A DISCOURSE UPON TRUE BLESSEDNESS HERE AND HEREAFTER – Charles Spurgeon
A DISCOURSE UPON TRUE BLESSEDNESS HERE AND HEREAFTER
“Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him.” James 1:12.
Introduction: The Concept of Blessedness
The text is a Beatitude. It begins with BLESSED. We should all like to be blessed. What a more than golden word that “blessed” is! It begins the Psalms of David—there is sweetest poetry in it. It begins the sermon of the Son of David. It is the end of all holy teaching. Happiness” is the earthly word. Blessedness” is the heavenly one. Happiness may prove to be a superficial appearance, but blessedness is deep as the abyss. Happiness ripples like a flowing brook, but blessedness is a springing well. Happiness may be wholly human, but blessedness has the Divine element in it. Happiness is transient; blessedness is eternal! Happiness may lie in our own conception of things; blessedness is God’s verdict, God’s truthful statement of a man’s condition! Happiness may prove but tinsel—blessedness is solid gold. Oh, to be blessed! Blessed of the Lord which made Heaven and earth!
Where Are These Blessed Men?
Where are these blessed men? There are such still upon the earth, for the text says, “Blessed is the man.” It speaks not of a phantom, but of a man. It treats not of an ideal man, but of one who is tried and made to endure temptation. I hear in this verse the echo of the music of many a Psalm which was chanted by the saints hundreds of years ago! James took pen in hand concerning blessed men, and of the same persons, David, long before, had sung of men well known to him. There are such persons as blessed men, or the eminently practical James would not have written concerning them. It is true the curse has fallen on the world and man is born to endure toil and suffering in tilling a thorn-bearing earth and earning his bread with the sweat of his face, but for all that, there are blessed men—men so blessed that the wilderness and the solitary place are glad for them—and by their presence, the desert is made to rejoice and blossom as the rose!
The Misconception About Blessedness
Great mistakes are made as to the persons who are happy and blessed. Some suppose that the wealthy must be blessed—but if their lives were written, it could be proven, without a doubt, that some of those who have had the largest possessions have had the very least of blessedness, especially when those possessions have brought with them the curses of the oppressed and the wailings of the down-trodden. It must be an awful thing to have tons of cankered gold and silver pressing upon the soul—and burying the true life beneath the accursed load! Yes, and when wealth comes justly, it often brings such care, such burdensomeness with it, that it is well described in the Scriptures as a load of thick clay! In addition, there may be such a lack of power to enjoy it that the man may be rather cursed than blessed by his possessions. Well may we pity the man who has pictures but no sight, music but no ear, meat but no appetite, estates but no health with which to enjoy them. Are there not thousands of such? Certainly, they are not blessed by their fortunes.
Moreover, riches are uncertain things. Like the hoarfrost of the morning, they are gone when the sun is up. Do but clap your hands and the birds that cover the fields fly away—and so do riches—they “take to themselves wings and fly away.” How should such fleeting things bring blessedness to the fields on which they light for so short an hour? No, look not in gold mines for blessedness, for it gleams not among the nuggets. Blessedness cannot be gotten for all the treasures of the miser, or the wealth of nations.
The Misconception About Power and Position
But, surely, it is to be found in positions of eminence and power! These are greatly coveted and men will sell their souls to win them. But I suppose from what I have read of history that if I were to select the most unhappy set of men beneath the vault of Heaven, one would only have to select statesmen, emperors, and kings! Surely on the day of his installation, the great man may well say, “Farewell peace!” I should certainly not search among the lofty glaciers of yonder Alps to find the flowers of happiness. All is chill and cold and tempestuous in the high places of the earth. And if one had the choice of such a place, he might accept it out of a self-denying wish to do good, but otherwise he were unwise to have it as a gift. Not the high but the holy are blessed—not those who sit with the great, but those who serve with the good are marked out by the Lord as blessed.
Wisdom and Knowledge Are Not The Source of True Blessedness
Nobler natures feel no greed for gold and pine for no distinction of rank. They count those blessed who know and are stored with wisdom. Surely to pry into the secrets of Nature and read the pages of philosophy must be a pleasure of a lofty kind. Therefore ambitious youth burns the midnight oil—and the oil from the marrow of life as well—hoping that in search and study, the mystery of blessedness will be discovered. But is it so? Does he that increases knowledge increase joy? Does he not, rather add to his sorrow? If knowledge were bliss, the devil would be in Heaven! Should we possess the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, yet these would profit us nothing in the trade of happiness.
The True Source of Blessedness
In another school than that of Plato, we must learn, in whatever state we are, to be content. Blessedness is not the bookworm of the library, but a spirit which descends from above! But some think that, surely, blessedness may be had by a combination of dignity and wisdom and riches. Put these together and a man might surely be blessed! And yet it does not seem so. I should think that no mortal that ever lived had finer opportunities than Solomon. He began with a blessed heritage from a father who was a man after God’s own heart. He gathered riches like the sand of the sea and he had a capacious mind like the sea itself! None of that age could be thought of as his rival and, perhaps, none since have altogether equaled this many-sided man. He denied himself no luxury. He abstained from no pleasure. He tried everything that could be tried, both serious and comic. There was nothing from which he stayed his hand. He cast everything into the crucible and he brought out of it, not gold, but ashes! Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity.” This is the conclusion of Solomon’s life as well as of Solomon’s discourse. No, you cannot find blessedness on a throne nor in making many books, nor in seeking out many inventions, nor in enjoying all luxuries. These things all cry, “It is not in me!” Blessedness is a thing which is not discoverable beneath the moon, apart from Him who sits above this world and looks down—and by His Spirit influences human minds after the best things. Apart from Him you may have health and wealth and talent and eminence and power and dignity—and yet be written down among the most wretched of mankind! If you want blessedness, hear Him speak who knows. That is, hear the Holy Spirit speak by the mouth of His servant James—“Blessed is the man that endures temptation.”
I. The Blessed Man in This Life
We are going to find him first, in this present world, and consider him in this present life. Let us behold THE BLESSED IN THIS LIFE. “Blessed is the man that endures temptation.” It does seem very startling, at first sight, that the blessed man should be described in this way. Notice, it does not say, “Blessed is the man that is tempted,” nor, “Blessed is the man that is beset by temptation.” No. “Blessed is the man that endures temptation.” That is to say, the man who bears up under it, survives it, is not led aside by it, but endures it as gold endures the fire.
But observe, first, that it does not say, “Blessed is the man who is never tempted.” I am sure that word has often been ready upon our lips when we have been in the sharp fire of the enemy. We have said, “Blessed is that man who is never tried, never afflicted, never tempted. Oh, when shall we get to the place where there shall be none of these trials and temptations?” But James says not, “Blessed is the man who is not tempted,” but, “Blessed is the man that endures temptation.” Look, Sirs, suppose we are professing Christians tonight and, as such, think that we have genuine faith in Christ—that we have a bright hope of Heaven—that we have a pure and fervent love to God—that we have, in ourselves, received the gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit and that we are certainly the children of God? These are flattering beliefs and tend greatly to our present comfort. But suppose none of these have been tried? It would be a very presumptuous and unwise thing for us to pronounce ourselves blessed, for when such trial shall come—and come it will to us all in life or in death—suppose all our happy signs and cheering tokens should fail us? We cannot say that we are blessed till our Graces have been tried and proven— and when they have been tried and proven and we have endured the test in God’s great proof-house, then are we blessed, but not till then!
The Blessing of Endurance
Here is a man who has received a file of what looks to be bank notes and he thinks he is very rich. Have you tried to pass one of them? Have you taken one of them to a bank? No, poor fool! He does not wish to have his fine fortune tried, but he gets angry when you suggest a doubt. And yet his wealth is mere fiction! Those flimsy papers are bank notes of the Bank of Elegance and if he were to attempt to pass them, he might rather be suspected to be a thief than be judged to be a rich man! Much faith in this world is no better than that—and he is not blessed, but blinded—that possesses it! He is blessed who has tried his faith, who has gone to God with a promise and received an answer to his prayer. He is blessed who has had his faith tried—who, having been put into the furnace, has by that faith in God been made to walk safely amid the flaming coals and to come out unharmed.
II. The Blessed Man in the World to Come
Just a few words on WHAT THE BLESSED MAN IS TO BE, BY-AND-BY. “When he is approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him.”
He shall receive a crown. Of course, the allusion is to the Grecian games. See how the man runs! Every muscle is strained. There is not a part of his body but what is violently exercised. He tries to pass his fellows. He flies to the goal; he reaches it and then he receives a crown. A crown of laurel, or of ivy, or, perhaps, of parsley, is put upon his head. It has no value in itself. The Greeks were so little honest that a man could not have kept his crown in his house if it had been worth a penny. Strong rooms and iron safes had not, then, been dreamed of and, therefore, they gave the athletic Greek a crown of fading leaves—and yet many men threw away health and even life to gain that paltry wreath! Though it was intrinsically worthless, it had about it a meaning which made each leaf inexpressibly precious to him who labored for it and obtained it.
Now, if we live through faith in Christ, by God’s Grace, a life that shall be full of purity and holiness, God will give us a crown, not of laurel, nor of parsley, nor even of gold and rarest gems, but a, “crown of life that He has promised to them that love Him.” Very wonderful, is it not, that God should reward our poor endeavors? Yet so He will! Let us dwell, just for a minute, upon the figure of a crown. What did that crown mean? It meant something done—a race finished, a battle fought, a prize poem written with care and accepted by the Greek world. It recorded and rewarded something done. Oh, it will be glorious, at last, for Christ to say, “Well done!” That crown which is promised us is not for talk, nor thought, nor vow, but it records something done.
The Crown of Life
A crown signifies something done and that something appreciated. A crown meant reward. Now, in the Gospel system, there is room for a reward, though it is not of debt, but of Grace. The child of God, like Moses, has “respect unto the recompense of the reward.” He does not run to win a crown by his own merit, but he runs knowing that there will be a crown given to him according to the love and goodness of the God of Grace. It is not difficult for a child of God to hate legality and yet to expect a reward at the last. He knows how the great Lord who saves us by His Grace does also reward us according to His Grace!
God grant us, then, Brothers and Sisters, to be living so as to receive the gracious reward of a holy life. There is a crown for me. Does it make you laugh? I think I seldom think of it without beginning to laugh. Shall you and I wear crowns? Shall it be that our poor limping will yet win the race—that our staggering struggles will yet overcome and that we shall be crowned? O you dear Christian people that live in poverty and obscurity, I have a reverence for your heads which are already anointed with Grace, for your heads that are yet to be crowned with Glory! You run—often run better than the greatest and most observed of your fellow Christians—and you shall not miss your reward! There is a crown laid up, not only for Paul, “but for all them that love our Lord’s appearing.” Therefore, laugh to yourselves, not with unbelief as Sarah did, but with a holy joy, as Abraham did! Shall I have a crown? Shall this aching brow be decked with a crown? Shall this forehead be decked with a tiara? O my God, will You set a coronet upon my head? Then will I gird up my loins and quicken my pace, since the crown is so sure to those who run with patience!
Conclusion: The Living Crown
What is life? Well, I thought to myself, this morning, as I was preaching and the multitude were listening so eagerly, “This is life.” It was no dead work to preach! Sometimes one preaches and you are like a yacht out at sea without a capful of wind—and there you lie dead, becalmed, motionless. Many a sermon resembles a dead ship on a dead sea! But when the breeze is up and you fly before it merrily, then you say, “This is life.” This kind of thing comes to us in our spiritual work, as well as in our everyday course. Life does not mean existence. Why, they say that when God promises eternal life to Christians, it means that they shall eternally exist. They always must eternally exist because God has made their souls immortal—but there is no blessing in eternal existence! On the contrary, it may curdle into a curse. The blessing is in eternally living—and what is living? It is not mere existing! In fact, existence, though it is essential to life, does not enter into the meaning of life, nor so much as come near it! To live means to be in health, to be in vigor, to be in force, to be in joy, to be in right and fit condition, to have one’s whole self in order and to enjoy all that surrounds you with all that is within you. God will give to all His people, by-and-by, such a crown of life! There shall be no sickness—the inhabitant shall no more say, “I am sick.” There shall be no weakness—even our body shall be raised with power. There shall be no dullness—we shall be forever fresh and young—led to living fountains of water! There shall be no emptiness, no sense of depletion, nor of need—we shall be forever filled with all the fullness of God. There shall be no pain, no misery—but a plenitude of enjoyment at His right hand where there are pleasures forevermore. We shall possess and enjoy all that manhood can desire. All that you can ask or think shall be yours and much more than that—inconceivable enjoyment, bliss, rapture and ecstasy—all shall be bestowed upon you by the unstinted hand of boundless love. Life shall crown all! All your life shall be crowned and all the crown shall be life!