3. INSTRUMENTS OF SERVICE
"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are
despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things are that no flesh shall glory in His presence; but of Him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption; that according as it is written, he that
glorieth let him glory in the Lord." I Cor. i. 27, 30.
This passage gives us an inventory of God’s favorite
instruments—of the things that God likes best to use, and the people that God
especially chooses; and some of you may be surprised to find yourselves not
included in this inventory; some of you may feel that it would be a considerable
humiliation to come within it. You have got your choice of five places: you can
either be among the foolish things, or among the weak things, or among the base
things, or among the despised things, or among the things that are not at all,
and in one or the other of these classes you will have to muster if you are
going to be one of God’s favorite instruments and one of the things which God
hath chosen to amount to anything and to bring to naught the things that are
strong and wrong.
I. The foolish things. The Corinthians were terribly chagrined
at the humiliation of having to give up their culture. It was a sort of modern
Boston or Edinburgh and was very proud of its culture. And so when Apollos came
among them and began to preach the philosophy of the Alexandrian school of which
he was master, they were delighted with him, and turned away from the crude and
barren style of old Paul and thought they had found something worthy to be
compared with their wisdom. But Paul told them that God holds all this culture
in great derision; that he thinks very little of it, indeed, that it is
foolishness with Him, and that if any man will be wise, he must become a fool
that he may be wise; that is, he must abandon his own natural and self-confident
wisdom; he must be willing to esteem as of very little value the product of his
own intellect and his education, and like a little child begin at the alphabet
at the feet of Jesus, for God hath made foolish the wisdom of the wise and
taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
There is a great deal of danger in our modern American life of
this same thing. There is an affectation of culture, and perhaps a real culture,
which is beginning to become a kind of God to the higher classes of American
society. You noticed probably with alarm the other day the sums that were spent
on a few special works of art in this city—hundreds of thousands of dollars at a
single sale, enough to sustain the Gospel for half a century in the great
mission fields. People ought to pause a little and remember, that natural
culture has often been associated with the world’s darkest ages. The man that
built the first city, made the first musical instrument, and the first works of
human industry and art was Cain, and since that day the world, when it goes away
from God, tries to make the earth a paradise. The next great land of culture was
Egypt, but God took His people right out of Egypt and He didn't preserve among
them one single trace of Egyptian science, Egyptian art, Egyptian culture. Nay,
He would not let them touch a work of art, lest it should be made subservient to
idolatry. The next great period of culture was perhaps in Babylon, the cradle, I
dare say, of Grecian culture; but what did that come to? "Is not this great
Babylon that I built by the might of my hand for the honor of my majesty?" In
that same hour there came a voice from Heaven: "The kingdom is departed from
thee and thou shalt have thy dwelling with the beasts of the earth;" and
Nebuchadnezzar went out under the strongest form of madness until he learned
that every man’s pride must be laid low at the feet of God. The next stage of
culture we find in Greece, and perhaps the highest stage that has ever been
attained in the history of man. And what was Grecian culture and art when Paul
looked upon its most splendid monuments in Athens? You don’t find a bit of
enthusiasm such as modern travelers display, but his spirit was stirred within
him when he saw the city given to idolatry; every particle of it was a minister
of idolatry; every particle of it was the handmaid of sin, and it did not save
Greece from the deepest moral degradation. The next and the most brilliant
period of art and culture the world has ever seen was the modern Italian age
when Raphael and Michael Angelo gave the world their triumphs of genius and you
will remember that was the time when Caesar Borgia sat in the Papal chair, a
monster of infamous iniquity, and when the Church was sunk in utter corruption;
yet its temples were adorned with the most splendid paintings.
Now, I don’t say that culture is necessarily wrong; I do not
say that intellect and education may not go hand in hand with Christianity; I do
not deny that the Reformation brought a revival of true literature; but I do say
that to pursue culture for its own sake estranges one from God. To follow the
sole guidance of the human mind and to depend upon it instead of God’s holy Word
and God’s higher will as the basis of character and life is always fatal, both
to morality and to religion. And I believe that today we are just hastening to
that point when Daniel’s vision will come true: "Many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased but the wicked shall do wickedly," and then the
Lord shall come. This is to be the last picture of the days before Christ‘s
return; it is a picture of human smartness such as has never been known before,
and human infamy, such as has never been dreamed of before.
Well, Paul therefore tells these Greeks that their wisdom,
knowledge, skill, intelligence and philosophy will not make men wise; that
"esteeming themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of
the incorruptible God into that of corruptible man, and worshipped the creature
more than the Creator;" and that God is not going to save the world by brilliant
intellects, or magnificent talent, but by the foolishness of preaching and the
simplicity of the cross and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if any man is
going to be much used by God he must not depend upon his brain, he must not
depend upon his social power, he must not depend upon his wealth, he must not
depend upon his influence, but he must put all these aside and go forth armed
with the simple power of Jesus Christ’s own Word and Spirit, for God hath chosen
the foolish things. That does not mean the silly, absurd things, but the things
that have not the strength of human wisdom. God is not going to save the world
today by the men of genius, God is not going to save the world today by the men
of the largest talents, but He is going to take average minds, and very humble
minds sometimes, and very crude and very illiterate minds sometimes, and
enlighten them by His Holy Spirit, and give them His holy Word and glorify His
own name by the very simplicity of the instruments, which He employs.
Now, we see this all through God’s Word. How absurd it must
have seemed to the people of Jericho, when an army of six hundred thousand men
marched around their city, armed with rams horns, and amid the blare of these
instruments issued a challenge for Jericho to surrender. It was a foolish
instrument, but God used that foolishness to confound all their wisdom, and
before a week ended, the echo of their shout was answered by the roar and crash
of falling walls and the shrieks of a city doomed to destruction. It seemed a
very foolish thing when Jesus Christ told His discipIes to take a few loaves and
fishes and feed a crowd of five thousand men and perhaps ten thousand women and
children. It was foolishness in the sight of man. It was an inadequate supply
for such an enormous number, and some old writers represent Peter and John in
starting out as giving very small crumbs to the people until after a little
while they saw that their loaf was growing bigger and found that the more they
gave the more they had, until there was enough to spare. It was foolish in man’s
judgment, but God proved that the foolishness of God is wiser than man. It
seemed absurd, when a few humble fishermen were sent to confront the pride and
wisdom of the Jewish synagogue, but these humble fishermen and these plain men
were not only able to withstand all the combined wisdom that defied them, but we
are told that the highest teachers of their synagogues were not able to resist
the wisdom or the spirit with which they spake; and the simple crude Gospel of
Christ and Him crucified had proved mightier than all the powers of Greece and
Rome, and before the first century had closed, had brought the wisdom of the
world to the foot of the cross. And so in these last days God has raised up from
time to time this simple class of instruments—men who have been despised perhaps
for their lack of culture and yet since the days of the apostles there has not
been such a deep and wide-spread and general awakening as God wrought by a
simple American evangelist, who cannot always pronounce English words correctly,
and who is not afraid to own it. I am always glad to bear witness to this dear
servant of God. The very highest triumphs of Mr. Moody’s evangelistic work have
been in the centers of culture, and there was no place in all England where the
multitudes gathered with such absolutely broken and open-hearted acceptance as
in the very cities of Oxford and Cambridge, in the very face of learning, and
scoffing pride. They had derided the idea of his coming and went to the meetings
prepared to turn them into ridicule. But yet in these very places the simple,
straightforward message of Jesus was greater than all their scorn and brought
hundreds and hundreds of these proud men as humble penitents to His side, and
today the most glorious examples of missionary zeal are some of these same young
men, who are now preaching the Gospel in China. God did it to show that His
foolishness was stronger than man’s wisdom. If you are not ashamed of your
simplicity and will obey God, He can use a very small brain and a very small
stock of English words and phrases and a very small amount of English grammar to
glorify His name.
II. Again, God uses the weak things of this world. If you don’t
like to take your place among the foolish things, the weak things come next in
the scale of honor. There could not be anything weaker than Moses’ rod, and yet
when God sent him against the mightiest empire of the past, Moses asked Him what
he was to take. He said: "What is this in your hand?" and Moses said: "A rod."
That was enough and that rod broke the throne of Pharaoh, opened the rivers and
the skies in judgment, divided the sea and opened a way for God’s army to pass
over, and brought the dark winged angel of death over every home in Egypt, and
at last shattered Pharaoh and his army on the shores of the Egyptian sea. That
little rod in Moses’ hand had been one of the weak things and it confounded the
mighty.
There could not be anything weaker than Gideon’s band of three
hundred armed with a few pitchers with a few torches in the centre, and a
trumpet in the other hand; almost as foolish as -Joshua's ram’s horns, and yet
these three hundred men were stronger than thirty thousand, and God had to send
back the multitudes, because there were too many for Him to use; they were not
weak enough for victory, and when He got them so that they saw no strength but
His, then power and victory came to them.
It seemed much wiser and much stronger for David to put on
Saul’s armor when he went against the gigantic Goliath. Saul himself tried to
induce him to put on the armor, but he refused to touch them and armed with his
little sling and his three stones from the valley, he went out weak enough for
victory and for God to use him and God did use him as the type of all those
victories which he promised us, not by might nor by power, but by the Holy
Ghost. All the army of Saul could not even attack the Philistines. Two helpless
men put them to flight because they were weak enough to depend upon God and give
Him all the glory. Even Sampson, with all his physical strength, could not be
used of God until God put a weak and foolish instrument into his hand, the jaw
bone of an ass, that God might be the more glorified. And the Lord sent out His
apostles—sent them out in their weakness, a little band without any earthly
influence, or power, or prestige, and He told them that their very weakness was
their strength. And Paul says: "When I am weak, then I am strong and I glory in
my very infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." He giveth power
not to the strong, but to the faint, and to them that have no might He
increaseth strength. The youths shall faint and be weary; the young men shall
utterly fail; but they who wait upon the Lord shall be mighty through God. It is
a strange paradox, I know, dear friends, but it certainly has been true for me,
and I am certain that many of you have found it true for you. The man who
received the judgment of retribution was the man that had only one talent. And
so, the great danger, dear friends, if you and I shall fail is just the fear of
our weakness. God is calling the average workers, the little ones. His army is
made up of the rank and file, of such as you. And be very careful that you do
not commit a sin through that very weakness, because to be unduly self-conscious
of your weakness is to be just as selfish as if you were making a great deal of
your strength. How often God has done through a little child what great and
strong men could not do. How many a hard heart has been broken by the simple,
tender words of a lisping infant, which all the wisdom of man, which all the
arguments of science could not break! I think it was the predecessor of Dr. Tyng
in Philadelphia--I know it was in the same church--and he was a very brilliant
and useful minister of the Gospel, who in his early years was an ambitious
politician. He was elected to Congress, served several terms, got into an
ambitious life and had no interest in religion. He refused all the appeals of
letters, and sermons, and urgencies of friends, and was going on in his high
career of success and of almost infidelity, when one day, as he returned from
Congress, his little three year old girl came up to him and said, "Papa, do you
know I can read?" and he said, "Darling, can you read?" and she said, "Yes."
"Let me hear you," said her father, and she took up a little Testament and read:
"T-h-o-u s-h-a-l-t l-o-v-e t-h-e L-o-r-d w-i-t-h a-l-l t-h-y h-e-a-r-t" and she
looked up in his face with tears and smiles dancing there together and she
didn’t understand why it was that the tears came into her father’s eyes too, but
he took her to his bosom and pressed her and kissed her over and over again, and
he said, "Yes, darling, it is lovely; I am so glad you can read." and he went
from that nursery and on his knees before God he took the wounded heart that
that little arrow pierced, and he rested not until he could say, "Yes, Lord, I,
too, love thee with all my heart." But 0, that little word was the word that
saved him.
A very learned minister preached a series of sermons on
infidelity for the benefit of a very learned man in his church. There were some
seven sermons, and he rendered them to his entire satisfaction and soon after he
got through the infidel came to him and said that he was a Christian and
accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. He was very much gratified. He took all the
credit to himself. After it was all talked over he said, "Now, my dear friend,
will you tell me which of my lectures it was that convinced you?" He said, "Sir,
it was not any of your lectures. It was that poor hobbling colored woman, who,
when she came out, would mutter among her tears, ‘0, my precious Saviour, my
precious Saviour; I could not live without You!’ and I watched that woman and
saw that it came right straight from her heart. I did not hear all that you
said, hut I was deeply attracted by what she said. It was that which convinced
me." It was one of the weak things of the world that God uses to confound the
mighty. Do not be ashamed to do a little for God. Remember that the vast fields
of the summer are made by little blades of grass, the foliage of the forest is
made by little leaves, the joys of life are made out of little tokens of love;
and I would rather—0, yes, I would rather give away all the great things in life
than lose the little ones. I could not get on without them. And so God wants the
humble services, the little ones. And so, you little children, you hard working
men and women, you who can speak a word in the workshop, you who can work for
Christ in your home, you, who can be sweet and holy little children for Jesus
Christ, you, who have just the one talent, it is precious to God and it is very
precious for your reward, don't lose it, but be one of the things that God uses
to confound the mighty.
III. Another of the category is the base things. Now, I think
this means the things that are either humble in their human relationship or
associated with sin and with shame in their moral character and antecedents.
Now, God loves to take the things that men consider low and use them to confound
the things that men consider high. How often has He placed men on the thrones of
earth, who came from the very kitchens of their masters, and who were despised
as menial servants. Moses was the son of a slave, and yet it was the slave’s
child that conquered the proud Pharaoh. As I look back on the men and women that
have told on society and on Christian life and work, I think I can say that
among my fellow students and acquaintances they have been the children of the
poor; they have been the boys and girls that fought with toil and adversity and
won by energy and courage the success that God has given. Someone in giving the
biography of the past two centuries says, "Some have succeeded by wealth, some
by genius, some by influence, but the most of them by beginning without a
penny." God "takes the poor from the dunghill and sets him with kings and
princes."
And so, young men and humble men, there is no rank of
usefulness that God will withhold from you if you are not afraid, like the
children of Joseph, to go forth and conquer the hard places. "Give us a double
inheritance," they said to the Lord. "You shall have it," He said, "if you are
willing to conquer it in the face of difficulties," and so God says to every
one.
But among the things that God uses, are also the things that
were sinful. They that are in the lowest scale of morality are the ones that God
has chosen and cleansed and made His instruments of blessing. It has been to me
so strange that all through the pedigree of the Son of God it has pleased the
Father to link in the most ignoble and once unworthy names. So that as we read
the ancestry of Jesus we find mixed up in it in the regular line the name of
Tamar, the daughter of Judah, who had the bar sinister on her life, and the name
Rahab, the abandoned woman of Jericho, who believed and was chosen to be a link
in the motherhood of Christ, that one should glory in His presence. And then
again, even Mary through whom He came, while pure and holy as Heaven itself, yet
was lowly in her social standing, and ever bore the shame before the world of a
strange misunderstanding. Yes, the Lord has been pleased to take these things,
and you know today that He has taken His Bunyans from the cursing, swearing,
sinful crowds. He has taken His Jerry McAuleys from the prisons, His Morehouses
from the pickpockets, and His Richard Weavers from the lowest ranks of sin, and
chosen them to be His ministers, that no one should glory in His presence, and
to prove the power of the grace of God to use the most unworthy, if only
surrendered to His hands. Dear friends, has there been sin in your life? Is
everything naturally against you? Have you been one of these that the Lord would
be glad to choose, just to show by the very extent to which He lifts you up, the
power of His infinite grace?
IV. Again, the despised things. Now, God cannot use anybody
very much without men persecuting him. "Woe unto you when all men speak well of
you," is a strange and sadly true sentence of our tender Master. It was the
despised Hebrews that God used to destroy the Egyptians. It was when their
enemies were saying, "What do these feeble Jews?" that God built up the walls of
Jerusalem. It was when the poor fellow was put out of the synagogue that Jesus
found him and said, "Have they put you out? Well, I will take you in," and He
sent him forth as the chosen instrument to put to confusion those proud men. And
so it was that the Methodists in the days of Wesley got their nickname and the
people that were ridiculed, that received this very name as a nickname, today
have 25,000,000 of followers in every land beneath the face of the sun. And, 0,
today, when I hear men laughing, jeering and scorning, I say, "Laugh on for the
Lord has another laugh, and He will always turn it on the other side; let them
curse on, the Lord will requite me blessing for their cursing this day." Don’t
be afraid to stand among the poor, despised company of Jesus, if it is in the
name of Jesus, for the work of God and for the salvation of men. God is just
going to use such things. He hath chosen the despised ones to bring to naught
the proud ones.
How very often have I seen some very feeble, simple-minded one
come into our work that seemed almost to be lacking in something, and I have
heard good and well-meaning people say; "Now, you need not expect anything of
this person." And, do you know, I have never seen that yet but God has taken
hold of that person and done some wondrous thing for them. Some of the most
marked cases of divine healing I have ever seen were people that were so weak
that people would say, "They haven’t anything in them," and the Lord said, "I
will vindicate them." I remember, a few weeks ago, getting almost impatient with
two persons. It seemed they were so unreasonable that I could not expect
anything, and I had no sooner made up my mind than God took up those people and
made them the very monuments of His love and power; and I said, "Praise the
Lord!" I am afraid to think little of anybody. I am afraid to let the faintest
shadow of deprecation pass my lips about the humblest and the lowest of His dear
children, for I am always expecting Him to come fast behind with horses and
chariots of salvation, and lift them up and make them ride by His side.
There was a poor fellow that had been promoted from the ranks,
and the officers were making fun of him. The colonel saw it, and he said;
"Captain, I want you to come and lunch with me." He went and lunched with the
colonel, and after lunch was over, the colonel took his arm, and they marched up
and down in front of the other’s tents, arm in arm. These foolish English
officers had laughed and scorned, but the next time they met him their hats were
off. The colonel had taken him by his side; and when the Lord takes people to
ride or walk with Him, we can safely go along. Let us be careful lest we be
found despising. The Lord knows a little about scorn as well as you. "Surely He
scorneth the scorners but He giveth grace unto the lowly," and He hath chosen
the things that are despised to confound the things that are proud. The banner
of our calling is the cross of shame; and so the offense of that cross will last
until He comes again. And out of the darkness and the blush of man’s reproach
will come the glory to our crown, and we shall not be sorry at one reproach, nor
feel not the one blush of shame for which He said, "For your shame ye shall have
double!" 0, how often has He said that to me: "For your shame ye shall have
double"—just twice as much as if you didn’t have the shame—"and for confusion,
ye shall rejoice in your portion."
V. Now, the things that are not. These are His last favored
ones. God hath chosen the things that are not to bring to naught the things that
are." That means that God cannot make anything out of you until you not only get
lowly and weak, but until you get utterly dead, so that you are not at all. It
is a good thing to be weak, and it is a good thing to lie down and it is a good
thing to be willing to be despised, but it is better than all to be nothing at
all, to cease to be, and to be able to say: "I live—no, I made a mistake; not I,
but Christ liveth in me." That is the meaning of the things that are not. God
could not use Abraham until Abraham was so yielded up that even his Isaac was
given over to the Lord with such simple trust that he just believed that the
Lord knew all about it, and would do better than he could understand. Joshua
could not enter the land of Canaan until Joshua got out of the way. It was not
enough that they had crossed the Jordan; it was not enough that Moses had died;
it was not enough that they had been circumcised; but then the angel met Joshua
and said: "Joshua down on your face and get out of the way." And Joshua said:
"Who are you?" And He said: "I am captain." "Why, I thought I was captain,"
Joshua no doubt thought. "I thought you had told me to take the land?" "No, I am
captain," said the Angel; and He said: "Take off your shoes and get down on your
face." And Joshua got down on his face, and said: "What hath my Lord to say to
His servant?" Joshua was dead. He was one of the things that are not, and God
could use him to bring to naught the things that are.
Peter could not be used by the Lord until Peter killed himself
by his denial, put his pride and confidence away, and got down in the dust,
shamed and discouraged, and then the Lord came to him when Peter was gone,
lifted him up, and gave him a new commission.
Paul was not used by God until he gave up his name Saul, and
took the name Paul, "the little," and said: "Less than the least of all saints,
not worthy to be called an apostle, the chief of sinners. Nay, not I at all, but
Christ that liveth in me." Then the Lord lived, the Lord reigned, and the Lord
used him.
These are the things that God uses. Are you willing to be one
of them? If you are, then the blessed assurance is yours: "But of Him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord." If you are weak, if
you are dead, if you are nothing, rise up now on your feet; put on the new life,
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will be your wisdom and He will be your
strength, and in His sufficiency you can do all things.
Let us not then be so occupied with the thought of what we are
not, as what we are in Christ. His last thought, His last word, is the word of
all-sufficiency. "Of Him are ye, of yourselves ye are not, but you are
something, you are everything in Him." 0, I know so many people who say, "I am
nothing; I can do nothing." God wants you to go farther: "I am nothing; I can do
all things in Him." May the Lord help us to take that place and standing today
so that we shall know the full meaning of these two great words: MY
INSUFFICIENCY, CHRIST’S ALL SUFFICIENCY.
