The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God

Next Part The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God 2

"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power– that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 1 Cor. 2:3-5

What a contrast there is between the experience and language of the apostle Paul, and the experience and language of thousands who profess to be servants of God and preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This may seem to some a harsh, censorious statement, but before it is hastily condemned let us see whether it be founded on truth or not. Take, then, a wide and general survey of those who call themselves and are generally considered to be the ministers of the gospel at the present day. Taking together Church and Dissent, we may safely assume that there are at least twenty thousand men in this country who profess to be servants of God and ministers of Jesus Christ. For bear in mind that they are either this or nothing, no, worse than nothing, for if a man calls himself a minister he necessarily calls himself thereby a minister of Christ, unless he would brand his own name and character as that of an impostor, and thus proclaim himself to his own shame a servant of the world and a minister of Satan.

Now of these twenty thousand men, illness, old age, and infirmities, love of ease and sloth or other circumstances may furnish a quota of five thousand idlers, or unemployed, such as sinecurist rectors, silent curates, or unattached ministers of various denominations who sigh for a pulpit but sigh in vain. These, then, we will set aside as willingly or unwillingly silent, and assume that fifteen thousand are standing up this morning in the name of God to preach what they call the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now out of this numerous host, fifteen thousand men, how many, in the largest exercise of charity, could we find whose experience or whose language correspond with that of the apostle Paul as expressed in the text? And yet I dare say we would highly offend every one of them if we even hinted that they did not preach the same gospel which he preached, or serve the same Lord whom he served.

How apt most are to take things upon trust, at least in religion, without search, inquiry, or examination. Let men pass through a certain fixed course of study, let them be ordained by some competent and acknowledged authority, let them claim or assume certain titles, let them wear a certain dress, and at once they are received as ministers of Jesus Christ. The mode may differ, but in this point Church and Dissent fully agree. Hence arise the many thousands of whom I have spoken.

But such a mixed and miscellaneous company may almost remind us of Gideon's army, the thirty-two thousand men who were summoned with the trumpet to make war against the Midianites. They formed to the eye a mighty army– all of them soldiers ready for the battle. But though thus gathered together as soldiers of the Lord's army, God saw them not as men or even as Gideon saw them. The Lord therefore said unto Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many." He next bade him proclaim in the ears of the people, "Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead." This at once made a clean sweep of twenty-two thousand. The conscious cowards availed themselves of this ticket of leave, and hurried off from the camp by morning light. Would not a similar proclamation, in spirit if not in the letter, were there any sufferings to be undergone, any hard fighting to be endured, any sacrifice of money, prosperity, or character to be made, have almost similar consequences with our modern army of ministers? How fearful and afraid would a large number of these warriors be of losing their reputation, or their salary, or their congregations, or of offending the world, their wives, their children, or their relations. We would soon find what a clear sweep such a proclamation would make if carried out. How many would stand the test if persecution were to be undergone, or any sacrifices to be made of property, not to say of life?

But even then there were too many left with Gideon after they were departed. The ten thousand, who were more stout-hearted than their fellows, were still too many to do the Lord's work and fight the Lord's battles. There was another sweep to be made by the test of coming down to the water. Those that bowed down upon their knees to drink; and those that lapped putting their hand to their mouth, were to be distinguished and separated from one another. The former, typical of the carnal who drink of God's favors in providence recklessly and unthankfully, bury as it were lips, mouth, and all in the stream of prosperity without the intervention of faith, were sent away every one to his place.

Is it not too true that money is the chief aim of thousands who seek after the ministry? And what they thus get they receive as their right, their lawful tithes or their fixed salary, without receiving it in faith and gratitude as the gift of the Lord. Thus are they well represented by those in Gideon's host who drank by dipping their mouths in the water.

And how many were left who drank by lapping the water out of their hand– typical of those who receive by the hand of faith God's favors in providence and grace, and live a life of faith on the Son of God? Why, only three hundred. Thus, out of this mighty host, there were only left at last three hundred to fight the Lord's battles.

Now if all the ministers in this land who are destitute of a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who receive their salaries and incomes, tithes and offerings as their rightful due without receiving them from the hand of the Lord in faith, love, and gratitude, were similarly set apart, would not this make a mighty sweep? And though I have neither the right nor the wish, nor even the means or opportunity of making any such calculation, I can but express my opinion that it would be happy for England were there only three hundred men out of all the professed ministers of Jesus Christ who could use the language of the apostle Paul as "determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and him crucified;" and whose "speech and whose preaching was not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Yes, I repeat it, it would be a happy day were there as many men to preach the gospel in our beloved country as there were men to fight the battle of the Lord under Gideon among the Midianites!

But to leave men and come to things, for I shall neither weary you nor myself with a longer introduction, let us then see whether we can find in our text anything that may be for our instruction, edification, or consolation this morning. The apostle tells us in it both his weakness and his strength, his fears and his hopes, what he renounced and what he held fast, what fruit he desired, and what fruit he found as a minister of Jesus Christ.

See him, then, first, in the weakness of his confession– "I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling."

See him, secondly, in the honesty of his renunciation– "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom."

See him, thirdly, in the strength of his preaching– "But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."

See him, fourthly, in the fruit of his testimony– "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

I. See Paul in the WEAKNESS OF HIS CONFESSION–"I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." It may seem at first sight surprising to us that a man of such eminent natural abilities– and I suppose few men who ever lived possessed by nature a larger mind; a man so specially called by divine revelation; a man of such deep and varied experience, as we find him when speaking of himself in Romans 7 and other passages; a man who had been caught up into the third heaven and there seen and heard unspeakable sights and words; a man so gifted with eloquence that there is scarcely his equal to be found even among the greatest orators of classical antiquity– that this man, so richly furnished by nature and so thoroughly qualified by grace should come before a few poor people at Corinth, all of whom were as inferior to himself naturally and spiritually, as one man could be to another, and yet be "with them in weakness and in fear and in much trembling."

How can we explain this? Let us see whether we can get into the mystery; for we do not see much of it in our modern preachers. They are certainly not Pauls in preaching, whether we view their abilities, or their gifts, or their grace. Why then should they not also be "in weakness, fear, and trembling," when they have so much less to support them in the work of the ministry than he had? It is indeed one of those mysteries which are hidden from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and revealed to babes. Some little personal experience however of the mystery will be the best clue through the labyrinth, the best solution of the enigma.

A. The first thing which this man of God felt in the exercise of his ministry was weakness.

1. It might have been in part BODILYweakness. A man could hardly have passed through what he endured without its leaving some marked effects upon the body. "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," he says to the Galatians. (Gal. 6:17.) He gives us, in another epistle, a catalogue of his bodily sufferings for Christ's sake– "Five different times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea." (2 Cor. 11:24, 25.) And after enumerating a variety of "perils," he adds those touching words– "I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food. Often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of how the churches are getting along." (2 Cor. 11:27, 28.) This long series of bodily sufferings must have told upon his strength and constitution, and made him prematurely old, so that in writing to Philemon, when he could not have been above 56 or 57 years of age, a time of life when many ministers are in the prime of their strength, he calls himself "Paul the aged." Knowing so much myself of bodily weakness, and feeling it at the present moment, I have perhaps, invalid-like, dwelt too long on this point, and therefore shall not press it any father.

2. But whether this bodily weakness were little or much, it was as nothing compared with his SPIRITUALweakness. And was there not good reason why he should deeply and continually feel this? Look at the continual drain upon him by the thorn in the flesh– that running sore, of which the effect would be to drain away all his creature strength. It is true that he was so blessedly supported under his infirmities, and the strength of Christ made so perfect in them, that he could even glory and take pleasure in them; but infirmities still they were, and were felt by him as such. And what does infirmity mean but weakness? Look also at the continual conflict which he had with his corrupt nature, as described so vividly and so graphically in Romans 7. He could not go through that without its bringing down all the strength of his natural heart. Even the very manifestations of Christ and the glorious revelations with which he was so singularly and blessedly favored, though he was strengthened by them to endure all things for the elect's sake, yet weakened and brought down his natural strength; for we know that any great discoveries of the love and goodness of God have a powerful effect upon the natural frame; for in its present condition, neither body nor mind can bear much excess of sorrow or joy, especially of a spiritual nature. How strikingly was this the case with the prophet Daniel– "As for me, Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me." So also– "Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me– for my loveliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength." (Dan. 10:8.) And again, he says, "O my Lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength." (Dan. 10:16.) Similarly we may well suppose that Paul, in one sense, sank, though in another he rose under the weight of his glorious manifestations. There were therefore abundant reasons why he should stand before the people in weakness.

But consider also the burdens he had to carry, such as the responsibility of his position as an ambassador of Christ, so deeply felt by him; the difficulties he had to contend with from within and from without, all standing in formidable array against him and the gospel which he had to preach; his sense of the value of immortal souls, to whom his ministry was addressed; the pressure of eternal realities ever abiding on his spirit, with many deep and solemn thoughts of that day in which all secrets are to be laid bare. Is there a man who knows anything of spiritual exercises who does not also know what weakness is, from this very circumstance, that all the power of nature fails and falls when it comes into contact with divine and eternal realities? But the very nature of his message, the very subject of his preaching, the very character of his testimony were such as made him stand up in weakness. For what was it? What Mr. Deer well calls in his 'Experience', prefixed to his hymns, "the despised mystery of a crucified man."

Yes; to let Paul speak in his own language– "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Cor. 2:1, 2.) He well knew what this preaching would be considered to be, and that Christ crucified would be "unto the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness." Though he knew that the foolishness of God, as men counted it, was wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger than men, yet having such a testimony to bear– so strange, so unheard of, so despised by, and so abhorrent alike to Jew and Gentile, he could not but feel the weakness of himself as a preacher of the despised cross.

O that we could see more of this felt and acknowledged weakness in the professed servants of God! It would make them and their testimony far more acceptable than it now is to the living family. It is painful for the minister himself to feel. I never felt it more or perhaps so much as I do now, but it is good for the people that the minister should feel it, that he may seek and find the strength of Christ made perfect in it.

B. But Paul had also his FEAR. What fear was this? Certainly not "the fear of a man that brings a snare"– such a carnal fear we cannot find a trace of in the man or his ministry. His fear was of another kind, and arose from quite other causes. It arose, then, partly from a solemn apprehension of the Majesty of God– a reverence and holy awe of that great and glorious Lord with whom he had to do. Blended with this, there was a godly fear lest he might in any way by a misplaced word, or by any unwary action, put a stumbling block in the way of any seeker after or lover of truth, or that he might not commend himself as a servant of God to the people's conscience with such authority, power, and evidence as he would wish.

Let us not forget that as a man he had all these infirmities. They cleaved to him as they cleaved to us. What he wrote to the Churches he wrote by divine inspiration, and of his ministry generally, as an apostle of the Lord, he could say, "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (1 Cor. 2:13.) But that he had his fears is evident from his own words– "Without were fightings, within were fears." (2 Cor. 7:5.) And that these fears did not arise from cowardice, unwillingness to suffer persecution for Christ's sake, dread of death or even martyrdom, is equally evident from his boldness under the most trying circumstances, as when he would, but for the disciples preventing him, have entered in unto the people at Ephesus, when they were like wild beasts ready to tear him to pieces in the very theater. (Acts 19:29-31.) It was not then that he feared the cross, as to his own share of suffering, but lest the preaching of the cross should not meet with the longed-for reception. United with this, was a sense of the powerlessness of man, both in himself to give, and in them to receive any blessing from the preaching of the cross, and lest his testimony should in any way fall to the ground.

C. A sense of all these things, combined with others into which we cannot penetrate, for who can but partially read the heart of an apostle? so deeply affected him as to make him tremble, and that in no small degree. "I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much TREMBLING." Not that he trembled through any carnal apprehension of his hearers, but under a sense of the greatness of the work, his own inability rightly to perform it, the message he had to carry, and the powers of earth and hell arrayed against it. He had felt the power of God's word upon his heart, and this made him tremble. This is an especial mark of the Lord's saints and servants. "To this man will I look, even to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit, and trembles at my word." (Isa. 66:2.) "Do you not fear me, says the Lord? Will you not tremble at my presence?" (Jer. 5:22.)

Even a sense of God's goodness makes the soul tremble as with holy awe. It was so with Daniel, for though the Lord said, "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved," yet we read, "When he had spoken this word, I stood trembling." (Dan. 10:11.) And this made Jeremiah say, "They shall fear and tremble for all the goodness, and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it." (Jer. 33:9.) Thus Paul stood, as every servant of God will in a measure stand, and just in proportion to his knowledge of divine realities for himself, before these few poor Corinthians, "in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling."

What a noble, what an honorable confession! What humility, sincerity, and honesty! What a pattern and example for every servant of God. But I may well add, what a solemn rebuke to the levity manifested in too many a pulpit in the present day. What a keen and cutting reproof, too, of that arrogance, pride, self-conceit, vain confidence, and daring presumption in which so many men stand who profess to preach the gospel of the grace of God. What? that Paul, compared with whom they are but pygmies in the presence of a giant; that Paul, who had more grace in his little finger, than they in all their body; that this man of such deep experience, unrivaled eloquence, and powerful gifts should be in weakness, fear, and much trembling; and that they should stand up in such arrogant pretension as if they were warranted to be strong where an apostle was weak, they to presume where a man of God feared, and they to be bold where he who had been in the third heaven trembled!

I hope I can say for myself, that I stand up before you this morning, for the first time of my visit this year, in a little of the same spirit of which the apostle speaks. In weakness of body you all know and can probably see; but in weakness too of soul, which is better felt by preacher and hearer than seen. In fear too, as feeling my own inability to preach the word of life as I would desire to preach it, and my dependence on the Lord for every gracious thought and word. The apostle could say, "in much trembling." I must omit the word "much," for I have not his experience or grace; yet would I wish to tremble at God's word. And if I do not actually tremble before you, it is not from levity, arrogance, or presumption, as I sensibly feel my inability to handle the things of God with that light, life, and liberty which I desire, and feeling in some measure the solemn matters which I have to dispense, and the opposition raised up against them by the power of unbelief in my own heart, and the power of unbelief in yours.

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