The Believer’s Present Rest

The Believer's Present Rest

(No. 3169)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1909.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
6, 1873.

"We who have believed do enter into rest." Hebrews 4:3.

[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text are Sermons #866,
Volume 15–REST and #2090, Volume 35– A DELICIOUS EXPERIENCE.]

THE text does not say that we who have believed shall enter into rest.
That is a very great Truth, but it is not the Truth that is taught
here. We "do enter into rest," even in this present life! All who are
Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are already enjoying rest of heart
and, in proportion as faith possesses their souls, in that proportion
they enjoy perfect rest. It is not a future privilege–it is a matter
of present enjoyment. And I pray my Brothers and Sisters in Christ not
to impoverish themselves by making the text apply to the future, but to
seek for the spiritual enrichment which God has given them by accepting
the text just as the Apostle wrote it and so realizing that "we who
have believed do enter into

rest."

It appears from the connection in which these words appear that the
type and pattern of all true rest for men was the rest of God at the
end of the six days of Creation. After He had worked so wondrously and
finished all His creative work, we read that the Lord "rested on the
seventh day from all His work which He had made." It is not easy for us
to understand how the rest of God could ever have been broken, yet
there must have been a deeper kind of rest for Him on that seventh day
than during the previous six days, for it is expressly said that God
did rest then. Into that great mysterious deep we will not try to
plunge, but we know that the Lord was pleased, then, to institute the
Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of His own rest and that Sabbath was to
be observed by all men–and especially by all the Lord's own people in
perpetuity, as if, I think, He would not only commemorate His own rest,
but would also indicate that He intended men to be partakers of it.

God's grand ideal of man's happiness was that he could not only work,
but that he should also rest. What a wonderful restfulness there seems
to be in every part of Creation into which man does not come! Go into
any part of the country where man is and there you find the plow
cutting into the earth and the ox and the donkey and the horse
toiling–and you meet with men and women in sickness and poverty and
need. But get away into the woods, traverse the wilds of Nature and see
how restful everything is there! Note how the birds seem to have little
else to do but to sing God's praises. Mark how the very brooks warble
as they flow and how all Creation that is untouched by man appears to
delight in a deep profound calm and peace! Had there been no Fall, the
world would have been all restful–there would have been no thorns or
thistles to vex and wound and add to man's labor–and no need for us to
be always asking for fresh water power and steam power with which to
alleviate the burden of the toil ofman. Sweat from a weary brow, or the
throbbing of a tired brain would have been altogether unknown! Earth
would have kept her Sabbath even as God kept His. But sin has come into
the world and from that blessed state of rest, man has fallen! Yet God
is bringing us back to a rest similar to that–and all who have
believed in Jesus have been brought into it. The Sabbath is to them the
Divine memorial of God's rest, the type of their own and also a
continual reminder of the spiritual rest which they have found in
Christ!

There is another type of rest given us in the Word, namely that of the
children of Israel entering into the promised land. "If Jesus (that is,
Joshua), had given them rest," says the Apostle, "then would he not
afterward have spoken of another day." All the while the children of
Israel were in the wilderness, they were constantly moving to and fro,
dwelling in tents and enjoying but little comfort. Notwithstanding all
the blessings with which God enriched them in the wil-

derness, it wasa wilderness, and Moses truly called it, "the waste
howling wilderness." They had no rest there and they were always
looking forward to the land flowing with milk and honey to where they
were journeying. Their eager longing was for a land where they could
settle down, build houses, plant vineyards and dwell in quiet resting
places. Canaan is, therefore, the type of the rest which God intends to
give His people here. It is not the type of Heaven, except very
imperfectly, for in Canaan there were Canaanites to be fought and to be
gradually driven out. And there were some that were never driven out.
But we thank God that there are no Canaanites to trouble the saints in
Heaven. Canaan is the true pattern and type of the Believer's condition
upon the earth We who have believed in Jesus have crossed the Jordan.
He has divided it for us and we have entered into rest. It is true that
the Canaanites are still in the land, but the Lord also is in the land
and, by His Grace, we shall surely drive them all out. We ought not to
say that we hope to reach Canaan's peaceful shore, by-and-by–we are on
it now! If we have truly believed in Jesus, our condition is rightly
typified by the Israelites in Canaan who had obtained their
inheritance, for Jesus has obtained His inheritance and God "has raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus."

I. The gist of what I have been endeavoring to say to you is that there
is a rest which belongs to all Believers now! And if they are living as
they should live, they are in the enjoyment of it. I shall try, first,
to DESCRIBE THIS REST FROM THE FAMOUS TYPE WHICH IS GIVEN OF THE REST
OF GOD.

That rest of God, at the end of the six days of Creation, was like the
rest which the Believer enjoys, for it spoke of a work that was
finished. I need not refresh your memory with the familiar story of the
Creation–how the darkness had been divided from the light, how the
waters above the firmament had been separated from the waters below the
firmament, how the living creatures had begun to swarm in the deeps and
how, with rapid wing, the fowls of Heaven were cleaving the air. I need
not detail to you the springing up of the herb yielding seed after its
kind, of the tree yielding fruit after its kind, the creation of
cattle, of creeping things, of the beasts of the earth and of man, the
masterpiece of God. And you know that when the sun set on the sixth
day, God had finished all His work–there remained nothing to be
completed. He had placed in the world all the creatures that were
necessary to make up the complete circle of existence! There was no
deficiency in any one, neither was there a lack of any one. The whole
work of Creation was finished and, therefore, God rested–He had other
work to do–but from that particular work He rested and kept the
Sabbath.

Now, can a Christian ever come to that condition? Yes, that is the true
condition of every Christian. He sees the work of his own salvation
complete–has he done it himself? Oh, no! If he had attempted to do it,
he would have failed, and if any part of it had depended upon him, it
would never have been accomplished. But the moment a sinner believes in
Jesus, if he has been rightly instructed, he hears ringing from the
Cross of Calvary that gladsome sentence, "It is finished!" And he knows
that the Atonement is perfect, that the necessary justifying
righteousness is completed, that every Covenant blessing is secured and
guaranteed to him–and that all that was needed in order to lift the
sinner from the very gates of Hell up to the Throne of God has been
already worked out and brought in by the great Redeemer, the Incarnate
Word of God! The worlds were framed by the Word of God and by that same
Word of God men are saved. By that Word the darkness fled and life came
and light–and by that same Word the darkness of our ruin has been
dispelled and the light and life of our salvation have come to us!
Beloved Believer, remember that you are not partlysaved, but you are
wholly saved! The robe you wear today does not reach part of the way to
cover you, but covers you from head to foot! The washing which the
Savior has given you has not washed away a part of your spots, but you
are clean every whit! And looking upon the work of your salvation as
you receive it from the hands of Jesus, you may rest as God rested and
keep a long and blessed Sabbath just as God has kept it! He rested
because His creative work was finished–and you may rest because the
work of your salvation is also finished!

Another reason why God rested on the seventh day was that not only was
the work finished, but all that was finished was good. We read that at
the conclusion of His six days work, "God saw everything that He had
made and, behold, it was very good." And, therefore, He rested. And oh,
what rest a Believer gets when he looks on the finished work of Jesus
Christ! And after examining every part of it, he is able to say of it
all, "It is very good." To see Christ's work of covering sin and to
note how His substitutionary Sacrifice has covered it so completely
that even God Himself cannot see it, is indeed, "very good." To realize
that Christ has sunk our sins into oblivion and made them cease to
be–this also is, "very good." To look at Christ's justifying
righteousness and to mark how perfect it is–not a thread missing, no
part of the goodly texture having a flaw in it–this, too, is, "very
good." To see Christ as our Prophet, Priest and King. To view

Him in all His relationships and offices–this, too, is, "very good."
Yes, Beloved, this is the way to get the Sabbatis-mos–the true rest
which remains for the people of God! If we examine the work of Christ,
both in its completeness and in all its details, as God the Father
looked at His works and praised them all–if we let our judgment feel
what a strong Rock we have on which to build our eternal peace–then,
like the ever-blessed Jehovah, Himself, we shall rest and enter into
His rest. Oh, that God would, by His Grace, enable us to do so!

But, on further thinking this subject over, you will remember that
God's great rest was not only connected with a work that was finished
and a work that was in all respects good, but that it was also very
closely connected with His holiness, for "God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it." And He has said to us, "Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy." I speak with the utmost reverence and trembling before
the Divine Majesty, yet I can truly say that there could have been no
real rest even to God, Himself, if it had been conceivable that He
could have been unholy. Perfect restfulness necessitates perfect
holiness! Sin, which is inconceivable in connection with God, is
inconceivable in connection with real rest. Hence, Beloved, to make a
true Sabbath, there must be a sanctifying of the day–it must be a holy
day if it is to be a restful day! It is no use for men to say that they
can get a rest by spending the Sabbath in amusement–they never will.
There is no perfect rest to our entire manhood except in holiness and
holy exercises, alone, can give complete rest to our whole being. Let
us always remember this and pant after holiness. Heaven and holiness
are twin sisters. As God makes you holy, He will make you happy–and
when He has made you perfectly holy, you shall he perfectly happy! No
waves of sorrow will ever come where there are no waves of sin. When
you have done with sinning, you shall have done with sorrowing–

"There is sweet rest in Heaven; there is sweet rest in Heaven"–

but it is because there is a blessed absence of all the sin which must
forever mar our peace and restfulness!

II. Now, secondly, I am going to DESCRIBE THIS REST FROM MY OWN
EXPERIENCE AND FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD'S PEOPLE GENERALLY. "We who
have believed do enter into rest."

First, we enter into rest concerning all dread of God and all terror on
account of past sin. It is but a little while ago that our sins greatly
alarmed us. We knew that God must punish us for them and, therefore, we
could not rest. But those sins, which then disturbed us, have been
forgiven–we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son–and now, we
who have believed, have no dread of punishment, no fear of the wrath to
come, for we have entered into rest! I can truly say that this is my
condition. Is it not yours, also, my beloved Brothers and Sisters in
Christ? If you really believe in Jesus, it must be!

Next, we enter into rest concerning all fears as to the future. As to
any trouble we may have in this life, we know that God will overrule it
for our good. As to the pangs of death, we know that the Lord will be
with us and will sustain us in the valley of death-shade and we have no
fear of anything that may follow after death, for what can hurt or
disturb those of whom Christ has said, "Father, I will that they, also,
whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
Glory"? We are delivered from all fear of judgment, for who shall
condemn those whom God has justified, and whom He will glorify? All
dread as to our past sin is gone from us forever! Concerning past sin,
our soul is even as a new-born child–we are cleansed from it by the
precious blood of Jesus! And as for the future, we have no more dread
about it than the angels in Heaven have! They know that nothing can
ever harm them, for they are God's own chosen ones–and so are we if we
are Believers in Jesus Christ.

We also now have rest from all our former sinful works. Once we were
the slaves of our own evil passions and we were hurried here and there
to degrading service by Satan and the lusts of the flesh. But now that
the Son of God has made us free, we are free indeed! We find a joyous
liberty in the ways of holiness and it is our constant delight to do
the will of God. Thrice happy are we who have broken the bonds of sin
and are no longer the servants of iniquity. And we are equally free
from all servile works for self-salvation. Oh, I pity those poor people
who are working to save themselves– those who go to church or chapel
and who are kept from this offense, or urged to that other apparent
excellence simply because they hope for a reward thereby! Sons of
Hagar, Ishmaelite children of the bondwoman, you can never be
inheritors of the rest which is the birthright of Isaac and all the
children of the freewoman! You must be cast out even as Ha-gar's son
was. But the man who believes in Jesus knows that he is saved, so he
has no need to try to save himself. That work is done and done forever!
And now we work from life, not for l ife! Now we work because we are
saved, not in order to be saved!Now we feel that we have not to win any
merit by anything that we do, but that the Infinite Merit of Christ has
already procured for us full acceptance with God. And what we have to
do now is to prove our gratitude to God for the Divine work that is
already completed. What a blessed thing it is to rest both from the
sinful service of Satan and from the servile service of the Law!

I trust that many Believers here can say that they have now come to
rest from all ambitious, discontented works. The worldly man is never
satisfied–he always wants to be greater, wiser, richer and more highly
esteemed than he is. But he who truly believes in Jesus feels that God
may do as He likes with him. If I am little, I thank God that He has
many little ones whom He greatly loves. And if He makes me great, I
thank Him because He will give me Grace to bear my greatness with
becoming humility. If I am poor, I will bless the Lord that He has
promised that at least bread and water shall be given to those who
trust Him. If He makes me rich, I will ask Him to give me the Grace to
use my substance for His Glory. It is a blessed thing to come to such a
pass as this about all worldly things and leave the disposal of all of
them with God.

Some people are always fretting and fuming. They appear to have been
born in stormy weather and to be perpetually agitated in mind so that
they cannot rest. Only the other day, a gardener I knew of was
complaining greatly of the heavy rain which had done some damage to the
garden where he was working. A Quaker, who stood by, said to him,
"Friend, you ought not to complain of the rain, for if it has not done
this garden any good, it has done good to the fields of many of your
neighbors. Therefore you ought to be glad on their account and to thank
God." And then the good man very wisely added, "I do not think that,
after all, we would have the weather any better managed by you than it
is by God, if it could be put into your hands." That is the right way
to look at all things–they are far better ordered by God than by any
man! Christian, you could not order them better if you had the ordering
of them, so be perfectly content and say, "Not my will, Lord, but Yours
be done." The more faith grows, the more rest grows. But when our faith
begins to forget the Lord and we commence to worry and to fret, then
our rest goes at once. It is glorious to live exempt from care by the
blessed power of prayer–to be able to take every trouble to God and
leave it with Him. I know what it means to do so for I have sometimes
had a church trouble or a household trouble and I have done my best
with it–but bad has been my best and, at last, I have taken it to my
God and I have said to Him–"Lord, I will not worry myself about that
trouble anymore. I leave it with You–do what You please with it." And
I have always found that the tangle has been unraveled when I have done
that with it! There would always be a way found for us out of every
trouble if we would trust wholly in God and not rely upon ourselves or
our fellows!

"We who have believed do enter into rest." I have already incidentally
shown you that the rest of the Christian depends upon his believing,
but I want just now to emphasize that fact. It is not as a doer that
you will get rest, but as a Believer! It is not as a professor, it is
not as anything else except as a Believer that you will obtain rest of
heart. My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I beseech you to hold fast
your faith. There are many things that will tempt you to live by your
experience, to live by your feelings and to live by your graces and
your attainments–but remember that sentence that is again and again
repeated in Scripture, "The just shall live by faith." Be like poor
Jack the Huckster, whose one saying was–

"I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my
All-in-All."

Do not go an inch beyond that declaration–

"I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me."

The moment you go beyond that, you may get some temporary excitement,
as they do who profess to be perfect and who, in these modern days, are
reviving old-fashioned heresies by professing that they are perfectly
sanctified, which I venture to say they are not! You may get a
delirious joy for a time, but it will evaporate before long. But
keeping close to the Cross is the thing for me! I remember an old
countryman saying to me, long ago, "Depend upon it, my Brother, if you
or I get one inch above the ground, we get just that inch too high."
And I believe it is so. Flat on our faces before the Cross of Christ is
the place for us–realizing that we are nothing and that Jesus Christ
is everything!

"We who have believeddo enter into rest." Not we who have fltthis or
that. Not we who thinkwe are somebodies. But we who know that we are
nobodies and hang alone upon Christ! I suppose there never was a more
restful period to any of us than when we lay in our mother's bosom and
just drank in our life's nourishment from her. And there is never such
a restful period to any child of God as when he is just a little babe,
hanging on the bosom of his God and drinking in

all he needs from the eternal fountains of Divine Love and Life! Oh, to
be always such a blessed babe as that, relying upon my God for all the
strength I need! Then may I utter Paul's paradox, "When I am weak, then
am I strong." Though I am a fool, God is my Wisdom! Though I am nothing
at all, God is my All-in-All. This is the way to enter into rest
through believing!

Now, lastly, let me remind you, Beloved, that this rest is perfectly
consistent with labor. In verse 11 the Apostle says, "Let us labor,
therefore, to enter into that rest." It is an extraordinary injunction,
but I think he means, let us labor not to labor. Our tendency is to try
to do somethingin order to save ourselves. But we must beat that
tendency down and look away from self to Christ. Labor to get away from
your own labors! Labor to be clean rid of all self-reliance! Labor in
your prayers never to depend upon your prayers! Labor in your
repentance never to rest upon your repentance and labor in your faith
not to trust to your faith, but to trust only to Jesus! When you begin
to rest upon your repentance and forget the Savior, away with your
repentance! And when you begin to pray and you depend upon your prayers
and forget the Lord Jesus, away with your prayers! When you think you
are beginning to grow in Grace and you feel, "Now I am somebody," away
with such spurious growth as that, for you are only being puffed up
with pride and not really growing at all! Labor not to labor. Labor to
keep down your natural self-righteousness and self-reliance. Labor to
continue where the publican was and cry, "God be merciful to me a
sinner." Labor to get where Mary was, sitting at the Master's feet and
learning of Him. Labor not to grow upward in self-esteem, but to grow
downward in humiliation– growing continually less and less, and less
in your own estimation–and always crowning Christ Lord of All!

Labor also to show your gratitude to God for what He has done for you,
and then labor to show your love to men. You must not suppose that when
we enter into rest, it means that we are idle. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said, "My Father works up to now, and I work." God rests, yet He works.
Heaven is a place of rest, but it is not a place of idleness–there is
still holy service to be done there, so you Christian people who are
perfectly saved, devote all your strength to the winning of others for
Christ! Show your love to Jesus by trying to find some of His lost
sheep for Him. Awaken yourselves, my Brothers and Sisters who have
entered into rest, and prove to mankind that the grand old Calvinistic
Doctrine of a finished salvation does not breed sluggishness! Rise, I
pray you, and show that the children of the freewoman are not slothful,
but that the motive of gratitude to God is a higher and more potent one
than the selfish motive of seeking to save yourselves! Let those who
want to save themselves go and work for themselves, but as for you who
are saved, go and work for Jesus! And let your deeds of holy heroism
prove that you are constrained by love to Him to do all that you can to
bring others to trust in Him! Now, as some of you are coming to this
Communion Table, may it prove to be a feast of rest to your souls!
Sitting, as you will be, in the posture of rest, eating the bread and
drinking the wine which are the tokens of the finished work of Christ,
may you have real rest in Him! And oh, that some poor sinner who has
never believed in Jesus, may do so now, for thus shall he find rest
unto his soul! The Lord grant it, for Jesus sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 CORINTHIANS 4.

Verse 1. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received
mercy, we faint not It is a very high privilege to be called to the
work of the Christian ministry. And when the minister remembers what
great mercy he has, himself, received, what sins have been forgiven,
what favors have been bestowed–he has the very best incentives in all
the world to pursue his ministry with diligence and with zeal. "We
faint not," says the Apostle. We do not hang our harps upon the
willows. We do not pray to be allowed to retire from the battle and
give up the strife, but feeling how great has been the mercy of God to
our own souls, we are stirred up to press forward with holy zeal to win
the victory! We long that others may taste of the same good things on
which we have feasted.

2. But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in
craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by
manifestation of the Truth commending ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God. There have, alas, been many preachers
who have handled the Word of God in the manner described by the
Apostle. They have cut and trimmed the Truth in order to please their
generation–they have kept back this, or have made unduly prominent
that, instead of giving all the Truth of God its proper and
proportionate prominence in their ministry. But such men have not,
after all, won the respect of their hearers. There is an old story told
of King John of England that when he was closely pressed by the barons,
he wrote to the Emperor of Morocco and offered to turn Muslim and take
an oath of allegiance to him if he would send an army to help him. And
it is said that ever after the Emperor of Morocco abhorred and detested
the very name of John, for he said he must be an abominable miscreant
to be willing to change his religion for the sake of gain! Ah, my
Brothers, we never gain any respect, even from the world, by seeking
after it in this fashion! Be thoroughly honest, especially you who are
in the Christian ministry. Be outspoken, blunt and plain–and then,
even if men's prejudices condemn you, their consciences will commend
you for speaking what you believe to be the Truth of God.

3, 4. But if our Gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in
whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine unto them.

[The following Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon parts of these two verses,
are #2304, Volume 39–BLINDED BY SATAN; #2077, Volume 35–THE GOSPEL OF
THE GLORY OF CHRIST and #1663, Volume 28–THE TRUE GOSPEL IS NO HIDDEN
GOSPEL.]

Without light from above, no man can perceive the beauties either of
the Gospel or of Christ Himself. Until God the Holy Spirit sheds a
spiritual light upon the Person, offices and work of Christ, men grope
in the dark as blind men do. They see not the Truth of God. They are
not persuaded of its excellence. Our ministry is to them a veiled
ministry, they do not comprehend it. Let those who receive not the
Gospel see what a miserable state theirs is–they are blinded by "the
god of this world." He has such supremacy over their intellects that he
has utterly perverted and ruined them!

5. For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. Hence we learn that anything like
priestcraft is altogether foreign to the Bible. The "priest" preaches
up himself, the extraordinary value of his ordination, the occult
influences which flow from his touch, the mysterious power which dwells
in baptismal water and in "consecrated" wafers and poured-out wine.
This is preaching themselves with a vengeance! But Christ's Apostles
preached not themselves–they preached up Christ and Him crucified.
Paul wrote, "God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ." And this was the constant theme of all the
Apostles. If they mentioned themselves at all, they simply said, as
Paul does here, "Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."

6. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in our heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. [See Sermon #1493, Volume 25–the
glory of god in the face of jesus chrIST.] There is the very Glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ,

for He is, "very God of very God," and he who will but think of the
wondrous mystery of the Incarnate Deity and the simple but marvelous
plan of salvation through Christ's atoning Sacrifice will see
infinitely more Glory, there, than in all God's works in Creation or
Providence. Well does Watts say–

"The spacious earth and spreading flood

Proclaim the wise and powerful God!

And Your rich glories from afar

Sparkle in every rolling star.

But in Christ's looks a Glory stands,

The noblest labor of Your hands,

The pleasing luster of His eyes

Outshines the wonders of the skies."

7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of
the power may be of God, and not of us. The original might very fairly
be rendered, "We have this treasure in oyster shells," for, just as
pearls are found in the shells of oysters, so God gives to those who
preach the Word, the treasure of the Gospel, yet they are themselves
nothing but the oyster shells, nothing but the earthen vessel in which
God pleases to place His priceless treasures. If you have done anything
in the service of God, my Brother, remember that you are nothing but
the oyster shell–it is God's Truth that is the pearl in you! So while
you are thankful for the honor that He puts upon you, mind that you
give Him all the glory. It is well to take the right view of our own
imperfections and infirmities, as Paul did when he wrote, "Most gladly,
therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me." The infirmity of the creature leaves more
room for the display of the greatness of the Creator, for if God can
work such wondrous results by using such poor tools as we are, how
great must be His power and skill!

8. 9. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are
perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down,
but not destroyed"We are troubled on every side." There seems to be an
allusion here to the Greek wrestling games. Sometimes in wrestling, a
man would be gripped by his adversary so that he could scarcely move
hand

or foot, yet bravely says the Apostle, "We are not distressed," or, as
the original seems to suggest, "We still have a plan of overcoming our
adversaries. Though they seem to have got us entirely in their power,
there is still something that we can do to obtain our release." And he
goes even further than that, for he says, "We are perplexed"–it seemed
as if there was nothing that he could do, yet he added, "but not in
despair"–"not altogether without help," as the marginal reading
renders it–for when he could do nothing, God could do everything! The
death of creature-strength is the birth of Omnipotent Might!

"Persecuted, but not forsaken"–having no man's face to smile upon him,
but still rejoicing in the light of God's Countenance. "Cast down"–as
if his antagonist had thrown him and he had fallen heavily upon the
ground. Yet he says, as he springs up again, "Cast down, but not
destroyed." Many a time the Christian wrestler is thrown by his foe,
but he never has a final fall. As Paul, when he was stoned at Lystra
and left for dead, rose up again, and soon went on with his work, so
the Christian, when he has been cast down by trouble, often seems to
gain new life and vigor–and to go on to serve his Master even better
than he did before!

10. Always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bod. The Apostles
were always ready to die for Christ and, therefore, they were enabled
to live so much like Christ–imitating His life and being prepared to
follow Him even to the death whenever He called them to do so.

11-14. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you. We having the same
spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and,
therefore, have I spoken; we also believe and, therefore, speak knowing
that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus,
and shall present us with you. There is no possibility of serving God
well, especially under great trials and persecutions, without a
deeply-rooted confidence in the Truth of His Gospel. Once have a doubt
concerning that and the strong sinews of our spiritual manhood are cut!
Once begin to question the evidences of our holy religion and you
cannot henceforth serve God as you did before! Oh, to be strengthened
every day with might in the inner man–to feel that in our own
experience we have continually fresh proofs of the Truth of the Gospel
and that, whether we have trials or delights, we are thereby the more
firmly rooted in faith, even as the trees are rooted both by the March
winds and the April showers–and so rooted in faith that we grow into
it and cannot be separated from it because it has become a part of
ourselves! Religion is nothing to any of you unless it is woven into
the very warp and woof of your being–it must go right into your very
soul and become a vital part of you, or else you have never received it
in Truth!

15, 16. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant Grace
might through the thanksgiving ofmany redound to the glory of God. For
which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perishes, yet the
inward man is renewed day by da}. The sickness that crumbles away the
body of a Christian often confirms his soul in the faith that he
received when he was strong and well. Some of the healthiest hours that
God's people ever have are the hours of their sorest sicknesses. God
often sends His people fevers to make them well. He sends them losses
to make them rich. He takes away their earthly friends to bring them
closer to their Best Friend and He brings them to their wits' end that
they may begin to be truly wise! Often, when God strips us of all our
worldly possessions, it is the most soul-enriching season we have ever
known! But, on the other hand, the day of temporal prosperity has often
been a day of spiritual poverty. Adversity has many a time been an
angel in disguise, but prosperity has been the devil in a mask! Let us
take care that we cleave closely to Christ under both experiences, for
then both of them shall be sanctified to us.

17. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Notice the antithesis
here. "Light affliction"–a "weight of glory." "Affliction" is not set
in contrast with peace, or freedom from affliction, but with "glory."
The "light affliction" is "for a moment"–the "weight of glory" is
"eternal." And then, as if this were not enough, the Apostle has to
exhaust all ordinary powers of speech in order to adequately express
the contrast between the, "light affliction" and the, "weight of
glory." It is "far more exceeding"–not only a soul brim-full of bliss
and overflowing, but far more than that if there can be such a
thing–"a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

18. While we look not at the things which are seei.. Alas for us if we
did!

18. But at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen
are temporal Temporal and temporary! See how they melt away, one after
another!

18. But the things which are not seen are eternal. [See Sermon #1380,
Volume 23–VANITIES AND VERITIES.] The substance is beyond the river.
The shadows are here. God help us to look for the substance and to
claim it as our own–and let none of us try to grasp the shadows which
would be worthless if we could ever hold them in our hands!