Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3112
“Unto you therefore who believe, He is precious.” 1 Peter 2:7.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon this passage, are as follows Sermons #242, Volume 5—CHRIST PRECIOUS TO BELIEVERS; #2137, Volume 36—(same title as #242) and #3014, Volume 52—A SERMON FROM A SICK PREACHER]
WHEN one has a head cold, it is a very effectual hindrance to thought. You may do what you will and select what subject you may, but somehow or other the mind has lost its elasticity. I frankly confess that for this reason I selected this text for my discourse. I thought that, perhaps, if the head would not work, the heart might, and that if the thoughts came not, yet the emotions might. Emotions may well be stirred in the preacher, if not in the hearer, by the memories awakened by this passage. For I remember well that, more than 22 years ago, the first sermon that I ever attempted to make was from this text. I had been asked to walk out to the little village of Teversham, some little distance from the town of Cambridge, in which I lived, to accompany a young man whom I supposed to be the preacher for the evening, and on the way I said to him that I trusted God would bless him in his labors. “Oh, dear!” he said, “I never preached in my life. I never thought of doing such a thing! I was asked to walk with you and I sincerely hope that God would bless you in your preaching.” “No,” I said, “but I never preached and I don’t know that I could do anything of the sort.” We walked together till we came to the place, my inmost soul being all in a tremble as to what would happen. When we found the congregation assembled, and no one else there to speak of Jesus, though I was only 16 years of age, as I found that I was expected to preach, I did preach, and this was the text.
If a raw recruit could speak upon anything, surely this theme would suit him. If one were dying, this would be the text. If one were distracted with a thousand cares, this would be the text because its teaching is experimental—its meaning wells up from the inner consciousness and needs neither a clear brain nor an eloquent tongue. To the Believer, it is not a thing which somebody else has taught him—it is a matter of fact which he knows within his own soul, that Christ is precious to him and he can bear testimony concerning it although not always such bold testimony as he could wish! I intend to let my heart run over like water from a full cup—just as the thought comes to my heart, it shall be poured out. Let us go, then, at once to our text and speak a little, first, about Believers. Then about their appreciation of Christ. And then about how they show it.
I. ABOUT BELIEVERS—“Unto you who believe.”
Believers are getting to be rather scarce nowadays. Doubters have the sway—they are the men who claim to possess all the wisdom of the period. There is scarcely a single historical fact but what is now doubted. I fancy that the very existence of the human race must be a matter of question with some persons. I believe some imagine that not even they, themselves, are actually existent—certain ideas of themselves exist, but not themselves! We know not how far the human mind will go in this direction, but surely there must be a limit to doubting. Wonderful is the capacity of faith, but a hundred times more wonderful is the capacity of unbelief. The most credulous persons in the world are unbelievers. He who refuses to swallow the gnat of Scriptural difficulty, usually swallows camels in large quantities of other difficulties of all sorts! The text speaks of Believers and, for my part, I am happy to know that a man is reckoned among Believers of any sort rather than with doubters.
But the Believers mentioned here are not mere Believers, they are spiritual Believers, Christian Believers—they believe in Christ Jesus. It is only to such that Christ is precious. In the Word of God there are many expressions with regard to believing in Christ. We read of believing in Him, believing upon Him and believing Him. Now, if I understand the Word aright, believing in Him means this—believing that He is what He claims to be. As, for instance, that He is the Sent One of God, the Messiah—that He is King in Israel, that He is the Son of God, that He is the Word that was God and Was in the beginning with God—that He is the Great High Priest making Atonement for our sins, that He is the Head of the Church and so on. That is to believe inHim, to accept Him as being what God’s Word says He is, to believe God’s testimony concerning His Son.
But believing upon Him goes further than that, for when a man believes upon Jesus, or on Jesus, he trusts Him, he rests himself upon Him for the pardon of his sin. He relies upon the Savior’s atoning Sacrifice for eternal life. He rests upon the Savior’s immortality for his resurrection. He looks to the Savior’s power for everything. He looks to his Redeemer. He leans upon Him, he believes on Him. And this, mark you, is essential to salvation, for we may believe Christ to be God and yet perish! We may believe Christ to be the Great High Priest putting away sin by His atoning Sacrifice and yet perish! The faith that saves is a trustingfaith, a reliant faith, a sacred recumbency, confidence and leaning upon the Lord Jesus Christ! Dear Hearer, do you possess it? Has the Holy Spirit given to you to cast yourself once and for all upon Him whom God has set forth to be a propitiation for sin?