January 3rd , 1864
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
“If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us.”- 2 Timothy 2:12.
My venerable friend who has hitherto
sent me a text for the new year, still ministers to his parish the Word of
life, and has not forgotten to furnish the passage for our meditation to-day.
Having preached from one of a very similar character a short time ago, I have
felt somewhat embarrassed in preparation; but I will take courage, and say with
the apostle, “To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous,
but for you it is safe.” If I should bring forth old things on this occasion,
be ye not unmindful that even the wise householder doth this at times. For oft-recurring
sickness the same wine may be prescribed by the most skillful physician without
blame; no one scolds the contractor for mending rough roads again and again
with stones from the same quarry; the wind which has borne us once into the
haven, is not despised for blowing often from the same quarter, for it may do
us good service yet again; and therefore, I am assured that you will endure my
repetitions of the same truths, since they may assist you to suffer with
patience the same trials.
You will observe that our text is a
part of one of Paul’s faithful sayings. If I remember rightly, Paul has four of
these. The first occurs in 1 Timothy 1:8, that famous, that chief of all
faithful sayings, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” A golden
saying, whose value Paul himself had most marvelously proved. What shall I say
of this verse, but that like the lamp of a lighthouse, it has darted its ray of
comfort through leagues of darkness, and guided millions of tempest-tossed
spirits to the port of peace. The next faithful saying is in the same epistle,
at the fourth chapter, and the ninth verse. “Godliness is profitable unto all
things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to com
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation This, too, the apostle
knew to be true, since he had learned in whatsoever state he was therewith to
be content. Our text is a portion of the third faithful saying; and the last of
the four you will find in Titus 3:8, “This is a faithful saying, and these
things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men.” We may trace a connection between these faithful sayings. The first
one which speaks of Jesus Christ coming into the world to save sinners, lays
the foundation of our eternal salvation in the free grace of God, as shown to
us in the mission of the great Redeemer. The next affirms the double
blessedness which we obtain through this salvation-the blessings of the upper
and nether springs-of time and of eternity. The third faithful saying shows one
of the duties to which the chosen people are called; we are ordained to suffer
for Christ with the promise that “if we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”
The last faithful saying sets forth the active form of Christian service,
bidding us diligently to maintain good works. Thus you have the root of salvation
in free grace; you have, next, the privileges of that salvation in the life
which now is, and in that which is to come; and you have also the two great
branches of suffering with Christ and service of Christ loaded with the fruits
of the Spirit of all grace. Treasure up, dear friends, those faithful sayings,
“Lay up these words in your heart; bind them for a sign upon your hand, that
they may be as frontlets between your eyes.” Let these choice sayings be
printed in letters of gold, and set up as tablets upon the door-posts of our
house and upon our gates. Let them be the guides of our life, our comfort, and
our instruction. The apostle of the Gentiles proved them to he faithful; they
are faithful still, not one word shall fall to the ground; they are worthy of
all acceptation, let us accept them now, and prove their faithfulness, each man
for himself.
This morning’s meditation is to be
derived from a part of that faithful saying which deals with suffering. We will
read the verse preceding our text. “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead
with him, we shall also live with him.” All the elect were virtually dead with
Christ when he died upon the tree-they were on the cross, crucified with him.
In him, as their representative, they rose from the tomb, and live in newness
of life: because he lives, they shall live also. In due time the chosen are
slain by the Spirit of God, and so made dead with Christ to sin, to
self-righteousness, to the world, the flesh, and the powers of darkness; then
it is that they live with Jesus, his life becomes their life, and as he was, so
are they also in this world. The Spirit of God breathes the quickening grace
into those who were once dead in sin, and thus they live in union with Christ
Jesus. When believers die, though they may be sawn in sunder, or burnt at the
stake, yet, since they sleep in Jesus, they are preserved from the destruction
of death by hmm, and are made partakers of his immortality. May the Lord make
us rooted and grounded in the mysterious but most consolatory doctrine of union
with Christ Jesus.
We must at once advance to our text-
“ If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny
us.” The words naturally divide themselves into two parts; suffering with
Jesus, and its reward-denying Jesus, and its penalty.
—————
I. Suffering With Jesus And Its Reward. To suffer, is the common lot
of all men. It is not possible for us to escape from it. We come into this
world through the gate of suffering, and over death’s door hangs the same
escutcheon. We must suffer if we live, no matter in what style we spend our
existence. The wicked man may cast off all respect for virtue, and riot in
excess of vice to the utmost degree, yet, let him not expect to avoid the
well-directed shafts of sorrow; nay, rather let him look for a tenfold share of
pain of body and remorse of soul. “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” Even
if a man could so completely degrade himself as to lose his intellectual
powers, and become a brute, yet even then he could not escape from suffering;
for we know that the brute creation is the victim of pain, as much as more
lordly man; only, as Dr. Chalmers well remarks, the brutes have the additional
misery that they have no mind endowed with reason and cheered by hope to
fortify them under their bodily affliction. Seest thou not, O man, that however
thou mayst degrade thyself, thou art still under the yoke of suffering: the
loftiest bow beneath it, and the meanest cannot avoid it. Every acre of
humanity must be furrowed with this plough. There may be a sea without a wave,
but never a man without sorrow. He who was God as well as man, had his full
measure pressed down and running over; let us be assured that if the sinless
one was not spared the rod, the sinful will not go free. “Man that is born of
woman is of few days and full of trouble.” “Man is born unto trouble as the
sparks fly upward.”
It then, a man bath sorrow, it doth
not necessarily follow that he shall be rewarded for it, since it is the common
lot brought upon all by sin. You may smart under the lashes of sorrow in this
life, but this shall not deliver you from the wrath to come. Remember you may
live in poverty and drag along a wearisome existence of ill-requited toil; you
may be stretched upon a bed of sickness, and be made to experience an agony in
every single member of your body; and your mind, too, may be depressed with
fears, or plunged in the depths of despair; and yet, by all this you may gain
nothing of any value to your immortal spirit; for, “Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God;” and no amount of affliction upon earth can
alter that unchanging rule, so as to admit an unregenerate man into heaven. To
suffer is not peculiar to the Christian, neither doth suffering necessarily
bring with it any recompense of reward. The text implies most clearly that we
must suffer with Christ in order to reign with him. The structure of the
preceding verse plainly requires such a reading. The words, “with him,” may be
as accurately supplied at the close of the one clause as the other. The
suffering which brings the reigning with Jesus, must be a suffering with Jesus.
There is a very current error among those poor people who are ignorant of true
religion, that all poor and afflicted people will be rewarded for it in the
next state. I have heard working men refer to time parable of the rich man and
Lazarus, with a cruel sort of satisfaction at the pains of Dives, because they
have imagined that, in the same manner, all rich people would be cast into the
flames of hell without a drop of water to cool their tongue, while all poor
persons like Lazarus, would ho triumphantly carried into Abraham’s bosom. A
more fearful mistake could not be made. It was not the suffering of Lazarus
which entitled him to a place in Abraham’s bosom; he might have been licked by
all the dogs on earth and then have been dragged off by the dogs of hell. Many
a man goes to hell from a dunghill. A drunkard’s hovel is very wretched: is he
to be rewarded for bringing himself to rags? Very much of the beggary we see
abroad is the result of vice, extravagance, or folly- are these things so
meritorious as to be passports to glory? Let no man deceive himself so grossly.
On the other hand, the rich man was not cast into hell because he was rich and
fared sumptuously; had he been rich in faith, holy in life, and renewed in
heart, his purple and fine linen would have done him no hurt. Lazarus was
carried above by the angels, because his heart was in heaven; and the rich man
lifted up his eyes in hell, because he had never lifted them up towards God and
heavenly things. It is a work of grace in the heart and character, which shall
decide the future, not poverty or wealth. Let intelligent persons combat this
notion whenever they meet with it. Suffering here does not imply happiness
hereafter. It is only a certain order of suffering to which a reward is
promised, the suffering which comes to us from fellowship with the Lord Jesus,
and conformity to his image.
A few words here, by way of aiding
you in making the distinction. We must not imagine that we are suffering for
Christ, and with Christ, if we are not in Christ. If a man be not a branch of
the living vine, you may prune and cut until the sap flows, and the branch
bleeds, but he will never bring forth heavenly fruit. Prune the bramble as long
as ever you like, use the knife until the edge is worn away, the brier will be
as sharp and fruitless as ever; you cannot by any process of pruning translate
it into one of the vines of Eshcol. If a man remain in a state of nature, he is
a member of the earthly Adam, he will not therefore escape suffering, but
ensure it; he must not, however, dream that because he suffers he is suffering
with Christ; he is plagued with the old Adam; he is receiving with all the
other heirs of wrath the sure heritage of sin. Let him consider these
sufferings of his to be only the first drops of the awful shower which will
fall upon him for ever, the first tingling cuts of that terrible whip which
will lacerate his soul for ever. If a man be in Christ, he may then claim
fellowship with the second Man, who is the Lord from heaven, and he may expect
to bear the image of the heavenly in the glory to be revealed. O my hearers,
are you in Christ by a living faith? Are you trusting to Jesus only? If not,
whatever yon may have to mourn over on earth, you have no hope of reigning with
Jesus in heaven.
Supposing a man to be in Christ, yet
it does not even then follow that all his sufferings are sufferings with
Christ, for it is essential that he be carted by God to suffer. If a good man
were, out of mistaken views of mortification and self-denial, to mutilate his
body, or to flog his flesh as many a sincere enthusiast has done, I might
admire the man’s fortitude, but I should not allow for an instant that he was
suffering with Christ. Who called men to such austerities? Certainly not the
God of love. If, therefore, they torture themselves at the command of their own
fancies, fancy must reward them, for God will not. If I am rash and imprudent,
and run into positions for which neither providence nor grace has fitted me, I
ought to question whether I am not rather sinning than communing with Christ.
Peter drew his sword, and cut off the ear of Malchus. If somebody had cut his
ear off, what would you say? He took the sword, and he feels the sword He was
never commanded to cut off the ear of Malchus and it was his Master’s
gentleness which saved him from the soldiers’ rage. If we let passion take the
place of judgment, and self-will reign instead of Scriptural authority, we
shall fight the Lord’s battles with the devil’s weapons, and if we cut our own
fingers we must not be surprised. On several occasions, excited Protestants
have rushed into Roman Catholic cathedrals, have knocked down the priest, and
dashed the wafer upon the ground, trod upon it, and in other ways exhibited
their hatred of idolatry; now when the law has interposed to punish such
outrages, the offenders are hardly to be considered as suffering with Christ.
This I give as one instance of a class of actions to which overheated brains
sometimes lead men, under the supposition that they will join the noble army of
martyrs. The martyrs were all chosen to their honorable estate; and I may say
of martyrdom as of priesthood, “No man taketh that honor upon himself but he
that is called thereunto as was Aaron.” Let us mind we all make a distinction
between things which differ, and do not pull a house down on our heads, and
then pray the Lord to console us under the trying providence.
Again, in troubles which come upon
us as the result of sin, we must not think we are suffering with Christ. When
Miriam spoke evil of Moses, and the leprosy polluted her, she was not suffering
for God. When Uzziah thrust himself into the temple, and became a leper all his
days, he could not say that he was afflicted for righteousness’ sake. If you
speculate and lose your property, do not say that you are losing all for
Christ’s sake; when you unite with bubble companies and are duped, do not whine
about suffering for Christ-call it the fruit of your own folly. If you will put
your hand into the fire and it gets burned, why it is the nature of fire to
burn you or anybody else; but be not so silly as to boast as though you were a
martyr. If you do wrong and suffer for it, what thanks have ye? Go behind the
door and weep for your sin, but come not forth in public to claim a reward.
Many a hypocrite, when he has had his deserts, and has been called by his
proper name, has cried out, “Ah! I am persecuted.” It is not an infallible sign
of excellence to be in bad repute among men. Who feels any esteem for a
cold-blooded murderer? Does not every man reprobate the offender? Is he,
therefore, a Christian because he is spoken against, and his name cast out as
evil? Assuredly not; he is heartless villain and nothing more. Brethren,
truthfulness and honesty should stop us from using expressions which involve a
false claim; we must not talk as if we suffered nobly for Jesus when we are
only troubled as the result of sin. O, to be kept from transgression! then it
mattereth not how rough the road of obedience may be, our journey shall be
pleasant because Jesus walks with us.
Be it observed, moreover, that
suffering such as God accepts and rewards for Christ’s sake, must have God’s
glory as its end. If I suffer that, I may earn a name, or win applause among
men; if I venture into trial merely that I may be respected for it, I shall get
my reward; but it will be the reward of the Pharisee, and not the crown of the
sincere servant of the Lord Jesus.
I must mind, too, that love to
Christ, and love to his elect, is ever the main-spring of all my patience;
remembering the apostle’s words, “Though I give my body to be burned, and have
not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” If I suffer in bravado, filled with
proud defiance of my fellow-men; if I love the dignity of singularity, and out
of dogged obstinacy hold to an opinion, not because it is right-and I love God
too well to deny his truth-but because I choose to think as I like, then I
suffer not with Jesus. If there be no love to God in my soul; if I do not
endure all things for the elect’s sake, I may bear many a cuff and buffetting,
but I miss the fellowship of the Spirit, and have no recompense.
I must not forget also that I must
manifest the Spirit of Christ, or I do
not suffer with him. I have heard of a certain minister, who, having had a
great disagreement with many members in his Church, preached from this text,
“And Aaron held his peace.” The sermon was intended to portray himself as an
astonishing instance of meekness; but as his previous words and actions had
been quite sufficiently violent, a witty hearer observed, that the only
likeness he could see between Aaron and the preacher, was this, “Aaron held his
peace, and the preacher did not.” It is easy enough to discover some parallel
between our cases and those of departed saints, but not so easy to establish
the parallel by holy patience and Christlike forgiveness. If I have, in the way
of virtue, brought down upon myself shame and rebuke; if I am hot to defend
myself and punish the slanderer; if I am irritated, unforgiving, and proud, I
have lost a noble opportunity of fellowship with Jesus. I must have Christ’s
spirit in me, or I do not suffer acceptably. If like a sheep before her
shearers, I can be dumb; if I can bear insult, and love the man who inflicts
it; if I can pray with Christ, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do;” if I submit all my case to him who judgeth righteously, and count it
even my joy to suffer reproach for the cause of Christ, then, and only then,
have I truly suffered with Christ.
These remarks may seem very cutting,
and may take away much false but highly-prized comfort from some of you. It is
not my intention to take away any true comfort from the humblest believer who
really suffers with my Lord; but God grant we may have honesty enough not to
pluck flowers out of other men’s gardens, or wear other men’s honors. Truth
only will be desired by true men.
I shall now very briefly show what
are the forms of real suffering for Jesus in these days. We have not now to rot
in prisons, to wander about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, to be stoned, or to
be sawn in sunder, though we ought to be ready to bear all this, if God wills
it. The days of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace are past, but the fire is still upon
earth. Some suffer in their estates. I believe that to many Christians it is
rather a gain than a loss, so far as pecuniary matters go, to be believers in
Christ; but I meet with many cases-cases which I know to be genuine, where
persons have had to suffer severely for conscience sake. Theme are those
present who were once in very comfortable circumstances, but they lived in a
neighborhood where the chief of the business was done on a Sunday; when grace
shut up their shop, trade left them; and I know some of them are working very
hard for their bread, though once they earned abundance without any great toil;
they do it cheerfully for Christ’s sake, but the struggle is a hard one. I know
other persons who were employed as servants in lucrative positions involving
sin, but upon their becoming Christians, they were obliged to resign their
former post, and are not at the present moment in anything like such apparent
prosperity as they were. I could point to several cases of persons who have
really suffered to a very high degree in pecuniary matters for the cross of
Christ. Brethren, ye may possess your souls in patience, and expect as a reward
of grace that you shall reign with Jesus your beloved. Those feather-bed
soldiers who are broken-hearted if fools laugh at them, should blush when they
think of those who endure real hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Who
can waste his pity over the small griefs of faint hearts, when cold, and hunger,
and poverty are cheerfully endured by the true and brave. Cases of persecution
are by no means rare. In many a country village squires and priests rule with a
high hand, and smite the godly villagers with a rod of iron. “No blankets, no
coals, no alumshouse for you, if you venture into the meeting-house. You cannot
live in my cottage if you have a prayer-meeting in it. I will have no religious
people on my farm.” We who live in more enlightened society, little know the
terrorism exercised in some of the rural districts over poor men and women who
endeavor conscientiously to carry out their convictions and walk with Christ.
True Christians of all denominations love each other and hate persecution, but
nominal Christians and ungodly men would make our land as hot as in the days of
Mary, if they dared. To all saints who are oppressed, this sweet sentence is
directed- “ If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”
More usually, however, the suffering
takes the form of personal contempt. It is not pleasant to be pointed at in the
streets, and have opprobrious names shouted after you by vulgar tongues; nor is
it a small trial to be saluted in the workshop by opprobrious epithets, or to
be looked upon as an idiot or a madman; and yet this is the lot of many of the
people of God every day of the week. Many of those who are of the humbler
classes have to endure constant and open reproach, and those who are richer
have to put up with the cold shoulder, and neglect, and sneers, as soon as they
become true disciples of Jesus Christ. There is more sting in this than some
dream; and we have known strong men who could have borne the lash, brought down
by jeers and sarcasms, even just as the wasp may more thoroughly irritate and
vex the lion than if the noblest beast of prey should attack him. Believers
have also to suffer slander and falsehood. It is not expedient for me,
doubtless, to glory, but I know a man who scarcely ever speaks a word which is
not misrepresented, and hardly performs an action which is not misconstrued.
The press at certain seasons, like a pack of hounds, will get upon his track,
and worry him with the basest and most undeserved abuse. Publicly and privately
he is accustomed to be sneered at. The world whispers, “Ah! he pretends to be
zealous for God, but he makes a fine thing of it!” Mark you, when the world
shall learn what he does make of it, maybe it will have to eat its wounds. But
I forbear such is the portion of every servant of God who has to bear public
testimony for the truth. Every motive but the right one will be imputed to him;
his good will be evil spoken of; his zeal will be called imprudence-his
courage, impertinence-his modesty, cowardice-his earnestness. It is impossible
for the true believer in Christ, who is called to any eminent service, to do
anything right. He had better at once learn to say with Luther, “The world
hates me, and there is no love lost between us, for as much as it hates me, so
heartily do I hate it.” He meant not the men in the world, for never was there
a more loving heart than Luther’s; but he meant the fame, the opinion, the
honor of the world he trod beneath his feet. If in your measure, you bear
undeserved rebuke for Christ’s sake, comfort yourselves with these words, “If
we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us.”
Then again, if in your service for
Christ, you are enabled so to sacrifice yourself, that you bearing upon
yourself inconvenience and pain, labor and loss, then I think you are suffering
with Christ. The missionary who tempts the stormy deep — the herald of the
cross who penetrates into unknown regions among savage men — the colporteur toiling up the
mountain-side-the teacher going wearily to the class — the village preacher
walking many toilsome miles-the minister starving on a miserable pittance-the
evangelist content to break down in health- all these and their like, suffer
with Christ. We are all too much occupied with taking care of ourselves; we
shun the difficulties of excessive labor. And frequently behind the
entrenchments of taking care of our constitution, we do not half as much as we
ought. A minister of God is bound to spurn the suggestions of ignoble ease, it
is his calling to labor; and if he destroys his constitution, I for one, only
thank God that he permits us the high privilege of so making ourselves living
sacrifices. If earnest ministers should bring themselves to the grave, not by
imprudence, for that we would not advocate, but by honest labor, such as their
ministry and their consciences require of them, they will be better in their
graves than out of their graves, if they come there for the cause of Christ.
What, are we never to suffer? Are we to be carpet-knights? Are God’s people to
be put away in wadding, perfumed with lavender, and boxed up in quiet
softnesses? Nay, verily, unless they would lose the reward of true saints!
Let us not forget that contention
with inbred lusts, denials of proud self, resistance of sin, and agony against
Satan, are all forms of suffering with Christ. We may, in the holy war within
us, earn as bright a crown as in the wider battlefield beyond us. O for grace
to be ever dressed in full armor, fighting with principalities and powers, and
spiritual wickedness of every sort.
There is one more class of suffering
which I shall mention, and that is, when friends forsake, or become foes.
Father and mother forsake sometimes. The husband persecutes the wife. We have
known even the children turn against the parents. “A man’s foes are they of his
own household.” This is one of the devil’s best instruments for making
believers suffer; and those who have to drain this cup for the Lord’s sake,
shall reign with him.
Brethren, if you are thus called to
suffer for Christ, will you quarrel with me if I say, in adding all up, what a
very little it is compared with reigning with Jesus! “For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory.” When I contrast our sufferings of to-day with those of the
reign of Mary, or the persecutions of the Albigenses on the mountains, or the
sufferings of Christians in Pagan Rome, why ours are scarcely a pin’s prick:
and yet what is the reward? We shall reign with Christ. There is no comparison
between the service and the reward. Therefore it is all of grace. We do but
little, and suffer but little-and even that little grace gives us — and yet the
Lord grants us “A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” We are not
merely to sit with Christ, but we are to reign with Christ. All that the pomp
imperial of his kingship means; all that the treasure of his wide dominions can
yield; all that the majesty of his everlasting power can bestow-all this is to
belong to you, given to you of his rich, free grace, as the sweet reward of
having suffered for a little time with him. Who would draw back then? Who among
you will flinch? Young man, have you thought of flying from the cross? Young
woman, has Satan whispered to you to shun the thorny pathway? Will you give up
the crown? Will you miss the throne? O beloved, it is so blessed to be in the
furnace with Christ, and such an honor to stand in the pillory with him, that
if there were no reward, we might count ourselves happy; but when the reward is
so rich, so super-abundant, so eternal, so infinitely more than we had any
right to expect, will we not take up the cross with songs, and go on our way
rejoicing in the Lord our God?
—————
II. Denying Christ, And Its Penalty. “If we deny him, he also will
deny us.” Dreadful “if,” and yet an “if” which is applicable to every one of
us. If the apostles, when they sat at the Lord’s Supper, said, “Lord, is it I?”
surely we may say as we sit here, “Lord, shall I ever deny thee?” You who say
most loudly, “Though all men shall deny thee, yet will not I” — you are the
most likely to do it. In what way can we deny Christ? Some deny him openly as
scoffers do, whose tongue walketh through the earth, and defieth heaven. Others
do this willfully and wickedly in a doctrinal way, as the Arians and Socinians
do, who deny his deity: those who deny his atonement, who rail against the
inspiration of his Word, these come under the condemnation of those who deny
Christ. There is a way of denying Christ, without even speaking a word, and
this is the more common. In the day of blasphemy and rebuke, many hide their
heads. They are in company where they ought to speak up for Christ. But they
put their hands upon their mouths; they come not forward to profess their faith
in Jesus; they have a sort of faith, hut it is one which yields no obedience.
Jesus bids each believer to be baptized. They neglect his ordinance. Neglecting
that, they also despise the weightier matters of the law. They will go up to
the house of God because it is fashionable to go there; but if it were a matter
of persecution, they would forsake the assembling of themselves together. In
the day of battle, they are never on the Lord’s side. If there be a parade, and
the banners are flying, and the trumpets are sounding, if there are decorations
and medals to be given away, here they are; but if the shots are flying, if
trenches have to be carried, and forts to be stormed, where are they? They have
gone back to their dens, and there will they hide themselves till fair weather
shall return. Mind, mind, mind, for I am giving a description, I am afraid, of
some here; mind, I say, ye silent ones, lest ye stand speechless at the bar of
judgment. Some, after having been long silent, and so practically denying
Christ, go farther, and apostatize altogether from the faith they once had. No
man who hath a genuine faith in Christ wilt lose it, for the faith which God
gives will live for ever. Hypocrites and formalists have a name to live while
yet they are dead, and after a while they return like the dog to its vomit, and
the sow which was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Certain professors who
do not run this length yet practically deny Christ by their lives, though they
make a profession of faith in him. Are there not here some who hove been
baptized and who come to the Lord’s table but what is their character? Follow
them home. I would to God they never had made a profession because in their own
houses they deny what in the house of God they have avowed. If I see a man
drunk if I know that a professor indulges in lasciviousness; if I know a man to
be harsh, and overbearing and tyrannical to his servants; if I know another who
cheat in his traffic and another who adulterates his goods, and if I know that
such men profess allegiance to Jesus, which am I to believe, their words or their
deeds? I will believe that which speaks loudest; and as actions always speak
louder than words, I will believe their actions-I believe that they are
deceivers whom Jesus will deny at the last. Should we not find many present
this morning belonging to one or other of these grades? Does not this
description suit at least some of you? If it should do so, do not be angry with
me, but stand still and hear the Word of the Lord. Know, O man that you will
not perish even if you have denied Christ, if now you fly to him for refuge.
Peter denied, but yet Peter is in heaven. A transient forsaking of Jesus under
temptation will not bring on everlasting ruin, if faith shall step in, and the
grace of God shall intervene; but persevere in it, continue still in a denial
of the Savior, and my terrible text will come upon you, He also will deny you.”
In musing over the very dreadful
sentence which closes my text, “He also will deny us,” I was led to think of
various ways in which Jesus will deny us. He does this sometimes on earth. You
have read, I suppose, the death of Francis Spira. If you have ever read it, you
never can forget it to your dying day. Francis Spira knew the truth; he was a
reformer of no mean standing but when brought to death, out of fear, he recanted.
In a short time he fell into despair, and suffered hell upon earth. His shrieks
and exclamations were so horrible, that their record is almost too terrible for
print. His doom was a warning to the age in which he lived. Another instance is
narrated by my predecessor, Benjamin Keach, of one who, during Puritanic times,
was very earnest for Puritanism but afterwards, when times of persecution
arose, forsook his profession. The scenes at his death-bed were thrilling amid
terrible, he declared that though he sought God, heaven was shut against him;
gates of brass seemed to be in his way, he was given up to overwhelming
despair. At intervals he cursed, at other intervals he prayed, and so perished
without hope. If we deny Christ, we may be delivered to such a fate. If we have
stood highest and foremost in God’s Church, and yet have not been brought to
Christ, if we should become apostates, a high soar will bring a deep fall. High
pretensions bring down sure destruction when they come to nought. Even upon
earth Christ will deny such. There are remarkable instances of persons who
sought to save their lives and lost them. One Richard Denton, who had been a
very zealous Lollard, and was the means of the conversion of an eminent saint,
when he came to the stake, was so afraid of the fire that he renounced
everything he held, and went into the Church of Rome. A short time after his
own house took fire, and going into it to save some of his money, he perished
miserably, being utterly consumed by that fire which he had denied Christ in
order to escape. If I must be lost, let it be anyhow rather than as an
apostate. If there be any distinction among the damned, those have it who are
wandering stars, trees plucked up by the roots, twice dead, for whom Jude tells
us, is “reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” Reserved! as if nobody
else were qualified to occupy that place but themselves. They are to inhabit
the darkest, hottest place, because they forsook the Lord. Let us, my dear
friends, then rather lose everything than lose Christ. Let us sooner suffer
anything than lose our ease of conscience and our peace of mind. When Marcus
Arethusus was commanded by Juhian the apostate, to subscribe towards the
rebuilding of a heathen temple which his people had pulled down upon their
conversion to Christianity, he refused to obey; and though he was an aged man,
he was stripped naked, and then pierced all over with lancets and knives. The
old man still was firm. If he would give but one halfpenny towards the building
of the temple, he could be free — if he would cast inn but one grain of incense
into the censer devoted to the false gods, he might escape. He would not
countenance idolatry in any degree. He was smeared with honey, and while his
innumerable wounds were yet bleeding, the bees amid wasps came upon him and
stung him to death. He could die, but he could not deny his Lord. Arethusus
entered into the joy of his Lord, for he nobly suffered within him. In the
olden time when the gospel was preached in Persia, one Ilamedatha, a courtier
of the king, having embraced the faith, was stripped of all his offices, driven
from the palace, and compelled to feed camels. This he did with great content.
The king passing by one day, saw his former favorite at his ignoble work,
cleaning out the camel’s stables. Taking pity upon him he took him into his
palace, clothed him within sumptuous apparel, restored him to all his former
honors, and made him sit at the royal table. In the midst of the dainty feast,
he asked Hamedatha to renounce his faith. The courtier, rising from the table,
took off his garments with haste, left all the dainties behind him, amid said,
“Didst thou think that for such silly things as these I would deny my Lord and
Master?” and away he went to the stable to his ignoble work. How honorable is
all this! But how shall I execrate the meanness of the apostate, his detestable
cowardice, to forsake the bleeding Savior of Calvary to return to the beggarly
elements of the world which he once despised, and to bow his neck again to the
yoke of bondage? Will you do this, O followers of the Crucified? You will not;
you cannot; I know you cannot, if the spirit of the Lord dwells in you, and it
must dwell in you if you be the children of God. What must be the doom of those who deny Christ, when they reach
another world? Mayhap, they will appear with a sort of hope in their minds, and
they will come before the judge, with “Lord, Lord, open to us?” “Who use you?”
saith he. “Lord, we once took the Lord’s Supper-Lord, we were members of the Church,
but there came very hard times. My mother bade me give up religion; father was
angry; trade went bad; I was so mocked at, I could not stand it. Lord, I fell
among evil acquaintances and they tempted me-I could not resist. I was thy
servant-i did love thee-I always had love towards thee in my heart, but I could
not help it-I denied thee and went to the world again.” What will Jesus say? “I
know ye not, whence ye are.” “But, Lord, I want thee to be my advocate.” “I
know you not!” “But, Lord, I cannot get into heaven unless thou shouldst open
the gate-open it for me.” “I do not know you; I do not know you.” “But, Lord,
my name was in the Church Book.” “I know you not — I deny you.” “But wilt thou
not hear my cries?” “Thou didst not hear mine-thou didst deny me, and I deny
thee.” “Lord, give me the lowest place in heaven, if I may but enter and escape
from wrath to come.” “No, thou wouldst not brook the lowest place on earth, and
thou shalt not enjoy the lowest place here. Thou hadst thy choice, and thou didst
choose evil. Keep to thy choice. Thou wast filthy, be thou filthy still. Thou
wast unholy, be thou unholy still.” O, sirs, if ye would not see the angry face
of Jesus! O, sirs, if ye would not behold the lightning flashing from his eye,
and hear the thunder of his mouth in the day when he judges the fearful, and
the unbelieving, and the hypocrite; if you would not have your portion in the
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, cry this day mightily unto God,
“Lord, hold me fast, keep me, keep me. Help me to suffer with thee, that I may
reign with thee; but do not, do not let me deny thee, lest thou also shouldst
deny me.”
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Spurgeon Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986