I intend chiefly to call your attention to this verse, but it will be necessary also to refer to the rest of the chapter: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Our Saviour was always with his disciples until the time of his death. After his resurrection, he was with them often, but not always. He came and he went mysteriously; the doors being shut, he was there suddenly when they least looked for him; or he appeared to them as they walked by the way, or while they were fishing, or when they came to the mountain in Galilee, the appointed rendezvous. On this particular occasion,-I am not quite sure whether it was when only the eleven were gathered together, or that more memorable occasion when he spoke to over five hundred brethren at once, which many who have well studied the passage think is more probable,-at any rate, on this occasion, the Saviour made himself very much at home with his disciples. According to the most proper translation of the text, “Jesus came and talked unto them.” There was a holy familiarity in his communications with his disciples; he spoke to them as a friend, he came into close contact with them in friendliest familiarity. The glory of that time to them was that he was there, and that he spoke with them. It does not matter where it was; he was there, and wherever he pleases to be the centre of the group, there is sure to be a memorable gathering. Brethren, I wish that we were ever on the look-out for our Lord. I am afraid that, in our assemblies, we often think and say, “So-and-so was there, and such-and-such a minister spoke to us;” but the best meeting is when Christ is there, and when he himself by his Divine Spirit speaks familiarly to our souls.

Notice what it was about which our Lord spoke to his disciples. He was going away from them; his bodily presence would no longer be enjoyed by his followers until he should so come in like manner as they were to see him go up into heaven; but his last talk, or one of the last talks he ever had with them before his ascension, was about himself and his work. It was a time of taking them into his secret, explaining to them the partnership which the Father had established between him and them, and making them to know the fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ which was now to cover the whole of their lives. You see, he begins by speaking to them about his own power: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” We are not fit to go out to work for Christ till we truly know him ourselves, and also know something of the divine power which he is prepared to give to us. It is well for us to learn the lesson ourselves before we attempt to teach it to others. Go not thou out unto all nations till thou hast first gone into thy closet, and had fellowship with the Master himself; thou wilt blunder in thine errand unless thou goest forth fresh from his blessed presence.

Then, what were they to do but to act for him? “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” They were to teach those nations only about him; he was to be the great subject of all their teaching. The correct word is, “disciple all nations.” They were to disciple them, not to make them their own disciples, but his disciples; he was to be still the Teacher, the Rabbi, the Master, they were only to go forth to do his work, not their own. Brothers, we must not try to form a party of which we shall be the head, we must abhor the very thought of any such action. We must gather the nations unto him; otherwise, we are not his servants, we are our own servants, or rather, our own masters. We are renegades and disloyal if we do that. “Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations,” was the command of Jesus Christ to his disciples.

And they were to baptize those who were made disciples; but it was to be into his name, in association with that of the Father and of the Holy Ghost. He who is not, as a believer, baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, is not baptized at all; the name of Christ is inseparably linked with those who are baptized according to the Scriptural fashion. So, you see, whether it be preaching, or whether it be discipling, or whether it be baptizing, we must keep close to Christ. It is all along that line; we preach him, we make disciples for him, we baptize in his name.

And when those who were made disciples were baptized, what was next to be done? “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” The shepherding of the sheep must still be in our Lord’s name. We do not found a church in any other name but his, neither do we know any rule or order or book of discipline but that which he has left us. He alone is King in Zion, and only what he teaches is authoritative. The explanations given by his servants we must judge by the tests he has given to us; but the word of the Master is to be obeyed and accepted in its entirety. “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” O brothers and sisters, there is no true work done for Christ unless we always put him in his right place, and keep ourselves in our right places,-himself the omnipotent Leader and Commander of his people, and ourselves his servants in all things, seeking even in the smallest matters to be obedient to his revealed will.

Do not fail to notice that all this is to be done in association with himself: “Lo, I am with you alway.” “It is not enough that you preach my gospel, and baptize in my name, and teach all nations that I am the Lord and Master of the house, and bid them all obey my will; but you must also ever have me at your side. You will do nothing worth the doing, you will spend your life in failure, unless you keep up perpetual communion with me. ‘Lo, I am with you alway.’ ” This must be the case with us till this dispensation closes, and it shall only close by our being with Christ in a still higher sense. We shall then go from his being with us to our being with him, from spiritual fellowship to an actual, visible, corporeal fellowship. We shall be like him when we shall see him as he is. He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth, he shall reign among his ancients gloriously; and until then, it is our privilege to abide at his side, and never venture to go forth except we feel that he goes with us, making our preaching and teaching in his name to be of effect upon the hearts and consciences of men.

I have missed my purpose in this preface if I have not brought out this line of thought,-that, if any of us would receive a commission for Christian service, it must come from Christ himself; if we would carry out that commission, it must be in loyalty to Christ; and if we hope to succeed in that commission, it must be in a perpetual, personal fellowship with Christ. We must begin to work with him, and go on working with him, and never cease to work until he himself shall come to discharge us from the service because there is no further need of it. Oh, that we did all our church work in the name of the great Head of the Church! Oh, that we did all Christ’s work consciously in the presence and in the strength of Christ!

Still only introducing my main theme, I shall ask you for a minute or so to consider the grand statement which our Saviour made: “Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

“All power.” Read it, if you like, “all authority.” It is not so much force that is meant, as moral power. Christ at this moment possesses a royal authority;-by might, it is true, but chiefly by right. His is the power which comes of his merits, of his glorious nature, and of the gift of the Divine Spirit who rests upon him without measure. The word we translate “power” has a wider meaning than that; you find a good instance of it in John 1:12: “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,” where the word “power” might be rendered “privilege” or “right” or “liberty”, and yet be correctly translated “power” also. Christ at this moment has all rights in heaven and in earth; he has all sovereignty and dominion, and, of course, he has all the might which backs up his right; but it is not mere power in the sense of force, it is not the dynamite power in which earthly kings delight, it is another and a higher kind of force which Christ has, even the divine energy of love. He possesses at this moment all authority in heaven and in earth.

“All power,” he says, “is given unto me”; that is to say, he has it now. You and I are not sent out to preach the gospel in order to get power for Christ; he has it now. We are not sent out, as we sometimes say, to win the world for Christ; in the strictest sense, it is his now. He is the King of glory at this very moment, he is even now Lord over all, King of kings and Lord of lords, all authority is given unto him. I shall not try to explain the particular time when it was given, but I remind you that it has been given. That great act is accomplished; our Lord Jesus holds in his hand the sceptre which gives him power over all flesh that he may give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him. He has already in his hand that sceptre with which he shall break the nations as with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces as a potter’s vessel. He has not to go up to his throne, he is already enthroned. He has not to be crowned, he is already crowned, as we have said, King of kings and Lord of lords.

“All power is given unto me.” This is not merely the power which Christ possesses naturally by his Godhead, or a power which could be compassed entirely by his manhood, for that must necessarily be limited; but it is a power which can be contained within that blessed complex Person, the Christ of God. It is as the God-man, the Mediator between God and men, that all might is bestowed upon him as the reward of the travail of his soul, boundless authority, so that now he can say, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

All power “in heaven” belongs to Christ; that is, all power with God. You remember how Elias prayed, and opened heaven by his prayers; but the Christ of God is greater than Elias. You know how men of God have been blessed with remarkable force and energy in their pleadings; but the intercessions of Christ are more powerful than all the intercessions of his people; yea, in one sense, they are the power that gives effect to all the intercessions of all the saints. It is he who puts power into them and into their petitions. Of course, as Christ has power with God, he has power also over all the holy angels, and all pure intelligences; all power of every kind that has to do with heavenly things and heavenly places is in the hand of Christ.

And Christ has all power also “in earth.” That is to say, he is Lord over all the earth. “The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.” He is Master of all providences; his hand ever holds the helm, and steers the ship that carries his disciples. He is Master of all kings and of all politics; and when at times we tremble for our beloved nation, there is no real need for us to do so. “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof.” Christ has all authority over all the sons of men and all the forces of nature. From the stars that light up the brow of midnight, to the deepest law that works in the bowels of the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ is Master of them all. All power, he says, is given unto him in heaven and in earth. This is a statement which would need a far fuller explanation than I can give it in the time at my disposal just now; I want rather to make use of it in this way.

First of all, let me say of this statement of our Lord,-“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,”-that we greatly rejoice in it.

I do not know that our Divine Master could have said anything to us that would have made our hearts thrill with a sweeter delight than we derive from these words,-“All power is given unto me.” Beloved, do you not wish all power to be given to him whom we love? I confess that nothing makes me rejoice more than the fact that he reigneth. I do not feel any sorrow so much as the sorrow of seeing his truth trodden in the mire, and I know no joy that ever thrills my soul like that of knowing that still is Jesus set as King upon the holy hill of Zion, that still he reigns, and that “he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his footstool.” Is there any power you would like to keep back from him? Is there any power you would like to invest in someone else? Is it not the delight of your soul to think that he could say, even when he dwelt here among men, ere yet he had ascended to the Father, while yet he talked as others talked with his poor disciples, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”? Do we not feel ready to shout, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” when we know that this is really the fact?

We delight also, dear friends, to know that all power is in the hands of Christ, because we are sure that it will be rightly used. Power in the hands of some people is dangerous, but power in the hands of Christ is blessed. Oh, let him have all power! Let him do what he will with it, for he cannot will anything but that which is right, and just, and true, and good. Give him unbounded sovereignty. We want no limited monarchy when Christ is King; no, put every crown on that dear head, and let him have unrestricted sway, for there is none like him. He is more glorious than all the sons of men, and it is our joy to know that all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth.

This also furnishes us with good reasons for often going to him. I love to think that all power is in him, and none in me, for now I cannot keep away from him. I am obliged to knock at his door, and if he asks me why I come so often, I must answer, “It cannot be helped, my Lord, for all power is with thee. If I had power to provide for myself, I might try to do so; but since, without thee, I should die of hunger, I must come to thee for every bit and every sup, ay, for every breath and every pulse.” Yes, it is even so; because all power is given unto Christ; we rejoice that we may always go to him. Will you chide a babe because it longs for its mother’s breast? How can it live without its natural nourishment? And can you chide our feebleness because it loves to hang upon the omnipotence of Christ?

We are glad, again, that all power is given unto him, because he is so easy of access. It is difficult for those in need to speak with kings, but it is not difficult for them to tell their wants to the King of kings. It is not easy to present a petition to an earthly prince, but it is very different with those who have requests to bring to the Prince Immanuel; his door is always open to suppliants, and his ear and heart are ever ready to listen to their supplications. Call upon him when you will, he will never repel you. Come to his strength whenever you may, that strength will flow out to your weakness, and make you strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

I leave that first thought with you; we rejoice that all power is given unto Christ.

Secondly, we see the practical outcome of this truth: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore.”

I have met with some brethren who have tried to read the Bible the wrong way upwards. They have said, “God has a purpose which is certain to be fulfilled, therefore we will not budge an inch. All power is in the hands of Christ, therefore we will sit still;” but that is not Christ’s way of reading the passage. It is, “All power is given unto me, therefore go ye, and do something.” “But, Lord, what dost thou want from us when thou hast all power? We are such poor, insignificant, useless creatures that we shall be sure to make a muddle of anything we attempt.” “No,” says the Master, “all power is given unto me, therefore go ye.” He puts us on the go because he has all power. I know that with many of us there is a tendency to sit down, and say, “All things are wrong, the world gets darker and darker, and everything is going to the bad.” We sit and fret together in most delightful misery, and try to cheer each other downwards into greater depths of despair! Do we not often act thus? Alas! it is so, and we feel happy to think that other people will blend in blessed harmony of misery with us in all our melancholies; or if we do stir ourselves a little, we feel that there is not much good in our service, and that very little can possibly come of it. This message of our Master seems to me to be something like the sound of a trumpet. I have given you the strains of a dulcimer, but now there rings out the clarion note of a trumpet. Here is the power to enable you to “go.” Therefore, “go” away from your dunghills, away from your ashes and your dust. Shake yourselves from your melancholy. The bugle calls, “Boot and saddle! Up and away!” The battle has begun, and every good soldier of Jesus Christ must be to the front for his Captain and his Lord. Because all power is given unto Christ, he passes on that power to his people, and sends them forth to battle and to victory.

Yet is there another note in this trumpet call. “All power is given unto me, go ye therefore,”-“Go ye.” Who is to go out of that first band of disciples? It is Peter, the rash and the headstrong. It is John, who sometimes wishes to call fire from heaven to destroy men. It is Philip, with whom the Saviour has been so long, and yet he has not known him. It is Thomas, who must put his finger into the print of the nails, or he will not believe him. Yet the Master says to them, “Go ye; all power is given unto me, therefore go ye. You are as good for my purpose as anybody else would be. There is no power in you, I know, but then all power is in me, therefore go ye.” “Go, thou worm Jacob, and thresh the mountains, for I have made thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth. Go in all thy weakness, for this is thy might-the might that dwells in me. Go ye, and teach all nations. Poor, weak, feeble, faulty, yet go ye, because I have all the power you can possibly want.”

“Go, go ye,” says Christ. “But, Lord, if we go to men, they will ask for our passports.” “Take them,” says he, “all authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. You are free of heaven, and you are free of earth. There is no place,-whether it be in the far-off Ethiopia, or in the deserts of Scythia, or in the centre of Rome,-there is no place where you may not go. There are your passports: ‘All authority is given unto me, therefore go ye.’ ”

“But, Lord, we want more than passports, we need a commission.” “There is your commission,” says the Lord; “all power is given unto me, and I delegate it to you. I have authority, and I give you authority; go ye therefore because I have the authority. Go and teach princes and kings and beggars, teach them all alike. I ordain you, I authorize you, as many of you as know me, and have my love shed abroad in your hearts, I commission you to go and-

“ ‘Tell to sinners round

What a dear Saviour you have found;’

and if they ask how you dare to do it, tell them not that the bishop ordained you, or that a synod licensed you, but that all power is given to your Master in heaven and in earth, and you have come in his name, and nobody may say you nay.”

“Moreover,” says the Master, “I send you with my power gone before you.” Observe that, for I bring it again to your recollection. Christ does not say, “Go and win the power for me on earth, go and get power for me among the sons of men.” No; but, “All authority and power are already vested in me, go ye therefore. I send you to a country which is not an alien kingdom, I send you to a country which is mine, for all souls are mine. If you go to the Jews or to the Gentiles, they are mine; if it be to India or China that you go, you need ask no man’s leave; you are in your own King’s country, you are on your own King’s errand, you have your own King’s power going before you.’ I do believe that, often, when missionaries go to a country, they have rather to gather ripe fruit than to plant trees. As the Lord sent the hornets to clear the way for the children of Israel, so does he oftentimes send singular changes, political, social, and religious, before the heralds of the cross, to prepare the way for them; and this is the message which sounds with clear clarion note to all the soldiers of King Jesus, “I have all authority in heaven and in earth, therefore, without misgivings or questionings, go ye and evangelize all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Thus, first, we rejoice in this grand statement of our Lord Jesus Christ, and next, we see the practical outcome of it.

Thirdly, and very briefly, we feel the need of it.

Oh, brothers and sisters, if anybody in this place knows the power which is in Christ to make his ministry of any use, I am sure that I do! I scarcely ever come into this pulpit without bemoaning myself that ever I should be called to a task for which I seem more unfit than any other man that ever was born. Woe is me that I should have to preach a gospel which so overmasters me, and which I feel that I am so unfit to preach! Yet I could not give it up, for it were a far greater woe to me not to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Unless the Holy Ghost blesses the Word, we who preach the gospel are of all men most miserable, for we have attempted a task that is impossible, we have entered upon a sphere where nothing but the supernatural will ever avail. If the Holy Spirit does not renew the hearts of our hearers, we cannot do it. If the Holy Ghost does not regenerate them, we cannot. If he does not send the truth home into their souls, we might as well speak into the ear of a corpse. All that we have to do is quite beyond our unaided power; we must have our Master with us, or we can do nothing. We deeply feel our need of this great truth; we not merely say it, but we are driven every day, by our own deep sense of need, to rejoice that our Lord has declared, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” for we need all power. Every kind of power that there is in heaven and in earth we shall need before we can fully discharge this ministry. Before the nations shall all be brought to hear the gospel of Christ, before testimony to him shall be borne in every land, we shall need the whole omnipotence of God; we shall want every force in heaven and earth ere this is done. Thank God that this power is all laid by ready for our use, the strength that is equal to such a stupendous task as this is already provided.

I must pass over much that I might have dwelt upon, and say, in the next place, we believe this text, and we rest in it. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

We believe in this power, and we rest in it. We do not seek any other power. There is a craving, often, after great mental power; people want “clever” men to preach the gospel. Ah, sirs! I fear that the gospel has suffered more damage from clever men than from anything else; I question whether the devil himself has ever wrought so much mischief in the Church of God as clever men have done. No; we want to have such mental vigour as God pleases to give us, but we remember that text, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” The world is not going to be saved by wordly wisdom or by fine oratory; brilliant speeches and poetic periods win not souls for Christ. The power to do this is the power that is in Christ, and the Church of God, when she is in her right senses, does not look for any other power; I mean, that she does not cringe before kings and princes, and cry “Establish us, endow us.” It is an old fiction that the royal touch can cure “the king’s evil”, but it is an old fact that the king’s hand brings an evil whenever it is laid upon the Church of Christ by way of patronage. No, kings and queens, we can do without you! If you will come to Jesu’s feet as humble suppliants, you shall be saved even as your subjects are; but the Church of God has a kingdom that is not of this world, and wants no help whatever from the kingdoms of this world. All power for the extension of the kingdom of Christ is in himself; his own person sustains his own kingdom, and we will not go to any other fountain of authority to draw the power we need. The Church of Christ must ever say to him, “All my fresh springs are in thee.”

And, dear friends, we believe and rest in this truth, defying every other power. Every other power that can be conceived of may set itself against the kingdom of Christ, but it does not matter; nay, not one whistle of the wind, for all power is already in Christ, and that which seemeth to oppose his kingdom must be but the mere empty name of power. There can be no real power about it, for all power is in him both in heaven and in earth.

This being so, we rest quite sure that even our infirmities will not hinder the progress of his kingdom, nay, rather, we glory in our infirmities, for now the power of Christ will become more conspicuous. The less we have by which the kingdom might be supposed to be extended, the more clearly will it be seen that the kingdom is extended by the power of the King himself.

At the same time, all power that we have we give to him, because all power is his; and all power that we ever possess, we lay it under tribute for him. Whatever there be of good, or of brightness, or of light, or of knowledge in this world, we say, “It all belongs to Jesus,” and we set the broad arrow of our great King upon it, and claim it as his.

O dear friends, why are we ever cast down? Why do we ever begin to question the ultimate success of the good cause? Why do we ever go home with aching head and palpitating heart because of the evils of the day? Courage, my brethren, courage; the King has all power, it is impossible to defeat him, A standard-bearer fell just now, I know, and across the battle-field I see the clouds of smoke. The right wing of our army may be shattered for a moment; but the King in the centre of the host still rides upon the white horse of victory, and he has but to will it, he has but to speak a single word, and the enemy shall be driven away like chaff before the wind.

Lastly, and here I should have liked to have had much time, but I can only hint at what I would have said. If it be so that all authority is given to Christ in heaven and in earth, then we obey it.

Christ says, “Go.” Then, let us go at once, according to his Word, in the track which God’s own hand marks out for us. Let us go and disciple all nations, let us tell them that they are to learn of Christ, and that they are to be obedient to his will. Let us also baptize those who become his disciples, as he bids us do: “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Next, let us be loyal to him in all things, and let us train up his disciples in loyalty to him: “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” As he has all authority, let us not intrude another authority. Let us keep within the Master’s house, and seek to know the Master’s mind, to learn the Master’s will, to study the Master’s Book, and to receive the Master’s Spirit, and let these be dominant over all other power; and all the while let us endeavour to keep in fellowship with him: “Lo, I am with you alway.” Let us never go away from him. Because all authority is given unto him, let us keep close by his side; let us be the yeomen of his guard. Let us be the servants who unloose the latchets of his shoes, who bring water for his feet, and who count ourselves highly honoured thereby. “Lo, I am with you alway,” saith he, so let us always be with him.

And let us always keep expecting him to return. The last words of the chapter suggest this thought: “even unto the end of the world,” or “of the age.” You know that this age is to end with a glorious beginning of a brighter and better age, therefore let us keep on looking for it. Servants, you will not serve well unless you expect your Master’s return. If you say, “He delayeth his coming,” you may begin to eat, and to drink, and to be drunken, and to beat your fellow-servants. Let the expectation of your Lord’s return always keep you on tip-toe, with your lamps trimmed and your lights burning; for, mayhap, this very night there may be heard in our streets the cry, “Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.” May we all be so ready that this cry would be the sweetest music that our ears could ever hear! God bless you, beloved, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-775, 340, 324.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

COLOSSIANS 1

Verses 1, 2. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul begins with a salutation in which he wishes the Colossian Christians the best of all blessings. It is the very spirit of our holy religion to wish well to others, and I am sure that we cannot have a better wish for our dearest friends than this, “Grace be unto you, and peace.” Grace will save you; peace will make you know that you are saved. Grace is the root of every blessing; peace is the sweet flower that makes life so sweet and so fragrant. May you have both of these blessings “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”! There is no peace for you apart from this blessed combination, God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, may you know your adoption, and may you know your redemption!

3, 4. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,

We are not only to pray for those who have no faith, but the very fact that men have faith should lead us to pray for them. Where there is evidently life in the seed, and it begins to sprout, let us water it with our prayers, and with our thanks, too. “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,”-

4, 5. And of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

“Faith”-“love”-“hope”-these are three divine sisters, which should ever go hand in hand. We must never be satisfied unless we see in ourselves and in our fellow-Christians these three delightful fruits of the Spirit of God. Notice the order here,-faith, and love, and then hope. Perhaps the Colossians were a little deficient in this last grace, so the apostle prayed constantly for them, “for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel.”

6. Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth;

We do not know the grace of God in truth unless it brings forth fruit in us. We may know it with the head very correctly, but yet we do not truly know it unless it is knowledge in the heart, knowledge in the inner man. We do not really know it unless it affects our lives, and brings forth faith, love, hope;-faith, which lifts us above the world; love, which preserves us from selfishness; and hope, which keeps us up under all trials.

7, 8. As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

I like to read of these godly men speaking well of one another. Nowadays, it is thought to be a distinguishing mark of faithfulness to be able to pick holes in the coats of our fellow-Christians. Now, we cannot help perceiving their defects, and sometimes it is our duty to speak of them, and to speak of them faithfully; but let us also observe all the virtues that are to be found in them, otherwise we may despise the work of the Holy Spirit, and rob him of his glory. How kindly Paul speaks of Epaphras, and how kindly Epaphras speaks of the church at Colosse!

9. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

If you have the graces of the Spirit, it is important that they should be deepened, that they should grow through being fed with divine nourishment. What the water is to the plant, making it further to develop itself, that is the knowledge of God’s will to our gifts and graces; they grow and become fruitful through an increase in the knowledge of God.

10-14. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Now the apostle is handling the string he most delights to touch. He is at home with everything which concerns the welfare of saints; but when he begins to talk of his Lord and Master, then it is that he seems to ride in a chariot of fire with horses of fire, and he grows mightily eloquent under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. See how he talks of the great central truth of the atoning sacrifice: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

15-18. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,

Note how Paul harps upon that one string, “He.” See how much he dwells upon the divine person of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He will never have done praising him; he keeps on heaping up epithets to magnify that blessed name; and he truly was in the Spirit of God when he did this, for it is the work of the Spirit to glorify Jesus Christ. He makes him great in our hearts, and then we try to make him great by our words and by our acts.

18-22. The church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

O beloved! as the sun is to be seen mirrored, not only in the face of the great deep, but in every little drop of dew that hangs upon each blade of grass, so is the glory of Christ to be seen, not only in his universal Church, but in every separate individual in whom his Spirit has wrought holiness.

23. If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

How delighted he is to have such a gospel to preach, such a hope to tell out to the sons of men! Oh, if we had to creep from a sick bed, or to come up from a dungeon, if we were aching in every bone of our body, and if we were depressed in soul, this ought to be enough to make us full of gladness to overflowing, that we have such a Christ to preach, and such fulness of blessing to declare to the sons of men!

24. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

As if there were so much suffering to be endured to bring in the redeemed from the world, and so much self-sacrifice to be made in order that those whom Christ has redeemed may come to know of that redemption, and may be brought to him; and Paul was glad to make up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh, “for his body’s sake, which is the church:”-

25. Whereof I am made a minister,

This is a wonderful expression, “made a minister.” The true minister is of God’s making; a man-made minister must be a poor creature, but a God-made minister will prove his calling: “whereof I am made a minister,”-

25-27. According to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

“Christ in you” is glory begun, a sure pledge and earnest of a glory greater than you can yet conceive. If Christ be in you, you have the beginnings of heaven; you have, in fact, the excellence and flower of heaven, for there is no heaven but the glory of Christ.

28, 29. Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

If God’s people strive mightily, it is because God works mightily in them. Nothing can come out of a man but what God puts into him. We work to will and to do when he works in us according to his good pleasure. Oh, for more of the agonizing of the Spirit within us, that there might be more of agonizing in our spirits for the glory of God!

UNPURCHASABLE LOVE

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, May 24th, 1896,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, June 6th, 1872.

“If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”-Song of Solomon 8:7.

That is a general truth, applying to all forms of real love; you cannot purchase love. If it is true love, it will not run on rails of gold. Many a marriage would have been a very happy one if there had been a tithe as much love as there was wealth; and, sometimes, love will come in at the cottage door, and make the home bright and blest, when it refuses to recline on the downy pillows of the palace. Men may give all the substance of their house, and form a marriage bond; the bond may be there, but not that which will make it sweet to wear. “If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”

Who, for instance, could purchase a mother’s love? She loves her own child specially because it is her own; she watches over it with sedulous care, she denies her eyes the necessary sleep at night if her babe be sick, and she would be ready to part with her own life sooner than it should die. Bring her another person’s child, and endow her with wealth to induce her to love it; and you shall find that it is not in her power to transfer her affection to the son or daughter of a stranger. Her own child is exceedingly precious to her, and another infant, that to an unprejudiced eye might be thought to be a far more comely babe, shall receive tenderness from her, for the woman is compassionate; but it can never receive the love that belongs to her own offspring.

Take, again, even the love of friends; I only instance that just to show how true our text is in relation to all forms of love. Damon loved Pythias; the two friends were so bound together that their names became household words, and their conduct towards one another grew into a proverb. Yet Damon never purchased the heart of Pythias, neither did Pythias think to pay a yearly stipend for the love of Damon. The introduction of the question of cost would have spoilt it all; the very thought of anything mercenary, anything like payment on the one side or receipt upon the other, would have been a death-blow to their friendship. No; if a man should give all the substance of his house even for human love, for the common love that exists between man and man, it would utterly be contemned.

Rest assured that this is pre-eminently true when we get into higher regions, when we come to think of the love of Jesus, and when we think of that love which springs up in the human breast towards Jesus when the Spirit of God has renewed the heart, and shed abroad the love of God within the soul. Neither Christ’s love to us nor our love to him can be purchased; neither of these could be bartered for gold, or rubies, or diamonds, or the most precious crystal. If a man should offer to give all the substance of his house for either of these forms of love, it would utterly be contemned.

We will begin at the highest manifestation of love, and commune together upon it. So let me say, first, that the love of our Lord Jesus Christ is altogether unpurchasable.

This fact will be clear to us if we give it a moment’s careful thought. Indeed, so clear is it that I scarcely like to multiply words upon it, and I do so only that you may dive the deeper into this glorious truth. It must be quite impossible to purchase the love of Christ, because it is inconceivable that he ever could be mercenary. It would be profane, surely, it would amount to blasphemy, and a very high degree of it, to suppose that the love of his heart could be bought with gold, or silver, or earthly stores. No, if he loves, it must be all free, like his own royal self. If he deigns to cast his eyes so far downward as to view the creatures of an hour, and to set his love upon them so that his delights are with the sons of men, it is not possible that he could gain aught from them. Nay, were we angels, we could not think that he could love us because of some service we could render, or some price we could pay to him. The bare idea runs cross and counter to all we know of Jesus; it is a flat contradiction of all our beliefs and all our knowledge concerning him. He loves us because he pities us, but not because there is a fee when he comes to us as the great Physician. He instructs us because he grieves over our ignorance, and because he knows the sorrow of it, and would have us learn of him; but his instructions are not given in order that we may each one bring our school pence to him. He labours, it is true; but none shall say that he labours for hire; though if he asked all worlds for his hire, he might well claim them for such labours as those which he has performed. The feats attributed to Hercules are nothing compared with the wonders wrought by Christ. He has cleansed stables far more filthy than the Augean, and slain monsters far more terrible than the hydra-headed demons of the ancient fables. True, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied;” there was a joy that was set before him, for which he endured the cross, despising the shame; yet the love that lay at the bottom of it all was love unbought, and love unsought, and love in which not so much as a single atom of anything like selfishness could ever be discovered. The pure stream of his love leaps like the crystal rill, and there is no sediment that can be found in it; it is altogether unmixed love to us.

Besides, brethren, there is another point that renders this idea of purchasing Christ’s love as impossible as the first thought shows it to be incredible; for all things are already Christ’s. Therefore, what can be given to him wherewith his love could be purchased? If he were poor, we might enrich him; but all things are his. “He was rich,” says the apostle; “he is rich,” we also may reply. He could say to us, at this moment, if we were so foolish as to attempt to bribe him to win the love of his heart, “I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountain: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.” All things are Christ’s, not only on this speck of a world, but throughout the universe. The things that are seen by us are as nothing compared with the things that we have not seen; yet all belong to Christ, and he has the power to create ten thousand times more than ever yet have been formed by him. There is nothing which he conceives in his infinite mind but he could at once fashion it by his almighty power; there is nothing he might desire but he could in an instant command it to appear before him. “Let it be,” he might say, and it would be even as he had said. Wherewith, then, could you bribe him, and where is the substance of your houses that you would give in exchange for his divine love? O ye who dwell in houses of clay, where is the substance which you could bring to him who is Lord of heaven and earth? Our substance? It is but a shadow. Our wealth? It is a child’s plaything in his sight; it is nought compared with his boundless riches.

Let us also note that, if Christ’s love could be won by us by something we could bring to him or do for him, it would suppose that there was something of ours that was of equal merit and of equal value with his love, or, at any rate, something which he was willing to accept as bearing some proportion to his love. But, indeed, there is nothing of the sort. Gold and silver,-I scarcely like to mention them in the same connection with the love of Christ. I am sure our poet was right when he said,-

“Jewels to thee are gaudy toys,

And gold is sordid dust.”

Think of the difference between gold and the love of Christ in the hour of pain, in the hour of depression of spirit; what can the strong boxes of the merchant do for him then? But one drop of the love of Christ helps him to bear up, however fast the heart may palpitate, or however much the spirits may have been cast down. What is the use of earthly riches when one comes to die? One laid his money bags close to his heart, to see if they could make a plaster that would give him rest, but they were hard and cold; but the love of Jesus, like the touch of the king’s hand in the old superstition, healeth even the disease of death itself, and makes it no longer death to die. There is nothing, then, by way of treasure that could be compared with the love of Christ; I will say it, and every believer here will agree with me, that there is no emotion we have ever felt in our most sanctified moments, there is no holy desire that has ever flashed through our soul in our most hallowed times, there is no seraphic longing that has ever been begotten in us when, the Spirit of God has been most operative in our hearts, that we should dare to put side by side with the love of Christ, and say that it was at all fit to be reckoned as a fair price for it. Our best is not one-thousandth part as good as Christ’s worst. Our gold is not equal to his clay. There is nothing that can be found in us, or that ever will be in us, that we should dare to say could for a moment stand in comparison with his love.

Well, then, since there is no coin of metal, or emotion of mental condition, or power of spiritual grace, that could be counted out or weighed as the purchase price of Christ’s love, we will not dream of having anything of the kind; for there comes, at the back of this thought, the consciousness that, even if we do possess anything that is really valuable, if there is something about us now that is commendable, and pure, and acceptable, yet it all belongs to Christ already. We have nothing with which we can buy anything of him, because all we have belongs to him. Under the righteous law of God, all the good of which we are capable is already due to our Creator. His command is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Very comprehensive, very sweeping, are the demands of the law of the Lord. You must not imagine that there is the slightest truth in the idea that man may come to do more for Christ than it is his duty to do; this cannot be, for all that is possible for us to do, is already Christ’s. “Ye are not your own,” and yet you talk about giving yourself to him. You belong to him now, you Christians, doubly so; and all men are under obligation to Christ even for the temporal favours he has bestowed upon them. You, believer, cannot say, “Now I am going to do for Christ something more than, I think, might absolutely be claimed by him.” Why, if you are really what you claim to be, you are his already, body, soul, and spirit! All your time, all your money, all your faculties, all the possibilities that are in you, are all his now; and therefore, wherewithal shall you come to purchase his love? No, it cannot be purchased; that is certain for many other reasons besides these which I have given you.

But what a blessing it is that we have the love of Christ, though we could not purchase it! The Son of God hath loved us; he has bestowed upon us what he never would have sold us; and he has given it to us freely, “without money and without price.” And, beloved, this love is no new thing. He loved us long before we were born. When his foreknowledge sketched us in his mind’s eye, he beheld us in love. He proved his love, too. It was not merely contemplative love, but it was practical love, for he died for us before we knew anything of him, or were even here to learn about him. His love is of such a wondrous kind that he always will love us. When heaven and earth have passed away, and like a scroll the universe shall be rolled up, or be put away like a worn-out vesture, he will still love us as he loved us at the first. The greatest wonder to me is that this unpurchasable love, this unending love is mine; and you, my brethren and sisters, can always say, each one of you, if you have been regenerated, “This love is mine; the Lord Jesus Christ loves me with a love I never could have purchased.”

Peradventure, someone is saying just now, “I wish I could say that.” Do you really wish it? Then, let the text serve to guide you as to the way by which you may yet know Christ’s love to you. Do not try to purchase it, abandon that idea at once. Perhaps you say, “I never thought of buying it with money.” Possibly not, but the mass of mankind think of purchasing it in some way or other. They hear from their priests of certain ceremonies, and they attach great importance to them, and offer them as a bribe to Christ; but these things will never buy his love. They then resort to prayers,-not prayers from the heart, but prayers said as a sort of punishment; and it is thought by many that surely these will procure his love, but they never will. We have even known some who have punished themselves, tortured themselves, thinking they would get Christ’s love in that fashion. Now, if I knew anybody who tried to win my love by making himself miserable, I should say to him, “My good fellow, you will never make me love you in that way; be as happy as you can, that method is a great deal more likely to touch my heart than the other.” I don’t believe that penance and mortification afford any pleasure to God; I think he would be more likely to say, “Poor silly creatures; when I make gnats, I teach them to dance in the summer sunshine; when I make the fish of the sea, they leap up from the waves with intense delight; and when I make birds, I show them how to sing.” God hath no delight in the miseries of his creatures, and the flagellations that fools give to themselves they deserve for their folly, but they certainly bring no pleasure to the heart of God. It is vain to think of purchasing the love of Christ in such a way.

“But surely, surely, we may do something. We will give up this vice, we will renounce that bad habit, we will be strict in our religiousness, we will be attentive to all moral duties.” So you should; but when you have done all that, do you think you have done enough to win his love? Is the servant, who has only done what he ought to have done, entitled to the love of his master’s heart because of that? Thou shalt not win Christ’s love so; if thou hast his love shed abroad in thy heart, thou hast infinitely more than thou hast ever earned. Suppose any person here were to say, “I do feel so resolved to be saved that I will give all I have in this world to some good cause, and then I will give myself to go abroad into foreign lands, to some fever-stricken place, to die in the service of God.” Ah! shouldst thou do all that, thou wouldst utterly be contemned if thou didst think thus to purchase the love of God. Will he be bartered with? Will he put up his heart to be sold in the market, he whose very temple was defiled by the presence of buyers and sellers? It cannot be. Go thou, and chaffer, and bid, and barter with thy fellow-men; even they will disdain thee if thou thinkest that love is thus to be procured, but dream not that thou art thus to deal with thy God. I say again, it cannot be. The text does not merely say that the price would be refused, but “it would utterly be contemned.” Love would open her bright eyes, and look at the man, and then she would frown, and say, “How canst thou insult me so? Take back thy gold, and begone;” and God’s great love, even when his pity was in the ascendant, would but weep a tear, and then reply, “I pity thee, for thou knowest not what thou art doing; and I despise the price thou bringest to me. How couldst thou think that I was such an one as thyself, and that my love could be purchased with paltry pelf that thou canst bring?”

We cannot spare more time for that point, but it is one that you may think over for many a day, and your heart may be charmed with it till you love and bless your Saviour with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength.

My second remark is, that, in our case, nothing can ever serve as a substitute for love.

If Christ has loved us, or if we are desirous of realizing that he has done so, the one thing needful and essential is that we have true love to him. God’s demand of each one who professes to be his child is, “My son, give me thine heart.” There are many who would like to be thought to be his sons, and therefore every morning they wickedly say, “Our Father which art in heaven,” though God is not their Father. If they were to say, “Our father,” to him who is their father, they would pray to the devil, for God is no father of theirs. Alas! there are many who want to be thought to be God’s children, and they will come and bring to him anything but love. Sad, sorrowful truth!

If God would but say to men, “I will accept unspiritual service,” he might be the God of the whole earth at once; or rather, let me more truly say that he would be the demon of the whole earth, for men do not care what the religion is externally so long as it does not trouble their hearts. The last thing some people will do is to think. “Give you a guinea? Oh, certainly! Excellent is the charity for which you are pleading. A guinea for the hospital? Certainly. Five guineas for a new place of worship? Certainly. When I have money, I am always glad to give it; but don’t you come and bother me with any of your doctrines, for I don’t want to hear about them. You religious people are so divided into sects and parties, and you are always controverting and contradicting one another, so I do not want to think about these things.” That is a very poor excuse, is it not? Because this seems to be a matter which requires a great deal of thought, therefore this person will not give it any consideration at all; and because those who do think about it do not exactly agree on all points, therefore this man says, “I shall not think of it at all.” Because all the charts of an intricate portion of the ocean may not happen to be exactly alike, therefore this man will not even study that part of the sea over which his own vessel must go, although there all the charts do agree! He makes an excuse upon some trivial matter to neglect altogether the steering of his vessel. He will strike upon a rock one day, and he will have no one to blame for it but himself.

“Oh!” says another person, “I don’t mind saying prayers; or I will go to church and listen to the reading of prayers. I don’t mind hearing sermons, but don’t come and tell me that I have to repent of my sins. I cannot do it; I do not understand what you mean. I join in ‘the General Confession’ every Sunday; I say that I am a miserable sinner though. I don’t know that I am particularly miserable, and I don’t know that I am particularly a sinner either; but still, I always say that, and I don’t mind saying it. Yet if you come to me, saying, ‘Repent,’ I cannot do that.” Men will offer to God anything but that which has to do with the heart. You may call upon them to torment their bodies, as the priests of false religions have done; and they will not object to that. The fakir in Hindustan will pierce himself with knives, or lie upon a bed of spikes, or swing himself up by a hook in his back, and hang there by the hour together in all but mortal agony. A man will do almost anything except bow his heart before his God; he will not confess that Jehovah is Lord of all, and that he himself is a poor sinful creature who deserves to be punished; he will not obey a law that is spiritual, and demands the allegiance of the secret thoughts and intents of his heart; and he will not accept a faith which is so superlatively pure that it demands that sin be given up, and tells him that even when given up it must be washed out in the precious blood of Jesus, and that a man must exercise repentance towards God and faith in the Saviour or he cannot be saved.

The most unpopular truth in the world is this sentence which fell from the lips of Christ, “Ye must be born again;” and, consequently, there are all sorts of inventions to get the truth out of those words. “Oh, yes!” say some, “you must be born again, but that means the application of aqueous fluid to an infant’s brow.” As God is true, that teaching is a lie; there is no grain or shade of truth within it. “Except a man be born again” (from above), “he cannot see the kingdom of God.” No operation that can be performed by man can ever regenerate the soul; it is the work alone of God the Holy Spirit, who creates us anew in Christ Jesus. Men do not like that truth; the spiritual still displeases the natural man. They will profess to worship God in Jerusalem or at Gerizim, and fight about the place where he ought to be worshipped, to show how little good their religion has done them! They will not speak to each other, the Jew will have no dealings with the Samaritan, to prove how unlike he is to the God who makes his sun to shine both on the just and on the unjust! But when you utter this message, “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth,” they are offended, and turn away.

Still, the truth holds good, whatever men think of it. If thou give not to God thy heart, thou hast given him nothing. If thou give not to God thy soul, if thou love him not, if thou serve him not because thou lovest him, if thou come not to him, and surrender to him thy inner self, thou mayest have been baptized,-immersed or sprinkled,-thou mayest have come to the communion table, thou mayest have bowed thy knees till thy knees have grown horny, thou mayest have prayed till thou art hoarse, and wept till the fountains of thine eyes are dry, thou mayest have given all thy gold, and lacerated every member of thy body with mortifications, and starved thyself to a skeleton, but thou hast truly done nothing towards obtaining love to Christ. The substance of thy house is utterly contemned if thou dost offer it to the Lord in the stead of the love of thy heart. Love he must have; this is his lawful demand. His people delight to render it; and if thou dost not, then thou art none of his.

This takes us to a third truth, which is, that the saints’ love is not purchased by Christ’s gifts.

The love of saints to their Lord is not given to Christ because of his gifts to them; I must explain what I mean, lest at the very outset I am mistaken or misunderstood. We love our Lord, and we love him all the more because of the many gifts he bestows upon us; but his gifts do not win our love. I will show you why. All that he has given me today, he gave me many years ago. The covenant of grace was always mine. I heard the preacher tell about it. He told how Christ had died for me; that he had loved me, and given himself for me. Truly, he had done so; he had poured out his blood for my redemption. I would not believe it to be so, or, believing it, I did not think it was of any consequence. Then the preacher spread out the rare gifts of Christ before me, and I saw that he had given these to such as believed in him; but I did not think them worth examining, and I turned away from them. I should never have loved him if he had not given me much more than the substance of his house. I needed his blessed Spirit to show me the value of the substance of his house, and above all, to show me that for which this day I love my Saviour best of all, namely, himself, Himself.

Oh, it is “Jesus Christ himself” who wins the love of our hearts! If he had not given us himself, we should never have given to him ourselves. All else that may be supposed to be of the substance of his house would not have won his people’s hearts, until at last they learnt this truth, and the Spirit of God made them feel the force of it, “He loved me, and gave himself for me.”

“My Beloved is mine, and I am his,” is now one of the sweetest stanzas in love’s canticle. The spouse does not say, “His crown is mine, his throne is mine, his breastplate is mine, his crook is mine;” she delights in everything that Christ has as a King, and a Priest, and a Shepherd; but, above all else, that which wins and charms her heart is this, “He himself is mine, and I am his.”

But I meant mainly to say, under this head, that there are some of Christ’s gifts that do not win our hearts, that is to say, our hearts do not depend upon them. And they are, first, his temporal gifts. I am very thankful, and I trust that all God’s people are also, for health and strength. I have lost these sometimes, but I did not love my Lord any the less then; neither do I love Christ this day because I am free from pain. If I were not free from pain, I would still love him. Christ has given to some of you a competence, you have all you want for this world; but is that why you love Christ? Oh, no, beloved! if he were to take all away, I know that you would love him in your poverty. The devil was a liar when he said of Job, “Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” We do not love God altogether for what he gives us in this world; ours is not such poor cupboard-love as that. We love him because he first loved us, and we do not pretend to have climbed to that high state of disinterested love in which there is no gratitude mingled with it. We always must be grateful to him, and love him for that reason; but still, temporal things never win our heart’s love to God. There are numbers of you who have health, and wealth, and many other things that so many desire, but they never make you love God, and they never will. You love them, and make idols of them very readily, but they do not lead you to love the Lord; while the children of God, who love their dear Saviour, can tell you that they do not love him because of what he gives them, for if he takes from them, they love him all the same. With Job, they say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” They do not love him simply because he caresses them, for if he chastens them, they love him still, and kiss the rod with which, he smites them.

I meant also to say that we do not love Christ because of his temporary indulgence of us in spiritual things. You know, beloved, our Saviour very frequently favours us with manifestations of his presence. We are overjoyed when he comes very near to us, and permits us to put our fingers into the prints of the nails. We have our high days and festivals when the Bridegroom is with us, emphatically with us. He takes all the clouds out of our sky, and gives us the bright shining of the sun; or he opens the lattices, and shows us himself in a way only second to that in which we shall see him when we behold him face to face. And oh, how we love him then! But, thank God, when he draws the lattice back again, and hides his face, we do not leave off loving him because of that. Our love to our Lord does not depend upon the weather. True, our love is not manifested to him so sweetly when we are in the dark as when he cheers us with his smile, but still it is there all the while. We could not let him go. “Though he slay me,”-though he slay me,-he who loves me, though he turn to be my enemy, and slay me,-“yet will I trust in him.” We will hold to him still, and love him still, not because of the substance of his house, but because of what he himself is. There are times when we are half inclined to say with the elder brother, “These many years have I been with thee, privileged to serve thee, and yet thou hast not given me so much as a kid that I might make merry with my friends.” Perhaps we have been long without the light of his countenance, and have had no love-tokens from him; but for all that we will remain in his service, and abide in his house; and even if our Father should answer us roughly, we will tell him that he is our Father still. We do not love him merely for the substance of his house, but for himself, and because his Spirit has made love to him to be an instinct of our new nature, and has put within us such a principle that we cannot help loving him. Even if we should be called to pass through terrible trials and adversities, and should have to walk a long time in clouds and darkness, yet still would we love him and rejoice in him.

The last observation I shall have to make upon our text is this, the love of saints cannot be bought off from Christ at any price.

The love of some persons to religion is very cheaply bought, and very speedily sold. It is very lamentable to notice the great numbers of persons who are quite content to go and worship God with Christian brethren, and to hear the gospel preached, while they are themselves poor, or in middling circumstances, but who find, as soon as they have accumulated a little wealth, that the world has a church of its own, and they must go there, “because, you see, everybody goes there; and if you are cut off from Society, where are you?” I have been asked that question, sometimes, and I have replied, “Where are you? Why, where Christ would have you to be,-‘without the camp, bearing his reproach.’ ” But that place of separation, “without the camp,” is a position which is not always taken up cheerfully by professedly Christian people. It is very sorrowful to see how, because God has entrusted them with wealth, they get drawn away from the gospel, and from the Church of God; and though they are troubled a little at first, they soon get rid of one scruple after another, and subside altogether into worldliness.

Well, now, I am not altogether sorry that there is this test in the world. Every good husbandman keeps a winnowing fan; of course, he that is foolish, when he sees a great heap lying on the barn floor, says, “All this is my wheat that I have brought in.” He does not want to have it diminished, for it is the result of his labour; but if he is a wise husbandman, he says, “Though I have brought in a great heap, I know that there is chaff with it,” and he is glad to have the winnowing fan used, and the corn tossed up that the fresh breeze may blow through it. If the mere professors go, let them go. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.”

There are some who go away from Christ’s people, and renounce religion and love to Christ, because of business. It will pay better in certain lines not to be religious; and therefore, as the main thing with them is to get money,-religiously, if they can, but irreligiously, if need be,-therefore, by-and-by they are offended, and they sell Christ Jesus. I am pained to see the numbers of persons who go and live in the suburbs of London, and who make that an opportunity for selling their religion, such as it is. It is not long ago that I stood at a dying bed, and a part of what I heard there was, “O sir, ten years ago, we used to be members of such a church; we came to live out here, but there was no place of worship handy, so we have not been anywhere.” That person was dying without hope, after selling Christ for love of a little country air. That was about all it was, and little more was to be gained by it.

“Oh, but!” asks someone, “do saints sell Christ like that?” No, not they; these are only the professors who have mingled with the saints. These are like the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with the children of Israel; howbeit they are not all Israel that are of Israel. The saints sell Christ? No, they are too much like their Master to do that. You recollect how Satan took their Master to the top of a high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Wicked thief! It was not his to give; yet he tempted Christ in that way, but Jesus answered, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” If any of Christ’s followers are tempted in the same fashion, let them give the same reply. All the substance of the devil’s house could not win the love of that man who has set his affection on Jesus. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” The cruel Romanists have taken the martyrs into the lone dungeon of the Inquisition, and tormented them there in such a way that it pains us even to read or hear of what they suffered. But did they give up Christ? No, not they; they never would. At other times, they have taken the Christians into a palace, and said, “We will clothe you in scarlet and fine linen; you shall fare sumptuously every day; but you must give up Christ.” Yet they would not. All the substance of this world has been laid at the feet of holy men, and they have rejected the price with scorn. I know men to-day, and rejoice to know them, who have sacrificed honour and position among men, who have borne abuse and scorn, and have been glad to bear it, and counted it their privilege that they were not only permitted to have Christ as their Saviour, but also that they were allowed to suffer for his sake. O brethren and sisters, may the Lord so clothe us with the whole armour of righteousness that no temptation may ever be able to wound our love to Jesus! Let us feel, “We can let all else go, but we can never let him go.”

“If on my face for his dear name,

Shame and reproaches be,”

there let them be for his sake. Give me but a vision of the Crucified, let me see that thorn-crowned brow, let me but gaze into his dear languid eyes so full of love for me, and I will then say, “My Master, through floods or flames, if thou shalt lead, I’ll follow where thou goest. When the many turn aside, I will still cling to thee, and witness that thou hast the living Word, and that there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. I will give up the treasures of Egypt, for I have respect unto the recompense of the reward. I will let the ingots of gold go, every one of them, I will cast them into the sea without regret; but if thou wilt abide in the vessel, my soul shall be content. Bind me to thy altar, for I am but flesh and blood, and may start aside in the trial-hour. Cast the links of thy love about me; chain me to thyself; ay, crucify me; nail me to thy cross, and let me be dead to the world, for then the world will leave off tempting a corpse. Let me be dead with thee, for then the world, that cast thee out, may cast me out, too, and have done with me; and it were well then to be counted as the offscouring of all things for thy dear sake, my Lord!” If a man should give all the substance of his house to bribe the saints to sell their Lord, it would utterly be contemned. By this test shall we prove you, O professors! By this trial shall it be known whether ye can stand firm in the evil day. God grant that you may, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-792, 811, 808.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

LUKE 20:9-16

Verse 9. Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.

It is a long time since Jesus left us, and he has not yet returned. Many say that he is coming back very soon; others say, “The Lord delayeth his coming.”

10, 11. And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard; but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.

They grow bolder, and more wicked, you see; first beating, and then adding shameful treatment to their former cruelty. Men do not come to ridicule religion, and persecute its advocates, all at once; this is an art which Satan teaches by degrees.

12. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out.

They are more violent this time; it comes to actual wounding, and to casting out the servant.

13. Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do?

A strange thing happens when the Lord himself comes to a pass, and says, “What shall I do?” Here is infinite wisdom, as it were, at a non-plus; and in that extremity this is the Lord’s last expedient:-

13-15. I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him. But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be our’s. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

You know the story how this beloved Son of the Highest was all love and pity; and yet, with cruel hands, men cast him out of God’s ancient vineyard, and crucified him, hoping that they should be allowed to remain lords of God’s heritage.

15. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?

What punishment can be sufficient to expiate such a crime? What vengeance will be poured out upon those who have killed him who came to do them good?

16. He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others.

And he did so; he scattered abroad the Jews, and gave the kingdom, for a while at least, unto the Gentiles, and they hear the gospel which the Jews refused.

16. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid.

That is exactly what you and I would say, for we, too, have illtreated the blessed Lord of the vineyard and his beloved Son. Lest we should have the heritage taken from us, let us yield up the fruit to him who has the best right to it all.