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Sheep Among Wolves - Part 4

22/4/2017

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by C.H. Spurgeon
“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Matthew 10:16
We are to go forth like sheep among wolves in this sense, that we are quite powerless against them. What can a sheep do if a wolf sets upon it? It has no strength to resist and so those seventy disciples of Christ, if the Jews had hunted them down, would have gone to prison and to death, for they could not fight. “My kingdom,” said our Lord, “is not of this world, else would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews.” All through the history of the church, when the wolves actually set upon the sheep, they make no active resistance, but as the flock of slaughter they suffer and die. I know there was a time in history when the sheep began fighting, but it was not their Master’s mind that they should. He bids us put our sword in its scabbard. Our place is to bear and bear and bear continually, as He did. He says, “If a man strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Fighting sheep are strange animals and fighting Christians are self-evident contradictions. They have forsaken the Master’s way. They have gone off from the platform where He stands whenever it comes to carnal weapons. It is ours to submit and to be the anvil which bears the blows, but outlasts all the hammers. After all, the wolves have had by far the worst of it—the sheep are multiplied and the wolves grow fewer and fewer. As a matter of fact, the sheep have lived in this country to see the last of the wolves—and they will in other lands. The wild dogs of Australia are very fierce against the sheep, but the sheep will surely in the end live and the wild dog will die. Everywhere it is so. They are weak in themselves and yet they conquer the strong. “Ah,” you say, “it is the shepherd who gives them this victory.” Precisely so and that is where our strength lies, even in “that great Shepherd of the sheep.”

Though called to bow down as the street that men may go over us, by this endurance we conquer. In suffering we are invincible and in this sign we conquer—the cross of self-denial and self-sacrifice leads the way. “I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,” not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing. Being provoked, you return gentleness and being persecuted, you pray for your enemies. “Ah,” says one, “I do not like the look of such a mode of warfare.” I thought you would not and you may go your way. As notice was given of old in the camp of Israel that he who had lately married a wife, or built a house, or was fainthearted, might go home, so do we say, “To your beds, you cowards! If you cannot undertake this for your Master, He does not need that His host should be encumbered by your presence.” Our Master calls out men to whom He gives grace that they may be strong to endure even unto the end. The Spirit of the Lord gives patience and forbearance to those who in true faith seek to be like their suffering Lord.


Brethren, it is trying work for the sheep to go forth among wolves, but it has to be done. Picture it in your mind’s eye. The timid sheep trembles at it. The wolves are rough, unmannerly, coarse-minded, irritating, annoying. The poor sheep does not feel at home in such company. He sees every now and then the white teeth glittering within the wolf’s mouth and he is ill at ease. The sheep wishes he were back in the quiet fold among his happy brethren, but the Shepherd knows what He is at and it is the duty of the sheep to obey and to go into the midst of the wolves if his Shepherd bids him.

 It is very testing too, because if a man is not truly one of God’s own, he will not obey so trying a command, but will neglect duty and seek comfort. It will try even you who are most sincere. You think you have much patience—get among the wolves and see how much is left. You fancy you could put up with a great deal of annoyance—let it come upon you and you will see how it torments you. When it comes to the loss of your good name, to downright lying and slander against the tenderest part of your character, when it comes to bitter sneers and sarcasms and words which eat like acid into the flesh and burn like coals of fire flung into the bosom, it is not easy then to maintain the love which hopes all things, endures all things. Grace alone makes believers press forward in their work of love, seeking with gentleness to win souls. Oh to say—though the wicked man curses me and foams at the mouth with rage—I will still seek his good. This is the victory of faith, but the battle will test all your graces and make you see that all is not gold which glitters. You will soon see whether the Spirit of God is in you or not, for patient love is not natural, but supernatural, and only he who is filled with the supernatural indwelling of the Holy Spirit will be able to live as a sheep among wolves.

Pt.5, Continues next week ...
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SHEEP AMONG WOLVES -  Part 3

15/4/2017

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by C.H. Spurgeon
​“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Matthew 10:16
“I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” That is to say, the task is one of great danger and difficulty. Our divine enterprise is no child’s play. You have to go among those who will not in any way sympathize with your efforts. Sometimes we go among friendly, quiet, almost-persuaded people, and it is somewhat pleasant work, though even there it is very discouraging, for those who are not far from the kingdom are often the hardest to be won. If you discharge your souls and behave zealously before God, you will have to deal with people who cannot enter into your feelings or agree with your aims. The bleating sheep finds no harmony in the bark or howl of the wolf. The two are very different animals and by no means agree. You do not suppose that you are going to be received with open arms by everybody, do you? And if you become a preacher of the gospel you do not imagine that you are going to please people, do you? The time may come when perhaps the wolves will find it most for their own comfort not to howl quite so loudly, but my own experience goes to show that they howl pretty loudly when you first come among them, and they keep up the hideous concert year after year until at last they somewhat weary of their useless noise. The world does rave as a wolf if any man is in double earnest for the kingdom of Christ. Well, you must bear with it. What sort of sympathy can a lamb expect from wolves? If he expected any, would he be not disappointed? Be not disappointed, for you know your surroundings and you know your mission. When our Savior used similar words to the seventy, He did not call them sheep, but lambs (see Luke 10:3), for they were not so far advanced as the twelve, yet did He send them into the same trying circumstances and they returned in peace. Even the weak ones among us should therefore be of good courage and be ready to face opposition and ridicule.

Sheep in the midst of wolves are among those who would rend them, tear them, devour them. Luther used to say Cain will go on killing Abel to the world’s end, if he can, and so he will till that millennial day when the wolf shall lie down with the lamb. The disposition and nature of the wolves cause them to be opposed to the sheep, and it is the nature of the world to hate the children of God. All through history you see the two seeds in contention—if there is Abel, there is Cain who slays him. If there is Noah, you see an ungodly world all round him. If there is an Isaac, so also is there an Ishmael who will mock him. And if there is a Jacob, there is an Esau who seeks to kill him. There cannot be an Israel without Pharaoh, or Amalek, or Edom, or Babylon to oppose. David must be hunted by Saul and the Son of David by Herod. There is an enmity between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman, and that enmity will always remain. The ungodly roar upon the righteous and seek to bring cruel accusations against them, even as against their Lord. No matter how pure the lives of the godly, the wicked will slander them. No matter how kind their actions, they will render evil in return. No matter how plain and honest their behavior, they will suspect them, and no matter how disinterested in their motives, they will be sure to attribute to them the very lowest designs, for the wolf comes to kill and to devour and he will do it to the best of his ability. Ah, how red are his fangs in times of persecution. How the wolf raged and raved over this our country in the days of Mary and Charles the Second, and next as a Puritan, the godly were devoured and he that followed his conscience was made bitterly to suffer. Scotland can tell how the wolf’s fangs were wet with the blood of her covenanting sons and were it not for God’s own strong hand put upon them, the wolves would be tearing the sheep to this day in our own land.


Again, they were to go like sheep among wolves, among a people who would hinder their endeavors, for their business was to seek the lost sheep and the wolves would not help them in that. On the contrary, the wolves themselves desire to seize upon the lost sheep as their prey. You must expect, if you are faithful to Christ and put forth zealous efforts, that there will be others who will put forth their strength and cunning to oppose you. It is often an awful game that we have to play for a man’s soul. Each move we make is met by the devil and, unless God directs us, we shall lose the man. If we draw him to a prayer meeting, another takes him to the theater. If we set before him the truth, another puzzles him with skepticism. If we persuade him, others entice him in the wrong direction. The cunning of our foe is something terrible. We go forth to hunt for precious souls, but there are others who, in another sense, hunt for the precious life. The streets at night tell of those whom Satan hires that he may use them as his decoys, and the vicious literature scattered abroad so plentifully are other forms of the nets of Satan, the great fowler, who catches the sons of men in his snares. If we are not earnest, the devil is. He never sleeps—he lost his eyelids long ago. We may slumber if we dare, but the powers of evil will never suspend their activities. Day and night the deadly work goes on and the wolves howl over their prey. Therefore, go we forth like sheep, not among the images of wolves, but in the midst of real active wolves that are doing all they possibly can to destroy those sheep who are as yet lost, but whom Christ has, nevertheless, purchased with His precious blood.
Pt.4, Continued next week ...
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SHEEP AMONG WOLVES - Part 2

8/4/2017

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by C.H. Spurgeon
“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Matthew 10:16
These disciples had been with Him and had been taught by Him that they might teach in His name. They had for some little time been His disciples or learners and now He calls them apart from the rest, and says, “I send you forth to teach and to make disciples.” The mode of operation in the kingdom of God is, first make disciples, baptize them, teach them whatsoever the Lord has commanded and then let them go forth and do the same with others. When one light is kindled, other candles are lit from it. Do not try to teach till the Lord Jesus has first taught you. Do not pretend to instruct till you have been instructed. Sit at Christ’s feet before you speak in Christ’s name, but when once you are instructed, do not fail to become teachers. First be taught, but afterwards fail not to teach.

Hoard not up the treasure of divine knowledge, for there is no shortage therein—eat not alone the honey of redeeming love, for there is enough and to spare. Feed not upon the bread of heaven with selfish greed, as though there were a famine in the land and you had need to save each crumb for yourself, but break your bread among the hungry crowd about you and it shall multiply in your hands. Christ has called you that you may afterwards go forth and call others to His sacred feast of grace

“I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” That is to say, the task is one of great danger and difficulty. Our divine enterprise is no child’s play. You are to go forth as sheep among wolves, that is to say, you have to go among those who will not in any way sympathize with your efforts. Sometimes we go among amiable, quiet, almost-persuaded people, and it is somewhat pleasant work, though even there it is very discouraging, for those who are not far from the kingdom are often the hardest to be won.

The bleating sheep finds no harmony in the bark or howl of the wolf. The two are very different animals and by no means agree. You do not suppose that you are going to be received with open arms by everybody, do you? And if you become a preacher of the gospel you do not imagine that you are going to please people, do you? The time may come when perhaps the wolves will find it most for their own comfort not to howl quite so loudly, but my own experience goes to show that they howl pretty loudly when you first come among them, and they keep up the hideous concert year after year until at last they somewhat weary of their useless noise.

The world does rave as a wolf if any man is in double earnest for the kingdom of Christ. Well, you must bear with it. What sort of sympathy can a lamb expect from wolves? If he expected any, would he be not disappointed? Be not disappointed, for you know your surroundings and you know your mission. When our Saviour used similar words to the seventy, He did not call them sheep, but lambs (see Luke 10:3), for they were not so far advanced as the twelve, yet did He send them into the same trying circumstances and they returned in peace. Even the weak ones among us should therefore be of good courage and be ready to face opposition and ridicule.
​Pt.3, Continued next week ...
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SHEEP AMONG WOLVES - Part 1  

1/4/2017

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by C.H. Spurgeon
Picture
"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Matthew 10:16
WELL may the text begin with a, “Behold,” for it contains some special wonders such as can be seen nowhere else. First, here is a tender and loving Shepherd sending His sheep into the most dangerous position—“I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” It is the part of a shepherd to protect his sheep from the wolves, not to send them into the very midst of those ravenous beasts, and yet here is the Good Shepherd, “that Great Shepherd of the sheep,” actually undertaking and carrying out this extraordinary experiment of conducting His sheep into the very midst of wolves. How strange it seems to poor carnal sense. Be astonished, but be not unbelieving—stand still awhile and study the reason.

The next remarkable thing is, “sheep in the midst of wolves,” because according to the order of nature, such a thing is never seen, but on the other hand, it has been reckoned a great calamity that in some lands wolves are too often seen in the midst of sheep. The wolf leaps into the midst of a flock and rends and tears on every side. It matters not how many the sheep may be, for one wolf is more than a match for a thousand sheep. But lo! here you see sheep sent forth among the wolves, as if they were the attacking party and were bent upon putting down their terrible enemies. It is a novel sight, such as nature can never show, but grace is full of marvels.


Equally extraordinary is the singular mixture, never yet seen by human eye amongst beasts and birds—a mixture of the serpent with the dove in one person. What a strange blending. Creatures which are capable of cross-breeding must have some sort of kinship, but here is a reptile of the dust united with a bird of the air, “Be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Grace knows how to pick the good out of the evil, the jewel out of the oyster shell, the diamond from the dunghill, the wisdom from the serpent, and by a divine chemistry it leaves the good which it takes out of the foul place as good as though it had never been there. Grace knows how to blend the most gentle with the most subtle, to take away from prudence the base element which makes it into cunning and by mingling innocence with it, produce a sacred prudence most valuable for all walks of life.
​
With these three wonders lying upon the very surface of the text, we shall enter into a fuller consideration of it with great expectations, but if we do so, we shall be disappointed if we expect to learn anything very extraordinary unless we are prepared to practice what we learn. I may truly say of this text, he that does its bidding shall understand its doctrine. He who follows its precept shall best know its meaning. May the Spirit of all grace work in us according to His divine power and perfect in us the will of the Lord.
​Pt.2, Continued next week ...
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    Limerick City Church

    We are a church that has a real burden for the city of Limerick. We are praying that many will experience true salvation in Christ and that the Lord will pour out His Holy Spirit in a genuine revival.

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