Christ's Triple Character
(No. 2787)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 13, 1902.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
16, 1878.
"Behold, I have given Him for a Witness to the people, a Leader and
Commander to the people." Isaiah 55:4.
THERE is no Gospel apart from our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the essence
of it. He is everything in it. There would be no Gospel without Him. In
this chapter the Holy Spirit had been speaking, very largely, through
the Prophet, of Gospel bounties and privileges. He had bid the thirsty
to "come to the waters," and the penniless to come and "buy wine and
milk without money and without price." When He had commanded men to
listen diligently to Him, to eat that which was good and to let their
soul delight itself in fatness, you might be quite sure that He would
not so speak without very soon mentioning Christ. For if, in His
Gospel, there are waters for the thirsty, those waters do not exist
apart from Christ! Is not the Gospel that which proceeds out of His
lips–no, more–is not Christ Himself–the Water of Life? He still
says, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me, and drink." It is true
that wine and milk are provided, but out of what cluster comes that
wine–and where shall the unadulterated milk of the Word be found but
in Him? Christ not only supplies the necessities of His people, but He
gives them abundant and superabundant joy in the luxuries of His Grace.
You do not really preach the Gospel if you leave Christ out–if He is
omitted, it is not the Gospel! You may invite men to listen to your
message, but you are only inviting them to gaze upon an empty table
unless Christ is the very center and substance of all that you set
before them!
Hence, it is not at all amazing that, after the glorious Gospel
invitations, expostulations and exhortations of the first three verses
of this Chapter, we should come, in the 4th verse, to these
words–"'Behold, I have given HIM.' I have talked to you about waters,
and about wine and milk, and about bread, and about fatness; but,
behold, I have given HIM,' for He is all these–water, wine, milk,
bread, fatness. I have spoken to you about 'an Everlasting Covenant,
even the sure mercies of David,' but I mean HIM, for He is the great
Surety of the Covenant and I have given Him for a Covenant of the
people." Beloved, we cannot do without a personal'Christ. The preacher
must preach Him and we must trust in Him, even in Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, the Son of God, the one and only Savior of sinners!
The first word in our text, "Behold," reminds us that this is a theme
for wonder. It is a matter that calls for attention and admiration.
"Behold, I have given Him." Is not this something that is worth
admiring? Is not this the great marvel of time–yes, and the miracle of
eternity–that God should so love the world as to give His
only-begotten Son? I can understand His giving light to a dark world. I
can comprehend His giving life, that men might live–but that He should
give His beloved Son to be Light and Life to a dark and dead race–that
He should give Him to become Incarnate and to take upon Himself the
form of a Servant–that He should give Him to be despised and rejected
of men and, at last, should give Him up to die–oh, behold! Behold!
Behold! This is a sight to gaze upon forever and we do not wonder that
the Apostle wrote, "Which things the angels desire to look into."
A part of the wonder concerning Christ consists in the fact that His
Father has given Him to the people–"I have given Him for a Witness to
the people, a Leader and Commander to the people." Not to you, O kings
and princes–not to you, a few aristocrats picked here and there–but,
"I have given Him for a Witness to the people." "I have exalted One
chosen out of the people." He is the people's Christ, the people's
Leader, the people's Friend, the people's King. And the wonder
increases when you recollect that the word translated, "people," might
be just as accurately rendered, "nations."
No doubt the Lord's intention, here, is to refer to the
Gentiles–"Behold, I have given Him for a Witness to the Gentiles, a
Leader and Commander to the Gentiles"–not to the chosen people,
Israel, alone, but even to us, "sinners of the Gentiles," who were
outside the favored family of the Jews!
The Gentiles seemed to have been passed by and left to perish. But now,
behold this wonder–"more are the children of the desolate than the
children of the married wife." Christ has been given as "a Light to
lighten the Gentiles," as well as "the glory of His people Israel" and
now, to us, in these far-off isles of the sea, where our forefathers
worshipped gods that were no gods, even to us is Jehovah-Jesus
preached! And He has come from the courts of God to be to us a Witness,
a Leader and a Commander. All glory be to His blessed name! Well does
the text say, "Behold," concerning the Giver, the Gift and the persons
who receive the Gift. Take care that you pass not by without thought
and admiration that which the Holy Spirit commends to your notice by
the use of the word, "Behold."
I want you, dear Friends, to look upon Christ's triple Character as it
is described in our text. And, first, we may see Him, here, in three
Characters or relationships in which we shall next see three
excellencies, demanding from us three duties, and ensuring three
benefits.
I. First, then, let us, with believing eyes, SEE OUR LORD IN THREE
CHARACTERS OR RELATIONSHIPS.
First, He is a Witness for the Father. Secondly, He is a Leader for His
saved people. And, thirdly, He is a Commander for those who, as yet,
are not saved, of whom the next verse says, "You shall call a nation
that You know not, and nations that knew not You shall run unto You."
Well, then, first, our blessed Lord, to whom be all honor and
reverence, is a Witness for the Father–a Witness concerning the
Father. We would never have known what God was like if it had not been
that "the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has
declared Him." God was pleased to reveal Himself, to some extent, in
types and emblems under the old Law of God, yet very little of Him was
known in that way. The request of Thomas, "Lord, show us the Father,"
would still be the request of men if Christ had not made Him known to
us. He came to show us the Father, for He that has seen Christ has seen
the Father! If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus! Would
you know what God thinks? Then, read what Jesus thinks! Would you know
how God feels? Behold how Jesus feels! Would you know, in fact, as much
of the Character of God as can possibly be revealed to men? You need
not look upon the green fields and swelling floods in the hope of
seeing God in His works–but study the Character of Christ, for there
you have the fullness of the Godhead so manifested that it can be
understood, as far as it is possible, by the finite mind. It is God in
human flesh–Emmanuel, God With Us–whom you must study if you would
know God!
And, oh, if, indeed, I do see God in Christ, then, what a blessed God
He is to me! For who would not love Jesus? Even those who have denied
His Deity have been fascinated by the beauty of His Character. Surely,
everyone who has ever read the Gospels of the four Evangelists, must
have been enraptured with their biographies of the Christ of God! What
a matchless Character His was! Just and good, honest and tender, full
of mental power and energy, yet all the while like a holy child–was
there ever anything so unique as the life of Christ?
Nor is Christ merely the Witness concerning God's Character, but He is
also a Witness concerning God's bearings toward us. How does God feel
with regard to His rebellious creatures? Will He destroy them in His
anger, or is He ready to restore them to His favor if they repent? Has
He gracious feelings toward them? This is a question which might well
subdue the whole world to a solemn hush until it was answered. But
Christ has come to answer it–His very coming answers it. The angels
thought so, for they came with Him and they sang, "Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Their song clearly
meant that, now, God delight in mercy! He has opened His stores of love
to the unthankful and the undeserving. Since Jesus Christ has come to
die that sinners might live, and to live again that sinners might not
die, it becomes certain that God's bearing towards man is not that of
wrath and indignation–of stern severity which refuses to accept the
penitent–but that all is mercy, all is Grace and that Christ is the
Witness that it is so! True, His death, as the Substitute for His
people, revealed the Justice of God, but it also showed us how even
Justice could no longer refuse that Mercy should have sway since all
its demands had been satisfied by the great Sacrifice of Christ. So
Christ is the Witness to us of how the Father feels towards the sons of
men.
And He also came to be a Witness of another matter, namely, that God
has set up a Kingdom among the sons of men. That was a faithful and
true Witness of Christ when He said, "My Kingdom is not of this
world"–witnessing a good confession before Pontius Pilate and, while
claiming that He was a King, revealing the true Character of His reign.
There
is a spiritual Kingdom set up in the world and it comprises those who
are born-again to a spiritual life, enlisted under spiritual laws, to
serve God, who is a Spirit, and who must be served in spirit and in
truth. Christ came to tell us all this. Do we know anything about it?
He has told us how to enter that Kingdom–have we entered it? "You must
be born-again," He said to Nicodemus, for, "except a man be born-again,
He cannot see the Kingdom of God." "Except a man be born of water and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." There is no
way of entrance into the Kingdom of Divine Grace except by
regeneration! And Jesus Christ is the Witness of that great Truth of
God!
Having many things to say to you, I cannot fully describe the office of
Christ as a Witness for the Father–that would be a sufficient theme
for a whole discourse–and for many discourses. But I may briefly say
that whatever Christ has taught concerning any Truth of God which has
to do with our salvation, is His Witness upon that point. And if we
want to know the truth about anything, we must go to Christ to learn
it. If we want to know how we may be reconciled to God and effectually
saved, we must sit at the feet of Jesus Christ and receive His
testimony, for He is the Witness for the Father in all that affects our
relationship to Him.
The second office of Christ mentioned in the text is that of a Leader
to His own people. The word, "Leader," might be rendered, "the
Foremost," and truly, beloved Brothers and Sisters, Christ is the
Foremost of all His people–the Standard-Bearer among ten thousand and
the altogether lovely. Christ is in the forefront of the whole army of
the faithful. He leads the van. There is none like He among the sons of
men, and none to be compared with Him. We delight to accord to Him His
rightful pre-eminence in all things. In the Church of God, Jesus Christ
is the Leader because His life is the perfect example of practical
holiness. First, He is God's Witness revealing to us the Truth of God.
Then, next, He is our Example, working out the practical part of that
revelation in His own life. He who would be saved, then, must follow
the lead of Christ. He who is saved does, by the help of the Divine
Spirit, follow that lead. Wherever you see His footprint, there put
down your foot. Wherever He bids you go, there go. Though the way may
be rough, and treading it may cost you much self-denial, you must go
that way, for the God who gave you Christ to save you, gave Him to you,
not merely to enlighten your intellect as a Witness, but to affect your
life as a Leader and Example. Have we accepted Him in both capacities?
I know some who seem willing to take Christ for their Leader, but not
as a Witness to the Truth. That will not do. "What God has joined
together, let no man put asunder." I know others who are willing to
follow Christ doctrinally, but not practically. They would accept Him
as a Witness, but not as a Leader. That, also, will not do. A
half-Christ is no Christ at all! You must have Christ as a whole and
take Him in all the Characters and relationships in which God gives Him
to you, or you cannot have Him at all.
The third Character our Lord bears, according to our text, is that of
Commander. There may be many meanings given to that title, but it seems
to me that it must relate mainly to those of His people who are not yet
saved. To them, He is a Commander. To them He issues laws as a
Law-Giver, for such is also the sense of the term. What are the Laws
which He has given? They are all in this blessed Book, but these are
some of them. "Repent you, and believe the Gospel." "Come unto Me."
"Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." "Go you," He says to His
servants," into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he
that believes not shall be damned." This message is to be delivered to
men, not as a request to them to do it if they will, but as a command
from Christ which, if they obey, He has said that they shall be saved.
But if they disobey it, He has declared that they shall be damned. I am
afraid that sometimes we pitch the Gospel note in much too low a key–I
like to reach the higher key, for I believe it to be the right one. In
the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we say to you, O sons and
daughters of men– you are to believe in Him, to trust Him, to rely
upon His atoning death and so to take Him to be your Savior! If you
will not do so, you will justly be condemned! But if you will do as He
commands you, you shall be saved. The moment you have believed in Him
and yielded to His Divine authority, you are, in fact, saved! But this
royal proclamation must not be despised or neglected, for, "how shall
we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"
But I think there is more in this title of Christ than the mere fact of
His making the Law and bidding us publish it abroad in His name. He is
also a Commander because He has power to enforce His proclamations. He
calls a nation that knew Him not and then they learn to know Him. He
invites them and then they run to Him. There is never a sinner who
comes to Christ till Christ calls him and makes him come. We are bound
to preach the Gospel to every creature, but sinners unanimously reject
the command till Christ effectually calls them by His Grace! But when
He calls them, then they come to Him. Oh, it is delightful to think
that if the preacher's voice is powerless, His Master's voice is not!
If He will but
speak, and say to the careless soul, "Turn from your wicked way, and
begin to think," you shall see the careless one become thoughtful and
repent of his sin and trust his Savior! If He shall find some
Zacchaeus, and say to him, "Today I must abide at your house," He will
abide at that house! If, tonight, Christ must go through Newington
Butts–as it was written, "He must needs go through Samaria"–He will
find some woman who little thought that she would ever meet with Him,
and she shall afterwards say, as did that other woman, "Come see a Man,
who told me all things that I ever did: is not this the Christ?" If
there were no Divine Power over the will of man, no man would ever be
saved. If, the Gospel being preached, it were left to men to accept it
or reject it–and there were no exercise of Divine Power to lead them
to receive it, we might preach our tongues out, we might weep our eyes
out, we might pray till our knees refused any longer to bear us up–but
never a soul would come to Christ! But He is set forth, first, as a
Witness to the Truth of God. Next, as an Example, setting that Truth
before us in His life and then, further, clothed with Divine Authority
and girt about with Almighty Power, making the Truth to be effectual so
that men come to Him, and live! Witness, Leader, Commander–you see the
range and compass of our great Master's work. God grant us Grace to
accept Him in all three relationships!
II. Now, secondly, I am to speak briefly upon THE THREE EXCELLENCIES OF
CHRIST IN CONNECTION WITH THESE THREE OFFICES.
First, is Christ a Witness? Then He is a true Witness. There are no
falsehoods or mistakes in the Witness which Christ bears concerning His
Father. He is intimately acquainted with the Father, for He came forth
from the Father and, therefore, His testimony is wholly reliable. That
which He had seen and heard of the Father, even that He made known to
us. There is no possibility of the entrance of any error into the mind
of Christ–all His utterances are Infallible Truths of God, for the
Spirit of God was upon Him and in Him without measure. It is a trite
saying, but a very comforting one, that whenever Christ speaks a good
word to a sinner, He speaks according to the mind of His Father.
Whenever He promises rest and peace, and pardon, to those that come
unto Him, He promises all this in His Father's name and on His Father's
behalf. So, if you have laid hold of Christ, you have not grasped a
sham or a counterfeit. It is all true–in fact, He is the Truth of God
as well as the Way and the Life! He will never deceive you, or mislead
you–you can be sure of that!
We, His poor servants, make many a blunder in speaking of Him, but even
the Jewish officers had to confess, "Never man spoke like this Man." He
never makes a mistake in anything that He says, so if He lets fall any
word that just suits your case and if you have caught hold of it, and
lived upon it, let no one rob you of the consolation, for it is true!
Jesus Christ is "the Amen, the faithful and true Witness." When He was
upon the earth, He used to often say, "Verily, verily, I say unto you,"
because He knew that He was speaking the truth and you may be quite
sure of it, too. We have had many who have called themselves God's
witnesses, but we have had to question the truth of their testimony.
Sometimes one of these witnesses has given the lie to another–and when
the witnesses disagree, who is to decide between them? But Jesus
Christ's witness is never self-contradictory. It is true throughout and
he that will sit at His feet and drink in what Christ has spoken, has
learned the Truth of God which he will never have to unlearn! He has
laid hold of the substance–and not of a shadow.
Then, next, if our Lord is a Leader, He has, in that capacity, the
quality of holiness. God has given Him to lead His people and you may
safely follow wherever He leads you. Brothers and Sisters, be quite
sure of this–Christ will never lead you into any sin and He will never
conduct you into any folly, or error, or mistake. In His highest moods,
Christ is never fanatical–and in His lowest He is never unbelieving.
He meets with sinners of all sorts and even with publicans and
harlots–yet there is no one more pure than He is at all times! He gets
away alone, but it is not in order that He may act the part of the
cynic and skeptic, but that, there, He may commune with His Father and
pray for both saints and sinners. If you will follow Him in His silence
or in His speech–if you will follow Him in His honor or in His
dishonor–if you will follow Him in private or in public, in His
thoughts or in His words, you will never go amiss! Perfect holiness is
written across the whole biography of the Son of Man. So, what a mercy
it is that if we have a Witness, it is all the Truth of God that He
speaks! And if we have a Leader, His leadership conducts us to perfect
holiness and, therefore, we may gladly follow Him!
Then, further, if He is a Commander, which is the third Character
mentioned in our text, you see Divine Power in Him. It is no use having
a commander-in-chief who issues proclamations, but who has neither wit
nor wisdom in the day
of battle! It is no use having for a chieftain, one who knows nothing
of war, and who, in the hour of conflict, is driven away like chaff
before the wind. But, Beloved, if Christ is a Commander, there is no
fear that we shall be defeated if we obey His orders. The strongest
battalions are the battalions of God! The greatest force in all the
world is the force of truth and righteousness! Men have not usually
thought so, for fraud and plunder, cruelty and bloodshed have been the
agents by which earthly monarchs have sought to win their victories.
But the Lord has kept His great guns in the rear though He will bring
them to the front, some day, and then it shall be seen that the might
is with the right, for the Truth of God, love, Divine Grace and
holiness shall be proven to have in them an Omnipotence before which
all the powers of darkness and of sin shall fall defeated or fly
confounded!
It is a grand thing, in time of battle, to have a commander who knows
how to lead. When Oliver Cromwell came into the field, the Ironsides
felt that his presence was worth more to them than that of ten thousand
ordinary soldiers–and every man became a hero then! When Henry of
Navarre rode down the French lines before the battle of Ivry, the
courage of every warrior rose as he fastened on his white-plumed helmet
and said to them, "Yonder is the enemy! Here is your king. God is on
our side. Should you lose your standards in the battle, rally round my
plume–you will always find it on the path of victory and honor." Alas,
his later history proved that this was an empty boast, for he became
unfaithful to the faith, yet it availed to inspire his followers on
that occasion. But our great King, when He comes to the front, as soon
He will–when He comes to the front by His Spirit, as even now He
does–gives courage to the coward and strength to the weak! And He
makes each one among us, who treats Him as He should be treated–with
implicit confidence–to feel that we shall conquer through His might!
So, you see, we have three grand excellencies in our Lord Jesus Christ.
As a Witness, we have the Truth of God. As a Leader, we have holiness.
And as a Commander, we have power. Physical, mental, moral, spiritual
power–all this is in Christ, for He could truly say, "All power is
given unto Me in Heaven and in earth." And, therefore, He is a
Commander whose orders we may delight to obey, for He will certainly
lead us to victory!
III. Very solemnly, though very briefly, I want to refer to the third
division of my subject, which is that THESE RELATIONSHIPS AND
EXCELLENCIES DEMAND FROM US THREE DUTIES.
Is Christ a true Witness? Then, believe Him. Generally, in this house,
I speak to persons who believe in the Bible– who believe, therefore,
in the Deity of Christ and who believe also in the Truth of all that
Christ spoke. But, my dear Hearers, some of you are very inconsistent,
for, while you believe all this, you do not believe in Jesus Himself! I
mean that you do not trust Him as your Savior, which is the practical
way of believing in Him. You may believe every Word in the Bible and
yet be lost–it is trusting Christ alone that will save you! Now, if
all that is in this Bible is true–and you say that it is, from the
time when you were at your mother's knee, you believed it to be
true–then, why do you believe it only with your brain? Believe it with
your heart, "for with the heart man believes unto righteousness." He
who wishes to cross a river and who believes in the stability of the
bridge that spans it, crosses by the bridge. Do you believe in Christ's
ability to carry you over the river of Death and to take you to Heaven?
Then, trust Him to do it! He who believes in the genuineness of gold
will take it if it is offered to him. You say that you believe in the
Truthfulness of Christ–then trust Him as your Savior!
The only way to have Christ is to take Him as your own–to accept Him.
Some people seem to fancy that faith in Jesus is something very
wonderful and mysterious–and they try to go round thousands of miles
to get at it–but the Scripture says, "The Word is near you, even in
your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith which we
preach; that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you
shall be saved." What does a man do, if he is hungry, and there is
bread set before him? Does he begin to analyze it and see how many
grains of this and how many of that there are in it? He may do so if he
pleases, but that will not feed him! The greatest chemical analyst in
the world is not one single inch ahead of the poorest child in the
matter of feeding. If he will live by bread, he must eat it, and the
poor beggar boy can do the same. He puts it into his mouth, lets it go
down into his inmost being and so forms part of himself! Now, this is
all you have to do in order to be saved!
Dear Hearer, you are bothering yourself about feeling this and feeling
that, and going about trying to experience this wonderful sensation and
the other. All this is folly, or something worse! Will you trust
Christ, or not? God sets Him forth to bear Witness to His Truth–will
you believe Him who is the Truth? That is, will you take Christ to be
your Savior? His Word says that the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity
of us all–the context shows that it is His own people
who are meant–and that He has borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows. Will you believe that it is so? Will you just take Christ as
God gives Him? That is all you have to do! God says, "I have given
Him." What is the proper sequel to that? "Lord, I take Him! If you have
given Him as Witness, Leader, Commander, Lord, I take Him as Witness,
Leader, Commander, and I am only too glad to have Him in all those
capacities. 'Lord, I believe; help You my unbelief!'"
Next, the Lord Jesus is set forth as Leader. What is the duty arising
out of that? If He is a Leader and holiness is the mark of His
leadership, then, let us imitate Him! Christ will not blot out your
sins in the past unless you are willing to be cured of the love of sin
in the present and, of the pursuit of sin in the future! Are you
willing, you who have been given to drunkenness, to be cured of the
desire to drink as well as forgiven for your drunkenness? If your
tongue has spoken that which is not true, do you wish to be made
truthful, in the future, as well as to be forgiven the lies of the
past? You who have been forgetful of God, and hard-hearted towards
Him–are you as anxious to have new hearts and right spirits as you are
to be saved from going down to Hell? You ought to be, for sin is the
very essence of Hell–the eternal fire is a heart burning with
iniquity! The worm that dies not is a conscience that shall forever
torture the immortal spirit on account of its rebellion against God! We
must be willing to be like Christ if we wish to be saved by Christ. He
has not come to excuse or palliate human sin–He saves His people from
their sins. He, who becomes to us our salvation from the punishment of
sin, also becomes our salvation from the power of sin! Are you willing,
then, to imitate Him–to live, as far as you can, as He lived–to be
led by His Spirit? It should be so. If God gave Him to that end, let us
take Him to that end.
Then, if He is a Commander, what does He require of us? Why, obedience,
of course. There is an end to military power altogether if there is no
discipline. Soldiers must obey their officers' orders. Then, if God
gives Christ to be a Commander, the question is, are you willing to
obey Him? Do you know of anything that has been said by Christ? Then,
there must be no question about that–it must be obeyed by us. If we
have trusted Christ to save us, it is not becoming for us to reason and
argue, and question about it–the only enquiry we have to make is, "Is
that the plain message of the Master?" Then, like the 600 who rode into
the valley of death, it is–
"Ours not to reason why,
Ours not to make reply,
Ours but to dare and die,"
if so it must be–not turning to this book or that, but only to God's
Book–"to the Law and to the Testimony"–not looking to this religious
leader or that, but always to the King, Himself, the Captain of our
salvation, the Christ of God. Thus it must be with us if we are His
true followers.
Now, my dear Hearer, very earnestly do I put this question to you–Are
you seeking in all things to obey Christ? There are great numbers of
professing Christians who never think about whether a thing has
Christ's sanction or not. If man has ordained it–if the denomination
practices it–if it has the stamp of the bishop upon it and,
especially, if it is fixed by the High Court of Parliament, which is a
wonderful authority in matters of religion, then they yield to it. But
true Christians care nothing for all the high courts under Heaven–they
go by the Laws of the highest Court of all–the Word of the Lord
Jesus–the will of the Most High God, for, in the Church of Christ
there is but one Head, and that is Christ. To us, there is but one
Master, and one Law-Giver–and that is the great Son of David–and His
will we will do, and before His scepter we will bow. And unto no one
else will we yield obedience in this matter–no, not for an hour!
What is that which brings men to Christ's Church sooner than anything
else in the whole world? It is the Presence of Christ Himself. Today
the only true and worthy attraction which the Church has for the world
is Christ's Cross. We may gather people together, if we please, by fine
sermons and gorgeous dresses. We may charm their ears with sweet music,
but when we have done so, what have we accomplished more than might be
done in the theater or the music hall? And even if we delight their
nostrils with the smell of incense and their eyes with an abundance of
flowers, what have we done more than could have been accomplished by
the chemist or the florist? The real attraction of the Church is Christ
Crucified, according to His own saying, "I, if I am lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto Me." And when the charms of everything
else shall have faded and passed away, the charms of Christ will be as
fresh as ever!
The spouse said of Him, in the Song of Solomon, "His locks are bushy
and black as a raven." But, in the Book of the Revelation, John speaks
of Him as having His head and His hairs white like wool, as white as
snow! The one symbolizes His antiquity–the other, His perennial
youth–for He is always young, always strong, always beautiful, always
attrac-
tive and, if the Church will but preach Christ, she will always have
the best attraction for the ears and for the hearts of men that even
God Himself could send down here below!
So, Beloved, I put it to you–Christ being true, do you believe Him?
Christ being holy, do you imitate Him? Christ being clothed with Divine
Authority and Power, do you obey Him? May those questions sink into
your souls–and may you be able to answer each one of them in the
affirmative!
IV. For, lastly, there are THREE BENEFITS WHICH WILL BE SECURED BY THE
PERFORMANCE OF
THESE DUTIES.
The first is this. If you believe Christ, "the faithful and true
Witness," then you have this benefit–you have certainty as to what you
believe, and that is something that is worth having! The other day a
gentleman uttered to another a skeptical expression which is very
common just now. Many men seem to think it is a sign of great wisdom
not to believe anything at all. When he had made his skeptical remark,
the other pretty sharply rebuked him by saying, "Now, look here, I must
believe something! And I would sooner believe in Jupiter and Juno than
be as you are and believe nothing, at all." So would I, but, blessed be
God, we have no need to believe in fabled deities, for we have the God
of Truth and the Truth of God in which we may always safely believe!
Whenever you can say, concerning any matter, "Jesus says
such-and-such," do not you stir an inch from that! Stand there, for you
are safe enough on such a rock as that!
I do not wonder that Roman Catholics wanted infallibility, but I do
wonder that they ever believed the Pope had it–especially the last
one–who made more blunders than almost anybody else who ever lived!
Poor soul, how could he ever imagine himself to be Infallible? If he
had but been married, he would have known better, I am quite sure, but,
perhaps living all alone, and quietly, in his big palace, he may have
thought himself so, but it was a grave mistake. Still, we must have
infallibility somewhere. The Romanist has his infallibility in the
Pope–where have I mine? In Christ, for, whatever He said is Infallibly
true! And I also have Infallibility in this Book. If anything is but in
the Bible, I never for a single moment think of questioning it.
Miracles? Strong historical statements? I believe them all! I can
almost go as far as the old woman who said that she not only believed
that the whale swallowed Jonah, but that if the Bible had said that
Jonah swallowed the whale, she would have believed it! It says nothing
of the kind, but I would go even to that length if it were a clear,
positive statement of the Scriptures.
This is my Master's Book and I accept it all. I say, sometimes, that
there are things in it that I do not understand, but then I do not need
to understand everything. I do not see what good it does to have such a
wonderful understanding. I would sooner not understand some things,
because it gives me the more reason to show reverence to my God by
believing what I cannot comprehend. If I could comprehend God, He would
not be a God to me. If I could understand all that He tells me, I would
feel sure that He had either left something out of His Revelation, or
that there must be some mistake, somewhere, for the Infinite things of
God cannot be grasped by finite beings!
There, then, is our Infallibility. Some have gone off to bold blatant
infidelity in order to get something sure. And others have turned to
Popery in the attempt to get something sure, but as for us, we cast our
anchor down where the Cross stands above the surging billows–and there
we rest! Christ says, "I am the Truth." We believe that, and we take
every Word He says as being Infallibly true, and so we secure absolute
certainty. That is a great thing to have in these unsettled times–and
a comfortable thing to have in these disturbed times. It is a very
practical benefit, too, for when we have once thoroughly made up our
mind upon any point, we can say, "That is so. Now we do not need to
keep on bothering and questioning about that matter and we can go on
with our work–and also seek to make advances in the Divine life." So,
the first benefit we secure is that of certainty.
Then, secondly, if Jesus Christ is our Example and we imitate Him, the
next benefit that we obtain is safety. The way of holiness is always
the path of safety. When a man is in the wrong, he is in danger. When
he is doing wrong, his conscience generally tells him that he is in
some kind of peril. If you and I were perfectly holy, we must,
necessarily, be perfectly happy unless we voluntarily put aside that
happiness for the good of others. And even the putting of it aside
would not involve our altogether losing it, for I do not doubt that
Christ was perfectly happy even when He was, Himself, "a Man of
Sorrows, and acquainted with grief," and that He found an intense
under-current of delight in laying aside His own joy for our sakes.
Brothers and Sisters, if you are right all round, you are safe all
round. There cannot be any power that can hurt the man who has become
right in his relationships with God, with time, with eternity, with all
things! Not even evil can injure the man who is perfectly holy, for it
finds nothing in him on which it can operate. It strikes its sparks,
but there is no tinder to ignite. It hurls its darts and shoots its
arrows, but the man is cased in triple steel and the points of the
barbed shafts cannot pierce his armor. Happy, then, is the man who
follows the leadership of Christ. Following the Lamb wherever He goes,
he may go to his bed and rest, for he dwells under the wings of the
Eternal. He may go forth into the midst of the world without fear, for
neither the arrow that flies by day, nor the snare which is placed in
secret, shall be able to hurt him, for the Lord covers him all the
daylong!
The last blessing that comes to us is victory,for, if Christ is our
Commander and He has all power and we obey Him, then victory is sure
and every human heart loves to get the victory. The dying General
Wolfe, when he heard those round him say, "They run," anxiously asked
who they were that ran. And when they said, "The enemy," he could close
his eyes in peace. I have no doubt that the dying Admiral, Lord Nelson,
rejoiced when he knew that Trafalgar was won. Only let a man know that
in the low and carnal sense, he is to be a victor, and his spirit is
revived. But what will it be to hear the exultant shouts when we shall
be passing into the next world? "Victory! Victory! Victory through the
blood of the Lamb!" How awful would it be to hear that dreadful dirge,
"The last fight has been fought and the campaign is lost forever." Will
that happen to any of you? Not if Christ is the Captain of your
salvation and you are one of the rank and file of His army! But dying
and, by faith even now living, you may hear the triumphant shout, "The
battle is fought and the victory is won forever! From now on enter into
the joy of your Lord and rest in Him, world without end!" The Lord
bring us all there, for Jesus' sake! Amen.