David, shamelessly uncovering themselves like lewd fellows, in the eyes of the handmaidens of their servants—they
thought all this disgrace was honor, and all this shame was glory, and they bore it all, for their justification was found in
the fact that they believed God had chosen them! And therefore they chose to suffer for Christ’s sake, rather than reign
without Christ.
And now, Brothers and Sisters, I say this to you—if you think God has chosen you and yet do not feel that He has
done great things for you, or holds any strong claims upon your gratitude, then shun the Cross! If you have never had
much forgiven, get over the stile and go down the green land into Bye-Path Meadow. If is comfortable walking; go down
there. If you do not owe much to the Lord Jesus Christ, shirk His service; go up in the corner there when the trumpet
plays and tell Michal you are very sorry you have displeased her. Say, “I will never do the like again, trust me. I am sorry
you do not like it; I hope you will now forgive me. But as I hold religion to be a thing to please everyone as well as
myself, I will never dance before the Ark again.” Do that, now, if you are under no very great obligation to the Father of
spirits and have never tasted the distinguishing love of God to your souls. But oh, my dear Brothers and Sisters, there are
some of you ready to start up from your seats, and say, “Well, I am not that person!” And assuredly, as your pastor, I can
look on some of you who have had much forgiven. Not long ago you were up to the throat in drunkenness! You could
blaspheme God! Not very long ago, perhaps, you carried on dishonesty and never entered the House of God. Some of you
were frivolous, gay, careless, despisers of God, without hope, without Christ, strangers to the commonwealth of Israel!
Well, and what brought you here now? Why, Sovereign Grace has done it! You would not have been here if you had been
left to yourselves; if God had done no more for you than for other men, you would have been left to go on in the same
course as before! Now the shutters are closed; that shop which used to be open all day Sunday is closed. Now the pipe and
the beer, or dissipation’s more refined, that used to occupy the whole of the Sunday afternoon, with five or six jolly
companions, are put away! And there is the Bible, and there is prayer now, and now the oath is not heard as before. I
suppose you set this change of character down to Sovereign Grace and you are ready to sing with all of us—
“Grace led my roving feet
To tread the heavenly road!
And new supplies each hour I meet
While pressing on to God!”
Then the mercy you have received is a complete justification for anything that you may do in God’s service; any
ecstasy that you may feel when you are worshipping Him, and any excess of liberality you may display when you are
engaged in pressing on to the Kingdom of your Lord and Master. If the Church could once feel this, what an influence it
would exert! Truly, I may say without the slightest flattery, I never met with any people on the face of the earth who
seemed to have a more thorough belief in this fact, who lived more truly up to this Doctrine—that chosen of God and
loved with special love, they should do extraordinary things—than those among whom I minister. I have often gone on
my knees before God to thank Him for the wondrous things I have seen done by some of the Christians now present. In
service they have gone beyond anything I could have asked; I should think that they would have considered me
unreasonable if I had requested it! They have done it without request. At the risk of everything, they have served their
Master and not only spent all that they could spare, but have even spared what they could ill afford to spare for the
service of Jesus! They have given up social comfort and personal ease that they might be serving their Master. Such
Brothers and Sisters doubtless meet their reward, and if any should say of them, “It is ridiculous. It is absurd—they are
carried away with fanatical zeal,” I put this answer in their mouths, “Yes, I should be ridiculous; I should be absurd, if I
owed no more to God than you; but He has loved me so that I cannot love Him enough, much less love Him too much. He
has loved me at such a rate that I cannot do too much for Him; in fact I feel I cannot do half enough.” You being special
characters you have given to God special service and God bless you for it; yes, He does bless you in it. Such was David’s
justification.
III. Not less worthy of our notice was his RESOLUTION, of which I now come briefly to speak. What did he say?
Did he draw back and play the coward? Did he bend his back to the lash of rebuke and give up the extravagances of his
devotion? No. He said, and said frankly, “I will yet be more vile than thus and I will be base in my own sight,” and so
forth. Now God grant your resolution may be the same! Whenever the world reproaches you, say, “Well, I thank you for
that word; I will strive to deserve it better—if I have incurred your displeasure by my consistency, I will be more
consistent and you shall be more displeased, if you will. If it is a vile thing to serve Christ, I will serve Him more than I
have ever done and be viler, still! If it is disgraceful to be numbered with the poor, tried and afflicted people, I will be
disgraced! No, the more disgraced I am, the more happy I shall be; I shall feel that disgrace is honor, that ignominy is
glory, that shame and spitting from the lips of enemies is but the same thing as praise and glory from the mouth of
Christ.” Instead of yielding, go forward—show your enemies that you do not know how to go back—that you are not
made of the soft metal of these modern times. It is said by an old writer that in the olden times men used to take care of
their houses, but now the houses take care of the men. That they used to eat off oaken porringers and then they were
oaken men. But now they are willow men—they can bend. They are earthenware men, which can be dashed to pieces.
Scarcely in politics, in business, or in religion, have you got a man. You see a lot of things which are called men—who
turn the way the wind blows. A number of preachers turn north, south, east and west, just according as the times shall
dictate, and their circumstances, and the hope of gain shall drift them. I pray God to send a few men with what the
Americans call, “grit,” in them—men who when they know a thing to be right, will not turn away, or turn aside, or
stop; men who will persevere all the more because there are difficulties to meet or foes to encounter. Lord, bring us men
who stand all the more true to their Master because they are opposed—who, the more they are thrust into the fire, the
hotter they become! Men who, just like the bow, the further the string is drawn, the more powerfully will it send forth its
arrows, and so the more they are trod upon, the more mighty will they become in the cause of Your Truth against error!
Resolve, Brothers and Sisters, when you are in any sort of persecution, to face it with a full countenance! Like a
nettle is the persecutor, touch it gently and it will sting you, but grasp it and it hurts you not. Lay hold of those who
oppose you, not with rough vengeance, but with the strong grip of quiet decision and you have won the day! Yield no
principle, no, not the breadth of a hair of that principle. Stand up for every solitary grain of Truth of God—contend for
it as for your life! Remember your forefathers—not merely your Christian forefathers, but those who are your
progenitors in the faith as Baptists. Remember those who of old were cast out of the Christian Church with contempt
because they would not bend to the errors of their times. Think of the snows of the Alps and call to mind the Waldenses
and the Albigenses, your great forerunners! Think again, of the Lollard’s, the disciples of Wickliffe; think of your
Brethren in Germany, who, not many centuries, no, but a century ago, were sewn up in sacks, had their hands chopped
off and bled and died—a glorious list of martyrs! Your whole pedigree, from the beginning to the end is stained with
blood! From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been made to suffer the violence of men.
And you? Will you yield? Shall these soft times, these gentle ages, take away your pristine valor—make you the coward
sons of heroic fathers? No—if you are not called to the sufferings of a martyr—yet bear the spirit of a martyr! If you
cannot burn as he did in the flesh, burn as he did in the spirit! If you have nothing to endure but the trial of cruel
mockings, take it patiently, endure it joyfully; for happy are you, inasmuch as you are made partakers of the sufferings of
your Divine Master! Never, I entreat of you, grow faint in your course, but bring more of the love of your hearts into the
service of your lives. Never yield one little bit of the Truth which God has committed to you! Take up the Cross and bear
it! However weighty, however ignominious, carry it manfully! If the father is turned against the child, and the child
against the father, weep over it and mourn it. If the husband is turned against the wife, and the wife against the husband,
take care that it is not through your own fault. But if it is for Christ’s sake, bear it joyfully! Bear it with transport and
delight; you are highly honored! You cannot wear the ruby crown of martyrdom and fire—that blazing diadem—but
you have got at least a stray jewel out of it! Thank God for it and never shrink; never blush to suffer for His name’s sake.
And give to every laughing Michal, the answer, “If this is vile, I purpose to be viler still; if this is shameful, I will be more
shameful; if this excites your derision, you shall laugh louder than ever. Your opportunities for making fun of me shall
never be wanting, till your disposition to ridicule shall be changed.”
Oh, that is a glorious way of dealing with adversaries! Is a lion roaring at you? Look at him, and smile, and he will
leave off roaring, by-and-by. When some big dog comes out to bark at you, keep quiet; it is marvelous how easily he is
tamed. I was once staying in the north of Scotland where there was a ferocious dog chained up. He came out and I patted
him and he jumped up with his front paws upon me. I caressed him and he seemed particularly fond of me. The master
came out. “Come away, my dear Sir,” he said, “that dog will tear you to pieces.” But I did not know it, and when I
passed by, he seemed to know I was not at all afraid of him, so he didn’t meddle with me. In like manner, Christians, be
not terrified at your adversaries! They may growl, or they may snarl, but do not shrink back with fear. It will make them
bark the more! Take as little notice of them as possible. Ah, poor things, you can well say, “Father forgive them, they
know not what they do.” Just leave them all alone, and if they must know the reason, tell them what David told
Michal—God has chosen you to show forth His praise. I dare say you may be insane enough in their eyes. A good friend
of mine, when he was told he was mad, said, “Well, if I am mad, you ought to be very patient with me, for fear I should
grow worse. If I am mad, now, perhaps I might grow wild. So be gentle with me.” There is a good-humored way of
rallying in return—only it must be without bitterness. Tell the people who take needless offense they must try to teach
you better. If you have gone so far astray, they ought to lead you back again! By degrees they will have done with this
nonsense, and begin to respect you. If there is one in a family who is looked up to most of all, it is usually that one which
all the family abused at one time. He has borne the brunt of opposition; he has held his ground; and he has won the palm
of consistency. Give way an inch and you will have to give way a mile! Yield a single yard and your enemy will drive you
out. Stand right still—calmly, quietly with the determination that you can die—but you will not fly—that you could
suffer anything, but you could not deny your Master—and your victory is won!
Never forget to give thanks to God if you are a child of pious parents who, so far from opposing you, have done all
they could to help you. Be very thankful for it—as a privilege to be prized—because so many lack it. It is a happy thing
for some of you flowers who grow in a conservatory where the air is so very warm and so very mild. But there are some
who have to be outside in the frost—pray for these. When you think of the sheep in the fold, take care that you think of
those out in the wilderness exposed to the snowstorm coming on; perhaps buried in a hollow and ready to expire. Think
of them! You may suppose there is very little suffering for Christ now—I speak what I know—there is still a vast deal of
suffering! I do not mean burning, I do not mean hanging, I do not mean persecution by law. It is a sort of slow
martyrdom. I can tell you how it is effected. Everything a young man does is thrown in his teeth; things harmless and
indifferent in themselves are twisted into accusation that he does wrong. If he speaks, his words are brought up against
him. If he is silent it is worse. Whatever he does is misrepresented and from morning to night there is the taunt always
ready; everything that can be said against his minister is generally used—because the world knows when they find fault
with the minister, it stings the people, if they are a loving people, to the quick. And there are insinuations thrown out
against the minister for his motives, and there are all kinds of things said about God’s people, too. One says the minister
is a, “yes-no” preacher. Another says he is too high in Doctrine. One will accuse him of being sanctimonious. Another
will charge him with laxness. Ah, Brothers and Sisters, you need not fear, you can bear witness for the Truth of God
whatever is said—you must bear with the slanderer and forbear. If they throw anything in your teeth, still stand up for
your Lord Jesus. I don’t ask you to stand up for me. You will do that, I know, but stand up for your Lord and Master.
Don’t yield a single inch, and the day shall come when you shall have honor even in the eyes of those who in the world
once laughed at you and put you to open shame.
Before closing, let me just say a word or two more generally to this whole congregation. There are three sorts of
people upon which my text looks with a dark and appalling frown. First, there are those whose lips are always quick to
curl; whose countenance is always prompt to sneer; whose tongues are always ready with a profane jest when the service
of God crosses their path. I only say to you, beware, lest that come upon you—“As he loved cursing, so let it come upon
him—as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.” Secondly, there are those who up to a certain point favor
the worship of God and the services of the Church. But there comes a season of extraordinary service, a revival that
demands uncommon energy—and almost before they are aware of it, the repugnance of their hearts finds some strong
and unkindly expression. Now let me point you to Saul’s daughter and remind you how in one hour she proved her
pedigree, identified herself with a family which the Lord had rejected, and sealed her own irrevocable doom! Then,
thirdly, there is the professor of religion, who with David’s trial is awaiting David’s constancy. Have I sown the seed of
Gospel Truth broadcast among you so often and has none fallen in stony places? You may have heard the Word and later
with joy received it. And you may have “endured awhile, though you have no root in yourselves.” But let me ask you,
when tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word, are you offended? Does it prove a stumbling block to you? If
so, your case is deplorable! Do you parry off the first breath of ridicule with flippant tongue? Did I hear that you said the
other day, “Oh, I don’t profess anything . I only just go into that Chapel now and then to hear the preacher. He rather
takes my fancy.” What? Young man, let your conscience witness that you are shrinking back unworthily! You may only
dissemble a little at first, but if you are coward enough to dissemble, you may, before long, prove infidel enough to
apostatize!
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the
Gospel, in nothing terrified by your adversaries.” “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in
His name, but also to suffer for His sake.” Amen.