DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 28, 1880,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things abo ve, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:1,2.
THE resurrection of our Divine Lord from the dead is the cornerstone of
Christian doctrine. Perhaps I might more accurately call it the
keystone of the arch of Christianity, for if that fact could be
disproved, the whole fabric of the Gospel would fall to the ground. If
Jesus Christ is not risen, then is our preaching in vain and your faith
is also in vain–you are yet in your sins. If Christ is not risen, then
they which have fallen asleep in Christ have perished and we,
ourselves, in missing so glorious a hope as that of Resurrection, are,
of all men, the most miserable! Because of the great importance of His
Resurrection, our Lord was pleased to give many Infallible proofs of
it, by appearing again and again in the midst of His followers.
It would be interesting to search out how many times He appeared. I
think we have mention of some 16 manifestations. He showed Himself
openly before His disciples and did eat and drink with them. They
touched His hands and His side and heard His voice and knew that it was
the same Jesus that was crucified. He was not content with giving
evidence to the ears and to the eyes, but even to the sense of touch He
proved the reality of His Resurrection. These appearances were very
varied. Sometimes He gave an interview to one alone, either to a man,
as to Cephas, or to a woman, as to Magdalene. He conversed with two of
His followers as they went to Emmaus and with the company of the
Apostles by the sea. We find Him at one moment among the 11 when the
doors were shut for fear of the Jews and at another time in the midst
of an assembly of more than 500 brethren, who, years later, were, most
of them, living witnesses to the fact.
They could not all have been deceived. It is not possible that any
historical fact could have been placed upon a better basis of
credibility than the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead. This is
put beyond all dispute and question and it was done on purpose because
it is essential to the whole Christian system. For this same cause the
Resurrection of Christ is commemorated frequently. There is no
ordinance in Scripture of any one Lord's-Day in the year being set
apart to commemorate the rising of Christ from the dead and for this
reason every Lord's-Day is the memorial of our Lord's Resurrection.
Wake up any Lord's-Day you please, whether in the depth of winter, or
in the warmth of summer and you may
sing–
"Today He rose and left the dead,
And Satan's empire fell!
Today the saints His triumph spread, And all His wonders tell."
To set apart an Easter Sunday for special memory of the Resurrection is
a human device for which there is no Scriptural command. But to make
every Lord's-Day an Easter Sunday is due to Him who rose early on the
first day of the week. We gather together on the first, rather than
upon the seventh day of the week, because redemption is even a greater
work than creation and more worthy of commemoration and because the
rest which followed creation is far outdone by that which ensues upon
the completion of redemption! Like the Apostles, we meet on the first
day of the week and hope that Jesus may stand in our midst and say,
"Peace be unto you."
Our Lord has lifted the Sabbath from the old and rusted hinges whereon
the Law had placed it long before and set it on the new golden hinges
which His love has fashioned. He has placed our rest day, not at the
end of a week of toil, but at the beginning of the rest which remains
for the people of God. Every first day of the week we should meditate
upon the
rising of our Lord and seek to enter into fellowship with Him in His
risen life. Never let us forget that all who are in Him rose from the
dead in His rising.
Next in importance to the fact of the Resurrection is the doctrine of
the federal headship of Christ and the unity of all His people with
Him. It is because we are in Christ that we become partakers of
everything that Christ did–we are circumcised with Him, dead with Him,
buried with Him, risen with Him because we cannot be separated from
Him. We are members of His body and not a bone of Him can be broken.
Because that union is most intimate, continuous and indissoluble,
therefore all that concerns Him concerns us and as He rose, so all His
people have arisen in Him! They are risen in two ways. First,
representatively. All the elect rose in Christ in the day when He quit
the tomb. He was justified, or declared to be clear of all liabilities
on account of our sins by being set free from the prison of the tomb.
There was no reason for detaining Him in the sepulcher, for He had
discharged the debts of His people by dying "unto sin once." He was our
Hostage and our Representative and when He came forth from His bonds we
came forth in Him. We have endured the sentence of the Law in our
Substitute. We have lain in its prison and even died under its death
warrant and now we are no longer under its curse. "Now if we are dead
with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that
Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more; death has no more
dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in
that He lives, He lives unto God."
Next to this representative resurrection comes our spiritual
resurrection, which is ours as soon as we are led by faith to believe
in Jesus Christ. Then it my be said of us, "And you has He quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins." The resurrection blessing is to
be perfected, by-and-by, at the appearing of our Lord and Savior, for
then our bodies shall rise again if we fall asleep before His coming.
He redeemed our manhood in its entirety–spirit, soul and body– and He
will not be content until the resurrection which has passed upon our
spirit shall pass upon our body, too. These dry bones shall live!
Together with our dead body they shall rise–
"When He arose ascending high, He showed our feet the way; Up to the
Lord our flesh shall fly At the great rising day."
Then shall we know in the perfection of our resurrection beauty that we
are, indeed, completely risen in Christ and "as in Adam all die, so in
Christ shall all be made alive."
This morning we shall only speak of our fellowship with Christ in His
Resurrection as to our own spiritual resurrection. Do not misunderstand
me as if I thought the resurrection to be only spiritual, for a literal
rising from the dead is yet to come. But our text speaks of spiritual
resurrection and I shall, therefore, endeavor to set it before you. '
I. First, then, LET US CONSIDER OUR SPIRITUAL RISING WITH Christ–"If
you then are risen with Christ." Though the words look like a
supposition they are not meant to be. The Apostle casts no doubt and
raises no question, but merely puts it thus for argument's sake. It
might just as well be read, "Since you then are risen in Christ." The
"if is used logically, not theologically–by way of argument and not by
way of doubt. All who believe in Christ are risen with Christ. Let us
meditate on this Truth of God. For, first, we were "dead in trespasses
and sins," but having believed in Christ we have been quickened by the
Holy Spirit and we are dead no longer!
There we lay in the tomb, ready to become corrupt–yes, some of us were
corrupt–the marks of the worm of sin were upon our character and the
foul stench of actual sin arose from us. More or less, according to the
length of time in which we abode in that death and according to the
circumstances with which we were surrounded, death worked in us
corruption. We lay in our death quite unable to raise ourselves. Ours
were eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear; a heart that
could not love and withered hands that could not be stretched out to
give the touch of faith. We were even as they that go down into the
Pit, as those that have been long dead–only we were in a worse plight
than those actually dead, for we were responsible for all our omissions
and inabilities.
We were as guilty as if we had power, for the loss of moral power is
not the loss of moral responsibility! We were, therefore, in a state of
spiritual death of the most fearful kind. The Holy Spirit visited us
and made us live. We remember the first sensation of life, some of
us–how it seemed to tingle in our soul's veins with sharp and bitter
pain–just as drowning persons, when life is coming back to them,
suffer great pain. Conviction was worked in us and confession of sin. A
dread of judgment to come and a sense of present condemnation were
present, but these were tokens of life and that life gradually deepened
and opened up until the eyes were opened–we could see Christ! Our
hands ceased to be withered
and we stretched them out and touched His garment's hem. Our feet began
to move in the way of obedience and our heart felt the sweet glow of
love within.
Then the eyes, not content with only seeing, fell to weeping and
afterwards, when the tears were wiped away, they flashed and sparkled
with delight. And oh, my Brothers and Sisters, believers in Jesus, you
were not spiritually dead any longer! On Christ you have believed and
that grand act proves that you are dead no more! You have been
quickened by God according to the working of His mighty power which He
worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His
own right hand in the heavenlies. Now, Beloved, you are new
creatures–the product of a second birth, begotten again in Christ
Jesus unto newness of life! Christ is your life–such a life as you
never knew before, nor could have known apart from Him. If you then are
risen with Christ you walk in newness of life while the world abides in
death!
Let us advance another step. We are risen with Christ and, therefore,
there has been worked in us a wonderful change. When the dead shall
rise, they will not appear as they now are. The buried seed rises from
the ground, but not as a seed, for it puts forth green leaves and bud
and stem and gradually develops expanding flowers and fruit and even so
we wear a new form, for we are renewed after the image of Him that
created us in righteousness and holiness! I ask you to consider the
change which the Spirit of God has worked in the Believer–a wonderful
change, indeed! Before regeneration our soul was as our body will be
when it dies and we read that, "it is sown in corruption." There was
corruption in our mind and it was working irresistibly towards every
evil and offensive thing.
In many, the corruption did not appear upon the surface, but it worked
within. In others it was conspicuous and fearful to look upon. How
great the change! For now the power of corruption within us is broken!
The new life has overcome it, for it is a living and incorruptible seed
which lives and abides forever. Corruption is upon the old nature, but
it cannot touch the new, which is our true and real self. Is it not a
great thing to be purged of the filthiness which would have ultimately
brought us down to Hell where the unquenchable fire burns and the
undying worm feeds upon the corrupt?
Our old state was further like that which comes upon the body at death
because it was a state of dishonor. You know how the Apostle says of
the body, "It is sown in dishonor" and certainly no corpse wears such
dishonor as that which rests upon a man who is dead in trespasses and
sins. Why, of all things in the world that deserve shame and contempt,
a sinful man is certainly the most so! He despises his Creator; he
neglects his Savior; he chooses evil instead of good and puts the Light
of God from him because his deeds are evil and, therefore, he prefers
the darkness. In the judgment of all pure spirits, a sinful man is a
dishonorable man.
But oh how changed is man when the Grace of God works within him, for
then he is honorable. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." What an
honor this is! Heaven itself contains not a more honorable being than a
renewed man! Well may we cry with David, "What is man, that You are
mindful of him? And the son of man, that You visit him?" But when we
see man, in the Person of Jesus, made to have dominion over all the
works of God's hands and know that Jesus has made us kings and priests
unto God, we are filled with amazement that God should so exalt us! The
Lord Himself has said, " Since you were precious in My sight, you have
been honorable and I have loved you." "Unto you therefore which believe
he is an honor," for so the original text may run. A precious Christ
makes us precious–such honor have all the saints!
When a body is buried, we are told by the Apostle, again, that it is
"sown in weakness." The poor dead frame cannot lay itself down in its
last bed–friendly hands must place it there. Even so we were utter
weakness towards all good. When we were the captives of sin, we could
do nothing good, even as our Lord said, "Without Me you can do
nothing." We were incapable of even a good thought apart from Him. But
"when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly" and now we know Him and the power of His Resurrection! God has
given us the spirit of power and of love. Is it not written, "As many
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name"? What an amazing power is this! Now
we "taste of the powers of the world to come" and we are "strengthened
with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and
longsuffering with joyfulness."
Faith girds us with a Divine power, for, "all things are possible to
him that believes," and each Believer can exclaim, without boasting, "I
can do all things through Christ which strengthens me!" Is not this a
marvelous change which the spiritual resurrection has worked upon us?
Is it not a glorious thing that God's strength should be perfect in our
weakness? The great change mainly concerns another point. It is said of
the body, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a
spiritual body." Before this we were natural men and discerned not the
things that are of the Spirit of God. We minded earthly things and were
moved by carnal lusts after the things which are seen. But now, through
Divine Grace, a spirit has been created in us which feeds on spiritual
bread, lives for spiritual objects, is swayed by spiritual motives and
rejoices in spiritual truths.
This change, from the natural to the spiritual, is such as only God
Himself could have worked and yet we have experienced it. To God be the
glory! So that by virtue of our rising in Christ we have received life
and have become the subjects of a wondrous change–"old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new." In consequence of our
receiving this life and undergoing this change, the things of the world
and sin become a tomb to us. To a dead man a sep-ulcher is as good a
dwelling as he can want. You may call it his bedchamber if you will,
for he lies within it as unconscious as if he were sleeping. But the
moment the dead man lives, he will not endure such a bedchamber! He
calls it a dreary vault; a loathsome dungeon; an unbearable morgue and
he must leave it at once!
So when you and I were natural men and had no spiritual life, the
things of this life contented us. But it is far otherwise now. A merely
outward religion was all that we desired–a dead form suited a dead
soul. Judaism pleased those who were under its yoke in the very
beginning of the Gospel. New moons and holy days and traditional
ordinances and fasting and feasting were great things with those who
forgot their resurrection with Christ! All those things make pretty
furniture for a dead man's chamber! But when the Eternal Life enters
the soul, these outward ordinances are flung off– the living man tears
off his grave clothes and demands such garments as are suitable for
life!
So the Apostle in the chapter before our text tells us to let no man
spoil us by the traditions of men and the inventions of a dead
ritualism, for these things are not the portion of renewed and
spiritual men. So, too, all merely carnal objects become as a grave to
us, whether they are sinful pleasures or selfish gains. For the dead
man, the shroud, the coffin and the vault are suitable enough–but make
the corpse alive and he cannot rest in the coffin! He makes desperate
struggles to break it up. See how, by main force, he dashes up the lid,
tears off his bandages and leaps from the bier! So the man renewed by
Grace cannot live in sin–it is a coffin to him–he cannot bear evil
pleasures, they are as a shroud. He cries for liberty!
When resurrection comes, the man lifts up the soil above his grave and
scatters monument and headstone, if these are raised above him. Some
souls are buried under a mass of self-righteousness, like wealthy men
on whom shrines of marble have been heaped. But all these the Believer
shakes off! He must have them gone! He cannot bear these dead works. He
cannot live otherwise than by faith–all other life is death to him. He
must get out of his former state, for as a tomb is not a fit place for
a living man, so when we are quickened by Grace, the things of sin and
self and carnal sense become dreary catacombs to us where our soul
feels buried and out of which we must arise. How can we that are raised
out of the death of sin live any longer in sin?
And, now, Beloved, we are at this time wholly raised from the dead in a
spiritual sense. Let us think of this, for our Lord did not have His
head quickened while His feet remained in the sepulcher. He rose a
perfect and entire Man, alive throughout. Even so have we been renewed
in every part. We have received, though it is but in its infancy, a
perfect spiritual life–we are perfect in Christ Jesus. In our inner
man our eyes are opened, our ears are awakened, our hands are active,
our feet are nimble–our every faculty is there, though as yet immature
and needing development and having the old dead nature to contend with.
Moreover and best of all, we are so raised that we shall die no more!
Oh, tell me no more the dreary tale that a man who has received the
Divine Life may yet lose Grace and perish!
With our Bibles in our hands we know better. "Christ being raised from
the dead dies no more, death has no more dominion over Him" and,
therefore, He that has received Christ's life in him shall never die.
Has He not said, "He that believes in Me, though he were dead yet shall
he live; and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die"? This
life which He has given us shall be in us, "a well of water, springing
up unto everlasting life." He has said, "I give unto My sheep eternal
life and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of
My hand." On the day of our quickening we bid farewell to spiritual
death and to the sepulcher where we slept under sin's dominion!
Farewell, you deadly love of sin! We have done with you! Farewell, dead
world, corrupt world! We have done with you! Christ has raised us.
Christ has given us eternal life! We forsake forever the dreary abodes
of death and seek the heavenly places. Our Jesus lives and because He
lives we shall live also, world without end! Thus I have tried to work
out the metaphor of resurrection, by which our spiritual renewal is so
well set forth.
II. We are urged by the Apostle to use the life which we have received
and so, secondly, LET US EXERCISE THE NEW LIFE IN SUITABLE PURSUITS.
"If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above."
Let your actions be agreeable to your new life. First, then, let us
leave the sepulcher. If we are quickened, our first act should be to
leave the region of death. Let us quit the vault of a merely outward
religion and let us worship God in spirit and in truth. Let us have
done with priestcraft and all the black business of spiritual
undertaking and let the dead bury their dead– we will have none of it!
Let us have done with outward forms and rites and ceremonies, which are
not of Christ's ordaining and let us know nothing except Christ
Crucified, for that which is not of the living Lord is a mere piece of
funeral pomp, fit for the cemeteries of formalists whose whole religion
is a shoveling in of dust on coffin lids. "Earth to earth, ashes to
ashes, dust to dust." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
Let us also quit the vault of carnal enjoyments where men seek to
satisfy themselves with provision for the flesh. Let us not live by the
sight of the eyes, nor by the hearing of the ears. Let us not live for
the amassing of wealth, or the gaining of fame, for these ought to be
as dead things to the man who is risen in Christ. Let us not live for
the world which we see, nor after the fashion of men to whom this life
is everything. Let us live as those that have come out of the world and
who, though they are in it, are no more of it. Let us be unmindful of
the country from where we came out and leave it, as Abraham did, as
though there were no such country, henceforth dwelling with our God,
sojourners with Him, seeking "a city which has foundations, whose
builder and maker is God." As Jesus Christ left behind Him all the
abodes of death, let us do the same.
And, then, let us hasten to forget every evil, even as our Lord
hastened to leave the tomb. How little a time, after all, did He
sojourn among the dead! He must lie in the heart of the earth three
days, but He made them as short as possible, so that it is difficult to
make out the three days at all. They were there, for there were
fragments of each period, but surely never were three days so short as
Jesus made them! He cut them short in righteousness and being loosed
from the pains of death, He rose early, at the very break of day! At
the first instant that it was possible for Him to get away from the
sepulcher, consistent with the Scriptures, He left the napkin and the
grave clothes and stood in the garden, waiting to salute His disciples!
So let it be with us! There should be no lingering, no loitering, no
hankering after the world–no clinging to its vanities, no making
provision for the flesh. Up in the morning early, oh you who are
spiritually quickened! Up in the morning early from your ease, your
carnal pleasure, your love of wealth and self and away out from the
dark vault into a congenial sphere of action–"If you then are risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above."
To pursue the analogy–when our Lord had left the tomb thus early, He
spent a season on earth among His disciples and we are to pass the time
of our sojourning here on earth as His was passed–in holy service. Our
Lord reckoned that He was on the move from earth as soon as He rose. If
you remember, He said, "I ascend unto My Father and your Father." He
did not say, "I shall ascend," as though He looked at it as a future
event, but He said, "I ascend," as if it were so quickly to be done
that it was already doing. Forty days He stayed, for He had 40 days'
work to do–but He looked upon Himself as already going up into Heaven.
He had done with the world. He had done with the grave and now He said,
"I ascend to My Father and your Father."
We also have our 40 days to tarry here–the period may be longer or
shorter as the Providence of God ordains– but it will soon be over and
the time of our departure will come. Let us spend our risen life on
earth as Jesus spent His– in a greater seclusion from the world and in
greater nearness to Heaven than ever. Our Lord occupied Himself much in
testimony–manifesting Himself–as we have already seen, in many ways
to His friends and followers. Let us also manifest the fruits of our
risen life and bear testimony to the power of God! Let all men see that
we are risen! So live that there can be no more doubt about your
spiritual resurrection than there was about Christ's literal
Resurrection. Do not publish to the world your own virtues that you may
be honored among them. "Let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."
Put your possession of the new life beyond question so that when you
have gone Home your friends and acquaintances may say–"He was a living
child of God, for we felt the power of his life. He was a changed man,
for we saw the renewing." Jesus spent His risen life, also, in
comforting His saints. He said, "Peace be unto you." He spoke to one
and another, to poor Peter who denied Him and to all the assembled
company, cheering them and preparing them for their future career. He
spent those 40 days in setting everything in order in His kingdom,
arranging as to what should be when
He should be taken up and leaving His last commission to His followers
was that they should "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to
every creature." Beloved, let us also spend the time of our sojourning
here in the fear of God, worshipping Him, serving Him, glorifying Him,
endeavoring to set everything in order for the extension of our
Master's Kingdom, for the comforting of His saints, for the
accomplishment of His sacred purposes.
And now I have led you up so far, I want to go further and rise higher.
May the Lord help us! Let our minds ascend to Heaven in Christ. Even
while our bodies are here we are to be drawn upward with
Christ–attracted to Him so that we can say, "He has raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
Our text says, "Seek those things which are above where Christ sits at
the right hand of God." What is this but rising to heavenly pursuits?
Jesus has gone up–let us go up with Him! As for these bodies, we
cannot as yet ascend, for they are not fit to inherit the Kingdom of
God–yet let our thoughts and hearts mount up and build a happy rest on
high! Let not a stray thought ascend like one lone bird which sings and
mounts the sky, but let our whole mind, soul, spirit, heart arise as
when doves fly as a cloud!
Let us be practical, too, and in very deed seek the things that are
above–seek them because we feel we need them. Seek them because we
greatly prize them. Seek them because we hope to gain them for a man
will not heartily seek for that which he has no hope of obtaining. The
things which are above, which we are even now to seek, are such as
these– let us seek heavenly communion, for we are no more numbered
with the congregation of the dead, but we have fellowship in Christ's
Resurrection and with all the risen ones. "Truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" and, "our conversation is in
Heaven." Let us seek to walk with the living God and to know the
fellowship of the Spirit. Let us seek heavenly Graces, for "every good
gift and every perfect gift is from above." Let us seek more faith,
more love, more patience, more zeal–let us labor after greater
charity, greater brotherly kindness, greater humbleness of spirit.
Let us labor after likeness to Christ, that He may be the firstborn
among many brethren. Seek to bear the image of the heavenly and to wear
those jewels which adorn heavenly spirits. Seek also heavenly
objectives. Aim at the Glory of God in everything. You have to labor
and toil in this world for you are yet in the body–take care to use
worldly things to God's Glory. Exercise your privileges and fulfill
your duties as men and as Englishmen, as before God, not minding the
judgment of men. Wherein you mingle with the sons of men, take heed
that you descend not to their level, nor act from their motives. You
are not to seek your own selfish ends or the aggrandizement of a party,
but to promote the general good and the interests of truth,
righteousness, peace and purity. Sanctify everything by the love of God
and your neighbor. Seek no party ends, but things which are pure and
honest and of good report.
Descend not to the falsehood, the trickery, the policy which are from
beneath, but honestly, sincerely, righteously, always seek to live as
those who are alive from the dead. "Seek those things which are above,"
that is, heavenly joys. Oh seek to know on earth the peace of Heaven,
the rest of Heaven, the victory of Heaven, the service of Heaven, the
communion of Heaven, the holiness of Heaven! You may have foretastes of
all these–seek after them! Seek, in a word, to be preparing for the
Heaven which Christ is preparing for you. You are soon to dwell
above–robe yourselves for the great festival. Your treasure is above,
let your hearts be with it. All that you are to possess in eternity is
above, where Christ is! Rise, then, and enjoy it! Let hope anticipate
the joys which are reserved and so let us begin our Heaven here below.
If you, then, are risen with Christ, live according to your risen
nature, for your life is hid with Christ in God. What a magnet to draw
us towards Heaven should this fact be–that Christ sits at God's right
hand! Where should the wife's thoughts be when her husband is away but
with the absent and beloved one? You know, Brothers and Sisters, it is
not otherwise with us–the objects of our affection are always followed
by our thoughts. Let Jesus, then, be as a great loadstone, drawing our
meditations and affections towards Himself. He is sitting, for His work
is done, as it is written, "This Man, when He had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God." Let us rise and
rest with Him! He is sitting on a Throne. Observe His majesty! Delight
in His power and trust in His dominion.
He is sitting at the right hand of God in the place of honor and favor.
This is a proof that we are beloved and favored of God, for our
Representative has the choicest place, at God's right hand! Let your
hearts ascend and enjoy that love and favor with Him. Take wing, my
thoughts, and fly away to Jesus! My Soul, have you not often said,
"Woe's me that I dwell in Meshach and tabernacle in the tents of Kedar!
Oh that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest"?
Now, then, my Soul, here are wings for you! Jesus draws you upward! You
have a right to be where Jesus is, for
you are married to Him! Therefore let your thoughts abide with Him,
rest in Him, delight in Him, rejoice in Him and yet again rejoice!
The sacred ladder is before us, Brothers and Sisters, let us climb it,
until, by faith, we sit in the heavenlies with Him. May the Spirit of
God bless these words to you.
III. Thirdly, inasmuch as we are risen with Christ, LET THE NEW LIFE
DELIGHT ITSELF IN SUITABLE OBJECTS. This brings in the second
verse–"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the
earth." "Set your affection." These words do not quite express the
meaning, though they are as near it as any one clause could well come.
We might render it thus–"Have a relish for things above" or, "Study
industriously things above" or, "Set your mind on things above, not on
things on the earth." That which is proper enough for a dead man is
quite unsuitable for a risen one! Objects of desire which might suit us
when we were sinners are not legitimate nor worthy objects for us when
we are made saints. As we are quickened, we must exercise life and, as
we have ascended, we must love higher things than those of earth.
What are these "things above" which we should set our affection upon? I
ask you, now, to lift your eyes above yonder clouds and this lower
firmament to the residence of God. What do you see there? First, there
is God Himself. Make Him the subject of your thoughts, your desires,
your emotions, your love. "Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He
will give you the desires of your heart." "My Soul, wait only upon God,
for my expectation is from Him." Call Him, "God my exceeding joy." Let
nothing come between you and your heavenly Father! What is all the
world if you have not God and when you once have God, what matters it
though all the world is gone? God is all things and when you can say,
"God is mine," you are richer than Croesus. O to say, "Whom have I in
Heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside You"!
O to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our
mind and with all our strength–that is what the Law required–but it
is what the Gospel enables us to render. What do I see next? I see
Jesus, who is God, but yet is truly Man. Need I press upon you,
Beloved, to set your love upon the Well-Beloved? Has He not won your
heart and does He not hold it, now, as under a mighty spell? I know you
love Him! Fix your mind on Him, then. Often meditate upon His Divine
Person, His perfect work, His mediatorial Glory, His second coming, His
glorious reign, His love for you, your own security in Him, your union
with Him! Oh let these sweet thoughts possess your breasts, fill your
mouths and influence your lives. Let the morning break with thoughts of
Christ and let your last thought at night be sweetened with His
Presence. Set your affection upon Him who has set His affection upon
you!
But what do I see above next? I see the new Jerusalem which is the
mother of us all! I see the Church of Christ triumphant in Heaven, with
which the Church militant is one. We do not realize enough the fact
that we are come unto the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn,
whose names are written in Heaven. Love all the saints, but do not
forget the saints above! Have fellowship with them, for we make but one
communion. Remember those–
"Who once were mourning here below,
And wet their couch with tears,
Who wrestled hard, as we do now,
With sins and doubts and fears."
Speak with the brave ones who have won their crowns, the heroes who
have fought a good fight and now rest from their labors, waving the
palm. Let your hearts be often among the perfected, with whom you are
to spend eternity.
And what else is there above that our hearts should love but Heaven
itself? It is the place of holiness! Let us so love it that we begin to
be holy here. It is the place of rest–let us so delight in it that by
faith we enter into that rest! O my Brothers and Sisters, you have vast
estates which you have never seen–and I think if I had an estate on
earth which was soon to be mine, I would wish to take a peep over the
hedge now and then. If I could not take possession, I should like to
see what I had in reversion. I would make an excuse to pass that way
and say to any who were with me, "That estate is going to be mine
before long."
In your present poverty console yourselves with the many mansions. In
your sickness delight much in the land where the inhabitants shall no
more say, "I am sick." In the midst of depression of spirit comfort
your heart with the prospect of unmixed felicity–
"No more fatigue, no more distress, Nor sin nor death shall reach the
place!
No groans to mingle with the songs
Which warble from immortal tongues!" What? Are you fettered to earth?
Can you not project yourself into the future? The stream of death is
narrow–cannot your imagination and your faith leap over the brook to
stand on the other shore awhile and cry, "All is mine and mine forever!
Where Jesus is there shall I be! Where Jesus sits there shall I rest–
'Far from a world of grief and sin,
With God eternally shut in'"? "Set your affection on things above."
Oh to get away at this present time from these dull cares which, like a
fog, envelope us! Even we that are Christ's servants and live in His
court, at times, feel weary and droop as if His service were hard. He
never means it to be a bondage and it is our fault if we make it so.
Martha's service is due, but she is not called to be cumbered with much
serving–that is her own arrangement! Let us serve abundantly and yet
sit with Mary at the Master's feet. You who are in business and mix
with the world by the necessity of your callings must find it difficult
to keep quite clear of the dragging down influences of this poor
world–it will hamper you if it can. You are like a bird which is
always in danger when it alights on the earth. There are twigs and
traps and nets and guns and a poor bird is never safe except upon the
wing and up aloft. Yet birds must come down to feed and they do well to
gather their meal in haste and take to their wings again.
When we come down among men we must speedily be up again. When you have
to mix with the world and see its sin and evil, yet take heed that you
do not light on the ground without your Father. And then, as soon as
ever you have picked up your barley, rise again–away, away, for this
is not your rest! You are like Noah's dove flying over the waste of
waters–there is no rest for the sole of your feet but on the ark with
Jesus! On this Resurrection Day fence out the world! Let us chase away
the wild boar of the woods and let the vines bloom and the tender
grapes give forth their good smell and let the Beloved come and walk in
the garden of our souls while we delight ourselves in Him and in His
heavenly
gifts.
Let us not carry our burden of things below on this holy day, but let
us keep it as a Sabbath unto the Lord! On the Sabbath we are no more to
work with our minds than with our hands. Cares and anxieties of an
earthly kind defile the day of sacred rest. The essence of
Sabbath-breaking lies in worry and murmuring and unbelief with which
too many are filled. Put these away, Beloved, for we are risen with
Christ and it is not right that we should wander among the tombs! No,
rather let us sing unto the Lord a new song and praise Him with our
whole soul.
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On Whose Side Are You?