Christians Kept From Sin

Christians Kept From Sin

(No. 3037)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1907.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY
13, 1870.

"And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which
sent you this day to meet me: and blessed be your advice, and blessed
be you, which has kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from
avenging myself with my own hand." 1 Samuel 25:32,33.

THESE verses are taken from the story of David's coming into contact
with Nabal the churl. Nabal was a great sheep-master and David and his
600 men had been especially careful not to injure his flocks, but had
protected them from any pilfering that might have been practiced by
wandering bands of desert rangers. At that time Nabal was shearing his
sheep and David, who was in some measure of need, thought it a suitable
time to ask something from him, according to Eastern custom, in return
for the services which he had rendered to his shepherds. So he sent 10
of his young men to ask Nabal for the backsheesh, but, instead thereof,
they received an insulting message to take back to their master.
Thereupon, David–who seems to have been always of a quick spirit,
whether for right or for wrong–who made haste to obey God's
commandments, but who made equal haste to obey his own impulses–girded
on his sword and bade every man do the same and declared that they
would march to the house of this churl, Nabal, fall upon him at once
and destroy him and all that appertained to him, root and branch. While
he was marching in haste to carry out his stern determination–as God's
Infinite Goodness would have it, Abigail, the wise wife of the foolish
Nabal, met him and confessed that her husband was a man of Belial. She
pleaded that she had not seen the messengers whom David had sent,
besought him to accept the provisions she had brought and urged David
to leave the avenging of himself to God, so that when he came to be
king, it would be no grief of heart to him that he had shed blood
needlessly, or had acted as his own avenger. David who had Divine Grace
in his spirit, although he was on his way to do wrong, felt the force
of Abigail's rebuke, sheathed his sword, thanked her and thanked the
Lord, too, that he had thus been preserved from committing a great sin
which might have left a great stain upon his character and been a
source of trouble to him for the rest of his life.

Learn from this, dear Brothers and Sisters, that the best of men need
to be always on the watch, lest, in some sudden temptation, they should
be carried off their feet. You may fancy that you have no occasion to
fear certain forms of temptation, but you do not know what you may do.
The wall of resolution may be strong in one particular wind, but let
the wind only blow from another quarter and the wall may speedily fall.
You may think yourself to be strong simply because, as yet, you have
not been tested and tried as you will be sooner or later–and then, in
a single moment, when you are least prepared for it, you may be
overthrown. Remember our Lord's words to His disciples, "What I say
unto you I say unto all, Watch," for, in such an hour as you think not,
temptation may come upon you and woe be unto you if you are not found
watching! Therefore, commit yourselves unto the Lord and, "watch and
pray that you enter not into temptation."

Here, too, we may observe what a blessed thing it is when, in hours of
crisis, the God of all Grace is pleased to interpose to preserve us
from committing a certain sin into which we had almost fallen. Our
steps had well-near slipped, but, just then the Lord sent some angelic
messenger to us, even as Abigail came to David. For that Almighty Love
which has manifested itself in restraining Grace, let us render
grateful songs of thanksgiving as we look back upon our past lives, for
we can scarcely tell how often we should have dishonored our character
and our profession if it had not been that God came to our rescue and
kept back His servants from presumptuous sins.

The subject upon which I am to talk to you, as the Holy Spirit shall
graciously guide me, is the great blessing of being prevented or
preserved from sin. I shall speak first upon the blessing itself Then,
for a few minutes, upon the means which God employs to secure it And
then, thirdly, upon the great blessedness of which we may be partakers
if we endeavor, like Abigail, to prevail with others so as to prevent
them from going into sin.

I. First then, we are to consider THE GREAT BLESSEDNESS OF BEING
PREVENTED FROM SIN.

It is an unspeakable blessing to have sin forgiven. We cannot measure
the heaped-up blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven
and whose sin is covered. But surely there is a very special favor
rendered by God's Grace to those who are kept from the grosser sins
into which so many others fall and who are converted early in life
after having been hedged about by Divine Grace and not allowed to
plunge into the foul kennels of iniquity in which others riot and
revel. Those who are thus preserved not only have to sing of repenting
Grace, as they must do however purely they may have lived, but they can
also tell of the restraining Grace of God which would not let them
wander into the paths of the destroyer as others did!

To be kept from sin is to be kept from many evils for, in the first
place, sin has such a hardening effect upon the conscience. There is no
man who ever sins without having some trace of it left upon his mind
and heart. For one thing, it is more easy for him to sin the next time.
An impulse has been given and a habit begun which will make it almost
inevitable that he shall fall into that particular sin again. He who
has served Satan once will be likely to serve him ten times and, on
each succeeding occasion, he will serve him more vigorously and
readily. He will not need nearly as much temptation, but will go
greedily after evil when the habit of sinning has taken firm hold upon
him. But there are some who have been kept from overt acts of evil and
so, when they hear the Gospel, they receive it like good ground into
which the seed falls and brings forth abundant fruit. But there are
others who, because of iniquity, are like the highway trodden hard by
the feet of many–and when the good seed falls there, the birds of the
air find it an easy task to steal away the grain because it has not
penetrated below the surface. Do not imagine that you can live for
twenty, thirty, or forty years in sin and yet be just as likely to be
converted as anybody else is! I know that God can, if He pleases to do
so, call you at the 11th hour as easily as at the first, but, as far as
you are concerned, if you harden your neck, you have no right to expect
that He will do so, but rather to expect that you shall suddenly be
destroyed, and that without remedy. So that it is a mercy to be kept
from sin in order that this hardening process may not even begin within
our mind and heart!

Besides, he who sins in a little way makes that sin, as it were, a
steppingstone to something worse. David wisely prayed, "Who can
understand his errors? Cleanse You me from secret faults. Keep back
Your servant, also, from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion
over me: then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great
transgression." He seemed to feel that he would not go on to the great
transgression if he was restrained from presumptuous sins–and he was
right in thinking so. You dear young people who through the Lord's
loving kindness and tender mercy, have been brought up among gracious
influences, know that you have sinned and that your sin has done your
soul such evil as only God's Grace can remedy–yet you may thank the
Lord that you have not been permitted to learn to sing the song of the
drunkard, or to live an unchaste life, or to forsake the assembly of
God's people–and so put yourselves out of the reach of the usual means
of Grace, as perhaps you would have done by this time if you had not
been checked while you were children. A gentle stream, if it is allowed
to flow unhindered, becomes at last, a foaming torrent that sweeps away
its own banks and causes loss and damage far and wide! Thank God that
the current of your life was checked and guided while it was but a
stream! May the torrent of sin never overflow your character and
career.

There is this blessing about being restrained from sin, namely, that it
saves us from much sorrow in later life. It should be no grief or
offense of heart unto David, said Abigail, to think that he had shed
blood causelessly, or had avenged himself. No sinner, when converted,
although God has forgiven him, can ever forgive himself–and no child
of God, although God has blotted out his sin, can ever blot it out of
his own memory as long as he is here on earth. You can see that David
was a different man, after his great sin, from what he had been before.
He still sang Psalms to God, but there was a hoarseness about his voice
which was not there before his great transgression. His Psalms were
Psalms of sorrow, whereas before they were glad and joyful Psalms that
tripped to lightsome music. I remember once hearing a strange sort of
preacher say that sin did a Believer no harm–a more terrible Doctrine
than that could drop from no man's lips, but then he added–"except
that it destroys his peace of mind." And it seemed to me that such a
result as that was harm enough even if there was nothing else. "He that
wears the herb called 'heart's-ease' in his bosom," says Bunyan,

"is a happy man even though he sings in rags." But he whose heart
smites him, as David's heart did, need want no harder blow! May those
of you who are unconverted be preserved from gross sin–and may those
of us who are saved be preserved from falling by temptation into any
evil, lest we have to wring our hands in anguish and go with broken
bones to our graves.

Further, he who is kept from sinning has to bless God that the
consequences of his sin upon others are averted. It is a dreadful thing
to know that there will be some in Heaven who were the means of sending
others to Hell. I have sometimes wondered what must be the emotions of
those who have sinned–especially in the foulest sense–when they are
converted, but find themselves quite unable to induce their fellow
sinners to even listen to the Gospel. Mr. Whitefield tells us that as
soon as he had tasted that the Lord was gracious, he tried to think of
all the companions with whom he had been accustomed to play cards, or
to indulge in any kind of sinful sport. And he thanked God, he said,
that he never gave himself any rest until he had done all that was in
his power to bring them to the Savior. You, my Friend, were once an
infidel and you are now a Believer–but you cannot recall the words
that you spoke in those past days. You may refute, to your own
satisfaction, the arguments you then used, but you cannot so readily
make others see the force of your refutation. You, my Brother, were
known, at one time, to use language which was unclean. You abhor it now
and you rebuke it when you hear it from another–but you cannot make
others forsake the habit which they learned from you. You cannot get
out of your boy's memory that song which you used to sing in his
hearing–you cannot get out of your daughter's heart that evil word
which she heard you utter. It must go on rankling forever in her spirit
and doing everlasting mischief unless the Sovereign Grace of God shall
intervene to prevent such a calamity. What a blessing it is to begin
with God in our youth before we have helped to pull down the walls of
Zion, or even cast a stone against them! It is an unspeakable blessing
to be saved in old age and to be able to sing of triumphant Grace which
has blotted out innumerable iniquities. But it must be–at least on
this side of Heaven–a cause of constant regret to such a late penitent
that he should have worked so much evil which it is not possible for
him to repair.

Besides, dear Brothers and Sisters, it is always a blessing to the
Christian–to whom I speak now–to be kept from sin, for thus his
character is preserved and much of his influence for good will depend
upon his character. When backsliders are restored, we cannot help
standing in some doubt concerning them–and let them afterwards live as
carefully as they may, it will be very difficult for them to ever honor
the Church as much as they have dishonored it. If there is but one
waterfall in a river–only one in a thousand miles–everybody hears
about it and it is marked on the map. But if another river should flow
on smoothly, gladdening the meadows on either side, and bearing navies
out to sea, it would not cause such a noise as that one waterfall would
make! In like manner a holy life is not talked of, by an ungodly world,
one half as much as one unholy act of an inconsistent professor! How
they delight to speak of that! How they roll the story of the sins of
God's people under their tongues as sweet morsels! You may repent of
your backsliding, you may become even more zealous afterwards, as you
should do, but my dear Brothers and Sisters, after having once stained
your reputation, it is not easy to wipe out the blot. It is infinitely
better to be kept true to our first profession until we enter into
Heaven, upheld and preserved by the love and Grace of God.

And, only once more upon this part of the subject, you may rest assured
that even if sin is forgiven and Divine Grace enters the heart, never
is it better to sin than not to sin. There is a house on fire. Well, we
are grateful if the fire engine comes rattling up almost immediately,
if the water supply is abundant and if, by great exertions, every life
is saved and much of the property is preserved from destruction. Yet it
would have been a greater blessing if there had not been any fire at
all. There is serious sickness in the home, but the physician is
skillful, the nurse is wise and watchful, the disease takes a favorable
turn, the man's life is preserved–he is restored to health and is
thankful for his recovery. Yet he would rather not have been sick.
There is a wounded soldier. He is carried on an ambulance to the
hospital, the surgeons extract the bullet that injured him and bind up
his wounds. The man is ultimately restored to the ranks, but he will
carry to his grave the scars of the wounds that he has suffered. It
would have been a great deal better for him if he had not been wounded
at all. So is it with the wounds that sin has made. Let the results of
evil be ever so well removed, it can never be better for any of us to
fall into sin than to be kept out of it! It if were otherwise, it would
look as if sin were not that damning a thing that God's Word tells us
it is–it would seem as though it were but a trifle and that there was
no need for Calvary's Cross, or of all the wondrous arrangements of
Everlasting Wisdom and Love for the saving of men from sin and its
awful consequences! Let us cry to God, my Brothers and Sisters, that we
may be kept from sin! May this be our prayer night and day, "Lord keep
us even from vain thoughts, but, above all, keep us from any acts that
would be dishonoring to Your holy name!" We do not want to sin in order
that we may know what sin is like. We do not want to plunge into evil
for the sake of being washed from it. We do not want to go into this
horrible pit and this miry clay for the sake of being drawn out of it.
Our earnest desire is that we may be kept from the grosser forms of sin
till we are saved by Sovereign Grace and receive the new nature which
is the portion of the children of God–and that after that, we may walk
in all well-pleasing to the glory of God our Savior!

II. Now, secondly, let me remind you of SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH GOD
KEEPS US FROM SINNING.

He does this, of course, in the grandest way by the work of His Grace
within our soul There is no protection against sin like the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit! If the evil spirit goes out of the heart of man and
it is swept and garnished–if the good Spirit does not come and dwell
there, seven other spirits, yet more wicked than the first, will return
to take possession. There is no way of keeping out the fire of sin
except by having the fire of Grace blazing within the spirit. We must
fight fire with fire! Let your soul be filled with all the fullness of
God and then when the prince of this world comes to you, he shall not
be able to overcome you. The Grace of God is the great antidote to sin.

But God also uses other means, even before their conversion, to keep
some from the grosser sins and vices in which others indulge. Among
these, there is, first, early education. There are some who, happily,
have never known the sins which others have forever to regret. They
have been like plants kept in the greenhouse–they have never been
tried by the frosts of this vile world. Be very thankful for this if it
is true concerning you, but do not regard it as a substitute for being
born-again. Remember that you who are the most amiable, the most
excellent, the most zealous, the most honorable must be born-again just
as surely as the most abandoned, the most dissolute and the most
profane. Regeneration is an absolute necessity before any soul can
enter Heaven–and you must not be satisfied with anything short of
that! Yet you may be grateful if, like Timothy, from a child you have
known the Scriptures, or if, like Samuel, you have been brought up in
the house of the Lord from your very early years. Be thankful that you
have been kept from much sin into which others have fallen.

Christian association, too, is of the utmost value in helping to keep
us from sin. There may be here a young man who has just come to London.
After leaving that quiet country town where he was accustomed to attend
the services at the little Meeting House, it may be that there is a
strong temptation upon him to throw off all the restraints of his past
life and to hide himself among the thick trees of this great forest of
London and to indulge himself in sin from which he has been hitherto
preserved. My dear Friend, if you desire everlasting ruin, this may be
your fatal choice! But that you may not even wish to make such a
choice, I strongly urge you to endeavor to form associations with
Christian young men before you have been laid hold of by the active
servants of Satan who are lying in wait for you. Come and join one of
our Bible classes, or the Young Men's Christian Association, or find
some Christian friends somewhere or other. Form associations and
acquaintanceships which, if they do not actually bring you to Christ,
may at least keep you from going far astray from the path which your
godly parents have always desired you to tread. May the Lord grant that
instead of your deciding for Satan, now that you are left to yourself,
a sense of responsibility may so press upon you that you may decide,
through the Holy Spirit's power, for the Lord Jesus Christ! If, this
very night, you, as a newcomer into this great city, should surrender
yourself to the Savior, what an eternal blessing it would be to you!
The Lord grant that it may be so, and He shall have all the praise!
Still, if you are not at once converted, Christian association will be
very helpful in keeping you from outward sin.

And you, my Brothers and Sisters who have Grace in your hearts, will
often find that association with warm-hearted Christians is one of the
very best ways of keeping you from evil. Some of our Church members
have gone to live in the country where they have been only able to
worship with a cold and indifferent congregation where the minister has
not been more than half awake–and I have observed very serious
declension in their spiritual life. When I have met them afterwards,
and have ventured to speak to them about it, they have told me that it
seemed like going from a hothouse into an ice well–and they confessed
that they did not feel as earnest as once they did. O Christians, do
prize any association with God's people that is possible! If any of you
are in positions where you can enjoy Christian fellowship and you have
the opportunity of earning ten times as much money in another position
where you must give up that fellowship, do not do it! It is always a
loss to Christians to lose the communion of saints. No amount of
worldly prosperity can ever make up for the loss they will sustain by
leaving an earnest Gospel ministry and an affectionate

people. Thank God that He makes use of other Believers to help you in
the road to Heaven–and often to restrain you from sin!

The Lord, too, is pleased very frequently to make use of our position
in society to keep us out of evil. I mean this– some men have always
been poor, although they have tried again and again to rise above the
level of their poverty. Once or twice they have almost succeeded, yet,
not from lack of ambition nor lack of industry, but as though God's
Providence were at cross-purposes with them, they have always had to
come back to that same sparse diet and tiny cottage! My dear Friends,
the Lord knew that you could not bear to be rich. Had He permitted you
to possess more than you now have, you might have become proud and
worldly. It was better for you to live near to God in poverty than to
be a backslider and be rich. I believe that many of the reverses which
God's people suffer in trade are preventives from sin–when the Lord
sees them beginning to launch out and to speculate–and perhaps to
become associated with some rich man who has no Grace in his heart, the
Lord says, "My servant is going on very dangerous ground. I must stop
him before he is lost." And He soon does it. The man's substance takes
to itself wings and flies away–and thus he is rescued from the
threatening danger.

Some are preserved from sin by physical infirmities. "Well," said one
who was lame, "I believe I would never have run in the way of God's
commandments if it had not been for my lame leg." "Ah," said another,
"and I sometimes think that I would never have seen Christ if I had not
been blind." Just because their infirmities incapacitated them for
enjoyment of the world, they were made to look for higher enjoyments
and to seek that spiritual health which is everlasting. Blessed are the
lame and the blind who enter into Heaven–and blessed are they who have
but one eye, yet who enter there, while some who have two eyes are cast
into Hell!

Others, doubtless, have been kept from sin by severe sicknesses. These
come to us, I believe, not by chance, but by Divine ordination. We say
to one another, "I cannot think where I caught that disease." Or, "I
cannot imagine why such-and-such a sickness should have come to me."
Perhaps you were more out of danger on your bed than you would have
been anywhere else just then. Had you been out of that bedroom, you
might have been in a position of very serious trial which you could not
have been able to endure. I can bear my witness that at least in some
of my many sicknesses I have been able to see the reason for them as
plainly as I can see that twice two are four. Even when we cannot see
the reason, God knows that there is a reason for it and if we cannot
see it, it may be all the deeper and may lie all the nearer to the very
heart of our Christian life. Your sicknesses, pains, griefs, depression
of spirits and all sorts of trials are often sent to you to prevent you
from sinning. They tether you, like the horse that was in a meadow with
a clog on him, and a friend said to the owner, "I wonder that you clog
such a fine horse as that. It seems such a pity." "Well," replied the
owner, "I would rather clog him than lose him. And if I did not clog
him, I would lose him. He has a habit ofjumping hedges and ditches–and
we cannot keep him unless we clog him." So, my Brother, my Sister, you
have a clog because the Lord would rather clog you than lose you! He
would sooner make you suffer here than permit you to suffer forever in
Hell.

Once again, God's people have very often been kept from sin by
remarkable Providences. And some, who are not yet the Lord's people,
have been kept from certain forms of sins by very remarkable
interpositions of Divine Providence. You probably all remember the
story of the Quaker who, one night, felt an irresistible impulse to
rise from his bed and ride to a neighboring town. When he got there, he
stopped at a house where he saw a light in an upper room. He knocked,
and knocked, and knocked again and, at last a man came to the door to
ask what he wanted at that time of night. The Quaker replied, "Perhaps,
Friend, you can tell me, for the Lord has sent me to you, but I do not
know why He has done so." "Come upstairs," said the man, "and I think I
can tell you." There he had fixed a rope with which he was about to put
an end to his life, but God had sent His servant to him just in time to
prevent the contemplated crime. Such striking Providences as that may
not happen to all or any of us, for we may not require them. But they
do happen to some people to prevent them from sinning against God. It
may be also that the Providences which do not appear striking to us, do
appear striking to those holy angels who minister to God's people and
who bear them up in their hands lest they should dash their feet
against a stone–and who constantly adore the wisdom and goodness of
God in interposing to keep His servants from going aside into sin. The
wheels of Providence, which are full of eyes, have those eyes
continually fixed upon us–and those wheels are always revolving on our
behalf to God's Glory.

No doubt many have been kept from sin by a message to their conscience,
either through a minister, or through a tract, or through a text which
they read in the Bible, or a kind remark from a friend. There are
members of this Church who, in the Lord's gracious Providence, owe
their salvation to a word spoken to them in the street. There is
especially one who was tapped on the shoulder just as he was going into
a theater, and who was entreated–by one who did not know him
personally, but who had mistaken him for somebody else–not to go into
such a place as that, but to come with him that Thursday night and
listen to the preaching of the Word of God. It was remarkable that such
a mistake as that should have been made, but it was a blessed mistake
for him and he rejoices this night that he finds himself in God's
House, numbered among the Lord's people!

III. This brings me to the last point which is that IT WOULD BE A VERY
BLESSED THING IF CHRISTIAN PEOPLE WERE MORE EARNEST TO PREVENT SIN.

This matter was put very plainly under the Old Testament command, "You
shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall in anywise rebuke
your neighbor and not suffer sin upon him." Yet, under the Christian
dispensation, I am afraid that we are very negligent in our endeavors
to prevent sin. Some of us, it may be, think a great deal too much of
our dignity. No doubt we are very respectable people, though everybody
does not know it and does not treat us with the respect we feel is due
to us. Perhaps we suspect others of not being all they ought to be and,
therefore, our attitude towards them is not what it used to be. Then
they begin to have harsh thoughts concerning us–and in that way Satan
has reason to rejoice because Christian people are weaned from each
other–and very grievous sin is caused by the roots of bitterness that
are thus planted in the soil of the church! Now, my Brother, suppose
that somebody did treat you very disrespectfully? Instead of your
saying, "I will be avenged on him," suppose that you say to yourself,
"If he were to treat me as I really deserve to be treated, God knows
that it is very little respect I should receive from him. The man has
slandered me this time, but if he knew what my faults really are, he
could hit me in a much more tender part"? It is sometimes said that
when a boy is wrongfully flogged, "If he does not deserve it now, he
probably has deserved it at some other time when he has not had it, or
he will deserve it in the future." So, if a rebuke should come to me
wrongfully, I will lay it by in case I need it at another time! A
Christian sometimes says, "If you tread on a worm, it will turn." Yes,
I know it will, but I hope you do not consider a worm an example for a
Christian–especially when you have the Lord Jesus Christ to be your
Exemplar! If you tread on a worm, it will turn because of the pain you
have needlessly caused it. But if you are trodden on by another
person–and you are a Christian–you will forgive him and try to do him
good. "Do my lord of Canterbury an ill turn," it was once said, "and he
will be your friend as long as he lives." Happy are they who kill their
enemies by heaping coals of fire upon their heads! Do so, my Brothers
and Sisters, whenever it is possible, and do not sin by standing up for
that foolish dignity of yours! Be willing to be a doormat, if it is
necessary, as well as a doorkeeper in the House of the Lord and, in
that way, you will be all the more honored, for "he that humbles
himself shall be exalted."

It may be that in certain company we may hear talk that is not what it
ought to be. And there may be some wit or merriment connected with that
talk. But if so, we must not laugh at it, because though we might laugh
at the wit, others might suppose that we were enjoying the evil that
was mingled with it. It is well for a Christian to put his foot down
firmly in such a case as that and to say very emphatically, "As far as
your mirth is proper and there is nothing in it that is defiling, I am
willing to join with you, for I, also, am a man, and am of a cheerful
disposition. But you are going too far, now, and I must enter my
protest, for I cannot, by my silence, give my consent to such talk as
that." You ought to do that, my Brothers and Sisters, and you would
often find that there would be some who would thank you for doing it.
Have you ever heard how Mr. Wesley once stopped a man from swearing? He
was riding on the top of a coach and there was an officer in the army
there who kept swearing, so Mr. Wesley, at last, very gently said to
him, "My dear Sir, I want you to do me a great favor." "What is that,
Sir?" asked the officer. "Why," he said, "if you should hear me using
profane language during this journey, I wish you would kindly tell me
of it." "I see," said the officer, "what you mean, and I appreciate
your kindness." You might, perhaps, if you did that, receive a stormy
reply and make the swearing person worse. Still, you would have done
your duty by rebuking the sin gently and affectionately.

How often we might prevent sin if we could come in just when some are
on the very verge of doing wrong. Perhaps you say that you have a
pastor to do this work, but I have often told you that in such a Church
as this, you must all be pastors. With 4,200 members in one Church,
what can even two pastors do? What can all the elders and deacons do?
The only hope for the Church is that God will watch over you all and
that you will all watch over one another. You who are elderly, you who
have long been kept faithful, you who have the respect of your fellow
members–you, perhaps, know of

inconsistencies springing up. If so, do not go and talk about them,
especially to those outside the Church. "It is an ill bird that fouls
its own nest," so, instead of talking to others, go and speak to the
offending one! You may thus, perhaps, be the means of saving a soul
from death and hiding a multitude of sins. May God grant you wisdom,
Divine Grace, discernment and affection to deal rightly with such
cases! Let it be the resolve of every Christian man and woman to
imitate Abigail's wise way of turning David from his evil purpose! You
Christian women, do not be backward in this matter, but use to this end
that winning way you have. I expect Abigail pleaded far better with
David for Nabal than any man could have done, for she was a woman of
understanding and her beaming countenance caught the eyes of the hasty
and angry warrior. And he paused awhile to listen to her wise
words–and so she won what she set out to gain. I pray that you may all
use the powers which God has given you, not to lead others into sin,
nor to confirm them in it, but to hold back, as far as you can, all who
are about to commit any act of transgression. May God add His blessing
to this message, for the Redeemer's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Colossians 3 and 4:1-4.

Verses 1, 2. Ifyou then are risen with Christ, seek those things which
are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your
affection on things above, not on things on the earth. This is the best
proof that we are really "risen with Christ"–that we set our affection
on things above!

3-15. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When
Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with
Him in Glory. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the
earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things'
sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience: in which
you also walked some time, when you lived in them. But now you also put
off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth. Lie not to another, seeing that you have put off the
old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there is
neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is All, and in all. Put on
therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, heart of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one
another, and forgiving one another. If any man has a quarrel against
any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all these
things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the
peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one
body; and be you thankful You notice that the Apostle again and again
speaks of what we have put off and what we have put on, or of what we
are to put off and to put on–"You have put off the old man with his
deeds; and have put on the new man." "Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, heart of mercies, kindness, humbleness of
mind, meekness, long-suffering. . .And above all these things put on
charity, which is the bond of perfectness." Let the blessed girdle of
love bind upon you all these choice adornments of a true Christian's
character!

16, 17. Let the word of Christ dwellin you richly in all wisdom;
teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with Grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you
do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by Him. Now the Apostle, guided by the Holy
Spirit, gives injunctions concerning various family and domestic
relationships.

18. Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, as it is fit in the
Lord. It is seemly according to nature. And it is still more "fit in
the Lord."

19. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Never
say a bitter word against them and especially never dishonor them in
the household, before children or servants, as some have done, but do
all that you can to manifest love and tenderness toward them.

20. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is
well-pleasing unto the Lord. Nowadays, there are some children who seem
to be the head of the family and the parents obey them in all things.
This is very foolish and wrong! And when their children grow up and
become their plague and curse, they will bitterly lament their folly in
putting things out ofjoint and not keeping the house as God would have
it kept, the children in their place, and the father in his.

21. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be
discouraged. Some fathers do. They expect more of children than they
will ever get–and more than they ought to expect. And they lay heavy
burdens upon them which are grievous to be borne and for little faults
there are severe chastisements. This also is wrong.

22-24. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the
flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of
heart, fearing God: and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the
Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the
reward of the inheritance: for you serve the Lord Christ. If you do all
your work in that spirit, how noble it becomes and how cheerfully you
will get through it! You may have a master who is unworthy of your
service, yet, if you "do it heartily, as to the Lord," you will have
rest of heart even in serving those who are froward and perverse–and
in due time the Lord will reward your service.

25. But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has
done: and there is no respect of persons.

Colossians 4:1. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and
equal I sometimes think that the good men who chopped the Bible up into
chapters–for it is not in chapters in the original–must have hoped
that we would not read this message to the masters, as he had put it in
another chapter. But I never like to read about the servants without
also reading about the masters. There is six for one, and half-a-dozen
for the other and, as is usual, in the Scriptures there are balanced
duties. If there is an exhortation to the children, there is generally
one to the parents close by. And if there is a word to wives, there is
one for husbands, too. So let us read that verse, "Masters, give unto
your servants that which is just and equal."

1-4. Knowing that you also have a Master in Heaven. Continue in prayer,
and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us,
that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery
of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest,
as I ought to speak