So this evening, brethren, we're going to examine a sermon that Charles Spurgeon preached in the year 1890. And if you have a smartphone and you desire to look it up, it's sermon 2251. I'll give you a moment while I do some other preliminaries to bring it in. While you may be doing that, I ask you to open your Bibles, Hebrews chapter five. What I'd like to do is look at the language that Mr. Spurgeon preached. One of the tenets of expository preaching is to put things in context. You don't put things into context. You don't belong in this place. The listener's in trouble. The preacher ought to have a millstone hung around his neck. Let's put things in context so we avoid that trouble. Hebrews 5 verses 1 through 10. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness. And because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, as so also for himself. And no one takes the honor to himself but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest, but he who said to him, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee, just as he says also in another passage, thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his piety. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obeyed him the source of eternal salvation. being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Well, this has been preached here by a man who is better equipped than I am in the past. But very briefly, there's a comparison here between two orders of priests. There is the priest that descend from the line of Aaron, the Aaronic priesthood, and then there's the great high priest himself who has been described as being a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Priests in the line of Aaron were men. They had their own load of sin that had to be dealt with. Our high priest didn't have that problem. Spurgeon preached out of verse two, and that's going to be an interesting exercise in a moment. But just imagine for a moment, you and I are old covenant worshipers. And we have a sensitive conscience about us. We have offended God in some fashion. You can use your own imaginations as to what. You want to make things right with God. According to old covenant recipe or prescription, if you will, you've got to take a sacrifice to the temple. And you have to get to the priest who will offer that sacrifice. So you've got to deal with a man. There's a go between you and God, another man. Now that system has been Long gone. There's nobody walking the face of this earth today who sits in that, who stands in that capacity. But in the providence of God, we have an example of such a thing that occurred in 1 Samuel. I'm going to direct your attention to 1 Samuel 1. And you'll consider, you'll remember perhaps, that there was a troubled woman who went to the temple one day and had an interaction with the priests. The woman's name was Hannah. Verse 13 and following, Hannah is at the temple and she's greatly misunderstood by Eli the priest. She's got a burden, she wants a child. I'm not going to, you can just scan it with your eyes. And there's an initial misunderstanding between the two. Eli is not all knowing. He can't read Hannah's mind. He can't know what's inside her heart. But he sees that she's troubled. And he accuses her of being drunk, of all things. When he learns that that's not the case at all, We can presume that there's some repentance in his life, in his soul. And in verse 17, he leaves her with a blessing. Go in peace. May the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him. Spurgeon's going to refer to this passage. He's not going to quote it directly, but he's going to refer to it. And I thought it would be, it was a helpful exercise to look at it before we actually got into the sermon proper. And now I'd like for us to examine briefly the language of verse two. I hope you don't get lost with this. The Greek language is so descriptive. Let's just read it together. He, and he's speaking, and the context is the earthly priest, the earthly high priest, he can deal gently with the ignorant, and misguided since he himself also is beset with weakness. He can deal gently. He can. That's the way we Easterners pronounce that word. He can. He has the ability to. Dunamanus. He has the power, the ability to do so. We've heard that expression. It's the same word. We get the root word for dynamite. He has the ability to deal gently, to deal gently as dealt with in the New American Standard. That word is a compound word. It means to exercise forbearance, literally to measure one's feelings. The second part of that word is patho. He's got the power to hold back his feelings, have some self-control. With the ignorant. Now, here's an interesting word. Well, they're all interesting. But I find this very interesting. Agnoeo. There's a, the word, the transliteration A before noeo. No knowledge. Ignorant. Very good translation. State of having no knowledge. And I thought the Apostle Paul does a very good application of this word in Romans chapter two. Let me find that for you. I had it bookmarked. Romans 2 verse 4. You think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. Why don't you know that? Had they been instructed, had they forgotten, or had it not been revealed to them? That's a question we're not going to answer right now. But the apostle is using that word very effectively, in my estimation. And then there's the latter part of that verse in Hebrews 5.2, misguided. The misguided. Again, another very interesting Greek word, a compound, planeto, is the first part of that word. Planet. You know what a planet is, right? The solar system, Mars. There's a lot of interest in Mars these days because we've got some robots that are crawling around the surface trying to see if there's enough air to breathe to support a human. to see if it's warm enough. It's not. Will anybody truly survive up there? No. But it's very interesting, in my estimation, because God spoke that planet into existence, just as he did this one. But a planet in the ancient mind was a wandering star. It didn't stay in one place. When the sun went down, and presumably the shepherds and whoever else is outside They didn't have the hindrance of light pollution like we have today. And maybe if you go up to the Adirondacks, brother, you can attest to this. You go outside, you have the splendor of the universe. And these folks that spent a lot of time outside would get used to where the stars were, but they'd see something that This was here at one point in time. Now it's down here. Does that star move? No. It's a planet because planets circumnavigate the sun. But the word kind of means, you know, something that's not stationary. So you get the idea when the writer of the Hebrew church uses this word He's referring to somebody who wanders around. They don't stay in one place. It's like a wandering sheep. And Spurgeon's going to use that description to make a point. Well, we've looked at the verse itself. Oh, what? There's more. Sounds like a cheap ad, doesn't it? He himself is also beset. Beset comes from another compound word, perikatei, to be surrounded with, to be encompassed with. It's like you can't get away with it, can't get away from something. What's he surrounded with? He's surrounded with weakness. And there's another Greek word that actually is used in medical parlance today, asthenia, asthenia is a descriptive term in today's medical world for weakness. I read it every now and then when I'm learning about or trying to retrain my mind about a certain drug, well, it causes weakness, okay. Weakness, sickness. I got sick, I mean really sick this past January. And there was, there was a couple of nights where my old, this old body, the temperature went up and up and up. It got around 104. And I'll tell you something, I wasn't going nowheres. I could barely, you know, The thought of getting out of that bed and walking into the bat, forget it. I was sick. I was weak. Couldn't move. Well, barely. But all these terms are descriptive of the high priest of Aaron's order. And Spurgeon is going to use these descriptive words not simply to focus upon that human Aaronic priest, but also upon you and I, the garden variety sinner. And he's also going to look at the great high priest that follows in the text. So we're almost to the sermon, but I have one more thing and a little plug for this book that our brothers have had been reviewing in the past. This fits very well with Chapter 5 in Ortlin's book, Gentle and Lowly. The title of Chapter 5 is He Can Deal Gently. So enough of the preliminaries. Let's look at the sermon itself. As I mentioned before, this was originally preached In 1890, April the 3rd, somebody can figure the math out. How many years ago was that, brother? You can tell me later. And it was to be reread two years after that. It was to be reread publicly after the Prince of Preachers had passed into heaven. OK. beginning in the first full paragraph. 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, for it was for men that he was ordained. 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. So he's giving a job description of what the Aaronic priest should be, ideally. Hence, the high priest was taken from among men that he might be their fellow and have a fellow feeling with them. Listen to this, 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 Shekinah. 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. Now, he's, of course, referring to Jesus. For thus saith the Lord, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. And that's a quote from Psalm 89. 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. Going into the next paragraph, about halfway down. The high priest needed not only to be a man, but a man of tender and gentle spirit. It was necessary that he should be one with whom those with broken hearts and those who were groaning under a sense of sin would like to speak. They would dread an austere man and would probably in many cases have kept away from him altogether. Now 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. It's from Isaiah 42. For thus he's able to display the sacred qualifications he can have compassion. It is his nature to sympathize with the aching heart. And what a wonderful thing that is. On to the next paragraph, and this is an anecdotal reference to his own ministry. Often when we are trying to do good to others, we get more good ourselves. How many of us can say amen to that? When I was here one day in the prior 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 lore, though she did not think that they were any good, I know. She was afraid that I should not have patience with her and her poor talk, but she said one thing which I remember. I have today put four things together from which I had derived a great deal of comfort. And what are they, my sister? Well, there are these four classes, the unthankful and the evil, the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. Jesus is kind unto the unthankful and the evil and he can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. And I think I can get these, use these four distinctions. He's going to use some of the language that this visitor had left with him in his message. So skipping down to the next paragraph. Notice in the text, first, the sort of sinners with whom our high priest is concerned, namely the ignorant and them that are out of the way, those who are, in words and language of the New American, misguided, okay? Secondly, the sort of high priest with whom the sinners have to deal, one who can save I'm sorry, who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, and thirdly, the sort of infirmities in men that may be sanctified to great use. So first, the sort of sinners from whom our high priest is concerned. There are many who never come to him nor submit to his authority. And he mentions that, those who have no heart and who have a proud way about them, They're not Christ's. People who claim Christ's aim are generally those who have a very low opinion of themselves. Well, in the light of God's law, how can anybody not have that? His holiness. We understand ourselves. We fall far short. No doubt, hypocrites occasionally did come in some of a proud spirit and trusted in their own offerings and remember the parable of the tares and the wheat. That's going to stand until time ends. And he offers some speculation. 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, a public sin, something that is evident to the masses. All these would be welcome visitors at the high priest's door and 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. Next paragraph. Amongst those who come to our high priest are many whose fear and distress arise from ignorance. And he's going to break this section down under a number of smaller headings. What do we mean by ignorance? Well, in the first place, following paragraph, there is a universal ignorance. The only thing that a man can evolve from his consciousness is folly and sin. I'm wondering if he used that word because of Charles Darwin, evolve. Apart from the grace of Christ, I think we all have a sneaking suspicion that we're getting smarter as we get older. We're gaining in our understanding about certain matters and we're becoming wiser. We're evolving. I think that's where he's going with this thought. He talks about that man. If he goes on evolving, he will evolve a greater folly and greater sin, that's all. But when the Lord deals with men, he makes them feel that they know very little. 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've committed them. And who knows the evil that lies in anyone's sin? Who is he that can weigh his iniquities in scales or his errors in balances? Sinful we are, but it's 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? And now he's going to quote the title of a poem. There's a poem written by a man named Alexander Pope. I had to look this man up because I wasn't aware of who he was. But the title of the poem is A Proper Study of Mankind as Man. And it's quite a long poem. I didn't have time to dissect it. It has religious tones to it, and it was written probably in the early to mid 1700s. Proper study of mankind is man, says Pope. I'm 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. 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? Glen zalmi from Secret Falls, Psalm 19. What do we know of God the unsearchable? 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 loving kindness? And then he quotes Romans 11.33, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. On this great subject, as well as on other topics I've mentioned, there's a universal ignorance. We just don't know. Well, I've labeled this next section letter B. That was letter A I just finished. There's also a comparative ignorance on the part of some because the compassion of Christ flows forth to them. So he's talking now in terms of folks who have become Christians, but they're still ignorant in certain areas. First group, those who are recent converts, young people, whose years are few and probably think they know more than they do. I remember as a young Christian, decades ago, at the end of a Wednesday night service, not here, but in another setting, talking to the pastor and saying to him, I have so much to learn. He says, yeah. It's right. You must not ask them questions about the deep things of God. Well, they haven't had a chance to learn, perhaps. They might have some yeses. In the presence of many of God's ways, they're compelled to say such knowledge is too wonderful for me. This is from Psalm 139. It's too high, I cannot attain to it. The Lord Jesus Christ can take little boys and girls to his bosom, and he does. While there he is, yet ignorant of many things, he loves them, he teaches them, he has compassion on them, and he says of them, suffer the little children to come to me. Forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God. Christ receives them in spite of their lack of knowledge. You can come to Christ while you're still learning how to read. Well, then there's a second category. Others are ignorant because of their lack of opportunity of getting instruction. And then he references the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8. How can anybody, how can I possibly know this if somebody doesn't teach me? And in Spurgeon's own day, there was probably a fair amount of folks who just couldn't read and write. And they did their part to educate by having what they called Sabbath schools, bringing in the children to teach them to read and write, and of course, teach them the scriptures and that. He references a couple of characters out of Pilgrim's Progress. And then he says, 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 can never explain how they were saved, but they're saved. Our blessed high priest can have compassion on the ignorant, and he mentions the feeble-minded. And quite honestly, brethren, we're not all created equal. We're not. It doesn't mean we can't have brethren across the spectrum. And then the next paragraph is another subsection of those who are ignorant. There is a sinful ignorance. Those who don't want to learn because they, in their own mind, have better things to do with their time. There's no excuse to be made for them, he preached. Their ignorance is to be condemned, and that these words reach any who are thus guilty, I would beseech them to pray to God to pardon their guilt. Those who are ignorant for want of attention, they are so full of business. They have such a great many things to think of, but they do not value the means of grace. Perhaps they go once on a Sunday, and never more all the week. The church. Now, if I had to eat one meal a week and only one, I should want it to be a very good meal, but I think I should hardly be in a good condition for the next one the week following. What's he getting at? He's getting at the benefit of universal attendance, the means of grace, the public means of grace. This stays the heart and keeps the soul in good order. Next paragraph. Some will never be much above the ignorant because they have not the ambition to learn. They're lazy in their thinking. They do not set themselves to study the things of God. They do not sufficiently prize the revelation of God. Our Lord can have compassion on the ignorant. Here. stands great company to which his compassion goes out and its name is written, The Ignorant. I think we'd better all get into this class. Indeed, I'm sure that we'd better join it and thus obtain our Lord's compassion. Because we all need to learn. Well, the next paragraph is another subsection. Now comes another description of the sort of sinners for whom our high priest is concerned. Remember, I used that Greek word, the planet word, the going astray. Here we are. There are many whose fears arise from being out of the way. They're out of the way because they've wandered away. The Lord can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. They're misguided. Our high priest can have compassion on those that are odd, on those that are out of the way, on those who do not seem to be in the common run of people and do not go with a multitude, but who must be dealt with individually and by themselves. Now he's going to break this down a little bit. And he gives a quote from Isaiah 53.6. To be out of the way in the case of men is in their natural state is this, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, that is where we are all by nature in our own way is the way out, out of the way. Therefore Christ can have compassion upon all of us who come to him for he has learned to deal with those who are out of the way in such literally Are we all? Number one, men have gone out of the way by their own personal folly, stupid choices and the consequences that follow. Some who wander most foolishly, you wonder why they sin in the particular way they do. There seems to be no reason for it. No motive for it, no special temptation in that direction, and yet they do it. They wander out of the way by themselves. Have you done so, dear friend? The Lord can have compassion on those that are out of the way. Number two, those who come under the influence of false teachings. The seduction from the way of others, false teachers have taught them. And they've taken up with the error brought before them by a stronger mind than their own. In some cases, persons of evil life have had a fascination over them. They're like sheep that have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Poor friend, it is ill that you should have been the victim of another's temptation. Do not blame your temper, blame yourself, but at the same time remember that Christ has compassion upon those who've been led out of the way. Number three, many are out of the way because of their backslidings after grace. Our text comprehends backsliders, to such we, We may say, you did run well, Galatians 5. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? Something has been an occasion of stumbling. And now those sitting in the house of God, they know they are not what they once were, nor what they ought now to be, nor what they must be, nor what I hope they will be. Turn, O backsliding children. This is from Jeremiah chapter three, says the Lord, for I'm married to you. Why will you wander from the only source of good? Take with you words and turn to the Lord, Hosea 14. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow. Though they red like crimson, they'll be as wool. There's forgiveness. We have a compassionate high priest. Number four, others are out of the way because their consciousness of special sin. Something in your past is dogging you and your conscience just won't let it go. Is there anyone here conscious of some great sin in years gone by? Do you have a hard time sleeping? Does it fret you by night and weary you by day to think of the gross iniquity of yours? It's put you out of the way. Be comforted, be comforted by this text. Hear your high priest say, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He pleads your ignorance. You did it ignorantly and unbelief, 1 Timothy 1.13. Come to this compassionate high priest. and trust your case in his dear hands. They're pierced because of your sin. Trust your iniquity with him. His heart was opened and set a brooch, a stir, because of your transgression. Come, trust him. He died because of your sin. He's able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. You got something on your conscience? There is a great Savior waiting for you. This message is for almost everybody here except my friend over there, I can't imagine where he's pointing, who knows everything. I know it all. And never did anything wrong, oh really. He does not want any Christ and I will not bother him with one. They who are whole have no need of physician, but they are sick, says the Lord Jesus. I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. To be so very learned, to be so smart, and to be so very good in your estimation is no recommendation to Christ but the reverse. You think you're smart? Okay, we'll leave you alone, so will Christ. And then our second main point, the sort of sinners, now the sort of high priest with whom sinners have to deal. This first paragraph is long, and he's going to use some holy speculation of what the earthly high priest, the ideal one, would have been like. So we're going to have to bear with his speculations here. I should think that all the people were glad when the high priest was very tender and compassionate. Perhaps they had occasionally a high priest who was very high and very mighty. And so I imagine not too many people would go out of their way to have dealings with such a guy. But the pattern high priest was a fatherly looking man with love in his eyes, a smile on his face, one who had often sorrowed himself, one to whom all the people could go naturally. Now that's the kind of high priest that we should all have wished for had we been living in those days. But our Lord Jesus is something incomparably better than that. He is one who can bear with ignorance, forgetfulness, and provocation. How do we know this? Because he bore so wonderfully with the ignorance of people when he was here. It was with a very tender accent that he said to one of his disciples, I've been so long, been so long time with you, and hast thou not known me, Philip? He told them many, many times the same thing over again, and yet he was not above repeating it. He had such compassion on them. Sometimes he could not say what he would have liked to say, and yet he bore with the poor man who did not know the burden he had on his heart. He only said, I have many things to say to you, but you can't bear them now. John 16.12. And when after he taught them, they still forgot he did not chide them, never find that he turned one of them away because of their stupidity. He did not even cast off Thomas for his unbelief. But notwithstanding all, our Lord was never like Moses. And Moses was no slouch. Of him, Moses, it is written that the people of Israel provoked his spirit so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. It did happen at Meribah, Psalm 106. Once that I know of. But never an impatient word came from those lips into which grace was so abundantly poured. There was never such a meek and gentle and quiet spirit as our divine Lord and master possessed. He is one who can feel for grief because he's felt the same. Not only has our Lord compassion on the ignorant by being gentle towards them, but he sympathizes with them by having a fellow feeling with them. They got out of the way and into the thorns. They wandered, fell into a maze. They were lost in the dark mountains, but he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. In all their afflictions, he was afflicted. Because of that fellow feeling, he is always very tender and pitiful. And if he finds any of his children sorrowing, he has abundant compassion upon them. Moreover, he is one who lays himself out tenderly to help such as come to him. He did so when he was here in body, and he is the same now. All his life was given in tenderness. You never find Christ throwing bread and meat to the hungry crowd as we throw bones to the dogs. You know, a lot of us have had pets. Maybe we do have pets. So I'm guessing that we probably can't appreciate what he just said here, I don't know how many dogs they had in their houses back then, but I recall as a young guy visiting a roommate from college who lived out in the western part of the state. His parents were ethnic German. And it was a small house, a gentleman's farm. They were hardscrapple folks. And in the middle of winter, I remember having lunch. Corn on the cob in winter. It was frozen. freezer and reheat it and just try that sometime. And fried chicken on the bone. And when his dad got done with this bone chicken, he flung it onto the floor and out of nowhere this cat came out and grabbed it and shot off with it into some corner. He didn't say, here kitty, kitty. He didn't hand it to her. It was just like, it was his way He's solving two problems at once. Here's a cat that needed to eat something and this bone that just needed to get tossed someplace. So I guess I was thinking of that when it's written. Throwing dogs, anyway, sorry. Back to the text. You never find Christ throwing bread and meat. He's made them, his followers, to sit down in the green grass and he blessed the food. He gave it to his disciples and they distributed it in a quiet, orderly way. He treated them with the utmost dignity. In the Lord Jesus Christ is a very loving way of helping his people. He abounds towards us in all wisdom and prudence. And we may each one say, thy gentleness hath made me great. Oh, he's a wonderful savior. There's none like him for sympathizing with us and dealing tenderly with us. None. Another thing I have to say of him that never can be said of anybody else is, he is one who never repelled a single person. Never. And while this time still progresses in this epoch, he won't. Until that final day. That'll be different. But for now, he won't. Not even the most ignorant, the most out of the way was ever turned back from him. It was always true. This man received sinners, even somebody in their 90s. And forever this word is settled in heaven. Him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. Skipping down a paragraph. His heart is on earth, though he has ascended into the heavens. If anyone here groans after him, we will hear that groan or prayer. And that the wish does not come to a vocal sound at all, but if your heart only aches after him, He will feel that ache of your heart and know what it means. If you do not know how to pray, the very desire to pray, He will interpret. He can have compassion on the ignorant. You must have Him. You must have Him. You cannot get to God without Him. I pray that you will feel such confidence in His tenderness. that you may come and take him as your own high priest. If you do, he will be yours at the moment of acceptance. He will never refuse the seeker. He will never be distant and strange to any penitent sinner. If you desire him, it is because he desires you. And if you have a spark or a wish for him, he has a furnace of desire for you. come and welcome. He can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. Third point. I want to speak to those of you who are the people of God. Well, that would include those of us who belong to this church, those of us who are members, those of us who claim the name of Christ already, if you're not a member here. The sort of infirmity which may be sanctified may be useful. Well, infirmity, weakness, sickness. What is it in our lives that can be useful to the kingdom's work? The high priest of old was compassed. He was surrounded with weakness, infirmity, sickness. And this was part of the qualification. He had to be if he was a man. Our Lord Jesus had no sin, it's quite true, but please remember that this does not make Jesus less tender, but more so. He was all the more tender when compassed with infirmities because sin was excluded from the list. He wasn't hardened by sin. First, number one, think of our struggles in finding mercy. And he's going to go through some things that we've experienced. You ever wonder why you're going through such a season of grief, such a season of heartache? Or maybe something down the road will make you useful in this way. I know the way, for I've been there. We can have mutual empathy. And he references his own testimony here, when he deals with some of the things that he experienced, his depression, the pain that he knew physically. This would have been towards the end of Spurgeon's life. He would have gone through probably the downgrade controversy, having been, air quotes, disciplined by the Baptist Union, Second paragraph, our grievous temptations may be infirmities which shall be largely used in our service. A temptation can be useful? Is that a head scratcher? Well, let's see what he has to say. What a blessing it would be to live without temptation, says one. I don't believe it would be a blessing at all, he retorts. Be glad if you've been tempted. Remember that temptation is one of the best books in the minister's library. Be tempted, but don't succumb. That's my interjection. Remember that temptation is one of the best books. To be tried, to be afflicted, to be downcast, to be tested, all this helps you to deal with others. Accept the temptations which trouble you so much as part of your salvation to make you useful to others. That's radical. Number three, our sickness may turn out to be in the same category. You ever hear that expression, when you have your health, you have everything? Well, that's not true. I think that health is the greatest blessing that God ever sends us, except sickness, which is far better. I would give anything to be perfectly healthy, and he knew illness. But if I had to go over my time again, I would not get on without those sick beds and those bitter pains and those weary, sleepless nights. Just a touch of sickness now and then may help you mightily. Glory in your infirmities, then in your sicknesses, for they shall be made useful in you. How? In the comfort of God's sick people. The next. Paragraph, our trials too may thus be sanctified for he that has had no troubles and no trials, what mistakes he makes. He goes on and talks about a well-to-do French woman who never knew what it was like to eat a penny Danish or something or other. So she couldn't relate. The following paragraph. Our depressions may also tend to our fruitfulness. A heart bowed down with despair is a dreadful thing. A wounded spirit, who can bear? Proverbs 18, 14. But if you've never had such an experience, you will not be worth a pin as a preacher. You cannot help others who are depressed. unless you've come down in the depths yourself. You cannot lift others out of despondency and depression unless you yourself have sometimes need to be lifted out of such experiences. Now in the following paragraph, he's going to mention the Iron Duke. All right, check that out. The Iron Duke was a guy named Arthur Wellesley. He was also known as the first Duke of Wellington, born in Ireland and served in the British Army admirably. And he shared in the victory over Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. So he was a military hero. Well, let's put that into context. Our whole nature as feeble men may be turned to the noblest use if it calls forth our compassion towards others. Thank God that you are not a man of iron. We had the Iron Duke once, he did famous things but in a different fight from ours. And I'm wondering if perhaps he was bringing this message originally to pastors. An iron preacher would need to have iron hearers, and then, I am afraid, there would come a crash before long. No, we must have our weaknesses and infirmity consecrated to God and laid at his feet. Let us go in all our weakness and infirmity and try to help others who are as ignorant and as out of the way as we once were. God blessing us when we're weak. We shall be strong. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we have such a great high priest who knows such things as has been preached over a century ago, knows what's going on in our lives, knows the trials, the pain, the afflictions, the disappointments that many of us in this room know. He knew it, and he didn't sin. Help us, I pray, to be useful in light of what we've been exposed to tonight. Help us to be useful in our weaknesses. Help us to gain understanding in our understanding of the Word of God, and the understanding of your grace, in the understanding of who our great High Priest truly is, in your holiness, in your love for us. Make us useful, I pray, this coming week. Make this church useful. I pray in the name of the head of the church, our compassionate high priest, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.