DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 18, 1878,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He that believes on Him shall not be confounded." 1 Peter 2:6.
MY sermon last Sabbath morning [#1428, The True Position of the Witness
Within] was upon the true position of the witness within and I then
tried to show that the guarantee and ground of our believing in Christ
unto eternal life is the witness which God Himself has borne concerning
His Son. Not our feelings, or experiences, but the testimony of God is
to stand to us as the reason for our believing. I tried to set forth
that doctrine very clearly and I have been greatly delighted to find
that the blessing of God rendered it effectual. I have met with five
young men who have each one said, "If this believing in Christ because
God has set Him forth and borne witness to Him, is really the way of
salvation, then we are saved and we come forward to declare that we are
on the Lord's side."
When a fisher fills his basket in one place, he is glad to fish there
again and, therefore, close to the former spot. Upon a subject near
akin to it, I cast in my lines a second time! I do so the more readily
in the hope that those who have been brought to Christ may be
established in the present faith and may see yet more clearly what is
the basis of their salvation. As I tried on last Sabbath morning to
show why they should believe, it shall now be my business to explain
what they should believe. We will think not so much of the reason for
believing as of the Object of our faith, the facts which are to be
received and the Person who is to be trusted. We saw the Lord God
laying the foundation upon which faith is to rest–we shall now
consider the Foundation itself.
The passage before us is a very favorite quotation with the Apostles.
If you turn to the Epistle to the Romans you will find Paul quoting it
again and again in rapid succession. The last verse of the ninth
chapter is, "Whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed." And in the
11th verse of the 10th chapter he repeats the quotation. It is a
quotation from Isaiah 28:16 where we find it written–"Therefore thus
says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a
tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that
believes shall not make haste," which Paul interprets, "shall not be
ashamed" and Peter renders, "shall not be confounded." From the
variation of the translations we obtain two or three different shades
of meaning but all amounting to the same thing.
That must be a very important part of God's Word which even the Holy
Spirit Himself has quoted so frequently! He is prolific of thought and
is always able to create new ideas. He abounds in language and cannot
be straitened for expression and yet He quotes Himself in these three
instances which I have given you–therefore we may be quite sure it is
because no other expression would be more suitable! This sentence
seemed, to the Divine Author, to be so full, so complete and so
forcible that He repeated it often! The harp is a choice one–let us
play upon it and let our ears drink in the melody–"He that believes on
Him shall not be confounded."
I. I shall first of all, this morning, consider THE FOUNDATION OF THE
BELIEVER'S FAITH, this being the main subject of our discourse, "He
that believes on Him.''" The foundation of the Believer's faith is
Christ Jesus Himself. The Believer receives doctrine because Christ has
taught it, but still it is not a doctrine which is the foundation of
his confidence–it is a Person–"He that believes on Him." The Lord
Jesus Himself, as the Son of God, is the Object of our faith–it is
upon Him that we lean. The Apostle does not say in the Epistle to
Timothy, "I know what I have believed," though that would be true, but,
"I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep
that which I have committed to Him." The faith which saves the soul is
confidence in a Person, reliance upon One who will certainly effect the
salvation of those who trust Him.
But in what sense am I to believe in Jesus Christ? Under what aspects
does the Believer rest in Christ? I reply, first, as God's appointed
Savior of men. Mark how the text runs in Isaiah. The Lord says, "Behold
I lay in Zion a sure foundation." We trust in Christ Jesus because God
has set Him forth to be the Propitiation for sin. When sin first came
into the world, God, in tender mercy gave our parents the first promise
concerning the Seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's
head–we believe Jesus of Nazareth to be that Seed of the woman and we
trust in Him to bruise the serpent's head on our behalf. Promises were
multiplied as the ages went on and Jesus was set forth under various
types and figures, but always as the Messiah–one whom God would send,
who would undo the mischief of the Fall, remove the guilt of sin,
deliver ruined souls–and give them to partake of the mercy of God.
Now, all those promises and prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus Christ
the Son of God and, therefore, we rest in Him. Since God appoints Him
as a Savior, we accept Him as a Savior! Since He comes authorized and
empowered from the court of Heaven to be the Ambassador of Peace, we
joyfully receive Him and find peace with God! We are glad to see the
marks and seals upon Him by which God the Father has certified Him to
be His beloved Son in whom He is well-pleased. We believe the Apostolic
witness by the mouth of John, "We have seen and do testify that the
Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." This is the great
stronghold of our confidence!
We also believe in the Lord Jesus because of the excellency of His
Person. I began by saying that our faith was in a Person and so it is.
We trust Christ to save us because we perceive Him in every way to be
adapted by the Nature and constitution of His Person to be the Savior
of mankind. It was necessary that the Savior of men should be a man. A
man had broken the Law and a Man must keep it, for only the obedience
of man could answer the requirements of the Law. By the sin of a man we
became subject to punishment and only by the penal sufferings of a Man
could the Law be vindicated. It is with gladness that we perceive that
the Son of God became a partaker of flesh and blood and came under the
Law. Born of a virgin, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes like any
other child–He grew in stature as other children do and lived with His
parents till the time of His showing to the world.
"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His Glory."
He labored, He suffered, He died among us. He was really a man, but all
the while a perfect Man without trace of fault. And thus He was able to
fulfill the perfect Law of God on our behalf! We rejoice as we see that
Jesus is our next of kin to whom the right of redemption belongs, the
perfect Man, the second Adam of our race. But yet more confident are we
because we see that His Manhood is in union with Deity! We subscribe to
that ancient confession, "He is very God of very God." In no diminished
sense, but with the strongest emphasis which can be laid upon words, we
believe Him to be "God over all, blessed forever!" He is "Immanuel, God
With Us," and we each one salute Him as, "My Lord and my God."
We perceive that His Deity must have put an infinite merit into the
sufferings of His humanity. We believe that because He was God, He was
able to undertake the stupendous labor of our redemption and that His
holy life and suffering death are, because of His godhead, fully equal
to the redemption of the vast multitudes who by Him do believe in God
who raised Him from the dead. My Brothers and Sisters, there is
something here to rest upon! Surely we can trust Him who is "the true
God and Eternal Life." We see Jesus to be completely equipped for His
work. He is divinely strong yet humanly compassionate. He is eternally
existing as God and yet capable of death because He was encompassed
with a human body. O glorious One, whose name is fitly called
Wonderful, my soul cannot imagine a Savior in whom she could confide
with so much ease!
Jesus is worthy of all confidence! It seems, now, but natural to us who
are Believers, to rest in such a Person as He– who can with one hand
touch the Godhead and yet with the other hand embrace our nature–who
is the Son of the Highest and yet the Son of Mary! He is "The Mighty
God, The Everlasting Father" and yet a Child born unto us the Son of
Man! We trust Jesus because we see Him to be first, ordained of God and
then to be, in Himself, fitly constituted to achieve our redemption.
Nor is this all. Another ground of our reliance upon Christ is that He
has actually finished the work of our redemption. There were two things
to be done. The first was the keeping of the Law on our behalf–that He
has performed to the uttermost, even as He said to His Father, "I have
glorified You on the earth, I have finished the work which You gave Me
to do."
The very best "Life of Christ" is the four Gospels. We read them with
delight and we perceive the exceeding beauties of His matchless
Character and are fully agreed that He is "fairer than the children of
men." Righteousness was the belt of His loins, and He was clad with
zeal as with a cloak. For innocence, He is spotless as the lily! For
zeal He is red as the rose! There is no fault in our Beloved–in His
Character there is no redundancy and no deficiency! He is a Lamb
without blemish and without spot. His Character is rounded with
perfection. He fulfils both tables of the Law and presents unto God a
perfect righteousness on our behalf. When the Lord presents that
righteousness to us that it may be set to our
account, we feel the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputes
righteousness without works and we are exceedingly glad.
We also see our Lord doing the other part of His work, namely,
suffering in consequence of our sins and our faith becomes fully
established. I do not know a more delightful exercise–I hope you are
familiar with its delights–than to accompany our blessed Lord to the
garden of Gethsemane. There, every drop of blood pleads with us that we
should trust Him! There His sighs, cries and throes of anguish while He
wrestles with His God all plead with us that we should rely upon Him!
Remember who and what He was. Regarding Him as the Son of the Highest
we see an overwhelming argument for faith, for who can doubt the merit
of that work which begins with the holy Son of God lying prostrate in
Gethsemane, exceedingly sorrowful even unto death? We can surely trust
our souls with a Divine Savior who suffered as this!
Then, rising from the ground, we trace Him as He is seized by His
captors and hurried to the High Priest, to Herod and to Pilate. How
they pour contempt upon Him! How the smiters scourge Him! How the
soldiers mock Him! Now, indeed, He seems to be "a worm, and no man; a
reproach of men and despised of the people." His lowest shame, His
worst desertion, His most bitter griefs, His dying pangs all say to
us–"Cannot you trust Him? When you see the Lord of angels derided and
His glorious name made into a by-word and a proverb, can you not trust
in the merits of His substitutionary woes?"
Then comes the death scene! With tears in our eyes we stand at the
Cross and see those blessed hands and feet nailed to the tree that He
might be made a curse for us! Can unbelief live after this? Before His
heart is opened by the spear-thrust we see it bleeding in every part of
His body and soul, for He is a mass of anguish! Of His sufferings we do
not dare to speak, for they are of a depth which no plumb line can ever
fathom! O Son of God, if ever it were treason to doubt Your power to
save, it must be so when we see You hanging upon the Cross! You have
triumphed over our unbelief upon the bloody tree! Now You lead our
captivity captive and we bow before You, fully assured that You are
mighty to save! We feel compelled to cry, "I must believe! Those nails
have crucified my unbelief! That spear has slain my doubts! I trust
You, O everlasting Son of God, when thus I see You made a curse for
me." It is upon the sufferings of our Lord Jesus that we rely for our
cleansing–"The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His
stripes we are healed."
One other Truth of God must be mentioned, seeing that our Lord is now
no longer dead we feel it more easy to place our confidence in Him
because He always lives to see to the completion of our salvation. A
living faith delights in a living Savior! This is the seal of all that
went before. He must have finished the transgression, made an end of
sin and brought in everlasting righteousness, or else He would not be
sitting at the right hand of the Father, crowned with Glory and honor!
Beloved, that one Sacrifice which our High Priest offered upon Calvary
has put away, forever, all the sins of His people! There is, therefore,
no need of a repetition of it. It is blasphemous to talk of the
"unbloody sacrifice of the mass" as a continuation of the one
Sacrifice, for it is finished! There is no continuation needed, for,
"This Man, after He had offered one Sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down at the right hand of God."
The righteousness with which we are clothed is completely woven! The
fountain in which we are washed is completely filled! And now none can
condemn those for whom Jesus died and neither shall any soul be charged
with sin whose sin He bore upon the accursed tree–for, "it is
finished"–has ended every accusation. He lives to take possession of
Heaven for His people and He has entered it as our Forerunner. He is
our Representative by whom we are, today, in actual possession of
Heaven! As a man holds a farm or other land by his agent who is upon it
to keep possession for him, so all the Lord's people have possession of
Heaven right now by their Representative! Being there, in our name, our
Lord is preparing everything for us so that when the time shall come
for us to climb to our thrones, nothing may be lacking to complete our
joys.
Meanwhile He is pleading the merit of His blood on behalf of all those
who trust Him–and He is also working, by His unseen Spirit–to
preserve His own in every day of temptation and to keep and perfect
them–that they may be presented faultless at the last before His
Presence with exceedingly great joy. "Why also He is able also to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives
to make intercession for them." So then, our faith rests on this–God
has set forth Christ to save us–Christ is, in His constitution and
Person, such a One as we can trust to do the deed. He has already
virtually accomplished it by His life and death and He lives to secure
unto Himself the result of what He has done. For these most sufficient
reasons we trust ourselves with the Redeemer, that He may save us from
our
sins. Into His hands we commit our spirits as unto a faithful Creator.
This we do with all sincerity and deliberation, believing that these
reasons will bear examination and are such as none need to be ashamed
of.
II. Secondly, let us consider THE MANNER OF THIS BELIEVING. How do we
believe in Jesus Christ? Now, we
have not to go a single inch to find an instructive illustration of
what faith in Jesus is! The verse before us is connected with building.
"Wherefore also it is contained in the Scriptures, Behold, I lay in
Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believes on Him
shall not be confounded." Now, if we were to carry out the figure it
would run thus–"He that is built upon Him shall not be removed." So I
take it that we can most naturally understand the laying of a stone
upon the foundation to be suggested as a description of faith.
If, then, you want to know what it is to believe on Jesus, it is to lie
upon Him as a stone lies upon a foundation when the mason puts it
there. There is the foundation, firm and strong, a precious
cornerstone, tried and sure. Here is a smaller stone, quarried from the
pit and the builder places it upon the foundation. Its lying on the
foundation represents faith. Our souls' eternal interests are laid on
Christ! The foundation bears up the stone and holds it in its place–so
Christ bears up our souls and holds them in their position so that they
do not fall to the ground. The stone presses with all its weight upon
the foundation and that is what the Believer does with His Lord–he
casts all his cares upon Him. Faith is leaning, depending, relying! As
the key hangs on the nail, so we hang on Jesus.
Faith is the giving up of self-reliance and self-dependence–and
resting of the soul upon Him whom God has laid in Zion for a
Foundation! A stone thrown about from hand to hand is self-contained
and independent, but when the mason puts it on the foundation it is
dependent, it leans on the cornerstone upon which it is placed. Poor
tempted Soul, that is just what you have to do! You must not be a loose
stone resting on yourself and tossed here and there upon the earth, but
you must lie still upon Christ and let Him bear your whole weight upon
Himself! A stone rests wholly on the foundation. If a wall is
well-built it is not shored up with timber so that the stones have two
supports, but the whole structure rests on a common basis. There is a
good foundation and each stone lies upon it.
It can do no more, for it could not keep its place for an instant if
the foundation were removed. If the foundation fails, the stone falls,
but while the foundation stands, the stone remains secure. That is
faith–resting wholly upon Christ and looking entirely to Him for
everything that has to do with our salvation. Genuine faith in Christ
does not trust Him to pardon sin and then trust itself to overcome sin.
No, it trusts Christ for both the conquest of evil and for the
forgiveness of it! Some of our friends make a great muddle here. They
say they believe that the Lord Jesus will keep them as long as they are
faithful to Him. That is true–but where do you rely for your being
faithful to Him? Do you depend upon yourself for faithfulness?
If so, there is a very weak spot in your confidence. That stone is not
lying square upon the foundation–push it more home–it must not stand
out of the line or it will be over directly. Personally I depend as
much upon my Lord to keep me to the end as to pardon the past! And I
feel that I need Him as much for tomorrow as for today. I could not
rejoice in Him as a Savior if He would only promise to keep me as long
as I kept myself–for I need a Keeper to keep me that I may keep
myself! If His promise was that He would keep me, "if–alas–that,
"if," would spoil it all! There must be no reliance upon anybody but
Christ for anything that has to do with your salvation, or you are not
laid square on the Foundation. Whether it is to your regeneration by
which you enter into life, or your ultimate perfection by which that
life shall come to its complete maturity, there must be no reliance for
you but upon Christ!
Dear Friends, see to it that for everything–for wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption–you lie plumb and straight with Christ!
Depend on no man, but only Jesus. You are complete in Him–you cannot
add to perfection! It is the not getting down to the foundation and
resting nakedly upon Christ which makes the most of our soul-trouble.
There used to be on the top of Snowdon a raised platform for certain
people to stand upon who wanted to see a little further than others.
Now, if you got upon that platform, it might shake and tremble, but the
mountain never did. I have known Brethren build up a pretty little
wooden platform of their own experience–some of them have built it so
high that they talk about being perfect–or very near it!
These wooden affairs shake with a little extra weight and make people
tremble. Get down upon the Rock! Stand on terra firma! Rest on the
everlasting love of Jesus and you will be safe! Take care to lie flat
on the promise–get as low as you can and grasp the Rock. Lie flat on
Christ as a stone lies on the foundation, for that is the proper and
natural position of all the living stones that are built up in Him. The
stone laid on the foundation comes closer to that
foundation every day. "To whom coming," says Peter, "as unto a living
stone." When a house is finished there still goes on a measure of
settlement and you are glad if it settles all in one piece! Every day
the stone is brought, by its own weight, a little closer to the
foundation–may every day's pressure bring you and me closer to Christ!
Oh, that the pressure of our joys and griefs may press us nearer to our
Lord!
A well-built stone gets to be one with the foundation. In the old Roman
walls the mortar seems to be as hard as the stones and the whole is
like one piece! You must blow it to atoms before you can get the wall
away. So is it with the true Believer–he rests upon his Lord till he
grows up into Him–till he is one with Jesus by a living union, so that
you scarcely know where the foundation ends and where the building
begins! The Believer becomes all in Christ, even as Christ is All in
All to him. I hardly know any illustration that would better explain
faith. It is none of mine, you see–it is taken from the text itself.
The Lord help you to lie upon Christ for all that concerns your eternal
interests!
"But," says one, "I thought I had to do something for my own
salvation!" Does the stone do anything to maintain its position beyond
lying in its place? Your strength is to sit still! Rest in the Lord and
wait patiently for Him, for your expectation is from Him. There is
plenty for you to do for your Lord to show your love to Him and to
glorify His name. But you cannot add to the Foundation of your
confidence, nor should you dream of doing so. How could you improve
what your Lord declares to be finished? Is not His work all-sufficient?
Do you want to move the Foundation? Does it not stand fast forever?
Lean on it steadily and let this be your chief concern.
O poor fainting Believer, the more you can lean upon Jesus the better
He will be pleased. "Lean hard," He cries, "and prove your love to Me!"
Trust Jesus for everything and trust Him at all times! Trust Him in
life, in death and to eternity–and you shall not be ashamed or
confounded, world without end!
III. We have, thirdly, to consider THE EVIL WHICH WILL NEVER COME UPON
THE MAN WHO BELIEVES ON JESUS. The text says, "He shall not be
confounded," and the meaning of it is, first, that he shall never be
disappointed. All that Christ has promised to be, He will be to those
who trust Him. If the Father set forth Christ to save the believing
sinner, depend upon it–He will be as good as His Father's word! He
does not begin to build and then leave off from lack of means. He will
keep the Believer. He will support the Believer. He will perfect the
Believer! You shall never have to say of Christ, "Well, there is much
good in Him, but not so much as I expected." You will never have to
lament, "Alas, I placed too implicit a reliance upon the Christ of God
and I was deceived."
No, never! But, on the contrary, you will exclaim with the Queen of
Sheba, "The half has not been told me." Even Inspiration itself could
not tell us, so that we could fully understand it, how sweet, how
excellent, how sure, how full our Lord is! We know His love, but yet it
"passes knowledge." When you know more of your Lord you will say, "I
wish I had never doubted Him, for I never had a cause. Oh that I had
trusted Him more fully, for He has never disappointed me, but far
exceeded my largest hopes." In consequence of our not being
disappointed in our hope we shall never be ashamed of having indulged
it.
Alas, some Christians are, at times, ashamed to acknowledge their
Master, but that is not what is meant in the text. What is intended
here is the grand Truth of God that they shall never have any cause to
be ashamed of Jesus upon whom they believe! They shall never be driven
to confess that they made a mistake in trusting Him and are, therefore,
ashamed at having been so miserably duped. No Believer will ever say,
"I came with a childlike reliance and did cast myself upon Him because
He promised so fairly, but I was taken in a snare. I ought to have
known better and I am quite ashamed of my credulity." No, no! The most
childlike confidence in God in Christ Jesus is nothing more than He
deserves! Credulity towards Jesus is the purest reason.
You are always most prudent when you cast away all caution and throw
yourself upon Jesus, sink or swim! It can never be prudent to doubt Him
who is "the Truth," but it is always the highest wisdom to place all in
His hands and leave it there for time and for eternity. To risk all
with Jesus is to end all risk. Our hymn says–
"Venture on Him, venture wholly-Let no other trust intrude."
But, indeed, there is no venturing in it–it is safe as the Throne of
the Eternal! May the Holy Spirit lead you to make a speedy trial of it!
And then comes the next rendering–you shall never be confounded or
confused. When a man gets to be ashamed of his hope because he is
disappointed in it, he casts about for another anchorage and, not
knowing where to look, he is in a
troubled state and greatly perplexed. If the Lord Jesus Christ were to
fall through, my Brothers and Sisters, what should we do? It is a
supposition which we need not indulge, but if He is not true, there
remains no other person in whom we may confide. There are many
religions on the face of the earth, but not one of them bears as much
comparison with our holy faith as a candle to the sun! They are all
hollow mockeries, offering nothing which can satisfy a hungry heart.
Lord, to whom should we go if we should turn from You? Where could we
fly? If wisdom is not in You, where shall we search for it? "The depth
says, It is not in me: and the sea says, It is not with me."
There remains no hiding place for man if this cleft of the Rock is
closed! There is no ransom from wrath if this redemption price is null
and void! No, Jesus, we shall not be confounded, for we shall never be
disappointed in You, nor made ashamed of our hope! According to
Isaiah's version we shall not be obliged to make haste–we shall not be
driven to our wit's end and hurried to and fro. We shall not hurry and
worry, fret and fume, trying this and trying that, running from pillar
to post to seek a hope! But rather, he that believes shall be quiet,
calm, collected, assured, confident. He awaits the future with
equanimity as he endures the present with patience. Beloved, see what a
blessed promise this is to those of you who are believing on Jesus!
Now, the times of our special danger of being confounded are many, but
in none of these shall we be confounded. Let us just turn them over in
our minds. There are times when a man's sins all come up before him
like exceedingly great armies. It is a mighty easy thing to think that
you are believing in Christ when you are not conscious of any great
sin– but true faith is not confused even when it groans under a
grievous sense of sin, conscious that it is the chief of sinners! No,
though sin rolled over the Believer's head, he would still believe–as
David did when he cried, "My iniquities are gone over my head!"
Have you never had times in which all the ghosts of your dead and
buried sins rise up and come marching upon you, armed to the teeth? If
you have never experienced such a visitation, I hope you may, for it is
good for us to be driven to our Lord Jesus by distress of soul! All
your thoughts, words and deeds–your bad tempers and rebellions against
God– suppose they were all to rise at once, what would become of you?
Why, even then, my Brothers and Sisters, "He that believes on Him shall
not be confounded"–not even by a sense of horrible sin, for after he
has seen the whole horde of his sins march by, he cries, "they are all
gone into the tomb where Jesus slept! The blood of Jesus has cleansed
me from them! The depths have covered them–there is not one of them
left! They sank like lead in the mighty waters, for God has cast them
all unto the depths of the sea!" He that believes on the pardoning
Savior shall not be confused, though all his sins should accuse him at
once!
The unbelieving world outside labors to create confusion. The gentlemen
of the higher criticism, the scientific discoverers, the possessors of
boastful culture and all the other braggers of this marvelously
enlightened 19th century are up in arms against the believers in Jesus.
When I think of how this century has been befooled by its statesmen and
philosophers, I, for one, feel small reverence for it! Perhaps it has
the most light, but it has not the best eyes! Well, let all this wisdom
of the world assail us! Let proud pretenders point their fingers at us
and say, "You trust in Christ. You rely upon Jesus of Nazareth alone
for your salvation. You are old-fashioned and as much out of place as
the extinct animals would be if they could come back again!"
I say that if all the sages of the world were to utter one thundering
sarcasm–if they concentrated all their scorn into one universal sneer
of contempt–I do not think it would affect me the turn of a hair, so
sure am I that my Lord will justify my confidence! "I know whom I have
believed" and I know, also, that my Lord Jesus Christ "sits above the
floods! The Lord sits King forever!" "Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing?" He can save me and I trust Him to perform
all that which concerns me. Faith in Jesus can be justified before a
synagogue of Satans! Faith in Jesus deserves the respect of a
parliament of philosophers! To trust the Incarnate Son of God, whose
advent into this world is a fact better proved by history than any
other that was ever on record–to trust oneself upon His atoning
Sacrifice is the most reasonable thing that a man can do!
There is nothing illogical about it–nothing which demands apology! We
fling back in the teeth of the scoffers the charge of unreasoning
dogmatism–ours is the most reasonable of all beliefs. O you mighty
thinkers and skeptics, you are more credulous than we are! We may seem
fools to you, but we are not judged of your judgment. You shall see
your own folly when He comes, whose name is Faithful and True–when He
comes to reign as King of kings and Lord of
lords! He that believes on Him shall not be confounded by human wisdom,
for God has long ago confounded it and turned it into foolishness!
But the world has done more than sneer–it has imitated Cain and sought
to slay the faithful. The enemies of the Gospel have raged fiercely
against the Church of God. What opportunities has God given to them to
conquer if they could! Christ has seemed to say, "Come on, world! Here
are My poor disciples whom you despise! Come and see if you can conquer
them! I give you a fair opportunity. There is the Coliseum–heap up
tier upon tier of men and women with your cruel eyes and savage hearts!
Bring out the saints. Cry, 'Christians to the lions!'" There they
stand. The lions are loose upon them. Do they cry for mercy and
treacherously deny Christ? They are feeble men and women–do they
recant and leave their Master? Not they! They die as bravely as ever a
soldier fell in battle!
The enemy resolves to try them with torture, with rack, rod and
fire–let us see what will come of it. Blandina shall be tossed upon
the horns of bulls and then shall be placed in a hot iron chair! Does
her womanly nature flinch? Ah, no, she is more than a conqueror! They
try every kind of torment with the saints, but they fail in every case.
Remember Marcus Arethusa, smeared with honey and a hive of bees put
upon him? Yet never for a single moment did he relent! Every form of
possible cruelty has in later persecutions been tried by Rome's
infernal Inquisition, but Believers have not been confused!
Fiends in human form have glutted themselves with blood till they have
turned away from Christian destruction as from a hopeless task–they
saw that they could not overcome the true people of God, for, "He that
believes on Him shall not be confounded." They tried persecution in
this land in the days of Queen Mary, but their defeat was self-evident.
Weavers and farmers defied bishops and cardinals and held their own.
Even women laughed to scorn the wretched sophistries of their
tormentors! Tompkins trusted in God and stood firm when Bonner held his
hand in the candle flame and equally well did he play the man at the
stake! What notable stories Foxe has preserved for us of how the saints
of the Lord clapped their burning hands and cried, "None but Christ!"
while the flames were devouring them! The enemy could not confound
them. If persecution should revive, we shall again conquer, for, "He
that believes on Him shall not be confounded,"
We cannot strike our adversaries–but by bearing their blows we shall,
like the anvil, break the hammers! As it has been until now, so shall
it be unto the end–we shall not be ashamed of our hope. Well, but
there will come other troubles to Christians besides these and even in
them they shall not be confounded. They will be tried by the flesh–
natural desires will break forth into vehement lusts and corruptions
will seek to cast them down. Will Believers then perish? No! He that
believes in Christ shall conquer himself and overcome his easily
besetting sins. There will come losses and crosses, business trials and
domestic bereavements. What then? He shall not be confounded! His Lord
will sustain him under every tribulation! At last death will come to
us. They will wipe the cold sweat from our brows and we shall gasp for
breath–but even then we shall not be confounded!
We may not be able to shout, "victory!" We may be too weak for
triumphant hymns–but with our last breath we will lisp the precious
name! They that watch us shall know by our serenity that a Christian
does not die, but only melts away into everlasting life! O Beloved, we
shall never be confounded, even amid the grandeurs of eternity! We
shall pass into the next state and after a while the trumpet shall
sound and these bodies shall rise–and we shall stand amidst the
countless throng on that august Day for which all other days were made!
While other men who have other foundations to rest upon shall cry to
the rocks to hide them, we shall stand calmly and quietly, adoring our
Lord, the Judge!
It will be a solemn day, even for us! We shall not be able to see the
rocks splitting and stars falling and creation, itself, passing away
without deep solemnity–yet assuredly the words of our hymn are true–
"Bold shallI stand in that great Day, For who anything to my charge
shall lay? While through His blood absolved I am From sin's tremendous
curse and shame?" We will tell the Father in that Day that we have
rested on the salvation which He appointed! That we have confided in
His own dear Son and that we believed that the blood of Jesus did make
atonement for our sin. We shall not find that He disowns His promise!
Oh, if that Foundation could fail us, how ashamed and confounded should
we be! I do not know, but I sometimes seem to think that if the Gospel
could possibly be a mistake, we should have the consolation of being
able to say, "Great God, it was through love of You and trust in You
that we fell into this error"–and we should at least
have as good a plea as the self-righteous can offer! But it shall not
be so! Our Foundation cannot fail us! We shall not be confounded! The
two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie are our
strong consolation!
Now I close by saying that the reason of our knowing that we can never
be confounded is just this–because the testimony we have received is
true. It is God's testimony–there cannot be a lie in that. Next, the
Person on whom we lean is true–there can be no falsehood in Christ
Jesus, nor failure in Him. The Savior in whom we trust is almighty! He
cannot possibly be defeated, or too heavily loaded. The declarations of
the Word of God in which we trust are Infallible and Immutable–they
cannot be altered one jot or tittle. The Father of Lights is without
variableness and Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today, and
forever."
No Believer in Christ can ever be confounded–mark this word–till the
Godhead itself shall be defiled! I put it strongly. Until God the
Father can break His word, He cannot destroy a soul that believes in
His Son! And if He were to break His Word, (the mere supposition
borders on blasphemy), then He would no longer be God, since truth is
essential to Deity. Until Christ Himself shall fail, He cannot refuse
to save one that trusts in Him! And if He were to fail it would prove
that He was not Omnipotent and could not, therefore, be God! And if the
Spirit of God, which has worked us to the same thing, even to this day,
were, after all, to deny His own witness and suffer the new life which
is in us to die out, then He is not the Almighty, indwelling Quickener
and Comforter of former days!
No, Beloved, everything hangs upon the Divine fidelity! If Believers
are lost, God loses more than they do, for He loses His honor! He loses
His Character for truthfulness and the Glory of His name is tarnished!
If I am a sheep and I am lost, I am certainly a great loser–but then I
am not my own, but belong to the Great Shepherd–and He has lost me and
so is also a loser. If I am a member of Christ's body and I am lost, I
am certainly a great loser, but my Head is a loser, too, for henceforth
His body is incomplete. The Church is the fullness of Christ, "the
fullness of Him that fills all in all" and, I venture to say it, Jesus
Christ were not a perfect Christ if He lost the very least and meanest
of those who put their trust in Him! It would be Hell's boast against
Him to all eternity that He could not keep His own!
If the devil could get a Believer in Hell, what a noise he would make
about him! "Jesus of Nazareth! Here is one of Your own! One who trusted
in You and yet he is in Hell! You kept the strong because they kept
themselves, but You could not keep the weak and, therefore, here is one
lost–lost forever." How would hellish malice exult if such an occasion
for scorn were given! But it shall never be! Because Jesus lives, we
also shall live and shall not be confounded! Let us rest in our Lord's
faithfulness and accept the pledges of His eternal affection–
"His honor is engaged to save
The meanest of His sheep!
All that His heavenly Father ga ve,
His hands securely keep.
Nor death nor Hell shall ever remove
His favorites from His breast–
In the dear bosom of His lo ve
They must forever rest."
Amen and amen!