A Triumphal Entrance
A sermon
(No. 750)
Delivered on Thursday Evening, DECEMBER 13, 1866, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift them up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in."- Psalm 24:9.
ON Monday evening we expounded this Psalm. We then enlarged upon the
glorious ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and His triumphal entrance
within the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem, to which we believe this
verse is to be referred. Having on that occasion endeavored to set
forth the literal and proper meaning of the words, amplifying them at
some length, we trust we may be permitted to use them tonight rather by
way of accommodation while we speak on quite another subject, and give
a different turn to the flow of our thoughts. Not that we wish to
supersede the natural sense of the prophetic song, although we think
that without violence, and even with profit, we may borrow a sentence
from it to point a moral of practical godliness.
It is worthy of observation that the Scotch commentator, Dixon, gives
what I am about to suggest to you as the true meaning of the text, as
also do some one or two other authors, to say nothing of our hymn
writers who claim poetical license for the boldness of their
paraphrases. I should myself very strongly object to tamper with the
literal sense. The allusion of the Psalmist, no doubt, is primarily to
the ascension of the Ark of the Covenant into Mount Zion, where it was
permanently to be lodged, and that historical fact was a type of the
ascension of Christ into the Jerusalem which is above, where He sits as
the Representative of His people. Let the meaning be fully understood
and admitted, then we shall feel at liberty to use the words we here
find for certain practical purposes.
Give ear then, dear Friends, to the doctrine which I am anxious to set
before you. The Lord Jesus Christ, in order to our salvation, must not
only enter into Heaven but He must enter into our hearts. He must not
only sprinkle the blood within the veil, but He must sprinkle the blood
within our conscience. All that Christ has done for us will be of no
use unless there shall be a great work done in us. It is not only
Christ on the Cross who is our hope, but "Christ in you," says the
Apostle, "the hope of glory.
At the time of conversion, Jesus Christ enters into the soul, and it is
by such a triumphant entrance, when His Word comes into our hearts,
that we get the personal knowledge of salvation.
I. First, then, THE GREAT THING TO BE DESIRED BY EACH OF US IS THE
ENTRANCE OF THE KING OF GLORY INTO OUR SOULS. Brethren, what if I
should say that Heaven would not be Heaven without this? Certainly
there would be no happiness here on earth, no Heaven below to any one
of us unless we had Christ in our hearts!
There is nothing but mischief in man's heart when Christ is not there
and another lord usurps dominion over Him. In vain is the Gospel
preached to any one of the sons of men so long as they, like the strong
man armed, keep the gates of the castle of their heart. The eyes of the
understanding are blind to the way of peace. Until Christ shall come
and take that castle by storm, there is no doing anything for that
man–the spirit that works in him is the "spirit that works in the
children of disobedience"–he is deceived by Satan and made a willing
slave to that tyrant of evil.
What you need, Sinner, for your salvation, is that Christ should come
unto you, for if He should come unto you, then that dead soul of yours
would live. His Presence is life. He quickens whom He will. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. When He comes into a soul,
spiritual life is there. The sinner wakes up to consciousness and rises
from the grave over the mouth of which his reckless indifference, like
a great stone, has been rolled, and he cries, "What must I do to be
saved?" When Christ comes into the heart, sin is seen to be sinful. In
the light of the Cross man begins to repent. He sees that his sin has
slain the Savior, and he loathes it. He now seeks to be delivered both
from its guilt and from its power.
The coming of Christ does that. It takes away the guilt of man. Christ
in the heart, revealed to the soul, speaks peace to the troubled
conscience. We look to Him and are lightened, and our faces are not
ashamed. We see the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness in
Christ. Here we wash and are made clean–as for the reigning power of
sin, nothing can ever conquer that but the incoming of Christ. If a man
serves an evil master, the only way of getting rid of that hated despot
is to bring in the rival Sovereign. "No man can serve two masters." The
introduction of the King of Glory, Christ Jesus, is the sure way of
casting out that old master, Satan, the prince of the power of the air.
When the Lord Jesus comes, bringing life, and light, and pardon, He
puts down the power of sin and every blessing comes in His train. Oh,
when Christ rides through the streets of our souls they are strewn with
flowers of hope and joy! Then we hang out the streamers of our sacred
bliss! We sing of His praise! We are ready to dance before Him for holy
mirth! Then straightway we love purity and seek for perfection! Then we
adore the living God whom we had before forgotten, but of whom we can
now say, "Our Father who are in Heaven." We receive the spirit of
adoption to which we had been strangers before!
Then, as soon as Christ has entered our heart, our course is
heavenward–our way is towards our Father's face, whereas before, with
our backs to the Sun of Righteousness–we wandered into denser gloom.
And we would have found our way into outer darkness where there is
weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. O Sinner, if you could but
get Christ into your heart, you would say, "I have all things, and
abound. I
am full!" But until then you will be naked and poor, and miserable. Or
if you are, indeed, a living soul, you will be uneasy and dissatisfied
until Christ has entered into you with all His glorious train, His
Spirit and His Word. You will be like a house without a tenant, cold,
cheerless, dilapidated, desolate. Your heart will be as a nest without
a bird–a poor, sad thing! You will be like a body without the soul
that quickens it.
But if Jesus comes, He will make a man of you after another sort than
that frail image which your father Adam bequeathed you. He will make
you new in the image of Him who created you. "Behold, I make all things
new," He says. Oh, you cannot tell the influences of His scepter when
He sits upon the throne of the heart! You cannot tell what showers of
mercy, what streams of benediction, what mountains of joy, and hills of
happiness shall be yours when Jesus comes and reigns in your soul!
This, then, is the great business that we ought to see to–that Jesus
Christ should come unto us–not merely that we should hear of Him with
the ear, or talk of Him with the tongue, but that we should have Him as
a priest before the altar, as a king upon the throne of our heart, the
chief and highest in the reverence and the affection of our inmost
soul.
II. Secondly, THERE ARE IMPEDIMENTS TO CHRIST THUS COMING INTO OUR
HEARTS. The text speaks, you notice, about "doors" and "gates." Surely,
if there were doors and gates that needed to be lifted up before Christ
could enter into Heaven, much more are there doors and gates that must
be opened to receive Him into our hearts! Remember that when Jesus
Christ went up into Heaven, the doors were lifted up, and the gates
were opened, and they have never been shut since.
There is no passage that says, "Down with your heads, you gates, and be
you fast closed, you everlasting doors!" Not a word of that sort.
Heaven's gates are open wide. What, then, is shut? Why, the gate of the
human soul, the door of the human heart. There are many gates and
doors, bars of iron, and bolts of triple steel that stand in the way of
Christ. Sometimes it is our wicked prejudice. We do not want to know
the Gospel. We are confirmed in our own self-righteousness, or we hold
the traditions of our fathers who trusted in some outward forms and
ceremonies. We do not want to know Christ.
Perhaps the very name of the preacher of the Gospel is hateful to us,
and the name of the place where Christ is lifted up is detestable to
us. What a blessing it is to us when these gates of prejudice are taken
away, and the hearing ear is given, and the soul pants to know what
this Gospel is! Alas, though, it too often happens that when prejudice
is removed, there then remains the gate of depravity–our love of sin
is a strong barrier. We should soon have hailed Christ were it not that
we had harbored an old foe of His. We do not care to give up our former
love to lay hold of the true Bridegroom of men's souls.
The great difficulty in the way of sinners getting to Heaven is that
they love sin better than they love their souls. A little drink, a
little merriment, a favorite lust, a Sunday holiday–any of these
trifling joys, these groveling husks that are only fit for swine–will
keep souls from Christ and prevent their laying hold of eternal life.
Man loves his own ruin! The cup is so sweet, that though he knows it
will poison him, yet he must drink it! And the harlot is so fair, that
though he understands that her ways lead down to Hell, yet like a bull
he follows to the slaughter till the dart goes through his liver! Man
is fascinated and bewitched by sin. He will not give up the insidious
pleasures which are but for a season, and to gain them he will run the
risk of the everlasting ruin of his undying soul. Oh, when God takes
away the love of sin, then the gates are lifted up and the doors are
opened. What is there that could prevent our welcoming Christ if we did
but hate our sins?
Another great door is our love of self-righteousness. Though I have
spoken of the love of sin as the strongest door, ought I not to correct
myself, and say that, perhaps, the love of our own righteousness is a
stronger door still? Men may give up their grosser sins while they will
hold fast to their fair, but carnal righteousnesses. Yet your own
righteousness will as certainly destroy you as your iniquities. If you
rest upon what you have done, however good in your own eyes, or however
praiseworthy in the esteem of your fellow men that doing may be, you
rest on a foundation that will certainly fail you. Your merits or your
demerits are alike useless for salvation. God grant that we may no
longer boast of ourselves, but put away the Pharisee's pride and never
utter the Pharisee's prayer. The doors must be lifted up.
Then, again, there is that door which I may call the iron gate that
enters into the city, the innermost door of all, the key of which it
is, indeed, hard to turn–the door of unbelief. Oh, that unbelief! It
is the ruin of souls, and ah, what trouble, and labor, and anxiety it
gives to us who are ministers of the Gospel! When talking with anxious
enquirers we are often amazed at the ingenuity with which they resist
the entrance of Light and Truth into their hearts. I do not think I
have ever been so much astonished at the invention of locomotive
engines, electric telegraphs, or any other feats of human mechanism as
I have been at the marvelous ingenuity of simple people in finding out
reasons why they should not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!
After we have proved to them to a demonstration that it is both the
most reasonable and the fit thing in the world to trust themselves with
Christ, they ask, "Why this?" Or, "Why that?" Or they argue, "But one
thing, and but another." We may patiently go through the whole process
again, and even when that is done there comes another, "but." I have
hunted these people till they have got to their holes, and I have tried
to dig them out, and unearth them, but I find that they can always
burrow faster than I can follow them. It is only the Grace of God that
can deliver us from this ruinous thing, unbelief!
You would count it a strange thing, if, when a man condemned to be
hanged had a pardon presented to him, he were so ingenious as to find
out reasons why he should not escape the gallows! And when these
reasons were all refuted, their fallacy exposed, and the good tidings
confirmed, he should keep on finding out more reasons why the sentence
of execution should be carried into effect! You would say, "Why,
foolish man, let these sophistries alone. Put your wits to better use.
Get your liberty first, and then enquire into the manner it was
procured afterwards." Men will not take God at His word, and trust
Christ at His call. That great doctrine of, "Believe and live," they
will reject.
Still, still they will object! O that these gates and doors were all
removed! Do not, I beseech you, my dear Hearers, do not let me talk
about this matter as though I were speaking to people on the moon. It
is into your own hearts that admission is sought, and remember that
there are doors which keep Christ out. There are gates and doors which
some of you willfully close against Him. Though in His stead I have
stood these many Sundays knocking as best I could at the door–no, not
I, but Christ knocking there through me–you have resisted every
appeal. You know that His head is wet with dew and His locks with the
drops of the night, yet you have kept these doors fastened still.
They have shaken sometimes a good deal. They have almost seemed to me
as if they were on the jar–I have hastened to see if I could not put
my finger in at the hole of the door–but could not do so. I wish my
Master would! How is it that with such a Friend outside, standing there
in such a lovely attitude, laden with blessings, and ready to enter
that He may bless you–how is it that still you will invent further
bars, and make fresh locks to keep Him out?
III. Our third point is this–IN ORDER FOR CHRIST TO ENTRER WE MUST BE
WILLING TO REMOVE THESE BOLTS. You will notice that the text says,
"Lift up your heads, O you gates," as if the gates were to lift their
own heads up. It is addressed to them as though they were to get out of
the way. Continually, dear Friends, I have to tell you that salvation
is by Divine Grace–emphatically I shall have to impress this upon you
presently. Yet, at the same time, we never did say, and we hope we
never shall say that we see no necessity to make any appeals to your
will.
We never said that God would save you against your will. We never
thought so. We never believed that a man was plunged into the blood of
Jesus Christ if he was unwilling to be washed in it. We never believed
that a man had the robe of righteousness put on him by force, he,
meanwhile, resisting with all his might. We never believed that there
were pilgrims on the road to Heaven who went there driven like convicts
in the chain gang, instead of marching willingly and cheerfully towards
their desired rest. We never meant to say that you were mere machines
whom God had deprived of free agency, or that in order to make you
saints He made you blocks of wood or pieces of marble.
No! We have been in the habit of addressing you as reasonable beings,
and of talking to you as those who had a will to choose or to refuse.
We have tried, with the motives of the Gospel, to influence that will.
Let us remind you that the gates are bid to lift up their
heads–therefore, in God's name, Sinner, be willing! Be willing that
Christ should enter into your heart, for, remember, He never does enter
against our will. He makes us willing in the day of His power, but
willing we must be. True, willingness is His gift, but we are made
willing. In the case of every soul that comes to Christ there is first
given to him the willing mind.
"Oh!" says one, "I am willing enough!" Thank God for that, dear Hearer,
for the most of men will not come unto Him that they may have life.
"Oh!" says another, "I am sure my will is good to come to Christ!" I am
glad to hear that, for there is a question we have often to ask, "Will
you be made whole?" But there are some men who do not want to be made
whole, and would rather hobble on their crutches, cripples as they are!
They would rather indulge their inclination as sinners than be purified
and brought into the obedience of faith.
Among those I address tonight there may be individuals, perhaps, who
would not like to have their conscience touched. Here is one man who is
making money in a bad trade. "Oh," he says, "I do not want that
preacher to make me uneasy!" There is another man here who has been
getting so used to his sinful pleasures that it would now be
inconvenient for him to give them up. He has even made an appointment
that he feels he must keep, and if he were apprehensive that the Grace
of God might come and overtake him tonight, he feels as if he would
rather not. Do not be frightened! It will not occur to you, for the
Lord will first give you this premonition of His intending to bless
you. He will make you long to be blessed. Before He puts that cup of
cooling water to your month, He will make you thirsty.
Before He enriches you with His treasure He will make you feel that you
are naked, and poor, and miserable. Before Christ goes through the
gate, the inhabitants of the city shall be willing to receive Him. No,
with outstretched hands they shall look over the battlements and say,
"Come in, King of Glory! I long to see You! Come, and welcome! I will
throw the gates of my soul wide open to receive You, do but come! I
long for You! I watch for Your coming as they that watch for Your
appearing! Yes, more than they that watch for the morning light."
IV. Fourthly, while you must thus be made willing, IT IS GRACE THAT
MUST ENABLE YOU TO BE SO. Notice, "Be you lift up, you
everlasting doors." "Lift up your heads." "Be you lift up." We speak to
a man as a man, and so we must speak to him. Next to this we speak of
what God can do, blessed be His name, as a God, when He comes to deal
with us, making us willing. And then coming in, with that great arm of
His power, entirely to remove those gates which creature strength could
not push an inch out of the way.
I think I see the inhabitants of that city when the cry is heard, "Lift
up your heads, O you gates!" trying to lift them up! Trying with all
their might, but they cannot do it. The gates are too heavy. The bars
seem to be rusted. The bolts are fast in their places. The people cry,
"How shall we ever open the gates of this city, and how can we let in
the King?"–when an invisible Spirit stands by the side of the wall
amid all the struggles, and as He puts out His power, the gates go up,
and the doors fly wide open!
This is how it is with the sinner. God the Holy Spirit comes in and
helps our infirmities. And what we could not do because we are weak
through the flesh, He helps us to do. The love of sin is given up to
begin with, and then the Holy Spirit enables us to give up the sin
which we no longer love. Unbelief becomes to us a burden, and we cry,
"Lord, I believe, help You my unbelief!" and He does help that unbelief
and we do believe! That which we could not do, we do! He who made us
willing, makes us able! Where the will is present, the power is not
withheld. When God has subdued the obstinacy of your heart, He will
speedily overcome the infirmity of your hands. If you are thirsty, you
shall drink. If you are hungry, you shall eat. If you would have
Christ, you shall have Christ, for if you can not open the gates, He
can.
The difficulty with these gates is that they are everlasting! Though I
cannot say that the gates which shut Christ out of our hearts are
everlasting in one sense, yet they certainly are as old as our own
nature–for the old inbred corruption of that stood out against Christ.
And they are such perpetual gates that they never would have been
removed if it were not for the Grace which came to remove them. And
they are everlasting in such a sense that they will be there in time
and there in eternity. The man who will not have Christ now, will not
have Him when he comes to die, and will not have Him in eternity. Even
then the gates will still shut out the Savior. The Savior will be
forever a stranger and an alien to that man's heart! May God give to
you who have been shutting Him out the will to open the door, and then
may He come and say, "Be you lift up, you everlasting doors," and may
Jesus Christ come in!
V. Not to linger, however, on any one point, let us proceed to notice
the willingness of Christ to enter. We have shown you that it should be
our great desire that Christ should come in, but that there are
obstacles. We know that we must be willing to remove them, and that
Divine Grace will come to our assistance. What next?–JESUS WILL ENTER.
There is no difficulty put here after once the gates are lifted up.
There is no suspicion nor surmise that He will not enter. It seems to
follow as a matter of course. "And the King of Glory shall come in."
Oh, yes! When the gates are opened, He shall come in! He was willing to
come in before. He had sent His servants, and said to them, "Open the
gates." He had finished the work which He came to do. He was waiting to
be gracious. There was never any unwillingness in Him! The
unwillingness was all in us! And as soon as ever that unwillingness is
taken away, and the gates are opened, the King of Glory shall come in.
May the Lord bless me in speaking for a moment to some here who are
willing to have the Savior, but who think that He will never come into
their hearts.
O Beloved, do not suffer this infernal suggestion to depress your
spirits! Are you poor? Believe me, it does not matter what dress you
wear, nor in what humble cottage you live, nor how your face may be
begrimed with your toil if you are willing! The King of Glory will come
in! He loves to live in those men's hearts whose bodies, like His own,
suffer fatigue, and wear the garments of the workman. Perhaps you say,
"But my body has been defiled with sin." But where He comes He cleanses
the house by His Presence!
You never hear it said, "The world is not fit for the sun, because it
is so dark, for where the sun comes he makes light." And if after a
long winter the world has grown cold and frostbitten, it is not said of
the spring, "You must not come, for the world is not fit for you!" No,
but the genial influences of spring loosen the rivers, and clothe the
earth with verdure, and bid the bonds of frost be removed! And so
spring makes a palace fit for herself and strews it with flowers from
her own hands.
My Master will come into your house and live, though you are not worthy
that He should come under your roof. He was born in a manger where the
horned oxen fed. He will be born in your heart, where devils once
dwelt. My Lord, when He does stoop, may well stoop as low as He can. It
is the greatest wonder that He should stoop at all–not that He stoops
in any one particular direction, for, after all, though some of you may
have been gross offenders, while others of us, from our youth up, have
never uttered an oath, nor entered upon a lascivious action–yet there
is not so much difference between you and us as that it should seem
strange that He should come to you.
If you are black in one sense, we are black in another. And if you have
been a drunkard, well, I have been an unbeliever. And if you have been
a thief, well, I have played false to God. And if there is one sin into
which I have not plunged, I have plunged into another. We are very much
alike, after all, and it is not so wonderful a thing, if we once get
our hearts filled with the true wonder that Christ should have saved
sinners at all, that He should condescend to display that wonderful
Grace by saving those who, in the recklessness and daring of their
crimes, are ostensibly such great sinners! Jesus Christ will come in.
"Well, but suppose He should not?" says one. Ah, never suppose what
cannot be! "Him that comes unto Me, I will in nowise cast out." Why,
the very angels must sometimes be astonished as they say, "Lord, here
is such a one coming–shall we shut the gate?" "No," says He, "for I
have said that him that comes, I will in nowise cast out." Surely, when
the angel of mercy saw Saul of Tarsus coming, he said, "Lord, here is a
man who has had his garments spattered with the blood of Stephen! Here
is that fierce wolf who has whetted his fangs in the blood of many of
the saints! Here comes this blasphemer, this persecutor–must not he be
excluded?"
No. The gate stood open and he found admittance. And as he entered he
turned round, and said to the others who were timidly standing outside,
"I obtained mercy, that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show forth all
longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe." O
Soul, if you desire to have Christ, there is no reason why you should
not have Him! No, you shall have Him! If you have got so far, by His
Grace, as to have said, "Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you
lift up, you everlasting doors," then "the King of Glory shall come
in," and you shall find a Savior in your heart if you are but willing
to receive Him there.
VI. And now, lastly, observe that our text says, "THE KING OF GLORY
SHALL COME IN. This title belongs to the Savior. It proclaims Him in
His highest authority. How shall I interpret this to you? The weight,
the exceeding eternal weight of glory which belongs to the King of
Glory, I cannot explain. O that your thoughts may excel my words! I
think I hear a cry, "Behold, your King comes! The King! The King! Stand
back, make way! The King comes."
There is a moment's bustle, and it is succeeded by a breathless pause.
Everyone forgets the business in which he was engaged and loses the
thread of thought in which he was absorbed. All eyes turn, as if by
instinct, to look from what direction that cry has broken on their
ears: "THE KING OF GLORY!" A thrill passes through your nerves, a shock
goes to your heart as you listen to the note which tells of His high
prerogative. "Who is this King of Glory?" What peerless Prince is this,
with a name above every name, and a royalty higher than the kings of
the earth?
"THE LORD OF HOSTS, HE IS THE KING OF GLORY." And while you look, He is
near. You look, you gaze, you behold the pageantry of His high estate,
and awe stifles your breath, admiration chains your senses. "Could I
have one wish," said that eloquent preacher at the Hague, Mr. James
Saurin, "Could I have one wish to answer my proposed end of preaching
today with efficacy, it would be to show you God in this assembly." And
I say to you, Brothers and Sisters, could I present at the door of your
hearts the King of Glory, and constrain you to see Him, you would not
hesitate, but open wide the gates to admit Him!
Behold the King! Resplendent with all the glory which He had with the
Father before the foundation of the world! Invested with all the
offices of dignity which Jehovah has put upon Him! Wearing all the
brilliant trophies of His victorious achievements. Hark! Hark! The
trumpeters proclaim Him! Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, in loud
and swelling notes announce His advent! The acclamations of the
redeemed, a vast throng, greet Him! And He rides in triumph straight up
to your heart!
One glance at Him, Sinner, shows you plainly that He challenges your
submission by all the grandeur of His title, by all the illustrious
insignia of His solemn functions, by all the renown of His mighty acts.
As the King of Glory, He must come in–
"Butknow, nor of the terms complain, Where Jesus comes, He comes to
reign. To reign, but not with partial sway, Thoughts must be slain that
disobey." As liege subjects, then, you must yield Him all your homage.
Oh, are you willing that the priest should come in? "Yes," you say,
"that is what I want. I want Christ to come in with His precious blood,
like a priest, and sprinkle me with hyssop, and take away my sins." He
will come as a priest, but not if you refuse him as your King.
"Yes," says another, "I am quite willing to receive Christ as a
prophet. I want to understand the doctrines. They have puzzled me a
great deal, and I want to comprehend them." Well, Christ will come as a
prophet, but He will not come as a prophet unless you are willing to
receive Him, also, as your King. O Sinner, Jesus Christ must have the
mastery in your heart, or you shall not have Him at all! Come, now, you
have followed your own will–that must be given up. Do you not like
that yoke? Do you say, "No, I never did wear one"? You must wear it, or
you will be lost.
Look at it, now–see how softly it lies! It will never gall your
shoulders. "My yoke is easy: My burden is light." Now, you know you
have been your own master and what incessant mutiny there has been in
your members. Your own will has been too impotent a ruler to hold the
reins of government or maintain peace. You know very well that your own
passions have made a great slave of you. Why, the man who gives way to
drunkenness–where is there a worse slave in the world than he? Or,
take the man who has a passionate temper–why, he does and says a
thousand things that he is disgusted with afterwards–but he seems to
be driven by his foolishness without the slightest self-control. A
worse slavery than that of any galley slave that was ever chained to
the oar, is that slavery of a bad temper.
Now, would it not be better to be a servant of Christ than to be the
slave of your own hateful lusts, or your own capricious whims? I know
what you will say–you cannot serve King Jesus, for your companions
would laugh at you, and hold you up to ridicule. Oh, what a
mean-spirited creature, then, you must be! And so will you let any
peering fool be your chieftain, and become the vassal of any man bolder
in wickedness than you are? Why, Sir, do you call yourself an
Englishman? Are you a man at all, that you can yield yourself up to be
chaffed after this fashion? What? Would you let the gibes or taunts of
a workmate restrain you from following what you believe to be good?
Why, I am ashamed of you! Putting aside Christianity altogether, I
blush for you as a coward. Surely, you might say to them, "What do I
care for your laughs, I can always give you as good as you send, only I
take care it shall not be in your spirit. I can hold my own, and if you
choose to serve the devil, surely it is a free country. I have as much
right to serve the King of Glory as you have to serve the Prince of
Darkness. If you choose to go to Hell, let me go to Heaven, surely, you
will not pass a law against that!"
There are workmen, I believe, and men of business, and gentlemen, as
they are called, of the upper circles who are the most abominable
tyrants in their dealings with one another. If you choose to be a
Christian, you are sure to get the cold shoulder among the upper
classes. No, but the very working men, who prate their democracy, will
not let you be a Christian without meeting you at the shop door and
saying, "Ah, here is a Presbyterian," or "a Methodist," or something of
the sort. What is this but trampling upon liberty of conscience with
arrogant tyranny? How can we boast of our love of freedom while such a
state of things prevails? Surely, a man has a right to his religion,
and you have no right to interfere with him about it.
But now, my dear Friend, you are afraid of being laughed at. Let me ask
you, which is better, to be a servant of man or a servant of Christ?
Whichever way you may judge, you can never enter Heaven's door, to wear
Christ's crown unless you are here willing to be Christ's servant, and
to bear Christ's Cross. "Well, but I do not like this. I do not like
that." Refer to the Bible–that is the Master's Book. As it is written
there, so let your life and actions be ruled. You remember what the
mother of Jesus said to the servants at the wedding in Cana of Galilee?
"Whatever He says unto you, do it." I do not see how you can serve
Christ if there is anything in that Book which you see to be there, and
yet willfully neglect.
Perhaps there are some of you whom that sentence will hit very hard. I
know persons who say they are Baptists in principle, but they have
never been baptized! Baptists without any principle at all, I call
them–persons who know their Master's will, but who will not obey it. I
can make great excuses for Brethren who do not see it. I think they
might see it if they liked. But if they do not discern the precept, I
can understand their not obeying it. But when people know their Lord's
will, and do it not–though I am sure I would not wish to speak hastily
on such a matter–I am not certain whether willful disobedience to a
known command of Christ may not be a token of their rejecting Christ
altogether. I should not like to run the risk for myself, at any rate.
I should feel it unsafe to say that I believed I was saved, while there
was some command of my Lord which I could obey, which I clearly saw to
be my duty, and yet to which I solemnly declared I would withhold my
obedience. Surely, in such a case, I have not let Christ come into my
heart! If you would have Christ, He will be absolute Lord and
Master–every humor and stubbornness of yours must be set aside–for
where He comes He comes to reign. As He makes His entrance, He comes as
the "King of Glory." That is to say, He must be a glorious King,
glorious to you–One whom you seek to glorify.
You must not receive Him as though He were some paltry potentate that
you did not care for, but He must be full of glory to you–the
"Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace"–you must receive Him into your heart! Not as men
receive a common guest, but as men receive their dearest and most
honored friend–one whom they love and reverence with all the powers of
their nature. He must be the King of Glory to you. And from now on it
must be your desire to glorify Him. This is not a hard thing to ask,
for oh, it is the pleasure, it is the ante past of Heaven! It is
unspeakable bliss to live to the glory of Christ!
Even when one is suffering, suffering is sweet if it brings Him honor!
If one is despised for Christ, it is delightful to be reproached if it
does but make Him more glorious–
"If on my face for Your dear name, Shame and reproaches be, I'll hail
reproach, and welcome shame, If You remember me."
Oh, to glorify Christ! I think Heaven would lose half its charms for me
if I could not glorify Christ there. And the vast howling wilderness
were Heaven on earth to me if I might but glorify His name here below!
To glorify Christ is far more to the Christian's mind than harps of
gold, streets of crystal, or gates of pearl. This is the true music of
the soul! The true excitement of triumph! The true chorus of
eternity–that He ever lives, that the crown is on His head–that God
also has highly exalted Him. Oh, this is our exultation, this is our
joy, our triumph, our blessedness! If
we can but promote His glory, the place where we can best promote it
shall be our Heaven. The sick bed, the hospital, or the poor house
shall be our Heaven, if we can there best serve the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the King of Glory.
The year is fast drawing to a close. We call it "the year of Grace,
1866." Oh, that it may, indeed, be "the year of Grace" to some
unconverted persons here! It may be that I am not casting my net
tonight where there are many such to be found. Most of you, my Hearers,
are members of the Church of Christ. You are saved, I trust. Still
there are sure to be here and there, like weeds growing in a garden of
flowers, some who are still strangers to the Lord Jesus Christ. I would
to God that the Holy Spirit would move them to say, "Come in, Savior!
Let the King of Glory come in!"
Oh, let this true saying of the faithful and true witness be your
encouragement: "If any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." What a blessed
thing! You breakfasted with the devil, and dined with the world–what a
mercy if you should sup with Christ! And what a blessed supper you
would have! Why, when you woke tomorrow it would be to breakfast with
Christ! It would be to hear Him say, "Come and dine," and then to sup
with Him again, and so on until you come to eat bread at the marriage
supper of the Lamb!
May the Lord bless you. And if He grants me my heart's desire, you will
each of you say to your souls, "Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift
them up, you everlasting doors! And the King of Glory shall come in."
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More Than Conquerors
A sermon