THE TENDER PITY OF THE LORD – Charles Spurgeon
THE TENDER PITY OF THE LORD
“Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13, 14)
David sang of the compassionate pity of our heavenly Father, who will not always chide, nor keep His anger forever. He had proved in relation to himself that the Lord is not easily provoked, but is plenteous in mercy. Remembering how feeble and frail we are, the Lord bears with us, forbearing our weaknesses as a nurse does with her child. Although our own experience shows this to be true, the clearest display of the patience and pity of God towards us may be seen in the life of Him in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily!
Instead of speaking upon Providential Patience, I urge you to gaze upon God in Christ Jesus and see how human weaknesses and follies are pitied by the Lord. With a text from the Old Testament, I will take you straight away to the New, where the tenderness and pity of the Father are illustrated by the meekness and lowliness of the Son towards His immediate disciples—the Apostles. While the Holy Spirit shows you the pity of Jesus Christ towards His own personal attendants, you will see in this as in a mirror His pity toward you.
I. THE DIVINE PATIENCE OF OUR LORD JESUS TOWARDS THE APOSTLES
At the outset, let us attentively and admiringly observe the divine patience of our Lord Jesus towards the Apostles. I will begin by reminding you of their origin. Who were these whom He received into intimate fellowship with Himself? They were not the high-born and powerful of the earth, for, “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are chosen.” Not a single nobleman was numbered among the Apostles. They were not even educated persons who, if poor, might still wear a gentle heart beneath a peasant’s garb. There was not a rabbi nor a philosopher among them; they were as uninstructed and as clownish as the rest of the peasantry of Palestine.
He selected them from the populace. They were either fishermen or publicans—and these He made the first instruments of spreading abroad the Gospel and establishing His Kingdom. For our Lord Christ, who had been accustomed to the thrones and royalties of Heaven, to stoop to be the familiar companion of any of the sons of men would be wonderful condescension. But what shall I say when He elects the weak, the poor, and the despised to be His friends?
He might have selected for His associates the choicest spirits, the advanced intellects, the educated minds. But, lo, He makes foolish the wisdom of this world and chooses the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are! I do not exaggerate when I speak of the clownishness of the Apostles—their dullness and their ignorance. They were very honest and sincere, but they were far from being naturally quick of understanding!
It was intentionally that our Lord made choice of them, on purpose, to illustrate the sovereignty of election, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. He resolved that when He had filled them with the Divine Spirit, and ordained them to be the chosen vessels to bear His name unto the Gentiles, none should ascribe their power to themselves—but all the glory should evidently belong to the Lord alone.
At the same time, we must not forget that it must have caused the Lord Jesus much inconvenience and trouble to bear with such disciples. The refined spirit cannot be in continual contact with the coarse without enduring pain. Some may call such pain sentimental, but in so doing they only reveal their own ignorance. For probably no shocks are more severe, no wounds more smarting than those inflicted upon the delicate, the pure, the holy, and the refined by association with the groveling, the selfish, the sinful, and the unspiritual!
The glory of our Master’s patience is this—that He did not betray even the slightest disgust or weariness with His poor friends. Though He might have said to them, as well as to the multitude, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I allow you?” yet He bore with them without repining, and only occasionally gave them a rebuke. He never looked contemptuously upon them as His inferiors, though they were vastly so in all respects. He called them friends. He told them mysteries as if they could understand them, though often when He explained them, they missed the inner meaning.
He took them into His most retired haunts. He familiarized them with the Garden and the Mount of Olives, where He was likely to seek His retirement. He would even pause His prayers to teach them how to pray. There was nothing He would not do for them! Just as they were, He accepted them and resolved to train them for His service. Having once loved them, He loved them to the end. He never made them feel a dread of His superiority or shudder at the distance between their character and His own! He kept no register of their faults. He never rehearsed the list of their shortcomings, but His main rebuke was His own perfect example.
II. THE WEAKNESS OF THE APOSTLES’ UNDERSTANDING AND FAITH
Reflect again upon the unevangelical spirit which these Apostles often showed. On one occasion, even John—who was among the mildest and gentlest of them—asked to be permitted to call fire from Heaven to destroy certain Samaritans who would not receive the Savior because His face was set towards Jerusalem. Jesus, the Friend of sinners, calling fire from Heaven? This might suit Elijah, but it was not after the manner of the meek and lowly Prince of Peace!
Yet the two sons of thunder would hurl lightning at their Master’s foes! He might have spoken to them as bitterly as David did to the sons of Zeruiah, when in their hot rage they would have slain their leader’s foolish foes. He might have said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zebedee?” But He merely said, “You know not what spirit you are of.”
Read the 9th Chapter of Luke, which is full of the failings of the disciples, and notice how John and the rest forbade the man who was casting out devils in Jesus’ name! With the true spirit of bigoted monopoly, they said, “We saw one casting out devils in Your name.” Instead of rejoicing that there were some outside their company who were assisted by the Master’s power, they forbade him because he was not with them. Instead of angrily upbraiding their intolerance, Jesus gently chided them, saying, “Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us.”
Remember, too, how the disciples put away the mothers of Israel when they brought their tender offspring to receive the Savior’s blessing. This showed a very unevangelical spirit. They thought the children too insignificant to be worthy of His consideration! But though our Lord was displeased with His disciples, He only said, “Allow the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
But, my brothers and sisters, it must have required great patience for our dear Lord and Master to bear with these rough men, who pushed the little ones aside, who would gag the mouths of those doing good in their own way, and who would even call fire from Heaven upon poor ignorant sinners! Admire His patience with their impatience and see how “like as a father pities his children, so He pitied them,” because He knew they feared Him in their hearts, and their faults were more like infirmities than rebellions.
III. THE APOSTLES’ FAITH AND EMULATIONS
Again, the weakness of their faith must have been a great provocation to Him, yet He bore with it most meekly. When in the storm on the lake, they ought not to have been afraid because Jesus was with them, though asleep, their alarm was so great that they awakened Him, not thinking of His weariness. They were so ungenerously unbelieving as to insinuate that He was unkindly thoughtless of their danger. “Master,” they said, “do You not care that we perish?”
Oh, what unbelief was here! He might well have been angry, but He rebuked the wind rather than them, and sweetly asked, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
Not many days later, they found themselves in a similar storm. After their earlier deliverance, they should have been confident, but again they were troubled! Let us not upbraid them, for we too have often faced similar situations! Jesus came to them, walking on the sea, and they were afraid of Him. Their faith was so feeble—it was scarcely faith but rather unbelief! Peter was a fair representative of them all when, upon seeing Jesus walking on the water, he said, “If it is You, bid me come to You on the water.”
He had enough faith to venture onto the waves but, when a gust of wind made him tremble, down he went. As Jesus caught him, He tenderly said, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” No anger was in that rebuke; He spoke as a mother might when, after teaching her child to walk, she saw it stumble and saved it from a fall.
Take another instance of their unbelief. Our Lord had fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes, and not long after, another vast crowd was hungry. The disciples, instead of remembering the earlier miracle, wondered aloud, “Why should we have so much bread in the wilderness to feed such a great multitude?” How could they doubt when they had seen what the Master could do?
When He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, He found a company gathered who were glorying over the baffled disciples because they could not cast out a devil from a poor tormented child. Jesus immediately corrected the situation, casting out the devil Himself. Later, when alone with His disciples, He explained that their unbelief was the reason they could not cast out the devil. “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
Where unbelief not only makes a person fearful but causes him to be weak where he should be strong, it is enough to provoke anger in the holiest. Yet the Master was not provoked. He pitied His disciples as a father pities his children.
In closing, I would remark that even at the close of His ministry, the Apostles remained doubters. Take Thomas as a case in point. “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, I will not believe.” Yet our gentle Lord condescended to grant His incredulous disciple the tokens for which he had asked! The rest of the Apostles were not much stronger in faith. When Jesus appeared to them, they were terrified, despite all they had seen.
How gracious it was on His part, since they still believed not, to eat before them a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb to prove that He was alive and in a real body! Had they not seen Him work miracles? Had they not listened to His teaching and perceived the Divinity within Him? Yet when He rose from the dead, they disbelieved the evidence. Still, He bore with them and pitied them.
The Lord’s tender patience with His disciples was constant throughout their shortcomings. He endured their pride, emulation, and prideful disputes, bearing all with grace and love. Even at the Last Supper, when they contended over which of them was the greatest, He responded with a loving rebuke, washing their feet as a symbol of His humility.
May we learn from the Lord’s example of patience, forbearance, and love. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.
Peter, who was, after all, but a type of the rest, when our Lord had spoken of His death, took Him and began to rebuke Him! Yes, he rebuked his Master!!! His Lord then turned Himself and rebuked the devil rather than Peter, though Peter had become the foolish instrument of the devil. He said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan: you are an offense unto Me: for you savor not the things that are of God, but those that are of men.” Nor was this the only occasion, for when He had warned Peter that he would deny Him that night, He was contradicted point-blank by His rash follower, and his fellow disciples joined Peter in the contradiction: “Likewise also said all the disciples.” They were told to pray that they might not enter into temptation, but they were proud enough to believe that their Master did not know them and to think that no temptation could overcome them! Here was pride indeed, and yet though those poor souls, who had needed to be humbled in the dust, spoke so exceedingly proud and lifted up their horn on high, yet all Jesus did was just pity them, pray for them, and bear with their ignorance and their ill manners! Having loved them, He pitied them and remembered that they were but dust.
I will only mention one other matter, and that was His patience with their infirmities. I mean not only their sinless weaknesses but those in which sin was, in some degree, present. Remember their weakness in the Garden? He was in agony, and He selected three of them to watch near the scene of His Passion. But when, in the midst of His distress, He came to them, as if He would have a word of comfort from them, He found them sleeping. Oh, the pathos of those words, “What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?” And such an hour—an hour of such extremity! Where was their love that they could sleep while He was in agony? Yet how mild His language—“The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Worse than that, no sooner was He taken than not one of all the band, so valiant in their own opinion, was found standing at their Master’s side! Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled. And the bravest of them all, in the hall where his Master was accused as a criminal, stood by the fire and warmed his hands, and said, “I know not the Man.” And then with oaths and cursing, even a third time declared, “I know not what you say.” Here was cowardly weakness indeed, at which the Savior’s resentment might well have been kindled. But He showed no anger; He only turned and looked at Peter. And it was such a look of mingled Divine sorrow and pity that the poor denier of his Lord went out and wept bitterly! When the Lord had risen from the dead, He did not upbraid Peter, but He sent a special love message to him: “Go, tell My disciples and Peter.” And when Peter was with Him by the sea, the only rebuke, if rebuke it could be called, was the question, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?” Asked a third time in remembrance of the three times in which Peter had denied Him, and that three times he might have the privilege of saying, “Yes, Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You.”
Beloved friends, it is meet that I should add that the pain to our Lord arising from these faults must be estimated by His matchless character and by the end He had in view. Remember, He was perfectly holy as man, and moreover, He was God. And to have to bear with such poor creatures as these was, therefore, the most amazing condescension and pity. Engaged as He was in seeking their good and not His own, it was the harder to endure that they should be such stubborn materials and so great a hindrance to Him. Moreover, remember that He did not merely bear with them but treated them as His friends; all things that He had heard of His Father, He made known unto them. He admitted them into His most intimate acquaintanceship, and all the while almost His only rebuke to them was His own perfect example. He taught them humility by His humility; He taught them gentleness by His gentleness. He did not point out their defects in words; He did not dwell upon their errors—He rather let them see their own spots by His purity, their own defects by His perfection. Oh, the marvelous tenderness of Christ, who so paternally pitied them who feared Him!
II. THE REASONS FOR THIS DIVINE PATIENCE
Let us think for a short time of the reasons for this divine patience in the case of our Lord. Doubtless, we must find the first reason in what He is. Our Lord was so greatly good that He could bear with poor, frail humanity. When you and I cannot bear with other people, it is because we are so weak ourselves; if you cannot bear with your imperfect brother, take it for certain that you are very imperfect yourself! Jesus was so free from selfishness that anything that they might do which was injurious to the honor due to Him did not afflict Him in the same way as our pride would afflict us; all the suffering He would feel would be grief that they should be so erring, that they should have learned so slowly. He would not think of Himself but would only think of them.
Besides, He was so gentle, so tender! It was no exaggeration or egotism when He said, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” I would to God we could copy His love and borrow His “Meekness so Divine.” He bore with them and pitied them because of His relationship to them. He had loved them as He has loved many of us, “from before the foundation of the world.” He was their Shepherd, and He pitied the diseases of His flock; He was their Savior, and He lamented the sins from which He was about to save them; He was their “Brother born for adversity,” and He stooped to be familiar with their frailties. He had determined to bring many sons unto glory, and therefore, for the joy that was set before Him, He endured all things for the elect’s sake.
Another reason for His patience was His intention to become perfect as the Captain of our salvation through suffering. You have perhaps inquired, “Why did not the Lord Jesus at once perfectly sanctify these apostles and deliver them from sin? He might have done so.” I grant you He might, and I have often wondered why He does not do the same with us. But I do not wonder when I remember that it was necessary that He should become a faithful High Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities by being tempted in all points, like as we are. Now, you and I have to bear with our imperfect brethren, and if our Lord had never endured the same, He could not in that point have shown fellowship with us! In order that He might be a complete High Priest and know all the temptations of all His servants, He bears with the infirmities and sins of disciples whom He could have perfected at once if He had willed, but whom He did not choose to perfect because He desired to reveal His tender pity towards them and to obtain, by experience, complete likeness to His brothers. Thus, the High Priest of our profession became capable of sympathy with us in like condition by having to bear with all the infirmities of His disciples.
Did He not also do this, my dear friends, that He might honor the Holy Spirit? If Jesus had perfected the apostles, they would not have seen so manifestly the glory of the Holy Spirit! Until the Holy Spirit was come, what poor creatures the eleven were! But when the Holy Spirit was given, what brave men, what heroes, how deeply instructed, how powerful in speech, how eminent in every virtue they became! It is the objective of Jesus Christ to glorify the Spirit, even as it is the design of the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ in our hearts! Moreover, our Lord was considering the future of the apostles, and therefore bore with them instead of removing all their evil. He knew that after His decease they would think of these things, and I can well conceive that in their solitude, and when they met each other, they would either soliloquize or say to each other, “Do you not remember how our Lord spoke to us on such an occasion? I do remember the very words He used.” “Yes,” says the other, blushing and with tears, “I do remember we did not understand Him.” “And do you remember the question Philip put to Him?” “Yes,” says the other, “but do you know I did not confess it, but I was just going to say the very same thing, for I was quite as foolish as Philip.” And then they would smile to themselves and say, “How slow of understanding we were in those days!” “Yes, but,” the other would say, “Did you not notice that our blessed and ever dear Master never smiled contemptuously upon us, and never seemed wearied by our folly? He evidently looked at us as being little children, and He just explained Himself again and again; and when we did not comprehend, He was still ready to explain once more! Oh, how tenderly He dealt with us!”
And then one of them would say, “How often have I lamented that I fled that night when He was seized. I wish I had gone with Him right up to the judgment seat; I wish I had stood at the foot of the cross or hung on another cross side by side with Him. But do you know when I met Him after His resurrection, I thought He would have said a word, but there was never even a hint about my cowardice; He received me with just the same tranquil love He had been likely to show before, and He sent me on an errand just as He had been likely to do, to show He could trust me still.” Oh, what a dear and tender Lord He was! They did not know when He was alive how good He was, but when He was gone, and had given them the Spirit, they could see it all! Just as with a photograph, when it is first taken, the image is not yet visible to the eye; it has to be a little while in the bath and to be washed before the artist brings it out, and so the picture of Christ on their hearts had to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and then it was revealed to them! And as they looked on it, they said, “Never was there such a One; He was and is the Chief among ten thousand, and our souls shall love Him even unto death.” If it is so on Earth, it will be much more so in Heaven—when we enter within the pearly gate, we shall see how Jesus loved us when we were on earth.
“I remember well,” says one, “that trial which passed over me, and I said God has forgotten me, He will be mindful of me no more, and all the while He was afflicting me in very faithfulness, and in love to my soul.” Then will another saint bear testimony, “Though I was very often cold of heart, and forgot Him, yet He said unto me, ‘Return unto Me; I am married unto you, says the Lord.’ And when I did return, I do remember how gently He received me and let out the full flood of His love into my soul once again, so that He restored unto me the love of my espousals, and I rejoiced in His salvation.”
You see, the Lord is thinking of our eternity. He does not sanctify us at once, for we should not know all the sin that is in us, and therefore should not know how much we owe to Him; no, He leaves us these thirty, forty, fifty years in the wilderness so that we may see what is in our hearts, and what is in His heart as He manifests it towards us in unfailing loving kindness. Blessed be His name, that thus He pities us even as a father does his children!
III. THE TEACHING TO BE DERIVED FROM THIS PATIENCE
I shall now close by indicating the teaching to be derived from this patience. Is it not this? First, if the Lord has thus had pity upon you as He had on His apostles, do you even so to others. I know there is a tendency with us to feel so grieved with the inconsistencies of our fellow Christians as to lose patience. Moses, the most meek of men, yet lost his temper with Israel, and said, “Hear now, you rebels, must I fetch you water out of this rock?” I do not wonder that he called them rebels, for they were such, but God would not have Moses call them so, for they were God’s children. Their Father may call them what names He pleases, but He will not have the servants take liberties with the children! Sometimes when we see the inconsistencies of God’s people, we are apt to speak harshly, but our Lord sets us a different example; Jesus bore with imperfect people, ought not you and I to do the same?
Jesus must have borne a great deal more than we ever have borne or ever shall have to bear, yet He was still pitiful, still kind, and loving to them—let us follow in His steps. It ought to help us when we remember that we were converted through imperfect preachers. I am sure if any of you have been converted through my ministry, you have been converted through a very imperfect one. While I deeply regret my imperfections, yet in one sense I glory in my infirmities because the power of God does rest upon me. For what are we? We cannot turn any to righteousness; the Lord, alone, can do that! But if by imperfect instruments you are blessed to the saving of your souls, you ought never again to be out of patience with imperfect people!
Remember, also, that you are imperfect yourself; you can see great faults in others, but, my dear brother, my dear sister, be sure to look in the mirror every morning and you will see quite as many faults, or else your eyes are weak. If that mirror were to show you your own heart, you would never dare look again—I fear you would even break the glass!
Old John Berridge, as odd as he was good, had a number of pictures of different ministers around his room, and he had a mirror in a frame to match. He would often take his friend into the room and say, “That is Calvin, that is John Bunyan,” and when he took him up to the mirror, he would add, “and that is the devil.” “Why,” the friend would say, “it is I.” “Ah,” John would say, “there is a devil in us all.” Being so imperfect we ought not to condemn!
Remember also, that if we are not patient and forbearing, there is clear proof that we are more imperfect than we thought we were. Those who grow in divine grace grow in forbearance; he is but a mere babe in grace who is always saying, “I cannot put up with such conduct from my brother.” My dear brother, you are bound even to wash the disciples’ feet! If you know yourself and were like your Master, you would have the charity which hopes all things, and endures all things!
Remember that your brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom you find so much fault, are God’s elect for all that, and if He chose them, why do you reject them? They are bought with Christ’s blood, and if He thought them worth so much, why do you think so little of them? Remember too, that with all their imperfections, there are some good points in them in which they excel you. They do not know as much, but perhaps they act better; it may be that they are faultier in pride, but perhaps they excel you in generosity. Or if perhaps one man is a little quick in temper, yet he is more zealous than you.
Look at the bright side of your brother, and the black side of yourself, instead of reversing the order as many do! Remember there are points about every Christian from which you may learn a lesson; look to their excellences, and imitate them; think too, that small as the faith of some of your brethren is, it will grow, and you do not know to what it will grow! Though they are now so sadly imperfect, yet if they are the Lord’s people, think of what they will be one day!
O brothers and sisters, shall we know them? Shall we know ourselves when we once get to Heaven and are made like our Lord? There, my brother, though you are a quarrelsome man, I will not quarrel with you; I am going to live in Heaven with you, and I will keep out of your way till then; I will not find fault with you, my friend, if I can help it, because you will be one day without fault before the Throne of God. If God will so soon remove your faults, why should I take note of them?
I will not peevishly complain of the rough stone, for I see it is under the Great Artist’s chisel, and I will tarry till I see the beauty which He brings out of it! The drift of this lesson is this: as your heavenly Father has pity on you, have pity on one another! He remembers that we are dust—remember this of others. You who live in the same house, do not fall out with each other; you who are members of the same church, do not criticize and judge each other so severely. Or if you are severe upon the fault, be gentle towards the person who commits it, and seek not his destruction, but his good!
Preacher, mind you learn your own lesson—be as tender towards those who sin as the Master was. Another lesson, and I have done. In your own case, my dear friends, have firm faith in the gentleness and forbearance of Christ. You are conscious this morning that you have been slipping and have fallen short or gone beyond the mark. And I know unbelief will now whisper to you that you cannot expect to enjoy renewed fellowship with Christ or to taste His love again. O think not so! Think of how gentle He was with the apostles, and remember He is still the same! Change of place has not changed His character. The exaltations of Heaven have not removed from Him the tenderness of His heart. He will still accept you. My brother, I know that prayer of yours was not what it should be—try again! He will accept the prayer despite the fault! I know, my dear friend, your ministry up till now has not been as earnest as it should have been—but do not give it up! Preach again; preach with greater fervor and greater unction—He will bless you, He has not put you away! I know that with all of us there is nothing we have done but what we might weep a whole shower of tears over, but Jesus the Pitiful knows our meaning; He will not look at the flaws, but at the jewel; He will cover our sins with the mantle of His love; He will accept the will for the deed.
Let us try again! Let us trust in Him wholly, and devote ourselves unreservedly to His service! Let us be persuaded that as we accept from our children a poor fading nosegay on our birthday and thank them as much as if it were pearls and diamonds, because it shows their love, even so if our heart loves Jesus, He will receive our poor imperfect service for our love’s sake! “He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” He knows we cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean; He, in His Infinite compassion, will cover our transgressions and accept our heart’s love. Be of good courage, then; be of good courage, my brothers and sisters, Jesus will accept you still! I should think this subject ought to attract many sinners to Him, and I pray it may, “for him that comes to Him He will in no wise cast out.” O that the Holy Spirit would lead many of you to fix your hope on Jesus, the gentle Lamb of God! Come and trust Him, O sinner! The Lord bless you! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—PSALM 103; LUKE 22:19-34.