’I backward cast mine eye
    On prospects drear;
  And forward though I cannot see,
    I guess and fear.’

So I beseech you, yield yourselves to Jesus Christ, He died to win us.  He bears our sins that they may be all forgiven.  If we give ourselves to Him who has given Himself to us, then we shall be lords of men, of the world, of life and death, of time and eternity.

In the old days conquerors used to bestow upon their followers lands and broad dominions on condition of their doing suit and service, and bringing homage to them.  Christ, the King of the universe, makes His subjects kings, and will give us to share in His dominion, so that to each of us may be fulfilled that boundless and almost unbelievable promise:  ‘He that overcometh shall inherit all things.’  ’All are yours if ye are Christ’s.’

THE THREE TRIBUNALS

’But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment:  yea, I judge not mine own self. 4.  For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord.’—­1 COR. iv. 3, 4.

The Church at Corinth was honeycombed by the characteristic Greek vice of party spirit.  The three great teachers, Paul, Peter, Apollos, were pitted against each other, and each was unduly exalted by those who swore by him, and unduly depreciated by the other two factions.  But the men whose names were the war-cries of these sections were themselves knit in closest friendship, and felt themselves to be servants in common of one Master, and fellow-workers in one task.

So Paul, in the immediate context, associating Peter and Apollos with himself, bids the Corinthians think of ‘us’ as being servants of Christ, and not therefore responsible to men; and as stewards of the mysteries of God, that is, dispensers of truths long hidden but now revealed, and as therefore accountable for correct accounts and faithful dispensation only to the Lord of the household.  Being responsible to Him, they heeded very little what others thought about them.  Being responsible to Him, they could not accept vindication by their own consciences as being final.  There was a judgment beyond these.

So here we have three tribunals—­that of man’s estimates, that of our own consciences, that of Jesus Christ.  An appeal lies from the first to the second, and from the second to the third.  It is base to depend on men’s judgments; it is well to attend to the decisions of conscience, but it is not well to take it for granted that, if conscience approve, we are absolved.  The court of final appeal is Jesus Christ, and what He thinks about each of us.  So let us look briefly at these three tribunals.

I. First, the lowest—­men’s judgment.