NO. 1263<\/b><\/p>\n
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cCast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.\u201d \u2014 Hebrews 10:35.<\/i><\/p>\n
THE early Christians had to suffer for their faith. They were exposed to great ridicule and enmity: they were, indeed, the by-word, the laughing-stock, and the derision of all mankind. There are still to be seen in Rome, in the praetorian guard-room, caricatures of Christians and of their Lord. I dare not mention what they are, but they are so insulting to everything which we hold dear that they remain as lasting evidence that Christians were counted as the offscouring of all things for the sake of Jesus their crucified Savior. Nor did it end in ridicule: they were deprived of their goods. Ruinous fines were exacted from them. They were driven from city to city, and not thought worthy to dwell among the sons of men. They were made a spectacle to all men, both in their lives and deaths. Very frequently they were not put to death as other condemned persons were, but their execution was attended with circumstances of cruelty and scorn, which made it still harder to bear: they were daubed with pitch, and set up in the gardens of Nero to be burned alive to light that tyrant\u2019s debaucheries, or taken to the amphitheater, there to fight with beasts, and to be torn in pieces. Everything that could be invented that was at once degrading and cruel their persecutors devised for them: malice exhausted its ingenuity upon believers in Christ. Yet there was never a braver race of men. \u201cMen,\u201d did I say? Why, the women were as brave as their brethren. The name of such women as Blandina will remain in everlasting recollection. Set in a hot iron chair, tormented with whips, or tossed upon the horns of bulls, such heroines showed no cowardice. The tenderness of their sex only increased the glory of the courage with which they adhered to their Master under torments unutterable. The despised sect wearied out a long succession of Roman emperors. Those despots passed edict upon edict, each one more ferocious than its predecessor, in order to exterminate the followers of the Nazarene; but the more they persecuted them the more they multiplied, and instead of hiding themselves they came boldly to the courts of the magistrates, confessing Christ, and defying death.<\/p>\n
Never was the victory of patience more complete than in the early church. The anvil broke the hammer by bearing all the blows that the hammer could place upon it. The patience of the saints was stronger than the cruelty of tyrants. Christ them, the immortal Christ, was stronger than all the pangs of death, and they triumphed though they were slain. Truly did the apostle say, \u201cIn all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.\u201d The secret reason for the triumph of Christians in those circumstances was their confidence in Christ<\/i>. Brethren and sisters, we are not subjected to the like persecution, and it will not do for us to wrap ourselves about with the garments of our ancestors and to say that Christians are this and that, as though we were to be honored without enduring trial. Yet, remember, there are still conflicts for you. If you be real Christians you will have to endure the trial of cruel mockings. In some cases family ties are the source of far greater sorrow than comfort: truly is it written, \u201cA man\u2019s foes shall be they of his own household.\u201d The coming of the gospel into a man\u2019s heart has often rendered him the object of hatred to those who loved him before. In his own house, and in society abroad, the Christian working man has at this day to run the gauntlet much more severely than some suppose; and in almost every sphere of life the genuine Christian meets with the \u201ccold shoulder\u201d and the sneer, and sometimes with cruel misrepresentation and slander; for, until the hearts of men are changed, persecution in some form or other will continue. Those that are bow after the flesh will always persecute those that are born after the Spirit.<\/p>\n
For us, then, our only defense is holy confidence \u2014 the confidence which sustained the martyrs, and to us Paul speaks as well as unto them. \u201cCast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let us notice first the elements of this confidence of<\/i> which the apostle speaks, and then speak upon how it may be cast away<\/i>: God grant we may never attempt to do so. Thirdly, let us consider why it should be held fast<\/i>, \u2014 because it \u201chath great recompence of reward.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I. <\/b>First, then, What Are The Elements Of This Confidence of which the apostle speaks?<\/p>\n
Those who are acquainted with the original will know that it is not very easy to explain this word in one English word. The nearest approach to it would be boldness \u2014 \u201cCast not away your boldness,\u201d and it is frequently translated by that word. In the Acts, where we read, \u201cWhen they saw the boldness of Peter and John,\u201d it is the same word in the Greek as that which is here translated \u201cconfidence.\u201d But it means something rather different from boldness, because we read of Christ, in the gospel by Mark, that he spoke openly<\/i>, and there the word is precisely that which is here used, and translated \u201cconfidence.\u201d And the apostle says, \u201cWe use great plainness<\/i> of speech,\u201d and there the word is the same also. It means that freedom, that peace, that at-home-ness, which makes a man feel bold, free, confident. We come back again to the word in the text \u2014 your confidence, your child-like plainness, freedom, quietude, peace of heart, rest, sense of security, and, therefore, courage. The apostle meant a great deal when he said, \u201cCast not away therefore your confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the elements of it seem to me to be these. First, confidence in the principles which you hast espoused. Sonic persons appear to think that a state of doubt is the very best which we can possibly reach. They are very wise and highly cultured individuals, and they imagine that by their advanced judgments nothing in the world can be regarded as assuredly true. Some of the broad church school would seem to believe that no doctrine in the Bible is worth dying for, or worth anybody\u2019s losing over and above a halfpenny for. They do not feel sure of any doctrine: it may be true, and there is a good deal to be said for it, but then a good deal may be said on the other side, and you must hold your mind \u201creceptive,\u201d and be ready to accept \u201cnew truth.\u201d Some Robinson or other said something about new truth, as if there ever could be such a thing, and, under cover of his probably misinterpreted speech, like chameleons, they are always taking their flue from the particular light that falls upon them. They have no light in themselves and no truth which they hold to be vital. Such people cannot understand this confidence, but the veriest babes in the family of faith know what it means. Here are certain things which God has taught me; I believe them and am sure about them. \u201cDogmatical,\u201d says one. Exactly so; call it what you like, but we are bold to confess that there remains no doubt to us after God has spoken. The question is solved by God\u2019s word; the doubt is laid to sleep for ever by the witness of the Holy Spirit. Oh, to know the grand truths of the gospel, and to know them infallibly. For instance, the grand doctrine of the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God \u2014 to know it and hold it and say, \u201cLet others question and quibble, but I must believe it; it is my only hope, it is all my salvation. I stake my soul upon it: if that be not true then am I lost.\u201d And so with regard to all the other grand truths of revelation, the thing is to know them and grasp them firmly. There must be leverage if we would move men, and to have a leverage you must have a fixed point. There must be certain undoubted truths about which you can sing, \u201cO God, my heart is fixed; my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise \u201c \u2014 things which you perceive to be plainly taught in the Scriptures \u2014 things brought home by the power of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
This is the groundwork of true confidence; but to make it complete there must be an open avowal of our belief in our Lord Jesus<\/i>. The apostle has said, \u201cHold fast the profession of your faith,\u201d not merely your faith, but the profession of it. To hold a truth which I am ashamed to utter is to be false both to God and man. To have convictions which I stifle, and principles which I dare not avow, is to be unworthy of the Lord that bought me, and unworthy of the Spirit who has instructed me. God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, but God forbid that we should refuse to glory in that. Let us never cloak our faith in Jesus, whatever be the company, and, though we are not to cast pearls before swine, yet, if a time comes to exhibit pearls, let us not conceal them, even though swine should gaze upon them. We are not sent into the world comfortably to sneak through it into heaven, but we are sent, like a troop of soldiers, to fight our way, and to win a victory all along from the beginning of our pilgrimage even to the close of it. The colors are not to be covered up and kept by the color-sergeant in a tent somewhere in the rear, but they are to be unfurled to the breeze and borne in the van, and every believing soldier is to labor earnestly to bear them farther forward, and to smite the foe that dares to insult the standard of the Lord. \u201cCast not away your confidence;\u201d that is, hold confidently the truths which God has taught you, and never blush or stammer, or show the slightest sign of hesitancy in avowing them.<\/p>\n
To do all this you must know your own interest in those truths<\/i>. A man will readily let go a truth which may condemn him. Who will die for a truth in which he has no share? The man who can live and die for Christ is the man who believes that Christ has lived and died for him. A doctrine \u2014 what is that? A mere statement written in a book. It stirs no man\u2019s heart, and awakens no one\u2019s enthusiasm; but a blessed truth which has been verified in one\u2019s own experience, in which one feels that he has a share, nay, which is all his own \u2014 this is a thing for which a man may well be willing to be counted the offscouring of all things. Beloved Christian friends, do you know that you have passed from death unto life? If so, you do not doubt the doctrine of conversion. Do you know that you have been washed in the blood of Jesus? If so, you do not doubt the doctrine of atonement. Do you know that Christ has saved you, and that you are one with him? Then you do not doubt the doctrine of union to Christ. Do you know that he has preserved you to this day? Then you do not doubt his faithfulness: you have proof of it before your eyes. We must \u201ceat this roll,\u201d as Ezekiel did, before we can bear testimony to it. The truth must be the food of our spirits, the sustenance of our inward life, before we can have that confidence in it which the apostle bids us never to cast away.<\/p>\n
These are the first points of confidence \u2014 a full conviction of the truth of the gospel, willingness to confess it, and a full assurance of our own interest in it. But the word, as I have said, cannot have all its meaning brought out by this word boldness, it means beside, a full and firm reliance upon the faithfulness of God<\/i>, so that we are free from all mistrusts, and fears, and simply rest in God. It is a very sweet thing to allow that God is true, and to sing, with the psalmist of old, \u201cHis mercy endureth for ever.\u201d \u201cWhy,\u201d saith one, \u201cthat is a very simple fact, and I never doubted it.\u201d Dear brethren, when the Holy Ghost taught the psalmist to make that psalm whose many verses conclude with \u201cHis mercy endureth for ever,\u201d he knew very well that we do not so easily believe in the Lord\u2019s enduring mercy as we think we do; and, therefore, he has given us line upon line, and precept upon precept. Do you not feel that you have a very great deal of faith in God when you have no afflictions? Do you not feel sure about your daily bread when you are in good work, or have an excellent pension, or a good sum of money in the bank? Such faith is very easy and very unreal: the publicans and sinners have that faith. But to trust in God when you see nothing but starvation before you, to believe when you cannot see, ah, this is another kind of faith, and the<\/i> faith, and the only faith that is of the operation of the Spirit of God. I wonder whether you could have believed in Jesus if, for having been here last night, you had been arrested at the foot of the steps of the Tabernacle, and taken off to Horsemonger-lane gaol, and there kept in prison in the dark, with only bread and water, for several months. Suppose you were occasionally stretched upon the rack, or beaten with rods. Would you feel in the loneliness of the prison, smarting under the Rounds you endured, quite sure that all things worked together for good \u2014 quite certain of that promise, \u201cI will never leave thee, nor forsake thee\u201d? If it was intimated to you that tomorrow morning you must go out to be burned to death in the great square of the city, or to be torn to pieces in the amphitheatre by wild beasts, would you be quite sure that the promise of God was faithful and true? Yet, beloved, that is the kind of faith we must have, for God deserves it, he cannot lie. He has promised that those who trust in him shall never be forsaken or confounded world without end. Now, to have the confidence of the text, we must subscribe in heart to a full surrender \u2014 \u201cWhatever happens, I believe in God. Come what may, I rest in his promise, and I leave my matters entirely in his hands, resting them with him as with a faithful Creator.\u201d Happy is the man who has this confidence, let him take care that he never casts it away.<\/p>\n
Where that confidence really reigns in the soul, it takes the form of a sense of full acceptance before God<\/i>. Let me illustrate that by the condition of a child. A child that lives in full confidence with its father is quite sure of its father\u2019s love, it is also sure about its fathers wisdom, and, consequently, quite content with all its father\u2019s dealings. This is confidence, and the sort of confidence which is meant in the text. That, at least, is part of what is meant \u2014 confidence towards God \u2014 confidence that all is well between my soul and God \u2014 that I can walk with him in the light as he is in the light \u2014 that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin, and that, therefore, I have fellowship with him as a man has fellowship with his friend. We must have confidence so as to avail ourselves of perpetual access to God, so as to be able to speak with him at all times, not merely in the closet where we are accustomed to pray, but everywhere. True confidence makes the believer feel, \u201cI am God\u2019s child; I can speak with my Lord whenever I will, and I can hear his voice everywhere \u2014 hear it in nature as well as in the Bible. I dwell always in my Father\u2019s own house at home, and I know that \u2019goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.\u2019\u201d Oh, what a sweet feeling that is, to know that you are ever near to God, that he is ever with you, and consequently you are always at home, and your Father is always accessible.<\/p>\n
Upon this there follows that further confidence, of which John says, \u201cThis is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he heareth us,\u201d \u2014 confidence that when we pray we shall be heard<\/i>. Now, all Christians accept this as a matter of doctrine, but very few Christians really it. When you talk to them about God\u2019s hearing prayer, they open their eyes at you. You tell them some cases in which he has answered you, and they look upon you as a wonder. Dear Mr. M\u0178ller\u2019s Orphanage at Bristol is thought to be a sort of miracle, and we ourselves in that and other cases are conscious of a feeling of astonishment when we hear of God\u2019s answering prayer. It should not be so. If we have the confidence we ought to have in our heavenly Father we shall be astonished at his goodness, but we shall not be astonished at the fact that he keeps his promises, and answers his children\u2019s prayers. I sometimes felt, when I was a child, astonished at my father\u2019s goodness in giving me what I asked for; but not when he had previously promised it to me. A loving child asks with expectation. Probably if he had not the expectation he would scarcely ask; but he asks because he expects to receive. And, oh, what a sweet confidence that is \u2014 to know that God is your Father, that you are on happy terms with him through Jesus Christ, and that you may speak to him, and whatsoever you desire you may ask of him, pleading that promise.\u201d Delight thyself also in the Lord and he will give thee the desires of thy heart.\u201d Oh, blessed, blessed confidence! May we always enjoy it!<\/p>\n
Over and above that, how delightful to feel that even what we do not pray for, by reason of ignorance or forgetfulness, our gracious God will bestow<\/i>. \u201cYour heavenly Father knoweth what ye have need of before ye ask him.\u201d I would pray as if I had to remind the Lord of everything, and yet feel when I have done that he has never forgotten, nor could he fail to give anything that was good for me, for did he not say, \u201cTo good thing will I withhold from then that walk uprightly\u201d? Beloved, this is the confidence that we have towards God, that he will bestow upon us all things necessary for this life and godliness, that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, and that when he sends a trial he will also make a way of escape. \u201cAh,\u201d says one, \u201cthat is a happy way of living if we could only attain to it.\u201d That is how you ought to live, dear brethren, and, if you ever do so live, then remember the text, \u201cCast not away therefore your confidence.\u201d If you get it, hold it. If you have a childlike simplicity of confidence in God reckon it to be a priceless jewel, and watch it night and day. Let no one rob you of it, but labor with might and main, by his blessed Spirit, to abide in this confidence as long as you live.<\/p>\n
You may add to all this the confidence that he is able to keep that which you have committed to him<\/i>, for we have this confidence \u2014 that whether we sleep or wake we shall be together with him. \u201cWe are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord;\u201d for we are confident that though we shall drop this tabernacle, \u201cwe have a temple of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.\u201d With confidence we are looking forward to resurrection after death; looking forward to a grand reunion with the beloved ones that have gone before; looking forward to being satisfied when we awake in his likeness; looking forward to seeing the lying in his beauty in the land that is very far off. We are looking; forward to sit upon Christ\u2019s throne, even as he overcame and has sat down with his Father upon his throne. We comfort one another with these words; yea, we joy and rejoice, and we reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall revealed in us. Oh, blessed confidence, the confidence that he will keep us while we are here, and will glorify us hereafter! As sure as Christ is glorified so must his people be. \u201cIf we suffer with him we shall reign with him.\u201d This is the confidence we have in him. Cast not away your confidence.<\/p>\n
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II. <\/b>Having thus labored, as best I could to show the confidence, let us now spend a few moments in considering now We May Cast It Away.<\/p>\n
It strikes one, at once, on reading the passage \u2014 and the best expositors think so too \u2014 that there is here an allusion to the Greek soldier with his shield on his arm. When he went out to battle, wearing his shield, which covered him from head to foot, the rule was that he must either come back with his shield or be brought back upon it, but he must never cast it away. Among the Spartans there was a law that any soldier who cast away his shield must die: he was not fit to be a soldier. You remember how one of the old Scriptural songs speaks of the shield of the mighty which was vilely cast away; showing that in the old war times, the casting away of the shield was a disgrace. It was showing the white feather; it was giving up the conflict, and ceasing to hope for safety, much less victory. Our confidence is our shield, and we are not to cast it away, or suffer any to tear it from our arm, but hold it fast until the battle is fought and the victory is won for ever.<\/p>\n
How can you cast your confidence away? You can cast it away by changing it for self-confidence<\/i>. You can get off from the platform on which you now stand, which is that of simple confidence in your Savior, and you can very readily grow confident in yourselves. All along the road to heaven there are many junctions, and at every one of these the devil cries out, \u201cChange here for self-righteousness!\u201d The high level railway of the perfect brethren has been much infested of late by devils which cry, \u201cChange here for self-confidence!\u201d When I hear how good they are, and how they have conquered their tempers\u2019 I am delighted to hear that they are on such good terms with themselves; but at the same time I remember the proverb, \u201cLet another praise thee, and not thine own lips,\u201d and I conclude that if they had been quite as good as they say they are they would have held their tongues about it. My dear brother, you who have begun in the Spirit, do you hope to be perfected by the flesh? Hang on to Christ, as a sinner\u2019s Savior, till you die. If it has been Christ up till now, do not put \u201cChrist and Co.\u201d now; for that firm will break, inasmuch as one of the partners is already a bankrupt; Christ alone will stand, and stand for ever. Whatever run there may be upon that bank it will pay out gold coin without end. When you<\/i> come in, it is a m\u2019salliance<\/i> altogether. Better to yoke a cherub with an emmet than to think of yoking yourself with Christ. You have cast away your confidence if, in any measure or degree, you confide in self. God keep us from that, and hold us fast to the platform of simple reliance on Christ. I remember telling you, years ago, a story you have often met with since, of poor Jack the huckster who heard a little ditty sung \u2014 <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a poor sinner, and nothing at all
But Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
That exactly suited Jack, because he had nothing of his own, and so he took Christ and trusted him. He wanted to join the church, and they asked what was his experience, and he said he did not think he had any, only he was a poor sinner and nothing at all, and Jesus Christ was his all-in-all. \u201cBut,\u201d they said, \u201cdons you have doubts?\u201d And he said, \u201cWell, what is there to doubt? I know that I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all, I cannot doubt that; and Jesus Christ is my all-in-all, for the Bible says so, and why should I doubt it?\u201d They could never get him away from that standpoint.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a poor sinner, and nothing at all
But Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Oh, brethren, if you get an inch above that platform, you will have to come down again. Be empty, and Christ will be your fullness, but if you become full in yourself you have done with Christ. Cast not away your confidence by leaving your simple reliance upon Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Some, however, cast away their confidence by giving way to sin<\/i>. Look at the child I spoke of just now, who has such confidence in his father. He goes in and out the house, and asks for what he wants, and expects to receive it because he knows his father loves him. But see, he has done what his father told him not to do! Do you not see that his confidence is gone? At night he slinks away to bed. In the morning at breakfast he does not eat much, for his father is grieved. That child does not think that he has ceased to be his father\u2019s child, but he knows that his Father is grieved with him, and he cannot act with freedom and confidence. If his brothers were to say, \u201cJohn, ask father for so-and-so,\u201d he would say, \u201cNo, you had better go; I am out of favor with him.\u201d Perhaps the father has not said a word yet, but the boy is conscious of having done wrong, and is ill at ease. If he is a wise child he will go at once and say, \u201cFather, I have done wrong; forgive me\u201d: and after his father has said, \u201cYes, dear child, I forgive you,\u201d his confidence will return, but by doing wrong he has cast allay his confidence. He has faith in his father that he will provide him with food and raiment, and all things needful, he never loses that faith; but when he disobeys he has not that confidence towards his father which enables him to act as a loving, favored child should do. My brothers and sisters, we cannot enjoy confidence towards God if we live in disobedience. Old Master Brooks says, \u201cAssurance will make us leave off sinning, or sinning will make us leave off assurance;\u201d and, depend upon it, it will. He who lives in the light of God\u2019s countenance must mind what he is at. Kings\u2019 favourites live under a jealous eye. More is expected from those who lean their heads upon Christ\u2019s bosom than from any other of the disciples. You cannot grieve your heavenly Father and yet feel the same confidence towards him.<\/p>\n
Perhaps some of you know that you have not this confidence. Remember that the Lord is ready to forgive you. He is waiting for you to come and say, \u201cFather, I have sinned.\u201d Never let sin rankle in your conscience. It is well every night to clear all out by confession. Dear Mr. Muller from this pulpit, \u201cDo not begin the day unless you feel happy in the Lord.\u201d The advice is good. See that ye walk in obedience with great watchfulness, so shall you have the freedom of children towards God. \u201cBeloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is another way of losing our confidence, and that is by getting into worldly company<\/i> and mixing up with the gay and frivolous. A child would soon lose his loving, confident feeling towards his father if his father had an enemy opposite, and he constantly went into that enemy\u2019s house, and heard all the language that was used there. Why, he would gradually get hard and wrong thoughts about his father; and if his father knew that he had been associating with his enemies the child could not feel towards his father as before. Have you been cast into company some evening where the conversation was not at all to edification, but light and frivolous, and perhaps worse? If you are a child of God, have you not felt unfit for devotion when you reached home? You wanted to pray, but you could not.<\/p>\n
A deadening influence will come over your intimate communion with God if you are on close terms with unbelievers. You cannot walk with God and his enemies. You cannot be in league with Christ and Belial at the same time, or sit at your Master\u2019s table and expect him to smile upon you after you have partaken of the cup of devils. Do not lose your sweet confidence and holy boldness in God\u2019s presence by associating with the world, but come ye out from among them and be ye separate.<\/p>\n
You can very easily lose your confidence by changing your aim in life<\/i>. The Christian\u2019s aim in life is to live for God\u2019s glory. If he does so, no persecution can ever shake him. If his goods be spoiled he says, \u201cIf it glorifies God for me to lose my property I am no loser. I gave my goods to God years ago.\u201d If he is put in prison, he says, \u201cI have lost my liberty, but I am no loser; I gave up my liberty to God long ago.\u201d If they tell him that he will die, he says, \u201cWell, I am no loser, for I gave him my life long ago. I am altogether Christ\u2019s.\u201d While your object is God you will be bold as a lion, but a sordid motive is the mother of cowardice. Suppose a minister preaches that he may get honor of men, how anxious he will be to please his hearers, and he will cut and trim to do so. But if his sole object be the glory of God he will not smooth his speech or withhold rebukes because of man\u2019s anger. He will care no more for human criticism than for the sighing of the rushes by the river. If we once shift our motive, if we seek after honor from men, or the getting of money, or anything of self, we have cast away our confidence. You can be perfectly confident when you feel, \u201cWhat I have done I did for God\u2019s glory. I have a clear conscience about it;\u201d but your confidence is gone if your motive is selfish. Why, you can look seven thousand devils in the face, and not care for one of them, when your conscience will bear the piercing eye of God, but if you must confess to sordid motives, you fall from your excellency and stand in doubt of your oven rectitude. Cast not away your confidence, then, by shifting your aim.<\/p>\n
Alas, dear friends, some unhappy professors have apparently cast away their confidence in utter unbelief<\/i>. They set out with a great confidence of a certain sort. Like Pliable, from the City of Destruction, they were going to have the Celestial City, and enjoy it for ever; but they fell into the Slough of Despond, and they felt that their confidence could not be kept up, and so they got out of the slough on the side that was nearest their own house, and went back through sheer despair of better things. May God keep you from this! Remember, if you really are Christians, there is nothing for you but to fight it through. This is what Bunyan impresses upon us in his portrait of the pilgrim, who, when he saw Apollyon standing across the way, and heard him swear that he would spill his soul, would have turned back; but he reflected that he had no armor for his back, so that to retreat would be certain destruction. For you there is nothing but to cut a lane right through your enemies till you come up to the throne of God. To turn back means sure damnation. God\u2019s vengeance rests upon the deserter and the apostate. Oh, then, brethren, we must go forward, and may God the Holy Spirit help us so to do; but if we think of turning aside we are casting away our confidence and renouncing its reward.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
III. <\/b>I will close by noticing The Reasons Given In The Text For Holding Fast Our Confidence.<\/p>\n
The first argument in the text is \u201ctherefore.\u201d \u201cCast not away therefore your confidence.\u201d What does this \u201ctherefore\u201d mean? Why, it means this \u2014 because you have already endured so much<\/i>. You were made a laughing-stock, and you suffered the loss of your goods, therefore, cast not away your confidence, for if you do you will have suffered for nothing. I have known a man begin to build his house, and he has spent a great deal of money upon it; and, at length, he has thought, \u201cI do not quite like the situation. Shall I finish the building?\u201d One strong argument for going on has been this, \u201cI have spent so much money on it, I must go through with it.\u201d Now, some of you have spent much upon your faith; by God\u2019s grace, you have been for years following on to know the Lord. You bore the troubles of your early youth when, perhaps, father and mother were against you, and you were bold then for Christ. Some of you have been known as Christian working-men for years, and you have encountered the chaff of the workshop for many a month, and yet you have not gone back. Well, you have spent a good deal upon your faith: never give it up, my brother, never give it up. If, for your Lord\u2019s sake, you have had the honor to be abused and scandalized, do not turn your back now. What, have you half routed the enemy, and will you now flee? Believe me, the rest of them will be routed too. You cowards have fled before you already, fight on till the rest are vanquished. \u201cBut,\u201d you say, \u201cthey come up thick and fast.\u201d So much the better, for so much the grander the victory in the end. You can overcome them: by God\u2019s grace you can. Do not lose the victories which you have already gained. If it was wise to go so far, it will be wise to go on to the end. Cry for grace to persevere; for he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved, and only he. Having gone so far it will be disgraceful to turn back now, do not even think of it. I recollect going over the Col D\u2019Obbia on the Alps, and when I got a little way down I found myself on a steep mountain side upon a mass of loose earth and slates. There seemed to me to be some miles of almost perpendicular descent and no road. My head began to swim. I set my feet fast down in the loose soil, turned my back to the scene below me, and my face to the hill-side, and stuck my hands into the earth to hold as best I could. I cried to my friend, \u201cI shall never go down there: I will go back.\u201d He coolly replied, \u201cJust look where you have come from.\u201d When I looked up it appeared to be much worse to try and clamber up than it could possibly be to go down, and so he remarked. \u201cI think you had better go on, for it is worse going back.\u201d So, brethren, we must go on, for it will be worse going back. Let us never think of retreating, but gird up the loins of our mind, and push onward with firm resolution, by the help of the Spirit of God.<\/p>\n
Here is the other argument \u2014 Do not cast away your confidence, for it has great recompense of reward<\/i>. There is a reward in it now: for it makes us happy<\/i>. When we are sweetly confident in God, and do not molest ourselves with doubts and fears, how happy we are! Who has not read Cowper\u2019s beautiful description of the cottager with her pillow-lace and bobbins, who knew no more than \u201cher Bible true, a truth the learned Frenchman never knew\u201d \u2014 who was just as happy as the days were long. We are never so happy as when, in childlike simplicity, we trust our God without a doubt. Do not cast away your confidence, since it yields you such pure delight.<\/p>\n
But it makes you so strong<\/i>, too \u2014 strong both to bear and labor. When you are like a child in confidence before God, you can endure pain and reproach right bravely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf on my face, for thy dear name,
Shame and reproach shall be,
I\u2019ll hail reproach and welcome shame,
For thou\u2019lt remember me.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
You can bear, like Atlas, a world upon your shoulders, when you have God within you. If he be near, you laugh at difficulties, and as for impossibilities, there are no such things. Brethren, hold fast your confidence, because it ministers to your strength.<\/p>\n
And, moreover, it makes you victorious<\/i>. Many a man has been won to Christ by the confidence of simple Christians. Our doubts and fears are mischievous; they are thistle seed, they sow unbelief in others; but our childlike reliance upon God, our humble joy in our dear Father\u2019s care, and our unmoved resolution through thick and thin to stick to our Master is likely to convert others, by God\u2019s good Spirit, to the right way. Therefore, cast not away your confidence.<\/p>\n
And, best of all, there is a recompense of reward to come<\/i>. The day will come when the King will review his troops as the squadrons come back from the battle. The day will come when he shall come down our ranks and look at every one of us; and, if we have been faithful in this evil day, O brethren, it will repay us for anything are suffered if he shall say to us, \u201cWell done!\u201d Oh, those two words! These were enough to make us eternally happy; but hear the rest \u2014 \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.\u201d Believe me, believe me, my hearers, kings and mighty men, who have rolled in riches, and yet were enemies to Christ, when they hear Christ say, \u201cWell done!\u201d to his poor people, will think themselves accursed that they were not martyrs, and that they did not lie in prison, or at least suffer reproach for Christ. The enemies of Christ laugh to-day, but they will laugh on the other side of their faces before long. Let them laugh, for we<\/i> shall win. The day shall come Allen shame shall be the promotion of fools; but the royal robe shall be put upon each man\u2019s back who dared to be a fool for Christ. The scars of suffering saints shall shine like diamonds, and they that were most abused shall be flee brightest of the shining ones. Gladdest of all will they be who have the ruby crown of martyrdom to cast at the Savior\u2019s feet: but each one of you who have boldly held on to Christ, though despised and rejected, and dared to suffer slander for his dear name\u2019s sake, you shall be among the first and brightest who wear the white robe, and share their Master\u2019s victory. By the palm and by the white robe, by the crown unfading, by the halos of angels, and the streets of gold, cast not away your confidence, for it hath great recompense of reward.<\/p>\n
Oh, you that know not Christ, and have no confidence in him, beware! for he is coming \u2014 coming to call you to judgment. Beware, for in the day of his appearing he will look upon you, and he will know that you never trusted him, and never suffered for him, but chose the broad road that leadeth to destruction. Oh, how you will tremble then, and with what agony will you cry to the mountains, \u201cHide us from the face; hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne.\u201d<\/p>\n
God grant that you may not thus be carried away with terror, but may you believe your Lord, and then have a full confidence in him; a confidence which you will never cast away, \u201cfor it hath great recompense of reward.\u201d<\/p>\n
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON \u2014 Hebrews 10:19-39.<\/i><\/p>\n
HYMNS FROM \u201cOUR OWN HYMN BOOK\u201d \u2014 675, 632.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 1263 DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. \u201cCast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.\u201d \u2014 Hebrews 10:35. THE early Christians had to suffer for their faith. They were exposed to great ridicule and enmity: they were, indeed, the by-word, the laughing-stock, and the derision of … Continue reading “HOLD FAST YOUR SHIELD.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}