Faith Among Mockers
(No. 1767)
DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him,
seeing He delighted in Him." Psalm 22:8.
DAVID experienced what Paul afterwards so aptly described as "cruel
mockings." Note the adjective, cruel–it is well chosen. Mockings may
not cut the flesh, but they tear the heart. They may shed no blood, but
they cause the mind to bleed internally. Fetters gall the wrists, but
the iron of scorn enters into the soul. Ridicule is a poisoned bullet
which goes deeper than the flesh and strikes the center of the heart.
David in the wilderness, hunted by Saul and on the throne abused by
Shimei, knew what it was to be the butt of scorn, the football of
contempt. Many a time and often he was the song of the drunk and the
byword of the scoffer.
But what have I to do with the son of Jesse? My heart remembers the Son
of Man. What if David suffered despising and scorn? He knew it but in
small measure compared with our blessed Lord! Well is it said, "The
disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord." It
is not amazing that such an one as David should have to cry, "My soul
is among lions," when the Lord of All, the perfectly pure and Holy One,
was driven to utter the same cry, saying, "All they that see Me laugh
Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He
trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him,
seeing He delighted in Him."
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if you have to pass through a like
painful experience, count it no strange thing, for a strange thing it
is not! Reproach is the common heritage of the godly. Do not think that
this fire which you suffer is the first that ever burned a saint.
Others have had to bear the enmity of the world long before you!
Remember that, of old, from the first moment when sin came into the
world, there were two seeds, the Seed of the woman and the seed of the
serpent–and between these two seeds there is an enmity of the most
deadly kind which will never cease! It may assume different forms and
it may be held in check by many forces, but it will always continue,
forever the same, while men are men, sin is sin–and God and the devil
are opposed.
It was so, you know, in the house of Abraham–he was a man that walked
before God and was perfect in his genera-tion–and yet in his family
there were the two opposing powers. Ishmael, born after the flesh,
mocked him that was born after the Spirit. When Rebekah had brought
forth twin sons, yet the fact of their being twins of holy Isaac did
not prevent the enmity that arose between Jacob and Esau. Nothing will
prevent the seed of the serpent from exhibiting its spite towards the
Seed of the woman! Even kinship and brotherhood go for little in this
strife. In fact, a man's foes full often are they of his own household.
Count it no marvel, then, if you are derided! It seems to be a
necessity of the holy Nature of God that it should incur the enmity of
the evil nature of fallen man and that this evil nature should show
itself by direct and bitter attack.
Remember "Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds." Henceforth, bow
your shoulders to the yoke! Expect that if you follow the Crucified,
you will have to bear the Cross, for so it will be. I trust that our
present meditation may be useful to any of God's servants who are
feeling the sharp lash of envious tongues, that they may not, thereby,
be driven from their steadfastness. If any, in their hearts, are bowed
down because they are conscious that possibly they have given the
scoffers some opportunity to mock them, may they even in this, take
heart, for David had done so, and yet he was not crushed by the
blasphemies of the wicked.
I. The first thing to which I shall call your attention at this time is
that a truly gracious man is like David and like the Lord Jesus, in
that HIS TRUST IN GOD IS KNOWN. Even the enemies of this holy man who
is mentioned in the text, and, as I interpret it, even the enemies of
our Divine Lord and Master, never denied that He trusted in God. This,
indeed, is the commencement of their scoff–"He trusted on the Lord
that He would deliver Him." From which I gather
that every gracious man should have an apparent, manifest, public trust
in God. He should not merely trust Him in his heart, alone, but that
trust should so enter into his entire nature that he does not conceal
it nor think of concealing it.
He should be so open in the avowal of his confidence, that his enemies,
before whom he is naturally restrained and on his guard, nevertheless
are able to spy out this precious thing within him and are forced to
bear their witness, though it is mockingly and jestingly, that, "He
trusted on the Lord." Such a testimony is all the more valuable as
coming from an enemy! You know our character is not likely to be drawn
too prettily by those who hate us–the utmost will be sure to be said
against us! But if even our enemies say of us, "He trusted on the
Lord," we may be very thankful that we have so lived as to extort this
testimony from their lips.
What, then, ought a child of God to do in order to show that he really
does trust in the Lord? How did Jesus do this? Well, I think that in
our Lord's case it was His wonderful calmness which compelled everybody
to see that "He trusted on the Lord." You never find Him in a flurry.
He is never worried nor confused. He is beset behind and before with
men who try to catch Him, but He is as self-possessed as if He spoke
among friends. He does not appear to be the least upon His guard and
yet, instead of their catching Him, before long He either catches them,
or else they retire, saying, "Never man spoke like this Man." He was
always cool, peaceful, ready, self-composed. You notice His inward
quietude not only when enemies are round about Him, but when He is
surrounded by a great mob of people all hungry, starving, famishing–He
breaks the bread and multiplies it–but not before He has made them all
sit down on the green grass by hundreds and by fifties.
He will have them in companies, arranged in ranks, for convenient
distribution. And when they are all placed in order, as if it had been
a well-marshaled royal entertainment, then it is that He takes the
bread and, looking up to Heaven, with all deliberation asks a blessing
and breaks and gives the food to the disciples. The disciples make no
scramble of it– it is an orderly festival and the thousands are all
fed in due time and in majestic decorum–for Christ was calm and,
therefore, master of the situation! He never looks as if He had fallen
into difficulties and then adopted expedients to get out of them! His
whole life is pre-arranged and ordered in the most prudent and peaceful
manner.
Nothing upon this earth, although He was so reduced that He had nowhere
to lay His head and although He was sometimes so weary that He sat down
upon a well to rest, could put Him out of the way, or disarrange His
perfect col-lectedness! He was always ready for every emergency. In
fact, nothing was an emergency to Him! What a beautiful picture that is
of Christ on board ship in a storm! While they that are with Him are
afraid that they will go down, that the wind will blow them into the
water, or blow the water over them, so that they will certainly be
drowned–what is He doing? Why, He is asleep! Not because He forgot
them–no, but because He knew that the vessel was in the great Father's
hands!
It was His time for sleep. He was weary and needed rest and so He
carried out that which was the nearest duty–and in all peacefulness
laid His head on a pillow and slept! His sleep ought to have made them
feel at ease. Whenever the captain can afford to go to sleep, the
passengers may go to sleep, too. Depend upon it, He that manages
everything would not have gone to bed if He had not felt that it was
all right in the hands of the Highest, who, at any moment, could stop
the raging storm! I wish we could be similarly restful, for then even
our enemies would say of us, "He trusted on the Lord." I wish we could
have that steadfast, imperturbable frame of mind in which our Lord
untied the knots with which His foes would have bound Him–for then our
assailants would marvel at our quiet confidence.
Jesus knew no hurry, but calmly and deliberately met each matter as it
came and grandly kept Himself free from all entanglement. Oh, for the
holy quiet which would prevent our going about our business in haste!
"He that believes shall not make haste," but do everything as in the
infinite leisure of the Eternal who is never before His time and is
never behind. If we could do that and did not get so flurried and
worried, and tossed about and driven to our wit's end, then our enemies
would say with astonishment, "He trusted on the Lord!"
Brethren, this ought, also, to come out not merely in our calm and
quiet manner, but also by our distinct avowal. I do not think that any
man has a right to be a secret believer in the Lord Jesus Christ at
this time. You will tell me that Nico-demus was–that Joseph of
Arimathaea was–and I answer, "Yes," but therein they are not our
exemplars. These weak Brothers were forgiven and strengthened–but we
may not, therefore, presume. Times, however, are different now–by the
death of Christ the thoughts of many hearts were revealed–and from
that day those secret disciples were among the
foremost to avow their faith! Nicodemus brought the spices and Joseph
of Arimathaea went in boldly and begged for the body of Jesus.
Since that day when Christ was openly revealed upon the Cross, the
thoughts of other men's hearts are revealed, too, and it is not now
permissible for us to play hide and seek with Christ. No, "He that
believes and is baptized shall be saved." "He that with his heart
believes and with his mouth makes confession of Him, shall be saved."
The open confession is constantly, in Scripture, joined with the secret
faith! The Lord Jesus Christ puts it, "He that denies Me before men,
him will I deny." And if you read it, the text sets denying in
opposition to confession, so that it really means, "He that does not
confess Me before men, him will I not confess when I come in the Glory
of the Father." Our Lord does not reckon upon leading a body of
followers who will always keep behind the hedge, hiding themselves in
holes and corners whenever there is anything to be done for His
Glory–and only running out at mealtimes when there is something to be
had for themselves!
I know some professors of that sort, but I have very little to say to
their credit–they are a cowardly crew. No, no! We ought to distinctly
declare that we believe in God and we should take opportunities, as
prudence dictates, of telling our friends and neighbors what our
experience has been about trusting in God–telling them of deliverances
we have received, of prayers which have been answered–and of many
other tokens for good which have come to us as the result of our faith
in God. To trust in man is a thing of which we may be ashamed, for we
find man to be as a broken reed, or as a spear that pierces us to our
heart when we lean on him. But, blessed are they that trust in the
Lord, for they shall be as trees planted by the rivers of water! They
shall bring forth their fruit in their season and even their leaves
shall not wither! God, in whom they trust, will honor their faith and
bless them yet more and more! Let them, therefore, honor their God and
never hesitate to speak well of His name.
So, then, I say, first, a calm belief and, secondly, an open avowal
should cause even our adversaries to know that we have trusted in the
Lord. And, then, I will add to that, that our general conduct should
reveal our faith. The whole of our life should show that we are men who
rejoice in the Lord, for trusting the Lord, as I understand it, is not
a thing for Sundays and for places of worship, alone–we are to trust
in the Lord about everything! If I trust the Lord about my soul, I must
trust Him about my body, about my wife, about my children and all my
domestic and business affairs. It would have been a terrible thing if
the Lord had drawn a black line around our religious life and had said,
"You may trust Me about that, but with household matters I will have
nothing to do." We need the whole of life to be within the fence of
Divine care. The perfect bond of Divine Love must tie up the whole
bundle of our affairs, or the whole will slip away.
Faith is a thing for the closet, the parlor, the counting house and the
farmhouse–it is a light for dark days and a shade for bright days–you
may carry it with you everywhere and everywhere it shall be your help.
Oh, that we did so trust in the Lord that people noticed it as much as
they notice our temper, our dress, or our tone! The pity is that too
often we go forward, helter-skelter, following our own wisdom, whereas
we ought to say, "No, I must wait a little while, till I ask counsel of
the Lord." It should be seen and known that we are distinctly waiting
upon God for guidance. What a stir this would make in some quarters! I
wish that without any desire to be Pharisaical, or to display our
piety, we, nevertheless, did unconsciously show the great principle
which governs us!
Just as one man will say, "Excuse me, I must consult a friend," or, "I
must submit the case to my solicitor," so it ought to be habitual with
a Christian–before he replies to an important matter–to demand a
moment wherein he may wait upon God and obtain direction! In any case,
I wish that it may be so usual with us to ask guidance from above that
it may be noticed as our habit to trust on the Lord. Once more, I think
this ought to come out most distinctly in our behavior during times of
trouble, for then it is that our adversaries are most likely to notice
it. You, dear Sister, have lost a child. Well now, remember that you
are a Christian woman–and sorrow not as those that are without hope.
Let the difference be real and true, and do not be ashamed that others
might observe it.
When your neighbor lost her child, it occasioned a quarrel between her
and God, but it is not so with you, is it? Will you quarrel with God
about your baby? Oh, no! You love Him too well. And you, Brother, you
are perplexed in business and you know what a worldling does–if he has
nothing more than outward religion, he complains bitterly that God
deals harshly with him and he quarrels with God! Or, perhaps, to make
things better, he does what he ought not to do in business and makes
them a great deal worse. Many a man has plunged into rash speculations
until he has destroyed him-
self commercially! But you, as a Christian man, must take matters
calmly and quietly–it is not yours to speculate, but to confide. Your
strength lies in saying–"The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord."
You must not be so eager to be rich that you would put forth your hand
to do iniquity in order to seize the golden apples–that is the reverse
of faith! You are now to play the man and, in the power of the Holy
Spirit, you are now with resignation, no, with more than that–with a
sweet acquiescence to the Divine will–to show men how a Christian can
behave himself. I have never admired Addison's words as some have done,
who, when he came to die, sent for a lord of his acquaintance and said,
"Watch how a Christian can die." There is a little pride about that,
but I desire that every Christian should say in his soul, "I will show
men how a Christian can live. I will let them see what it is to live by
faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Those who
do not believe there is a God shall yet be led to feel there must be a
God, because my faith in Him does speed so well and I obtain so many
unnumbered blessings as the result of it."
I say, most earnestly, that especially in the time of sorrow and
bereavement, when other people are sore put to it because they have
lost their joy, and the light of their house is quenched, it is the
Believer's duty and privilege, by his holy calm of heart, to show his
trust in God! If religion cannot help you in trouble, it is not worth
having! If the Spirit of God does not sustain you when you lose your
dearest friend, you ought to question whether it is the Spirit of God!
You ought to ask, "Can this be the Spirit which bore up the martyrs at
the stake?"–if now that you are passing through these waters, you are
carried away by them? If our faith shines out in dark times, even as
the stars are seen by night, then is it well with us!
Oh, that you and I might, in all these ways so live that all who see us
should know that we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ! It would be
ridiculous if a man went into society with a label on his coat, "This
man trusts in God," and it would be a pretty clear sign that he needed
to be thus ticketed. I would have you shun all distinctive phylacteries
in matters of religion as too much flavored with the leaven of the
Pharisees! But when the possession of godliness proclaims itself, even
as a box of precious spikenard tells its own tale, you need not be
ashamed of it! Display and ostentation are vicious, but the
unrestrained use of influence and example is commendable. In these days
when men glory in their unbelief, let us not be bashful with our faith!
If, in a free country, men should not persecute an infidel, they
certainly ought not to silence a Believer. We do not intend to smuggle
our religion through the land. It is not contraband and, therefore, we
shall bear it with us, openly, in the sight of all men–and let them
say if they please–"He trusted on the Lord."
II. Secondly, THIS TRUST ON THE PART OF BELIEVING MEN IS NOT UNDERSTOOD
BY THE WORLD.
"He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him." Observe that they
restricted the Savior's trust to that point–"He trusted on the Lord
that He would deliver Him." But now, in the first place, our faith is
not confined to merely receiving from God. No, Brothers and Sisters, if
the Lord does not deliver us, we will trust Him. See how firmly
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood to it that they would not bow
before the image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up! "Our God, whom we
serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and He will
deliver us out of your hands, O king. But if not, be it known unto you,
O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image
which you have set up."
There was great faith in that, "if not." We must not live and wait upon
God with a kind of cupboard love, just as a stray dog might follow a
man for bones. we must speak well of our God even if He scourges us,
for therein lies both the truth and the strength of faith. Job has put
it–"Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive
evil?" "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord." Whatever happens to us–if our faith is the work of the
Holy Spirit–we shall hold on to our trust in God. Neither is our faith
limited to what men call deliverance. It is a misrepresentation when
His enemies say, "He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him"
because though it is the truth, it is not the whole truth.
Our blessed Lord continued to trust in the Father though the cup did
not pass from Him and though no legions of angels were sent to deliver
Him from Pilate. Though the enemy was permitted to exercise all his
malice upon Him until His blessed body was nailed to the accursed tree,
yet the faith of our Divine Lord and Master was not moved from its
steadfastness. He trusted in God for something higher than deliverance
from death, for He looked beyond the grave and said, "You will not
leave My Soul in Hell, neither will You suffer Your Holy One to see
corruption." In all His pains His heart said, "It is the Lord, let Him
do what seems good to Him."
The blind world cannot understand this. They say, like their father,
"Does Job fear God for nothing?" They insinuate that Christian people
trust God for what they get out of Him. Now I have often thought that
if the devil could have put it the other way, he would have been very
rejoiced to do so. Suppose he could have said, "Job serves God for
nothing," then the ungodly world would have shouted, "We told you so!
God is a bad Paymaster! His servants may serve Him as perfectly as Job,
but He never gives them any reward." Happily, the accuser's grumble is
of quite the opposite kind. Neither one way nor another is there any
pleasing the devil–and it is not a thing we desire to do. Let him put
it as he likes! We serve God and we have our reward, but if the Lord
does not choose to give us exactly what we look for, we will still
trust in Him, for it is our delight!
It is a misrepresentation to say of a Believer that, "He trusted on the
Lord that He would deliver him," if he is supposed to trust for no
other reason. And, dear Friends, our faith is not tied to time. That is
the mistake of the statement in the text. They said, "He trusted on the
Lord that He would deliver Him"–as much as to say, "If God does not
deliver Him now, His trust will have been a folly and God will not have
answered to His confidence." But it is not so. Brethren, if we are in
the fire, tonight, and we are trusting in God, our faith does not mean
that we expect to come forth from the furnace at this very hour. No, we
may not come out tonight, nor tomorrow, nor next month–it may be not
for years! We do not tie God down to conditions and expect Him to do
this and that–and then if He does not, in His wisdom, see fit to do
it, threaten that we will trust Him any more!
The very worst we could do would be to make the Eternal God a slave to
time, as though He must do everything at our bidding and measure His
Divine movements by the ticking of a clock! The Lord did deliver His
Son, Jesus Christ, but He suffered Him to die first! He was put into
the grave before He was lifted up from the power of death. And if it
had not been that He died and lay in the tomb, He could not have had
that splendid deliverance which His Father did vouchsafe Him when He
raised Him, again, from the dead! Had He not yielded to death, there
could have been no Resurrection for Him or for us! So, Beloved, it may
be God has not effected His purpose with you, yet, nor has He quite
prepared you for the height of blessing to which He has ordained you.
Receive what He is going to give you and gratefully take the painful
preliminaries. High palaces must have deep foundations and it takes a
long time to excavate a human soul so deep that God can build a
gorgeous palace of Grace therein!
If it is a mere cottage that the Lord is to build in you, you may
escape with small troubles. But if He is going to make you a palace to
glorify Himself with, then you may expect to have long trials. Coarse
pottery needs not the laborious processes which must be endured by
superior vessels. Iron, which is to become a sword for a hero, must
know more of the fire than the metal which lies upon the road as a
rail. Your eminence in Grace can only come by affliction! Will you not
have trust in God if severe trials are ordained for you? Yes, of course
you will! The Holy Spirit will be the All-Sufficient Helper of your
infirmities! I say it is misrepresentation if we limit the Holy One of
Israel to any form for our deliverance, or to any time for our
deliverance. Let not the Lord of Love be treated like a child at
school, as if He could be taught anything by us!
So, also, our faith must not judge at all by present circumstances. The
ungodly world judges that God has not delivered us because we are now
in trouble and are, at present, distressed by it. Oh, how wrongly the
world judged Christ when it judged Him by His condition! Covered with
bloody sweat and groaning out His soul to God beneath the olives at
midnight–why, they that passed by who did not know Him must have
judged Him to be a man accursed of God! "Look," they would have said,
"we never heard of a man that sweat blood before–sweat blood in
prayer! And yet listen to His groans! He is not heard by God, for
evidently the cup does not pass from Him." If any man had looked at our
Lord Jesus when He was on the Cross and had heard Him cry, "My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?" they would have certainly concluded
that He was the most ungracious and undeserving of men–for had He been
a saint, surely, they say–"God would not have forsaken Him."
Yes, but you see they only saw a little of our blessed Master's career!
They only looked upon a span of His existence! What a grievous error it
was to have estimated His life by His brief passion, knowing nothing of
its grand intent! Look at Him, now, while harps unnumbered sound His
praises and all Heaven rejoices to behold His Glory and the Father
looks upon Him with ineffable delight! This is the same Jesus who was
crucified! What do you think of Him now? You must not measure a man by
a little bit of his life, nor even by the whole of his earthly career,
for it is nothing compared with the hidden future of his life in
eternity!
These men measured David's faith and measure our faith by what they see
of us on one day–we are sick, we are sorry, we are poor, we are
troubled and they say–"We told you so! This faith of theirs is not
worth having, or else they would not fare so roughly or be found in so
much heaviness." Faith and feeling are in contrast. Outward
circumstances must never be made the tests of the value of pious trust
in our God! We must not judge God by His dealings with us nor judge
ourselves by them! Let us still hold on to this pure, simple faith that
the Lord is good to Israel. Let us love the Lord for a whole eternity
of His love and then for everything–for every turn of His hand, for
every frown and stroke and rebuke–for He is good in everything,
unalterably good! If with this faith of ours we are praying and
pleading and God does not answer us, does not help us, but leaves us in
the dark, yet still let not our trust waver. If any man walks in
darkness and sees no light, let him trust and trust on until the light
shall come.
So, then, we have just touched upon two points–that a true man's faith
is soon made known, but that, though it is known, it is usually
misunderstood. We live among blind men–let us not be angry because
they cannot see!
III. Thirdly, THIS TRUE FAITH WILL, IN ALL PROBABILITY, BE MOCKED AT
SOME TIME OR OTHER. It
is a great honor to a man to trust in God and so to have his name
written upon the Arch of Triumph which Paul has erected in the 11th
Chapter of Hebrews where you see name after name of the heroes who
served God by faith. It is a glorious thing to mingle our bones with
those who are buried in that mausoleum which bears this epitaph, "These
all died in faith." It is an honorable thing to be a believer in God,
but there are some who think the very reverse and these begin to scoff
at the Believer.
Sometimes they scoff at faith itself. They count faith itself to be a
folly of weak minds. Or else they insult over one particular
Christian's faith. "Oh," they say, "he professes to trust in God. This
man talks after this mad fashion! Why, he is a working man like other
people–works in a shop along with me! What has he to do with trusting
God any more than I have? He is conceited and fanatical." Or in other
circles they cry, "This is a man of business! He keeps a shop and I
dare say he knows as much of the tricks of the trade as we do, and yet
he talks about trusting in God! No doubt He pretends to this faith to
win religious customers." Sometimes the mockery comes from one of your
family, for Faith's foes live in the same house with her.
The husband has been known to say to his wife, "Ridiculous nonsense,
your trusting in God!" Yes, and parents have said the same to holy
children and, alas, children have grown up to speak in the same fashion
to their parents to the wounding of their hearts. As if faith in God
were a thing that could be scoffed at, instead of being the most wise,
proper and rational thing under Heaven! Faith in God is a thing to be
reverenced rather than reviled! True religion is sanctified common
sense! It is the most commonsense thing in the world to put your trust
in One that cannot lie! If I trust myself, or trust my fellow man, I am
thought to be in the first case, self-reliant, and in the second case I
am judged to have a charitable disposition. Yet in either case I shall,
sooner or later, prove my folly!
But if I trust God, who can bring a reason against my confidence? What
is there to be ridiculed in a man's trusting his Maker? Can HE fail
that created the blue heavens, that settled the foundations of the
earth and poured out the waters of the great sea? Can the Almighty
retract His promise because He is unable to fulfill it? Can He break
His cord because circumstances master Him and prevent His performance
of it? "Trust you in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is
everlasting strength." The day shall come when it will be known by all
intelligent beings that unbelief of God is folly, but that faith in the
Eternal is essential wisdom. God give us more faith in Himself! No
doubt we may expect to have all the more of the laughter of the ungodly
who will make a spectacle of us for our faith–but what of that? We can
bear mockery and much more for His sake who died for us.
And then men scoff at the very idea of Divine interposition. They judge
the Lord's deliverance to be the main point of our faith. "He trusted
God that He would deliver Him." "Look," they say, "he fancies that God
will deliver him, as if the Creator had not something else to do
besides looking after him, poor miserable creature that he is! He is
nothing to God–a mere speck–the insect of an hour, and yet he trusts
in God to interfere on his behalf." The philosophers laugh whenever you
speak of Divine interposition and figure that we must be in the last
stage of lunacy to expect anything of the kind! They believe in laws,
they say–irreversible, immutable laws, that grind on like the great
cogs of a machine which, when once they are set in motion, tear
everything to pieces that comes in their way. They do not believe that
God fulfils promises, or answers prayers, or delivers His people. Their
God is a dead force, without mind, or thought, or love, or care.
He, who in Nature acts according to law is yet believed to have no
power to carry out His own Word which must always be Law to a truthful
being. Why, some of us are as sure that God has interposed for us as if
He had rent the heavens and thrust forth His right hand visibly before
the eyes of all beholders! The wise ones laugh at us for this, but we
are not abashed–rather do we reply, "Laugh if you like, and as long as
you like; but we daily receive unnumbered blessings from God in answer
to our cries! And your laughter no more affects us than the noise of
the dogs by the Nile disturbs the flow of the river. We shall believe
in spite of all your merriment and if it please you to go on with your
laughter, we, also, will go on with our faith." The object of the
ungodly man's scorn is the idea that God should ever interfere to help
His people in human affairs, but you stand to it, O true Believers, for
He does still show Himself strong on the behalf of them that trust in
Him. Let them say and laugh at you as they say it, "He trusted on the
Lord that He would deliver him," but let none of these things move you.
Further, we have known this mockery to extend to all kinds of faith in
the Divine Love. "Let Him deliver Him," they say, "seeing that He
delighted in Him." Perhaps you have unwisely told out the tale of God's
special love to those who are now making fun of you–you have cast your
pearls before swine and they turned against you. They say, "This man
says God loves him above others! That He chose him before the world
began! That He redeemed him from among men with the blood of Christ! He
says that God has called him by His Holy Spirit; that He has admitted
him into His secrets and made him His child!" And then they laugh right
lustily, as if it were a rare jest!
How the world rages against electing love! It cannot endure any
specialty in Grace. The idea that one man should be more Beloved of
Heaven than another, it declares as horrible. The heathen could not
understand a certain brave saint because he called himself, Theophorus,
or, "Godbearer." But he stuck to it, that he was so, and this made his
foes the more wrathful. God dwelt in him, he said, and he would not
give up his happy belief and, therefore, they ceased not to mock. It
was a carrying out of our text, "Let Him deliver him, seeing He
delights in him." Well, well! We can afford to bear these mockings, for
if we are beloved by a King–it will not much matter if we are sneered
at by His subjects! If we are beloved by God, it is a small concern
though all men should make us the subject of their jest!
Ungodly men are exceedingly apt to find amusement in the trials
involved in the life and walk of faith. Their cry of "Let Him deliver
Him" implies that their victim was in serious difficulty from which He
could not extricate Himself. This is no novelty to the Believer, but it
makes rare fun for the ungodly. What is the good of faith if the
Believer suffers like others, endures the same pains, losses and
diseases as others? So the men of the world argue. They would be
Believers, too, if it would bring them a fortune, or a handsome salary,
or at least a loaded table and a full cup! But when they see a saint on
the dunghill with Job, or in the pit with Joseph, or in the dungeon
with Jeremiah, or among the dogs with Lazarus, they sneer and cry, "Is
this the reward of piety? Is this the recompense of godliness?"
They like to spy us out in our time of trouble and taunt us with our
confidence in God and, alas, there is so much unbelief in us that we
are all too prone, in such seasons, to question the justice and
faithfulness of the Lord and to say with David, "Verily I have cleansed
my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence." It seems hard for
us to be mocked by the base ones of the earth–to become the song and
the byword of the ungodly–yet this has happened to the excellent of
the earth and will happen yet again. Set your account that this is a
part of the covenanted heritage and accept it with joy for Christ's
sake!
IV. Now, I must close with this point (though there is much more to be
said)–THE TIME SHALL COME WHEN
THE FAITH OF THE MAN WHO HAS TRUSTED IN GOD SHALL BE ABUNDANTLY
JUSTIFIED. I think it is no
small thing to have the ungodly bearing witness that, "He trusted in
God that He would deliver Him." I have known what it is to be
exceedingly grateful to ungodly men for helping me to believe that I am
truly a child of God. Somebody, years ago, uttered an atrocious lie
against me–an abominable slander. I was very low and heavy of spirit
at the time, but when I read it, I clapped my hands for joy, for I
felt, "Now I have one of the marks and seals of a child of God, for it
is written, 'Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My
sake.'"
The love of the Lord's Brethren and the hatred of the Lord's enemies
are two things to be desired! We may gather that we are not of the
wicked when they will not endure us in their company–when our very
presence irritates them– and they begin to rail and jeer. It has
happened to us even as Jesus said–"If you were of the world, the world
would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." So
that there is justification, as it were, of our faith even from the
lips of adversaries–and we ought to be thankful for it instead of
being downcast about it.
Another justification awaits us and in due season it will come.
Brothers and Sisters, the day will come when God will deliver His
people. You will be brought out of your trouble–it may not be
immediately, but it will be seasonably. You may most wisely, in the
meantime, learn to glory in your tribulation! Your bitters shall turn
into sweets and your losses into gains. Your sorrows shall be your
joys, your struggles your triumphs–perhaps in this life this
transformation may occur, even as the Lord gave to Job twice as much as
he had before–but certainly in the life to come you will find the
tables turned. Then, what will the ungodly say? They say now, "He
trusted on God that He would deliver him," but they will be compelled
to say as they gnash their teeth, "God has delivered him."
Whereas the ungodly ridicule the idea that God delights in His people,
the day shall come when they shall be made to see that He does delight
in them. When the Lord appears on behalf of His people and gives them
"beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning," the wicked shall gnash
their teeth and be filled with confusion! When the Lord shall turn,
again, our captivity, even our most desperate foes shall be made to
say, "The Lord has done great things for them." They shall wonder and
be sorely vexed to see how the Lord has such favor to His chosen. If
they do not see it in this life, oh, what an exhibition ungodly men
will see of His delight in His people in the world to come!
Dives sees Lazarus in Abraham's bosom–what a sight for him! They that
scoff at God's poor people, here, shall see them exalted to be kings
and priests to reign with Christ forever and ever! And what will they
say, then? What can they say but be compelled to bear witness that
their faith was justified! Brethren, at the Last Great Day, ungodly men
will be witnesses on behalf of the saints. If any doubt whether the
saints trusted in God, the wicked will be compelled to come forward and
say, "They did trust, for we laughed at them for it." Of this and that
man they shall say, "He trusted on God that He would deliver him." In
that day the unbelieving will be swift witnesses against themselves,
for as they ridiculed the children of God here, they will have it read
out before them as evidence of their enmity against the Lord–and how
will they answer it?
A man is generally much grieved with anyone who injures his children. I
have known a man behave patiently to his neighbors and put up with a
great deal from them. But when one of them has struck his child, I have
seen him incensed to the last degree. He has said, "I cannot stand
that! I will not look on and see my own children abused." The Lord
says, "He that touches you, touches the apple of My eye." Jesus rises
from His Throne in Glory and stands up indignantly while His servant
Stephen is being stoned. If I had no other amusement whatever, I would
not, for merriment sake, mock the people of God, for it will go hard
with those who make unhallowed mirth out of the saints of the Host
High! If any of you have ever done so–if you have done so
ignorantly–may the Lord forgive you and bring you to be numbered among
His people, as was Saul of Tarsus.
And if any of you have done so knowingly, be humble and penitent, and
the Lord will forgive you and receive you among His people. But whether
you revile or flatter, it is all one to us. We are at a pass with
you–we trust in God that He will deliver us–and we cannot be removed
from this confidence. O you mockers, we will not be fooled out of our
hope, nor jested out of our peace! We cannot find anyone like our God
to trust to, and so we will not depart from Him in life or death, but
will rest in Him, by His Grace, come what may, even till we see Him
face to face!