Hebrews 12:1,2
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We are taught by the Apostle that the noble army of martyrs, and the glorious company of confessors, are “witnesses” of our race to heaven―from yon blue heaven the eyes of the glorified look down on us; there the children of God are sitting on their starry thrones, observing whether we manfully uphold the banner around which they fought; they behold our valour, or they detect our cowardice; and they are intent to witness our valiant deeds of noble daring, or our ignominious retreat in the day of battle.
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): In every age God sets up some of all sexes, ages, conditions, that have owned His despised and oppugned truths, and have not counted their lives dear, so as they might give their testimony to the truth of God, Revelation 12:11, and have more greedily embraced martyrdom than others honours and dignities in the church; as Sulpicius Beverus observes, they have with greater desire affected the glory of martyrdom and suffering for the truth, that they might be faithful to God and the souls of men in future ages, and to preserve God’s truth inviolate.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): And truly, God does not make known His will to us, that the knowledge of it may perish with us; but that we may be His witnesses to posterity and that they may deliver the knowledge received through us, from hand to hand (as we say) to their descendants.
WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): The special work for which Christians are left in the world is to be witnesses.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth, John 18:37. Christ’s errand into the world, and His business in the world, was to bear witness to the truth…He bore witness to the truth of religion, the truth of divine revelation, and of God’s perfections and providence, and the truth of His promise and covenant, that all men through Him might believe.
C. H. SPURGEON: For this end were we born, and for this purpose were we sent into the world, that we might bear witness to grand soul-saving truths, that by the knowledge of these things God may be glorified among men…You are to witness to what He has revealed, to make known to others the doctrine that he preached, or taught by his apostles. Mind that you do not tell any other. You are not sent to be “an original thinker,” to make up a gospel as you go along; you are a witness, that is all, a retailer of Christ’s truth, and you miss the end of your life unless you perpetually witness, and witness, and witness to what you know of Him, and to what you have learnt from Him.
JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): The truths of God cannot be born witness unto too often.
THOMAS MANTON: Oh! we should not let one dust of truth perish. This is to be zealous for the truth, standing to, and striving for the defence thereof, in our way and place. If God had not raised up zealous instruments in every age to plead for his truth, what a sad case would the church have been in?
C. H. SPURGEON: Let us bear witness to the truth, since there is great need of doing so just now, for witnessing is in ill repute. The age extols no virtue so much as “liberality,” and condemns no vice so fiercely as bigotry, alias honesty. If you believe anything and hold it firmly, all the dogs will bark at you. Let them bark: they will have done when they are tired! You are responsible to God, and not to mortal men. Christ came into the world to bear witness to the truth, and He has sent you to do the same; take care that you do it, offend or please.
A. W. TOZER (1897-1963): We who witness and proclaim the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world.
E. W. BULLINGER (1837-1913): We are God’s witnesses.
MATTHEW HENRY: Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour, Isaiah 43:10,11. All the prophets that testified to Christ, and Christ Himself, the great prophet, are here appealed to as God’s witnesses. God’s people are witnesses for Him, and can attest, upon their own knowledge and experience, concerning the power of His grace, the sweetness of His comforts, the tenderness of His providence, and the truth of His promise. They will be forward to witness for Him that He is gracious and that no word of His has fallen to the ground.
C. H. SPURGEON: Each saint is a witness to divine faithfulness, and should be ready with his testimony…Every true Christian should, in his own proper person, be a witness for his Lord. “Here I stand,” says he, “myself a proof of what my Lord can do. I, His servant, saved by Him, and renewed by Him, washed in His blood, it is I who, while I live, whether I speak or not, am a monument of His love, a trophy of His grace.” Dear friends, we are to be witnesses of what Christ has done. If we have seen Christ, if we believe in Christ, let us tell it honestly.
WILLIAM ARNOT: Two qualifications are required in a witness, truth and love―Ephesians 4:15; these are needed, but these will do.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Be bold and faithful witnesses for God’s truth. Yes, witnesses!―Stand fast, both in public and in private, even if you stand alone. But you will not stand alone.
THOMAS MANTON: There is a cloud of witnesses gone before us.
C. H. SPURGEON: Oh, saints of God, you are never unobserved, you are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses, and none of these witnesses are indifferent to you: they all watch you with steady gaze to see how you run your race…Remember that, ye sons of men, ye are not unregarded; ye do not pass through this world in unseen obscurity―But if we think that thought worth treasuring up, there is one which sums up that and drowns it, even as a drop is lost in the ocean; it is the thought, “Thou God seest me.” It is nought that angels see me, it is nought that devils watch me, it is nought that the glorified spirits observe me, compared with the overwhelming truth, that thou God at all times seest me.
WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Let us be His witnesses.
C. H. SPURGEON: Be bold for Christ; bear your witness, and be not ashamed. If you do not take your stand in this way, it can never truly be said of you that you served your generation…Oh, I beseech you by the myriads of witnesses around the throne, and by the thousands of witnesses on earth, by Jesus Christ, the witness on Calvary, by the blood of sprinkling that is a witness even now, by God Himself, and by His Word which is faithful, I beseech you believe this faithful saying, that “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.”
