“As” and “So”

"As" and "So"

(No. 3173)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1909.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 3, 1873.

"As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in
Him." Colossians 2:6.

[Two other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text are Sermons #483,
Volume 8–LIFE AND WALK OF FAITH and #3030, Volume 53– A CONSISTENT
WALK FOR TIME TO COME]

THIS is a very simple text, yet no human being has ever discovered its
full meaning. It is a great deep–happy are they who know how to dive
into its depths and to swim at ease in its lengths and breadths!
Blessed are they who continually obey the exhortation which it
contains, "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so
walk you in Him." The text divides itself into faith and practice. "You
have received Christ Jesus the Lord," there is your faith. "Walk you in
Him," that is to be your daily practice!

The text also contains a model for that practice in the "as" and the
"so" which are its cardinal points. "As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk you in Him." What we have done suggests the way in
which we are to do what still lies before us. "As you have
received…so walk."

I. Notice in the text, first, THE FACT STATED. "You have received
Christ Jesus the Lord."

Whatever else you have done or have not done, you have received Christ.
The act of faith was the putting out of your empty hands to receive all
the fullness of the Godhead in receiving Christ. There are some
precious experiences to which you have not yet attained, some lofty
heights to which you have not yet climbed, but you "have received
Christ Jesus the Lord." That is the distinguishing mark of all true
Christians! Though you may not all belong to the same denomination, yet
without a single exception this is true concerning you, whether you are
old or young, whether you are well-instructed or ill-taught, whether
you are full of faith or are troubled with many a doubt and many a
fear, you "have received Christ Jesus the Lord."

There is nothing in this fact to cause you one boastful thought. You
have received, that is what emptiness does in order that it may be
filled, that is what hunger does in order that its cravings may be
satisfied, that is what the beggar in the street does when he craves
and obtains alms. There is nothing of which you can glory in the fact
that you have received, for I may further remind you that even your
very receiving you have received! The faith by which you received
Christ was as much the gift of God to you as was the Christ upon whom
your faith was fixed. You know that it is so and, therefore, you also
know that boasting is forever excluded from the fact that you are
saved! You have received Christ Jesus, that is all. I hope you prize
the Gift, and praise the Giver. I trust that you often cry with the
Apostle Paul, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!" And that
your soul makes her boast in the Lord concerning the Savior whom you
have received, but no other boasting is permissible even for a moment!

I remind you once more, Beloved, that, you have received CHRIST. It is
true that you have received His Doctrines and that you still believe
them. It is true that you have received His precepts and that you have
obeyed them, though, alas, your obedience has been far from perfect. It
is true that you have received His ordinances and that you have
conformed to them by being baptized on profession of your faith in
Him–and by sitting down with your fellow Believers at His Table. But,
after all, the main point is that you have received Jesus Christ,
Himself! Every word that He has spoken is sweeter than honey and the
honeycomb, but sweeter far are the lips with which He uttered those
words! Every command of His is to be esteemed more highly than the
finest of fine gold, but as for the King who gave those commands, "He
is altogether lovely." Human language cannot describe Him and yet you
have received Him–His very Self–you have received into your hearts to
dwell there as your only Lord and Master. You have received Him as your
life, for you live through Him. And you receive Him day by day as the
Bread of Life upon which your soul feeds and as the Water of Life which
quenches the thirst of your soul. You have not merely received His
offices, His gifts, His Grace, His promises, but you have received Him!
He is the center of your confidence, the target of your hopes!

The text says that you have received "Christ Jesus the Lord." Here are
three out of His many names and, first, Beloved, you have received Him
as Christ, the Anointed of God. You see in Him no amateur Savior,
uncommissioned–but One sent by the Father, the authorized
Representative of the Most High–the Christos, the Messiah, the Sent
One, who could rightly apply to Himself the ancient promise, "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the
Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of
the Lord." Christ came to this world because the Father sent Him. He
said to the Jews, "I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but
the will of Him that sent Me." He lived and died here because it
pleased the Father for Him to do so. And He is still appointed by the
Father to distribute unnumbered gifts to His people. "It pleased the
Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." You believe that upon
Christ, the Spirit rests without measure, that He is anointed with the
oil of gladness above His fellows, and in receiving Him as the Anointed
One, you also have an unction from the Holy One and, therefore, you
also are anointed to be kings and priests unto God. So you have
received Him as Christ, the Anointed.

But you have also received Him as Jesus, and you love that charming
name. No hymn more truly expresses your feelings than that one by John
Newton which begins–

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a Believer's ears!

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, And drives away his fears."
You also sing with Bernard of Clairvaux–

"Jesus, the very thought of You

With sweetness fills my breast.

But sweeter far Your face to see

And in Your Presence rest

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,

Nor can the memory find

A sweeter sound than Your blest name,

OSavior of mankind!"

You received Him as your Savior and, therefore, He has saved you from
the penalty of sin and He will also save you from the dominion and
power of sin. If you are saved, you are saved entirely through
Jesus–and you do not need, and you do not desire any other Savior! You
look to Jesus for all that can be comprehended in the word, salvation.
His name means Savior and you have found Him to be a Savior to you. So
you have received the anointed Savior, Christ Jesus.

And you have received Him as the Lord. You have not accepted Him as
merely one of many anointed Prophets, nor as a man sent from God, as
John the Baptist was, but you worship Him as the Lord! And oh, how
blessed it is to adore the Son of God! We cannot make any terms of
peace with those who deny the Deity of Christ, nor ought they to want
to be at peace with us, for if Christ is not the Son of God, we are
idolaters. And if He is, they are not Christians! There is a great gulf
between us and them and we do not hesitate for a moment to say on which
side of that gulf we stand. That same Jesus who was nailed to the tree
is to us both Lord and Christ. By faith we put our finger into the
print of the nails and our hand into His pierced side–and never
questioning the fact that He is truly Man, we rejoice to say to Him, as
Thomas did, "My Lord and my God." Jesus Christ is, indeed, to us "very
God of very God." This being so, we have received Him as our Lord to
rule and govern us. In spiritual matters He is our only King–we
acknowledge no master save Him who is The Master, of whom Martha said
to her sister Mary, "The Master is come, and calls for you."

No teacher has any right to impart to us any instruction except that
which he has received from the only Infallible Teacher. "He is the head
of the body, the Church," and we recognize no other headship. We
joyfully acknowledge that He is our Sovereign Lord in the spiritual
realm! He is the absolute Monarch of our soul! He is that perfect
Husband who

is the true Head of His mystical body, the Church. Oh, that we more
fully carried out, practically, in every thought, wish and action of
our entire life, all that is implied in receiving Jesus Christ as Lord!

Beloved Friends, as I look round upon you all and gaze into your faces,
this question rushes from my heart to my lips–Have all of you received
Christ Jesus the Lord? Alas, I am sorrowfully persuaded that there are
some of you who have not received Him! He has knocked again and again
with those pierced hands of His, at the door of your heart, but you
have not let Him in! This fountain of the Water of Life has flowed
close to your feet, yet you have not drunk of it. Christ has been set
before you as the Bread of Life sent down from Heaven, but you have not
eaten of Him–you have refused Him even until now! "No," you say, "you
are too severe in charging us with having refused Christ, for we have
not done that!" Well, it seems to me that this is just what you have
done, but I will put it more softly and say that, at any rate, you have
not receivedHim. You have put Him off to a more convenient season which
will probably never come to you. O poor Souls, poor Souls, how sad is
your state in not having received Christ Jesus the Lord! Leaving out
Heaven and eternity for the moment–and speaking only of today–how
wretched you must be in not having received Christ! When I see a man
who has never seen the sun, I pity him, but not as I pity you who have
never seen the Sun of Righteousness! If I heard of a child who had
never known a father's love and who had never looked up with affection
into a mother's face, I would pity that poor orphan, but not as much as
I pity you who are living without a Savior! If I knew a man who had
never known what health was, but who, from the day of his birth, was
always sickly and bowed down with pain and infirmity, I would pity him,
but not as I pity you who are sick unto death, yet who will not accept
healing from the Great Physician! May God look down upon you, now, not
only with pity, as He always does, but also in the power of His
Almighty Grace and turn the heart of stone to flesh and lead you to
receive Christ Jesus as Lord! That is all you have to do–to receive
Jesus as the parched earth receives the refreshing showers, and as the
wilted lilies receive the reviving rain drops and lift up their
drooping heads again. That is all you have to do–receive Jesus! A
child can receive. The feeblest can receive. Yes, one lying at the
point of death, the sick man dying of fever may receive the cooling
draught that is put to his lips! This is all that is asked of you–that
you will receive Christ Jesus the Lord! Oh, that you would all receive
Him now! God grant that it may be so and He shall have the praise!

II. Now, secondly, notice THE COUNSEL GIVEN–"so walk you in Him." The
text not only reminds us of what we have done, but it also tells us
what we are now to do!

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is not easy to decide whether this
counsel is to be regarded as a permission or as a precept–"so walk you
in Him." Taking them either way, the words are a sweet morsel in my
mouth. Yet I think I prefer to regard them as a permission. Suppose I
had been to Jesus as a poor sinner and that He had saved me and that He
had then said to me, "there, you are saved, so go your way. You have
been a prodigal, but you are forgiven. You have shoes on your feet, a
ring on your finger and the best robe to cover your nakedness–now go
and do what you can for yourself"? Well, it would have been Infinite
Mercy that would have welcomed me and pardoned me, but how much more
gracious and tender is the Lord's message, "Come, My child take up your
abode with Me and wander away no more." It is thus that God speaks to
all who have believed in Jesus, "You have received Jesus Christ the
Lord, so now you may walk in Him and you may always walk in Him! What
He was to you at the first, He may be to you, still, and He may be to
you forever and ever! Did you at the first eat Him as the Bread of Life
to your soul? Then go on still eating Him! Did you spiritually drink of
Him as the Water of Life? Then still drink of Him. He is yours forever,
so continue to draw from His fullness all that you need! As you have
received Him, so keep on receiving Him." Surely, this is a most
gracious permission as well as a very precious precept!

"Walk in Him." Does not this mean, first, look upon Jesus Christ as
your Way to Heaven and walk in Him? Look upon Him as your Forerunner
and follow Him. Look upon Him as your Companion and lean upon Him. Look
upon Him as your delight and live in Him, abide in Him! The expression,
"Walk in Him," implies action and progress. Let your whole life be
practically governed by your union with Christ, let your actions speak
of your fellowship with Him. But walking also means progress, so do not
stand still in Christ, but go on to know more and more of Him–make
advances in the Christian life–"grow in Grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." There is also something of the idea
of permanence in the precept, "Walk you in Him." It means go nowhere
else, but continue in Him–let your ordinary life and your common
conversation indicate your closeness of communion with Him!

"Walk you in Him." I trust that at least some of us know what it is to
"walk in Him." Though we could not tell to others all that it means,
yet it is a blessed fact in our experience and we intend, by God's
Grace, to "walk in Him" as long as we live. I think this is what
walking in Him means–to wake up in the morning and to have our first
thoughts full of the Savior–to seek His guidance and blessing in
everything that is to happen to us during the day, to go down to our
morning meal with our heart's affection fixed upon Jesus, to go off to
the business or the workshop in the full consciousness that He is going
with us–when our hands are busy and our mind is occupied with our
trading or our working, still realizing that our heart is with our
Beloved in the secret place where none can follow us, and so, as the
hours run on, through the noontide heat, Christ is our shade and
shelter, in the cool of the evening His company is our supreme delight
and then, as we retire to our bed, our last thought being–

"Howsweet to rest Forever on our Savior's breast!" Christian, this
ought to be your way of living! And if you are right with God, this is
the way in which you actually do live. You "walk in Him." What a lovely
garden! What a delightful place! The air is balmy, the scenery all
around is charming. There is nothing to distract, or disturb, or
disgust–everything to delight, gratify and satiate the spirit–so
"Walk in Him." Climb to every lofty hill of His Infinite Love, explore
the deepest recesses of His eternal purposes so far as they are
accessible to mortal man! And in this way, "as you have received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him."

III. Notice, thirdly, THE MODEL WHICH IS PRESENTED TO US IN THE TEXT.
"As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in
Him." The two emphatic words are, "as," and, "so." We are to walk in
Christ Jesus as we received Him.

There is great safety in going back to first principles. To make sure
of being in the right way, it is well to look back to the gate by which
we entered the way. You know how, in ordinary life, in the matter of
mutual love, we often look back upon the early days of that experience
as the sweetest. Not long ago I heard a good man, whose time had been
very fully occupied in business so that for many a year he had scarcely
been able to have a holiday, say that, when at last he did manage to
take one with his wife, it was like his honeymoon. You also recollect
how the Lord said to Israel, "I remember you, the kindness of your
youth, the love of your espousals, when you went after Me in the
wilderness." God likes us to go back in thought to the time when we
began with Him–and I want to take you who are Christians back to your
first love of God. Perhaps with some of you, religion has become a very
mechanical sort of thing–you have become stereotyped in your religious
observances. You need to go back to the place where you first received
Christ Jesus the Lord and there refurbish your faith, love and all your
other Divine Graces!

So I ask you, how did you receive Christ? Possibly your first answer
is, "I received Him in the depth of sorrow and humiliation of soul. I
had been broken in pieces by the great plow of the Law and was rent and
torn asunder by my own consciousness of guilt. I lay before the Cross
moaning and roaring like a wounded beast and in my extremity I received
Christ as being the very Savior that I needed. I felt myself to be less
than nothing and I took Him to be my All-in-All. Shivering in my
nakedness through sin, I took His righteousness as my perfect covering.
Famished to death, I took Him to be both my life and the food of that
life. I grasped Christ in my despair at finding there was nothing else
to which I could cling! Out of the great deeps of my soul's distress, I
cast myself upon His mercy, saying–

"I can but perish if I go,

I am resolved to try–

ForifIstay away,

I know I must forever die!'"

Our daily walk in Christ must be very much like that. Not exactly so,
for there should be no unbelief in it. As for myself, I must confess
that I never realize Christ's preciousness so much as when I feel
myself still to be apart from Him, an undeserving, ill-deserving,
Hell-deserving sinner. Sometimes when our Lord gives us sweet
enjoyments, we make too much of them by letting them come between Him
and our souls. And when the Holy Spirit bestows upon us certain Graces,
we think we are very fine fellows and carry our heads aloft very
proudly–instead of giving all the Glory to His holy name. Now, if we
ever act like that, we may rest assured that as we go up in our own
estimation, Christ will go down– and that would be a sorry thing,
indeed! Grow in Grace, but not in self-esteem. Have more faith, but do
not boast of having it. Be full of zeal, but not of conceit concerning
it. Be as holy as it is possible for you to become, but do not prate
and brag about your holiness as some have done. Be not like those who
push with horn and with shoulder the weak ones of

the flock because they have not attained to such heights as these
strong ones profess to have reached–though, possibly, the feebler and
humbler ones are really nearer to God than the boasters are! Lie low,
Brothers and Sisters, lie low, for what the old Essex farmer used to
tell me is true, "If you are one inch above the ground, you are just
that inch too high." So lie low and thus continue to walk in
Christ–yourself being nothing–and Christ being everything. You know
that if you get to be something, Christ cannot then be everything to
you. But if you are still nothing–and less than nothing in your own
estimation–as you sink in self-esteem, your Lord will rise to His
right position in your sight and so you will be walking humbly in Him
as you ought!

Think again how you received Christ. When you really did lay hold of
Him by faith, I am sure that you received Him with great certainty.
There was no mockery, no sham about your reception of Christ. You were
a lost sinner and you were pointed to the only Savior–and you did
really and truly look unto Him who said, "Look unto Me, and be you
saved." Whatever else there was in your look, there was intense
earnestness in it. There was no pretence or affectation about it, it
was very real! Is all your religion as real as that first faith-look at
Jesus was? Do you walk in Him as truly and as decidedly as you did that
first day? My dear Brother, do you ever pray sham prayers? My dear
Sister, do you ever sing sham praises? Is there not a very great risk
of our making our religion into a mere shell with no life in it? May
God save us from everything that would be such a sham as that and make
us as sincere in our walk in Christ as we were in our first reception
of Him! I know that I was most anxious to be certain that I had really
believed in Jesus to the saving of my soul. I was not satisfied with
just one look at Jesus, but I looked, and looked, again and again, with
a holy anxiety lest I might possibly have been mistaken and not really
have trusted Christ as my Savior. I wish we had more of that sacred
anxiety concerning our walking in Christ.

We were not only very sincere in our early repentance and faith, but
our reception of Christ was very vital. Salvation was to us a matter of
life or death. It was not something about which we were only slightly
concerned. It would be well if we manifested a similar vitality about
our daily walk in Christ. There are some professors whom I know who do
not seem to me to be alive much above their ankles–they have not
sufficient vitality to reach up to their knees so as to make them
mighty in prayer. They are alive, I hope, but they remind me very
vividly of a remarkable but gruesome picture of the Resurrection that I
once saw. There were skeletons coming out of the graves, with the bones
only partly covered with flesh. One man had a head without any eyes in
it. Another was stretching out an arm that was all bone–and the rest
of the figures in the picture were of a similar character. It was a
strange conception on the part of the painter, yet I fear it was only
too true a representation of the spiritual state of many nominal
Christians! I hope they are really rising from among the dead, but they
have not risen yet into fullness of life. Many professors appear to
have a very low vitality, if they are alive at all! Their hearts are
hard and stony, their consciences insensitive–sin does not shock them
as it shocks the young convert–he is startled and alarmed at the very
appearanceof evil–but theyhave become so callous that they walk
unconcerned among scenes that ought to break their hearts! May the Lord
save you, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, from all such
callousness as that! May you have the same tender sensitiveness to sin
that you had when you received Christ Jesus the Lord. And as you then
welcomed Him with warm, loving, overflowing emotion, so may you walk in
Him, all your days, as one who is alive from the dead–thoroughly
alive–with all your powers and faculties in active exercise and your
whole soul brimming over with love to Him!

Did you not also, Beloved, receive Christ very eagerly? Have you ever
helped to feed a man who had long been without food? If so, you know
that it is a great treat to see how eagerly he eats. He does not pick
over the meat to see if it is well done–it is all well done to him. He
does not leave a scrap of food upon the plate and he looks round to see
if there is any more that he can beg. It was in such a fashion that we
feasted upon Christ when we first received Him. We had been for months,
perhaps even for years, longing with a great heart-ache to find the
Savior. And when we did find Him and began to feast upon Him, we
thought we never could have enough of Him! Do you recollect how eager
you were in those days to go where you could hear the Gospel? You went
to a place which was so crowded that you could not get a seat, but you
did not mind standing in the aisle and you did not feel tired, then!
But now you need a nice soft cushion to sit on and a cushion even for
your feet–and you are weary long before the sermon is finished! In
those early days you would have walked many miles to hear about Jesus
Christ–and even if the preacher's language was somewhat rough and
uncouth, what did you care about that, as long as he faithfully
preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified? That is the way in which we
should still eagerly walk in Christ, feeling that we can never have too
much of His company, longing to be often where He meets with His
people, delighting in His worship, charmed with everything He says and
does! We received Christ eagerly, so let us walk in Him with the same
eagerness and earnestness!

Many of us also received Christ very resolutely. I know that I asked
the question, over and over again, "Shall I go to Him?" And at last,
when I was almost driven to despair, I cried, "I must, I will–

"'I'll go to Jesus, though my sin Has like a mountain rose. I know His
courts, I'll enter in, Whatever may oppose.'"

That was how many of us received Christ Jesus the Lord. There were
difficulties in our way, but we overcame them, for we were determined
to be saved if it was possible. What sacred doggedness, what holy
pertinacity will a soul bestow when it is resolved on being saved!
Hunger will make a man break through stone walls and iron bars, but a
soul that is hungering and thirsting after Christ does not know that
there are any walls or bars, so overpowering is its eagerness to get to
Him! It was with such eagerness as this that we received Christ Jesus
the Lord. Are we just as eager to walk in Him? I know that some of you
are sorely tempted–are you standing fast? Are you standing up for
Jesus as you used to do when you first knew Him? Are you firm as a rock
in your resistance to everything that is opposed to Him and to His
Truth? You ought to be! Your song should still be that one of which you
were so fond in those early days–

"Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He goes."

A lion-like spirit was then in you! You would gladly have gone to
prison for Christ's sake, or even to death if He had required it. If
somebody had told me, when I was converted, that I should have to go to
prison and lie there for 12 years as John Bunyan did if I became a
Christian, I verily believe that I would have leaped for joy at the
prospect of so high an honor! To be a martyr for the Truth's sake–the
prospect looked glorious–the ruby crown glowed in the sunshine of our
ardent anticipation and we envied those who had been privileged to wear
it! It was so then. But, Beloved, is it so now? Can you cleave to
Christ as tenaciously now as you did then? Can you bear to be in ill
repute for His sake? Can you rejoice in being scoffed at because you
are a Christian as you did when you received Christ Jesus the Lord? If
you cannot, blush and be ashamed and, from henceforth, pray that with
the same undaunted courage and determination with which you received
Him, you may continue to walk in Him!

I will not weary you by multiplying words, but I must ask whether you
do not recollect how joyfully you received Christ. Ah, you cannot
forget that, for in proportion to your sorrow before, was your joy when
you accepted Christ as your Savior. No wonder you sang–

"Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away!" We are not
surprised that Miriam and the women went out with timbrels and with
dances when Pharaoh and all his host were drowned in the Red Sea. And
we do not marvel at Miriam's jubilant song, "Sing you to the Lord, for
He has triumphed gloriously," for our soul took a timbrel and our feet
danced before the Lord as we sang unto Him who had triumphed so
gloriously for us! As I go back and remind you of those early joys, I
again ask you whether you are as joyous now as you were then? You ought
to be a great deal more joyous, for you have had so much more cause to
praise the Lord than you had then! Come, Brothers and Sisters, let us
go again to Jesus as we went to Him at the first–let us go as poor,
guilty, needy sinners to Jesus Christ upon the Cross just as though we
had never gone before! If we do so, I can tell you what the consequence
will be just as it was at the first. As we–

"View the flowing Of our Savior's precious blood, With Divine assurance
knowing He has made our peace with God"– we shall feel as though we
were young converts once again! We may be getting old and gray and,
perhaps, cold as well as gray, but we shall become like little children
again and we shall shout, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!" as the Son of
David rides in triumph down the streets of our soul! Oh, that it may be
so with many of us here! It ought to be so and it will be so if you
walk in Christ Jesus the Lord as you received Him in the hour of your
conversion!

I will close my discourse when I have reminded you that when we
received Christ Jesus the Lord, we received the whole of Him. We took
Him for all that we knew of Him and we found that He was much more than
we then thought He was. And we did not pick and choose and say, "We
will have His pardon, but we will not have His sanctification." We took
the many-sided Christ, the Christ of many glorious Characters, the
Christ of ten thousand times ten thousand beauties! We took Christ to
teach us, Christ to lead us, Christ to feed us, Christ to cheer us,
Christ for us to obey and Christ for us to delight in–we took a whole
Christ! And then we gave Him our whole selves. We said, "Lord, take us,
body, soul and spirit." We prayed that the sacrifice might be bound
with cords to the horns of the altar forever! We made no bargains with
Him–we gave the freehold of our souls to Jesus–and of our bodies,
too. And we only asked that we might not have a pulse beating except
for Him, or our lungs heaving except as He was our very life. And we
took Christ–at least I know I did–for better or worse, in health or
in sickness, to have and to hold so that even death should never part
us! We put our hand in His and asked Him to take us and keep us
forever. And we took Him and said, "We will hold to You and will not
let You go." Since then there has been many a tug from Satan, who has
tried to drag us away from Christ, or to make us think that Christ was
going away from us–but we have managed to hold to Him to this hour!
Perhaps you feel as though you had only got a hold of the hem of His
garment. If so, try to get a firmer hold on Him! Gasp Him, hold Him by
the feet, throw your arms about Him and tell Him that without a smile
from Him, your spirit cannot rest! Tell Him that you are sick in love
and need His Presence, and must have it! And beg Him, by the roes and
by the hinds of the field, to come to you. Say unto Him, "My Lord, if
You love me, come and show Your love. If, indeed, there is between You
and me a union of an eternal nature, come to me! Be not a stranger to
Your own flesh, but be now as You were of old. Come to me again and let
Your left hand be under my head while Your right hand does embrace me."
Oh, for more of these blessed hungerings and longings! Beloved, we will
never let Christ go! We took Him forever and we will hold Him forever!
And, blessed be His name, He will hold us forever! We are in His hands
and none can take us out. There shall we be when earth and Heaven are
in a blaze! There shall we be when He shall sit upon His Judgment Seat!
And there shall we be world without end. Amen!

I leave this sermon with God's people, but I cannot help adding that I
do earnestly pray that all of you may receive Christ Jesus the Lord.
Oh, come to Him tonight! He is willing that you should have Him–and
every soul that wills to have Christ may have Him, for, "the Spirit and
the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that
is thirsty come. And whoever will, let him take the Water of Life
freely." Amen, and Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 JOHN 3:10-21.

Verses 10-12. In this the children of God are manifest and the children
of the devil: whoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he
that loves not his brother For this is the message that you heard from
the beginning, that we should love one another Not as Cain, who was of
that Wicked One, and slew his brother And why did he slay him? Because
his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Some people try
to deceive us with the notion that all men are the children of God, but
John, writing under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, shows how false
that idea is! Holiness and love distinguish the children of God from
the children of the devil!

13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. As Cain hated
Abel, so worldlings hate the saints whose holiness is a continual
rebuke to the ungodly.

14-16. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. [See Sermon #2556, Volume 44–life

PROVED BY LOVE] He that loves not his brother abides in death.

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer
has eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive

we the love of God, because He laid down His life for uS [See Sermons
#2656, Volume 46–THE DEATH OF CHRIST FOR HIS PEOPLE and #2959, Volume
51–GOD'S LOVE TO THE SAINTS] and we ought to lay down our

lives for the brethren. Such self-sacrifice as this is the very highest
form of love to the brethren and is a following of the example of
Christ, who "laid down his life for us."

17, 18. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother has
need and shuts up his heart of compassion from him, how dwells the love
of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in
tongue; but in deed and in

Truth. Love that consists only of words is utterly worthless. If it is
true love, it must prove itself by kind deeds and gracious actions.

19. And hereby we know that we are of the Truth, and shall assure our
hearts before Him. The love that will pass this test will bring a
restful assurance of peace to the heart.

20-22. For ifour heart condemns us, Godis greater that our heart,
andknows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have
we confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive of Him
because we keep His commandments and do those things that arepleasing
in His sight. It is not everyone who can have whatever he chooses to
ask of God in prayer. This privilege is only granted to those who "keep
His commandments and do those things that are

23. And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name
ofHis Son, Jesus Christ, andlove one another, as He gave us
commandment. Faith and love–faith in Christ and love to one
another–are here most happily joined together! Let us never put them
asunder.

24. And he that keeps His commandments dwells in Him, and He in him.
And hereby we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has
given us. Though this great Truth of our dwelling in God and God
dwelling in us is a great mystery, it is a mystery concerning which we
need not be in doubt if we will learn of the Holy Spirit what He
delights to teach us!