3503. Joy in Salvation

A Sermon Published On Thursday, March 16, 1916.

I will rejoice in your salvation. {Ps 9:14}

1. I desire to continue the topic of this morning, only we will look at another side of the same important matter. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1003, “Your Own Salvation” 994} We spoke this morning, as you have not forgotten, on these words, “Your own salvation.” I trust most of us—oh that I could hope all of us—were earnest about our own personal salvation. For those who are earnest this second text will be the complement of the first. They desire that their own salvation shall be secure; it is their own salvation when they obtain it; but here is the guide concerning what is the right salvation—what our own salvation ought to be. It is not our own in another sense; it is God’s. “I will rejoice in your salvation.” While it becomes our own by an act of faith, it is not our own so that we can claim any merit or take any part of the glorying for ourselves. The only salvation that is worth being our own is what is God’s. “I will rejoice in your salvation.” Having this morning somewhat at length explained what salvation is, showing that it was not a mere deliverance from wrath to come, but from the present wrath of God, and yet more essentially from sin, from the power of evil within us, there is no need that we should go over that again, I trust; but we shall begin by noticing the speciality which is in the text, dwelling on the divine salvation. “I will rejoice in your salvation.”

2. I. So, then, we look at once at:—A DIVINE SALVATION.

3. The salvation we have already spoken of is God’s, and it is God’s salvation in many ways. It was his in the planning. No one but him could have planned it. In his infinite wisdom he devised it. Every part of the salvation in all its architecture, which is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ in the gospel, is the fruit of divine skill. We may say, “Or with whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him, and who taught him knowledge?” In every part the divine hand may be seen; it is of God’s planning and ordaining, even before the earth was.

4. So it is of God’s providing. You have salvation wrapped up in the gift of the person of Jesus Christ. All of it lies in Christ. Because he died, our sin is put away. Because he lives, we shall live also. And Christ is the pure gift of God. All salvation is in him, and, therefore, all salvation is procured by God. It is God’s salvation.

5. And what is more, God not only plans and procures, but he also applies salvation. I believe in free agency, but I never yet met a Christian man who was able to say that he came to Christ of his own free will without being drawn by the Spirit of God. Whatever our doctrinal view may be, the practical fact is the same in every case. All believers will confess that they are God’s workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus. “No man can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him.” There is a lack of power. “You will not come to me so that you might have life.” There is a lack of will, and the Spirit of God, therefore, applies the salvation which God has planned, and which God has provided.

6. And just as the first application of this salvation is of God, so it is all the way through. I do not believe, dear brethren, that our religion is like the action of a clock wound up at first by a superior hand, and then left to go alone. No! every day the Holy Spirit must continue to work on us, and in us, to will and to do according to God’s good pleasure. And if you and I should ever get right up to the gate of pearl, and should hear the songs of the blessed within that gate, we should not be able to take the last step, but would turn back to our sin and folly even, if he who began a good work in us should cease to carry it on. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. “Salvation is from the Lord,” from first to last. He makes the rough draft of it, in conviction, on our conscience; he goes on to complete the picture; and if there is one touch in the picture that is not by God, it is a blot on it. If there is anything of the flesh, it will have to be wiped out; it is not consistent with the work of God. It is in all respects from God.

7. Now we know that this salvation is by God, not only because we are told that he planned it, and provided it, and applied it, but because it has the marks of God on it. There is a certain line of poetry; I know it is Shakespeare’s. Well, you know, I cannot quite tell you why, but yet I am sure no one ever wrote exactly in that way. I am reading the Psalms through, and I read and I say, “That is David’s.” I observe certain critics who say, “No, this belongs to the time of the captivity.” I am certain it does not. And why? Because there is a Davidic ring about it, you know. The son of Jesse, and he alone, could have said such things. Now in salvation there are the marks of divine authorship. I once saw a painting by Titan at Venice, and he had written, “Fecit, fecit Titian.” {He did it, he did it, Titian} He claimed it twice over, as if to make sure that someone else would not claim it. And God has put it three times over that there would be no doubt whatever that salvation is by God, and he must have the glory for it.

8. Now observe the marks of God—what I may call the broad arrow {a} of the King—set on salvation. It is full of mercy. Here is salvation for the blackest of sinners—salvation for all kinds of sin—forgiveness for all kinds of sin—salvation so full of grace that only God could have conceived it. “Who is a pardoning God like you?” But this salvation is equally congenial with justice, for God never absolutely forgives a sin. There is always punishment for sin in every case. Jesus Christ, the Substitute, comes in and satisfies Justice before the word is spoken to the sinner, “Your transgression is blotted out.” In the salvation which God has provided on the cross by the death of his dear Son there is as much justice as there is mercy; and there is an infinity of both. Now this is Godlike. Man, if he brings out one quality, usually clouds another with it; but God exhibits his character in harmonious completeness—as merciful as if he were not just, and as just as if he were not gracious. In the gospel, on this account, we also see divine wisdom. Whatever some may say about the doctrine of substitution, Christ is still the power of God and the wisdom of God. The way, so simple, yet so sublime, by which God is just, and yet the justifier of him who believes, exhibits the infinite wisdom of the Most High.

9. But I will not detain you by mentioning all the divine attributes. It is certain they all shine in the gospel, nor can any tell which of the letters is written the best—the power, the wisdom, or the grace. They are all there, proving the salvation to be by God.

10. And there is one other matter. True salvation is by God because it draws towards God. If you have God’s salvation, you are being drawn towards your heavenly Father, nearer and nearer every day. The ungodly forget God; the awakened seek God; but the saved rejoice in God. Ask yourself this question, Could you live without God? The ungodly man would be happier without God than he is with him. It would be the best piece of news in the newspaper for thousands, if we could publish it tomorrow, that God was dead. To ungodly men it would be like ringing the bells of universal joy; they would run riot after their own will. And where would the believer be? He would be an orphan. His sun would be blotted out; his hopes would be dead and buried. Judge by this whether you are saved. If you are saved, you are drawn to God, you seek to be like God, you desire to honour God. If there are none of these things in you, then I charge you to see to it, for you are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity. May God have mercy on you!

11. I need not further say that the salvation is of God, and God must have all the glory for it. All on earth who are saved, and all in heaven who are saved, will ascribe their salvation entirely to the ever-blessed God, and join with Jonah, who in the very depths of the sea made this, his confession of faith, “Salvation is from the Lord.”

12. II. But now, secondly, our text (having noticed the divine salvation in it) has:—AN OUTSPOKEN AFFIRMATION.

13. “I will rejoice in your salvation.” Here is someone springing out from the common crowd and saying, “I have heard of God’s salvation; I will rejoice in it! I will rejoice in it! Some despise it. They hear it, and they turn a deaf ear. When they have listened to it longest, they are most weary of it. But I will rejoice in your salvation.” Here is a distinguished character, who is made so, doubtless, by distinguishing grace. Oh! I hope there are many of us here who could stand up and say—if this were the time and place—”Let others say what they wish, and consider the cross a thing to mock at, and Jesus Christ to be forgotten, I am his servant; I will rejoice in his salvation.”

14. There are some who rest in another salvation. We all did so once. But he who speaks in the text throws aside self-righteousness as filthy rags. He puts it all aside, and says, “I will rejoice in your salvation.” If I were righteous, I would not say so. Had I a perfect holiness, I would not mention it in comparison with the righteousness of Christ; but being an unworthy sinner, without a single merit of my own, I will not be so foolish as to patch up a fictitious righteousness, but I will rejoice in your salvation. You see them there!—those worshippers of the scarlet woman—they are resting in their priest! He puts on millinery, blue, pink, scarlet, white, and I do not know what else—all kinds of little toys to please fools with. And there are some who rejoice in that salvation that comes from an “infallible” sinner—that comes from a sham priest of God. But we are looking to Christ, who stands before the eternal throne and pleads the merits of his own blood. We say:—

   Let all the forms that men devise

      Assault our faith with treacherous art,

   We’ll call them vanity and lies,

      And bind the gospel to our heart.

15. “I will rejoice in your salvation.” There may be some tonight to whom I shall speak who are rejoicing in God’s salvation through his abundant grace who have very little else to rejoice in. You are very poor. Ah! how welcome you are to this house! How glad I am that you have come. I feel it is always a joy that the people have the gospel preached to them. Well, you have no broad acres, you have no gold rings on your fingers; you come in the garb of toil. Never mind, my brother, lay hold on eternal life and say, “I will rejoice in your salvation.” Perhaps you are sick tonight—your poor weak body could scarcely drag itself up to the assembly of God’s people. Well, well, it is a heavy thing to have to suffer so, but if you cannot rejoice in a healthy body, yet rejoice in his salvation. Look tonight to Jesus; put your trust in him alone, and you will have a sufficient well-spring of joy, if you have nothing else. Possibly some of you who lay hold on Christ and rejoice in him will have hard times of it at home—your father will mock you, your mother will not sympathize with you; your work-mates tomorrow, if they hear that you are converted, will laugh, and jest, and jeer at you. What do you say? Are you a coward? Will you back out of it because it demands a sacrifice? Oh! if it is so, then you are indeed unworthy of the name, and consider yourself so; but if you are what you should be, you will say, “Let them; laugh at me as they wish, and spit on me as they please, I will rejoice in your salvation.”

   If on my face for thy dear name,

      Shame and reproach may be;

   I’ll hail reproach and welcome shame,

      For thou’lt remember me.

It takes some pluck, but we ought to have it in the cause of Christ. Your mean, miserable wretches that will only go out to follow Christ in sunny weather, and disappear when a cloud darkens the sky, deserve well the wrath that comes on them. They are like the Nautilus, very well on the placid sea, but the first billow that arises they furl their sails and drop into the deep, and are seen no more. Oh! beware, beware, beware of a sunny-weather religion; beware of a religion that will not stand the fire; but be such that, if all the world forsook Christ, you would say, “I will rejoice in his salvation”; and if you were turned out of doors, if you were turned out of the world itself, and thought not fit to live, you would still be content to have it so, if you might be numbered with the people of God, and be permitted to rejoice in his salvation.

16. Does this, as I try to speak it, awaken a holy emotion in any soul here? Is there someone who has been a stranger to my Lord who tonight can say, “I desire to rejoice in his salvation”? I cannot forget, when I sat as a young lad under the gallery of a little place of worship, hearing the gospel simply preached—the blessed moment when I was led to resolve to follow Christ. I have never been ashamed of having done so. I have never had to regret it. He is a blessed Master. He has handled me roughly recently, but he is a blessed Master. I would follow at his heels if only like a dog, for it is better to be his dog than to be the devil’s darling. He is a blessed Master. Let him say what he wishes, and do what he wishes. Oh! is there no young man here, no youth, no child, no girl; is there no grey-headed one who will say, “I will rejoice in your salvation”? Oh eternal Spirit, come and touch some heart, and make this, their spiritual birthright, that they may say, “I—I—I will rejoice in your salvation.”

17. III. But we must pass on, for time presses. We have, in the third place, to consider in the text:—A DELIGHTFUL EMOTION.

18. We have noticed the divine salvation, and the outspoken affirmation; now we will notice the delightful emotion. “I will rejoice in your salvation.” It is an unfortunate thing that Christianity gets associated with melancholy. I will not forbid the banns, for they are not very near of kin, but I wish they were further apart every day. It is a good thing for the melancholy to become a Christian; it is an unfortunate thing for the Christian to become melancholy. If there is any man in the world who has a right to have a bright, clear face and a flashing eye, it is the man whose sins are forgiven him, and who is saved with God’s salvation.

19. In order for any man, however, to rejoice in God’s salvation, he must, first of all, know it. There must be an intelligent apprehension of what it is. Next, he must grasp it by an act of faith as his own. Then, having grasped it, he must study it to know the price at which it was bought, and all the qualities—the divine qualities—that follow from it.

20. Then he must hold it firmly, and seek to extract the sweetness from it. What is there in God’s salvation that should make us rejoice? I do not know what to select, for it is all joy and all rejoicing. It is enough to make our heart to ring with joy to think that there should be a salvation at all for such poor souls as we are. We may well hang out all the streamers of our spirits, and strew the streets of our soul with flowers, for King Jesus has come to dwell there. Ring every bell; give him a glorious welcome. Let all the soul be glad when Jesus enters and brings salvation with him, for the salvation of Christ is so suitable that we may well rejoice in it. Dear brother, if you are saved, I know the salvation of Christ suited you. It did me—exactly—it was made on purpose for me. I am as sure of it as if there were no other sinner to be saved. It was the gospel that brought power to the weak, indeed, it brought life to the dead; it brought everything to those who had nothing; it is just the kind of gospel for a penniless, bankrupt sinner like myself.

21. We rejoice in the suitability of the gospel; we rejoice in the freeness of it. We have nothing to pay; we have no price to pay, neither of promise, nor of anything that was our own. Salvation was freely given to us in Christ Jesus. Let us rejoice in it, then. Oh! rejoice in the richness of that salvation. When the Lord pardoned our sins, he did not pardon half of them, and leave some of them on the book, but with one stroke of the pen he gave a full receipt for all our debts. When we went down into the fountain filled with blood, and washed, we did not come up half clean, but there was no spot nor wrinkle on us—we were white as driven snow. Glory be to God for such a rich salvation as this. And he did not in that day save us with a perhaps and a chance salvation that set us on a rock, and say, “Keep yourself there—you must depend on yourselves”; but this was the covenant he made with us, “I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a right spirit within you.”

22. It was a complete salvation, which would not permit a failure. The salvation, which is given to the soul that believes is like this, “I give to my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.” “The water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up to everlasting life.” I believe the perseverance of the saints to be the very gem of the gospel. I could not hold the truth of Scripture if this could be disproved to me, for every page seems to have this on it, if nothing else, that “the righteous shall hold on his way, and he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.” In this my soul rejoices, that I have a salvation to preach to you which, if you receive it, will effectively save you if your hearts are given to Christ, and will keep you, and preserve you, and bring you into the eternal kingdom of his glory. I will rejoice in the certain and enduring character of that salvation. Oh! there is enough in the salvation of Christ to make heaven full of bliss; there is enough to make us full of praise. Let us take up the theme; let us talk by the way to each other about it; let us talk to sinners about it; let us recommend religion by our cheerfulness. May levity be far from us, but happiness—let it be the happiest sphere in which we live if we have little else to rejoice in, we have enough here. Whatever may be our condition or prospects, we may still rejoice in God’s salvation, and let us not fail to be filled with this most blissful emotion.

23. And now I must close. The text has in it a word of the future which we must not quite overlook. Here is a joyful gospel, “I will rejoice in your salvation.” You may read it if you like, “I shall”—”I shall” or “I will”—it would be quite right. The Hebrew has no present. It seems to have given up all tenses—like God himself, who was, and is, and is to come. I shall rejoice in your salvation.

24. IV. Now here is:—A BLESSED PROSPECT.

25. You may live to grow old; well, we shall never grow weary of Christ. If we are his people, we shall never have any reason to part from him; “I will rejoice in your salvation.” I could bring up to this platform an aged brother whom all of you would know, who has infirmities and has age creeping up on him, but there is not a happier soul in this house than he; and when I had made him speak to you, I could bring you many more aged women too, and I would ask them what they think of Christ, and I am sure they would say with greater emphasis than I can, “I will rejoice in your salvation.” I almost wish my grandfather were alive and behind me tonight, for on one occasion I preached with him in the pulpit, and when I came to speak of experience he pulled my coat-tail and came to the front, and said, “My grandson can tell you that he believes it, but I can tell you from experience,” and the old gentleman went on with it. Well, many an aged Christian can tell you he has rejoiced in God’s salvation. He does rejoice, and, instead of age making the joy of his youth to become dim, it has mellowed and sweetened the fruit, which was sweet even at the first. Oh! that we may, when these hairs grow hoary with years, and the snows of many winters lie white on our head, may we still rejoice in God’s salvation. But then, whether we reach old age or not, there is one thing that is certain—we shall assuredly die, and when we come to die, what shall we do? I know what you are thinking of. You say, “I should groan.” Indeed, sinner, you are thinking of the friend that is wiping away the clammy sweat from the brow and those closed eyes. Now those may never occur. We often hear them mentioned in reference to death-beds, but they are not so constantly there as to be necessary. And if they were there, if we lost sight itself before life fails—what then? Why, the vision of the Christ, who is our salvation, and in whom we rejoice, shall then be more gloriously clear and radiantly beautiful, because the sights and sounds of earth have vanished from us.

26. Now, instead of looking at these outward parts of dying, think of this, “I will rejoice in your salvation.” When I parted from our dear brother, Cook, a few days ago, he could not say much. He was very, very weak, but what he did say was just this, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is all.” Well, I talked, and read, and prayed, and so on, and when we had finished, he simply said, “The blood—the blood, the blood—that is all my hope.” Why, he looked as calm in prospect of dying as any of you do in sitting here, and was as delighted with the hope of being where Jesus is as any bride was at the coming of the marriage day. It was delightful to see the blessed calm and peace that came over that man of God. And when I come to die, whoever I may be, however little my standing in the Church of God is, if I am in Christ, I will rejoice in his salvation; I will make the dark valley ring with his praises; I will make the river of death itself to roll back as the Red Sea did of old, with my triumphant songs; I will enter heaven with this on my heart and on my lips, “I will rejoice in your salvation! Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive honour, and power, and dominion, and glory for ever and ever!” And, brethren, if that is what we may do in dying, this is what we shall do for ever and ever, “I will rejoice in your salvation.” Millions of ages, throughout all the cycles of years that intervene before Christ delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and then onward, even through eternity, this always shall be our own reason for rejoicing, “I will rejoice in your salvation.”

27. Now I cannot come and stand at the door and speak to everyone as the congregation withdraws, but if it were possible I should like to stand there and shake the hand of everyone who has been in the house tonight, and say, “Well, friend, how does it fare with you? Can you say, ‘I will rejoice in your salvation?’” If I cannot do that, I wish it would be possible to speak in the silent shades of night to you when you awoke, so that you might hear a voice ringing in your ears, “Do you rejoice in God’s salvation?” Perhaps some of you may have come a long distance across the sea. You may be eventually on shipboard again. It may be that you will be in peril, or it may be that afterwards you shall be in sickness. Well, may this evening’s congregation in this day of July rise up before your minds, and if you forget the preacher (and that will not matter), yet if you hear a voice that says, “Can you rejoice in God’s salvation?” I hope that, even if it is twenty years to come, it may then be as the voice of God to your soul, and bring you to the Saviour. But it would be better by far if you would come to him tonight—and you may. May the Spirit of God bring you! Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has everlasting life. The entire gospel is wrapped up in Christ’s message, which he has sent by his apostles, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” To each of you this—this—is the word, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house.” May God add his own blessing, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

{a} Broad Arrow: The arrowhead-mark, used by the British Board of Ordnance, and placed on government supplies. OED.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {1Th 5}

1, 2. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

The great point is that it comes—will certainly come, and it will come when it is least expected. There are certain signs given, by which the righteous shall know of its appearing, but all study of dates and fixing of the time is contrary to the very spirit of the Christian age. We are to abide, always looking for it, believing it may come today, believing it may not come today—believing that the secret of the time is with God. You err if you say it shall be this or that season; you equally err if you say it shall not be then. Let it remain as it is, a secret in the heart of God, you yourselves always ready, expecting it to come.

3. For when they shall say, “Peace and safety”; then sudden destruction comes on them, as travail on a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Sudden and acute shall be the terror of the ungodly when the Lord Jesus in flaming fire shall appear.

4. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

You are brought out of darkness into his marvellous light. Your element is light. “You are all the children of light”; “you are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief.” You know the signs, and, being watchful, you will observe them when the hour comes.

5, 6. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch and be sober.

It is the proper and fitting season for it. That the children of darkness should slumber is no wonder. They are the children of a sleepy time. You are the children of the day; if you sleep, you will be acting contrary to your nature.

7. For those who sleep, sleep in the night. And those who are drunk are drunk in the night.

People were a little more decorous in the apostle’s day than they are now, for there are some who are drunk in the day nowadays, and though we have certainly improved in some things, we seem to have gone back in this. But, at any rate, drunkenness may seem suitable for benighted people, but it is not suitable for those who profess to have the light of God’s grace.

8. But let us, who are of the day, be sober; putting on the breast-plate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

We are of the day, but it is a day of battle. Put on armour, therefore. Be as soldiers who are covered with a panoply. {b} Especially take care of your heart—put on the breast-plate. Faith and love are the sacred protection for this. Take care that you have both. Take care of your head—that also is a vital part; put on the helmet. Hope will do that. A good hope in Christ Jesus will guard you from many violent attacks that will be made on your judgment.

9. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

See there is no ordination to condemnation. Believing in Christ, we have the evidence that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, through sanctification of the Spirit and obedience, and sprinkling of blood.

10, 11. Who died for us, so that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore comfort yourselves together, and edify each other, even as you also do.

It is a good church of which we can say this, especially if we can say it of all the members that they edify each other. Living stones in a living temple should seek to build each other up. May we all try to have a sacred commerce in our knowledge, and other gifts as one trading with another. Everyone may enrich and edify each other. “As you also do.” Why did he tell them to do it, then, if they were doing it? Answer—that they might keep on doing it. The horse that runs best may still be all the better for a spur.

12, 13. And we beseech you, brethren, to know those who labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.

Consider them in your prayers; give them all the help you can; do not be strangers to their office, and to the burden which it brings. God has set them over you. Regard them in that light. Esteem them very highly, not as masters, as though they were lords, but as being over you. “Esteem them highly in love for their works’ sake.”

13. And be at peace among yourselves.

There is an end to church prosperity when there is an end of peace.

14. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly,

There are some who never will be ruled; their very idea of being a Christian is that they shall do just as they like. It is a somewhat happy circumstance that there are sects where they can do so. There are formed nowadays those little groups of people who will have no rule and church government, and who meet to edify each other. Though they speedily go to pieces, it is perhaps all the better for the churches that they are free of them.

14. Comfort the feeble-minded,

They need cheering. You needed it once; return the benefit you have received. Do not lose patience with them for being so foolish. If their minds are feeble, you cannot expect much better from them.

14. Support the weak,

Give them something to cling to. Just as some climbing plants put out their tendrils and need to be helped up, so may you be a prop to these climbers.

14. Be patient towards all men.

Think of what patience God has with you. “Be patient towards all men.”

15. See that no one renders evil for evil to any man;

Not in any case. The world advises you to pay a man in his own coin, but if he pays you bad coin, he is wrong, and if you pay him bad coin there will be two wrongs. Do not do so.

15, 16. But always follow what is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore.

You always have something to rejoice in; make the world ring with Christian music.

17. Pray without ceasing.

Praise and prayer are fit companions. You will soon stop rejoicing if you stop praying. By short quick prayers, keep up your prayers while at your books. You will not disturb your vocations by continuing in supplication and prayer. That provender hinders no man’s journey.

18. In everything give thanks;

Try to do so for everything, and if you cannot do it, in everything give thanks for something else—when you are in circumstances which do not stir up your thankfulness just then.

18. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

God wills it. This moved the Crusaders to the war. Let this suffice to move you in thanksgiving.

19. Do not quench the Spirit.

Do not hinder his movements in yourself; do not try to hinder them in others. If any man has a gift which he might use for edification, do not discourage him, but rather encourage him to obtain more grace. God may find him opportunities of making use of it. Do not quench the Spirit.

20. Do not despise prophesyings.

If they are vain and false, despise them if you wish, but that prophecy especially which deals with the Word of God, for the Word here does not mean merely prophecies of the future—it is often used concerning regular preaching. Do not despise anyone who speaks in God’s name. He may speak with blunders of grammar—forget them; if he is correct in his teaching of divine truth, if he speaks to your heart, if he warns you, if he warns under the Spirit of God, never despise him.

21. Prove all things; hold firmly to what is good.

That first sentence is gotten to be quite a proverb, but that last, I believe, is taken away, which is another example of the common truth that half the truth is a lie. You must give it all or nothing. “Prove all things,” is mischievous teaching, unless you “hold firmly to what is good.” And, after all, in the very first sentence it is not so much “Prove all things,” as “Prove all things”—that is, take nothing on trust. Do not believe it because you are told so. Search the Scriptures; test what you have received, but when you have tested it, do not go around to be for ever proving it. Hold it firmly; grip it; grapple it to you as an ox to the stall. Hold firmly to what is good.

22. Abstain from all appearance of evil.

By which is not meant as some read it, “from everything that someone likes to say looks like evil.” This would be to mar the Christian liberty. But wherever evil puts in an appearance, when it appears to be good, when it has been dressed out—for the word may refer to a Roman spectacle, or grand procession. Avoid evil even when dressed out in its best, when it comes on in all its gallant show to attract you. Avoid every type and kind of evil—that might almost be the translation—abstain from it altogether.

23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly: and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Christian man there is a trinity. His nobler nature is what he received when he was regenerated, and it is his spirit. His soul he has in common with other men. His body he has in common with animals. All, however, must be fully consecrated to God. I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

24. Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it.

What a word of good cheer that is. Sanctification often seems to be a far-off thing, but he will do it. He who called will perfect. The work which his wisdom began, the arm of his strength will complete. His promise is yea and amen. God never did forget yet.

25. Brethren, pray for us.

Because sometimes people think that those of high spiritual attainments do not need their prayers. Remember, if they have a higher position, they have greater dangers.

26. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.

This was the sign of friendship in the east. To attempt to import it to the west would be not only absurd, but wicked. I may properly read it, “Greet all the brethren with a hearty shake of the hand; keep up the outward form of fellowship, for if you do not, you will soon forget the fellowship itself.” The kiss was the oriental custom; it was to be kept up. The shake of the hand is our western custom. Let it be kept up. And I delight to see it when Christians meet, and cordially greet each other after the custom of their land.

27. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.

The Pope would charge you that it be read to no one; but who is he? It seems that this epistle was intended to be read by all the Church, and so also the whole Bible. It is said it is not safe to trust it with the brethren; it is not safe to trust them without it; it is not safe to keep back God’s Word from any man. Let the whole Book be read, and I am sure the more read the better, especially if the last verse is true of every reader.

28. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

{b} Panoply: A complete suit of armour, the “whole armour” of a soldier. OED.