Charles Spurgeon's sermon entitled "The Poor Man's Friend" is a touching,
enlightening and uplifting sermon that I encourage you to read. I hope it
inspires you.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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The Poor Man's Friend
by C.H. Spurgeon
"The poor committeth himself unto thee."-Psalm 10:14.
God is the poor man's friend; the poor man, in His helplessness and
despair,
leaves his case in the hands of God, and God undertakes to care for him.
In
the days of David,-and I suppose, in this respect, the world has but
little
improved,-the poor man was the victim of almost everybody's cruelty, and
sometimes he was very shamefully oppressed. If he sought redress for his
wrongs, he generally only increased them, for he was regarded as a rebel
against the existing order of things; and when he asked for even a part of
what was his by right, the very magistrates and rulers of the land became
the instruments of his oppressors, and made the yoke of his bondage to be
yet heavier than it was before. Tens of thousands of eyes, full of tears,
have been turned to Jehovah, and he has been invoked to interpose between
the oppressor and the oppressed; for God is the ultimate resort of the
helpless. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are
oppressed; he undertakes the cause of all those that are downtrodden.
If the history of the world be, rightly read, it will be found that no
case
of oppression has been suffered to go long unpunished. The Assyrian empire
wean a very cruel one, but what is now left of Nineveh and Babylon? Go to
the heaps of ruins by the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and see
what will become of an empire which is made to be only an instrument of
oppression in the hands of an emperor and the great men under him. It has
ceased to he more than a name; its power has vanished, and its palaces
have
been destroyed. In later times, there sprang up the mighty empire of Rome;
and even now, wherever we wander, we see traces of its greatness and
splendour. How came it to fall? Many reasons have been assigned, but you
may
rest assured that at the bottom of them all was the. cruelty practised
towards the slaves, and other poor people, who here absolutely in the
power
of the aristocracy and oligarchy who formed the dominant party in the
empire. There is a fatal flaw in the foundations of any throne that
executes
not justice; and it matters not though the empire seems to stand high as
heaven, and to raise its pinnacles to the skies, down it must come if it
be
not founded upon right. When ten thousand slaves have cried to God
apparently in vain, it has not really been in vain, for he has registered
their cries, and in due season has avenged their wrongs; and when the poor
toilers, who have reaped the rich rnan's fields, have been deprived of
their
hardly-earned wages, and have cast their plaints into the court of heaven,
they have been registered there, and God has, at the right time, taken up
their cause, and punished their oppressors.
For many years the Negro slaves cried to God to deliver them, and at last
deliverance came, to the joy of the emancipated multitudes, yet not
without
suffering to all the nations that had been concerned in that great wrong.
And here, too, if the employers of labour refuse to give to the
agricultural
labourer his just wage, God will surely visit them, in his wrath. At this
very day, we have; serfs in England who, with sternest toil, cannot earn
enough to keep body and soul together, and to maintain their families as
they ought to be maintained; and where masters are thus refusing to their
labourers a fair remuneration for their work, let them know that, whoever
may excuse them, and whatever may be said of the laws of political
economy,
God does not judge the world by political economy. He judges the world by
this rule, that men are bound to do that which is just and right to their
fellow-men; and it can never he right that a man should work like a slave,
be housed worse than a horse, and have food scarcely fit for a dog. But if
the poor commit their case to God, he will undertake it; and I, as one of
God's ministers, will never cease to speak on behalf of the rights of the
poor. The whole question has two sides,-the rights of the masters, and the
rights of the men. Let not the men do as some workmen do, ask more than
they
ought; yet, on the other hand, let not the masters domineer over their
men,
but remember that God is the Master of us all, and he will see that right
is
done to all. Let us all act rightly towards one another, or we shall feel
the weight of his hand, and the force of his anger.
Now, having thus given the literal meaning of my text, I am going to
spiritualize it, which I should have no right to do if I had not first
explained the primary reference of David's words, "The poor committeth
himself unto thee."
I. THERE ARE SPIRITUALLY POOR MEN; and these do what other poor men have
done in tem****al things, they commit their case, into the hands of God.
Let me try to find out the spiritually poor. They are, first, those who
have
no merits of their own. There are some people, in the world, who are,
according to their own estimate, very rich in good works. They think that
they began well, and that they have gone on well, and they hope to
continue
to do well right to the end of their lives. They do confess, sometimes,
that
they are miserable sinners, but total. is merely because that expression
is
in the Prayer Book. They are half sorry it is there, but they suppose that
it must have been meant for other people, not for themselves. So far as
they
know, they have kept all the commandments from their youth up, they have
been just in their dealings with their fellow-men, and they do not feel
that
they are under any very serious obligations even to God himself. I have
nothing to say to such people except to remind them that the, Lord Jesus
Christ said, "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they
that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance."
Christ came to bring healing to those who are spiritually sick; you say
that
you are perfectly well, so you must go your own way, and Christ will go in
another direction,-towards sinners.
Further, the poor peoples of whom I am speaking, are not only totally
without, anything like merit, absolutely bankrupt of any goodness, and
devoid of anything of which they could boast, but they are also without
strength to perform any such good works in the future. They are so poor,
spiritually, that they cannot even pray as they would, and they do not
even
feel their poverty as they would like to feel it. After having read this
Bible, they wish they could re-read it with greater profit; and when they
weep oven sin, they feel their own sin in their very tears, and want to
weep
in penitence over their tears. They are such poor people that they can do
absolutely nothing without Christ, and so poor that, in them, that is, in
their flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. They did think once that there
might be something good in them; but they have searched their nature
through
most painfully, and they have discovered that, unless grace shall do
everything for them, where God is they can never come.
Perhaps some of you say, "These must be very bad people." Well, they are
no
better that they should be, yet I may tell you another thing concerning
them, they are no worse than many of those who think themselves a great
deal
better. They have this lowly opinion of themselves because the grace of
God
has taught them to think rightly and truthfully about themselves in
relation
to God. They are, in outward appearance, and as far as we, can judge,
quite.
as good as others, and better than some. In certain respects, they might
be
held up as examples to others. This is what we say of them, but they have
not a good word to say of themselves; rather, do they put their finger
upon
their lips, and blush at the remembrance of what they feel themselves to
be;
or if they must speak of themselves at all, they say, "All we like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way."
II. That brings me to notice, secondly, WHAT THESE POOR PEOPLE DO. They
commit themselves unto God. This is a very blessed description of what
true
faith does. The poor in spirit feel that their case is so desperate that
they cannot kept it in their own charge, and therefore they commit it to
God. I will try to show you how they do that.
First, they commit their case to God as a debtor commits his case to a
surety. The man is so deeply in debt that he cannot pay his creditors even
a
farthing in the pound; but here is someone who can pay everything that the
debtor owes, and he says to him, "I will stand as security for you; I will
be bondsman for you; I will give full satisfaction to all your creditors,
and discharge all your debts." There is no person who is thus deeply in
debt, who would not be glad to know of such a surety, both able and
willing
to stand in his stead, and to discharge all his responsibilities. If the
surety said to this poor debtor, "Will you make over all your liabilities
to
me? Will you sign this do***ent, empowering me to take all your debts upon
myself, and to be responsible for you? Will you let me be your bondsman
and
surety?" "Ah!" the poor man would reply, "that I will, most gladly." That
is
just what spiritually poor men have done to the Lord Jesus
Christ,-committed
their case, with all their debts and liabilities, into the hands of the
Lord
Jesus Christ, and he has undertaken all the. responsibility for them.
I think I hear someone say, "But will Christ really stand in the sinner's
place in such a way as that?" Oh, yes! for he did stand, in anticipation,
in
the sinner's place before the foundation of the world, and he actually
stood
there when he died upon the accursed tree, by his death obtaining a full
discharge of the debts of all those whose Surety he had become. Dear soul,
wilt, thou not commit all thy affairs into his hands? Art thou not,
willing
to let him stand as thy Surety, to clear thee of all thy liabilities?
"Willing?" say you; "ah! that I am; and not only willing, but, right glad
shall I be for him to take my place, and relieve mo of the burden that is
cru****ng me to the dust." Then it is done for you, and so done that it can
never be undone. Suppose that one of you had taken all my debts upon you,
and that you were quite able and willing to pay them, I should not go
home,
and fret myself about my debts. I should rejoice to think that, you had
taken them upon yourself, and that therefore they would no longer be mine.
If Christ has taken your sins upon himself,-and he has done so if you have
truly trusted him, your sins have ceased to be; they are blotted out for
ever. Christ nailed to his cross the record of everything that was
against,
us; and, now, every poor sinner, who is indebted to God's law, and who
trusteth in Christ, may know that his debt is cancelled, and that he is
clear of all liability for it for ever.
Next, we commit our case to Christ as a client does to a solicitor and
advocate. You know that, when a man has a suit at law, (I hope that none
of
you may ever have such a suit,) if he has an advocate to plead his cause,
he
does not plead for himself. He will probably get into trouble if he does.
It
is said that, when Erskine was pleading for a Man who was being tried for
murder, his client, being dissatisfied with the way in which his defense
was
being conducted, wrote on a slip of paper, "I'll be hanged if I don't
plead
for myself." Erskine wrote in reply, "You'll be hanged if you do!" It is
very much like that with us; if we attempt to plead for ourselves, we
shall
be sure to go wrong. We must have the Divine Advocate who alone can defend
us against the suits of Satan, and speak with authority on our behalf even
before the bar of God. We must commit our case to him, that he may plead
for
us, and then it will go rightly enough.
Remember also that any man, who has committed his case to an advocate,
must
not interfere with it himself. If anybody from the other side should wait
upon him, and say, "I wish to speak to you about that suit," he must
reply,
I cannot go into the matter with you; I must refer you to my solicitor."
"But I want to reason about it; I want to ask you a, few questions about
the
case." "No," says he, "I cannot listen to what you have to say, you must
go
to my solicitor." How much trouble Christians would save themselves if,
when
they have committed their case into the hands of Jesus, they would leave
it
there, and not attempt to deal with it on their own account! I say to the
devil, when he comes to tempt me to doubt and fear, "I have committed my
soul to Jesus Christ, and he will keep it in safety. You must bring your
accusations to him, not to me. I am his client, and he is my Counsellor.
Why
should I have such an Advocate as he is, and then plead for myself" John
does not say, "If any man sin, let him be his own adovcate;" but he says,
"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous." Dear brother, leave your case with Christ; he can handle it
wisely, you cannot. Remember that, if the devil and you get into an
argument, he is much older than you are, and far more clever than you are,
and he knows a great many points of law that you do not know. You should
always refer him to the Saviour, who is older than he is, and knows much
more about law and everything else than he does, and who will answer him
so
effectually as to silence him forever. So, poor tried and tempted soul,
commit your case to the great Advocate, and he will plead for you before
the
Court of King's Bench in heaven, and your suit will be sure to succeed
through his advocacy.
Further, sinners commit their case to Christ as a patient commits his case
to the physician. We, poor sin-sick sinners, put our case into the hands
of
Jesus, that he may heal us of all our depravities, and evil tendencies,
and
infirmities. If anyone asks, "Will he undertake my case, if I come to
him?"
I answer;-Yes, he came to be the Physician of souls, to heal all who trust
him. There never was a case in which he could not heal, for he has a
wonderful remedy, a catholicon, a cure for all diseases. If you put your
case, into his hands, the Holy Spirit will shed abroad his love in your
heart, and there is no spiritual disease that can withstand that wondrous
remedy. Are you predisposed to quickness of temper? He can cure that. Are
you inclined to be indolent? Is there a sluggish spirit within you? He can
cure that. Are you proud, or are your tendencies towards covetousness,
worldliness, lust, or ambitions? Christ, can cure all these evils. When he
was on this earth, he had all manner of patients brought to him, yet he
never was baffled by one case, and your case, whatever it may be, will be
quite an easy one to him if you only go and commit it into his hands. This
building seems to me like a great hospital full of sin-sick souls, and I
pray the great Physician to come here, and heal them. Nay, I must correct
myself, for he is here; and, as he walks through these aisles, and round
these galleries, I beseech you to say to him, "Good Master, I commit
myself
to thee. I take thee to be my Saviour. O save me from my constitutional
temperament, and my besetting sins, and everything else that is contrary
to
thy holy will!" He will hear you, for he never yet refused to heed the cry
of a poor sin-sick soul. Do not let him go by you without praying to, him,
"Son of David, have mercy on me!" Come, Lord, and lay thy hands upon each
one of us and we shall be made perfectly whole!
As to the future, the spiritually poor commit themselves to Christ in the
same way in which the pilgrims described in The Pilgrim's Progress
committeth themselves to the charge of Mr. Greatheart, that he might fight
all their battles for them, and conduct them safely to the Celestial City.
In the old war time, when the captains of merchant vessels wanted to go to
foreign countries, and they were afraid of being captured by the
privateers
of other nations, they generally went in company under the convoy of a
man-of-war to protect them, and that is the way you and I must go to
heaven.
Satan's privateers will try to capture us, but we commit ourselves to the
protection of Jesus, the Lord High Admiral of all the seas, and we poor
little vessels sail safely under his convoy. When any enemy seeks to
attack
us, we need not be afraid. He can blow them all out of the water if he
pleased, but he will never suffer one of them to injure a solitary vessel
that is entrusted to his charge. Sinner, give thyself up to the charge of
Jesus, to be convoyed to heaven; and thou over-anxious child of God, lay
down all thine anxieties at the feet of Jesus, and rest in his infinite
power and love, which will never let thee be lost.
I might thus multiply figures and illustrations of how we commit ourselves
to Christ. We do it very much in the way in which our blind friends,
sitting
under the pulpit, got here this evening,-they came by committing
themselves
to the care of guides. Some of them can walk a good long way without a
guide, but others could not have found their way here to-night without
some
friend upon whose arm they could lean. That is the way to get to heaven,
by
leaning upon Jesus. Do not expect to see him, but trust yourself to him,
and
lean hard upon him. He loves to be trusted, and faith has a wonderful
charm
for him. I was once near the Mansion House, and as I stood there, a poor
blind man, who wished to cross over to the Bank, said to me, "Please, sir,
lead me across; I know you will, for I am blind." I was not sure that I
could do so, for it is not an easy task to lead a blind man across that
part
where so many cabs and omnibuses are constantly passing, but I managed it
as
best I could. I do not think I could have, done it if the poor man had not
said to me, "I know you will;" for then I thought that I must; and if you
come to Christ, and say, "Lord Jesus, wilt thou lead me to heaven?" and
tell
him that you are sure that he will never let a poor blind soul miss its
way,
that you are sure you can trust him, that he is such a kind-hearted
Saviour
that he will never thrust away a guilty sinner who thus commits himself
into
his hands, and I am sure that he will be glad to save you, and that he
will
rejoice over you as he leads you safely home to heaven. If any of you can
see with your natural eyes, and yet are blind spiritually, be glad that
there is a blessed Guide, to whom you can commit yourself, and do commit
yourself to him. Christ leads the blind by a way that they know not, and
he
will continue to lead them until he brings them to the land where they
will
open their eyes, and see with rapture and surprise the splendours of
paradise, and rejoice that they are all their own for ever.
Is not this work of the poor committing themselves to Christ, a very easy
task? It is a very easy thing for a debtor to commit his debts to his
surety, for anyone to commit his case to his advocate, for a patient to
trust himself to his physician, for a pilgrim to feel safe under a
powerful
convoy, and for a blind man to trust in his guide;-all this is very simple
and easy. It does not need much explanation, and faith in Jesus is just as
simple and just as easy as that. Why is it, that we sometimes find that
faith is difficult? It is because we are to proud to believe in Jesus. If
we
did but see ourselves as we really are, we should be willing enough to
trust
the Saviour; but we do not like going to heaven like blind people who need
a
guide, or like debtors who cannot pay a farthing in the pound. We want to
have a finger in the pie, we want to do something towards our own
salvation,
we want to have some of the praise and glory of it. God save us from this
evil spirit!
While it is a very simple thing for the Spiritually poor to commit
themselves to Christ, let me also say that it is an act which greatly
glorifies God. Christ is honoured when any soul trusts in him; it is a joy
to his heart to be trusted. When the feeble cling to him, he feels such
joy
as mothers feel when their little ones cling to them. Christ is glad when
poor sin-sick souls come and trust him. It was for this very purpose that
he
came into the world, to meet the needs of guilty sinners. So this plan,
while it is easy for us, is glorifying to him
And I will add that it is a plan that never fails any who trust to it.
There
never was a single soul that committed its case to Christ, and theft found
him fail, and there never shall be such a soul so long as the earth
endureth. He that believeth in Christ shall not be ashamed or confounded,
world without end. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,"
and
everlasting life can never be taken away from one who has received it.
I close by asking a question,-If the spiritually poor commit themselves
unto
God, what comes of it? Why, it makes them very happy. But, are they not
sinful? Oh, yes; but they commit themselves to God's grace, and His grace
blots out all their sins for ever. Are they not feeble? Oh, yes; but,
their
feebleness leads them to commit themselves to his omnipotence; and his
strength is made perfect in their weakness. Are they not needy? Oh, yes;
but
then they bring their needs to him, and they receive out of his fulness
"grace for grace." But, are they not often in danger? Oh, yes, in a
thousand
dangers; but they come, and hide beneath the shadow of God's wings, and he
covers them with his feathers, and there they rest in perfect security.
His
truth becomes their ****eld and buckler, so that they need not fear any
foe.
But are they not apt to slip? Oh, yes, but they commit themselves to him
who
gives his angels charge over them, to keep them in all their ways, and to
bear them up in their hands, lest they should dash their feet against a
stone. But are they not, very fickle and changeable? Oh, yes; but they
commit, themselves to him who says, "I am Jehovah; I change not." But are
they not unworthy? 0h, yes, in themselves they are utterly unworthy; but
they commit themselves to him who is called The Lord their righteousness;
and when they are clothed in his righteousness, they are looked upon by
God
as being "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." But have they no
sickness? Yes, but they commit themselves to Jehovah-Rophi, the lord, the
Healer, and he either heals their sickness, or gives them the grace to
endure it. Are they not poor? Yes, many of them are extremely so; but they
commit themselves to the faithful Promiser, and so bread is given them,
and
their water sure. But don't they expect to die? 0h, yes, unless the Lord
should first come; but they are not afraid to die. This is the point,
above
all others, in which the spiritually poor commit themselves unto God. They
have learnt that sweet prayer of David so well that it is often on their
tongues, "Into thine hand I commit my spirit thou hast redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth." They did commit their spirit into God's hands years ago,
and
he has kept them until now, and they know that, he will not fail them in
their dying hour.
In conclusion, I pray every spiritually poor heart to commit itself to
God.
I like to do this every morning. Satan often comes and says, "You are no
Christian; all your supposed Christian experience is false." Very Well,
suppose it has been false; then I will start afresh; saint or no saint, I
will begin over again by trusting Christ to be my Saviour. When you, dear
friend, wake tomorrow morning, let this be the first thing that you
do,-commit yourself to Jesus Christ for the whole of the day. Say, "My
Lord,
here is my heart, which I commit to thee. While I am away from home, may
my
heart be full of fragrance of thy blessed presence; and when I return at
night, may I still find my heart, in thy kind keeping! "And every night,
ere
we go to sleep, let us pray,-
"Should swift death this night o'ertake us,
And our couch become our tomb;
May the morn in heaven awake us.
Clad in light and deathless bloom."
Are you going to a foreign land? Then, renew the committal of your life to
God. Are you going to change your state, and enter upon the joys and
responsibilities of married life? Then commit yourself to God. Are you
going
to a new situation, or opening a new business? Is any change coming over
you? Then, make a new committal, or a re-committal of your soul to the
Lord
Jesus,-only take care that you do it heartily and thoroughly, and make no
reserve. I rejoice to feel that I have committed myself to Christ as the
slave of old committed himself to his master. When the time came for him
to
be set free under the Jewish law, he said to his master, "No, I do not
want
to go. I love you, I love your children, I love your household, I love
your
service; I do not want to be free." Then you know that the master was to
take an awl, and fasten him by the ear to the door-post. I supposes this
was
done to see whether the man really wanted to remain with his master, or
not.
Ah, beloved! some, of us have had our ears bored long ago; we have given
ourselves up to Christ, and we have a mark upon us which we can never
loses.
Were we not buried with him by baptism unto death,-a symbol that we are
dead
to the world, and buried to the world, for his dear sake? Well, in that
same
way, give yourself wholly up to Jesus; commit yourself to him. As that
young
bride, commits all her life's joys and hopes to that dear bridegroom into
whose face she looks so lovingly, so, O souls, commit yourselves to that
dearest Bridegroom in earth or heaven,-the Lord Jesus Christ. Commit
yourselves to him, to love and to be loved,-his to obey, his to serve, and
his to be kept,-his in life,-and you need not add "till death us do part,"
but you may say "till death shall wed us more completely, and we shall sit
together at the marriage banquet above; and be for ever and for ever one
before the throne of God." Thus the poor soul commits itself unto Christ,
is
married unto Christ, gets the ****tion which Christ possesses, becomes
Christ's own, and then lives with Christ for ever. Oh, that this might be
the time in which many a man and many a woman would commit themselves unto
Christ! I do not merely mean you who are poor in pocket, but you who are
poor in spirit, I am asking you to commit yourselves unto Christ. Do not
put
it off, but may this be the very hour in which you shall be committed to
Christ, and he shall take possession of you to be his for ever and for
ever!
Amen and Amen.
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