DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING NOVEMBER 3, 1878,
BY C.H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE NEWINGTON.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, that you shall weep and lament, but
the world shall rejoice: and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow
shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow,
because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child,
she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the
world. And you now, therefore, have sorrow: but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man will take from you."
John 16:20-22.
WE were singing, just now a hymn in which the first verse started a
difficult question–
"'It is finished.' Shall we raise
Songs of sorrow, or of praise?
Mourn to see the Savior die,
Or proclaim His victory?" The case is very well argued in the second
and third verses–
"If of Calvary we tell,
How can songs of triumph swell?
If of man redeemed from woe,
How shall notes of mourning flow?
Ours the guilt which pierced His side,
Ours the sin for which He died;
But the blood which flowed that day
Washed our sin and guilt away." The conclusion at which we arrived in
the concluding verse seems to me to be the right one–
"Lamb of God! Your death has given
Pardon, peace and hope of Heaven:
'It is finished.'Let us raise
Songs of thankfulness and praise!" The chief thought connected with the
Redeemer's death should be that of grateful praise! That our Lord Jesus
Christ died upon the Cross is a very natural cause for sorrow and well
may they who pierced Him–and we are all among the number–look unto
Him and mourn for their sin and be in bitterness for Him as one that is
in bitterness for his firstborn.
Before we know that we are pardoned, our grief may well be exceedingly
heavy, for till sin is put away we stand guilty of the Savior's blood!
While our souls are only conscious of our guilty share in the
Redeemer's blood, we may well stand aghast at the sight of the accursed
tree, but the case is altered when, by faith, we discern the glorious
fruit of our Lord's sufferings and know that on the Cross He saved us
and triumphed in the deed. The feeling of sorrow at the sight of the
crucified Savior is one to be cultivated up to a certain point,
especially if we take care to avoid mere sentiment and turn our grief
into repentance–then it is "godly sorrow" which works after a godly
sort–and it is likely to create in us an intense horror of sin and a
strong determination to purge ourselves from all fellowship with the
works of darkness.
We do not, therefore, condemn those who frequently preach upon the
sufferings of our Lord with the view of exciting emotions of grief in
the hearts of their hearers, for such emotions have a softening and
sanctifying influence if attended by faith and directed by sound
wisdom. There is, however, a middle path in everything, and this needs
to be followed, for we believe that such preaching may be carried too
far. It is most remarkable and instructive that the
Apostles do not appear in their sermons or Epistles to have spoken of
the death of our Lord with any kind of regret. The Gospels mention
their distress during the actual occurrence of the Crucifixion, but
after the Resurrection and especially after Pentecost, we hear of no
such grief. If I confine myself to the sayings and writings of the
Apostles, I can scarcely find a passage from which I could preach a
sermon upon sorrow on account of the death of Jesus.
On the contrary, there are many expressions which treat of the
Crucifixion in the spirit of exulting joy. Remember the well-known
exclamation of Paul–"God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ." He had, no doubt, as vivid an idea of the
agonies of our Lord as any of us have ever attained and yet, instead of
saying, "God forbid that I should cease to weep at the sight of my
crucified Master," he declares that he glories in His Cross. The death
of Jesus was to him a thing to rejoice in and even to glory in! He kept
no black fasts to commemorate the world's redemption! Note well the
exalted key in which he speaks of our Lord's death in the Epistle to
the Colossians–"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,
nailing it to His Cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers,
He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."
When you turn to John's Epistles, where most of all pathos and
tenderness would naturally abound, you hear no weeping and wailing, but
he speaks of the cleansing blood which is the very center of the great
Sacrifice, in a calm, quiet, happy manner, which is far removed from
bursting grief and flowing tears. He says, "If we walk in the light, as
He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." This allusion to the
blood of Atonement rather suggests joy and peace than woe and agony!
"This is He," says John, "that came by water and blood, even Jesus
Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood." And it is evidently
to John a theme of congratulation and delight rather than a cause for
sorrow that Jesus came by blood as well as by water.
Peter, also, when he mentions the death of his Lord and Master, speaks
of "the precious blood of Christ," but not in words of sadness. And he
describes our Lord's bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, but
not in the language of lament. He says of those who suffered for the
Gospel, "Rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers in Christ's
sufferings." Now, if he finds joy in those sufferings of ours which are
in fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, much more, I gather, did
he find ground for rejoicing in the sufferings of Christ, Himself! I do
not believe that the "three hours' agony," the darkened church, the
altar in mourning, the tolling of a bell and all the other mock
funereal rites of superstition derive even the least encouragement from
the spirit and language of the Apostles! Those practical charades in
which the Crucifixion is mimicked in many churches on Good Friday are
more worthy of the heathen women weeping for Thammuz, or of Baal's
priests crying and cutting themselves with knives, than of a Christian
assembly who know that the Lord is not here, for He is risen!
Let us mourn, by all means, for Jesus died. But by no means let us make
mourning the prominent thought in connection with His death if we have
obtained, thereby, the pardon of our sins! The language of our text
allowed and yet forbade sorrow! It gave permission to weep, but only
for a little while, and then it forbade all further weeping by the
promise to turn the sorrow into joy. "You shall weep and lament," that
is, His disciples, while He was dying and dead and buried, would be
sorely distressed. "And you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall
be turned into joy"–their grief would end when they saw Him risen from
the dead! And so it did, for we read, "Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord." The sight of the Cross to their unbelief was
sadness, and sadness only–but now, to the eye offaith, it is the most
gladsome sight that ever the human eye can rest upon!
The Cross is as the light of the morning which ends the long and dreary
darkness which covered the nations. Oh wounds of Jesus, you are as
stars breaking the night of man's despair! Oh spear, you have opened
the fountain of healing for mortal woe! Oh crown of thorns, you are a
constellation of promises! Eyes that were red with weeping sparkle with
hope at the sight of You, O bleeding Lord! As for Your tortured body, O
Emmanuel, the blood which dropped, cried from the ground and proclaimed
peace, pardon and Paradise to all Believers! Though laid in the grave
by Your weeping friends, Your body, O Divine Savior, is no longer in
Joseph's tomb, for You are risen from the dead and we find in the songs
of Resurrection and Ascension an abundant solace for the griefs of Your
death! Like a woman to whom a son is born, we forget the travail for
the joy of the glorious birth which the Church and the world may now
gaze upon with the utmost delight as they behold in Jesus, "the
Firstborn from the dead."
The subject for this morning, then, you will readily guess, is how far
we should sorrow for the death of Jesus and how much further we are
permitted to rejoice. The first point will be the death of our Lord was
and still is a theme for
sorrow. But secondly, that sorrow is transmuted into joy. When we have
meditated upon these two points we shall for a little space notice a
general principle which underlies all holy sorrow as well as this
particular form of it.
I. First, then, THE DEATH OF OUR LORD WAS AND IS A TIME FOR SORROW. I
make a point of saying it was so because during the three days of the
Savior's burial there was more cause for distress than there can be now
that He is risen. To the disciples, first of all, the death of Jesus
was the loss of His personal Presence. It was a great delight to that
little family to have the Lord always among them as their Father and
their Teacher and it was a great grief to think that they should no
more hear His loving voice or catch the smile of His Countenance. It
brought untold comforts to them to be able to go to Him with all their
questions; to fly to Him in every moment of difficulty; to resort to
Him in every hour of sorrow. Happy, happy disciples to have such a
Master always in their midst communing with them in love, guiding them
by His perfect example, animating them by His glorious Presence,
relieving all their needs and guarding them from all ills.
Do you wonder that their hearts were heavy at the prospect of His going
away from them? They felt that they would be sheep without a
shepherd–orphan children bereft of their best friend and helper. Do
you wonder, I say, that they wept and lamented when the Rock of their
confidence, the Delight of their eyes, the Hope of their souls was
taken from them? What would you think if your best earthly friend was
hurried away from you by a shameful death? They sorrowed not only
because of their own personal loss by His removal, but because He,
Himself, was very dear to them. They could not bear that He should be
gone in whom their hearts centered all their affection! Their sorrow
showed that their hearts were loyal to their Beloved and would never
receive another occupant to sit upon the throne of their affections.
They wept and they lamented because their bosom's Lord was gone and His
seat was empty. They could not endure the absence of their best
Beloved. As pines the dove for its mate, so mourned they for Him whom
their soul loved. Whom had they in Heaven if Jesus were gone? Certainly
there was none upon earth that they could desire beside Him. They were
widowed and they wept and refused to be comforted. Nothing could
compensate them for Jesus' absence, for He was their All in All. For
His sake they had left all and followed Him and now they cannot bear
that they should lose Him and so lose more than all!
You who have been bereaved of those whom you have dearly loved and
deeply revered, will be able to guess what kind of sorrow filled the
hearts of the disciples when their Beloved said that He was about to go
from them and that they would not see Him for a while. This mourning
was natural and it is natural that we, also, should feel some regret
that our Lord is away from us now as to His bodily Presence, though I
trust we have, by this time, learned to see the expediency of His
absence and are so satisfied with it that we patiently wait and quietly
hope until His next appearing. It added greatly to the disciples'
sorrow that the world would be rejoicing because their Lord was gone.
"The world shall rejoice."
His eager enemies would hasten Him off to Pilate's judgment seat and
triumph when they forced an unwilling sentence from that time-serving
ruler. They would rejoice when they saw Him bearing His Cross along the
way of dolorous. They would stand around the Cross and mock Him with
their cruel gazes and with their ribald speeches–and when He was dead
they would say, "This deceiver can speak no more! We have triumphed
over Him who set our pretensions at nothing and exposed us before the
people." They thought that they had quenched the light which had proved
painful to their darkened eyes and, therefore, they were glad–and by
their gladness swelled the torrent of the disciples' sorrow.
Brothers and Sisters, you know when you are in pain or in sorrow
yourselves, how very bitter is the coarse laugh of an adversary who
exults over your misery and extracts mirth from your tears. This made
the disciples smart at their Lord's death. Why should the wicked
rejoice over Him? Why should the scornful Pharisee and priests shout
insults over His dead body? This rubbed salt into the wounds of the
downcast disciples and infused a double gall and wormwood into the cup
which was already bitter enough. You do not wonder, therefore, that
they wept and lamented when their Lord was put to death by wicked
hands. Magdalene weeping at the sepulcher acted as her gracious nature
prompted her and she was a fair sample of all the rest.
They had this, also, to make them sorrowful, that His death was, for a
time, the disappointment of all their hopes. They at first had fondly
looked for a kingdom–a temporal kingdom, such as their brother Jews
expected. Even when our Lord had moderated their expectations and
enlightened their views so that they did not quite so much look for an
actual
temporal sovereignty, yet that thought that, "this was He that would
have restored the kingdom to Israel," lingered with them. If any of
them were so enlightened as to believe in a spiritual kingdom, as
perhaps some of them were in a measure, yet by Jesus' death it must
have seemed that all their hopes were shattered. Without a leader, how
could they succeed? How could a kingdom be set up when the King,
Himself, was slain? He who has been betrayed by coward hands, how can
He reign? He that was to be the King has been spat upon and mocked and
nailed up like a felon to the gallows of wood–where is His dominion?
He is cut off out of the land of the living–who will now serve Him?
Clay cold His body lies in Joseph's tomb and a seal is set upon the
stone which shuts up the sepulcher–is this not the end of holy
hopes–the final close to all holy ambitions? How can they be happy who
have seen an end of their fairest dream? Poor followers of the dead
Monarch, how can they have hope for His cause and crown? Doubtless in
their unbelief they sorrowed deeply because their hope seemed blasted
and their faith overturned. They knew so little of the meaning of the
present and guessed so little of what the future would be that sorrow
filled their hearts and they were ready to perish! You must remember
that added to this was the sight which many of them had of their
beloved Master in His agonies. Who would not grieve to see Him hurried
away at dead of night from holy retirement to be falsely accused? Might
not angels wish to weep in sympathy with Him?
Who can keep from sorrowing when Jesus stands insulted by menials,
reviled by abjects, forsaken by His friends, blasphemed by His foes? It
was enough to make a man's heart break to see the Lamb of God so
roughly handled! Who can endure to see the innocent Savior nailed up
there in the midst of a scornful crew? Who could endure to see His
pangs as they were mirrored in His Countenance, or to hear His sorrows
as they expressed themselves in His painful cries of, "I thirst"? And
in the still sharper agonizing exclamation, "My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?"
It is little marvel that it was said of the Virgin that the sword
pierced through her heart, for surely there was never sorrow like unto
Jesus' sorrow, nor grief which could be likened unto His grief! His
heavy woes must have pierced through the heart of all right-minded men
who beheld His unexampled miseries and especially must all personal
lovers of Christ have felt ready to die, themselves, when they saw Him
thus put to death! Oh deeps of sorrow which my Lord has suffered–shall
there be no deeps to answer to You? When all God's waves and billows go
over You, O Jesus, shall not we, also, be plunged into sorrow? Yes,
verily, we will drink of Your cup and be baptized with Your Baptism. We
will now sit down before Your Cross and watch with You one hour while
love and grief conjointly occupy our souls. Now, at the remembrance of
what our Lord endured, every Christian feels sympathy with Him. You
cannot read the four stories of the Evangelists and weave them into one
by imagination and affection without feeling that the minor key befits
your voice at such a time, if you at all attempt to sing. There must
be–it is natural that there should be–sorrow because Christ has died.
One of the sharpest points about our sorrow at Jesus' death is
this–that we were the cause of it. We virtually crucified the Lord,
seeing it was because we were sinners that He must be made a Sacrifice.
Had none of us gone astray like lost sheep, then our wanderings would
not have been gathered up and laid upon the Shepherd's head. The sword
which pierced His heart through and through was forged by our
offenses–the vengeance was due for sins which we had committed and
Justice exacted its rights at His hands. What loving disciple will
refuse to sorrow when he sees that he, himself, has put his Lord to
death? Now, putting all these things together, I think I see abundant
reason why the disciples should be sorrowful and why they should even
express their sorrow by weeping and lamenting. They sorrowed as those
do who attend a funeral–for weeping and lamenting abound at eastern
funerals.
Orientals are much more demonstrative than we are and, therefore, at
the deaths of relatives they make a far greater show of grief by loud
cries and flowing tears. The disciples are represented as using the
same forcible expressions to set forth their woe–"You shall weep and
lament"–a woe worthy of the buried One whom they mourned. "You shall
weep and lament"–there was a double vent for a double sorrow–eyes
wept and voices lamented. Christ's death was a true funeral to His
followers and caused a crushing sorrow as much as if they had, each
one, been bereft of all his house! Who marvels that it was so? "Sorrow
has filled your hearts," says Christ. They had no room to think of
anything else but His death. Their heart was full to bursting with
grief because He was taken from them and that grief was so sharp as to
be likened to one of the keenest pangs which Nature is capable of
bearing–the pangs of a travailing woman–pangs which seem as if they
must bring death with them, but compared with which death, itself,
might be a relief!
The sharpness of their anguish in the hour of their trial was all that
they could bear; more would have destroyed them! All this they felt and
it is no wonder if we feel, in degree, as they did when we take a
retrospect of what the Savior endured on our behalf. So far we are
bound to concede that the death of our Lord works sorrow, but there is
a moderation even in the most justifiable mourning–and we are not to
indulge excessive grief even at the foot of the Cross, lest it
degenerate into folly.
II. Now, secondly, the Truth of God expressly taught in the text is
that THIS SORROW IS CHANGED INTO JOY. "Your sorrow shall be turned into
joy." Not exchanged for joy, but actually transmuted so that the grief
becomes joy– the cause of sorrow becomes the source of rejoicing!
Begin with what I said was a very sharp point of this sorrow and you
will see at once how it is turned into joy. That Jesus Christ died for
our sins is a sharp sorrow–we lament that our crimes became the nails
and our unbelief the spear–and yet, my Brothers and Sisters, this is
the greatest joy of all! If each one of us can say, "He loved me and
gave Himself for me," we are truly happy. If you know by personal faith
that Jesus took your sins and suffered for them on the Cross so that
now your debt is paid and your transgression is blotted out forever by
His precious blood, you do not need half-a-dozen words from me to
indicate that this which was the center of your grief is also the
essence of your joy!
What were it to us if He had saved all the rest of mankind if He had
not redeemed us unto God by His blood? We might have been glad from
sheer humanity that others should be benefited, but what would have
been our deep regret to be, ourselves, excluded from the Grace? Blessed
be the Savior's name, we are not left out! In proportion as we
repentantly upbraid ourselves for Jesus' death, in that same measure
may we believingly exult in the fact that His Sacrifice has forever put
away our sins and, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because God has condemned sin
in the flesh of Jesus Christ, therefore He will no more condemn us–we
are henceforth free–that the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit! Heartily do we
lament our sin, but we do not lament that Christ has put it away nor
lament the death by which He put it away! Rather do our hearts rejoice
in all His atoning agonies and glory at every mention of that death by
which He has reconciled us unto God. 'Tis a sad thought that we
committed the sin which burdened our Lord, but it is a joy to think
that He has taken on Himself our personal sins and carried them away!
The next point of joy is that Jesus Christ has now suffered all that
was required of Him. That He should suffer was cause for grief, but
that He has now suffered all is equal cause for joy. When a champion
returns from the wars bearing the scars of conflict by which he gained
his honors, does anyone lament over his campaigns? When he left the
castle, his wife hung about his neck and mourned that her lord must go
to the wars to bleed and perhaps to die. But when he returns with
sounding trumpet and banner held aloft, bringing his trophies with
him–honored and exalted by reason of his victories in many lands–do
his dearest friends regret his toils and suffering? Do they keep fast
correspondent to the days in which he was covered with the sweat and
dust of battle? Do they toll a bell on the anniversary of his conflict?
Do they weep over the scars which are still upon him? Do they not glory
in them as honorable memorials of his valor? They reckon that the marks
the hero bears in his flesh are the noblest insignia of his glory and
the best tokens of his prowess!
So let us not grieve, today, that Jesus' hands were pierced! Behold,
they are now "as gold rings set with the beryl." Let us not lament that
His feet were nailed to the tree, for His legs are now to us "pillars
of marble set upon sockets of fine gold." The face more marred than
that of any man is now the more lovely for its marring and He, Himself,
despite His agonies, is now endowed with a beauty which even the
ravished spouse in the Song could only describe as "altogether lovely."
The mighty love which enabled Him to endure His mighty passion has
impressed upon Him charms altogether inconceivable in their sweetness!
Let us not mourn, then, for the agony is all over and He is none the
worse for having endured it. There is no Cross for Him now, except in
the sense that the Cross honors and glorifies Him! There remains for
Him no cruel spear nor crown of thorns, except that from these He
derives a revenue of honor and titles always new which exult Him higher
and yet higher in the love of His saints.
Glory be unto God, Christ has not left a pang unsuffered of all His
substitutionary sorrows! Of our dread ransom price He has paid the
utmost farthing! The atoning griefs have all been endured! The cup of
wrath is drunk quite dry and because of this, we, with all the hosts
above, will rejoice forever and ever! We are glad not only that the
hour of travail is over, but that our Lord has survived His pains. He
died a real death, but now He lives a real life! He lay in the tomb and
it was no fiction that the breath had departed from Him–it is equally
no fiction that our Redeemer lives! The Lord is
risen, indeed! He has survived the death struggle and the agony and He
lives unhurt! He has come out of the furnace without so much as the
smell of fire upon Him! He is not injured in any faculty, whether human
or Divine. He is not robbed of any glory, but His name is now
surrounded with brighter luster than ever! He has lost no dominion, He
claims superior rights and rules over a new empire. He is a gainer by
His losses! He has risen by His descent.
All along the line He is victorious at every point. Never yet was there
a victory won but what it was in some respects a loss as well as a
gain–but our Lord's triumph is unmingled glory–to Himself a gain as
well as to us who share in it. Shall we not, then, rejoice? What? Would
you sit and weep by a mother as she exultingly shows her new-born
child? Would you call together a company of mourners to lament and to
bewail when the heir is born into the household? This were to mock the
mother's gladness! And so, today, should we use dreary music and sing
dolorous hymns when the Lord is risen and is not only unhurt, unharmed
and unconquered, but is far more glorified and exalted than before His
death? He has gone into Glory because all His work is done! Shall not
your sorrow be turned into joy in the most emphatic sense?
And there is this to add to it, that the grand end which His death was
meant to accomplish is all attained. What was that end? I may divide it
into three parts. It was the putting away of sin by the Sacrifice of
Himself and that is complete. He has finished transgression. He has
made an end of sin! He has taken the whole load of the sin of His elect
and hurled it into the bottomless abyss! If it is searched for, it
shall not be found–no, it shall not be–says the Lord! He has put away
our sin as far from us as the east is from the west and He has risen,
again, to prove that all for whom He died are justified in Him.
A second purpose was the salvation of His chosen and that salvation is
secured. When He died and rose again the salvation of all that were in
Him was placed beyond all hazard. He has redeemed us unto God by His
blood by an effectual redemption. None shall be enslaved who were by
Him redeemed; none shall be left in sin or cast into Hell whose names
are engraved on the palms of His hands. He has gone into Glory,
carrying their names upon His heart and He stands pleading there for
them and, therefore, He is able to save them to the uttermost. "I
will," He says, "that they whom You have given Me be with Me where I
am, that they may behold My Glory," and that effectual plea secures
their being with Him and like He when the end shall be.
The grand objective, however, of His death was the Glory of God and,
truly, God is glorified in the death of His Son beyond anything that
was known before or since! Here the very heart of God is laid open to
the inspection of all believing eyes–His justice and His love, His
stern severity which will not pass by sin without atonement and His
boundless love that gives His best, His darling from His bosom, that He
may bleed and die in our place–
"Here depths of wisdom shine, Which angels cannot trace The highest
rank of cherubim Still lost in wonder gaze."
Yes, O Christ of God, "it is finished." You have done all You intended
to do! The whole of Your design is achieved–not one purpose has
failed, nor even one part of it fallen through–and, therefore, shall
we not rejoice? The child is born, shall we not be glad? The travail
would have been a subject for great grief had the mother died, or had
the child perished in the birth–but now that all is over and all is
well–why should we remember any more the anguish?
Jesus lives and His great salvation makes glad the sons of men! Why
should we tune the mournful string and mourn like doves? No! Ring out
the clarion, for the battle is fought and the victory is won forever!
Victory, VICTORY, VICTORY! His own right hand and His holy arm has
gotten Him the victory! Though the Champion died in the conflict, yet
in His death He slew Death and destroyed him that had the power of
death, that is, Satan! Our glorious Champion has risen from His fall,
for He could not be held by the bands of death! He has smitten His
enemies, but, as for Himself, He has come up from the grave; He has
risen as from the heart of the sea! Let us exult like Israel at the Red
Sea when Pharaoh was overthrown! With timbrel and dance let the
daughters of Israel go forth to sing unto the Lord, for He has
triumphed gloriously and utterly destroyed all our adversaries.
We have not yet completed this work of changing sorrow into joy till we
notice that now the greatest possible blessings accrue to us because He
was made a curse for us. Through His death come pardon, reconciliation,
access, acceptance–His blood "speaks better things than that of Abel"
and invokes all Heaven's blessings upon our heads! But Jesus is not
dead! He is risen and that resurrection brings justification and the
safeguard of His perpetual plea in Heaven!
It brings us His representative Presence in Glory and the making of all
things ready for us in the many mansions! It brings us a share in that
"all power which is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth," in the
strength of which He bids us go and teach all nations, baptizing them
into His sacred name.
Beloved, Pentecost comes to us because Jesus went away from us! The
gifts of the Holy Spirit–illuminating, comforting, quickening, the
power to proclaim the Word and the might which attends that Word–all
have come to us because He is no longer with us, but through the
regions of the dead has passed to reach His crown! And now, today, we
have this great joy, again, that because He died there is a kingdom set
up in the world, a kingdom which never can be moved, a kingdom whose
power lies in weakness and yet it is irresistible! It is a kingdom
whose glory lies in suffering and yet it cannot be crushed! It is a
kingdom of love, a kingdom of unselfishness, a kingdom of kindness,
truth, purity, holiness and happiness! Jesus wears the imperial purple
of a kingdom in which God loves men and men love God! Having proved
Himself the Prince of self-sacrificing love, He is justly exalted to
the throne amid the acclamations of all His saints!
His kingdoms, shapeless as it looks to carnal eyes, like a stone cut
out of a mountain without hands, will, nevertheless, break all the
kingdoms of this world to shivers in due time and fill the whole earth!
His kingdom will grow and extend, till, from a handful of corn upon the
top of the mountains its fruit shall so increase that it shall shake
like Lebanon! It is a kingdom which shall comprehend all ranks and
conditions of men, men of all colors, of all lands and nations,
encircling all even as the ocean surrounds many lands. The unsuffering
kingdom of the suffering Shepherd, inaugurated by His death,
established by His Resurrection, extended by the Pentecostal descent of
the Holy Spirit and secured by the Eternal Covenant is hastening on.
Every winged hour brings it nearer to its perfect manifestation. Yes,
the kingdom comes! The kingdom whose foundation was laid in the blood
of its King at Calvary!
Happy are they who are helping it on, for when the Lord shall be
revealed, they, also, shall be manifested with Him. The Chief among
10,000 and the 10,000 who were with Him shall stand side by side in the
day of victory, even as they stood side by side in the hour of strife.
Then, indeed, our sorrow shall be turned into joy! There we must leave
the subject, only noticing this one fact, that that joy is right hearty
joy. "Your hearts shall rejoice," said the Savior. Ours is no
superficial mirth, but heart-deep bliss! That joy is also abiding joy.
"Your joy no man takes from you." No, nor devil, either! Nor time nor
eternity can rob us of it. At the foot of the Cross there wells up a
flashing, sparkling fountain of joy which can never be dried up, but
must flow on forever! In summer and in winter shall it be and none
shall be able to keep us back from the living flood, but we shall drink
to the full forever and ever!
III. And, now, my last point is THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE INVOLVED IN THIS
ONE PARTICULAR
INSTANCE. The general principle is this, that in connection with Christ
you must expect to have sorrow. "You shall weep and lament, but the
world shall rejoice." But whatever sorrow you feel in connection with
Jesus, there is this consolation–the pangs are all birth-pangs–they
are all the necessary preliminaries of an ever-increasing, abounding
joy! Brothers and Sisters, since you have come to know Christ, you have
felt a smarter grief on account of sin. Let it continue with you, for
it is working holiness in you and holiness is happiness.
You have felt, of late, a keener sensibility on account of the sins of
those around you. Do not wish to be deprived of it–it will be the
means of your loving them more, praying more for them and seeking more
their good–and you will be the better qualified to do them real
service and to lead them to your Lord. Perhaps you have had to bear a
little persecution, hard words and the cold shoulder. Do not fret, for
all this is necessary to make you have fellowship with Christ's
sufferings that you may know more of Him and may become more like He.
You sometimes see the cause of Christ as it were dead and you are
grieved about it, as well you might be. The enemy triumphs; false
doctrine is advanced; Jesus seems to be crucified afresh, or hidden
away in the grave, forgotten, as a dead man out of mind. It is well
that you should feel this, but in that very feeling there should be the
full persuasion that the Truth of Christ cannot long be buried, but
waits to rise again with power!
Never did the Gospel lie in the grave more than its three days. Never
did a lion roar upon it but what it turned and tore the enemy and found
honey in its carcass in later days. Whenever the Truth of God seems to
be repulsed, she does but draw back to take a more wondrous leap
forward! As when the tide ebbs out very far, we expect it to return
again in the fullness of its strength, so is it with the Church. If we
see a small fall in the tide we know that it will not rise very far,
but when we see the stream sinking right away and leaving the river-bed
almost dry, we expect to see it roll in at flood tide
till the banks overflow! Always look for the triumph of Christianity
when others tell you it is defeated! Expect to find in the very quarter
where it is covered with most disgrace and shame, that there it will
win its most glorious laurels! The Truth's superlative victories follow
upon its worst defeats.
Have faith in God. You tell me you have that. "Then," says your Master,
"you believe in God, believe also in Me." Believe in Christ! Trust in
Him! Rest in Him! Fight for Him! Labor for Him! Suffer for Him, for He
must conquer! Even now does He sit as King upon the hill of Zion and
soon the heathen shall become His inheritance and the uttermost parts
of the earth shall be His possession! Your sorrow shall be turned into
joy in all these cases. Whenever your sorrow is the result of your
belonging to Christ, always congratulate yourself upon it, since as the
spring begets the summer, so does sorrow in connection with Christ
bring forth joy to us in the Lord! By-and-by will come your last
sorrow–unless the Lord should suddenly appear, you will die. But be
content to die! Look forward to it without the slightest alarm! Death
is the gate of endless joy and shall we dread to enter there? No, Jesus
being with you, meet death joyfully, for to die is to burst the bonds
of this death which everywhere surrounds us and to enter into the true
life of liberty and bliss. Even to the end, sorrow shall be to you the
birth-pang of your joy! Carry that thought with you and be always glad.
With one remark I finish. I will not dwell upon it, but leave it to
abide in the memories of those whom it concerns. I present it to the
minds of all those who are not believers in Christ. Did you notice that
the Lord said, "You shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice:
you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." Now,
what is implied there to complete the sentence? Why, that the world's
joy shall be turned into sorrow! Even so shall it be. There is not a
pleasure which the ungodly man enjoys when he is indulging in sin but
what will curdle into grief and be his sorrow forever. Depend upon it
that the wine of transgression will sour into the gripping vinegar of
remorse which shall dissolve the rebel's soul! The sparks which now
delight you shall kindle the flames of your eternal misery! Every sin,
though sweet when it is like a green fig, is bitterness itself when it
comes to its ripeness.
Woe unto you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep! Woe unto you
that now rejoice in sin, for you shall gnash your teeth and weep and
wail because of that very Christ whom you now reject! All things will
soon be turned upside down. Blessed are you that mourn now, for you
shall be comforted. But woe unto you that are full this day, for you
shall hunger! The sun will soon be set for you that rejoice in sin.
Sadness, like a thick cloud, is now descending to surround you
eternally in its horrible gloom! Out of that cloud shall leap the
flashes of eternal Justice and from it shall peal the thunderclaps of
righteous condemnation!
"Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone and an
horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." The Lord
deliver you from such a doom by leading you, now, to yield to Jesus and
to believe in His name. May He grant this prayer for Jesus' sake. Amen.