The Lord Jesus when about to leave this world, left two things: “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” Not, Ye may have. Then He says, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.” There is a peace outside of all. Peace in and through the tribulation. The apostle speaks to some young converts, exhorting them that “Through much tribulation ye must enter the kingdom of God.” Why has the path of the children of God ceased to be a path of tribulation? Because they left the path. We all know it.
Then the next thing is, Faith esteems, and as we have said, faith never makes a mistake. It is unbelief that makes mistakes. Esteeming what? “The reproach of Christ.” This is a remarkable word: “Reproach of Christ.” It is the character the Spirit of God gives to the suffering of the people of God, but that tells, don’t you see, what the world is.
We often say, to illustrate it: Suppose you are on a train or streetcar; does it or does it not take courage to take out your Testament and read it? People see you reading your Bible, and you are a marked man. That very fact isolates you. Sometime ago I was on the train reading my Bible (I don’t say I am a man of courage. I am not. I am a coward.). A man came and asked me if I was a minister, as if nobody else had any business to read his Bible but a minister. That all tells what the world is. You wouldn’t need courage to read your Bible in heaven, but you do here, and to confess the name of Christ will bring reproach. It tells what a difference between the world and heaven. “Reproach of Christ.” “They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His sake.” I take these things to myself. I am a coward. I almost envy some (it may be natural courage) in tract distribution. I know it takes courage on my part, but that all tells the difference between this world and heaven. In heaven there will be no such thing as bearing reproach for Christ’s sake. It is impossible. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye” (1 Pet. 4:1414If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. (1 Peter 4:14)).
“Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” When the treasures of Egypt and those who possess them, have passed away, we shall be enjoying the blessed and eternal result of having suffered reproach for Him.
Mr. Darby once remarked, the only man who is ashamed of his religion in this world is the man who has the true one. He said a Mohammedan would take his mat and drop down on his knees and pray. No; it is the name of Christ that brings reproach. Who is ashamed to speak of President Lincoln or Grant in company; in the company of the world I mean? No one. It is an honor to be able to do so. But go into that same company, and make mention of the name of Christ! At once you feel you are out of place, and that name has no place there. “The reproach of Christ.” “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ.” “If they have persecuted Me, they will persecute you.”
“For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” Faith looks on. Faith is wise. Faith says, the pleasures of sin are for a season; the reward for the reproach of Christ is enduring. I sometimes have thought of that hymn of dear old Dr. Watts. I don’t know the hymn, but have known parts of it from my early childhood. “Ashamed of Jesus” is the beginning of each verse, if I remember rightly. How came Watts to write that hymn “Ashamed of Jesus?” He felt it a little. He felt the shame connected with it.
“Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend,
On Whom my hopes for heaven depend.”
“By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” If we turn our backs on the world, we will get its wrath. Go on with it, seek to help it and improve it, and we will receive its favor. But turn your back on it! take the place of a stranger and pilgrim just passing through! “Not fearing the wrath of the king.” That is very striking, isn’t it?
“Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My name’s sake.” “Blessed are ye,” and “great your reward in heaven” (Matt. 5). “Shall put you out of their company” another passage says. If we are faithful to Christ, we shall get the world’s cold shoulder.
We might just for a moment refer to the last assembly addressed by the Lord in the 2nd and 3rd of the Revelation, and that is intensely solemn. The Lord, so to speak, has just one thing to complain of; and that is, He has an outside place, and there it is Christian profession. “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich: and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see,” and then states, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Not knocking at a sinner’s heart, but at the heart of a Christless professor. It may even be of a true Christian, where the Lord has lost His place in the heart and affections.
“If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.” It doesn’t say, I will save him, but, “sup with him and he with Me” —communion.
Another thing a strange thing, too: “For he endured” (not a momentary thing) “he endured as seeing Him” who can’t be seen— “Who is invisible.” Faith has to do with an unseen One. “He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”
What can sustain us in this path of faith? What will enable us to endure? Just having that One whom, not having seen we love, before us— “seeing Him who is invisible.” The Christian is like what they say the bee is. I don’t know much about the bee; I know how it is about the Christian. The bee is a most wonderful little creature. It has two sets of eyes. One set it uses when it goes out and gathers the nectar from the flowers. Then there are no windows in the hive—it is all dark in there. So it needs another set of eyes when it goes inside to put the nectar in place. So with the Christian, he not only has natural sight, but spiritual sight—has the eyes of faith. The things which are seen (seen with the natural vision) are temporal things. The things which are not seen are eternal. “While we look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” “Endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”
May the Lord bless these few verses He has given to us about that remarkable servant of His, Moses, and what faith led him to do; what faith sustained him in. Moses has been seen in glory with Christ since, and that is where enduring “as seeing Him that is invisible” will end with all the children of faith—in glory with Christ. It is the reproach of Christ now. It will be in glory with Christ presently.
(Continued from page 133)