The Dejected Lover
(No. 3485)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1915.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loves: I sought Him, but
I found Him not. I willrise now, and go about the city in the streets
and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loves: I sought Him
but I found Him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me: to
whom I said, Sawyou Him whom my soul loves? It was but a little that I
passed from them, but I found Him whom my soul loves: I held Him, and
would not let Him go, until I had brought Him into my mother's house,
and into the chamber of her that conceived me." Song of Solomon 3:1-4.
[The original title of this sermon is, THE DISCONSOLATE LOVER.]
How exquisitely pleasant is communion with our Lord Jesus Christ! And
how supremely favored are those who enjoy it! Holy Scripture exhausts
every earthly figure to delineate its sacred charms, its ineffable
delights! Yes, Inspiration, itself, exhausts its metaphors without
compassing its mystery, because it is impossible for human language to
express the sweetness of His Grace, or the solace of our acquaintance
with Him. In just so much as it is sweet to know that fellowship, so is
it sad not to know or to experience it. But alas, how frequently is
this communion unfelt and unproved!
I. THE BRIDEGROOM WAS MISSED.
In addressing this large assembly, I can but think a considerable
number of the Lord's people are in the condition of the spouse. You do
not at present enjoy access to Christ, or sweet communion with Him. It
may do you good to consider the things that remain to you, though this
fellowship is suspended, for let it be remembered that it is not upon
communion with Christ our life depends. Our salvation stands in the
knowledge of Him, not in communion with Him. We are made safe by what
He has done, not by what we feel. Not our enjoyments, but His
sufferings we must lay as the solid foundation of our hope!
There remains to us, dear Friends (for I confess to be sometimes in the
same state)–though there are no privileged token of our love to
Christ, nor any palpable enjoyment of His love to us–there remains at
this hour the positive conviction and the open confession that we do
love Him. Four times, I think, does this benighted spouse cry, "Him
whom my soul loves." She cannot see Him, but she cherishes a tender
affection for Him. She does not enjoy His Presence just now, but her
heart cleaves to Him and appreciates His excellence. What though she
may have been idle and slothful, or though her spirit may be heavy and
hazy, one thing she knows–she does love her Lord–about that there can
be no mistake! Publicly in the streets, in the hearing of the watchmen,
before the ministers and messengers of the Gospel, she does not blush
to say, "Him whom my soul loves." So it was with Peter. When he had
much to regret, much to reprove himself for, he could say, "Lord, You
know all things, You know that I love You." In like manner can you not
vouch for your sincerity when there is reason enough to challenge your
propriety? You feel guilty of a carelessness or a cowardice that might
reflect on your gratitude, but you cannot admit a wantonness or a
willfulness that could extinguish your love! My faithless heart, you
would gladly tell Him, has merited Your rebuke, but Your infinite
discernment can bear witness to the kindling of my desires. Do not
believe my actions, but believe my inmost soul! Judge me not by the
utterances of my recant lips, rather look upon the throbbing of my
penitent heart. You, O Jesus Christ, are He whom my soul loves!
Though the spouse does not just now enjoy communion with Christ, she
knows its sweetness and she feels uneasy until she partakes of it
again. As the needle cannot stop until it points to the pole, so she
trembles until her soul rests in personal communion with Jesus! Next
best to present fellowship is to hunger and thirst after it. And you
note, too, in this case and all the cases of every true Believer in
Jesus, not only is love constant and desire after Christ earnest, but
there remains sufficient strength to resolutely seek for Him. You may
not as yet have your desire accomplished, yet your heart is buoyed up
with hope and you are saying, "I must seek Him." You are not like the
traveler across the desert who at last
loses all heart, gives up all effort and perishes on the sand for lack
of water. No, you feel an inward impulse stronger than any outward
discouragements and, though faint, you are still pursuing! What if you
have sought Him and not found Him? Yet will you seek Him again till you
do find Him, for Divine Grace stimulates you and urges you forward. As
the spark flies upwards towards the sun, so the newborn nature of the
Christian seeks and soars after Christ. It is not simply unhappy
without Him, but it is restless and resolute to discover Him! It would
break through every law of Nature to establish this Law of Grace. The
new nature seeks the source from which it came–it pines and pants to
meet with Him and talk to Him in whom are all its life, strength and
joy!
Do you not feel this desire after Jesus, though you are complaining of
dullness, deadness and worldliness? Is there not some such
indescribable yearning in your breast for a communion which you well
understand, but do not now enjoy? I know not how you lost the
fellowship, my Brother, which you so grievously miss. There are many
ways in which this may come about. You and I often lose the sweetness
of communion with Christ, I doubt not, through unbelief. We think so
lightly of unbelief, as though it were an infirmity and not a sin,
whereas of all evils, it is the chief! What can be more displeasing to
the tender heart of Jesus than ungenerous thoughts concerning Him? When
last you were repining and reflecting that He had forgotten you, you
quickly lost that hallowed calm and that sweet confidence which you
knew before. Could you wonder at it? How could He walk with you while
you were casting into His ear a foul suspicion against His truthfulness
and His love? Faith is the hand which holds the Savior and will not let
Him go! Unbelief opens the door and bids Him go. How shall He tarry
when we will not believe in Him? Do you tell Him to His face that He is
not true and trustworthy, yet expect to lean your head upon His bosom?
How can you expect this? Perhaps, my dear Brothers and Sisters, you
have been too busy with the world, and yet I know some with their hands
full of business, and their heads full of enterprise, who have constant
communion with Christ! But perhaps you have let the world steal in upon
your heart. All the water in the sea, as I have often told you, does
not frighten the mariner, but that little drop of water in the hold,
which betokens a leak in the ship, gives him great distress! You might
have an empire to govern and yet never lose fellowship with Jesus, but
with nothing more than your little family to manage, you may lose Him
if you let the cravings and the covetousness of the world, its fashions
or its ambitions, get inside your heart! Keep that chamber clear for
Christ. Let your heart be the marriage bed and keep it chaste for Him
who is your Husband and your Lord! Or possibly, dear Brothers and
Sisters, you have been negligent in the use of private prayer–and what
can shut the windows through which Jesus looks as soon as laxness or
slackness in supplication? Unless you are much upon your knees, you
cannot expect to have your head much upon His bosom! The appointed
place of audience is the Mercy Seat. If you refuse to resort there, how
can you look for Christ to grant you another audience chamber? Is it
reasonable that He should alter His fixed institutions to suit your
foolish negligence? Go then, dear Brothers and Sisters, if you would
renew your fellowship, go again to your closet and there pray unto the
Lord your God, and make your supplication unto Him!
In many other ways the Christian may lose his fellowship with Christ
Especially by the indulgence of some known sin, by harboring resentment
or cherishing a bitter spirit against a Brother, by shutting the eye to
some Gospel Truth, by dissembling convictions in deference to the
company you keep or the society in which you move, by not coming out
from the world, or mingling too much with the ungodly. It may suffice
to refer to these evils without enlarging upon them. When you miss the
fellowship, there is little comfort in accounting for the way you lost
it! Your heart is rather craving its restoration. "Tell me how I may
find Him whom my soul loves, for I desire to renew my fellowship with
Him."
Come then, Beloved, with hearts humbled on account of past sin, and yet
encouraged with the assurance that He who received us at the first is
willing to receive us still–let us go to Him anew. We were all over
foul and vile then. If we are the same, now, we will return unto
Him–if it is in a bad a plight, yet let it be with as good a plea!
Come to Jesus, as once you did come to Him, though, perhaps, you have
known the Master lo, these many years! The same words will suit your
case–
"Just as I am without one plea, But that Your blood was shed for me,
And that You bid me come to Thee, Oh, Lamb of God, I come."
While our text conducts us onward to the successful restoration of
communion, it glances also at– II. UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO FIND THE
BELOVED ONE.
Of how many of us might it be said that with a lazy attitude and a
listless wish, we have yawned after a gift for which we might have
vehemently yearned. "By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul
loves." As it were on her bed of sloth and idleness, she dreamed of a
happiness she was far from enjoying. But we shall never get the
privilege of close
communion with Christ by merely wishing for it! What though now and
then, with a hectic flush upon our cheeks, we exclaim, "Would to God I
were like Christ! Oh that I lived nearer to Him! I am not satisfied
with what I know–I desire to know more!" This is no symptom of health.
Does the idler ever prosper? He who lies in bed and will not sow by
reason of the cold, where is his harvest? What pearls come into the
hands of the merchantman who says, "A little more sleep and a little
more slumber"? And do you think the pearl of pearls, the pearl
wherewith none other in the universe can compare, the highest privilege
which the Eternal King ever bestowed on His own courtiers–do you think
that this, the most distinguished favor He ever confers upon the
darlings of His heart, this intimate fellowship with Jesus–do you
think He will communicate that to you while you are tossing on your bed
in indolence which is the bane of virtue and the nurse of folly? It was
not because she sought Him by night that she did not find Him, for
Jesus is often found by His people in the dark. When no rays of light,
no gleams of comfort can steal over our senses, still if we seek Jesus
with our whole heart, though to our own apprehension we grope about
like blind men, we shall find Him, to the joy of our spirits! It was
not the night that prevented her finding Him–it was the bed–her
laziness, her lethargy and her sloth. Shake yourself from the dust and
believe!–
"Avoid the idle life! Flee, flee from doing naught! For never was there
idle brain But bred an idle thought."
No longer to the insidious temptation which is so apt to beset us all.
The Lord deliver us from the lukewarmness of the Church of Laodicea,
lest He should spew us out of His mouth! When she sought Him thus, she
could not find Him. No marvel, you will think, for your own experience
has taught you that such disappointment is the invariable rule.
With no better success did she seek Him when afterwards she went about
in a self-sufficient spirit I may be wrong in my conjecture, but to me
the words, "I will rise, now," sound a little like dependence upon her
own exertions. "I will rise, now," has not half so grateful a ring
about it, nor is it half so graceful, as, "Draw me, we will run after
You." This confiding rather than that confidence seems to be the
impression which becomes the saint when cold and crushed, he keenly
feels how desolate he is. Arise, did I say, shake off dull sloth? Ah,
then 'tis easier said than done! "Awake, my soul," is a poor invocation
compared with, "Oh, Sun of Righteousness, arise!" Or, "Make haste, my
Beloved," or "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." Beware, my Brothers and
Sisters, of seeking after Christ in a legal spirit. Beware of going to
Calvary as though you were going to Sinai. In coming to Christ, no
merit of your own can recommend you–so in longing for Him to appear to
you again, no strivings of your own can avail you. Let His rich Grace
be your poor plea! Your best way of suing is to say–
"Oh, for this no strength have I, My strength is at Your feet to lie."
Once again, in trusting in the scrupulous using of the means, the bride
seems to have thoroughly relied upon attaining her end. Lest I should
seem too censorious of her conduct, allow me to say that my criticism
of the text is bent on taking and applying the rebukes to ourselves. Do
you not notice, however, how sure she seems of finding Him if she goes
about the city in the streets and in the broadways and if she meets the
watchmen and inquires of them? But it does not appear that the fitness
of the places to seek, or the persons to enquire of, were of much use.
She went down one street and another, as we may resort to the street of
private prayer, a narrow and little-frequented way, and she said, "I
shall find Him there." But after she had walked through it, she said,
"He is not here. My chamber is not a palace as it used to be. No more
is it the privy closet of the King of Kings, the audience chamber
royal" So she saw a wider way, and she said, "I will walk down here,"
as we may go to the Prayer Meeting. "What blessed hours I have often
enjoyed there," she said. "I shall find Him in that highway, I feel
sure," but after traversing all its length she said–
"I go where others go, but find not Jesus there." then she quotes, "I
will go into the broad places where the preaching of the Gospel is to
be heard. I will go with the throng where God speaks through His
servants," but service after service, and sermon after sermon were like
clouds without rain, and wells without water! Others were refreshed,
but she, trusting in the means, came away without a blessing. So,
Brothers and Sisters, you may traverse every street in the city, you
may even come to that street paved with gold–the ordinance of the
Lord's Supper–or you may go down Water Street, where in the ordinance
of Baptism, the Lord often reveals His death and burial unto His
people, but after having traversed both these streets you shall be
compelled to say, "Though I love the means, they are a weariness to me
when Jesus is not revealed to me in them."
What a difference there is between our preaching at one time and our
preaching at another! How often do I bless God in the evening for that
which I groaned over in the morning, when my spirit has been bowed, my
tongue tied, and I could not preach as I would! It is a grand thing for
the minister to be humbled in the sight of his hearers, when you
discern that it is not the man in whom the power is vested, but it is
his God whose might you cannot resist! My fear often is that your
smiles may provoke His frowns and He may withhold His blessing from me
because you attribute to some genius of mine an influence which His
Spirit, alone, could exert. When I was only a lad, a stripling fresh
from the country, you said when there were conversions, "How God helps
him!" I am jealous of you, now, lest you should not say the same thing!
God will take away His blessing when you refrain from offering Him the
praise! If you once ascribe what is done in any degree whatever to the
creature, or to any power that he has, you will excite the jealousy of
his Lord! Remember the lessons that the spouse was taught. Means and
ordinances are just what God likes to make them. Even Divine
institutions are beggarly elements when He forsakes them. They can be
nothing better than matters of duty and they may be very far from being
matters of privilege. When He wills it, He can make His ministers do
exploits. The least of all His servants shall be mighty as David was
when He slew the giant, Goliath, with only the sling and stone. We are
nothing of ourselves. The hand that moves the instrument is everything.
If you would come to Christ, or seek after Christ, looking too much to
the means, you will have to return again with the mournful cry, "I
sought Him, but I found Him not." Such, then, are the unsuccessful
efforts to regain communion with Christ.
III. WE FIND THE SUCCESSFUL HERE SET SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE
UNSUCCESSFUL.
We shall now hold her up as an example which you will do well to
imitate. With what constancy she sought this communion! She began at
the dead of night, as indeed it is never too late to seek renewed
fellowship. Yet she sought on. The streets were lonely and it was a
strange place for a woman to be at such a strange time, but she was too
earnest in seeking to be abashed by such circumstances. The watchmen
met her, and they were astonished, as well they might, how she came to
be there at that hour. But she sought on–she would never rest until
she had found Him. Believer, if you would have fellowship with Christ,
you must be in continual quest after it! Your soul must get a craving
for the one thing, and that such a craving as nothing but that one
thing can satisfy. I would my own soul were like Anacreon's harp, only
in a better sense. You know he said, though he wished to sing of
Cadmus, his harp would sing of love, alone. Oh, that we might sing of
the love of Jesus and of His love, alone! Then it would not be long
before our fellowship with Him would be renewed!
And as she sought Jesus continually, she neglected no means that
seemed, to her, right and promising. Though I have warned you against
trusting in what are called the means of Grace, I had not the slightest
intention of undervaluing, much less of disclaiming them. We cannot
rationally expect the Lord to reveal Himself other than in the way of
His own appointment. He may sometimes do so and He likes to surprise us
with His Grace, but we have no right to expect it. Abraham's servant
followed closely his master's injunctions. And when he blessed the Lord
God of his master, Abraham, who had not left his master destitute of
His mercy and His truth, he testified, "I being in the way, the Lord
led me to the house of my master's brethren." It is in the way
appointed that God does most commonly deign to meet with us! I do not
expect that those of you who every time there is half a shower of rain,
stay at home, will be very well fed, nor those of you who neglect the
Monday Prayer Meeting on any trivial excuse! There are a goodly number
of you who do so–you cannot expect that you will grow in Grace if you
forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Those of you who when
the brethren join together in earnest prayer, cannot be present, must
not marvel, if, like Thomas, you are not there when Jesus appears. You
have good cause to be full of doubts and fears when your fellow
disciples are full of joy and love. Use the means! Use all the means, I
entreat you. Who knows how great and rich a blessing, obedience in even
the least of the Lord's commands may bring to our souls! It is a
blessed thing to walk tenderly and scrupulously observe the statutes of
the Lord–to be afraid of leaving anything undone which is commanded,
or of doing anything that is forbidden–lest in the omission or the
commission we should by some means or other vex a jealous God and
provoke Him to keep back from us much that we might have enjoyed
through the means of His own appointment!
But the chief beauty of the whole story is that the spouse did not stop
with the means of Grace. She had applied to the watchmen on the walls,
but better still for her, the watchmen had found her. The expression is
remarkable, because it is expressive of much that we have often proven.
You know, sometimes, what it is to be found by the watchmen on the
walls. You come here with a trouble of which nobody knows anything and
the watchman discovers you. In the description of your case he finds
you. It often happens that the very thing you were talking of by the
way, the watchman relates to you. You perceive that you cannot hide.
How strange it seems to you! Is not this a token of the Father's love
that He guides the watchman to discover you in your midnight wanderings
where you are unknown to any but your God, and
thought you would be unrecognized by anyone? Yes, but even then you
know, I hope, how to pass by the watchman. She asked, "Saw you Him,
whom my soul loves?" Why did they not answer? Perhaps because they were
blind and never did see themselves. Alas, that some watchmen on the
walls have need to watch for their own souls rather than for the souls
of others! Still, not the best of the watchmen there could console
herwith a smile of Jesus' face. We can tell you what we have felt and
proved of His love. We can, sometimes, when the Lord helps us, tell you
how His people are ravished with His smiles, but a smile of His face,
it is for Himself to give–and none but Himself can bestow it! It were
not possible for Him to send that secondhand. You must go directly to
Him. Yet see what honor God puts upon His servants, because she says it
was but a little after she passed them–you must go beyond the minister
a little, but a little! The Lord helps His servants to bring you to the
verge of fellowship. We know it is all of the Lord, unto Him be all the
glory! Still, He chooses, in the use of means, to make it but a little
between the earnest, spiritual exercise of outward means and the supply
of the inward spiritual Grace! "It was but a little that I passed from
them, but I found Him whom my soul loves."
Thus far, Beloved Brothers and Sisters, have I led you. Now I want you
to go a little further. Away beyond the Church, away in advance of the
bread and wine spread out for our mutual repast, a little beyond all
these. It is not these that will satisfy your craving. A feast of bread
and wine would never gratify this longing of your spirit! You need
Jesus! The minister cannot satisfy you–you need Jesus! You have got to
this point of desire–you need Christ and nothing but Christ! Go on
then, dear Brothers and Sisters, and to attain your objective I can
propose nothing better than the simple method I proposed to you just
now. Go to Him as you did at first! Forget the past, except to remember
with penitence your sin and to anticipate in the future, the Grace that
welcomed you as a stranger. You know the love and mercy that are in His
heart–unworthy as you are, cast yourself at His feet–and you may have
the love of your espousals given back to you! You may once again cross
the Jordan of doubt and fear, and enter into the Canaan of your blessed
inheritance, enjoying rapt and rich fellowship with Him!
If you do see Him, be sure you lay hold of Him. He Himself loves to be
embraced. Let your love lay hold of His love, for His love is laying
hold of you! Hold Him fast. Dismiss all ungrateful thoughts, for they
will fill your hands so that you cannot hold Him. Divest yourself of
all cares for a while and now, with an empty hand, just lay hold of His
righteousness and strength!
And when you get the Gift you long for, I charge you tell your brothers
and sisters! Bring Him to your mother's house. There are some in your
mother's house sorely sick with weary apprehensions and dreary
misgivings–tell them that you have seen your Beloved! It will cheer
their spirits. Tell them the same news that made good old Jacob's eyes
overflow with tears of joy! Tell them Jesus is still alive! Tell them
that Jesus yet sits upon the Throne of God! Tell them that He is still
full of love to His chosen ones–and I think their desponding souls
will straightaway revive and they, with you, will feast on Free Grace
and dying love!
Well, dear Friends, I shall occupy no more time in talking to you, for
we need to devote the rest of our time at the Communion Table, to calm
and quiet musings. I have conducted you as far as I can. Surely there
is no need to excite Christians to that which is sweet to them! Yet I
beseech you let no sense of unworthiness keep you back, for you always
were unworthy! As such Christ loved you at first. Neither let any
consciousness of backsliding keep you back. "As a wife treacherously
departs from her husband, so do you depart from Me," says the Lord by
the mouth of His servant. And yet He says, "Return, return." I do not
know of any figure more striking! None that involves more bitter
reproach, yet for all that, He bids her come back! Though you are thus
guilty, and have been unfaithful to your loving Husband, still He bids
you come back, and assures you of a welcome! That hymn may suit the
backsliders as well as the unconverted sinners–
"Let not conscience make you linger, Nor of fitness fondly dream."
Oh, how sad it makes my heart when I think of some of you to whom this
is all an idle tale! All this discourse is arrant nonsense in the
judgment of some of you. Our faith must seem to you strangely
credulous. Our views must seem to you altogether visionary! Howbeit,
there is a land that you have never seen, a life that you have never
felt, a truth that has never dawned on your understanding. These things
that are so real to us are strange to you–still, it is more strange
and more strangely sad to me that you should be without God, without
Christ, without hope in the world! We are pleased to greet you in this
sanctuary, though we can well imagine that the sight and sound are
foreign to you as would be the other side of a sea you have never
crossed. You may be led to ask, "What is it? What does it mean? Is
there another
and a better life? Are there other and brighter joys than we have ever
tasted? Do these Christians have comforts that I know not of? Have they
a love which I have not? I would I knew the same!"
Ah! thoughtless, heedless sinner! Be you a high caste or a low caste
sinner, know this, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bled on the Cross
and died for such as you are! Whoever believes in Him shall never
perish, but have everlasting life. Trust in Him and you are saved! This
is the love which won our hearts. Oh, may it win yours! The things of
which we have been speaking do but spring from that simple fact that He
loved us and gave Himself for us. The way in which we learned the
mystery of His love is as open to you as it was to us. This was the
way. We put our trust in Him. We knew we were not worthy of Him, but we
did trust Him. Through His Grace we did, without introduction or
preparation, draw near to Him and cast ourselves on His mercy. May you
do the same! Let there not be an hour's delay, for the days are
flying–the years are flying. Your grave is very close–within a few
days you may be carried there. Fly at once to Him who bids you trust
Him! God help you to do this, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 PETER 2.
Verses 1, 2. Therefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and
hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking. As newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. Have we
not constantly declared that our faith, if true, is always practical?
Here, again, we have the precepts of God's Word. Here we are told that
there is much for us to lay aside, as if it were natural to us in every
case, and must, therefore, be carefully laid aside. "Malice"– we are
all inclined to return evil for evil–the Christian must not do so.
"All guile"–everything like craft and cunning–this is unbecoming in a
Christian. "Hypocrisy"–seeming to be what we are not–all sorts of
mere seeming we must lay aside. "And envy"–how easy it is for us to
envy one man his wealth, or another his health, or another his
talents–but "all envy" the Christian must have done with! "And evil
speaking"–it is painful to reflect how much of evil speaking there is
among persons who we still hope are good people. They are very fond of
repeating stories to the disadvantage of their fellow Christians. Now,
whether you are the author of it or not, do not be the retailer of it,
for we are here told to lay aside all evil speaking. But then the
religion of Jesus Christ does not consist in negatives! It is not
merely what we are to lay aside–there is something to be taken up. We
are told that as we are born-again, we are to consider ourselves as
newborn babes, and are to desire the unadulterated milk of God's Word,
that we may grow thereby. It is not enough to be alive–we should
desire to grow. To be saved is a great blessing–we ought not, however,
to be contented with being barely saved–we should seek after the
Graces of the Spirit and the excellent work of God within us.
3. If so you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Have you tasted
this? Oh, search yourselves and see, and if you have, then prove it by
the laying aside of the evil, and the thirsting after the good!
4, 5. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God, and precious. You also, as lively stones, are built
up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ The priesthood among
Believers does not belong to here and there, one, but to the whole
company of Believers. As many as love the Savior are priests and kings
unto God–and they should regard their whole life as the exercise of
this priesthood. When we assert that no place is holy above another, we
do not thereby desecrate any place, but rather consecrate all places.
We believe every day to be holy, every hour to be holy, every place and
occupation to be holy to holy men, and we should so live as to evermore
exercise this consecrated priesthood.
6-8. Therefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in
Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believes on Him
shallnot be confounded. Unto you, therefore, who believe, He
isprecious: but unto them which are disobedient, the stone which the
builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner And a
stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble
at the Word, being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed. Of
whom we can only say, with Augustine, "Oh, the depth," and leave that
mystery to be explained to us hereafter.
9, 10. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of
Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Which
in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. How good it is to
look back to the hole of the pit whence we were dug! What if today the
Sovereign Grace of God has made us royal priests, yet let us remember
that in past times we were not a people, "But are now the people of
God." "Which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Yes,
I think no exercise will be more profitable by way of expressing our
gratitude than the remembering what we used to be before the hand of
God was laid upon us in love! For if all of us did not run to
an excess of riot in our outward lives, yet some of us did. And others
who were kept from gross outward sins had, nevertheless, a very sink of
corruption within our nature. We felt that when the Spirit of God
convinced us of sin we could truly say–
"Depths of mercy, could there be, Mercy yet reserved for me?"
And having obtained mercy, we will never cease to bless the name of
God!
11-14. Dearly Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain
from fleshly lusts which war against the soul Having your conversation
honest among the Gentiles that, whereas they speak against you as
evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold,
glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every
ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king as
supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the
punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well
Christians should be good citizens. Though in one respect they are not
citizens of this world, yet as they find themselves in it, they should
seek the good of those among whom they dwell and be patterns of order.
15-17. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing you may put to
silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, and not using your
liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor
all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Even if they
are beggars, they are men–honor them. There is God's image, though
marred and defiled, in every man–and because he is a man, honor
him–pity him. Look down upon him never with contempt, but always feel
that there is an immortal spark, even within that mass of filth. If the
man is cast into all manner of beggary and wickedness, "Honor all men.
Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King." The same verse that
says, "Honor the King," however, says, "Honor all men," and while we,
therefore, have due respect to rank, yet a man is a man for all that,
and we must "Honor all men."
18-20. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to
the good and gentle, but also to the forward. For this is thankworthy,
if a man for conscience toward God endures grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what glory is it, if when you are buffeted for your faults, you
shall take it patiently? But if when you do well, and suffer for it,
you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. I have known some
that could not do that, however. If they were only spoken to very
gently, they were immediately in a tiff. "But if, when you do well, you
bear it patiently, this is acceptable with God." Here is something more
than human nature can bear. Now Grace comes in to help. "This is
acceptable with God."
21. For even hereunto were you called. Called, you see, to be buffeted
when you don't deserve it.
21-23. Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that
you should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in
His mouth: Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He
suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him who judges
righteously. Herein is he a pattern of patience to all His people.
24-25. Who His own Self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that
we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. By whose stripes
you were healed, for you were as sheep going astray, but are now
returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls