Believers Sent by Christ, As Christ Is Sent By the Father
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 11, 1890,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"As You have sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world." John 17:18.
HERE is a great fact mentioned, namely, that the Father sent the Son
into the world. Our Lord's disciples believed this. Jesus says Himself,
"They have believed that You did send me." It is one of the first
essentials of saving faith to believe in Christ as the Sent One of God.
They had proved, in their own experience, that Jesus was sent of God,
for they had found Him to be sent to them. Especially they knew this
because they had found in Him eternal life. To them it had been eternal
life "to know the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He had sent."
They had entered into the possession of a new and heavenly life and
they rejoiced in it so that to them the fact that God had sent His Son
into the world was indisputable. It was a fact upon which they based
their salvation! It was their hope, their joy, their theme of thought
and subject of conversation. They declared it with the accent of
assurance. Our Lord based upon that fact another. He says to His
Father, "As You have sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent
them into the world." As surely as Christ was sent into the world by
the Father, so surely are the saints sent into the world by Christ.
Note well that I say, "the saints"–I mean not the Apostles only–but
all Believers. I dare not limit the reference to what are called
ordained ministers or Apostles, for I believe it includes all the
chosen of God. Was the prayer, contained in this 17th chapter of John,
for the Apostles only? I think not! Surely our Lord prayed for all whom
the Father had given to Him and not for ministers only. Beyond
question, our great Intercessor pleaded for all those whom the Father
gave to Him and therefore it is of all these that He speaks in the
words of our text. He mentions not only the officers, but the rank and
file of the chosen host who have been called by Divine Grace to know
Him as sent of God. He says to them all without exception, "As the
Father has sent Me, even so I send you."
I do not for a moment dispute the need of a special call to the office
of pastor or elder in the Church of God. Nor do I question that there
are officers in the Church of God upon whom peculiar responsibility
rests–but no class of men may be exalted into a caste of Brahmins who
are, alone, sent into the world by the great Head of the Church. We who
spend our lives in teaching are your servants for Christ's sake and we
rejoice that you, also, have a high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If
we have more knowledge of Scripture or larger gifts of utterance,
accept us as your fellow servants whose talents are cheerfully employed
for your sakes! But if you have not these same talents, you have others
and you are equally given to Christ, to be by Him sent into the world.
This is no trifle, but a very solemn business. To our Lord it was a
special matter of prayer. It is here in that prayer which always seemed
to me to be the core of the whole Bible. Our Lord pleads not only about
our being saved, but about our being sent. There is something here
which deserves our deepest thought. There are two petitions in our
Lord's prayer which bear upon this. First comes the petition–"Holy
Father, keep them." You cannot serve God unless He preserves you. You
will never keep the Lord's flock unless He first shepherds you. The
Lord of the vineyard must keep the keepers or their vineyards will not
be kept.
The other prayer immediately precedes the text–"Sanctify them." You
cannot go out into the world as the sent ones of Christ unless you are
sanctified. God will use no unholy messenger–you must be consecrated
and cleansed– devoted and dedicated to God, alone, or else you will
not have the first qualification for the Divine mission. Christ's
prayer is, "Sanctify them through Your Truth." The more Truth of God
you believe, the more sanctified you will be. The operation of the
Truth of God upon the mind is to separate a man from the world unto the
service of God. Just in proportion as Truth is given up, worldliness
and frivolity are sure to prevail.
A Church which grows so enlightened as to neglect the Doctrines of
Grace also falls in love with the vain amusements of the world. It has
been so in all past ages and it is sadly so today. But a Church which,
in a living way, holds fast the Truth once and for all delivered to the
saints will also separate itself from the ways of the world–in fact,
the world and the worldly Church will shun it–and push it into the
place of separation. The more separated we are, after our Master's
fashion, the more fit shall we be to do His bidding! Our Lord was
evidently most careful as to our commission which He bases upon His own
commission and declares to be as certain and real as His own sending by
the Father.
He so values this that He prays, "Father, keep them," and, "Father,
sanctify them." May those two prayers be heard for us and then we shall
stand with our loins girt, our shoes on our feet, our lamps trimmed and
our lights burning– ready to go forth at the command of the Most High
to the very ends of the earth. Our mission by Jesus grows out of His
mission by the Father–and we may learn much about it by considering
how the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
I. I would open up this subject by asking you, first, WHAT OUR LORD'S
BEING SENT INVOLVED TO HIMSELF, for, to a large extent, there will be a
parallel between His being sent and ours. The parallel is drawn by way
of quality, not of equality. Christ's commission is on a higher scale
than ours, for He was sent to be a Propitiation and Covenant-Head and
so came into positions which it would be presumption for us to dream of
occupying. Still, there is a likeness, though it is only that of a drop
in the sea.
Our Lord's mission involved complete subjection to the Father's will.
He said, "My Father is greater than I"–this did not relate to His
essential Nature and dignity as God, but to the position which He took
up in reference to the Father when He was sent to be our Savior. He
that sends is greater than He that is sent–the Savior took up that
subordinate position that He might do the Father's will. From that time
forth, so long as He remained under His commission, He did not speak
His own words nor do His own deeds–but He listened to the Father's
will–and what the Father said to Him He both spoke and did.
That is exactly where you and I have to place ourselves now,
deliberately and unreservedly. Our Lord sends us and we are to be, in
very deed, subordinate to His command in all things. We are no longer
masters–we have become servants. Our will is lost in the will of our
glorious Superior. If we are ambitious and our ambition is guided by
wisdom, it will take us down to that basin and the towel and we shall
be willing to wash the disciples' feet to show that we are sent by our
condescending Lord. We shall, from now on, have no respect unto our own
dignity or interest, but shall lay ourselves out to serve Him to whom
we belong. Whatever He says to us we shall aim to do. Although we are
sons of God, yet now we are also servants and we would not do our own
will but the will of Him that sent us.
Oh, to be sound on this point so as to yield our members in perfect
obedience and even bring every thought into subjection to Christ! Oh,
to die to self and live in Christ! Can you drink of this cup and be
baptized with this Baptism? I trust you can and, if so, you shall
fulfill the errand upon which He sends you. This meant for our Lord the
quitting of His rest. He reigned in Heaven–all angels paid Him
homage–but when the Father sent Him, He left His high abode. He was
laid in the manger, for there was no room for Him in the inn. Where the
horned oxen fed, there must the Holy Child be cradled. The royalties of
Heaven are left behind–the rest which He enjoyed in the bosom of the
Father must be renounced for toil, hunger, thirst and weariness–and
the death of the Cross.
Dear Friends, you may serve the Lord and yet be as happy as your Lord
was. But if Jesus has sent you into the world you are not to seek ease
or comfort–you are not even to make your own spiritual comfort the
first object of your thought. How nice that evening at home would be!
But you are sent and therefore must turn out to win souls. How
delightful it would be to read that book through and to leave the class
alone! But you must not, for you are sent to instruct and save. From
now on you are to consider nothing but how you can answer the design of
Him who has sent you. Your aim must be to do the utmost possible for
your Lord.
The Christian who does much is still an idler if he could do more. We
have never reached the point of diligence till we are doing all that
lies in us and are, even then, wishing to do far more. Bought with His
precious blood, the vows of the Lord are upon us and we renounce our
natural love of ease that we may please Him who has sent us. When sent
of God, the Savior also had to forego even Heaven itself. He was here
on earth the God-Man, the Mediator and He did not return to the
splendor of His Father's court till He could say, "I have finished the
work which You gave me to do and now, O Father, glorify You Me." We
must not sigh for Heaven while so much is to be done on earth. The rest
of Glory will come
soon–but just now we have to do with the work of Grace. Let us stick
to our work here below and do it thoroughly, for our Lord has gone
above and is preparing a place for us.
Is it not wonderful how God, even now, denies Himself for the salvation
of men? Why does not our Lord come at once in His Glory? Why do we not
see the millennial reign begin? It is because of the long-suffering of
God–He waits and puts off the closing scene because He is "not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." He
keeps back even the glorious Advent to give men space for salvation!
That for which Jesus longs, and the Spirit longs, and the spouse longs,
is kept back in mercy to the guilty!
The Bridegroom postpones His marriage day that men may be brought to
Him by the Divine long-suffering. If Jesus can do this, surely we may
well wait out of compassion to our fellow men. Even our hope of being
forever with the Lord may wait a while. So long as there is another
sinner for us to rescue we will remain in this land of our exile. That
is what our Lord means–the Father has sent Me from Heaven and kept Me
out of Heaven for the sake of men–and even so shall I detain you among
the tents of Kedar for a while that you may bring in My redeemed
through the Gospel. The words of our text are, "As you have sent Me
into the world" and this implies affinity with men.
Our Lord was not sent to the edge of the world to look over the fence
and converse hopefully from a distance. He was sent right into the
world. He took on human Nature and became bone of our bone. We read,
"Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear
Him." He was a Man among men. In this way Jesus has sent you, my
Brothers and Sisters, into families, into offices, into establishments,
into places where you labor for daily bread among a company of ungodly
men. Do not cry out because you have thus to mingle with them.
Your Lord was sent into the world, not, I say, to the outskirts of it,
nor to some elevated mountain high above it from which He might look
down. He was sent into the world in an emphatic sense and so are you
sent, wisely sent, to tarry even among unconverted, infidel and impure
men that you may do for Christ His great work and make known His
salvation! He was sent into the world and this involved abiding in
humiliation. "The world knew Him not," therefore the world knows us not
because it knew Him not. You are not sent into the world to be honored
and pampered–nor even to receive your righteous due. If God aimed at
your immediate glorification He would take you to Heaven. But He aims
at your humiliation, that you may be like His First-Born.
You are to have fellowship with the Only-Begotten in many ways and
among the rest you are to be partakers of His suffering! Expect to be
misunderstood, misrepresented, belied, ridiculed and so forth–for so
was the Sent of the Father. You are to expect evil treatment–for as
the Father sent His Son into a world which was sure to treat Him ill,
so has He sent you into the same world which will treat you in the same
manner if you are like your Lord. Be not surprised at persecution but
expect it and take it as part of the Covenant consequences, for as
Ishmael mocked Isaac, so will the seed after the flesh persecute that
which is born according to promise.
In a word, your being sent of Christ involves unreserved dedication to
His work. When Christ came into the world He did nothing but what His
Father sent Him to do. He had no secondary objective of any sort. From
the reservoir of His being no little stream trickled away in waste–the
whole of it went to turn the great mill-wheel of His life. The whole
current and force of His Nature went in one way, working out one
design. Now, as the Father sent Jesus, so has Jesus sent you to be from
now on by occupation a Christian. You are to be consecrated wholly and
alone to the one object for which Christ has set you apart.
There may be other lawful objectives but these you render subsidiary to
the one objective of your life. You have but two eyes and those eyes
looks to your Lord. From now on you belong to Christ–body, soul and
spirit–from the morning light to the evening shade and through the
night watches. There is not a hair of your head but what Jesus values,
for He has put it down in the inventory–"the very hairs of your head
are all numbered." Give Him, then, every single power, however feeble.
Give Him every pert of your nature, however insignificant. Let your
whole being be the Lord's for, "you are not your own; you are bought
with a price."
"This is a high standard," says one. My Brothers and Sisters, it is
none too high and it is sad that any should think it so. God help you
to know that you are sent and clearly to perceive what your mission
involves. We, too, are missioned from above! We, too, are to have a
hand in the saving of the world!
II. Secondly, having thus shown you the parallel so far, I now ask you
to CONSIDER WHY OUR LORD WAS SENT INTO THE WORLD. Our Lord came here
with one design. Christ was not sent to teach a correct system of
philosophy. He was not Plato, but Jesus–not a sage, but a Savior. He
could have solved the problems of the universe but He did not even
allude to them. He was not an Aristotle, ruling the world of human
thought, although He could have done so easily had He chosen.
Blessed be His name, He came to save from sin and this no Plato or
Aristotle could have done! All the sages and philosophers put together
are not worth so much as the little finger of Christ! Christ entered
into no rivalry with the academy–He came on a very different errand.
Neither was our Lord sent to be an inventor or a discoverer. All the
discoveries that have been made in modern times could have been at once
revealed by Him but that was not His objective and He kept scrupulously
to His one design.
He could have told us the secret of the Dark Continent but He was not
sent for that end. He could have anticipated all that we have slowly
learned and saved the world the long processes of experiment and
observation–but this was not the objective of His mission. He did not
come to be a conqueror. God gave us in Him neither Alexander nor
Caesar–of such slaughterers the world has always had enough and to
spare. He conquers evil but not by the sword. Our Lord did not come
even to be a politician, a reformer of governments, a rectifier of
social economics. There came one to Him who said, "Master, speak to my
brother, that he divide the inheritance with me." You might have
supposed that the Lord would have arbitrated in that case but He did
not do so, for He said, "Who made Me a judge or a divider over you?"
He kept to His one business and we shall be wise to do the same. Point
me to a single instance in which He interfered with the government of
Pilate or of Herod! Had He anything to say about the tyranny of Caesar?
When He takes Caesar's penny in His hand, He simply says, "Render unto
Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are
God's." He was none of Caesar's for He belonged to God and to God
alone! Should not Christian people take heed that they follow Christ in
this unity of aim and purpose?
This I know, I am not sent to preach to you any new philosophical
system nor to advocate any political party, nor to meddle with any of
those social matters which can be better managed by others. It is mine
to preach the Gospel of the Grace of God and this one thing I do! If
you can serve Christ and your fellow man in any way, do it–but never
get away from your one aim and purpose. If we are enabled to save men's
souls by the Holy Spirit resting upon our teaching we may die content
even though we have left 50 other excellent things undone. There are
enough of the dead to bury the dead. Burying the dead is a good
work–but this will be a labor more congenial to the dead around us
than to ourselves–let us leave it to them.
We cannot do everything–let us do that which we are sent to do. Oh,
that every Christian would feel that whatever else he would like to be,
his first business is to be a servant of Christ! Your first concern is
to serve Christ and it ought to be your second concern to serve Christ!
Then I would claim that it should be your third and I shall get far on
in numbers before I should allow any other character to take a leading
position. May no possible objective bear any comparison in your desires
and endeavors in comparison with your resolve to glorify God your
Savior!
Notice, further, that our Lord was not sent to be ministered unto, but
to minister. I fear that many of His professed servants think they have
been sent to be ministered unto. Their religion consists in coming to
places of worship to be ministered unto. Through the week they would
like to have very particular attention from the pastor and the Church
officers–and you hear them grumbling that they are not sufficiently
looked after. Surely they must have been sent, not to minister, but to
be ministered unto!
Brethren, let us give them as much as we can of our services for they
evidently need them, but Jesus was not sent to be visited and waited
on, and served–He came to minister to others and He did so to the
fullest! He could truly say, "I am among you as He that serves."
Beloved Friend, you know that it is more blessed to give than to
receive–therefore feel it to be your joy to live as one who is sent by
Jesus to be the servant of the Church and the winner of souls! Let us
enquire what was Christ's work upon earth. It was, first, to teach.
Wherever He went He was an instructor of the ignorant. He preached of
the kingdom and of faith and of Divine Grace.
We are to teach. "I do not know anything," says one. Then do not tell
it but first go to the Lord and ask Him to teach you something. And as
soon as ever you know the A B Cs of the Gospel, go and teach somebody
that A B C. You need not teach him D E F and G H I till you have
advanced so far yourself–but teach all you are taught. Learn first,
but when you have learned, then let others learn from you. As your
Master, be teaching the Gospel everywhere. Forget not that He lived and
His living was teaching. His actions were so many heads of His
life-sermon. His every movement was
instructive. He went about doing good. Make your life tally with your
teaching and make your life to be a part of your teaching–no, make it
the best part of your discourse. The most solid and most emphatic
teaching that comes from you should be what you do rather than what you
say–and Christ has sent you into the world for that end.
Our Lord came, also, to suffer for the cause of truth and
righteousness. If you follow Him closely, you must expect to suffer,
also. Do not cry out about it, as though some strange thing had
happened to you. Take joyfully the spoiling of your good name. If
Christ has sent you forth like sheep in the midst of wolves, wonder not
that the wolf gives you a bite or two–is it not his nature? Let the
wolf howl, but do not trouble yourself about it for what else should a
wolf do? When pain, weakness and bodily infirmity seize on you and you
lie for days and weeks tossed with pain all through the sleepless
nights, take it all patiently and say, "I am sent to show patience,
that men may see what Grace can do."
You are sent to save men. It is true that you have not to redeem them
by blood–that the Lord has done most effectually! You have not to
suffer as a substitute–for His one Sacrifice has sufficed. But you are
sent to seek and to save that which was lost by proclaiming salvation
by Christ Jesus. Every man who is saved, himself, should feel that he
is called at once to labor for the salvation of others! Your election
is not only election to personal salvation but to personal service. You
are chosen that, through your being saved, others may be called into
the like felicity. View this very clearly and get it fixed in your
minds–then carry it out in your daily lives.
"Ah," you say, "our Lord might very well give Himself up to His work,
for if He had not done so the whole world must have perished." Listen,
your work is also indispensable. How is the work of Christ to be made
effectual among the sons of men for their salvation? Must they not hear
it that they may believe it? How shall they hear without a preacher? I
venture to say that as the salvation of man depended upon Christ, so,
in another sense, the salvation of men at this hour depends upon the
Church of God. If Believers do not go and preach Christ, who will? If
you that love Him do not commend Him, who will? Do you think that the
Houses of Parliament will ever meet together to consider the
evangelization of the heathen? If the Government did take such work in
hand, it could do nothing for it is not a fit agent and it would hinder
rather than help the good design.
Do you think the worldlings, the skeptics, the critics will ever unite
to spread the kingdom of Christ and save the souls of men? Do not dream
it! If the Church of God does not go forth on her holy errand, nothing
will be done. "But it might be done by angels," says one. I know it
might, but, "unto the angels has He not put in subjection the world to
come, whereof we speak." He has committed unto us the word of
reconciliation, even to us who are men–and we must attend to it, or
great guilt will lie upon us. I should like every Christian to feel
that he has to be the instrument of salvation to certain persons. It is
all allotted–the whole country is measured and divided, and we have
each our portion which we must conquer for our Lord.
If I belong to the tribe of Judah, I have to help my Brothers and
Sisters to drive out the Canaanites from our portion. If you belong to
the tribe of Issachar, or Benjamin, you must look to your own allotment
and clear it of the enemy. Joshua is the leader, but every Israelite is
in His army. Christ has power over all flesh, as the Head of the body,
and He has given to each of His members a portion of His power so that
each member of His body has power over some portion of the "all flesh,"
and that power must be used in the giving of eternal life to as many as
the Father has given to Jesus! God grant that you may feel this and may
go to your work as Christ went to His!
III. This leads me a little further and I now invite you to CONSIDER
HOW OUR LORD CAME, for this will show
us how we ought to go forward when we are sent. First, our Lord came
with alacrity. The work of our Redeemer was no forced work. He was
sent, but He willingly came–
"Down from the shining seats above
With joyful haste He fled."
"Lo, I come to do Your will, O God," He said. He came cheerfully among
the sons of men. You that are sent of Christ must always go gladly to
your service–never look as if you were driven to the field like oxen
which love not the plow.
God does not delight in a slavish spirit. If we serve Christ because of
the yoke of duty, we shall serve badly. But when our service is our
pleasure–when we thank God that to us is this Grace given that we
should "preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ"–then we shall labor wisely, zealously and acceptably. Next,
our Lord came with authority. The Lord God had sent Him. He had the
Father at His back. Be sure that when Jesus sends you, you are invested
with authority and they that despise you do it at their peril. Your
blunders and mistakes are not
authorized–but so far as you speak His Word with a desire for His
Glory–he that receives you receives Christ, even as our Lord said, "He
that receives Me receives Him that sent Me." God is with you, be not
afraid–your Lord will not let your words fall to the ground.
Our Lord came with ability, too. What did His ability consist in?
Mainly in this–"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has
anointed Me." This is also where your sufficiency must be found and you
can have as much as you please of it. You cannot get every faculty of
the brain, but you can have every influence of the Spirit. It may be
you cannot reach the highest form of education or of utterance, but
these things are not vital–God can speak by your stammering tongue,
even as in the case of Moses. You shall do the Lord's work and do it
well, if you are anointed of the Holy Spirit. He who does Christ's work
in Christ's power works an abiding work which will eternally glorify
God. He who sends us out into the world to carry the Gospel to every
creature will give us Divine Grace to obey His bidding.
Our Lord came with absorption. Jesus came, as I have said before, to do
what He was sent to do and nothing else. He meddled with nothing beyond
His vocation–every thought of His Manhood, every power of His Godhead
He devoted to fulfilling the errand on which He came. His zeal had
eaten Him up. He was covered with it as with a cloak. The Man Christ
was all on fire and all on fire with one desire–that He might finish
the work which His Father had given Him to do–for this joy He endured
the Cross, despising the shame.
Our Lord came with abiding resolve to go through with His mission to
the end. He never thought of going back. He steadfastly set His face to
go to Jerusalem. He pressed through shame and through death to
accomplish our redemption. In these days we shall not do much unless we
have a desperate determination to persevere in the teeth of
difficulties. Those who can go back will go back. Remember how Gideon
proclaimed throughout the host that if any man was faint-hearted he
might go home? So do we proclaim today–go home if you are wavering! If
you do not love Christ enough to be resolved to serve Him to the last,
what is the good of you? You will break down and lose us the victory at
some important crisis.
He that has been bought with the blood of Christ and knows it, feels
that he must endure to the end–for only he that endures to the end
shall be saved. We go because our Lord's sending constrains us. "Woe is
unto me if I preach not the Gospel!" Woe is unto you if you do not
teach the children, or speak to individuals, or write letters, or in
some way fulfill your mission!
IV. Bear with me a little, while I bid you CONSIDER HOW OUR LORD
BEHAVED AS THE SENT ONE. Oh, that we may learn from Him how to fulfill
our own mission! Our Lord began early. While He was yet a youth, He
said, "Know you not that I must be about My Father's business?" As soon
as ever a man is converted, he should enquire, "Lord, what will You
have me do?" Young Believer, do not let many weeks pass over your head
before you have attempted something for your Lord. I will correct that
exhortation–I wish you would not let a single day pass away without
your bearing testimony for your Master.
But, next, our Lord waited very patiently. He was 30 years old before
He preached openly. We do not know all that He did in the workshop at
Nazareth. Is it not possible that He supported His widowed mother by
His labor? We do not know, but of this we are sure, that it is the
first duty of many young men to look after their parents. It is the
duty of all to "show piety at home." Many Christian women will have
done well if they have carried out home duties. She was a holy woman
upon whose grave they placed this epitaph, "She made home happy." This
is what Jesus did for the first 30 years of His life. He was doing the
Father's will when He was a young Man at home.
Though He did not preach, yet while He was working and learning He was
carrying out the purpose for which He was sent. When the time came for
Him to commence His more public service, He sought proper entrance into
it. He did not blunder into God's work by a rush and a leap–He went to
John to be baptized and to be publicly recognized as the Messiah. John
was the porter and he opened the gate to the Good Shepherd who came in
by the door and did not climb up some other way. He came to John who
represented the prophetic chair of the Jewish Church and so He entered
into His work as Minister in a lawful and proper way.
I like our young friends, when they feel their time has come for public
service, to begin in right style and due order, carrying out the Lord's
mind in the Lord's way. Willfulness in beginning may throw a man out of
gear as to his future work and it argues a spirit ill-prepared for
acceptable service. That being passed, see how He labored at His work.
He was always doing the Father's will. He worked all day and every day
and everywhere, with everybody. Some Christian people
can only render occasional service. They are very good at a Convention.
They save up their holiness for meetings. At a religious gathering they
are in fine form, but they are not everyday saints. The kind of person
the Church needs most is the maid-of-all-work–the worker who can turn
his hand to anything which Providence allots him and is glad to do so,
however humbling it may be.
My venerated grandmother owned a set of choice china, which, I believe,
is, part of it, in existence today. Why does it exist now? It has seen
little service! It only came out on high-days and holidays–maybe once
in six months when ministers and friends came to tea. It was a very
nice set of old china–too good for children to break. Some Christians
are like that fine old ware–it would not do to use them too often.
They are too good for everyday. They do not teach their servants and
try to win the poor people in their own neighborhood to Christ–but
they talk well at a Conference. Oh, you fine bits of egg-shell china, I
know you! Don't fear! I am not going to break you. Yet I would somewhat
trouble you by the remark that in the case of such ware as you are more
pieces get broken in the cupboard than on the table!
You will last all the longer if you get to work for Christ in everyday
work. Jesus was not sent out for particular occasions and neither are
you. We use our Lord for a thousand hallowed purposes and even so will
He use us from time to time if we are but ready and willing. Notice
about our Lord's service, that His prayers always kept pace with His
work. This is where most of us fail. When our Lord had a long day's
work, we find Him taking a long night's prayer. "I have so much to do,"
says one, "that I could not be long in prayer." That is putting the
case upwards the wrong way! When you have most to do, you have most
need to pray–and unless you keep up the proportion, your offering will
fail in quality.
The holy incense was sweet before God because in that sacred compound
there was a proportion of each spice. And so, in our lives, there must
be a due measure of Word, work, prayer and praise. I may say of prayer
what one said of salt in the Scripture, "Salt without prescribing how
much." Prayer can never be in excess. You can salt meat too much but
you cannot salt your service too much with prayer. If you are
accustomed to pray in your walk and works at all hours and seasons you
do not err. There never will be in any of us a superfluity of devotion.
God help you to be like His Son, who, though He was sent and had the
Father with Him, yet could not live without prayer! May you not only
feel your need of prayer but fill up that need abundantly!
Once more, in all that Jesus did He remained in constant fellowship
with the Father. He said, "He that sent Me is with Me." That is a
beautiful sentence. Let me repeat it–"He that sent Me is with Me." The
great Father had never to call to Jesus and say, "Come nearer. You are
departing from Me. You are too busy with Mary and Lazarus and Peter and
John and so You are forgetting Me." No, no. He did always the things
that pleased God and He was always in communion with the great Father
in everything that He did. "Ah!" says one, "it is hard to commune with
God and be very busy." Yes, but it will prove harder, still, to have
been very busy and not to have dwelt with God. It is easy to do much
when you walk with God–and easier, still, to make a great fuss and do
nothing because the Lord is away.
To get near Omnipotence will not make you omnipotent, but it will make
you feel Omnipotence working with you. Oh, that we might thus dwell
with God as Jesus did, for He has sent us for this, even as the Father
sent Him! I would leave with you four words. We are sent, therefore
whenever we try to press Christ upon men we are not guilty of
intrusion. We have sometimes known strangers asked in this place about
their souls, by certain of our friends, and they have grown angry at
such a question. This is very silly of them, is it not? But I hope the
friend who meets with an angry answer will not be at all hurt.
You are not intrusive though the angry person says you are. You are
sent and where Jesus sends you, you have a right to go. The postman
frequently knocks at the door as late as ten o'clock. I suppose you
need to be asleep. Do you cry out–"How dare you make that noise?" No,
he is the postman–an officer of Her Majesty–and he is sent out with
the last mail and must deliver the letters. You cannot blame him for
doing that for which he is sent! Go and knock at the doors of the
careless and the sleepy! Give them a startling word. Do not let them
perish for lack of a warning or an invitation. Go on without fear–your
commission is your warrant–if Jesus has sent you, you have a right to
speak even to princes and kings!
Next, we are sent, therefore we dare not ran away. If Jesus bids us go
forward, we must not retreat. If what we have preached and taught is of
God, if we are ridiculed for it let us take no notice but steam ahead.
Put more coals in the furnace! Get the steam up and go faster than ever
in the same course. We defy the devil to stop us for we are sent! Next,
we are sent, therefore we are sure to be helped. Our King never sends a
servant on an errand at his own charges. Our own
power fails us, but He never allows His power to fail us when engaged
in His service. Those who are sent shall be sustained! But, if we are
sent, remember, lastly, we have to give an account. Our Lord does not
call for the timesheet every night, but a timesheet is kept, all the
same–and there will be a day for passing in the checks and we shall
have to answer for what we have done.
I speak not now to you ungodly ones, whose account will be terrible at
that Last Great Day. God save you! May you believe on Him whom God has
sent! But now I speak to Christian people–you will have to render in
your account and may God grant you may not have to make a lamentable
return in this fashion–"On such a day so much wood, and on such a day
so much hay, and on such a day so much stubble." Let there be down in
your book nothing but gold, silver and precious stones–for it must all
be tried with fire–and if you yourself are saved, if your work is
burned up you will suffer loss. What pain to find your lifework to be a
lot of wood, hay and stubble which will blaze furiously and die out in
ashes!
You know what I mean–so much time spent in planning frivolous
amusements for the people, so much talent expended in teaching what is
not the Gospel, so much zeal consumed upon matters which do not concern
eternal things–all this will burn. Beloved, do your Master's work! Win
souls! Preach Christ! Expound your Bibles! Pray men to be reconciled to
God–plead with men to come to Christ! This kind of work will stand the
fire and when the Last Great Day shall dawn, this will remain to glory
and honor! God bless you, Brethren, for Christ's sake!
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– John 17. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–257, 258, 262.