. We
have no idea, ourselves, what we can bear. I have many a time heard a
person say, "If such-and-such a thing were to happen, it would break my
heart and I would die." Well, that very thing has happened, but the
person concerned did not break his heart and he did not die! On the
contrary, he behaved himself as a Christian in a trial should. God
helped him wondrously and he played the man, became more than conqueror
and was the brighter and the braver, ever afterwards, for all the
affliction through which he had passed. Brother, your own strength, in
some respects, is greater than you think and, in other respects, it is
less than you think–but God knows just how much you can bear, so leave
yourself in His hands!
I have known some people who have wished for trouble–it is a great
pity that anybody should be so foolish as that. I remember one who used
to think that he was not a child of God because he had not had much
trouble. He used to fret all day long because he had nothing really to
make him fret! I once heard a woman in the street say to her child who
was screaming lustily, "If you cry for nothing, I'll give you something
to cry for." So, when a man wants trouble, he will probably get it, but
it is a very silly child or man who asks for the rod! Be content to
have as little of it as you really must–you will have quite enough of
it before you get to Heaven. Do not ask for it–you will have it in due
time. God knows, to an ounce, just what His children and His servants
can carry and He never overloads them. It is true that He sometimes
sends them more trouble than they could have carried by themselves, but
then, as He increases the weight of their burden, He also increases the
strength of the back upon which He places it!
I have often admired the loving-kindness of the Lord to many of my own
flock and have noted the great joy that our young Christians have had
for a number of years. I have observed how remarkably God has preserved
them from temptation without and from trials within. The Lord does not
send His young children out to battle. He does not intend such little
boats as these to go far out to sea. He will not overdrive these lambs.
Yet the advanced Christians are just as happy as the young people are
and they are stronger and more fit for stern service and more able to
sympathize with others who are in trouble because of what they have,
themselves, passed through. As they have grown stronger, God has given
them more fighting to do for Him, while the raw recruits have been kept
at home to be drilled and disciplined. You know that when there is a
desperate fight being waged and the issue of the battle seems in doubt,
the commander orders "the old guard" to the front. That is part of the
privilege of being an old guardsman–to go into the hottest place on
the field of battle. And it is one of the privileges of the advanced
children of God to be tempted more than others and to suffer more than
others. If I could have any trial or temptation which, otherwise, would
fall upon a young Brother who has only known the Lord a week or two, I
would gladly say, "Let me have it." It might stagger him and I would be
sorry for him to be staggered by it, so I will willingly endure it. You
tried Believers must not imagine that God does not love you as much as
He did in the days of your spiritual youth when He did not test you as
He does now. He loves you quite as much as He did then and He trusts
you even more than He did then because He has made you stronger than
you used to be! He gives you the honor and privilege of marching with
the vanguard of His army, or leading the forlorn hope, or standing foot
to foot with old Apollyon!
God knows exactly how much temptation or trial you can bear and He will
not suffer the trial to go beyond that point. But, mark you, it will go
right up to that point, for there is no such thing in the world as
faith that runs to waste! For every grain of faith that God gives, He
usually gives the equivalent trial of some sort or other, for, if faith
could ever be in excess, it would degenerate into fanaticism, or some
other unholy thing. If the Lord supplies us at our back door, as it
were, with His good treasure, we are to dispose of it in our front shop
in our holy trading for Him.
V. Fifthly, our text seems to intimate that GOD HAS IN STORE SOMETHING
TO GO WITH OUR TEMPTATIONS–"He will, with the temptation, also make a
way to escape, that you may be able to bear it."
You know how you treat your own child. There is a dose of nasty
medicine to be taken and the little one does not like it. The very
sight of the spoon and cup makes him afraid. But mother says, "Now,
Johnny, take this medicine and then you shall have this lump of sugar,
or this fruit, to take away the taste of it." And when God sends a
trial or trouble to one of His children, He is sure to have a choice
sweetmeat to go with it. I have heard a child say, "I do not mind
taking the medicine so long as I get the sugar." And I have known some
of the Lord's people say, "We will willingly bear sick-
ness, pain, bereavement, temptation and persecution if we may but have
our Savior's Presence in it all." Some of us will never forget our
experiences in sickness when our pain has been sharpest and worst–it
has also been sweetest and best at the same time! What do I not
personally owe to the file, the anvil and the hammer in my Master's
workshop? I have often said, and I say again that the best piece of
furniture in my house is the cross of affliction. I have, long ago,
learned to prize it and to praise God for it–and for that which has
come to me with it–for I have often found that with the trial the Lord
has made a way of escape and that I have been able to bear it.
Even with the temptation to sin, the Lord often sends to the tempted
soul such a Revelation of the sinfulness of sin and of the beauty of
holiness, that the poison of the temptation is quite neutralized. Even
with temporal trials, the Lord often gives temporal mercies. Sometimes,
when He has been pleased to take away a man's wealth, He has restored
to Him His health and so the man has been a distinct gainer. I have
known several instances in which that has occurred. And when one dear
child has been taken away out of a family, there has, perhaps, been the
conversion of another of the children which has been a wonderful
compensation for the trial. And oftentimes trouble has been attended
with an unusual delight in the Lord. The Word of God has been
peculiarly sweet at such a time and the minister has seemed to preach
better than he ever did before–his message exactly fitting your
condition just then. You have been surprised to find that the
bitterness which came with the trouble has passed away almost before
you were aware of it! And, as death is swallowed up in victory, like
one bitter drop in a glass of water, so your trouble has been diluted
with sweet wine and you have swallowed it and have scarcely tasted its
bitterness. Thus the Lord, by His Grace, and Presence, and comfort, has
made you so glad that you have hardly known that you have been in such
trouble because of the super-abounding mercy which came with it! Ought
not that comfort us and make us ready for whatever the Lord pleases to
send to us or to permit to come upon us?
VI. Now notice, in the last place, that GOD MAKES A WAY OF ESCAPE FOR
HIS PEOPLE–"He will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape,
that you may be able to bear it."
I will read that over again. "He will, with the temptation, also make a
way to escape"–"that you may get out of it?" Oh, no!–"That you may
not have to endure it"? Oh, no!–"That you may be able to bear it."
That is a curious way to escape, is it not? Here is your way of retreat
blocked up and the opposing army is in front of you–yet you are to
escape. You say to the Lord, "Which way am I to run?" But the Lord
replies, "You must not run away. Your way to escape is to cut a road
right through your adversaries." That is a singular way to escape, but
it is the most glorious way in the whole world. The best way for an
army to escape is by conquering its foe. It is not the best way for the
pilgrim to go, to the right into the dark mountains, or to the left
into the thick forest to escape from his enemies–the best way for him
to escape is to go straight forward, despite all his adversaries–and
that is the only right way for you to escape.
Now, beloved Brother or Sister, you may, at this moment, be expecting
some very heavy affliction and you have been asking the Lord to make a
way of escape for you. You have said, "Oh, that I might not have to
come to that hour of trial!" But you wilhave to come to it. "But cannot
that dear one's life be spared?" I hope it may, but it is possible that
it may not. "Then how am I to have a way of escape?" Your way of escape
is not to avoid the trial, but to be able to bear it. What a mercy it
is that God, though He will not let His people escape trial, will
really let them escape, for this is a way of escape for them and the
best way of escape, too! It is a way of escape from all the sin of the
temptation and from all the evil of the trial–you must have the trial,
but you will only have the beneficial part of it! Brother, you must be
plunged into that sea of sorrow, but it will not drown you, it will
only wash and cleanse you. Sir, you must go into that fire– your Lord
has so ordained it–yet you are going to escape the fire. Do you ask,
"How can that be?" Why, thus–none of your gold shall be destroyed,
only the dross shall be consumed and you shall be all the purer for
passing through the fire! So again I say that this is the very best way
to escape, for if we could escape in any other way, we would lose all
the benefit of the trial!
What shall I say, then, in closing, but this, Brothers and Sisters? Are
you troubled just now and are you inclined to despair? Take wise
counsel–the storms that are beating about your boat are only such as
beat about your Master's vessel and the ships and boats in which His
Apostles sailed across the sea of old. The storms are not
Supernatural–they are not beyond what believers in Jesus are able to
bear. Put your vessel's head to the wind like a brave sailor! Do not
try to avoid that fierce blast. Sail in its very teeth, for there is a
power within you which can overcome all the winds and the waves, for is
not the Lord, Himself, with you as your Captain? And is not the Holy
Spirit with you as your Pilot? And
have you not a faithful God to trust to in the stormiest night you will
ever know? True, your foes are many and mighty, but face them like a
man! Have no thought of turning back and flinging away your shield, but
resolve, in the mighty power of faith, that since the Lord has said
that, "as your days, so shall your strength be," to the end you shall
endure and that, with Job, you will say, "Though He slay me, yet, will
I trust, in Him."
It will not be easy to keep that resolve, yet the Lord deserves that we
should keep it. Think of yourself, beloved Brother, in the worst
conceivable condition and then know that there is no sufficient reason,
even in such a condition as that, for you to doubt your God! Suppose
you were brought to your last penny, yet remember that there was a time
when you were not worth a penny–a time when you could not put food
into your own mouth and could not put on your own garments. You were
cast upon God in your first childhood and He took care of you then–and
if you grow to be a child again and the infirmities of age increase and
multiply, He who was so good at the beginning will be quite as good at
the end! Remember His ancient promise, "Even to your old age I am He;
and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear;
even I will carry and will deliver you." Such a promise as this, if God
the Holy Spirit will bless it, will make the most tried Believer
rejoice in the Lord and go on his way defying every foe who may be in
his path!
What I cannot understand is what people do who have not a God to trust
to. I often go to see poor sick people, full of aches and pains, and it
charms me to hear them talk of the goodness of the Lord to them. In
talking, this week, with one of our Brothers who is very sick and ill,
he spoke with such holy joy and boasting of the Lord's goodness to him
that I could not help saying that it would take a great many infidel
arguments to make me doubt the power of true religion after I had
listened to him! I like to see God's tried people dying full of joy,
praising and blessing the name of the Lord who is their All-in-All in
their most trying hour! It is not so with all of you–then what do you
do when trial comes without a God to help you? You have not much of
this world's goods and you have to work hard, yet when you die, you
have no Home to go to, you have no hope of going to Heaven. Oh, you
poor No-Hopes!
"Oh," says one, "we are not all poor! Some of us are quite well-to-do."
But you are poor, for all that, even if you have all your heart can
wish for here. If you have not a God, where do you carry your troubles
and your griefs, for I am sure that you have some? O my dear Friend,
may the Lord make you feel that you cannot do without Him! And when
your heart has come to this resolve, "I cannot do without my God, I
will not try to do without Him. I feel that I must have Him," then you
shall have Him! He waits to be gracious and He has said, "They that
seek Me early shall find Me." May you seek Him now and find Him–and to
Him shall be the praise forever and ever! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-13.
Verses 1-4. Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant
how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and allpassed through
the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same
spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed
them; and that Rock was Christ You see, then, dear Brothers and
Sisters, that the possession of privileges is not everything. Paul
would not have us to be ignorant that all those who were with Moses in
the wilderness had privileges of a very high order. Did they not all
pass through the Red Sea and so escape from their powerful and cruel
foes? Did they not all drink of water which gushed forth from the
flinty Rock? Were they not all fed with manna from Heaven? Yet their
privileges did not save them, for while they had the five privileges
mentioned in these four verses, they fell into the five great sins of
which we are about to read. And so their privileges, instead of being a
blessing to them, only increased their condemnation!
5, 6. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were
overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples. Or
warnings, for just as they were overthrown in the wilderness, so may we
be, notwithstanding all the Gospel privileges which we enjoy, if we are
not true Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ! If the life of Christ is
not in our souls, all the privileges of the Church of God cannot save
us. "These things were our examples."
6-11. To the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also
lusted. Neither be you idolaters, as were some of them; as it is
written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell
in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as
some of them also
tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur you, as some of
them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer Now all these
things happened unto them for example. The Apostle has told us that
before, but he tells it to us again, to warn us, by these beacons, lest
we come to a similar destruction to that which fell on those ancient
unbelievers.
11, 12. And they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of
the world are come. Therefore let him that thinks he stands take heed
lest he fall. We also are to take heed lest we fall, especially those
of us who think we are standing securely! You have seen how terrible
was the fate of those unbelievers in the wilderness who never entered
into Canaan, but left their carcasses in the desert! Now Paul urges us,
with such beacons to warn us, to take heed lest we also fall as they
did.
13. There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but
God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you
are able; but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape,
that you may be able to bear it. O Lord, fulfill Your gracious purpose
unto Your servants! Hold us up, lest we fall! We are very weak! Keep
us, for your dear Son's sake! Amen.