Christian Life
Compassion for Mr. Feeblemind and Mr. Ready-to-Halt
Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. – Hebrews 5:2
There are many that are of a very feeble mind. You can only with difficulty get a thought into their brain, and if you try to get another idea on the top of it, the second one seems to knock the first one out. They never learn much, and they are so constructed that they never will. In our pilgrim band we have a number who are like Mr. Feeblemind; we may try all that we can with him, but we shall never make a hero of him. Others are like Mr. Ready-to-halt, with his crutches; he did dance once, you will remember, when Giant Despair’s head was cut off; but still he had to go on his crutches even then, and he never gave them up till he crossed the river; then he left them to anybody who wanted such things, and, I fear me, there are many who want them to-day. We have those in our company who never will be able to give a systematic statement of the doctrines of grace, though they are full of grace. They could never explain how they were saved; but they are saved. I daresay the snail could never explain how he got into the ark, but he did get in; and these feeble ones are in Christ, though they cannot fully explain how they came to that blessed position. Some of these good people are not very apt to receive knowledge: they are not “learnable”, if I may coin a word to express my meaning We cannot make them learn. They are willing to be taught, they are teachable; but they are not “learnable.” Ah, well, our blessed High Priest can have compassion on the ignorant, and the feeble-minded! ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2251.cfm
Does Any Man Truly Know Himself?
Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way… – Hebrews 5:2
What do we know of sin? The larger proportion of our sins are probably unknown to us. We do them, and scarcely observe that we have committed them. And who knows the evil that lies in any one sin? Who is he that can weigh his iniquities in scales, or his errors in balances? Upon that one dread subject of sin, we are all life babes; we have not begun to learn more than the alphabet of that awful knowledge. Sinful we are, but it is part of the effect of sin that we do not know the extent of our sinfulness, and we should not know it at all, if it were not for the teachings of the Holy Spirit.
Again, what do we know of ourselves? Does any man truly know himself? “The proper study of mankind is man,” says Pope. I am not sure of that; but I am certain that the proper study of mankind is Christ; for in Him we not only can learn about man, but much more besides. But how little we know of ourselves, of our natural weakness, of our evil tendencies, of our proneness in this direction, or in that! “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.”
What do we know of God the unsearchable? Is He past finding out? Who can sufficiently tell of His nature, or of His wondrous attributes? Who can speak adequately of His greatness, or of His glory? Who can number up His years, or declare the whole of His lovingkindness? “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” As compared with the light of God, we are in the dim twilight. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2251.cfm
To Know His Love
Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. – Hebrews 5:2
While it is true that He is willing to receive all sorts of sinners, there are many who never come to Him, nor submit to His authority. With those who proudly and rashly stand before God on their own merit, He has nothing to do; but with others of a different character He is greatly concerned.
The people who claim Christ’s aim are generally those who have a very low opinion of themselves. Out of all the tribes of Israel, those that came to the high priest, to ask him to present their sacrifice to God for them, and to speak a word from God to them, were God-fearing people. No doubt hypocrites, occasionally, did come, and some of a proud spirit who trusted in their own offerings; but I should think that, all the year round, the high priest saw some of the humblest and best people in all Israel. Men and women, in sore trouble, would come to him; and these chastened spirits would be choice spirits. Men and women who were conscious of sin, and longing for pardon, would come to the high priest; men and women who had not sinned after the similitude of a public transgression, who nevertheless felt evil darkening their conscience within, would draw near to him; men and women who had lost the light of God’s countenance, and who came longing to have it back again, because they could not live without it, would approach the courts of God’s house. All these would be welcome visitors at the high priest’s door, and would receive his sympathy and compassion. Such are the people whom Christ our great High Priest now delights to bless. The proud and self-satisfied cannot know His love; but the poor and distressed may ever find in Him comfort and joy, because of His nature, and by means of His intercession. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2251.cfm
It Is His Nature
A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench… – Matthew 12:20
When I was here one day this week, seeing friends who came to join the church there came among the rest a very diffident tender-hearted woman, who said many sweet things to me about her Lord. She said one thing which I specially remember: “I have to-day put four things together, from which I had derived a great deal of comfort,” she told me. “And what are they, my sister?” I asked. “Well,” she said, ” they are those four classes-‘the unthankful and the evil, the ignorant, and them that are out of the way,’ Jesus ‘is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil’, and He ‘can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way,’ and I think that I can get in through those four descriptions. Though I am a great sinner, I believe that He will be kind to me, and have compassion upon me.” I stored that up; for I thought that one of these days I might want it myself; I tell it to you, for if you do not want it now, you may need it one of these days; you may yet have to think that you have been unthankful and evil, ignorant and out of the way, and it will give you comfort to remember that our Lord Jesus is kind to the unthankful and to the evil, and that He “can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.”
The mercy for us is that our great High Priest is willing to receive the sinful and the suffering, the tried and the tempted; He delights in those that are as bruised reeds and smoking flax; for thus He is able to display the sacred qualifications. The heart of compassion seeks misery, looks for sorrow, and is drawn towards despondency; for there it can exercise its gracious mission to the full. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2251.cfm
Our Compassionate High Priest
“Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that He Himself also is compassed with infirmity.”- Hebrews 5:2
The high priest looked Godward, and therefore he had need to be holy; for he had to deal with things pertaining to God. But at the same time he looked manward; it was for men that he was ordained, that, through him, they might deal with God; and therefore he had need to be tender. It was necessary that he should be one who could have sympathy with men; else, even if he could succeed Godward, he would fail to be a link between God and man, from want of tenderness and sympathy with those whom he sought to bring nigh to Jehovah.
Hence, the high priest was taken from among men that he might be their fellow, and have a fellow-feeling with them. No angel entered into the holy place; no angel wore the white garments; no angel put on the ephod and the breastplate with the precious stones. It was a man ordained of God, who for his brothers pleaded in the presence of the Skekinah. Many of us, I trust, have a desire within out hearts to come to God; but we need a High Priest. Inasmuch as it is His right, He counts it not robbery to be equal with God; but He communes with the Father as one that was by Him, as one brought up with Him, who was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. But we ought also to be very grateful that we can come into touch with our High Priest on His human side, and rejoice that He is truly man. For thus saith the Lord, “I have laid help upon One that is mighty: I have exalted One chosen out of the people;” He is anointed, it is true, with the oil of gladness above His fellows, but still He and they are one, “for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2251.cfm
But Not Till Then
And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. ~Luke 16:15 NKJV
“On that day of judgment,” says the Lord,“I will punish the leaders and princes of Judah and all those following pagan customs. ~ Zephaniah 1:8
The words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, delivered in a Lord’s Day sermon on December 24, 1871:
“We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because [it’s] not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Saviour’s birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred. …
“It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the Western church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it. Because the day is not known, therefore superstition has fixed it; … Where is the method in the madness of the superstitious? Probably the fact is that the holy days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. … We venture to assert that if there be any day in the year of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Saviour was born, it is the twenty-fifth of December. … regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son.”
He Hath Said 