A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Evening, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
He who boasts, let him boast about the Lord.
[1Co
1:31]
For other sermons on this text:
[See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "1Co
1:31"]
1. There is an irresistible tendency in us to boast about something or other. All classes of men boast, the highest and the lowest, the richest and the poorest, the best educated and the most illiterate. Solomon boasts, and so does the fool; Goliath boasts, and so does David; Pharaoh boasts, and so does his slave. Even in the most modest the tendency to boast is present, only its nakedness is daintily concealed. Good men boast, yes, and in hours of weakness they have boasted about objects very unworthy of their boastings. You remember how, when the ambassadors came out of Babylon, Hezekiah showed them all his riches and his stores, and no doubt he boasted while he took them from treasure house to treasure house, and opened his chests and showed all his precious things. But it was an evil thing, and the Lord was angry with him for that boasting, and ordered the prophet to prophesy that all his choice vessels should be carried away as plunder by the very people whose ambassadors he had so delighted with the sight. The very first person who was born into this world was the subject of boasting, and his mother, as she gazed upon him with rapture, said, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” Perhaps she even said, as the original has been construed, “I have gotten a man — the Lord,” thinking that surely he might be the promised seed of the woman who would bruise the serpent’s head, and would prove to be both a man and the Lord. Alas, it was Cain, who murdered his brother, and was a child of the serpent rather than the bruiser of his head. The thing we boast about, though he is a dear child, may turn out to be a scourge for our backs, a Cain and not a consolation. Jacob boasts about Joseph’s princely coat, but he wept indeed when he saw its many colours all turned to a blood red hue. I say good people have the tendency to boast, and sometimes they boast about unworthy objects, and therefore it is that God has prepared a cure for it — not by repressing the instinct to boast, but by giving a worthy subject for boasting, which finds it a wider range, and full liberty, but only in a licensed field. It may not wander there, nor there, nor there, for it is bad to boast about worldly things, but it may fly away up there to God himself, and stretch its wings, and plume itself as much as it wishes in heaven. The cure for conceit is true boasting. Somewhat upon the homeopathic principle, the cure for boasting is to boast about the Lord all the day long. The prevention of boasting about men, and boasting about riches, and boasting about self, is boasting about the Lord. “He who boasts, let him boast about the Lord.” We shall now speak on that text.
2. And we shall have these four points. First, let us, dear brothers and sisters, as many of us as know the Lord, boast only about the Lord. Then, secondly, let us boast heartily about the Lord. Thirdly, let us boast growingly about the Lord. And, lastly, let us boast practically about the Lord.
3. I. First, then, LET US BOAST ONLY ABOUT THE LORD.
4. And we should do this because the theme of boasting is too great to allow any another. It was a good argument of a simple minded man that there could not be two gods, because the first God filled heaven and earth, and all places, and therefore there was no room for another. If God is everywhere, and fills all in all; there can be no other god; and if the glory of God is infinite, then there can be no second glory; and if the theme is boundless, then there is no room for a second. Just as all other gods but Jehovah must be idols, so all other boasting except what is about the Lord must be foolish and sinful. Those men who really know the Lord feel that such is the greatness of his glory, that it takes up all our faculties, absorbs all our powers, demands indeed our whole energy, and we cannot spare time, or love, or skill, or power, or thought for any other topic. Let the Lord be boasted about, and him alone, because the Lord alone is worthy to be boasted about. He only is great, he is the blessed and only Potentate, from him only comes our salvation, he is God alone, therefore in one rolling flood let all our boasting cheerfully flow at his feet.
5. All glory should be given to God, because any other object of glory highly provokes the Most High. He has said, “I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to carved images.” It is written concerning Israel, “They moved him to jealousy with their carved images. When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel.” [Ps 78:58,59] The moment we begin trusting in a created arm, God is highly provoked with us. “Cursed is he who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm”; and if we begin boasting about anything else, either the Lord will send the worm at the root to make the gourd wither, or he will stamp our idol in pieces, and make us drink from the bitter water with which it is mixed, or else he will inflict upon us some other severe chastisement, for he cannot tolerate a rival. Where the ark of the Lord is, Dagon must come down. God will be all, or nothing. He cannot accept divided homage. Let us not provoke him, then, especially when he tells us, “The Lord your God is a jealous God.” Since he is so careful with his own name, let us careful with it too. If he would tolerate it, even then it would be wrong of us to test and try him; but since he will not tolerate it, but is jealous, and his fury blazes out like flames of fire, let us take heed what we do. Think of Nebuchadnezzar, and how his proud speech led to the loss of his reason and living with cattle. Remember Belshazzar, and how he was found wanting, because it was said of him, “The God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified, but you have praised the gods of silver and gold, and wood, and stone, and iron, which do not see, nor hear, nor know.” Remember how the Lord struck Herod, so that he was eaten by worms, because he received divine honours and did not give God the glory: “Give glory to the Lord your God before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains.” Boast about the Lord alone, for he will not endure to have it otherwise.
6. There is, indeed, my dear brothers and sisters, no other suitable basis for boasting in all the world except the Lord. For what would there be in this world, if God were to withdraw his power? If there were some other object in which we thought we could boast, yet since it came from him it would be idle to boast about the streams, we had better boast about the fountainhead from which the stream descends. All things that exist are only by the will and sovereign good pleasure of the Lord of all, let us not boast, then, about what depends upon him, except about God himself, the wellhead of all. Do not boast about the sunbeams but about the sun which scatters them, not about the drops but about the heaven from which they distil, not about the goods but about the Supreme Good who bestows them.
7. Moreover, all things in this world are fleeting, and why should we boast about what today is, and tomorrow will pass away? “All flesh is grass, and all its goodness like the flower of grass”; who will dare to rejoice in it? The grass withers; though today it is in its prime, tomorrow it is cast into the oven; it is a poor thing upon which to dote. The drunkards of Ephraim chose for their crown of pride and glorious beauty a fading flower; but we who are sober reject so fleeting a diadem. Only very benighted heathen could worship a god of snow, melting at every glance of the sun. Shall an immortal spirit delight in dying joys? Shall the heirs of eternal bliss boast about a momentary treasure? Do not boast, therefore, about the things that depart so soon. Let your boast be about what will last as long as your own being. Heir of immortality, take care that you have something to boast about which will never wither or decay; set your love upon what rust cannot canker, nor moth devour.
8. Besides, there is nothing in
this world that has in it qualities worthy of our
boasting about in comparison with God. He is the sun;
the stars must hide their heads when he appears. He is
the ocean; all these ponds and pools are of small
account; let us bless the eternal ocean of all
sufficient glory and goodness, and not turn aside to
magnify our little Abanas and Pharpars. [2Ki
5:12] Sin is stamped upon almost everything,
and even the unfallen angels, in comparison with God,
are of little worth; the purity that excels eclipses
all. “The heavens are not pure in his sight, and he
charged his angels with folly.” He is foolish,
therefore, who shall boast about these inferior things
while the thrice Holy God presents himself as the true
and legitimate subject of our boasting.
Praise the God of all creation,
Praise the Father’s boundless love;
Praise the Lamb, our expiation,
Priest and King enthroned above.
Praise the Fountain of salvation,
Him by whom our spirits live;
Undivided adoration
To the one Jehovah give.
9. Dear friends, we ought to boast about the Lord, because when we do so we shall be in accord with the true order of the universe. Look around, and see the works of God in creation; what do they boast about? “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.” The great pulses of the universe will keep time and tune to your heart if you boast about the Lord. “All your works praise you, oh God.” Creation is a temple in which everyone speaks of the glory of Jehovah. Turn to Providence, and faith’s eye perceives that Providence is always displaying the glory of the Lord. All things work not only for the good of the elect, but for the glory of the Most High: “For of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be the glory for ever.” The ponderous wheels, as they revolve in all their solemn grandeur, are full of eyes, and those eyes look to the glory of God. You are in accord both with providence and creation when you boast only in the Lord. Lift up your eyes now and behold the angels, those bright spirits who watch over us, and rejoice when we repent. What do you think their song is? “Glory to God in the highest.” Truly they sing, “Peace, good will towards men,” but first of all they cry to each other, “Glory to God.” This is their ancient song, and they have not ceased to sing it. You are in accord, therefore, with the blessed spirits who do his commandments, obeying the voice of his word, when you boast only about him. Yes, and you are in accord with the divine Trinity; for what does the Father do except glorify the Son? What does the Son intend when he says, “Father, glorify your Son?” It is, “that your Son also may glorify you.” What does the Holy Spirit do when he takes from the things of Christ, and shows them to us? Has not Jesus said of him, “He shall glorify me?” There is a mutual delight in each other in the persons of the blessed Trinity, so that each divine person delights to glorify the rest. So God even glorifies himself. All his works praise him, all his decrees praise him; all things which are, or shall be, proclaim his sole glory. Well, dear brothers and sisters, since we do not wish to be out of sync with the works of God, or opposed to his nearest attendants, or in rebellion against the sacred Trinity, let us affirm that our souls shall boast only about the Lord as long as we live. So much upon that first point, let us boast only about the Lord.
10. II. Now, secondly, may the Spirit of God help us to BOAST HEARTILY ABOUT THE LORD, with the whole force of our nature renewed by grace, not as a matter of form, but in deed and in truth.
11. Let us make our boast in the Lord heartily, doing it so that the humble may hear about it, and be glad, since there is good reason for heartily boasting about the Lord, first, because of his love. “God is love.” Oh you who have tasted that love, boast about it; boast that it is eternal, that it never had a beginning, that he fixed his love upon the objects of his choice before the mountains lifted their hoary heads above the clouds. Boast about it. It is no passion of yesterday, but the deep seated, fixed resolve of all eternity, the purpose of the Ancient of Days, when as yet days had not begun their little round. Do they speak about antiquity? Lo, it is here! “I have loved you with an everlasting love!” Shall we not boast about this? I am resolved that no one shall stop me from this boasting while my tongue can speak.
12. Boast about the divine love concerning its wonderful blessings, inasmuch as having loved his people he gave his only begotten Son that they might be redeemed from wrath through him. God commends his love towards us, in that, while we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. The Only Begotten is God’s unspeakable gift, including and securing every good gift. What manner of love is this! We can never measure it, nor fully declare it, let us resolve for ever to boast about it. There was never such love as this, love so ancient, love so selfless, so boundless! Love which brought the darling of heaven down to be despised and rejected by men. Oh, mighty love that could hold the Son of God himself in fetters of affection, lead him into a lifelong captivity to its power, and at last fasten him to the deadly tree!
13. That love of God for us was free, unpurchased, and unsought. He loved us because he wished to love us; not because we were lovely, but because he was love. He must love, for love is his nature, there was no other constraint upon him. Oh, blessed, blessed be the love of God, to think it should come to us unsought, unbought, undeserved, spontaneously leaping up like a living fountain with no one to dig the well, but springing up in the midst of the Sahara of our barren nature, and then blessing us with unspeakable blessings as it overflowed. Boast about the love of God! Here is sea room for you. Beloved, there is no love comparable to it. If all the loves that ever burned in the hearts of mothers, and brothers, and wives, and husbands, could all be heaped up they would be only a molehill compared with the love of God in Christ Jesus; and if all the loves that ever were among men or angels could be gathered together they would be only like a spark, and God’s love for us like a mighty furnace flame. Boast about it, therefore, all the day long, for well you may. “He loved me, and gave himself for me.”
14. You need not give up boasting when you have reached the centre of your subject, for you can boast next in the Lord’s faithfulness. Boast about the fact that he never yet changed the objects of his love. Whom once he loves he never leaves, but loves them to the end. He is no fickle lover! He is no husband who sues out a divorce against his errant spouse. “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement whom I sent away? To which of my creditors have I sold you?” Now, we can challenge all mankind and say, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says that he hates divorce.” You may boast about the faithfulness of God concerning all his promises. He has never broken his covenant, nor neglected to fulfil his word. To no child of his has he acted unkindly; in no hour of need has he deserted one who trusted in him. Under no peril, and under no provocation, has he cast away his people whom he foreknew, so that today the whole Church is persuaded that “Neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Go and boast that his mercy endures for ever. Tell it everywhere that man can lie, but God cannot; that man can forget his promise, and can utterly forsake his dearest friend, but that the faithful God has never yet reneged on his covenant, no forfeited the oath of his grace.
15. And if you should want a
change of subject, I would recommend you to boast about
the Lord concerning his holiness. This is an
attribute which has charms for Christians, but for no
one else. “Bless the Lord, oh my soul,” says David, and
he adds, “And all that is within me, bless” — his
gracious name, is it? No. Bless his loving
name? No. It runs like this, “Bless his holy
name,” because the whole includes all the parts, and the
holiness, or the wholeness of God is a grander thing
than any one of the distinct attributes which make up
the wholeness, or the holiness of his character. Go and
boast about the holiness of God, for there is no one as
holy as the Lord, neither is there any god like our God.
Angels boast about this, for as they veil their faces,
they say, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts.” It is a
grand attribute of God. “The Lord is great in Zion, and
he is high above all the people. Let them praise your
great and terrible name, for it is holy.” Bless his
name that even to show his love he would not be unholy,
and even to forgive sins he would not be unjust. He
never blunted the edge of the sword of justice in order
to stretch out his hand of mercy. He is as sternly and
inflexibly just towards sin as if he never forgave
iniquity, and yet he forgives sinners through Christ
Jesus as freely and fully as if he never punished a
transgression. All his attributes are full orbed;
none impinges upon the other so as to diminish its
lustre. “The Lord our God is holy,” while at the same
time “God is love.” Let us therefore boast about his
divine perfection, and about the wondrous atonement for
sin which was required as a result. An unholy God
could have dispensed with an expiation, but then we
should have had no basis for confidence, since he who
can set aside justice in one direction might do it in
the opposite, he who pardons without atonement might
also punish without fault. For my part, I always boast
about the old fashioned doctrine of substitution. I do
not know anything about the atonement which has been
invented by the cultured gentlemen of modern times;
though their theory is so often extolled, it contains so
little worth praising. They call ours a commercial
atonement, and truly we cannot call theirs by the same
name, for it is worth nothing, and no one would care to
do business with it. It is a hazy kind of atonement
which did something or other, I do not know what it was,
in so intangible and mysterious a manner that it is only
remotely connected with our getting to heaven; what it
was no one knows, but each divine has a theory for his
own private use. I believe Christ bore our sins in his
own body on the tree, that “the chastisement of our
peace was upon him, and that with his stripes we are
healed”; that there was a literal and actual expiation
made by Christ, and that
He bore, that we might never bear,
His Father’s righteous ire.
And I boast about this because it shows the justice
and the mercy of God walking hand in hand; righteousness
and peace kissing each other, and entering into a solemn
compact for the salvation of the sons of men. Surely in
the Lord Jehovah we have righteousness and strength, and
therefore we will boast about him for ever.
Holy, Holy, Holy! All
Heaven’s triumphant choir shall sing:
When the ransom’d nations fall
At the footstool of their King:
Then shall saints and seraphim,
Harps and voices, swell one hymn,
Round the throne with full accord,
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord.
16. And if you feel you would like to change the subject, then boast about the all sufficiency of your God, and about the liberality with which he distributes his mercies among his chosen. Notice the verse that precedes the text: “But you are of him in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” In Christ Jesus is not just one good thing given to us, but every good thing. He does not give us part of salvation, but the whole of salvation. Do we need to be instructed? Christ is our wisdom. Do we need to be clothed in the sight of God with a righteousness that shall render us acceptable? Christ is our righteousness. Do we need to be purified and cleansed? Christ is our sanctification. And do we need to be set free and delivered from all bondage? Christ is our redemption. In God the Christian finds sufficiency; let us improve the word — all sufficiency. There are riches of grace in Christ Jesus, all that you can want, all that the myriads of God’s chosen can want — so much, that after all the saints have taken immense draughts, there is as much left as before. I felt when I was coming up to preach tonight as if I had been down like a little child to the sea, and I had stooped to the wave and filled my palms as well as I could with the sparkling water, but as I have been coming to bring it to you, it has nearly all trickled away, for I am not able to hold it by reason of my leaking hands. Yet, for all that, the little I can bring will make you, I hope, rejoice in the great eternal ocean from which it was taken, for you will never drain God’s love, and mercy, and truth dry, though you should draw from it for ever. You need never think you will exhaust infinity. When a child of God thinks he has exhausted the patience and mercy of God he is something like a little fish in the sea which said, “Oh, I am so thirsty, I am afraid I shall drink up the Atlantic.” Oh little fish, you have no idea how mighty the ocean is; countless myriads such as you are may swim in it, and the ocean will be none the less. Oh beloved believer, yours is no stinted store. Joseph said to his brothers, “The good of all the land of Egypt is yours,” and it was a great word; but the Lord Jesus says to you tonight, “All things are yours, whether things present, or things to come, life or death, all are yours.” We have not gone to the full length, when we have quoted that; for there is another word that outstrips it all, “I am your God”; and to have God to be ours is more than to have heaven and earth, and things present and things to come. No one living on earth or even in heaven can tell how vast the possessions of a believer are who can say, “The Lord is my portion.” Go and boast about God’s all sufficiency, and the freeness with which he gives it out.
17. There is one point every
child of God may boast about, but he will scarcely care
to do so unless when he is alone by himself, or with
brethren who can sympathise. We boast about the
nearness and dearness of the relationship which God
holds towards us. The man who can bow his knee, and say
from his heart “Our Father,” has more to boast about
than the Czar of all the Russians, or the Emperor of the
grandest nations of antiquity. Is Christ my brother? I
am ennobled by that relationship. Is he married to my
soul? Is it indeed true that your Maker is your husband?
Is God so very near that he cannot be nearer? And am I
to him so very dear that I cannot be dearer, because in
the person of his Son I am as dear as he is? Then ought
I not to boast about this? And while some will say, “We
are rich, and our riches are the main thing”; and others
will say, “We have followed after wisdom, and we rejoice
in what we have discovered,” and a third party will say,
“We are famous and great, and we boast about our honours”;
we will sit down in some quiet corner, where no one
shall hear us except the Lord, and we will say, “I am my
Beloved’s, and he is mine: this is my boast, and I will
boast about it both in life and in death.” So then,
beloved, I have shown that you have good reason to boast
about the Lord heartily, but I cannot make you do it. I
pray the Holy Spirit to stir the hearts of all God’s
people to make them boast about the Lord, and exalt in
the God of their salvation.
My God, I’ll praise thee while I live,
And praise thee when I die,
And praise thee when I rise again,
And to eternity.
Neither until death, nor in death, nor after death will we cease boasting about the Lord.
18. III. Now we come to the third point, and that is, we ought to BOAST ABOUT THE LORD GROWINGLY. That is to say, beloved, we should boast about God in proportion as we learn more about him, and receive more from him.
19. Many believers only know the elements yet, they are at a preparatory school, and sit among the babes in Christ, hence their songs are children’s hymns, and not the grand old psalms of heroes and sages. It should be our desire to grow in the knowledge of our Lord. Beyond the rudiments of the faith there are deeper, higher, and fuller truths which invite our consideration, and will abundantly repay it. Perhaps you learned justification by faith a long time ago; but you have not learned the doctrine of election yet, nor the doctrine of the unchangeable love of God; labour to know them, for ignorance of them is neither bliss nor strength. As a faithful disciple go on to learn more and more, and when you have learned the more mysterious doctrines, boast about God more; as you know more, be sure you return to him more praise; for, if anything which you believe concerning the Lord does not cause you to praise him more, either it cannot be the truth or else your heart is in a wrong condition. Every genuine revelation of God has this characteristic, that it makes him appear more glorious. The wisdom which derogates from the honour of God comes from beneath and is founded in a lie; true wisdom exalts the name of the Lord, and bows the heart in adoration.
20. Beloved, boast growingly about the Lord as you know more about him by revelation. Moses said, “I beseech you show me your glory,” and surely after he had been put in the cleft of the rock, and had seen his God, he boasted more about him than ever. Isaiah was a man of stammering lips, and was afraid to speak in God’s name, until one day which he never forgot — for he tells us the year, “In the year that King Uzziah died,” he remembered it well enough — he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple, while the glory of his presence made the posts of the doors to move. Then Isaiah became very bold for his Lord, and said, “Here am I, send me.” Paul was, also, all the more resolved to know nothing except Christ crucified after he had been caught up into the third heaven, and there had seen and heard the glory of the Lord. Now I pray the Lord to reveal himself to you, dear friends, more and more, that you also may behold his glory, and receive a sacred blessing by it. May you see Jesus in your meditations, see him by communion and fellowship with him. And as you see more of him, go and tell abroad more of him, and let others know what a glorious God you serve. His angels behold him, and then he makes them messengers; may that vision be yours and then that errand is yours. What we have seen and heard, that must we testify to men.
21. You will, as you live, see more of the glory of God in his gracious dealings with you, for that is one of the methods by which that glory is revealed. Christ said to Mary and Martha, “Did I not say to you, that if you would believe you should see the glory of God?” and as we have our prayers answered, as we are delivered in times of trouble, and as all things are made to work for our good, we see the glory of God. Never let a special season of mercy pass without praising him; never let an answer to prayer be unrecognised, but magnify the Lord, who in his abundant mercy has had such compassion upon you. Glorify him, then, growingly. As answers to prayer increase, glorify God more; as grace is given to you in times of need time after time, glorify him more; as you find yourself helped providentially in hours of trouble, and so see the wonderful working of the hand of the Lord on behalf of his people, glorify him more. And I will tell you what will help you to glorify him more, it will be the sight of conversion work going on in other people. I do not think Christian people glorify God at any time so heartily and thoroughly as when they see others saved. The sight of a young convert warms up old blood; and whereas we had doubts, troubles and inward fightings while we were wrapped up in ourselves, when we get to hear little children in Christ cry to their Father, and hear them rejoice as the Lord puts away their sins, our confidence comes back, all our sacred passions begin to glow, and we say, “This is the place for me, for here I see the glory of God.” “His glory is great in your salvation.” Where Christ works savingly, there the glory of God is mightily revealed, and when the Lord builds up Zion, he appears in his glory, and his servants rejoice to see him. How can they do otherwise? the stones would rebuke them if they were not to do so; they must boast about God more than they have ever done before.
22. By and by, dear brothers and sisters, as time rolls on, we shall know more about the Lord, and get to be more like him, and approach nearer to the glory itself. Beholding that glory, as in a mirror, we are changed from glory to glory, as by the image of the Lord. As we come nearer to the approaching hour of our full redemption, the pins of our tent are taken up, and the curtains of our tabernacle begin to be removed, and we look forward to the “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” in which our one occupation shall be to behold the glory of our Lord for ever.
23. Let us even now wholly
boast about the Lord. I have known some old Christians
who were just one mass of boasting about the Lord. Their
very faces shone with the brightness of his presence.
They never talked to you in private, nor joined in the
public prayer, nor gave out any utterance, but what you
said of it, “Surely they have seen the glory, and their
hearts are burning with it, and therefore their tongues
speak marvellous things, and they talk as men whose lips
have been touched with a live coal from off the altar.”
When these hairs grow grey, may we be such old men and
old women, that we may be continually praising and
boasting about the Lord all the day long. We had better
begin at once, for time is precious, and a good work
cannot be begun too soon.
I would begin the music here,
And so my soul should rise,
Oh for some heavenly notes to bear
My passions to the skies.
24. IV. Now I come to the last point, which is, let us BOAST ABOUT THE LORD PRACTICALLY. And how can we do that?
25. Every Christian ought to boast about the Lord practically, by acknowledging that he belongs to his redeeming Lord. Are you a Christian, and are you ashamed of it? How can you be said to boast about the Lord? A man does not hide away what he boasts about. If he boasts about it he does not object to its being seen. Why, if he boasts about anything, if others accuse him that he has something to do with it, he acknowledges the charge, and he says, “It is even so; and I am not ashamed of it; I boast about it.” Charge a veteran with having been at Waterloo, and he will boast about it. Accuse an artist of being a Royal Academician, and he will acknowledge the charge. Abuse me for loving my wife and children, and I smile at you. Why, then, blush to be called a follower of Jesus? You who love the Lord, I beseech you, come forward and say that you glory in him. The Lord deserves that his people should confess with their mouth what they feel in their hearts. It is the least thing we can do, if he has saved us, to be willing to admit that he is our Saviour, and that we rejoice in him.
26. Then, brethren, after we have thus confessed his glory let us continue to boast about him by talking about it on all fitting occasions. Do you not think that we are a good deal too reticent in our piety? We love the Lord, but we seem as if we do not want to tell anyone we do so; and our common conversation does not reveal us as it ought to do. It ought to be so full of grace and truth, that men would immediately know where we stand. Even as the rose reveals itself by its perfume, and even the glowworm by its shining, so should our boasting about the Lord reveal us to all observers. I have heard talk of a professed Christian of whom his servant said, “I am glad my master goes to the sacrament, for if he had not done so I should not have known he was a Christian.” I should think the chances were he was not a Christian at all; for we ought in our common conduct so to glorify God that others would at once take knowledge of us, that we truly know and love his name. A foreigner may speak English well, but he is known by his accent, and the accent of grace is quite as marked as that of nature. Speak to all around you about the Saviour. I do not know a better way of getting rid of troublesome people than often to talk about Jesus. There are certain talkative people, who vex you with their evil discourses; bring in the Lord Jesus Christ and they will soon go away, for they will not like such a weighty discourse; and at the same time better friends will be attracted to you who will love to join you in holy boasting.
27. Boast about the Lord by standing up for him when he is opposed. If you hear the proud ones ridicule his gospel, and despise his people, put in a word for Jesus. Stand up and say, “I am one of his disciples. Despise me! I hold those opinions; ridicule me! After the way which you call heresy so I worship the Lord God of my fathers.” This is a practical way of glorifying him, but many who have grown rich and respectable are much too weak spirited to practise it. I am ashamed of the cowardly spirit of many in these days who give up their nonconformity, because they cannot otherwise get into what they call “good society.” May the Lord have mercy on them.
28. Glorify him again by being calm under your troubles. When others are fretting and worrying, possess your soul in patience, and say, “No, I do not serve a fair weather God, and I am not to be cowed and put down, for the eternal God is my refuge, and underneath me are the everlasting arms. It does not become a man to tremble who has the God of Jacob for his help. I will bear trouble joyfully, if he wills to send it.”
29. Boast about the Lord, brethren, practically, by having a contempt for those things which others value so much. Do not be greedy after the world. Love God too much to care for earthly treasures. If God gives you wealth, thank him for it and use it. If he does not, do not worry about it. Feel that you are rich enough without the heaps of yellow metal. You have your God, and that is the best wealth; you have a heaven to go to, and a little heaven below. Rejoice in what you find in your God. Live above the world. May God’s Spirit help you. “Let your conversation be in heaven.” Thus glorify God, and when men look at you compel them to feel that there is something in you and about you which they cannot understand, for you have been with Jesus, and you have learned from him. In all these ways “he who boasts let him boast about the Lord.”
30. I am sorry, in closing, to
feel compelled to say that I am afraid many do not
understand this. Perhaps you have boasted about your
priests, and thought they were great. Very possibly some
of you boast about your minister, you think he is very
eminent; and some of you, it may be, boast about your
wealth, and your possessions. Some of you boast about
your broad acres, and large houses. Some of you boast
about the skill you have in your trade, or your
quickness in business. It may be many of you boast about
the fact that you are not as other men are. All these
boastings are evil. May God help you to put them down.
Even to boast about your church, and boast about your
sect, and boast about your creed is wrong. To boast
about the Lord is the work of his Spirit, and to live to
make him glorious in the esteem of men is the only thing
worthy of an immortal mind. You will never boast
about God until first of all God has killed your
boasting about yourself. May he be pleased, in his
infinite mercy, to show you unconverted sinners that
there is nothing about you which you can justly boast
about, but everything for which you ought to be ashamed
and to loathe yourselves. May he make you flee to Jesus.
I pray you trust him and be saved! May the Lord bless
you in this matter, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — 1Co 1]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Work of Grace as a Whole — ‘We
Will Rejoice In His Salvation’ ” 242]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “God the Father, Adoration of God —
Call To Universal Praise” 174]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, His Praise — ‘Not
Unto Us’ ” 420]
The Work of Grace as a Whole
242 — “We Will Rejoice In His Salvation”
1 God of salvation, we adore
Thy saving love, thy saving power;
And to our utmost stretch of thought,
Hail the redemption thou hast wrought.
2 We love the stroke that breaks our chain,
The sword by which our sins are slain;
And while abased in dust we bow,
We sing the grace that lays us low.
3 Perish each thought of human pride,
Let God alone be magnified;
His glory let the heavens resound,
Shouted form earth’s remotest bound.
4 Saints, who his full salvation know,
Saints who but taste it here below,
Join with the angelic choir to raise
Transporting songs of deathless praise.
Philip Doddridge, 1755.
God the Father, Adoration of God
174 — Call To Universal Praise <7S. />
1 Sing, ye seraphs in the sky;
Let your loftiest praises flow;
Swell the song with rapture high,
All ye sons of men below.
2 With one soul, one heart, one voice,
Heaven and earth alike we call
In his praises to rejoice,
Who is past the praise of all.
3 Night and day his goodness tell;
Earth, and sun, and moon, and star,
Winds and waves that sink and swell,
Ceaseless spread his name afar.
4 Every living thing his hands,
Which first made, sustain, supply:
Wide o’er all his love expands
As the vast embracing sky.
5 Sin, which strove that love to quell,
Woke yet more its wondrous blaze;
Eden, Bethlehem, Calvary, tell,
More than all beside, his praise.
6 Sing, ye seraphs in the sky;
Let your loftiest praises flow;
Swell the song with raptures high,
All ye sons of men below.
Thomas Davis, 1864.
Jesus Christ, His Praise
420 — “Not Unto Us”
1 Not unto us, to thee alone,
Bless’d Lamb, be glory given!
Here shall thy praises be begun,
But carried on in heaven.
2 The hosts of spirits now with thee
Eternal anthems sing:
To imitate them here, lo! we
Our Hallelujahs bring.
3 Had we our tongues like them inspired,
Like theirs our songs should rise:
Like them we never should be tired,
But love the sacrifice.
4 Till we the veil of flesh lay down,
Accept our weaker lays;
And when we reach thy Father’s throne,
We’ll join in nobler praise.
John Cennick, 1742.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2013/05/06/boasting-in-the-lord