It is very unpleasant to our poor flesh and blood to suffer. Physical pain is a grievous infliction; mental agony or spiritual sorrow is still worse. Irons around the wrists can be worn till they fit easily; but when the iron enters into the soul, how it rusts the heart, and eats into the spirit! Perhaps, to some minds, that is the hardest of all sufferings which is not deserved at all, but which comes because we do not deserve it; I mean, that suffering which innocent persons are called to endure because of their innocence, when they are slandered and oppressed and persecuted, not for evil-doing, but for well-doing. I admit that there is much about this form of trial which should tend to make it a light affliction, for we ought to take it joyfully when we suffer wrongfully. Yet, as a rule, we are not able to do so; certainly not by nature, for there is a sort of sense of justice within man which makes him feel that it is very hard that he should have to suffer, not for unrighteousness, but for righteousness; not for any wrong-doing, but for having espoused the cause of God and truth.

The apostle Peter would have Christians prepare themselves for this suffering. They had to bear very much of it in his day; they will have to bear some of it as long as ever the Church of Christ remains in this wicked world. He says, in the verse preceding our text: “It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing.” Further on, at the beginning of the next chapter, he says: “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.” He warns us that we shall need to be clad in heavenly armour, for we shall have to pass through conflict and suffering for Christ’s sake and for righteousness’ sake. We must put on a coat of mail, and be enveloped in the whole panoply of God; we must have, as our great controlling principle, the mind of Christ, that, as he endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, we also may endure it, and not be weary or faint in our minds. We shall best bear our own sufferings when we find fellowship with Christ in them. Hence, it is for your strengthening, that your spiritual sinews may be braced, that you may be armed from head to foot, and preserved from the darts of the enemy, that I would set forth before you, as best I may, the matchless sufferings of the Son of God, who “once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”

It has sometimes struck me that the first Epistle of Peter is greatly concerning Christ’s first advent, and that his second Epistle tells us about our Lord’s second advent. In this first letter, there are many references to the sufferings of Christ; it may interest you to notice some of them. In the first chapter, at the eleventh verse, we read: “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ.” When the apostle gets to the second chapter, at the twenty-first verse, we find him writing thus: “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” Next comes our text in the third chapter; then, in the fourth chapter, at the first verse, is the passage I have already read to you; and in the thirteenth verse, the apostle says: “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings;” and in the fifth chapter, at the first verse, he calls himself “a witness of the sufferings of Christ.” Thus his frequent expression-his peculiar idiom-is, “the sufferings of Christ;” and in the language of our text he thus describes the great work of our redemption: “Christ also hath once suffered.” It may seem a very small thing to you to call your attention to such words as these, but it does not appear small to me. It seems to me that there is a great depth of meaning within these few words, and it shall be my object, at this time, to bring out that meaning, as far as I can, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Notice then, first of all, a summary without any details: “Christ also hath once suffered.” There is compassed within that expression a summary of the whole life and death of Christ. The apostle does not give us details of Christ’s sufferings; but he lets us, for a moment, look into this condensation of them: “Christ also hath once suffered.”

It is the epitome of his whole earthly existence up to the time of his rising from the dead. Christ begins his life here with suffering. He is born into the world, but there is “no room for him in the inn.” He must lie in a manger, where the horned oxen feed. He is born of a poor mother, he must know the ills of poverty; and, worse still, Herod seeks the young Child’s life. He must be hurried away by night into Egypt; he must be a stranger in a strange land, with his life in peril from a blood-thirsty tyrant. When he comes back from Egypt, he grows in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men; but you may rest assured that the years he spent in the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth, though we are not told about them, were years of sore travail,-perhaps, of bodily pain; certainly, of mental toil and preparation for his future service. Such a public life as his could not have been lived without due training. I will not attempt to lift the veil where God has let it fall; but I see, in the whole public ministry of Christ, traces of a wonderful mental discipline through which he must have gone, and which, I should think, must have involved him in suffering. Certainly, it was one main point in his preparation that he was not without spiritual conflicts and struggles, which must have involved suffering to such a nature as his was.

No sooner does he appear on the stage of action, and the Spirit of God descends upon him in the waters of baptism, than he is hurried off to a forty days’ fast in the wilderness, and to a prolonged and terrible conflict with his great enemy and ours. Of that time, we may truly say that “he suffered, being tempted.” Throughout his life, you may read such words as these: “Jesus, being weary, sat thus on the well;” “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head;” and then you can understand some of the ways in which he suffered. We cannot tell how much our Lord suffered even in the brightest portion of his career, for always was he “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” We cannot go into all the details of his life; but I think you may see that, even in the very smoothest part of it, he suffered, and Peter does well thus to sum it up: “Christ suffered.”

But when he comes to Gethsemane, shall I speak of the bloody sweat and the groans which startled angels? No, I need not say more than this: “Christ suffered.” Shall I tell of his betrayal by Judas, of his being hurried from bar to bar, falsely accused, despitefully entreated, bruised, and scourged, and made nothing of? Truly, I may sum it all up by saying that he suffered. And as for all the rest, that march along the Via Dolorosa,-that fastening to the wood,-that uplifting of the cross, the wounds, the cruel fever, the direful thirst, the mockery, the scorn, the desertion of his Father when he must at last yield himself up to death itself,-what better summary could even an inspired apostle give than to say, “Christ also hath once suffered”? This expression sums up the whole of his life.

It is well for you and for me, when we have the time and the opportunity, to make as complete as possible our knowledge of Christ as to all the details of his life and death; but, just now, it must suffice us, as it sufficed Peter, to say, “Christ suffered.” When next you are called to suffer, when pains of body oppress you, let this text whisper in your ear, “Christ also hath once suffered.” When you are poor, and needy, and homeless, recollect that “Christ also hath once suffered;” and when you come even to the agony of death, if such shall be your portion, then still hear the soft whisper, “Christ also hath once suffered.” I know of no better armour for you than this: “Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind;” and be prepared to count it your honour and glory to follow your Master with the cross upon your shoulders.

Much may be said to be known concerning Christ’s sufferings; but, still, to a great extent, they are unknown sufferings. Some eyes saw him suffer, yet I might truly say, “Eye hath not seen, neither hath ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which Christ suffered for his people.” You may think, brethren, that you know something of Christ’s sufferings; but they are a deep unfathomable, a height to which the human imagination cannot soar. We are obliged to leave this summary without any details: “Christ also hath once suffered.”

“Much we talk of Jesu’s blood,

But, how little’s understood!

Of his sufferings, so intense,

Angels have no perfect sense.

“Who can rightly comprehend

Their beginning or their end?

’Tis to God and God alone

That their weight is fully known.”

Secondly, this is a statement without any limit. How indefinitely it is put! “Christ also hath once suffered.”

Do you ask the question, “When did Christ suffer?” It is answered by not being answered; for, truly, we may reply to you,-When Christ was on earth, when was there that he did not suffer? “Christ also hath once suffered.” The apostle adds no note of time; he says not, “Christ suffered on the cross,” or, “in the garden;” but the very indefiniteness of the statement leaves us to understand that, as long as Jesus was here, he was the acquaintance of grief. His life was, in a sense, a life of suffering. All the while he was here, even when he was not upon the cross, and even when no bloody sweat was on his brow, it is written, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” He was bearing the load, not as some say, “on the tree” alone, but up to the tree, as the passage may be read,-daily bearing it till, at length, he came to the cross, and there it was for the last time that he felt the pressure of human sin. You cannot get, and yet you do in some sense get, from my text, an answer to the question, “When did Christ suffer?”

Perhaps another asks, “What did Christ suffer?” The text is remarkable in giving here no limit whatever to the statement: “Christ also hath once suffered.” What did he suffer? I answer,-What was there that he did not suffer in body, in mind, and in spirit? What of pain,-what of shame,-what of loss,-what of hatred,-what of derision? He suffered from hell, from earth, from heaven;-I was going to say,-from time and from eternity; for there was a certain sense in which eternal pangs passed through the heart of Christ, and spent themselves upon him. What did he suffer? Peter says, as if that should be enough for us to know, “Christ hath once suffered;”-the very indefiniteness implies that he suffered everything that he could suffer.

And where did Christ suffer? Peter does not answer that question. Where did he suffer? In the wilderness? In the garden? In Pilate’s hall? On the cross? The text as good as says, “Nay; yea; not somewhere only, but everywhere.” Wherever he was, still was Christ enduring that great burden which he came into the world to bear till he should carry it away, and it should be lost for ever.

From whom did Christ suffer? Mark how unlimited is the text: “Christ also hath once suffered.” From men falsely accusing him, and slandering him? Yes; and that is the comfort of his slandered people; but he suffered not from wicked men alone, hut even from good men; the best of his disciples cost him many pangs, and sometimes made his heart ache. He suffered from devils. He suffered from the Father himself. There it stands,-a sky without horizon,-a sea across which I look, and see no end or bound: “Christ also hath once suffered.” I think that Joseph Hart spoke well when he said that Christ-

“Bore all incarnate God could bear,

With strength enough, and none to spare.”

So we leave this part of our theme; it is a statement without any limit: “Christ also hath once suffered.”

Now I want you to notice, in the third place, that this is a description without any addition: “Christ also hath once suffered.”

Is that all? Was there not something else? No; this line sweeps the entire circumference. There was nothing in Christ, before his suffering, which was contrary to it. He never regretted that he had entered upon a course which involved suffering. “When the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,” warning his followers that he was going there to be mocked, and to be scourged, and to be crucified. He might at any moment have relinquished his terrible task, but that idea never entered into his mind. Even when he came near to the worst part of his pain, and his human nature shrank from it, his true heart never was discouraged, or thought of turning back. He said, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” And he did drink it, though it involved more suffering than we can imagine; yet there was no resistance to that suffering. He suffered, but he never rebelled against it; he could truly say, “I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.” He did not even complain, and Isaiah’s prophecy was literally fulfilled by him: “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” If we were to describe the experiences of even the best of men, I am afraid that we should have to say, “He suffered very much, but he did not often murmur. Sometimes, however, he rebelled, and cried out.” It was not so with Christ. Peter says, he suffered; and there is no addition to that. You know, my brethren, how, having undertaken to suffer for sins, he went through with it. If he stood before Pilate, and his enemies smote him, what did he do? He suffered. If they bound his eyes, and buffeted him, what did he do? He suffered. When they spat into his face, what did he do? He suffered. When they nailed him to the cross, what words spake he against his murderers? Not one; he suffered: “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again.” Even when they jested at him, his only reply was the prayer, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” He suffered; and there was nothing to take away from the completeness of that suffering. The whole of his nature ran out into that act of obedience called suffering; it was the time when he must do the Father’s will by suffering, and all the power of his being ran into that channel. The Lord had made to meet upon him the iniquity, and, consequently, the suffering, of us all; and he just accepted it at the Father’s hand without a complaint or a murmur. You can sum it all up in the language of our text, without a single word added to it: “Christ also hath once suffered.”

Once more, I want you to notice that this is a declaration without any qualification: “Christ suffered.”

There is no word to bid us imagine that he had any alleviation of his agony. Of a person in very bad health we may be able to say, “He suffers a great deal; but he has an excellent medical attendant, and a good nurse, and he has every comfort that can be given to him.” But, in the case of our Lord, all is summed up in these two words, “Christ suffered.” Were there no comforters? No; he suffered. Was there no sleeping-draught to deaden his pain? No; he suffered. But did not his Father help him in the hour of his agony? No; his cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” proves that we may say of him, even with reference to God, that he suffered. The death of Christ was quite unique; none of the martyrs were ever brought into the same condition as their Lord was in. I remember reading, in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, the story of a man of God, who was bound to a stake to die for Christ; there he was, calm and quiet, till his legs had been burned away, and the bystanders looked to see his helpless body drop from the chains. He was black as coal, and not a feature could be discerned; but one who was near was greatly surprised to see that poor black carcass open its mouth, and two words came out of it; and what do you suppose they were? “Sweet Jesus!” And then the martyr fell over the chains, and at last life was gone. Oh, how much of the blessed presence of God that poor saint must have had to be able to say, at the last, when he was charred to a coal, “Sweet Jesus!” But the Lord Jesus had not that help and comfort. His Father’s countenance was hidden from him. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,” is such a shriek as even hell itself has never heard, for the lost ones there have never known what it was to have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, as Christ had known it; and, therefore, they could never know the loss of it as Christ knew it in that supreme moment of his agony. “Christ suffered.” That is all you can say of him, he suffered, without any alleviation of his pain.

Further, he suffered without any qualification, in the sense of being compelled to suffer. We say of such-and-such a person, “He suffers greatly, but he cannot help suffering; he has a deadly disease, the pain of which cannot be alleviated, he is, therefore, obliged to bear it.” The martyr, whom I mentioned just now, was bound to the stake; he could not get away, he suffered under compulsion, he was made to suffer. But you cannot say that of Christ. Herein is a marvellous thing that, whilst Christ suffered, you may take the word in the active sense. I do not know how exactly to express my meaning, but there is a sort of passive sense in which he suffered, and that is the sense in which we all suffer according to our share; but Jesus also suffered in an active sense; that is to say, he suffered willingly, resolutely, without any compulsion. At any moment, he might have broken loose from the cross, he might have called for twelve legiens of angels, and scattered all his foes; he might have flung off his body, and appeared before them as a consuming fire utterly to destroy them; or, retaining his humanity, he might have smitten them with blindness, or wrought some other miracle, and so have escaped from them. If we should be called to die for Christ, it would only be paying the debt of nature a little beforehand, for we are bound to die sooner or later; it is the lot of man. But there was no such need in the case of Christ; there was no necessity of death about that holy thing which was born of the Virgin Mary. It would not corrupt, and it needed not to die. All the way through his death, remember that he did not die as we do,-gradually losing consciousness, floating away, and never able to suspend the process of dissolution; but, at any instant, up to the final committal of his spirit to his Father, he could have caused all those pains to cease. Now see with what an extraordinary meaning my text is girt about. As the painters foolishly depict Christ with a halo round his head which was never there, I may truly picture his sufferings, mystically and spiritually, with a halo about them which is really there, for he suffered, in this superhuman fashion, without any qualification as to alleviation or as to compulsion.

Dear friends, how shall I speak further upon this part of my subject? Only this word would I add,-that “Christ suffered” without any desert. If we suffer, we must say to ourselves that we suffer less than we deserve; and even when a man suffers so as to die, we know that death is the penalty of sin. But “Christ suffered” in a very special sense because “in him was no sin.” He had never done anything worthy of death, or of bonds. He suffered “for sins not his own.” There was nothing about him that brought the suffering upon him; his was the suffering of a pure and holy Being. We say of a criminal, not so much that he suffers, but that he is punished, he is executed, he is put to death. We never say that of Christ, we say that he suffered. Voluntarily, and without any obligation on account of demerit, he comes and takes upon himself the sins of his people, stands in their stead, is chastened with their chastisements, is smitten with their smiting. Well does he say, by the mouth of the psalmist, “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me. The ploughers ploughed upon my back: they made long their furrows.” So indeed they did, not only on his back, but on his heart. I am speaking now, not only of his external but of his internal sufferings. Truly did one say that “the sufferings of Christ’s soul were the very soul of his sufferings;” and so, no doubt, they were; but, in his case, there was no punishment due to him, so in his sufferings there was nothing exacted from him on his own account I must leave you to think upon this great mystery, for I cannot speak of it as it deserves.

I close with this last reflection. My text is an expression with an emphasis: “Christ also hath once suffered.”

When we think of our own sufferings, as compared with our Lord’s, we may print them in the smallest type that the printer can use; but where shall I find capital letters that are large enough to print this sentence when it applies to him,-“CHRIST ALSO HATH ONCE SUFFERED”? It is almost as if the apostle said, “You have none of you suffered when compared with him;” or, at least, he was the Arch-Sufferer,-the Prince of sufferers,-the Emperor of the realm of agony,-Lord Paramount in sorrow. Just take that term, “a man of sorrows.” You know that, in the Book of Revelation, there is the expression, “the man of sin.” What does “the man of sin” mean but a man made up of sin, one who is all sin? Very well, then, “a man of sorrows” means a man made up of sorrows, constructed of sorrows,-sorrows from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot,-sorrow without and sorrow within. He did sleep with sorrow, and wake with sorrow; he was a man of sorrow, a mass of sorrow. Take the next expression, “and acquainted with grief.” Grief was his familiar acquaintance, not a person that he passed by, and casually addressed, but his acquaintance that kept close to him throughout his life. He said once, “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness;” but this acquaintance was with him there: “acquainted with grief.” Listen to the words; and if you can see my Lord, pressed by the strong arm of grief until he is covered all over with a gory shirt of bloody sweat, then you know that grief had made him to be acquainted with its desperate tugs. When you see him bleeding at his hands, and feet, and side, with all his spirit exceeding sorrowful even unto death, and God himself leaving him in the thick darkness, then you know that he was indeed acquainted with grief. You know a little about grief, but you do not know much. The hem of grief’s garment is all you ever touch, but Christ wore it as his daily robe. We do but sip of the cup; he drank it to its bitterest dregs. We feel just a little of the warmth of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace; but he dwelt in the very midst of the fire.

There I must leave the whole matter with you; but, as you come to the communion table, come with this one thought upon you: “Christ also hath once suffered.” Somebody perhaps asks me, “Is there any comfort in that thought?” Is it not a wonderful thing that there should be more of comfort in the sufferings of Christ than in any other thing under heaven? Yet it is so; there is more joy in the sufferings of Christ, to those whose hearts are broken, or sorely wounded, than there is in his birth, or his resurrection, or anything else about the Saviour. It is by his stripes rather than even by his glory that we are healed. Come, beloved, take a draught from this bitter wine, which shall sweetly charm away all your sorrows, and make you glad. May God, the Holy Spirit, grant that it may be so! And if there is anybody here who is not saved, remember, friend, that your salvation depends upon the sufferings of Christ. If thou believest on him, then his sufferings are thine, they have taken away thy sin, and thou art clear. Therefore, go thy way, and be glad.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-293, 278, 281.

Expositions by C. H. Spurgeon

psalm 27; and romans 8:14-17

Psalm 27. Verse 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation;

First comes light, and then salvation. We are not saved in ignorance; the knowledge of our sinfulness is revealed to us, we discover our true condition in the sight of God, and then we perceive the mercy and the love of God. We see first the light and then the fulness of salvation, for this is not a matter of the past only, but of the present. At this very hour, each believer can say, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Can you say that, dear friend? If so, there is more real eloquence in that little sentence than in all the orations of Cicero.

1. Whom shall I fear?

“There is nobody that I have any need to fear. I need not fear the powers of darkness, for ‘the Lord is my light.’ I need not fear damnation, for ‘the Lord is my salvation.’ Then, ‘Whom shall I fear?’ ”

1. The Lord is the strength of my life;

Is not that a wonderful expression? Ordinarily, a man lives by the strength of his constitution, but the spiritual life lives by the strength of God within the soul.

1. Of whom shall I be afraid?

“For, if God be my strength, then am I strong as Samson, and I may slay the lion or the Philistines with equal ease.”

2. When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

Good men have enemies because they are good men. There are two classes in the world,-the righteous and the wicked,-the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; and you know that, even in Eden, the Lord said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.” We must expect, then, if we are among the righteous, that we shall be attacked by the wicked; but, when they come against us, we may believe that they shall be overcome even before we strike a single blow in our own defence.

3. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

You know that, usually, we do fear just before the battle begins,-when we see the enemy encamped against us. We do not know what they are going to do, and we are sure to imagine the very worst; but such was David’s confidence in his God, that he said, “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.” There they lie, their legions marshalled against him in all their dread array; but says the psalmist, “In this will I be confident.” Oh! the joy of the man who has received this confidence from God; and who is, therefore,-

“Calm ’mid the bewildering cry,

Confident of victory.”

4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

Did David refer to any special spot, or to any one sacred shrine? I think not. He meant that he wished to be always at home with God; and that, you know, we also can be in our own houses or in the fields, on the land or on the sea. This was David’s great desire, that he might always dwell with God, like a child at home, wherever he was; and that he might have such communion with God that he might “behold the beauty of the Lord,” and that he might ask of God guidance in all his difficulties: “and to enquire in his temple.” Those are two things, dear friends, for which I hope many of us have come here,-that we may behold God’s graciousnesss and loveliness in the ordinances of his sanctuary, and that we may ask and receive of him help in all our difficulties, and guidance in all our dilemmas. How often, in this house, has God spoken so personally to his dear children that they have thought that the preacher knew all about them, when he really knew nothing whatever of them, though God did, and sent a message by his servant, straight to their souls!

5. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

If I dwell with God, he will hide me away in the pavilion of his sovereignty; and, so long as he is King,-and that will be for ever and ever,-he will not let me perish. His sword and shield shall be stretched out for my defence. Then God has also a tabernacle as well as a royal pavilion; as of old he had the holy of holies, into which no man could enter, on pain of death, save only the high priest on the appointed day. “In the time of trouble,” the Lord himself shall take us, and hide us there by the mercy-seat, near the ark of the covenant, where his glory shall shine upon us, and where none can intrude to hurt us. We have the protection of the pavilion of sovereignty and the tabernacle of sacrifice; what two places can be safer? We have also the rock of God’s immutability; his people shall stand on that high mount, beyond the reach of their adversaries, where their feet shall never slide.

6. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.

This is a blessed resolution; oh, that you and I would carry it out more and more! David says twice that he will sing the Lord’s praises: “I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.” Come, all ye who sigh, change that word, and say, “I will sing.” Come, all ye who make a mourning noise, and ask the Lord to help you to make a joyful noise before his face. Is not praise comely and fitting in the presence of such a God as he is who has dealt so well with us? Let each individual who knows the goodness of God say, “I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.”

7. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

The psalmist has only just begun praising when he takes to praying; and that should be a Christian’s double occupation,-praising and praying. I have often said that, as our life is made up of breathing in and breathing out, so we should breathe in the atmosphere of heaven by prayer, and then breathe it out again in praise.

“Prayer and praise, with sins forgiven,

Bring down to earth the bliss of heaven.”

8. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

David springs forward to accept the divine invitation; the invitation was general: “Seek ye my face;” but the response was personal: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Whether others would do so, or not, David resolved and declared that he would seek the face of the Lord; let every one of us, dear friends, do the same.

9. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger:

“Dismiss me not thy service, Lord.”

You know how masters do sometimes discharge their servants in anger; but what a gracious Master you and I have, beloved, or else he would have sent us adrift long ago! “Get you gone,” he would have said, “you disgrace my house, you mar my work, you do not perform your service well; begone!” But he does not speak or act in that fashion.

9, 10. Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.

“They carried me when I was a child, and he will carry me now: ‘The Lord will take me up.’ When they steel their hearts against me, because I become a Christian, he will love me, and more than make up my loss of their love.”

11. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

“Lord, do not let me get into difficulties, so that I shall not know what to do, for my foes are so sharp-eyed that, if they can find a fault in me, they will; and even if there be no fault, they will make one. Therefore, Lord, ‘lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.’ ”

12. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

Am I addressing anyone who is being slandered? Has somebody borne false witness against you? Well, be very thankful that it is false. I do not quite understand why it is so often said, “You see, it is such a downright falsehood, and that is what grieves me so.” But, dear friend, it is much better that it should be false than true. If anyone brings an accusation, against me, I shall be glad to find that it is false. Let not that be the sting of the trouble which really is the sweetness of it; be glad that they cannot say anything against you unless they speak falsely. However, if you expect to go to heaven without being slandered, you expect what you are not likely to get; for God himself was slandered in Paradise; our Lord Jesus, in whom was no fault, was slandered when he was upon the earth; his apostles and followers in all ages have had the same treatment; and here is David say id g, “False witnesses are risen up against me.”

13. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

That is the point to be noted; there is no getting over fainting except by believing, for believing saves us from swooning, and makes us strong: “I had fainted, unless I had believed.”

14. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart:

Here is a man of God giving us the benefit of his own experience; he waited upon God, and now he bids us do the same, that we may be blessed as he was. At our prayer-meeting before we came in here, one dear friend thanked the Lord that, for more than sixty years, he had been enabled to rest upon the divine promises, and he had never found one of them to fail in the hour of need. These testimonies are very precious. I recollect, in my early Christian days, how my soul was greatly sustained by hearing a blind man say that he had lived on God by faith for more than sixty years, and he had found the Lord faithful to his promises all that time. Those of you, dear friends, who are younger than others of us, may be comforted by the experience of your seniors; but if we were to live to be ten times as old as Methuselah, we should never find God backward in keeping his promises: he must be true whatever happens.

14. Wait, I say, on the Lord.

Now let us read just a few verses to remind us of our union with our suffering Lord.

Romans 8. Verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

You can judge yourself, dear friend, by this test. Do you follow the Spirit’s leading? Do you desire continually that he should be your supreme Guide and Leader? If you are led by the Spirit of God, then you have this highest of all privileges, you are one of the sons of God. Nothing can equal that honour; to be a son of God, is more than anything of which ungodly kings and emperors can boast, with all their array of pomp and wealth.

15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;

Ye did receive it once, and it was a great blessing to you. This came of the law, and the law brought you under bondage through a sense of sin, and that made you first cry for liberty, and then made you accept the liberating Saviour; but you have not received that spirit of bondage again to fear.

15. But ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

We who believe in Jesus are all children of God, and we dare to use that name which only children might use, “Abba;” and we dare use it even in the presence of God, and to say to him, “Abba, Father.” We cannot help doing it, because the spirit of adoption must have its own mode of speech; and its chosen way of speaking is to appeal to the great God by this name, “Abba, Father.”

16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God;

There are two witnesses, then, and in the mouth of these two witnesses the whole truth about our adoption shall be established. Our own spirit-so changed as to be reconciled to God, and led in ways which once it never trod,-our own spirit bears witness that we are the sons of God; and then God’s own Spirit bears witness, too, and so we become doubly sure.

17. And if children, then heirs;

For all God’s children are heirs, and all equally heirs. The elder-born members of God’s family, such as Abraham and the rest of the patriarchs, are no more heirs of God than are we of these latter days who have but lately come to Christ. “If children, then heirs.” Heirs of what?

17. Heirs of God,-

Not only heirs of what God chooses to give, but heirs of himself. There need be nothing else said, if this is true: “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.” “Heirs of God,”-

17. And joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Do you ever have in your heart a longing to behold the glory of God? Do you feel pressed down when you see abounding sin? Are your eyes ready to be flooded with tears at the thought of the destruction of the ungodly? Then, you are having sympathy with Christ in his sufferings, and you shall as certainly be an heir with him, by-and-by, in his glory.

“Persecuted, but Not Forsaken”

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, June 12th, 1898,

delivered by

C. H. Spurgeon,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, March 8th, 1883

“Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up: wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord.”-Psalm 129.

You see, dear friends, the Psalm speaks of two sorts of people; there is Israel, and there are those that hate Zion. The first three verses are dedicated to God’s people; the last five speak of those who are not God’s people, but are the haters of them. From the very first, there have been two seeds in the world. The first man that was born,-Cain, was of the seed of the serpent; but the second was, by the grace of God, of the seed of the woman; and so early, when those two boys had but just developed into manhood, he that was born by grace served his God, and brought a lamb as his sacrifice, but he that was born after the flesh-the firstborn of man,-became his brother’s murderer. Thus, in the very first household that ever existed, there was a sharp line of demarcation between the man of faith and the man of sense,-the man that lived unto God and the man that lived after his own passions. Always and everywhere since that day there have been the same two characters; and, albeit there is a large number of persons about whom you or I may not be able to give any decision, for they seem as if they stood between the two, yet in the sight of God there is a line, narrow, but most sure, which divides the living from the dead,-the believing from the unbelieving,-the men that fear God from them that fear him not; and still, right down the ages, that word that was spoken to the serpent in the Garden of Eden stands true: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.” There are the believing people of God,-his own elect, brought out from among men, and there is the world that lieth in the wicked one. To one of these two classes we all belong; there really are no neutrals, it is not possible that there should be. There is no borderland between life and death; a man is either alive by the quickening of the Spirit, or he remains dead in trespasses and sins.

I am going to speak of each of these two classes that are mentioned in my text; so, first, let us notice the description given of God’s own people. The first three verses of the Psalm may be summed up thus,-Israel persecuted, but not forsaken. When I have spoken on that theme, I shall hope to say something about the wicked flourishing, but perishing. Those two words-flourishing, perishing,-describe the condition of those that hate Zion, and that hate the children of Zion. Before I plunge into the text, however, let me give you a few sentences by way of introduction.

The life of the Lord Jesus Christ is the picture of the life of his people. “As he was,” says Paul, “so are we also in this world.” This is so remarkably true that, in the Psalms, we sometimes can hardly tell whether the writer is describing himself or the Lord Jesus; because, as is the Head, so are the members, and there is a growing likeness which is often spoken of in Scripture as if these twain were one, as indeed, in the highest sense, they are. If you read this Psalm carefully, you can see Christ in it. Jesus could truly say: “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.” Herod sought the young child’s life to destroy it; Satan seemed to stir hell itself to seek the destruction of the infant Jesus. “The ploughers ploughed upon my back: they made long their furrows.” How true was that of our Divine Master! When he was in his agony in the garden, the furrows were plainly visible. When he was brought before Herod, and before Pilate, and was scourged till he was covered with wounds, and when he died, and they took down that blessed but mangled body, how deep were the furrows! Now the sufferings of Christ, of which I spoke to you last Sunday night,* are in their measure repeated in his people; we are made to have fellowship with him in his sufferings. Shall the disciple be above his Master? Shall the servant be above his Lord? If they have persecuted him, they will also persecute us. He bids us look for such treatment as this. Do not, therefore, expect rest where Christ had none, or look to wear a crown of gold where Christ did wear a crown of thorns.

My next observation is, that the history of God’s people, Israel, is also in type a history of his Church. Truly, the sins of Israel are far too often repeated in believers; but the woes and griefs of Israel, and their deliverance out of them, are the means of comfort to many of God’s saints. See how the Israelites were afflicted from their youth, when they were but a little nation, and went down into Egypt. How hard they had to work in the brick-kilns! With what enmity did Pharaoh look upon them! How cruelly and craftily he sought to compass the destruction of the nation by drowning the male children in the Nile! Every way he used his wit and his power, if possible to destroy the chosen people; but the Lord preserved his own. Then, in the day of Israel’s youth, when she went into the wilderness, she was afflicted. “I remember thee,” says God, “the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.” But in the wilderness she had her trials; and when she came to the promised land, her trials did but begin again. Scarcely was she delivered from the Canaanites before she fell a prey to the Philistines; and the Philistines were hardly overcome before we hear of the Syrians, the Edomites, the Moabites, and then of the Assyrians and the Babylonians who at last carried away captive the people of God. That nation, Israel, to this day may say, “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: but they have not prevailed against me.”

Now one remark more; I have already reminded you that Christ’s life is the picture of his people’s life, and that the history of Israel is the picture of his Church; now notice how true it is that the Church, from her very outset, has always been afflicted; first by Herod, when he sought to slay the apostles, and did murder James; next afflicted by the Jews, and driven from city to city; then afflicted by Saul of Tarsus, who breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the Church of Christ from her youth. Then broke out the great Pagan persecution; your knowledge of history, I suppose, tells you how the emperors of Rome used, the whole of their force to crush the Christian Church, yet they prevailed not against her. When the Roman emperors had done their worst, and done it in vain, the Church of Christ was turned into a church established by patronage, and from that moment became a harlot, and so grew into the apostate Church of Rome. Then the Pope, with all his might, sought to crush out the Church of God. Read the stories of the Albigenses in the South of France, and the Waldenses in the valleys of Piedmont. Read the history of the Lollards in England, and of the saints of God in any country which you please to choose. They were torn asunder; they were made to rot in prison; they were tortured on the rack; they were put to death in all manner of ways; in our own country, especially, by being burned to death at the stake. Yet the enemies of Zion have not prevailed against her. No, Rome, thou shalt never triumph; and even now, though to-day our clergy preach thy doctrines, and wear thy garments, yet thou shalt not prevail against the Church of God, for he shall surely come, even he that has delivered in days gone by, and shall work deliverance for his Israel once again.

So I have spoken to you of Christ, of Israel, and of the Church. Now I come to deal with the subject as it relates to yourselves. As it was with the Church at large, as it was with Israel, as it was with our Lord Jesus, so expect it to be with you. As I go through this Psalm with you, and dwell upon it, you can apply it to yourself, my dear tried and persecuted friend.

In the first three verses of the Psalm, we have a description of israel persecuted, but not forsaken.

First notice, concerning Israel’s affliction, whence it came: “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth.” Who was it that afflicted Israel? The text says, “they.” And why is the word “they.” used? Because, to enter into particulars, would rather obscure the sense than impress anything upon the memory. “They.” Why, it meant, in the case of the nation of Israel, Egyptians, Amalekites, Hivites, Hittites, Jebusites, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians;-it would be such a long list, so the psalmist just says, “they.” Who are the people that have afflicted you. my dear friend? The Scripture leaves room for you to add the names if you care to put them in; but perhaps it will be wiser for you to forget all the names, and simply to leave it as it is here: “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth.”

I hardly like to think of who they are who, in many cases, have afflicted God’s true servants; but it is still true that “a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” A woman is just brought to Christ, and her greatest trouble comes from him whom she loves best of all living mortals; her husband becomes her terror. When a child has been brought to the Saviour, it is sad that his worst fears should arise concerning the treatment he will receive from his father or his mother; but it has often been so. We do not put the names in; we can pray for the persecutors all the better if we leave it “they.” A newly-converted Christian man goes out into business; does he find friends there? Sometimes, God is very tender and pitiful, and casts the lot of his young children in amongst the gracious; but there are others who have a hard time of it, for they have to earn their bread in the midst of the ungodly, and Christ seems to say to them, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves;” and these wolves are always seeking to destroy the lambs, if possible. Is it not a singular thing in providence that, though the wolves might have eaten all the lambs up long ago, yet there are a great many more sheep in the world now than there are wolves; and in this country, you know, there is not a wolf left, they have all died out. They could take care of themselves and fight, yet they have all gone. The sheep could not defend themselves, yet here they are in flocks. God takes care of the weak and the feeble; and in that very fact of natural history he seems to say to his people, “ ‘Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. ‘The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.’ ” Outside, in the world, the Christian man frequently meets with those who would rejoice to see him halt, who try to make faults where there are none, and exaggerate little mistakes into great crimes. Wherever he goes, he has to travel with his sword drawn; he finds an adversary behind every bush. He is a pilgrim through the midst of Vanity Fair whom the traders there cannot understand. In his case, that ancient word is again fulfilled: “Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her.” Such a man can truly say, “Many a time have they afflicted me.”

But, next, let us ask, how does this persecution come? The Psalm says, “Many a time;” that means, very often. So then, you who are faithful to God must expect that you will frequently be assailed by the foe. I know some of God’s saints who feel almost frightened when people speak well of them; they begin to say, “What have we been doing wrong? Would these people commend us if we had been serving our Master faithfully?” There is another side to that truth, for, “when a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him;” but, between the two, it is not always easy to tell which is the right course. This we know, that we are not to expect to find favour where Christ found no favour. If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, we must expect that they will have ill names for us. If they imputed evil motives to him, they will impute evil motives to us. If they even said of him that he was a drunken man and a wine-bibber, we must not be astonished if sometimes things of which we have never heard, or things that we abhor, should be laid to our charge. Wherefore, arm yourselves also with the same mind as Christ had, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself many and many a time.

The Psalm tells us that these attacks of the ungodly were a real affliction to the people of God: “Many a time have they afflicted me.… Many a time have they afflicted me.” It is written twice over to show how trying it was. The brine did make poor Israel’s wounds to smart; she was really hurt, and she felt it. I have sometimes met with a person who has said, “I do not care what people say of me.” I am not sure whether that feeling is right, or wrong; sometimes it may be an indifference which is pitiable, at other times it may be a courage which is admirable. But this I do know, that the saints of God have found slander to be a very piercing thing; it has gone right to their heart, the iron has entered into their soul. Hence the Saviour said to his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled,” for trouble does sometimes get to the heart. Affliction that does not really afflict is no affliction. But here they felt it; they groaned under it; the ploughers made deep furrows, not mere surface ones, but they cut down deep into the very spirit, into the very soul of Israel; and we must not wonder if, sometimes, for Christ’s sake, we have to meet with this kind of trial. Possibly, some Christian sitting here is saying, “I do not know much about that sort of affliction.” Well, be very thankful if you do not, but be ready against you do, be prepared for it. There are some of us who had a hard time of it in years gone by; there was not any name in the catalogue of contempt which some of us have not been made to bear; and now, perhaps, we have smoother times; but we stand quite ready to go into the burning fiery furnace again if so it must be, for this is a part of the portion of God’s servants: “Many a time have they afflicted me.… Many a time have they afflicted me.”

But notice, while we are speaking of how affliction came to Israel, that it came to her in her youth. What a coward Satan is! He always tries to attack God’s children most fiercely when they are young. Fight one of your own size, sir! But that he is afraid to do. When the child of God gets well matured, and by experience knows how to fly to his God, Satan will often leave him quietly alone. You know the story in the Revelation of how, when the woman was delivered of a man-child, the dragon sought to destroy the child at once; and it was therefore caught up unto God, and to his throne. No sooner did the devil spy out Christ, as he rose dripping from the waters of baptism, than he determined to assail him with his fierce temptations, and, if possible, destroy him before he began his ministry; but that young Christ, freshly anointed of the Spirit, was more than a match for him. Many a time since then has the adversary met God’s people in their youth, when as yet they were feeble, when they were inexpert in war, just as David in his youth had to fight the lion and the bear, and afterwards to meet the giant. Oh, it was grand for that ruddy youth to be able to say to Saul, “Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.” It may be so with you who are young in grace; do not be astonished if you meet with your fiercest attacks in the morning of your days; but have courage, and say to yourself, “It was told me that it would probably be so; I am not taken at unawares, I was warned of that as I read the Psalm, ‘Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.’ ”

Notice, again, that the Psalm goes on to describe this persecution of Israel under the imagery of ploughers ploughing her back. It is a kind of duplicate metaphor. It is just as the scourger, when he takes his dreadful lash, and brings it down with all his might on the bare back of his victim, makes a deep gash where the throng falls; and it is also like the furrow that is cut by a plough, only it is not made in dead clods, it is right in the quivering flesh. The scourge falls again, and there is another mark; again you can hear the dreadful motion of the whip of wire as it falls, and cuts deeper and deeper into that poor sensitive bleeding back. Now, just so, Israel says, it was with her, and you know that it was so, for she seemed to be all but destroyed many times; that little nation was hacked to pieces, Zion was ploughed as a field. So is it with some of God’s people; as it was also with their Master, and as it has been with the entire Church of Christ. The whip has come down mercilessly again and again and again,-forty stripes save none,-for Satan will never stint his blows. He will vex God’s people again and again and again; and if he could, he would utterly destroy them. Such often have been the lives of God’s saints,-the very best and truest of them,-such are their lives now. It is not so with all of us, but it has been so with many; the Lord help his suffering people! In patience may they possess their souls! As I remind you of what some of our brethren and sisters in Christ are just now suffering, I pray you to remember those that are in bonds as bound with them, and those that are in trouble, knowing that you yourselves also are yet in the body.

This, then, is the description of what God’s people have often had to suffer. The ploughers have made long their furrows; they have left no headlands, they have ploughed the back again and again, and scourged it with the cruel lash.

But now what is the reason for all this persecution? There are two reasons; and the first is, the hatred of the serpent and his seed. There are two things that are inconceivable in length and breadth. The first is, the love of God to his people, which is altogether without limit; and the next is, the hatred of the devil, which is and must be finite, for he is only a creature; but, still, it is as great as it possibly can be. We have no idea with what determined vehemence Satan hates those who belong to Christ; he will do anything he can in the hope of destroying one of them; he goeth about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. That, beloved, is why you have so many persecutions from those who are the faithful children of Satan; they are of their father the devil, and his works they will continue to do; and one of those works is, persecuting those who are the children of God.

Still, there is a higher reason for the persecution of the saints. The second reason is, because God permits it. Why does he permit it? Well, very often for your safety. “For our safety?” you ask. “For our safety?” Yes, the Church of God has often been preserved by persecution; she was never purer, she was never holier, she was never truer, and she never lived nearer to God and more like her Saviour, than when she was persecuted. I venture to say of the Church of Scotland that she was never grander than in the Covenanting times, when they met among the glens, and up in the lone places, and sat on the heather watching lest Claverhouse’s dragoons should be nigh. I think, of late years, she was never nobler than in Disruption times, and I believe she will never again be so good and great unless she is persecuted.

Often, we do not prosper in spiritual things, in times of ease, as we ought to do. Sometimes, the best friend of the sheep is the dog; and when the shepherd lets him loose, he fetches back the wanderers; and if there are any animals that ought not to be with the flock, the dog gets in among them, and makes the separation between his master’s sheep and other people’s. We owe a great deal to persecuting dogs. I knew a young man, who used to steal in here on Thursday nights, and who would come into the prayer-meetings, and pray very sweetly and very earnestly; but he had no comfort in his home, for he had a father who could not endure his religion, and was very bitter against him. His father died, and the son inherited the property; he is never here now, he has no love for God, as far as I can judge, he has grown cold, and has turned aside; but, as long as ever he was persecuted, he certainly did seem to be one of the most earnest men I ever knew. I believe that it has often been so, for silken days do not suit Christ’s soldiers; but in the battle they win glory when their Master is with them. So you see how persecution is sometimes for our safety.

Next, it is for our trial and testing, to separate the precious from the vile. We are put into the sieve, and Satan sifts us. He likes that task; but what a fool he is to do the sifting for Christ! It is good work when it is done; and Satan, in persecuting the saints, is simply a scullion in Christ’s kitchen, cleansing his pots and pans; they never are so bright as when he scours them, and it is a scouring with a vengeance. Yet, in that way, he separates, or God through him separates, between the precious and the vile. The Lord sometimes allows persecution to break out upon his people that they may know more of themselves; and oh, how we fail when we come to times of persecution! I have heard of one who, when he was condemned to die for the faith, got out of bed in the night, and held his finger over the candle to see whether he could burn. Poor soul, he felt that he could not endure that pain; but yet he said, “I do verily believe that, when I come to the stake, the agony which I cannot endure in my finger now I shall bear in my whole body, for then I shall be suffering God’s will. Now, when I hold my finger in the candle, I am only suffering for my own curiosity, and I get no support and strength.” And it was so. In Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, the tale is told of a poor woman who was taken with the pains of travail when in prison condemned to die; and when she cried out, her enemies said to her, “If you cannot bear this which is but natural, what will you do when you come to burn?” The woman answered, “Now, I am only suffering the curse that came upon the race through sin, and I do feel it bitter; but, when I am burning at the stake, I shall be suffering for Christ’s sake, and I shall feel it to be sweet.” And it was noticed how bravely-to quote a strange phrase,-she played the man; nay, she played the woman for Christ, and suffered well for him without tear or cry. Ah, yes! when God is with his people, he helps them wonderfully; but what a test it is to them, and how they are driven at such times to prove their own weakness! How it tries their faith, and proves of what stuff it is made, and how it makes them feel trembling and weak where they thought they were steadfast and strong!

I find that my time has nearly gone, yet I am not half-way through my subject. I must just mention the blessings which come to the tried children of God through their troubles. I do so enjoy the reading of that part of the Psalm where it says, “But they have not prevailed against me.” You see a troop of horsemen riding into the very midst of the battle, and you lose sight of them for a moment amidst the dust and smoke; but out of the middle of that cloud you hear the brave captain’s cry, “They have not prevailed against me.” You see that little band advancing into a yet more crowded host, all glaring upon them like wolves. Surely they will be cut to pieces now; but in the very centre of the struggling mass you see the banner still waving, and again comes the cry, “They have not prevailed against me.” That is, in brief, the story of the Church of Christ, and that shall be the story of every man who puts his trust in God; he shall have to say, at the close of every trouble,-ay, and even in the midst of it,-“They have not prevailed against me.”

What is the reason why the enemy cannot prevail against the saints of God? Read the next verse: “The Lord is righteous.” If he were to forsake his people, and they were to perish, he would not be righteous; but he will not forget our work of faith and labour of love, nor will he leave us to fall in the evil day. “The Lord is righteous;” that is to say, he will take the right side, he will defend those that fight for the right and for the truth. He will prove himself strong on the behalf of them that put their trust in him. “The Lord is righteous;” and therefore he will smite his adversaries upon the cheek-bone; he will not let them go on for ever in their pride and cruelty. They get the upper hand for a while, and they smite his saints; but “the Lord is righteous,” and he will speedily avenge his own elect that cry day and night unto him. He may delay the overthrow of his people’s foes; hut he will in the end take their part, and display his almighty power. For the present, he is patient; he boars long with the ungodly; but he will not always do so. The fact that “the Lord is righteous,” is the pledge that the wicked shall not prevail over his saints.

Then notice the next sentence: “He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.” Literally, it should run thus: “He hath cut the traces of the wicked.” They are ploughing, you see; and, in the East, the oxen are fastened to the plough by a long cord. What does God do in the middle of their ploughing? There are the bullocks, and there is the plough; but God has cut the harness; and how wonderfully he has sometimes cut the harness of the persecutors of his people! Look at the way he did this for our poor hunted brethren in Piedmont. They were likely every one of them to be crushed; and, apparently, there was nobody to protect them. The Duke of Savoy, whose subjects they were, had given them up to be destroyed. The next country was France, and the King of France was a Roman Catholic, and as eager for their destruction as was the Duke. But, one day, Oliver Cromwell sent for the French ambassador, and said to him, “Tell your master to order the Duke of Savoy to leave off persecuting my brethren in Piedmont, or he shall hear from me about the matter.” “Sire,” said the ambassador, “they are not the subjects of the King of France; he has nothing to do with them. The Duke of Savoy is an independent prince; we cannot interfere with him.” “I do not care for that,” replied Cromwell; “I will hold your king answerable if he does not stop the Duke of Savoy from persecuting the Piedmontese.” And they knew that “Old Noll” meant what he said; so, somehow, the King of France managed to interfere with that precious independent prince, and told him that he had better cease his persecutions, for if he did not, Oliver Cromwell would take up the quarrel. Ay, and when the Pope himself had persecuted some English sailors at Rome, Cromwell wrote and said that he did not know whether “his holiness” would like to hear the thunder of his guns at Rome, but he very soon would do so unless he ceased his cruelties. Cromwell was the defender of those that feared God; and it was most providential that such a man should have come into power just when he was needed for the protection of the persecuted. God always knows how to save his people; what he has done in the past, he can do again now. He can cut the traces of those that are ploughing, and there will be no more deep furrows. How frequently he has done it! How often has he put out his hand, and said to the wicked, “Stop!” and they have had to stop, and there has been an end of their persecution! Cry mightily, then, you who are tried, cry mightily unto the Lord to deliver you. Dearly beloved, “avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Therefore, leave your persecutors in his hands. Be you like the anvil; there have been a great many generations of hammers that have come and have gone, but the old anvil stands in the smithy still. Be you just like that; let your persecutors hammer away, but stand you steadfast to your God, and to your faith, and may his blessed Spirit keep you so even to the end!

The latter half of the sermon must come, if the Lord will, on another Thursday night. May God’s blessing be with you! Oh, happy are they that are God’s people! Blessed are they that are in the furnace; blessed are they that are tried and troubled; has not he, whose lips can never lie, pronounced them blessed? “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Wherefore, reckon yourselves gladdened and honoured when ye are counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

galatians 4, and 5:1

Chapter 4 Verses 1-5. Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Like little children, the Jewish believers were under the law. They observed this ceremony and that, just as children, even though they may be heirs to vast estates, yet, while they are in their minority, are under tutors and governors. But now in Christ we have come of age, and we have done with those school-books and that tutorship, and we have received the adoption of sons. Now, we have joy and peace in believing; we have begun to enter into out possession; we have the earnest of it already, and by-and-by we shall receive the fulness of the inheritance of the saints in light.

6. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

While the Jewish believers, like children, were under the law, they did not have such direct access to the Father as we have. They could not enter into such close fellowship with God as now we can. We who are the sons of God, really born into his family, feel within us a something that makes us call God, “Father,” not only in prayer, saying, “Our Father, which art in heaven;” but, inwardly, when we are not in the attitude of prayer, our hearts keep on crying, “Father, Father.” The Jew may say, “Abba,” and the word is very sweet; but we cry, “Father,” and it means the same thing.

7. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

All God’s sons are, in a certain sense, his servants; but there is a sense in which servants are not sons. We, therefore, are not like those servants who have no relationship to their master, and no share in his possessions; but we are sons. Whatever service we render, we are still sons, and we have a share in all that our Father has; we are heirs, “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Are you living up to your privileges, brethren? Are we any of us fully realizing what this heirship means? Do we not often live as if we were only servants toiling for hire? Do we not tremble at God as if we were his slaves rather than his sons? Let us remember that we are God’s sons, his heirs; and let us come close to him, let us take possession of the blessed inheritance which he has provided for us.

8-11. Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Among the heathen, there were divers “lucky” and “unlucky” days; sacred days, and days in which they indulged in sensual excess. They had even “holy” months and “unholy” months. Now, all that kind of thing is done away with in the case of a Christian: he is set free from such weak and beggarly superstitions. Among the Jews, there were certain sacred festivals, times that were more notable than other seasons; but they also were done away with in Christ. We observe the Christian Sabbath; but beyond that, to the true believer, there should be no special observance of days, and months, and years. All that is a return to “the weak and beggarly elements” from which Christ has delivered him. That bondage is all ended now; but there are some who still “observe days, and months, and times, and years;” and Paul says to them, “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” Everyday is holy, every year is holy, to a holy man; and every place is holy, too, to the man who brings a holy heart into it.

12. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

“Be perfectly at home with me, for I am so with you. Though you Galatians have treated me very badly, yet ye have not really injured me, and I freely overlook your ill manners toward me.”

13-15. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

The apostle remembers how they received him at first, his gospel was to them like life from the dead; and though he was full of infirmities,-perhaps had weak eyes,-perhaps had a stammering tongue,-perhaps was at that time very much depressed in spirit,-yet, he says, “You received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. You loved me so much that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.”

16. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

There come times, with all God’s servants, when certain people proclaim something fresh and new in doctrine; and then the old messenger of God, who was blessed to them, comes to be despised. I have lived long enough to see dozens of very fine fancies started, but they have all come to nothing; I daresay I shall see a dozen more, and they will all come to nothing. But here I stand; I am not led astray either by novelties of excitement or novelties of doctrine. The things which I preached at the first, I preach still, and so I shall continue, as God shall help me. But I know, in some little measure, what the apostle meant when he said, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”

17-20. They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

The point of doubt was, that they had been led astray by legal teachers; they had been made to believe that, after all, there was something in outward ceremonies, something in the works of the law, and so they had come under bondage again. So the apostle says,-

21-23. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh;-

By Abraham’s own strength;-

23. But he of the freewoman was by promise.

Born when Abraham and his wife were past age,-born by the power of God’s Spirit, according to promise.

24. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

It is the strength of the flesh which leads to bondage.

25, 26. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

That is, of all of us who believe in Christ Jesus. We are born of the free-woman, not of the bond woman; not born of the covenant of works, and in the strength of the creature; but born of the covenant of grace, in the power of God, according to promise.

27, 28. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

If we are God’s children, it is not by our own strength, or by the strength of the flesh, in any measure or degree; but it is by the grace of God, and the promise of God, that we are what we are.

29, 30. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture?

Make a compromise, and be friends? Let Isaac and Ishmael live in the same house, and lie in the same bed? No!

30, 31. Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Chapter 5 Verse 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

God grant us grace to keep to grace! God grant us faith enough to live by faith, even to the end, as the freeborn children of God, for his name’s sake! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-18, 752, 685.