Who Cares About the Opinions of Men?

A Bonus dose of Spurgeon
posted by Phil Johnson

The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive. The following excerpt is from "Man, Whose Breath Is in His Nostrils," a sermon preached in London's Metropolitan Tabernacle at some date that was not recorded. It was published in 1887.

"Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"—Isaiah 2:22

"But they say."

hat do they say? Let them say. It will not hurt you if you can only gird up the loins of your mind, and cease from man.

"Oh, but they have accused me of this and that."

Is it true?

"No, sir, it is not true, and that is why it grieves me."

That is why it should not grieve you. If it were true it ought to trouble you; but if it is not true, let it alone. If an enemy has said anything against your character it will not always be worthwhile to answer him. Silence has both dignity and argument in it.

Nine times out of ten if a boy makes a blot in his copy-book and borrows a knife to take it out, he makes the mess ten times worse; and as in your case there is no blot after all, you need not make one by attempting to remove what is not there. All the dirt that falls upon a good man will brush off when it is dry: but let him wait till it is dry, and not dirty his hands with wet mud. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils."

Brethren in Christ, let us think more of God and less of man. Come, let the Lord our God fill the whole horizon of our thoughts. Let our love go forth to him; let us delight ourselves in him. Let us trust in him that liveth for ever, in him whose promise never faileth, in him who will be with us in life, and in death, and through eternity. Oh that we lived more in the society of Jesus, more in the sight of God!

Let man go behind our back, and Satan too. We cannot spend our lives in seeking the smiles of men, for pleasing God is the one object we pursue. Our hands, and our heads, and our hearts, and all that we have and are, find full occupation for the Lord, and therefore we must "Cease from man."

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