The Pastor's Life Wrapped Up with His People's Steadfastness a Pleading Reminder
for the New Year
(No. 1758)
DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Now we live, if you standfast in the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 3:8.
MINISTERS who are really sent of God greatly rejoice in the spiritual
prosperity of their people. If they see God's Word prosper, they
prosper. If the Church of God is blessed, they are blessed. Their life
is wrapped up in the spiritual life of their people. Never is the
servant of God so full of delight as when he sees that the Holy Spirit
is visiting his hearers, making them to know the Lord, and confirming
them in that heavenly knowledge. On the other hand, if God does not
bless the word of His servants, it is like death to them! To be
preaching and to have no blessing makes them heavy of heart–the
chariot wheels are taken off and they drag heavily along–they seem to
have no power nor liberty. They get depressed and they go back to their
Master with this complaint, "Who has believed our report? And to whom
has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"
He revives and cheers them–and they come back to their service–but if
they do not see a manifest blessing resting upon the people, they cry
and sigh and are like dying men. If the Lord willed to do so, He might
have made robots to preach and these would only need to be wound up and
allowed to run down again! They would have known no feelings of joy or
of sorrow and would have been invulnerable to the arrows of grief. We
have heard of the Iron Duke. Iron preachers would have been enduring
instruments and would never have been laid aside by mental depression.
But the sympathy of the preacher is God's great instrument for blessing
the hearer! If you read a sermon in a book it is good, but if you hear
it preached fresh from the man's heart, it is far more effective. There
is a living fellow-feeling about it, and that is the power which God
has, in all ages, been pleased to use–the power of a spirit which He
has made sensitive with affec-tion–so sensitive that it rises to joy
when its affectionate purpose is accomplished and sinks to depths of
grief when that purpose fails.
This, I take it, is what the Apostle means when he says, "Now we live,
if you stand fast in the Lord." The people can make the pastor happy
beyond expression by their being rich in Grace and happy in Christ! But
they can make him miserable beyond all description if they are either
unstable or insincere. Dearly Beloved, I have often rejoiced in God as
I have seen the work of the Spirit among you. It is no small joy that
for many years we have never been without an increase to the Church.
With few exceptions we have never gathered at our monthly communions
without receiving a considerable number into our membership.
During these years some have turned back, to our great sorrow, and some
have flagged, to our solemn grief. But others have persistently carried
on the work of God and have developed gifts and graces which have made
them qualified for larger spheres. At this day those at home come
behind in no gifts and those abroad do not forget the hallowed training
of Zion. In every part of the earth some are engaged in holy service
who have gone out from this Church. For all this, our heart must be
grateful. But these are evil times. These are times, the like of which
I have not seen before, in which the foundations are removed and "what
shall the righteous do?" The winds are out. The tacklings are loosed.
The mariners reel to and fro! Everything seems to be drifting. Men know
not where they are!
Half the professing Christians of the present day do not know their
heads from their heels and the half that do know seem inclined to take
to their heels and run rather than stand steadfast in the faith and
wait till evil days are over! It is time that we spoke to you
concerning steadfastness–that you be not like idle boys that leap
hedges and ditches after every nest that silly birds may choose to
make–but that you keep to the King's Highway of holiness and truth and
hold
fast to the doctrines and the practices which are taught us in the Word
of God. I say to you by this discourse, "Now we live, if you stand fast
in the Lord."
It is a matter of life and death to us that you should be rooted,
grounded, and settled. Notice first, that some are not in the Lord.
Secondly, some appear to be in the Lord, but they are not standing
fast. And thirdly, that some in the Lord standfast in the Lord and
these are our life–"Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord."
I. First, SOME ARE NOT IN THE LORD AT ALL. A solid mass of infidelity
and godlessness hems us in. Our heart is heavy because this great city
is determined to shut its eyes to the Light of God . There are streets
upon streets in which none attend the House of God and we have it on
credible information that in certain districts if one man in a street
is seen to go regularly to a place of worship, his neighbors mark him
as a singular being. The home-born Londoner of the working classes, as
a rule, has no care for a place of worship. If I were living in the
country, I think I would be content with but half a wage sooner than to
come and dwell in this ungodly place!
Our members try to bring up their children in God's fear, but they are
often compelled to quit their homes because of the filthy conduct of
those who defile our streets. Yet this is not my present theme. Our
greater sorrow is that there are many who hear the Gospel and are not
in the Lord! We are not sorry that they should come to hear the Word of
God– would to God that all Christless souls would hear of Christ! But
we are sorry that they have come month after month, year after year,
and have received no saving benefit. I still meet, here and there, with
those who tell me, "I used to hear you in Park Street and Exeter Hall,"
and yet I gather from them that they are undecided. I have small hope
for them if 30 years of ministry have not brought them to Christ!
At any rate, these many years add to the dreadful probability that they
will continue to make the Word of God to be unto themselves a savor of
death unto death. If I could pick out of this audience, tonight, by
Infallible guidance, one man or one woman and could point to that
person and say, "Such a one will certainly go down to Hell to endure
the everlasting wrath of God"–and if you knew that I was speaking like
a Prophet from God and that it was certainly so–you would turn round
and look with deepest grief upon that doomed soul! You would shudder to
be sitting in the same pew! And yet though, thank God, we may not speak
with that certainty, the probability grows so great as almost to amount
to a certainty concerning those upon whom entreaties have been wasted,
upon whom expostulations have been wasted, by whom invitations have
been refused, that they will continue to harden their hearts until at
last they sink into the place where mercy never enters!
Ah, Lord, these are heavy tidings and Your saints feel them! I know I
am speaking to many who deeply sympathize with me when I say that the
thought of this is a worm that makes our joys decay. I mean the thought
that some of you contribute to God's work and are, in many points,
excellent–and yet you lack the one thing necessary–and after having
joined with God's people in outward acts of devotion you will be driven
from His Presence forever! O Infinite Mercy, grant that it may not be
so, but may these men and women, even now, be led to believe in Jesus
and be saved! We die when we think of those who are not in the Lord at
all! How it would revive us if we could see them saved!
If there is a deadening influence about the thought that some few among
us are not converted, think of what the effect must be upon a
minister's mind if he shall have labored long and seen no fruit. There
may be instances in which a man has been faithful, but not
successful–places where, for a time, the dew falls not and the
softening influences of the Spirit are not given. Then the soil breaks
the plowshare and the weary ox is ready to faint. I began to preach
while yet a youth, scarcely 16 years of age, but before I had preached
half a dozen times I saw persons affected by those sermons. I pined to
find some heart that had looked to Jesus while I had preached Him–and
I have photographed upon my memory, at this very moment, a very humble
clay-walled cottage which seemed to me to be a sacred spot, for I was
told by a venerable deacon that it was the house of a poor woman who
had sought and found the Savior through my ministry.
I did not let the week conclude till I had seen her, for I hungered for
the joy of meeting with one whom I had brought to Christ! If I found
one soul converted, I took heart and looked for more. Brothers, are you
working for Jesus? Then you know what it is to feel the shadow of death
when you do not win a soul! Does it not seem hard to be knocking for
Christ against a door that never opens, but has fresh bolts put on it
to keep it closed? Be not ashamed of yourself because you feel
distressed–it proves your capacity for being used. By-and-by God will
bless you and then you will understand the text, "Now we live." You
will find that your pulse is quickened, your heart's blood warmed–you
will be filled with a
more Divine life as you rise nearer to the dignity of a savior of men
and taste the unspeakable joys for which Christ laid down His life!
II. We notice, secondly, that THERE ARE SOME WHO PROFESS TO BE IN
CHRIST, BUT THEY CERTAINLY ARE NOT STANDING FAST. This is a Marah–a
bitter well. This is a source of heartbreak and of sore tribulation to
the servant of God in whom the Spirit of God dwells, namely, that,
first, there are many over whom we rejoice who, nevertheless,
altogether apostatize. Use the best judgment that you can, there will
be some added to a Church who are not really the Lord's people. They
run well–"What hinders them that they should not obey the truth?" They
appear to begin in the Spirit, yet, by-and-by, they attempt to be made
perfect in the flesh.
Oh, foolish ones, "Who has bewitched you?" They seem to be all that we
want them to be, for a time, but soon they are nothing that they should
be. And this does not happen merely during the first six months or so,
otherwise we might set them on probation, but, alas, it has happened to
men that have grown gray in the Church–esteemed and honored– and yet
they have fallen till their names cannot be mentioned without sorrow!
We can never feel sufficiently grateful to our Lord for allowing a
Judas to be among the 12, for thus, He, Himself, bore what has been to
His servants the most crushing of grief! The man that went to the House
of God in company with us has betrayed, not only us, but our Master,
and the Truth of God. This has often happened in the history of the
Church and, therefore, we may expect it. But whenever it comes, it is a
stab to the very soul! Paul, I think, if he were here, would say, "Now
we die, because these men do not stand fast in the Lord."
Happy am I to have been so largely spared this heart-wounding calamity!
Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, we live, if you stand fast in the Lord!
But it is as death to us if you turn aside! But there are other forms
of instability. Many do not behave in such a way that we could remove
their names from the Church roll, but they decline in Grace. Far too
many grow worldly and it is especially the case when they grow wealthy.
Well did one say to me the other day who has risen to riches, "I almost
regret that I have ever changed my position, for I find my difficulties
wonderfully increased–my difficulties especially with my family. They
ask for things, now, in the form of amusements which they never would
have thought of if I had not become wealthy."
When a man toils and moves to heap riches together, he is laboriously
endeavoring to make it difficult for himself to be saved. Yet some
think that the main objective of life is to load themselves so that
they cannot easily follow after Christ. It is poor progress to grow
rich in gold but poor in Grace. We see others whom we look upon as
likely to be leaders and helpers, who, if not from this cause, yet from
some other, are diverted from the work of God. We do not, now, expect
to see them at Prayer Meeting–it would be rather astonishing if they
came! We do not dare expect them to conduct a tract society, or a
lay-preaching association, or a Sunday school class, for they are
careless as to the salvation of souls.
We know some who were once full of zeal, but now they are neither cold
nor hot. These may seem trifles to the thoughtless, but they are not
trifles to those who watch after their souls and will have to give an
account! Whenever I have seen it, I have said to myself, "How much of
this is due to me? How much must I blame myself for this?" And one
cannot answer that question immediately. Many thoughts and searching
considerations are needed, but, believe me, there is nothing which eats
more like a sharp acid into a man's inmost soul to cause him a daily
grief than when he sees those that profess to be servants of Christ not
answering to the processes of Grace, but acting like worldly men!
There are some of whom I must speak even weeping because they vex our
spirit by their neglect of their Master's business. In these days there
are other forms of this lack of steadfastness and they come up in this
way. Some are always shifting their doctrinal opinions. Within the last
10 years we have had the most remarkable selection of abominations in
the way of new doctrines that ever cursed our human race! If all the
heresies that have been put forth were true, I do not know whether
there would remain either Heaven, or Hell, or earth, or God, or
man–for all these have been removed by the foul finger of doubt! Some
go in not so much for disbeliefs as for fanaticisms and, believing
nothing one day, the world is to believe everything the next!
We have already miracles restored to us and a daring person has arisen
who assumes the name of Christ! A bottomless pit of fanaticism is
yawning. Hell from beneath is vomiting all manner of absurdities to vex
the Church of God. Now is the time for steadfastness! It is a blessed
thing for a man to know what he believes and to hold to it–to have no
ear for novelty-mongers, but to say–"If it is new, it is not true. I
have my colors nailed to the mast and I cannot take them down." We know
some who are not steadfast in their service of Christ. When a man
claims to be perfect, he is wholly use-
less to us–he is sure to leave his work. He needs all his time to
admire his own perfections! It is not possible for him to be of any
further service among such poor sinners as we are–and off he goes to
stand by himself and say, "God, I thank you, that I am not as other men
are." I would a great deal sooner remain imperfect and be of some use
to God, than brag of my excellence and do nothing!
Brothers, stick to your work for God! If you preach, preach on! If
called to teach in the Sunday school, at your peril leave your class!
If God has bid you go from door to door with tracts, stick to it, and
when the Lord Himself shall come, you cannot be found in a better
position than in that of discharging the offices to which He has called
you! He would not have us stand with our mouths wide open gazing into
the air! The best position for a servant, when his Master comes, is to
be found doing his Master's will. We live, if you stand fast in the
Lord as to doctrine and as to holy service, and especially we live if
the Lord keeps you, dear Brothers and Sisters, true in the matter of
holy conversation. I call that holiness which minds its work at home. I
call that holiness which makes a kind father, a true brother, an
obedient child and makes me mind my daily calling and see that I make
others happy and so commend the Gospel to them.
See to it that your personal characters in secret before God, at home
before your friends and outside in the world where eagle eyes watch to
perceive your infirmities, are spotless and unblameable! For then we
live! But when men can turn round and fling in our teeth, "These are
your Christians, and they deal as others deal and talk as others talk,"
then down goes our spirit and we wish we could die! It is life to lead
a band of earnest steadfast men who know the Truth of God and live the
Truth of God and are ready to die for the Truth of God! This is an
honor of which we feel we are unworthy, though we aspire to it. But to
lead inconsistent, dubious, half-hearted, idle people onward to some
imaginary goal is a doom compared with which death, itself, is delight.
Now, dear Brothers and Sisters, the reason why every true minister
sinks in heart when those who seem to be in Christ do not stand fast is
this–unless men are steadfast, the Church is weakened. The strength of
any Church must be the aggregate of the strength of all the members put
together. Therefore if you have a set of weak Brethren, you multiply
the weakness of each one by the number of the membership. What a
hospital is the result! If each Believer is strong, then the whole
Church is strong. And that is our desire–we pine to see the Church of
God vigorous in her holy calling! If Believers are steadfast, then God
is glorified. Transient piety brings no glory to God! God is not
honored by that religion which is taken up today and laid down
tomorrow. It is only by perseverance–yes, and perseverance to the end,
that glory is brought to God.
The minister is disappointed of his reasonable expectations when men do
not stand fast. He is like a farmer who sees the seed grow and just
when it is about to yield him a crop, he spies out black smut and his
wheat is blighted. He may well weep over the fact that it went so far
and yet so utterly failed! Judge, you mothers, what it is to nurse your
children till they are near to manhood and then to see them sink into
the grave. You have wished, perhaps, that you had been childless sooner
than see your dear offspring taken from you. Very similar is the sorrow
of the true pastor–when he expects that God will be glorified by his
converts, they turn aside and his work is lost. Or if they do not turn
aside unto perdition, yet if they are unstable, their joy is lessened
and their usefulness is marred. And this is no small thing.
We live in your joy and if you miss it, we grieve for your incalculable
loss, for believe me, there is no joy like the highest form of
Christianity–and to lose this is a catastrophe! The beginnings of
piety are often bitter–and difficult advances are often made through
the sea and through the terrible wilderness–but the higher stage of
piety is the Beulah land from which you look into the Paradise of God,
yourself living on the borders of it! If any child of God should miss
this highest joy, it is a most heavy grief to those who watch for their
souls. Be you steadfast, for so we live.
III. Then THERE ARE SOME WHO ARE IN THE LORD AND WHO STAND FAST IN THE
LORD–and these
are our life! They are our life because their holy conduct fills us
with living confidence. I tell you, Brothers and Sisters, when I have
seen the holy generosity of members of this Church making sacrifices to
serve the Lord. When I have seen the holy courage of Brothers and
Sisters standing up for Jesus and bearing reproach for the sake of
principle–and speaking out the Truth of God in defiance of ridicule.
When, in fact, I have seen many things that I will not mention now–I
have said to myself, "These are fruits that could not have been
produced except by the Truth and by the Spirit of God!"
Then have I felt very confident in the Gospel which has been so adorned
by your actions. Certain of our Beloved elders and deacons passed away,
to our deep sorrow, not very long ago, and when I came down from their
death chambers, I did not require any further argument to prove the
religion of the Lord Jesus–the Holy Spirit set His seal upon the
Truth by their joyful departures. If infidels had met me as I left
those choice deathbeds, I would not have argued with them for a single
moment–I would have simply laughed them to scorn–for I would have
felt like a man that has looked at the sun till he cannot bear the
blaze of it any longer–and then hears a blind man swear that there is
no sun! With what confidence we speak when holy lives and joyful deaths
prove the Gospel!
Again, how often have I seen fears which have crept into my soul driven
away by my dear people! This is a time of fear, when all Solomon's men
that keep watch about his bed had need, each one, to carry his sword
drawn because of fear in the night. Yet, when I have seen God's people
steadfast, my fears have fled! Yes, I have said the Lord keeps the feet
of His saints. He is as a wall of fire round about His own. If it were
possible, the powers of evil would deceive the very elect–but it is
not possible! The saints are steadfast and each steadfast one cheers
his minister and helps him to lay aside his anxieties and to rejoice in
the certainty that the Gospel will triumph!
The steadfast become our life by stimulating us to greater exertion. I
believe that the steadfast help the minister to a high degree of
usefulness. When the man of God sees his people living to God at a high
rate of piety, he speaks many things which otherwise he never would
have spoken. He glories in the work of God and with no bated breath or
trace of hesitation, he points to his people and cries, "See what God
has done!" He exults over his converts with a holy joy. He cries, "See
what they used to be and what they are now! See how life has been made
to spring up in the midst of death and how the Light of God shines,
where before, darkness reigned."
Take away the living evidences of Divine power from the Church and you
lower the preacher's spirit at once–and deprive him of power to
demonstrate his commission by the signs that follow it. I am sure, dear
Friends, you would have a deadening influence on me if you were not
steadfast in holiness. How can I preach up holiness if someone sitting
in the gallery looks down and says, "Yonder is one of his members and a
worse thief I do not know!" Can I preach up the glory of Grace when
someone cries, "Fine talk, but I saw one of the members of his Church
half drunk the other night! Is that what is meant by the free spirit?"
If behind me there is a regiment of deceivers and hypocrites, my
position is horrible. Surely I had better give over the preaching of
the Gospel when you give over the living of the Gospel! My task, in
itself difficult, is rendered absolutely impossible if while I preach
one thing, you live another!
Happily it has not been so among you and you will not permit it to be
so in the future. May God of Infinite Mercy grant to me that I may live
because Christ lives in you! That I may be strong because I can fall
back upon you as my "living Epistles, known and read of all men!" Of
godly established Christians, I may quote the words of David, "Happy is
the man that has his quiver full of them: he shall speak with the
enemies in the gate." The best answer to all the opponents of the
old-fashioned Gospel is the godly zeal of an earnest Church. "Now we
live, if you stand fast in the Lord." I had many things to say to you,
but my time has gone. Only may God the Holy Spirit dwell with the
preacher that he may preach the Lord Jesus and not himself. And may the
Spirit of God dwell with you, dear members of this Church, that you may
live under His influence and may bear His fruit unto the Glory of God!
As for you that are members of other Churches, may the Lord make you to
be to your own pastors, their joy and crown! It will be ill for you if,
in the Day of Judgment, they have to give an ill account of you. We do
not think enough about that trial which each man will have to undergo,
or of that account which all under shepherds will have to render in the
Last Great Day. It is written, "If the watchman warns them not, they
shall perish, but their blood will I require at the watchman's hands."
Oh, my Master, when You search my garments for the blood of souls,
grant that I may be found clear of the blood of all men! What a Heaven
this will be! Remember that other Word of God, "If the watchman warns
them, and they take no heed of the warning, they shall perish; but he
has delivered his soul."
May every one of us take care to deliver his soul! It is my highest
prayer to be able to make full proof of my ministry, that in all of you
I may have an unquestioned testimony to my lifelong fidelity to my Lord
and to your souls. Pray for me daily and for yourselves, also, that by
our steadfastness this favored Church may be made to live and flourish
till our Lord Himself shall come!