“Jesus our Lord” is a somewhat unusual form of expression to be used in the Scriptures. We have many references to “Jesus Christ”, and to “our Lord Jesus Christ;” but there is only one other passage in which it occurs. Yet, to me, it seems to be inexpressibly sweet. I shall be devoutly grateful to God if, in my sermon, I am able to convey to you even a tithe of the sweetness which I have drawn from this expression for my own enjoyment.

It is the part of faith to accept very great contrasts; and if we look, for a moment, at the words of our text, “Jesus our Lord,” and, especially, if we look at the connection in which they are found, we shall see a great contrast; Jesus, the “Man of sorrows,” and yet “our Lord.” Jesus! Thoughts of sorrow, and rejection, and shame, cluster around that blessed and ever-musical name; yet he is “our Lord” in the highest and divinest sense; our Lord, and our God. Faith has learnt to think of him, even before his birth, as the Christ of God, and to give heed to the angel’s message to Joseph, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Faith also bows at the manger with the shepherds worshipping, and with the wise men from the East presenting gifts, realizing that the infant is the Infinite, and that the babe of Bethlehem is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Faith sees Jesus, in the humble garb of a Galilean peasant, moving about in the company of a band of fishermen; she sees that he is a friend of publicans and sinners, yet she believes him to be the Son of the Highest, though flesh and blood have not revealed that great truth to her. Even in his humiliation, she knows him as Lord of the sea, who made the stormy waves lie still at his command; and as the master of diseases, before whom all manner of sicknesses, and even devils themselves, fled apace. She knows him to have been a suffering man, yet she calls him “Lord.” Yea, even though, on the cross, she beholds, with tearful eye, his agony and death; yet even there she salutes him as Lord. She did so in the dying thief’s prayer, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom;” and she has done it thousands of times since. And now, to-day, though the name of Jesus of Nazareth is bandied about, and to many it is only a by-word, and the despised Galilean has, as yet, only a partial sway over the sons of men, yet faith sees him exalted to the highest heavens, and she owns him as both Lord and God.

And these things, which I said were contrasts which it was the part of faith to accept, have ceased to be contrasts with her now, for now faith sees but little contrast between Christ’s death and his reigning in glory. In fact, she understands that the one is the outgrowth of the other, especially as she reads such a passage as this, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Faith delights to think that Christ’s being Lord is the actual fruit of his having died, and having risen again from the dead, for she comprehends the meaning of the apostle Peter, at Pentecost, when he said to the Jews, “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.… Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Faith has quick ears, and she has heard Jehovah speaking in the same language as that which saluted David’s ear, “Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Even when faith sees Jesus Christ under the most humiliating circumstances, she perceives how, out of that very humiliation, his mediatorial kingdom has grown, and she delights to acknowledge that glorious fact, and with adoring reverence she calls him, “Jesus our Lord.”

Before I finish this introduction to my discourse, I want to remind you, beloved, that, notwithstanding all the sweetness with which the name of Jesus is associated, and the blessed condescension by which he has brought himself so near to us, yet our faith never takes liberties with him, or forgets that he is “Jesus our Lord.” He is “Jesus.” Oh, the ineffable sweetness of that dear, and precious, and consoling name! But he is also “Jesus our Lord;” and you will always find that, in proportion as faith grows, reverence grows. Unbelief is presumptuous, but faith is always humble. The more you know of Jesus as your Saviour, saving you from sin, the more will you recognize him also as your Lord. No one rebels against Christ because he believes in him; but, because we believe in him, he becomes our Lord, and we learn to obey him. That is the spirit I long to have reigning in all our hearts, the spirit of devout, worshipful reverence towards “Jesus our Lord.”

First, I shall try to show you that Christ’s tender condescensions endear this title to us; secondly, that our loving hearts read that title with peculiar emphasis; and, thirdly, that we find special sweetness in that word “our”,-“Jesus our Lord.”

First, then, I want to show you that Christ’s tender condescensions endear to us this title, “Jesus our Lord.”

First, dear friends, we claim to give him this title specially because he is man. “Jesus our Lord,” says the apostle, “who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” We worship him all the more reverently and affectionately because he is man as well as God. We call him “Jesus our Lord” as if we meant thereby to appropriate him specially to ourselves. We can say even to the angels, “He is your Lord, for he created you, and he sustains you, and you delight to do him homage; yet he is not an angel. He took not upon him the nature of angels. He never redeemed you with his precious blood, neither is he so near akin to you as he is to us; he never called you his brethren; but he is ‘Jesus our Lord,’ for he was born of a woman, and made under the law, and became a partaker of our human nature, wherefore he is not ashamed to call us brethren, and he is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.”

It is a delightful thought to us that the kingdom of “Jesus our Lord” has no bounds to it. Indeed, we can hardly imagine how wide is his dominion, or how numerous are his subjects. It may be that there are innumerable beings, in yonder starry worlds, as countless as the sands on the sea-shore, and that Jesus is Lord over all these; yet he bears such a special relationship towards this little planet, and this poor race of fallen men and women, that this round earth calls him hers as no other world can call him; and we his people call him ours as no other creatures can, for, just as truly as he is God, so is he also man. Behold, on the very throne of God above, there sits a man like unto ourselves. The men of Israel said that they had ten parts in the king, and more right in David than Judah had; and we have ten parts in the Son of David, and more right in him than all the rest of his creatures have. His tender condescension, in becoming man, endears to us the title, “Jesus our Lord.”

We call him Lord with all the greater willingness and delight because he loved us, and gave himself for us. You remember the argument of the apostle Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” He who bought us with such a price claims us as his own; and none of us, I trust, will dispute his claim. We rightly sing,-

“To him that loved the souls of men,

And washed us in his blood,

To royal honours raised our head,

And made us priests to God;

“To him let every tongue be praise,

And every heart be love!

All grateful honours paid on earth,

And nobler songs above!”

We own him Lord because he has made us to be new creatures in him, and because, as our Shepherd, he has not only led us, and fed us, but because he has laid down his life for us who are the sheep of his flock. Now that he has done this for us, he must be our Lord, and he shall be our Lord. Every drop of his blood shall be a jewel in the crown which he shall wear as he exercises his rightful sovereignty over us. Every scar in his blessed body shall be to us a token of his true royalty; and all that he has endured and suffered-even the wormwood and the gall-all this shall be but another token of the gracious sovereignty to which we most cheerfully submit ourselves. Brethren and sisters in Christ, do you not feel that, because he died for us, we do all the more, and certainly none the less, call him “Jesus our Lord”? Thus again his tender condescensions endear the title to us.

Further, in all the privileges that are accorded to us in him, he is our Lord. They all of them remind us of his lordship, and sweetly, yet effectually, enforce that lordship over us. Are we not his Church, and is he not the Head of the Church? We own no other head. The Church of Christ finds supreme delight and satisfaction in his headship. Are we the members of his mystical body? Then, let us remember that he is never called an arm or an eye; he is always the Head, controlling the whole body. Are we the flock which he hath purchased with his own blood? Then, he is the Shepherd of that flock. Doth he make some of us to be the under-shepherds of his flock? Then, he is the chief Shepherd; and when he shall appear, we “shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” Does he make us to be a spiritual house? Then, he will dwell in that house, as its Lord and Master. Are we, through his infinite love, united to him in the bonds of sacred marriage? Then, he is our Husband, and it becomes our delight to bow to his will, and yield ourselves absolutely to his control. Are we dead and buried with him, and do we expect to rise from the dead? He “is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.” Do we expect to enter into glory? When we do, we shall see the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and we shall bow before him as Lord of all. Are we looking for the splendours of the millennial age, and expecting to share in them? We shall then behold him reigning here as King, and breaking his enemies in pieces like potters’ vessels. You cannot draw near to Jesus without being impressed with the thought of his lordship over you as well as his divine condescension toward you. In fact, it is in his condescension that his divine lordship comes out more than anywhere else.

Once more, in our dearest fellowship at the table of communion, he is “Jesus our Lord.” Some of us are coming, presently, to the table where Jesus deigns to sit and eat with us, and there is no fellowship closer than that which this memorial supper so sweetly yields us. Yet you must have noticed, I think, how Paul, in his account of the institution of this ordinance, constantly uses the expression “the Lord.” “I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread.” Why did he not simply say “Jesus”? Further on, he says, “Ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come;” and that those, who “drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, … not discerning the Lord’s body.” All through, the apostle speaks of Christ as the Lord, who sits at the head of the table as the King presides in his palace. He is our dearly-beloved Spouse, of whom we may truly say, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his;” yet is he still the King; and we feel that, even in all the nearness of communion that he permits us to enjoy with him, there is still a distance as to quality and rank between him and ourselves, and we call him Master and Lord, and do well in speaking thus. Probably, we never feel how much he is our Lord till we come to the table of communion. His very condescension makes this blessed title to become more bright to us, and to be better understood by us.

I think I have said enough upon that first head to make it clear, so I will turn to the second one, which is this, our loving hearts read the title with peculiar emphasis. Oh, that We might suck the sweetness out of these words, “Jesus our Lord”! George Herbert wrote,-

“How sweetly doth ‘My Master’ sound! ‘My Master!’ ”

I may alter the words a little, and say,-

“How sweetly doth ‘Jesus our Lord’ sound! ‘Jesus our Lord!’

As ambergris leaves a rich scent

Unto the taster:

So do these words a sweet content,

An oriental fragrancy, ‘Jesus our Lord.’ ”

So, our loving hearts read this title with peculiar emphasis, for, first of all, we never yield this title to anybody but to him: “Jesus our Lord.” We say, with the prophet, “O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.” Moses was once lord over us; we put the Lord out of his rightful place, and sought to serve the law; but now we know that, while “Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant,” … Christ is “a Son over his own house.” Beloved, I charge you to let the Lord Jesus be the only Lord of your conscience. Obey none beside him, for he alone has the right to rule over you. I fear that there are some who take a thing for granted because some one of my Master’s servants said that it was so; he was an eminent servant, and highly favoured by his Master, and therefore they take what he says for law. But we, who also are our Master’s servants, beseech you never to look to us as though we were masters, for “one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” It is a blessed day for any man when he is able to cast off every yoke except the yoke of Jesus Christ. Blessed shall we be if, henceforth, “Jesus our Lord,” and he alone, shall receive our complete obedience, and the loyal homage of our hearts. Thus, we emphasize this title by reserving it for our Master alone.

We also render it to him with the emphasis that arises from great willingness. We are not only willing, but anxious, that Jesus should be our sole Lord and Master; and we feel angry with ourselves that we did not let him be our Master years ago. We are so glad that he is our Lord that we wish never again to grieve him,-never to have a will of our own,-never to do anything but what would perfectly accord with his rule over us. I know that every saved one feels just like that, and says, “O Lord, rule thou over me; be thou my only Lord! I wish it with intense desire, and most cheerfully own that this is thy rightful title.”

And every true Christian pronounces this phrase, “Jesus our Lord,” with the emphasis of unreservedness. We desire that Christ Jesus should be our Lord in everything, and Lord over every part of our being. Each one of us has said to him, “My Lord, do just what thou wilt with me. If I can the better glorify thee by patient endurance or by active service, only give me the needful grace, and I will not fail to own thee as my Lord.” Have you not, beloved, given up to the Lord Jesus everything that you have? Have you not felt that you love him better than husband, or wife, or child? Do you not feel that your spirit, soul, and body, all belong to him, and that you desire to consecrate to him all your goods, all your hours, and all your powers? Are you keeping back from him any of your substance; do you reckon that aught that you have is your own? If so, you are not true to Jesus your Lord, for he who truly loves Jesus, and who knows that he is one of those who are redeemed by him, says with all his heart that Jesus is his Lord, his absolute Sovereign, his Despot, if that word be used in the sense of Christ having unlimited monarchy and supreme sway over the soul. Yea, O “Jesus our Lord,” thou shalt be the autocratic, imperial Master of our heart, and of the whole dominion of our manhood!

The Church of God, in a very special manner, calls Jesus “our Lord,” for there is not, and there cannot be any head of the Church except the Lord Jesus Christ. It is awful blasphemy for any man on earth to call himself Christ’s vicar and the head of the church, and it is a usurpation of the crown rights of King Jesus for any king or queen to be called the head of the church, for the true Church of Jesus Christ can have no head but Jesus Christ himself. I am thankful that there is no head to the church of which I am a member save Jesus Christ himself, nor dare I be a member of any church which would consent to any headship but his. You may put some other interpretation upon the title; but if it means what is meant, in Scripture, by the term “the Head of the Church,” it is an infringement of the crown rights of the King of kings and Lord of lords. The true Church of Christ keeps that title for her Lord alone, and will not own another head. Nobody can make new laws for the true Church of Christ. You know that parliament makes laws which tell which way you shall turn when you say your prayers, and what clothes you shall put on, and I know not what beside; but that is a poor parody of the true Church which submits to such lordship as that. If I were a member of a church whose laws were made by a parliament that might consist of Jews and Gentiles, atheists and sceptics, I would be out of it as quickly as I could. There is no law-maker for the Church of God but Jesus Christ himself, and no one can take his place, and no one will be allowed to take it when the Lord wakes up his people to be loyal to what is written in this blessed Bible. This is our Statute-book, and we acknowledge no other but that which King Jesus has given us. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

Do you say that these are matters of little importance? Ah, sirs! the Covenanters of Scotland bled and died for this which you call an unimportant matter,-that Christ alone is Lord of his Church. You may call it a small thing if you like; but that teaching which is contrary to it is the mother of a thousand mischiefs to this our beloved land, and is doing it inconceivable damage. I pray that there may come to all sections of the Church of Christ-Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopalian,-this one resolve, “We will get back to Holy Scripture, and to the sole headship of Christ, cost whatever it may.” If all of us should ever get to that point, we should get closer to one another than we now are, for we should be all one in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Once more, dear friends, we call “Jesus our Lord” for ever. When the true Church takes Jesus Christ to be her Lord, it is in a marriage bond that shall never be dissolved; and when any individual soul takes Jesus Christ to be her Lord, she takes him, to have and to hold, in life and in death, in time and throughout eternity. Is it not so? Then, a very precious thought, which arises out of this truth, is that, however poorly we do our duty as his servants, he will carry out to the full his character as our Lord. A lord, you know, takes care of his servants, he sees that they do not die of starvation, and he protects them, and, so far as he can, sees that they do not want any good thing. I always feel quite certain that, if we faithfully serve our Lord, he will keep us in livery; and, having food and raiment, we ought therewith to be content. His promise to the upright is, “Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.” If you get anything over and above bread and water, you may know that he has given you more than he promised; and he will keep you in livery till you need it no more; and then he will give you those spotless garments of light and joy in which you shall serve him for ever and ever. “Jesus our Lord” is not like that Amalekite who, when his Egyptian servant was sick, left him to die. He is not like some masters whom we have known, who, the moment a servant is taken ill, send him off, caring not whether he shall die or live. Our Lord and Master never discharges his old servants; he never turns them adrift. Remember the psalmist’s testimony and petition: “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not.” Nor will he. He is a good Master whom we serve, the best of all masters, “Jesus our Lord.”

Now I come to the third point, which is that we find much sweetness in that little word in the middle of our text: “Jesus our Lord.”

It is very sweet because it helps us to remember our personal interest in Christ. My brothers and sisters, let me remind you that you can never truly say, “Our Lord,” till you have first said, “My Lord.” It is blessed to be able to say it as David did, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” David claimed this blessed Son of his as his Lord, and he did well in doing so; and it is a very sweet thing when any one of us is also able to say, “Jesus Christ, the Son of David, and the Son of God, is my Lord.” It is truly blessed to be able to say, as Thomas did, “My Lord and my God.” Each one of you needs to have the personal conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord to you. I would even like to say this, if I only said it as tremblingly as Mary Magdalene did when she supposed that she was talking to the gardener, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” It is better still if we can say this as Paul once said it, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him.” This title, “Jesus our Lord,” reminds me, and I hope it also reminds you, of the time when you first said,-

“’Tis done! the great transaction’s done;

I am my Lord’s, and he is mine:

He drew me, and I follow’d on,

Charm’d to confess the voice divine.”

There is, however, even more sweetness than this in the expression, “Jesus our Lord,” for it brings us into fellowship with all the saints. “Our Lord,”-then, David, and Thomas, and Mary Magdalene, and Paul, we have the same Lord that you had. Yes, and we seem to join with all the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and the whole company of the apostles, and the noble army of martyrs, as we say, “Jesus our Lord.” Yes, and all the great company who served their Master here with patience, and laboured for him with diligence, and have now gone to their reward,-we are one with all of them, we have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” This term, “Jesus our Lord,” seems to draw a circle round all the elect of God, the whole host of the redeemed out of every nation, and kindred, and tribe, and tongue, and people in every land and every age. It seems to remind me of a kind of clanship which exists among all believers. Just as the old Highland clansmen, when they saw the head of the clan, all felt intense enthusiasm at the very sight of him, for he was the great centre and meeting-place for all the divers families in the clan, and with him leading them they rushed forward to victory or death with the utmost enthusiasm, so, when I look you in the face, beloved, we may differ very greatly in station, in ability, and in a thousand things, but your Lord is my Lord, so we are brothers and sisters in him, and we clasp hands around him, and say, “Jesus our Lord.” This one peerless name wakes us all to enthusiasm and holy daring.

“Jesus, the name high over all,

In hell, or earth, or sky,”-

stirs our very blood as nothing else can, and we feel a closer tie than ever to all the saints. This one touch of grace has made us all akin. The blessed name of “Jesus our Lord” has banded us all together in one holy brotherhood, and we join in singing,-

“One family we dwell in him,

One church above, beneath.”

And, further, the example of “Jesus our Lord” will foster practical love to one another. It will if it works rightly, for we shall remember what our Lord did, and seek to follow his example. Do you remember what he did on the night when he was betrayed? “He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.” After he had done so, he said to them, “Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” After such an example as that, we ought to be willing to do anything for one another; we should feel as if “Jesus our Lord” constrained us to make any sacrifice, and to take the humblest and lowliest place, so long as we might be of service to anyone else who also calls him Lord.

And, brethren, what a death-blow this title ought to deal to all pride! Diotrephes still loveth to have the pre-eminence, but would he love it if he really knew “Jesus our Lord” as he has revealed himself in his Word? This brother wants more respect shown to him, that brother must have some office given to him, and that sister must be held in high esteem, or she will not be happy. Ah, yes! and you remember that there were two apostles, whose mother asked for them that they might sit, one on the right hand, and the other on the left hand of Christ, in his kingdom; and when the other apostles were moved with indignation against the two brethren, our Lord said to them, “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; (that is, your servant;) and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” As we recall this act, and these words, we cry, “Down, pride; you are not lord! Down, ambition; you must not wish to rule! Down, every proud thought, that ‘Jesus our Lord’ may rule absolutely alone over us!”

Now, dear friends, are you enjoying the sweetness of this title? Do you feel as if you must roll it under your tongue as a sweet morsel? Then I will not detain you longer except to say just these two things. First, this title, “Jesus our Lord,” gives us great confidence in our common service. As a Christian church, we are all working for Jesus; I hope I may say that the members of this church are all seeking the glory of God. Then, let us remember what our Lord said to his disciples, ere he went back to his Father, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 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.” March on, then, ye armies of the living God, for Christ is your Lord, and he has given you your commission, and it is his power which will make your march to be victorious. Does any man think of turning his back in the day of battle when he has such a Captain as this to lead him? Does anyone dream of defeat, or talk in a half-hearted way, of what the issue of the conflict is certain to be? “Jesus our Lord” is the world’s Creator,-he that can shake heaven, and earth, and hell, with his word. So, in his name let us set up our banners, and march onward confident of victory.

The thought with which I close is one that ought to yield considerable comfort to many of you. Our common joy in “Jesus our Lord” becomes an evidence of grace. Have you felt a gracious sweetness stealing over your soul because Jesus Christ is your Lord? Then, listen to these words of the apostle Paul: “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” Anyone can repeat these words, but you cannot say them aright-as I hope you have been saying them, with an ineffable sweetness stealing over your soul as you said them,-“but by the Holy Ghost.” Go your way, therefore, thou whose heart has leaped at the very sound of those three words, and say, “I have the witness of the Holy Spirit within my spirit, that I am a saved soul, or else I should never have said, in my inmost heart, ‘Jesus our Lord.’ ” O brother or sister, here is a sign that cannot lead you wrong, for you have the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, to tell you that you could not say that, in your inmost soul, but by the Holy Ghost. Come, then, beloved, and worship “Jesus our Lord.” Continue to worship him, continue to love him, continue to trust him, continue to serve him, continue to magnify him among the sons of men.

But to you who love him not, and who have not accepted him as your Lord, I can only say, in God’s own words, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him;” and this other verse, which is, to my mind, the most awful in the whole Book of God, yet it was uttered by one who loved the souls of men beyond all conception, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha;” that is, “let him be accursed at Christ’s coming.” God save you from that terrible doom, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Expositions by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALMS 2, and 110

Psalm 2 Verses 1-3. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

This was what they did when they took the Lord of life and glory, dragged him to the judgment seat, and then nailed him to the accursed tree. “This is the heir,” said they, “let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.” They thought that they had destroyed the power of Christ, the appointed and anointed King, and that he would never reign among the sons of men.

4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

God might well laugh at their folly, for they were really executing his will all the while they were rebelling against him. They were really laying the foundation stones of his mediatorial throne in fair colours, and cementing them with his own most precious blood, for it was by his cross that he climbed to his crown. Well did Peter say to the Jews, on the day of Pentecost, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”

5, 6. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

In the resurrection, God lifted up the head of Christ above all the sons of men, and made them see that all their craft and cruelty had been displayed in vain.

7, 8. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

The risen Christ is pleading, and pleading successfully, before the throne of God on high; and his plea is that the heathen may be given to him for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.

9. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

He does this even now in the working of his providence; but he will do it still more manifestly at the second advent, when Christ will not allow the kings of the earth any longer to set themselves against him, but he will finally destroy their power, and prove himself to be the King of kings and Lord of lords even here below.

10-12. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye Judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son,-

That is the Lord Jesus Christ: “Kiss the Son,”-

12. Lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Psalm 110 Verse 1. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Here we see the Christ,-whom we just now saw as risen from the dead, and acknowledged as the Son of God,-seated upon the throne: “Jehovah said unto my Adonai, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

2. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

No sooner was Christ ascended into heaven than, out of the midst of his Church,-the earthly Zion,-the sceptre of his power was stretched forth, and its might was displayed amongst the sons of men. Witness what happened on the day of Pentecost, which was but the beginning of Christ’s ruling in the very midst of his enemies, who then became his friends, and yielded their hearts and lives to him; so that Jerusalem, where he had been crucified, became the very centre of his kingdom on earth, from which his servants went forth to evangelize the world.

3. Thy people shall be willing-

They shall be willingness itself-

3. In the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

That is, as soon as the ascended Christ began his reign in heaven, and the power of his Church began to be felt on earth, there was a willing people coming forward, in the beauty of holiness, like priests clad in their sacred robes. Such the early Christians truly were; and they were as numerous, and as refreshing, and as bright to the world as the sparkling dew of the morning. Then, indeed, had Christ the dew of his youth most clearly manifested. Multitudes of young hearts yielded to him, and his Church on earth seemed to have had a new birthday when he ascended up on high, and led captivity captive.

4. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

That is, a priest without predecessor or successor,-a priest who was at the same time a king,-a priest of the Most High God, who was greater even than Abraham, the friend of God. Jesus our Lord is not a priest after the order of Aaron, for he came not of that line, but he was “a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”

5. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

When that last great day shall come, Christ shall no longer patiently wait for the overthrow of his enemies; but he shall win the complete victory over them.

6. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

Thus wilt thou, O Lord, cut down all evil principles, and everything that is opposed to thee!

7. He shall drink of the brook in the way:

That is, he shall not be wearied with thirst, as Samson was, but he shall hasten on in his mighty achievements, without pausing to rest, until he has fully accomplished the whole of his great task.

7. Therefore shall he lift up the head.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-317, 382.

SPARED!

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 30th, 1902,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at new park street chapel, southwark,

On a Lord’s-day Evening, during the winter of 1860-1

“I was left.”-Ezekiel 9:8.

The vision of Ezekiel which is recorded in the previous chapter, brought to light the abominations of the house of Judah. The vision which follows in this chapter shows the terrible retribution that the Lord God brought upon the guilty nation, beginning at Jerusalem.

He beheld the slaughtermen come forth with their weapons, he marked them begin the destroying work at the gate of the temple, he saw them proceed through the main streets, and not omit a single lane; they slew utterly all those who were not marked with the mark of the writer’s inkhorn on their brow. He stood alone,-that prophet of the Lord,-himself spared in the midst of universal carnage; and as the carcases fell at his feet, and the bodies stained with gore lay all around him, he said, “I was left.” He stood alive amongst the dead, because he was found faithful among the faithless; he survived in the midst of universal destruction, because he had served his God in the midst of universal depravity.

We shall now take the sentence apart altogether from Ezekiel’s vision, and appropriate it to ourselves; and I think, when we read it over, and repeat it, “I was left,” it very naturally invites us to take a retrospect of the past, very readily also it suggests a prospect of the future, and, I think, it permits also a terrible contrast in reserve for the impenitent.

First of all, then, my brethren, we have here a pathetic reflection, which seems to invite us to take a solemn retrospect: “I was left.”

You remember, many of you, times of sickness, when cholera was in your streets. You may forget that season of pestilence, but I never can; when the duties of my pastorate called me continually to walk among your terror-stricken households, and to see the dying and the dead. Impressed upon my young heart must ever remain some of those sad scenes I witnessed when I first came to this metropolis, and was rather employed at that time to bury the dead than to bless the living. Some of you have passed through not only one season of cholera, but many, and you have been present, too, perhaps, in climates where fever has prostrated its hundreds, and where the plague and other dire diseases have emptied out their quivers, and every arrow has found its mark in the heart of some one of your companions. Yet you have been left. You walked among the graves, but you did not stumble into them. Fierce and fatal maladies lurked in your path, but they were not allowed to devour you. The bullets of death whistled by your ears, and yet you stood alive, for his bullet had no billet for your heart. You can look back, some of you, through fifty, sixty, seventy years. Your bald and grey heads tell the story that you are no more raw recruits in the warfare of life. You have become veterans, if not invalids, in the army. You are ready to retire, to put off your armour, and give place to others. Look back, brethren, I say, you who have come into the sere and yellow leaf; remember the many seasons in which you have seen death hailing multitudes about you; and think, “I was left.” And we, too, who are younger, in whose veins our blood still leaps in vigour, can remember times of peril, when thousands fell about us, yet we can say, in God’s house, with great emphasis, “I was left,”-preserved, great God, when many others perished; sustained, standing on the rock of life when the waves of death dashed about me, the spray fell heavily upon me, and my body was saturated with disease and pain, yet am I still alive,-permitted still to mingle with the busy tribes of men.

Now, then, what does such a retrospect as this suggest? Ought we not each one of us to ask the question, What was I spared for? Why was I left? Many of you were, at that time, and some of you even now are, dead in trespasses and sins! You were not spared because of your fruitfulness, for you brought forth nothing but the grapes of Gomorrah. Certainly God did not stay his sword because of anything good in you. A multitude of clamorous evils in your disposition, if not in your conduct, might well have demanded your summary execution. You were spared. Let me ask you why? Was it that mercy might yet visit you,-that grace might yet renew your soul? Have you found it so? Has sovereign grace overcome you, beaten down your prejudices, thawed your icy heart, broken your stony will in pieces? Say, sinner, in looking back upon the times when you have been left, were you spared in order that you might be saved with a great salvation?

And if you cannot say, “Yes,” to that question, let me ask you whether it may not be so yet? Soul, why has God spared you so long, while you are yet his enemy, a stranger to him, and far off from him by wicked works? Or, on the contrary, has he spared you-I tremble at the bare mention of the possibility,-has he prolonged your days to develop your propensities, that you may grow riper for damnation,-that you may fill up your measure of crying iniquity, and then go down to the pit a sinner seared and dry, like wood that is ready for the fire? Can it be so? Shall these spared moments be spoiled by more misdemeanours, or shall they be given up to repentance and to prayer? Will you now, ere the last of your sins shall set in everlasting darkness, will you now look unto him? If so, you will have reason to bless God, through all eternity, that you were left, because you were left that you might yet seek and might yet find him who is the Saviour of sinners.

Do I speak to many of you who are Christians, who, too, have been left? When better saints than you were snatched away from earthly ties and creature kindred,-when brighter stars than you were enclouded in night, were you permitted still to shine with your poor flickering ray? Why was it, great God? Why am I now left? Let me ask myself that question. In sparing me so long, my Lord, hast thou not something more for me to do? Is there not some purpose, as yet unconceived in my soul, which thou wilt yet suggest to me, and to carry out which thou wilt yet give me grace and strength, and spare me a little while longer? Am I yet immortal, or shielded at least from every arrow of death, because my work is incomplete? Is the tale of my years prolonged because the full tale of the bricks hath not yet been made up? Then show me what thou wouldst have me do? Since thus I have been left, help me to feel myself a specially-consecrated man, left for a purpose, reserved for some end, else I had been worms’ meat years ago, and my body had crumbled back to its mother earth. Christian, I say, always be asking yourself this question; but especially be asking it when you are preserved in times of more than ordinary sickness and mortality. If I am left, why am I left? Why am I not taken home to heaven? Why do I not enter into my rest? Great Lord and Master, show me what thou wouldst have me do, and give me grace and strength to do it.

Let us change the retrospect for a moment, and look upon the sparing mercy of God in another light. “I was left.” Some of you now present, whose history I well know, can say, “I was left,” and say it with peculiar emphasis. You were born of ungodly parents; the earliest words you can recollect were base and blasphemous, too bad to repeat. You can remember how the first breath your infant lungs received was tainted air,-the air of vice, of sin, and iniquity. You grew up, you and your brothers and your sisters, side by side; you filled the home with sin, you went on together in your youthful crimes, and encouraged each other in evil habits. Thus you grew up to manhood, and then you were banded together in ties of obliquity as well as in ties of consanguinity. You added to your number; you took in fresh associates. As your family circle increased, so did the flagrancy of your conduct. You all conspired to break the Sabbath; you devised the same scheme, and perpetrated the same improprieties. Perhaps you can recollect the time when Sunday invitations used always to be sent, a sneer at godliness was couched in the invitations. You recollect how one and another of your old comrades died; you followed them to their graves, and your merriment was checked a little while, but it soon broke out again. Then a sister died, steeped to the mouth in infidelity; after that, a brother was taken; he had no hope in his death, all was darkness and despair before him. And so, sinner, thou hast outlived all thy comrades. If thou art inclined to go to hell, thou must go there along a beaten track: a path which, as thou lookest back upon the way thou hast trodden, is stained with blood; for thou canst remember how all that have been before thee have gone to the long home in dismal gloom, without a glimpse or ray of joy.

And now thou art left, sinner; and, blessed be God, it may be you can say, “Yes, and I am not only left, but I am here in the house of prayer; and if I know my own heart, there is nothing I should hate so much as to live my old life over again. Here I am, and I never believed I should ever be here. I look back with mournfulness indeed upon those who have departed; but, though mourning them, I express my gratitude to God that I am not in torments,-not in hell,-but still here; yea, not only here, but having a hope that I shall one day see the face of Christ, and stand amidst blazing worlds robed in his righteousness and preserved by his love.” You have been left, then; and what ought you to say? Ought you to boast? Oh, no; be doubly humble! Should you take the glory to yourself? No; put the crown upon the head of free, rich, undeserved grace. And what should you do above all other men? Why, you should be doubly pledged to serve Christ. As you have served the devil through thick and thin, until you came to serve him alone, and your company had all departed, so, by divine grace, may you be pledged to Christ,-to follow him, though all the world should despise him, and to hold on to the end, until, if every professor should be an apostate, it might yet be said of you at the last, “He was left; he stood alone in sin while his comrades died; and then he stood alone in Christ when his companions deserted him.” Thus of you it should ever be said, “He was left.”

This suggests also one more form of the same retrospect. What a special providence has watched over some of us, and guarded our feeble frames! There are some of you, in particular, who have been left to such an age that, as you look back upon your youthful days, you recall far more of kinsfolk in the tomb than remain in the world, more under the earth than above it. In your dreams you are the associates of the dead. Still you are left. Preserved amidst a thousand dangers of infancy, then kept in youth, steered safely over the shoals and quicksands of an immature age, and over the rocks and reefs of manhood, you have been brought past the ordinary period of mortal life, and yet you are still here. Seventy years exposed to perpetual death, and yet preserved till you have come almost, perhaps, to your fourscore years. You have been left, my dear brother, and why are you left? Why is it that brothers and sisters are all gone? Why is it that the ranks of your old schoolmates have gradually thinned? You cannot recollect one, now alive, who was your companion in youth. How is it that now, you, who have lived in a certain quarter so long, see new names there on all the shop doors, new faces in the street, and everything new to what you once saw in your young days? Why are you spared? Are you an unconverted man? Are you an unconverted woman? To what end are you spared? Is it that you may at the eleventh hour be saved? God grant it may be so! Or art thou spared till thou shalt have sinned thyself into the lowest depths of hell, that thou mayest go there the most aggravated sinner because of oft-repeated warnings as often neglected;-art thou spared for this, or is it that thou mayest yet be saved?

But art thou a Christian? Then it is not hard for thee to answer the question, “Why art thou spared?” I do not believe there is an old woman on earth, living in the most obscure cot in England, and sitting this very night in the dark garret, with her candle gone out, without means to buy another,-I do not believe that old woman would be kept out of heaven five minutes unless God had something for her to do on earth; and I do not think that yon grey-headed man would still be preserved here unless there was somewhat for him to do. Tell it out, tell it out, thou aged man; tell the story of that preserving grace which has kept thee up till now. Tell to thy children and to thy children’s children what a God he is whom thou hast trusted. Stand up as a hoary patriarch, and tell how he delivered thee in six troubles, and in seven suffered no evil to touch thee, and bear to coming generations thy faithful witness that his word is true, and that his promise cannot fail. Lean on thy staff, and say, ere thou diest in the midst of thy family, “Not one good thing hath failed of all that the Lord God hath promised.” Let thy ripe days bring forth a mellow testimony to his love; and as thou hast more and more advanced in years, so be thou more and more advanced in knowledge and in confirmed assurance of the immutability of his counsel, the truthfulness of his oath, the preciousness of his blood, and the sureness of the salvation of all those who put their trust in him. Then shall we know that thou art spared for a high and noble purpose indeed. Thou shalt say it with tears of gratitude, and we will listen with smiles of joy,-“I was left.”

I must rather suggest these retrospects than follow them up, though, did time permit, we might well enlarge abundantly, and therefore I must hurry on to invite you to a prospect.

You and I shall soon pass out of this world into another. This life is, as it were, but the ferry boat; we are being carried across, and we shall soon come to the true shore, the real terra firma, for here there is nothing that is substantial. When we shall come into that next world, we have to expect, by-and-by, a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust; and in that solemn day we are to expect that all that dwell upon the face of the earth shall be gathered together in one place. And he shall come, who came once to suffer, he shall come to judge the world in righteousness, and the people in equity. He who came as an infant shall come as the Infinite. He who lay wrapped in swaddling bands shall come girt about the paps with a golden girdle, with a rainbow wreath, and robes of storm. There shall we all stand, a vast, innumerable company; earth shall be crowned from her valley’s deepest base to the mountain’s summit, and the sea’s waves shall become the solid standing-place of men and women who have slept beneath its torrents. Then shall every eye be fixed on him, and every ear shall be open to him, and every heart shall watch with solemn awe and dread suspense for the transactions of that greatest of all days, that day of days, that sealing up of the ages, that completing of the dispensation.

In solemn pomp the Saviour comes, and his angels with him. You hear his voice as he cries, “Gather together the tares in bundles to burn them.” Behold the reapers, how they come with wings of fire! See how they grasp their sharp sickles, which have long been grinding upon the millstone of God’s longsuffering, but have become sharpened at the last. Do you see them as they approach? There they are mowing down a nation with their sickles. The vile idolaters have just now fallen, and yonder a family of blasphemers has been crushed beneath the feet of the reapers. See there a bundle of drunkards being carried away upon the reapers’ shoulders to the great blazing fire. See again, in another place, the whoremonger, the adulterer, the unchaste, and such like, tied up in vast bundles,-bundles the withs of which shall never be rent,-and see them cast into the fire, and see how they blaze in the unutterable torments of that pit: and shall I be left? Great God, shall I stand there wrapped in his righteousness alone, the righteousness of him who sits as my Judge erect upon the judgment seat? Shall I, when the wicked shall cry, “Rocks, hide us; mountains, on us fall;” gaze upon him; shall this eye look up, shall this face dare to turn itself to the face of him that sits upon the throne? Shall I stand calm and unmoved amidst universal terror and dismay? Shall I be numbered with the goodly company, who, clothed with the white linen which is the righteousness of the saints, shall await the shock, shall see the wicked hurled to destruction, and feel and know themselves secure?

Shall it be so, or shall I be bound up in a bundle to burn, and swept away for ever by the breath of God’s nostrils, like the chaff driven before the wind? It must be one or the other; which shall it be? Can I answer that question? Can I tell? I can tell it,-tell it now,-for I have in this very chapter that which teaches me how to judge myself. They who are preserved have the mark on their foreheads, and they have a character as well as a mark, and their character is, that they sigh and cry for all the abominations of the wicked. Then, if I hate sin, and if I sigh because others love it,-if I cry because I myself through infirmity fall into it,-if the sin of myself and the sin of others is a constant source of grief and vexation of spirit to me, then have I that mark and evidence of those who shall neither sigh nor cry in the world to come, for sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Have I the blood-mark on my brow to-day? Say, my soul, hast thou put thy trust in Jesus Christ alone, and as the fruit of that faith, has thy faith learned how to love, not only him that saved thee, but others, too, who as yet are unsaved? And do I sigh and cry within while I bear the blood-mark without? Come brother, sister, answer this for thyself, I charge thee; I charge thee do so, by the tottering earth, and by the ruined pillars of heaven, that shall surely shake; I pray thee, by the cherubim and seraphim that shall be before the throne of the great Judge; by the blazing lightnings, that shall then illumine the thick darkness, and make the sun amazed, and turn the moon into blood; by him whose tongue is like a flame, like a sword of fire; by him who shall judge thee, and try thee, and read thy heart, and declare thy ways, and divide unto thee thine eternal portion; I conjure thee, by the certainties of death, by the sureness of judgment, by the glories of heaven, by the solemnities of hell,-I beseech, implore, command, entreat thee,-ask thyself now, “Shall I be left? Do I believe in Christ? Have I been born again? Have I a new heart and a right spirit? Or, am I still what I always was,-God’s enemy, Christ’s despiser, cursed by the law, cast out from the gospel, without God and without hope, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel?”

I cannot speak to thee as earnestly as I would to God that I could. I want to thrust this question into your very loins, and stir up your heart’s deepest thoughts with it. Sinner, what will become of thee when God shall winnow the chaff from the wheat, what will be thy portion then? Thou that standest in the aisle yonder, what will be thy portion, thou who art crowded there, what will thy portion be, when he shall come, and nothing shall escape his eye? Say, shalt thou hear him? Say, and shall thy heart-strings crack whilst he utters the thundering sound, “Depart, ye cursed;” or shall it be thy happy lot-thy soul transported all the while with bliss unutterable-to hear him say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”? Our text reveals a prospect, I pray you to look at it, gaze across the narrow stream of death, and say, “Shall I be left?”

“When thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come,

To fetch thy ransom’d people home,

Shall I among them stand?

Shall such a worthless worm as I,

Who sometimes am afraid to die,

Be found at thy right hand?

“I love to meet among them now,

Before thy gracious feet to bow,

Though vilest of them all:

But can I bear the piercing thought,-

What if my name should be left out,

When thou for them shalt call?

“Prevent, prevent it by thy grace;

Be thou, dear Lord, my hiding-place,

In this the accepted day:

Thy pardoning voice, oh let me hear!

To still my unbelieving fear;

Nor let me fall, I pray.”

But now we come to a terrible contrast, which I think is suggested in the text: “I was left.”

Then there will be some who will not be left in the sense we have been speaking of, and yet who will be left after another and more dreadful manner. They will be left by mercy, forsaken by hope, given up by friends, and become a prey to the implacable fury, to the sudden, infinite, and unmitigated severity and justice of an angry God. But they will not be left or exempted from judgment, for the sword shall find them out, the vials of Jehovah shall reach even to their heart. And that flame, the pile whereof is wood, and much smoke, shall suddenly devour them, and that without remedy. Sinner, thou shalt be left. I say, thou shalt be left of all those fond joys that thou huggest now,-left of that pride which now steels thy heart; thou wilt be low enough then. Thou wilt be left of that iron constitution which now seems to repel the darts of death. Thou shalt be left of those companions of thine that entice thee on to sin, and harden thee in iniquity. Thou shalt be left by those who promise to be thy helpers at the last. They shall need helpers themselves, and the strong man shall fail. Thou shalt be left, then, of that pleasing fancy of thine, and of that merry wit which can make sport of Bible truths, and mock at divine solemnities. Thou shalt be left, then, of all thy buoyant hopes, and of all thy imaginary delights. Thou shalt be left of that sweet angel, Hope, who never forsaketh any but those who are condemned to hell. Thou shalt be left of God’s Spirit, who sometimes now pleads with thee. Thou shalt be left of Jesus Christ, whose gospel hath been so often preached in thine ear. Thou shalt be left of God the Father; he shall shut his eyes of pity against thee, his bowels of compassion shall no more yearn over thee; nor shall his heart regard thy cries. Thou shalt be left; but, oh! again I tell thee, thou shalt not be left as one who hath escaped; for, when the earth shall open to swallow up the wicked, it shall open at thy feet, and swallow thee up. When the fiery thunderbolt shall pursue the spirit that falls into the pit that is bottomless, it shall pursue thee, and reach thee, and find thee. When God rendeth the wicked in pieces, and there shall be none to deliver, he shall rend thee in pieces; he shall be unto thee as a consuming fire, thy conscience shall be full of gall, thy heart shall be drunken with bitterness, thy teeth shall be broken even as with gravel stones, thy hopes riven with his hot thunderbolts, and all thy joys withered and blasted by his breath.

O careless sinner, mad sinner, thou who art dashing thyself now downward to destruction, why wilt thou play the fool at this rate? There are cheaper ways of making sport for thyself than this. Dash thy head against the wall; go scrabble there, and, like David, let thy spittle fall upon thy beard, but let not thy sin fall upon thy conscience, and let not thy despite of Christ be like a millstone hanged about thy neck, with which thou shalt be cast into the sea for ever. Be wise, I pray thee. O Lord, make the sinner wise; hush his madness for a while; let him be sober, and hear the voice of reason; let him be still, and hear the voice of conscience; let him be obedient, and hear the voice of Scripture! “Thus saith the Lord, because I will do this, consider thy ways.” “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” “Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

I do feel that I have a message for someone to-night. Though there may be some who think the sermon not appropriate to a congregation where there is so large a proportion of converted men and women, yet what a large proportion of ungodly ones there is here, too! I know that you come here, many of you, to hear some funny tale, or to catch at some strange, extravagant speech of one whom you repute to be an eccentric man. Ah, well, he is eccentric, and hopes to be so till he dies; but it is simply eccentric in being in earnest, and wanting to win souls! O poor sinners, there is no odd tale I would not tell if I thought it would be blessed to you! There is no grotesque language which I would not use, however it might be thrown back at me again, if I thought it might but be serviceable to you. I set not my account to be thought a fine speaker; they that use fine language may dwell in the king’s palaces. I speak to you as one who knows he is accountable to no man, but only to his God, as one who shall have to render his account at the last great day. And, I pray you, go not away to talk of this and that which you have remarked in my language. Think of this one thing, “Shall I be left? Shall I be saved? Shall I be caught up and dwell with Christ in heaven, or shall I be cast down to hell for ever and ever?” Turn over these things. Think seriously of them. Hear that voice which says, “Him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out.” Give heed to the voice which expostulates, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” How else shall your life be spared when the wicked are judged? How else shall you find shelter when the tempest of divine wrath rages? How else shall you stand in the lot of the righteous at the end of the days?

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

EPHESIANS 1

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

The apostle desires just the same blessing for us, who are “the faithful in Christ Jesus,” as he did for the saints at Ephesus. He longs that we also may be filled with grace and peace “from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” And the wish of the apostle is according to the will of God, who would have us abound in grace and in peace. Some of you Christian people are troubled in mind, yet your Lord said to his disciples, and through them to you, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.… Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Jesus knew that, in the world, you should have tribulation; but he willed that, in him, you should have peace; and the way to get that peace is by getting grace. “Grace be to you, and peace.” The more gracious you are, the more easily will you bear the trying circumstances which surround you. Look not for peace apart from grace; but when you have grace, you have a right to peace.

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

I notice how often, in the Epistles, benedictions are followed by doxologies; this is because the true heart loves to bless the Lord. What a rich treasure we have who are blessed “with all spiritual blessings”! There is nothing we can need but what is provided for us by our gracious God. Why are you poor, then, when God “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”? Is it net because you often forget to go to the heavenlies in Christ, and begin looking to the earthlies in yourselves? There is nothing but starvation there, but all true riches are found in the heavenlies in Christ.

4. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

The apostle did not ignore the glorious and blessed doctrine of divine election; he delighted to meditate upon it, and to speak of it. I wish that some Christians, nowadays, were not so much afraid of it. All spiritual blessings come to us in this way, this is the fountain-head of all favour and grace: “According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world.” The object of our election, that to which God hath chosen us in Christ is, “that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love.” Unless thou art holy, how canst thou talk of being chosen of God, for the elect are chosen unto holiness, chosen to be delivered from all blame through the love and grace of God.

5, 6. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

It is well said, by an old writer, that there is no book which is written with such brevity as the Bible; it seems to give us the condensed essence of truth in the smallest possible space. What a mass of thought there is in those few lines which I have just read to you! We see here that we become the children of God by adoption, whatever the universal Fatherhood people may say: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself;” and that this adoption is the result of predestination, and is not because of our own merits, but “according to the good pleasure of his will.” Some systems of theology have much of logic, but little of God; but, in Paul’s teaching, it is God first, and last, and midst, and over all.

“To the praise of the glory of his grace.” What a wonderful expression this is,-not only “the glory of his grace,” but the praise of that glory! God has done all things with a view to magnifying his grace in the hearts of the sons and daughters of men: “Wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” There seems to me to be a sacred poem in these words, “accepted in the Beloved.” To my heart, there is more heavenly music in those four words than in any oratorio I ever heard. “Accepted in the Beloved.” Oh, what honey this is in the mouth, what cheer this is in the heart! Are all of you, dear friends, “accepted in the Beloved”?

7, 8. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Wisdom and prudence are two of the handmaids of grace. Grace reigns through righteousness, and the wisdom and prudence of God are set to work so to conduct the whole of the arrangements that “the glory of his grace” may be all the more conspicuous.

9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

Even our knowledge of God’s will is the result of “his good pleasure.” If your eyes have been divinely opened, you see the will of God coming in everywhere, and ordering all things according to his gracious and unerring purpose.

10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

All the things that are in Christ shall be gathered together; none of them shall be left out. His great covenant work shall be, in all respects, fully accomplished; there shall be no failure in any point. Whether in heaven, or on earth, the things which are in Christ shall be gathered together in One, “even in him:”-

11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

How the apostle delights to harp upon this theme! The Holy Spirit knew that a time would come when men would put a slur upon this glorious truth, so he inspired his servant to set it forth as the very brightness of the sun in the spiritual firmament: “being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”

12-14. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Twice more, in these three verses you have this expression, “to the praise of his glory,” making a third time with that which he said before, “to the praise of the glory of his grace.” The true gospel glorifies God. False gospels may have what is called “the enthusiasm of humanity” about them, but the true gospel has an enthusiasm for the living God, and it magnifies and glorifies him. Note, O believers, that you first trust in Christ, and after that you have the seal of the Spirit. There are some who look for the sealing of the Spirit before believing in Jesus; but neither God nor man will set a seal to a blank paper; there must be the writing of faith upon the heart, and then the Spirit of God comes in, with his blessed seal, and sets it at the bottom as his divine and gracious token of acceptance. The Holy Spirit is “the earnest of our inheritance.” Now, an earnest is a part of the possession itself; it is not simply a pledge, it is more than that; so the Holy Ghost in our heart is heaven begun below, it is the young dawn of the everlasting day. Blessed be God, we have his Spirit within us, and we rejoice in his indwelling.

15-17. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

You do know him, for he has saved you; now go on to know a great deal more of him. You can scarcely have a better gift than this, “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” The knowledge of Christ crucified is the most excellent of all the sciences. It is better to be well acquainted with Christ than to be a very Solomon concerning all other things, yet not to know him.

18. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;

You have eyes; God’s grace has given them to you; but they are capable of additional power and force; and there is the telescope of faith, which you are allowed to use, which will enable you to see much more than you have ever seen as yet.

18. That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,-

First, you are to know what your inheritance is; that is “the hope of his calling;” and, next, you are to know what Christ’s inheritance in you is, which is another thing. It is a most blessed subject for meditation that you are Christ’s, altogether Christ’s, and that all you are to be, will be Christ’s, and that in you, poor creatures though you are, he will yet have a rich inheritance. Paul would have you know what are “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,”-

19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,

It takes a great deal of grace to make a believer, and to keep a believer; nothing but the almighty power of God can do it.

19, 20. According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,-

Not only raising him from the dead, but lifting him up to his own right hand, and setting him there, “in the heavenly places,”-

21. Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

The power of God, which works in a believer, is the same power with which he raised Christ from the dead, and set him in this pre-eminent place.

22. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

This power is also to be seen working in you who believe in Jesus. What wonders of grace we shall be when God has exerted that stupendous and amazing energy, in each one of us, even as in his own Son! What an inheritance Christ will have in us then!

23. Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Said I not truly to you that this blessed Book is full of truth put into as few words as possible? Verily, there is none like it. Other books, at the best, are like gold hammered out very thin; but here you have ingots of solid spiritual wealth, priceless in value. God help us all to make them our own treasure, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

THE DISOWNED

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, December 7th, 1902,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, April 22nd, 1877.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”-Matthew 7:21-23.

One of the best tests by which we may try many things is to ask, “How will they appear at the day of judgment?” Our Lord here says, “Many will say to me in that day.” He used no other word to describe that memorable period because that terse, brief expression suggests so much,-“in that day,”-that terrible day,-that last great day,-that day for which all other days were made,-that day by which all other days must be measured and judged. I pray, dear friends, that we may, each one of us, begin to set in the light of “that day” the things that we most prize. The riches upon which you have set your heart, how will their value be reckoned “in that day,” and how much of comfort will they afford you then? As for the way in which you have been spending your wealth, will that be such as you will remember “in that day” with satisfaction and comfort? Value your broad acres and your noble mansions, or your more moderate possessions, according to this gauge of their real worth,-how will they be valued “in that day”? And as to the pursuits which you so eagerly follow, and which now appear so important to you that they engross the whole of your thoughts, and arouse all your faculties and energies, are they worthy of all this effort? Will they seem to be so “in that day”?

What is the chief object of your life? Will you think as much of it “in that day” as you do now? Will you then count yourself wise to have so earnestly pursued it? You fancy that you can defend it now, but will you be able to defend it then, when all things of earth and time will have melted into nothingness? You value the esteem in which you are held among men, and you do rightly, for “a good name is better than precious ointment;” but are you really worthy of the good name that has been given to you? Is that favourable judgment of your fellow-creatures the verdict of infallible truth? Will you be as highly honoured “in that day” as you are now? Will as much credit be given to you for honesty and virtue then as is given to you now? Is there no tinsel, no veneer, no deception, no counterfeit coin about you? O my brethren, who among us can submit his position amid his fellow-men to such a test as this without the most solemn questioning and searching of heart?

You young men are, perhaps, rejoicing in your youth, and letting your heart take full liberty in the enjoyment of earthly pleasure. God forbid that I should deprive you of any real pleasure; but let me ask, concerning those enjoyments, how will they appear “in that day”? Will they bear serious reflection even now? Then, how are they likely to endure the more sober judgment that will be exercised then? “In that day,” when the glare of this world’s lamps shall have died out, and the glitter of its pomp shall for ever have passed into the eternal darkness, how will your pleasures look then? Especially, if you have sold yourself for those pleasures,-if you have bartered your peace of mind for them,-if you have disobeyed your God in order that you might enjoy them, how will they then appear when, at the end of the feast, the cost of it has to be met, and you have to give in your last account? It is truly wise for a man to be familiar with his last hours; it is well for him often to rehearse that grand act when he must gather up his feet in the bed, and die, his father’s God to meet; and it is wiser still for him to overleap the chasm which divides us from the realities of eternity, and, by the force of faith rather than by imagination, picture himself standing in that mighty throng of the risen dead, from every part of land and sea,-the innumerable population of this great globe,-every eye turned in one direction, all looking to him who shall sit upon the great white throne, that Christ who was once crucified in weakness, but who shall come in power and great glory, appointed Judge of all mankind. I know that I am inviting you to think of something that you do not wish to have brought to your mind. The world plucks you by the sleeve, and says, “Come away;” but I would fain detain you, for a little while, as the ancient mariner held the wedding guest, yet not to tell you a quaint story of far-off seas and strange adventures there, but solemnly to talk to you about your immortal soul, and to stir you up to see to its future destiny, lest Christ should come, and you should be as unprepared for his coming as the men in the days of Noah were for the flood which swept them all away.

Well, then, as everything is to be regarded as it will appear “in that day,” we will try to judge our profession of religion by that test, for it will mainly be to those who think themselves Christ’s people that I shall speak, and I pray that a strong North wind may blow through us; and if there be any chaff in this great heap, may it be speedily discovered, and be driven out from amidst the wheat!

We shall, first of all, notice that the persons mentioned in our text, whom Christ “never knew” in a saving sense, went a long way in religion; secondly, they kept it up a long while; thirdly, they were fatally mistaken; and, fourthly, they found it out in a very terrible way.

First, then, there are some, to whom Christ will say, at the last, “I never knew you,” yet who went a long way in religion. Who were they, and what did they do?

Well, first, they were persons who made an open profession. Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” They called Christ “Lord”; so they virtually declared that they were his disciples. They said this plainly, as though they were not at all ashamed of it, and were, indeed, even proud of it. They said it twice over, zealously, frequently, “Lord, Lord.” They said it as if the saying of it were so sweet to them that they could not say it often enough. They said it in all sorts of company; they sometimes said it when wiser men would not have said it. We know many persons who have never made any profession of being Christ’s followers. They that are without, God judgeth; but let those who are within, those who have come into the fellowship of the church, and have said, “Lord, Lord,” judge themselves, lest they should be deceived into a false security. It is not every one who has been called by the name of Christ whom he will own “in that day.” There has been many a loud profession that will count for nothing in that heart-searching time. O my brethren, I am speaking to myself as I speak to every member of this church, and every member of any other Christian church, and I beseech you to see to it that you have something more than a mere profession, for these condemned ones had made an open profession of religion, yet Christ will say to them, “I never knew you.”

Note, next, that they had undertaken religious service, and that of a high class, for Christ says of them, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?” They had not served in any mean capacity, for they had prophesied or preached in the name of Christ. This is one of the things to which false professors are very prone; they love to take the chief places in the synagogue. There is many a true servant of Christ who prefers to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, while many a hypocrite, who would not keep the door on any account, would very cheerfully occupy the prophet’s chair, and prophesy in Christ’s name. Ah, my brethren! this thought comes home to those of us who hold any office in the church, and especially to those of us who are preachers of the gospel. If preaching could save a man, Judas would not have been damned. If prophesying could save a man, Balaam would not have been a castaway. We may preach with the tongues of men and of angels; yet, if we have not love, it profiteth us nothing. We may be even leaders of the church in the noblest and highest enterprises; and yet, for all that, Christ may say to us, at the last, “I never knew you.” “But, Lord, the world blazed with my fame!” “I never knew you.” “I gathered thousands round about me.” “I never knew you.” “Wherever I went, they flocked to listen to my words.” “I never knew you.” Some of you may say, “Lord, I was a deacon of the church,” or, “I was an elder. I was accustomed to visit the sick, and to speak to enquirers. Everybody in the church knew me, and I was held in high repute;” yet he may say, “I never knew you. I am an utter stranger to you. Your name was never familiar to me. I never knew you; depart from me.” This truth comes close home, and it ought to come close home, to every one of us who has ever professed to be engaged in Christ’s service.

These people, too, had obtained remarkable success, for they went on to say, “Have we not, in thy name, cast out devils?” It is grand success to cast out devils, and they might well rejoice in it. But, dear friends, if you and I should be able to cast devils out of others, yet the devil should not be cast out of ourselves, we shall be in a woful plight at the last. If you knew a man who had the power to cast out a devil, you would probably say to yourself, “I wish I were as sure of salvation as he is. Did I not see Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven while he spake in the name of the Lord?” Suppose that did happen, it would not prove that his name was written in the Lamb’s Book of life. Rejoice in your success, my dear friend, as I may rejoice in mine; but let us both rejoice with trembling; for, although we may have brought ten thousand souls to Christ, yet, after all, we may never have come to him ourselves; and if so, he will say to us, at the last, “I never knew you.”

And, once more, these people were not merely professors, and doers of great works, and very successful, but they were exceedingly zealous, and were noted for their practical energy, for they said, “Have we not, in thy name, done many wonderful works?” They had done many works in Christ’s name. They were busy night and day; they had a great many irons in the fire. They seemed as if they could never do too much, and what they did was really very wonderful; in fact, they did not like to do anything unless it was wonderful. A great part of the charm of it to them was that people wondered at them, and it kept them diligently at their work because they were so much wondered at. Yet is it possible that a wonderful life should, after all, be a lost life,-that a doer of many wonderful works should, at the last, be found wanting? Can it be? Yes, for so the Lord Jesus puts it in our text; and, therefore, I invite each professed believer here, however highly favoured he may have been in his Master’s service, to put away from him everything that might tend to false security, and to ask himself, “Shall I, in that last great day of account, be proved to be right?”

I can imagine what some of you have been saying to yourselves while I have been speaking; you have said, “Well, I am not a professor of religion; I am not a prophesier; I never thought of attempting to cast out devils; I never did any wonderful works;” and you have comforted yourselves with the thought that my message did not concern you. But immediately after my text there is something that relates to you: “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine.” Now, you are, at least, all hearers; and if the gospel that you hear shall be so perfectly pure that it may be truly called the sayings of Christ, yet remember that there are multitudes of hearers who, through not being doers of the Word, will find at last that Christ never knew them. “But, Lord, I always sat in my seat; I was never absent from the services, I used to be there whenever the doors were opened. I was there as regularly as the minister himself.” Yes, that may all be true; yet the Lord Jesus will not know you unless your heart has truly known him. If you remain without repentance, and without faith, you may go to the house of prayer till you totter on your staff, and you may never once have been an inattentive hearer; but, unless faith comes to you by the hearing of the Word, and that faith makes you a doer of it, verily, verily, I say unto you, when the winds shall blow, and the floods shall rise, and the rain shall descend, your house shall be proved to have been founded on the sand, and shall be swept away for ever. So take our text with that which goes before it, and that which follows after it, and you will find that there is something here for every one of you. These people went a long way in religion, but they did not go far enough.

Now, secondly, they kept it up a long while.

Have you never noticed how long some people will manage to keep a business going even after the capital has been spent for years? The whole concern is thoroughly rotten; but, somehow or other, in divers ways they succeed in keeping up the appearance of prosperity. There gets to be, at last, a little suspicion abroad that things are not quite as they seem; yet the clever people avoid the crash that appears to be inevitable. I expect there is many a firm in the city that is just like tinder; yet, for all that, it does not catch alight for a time. There are certain artful ways by which men can prop up a thing which, otherwise, would soon tumble down. It is so with religion. You can very easily patch up a profession; when a nasty, ugly hole comes in it, you can daub it over; and if a sudden temptation comes, like the blast of a tempest, and takes off a piece of the roof, there are plenty of slaters to be had, and they will soon put on a few new slates, and make the broken place look neat and sound. And even when the old hovel is only fit to be taken down, and burnt, you can still get some ivy and a few flowers to grow over it, and you can make quite a picturesque thing of it; and there are people who do just that with their old rickety religion. It never was worth having, yet they managed to keep it up for a very long while.

It was so with the people mentioned in our text; for, first, they were not silenced by men. They prophesied in Christ’s name, yet nobody said to them, “You shall not prophesy again, for you are living such inconsistent lives that we will not listen to you.” This does not appear to have happened with any one of these people. The man who went about casting out devils was not stopped, but he kept on doing so, and he declared even to Christ that he had done it, and done it continually. Ah, my brethren! some of us have seen ministers whose characters have been ruined so that they will never be likely to preach again. We have known some church-members whose hypocrisy has been found out, so that they will never come to the communion table again unless the Lord shall, in his grace, grant them repentance. Yet, what may be the difference between them and some of us except that they have been found out, and we have not been? Or it may be that, had we been exposed to the temptations to which they yielded, or had we been tested as they were, we should have fallen with as great a crash as they did, for it is quite possible that we are no more sound at heart than they were. May the Lord give us the grace to lay this matter to heart; for, if a man be conscious of being right, it will not hurt him to search himself; and there is not one among us to whom it will be an injury to have it suggested that we should try and test ourselves in the sight of God.

Further, it does not appear that Christ himself openly disowned these people during their lifetime. He held his tongue concerning them until “that day.” There they were, preaching, teaching a Sunday-school class, distributing the bread and wine at the communion, going about among their fellow-members, actively engaged in Christian service, and everybody saying of them, “What good people they are!” Yet the Lord Jesus Christ knew that they were not; why, then, did he not, in his righteous wrath, at once expose them? He did not, for such is his gentleness that he will bear long even with a Judas; so he let these hypocrites alone throughout their whole lives, and they died “in the odour of sanctity,” and somebody preached a funeral sermon upon them, and wrote their memoir, and it was only at the last great day that the imposture was discovered, and then, for the first time, Christ said publicly to them, “ ‘I never knew you.’ I had nothing to do with you. How came you to be professedly in my Church? What right had you to preach in my name? What authority had you to speak to devils in my name? ‘I never knew you.’ You were always an impostor from the first day until now.” He knew all about them all the while, yet he did not expose them until the last.

And note, once more, that they clung to their false hopes right to the end. They did not really know of the deception themselves. “What!” you say, “did they never think that they were deceived?” Perhaps they did, now and then; but they always said to themselves, “We must not get into a doubting frame of mind. This looking within, and searching our hearts, will not do; it will disturb and distress us.” So they went on daubing themselves with untempered mortar. They were as wrong as wrong could be, yet everybody treated them as though they were right, so they thought at last that they were right. For a man may, in time, make himself believe what he knows to be a lie. I have heard persons tell stories about themselves which had not any foundation in fact; but they have told them so often that I am sure they believe at last that they are really speaking the truth; though, if they would only think seriously, they would perceive that their tale is all invention. A man may go in and out among Christians, join in their prayers, and praises, and communions, and preach their gospel or hear it, till, at last, without any reason for his belief, he may persuade himself that it is all right. He may even pass through the portals of death undeceived. The righteous are often troubled when they come to die; but it is with these self-deceived people as the psalmist says, “There are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.” Take heed, I beseech you, of self-deception. I say it first to myself, and next to you, lest, not until “that day” should we hear the Lord Jesus say to us, “I never knew you,” and lest, even “in that day,” we should say to him, “Lord, Lord,” and begin to argue that we were all right, and Christ should put an end to it all by saying, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

I must be brief upon my third division. These people went a long way in religion, and they kept it up a long while, but they were fatally mistaken.

They were mistaken, first, because their tongues belied their hands. They said, “Lord, Lord,” but they did not do the will of the Lord. They were very glib of tongue when they took to prophesying, but the message never came out of their hearts. They never did the things they told others to do; they were earnest to exhort, but not diligent to set a good example to their hearers. They cast out devils; but, at the same time, they did not themselves escape from the power of the devil by giving up sin, and following after righteousness. They failed in the matter of practical holiness. They had not the grace of God in their souls, displaying itself in their ordinary, every-day actions. They could talk; they could sing; they could prophesy; but they were not obedient to the divine commands, and they did not walk in the ways of God.

Then, next, they used the name which is dear to the disciples of Christ, but they did not possess the nature of disciples. They used Christ’s name, for they said to him, “Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” They knew Christ’s name, but they had not his nature. They quoted his name, but they never copied his example. They had never come to him, and trusted and loved him. They knew his name, but they did not know him; and he knew their names, but he did not know them. There was no communion-no intimate intercourse between them.

Next, they prophesied, but they did not pray. Prayer is a vital evidence of Christianity, but prophecy is not. A thousand sermons would not prove a man to be a Christian, but one genuine prayer would. It is easy enough to speak to men, but quite another thing, from our inmost soul, to speak into the ear of God. They failed in that point; and, therefore, their failure was fatal.

Further, they attended to marvels, but not to essentials. They neglected the important things which should have been done in secret; they did much that could be seen in public, but they failed in the plainer, simpler things that nobody saw. Let me just say to you, brothers and sisters, that herein lies a great part of our danger,-the risk of getting a religious character without having a renewed heart,-doing religious actions without really being born again,-learning the brogue of the New Jerusalem without having been born as a citizen of the heavenly city,-becoming fluent talkers, and earnest workers, but not having confessed sin, or repented of it, or laid hold on Jesus Christ by living faith. I do beseech you, young professors, to covet most of all secret holiness,-the holiness that does not wish to be seen,-plain, honest dealing with God in private,-much secret prayer and meditation upon the Word,-in brief, a life of true consecration to God. You may prophesy if God calls you to do so. Perhaps you will cast out devils, I hope you may; and in Christ’s name you may do many wonderful works; but, first of all, “ye must be born again.” You must become as little children to sit at the feet of Jesus, and to learn of him. You must be obedient to his commands, and yield yourselves up to him, or else you will be fatally mistaken, whatever profession you may make.

Now, last of all, I want to remind you that these people found out their mistake in a most terrible way.

Oh, if they could only have found it out before! Possibly, they attended a ministry that was very soothing. Or, if they heard a sermon that seemed to plough them up, they said, “The preacher is very rough, he has not enough love,”-as if it were not the truest love to bid men search, and test, and try themselves, lest they should be mistaken, and so be lost. There are some whose preaching is all sweetness; it would do very well for catching flies, but it is no use in winning souls. It would be more than my soul is worth for me to come here, and cajole you into a lying confidence; and, so long as these lips can speak, there shall be no man self-deceived here for want of warning, and earnest exhortation to lay himself before God, and ask God to search him, and try him, and see if there be any wicked way in him, and lead him in the way everlasting. It is not sufficient to feel quite sure of heaven, and to begin singing,-

“Happy day! happy day!”

Suppose that, after all, you are not saved. “Ah!” says one, “I cannot endure that supposition.” No, dear friend, but perhaps it may be true; and if it be true, what a mercy it would be for you to find it out now, when, in a moment, you may look away to Jesus, and find eternal life; whereas, if you do not find it out till the time when the unhappy men and women, mentioned in our text, found it out, that is to say, “in that day,” you will then find it out too late! Once become a bankrupt in the great business of life, and you are bankrupts for ever. Once lose the battle of life, and your defeat is eternal. Imagine not-dream not-conjure not up to yourselves any false notion of a larger hope, lest you sink at last into a still deeper disappointment. “The Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts;” but he tells none of us to hold out to you any hope but that which hangs upon the winged moment in which you are now existing. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;” “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” This is part of the great commission that Christ gave to all his disciples, and he that dares to fall short of it, or to go beyond it, is a traitor to his Lord, and a murderer of the souls of men, and this we pray that we may never be.

Notice how these people found out their fatal mistake. They found it out from what Christ said. He said to them, “I never knew you.” Not passionately, or angrily, but in stern, sad, solemn tones he said, “I never knew you.” “But we used thy name, good Lord.” “I know you did, but I never knew you, and you never truly knew me.” I can almost imagine someone turning round, “in that day,” and saying to some Christians who used to sit in the same pew, “You knew me.” “Yes,” they will reply, “we knew you, but that is of no avail, for the Master did not know you.” I can picture some of you crying out to your minister, “Pastor, did not you know us? Surely you recollect what we used to do.” What can he reply? “Ah, yes! sorrowfully do I own that I know you, but I cannot help you. It is only Christ’s knowing you that can be of any avail to you.”

Note, also, the terror that is implied in what Christ did not say. He says, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity;” but who can tell all that those words mean? What happened to these people after that sentence was pronounced upon them by Christ? It was that “nameless woe” of which we sang a little while ago. There is no name that can ever fully describe your state of woe if Christ does not know you, and says that he never did know you. If you have no acquaintance with the Redeemer,-if in his loving heart there is no recognition of you,-if he says, “I never knew you,” ah, then! woe! woe! woe!-a thousand times, woe without hope for you; for, to be unknown of him is to be devoid of hope for ever and for ever.

Perhaps the worst thing of all was, the solemn truth of what Christ said. He never tells a lie; so, if he ever says to a man, “I never knew you,” his words are true. Just think a minute about that short sentence; I wonder whether it is true concerning any of you now. Christ knows all who have ever sought his face with repentance and faith; but these people, though they had prophesied in his name, and cast out devils, and done many wonderful works, had never repented, or believed in Jesus. You remember those verses by John Newton,-

“Dost thou ask me who I am?

Ah, my Lord, thou know’st my name!

Yet the question gives a plea

To support my suit with thee.

Once a sinner near despair

Sought thy mercy-seat by prayer;

Mercy heard and set him free;

Lord, that mercy came to me.”

If that is true of any one of you, you can say to the Lord, “Thou knowest me, Lord, for I came to thee, and said, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ ” But, “in that day,” these pretenders will have to recollect that they never did that. David said to the Lord, “Thou hast known my soul in adversities.” Beloved, some of you know what it is to go to God with every trouble that ever comes upon you, but these pretenders did not; and they had to remember, “in that day,” that they had never resorted to God,-never had fellowship with Christ,-never, indeed, became acquainted with him. “No,” says Christ, “I never saw you come as a beggar to my door. I never saw you sit as a disciple at my feet. I never saw you as a humble follower treading in my footsteps. I never saw you as a sheep that knew my voice, and followed me. ‘I never knew you.’ You were a stranger to me; you and I never exchanged a word with one another. We were not friends. You never leaned your head on my bosom. You had nothing to do with me, and now I have nothing to do with you.” If Christ ever thus shakes you off, and says to you, “I never knew you,” you will be indeed shaken off. It may be that my words upon this solemn theme distress you, but how much more will his words distress you when his own dear lips shall say, “I never knew you”! O Christ of God, never say those words to any one of us! O blessed Lamb of God, thou who art all our salvation, and all our desire, we know that thou never canst say such words as those to some of us, for thou hast known us even from eternity, and we have long known thee! Thou knowest whom thou hast chosen; thou knowest whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood; thou knowest whom thou hast called by thy grace; thou knowest whom thou hast quickened, and preserved, and kept even to this day; but, oh, never let us be among the self-deceived who shall, “in that day,” hear thee say, “I never knew you”! There is more thunder in those four words than you ever heard in the most terrible tempest that has rolled over your heads. There is no stamp of the foot or fire-glance of the eye to accompany them; they are spoken calmly and deliberately, yet they are terrible and overwhelming: “I never knew you.”

Judge ye, dear friends, whether ye know Christ or not, and whether Christ knows you; and, as you judge yourselves, whatever your verdict may be, take this last word of advice; whether he knows you or not, come to him; trust in him; rest in him. I felt, as I was thinking over this subject, “Well, perhaps my Lord does not know me;” so I made sure that he should, for I sought him there and then; and I exhort you to do the same. If you fear whether you do know him, trust him this very moment. Then, if you have made a mistake hitherto, and have not really known him, you will begin to know him now; and if you have known him, you will blessedly renew your acquaintance with him, and the question that has troubled you will disappear, and you will say, “Yes, Lord, blessed be thy name, I do know thee, and thou knowest me, and thou wilt know me for ever and ever.” May the Lord give each one of us this blessing, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

MATTHEW 7

Verses 1, 2. Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Some people are of a censorious disposition; they see nothing in others to praise, but everything to blame, and such people generally find that they are condemned according to their own wicked rule. Other people begin to judge those who are so fond of judging. If they are so wise, and so discriminating, others expect more from them; and not finding it, they are not slow to condemn them. It is an old proverb that chickens come home to roost, and so they do. If you judge ill of others, that judgment will, sooner or later, come home to yourself.

3-5. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast cut the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

At the bottom of all censoriousness lies hypocrisy. An honest man would apply to himself the judgment which he exercises upon others, but it usually happens that those who are so busy spying out other people’s faults have no time to see their own; and what is this, at the bottom, but insincerity and hypocrisy?

6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Zeal should always be tempered by prudence. There are times when it would be treason to truth to introduce it as a topic of conversation,-when men are in such a frame of mind that they will be sure rather to cavil at it than to believe it. Not only speak thou well, but speak thou at the right time, for silence is sometimes golden. See that thou hast thy measure of golden silence as well as of silvern speech.

7. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

Here is a three-fold encouragement to us to pray. When we cannot use one style of prayer, let us use another, for each shall be successful at the right time. O child of God, let nothing keep thee from prayer! It has been well said that a Christian may be hedged in, but he cannot be roofed in; there is always a passage way upwards to the throne of the great Father; and asking, knocking, seeking, he shall be sure to be successful with his suit.

8. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Ask the people of God whether it is not so. Go among them, and question them upon this matter. They know the power of prayer, so let them tell you whether they have been deceived or not. Well, then, as it has been so with them, let this encourage you to expect that it shall be the same with you also.

9-12. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Is there a connection between this conduct on our part and answers to our prayer? Undoubtedly it is so from the position of the text. If we will never grant the requests of those who need our help, in cases where we should expect to be ourselves helped, how can we go to God with any confidence, and ask him to help us? I doubt not that many a man has received no answer to his prayer because that prayer has come out of a heart hard and untender, which would not permit him to grant the requests of others. O child of God, do thou to others as thou wouldst that they should do to thee, then canst thou go to thy God in prayer with the confidence that he will hear and answer thee!

13. Enter ye in at the strait gate:

Do not be ashamed of being called Puritanical, precise, particular: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate.”

13. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,

Do not choose that way.

13-21. And many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

That still remains as the great test of the true heir of heaven,-the doing of the divine will. All the talking, thinking, posturing in the world will not save a man. There must be in him such a faith as produces holiness.

22-25. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;-

Whoever you are, and whatever you build, it will be tried. No matter how firm is the rock beneath you, the winds will blow, and the rains will pour down upon your building. Whether you are in a palace or in a hovel, trial and testing must and will come to you: “The floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;”-

25. And it fell not:

There is the mercy: “it fell not.”

25-27. For it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;-

Even if you live to the world, or live unto Satan, you will not live without trial. The ungodly, who have their portion in this life, have to eat some bitter herbs with it, and have to dip their morsel in vinegar quite as much as believers do. “The floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;”-

27. And it fell:

Just when the tenant most needed shelter, it fell. He did not need it so much till the floods came, and the winds blew; but now, when he would fain have crouched down beneath his roof-tree, and have been at peace from the howling hurricane, then “it fell.”

27. And great was the fall of it.

The fall was so great because he could never build again.

28, 29. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Not quoting Rabbi So-and-so, to show how well he was acquainted with his writings, but speaking as one who knew what he had to say, and who spoke, out of the fulness of his heart, truth that was evidently inspired; and his hearers felt the force of the solemn message which he thus delivered.

FAITH: LIFE

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, December 14th, 1902,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, May 10th, 1877.

“The just shall live by his faith.”-Habakkuk 2:4.

“The just shall live by faith.”-Romans 1:17.

“The just shall live by faith.”-Galatians 3:11.

“Now the just shall live by faith.”-Hebrews 10:38.

The fact that these words are so frequently found in the Word of God is a sufficient justification for often preaching from them. There seems to be, among certain preachers and hearers, some sort of question about preaching more than once from the same text; yet it would appear that this is by no means a wrong practice, but a most proper one. Indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ may be thought to have preached the same sermon more than once, for the sermon on the mount contains many passages similar to those uttered by him on other occasions. The apostle Paul imitated his Master’s example when he wrote to the Philippians, “To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.” We need not hesitate to follow such leaders as these.

As the truth contained in our texts is so often brought before us in the Scriptures,-and is revealed at least four times in almost the same words,-we ought to regard it as of the greatest imaginable importance, as indeed it is. A mistake upon this subject would be a mistake concerning life,-for we are told, again and again, “The just shall live by faith;”-and a mistake concerning life is a vital mistake, and will be a fatal mistake to those who make it unless it be corrected and rectified by a power higher than their own. Therefore, we ought to give most earnest heed to that which lies near to the very heart of true religion, and which is, indeed, its very life. To the believer, faith is of the utmost importance. He should endeavour not to lose any of his graces; he should seek, by the power of the blessed Spirit, neither to lose patience, nor hope, nor love, nor any other grace or virtue; still, the root of true religion is faith, so he must first of all see to that. If we fail in faith, we shall fail everywhere. I might almost say of faith, with regard to religion, that it is like the heart, out of which are the issues of life. If faith be weak, we are weak all over,-for service, for suffering, for everything; but when faith is strong, it imparts strength to all the members of the spiritual body, and the whole spiritual manhood is full of vigour. So, my brother, or sister, see thou first and foremost to thy faith. May God the Holy Spirit graciously strengthen it, and may our consideration of these four texts tend to the same end!

First, in the great change from condemnation to justification, these words are true: “The just shall live by faith;” and, secondly, using a very wide term to take in all the rest of our daily life,-in reference to what we have been accustomed to call sanctification,-these words are also true: “The just shall live by faith.” It is the same life all the way through, and the same method of living that life, namely, “by faith.”

First, then, in the great change from condemnation to justification, these words are true: “The just shall live by faith.”

We all need to be delivered from the condemnation which is our due because of sin. When a man’s conscience is aroused to see the fearful penalty which he has incurred by his transgressions, he cries out for someone to rescue him from the death which looms before him as the result of his condemnation. He begins to seek a way of escape, and he tries all sorts of ways, and runs in them with great perseverance, and earnestness, and self-denial; but he makes a mistake as to every way of escape until he comes to this way, “The just shall live by faith.”

This is the famous text which was the means of the emancipation of the soul of Martin Luther. I have stood at the bottom of the Santa Scala, or holy staircase, at Rome, which is superstitiously believed to be the very one down which the Saviour came from Pilate’s hall; I have never gone up those stairs, because no one may go up them except upon his knees, and I would not do that; but I have walked up and down the steps by the side of them. There are certain holes cut in the wooden floor which encases the marble staircase, and that wooden floor has been worn away many times by the pilgrims’ knees. There are places cut,-where the priests say that the blood of Jesus fell,-in order to enable the poor votaries of superstition to kiss the spot where the blood-drops fell. I have seen scores of men and women going up that staircase on their bended knees, for they are told that there are great indulgences to be obtained by crawling up those stairs. Luther was doing this, for he had gone to Rome determined to get rid of his sins, if possible; and while he was in the middle of that slavish toil, seeking to gain everlasting life by his penances, this text came into his mind,-he had read it in the Bible in the monastery,-“The just shall live by faith;” and, to the astonishment of those who looked on, he rose from his knees, never to go up the Santa Scala any more in that fashion, for he had discovered that which he was looking for, the true way of living; and you know that it was not long before he wanted to tell others of the life and peace that he had discovered. An old monk, who knew something about these truths, but who did not want to have any noise made concerning them, said to him, “Go thou back to thy cell, and live near to God, and do not make a stir.” But God did not mean him to go back to his cell, and he began to speak, and very soon the world knew that a mighty change had been wrought, but it all came, instrumentally, through Luther learning this great truth, “The just shall live by faith.”

If I am addressing any who are trying to procure eternal life by their own works;-if you have mended your ways a good deal, it was time you did so;-if you have obtained a great many virtues to which you were strangers before, I am very glad to hear it, for it was your duty to do so;-but, if you are hoping, by any such means, to put away your sin, oh that some voice, more potent than mine, would speak not only to your ear, but to your heart, and say, “The just shall live by faith”! It is well that you have forsaken the ale-bench, it is right that you have abstained from profane language, it is good that you are honest, it is most commendable that you are seeking to be a comfort to your friends at home, and to observe all the laws of domestic and social life; but if you are seeking, in this way, to obtain eternal life, you will miss the object of your search. It is not so that you can be made just in the sight of God, or that you can secure true spiritual life, for “the just shall live by faith,” that is, by faith in Jesus Christ. You know “the old, old story,” but I will tell it you once again. To obtain life, you must believe in that dear Son of God who came to earth, and took our nature, and took our sin, and was made a curse for us that we might be no more a curse, and died, “the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” Your faith must be fixed on what he did, not on what you can do; and on what he suffered, not on what you can suffer by way of repentance, despondency, and distress of soul. You must look right away from anything there is within or about you, or anything you can possibly perform or achieve, to the ransom price paid by Christ upon the cross of Calvary, for you must live-you can live only-by faith in Jesus Christ, for “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.”

Some, however, place a great deal of reliance in various forms of religious observances, as Luther himself did until his eyes were opened by the Holy Spirit. If that is your case, my dear friend, let me say that it is well that you should attend the house of God, and I am glad that you do; but if you get the idea that you are to be saved because you go so many times a week to the assembly of the saints, you are making a fatal mistake. It is well to search the Scriptures; but if you imagine that the searching of them will save you,-if you think that in them there is eternal life,-you will find that there is something else to be done before you can get that great blessing, namely, coming to Christ that you may have eternal life, for you will search the Scriptures in vain if you regard that exercise as one which merits salvation. It is well that you have begun to pray; but all the praying in the world, if it be relied on as a ground of salvation, is like a sandy foundation for a man to build on. You may weep over your sinful state, your tears may flow until, like Niobe, you are transformed into a perpetual fountain; but salvation comes not so. “The just shall live by faith.” All the devotional exercises in which you can possibly engage, in public or in private, with all the so-called “sacraments” thrown in, and all the priestly efficacy of which men dream,-even if there were such a thing in reality,-all this could not save you. “The just shall live by faith.” This is the only way of living that God has ordained for sinners dead in trespasses and sins.

There is a notion more common, perhaps, than either of these two, of salvation by works or ceremonies, and that is the idea of a certain amount of terror of conscience, which is often confounded with true conviction of sin. According to the ideas of some people, this state must be passed through before you can be saved. You must dream about dreadful things at night, and wake in the morning full of horror and confusion, and go about your business in the utmost conceivable despair. So some say, and it is true that there are many who do come to God in that way. I do not doubt that there are thousands who reach the Celestial City by way of the Slough of Despond; nay, how can I doubt it, when I went that way myself? Yet that is not the best way; it is our wandering and blundering that leads us to go that way, for the just shall not live by despondency, but by faith. The just shall not find eternal life through terror and despair; but they shall find it through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophets of Baal were under a gross delusion when “they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them;” but they are equally deluded who think that, by lacerating their conscience, and by endeavouring to make themselves miserable, they shall thereby obtain the favour of God. That is not true, you may even be put into the mortar of conviction, and brayed there with the pestle of the law until you are ground to atoms, and there is no hope left in you; but that is not the way of salvation. “Believe and live” is the gospel precept. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “The just shall live by faith.” Do not, therefore, try and set up another mode of salvation, “for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ;” and salvation comes by building upon that foundation, resting and relying only upon him.

There are, no doubt, others who are looking in various directions for salvation, but we may say to them all that it is of no use which way they look,-this way or that, up, down, to the right, or to the left,-until they look by faith to Jesus Christ; but, oh, what life comes streaming into the soul as soon as the eye is fixed upon Jesus! In the case of some of us, the thrill that went through our heart, directly we looked to Jesus, was like a little heaven. It seemed to us as if we were suddenly brought into a new world. To me, believing in Jesus brought such a change in me, at once, that I can only compare it to the experience of a blind man, who, having never seen a ray of light, should be suddenly taken out in the night, set under the sky studded with stars, and then should have an instantaneous operation performed upon his eyes so that in a moment he could see clearly. Oh, how ravished he would be, how astonished, how delighted! How every little star would seem to twinkle for him! How every beam of light would seem to make him glad! He would clap his hands, he would leap for joy in the new sense of sight, and the newly-discovered pleasure which it had brought into his life. This is the kind of bliss that comes through believing in Jesus. It is like the discovery of buried treasure; there comes such a flood of delight upon the soul as must be experienced to be understood, for it cannot be described. It does not come to all so suddenly, for some eyes are opened gradually; first they see men, as trees, walking; and, by-and-by, they see more fully; but, however it is manifested, the change that faith works in the soul is truly marvellous. Beloved, he that believeth in Jesus is “justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

He relies upon a perfect atonement that puts away the whole sin of the man’s earthly existence, and he rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Man, thou wilt die; the sentence already passed upon thee will be executed ere long unless thou believest in Jesus, for “he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” But, man, if thou believest in Jesus, thou canst never be executed for thy sin. For thee, there is no hell; for thee, there is no undying worm, no Tophet, no Gehenna; there cannot be any of these things, for thou hast no sin now. “Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee.” “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Faith brings life, and liberty, and love, and everlasting joy into the heart; but nothing else will do this.

This, then, is the first sense of the expression, “The just shall live by faith;” and many of us have realized it, and bless God that we have. I wish that all in this place did not only know about faith, but really had faith. Oh, that some might have it now, and that, ere this congregation shall break up, each of them might be able to say, “I do believe in Jesus. I repose myself upon him. Sink or swim, I fall into his arms. Come what may, Christ shall be to me, from this time forward, all my salvation and all my desire”! O blessed Spirit, work this faith in every heart here present now, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Now comes the second part of the subject, namely, that the whole after-life of the christian, after he is made to live, is still by faith.

Note, first, that the believer, after his conversion, lives in no other way but by faith. No Christian remains a Christian except by still believing. Where we began, there we continue; we looked unto Jesus at the first, and we are still looking unto Jesus. We came to him at the first, and we are still coming unto him “as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious.” We know of no future ground of hope that can be any stronger or better than this, nay, we know of no other than believing in Jesus Christ. I beg you, beloved Christian people, try to avoid all attempts to live in any other way.

There are some professing Christians who live upon their devotions. Now, no Christian can live without prayer,-without praise,-without feeding upon the Word of God. Nobody ought to attempt to do that; but if any man should begin to say, “Now I can do without faith in Jesus, because I read so many chapters of a morning, and I spend so much time in prayer, and I also attend so many public services;”-ah! my brother, you have wandered out of the right track now, for you are not living by faith. But if you pray in faith, and praise in faith, and read the Word of God in faith, then all these things shall become helpful to your spiritual life; but if faith be left out, all these things shall be but as mere husks which contain no wheat in them whatsoever. I do fear that there are some professors of religion who feel perfectly satisfied if they have gone through the regular routine of the day. I admire habits of devotion; they should be maintained; but if the mere habit is mistaken for living power, and if it takes the place of coming continually to Jesus by living personal faith, you will soon find yourselves in a very strange case. “The just shall live by faith,” and not by these things apart from faith. Faith puts power into them, but they have no living force apart from faith.

There are some other Christians who try to live by their works. They are believers in Jesus, but they have got into such a state of heart that they are happy, and restful, and comfortable, only when they can have a certain amount of activity in the service of God. But if, through illness, or any other cause, they are hindered from active service, they are full of doubts, and begin to think that they are not saved, which proves that they were at least somewhat resting upon their activities. Now, by all means, let us be active in the service of our Saviour; let us be zealous in good works, for to this end were we called, and this is for the glory of God. But, beloved, if I were to begin to draw comfort as to my soul’s salvation from the fact of my diligence in preaching the gospel, I should be making a great mistake; or if you began to draw comfort from your earnestness in the Sabbath-school class, or if you should rest upon your devotion to various benevolent societies, or upon anything that you do, you would be upon the wrong track altogether. You would be feeding where God would not have you feed. Do all you can do, but live by faith. Serve God with all your might, but never make your service into a prop or pillow of confidence; for, even when we have done all that we ought to do, we are still unprofitable servants; and we must bring our best works, and ask forgiveness for their imperfections, even as there was a sacrifice appointed for the sins of Israel’s holy things. What sin there is even in our holy things, so that they might sooner damn us than save us! Let us put no confidence in them, nor try to live by them as some do.

There are other Christians who live by feeling. Indeed, I have heard some advocate that we ought to live by feeling. Now, a true Christian man cannot be without feeling. God forbid that he should! Feelings of sorrow, feelings of joy, feelings of spiritual depression, and feelings of holy elation,-these are all necessary in their time and place; but to live by feeling, and to gauge our security by our state of feeling, would be truly dreadful work, because our feelings are more fickle than the weather. It is fine just now; but in another half-hour, it may rain. In such a variable climate as ours, we can never reckon for long upon any sort of weather; and as to our hearts, and our feelings, so dependent upon our bodily health, or upon the kindness or the unkindness of our friends,-so dependent upon a thousand little things almost too minute to be observed,-if we begin estimating our safety by our ups and downs, we shall feel lost and then feel saved a hundred times a day. That plan will not do. “The just shall live by faith.” I like to believe in Jesus, when I have the worst feelings, just as firmly as when I have the best of them, and to trust in God just the same when my full assurance in him brims with delight as I did when my soul was emptied by sorrow. Do you think I put that sentence the wrong way upwards? I did not, for it is easier, I believe, to trust Christ in the depths of sorrow than it is when you are high up in your stirrups, and feel yourself to be somebody; for then, almost insensibly, you get away from the sole foundation of your standing by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are some, too, who live very much, even in religious matters, upon their outward circumstances. There are some who, if they become poor, almost give up all profession of religion. They say that they have not proper clothes in which to come to God’s house, and that they do not like to be seen by people who knew them when they were in better circumstances; so that their religion depends upon how many shillings a week they can earn, and that is a very poor concern. But, if we have learnt to live by faith, we shall follow the Lord in rags if he gives us nothing better to wear; and if we have not a shoe to our foot, we shall go after him all the same. Let us be in whatever condition we may, we shall never be worse off than he was; so come poverty, or come wealth; come the lowest possible ebb of outward fortunes; yet, still, if we live by faith, we shall keep close to the heels of the Crucified. God grant us grace to live above our outward circumstances! Remember that inspired message, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Thus, you see that the Christian lives in no other manner than by faith.

And, beloved friends, he lives in all forms of his life by faith. I can only speak, for a minute or two, upon this thought. In one form of his life, the Christian is a child at home with his Father. Well, as a child, he lives by faith, for “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Our sonship and adoption remain to us matters of faith, and we continually look up to God our Father by faith. As his children, we receive teaching, supplies, food, clothing, and everything, and we receive all by faith. To the child of God, faith is the hand that takes everything from God. I am his child, and I know that he will supply my every need; but faith prompts me to tell him my need,-yea, makes me feel that he knows what I need before I ask him, and so I take from him what he freely gives by believing in him.

The Christian is, next, described in the Word of God as a pilgrim. He is journeying to “a city that hath foundations;” but, all the way there, he goes by faith. He never takes a step heavenward except by faith. An unbelieving step is not a step towards heaven. All the progress that is made by any child of God is due to faith.

The Christian is also described as a warrior; and there is no fighting except by faith, and no weapon of defence like the great shield of faith. No victory is won by doubting; no devil is ever overthrown by desponding. Mistrust of God never yet put to flight the armies of the aliens; unbelief never stopped the mouths of lions, or quenched the violence of fire, or divided the sea, or conquered the land. Point to the wonders wrought by unbelief if you can. All it can show is ruin and desolation; for unbelief is powerless except for mischief. The just, when he fights, must fight by faith, and faith is the victory that overcometh the world.

The Christian is also continually described in the Word of God as a servant. Now, all service done for God must be done by faith. One of the first objects of our service must be to please God, but “without faith it is impossible to please him.” O brothers and sisters, if we always go to our work, as Christians, saying, “I am going to do it by faith,” how differently we should act from what we now do! We sit down, and think of our many infirmities, and we say, “We shall never accomplish that task.” But, sirs, have you forgotten the everlasting arms and the omnipotent might of Jehovah? We observe how difficult the duty is, and how strong the opposition, and so we go to work very mistrustfully; but if, instead thereof, we were to say, “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain,” we should be sure to conquer. Service rendered in unbelief is like a vessel marred on the potter’s wheel; but as long as faith can turn it round upon the wheel, and fashion it, it will come to something that the Master can use. Thou must believe, for so wilt thou be able to serve. “Trust in the Lord, and do good;” but be sure to do the first thing. The trusting must come before the doing, and be mingled with all the doing, or else it will be a very poor piece of doing indeed.

Well, then, in any capacity in which a Christian is found, he must always be believing. If you have to go home, and go to bed, and lie there for a month and suffer, go upstairs believing that the Lord will make your bed in all your sickness. If you have to go back to a business where everything seems to be going wrong with you, go in faith, and know that he has said, “Bread shall be given thee, thy waters shall be sure.” Or if you are going, next Sunday, to teach a class in the Sunday-school, or going round with your tracts in a district where you have to call upon some ugly-minded people, go in faith. Has not the Lord said, “Certainly I will be with thee. I will bless thee, and help thee”? Then, go in faith. It will change the whole colour and tenor of your life if you remember that “the just shall live by faith,” whatever form his life takes.

Very rapidly, let me also say to you that this is the way the just are to live in every case and every condition. The prophet Habakkuk is the one who first uttered these words: “The just shall live by his faith.” I wonder whether he fully understood them himself. It is always pleasant to see whether a doctor takes his own physic, and whether a preacher practises his own precepts. I think this is how Habakkuk understood these words; here is his practical exposition of them, in the last verses of his prophecy: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.” Why, it is a hymn, is it not?-the hymn of a man who saw the bread going, and the meat going, and the oil going, and everything going, and yet he rejoiced in the Lord. This is what he meant by living by faith,-faith, you see, about fruit,-faith about flocks,-faith about cattle,-faith about fig trees,-faith about everything,-yea, a faith that does without anything,-a faith that can take nothing, and be content with it because it finds everything in God,-faith under the worst conceivable conditions. This is how the just are to live.

And as they are to live thus at their worst, so should they live at their best,-still by faith. I was told of a friend, who walked with that blessed man of God, Mr. George Müller, of Bristol, and who made the remark to him that he thought he had £5,000 balance one year. “Yes,” said Mr. Müller, “God had been very gracious, and we had a large balance.” “And I think,” said the friend, “for some years, you have always had a large balance.” “Yes,” he replied, “we have.” “Well,” asked the other, “do you now, my brother, trust in God just as simply as you did when you had to call the children together to pray because there was no bread to give them for dinner, and God graciously sent you the dinner just at the right time? Is your faith just as simple? Do you walk by faith as you did then?” And that good man said, “Yes, my dear brother, I live by faith now as I did then, only a great deal more so, for I find I have more need of faith now to prevent me beginning to trust in what I have in store.” It is just so; if you are getting on in life, you need more faith to keep you from making a god of what you have, and trusting in it. Instead of less faith in time of prosperity, you will need even more. There are some people, you know, who lean upon God because they have no one else to lean upon. They are like that famous rider of whom Cowper sang, who was-

“Stooping down as needs he must

Who cannot sit upright.”

That is how it is with the faith of these people, and very good faith it is, too; but that faith is even nobler that has some apparent means of sitting upright, that does seem to have something to confide in, yet will not do it because it disdains to have even things visible, of the best and most powerful kind, to rest upon, but will rest on nothing but God. Why, ye props and buttresses, if I trust you today, I may want you to-morrow, and where shall I be then? No; as Abraham said to the king of Sodom, “I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich,” so often have we to cast aside what is offered to us, and say, “I cannot and will not have it, lest my heart should, at any time, rely upon those gifts rather than upon my God.” You know how the devil spoke to God concerning Job, “Hast not thou made a 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.” That is what the devil said, but it was not true; yet, in some cases, there is a danger of it getting to be true. We are getting on so well, and the hedge is all around us. Ah! but we must not get to love the hedge, or it will be taken from us. If you love the fields, and the gold, and the silver, and begin to confide in them, you will lose them. “The just shall live by faith,”-faith as much in the summer weather as in the winter cold; see to that matter, O thou who art the child of God!

“The just shall live by faith” in every condition. When he comes to die, he shall live by faith. I recollect what a negro said about his master who was a Christian man. The minister said to the negro, “Sam, is your master dying?” “Yes, sir,” he said, “he be dying.” “And how is he dying, Sam?” “Sir,” said the negro, “he be dying full of life.” That is how a Christian should die, “full of life.” The life of God is within him even to the last. Till he gets into glory, “the just shall live by faith.” Ay, and before he gets there, he shall taste some of the joys of heaven, for living by faith means living in the heavenlies; it means getting to anticipate the glory that is yet to be revealed. Living by faith makes us live the life of God; and he that lives the life of God must, in some degree, live the life of heaven. Oh, to have it so developed, strengthened, and full-grown that, from this time forth, we may live by faith even to the end!

The Lord bless you, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

MATTHEW 22:1-14

Verses 1-3. And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

Observe, that it was a king who made this wedding feast; therefore, to refuse to come to it when the command implied great honour to those who were bidden, was as distinct an insult as could very well be perpetrated against both the king and his son. “They would not come.” Had the one who invited them been only an ordinary person, it might not have been their duty to come, and they might even have been justified in their refusal. But this was a king, who sent his servants to summon the guests to the marriage of his son; and I bid you to take notice that the gospel marriage feast, to which you are invited, is the feast, not only of a king, but of the King of kings, your Creator, and your God; and in refusing to come, in obedience to his command, you commit an overt act of rebellion against his Divine Majesty.

The king “sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.” They were bidden, yet they would not come; from whence I gather that those who think the invitations of the gospel are to be restricted to certain characters, because they say it is useless to invite others, “do err, not knowing the Scriptures.” What have we to do with the apparent uselessness of what we are commanded to do? It is our duty to give the invitation according as our King directs us; but it is not our business to decide whether that invitation will be accepted or rejected. In this case, we know what happened: “They would not come.”

4. Again he sent forth other servants,-

Perhaps, in the kindness of his heart, he thought that the first servants, whom he sent, were somewhat offensive in their manner; and that, therefore, the guests would not come; just as it may be that some of you will never receive the gospel from one minister, for you have a prejudice against his way of putting it; so the Lord may, in the greatness of his mercy, send you his Word by the mouth of another. I am quite sure that any of us, who are the King’s servants, would be very glad for somebody else to take our place if he could succeed better with you than we can. This king, in his wisdom and kindness, “sent forth other servants,”-

4-6. Saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

The great majority of those who heard the invitation, “made light of it;” and still is this the habit of the bulk of mankind, and even of many whom I am now addressing. Any day will do for you to think about Christ, so you seem to fancy. He may have your leavings; when it shall come to the last, you think that you can send for a minister to come and pray with you, and that then all will be well. You make light of it,-you make light of present mercy, of immediate reconciliation to God, you make light of the love and grace of God, and of the precious blood of Jesus. Take heed what ye are doing, for the great King in heaven regards this as high treason against himself, he looks upon it as a presumptuous attempt to lower his infinite majesty in the eyes of men. When a king has killed his oxen and fatlings for his son’s wedding feast, and there is nobody to eat the provision, then is it a dishonour to him; and if it were possible for the gospel provisions to be universally rejected, God would be dishonoured.

There are some, however, who go further than merely making light of the invitation; “the remnant” who would, if they could, maltreat and slay the messengers of mercy; and, as they cannot, nowadays, kill their bodies, they try to slay their reputations. Any slander which they have heard, or any lie which they have invented, will do to tell in order to make the minister of Christ of less repute than he deserves to be.

7-10. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants. The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

This is the glorious rule of the gospel still. Those who were first bidden to the great wedding feast were the Jews; they would not come, and therefore, Jerusalem was destroyed. Now the gospel is preached to all nations, and all sorts of people in all nations; yet the same sinful rejection of the invitation is constantly being repeated. You, who hear the gospel from Sunday to Sunday, are bidden by it to come to the great supper; and, as some of you will not come, God, in his infinite mercy, is sending his gospel to the poorest and the vilest of mankind. Many of them do come, and thus the Lord provokes you to jealousy by a people who were not a people; and astonishes you as you find that many come from the East, and from the West, and from the North, and from the South, and sit down in the kingdom of God, while you, who reckoned yourselves to be the children of the kingdom, because you have long been privileged to hear the gospel, shall be cast out.

The king’s servants “gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good.” The best gathering into the visible church is sure to be a mixture; there will be some coming into it who should not be there.

11. And when the king came in to see the guests,

For whom he had provided sumptuous garments suitable for the wedding,-for, as we provide what is supposed to be appropriate array for mourners at a funeral, so, in the East, they provide, on a much larger scale, suitable apparel for wedding guests.

11. He saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

He might have had one, for it was provided. The fact that he had not one was as great an insult to the king as a refusal of his invitation would have been. He was not bound to provide himself with a wedding garment; he could not have done it, for he was probably one of those swept up out of the highways. But there it hung, and he was requested to put it on; but he refused, and he had the impertinence to sit there without the indispensable wedding garment. If he could not show his contempt for the king in one way, he would do so in another; and he dared, in the midst of the wedding feasters, to defy the authority of the king, and to refuse to do honour to the newly-married prince.

12. And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

He could give no reply; the king’s presence awed him into silence.

13. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

You may manage to get into the church even though you are not converted; but if you are not trusting in Christ, you are not saved, and your false profession will only make your destruction the more terrible. Woe unto us unless we are found wearing the righteousness of Christ,-unless our lives are made holy by the gracious influence of his blessed Spirit! These are the wedding garments which we are to wear. If we have them not, our presence at the festival will not avail us in the great testing time that is coming.

14. For many are called, but few are chosen.

All who hear the gospel are called, but the call does not come with equal power to every heart. And with some, the power with which it comes is not that which saves; it only convinces the intellect, so that an outward homage is paid to the Word, and the inward obedience of the soul is not rendered to the Lord. God grant that each of us may have on the wedding garment when the King comes in to see the guests!

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-571, 519.