Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2885
“For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” Hebrews 2:18.
THAT which is the most simple lesson the Gospel has to teach is often the most difficult lesson for the Christian to learn. That simple lesson is that we must not look to ourselves for anything good, but that we must look to the Lord, alone, for all our righteousness. The lesson is short, as well as simple. It is easy to repeat but, as often as our faith is severely tried, we find how apt we are to forget that which is the very Alpha of the Gospel—that man, in himself, is wholly lost and that all his hope of help and salvation must rest on Christ, that apart from God there is nothing upon which faith can fasten itself—and that without the atoning Sacrifice and justifying Righteousness of Christ, the quickening and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and the everlasting love of the Father, there is neither joy, nor peace, nor comfort, nor hope to be found anywhere. This seems to be a very easy lesson, yet even aged Believers, when their hair is getting gray and they are about to enter the land of perfect peace and rest, still find the temptation to unbelief too much for them and they begin to look for something good in the creature—and to seek for happiness in themselves—instead of seeking all good in God.
I want to try to teach you this lesson again. And to also learn it myself, for I need to learn it as much as you do—the lesson of looking away from our temptations and from our own weakness and inability to repel those temptations—to Him who, having Himself suffered in being tempted, “is able to aid those who are tempted.” Let us fix our eyes upon our great High Priest and leave Satan and all his insinuations, his blasphemies and his temptations out of the question. Or, rather, let us bring them to Christ and see them all finished in Him! I am going to address three separate characters that are represented here—first, the confirmed Believer Secondly, the young beginner. And, thirdly, the backslider And then, summoning the attention of the whole company here assembled, I shall try to commend the comfort and instruction of the text to you all.
I. First, let me speak TO ADVANCED CHRISTIANS.
You all have your trials and those trials are of an advanced character. The troubles with which the plants of God’s right-hand planting are assailed when they are saplings are quite inconsiderable compared with those which come upon them when they are like cedars firmly rooted. As surely as our strength increases, so will our sufferings, our trials, our labors, or our temptations. God’s power is never given to a man to be stored up unused. The heavenly food that is sent to strengthen us, like the manna given to the Israelites in the wilderness, is intended for immediate use. If the Lord sends you much, you shall have nothing beyond what you can use for Him though, blessed be His holy name, if you have but little, you shall have no need! When the Lord puts upon our feet the shoes of iron and brass which He has promised us in His ancient Covenant, He intends that we should wear them and walk in them—not that we should put them into our museum and gaze upon them as curiosities. If He gives us a strong hand, it is because we have a strong foe to fight. If He gives us a great meal—like that which He gave to Elijah—it is in order that, in the strength of that meal, we may go for 40 days or even longer.
Perhaps, my Brother or Sister, you are, just now, in great trouble. You have grown in Grace and your troubles have also grown. You feel that you need someone to whom you can tell your trouble—your trouble very likely arises from the
absence of your Lord. Let me remind you that in this respect you are very like the Israelites in the wilderness, when Moses had been absent from them for 40 days. They said, “What shall we do? Our leader is gone. He who was king in Jeshurun has departed from us and we are left like sheep without a shepherd.” So they went—I dare not say that they went for counsel, but they went—to the high priest. And you remember what they said and what he did. Alas, he gave them no good counsel, for he was as unwise as they were—and as untried. He had always had Moses by his side ever since the day that the Lord had said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother?…He shall be to you instead of a mouth and you shall be to him instead of God.” Aaron had never been left without his great leader and so, in his absence, he failed miserably and led the people in the making and worshipping of the golden calf!
How different it will be with you who mourn the loss of the Light of your Lord’s Countenance, if you go to our Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ! He knows the meaning of your present trial, for He had once to cry, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” You tell Him that your “soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death,” and He tells you that it was so with Him, also, on that night in which He was betrayed, when, “being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” No untried Priest is He! He can sympathize and He can aid you.