Unpurchasable Love
(No. 2466)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 24, 1896.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 6,
1872.
"If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would
be utterly despised." Song of Solomon 8:7.
THAT is a general truth, applying to all forms of real love–you cannot
purchase love. If it is true love, it will not run on rails of gold.
Many a marriage would have been a very happy one if there had been a
tithe as much love as there was wealth and, sometimes, love will come
in at the cottage door and make the home bright and blest, when it
refuses to recline on the downy pillows of the palace. Men may give all
the substance of their house and form a marriage bond–the bond may be
there, but not that which will make it sweet to wear. "If a man would
give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly
despised."
Who, for instance, could purchase a mother's love? She loves her own
child, especially because it is her own. She watches over it with
sedulous care. She denies her eyes the necessary sleep at night if her
baby is sick and she would be ready to part with her own life sooner
than it should die. Bring her another person's child and endow her with
wealth to induce her to love it, and you shall find that it is not in
her power to transfer her affection to the son or daughter of a
stranger! Her own child is exceedingly precious to her and another
infant, who to an unprejudiced eye might be thought to be a far more
comely baby, shall receive tenderness from her–for the woman is
compassionate–but it can never receive the love that belongs to her
own offspring.
Take, again, even the love of friends. I only mention that to show how
true our text is in relation to all forms of love. Damon loved
Pythias–the two friends were so bound together that their names became
household words and their conduct towards one another grew into a
proverb. Yet Damon never purchased the heart of Pythias and neither did
Pythias think to pay a yearly stipend for the love of Damon. The
introduction of the question of cost would have spoiled it all! The
very thought of anything mercenary, anything like payment on the one
side or receipt upon the other, would have been a death blow to their
friendship. No, if a man should give all the substance of his house
even for human love, for the common love that exists between man and
man, it would be utterly despised!
Rest assured that this is pre-eminently true when we get into higher
regions–when we come to think of the love of Jesus and when we think
of that love which springs up in the human breast towards Jesus when
the Spirit of God has renewed the heart–and shed abroad the love of
God within the soul. Neither Christ's love to us nor our love to Him
can be purchased. Neither of those could be bartered for gold, or
rubies, or diamonds, or the most precious crystal. If a man should
offer to give all the substance of his house for either of these forms
of love, it would be utterly despised.
I. We will begin at the highest manifestation of love and commune
together upon it. So let me say, first, that THE LOVE OF OUR LORD JESUS
CHRIST IS ALTOGETHER UNPURCHASABLE.
This fact will be clear to us if we give it a moment's careful thought.
Indeed, so clear is it that I scarcely like to multiply words upon it,
and I do so only that you may dive the deeper into this glorious Truth
of God! It must be quite impossible to purchase the love of Christ
because it is inconceivable that He could ever be mercenary. It would
be profane! Surely it would amount to blasphemy and a very high degree
of it, to suppose that the love of His heart could be bought with gold,
or silver, or earthly stores. No, if He loves, it must be all free,
like His own royal Self! If He deigns to cast His eyes so far downward
as to view the creatures of an hour and to set His love upon them so
that His delights are with the sons of men, it is not possible that He
could gain anything from them! No, were we angels, we could not think
that He could love us because of some service we could render, or some
price we could pay to Him!
The bare idea runs cross and counter to all we know of Jesus. It is a
flat contradiction of all our beliefs and all our knowledge concerning
Him. He loves us because He pities us, but not because there is a fee
when He comes to us as the Great Physician. He instructs us because He
grieves over our ignorance and because He knows the sorrow of it–and
would have us learn of Him–but His instructions are not given in order
that we may, each one, bring our school pence to Him. He labors, it is
true, but none shall say that He labors for hire, though if He asked
all worlds for His hire, He might well claim them for such labors as
those which He has performed!
The feats attributed to Hercules are nothing compared with the wonders
worked by Christ. He has cleansed stables far more filthy than the
Augean and slain monsters far more terrible than the hydra-headed
demons of the ancient fables. True, "He shall see of the travail of His
soul and shall be satisfied." There was a joy that was set before Him,
for which He endured the Cross, despising the shame. Yet the love that
lay at the bottom of it all was love unbought, love unsought and love
in which not so much as a single atom of anything like selfishness
could ever be discovered! The pure stream of His love leaps like the
crystal brook and there is no sediment that can be found in it. It is
altogether unmixed love to us.
Besides, Brothers and Sisters, there is another point that renders this
idea of purchasing Christ's love as impossible as the first thought
shows it to be incredible–for all things are already Christ's.
Therefore, what can be given to Him wherewith His love could be
purchased? If He were poor, we might enrich Him, but all things are
His! "He was rich," says the Apostle. "He is rich," we may also reply!
He could say to us, at this moment, if we were so foolish as to attempt
to bribe Him to win the love of His heart, "I will take no bullock out
of your house, nor he-goats out of your folds. For every beast of the
forest is Mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the
fowls of the mountain and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I
were hungry, I would not tell you: for the world is Mine, and the
fullness thereof."
All things are Christ's, not only on this speck of a world, but
throughout the universe! The things that are soon by us are as nothing
compared with the things that we have not seen–yet all belong to
Christ and He has the power to create ten thousand times more than as
yet has been formed by Him! There is nothing which He conceives in His
infinite mind but He could at once fashion it by His almighty power!
There is nothing He might desire but He could, in an instant, command
it to appear before Him. "Let it be," He might say, and it would be
even as He had said! Therefore, how could you bribe Him and where is
the substance of your houses that you would give in exchange for His
Divine love? O you who dwell in houses of clay, where is the substance
which you could bring to Him who is Lord of Heaven and earth? Our
substance? It is but a shadow! Our wealth? It is a child's plaything in
His sight–it is nothing compared with His boundless riches!
Let us also note that if Christ's love could be won by us by something
we could bring to Him or do for Him, it would suppose that there was
something of ours that was of equal merit and of equal value with His
love, or, at any rate, something which He was willing to accept as
bearing some proportion to His love. But, indeed, there is nothing of
the sort! Gold and silver–I scarcely like to mention them in the same
sentence with the love of Christ! I am sure our poet was right when he
said–
"Jewels to You are gaudy toys And gold is sordid dust."
Think of the difference between gold and the love of Christ in the hour
of pain, in the hour of depression of spirit–what can the strongboxes
of the merchant do for man, then? But one drop of the love of Christ
helps him to bear up, however fast the heart may palpitate, or however
much the spirits may have been cast down! What is the use of earthly
riches when one comes to die? One laid his money bags close to his
heart, to see if they could make a plaster that would give him rest,
but they were hard and cold! But the love of Jesus, like the touch of
the king's hand in the old superstition, heals even the disease of
death, itself, and makes it no longer death to die!
There is nothing, then, by way of treasure that could be compared with
the love of Christ. I will say it, and every Believer here will agree
with me, that there is no emotion we have ever felt in our most
sanctified moments–there is no holy desire that has ever flashed
through our soul in our most hallowed times, there is no seraphic
longing that has ever been begotten in us when the Spirit of God has
been most operative in our hearts–that we should dare to put side by
side with the love of Christ and say that it was at all fit to be
reckoned as a fair price for it! Our best is not one-thousandth part as
good as Christ's worst! Our gold is not equal to His clay. There is
nothing that can be found in us, or that ever will be in us, that we
should dare to say could, for a moment, stand in comparison with His
love!
Well, then, since there is no coin of metal, or emotion of mental
condition, or power of spiritual Grace that could be counted out or
weighed as the purchase price of Christ's love, we will not dream of
having anything of the kind, for there comes, at the back of this
thought, the consciousness that even if we do possess anything that is
really valuable, if there is something about us, now, that is
commendable, pure and acceptable, yet it all already belongs to Christ.
We have nothing with which we can buy anything of Him because all we
have belongs to Him! Under the righteous Law of God, all the good of
which we are capable is already due to our Creator! His command is,
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your might." Very comprehensive, very sweeping
are the demands of the Law of the Lord. You must not imagine that there
is the slightest truth in the idea that man may come to do more for
Christ than it is his duty to do–this cannot be, for all that is
possible for us to do is already Christ's! "You are not your own," and
yet you talk about giving yourself to Him? You belong to Him, now, you
Christians, doubly so. And all men are under obligation to Christ even
for the temporal favors He has bestowed upon them. You, Believer,
cannot say, "Now I am going to do for Christ something more than, I
think, might absolutely be claimed by Him." Why, if you are really what
you claim to be, you are His, already–body, soul and spirit! All your
time, all your money, all your faculties, all the possibilities that
are in you, are all His right now and, therefore, how shall you come to
purchase His love? No, it cannot be purchased! That is certain for many
other reasons besides these which I have given you.
But what a blessing it is that we have the love of Christ, though we
could not purchase it! The Son of God has loved us! He has bestowed
upon us what He never would have sold us and He has given it to us
freely, "without money and without price." And, Beloved, this love is
no new thing. He loved us long before we were born! When His
foreknowledge sketched us in His mind's eye, He beheld us in love! He
proved His love, too. It was not merely contemplative love, but it was
practical love, for He died for us before we knew anything of Him, or
were even here to learn about Him! His love is of such a wondrous kind
that He always will love us. When Heaven and earth have passed away
and, like a scroll, the universe shall be rolled up, or be put away
like a worn-out vesture, He will still love us as He loved us at the
first. The greatest wonder to me is that this unpurchasable love, this
unending love is mine! And you, my Brothers and Sisters, can always
say, each one of you, if you have been regenerated, "This love is mine!
The Lord Jesus Christ loves me with a love I never could have
purchased."
Perhaps someone is saying just now, "I wish I could say that." Do you
really wish it? Then let the text serve to guide you as to the way by
which you may yet know Christ's love to you. Do not try to purchase
it–abandon that idea at once! Perhaps you say, "I never thought of
buying it with money." Possibly not, but the mass of mankind think of
purchasing it in some way or other. They hear from their priests of
certain ceremonies and they attach great importance to them–and offer
them as a bribe to Christ. But these things will never buy His love!
They then resort to prayers–not prayers from the heart, but prayers
said as a sort of punishment. And it is thought by many that surely,
these will procure His love–but they never will! We have even known
some who have punished themselves, tortured themselves, thinking they
would get Christ's love in that fashion! Now, if I knew anybody who
tried to win my love by making himself miserable, I would say to him,
"My good Fellow, you will never make me love you in that way! Be as
happy as you can–that method is a great deal more likely to touch my
heart than the other." I don't believe that penance and mortification
afford any pleasure to God! I think He would be more likely to say,
"Poor silly creatures! When I make gnats, I teach them to dance in the
summer sunshine. When I make the fish of the sea, they leap up from the
waves with intense delight. And when I make birds, I show them how to
sing." God has no delight in the miseries of His creatures and the
flagellations that fools give to themselves when they think they
deserve them, but they certainly bring no pleasure to the heart of God!
It is vain to think of purchasing the love of Christ in such a way!
"But surely, surely, we may do something. We will give up this vice, we
will renounce that bad habit, we will be strict in our religiousness,
we will be attentive to all moral duties." So you should! But when you
have done all that, do you think you have done enough to win His love?
Is the servant who has only done what He ought to have done, entitled
to the love of His master's heart because of that? You shall not win
Christ's love! So, if you have His love shed abroad in your heart, you
have infinitely more than you have ever earned. Suppose some person
here were to say, "I feel so resolved to be saved that I will give all
I have in this world to some good cause! And then I will give myself to
go abroad into foreign lands, to some fever-stricken place to die in
the service of God?" Ah, should you do all that, you would be utterly
despised if you thought that would purchase the love of God! Will He be
bartered with? Will He put up His heart to be sold in the market–He
whose very Temple was defiled by the presence of buyers and sellers? It
cannot be! Go and haggle and bid, and barter with your fellow men–even
they will disdain you if you think that love is thus to be procured!
But dream not that you are thus to deal with your God! I say again, it
cannot be!
The text does not merely say that the price would be refused, but, "it
would be utterly despised." Love would open her bright eyes and look at
the man–and then she would frown and say, "How can you insult me so?
Take back your gold and be gone!" And God's great love, even when His
pity was in the ascendant, would but weep a tear and then reply, "I
pity you, for you know not what you are doing. And I despise the price
you bring to Me. How could you think that I was such an one as yourself
and that My love could be purchased with paltry pelf that you bring?"
We cannot spare more time for this point, but it is one that you may
think over for many a day–and your heart may be charmed with it till
you love and bless your Savior with all your heart, mind, soul and
strength!
II. My second remark is that IN OUR CASE, NOTHING CAN EVER SERVE AS A
SUBSTITUTE FOR LOVE.
If Christ has loved us, or if we are desirous of realizing that He has
done so, the one thing necessary and essential is that we have true
love to Him. God's demand of each one who professes to be His child is,
"My son, give Me your heart." There are many who would like to be
thought to be His sons and, therefore, every morning they wickedly say,
"Our Father which are in Heaven," though God is not their Father! If
they were to say, "Our Father," to Him who is their father, they would
pray to the devil, for God is no father of theirs! Alas, there are many
who want to be thought to be God's children and they will come and
bring to Him anything but love. Sad, sorrowful truth!
If God would but say to men, "I will accept unspiritual service," He
might be the God of the whole earth at once! Or rather, let me more
truly say that He would be the demon of the whole earth, for men do not
care what the religion is externally as long as it does not trouble
their hearts! The last thing some people will do is to think. "Give you
a guinea? Oh, certainly! Excellent is the charity for which you are
pleading. A guinea for the hospital? Certainly! Five guineas for a new
place of worship? Certainly! When I have money, I am always glad to
give it, but don't come and bother me with any of your doctrines, for I
don't want to hear about them! You religious people are so divided into
sects and parties–and you are always controverting and contradicting
one another, so I do not want to think about these things." That is a
very poor excuse, is it not? Because this seems to be a matter which
requires a great deal of thought, therefore this person will not give
it any consideration at all! And because those who do think about it do
not exactly agree on all points, therefore this man says, "I shall not
think of it at all." Because all the charts of an intricate portion of
the ocean may not happen to be exactly alike, therefore this man will
not even study that part of the sea over which his own vessel must go,
although there all the charts do agree! He makes an excuse upon some
trivial matter to neglect altogether the steering of his vessel. He
will strike upon a rock, one day, and he will have no one to blame for
it but himself.
"Oh," says another person, "I don't mind saying prayers. Or I will go
to church and listen to the reading of prayers. I don't mind hearing
sermons, but don't come and tell me that I have to repent of my sins. I
cannot do it! I do not understand what you mean. I join in 'the General
Confession' every Sunday. I say that I am a miserable sinner though I
don't know that I am particularly miserable and I don't know that I am
particularly a sinner, either. But still, I always say that and I don't
mind saying it. Yet if you were to come to me, saying, 'Repent'–I
cannot do that." Men will offer to God anything but that which has to
do with the heart. You may call upon them to torment their bodies, as
the priests of false religions have done, and they will not object to
that. The fakir in Hindustan will pierce himself with knives, or lie
upon a bed of spikes, or swing himself up by a hook in his back and
hang there by the hour, together, in all but mortal agony! A man will
do almost anything except bow his heart before his God! He will not
confess that Jehovah is Lord of all and that he, himself, is a poor
sinful creature who deserves to be punished. He will not obey a law
that is spiritual and demands the allegiance of the secret thoughts and
intents of his heart. And he will not accept a faith which is so
superlatively pure that it demands that sin be given up and tells him
that even when given up it must be washed in the precious blood of
Jesus– and that a man must exercise repentance towards God and faith
in the Savior or he cannot be saved.
The most unpopular Truth in the world is this sentence which fell from
the lips of Christ, "You must be born again" and, consequently, there
are all sorts of inventions to get the Truth of God out of those words!
"Oh, yes," say some, "you must be born again, but that means the
application of aqueous fluid to an infant's brow!" As God is true, that
teaching is a lie! There is no grain or shade of the Truth of God
within it! "Except a man be born again" (from above), "He cannot see
the Kingdom of God." No operation that can be performed by man can ever
regenerate the soul! It is only the work of
God, the Holy Spirit, who creates us anew in Christ Jesus! Men do not
like that Truth of God. The spiritual displeases the natural man. They
will profess to worship God in Jerusalem or at Gerizim–and fight about
the place where He ought to be worshipped. To show how little good
their religion has done them! They will not speak to each other! The
Jew will have no dealings with the Samaritan–to prove how unlike he is
to the God who makes His sun shine both on the just and on the unjust!
And when you utter this message, "God is a Spirit and they that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," both Jew and Samaritan
are offended and turn away!
Still the Truth holds good, whatever men think of it. If you give not
to God your heart, you have given Him nothing! If you give not to God
your soul, if you love Him not, if you serve Him, not because you love
Him, if you come not to Him and surrender to Him your inner self, you
may have been baptized–immersed or sprinkled–you may have come to the
Communion Table, you may have bowed your knees till your knees have
grown calloused, you may have prayed till you are hoarse and wept till
the fountains of your eyes are dry. You may have given all your gold
and lacerated every member of your body with mortifications and starved
yourself to a skeleton–but you have truly done nothing towards
obtaining love to Christ! The substance of your house is utterly
despised if you offer it to the Lord in place of the love of your
heart! Love He must have! This is His lawful demand! His people delight
to render it and if you do not, then you are none of His!
III. This takes us to a third Truth of God, which is that THE SAINTS'
LOVE IS NOT PURCHASED BY CHRIST'S GIFTS.
The love of saints to their Lord is not given to Christ because of His
gifts to them. I must explain what I mean, lest at the very outset I am
mistaken or misunderstood. We love our Lord and we love Him all the
more because of the many gifts He bestows upon us–but His gifts do not
win our love. I will show you why. All that He has given me, today, He
gave me many years ago. The Covenant of Grace was always mine. I heard
the preacher talk about it. He told how Christ had died for me, that He
had loved me and given Himself for me. Truly, He had done so–He had
poured out His blood for my redemption. I would not believe it to be
so, or, believing it, I did not think it was of any consequence. Then
the preacher spread out the rare gifts of Christ before me and I saw
that He had given these to such as believed in Him–but I did not think
them worth examining and I turned away from them. I would never have
loved Him if He had not given me much more than the substance of His
house. I needed His blessed Spirit to show me the value of the
substance of His house and, above all, to show me that for which this
day I love my Savior best of all, namely, Himself–HIMSELF!
Oh, it is "Jesus Christ, Himself," who wins the love of our hearts! If
He had not given us Himself, we would never have given ourselves to
Him. All else that may be supposed to be of the substance of His house
would not have won His people's hearts until, at last, they learned
this Truth, and the Spirit of God made them feel the force of it–"He
loved me, and gave Himself for me."
"My Beloved is mine, and I am His," is now one of the sweetest stanzas
in love's canticle! The spouse does not say, "His crown is mine, His
throne is mine, His breastplate is mine, His staff is mine." She
delights in everything that Christ has as a King, Priest and
Shepherd–but, above all else, that which wins and charms her heart is
this–"He, Himself, is mine, and I am His."
But I meant mainly to say, under this head, that there are some of
Christ's gifts that do not win our hearts, that is to say, our hearts
do not depend upon them. And they are, first, His temporal gifts. I am
very thankful and I trust that all God's people are, also, for health
and strength. I have lost these, sometimes, but I did not love my Lord
any the less. Neither do I love Christ this day because I am free from
pain. If I were not free from pain, I would still love Him. Christ has
given to some of you a retirement–you have all you need for this
world. But is that why you love Christ? Oh, no, Beloved! If He were to
take it all away, I know that you would love Him in your poverty! The
devil was a liar when he said of Job, "Does Job fear God for nothing?
Have not You made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about
all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands
and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth Your hand,
now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face!"
We do not love God altogether for what He gives us in this world–ours
is not such poor cupboard love as that! We love Him because He first
loved us and we do not pretend to have climbed to that high state of
disinterested love in which there is no gratitude mingled with it. We
always must be grateful to Him and love Him for that reason, but still,
temporal things never win our heart's love to God. There are numbers of
you who have health, wealth and many other things that so many desire,
but they never make you love God–and they never will! You love them
and make idols of them very readily, but they do not lead you to love
the Lord. The children of God who love their dear Savior can tell you
that they do not love Him because of what He gives them, for if He
takes from them, they love Him all the same! With Job, they say, "The
Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord." They do not love Him simply because He caresses them, for if He
chastens them, they still love Him and kiss the rod with which He
strikes them!
I meant also to say that we do not love Christ because of His temporary
indulgence of us in spiritual things. You know, Beloved, our Savior
very frequently favors us with manifestations of His Presence. We are
overjoyed when He comes very near to us and permits us to put our
fingers into the prints of the nails. We have our high days and
festivals when the Bridegroom is with us–emphatically with us! He
takes all the clouds out of our sky and gives us the bright shining of
the sun. Or He opens the lattices and shows Himself to us in a way only
second to that in which we shall see Him when we behold Him face to
face! And oh, how we love Him, then! But, thank God, when He draws the
lattice back, again, and hides His face, we do not leave off loving Him
because of that.
Our love to our Lord does not depend upon the weather. True, our love
is not manifested to Him so sweetly when we are in the dark as when He
cheers us with His smile. But still, it is there, all the while. We
could not let Him go. "Though He slays me"–though He slays me! He who
loves me–though He turns to be my enemy and slays me–"yet will I
trust in Him." We will hold to Him, still, and love Him, still, not
because of the substance of His house, but because of what He, Himself,
is! There are times when we are half inclined to say with the elder
brother, "These many years have I been with You, privileged to serve
You, and yet You have not given me so much as a kid that I might make
merry with my friends." Perhaps we have been long without the light of
His Countenance and have had no love-tokens from Him. But for all that,
we will remain, by His Grace, in His service and abide in His house.
And even if our Father should answer us roughly, we will tell Him that
He is still our Father!
We do not love Him merely for the substance of His house, but for
Himself, and because His Spirit has made love to Him to be an instinct
of our new nature and has put within us such a principle that we cannot
help loving Him! Even if we should be called to pass through terrible
trials and adversities–and should have to walk a long time in clouds
and darkness–yet we would still love and rejoice in Him!
IV. The last observation I shall have to make upon our text is
this–THE LOVE OF SAINTS CANNOT BE
BOUGHT OFF FROM CHRIST AT ANY PRICE.
The love of some persons to religion is very cheaply bought and very
speedily sold. It is very lamentable to notice the great numbers of
persons who are quite content to go and worship God with Christian
Brothers and Sisters, and to hear the Gospel preached while they are,
themselves, poor, or in middling circumstances–but who find, as soon
as they have accumulated a little wealth, that the world has a church
of its own and they must go there, "because, you see, everybody goes
there! And if you are cut off from Society, where are you?" I have been
asked that question, sometimes, and I have replied, "Where are you?
Why, where Christ would have you to be–'outside the camp, bearing His
reproach.'" But that place of separation, "outside the camp," is a
position which is not always taken up cheerfully by professedly
Christian people! It is very sorrowful to see how, because God has
entrusted them with wealth, they get drawn away from the Gospel and
from the Church of God–and though they are troubled a little, at
first, they soon get rid of one scruple after another and subside
altogether into worldliness!
Well, now, I am not altogether sorry that there is this test in the
world. Every good farmer keeps a winnowing fan. Of course, he that is
foolish, when he sees a great heap lying on the barn floor, says, "All
this is my wheat that I have brought in." He does not want to have it
diminished, for it is the result of his labor–but if he is a wise
farmer, he says, "Though I have brought in a great heap, I know that
there is chaff with it," and he is glad to have the winnowing fan used,
and the corn tossed up, that the fresh breeze may blow through it. If
the mere professors go, let them go! "They went out from us, but they
were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have
continued with us."
There are some who go away from Christ's people and renounce religion
and love to Christ because of business. It will pay better in certain
lines not to be religious and, therefore, as the main thing with them
is to get money–religiously, if they can, but irreligiously if
necessary–therefore, by-and-by they are offended and they sell Christ
Jesus! I am pained to see the numbers of persons who go and live in the
suburbs of London and who make that an opportunity for selling their
religion, such as it is! It is not long ago that I stood at a dying bed
and a part of what I heard there was, "O Sir, ten years ago we used to
be members of such a church! We came to live out here, but there was no
place of worship, handy, so we have not been anywhere." That person was
dying without hope, after selling Christ for love of a little country
air! That was about all it was, and little more was to be gained by it.
"Oh, but," asks someone, "do saints sell Christ like that?" No, not
they–these are only the professors who have mingled with the saints!
These are like the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with the
children of Israel–howbeit they are not all Israel that are of Israel!
The saints sell Christ? No, they are too much like their Master to do
that! You remember how Satan took their Master to the top of a high
mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of
them, and said, "All these things will I give You, if You will fall
down and worship me"? Wicked thief! It was not His to give! Yet He
tempted Christ in that way, but Jesus answered, "Get you from Me,
Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him
only shall you serve." If any of Christ's followers are tempted in the
same fashion, let them give the same reply!
All the substance of the devil's house could not win the love of that
man who has set His affection on Jesus. "Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ?" The cruel Romanists have taken the martyrs into the
lone dungeon of the Inquisition and tormented them, there, in such a
way that it pains us even to read or hear of what they suffered! But
did they give up Christ? No, not they! They never would. At other times
they have taken the Christians into a palace and said, "We will clothe
you in scarlet and fine linen. You shall fare sumptuously every
day–but you must give up Christ." Yet they would not! All the
substance of this world has been laid at the feet of holy men and women
and they have rejected the price with scorn!
I know men, today, and rejoice to know them, who have sacrificed honor
and position among men. Who have borne abuse and scorn and have been
glad to bear it! They have counted it their privilege that they were
not only permitted to have Christ as their Savior, but also that they
were allowed to suffer for His sake! Brothers and Sisters, may the Lord
so clothe us with the whole armor of righteousness that no temptation
may ever be able to wound our love to Jesus! Let us feel, "We can let
all else go, but we can never let Him go."–
"If on my face for His dear name, Shame and reproaches be,
there let them be for His sake! Give me but a vision of the Crucified!
Let me see that thorn-crowned brow. Let me but gaze into His dear
languid eyes so full of love for me and I will then say, "My Master,
through floods or flames, if You shall lead, I'll follow where You go!
When the many turn aside, I will still cling to You and witness that
You have the living Word, and that there is none upon earth that I
desire beside You. I will give up the treasures of Egypt, for I have
respect to the recompense of the reward! I will let the ingots of gold
go, every one of them, I will cast them into the sea without regret!
"But if You will abide in the vessel, my soul shall be content. Bind me
to Your altar, for I am but flesh and blood, and may start aside in the
hour of trial. Cast the links of Your love about me–chain me to
Yourself–yes, crucify me! Nail me to Your Cross and let me be dead to
the world, for then the world will leave off tempting a corpse. Let me
be dead with You, for then the world, that cast You out, may cast me
out, too, and have done with me. And it were well, then, to be counted
as the offscouring of all things for Your dear sake, my Lord!"
If a man should give all the substance of his house to bribe the saints
to sell their Lord, it would be utterly despised. By this test shall we
prove you, O professors! By this trial shall it be known whether you
can stand firm in the evil day. God grant that you may, for our Lord
Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–792, 811, 808.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE20:9-16.
Verse 9. Then He began to speak to the people this parable, A certain
man planted a vineyard, and leased it to vinedressers, and went into a
far country for a long time. It is a long time since Jesus left us and
He has not yet returned. Many say that He is coming back very soon.
Others say, "The Lord delays His coming."
10-11. And at the season he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that
they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard, but the vinedressers
beat him and sent him away empty. And again he sent another servant:
and they beat him, also, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away
empty. They grow bolder and more wicked, you see! First beating, and
then adding shameful treatment to their former cruelty. Men do not come
to ridicule religion and persecute its advocates all at once–this is
an art which Satan teaches by degrees.
12. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him, also, and cast him
out. They are more violent this time. It comes to actual wounding and
to casting out the servant.
13. Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? A strange
thing happens when the Lord, Himself, comes to a pass and says, "What
shall I do?" Here is infinite Wisdom, as it were, at a non-plus. And in
that extremity, this is the Lord's last expedient–
13-15. I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him
when they see him. But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned
among themselves saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that
the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and
killed him. You know the story how this beloved Son of the Highest was
all love and pity and yet, with cruel hands, men cast Him out of God's
ancient vineyard and crucified Him, hoping that they would be allowed
to remain lords of God's heritage.
15. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do to them? What
punishment can be sufficient to expiate such a crime? What vengeance
will be poured out upon those who have killed Him who came to do them
good?
16. He shall come and destroy these vinedressers, and shall give the
vineyard to others. And He did so! He scattered abroad the Jews and
gave the Kingdom, for a while, at least, to the Gentiles. And they
heard the Gospel which the Jews refused.
16. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. That is exactly what
you and I would say, for we, too, have ill-treated the blessed Lord of
the vineyard and His beloved Son! Lest we should have the heritage
taken from us, let us yield up the fruit to Him who has the best right
to it all.