Who Are The Elect?
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 9, 1865, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he." 1 Samuel 16:12.
SAMUEL was sent to Bethlehem to discover the object of God's election.
This would have been a very difficult task if the God who sent him had
not accompanied him and spoken with the sure voice of Inspiration
within him so soon as the chosen object stood before him. Brethren, it
is neither your task nor mine to guess who are God's elect apart from
marks and evidences. What was done in the councils of eternity before
the world was made is hidden in the mind of God and we must not
curiously intrude where the door is closed by the hand of Wisdom.
Yet in the preaching of the Word there is a discovery made of God's
secret election. We preach the Gospel to every creature under Heaven.
We deliver God's threats and promises to every sinner and we cry, "Look
unto Jesus and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." That Gospel
is, of itself, through God the Holy Spirit, the discerner of the chosen
ones of God when they feel its quickening power and are raised from
among the spiritually dead. The Gospel is a fan which, while it drives
away the chaff, leaves the wheat upon the floor. The Gospel is like a
refiner's fire and like the fuller's soap removing all that is
extraneous and worthless, revealing the precious and the pure.
We ministers have no other way by which to discern the saints of God
and to separate the precious from the vile but by faithfully preaching
the Truth of God as it is in Jesus and observing its effects. As for
ourselves, we may discover our own calling and election and make them
sure. Paul said of the Thessalonians that he knew their election of
God. We may discover the election of other men to a very high degree of
probability by their conduct and conversation, and be certified of our
own election, even to infallibility, by the witness of the Spirit
within that we are born of God.
If our heart is renewed by the Spirit. If we are made new creatures in
Christ Jesus. If we are reconciled unto God and redeemed from dead
works we may know that our names were written in the Lamb's Book of
Life from before the foundation of the world. This morning I am about
to speak upon the way in which we may discover the elect, making the
case of David, in some degree, our guiding star.
I. I would have you mark at the outset, THE SURPRISE of all, when they
found that David, the least in his father's house, was the object of
the Lord's choice as king over Israel! Observe that his brothers had no
idea that David would be selected. Such a thought had never entered
their minds. If the question had been asked of them, "Who among you
will ever attain to the kingdom?" they would have selected any of the
other seven, but they would certainly have passed by their brother,
David.
He seems to have been thoroughly despised by his brothers. Eliab
addresses him in a tone of scorn when he comes to the valley of
Elah–"Because of your pride and the naughtiness of your heart you are
come to see the battle." This mode of speech was, no doubt, such as he
usually employed towards the young man. I suppose that David had been
one by himself. The sports of the seven were often such that he could
not engage in them. He was no companion for them. If they at any time
perpetrated any unjust or unrighteous deed–if, as probably a band of
seven young men in the hey-day of youth were likely to do–they were
bold in courses of sinful mirth–David would follow the example of
Joseph and act as a reprover in their midst and consequently he fell
under their contempt.
He was with his flock on the mountain side when they were making merry
with their drinking. His book and his harp were his solace.
Contemplation was his great delight and his God his best company–while
his brothers found no pleasure in Divine things. He, like our Lord,
could say, "For Your sake I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my
face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my
mother's children" (Psa. 69:7, 8). Like Joseph, he was "the dreamer" of
the family in the esteem of the rest. They thought him moon-struck when
he considered the heavens and called him mad when he meditated both day
and night on God's Law.
Now, beloved Friends to whom I address myself, you may be one of those
whom God has looked upon with an eye of love from before the foundation
of the world and yet, in the family to which you belong you may be
overlooked and forgotten. Your own brethren have formed a very low
opinion of your abilities and they have a perfect contempt for the
singularity of your character. You are as a speckled bird among your
own kinsfolk–you cannot enjoy what they enjoy– your loves and your
longings run in a different channel from theirs. Suffer not their
contempt to break your heart!
Remember David once stood in your position and there was yet another in
the earlier days upon the crown of whose head the blessing of the
eternal hills descended though he was separated from his brethren. And
so may Heaven's enriching smile yet rest on you for the Lord sees not
as man sees! The rejected of men are often the beloved of the Lord. It
is more painful to notice that David's father should have had no idea
of David's excellence. A father has naturally more love to his child
than a brother to his brother and frequently the youngest child is the
darling.
But David does not seem to have been the tender one of his father.
Jesse calls him the least and if I understand the word which he uses in
the original, there is something more implied than his being the
youngest. He was the least in the estimation of the ill-judging parent.
It is strange that he should have been left out when the rest were
summoned to the feast. I cannot acquit Jesse of fault in having omitted
to call his son, when that feast was a special religious service. At a
sacrifice all should be present. When the Prophet comes none should be
away and yet it was not thought worthwhile to call David, although one
would think a servant might have kept the sheep and so the whole family
might have met on so hallowed an occasion.
Yet no son was left in the field but David. All the others were
assembled. It sometimes happens, (but O how wrongly!), that one in the
family is overlooked, even by his parent in his hopes and prayers. The
father seems to think, "God may be pleased to convert William. He may
call Mary. I trust in His Providence we shall see John grow up to be a
credit to us. But as for Richard or Sarah, I do not know what will ever
become of them." How often will parents have to confess that they have
misjudged and that the one upon whom they have set the black mark has
been, after all, the joy and comfort of their lives and has given them
more satisfaction than all the rest put together!
Are you such an one, young man? Are you painfully conscious that you
have a narrow share in your parents' hearts? Be not downcast,
distressed, or broken-hearted about this. You fare as David did before
you and if he, the favored servant of God, the man after God's own
heart, could put up with his position, be not you too proud to abide in
it! Even if your father and your mother forsake you–if the Lord takes
you up–He will be better to you than the best of parents! It is clear,
also, that Samuel, God's servant, had at first no idea of David's
election. The brethren advanced one by one and Samuel, using his human
judgment, was ready to select any other rather than David.
The minister of God, if he is truly called and sent, has a yearning in
his soul to bring out God's chosen from their hidden state. His eyes
are quick to discern the first tokens of Divine Grace in a renewed
soul. But sometimes the Christian minister is deceived. He consults
with flesh and blood and selects Eliab, the one who is a fine person,
whose noble countenance bespeaks something above the ordinary level,
whose whole frame is so admirably fashioned that he is good to look
upon. How true is it that the Lord takes not pleasure in the legs of a
man. The gifts of personal appearance often become snares instead of
blessings–"beauty is deceitful and favor is vain."
The Lord had not chosen Eliab. Then rank will come before the minister,
and if he sees a person of high estate cheerfully listening to the
Gospel, he is very ready to think, "Surely the Lord has chosen him."
But how often these are but birds of passage in our congregation who
never tarry long enough to build a nest in the sanctuary. Mere
curiosity brings them and a new curiosity carries them elsewhere.
Surely the Lord has not often chosen these Abinadabs.
Again, others are so well educated that when the Word is preached they
appreciate the style in which it is delivered and the remarks which
they make concerning it are so sensible and so judicious that the
preacher is apt to say, "Surely the Lord has chosen these!" And yet how
often the educated are too proud to believe the simplicities of Christ
and the intellectual turn on their heels because the Gospel is scarcely
refined enough for their taste.
At other times we feel sure that we have now pitched upon the right
man, for we are charmed with our hearer's natural amiability of
disposition and are cheered by his tenderness and susceptibility of
mind to religious impressions. And yet we are disappointed. Many lovely
blossoms never become fruit and hopeful saplings prove not to be plants
of the Lord's right-hand planting and therefore are plucked up. At
times, too, we hear such admirable conversation about re- ligion that
we conclude, "Now we have found out the chosen of the Lord." We have
sat in company and heard young men use devout expressions which implied
no ordinary depth of Scriptural knowledge.
We have heard those persons pray and have admired their great gift in
prayer. They have addressed religious assemblies and spoken with a high
degree of fluency and our heart said, "Surely the Lord has chosen
these!" And yet, my Brethren in the ministry will tell you that often
out of the many hopefuls who have passed before them they have found
many to be heart-breakers, and few who gave them any real satisfaction
as to their conversion to God.
Meanwhile, the very ones whom we overlooked, the least ones in the
assembly, have been the Davids upon whom God's blessing has fallen. Oh,
some of you have listened to our word these ten years and more, and you
have been impressed again and again–and yet you are unconverted! We
often thought you must be the chosen of God when we marked your tears
and your apparent feeling, but up till now you are without any evidence
of election. On the other hand there has dropped into this place a
drunkard and there has strayed into these aisles a harlot and the
mighty Grace of God has converted them and they are rejoicing now in
the full forgiveness of their sins while you are yet "in the gall of
bitterness and in the bond of iniquity"!
How true is that word, "the publicans and harlots enter into the
kingdom of Heaven before you." How matchless is the Sovereignty of God!
"His ways are past finding out." The very poorest, the most illiterate,
the mean and most obscure, the fools, the babes, the things
despised–yes–"the things that are not" does He choose, to bring to
nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His
Presence. It strikes me that there was one person more astonished when
David was anointed than even his brothers, or his father, or the
Prophet–and that was David!
He was a wonder unto many, but chiefly to himself. He had communed with
God alone beneath the spreading trees. He had sung the praises of
Jehovah in the wilderness where he had led his flocks, and by the
waterside he had tuned his harp and made the rocks echo with the sweet
music of his grateful soul. But he never dreamed of being a king! If a
Prophet had said to him, "The Lord will take you from following the
sheep to be ruler over His people Israel, and He will be with you
wherever you go and cut off all your enemies out of your sight and make
you a name like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth,"
he would have cried, "What am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that
you have brought me up to now? Is this the manner of men, O Lord God?"
So, dear Friend, you may be truly a child of God, but you may, as yet,
have no clear view of the high and noble calling to which God has
ordained you. Your trembling faith has laid its hand upon the head of
Jesus and you trust you are forgiven–but as yet you do not know the
grandeur and dignity to which faith exalts every heir of Heaven. Now,
let me whisper in your ear words concerning your present greatness and
the glory which is yet to be revealed in you. "Beloved, now are we the
sons of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as
He is."
You are justified by faith and you have peace with God and do you not
know that, "Whom He justifies, them He also glorifies"? You shall be
surely glorified! Do you know the reason for this? It is because you
are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God, through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth." Yes, poor
Trembler, the thoughts of God were exercised concerning you before the
stars began to dart their rays through the thick darkness!
Jehovah-Jesus wrote your name upon His heart and engraved it on the
palms of His hands before the skies were stretched abroad! Be of good
courage, there is a kingdom for you!
The sure mercies of David have ordained you to overcome and to sit down
upon Jesus' Throne, even as He has overcome and is set down with His
Father upon His Throne. Be glad, therefore, for it is the Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. I think I see you all surprised and
you say, "How can it be? I! Chosen of God! My many sins, my great
infirmities, my doubts, my barrenness in God's service–the coldness of
my heart–all these make me go mourning. Can it be that yet He has
ordained me to a kingdom?"
It is even so. Let your faith grasp the truth and go your way
rejoicing. Remember, dear Friend, that it matters not what your
occupation may be, you may yet have the privilege of the kingdom. David
was but a shepherd and yet he was raised to the throne and so shall
each Believer be. You may be obscure and unknown–in your father's
house the very least–and yet you may share a filial part in the Divine
heart. You may be among those who never would be mentioned except as
mere units of the general census–without parts, without position. You
may almost think yourself to have less than the one talent–you may
conceive yourself to be a worm and no man–and like David you may say,
"I was as a beast before You." And yet think of this–that the
marvelous election of God can stoop from the highest Throne of Glory to
lift the beggar from the dunghill and set him among princes!
II. We shall now turn our thoughts to THE TOKEN of election, the secret
mark which the Lord sets in due time upon the chosen. In due time every
chosen person receives the seal of Divine Grace. That stamp is a new
heart and a right spirit! Let all men understand that a new heart is
the private seal of the Divine One, the broad arrow of the King of
Kings! Men look upon the outward appearance as the mark of favor, but
God looks at the heart as the token of His choice.
We are not to suppose David was chosen to salvation because of the
natural goodness of his heart, for he tells us, himself, that he was
"born in sin and shapen in iniquity." Although we are willing to grant
that when God had renewed his heart as the result of His Sovereign
Grace, a goodness of heart constituted a qualification for the kingdom
just as Grace is a fitness for Glory–but the righteousness of heart
was itself the gift of Sovereign Grace and was the effect–not the
cause of the primary and eternal election which fixed on David. We do
not intend to discuss the reason of God's election–let us not be
misunderstood–of that we know nothing!
We believe that God chooses wisely, but He chooses from reasons not
known to men, probably reasons which could not be understood by us. All
we know is, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight." We
are now speaking of the way by which God seals His elect and
distinguishes His chosen ones after His Grace has operated upon them.
They are distinguished by having a heart that differs from other men.
May we be able thus to discover whether we are among them or not? What
kind of heart had David? We may find it out by his Psalms. We cannot
tell when some of the Psalms were written, but if any of them were
written in his youth, the twenty-third was certainly one.
That beautiful pastoral poem opens a window into the heart of David.
Let us look through it and we shall soon perceive that he possessed a
believing heart. How sweet is the sentence, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I
shall not want." Happy David! He had summed up all his wants and
cares–he knew that he wanted pardon for sin and Divine Grace to
preserve him from evil. He desired wisdom to guide him in the perilous
paths of youth, strength to aid him in the conflicts which were before
him–but instead of looking to himself or to friends, he turns away
from all created good to God–and by faith he says, "The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want."
Here is a grand mark of Divine election! Dear friend, do you rest in
God for everything? Has your heart given up all confidence in itself?
"He that trusts in his own heart is a fool." Has your heart given up
all trust in your fellow? "Cursed is he that trusts in man, and makes
flesh his arm." Have you seen the emptiness of your own works and
willings and beings and wishings and have you taken the Lord as He
reveals Himself in the pages of Scripture–Father, Son and Spirit–to
be your All in All? If you do so trust, you need not fear your
election, for when God looks into your heart He sees in your faith the
symbol and sign of His Sovereign Grace! Never was there a simple faith
in Himself where there had not been His hand at work and His heart
ordaining to eternal life!
We note, as we read the Psalm, that David's heart was also a meditative
heart. Mark the words, "He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He
leads me beside the still waters." He elsewhere writes–"My meditation
of Him shall be sweet." The whole book of Psalms, which is David's life
written out in poetic characters, proves that he was much given to
meditation on heavenly subjects. Alone there on the mountains, down by
the rippling brooks–wherever he had to conduct the flocks–there he
set up an altar to his God and made an oratory for himself. Much sweet
communion was carried on between David and his God which Eliab knew
nothing of and into which Abinadab could not enter.
Read the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm and you will see that he won
for himself all the blessings which by Inspiration he sang of in the
first Psalm. He meditated upon the Law of his God both day and night.
Dear Friend, is that your case? When your thoughts get free, do they
fly away as the dove does to its dovecote–right away to God? Can you
say with David that His Words are sweet to your taste? Is the very name
of God dear to you? Do you delight yourself in Him? Do you meditate
much upon the Person of Jesus Christ? Remember that by your thoughts
you may judge your state and if your heart does not meditate on God's
statutes, you certainly miss one of the signs of Divine election–for
elect souls are brought out in due time to find a delight in the ways
and Words of God.
Go on with the Psalm and I think you will be struck with the humble
heart which David had, for all the way through he does not praise
himself. "He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul."
See, he has no crown for his own head! The crown is all for the Mighty
One who is his Shepherd. His soul was in his pen when he wrote, "Not
unto us, not unto us, but unto Your name be all the glory." David was
none of your strutting peacocks who cannot be content unless all eyes
are upon them–he sang God's praises as the nightingale will sing in
the dark when no human ear is listening and no eye is admiring.
He was content to bloom unseen, knowing that the sweetness of a renewed
heart is never wasted on the desert air. He was satisfied with God
alone as his Auditor and he coveted not the high opinion of man. Before
his God how high he rose and yet how low he bowed! How deeply did he
feel his indebtedness to Him who gave him all, and how zealously did he
ascribe his salvation and glory and strength unto Him who had been from
the first to the last his Helper. He would have enjoyed the verse in
which Asaph alludes to his low estate, "He chose David also His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the ewes great with
young He brought him to feed Jacob, His people, and Israel His
inheritance."
for a heart free from all pride! We should altogether fail in
describing David if we were to omit other qualifications. His was a
holy heart. Observe in the same Psalm, "He leads me in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake." David delighted not in iniquity.
The men of Belial he put far from him. "A liar shall not tarry in my
sight," he said. He loved the people of God. He styles them, "The
excellent of the earth in whom is all my delight." Holiness which
becomes God's House was very delightful to David's soul. He loved the
Commandments of God because of their holiness. "Your Word is very pure,
therefore Your servant loves it" (Psa. 119:140).
1 grant you that he did once fall into grievous sin, but that was an
exception to a gracious rule. His rule was holiness. The best of men
are men at the best and therefore they may slip. But oh, how bitterly
David mourned to his dying day the evil into which he fell! "He was a
man after God's own heart and his way was ordered according to
holiness." Note what a brave heart beat in his breast! Where will you
find a braver man than David? "Your servant slew both the lion and the
bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them."
It is this David who, while the cringing host of Israel flies from
combat, enters the battle with the boasting Philistine and brings
deliverance unto Israel! Hear you the stripling's valorous voice–"You
come against me with sword and with a spear and with a shield. But I
come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of
Israel, whom you have defied." How bold was David in most cases!
There were times when he, like the children of Ephraim, turned his back
in the day of battle. Take, for instance, when he played the fool
before Achish. But in other cases his soul was set against the Lord's
enemies and though an host encamped against him, his heart did not
fear–though war was waged against him, in this was he confident–for
he wore the breastplate of dauntless courage. The Psalm right bravely
puts it, "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they
comfort me." Let me remind you that he had a very contented and
grateful heart.
I do not know a better picture of David in his early days than that
which Bunyan gives us of the shepherd who was singing in the Valley of
Humiliation–
"He that is down needs fear no fall
I am content with what I have,
He that is low, no pride;
Little be it or much;
He that is humble ever shall.
And Lord, contentment still I crave,
Have God to be his guide.
Because you sa ve such."
Here is David's version of the very same sentiment, "You prepare a
table before me in the presence of my enemies: You anoint my head with
oil; my cup runs over." He had all his heart could wish. I do trust,
dear Friends, we can, some of us, humbly claim that we possess such a
heart as this and oh, that my tongue may be able to say without deceit,
"Yes, Lord, my soul is satisfied with what You ordain. Whatever Your
will is, it shall be my will."
You should further observe the constancy of David's heart. He says,
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and
I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever." He was not one of the
Pliables, who set out and turn back again at the first slough into
which they tumble. He was no Demas, ready to forsake his profession to
win this present evil world. All the days of his life he abode close to
the way of the Lord and remained as a servant in God's House. By such
marks may we know our election.
I would God that those who are so positive of their election would
condescend, sometimes, to try themselves by Scriptural marks and
evidences. We are told, by certain Divines, that we should never doubt
our safety. Beloved, we should never doubt God. But I am inclined to
think that no man who exercises a holy watchfulness over himself and a
holy earnestness to be found accepted at the last, can be at all times
without doubts as to his own interest in Christ! I am persuaded that
the hymn–
" 'Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought" is the
experience of every child of God, more or less, and that there are
seasons when that is the best hymn which a man can sing.
It is seldom that I doubt my interest in Christ Jesus, but it is very
often that I ask myself, "Is this confidence well-grounded?" And if I
were afraid to question myself, if I were afraid to go back to the
foundation and search myself thor-oughly–if I always went on blindly
confident and never examined myself whether I were in the faith–I
think that would be an omen of being given up to a strong delusion to
believe a lie! I have labored in your presence to preach up the
privilege of strong faith. I have urged you to strive after full
assurance of faith–but never let these lips say a word or a syllable
against that holy carefulness which makes a broad distinction between
presumption and assurance!
Depend upon it–privilege preached always without precept will breed a
fullness and lethargy in God's people! What we want at certain seasons
is not a promise, but a telling, burning word of self-examination–the
flavor of which we may not like–but which shall work in our souls
spiritual good of a more lasting sort than sweet comforts would bring
to us. Examine yourselves, dear Friends, then, by this.
I do not ask you whether your hearts are perfect–they are not! I do
not ask you whether your hearts never go astray, for they are prone to
wander. But I do ask you–Is your heart resting upon Jesus Christ? Is
it a believing heart? Does your heart meditate upon Divine things? Does
it find its best solace there? Is your heart a humble heart? Are you
constrained to ascribe all to Sovereign Grace? Is your heart a holy
heart? Do you desire holiness? Do you find your pleasure in it? Is your
heart bold for God? Does your heart ascribe praises to God? Is it a
grateful heart? And is it a heart that is wholly fixed upon God,
desiring never to go astray?
If it is, then you have marks of election. Search for these and add to
all your searching this prayer, "Search me, O God and know my heart:
try me and know my ways. And see if there is any wicked way in me and
lead me in the way everlasting." Let me beseech you to pray God to pull
your comforts into pieces if they are false comforts. I have conjured
my God on bended knee full often to let me know the worst of my case.
And if I am deluded, deceived, or deceiving, I do pray Him to tear the
bandage from my eyes and take away every balm from my wounded heart
except the balm of Gilead and never to let me rest till I am soundly
grounded and bottomed on Christ Jesus and nowhere else but there!
Do make sure work in this case. If you must have "buts," and "ifs," and
"perhaps"–have them about your estates and your property, but not
about your souls. May the Holy Spirit help you to be often using the
crucible to see whether your profession is true gold or not.
III. The third point is a very interesting one. It is MANIFESTATION, or
the way in which the elect of God are made apparent to ourselves and
others. We cannot see the hearts of our fellow men and therefore the
heart can never be to us the way of distinguishing the elect of
God–except so far as it is seen in acts and words.
Now the first sign by which this election was made known to David
himself, and to a few others who probably did not know much about it,
was by his being anointed. Samuel took a horn of oil and poured it on
David. I do not think Jesse knew the full meaning of it. I feel sure
that the seven brothers did not, for if they had, someone or other
would have told Saul. Master Trapp says seven can only keep a secret
when six of them know nothing about it. I am inclined to think that
though they saw him anointed with oil they could not bring themselves
to think that such a despised one as David was really anointed for the
kingdom.
They saw the symbol, but probably did not understand the inward grace.
But David did. David knew that he was now to be a king and though he
never stretched out a hand or lifted a finger to get that throne for
himself–though he often spared his enemy, Saul, when killing him might
have brought him suddenly to the crown–yet he knew that he should one
day reign over Israel. Beloved, there is a season when God anoints His
people. They have believed, but there may elapse a little time between
the believing and the conscious anointing.
But suddenly, when the Lord has illuminated their hearts to know and
understand Divine things clearly, the Spirit of God comes with a
sealing power upon them and from that day forward they rejoice to know
that they have the indwelling of the Spirit and that they are set apart
for God! I pray that some of you who have been lately converted may get
your sealing from this day forward. If you shall receive it, you will
be different men and women from what you were. Already saved by Grace,
you will then begin to feel that force and power and vigor which
renders the man of faith the master of the world!
If you are anointed you will feel the royal blood within your veins! As
yet you do not know your kingship, but if the Spirit of God shall
descend upon you in plenteous measure, you will know your dignity and
you will act like kings, reigning over inbred sins and seeking, as much
as lies in you, to exercise the royal priesthood which the Master has
conferred upon you. This inward sealing may be recognized among the
saints–a few may be able to see in you the sealing– do not expect
that many will, for it is only to yourself that it becomes the
infallible witness that you are ONE OF God's elect.
The manifestation, however, went on in another way. After the anointing
it appears that David became a man distinguished for the valor of his
deeds. Saul's servant in recommending him says of him, that he was "a
mighty valiant man and a man of war." Your election will be discovered
by this–you will do what others cannot do. An elect soul, when the
Spirit of God is upon him, can answer that question, "What do you do
more than others?" Not proudly, but still calmly he can say–"There are
many things which others do not and cannot do, which are easy to me
through Christ who strengthens me." You will be able now, dear Friends,
to break through the toils of custom–to wrestle with the lion of
worldliness, to exhibit patience under suffering–to forgive your worst
enemy without difficulty, to serve God in deeds of faith!
You will be able, in His strength, to be content to see your good name
trod in the ditch if you may exalt Christ. Through the Holy Spirit you
will do and dare where others are sluggishly cowards! You will dash
forward to the conflict expecting the victory because God is with
you–or you will be willing to suffer because the Lord has strengthened
you to bear all things for His sake! Your election will be best known
to your fellow men by your deeds of valor. It appears, too, that David
was very prudent. The same witness-bearer said he was, "a man prudent
in matters." Such will you be, when, as the elect of God the Spirit of
Wisdom rests upon you.
You will not be in a hurry–you have nothing to gain! You will not be
alarmed–you have nothing to lose! You have God and therefore you have
all things! You cannot lose your God and therefore you can lose
nothing. And being in no hurry you will have time to judge and weigh
matters. "He that believes shall not make haste." Life will be with you
no confused scramble. You will not be blundering out of one error, into
another because you will take your matters before God in prayer. You
will consult the oracle and your heart will be guided of the Lord. You
will, if you live near to God, know when you come to a point of
difficulty which way to turn. You will hear a voice which says, "This
is the way, walk in it."
You will know, when you come to a difficulty where human wisdom is
utterly worthless, how to fall flat on your face and wait until the
strong arm comes to deliver you. You will be taught in the things of
God and bold to teach others also and so, daily your election will be
made known to your fellow men. Mark well that one of the ways by which
your election will become clear and sure to all God's people will be
this–if you are anointed king as David was before you, you will come
into conflict with Saul! It cannot be possible that the chosen of God
shall forever live in peace with the heirs of Hell.
He who put an enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the
serpent takes care that that old enmity shall never die. The two first
men of woman born were enemies of one another for this reason and until
Christ shall come that same enmity will exist. Saul may like you for a
little time if you can play well upon an instrument and drive away his
melancholy. But when Saul finds you out and discovers you to be the
anointed king, he will hurl his javelin at you! The world is very
satisfied with some ministers and with some Christians because they
very much resemble itself–but as soon as the world finds out, "this is
a man separate from us, of a different nature and of a different
country"–it cannot but hate the man! It MUST do so!
Do you expect the world's good word? Then go your way and flatter it
and bow to it and cringe and be its servant and you shall have your
reward in everlasting contempt! But are you willing to take your lot
outside the camp with Jesus and to be recognized as being not of this
world because He has chosen you out of the world? Then expect to
receive hard measures! Expect to be misconstrued and misrepresented and
to be despised! Your reward shall be when He comes and that reward
shall outweigh all that you endure here below.
I think David was never more clearly manifested to be God's elect than
at the last when he was an outlaw. He never seems such a grand man as
when he is among the tracks of the wild goats of Engedi. Never so great
as when he is passing through the wilderness while Saul is hunting him,
or standing at midnight over the sleeping form of his enemy and saying,
"I will not touch him, for he is the Lord's Anointed." We do not read
of many faults and slips and errors then! The outlawed David is most
certainly manifested to all Israel to be the chosen of God because the
chosen of man cannot abide him.
The happiest and best days, I believe, with the people of God are when
they are most outlawed by men! When they are put out of the synagogue
and when he that would kill them thinks that he did God a service. The
brightest days for Christian piety were the days of martyrdom and
persecution. Scotland has many saints, but she never has had such rich
saints as those who lived in covenanting times! England has had many
rich Divines who have taught the Word, but the Puritanical age was the
golden age of England's Christian literature! Depend upon it–you will
find in your own life you may have many days of Heaven upon earth–but
the place of persecution and rejection will be the spot where Jesus
Christ manifests Himself most to you.
Are you resolved not to be conformed to this world? Are you willing to
bear with Christ the brunt of the battle and like the living fish to
swim against the stream? Are you ready to stand out like the other holy
children in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and to say, like the Apostles in
the days of the high priests, "Whether it is right to serve God or men,
you judge"? Have you cast off the fear of man? Have you taken up the
Cross to wear as your best and greatest ornament and treasure? If so,
you are giving the very best evidence of having been chosen out of the
world because you are not of the world.
Remember, to conclude, that after all conflicts were over, David was
crowned. All Israel and all Judah sent to fetch David and they made him
king! Amidst the blast of the horns and the homage and songs and joy of
the people, David, the elected one, was publicly recognized. The crown
was put upon his head. The imperial mantle graces his person! He signed
the decrees and his word was law from Dan to Beersheba. The day comes
when the like shall be true of the mean and the most despised of God's
chosen! "Truly," said the Apostle, "it does not yet appear"–we cannot
see it, only faith can discern it, but it shall appear–it comes! The
appearing draws near! Our head shall yet wear the crown for we shall
reign with Christ Jesus!
I think even this earth which has despised us, shall yet know us as
kings when we shall reign with Him. We shall yet put on the imperial
purple. From the river, even to the ends of the earth, the saints shall
possess the kingdom. And when Jesus comes to judge the people, we shall
judge angels, sitting as assessors with Him, giving our verdict and
adding our "Amens" to all His sentences. No, even in Heaven itself,
angels shall be our servitors. They shall be ministering spirits to the
heirs of salvation and we shall sit upon thrones. Oh, Christian, you
know not the pomp which shall yet surround you! You have had some
glimmering thought of the Savior's Glory and the Savior's dignity, but
have you not forgotten that all this is yours?
Remember, we shall be like He when we shall see Him as He is. "Father,
I will that they whom You have given Me be with Me where I am." The
same place for you as for the Savior! And you shall behold His Glory
and you shall be partakers of it! Why, then, should you fear? Why
should you be downcast and dismayed by reason of the trials on the way?
Come! Pluck up courage! An hour with your God will make up for it all.
One glimpse of Him and what will persecution seem? You have been called
ugly names. Ill words have been pelted at you–but what will they be
when you shall hear Him say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world" ?
There! The world's thunder is gone like a whisper amidst the more
glorious roll of angelic acclamations and the hiss of enmity is all
forgotten amidst the kiss of love which the Savior gives to all His
faithful ones. Cheered by the reward, I pray you press forward! Greater
riches than all the treasures of Egypt shall you have who can renounce
all for Christ's sake! "Be you faithful unto death and He will give you
a crown of life." God grant that we may all be found numbered among the
elect of Divine Grace and none of us be cast away and His shall be the
praise forever and ever. Amen.