I remember seeing a poster many years ago that had a cartoon of several
buzzards on a large tree branch looking very menacing and the caption
below,
in rather large font read: "DON'T LET THE BUZZARDS GET YOU DOWN!" There
are
plenty of "buzzards" trying to get Christians down. Attempts to discourage
Christians happen every day. On Usenet there are plenty of unbelievers,
heretics and cultists who try to discourage Christians. However with God's
help, such attempts to discourage will fail. He is there to ENCOURAGE us
and
lift us up when the "buzzards" try to get us down. Sometime in the past
and
thanks to God, I came to the conclusion that those "buzzards" on Usenet
weren't going to get me down and thanks to God's help and encouragement
none
of them have and none of them will. I find so much encouragement in God's
Word and I try to read it as much as I can. I falter sometimes and neglect
those reading times but God touches my heart and gently reminds me to
resume. He is doing so right now.
Charles Spurgeon preached many sermons of encouragement. This is one of
those. I hope you may benefit in reading it.
--
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
---
Encouragement For The Depressed
by C.H. Spurgeon
"For who hath despised the day of small things?" - Zechariah 4:10.
Zechariah was engaged in the building of the temple. When its foundations
were laid, it struck everybody as being a very small edifice compared with
the former glorious structure of Solomon. The friends of the enterprise
lamented that it should be so small; the foes of it rejoiced and uttered
strong expressions of contempt. Both friends and foes doubted whether,
even
on that small scale, the structure would ever be completed. They might lay
the foundations, and they might rear the walls a little way, but they were
too feeble a folk, possessed of too little riches and too little strength,
to carry out the enterprise. It was the day of small things. Friends
trembled; foes jeered. But the prophet rebuked them both - rebuked the
unbelief of friends, and the contempt of enemies, by this question, "Who
hath despised the day of small things?" and by a subsequent prophecy
which removed the fear.
Now we shall use this question at this time for the comfort of two sorts
of
people - first, for weak believers, and secondly, for feeble workers. Our
object shall be the strengthening of the hands that hang down, and the
confirming of the feeble knees. We will begin, first of all, with: -
I. WEAK BELIEVERS.
Let us describe them. It is with them a day of small things Probably you
have only been lately brought into the family of God. A few months ago
you were a stranger to the divine life, and to the things of God. You have
been born again, and you have the weakness of the infant. You are not
strong yet, as you will be when you have grown in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the early day with
you, and it is also the day of small things. Now your knowledge is small.
My dear brother, you have not been a Bible student long: thank God that
you know yourself a sinner, and Christ your Savior. That is precious
knowledge; but you feel now what you once would not have confessed
your own ignorance of the things of God. Especially do the deep things of
God trouble you. There are some doctrines that are very simple to other
believers that appear to be mysterious, and even to be depressing to you.
They are high - you cannot attain to them. They are to you what hard
nuts would be to children, whose teeth have not yet appeared. Well, be not
at all alarmed about this. All the men in God's family have once been
children too. There are some that seem to be born with knowledge -
Christians that come to a height in Christ very rapidly. But these are
only
here end there. Israel did not produce a Samson every day. Most have to
go through a long period of spiritual infancy and youth. And, alas! there
are but few in the Church, even now, who might be called fathers there. So
not marvel, therefore, if you are somewhat small in your knowledge. Your
discernment, too, is small. It is possible that anybody with a fluent
tongue
would lead you into error. You have, however, discernment, if you are a
child of God, sufficient to be kept from deadly errors, for though there
are
some who would, if it were possible, deceive even the very elect, yet the
elect cannot be deceived, for, the life of God being in them, they discern
between the precious and the vile, they choose not the things of the
world,
but they follow after the things of God. Your discernment, however,
seeming so small, need not afflict you. It is by reason of use, when the
senses are exercised that we fully discern between all that is good and
all
that is evil. Thank God for a little discernment! though you see men as
trees walking, and your eyes are only half opened. A little light is
better
than none at all. Not long since you were in total darkness. Now if there
be
a glimmer, be thankful, for remember where a glimmer can enter the full
noontide can come, yea, and shall come in due season. Therefore, despise
not the time of small discernment. Of course, you, my dear brother or
sister, have small experience. I trust you will not ape experience, and
try
to
talk as if you had the experience of the veteran saints when you are as
yet
only a raw recruit. You have not yet done business on the great waters.
The more fierce temptations of Satan have not assailed you the wind has
been tempered as yet to the shorn lamb; God has not hung heavy weights
on slender threads, but hath put a small burden on a weak back. Be
thankful that it is so. Thank him for the experience that you have, and do
not be desponding because you have not more. It will all come in due time.
"Despises not the day of small things." It is always unwise to get down a
biography and say, "Oh! I cannot be right, because I have not felt all
this
good man did." If a child of ten years of age were to take down the diary
of his grandfather and were to say, "Because I do not feel my
grandfather's
weakness, do not require to use his spectacles, or lean upon his staff,
therefore I am not one of the same family," it would be very foolish
reasoning. Your experience will ripen. As yet it is but natural that it
should
be green. Wait a while and bless God for what you have.
Probably this, however, does not trouble you so much as one other thing,
you have but small faith, and, that faith being small, your feelings are
very
variable. I often hear this from young beginners in the divine life, "I
was
so
happy a month ago, but I have lost that happiness now." Perhaps tomorrow,
after they have been at the house of God, they will be as cheerful
as possible, but the next day their joy is gone. Beware, my dear Christian
friends, of living by feeling. John Bunyan puts down Mr. Live-by-feeling
as
one of the worst enemies of the town of Mansoul. I think he said he was
hanged. I am afraid he, somehow or other, escaped from the executioner,
for I very commonly meet him; and there is no villain that hates the souls
of
men and causes more sorrow to the people of God than this Mr.
Live-byfeeling.
He that lives by feeling will be happy to-day, and unhappy tomorrow;
and if our salvation depended upon our feelings, we should be
lost one day and saved another, for they are as fickle as the weather, and
go up and down like a barometer. We live by faith, and if that faith be
weak, bless God that weak faith is faith, and that weak faith is true
faith.
If
thou believest in Christ Jesus, though thy faith be as a grain of mustard
seed, it will save thee, and it will, by-and-bye, grow into something
stronger. A diamond is a diamond, and the smallest scrap of it is of the
same nature as the Koh-i-noor, and he that hath but little faith hath
faith
for
all that; and it is not great faith that is essential to salvation, but
faith that
links the soul to Christ; and that soul is, therefore, saved. Instead of
mourning so much that thy faith is not strong, bless God that thou hast
any
faith at all, for if he sees that thou despisest the faith he has given
thee, it
may be long before he gives thee more. Prize that little, and when he sees
that thou art so glad and thankful for that little, then will he multiply
it
and
increase it, and thy faith shall mount even to the full assurance at
faith.
I think I hear you also add to all this the complaint that your other
graces
seem to be small too. "Oh," say you, "my patience is so little. If I have
a
little pain I begin to cry out. I was in hopes I should be able to bear
it.
bear
it without murmuring. My courage is so little: the blush is on my cheek if
anybody asks me about Christ - I think I could hardly confess him before
half a dozen, much less before the world. I am very weak indeed." Ah! I
don't wonder. I have known some who have been strong by reason of
years, and have still been lacking in that virtue. But where faith is
weak,
of
course, the rest will be weak. A plant that has a weak root will naturally
have a weak stem and then will have but weak fruit. Your weakness of
faith sends a weakness through the whole. But for all this, though you are
to seek for more faith, and consequently for more grace - for stronger
graces, yet do not despise what graces you have. Thank God for them, and
pray that the few clusters that are now upon you, may be multiplied a
thousand-fold to the praise of the glory of his grace. Thus I have tried
to
describe those who are passing through the day of small things.
But the text says, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" Well, some
have, but there is a great comfort in this - God the Father has not. He
has
looked upon you - you with little grace, and little love, and little
faith,
and he has not despised you. No, God is always near the feeble saint. If I
saw a young man crossing a common alone, I should not be at all
astonished, and I should not look round for his father. But I saw to-day,
as
I went home, a very tiny little tot right out on the Common - a pretty
little girl, and I thought, "The father or mother are near somewhere." And
truly there was the father behind a tree whom I had not seem. I was as
good as sure that the little thing was not there all alone. And when I see
a
little weak child of God, I feel sure that God the Father is near,
watching
with wakeful eye, and tending with gracious care the feebleness of his
newborn
child. He does not despise you if you are resting on his promise. The
humble and contrite have a word all to themselves in Scripture, that these
he will not despise.
It is another sweet and consoling thought, that God the Son does not
despise the day of small things. Jesus Christ does not, for you remember
this word, "He shall carry the lambs in his bosom." We put that which we
must prize nearest our heart, and this is what Jesus does. Some of us,
perhaps, have outgrown the state in which we were lambs, but to ride in
that heavenly carriage of the Savior's bosom - we might well be content
to go back and be lambs again. He does not despise the day of small
things.
And it is equally consolatory to reflect that the Holy Spirit does not
despise
the day of small things, for he it is who, having planted in the heart the
grain of mustard seed, watches over it till it becomes a tree. He it is
who,
having seen the new-born child of grace, doth nurse, and feed, and tend it
until it comes to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus. The
blessed
Godhead despises not the weak believer. O weak believer be consoled by
this.
Who is it, then, that may despise the day of small things? Perhaps Satan
has
told you and whispered in your ear that such little grace as yours is not
worth having, that such an insignificant plant as you are will surely be
rooted up. Now let me tell you that Satan is a liar, for he himself does
not
despise the day of small things; and I am sure of that, because he always
makes a dead set upon those who are just coming to Christ. As soon as
ever he sees that the soul is a little wounded by conviction, as soon as
ever
he discovers that a heart begins to pray, he will assault it with fiercer
temptations than ever. I have known him try to drive such a one to
suicide,
or to lead him into worse sin than he has ever committed before. He: -
"Trembles he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees."
He may tell you that the little grace in us is of no account, but he knows
right well that it is the handful of corn on the top of the mountain, the
fruit
whereof shall shake like Lebanon. He knows it is the little grace in the
heart that overthrows his kingdom there "Ah!" say you, "but I have been
greatly troubled lately because I have many friends that despise me,
because though I can hardly say I am a believer, yet I have some desire
towards God." What sort of friends are these? Are they worldly friends?
Oh! do not fret about what they say. It would never trouble me if I were
an
artist, if a blind man were to utter the sharpest criticism on my works.
What does he know about it? And when an ungodly person begins to say
about your piety that it is deficient and faulty, poor soul, let him say
what
he will - it need not affect you. "Ah!" say you, "the persons that seem to
despise me, and to put me out, and tell me that I am no child of God, are,
I
believe, Christians." Well then, do two things: first, lay what they say
to
you in a measure to heart, because it may be if God's children do not see
in
you the mark of a child, perhaps you are not a child. Let it lead you to
examination. Oh - dear friends, it is very easy to be self-deceived, and
God may employ, perhaps, one of his servants to enlighten you upon this,
and deliver you from a strong delusion. But, on the other hand, if you
really do trust in your Savior, if you have begun to pray, if you hate
some
love to God, and any Christian treats you harshly as if he thought you a
hypocrite, forgive him - bear it. He has made a mistake. He would not do
so if he knew you better. Say within yourself, "After all, if my brother
does
not know me, it is enough if my Father does. If my Father loves me,
though my brother gives me the cold shoulder, I will be sorry for it, but
it
shall not break my heart. I will cling the closer to my Lord because his
servants seem shy of me." Why, it is not much wonder, is it, that some
Christians should be afraid of some of you converts, for think what you
used to be a little while ago? Why, a mother hears her son say he is
converted. A month or two ago she knew where he spent his evenings, and
what were his habits of sin, and though she hopes it is so, she is afraid
lest
she should lead him to presumption, and she rejoices with trembling, and,
perhaps, tells him more about her trembling than she does about her
rejoicing. Why, the saints of old could not think Saul was converted at
first. He was to be brought into the church meeting and received - I will
suppose the case. I should not wonder before he came, when he saw the
elders, one of them would say, "Well, the young man seems to know
something of the grace of God: there is certainly a change in him, but it
is
a
remarkable thing that he should wish to join the very people he was
persecuting; but, perhaps, it is a mere impulse. It may be, after all,
that
he
will go back to his old companions." Do you wonder they should say so?
because I don't. I am not at all surprised. I am sorry when there are
unjust
suspicions, I am sorry when a genuine child of God is questioned; but I
would not have you lay it much to heart. As I have said before, if your
Father knows you, you need not be so broken in heart because your
brother does not. Be glad that God does not despise the day of small
things. And now let me say to you who are in this state of small things,
that
I earnestly trust that you will not yourselves despise the day of small
things
"How can we do that?" say you. Why, you can do it by desponding. Why, I
think there was a time when you would have been ready to leap for joy, if
you had been told that you would have given you a little faith, and now
you have got a little faith, instead of rejoicing, you are sighing, and
moaning, and mourning. Do not do so. Be thankful for moonlight, and you
shall get sunlight: be thankful for sunlight, and you shall get that light
of
heaven which is as the light of seven days. Do not despond lest you seem
to despise the mercy which God has given you. A poor patient that has
been very, very lame and weak, and could not rise from his bed, is at last
able to walk with a stick. "Well," he says to himself, "I wish I could
walk,
and run, and leap as other men." Suppose he sits down and frets because
he cannot. His physician might put his hand on his shoulder and say, "My
good fellow, why, you ought to be thankful you can stand at all. A little
while ago you know you could not stand upright. Be glad for what you
have got: don't seem to despise what has been done for you." I say to
every Christian here, while you long after strength, don't seem to despise
the grace that God has bestowed, but rejoice and bless his name.
You can despise the day of small things, again, by not seeking after more.
"That is strange," say you. Well, a man who has got a little, and does not
want more - it looks as if he despised the little. He who has a little
light
and does not ask for more light, does not care for light at all. You that
have a little faith, and do not want more faith, do not value faith at all
-
you are despising it. On the one hand, do not despond because you have
the day of small things, but in the next place, do not stand still and be
satisfied with what you have; but prove your value of the little by
earnestly
seeking after more grace. Do not despise the grace that God has given you,
but bless God for it: and do this in the presence of his people. If you
hold
your tongue about your grace, and never let anyone know, surely it must
be because you do not think it is worth saying anything about. Tell your
brethren, tell your sisters, and they of the Lord's household, that the
Lord
hath done gracious things for you; and then it will be seen that you do
not
despise his grace.
And now let us run over a thought or two about these small things in weak
believers. Be it remembered that little faith is saving faith, and that
the
day
of small things is a day of safe things. Be it remembered that it is
natural
that living things should begin small. The man is first a babe. The
daylight
is first of all twilight. It is by little and by little that we come unto
the
stature of men in Christ Jesus. The day of small things is not only
natural,
but promising. Small things are living things. Let them alone, and they
grow. The day of small things has its beauty and its excellence. I have
known some who in after years would have liked to have gone back to
their first days. Oh! well do some of us remember when we would have
gone over hedge and ditch to hear a sermon. We had not much knowledge,
but oh! how we longed to know. We stood in the aisles then, and we never
got tired. Now soft seats we need, and very comfortable places, and the
atmosphere must neither be too hot nor too cold. We are getting dainty
now perhaps; but in those first young days of spiritual life, what
appetites
we had for divine truth, and what zeal, what sacred fire was in our heart!
True, some of it was wild fire, and, perhaps, the energy of the flesh
mingled with the power of the spirit, but, for all that, God remembers the
love of our espousals, and so do we remember it too. The mother loves her
grown-up son, but sometimes she thinks she does not love him as she did
when she could fondle him in her arms. Oh! the beauty of a little child!
Oh!
the beauty of a lamb in the faith! I dare say the farmer and the butcher
like
the sheep better than the lambs, but the lambs are best to look at, at any
rate; and the rosebud - there is a charm about it that there is not in the
full-blown rose. And so in the day of small things there is a special
excellence that we ought not to despise. Besides, small as grace may be in
the heart, it is divine - it is a spark from the ever-blazing sun. He is a
partaker of the divine nature who has even a little living faith in
Christ.
And
being divine, it is immortal. Not all the devils in hell could quench the
feeblest spark of grace that ever dropped into the heart of man. If God
has
given thee faith as a grain of mustard seed, it will defy all earth and
hell, all
time and eternity, ever to destroy it. So there is much reason why we
should not despise the day of small things.
One word and I leave this point. You Christians, don't despise anybody,
but specially do not despise any in whom you see even a little love to
Christ. But do more - look after them, look after the little ones. I think
I
have heard of a shepherd who had a remarkably fine flock of sheep, and he
had a secret about them. He was often asked how it was that his flocks
seemed so much to excel all others. At last he told the secret - "I give
my
principal attention to the lambs." Now you elders of the church, and you
my matronly sisters, you that know the Lord, and have known him for
years, look up the lambs, search them out, and take a special care of
them;
and if they are well nurtured in their early days they will get a strength
of
spiritual constitution that will make them the joy of the Good Shepherd
during the rest of; their days. Now I leave that point. In the second
place,
I
said that I would address a word or two to: -
II. FEEBLE WORKERS.
Thank God, there are many workers here to-night, and maybe they will put
themselves down as feeble. May the words I utter be an encouragement to
them, and to feeble workers collectively. When a church begins, it is
usually small; and the day of small things is a time of considerable
anxiety
and fear. I may be addressing some who are members of a newly-organised
church. Dear brethren, do not despise the day of small things. Rest
assured
that God does not save by numbers, and that results are not in the
spiritual
kingdom in pro****tion to numbers. I have been reading lately with
considerable care the life of John Wesley by two or three different
authors
in order to get as well as I could a fair idea of the good man; but one
thing
I have noticed - that the beginnings of the work which has become so
wonderfully large were very small indeed. Mr. Wesley and his first
brethren
were not rich people. Nearly all that joined him were poor. Here and
there,
there was a person of some standing, but the Methodists were the poor of
the land. And his first preachers were not men of education. One or two
were so, but the most were good outdoor preachers - head preachers,
magnificent preachers as God made them by his Spirit; but they were not
men who had had the benefit of college training, or who were remarkable
for ability. The Methodists had neither money nor eminent men at first,
and
their numbers were very few. During the whole life of that good man,
which was protracted for so many years, the denomination did not attain
any very remarkable size. They were few, and apparently feeble; but
Methodism was never so glorious as it was at first, and there never were
so
many conversions, I believe, as in those early days. Now I speak
sorrowfully. It is a great denomination. It abounds in wealth: I am glad
it
does. It has mighty orators: I rejoice it has. But it has no increase, no
conversion. This year and other years it remains stationary. I do not say
this because that is an exceptional denomination, for almost all others
have
the same tale. Year by year as the statistics come in, it is just this.
"No
increase - hardly hold our ground." I use that as an illustration here.
This
church will get in precisely the same condition if we do not look out -
just
the same state. When we have not the means we get the blessing, and when
we seem to have the might and power then the blessing does not come.
Oh! may God send us poverty; may God send us lack of means, and take
away our power of speech if it must be, and help us only to stammer, if we
may only thus get the blessing. Oh! I rave to be useful to souls, and all
the
rest may go where it will. And each church must crave the same. "Not by
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." Instead of
despising
the day of small things, we ought to be encouraged. It is by the small
things
that God seems to work, but the great things he does not often use. He
won't have Gideon's great host - let them go to their homes - let the
mass of them go. Bring them down to the water: pick out only the men
that lap, and then there is a very few. You can tell them almost on your
fingers' ends - just two or three hundred men. Then Gideon shall go forth
against the Midianites; and as the cake of barley bread smote the tent,
and
it lay along, so the sound of the sword of the Lord and of Gideon at the
dead of night shall make the host to tremble and the Lord God shall get to
himself the victory. Never mind your feebleness, brethren, your fewness,
your poverty, your want of ability. Throw your souls into God's cause,
pray mightily, lay hold on the gates of heaven, stir heaven and earth,
rather
than be defeated in winning souls, and you will see results that will
astonish
you yet. "Who hath despised the day of small things?"
Now take the case of each Christian individually. Every one of us ought to
be at work for Christ, but the great mass of us cannot do great things.
Don't despise, then, the day of little things. You can only give a penny.
Now then, he that sat over by the treasury did not despise the widow's two
mites that made a farthing. Your little thank-offering, if given from your
heart, is as acceptable as if it had been a hundred times as much. Don't,
therefore, neglect to do the little. Don't despise the day of small
things.
You can only give away a tract in the street. Don't say, "I won't do
that."
Souls have been saved by the distribution of tracts and sermons. Scatter
them, scatter them! they will be good seed. You know not where they may
fall. You can only write a letter to a friend sometimes about Christ.
Don't
neglect to do it: write one to-morrow, remember a playmate of yours; you
may take liberties with him about his soul from your intimacy with him.
Write to him about his state before God, and urge him to seek the Savior.
Who knows? - a sermon may miss him, but a letter from the well-known
school companion will reach his heart. Mother, it is only two or three
little
children at home that you have an influence over. Despise not the day of
small things. Take them tomorrow; put your arms around their necks as
they kneel by you - pray, "God bless my boys and girls, and save them"
- tell them of Christ now. Oh! how well can mothers preach to children! I
can never forget my mother's teaching. On the Sunday night, when we
were at home, she would have us round the table and explain the
Scriptures as we read, and then pray; and one night she left an impression
on my mind that never will be erased, when she said, "I have told you, my
dear children, the way of salvation, and if you perish you will perish
justly.
I shall have to say 'Amen' to your condemnation if you are condemned";
and I could not bear that. Anybody else might say "Amen," but not my
mother. Oh! you don't know - you that have to deal with children -
what you may do. Despise not these little op****tunities. Put a word in
edgeways for Christ - you that go about in trains, you that go into
workshops and factories. If Christians were men who were all true to their
colors, I think we should soon see a great change come over our great
establishments.
Speak up for Jesus! be not ashamed of him and because you can say but
little, don't refuse, therefore, to say that, but rather say it over
twenty
times, and so make the little into much. Again, and again, and again,
repeat
the feeble stroke, and there shall come to be as much result from it as
from
one tremendous blow. God accepts your little works if they are done in
faith in his dear Son. God will give success to your little works: God
will
educate you by your little works to do greater works; and your little
works
may call out others who shall do greater works by far than ever you shall
be able to accomplish. Evangelists, go on preaching at the street corner!
you that visit the low lodging-houses, go on. Get into the room and talk
of
Jesus Christ there as you have done. You that go into the country towns on
the Sabbath and speak on the village-greens of Christ, go on with it. I am
glad to see you, but I am glad to miss you when I know you are about the
Master's work. We don't want to keep the salt in the box: let it be rubbed
into the putrid mass to stag the putrification. We don't want the seed for
ever in the corn-bin: let it be scattered and it will give us more. Oh!
brethren and sisters, wake up if any of you are asleep. Don't let an ounce
of strength in this church be wasted - not a single grain of ability,
either
in
the way of doing, or praying, or giving, or holy living. Spend and be
spent,
for who hath despised the day of small things? The Lord encourage weak
believers, and the Lord accept the efforts of feeble workers, and send to
both his richest benediction for Christ's sake. Amen.
|
